Email address protected by JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript to contact me. Matthew Saroff, Mechanical Engineer, Owings Mills, Maryland, US I reserve the right to reprint any email correspondence on my blog. If you want to keep your correspondence private, please tell me. A member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic party, and a fan of Bernie who thinks Neoliberal (DLC/New Dem) trickle down conomics sucks. Mechanical Engineer with a background in defense, electronics packaging, medical & food equipment, transportation, and manufacturing. In my spare time (Hah!), I am the developer of the Firefox addon, bbCode for Web Extensions (bbCodeWebEx). I have two cats, a black cat, and a gray and white long hair cat, who keep me on my toes. (Because he keeps attacking my feet) I am a Jew and a Zionist, who is married to a woman with exquisitely bad taste in men, and I have two remarkable children with her. , . Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was en route to Washington from Afghanistan when a rocket hit a compound next to the palace he had visited hours earlier. Mr Turnbull was at the palace in Kabul on Sunday to meet with Afghanistan President Dr Ashraf Ghani. Reuters said the rocket landed inside the Italian embassy and injured two guards. Presentation is of huge importance when it comes to gift-giving, as anyone who has survived the festive season will know. But as Rowan Atkinson showed us in that notorious gift-wrapping scene in Love Actually, sometimes exquisite presentation becomes an exquisite pain in the neck. A staff member of the Presidential Palace holds the pen that Malcolm Turnbull presented to the President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani during their meeting. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Australian officials discovered this first hand on Sunday when they arrived at Kabul's Presidential Palace, bearing a present for Malcolm Turnbull to give his counterpart Ashraf Ghani as part of the ceremonial welcome. If there was a buzzword at the Critics' Choice Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday night apart from "Oscars" it must have been "neutral". The stars all seemed to get the memo that colour was out, with white, cream, metallics, greys, muted blues and black all represented in abundance. No Trainwreck: Amy Schumer opted for a white Calvin Klein halter-neck dress for the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday in LA. Credit:Jason Merritt Amy Schumer in white, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Mary J. Blige and Bryce Dallas Howard in black, and Saoirse Ronan and Jennifer Aniston in grey/blue led the charge for the anti-colourful gowns brigade, while Rachel McAdams added a minor splash with a muted maroon Elie Saab piece. Despite the lack of bright hues, there was certainly no shortage of glamour with sequins and embellishments being another style staple on the night. Former Hey Dad! actor and convicted paedophile Robert Hughes has applied to clear his name in the High Court. Hughes was sentenced in the Sydney District Court to at least six years' jail in 2014 after he was found guilty of molesting four girls between 1984 and 1990. His youngest victim was six or seven years old and another was a fellow cast member of Hey Dad!, a popular Australian sitcom. Hughes was also convicted of a number of indecent assaults. Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton has accused NSW MP Robert Borsak of an "outrageous slur" on the justice system over his claim that perjury charges against him are the result of political pressure. Mr Borsak, one of two Shooters and Fishers MPs in the NSW upper house, has been charged with four counts of perjury after after a judge said that he gave false evidence in the Supreme Court. Shooters and Fishers MP Robert Borsak. Credit:Max Mason-Hubers It comes more than four and a half years after Fairfax Media revealed Justice Robert McDougall said Mr Borsak and a business associate, David Christie, gave "knowingly untrue" evidence during hearings to resolve a commercial dispute. Lying under oath carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in jail. If convicted, Mr Borsak could lose his seat in parliament and much of his parliamentary pension. A thrill-seeking stockbroker's addiction to high-risk trading has landed him in jail after he lost almost $9 million of investors' funds. Former Patersons Securities financial broker Thanh Tu was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years' jail on Monday after he admitted using $9 million in investment funds from dozens of clients to feed an obsession with speculative share trading. Over five years, the broker took $9.8 million of clients' investment funds and lost about $8 million. Credit:Jim Rice The Brisbane District Court heard the 39-year-old told his 26 clients their money was safely invested in blue-chip shares and even provided certificates of investment to back the claims up. Instead, he diverted the money to personal accounts to trade using contracts for difference (CFDs) and warrants - both high-risk investments. A man accused of lighting bushfires in Sunbury denies he was in parkland when two fires were lit, a court has been told. Stuart Dean Robson, 48, is accused of starting two fires in parkland on October 15 last year. Police allege that about 9.20am he lit a fire that was put out by walkers, and that he started a second fire about 9.40am. He is also accused of lighting three bushfires in Sunbury over the Christmas period. One of those blazes, on December 25, forced the evacuation of families who had gathered for Christmas lunches. Melbourne Magistrates Court has been told Mr Robson was captured on a private CCTV camera on October 15, bending down in the parkland with an unidentified object in his hand. The camera also allegedly captured a puff of smoke after he walked away. Marwa has big plans for life after she completes a science course at Deakin University. Marwa Kingok wants to be a doctor and work in Sudan. Credit:Chris Hopkins She hopes to be accepted into medicine, qualify as a doctor and return to Sudan, where she was born, to open a health clinic. Grace Kiernan, who will be studying arts at Melbourne University. Credit:Chris Hopkins She moved to Melbourne with her family in 2001, when she was three, under the refugee program. It was her father's story of her grandmother back in Sudan, who was ill and unable to get proper medical care, that inspired her to aim high. This idea continued to develop in 2012 when Marwa visited Sudan and stayed with her aunt who was unwell. An agonising wait has ended for tens of thousands of students this afternoon with the release of first-round offers. Here's what you need to know. What ATAR do I need? In many cases, we don't know. If you didn't get into the course you wanted, there is still a chance you could receive the offer. Credit:Belinda Pratten Students thinking about going to university might have a hard time working out what ATAR is required to get into the course of their choice. The average ATAR of students embarking on Victorian teaching courses was 57.35 this year, down from 63.4 in 2013, according to the latest data from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre. It comes as new data reveals that the ATARs needed for the state's largest and most popular teaching courses have dropped by about 15 points since 2009. NSW has set minimum academic standards for entry into undergraduate teaching degrees. Victoria is looking at doing something similar. Credit:Martin Hunter Aspiring teachers who receive poor VCE results could be barred from Victorian classrooms under a proposal being considered by the state government. A spokesman for Education Minister James Merlino confirmed that the state government was considering a similar model to New South Wales, where future teachers are sourced from the top 30 per cent of school leavers. In an effort to attract more high-achieving students to the profession, NSW has set minimum academic standards for entry into undergraduate teaching degrees. From this year, NSW teaching students who do not receive more than 80 per cent in at least three subjects, including English, do not get jobs when they graduate. "It is no secret that the Andrews Labor government has been looking at ways to improve the quality of teaching in both our existing workforce and our graduate teachers," Mr Merlino's spokesman said. In 2009, the largest Victorian teaching courses required an ATAR of about 75, but by 2016 a score of 60 was typically enough to secure a first-round place. Melbourne is sweltering through a boiling summer's day, and one ballboy is already down - but the worst is yet to come, with a cool change days away. A top of 36 degrees has been forecast for Melbourne on Monday, followed by a top of 37 on Tuesday. Temperatures will soar above 35 degrees on Monday and Tuesday. Credit:Leigh Henningham Luckily, winds are expected to pick up late Monday night, bringing a welcome albeit brief escape from the heat - however, that's not good news for firefighters, who face a horror day tommorrow. Out on the artificial courts at Melbourne Park the heat has already claimed its first victim, with 10th seed Carla Suarez Navarro helping a struggling ballboy during her opening match of the Australian Open. Police have found the body of missing mother of two Karen Chetcuti near Lake Buffalo in the state's north-east. Ms Chetcuti, 49, from Whorouly, near Wangaratta, had not been seen since she was reported missing on Wednesday after failing to show up to work at the Wangaratta council. Search efforts focused around Lake Buffalo, south of Myrtleford, on Monday. The body was found in the scrubland at the Lake Buffalo weir wall off Croppers Creek Road about 1.35pm. Police are yet to formally identify the body but it is believed to be Ms Chetcuti. Residents living near a proposed mosque in Perth's south have objected to the place of worship - concerned about the "violence and sexual deviancy of Muslims". The City of Kwinana has received an application to convert a home on Mandogalup Road, into a mosque, which could house 120-worshippers on busier days. Residents in Mandogalup don't want a mosque because of the "nature of the religion" Credit:Photo: Daniel Munoz Nine residents have objected to the mosque on the grounds of noise, traffic and the "nature of the religion". But one local Robert Donald went one step further in his submission to the city, saying he was concerned about the "violence and sexual deviancy of Muslims". Two men in their 20s pulled dead from the water off the Pilbara coast on Sunday morning have been identified as Matt Pennington and Lawrence Smith, according to social and news media reports. "We've just received news that one of the spearos who tragically died on the weekend after their boat capsized off Dampier WA was the highly experienced Matt Pennington," Adreno Spearfishing posted on Facebook on Monday. "We have shared some of his great shots before. A great diver and a very sad loss for the spearfishing community and all who knew him. Rest in peace to both divers, may your oceans be forever blue." A major search and rescue operation south of Mawby Island, near Dampier continued throughout Sunday afternoon after the men's bodies were discovered near their wrecked boat 15 kilometres offshore, but was called off after police identified the men and found they were the only ones aboard. Police are investigating a threatening letter that warns the Balinese cities of Denpasar and Singaraja could be the next targeted by terrorists responsible for the Jakarta blasts. A letter delivered to a local government office in the Balinese regency of Buleleng warns the terror network responsible for the blasts outside the Sarinah shopping mall were "ready to blow up these cities in the name of Allah". A woman lays flower outside the Starbucks cafe where Thursday's attack took place in Jakarta. Credit:AP "Our members are currently present in Denpasar and Singaraja," it said. It warned they would attack shopping centres, offices and tourism destinations." Buleleng police chief Heri Heriyadi told Fairfax Media the police were conducting a full investigation, including taking witness accounts and scanning CCTV footage. Record European Full-Year Sales for Kia Motors 384,790 cars sold, representing year-on-year growth of 8.8% Continuous yearly sales growth for Kia in Europe since 2008 Rise in sales for best-selling Sportage and new Sorento SUV MORE INFO Kia Research and Buyer's Guide Guide WALTON-ON-THAMES, UK -- January 15, 2016: Kia Motors Europe recorded its best-ever full year sales in 2015, according to the latest data from ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association). With 384,790 units sold in 2015*, Kias full-year sales figures represent year-on-year growth of 8.8%, increasing from 353,719 units in 2014. The Korean brand has now recorded rising sales every year in Europe since 2008. Kia Motors Europe had already achieved sales of more than 200,000 in the first half of 2015 for the first time in the companys history. In addition to this, Kia Motors UK continues to hold the biggest market share in Europe, as well as one of the top five worldwide. At the end of 2015, KMUK achieved total sales of 78,489 units, making up 20.4% of the total European figure. Michael Cole, Chief Operating Officer, Kia Motors Europe, commented: Its been another great year for Kia in Europe, and its clear that our organic growth strategy is paying off. European motorists are coming to Kia each year in greater numbers, thanks to our comprehensive model range which offers outstanding design and top product quality, sold through a dealer network which boasts consistently high levels of customer care. Cole added: We have bold plans for 2016, a year which will see us introduce the first of our next-generation low emissions vehicles as part of a long-term plan to lower our fleet emissions and further reduce the environmental impact of our product line-up. These new models will play an important role in our plan for further sustainable growth across Europe. The Kia Sportage compact SUV the brands bestselling model in Europe continued to post record sales throughout 2015, enjoying the best-ever 12-month period in the models history in the region. Sales of the Sportage, which is due to be replaced by the fourth-generation Sportage early in 2016, rose by 8.0% to 105,317 units in 2015 the first time Kia Motors Europe has sold more than 100,000 Sportage models in a year. The Kia Sportage is manufactured at the companys production facility in Zilina, Slovakia. The Kia Sorento SUV also proved increasingly popular with European buyers, with 14,183 sold in 2015, more than any other year in which the Sorento has been on sale. The hotly-contested A- and B-segments also proved important for Kias sales growth throughout 2015, with recent upgrades to the Kia Picanto, Rio and Venga resulting in strong sales growth throughout the year. Sales of the Picanto rose by 5.1% (53,717 units), while the B-segment Rio (64,175 units, +9.3%) and European-manufactured Venga (28,489 units, +11.5%) each enjoyed their best-ever annual sales. Every model in Kias European line-up is sold with the brands unique seven year, 100,000 mile warranty. Nutson's Weekly Auto News Digest - January 11-17, 2016; NAIAS; Awards; Lutz New Car; $4 B Gov To Remove Drivers; Renault Cheating? RIP Julie Candler By Larry Nutson Senior Editor and Bureau Chief Chicago Bureau The Auto Channel AUTO CENTRAL Chicago, January 17, 2016; Every Sunday Larry Nutson, Senior Editor and Chicago Car Guy along with fellow senior editors Steve Purdy and Thom Cannell from The Auto Channel Michigan Bureau, give you TACH's "take" on this past week's automotive news in easy to digest nuggets. If you wish to know more just click on the link that will take you to the full story as published here on The Auto Channel. If you are a car nut like we all are here at The Auto Channel, you can easily wish to "catch up" on these stories as well as the past 20 year's 1,964,443 automotive news, automotive stories, articles, reviews, archived news, video, audio, rants and raves just search The Auto Channel's Automotive News Archive. Hey Boston TV viewers, you can now enjoy The Auto Channel TV Network "Free and Clear" on WHDT Channel 3 in Boston and on your local cable systems. Just added Naples Florida, along with all South Florida auto fans who can continue to watch The Auto Channel TV Network on WHDT-TV Channel 9 in West Palm Beach as well as cable channel's 17 and 438, channel 9 Miami. WHDN launched its full schedule (including The Auto Channel)of broadcasting in the Naples-Fort Myers market on digital PSIP channel 9.1 channel. Enjoy and thanks for the positive feedback and ratings. See You Next Week, LN. * Press Preview Days at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) led off this week in Detroit. While fewer manufacturer press conferences were scheduled to reveal new concept or production cars there was still plenty of surprises and eye candy. Many journalists agreed that the hit of the show was Buicks elegant concept coupe called Avista. Based on the GM Alpha rear-wheel drive platform of the Camaro and ATS, the Avista is not slated for production but appears very production-like. * Honda Civic and Volvo XC90 were named the 2016 North American Car and Truck/Utility of the Year. And yes, the Volvo is a luxury SUV not even built on a truck platform. I think it's time for a name change for that award or, should trucks and utilities be separated. *The NAIAS didn't disappoint. We saw the all-new 2017 Chrysler minivan now named Pacifica (RIP Town & Country). The 2017 Lincoln Continental is ready to move the brand forward here and in China. Honda's Ridgeline pickup is not to be ignored. Acura wowed us with the Precision Concept showing the future face of the brand. * And, Buick also showed its China-built 2017 Envision mid-size crossover SUV coming to the U.S. soon. There is the new 2017 Mercedes-Benz E-class, a Chevy Cruze hatchback (Yes!) and, the new GMC Acadia has been "rightsized" and is 700 pounds lighter and 7 inches shorter. * One big surprise at the Detroit Auto Show was a new project for 84-year-old auto industry icon Bob Lutz. He and his partner, Texas auto dealer Ben Keating who sells more Vipers than any other dealer in the country are building a new classically American super car based on a Viper donor car. Keating is also a veteran racer and purveyor of racing parts. Henrik Fisker designed a bold and sexy body that looks nothing like a Viper and they massage engine, chassis and interior to make a unique car called VLF Force 1. * It seems each year we see fewer pure concept cars at the North American International Auto Show that have no production potential as automakers continue to economise. One exception this year is the Acura Precision Concept, a pillarless four-door coupe with high-style details meant to show the future direction of Acura design language. Dave Merek, Acura global creative director, described that direction when he accepted the prestigious EyesOn Design award for Best Concept Car at the show. * California is getting a little frustrated with VW. Regulators in California formally rejected Volkswagens plan to fix its polluting 2.0-L diesel engines. The California Air Resources Board, which is investigating VWs use of a defeat device to cheat on diesel emissions tests, said that a recall plan presented in November and December was incomplete, substantially deficient and falls far short of meeting the legal requirements to be approved. The state agency added that VW was taking too long to devise a fix. Similar problems remain with the 3.0-liter diesels in Audi, VW and Porsche vehicles. * PETERSENS 4-WHEEL & OFF-ROAD has selected the new Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-Road as the winner of its 34th annual 4x4 of the Year Award. PETERSENS 4-WHEEL & OFF-ROAD magazines 4x4 of the Year award competition is open to all-new or significantly revised 4x4s, trucks, and SUVs for the upcoming model year. For 2016, the field of vehicles included eight entries from various automaker. * Cars.com announced its annual Best of Awards winners at its annual awards show in Detroit during the North American International Auto Show. Winners are: Best of 2016: 2016 Volvo XC90, Best Pickup Truck of 2016: 2016 Nissan Titan XD, Eco-Friendly Car of the Year: 2016 Toyota Prius c, Family Car of the Year: 2016 Nissan Rogue, Luxury Car of the Year: 2016 Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, and Play Car of the Year: 2016 BMW M235i. * The Obama administration proposed a 10-year, $4-billion push to spark the development of self-driving and connected cars, hoping to one day eliminate roadway deaths. The proposal has the support of Google, Delphi, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Ford, Tesla and Volvo. The Feds want consistent national regulations on self-driving cars. They see autonomous cars and connected vehicles as having the potential to ease traffic congestion, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and reduce traffic fatalities. * The French government said that tests on exhaust emissions of nearly two dozen cars made by Renault and other automakers had found that several of the cars violated the countrys air-quality standards. But the government said tests still underway had so far found no evidence of technology meant to cheat on emissions tests, except on two Volkswagen models the government had tested * Hey vegans. Luxury doesn't only come in leather. Synthetic leather from Tesla, in a shade called Ultra White, is available as an option for the new Model X sport utility vehicle. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Ferrari have begun offering models with faux leather seating, and Volvo and Ford have increasingly emphasized the use of more natural components like soy foam in their seats. Leather in seats and the steering wheel requires slaughtering animals, and the cloth substitute doesnt quite measure up for a vehicle that can cost more than $100,000. * Stephane Peterhansel easily won the 12th Dakar Rally this week for Peugeot, the automakers first win since 1990. Peterhansel had a huge one-hour lead going into the last days of the rally. * The automotive journalism community lost another icon this week with the passing of Julie Candler, a pioneer among women in the auto writing business. Ms. Candler was the first women to pen a regular automotive column in a national magazine - Womens Day - which she did for 18 years. She was a leading advocate for child safety in automobiles and she wrote for more than a dozen national publications. She was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 1999 and held many other awards. She died just a few days after her 96th birthday and continued to write to within a few months of her passing. PARIS -- January 18, 2016 -- In 2015, Group registrations increased by 3.3% and achieved a new record of 2,800,242 vehicles In Europe, the Group registers another year of growth with market share exceeding 10% The Renault brand retained its leadership position in LCV in Europe for the 18th consecutive year Despite the slump in the Russian and Brazilian markets, the Group maintained its international positions The success of new products in 2015, the many planned launches and the expansion of activities internationally will all support the ambition to grow in 2016. MORE INFO The Best Car Research and Buyer's Guide INCREASE IN WORLDWIDE SALES In 2015, Groupe Renault's PC+LCV worldwide registrations saw a further rise of 3.3% for a total of 2.8 million vehicles, in a market that grew by 1.6%. This third consecutive year of growth in registrations allowed the Group to set a new sales record. The Group's worldwide market share now stands at 3.2%. The Renault brand remains the number one French brand in the world and Dacia has set a new sales record. The Group continues to benefit from the momentum of the European automotive market (+9,4%) and realised a 10.2% increase in registrations to 1,613,499 vehicles, for a market share of 10.1%. Renault is the leader in the electric vehicle market here and, for the 18th consecutive year, is the leader in the LCV market. Outside Europe, despite the economic crises in Russia and Latin America, the Group held steady and recorded market share gains in the Africa, Middle East and India and Eurasia regions. Thierry Koskas, Groupe Renault Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, announced: "2015 marks another year of increased sales by Groupe Renault and we have beaten our previous sales record. Despite economic conditions that continue to vary from one region to another, our growth is constant and validates the geographic diversification strategy pursued these past years." NEW PRODUCTS DRIVE SUCCESS IN EUROPE In Europe, Groupe Renault's share of the PC+LCV market rose to 10.1%, with an increase in registrations of 10.2% for 1,613,499 vehicles. The Group increased sales in all countries in the region, with particularly strong performances in Spain (+22.3%), the United Kingdom (+17.7%) and Italy (+18%), with a record market share of 9.1%. 2015 marks another year of growth for the Renault brand. This was the fastest-growing brand in 2015. With 1,238,711 registrations (+12.3%), the Group's market share reached 7.8% as compared with 7.6% in 2014 and 7.4% in 2013. Clio remains leader of sales, all segments combined. In the PC market (+11.1% to 969 508 vehicles), Renault retained its leadership position in the urban vehicle market (segments A+B) thanks to the continuing success of the Clio and of the Captur, the leader in its segment with 194 703 registrations (23,7% of the segment). Launches of 2015 drive strong customer demand : 49, 016 Kadjars have already been sold and there were 20, 930 registrations for the New Espace, representing three times more than its previous version during the same period in 2014. In LCV, the Renault brand retained its leadership position for the 18th consecutive year, with 269, 203 registrations (+16, 9%), and recorded a 0.7 point increase in market share. Ten years after its debut in Europe, the Dacia brand recorded further growth in its registrations in 2015 (+3.6%), and marked record sales of 374, 458. Renault is the leader in the European electric vehicle market. The Group's sales are growing fast (+49%) to 23, 086 vehicles, excluding Twizy. ZOE becomes leader in the PC market with 18, 453 registrations over the year (+68%). In France, Renault strengthened its position as the leading automotive brand and the Clio remained the most sold vehicle in the market for the sixth consecutive year. Clio, Captur, Twingo and Espace are leaders in their respective market segments. The Trafic, Master and Kangoo utility vehicles are also each at the top of their segments. ZOE held 60% of the electric PC market. GROUPE RENAULT HELD STEADY AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL At the international level, despite an economic situation that varied by countries and regions, Groupe Renault was able to stabilise and even strengthen its positions. In Eurasia, the Group's market share increased by 1.6 points to 11.9%, in particular due to the Group's momentum in Turkey (+21.7%), where a new sales record was set. This growth offset the consequences of the economic crisis in Russia, where the market slumped by more than 35% and Groupe Renault's registrations fell by 38.1%. Market share stabilised at 7.5% as a policy of preserving margins is conducted. In the Africa, Middle East and India region, Group registrations increased nearly 17%, for a market share of 4.5% (+0.7 points). The Group has more than one-third of the North African market. In Algeria, the Group saw a record market share (35.6%) with a significant 8.7 points gain, benefiting from the local manufacture of Symbol in Oran. In Morocco, where Dacia and Renault are the leading and second brands, respectively, registrations increased 11.5%. The Group's market share was more than 38.2% (+1,2 point). In Egypt, the second-largest market in Africa, its sales rose by 73.8% and its market share reached 7.5% (+3.4 points). In India, Renault remains the leading European automotive brand with sales up by 20.1%. Kwid had a very promising start with more than 80,000 orders since its launch in September. In the Americas (355, 151 registrations, a decrease of 14.8%), the Group withstood the economic difficulties with a market share of 6.3% (-0.1 point). In Brazil, the Group's second-largest market, market share increased by 0.2 points to an unprecedented level of 7.3%, in a market that contracted by 25.5%. In Argentina, the Group contained the decline in its registrations to -6.5%, thanks to the performance in the last quarter with a market share of 14.7% (12.7% over the full year). In Colombia, Renault set a new market share high of 18.6%, a rise of 2 points. The Duster Oroch pick-up, launched at the tail end of the year, already ranks second in its segment in Brazil. Renault's ramp-up in this segment, should bolster growth in the region during the coming months. In Asia Pacific, the level of sales in Korea, the Group's largest market in the region, stabilised following significant growth in 2014. In China, priority has been given to the preparation of the launch of the Chinese version of the Kadjar, the first vehicle locally produced by the Dongfeng Renault joint venture. 2016 SALES OUTLOOK FOR THE GROUPE RENAULT In 2016, the global market is expected to record growth of 1 to 2% compared with 2015. The European market is also expected to increase by 2%, with a 2% increase also for France. At the International level, the Brazilian and Russian markets are expected to decline further, by 6% and 12% respectively. On the contrary, China (+4 to 5%) and India (+8%) should pursue their momentum. Against this backdrop, and with a particularly full product plan this year, Groupe Renault expects: an acceleration in sales growth worldwide; the strengthening of the Renault brand in Europe an increase in each of its five regions. Thierry Koskas confirmed "Building on the business momentum of the past three years, a product range largely updated in 2015 and 2016 and our expansion in India and China, our growth will accelerate in 2016 and we will improve our positions in all our regions". Group sales by region PC + LCV Sales at end December* 2015 2014 % variation France 607, 173 577, 606 5.1% Europe** (hors France) 1, 006, 326 887, 179 13.4% Total France + Europe 1, 613, 499 1, 464, 785 10.2% Africa Middle East India 359, 858 307, 927 16.9% Eurasia 356, 216 389, 704 -8.6% Americas 355, 151 416, 914 -14.8% Asia Pacific 116, 868 133, 197 -12.3% Total excluding France + Europe 1, 188, 093 1, 247, 742 -4.8% World 2, 801, 592 2, 712, 527 3.3% * Sales ** Europe = European Union, Iceland, Norway & Switzerland Total sales per brand Sales at end December* 2015 2014 % variation RENAULT PC 1, 822, 965 1, 811, 443 0.6% LCV 347, 679 307, 582 13.0% PC + LCV 2, 170, 644 2, 119, 025 2.4% RENAULT SAMSUNG MOTORS PC 80, 028 82, 123 -2.6% DACIA PC 511, 510 474, 623 7.8% LCV 39, 410 36, 756 7.2% PC + LCV 550, 920 511, 379 7.7% GROUPE RENAULT PC 2, 414, 503 2, 368, 189 2.0% LCV 387, 089 344, 338 12.4% PC + LCV 2, 801, 592 2, 712, 527 3.3% Groupe Renault's 15 main markets at end December 2015 Market Share Sales 2015* PC+LCV 2015 (units) (% ) 1 FRANCE 607, 173 26.4 2 BRAZIL 181, 504 7.3 3 GERMANY 177, 787 5.2 4 TURKEY 162, 175 16.8 5 SPAIN 156, 108 13.1 6 ITALY 154, 730 9.1 7 UNITED KINGDOM 128, 269 4.3 8 RUSSIA 120, 411 7.5 9 ALGERIA 90, 182 35.6 10 BELGIUM+LUXEMBURG 82, 374 13.3 11 SOUTH KOREA 80, 017 4.4 12 ARGENTINA 79, 383 12.7 13 INDIA 53, 848 1.7 14 IRAN 51, 500 4.8 15 MOROCCO 50, 369 38.2 *Figures at end December 2015, excluding Twizy Groupe Renault Top 5 best PC sales at end December 2015 Total Renault Dacia RSM Clio 4 372, 062 372, 062 Duster 331, 238 168, 900 162, 338 Sandero 2 326, 712 141, 354 185, 358 Logan 2 251, 030 151, 949 99, 081 Captur/QM3 245, 126 220, 567 24, 559 >>>> All figures in this document date to January, 12th, 2016. Ford's New Brand Campaign Challenges People to Unlearn Unlearn is the concept behind a new brand campaign from Ford that encourages consumers to take a fresh look, not just at Ford but at life itself The campaign makes a break from previous marketing initiatives from Ford and is targeted especially at those in the market for top-range new Ford cars including Mustang and Edge Campaign includes TV commercials, out of home advertising, digital media and an online influencer programme MORE INFO Ford Research and Buyer's Guide Guide BRENTWOOD, ESSEX UK -- January 18, 2016: Its time to let go of what you know about Mondeo Man, Ford and life itself. In a new marketing campaign, Ford of Britain is urging the nation to Unlearn by demonstrating that progression comes from abandoning preconceptions. The campaign, which launches across out of home and digital media today, takes a surprising look at the familiar and shows just how far we can progress if were prepared to let go of limiting beliefs. As part of the campaign, Ford is unveiling a new look with a bold change to its iconic script, which now sits outside of the blue oval logo with splashes of colour in place of the traditional white font. The new look will feature in all aspects of the brand campaign, including the TV commercial and banner advertising. In the creative treatment, the familiar is challenged to show just how far we can progress when we Unlearn: Think you know OAPs? Meet the 104-year-old record-breaking runner Fauja Singh. Think you know family pets? Meet Tiddles, the micropig whos taken over the cat flap. Think you know Ford? Theres a new kind of horsepower as the iconic Mustang arrives on British soil for the first time. The TV commercial, which airs for the first time during ITVs National TV Awards on January 20, closes with an emotional moment featuring a new-born baby that reminds us that we all have the ability to Unlearn. Created for Ford of Britain by Blue Hive UK, the campaign is designed to drive reappraisal of Ford as a brand committed to innovation and progress to meet the nations changing needs when it comes to mobility. The campaign is about taking a fresh look at the familiar and anyone in the UK who takes a fresh look at Ford may be surprised by what they find, said Andy Barratt, Chairman and Managing Director of Ford of Britain. We now have a line up of vehicles that demonstrate our performance prowess and innovation, from the Ford GT which will race this year at Le Mans, to our new flagship SUV, Edge, which is laden with driver-helping technology. Alongside the TV commercial, filmed by production company 2am, the Unlearn campaign is being communicated through an influencer programme, featuring some of the UKs best-known online personalities, who will be sharing their own Unlearn experiences. Fords Marketing Manager, Richard Beard, said: Unlearn is about casting aside preconceptions, having another think about Ford, and reappraising. Its about not being held back by limiting beliefs. Bryn Attewell, Creative Director, Blue Hive said: Unlearn is a big, bold idea that demonstrates Ford isnt and has never been - afraid to cast aside limiting beliefs in order to make progress. We think people will be surprised by what Ford are up to. Theyre not just building amazing cars like the GT and Mustang, theyre changing the way people interact with their vehicles and looking at every aspect of how the world gets around. Thats why were asking people to let go of any preconceptions they might have about Ford. And maybe at the same time we can all Unlearn few things about ourselves and the world around us. For more information on Unlearn visit: Unlearn.ford.co.uk Letters of intent signed with Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD) and Mammut Group High pent-up demand, resulting in rising truck sales in Iran Revitalization of powertrain activities for engines and axles Preparations done for comprehensive market re-entry with the Mercedes-Benz and FUSO brands Plans to open an office in the first quarter of 2016 Dr Wolfgang Bernhard: "Daimler commercial vehicles have always had an excellent reputation in Iran. And right now, there is a huge demand for commercial vehicles, especially trucks. We will quickly resume our business activities in the market. Our letters of intent with our local partners IKD and Mammut Industries are important pre-requisites to resume business quickly." STUTTGART/TEHERAN: January 18, 2016: Daimler Trucks, the world's leading truck manufacturer, is setting the course for a return to the Iranian market, having signed letters of intent with its local cooperation partners Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD) and the Mammut Group. Daimler AG have already had successful business relations with IKD for the past 50 years. IKD is a subsidiary of Iran Khodro Industrial Group, the largest vehicle manufacturer in the MENA region having more than 50% market share in Iran and has been cooperating with Daimler for over half a century. The areas of cooperation include a joint venture for local production of Mercedes-Benz trucks and powertrain components plus the establishment of a sales company for Mercedes-Benz trucks and components. Furthermore, there are plans for Daimler to return as a shareholder in the former engine joint venture Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing Co. (IDEM). In addition to this, both partners are looking at establishing a joint venture for local sales of Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles. Daimler and IKD are about to benefit from each others competitive advantages to satisfy the large demand for trucks. In the short term, therefore both parties have a strategic alliance on a win-win basis through joint ventures in their scope. Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard: "Daimler commercial vehicles have always had an excellent reputation in Iran. And right now, there is a huge demand for commercial vehicles, especially trucks. We plan to quickly resume our business activities in the market there. The signing of the letters of intent with our local partners IKD and Mammut Group are important pre-requisites to resume business quickly." High pent-up demand in Iranian truck market With its growth potential following many years of sanctions and the pent-up demand in the transport sector, Iran offers promising opportunities for Daimler Trucks. Despite the sanctions, Iran was one of the largest national economies in the Middle East, with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of 415 billion US dollars in 2014. Industry accounts for almost half of the Iranian national economy. The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade estimates that about 200,000 commercial vehicles will be replaced in the coming years some 56,000 of them in the next three to five years alone. Professionalization of sales and after-sales By signing the letter of intent, Daimler Trucks has started the process for a comprehensive re-entry into the Iranian market considering the persistent sanctions regime and further export control regulations. The first Mercedes-Benz Actros and Axor trucks could be supplied to the country in the form of CKD (completely knocked down) kits before the end of the year. In addition to this, Daimler Trucks is pursuing the aim of establishing an even firmer foothold in the local market by revitalizing the engine cooperation with IDEM and establishing a sales joint venture. Furthermore, Daimler Trucks is aiming to establish a sales joint venture to professionalize all sales and after-sales activities in Iran. Daimler Trucks likewise intends to open a representative office in Tehran during the first quarter of 2016. With these commitments, Daimler Trucks is therefore committed to assist with the country's economic and social development. Sales of FUSO trucks together with Mayan Mammut Group In addition to the plans for Mercedes-Benz trucks, Daimler Trucks also sees great opportunities for Mitsubishi FUSO especially in the light-duty-truck segment. Here FUSO offers the world's most proven and successful light-duty truck in the shape of the Canter. To open up this market, Daimler and Mayan have signed a distribution agreement for the FUSO brand. Mayan is part of the Mammut Group. The Dubai-based Mammut Group is one of the Middle East's largest truck bodybuilders and distributors. Mayan will be responsible for opening up the Iranian market in close cooperation with FUSO. Mercedes-Benz trucks: Successful history in Iran Daimler can build on a long and successful history in Iran: The company has been present in the market with Mercedes-Benz trucks and passenger cars since 1953, interrupted only by the sanctions phase between 2010 and 2016. Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles are still present here and remain very much visible on Iran's roads. Previously Daimler sold up to 10,000 vehicles per year here, most of them commercial vehicles. Daimler Regional Center for Commercial Vehicles Daimlers commercial vehicle business in in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is organized through a regional center. From its base in Dubai, Daimler Commercial Vehicles Middle East & North Africa (DCV MENA) is supporting 19 countries - from Morocco to Pakistan. The new company is responsible for business in the region with the group's entire commercial vehicle portfolio from the Mercedes-Benz Citan city van to the Mercedes-Benz Actros heavy-duty truck. Demolition leads to growth for 50m-turnover asbestos specialist A LEEDS company which specialises in asbestos and demolition services is looking to its largest project to date to be the spur for a period of growth. 50m-turnover Lexia Solutions Group has started work on the Millennium Mills site in east London, which was a huge flour mill next to the River Thames. Last year the Mayor of London announced 12m of goverment funding for the buildings demolition and to clear the site of asbestos. The land is being prepared for the development of 3,000 homes. Lexias growth plans for the next five years are being supported by a 3m invoice finance credit facility from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. Jason Davy, chief executive at Lexia Solutions Group, which employs more than 500 staff, said: As we finally move into a period of sustained economic growth, the construction sector looks set to go from strength to strength. Lexia is well positioned to capitalise on the exciting opportunities our sector is increasingly presenting. Martin Luther Kings gifts were manifest. He was an inspired leader, a galvanizing orator, and a brilliant polemicist and prose writer. But more than anything, he knew how to rise to an occasion. On Dec. 10, 1964, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize, he knew the world was watching. He knew that he was the public face of the American civil rights movement, and that everything he said would be weighed and judged, sometimes harshly. Put in that position, almost any of us would tremble. But King just stepped up to the podium and delivered one of the finest speeches of his life. I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice, he began. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement, which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder. King was already famous as an orator, having delivered his I Have a Dream speech before hundreds of thousands of people a year earlier (though hindsight has elevated that speech to a level of recognition that it did not receive in many news accounts of the 1963 March on Washingtonthe Washington Post story, for example, ignored it almost completely, mentioning only one line in the next days coverage). In the space of a few weeks, and forever thereafter, King was known almost exclusively for the Dream speech. That speech, as good as it was, was also typical. As an American orator, King had no rivals in his lifetime. He delivered rousing speeches time and again, to memorable effect. And people came to expect it, which may explain why the Nobel speech unfortunately gets less attention. If you watch a tape of the proceedings, you will be struck by the speakers somber reserve. There are no verbal crescendos; there is very little emotion and no drama at all. The template for most of Kings speeches was the sermon, but this is not a sermon. Quiet and reflective, it is more like a prayer. Was he nervous? Surely he was. But he had faced tougher crowds than the Nobel audience. No, I think his muted delivery was deliberate. I think he wanted to draw peoples attention away from himself and put it on the substance of his text. But as a result, the address is almost too quiet. Because it is not the rousing King we expect, we are disappointed. Thats a shame, because if you ignore the performance and simply read the text, you get a completely different impression. On the page, this Nobel address is one of the most moving things King ever wrote. Indeed, when you read it, you comprehend how, almost inevitably, his oratorical gifts eclipsed his skill as a writer. But a great writer he certainly was. In that paragraph quoted above, his prose is specific (22 million), concrete (fire hoses, snarling dogs), and rhetorically rhythmic (I am mindful I am mindful I am mindful ). In 175 well-chosen words, he sums up the trials and the grit and bravery of the civil rights movement. As openings go, its hard to beat. Then he does something a little daring: He calls the whole procedure into question, and doing that he gets your absolute attention. Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. Has he come all this way to reject the prize? Where is he going with this? Wherever it is, youre going with him. After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our timethe need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. Here and elsewhere in this relatively brief speech (1,150 words), King deflects attention away from himself: this award which I receive on behalf of that movement The sincerity with which he makes himself one among many diffuses any possibility of false modesty. But lest we miss that point, he drives it home with some plainspoken imagery just a few lines later: Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possiblethe known pilots and the unknown ground crew. The little miracle of Kings writing lies in the way he so easily blends homemade metaphor (the flight crew), biblical imagery (the lion and the lamb), and poetry (near the very end he references a line from Keats). His prose, like Lincolns, is plain and straightforward, and yet supple enough to allow him to range from a whisper to thunder in the space of a few lines. At one point he echoes another Nobel Prize speech, when he says, I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the isness of mans present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal oughtness that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. This is very close to the language of Kings fellow Southerner William Faulkner, whose 1950 Nobel speech includes the sentiment, I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. It would not surprise me to find out that King knew Faulkners speech. But part of me thinks it just as likely that he did not, that it was simply inevitable that two Southern geniuses, one black and one white, both troubled by the centuries-old tragedy of their region (and both terribly aware of the threat of nuclear annihilation), could manage to wind up nursing the same hope against hope that things could get better, must get better. There is very little that seems dated about Kings speech, even 50 years later. He does make one reference to King Lutuli, who, if youre like me, you wont recognize. Albert Lutuli was a president of the African National Congress who was jailed and persecuted by the apartheid government of South Africa. In 1960, he was the first African to receive the peace prize, and like King, he believed strongly in non-violence. Otherwise, the speech seems eerily contemporary. True, it is grounded in the realities of a fight against a sort of blatant segregation that no longer exists. But its hope for a better future and its expressed faith in God and the children of God is unassailable. He practically dares you to be cynical or pessimistic, because he has rejected those things, and if he can, then so can anyone in his audience. Is it a perfect speech? Not quite. King never learned when to use that and when to use which. Otherwise, it is hard to fault. He somehow manages to balance faith, realism, optimism, the news of the day, and the fate of the human race. And he did it in prose a child could understand and a poet would envy. With the eyes of the world upon him, he met the moment and mastered it. With voting just weeks away and the polls tightening, theres no more room for niceties in the Democratic race. During the opening minutes of Sunday nights Democratic debate in Charleston, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders traded blows over their respective histories with gunsand it got ugly, quick. As Sanders surges in Iowa and New Hampshire, Clinton has been extremely vocal about gun control, the rare issue where shes to the left of the self-described democratic socialist. Clinton berated Sanders for his past voting with the NRA, as well as numerous times where Sanders had supported the gun lobby in Congress. She also said she was happy that Sanders ended up changing his tune on gun manufacturer immunity, something for which he voted in 2005. Sanders of course dismissed these charges, citing his D- minus rating with the NRA. I think that Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous, Sanders fired back. He pivoted then to the violence that afflicted the city over the summer, referencing the massacre at the nearby Emanuel AME church. We have seen in this city a horrendous tragedy of a crazed person praying with people in the coming up and shooting nine people, Sanders said. This should not be a political issue. What we should be doing is working together. But when Sanders was pressed about why he had changed his position on gun manufacturer immunity, he stumbled. What I have said, is that gun manufacturers liability bill has some good provisions among other things, weve prohibited ammunition that wouldve killed cops who had protection on, Sanders began his response. So what I said is I would re-look at it. We are going to re- look at it and I will support stronger provisions, Sanders said. Clinton, apparently sensing an opening, continued her onslaught. Yes look, I have made it clear based on Senator Sanders own record that he has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times, Clinton said. He voted against the Brady Bill five times. He voted for what we call, the Charleston Loophole. He voted for immunity from gunmakers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. Her list wasnt done. He voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak, guns go into National Parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Lets not forget what this is about, 90 people a day die from gun violence in our country. Thats 33,000 people a year. Both of their respective teams were ready to pounce as well, firing off evidence of their candidates claims with email blasts. One article from the Clinton camp cited Sanders vote against the Brady Bill. The NRA`s political action committee pumped nearly $1 million into 1990 congressional races, including the Sanders-Smith race, a 1991 Sun-Sentinel piece read. Sanders campaign, meanwhile, pointed to a somewhat less damning piece from Clintons 2008 campaign in which she disagreed with President Obamas comment about Americans clinging to guns. I disagree with Sen. Obamas assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration, Clinton said at the time. Its part of a way of life, she said after sharing a story about learning to shoot. People enjoy hunting and shooting because its an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter. by Lauren Carroll and Louis Jacobson Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders gave dueling interviews to the Sunday news shows in anticipation of Sunday nights Democratic presidential primary debate, sparring over health care, guns and foreign policy. Clinton criticized Sanders as having a poor record on gun control, while Sanders went after Clinton for her foreign policy views. Sanders went back to the 2008 Democratic primary contest to criticize Clinton about Iran. "If you think back to 2007 during the campaign in which Secretary Clinton ran against Barack Obama, she was critical of him, Sanders told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. A question was asked to Obama that said, Would you sit down and talk to the Iranians? And he said, Yeah, I would. Point being, you talk to your adversaries. You dont run away from that. Secretary Clinton, I think, called him naive. Turns out that Obama was right." At one point, Clinton did describe an Obama statement on diplomacy as "naive," but Sanders is leaving out important nuance that misrepresents her position at the time. His statement rates Half True. This all started at a July 2007 Democratic presidential debate that included questions from YouTube users. One asked, "Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?" Obama was first to respond, saying, "I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them, which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of (the George W. Bush) administration, is ridiculous." Clinton also answered the question, saying she agreed that she would approach adversaries differently than Bush and "get back to diplomacy." But she distinguished herself from Obama by saying she would not necessarily meet with these leaders in her first year, without any preconditions. Instead, she would first send envoys. Clintons "naive" comment came the next day in an interview with the Quad-City Times in Iowa . "I think it is wrong for any president to say he or she will not talk to people because theyre bad or evil," she said . "But the question was very specific, asking whether either of us would talk to a list of leaders of five countries with which the United States has serious difficulties within the first year of becoming president, and I thought that was irresponsible and frankly naive to say he would commit to meeting with Chavez and Castro and others within the first year. As I said last night, there has to be a lot of diplomatic effort." Sanders made it sound like Clinton shut the door on diplomacy, when in reality she was supportive, though she advocated for a more cautious approach. Its worth noting that Obama did not personally meet with Iranian leaders in his first year. It wasnt until 2013 that he spoke over the phone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Obama did announce in April 2009 , that the United States and five other countries would engage in talks with Iran the P5+1 group that eventually negotiated the nuclear deal. For her part, Clinton as secretary of state was personally involved in diplomatic efforts to increase global sanctions on Iran that helped move the nuclear deal forward. Rubio recalls Reagan and 1981 hostage release Republicans werent pleased by Obamas actions on Iraq. Sen. Marco Rubio said on Meet the Press that the United States should not have made any concessions to Iran. Part of the deal included Obama granting clemency to seven Iranians charged in U.S. courts with violating economic sanctions against Iran. "Our enemies now know that if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it," Rubio said on Meet the Press. When pressed on how he would deal with countries like Iran, Rubio said: "When I become president of the United States, our adversaries around the world will know that America is no longer under the command of someone weak like Barack Obama, and it will be like Ronald Reagan, where as soon as he took office the hostages were released from Iran." Rubios statement rates Pants on Fire as a misleading framing of history. Reagans inauguration in 1981 may have coincided with the release of the hostages, but historians say it did not cause it. Instead, the Iranians had tired of holding the hostages, while the administration of Jimmy Carter did the legwork to get the hostages released. (We asked the Rubio campaign for response but did not hear back.) In 1979, Islamic revolutionaries overthrew the Shah of Iran, who had been installed and supported by successive U.S. administrations. Militants took over the American embassy and held 52 hostages from Nov. 4, 1979, until Jan. 20, 1981 -- the day Carter passed the reins to Reagan, who had defeated him amid widespread public disapproval of Carters handling of the crisis. But negotiations for the hostages release started well before Election Day. In September 1980, the Iranians contacted the Carter administration with a proposal. The Iranians believed that they had extracted most of the benefits from holding the hostages and feared having to start negotiations over with a new administration, according to historians. On the day of the inauguration, Carter informed Reagan at 8:31 a.m. that the release of the hostages was imminent, according to a contemporary report in the New York Times . The hostages left Tehran at 12:25 p.m., and Reagan announced the news at 2:15 p.m. at a luncheon with congressional leaders in the Capitols Statuary Hall. Despite the showy announcement, scholars of the period say Reagan did not play any significant role in freeing the hostages. "Well before Reagan became president, the deal for releasing the hostages had already been worked out by the Carter administration's State Department and the Iranians, ably assisted by Algerian diplomats," said David Farber, author of Taken Hostage: The Iranian Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam. No Reagan administration officials participated in the negotiations, Farber said, and the Iranians waited to officially release the Americans as a final insult to Carter, not because they feared Reagan. Rubios comments are a clear misreading of history, said Michael Gunter, professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University, who has authored several papers on the 1981 hostage release. "It is clear that Sen. Marco Rubio is falling back on an exaggerated urban legend that the only way to deal with Iran is through implied threats of military retaliation, as President Reagan supposedly did," he said. "Actually, successful U.S. diplomacy then and now played the most significant role." Benjamin Amsellem didnt see the blade before it struck him. The 35-year-old Jewish teacher was on his way to work at the Franco-Hebraic Institute in the French port city of Marseille on Monday morning when a machete-wielding attacker charged him from behind. The assailant, a 15-year-old ethnic Kurd from Turkey, stabbed Amsellem, then proceeded to chase him down as he ran. Amsellem fell to the ground, where he tried to defend himself, kicking the teen away and using the Torah in his hands as a shield against further blows. The attacker eventually dropped the knife and fled, leaving the traumatized teacher with injuries to his shoulder and hand. I told him to stop hitting me, Amsellem said, recounting the experience in the newspaper Le Provence and recalling the hatred in the youths eyes. But he continued and I didnt think I would get out of it alive. More disturbing, still, are reports that during the teens confession he said that he had acted in the name of the so-called Islamic State, was proud of his act, and regretted that he hadnt killed Amsellan. The shocking attack is one of at least three such hate crimes against Marseilles Jews in recent months, a disturbing turn of events in a city where large Muslim and Jewish populations have coexisted peacefully, if sometimes uneasily, for generations. In November, three people, one of whom was sporting an Islamic State T-shirt, accosted and stabbed another Jewish teacher while hurling anti-Semitic insults at him. A month earlier, a mentally unstable man known to police stabbed a rabbi and two other worshippers outside a synagogue. The crimes have Marseilles Jewish community on edge. The community of Marseille lives together in harmony, Zvi Ammar, the head of the Israelite Consistory of Marseille, told BFMTV. But for the past several months were sensing a radicalization. He attributed this to social networks, which he called a runaway success among disaffected young people who are vulnerable to the pull of jihad. The machete-wielding teen behind Mondays attack also appears to have been seduced by extremism via the Internet. On Wednesday, Le Monde reported that the young attacker was a good student who had never exhibited signs of mental instability. Investigators told the paper that the teen had discovered ISIS online, and that neither his family nor his friends had any clue as to his newfound ideology. Whether or not these recent incidents signify increased radicalization in the city, the undeniable hatred behind Mondays attack has left many shaken. Its very traumatizing, Michele Teboul, the head of the Marseille branch of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), told Le Figaro. He claimed to have acted in the name of Islam and because of his hatred of Jews. Marseilles CRIF was itself the victim of a recent cyber attack, which is still evident on the groups website. On the site, a self-identified Moroccan hacker using the name Prosox has left an anti-Israel statement in English fraught with misspellings. At the bottom of the page are the words: Security is just an illusion. This fragile sense of security is apparently what motivated Zvi Ammar to suggest on Tuesday that Jews refrain from wearing the traditional skullcap in public in the name of self-protection. His comments unleashed criticism from other Jewish groups, including the CRIF, whose national president, Roger Cukierman, called it a defeatist attitude. We will not cede! We will continue to wear the kippa! Frances chief rabbi, Haim Korsia tweeted, echoing Cukiermans sentiments. For Elsa Charbit, the head of Marseilles Jewish radio station, Radio JM, Ammars comments were simply motivated by a genuine concern for his fellow Jews. He was acting like a good father and he spoke from the heart, she told The Daily Beast in an email. He wanted to tell everyone to be careful. Charbit also believes that the threat to Jews is ongoing, and long precedes Mondays vicious attack. For the past 10 years, extremely serious anti-Semitic acts have struck Frances Jews, she said. Its as though all of a sudden the rest of France is becoming aware of our anxiety. On Monday, Marseilles Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin released a statement condemning the attack and calling for the citys residents to stand united in difficult times. The authorities are doing the most they can, Charbit added. To do any more would be to put a police officer behind every Jew. That is neither possible nor desirable. Today we celebrate the civil rights movement, one of its beloved leaders, and our hard-won gains. Unfortunately, African Americans are at risk of letting those gains slip through their fingers, along with their most basic civil right: to support their families, and themselves. Worse, they dont even know about this threat. Im talking about Alzheimers, and the dirty little secret that African Americans are twice as likely to get it. Its consequences, as I have come to see first-hand, are simply catastrophic. My beautiful wife, the food and lifestyle maven B. Smith, is now well into the dreadful progression of stages from which, so far, no cure or effective treatment exists. I have become her round-the-clock caretaker, the hardest job Ive ever known. And yet Im luckier than most in my position: We live in a nice house, and we have money saved. For the 5.3 million Americans coping with it, and the roughly 15 million more serving as full- or part-time caretakers to those loved ones, Alzheimers is a curse that costs, on average, $100,000 a year. Make that $1 million over the diseases average 10-year duration. Most African-American families struggling with Alzheimers simply cant afford that. Having reached the middle class at lastthanks in large part to Dr. King and his movementmany are slipping back into destitution, the gains of a movement snuffed out, like so many candles in the dark, one by one by one. The Obama administration has, at last, taken steps to address the gross inequity of funding for Alzheimers research versus other top killers. The budget for Alzheimers research will be boosted 60 percent in this years budget to $936 million. Thats still chump change compared to cancer ($5.1 billion) and HIV/AIDs ($25.3 billion), especially with 13.8 million Americans projected to get Alzheimers by 2050, at a cost to us all of $1.1 trillion. Yet, research is up, and promising drugs are out there. The problem is that African Americans may not benefit from that research. Why? In a word: Tuskegee. The infamous, decades-long, secret study of black men with syphilis that led to so many unnecessary deaths left subsequent generations deeplyand rightlysuspicious of medical trials. Result: Hardly any African Americans have signed up for new Alzheimers drug trials. If the disease affects African Americans differently, whos to say the new drugs will be suitable for them? So on this day of civil rights celebration, I say to my fellow African Americans: Dont be put off by a medical experiment long impugned and barred by law from reoccurring. Dont squander the civil right to help cure a disease that disproportionately targets us. Sign up for Alzheimers trials, either by contacting the national Alzheimers Association or the Brain Health Registry. Join the fight. To the president, heartfelt thanks for the new research fundsand a plea. Research is half the battle; home care is the other. According to Alz.org, for every $100 the National Institutes of Health spends on Alzheimers research, Medicare and Medicaid spend over $26,000 caring for those with the disease. Few Americans can cope with the costs; African Americans, as a group, are struggling even more than others. Remember: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. At stake is everything Dr. King fought for. Dan Gasby and B. Smith are co-authors, with Michael Shnayerson, of Before I Forget: Love, Hope, Help and Acceptances in Our Fight Against Alzheimers, published today by Harmony Books. Three American contractors went missing in Baghdad lateThursday, after leaving the heavily fortified Iraqi military base without theirsecurity detail, armed only with pistols, according to a contractor withfirsthand knowledge of the incident. One of the Americans had previously been cautioned aboutleaving the base without guards. He had a false sense of security, the contractor said. Now U.S. officials fear they are either in the hands of an Iraqi militia group, or a criminal gang that may trade them to the so-called Islamic State, U.S. officials said. The three missing Americans were providing maintenance for the U.S. training program for Iraqi Special Operations forces, the contractor said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to describe the incident publicly. One of the men is an engineer from Kansas, and another is a Miami-based maintenance specialist of Egyptian heritage. He and his brother take turns working translation shifts for the contractor in Baghdad, said the American who knew the men. We aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq, U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said by phone from Baghdad on Monday. The safety and security of Americans overseas is our highest priority. We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals. He declined to share more details, citing the U.S. privacy act. A State Department spokesman in Washington requested that The Daily Beast withhold the contractor names, citing the ongoing FBI investigation into their disappearance. The FBI had not yet responded to requests for comment, nor has the main contractor or subcontractor company that employs them. The families have been notified and the FBI and investigators from the Office of Security Cooperation Iraq are questioning company officials and working to find the missing men, the contractor said. A U.S. official in Baghdad confirmed the families had been notified, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The men had left their base traveling in a small pickuptruck to meet a former interpreter from their team at his home in the southernBaghdad neighborhood of Dura. Its not clear where along the route they mayhave disappeared, though the former interpreter who went by the nicknameRiley is also missing. The Iraqi forces and the U.S. company the men work for were first tipped off to their absence when the Iraqi general who runs the military base where the Americans worked got a phone call from a caller claiming to be on guard at an Iraqi military. The caller asked the general if the three Americans worked for him. He said yes, thinking the gate guards would then let the men enter the base. But the men never showed up. The call seemed suspicious and further trying to contact ortrack the number proved fruitless, the contractor said. The men are thought to have been carrying their contractoridentification badges, and their Iraqi weapons licenses, which usually indicatetheir nationality. The contractors account, that the men were taken when they were on the way to meet a former interpreter who lived in Dora, matches one told to the Associated Press by an unnamed Iraqi intelligence official. Dora was once a stronghold for Sunni insurgents, and a battleground between Sunni militants and Shiite militias in 2006-2007. The Washington Post reported Monday that the men were abducted from a brothel. Restaurants that serve alcohol and establishments that provide such services are often targeted by Shiite militia groups cracking down on what they see as illicit behavior. U.S. contractors working in Iraq have been on alert for the risk of kidnapping for some time, said Michael Bouchard, chief security officer for Lenoir City, Tennessee-based Sterling Global Operations, a security and risk management company that conducts business in Iraq. Once or twice a month, we tell people Dont get complacent, Bourchard said Monday. Lately ISIS is striking targets they havent been striking before, aiming at civilians in Paris and Indonesia, so they might look at western targets inside Iraq too. Iraq also used to have a cottage industry of kidnapping rings that would ransom the captives back to their foreign companies or sell them to militant groups like al Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor to the so-called Islamic State. Kidnappings of Westerners had become rare to nonexistent as most rarely leave the compound, according to two Americans living in Baghdad, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity surrounding security in a semi-war zone. This article was corrected to describe the job of one of the missing men as performing maintenance, not translation, and to identify another as a mechanic rather than engineer. It became clear within the first 10 minutes of the Democratic debate on Sunday night that Bernie Sanders had had just about enough with Hillary Clintons attacks. And if the two Democratic frontrunners liked each other before this race, those feelings were long gone. It began, appropriately enough, with a gun fight. As the first votes of the 2016 Democratic primary are only weeks away, Clinton has pounded Sanders relentlessly for his past position on gunsinsinuating in a recent ad that he was siding with the gun lobby over President Obamas push for more gun regulations. (She never mentions Sanderss name, of course, but its one wink short of rhymes with Manders.) Asked about Clintons attempts to tie him to the gun lobby, Sanders came out swinging. Well, I think Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous, he said. I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. Clinton hit back, invoking the murders of nine African Americans last year in their Charleston church by a white man with federal charges pending against him, which should have prevented him from getting a gun. He voted for what we call the Charleston Loophole, she began, sounding just a tad rehearsed. He voted for immunity from gunmakers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. Clinton accused Sanders of turning a blind eye to gun regulations until this race. Now, I am pleased to hear that Senator Sanders has reversed his position on immunity and I look forward to him joining with those members of Congress who have already introduced legislation, she said. As she spoke, Sanders unsuccessfully tried to mask his grimaces with smiles, and seemed to be just waiting for the opportunity to hit back. And he did when asked why the former secretary of state was out-polling him with minorities two to one. Well, let me talk about polling, Sanders began, channeling his inner Donald Trump. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign began she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of three percentage points. Guess what? In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. Maybe were ahead New Hampshire. And its true. Its a scenario made of night terrors for Clinton, who, eight years ago, lost Iowa to another insurgent progressive who her campaign drastically underestimated. (If you listen closely you can almost hear her whispering softly one, two, three, wake up.) Thats not to say shell lose the nomination if Iowa (and New Hampshire) go for SandersSouth Carolina (Clinton is ahead by 40 points in the Real Clear Politics average), Nevada, and the SEC primary states should provide a sturdy firewall, particularly as the electorate becomes more diverse. But it could slow her roll into the nomination, and as much as her campaign says they had always expected a tough race, its tough to believe anyone ever considered Sanders, who resembles Doc from Back to the Future but is more into social experiments than actual experiments, as a real challenge. Former Maryland governor Martin OMalley was also present at the debate, and spent much of it begging for air time when he wasnt taking swipes at Clinton. Sanders, for his part, has played the same game as Clinton in recent daysreleasing an ad last week in which he said, There are two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street, one says its OK to take millions from big banks and then tell them what to do. The ad, clearly directed at Clinton but playing it cute like her gun ad, was immediately condemned on a conference call with Clinton staffers who were shockednay, aghastthat Sanders would go negative. They pointed to Sanderss pledge to remain positiveand accused him of becoming more of a politician by the day. And Sanders took the opportunity to knock her again when asked about the ad on Sunday night. Well, the first difference is I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, Sanders said, a reference to Clintons pricey speaking fees during her time out of office. He then went on to describe his belief that the large financial institutions should be broken up. Clinton countered that Sanders was so far left he even opposed Obama, who helped push through Wall Street reforms like Dodd-Frank. She can take the attacks, Clinton began, but when Sanders started to attack Obamathat was too far. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing. He even, in 2011, publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama, she said. Now, I personally believe that President Obamas work to push through the Dodd-Frank Im going to defend Dodd-Frank and Im going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the financial industry and getting results. It wasnt the first time during the debate that Clinton hugged President Obama tight and spoke in fawning tones that are sure to be a part of any general election campaign against her. Most notably she dodged a question about whether Obama should have made good on his red line with Syria. In the past she has made it clear that their approaches to Syria where different, but not at this debate. Still, through the back and forth between him and Clinton, there was one place Sanders refused to go: President Bill Clintons infidelities. When asked by NBCs Andrea Mitchell whether he regretted calling President Clintons past transgressions, quote, totally, totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable Sanders dismissed it in the same fashion he dismissed Clintons damn emails months ago. That question annoys me, he said. Weve been through this. Yes, his behavior was deplorable. Have I ever once said a word about that issue? No, I have not. Im going to debate Secretary Clinton, Governor OMalley, on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clintons personal behavior. For the remainder of President Obamas term in office countless experts will debate his successes and failures and how he ranks in the pantheon of presidents, but arguably his most significant achievement will probably continue to fly under the radarand may not persist beyond his presidency. Obamas presidency has psychologically enfranchised large swaths of Americas electoratereshaping our democracywho previously opted to stay home and focus on the day-to-day struggles of life instead of showing up to the polls and becoming politically active. During Obamas presidential campaigns, his get-out-the-vote efforts, specifically targeting African Americans, were incredibly successful. He turned a voting base that has historically voted at a lower percentage than white Americans to one that surpassed them. In 1996 only 53 percent of eligible African-American voters voted compared to 63 percent for whites. During Obamas 2008 campaign 65 percent of eligible African-American voters voted and 66 percent for whites. In a little over a decade African-American representation had increased by 12 percent and in 2012 it increased further to 66 percent, surpassing the percentage of white votersfor the first time in historyby 2 percent. In 2008 just over 16 million African Americans voted (PDF), and in 2012 nearly 18 million voted, and in both cases their support for Obama helped swing the election in his favor. In 2000 only 12.9 million (57 percent) African Americans voted, and in 2004 only 14 million (60 percent) voted. Essentially, the difference between 2004 and 2008 was only 2 million votes out of the roughly 130 million votes cast, but in the minds of countless African Americans and other marginalized voters their votes helped decide an election in their favor. Each and every African-American voter who voted for Obama in 2008 felt upon his election that they had assisted in making the previously thought impossible reality of electing a black man to be President of the United States come true. They could feel the power and significance of their vote, and they felt like an enfranchised population that could make an impact on the national scale. This represents a significant change in the mindset of an African-American electorate that has historically been more accustomed to an American democracy that has worked to discourage and disenfranchise them. In 2012 after the euphoria of Obamas election had mostly worn off, nearly 2 million more African Americans voted for Obama than in 2008, so the importance of voting was not lost on this electorate during the ensuing four years. And as one minority group revels in the newly found authority of their vote, so too will others. The habit of voting is becoming ingrained throughout marginalized and minority communities, and this represents a significant shift in our electoral process. 2016 is already being described as an election that could be decided by the Latino vote, and Democrats know they need to work hard to keep the African-American vote. Two election cycles where African Americans showed up to the polls in large numbers make it more likely that they will do the same thing the third time around, but this psychologically enfranchised electorate now demands more from candidates if they intend to earn their vote. Prior to Obamas presidency African Americans could never expect a presidential candidate to fully understand the issues that acutely plague this community. Black voters previously could only hope that a white candidate would decide to listen to their voice, and hopefully enact policies that benefited the community. However, during this election cycle it is obvious that black voters expect the candidates who hope to earn their votes to do more than just listen, and they need to feel that the candidate truly understands the problems that ails their communities. Settling for listening, which used to be the status quo, is no longer acceptable. The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the controversies and clashes that BLM has had with presidential candidates shows how the expectations, demands, and civic and political engagement has increased within the African-American community since the significance of their votes has become evident. Additionally, the Latino community has taken a much larger role in the political process since 2008. Much of their growing significance can be attributed to their steady rise in population, but their population growth coincides with a rise in minority representation and participation in our electoral process. In 2000 African Americans were only 10 percent of the electorate, but by 2008 they were 13 percent, and have stayed at this level ever since. Likewise, Latinos were only 7 percent, but have increased their representation by 1 percent in each election cycle. In 2016 Latinos could represent over 11 percent of the electorate, but they still would need to increase their voter participation by a sizable margin. In 2012, a record 11.2 million Latinos voted, but that was only 48 percent of Latino voters, and a decrease from the 49.9 percent from 2012. Essentially, Latino voter participation is increasing, but their voter participation percentage has decreased as their population grows. It will be next to impossible for their percentage of eligible voters who vote to match the mid to high 60s of the white and African-American communities, but an increase to over 50 percent could help them decide an election. And while it is difficult to attribute a shifting national perspective to any one person, we cannot ignore the efforts that Obama has taken make people aware, specifically minorities and African Americans, of how important their votes can be. And we also cannot discredit the impact upon Americans of seeing a minority occupy the highest office in the land. The convergence of these two realities has given many Americans not just a sense of being connected to and valued within their society, but also an additional incentive to participate in the democratic process. The previously thought impossible became possible with Obamas election, and then it became more and more routine throughout his presidency. Additionally, the growing influence of African Americans has provided a pathway for other minorities to create their own influential path toward influencing American society. However, the conundrum surrounding this new electoral and enfranchisement map is whether it can be sustained after Obamas presidency. All three Democrat candidates have struggled to relate to African-American and Latino voters, and the GOP has spent more time demonizing these minorities than trying to connect to them. Already black millennials are exhibiting the political angst and indifference that has inclined many members of this generation to abstain from voting and the political process. Additionally, they are confronting the new reality that their next president will not be black, and may be more of a bureaucrat than an inspirational, transcendent figure. For Americas new inclusive, diverse, and enfranchised voting body to retain its power for election cycles to come, this new electorate must have a new purpose for making it to the polls, and the institutional support for speaking up to fight the injustices in their communities. Obama proved to be the catalyst for this new era of democratic enfranchisement, but now the responsibility to sustain it must fall on other shoulders. Lets hope that the commitment to the democratic process, civil engagement, and diversity can be sustained for generations to come. PHILADELPHIA Bill Cosbys new attorney has beaten Cosbys new prosecutor before. The trial in which Cosby will face accusations of sexual assault by Andrea Constand is a rematch between defense attorney Brian McMonagle and Kevin Steele, the new district attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Two years ago, the two attorneys battled in court over another powerful man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman under his influence. For the past 25 years, McMonagle has defended high-profile clients like killer cops, alleged mobsters, and accused rapistsand he has won a large majority of cases thanks in part to his experience on the other side of the courtroom as a prosecutor. From 1984 to 1991, McMonagle worked in the homicide unit of the Philly DAs office, earning admiration of colleagues and defendants alike. The public servant said he entered private practice to earn more money for his growing family, but that didnt dull his edge. I like battle, and I like competition, he said in a TV ad for his law firm. When you hire us, youve hired someone who may not guarantee you a win but will guarantee you a war. Arguing the governments case against Cosby is Steele, a 20-year veteran of the DAs office. Steele was elected to be top prosecutor in November after beating the former DA, Bruce Castor, who left but wanted his old job back. Steele used Castors decision in 2005 not to prosecute Cosby in order to paint Castor as soft on predators. Now it seems the ghost of Castors clemency will haunt Steele as well. McMonagle has filed a motion to dismiss the charges, partly based upon a 2005 non-prosecution agreement between Cosby and Castor about which they say his successor was informed in an email. McMonagle and Steele declined to speak to The Daily Beast for this story. Steele is possessed by a similar drive as McMonagle, evidenced by the wristband he is said to wear every day that reads, David Grove 11-11-2010. Grove was a wildlife conservation officer who was murdered and Steele was called in by another countys DA to assist in getting a conviction thanks to his experience in trying and winning capital cases. Steele did just that, helping send send Christopher Johnson to death row in 2012. A year later, another high-profile case landed on Steeles desk. Robert Kerns was the chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party and a partner at the Kerns, Pearlstine, Onorato & Hladik law firm. In November 2013, a grand jury charged Kerns (PDF) with aggravated indecent assault (the same charge as Cosby) for allegedly drugging and raping a woman who worked for him. With Steele standing beside her, District Attorney Rose Vetri Ferman announced Kernss arrest and detailed the states case against him in a press conference. On Oct. 25, 2013, a 51-year-old paralegal at Kernss firm went to a company party at a restaurant. The woman said she had a few drinks and was concerned about driving herself to a nearby mall to go shopping with a friend. Kerns said he had to go there anyway and offered to give her a lift, saying he would also take her back to the restaurant later to retrieve her car. Instead, according to prosecutors, Kerns gave the woman wine laced with drugs, then assaulted her in the parking lot and again in her own home. An affidavit in the criminal complaint said the woman sustained injuries that were visible six days later and internal bleeding that lasted 13 days. The woman said she awoke the next morning alone in her own bed, nude from the waist down, covered in dried vomit; her shoulder blades and vagina were sore; scratches and bruises were present on her thighs, which she photographed with her cell phone. The woman said she found her missing pants and underwear on the kitchen counter, along with a wine glass that held a $100 bill. The woman went to the hospital, where medical staff performed a sexual-assault examination that noted the presence of a mans DNA and genital lacerations. The woman told detectives she had few clear memories of the night before but remembers getting into Kernss car and he telling her to pour two glasses of wine from an open bottle. She said she drank some but did not see Kerns do so. Kerns had laced the wine with the sleeping drug Ambien, grand jury found. Investigators obtained a search warrant and found vomit inside his Mercedes and found in the trunk pink duct tape, an open bottle of vodka, and lubricating jelly. Kerns told detectives the alleged victim had started vomiting in the car, and that he stayed in the malls parking garage while tending to her before taking her home. Detectives also taped phone conversations between Kerns and a friend at his firm who agreed to be recorded. He denied assaulting the woman when asked directly, but when the friend told him that the woman had injuries consistent with rape and that the evidence against Kerns seemed strong, If it is, it is, Kerns said. You know, thats why I got McMonagle. At a preliminary hearing, the first and only time the accuser appeared in court, she testified she had only obscure, dream-like memories of my head up against the window of the car and pushing [Kerns] away. Once at home, she said she knew it was happening but it was like I had no wherewithal to do anything about it. McMonagle pressed her to provide details of events that she had already testified occurred while she was either unconscious or incapacitatedlike what time she had removed her pants and underwear. Hospital records did depict some bruising, McMonagle admitted, but there was no evidence indicating that there had been intercourse of any kind in this case, he told the judge before asking him to dismiss the charges of rape and aggravated indecent assault. Prosecutor Samantha Cauffman, who argued the case at Kernss preliminary hearing, told the judge that the woman has penetration injuries, she has tears and rips. [Violent intercourse] is the only thing that could have caused damage to her inside. The judge ordered the case go to trial. But then McMonagle hired two experts to analyze the toxicology report that found Ambien in the wine and they found an error in how the report had been interpreted to the grand jury. That meant the grand jury had indicted Kerns based in part on misleading testimony. On March 17, 2014, Steele told a judge that his office was dropping the charges because of the technical error. McMonagle gave prosecutors a nod for their swift action to remedy their mistake. Im confident that this was an honest mistake made by the district attorneys office and upon learning of it they did the right thing and put an end to this horrible nightmare, he said. In October 2014, citing missteps in the Kerns case, DA Ferman and Steele announced they had commissioned a third party to review the prosecution and were creating two new positions to oversee trials and professional standards. The Pennsylvania attorney general took up the case and Kerns later pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors. He was sentenced to two years probation, made to register as a sex offender, pay a fine of $500, and pay his victim $153.39 in restitution. Steele will have a much harder time proving Cosby sexually assaulted and drugged Constand if for no other reason that there is no physical evidence this time. Instead, Steele is going to try to use Cosbys own words against him from a 2005 deposition in Constands civil case. In that deposition, Cosby admitted to giving women drugs before he had sex with them (though he says it was consensual). But theres a catch. McMonagles filing last week to dismiss the charges contained a claim that Steeles new evidence from Constands civil suit is off limits to the prosecution, because ex-DA Castor promised that his office would never bring criminal charges against the comedian for the alleged assault in return for Cosbys deposition. Castor emailed Steeles predecessor as DA a few months ago, telling her he agreed more than a decade ago not to use Cosbys civil depositions in a criminal case against him, CNN reports. I can see no possibility that Cosbys deposition could be used in a state criminal case, because I would have to testify as to what happened, and the deposition would be subject to suppression. Steele says the email doesnt stymie his case, because Castors verbal promise is not legally binding for Steeles office. There is a specific legal method to grant immunity. That was not done in 2005, he told CNN. Indeed, McMonagles motion does not cite any explicit agreement not to prosecute. McMonagles motion also references Steeles political campaign built around Cosby. The motion cites Steeles own description of TV commercials, public statements, and flyers critical of Castors decision to not prosecute Cosby a crucial new phase of his campaign. McMonagle says this should rule Steele out as an impartial broker, so the judge should disqualify him from the trying the case. My office does not try any case in the court of public opinion, Steele said in a statement last week, we try them in a court of law. We will be filing a response to their motion, and we will let our legal response to their motion speak for itself. Steele does not have any known physical evidence against Cosby like he did against Kerns. Instead he will try to strengthen his case against Cosby by bringing forward as many as 50 women to testify that Cosby did the same thing to them as to Constand. Pennsylvania law allows other crimes, wrongs or acts to be offered as habit evidence against defendants. Prosecutors will try to establish Cosbys alleged pattern of seducing, drugging, and assaulting women. McMonagle, of course, will argue they shouldnt testify. If they do, McMonagle will not go easy on them. For example, in 1999 McMonagle defended Philadelphia police officer Fred Gaethers, who was charged with raping a woman he had offered to pay for sex. The woman was as a health-care professional, but McMonagle forced her to admit she had once been a prostitute. When Gaethers was found not guilty, he grinned and thanked the jury. Meanwhile, his alleged victim reportedly buried her face in her hands and began sobbing in the back row of the courtroom. Still, McMonagle will have his work cut out for him, says Michael Pileggi, a federal civil rights and criminal defense attorney whose clients were recently cross-examined by McMonagle. You have all of these women coming forward, so its not just the credibility of one witness, Pileggi said. Hes got some mountain to climb, Ill say that. Hes going to have to attack each and every witness. That includes Constand. From a lawyers perspective I think you always have to tread lightly with these types of cases, Pileggi said. It does come into the credibility issue, its always a factor. But you know, with these sexual cases, you have to strike a balance, because oftentimes it can look like youre trying to intimidate the witness and that turns juries off. On the other hand, thats the one area of attack that he has, the credibility of the witness. McMonagle will have to wait for his first shot at Constand. On Feb. 2, both sides will argue over his motion to dismiss the charges. If the magistrate denies it, then Steele must still meet McMonagle again at a preliminary hearing to convince to her honor theres enough evidence to take the case to trial. Then the rematch will really begin. MOSCOW There have been many times of late when it seemed that Russia was being dragged back toward the darkest corners of its history. Last week, for instance, in the northern republic of Komi, local officials reportedly burned all college books published with the support of the Soros Foundation, which promotes education as a vital component of democracy. But on this cold Monday morning, suddenly the sense of threat grew much worse. A conflict between Russias liberal civil society and the leadership of Chechnya, a Muslim republic in Russias south, boiled over with a single very ugly tweet. Magomed Daudov, speaker of the Chechen parliament speaker and the second-highest authority in that republic, posted a picture on his Instagram of the republics leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, holding the leash of his snarling dog Tarzan, an enormous Caucasian Shepherd. Next to the picture, Daudov named the dogs potential victims: independent public figures in Russia. The post said that Tarzans fangs are itching. In derisive language, Daudov hinted that the dog could bite opposition politician Ilya Yashin and editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov together with his loud Echo, that is, Radio Echo of Moscow, and two well-known Russian human-rights activists, Lev Ponomaryov and Igor Kalyapin. The beastly threats might sound metaphorical, but they take place in a very real and menacing context. The investigation of the murder of former Russian Vice Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov has named a Chechen mastermind behind the politicians assassination. And Russia has a long list of political assassinations, both in the North Caucasus and on the streets of Moscow, that were performed by Chechen contract killers. Not many in Russia could support the idea of setting dogs on people in any case, but this kind of threat hits a nerve deeply embedded in this countrys history. SS soldiers used Shepherds to attack victims in concentration camps, so it is a shame that the Chechen leadership uses that example, Aleksei Venediktov told The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview on Monday. After Nemtsovs murder, I personally see Daudovs post as a threat on my life, said Venediktov. We are aware of the real reasons behind these threats: the Chechen leadership reacted hysterically to Echo of Moscows reports on Nemtsovs murder, and to the questions that we recently addressed to President Vladimir Putin at his press conference. On Monday, Echo of Moscow requested additional security from its owners, Gazprom Media company. Venediktov remains in the city and continues going to work, but he does not walk anywhere without bodyguards. Every head of every Russian law enforcement agency is informed about the threats we have received from the Chechen leadership, Venediktov told The Daily Beast. We hope that the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, will ask President Putin why officials threatening a chief editor of a federal media are still holding their posts. For the first time in Russias modern history, Moscow officials and parliament members demanded that law enforcement push back and prosecute Chechen leader Kadyrov and remove him from his position. Kadyrov, who last April ordered his police to shoot officers from other parts of Russia, triggered the conflict last week by using the language associated in Russia with Stalin-era repressions. Kadyrov posted a statement on an official Internet website, saying that critics of Vladimir Putins politics should be regarded as enemies of the people and traitors. Moscow journalist and civil activist Anton Krasovsky said that, ironically, because Kadyrov is so unpopular in most of Russia, his threats helped to legitimize Russian liberal civil society. The language of repression used by the Chechen leadership has drawn harsh criticism from officials, including Putins ombudswoman, Ella Pamfilova, who referred to the Chechen leaders behavior as a disservice to Putin. Parliament deputy Maksim Reznik told Kommersant newspaper that the head of the Chechen republic is publicly calling for anti-constitutional actions. That should mean his resignation, at a minimum. A local deputy from the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Konstantin Senchenko, wrote in a post on Facebook that Kadyrov was Russias shame, with only four years of school education and an Islamist guerrillas past. Senchechenko was praised for his courage as a free-thinking politician; but soon enough he was convinced to say he was sorry by a number of Chechens calling him, including Buvaisar Saitiyev, a three-time Olympic champion in martial arts. The image of the Chechen leader sicking his dog on his victims did not come out of nowhere. A decade ago Kadyrov built a private zoo next to his luxurious residence in the town of Gudermes, where he kept lions, bears, tigers, and other animals. The zoo also had a big cage with Kadyrovs favorite dogs, which he proudly described as fearless fighters. In 2009 the famous Russian human-rights activist Natalia Estemirova told reporters a story about a teenage boy, a brother of a guerrilla, who Kadyrovs police threatened to put in a cage with his dogs, so the boy would tell where his brother was hiding. (Later in 2009, Estemirova was abducted and killed.) Is the Kremlin going to allow Stalin-era repression? Will official be allowed to act like criminals in Russia? Igor Bunin, president of the Center for Political Technologies, tells The Daily Beast that such idealistic concerns are not Vladimir Putins priority at the moment: The Kremlin started this mechanism of dividing the society into patriots and fifth column during the Crimea crisis in 2014, and now this mechanism is moving by inertia with local officials inventing all sorts of schizophrenic ideas, said Bunin. The presidents priority is to finish the conflict with Ukraine, at least, and that does not seem to be working out. The Wests economic sanctions are his biggest headache. Theres no time to think about what to do with the internal conflicts. The Pentagon is considering retroactively demoting retired Gen. David Petraeus after he admitted to giving classified information to his biographer and mistress while he was still in uniform, three people with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast. The decision now rests with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, who is said to be willing to consider overruling an earlier recommendation by the Army that Petraeus not have his rank reduced. Such a demotion could cost the storied general hundreds of thousands of dollarsand deal an additional blow to his once-pristine reputation. The secretary is considering going in a different direction from the Army, a defense official told The Daily Beast, because he wants to be consistent in his treatment of senior officers who engage in misconduct and to send a message that even men of Petraeuss fame and esteemed reputation are not immune to punishment. Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook told The Daily Beast that Carter had requested the information ex-Army Secretary John McHugh had when he made his recommendation on the matter, before reaching a final decision. McHugh had recommended taking no action against Petraeus. The Department of the Army is still in the process of providing the secretary with information relevant to former Secretary McHughs recommendation, Cook told The Daily Beast. Once the secretary has an opportunity to consider this information, he will make his decision about next steps, if any, in this matter. Carter could also recommend other actions that dont result in Petraeus losing his fourth star. Or the defense secretary could simply allow the Armys previous recommendations to stand. Petraeus, arguably the most well-known and revered military officer of his generation, retired from the Army in 2011 with the rank of a four-star general, the highest rank an Army officer can achieve. If Carter decides to strip Petraeus of his fourth star, he could be demoted to the last rank at which he satisfactorily served, according to military regulations. Reducing Petraeuss rank, most likely to lieutenant general, could mean hed have to pay back the difference in pension payments and other benefits that he received as a retired four-star general. That would amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars over his retirement. According to Pentagon figures, a four-star general with roughly the same years of experience as Petraeus was entitled to receive a yearly pension of nearly $220,000. A three-star officer would receive about $170,000. Petraeus didnt respond to a request for comment. But the financial pain to Petraeus isnt likely to be severe. He has confided to friends and acquaintances that hes making a hefty sum from his job at a private equity firm and through speaking fees. The demotion in rank would be a bigger, lasting blow, and take from Petraeus the rare achievement hed set his eyes on many years ago. At any given time, there are only 12 four-star generals in the Army, the largest of the services. By the time he was a colonel, in the mid-1990s, many thought Petraeus was destined to be one of them. The U.S. military has, on several occasions, demoted generals, increasingly for improper personal contact and not for poor battlefield decisions. But rarely does it demote four-star generals, in part because there are so few of them. Its also more common to reduce the rank of more junior officers than of top generals. If Petraeus were demoted, it would mark another spectacular fall. Petraeus stepped down as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 2012 after his affair with Paula Broadwell, a writer and current Army reservist, was revealed. At the time, Petraeus had been frequently mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016. Petraeus pleaded guilty last year to giving Broadwell eight notebooks that he compiled while serving as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and that he knew contained classified information. The notebooks held some of the most sensitive kinds of military and intelligence secrets, including the identities of covert officers, intelligence capabilities, quotes from high-level meetings of the National Security Council, and notes about Petraeuss discussions with President Obama. After leaving Afghanistan, Petraeus took the books back to his home in Virginia and gave them to Broadwell just three days before he retired from the Army. She later returned them. No classified information appeared in her biography, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, officials have said. Petraeus could have faced felony charges, including for lying to FBI investigators, but was allowed to plead guilty last year to a misdemeanor count of unauthorized handling classified information. He avoided a prison sentence but received two years probation and a $100,000 fine. But that was not the end of the matter. Last year, the FBI gave Army investigators information that the bureau had come across as it was closing up its own investigation of Petraeus, the defense official and one former U.S. official told The Daily Beast. The information, the FBI believed, might be of interest to the Army, the defense official said. The Army investigated and decided there was nothing new here that should change his retirement and recommended that there be no change to his four-star rank, the official said. Last month, it went to the secretary of defense for final approval. Army personnel regulations say that an officer doesnt automatically retire with the highest rank he or she achieved while in uniform (PDF). And even though Petraeus had already been officially retired, through a process known as grade determination the Army can retroactively reopen his case and consider whether to demote him [i]f substantial new evidence discovered contemporaneously with or within a short time following separation could result in a lower grade determination. The regulations also state that if an officers misconduct while still on active duty is documented, including by conviction after retirement, a new grade determination may be completed. Petraeus hadnt yet retired when he gave Broadwell the classified information. The Army received the information from the FBI that prompted this new review more than four years after Petraeus had retired. The Defense Department was also running its own investigation into Petraeuss relationship with Broadwell and what classified information he gave her at the same time the FBI and federal prosecutors were pursuing their case. That may explain why the Army decided it had seen nothing new in the information it received last year from the FBI and decided not to recommend a demotion. But Carter is said to be concerned that because he has recommended other generals be reduced in rank for actions not becoming an officer, hell be seen as inconsistent if he doesnt do the same for Petraeus. The decision is as much about timing and politics as it is Petraeuss own transgressions. This is about Ash Carter, not David Petraeus, the defense official said. Last November, Carter removed his senior military aide, Lt. Gen. Ron Lewis, for personal misconduct, and referred the matter to the Pentagons inspector general for investigation. Lewis was demoted a rank, to a major general. Lewis was a longtime and influential aide to the secretary, and his removal and punishment signaled Carters commitment to maintaining upstanding behavior among the militarys generals. The exact nature of Lewiss misconduct has not been announced, but military officials have suggested he was involved in an improper personal relationship. While few are familiar with Petraeuss potential demotion, those who are aware of it said they were surprised that he could be punished years after the scandal was presumably put behind him and after he pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information. No general in recent history has been demoted years after scandal swirled around him or her. Those who know and have worked with Petraeus describe him as a man of extraordinary capabilities and ambition. He received his fourth star in 2007 and then served in several prestigious and demanding assignments, including commander of U.S. Central Command, the commanding general of all ground forces in Iraq, and later as commander of ground forces in Afghanistan. Petraeuss unorthodox thinking and willingness to buck conventional strategy was seen as key to the U.S. victory over insurgents and jihadists in Iraq during the so-called troop surge of 2007 and 2008. His reputation was so esteemed that there was talk of giving him a fifth stara largely symbolic gesture that was highly unlikelyor renaming the road to Petraeuss alma mater, the U.S. Military Academy, after him. Should Carter choose to knock Petraeus down to the rank of a three-star general, he will have a chance to appeal his case to the secretary, but Congress doesnt have to be informed of the decision, the official said. There is no deadline on Carter to make a decision. The last commander to lose rank for professional misconduct was Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, who was demoted to colonel in 2005 for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq. The last four-star general to be demoted was Gen. William Ward, who retired as a three-star in 2012 amid allegations he misspent government money on himself and his family. Long before Flint began dealing with a toxic water crisis, the city was already rusting and oozing from its underbelly. What little hope remains is weary and torn, abandoned like the rows of dilapidated uninhabitable homes and weed-strewn lots that dot the avenues, drowning in water too toxic to drink. The story of Flint, Michigan, not unlike other former smokestack cities that dot the upper Midwest, is almost too painful to tell. The latest revelations, involving a water supply tainted with lead, feels like a cruel joke being played on people who can least afford the laugh. With thousands of children at risk, the Justice Department has announced an investigation into who knew the water was toxic and when; Michigans attorney general has launched a separate inquiry. Ultimately, what happened in Flint may not be a criminal matter, but there is nothing moral about what happened there. The once-booming center of industry has lost half of its population in recent decades and is now one of the poorest cities in the nation. Today, nearly 40 percent of Flint residents live below the poverty line. What remains of Flint is 56 percent black and nearly 40 percent whiteall too poor to get up and leave. Blink and you could be standing in Gary, Indiana, East St. Louis, Illinois, or Camden, New Jersey, watching a similar tragedy unfold. Factories close, the middle class takes flight to the suburbs to build better schools and tend to pristine lawns. They are among Americas forgotten citieswracked with pervasive poverty and violent crimepopulated by a forgotten people. Mostly black and brown, they have little voice over their own destiny. There are no finely suited Washington lobbyists pressing their interests. Presidential candidates rarely come to places like these and they almost never make the national news unless something really bad happens. There are so many problems, so many complications in Flint that it is difficult for any one issue to command its collective attention. Back in April 2014, an unelected manager appointed by the state to make Flint solvent decided the city could save money by drawing water from the Flint River instead of Lake Huron. Local residents thought it was a joke given the ugliness thought to be swimming in that river. It would have taken a five-minute test to prove the river water unsafe. City leaders, who were then weighing less expensive options, knew as early as 2011 that water from the Flint River would need treatment with an anticorrosive agent before it would be drinkable. In the end, the governor says he had no choice, since Detroit kicked Flint off its Lake Huron system. The fact is, that never happened. Detroit asked for a rate change and instead of negotiating, Gov. Rick Snyders appointee opted out. They were more concerned about saving money than saving lives. To make matters worse, the Michigan State Department of Environmental Quality decided $100 a day was too much to pay for an anticorrosive additive that could appropriately treat the water. Consequently, the iron pipes erodedturning the water brownand lead began seeping into the water supply. State and federal officials knew there was a problem. With brown water pumping out of kitchen faucets and fire hydrants, there was no way to hide their error. State agencies reportedly used testing methodologies that would hide the real level of pollutantsincluding flushing residential systems before testing. They cheated to make it appear that the water was in compliance, knowing that skewed tests were used. Ultimately, it took 18 months and a mother named LeAnne Walters who wouldnt give up, Chicago-based EPA regulations manager, a local physician, an investigative journalist, and a class action lawsuit to force the state to do the right thing. By then, the damage was doneto Walters 4-year-old twins and the at least 5 percent of Flint children who have tested positive. The effects of lead poisoning, especially on children, are well known and there are no safe levels for human consumption. Lead poisoning can have devastating effects on children, causing convulsions, hyper irritability, and neurological damage that lasts into adulthood. Studies show linkages to juvenile delinquency, ADHD, and a decrease in IQ performance. In fact, there is so much lead in the blood of Flints children that the state has called a state of emergency. The scourge is irreversible. This is a manmade disaster that will have catastrophic generational effects. The Flint water crisis is just the latest among a host of serious environmental issues surrounding the city. When General Motors and suppliers pulled up stakes and left for greener pastures, they left unconscionable levels of contamination behind. The same is true in other Rust Belt cities. A communitys wealth is not only tied to jobs and education but also to health and the environment. Economic recovery for Flint and others towns like it is about more than moving in a new company with some new jobs. Its about rebuilding failing infrastructures and remaking social institutions. We can keep thumping our chest about personal responsibility and entrepreneurship, but there will be no economic uplift in Flint, Camden, Gary, or East St. Louis, until government does its part. That means forcing chemical manufacturers, automakers, steel mills, and others to clean up their own mess. They should be forced to fill the hole they dug. It is hard to believe that no one knew what was in that river. It is hard to believe that no one thought to test the water and the system through which it would travel for potential problems. And, the governors explanation about why the change was made as well as his reliance on his hand-picked investigative task force is even more dubious. State leaders, it seems, were content to continue tighten the citys belt until somebody strangled and died. NIZHNY NOVGOROD, Russia It was a gloomy winter day, cold but snowless, and Nizhny Novgorods central square was only dimly lit. For Svetlana, a 47-year-old teacher, that gloomy Monday was especially memorable: she heard the words that closed off her dreams for the future like the nailed-down lid of a coffin: You have HIV, said the physician shed gone to see. I am your doctor for the rest of your life. His tone was like ice. When Svetlana walked out of the Regional Prophylactic Center for AIDS, her best friend waiting for her in the car noticed that Svetlanas face looked gray, her eyes sunken. Svetlana was beginning to withdraw deeply into her own troubles, and from that day refused to discuss her health issues, denying that she had ever been diagnosed with HIV. I am healthy, let me live my life, she told her friends. The center that so frightened Svetlana was the only state institution treating HIV and AIDS patients in a city of 1.3 million people. Its website has not been updated since 2011. Under About the Center, it says that there were 8,534 HIV positive citizens in Nizhny Novgorod but that is not true. In fact, last year there were more than 14,000 patients, with an increasing number of ordinary women getting infected through sex. Nationwide, in 2014 Russia counted 90,000 new cases, the fastest-growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in Europe. Last year, the fast-shrinking city of Nizhny Novgorod lost its city manager. The Kremlins party, United Russia, finally decided to rid of Mayor Oleg Sorokin, who was famous for his corruption, huge villas on the French Riviera, and poor work. Dirt, broken pedestrian walkways, poor illumination, and miserable medical service were the remarkable features of a city with a 794-year history. But there were no social protests. People were afraid. So, somehow, they tolerated their citys decline. Even greater fear paralyzed people with HIV and AIDS, who, like Svetlana, were too scared to take a blood test or seek proper treatment, since a positive diagnosis immediately turned their lives into hell. Under Russias criminal code, article 122, Russians with HIV or AIDS can go to jail for three years for deliberately passing infection to other people. Prison is a surer bet than medical treatment. Citizens with HIV or AIDS cannot be admitted to any ordinary clinic, only to specialized centers, often grim and miserable places similar to the one visited by Svetlana. Now she had to forget about a little plastic surgery on her eyes that shed been saving for. No surgeon in Nizhny Novgorod would agree to operate on her with HIV. Moscows civil society is braver. Civil activists pushed the Kremlin to change the legislation, to punish doctors who refuse to treat HIV positive patients. Anton Krasovsky, a leader of the AIDS Center working around Moscow and the Moscow region, told The Daily Beast, Most Russian doctors terrify patients with HIV and AIDS. The diagnosis is often pronounced as if your life is hopelessly doomed, he said. Yet at the same time there has been a stubborn refusal to admit the extent of the problem. Last year we had a revolutionary breakthrough, said Krasovsky. We finally, for the first time ever, heard the words HIV epidemic from a high government official. At a recent government meeting, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev admitted that there was a growing problem. In fact, because they feared theyd become humiliated outcasts, thousands of Russians, especially drug addicts, preferred not to know whether they had HIV, and instead of receiving the right treatment, continued to spread the epidemic. Often, regional HIV/AIDS centers have not provided patients with proper medicine. That threatens not only HIV patients lives, but the lives of healthy people, too, Medvedev admitted. Officially, 986,657 Russians are HIV/AIDS patients, but non-officially, it is more likely up to 1.5 million people, Krasovsky said. Cancer is also a huge problem. Russia and China are the world leaders, with 122.5 people per 100,000 diagnosed with cancer, and 2015 will be remembered as the year when Russia gained heightened awareness of suicide cases among cancer patients, of older people who killed themselves after months of painful suffering. In some societies, philanthropists might try to take up the slack left by government failings. In Russia, we dont really see that. More often, we see cases like the deputy of the St. Petersburg parliament, Vitaly Milonov, who was spotted wearing a watch that cost more than $10,000. In the past, Milonov was famous for describing homosexuals as sick and for trying to take Lady Gaga and Madonna to Russian court. Did the deputy feel ashamed for wearing a watch that was worth more than an average Russians annual income? I want to spit in the faces of these investigators, Deputy Milonov responded. At the street level, a social struggle against the HIV epidemic had a chance to become a popular trend. The figures did sound threatening: Russia counted about 10,000 new HIV/AIDS positive cases every year, mainly in the 20-to-50 age group. By the end of 2015, the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing confirmed: Russia was facing an overwhelming HIV/AIDS epidemic, with numbers growing in cities like Nizhny Novgorod more than 30 percent faster than in 2014. The Russian health ministry warned: by 2020, the epidemics could jump by 250 percent. Krasovsky said that his AIDS center would do everything to push the Russian government to de-stigmatize the disease and reform its approach to HIV/AIDS. Thanks to civil movements and the effort of leading doctors, the Moscow Regional Center on AIDS managed to enlarge its facilities by more than 400 square meters. But even a 1,000-square-meter clinic was too small for the 39,000 people of the Moscow region with HIV and AIDS. Our priority is to make Russia realize that there are no second-quality people, everybody has equal rights to be treated with dignity, Krasovsky said. One of the welcome developments of the new year is the republication in Germany, for the first time since World War II, ofyes, gulpMein Kampf. Adolf Hitlers autobiographical manifesto was re-released in a new, highly annotated academic edition, in German. With 3,500 footnotes and nearly 2,000 pages in two volumes, the new book is more than twice as long as Hitlers 782-page original. Withheld from publication for seven decades for fear that it might stir up neo-Nazis or tarnish Germanys international image, Hitlers convoluted, anti-Semitic memoir is back in print in the land of its origin because its copyright has just run out. Since Jan. 1, one of the worlds most notorious books has been in the public domain. And while the reissue of Hitlers anti-Semitic rant is denounced by some, especially within the Jewish Holocaust survivor community, it is being greeted enthusiastically by the great majority of scholars, including Jewish intellectuals in the U.S., Israel, and Germany. Even the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, has welcomed the issuance of the annotated book by Munichs respected Institute for Contemporary History. There are no objections to a scientifically annotated edition, he said. That is as it should be. Its time for the long-taboo book to face the harsh light of common scrutiny by a German public that is three generations removed from the war. And it is high time, even long overdue, that German schoolchildren and university students have the benefit of direct access to the early raw material of Hitlers madness, just as they have long been able to read his speeches and see him perform in old film clips. Though young readers could also find Mein Kampf on the Internet or perhaps in their grandparents attics, the book has for seven decades lived a shadow existence as a contraband item that was too hot to touch. The book, or even significant excerpts from it, have never been part of the German school curriculumeven though postwar Germanys first president, Theodor Heuss, recommended just such a step in 1959. Now, says Germanys education minister, Johanna Wanka, Mein Kampf can be taught in the schools because Hitlers statements will no longer be uncontradicted. Fears that Hitlers feverish but rambling and repetitive writing would somehow incite a neo-Nazi revival are dismissed by most observers. The pure text has for years been posted on extremist right-wing websites, in German and other languages, and has not yet triggered a fascist groundswell. Such German xenophobia as exists today is more likely to be directed at Syrian refugees than channeled through Hitlers obsession with Jews. For contemporary readers of any political persuasion, digging into Hitlers overheated, simplistic theories of racial domination and his tangled 20s foreign policy prescriptions is more in the nature of historical homework than political inspiration. But the homework is important, and thats what makes the arrival of the new critical edition of Mein Kampf a positive step. Closeting the single most important original source of the Nazi enterprise is hardly the way to educate and inoculate future German generations about their countrys darkest hour. Putting the academic imprimatur on the beast somehow tames it, converting it from inflammatory political pamphlet to interesting historical artifact. Now it can be taught for what it is. And teaching is the key. Hitlers original, aggressively marketed by his Munich publisher, sold more than 12 million copies, but the Munich scholars openly hoped their book, priced at $64 a set, would not become a best-sellerthe new edition has an initial print run of only 4,000. It is designed for libraries, researchers, and teachers. The book will get a multiplier effect through academic use and the media, comments historian Christian Hartmann, the scholar in charge of the project. With the footnotes snaking throughout the text, the new Mein Kampf more closely resembles a theological treatise than a political tract. Ironically, [the newly annotated Mein Kampf] will look like the Talmud, noted Dan Michman, head of international research at Yad Vashem museum in Israel. The Talmudic analogy flows from the decision by the Mein Kampf academic team to encircle Hitlers words with the analytical and deconstructing footnotes. We wanted to surround the text to demystify it and destroy it, says Hartmann. Since 2009, his team of five scholarswith help from several dozen othershas traced and dissected the origins of Hitlers complex, sometimes outrageous thinking almost sentence-by-sentence. Since Hitler wrote only in the omniscient voice and almost never attributed ideas to anyone (and provided no footnotes at all), the task has been monumental. Hitlers text needed deconstructing not simply because it is offensive and inflammatory. It is also dense, convoluted and filled with obscure references. Writing the first volume of his book in 1924 in a small prison cell outside Munichwhere he was serving time for the abortive 1923 Beer Hall PutschHitler wallowed in the common truths, half-truths and lies of social Darwinism of the late 19th century and early 20th century, says Hartmann. When I visited that cell in 2015 (the internal walls are gone but the windows where Hitler stood for an iconic photograph are exactly the same), I could visualize the small library Hitler had along one wall where he drew on the random writings of the day for his racist ideas. Hitler pasted together strewn data and tendentious notions for his own purposes with no documentation or even the slightest attempt to persuade readers of their veracity. Where he discovered his oversimplified constructsabout the path of the Jews, for exampleand why he dwelt at length on such topics as the art of reading and on stamping out syphilis (the task of the nation) are all subjects of the scholarly inquiry and the commentary. But the decision to publish the book was not entirely academic. Anticipating the expiration of the books copyrightheld since 1945 by the state of Bavaria, which refused re-publication on political groundsthe historians and other civil society actors, including Jewish and Catholic groups, sought to steal a march on potential exploiters of the copyright-free book by commissioning the academic versionand having it ready by the crack of 2016. They feared that allowing Mein Kampf to be issued by a neo-Nazi group or a commercial publisher seeking a quick-buck sensation would have, once again, tarred Germanys image. Better to do the deed at the highest and most sober levels, reasoned the researchers. (There have been numerous enquiries by foreign publishers, though no translation has yet begun.) While the lifting of one of the last postwar prohibitions in Germany has to be seen as a sign of civic maturity, Germans are still, to some extent, afraid of their own shadows. The conference of state justice ministers, who enforce laws like incitement to hatred, have said they will prosecute anyone who publishes a non-annotated version of Mein Kampf. Even today, the naked text is treated like the unexploded ordnance of German history. Perhaps after a generation of Germans has digested the newly deconstructed version, the pure Hitler will not seem so scary. Demystified, Mein Kampf can be turned into what it ultimately isthe last relic of a failed and horrific enterprise. Peter Ross Range, a Washington-based writer, is the author of 1924: The Year That Made Hitler, due out Jan. 26. On the national tone: Hillary Clinton: Continuity, stability, if you like your Democratic incrementalism, you can keep your Democratic incrementalism. I will bring America together. Bernie Sanders: Lets fuck shit up. Martin OMalley: If I talk really fast, maybe people will think I took up more time. On guns: Sanders: I refuse to say that Ive changed my position. Some of my best friends are guns, sourced from local, artisanal makers. Clinton: Dagger eyes. OMalley: I can make myself cry. On the opioid epidemic: Clinton: Let me demonstrate a theoretical ability to connect on a personal level. Sanders: I can tie this back to corporations. OMalley: [hmmghmph] On Black Lives Matter and police misconduct: Clinton: I have been doing this for far too long to get tripped up on this question. Nice try. Sanders: My default demeanor of outrage serves me well here. OMalley: Dont look at those policy positions, look at these policy positions. On health care: Clinton: I will now fear-monger about the Republicans. OOOOOOOSCARY REPUBLICANS. Here are my battle scars. Also: Here is a wedge, allow me to hammer it in. Sanders: Surely all of America aspires to British health care standards! OMalley: I exist. On the financial industry: Sanders: Subtweet at Hillary. A Glass-Steagall reference. Jail the bankers! Smoke blunts, not CDOs! Clinton: Where is the daylight between us? Why, I am standing much closer to Obama than Bernie is. Also: REPUBLICANS. Wooooo-wooooo scary REPUBLICANS. OMalley: You both disgust me. How to pay for expanding entitlements: Sanders: Will personally mug Wall Street bankers. Im going to try to explain how raising taxes on the middle class can be technically correct but not accurately describe the outcome of my policy. Clinton: HAHA YOU TRIED TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING TO VOTERS. I have a website. OMalley: blahblahMarylandblahblahblah On climate change: Sanders: Oh, please. Trump. [rolls eyes] OMalley: I have a policy on this as well. On Iran: Sanders: Eh. Dont love em, dont hate em. Clinton: Obama and I made out once. OMalley: [trying to remember all the words to American Pie] On Syria: Clinton: No ground troops; bad things are bad. I know the situation room like the back of my hand. Obama and I have met there, together, in the dark. Sanders: Avoid quagmires. Get a load of those Republicans, perpetual wars, amirite? OMalley: Governors can lead in wartime. Also: Republicans, who here hates Republicans? On Russia: Clinton: I may or may not have seen Putin naked. On privacy: OMalley: OMG YOU ASKED ME FIRST. IhavesomuchtosaygonnatalkreallyfastletNSAtrytocrackthis. Sanders: I will friend Silicon Valley. Pretty sure my idealistic notion of a balance between safety and civil rights is achievable. I repeat: I have invited Silicon Valley to join my professional network on LinkedIn. Clinton: Muslims are our first line of defense against lone wolves. (P.S.: And it turned out the Republicans were in the house the entire time.) On Bill Clinton as a policy adviser: Clinton: Slam. Dunk. Sanders: You guys. Goldman Sachs. If you ask me about Bill Clinton again I will throw my vacuum pennies at you. OMalley: [clenching his palms so hard they bleed] Do you have anything you didnt get a chance to say?: OMalley: Really? Now? Clinton: I happen to know about the water poisoning in Flint, Michigan! I am against it! Sanders: Oh, girl. I see your outrage and raise you a call for resignation. And, in case the folks in the back row didnt hear me the first time: Wall Street. Im against it. Sogrape UK relaunches Bodegas LAN wines Sogrape UK is presenting a refreshed label design for Bodegas LAN Rioja Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva wines, alongside a renewed focus for the range aimed at the independent and on-trade sectors. Since its creation in 1972, Bodegas LAN has been at the forefront of modern winemaking in Rioja, exploring and improving the traditions of the region. Examples of this include studying the effects of oak-ageing on red Rioja wines being first in the region to use oak barrels made from a combination of American and French oak, and pioneering the use of Russian oak. The wines, which are all vinified and aged separately by winemaker Maria Barua, express both the influence of the past with a modern approach. A high component of the fruit for Bodegas LAN wines comes from the Lanciano vineyard, which has 72 hectares under vine, making it one of the largest single estates in the region. The wine label has evolved with subtle changes, whilst maintaining the identity and values of Bodegas LAN and giving the signature castle image greater prominence. This refreshed look will appear alongside the producers VERY LAN slogan that was unveiled at the launch of its new vintage Vina Lanciano last spring and is now at the core of the winerys communications strategy. We will be using this packaging upgrade to re-engage our target market, which is the UK on-trade, independent retailers, and regional and independent wholesalers. It is our belief that such a unique proposition as Bodegas LAN is a perfect fit for this sector, giving something different from the traditional Rioja offerings, explains Chris Appleby, Sogrape UKs premium wines brand manager. 18 January 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor The House of Krug releases Krug Vintage 2002 The House of Krug has released Krug Vintage 2002, an assertive fruit blend made up of 40% Pinot Noir, 39% Chardonnay and, as always in Krug cuvees, 21% Meunier. 2002 for us was a year of great homogeneity and balance. It afforded perfect conditions to create Joseph Krugs vision of what a Krug vintage should celebrate, says Krug cellar master Eric Lebel. The weather was consistently warm and relatively dry ideal conditions for maturation. From the very first tastings, we saw natures generosity in every parcel. The wines were round, rich, robust and in perfect condition, dominated by fruit and particularly aromatic. As they continued to develop, we saw a remarkable finesse, finish and complexity too. It is almost as if each of the 2002 wines that we have chosen to compose Krug 2002 could be their own assemblage. The idea kept coming back to us that this was a hymn to fruit, an Ode to Nature. Candied and fresh citrus, tropical fruit, white and yellow fruit, fresh and jammy fruit, they are all intensely present, forming a crescendo that is both rich and delicate. Krug is the last among all the Champagne houses to introduce its 2002 vintage, and as with Krug 1988, released after1989, Krug 2002 comes after 2003. Explaining the decision to hold back Krug 2002 to age an additional two years, Lebel says: For Krug, pleasure is always beyond the notion of perfection or predictability, and it is only by tasting the Champagne that we decide to present it to the market or not. We act according to taste and taste alone. When we saw that the 2003, which was more vivacious and fresh in style, had reached maturity more quickly, it was an easy decision to present it sooner. We listen only to the wine. Each bottle of Krug has a story to tell and this is revealed by the Krug ID - the six digits printed on the back label of every bottle that can be read using the Krug ID App (free to download) or via the Krug web site. Information includes Eric Lebels impressions of the harvest, his tasting notes, food pairing ideas, and recommendations for optimum storage and serving. Krug 2002 will be available from 1st February 2016 16 January 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor Consumers want product nutritional labelling AB InBev has pledged to provide consumers with full ingredient and nutritional information for its beers. The information will be available per 100ml as well as per portion size and will cover energy values, fat, saturated fats, carbohydrates, sugars, proteins and salt (the Big 7). The changes will begin this year and be in place on at least 80% of European volumes by the end of 2017 with full information on all AB InBev brands already available online via www.tapintoyourbeer.com. The pledge follows results from a recent survey conducted by IPSOS Mori for AB InBev that revealed UK consumers have limited knowledge of calorie levels in beer, with less than one in five claiming to be aware of them. The survey showed that providing more information on beer would be beneficial for consumers with over a third of respondents saying they pay close attention to their daily calorie consumption (36%), and 35% actively look at the calorie information of their drinks. This figure rises to nearly 50% (48%) among 18-29yr olds the largest percentage among millennials across Europe. UK consumers identified packaging (67%), brand websites (54%) and other information available online (43%) as the most essential channels for communicating calorie levels, nutritional information and information about ingredients. The research informs wider commitments made by AB InBev as part of Brewers of Europe (BoE), the organisation representing the entire European brewing sector, who have pledged to make product nutritional information more readily available to consumers. BoE have committed to providing full information on ingredients, energy and nutritional values per 100ml either on label and/or online. AB InBevs pledge goes above and beyond this minimum BoE commitment by providing: Full ingredient and energy information on primary packs Full ingredient and Big 7 nutrition information on non-returnable secondary packs Portion size info as well as the mandatory per 100ml A full list of ingredients, energy and other nutritional information online via Tapintoyourbeer.com Anna Tolley, legal and crporate affairs director UK, says: Consumers are getting savvier about their daily calorie consumption and are actively looking at nutritional information. While the EU continues to discuss the best way forward for nutritional labelling in our industry, we want to give consumers the information they need at their fingertips to make well informed choices and enjoy our products responsibly. AB InBev will be tracking and reporting on progress through independent audits. 15 January 2016 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor The Career Colleges and Schools of Texas awarded Vista College the Innovator of the Year award at the 2015 CCST annual conference in November in The Woodlands. The award was given in recognition of Vista Colleges The S.A.V.E. Process, a new program within the college that works to solve the problems of students withdrawing from school. Approximately 900 students have gone through The S.A.V.E Process since its founding in July 2014. We are excited to have The S.A.V.E. Process in place already making a difference said Jim Tolbert, CEO of Vista College, said in a statement, and we look forward to continued positive retention results from our students across all campuses. It goes without saying that this is a win-win for both the students and the college. Congratulations to our hard-working staff, whose dedication to our students will, without question, result in even more innovative programs in the future. Vista College has nine campuses in Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico, including one located in College Station. From left: Jeff Brown, CCST chairman; Jewel Reid, corporate director of process excellence of Vista College; Jim Tolbert, CEO of Vista College; Jerry Valdez, executive director of CCST. As Republican candidates vow to rewind Obama's rapprochements on their first day in office, many U.S. allies and business interests have pressed forward with outreach to Iran. The next president may find Iran has established itself as world player, a useful diplomatic power broker and a potential market for U.S. businesses. Vowing to isolate Tehran may only isolate the U.S. from many of its allies. Similarly, in Cuba, where Obama reversed decades of Cold War policy, American businesses are eyeing a new market while U.S. tourism is on the rise. Reversing the tide may prove as difficult as un-ringing a bell. "It's easy to reverse the policies, it's hard not to be isolated in the process," said Jon Alterman, Middle East analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Can you force the rest of the world to see things the way you do? That's a big question." The diplomacy with Iran after decades of a divide fulfills Obama's first inaugural promise "to extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." But Republicans argue Obama reached out well before Tehran eased its grip. Its missile program has violated existing U.N. prohibitions, it supports terrorist groups and it has remained a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, they say. But the weekend was a clear reminder of the forces working against the Republican contenders on Iran. The release of Americans four of them negotiated as a prisoner swap alongside nuclear talks and one worked out separately removed a key argument that the U.S. should not lift sanctions while Americans are being held. Meanwhile, the U.S. and other Western nations declared Iran had kept up its end of the landmark nuclear agreement completed last summer, triggering the removal of the billions of dollars in economic sanctions and beginning to open up the gates for international businesses. "These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and wisdom," Obama said Sunday. Republicans did not see the moment of as an achievement. While they gently praised the return of the Americans, they blasted the release of Iranian prisoners by the U.S. as part of the swap. "While we celebrate their return," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said of the released Americans, "this deal serves as piece of propaganda for both Iran and the Obama administration." Cruz reprised his promise to "rip to shreds this catastrophic Iran nuclear deal." Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he saw "weakness" in the Obama administration's dealings with Iran. "Let's take a step back here," Bush told a town hall meeting in New Hampshire. "The bigger issue is that we've legitimized a regime who shows no interest in actually moving toward the so-called community of nations." In truth, the U.S. has not been alone in shifting its pose toward Iran, which is part of what would make undoing it difficult. The nuclear deal was negotiated alongside France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China, a coalition that managed to hang together through lengthy discussions and difficult domestic politics. Since then, Iran has joined in international talks seeking an end to the Syrian civil war. White House officials say they see those talks as a test of whether other conversations are possible. Some Republicans have acknowledged it may be difficult to cut off these ties. Bush has said "maybe we should check with our allies" before shredding the deal. Donald Trump, playing up his skills as a boardroom broker, has suggested he would renegotiate the nuclear deal. But others, including Marco Rubio and Cruz, have put tearing up the deal on their Day 1 to-do list. What would happen on Day 2 is unclear. In a global economy, imposing unilateral U.S. sanctions would have limited impact on Iran and could serve to disadvantage U.S. businesses. Iran has suggested businesses are waiting at the gates to engage indeed, the transport minister on Saturday announced a deal with the European consortium Airbus to buy 114 passenger planes after sanctions are lifted. Rubio has warned U.S. businesses not to "gamble" on Iran, saying Tehran will inevitably violate the agreement, and if he's in the White House he'll ensure a harsh punishment. He's made similar warnings about Cuba, cautioning U.S. companies that doing business under the current leadership would be difficult and expensive. Cuban officials have raised concerns about the Republicans' promises to backtrack, saying that casts uncertainty over negotiations. But there's little sign that the GOP rhetoric on Iran is slowing down Tehran's increasing role as a player on the world stage. In the neo-liberal world, political success required an engagement with capitalism in order to deliver sustainability goals; but even left-wing socialists now dismiss the the idea of ecological limits as 'collapse porn'. Unless we embrace the evidence, what we do is PR In the affluent world's media, messages which advocate a deeper connection of humans to the 'living Earth' are often caricatured - evoking idealistic metaphors for the developed world's spiritual dead-end which are ultimately subverted by their associated marketing message. Ecological idealism is ridiculed - willingly consigned to the scrapheap by consumer choice. Yet in the wake of COP21, any proposal that environmentalism can work within the economic and political status quo has abjectly failed also. From fields as diverse as agriculture, climate and marketing, to resource depletion, ecological limits and eco-psychology - the evidence on human impacts, and how to tackle them, is increasingly at odds with popular environmental messages. Promoting that evidence isn't being 'negative', or 'doomerish', or holding an 'outdated prejudice'. Evidence exists as it is - it is how we react to it which defines whether our advocacy is factually-based or, for want of a better description, self-deluding. 'Green' is the colour of money Capitalism did not engage with environmentalism in order to deliver realistic change. It engaged with the environmental message in order to own and subvert it to a more profitable end. Don't agree with that statement? The VW diesel emissions scandal is the perfect example of how that whole model of consumer-driven change has failed - leaving the consumer feeling defrauded of their good intentions. Another, less publicized example is biofuels. During the 1990s road protests in Britain the environment movement developed a detailed factual critique of the economic and environmental consequences of car-based transport. In the 2000s campaign groups traded that analysis for the more lucrative narrative of biofuels - which ultimate foundered a decade later when its true impacts were revealed. For mainstream campaign groups, dependent on trying to secure members, promoting a message of alternative consumption, rather than prohibition and significant lifestyle change, is more conducive to recruiting support. But how far can you go down that route before you lose sight of your original objectives? Right now I know of a number of people working for campaign groups, talented in their field of ecological expertise, who are focussed on membership or recruitment campaigns rather than doing the primary job of pressuring for change. If supporting the operation of the organisation, rather than its core campaign, becomes its reason d'etre for existence, then what are these campaign groups for? Foreseeable dead-ends subvert ecological change I came across the issue of climate change as a scientific debate in the mid-1980s. Then in 1988 the UN set up the IPCC to study the issue further; and scientists like James Hansen began to tell policy-makers about the severity of the issue. The IPCC's first assessment came out in 1990. Then in 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed at the Rio 'Earth Summit' Then... not a lot happened. The whole process has been chasing its tail ever since. One stark message to come out of COP21 was the extent to which, on the debate over ecological decline, the movement censors itself. If they were to "speak truth to power" they would no longer be welcome in the room. Major aspects of climate policy, such as emissions trading, have been shown to contribute a negligible amount to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And yet many within environmentalism cling to such ideas in order to deliver change without threatening 'business as usual'. The climate battle is lost without a critique of economic growth. Look at this graph - (above right). It shows the US Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center's (CDIAC) estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution - from 1751 until (on provisional data) 2012. Over 261 years of industrial and technical development, under CDIAC's dataset, humanity has generated 383 billion tonnes of carbon emissions from fossil fuels (note, 'carbon' - the weight of carbon dioxide is 3.667 times greater). The emissions of carbon since we decided this was a global problem in 1992 have been 152 billion tonnes. In other words, over 261 years of historic emissions, we've emitted 40% of the total in the 20 years since the world decided we had to tackle this urgent problem. In 20 years annual emission rates have risen almost 60%. Why the large change, even though technological efficiency has been increasing over this time? Economic growth. It is not simply 'consumption' which is the issue, or what form that consumption takes. Any measure of growth in the human system, for simple reasons of thermodynamic reality, will create a change in material consumption - and thus the energy required to enable that activity to take place. The reason the UNFCCC process has stalled isn't simply that climate deniers have befuddled policy-makers. The entire economic process is based upon a myth of growth, and an existential terror that without growth human society as we know it would collapse. Green technology can't displace the 'service' of fossil fuels OK - if fossil fuels are a problem, let's switch to renewable energy. This is reason why the green technology/green consumer argument is so seductive in policy-making fields. It allows a theoretical change in damaging impacts without changing society's dependence upon material consumption and growth. Problem is that whole argument - like VW's engine management system - is another deception. Not least because while the energy produced might be physically equivalent, irrespective of price the comparative investment returns of these processes are lower than conventional fossil fuels. Many environmental groups, in their efforts to lobby politicians, love these simple solutions too. Unfortunately most of their plans for change - for example CAT's Zero Carbon Britain - while they may be balanced in terms of their energy calculations, do not take account of the resource limitations of making them happen. Not simply the resources required to build the energy infrastructure, but also the additional resources involved in society utilising that energy. Right now there is a growing concern amongst academics and industry figures that the specialised resources required to build 'green technologies' on a large scale might not exist. Even conventional resources, such as copper, have their own unique limitations. And while in most cases there are substitutes available, they often have their own limitations or prohibitions on use. For example, the large, direct-drive wind turbines which are the core of expanding wind power are reliant on the use of rare earth metals such as neodymium and samarium. These metals have a limited supply - which limits the roll-out of wind power well below the theoretical wind resource available. What's more the production of those metals is having a severe, toxic impact upon the environment and indigenous communities. On-line environmental activism: a dissonant practice? One of the largest shifts in environmental activism in recent years has been in the area of on-line activism. Question is - quite apart from the practical issue of whether such action can create real change, or be manipulated to detract from it - has on-line action become part of the ecological problem? There is a growing cognitive disconnect between what 'clicktivism' can achieve versus its environmental impacts. When you buy a new laptop or smart-phone, roughly 90% of the ecological footprint of that device has already been expended through the production and supply chain. For example, just to make the memory chip of a laptop takes more energy than the device will consume over its average service life with the user. The ecological footprint of the Internet, which has become essential to the use of many technologies, now exceeds the footprint of that other icon of green angst, global air travel. That trend in consumption has been exacerbated by the recent shift towards 'the cloud'. There are many practical ways to address the issue of impacts of IT. The industry could make devices which last many years, drastically cutting their life-cycle ecological footprint. That, however, is not on the agenda because it would entail a significant contraction in, and loss of revenue from the whole tech sector. Climate change is not 'the worst' of all ecological evils It is not simply that the mainstream of the environment movement fails to call for 'degrowth'. From my own experience, they are vehemently opposed to espousing any line which directly challenges the the political fetish of growth. Unfortunately the often-used substitute, that 'less is more', fails not only on thermodynamic grounds, but also because it disregards the material differences between 'quantity' and 'footprint'. As outlined earlier, monotheist religion erased the 'spiritual' link of humans to their environment, rendering it expendable in the name of human need or greed. In the same way, the mainstream environment movement has lost its way by simplifying to a single-issue, 'monotheist' belief in climate change - to the exclusion of other, arguably equally deleterious trends in human development. Depending on definitions there are around nine or ten catastrophic environmental issues. Other than climate change, most of are largely ignored in the mainstream ecological debate. Any one of these has the potential to collapse the human system. All have a critical time-line for action within the next decade or two to avert that outcome. For example, intensive farming requires fertilizer. While the media often looks at nitrogen, of equal significance is phosphorous. Right now there's a growing concern about the future supply of phosphorous, and what that means for global food supply within the next 20-30 years. But continuing our use of phosphorous is not an option either as it causes significant damage too. There are alternatives, specifically agroecology or permaculture. Problem is the 'business as usual' lobby don't like these because it requires abandoning the current system of intensive commodity agriculture, with their concentrated ownership and control over production and markets. That's why tackling climate change is attractive to the 'business as usual' lobby - it's a product which can be sold because it entails using more equipment and energy to solve pollution. That's also why tackling climate change alone will not avert the ecological collapse of human civilisation during this century. The 'big lie' The greatest myth of the consumer society is that modern lifestyles are 'normal' - and this can continue forever because we're clever little apes who can solve any problem. That hubris, in the face of insurmountable ecological limits, will be our collective downfall. Dismissing the reality of ecological limits will not make the problem go away. The mainstream environment movement's overbearing focus on climate change not only makes society ignore many equally critical ecological issues, it also leads people, against the current body of research evidence, to advocate very silly ideas. However unpopular the issue of criticising economic growth, and however unpopular that makes environmentalists with the leaders of the affluent world, if there is to be any hope of a sustainable and equitable world the environment movement must advocate curtailing consumption to within planetary boundaries. Of course, you don't have to wait for everyone to agree on that to begin. You can make a personal start to 'degrowth', minimising your own ecological footprint, today. And for that conviction, if you are excluded from the doors of power you always have the option to sit outside. Paul Mobbs is an environmental and peace campaigner. He runs the Free Range Activism Website (FRAW) and is the author of Energy Beyond Oil and A Practical Guide to Sustainable ICT (which is available free on-line). For a fully referenced version of this article visit the FRAW site. A woman linked to a fatal shooting at a Smith Mountain Lake home may be able to lead investigators to the murder weapon, prosecutors said during a plea hearing in Franklin County Circuit Court. On Thursday, Carrie Eujenna Ramey, 25, of Georgia pleaded guilty to burglary and vehicle larceny and to being an accessory in the murder of Brian Foy. Rameys plea came one day after Daniel Percy Arnots courtroom admission that he shot and killed Foy, his 66-year-old former father-in-law, late on May 2 as Foy slept in a recliner in his home in Moneta. Arnot, who is 31, was sentenced to two life terms plus 146 years for Foys death as well as for a series of burglaries which occurred around that time. Fifty years of Arnots sentence is active and the rest will be suspended. On the night Arnot killed Foy during a burglary, Ramey was waiting in the car, according to Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Kim Banta. Even so, Ramey knew Arnot was carrying a silver .45-caliber semi-automatic when he went to break into Foys home and later heard the gunshots. Afterward, Arnot texted Ramey and told her to start the car. He also later described the killing to her, Banta said. Arnot burglarized Foys home at least once before, on March 26, and had taken a 1999 Mercedes among other items. Ramey was with him during that theft, too, Banta said, which led to the other two charges against her. There is no sentencing agreement connected to Rameys pleas, and although the charges against her carry upwards of 40 years in prison, she consented to testify against her co-defendants if necessary. She has also told investigators that she knows the location of the pistol that was used in the shooting and has agreed to help with its recovery. During Thursdays hearing, Franklin County Commonwealths Attorney A.J. Dudley said that while Arnot has confessed to Foys murder, investigators are still eager to have the weapon off the streets and accounted for. Ramey is scheduled to be sentenced March 14. Shes being held without bond at the Western Virginia Regional Jail. Although Foys relatives opted not to be present for Arnots hearing, a number of them came to the courtroom Thursday and watched with quiet emotion as Ramey entered her pleas. A third co-defendant Michael Anthony Edwards, 25, of Georgia pleaded guilty in October to burglary and to being an accessory to murder after the fact. Edwards was with Arnot when he went into Foys home in May and is to be sentenced next week. Franklin County residents concerned about the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) will have a chance to voice their opinions Tuesday evening. The board of supervisors has scheduled a public hearing on the natural gas pipeline, for which MVP has requested a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Opponents of the proposed multi-state 300-mile, $3.2 million pipeline have expressed concerns about the project since it was first presented in late 2014. Those concerns include the impact on the environment and waterways as well as safety. The 42-inch diameter pipeline would cut a swath across 37 miles of the county, entering at Cahas Mountain and exiting just east of Penhook toward its final destination in Chatham. West Virginia fracking operations produce the gas. Opponents have consistently brought to the boards attention details of their concerns, and have asked the board to take an official position on whether it as a body supports the pipeline. Supervisors have not done so, saying their position, regardless of what it is, would have no impact on whether the pipeline will be constructed since its a federal decision. Only Boones Mill Supervisor Ronnie Thompson has publically opposed the project. However, the board did approve a resolution in October asking Gov. Terry McAuliffe to make sure the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has the needed resources to effectively monitor the construction of the natural gas pipeline. The resolution also asks that the DEQ require project-specific erosion and sediment control and storm water management control plans and that prior to construction, MVP officials and their inspectors would meet with local officials to discuss implementation of plans. Franklin County, as well as other counties impacted, has also requested the right to be involved in site-specific inspections of the project. Another point of contention with the opposition is whether the pipeline is actually for public convenience and necessity. They say its a matter of big-corporation marketing and the natural gas would end up overseas since the line is a transmission line, not one that allows taps for local distribution. However, an agreement has been made involving Franklin County, MVP and Roanoke Gas to allow at least one tap in the county for local distribution, if the demand exists. Franklin County does not have access to natural gas and county officials, as well as the Town of Rocky Mount, have been saying for many years that access is a high priority for economic development. Opponents have also been asking for a public hearing on the issue, which the board has granted. Residents can attend the public hearing starting at 6 p.m. in the boards meeting room at the county government center on Franklin Street. If approved by FERC, pipeline construction could begin later this year with a 2018 target date for completion. SHARE By Special To The Gleaner Henderson Community College has lost a significant amount of state funding over the last several years. Business leaders are stepping up to let legislators know they agree with Gov. Matt Bevin that Kentucky can do better. Several local business leaders are serving as business champions as part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System's Fuel the Force campaign, which is asking for restoration of postsecondary education funding. The HCC Business Champions Council is asking legislators to support the council on postsecondary Education's budget request that recently was submitted to Bevin. In the request, CPE asks for half of the decrease in state appropriations since 2008 to be restored to the nine public postsecondary education institutions, which includes KCTCS. Business leaders are concerned about how loss of funding is affecting their ability to hire skilled workers and the effect it has on local economies. There were seventeen leaders who signed on to the Henderson Community College campaign. Council members elected Ben Johnston, vice president of Pittsburgh Tank and Tower Group, to chair the council. "Community colleges are the engine of Kentucky's workforce and are the state's largest providers of workforce education and training," said Johnston. "To be a better state, we have to have a well-educated workforce and now is the time to reinvest in Kentucky's higher education." Other local business champions include: Brad Schneider, Kyndle; Deborah Gray, LG & E-Kentucky; Lorna Littrell, Sunrise Tool and Die Inc; Joan Hoffman; Tony Krampe, Old National Bank; Rachel Yarbrough, Webster County Schools superintendent; Jeff Barton, Earle C. Clements Job Corps Academy; Dick Beaven, Air Hydro Power; Mike Pullen, Big Rivers Electric Corp.; Jim Butkus, Audubon Metals LLC; Ben Johnston, Pittsburg Tank and Tower Group; Greg Pritchett, Henderson County Riverport; Rick Tappan, Dempewolf Ford; Mark Chumbler, Hugh Edward Sandefur Training Center; Kiran Patel, OM Properties; Margaret Ridley, Kyndle; and Brent Bridges, Methodist Hospital. Even though the recession ended several years ago, Kentucky is one of only a handful of states that has not begun reinvesting in higher education. Additionally, Kentucky is one of only three states in the nation joining Oklahoma and West Virginia that has continued to cut per student funding for higher education each of the last two years. "We're very appreciative of the Business Champions Council and their willingness to tell policymakers how they're being affected by state budget cuts to higher ed and the importance of reinvesting in our college so that Kentucky can become better," said HCC President Kris Williams. "These leaders represent the companies and organizations we work with regularly and have built relationships with over the years. We are partners in education and job creation for this region." The Business Champions Council will take part in a business showcase event during the 2016 General Assembly to highlight the careers their companies offer and how they align with Henderson Community College programs. Additionally, champions will attend a legislative rally and reception on Feb. 18 in Frankfort. Other outreach efforts include calls, emails, and inviting legislators to visit a workplace or other face-to-face meetings. Fuel the Force is a statewide campaign created to inform elected officials about the dire need of public postsecondary state appropriations for the 2016-2018 biennium. To learn more about the Fuel the Force campaign and sign a petition of support, visit FueltheForceKY.com. SHARE This is a studio portrait of Abraham Lincoln, dated November 8, 1863, made by photographer Alexander Gardner. John James Audubon Museum will offer a Kentucky Chautauqua program on Lincoln in February. By Gleaner Staff To celebrate President's Day, John James Audubon State Park Museum will host a Kentucky Chautauqua portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln on Feb. 20. Lincoln is depicted in the Kentucky Humanities Council Program by Jim Sayre of Lawrenceburg. The free program in the museum will take place at 2 p.m. Born on a farm in what is now Larue County, Lincoln spent his early years in Kentucky. His family moved to Indiana when he was 7, partly because of his father's opposition to slavery, and never returned. But as his native brilliance and burning political ambition carried him to the presidency and greatness a panel of historians recently chose him as the most influential American who ever lived Lincoln always had connections with his native state. In his law office in Springfield, Illinois, he had a law partner from Green County, Kentucky William Herndon, who later wrote a biography of Lincoln. His best friend in Springfield was Joshua Speed, a son of Louisville's prominent Speed family; and in Springfield he found a wife from Kentucky Mary Todd, the daughter of a well-known Lexington family. Lincoln visited Kentucky to see the Speeds and his in-laws, and took the great Kentucky statesman Henry Clay as his political hero. During the Civil War Lincoln was very unpopular in Kentucky, but when he said, "I too am a Kentuckian," no one could dispute it. The program was funded in part by the KHC and the National Endowment for the Humanities. SHARE Bradley Staton Austin Vowels Donald Bridges X.R. Royster III By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner Five candidates have filed to run for Henderson City Commission. The candidates include one incumbent and four challengers. There are four seats up for grabs on the commission. The filing deadline is 4 p.m. Jan. 26. Here's a look at the candidates: Donald R. Bridges Donald R. Bridges, 51, is seeking public office for the first time. He and his wife, Tammy, live in the 500 block of Canoe Creek Drive. They have two grown children and a teenager. Bridges is a 1982 graduate of Henderson County High. He has been employed with the city of Henderson Public Works Department for 12-plus years. Through this job, he said he's come into contact with hundreds, if not thousands of citizens. "They have often voiced their concerns to me about not feeling heard by the elected officials," Bridges said. "We've all seen our elected officials not make the best choices for the hardworking citizens of our community." He considers the elected position to be an everyday job. If elected, he plans to seek employment elsewhere. As city commissioner, Bridges said he wants to reduce the tax burden and would be cautious of spending tax dollars from citizens. "I believe it's time for the elected officials to work for the people, and not the other way around," he said. Patti Bugg Patti Bugg, 61, is a newcomer to the city commission race, but she has run for elected office. Bugg ran against Steve Austin in 2014 in the city of Henderson mayoral race. Austin ended up winning a second term. She said she's thought about running for city commission for the past several years, but the timing hasn't been right. She felt led to run for mayor in 2014 and had a wonderful time doing so. She added that she and Austin both ran a positive race, which she intends to do again this election cycle. "I have served the real estate community for the past 28 years, and with the flexibility of my position, I know I can serve well on the commission," Bugg said. "I believe the best form of leadership is that of a servant's heart. If elected, that's the way I will lead." X.R. Royster III X.R. Royster III is the only city commissioner seeking re-election so far. Royster, 67, was also the earliest candidate to file on Jan. 5. He is still serving his first term as city commissioner after winning office in November 2014. Royster was hired by the city of Henderson as an engineering assistant in February in 1987 and became public works director that June. He retired in June 2012. He and his wife, Kathy, reside in the 800 block of Bittersweet Lane. They have two grown children. BradLey S. staton Brad Staton, 38, is also a challenger in the city commission race. Staton holds the District 5 seat on the Henderson County Board of Education. He won the seat last November to finish out Jon Sights' unexpired term of one year. Staton owns and operates an investment firm called Staton Investment Management. He holds a bachelor's degree in accounting with a minor in finance from the University of Southern Indiana. "With my degree in accounting and finance and a still-budding career of nearly 10 years as a financial adviser in Henderson, I can bring to the position a wealth of knowledge in the area of fiscal responsibility," said Staton. In addition to serving on the school board, he has civic experience as president of the board for the Rotary Colonels 2 College scholarship program, member of the Henderson Education Coalition, a Henderson Leadership Initiative graduate, and through other charitable endeavors and leadership involvement. "I am a well-rounded candidate who cares very deeply about our city of Henderson and its people," he said. "I have a strong desire to proudly serve as one of your next city commissioners, and I would greatly appreciate your vote." Staton and his wife, Kristie, have two children. The family lives in the 2000 block of Bannockburn Drive. Austin P. Vowels Austin P. Vowels, 29, is seeking elected office for the first time. "I am running to make the city of Henderson a better place to live, work and visit," Vowels said. He added that he is looking forward to serving Henderson, the city where he has lived and worked for all of his life except for the seven years he was away at school. Vowels earned a bachelor's of science in political science and economics from the University of Louisville. He also earned a law degree from St. Louis University. He is an attorney and the owner of Vowels Law PLC. He and his wife, Sarah Crick, reside in the 200 block of Seventh Street. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso -- Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster, Burkina 24, that security forces would be stepping up their efforts to thwart future attacks and asked people to comply with the new restrictions. "These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation," said Kabore. The national mourning began Sunday, a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. When the gunfire and explosions finally stopped, authorities said 18 were killed in the hotel and 10 were killed at the nearby Cappuccino Cafe. Among the victims was a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the cafe with her Italian husband, Gaetano Santomenna, according to Ukrainian officials. Although Santomenna was not at the cafe and survived the attack, the couple's son, Michel Santomenna, 9, was killed, according to the Italian foreign ministry. Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, called the child's death "a horrendous crime," in a tweet which also expressed sympathy with the boy's father. The toll also includes six Canadians, according to Canadian officials. Others killed include seven citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. The American -- Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Florida -- had been working as a missionary in Burkina Faso since 2011, where he and his wife ran an orphanage that also provided shelter to abused women and widows. He is survived by his four children, two of whom were adopted from Burkina Faso. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Ned Price said Riddering "had devoted his life to working with the Burkinabe people" in a statement strongly condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and mourning those killed "in these senseless acts of violence." Riddering was "a wonderful, godly man" who managed to find spare time to help teams of volunteers from other organizations who dug wells for local residents, said John Anderson, a board member of Sheltering Wings, Riddering's charity. "During the Ebola crisis, when it was hard to find people to do the digging, Mike would go out and join them so they could continue doing the work," Anderson said. "And that's backbreaking work. He never stopped moving and never stopped helping." Swiss authorities said its two nationals who were killed were also in Burkina Faso for humanitarian reasons. The al-Qaida group claiming responsibility for the carnage released an audio tape titled: "A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts." On Sunday, French authorities were back at the scene carrying out a forensic investigation. Special forces from the former colonizer came during the overnight siege from their base in neighboring Mali to help Burkina Faso's military put an end to the killings. Some guests returned to the Splendid Hotel to pick up their luggage and other belongings left behind when guests fled for their lives when the gunmen began firing to kill as many people as possible. The attack, which began around 7:30 p.m. Friday, was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadist attacks that have destabilized neighboring Mali since 2012. In a separate incident two Australian humanitarian workers were kidnapped by extremists in northern Burkina Faso. Surgeon Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn were abducted Friday. The couple, reported to be in their 80s, were kidnapped in the northern town of Djibo where they had run a medical center for 40 years. ___ Associated Press writers Stephanie Siek in New York and Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report. NORWALK -- An intoxicated man was arrested Sunday morning after allegedly trying to enter a Norwalk residence, claiming to think it was his home in Greenwich. Samuel Graff, 20, of 104 Pemberwick Road, Greenwich, was charged with disorderly conduct and simple trespass. Graff was held on $5,000 bond and given a court date of Jan. 26. Norwalk Police dispatch received a complaint of a suspicious person from a resident of a home on Fairfield Avenue at 12:37 a.m. Sunday morning, according to police reports. The complainant told police that when she arrived home in her car, a white male wearing jeans and a gray hoodie later identified as Graff had attempted to enter the vehicle as she pulled up to her house. Graff was not aggressive, but continued to knock on her door after she went inside, the complainant told police. When responding officers arrived on scene, they found an "obviously intoxicated" Graff crawling on the ground; Graff's speech was labored, and the responding officers reported a strong odor of alcohol. When paramedics arrived, Graff became belligerent, police said. Once Graff was inside the ambulance, an officer heard paramedics telling him to "stop spitting," police reports said. The officer entered the ambulance and found a "large pool of spit on the floor" and observed Graff attempting to spit on the paramedics, according to police reports. Graff was then handcuffed, and used profanities towards the police officers while being escorted to the squad car, police said. When questioned by police, Graff claimed he had been knocking on the door of the Fairfield Avenue residence because he thought it was the house in Greenwich where he lives with his girlfriend. The police report gave no indication of how Graff had traveled to Norwalk. Norwalk Police Sgt. Joseph Dinho told The Hour it is "surprisingly common" for intoxicated people to mistake the wrong residence for their home, especially in areas like South Norwalk where people can walk to bars. In November 2015 an intoxicated 20-year-old Bridgeport woman was arrested by Norwalk Police after waking a Silvermine Avenue family, mistaking their home for the Pi Kappa sorority house at Sacred Heart University. In the Republican debate last week, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich offered tactical arguments against Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims coming to the United States. The policy would make it "impossible to build the coalition necessary to take out" the Islamic State, Mr. Bush said. The United States is going to need a "coalition made up of Arabs and Americans and westerners," Mr. Kasich agreed, and if we "call everybody the same thing, we can't do it." Their argument is correct, and their responses were a cut above those of other candidates on the stage. Asked whether they would support a ban, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio all deflected the question with boasts about how tough they'd be fighting the Islamic State or keeping refugees out of the country. But on the holiday set aside to honor Martin Luther King Jr., it is worth recalling that tactical consequences are not the principal reason Americans should find the Trump proposal repellent. We are a nation founded on the ideal that every individual has value and deserves to be judged on his or her own merit. Each of us can make choices about the importance, to ourselves, of our racial or national heritage, our religion or lack thereof, our sexual identity. No one else has the right to make those choices for us. Being Muslim, or black, or Irish American doesn't tell anyone else who you are, much less what you are worth. When we start judging people based on the categories they belong to, we diminish ourselves. In April 1963, while he was in jail for leading nonviolent demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham, Ala., Dr. King, an Atlanta minister, faced criticism for having come from outside the state to stir up trouble. He rejected the "outside agitator" label. "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider," he wrote. That might leave room to think of foreigners differently; nations have a right to decide who may enter. But Dr. King would have been the first to say that recognizing the humanity of every person is essential in those decisions as in domestic affairs. "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny," Dr. King wrote in the same letter. "Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly." That's a precept that can be found in some variation in most of the world's religions. It's easy to preach, harder to practice. Our difficulty in sensing our place in that "inescapable network of mutuality" helps explain why a police officer may be more likely to shoot a fleeing suspect who doesn't look like him, why we may be more forgiving of drug addiction when it afflicts people who do look like us - and why we can harden our hearts to desperate refugee children whose families worship an unfamiliar God. What makes this campaign season so ugly is that leaders are not just failing the test of empathy but taking pride in their failure. We would hope to hear candidates for president making clear that bigotry against Muslims is wrong because it is wrong - because "whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly." NEW YORK (TIP): In continuation of an Advisory issued on 23 December 2015 in connection with instances of denial of entry by the US Immigration authorities to Indian students having valid student visas to pursue [] Looking for the big games to watch in Week 9? We have them right here. The issue of race in higher education has once again become a topic of public discussion, this time provoked by a statement made by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during the hearing over a case on affirmative action at the University of Texas early last December. During the hearing Scalia asked whether it might be better for black students to go to a slower-track school where they do well than to go to a highly selective college like The University of Texas with the help of affirmative action. The argument is based on an educational idea known as the mismatch theory of college admissions. According to this theory beneficiaries of affirmative action who are admitted to very competitive colleges may do worse academically and socially than if they enrolled at less selective colleges that wouldn't have considered their race or ethnicity. In other words, affirmative action can be bad for minorities. S upporters of this theory also claim that allowing certain minorities into selective schools will damage the quality of the education in general for those institutions. This topic is the kind that generates a lot of discussion and debate, one in which facts oftentimes get lost in the fog of politics. So lets take a look at what we know. To begin with, there is a vast body of research showing that minority students who benefit from affirmative action get higher grades at the institutions they attend, leave school at lower rates than others and are generally more satisfied in higher education. Attendance at a selective institution is also associated with higher earnings and higher college completion rates. This contradicts the tenets of the mismatch theory. For example, according to researchers at the University of Michigan when one looks at graduation rates or future earnings, minorities who are admitted via affirmative action to more selective schools do at least as well as - and often better - than they could have been expected to do had they gone to less selective institutions. These researchers conducted a thorough study that examined nearly three decades of data on how affirmative action polices had worked at their university and found that minority students who entered the university through the affirmative action policy earned as much over their careers as white students. In another study conducted by researchers from the University of California and the University of Wisconsin, minority students were found to be less likely to drop out of an academically challenging school than a less demanding institution. And these are just two examples of this kind of research. According to the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, roughly half of government leaders and half of corporate leaders are graduates of just 12 selective colleges, providing them a network of contacts and career opportunities. More minorities attending these selective colleges would result in them also having this kind of access to professional connections. In the case involving The University of Texas, the lawyers arguing in favor of maintaining some sort of affirmative action at that institution presented data showing that students admitted using race as one of many criteria fare better academically over time than those admitted from the top 10 percent of their high school class, without regard to race. If the Supreme Court strikes down any type of affirmative action, the consequences can be dire for the future of this country because it could lead us back to a form of the separate but equal doctrine of education. It will also fail to prepare all students, regardless of race, to succeed in a world that is more and more diverse. This argument also resurrects the old and discredited idea that there is a correlation between race and IQ. Studies conducted since World War I among Army recruits have shown that the differences in IQ performance observed among different ethnic groups are due to environmental factors such as socio-economic and educational disparities and not inherent to race. That is why the U.S. Army became the first public institution in this country to eliminate discrimination based on ethnicity. Also, despite numerous studies, no genetic factor has been found to have a causal relation with group difference in intelligence test scores. Also, lets remember that elite schools that admit minorities do not do it blindly, but use a number of criteria to accept those students most likely to succeed. It is interesting that these doubts about affirmative action are taking place in the Supreme Court. Among the beneficiaries of this policy is one of Scalias fellow justices, Sonia Sotomayor, whose admission through affirmative action to Princeton opened doors that ultimately led to the nations highest court. Dr. Aldemaro Romero Jr. is a writer and college professor with leadership experience in higher education. He can be contacted through his website at: http://www.aromerojr.net. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Jennie M. Xue (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Sun, January 17, 2016 Most people in the world celebrate the wealthy and brave. A combination of these would result in something spectacular. Honesty, however, is often placed in the backseat. We often pray that our children grow up to be honest and kind, yet it is common knowledge that accepting gratuities in Indonesia is considered a 'way of life', especially among government officials. Reading news about honest and brave officials, thus, is a breath of fresh air. In a corruption-laden country such as Indonesia, everyone professes that they dislike corruption, but only a few actually walk the talk. In his US presidential campaign, Donald Trump is an example of 'celebration of the wealthy'. In Indonesia, there are three administration officials in its capital city, namely Jakarta Public Housing and Government Building Agency head Ika Lestari Adji, Jakarta Water Management Agency head Teguh Hendarwan and Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) head Tuty Kusumawati, who embody the rare breed of 'honest' Indonesian civil servants. _________________________________________ Corruption itself is actually a symptom of a wider problem of poor governance and citizens are a crucial part of the betterment process. Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama has praised Ika, Teguh and Tuty for reporting gratuities worth a total of Rp 10 billion (US$714,000) to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK). What's so amazing about that? Believe it or not, it was the first time ever that city government officials reported such incident of offered gratuity. Special recognition for such an act of honesty and bravery was not necessary, said Ahok, as it would be difficult to classify it. Well understood. In fact, the recent emergence of anticorruption and antigratuity leaders is the result of people's increasing intolerance toward being extorted for bribes by predatory officials. All over the world, citizens have shown disgust toward such acts. The Partnership for Transparency Fund published a report from the Front Line titled Citizens Against Corruption (2013) that highlighted several citizen-led anticorruption movements, which might as well inspire Indonesians to follow suit. It would require, however, some internal changes within ourselves as citizens and a society. First things first, we need to share the same mindset. A hierarchical society such as Indonesia still adheres to the archaic notion of higher and lower classes, in which those belonging to the lower classes should succumb to those with higher statuses. Indonesia's sectarian trait should be diminished gradually with a mindset revolution. The 'feeling that people can't do anything' is what professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Martin Seligman would call 'learned helplessness' or 'learned incompetence.' To reduce and, eventually, eliminate it, we must be aware whenever we are in such a situation or think in such a framework. By being aware that we are reinforcing 'learned helplessness,' we are more ready to reframe it, like Ika, Teguh and Tuty did when they reported their gratuities. Reframe the notion that 'I don't have any power to change anything' with 'I can cause a tipping point by reporting this.' Second, corruption itself is actually a symptom of a wider problem of poor governance and citizens are a crucial part of the betterment process. It can be better eradicated when citizens incessantly urge government officials to be accountable and to fully respect the law without any reservations. When Ahok was the regent of East Belitung in Sumatra, he was known to have supervised the development of roads in person. The Concerned Citizens of Abra, a citizens group against corruption in the north of the Philippines, monitored the construction of a highway being built in their area. It was common knowledge at that time and in the area that most contractors would have reduced the usage of crucial materials to save costs, resulting in substandard works. The citizens were able to prove that the contractor had used 26 bags of cement instead of the promised 36 bags and reported the incident to the local department of public works and highways. Third, the 'tipping point' is closer than you think. The term 'tipping point' was popularized by The New Yorker columnist Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000). The term refers to 'the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.' Just like drops of water can cause an indentation that will eventually break a rock, every one of us is that 'drop of water'. Another push through the chaotic landscape of corruption and gratuity is what we need to tip over this ugly rock. May there be more leaders and citizens following in the footsteps of Ika, Teguh and Tuty. ________________________________ The writer is an author and columnist based in Northern California. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Washington Mon, January 18, 2016 The U.S pardoned or dropped the charges against seven Iranians in a prisoner swap for the release of four Americans held by Iran. The seven were accused or convicted of violating U.S. sanctions. Six of them have dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, and at least two plan to stay in the U.S. Iran's official state news agency released the names of the following seven people, whose background has been detailed in releases and filings from U.S. prosecutors: ___ Nader Modanlo Modanlo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating the trade embargo and helping Iran launch its first-ever satellite into orbit. According to court documents, Modanlo was a mechanical engineer who received science and engineering degrees from George Washington University. Modanlo said in court he was an internationally recognized expert on strategic policy and finances affecting the space-based telecommunications industry, and that he managed space and science programs for private companies, the Department of Defense and NASA. ___ Bahram Mechanic Mechanic, a dual citizen who lives in Houston, was indicted last year on charges he illegally exported millions of dollars in U.S. technology to Iran. Mechanic, 69, is the co-owner of Iran-based Faratel Corporation and its Houston-based sister company Smart Power Systems. Faratel designs and builds uninterruptible power supplies for several Iranian government agencies, including the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Centrifuge Technology Company, according to the charges. The technology Mechanic sold to Iran is used in a wide range of military systems, including surface-air and cruise missiles. Between July 2010 and 2015, Mechanic's network allegedly obtained 28 million parts valued at about $24 million worth and shipped them to Iran through Taiwan and Turkey. Among the parts shipped were microelectronics and digital signal processors, according to the indictment. "Everything about the government's allegations were false," Houston-based attorney Joel Androphy said. "The government created an aura of hysteria to keep him incarcerated." Androphy said that Mechanic, who was released early Sunday morning, plans to continue living in Houston. "He's going to enjoy a nice rest of the weekend with his wife and then get back to work probably tomorrow," Androphy said. ___ Khosrow Afghahi Afghahi co-owns Faratel Corporation in Iran and Houston-based Smart Power Systems with Mechanic, according to an indictment. U.S. prosecutors say Afghahi helped Mechanic to illegally provide U.S. technology to Iran. Houston-based attorney David Gerger says the charges against his client were "wrong." "Freeing Khosrow Afghahi is the correct result," Gerger said. "He is a 72 year old businessman who has never been in trouble. He is a good man, and we will be happy to put this ordeal behind him." Gerger said that Afghahi lived mostly in Iran but became a U.S. citizen so he could more easily visit his family. Gerger said Afghahi was arrested in April while visiting family in Los Angeles. Gerger said his client was released from the federal detention center in Houston early Sunday morning. He said that Afghahi is getting to "spend precious time with his family." ___ Tooraj Faridi Faridi, 46, is vice president of a Smart Power Systems and along with Afghahi assisted Mechanic in the illegal transfer of U.S. technology to Iran, according to court documents. Mechanic, assisted by Afghahi and Faridi, also of Houston, regularly received lists of commodities, including U.S.-origin microelectronics, sought by Faratel in Iran, according to an indictment. Houston-based attorney Kent Schaffer said Faridi, who had remained free on bond, did nothing to jeopardize national security or violate trade sanctions. "I always felt he would be vindicated at trial, but at least the president's action allows him to get on with his life," Schaffer said. He said his client plans to continue living in Houston. ___ Arash Ghahraman Ghahraman, 46, was sentenced to more than six years in prison last year for violating the trade embargo after he participated in a scheme to purchase marine navigation equipment and military electronic equipment for illegal export to Iran. Prosecutors argued in court the naturalized U.S. citizen, who lived in Staten Island, New York, acted as an agent of an Iranian procurement network and used a front company in Dubai to illegally acquire U.S. goods and technologies to be sent to Iran. A maritime engineer, Ghahraman also worked at shipyards in the U.S. ___ Nima Golestaneh Golestaneh, an Iranian national, pleaded guilty to hacking the computer system of Arrow Tech, a Vermont-based aerodynamics company and U.S. defense contractor, to steal software. Golestaneh, 30, was arrested in Turkey in 2013 and extradited to the United States last year. He was the only Iranian released Saturday who doesn't have dual citizenship. ___ Ali Saboonchi Saboonchi, 35, was convicted in 2014 of exporting industrial products to Iran though companies in China and the United Arab Emirates. A U.S. citizen who was living in Parkville, Maryland at the time of his arrest, Saboonchi conspired with others to evade the Iran Trade Embargo and export to Iran numerous industrial parts, including hydraulic valves and connectors; and liquid pumps and valves, which can be used in the oil, gas, energy, aerospace and defense industries, authorities said. His public defenders, Lucius Outlaw and Elizabeth Oyer, said in a statement Sunday morning that Saboonchi's release "shows that he poses no danger to the American people." "Ali Saboonchi is a beloved and hard-working family man and American. He was born in the U.S. and is proud to be raising his young family here. His arrest and incarceration were devastating to his many friends and family," the attorneys said. "Ali is thrilled and grateful for his release and return to his family." (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Erika Anindita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Golkar Party's central executive board led by Aburizal Bakrie has said that it will decide at a national leaders meeting (Rapimnas) on Jan. 23 whether to participate in a national meeting (Munas), considered by many seasoned Golkar politicians as an ideal occasion at which to reconcile the two rival camps within the party. 'We have chosen to first hold a national leaders meeting, not a national meeting, at which our participation in the national meeting will be determined,' said Rambe Kamarul Zaman, a lawmaker from the Golkar camp led by Aburizal, in Jakarta on Monday. Based on the party's rules of association and internal bylaws (AD/ART), an extraordinary national meeting (Munaslub) can be held if it is proposed by two-thirds of the party's provincial executive boards (DPD I). 'Thus, all party cadres who are in favor of holding a national meeting must encourage those who have the right to vote on DPD I to fight for the organizing of a national meeting, not just by garnering public support,' Tantowi Yahya, a Golkar lawmaker from the Aburizal camp, said at the House of Representatives complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Monday. Seasoned Golkar politician Jusuf Kalla, who is also the vice president, and other senior party figures, have suggested that a national meeting be organized to reconcile the Aburizal-led Golkar Party leadership, which was formed at the Bali Munas in December 2014, with the party's splinter faction led by Agung Laksono, who was elected at the Ancol Munas in November 2014. The Aburizal camp has openly opposed the idea of organizing a national congress. A Golkar tribunal previously issued a ruling to end the protracted rift between Aburizal and Agung over the party's leadership and recommended the formation of a leadership transition team headed by former president BJ Habibie and Kalla. However, Rambe called into question the legitimacy of the transition team. Similarly, the deputy chairman of the Golkar leadership from the Bali Munas, Aziz Syamsudin, also said it rejected the Golkar tribunal's decision to form a transition team and to hold a reconciliation national meeting. He said the term of office of the internal tribunal, which was formed at the Riau Munas in 2009 and led by former law and human rights minister Muladi, had expired. Aziz, who is the chairman of the tribunal, further said the Golkar leadership formed at the Bali Munas had registered the composition of the new tribunal's leadership with the Law and Human Rights Ministry. 'Since the issuance of a decree on July 14, 2015, Pak Muladi is no longer the chairman of the Golkar tribunal. There is now a new leadership, in which I am its chairman with five tribunal members,' said Aziz as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. Aziz further said that the Golkar tribunal did not have the authority to resolve the conflict between the Aburizal and Agung camps because the leadership problem had been ruled on by the Supreme Court, which had ordered the law and human rights minister (Yasonna H.Laoly) to revoke his decree, which previously acknowledged the legality of the Agung camp. Aziz said Golkar was currently waiting for the law and human rights minister to legalize Golkar's leadership declared at the Bali Munas. (ebf)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on the government to immediately intervene to protect members of the Ahmadiyah religious community from intimidation and threats of expulsion by local authorities on Bangka Island. HRW made the statement after it obtained a copy of a letter issued on Jan. 5 by the local administration of Bangka regency, located off the east coast of Sumatra in Bangka-Belitung Islands province, which demanded Ahmadiyah followers on the island either convert to Sunni Islam or face expulsion from Bangka. 'Bangka officials are conspiring with Muslim groups to unlawfully expel Ahmadiyah community members from their homes,' HRW's Asia deputy director Phelim Kine said in a statement on Monday. 'President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo needs to immediately intervene to uphold the Ahmadiyah's rights and to punish officials who advocate religious discrimination.' The letter was signed by Bangka administration secretary Fery Insani. It stated: 'If the board of the Ahmadiyah community does not return to Islam, we have agreed that the board should leave Bangka and go back to where they belong.' The letter stated that the directive was written on behalf of Bangka Regent Tarmizi Saat. HRW said members of Bangka's Ahmadiyah community, which consists of only 14 families, told the group that the expulsion order followed months of harassment and intimidation by government officials, police officers and representatives of Muslim groups. Some Muslims perceive the Ahmadiyah as heretics because followers identify themselves as Muslims, but differ from other Muslims who believe that Muhammad was the 'final' monotheist prophet. Articles 28 and 29 of the Constitution guarantee freedom of religion. Prohibitions on the Ahmadiyah practicing their religion also violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Indonesia in 2006. Article 18 of the covenant protects the right to freedom of religion and to engage in religious practice 'either individually or in community with others and in public or private'. Article 27 also protects the rights of minorities 'to profess and practice their own religion'. When he took office in October 2014, President Jokowi pledged to protect religious minorities and fight against religious intolerance. 'President Jokowi should demonstrate his opposition to religious discrimination by standing on the side of Bangka Island's Ahmadiyah community and acting against those officials trying to deprive them of their rights,' Kine said. 'Jokowi has an opportunity to prove that the [former president Susilo Bambang] Yudhoyono era of turning a blind eye to attacks on religious minorities is finally over.' (ebf)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Syamsul Huda M.Suhari (The Jakarta Post) Mon, January 18, 2016 Police have stepped up the hunt for the Santoso-led terrorist gang in the forests of Central Sulawesi following the recent attacks in Jakarta that left eight people, including four attackers, dead and 26 others injured. Central Sulawesi Police's spokesman Adj. Snr Comr. Bagus Santoso told The Jakarta Post on Monday that 60 officers had been deployed to protect vital facilities and the border of the provinicial capital Gorontalo. The deployed officers will carry out regular patrols on the Gorontalo border and other areas bordering North Sulawesi, including inspecting boarding houses and hotels. It had been thought that Santoso had died in a shootout with the police and Army on Saturday after a photograph circulated showing a dead terrorist suspect who bore a striking similarity to the fugitive leader of the East Indonesia Mujahaddin (MIT), however this was later denied by authorities. Santoso is believed to be the orchestrator of a series of attacks on civilians and police officers in Central Sulawesi. He has eluded capture for years. Police said on Saturday they had arrested 12 people suspected of links to the Jakarta attacks, which targeted a Starbucks and a traffic police post in the center of the capital. (dan)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Purwakarta, West Java Mon, January 18, 2016 Hotel operator Archipelago International has recently grand launched its latest establishment in Purwakarta, West Java. Situated two kilometers away from the Sadang toll gate, part of the Cipularang toll road that connects Jakarta and Bandung, the three-star Harper Purwakarta particularly targets corporate business players as it stands near industrial areas, says Archipelago International CEO John Flood. "The location is strategic and provides a good market. There are many businesses and industries in the area and it's easily accessible," Flood recently told a press conference in Purwakarta. Harper Purwakarta is the third Harper hotel in the country after Harper Kuta in Bali and Harper Mangkubumi in Yogjakarta. It has been operating since being soft opened in Sept. 15, Flood added. The property infuses rustic warmth and a homey residential feel with a combination of wood, stones and fabrics that dominate the interior design. It provides 130 rooms, ranging from 110 superiors, 16 deluxes and four suites, as well as seven meeting rooms, one ballroom and two swimming pools. The Rustic Bistro and Bar, the main restaurant, features local foods with Sate Maranggi Kuah (roasted skewered meat with watery sauce) as its signature dish that represents Purwakarta's tourist attraction, as Harper aims to take Sate Maranggi to the international level, the hotel manager Rini Resniawati said. "We have coordinated with the Purwakarta tourism agency to feature the regency's culinary signatures and highlight its traditional food as a tourist attraction," said Rini. She said that Harper would also cooperate with the local administration to promote tourism in general, which was in line with Purwakarta Regent Dedi Mulyadi's vision to promote the regency as a tourist destination where people could take leisure breaks. Harper Purwakarta sales and marketing manager Chrisantus Louis added that, in the future, Harper would expand its outdoor facilities such as its outbound attraction and the Waterbom park behind the hotel, where up to 75 percent of the four-hectare property was still underdeveloped. (kes)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Mon, January 18, 2016 Born on Sept. 6, 1983, in Pekalongan, Central Java, Muhammad Bahrun Naim Anggih Tamtono, alias Abu Rayan, has jumped into the spotlight after being named the orchestrator of the suicide bombing and shooting attack that rocked the Sarinah shopping center in Central Jakarta on Thursday. Although he is currently thought to have joined other foreign fighters in the Islamic State (IS) movement in Iraq and Syria, Bahrun is still registered as a member of a neighborhood unit in the Sangkrah subdistrict in Surakarta, Central Java. His hometown friends remember him differently from the fear-breeding terrorist suspect of today. Childhood friend Abdullah, 33, said that Bahrun was known to be a computer enthusiast and had graduated from the Sebelas Maret University (UNS) with a diploma from the mathematics and natural sciences department. He was also involved in social activities and was the head of the computer science student association at UNS. 'I was just shocked and in disbelief. How did he suddenly become a terrorist? That's a pretty big jump, if you ask me,' Abdullah said. Bahrun first came to prominence in 2010 when the National Police's counterterrorism unit Densus 88 arrested him and confiscated hundreds of bullets in his possession. He was eventually sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by the Surakarta District Court for violating Emergency Law No. 12/1951 on the possession of illegal firearms. Throughout the hearings, Bahrun maintained his innocence and claimed that he had been holding onto the bullets since 2005 for an acquaintance by the name of Purnomo Putro, also known as Ipung. Purnomo is currently on Indonesia's most-wanted list for his alleged involvement in terrorist-related activities. The police force believe that following his release in June 2012, Bahrun officially pledged himself to IS in 2014 and traveled to Syria in February 2015 after becoming a disciple of master recruiter Aman Abdurrahman, a terrorist convict, while serving in prison. Bahrun was connected to several failed terrorist attacks last year, including a plan to attack police stations, churches and temples in Surakarta. These attacks were foiled after the police arrested four men last August. The police also believe that he may have been connected to the 14 terrorist suspects arrested in Central Java, West Java and North Jakarta this month and in December. He has also been connected with the disappearance of Muhammadiyah Surakarta University student Siti Lestari, who reportedly dropped out and was declared missing in March last year. She is believed to have traveled to Syria to become Bahrun's third wife. How the 21-minute carnage unfold 10:45 a.m.: The first explosion takes place at the Starbucks cafe located inside the Cakrawala Building near the Sarinah shopping center on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta. Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron, 25, is suspected to be the one who committed the first suicide bomb attack. 10:46 a.m.: A second explosion occurs at a nearby traffic police post, which leads to the death of civilian Rico Hermawan, 20, who had been taken to the police post for an alleged traffic violation. Although Dian Jodi Kurniadi, 26, has been confirmed to be the perpetrator, the police have yet to conclude whether this explosion was a suicide bomb attack or simply a planted bomb that went awry. 10:50 a.m.: A crowd comprising civilians and traffic police gather around the area to inspect the explosion at the police post. Soon after, reinforcements from the Jakarta Police arrive to assist the situation. 10:52 a.m.: Two men, identified as Sunakim, 32, alias Afif, and Muhammad Ali, 40, appear from the crowd, walk in the direction of the Starbucks coffee shop and start firing and throwing grenades at nearby police and civilians. The shooting fatally injures Rais Karna, 37, an office boy working for Bangkok Bank. Rais passed away on Sunday from wounds sustained in the attack. 11:00 a.m.: A gunman enters the parking lot of the Starbucks coffee shop and starts shooting. Canadian Amer Quali Tahar, 69, is murdered. 11:05 a.m.: The police and the gunmen start firing at each other and the showdown leads to four officers getting shot. During the shoot-off, Afif and Ali attempt to throw bombs at the police and are eventually cornered into hiding behind a car. One of the thrown bombs successfully explodes near the police, while the other explodes prematurely near one of the gunmen, instantly killing both. 11:06 a.m.: Police officers comb the area for the next four hours for any other perpetrators. Although no one else is found, the Jakarta Police secure six active bombs that had yet to be detonated. Forensics analysis results The National Police's forensics unit concluded on Saturday that the bombs used and found during Thursday's attacks were low-grade explosives. The materials of the bomb that detonated inside the Starbucks coffee shop included a metal pipe used for the casing, light bulbs as part of the detonator, motorcycle batteries, explosive material, metal slabs and nails and bolts. Meanwhile, the materials of the bomb at the traffic police post included a 3 kilogram gas cylinder used for the casing, light bulbs as part of the detonator, motorcycle batteries, explosive material, metal slabs and nails and bolts. According to Sr. Comr. Hudi Suryanto of the forensics unit, the materials are similar to materials found in a bomb that was prematurely detonated in Beji, Depok in West Java in September 2012, injuring five people. 'The materials used for the explosives are very similar to other bombs. For example, [the bomb] at the mosque in the Cirebon Police precinct. The materials are the same. It's also the same as the one in Beji, Depok,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Grace D. Amianti and Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Publicly listed Bank Jabar Banten (BJB) plans to increase lending for infrastructure projects this year to support the government's program and boost economic growth. The bank booked Rp 6.8 trillion (US$486.2 million) in its loan portfolio for infrastructure development last year and aims to increase that amount to at least Rp 8 trillion this year, said BJB president director Ahmad Irfan. 'As one of Indonesia's 14 top banks, BJB is committed to supporting the country's infrastructure development and will increase financing to many projects this year,' Irfan said in a press statement. The commitment was also expressed during the bank's investor gathering on infrastructure, on Friday, which was also attended by Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, Bank Indonesia (BI) economic and monetary policy director Juda Agung and lawmaker from House of Representatives' Commission XI M. Misbakhun. Irfan said the bank, owned by the West Java and Banten regional administrations, had financed a number of infrastructure projects, such as power plants and toll roads in Java and other parts of the country. He said the bank was involved in the financing of four toll road projects, namely Cikopo-Palimanan, South Sentul-Kedung Halang-Kedung Badak-Simpang Yasmin and Kanci-Pejagan in West Java, and Gempol-Pandaan-Karangjati in East Java. The bank also participated in the financing of the Keban Agung coal-fired power plant in South Sumatra and 13 others across the country, he said. Aside from participating in syndicated loans, Irfan said BJB also financed construction companies, especially those related to central and regional governments. For infrastructure projects in 2016, Irfan said BJB was in the process of joining the financing for the West Java International Airport, as well as toll roads in West Java, namely Soreang-Pasir Koja and Bogor-Ciawi, and trans-Sumatra in Sumatra. Construction of the West Java International Airport, which will take place in Kertajati, Majalengka in West Java, has been stalled for a decade under the provincial administration. President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has assigned the Transportation Ministry to expedite the airport project and expects development to be completed by next year, saying that 'it has taken six years [for the land procurement] and I don't want construction to take even longer.' The airport, which is expected to handle 5.6 million passengers a year, is intended to serve as an alternative to ease traffic to and from Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung, as well as Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta. The West Java administration set aside only Rp 500 billion for the development this year, while the estimated amount needed for the project's overall construction is Rp 2.5 trillion. The gap will be met by the ministry using its allocated budget, according to Jokowi. The ministry, previously only in charge of developing the airport's air infrastructure, has spent Rp 375 billion to date on building the runway out of the Rp 1 trillion investment required for the air infrastructure. Previously, the regional administration, through province-owned enterprise PT Bandara Internasional Jawa Barat (BIJB), was in charge of the airport's land infrastructure construction, a task that will now be handled by the ministry. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Phnom Penh, Cambodia Mon, January 18, 2016 Cambodia's leader has gone to Singapore for an annual medical checkup, but has pointed out that this doesn't mean he doesn't trust the Cambodian health care system. In a message on his Facebook page Monday, Prime Minister Hun Sen said he has no critical illness and sought a checkup after spending "day and night" at work, leaving him little time to rest. Hun Sen said his presence in Singapore doesn't mean "that I do not trust Cambodian physicians." He says it was in fact advised by Singaporean and Cambodian doctors. Hun Sen has been in office for more than three decades, is known to often boast about his work and achievements. Thousands of Cambodians travel to neighboring Vietnam and Thailand every year because Cambodia lacks good medical facilities. (kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Public Works and Public Housing Ministry aims to see 20 percent progress in the construction of toll roads financed by a loan from the Chinese government, following the disbursement of the loan this month. The toll roads consist of Manado-Bitung in North Sulawesi, Balikpapan-Samarinda in East Kalimantan, Solo-Kertasana in Central Java and a second section of Cileunyi-Sumedang-Dawuan (Cisumdawu) in West Java. The ministry's director general of Bina Marga, Hediyanto W. Husaini, said that the ministry had received loan disbursement for three toll roads, with the exception of Manado-Bitung, amounting to around Rp 7 trillion (US$500.5 million) from the Rp 10 trillion loan for four toll roads. 'An administrative issue arose. There was a change in the company's name [that won the Manado-Bitung project],' he said, stating that the issue would be settled soon, allowing for project funds to be disbursed in the near future. He said the ministry had paid the contractors and that they were preparing to commence construction. Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said that loan disbursement for the toll roads was complete. 'It's just that we haven't paid the assistance for the project. We have Rp 700 billion left from the bidding and we'll use it for that so the projects can move forward,' he said. Basuki was referring to the government's state budget allocation for the assistance service in the planning phase of the projects, including the feasibility study and design. The government has decided to use Chinese loans for several projects, which require loan agreements to be signed beforehand. Basuki previously warned all stakeholders, including those from the Chinese Export Import Bank and embassy, that their loans might face cancellation by the Indonesian government should they not be able to cut three months off the 28-month loan disbursement. 'So people can see that we're actually serious [about building the toll roads],' he said. The government planned to construct a 20-kilometer stretch of toll road in the Solo-Ngawi section and a 36-km stretch in the Ngawi-Kertasana section, connecting cities in Central and East Java. The roads are set to commence operations in 2017. Meanwhile, the 61-km Cisumdawu toll road is expected to be ready by around 2019, to support the operation of the planned Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka, West Java, among others. It was slated to be financed by Rp 3.48 trillion from the loan. The loan was initially expected to be disbursed around November last year to boost the country's growth through infrastructure development. With state budget allocation amounting to Rp 104 trillion, the ministry aimed to build around 769-km of national roads and 29-km of toll roads this year. It planned to add an additional 1,000 km of toll roads until 2019. Hediyanto also added that there would be an additional 98-km of toll roads ready for use by Idul Fitri this year. The toll roads include part of Solo-Kertasana, Pejagan-Pemalang, Mojokerto-Surabaya, Semarang-Solo, as well as 10-km of Bakauheni-Terbanggi Besar in Sumatra. Meanwhile, the ministry's secretary general, Taufik Widjoyono, said that loan disbursement this month would start with an initial down payment of 10 percent. 'The rest will be paid based on construction progress on the field,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Beijing Mon, January 18, 2016 A Hong Kong book publisher whose disappearance sparked international interest voluntarily surrendered months ago to Chinese mainland authorities, state media said Sunday. Gui Minhai is one of five missing people who are associated with the publisher Mighty Current, which specializes in gossipy books on political scandals involving China's Communist leaders and other sensitive topics that are banned in the mainland. Their disappearances raised concerns Beijing is eroding the "one country, two systems" principle that has preserved freedom of the press and other rights in Hong Kong since China gained control of the city from Britain in 1997. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Gui said while in detention that he surrendered in October, 10 years after he fled China after killing a woman while driving drunk. The report did not say if he was facing trial nor did it address the other disappearances. Gui's friends have suspected he was abducted for political reasons by Chinese agents from his apartment in Pattaya, Thailand, and smuggled into China. He is a naturalized Swedish citizen, and his disappearance prompted questions from the Swedish Embassy. In the purported confession, Gui said he did not want any more "malicious media hype" over his case or any further assistance from Sweden. Earlier this month, a letter surfaced in which one of the men, British citizen Lee Bo, said he went to mainland China to assist an unspecified investigation. His wife then dropped a missing persons report on him, saying she believed he went to China voluntarily. In recent years China has stepped up its efforts to repatriate overseas fugitives, mostly Communist Party officials wanted on corruption charges. But its increasingly bold overseas operations have alarmed governments including the Australia and the United States. (kes)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Recent reports of the death of a chiropractic patient have raised questions about the safety of the drug-free therapy, which was introduced to the country in 2000. 'Many Indonesians underwent chiropractic therapy in other countries, like Singapore, the US, and Australia before 2000, at which point Indonesia started to acknowledge it,' said Tinah Tan, one of Indonesia's first chiropractic therapists and a representative of the Indonesian Chiropractic Association (Perchirindo), recently. Tinah added that at that time, many patients suffering from bone and nerve abnormalities chose chiropractic as complementary therapy to their medical treatment. Tina, who is also a doctor, explained that in chiropractic therapy, therapists ' better known as chiropractors ' helped the patients to heal their nerve and spinal problems by applying manual techniques, like joint adjustment and/or manipulation. Tina stressed that, before the therapy, chiropractors had to examine and diagnose the patients' problems precisely, as well as requiring them to bring medical records, like x-ray results. Tina emphasized that in Indonesia, people could not easily become chiropractors as they must be licensed as physicians first before undergoing further training to become chiropractic therapists. Then, they must acquire operational licenses from Perchirindo before they are able to practice the therapy. In Jakarta, according to Tina, chiropractor candidates should undergo chiropractic training for three semesters or 1,800 hours in a Biomechanical Medicine Conversion Course (BMCC). Tina, however, admitted that chiropractic had yet to be acknowledged in medical science in Indonesia. Chiropractic therapy is instead recognized as an alternative or traditional therapy. Slamet Budiarto from the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) concurred with Tina saying that doctors in Indonesia tended not to recommend chiropractic therapy as it was not recognized in medical science, unlike the orthopedic branch of medicine. _______________________________ 'Many Indonesians underwent chiropractic therapy in other countries, like Singapore, the US, and Australia before 2000, at which point Indonesia started to acknowledge it.' Chiropractic therapy has been in the spotlight recently because of the death of a patient, Allya Siska Nadya, in August last year. Allya died on Aug. 7, a day after she had two sessions of chiropractic therapy at the Chiropractic First clinic in Pondok Indah Mall, South Jakarta. The Jakarta Police have since discovered that neither the clinic nor its chiropractors possessed operational licenses. The police announced recently that they had named US chiropractor Randall Cafferty and Malaysian national Khan Wain Min ' owner of the Chiropractic First chain of clinics that employed Cafferty ' suspects in the alleged malpractice case that led to Allya's death. Responding to the issue, Slamet strongly criticized Jakarta's Health Agency for carelessly monitoring such practices. He questioned the agency's policies in supervising the licenses of therapists and clinics offering alternative health treatments. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman from Chiropractic First, Tabitha, offered condolences to Allya's family on their loss. She said Chiropractic First was working with the police to investigate the case, particularly in finding Cafferty, the chiropractor who handled Allya's problems. She added that the management did not know Cafferty's current whereabouts. She said that in November last year, Cafferty had resigned from Chiropractic First, which has seven clinics in the capital. Regarding the licenses, Tabitha said the company did hold operational licenses for some of its clinics and therapists, while licenses for the other clinics and therapists were being processed. Separately, a chiropractic patient, Inve Korianto, told The Jakarta Post about his experience in undergoing the treatment. He said that seeking relief from compressed nerves; he was tempted by an offer from a chiropractic clinic in a mall in South Jakarta. He said that he paid Rp 15 million (US$1,080) for 36 therapy sessions. According to him, to ease the pain, the chiropractor conducted some 'extreme' procedures on his spine. Nonetheless, he said that he gained slight improvement from the therapy as he no longer felt so much pain. 'Thus, I was shocked to hear of Allya's case, considering my own experience. I had an improvement after having similar treatments, although it was not significant,' said Inve, adding that his mother and some of his friends had also undergone chiropractic therapy. Regarding his mother's case, he said she had experienced significant improvement after the therapy. Inve added that he, however, would not choose chiropractic therapy again due to its high cost and extreme measures. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Raras Cahyafitri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The country saw a two-digit-drop in coal production in 2015 as plunging prices have pushed miners, particularly the small-scale players, to reduce activity. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's director for coal, Adhi Wibowo, said on Friday that national coal output reached 392 million tons in 2015, decreasing by around 14 percent from 458 million tons in the previous year. Of the total output, the export volume stood at 295.45 million tons, decreasing by 23 percent from 381.97 million tons in 2014. Adhi said that lower national production would be in line with the government's plans to secure reserves and resources for future use. 'It's good to see lower [coal] exports. It means that our coal reserves will last longer,' Adhi said. For the first time since 2012, the country posted coal production below 400 million tons. In the past years, production continued rising as the commodity's price lured producers to dig more to earn rising profits. Amid lower demand, falling coal prices have affected producers. The coal at Australia's port of Newcastle, the benchmark for thermal coal, was traded at US$49.6 per ton in the week ending Jan. 8, according to data from Globalcoal cited by Bloomberg. The price was the lowest level since 2006. From January to December 2015, Indonesia's reference price, known as the HBA, lost around 16 percent to $53.51 per ton from $63.84 per ton set in January. Global coal miners have been struggling to stay afloat amid low selling prices resulting from weakening growth in demand from major consumers amid a sluggish global economy. While the national total output was lower, some big miners have recorded higher production volume, in a move seemed to balance the low price. State-owned PT Bukit Asam reported 20 percent higher production at 19.17 million tons in 2015 compared with 16.37 million tons a year earlier. The company attributed the increase to improved infrastructure and transportation facilities. In 2016, Bukit Asam, whose shares are traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange under code PTBA, is aiming to report 34 percent growth in production to 25.75 million tons, according to corporate secretary Joko Pramono. 'PTBA is expecting to maintain a sound financial performance on several moves, including the usage of its own power plants [to support mining activities], reducing hauling distances and prioritizing sales of high-ranking coal to export markets,' Joko said. A number of other coal miners have also proposed higher production this year, according to figures from the mineral and coal directorate general. For example, Kaltim Prima Coal, the biggest producer in the country, has proposed production of 62 million tons this year, rising by around 9 percent from the estimated 2015 production of 56.9 million tons. Its sister firm, PT Arutmin Indonesia, the third-biggest coal miner in the country, proposed a major 27 percent jump in production this year to 32.2 million tons from an estimated realized output of 25.35 million tons in 2015. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin has denied claims that deradicalization programs aimed at combating terrorism have failed. Following the identification of two perpetrators of Thursday's blasts and shootings in Jakarta, both of whom were former terror convicts, Lukman admitted that the government faced shortcomings and challenges in the face of terrorism. "We do not feel we have failed. Deradicalization problems are bound to happen; the challenges only expand. This is a complicated issue," Lukman said on Sunday. "We are aware there are things that need to be addressed, deficiencies that need to be covered." Two of the four perpetrators of the terror attacks in Central Jakarta ' which killed eight people, including the attackers ' were identified as recidivist terrorists. The police have stated that the Islamic State (IS) movement was behind the attack. The Jakarta attack brought up issues surrounding the government's deradicalization efforts, which have long been criticized for limited progress. Media reported that the programs had been largely police-led, while little was done to challenge radical religious tenets. Critics have said that the programs often only used ceremonial approaches in fighting Islamic radicalism, whereas sympathizers of the IS movement, for example, used social media to attract youth. Lukman admitted that there was a need for improvement in the program, adding that the intelligence agency continued to work every day to secure the nation. "Of course we admit there are parts of our intelligence efforts that we must improve," he said as quoted by kompas.com. "There needs to be a strong commitment from all elements of the nation to combat terrorism, particularly through interfaith dialogue." To explain the situation, he used the analogy of safeguarding a house. Security officers who have guarded a house for a long time may one day experience a burglary, he said. However, that was not necessarily because the security officers were ineffective, but could be because other factors made the burglary possible, Lukman said. Meanwhile, Lukman emphasized the importance of upholding and respecting religious understanding. "Our nation is actually moderate and extends love and peace. That is the understanding of religion inherited from our predecessors from hundreds of years ago," Lukman said. (liz) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni & Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 PT Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin resigned from his position on Monday, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama has confirmed. "That's correct. He resigned today," Riza told thejakartapos.com on Monday night. According to a memorandum sent to Freeport Indonesia employees on Jan. 18, Maroef explained that his resignation was because his employment contract as Freeport Indonesia president director had expired. Although Freeport McMoran offered him an extension on his contract, Maroef'who was associated with Freeport recording scandal involving former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto'decided not to remain with the company and tendered his resignation. "I have handed in my resignation as the president director of PT Freeport Indonesia," Maroef stated in a written statement. Before serving as Freeport Indonesia president director, Maroef was State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy head from 2011 to 2014. On Jan. 7 2015, he left the agency to take the helm of Freeport Indonesia, replacing Rozik B. Soetjipto. Maroef was appointed directly by the chairman of the board of Freeport-McMoRan, James Robert Moffett, who also resigned from his position last month. Along with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, Maroef testified in front of the House's ethics council in hearings on the case, which ended with Novanto's resignation as House speaker. (ags) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The National Police are calling on the government to immediately revise Law No. 9/2013 on the prevention and eradication of terrorism, saying the existing antiterrorism law does not provide space for the police to conduct legal measures to tackle potential terrorists. 'All this time, the police could detect terrorists. However, we [the police] are not allowed to crack down on suspected terrorists if they don't commit any criminal offense,' National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said as quoted by kompas.com on Sunday. 'On some of the people arriving from Syria, for instance, we can do nothing because of limitations we are facing in the law. Therefore, we request that the government and the House of Representatives revise the current Terrorism Law,' he added. Badrodin went on to say that the documentation and mapping of radical groups in Indonesia was actually relatively good, with police officers able to monitor the movement and development of terrorists across the country. However, he said the police could not catch, arrest or interrogate alleged terrorists unless they committed acts that may lead to terror, such as buying explosive materials, surveying designated attack locations, recruiting people to be involved in terror attacks or organizing terrorist groups, he said. Badrodin said he hoped the revision of the 2013 Terrorism Law would enable the police to take legal steps against suspected terrorists although they were not yet proven to have committed terror acts. Only with such a capacity could the police combat terrorism maximally, he said. (cal/ebf)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Jakarta Police say they will continue to search for American chiropractor Randal Cafferty, who has been accused of being responsible for the death of Allya Siska Nadya. The police have accused Cafferty of malpractice in the death of Allya, who he had treated. 'We are trying to complete the investigation while we hunting for Randall,' the head of Jakarta Police's general crimes division, Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti, said on Monday. The immigration directorate general has stated that Cafferty is still in Indonesia even though his visa had expired. 'If he is still in Indonesia, we will arrest him and take legal action against him,' Khrisna said, adding that Cafferty had violated four laws: the Immigration Law, the Health Law, the Health Worker Law and the Medical Practice Law. The police declared Cafferty and Malaysian clinic owner Kan Wai Ming suspects last week. The police are still hunting for both. The autopsy found that Allya's death was related to chiropractic manipulation as she had suffered internal bleeding in the upper neck area. Should Cafferty already be in the US, the police will submit Cafferty's investigation documents to US authorities and delve into what legal proceedings can be taken. Indonesia does not have an extradition treaty with the US. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 State-owned shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia launched two warships on Monday, one of which will be the first naval vessel exported by the domestic ship-building industry. The two ships launched in Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java, were Missile Destroyer (PKR)-1 and Strategic Sealift Vessel (SSV)-1. PT PAL president director M. Firmansyah said the PKR-1 was ordered by Indonesia's Defense Ministry while the SSV-1 was ordered by the Philippines' Defense Ministry. The firm secured the order worth US$90 million from the Philippines' government for the construction of two SSVs after winning an international tender process. He said the SSV-1 was completely built by PT PAL and was in accordance with Lloyd's Registry classification. "This is the first warship ever to be exported by Indonesia. This marks another country's acknowledgment of [our] maritime advancement," he said on Monday as quoted by tempo.co. Regarding the PKR-1, Firmansyah explained that PAL cooperated with Netherlands-based Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding through a transfer-of-technology mechanism. The firm would finish off PKR-1 and SSV-1 before officially handing them over to the Defense Ministry in January 2017 and the Philippines' Defense Ministry in May 2016, respectively. Firmansyah explained that PAL had conducted hydrodynamic laboratory tests to get the design of the best quality warship. "We will complete the process, test it and conduct sea trials before sending it to the Philippines," he said. Tuesday's event also marked the completion of the order for the SSV-2 by the Philippines and the naming of the SSV-1 as the Tarlac. Tarlac is the birth province of Philippines' President Benigno Simeon Aquino. (rin) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian has said Bahrun Naim, aka Singgih Tamtomo, aka Abu Rayan, who is suspected of orchestrating the terror attack near the Sarinah shopping center on Jl. MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, plays a crucial role in the Islamic State (IS) group. He said Bahrun was the main connection between IS leaders and terrorist cells in Indonesia. 'Regarding his relationship with IS in Syria, Bahrun Naim's role is crucial because he is the main connector between IS and elite groups and foot soldiers and cells in Indonesia,' said Tito as quoted by kompas.com after a call-of-readiness ceremony of security forces personnel at the National Monument (Monas) in Central Jakarta on Monday. Eight people, including four civilians, were left dead, while more than 20 others were injured, following the suicide bombings and gun attacks on Thursday. Bahrun has been bruited as the mastermind and funding source of several terrorist acts in Indonesia. It is reported that Bahrun is currently in Syria. A brief recorded message believed to have been sent by Bahrun has been circulating among IS activists in Surakarta, Central Java, following the Jakarta attacks. The police had not yet determined the authenticity of the voice on the recording, however, Tito said. 'Not yet. We have not yet examined the recording,' said Tito. Police arrested Bahrun for the illegal possession of ammunition ahead of the arrival of US President Barack Obama in Indonesia in November 2010. Surakarta District Court later sentenced Bahrun to two-and-a-half years in prison. In 2014, Bahrun is believed to have flown to Syria to join IS. Thursday's attack is being viewed as Bahrun's effort to prove his influence in Indonesia so that he can be appointed as the IS leader in Southeast Asia. 'Bahrun aims to establish Khatibah Nusantara [Islamic states] in Southeast Asia. He also wants to be the leader of the IS group in the Central Asia and Bahrun is reported to have a tough rival from the Southern Philippines for this position,' said Tito. Bahrun has other connections with militant networks in Indonesia. 'A member of the Abu Musad group, Arif Hidayatullah, who was arrested in a boarding house in Bekasi and reportedly aimed to launch a terror attack in December 2015, had direct communication with Bahrun Naim,' said Tito. Apart from the Abu Musad group, another terror group identified only as the HD group, several of whose members were arrested in Bekasi some time ago, was reported to have a connection with Bahrun. During the police raid in Bekasi nine weapons were seized. Tito said during their investigation, the police revealed that the Sarinah attackers traveled from Meruya, West Jakarta, prior to the attack. They reportedly did not have direct contact with Bahrun, only via a variety of messengers. (ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Erika Anindita (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) will defend its decision to name state-owned port operator PT Pelindo II's former president director Richard Joost Lino a suspect in a graft case during a pretrial hearing at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday. The antigraft body's legal team, which has prepared the Lino case dossiers needed for the pretrial hearing on Monday, will be led by its legal bureau head, Setiadi. 'We have finished our consolidation with our expert team and we are ready to defend [our decision] in today's hearing,' KPK spokeswoman Yuyuk Andriati told thejakartapost.com on Monday morning. On Jan.11, the KPK requested a two-week postponement for the pretrial hearing of the Lino case. The South Jakarta District Court granted the commission's request to postpone the hearing and to resume it on Jan.18, as requested by Lino's lawyer Maqdir Ismail. Lino filed a pretrial motion challenging his suspect status on Dec. 28, 2015. On Dec.18, 2015, the KPK named Lino a graft suspect for his alleged involvement in a corruption case related to a direct appointment in the procurement of three quay container cranes (QCC) in 2010. Lino was allegedly misusing his authority to enrich himself by conducting the direct procurement of the three QCCs from Chinese company Wuxi Huadong Heavy Machinery Co. Ltd. (HDHM). He was charged under Article 2 and/or Article 3 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption eradication and Article 55 of the Criminal Code. The KPK has also imposed a travel ban on Lino since Dec. 30, which is effective for the following six months. State losses In a statement on Jan. 13, KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said that on the commission's request the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) had calculated the state losses in the Lino case. However, he refused to mention the exact amount of the losses. "We have the amount of the losses. We have calculated it," Agus said as quoted by kompas.com at the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) headquarters. The KPK chairman added that the findings about the state losses in Lino case would be revealed during the trial. In 2014, The Jakarta Post wrote, the BPKP's audit documents dated 2011 indicated foul play in the purchase of three QCCs in 2010 for three ports in Palembang, South Sumatra, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, and Lampung. The documents suggested several violations, including in the direct appointment of HDHM to supply the cranes at a cost of US$17 million. "The procurement process by direct selection [in February 2010] to appoint [negotiations were completed in April 2010] HDHM did not go through the proper mechanism," the BPKP said in the document. (ebf)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said on Sunday that it would continue to collect evidence to confirm the alleged involvement of House of Representatives lawmakers Budi Supriyanto of the Golkar Party and Yudi Widiana of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in a bribery case implicating the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Damayanti Wisnu Putranti. The KPK raided the offices of the two legislators on Friday at the House complex amid speculation that the businessman who is alleged to have bribed Damayanti, identified as PT Windhu Tunggal Utama (WTU) CEO Abdul Khoir, paid a total of S$404,000 to 'a number of parties', including Damayanti, to secure a construction project worth billions of rupiah in the Maluku Islands, the budget for which was recently approved by House Commission V overseeing infrastructure, which the three lawmakers sit on. The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has earmarked the project for this year. Damayanti is the only lawmaker that has been arrested in the case, but the KPK has said that there is a possibility other lawmakers accepted bribes from Abdul. KPK spokesman Priharsa Nugraha said that KPK investigators would name other individuals suspects in the case if they were able to confirm their involvement with at least two pieces of strong evidence. 'As long as we can find strong evidence, we will [name more suspects in the case],' Priharsa told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. Priharsa, however, refused to disclose whether Budi and Yudi would be named suspects, despite the raids on their offices. The KPK arrested Damayanti for allegedly accepting $99,000 from Abdul on Wednesday, along and two of Damayanti's friends identified as Julia Prasetyarini and Dessy A. Edwin, who allegedly helped deliver the money from Abdul to her. KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo emphasized that KPK investigators would catch other suspects. 'I don't want to disturb the work of investigators who have been in the field for days [by disclosing details of the case],' Agus said. KPK investigators confiscated on Friday documents and several electronic devices from the raid they conducted at the House, where they also searched Damayanti's office for more evidence. The bribery scheme allegedly began amid President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo's nationwide campaign to step up infrastructure development in the eastern part of the country. Cities and regencies in the eastern part of the country are still considered underdeveloped compared to those in the country's western area, such as Java and Sumatra. Separately, PKS chairman Sohibul Iman summoned Yudi after KPK investigators searched his office at the House complex on Friday to ask for clarification regarding his possible involvement in Dayamanti's case. Sohibul said Yudi told him that he was innocent, adding that the Islamic-based political party respected the legal process at the KPK. 'I summoned him directly [after the raid]. He told me that he had nothing to do with the case. We don't want to talk about things that might take place in the future, but should it be proven that a violation took place, we will issue a sanction,' Sohibul said as quoted by kompas.com on Sunday. Of the belief that his colleagues are innocent, House Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah of PKS attempted to stop KPK investigators from carrying out Friday's raids. __________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Lynne OaDonnell (The Jakarta Post) Kabul Mon, January 18, 2016 Representatives of four countries gathered amid tight security in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday for a second round of talks aimed at bringing an end to Afghanistan's 15-year war with the Taliban by charting a roadmap to peace. Senior officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States would meet for one day, a week after a first round of discussions in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said Shekib Mostaghni, the Afghan Foreign Ministry's spokesman. Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani opened the meeting at the Presidential Palace in the center of the capital calling on the Taliban to "accept the government's call for peace through dialogue." "There isn't a single Afghan family that hasn't been affected by the daily acts of brutal and deadly terrorism carried out across our cities, towns, and villages," Rabbani said in the televised speech. "I take this opportunity and call on all Taliban groups to accept our call for peace through dialogue, and to come to the table for talks so that we can resolve all differences politically and ensure the rightful and just desire of the Afghan people for lasting peace," he said. The meeting ' which does not include Taliban representatives' is part of a three-step process, said Abdul Hakim Mujahid of Kabul's High Peace Council, set up by former President Hamid Karzai to bring about an end to the war. Mujahid also served in the Taliban's 1996-2001 administration. "The first step is to formulate a roadmap, the second is to invite the armed opposition to the negotiating table and the last step is the implementation of the peace plan," Mujahid told The Associated Press. Analysts have said it will be months before even the second stage ' bringing the Taliban into direct dialogue with Kabul ' is reached. Meanwhile, the insurgents are stepping up their war against Kabul, as Afghan forces fight largely without the support of international troops after the US and NATO combat mission drawdown at the end of 2014. This is seen as an attempt to boost legitimacy on the battlefield so the Taliban can enter any peace talks from a position of strength. Independent analyst Haroun Mir said the talks also aimed to build trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan as "President Ghani has said first peace with Pakistan and then the Taliban." After spending much of the first year of his presidency attempting to mend fences with Pakistan and cajole Islamabad into ending its alleged support for the Taliban in cities close to the Afghan border, Ghani sent bilateral relations into a chill after a series of deadly attacks in Kabul that he blamed on Pakistani-sponsored insurgent groups. Pakistan has denied accusations that it supports the Taliban on its soil. Mostaghni said the same people were gathered in Kabul as in Islamabad to discuss the roadmap, "focusing on peace negotiations and concluding the agenda on which to move forward." They are Afghanistan's Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai, US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard G. Olson, his Chinese counterpart Deng Xijun and Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. Sartaj Aziz, a senior foreign policy adviser to Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pentagon's senior envoy to Pakistan, Lt. Gen. Anthony Rock, were also present. The talks revive a process that began in July with the first and so far only official meeting between representatives of Kabul and the Taliban sponsored by the Pakistanis. A second round was cancelled after the Afghan government announced that the Talban's founder and leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had been dead since early 2013, and the militant group had been secretly run by his deputy, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor. Once the lie was revealed, the Taliban split into factions and it remains unclear who will represent the insurgency if and when a dialogue does begin. An official in Kabul from one of the countries involved in the talks said that another two rounds of these "preparatory meetings" were likely to take place as they worked out the details of a future dialogue. "There are different opinions about the methodologies and approaches in resuming these talks," he said. The roadmap would include "who do they want to talk to, on what timetable, what incentives are to be offered, and what kind of action will be taken with those people who want to talk and those who do not want to talk," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with the media on the issue. ___ Associated Press writer Humayoon Babur contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Haeril Halim and Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Indonesia's convoluted and messy judicial system seems to have encouraged the rise of terrorism after one of the attackers in Thursday's 'Paris-style' assault that killed four civilians is now believed to have been a former convicted terrorist who apparently received remissions due to 'good behavior'. Afif, also known as Sunakim, identified on the day of the attack donning a DJ Tiesto shirt, was supposed to have remained in prison until 2017. However, the Law and Human Rights Ministry shortened his sentence by two years. Akbar Hadi, a spokesman from the ministry's directorate general for penitentiaries, confirmed on Sunday that Afif had received various types of remissions during his time at the Cipinang Penitentiary in East Jakarta between 2010 and 2015. The sentence reductions included provisions for the Idul Fitri holiday and the so called Dasawarsa remissions granted by the government to all inmates at 20-year intervals. 'He [Afif] was qualified to receive the remissions because he showed good behavior while in prison,' Hadi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, insisting that the remissions were justified under existing regulations. Afif was sentenced by the West Jakarta District Court to seven years in prison in 2010, a sentence that was further confirmed by the Jakarta high court in March 2011. He was among 40 men arrested in Aceh in 2010 for illegal firearms possession and for involvement in underground combat training sponsored by terrorist leader Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and radical ideologue Aman Abdurrahman. The remissions were given despite Afif's refusal to join in deradicalization programs aimed at preventing imprisoned terrorists from committing further violence. 'We cannot force an inmate to join a deradicalization program. It is just an option. The remissions were probably given because Afif had joined a prayer program,' Akbar said. 'The point is that if a penitentiary releases a convict, then he or she has already met the necessary requirements. We never release a convict without basis.' Indonesia's prisons are notoriously weak on law enforcement and face serious problems such as pervasive corruption and overcapacity. Convicted terrorists are sometimes considered well-behaved because they often lead prayer groups. Along with Dian Jodi Kurniadi, Muhammad Ali and Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron, Afif launched a coordinated attack aimed at police and foreigners in a district packed with malls, embassies, government headquarters and UN offices in Central Jakarta. Afif and Ali were killed after the bomb that they were carrying prematurely detonated in the parking lot of a Starbucks coffee shop. Dian and Ahmad died committing suicide bomb attacks. The police have listed former terror convict Muhammad Bahrun Naim as the mastermind behind the attack. Bahrun is currently fighting with the Islamic State (IS) in Raqqa, Syria. The police also found that Bahrun and Afif shared similar doctrines, thought to have been injected into them by IS spiritual leader in Indonesia Aman. While the police have not uncovered any evidence to suggest that Aman orchestrated the attack, the police have indicated that the alleged perpetrators were disciples of Aman. 'Bahrun Naim used to be a member of Aman's praying community before joining IS in Syria,' National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan said on Sunday. 'The police are still looking for leads that can link Aman with Bahrun in the plot,' he said. Aman, also known as Oman Rochman, is among just a few individuals in Indonesia who are trusted enough by the IS hierarchy that their recommendations and schemes are considered sufficient without additional references from IS headquarters, according to research by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC). Through his Tauhid wal Jihad organization, Aman, 44, manages his followers, conducts recruitment for IS and launches IS propaganda behind bars. Due to the Aceh camp incident, Aman and Ba'asyir received nine and 15 years in prison, respectively, and are now detained in the supposedly maximum-security prison of Nusakambangan on an island off the shores of Cilacap, Central Java. Encouraged by Aman, Ba'asyir agreed to pledge his allegiance to IS in mid 2014, enraging his own family and loyalists who had long provided support to al-Qaeda's splinter faction Jabhat al-Nusra in its fight against Syrian government forces. It was also due to Aman's charms and charisma that Afif, previously a petty criminal, decided to join a training camp in Aceh, a move that eventually landed him in prison. Meanwhile, the death toll from Thursday's attack rose to eight after a fourth civilian, Rais Karna, succumbed to the wounds he sustained on the day. The police also announced that Sugito, who was killed in the attack, was a civilian and not one of the bombers, as previously thought. Of the eight dead, the police have listed four as perpetrators. ___________________________________ To receive comprehensive and earlier access to The Jakarta Post print edition, please subscribe to our epaper through iOS' iTunes, Android's Google Play, Blackberry World or Microsoft's Windows Store. Subscription includes free daily editions of The Nation, The Star Malaysia, the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Asia News. For print subscription, please contact our call center at (+6221) 5360014 or subscription@thejakartapost.com Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Errin Haines Whack (The Jakarta Post) Mon, January 18, 2016 Martin Luther King Jr. was surrounded by guns, even though he didn't like them. At times, armed foot soldiers protected the Baptist preacher and his family. As he led protests across the rural South, King often stood in proximity of guns ' wielded by local police, state troopers or hostile people in the crowds. On April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader became one of America's most famous victims of gun violence. Just as guns were a complicated issue for King in his lifetime, they loom large over the 30th anniversary of the holiday honoring his birthday. Urban violence, mass shootings and killings of unarmed blacks by police have caused alarm, touched off protests and revived the nation's conversation about gun control. President Barack Obama recently took executive action to tighten federal gun restrictions, invoking King as he urged citizens to press for change. "There is nothing in the history that suggests that Martin Luther King felt that guns weren't useful for self-defense," said Adam Winkler, UCLA law professor and author of the book "Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America." ''Clearly, guns were used to protect (King) ... (He) could not rely on the government." Inside the civil rights movement, some activists saw guns as a necessary means of self-defense. As a Southerner, King understood that strong culture of gun possession, even though he came to reject it, said Charles E. Cobb, Jr., a former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and author of the book, "This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible." "If you went to King's house in 1955 or 1956, there were guns," Cobb said in an interview. "When they bombed his house in 1956, his first instinct was to apply for a gun permit. He moves toward nonviolence slowly. By the 1960s, he abandoned the idea of weapons for self-defense." Some blacks, Cobb recalled, jokingly referring to their personal weapons as "nonviolent pistols." "They would say, even as they were cleaning their rifles, how glad they were to be part of the movement," Cobb said. "They knew King wasn't going to be carrying a weapon, so people's attitude was, 'We're not going to let the white people kill him.'" The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a King aide who was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when King was shot and killed, said King was mindful of the role of guns. "Dr. King's point was that the protection of one's home is self-evident, but he was quick to add that you're more likely to shoot a relative or commit suicide (with a gun)," Jackson said. "He refused to keep a gun in his house for that reason." After his home was bombed, King got rid of his gun and eschewed weapons, said King lieutenant Andrew Young. Before joining King, Young owned a shotgun and a handgun. The movement did not condemn defensive violence, Young explained; King simply did not engage in it. "He decided he was not going to have a gun, and he didn't want anybody with guns around him," Young said. In his book, Winkler writes that after the 1956 bombing, which occurred during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, King applied for a concealed carry permit. He was denied by a county sheriff. That incident has led some to embrace King as a supporter of the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment which guarantees the right to bear arms. In 2014, commentator Colion Noir posted a video on NRANews.com citing King's gun permit application as proof that he was not opposed to guns. The website is run by the National Rifle Association, an influential gun rights lobbying group. "Dr. King was a nonviolent man, but even he understood the realities of self-defense and protecting his home and his family in the face of life-threatening violence," said Noir. After President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963, Young recalled King telling him: "Guns are going to be the death of this country." "He said, Kennedy had Secret Service around him with guns and they couldn't protect him, which says guns can't protect you," Young said. According to a compilation of King's writings and speeches by Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson, King said in November 1963 that Kennedy's assassination could be blamed in part on Americans' casual attitudes about gun violence. King said: "By our readiness to allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at whim, by allowing our movie and television screens to teach our children that the hero is one who masters the art of shooting and the technique of killing, by allowing all these developments, we have created an atmosphere in which violence and hatred have become popular pastimes." King's nonviolent mentality stood in stark contrast to those armed, hate-filled whites who showed up at peaceful protests, and the more radical black groups that emerged later, said King biographer Taylor Branch. "Even after black power made guns kind of popular in the radical movement, King said he would never carry a gun," Branch said. "He rejected all forms of violence and got stronger on it as he went along." Cobb, however, said many of King's followers "felt their duty was to protect the movement, grab a rifle" and drive away threats. "They didn't see any contradiction between saying they were part of the nonviolent movement and keeping their weapons clean and ready," Cobb said. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) will issue a fatwa (edict) on a controversial organization called Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) in February, as the group is suspected to have deviant teachings and be behind the disappearance of several of its member, a top ulema said. A member of the MUI's research and study commission, Ridha Salamah, said on Sunday that the MUI is currently still studying and collecting evidence related to Gafatar, including by holding discussions in several areas in Indonesia, like Yogyakarta, Palembang and Aceh. The central office of the MUI's edict division would make the formal announcement on whether Gafatar is a heretic movement based on authentic evidence and accurate data. "The MUI is constructing the basics of edict so that it would be accompanied by valid research and methodology so that its accountability could be questioned by academics, practitioners or religious scholars," he said as quoted by Antara news agency. Ridha explained that even though there had been preliminary suspicions on Gafatar's heretical nature, the MUI needed further evidence that showed it was a new form of Al Qidayah al-Islamiyah that was founded by Ahmad Musadeq. The MUI had already declared Al Qidayah al Islamiyah a heretic organization. Musadeq was also sentenced to four years in prison by the South Jakarta District Court in 2008 for religious defamation. The former member of the Indonesian Islamic State (NII) founded Al Qidayah and declared himself a prophet following a revelation he claimed he received during 40 days of meditation on a mountain in West Java. Ridha said that one of Gafatar's members had testified that Musadeq was involved in Gafatar. Still, the MUI was to collect more testimony from other witnesses. Like Al Qidayah, Gafatar can be considered deviant if its ideology is proven to unify Islamic, Christian and Judaic teachings. There had been reports of dozens of people, suspected to be the members of Gafatar, having disappeared after leaving their homes and families, allegedly to follow Gafatar's instruction to make an exodus away from the island of Java. However, Ridha said that those disappearances could not be the base of Gafatar's heresy as the people had consciously joined the organization. (cal/rin)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Vice President Jusuf Kalla has denied that the transitional leadership established for the Golkar Party aims to control the future of the country's oldest political party. Kalla, a former party chief, has been appointed as part of a transition team, alongside other senior cadres, to run the party until its next congress. Former president BJ Habibie and other former bureaucrats from Soeharto's New Order Era, including Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Emil Salim, Abdul Latief, Siswono Yudo Husodo, Theo L. Sambuaga and Soemarsono, are also part of the team. 'There is no intention to lead. What's in it for me? I have been a party chairman, Habibie, too, other [transition team members] have led Golkar as well,' he said in Makassar, South Sulawesi, on Sunday, as quoted by Antara news agency. 'We are saddened with the prolonged rift inside the party. [Several men] have treated Golkar as if it is private property. It shouldn't be that way. [The party] should be [run] democratically'. The party's internal tribunal has issued a ruling to end the protracted leadership dispute between rivals Aburizal Bakrie and Agung Laksono. The ruling instructs the formation of a leadership transition team, with Habibie and Kalla at the helm. Tribunal chairman Muladi said that the ruling was intended to push through a permanent solution to the infighting and gives the transition team the important task of staging a national congress planned for March this year. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Julie Pace and Kevin Freking (The Jakarta Post) Washington Mon, January 18, 2016 The United States on Sunday imposed sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile testing even as President Barack Obama hailed the release of five Americans from Tehran's custody and the implementation of a nuclear deal he hopes will stand among his lasting foreign policy achievements. Obama pledged to counter vigorously Iran's "destabilizing behavior" across the Mideast even while the U.S. engages with the Islamic Republic. After the Americans had been freed, Obama announced economic sanctions against 11 individuals and entities as a result of a ballistic missile launch in October. "We're not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners," Obama said. With the sanctions announcement, Obama also sought to counter criticism from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates that his actions had appeased a nation that has aided the spread of Islamic extremism. "It reflects a pattern we've seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists and making deals and trades that endanger U.S. safety and security," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading Republican presidential contender, said on Fox News Sunday. "Our enemies now know that if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it," another Republican candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said on NBC's Meet the Press. But Obama said he decided "that a strong confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government." Democratic lawmakers who supported the agreement applauded the sanctions announced Sunday. Five Democratic senators said in a joint letter to Obama that failure to impose the restrictions could encourage Tehran to violate international obligations with impunity. The Obama administration worked for nearly 14 months behind the scenes to negotiate the prisoner trade. Iran also agreed to work to locate American Robert Levinson, who vanished during a trip to Iran in 2007. In a reciprocal move, Obama said that six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the U.S. were being granted clemency. He emphasized that they were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses. "They're civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play," Obama said. Obama said the U.S and Iran had also resolved a longstanding dispute over money Iran used to buy military equipment from the U.S. before the two countries broke ties. Iran will get more than $400 million, plus $1.3 billion in interest. The White House said its lawyers assessed that the U.S. could have faced a "significantly higher judgment" if the case continued. "There was no benefit to the U.S. is dragging this out," Obama said. Obama used his Sunday morning statement from the White House to speak directly to the Iranian people: "We have a rare chance to pursue a new path ' a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world." Obama said Iran has a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world in commerce, science and the arts, but "your government's threats and actions to destabilize your region have isolated Iran from much of the world." The Obama administration said it was prepared to test whether additional cooperation with Iran was possible, most notably in resolving the civil war in Syria. White House officials said during a briefing held after the president's address that Iran could play a significant role in resolving the Syrian civil war, but profound differences exist. They said Iran needs to understand the fighting won't be resolved as long as Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power. The officials said they know Iran is not going to dramatically change its actions in the next year or two. "If Iran does act in a more constructive fashion, it would be a positive development in resolving difficult issues," the White House officials said. "If they don't, we will continue to enforce our sanctions and continue to have very strong differences." (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Adimas Mulya Nurahmatsyah (The Jakarta Post) Singapore Mon, January 18, 2016 Recently reports circulated regarding the Financial Services Authority's (OJK) plan to require all foreign venture capitalists operating in Indonesia to partner with local companies. OJK commissioner Firdaus Djaelani claimed that this measure should be taken to counter any potential money laundering or illegal activities. If the policy were put in place, foreign venture capitalists would have to seek a local partner to form a locally established joint venture. The OJK claims that the plan is intended to provide protection and a boost for the local creative industry. However, from the outside perspective, this might not be the case. As a matter of fact, this measure appears symptomatic of the direction in recent years of Indonesian policymaking: protectionist sentiment. Protectionism is of course nothing new, but is increasingly evident from a number of cases, which should serve as a warning for potential foreign investors looking to enter Indonesia. The mineral export ban, for example, serves as a benchmark for potential investors in extractive industries when planning to set up business in the country. In the financial sector, a tough debate took place in the drafting of the new Banking Law regarding the limitation of foreign ownership in an Indonesian bank. Here, nationalism serves as camouflage for possible vested interests. From a regulatory perspective, the limit will be stipulated in the implementing regulation of the law. Would protectionism hurt the promising growth of Indonesia's digital economy and creative industry? It may in some ways. If the OJK viewed it from an investor's perspective ' note that 75 percent of US businesses in Southeast Asia currently plan to expand to Indonesia ' it would soon realize that this policy would instead offer another obstacle in doing business and driving the economy of a country with a population of more than 250 million people. It is the very nature of foreign investors to first search for a local partner before entering a new and potentially hostile territory. It is the most logical step for them. But with partnering with local companies being an obligation, it is also imperative for them to know their partners better, which requires extensive and comprehensive due diligence in identifying the potential risks of a potential partner. Well-performed due diligence not only assist potential investors in checking their compliance tick-box for their future partner, it can be utilized further as an investigation tool to understand specific information regarding a potential business partner, such as industry reputation, business plan and strategy, verifying adverse information, leadership succession plans, and, most importantly, whether the potential partner is a good fit for the investor's future plan. Many potential investors have been known to call off their plan of entering Indonesia after finding out that their future partner had a long history of dispute, fraud or corruption, was a proxy for other business interests or even political interests, or was associated with disreputable entities. Naturally, it is not the case that potential business partners in Indonesia are all unworthy to be partnered with. However, searching for the right business partner gives a certain degree of difficulties ' as is very time-consuming ' and may even hinder potential investors from injecting much-needed capital into our growing businesses. This also leaves potential investors to partner with only existing and established names in the industry. If we consider Indonesia's demographics and its potential, it is inarguable that the digital economy and creative industry hold an increasingly important position in our future. With a population of a quarter billion, Indonesia has a relatively young population, with a median age of 29.2, even younger compared to other competing nations in ASEAN such as Singapore (33.8) and Thailand (36.2). Yet internet penetration in Indonesia is relatively low ' 17.1 percent of population ' compared with other countries in the region, such as Malaysia (67.5 percent), Singapore (82 percent), Thailand (34.9 percent) and Vietnam (48.3 percent). Although we have already seen several local e-businesses thriving and successfully capturing the local audience, the low figures of internet penetration in Indonesia could be translated as territory unexploited by future creative industry and digital economy players. Indeed, the government seems to have stepped up its awareness on this industry; not long after the Transportation Ministry banned transportation service Go-Jek, President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo himself ordered the minister to revoke the ban in less than 24 hours. With all these reasons to believe that the digital economy will grow exponentially in the future, it seems that the OJK is not yet in tune or synchronized with the government's spirit to support the growth of the industry. If we were to consider the regulatory capture theory, we might want to rethink who the agency is trying to protect or, furthermore, who actually benefits from this planned policy. On the one hand, potential new foreign investors might only want to consider a partnership with established names in the local venture capital scene. On the other hand, local businesses within the digital economy may have limited choices in obtaining funding support and thus have to wait longer before they receive capital injections from investors. The OJK's plan might serve as a call for the stricter implementation of rigorous and comprehensive due diligence that the sector needs. But more importantly, looking at it from Indonesia's perspective, the government appears to be limiting the amount of support citizens can obtain from various channels, including from foreign venture capital companies. It is very plausible this policy would slow down the positive growth of Indonesia's digital economy and creative industry ' or worse, overlook the wealth of opportunities it offers. _________________________________ The writer is an Indonesian political and regulatory specialist at a global risk consultancy firm, based in Singapore. The views expressed are his own. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The police have confirmed that the death of Wayan Mirna Salihin was caused by cyanide poisoning, but they have not come to any definitive conclusion as to who laced Mirna's coffee in a restaurant in a mall in Central Jakarta on Jan. 6. "Our investigation is now to clarify what happened and find a suspect," said head of Jakarta Police's general crime division Sr. Corm. Krishna Murti in Jakarta on Monday. Assistant head of the National Police forensics laboratory Sr. Comr. Hudi Suryanto said on Monday that evidence of cyanide poisoning came from an examination of the coffee drunk by Mirna and from her autopsy. "We carried out more than one test to get an accurate examination result. Therefore, we are sure that the result is accurate," Hudi told the journalists. In the coffee she drank and in Mirna's stomach contents, police found traces of natrium cyanide (NaCN), which was not present in the restaurant's coffee stock. "The possibility that the cyanide was inserted during the coffee-making process is small, but we will examine it further," said Khrisna. "We still cannot confirm the level of cyanide in Mirna's body because the police's forensics laboratory has not issued an official statement," Khrisna added, referring to a previous report that the amount of cyanide in the coffee was 15 grams. However, Hudi is satisfied that the cyanide level in Mirna's body was high given the speed at which it killed Mirna. Krishna said the police had not determined that Mirna was intentionally poisoned. Police will carry out another reconstruction and collect other evidence before officially revealing the cause of Mirna's death, he added. Based on the previous reconstruction Mirna was at the restaurant with her friends Hani and Jessica. Jessica had arrived first and ordered a cocktail and the coffee for Mirna. Minutes later Mirna and Hani arrived and Mirna drank the coffee. Mirna commented on the bad taste of the coffee before suffering from convulsions and foaming at the mouth. She was rushed to hospital where she was later confirmed dead. (bbn)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Ahmad Junaidi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 The Ahmadiyah Muslim group has urged the government to protect its followers from being expelled from their homes in Bangka regency, Bangka Belitung province. They have called on the government to initiate further dialogue to create mutual understanding between conflicting communities. 'The government should protect the rights of citizens and promote dialogue among people, instead of getting involved in the conflict and making it worse,' Indonesian Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) spokesman Yendra Budiana said on Sunday. Yendra said the Bangka regency administration had recently issued a letter urging Ahmadiyah followers in Srimenanti subdistrict, Sungailiat district, to convert to the mainstream Sunni teachings of the Indonesian Muslim majority or face expulsion from the regency. The letter, dated Jan. 5, also stated that JAI was forbidden from spreading its teachings in the regency. The regency's decision outlined in the letter was based on a meeting with the Religious Community Harmony Forum (FKUB) on Dec. 14, last year. The meeting was attended by the leaders of the local chapters of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Muhammadiyah, the Bangka Police chief, the district chief and a representative from JAI. In the meeting, the Bangka police chief and the district chief all called for the expulsion of Ahmadiyah followers. Yendra said Ahmadiyah followers, numbering roughly 100 in the subdistrict, would not leave their homes and would continue to conduct dialogue with the local administration and other related parties. 'It's not about the number. It's about their rights as citizens. The government should protect their rights,' he said. New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Sunday urging the Indonesian government to immediately intervene to protect members of the Ahmadiyah from intimidation and threats of expulsion. 'Bangka officials are conspiring with Muslim groups to unlawfully expel Ahmadiyah community members from their homes,' said Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 'President Joko Widodo needs to immediately intervene to uphold the rights of the Ahmadiyah and to punish officials who advocate religious discrimination.' Members of Bangka Island's Ahmadiyah community, which comprise just 14 families, told Human Rights Watch that the expulsion order followed months of harassment and intimidation by government officials, police officers and representatives from Muslim groups. The Ahmadiyah identify themselves as Muslims, but differ with other Muslims as to whether Muhammad was the final prophet. Consequently, some Muslims consider the Ahmadiyah to be heretics. Indonesia's Ahmadiyah have been under threat since June 2008 when the government of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a decree ordering the Ahmadiyah community to 'stop spreading interpretations and activities that deviate from the principal teachings of Islam'. Those who violate the decree can face up to five years in prison. Following the decree, militant Islamists launched several violent attacks on Ahmadiyah followers including an attack in Cikeusik in February 2011 in which three Ahmadis were killed. During Yudhoyono's decade in power, militant Islamists, with the complicity of local police and government officials, forced the closure of more than 30 Ahmadiyah mosques. Indonesia's constitution, specifically articles 28 and 29, guarantees freedom of religion. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Ina Mariana, 30, could not take her eyes away from the second floor of her nearly finished house as her son ran around the neighborhood. 'It will be finished in a week. I can't wait to leave my rented room and move in,' she told The Jakarta Post recently. Ina and a few other residents on Jl. Tongkol in Ancol, North Jakarta, have finished the construction of five vertical houses, with the hopes of local people and the architect being that they will be viewed as pilot houses for riverbank living. Located 5 meters from Ciliwung River, each house has three floors, and is built using preserved bamboo for the roof and window frames. Although each floor's area is small ' 1.7 by 4.5 meters ' for Ina, it is more than enough to protect her and her seven family members from the elements. 'I am aware that it is very small but, as the old saying goes, there's no place like home. The first floor is for my mother, the second floor is for me, my husband and our two children, while my brother and his wife will take the attic,' she said. Another resident Abdul Rohim said he was glad that his house was among the five remodeled houses, saying that previously he and his wife had lived on a second story with another family living beneath. He said the remodeling of each of the five family homes had cost less than Rp 30 million (US$2,514). 'I couldn't do any renovations in my previous house as it would disturb the family living under me. Now it feels like I have my own privacy,' he said, adding that for the present he would use his first floor as a living room, second floor as bedroom and the attic for storage. However, local resident Gugun Muhammad revealed that despite being upbeat about the redesign of their homes, the residents were aware that they were living on thin ice. Gugun said the city administration had warned the residents that they could be evicted at anytime as the law prohibited any construction within 15 meters of a waterway. 'We are aware of the risk, but we hope the city administration can make an exception here as this area has potential as a tourism spot,' he said. Jl. Tongkol is located less than a kilometer from city heritage site Kota Tua in West Jakarta. According to Gugun, the 500 families in Jl. Tongkol would be delighted to remodel their houses vertically, to become an example of how to live in riverbank neighborhoods. 'When I say that the five houses are a pilot project for riverbank housing, I don't mean the construction of the buildings, but the cultural and social aspects. How we adjust our life to geographical conditions,' he added. He went on to say that not only had the residents not disposed of their waste into the Ciliwung River for years, but also organized river cleanup activities to limit the occurrence of floods. He said the septic tanks had also been modified so as not to flow into the river. Tongkol residents operate and fund four rafts that regularly pick garbage out of the river in front of their houses. Launched in November on Ciliwung Day, 400 residents pitched in money to finance the initiative. The Ciliwung River, which rises in Bogor in West Java and is one of the largest rivers in Jakarta, frequently bursts its banks in the rainy season, flooding parts of the capital. One of the architects of the project Andrea Fitrianto said it would only take two or three months for all the residents to remodel their houses to vertical form, emphasizing that by using preserved bamboo instead of wood, the renovation costs could be reduced. 'We also used secondhand materials to build the stairs so we could save some more,' he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Nani Afrida (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Although Indonesia is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, it only contributes a small number of fighters to radical movements in Syria and Iraq, a report says. A US security strategic intelligence service company, The Soufan Group (TSG), has released a report titled Foreign Fighters, an updated assessment of the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq, revealing that the number Indonesians that have joined the Islamic State (IS) movement might be less than 600 people. 'In summary, it may be more accurate to say that there are at least 600 Southeast Asians fighting in Syria. The vast majority is from Indonesia, with Malaysians at a distant second, while many more were stopped before they could leave the country,' the report says. Based on its investigation, between 27,000 and 31,000 people have traveled to Syria and Iraq from 86 countries, dominated by Arab countries, North Africa and Russia. The Indonesian government revealed in July that the number of Indonesians that had joined IS reached 700, higher than the count in the informal report. The report noted that 30 to 60 Indonesians joined radical groups in 2014. According to the report, Southeast Asians were to initially form a group with central Asians, as there were now enough Indonesian and Malay-speaking foreign fighters with IS to form their own unit called the Katibah Nusantara (Malay Archipelago Combat Unit). 'Since July 2014, IS has posted propaganda and recruitment videos aimed at persuading Indonesians and Malaysians to perform a hijrah [journey] to Syria with their families,' it says. Besides the number of Indonesian fighters in Syria and Iraq, TSG also mentioned 162 fighters that had returned from the war zone to Indonesia. 'These fighters have since returned to Indonesia, some claiming disillusionment because they did not receive the pay they were promised. Another hundred, including women and children, were apparently deported from Turkey before they could cross the border into Syria,' said the report. Terrorist expert Al Chaidar has cited several reasons as to why Indonesians were not flocking to Syria and Iraq to join foreign fighters. 'To go to Iraq and Syria they need money, a lot of it before they can perform the hijrah,' Al Chaidar said. 'The other reason; it is very difficult to reach Syria and Iraq and many fighter candidates were deported back to Indonesia, when they wanted to go to Syria and Iraq through Malaysia,' he added. Indonesians also still doubt IS and other radical groups in Syria and Iraq. 'I would say that only 4 percent of Indonesians support IS,' Al Chaidar said. The government has declared IS an illegal organization as it goes against the Pancasila state ideology. But the prohibition has no force of law. Unlike in Malaysia and Singapore where IS supporters can be charged and detained upon their departure to the combat zone, local authorities still have no legal basis to do so. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Mon, January 18, 2016 Your comments on a recent court verdict sentencing former religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali to six years' imprisonment for embezzling haj funds at the Religious Affairs Ministry and the latter's move to appeal to a higher court: I just want to say that Suryadharma Ali is just a human being and he was just a religious affairs minister, not a prophet. Only rabbits prefer carrots over money. E Nurdin He was a minister, and as such he was expected to lead our people to unity despite different religions. Instead, he simply used religion for his personal interests and to enrich himself, by giving advantages to a religious party faction to gain popularity, only to block other party factions 'from stealing the same food'. Suryadharma was taking advantage of his lucrative portfolio to earn more by using religion to shield himself. He deserves a longer prison term for embezzling people's money to enrich himself, and using the name of God in vain. Moeljono Adikoesoemo ___________________________________ Topic of the day IS in Indonesia Alongside condemning the bomb attack at Sarinah in Central Jakarta on Thursday, authorities blamed the incident on Islamic State (IS) group. President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo has ordered the police to hunt down terrorists who escaped the raid and raid all terrorist networks in the country. What do you think? Send your thoughts by email, SMS, Twitter or Facebook. Include your name and city. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Hanoi Mon, January 18, 2016 Vietnam has accused China of threatening safety of civilian flights over the disputed South China Sea by failing to properly inform its aviation authorities of recent test flights to a man-made island claimed by both Beijing and Hanoi. Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said that although a Chinese Embassy representative did inform the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry about the flights last month, prompting a protest from Hanoi, that did not extend to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam and threatened the safety of civil aviation. The notification from the Chinese Embassy "cannot substitute China's notification to the appropriate air traffic services units of Vietnam in order to ensure the safety and regularity of flight operations," the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam said in a statement late Tuesday. China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters Monday that China's three test flights to Fiery Cross Reef ' one of seven South China Sea features where China had carried out extensive land reclamation ' were state aviation activities and had no restrictions under international law. Hong said Beijing informed Vietnamese aviation authorities on Dec. 28 and the Foreign Ministry two days later about them. He said Vietnam had failed to see "the professional, technical and civil nature of China's inspection and test flights." Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh disputed Hong and said that at the meeting with the Chinese Embassy representative, Vietnam protested and demanded that China cancel the flights. Binh said the flights violated Vietnam's sovereignty over the islands, and demanded that China stop any such activities. Vietnam and China both claim the Paracel Islands, and the two along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan claim all or parts of the Spratlys, which sit on potentially rich oil and gas resources and occupy one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. China's recent increasing assertiveness has caused serious concerns among its neighbors and the United States, which backs freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea. In the Philippines, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said the government protested the Chinese test flights on Fiery Cross in a letter to the Chinese Embassy on Friday, adding that the Chinese actions had heightened tensions and anxiety in the region. He said the tests also violated a 2002 accord between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that discouraged aggressive moves that could spark armed conflict in the disputed waters. The Chinese Embassy rejected the Philippine protest. "They maintained they have indisputable sovereignty," Jose said. ___ Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 West Sulawesi administration was preparing for the possibility of most-wanted terrorist fugitive Santoso coming to the area following the intensive hunt by police and troops in neighboring Central Sulawesi, a top official said on Monday. West Sulawesi Governor Anwar Adna Saleh said his administration had coordinated with Wirabuana Military Command and South and West Sulawesi Police to increase security in border areas. "I have discussed with the Sulawesi Military Command chief and South and West Sulawesi Police to secure West Sulawesi from Santoso's arrival," he said as quoted by Antara news agency. Anwar also suggested the establishment of a military district command in North Mamuju and Mamasa regencies to head off fleeing terrorists, as he claimed those areas were vulnerable. North Mamuju directly bordered Central Sulawesi while Mamasa had a history of terrorist activities, he said. Santoso, aka Abu Wardah, is believed to be hiding in forests in Poso. The security forces have launched Operation Tinombala operation -to be conducted in January and February- to catch Santoso and his followers. It follows last year's Operation Camar Maleo, which failed to find the terrorist believed to be behind several attacks against the police in the Central Sulawesi area since 2011. Anwar said that as well as land operations, he also urged the Navy to take part in the hunt for Santoso and his followers. Separately, chief of the Wirabuana Military Command, which oversees Sulawesi, Maj. Gen Agus Surya Bakti said the Army were prepared for any attempt by Santoso's group to infiltrate West Sulawesi, tightening security in the provincial border areas. South and West Sulawesi Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Frans Barung Mangera said the police had tightened security and set the security status at level one after the terrorist attacks in Jakarta last week, which left eight people dead, including four civilians, and 26 people injured. South and West Sulawesi Police have also intensified daily patrols to limit the terrorists' room to maneuver. (rin)(+) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta Mon, January 18, 2016 Motorcycle maker PT Yamaha Indonesia Motor Manufacturing has lowered its two-wheeler sales target this year on the back of a steep trade decline last year, an executive has said. Yamaha marketing general manager Mohammad Masykur said that the company aimed to sell 2 million motorbikes this year, 21 percent lower than the 2.55 million targeted in 2015. 'Last year, we only sold about 1.8 million motorbikes, a far cry from the target. Other manufacturers experienced similar situations,' Masykur said Sunday. He said that his company sold more than 2 million motorbikes in 2014. The Indonesia Motorcycle Industry Association (AISI) recently announced that 2015's total distribution of motorcycles from factories to dealers ' which provides a big picture of sales conditions ' decreased 18 percent to 6.4 million from 7.8 million in 2014. Masykur said that Yamaha, the second-biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the country after Honda, saw a 20 to 25 percent drop in sales last year as low-income people who account for 60 percent of Yamaha motorcycle buyers had their purchasing power severely affected by ballooning food prices. 'At the end of 2014, the fuel prices rose, followed by the increase of other basic commodity prices. In addition, commodity prices, such as rubber, coffee beans, palm oil and coal, are decreasing, putting further pressure on the low-income community, which includes farmers and small-time miners,' he explained. To achieve the new target, Masykur said his company would adopt a new marketing strategy, which would include providing a bigger credit scheme to various provinces. '[In the past] farmers in Kalimantan and Sumatra, for example, used to pay in cash. That will no longer be the case. We might need to offer more credit schemes,' he said. Similar to Yamaha's lower target, AISI has also scaled down its aim to distribute 6.5 million motorbikes from its five active members ' Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and TVS ' amid a prediction of slow economic recovery. 'We have yet to see signs that there will be significant improvement. Lingering pressure from the global economy will continue to impact on the country's economy,' AISI trade head Sigit Kumala said. Sigit suggested that the government help lower basic commodity prices in line with the recent move to lower gasoline and subsidized diesel fuel prices following the drop in the benchmark prices of crude oil. 'Only when people have sufficient income and can fulfill their primary needs will they think of buying secondary and tertiary needs, including motorbikes,' he said. Motorcycle distribution dropped 18 percent to around 6.4 million in December 2015 from 7.8 million in the same month in 2014, according to AISI data. Meanwhile, November data said that major producer Honda saw the smallest decline at 12 percent, followed by Yamaha and Kawasaki, each with a 26 percent drop, and Suzuki and TVS with a 60 percent and 69 percent decline, respectively. (rbk) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap, Central Java Tue, January 19, 2016 Although a number of terrorists are currently serving sentences in prisons on Nusakambangan Island in Cilacap regency, Central Java, it is still possible for them to spread radical Islamic teachings to others due to freedom they have during visiting hours scheduled by the Nusakambangan prison island authority from Monday through Friday. Followers of the terrorist convicts incarcerated on Nusakambangan, such as Aman Abdurrahman and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, reportedly have routinely received visitors as it is not prohibited by Nusakambangan officials. All convicts regardless of their crimes have an equal right to routine visits from family members, relatives and friends. 'Yes, it's correct. Aman Abdurrahman is currently in Nusakambangan. He is in good shape and health. Like other convicts, he is allowed to receive visitors even though he is a terrorist,' Central Java Justice and Human Rights Agency spokesman Molyanto told thejakartapost.com on Monday. The National Police suspect a strong connection between a terrorists attack near the Sarinah shopping center on Jl.MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, and a terrorist group led by Bahrun Naim, who was known as one of Aman Abdurrahman's followers. Aman is currently incarcerated at Kembang Kuning prison on Nusakambangan with several other terrorist convicts. Meanwhile, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and dozens of other terrorist convicts are incarcerated in Batu prison, Nusakambangan. In total, around 50 terrorist convicts are serving sentences in several prisons on Nusakambangan. Molyanto said he had coordinated with the Central Java Police and the Cilacap Police to tighten security measures in Kembang Kuning prison where Aman Abdurrahman was currently being held. 'We have been informed that there is a connection between the Sarinah terrorist attack perpetrators and Aman Abdurrahman, therefore, we are stepping up security measures there, involving Indonesian Military and National Police personnel,' said Molyanto. Security authorities have apparently long been aware of the possibility of terrorist convicts on Nusakambangan spreading radicalism. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and Aman Abdurrahman declared their support for the Islamic State movement while in their cells. Indonesian Military data reveals that Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for terrorism, is visited by around 900 people every year. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's followers wait for him to give a sermon in every visit. At the end of 2014, the police discovered activities suspected of spreading IS teachings from inside Nusakambangan. A number of people, including Chep Hermawan, who claimed to be the IS Indonesia president, reportedly visited Abu Bakar Ba'asyir on Nusakambangan. The Cilacap Police detained several visitors who were found with IS flags and attributes during their visits, but they were later released. One year ago, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) invited a prominent Jordanian cleric, Syeikh Ali Hasan Al-Halabi, to meet with dozens of terrorist convicts in Nusakambangan, including Aman Abdurrahman. During the meeting, Aman reportedly stressed that he would hold onto his radical beliefs and refused to repent and ask God for forgiveness. It was reported that Aman was one of the terror convicts who openly and emphatically rejected Halabi's preaching. (ebf) Some of the things happening today on the Lower East Side: The Museum at Eldridge Street will mark Martin Luther King Day with a special program for kids ages 4-10. From 1-2:30 p.m., there will be a reading of Kobi Yamadas book, What Do You Do With an Idea, and then participants will make a mural celebrating their own dreams as well as that of MLK. 12 Eldridge St. More info here. Saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa performs tonight at Joes Pub as part of the Under the Radar Festival. Hell play material from, Bird Calls, his lauded album released last year. $20. Jazz guitarist and composer Julian Lage plays Rockwood Music Hall at 11:30 p.m. $15. The American Realness Festival continues at Abrons Arts Center with Erin Markeys, Ride on the Irish Cream. The musical from the well-known downtown performer is in its last night of previews before opening tomorrow. The Times previewed the show here. 8 p.m., $20. PoetNYs weekly Open Mic night is back at the Bowery Poetry Club tonight at 5 p.m. This evenings featured guest is Syrian author Osama Alomar. Also tonight, Ashley August hosts the Bowery Slam. See details here. $15, 308 Bowery. Editors note: Today were continuing our series of small business profiles. The series is part of our yearlong reporting project on Small Business Survival. This story is reported and written by Max Rovo. If youre interested in writing profiles for this project, whether youve lived on the Lower East Side one year or fifty years, send us an email at: info@thelodownny.com. One night almost two years ago, I was out with a friend who taught English at P.S. 42 on Hester Street. He asked me if I had been to Cup & Saucer, right on the corner of Canal and Eldridge streets. When I told him I had not he was shocked. Oh, you have to go there. Their endless coffee and breakfast special is the best, he said. I decided to take his advice and ever since then have been a proud regular at one of the tastiest Greek diners in all of New York City. You might like it, too. Its a great alternative to the often overpriced and trendy contemporary food options throughout the neighborhood. On the Lower East Side, as with the rest of the city, diners have been fading away over the past 10-20 years as rents escalate and development pressures increase. Two of the six old school diners profiled by The Lo-Down just two years ago have vanished. So in the year 2016, its a modest luxury to have a 28-year old breakfast institution still going strong. Running any kind of restaurant is hard work. Operating a diner in New York City is especially difficult, given the grueling hours and slim profit margins. At the height of the citys diner culture a few decades ago, there were more than one-thousand. Today there are fewer than 400. If you look at Cup & Saucer from outside, it appears unassuming. The faded 1940s-era signage hanging above the restaurant immediately signals that youve stumbled upon something to be treasured. Inside, guests are casually enjoying their food while employees hustle to make sure everyone is comfortable. Rather than worry about investing in appearances, Cup & Saucer is all about creating a home away from home for its customers. Its a typical diner menu with lots of tasty choices that include burgers and fries, smoothies and more, but what is the most popular item of all? None other than The Breakfast Special. It comes with two eggs (made to order), fried potatoes, and a choice of wheat, rye or white taste; plus, a side of ham, sausage or bacon. If this sounds like a lot of food thats because it is! To top this off, Cup and Saucer provides refills on its drip coffee that tastes, well, just like coffee with no undertones of cardamom or blueberry chocolate. This breakfast special with a cup of coffee costs just $5.50 (a little more if you add meat). In the 1970s, there was a Cup & Saucer location near Union Square, and two more in the Times Square area. One of them was underground in the subway station. When Time Square rents spiked during the early 90s, Cup & Saucer closed those three locations. Now they have a diner in Ridgewood, Queens, as well as the Canal Street outpost, which has been under the same ownership since 1988. Over breakfast one day, co-owner Nick Castanos took a few minutes away from the hot griddle to talk about the longstanding small business. Born and raised in Cuba, Castanos moved to New York in the 70s and has been working with John Vasilopoulos and the other owners of Cup & Saucer for many years. Castanos is head cook and works six days a week. The moment you sit down at the long lunch counter, youre sure to notice his booming voice. You got it and coming right up are among his top phrases. Not too long ago, the building was sold, creating at least a little bit of anxiety about the future. Currently, the diner is on an annual lease. Business has been consistent. The fact that the owners run multiple restaurants is a strong indicator of survival, as opposed to single-location mom-and-pops. Historically, Castanos pointed out, Cup & Saucer served mostly locals but in the past couple of years many more tourists from Germany and Spain have come through their doors. He sees this as a positive sign. Castanos describes Cup & Saucer warmly, like one would speak lovingly of a close family member. We make your typical American breakfast, he explained. Fast food mostly; burgers, fries, breakfast sandwiches. Were your regular coffee shop you can count on. When asked about neighborhood competition, Castanos replied, there is nothing like this around here, alluding to newly arrived restaurants such as Dimes and Pies & Thighs, located about two blocks to the east, which serve a niche (trendier) clientele. Right now, Vasilopoulos and Castanos have six employees working with them. In a small, narrow space, Cup & Saucer seats guests inches away from the hustle and bustle of the food prep area. Rest assured, when you stop by for a quick breakfast or a more leisurely weekend meal, the sound of clinking and clanking spatulas, always in motion at this comfortable Lower East Side institution, will wake you up! For almost three decades, theyve been doing a flawless job serving the community one breakfast special at a time. Cup & Saucer Luncheonette 89 Canal St. 212-925-3298 Website: cupandsaucernewyork.com Hours: Monday-Friday 6 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday 6 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sunday 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Max Rovo is a freelance copywriter and journalist based in New York. Youre way more likely to find him at a concert near you than a yoga session. A university society has been disaffiliated after a play script ended with a character being drugged and then raped. Liverpool Medical Students' Society (LMSS) proposed the script for a concert at the University of Liverpool, which also mocked the anti-rape phrase "no means no". Liverpool Medical Students' Society (LMSS) proposed the script for a concert at the University of Liverpool, which also mocked the anti-rape phrase "no means no". Two of the characters were named Miss Sluttypenny and James Bondage in the script, which was written for the LMSS annual concert and immediately sparked student anger. One student tweeted: "What have I just read? Gross below the line comments, rape jokes and general idiocy." The society also came under fire from Guild/students' union administrators for failing to follow financial regulations and for hosting a men's dinner and a women's dinner, with the Guild labelling them "gender segregated events." The university and Guild said LMSS didn't "engage fully with this process and continued to promote gender segregated events to its members." The Sphinx But the society hit back, with a letter printed by student paperrefuting the claims made about engagement and complained the Guild didn't give adequate time to respond to the investigation. The society will no longer be able to use Guild or university services. Omura's whale sighted off Phuket PHUKET: An omuras whale, or dwarf fin whale, believed to be between 18-20 metres long was spotted off Freedom Beach yesterday (Jan 17). animals By Tanyaluk Sakoot Monday 18 January 2016, 04:37PM The whale was spotted by expat Madeleine Tisell while out on a longtail boat yesterday afternoon (Jan 17). Photo: Madeleine Tisell The whale was spotted by expat Madeleine Tisell while out on a longtail boat yesterday afternoon. Ms Tisell is also one of the people who spotted a killer whale off the same beach on Jan 8. (See story here) We had been out fishing and suddenly heard a noise coming from the water, we looked and just a few metres from the boat was a whale. At first we thought it was another killer whale, but it was a lot bigger, about 18-20metres long, Ms Tisell said. We are often out on or boat but we have never seen anything like this before. In the space of 10 days we have seen a killer whale and then this whale, she added. Omura's whales appear to be restricted to the shelf and deep waters of tropical and subtropical regions, with records from the eastern Indian Ocean which includes Thailand's ocean. Kongkiet Kittiwattanawong of the Marine Endangered Species Unit told The Phuket News after seeing the photos, This whale is an omura whale. One was seen previously off Koh Racha, but I am not sure whether its the same one or not. If the photo was clearer I would be able to tell, he said. This species can be seen in the Andaman Sea and South China Sea, and there has been 33 recordings of sightings of omura whales in the Andaman and Gulf of Thailand. However, some of those sightings have sadly been of dead whales, he added. 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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 Pierre, Tea Area lives up to hype and more from HS football week nine David Hopps Sri Lanka is preparing for a huge influx of European holidaymakers looking for a safe place in the sun as they shun traditional Mediterranean holidays because of the threat of rising terrorist violence. The collapse in traditional holiday destinations has been quite startling. And to make matters worse The Times newspaper has reported that Isis attacks in Tunisia, Egypt and Turkey will cause huge hikes in prices in safe havens such as Italy, Greece and Spain. The Times quotes data from GfK, one of the worlds leading market research organisation According to GfK, bookings in many holiday destinations blighted by terrorism or just a fear of terrorism have collapsed. Egypt down 85% on the same week last year. Tunisia down 93% Turkey down 52% Dubai down 34% Morocco down 19%. Egypt and Tunisia have both suffered tourist-related attacks, Turkey is reeling from a recent bomb blast in Istanbul and is desperate that troubles do not spread to its well-developed tourist market, and Dubai and Morocco have so far maintained a peaceful outlook. While countries threatened by terrorism slash prices in an attempt to tempt back holidaymakers, other Mediterranean resorts are already hiking their prices as demand flies to unprecedented levels. Sri Lankan travel companies and property owners are not about to crow at their good fortune. They have more reason than many to feel sympathy with those Mediterranean countries affected, having recently emerged from a 24-year civil war which caused great loss of life as well as hardship for much of the population. Sri Lankas sole consolation in those bloody years was that the LTTE never attacked tourists but al-Queda regards them as a soft target as it tries to turn large parts of the world into no-go zones for holidaymakers. The growth in holiday hotels on Sri Lankas east coast, which has its best weather during the European summer months, and where beaches can rival The Maldives for beauty, establishes the country as an all-round destination. There is abundant choice too, from some of the most sumptuous properties in the world to fast-rising standards for a lower budget encapsulated by Red Dot Tours Simply Red collection which brings together the best properties under USD 150 a night. When it comes to safe holiday destinations in 2016 for British and other European travellers, Sri Lanka will fit the bill for many. By targeting tourists, Isis is bringing poverty to people in many countries across the Mediterranean and the fight against their indiscriminate violence needs to be absolute. But the tourist industry has a problem. As The Times reported According to the Foreign Office, some 4.9m British tourists visited Dubai, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey last year. If those holidaymakers were now looking for a week in the sun elsewhere in the Mediterranean, that would equate to 24,500 100-room hotels to be found in Greece, Croatia, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Sri Lankas travel industry, now expanding fast beyond a loyal clientele that stood with it during the bad years, is ready and willing to take some of the strain. Alessia Cara Not to wish ill upon Alessia Cara because shes a right sweetie, a major talent and an admirably conscientious, vocal objector when it comes to playing the established pop-star game, but shes gonna get really good once shes done some proper living. Just 19, the diminutive Brampton native already has a smash calling-card single, Here, that shows no sign of going away seven months after its unflashy release it was No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 as of Jan. 9, has sold more than two million copies in North America and is currently closing in on 50-freakin-million YouTube views and a debut album, Know-It-All, that most pundits concur brims with the promise of a long career to come. That promise is real. Cara staged the sold-out first of two homecoming shows on consecutive nights at an uproarious Danforth Music Hall heavily populated by fellow teenage girls on Saturday evening and knocked it pretty much out of the park for a fresh-outta-high-school young woman who was shyly posting Amy Winehouse covers sung from the comfort of her bedroom closet 18 months ago. She seemed infinitely surer of herself and more at ease onstage than the awkward kid unveiled to a small group of industry invitees at a Toronto pre-release showcase for her EP, Four Pink Walls, at the Rivoli last July, despite fretting a couple of tunes in that I feel like 90 per cent of you are my family and friends. Cara took it cucumber-cool in stride when Taylor Swift called her out to duet on Here in front of 55,000 people in Tampa on Halloween night and just rang in 2016 performing on the Dick Clarks New Years Rockin Eve TV extravaganza, mind you, so the pressure of playing to the biggest crowd Ive ever performed for at home is somewhat relative. In any case, she sang her guts out at the Danforth on Saturday, she and her three-piece backing also showing no apparent panic at the sudden loss of their usual bassist and musical director, Dean Jarvis, to a family emergency at a fairly crucial moment in their collective history. That enormous voice is no joke. Caras not hiding behind tricks on her recordings. What you hear on Here and Im Yours and Scars to Your Beautiful and Seventeen and the rest of Know-It-All is what erupts from her tiny frame naturally, unforced and without a shred of melismatic showboating. And if she was guilty, perhaps, of over-singing a couple of times while caught up in the heat of the homecoming moment on Saturday, what came out when she cracked into uncharted, undisciplined territory on, say, Overdose still left absolutely no doubt as to the power of those pipes. Cara has developed her instrument in isolation, singing to no one in a closet in Brampton, for Petes sake, and she can already reduce a 40-ish professional cynic like me whilst emoting over nought but a handful of simple piano chords on schoolgirl ballads like Stars points to Ms. Cara, by the way, for interpolating a few bars of Diamonds into that one onstage to placate every critic who has deemed it Rihanna-esque and River of Tears. What happens from here on in, as she learns to better control those lungs and deploy them with more subtlety, should be monstrous. Which brings us back to my original point. Cara is young enough and confident enough in her uncool cool to have turned up at the Star for a recent interview with her mom in tow, so watching her belt out tune after tune with such earnest gusto on Saturday night one couldnt help but imagine what shes going to do with that wonderful, powerful voice when life has beaten her around a bit, really broken her heart and given her a thing or three to be genuinely angry about. She shows her teeth on Here, shows her wounds on Stars and Scars to Your Beautiful, but that voice is going to be a deadly weapon when she puts 10 more years of feeling behind it. And if Caras exceptionally strong start is any indication, well all be still listening to what she has to say in 10 years. Probably 20. SHARE: Who knows, life is inherently a gamble. You take and accept that risk when you wake up every day. I cant say I think much of any person willing to live without risk. Iain Gerrard in an email to a friend, June 24, 2014 MEMPHIS, TENN.Iain Gerrard left late on July 14, 2014, after staying up the night before to celebrate the World Cup soccer final with fellow travellers at a hostel in Memphis. Like he did before each daily journey, he loaded up his 24-speed Brodie Romulus road bike with his patch kit and stove, carefully checking that the straps on his bags were properly secured. Just before 2 p.m. he called his mom, Jean, in Toronto. He told her of his planned 50-kilometre ride south that day, across state lines, to Robinsonville, Miss., along the famed Highway 61 the Blues Highway once travelled by Muddy Waters and B.B. King. Im on my way, Iain told his mother. Visibility was good as Iain pedalled along the side of the paved, right-hand lane of the roadway. The temperature hovered around 30 C. Traffic was light. An hour into his ride, Iain entered a flat portion of the four-lane highway. Not more than half an hour from his destination, the 23-year-old from west Toronto was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer going 100 km/h driven by a man from Brampton, Ont. The incident has left Iains family and friends devastated, while many questions remain unanswered about a shoddy investigation of the incident by authorities in Americas Deep South. *** Exactly two months earlier, Jean Gerrard dropped her only child off on Highway 5, near Oakville, Ont. She drove alongside him in the rain for a while. At one point, he stopped to tinker with his gear and remarked to his mother that he was wary of the trucks and cars that generate drag at high speeds. Im not sure if I was happy when he decided he wanted to do the trip, but you would never be able to tell Iain not to do something if his mind was set on it, says Jean. For about a year, Iain had been ruminating on the idea of taking a cycling trip through the United States to explore his love of southern American music and the culture that created it. Iain spent months planning a 4,000-kilometre journey that would take him to New Orleans, Louisiana, and back. I think in pursuing the roots of North American music he was also trying to find himself and find what he wanted to be for the rest of his life, says his dad, William Gerrard. Growing up, Iain was an awkward kid who was picked on, say his friends. He had a learning disability that made it difficult to learn the way most kids do in school through classroom lessons taught with a blackboard. Iain learned by doing. By working on bikes, making music, engaging in conversation. He liked to push peoples buttons, to take them out of their comfort zone. His friends and family say he could be rude at times. He had very little verbal filter. He would say whatever he was thinking, says his friend, Willis Klein, 22. He was a really, really, really loyal friend, if you could deal with how challenging he could be in the beginning. Klein and Iain were big into the Toronto music scene. The friends met in 2013 at Solstice, a music and arts festival near Collingwood, Ont. Iain invited him back to his tent to drink homemade moonshine. They stayed up talking until sunrise. At the Nuit Blanche that same year, the pair found themselves dancing in a mobile rave on a float in the Renegade Parade. Klein remembers his friend putting his arm around his shoulder: Were the cool kids now, said Iain. I think that was a big moment for him because I think he did face a lot of rejection when he was young. But he was unwavering. He didnt change any of his opinions to fit in, says Klein. After graduating from an alternative high school, Iain pursued a diploma in audio engineering at The Audio Recording Academy in Toronto. His bachelor apartment down the street from his childhood home was more like a recording studio with a bed, where hed hole himself up creating drumbeat loops and electronic melodies. Iain considered himself a musician but was reluctant to turn it into a career. When his dad asked him why he wanted to take a job washing dishes at an Oliver & Bonacini restaurant, Iain said it was so that he could allow his mind to be elsewhere. The chance to lose himself in thought while sitting on a bike for hours had a similar appeal. *** By Day 5 of his journey, Iain had made the nearly 200-km trip to London, Ont., where strangers let him pitch his tent in their backyard. When he finally hit the Canada-U.S. border at Windsor, Ont., 11 days into his trip, Iain wrote on his blog: The journey has become real after months of planning I am finally doing it. My life in Toronto has felt pretty stale over the last year or so, but now I have this amazing feeling of accomplishment. Im so happy. In Detroit, where he spent four days visiting cousins, Iain was taken with the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, home to one of the largest art collections in the U.S. Curious about a Latin inscription reading Vita brevis, Longa Ars above the entrance to the museums Rivera Court, Iain phoned his dad to ask what it meant. The literal translation is Life is short, long is art and is attributed to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. William encouraged his son to look it up for himself. It was one of the four times a day Iain would call his folks, normally in the morning, at lunchtime, in the afternoon upon reaching his destination, and in the evening to talk to his dad for an hour or so. Iain liked to be in touch. He would call and we always knew where he was, said Jean. By Day 37, Iain had reached St. Louis, Mo., where he checked into the Huckleberry Finn Youth Hostel, and befriended Aurora Laybourn-Candlish, 21, a student in town from Oregon to present a paper at a philosophy conference. She proved to be a much-needed sounding board for the lonely traveller. The two ended up wandering the streets all night looking for greasy food and discussing life and all the taboo things, everything that no one wants to hear, recalled Aurora. Dont censor yourself, Aurora told Iain. It was advice that Iain was grateful for and he wrote about it in his blog. When I said goodbye to Aurora at the train station this morning and she repeated the advice she had been giving me all weekend I appreciated that someone took the time to review my circumstance and actually tell me something that comes from a perspective based in critical thinking, he wrote. The two stayed in contact during the ensuing weeks, sometimes emailing and calling each other several times a day. Aurora flew from Oregon to Iains funeral in July 2014. *** On July 3, Iain rolled into Memphis on schedule and in time for the Independence Day celebrations. The city, its people and culture were to have a profoundly spiritual impact on him. He titled the last chapter of his blog Born again on the Fourth of July. His mother, Jean, says Memphis was Iains idea of heaven. He threw himself into tourist mode, partying his way through the Fourth of July, touring Elvis Presleys Graceland, checking out the ducks in the fountain at the Peabody Hotel, and visiting the famed Sun Studio, where Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins recorded songs that defined Rock n Roll. He also visited the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated in April 1968. But it was the relationships he formed with the staff and his fellow travellers staying at the Pilgrim House, a hostel operated by the First Congregational Church in the heart of Memphis, that were to affect Iain most deeply. A self-described secular thinker, Iain wrote in his blog of being moved almost to tears by a service he attended at the First Congregational Church, affectionately known by the locals as First Congo, next door to the hostel. He was struck by the sermon, which centred on the story of Apostle Paul and the blessing of the thorn from 2 Corinthians. In it, Paul describes his thorn in the flesh, a metaphor for living with humility and grace while suffering. I was moved by it in the most secular way possible, Iain wrote. Once you remove the religious aspect of the sermon (which isnt difficult to do) you are left with what is essentially a superb life philosophy. Iain made friends with the hostels manager, Danny Grubbs, who recalled that the young Canadian had a knack for making friends quickly, sometimes in the unlikeliest of places. Grubbs advised Iain to stay away from the convenience store down the street due to its location bordering one of Memphiss poorest and most crime-ridden neighbourhoods. Within a couple of days of his arrival, Iain knew the stores attendant by name. Id gone to that gas station for six months at that point and never had bothered to learn that dudes name, but yet, he and Iain had connected in a matter of two days, Grubbs said. Before he left, Iain hung a Team Canada hockey jersey over a chair and told staff that every Canadian who stayed at the hostel needed to sign it. On July 13, the day before he died, Iain delayed his journey southward to join his fellow hostel guests watching Germany defeat Brazil in the World Cup soccer final. Soccer had always been one of Iains passions; in every photo of Iain on his Facebook page, he is clad in his green-and-white striped jersey of his beloved Celtic Football Club. The next afternoon, Iain made his farewells, called his mom, remarked about the heat, put on his bike helmet, and headed out onto Highway 61. Back in Toronto, Jean Gerrard was expecting a call from her son around 5 p.m. The call never came. I thought, well, thats happened before. His phone has run out of money or hes run out of battery I thought, no, its OK, Jean recalled. By early evening, the Gerrards still hadnt heard from their son. Then, shortly before 8, the phone rang. Jean picked it up. It was the coroner in Desoto County, Miss. Jean shouted for her husband, William, to pick up the phone. Just tell me something, Jean said. Has my son been injured? Maam, the coroner said. Your son is dead. *** Just before 3 p.m. on July 14, 2014, an 18-wheel transport truck hauling a shipment of foam cups and office furniture was heading south on Highway 61. The truck hit Iain. The 59-year-old driver, Atma Gill of Brampton, Ont., maintains that Iain was cycling the wrong way on Hwy. 61, towards traffic. He has told this story to the state trooper, an insurance investigator and a Star reporter. Gill says that the young cyclist turned in front of his tractor trailer and that it looked as if Iain was trying to kill himself. I dont know, I think he committed suicide, Gill told the insurance company investigator assigned to the case. Yet a driver who witnessed the crash said he saw Iain cycling southbound in the same direction as the transport trailer. The witness, Milton Scarborough, a retired man from Mississippi, told the insurance investigator he, his wife and granddaughter were driving south on Hwy. 61 when they passed Iain. Scarborough said Iain was cycling with traffic on the rocky shoulder. As he looked back in his rearview mirror, Scarborough said he saw Iain now cycling on the road with the tractor-trailer coming up behind him. And then, all of a sudden his body just went up in the air, his bags just come off, everything, said Scarborough. I told my wife, oh my God, he done got hit. Scarborough stopped the car and his wife, a minister, went back. She put her hands on his legs and prayed for him. Back at home, in shock at the news, parents Jean and William Gerrard booked flights and arrived in Memphis the next day to claim their sons body. They were alarmed by what authorities were telling them. Iain was a stickler for the rules of the road and would never ride against traffic, they thought. It just didnt make sense that Iain had been hit head on. When the Gerrards saw Iains body, they noticed their sons face had just one small cut, below his eye where his glasses had been. I said Theres something wrong here. He looks perfect. He looked alive. There was even a smile on his face, said William. And I put my hand behind his head and I just felt the back of his head was just crushed in. Footage of the crash scene filmed from a helicopter by a local news channel showed Iains bike lying on the grassy roadside, its back wheel mangled. The front of the bike was intact. Despite this information, the Mississippi State Trooper who investigated, Officer Gerald Cooper, filed a report that mirrored truck driver Gills account. The coroner made a similar conclusion and listed the probable cause of death as multiple trauma. In a telephone interview with the Star, driver Gill said he has been driving trucks for three decades and was not distracted when he hit Iain. He maintains that Iain was cycling the wrong way and that the cyclist turned in front of him. Before hes ride on the right-hand side of the line but suddenly he come close to truck and he come front of my truck (sic), Gill said. Like you know, nobody want to accident right? Im a driver So this is bad. No good. Feel sorry for that, but this is not my mistake. When Iains parents visited the crash site the day after their son was killed, they were stunned to discover many of Iains belongings lying by the side of the road. They found his eyeglasses, sunglasses, bike helmet and rearview mirror. They later learned that Iains bike had been handed over to the Mississippi Department of Transportation as garbage. When the Gerrards tried to get answers out of Officer Cooper, the investigating officer, he treated them like they were an inconvenience, the parents said in an interview. They said the officer told them they could pick up the police report for a fee a week later. The Gerrards also wonder why no one seemed to question why it took an ambulance more than half an hour to arrive on the scene. The family, haunted by what they were being told, was at a loss about what to do until they received a letter about a week and a half later, on the day of Iains cremation, from an organization called Bike Walk Tennessee. The organization, which works to improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians, said it had heard about Iains death and was concerned that statements made by the Mississippi Highway Patrol appeared to illustrate a misunderstanding of cycling laws. At Bike Walks suggestion, the Gerrards hired Charlie Thomas, a lawyer in New Orleans who specializes in bike law and the personal injury of cyclists. Thomas hired a private investigator and an accident reconstruction expert, who came to the conclusion that Iain was hit from behind and that the truck driver would have had at least 14 seconds after seeing Iain to change lanes and pass safely. In Mississippi, vehicles are required by law to leave a minimum of three feet when passing a cyclist. This is a result of the driver of the 18-wheeler, whos either wilfully distracted, hes choosing to be distracted in the cab. Hes choosing not to give three feet to the cyclist hes overtaking, Thomas, who has been representing the family in a now-settled civil suit, said in an interview. After repeated attempts, Thomas finally reached Officer Cooper and convinced him to take another look at the facts of the case. After examining Iains bike, which he found in a Ministry of Transportation locker, Cooper amended the police report. The new report says Iain was cycling in the direction of traffic and that the trucker failed to yield right of way when passing him. In an interview with the Star, Cooper said Gill was following too close but called the incident an accident. We determined it was just an accident and thats why we havent done any criminal charges or anything like that. It was just an accident, said Cooper. He said his initial interpretation of what witnesses saw was a misunderstanding. Cooper told the Star that despite amending his report to show that Gill failed to yield, the Highway Patrol will not lay a charge or even give the trucker a ticket because he did not witness the incident. I still have to be there to physically witness, because Im the one that has to sign for the affidavit that I physically witnessed this happen, Cooper told the Star. Lawyer Thomas says Coopers understanding of the law is mistaken, but not unusual. This is a practice across Mississippi which has resulted in a loophole to where people arent going to be ticketed unless an officer actually sees the infraction, he said. We think thats a very bad practice that should be addressed. Earlier this year, the Gerrards settled a civil suit with the truckers insurance company. They are still angry with how their sons death was handled by authorities and continue to question why the investigation was conducted so haphazardly. The terms of the settlement are confidential. SHARE: In Libya, air strikes under a Canadian generals command chased Muammar Gaddafis tanks from the gates of besieged Misrata, preventing an all-out massacre of civilians. In Afghanistan, intense aerial bombing by American B-52s pounded Taliban fighter formations in the desert, ultimately allowing National Alliance militias to advance southwards and take Kabul. In Iraq, shock and awe bombing obliterated Saddam Hassans Republican Army troops prior to ground forces crossing the Kuwait border, which is why fewer than 175 American and British troops lost their lives in the six weeks before the Saddam Hussein regime fell. The world can debate the merits of all three military interventions the what-came-next part, as each country descended into internal chaos, tribal and sectarian violence, the exponential growth of terrorist organizations and a colossal failure of politics but the screeching jets did their job. Air power doesnt win wars, not without boots on the ground. But coalition air power primarily American sorties, with escalating participation by British and French jets was crucial to recent gains made by Iraqi and Kurdish forces in taking back between 25 and 30 per cent of territory that had been controlled by ISIS, including the liberation of Sinjar and Ramadi. Armory depots were smashed, re-supply routes severed and hundreds of ISIS fighters killed from the air, because the Islamic State mimics a conventional command-and-control structure; troops usually deployed in formation, easier targets to hit. Canadian military assets were involved. Last Friday, according to most recent data available on the Operation IMPACT website, two CF-18s successfully struck an ISIS (or ISIL) fighting position east of Mosul using precision-guided munitions. The day before, Canadian pilots hit a fighting position northeast of Tikrit. In the previous week, the conducted bombing missions against a staging facility for vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in Ramadi took out three VIEDs outside Haditha and a rocket emplacement near al-Baghdadi. As of this past weekend, those CF-18s had flown 2017 sorties, while Canadas Polaris aerial refueller which helps fighter jets operate 24/7 had delivered 20,522,000 pounds of fuel to coalition aircraft. Meanwhile, our CP-140 Auroras, outfitted with sophisticated radar and optical systems which identify ISIS militants on the ground conducted 378 reconnaissance missions since arriving in-theatre two years ago as part of Joint Task-Force Iraq. Canada isnt a major player in the operations: six CF-18s, one Polaris, two Auroras, support personnel for the aircraft and 69 special operations forces in an allegedly non-combat role to help train local forces but theyve definitely engaged in some direct fighting. Two percent of the military load is better than zero percent of the military load for a highly regarded and professionally experienced combat air force. This is the military component that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to withdraw by March when he was campaigning a deployment that, under Stephen Harpers government (and extended) was scheduled to conclude in April anyway. Trudeau has said almost nothing publicly about those intentions since his triumph at the polls, at least not since a phone call to President Barack Obama one day after the election, reiterating Canadas military pull-out. What Obama might have said privately to Trudeau in their November face-to-face what Obama may have asked of Canada is open to speculation. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, a three-tour veteran of Afghanistan, stated last week that the withdrawal plans havent changed as Trudeau presumably ponders what contribution Canada can make instead in rolling back ISIS. He likes the soft feel-good options of humanitarian assistance and possibly augmenting the training mission. He doesnt like whipping out our jets to show how big they are. Yet polls show two-thirds of Canadians support the military mission. Trudeau has never actually articulated why Canada should abandon the Task Force abandon our allies at what might very well be a tipping point of the military mission. If its the prospect of Canadian casualties that sickens the prime minister, those fighter pilots in the sky are far safer than training forces close to the action down below. It makes no sense, strategically or otherwise, to bug out of Iraqs blue yonder while contemplating an insertion of more Canadians on the ground. If Trudeau cant provide a logical explanation its because there isnt one. His objection is more visceral, rooted in a de facto repugnance of military ugliness. But if not Iraq/Syria, against the scourge of ISIS, then where and when? And what therefore is the point of buying a new fleet of fighter jets to replace the aging C-18 Hornets Liberals rejecting the Tories procurement plan for stealth capability F-35s from Lockheed Martin (a heavily criticized and purportedly rigged bidding process) or spending billions on a new training program for military pilots? ISIS, as Obama has said, is not an existential threat to the West. But it is a brutalizing menace seeking to establish its fantastical caliphate across Iraq, Syria, Libya and beyond. Its ruthlessness is unprecedented, its ambitions empirical. Accepting 25,000 Syrian refugees whod doubtless rather return to their own country, with an end to a ruinous civil war and protected by no-fly zones, is a passive response to a kinetic catastrophe. Trudeau was forced to readjust his grandiose refugee pledge because the timeline was unrealistic and everybody knew it. He was quite rightly forgiven for over-reach. Canada answered the bell, in humanitarian terms. That claxon is now clanging for a reappraisal a full reversal, to be blunt on the military front. Canadas CF-18s are still conducting sorties over Iraq, two months after the Liberals were sworn into office. It would appear, at the least, logistically impossible to call off the mission by March. It would also be a gross abnegation of Canadas military and moral obligations. Trudeau should stand up by standing down on a foolish election promise. Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. SHARE: OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASOBurkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and at the countrys borders after Al Qaeda militants in a vehicle from neighbouring Niger killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster, Burkina 24, that security forces would be stepping up their efforts to thwart future attacks and asked people to comply with new restrictions. These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation, said Kabore. The national mourning began Sunday, a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. When the gunfire and explosions finally stopped, authorities said 18 were killed in the hotel and 10 were killed at the nearby Cappuccino Cafe. Among the victims was a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the cafe with her Italian husband, Gaetano Santomenna, according to Ukrainian officials. Although Santomenna was not at the cafe and survived the attack, the couples son, Michel Santomenna, 9, was killed, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry. Italys foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, called the childs death a horrendous crime, in a tweet which also expressed sympathy with the boys father. The toll also includes six Canadians, according to Canadian officials. Others killed include seven citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., Holland, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. The American Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Fla. had been working as a missionary in Burkina Faso since 2011, where he and his wife ran an orphanage that also provided shelter to abused women and widows. He is survived by his four children, two of whom were adopted from Burkina Faso. White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said Riddering had devoted his life to working with the Burkinabe people in a statement strongly condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and mourning those killed in these senseless acts of violence. Riddering was a wonderful, godly man who managed to find time to help teams of volunteers from other organizations who dug wells for local residents, said John Anderson, a board member of Sheltering Wings, Ridderings charity. During the Ebola crisis, when it was hard to find people to do the digging, Mike would go out and join them so they could continue doing the work, Anderson said. And thats back-breaking work. He never stopped moving and never stopped helping. Swiss authorities said its two nationals who were killed were also in Burkina Faso for humanitarian reasons. The Al Qaeda group claiming responsibility for the carnage released an audio tape titled: A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts. On Sunday, French authorities were back at the scene carrying out a forensic investigation. Special forces from the former colonizer came during the overnight siege from their base in neighbouring Mali to help Burkina Fasos military put an end to the killings. Some guests returned to the Splendid Hotel to pick up their luggage and other belongings left behind when guests fled for their lives. Read more about: SHARE: BAGHDADThe U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that several Americans have gone missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said, We are working in full co-operation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Bolz did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that due to privacy considerations he had nothing further to add about the missing Americans. The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority, Kirby said. The comments by U.S. officials came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. Iraqi media reports said the Americans went missing in south Baghdad on their way to Baghdad International Airport. A Western security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said Sunday that he had been told that three Americans went missing 24 to 48 hours ago. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by the Islamic State group and Shiite militias as well as criminal gangs demanding ransom payments or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. The Islamic State group claimed a number of attacks in Baghdad and neighbouring Diyala province last week that killed more than 50 people, including a high profile attack on a mall in the Iraqi capital. The string of Islamic State attacks on civilian targets within areas of Iraqi government control follow battlefield losses, most recently in western Iraq. Last month, Iraqi troops pushed Islamic State fighters out of the centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province in Iraqs Sunni heartland. In acts of apparent reprisal, armed gangs residents identified as Shiite militias, attacked Sunni-owned businesses and mosques in Diyala province just north of Baghdad. After Islamic State was pushed out of the province, security there was left almost entirely in the hands of Shiite militias. Responding to a call to arms from Shiite clerics in Iraq after Islamic State swept across the countrys northern and western provinces in the summer of 2014, Shiite militias in Iraq now wield more power than the countrys regular security forces and military. SHARE: It is disappointing that, in Canadian politics, so little is said about regulating tobacco products given that such products still pose a massive threat to public health a threat that is within Ottawas power to quash. Even though tobacco products are the cause of 30 per cent of all cancer and heart disease deaths and over 80 per cent of chronic obstructive lung disease casualties, even though cigarettes will kill a shocking one out of two of their long-term users, until this last election no victorious party had ever mentioned regulation of the tobacco industry in its platform. In this sense, Justin Trudeaus Liberals were an encouraging first. In his platform, the future prime minister promised to implement plain tobacco packaging, a reform that Big Tobacco has always fought ferociously. Plain packs are packages stripped of the manufacturers colours, graphics and trademarks features known to recruit kids and otherwise promote tobacco use. The absence of these distracting brand-building elements would make mandated warnings more impactful. How important is the plain packaging reform? Martin Rothstein, the former president and CEO of one of Canadas largest advertising agencies has warned that the package is the core of all tobacco marketing. No country has a tobacco advertising ban until it deals with package-based tobacco advertising. Implicit in the language of the Liberal platform is the promise of a second, equally important, measure. The party has committed to enact packaging reforms similar to those in Australia and the United Kingdom. In those countries, the plainness of the packaging was just one of two key strategies; the other was to standardize the packages size. Every industry knows that marketing its products in different sizes and shapes, each aimed at different target audiences, sells. For example, consider the lipstick-sized slims and super slims packs now on the market that target and have become quite popular among women. The packages are so small and narrow that the size renders deterrent graphics, text warnings and the smoking quit line number all but illegible. If the government is sincere in its intent to reduce tobacco use, it will also eliminate the industrys ability to use package shape and size to increase sales. This week is National Non-Smoking Week, an important annual moment for taking stock of our progress in the fight against the tobacco epidemic. Too often the focus has been on convincing smokers to overcome their addiction. This is essentially a blame-the-victim approach to tobacco control, placing the responsibility for tobacco use on individuals, most of whom became addicted as minors. The success rate of this approach, even with patches and other nicotine-based pharmaceutical assistance, has not been impressive. Once a person is addicted, the horse has left the barn. Taking smokers out of the market, one at a time, is simply not cost effective. Effective prevention must begin with an acknowledgement that the real responsibility for this wholly unnecessary epidemic lies with corporate behaviour and, more often than not, corporate misbehaviour. Law reforms, such as the introduction of plain and standardized packaging, that are focused on reining in what the New York Times has called a rogue industry, have the potential to spare thousands of kids from the deleterious effects of tobacco use and encourage thousands of others to address their addiction. In Australia, smoking prevalence has fallen significantly following plain-pack implementation in 2012. A product as dangerous as cigarettes would never be allowed to enter the market today. Not long ago, Health Canada predicted that tobacco use would kill 3 million Canadians presently alive. The Trudeau government should recognize that we are in the midst of a health crisis and do everything possible short of a tobacco prohibition to shut down this industrys ability to encourage the sale of its products. There is no ethical, moral, or economic rationale that can justify failing to do everything possible to eliminate the market for tobacco products. The government now faces a list of campaign promises longer than it will be able to honour. Not all will be kept. The health community must remind the government that, over time, thousands of preventable deaths are attached to keeping its promise on tobacco packaging. Garfield Mahood is President of the Campaign for Justice on Tobacco Fraud and an Officer of the Order of Canada. Read more about: SHARE: National debate is raging over the Liberal governments plan to reform Canadas electoral system without a referendum. A slap in the face to voters, many have said. But the voters can be ignored, at least until 2019. More problematic for the Liberals: Their plan is also a slap in the face to the Supreme Court of Canada, which less than two years ago reiterated that fundamental constitutional reform can proceed only with broad provincial consensus. As the Harper government was so often reminded, Parliament ignores the Courts prerogatives at its peril. Any attempt by the Liberal majority to unilaterally push through dramatic reform such as proportional representation or preferential balloting would thus be not just politically treacherous, but also legally futile. That conclusion flows from two important legal principles. First, unlike many other jurisdictions, Canada has no single comprehensive constitutional text. Our Constitution embraces a far-flung collection of imperial and Canadian statutes, conventions, and unwritten principles. It is not limited to a particular text or even text itself. Historical traditions, including what the Court has called fundamental constitutional tenets upon which British parliamentary democracy rested, are at the foundation of our constitutional order. Second, no single parliamentary majority can alter that foundation alone. Foreign tin-pot tyrants routinely amend constitutions to augment their own powers, but the stability of our democracy precludes willy-nilly revision. Instead, changes to what the Supreme Court has termed our constitutional architecture can be achieved only through the more onerous amendment process specified in the Constitution Act, 1982. And for changes that implicate provincial interests, that process demands that the provinces have a say; no level of government can unilaterally change the nature of our constitutional institutions. The Supreme Court famously applied these principles in its reference decision on Quebec secession, ruling that Quebec could not lawfully secede by a bare majority vote. Canadas Constitution includes unwritten yet foundational principles, the Court explained, such as democracy and the rule of law, none of which can be overridden by simple majority rule. And the Court reiterated these constraints in rejecting the Conservatives proposal to reform the Senate. The Senate is a basic institution of Canadian democracy, and changes to its essential features could not be unilaterally imposed by the Harper majority. Indeed, whether or not the letter of the constitutional text is modified, the Court warned, changes to our constitutional architecture demand broad national consensus. If these principles precluded the Conservatives from legislating the election of Senators and even relatively minor reforms, like limiting appointed Senators to fixed terms surely they also prevent the Liberals from fundamentally reshaping the way we select our principal democratic representatives in the Commons. The core structure of our electoral system is constitutionally entrenched. Our framers adopted a Constitution similar in principle to that of the United Kingdom. They modelled our House of Commons on the one across the pond, whose members have for hundreds of years been chosen, not through proportional representation or preferential balloting, but by constituents in distinct geographic districts. Indeed, Canadas founding document expressly assigned to each province a fixed number of electoral districts, each entitled to return one member to the House. This constitutional architecture plainly presupposes district-based elections. And the first-past-the-post methodology for those elections has determined the composition of our House of Commons, without deviation, since Confederation. This is not to say that our electoral system is impervious to reform. But such a basic part of our constitutional order cannot be modified by the federal government acting alone. Like the secession of a province or the Conservatives Senate reforms, radical changes to our electoral system clearly engage provincial interests. The strength and composition of provincial delegations in the House of Commons could shift dramatically under a reformed electoral system. The issue here is not the desirability of electoral reform, but respect for our constitutional order. The status quo may not be the best system, or the most democratic. Neither is appointing senators more democratic than electing them. But our constitutional framers dictated certain mechanisms for distributing political power. They did so for good reasons. To allow a one-off parliamentary majority to unilaterally alter these foundational rules of the political game would be fraught. As the Chief Justice of the United States recently observed: those who govern should be the last people to help decide who should govern. The Liberals were critical of the previous government both for its relationship with the provinces and with the Court. Now that they are in power, they should take their own advice and respect their constitutional counterparts. Yaakov Roth is a former law clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court and now practices law in Washington, DC. Jonathan Roth is a former law clerk for the Ontario Court of Appeal and now practices law in Toronto. The views expressed here are their own. SHARE: Editors' pick: Originally published Jan. 19. Time to be clinical about FANG -- Facebook (FB) , Amazon (AMZN) , Netflix (NFLX) and Google, now Alphabet (GOOGL) -- so we know what awaits us. First a note on these stocks. I picked them largely because over the years they have become anointed by a group of go-go managers, meaning managers who like to be affiliated with the stocks of companies with the most momentum. I by no means have said "buy these stocks" because they represent great value. What I have been saying is that because of the scarcity of actual high-growth stocks these have become default names that managers naturally gravitate to. You can always tell what I like by looking at the portfolio that is my charitable trust, Action Alerts PLUS, to see if I actually own some of these stocks for the trust. Right now, AAP owns Facebook and Alphabet because they can be justified on an earnings basis vs. their growth rate. So let's dive right in. First is Facebook which reports Jan. 27. Facebook has a monopoly -- a monopoly on you. Along with subsidiary Instagram, Facebook has become the biggest source for native advertising in the world and as advertising goes digital you need to understand that means it is going to Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Google. I deal with a great number of executives as part of my job and when they say they are trying to reach people digitally that usually means either Facebook or Google. (They have not had much luck using Twitter to date, which is why that stock is a perennial loser). We own Facebook because the stock is actually not expensive on earnings in what is known as the out years. You have to look at Facebook that way, instead of just 2016, because it is growing so fast. Right now Facebook is expected to earn around $3 for 2016. Given that the company is growing in excess of 30%, well above the average S&P stock, the $94 price tag is not outrageous. If the S&P 500 sells at about 17x earnings -- gee, I wish that were cheaper -- then you can see it selling at about twice the multiple without it being expensive. That means right now it is $8 below where it is already inexpensive. But take it a step further. I think the company can earn $4 in 2017. That makes it at 27x earnings. I believe it should sell closer to 30x that $4 number. Now you have a stock that is $26 below fair value. That makes the stock of Facebook a buy. Now, some stats after this selloff. Facebook peaked at $110 back on Nov. 5 2015. It is off $16 since then, or roughly 15% from its high. That's a pretty big discount. But you would have to see Facebook at $86 before it has declined as much as the average stock. If you owned no Facebook, that's where you would want to start buying. How about Amazon? Oh, this is a very rough stock to value because traditional price-to-earnings analysis doesn't matter. You simply need to see it beat certain numbers, namely $2.73 per share when it reports on the Jan. 28. You need it to guide higher, but Amazon doesn't like to guide. That means you have to wait until the commentary to formulate some new level of growth rate. The company's stock has shed $126 from its high reached Dec. 29. Now that's a very big decline: 18%. But the stock was seriously marked up at the end of the year, justified by it rumored to have a very strong holiday. Here's the issue: what do we know beyond that it is down 18%? A few percentage points down and you can argue it is down about the same amount from the percentage high as the average stock, but it is by no means average. Still, the reason why my charitable trust does not own it is because I do not know what the growth managers want to see before they buy more. I am a huge believer in Amazon Prime and I think that Amazon remains an incredible share-taker, but my inability to put a price on what Amazon is worth beyond that it has great momentum has made it impossible for my trust to own. (Amazon is owned by TheStreet's model portfolio Growth Seeker. Find out more about their latest moves.) Netflix suffers from a similar problem: What the heck is it worth? The stock's fallen $29 from its high of $133, about 22% and when it reports this week, on Tuesday, Jan. 19, people will say that if its growth rate in the U.S. is back on track -- it had a weak last quarter because of a credit card glitch -- I think it can run. That said, Netflix has a particularly broken chart. It's one to be careful of. While we don't own Netflix for my charitable trust, it does seem that its $44 billion market cap is too small for its worldwide opportunity, and its success at picking fabulous shows. That does matter because when your hit ratio is as strong as Netflix's (it has never done a production without demand for a sequel), so you have a better gross margin than a typical network. I wanted Apple (AAPL) to buy Netflix when it was at $10 billion and again at $25 billion because I believe it provides a recurring revenue stream that Apple needs to offset the obvious cellphone slowdown. It was not considered a serious target, from what I can tell. However, if the stock were to lose 20% of its value from here, it could be on the radar screen. Given how hard it is to value, the idea of $80 as a "cheap" level intrigues me. Finally there's Alphabet, and this is the only stock in FANG that makes sense to buy right now. It is down $88 from its high of $798 and when it reports on Feb. 1, I expect to hear a strong story. Not all every FANG member needs China to "make its numbers." But Alphabet in particular has forsaken China, so you don't have to fret about what happens there. Alphabet is projected to earn $35 a share next year, so you are talking about a stock that sells at slightly more than a market multiple even though it is growing far faster at 19%. You could easily be paying 30x earnings for those estimates -- that would put the $710 stock north of $1,000 before it would be absurd, which is why the charitable trust feels so confident about it. All of these stocks are tainted because they have been up so much and because of a perception that they must be slaughtered before the market can advance. The advance is predicated on many things going right, namely an improving China, oil stabilizing at about $25, a more benign Fed and better tech earnings surprises. Right now, all these seem insurmountable. When nothing good is on the horizon, the charts tend to come to the fore as a way to value these stocks, and the stocks are horrible, so that most likely means more downside. The oscillator at extremes -- like the -7 reading on the one from S&P that I use -- could be a mitigating factor, but not a savior, given how these were last year's stalwarts. So, I am presuming a continued decline until we get good news on several of these fronts -- although I would not hesitate to buy some Alphabet as it falls. Exclusive Look Inside: You see Jim Cramer on TV. Now, see where he invests his money and why Alphabet, Appleand Facebook are core holdings of his multi-million dollar portfolio. Want to be alerted before Jim Cramer buys or sells GOOGL, AAPL or FB? Learn more now. Hillary Clinton did not come armed with any Star Wars zingers at the fourth Democratic presidential debate. She did, however, have her talking points ready on rival Bernie Sanders' record on the issues. Sunday's showdown, the final before primary voting begins, was the most spirited of the election cycle so far (at least on the Dem side). The Vermont senator's recent ascent in the polls forced the former secretary of state, whose attention has largely been focused on the general election, to pay mind to the primary race as it appears to heat up (well, maybe). Clinton came prepared with lines of attack on Sanders' record on gun control and recently-revealed health care proposal and emphasized her experience on domestic and foreign policy alike. "We need a president who can do all aspects of the job," she reminded viewers in her opening statement. Sanders had his Clinton critiques ready to go as well, alluding to her ties to Wall Street and super PAC backing on more than one occasion throughout the evening. As for the other guy still in the Democratic race, Martin O'Malley, he didn't have a lot to say -- or rather, the moderators didn't give much time to him. On more than one occasion, the former Maryland governor, who made it into the debate by the skin of his teeth, pleaded for seconds of speaking time. If you missed it -- or if you didn't -- here are three big moments from Sunday's fourth Democratic debate. 1. Sanders Touts Standing in the Polls Apparently GOP frontrunner Donald Trump isn't the only one who likes to talk about the polls -- Sanders doesn't mind discussing the topic, either. The Vermont senator used some of his time Sunday to tout his public opinion prowess. "Let me talk about polling. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign started, she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of three percentage points," he said when asked about why he is trailing Clinton among minority voters, adding, "Guess what, in Iowa, in New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. Maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire." He also mentioned polls that suggest he outperforms Clinton in a matchup against Trump. Clinton tackled the polling question as well when asked by moderator Lester Holt why Sanders was outdoing her among young people. "I'm going to keep working as hard as I can to reach as many people of all ages about what I will do, what the experience and the ideas that I have that I will bring to the White House," she said. "And I hope to have their support when I'm the Democratic nominee." 2. Hillary, Bernie Talk Bill Former President Bill Clinton may be an asset and impairment to Hillary on the campaign trail (or perhaps a little bit of both), and at this weekend's debate, his presence was invoked on more than one occasion. Clinton discussed what she believes will be her husband's role in her administration should she win the White House in November, acknowledging, "It will start at the kitchen table, we'll see how it goes from there." She complemented the former president's accomplishments, especially on the economy -- the main angle she's taken in his involvement in her campaign. She emphasized his success in raising incomes for everybody and said that on the economy, "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas, I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders fielded a separate question on former President Clinton when asked about his recent comments that his past sexual misconduct was "totally disgraceful and unacceptable." On Sunday, the Vermont senator appeared to have changed course on the issue, telling debate moderator Andrea Mitchell the question "annoys" him. "I cannot walk down the street -- Secretary Clinton knows this -- without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton," he said. 3. Clinton and Sanders Spar Over Differences Health care, guns and Wall Street have been the source of tension between Clinton and Sanders for months, and Sunday evening was no exception. Just hours before the debate, Sanders unveiled his long-anticipated health care plan, which guarantees Medicare for all and would raise taxes for all income groups. Clinton, who has proposed a more moderate take on health care in America, was critical of the plan. She touted the Affordable Care Act as a "path to universal health care" and pledged to defend, build and improve the law. At the same time, she attacked Sanders for proposing to "tear it up and start over again," saying it is "the wrong direction" for the country. Sanders defended himself, saying that he does not plan to "tear up" the act, which he helped write. Clinton also went after Sanders' gun record, naming a laundry list of votes and stances he's taken in the past in an effort to paint him as pro-gun. The senator's reply: calling the former first lady's critiques "disingenuous." Sanders, on the other hand, focused on Clinton's campaign donations and close relationship with Wall Street in his offensive against the former New York senator. In the days leading up to Sunday's debate, his campaign released what many interpreted as an attack ad critiquing her plans for the finance industry. "I don't take money from big banks," he said at the debate in response to a question about the difference between his Wall Street stance and Clinton's. "I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs." He called for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall and cited former President Teddy Roosevelt, who he said would today call for big banks to be broken up. Clinton cast Sanders' criticism as a critique of the current administration. "Where we disagree is the comments that Senator Sanders has made that don't just affect me. I can take that. But he's criticized Obama for taking donations from Wall Street. And president Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession," she said. Canadian oil producers Suncor Energy Inc. (SU) on Monday, Jan. 18, said it struck a deal to buy Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. (COS), winning over the previously reluctant target with an improved all-share offer worth C$6.6 billion ($4.4 billion) including debt. Calgary-based Suncor said it had agreed to offer 0.28 of a share for each Canadian Oil share, worth C$4.24 billion at the current price, after the target had earlier rejected a bid of 0.25 of a share. Canadian Oil has C$2.4 billion of debt. The agreement provides "shareholders with a higher exchange ratio for their shares despite a 37% decline in spot oil prices," Canadian Oil chairman Don Lowry said in a statement. "Given the current market for energy securities, we recommend shareholders tender their shares." Suncor can equally claim that it has secured its long-term target for almost the same headline figure of C$4.3 billion as its initial offer on Oct. 5. Suncor shares traded at 35.37 when the initial bid was tabled, but had slid to 31.22 as of Friday, Jan. 15, the last day of trading before the deal was announced. Based on Friday's share price the initial offer would have been worth C$3.78 billion. The agreement ends months of rancor between the two oil groups. Canadian Oil responded to Suncor's approach by adopting a poison pill defense that was challenged by the bidder. The target responded by claiming that Suncor had access to unpublished information on the value of Canadian Oil's 37% stake in Syncrude, Canada's biggest tar-to-crude project. Suncor owns 12% of Syncrude. Key Canadian Oil shareholders, including Canadian billionaire Seymour Schulich, also opposed the initial offer but have been won over by the new bid. "I am pleased that working in conjunction with the COS Board...we have been able to improve the terms of the offer for our shares," Schulich said in a statement. "I will be tendering my shares." Schulich owns a 5.2% stake in Canadian Oil. Suncor said that its bid was dependent on winning at least 51% of Canadian Oil's equity, down from two-thirds in the initial bid. The offer includes a C$130 million break up fee payable by Canadian Oil if the deal falters under certain circumstances. Canadian Oil in late November claimed that more than 25 potential bidders had contacted it after it rejected Suncor's proposal, though none of those have since come forward. Imperial Oil, a unit of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) that owns 25% of Syncrude, has been touted as the most likely rival to Suncor. China Petroleum & Chemical Co., or Sinopec, China's Cnooc Ltd., Murphy Oil Co. and Mocal Energy Ltd. also own stakes in the project. Suncor's new offer will run until Feb. 5. JPMorgan & Co. and CIBC World Markets are providing financial advice to Suncor. Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP are Suncor's legal advisers. RBC Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to Canadian Oil. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP are providing legal counsel to the target. Shares in Canadian Oil closed Friday at C$7.48, down C$0.16, or 2.1%, on their Thursday close. Based on Suncor's Friday closing price of C$31.22 its offer values each Canadian Oil share at C$8.74, a C$1.26, or 17%, premium to the target's closing price. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Pope denounces violence done in the name of God You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close But the tribe has a long way to go [ COMMUNICATED CONTENT] Rochester, NY is an out of town community where Middos and Limud HaTorah are the focal point. Located in Western NY between Buffalo and Syracuse, being part of our close-knit kehilla means that you are not just another face in the crowd. Additionally, our community is only a 3 hour drive from Toronto and 4.5 hours from Monsey, making it easy to visit family and friends. The cost of housing along with the quality of the neighborhood is hard to believe. You can purchase a 3 bedroom home for around $150,000 and a 4-5 bedroom home for between $200,000 and $225,000. Here is an example of a home purchased by a frum couple in the summer of 2014. A 5 bedroom home for $205,000! CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROCHESTER, NY Our neighborhood is very clean, quiet and full of wonderful people. Career opportunities are available in a variety of fields, and we are happy to aid in job searches using our local connections and relationships with staffing agencies. Rochester has strong education and medical fields and is full of many opportunities for professionals Whatever your stage in life, Rochester has something to offer. There are schools and Yeshivos to guide a person from preschool through Kollel, as well as many learning programs for adult men and women. Children receive personalized education from dedicated Morahs and Rabbeim who strive to help each student reach his or her potential through a variety of learning styles. Several Shuls and various Davening options for both weekdays and Shabbos, along with daily Shiurim round out the deal. Despite our size, Rochester is definitely a true Makom Torah. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROCHESTER, NY If all that isnt enough to pique your interest, here is one more incentive for considering Rochester. Derech HaTorah of Rochester, our Yeshiva elementary school, is currently offering a fantastic tuition break for new students. New families pay a flat rate of $1,000 per year for ALL of their childrens tuition for their first two years in Rochester. Whether you will be sending one child or eight to DHR, your expense will still be $1,000 total. So, if you are looking to relocate your family to a community where you can make a difference, where your children will have wonderful, wholesome friends, and where Torah hashkafos guide your way of life, dont waste another day. We are waiting to welcome you. See our website www.TorahRochester.com for more details or contact Jake Dan at [email protected] or 585-330-1270 to learn more or to schedule a visit. The Iranian government has released four dual-national prisoners: Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose name had not been previously made public. A fifth American detained in Iran, Matthew Trevithick, was released in a move unrelated to the swap, U.S. officials said. A look at the four: ___ Jason Rezaian, a reporter with The Washington Post, has been detained since July 2014 when Iranian security forces raided his home and seized his wife and him. Rezaian, who was born in California and holds both U.S. and Iranian citizenship, was convicted in closed proceedings last year after being charged with espionage and related allegations. The length of his sentence has not been disclosed. The Post and the U.S. government have denied the accusations, as has Rezaian. His wife, Yeganeh Salehi, was released on bail in October 2014. Rezaian was the Posts Tehran correspondent and was accredited to work in the country by the Iranian government. Rezaian, who has covered Iran for the Post since 2012, grew up in Marin County, California, and spent most of his life in the United States. The Post, U.S. officials and Rezaians family have all called for his release. ___ Former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati of Flint, Michigan, was detained in August 2011 on espionage charges. His family says he has lost significant weight and has trouble breathing, raising fears he could contract tuberculosis. Hekmati says he went to Iran to visit family and spend time with his ailing grandmother. After his arrest, family members say they were told to keep the matter quiet. He was convicted of spying and sentenced to death in 2012. After a higher court ordered a retrial, he was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years on a lesser charge. His sister, Sarah, has said her brother renounces his dual Iranian citizenship and vows never to return to Iran if hes allowed to leave. He made the comments in a letter he dictated to his mother by phone. It has become very clear to me that those responsible view Iranian-Americans not as citizens or even human beings, but as bargaining chips and tools for propaganda, he wrote in the letter sent to the State Departments Iranian interest section in Washington. Considering how little value the Ministry of Intelligence places on my Iranian citizenship and passport, I, too, place little value on them and inform you, effectively that I formally renounce my Iranian citizenship and passport. Hekmati was born in Arizona and raised in Michigan. He and his family deny any wrongdoing, and say his imprisonment has included physical and mental torture and long periods of solitary confinement in a tiny cell. __ Pastor Saeed Abedini of Boise, Idaho, was detained for compromising national security, presumably because of Christian proselytizing, in September 2012. He was sentenced in 2013 to eight years in prison. President Barack Obama met his wife and children in 2015. There are claims he was beaten in Iranian prison. Abedini was previously arrested in 2009 and released after promising to stop organizing churches in homes. At the time of his arrest, he was running an orphanage in Iran. ___ The fourth is Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose name had not been previously made public. ___ Matthew Trevithick, a student, was released after 40 days of detention at Evin Prison in Tehran, according to a statement from his parents. Trevithick had traveled to Iran in September for a four-month, intensive language program at the Dehkhoda Institute, a language center affiliated with Tehran University. He is co-founder of a research center based in Turkey that assesses the humanitarian crisis in the area. Trevithick took a leave of absence from the center in September to focus on increasing his fluency in Dari, a language closed related to Farsi. His parents said he learned the language while living in Afghanistan for four years. U.S. officials said he was released earlier and was already on his way home, while the four in the negotiated swap were still in Iran on Sunday as work progressed to get them on a plane. (AP) The United States on Sunday imposed sanctions against 11 individuals and entities involved in Irans ballistic missile program as a result of Tehrans firing of a medium-range ballistic missile, a new punishment one day after the Obama administration lifted economic penalties against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. The missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions, said Adam J. Szubin, the Treasurys acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in a statement. He said the U.S. has made it clear that it will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside the terms of the nuclear agreement. Szubin cited Irans support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program. Also Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement that the U.S. and Iran had settled a dispute over $400 million in Iranian money dating back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and end of diplomatic ties. The Iranians also get $1.3 billion in interest. At issue was money used by Iran to buy military equipment from the U.S. before the break in ties between the countries. U.N. experts said in a report in December that the missile test in October violated sanctions banning Iran from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The U.S. also believes there was a November missile test. U.S. officials have said the Treasury planned to announce the penalties in late December, but held off after Irans foreign minister said they could have derailed the prisoner exchange that took place this weekend. (AP) There was a time when Democrats fretted about Hillary Clintons presidential campaign becoming a coronation and leaving her without the tests of a primary season to prepare for a general election matchup against the Republican nominee. No one is worried about that anymore. In the past two weeks, the Democratic race has gone from a relatively civil disagreement over policy to a contentious winter competition between former Secretary of State Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Clintons institutional strength and her support among the minority voters who make up a large portion of the partys base still put her in a formidable position, even as polls show Sanders surging in Iowa and maintaining an edge in New Hampshire. But should Sanders prevail in those first two states on the 2016 campaign calendar, Clintons bid to succeed President Barack Obama may mean a much longer and messier path than her supporters once envisioned. It would plunge Democrats into the kind of primary fight they have gleefully watched Republicans struggle to contain in the past year. You have to look at these numbers and say theres a real race going on, said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman. Its a race where Hillary Clinton has significant advantages in the long run. But its a real race. The contest was certain to intensify this weekend, with the Democratic candidates gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday night for a party dinner and the annual fish fry hosted by Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. Then theres the Sunday night debate, the final one before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. The New Hampshire primary is Feb. 9. I think it is a new phase of the campaign, said Joel Benenson, Clintons chief campaign strategist. We talked about how close this was going to be in (Iowa and New Hampshire). They always are historically and were ready to have this debate engaged. In the past week, Clinton has shifted course in apparent response to Sanders strong poll results. She has stepped up her criticism of her rival, a self-described democratic socialist, after carefully avoiding that during the campaign. The new approach carries risks. Sanders is popular with liberals who are part of the coalition that Clinton will need to win the White House. Clinton and her supporters still remember her disappointing third-place finish in Iowa in 2008 against Obama. Clintons team has retooled her schedule to add stops in Iowa in the week ahead. The candidate has made near-daily television appearances where she has challenged Sanders stances on health care and gun control. Clinton and Sanders were each booked on four Sunday morning news shows. Her campaign is sending out top party representatives, starting with former President Bill Clinton, to make her case in early voting states. Daughter Chelsea Clinton has offered critical words about Sanders, leading to a back-and-forth over his health care plan. Theyre very afraid of a repeat in 2008 and theyre getting very aggressive, said Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. I expect at any moment now theyll go hard negative on us and were prepared for that. But we wont be negative on them. Clinton has tried to dismiss Sanders proposals as unrealistic and disingenuous. She points to his 2005 vote for legislation giving gun manufactures immunity from lawsuits as a sign that the senator wouldnt fight forcefully enough against powerful interest groups. Sundays debate is in the city where a 21-year-old white man shot and killed nine people attending a prayer service at an African-American church last summer. The setting may give Clinton a chance to confront Sanders on his past votes related to gun control. But in a campaign that has seen billionaire Donald Trump rise to the top of the Republican presidential field by capitalizing on an electorate angry with the political establishment, Clinton may once again be embracing the mantle of experience at a time when outsider status is in vogue. What shes trying to do is cast Bernie as, I dont want to say a protest candidate, but as a message candidate against someone who is grounded in the reality of governance, said former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. The danger is that you also make yourself an exponent of governance the way people see it today. In an anti-establishment time, Axelrod said, youre essentially branding yourself as the establishment candidate. The campaign could take a much tougher turn in the weeks ahead. Clintons campaign complained this past week when Sanders aired an ad that suggested Clinton wouldnt be tough enough on Wall Street. That could clear the way for Clintons team to retaliate with its own critical advertising. After Iowa and New Hampshire, the calendar seemingly swings in Clintons favor. She has an edge in Nevada, the first caucus state with a significant segment of Latino voters, and in South Carolina, where black voters make up more than half of the electorate. From there, the campaign will play out in a series of Southern states holding contests on the March 1 Super Tuesday primaries, where African-American voters are pivotal. The question for Sanders is whether he can expand his support beyond the white voters who dominate the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. If and its a very big if Bernie Sanders wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, there will be a lot of heartburn. There will be a lot of handwringing, Mellman said. But for him to win the nomination over the long term, hes got to get beyond that base. (AP) The official economic sanctions that were strangling Iran were lifted a short time ago. The United States and the European Union have agreed to move ahead with the implementation of lifting sanctions as part of the deal brokered between Iran and the West by the United Stated. The lifting of the sanctions followed the release of a statement from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has complied with its requirements under the deal. The following statement was released by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahus office after the announced lifting of sanctions. Israel will continue to monitor the implementation of the agreement and will warn about any violation. Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not relinquished its aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons and it will continue to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world while violating its international obligations. The major powers and the IAEA must closely monitor activity at Irans nuclear installations and other sites in order to verify that it is not continuing to develop nuclear weapons in secret. Unless there is an appropriate response to each violation, Iran will understand that it can continue to develop nuclear weapons, undermine regional stability and spread terrorism. Israel will continue to monitor the situation and warn about Irans negative activity, and will do everything necessary to safeguard its security and defend itself. At the beginning of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 7 Shevat, the Prime Minister added Following the nuclear agreement with Iran, Israel will continue to monitor all of Irans international violations, including regarding the nuclear agreement, the ballistic missile agreement and terrorism. The international community must enact severe and aggressive sanctions against each violation. Were it not for our efforts to lead sanctions and thwart Irans nuclear program, Iran would have had nuclear weapons some time ago. Israels policy is exactly as it has been not to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. What is clear is that Iran will now have more resources to divert to terrorism and its aggression in the region and around the world, and Israel is prepared to deal with any threat. Discussions with the American administration are currently being completed on a document of understandings for the coming decade regarding security assistance to the State of Israel. This is an important part of permanent policy between us and the United States, our ally, and it is important in order to repel threats in the region, especially the Iranian threat. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The Jerusalem District Attorney on Sunday, 7 Shevat, filed criminal indictments against Mitchrei Fanchasov, 48, from Beit El, Yechiel Meir Zilber, 25, from Jerusalem and a 17-year-old for violence and vandalizing a vehicle and intentionally endangering a human life on a vehicular roadway. They are accused to hurling rocks at residents of Jalazoun, located near Beit El in the Shomron. They are also accused of targeting the vehicle of a European media agencys photographer. One of the rocks smashed that vehicles windshield. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Jerusalem Councilman (Yahadut Hatorah) Yitzchak Pindrus has given Mayor Nir Barkat an ultimatum, two weeks to stop the airing of movies in the Kiryat Yovel minhelet on Friday nights. Mayor Nir Barkat has released public statements calling on the Kiryat Yovel local community council (minhelet) to stop offering movies to area residents on Friday nights. http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/371268/jerusalem-mayor-barkat-orders-shutting-shabbos-movies-in-kiryat-yovel-minhal.html However the movies continue, as was the case this past Shabbos http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/374070/kiryat-yovel-community-council-continues-to-air-movies-on-shabbos.html and the frum councilman is unwilling to tolerate the mayors blase attitude much longer, hence the two-week ultimatum. Deutsch announced the ultimatum during an interview with Noam Zeigman on Kol Berama Radio. The ultimatum comes at a time when more and more businesses are opening on Shabbos RL in the capital despite City Hall insisting the religious status quo is being maintained. This past Shabbos, Parshas Bo, hundreds of mispallalim held a protest at the minhelet against the chilul Shabbos. Deutsch explained that he cannot permit this to continue and if the mayor cannot stop the chilul Shabbos, he will do his utmost to pull Yahadut Hatorah out of the city coalition government. Some members of the frum parties in the city council are expected to meet on Sunday evening to discuss a plan of action, which includes cutting funding to the Kiryat Yovel minhelet. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) The rabbonim who serve on the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Council on Sunday, 7 Shevat, called for granting exclusive power to the Av Beis Din of the Chief Rabbinate Supreme Beis Din to appoint dayanim to that body. That means in this case, the power would rest with Rishon LTzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita as he is current serving as the av beis din. Later in his term, in two years, the post will rotate with Chief Rabbi David Lau Shlita. Under the law today, any dayan serving on a beis din on the regional level is eligible to serve on the Supreme Beis Din after amassing three years of experience. According to a Walla News report, Rav Yosef is trying to raise the bar pertaining to eligibility for a dayan wishing to serve on the nations highest Beis Din. Rabbi Yosef has established a vaad which includes Rabbi Yehuda Deri Shlita (brother of Shas leader Rabbi Aryeh Deri & a mechutin to Rav Yosef) and Rabbi Yitzchak Ralbag Shlita (father-in-law to Chief Rabbi David Lau) to recommend new criteria for one who wishes to be considered for serving on the Supreme Beis Din. According to a Walla report, the committee feels a regional dayan must have ten years of experience as well as having served as a regional av beis din. Currently, the Av Beis Din of the Supreme Beis Din cannot select dayanim without approval of the Committee to Appoint Justices, which is also made up of representatives of political parties. According to the Walla News report, legal counsel for the Chief Rabbinate, Harel Goldberg, is opposed to the recommendation to grant the Supreme Beis Din Av Beis Din unprecedented authority. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) Hundreds of Rabbis and concerned citizens will rally Monday at the Swiss mission to the United Nations, pleading to cancel plans to exhume a medieval Jewish cemetery in Zurich, as part of the expansion of the Kunsthaus museum. According to the governments own assessment, the ongoing expansion directly threatens the cemetery, a sacred Jewish heritage site. In letters to the Swiss and Zurich authorities, and in meetings with the Swiss representatives in New York, London and Tel Aviv, Jewish communities appealed to halt the ongoing desecration of the cemetery. The United States Commission for the Preservation of Americas Heritage Abroad also appealed to the Swiss government to stop the ongoing excavation. It was pointed out that the engineering plans can be amended to allow for graves to remain intact without interfering with the expansion of the Kunsthaus. International law, human rights, property and religious rights dictate that a cemetery should be preserved and protected there, said Dr. Bernard Fryshman, of the Conference of Academicians for the Protection of Jewish Cemeteries. We are shocked that an enlightened nation such as Switzerland intends to violate those rights, and to desecrate our precious and revered heritage. We hope that our pleas will be heard, and the Swiss government will not cause this terrible anguish to the Jewish people. The prohibition against moving graves is ingrained in Talmudic law. 78 leading European Rabbis issued a decree stressing how serious a violation the removal of graves is. The impending uprooting of this cemetery is especially hurtful, given the history and sanctity of the site, which dates back over 600 years and is known to be the resting place of great sages most prominently, some accounts have it, one of the jurist Rabbi Moshe of Zurich, of the authors of Tosefot, a major Talmudic commentary. This holy cemetery remains the heritage of the international Jewish community and concerns us all, said Rabbi David Niederman, President of the United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn who met Swiss representatives in New York and London. The Jewish community at large simply cannot remain silent in face of this holy site being destroyed. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Diplomatic triumph or travesty, Americas relationship with one of its most intractable foes took two giant leaps forward this weekend when Iran released four Americans in a prisoner swap after locking in last summers nuclear deal and receiving some $100 billion in sanctions relief. The announcements culminated a stunning few days of activity for the Obama administration and particularly Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the diplomatic outreach to Tehran at President Barack Obamas direction through years of slow-grinding negotiations. Speaking from the White House, Obama on Sunday hailed the historic progress through diplomacy, long the centerpiece of his foreign policy vision, instead of another war in the Middle East. Three of the American detainees Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived in Germany en route to a U.S. military hospital. They will return home after medical evaluations. The fourth, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran, officials said. The Islamic Republic released the prisoners in exchange for pardons or charges dropped against seven Iranians six of whom hold dual U.S. citizenship serving time for or accused of sanctions violations in the United States. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately. For all the celebrations, the timing of the deal, finalized hours after Saturday nights U.N. confirmation that Iran made good on pledges to significantly back away from atomic bomb-making capacity, suggested that the Americans possibly were used as pawns by the Iranian government to win long-sought economic relief, as critics allege. The International Atomic Energy Agencys declaration unlocked some $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets overseas, and potentially even greater economic benefits through suspended oil, trade and financial sanctions by the U.S. and European Union. Critics of Obamas Iran policy at home and abroad pounced on the details of the prisoner exchange and the new economic opportunities being afforded Tehran while it still supports Syrian President Bashar Assads government and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. This deal is a problematic deal, and it reflects a pattern we have seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists, and making deals and trades that endanger U.S. safety and security, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a GOP presidential candidate, said on Fox News Sunday. Nevertheless, the back-to-back breakthroughs reflected painstaking diplomacy by Kerry and administration officials. The efforts were beset by several hitches, including the detention of 10 U.S. sailors by Iran last week in the Persian Gulf and U.S. plans in late December to impose new sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile testing. The sailors were released after Kerrys intervention with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The sanctions were delayed until Sunday, after the U.S. detainees left Iran. U.S. and Iranian officials hashed out the prisoner exchange over 11 or 12 meetings over a process that took a little longer than a year, sprouting from the even longer set of talks that led to last Julys landmark nuclear accord. Just before Zarif announced the final pact with his EU counterpart Frederica Mogherini, Kerry raised the issue of the detained Americans. A photograph of Kerry speaking with Zarif and Iranian President Hasan Rouhanis brother, Hossein Fereydoun, captured the moment. Things progressed significantly by November, when Iran was included for the first time in a meeting in Vienna on Syrias civil war. Kerry and Zarif met there to discuss the prisoners. We actually shook hands thinking we had an agreement, Kerry said. I thought it was done. But the deal bogged down in Tehran and never went through. So we went back to work, Kerry told reporters on his plane back to Washington late Saturday. He described the negotiations as difficult, especially as the Iranians made what he said were unacceptable demands. Kerry said the United States made clear it wouldnt release an accused murderer or narcotics offender. For a long time, this didnt move because of the people they were asking for, Kerry recalled. We said, No, and no, and no.' And believe me, its hard when somebody says to you, Hey, you give us this guy, we let them all out. And you have to say no. And you know youre keeping people in a not very nice place for the next whatever number of months, he said. But there have to be an enforcement of our principles and our standards here. And in the end, we came out in the right place on that. More progress was made by Kerrys meeting with Zarif on Dec. 18 in New York. By then, American and Iranian teams in Geneva were working hard on the details of the swap. The U.S. team, led by Brett McGurk, the special envoy for the fight against the Islamic State group, was prepared to release individuals who violated nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, Kerry said. By Saturday night, those sanctions had been rescinded. In the end, the president made the call, he said. One of the last hiccups that delayed the Americans departure was an Iranian military officials misunderstanding about Rezaians wife and mother joining him on the flight. After Kerry spoke to Zarif, permission was granted. But the various administrative holdups meant that the Swiss crew set to fly the plane ran into a mandatory crew rest. That set back takeoff several hours. The U.S. and Iran havent had diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The administration says this weekends agreements wont change that situation, but relations are clearly warming. Cooperation on ending Syrias civil war and even discussions about coordinating their fights against the Islamic State point to the budding ties. That has many of Americas closest partners in the region, not to mention Republican and some Democratic lawmakers in the United States, fretful. Republicans have denounced the outreach as a dangerous and undeserved concession to Iran. Israel remains steadfastly opposed to the Iran deal and any rapprochement with Tehran. Sunni Saudi Arabia has had tension with Iran since executing a Shiite cleric on Jan. 2, which led to a severing of diplomatic ties between the two. Both of these countries, and others, are wary of an emboldened Iran. Some Republicans say the prisoner exchange could mean Iran seizes more Americans as hostages to facilitate future trades. But Kerry said the successful talks over prisoners and nuclear matters raise the prospects of more U.S.-Iranian cooperation on other matters. Zarif, he said, indicated that if they got the two tasks done, There are ways to try to translate this and hopefully be constructive in other things. He specifically said Syria and Yemen. I put a big, Who knows?' on that, Kerry said, but expressed hope. Kerry said he would remain at work on other Americans still being held in Iran. (AP) 10:22: [VIDEO & PHOTOS IN ARTICLE] One person has been wounded and a terrorist shot in a stabbing attack near Yishuv Tekoa, in the eastern Gush Etzion district. Zaka reports the victim in moderate-to-serious condition. Additional details to follow as they become available. 10:30: The victim in the latest Palestinian terror attack was wounded in the upper torso. Magen David Adom is reporting a woman about 30 was wounded, reported to be in serious condition. The terrorist was shot and killed. 10:37: The victim, who is pregnant, is listed in serious condition and is being transported to the trauma unit of Jerusalems Shaare Zedek Medical Center. This is the second stabbing attack inside a yishuv in the past 24 hours. Last night, Mrs. Dafna Meir HYD was stabbed to death in front of her home in Otniel, in the Southern Hebron Hills. Her levaya is taking place at this time, making its way from Otniel to Har Menuchos as an ambulance from eastern Gush Etzion transports the latest victim of Arab terror to a Jerusalem trauma center. 11:09: The terrorist appears to have entered the yishuv via a hole that existed in the security fence or one he made. The hole was spotted by IDF trackers operating in the community following the attack. The 18-year-old terrorist from Beit Lechem then entered a clothing facility, possibly a second hand store or gemach in the industrial area and attacked the pregnant woman. The IDF has instructed all Gush Etzion area communities to immediately oust all Arab workers and shoppers in stores. The tzibur is asked to be mispallel for the victim, Michal bas Esther as well as her unborn child. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: Media Resource Group) The terrorist who murdered Mrs. Dafna Meir HYD at the entrance to her Otniel home on Sunday night worked in the community, in construction. He remains at large. For those familiar with the community, it is under tight security as it is the last community in the S. Hebron Hills, somewhat isolated. It is surrounded by security fences, there is constant security at the gate and an IDF base a few hundred meters from the entrance. Hence many questioned how the terrorist could have possibly infiltrated the community. It appears after work the terrorist decided to murder Jews and he found Mrs. Meir at the entrance to her home. She fought until her last breath, literally, to keep him out of their home as a child looked on in horror, watching the terrorist repeatedly stab her as she screamed for assistance. It appears the terrorist at some poinit realized her shouts and fled, leaving her bleeding to death some of her six children saw her during her last moments of her life. He escaped in a waiting vehicle that was left earlier in the day. Mrs. Meir, 38, was the mother of six, four natural and two adopted. She worked as a nurse in Beershevas Soroka Medical Center, where colleagues are mourning the loss of one they describe as a light to all around her, patients and staff alike. Dr. Avi Cohen of Soroka spoke with Mordechai Lavi of Kol Chai Radio an hour before the levaya, expressing the loss to the entire hospital and all who knew Mrs. Meir, who he described as one whose entire life was enveloped in acts of kindness and concern for others. Dafna is survived by her husband Natan, and children Raanana (17), Akiva (15), Ahava (10), Noa (11), Yair (6), and Yaniv (4). (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) As YWN reported on Sunday, controversial rally is being held today at the Swiss mission to the United Nations. The purpose of the rally is to plead for cancelling plans to exhume a medieval Jewish cemetery in Zurich, Switzerland as part of a museum expansion project. The rally was organized by the Satmar group headed by the Satmar Rebbe of Williamsburg, Rav Zaman Leib Teitelbaum Shlita. This holy cemetery remains the heritage of the international Jewish community and concerns us all, said Rabbi David Niederman, President of the United Jewish Organizations (UJO) of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn who met Swiss representatives in New York and London. The Jewish community at large simply cannot remain silent in face of this holy site being destroyed. The United States Commission for the Preservation of Americas Heritage Abroad also opined on the matter and has sent letters of appeal to the Swiss government to stop the ongoing excavation. Why is it controversial? It seems that the Rabbinic community in Zurich itself is against the rally. In a letter signed by Rav Shaul Breisch, Av Beis Din of Zurich, Rav Moshe Chaim Shmerlach of Machzikei HaDas Zurich, and Rav Chaim Moshe HaLevy Levy, Av Beis Din of Adas Yeshurun, the Rabbonim explain that if, any bones are found it will be dealt with properly under the supervision of these Rabbis. The letter states that outside intervention will certainly make the matters worse and it is requested that the outside community refrain from taking any actions. The indication of the letter is such that they seem to have received assurances that no Jewish graves will be disturbed. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) America TeVe once again makes television history in the United States with its unique coverage of its' caravan "Path To Freedom Route."For the first time, a professional news team accompanies step by step and day by day, the first group of Cuban refugees stranded for months in Costa Rica, through its pilgrimage through Central America, Mexico and the United States to Miami, Florida territory.From a bus, contracted by America TeVe and the Pegasus group, our station team, newscaster, Juan Manuel Cao, Alexis Ardines producer and cameraman Luis Quian, have been reporting from the caravan's route across 12 states of the Mexican Republic.After crossing the border from the United States, the Cuban refugees will continue heading to Miami, where family and friends will welcome them in America TeVe's studios.Juan Manuel Cao, together with his team, traveled to the camps of Costa Rica, where thousands of Cubans await the time of the desired trip to Miami.Their personal stories go beyond the news and become living testimony of another dramatic exodus.The news of a crossing constantly threatened by smugglers and corrupt officials, who have exhausted their savings and the health of the refugees, ads touching family stories.We see the wrenching testimony of a mother waiting for a child who has not seen in 30 years.We see the story of the famous cartoonist Aristides Pumariega, who lost a son during the exodus of the rafters of 1994, and now waits for her young grandson.Aristides received was punished by the government and was separated from their artistic functions for 8 years in the 1970's for sharp criticisms of the Cuban political system, and his popular cartoons where character Underdevelopment Perez was vanished from graphic press.Juan Manuel Cao, reporting from the rough terrain of this caravan through jungles, mountains and deserts, joined a second team of America TeVe in Laredo, Texas led by reporter, Rolando Napoles and cameraman Alberto Porras, along with additional staff from the network.The President and CEO of America CV Network, Carlos Vasallo, said with the waiting for the massive arrival of the caravan to Miami, America TeVe reaffirms its commitment to this community, providing the most comprehensive coverage with a historical event full of emotions and expectations.Once again, America Teve's coverage is a step ahead of other networks. The worlds top politicians, policy makers, great minds and business people decamp this week to Davos in Switzerland for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The agenda is eclectic; the topics are a challenging and fascinating mix of problems seeking solutions. But in one respect the guest list fails the basic test for any aspiring host or hostess: men outnumber women by more than four to one. When it comes to diversity in other respects such as ethnicity or social background it isnt much better. Its tempting to blame the organisers, the WEF itself, but this is unfair. The delegates come from the corporate world, including about 1,500 business leaders, and are chosen by the companies themselves. And they are mostly men. Speaking out: International Monetary Fund boss Christine Lagarde at the World Economic Forum Women made up only 17 per cent of delegates last year, which was actually a small improvement on the previous year. Amongst the academic and civil society guests, whose invitations are more directly influenced by the WEF, the proportion of women rises to a more respectable 25 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. The low numbers of women at Davos simply reflect the low levels of representation at the top of politics and business. Progress is being made, however, and some of the most impressive figures on the global stage of our generation are women including Janet Yellen, chair of the US Federal Reserve; Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund; and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. But its not enough and progress on gender equality is simply too slow. Perhaps the most sobering prediction at last years WEF was made by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director, UN Women, at the launch of the He for She UN Women campaign, encouraging men to support womens rights. She pointed out that at the current rate of progress: A girl born during Davos 2015 will be 81 years old before she has gender parity. Put bluntly, we need more women at the top of the worlds most important organisations if we want the delegates at Davos to be more evenly split between the sexes. So how do we achieve that? The first point is to understand the strong economic case for gender balance in the economy. The evidence is very clear about the benefits better use of skills leads to better productivity leading to a stronger economy overall. Government can show the way here, but business needs to play its part too. One of the concrete things it can do is to address the gender pay gap. Shockingly, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently found gender employment gaps are 10 per cent or higher in 15 of the G20 countries. Part of this gap is due to differential pay structures in different career paths. For example the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) in the UK recently found that women outnumber men in nearly two thirds of all degree courses. Yet male students still dominate many of the courses which lead to better pay such as engineering and some sciences. Studies show that unconscious bias still affects women in terms of recognition, pay and promotion. For many women, the workplace is not meritocratic even though most organisations strive and indeed believe that their interview and assessment processes are fair. Leaders need to educate themselves about how unconscious bias may be unfairly benefiting some people at the expense of others and take tangible steps to address it. For businesses that do there is a real competitive advantage. After all, we know that mixed teams are better performers. Thats as true in business as anywhere else. MANZINI It is interesting how all of you appearing in court claim to have to pay school fees yet you all have money for alcohol, noted Magistrate Mthokozisi Dlamini. Dlamini made this observation when a number of suspects who appeared before him charged with the offence of driving while under the influence of alcohol begged for leniency, citing outstanding school fees for their children. Accused persons, a number of you have informed court that you have children that need your financial assistance to go back to school. I find it interesting that with all the financial burdens you claim to have, all of you have money for alcohol, he said. Magistrate Dlamini informed offenders waiting to appear before him that he was prepared to tell them in advance that court would not allow offenders to pay their fines in installments. Due to dishonesty displayed by a number of offenders who have in the past been allowed to pay in instalments, court does not allow this facility any more. He said most offenders, after gaining liberty, disappeared from the face of the earth and the court was then left with the burden of sending police to find them; a time-consuming exercise. Philip Hleta (54) of Ludzeludze, who appeared in court charged with driving his Mazda LDV registered YSD 548AM while under the influence of alcohol, is one of those who asked the court to allow him to pay his fine in installments. Hleta was apprehended near Voctim Matsapha along the MR 23 public road. When tested for alcohol in his system, his breath specimen revealed that he had 0.58mg/l alcohol content which is more than the legal limit of 0.37mg/l. MASEYISINI Former High Court Registrar, Principal Magistrate Fikile Nhlabatsi brought some mourners to tears when she revisited her much publicised arrest with an emotional tribute to her deceased father, Mandla. This was during a funeral service held at her homestead in Maseyisini, which preceded the journey to her late fathers final resting place at the Nhlangano cemetery, yesterday morning. Mandla Isaac Nhlabatsi was shot at close range and left for dead by his assailants while at his homestead on January 8 and the bullet pierced the 61-year-old mans chest from the left side and exited on the right. Filled with grief during the funeral service, Fikile told the gathering that she was so proud of her father and remembered how the elderly man stood by her side when she was arrested in April last year. The judicial officer told mourners that she probably had the best father anyone could ask for. It takes a really caring father to display in public his emotions, just to express his love for his daughter. My father was very close to me and he had to cry in public just to show how much he cared for me, she explained at the service, which she said created a strong bond between her and her father. Fikile had just entered the dock in court following her arrest by the Anti Corruption Commission and officers from the Police Fraud and Commercial Crime Unit in April last year, when her father burst into tears after he was overcome by emotions. Fikile had been arrested with two judges and the former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. They faced charges, including defeating the ends of justice and conflict of interest, which all emanated from the case involving former Chief Justice Michael Ramodibedi. However, charges against Fikile were later withdrawn after she was turned State witness. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams By Sadef Ali Kully JAMAICA A passenger on an incoming flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport was caught allegedly smuggling heroin inside of a bottle of a traditional Dominican drink Jan. 6, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said. CBP officials said Rosa de Ortega arrived from Santiago, Dominican Republic, with one checked suitcase for inspectors. During the inspection, CBP officers said a bottle of Mamajuana felt unusually heavy. According to the CBP, Mamajuana is a drink from the Dominican Republic comprised of tree barks and herbs soaked in rum, red wine, and honey in a bottle. The taste is similar to port wine and the color is a deep red. CBP officers opened the bottle to find 32 pellets, which tested positive for heroin, according to CBP officials. In total, the 32 pellets weighed an estimated one pound and had an estimated street value of $27,000. De Ortega, a citizen of the Dominican Republic, was arrested and turned over to the NYPD. She faces state narcotics smuggling charges by the Queens district attorneys office, according to the CBP. New Transylvania: Pittsburgh ranked #6 for vampires With little sunshine and lots of blood banks, study shows Pittsburgh ranked No. 6 best city for vampires Council takes no action on suing entertainment giants Wichita Falls city councilors moved consideration of a lawsuit against some major entertainment companies off the agenda when they met Tuesday. SHARE Something you don't see all the time, at least around this part of the world, is a retired ace chariot driver schlepping around with a mama goat slung over one shoulder and kid goats in the crook of his elbow. But you can see that in the night sky. It's the constellation Auriga the Charioteer. In fact, it is one of the prime winter time constellations. As I've said many times before, many of the constellations just don't resemble what they're supposed to be. Cultures from the past all over the world used these dot-to-dot or star-to-star "pictures" as rough visual aids to help tell their particular legends or mythological stories. Imaginations must have been extremely healthy back then. Most of the constellation stories in the western hemisphere originate from Greek and Roman mythology. In the case of Auriga, though, there must have been an outdoor party with strong libations when this constellation was created. Otherwise how could you make a constellation that resembles a lopsided pentagon into a retired chariot driver turned goat farmer? In the early evening this time of year, Auriga is perched high in the Wichita Falls southeast sky and is a prominent member of the gang of bright winter constellations I call "Orion and his gang". Look for the lopsided pentagon just to the upper left of the mighty constellation Orion the Hunter that resembles a giant hourglass, and according to Greek and Roman mythology outlines the torso of a mighty hermit hunter. Three equally spaced bright stars in a perfect line denote Orion's belt. As it turns out, this week you can also use the waxing gibbous moon, on its way to being full next weekend. Early this week the moon will migrate from night to night toward the east, passing just below Auriga. The brightest star in Auriga is on the upper left hand corner of the pentagon. That's Capella, which is also one of the brightest stars in the night sky we see through the course of the year. In fact, it's the fourth brightest star we can see in our night sky. It's a little over 42 light years away, with just one light year equaling almost six trillion miles. Capella is actually not one, but two stars orbiting each other, separated by about a hundred million miles. There's no way we can see that with even a large amateur telescope. The two Capella stars are both super large versions of our home star the sun. They're both close to ten million miles in diameter. Our own sun is not even one million miles in girth. According to one of the Greek legends, King Oenomaus was the ruthless ruler of a mighty kingdom. He had a beautiful daughter, Hippodameia, who had many suitors who wished to marry her. King Oenomaus didn't think any young man was worthy of her. Anybody who even tried met his death. What a sweet king! He didn't just send them to the gallows, though, but rather he challenged all one by one to a chariot race. King Oenomaus was an excellent charioteer. If any young suitor made it to the finish line ahead of him that young man would win the hand of his daughter. But, if the suitor lost the race he would be killed by slow torture. Being that Oenomaus had the fastest horses in the land, he routinely outraced every young man who tried and did in them in afterward. One day though, Pelops, son of Hermes, the messenger of the gods came to chariot race for the hand of Hippodameia, and he got some extra divine help from the other gods. They were sick of the king's slaughter. They provided a chariot to Pelops that would sprout golden wings to insure victory. As added insurance, Pelops also paid off Oenomaus's chariot mechanic Myrtilus to betray the king. Myrtilus replaced the linchpins of the king's chariot wheels with copies made of wax. In return for his betrayal, Pelops promised half the kingdom to Myrtilus after the king lost the race and was killed. When the race began, Oenomaus was neck and neck with Pelops, but about halfway to the finish line the golden wings popped out of the crooked suitor's chariot. The king was left in a cloud of dust. Oenomaus then cracked his mighty whip commanding his horses to go faster. At that very moment the wheels flew off and Oenomaus was dragged to his death. Pelops proceeded to marry Hippodameia and live happily ever after with the queen of the kingdom. Myrtilus was happy for the new couple, but he still wanted his half of the kingdom and Pelops was welshing. Myrtilus confronted Pelops, demanding his share, but crooked Pelops stalled him, claiming that his lawyers were drawing up all the papers that would be ready in a few days. Myrtilus was satisfied with this explanation and started walking off. Just as he did, Pelops, with his inherited godly powers, kicked Myrtilus so hard in the derriere that he went flying into the heavens and magically became the constellation we know today as Auriga. No one knows exactly how the betraying chariot driver got the mama goat and baby goats on his shoulder, but the leading theory is that shepherds added them as they watched their flocks by night. Again, look for Auriga the charioteer turned goat farmer nearly overhead above the constellation Orion. By the way, bright star Capella marks where the mama goat is. See if you can spot the dim triangle of stars that make the baby goats right next to Capella. Go figure! By Claire Kowalick of the Times Record News At their meeting Tuesday, the Wichita Falls City Council will again review an ordinance amendment proposal to allow rezoning of a portion of the Canyon Trails Planned Unit Development. The issue has been a contentious one between the owner of the property, Gary Mehan, and current residents of the PUD. Mehan purchased two plots of the PUD near the front entrance from David Rhone in 2015, with a plan to develop the land for zero-lot line houses. The PUD was developed about 22 years ago, and the area near the front entrance has been available for sale for commercial development since that time. Residents were informed of the plan and many voiced opinions against the rezoning for residential development. Resident Gary Schultz said traffic safety was one of the main problems with this housing plan. "The big issue now is the safety of that entry into our neighborhood. Adding that many additional families right at the entrance to an already dangerous blind curve to the road. Unless the city considers changing the roadway, (Mehan) has essentially created a bottleneck right there," Schultz said. Since the proposed rezoning, a strong homeowners association has been forming with more than 30 members of the Canyon Trails community. A public hearing on the issue was held at the last council meeting and six residents spoke against the rezoning. Consideration of the ordinance was delayed due to the absence of two council members during the Jan. 5 meeting. The item Tuesday will consider an ordinance to allow for rezoning of 134.73 acres of the PUD to allow for zero-lot line residential development and removal of the use of congregate living center or professional office park from the master plan. Two more ordinances and five resolutions are on the meeting agenda. Council will consider: Ordinance granting 398.1 square-feet of permanent private communication easement in the right of way on Eighth Street between the current and new Red River Hospital facilities. Ordinance accepting $31,000 from the Department of State Health Services for Texas Heart Disease and Stroke Program Community-Clinical Linkages Grant. The funds will be used to purchase blood-pressure monitor cuffs. Resolution to allow the property at 814 Linda Lane to be sold for less than the amount against judgment. Resolution to accept or reject sealed bids for 26 excess land parcels and authorize execution of deeds to convey titles. Resolution to allow the fire chief to apply for $917,963 in funds from the Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters grant. Resolution to declare the city eligible and their intention to participate in the Texas Tax Abatement Program to promote development and redevelopment. Resolution for the city manager to apply for the fiscal year 2017 Texas Department of Transportation Comprehensive Selective Traffic Enforcement Program. Nearly 200 highly trained New York Army and Air National Guard Honor Guard members are ready to respond to thousands of requests for military funerals this year. More than 10,900 military funerals were performed by New York Army and Air National Guard Honor guards last year, according to Lt. Col. Eric Durr, a spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs. New York Army National Guard's soldiers assigned to eight Honor Guard teams performed at 8,925 funerals. The New York Air National Guard's six Base Honor Guard teams provided military funeral honors for the families of 1,967 Air Force veterans. Air Guard teams are provided by the 109th Airlift Wing at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Scotia; the 106th Rescue Wing at F.S. Gabreski Air National Guard Base in Westhampton Beach; the 105th Airlift Wing at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh; the 174th Attack Wing at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse; the 107th Airlift Wing at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station in Niagara Falls; and the Eastern Air Defense Sector at Griffiss Technology Park in Rome. All Honor Guard members must undergo five days of intense drill and ceremony training. The New York Army National Guard provided services at 9,567 funerals in 2014, while the New York Air National Guard conducted military funerals on 1,798 occasions in 2014. The number of military funerals provided by the New York Army National Guard declined due to reductions in funding, according to Peter Moran, military funeral honors coordinator for New York. The New York Honor Guard passed 656 requests for funeral honors to the active Army Casualties Assistance Centers at Fort Drum and Fort Dix, N.J., when personnel were not available to handle those funerals, he said. Additional funds have been provided for 2016, so the state's Honor Guard will be able to take more funerals, Moran said. Since 2000, federal law has mandated that any military veteran who did not receive a dishonorable discharge from the armed forces is eligible for military honors at his or her funeral. The ceremony must include the folding and presenting of the flag of the United States to the veteran's survivors and the playing of taps. The size of the detail varies from a minimum of two service members to nine or more personnel for deceased service members who retired from the military after a full career or were awarded medals for valor. At least one of the Honor Guard members must belong to the service the deceased service member had served in. A total of 596 military funerals were conducted by Honor Guard teams in the Capital Region. A total of 276 military funerals were performed by Air National Guard Honor Guard teams from the 109th Airlift Wing in the region. Veterans who served for 25 or more years and retired from the military, those who received certain medals for heroism, general officers, and soldiers who have died in combat receive more elaborate services. A veteran in this category of "full military honors" receive a nine-member detail, which provides pallbearers who can also serve as the firing party for a final three-volley salute with rifles loaded with blanks, a bugler, and soldiers to fold the flag and present it to the next of kin, according to Army regulations. More members can be added to the funeral detail, which includes a military chaplain and separate pallbearers and firing party if available. This is normally done for the funeral of a service member killed in action. Family survivors of a deceased veteran can request their funeral home director contact one of the Honor Guard's local offices and request Honor Guard personnel conduct military funeral honors. Families are asked to provide proof of the deceased's service, a Department of Defense Form 214 (known as a DD 214), which service members receive when they leave the military, or an honorable or general discharge certificate. European air war Military historian Frederick Foy and retired Army Lt. Col. Lance Wang will present a World War II program at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the New York State Military Museum, 61 Lake Ave., Saratoga Springs. The authors will discuss their book "One of Thousands: A Navigator in the European Air War." Foy and Wang recount the experiences of Jules Lasner, a navigator on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress who flew 27 missions over occupied Europe during the final phases of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Germany during World War II. The free program will be sponsored by the Friends of the New York State Military Museum and Saratoga Battlefield. News of your troops and units may be sent to Duty Calls, Terry Brown, Times Union, Box 15000, Albany, NY 12212 or brownt@timesunion.com. COLONIE -- A 27-year-old Albany man was hospitalized Sunday after he was attacked with a steak knife at a home on Consaul Road, police said. The man was being driven to the hospital by a friend who called for the help of emergency workers from the parking lot of Mohawk Commons in Niskayuna, police said. Albany A dozen or so Vietnam veterans who call themselves a "band of brothers" say the Stratton VA Medical Center is eliminating their group therapy for post traumatic stress disorder, and they can't imagine how they will live without it. The men, in their 60s and 70s, say they rely on the group to keep them from drinking, exploding at their wives, or getting so anxious they can't leave their homes. They see the VA's decision to end their group therapy as a foolish measure to cut costs that will lead to problems more expensive to treat. Peter Risatti, a 70-year-old member of the group, explained how he sees the VA perspective: "We figure you're going to die off in the next few years, so why should we spend money on you?" The Albany VA has a different story. Since the psychologist who led the PTSD group retired in 2014, the men have refused other therapy options offered to them, according to Albany VA spokesman Peter Potter. What they want, Potter said, is a place to socialize. "That's a problem," Potter said. "They can't do it on the taxpayer's dollar." The therapy group was formed in 2000 or 2001, and some of the vets there have participated from the beginning. Until early December, they came to Albany each week for 90-minute sessions, traveling from as far away as Oneonta and western Massachusetts. They need the sessions to keep their heads on straight, some of them said this month in a meeting with a Times Union reporter. Most asked that their names be withheld, for fear of retaliation by the VA. Young men when they experienced combat, the vets returned home more than 40 years ago to a culture that didn't offer help for post-traumatic stress. One self-medicated with alcohol, another wasn't able to maintain relationships with wives or children, another regularly abused people with explosive outbursts. "My wife was a tough babe," said one man. "She put up with a lot of verbal abuse from me." Most of them ended up in individual therapy decades after acquiring their wounds, when the VA recognized they needed help. The group is what keeps most of them on a steady course now, they said, out of the hospital's psychiatric unit. They talk to each other the way they talk to no one else, they said. (In fact, a couple said they rarely talk to anyone else, at all.) No one else understands what they experienced or why they don't trust people, or are in a hypervigilant state, anticipating life-threatening danger in everyday events. What they haven't done in the group is talk combat, they said. And that's how they like it. With the help of a trained therapist, they have supported each other by talking about how their symptoms flair up in their current lives when an adult child joined the military, say, or a family member is in an accident. But when their beloved therapist, Dr. Charles Kennedy, retired in late 2014, other VA therapists insisted on talking combat, they said. As they tell it, one even gave them an ultimatum: Talk about blood and guts, or group therapy is over. They were offered a room to use, and it was suggested that one of them take the job of serving as a facilitator, according to the vets. Risatti said no one wanted that job, which came with too much responsibility. They wanted a trained professional there who would know if someone was heading into psychological trouble and needed additional help. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. VA spokesman Potter tells the story differently. The veterans have refused three therapists offered to them, and refused to join other groups, Potter said. Potter said he is not aware that the therapists insisted the vets discuss combat, but said the vets were resistant to any kind of evidence-based mental health care. "They do not want to partake in any type of therapy ever," Potter said. "They want this as a social group." Another problem was that the group would dwindle during the winter months, as some traveled to Florida, Potter said. The VA allowed the group a room until this month, when they told the vets they could no longer return without a facilitator. Attempts to reach local PTSD experts who were not related to the VA were unsuccessful last week. Psychologist Stephen Phelps of Karner Psychological Associates in Guilderland, however, said the approach the veterans say they want working on present problems rather than digging up the past makes sense to him. "You really can't redo anything that was done 40 and 50 years ago in combat. What you're suffering from is the flashbacks and distorted thinking that come from that," he said. "The support of others who went through a similar ordeal would be very, very beneficial." The veterans' group will keep getting together, one way or another, Risatti said. For now, they're meeting at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in East Greenbush. chughes@timesunion.com 518-454-5417 @hughesclaire Tehran, Iran Iran announced on Saturday that it had released four Iranian-Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States, a move that came as the United States and Iran were negotiating the final steps before the expected lifting of oil and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program. The exchange, first reported by Iran and confirmed hours later by Obama administration officials, removed a big source of irritation in the difficult relationship between the two countries, which broke down during the 1979-1981 Tehran hostage crisis. Obama administration officials, sensitive to criticism that they have capitulated to Iran on many issues, attributed the break in the prisoner dispute to the new climate of diplomacy they have cultivated with Iran. "They understood this was a priority for us, and that we'd never give it up," said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the prisoner exchange was handled with extraordinary caution. The prisoner swap was announced in Tehran as Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, met in Vienna in an effort to seal the last details needed before the nuclear accord is carried out. Families and supporters of the released Americans Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini and a fourth, Nosratollah Khosravi, whose incarceration had not been publicly reported reacted with mix of joy and caution, reflecting the tensions and mistrust built up over Iran's intentions toward the prisoners, who had not yet left Iran by Saturday evening. Were you Seen at the seventh annual Albany Wine and Dine for the Arts Festival at Hilton Albany and 60 State Street in Albany on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016? The event supports the not-for-profit arts community in Albany. Wine & Dine for the Arts' mission is to provide sustainable funding for the support and preservation of the not-for-profit arts community in Albany, NY, through an annual 3-day Food & Wine themed Festival that markets restaurants, chefs, and their innovative cuisine; educates consumers on healthy, sustainable agriculture; and donates all net income to local non-profit arts organizations. More information at www.albanywinefest.com/ This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany Charter Communications is being forced to spend about $15 million over the next few years to upgrade the cable TV and Internet system in its Chatham territory in Columbia County as part of a deal with state regulators. The upgrades will cost about $6,000 per customer. Charter must foot the entire bill. The upgrades are required as part of a list of conditions that Charter has agreed to as part of the state Public Service Commission's approval last week of the company's $55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. Charter currently only serves two small pockets of customers in New York state, including about 14,000 customers in Plattsburgh and 2,500 customers in Chatham. However, even though Charter is known for offering cheap, high-speed Internet and customer-friendly TV products, its Chatham system is notoriously antiquated, with analog TV service that doesn't support video on demand, and no Internet. By 2018, Charter must provide its Chatham customers with 100 megabits-per-second Internet service, and it must switch the Chatham TV system to all-digital service as well within 30 months. That requirement mirrors what Charter must offer to former Time Warner Cable customers statewide. Charter is also required to expand its network to reach 145,000 customers in the current Time Warner Cable footprint who currently cannot get service, especially customers in rural areas. The Chatham upgrades are in addition to the statewide expansion requirements. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. Charter spokesman Justin Venech said Monday that the merger will give Charter the resources to upgrade the system in Chatham, which Venech said isn't a typical representation of Charter's operations. He said that will be achieved by connecting the Chatham customer base to Time Warner Cable's network, which essentially surrounds it. "Chatham is part of a small number of Charter systems, representing less than one percent of Charter's overall subscribers, where technical challenges have hampered Charter's objective of converting those systems to all-digital," Venech said. "If the transaction is approved, (Charter) would be able to utilize (Time Warner Cable's) system resources near the Chatham area to facilitate the task of upgrading and converting the Chatham system to all-digital." The deal is still awaiting federal approval, although the New York approval was a major hurdle. lrulison@timesunion.com 518-454-5504 @larryrulison This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Albany When a reporter first contacted Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal's office about a story dealing with animal-related legislation, a staffer reacted warily. "This isn't another the-Legislature-can't-pass-a-budget-but-they-can-pass-a-bill-about-dogs article, is it?" she asked. Rosenthal conceded that the media has often ridiculed bills and debates surrounding topics like pet pigs, or the naming of state insects. And there have been divisive upstate-downstate dogfights sorry, disputes over activities like crow management or squirrel hunting. "The press does like those kinds of articles," Rosenthal said. But the Manhattan Democrat, who has also carved out a niche in the field of tenant rights, is unapologetic about her work on behalf of animals. The number and breadth of animal-related bills coming up each year, she said, is a reflection of what New Yorkers care about, even if it isn't the stuff of scandals or front page headlines. Rosenthal said she gets a "tremendous" number of emails from constituents as well as people all over the world on the topic. She sees the need for such laws tracking with a long-term pet boom in New York and nationally. "These days, every block you walk (in New York City), there's someone with a dog," Rosenthal said. Spending on pets including supplies, veterinary care and food has risen nationally from $17 billion in 1994 to an estimated $60 billion this year, she added. Rosenthal is one of several lawmakers who have carried a menagerie's worth of bills relating to pet care, ranging from instruction on the care of gerbils to the "Doggy Dining" law that allows New Yorkers to bring their canines to the outdoor dining areas of restaurants that decide to offer such dog-friendly spaces. Her most recent legislation, signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in December, mandates that pet dealers provide customers a set of instructions for the proper care of small pets such as hamsters, chinchillas, guinea pigs, gerbils, rabbits, mice and even reptiles such as geckos. The instructions would, for example, lay out the kind of heat lamp that lizards need in order to maintain their body temperature, or the proper size tanks or cages for various species. The push for animal rights is bipartisan, with Republicans such as Glenville Assemblyman Jim Tedisco and Long Island Sen. Phil Boyle sponsoring bills as well. "Everybody might not be able to agree on a budget, but everybody believes animals should have protection," remarked Ashley Byrne, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Animal laws have evolved since 1999 when legislators passed Buster's Law, which made torturing cats, dogs or other creatures a felony. Tedisco pushed the bill through following the public outrage over a Schenectady tabby cat that was doused with lighter fluid and set afire. "There are not too many households that don't have a cat or a dog," said Tedisco. While it may have started with a toughening of penalties for animal abuse, bills have also addressed concerns about farming practices. The state Farm Bureau, for instance, promoted a bill (signed into law in October) that offers training to police about animal cruelty laws as they pertain to livestock. It came as a debate was raging in Schenectady County over a small farmer, Joshua Rockwood, who was charged with cruelty when water containers for some of his free-range pigs and cattle froze during a cold snap last winter. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. Local supporters said they were outraged over what they viewed as overzealous prosecution by town police. Most of the charges were dropped after Rockwood made improvements at his Glenville farm. Certain pieces of legislation venture into the question of whether animals should even be viewed as property or not whether pigs, cattle or dogs have at least limited legal rights. Rosenthal, for example, has suggested moving animal cruelty laws from the Agriculture and Markets Law to Penal Law. The proposal has been opposed by groups like the Farm Bureau. Looking ahead, the Farm Bureau is following a bill proposed by Rosenthal and Boyle that would ban confinement of livestock raised for food production. The Farm Bureau says the measure would insert the state into animal husbandry standards that should be left to farmers and veterinarians. Other debates that lawmakers may lock horns over include the push for a statewide register of convicted animal abusers. While some counties (including Albany, Ulster and Nassau) already have such lists, Tedisco argues there should be one statewide registry. If named to the list, abusers would be prohibited from adopting or buying pets. Also on tap is a push for a tax write-off or credit for spaying and neutering, which can help control problems like stray cats. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518-454-5758 @RickKarlinTU On New Year's Eve, in the shadow of Cologne's cathedral, crowds of North African and Middle Eastern men accosted women out for the night's festivities. They surrounded them, groped them, robbed them. Two women were reportedly raped. Though there were similar incidents from Hamburg, Germany, to Helsinki, the authorities at first played down the assaults, lest they prove inconvenient for Angela Merkel's policy of mass asylum for refugees. That delay has now cost Cologne's police chief his job. But the German government still seems more concerned about policing restless natives most recently through a deal with Facebook and Google to restrict anti-immigrant postings than with policing migration. Just last week, Merkel rejected a proposal to cap refugee admissions, which topped 1 million last year, at 200,000 in 2016. The underlying controversy is not a new one. For decades, conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have warned that Europe's generous immigration policies, often pursued in defiance of ordinary Europeans' wishes, threaten to destabilize the continent. The conservatives have made important points about the difficulty of assimilation, the threat of radicalization, and the likelihood of Paris-style and Cologne-style violence in European cities. But they have also trafficked in more apocalyptic predictions fears of a "Eurabia," of mass Islamification that were somewhat harder to credit. Until recently, Europe's assimilation challenge looked unpleasant but not insurmountable, and the likelihood of Yugoslavian-style balkanization relatively remote. With the current migration, though, we're in uncharted territory. The issue isn't just that immigrants are arriving in the hundreds of thousands rather than the tens of thousands. It's that a huge proportion of them are teenage and 20-something men. In Sweden, for instance, which like Germany has had an open door, 71 percent of all asylum applicants in 2015 were men. Among the mostly-late-teenage category of "unaccompanied minors," as Valerie Hudson points out in an important essay for Politico, the ratios were even more skewed: "11.3 boys for every one girl." As Hudson notes, these trends have immediate implications for civil order young men are, well, young men; societies with skewed sex ratios tend to be unstable; and many of these men carry assumptions about women's roles that are diametrically opposed to the values of contemporary Europe. But there's also a longer term issue, beyond the need to persuade new arrivals that to quote from a Norwegian curriculum for migrants in Europe "to force someone into sex is not permitted." When immigration proceeds at a steady but modest clip, deep change comes slowly, and there's time for assimilation to do its work. That's why the Muslim population in Europe has been growing only at 1 percentage point a decade; it's why many of the Turkish and North African immigrants who arrived in Germany and France decades ago are reasonably Europeanized today. But if you add a million (or millions) of people, most of them young men, in one short period, you get a very different kind of shift. In the German case the important number here isn't the country's total population, currently 82 million. It's the 20-something population, which was less than 10 million in 2013 (and of course already included many immigrants). In that cohort and every cohort afterward, the current influx could have a transformative effect. How transformative depends on whether these men eventually find a way to bring brides and families to Europe as well. In terms of immediate civil peace, family formation or unification offers promise, since men with wives and children are less likely to grope revelers or graffiti synagogues or seek the solidarity of radicalism. But it could also double or treble this migration's demographic impact, pushing Germany toward a possible future in which half the under-40 population would consist of Middle Eastern and North African immigrants and their children. Sign up for The Knick Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter. If you believe that an aging, secularized, heretofore-mostly-homogeneous society is likely to peacefully absorb a migration of that size and scale of cultural difference, then you have a bright future as a spokesman for the current German government. You're also a fool. Such a transformation promises increasing polarization among natives and new arrivals alike. It threatens not just a spike in terrorism but a rebirth of 1930s-style political violence. The still-imaginary France that Michel Houellebecq conjured up in his novel "Submission," in which nativists and Islamists brawl in the streets, would have a very good chance of being realized in the German future. This need not happen. But prudence requires doing everything possible to prevent it. That means closing Germany's borders to new arrivals for the time being. It means beginning an orderly deportation process for able-bodied young men. It means giving up the fond illusion that Germany's past sins can be absolved with a reckless humanitarianism in the present. It means that Angela Merkel must go so that her country, and the continent it bestrides, can avoid paying too high a price for her high-minded folly. Ross Douthat writes for the New York Times. Belfasts only flight connection to the US is to operate throughout this winter, United Airlines has confirmed in what has been hailed as a major confidence booster for the province. Belfasts only flight connection to the US is to operate throughout this winter, United Airlines has confirmed in what has been hailed as a major confidence booster for the province. United flies from Belfast International Airport (BIA) to Newark, New Jersey. However, the airline sparked concern last year when it anounced it was suspending the flight for nine weeks from January to March this year. Airport managing director, Graham Keddie, said: Uniteds commitment is both welcome and substantial. This is wonderful news. He said the decision by United to return to full year-round service is of great significance to the Northern Ireland economy. Our one and only direct, scheduled trans-Atlantic service to Newark Liberty is a lifeline for US-owned firms and adds massively to efforts by Invest NI to attract additional and highly prized US investment. Dublin airport provides stiff competition in the market for transatlantic services. Mr Keddie added: United have a wonderful product that is clearly very popular. There are challenges, however, one of which is how to encourage more business passengers to use the main local airport for the transatlantic trip rather than go elsewhere. Clearly, United looked at the market and saw sufficient justification for a year-round service which is a further statement of confidence in Northern Ireland. Now, its up to all of us to make it even more successful. Ulster Unionist MP Danny Kinahan said it was welcome news for South Antrim, Northern Ireland and for the International Airport. The New York route has been a great success for Northern Ireland. Its temporary suspension last winter sent out the wrong message. This latest news is a confidence boost for Northern Ireland and Belfast International Airport. Much of our trade and a substantial proportion of our international visitors are from the USA.Keeping this route year-round is vitally important in making our local economy accessible to those willing to invest. The news also helps stem the tide of transatlantic passengers going south to Dublin Airport. It proves the point that if our airport can succeed with the current taxes and duties that Dublin is not subjected to, then it would most definitely excel should a level playing field be created. In my five years at Westminster I pledge to continue to do all that I can to create that level playing field. Sinn Fein MLA Mairtin O Muilleoir said: Not only will this allow American travellers, including business people and tourists, to travel to and from Belfast but it will also help secure jobs at the International Airport. I have no doubt that, if we want to double our tourism numbers and become a magnet for international business, then we need to take the bold step of transferring all air passenger duty powers to Stormont. Then we can make the best decisions in relation to APD based on maximising the benefits to our economy and community. There was mixed news on the jobs front for Tipperary this week with a massive jobs plan for Nenagh being cancelled out by job losses in Borrisoleigh. This Monday, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly announced plans to build a hydro-electric power station on the disued Magcobar mining site at Silvermines. The project, if it goes ahead, will see the creation of 400 construction jobs over four years, with further local spinoffs, and at least 50 full time jobs when complete. The 650m project, the largest ever private equity invesment in the history of the State, is being backed by a joint venture between Austrian groups Strabag Group and Andritz Hydro; Limerick-based company Roadbridge and developer Siga Hydro. The project will take at least 18 months to get through planning with An Bord Pleanala and it could be 2022 before electricty flows into the national grid. This is a huge undertaking, said Minister Kelly at the launch in Nenagh. It will have huge benefits at national level, for Silvermines and the wider North Tipperary area. He estimated the total value to Ireland will be 2.5bn. The Silvermines site has long suffered through contamination and this was one of the main concerns of the locals, revealed Darren Quinn of Siga Hydro. They have been dealt a bad hand for over 30 years, he said, but he believed the project presented an opportunity to clean up the local environment. This was backed by Minister Kelly, who said: It will transform the mining legacy from an environmentally hazardous one to a positive one. He said they had met locals and initially there had been good feedback. The company will continue to engage with them, he said. The project will see the company pump water from the existing reservoir at the bottom of Silvermines to a new one to be built on the side of the mountain, with underground cables connecting to the national grid. Water will be stored overnight using power from windfarms and turned into electricty during peak daytime hours. Meanwhile, Borrisoleigh and the wider North Tipperary area are to lose some 120 jobs in a devastating blow to the local economy. Workers at the troubled C&C (Gleesons) water-bottling plant only heard of the news this week through the national media. A company spokesperson issued a statement to the Tipperary Star saying it intends to consolidate production from sites in Borrisoleigh and the UK into its manufacturing site in Clonmel. Production and packaging will be transferred on a phased basis from the facilities in (the UK) and Borrisoleigh. C&C will invest in excess of 10m in enhancing packaging and logistics capability in Clonmel creating 80 additional roles. Borrisoleigh will remain as a key transport hub and both logistics and warehousing operations will be maintained in the town. Regrettably, net roles lost across the operational network is estimated at 180 of which 127 are in the UK and 54 in Ireland. This has been a difficult decision for the Group and it is sad that (this) is the only viable option to maintain long term competitiveness. C&C recognises the impact on employees and will work to provide support, training, and where possible, alternative employment. It's understood about 20 roles will be retained in Borrisoleigh. The Tipperary Star understands that the current Borrisoleigh staff will be given the option of applying for the Clonmel roles. Full story p14 On the 4th February 2016, An Garda Siochana will hold its Annual Community Policing Seminar at St Patricks College, Cathedral Street, Thurles. The seminar will commence at 7pm. The Seminar, which is free, is open to all members of the community across Tipperary. It will provide the public with an opportunity to receive crime prevention advice and hear from a number of speakers on areas of crime prevention, community engagement including Community Alert, Neighbourhood Watch, Text Alert, Business Watch associated with your area. Commenting on the Community Policing Seminar, Chief Superintendent Catherine Kehoe said; Building on the valuable insights from last years very successful event, this year we hope to outline our vision and commitment to the communities across Tipperary in 2016. This will include our key imperatives of crime prevention and community engagement strategy. An overview of our crime position at the end of year together with our policing commitment for this year will be presented. In recognition of the outstanding contribution to the local community a number of community awards will be presented to nominated recipients on the night. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Tipperary for their very valuable support and assistance to the Gardai in this Division over the past year and I look forward to meeting them on the night. Community Crime Prevention programmes incorporating Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert schemes were established in Ireland in 1985 and have enjoyed widespread support and appeal amongst all communities. Following a review in 2013 by An Garda Siochana and Munitir Na Tire a number of proposals emerged to assist in promoting and supporting Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert Schemes including the launch of text alert and business watch schemes. An Garda Siochana Policing Plan 2016 has identified under Community Safety, - Improve public safety through enhanced community engagement and high visibility roads policing as a key goal. The importance of community based policing by working closely with communities; particularly in isolated areas is a key priority for us in 2016. The seminar will be open and interactive and will offer an opportunity for anyone who wishes to discuss their concerns and share their information in a community setting. Ample parking is available at St Patricks College and all are welcome. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Ireland Reaching Out is delighted to announce Tim Lee as Ireland XO Volunteer of the Year for 2015. Tim is the local diaspora contact for Bournea in County Tipperary and one of more than 500 active volunteers all over Ireland who are connecting people of Irish ancestry to their parish of origin every day. Tim has been a volunteer with Ireland XO since June 2013. He lives in Bournea and is chairperson of the local Ireland Reaching Out group. Their main activities involve researching descendants of past emigrants, welcoming diaspora back into the parish, preserving the local heritage and publishing the annual Reaching Out book which is a collection of stories about the parish, past and present. Runner-up Tom Hussey has been a volunteer with Ireland XO for two years and is very active answering message and queries on the Ireland XO Message Board. He is passionate about helping people find out more about their Cahir and Ballylooby ancestors. The information provided by him reflects his knowledge of the history, geography and folklore of the area. Tim established the Bournea Ireland Reaching Out group in 2013 and since then they have been highly successful in connecting their parish with its global diaspora. Through the Ireland Reaching Out website (www.IrelandXO.com), they discover where descendants of past emigrants from the locality are now living, helping them fill in the gaps about their Irish family history and giving them a warm welcome, should they decide to visit the parish. Monthly meetings are held to discover and preserve the heritage of the area, and also to compile their annual book which is a treasury of insightful stories about Bournea parish and its people. Congratulating Tim Lee on his achievement, Mike Feerick of Ireland Reaching Out said There is a wealth of information about our Irish heritage that is intrinsically local and can only be accessed by those closest to the area. All over the country, Ireland XO volunteers like Tim Lee are making invaluable contributions to their local communities, both by deepening the relationship with their local heritage and also by enabling them to engage with their wider global diapora. Carmel OCallaghan from County Cavan and Thomas Hussey from County Tipperary were voted as Runner-ups in the annual Ireland XO volunteer awards. Minister for Diaspora Affairs T.D. Jimmy Deenihan presented them with their awards in the National Library of Ireland, the heart of Irish genealogical research and a long-standing partner of the Ireland Reaching Out programme. Thanking Carmel and Thomas for their work with the programme, Minister Deenihan said "Ireland Reaching Out is a key feature of the recently launched Diaspora Toolkit which aims to enable all local communities to engage with their global diaspora. Volunteers like Tom and Carmel are a vital connection to people all over the world who are interested in discovering more about their Irish heritage but have no direct access to the communities or origin of their ancestors. Ireland Reaching Out is proud to have a fantastic team of Volunteers, who are responsible for activating their local parishes, reaching out to the diaspora who are researching their origins and, most importantly, ensuring that every returning member of the Irish diaspora is greeted with a Cead Mile Failte. Ireland Reaching Out would like to extend a congratulations to Tim, Carmel and Thomas and also a huge Thank You to all of its Volunteers for their work in 2015. Anyone interested in helping their local community connect with its global diaspora is invited to visit www.IrelandXO.com for more information about volunteering with the Ireland Reaching Out programme. In 2014, I learned the citizens of Ireland were planning to celebrate the service of its veterans of World War I during 2015. Specifically, honor and respect would be shown to those veterans who had loyally served in the Irish Military Forces, having served as participants in the various Irish regiments assigned to the British forces. These efforts were to be highlighted and acknowledged for their heroic deeds. Initially, one of the days set aside for the celebration was targeted for May 8, 2015. Many of these Irish soldiers were KIA (killed in action) or wounded as they bravely and gallantly served. However, many of those who returned had been less than honorably treated for this service by the local citizenry. I am proud to note here that my Uncle Frank, Chaplain Francis A. Gleeson, served with those forces during that time. I understand that over the years he has become a rather well known and admired Irish military figure. The May 8th happening marked the one-hundredth anniversary of an historic and costly battle, as well as the anniversary of the Fortunina Matania painting of Chaplain Gleeson administering Absolution to the troops on the eve of battle. In essence, his service was the driving motivation for these celebrations. In this narrative I trace the journey of myself and a group of 23 American nieces, nephews and their families through this exciting and happy passage. The Glasnevin Military Celebration The service at Glasnevin Cemetery was very well planned and thought through in every detail. The Europeans have had much practice in these kinds of celebrations and they carry them off in grand fashion. To further set the tone for the day I will insert here a short piece that will help provide an awareness about the subject at hand. This is a preamble that Paddy Gleeson, Senior Tour-leader, had prepared and uses during his monologue in conducting tours at the Cemetery: Father Francis A. Gleeson, Templemore, County Tipperary. (1884 - 1959). Fr. Francis Gleeson was a Military Chaplain to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers in the First World War. He is one of my favorite people for the reasons briefly touched upon below. A Man of Action: Jovial Fr. Gleeson of the Munsters, when all the officers were killed or wounded at the first battle of Ypres, had stripped off his black (Chaplains) badges and, taking command of the survivors, (he) held the line. (Robert Graves 1929 Book, Goodbye to All That.) A Terrible Day: On Saturday 8 May, 1915, the Munsters halted at a wayside shrine near Rue de Bois. Fr. Gleeson, on horseback, facing A Company and wearing his stole, gave them a General Absolution. The war illustrator Fortunina Matania later captured the scene in a famous painting. On Sunday 9 May, at 5:30 am, the Battle of Aubers Ridge commenced. Some 22 Officers and 570 soldiers went into battleonly 3 officers and 200 soldiers survived. In all, some 390 men were dead in less than 2 hours. A Terrible Night: Fr. Gleeson, who was aged 30 at that time, comforted those he could and administered the Last Rights. He described the scene as follows in his war diary. Spent all night trying to console, aid and remove the wounded. It was ghastly to see them in cold cheerless outhouses, on bare stretchers, with no blanket to cover their freezing limbs. I shall never forget that young officer with the shattered left arm, nor poor Borrowdale of the Welsh who was a great organist and who played for me in Essars. Heartbreaking to see him dying there - wasting away. Hundreds lying out there in cold air all night at Windy Corner. No ambulances coming. They came at last at daylight. (Fr. Gleesons War Diary - Dublin Diocesan Archives) Ive stood many times at Fr. Gleesons grave in Glasnevin Cemetery, sometimes with nephew Paul Gleason from Pennsylvania and members of his family. Sometimes Ive started to recite the particularly extract cited above, but Ive never managed to finish it. Standing at his grave, the words from his war diary are simply too much. Fr. Francis Gleeson - A brave priest and soldier. - May he rest in peace. The Ceremony Initially, we all gathered at the foot of the Cross of Sacrifice where the ceremonial wreaths would be placed. In attendance was a uniformed Honor Guard, the Pipers & Drum Corps, riflemen, even a chaplain in uniform on a horse representing Chaplain Gleeson. All very impressive. The entire procedure was carried out with little or no cooperation from the weather gods. All of the speakers, wreath laying ceremonials, musical renditions and other specific functions went on precisely as planned. All flawlessly carried out. At the close of the main ceremony at Cross of Sacrifice, myself, as the oldest and closest relative, and my niece Amy Gleason Marchisio, as the youngest, placed a wreath at his grave, followed by my leading the group in a recital of the Lords Prayer. At the conclusion of the prayer, the formal procedure for the occasion was being brought to an official close. With a sigh of relief, all umbrellas were shut down and all the attendees cheerfully retreated to the dry and warm interior of the museum to enjoy the Cemeterys hospitality. I will note at this point that, in my most humble opinion, this part of the trip, initially announced to be the main event and reason to be for the entire planned trip, went off flawlessly. The performance by each and every participant and the wholehearted acceptance of the entire proceeding by all present could not leave more to be desired. An added feature was a scheduled presentation by archivist Noelle Dowling of the Dublin Diocese. During the last year, there has been an electronic rendering of the complete works of Chaplain Gleesons diaries released to the public. Ms. Dowling was kind enough to promise to send to me a full copy of those works, which I have since received. It was a most generous gesture on her part. This extensive family trip had initially been built primarily around this very special Gleason family event. All had gone so well, and we were all contented, extremely excited and happy at the glorious outcome of the entire celebration. The word perfection enters my mind. We all sat together in the City of Dublin amid the contented smiles of those who had taken on a pleasant assignment and carried it through to its joyous conclusion. Heres to all of us. The Town of Templemore Celebration Upon the completion of the ceremonies at The Glasnevin Cemetery, this happy and completely satisfied family group proceeded on Saturday morn from Dublin to gather again in the Town of Templemore. We gathered for some family touring of the ole home town and, of course, the other Chaplain Gleeson ceremonial to take place here on Sunday, May 10th. This was to be a completely separate celebration by a different military and civilian group to honor Chaplain Gleeson in his home town of Templemore. The day had an auspicious beginning with Sunday morning mass in the Sacred Heart Church where Chaplain Gleeson was ordained so those many years ago. The good father saying the mass alluded to our family party in the congregation and mentioned the afternoon celebration honoring our relative in the town square. A few nice added touches. After the mass the group gathered with some of the Town Fathers to discuss what, if anything, were we to contribute to the days festivities. It was at this time that your humble writer was to find out that I, as the oldest and closest relative to the honorary, was to be the Guest of Honor and participant in the ceremony itself. I was to place the celebratory wreath at the monument during the proceedings and was even asked to voice a few words to the crowd during the culmination of the service. The Town celebration was to commence at 2 pm. The entire presentation proceeded in splendid fashion. When called on to deliver my message, I believe I alluded to our Gleason familys presence among the attendees for the occasion, as well as our towns family connection with the subject and others. I was delighted to be the one chosen to perform the special and singular honor of laying the wreath at the recently erected town monument honoring my uncle and the Munster Fusiliers. It was wonderful and everything went so well, better than any of us could have possibly wished for. The assembled dignitaries, the size and number of attendees, in spite of the weather, the other talks, the military attendees, the pipers and drummers, the music All blended together to form this magnificent tribute to a town son. There were so many deserving of praise who made this occasion come together. Those running the program were Martin Gary OShea and Sgt. John Reynolds of the Sister Aine (Templemore) Historical Society, who joined together in their efforts. I also wish to add a special thanks to Ronan Loughnane of the Sister Aine Historical Society, as well as former mayor Martin Fogarty and my close friend Paddy Gleeson. My Irish cousin John Gleeson defending me from the onslaught of torrents of rain with his giant umbrella. Thank you, John. If I have failed to pay tribute to anyone that I should have, let me assure you they are in my heart. In spite of the inclement weather, the tribute came off so smoothly and effortlessly. In addition to all of the other aspects, I was delighted as the guest of honor to have been presented with a magnificent and beautifully decorated Memorial memento for the occasion. I was truly stunned by the detail, scope and beauty of the gift. It currently occupies a place of honor in my home in America. At the end of the outdoor festivities, Gary OShea invited all of those in attendance to a midday feast at a dry locationinside Sacred Heart Church. Amid much chatter and discussion, it was unanimously noted by one and allcited, affirmed, recognized, concluded, acknowledged, certified, assured and agreedthat the entire American Gleason/Irish Gleeson Expedition had been a wonderful and total success in every manner, shape and form. We were all exhausted, but enthused in the largest meaning of those words. As many of the readers of my exploits know, I have been to Ireland innumerable times. Each and every trip has been a most pleasant, joyous and a magical experience for me. That is why I so enjoy writing about them. I do not grade them in any way, as each one has left me with a feeling of wonderment and peace of mind. However, I must note that this particular jaunt certainly elevates and completely fills my memory bank to overflowing. In some strange and magical way this writer has found in the land and soil of Ireland what has become in his mind and heart my home away from home. Nov. 23, 2015 (my 90th birthday) Energy Communities Tipperary Co-operative (ECTC) had its end of year meeting in Nenagh on the 15th of December. This year ECTC secured over 1.5 million in investment and local jobs to the Tipperary economy. With funding from SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland), this years project saw a total of 135 homes and 3 community buildings become more energy efficient. 117 of these households were in receipt of Fuel Allowance. These homes received attic insulation, external insulation, high efficiency boilers, stoves, energy efficient light bulbs, and heating controls. Energy Communities Tipperary Cooperative developed from a village community planning process facilitated by North Tipperary Leader Partnership in Drombane Village Hall in 2010. According to ECTC chairperson Noel Byrne This year eight communities were involved in the scheme. We got great support from Tipperary Energy Agency (TEA) at application stage. North Tipperary Leader Partnership have provided start-up funding and financial management for this years work (through its Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme). We were also very fortunate again this year to have Marcella Maher Keogh as our Project Co-ordinator. The average cost per home of the works was: fuel allowance homes 11,065, can-pay homes 7,155, and on average 10,125 spent on community buildings. The Fuel Allowance homes received a 90% grant, the other homes a 29% grant. Community buildings were funded at 46%. As well as being more comfortable, householders will see a return on their investment through savings on energy over a period of 3-8 years, depending on the home. The energy savings made on each home were sold to Airtricity and used as funding for the project. Marcella Maher Keogh, the Project Co-ordinator expressed ECTCs gratitude for the ongoing support of SEAI commenting that SEAI continue to back our model of community action on energy. Ms. Keogh gave a special thank you to Clann Credo, the social finance organisation, who again provided the critical bridging finance for the project, she says The Clann Credo project officer Susan Gallagher has worked with Claire Ryan (NTLP) and myself every step of the way. The application to SEAI was made by TEA who also managed the competitive tendering process carried out to recruit contractors. The directors of ECTC were very happy with these contractors. A very high pass rate was achieved on the SEAI inspections and the comments back from homeowners have been very positive. Other partners in the scheme were REIL and OPW which retrofitted a number of public buildings. ECTC also thanked suppliers Boru Stoves, Sola (Solaregy), Climote and Grant Engineering, for sponsorship received. The eight communities involved were: Drombane/Upperchurch Energy Team, Kilcommon/Rearcross Energy Team (KRET), Lorrha/Rathcabbin Energy Team (LRET), Birdhill Tidy Towns, Carrig/Riverstown Development Association (CRDA), Borrisokane Community Forum, Loughmore Energy Team and Cloughjordan Community Development Committee. Gearoid Fitzgibbon of North Tipperary Leader Partnership (NTLP) paid tribute to the volunteers - those who participated on the local Energy Teams, as well as the volunteer directors of ECTC. ECTCs is looking to continue its work into 2016 with local partners - creating greater energy efficiency in local homes, saving homeowners money on energy and keeping employment in the community. Any householders interested in the scheme for 2016 should complete the Householder Interest Form on the website www.energycommunities.wordpress.com. For any other information, get in touch with Gearoid Fitzgibbon (NTLP) on 085-7409023, or e-mail him at gfitzgibbon@ntlp.ie. Dualla National School promotes a positive climate amongst staff and pupils, according to a report published on December 22nd. A Dept. of Education inspector carried out a Whole School Evaluation (WSE) on Dualla NS on September 17th, as required by law. Dualla NS is a co-educational, vertical primary school under the patronage of the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel and Emly. There is a staff of four mainstream teachers, a shared learning support teacher and a shared resource teacher, both of whom are based in the school. There are currently 99 pupils enrolled and overall attendance levels are described as very good. The main findings of the report are: A positive school climate pervades all aspects of school life and the school is highly regarded in the community. The pupils display positive attitudes to their learning, demonstrate very good behaviour and the overall quality of their learning is good. The teachers demonstrate a strong work ethic and the overall quality of teaching is commendable. The in-school management team successfully promotes a range of initiatives to enhance curriculum implementation. The board of management supports the school in a conscientious manner and is committed to providing a well maintained and well resourced school. The parents association provides valuable support to the school. Very good progress is being made in the development of school self-evaluation (SSE) which is very well led and managed by the principal. The key recommendations are: Whole-school plans for English and Irish should be reviewed. Greater use should be made of collaborative group work and pair work. Meanwhile, the Board of Management is properly constituted, it meets frequently and the minutes of meetings are detailed and recorded clearly. The principal (Mr. John Manley) very effectively fosters a school culture of teamwork and collective decision making. He supports and promotes the schools involvement in a range of educational programmes. The inspector concludes: Given the commitment and dedication of the teachers, the schools capacity to continue to develop further is very good. Full report at www.education.ie A Thurles based company which is seeking to increase their workforce by more than ninety people before Christmas, may have to relocate to the UK in a bid to keep contracts, due to the fact that they simply cannot recruit staff. A Thurles based company which is seeking to increase their workforce by more than ninety people before Christmas, may have to relocate to the UK in a bid to keep contracts, due to the fact that they simply cannot recruit staff. ARE Direct Sales Management Ltd. trading as dsm Ltd. which operates out of the Archerstown Industrial Estate, just outside Thurles is one of the fastest growing companies in the region, having started out less than one year ago. The company, founded by Littleton man Aidan Ryan; John Aylward, Kilsheelan; and James Edinburgh, Ballykisteen; currently employs 26 people but has won lucrative contracts from the likes of Pure Telecom, Energia Electricity, and 3 Mobile to name just a few. These contracts now mean that they must recruit, as a matter of urgency, at least eighteen people now, with a further 75 to be added before Christmas. However, the real story is in the number of people who have failed to turn up for interview having submitted their CVs and received an invite to meet with the company executive. A total of 75 people were called over a four week period, but only 18 showed up. Of those eighteen, ten were offered jobs, but only seven took them up. It is a horrendous situation to be in, Aidan Ryan told The Tipperary Star this week. We are competing with the Social Welfare system and eventhough we are offering a good basic wage, together with commission incentives, company car, mobile phones, fuel allowances, etc. people just dont want to know. They are submitting CVs, getting interviews but then failing to turn up. This is creating huge problems, not just for us, but for many companies across the country, said Aidan, who added that they have been working very closely with FAS in a bid to rectify the problem. Having been hugely frustrated by the recruitment process, the company turned to the Government and made direct contact with Fine Gael Minister for Enterprise, Richard Bruton TD. On the day after Talk Talk announced its closure in Waterford with massive job losses, they spoke directly to Minister Bruton and asked him if there was anything he could do to help them recruit staff. He said that he was too busy at the time, but asked them to e-mail him the details. They did; received an acknowledgement of the e-mail from the department, and have not heard from him since. Full story in this weeks Tipperary Star Independent Tipperary TD Mattir McGrath has expressed his support for the 31 production staff at C&C Gleeson in Borrisoleigh who are earmarked to lose their jobs. Independent Tipperary TD Mattir McGrath has expressed his support for the 31 production staff at C&C Gleeson in Borrisoleigh who are earmarked to lose their jobs. The staff of over 100 were called to a meeting in The Ragg on Thursday where they were given the news, which, while devastating for the workers and the local economy in Borrisolegh, was not entirely unexpected as there had been speculation surrounding the plant for the past while. This is devastating news for the workers and their families as they prepare to face what is going to be a very challenging time ahead. Since I attended the C&C AGM at the start of last month there has been growing uncertainty around the entire C&C operation in Tipperary, both at the Gleeson plant and at the Bulmers site in Clonmel, he said. Deputy McGrath said that it now must be made clear by CEO Stephen Glancy if the loss of the supermarket contracts which precipitated this weeks job losses was going to have a knock-on effect in Clonmel. I am calling for the immediate intervention of the Minister for Social Protection to ensure that, like the Clearys workers in Dublin, all necessary assistance is given to the affected workers in Borrisoleigh, given the proportionate impact of the job losses for the area, he said. The Tipperary TD siad that beyond this there must be a real and meaningful clarification given around the viability and commitment of the C&C Group to its entire workforce within the county. The remaining workers and their families deserve nothing less given that, quite frankly, it is extremely frustrating at this point for everyone involved to have to repeatedly seek such assurances, said Deputy McGrath. In a statement, the company said: C&C Gleeson confirms that it has engaged with employees regarding the potential reduction of up to 31 roles from our manufacturing site in Borrisoleigh. These proposed changes are a result of the volume loss suffered in our private label manufacturing. Unfortunately, we must realign our fixed cost base to meet the volume level at the Borrisoleigh site. Collective consultation with affected employees has been initiated and while these are necessary changes for our business, we recognise that this is an unsettling time for those affected. We also recognise the hard work and commitment our employees have shown over the last year as we have evolved into a brand led multi beverage business model in Ireland. Although trading conditions have been difficult, we remain confident in our position and business model in these core markets. Our priority now is to minimise the impact to our people and to minimise disruption to the business and our customers. Grants of 397,000 paid from the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in 2014 are providing great support to local businesses in Tipperary, according to Deputy Noel Coonan. Grants of 397,000 paid from the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) in 2014 are providing great support to local businesses in Tipperary, according to Deputy Noel Coonan. The Local Enterprise Offices are supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The new Local Enterprise Offices (LEOs) were launched last year to deliver an improved system of local enterprise supports to start-ups and small businesses across the country. The LEOs provide a first-stop-shop for all Government supports for small business in easily accessible locations across the country, said Deputy Coonan. The LEOs form part of the Governments strategy to spread the recovery to all regions of the country. This comes alongside the Regional Action Plan for Jobs being launched by the Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton. Previously some businesses were considered too large to access supports from City and County Enterprise Boards or as they were not exporting, they did not qualify for Enterprise Ireland supports and so fell between two stools. All categories of business are now benefitting from services provided by the LEOs. Fine Gael is committed to supporting small and medium businesses that are at the heart of rural communities. Fine Gaels Standing Up for Small Business campaign engaged closely with small, local businesses while the Standing Up for Rural Ireland campaign which has just been launched, calls for continued investment in rural services, particularly broadband. The LEOs are a fantastic resource for sole traders, micro businesses and small and medium sized companies seeking information and support on starting or growing a business. The injection of 397,000 into local businesses in this area is a huge boost, concluded Deputy Coonan. [January 17, 2016] Classroom Ban on Personal Tech Due to Fears of Distraction LONDON, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- But a new Canvas study shows UK teachers expect smartphones and mobile apps to become central to learning over the next five years Canvas, the team behind the Virtual Learning Environment from the software-as-a-service company Instructure Inc (NYSE: INST), released new research today that shows how personal tech devices are being banned in classrooms due to teachers' fears that they will cause distraction, although many recognise they may have future uses in the classroom. The study reveals that more than one-third of teachers (34 percent) in the UK have banned personal devices like mobile phones and tablets from the classroom - significantly more than in U.S. schools (23 percent). Many teachers (62 percent) believe such technology distracts students from learning, although the profession remains broadly open to the potential future benefits, with three quarters (74 percent) agreeing that when integrated effectively and used as an education tool rather than a leisure device, such technology can make their job easier. The findings come at a time when the Department for Education is pushing hard for teachers to integrate technology into lessons[1]. For many teachers the problem lies not with the technology itself but with a lack of proper instruction. Almost four in 10 (38 percent) believe their school isn't providing sufficient training to either teachers or students in how to employ mobile and other technology in the classroom. Nevertheless, the concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is being adopted by a handful of trailblazing schools. BYOD means allowing students to bring their own laptops, smart phones and tablets into schools, connect them to the network and work on them. The concept can also include software and apps, if students are enabled to use cloud services and other tools on the web. BYOD is already widely adopted in universities and workplaces across the UK[2], although the issues for schools are more complex. However, teachers do recognise that mobile applications and students' own dvices are likely to become more central to the learning experience in the future - with two-thirds (67 percent) placing them in the top three teaching technologies in five years' time. At a time when British schools are facing increasing class sizes and a teacher shortage[3] , effective learning will be key to maintaining good results. And with increasing budget constraints, allowing students to use their own devices could be a cost-effective solution for schools. Samantha Blyth, director of schools at Canvas said: "There is no doubt that mobile technology is going to have a huge impact on learning in the future, but it's understandable that teachers are concerned that personal devices can be a distraction. The key to unlocking the potential will be to find ways to integrate personal devices into learning in a controlled way. At Canvas, we are helping schools find the right support and guidance in how to choose the right products to meet their needs, and then how to get the best from them." About Instructure, the creator of Canvas Instructure Inc. is the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology company that makes software that makes people smarter. With a vision to help maximise the potential of people through technology, Instructure enables organisations everywhere to easily develop, deliver and manage engaging face-to-face and online learning experiences. To date, Instructure has connected millions of teachers and learners at more than 1,600 educational institutions and corporations throughout the world. Learn more about the Canvas Virtual Learning Environment at http://www.Instructure.com and http://www.CanvasVLE.co.uk. The research was conducted online by Instructure, questioning 684 teachers across primary and secondary schools and colleges in the UK, and 651 teachers in the U.S. The samples are representative of age, gender and region. The survey ran from 1st December to 14th December 2015. Notes to Editors [1] At the 2015 BETT show, Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan said: "There has never been a more exciting time to think about the way in which emerging technologies can transform the world of education". Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-at-the-2015-bett-show [2] Class sizes Source: http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/EDIF%202012--N9%20FINAL.pdf Teacher shortage Source: http://www.ascl.org.uk/news-and-views/news_news-detail.teacher-shortages-are-holding-back-secondaries.html Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/483347/Ofsted_annual_report_education_and_skills.pdf [3] BYOD trends Source: http://www.yots.org.uk/news/ Source:http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/123459394/how-create-university-network-byod Copyright 2016, Instructure, Inc. All rights reserved. Instructure, Canvas and the Bridge logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Instructure, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other brands and names may be claimed as the property of others. SOURCE Instructure Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 17, 2016] The Media Trust enables website governance through real-time monitoring and control over a website's third-party vendors -- a critical blind spot in IT governance MCLEAN, Va., Jan. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Media Trust, the global leader in monitoring and protecting the online and mobile ecosystem, announces the availability of Media Scanner services to enable website governance from a security, risk and operations perspective. The only solution of its kind, the Media Scanner suite provides enterprise leadershipCIOs, CISOs, Risk, Legal, Compliance and Website Operations teamswith real-time visibility and exacting control over the third-party vendors executing on their digital properties. More specifically, these services provide real-time vendor certification, malware detection, data protection, encryption compliance and website performance management through the continuous, 24/7 monitoring, inspecting and analyzing of all third-party vendors executing on a client's website, which significantly strengthens an enterprise's security and compliance posture by eliminating this long-standing gap in website governance. Media Scanner's continuous detection and ongoing monitoring of a website's third-party activity provides cross-enterprise management teams with the ability to identify and manage external website vendorsincluding analysis of vendor activity, authorization of services and performance evaluation. As a result a detailed audit trail is generated that helps to enforce internal IT, security and risk policies as well as any government regulations covering data privacy. A dashboard provides a igh-level view of all non-compliant, suspicious, malicious or performance-sapping activity generated by third-party vendors. Clients can easily configure the dashboard to reflect their vendor approval process as well as schedule reports to be generated on demand, daily, weekly or any client-defined frequency. "Today the accountability for enterprise website management spans IT, Security, Risk, Legal and Compliance departmentsessentially, it's not owned by any one group yet it's the responsibility of everyone," says Chris Olson, The Media Trust's CEO and co-founder. "Media Scanner's services are a game changer, because they are the first and only way to accurately identify and coordinate the management of external vendors, an essential step in governing website operations. With this governance in place, enterprises significantly reduce their exposure to compliance violations, web-based malware attacks and data leakage, while simultaneously improving their website's overall performance." Third-party website vendorswhich include data management platforms, content delivery networks, social media tools, customer identification platforms, content recommendation engines, and moreplay a critical role in delivering the online and mobile user experience. They operate, however, outside the enterprise infrastructure, with IT and Information Security teams having no visibility of or control over the vendors' actions. This lack of control exposes the organization to unnecessary risk as well as violations of internal policies and government regulations. Monitoring a client's website from distinct physical locations in more than 500 cities in 65 countries, Media Scanner automatically detects, analyzes and alerts in real time on all anomalous and suspicious activity, including malware, unencrypted calls, unauthorized data collection and site performance issues caused by third-party vendor code. To conduct its continuous, 24/7 client-side monitoring, Media Scanner uses a wide variety of online and mobile browser/OS, device, geography and user behavior profile combinations to analyze millions of websites, including 25,000 of the world's most heavily-trafficked sites, and more than 10 million digital ad tags each day. To learn more about Media Scanner's suite of website governance services, please visit The Media Trust in booth #4254 at the National Retail Federation's Annual Convention, January 18 or 19 in New York's Javits Center. About The Media Trust The Media Trust works with the world's largest, most-heavily trafficked digital properties to provide real-time security, first-party data protection and privacy, performance management and quality assurance solutions that help protect, monetize and optimize the user experience across desktop, smartphone, tablet and gaming devices. As the global leader in monitoring the online and mobile ecosystems, The Media Trust leverages a physical presence in 65 countries and 500 cities around the globe to continuously scan websites, ad tags and mobile apps and alert on anomalies affecting websites and visitors alike. More than 500 publishers, ad networks, exchanges, agencies and corporatesincluding 40 of comScore's AdFocus Top 50 websitesrely on The Media Trust to protect their website, their employee internet use, their revenue and, most importantly, their brand. Media Contact: Ellen Donovan The Media Trust +1 404.374.7822 [email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-media-trust-enables-website-governance-through-real-time-monitoring-and-control-over-a-websites-third-party-vendors----a-critical-blind-spot-in-it-governance-300205519.html SOURCE The Media Trust [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 18, 2016] Complete and Uncomplicated Solutions for Data Center Cooling LUND, Sweden, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- With new, unique server cooling technology and free cooling solutions, Alfa Laval now has a complete offering for data center cooling. Based on Alfa Laval's extensive application knowledge, this comprehensive range makes it easier to provide optimum systems for specific data center needs. The number of data centers continues to increase worldwide and there has been a huge proliferation of products, systems and technologies for data center cooling. To view the Multimedia News Release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7736351-uncomplicated-solutions-data-center-cooling/ "There are so many options out there, that it can be confusing," says Mats Carselid, Marketing Manager Data Center Cooling. "Our aim is to take the complication out of data center cooling. And now that we have a new solution that has been specifically developed for server cooling - Low Speed Ventilation - the choice is even easier." Alfa Laval, a leading pioneer in cooling solutions for specialized applications with more than 100 years of experience in industrial cooling, has developed eco-conscious solutions for data center cooling that can be tailored to create highly reliable, energy and cost-efficient systems for all sections of a data center. The Alfa Laval data center cooling offering: Unique server cooling technology - Low Speed Ventilation (LSV) is a new, highly efficient cooling technology for server rooms resulting in lower energy consumption, lower cooling-related energy bills (by up to 30% depending on the center's size,type and location) and the lowest possible PUE on the market. - Low Speed Ventilation (LSV) is a new, highly efficient cooling technology for server rooms resulting in lower energy consumption, lower cooling-related energy bills (by up to 30% depending on the center's size,type and location) and the lowest possible PUE on the market. Free cooling with air - Thanks to our wide product portfolio we are also able to combine adiabatic or dry coolers with gasketed plate heat exchangers at the core of air-based free cooling systems. No other manufacturer is able to combine seasonally adjustable solutions - we identify the optimum periods for free cooling or chiller cooling in year-round operation. - Thanks to our wide product portfolio we are also able to combine adiabatic or dry coolers with gasketed plate heat exchangers at the core of air-based free cooling systems. No other manufacturer is able to combine seasonally adjustable solutions - we identify the optimum periods for free cooling or chiller cooling in year-round operation. Free cooling with water - An economic and eco-friendly solution sourced from rivers, lakes or oceans. We are the only supplier that offers both water filters and gasketed plate heat exchangers for data center cooling. This system can often operate year-round without mechanical cooling. - An economic and eco-friendly solution sourced from rivers, lakes or oceans. We are the only supplier that offers both water filters and gasketed plate heat exchangers for data center cooling. This system can often operate year-round without mechanical cooling. Continuous partnership - Our proactive maintenance and customized service programs ensure optimal long-term equipment performance. We assist data center operators via an unrivalled global infrastructure for local support. "With the addition of Low Speed Ventilation, we now have a comprehensive range covering all aspects of Data Center Cooling. But, what makes the real difference is how we use our expertise to help customers identify the right solution, or combination of solutions, to create a complete cooling system optimized for a specific data center," concludes Mats Carselid. See more at: http://www.alfalaval.com/datacenter About Alfa Laval Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling. The company's equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol. Alfa Laval's products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications. Alfa Laval's worldwide organization works closely with customers in nearly 100 countries to help them stay ahead in the global arena. http://www.alfalaval.com For further information contact: Sarah Brennand, Marketing Communications Manager Alfa Laval Inc (US) +1-804-236-1260 [email protected] Scot Seifert, Director, HVAC and Industrial Equipment Alfa Laval Inc (US) +1-215-443-4104 [email protected] (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160115/322672 ) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160115/322671LOGO ) Video: http://www.multivu.com/players/uk/7736351-uncomplicated-solutions-data-center-cooling/ SOURCE Alfa Laval Lund [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 18, 2016] RevAmerica Launches New Digital Platform WALNUT CREEK, Calif., Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- RevAmerica, an organization dedicated to promoting awareness, information and growth of the American IT and BPO services industry, launches a new digital platform. RevAmerica's new digital information hub, www.RevAmerica.com, will house research, industry news and resources pertaining to the American IT and BPO services sector. RevAmerica will fill the gap in research and content pertinent to the American Outsourcing Industry as well as aggregate relevant content in its new digital platform. The platform will also house RevAmerica's database of American service providers which is scheduled to be launched in March. "We are very excited to be expanding what started out as an industry event to an online platform that provides the IT and BPO services industry with meaningful information and resources on domestic sourcing. Since our first conference in 2013, te growth of U.S domestic sourcing continues to soar and the existence of a digital platform to promote it is long overdue," said Amrita T. Joshi, co-founder of RevAmerica. "As we partner with RevAmerica on U.S. sourcing market education, we increasingly see the need for a platform to share information, insights, and debate about the topic. We are excited to see RevAmerica now offering this important platform to the market," said Eric Simonson, Managing Partner, Everest Group. About RevAmerica RevAmerica is an organization dedicated to help promote awareness, information and growth of the American IT and BPO services industry within the context of today's global services economy. The goal of RevAmerica is to educate corporations, government agencies and the general public about U.S. outsourcing as well as be a resource for all things related to IT and BPO domestic sourcing. As talent is core to ongoing success and growth of American global services industry, RevAmerica also covers topics such as talent development, technology innovation and education. RevAmerica's flagship event is the only national conference dedicated to the domestic sourcing. Learn more at www.revamerica.com. Media contact Juliana Gidwani Ahilia Inc. 209-627-5050 This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/revamerica-launches-new-digital-platform-300205505.html SOURCE RevAmerica [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 18, 2016] Revenue Growth of 2.3% Q-o-Q and 24.8% Y-o-Y in Dollar Terms; Recommends Interim Dividend and 1:1 Issue of Bonus Shares BANGALORE and WARREN, New Jersey, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Mindtree, a global technology services company, announced its consolidated results today for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015, as approved by its Board of Directors. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140416/681203 ) "We saw good revenue growth in Q3 as we continue to strike the right chord with our clients. This broad-based result reflects the ongoing momentum of our key focus areas such as Digital and Managed Services. Those initiatives combined with our recent acquisitions and deal wins are creating a clear path to further our growth trajectory," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO & Managing Director, Mindtree. Key financial highlights: In USD terms: Revenue at $184.4 million (growth of 2.3% q-o-q / 24.8% y-o-y). Constant currency revenue growth of 3% q-o-q Net profit at $22.8 million (decline of 5.9% q-o-q / growth of 0.2% y-o-y) In Rupee terms: Revenue at INR 12,145 million (growth of 3.9% q-o-q / 33.2% y-o-y) Net profit at INR 1,509 million (decline of 4.6% q-o-q / growth of 7.2% y-o-y) Other highlights: Clients: 294 active clients as of December 31, 2015 Employees: 16,243 employees as of December 31, 2015 Added 1,306 employees during the quarter on a gross basis Trailing 12 months attrition is at 16%. Multi-year and multi-million dollar wins with leading global clients - Leading travel management company. or this existing client, Mindtree will provide application development and support services - Global manufacturing and engineering company. Mindtree will provide infrastructure management services - International financial institution. Mindtree will provide IT services in multiple areas Awards and recognition: - Mindtree named in the leadership zone in Zinnov's Global Product Engineering Service Provider Ratings for the fourth time in a row - Mindtree has won the "Best Corporate Governance - Technology - Asia - 2015" by the Ethical Boardroom Corporation, for having exhibited exceptional leadership in the area of governance - Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO & Managing Director, Mindtree has been named among India's Top 100 CEOs in an annual study conducted by Business Today and PwC - Mindtree has been placed among the top ten BEST Award Winners by the Association for Talent Development for its innovative talent development initiatives Issue of bonus shares: - The Board of Directors at their meeting held on January 18, 2016 recommended an issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:1, i.e. one additional equity share for every existing equity share. This is subject to shareholders approval. Bonus shares will be credited to the shareholders after completion of statutory formalities and within the prescribed statutory timelines. This is the second bonus shares issue in the last 2 years Dividend announcement: - The Board of Directors, at its meeting held on January 18, 2016 recommended an interim dividend of 40% (INR 4 per equity share of par value INR 10 each) for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 About Mindtree Mindtree [NSE: MINDTREE] delivers digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution, enabling Global 2000 clients to outperform the competition. "Born digital," Mindtree takes an agile, collaborative approach to creating customized solutions across the digital value chain. At the same time, our deep expertise in infrastructure and applications management helps optimize your IT into a strategic asset. Whether you need to differentiate your company, reinvent business functions or accelerate revenue growth, we can get you there. Visit http://www.mindtree.com to learn more. Safe harbour Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks, and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement that may be made from time to time by us or on our behalf. Visit us at http://www.mindtree.com. For more information, contact: INDIA Priyanka Waghre Mindtree +91 98867 29295 [email protected] UNITED STATES Andrea Dunbeck Matter Communications 978-518-4555 [email protected] EUROPE Kiran Farooque PPR Worldwide +44 0 207 300 6181 [email protected] SOURCE Mindtree [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 18, 2016] AlohaNAP Enhances Connectivity to Mainland Cloud Services KAPOLEI, Hawaii, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AlohaNAP, fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty's (1547) premier enterprise datacenter in Hawaii, announces that customers at the AlohaNAP datacenter facility in Kapolei, HI can now take advantage of Level 3 IP and Fiber Services as well as their Cloud Connect service to securely connect their datacenter infrastructure to over 30 global cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, with faster speeds and greater reliability. "Level 3 Cloud Connect Platform allows AlohaNAP to provide our enterprise customers a secure private connection to the leading cloud providers in the world," states Robert DeVita, Chief Sales Officer at AlohaNAP. "Whether organizations are conneting to a public cloud based in the mainland United States or extending a hybrid cloud to servers hosted at AlohaNAP, Cloud Connect ensures critical data and applications are always online." Private cloud network connections from Level 3 help guarantee the performance and reliability to meet Service Level Agreements, with reduced packet loss, jitter, and speed issues. The service also includes highly secure network technology to avoid data breaches. The service is the latest addition to the state of the art AlohaNAP datacenter in Kapolei, which opened in early 2015. AlohaNAP is the only purpose built commercial datacenter on the island of Oahu, situated 2 miles inland and over 130 feet above sea level. The facility offers carrier-neutral connections to both global and local fiber providers, and satellite connectivity to over 40 different satellites. With 10,000 square feet of space immediately available, full redundancy, and 24/7 onsite security, AlohaNAP is the premier datacenter in Hawaii. To learn more about AlohaNAP, please visit www.alohanap.com. Contact: Lauren Lemoi 401-230-0667 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alohanap-enhances-connectivity-to-mainland-cloud-services-300205081.html SOURCE AlohaNAP [January 18, 2016] The Cyber Readiness Index 2.0 Launch WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies is hosting an international panel of cybersecurity experts to discuss national considerations for cyber preparedness. The panel of experts will include experts from the World Bank, Organization of American States, Israel, Canada, and the Netherlands. Panelists will discuss global cybersecurity initiatives and the impact of the recently released "Cyber Readiness Index 2.0, A Plan for Cyber Readiness: A Baseline and an Index." The event will take place at the Institute on January 22, 2016 from 1030AM to 1230PM EST. The Cyber Readiness Index (CRI) 2.0 is unique methodology for evaluating and measuring the level of preparedness for certain cybersecurity risks at the national level. The CRI 2.0 examines 125 countries and evaluates a country's maturity and commitment to securing its infrastructure and services. The leading author Melissa Hathaway and Georgetown University professor Catherine Lotrionte will discuss the importance of the CRI 2.0 and cyber security metrics. Melissa Hahaway states, "The Cyber Readiness Index 1.0 was launched in Australia two years ago and has influenced many countries around the world. We hope the CRI 2.0 has even broader impact." The event will be live streamed here. Event Features Opening Remarks by: General Al Gray Twenty-Ninth Commandant of the Marine Corps; Senior Fellow, Chairman, Board of Regents, Potomac Institute Cyber Readiness Index 2.0 Discussants Include: Catherine Lotrionte Associate Director of the Institute for Law, Science, and Global Security at Georgetown University Melissa Hathaway Senior Fellow and member of the Board of Regents, Potomac Institute The International Panel Discussion on the Importance of Cyber Security Includes: Amir Becker Director of Cyber Cooperation, National Cyber Bureau, Israeli Ministry of Economy Belisario Contreras Program Manager, Inter-American Committee against Terrorism, Organization of American States Rafal Rohozinski Principal, The SecDev Group Sandra Sergent Senior Operations Officer, Cyber Security Practice, World Bank Jeroen van Vugt Counselor for Security and Justice, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands For more information, contact the Cyber Readiness Index team at: [email protected] or 703-525-0770. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-cyber-readiness-index-20-launch-300205683.html SOURCE Potomac Institute for Policy Studies [January 18, 2016] Natural Gas Storage Market: Growing Energy Security Concerns to Boost Market at 3.7% CAGR During 2015-2023 - Transparency Market Research ALBANY, New York, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Transparency Market Research has released a new market research report titled Natural Gas Storage Market, By Type {Above-ground Storage and Underground Storage (Depleted Reservoirs, Salt Caverns, and Aquifers)} - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth Trends and Forecast, 2015-2023. According to the report, the global natural gas storage market stood at 392,831.22 mcm in 2014 and is likely to reach 548,798.39 mcm by 2023, expanding at a CAGR of 3.7% between 2015 and 2023. The global natural gas storage market was dominated by Europe in 2014. Demand for natural gas storage facilities is anticipated to be high in the region due to increasing concerns of energy security (uninterrupted supply of natural gas at affordable rates). A natural gas storage facility is vital as it balances the seasonal peak load demands and provides sustained supply of natural gas. Countries such as Germany, Italy, and France are increasing their natural gas storage capacity to reduce dependence on natural gas imports and to improve local natural gas inventory for applications such as district energy and combined heat and power (CHP) generation. Browse the full Research Report at http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/natural-gas-storage-market.html Factors such as increasing natural gas demand, growing energy security concerns, and favorable government regulations and incentives are anticipated to boost the natural gas storage market in Europe in the near future. However, higher capital costs and installation costs have hampered the growth of the natural gas storage market in the region. Russia is the market leader in terms of natural gas storage capacity in Europe. North America was the second-largest market globally in terms of storage volume of natural gas in 2014. Underground storage facilities accounted for the major share of the market in North America in 2014. The U.S. was the leading player in terms of natural gas storage capacity in North America. Increasing production of natural gas, owing to shale gas and hydraulic fracturing technologies, has boosted the construction of natural gas storage facilities in North America. Get Sample Report, Segments or Table of table of Contents as per your Requirements: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=CRrep_id=2261 Natural gas storage capacity in Asia Pacific is increasing due to rising awareness about benefits of natural gas storage and energy security. China is expected to be the leading player in the natural gas storage market in Asia Pacific in the near future. Growth in natural gas storage capacity in Asia Pacific is primarily driven by increasing demand for natural gas and rising concerns of energy security. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing market for natural gas storage during the forecast period. Rest of the World (RoW) accounted for the least share of the global natural gas storage market in 2014. Browse Research Article: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/article/natural-gas-storage-market.htm Key participants in the global natural gas storage market include Spectra Energy Corporation, Gazprom, Niska Gas Storage Partners LLC, Chiyoda Corporation, Centrica Storage Ltd., NAFTA A.S., TransCanada Corporation, Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., Cardinal Gas Storage Partners LLC, and Engie S.A. The report provides an overview, financial revenues (on availability), business strategies, and recent developments of these companies. Browse Regional Analysis: http://www.europlat.org/natural-gas-storage-market-in-asia-pacific-to-reach-36116-86-mcm-by-2023-transparency-market-research.htm The global natural gas storage market has been segmented as follows: Global Natural Gas Storage Market: By Type Above-ground Storage Underground Storage Depleted Reservoirs Salt Caverns Aquifers Browse Press Release: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/natural-gas-storage-market.htm Global Natural Gas Storage Market: By Region North America The U.S. Rest of North America Europe Russia Ukraine Germany France Italy Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Australia Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of World (RoW) Iran Argentina Other Countries Browse Other Research Reports: Natural Gas Compressors Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/asia-mea-natural-gas-compressors.html Natural Gas Refueling Infrastructure Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/natural-gas-refueling-infrastructure-market.html Compressed Natural Gas Market: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/compressed-natural-gas.html About Us Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The company's exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMR's experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information. TMR's data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports. Contact Transparency Market Research Mr. Sudip S State Tower 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-618-1030 USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com SOURCE Transparency Market Research [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [January 18, 2016] Idex Solutions and Razorleaf Form a Strategic Alliance to Support PLM Implementations, Integrations and Migrations STOW, Ohio, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Razorleaf Corporation and Idex Solutions announce a new strategic partnership to enable faster PLM implementations and integrations for Idex customers. Idex is a Value Solutions (VS) Reseller for Dassault Systemes (3DS), the 3DEXPERIENCE company, who selected Razorleaf as its strategic implementation partner for its experience in working with their 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Razorleaf's implementation services will include application business modeling, project management, bill of materials set up, database migrations, and more. "Razorleaf has a great reputation in the PLM space and their broad PLM experience across many platforms made them the right partner to work with," stated Jeff Rickey, Vice President of Sales at Idex Solutions. "We've known the folks at Razorleaf for many years. Usually when companies are adopting the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, they are migrating from some other software and database. It's critical that our customers have a smooth and successful migration path forward so they can reap the benefits of the software. Razorleaf will be instrumental in helping our customers have a successful PLM implementation." "PLM is evolving and as more companies are moving to cloud-based solutions, there are things that ned to be done to fully support the roll out of 3DEXPERIENCE," stated Eric Doubell, CEO of Razorleaf. "Idex Solutions is one of the most respected, long-standing 3DS resellers in the channel. They are very familiar with the challenges surrounding PLM implementations and what is involved in adopting the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. By working together, we will ensure Idex customers get up and running with their PLM migration or upgrade successfully, so they can begin to use PLM and realize the benefits in their business." About the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform by Dassault Systemes 3DEXPERIENCE Platform enables PLM 2.0, the online collaborative environment that involves creators, collaborators and consumers in the product lifecycle. Delivering benefits today that prepare customers for tomorrow, 3DEXPERIENCE provides global collaborative innovation, online creation and collaboration, a single PLM platform for IP management, a life-like experience, ready-to-use PLM business processes, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). About Idex Solutions Idex Solutions has been providing engineering services to companies since 1996. Idex began providing CATIA solid modeling and drafting services to the automotive and aerospace fields, as well as contract labor to help engineering departments during peak manpower requirements. These services are complimented with a world class PLM Organization. Idex is a leading Dassault Systemes partner representing the ENOVIA, CATIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, 3DVIA and EXALEAD brands. For more information, visit http://www.idexsolutions.com About Razorleaf Corporation Founded in 2000, Razorleaf is dedicated to helping clients bridge the gap between PLM technologies and business problems to deliver greater value from their technology investments. Razorleaf's technology expertise spans Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Data Management (PDM/TDM), Design Automation (DA), Process Management, Business Intelligence, and Systems Integration and Migration. Razorleaf works with many PLM/CAD platforms including Dassault Systemes, ARAS, Autodesk, SolidWorks, DriveWorks, SharePoint and more. For more information, visit http://www.razorleaf.com 3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass logo and the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA, 3DSWYM, BIOVIA, NETVIBES and 3DEXCITE are registered trademarks of Dassault Systemes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151027/280911LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idex-solutions-and-razorleaf-form-a-strategic-alliance-to-support-plm-implementations-integrations-and-migrations-300205769.html SOURCE Razorleaf Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Indigenous music and arts festival Boomerang is hoping to return to Byron Bay later this year, but needs some serious help from the community if its to go ahead. Organisers are now urging music lovers to donate to their Indiegogo campaign. The event launched back in 2013 and has garnered high-profile support from the likes of Paul Kelly, Archie Roach, and David Bridi, as well as former Amity Affliction guitarist Troy Brady and Byron mayor Simon Richardson. Despite this, the events crowdfunding campaign has only managed to raise just over $4,500, significantly shy of its $100,000 goal. The campaign still has a fortnight until deadline and organisers are calling on punters to make a miracle happen. The festival launched as a standalone event three years ago, but following financial losses and cuts to Indigenous programs, the festival was absorbed into Byron Bay Bluesfest, as it was no longer sustainable as a standalone event. [include_post id=340092] The time is now to lead the imperative shift in the Australian narrative, write organisers. Reconciliation is the responsibility of all Australians. So we are asking the progressive, forward-thinking leaders and members of our community to support us in our mission to make the NSW Northern Rivers leaders in this positive change for all Australians. To contribute to the Boomerang Festival crowdfunding campaign, head on over to Indiegogo and give generously. Prizes range from tickets to Byron Bay Bluesfest to Aboriginal historical research conducted on your private land or place of business for your records. Chicago Tribune: Sharp exchanges expected in last Democratic debate before Iowa Tonight the Democratic slapfight for the presidency seems to be getting more serious and this cold weather debate could heat up the contest . . .Meanwhile in Kansas City . . .It's clear that locals online seem far more excited about the Bernie Sanders campaign over any kind of Hillary activism.Notice . . .Either way . . .Here's what is likely the. . .Consider this thefor the debate as Kansas City stands as solidly Democratic betwixt two overwhelmingly Red States.Debate info:Developing . . . "If you were arrested for a DWI in the state of Missouri any time during the period of November 30, 2012 to January 29, 2014, the breathalyzer tests you took are now inadmissible in court, according to a ruling just handed down by the Supreme Court of Missouri." A writer for VICE contends:Why? "And so, while spelling mistakes and all kinds of typo snafus may not matter to bloggy or media readers . . . Sometimes, turns out, grammar is important . . . Hundreds of DUIs Could Be Revoked Due to a Word Mixup in Missouri Law - 9:00AM, 90.1FM, or listen on line at www.kkfi.org regarding MORE-SQUARED'S position on KCPD shootings. - MLK forum at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church 3:30pm-5:00pm - SCLC MLK Mass Celebration 6:00PM, Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. Featuring Jonathan L. Butler. - Remember Mr. Butler led recent student protest @ Mizzou with a hunger strike that earned national media coverage. Update, here's another useful list of events today: Kansas City remembers MLKs legacy with events across the metro Always remember, this is a cheeky Kansas City bloggy community focused on local public information and alternative discourse . . . We will always do promo work poorly because we EXCEL at noting so much local news that's more interesting than anything else out there . . . Anyhoo . . .Today isdedicated to remembering the civil rights legacy and community service.Just now, a social media pal shared what are probably the most important Kansas City MLK Day events that should be noted . . .Checkit:#########MLK Day always inspires sometimes useful but often nasty debate . . . What's disappointing is that the mainstream discourse and community interactions have devolved into meaningless pleasantries or snarky right-wing quips but the two sides seldom meet to discuss their disagreements.Today . . . Notice that neither critics nor proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement and similar social justice efforts will debate one another but will only preach to their separate choirs of mostly unquestioning audiences . . . And, maybe, that misses the point of the Civil Rights endgame altogether.Developing . . . CHECK THIS KANSAS CITY E-TAX RALLY INVITATION ASKING LOCALS TO COME SUPPORT THE TAX!!! KANSAS CITY NEEDS YOU TO HELP KICK OFF THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE OUR CRITICAL EARNINGS TAX : For the moment, in terms of blogging, want to play fair with the E-tax and at least let them make their case.To wit and before anybody else . . .Just like most MSM coverage of this effort so far, the arguments seem to be focused against Rex Sinquefield and communicating Kansas City's reliance on the tax.Here's the pitch for their party seenhere on TKC:Monday, January 25th10:30 amChamber of Commerce Board RoomLobby of Union StationOn April 5th, Kansas City must vote once again to preserve our critical Earnings Tax.To keep Kansas City's positive momentum going we must adequately fund city services like fire, ambulance, police, and trash pickup. The earnings tax brings in $228 million, roughly 40% of the city's general fund each year and is paid by anyone who lives or works in the city. Without it, the city would be forced to drastically cut services, including fire fighters, ambulance personnel, and police officers, and dramatically raise other taxes.Thanks to St. Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield, who used his wealth and influence to force a statewide initiative, Kansas City and St. Louis now have to vote every five years to defend and maintain this all-important revenue that funds our most basic services.At the January 25th kick-off and rally, Mayor Sly James and community leaders will send out a citywide a call to action to mobilize neighborhood, business, labor and civic organizations to help pass the E-Tax renewal on April 5th.A few simple facts as to why we need to renew the Earnings Tax:* E-Tax generates approximately $230 million, which is 40% of the city's general fund. Seventy-four percent of the general fund pays for our police, fire, ambulance services and municipal courts. Additionally the E-Tax revenue goes to street maintenance, code enforcement and other key basic services.* 50% of the E Tax is paid by non-residents who work in our city and benefit from the basic services the revenue provides.* If we fail to renew the E Tax Kansas City can never reinstate it without the consent of the Missouri Legislature! So we cannot afford to let our guard down, we must renewal the E tax by the largest margin possible.See you on the 25th, and please bring family and friends!Please help us get the word out by forwarding this email to your friends and neighbors.###########You decide . . . USA Today includes Greek islands among world's best nine destinations for solo trips in 2016. According to the American newspaper, now more than ever, solo travel is gaining popularity, as the travel industry has seen a steady increase in single travelers in recent years. According to a study by Visa, one in five travelers set out on their most recent vacation alone. Not only do these types of trips enable travelers to meet new people and gain some independence they're an ideal way to explore these nine exciting destinations in the upcoming year. Especially on Greek Islands, the article comments that it's no secret the Greek economy isn't doing great, but that shouldn't stop anyone from traveling there alone just make sure to take a few extra steps before going solo. Rich history of Athens While Athens has rich history to offer and is a good home base, the islands offer a perfect solo beach escape where you'll be able to meet people and island hop when you get bored. Luckily there are thousands of islands to explore with ferries and flights providing easy access between them. Don't miss picturesque Santorini, famous party spot Mykonos, beach-riddled Zakynthos, historical Ithaca, under-rated Syros, and of course the biggest island, Crete. How to meet people: Traveling solo around the Greek Islands can be tricky if you are looking for travel partners, especially if you're island hopping from place to place. Although they can be pricey, a cruise can be your best option. Cunard offers single-occupancy cabins on their Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria ships; both have expeditions in the Greek Isles. P&O also offers a variety of options throughout the Eastern Mediterranean with single cabins available on most ships. The rest of USA Today's list as follows: Solola, Guatemala Grand Circle, U.S. Reykjavik, Iceland Melbourne, Australia Ganges River cruise, India Great Britain and Ireland California coast, U. New Zealand See full story here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Tourexpi, turizm haberleri, Reiseburos, tourism news, noticias de turismo, Tourismus Nachrichten, , travel tourism news, international tourism news, Urlaub, urlaub in der turkei, , holidays in Turkey, , global tourism news, dunya turizm, dunya turizm haberleri, Seyahat Acentas, This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0+, at a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. In such a context was Le Grand Tour created and organized, an expression that makes sense, especially towards foreign tourists, according to Olivier Poivre dArvor: I have lived abroad a lot, almost more than in France, and the expression Grand Tour can be understood everywhere, and especially by Anglo-Saxons, as Ive noticed. Tourists will not go to France only for the restaurants and museums. They will truly do a Grand Tour of France to explore it better, and differently. The Grand Tour is based on one simple observation: France is a leading touristic destination thanks to its important cultural radiance. France is the first touristic destination in the world with 85 million visitors when it only accounts for 1% of the worlds population. It is also the third country to welcome the most Foreign students. France was never grander than with culture. Through its own, largely shaped by new arrivals such as Vinci, Picasso, Brook or Kundera, but also through its unique capacity of welcoming cultures from the world, declared Laurent Fabius, this Grand Tour offers around forty different encounters throughout the country. They were also chosen for their contribution to this cultural attractiveness, a driver of the economy and tourism, that is also a subject of our diplomacy of influence. Thanks to a network of 163 embassies in the world, and their cultural representations, we are going to make the agenda and route of this Grand Tour known all over. While in 2015 we witnessed our country and many citizens in love with freedom and music, cartoonists and visitors in Paris, scarred in their hearts, it is essential to remind people that without culture, France would not be respected, loved, or visited like it is today. Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar's second-largest bank by market value, reported a 3 per cent fall in fourth-quarter net profit on Monday, according to Reuters calculations. Net profit for the three months to December 31 was QR559 million ($153.5 million), compared to QR576 million in the same period a year earlier, Reuters calculations showed, using financial statements in the absence of a quarterly earnings breakdown. QNB Financial Services had forecast a quarterly net profit of QR553 million for the period. Full-year net profit for 2015 was QR2.07 billion, up 3.6 per cent from the previous year, a statement from the bank said. The bank said its board was recommending a dividend for 2015 of QR1.75 per share. This is the same as the QR1.75 per share the bank paid out in 2014, according to Thomson Reuters data. - Reuters With increasingly lower-cost solar photovoltaic modules helping the countries in Middle East and North Africa (Mena) to diversify their energy mix, the region is set to attract $35 billion worth of renewable energy investments every year by 2020, stated experts from the International Renewable Energy Authority (Irena). They were speaking at the World Future Energy Summit 2016 (WFES) which opened today (January 18) in the UAE capital. Hosted by Masdar, WFES is being held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre till January 21, co-located with International Water Summit and EcoWaste. It is a global platform for open dialogue between government and industry leaders, international policy makers, investors and experts, said the organisers. Speaking at the launch, leading industry experts have urged governments, banks and landlords in the Mena region to join forces to promote solar rooftop adoption, thus saving on energy costs and creating 'green' jobs. One of the key supporters of solar rooftop innovation is Dubai Water and Electricity Authority (Dewa), whose Shams Dubai initiative connects solar rooftops to its power grid, in support of Dubai Plan 2021 and the Smart Dubai initiative. Part of the objective is to make Dubai one of the smartest cities in the world for energy supply and demand. Owing to these initiatives, the GCCs solar capacity is expected to reach 10 gigawatts (GW), representing a market opportunity of at least $10 billion to 2020, with solar rooftops in the UAE reaching 2.5 GW and a $3 billion opportunity, the experts stated. With the UAE aiming for 10 per cent of power generated by renewables by 2030, according to Irena, Dewa is furthering the UAEs solar sector through the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the worlds largest single-site solar project at 5 GW by 2030. "Dubai Clean Energy Strategy aims to provide seven per cent of Dubais energy from clean energy sources by 2020, 25 per cent by 2030 and 75 per cent by 2050," stated Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, the managing director and chief executive of Dewa. "The shift towards using clean and renewable energy sources has many benefits for the environment, economy, and natural resources. For example, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park will help achieve a reduction of over 6.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions, and support the green initiatives and programmes implemented by the Government of Dubai to reduce carbon emissions," he noted. The Dubai utility had launched the Shams Dubai scheme under which photovoltaic (PV) panels installed on rooftops of buildings are connected to the grid and then the surplus electricity is exported to Dewas grid. At the World Future Energy Summit, we will showcase these innovations, along with best practices in supporting innovation in the energy sector through research and development, stated Al Tayer. Dewa will also be unveiling its major plan to make 30,000 buildings energy efficient by 2030, install a million smart meters by 2020, and deploy electric vehicle charging stations throughout Dubai with its Green Charger programme. Supporting new business opportunities and innovation in the regions solar market is the WFES Solar Expo, where more than 150 solar exhibitors will interact with innovators, project developers, and buyers to experience the latest solar innovations, learn about solar trends, and network with solar experts at the WFES conference. WFES Solar Expo will also include key players such as Abdul Latif Jameel, ADC Energy Systems, Alec Energy, Amana, EFG Hermes, Renewable Energy Company (REC), SkyPower, SolarWorld, Suntech Power, and Yingli Solar. "In the Mena region, solar rooftops have gone from a niche environmental market to a game-changer with high potential for homes, offices, or mega-projects, and can pay for themselves after only four years," said Dr Raed Bkayrat, the research director at Middle East Solar Industry Association, and VP of Business Development Middle East, First Solar. However, for widespread solar rooftop adoption, landlords must understand the concept, governments need to provide regulations and incentives to support landlords, and banks need to be able to find innovative ways to finance solar rooftops, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Kuwait's Agility, the largest logistics company in the Gulf, confirmed on Monday that it had signed a three-year $235 million loan agreement. The loan, reported by Reuters on January 14, was provided by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, HSBC, Natixis , Santander and Standard Chartered, the company said in a bourse statement. Agility is focusing on diversifying its business across emerging markets as low oil prices risk delaying some projects in the Middle East, its chief executive told Reuters in November.-Reuters Three Iranian-Americans arrived in Germany after leaving Tehran on Sunday in a prisoner swap following the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran. Three Iranian-Americans arrived in Germany after leaving Tehran on Sunday in a prisoner swap following the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran under a deal US President Barack Obama said had cut off Tehran's path to a nuclear bomb. In a sign of sustained readiness to track Iranian compliance with remaining United Nations curbs, the United States imposed fresh sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran's ballistic missile programme. The Obama administration had delayed the step for more than two weeks during tense negotiations to free five American prisoners, according to people familiar with the matter. Iran conducted a precision-guided ballistic missile test last October, violating a U.N. ban. "This is a good day because once again we are seeing what's possible through strong American diplomacy," Obama said at the White House. "These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and with wisdom." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the nuclear deal as a "golden page" in Iran's history and said the agreement could be used as a model to resolve other regional issues. The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduce the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. A Swiss plane took Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief; Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho; and Amir Hekmati, a former US Marine from Flint, Michigan, as well as some family members, from Tehran to Geneva, Switzerland. Shortly afterward, the three left for a US military base in Germany, arriving there later on Sunday, a US State Department official said. One more Iranian-American released under the same swap, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, was not aboard the aircraft. A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday, a US official said. Several Iranian-Americans held in US prisons after being charged or convicted for sanctions violations have also been released, their lawyers told Reuters on Sunday. MONTHS OF TALKS The prisoner deal was the culmination of months of contacts, secret talks and legal maneuvering that came close to falling apart on at least one occasion. Speaking to parliament on Sunday, Rouhani, a pragmatic cleric elected in 2013 on promises to end Iran's years of sanctions and isolation, said he looked forward to an economic future less dependent on oil exports. The exports are nevertheless likely to jump now that the United States, European Union and United Nations have scrapped the sanctions in return for Tehran complying with the deal to curb its nuclear ambitions, which Tehran says were peaceful. But Rouhani noted bitter opposition to the lifting of economic curbs from Israel, some members of the US Congress and what he called "warmongers" in the region - an apparent reference to some of Iran's Gulf Arab adversaries, not least Saudi Arabia. Presenting the draft budget for the next Iranian fiscal year, which begins in March, Rouhani told parliament the deal was a "turning point" for the economy of Iran, a major oil producer virtually shut out of international markets for the past five years. He said later he expected 5 percent economic growth in the next Iranian fiscal year and assured foreign investors of political and economic stability. "The nuclear negotiations which succeeded by the guidance of the Supreme Leader and support of our nation, were truly a golden page in Iran's history," he said. Tens of billions of dollars' worth of Iranian assets will now be unfrozen and global companies that have been barred from doing business there will be able to exploit a market hungry for everything from automobiles to airplane parts. After the prisoners were freed, it was announced that the United States and Iran settled a long-standing claim, releasing to Tehran $400 million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion in interest, the State Department said. The funds were part of a trust fund once used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States, which was tied up for decades in litigation at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague. CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT FOR ROUHANI In Tehran, ordinary Iranians were cautious about what the future holds after the lifting of sanctions. Many have lived under sanctions or wartime austerity for so long that they have no clear expectations about what the future might hold. The United States' thaw with Iran is viewed with deep suspicion by US Republicans as well as allies of Washington in the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia. US-Iranian suspicion still remains deeply entrenched. Rouhani said economic ties would not be fully restored. Iran's Gulf Arab adversaries were silent on news of the nuclear deal's implementation, in what was perhaps a sign of unease at the rapprochement. Israel's opposition was evident in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, which said that even after signing the nuclear deal, Iran had not yet "abandoned its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons". The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ruled on Saturday that Iran had fulfilled last year's agreement with six world powers to curtail its nuclear programme, triggering the end of sanctions. Minutes after the IAEA's ruling, the United States formally lifted banking, steel, shipping and other sanctions on Iran. The EU likewise ended all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against the country. Most U.N. sanctions also automatically ended. The end of sanctions means more money and prestige for Shi'ite Muslim Iran as it becomes deeply embroiled in the sectarian conflicts of the Middle East, notably in the Syrian civil war where its allies are facing Sunni Muslim rebels. Reuters A total of 29 French firms will take part in the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) and International Water Summit (IWS) running from January 18 to 21 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Business France, the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, is once again organizing the French participation in partnership with the French embassy in the UAE, the Club ADEME International and the French Renewable Energy Federation (Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables). France has the second largest wind power potential in Europe behind the UK, a statement said. It is also Europe's fifth leading country in terms of sunshine, abundant water resources, major forest areas, the world's second largest exclusive economic zone, just behind the US, it added. France is Europe's third largest producer of renewable energy. In 2014, France produced 91 TWh of electricity from renewable energy. Revenue from the French renewable energy sector amounts to 11.32 billion ($12.35 billion). France is the leading producer of water treatment equipment and is ranked within the top five global exporters in the air sector. The Gulf countries have set a goal to integrate 7 per cent of renewable energy into their energy mix by 2020 (i.e. 1,500 MW). By 2020, energy consumption of these countries is set to double. The United Arab Emirates massively invests in renewable energy, water and the environment. A concrete example is the Masdar eco-city, the Shams 1 solar power station. The numerous projects underway in the Gulf countries attract successful French businesses in the renewable energy, water and waste sectors. Their participation in the WFES & IWS trade show will help them to promote their offer in the Middle East and bolster their contact list, the statement said. TradeArabia News Service A rich man from China bought an entire wilderness in the United States. Jack Ma, a Chinese national who co-founded online shopping central Alibaba Group, invested $23 million on an Adirondack Mountains called Brandon Reserve in the U.S. He intends to live in the wilderness once he retires, but in order to do that, he needs to put a stop to the location's deforestation problems. Ma is not only the richest man in China but he is also known to be an inspiring conversationalist. He is popular for giving out motivational speeches for the youth on how to be successful. Ma is a living reminder that failure is not the end but the beginning of new opportunities as he was rejected 10 times from Harvard in the past. The Brandon Reserve Ma bought was from the DuPont family measuring up to 28,000 acres. He intends to safeguard the property, and this is a remarkable contribution to the preservation of the many threatened forests in the world. He wishes to build a wildlife sanctuary and protect the animals and plants in the region. Not only in America, Ma is looking for opportunities to preserve nature in China and considers this a priority. He wants the next generation to inherit a healthy environment; that is why he is dedicated to preserving and protecting it. Apparently, the wealthy businessman is aware of the many environmental issues his country is facing -- one of which is overwhelming air pollution. He is the first Chinese entrepreneur to appear in the cover of Forbes magazine. According to the prestigious business magazine, Ma ranks 18 among the richest people in the world and 30 among the most powerful people in the world. He is one of the many who owns Alibaba Group Holding Limited, a successful Internet-based company that caters to both consumers and business owners. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 These unforeseen European destinations will give you a serious case of wanderlust for something new and will make them gather your bags, booking a flight and finding the great unknown this year. Kosovo Kosovo, specifically the city of Prizren, is the new most loved spot in Europe. There are various cafes around town, restaurants full each night and bars offering cheap beverages plus a chilled environment. A must-see is the view from the Kalaja Fortress. If it's a nice day, bring a picnic and hang out with locals. Albania The coastal towns of the 'Albanian Riviera' are a well-known spot to visit during the warmer months. This nation is jam-packed with so much natural beauty, and it would be a shame to leave it off from any European trip. The people are all inviting and go well beyond to help any traveller needing help. Republic of Macedonia The first thing to acknowledge is that there are two Macedonias in Europe. Indeed they are next to each other. One is the Republic of Macedonia (sometimes called as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM) and the other is a region of Greece. It is best not to get these mixed up; otherwise, you may experience some rather upset locals. You can wander the streets appreciating the architecture or head to the Old Bazaar or Bit Pazar region to experience the local market scene. Montenegro Montenegro is one of the fastest developing tourist spots in the Balkans. It offers excellent coastlines, stunning mountains and remarkable old towns to explore. Whilst not as cheap as some other Balkan destinations, you can surely still get some value for your money in the event that you go about it the right way. In the summer months, costs go through the roof but come down during off season, and costs of accommodation can once in a while be negotiated. See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018 As the official New Hampshire memorial to Christa McAuliffe, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the launch and subsequent loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and its brave crew, including Christa McAuliffe, with a showing of the documentary on Christa, Reach for the Stars, (TRAVPR.COM) USA - January 18th, 2016 - Concord, NH -- As the official New Hampshire memorial to Christa McAuliffe, the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center will commemorate the 30th anniversary of the launch and subsequent loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger and its brave crew, including Christa McAuliffe, with a showing of the documentary on Christa, Reach for the Stars, at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, January 23, 24, 30 and 31, and with a special reception for teachers, school administrators, school board members and their families on the 30th anniversary of the Challenger launch, Thursday, January 28, from 4 6 p.m. Generously sponsored by Rath, Young and Pignatelli, with refreshments provided by Associated Grocers of New England, the special January 28 evening for educators will feature hors doeuvres and conversation, a star show, exploration of exhibits and resources for educators at the Discovery Center and other NH museums; and remarks by NH Board of Education Chair Tom Raffio, NH STEM Director Eric Feldborg, EdD, Discovery Center Executive Director Jeanne Gerulskis and Education Director Kim Duncan, PhD, and a presentation on NASA resources for educators by NASA Educator Professional Development Specialist Kelly Hartford. All educators are welcome to the reception; admission is free, with RSVPs to Sherie Moore, at smoore@starhop.com or (603) 271-7827 x102 requested. The public is welcome to all showings of the documentary, Reach for the Stars. General admission is $10 for adults, $9 for students and seniors, $7 for children 3 12; members and children under three are free. Tickets to Reach for the Stars and other shows in the planetarium theater are an additional $5. 30 years ago, on a cold January morning, seven brave crew members launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in what was to be a unique mission. On board was Christa McAuliffe, a social studies teacher from Concord High School in Concord, NH. McAuliffe had been chosen out of over 11,000 applicants to be NASAs first Teacher-in-Space. Known for her passion for experiential education, McAuliffe was to take, in her words, the ultimate field trip, teaching a variety of lessons from space. The worlds most beloved teacher and her crewmates were lost when, 73 seconds into the launch, the Challenger exploded. The people of New Hampshire came together to honor Christa McAuliffe by building a science center to carry on her mission. Today, the center that bears her name and that of her hero, Admiral Alan Shepard, welcomes 10,000 schoolchildren on field trips each year, as well as tens of thousands of members of the general public. At the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center, people from all walks of life are encouraged to follow Christas exhortation to learn all they can about the universe; over 1.75 million people have journeyed to the stars since the centers dedication to Christa McAuliffe in 1990. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center features 21st century interactive exhibits on aviation, astronomy, Earth and space sciences, a state-of-the-art planetarium and a variety of science, technology, and engineering and mathematics programs. The engaging, robust educational programs are geared towards families, teens, seniors, students, community groups and lifelong learners. For more information, visit www.starhop.com. ### VacationWise announces rebranding as Holiday Crowd and move into the Traveltech Lab in London Bridge (TRAVPR.COM) UNITED KINGDOM - January 18th, 2016 - VacationWise announces rebranding as Holiday Crowd and move into the Traveltech Lab in London Bridge * Rebranding announced along with intention to launch the first UK holiday properties in 2016 * Company also announces move into the Traveltech Lab supported by London & Partners and The Trampery The business has chosen to rebrand to strengthen the brand association with its core service: crowdfunding investment into holiday homes. The rebranding goes hand in hand with a new logo and a new domain name www.holidaycrowd.co as it looks to launch its first properties in the UK in 2016. The global holiday property rental market is currently estimated at around $100bn per annum, with 30% of revenues generated by online platforms such as AirBnB and HomeAway and an online market which is expected to grow at a 25% CAGR to $70bn by 2020.(1) Holiday Crowd provides investors with an opportunity to invest in this dynamic and fast growing market and into properties that would otherwise be out of their reach from a financial standpoint. Holiday Crowd CEO Alistair Malins said: We wanted to create something truly unique, a platform for investing in holiday homes that combines top international property investment opportunities with the benefits from being part of an exclusive holiday club. Were really pleased to be joining the community at the Traveltech Lab and look forward to working in Londons most innovative environment for technology startups within the travel industry. About Holiday Crowd Holiday Crowd is the first property crowdfunding platform focusing exclusively on investing in holiday homes. The business removes 100% of the hassle of investing in these properties, locating unique investment opportunities for customers and professionally managing the properties to maximise rental income. The business operates an exclusive buying club for investors that want to gain access to this rapidly growing market as well as benefitting from discounted stays in holiday properties. Sign up at www.holidaycrowd.co. Sources: (1) Evercore Analyst Research (2015) *** Tribune News Service Bathinda, January 17 Fighting for a long time to get appropriate compensation for the cotton crop damaged by the whitefly attack earlier this season, the farmers who had held a series of rallies to press the Punjab government for their demands would now start their three-day agitation against the government at Badal village, the home-turf of the Punjab Chief Minister. Earlier, the farmers had planned to hold this agitation in Badal village on January 10, however, due to some reasons, the farmers had postponed their plan and instead held a meeting on January 10. Now, they will stage a three-day agitation at Badal village from January 22. Earlier during their agitation in Bathinda that lasted for more than a month, the farmers had to spend on their own for everything at the protest site. The farmers had been time and again collecting funds for the protest to be staged at different places. Earlier during their rally in Bathidna, the farmers had to expend about Rs 22,56,015. Similarly Rs 9, 88,791 in Mansa, Rs 15,05,300 in Sangrur, Rs 8,20,791 in Barnala, Rs 3,18,180 in Moga, Rs 4,27,160 in Muktsar, Rs 41,300 in Ferozepur, Rs 20,495 in Faridkot, Rs 13,600 in Ludhiana, Rs 33,000 in Amritsar, Rs 18,159 in Gurdaspur were spent to ferry the farmers to the protest sites. Besides compensation of Rs 40,000 per acre to farmers and Rs 20, 000 to farm labourers, the farmers will raise the demand of permanent solution to stray animals destroying the crops and demand of free power supply of 400 units free of cost to labourers. Ram Singh Bhenibagha, president of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan) Mansa, said, Farmers who have been staging protest for a long time in Bathinda and other districts of Punjab over their demand of appropriate compensation to cotton growers that faced damaged to their crop due to whitefly attack are now preparing for a rally to be held at Badal village in Muktsar district under the leadership of eight farmer unions on January 22. We are collecting funds and have appealed to the farmers to come forward and give funds to the union for the same cause as its a common fight. The farmers will fight till the end for the compensation. The crop was damaged because the state government recommended and supplied spurious pesticides to farmers that failed to counter the whitefly attack. The farmers had earlier protested against the state government in Bathinda from September 17 to October 4. During the protest, a number of farmers were injured in an attack by a bull that entered the protest venue amid tight police security. Beginning with their protest on the railway lines, the farmers started demanding hike in MSP of paddy varieties, including PUSA 1509 and PUSA 1121, besides demanding compensation for the damaged cotton crop. Later, the farmers staged agitation on the railway lines, leaving the passengers in a lurch with all the 76 trains from the Bathinda junction suspended for about six days. The trains for the Delhi route were completely shut down and the passengers had to opt for buses. Farmers had then blocked the Raliway routes, including Bathinda-Bikaner, Bathinda-Ambala, BathindaDelhi and BathindaRewai lines, which had left 76 trains cancelled each day. Only two routes, including BathindaFerozepur and BathindaGanganagar were opened. Ramkrishan Upadhyay Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 18 As the process for finalisation of the Metro project is underway among Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Government of India has sought comments from the Chandigarh Administration on the request of the Himachal Pradesh government to extend the Metro up to the industrial town of Baddi. Sources said the Government of Himachal Pradesh wrote a letter to the Government of India expressing its desire to extend the Metro up to Baddi. In the letter, the Additional Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, said that extending Metro up to Baddi would benefit a large number of people of the tricity as they commute every day to this industrial city. Ajay Mittal, Additional Chief Secretary, Himachal Pradesh, confirmed raising the demand before the Government of India. He said Himachal Pradesh was happy to be a partner in the project. Baddi is an industrial town of Solan district which is a leading industrial centre of Himachal Pradesh. It is a part of an industrial corridor, stretching from Barotiwala to Nalagarh, along the western border of Solan district. Many national and multi-national companies have already set up large plants at Baddi. The town is also emerging as one of the best educational centres of Himachal Pradesh. Many new reputed schools and universities have come up there. When contacted, Sarbjit Singh, Finance Secretary, Chandigarh Administration, said, We had conveyed to the Government of India to get the feasibility study done on the proposal of Himachal Pradesh. He said any decision on the proposal would be taken at the level of the Central Government on the basis of the feasibility study regarding the possible traffic volume, route and other related things. At present, the Administration is in the process of preparing the revised DPR for the Metro project. In July this year, Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to implement the integrated multi-modal mass transport system for the Chandigarh region, comprising Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. As part of the MoU, they had named the special purpose vehicle to execute the project as the Greater Chandigarh Transport Corporation (GCTC). The initial equity of the GCTC was to be Rs 100 crore, which was to be equally contributed (25 per cent each) by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, the UT, Haryana and Punjab. The proposed Metro envisages two corridors for the project: the East-West corridor that will extend from the Grain Market in Sector 21, Panchkula, to the Transport Terminus at Mullanpur and the North-South corridor that will run from near the Capitol Complex in Sector 1 to Gurdwara Shaheedan in Mohali. Tribune News Service Amritsar, January 17 In what can be termed as an embarrassing incident for the police, a prisoner managed to escape from TB Hospital, where he was admitted for treatment. The accused has been identified as Harjinder Singh, a resident of Batth village in Tarn Taran. He managed to dodge three policemen at around 3.10 pm here today. The policemen have been booked for dereliction of duty. Harjinder was lodged in Amritsar Central jail under the NDPS Act and he was serving a sentence of 10 years, said Jail Superintendent RK Sharma. According to sources he was admitted to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital on January 6 from where doctors referred him to the TB Hospital. The Majitha police escorted him to the TB Hospital this morning, but he managed to flee from their custody. Interestingly, the Majitha police did not receive any information about the convict fleeing from the custody of policemen. In charge Gagandeep Singh said, Till this moment, we have no information about the incident. Jail officials have not yet intimated us. A case will be registered as soon as official intimation comes to us. The policemen concerned on duty, too, will be booked for negligence. New Delhi, January 18 Ex-servicemen seeking changes in government's One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme today shifted their protest back to Jantar Mantar here from outside Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's residence following a late night meeting with Minister of State Jayant Sinha. The delegation will now meet Jaitley on Wednesday, Col Anil Kaul (Retd), spokesperson of the protesting veterans, said. The meeting between representatives of the protesters and Sinha was held at about 12:30 am apparently at the instruction of the Prime Minister's Office. The protesters had yesterday morning staged dharna outside Jaitley's residence alleging that he failed to respond to concerns raised by them. This was the second time in two weeks that the veterans have held demonstrations outside the minister's official residence.PTI Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 17 Hardly six months after former BJP minister Manoranjan Kalia wrote an open letter to state party chief Kamal Sharma, daring him to initiate an inquiry into his allegations against senior party leader Shanta Kumar, Kalia wrote another open letter to Shanta Kumar for showering praise on the UPA through an article published in a newspaper. Kalia had also posted the letter on the social networking site Facebook, triggering a debate on the infighting within the BJP. In this letter to Shanta, Kalia writes, BJP veteran Shanta Kumar had showered praise on the UPA government for amendments in the Company Law. It seems your article wants to establish that the said amendment is paving the way for social development in the country. I visited Himachal Pradesh in 2012, and felt that the BJP workers there were in a state of anger for being voted out of government in HP and termed the BJPs debacle in Kangra district a cause for it. A common BJP worker also talks about your relations with HP CM Virbhadra Singh. In his letter, Kalia also questioned Shanta as to why he did not recognise the work done by the BJP government during its tenure, including improvement of relations with the developed and developing countries, measures taken by Arun Jaitely to improve the economy of the country, opening of new ways by Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Union minister Nitin Gadkaris steps in developing national highways, implementing one rank one pension scheme and the crop insurance scheme launched by PM Modi, among others. Kalia questioned Shanta about the reason for his discontent with the party and why he did not hail the work of the BJP-led NDA government. It may be recalled that Kalia had posted an open letter on Facebook in July 2015 in which he had accused Shanta Kumar, former Punjab affairs in-charge, of misappropriating party funds during the last Lok Sabha elections. Ayesha Siddiqa THE news of Masood Azhars possible detention in Pakistan left me with the same feeling I had when reading a story in my childhood about Sheikh Chilli, a man who built castles in the air. What if he hadnt shaken his head so violently that the basket of eggs didnt come crashing down, as did his dreams? Even as I sat down for an interview soon after, Pakistans Federal Minister for Privatisation claimed the news of the Jaish-e-Mohammed chiefs detention was not verified. He had come from a meeting with other ministers in which none vouched for the news of the arrest. In fact, the minister stated that the Ministry of Interior had advised him to be non-committal. The statement from the office of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif spoke of action against the JeM but was guarded about any specifics. So why did someone in authority leak the news of Azhars detention to the Pakistani media? By January 15 evening, it was clear that the story needed to be approached with great caution. Sources from Bahawalpur, where the JeM is stationed, talked about the authorities taking 13 JeM members into custody from various cities in Punjab. However, what is more interesting is the report of Masood Azhar and his brother Mufti Rauf being picked up from Islamabad. Didnt the government say for years that Azhar did not live anywhere in Punjab but had disappeared somewhere in the tribal areas? Despite the news, his men in Bahawalpur seemed calm and contained. Though news came of the JeMs offices being shut down, one wondered what they were talking about since the JeM has no office. It is not a political party which would require an office. Its entire business is conducted from the madrasa Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur and another huge madrasa being built on the main highway outside the city. Closing down these seminaries would draw attention and create excitement, which was not observable. It certainly makes one wonder if the news was a trial balloon to see Indias reaction just like some believe the Pathankot attack was meant to test New Delhis red lines. The JeM folks were of the view that all of this would wash away in 10 days. Throughout the evening when news was spread about the Pakistan government taking action, there was nothing happening in Bahawalpur. The only thing which has happened thus far is that the JeMs website and magazine are no longer available online, which is very different from what happened with LeT/JuD. The difference in civil-military perspectives on handling India-centric militancy is clear. It seems that while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is keen to have peace and like a timid chicken sticks his neck out every now and then, the military would like to remain more cautious. It isnt that Raheel Sharifs army is not interested in talks, but it is not keen to have a conversation between civilians or to allow personal camaraderie to develop between the two prime ministers. Although Pakistan militarys involvement in Pathankot is not proven, whoever planned the show was aware of the GHQ-Rawalpindis unhappiness with how the December 25 Modi visit played out in Pakistan the two leaders seemed to be building personal ties without the army being centre stage. Pathankot certainly did not happen from nowhere but it seems to have followed a predictable pattern: an attack not big enough to provoke a huge response like targeting militant headquarters across the border but which generates enough hue and cry to postpone a conversation. Despite that, Islamabad keeps talking about the threat of Indias cold start military strategy. It appears that the generals are quite conscious of the fact that Delhi may not be close to activating such a plan if it needed to. Its not about weapons but changes in doctrines and force structures that could manage a swift and sharp response. Also, post-Pathankot, the comparative caution in the Indian reaction was palpable. This was construed as Delhi having too much at stake this time or that politically Narendra Modi had committed himself to the peace process to a degree that he could not allow the same kind of reaction as the BJP displayed under Congress rule. Then there are those who are outright sceptical about the incident and argue that the Indian governments restraint is because it does not have sufficient evidence regarding JeMs involvement. From the perspective of an average Pakistani, this is all a bit like being on a seesaw. There is the public, which would like to have improved relations but has not turned into a critical mass or developed enough political clout to become noticeable to the military. On the other hand, there is the political and ideological right-wing represented by both the military and the religious lobby that remains super-cautious and disinterested in building links. But the problem any analyst is likely to face during these times is confusion regarding the militarys stance. Was Pakistans army chief on board during Modis impromptu visit to Lahore? Most likely, yes. It is almost unimaginable that he was not in the decision-making loop. But this is also where one ought to draw a line. After the Ufa debacle, Nawaz Sharif would certainly not have wanted to appear to be alone in wanting to talk. However, this does not mean that the army chief approves of the larger game plan of improving ties with India, especially an enemy who, according to the post-Raheel Sharif popular narrative, is responsible for most acts of violence in Pakistan. The brutal death of 140 children at the Army Public School in Peshawar is etched in memory of the entire country and so is the narrative that the killers were sponsored by Indian intelligence. Since the beginning of the Zarb-e-Azb operation, the focus has shifted from internal insecurity as the primary threat back to India as the main security issue. To recollect, the former army chief, General (retd) Ashfaq Pervez Kayani gave several speeches before the end of his extended tenure emphasising the primacy of the internal. Given Kayanis unpopularity in getting an extension from the PPP government and the alleged corruption of his brothers, his departure and Raheel Sharifs appointment as the chief was welcomed by the bulk of the army. General Sharif is viewed as conservative and professional, a chief who brought the organisation back on track including on the issue of threat assessment. The armed forces also have reservations as far as Indias presence in Afghanistan is concerned. Therefore, it can be concluded that like any professionally structured military, Pakistans has not diverged from its emphasis on India. However, its not that the military is entirely closed to the idea of developing ties with India. There are other considerations as well, such as American influence or less dramatic pressure from China to improve ties with New Delhi. The officer cadre in particular has good working relations with the Pentagon. Beijing, on the other hand, would like India-Pakistan bilateral relations to become manageable. Pakistan, in any case, has been rapidly moving into Chinas sphere of influence, which means that its military and economic dependency is likely to grow. Strategically, this translates into China extending its protective umbrella to Islamabad. Initially, one had expected that Nawaz Sharif would be punished with a coup for his overzealous overtures to India. The fact that he wasnt may not necessarily be an indicator of the enhanced strength or capability of the political government but also a willingness of the armed forces to let it continue. Apparently, while talking to people in a private gathering, General Raheel Sharif spoke about the army giving the government space to breathe. From an India-Pakistan perspective, this means that the generals are not keen to rush into a linkage that would then be tantamount to neutralising the militarys influence in power politics or threatening Pakistans ideological and political relevance. The act of holding on to selected non-state actors creates that bubble in which the establishment feels secure, especially when it is unsure about the consequences of Hindutva-dominated politics in India. Seen in this context, the entire post-Pathankot handling of the Jaish looks like a bit of a test case. Something did happen for some part of the government to have taken Masood Azhar into custody. Its not that there is any plan to hand him over to India or urgently curtail the organisations power. In fact, during my visit to my hometown in Bahawalpur on January 16, I did not see any signs of a clampdown on the organisation or its headquarters. In any case, it may not be doable since the headquarters is basically a madrasa with an attached mosque, which cannot be closed until there is an immediate provocation. However, can Delhi just give up on confidence building? Peace is a long-term plan which will probably come about with small and incremental steps. The writer is an independent social scientist based in Islamabad and author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistans Military Economy. Courtesy: The Wire Tribune News Service New Delhi, January 17 Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said having seen the incident in which ink was thrown at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a young woman while he was addressing a 'thanksgiving' rally, it seemed that the police were not alert for the event where thousands of people gathered at Chhatrasal. Had the police been alert, the girl, an activist of the Aam Aadmi Sena, could not have reached near lectern, the Deputy Chief Minister said. Addressing a conference, Sisodia said the issue was not of Kejriwal's security alone. Had it been a bomb or acid attack, the incident would have been ghastly. He questioned, "Where is their (police) high alert? Delhi Police seems not to care for an event where thousands had gathered. There was no checking and police was not concerned about public security." He wondered how the woman was talking to reporters even after committing the act. "We are against VIP security but the Chief Minister, his entire Cabinet and thousands were present there. How could she stay free for that long?" Sisodia, who was not present at the event, asked. "Centre should own responsibility and take action because such incidents have happened in the past as well. People who are staging these incidents, hatching conspiracies from behind the scene, should be controlled", he added. Transport Minister Gopal Rai termed the incident "shameful", while Water Resource Minister Kapil Mishra said that people of Delhi will "punish" BJP. Both were seated on the dais at the time of the incident. AAP in its official statement also said that the Delhi Police is under suspicion for security breach, MHA should probe connivance of Delhi Police officials. At a time when the Delhi Police claimed to be on a high alert after fidayeen attack in Pathankot, it is unimaginable that in this state of alertness, an ordinary woman easily breached the security cordon of the police and attacked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the statement said. Delhi Police clarifies A statement issued by the Delhi Police said that the allegations levelled against the force are misconceived and unfounded. Appropriate law and order arrangements were made for Chhatrasal Stadium function by Delhi Police as per the practice for the CM's functions. In fact, enhanced police deployment was made for law and order maintenance in view of the large crowd expected to attend the function. The deployment includes one company of armed police and police personnel from local police . As far as personal security of the CM is concerned, adequate cover provided by Delhi Police which includes Escort, Pilot and PSOs. A team of security unit performed anti-sabotage check before the function and the team was covering the CM at the time of incident, the statement said. In the view of the apprehensions expressed by the Deputy CM of the possibility of some conspiracy behind the incident, it is stated that all aspects shall be looked into by the Delhi Police during investigation, the statement said. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 18 Impressed by recent steps taken by the Haryana Government, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has decided to consider a soft loan of over Rs 1,000 crore for Haryana Investment Promotion Programme. This was disclosed by Hideaki Domichi, senior vice-president of JICA, while interacting with a delegation, led by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, in Tokyo today. Domichi said the introduction of a Japanese Call Centre, no enhancement policy and plugging of all the breaches in the boundary wall of Manesar were steps that made it very clear that Haryana had changed under the leadership of Khattar. Khattar sought the assistance of JICA in giving a boost to dairy development in the state and building of Gurgaon-Manesar-Bawal Mass Rapid Transport System for which JICA had committed long-term funding of US $ 2.5 billion. MoU signed The Haryana Government and Mizuho Bank Limited signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Tokyo to promote industrial and infrastructure development, generate employment opportunities and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the state. The MoU was signed by Tatsufumi Sakai, Managing Executive Officer of the bank, and Sudhir Rajpal, Managing Director of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, in the presence of the Chief Minister. Industries Minister Capt Abhimanyu (retd) and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kavita Jain were also present on the occasion. Delegation welcomed The official delegation, led by the Chief Minister, received a rousing welcome at the Soka Gakkai headquarters in Tokyo with hundreds of Soka Gakkai officials and volunteers welcoming the delegation. During his meeting, he interacted with some senior officials of Soka Gakkai It was decided that Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Soka University, Tokyo, Japan will sign a memorandum of understanding for fostering a common goal for pursuing value-based education by exchange of research, scholars and students in the coming years. Lalit Mohan Tribune News Service Dharamsala, January 17 Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today laid the foundation stone of the Dharamsala-McLoedganj ropeway. The project will involve an investment of Rs 120 crore. It will include construction of 2.2-km ropeway having 34 gondolas from Dharamsala to McLeodganj. The gondolas will reach McLeodganj from Dharamsala in seven minutes. The ropeway project will also be a permanent solution to the traffic problems of McLeodganj. During the peak tourist season, McLeodganj and its adjoining tourist destinations, such as Bhagsunag and Dharamkot, are choked with traffic. Hotel owners in the said destinations have left no parking spaces. The constructions of these hotels are in violation of the town and country planning rules. Besides, many shopkeepers have encroached on the single-lane roads in the area. The authorities are not acting against the encroachers. In such a scenario, if the ropeway is constructed and vehicles are not allowed to move up to McLeodganj, it will decongest the tourist place and restore its beauty. The state government has planned to construct a parking facility for vehicles along with the ropeway take-off point, the minister said. The state government had also planned two other ropeways in Kangra district. One of these from Dharamkot to Triund was planned in 1991 the foundation stone for which was laid by the then Chief Minister Shanta Kumar. The project has been lingering since then as no investor has come forward to invest in the project. The present state government had also announced a ropeway from Chamunda to Himani Chamunda temple. This was meant to develop Himani Chamunda temple that is located at a height of about 12,000 feet from the sea level as a religious tourist destination.The work on the ropeway was to start in June 2015. The state government had allotted the work to M/S TRIL, Urban Transport Private Ltd. As per the work agreement, the ropeway was to be completed in two years. However, the projectcould not be started. Though the foundation stone was laid today, sources said the main bottleneck for the project was yet to be cleared. The sanction from the Union Ministry for Forest and Environment for the project is yet to be obtained. The ropeway has to go through the reserve forest land and the permission for it has come from the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests. Amarjot Kaur So, after the cows, its the snakes, birds, and bulls making news this week! Well, the bee has only been a little sparing of its animal instinct. To begin with, photographs of Bihar Education and IT Minister, Ashok Kumar Choudhary, holding snakes during an alleged superstitious ritual have gone viral on the Internet. The recently appointed minister is seen holding a snake, wrapping it on his hands and smiling at the photographer, while another photo shows state Congress vice-president Subodh Kumar with the snake around his neck. Though the minister has denied the report, he argued that the pictures that are circulating online are old ones and that he is against superstition. Meanwhile, an organisation called Prayas in Surat is creating awareness about healing birds injured by the kites that people fly for pleasure. Thoughtlessly used glass-coated strings are the major cause of injury to birds. Also, the Internet and social media websites are blazing with peoples comments and reactions to the Tamil government wanting to legalise the bull-torturing tradition, jallikattu. The bee does a *facepalm* as a reaction to the present governments hypocritical standards when it comes to cows and bulls. Face the book So from India, the bee moves straight to Australia! An Australia Day party planned for St Kilda beach has been shut down after tens of thousands of people indicated on Facebook they might attend, attracting the attention of police. Titled Triple J Hottest 100 Party 2016 at St Kilda Beach, it invited people to bring a buddy, bring your beers ... this is an open event, spread the word and bring the gang!. More than 6,000 people said they would attend the event, while a further 20,000 said they were interested in going. However, Victoria Police became the fun police on Friday and posted a message to organisers informing them they were planning to pay them a visit on the day. Party on! Says the bee! On the other side, however, Connecticut moms powerful Facebook post to her sons bullies has gone viral. Also, The Indianapolis Star reported on a Target cashier in Glendale, Indiana, whose tenderness with an elderly customer touched thousands of people on Facebook, quickly going viral and a mothers post, which is a heartfelt note to the airline Jetstar for the understanding and care shown by its staff after her autistic son became too frightened to fly, has also warmed a few hearts. So much warmth for a cold January, isnt it? Tube tales Heres a video thats done every Indian proud, and quite fashionably so. A day in the life of designer Suket Dhir, who has just won an international fashion prize; Dhirs brand Suketdhir won the International Woolmark Prize at the Pitti Uomo in Florence, beating out over 70 competitors. So, did you ever expect to hear the words I am the love charger coming out of the mouth of TimesNow editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami? Thats what happened on Thursday night, when Goswami decided to dedicate his nightly longer-than-an-hour Newshour show to the subject of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan and the arrest of comedian Kiku Sharda who had the gall to make fun of the religious leader. Also, the video thats been making waves is Afridi being bailed out by a fan after not being able to pay for his burger. Shahid Afridi and Ahmed Shehzad were buying fast-food from McDonalds at Auckland airport when they realised they had no money. Now if you think thats the heights, its time to say, Oh! God! Not again! Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh cant seem to get away from imitation games. A few years ago, the religious leader got into trouble for dressing up like Guru Gobind Singh, and last week, a comedian was arrested for imitating Ram Rahim. Now hes allegedly managed to offend sensibilities yet again, by allegedly dressing up as lord Vishnu in one of his many videos. Several news organisations have reported that a Hindu organisation, variously referred to as the Hindu Student Federation and the All-India Hindu Federation, has filed a complaint against Ram Rahim for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. Security footage recorded early this year in a home in northern India shows an elderly woman being violently beaten by her daughter-in-law, Sangeeta Jain. The video now has almost six millions of views on Facebook and YouTube. amarjot@tribunemail.com A meeting of Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation (FICO) was held under the chairmanship of Gurmeet Singh Kular, president, Federation of Industrial and Commercial Organisation (FICO) with Michael Lin, director, Taiwan World Trade Centre (TWTC) to discuss the 2016 Taiwan tradeshows to be held at Chandigarh. FICO has welcomed the proposal of Michael Lin and said that during tradeshows TWTC will give four-day stay at Taiwan, pickup and drop facility from airport and exhibition ground. Gurmeet Singh Kular also agreed to take a business delegation of 20 members to visit Taipie International Cycle Show from March 2 to 5 March. Branch opened Sethi Study Circle opened a new branch in Mullanpur. Dignitaries from schools and sarpanches from various villages graced the occasion. The management and staff accorded a warm welcome to the guests. TNS Dhaka, January 18 Bangladesh has started the process to extradite to India Daud Merchant, a detained top aide of fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said today. "We are sending several foreign inmates back to their countries on completion of their prison terms...Daud Merchant is one of them," Kamal told a news briefing at his office. Merchant, also known as Abdur Rauf, was convicted of killing music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997. He was handed down life imprisonment for the murder. He said the Home Ministry was in touch with the embassies or high commissions concerned to convey "our decision" and asked them to take required steps on their part for the repatriations. The Bangladesh police in May 2009 arrested Merchant from central Brahmanbaria district on a tip-off after he fled India while he was on parole to visit his family in Mumbai. He was later convicted for intruding and illegally staying in Bangladesh and was released in December 2014. Soon after his release, he was re-arrested after police had said he was needed to be interrogated to find out his possible links to Islamist militants. The minister's comments came amid media reports that India would hand over Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, who is now in Indian custody after his mysterious disappearance last year. Kamal, however, declined to link the proposed extradition with Ahmed's repatriation saying "it is not like an exchange programme". Merchant, a sharpshooter, was arrested by Kolkata police in 2001 but he went into hiding while on parole for 15 days and fled to Bangladesh. Bangladesh police earlier said he also managed to obtain a passport identifying himself as Sheikh Abdur Rahman of South Mourail area of Brahmanbaria district. PTI Aparna Banerji Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 17 Twentytwo to 24 youths from Punjab bound for the United States may have drowned, their families back home are apprehending, in a boat capsize near Panama. The youths, it is believed, were being transported for an illegal entry by a travel agent. AAP leader Sukhpal Khaira flagged the issue at a press conference today, while asking the Centre and Punjab government to get the matter probed, as well as confirm the whereabouts of the youths. The Kapurthala police, meanwhile, have booked travel agent Kulwinder Singh Multani for fraud. He is absconding, though SSP Rajinder Singh said efforts were on to trace him. An inconsolable Bachan Singh from Jaid village said his 21-year-old son Gurvinder Singh was among those feared dead. We got to know about the incident on January 12-13. On January 15, I went to the house of Sonu, from Luroi village under Begowal police station, who survived the capsize and called up his family. His wife told me that my son and Gurjit Singh from Tandi Aulakh village were among the 22 to 24 youths who drowned. Bachan Singh accused Multani of luring him into sending his son to the US. A deal was fixed at Rs 25 lakh, of which I have already paid Rs 10 lakh. Gurvinder left on October 15 and last spoke to us on January 10. We were assured by Multani that the youths would be taken to the US through the land route. They were kept in Maldives for several days and then taken to Brazil from Delhi. On January 10, Gurvinder told me he was starting from Turbo in Columbia towards the US and asked us not to call him for eight to 10 days. When I confronted the agent, he asked me that only the destination mattered," Bachan Singh claimed. Bachan had sold off his land and borrowed money from his relatives to send Gurvinder abroad. A close aide of the Deputy Chief Minister-cum Home Minister, said he was not aware about the tragedy. There was no statement from the government regarding any efforts being made to get in touch with the Centre to inquire about the incident. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, January 18 The state police suspect that the firing incident at a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) Shakha in Ludhiana today was to cause scare among particular community like the last years incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib. The police believe since only one gunshot was reportedly fired, there was no motive to kill. Officials are wondering why the alleged attacker did not fire more. Initially, it was said that two fires were shot, but police officials insist only one fire was shot. Working on several theories, the police officials are suspecting that the firing incident could be linked to the ongoing extradition process of wanted terrorist Parmjit Singh Pamma from Portugal. He is wanted for the murder of Rulda Singh, a leader of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, a sister organisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. At least five persons, some of whom linked with the 2007 Shingar Cinema blast case, have been detained for questioning after the firing incident. A police official, however, disclosed that the questioning was routine as there was no direct evidence of their involvement in the crime. The second theory is that the incident could be planned by some persons to bring either the RSS into limelight or for personal motive. In the past, similar stray firing incidents have been reported from various parts of the state. Officials said it would be premature to say whether the RSS unit was the target or some individual. Dr Manmohan Vaidya, in charge of the shakha, has tweeted that the news of attack on the shakha was wrong. He alleged that the attack was on him and he managed to abort it. BJP national Secretary Tarun Chugh has condemned the incident. Terming it as an attempt to disturb the hard-earned peace in the state, Chugh said the RSS, an organisation known for its patriotic character, had been targeted earlier also. Chugh said some separatist elements who had been trying to create a wedge between peace-loving communities could be behind the attack. The BJP leader urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to direct the police to identify and arrest the culprits at the earliest. Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, January 18 The Panama boat tragedy has brought back haunting memories for the families from Doaba who lost their kin in a manner akin to the Malta boat tragedy. As many as 283 youth went missing while on way to Italy through an illegal water channel 20 years ago. The kin of the victims and activists, who are pursuing the case, said that nothing had changed since then and they were still fighting for justice in a CBI court. The matter had been marked to the premier investigating agency by none other than former PM IK Gujral. Balwant Singh Khera, who had formed the Malta Boat Tragedy Mission, said, The progress of the case has been a great disappointment. Not even a chargesheet has been filed in the past 19 years against the 29 accused. The families have already lost hope and are now not even keeping a track of the case. I am in New Delhi for the case today to move an application to get the case expedited. The only reprieve so far is that three of the accused have been punished in Italy. The Italian government has also passed a budget for setting up a memorial wherein the debris of the sunken ship Yiohan was recovered from the Mediterranean, he added. His close aide, Om Singh Sathiana, too mentioned, The affected families have just got a compensation of Rs 50,000 and too after Khera relentlessly raised the issue at different fora. The Punjab Police has failed to curb illegal immigration by not making stringent laws against the travel agents and were allowing them to go scot free, said Ram Singh Insaaf, who had then spearheaded the campaign for the victims. Many of the victims were from Kala Sanghian, Chitti and Bidhipur villages. A film based on the incident too has been screened. As days stretched to years, the families just gave up, he recalled. Narain Singh Chitti of Chitti village, who lost his only son in the tragedy, said that it was unfortunate that a similar incident had occurred after 19 years. It is sad tale of affairs that the travel agents continue to play with the lives of innocent youth of and the Punjab Police is apathetic, he said. Jalandhar/Chandigarh, January 18 The Punjab government today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister to immediately dispatch a team to the US to offer necessary assistance to the victims of a boat capsize in Panama in which 25 youths from the state are feared drowned, even as the Kapurthala police arrested two travel agents who reportedly sent these youths to the US. The travel agents have been identified as Kulwinder Singh Multani and Harbhajan Singh. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today had a telephonic conversation with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who assured that the government would reach out to the victims immediately," an official spokesperson said here. Sukhbir said the Punjab government is also sending a team of senior officials to the US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy. Meanwhile, referring to the reports that 25 youths from Punjab were feared dead as the boat in which they were travelling capsized near Panama, Sukhbir said it is "alarming". The youths were reportedly headed to the US illegally in a boat when it capsized. The incident happened on January 10 and the parents of the youths got to know about it on January 12-13, he said. He said the incident took place at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama. The Kapurthala Police have registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Immigration Act against the travel agents. Interrogation would be conducted to ascertain how many youths were on the boat. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed grief over the boat tragedy. He said the state government was at the beck and call of the distressed families in the hour of crisis. "I am deeply anguished to learn about the ill-fated boat tragedy, which claimed the lives of our sons of soil and pray to Almighty for giving courage and solace to the bereaved families to bear this inconsolable loss," he said. He also asked the Chief Secretary to provide the latest information with regard to this tragic incident to their family members. As per the directions of Badal, the Chief Secretary had set up a 24X7 Control Room here at Punjab Civil Secretariat to keep the families of victims updated about the latest information available with them. Any kin of the victims of the unfortunate boat tragedy could seek information from the officials on duty in the control room, he said. The CM assured that he was in constant touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and has directed the Chief Secretary to keep a close tab over the situation through maintaining liaison with the ministry, so as to keep him updated on this count from time to time. TNS/PTI Kandahar, January 18 The Taliban have demanded a hefty new protection tax from Afghan mobile phone companies, industry and militant sources said, as the resurgent group tightens its stranglehold on a rare successful business in a slumping war economy. At a secret meeting last month near the Pakistani city of Quetta, the Talibans central leadership formally demanded the tax from representatives of four cellular companies in exchange for not damaging their sites or harming their employees. The edict was motivated by an Afghan government announcement in October that it had amassed a windfall of 78 million Afghani within days of imposing an additional 10 per cent tax on operators, according to two telecom company officials who attended the meeting and a third industry executive privy to the information. They want us to pay the same amount paid to the government, one of the officials who was at the gathering said. We told them that this will kill our business, but they said: This is the only way to guarantee your people are not harmed and your sites are not burned, he said. A source in the Quetta Shura the Talibans Pakistan-based leadership council confirmed the meeting, saying the group was waiting for a formal response from the companies. We told them: It is our right to tax you if you want us to protect your (transmission) towers around Afghanistan, he said. You will have to pay. The Islamists have long targeted Afghanistans private telecom firms, kidnapping engineers, destroying transmission masts and forcing regular coverage blackouts in volatile areas to avoid detection of their fighters. Local-level Taliban commanders have been known to extort from businesses operating in their areas. AFP Ouagadougou, January 18 Burkina Faso has begun three days of national mourning and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster, Burkina 24, that security forces would be stepping up their efforts to thwart future attacks and asked people to comply with the new restrictions. "These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation," said Kabore. The national mourning began yesterday, a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. When the gunfire and explosions finally stopped, authorities said 18 were killed in the hotel and 10 were killed at the nearby Cappuccino Cafe. Among the victims was a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the cafe with her Italian husband, Gaetano Santomenna, according to Ukrainian officials. Although Santomenna was not at the cafe and survived the attack, the couple's son, Michel Santomenna, 9, was killed, according to the Italian foreign ministry. Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, called the child's death "a horrendous crime," in a tweet which also expressed sympathy with the boy's father. The toll also includes six Canadians, according to Canadian officials. Others killed include seven citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the US, the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. The American Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Florida had been working as a missionary in Burkina Faso since 2011, where he and his wife ran an orphanage that also provided shelter to abused women and widows. He is survived by his four children, two of whom were adopted from Burkina Faso. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Ned Price said Riddering "had devoted his life to working with the Burkinabe people" in a statement strongly condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and mourning those killed "in these senseless acts of violence." AP Beijing: Expressing concern over a planned visit by a former American official to Taiwan for talks with the new government on the island, China on Monday asked the US to be cautious on the Taiwan issue and not medddle in China's internal affairs. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press briefing that China has already expressed concern over the planned Taiwan visit by US former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who is to meet with senior officials of Taiwan. PTI Airstrike hits police facility in Yemen; 26 killed Sanaa: An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killing at least 26 people and wounding about 15, Security officials said. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. AP Record $10.5 million drug bust in Bangladesh Dhaka: Bangladesh has seized 2.8 million methamphetamine tablets worth an estimated $10.5 million in the country's biggest ever seizure of the drug, as it struggles to stem its surging popularity. Police confiscated the drugs in night-long raids on Sunday at a railway station in Dhaka and at an anchorage in the port city of Chittagong.. Yaba, a Thai word for "crazy medicine", is made of methamphetamine and caffeine and has become a popular drug among youngsters. AFP Hubble views a galactic mega-merger: NASA Washington: The Hubble Space Telescope has viewed a galactic mega-merger, a product of a collision between two good-sized galaxies, which is slowly evolving to become a giant elliptical galaxy, according to NASA. This type of galaxy has grown more and more common as the universe has evolved, with initially small galaxies merging and progressively building up into larger galactic structures over time, researchers said. PTI Male, January 18 Jailed Maldivian opposition leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed left the country today for urgent medical treatment in Britain after a delay caused by a legal dispute with the government, his party said. Nasheed was originally due to leave on Sunday in line with a deal brokered by diplomats from neighbouring India and Sri Lanka as well as former colonial power Britain. But the former leader refused a government request to leave a relative behind to act as a guarantor liable to prosecution if he failed to return to serve the rest of his 13-year sentence, leading to a tense back and forth over conditions. One of his international lawyers, Jared Genser, said Nasheed had spoken with the US Secretary of State by telephone at Male international airport shortly before he boarded a Sri Lankan airlines flight to Colombo before transiting to Britain. "Nasheed on a call with US Secretary of State John Kerry," Genser said in a tweet containing a photo of Nasheed. It was not clear what they discussed, but Kerry had previously criticised the administration of strongman President Abdulla Yameen during a visit to neighbouring Sri Lanka last year. Kerry described democracy as "under threat in the Maldives" at the time, saying Nasheed was imprisoned without due process. Nasheed was convicted on terrorism charges in 2015 relating to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012, when he was still in power. Lawyers for Nasheed have hit out at the government for delaying treatment on his spinal cord, but his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has agreed to an amended condition of providing a relative to communicate Nasheed's whereabouts while abroad. "President Nasheed told members of his family that he wasn't prepared to put their freedom in jeopardy in order to secure his own," the MDP said in a statement. The Maldivian government in a statement insisted that all legal formalities had been followed before Nasheed was allowed to leave. AFP Islamabad, January 18 Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif along with powerful Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday left for Riyadh on the first leg of a regional trip to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and arch rival Iran. Sharifs visit comes at a time when relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been fraught since Riyadh executed a prominent Shia cleric earlier this month following which Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate prompting the Saudis to sever ties. Iran then snapped all commercial ties with Saudi Arabia and stopped pilgrims from travelling to Mecca. The Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement that Sharif is leading a high-level delegation during the trip to exchange views on regional and international issues. Officials said that he is accompanied by Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, National Security Adviser Nasir Janjua, and special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi among others. After meeting Saudi King Salman today, Premier Sharif will travel to Tehran tomorrow and meet President Hassan Rouhani. Pakistan enjoys cordial and brotherly relations with both countries, which are characterised by strong bonds of affinity, mutual respect and solidarity, and draw strength from shared historical, cultural and Islamic values, FO said. The Foreign Office said Pakistan is deeply concerned at the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Prime Minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity, particularly during these challenging times, it said. Pakistan has close ties with Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia but last year resisted calls by the Saudis to join a war in Yemen against the Houthi rebels allegedly supported by Shia-dominated Iran. Pakistan is also not willing to contribute troops for the 34-nation Saudi military alliance to fight terrorism. Radio Pakistan reported that leading politicians and analysts have welcomed the prime ministers visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran, terming it as a timely move to ease tensions between the two Muslim countries. PTI LONDON Women and girl migrants coming into Europe face violence and sexual harassment at every stage of their journey, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report released Monday by the human rights group was based on interviews with 40 women and girls in Germany and Norway last month who had traveled from Turkey to Greece and across the Balkans. Women and girls traveling alone or accompanied only by children said they felt particularly threatened in Hungary, Croatia and Greece, where they were forced to sleep alongside hundreds of male refugees. Those interviewed included female from Iraq and Syria. The vast majority of the migrants streaming into Europe are men, which leaves women particularly vulnerable, aid workers say. Women at camps reported having to use the same bathroom and shower facilities as men, and some said they did not eat or drink to avoid going to the toilet. The report did not separate out incidents of sexual harassment from general violence. One 22-year-old Iraqi woman told Amnesty International that a uniformed security guard in Germany offered her clothing in exchange for spending time alone with him. Some aid workers say violence is harder to prevent because of an ad hoc system for receiving and registering refugees. One of the challenges we have been facing is that it is taking a long time for the international community, and by that I mean governments, to wake up to this crisis ... it is not something that they can wish away, Jenny Becker, protection coordinator with the International Rescue Committee in Greece told The Associated Press. Suspicion over federal plans to restore endangered Mexican gray wolves in the Southwest has spread to Colorado and Utah, where ranchers and officials are fiercely resisting any attempt to import the predators. About 110 Mexican gray wolves a smaller subspecies of the gray wolf now roam a portion of Arizona and New Mexico, nearly two decades after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released 11 wolves there to restart a population that had nearly vanished. The agency hopes to complete a comprehensive recovery plan for the Mexican wolf in 2017, and officials say theyve made no decision about releasing them in Colorado or Utah. But neither state is waiting. Their governors joined Arizona and New Mexicos executives in November to accuse the Fish and Wildlife Service of using flawed science and biased experts. They demanded no Mexican wolves be released outside the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico. Wildlife commissioners in Utah and Colorado also spoke out against releasing Mexican wolves in their states the Utah Wildlife Board in December and the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission last Wednesday. The Fish and Wildlife Service defended the experts and the process.Mexican wolves have been contentious in Arizona and New Mexico for years. New Mexico officials are resisting proposals to release more wolves. Arizona state lawmakers tried but failed to allow ranchers to kill federally protected wolves in self-defense. Environmental groups, meanwhile, are pushing for the release of more captive-bred wolves to bolster the population in those states. In Colorado and Utah, opponents argue that wolves would inflict costly and cruel losses on cattle and sheep and decimate big game herds that support the lucrative hunting industry. They also say Mexican wolves arent native to their states, and bringing them in could taint the gene pool if they bred with gray wolves roaming down from the northern Rockies. We dont need to introduce another large predatory carnivore to the state, Colorado Wool Growers Association director Bonnie Brown told the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission last week. Mountain lions are already killing pets in urban areas bordering open country. Wolf advocates say the fears are overblown, and that Mexican wolves need more ranges to avoid extinction. Parts of Colorado and Utah would be ideal for wolves, said Jonathan Proctor of Defenders of Wildlife, and he argued that both states are within the wolves historical range. The West needs wolves to help restore balance to the environment, he said. Its we humans who have eradicated all the wolves from the West, Proctor said. Its our responsibility to bring this animal back. Wolves have long been deeply divisive subject in the region. They were hunted, trapped or driven out of many areas by the end of the last century and were regarded as a menace to largely defenseless sheep and cattle. But they also became a symbol for the environmental movement, a noble if fearsome avatar of the wild. To support their arguments, both sides point to the northern Rockies, where the Fish and Wildlife Service estimates about 1,800 gray wolves live in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Wolves began killing hundreds of sheep and cattle after their release in the northern Rockies about 20 years ago, and big game populations fell drastically in some areas, officials said. But they say cattle deaths are declining and game herds are rebounding since wolves were removed from Endangered Species Act protection in Idaho and Montana in 2011. The Fish and Wildlife Service then turned over wolf management to the states, which allow some hunting and sometimes remove or kill problem wolves. We know the wolf population is doing fine and continues to expand, said Mike Jimenez, northern Rockies wolf coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service. We use lethal control on wolves that are causing big problems. Overall agricultural losses are low, but to an individual rancher, they can be devastating, he said. In Idaho, elk numbers have begun to rebound since the state began managing wolves, state Fish and Game spokesman Mike Keckler said. And we still have a very sustainable wolf population in our state, he said. So we feel like were making progress in bringing balance. Wolves were briefly removed from federal protection in Wyoming, but safeguards were restored after environmental groups filed lawsuits challenging state management plans. The state is appealing the decision. Legal wrangling is part of what makes wolves so aggravating, said Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. We have learned to live with them, he said of the estimated 330 wolves in Wyoming. We have not learned to live with the never-ending process. ___ Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/dan-elliott. Our picks lean toward companies that gather most of their sales in the United States. Acadia Healthcare: (symbol ACHC; recent price, $63). Acadia Healthcare runs the largest network of private treatment centers for mental health and addiction problems, with 256 locations in the U.S. and the U.K. With more people gaining access to insurance and revenues climbing as the firm expands, Acadias profits are expected to jump 24 percent in 2016. Although Acadia, at 24 times estimated earnings, is hardly cheap, the shares dont reflect the firms growth potential, says BMO Capital Markets, which has a 12-month price target on the stock of $92. Dollar Tree: (DLTR, $77). After buying Family Dollar in 2015, Dollar Tree runs 13,900 stores that will generate more than $20 billion in sales over the next year. Although investors seem to doubt the deals merits, Dollar Tree should be able to boost profits at the old Family Dollar stores and lift the combined firms earnings more than expected, says Stacie Cowell, co-manager of the Rainier Mid Cap Equity Fund. She sees the stock topping $90 within the next two years. Southwest Airlines: (LUV, $43). Southwest is flying high these days. Low jet-fuel prices are boosting profit margins, and the carrier is seeing strong demand for its seats. Southwest should fare well as it launches overseas service to Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean. Even with big gains in the stock over the past year, it has a lot of runway left, says analyst Helane Becker of investment bank Cowen and Co. Ulta: (ULTA, $187). Some retailers sell cosmetics; others run beauty salons. Combining both businesses in its 817 stores, Ulta is thriving. Sales have been rising at a 22-percent annual pace as the company has opened about 100 stores a year, aiming for more than 1,200 in North America. The shares arent cheap, at 31 times estimated earnings for the fiscal year that ends in January 2017. But Ulta has never traded in the bargain bin, and it offers one of the highest growth rates of any major retailer. Analysts forecast that earnings will jump 19 percent in the 2017 fiscal year. Under Armour: (UA, $81). By 2018, the company aims to more than double annual sales, to $7.5 billion, as it opens more Under Armour stores, expands abroad and develops high-tech fitness gear. The stock, at 60 times estimated 2016 earnings, looks off-the-charts expensive, but its worth the price, says Michael Cuggino, manager of Permanent Portfolio Aggressive Growth Fund. Under Armour is a similar story to Facebook, he says, except that its in the apparel business. Four new shareholders have been named at the GableGotwals Law Firm. They include Sara Barry, Brandon Bickle and Philip Hixon in the Tulsa office and Leo Portman in the firms Oklahoma City office. Barry counsels clients on corporate formations and reorganizations, contract review, mergers and acquisitions, real estate transactions and estate planning. Her areas of focus include corporate and business organizations, commercial law, mergers and acquisitions, securities and corporate finance, trusts and estates, employee benefits and real estate. Barry was named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in 2008. Bickle regularly advises clients on a variety of business matters, including contract and loan disputes, construction disputes, collections, loan workouts and bankruptcy matters. His practice is focused broadly in the area of general commercial litigation, with an emphasis on collections, foreclosures and bankruptcy. Bickle has been named a Rising Star by Super Lawyers in the areas of business litigation and bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights. Hixon represents the interests of clients in a variety of legal matters including construction, environment, insurance, health care, general litigation and appellant review of the same. Philip is an AV Preeminent attorney with Martindale-Hubbell and a Super Lawyers Rising Star. He currently serves as co-chair of the health law section for the Tulsa County Bar Association. Portman, an Oklahoma City attorney, brings more than 30 years experience to GableGotwals in the areas of title examination and oil and gas law. He also practices in the areas of corporate liquidation, wealth management for families and businesses, and with business management and asset transactions. Portman is well known in the legal and civic communities for his leadership in a variety of private and nonprofit organizations. While the Okmulgee police chief confirmed just after 10 p.m. Friday that the remains were those of four men, he could not confirm that they were the bodies of the four local men who had been missing since Sunday. 1998 Church bells, services mark Tulsa Centennial A yearlong celebration marking Tulsas 100th year ended with church bells and chimes all over the city. Families stopped on the church steps. Cars pulled over and drivers rolled down the windows to hear the celebration. The congregation of the First Presbyterian Church crossed the street to dedicate the churchs new 70,000-square-foot community life center. Bishop Edward J. Slattery celebrated a special noon Mass at Holy Family Cathedral to mark the centennial. One hundred children at Bnai Emunah, established in 1909, wrote special prayers to mark the centennial. 2010 Martin Luther King Parade draws 10,000 The Martin Luther King Parade drew about 10,000 people and many youngsters, who crowded the parade route. Jackie Terry, the event coordinator for the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Society Inc., said the theme for this year was Dream it. Plan it. Do it. Yes we can! Gerard Clancy, then president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, and the Rev. Weldon Tisdale, Friendship Baptist Church and community leader, were grand marshals. Terry said she was disturbed because some fights broke out before the parade start. Two were arrested. It was a beautiful day, and Im just so disappointed we have some in the north Tulsa community who have never been taught about Dr. King, Terry said. 2014 Tulsa philanthropist Henry Zarrow dies Tulsa oilman and philanthropist Henry Zarrow died at age 97. Zarrow made a fortune at the helm of his Tulsa-based oil and gas supply firm, Sooner Pipe & Supply Co., which he founded at age 22 and ran with his father, Sam, and his brother, Jack. His major causes included the homeless, the arts, public education, Jewish education, poverty, libraries and medicine. The landscape of Tulsa is filled with testaments to his giving spirit. He was on the ground floor of practically every worthy project in the community for decades. For all of his big acts of charity, one of the most endearing stories about Zarrow concerned his many small acts of generosity. Zarrow and his wife, Anne, have their names are on numerous buildings and charities in the state. 2015 Joint med school at TU and OU-Tulsa announced The joint medical school planned between the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and the University of Tulsa will not be a separately accredited school, but a four-year community medicine track within the OU College of Medicine that will be taught entirely in Tulsa. Dr. John Schumann, president of OU-Tulsa, said the end result will be the same: four years of education and training in Tulsa that will culminate in a medical degree. The original plan for a separate college of medicine involved many steps for accreditation. Students will attend classes at the OU-Tulsa campus and the University of Tulsa. The original plan called for the joint medical school to be housed at a building in downtown Tulsa. That plan was scrapped in February 2013 .Joe Worley 918-581-8373 On the third Monday of each January, America celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Holidays and celebrations come and go. Many become so routine that we fail to remember why we celebrate. That must never happen to King. His contribution to not only the country but to millions of followers still resonates 48 years after his assassination on a Memphis hotel balcony in 1968. He was only 39 years old. It is an often-heard question: What would have happened if King had lived? Its a question, of course, that cannot be answered. But this day celebrates not what could have happened, but what King did accomplish. Racism was no secret before King came along. He shined a bright light on the darkness of racism and made an entire country realize that ignoring the problem was no longer an option. From Birmingham, Alabama, where firefighters turned powerful water hoses and released dogs on schoolchildren, to Mississippi where black and white civil rights workers were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan, to the churches and streets of cities in the North where racism also thrived, the spirit of Kings movement prevailed. King was not a perfect man. He had flaws. But he held together the civil rights movement through faith, charisma and strength. His goals transcended color. He might be best remembered for his struggle to guarantee rights for African-Americans, but he also championed the cause of equal job and education opportunities for all Americans. His work led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, two of the most significant steps toward equality since the 14th Amendment. Kings 1963 I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial continues to resonate and stands as one of the great speeches in U.S. history because it speaks eloquently the nations greatest values. While they may be aspirations rather than realities at times, they are no less fundamental to what it means to be American, the reason our nation is truly different. Martin Luther King Jr. took us to the mountaintop, but could not follow us to the promised land. His dream, however, lives. It remains to all of us to keep it alive. This country's cyclists will come up against the region next month when T&T hosts the Ca ABC has appointed producer Mandy Chang to the role of Head of Arts, ABC TV. Chang, who replaces Kath Earle, joined the ABC three years ago overseeing the creation of arts programs including Autopsy on a Dream: The Story of the Sydney Opera House, Hannah Gadsbys Oz, The Art of Australia, Art and Soul II, Getting Frank Gehry, Comic Book Heroes, The Cambodian Space Project, Cast from the Storm, The Divorce and Matilda and Me. Most recently she worked on the creation of the ABC iview Arts channel and development of David Strattons Story of Australian Cinema, due to premiere in 2016. Prior to her role at the ABC, she built a standing as a multi-award-winning producer/director and writer with work, covering a wide range of factual genres for international broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, PBS and Sky Atlantic. Her feature length documentary The Mona Lisa Curse for the UKs Channel 4 won the Rose dOr, Banff World Media Festival Grand Jury Prize, Grierson and Emmy Awards. ABC Director of Television Richard Finlayson said: The ABC has a steadfast ambition to become the home of Arts in Australia. Mandys appointment to this role is a clear signal that we intend to commission and produce world-class content across all our platforms and bring the best of the arts to a wide Australian audience. Our Arts team has produced some of ABC TVs best work over the past few years and we are fortunate to have great depth throughout the group. Id particularly like to thank Kath Earle for her outstanding leadership during the past year, particularly her work bringing our innovative iview Arts channel to life. Mandy Chang said: Having done what I feel is a rigorous three-year apprenticeship, Im both excited and honoured to be taking on the Head of Arts role. We have accomplished much within ABC Arts over the past few years, delivering innovative, high-quality Arts content for audiences, across all of our platforms. I look forward to leading the Arts team as we continue to find ambitious and exciting ways to celebrate and share the artistic achievements and dynamic cultural life of this country. She commences her new role this week. TEN is yet to make a decision on brand-funded programme, The Bolt Report. The show, hosted by News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt has been on air since 2011. Yesterday News-owned publication The Australian suggested TEN no longer wanted the show, which Bolt later denied via the Herald-Sun. This is not true, he wrote. The issue is that my show is produced by News Corp, and several options are being considered which I cant discuss and which I am thinking about. If anything, they involve doing more TV, not less. A TEN spokesperson told TV Tonight, At this stage, a decision on a 2016 season of The Bolt Report has not been made, either way. The Sunday morning programme is funded by News Corporation meaning it would likely return if News agreed to buy the airtime. Nines Financial Review Sunday, similarly funded by Fairfax, ended last March cited as being commercially unviable. Andrew Bolt, recently voted second Worst Male in the TVT Awards, has also been filming a documentary for ABC with the working title I Can Change Your Mind About Recognition. The general public have until 1 February to apply for tickets for UEFA EURO 2016 as a portal for individual matches opened as the window for national teams closed. Swiftly after the EURO draw in Paris last month, 800,000 tickets were made available for fans of the 24 competing associations to apply via portals dedicated to their team. Demand was huge, with 3.5 million tickets requested from 189 territories before midday today for a tournament that will be played in ten cities in France for a month from 10 June. The three games in highest demand are: Germany-Poland (Saint-Denis, 16 June), Republic of Ireland-Sweden (Saint-Denis, 13 June) and Portugal-Austria (Paris, 18 June). The five teams whose fans submitted the most applications through their dedicated ticket portal are: Poland, France, Austria, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland. Fans not wanting to follow a specific team still have an opportunity to apply for tickets via a general public portal. Open until 1 February, it allows those who have not applied yet to submit an application for single tickets in categories 1 and 2 and accessibility seats. Applicants should take note of the following points: Applicants will be notified of the results of their application no later than 29 February. Applicants are requested to ensure that there are sufficient funds/credit limit on their credit card in the event of a successful application. As of 29 February latest, fans will be able to check their application status by logging into EURO2016.com. However, applications or personal details cannot be edited once an application phase has ended. For any companies or individuals looking for an exclusive UEFA EURO 2016 experience and an exceptional level of service for themselves and their guests, UEFA EURO 2016 offers a tailored hospitality programme in each of the ten host stadiums. Click here for details. Hi, my name is Scott C. Waring and I wrote a few books and am currently a ESL School Owner in Taiwan. I have had my own UFO sighting up close and personal, but that's how it works right? A non believer becomes a believer when they experience their first sighting. You witnessed it, your perceptual field changes, so now you need to share it. I created this site to help the UFO community get a little bit organized. I noticed that there was a lot of chaos when searching for UFO sighting reports, so I hope this site helps. I wanted to support those eyewitnesses who have tried to tell others about what they have seen, yet were laughed at by even closest of friends. More and more each day the governments of the world leak bits and pieces of UFO information to the public. They have a trickle down theory in hopes of slowly getting citizens use to the idea that we are not alone in universe and never have been. The truth is being leaked drop by drop until one day we look around and find ourselves neck high in it. The discovery of alien species in existence is the most monumental scientific event in human history, suppression of that information is a crime against humanity. About me: I live in Taiwan. I OWN MY OWN ENGLISH SCHOOL, AND ONCE HAD 5 SCHOOLS. Am Former USAF at SAC base (flight line). Age: 42 Educ: BA in Elem ed. Masters in Counseling ed. I had two UFO sightings, (30+bus size orbs) in military and in 2012 personally saw the UFO over Taipei 101 building on New Years Day (and recored it). In the southern Kherson region during the snowstorm three adults died and two children were injured in a car collision on Sunday. The press service of the main directorate of emergencies agency of Ukraine in the Kherson region told Ukrinform on Monday. "On Sunday in the Bilozersky district at about 13.40 on the highway near the exit to the village of Sadove a passenger car VAZ 2106 collided with the MAN truck. As a result of the accident, two people were killed in the car. One person from the car died later in a hospital. And the two children aged approximately 12-13, who were also in the car, were hospitalized in a critical condition," the press service reports. The rescuers pulled out the dead and injured from the deformed car. As a note, it snowed and then the freezing rain fell on Sunday in the Kherson region. A driver working at the Consulate General of Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, has been in a car accident. Yevhen Ihnatovsky from Ukraine Consular Service Department for media liaison told Ukrinform. "I confirm that the incident took place. Currently the investigation into the accident is under way," he said. Ihnatovsky noted that he cannot provide any further information currently as an investigation continues. Several media have reported that the driver of the Consulate General in St. Petersburg hit a pedestrian in the downtown. A woman, 67, died of her injuries in a hospital. Police have opened a criminal case into the accident. The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has started to prepare the return of bodies of Ukrainians, killed in Burkina Faso. Secretary of the Foreign Ministrys Department of Consular Service Yevheniy Ihnatovsky said this to Radio Liberty. "Currently, we are working on the issue of repatriation of the bodies of Ukrainian citizens, killed in the terrorist attack, to their homeland. The organizational issues in contact with relatives of the victims and officials of Burkina Faso are being solved now," Ihnatovsky said. The Ukrainian family, three adults and a 9-year-old child, was among 29 people killed in an attack of jihadists on Splendid Hotel and several other tourist establishments in the capital city of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. ol The Ukrainian intelligence service has reported to representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission where Russian-backed militants deploy their arms prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, according to the main intelligence department of Ukraine Defense Ministry. Representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission were reported about the deployment of arms prohibited by the Minsk agreements in the districts of Staromykhailivka, Zayichenko, Yasynuvata, Dokuchayevsk and Ternivka, in particular, mortars, tanks, 100-mm antitank guns Rapira, self-propelled artillery and 122-mm multiple rocket launcher Grad, reads a report. Over the past twenty-four hours, the enemy forces were focused on raising the combat capability and maintaining the Russian occupational troops in readiness for immediate use. Preparations for holding of demonstrative tactical exercises of the third separate motorized infantry brigade on the training ground near Torez city are underway. The militants also focused their efforts on the logistic provision of subdivisions, the main intelligence department of Ukraine Defense Ministry added. iy The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline has nothing to do with economics, contradicts the European legislation and threatens the energy security of Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and other countries. Polish President Andrzej Duda said this at a joint briefing in Brussels with President of the European Council Donald Tusk, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "We have to ask a basic question: what is the purpose of this investment? The answer is the following, we [representatives of Poland] believe that it not only has a political ground, but also contradicts the European legislation, it undermines the EU energy solidarity and threatens not only the energy security of Poland, but also Ukraine, Slovakia and other countries, Duda said. According to him, this investment has nothing to do with economics as Russia has started to use already existing ways of supplying gas to Europe from Russia. The Polish president also stressed that Warsaw would do everything possible at a meeting of the Council of Europe to present and uphold the real arguments on this issue. Duda also expressed hope that the European solidarity would win over the interests of some interested sides. iy Ukraine may get visa-free regime with the EU until the end of 2016. Only the political procedure is left. President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite said this in an interview with Ukrainian ICTV channel on January 17. "Only the political procedure approval by the Council of the European Union has been left. I think Ukraine is most likely to be granted the EU visa-free regime during this year, late in 2016 or early in 2017," she said. According to her, Ukraine did a great job for two years to get prepared for liberalization. The Lithuanian President congratulated Ukraine on "a very positive report by the European Commission saying that 'Ukraine is ready'." ol Denmark supports the initiatives of Ukraine aimed at the de-occupation of the annexed Crimea. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Kristian Jensen said this in an exclusive commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels, responding to a question about the initiatives of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko for the establishment of a new international mechanism for the de-occupation of Crimea. "I clearly understand that Ukraine needs to find a solution on Crimea. The change of borders in Europe using tanks and guns is unacceptable... We support initiatives aimed at making Crimea an integral part of Ukraine again. And we do everything to support them," the Danish Minister said. As reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko put forward the initiative for a new international format of de-occupation of Crimea. One possible way is to start negotiations in what is known as the Geneva Plus format, which includes the United States and European Union representatives and other signatories of the Budapest Memorandum. ol A rapporteur of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Michel Nicoletti, on January 19-20 will come to Ukraine with an official visit, the PACE press service reports. This visit is a part of the global mission on establishing facts covering various European geographical districts, and is aimed at studying, in particular, the advanced experience of the fight against corruption, as well as the role of agencies on the fight against corruption among high-ranking official, reads a report. In Kyiv Nicoletti will hold meetings with speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian foreign minister and the chairman of the committee on the fight against corruption. In addition, meetings with Odesa Regional Administration Mikhail Saakashvili, the prosecutor general and representatives of the National Anticorruption Bureau are expected to be held. iy | By Patricia Fanning The Maryland Department of Commerce has a new slate of advisors supporting its activities to grow the biotechnology and health technology industry sectors in the state. Sixteen leaders from key federal, academic and industry organizations have been appointed by Governor Larry Hogan to the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board (LSAB), the department announced in a Jan. 13 release. The leaders include Jay A. Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), and the heads of two tenant companies at the University of Maryland BioPark. They are Marco A. Chacon, PhD, founder, chief executive officer and president of Paragon Bioservices, Inc., and Theodore J. "Ted" Olsen, president and chief executive officer of PathSensors, Inc. Leaders also include Patrick G. O'Shea, PhD. vice president and chief research officer of the University of Maryland, College Park. Jay A. Perman, MD, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore Maryland is a leading force in the development and commercialization of new and transformative technologies in the life sciences, an industry that is growing by leaps and bounds, said Secretary of Commerce Mike Gill. This group will bring together their diverse areas of expertise to help shape our strategy to accelerate the growth of Marylands biohealth and technology ecosystem. The LSAB was created by the state legislature in 2007 to assist in maintaining Marylands position as a leader in the life sciences industry. Comprised of 18 members, the Board includes the Secretary of Commerce, a representative designated by the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and 16 members appointed by the Governor. The new appointees include a patient advocate, executives from global life sciences companies with U.S. headquarters in Maryland, small biotechnology companies, and leaders from UMB, UMCP, Morgan State University, Johns Hopkins University, Montgomery College, the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command. Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and CEO of Baltimore-based Emergent BioSolutions will serve as the chairman of the LSAB. "Maryland is recognized as a hot bed for biotechnology innovation," said Abdun-Nabi. "It is an honor to be appointed by Governor Hogan as chair of the Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board. I look forward to collaborating with other field experts to propel the industry forward with the goal of being at the forefront of cutting edge science and creating a positive health impact while stimulating the local economy and creating jobs." In addition to Gill, Abdun-Nabi, Perman, Chacon, and Olsen, other members of the advisory board are: Robert Rosenbaum, president and executive director, TEDCO; Christopher P. Austin, MD, director, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH; Richard A. Bendis, president and CEO, BioHealth Innovation Inc.; Jarrod Borkat, Head, External Collaborations, Biotech Hubs and Government Contracting - MedImmune; Douglas Jon Liu, senior vice president, head of global operations, Qiagen Sciences Inc.; Wendy Perrow, MBA, president and CEO, Alba Therapeutics Corp.; Karen L. Proudford, PhD, associate professor of management and director, Graves Honor Program Earl G. Graves School of Business & Management, Morgan State University, and president, William E. Proudford Sickle Cell Fund, Inc.; Sanjay K. Rai, PhD. chief academic officer and senior vice president for academic affairs, Montgomery College; David W. Smith, PhD, vice president, global business development, emerging technologies, Lonza Walkersville, Inc.; Col. Andrea Stahl, PhD, director, MRMC CBRN Defense Medical Research Coordinating Office and JPC-Radiation Health Effects, U.S. Army Medical Research & Material Command; Frank F. Weichold, MD, PhD, director, critical path and regulatory science initiatives, Office of the Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; and Christy Wyskiel, senior advisor to the president, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures. Thanks for visiting ! The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy. We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here. Thank you for your support! Life in the Nizip refugee camp, in south-eastern Turkey, has been a succession of long days and small tasks. UNHCR ISTANBUL, Jan 17, 2016 - In a major shift of policy, the Turkish Government has published new regulations which will allow many of the 2.5 million Syrian refugees in the country to apply for work permits. Registered Syrian refugees who have been in Turkey for at least six months will be allowed to apply in the province where they first registered. Syrians with permits would have to be paid at least the minimum wage. Now many refugees work illegally to make ends meet and are often paid very low wages. The regulations will apply both to refugees living in cities and to the 10 per cent housed in Turkish refugee camps. Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, hailed the decision as courageous and a major step forward for refugees. "Jobs mean dignity," he said, "a dignified life where you don't have to beg for money or to look for money from associations or the government. I think it is very big step." Turkey currently hosts more refugees than any other nation in the world. In his first official visit as High Commissioner, Grandi chose Turkey, where he spent much time listening to refugees. In Istanbul he visited a centre run by the Association for Solidarity with Asylum-Seekers and Migrants (ASAM), a Turkish NGO which helps refugees in the city with economic and psychological difficulties. He listened as two women spoke of their husbands' difficult decision to leave to find work in Europe. Others told of the cruel necessity to send their children not to school but to factories to work illegally to help pay for food and rent. "I heard stories that broke my heart," Grandi said. "These are real stories of women and children who have lost everything and don't know what their future is." Their future may be somewhat brighter with the new right to work. The regulations also allow for self-employed workers to apply for permits. The number of Syrian refugees working in Turkish enterprises will be limited to 10 per cent of the workforce of any company. In the Nizip refugee camps, in south-eastern Turkey near the Syrian border, exile for almost 16,000 people is a succession of long days and small tasks. Ahmed and his father breed racing pigeons. It's a passion but also a way to make a little money, selling their birds to Turkish pigeon fanciers. Now Ahmed's father will be able to obtain a permit which would allow him to work for more than pocket money. Not far away, in a container transformed by carpets and cushions into a cosy home, Fehmiye presides over a family of four generations. She is 85 and the oldest refugee in the camp. She says she is just thankful to be alive. Two years ago her family hid for two days in a bathroom in Homs as mortar shells rained down. Then they fled to Turkey. But Fehmiye's granddaughters, Fehmiye and Fadia, both mothers of children, speak of frustration. "Life here," Fadia said, "is eating, sleeping, waiting and no work." Her husband left the camp, and then Turkey, in search of work. After making the dangerous and illegal Mediterranean crossing, he reached Germany four months ago. The new regulations on work permits may help lessen that frustration among refugees. Grandi, speaking after the regulations were announced, hinted strongly that other countries should follow Turkey's lead. "I believe Turkey is an example of how refugees should be received," he said. By Don Murray in Istanbul IKEA's global campaign has raised 30.8 million euros for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to provide light and renewable energy sources for refugee families living in camps in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The money was raised from the sale of LED light bulbs and lamps between February 2014 and December 2015. IKEA customers and co-workers in more than 300 stores in 40 countries have made the campaign a stunning success. The IKEA Foundation donated one euro for every LED product sold in IKEA stores and online. The Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign was run over three periods, with the most recent lasting from November 29 to December 19 last year. This last phase raised 12.4 million euros, allowing UNHCR to provide light and energy for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The money raised will also allow thousands of children to go to school. The provision of light and energy from renewable sources will make refugee camps safer and more suitable for the many families who live there. While conflict and persecution are the leading causes of forced displacement, UNHCR is also concerned about the rising number of people displaced as a result of climate change and related problems. UNHCR is adapting solutions to local conditions, such as a solar-powered farm in Jordan's Azraq refugee camp. Set up with funding from the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign, the farm will eventually cover the energy needs of 60,000 refugees. It will also reduce CO emissions by 3,500 tonnes per year which would otherwise be generated from fossil fuel consumption. The campaign's positive impacts on the lives of refugees include: More than 280,000 refugees and members of host communities in Ethiopia and Jordan now live in greater safety at night thanks to the distribution of 56,000 solar-powered lanterns and the installation of 720 solar street lights. To improve waste disposal, 22 biogas plants have been built in Bangladesh, allowing human waste to be processed and generate green fuel for cooking, which benefits more than 200 refugee families. More than 37,000 refugee children have been able to enrol in primary school and 740 new teachers have been trained in Bangladesh, Chad and Ethiopia. "The number of people displaced by conflict and violence has reached levels not witnessed since the end of the Second World War. Now more than ever, the support we have received from the IKEA Foundation in raising awareness and engaging with the public is invaluable. We greatly appreciate the efforts of the hundreds of thousands of IKEA co-workers and customers who participated in the campaign," said Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly T. Clements. Per Heggenes, Chief Executive Officer of the IKEA Foundation, said the Brighter Lives for Refugees campaign "has been hugely successful, allowing us to contribute millions of euros to help some of the most vulnerable people on our planet. This is due to hardworking IKEA co-workers and loyal customers." He said he was "immensely proud that the IKEA Foundation has been able to help UNHCR provide much-needed sustainable energy and education to thousands of refugee children and families, making their lives a little bit brighter. For further information about the campaign, please contact: IKEA Foundation Radu Dumitrascu Communications and Media Relations Manager Tel: +31 6 556 98 570 e-mail: [email protected] UNHCR Leo Dobbs Senior Communications Officer Tel: +41 22 739-8394 e-mail: [email protected] Tapio Vahtola Senior PSFR Officer Tel : +41 22 739 8363 Mobile: +41 79 217 31 92 About UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people and people who are displaced inside their own countries. In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 9,700 people in more than 120 countries help well over 50 million people. Learn more at www.unhcr.org and www.facebook.com/UNHCR About IKEA Foundation The IKEA Foundation (Stichting IKEA Foundation) is the philanthropic arm of INGKA Foundation, the owner of the IKEA Group of companies. We aim to improve opportunities for children and youth in some of the world's poorest communities by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The IKEA Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child's life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and a sustainable family income. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org and www.facebook.com/IKEAfoundation UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi meets with a family at Za'atari Refugee Camp, Jordan. UNHCR/C. Herwig ZA'ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan, Jan 18 (UNHCR) - The international community must make greater efforts to end the conflict in Syria or risk prolonging the world's biggest humanitarian crisis for many years to come, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Monday. Speaking on a visit to Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp three weeks after taking up office, Grandi said he had chosen to travel to the region on his first overseas trip to focus minds on finding solutions to the nearly five-year-old conflict. "It is essential that the international community and all actors that have an influence on the parties to the conflict - and the parties to the conflict themselves, first and foremost - exercise greater efforts towards peace," he told a news conference. "If a settlement of the conflict is not found, this crisis will not end and we will continue year after year to ask the international community for huge amounts of money to support refugees that - until there is peace - will not want to go back." Grandi urged governments to take advantage of two upcoming global conferences in London in February and Geneva in March to pledge more financial support for refugees and host countries, and increase the number of legal resettlement places for those escaping the conflict. The protracted nature of the crisis is having a devastating effect on millions of ordinary Syrians, as well as placing a huge burden on neighbouring countries that have so far taken in more than four million refugees. Jordan is currently host to more than 630,000 Syrian refugees, putting a huge strain on the small kingdom's natural resources, infrastructure and economy. While almost 110,000 Syrians currently live in Za'atari and the country's other main camp at Azraq, the vast majority are struggling to survive in towns and cities across Jordan. Addressing the plight of an estimated 17,000 Syrians currently camped near the country's north-eastern border, Grandi said he fully appreciated Jordan's security concerns and pledged UNHCR's help in screening individuals in order to allow those in need of international protection to enter the kingdom. While at the camp, Grandi met a Syrian Bedouin family who arrived in Za'atari in February 2013. Father-of-six Mohammad Olayan said he had witnessed a steady improvement in conditions during his three years there. "When we first came we were living in a tent and there were no services. Now we have two caravans, and there is electricity and proper sanitation," he said. Despite the improvements, the family still struggles to feed themselves with the food assistance they receive, and Mohammad must borrow money or try to find work to keep food on the table. While his three young sons attend school in the camp, his two school-aged daughters say they are still too traumatized by the conflict and intimidated by the large class sizes to go. As a result, Mohammed and his wife and daughters spend much of their time inside their shelter. "What else can refugees do?" he asked. After three years in exile with no end in sight, Mohammad says he is considering returning to the family's small farm in Syria's southern Dara'a province despite the danger. "We don't want to run away for the rest of our lives. Maybe it would be better to die quickly in Syria than the slow death we face here." The High Commissioner's visit, which includes stops in Turkey and Lebanon, marks a return to the Middle East having served as Commissioner-General of the UN Agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, from 2010 to 2014, after having been the organization's Deputy Commissioner-General since 2005. By Charlie Dunmore in Za'atari refugee camp, Jordan The bald eagles, which were once termed as an endangered species, continue to exhibit increasing numbers eight years after they were removed from the list of endangered species list in 2007, Tech Times reports. The Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey (CWF) has documented in its 2015 New Jersey Bald Eagle Project Report the current status of bald eagle nesting pairs, active nests and nests productivity in New Jersey. "With 161 pairs of bald eagles this past year - up from just a single nest in the early 1980s - the dramatic ongoing recovery of bald eagles across the northeast continues to inspire so many of us," said David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation Executive Director, according to NJ. "The thrill of seeing a bald eagle fly across the sky is unparalleled. This report captures how these eagles are continuing their All-American return." The nesting pairs have increased to 23 by the year 2000, 48 by 2005 and 82 by 2010. The report was compiled in collaboration with CWF biologists, some volunteers and members of the Division of Fish and Wildlife at New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection. For the report, the CWF monitored 191 nest sites during the nesting season. Out of the 191 nest sites, 150 had eggs and thus were considered active. The productivity rate for each active nest was 1.33 offsprings, which meant 199 young eagles were produced in 122 nests or 81 percent of the 150 nests monitored. The area where the bald eagles are highly dominant remains to be Delaware Bay. "In addition to our fellow scientists in New Jersey and nearby states, I'd like to thank the wonderful eagle project volunteers who make keeping track of all these nests possible ", said CWF eagle biologist Larissa Smith, according to NJ. "The state's eagle population would not be thriving without the efforts of the dedicated eagle volunteers who observe nests, report sightings and help protect critical habitat," the CWF wrote in its report. The drastic reduction in the number of bald eagles in the 1970s was attributed to the use of the pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT). As a result, in 1972, authorities banned the use of DDT. The ban was further strengthened with the efforts from the Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) that led to the increase in the population of the bald eagles little by little. The University of Cincinnati agreed to pay the family of Samuel DuBose $4.8 million to settle a lawsuit over the man's death at the hands of a school police officer. DuBose was shot and killed in July after University Officer Ray Tensing pulled him over for a missing license plate. Tensing was later indicted for DuBose's murder, to which he pleaded not guilty, and awaits trial. According to NBC News, UC will pay the DuBose family $4.8 million in addition to more than $500,000 in tuition and fees for all the man's 12 children. With tuition and other expenses bound to rise by the time the younger children enter college, the settlement is expected to surpass $5 million. Billy Martin, a Washington D.C.-based attorney, mediated the agreement over the course of two days, Cleveland.com reported, and now awaits the approval of the Hamilton County Probate Court. "The example here demonstrates to communities hurting all over the country that positive results can be achieved through this type of cooperation," Martin said in a statement. When Tensing pulled over DuBose in July the entire exchange was caught on the officer's body camera, Reuters noted. During the stop, Tensing repeatedly asked DuBose to get out of his car. When DuBose would not, Tensing tried to open the car door. As DuBose tried to drive away, Tensing fired into the car and shot the man in the head. The officer called in the incident on his radio, claiming he had to shoot because his arm was caught as DuBose was about to drive away. "I want to again express on behalf of the University of Cincinnati community our deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss of the life of Samuel DuBose," UC President Santa J. Ono said in statement. "This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities." OBJECTIVES - To assess urology residents' current knowledge, practice, previous training, barriers and training needs regarding prostate cancer treatment-related sexual dysfunction. METHODS - A cross-sectional questionnaire study inventoried the practice patterns and training need of urology residents attending a national training course in June 2015. RESULTS - Of 101 urology residents throughout The Netherlands, 87 attended the training (response rate 100%). Median age was 32 years (range 28-38); 552% were woman. Regardless of the residency level, most trainees had never received education about sexual dysfunction (586%), reported a limited level of knowledge (483%) and indicated an evident need for training (694%). The majority did not feel competent to advise prostate cancer patients regarding the treatment of sexual dysfunction (552%). Almost all participants enquired about pre-operative erectile dysfunction (897%), and always informed about treatment-related sexual dysfunction (885%). At follow-up, 639% of the residents routinely addressed sexual complaints again. More than half of the participants indicated that urology residency training does not provide sufficient education on sexual dysfunction (548%). Time constraint (671%) and lack of training (353%) were the most frequently mentioned barriers. CONCLUSIONS - Current urology residency does not pay sufficient attention to sexual communication skills and sexual dysfunction. The residents require more knowledge about and more practical training in sexual counseling. Findings support efforts to enhance the education of urology residents regarding prostate cancer treatment-related sexual dysfunction. Urology. 2016 Jan 06 [Epub ahead of print] E M Krouwel, L A Grondhuis Palacios, H Putter, R C M Pelger, G J Kloens, H W Elzevier Department of Urology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands; PO Box 9600, 2300 WB Leiden. Department of Urology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands; PO Box 9600, 2300 WB Leiden. , Department of Medical Statistics, Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands; PO Box 9600, 2300 WB Leiden. , Department of Urology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands; PO Box 9600, 2300 WB Leiden. , Baron S. Wyborghstraat 2, 2225 TE Katwijk, Netherlands. , Department of Urology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands; PO Box 9600, 2300 WB Leiden. PubMed Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. Greece's central bank encourages the government to conform with the bailout reforms proposed by international creditors. On July 2015, creditors have agreed to provide 86 billion euro ($93.4 billion) bailout to help the country's economy amid debt and financial crisis. One crucial reform to carry out in order to receive the bailout is the controversial pension refoms. This reform will be one of the main aspects being examined in the bailout program's first review with international creditors. The leftist government of Greece is determined to reform pension system to follow agreements with creditors, amid protests from the opposition. Despite all the controversy, support came from Bank of Greece's Governor, Yannis Stournaras in an article he wrote for one of Greece's main newspaper, Kathimerini. He wrote that if Greece fail to pass the first review by creditors, it could trigger an instability that Greece most likely could not handle. On the other hand, satisfying the requirements to receive bailout would be Greece's chance to recover the country's ailing economy. In addition to pension system reform, Yannis Stournaras also encouraged the government to approve tax system reform as part of the creditor's prerequisite condition for bailout. The central bank's governor also stated that fulfilling the first review is crucial as it provides a way to lighten Greece's financial burden. According to Reuters, Greece already compose a draft of proposal to revise their flawed pension system. The proposal stated that the six different pension funds will be merged into just one, followed by up to 30 percent cut of future main pension funds. By the end of the month, this proposal will be presented to the parliament to be voted in February. The significance of accomplishing these reforms doesn't only lay on the bail cash to be provided by international creditors. The European Central Bank (ECB) has also agreed to give financial aid, with Greek government paper as collateral. Once the bailout reforms are approved by the Greek Parliament and furthermore implemented, euro zone will be able to consider further plans to help ease the country's burden of debt and financial crisis, Dutch Finance Minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem told Bloomberg. Greece Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras emphasized the importance of sticking to the bailout reforms deal made with international creditors. Tsipras is also confident that at least his ruling coalition's 153 deputies among the 300-set parliament will vote in the pension system reform's favor. The vote's outcome will be a key aspect in determining the review result, and also whether Greece will receive the bailout cash. On its ten-year anniversary bash, Microsoft announced group video calls for Skype mobile apps, for free. This feature will be rolled out for iOS, Android and Windows 10 mobile users "over the coming weeks". It's quite the reason for celebration for the Skype users who have been long waiting for this news. Skype has indeed come a long way from 2006 when it was first launched only in computers, and introduced to the world its innovation - free video calling. It was a novelty that changed all ways of how people could stay connected to each other, transcending the barriers of time, distance and cost. Once the world had access, it used the service to the fullest. Doctors performed surgeries, soldiers watched their babies' birthing, the workforce community struck deals across the borders, and the scientists kept in touch with civilization from their remote corner of the world. And it goes without saying that it changed the definition of "keeping in touch" for friends and families. Skype boasts of 750 million users who have downloaded this messenger app on their Android, Windows, iOS phones and iPads, making it one of the most popular free apps on app stores like iTunes and Google Play Store. While the Microsoft-owned app had free group audio calls, its group video calls were limited to the subscribers - a feature sorely missed by the users, till now. The exact date of its launch is yet to be announced, but once it goes live, the messaging app should support about 25 people in a free group video call, says Mashable. For now, Microsoft is offering a preview version on its website, where you can sign up ahead of the actual roll-out and play around with the feature. Free group video calling is one of the most-awaited features to be rolled out by the Microsoft family. More so because none of its arch rivals, like Facetime and Facebook Messenger, can offer this service to its users yet. An exception would be Google Hangouts which supports around 10 people in a free group video call, according to The Verge. So now would be a good time for Skype to come forward with its new service and gain momentum. The market is ready for a group video call service that comes for free. However, it remains to be seen how the much talked-about app fares on mobile sets, and if it manages to live up to all the expectations and hype created by the announcement. Tullow Oil Plc, a leading oil and gas explorer, said that it expects to record a revenue of $1.6 billion for the year 2015, a decrease of 28 percent from the $2.2 billion reported last year. In the company's trading update published on Wednesday, Tullow said it expects its gross profit to be $600 million for the full year, which is down from $1.1 billion reported in fiscal 2014. The oil & gas explorer said it anticipates to suffer an impairment charges of $0.9 billion for the full year. The company expects its gross profit to be $0.6 billion for the full year Impairment charges combined with a 16 percent fall in revenues and noteworthy write-offs forced Tullow to report first ever pre-tax loss of $2 billion in 2014. The company said its TEN project in West Africa, which is more than 80 percent complete, continues to progress within the budget. Tullow expects normal working interest production in TEN project to be around 23,000 bopd gross in 2016. The oil explorer is also expecting 2016 normal production to be nearly 101,000 bopd gross from Jubilee project and West Afric non-operated production to be nearly 29,500 bopd net. The Irish Times quoted analyst Caren Crowley as saying, "Liquidity entering 2016 is $200 million better than anticipated after capital expenditure in 2015 was squeezed. Guidance for investment in 2016 is largely unchanged. However, similarly to 2015, management hopes to beat capital expenditure guidance by up to $200 million as we move through the year," Marketwatch said that the company expects West Africa working interest oil production to be in the range of 73,000 to 80,000 barrels of oil per day. Commenting on the report, Aidan Heavey, Chief Executive Officer of Tullow, said, "In 2015, Tullow not only reset its business to deal with very difficult market conditions but also delivered on its key operational goals. Strong West African oil production supported by a significant hedge programme delivered pre-tax operating cash flow of $1 billion. We also made excellent progress on the development of the TEN Project which is on track to begin production in the middle of 2016 and we expect the Group to be producing around 100,000 bopd in West Africa in 2017. In East Africa, steady progress has been made towards a potential development sanction in 2017". In the face of "unprecedented number of refugees in need of resettlement," President Obama has authorized a whopping $70 million to resettle the immigrants in the United States. This special fund set aside by the Congress for migration crisis has been tapped to cover this emergency as it is the "worst refugee crisis that the world has seen since the Second World War", as stated by Secretary of State John Kerry, according to KGW. The number of refugees to be allowed inside the country has already been raised to 1,00,000 in 2017 from 70,000 in 2015. By stating that this fund can be used to cover migration crisis anywhere in the world, and not only in the USA, Obama has managed to draw praise from the likes of Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Lucille Roybal-Allard, and Luis V. Gutierrez - the congressional Democrats - as evident from their statement which released recently. Obama's sentiments regarding this global fund were reflected by Kerry at a recent speech in National Defense University. "The refugee crisis is not just a Syrian problem, nor a Middle Eastern problem, or a European or an African problem is a global challenge of historic proportions and dimensions, and it tests our values, our self-confidence, and our very humanity," were his exact words, reports USA Today. The number of Syrians fleeing to different parts of the world sum up to almost 4 million, and Europe had to post more security checks at the borders to cope up with the hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern and African immigrants. Given this current crisis situation, Kerry promised to look for ways to raise the number beyond the 1,00,000 cap, at the same time taking necessary steps to filter out terrorist infiltration. The refugee emergency plan also includes rescuing those fleeing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and help them lead a life of respect and equality. However, this effort, quite expectedly met with some criticisms as well, the most common one being the possibility of ISIS infiltration. The Voice of America stated that one such comment came from Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump. To this, the Secretary came back with how the country has still gone ahead with its plans "against a backdrop of some pretty nasty politics" that was designed to "scare" Americans. He assures that proper controls are in place by way of several processing centers in various Latin American countries that are meant to screen the fleeing families. The United Nations agency has been appointed to make sure the immigrants pass all eligibility criteria for entering the country under the 'refugee' status. More updates on Obama's global fund for refugee crises are expected following his U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York in September. The President is likely to put all concerns to rest and reveal more details about the plan. Swiss agrochemicals maker Syngenta has been considering a possible merger in the recent months, and it's reported that now the company already leaned toward one favored candidate. China National Chemical Corp., also known as ChemChina is said to move one step forward to acquiring the company. Previously last month, Syngenta chairman Michel Demare said to Reuters that they are still looking at different combinations. Besides ChemChina, other companies also have eyes on Syngenta, including American multinational agrochemical and agricultural corporation Monsanto. "I have said a few months ago that I believe within six months we will see some consolidation steps. It is too early to say how all this will finish," Demare stated when asked about the prospect of his company becoming a Chinese-owned. However, an unnamed source told Bloomberg that Syngenta's board had met this week in private discussions and it's highly possible that ChemChina would advance to take over the company. It's reported that their approval could open the way for a formal agreement. To acquire Syngenta, ChemChina already offered 470 Swiss francs a share in cash for the company. In total, it would give the company a value worth about 44 billion francs ($43.8 billion). ChemChina, being advised by HSBC, is seeking a loan from Western banks to fund the potential takeover deal. This move would bring a positive impact on Chinese government's goal to increase farming productivity across the country. The need to boost farming productivity in China comes from the fact that the country has limited farm land and so far has been relying on food imports. Recently, ChemChina bought German plastics and rubber manufacturer KraussMaffei Group. The transaction is reported to worth about $1 billion, according to New York Times. It is often regarded as one of the most intriguing Chinese foreign purchase done recently. ChemChina also bought 26 percent of Italian tire maker Pirelli's stake on March last year. According to The Economist, it's a growing trend for Chinese companies to invest overseas. Last year, companies from mainland China close a total worth $61 billion overseas deal, and it's predicted to increase even more this year, amid the weakening of China economic growth. Recent changes and improvement have been working for ChemChina. The company is now emerging as one of the largest chemical companies in China, and also as the most dynamic global enterprise compared to other China companies. If the deal is closed, this would be the biggest purchase ever made by a Chinese company. General Electric Co. is believed to sign a deal on selling its appliance business to China's Haier Group for $4 billion. The electrical equipments maker has been conducting an auction for the sale of the century old appliance business. Both the companies have announced for reaching to an agreement on Friday. The new deal is about to struck following GE's earlier bid to sale the business to Sweden's Electrolux AB, has been forced to abandon. The US Department of Justice has sued to block the transaction with accusations for hurting competitions for cook tops and ranges, reports The Wall Street Journal. Haier, headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao, is the world's largest appliance maker which has posted $32.6 billion sales revenue during 2014. However, GE aims to sale its appliance unit in a bid to shift its focus to higher-technology and higher-profit areas such as medical equipment, reports U.S. News. The Chinese appliance maker outbids other foreign corporate bidders for purchasing the Louisville, Kentucky based business. Final negotiations are being continued and signing of the deal may differ a little. GE has declined to make further comments while Haier remains nonresponsive to a request for comment, reports Market Watch. GE has earlier told investors that demand for the appliance business remains strong. And hence It expects to move quickly to find a new buyer. In seeking a fresh buyer, Company executives have been searching for "a better deal" compared to that received from Electrolux. GE also appears eligible to claim for a $175 million breakup fee from Electrolux. The electronics conglomerate is pulling out from one of its legacy business lines ahead of a companywide reorientation by Chief Executive Jeff Immelt. He intends to focus on its high-tech, high value products like power turbines, jet engines and oil-and-gas production equipments. Earlier this week, GE has announced relocating its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston. GE has been trying to sell the unit prior to initiation of the global financial crisis but forced to keep hold until markets turned to normalcy. Meanwhile, Haier has been reported to struggle to gain more than a small foothold in the U.S. The Chinese appliance maker refers itself as the biggest appliance maker in terms of unit sales. But Haier is mainly known in the U.S. for compact refrigerators and window air-conditioning units. Inheriting the image of GE, Haier is eyeing to increase its potential in the US market. General Electric Co. has been looking for a potential buyer for selling its century old business and finally finds Haier as the new contender surpassing Electrolux. GE aims to enter high-tech arena disposing off electrical appliance unit. However, Haier aims to strengthen its presence in the electrical appliance market of the US through acquiring the GE concern. The BT Group has finally gained clearance from the British Competition and Markets Authority to go ahead with its deal of acquiring the German-French mobile joint venture, EE Limited. Despite agitated noises from competition, the authority stood its grounds when it passed its final verdict without any conditions. According to BBC News, CMA's John Wotton conveyed that the union of the two companies is conflict-free when he stated: "The evidence does not show that this merger is likely to cause significant harm to competition or the interests of consumers." This 12.5 billion ($17.95 billion) deal is now ready to be implemented, which opens the door for BT to the 31 million customer base of UK's largest mobile operator and internet service provider. In return, as per previously set conditions, the sellers would get the following compensation: Germany's Deutsche Telekom - a 12% stake, along with a seat on the board, and a small cash payment; and France's Orange S.A. - a 4% stake and 3.4 billion in cash - reports The New York Times. BT's CEO Gavin Patterson expressed his positive thoughts with ""The combined BT and EE will be a digital champion for the UK, providing high levels of investment and driving innovation in a highly competitive market." The takeover has resulted into an amalgamation of two huge customer bases, shows Mirror: EE's 35 million alongside BT's 7.5 million broadband users, 9.5 million telephone customers and 1 million TV customers. With a huge market at their disposal, BT also needs to up their game to retain its users. 'Bundled' services would definitely be an area the company can do much with. It can refrain its customers to switch over to another provider by creating value-for-money packages of mobile, home telephone, the internet and TV services. Throwing in some freebies with the deals would win an additional brownie point. However, such package deals are often deceptive as the customers can easily lose track of exactly how much money they are paying for each service. Another area of focus should be the customer service department to maintain quality, given now EE's customers are considered as BT's. Many experts have come out with their views and suggestions over the manifestations of this takeover, and the gist of their analyses can be summed up in the words of Dominic Baliszewski from Broadbandchoices.co.uk - "BT will likely offer some very attractive customer retention deals but it is always worth taking the time to compare and understand what you need versus what you want - especially in an increasingly complicated market." BHP Billinton Ltd., Melbourne, Australia based commodity producer, has announced Friday for writing down the value of its onshore US energy assets roughly by $7.2 billion before tax. Sharper downtrend in global energy prices and bleak outlook has acted behind the decision. Moreover, there exists widespread rumor that it may also be forced to cut dividends for the first time in 25 years. The impairment charge amounting around $7.2 billion in post tax represents downgraded forecast on prices and revisions to its own development plans. The write down will reduce the net value of its onshore US operating assets to about $16 billion, reports Marketwatch. Investors suggest BHP to abandon its policy of holding or increasing dividend at every result. Their argument is based on the logic that the company needs to rely on debts to fund the payout following a riot in commodity prices and consequent steep fall of profit. The resources firm also announces to cut the number of operating rigs to five from seven during the ongoing quarter. Furthermore, it has decided to review investment and development plans with a focus on preserving cash flow, for the remaining period of 2016. Significant weakening of the oil and gas markets have prompted the firm to adopt disappointing decision for writing down, reports The Wall Street Journal quoting Andrew Mackenzie, Chief Executive of BHP. The hefty impairment in U.S. shale adds to BHP's recent woes following a fatal dam collapse in Brazil and tumbling prices for iron ore. Both the two factors have contributed for 60% of its operating earnings last year. BHP has entered the market with two acquisitions worth $20.6 billion in 2011, when oil and gas prices remained much higher. The company has sharply cut its operating expenses and capital spending at its U.S. onshore operations since the collapse in oil prices. It has also decided to reduce the number of rigs from 26 a year ago to five in the current quarter. However, Moody's and Standard & Poor's both have referred the dividend cutting as a potential risk to BHP's credit rating. Mood's has already warned of cutting BHP's A1 rating by March. Dividend is considered as one of the levers to mitigate impact on financial profile, Reuters furnishes the argument quoting Mathew Moore, an analyst for Moody's. The write down announcement has caused no surprise to the market. Oil companies, large and small, have been writing down the value of shale assets over the past 20 months since prices started crashing. However, investors expect more impairments, as they value BHP's shale assets just below $12 billion. BHP Billinton Ltd. has announced for writing down the value of its onshore US energy assets roughly by $7.2 billion before tax. BHP has entered the market with two acquisitions worth $20.6 billion in 2011, when oil and gas prices remained much higher. But with the upsetting downtrend in oil and gas markets, the Australian commodity producer has finally adopted the writing off phenomenon over shale assets worth around $12 billion. Silicon Valley e-Commerce investments are exploding. Gilt Groupe was sold for a fraction of its valuation. One Kings Lane may be next to die. Earlier also Fab.com was underperforming and was sold for a small part of its valuation. Fab was the first 'unicorn' billion dollar retail startup. Groupon, One Kings Line and Wish.com were few examples that give insight of what's happening. Marc Andreessen, Silicon Valley's Brobdingnagian Sloth Fratelli overlord, termed Fab as an e-Commerce category killer. After two years of his forecast, Fab was killed. Prior to being offloaded, some startups witnessed theirs stocks tumbling on stock exchanges. Groupe lost 90 percent of its worth. Now, Living Social, which is believed to be in super sad business pivot. It sells maps to celebrities' houses. Online shopping failure is widening. Venture capital money has been invested in several retail startups. Most of them become digital junkyards. According to a report by TechCrunch, One Kings Lane valuation was over $1 billion. The invested capital in the startup so far is $225 million. The rumored sale price is $150 million only. Another one is Gilt. Analysts look at what's in store for 2016. Analysts commented that "the shiny shoe-boots look like they got trapped in a factory conveyor belt. Gilt's flash sales were popular exactly nine years ago." Silicon Valley assessment is that valuation of Gilt is $1 billion, invested capital so far is $271 million and sale price may be $250 million. Coming to Groupon, which sells bikinis, the valuation of Groupon at IPO time was $12.6 billion and the invested capital so far is $1.14 billion. The Groupon's stock price at the time of IPO was $26.11 and the current market price is $2.86. Wish (Wish.com) is another junkyard e-Commerce platform. Wish is doing the previously impossible as it raised the money without pretending to be fancy or worthy good. The invested capital so far is $578 million and this is may be more than its valuation, according to Silicon Valley assessment. Analysts blame venture capitalists for the most of the failures and not the founders of startups. Majority of sites were attractive at the beginnings of their ventures. Gilt, Fab and One Kings Lane were so attractive in their respective segments. Fab, Groupon and Gilt self-declared that over 60-70 percent of users are female. Interestingly, females account for four percent of the deal-making venture capitalists in the Silicon Valley. Coming to technology startups, it seems to be positive for investment climate in 2016 as well. Mark Haefale, Global CIO at UBS Wealth Management, said: "The US equity surge is now in its seventh year, making it the longest bull run since World War-II." The 2015 year ends well on positive note of $100 billion investment flowing into startups, as reported by Inc. Bobby Franklin, President and CEO of NVCA, said: "Although down slightly from the end of last year, the venture ecosystem deployed a healthy amount of financial capital to the startup ecosystem at the start of 2015, surpassing the $10 billion mark for the fifth consecutive quarter and setting the stage for what we expect to be another busy year for startup investing." Venture capitalists invested $13.4 billion in 1,020 deals during the first half of 2015, according to Moneytree report. The VC investment declined 10 percent in US dollars and eight percent in number of deals during the period., as reported by National Venture Capital Association. The Silicon Valley witnessed 10 deals over $100 million including two $1 billion investments during the first quarter of 2015. Along with VC, seed state investment was also down 32 percent in US dollars and 35 percent in deals. Despite some odds, the software industry is expected to receive funding support. In July last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio lay the blame on Uber for the terrible traffic in Manhattan's Central Business District below 60th Street. Following this, a highly expensive study which cost a whopping $2 million was commissioned to find out exactly how the popular taxi service contributes to the congestion. Now, six months later, the study has been released which has cleared Uber's name in its findings. The Observer reported the study stated, "E-dispatch is a contributor to overall congestion but did not drive the recent increase in congestion." It basically indicated that Uber cabs have offset the absence of yellow, hail cabs in the said area, which means it did not really add to the crowd. ""Reductions in vehicular speeds are driven primarily by increased freight movement, construction activity, and population growth," as concluded by the study. However, the brevity of the report came as a surprise. ""It's as if the new 'Star Wars' movie everyone was waiting for was just a two-minute animation," said Mr. Charles Komanoff, a transportation analyst, reported The New York Times. A more thorough and detailed study with supporting spreadsheets was expected in the face of the money spent for this analysis. The expensive traffic report was conducted by the mayor's Office of Operations in association with McKinsey & Co. and a former transportation official. The study took place, replacing the mayor's plans to put a cap on the number of Uber cabs which would have adversely impacted the company's growth. The controversial plan had brought on a lot of criticisms, accusing the mayor of favoring the yellow cabs who have made heavy donations to protect themselves from competition like Uber and Lyft. While the study recommended against limiting the number of Uber vehicles in the city streets, it does not discount the fact that the e-hailing cars can become a cause of concern in the future. If people opt for these services instead of public transportation, it will eventually add to traffic congestions. Some legislative changes are already underway that will probably limit Uber's unregulated movements. Another finding focuses on the difference in fee structure between the yellow cabs and e-hailing taxi services. The government plans to make several reforms to level out the disparity. The yellow cabs send the Metropolitan Transportation Authority a 50% surcharge for each taxi ride, whereas Uber and Lift provide a much smaller portion by way of sales tax. Uber, however, is quite unperturbed by news of such reforms. CNN Money represents that Josh Mohrer, Uber New York General Manager, mentioned in an e-mailed statement "We appreciate the thoughtful process Mayor de Blasio and his administration have engaged in over the last several months to improve the commercial car industry. We will be reviewing the policy ideas and hope to work with the de Blasio administration and the City Council on implementing many of them." Following reports of back-to-back outbreaks of food contamination, Chipotle is shutting down all restaurants and store operations on February 8, albeit for a few hours. The food-chain giant was forced to take this extreme step to call for an emergency food safety meeting with all its 1900 outlets. According to The Hill, Chipotle's spokesperson, Chris Arnold, said that the company would be discussing some of the changes regarding food safety, and about the restaurant's role in the process. Vox reports say that Chipotle has been opening outlets at a swift pace, owing to its huge popularity as a fast food chain. Its quality control measures seemed to have taken a back step with the company's extensive hiring and focus on serving customers at a quick pace. The company first got into trouble in August with the outbreak of Salmonella in Minnesota where 64 customers were affected. This set the tone for what was about to become the biggest case of food contamination in the history of food chains. Around the same time, 100 people in South Carolina were infected with norovirus. Before Chipotle could recover from this setback, in October and November, people in nine states suffered a severe bout of E.Coli. This was followed by another case of norovirus which affected around 140 Boston students, along with another instance of E.Coli in three states. The multiple outbreaks, as represented by CNN Money, ripped apart the company's image completely, and the once-successful fast food chain found itself staring at several lawsuits slapped on by irate customers, along with a subpoena by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations. The company's advocacy on non-GMO standards that was once a powerful marketing tool for health-conscious customers now turned into a huge joke as the social media platforms became flooded with tweets and jokes on getting infected if you consumed Chipotle food. Quite expectedly, its stocks took a sharp 42% downturn and stood at an all-time low of $428 per share, from its $750 a share. Given the scenario, the company projects a fourth-quarter decline of 8% this year. However, it had already started a comprehensive reform program of its policies and practices in October, which evidently could not keep the outbreaks in check. Today, Chipotle is forced to take this drastic step in an attempt to absolve its tarnished image, and close all its operations nationwide to hold discussions regarding food safety. CEO Steve Ellis sounded optimistic when he said "We know that Chipotle is as safe as it's ever been before," at a conference on January 13. He also mentioned the new marketing campaign which would hopefully help win back their customers. As there has been no instance of food contamination in two months, Ellis hopes that Centers for Disease Control would give them the green signal soon. Airbus Group Ventures, a corporate venture capital fund from Airbus Group, has extended its first investment. A Phoenix-based Local Motors Inc has raised funding from Airbus Ventures. Airbus Ventures is keen on startups in the aviation industry. Airbus Group's venture fund is based in Silicon Valley. The fund opened with $150 million for investing into startups in aerospace, data analytics, drones, security and satellite technologies. The investment made to Local Motors Inc is the first investment from Airbus Group's corporate venture fund that announced in May 2015, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. Local Motors Inc will use open source designs for building cars, helicopters and airplanes. Local Motors investment is the first publicly announced funding from Airbus Ventures. The Phoenix-based startup is expected to bring innovation into aerospace design. It involves free contributions of volunteer engineers and researchers. Tim Dombrowski, a former Andreessen Horowitz partner who is now Airbus Ventures CEO, said: "Literally, they could be producing aircraft. Being based in Silicon Valley makes sense for the firm because of region's big tech scene," Airbus Ventures will have three or four working funds, as reported by Fortune. Local Motors Inc provides applications that save money on development costs. Using 3D printing technology, Local Motors' designs helps building helicopters and airplanes. Dombrowski and his fellow partner will operate independently of Airbus. However, he also takes care of outside area for investment as part of its global mandate responsibility. So far, his area of operations included London, Paris and Tel Aviv. Airbus Ventures funds startups, which are engaged in technologies that support Airbus, according to Tech Crunch (TC). Airbus Ventures works as an independent, financially-driven venture outfit. Tim Dombrowski-led committee takes the final decision on investments. Airbus Ventures will mostly invest in Series A and B deals. It also considers the size of startup as it's required to be appropriate to the overall size of the round. The investment firm is planning to build a sizeable portfolio. Airbus Ventures considers its first funding to Local Motors as great financial investment. Airbus Ventures will also focus on the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is a platform on which cars and robots are connected online facilitating sharing of data. This area of expertise is very important for global players such as Airbus. Other than Airbus Ventures, there are other investment firms working in Silicon Valley. The investment firms specializing in aerospace technology include Bessemer Venture Partners, Lemnos Labs, and the Silicon Valley Space Center. Michigan county officials reported that there have been 10 cases of deaths due to Legionnaires' disease over the past year. This issue follow increasing concerns over the lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint. The Atlantic reported that Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced the news Wednesday amidst the increasing water-supply crisis in the area. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services chief medical executive Dr. Edith Wells said there were 87 cases of the Legionnaires' disease in the Genesse County from June 2014 to November 2015. The area usually has fewer cases than the recent report. According to Reuters, the officials couldn't link the increase in the cases and the issue with Flint's water supply. Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director Nick Lyon said half of the cases were caused by Flint's water, while the other half were not linked. Governor Rick Snyder said, "That just adds to the disaster we already are facing with respect to elevated lead levels." The Legionnaires disease is a kind of pneumonia that can infect a victim who inhaled mist contaminated with the bacteria called Legionella. The mist usually comes from hot tubs, showers, and air-conditioning units. The Legionella bacteria thrive in warm, fresh water. Meanwhile, OA Now wrote that Flint's tap water got contaminated with high levels of lead due to the switch in water supply back in 2014 in a move to cut cost. In October, officials in the area declared a state of public health emergency as children showed increased levels of lead. Governor Snyder requested the help of the National Guard, who arrived in Flint last Wednesday. Lt. Col. William Humes said half-a-dozen representatives went to the area to help distribute bottled water and other supplies to the people. Mayor Karen Weaver has declared a state of emergency in Flint December 15 over its toxic drinking water. Other areas in the surrounding county could suffer the same problem in the future due to ageing pipes. The Australian team searching for the missing Malaysian Airline MH370, which disappeared almost two years ago, found another old shipwreck and still no sight of the aircraft. According to Mashable, the team's underwater sonar equipment detected a man-made object while they were conducting extensive search along the Indian Ocean December 19. However, officials announced that the high-resolution images taken January 2 revealed that it was just another centuries-old shipwreck. CNN reported that the Joint Agency Coordination Centre, the Australian team tasked to look for the lost Boeing 777, sent out another boat, Havila Harmony, to take the high-resolution pictures. The team let the Shipwreck Galleries of the Western Australian Museum experts analyse the images and found that it was a wreckage that dates back to the early 19th century. The missing Malaysian Airline MH370 disappeared as it travelled from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China in March 2014. The aircraft had 239 passengers and crew on board. Mirror wrote that the JACC reported that the search for the aircraft will discontinue in June due to the lack of credible new information that would point them to the location of the lost aircraft. "The expression 'like finding a needle in a haystack' shouldn't be used to describe (search-and-rescue) and recovery at sea," said security intelligence firm, the Soufan Group. "A more accurate expression would be like finding a drifting needle in a chaotic, color-changing, perception-shifting, motion-sickness-inducing haystack." The search for the lost aircraft has proven to be very difficult. The team may have discovered a jet wing that washed up on an island in the Indian Ocean in 2015, but this was dismissed to be part of the missing Flight 370. The search team includes members coming from Malaysia, China and Australia, and they have surveyed two thirds of the search zone, which spreads about 46,000 square miles. Ethiopia's Agriculture Ministry cancelled Karuturi Global Ltd.'s lease last month and now the Indian company is challenging the government on the reasons why they terminated the project. The company, a cut flower exporter, had been involved with Ethiopia's agricultural industry since 2010. Karuturi Global claims that the government broke the terms of the agreement, saying that the cancellation did not follow procedure, violated an investment agreement between the two countries, and were wrongly accused. They also said the termination was not accompanied by market-value compensation, which was stated as part of the bilateral investment treaty. The Ethiopian government stated that it terminated the agreement because after two years, the actual amount of land under development, only 1,200 hectares, fell short of the agreed upon size of 100,000 hectares. The ministry had given a warning to Karuturi about the inadequate state of progress in April 2012. Speaking with Bloomberg, Getachew Reda, Ethiopian Communications Minister, discussed the termination. "If you cancel a project, what's the point of negotiating? If he thinks he has a legal option, let him try it, but the government has been giving Karuturi extensions for a long time." Karauturi claims that the work it did in clearing 65,000 hectares and constructing 100 kilometers of dykes to control floodwaters should be considered development. Along with their $100 million investment, the company felt that it should be evidence enough of progress and that government action stopped any further development. The Indian company was planning to grow and process crops such as corn, sugar cane, and palm oil. But because of the Trade Ministry's 2012 ban on cereal exports, the company was unable to earn enough foreign money to pay back the $180 million loan from Indian banks. According to Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group based in New York, none of the farms that were implemented from this agreement were successful in exporting crops, reported CCTV Africa. Instead, the program deprived residents by relocating them. Karuturi Global is based in Bengaluru, India. After the government offered incentives to lease land in Ethiopia, the company was one of the first foreign investors to attempt to farm some of the total 3.3 million hectares originally identified for commercial farming. Business Insider noted that despite the promise of prosperity, there is a danger in investing money into an authoritarian state. Ethiopia's leadership is descended from the militia that overthrew the communist state in 1991. Karuturi Global has taken legal action, obtaining a court order to protect the lease and will seek international arbitration. With the current dictatorship in Ethiopia, it is hard to say how far such legal actions will help the Indian company regain any of their prior investment. Jingdong Mall or formally known as JD.com, one of China's big e-commerce players announces that the company financial subsidiary managed to secure $1 billion worth in financing. The second round of financing obtained by JD Finance helps to boost JD.com valuation as the company is currently valued at $7 billion. The latest valuation means that the company is currently the closest rival of Alibaba. The second financing round obtain by JD.com comes from its lead investors, venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital China and China Taiping Insurance. According to The Wall Street Journal, the fundraising effort was done by its main holding company, the Tencent Holdings Ltd. Although lots of investment coming from other investment firms, JD.com said that the company will remain as the major owner of JD Finance. Its CEO, Liu Qiangdong told Forbes regarding the latest investment that "By partnering with top financial and start-up service institutions, we will be even better positioned to create China's leading financial technology ecosystem." The company is backed by Tencent Holdings, the company might soon face a competition with Tencent's own online-banking affiliate, the WeBank. The bank will be seeking an investment around $1 billion too soon in order to compete with Alibaba's Ant Financial. Ant Financial previously managed to secure $1.9 billion investment from foreign investors including one from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. former partner, Fred Hu. Ant Financial is currently operating AliBaba's online transaction, Alipay and the service currently have 400 million active users. The rapid growth of online banking in China had forced companies to keep on improving their service and trust among users to increase their users. Reuters reported that JD.com spokesperson told reporters that "During this phase of rapid development, we will benefit from the operating expertise that world-class financial institutions bring. We will continue to evaluate all options [for future additional financing] but plan to maintain a majority ownership in any eventuality." The transaction is expected to be completed by the first half of this year and is expected to boost its share price soon. Currently, its share is being traded at a low price and has lost around 16 percent of value since early last year as investors are losing confidence with China-related stocks. On a related news, JD.com also just finished a round of oversea investment as they had invested a maximum of $55 million in a shopping app startup, Wish. Wish is a San Francisco-based startup that is currently valued at $3.5 billion by an analyst. TrueBridge Capital Partners closed its fourth venture capital fund-of-funds on Wednesday last week. The fourth fund, TrueBridge-Kauffman Fellows Endowment Fund IV, L.P. ("Fund IV") received $400 million in limited partner commitments, exceeding its target of $325 million. Mel Williams, co-founder and general partner of TrueBridge told PR Newswire, "We are humbled by the confidence our limited partners have placed in us to make a meaningful impact on their portfolios by continuing to navigate the evolving technology landscape and unlock the best venture capital opportunities." TrueBridge Capital Partners is an asset investment firms focuses on information technology sector. The firm was founded in 2007 by Mel Williams and Edwin Poston. Prior to founding the TrueBridge Capital Partners, Mel Williams was working at the UNC-Chapel Hill Management Company, and Edwin Poston was in the Rockefeller Foundation. The firm was located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the home of University of North Carolina. Choice of the location in Chapel Hill showed firm interest on tech funding. Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County. The town is a part of Research Triangle Park (RTP) in North Carolina, one of the largest research parks in the world. Research Triangle Park is named after a connection between three major research universities in the U.S.: Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina. RTP was founded in 1959 in cooperation between governments, universities and industries. The parks are known as one of the most prominent high-tech research and development centers in the United States. Some renowned tech companies which have its research center within the parks are Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Lenovo, Cisco Systems, Verizon and National Semiconductor. At the center of United States research center, TrueBridge Capital Partners was founded 9 years ago. Prior to its fourth funding, the Fund IV, TrueBridge has successfully raised three venture capital funds Its first fund was raised in 2008, closing on more than $310 million, as a venture capital and growth equity-focused fund of funds. The second fund was in 2011 on more than $342 million. While, third fund was in 2014 receiving $400 milllion in hard cap. PE Hub Network reported as a result of the closing of this fund, TrueBridge Capital is now managing over $1.6 billion in assets. This year's tech fund still continues its strong trend from last year. According to Digital Capital, a recent report from by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed a total of $1.4 billion was invested through 169 individual deals in high tech funding in 2015. Fund IV from TrueBridge Capital Partners are the second big venture capital fund focused on tech funding of this quarter. Previously, a Toronto-based Leaders Fund launched a $100 million venture fund for tech company startups. This continues a strong trend for tech funding in 2016. The website of one of China's leading universities, Tsinghua University in Beijing, was hacked into by someone linked to the Islamic State (ISIS). Some of the pages on the website were replaced with photographs and audio files showing support for jihad. The infiltrator identified himself as "Islamic State Hacker". The hacker displayed images of what is believed to be ISIS militants, waving the black-and-white banner of the militant group. In addition to that, the hacker also reprogrammed the website for students and lecturers to display verses from the Quran, the central religious scripture text of Islam. The verses were showed in Arabic, accompanied by a background music. "God is great, I am unafraid of death, dying a martyr's death is my ultimate goal," says one translated Arabic message in the hacked website, as reported by NDTV. One message that was written in English read, "Everything is OK in the end. If it's not OK, then it's not the end." The website was shut down immediately after the infiltration was reported. The university took that move with a statement that it needs to be done to prevent further spreading of the message. Critics accuse Beijing's discrimination against Muslim Uighur as a trigger to the attack. The region of Xinjiang is known to be home to the Muslim Uighur minority. Previously, China's state-run media have accused the Uighurs of trying to escape China and join the militants group in the middle east. South China Morning Post stated that Tsinghua is one of China's leading universities. Also, the institution is often involved in national security research projects. Partly because of the university's involvement with China's defence and security, Tsinghua's website have often been targeted by hackers. But this is the first time the cyber attack comes from ISIS. Because of previous attacks, it is reported that Tsinghua university's website is highly maintained and protected more than many other websites, including government websites. One of the university's technician in charge for cyber security said that it is unlikely that ISIS hackers have the advanced technology required to break their website's firewall. According to International Business Times, if indeed the operation is linked with ISIS, this would be the first time the militant extremist group targeted a website based in China. It is also known that China has one of the tightest regulations and restrictions when it comes to the internet. The authorities decided what contents can or cannot be accessed by the citizens. China even has its own search engine called Baidu, and Google can't be accessed. Previously, ISIS has officially declared China as one of its enemies. New details of the Microsoft HoloLens, a wireless headset have been made public by Microsoft's Bruce Harris, a technical evangelist within the company. Microsoft has recently started to allow developers experiencing the new headset at its flagship stores in New York City. However, the tech giant has reportedly fumbled in disclosing details like availability, pricing and battery life. But finally the requisite information along with some new details have been disclosed by one of Microsoft's technical evangelists, Bruce Haris, at an event in Tel Aviv, reports The Verge. Microsoft's Hololens headset battery has a life span for five and a half hours on a single charge. The battery life reduces to its half following intensive use. The augmented reality headset has been unveiled in the just concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES), 2016. The device is completely wireless dependent on its inbuilt battery for power, reports The Telegraph quoting Bruce Haris. Hololens is scheduled to be shipped to developers in first quarter of 2016 and is devoid of any wired options. Any device supporting WiFi or Bluetooth is also capable of connecting to the headset. Wearing the headset provides a feeling for watching a 15 inch monitor close to the face reports, Wired quoting Petri. Google Glass is similarly plagued by poor battery life since its few years of availability. The smart glasses are capable of lasting around half an hour while shooting video or three hours for general active use. Unlike other reality rivals like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, HoloLens overlays holograms into the wearer's real life environment. It also allows to battle robots and invading aliens inside their living room and witness the holograms appear to burst through the walls and ceiling of the physical room. Hololenses are also capable of getting connected all together. Two or more Hololens users are capable of examining the same object concurrently. Microsoft aims to make Hololens development kits available in the market for $3000 in the coming months. Microsoft enters the ever burgeoning virtual reality market with the newly unveiled HoloLens. The tech conglomerate has used augmented technology rather than virtual reality while developing the product. Promotional videos from the company have shown that HoloLens is being used to view emails and documents on walls and can be worked on while the user remains involved with other tasks. Microsoft has remained hesitant to disclose certain information on its first augmented reality product, the HoloLens. The AR product has been reported to have a very poor battery life unlike Google Glasses. However, the tech giant is working on it to develop the life period of HoloLens batteries. Family home 18 months after fire razed their Thousand Oaks condo The Thousand Oaks family says it's been a long, frustrating wait, but they're thrilled to finally be back home in their two-bedroom unit. Lisa McKinnon/The Star The train bridge near Santa Clara River, looking northbound from Ventura Road, between Ventura and Oxnard. SHARE A 17-year-old male was struck and killed by a Union Pacific train early Monday on the train bridge near Santa Clara River between Ventura and Oxnard, a Union Pacific official said. The teenager was walking northbound down the middle of the tracks with a bicycle when he was struck by a northbound train at 3 a.m., said Francisco Castillo Jr., area director of corporate relations and media for Union Pacific. The train's emergency horn and brakes were activated, Castillo said. The train was a 76-car oil train, Castillo said. The tracks were reopened at 7 a.m. The Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office declined to confirm the victim's age or gender, pending notification of next of kin. STAR FILE PHOTO Simi Valley Rotarians Rocky Rhodes (left) and Tony Falato chat in October after Rhodes decided to donate his kidney to Falato. Their surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. SHARE By Alicia Doyle Just days before surgery is scheduled, Rocky Rhodes says he is fully prepared to give fellow Rotarian Tony Falato a new kidney and a new life. "Knowing that this really cool human being gets to stick around a little bit longer that's pretty gratifying," said Rhodes, 49, of Simi Valley. On Tuesday, Rhodes and Falato, both members of the Rotary Club of Simi Valley, are scheduled to undergo operations at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where one of Rhodes' kidneys will be removed and implanted into Falato. "It's strange knowing part of my body is going to be in his body, but I would be more weirded out if I were giving it to a stranger," Rhodes said. "All in all, I'm incredibly excited about it and really ready for it to happen. Tony's cardiologist said he's in optimum shape, so we're ready to do this." Falato, who has been on dialysis for the past seven months, said the kidney donation will save his life. "I'm excited about my new kidney," said Falato, 52, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 renal failure in March. "Rocky is an angel. A gentleman like that needs to be put on a pedestal." Falato, who owns the Junkyard Cafe in Simi Valley, praised the individuals who spearheaded the search for a donor. The effort was led by "Team Tony," a group made up of Falato's wife, Evelyn Locker, along with Rotarians May Culbertson, Terry Marvin, Michelle Neff-Hernandez and Deb Holler. "I am grateful to Team Tony," Falato said. "I'm blessed for having people like this in my life." Rhodes met Falato about three years ago when he moved to Simi Valley and transferred his Rotary membership from Woodland Hills. When he learned Falato needed a kidney, he underwent blood testing to determine whether he was a match. He was not, but Cedars-Sinai is leading the nation in non-matched donor transplants, which are only possible with a living donor. "Once I have the kidney and get healthy, we'll be on a crusade to educate the public about being a donor," Falato said. "I am the luckiest person in the world. God has a plan for me, so I'm going to follow through. I'm on a mission to educate the public." Rhodes said he was inspired to donate his kidney because his stepmother donated one to a stranger at age 70. "It's a big deal but not such a big deal that people should fear it," Rhodes said. "It sounds dramatic, but I had my stepmother as a mentor and example. She did it at 70. If she can do it, I can do it." After Tuesday's surgery, Rhodes is scheduled to stay in the hospital for 48 hours. Falato is expected to remain for several more days depending on how his new kidney reacts, then will stay at his home in Simi Valley for up to three months until his immune system builds up. "I anticipate a fantastic outcome," Falato said. STAR FILE PHOTO Simi Valley police SHARE By Staff Reports Simi Valley Police are advising drivers to avoid Sycamore Drive north of Route 118 after a vehicle crash into a light pole. The accident was reported in the 2600 block of Sycamore Drive around 7 p.m., closing northbound traffic on Sycamore Drive and causing a detour of traffic for about 45 minutes. Police suggested taking alternate northbound routes via Tapo Canyon Road or Erringer Drive. The driver, who was alone in the car, was not injured but is being evaluated for possible driving under the influence, police said. KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR Bishop Broderick A. Huggins presides at a 10 a.m. service at St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard on a recent Sunday. SHARE KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR Kayla Ross (standing right) walks her cousin Amian Weaver to Sunday school from the main church hall of St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard on Sunday. KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR Dorothy Byrd serves as usher at the 11 a.m. service at St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard on Sunday. KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR The Rev. John Gatlin sings in the all-male choir at the 11 a.m. service at St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard on Sunday. By Claudia Boyd-Barrett Martin Luther King Jr. Day: the time of year when people's attention shifts, albeit for 24 hours, to the legacy of the civil rights movement and the struggles of African-Americans. The rest of the year? For some people of African descent living in Ventura County, it can feel like they're almost invisible. Ventura County, according to numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, is overwhelmingly white; the Census Bureau classifies Latinos as white, referring to Hispanic origin as an ethnicity and not a race. In 2014, black or African-Americans constituted a paltry 2.2 percent of the county's population. In California as a whole that number is 6.5 percent. Next door, in Los Angeles County, almost one in 10 people is black or African-American. "Our population is getting progressively lower in Ventura County; it's as if we're becoming extinct," said Mitzi Ivey, an African-American born and raised in Ventura County and chairwoman of this year's African-American Speech Exposition, a contest for fifth- and sixth-grade students held in Oxnard. Ivey said that Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth and an annual NAACP banquet in October are the only times during the year when people in the county seem to pay attention to the African-American community. "Politicians tend to ignore us because we don't impact voting outcomes in big numbers,"she said, also pointing to a lack of African-Americans in local government and business. "But that won't stop us from voting. We are a people that intend to be heard." As the pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church in Oxnard, the largest and oldest African-American church in Ventura County, Bishop Broderick Huggins has thought a lot about this issue too. Huggins said he regularly hears from members of his congregation and others in the community about discrimination against African-Americans, particularly in local schools, where he says students face "demographic bullying." "That's almost an everyday occurrence," he said. "Simply because of the numbers, when you have a small number you're at a disadvantage. That's just the way it is." One of Huggins' biggest concerns is what he says are a lack of job opportunities for African-American youth in the county. Many are rejected from potential employment, particularly in Oxnard, because they don't speak Spanish, he said. That can compound already existing economic disadvantages, or require young people to drive to Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley to find work, he said. Local African-Americans face other forms of discrimination too, he noted. "We are not a minority, we are a micro-minority here," he explained. "(Racism) is worse because there are no consequences to it, and African-Americans really have no economic leverage to change it. The bus boycott in the South was effective because there was economic leverage to change the system. But we have no leverage here." Not everyone sees the diminutive size of Ventura County's African-American population as a problem, however. In fact, for some African-Americans who grew up here, being part of a "micro-minority" means they have learned to get along with and understand a diversity of people outside of their own racial group. Cynthia Gonzalez, 41, an attorney in Ventura, said she has not seen race as a barrier in her adult life either. Gonzalez grew up on the west side of Ventura, where she said her friends were a mix of whites, Hispanics and Asians. She didn't even consider her African-American heritage as an issue until 10th grade, when a group of skinheads came to her high school and started threatening black students. "It was really scary. I thought: 'Wait, hold on, I don't understand this. Why is this happening?'" Gonzalez recalled. "I thought, 'Oh gosh, is this what the rest of my life is going to be like?' Well, fortunately it hasn't been." Michael McCurtis, a musician and a pastor at Total Life Christian Center in Ventura, said he too benefited from growing up African-American in a mostly Caucasian and Hispanic environment. He said it has allowed him to understand both whites and blacks, given him an appreciation for different cultures and musical styles and helped him see past stereotypes. Has he experienced racism? Yes, he said. But he doesn't let it bother him. "To this day I just get along well with white people because I grew up with white people and I grew up with Mexican people. I don't have time for anybody trying to be mad at any culture just in general, that's silly," he said. "Everybody black is not my friend, everybody white is not my enemy, and everybody Hispanic is not lazy." Still, several people interviewed said they would like to see more African-Americans represented in Ventura County's government institutions. Ellis Green, a former Port Hueneme councilman and mayor, said a lot of good work has been done in the county to encourage diversity. However, minorities in general including Hispanics and other racial or ethnic groups are still underrepresented in local politics, he said. "We're not getting the representation that we should," he said. "I think we need to have more people of color involved in the governmental processes because that controls how our community progresses, or how it may not progress as it should." FOR MORE DISCUSSION The Ventura County Women's Forum will be hosting a seminar about race and the impact of overt or unintentional racism on March 14 at the Ventura County Community Foundation in Camarillo. Titled "A Candid Conversation About Race," the event will tackle topics such as white privilege, micro-aggressions, affirmative action, profiling, wage disparity, racial slurs, closing the borders and stereotyping. For more information, go to vcwf.org. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/AMY GOME Alisse Fisher points out landmarks in the Los Padres National Forest as she leads a hike during a Wilderness Basics Course put on by the Sierra Club. SHARE By Staff Reports Love to hike but have never gone backpacking? Never set foot in the wilderness? Ready to get off the couch? People of all fitness levels who want to learn how to explore the local backcountry safely and confidently are invited to enroll in an eight-week Wilderness Basics Course offered by the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club. Eight classes will be held from 7-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays from Feb. 24 through May 4 at Church of the Foothills, 6279 Foothill Road, Ventura. Topics will include hiking techniques, backpacking equipment, outdoor clothing, wilderness ethics, first aid and safety, weather, water filtration, cooking, and navigation with map and compass. Day hikes, a car camp and backpacking trips in the local mountains will put those lessons to practical use. Students will receive the book "Walking Softly in the Wilderness: The Sierra Club Guide to Backpacking" by John Hart, handouts about the topics discussed and a compass. Participants must supply all other equipment, which may be purchased, borrowed or rented from local sporting goods stores. The class is open to anyone in reasonable health and older than 18, although teenagers 13-17 may take the course if they enroll with their parent or guardian and go on the outings with that person. To help participants get in shape, instructors will lead physical conditioning hikes in the local mountains. Prices are $160 for Sierra Club members and $175 for nonmembers; a couples rate is $285 for members and $315 for nonmembers. Students are $135 with student identification. This is the seventh year the course has been offered. "Although I felt comfortable spending hours hiking outdoors from dawn to dusk, venturing into the realm of overnight backpacking seemed a major jump that I did not feel comfortable making on my own," said Arturo Hernandez, who took the course and is now a hike leader. For details go to the website www.lospadres.sierraclub.org/wbc or facebook.com/lospadresWBC. If you have questions, email lospadresWBC@gmail.com or call 524-7170. SHARE "I will gladly accept the mantle of anger." Thus did Donald Trump react last week to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who in her Republican response to the State of the Union address bravely called on Americans to resist the temptation "to follow the siren call of the angriest voices." And nobody wears the mantle of anger as well as Trump. The rest of the Republican presidential contenders, acolytes in anger all, seem happy to help him on with the cloak, to hem the sleeves and let out the waist until the fury fits perfectly. Republicans like to blame Trump for hijacking the party, but equally to blame are the others in the race for letting it happen and continuing to do so, now just two weeks from the Iowa caucuses. Thursday night's debate was another depressing development: Any of four men on the stage Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or John Kasich could have been a viable alternative to the fear and demagoguery offered by Trump and Ted Cruz. Instead, they cluttered the stage and quarreled among themselves, offering little beyond faint echoes of Trump's rage. A crystallizing moment came when each was asked about Trump's plan to bar Muslims from immigrating. Kasich: "I've been for pausing on admitting the Syrian refugees." Christie: "I said right from the beginning that we should take no Syrian refugees of any kind." Rubio: "Donald tapped in to some of that anger that's out there about this whole issue." Cruz: "I understand why Donald made the comments he did and I understand why Americans are feeling frustrated and scared and angry." Bush alone expressed outrage at Trump's proposal ("all Muslims seriously?") but he had no chance to draw an extended contrast with Trump in the seven-way competition for airtime. The GOP race is typically described as a struggle between the outsiders and the establishment. Really it's a battle between the demagogic (Cruz and Trump) and the selfish (Rubio, Bush, Christie, Kasich). The latter candidates, blinded by certainty in their own magnificence, refuse to clear the field so that one of them can take on the demagogues. (Ben Carson, the other man on the stage, appeared to have wandered, bewildered, into the debate.) The polling shows the dilemma: Trump averages about a third of the GOP vote, Cruz a fifth. The four others together are about a quarter enough to give voters a viable alternative to Trump and Cruz, if only they could put country before self. Worse, they seem content to echo and imitate Trump. Haley, in the audience for Thursday's debate in South Carolina, got little support for her noble call for tolerance. "Our military is a disaster. Our health care is a horror show," Trump said when asked to respond to Haley. "We have no borders. ... Our country is being run by incompetent people. And yes, I am angry." So was Bush: "The simple fact is that the world has been torn asunder." And Rubio: "If we don't get this election right, there may be no turning back for America." Christie spoke of Obama's governing as "a dictatorship," called the president "a petulant child" and described "the world being on fire." But none could equal Trump's formula for frightening. "It's not fear and terror, it's reality," Trump said. "Our country's a mess and we can't let all these people come into our country and break our borders." Trump turned his conspiracy theories on Cruz ("if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve?"), and when Cruz tried to fight Trump in kind by insinuating his "New York values" are too liberal, Trump shut him down by invoking the smell of death in New York after the 9/11 attacks. There is, as Cruz was the latest to learn, no way to best Trump in demagoguery. So if Trump's other rivals are only going to ape his paranoia and rage, why would voters accept an imitation if they can have the original? A better solution is to present an alternative, which the other Republicans can't do because they're fighting among themselves. When Rubio and Cruz were having a valuable argument about taxes, Christie broke in to "interrupt this debate on the floor of the Senate" and told Rubio: "You blew it." Similarly, after Cruz and Rubio were having an important debate about immigration, Bush dismissed the bickering of "backbench senators" who "bend with the wind." And while his rivals quarreled over trifles, Trump got one step closer to the nomination. Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post. Email him at dana.milbank@washpost.com. By Oscar Mussons & Fernando Vidaurri Vietnam, the fastest growing economy in ASEAN, will be on the radar of more investors in 2016. The country has a large low-cost labor force and fast growing economy that have made it an attractive alternative to more expensive manufacturing markets such as China. In 2015, Vietnam agreed to the TPP, became integrated within the ASEAN Economic Community, and signed a number of important FTAs. 2016 will also see Vietnam finalize important treaties, such as the text for the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA), which could be ratified by 2017, and come into force in 2018. Within the European Union, Spain has sought to increase trade with Vietnam, and has been working towards that goal before the EU-Vietnam FTA comes into place. Both countries signed a strategic partnership in 2009 and have seen increasing bilateral cooperation in multiple fields, such as politics, economics, culture, and education. In fact, according to the Spanish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ignacio Ybanez Rubio, Spain considers Vietnam a reliable partner. However, he recognized that trade between both nations still needs to reach its full potential. Current Trade Relations In 2014, Vietnam-Spain bilateral trade reached US $2.5 billion. For 2015, trade turnover is expected to have increased by 15 percent. The main exports from Spain to Vietnam included chemical products, machinery, textiles, raw materials, and plastics Both countries have also worked together on large construction projects as well as cooperated on policies in other areas that would strengthen business ties between the two partners. On the diplomatic level, in 2015 Vietnam introduced a visa exemption for citizens of five EU countries, among them Spain. This visa exemption has been warmly welcomed by Spain, and has been seen as move that could help attract more Spanish tourist, as well as investors to the tourism industry. While identifying the advantages and potential for investment of many localities in Vietnam, Spanish Economic and Commercial Counsellor to Vietnam Jose Antonio Bretones has recognized that there are still many areas in which trade can be improved. Mr. Bretones made those comments in the context of the Meet Spain event held in Hanoi in October 2015, where he mentioned that investment remains lower than expected, with only 30 firms involved in project in Vietnam. While investment is expected to increase once the FTA comes into effect in the meantime, there are many industries which display good growth potential such as infrastructure, energy, tourism, and food processing. Promising Industries for Spain-Vietnam Trade Construction Industry and Real Estate The fast growth of the economy, accelerated industrialization and rapid urbanization of Vietnam present multiple opportunities for Spanish construction companies. In fact, some big Spanish construction companies have been investing in construction projects in Vietnam for a while. Projects include construction contracts awarded to OHL Group for various motorways in conjunction with consortium of local companies. Vietnams construction and real estate sector will continue growing as the country continues to urbanize. Over the past decade Vietnams urban population has expanded by 3.5 percent annually. During the same period, from 2005 to 2014 Vietnams construction sector expended at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent, while foreign investment in the sector grew at a CAGR of 14 percent. Companies seeking to invest in the real estate sector now are also able to benefit from the Law on Real Estate Business which went into effect on July 1, 2015. Under the new law foreign entities and individuals are now allowed to buy property for use as factories, office or for any other business purposes. Renewable Energy As Vietnam continues its rapid industrialization, this will put more pressure on its electricity system, especially given that demand has a 10 percent annual increase over the past decade. Given that demand is expected to increase further over the next 20 years, the Vietnamese government has started looking at renewable energy sources such as hydropower, which currently supplies one third of its energy needs. Meanwhile, Spain is a world leader in renewable energy with many companies leading in research and development efforts in areas such as wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Based on data from the General Department of Energy, the electricity output for 2015 ranged between 194 and 210 billion kWh. This amount is expected to increase to between 330-362 billion kWh by 2020. Since the Vietnamese government has issued a Clean Energy Development Plan that calls for a of 10 to 20 percent decrease in carbon dioxide emissions, the need for investment in clean technologies becomes crucial. In order to achieve these objectives and meet the rising energy demands the Vietnamese government has continued to open the sector to private investment. Thus, Spanish companies with expertise are well placed to invest in these areas. Tourism Tourism is an especially attractive area for investment due in part to the visa exemption rules adopted by Vietnam for Spanish citizens. This will not only increase tourism in Vietnam, but also increase investment in the tourism industry by taking advantage of the multiple cultural and natural attractions available in the country. Before the visa exemption was put in place the number of Spanish tourist rose by 22.7 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to Vietnams National Administration of Tourism. In the medium and long term these figures can be expected to increase significantly. In fact, a month after the visa exemption went into effect Vietnam saw a 159 percent increase on the number of Spanish arrivals from a month earlier. While the sharp increase may have been influenced by the policy going into effect during the summer holiday season, it is clear that tourism remains an area with growing potential. With 4.6 million tourists in the Ho Chi Minh area alone in 2015 and US $4.16 billion grossed by the local tourism sector, a 10 percent increase year on year on revenue, this is an industry that cannot be overlooked. Furthermore, the sector is ed to keep growing with revenue gross by the local tourism sector forecasted to reach US $5.1 billion in 2016 in the HMC area alone. The continual growth in this industry has proven very attractive for Spanish companies such as Melia Hotels International. The hotel chain company opened its second hotel in Vietnam in 2015, in the city of Da Nang and plans to open a third hotel in 2016, which will enable it to continue its expansion in the Asia region. Textiles and Fashion The textile industry is one of the strongest industries in Vietnam, due to the low labor costs and well-integrated supply chains, which have made the country the fourth largest textile exporter in the world. The new economic treaties and agreements recently signed by the country, such as the TPP and the EVFTA, which could be finalized this year, will help attract more investment in this area. Based on data from the Vietnam Textile and Garment Association production growth for the next five years is expected to increase at a growth of 12 to 14 percent per year, while exports are expected to grow at 15 percent per year over the same period. This has proved very attractive for Spanish fashion manufacturers like Inditexs Zara and Mango that benefit from the close proximity between its factories and its increasing number of stores in the region. Additionally, as Vietnams middle class rises and incomes , these same companies can not only benefit from the low manufacturing costs, but also from the increased purchasing power of Vietnams middle class. opened stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, proving that as incomes continue to rise in Vietnam and throughout Asia, companies can benefit from the many advantages the country offers, as well as have closer access to its growing Asian customer base. Further Support from Dezan Shira & Associates With decades of experience operating in the region, the specialists at Dezan Shira & Associates are well placed to help Spanish companies enter and succeed in the Vietnamese market. We are happy to offer support directly through our Spanish Desk. For more information, please get in touch further at vietnam@dezshira.com. About Us Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email vietnam@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. Investing in Vietnam: Corporate Entities, Governance and VAT In this issue of Vietnam Briefing Magazine, we provide readers with an understanding of the impact of Vietnams new Laws on Enterprises and Investment. We begin by discussing the various forms of corporate entities which foreign investors may establish in Vietnam. We then explain the corporate governance framework under the new Law on Enterprises, before showing you how Vietnams VAT invoice system works in practice. E-Commerce in Vietnam: Trends, Tax Policies & Regulatory Framework In this issue of Vietnam Briefing Magazine, we provide readers with a complete understanding of Vietnams e-commerce industry. We begin by highlighting existing trends in the market, paying special attention to scope for foreign investment. We look at means for online sellers to receive payment in Vietnam, examine the industrys tax and regulatory framework, and discuss how a foreign retailer can actually establish an online company in Vietnam. Tax, Accounting, and Audit in Vietnam 2014-2015 The first edition of Tax, Accounting, and Audit in Vietnam, published in 2014, offers a comprehensive overview of the major taxes foreign investors are likely to encounter when establishing or operating a business in Vietnam, as well as other tax-relevant obligations. This concise, detailed, yet pragmatic guide is ideal for CFOs, compliance officers and heads of accounting who need to be able to navigate the complex tax and accounting landscape in Vietnam. 1,510 delegates will attend the important event in Hanoi The congress will be used to elect a new party central committee, which will then elect the politburo, the party secretariat, the party central examination committee, and general secretary under procedures prescribed in the Party Regulation and the Party Central Committees Intra-Party Electoral Regulations issued in 2014. The congress will also review and assess Vietnams development after 30 years of Doi moi, and the implementation of the resolution released by the 11th National Party Congress (2011-2015). It will also set new targets and tasks for national development in the 2016-2020 period. The landmark event is expected to be attended by 1,510 delegates representative of more than 4.5 million Party members across the country. This will be a political event of paramount importance for the Party and the whole nation. All cadres and Party members are awaiting and pinning their expectations on the success of the congress, said Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the closing session of the 11th Party Central Committees 14th meeting last week in Hanoi. Trong stated that during this meeting, members of the committee had discussed personnel preparations for the 12th Party Central Committee in a democratic, straightforward and responsible manner. They selected members of the 11th Party Central Committee for re-election in the 12th tenure as well as additional members of the Politburo and the Party Secretariat to be considered for re-election. Members of the 11th Party Central Committee also reached a strong consensus on the Politburos nominations for the Chairmanship, the Secretariat, and the Committee for Appraising Delegates of the 12th National Party Congress. They also agreed on nominations for the countrys top four positions Party General Secretary, State President, Prime Minister and National Assembly Chairperson for the next term. While the new general secretary will be chosen at the 12th Party Central Committee, the new state president, prime minister, and national assembly chairperson will officially be elected at the National Assemblys 14th session in Hanoi during May and June of this year. The disputes arose over the area of the apartments sold. Specifically, the buyers claimed that the company added reinforced concrete pillars and electrical boxes into the units, but did not account for this in their calculations of floor space. The trials will be held again 30 days after the first date. If representatives of Keangnam continues to not show up, the trials will go on without their presence. Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, developed by Keangnam Vina, the Vietnamese subsidiary of South Korean Keangnam Enterprises, is located on 4.6 hectares on Pham Hung street in west Hanoi, and is currently Vietnams highest building. With a total investment capital of more than $1 billion, the 72-storey tower features a 5-star hotel, offices and apartments for lease, and two 48-storey apartment towers with a total of 922 apartments. All of the apartments were sold at an average price of $3,000 per square metre. Since 2011, seven buyers of 10 apartments in Keangnam Landmark Tower have sued Keangnam Vina, claiming that the company violated several contract terms. In July last year, Keangnam Vina was ordered by court to pay VND400 million ($19,000) in one case to buyers claiming the company company miscalculated the USD/VND exchange rate in the sales contract, on top of miscalculating the area of the apartments. In November 2015, a similar case was brought to trial and it was decided that Keangnam was to keep the apartment and pay the buyer VND781 million ($36,000). Earlier this month, AON was reported to be the new owner of Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, Vietnam's tallest building, after buying it from Keangnam Enterprises. Cargill Vietnam is one of the animal feed makers suspected of evading tax via transfer pricing Nguyen Huy Dien, vice head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Developments (MARD) Directorate of Fisheries, told VIR that an inspector group had investigated seven major foreign firms that produce animal feed in Vietnam to determine whether or not they had been conducting transfer pricing to evade tax. No transfer pricing evidence has been found from these firms, Dien said. The inspectors include the representatives of the MARD and the ministries of Public Security, Planning and Investment, Industry and Trade, and Finance. The foreign firms in question are Thailands C.P Vietnam, Taiwans Uni-President Vietnam, the UKs Grobest Vietnam, the US Cargill Vietnam, Chinas Tongwei Vietnam, Frances Guyomarch Vietnam, and Taiwans Sheng Long Bio-Tech International. In October 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh ordered these ministries and the peoples committees of all provinces and cities under the central rule to conduct transfer pricing investigations over animal feed firms in Vietnam. This order came amid local enterprises lamenting their foreign rivals unhealthy competition by committing tax fraud via transfer pricing. However, Le Ba Lich, chairman of Vietnam Animal Feed Association, told VIR, It is highly doubtful that many foreign animal feed firms have been conducting transfer pricing for years for tax evasion, but it is hard to find specific evidence. The expert, with 30 years of animal feed experience, explained that each feed mill in Vietnam had hundreds of types of feed. Each type of feed has about 20-30 kinds of substances. Meanwhile, prices of feed materials fluctuate every day, and 70 per cent of materials for making feed in Vietnam are imported. Also, Vietnam currently has no transfer pricing specialist. Thus it is very hard to affirm that foreign firms are conducting transfer pricing. It is also a challenge for authorities to determine transfer pricing, Lich said. Meanwhile, C.P Vietnam told VIR via email that C.P thinks there is no transfer pricing among firms in Vietnam. With the states determination to strictly and periodically examine firms and punish violators, we believe that a healthy business climate will be created, and firms violations will be limited, said the email. Transfer pricing activities usually occur when multinational corporations with a network of subsidiaries located in different countries declare higher costs and higher prices in order to declare operating losses in certain tax jurisdictions, thereby reducing their payable tax. Recently, the issue of tax avoidance through transfer pricing has been receiving more attention from authorities and the media in Vietnam. However, Dien of the MARD noted that though no transfer pricing had been discovered, inspectors found that these seven foreign firms had paid huge commission for local distributors. Some distributors even receive Camry-branded cars as a commission though they can sell only about ten tonnes of feed a year, Dien said. Often, the commission is worth 30 per cent of a distribution contracts value. This has greatly contributed to a very high price of animal feed in the market. He said the MARD had sought help from the Ministry of Finance to clarify the cahoots between the foreign firms and their distributors. According to the MARD, Vietnam currently has 64 foreign animal feed mills, holding about 65 per cent of market share. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L), Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano of Japan, and European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini (R) arrive at the IAEA in Vienna, Austria. (Photo source AFP) TEHRAN: The US and Iranian presidents on Sunday (Jan 17) hailed the implementation of Tehran's nuclear deal as historic, but new American sanctions threatened fresh tensions. The UN's atomic watchdog confirmed in Vienna late on Saturday that Iran had complied with its obligations under last summer's accord, leading the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate whose 2013 election victory helped launch a huge diplomatic effort toward the deal struck on Jul 14 in Vienna, said the implementation was a crucial moment for his country. "We Iranians have reached out to the world ... have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. In Washington, President Barack Obama said engagement with Iran had provided a "unique opportunity". But Obama also noted that "profound differences" with Tehran remained over its "destabilising activities". In a sign of those differences, Washington announced it had decided to target the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme with new measures. Five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury Department announced. The White House had threatened to impose the measures last month but withdrew them after Rouhani hit out at both their timing and intent. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement. Asked before the new sanctions were announced how Iran would react to fresh measures against it, Rouhani on Sunday had said: "Any action will be met by a reaction." RELEASED AMERICANS LEAVE TEHRAN The new sanctions came after four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, left Tehran following their release in a prisoner swap with the United States. The prisoner swap involved Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former US Marine Amir Hekmati and a fourth man, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. Iranian state television said they departed on a special plane to Bern in Switzerland but US officials told American media that Khosravi-Roodsari was not on board. The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed that three US prisoners released by Tehran were due in the country. Washington Post publisher Frederick Ryan said in a statement: "We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over." Under the exchange, Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 more. Obama welcomed the Americans' release, saying: "When Americans are freed, that's something we can all celebrate." For a decade the sanctions, imposed in condemnation of Iran's disputed nuclear programme, had crippled the country's economy. Rouhani, who has promised that 2016 will be a "year of prosperity" for Iranians, told lawmakers on Sunday that following the lifting of sanctions Iran would seek foreign investment of US$30-US$50 billion annually, to dramatically spur growth to eight percent. Iran can now increase its oil exports, long the lifeblood of its economy though Rouhani has moved away from relying on crude. The nuclear deal will also open up business in the 79-million-strong country. US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the United States was to repay Iran a US$400 million debt and US$1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution. ISRAELI WARNING The repayment, arranged after an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of dollars that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions. The Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following Rouhani's election. It drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano was also due in Tehran on Sunday for talks on the UN watchdog's enhanced inspections to ensure Iran's continued compliance with the deal. The steps taken so far by Tehran extend to at least a year - from a few months previously - how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material. They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium - enough before the deal for several bombs - and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium. Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes including power generation and medical research. Critics, including Obama's Republican opponents, have poured scorn on the deal, saying it fails to do enough to ensure Iran will never acquire the bomb. Israel, widely assumed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed state and Iran's arch-foe, has repeatedly slammed the agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran had not given up its hope of obtaining a nuclear weapon. "Israel's policy has been and will remain exactly what has been followed: to not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons," Netanyahu told cabinet on Sunday. Opposition leader Sam Rainsy is seeking to reassure his supporters that though he is in exile abroad, he will work to bring change to Cambodia. The head of the Cambodia National Rescue Party is facing a two-year jail term for criminal defamation, in a suit brought by Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, should he return to Cambodia. He is also fighting a defamation case brought by National Assembly President Heng Samrin. But in a video post on Facebook, where he often communicates with his supporters, he said over the weekend he is continuing to lead the party, to seek change and to find ways to improve and protect the lives of the poor. Cambodia is ramping up for local elections in 2017 and national elections the year after. Sam Rainsy said he wants Cambodia to lead a government capable of protecting the national treasury, forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, mines, natural resources and other cultural heritage. On Sunday, Sam Rainsy also took part in a video conference, addressing supporters in Kampong Cham province, urging unity and support for the party. We are like-minded people, he said. Were not afraid of the threats. We wont sell out and we cant be separated. Critics, meanwhile, say Sam Rainsy is changing his rhetoric, now that he is again the rival of Prime Minister Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party. Ou Virak, head of the think tank Future Forum, said Sam Rainsys change in attitude toward the ruling party has caused some confusion, and thereby erodes his support. When people do not trust him is when he talks impulsively, Ou Virak said. What worries me are his words. When he gets along with Hun Sen, he talks differently. Then were getting along with China, he talks in a different way. When he is in the US, he gets along with the US, he talks in another way. Sok Eysan, a spokesman for the CPP, said the party remains unconcerned about Sam Rainsy and his messages. Some Rescue Party members have already defected to the CPP, he said. I hear they are coming to join us one after another. Afghanistans top election official says postponed parliamentary polls will be held in October, promising mistakes of the bitterly disputed 2014 presidential vote would not be repeated. Independent Election Commission Chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani announced Monday in Kabul the panel has made all technical preparations to ensure fully transparent parliamentary and district council elections on October 15. The Afghan parliaments five-year term expired last June, but security fears and political squabbling on election reforms to ensure a fair vote prevented the IEC from holding elections to choose a new legislative assembly. The crisis prompted President Ashraf Ghani to extend the parliaments mandate, through decree, until a vote could be held. The move drew severe criticism, with many Afghans questioning its legality. Nuristani said the IEC needed $67 million to cover expenses and ensure the timely holding of the elections, urging the government to make the necessary budget available and provide security for candidates, election staff and ballot boxes. The 2014 presidential vote was marred by widespread accusations of fraud, in which both Ghani and his election rival Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory. U.S. intervention ended months of deadlock and negotiated a deal under which the election rivals agreed to form the so-called national unity government, with Abdullah becoming the chief executive officer, a post created under the deal. Ghani and Abdullah also agreed on electoral reforms as a condition for future elections, but both have made little if no progress. Even those efforts have come to a halt after a set of recommendations prepared by a government-formed special reform commission were rejected by both houses of the Afghan parliament. The political wrangling also forced international donors to cut funding for Afghanistan to undertake electoral reforms. Addressing Cabinet members in Kabul shortly after the IEC announcement, Abdullah reiterated his demand for holding the future elections under a new election commission. Electoral reform is an important issue, he said, but Afghans remain concerned about the flawed management of the previous elections. Without the new parliament and district councils in place, the unity government will not be able to convene a constitutional grand assembly or loya jirga, which alone is authorized to amend the constitution and give legal cover to the office of the Afghan chief executive and its actions. Afghanistan on Monday hosted a meeting of delegates from the United States, China and Pakistan on how to initiate direct peace talks between Afghan government and Taliban representatives. A joint statement issued after the meeting in Kabul of the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) said, The group discussed and made progress on a roadmap towards initiating peace talks with Taliban groups that reflects the shared commitments of the QCG member countries. The roadmap, it added, aims to set specific measures that are necessary for creating a conducive environment for the commencement of Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace talks to reduce and ultimately end the senseless violence and establish lasting peace in Afghanistan. The four-nation contact group has agreed to hold its next meeting in Islamabad on February 6. Mondays was the second meeting of the QCG formed to help bring an end to the war in Afghanistan after Islamabad hosted initial discussions last week. the QCG called on all Taliban groups to enter into early talks with the Afghan government to resolve all differences politically in accordance with the will and aspirations of the entire Afghan nation and the desire and support of the QCG member countries for lasting peace in Afghanistan, according to the joint statement The statement went on to assert that participants indicated their commitment to a robust effort to eliminate all forms of terrorist groups, regardless of their national origin, operating in their respective territories. Member countries agreed that friendly, mutually respectful and cooperative relations among the member states of QCG are necessary to create an enabling environment for the peace process in Afghanistan. Earlier in his inaugural remarks to the meeting, Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani emphasized the need for red lines for an effective road map to peace in Afghanistan. Hinting at the need for reduction in violence in Afghanistan by the Taliban groups, Rabbani reiterated that the Afghan public would not support an open-ended process without tangible results. 'Call for peace' Rabbani also called on all Taliban groups to accept our call for peace through dialogue. So far none of the Taliban groups has indicated a willingness to engage in the process. An earlier round of peace talks with the Taliban in July stalled after indicationst that its leader, Mullah Omar, had died. Their new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, faced internal challenges to his authority, leading to an increase in violence in Afghanistan. The Afghan government expects Pakistan to use its influence with Taliban groups, whose leaders are reportedly in Pakistan, to bring the level of violence down, and to use force against groups that refuse to come to the table for negotiations. Pakistan says its influence with the Taliban is limited and the use of force would be counterproductive until all other measures have been exhausted. Threat of the use of military action against irreconcilables [those unwilling to talk] cannot precede the offer of talks to all the groups and their response to such offers, said Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Pakistans prime minister on foreign affairs, in his opening statement to the first QCG meeting. Trust deficit The presence of the United States and China in the process is supposed to help with the trust deficit between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban, however, controls more territory today in Afghanistan than it did anytime after it was ousted from power in 2001. This makes it more difficult to persuade the Taliban to enter peace negotiations with an Afghan government that seems to be on the defensive. Messages left by Taliban leaders on their websites or social media accounts had called last weeks QCG meeting useless. On the eve of the latest round of discussions, the Taliban accused the U.S. of derailing peace efforts by re-engaging combat troops in Helmand. Taliban demands The Taliban also insisted that nothing less than the withdrawal of all foreign forces and implementation of Sharia, or Islamic law, will be acceptable to it. The Taliban also has recently started calling President Ashraf Ghanis government a stooge of the U.S. This is a return to the Taliban's position during the time of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai and can be termed a hardening of its stance against the current government. Persecution, conflict and poverty forced an unprecedented 1 million people to flee from Africa and the Middle East to Europe in 2015. With the beginning of the new year, the picture remains much the same at southern Europes border crossings. The European Union is considering new measures to stop the flow, as humanitarian agencies continue struggling to help the refugees. Brian Hansford, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, called the refugees "desperate people resorting to desperate measures. Unfortunately, without a political solution, tragically, these numbers are likely to grow. The numbers are massive, but each one represents an individual tragedy. Theres a wide perception in parts of Europe and North America that the migrants are mostly men, which has fueled public concern about the crisis. But UNICEFs Christopher Tidey said 52 percent are women and children. And, he added, they're not coming because they want to. They are saying that they are coming because they have to," Tidey said. "They feel that they have no other choice in order to make sure they survive and to protect the lives of their children. Tidey said the Balkan countries are doing their best to help children and their families on the move, "particularly when they are crossing borders. Most of the countries, the key border crossings, sort of established reception centers where humanitarian services are available for people who need it. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, said its important to safeguard the EUs principle of free movement within its boundaries a principle some say is threatened by the sheer number of migrants. This means that flows have to be slowed down," Avramopoulos said. "The only way forward is European solutions with all 28 member states in order to protect borders, respect rules and ensure relocation. At the same time, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees continues to call for consistent measures to assure safety for the refugees through more resettlement and humanitarian admission programs and more flexible visa arrangements. The crisis is still very much alive. One of the Americans freed by Iran arrived home late Sunday, while several others were in Germany to receive medical treatment at a U.S. military hospital. The Boston Globe published a picture of Matthew Trevithick and his mother at Boston's Logan Airport where he arrived late Sunday on a flight from Turkey. He was held for more than a month at Iran's Evin prison for reasons that are not yet clear. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Trevithick and another American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, had been "unjustly held in Iran." Kerry announced Sunday that Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini were safely in Germany. Rezaian was accompanied by his wife, journalist Yeganeh Salehi, and his mother. "Today, all Americans celebrate the freedom of our fellow citizens," Kerry wrote on Twitter. The release of the American prisoners was announced Saturday, just hours before Iranian and Western diplomats in Vienna announced implementation of a nuclear pact between Western powers and Iran. Bureau chief Rezaian, an Iranian-American who served as the Post's Tehran bureau chief, was arrested in 2014 on espionage charges and spent over 500 days in jail, despite pleas and protests by the U.S. government, the Post, family and friends. He was convicted on the espionage charges in a secret trial last year, but his sentence had never been disclosed. Late Sunday, the Post published a memo sent to the newspaper's newsroom describing a telephone conversation between Rezaian, executive editor Martin Baron and foreign editor Douglas Jehl. It said Rezaian was in good spirits, that he felt better then he did several months ago and that his mind is sharp. Publisher Frederick Ryan released a statement saying the newspaper is "relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over." Other former detainees The other three ex-detainees released as part of a prisoner swap are: Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, an Iranian-American and former U.S. Marine arrested in 2011 on spying charges while visiting his grandmother; Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor imprisoned since 2012; and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose name had not been made public until Saturday. Trevithick had been detained for 40 days while in Iran for an intensive language program to increase his fluency in Dari, a language closely related to Farsi. Trevithick's release was separate from the those of the other four Americans. WATCH: Related video on prisoner release, nuclear deal implementation In return, U.S. President Barack Obama offered clemency to seven Iranians who have either been charged or convicted for violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. Three of them, Bahram Mechanic, Tooraj Faridi and Khosrow Afghani, are accused of exporting electronics to Iran. Nader Modanlo was convicted in 2012 for helping Iran to place its first-ever satellite into orbit in 2005. Two other men, Arash Ghahreman and Ali Saboonchi, were each convicted in separate cases, while Nima Golestaneh pleaded guilty last month in connection with the hacking of a Vermont-based software company in 2012. The Obama administration also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians outside the country. None of them are in U.S. custody, and officials have determined that efforts to have them extradited will not succeed. Former US agent As part of the prisoner release, Iran agreed to try to determine the fate of Robert Levinson, a former U.S. agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who disappeared there in 2007 while working on a project that has been linked to the CIA. U.S. officials have said they are unsure he is still alive, but said that Iran has "committed to continue cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of ... Levinson." The lengthy and complex negotiations with Iran about its nuclear program climaxed in an agreement announced last July, but there was no mention of the prisoners issue at the time. Obama and other senior U.S. officials have said they repeatedly demanded the release of Iran's American prisoners, but there had been, nevertheless, widespread criticism of the administration for failing to secure a firm agreement on the prisoners' release earlier. The Democratic candidates running in this year's presidential election agreed Sunday that the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran and release of U.S. citizens represent a positive step in relations, while also calling on countries in the Middle East to do increase their role in the fight against Islamic State. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said more needs to happen before moving rapidly toward normalizing relations with Iran, and the U.S. needs to pressure Iran further on "bad behavior" in the region such as its actions in Syria. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been gaining on Clinton in polls in the past month, said the existence of a nuclear deal without war and the thaw in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran are "very positive." But he said he would not immediately open an embassy in Tehran, instead pointing to the U.S. and Cuba as an example of moving toward warmer relations with an important country. Foreign policy positive John Hudak, a senior fellow in government studies at the Brookings Institution, said that any time foreign policy comes up in the campaign it is good for Clinton. WATCH: Where the candidates stand on Iran "She obviously has the most experience on the issues, she's obviously the most comfortable talking about the complexity of these issues and the consequences of them," Hudak said. "Bernie Sanders likes to talk a lot about his vote on the Iraq war, but I think for the most part America has moved past Clinton's decision on that and accepted her apology on that. At the end of the day, she looked ready to lead as commander in chief, Sanders did not look as prepared and (former Maryland Governor) Martin O'Malley looked completely over his head," he added. Upcoming caucuses The debate in South Carolina was the fourth for the Democrats and their last chance to discuss important issues in the same room before the first voters get to have their say at caucuses in Iowa on February 1. In the Middle East, Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley all agreed the United States should not be solely responsible for acting against the Islamic State group. Sanders said it is time for wealthy countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar to get involved, and advocated work on a political solution in Syria that includes Russia, Iran and Muslim allies. Clinton said there are a lot of forces at work in the region that the United States cannot influence, and praised President Barack Obama's strategy of backing local fighters, leading coalition airstrikes and working toward a diplomatic solution. O'Malley called attention to what he said is a shortage in intelligence gathering and assets in the Middle East, and called for a more "proactive" national security strategy. Domestic issues While the candidates agreed on a lot in the realm of foreign policy, they sparred more on domestic issues including gun control, healthcare and campaign finance. Ahead of the debate, Sanders introduced a new plan that he says would ensure health care is a right for every American. Clinton criticized Sanders, accusing him of wanting to tear up Obama's landmark health care program and start over. She instead advocated building on the Affordable Care Act and improving it. Sanders blamed the health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies for keeping the cost of health care in the United States high. He also called for more regulation of the banking industry, saying financial institutions have too much power over the economy. Wall Street reform Clinton said she has a plan to take regulations further, but Sanders said he has doubts about whether Wall Street reform is really possible when politicians receive huge amounts of money from the financial industry. WATCH: Where the candidates stand on gun control The three candidates paid tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who is honored with a national holiday Monday, and said they want to raise the country's minimum wage, create jobs and make sure everyone gets equal pay for equal work. But Clinton reiterated her critique of Sanders' policy on gun control, accusing him of doing a "flip-flop" on the question of whether gun manufacturers can be sued and voting on the side of the National Rifle Association numerous times. Sanders called her criticism "disingenuous" and said he has always stood up to gun lobbyists. The senator said gun control should not be a political issue, and that a small gun store should not be sued for a legal gun sale if that weapon is later used in a crime. Struggled for speaking time O'Malley, who trails far behind in polls and has struggled to get speaking time in debates, said he has been hearing a lot of inconsistency on gun control from both Clinton and Sanders and that he is the only one of the three who has not changed his gun policies. The latest polls have Clinton and Sanders nearly tied in Iowa and give Sanders a 14 percent lead over Clinton in New Hampshire, where the first in the nation primary will be held early next month. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll issued before the debate puts Clinton ahead of Sanders by 25 points nationally. But Sanders pointed out that Clinton at one time had a 50-point lead. O'Malley has been polling about 2 percent and Sunday's debate could be his last chance to convince voters that he should be the Democratic nominee. For the Republicans, the same poll puts Donald Trump on top with 33 percent, followed by followed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz at 20 percent support, Florida Senator Marco Rubio at 13 percent and retired surgeon Ben Carson at 12 percent. Ancient people knew some clays have healing properties. They rubbed it on their skin to cover wounds. Now, U.S. researchers have discovered how the clays work and are researching their effectiveness against antibiotic resistant infections. Blue and green clays are found in volcanic regions of the world, where native peoples used the clays to improve their health. There is evidence of Aboriginals using clays for treating wounds and they eat it. Many cultures eat clays to settle their stomach, said Lynda Williams, a clay and mineral scientist at Arizona State Universitys School of Earth and Space Exploration in Tempe. Her team found the clay was effective against some pathogens that have evolved a resistance to other antibiotics. In a paper published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, Williams and colleagues describe how a blue-colored clay is effective against drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA, a potentially lethal skin infection, in the lab. We think it works differently from most antibiotics because it works on antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. So, we were just trying to figure out the mechanism that these natural clays, that have been used since the beginning of time, how they work, she said. The clay was also effective in treating Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating skin disease in the African country of Ivory Coast. Here's how it works: one of the clays ingredients is iron that bacteria need for respiration. Some of these same clays also contain aluminum. But together, the minerals act as a sort of Trojan horse. The aluminum allows iron to flood into harmful bacteria and destroy it. In the end what we found is that aluminum is attacking the proteins in the cell wall of the bacterium and allowing pores to open so iron .. goes into the interior of the bacterium and has reactions with the protein inside. It becomes oxidized and it destroys the biomolecules inside the cell, killing the bacteria, she said. Williams hopes the research, funded by the National Science Foundation, will attract the interest of pharmaceutical companies eager to explore the healing properties of blue and green clays. British lawmakers debated Monday a petition signed by more than 500,000 people seeking to ban U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from Britain. Last month Trump, a billionaire real estate developer and frontrunner among Republican candidates, prompted international outrage by calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States "until our countrys representatives can figure out what is going on." He proposed the ban after a December 2 mass shooting that killed 14 people in California by two Muslims whom the FBI said had been radicalized. The debate, called by the Petitions Committee of the lower house of parliament, cannot result in any binding conclusion. Counter-productive Labor lawmaker Paul Flynn chairs the committee and will be lead the debate. He criticized Trump's comments, but warned that actually banning him could be "counter-productive" and give him more publicity. In the past, people have been banned from entering Britain for fostering hatred that might provoke inter-community violence. Anti-Muslim American speakers such as Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer have been blocked from entering the country by these rules before, as have extremist Islamic preachers and others whose presence the home secretary has decided would "not be conducive to the public good," the Washington Post reported. In December, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Trump's comments were "divisive, unhelpful and quite simply wrong." Finance Minister George Osborne said Trump's comments flew in the face of the founding principles of America but that banning him from Britain was not the best way to respond. Critic launched petition The petition was launched by longtime Trump critic Suzanne Kelly, a Scottish-based campaigner, who said, "The U.K. has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the U.K. If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the unacceptable behavior criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful. The British government responds to all petitions that gain more than 10,000 signatures and topics are considered for parliamentary debate if they reach 100,000. A separate petition, which opposes banning Trump from the country, will also be debated. Helen Fenwick, a professor at Durham Law School, told the Post that some supporters of the Trump ban say that the American businessman should be banned from the country because he has incited hatred on the grounds of religion, something made illegal by Britain's hate speech legislation. However, Fenwick doubts that Trump's comments would fall within that definition his comments were insulting rather than threatening, she noted to the paper. The exiled leader of the Opposition Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) said efforts toward a peaceful resolution of the Burundian crisis are not dead because the Burundian people want peace. Peace talks that were scheduled to resume on January sixth in Ugandas capital, Kampala, did not take place because the government of President Pierre Nkurunziza said it would not negotiate with certain opposition figures it considers as coup plotters or sponsors of acts of terrorism. But FRODEBU leader Jean Minani said the president has said 'the peace process cant be dead because all Burundians expect to have peace. So, if the current government of Nkurunziza doesnt want to negotiate, they will be forced to go into negotiation, he said. Peace negotiations Minani said Nkurunziza has probably forgotten that peace negotiations are usually between enemies and not friends. He denied that some members of the opposition and civil society are seeking the violent overthrow of the government. When Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza negotiated on behalf of the CNDD-FDD (Burundis ruling party) there was a comment like this. But we accepted to negotiate with him. He knows that if you have to negotiate, you dont negotiate with your friend; you negotiate with your enemies. It is because he has nothing to say to the people, Minani said. This came after the U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein warned last week that the Burundian crisis was increasingly taking on an ethnic dimension similar to the situation that preceded the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed about 800,000 people. The UN said cases of sexual violence by Burundian security forces were "deeply worrying." At least 13 cases of sexual violence against women by security forces have been documented in the last month in the country, as well as a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture cases. Opposition areas Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks were largely concentrated in neighborhoods perceived as supporting the opposition. Minani said Nkurunziza does not want to negotiate because he knows hes the cause of the crisis the country is experiencing today. Nkurunziza is the cause of the crisis of Burundi. Hes afraid to come with all the people, with the international community to talk with us because theres nothing to talk about. He cant come to talk with us because he knows he has nothing to talk about, Minani said. Burundis foreign minister Alain Nyamitwe told VOA last month his government is fighting against terrorists some of whom were using grenades to kill innocent civilians. Let me first of all say that it is unfortunate that people have died in that incident. But let me ask the question what would be the response of any police force wherever in the world when they are attacked by armed people who are using hand grenades sometimes, even rocket-propelled grenades, and sometimes even AK-47," Nyamitwe said. "How do you respond to such fire? Is it by saying come and kill us, or by using fire because fire begets fire? he added. The Burundian crisis began last April after Nkurunziza's decision to seek a controversial third five-year term, something the U.S. and Nkurunzizas opponents say violates the constitution and a peace deal that brought the Burundi civil war to an end after the loss of 300,000 lives. Boko Haram militants have not only taken the lives of more than 1,000 civilians and soldiers in Cameroon in the past three years, but the government says the country has lost thousands of cattle, sheep and goats to the terrorist raiders. The losses are a blow to farmers in the countrys border areas, who are already struggling. Cattle rancher Moussa Ibrahima settled with his family and 45 cows along the banks of the Vina river in Ngaoundere in the Adamawa region of Cameroon. The 55-year-old rancher says he left his home town of Fotokol, about 650 kilometers away on the border with Nigeria because of the attacks. Attacks on ranchers Ibrahima says he will not return to Fotokol because Boko Haram fighters have been attacking and killing cattle ranchers. He says many of ranchers who were forced by Boko Haram militants to take their cattle to Nigeria have never returned. Kalbassou Daniel, a lawmaker from northern Cameroon, says the attackers sometimes disguise themselves as cattle ranchers transporting their cows to Nigerian markets. He says Boko Haram has been increasingly stealing food and cattle from Cameroonian ranchers and farmers. Last week, Daniel says Boko Haram militants killed 15 ranchers, and their cattle escaped to the hills near Nigeria. He says people are fearful to try to retrieve the cows. Boko Haram extended its attacks from Nigeria to Cameroon three years ago, after Cameroonian troops began assisting the Nigerian military in fighting the extremists. More than 1,000 deaths Cameroon government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary says about 1,200 soldiers and civilians have died since then. He says at least 5,000 cows have also been stolen and an unknown number killed. "In 2014, 1,160 cattle were stolen from our people by the Boko Haram criminal and barbaric group. In 2015, the number of cattle stolen on the Cameroonian territory was about 4,200 excluding small ruminants." Tchiroma says although the fighters have in recent months targeted farmers and cattle ranchers, the rebels' ability to strike has been drastically reduced by counteroffensives on militant strongholds by Cameroonian and Nigerian troops. South Africa is quickly running out of maize as the El Nino drought deepens. Like many other countries in southern Africa, South Africa is experiencing its worst drought in decades. As the current crop withers due to extreme heat and little rainfall, food prices are rising and may be out of reach for millions. A devastating drought caused by adverse effects of El Nino has left South Africa exposed to a serious food security threat. El Nino is a global climate phenomenon characterized by the warming of ocean surface temperatures in equatorial parts of the Pacific and recurs every few years. The countrys water reservoirs are running low and it is left with a four-month stock of its staple food, maize. Resources short, funding challenges South Africas minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, said the situation is critical and requires urgent importation of maize. "By the end of May we may be short of white and yellow maize. We have to make sure therefore that by that time we have enough maize in stock," he said. Experts warn that over a billion dollars will be required to avert catastrophic hunger for both humans and animals. The World Food Program said Monday that an estimated 14 million people are facing hunger in southern Africa, while programs intended to assist people face critical funding challenges. Botswana said it is experiencing its worst drought in five years, with both water and food stocks quickly running out. Bleak future One Botswana rural farmer, Mothoemang Maase said the future is gloom and doom. "Life is very difficult. Not being able to plow, no food for our cattle, no grass, he explained, so we are really having a problem." Zimbabwe has not been spared either. Most crops have wilted because of heat and long dry spells. Thousands of livestock have also succumbed to the drought. With the government already failing to pay civil servants due to lack of funds, many fear it is a matter of time before they, too, face the same fate as their livestock. Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian says he had extraordinarily limited human interaction and spent 49 days in solitary confinement during his 18 months in an Iranian prison. Rezaian is one of four Americans freed Saturday as part of a prison swap with Iran that came with the implementation of the nuclear agreement. He met face-to-face with senior Washington Post editors at the German hospital where he is recovering from his ordeal before returning to the United States. "I want people to know that physically, I'm feeling good. I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time," Rezaian said. He was picked up in 2014 and accused of spying charges both the Post and the Obama administration called absurd. He was sentenced to an undisclosed prison term after a closed door trial in which he apparently was given little opportunity to offer a defense. Revolutionary Guard Rezaian said he spent most of his time in the custody of Iran's Revolutionary Guard the military force tied to hardline religious leaders. He was kept in a small room with no mattress, and said walking around a courtyard was his only exercise. He was hospitalized three times with chronic eye and groin infections. Rezaian said his last few hours in Iranian custody were among the most anxious, calling his departure from Iran and handover to Swiss officials as "touch and go until the last minute," fearing something would go wrong. "I want to thank my family, especially the efforts of my brother Ali and my wife in Iran and my mother everywhere she was. They have been incredible," he said. "I also want to thank everybody at the Post and my colleagues in other media as well, as well as everybody in the U.S. government who played an important role in my release." US Marine Also meeting with family Monday for the first time since his freedom from Iran was former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati. His brother-in-law, sisters and Michigan Congressman Daniel Kildee visited Hekmati at the German hospital. Hekmati, an Iranian-American, was arrested in 2011 on spying charges while visiting his grandmother. An American pastor, Saeed Abedini, jailed in 2012 for spreading Christianity, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose reasons for being in Iran are still unclear, also were freed Saturday. Matthew Trevithick, detained in Iran last month on charges that were never disclosed, was freed in a deal separate from the four other Americans. Clemency granted In return for freeing the four U.S. citizens, President Barack Obama offered clemency to seven Iranians who were either charged with or convicted of violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. Charges include exporting military electronics to Iran and computer hacking. The Obama administration also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians outside the U.S. None is in U.S. custody, and officials have determined that efforts to have them extradited will not succeed. Iran also has agreed to try to determine the fate of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran in 2007 while working on a project linked to the Central Intelligence Agency. U.S. officials have said they are not sure if he is still alive. The Americans were freed as the United States and European Union lifted economic sanctions against Iran as part of last year's nuclear deal. There was no mention of the prisoner swap while the deal was being negotiated. But Obama and other senior U.S. officials have said they repeatedly demanded that Iran free the Americans. U.S. military teams extended their search Sunday for 12 Marines missing in the central Pacific after their helicopters apparently collided late Thursday during a training mission off the coast of Hawaii. Military authorities say strong winds and high seas have hampered the search in an area north of the island of Oahu, and say debris has been spotted scattered over an 11-kilometer stretch of coastline. Authorities say a civilian reported seeing the two aircraft collide in a fireball late Thursday, and say no distress calls were received from either aircraft. As the search continued Sunday, Marine commanders released the identities of the two 6-man crews. The missing range in age from 21 to 41 and hail from 10 states. A U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman, speaking Sunday from Honolulu, said there were no immediate plans to call off or suspend the search. The huge transport helicopters were part of a Marine Air Corps unit based in Hawaii. A military website describes the CH-53E aircraft as the U.S. military's largest helicopter, capable of carrying 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines and an armored vehicle. A Hong Kong book publisher whose disappearance sparked international interest appeared weeping on state television Sunday, saying he had returned to China to surrender to police 11 years after fleeing a fatal drunk driving incident. Gui Minhai is one of five missing people who are associated with the publisher Mighty Current, which specializes in books on political scandals involving China's Communist leaders and other sensitive topics that are banned in the mainland. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that Gui said while in detention that he surrendered in October - about a decade after fleeing China following drunk driving incident. The report did not say if he was facing trial nor did it address the other disappearances. Gui's friends have suspected he was abducted for political reasons by Chinese agents from his apartment in Pattaya, Thailand, and smuggled into China. He is a naturalized Swedish citizen, and his disappearance prompted questions from the Swedish Embassy. The disappearances are the latest incidents to fuel growing unease in Hong Kong over the erosion of freedoms in the city, with fears that the five have been detained by Chinese authorities because of the work they published. In the interview broadcast on Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Gui said he fled the mainland after he was convicted of killing a college student in drink driving incident, despite only being sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence. "I am taking my legal responsibilities, and am willing to accept any punishment," he said. During the interview, which took place in a detention center, Gui sobbed and apologized to the family of the dead student. U.S. President Barack Obama offered clemency to seven Iranians who have either been charged or convicted for violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. The Obama administration also agreed to drop charges against 14 other Iranians outside the country. None of them are in U.S. custody, and officials have determined that efforts to have them extradited will not succeed. The seven who were given clemency are listed below. Khosrow Afghahi - One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo and the Export Administration Regulation (EAR), one count of violating the Iranian embargo, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of money laundering. Tooraj Faridi One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo and the EAR, two counts of violating the Iranian embargo and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Bahram Mechanic One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo and the EAR, six counts of violating the Iranian embargo and the EAR, five counts of violating the Iranian embargo, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, eight counts money laundering and one count of failure to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs). Nima Golestaneh Four counts of wire fraud, one count each of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and accessing a computer without authorization. Nader Modanlo, aka Modanlu and Modanlou One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo, two counts of violating the Iranian embargo, one count each of money laundering and obstruction of bankruptcy proceedings. Arash Ghahreman One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo, one count of conspiracy to smuggle goods from the United States, one count of attempting to violate the Iranian embargo, one count of smuggling, one count of conspiracy to money launder and two counts of money laundering. Ali Saboonchi - One count of conspiracy to violate the Iranian embargo and seven counts of violating the Iranian embargo. Source: Department of Justice The United States is looking for three U.S. contractors who were reportedly kidnapped in Baghdad. Iraqi and U.S. officials say the company for whom the three are working went missing two days ago. There are no details on their identities or what their jobs are in Iraq, but many different companies are working in Iraq on both security and civilian projects. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said Sunday "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals." Dozens of foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq over the last few months by terrorists and militias. Many of them have been assisting Iraqi forces battle Islamic State fighters. British Prime Minister David Cameron has attacked what he calls a "passive tolerance" in Britain's Muslim communities for segregation and discrimination against women, and says a poor grasp of the English language leaves Muslim women "more susceptible" to extremist rhetoric. In an essay published Monday in The Times newspaper that drew immediate fire from critics, Cameron proposed nearly $30 million in government funding for English language classes for Muslim women. He also suggested some migrants could be deported for failure to speak the language. Former Conservative lawmaker Sayeeda Warsi, Britain's first female Muslim Cabinet minister, welcomed the language funding. But she told British radio that Cameron's proposals are the result of "lazy and misguided" thinking that stereotypes British Muslim communities. Under proposed new rules, foreigners coming to Britain on five-year spousal visas will be tested half-way through their stay to show improvement in English language skills. Media reports say those measurements would be a key factor in deciding whether to extend a person's right to remain. Moroccan officials say they have arrested a Belgian suspect linked to attackers that killed 130 people in Paris in November. Morocco's Interior Ministry said in a statement that the man was arrested Monday near Casablanca and had "direct links with some" of the attackers. Islamic State claimed the coordinated bombings and shootings on November 13 that killed scores of civilians at several Paris locations. French and Belgian security officials traced some of the attackers to Paris and Brussels. At least two suspects linked to the attacks, Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini, are on the run; nine more were killed in the attacks and subsequent security operations. Abdeslam was born in Belgium and is of Moroccan and French heritage. Moroccan authorities issued a warrant for his arrest in December. French police allege security camera footage shows Abrini at a gas station with Salah Abdeslam two days before the attacks, driving a car that would later be used by the assailants. A spokesman for Nigerias main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is denying the party has thrown its national publicity secretary under the bus in the face of President Muhammadu Buharis war on corruption. Two weeks ago, Nigerias Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested and charged PDP national spokesman Olisa Metuh with seven counts of corruption. Metuh is accused of receiving about $2 million (400 million naira) from what a court called illegal activity of former National Security Adviser Mohammed Sambo Dasuki and then depositing the money into his personal bank account. The money was reportedly destined for the fight against Boko Haram. Metuh claims the money was intended for political activities of the then-ruling PDP. Deny responsibility But Abdullahi Jalo, deputy PDP national spokesman, said the party cannot take responsibility for the allegations against Metuh and others because the money they are accused of taking was never deposited into an official PDP bank account, but rather into their personal bank accounts. Let us call a spade a spade," Jalo said. "There is money allocated to purchase arms to fight Boko Haram, which is an act of the National Assembly, and then instead of the money to be used properly, there is an allegation by EFCC that out of this money Olisa Metuh has collected 400 million naira, our former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Tony Anenih has collected 252 million naira. "So there is a lot of money collected indiscriminately without the party knowing, he said. Jalo said the public must separate the company Destra Investment Limited, for which Metuh allegedly collected the money, from the PDP, which is a political party. PDP has no hand as a party; it has not sent Olisa or any other person to go and collect money on its behalf because PDP is a political party. It doesnt do contracts. If any money is to be given to PDP, it must go into the account of the PDP, Jalo said. Anti-corruption move The Buhari administration has vowed to reduce corruption in Nigeria by recovering stolen government money. It has denied that its anti-corruption effort is a witch-hunt of former aides of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Metuh last Wednesday asked the court to begin his trial or release him from EFCC custody. The court rejected his request for a speedy hearing. On the sprawling floor of Detroits Cobo Center, site of the 2016 North American International Auto Show, the latest and greatest vehicles, and the technology going into them, are at center stage for the international press. Amid the glitz and glamour and shiny metal and chrome of this annual ritual for the automotive world, its easy to forget how close the U.S. auto industry came to complete collapse. When I was here in 2008, 2009, there was just a sense of depression, frankly, and fear, describes U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat. Because we werent sure what was going to happen. Stabenows colleague in the U.S. Senate, Gary Peters, also a Democrat from Michigan, remembers just how dire the situation was. When we would walk around this auto show in 2008 and 2009 we werent sure if some of these automakers would survive, whether or not General Motors and Chrysler would be around. In the frigid Detroit winter of January 2009, the scene outside the Cobo Center reflected those concerns. At the time, General Motors and Chrysler, two of the big three U.S. automakers, were on the verge of bankruptcy, iced by an economic downturn that forced many Americans to skip new vehicle purchases. Just over 13 million new vehicles left dealer lots in the U.S. in 2008. By 2009 that number dipped to just above 10 million. Comeback from life support Assembly lines halted, and thousands of workers like Frank Warren were laid off. The event that led to my latest round of layoffs was a bunch of bad decisions being made by a bunch of executives being overpaid themselves, he explained. We had no idea we were on the verge of bankruptcy. The solution to the meltdown was for the U.S. government to finance loans to the struggling U.S. automakers. All were asking for is some help here, and they call it a bailout, said Daimler Chrysler employee Keith Kennedy at the time. Theyre not bailing anybody out. Its a loan. In the 2008 meltdown, the auto industry was on life support, says University of Michigan Law Professor John Pottow, who describes the U.S. governments role in the crisis. They basically came in as if they were a giant hedge fund, and said, were going to let you borrow some money on our bankruptcy terms, and that will be enough to fund your restructuring. The plan had its detractors. No amount of government stimulation is ever going get us back on our feet," said Tea Party supporter Jeff McQueen during an organized protest against the loans outside Cobo Center during the 2010 North American International Auto Show. Risky move Senator Gary Peters says the loans were indeed a risky move for President Barack Obama, who succeeded President George W. Bush as the meltdown in the auto industry accelerated. Had that disappeared, and with the loans, it would have been catastrophic for him. He may not have been able to survive a re-election. Peters served as member of the U.S. House of Representatives at the time of the crisis, and was part of the Michigan delegation urging the president to act to save those auto companies in trouble. We all fought very aggressively to make sure that the funding was available for our companies to get through a very tough time and President Obama made some tough decisions, Peters told VOA during an interview at the 2016 North American International Auto Show. He was attacked by a lot of folks around the country who thought he should not help the auto industry. Pottow says the auto industry today may have looked very different if the Obama administration listened to those recommendations. We might have shut one or two of them down had things gone the other way. But the governments involvement was immediately clear to General Motors employee Matt Slade, who credits the loans with saving his job. "They kept thousands of people, especially in Michigan and the metro Detroit area, working, he told VOA in an interview in 2010. It's not the perfect scenario; however, it did save our industry. Fast forward to 2015 Were coming off of the best sales year ever for American vehicles, ever, for 2015, explains Senator Debbie Stabenow. Were totally back. Back, but not the same. While many assembly lines in the region are busy churning out new, more fuel-efficient vehicles, the restructuring led to the elimination of several brands altogether, such as GMs Pontiac and Hummer. Although employment figures for the Big 3 U.S. automakers in Detroit are close to their pre-recession numbers, U.S. Senator Gary Peters says they are still down from recent highs. Even though they are making more cars, you dont see the kind of increases in employment you would have seen in years past, says Peters. A lot of people are back working in the industry, says Stabenow. A lot of people are back working in the parts supplier industry. We actually have more jobs in the parts suppliers than we do the manufacturers themselves. Those brands that remain are now the showpieces of more advanced, marketable automotive technology, and thats whats fueling the resurgence of jobs in Michigan, says Kevin Kerrigan, Senior Vice President with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Seventy-six percent of the research and development money that is spent in the U.S. is spent here in Michigan, he says. I think innovation, I think technology, I think the bigger picture [is] what consumers are going to want down the road, are the true driving factor in what saved the auto industry, says U.S. automotive expert Michael Caudill from the floor of this years Auto Show. I think the auto industry saved itself. When President Obama visits the 2016 North American International Auto Show on January 20, he will get an up-close look at the newest technology and innovations in an industry his administration is partially responsible for saving, says University of Michigan professor John Pottow. President Bush started it, President Obama took it and ran with it, he explains. I do think they get credit because I do think there was a very significant possibility, certainly some people were advising, that you should just let the car companies fail, let them go their own way. And by backing them with that restructure, with that necessary capital, was the money that they needed to keep surviving; you do see healthy, smaller to be sure, but still healthy car companies. Iran's Foreign Ministry called new U.S. sanctions targeting the country's ballistic missile program illegitimate. Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said Monday that Iran will respond by boosting efforts in its legal ballistic missile program and promoting its defense capabilities. Iran drew condemnation from the U.S. and other Western powers for two ballistic missile tests late last year they said violated U.N. Security Council resolutions. Iran defended the tests as a matter of national security. The U.S. enacted new measures Sunday against five Iranian nationals and a network of companies with links to banned missile activity. WATCH: President Barack Obama credits diplomacy after historic developments in Iran President Barack Obama said his government will "vigorously" enforce sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program. "Iran's recent missile test, for example, was a violation of its international obligations and as a result the United States is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran's ballistic missile program. And we are going to remain vigilant about it," he said. The U.S. Treasury Department said the five Iranians worked to get missile components for Iran, as did the network of companies based In the United Arab Emirates and China that used third parties to try to deceive foreign suppliers and hide the identity of who would ultimately be using the materials. The announcement came a day after the U.S. agreed to lift sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program under an international deal reached in July, and hours after confirmation that several Americans held captive in Iran had been released. Irans ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions, said Adam Szubin, acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a statement issued by the Treasury Department. WATCH: Related video of Iran prisoner release Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Monday that Tehran would uphold its end of the nuclear deal as long as the "other side" does, according to state news agency IRNA. The agreement was reached in July 2015 after negotiations between Iran and the P5+1, which includes China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. Speaking at a meeting with Yukiya Amano, the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rouhani added that Iran is committed "not to seek weapons of mass destruction." A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded a pregnant Israeli woman before being shot, Israeli officials say. The attacker entered the Tekoa settlement Monday in the West Bank and stabbed the 30-year-old woman before being shot by the settlement's head of security. A spokeswoman for Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital said the woman was five-months pregnant. She said the woman was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the upper body and the fetus appears unharmed. The victim was identified as Michal Froman, the daughter-in-law of a late rabbi known to promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews. Also Monday, Israeli forces hunted for a Palestinian suspect accused of breaking into a West Bank home and stabbing a Jewish woman, Dafna Meir, to death. While Sunday's killing was part of a months-long wave of violence, it was the first inside a Jewish settlement home in the occupied West Bank and triggered fears the unrest is worsening and Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled further security measures, pledging to "strengthen the communities" after the deadly stabbing in the Otniel settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. The United States spoke out against both incidents, condemning "in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attacks over the past two days against Israeli civilians. "We were appalled and deeply saddened by the death of Dafna Meir, a mother of six, who was attacked on Sunday in her own home. We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and community," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Regarding Michal Froman, the pregnant woman who was stabbed, the spokesman said, "We wish her a full and complete recovery. These horrific incidents underscore the importance of affirmative steps to restore calm, reduce tensions and bring an immediate end to the violence." Taliban insurgents in Pakistan have claimed responsibility for a roadside bomb attack that killed at least five paramilitary soldiers and wounded several others. Police say Monday's bombing occurred on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of the volatile Baluchistan province. Militants set off the roadside improvised explosive device or IED in the Marget area, targeting a convoy of the Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitary force, officials said. A spokesman (Mohammad Khorasani) for the Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack and claimed all the men on board one of the vehicles were killed. The outlawed militant outfit is known for exaggerating the toll in such attacks. The group was also behind last week's suicide blast outside a polio immunization facility in Quetta, in which at least 15 people, mostly police and FC personnel were killed. Separately, an anti-terrorism court in Quetta Monday acquitted former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in a murder case involving the killing of a prominent Baloch nationalist leader, Akbar Bugti. Bugti died in 2006 during a military operation Musharraf's government had launched in Baluchistan at the time to suppress a separatist insurgency in the region. Nationalist Baloch leaders have been fighting for a greater share of revenue from their province's natural resources while militant groups are blamed for attacks against security forces and government installations in the resource-rich Pakistani region. A Russian parliament committee has rejected a bill that would have allowed fines or jail time for public displays of affection or sexuality by anyone who is not heterosexual. Once it leaves the committee, it goes up for a vote by Parliament, which is likely to reject the bill. Rights groups welcomed the move, but also called for the repeal of a 2013 gay propaganda law that has encouraged discrimination. The law rejected Monday was proposed by Communist Party members of the legislature. Had it passed, gay people could have been fined between $50 and $65 for public displays of affection. If that expression of non-traditional sexual relations was on territories or in institutions, providing education, culture or youth services, they faced jail time of up to 15 days. Human Rights Watch decried the bill as homophobic, while penalizing people for expressing their identity, a crucial part of anyones existence. It was a rare win for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans people in Russia. We're glad the committee is resolved to reject this homophobic bill, said Human Rights Watchs Russia Program Director in Moscow Tanya Lokshina in an e-mailed response. However, the parliament has yet to repeal the 'gay propaganda' bill which has done tremendous damage to Russia's LGBT people." The 2013 so-called "gay propaganda law" outlaws the "promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors," a vague description that received much international criticism. Lokshina says it also has led to increased numbers of attacks on the LGBT community in Russia, The level of hostility, the level of intolerance with regard to LGBT people have increased very severely in the aftermath of that gay propaganda law. Sandra, a trans women living in Moscow, tells VOA that since the law was passed, she was beaten in broad daylight and threatened with razors. Her girlfriend called police, who arrived promptly but were reluctant to detain her attackers. "There were no charges at all. I was told that they were fighting with people like you. You are a shame to us. Don't disgrace us. The LGBT community has few people to publicly speak for them in government. Despite the second class treatment, President Vladimir Putin defended the "gay propaganda law," saying it does not ban homosexuality. The head of Russias state media conglomerate Rossiya Segodnya, Dmitry Kiselyov, said in 2012 the hearts of dead gays should be burned or buried, instead of donated, calling them "unfit to live." Activists say the government uses LGBT people as scapegoats to distract the public from Russias real problems by mobilizing so-called Russian traditional values against allegedly foreign ones. Likewise, they are presenting LGBT people as alien to Russia, and to Russias traditional values, says Lokshina. And, to a certain extent, this strategy has been very keen to divert public attention from economic woes. Despite the oppressive atmosphere, some LGBT activists refuse to stay silent. Vladimir Komov, a Teachers Union Head, and engineer Dmitry Svetly are a gay couple living in Moscow. It's become a lot harder to hold public events, and fewer people come to them because they are worried about possible arrests," says Komov. On the other hand, it may have played a positive role, given a push. He continues, It's forced a lot of people in LGBT community to get out and do something. It's created a type of name for the LGBT community in Russia because it's activated a fight and initiative from the community. "We're openly gay, says Komov. "We're not hiding in fear, says Svetly. "It's our defense mechanism, adds Komov. "For us, being open is a weapon, concludes Svetly. Mark Grinberg (pseudonym) contributed to this report. Saudi-led airstrikes killed at least 26 people at a police facility in Yemen's capital overnight, adding to a death toll of nearly 6,000 people since Riyadh began its military campaign against the Houthi militia that controls Sana'a. The attack on police headquarters wounded dozens more people, many of them police officers. Rescue efforts were under way for survivors trapped under the debris of the building. On Sunday, a Saudi coalition airstrike killed an independent reporter for Voice of America and the humanitarian news agency, IRIN. Almigdad Mojalli was the sixth journalist killed in Yemen since January 2015. "Almigdad Mojalli was a committed and talented journalist who made the ultimate sacrifice to report on the difficult, but important, stories coming out of Yemen," said John Lansing, the director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors - the parent organization of the Voice of America. "He dedicated his life to reporting on humanitarian crises, and we extend our condolences to his family," Lansing said. The U.S. State Department also expressed condolences to Mojalli's family and said it is still in the process of gathering information about the circumstances of his death. Since October, Mojalli had been reporting for VOA on the human impact of the war and the economic crisis in Yemen. He was in an area outside of rebel-held Sana'a on Sunday morning when he was killed in the Saudi-led coalition airstrike. Houthi rebels overran the capital in late 2014, triggering the resignation of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in January 2015 and subsequent exile to Riyadh. Leading a regional coalition, Saudi Arabia has carried out an air campaign against the Houthis since March. North Korea launched about 1 million leaflets by balloon into South Korea in an escalating propaganda battle after the North's nuclear test earlier this month, Seoul officials said Monday. North Korea claimed to test a hydrogen bomb on January 6, although many foreign governments and analysts remain skeptical about the claim. While avoiding direct military confrontation that could easily escalate into a hot war, both the North and South resumed psychological war games and tactical maneuvers to demonstrate military readiness and resolve. Days after the test, South Korea began blasting anti-Pyongyang broadcasts and K-pop songs at its loudspeaker sites along the heavily militarized border. North Korea responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, Seoul officials said. Reached Seoul South Korea's defense ministry said the North's leaflets were being air-dropped on a near-daily basis and the leaflets have reached as far as Seoul, which is about 60 kilometers from the border. Seoul believes its propaganda broadcasts help to demoralize frontline troops and residents near the border. There are doubts the North Korean leaflets will have any impact on the public in the more affluent South. In August 2015, after the two Koreas reached a settlement to cease such Cold War provocations, Seoul prevented activists from using the balloon technique. The agreement, reached to prevent a land-mine incident from escalating into a wider conflict, also brought the two Koreas together to host a reunion for families that had long been separated by the division of the country after World War II. South Korea, the U.S. and other countries are pushing hard to get North Korea punished over its fourth nuclear test. The two Koreas share the world's most heavily fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 U.S. troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea. Brian Padden in Seoul contributed to this report. A Kenyan army unit reportedly decimated in an attack by al-Shabab militants last Friday had received warning of the assault, according to a Somali general. The commander of Somali troops in the Gedo region, General Abbas Ibrahim Gurey, tells VOA's Somali service that the unit's commander was given word of a possible attack hours before the first bullet was fired. "It was information we knew, the information was received, and they were ready for it," Gurey said in a telephone interview Sunday. The Gedo region's deputy governor has said the attack killed at least 40 Kenyan soldiers stationed at an African Union base in El-Adde, a town in southern Somalia, near the border with Kenya. Kenyan soldiers have been in Somalia since 2011, helping the AU mission, known as AMISOM, fight al-Shabab. Kenyan officials are investigating what happened in Friday's attack. A Somali official says initial warning came from civilians who saw al-Shabab massing men in the area for days. They [Shabab] often sneaked into the town at night and they were well aware of the AU base, said a journalist in the region who asked not to be named for security reasons. The attack had all the hallmarks of recent major al-Shabab operations a suicide explosion at the gate followed by hundreds of heavily armed militants storming the base from different directions. Al-Shabab had already done this twice before - first in Leego town on June 25 in which 54 Burundians were killed, and again on September 1 when 19 Ugandan troops were killed. Al-Shabab says it killed more than 100 Kenyan troops in El-Adde. Neither AMISOM nor the Kenyan government has released a death toll, but the Kenyan secretary of defense said the soldiers affected by the attacked are a company size force." Military experts define a company as having between 80 and 200 soldiers, still a small number to withstand several hundred heavily armed militants charging forward. Former Somail army colonel Mohamed Ibrahim Guber says AMISOM's strategy of establishing bases across southern Somalia has failed." These attacks show AU troops are not forging relationship with locals, he said. He says this is putting them at a disadvantage because they are unable to get information about potential attacks from al-Shabab. Paul D. Williams is an associate professor of international affairs at The George Washington University in Washington and has written about the African Union Mission in Somalia. He agrees that after three successive catastrophic attacks, AMISOM faces difficult choices." First, can AMISOM adequately defend all of its current bases, including those in the newly recovered settlements?" he asked. "Second, with the Somali National Army and federal government largely failing to provide the necessary stabilization programs in the recovered settlements, AMISOM must decide where to retain its forces and where to pull back." He says these brazen attacks on military garrisons have forced the AU to give up several newly recovered towns, a move which he says angered many locals in settlements where AMISOM forces have arrived but then subsequently vacated. AMISOM must find a way to significantly degrade al-Shabab's combat capabilities and separate the militants from the local population rather than focus on taking more and more territory, he said. AMISOM is vowing that the El-Adde attack wont derail its mission in Somalia. Our resolve can only be rejuvenated, to fight on until Somalia is freed of all elements of terror, according to Ambassador Francisco Madeira, who serves as the special representative to the chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia. Guber, however, says the key lesson from the El-Adde attack is examining the relationship between the locals and AMISOM forces, with a view toward building a local military force that shoulders the security operations. Colonel Guber says AMISOM and the international community must train and equip the Somali army and let it do the counterterrorism work in its own country. That is what I would do if I were the AMISOM commander." A monthslong struggle for control of the northern Aleppo countryside between Syrian insurgent factions and Islamic State militants is at a stalemate, partly because Western and Gulf-backed rebel militias are being forced to reinforce south of Syrias onetime commercial capital to combat Russian-backed Syrian army and Lebanese Shi'ite forces, admit insurgent commanders and fighters. The impasse risks forcing the hand of Kurdish-led forces east of the Euphrates, encouraging them to cross the river en masse and finish the job the Western and Gulf-backed Free Syrian Army seems incapable of completing ridding the northern Aleppo countryside of IS. That would exacerbate disagreements within the U.S.-led international coalition. Turkey has threatened dire consequences, if the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces move further west. The emboldened Syrian army backed by fighters from the radical Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah have made some inroads albeit slowly south and east of Aleppo and they have made advances in the coastal province of Latakia. The Russian air campaign enabled additional battlefield gains by the Syrian regime from January 8 to January 14, according to Genevieve Casagrande of the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., that monitors the military campaigns in the Levant. Regained control Over the weekend, regime forces regained control over the village of al-Ajozeyye in Aleppos eastern countryside. And army spokesmen also claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on what they termed terrorists in al-Mansoura village and Khirbet Hazmar west of Aleppo. The struggle in the northern Aleppo countryside adjacent to the border with Turkey is a key one and has become more complex with each passing month featuring on the ground regime forces, insurgents seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad, IS and, in the air, Syrian, Russian and U.S.-led coalition warplanes. Rival ground forces sometimes are able to take advantage in skirmishes of airstrikes launched by their foes. With a dizzying array of vying armed groups, jihadists and Syrian government-aligned forces battling each other in multiple micro-conflicts, friend can become foe, and foe can turn into a temporary ally with alarming speed depending on where clashes are occurring. Dizzying array of armed groups Certainly in the battles and skirmishes around Aleppo, Syrias largest city and onetime commercial capital, the struggle is getting messier by the day. Rebel commanders loudly accuse Damascus and Moscow of helping the Islamic State terror group with airstrikes on anti-Assad rebels. They are slower to admit, though, that in parts of the eastern Aleppo countryside Russian airstrikes on IS inadvertently have helped the anti-Assad rebels. Both anti-Assad rebels and the government, when it serves tactical military purposes, take advantage of the terror group's presence on the battlefield, if only indirectly, in their battles against each other. In the northern Aleppo countryside, Islamic State fighters have been opportunistically leveraging Russias air campaign to press offensives on the rebel-held towns of Marea, Tal Rifat and Azaz. After Russian airstrikes they mount attacks on us, says Abdul Rahman, a commander with the Ahfad Omer battalion, part of the larger First Brigade, a U.S.-backed secular militia. But as the battles in the northern Aleppo countryside see-saw and stalemate the control of villages can change hands day by day the chances increase of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces being tempted to intervene. Dam seized In December the SDF seized the October Dam on the Euphrates River, giving them access to the Aleppo countryside. Some forces crossed west of the river a red line for Ankara who fears the Kurds are intent on expanding their territory along the border to link up separated mainly Kurdish cantons. For face-saving purposes, the Turks accepted that the SDF fighters who actually crossed were Arabs and Turkmen and not Kurds, prompting some observers to argue that the Turkish authorities were now prepared to accept the inevitable. But Turkish officials have told VOA that is not so and that an en masse trespass by Kurdish fighters linked to Turkeys outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) would invite Turkish retaliation. Both Ankara and the Kurds rank each other far higher than Assad or the Islamic State on their respective lists of evils for urgent destruction, argues Aron Lund, who writes the Syria in Crisis report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US think tank. For the U.S., Syrian Kurdish fighters have proven to be most effective allies against the Islamic State. At the moment Turkey may stay its hand as Ankara has realized belatedly its need for Western support and the costs of playing spoiler, according to Lund. But these contradictions threaten to rip apart the United States Syrian alliance network, undermining its policy to pressure both Assad and the Islamic State, he maintains. The contradictions were apparent Sunday night when Islamic factions favored by Gulf countries clashed with SDF forces around Malkiya village in Aleppos northern countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in London that relies on information from a network of political activists. Security officials in southeastern Turkey say a roadside bomb blast has killed three police officers and wounded four others. Authorities say the attack took place late Sunday in Idil in Sirnak province near the Syrian border. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Security officials are blaming the assault on the Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as the PKK. Turkish security forces have been cracking down heavily on the PKK across Turkeys predominantly Kurdish southeast. Turkey, the United States and the European Union all consider the PKK to be a terror group. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has left 40,000 people dead since 1984. The U.S. military has released its first official account of Iran's 15-hour detention of 10 U.S. sailors whose boats had strayed into Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf last week. A U.S. Central Command statement said the two Navy vessels were scheduled to meet up with a U.S. Coast Guard boat in international waters for refueling but deviated from their planned course on the way. "The command investigation will determine what caused the change in course and why the RCBs (U.S. Navy boats) entered into Iranian territorial waters in the vicinity of Farsi Island," the statement said. The sailors were traveling through the Persian Gulf from Kuwait toward Bahrain when U.S. controllers lost contact with them Tuesday. One of the boats "had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine," and both vessels stopped, CENTCOM said. "This stop occurred in Iranian territorial waters, although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location. While the RCBs were stopped and the crew was attempting to evaluate the mechanical issue, Iranian boats approached the vessels." The sailors were later detained. "At gunpoint, the RCBs were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island where the U.S. sailors disembarked and were detained for approximately 15 hours. At this point there are no indications that the sailors were physically harmed during their detainment," CENTCOM said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who spoke to his Iranian counterpart several times over the incident, said the swift release of the sailors was a success for diplomacy. At the same time, Kerry says the pictures of 10 American sailors being detained by Iran last week left him extremely upset and frustrated. Kerry told CNN television Monday that he thought Iran's treatment of the sailors was inappropriate, and that he immediately let Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif know how he felt. But Kerry praised Zarif and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for "responding promptly" to the situation, saying that what could have been a very dangerous major hostage crisis just a few years ago was resolved quickly because of diplomacy. Kerry answered critics of U.S. policy toward Iran by saying it is far more dangerous not to negotiate with Tehran. Every year on the third Monday in January, the United States celebrates the memory of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. King first rose to prominence in 1955 when he led a successful boycott of the public buses in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, forcing the city to end its practice of segregating black passengers. He became the central figure of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and '60s, inspiring millions with his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the 1963 March on Washington. Service projects Many around the country spend the holiday commemorating King's tireless work to end racism and promote civil rights by participating in community service projects. This year that included President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who visited a Washington, D.C., elementary school where they got their hands dirty helping plant vegetables like spinach in raised garden beds. The Obamas were joined by White House mentees and members of AmeriCorps in packing bags with school supplies for the students, many of them from military families. In 1994, Congress designated the King holiday as a national day of service. So on Monday, many Americans who had the day off from work helped their communities to commemorate King's legacy. WATCH: Related video Trash in Texas "We have about 500 volunteers mobilized today for the MLK day of service," said Molly Hahn, a volunteer coordinator for the organization "Hands On" in central Texas. Those volunteers helped pick up trash from the streets of Austin, Texas. "We have about 333 people that are doing a litter cleanup along MLK Boulevard. It is many miles and they are splitting up into groups of 50 to make sure all the trash gets cleaned up," Hahn said. The organizers said there is no better way to honor King's life. "Four-hundred-fifty people from all over the city, all communities in the city, all walks of life, all ethnicities, all races, all genders, all everything, combined together, to make the community a little bit better," said Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, Texas. Marches in New York, Florida Meanwhile, in New York City, dozens of students and parents marched on a chilly morning along Central Park to honor the civil rights leader. "The mission of this school was based on the principles of Martin Luther King for racial and economic equality, said Lisa Edwards, one of the parents who joined the march. So that means diverse student body, diverse staff, and a body that also includes members of all different classes. And those are the principles I wanted my daughter to grow up with." In milder temperatures, hundreds gathered for a parade in Miami, Florida. Marching bands, dancing groups and dozens of people with different world flags were part of the celebration. At the end of the parade, 600 backpacks with free school supplies were handed out to students in need. "We want to see unity in the community and make sure the next generation is aware of all of his sacrifices," said Barbara Barber, one of the organizers. Water in Michigan King's birthday celebration this year comes as a predominately African-American town in Michigan learns that it was not told for 1 years that its residents had been drinking lead-contaminated water, putting the population especially young children on the path to irreversible illnesses. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson described Flint, Michigan, as a "crime scene." Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore said the situation in his hometown is a "racial crisis" and a "poverty crisis." Volunteers across Michigan commemorated the Monday holiday with acts of service, including delivering bottled water to residents of Flint. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, said in a statement Sunday, "To expose an entire city of nearly 100,000 residents, many of them children, to toxic lead is, if not criminal, is at the very least inhumane. ... Would more have been done, and at a much faster pace, if nearly 40 percent of Flint residents were not living below the poverty line? The answer is unequivocally yes." King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for leading the civil rights movement in the United States. Many here in Washington say this is not a day off but a day on to help one another. Zimbabwes Consular General, Batiraishe Henry Mukonoweshuro, has urged Zimbabweans in South Africa to approach his office for any help they may need while in diaspora. Mukonoweshuro told VOA Studio 7 his door is open to all Zimbabweans visiting or living in South Africa. The Zimbabwe Consulate is responsible for documentation, we are responsible for renewal of passports, authentication of their documents, new birth certificates We also assist those who want to have marriages here for obtaining what they call non-marriage certificates, conversion of licences. We are open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Mukonoweshuro said he is currently visiting different parts of South Africa informing Zimbabweans about services offered by his offices in Johannesburg as well as rendering services whenever possible. We have always insisted on our Zimbabweans having valid passports and valid permits and ensuring that wherever they work they should ensure that through their employers they should try to have their permits and papers in order. Its a case of people being economic refugees than anything else and its a pity that they are here in their numbers. He noted that they are currently compiling a document that will contain information about their activities. An estimated two million Zimbabweans live in South Africa as political and economic refugees due to serious challenges back home. The ruling Zanu PF party has started preparations for President Robert Mugabes annual birthday bash next month with some reports indicating that the target for this years festivities is to raise $800,000. This has raised the ire of the opposition which says that money should have been put in better use to feed the hungry or pay government workers. Mr. Mugabe will be turning 92 on February 21st. Ironically, the bash is going to be held in Masvingo, one of the countrys provinces hardest hit by drought. The bash, also known as the 21st February Movement, is held annually in different cities and towns. Last year it was held at the premier resort town of Victoria Falls. Zanu PF Central Committee member, Joseph Tshuma told VOA Studio 7 even the money used for the bash should not worry anyone because it comes from donors and well-wishers. Tshuma said: "Like any other birthday of any other person its a very important day when we celebrate the coming in of a life. Now like in this case the life of our president. His exemplary life that he has lived. He has lived a God-fearing life. Something that youths and everything else can emulate." Studio 7 also reached deputy spokesperson, Thabitha Khumalo of the Movement for Democratic Change, who said the celebration is obscene at a time when thousands of people are going hungry. Calamities associated with excessive intoxication - dementia, seizures, liver disease and early death - have not deterred young people in Zimbabwe from abusing alcohol and dangerous drugs. The current upsurge in drug and alcohol abuse among the youth is worrying with reports of several drug-induced psychosis cases at the country's hospitals. Cordain, Broncoleer, Cannabis, Maragada, Musombodhiya, Tegu-Tegu and Zed are some of the popular substances that youth in Zimbabwe are taking. Most of the youth, who engage in these activities, claim that they have nothing to do in the country due to lack of jobs. But some parents believe that there is general moral decadence in the country leading to drug and alcohol abuse. University graduate, Tatenda Maramwidze, who has failed to find a job since leaving college in 2013 after doing an economics degree, says youth are drowning their sorrows in drugs and alcohol. The drugs help us to forget our misery. It is not that easy to be looked after by your parents years after graduation. Because of this pressure we end up doing drugs so that we can get drunk and forget our problems. Maramwidze says it is easy to get stoned in Harare. The drugs we take include Bronco, ZED and also mbanje (cannibas). The drugs are very cheap and even for a dollar you can get drunk very fast. Another youth, who preferred to be identified only as Bra Gidza from Highfield, concurs, noting that even spirits are cheap for unemployed youth. I am drinking this stuff because I have nothing to do. I am not employed. The drink popularly known as Musombodyiya comes with guys who work at Afdis, so they bring it to us and sell it at 50 cents per 750ml bottles. One bottle is enough for the three and four of us as it needs about 5litres to dilute it. DROWNING SORROWS These youth are aware of the dangers of taking drugs and abusing alcohol. Elmon Takavada is one of them. Takavada says while he is aware of the health problems associated with drugs, he has no choice but to drown his sorrows in some of the substances. We prefer to drink the spirits because they are cheaper. You can get a small job to offload something from a car maybe you are helping someone to shift from one location to another and you get $3 and the next thing you end up buying the spirits. The stress of not having a job is the one pushing me to drink the spirits. Ambrose Makoni, a 30 year-old Manyame resident, says he is recording brisk business with the Tegu-Tegu spirit, which he is selling even without a liquor license. Tegu- Tegu is a locally brewed beer from Mutare. It is a very strong beer. Alcohol content is between 30-40%. Normally youths drink the beer because it has high alcohol content so they get drunk faster. If you take 3-4 lids you will be done that is if you are drinking it undiluted. Peter Muchengeti, a Harare resident, who is also a human rights activist, argues that the government is to blame for its failure to control the selling of some of these items on the local market. There is growing and worrisome phenomenon of drug and alcahol abuse by our children mainly due to lack of jobs - idleness and government failure to control the illegal entry of intoxicating drinks especially via the Mozambique border. Even at colleges our children take all sorts of intoxicating drinks and this is also partly due to moral decadence. Muchengeti says government should tighten its borders in order to control the smuggling of these alcoholic beverages. He also believes that children these days have too many rights that give them the ability to end up abusing various substances. Government should install controlling measures especially on the importation of drugs and intoxicating drinks especially from our neighbouring countries. Too many rights have also been afforded to the young people such that these kids no longer have respect and cannot match the rights with responsibilities. The drugs affect their self-control and they are no longer able to make sound decisions." A clinical psychologist with one of the state hospitals, who refused to be identified, believes that drug and alcohol abuse is on the increase due to the current social and economic problems in Zimbabwe. He says some of the youth end up in hospital after taking getting too stoned. The drugs affect their self-control and they are no longer able to make sound decisions. Drug abuse is a global problem and here in Zimbabwe it is becoming a big problem. Prevention is the only long term solution. Statistics released in August last year by government showed that alcohol and drug abuse is highest among young adults aged between 15 to 29 years and lowest among adults aged 65 years and older. Last September we published an outline of the analysis produced by the Russian investigator Vladimir Shalak on the hidden aspects of the Twitter-based campaign to lure the Middle Eastern refugees into Germany [1]. Having studied 19000 refugee-related original tweets Shalak claimed that the great exodus to continental Europe was artificially arranged by non-European actors. The latest wave of migrant-caused violence in the number of European cities on New Years Eve sparked another intense anti-Merkel campaign in German and European social media, and yielded additional data for Shalaks in-depth research. Below we will share its preliminary results. But before we do lets have a glance at two pictures demonstrating drastic change in public narrative in Germany regarding the refugees in just 4 months: Was it a tragic but spontaneous development or a deliberate psy operation by an external agent? To come closer to an informed conclusion we have to look briefly at the current US-German relations. Since March 2014 Crimea reunification with Russia the German Chancellor Angela Merkel found herself between the hammer and the anvil. Under heavy pressure from Washington she had to lead the European family to tighten the escalating sanctions against Russia while big business and her political opponents were increasingly reluctant to sustain them in face of the dire consequences for the German economy. Balancing two contradicting approaches, she opted for accomplishing the 2011 commercial contract to built the second phase of the Nord Stream pipeline that would deliver more natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea despite a growing roar from the overseas. Another dimension of transatlantic tensions is connected with the TTIP agreement talks held since 2013 behind the closed doors. A solid propaganda fog around these talks can hardly conceal the fact that the main issue where the swords are crossed is the status of American private arbitration courts within the European legal system. The global TNCs push for allowing these companies to sue states in private arbitration courts for any action that negatively influences their profits. In practical terms that means a total loss of the sovereignty of the European states as the private arbitration courts will then be able to dictate to the nation states customs duties (directly influencing profits of course), sanitary and phytosanitary norms (EU will have to lift its strict barriers to GMO- and beef hormone products), financial and investment rules for the European banks and even subsidies. No wonder that a ruling coalition party in Germany categorically protests against the TTIP talks. Mass public anti-TTIP rally struck Berlin in October 2015. As a result, now Frau Merkel is emphatically careful in her assessment of the TTIP project. Now, the picture is more or less clear: Bundeskanzlerin plays a smart game trying to maintain European sovereignty while formally complying with the US demands on secondary tracks. No doubt that this game is decoded already by Washington and the only factor that impedes her immediate ousting from the office is the absence of prepared and manageable successor. Nevertheless, a media campaign against Frau Merkel, on the pretext of rapefugees scandal, is in full swing. Early January the notorious speculator and confessed sponsor of the refugee traffic to Europe George Soros gave an explicit interview to Wirtschafts Woche where he bitterly critisized Merkels stricter European and refugee policy suggesting that it would cost her chancellorship [2]. Simultaneously the hashtag #ArrestMerkel and Merkel Has To Go motto appeared in Twitter and gained an impressive circulation. Conducted analysis showed that #ArrestMerkel hashtag was originally transmitted by two major Twitter accounts, @Trainspotter001 and @AmyMek. It was taken up and spread by a number of other powerful accounts. @Trainspotter001 and @AmyMek do not have any regional affiliation, but average hourly activity analisys brought the following results: As you see, in both cases the minimum activity is observed between 7AM and 3PM GMT , which most likely corresponds to the US Pacific or Mountain Time. These Twitter activists are therefore active during daytime on the US West coast. Now, the @Trainspotter001 account has made almost 27K tweets since March 2015, or around 88 tweets per day which too much for a human operator (for example, the whole CNN Twitter team is making around 23 tweets/day). We conclude that @Trainspotter001 is a programmed bot, while @Amy Mek (27K tweets since 2012) is likely too. Going further to major retweeters we see that @Genophilia is the leading bot here (107K tweets since September 2012, or approximately 87 tweets/day). Its region is not indicated but average hourly activity research shows that it is operated from the US Pacific coast as well. Two other notable accounts are @jjauthor, a Nevada-based bot making 300 posts per day since 2010 (!) and @LadyAodh, another artificial blonde profile, created in the Unites States and fighting white genocide since March 2015. As you saw at the first graph, all these bot accounts are closely interlaced and thus multiplicate each others effect coving multimillion audiences. The presented evidence clearly demonstrates that the whole Refugee Combination was arranged by the US-based agents to frame up Chancellor Merkel and warn her against the defiance and independent stand for the European sovereignty. Quite noteworthy is that the seemingly polar opposite platforms (ultra liberal of George Soros and far right of vague US-located twitter bots) are eventually pursuing the same political goal to oust German leader from her office and impose the TTIP on Europe. Wrong hat, John. Photo: Getty Images Cue up The Dance of Cuckoos, stock up on tiny bowler hats, and look back in melancholy on a different comedic era thats right, were getting a Laurel and Hardy biopic. Deadline reports that comedically dissimilar British and American duo Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly have signed on to play the comedically dissimilar British and American duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Stan & Ollie. The film will take place during the pairs 1953 tour, when they performed in variety halls across Britain in an attempt to revive flagging interest in their brand of comedy think The Trip, but with the Michael Caine impressions replaced with pie-throwing. Stan & Ollies script comes from Philomenas Jeff Pope, and itll be directed by Jon S. Baird (Vinyl, Filth). The film has an ampersand in its title, which definitely means its looking for awards. Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images The cast and producers of FXs upcoming event series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story visited the TV Critics Association press tour for a supersize hour-long panel. Cuba Gooding Jr., who plays O.J. Simpson, said shooting the series was an emotional roller coaster. It was the hardest role Ive ever played, he added. The series, based on Jeffrey Toobins book, The Run of His Life, was meticulously vetted for accuracy, according to executive producer and director Ryan Murphy. I thought I knew everything about the case but I didnt, he said. Ive never worked on a project that had more legal vetting than this at least five lawyers went over every line. Casting the ten-hour series was a long process. Multiple actors auditioned for each role, with the exception being Sarah Paulson, whom Murphy knew he wanted to play Marcia Clark. Murphy joked, She had no choice. For her part, Paulson wasnt sure she could play the woman who wasnt cut out to be a public figure, but, if Ryan believes it, you tend to believe it. Hes been right before, so I tend to trust him. None of the actors contacted their real-life counterparts but they did watch a lot of video footage of the trial and any interviews they did at the time of the trial. Im me. Hes him. Hes iconic, Courtney B. Vance said of playing Johnnie Cochran. Im going to do as much research as I can. I didnt trap myself in the iconic figure Cochran was. I just wanted to keep the train rolling. David Schwimmer knew he wanted to play the role of Robert Kardashian when he learned Kardashian was the heart of the story. Kris Jenner was very generous with her time and memories of Robert, he said. He was a very religious man who had a strong relationship with God. It helped me to understand his decisions at the time. Gooding Jr. chose not to visit Simpson in prison where hes a shell of himself. Gooding said he was playing the charismatic, flamboyant, and braggadocious 1994 O.J. I never had any doubt someone would make a great film on this subject, Toobin said. This story is one of the great American stories. This is a story of race, sex, violence, sports, and the only witness is a dog. Dearly beloved: Were gathered here today to discuss the wedding of Mr. Charles Carson a stickler for etiquette, who somehow forgot he needed ushers at his own wedding and Miss Elsie Hughes, a woman who came dangerously close to walking down the aisle in a dress so dull it could treat insomnia. The team of Carson and Hughes officially become Carson and Carson in this weeks episode of Downton Abbey, just the third of the final season. It seems a little early to join Great Britains most beloved repressed couple in holy matrimony, though; I thought their prenuptial drama would drag on for at least another episode. Expediency appears to be the narrative watchword this season, so this knot officially gets tied and in a way that emphasizes Downton Abbeys central conflict between social classes. With a church ceremony and reception at the schoolhouse, just as Mrs. Hughes had wanted, the wedding perfectly represents the couple. Its sweet, but devoid of heavy emotion. Its modest, but very proper and nice. And, of course, its upstaged by a member of the Crawley family. Tom Branson, swaggering into the wedding reception: Yo, yo, happy wedding, Carson and Hughes! Thrilled for ya and all. But guess whos straight outta Boston and straight back into Dooownton? Thats right, its me, Tommy B., and E-Z Sybbie! And that means its time to throw down, yall. [House of Pains Jump Around comes on, prompting an excited Molesley to do a surprisingly competent version of the Running Man.] Fine, it doesnt happen that way. Tom doesnt behave like Vanilla Ice and Molesley cant really do the Running Man. (Dont kid yourself, though. Dude can Cabbage Patch like a champ.) Nevertheless, Toms unannounced return steals a little of the bride and grooms thunder, which, from a storytelling perspective, feels somehow appropriate. Given all the drama about whether this wedding should be about Downton or more reflective of Carson and Hughess less-posh circumstances, it seemed inevitable that a Crawley representative would steal some of the focus. Tom, the chauffeur who worked his way from downstairs to up-, is the perfect one to do it. His arrival and the details of the wedding signify compromise and, if not the changing fortunes of the workers, then certainly their growing ability to assert themselves. Two key scenes in this episode the one where Cora invites Mrs. Hughes to admit shed rather not host the wedding at Downton, and the subsequent confrontation between Cora and Hughes as she tries on that wedding coat in Coras bedroom are among the finest Downton Abbey has ever done on the subject of classism and snobbery. Thats saying a lot, since classism and snobbery are this shows bread, butter, salad course, and main entree. In that first scene, after getting tipped off to Mrs. Hughess true feelings by Mrs. Patmore, Cora invites Mrs. Hughes into the drawing room and tells her she doesnt have to host the wedding in the Great Hall if thats not what she wants. This is exactly the coaxing Hughes needs to finally (albeit gently) put her foot down. Mary simply wont have it, though, and theres an obvious reason why: As a manor-born, she cant fathom why anyone, if given the opportunity, wouldnt want to marry in grand Downton fashion. Shes not offended because Mrs. Hughes is rejecting what could be construed as a condescending act of charity; shes bothered because Carson deserves better and isnt getting it. In her mind, its not possible for him or his wife-to-be to think theres anything better than what Mary and her family have always known. Cora, the only American in the room, understands the need for independence from British aristocratic tradition. But Mary accuses her of being a snob who simply doesnt want all those poor people in her dining room. These various shades of elitism are discussed, yet never fully confronted; when Carson reenters the room at scenes end, honest conversation is suddenly replaced by the sound of awkward tea-sipping. He may be worthy of a marriage on the floors the Crawleys tread, but Carson is still the help. There are some things the rich still wont say in front of him. Marys accusations of snobbery bubble up again in that second scene. Cora discovers Mrs. Hughes trying on the coat, which Mary promised to Anna and the soon-to-be Mrs. Carson for the wedding. Cora goes ballistic and again, the reasons for her anger are complicated. Like anyone whos ever walked in on a brother or sister rifling through her closet, shes understandably annoyed. (Mary, you didnt try that hard to let your mother know you gave Anna, Hughes, and Mrs. Baxter access to her boudoir.) Cora also just returned from a meeting about the hospital, where her mother-in-law repeatedly suggested that she doesnt have the knowledge or right to make any decisions on the matter. When she finally gets home, she discovers she doesnt have authority in her own private space, either. Its easy to see why she loses it. Theres an undeniable element of snobbishness at work here, though. Cora may treat her staff with respect, but she still cannot see them as equals. After years of being called Her Ladyship, a sense of superiority inevitably seeped into her bloodstream. (Also worth noting: For the second time this season, someone of a lower station has entered a Ladys bedroom unbidden. Mary was just as appalled when it happened to her but that reaction makes more sense. Her intruder was a blackmailing stalker.) Cora redeems herself by apologizing and giving the coat to Mrs. Hughes and thank God she does. Theres wonderful symbolism in Hughes standing there on her wedding day, wearing a simple frock paired with the grandest of outerwear. That combination of high and low suits her, and it also saves her from her other choices: a dress from the Sarah Even Plainer But Not As Tall collection, or going with the one Patmore ordered from the Soul-Crushing Dishwater-Grey Is the New, Utterly Nondescript Beige catalogue. Still, Coras kind gesture doesnt erase the fact that she still sees herself as above the Hugheses and Carsons of the world. Lets tackle the rest of the episode, lightning-round style: Idris Elba. Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Idris Elba, national treasure of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is speaking to Parliament Monday in an effort to warn British legislators that the systemic racism of the U.K. television industry is robbing the nation of talent like himself. In the speech, published by The Guardian, Elba recalls how he came very close to hitting [his] forehead on the glass ceiling for black British actors. There wasnt enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead, he explains; he was destined to play best friends and cop sidekicks for the rest of his career. And so, like many British actors before him, Elba fled to America, where he received the career-making part of Stringer Bell in The Wire. Only then, once he had received a seal of approval from the Americans, did the British TV industry consider him for the lead in something like Luther. When you dont reflect the real world, too much talent gets trashed. Thrown on the scrapheap, Elba argues. Talent is everywhere, opportunity isnt. And talent cant reach opportunity. Friends! I hope youre all doing well with this New Year, New Me thing because I am not. I just baked a whole tray of Toll House cookies and ate all of them in five minutes because Im still on that New Year, Same Old Emotional Eating. Hooray! Anyway, another episode of The Real Housewives of Atlanta is in the can. In Ms. Parks Goes to Washington, Phaedra goes to D.C. for her Save Our Boys organization, Kenya and Aunt Lori get into a fight over Kenyas birth mom, and OH WHO CARES?! Miss NeNe Leakes is baaack! I know some of you are over her shenanigans, but shes so funny and her teeth are so white. When she smiles, Im like, Is that my ex-boyfriend on TV? (My ex is a very pale Italian dude.) Moving on. Im happy that NeNe is guest starring this year. Itll liven things up a bit, and this season has definitely lacked enough awesome, shady one-liners. We start with Phaedra and her sons packing for their trip to D.C. The city is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. Its cute and oh-so important for her sons to attend, considering the state of America. Shes also meeting with some politicians to talk up her Save Our Sons organization, and we see that Sheree and Kim will be joining this trip. (This makes sense, they have sons too.) And so is Porsha? Not to be stank, but Ive had my fill of Porsha this season. I think she needs to be featured less, but I digress. Kandi and Todd head to another doctors appointment for their baby. Todds main issue is that if they have a boy, he doesnt want his son wearing open-toe OR closed-toe sandals. Todd: You cant go one day without getting caught up in unnecessary drama, so how about we chill on the arbitrary concerns? Thanks! He does say that if they end up having a daughter, he doesnt want to introduce her to weaves and perms at a young age which I am fully on board with and then in confessional, Kandi says that guys think they dont like weaves and makeup and perms, but they never want to date women who dont have all that stuff, so BLOOP! Point Kandi AND Todd. Let kids be natural when theyre kids, but dont complain about a womans appearance when you end up with women who look that way. Have a big plate of shut up and sit down. Thanks again! Apparently, this restaurant thing is still happening. Todd wants the restaurant to be nothing but recipes from the OLG, a.k.a. the old lady gang, a.k.a. Kandis moms and aunts. The only issue? He hasnt asked for their permission yet. Of course, he doesnt think thatll be a problem. And, of course, that means itll be a problem. Across town, construction on Kenyas house is still happening. She invites Cynthia over, and updates her on the family reunion, the stuff with her mom, and that thing with Aunt Lori. I really do hope we learn why Lori was so mad at Kenya. Poor Kenya doesnt deserve this. Speaking of sad, Apollo calls Ayden from prison. Ooof. Im about to make another tray of cookies, yall. Phaedra and her sons are in D.C. along with the nanny, the personal assistant, the stylist, and the hair-and-makeup person. Meanwhile, Kim has no team helping her with her two sons. Ill say this: As much as I gripe about Kim being boring, I like that shes more down-to-Earth. A lot of women in the Real Housewives world are always over-the-top and living lives they cant afford. Anyway, Phaedra is getting ready to meet with Congresswoman Frederica Wilson from Florida, who started a program thats sent about 20,000 black men to college. AMAZING!! And then Porsha shows up and says shes ready to get her Olivia Pope on. #SIDEEYE. Kim is running late, so Phaedra leaves a car for her while the rest of the crew visit Congresswoman Wilson, who is rocking a bedazzled version of the red cowboy hat in Brokeback Mountain because why not? Congresswoman Wilson is living her best life, which means saving black mens lives and rocking some bling-bling from Jo-Ann Fabrics. In short, shes everything I hope to be when I get older. But most importantly, shes down to team up with Phaedra. Yay! And then she gets real. Congresswoman Wilson starts talking about jail and about how society doesnt like black boys. Kim is pretty much like: Then she takes her sons out of the room. LOL. Awkward, but Kim has the right to decide what her sons arent mature enough to hear. Aunt Lori and Che, Kenyas cousin, come by to see Kenya for the first time since Detroit and it is really uncomfortable. Lori explains that she never wants to be in the middle of a fight, and that she loves her as much as she loves Kenyas mom, Patricia. Lori says that Patricia had every right to give up Kenya, and Kenya hasnt taken the time to see things from Patricias perspective. HUH? Kenya just wants some closure. Is that too much to ask? Why is Lori acting like Kenya is wrong here? And how exactly is this not choosing a side? She tells Kenya to stop wanting a relationship with her birth mother. Oy. Ill say this: Kenya should not have showed up with a camera crew to confront her mom. However, for Lori and Che to be like, This is a sensitive situation and we should never talk about it is unfair to Kenya. Patricia is her birth mom. If she listens to them if she just pretends that Patricia doesnt exist that seems like it could cause psychological damage in the long run. Maybe Im wrong, but this seems pretty messed up. Hopefully, Kenya will find closure in her own way. Back in D.C., Phaedra is putting together a luncheon and Kims sons couldnt be more over this. LOL. Then her youngest child, Quincy, wants to take a nap, so they leave before the luncheon begins. Oh well, what can you do? When a child is fussy, a child is fussy. Sheree goes to the van to check on Kim, then tries to lay a guilt trip on her for missing the luncheon. Boo! Do we really need one mother judging another mother on how shes handling her two-year-old? I like Sheree, but shes totally trying to start drama, which is why Im glad Kim shuts it down immediately. We return to Atlanta. At family dinner, Kandi and Todd bring up the restaurant. It turns out they want to open the restaurant ONE MONTH after the birth of the baby. WHAT? Todd is like, Were going to call it the Old Lady Gang and Aunt Berta is unconvinced. Good luck, yall! Meanwhile in D.C., its the day of the Million Man March. Porsha is dressed like shes going on a Tinder date. Shes drooling over Sherees 19-year-old son, Kairo, who is insanely hot. Someone pass me a church fan so I can cool thy loins. Anyway, Kim and her fam have to leave before the march because she has a job back in the ATL. The march goes really well, and is really moving: Moms share heartbreaking stories of their sons being murdered by police. Peter and Cynthia are preparing some snacks and drinks for NeNe and Greg, who are coming over. (It seems like the two ladies will repair their friendship. Yay!) NeNe wears a slouch button-down, which looks like something Diane Lane would wear in a rom-com as if to say, This why this heaux aint got a man. Thankfully, both women seem to be in a much better place until Cynthia says that Kenya is her girl. I had to pause like a Pandora music station with bad WiFi. Cynthia, please do not let Kenya be your girl. Shes a mess that even a Swiffer WetJet cant clean up. Anyway, Cynthia corrects herself and says that Kenya is a friend. And I like this slightly nicer side of NeNe. Lets see how long it lasts. Alrighty, what did you think of NeNes return? Did you heart also break listening to Ayden talk with Apollo? Also: Ill be on the West Coast for two weeks, and Im staying with people who dont have cable yes, its ungodly so Ill miss the next couple of episodes of RHOA. Ill return on February 7 with more snarkitude. Love you. Miss you. Sorry, Ryan. Deadpool, a film starring Ryan Reynolds, who romanced Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, has been denied release in China because of its depictions of violence, nudity, and graphic language. China has no formal ratings system, which means the countrys authorities simply approve or ban all foreign films for Chinese consumption. According to The Hollywood Reporter, officials sometimes work with studios to create special cuts of R-rated films to pass the censors, but, in this case, the superhero movie starring the guy who played Abigail Breslins dad in Definitely, Maybe couldnt be cleaned up without excising major plot points. Deadpool is set for Stateside release on February 12. Given its credentials as a Marvel superhero film (which just happens to star the actor who voiced Turbo), it could have done exceedingly good business in China (Avengers: Age of Ultron made $240 million there last summer). But, for now, Canadas most symmetrical leading man will have to make peace with shocking the complacently bourgeois everywhere but in China. On the heels of his very long, very contentious El Chapo piece, Oscar winner Sean Penn has participated in a newly packaged 60 Minutes interview. The actor-writer explains to Charlie Rose that he wanted to publish last weeks Rolling Stone story to kick off meaningful discourse about the policy of the war on drugs. He thinks his article failed, though, because its received attention for other reasons. The talk, which aired Sunday night, is at turns hostile, thought-provoking, and kind of nuts. Roll the full clip below and savor the ensuing highlights (some of which you may or may not agree with). On El Chapos (and Penns own) fame: My article should not have made this much noise. El Chapo should not have been this popular a figure to read about. On what he was really trying to do: I do what I call experiential journalism. I dont have to be the one that reports on the alleged murders or the amount of narcotics that are brought in. I go and I spend time in the company of another human being, which everyone is. And I make an observation and try to parallel that I wanted to sit, observe, ask him questions. And then use that as an anchor into this article [about the policy of the war on drugs]. On being part of the drug problem by not doing anything about it: I feel complicit in the suffering that is going on, because Im not thinking about it everyday. Im not watching these laws that are showing no progression, these rehabilitations that are not happening. So Im looking the other way; I find that equally complicit with murders in Juarez. On humans and humanity and understanding El Chapo: To over-demonize any human being is not in our best self-interest. Like it or not, were married to em. Theyre of our time, theyre affecting us. So like a marriage, you know, you might want a divorce If all we aim to understand is that this is a very bad person, then lets not understand anything else. On other people not being him: If somebody wants me to ask the questions that they want me to ask theres that little problem we run into in life. Theyre not me. On treating the potential repercussions of his article like he is in a Liam Neeson movie: Charlie Rose: Do you believe that the Mexican government released [quotes saying Penn was essential in helping them track down El Chapo] because they wanted to see you blamed, and to put you at risk? Sean Penn: Yes. CR: They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their crosshairs? SP: Yes. CR: Are you fearful for your life? SP: No. On the state of journalism: Im really sad about the state of journalism in our country. It has been an incredible hypocrisy and an incredible lesson in just how much they dont know and how disserved we are Journalists who want to say that Im not a journalist. Well, I want to see the license that says that theyre a journalist. On his problem with how most of the people who have read his article are spending 99 percent of their time: They think they know more about it. Lets go to the big picture of what we all want. We all want this drug problem to stop. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs, just as many of your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers, the teachers at school, are doing these drugs. Just as many. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out, talking about that? One percent? I think thatd be generous. On his realest regret: A New York attorney who filed a sexual misconduct complaint against U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. is appealing the judges reprimand, saying Smiths punishment is far too lenient and he deserves to be impeached. Ty Clevenger, formerly of Dallas, filed his appeal Monday with the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability of the Administrative Office of United States Courts in Washington, D.C. He is appealing a December decision by the Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals that formally reprimanded Smith after finding he made inappropriate and unwanted physical and nonphysical advances toward a court employee in his court chambers in downtown Waco in 1998. The court also stripped Smith from hearing any new criminal or civil cases filed after Dec. 3 for one year. I am appealing the decision because I think no one should be above the law, even if you are a federal judge, Clevenger said Monday. He deserves to be impeached. Smith, 75, has been a federal judge since 1984. He has denied comment throughout the 14-month process that included the complaint being filed, the 5th Circuit investigation and the courts decision last month. The Tribune-Herald was unable to reach the judge Monday. In his two-page letter of appeal, Clevenger said Smiths conduct, as determined by the courts investigation, could have been classified as a felony. Im sure most felons wish they could receive such lenient treatment, Clevenger wrote. It seems the Fifth Circuit has created a new category of crime the de minimis felony for those cases where the perpetrator is a federal judge. While the Judicial Council of the New Orleans-based federal appellate court found that Smiths conduct was in contravention of existing standards of behavior for federal judges, it concluded that his actions do no warrant a recommendation of impeachment. The order of the Judicial Council also said Smith does not understand the gravity of such inappropriate behavior and the serious effect that it has on the operations of the courts. The Judicial Council also finds that Judge Smith allowed false factual assertions to be made in response to the complaint, which, together with the lateness of his admissions, contributed greatly to the duration and cost of the investigation, the order, signed by 5th Circuit Chief Judge Carl E. Stewart, said. The council also directed Smith to complete at his expense a sensitivity training course about appropriate professional interaction. The council appointed U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade, of Dallas, to serve as liaison between Smith and the Judicial Council and to make recommendations as Kinkeade deems appropriate. Clevengers appeal asks how many felonies a judge needs to commit before the Judicial Council is willing to recommend impeachment. If a courthouse security officer had forcibly groped (the clerk), he would have been fired summarily and probably arrested, the letter said. He certainly would not have gotten away with a reprimand, sensitivity training and a reduced workload at full pay. . . . Does anyone seriously think that sensitivity training will be able to fix that kind of problem in an unrepentant 75-year-old man? Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, of San Antonio, issued an order last month that directs all new cases filed in Wacos federal court as of Dec. 3 to be assigned to a visiting judge docket. Bierys order transfers many of Smiths normal duties to U.S. Magistrate Jeffrey C. Manske, including pretrial proceedings and requests for injunctive relief. Visiting judges will be brought in to handle matters over which Manske has no jurisdiction. Clevenger supplemented his complaint against Smith in October to allege that Smith and Waco attorney Greg White violated conflict-of-interest standards by failing to disclose that White represents Smith in the judicial sexual misconduct investigation to attorneys opposing White in a civil case presided over by Smith. The investigation council also found that Smith did not follow appropriate procedures regarding his subsequent recusal from the case involving White. Initial complaint Clevengers initial complaint against Smith also included allegations that Senior U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth, of Austin, who was chief judge of the Western District of Texas at the time, was told about the allegations against Smith and failed to take appropriate action. Clevenger said the 5th Circuit notified him recently that the query involving Hudspeth remains open. The former clerk wrote a letter to Smith in 1998, telling the judge that his proposition to me completely caught me off-guard. It frightened me and has caused me much grief and emotional anguish, she wrote. It was very inappropriate, and I did nothing to provoke it. According to the womans testimony in a sworn deposition, on the day she said she was assaulted, she saw Smith at the third-floor water fountain in the Waco federal courthouse and he invited her to visit him in his chambers. She said it was 8:30 a.m. and he had a pretty strong smell of liquor on his breath. The woman said she was puzzled by his request because they rarely spoke and rarely saw each other at work. She said she went back to her desk and her phone rang. She said it was Smith asking where she was because he had told her to come see him. When she went to the judges office, Smith closed the door behind her, put his arms around her and kissed her, she testified. I just froze. I couldnt move. And he said, Let me make love to you. And I, and I, I just freaked out, she said in the deposition. She said Smith tried to touch her inappropriately, but she pulled away and told him she had to get back to work. The woman testified that after the incident, Smith sent her flowers at work and continued to make advances. She told her supervisor, who reported the alleged incident to Hudspeth, who at that time was presiding judge over the federal district that includes Waco. She testified that Hudspeth called her at home but seemed dismissive about her charges. He asked me, What do you want me to do about it? she testified. "He's mad," she says with a laugh. But Alan retains his dignified expression and, with a gentle but serious tone, explains that there is a deeper reason. "Canberra looks so affluent from the outside that we don't see the suffering that goes on underneath. Doing the collections is one way I can help," he says. The help provided by Alan's volunteering has been enormous. Since he began collecting he has raised more than $4 million. He is now so well known that local artist Barbara van der Linden painted a portrait of him for the Faces of Canberra exhibition two years ago as part of the Centenary of Canberra. The large portrait now adorns the family room, sensitively capturing Alan's compassionate demeanour. A few years before the portrait, in 2011, Alan was honoured by being named ACT Local Hero of the Year in the Australian of the Year Awards, but while grateful, he responded in a typically humble fashion. "I was surprised to win as there were many others who deserved the award," Alan says. "I do the collections because of the Salvos' good work, with the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program in Fyshwick and helping people with food and shelter and with money if they can't pay their power bills." Alan starts collecting at the Civic bus interchange at 6.30am to catch the morning commuters and later shifts to the Canberra Centre for the lunchtime crowds. He works until 2.30pm and the job can be tough. "Thousands of people walk past and that can be painful. Sometimes you start to wonder when the next person will stop," he says with a sigh. "The cutbacks in the public service have reduced donations because people worry that they must hang onto every cent they have." But then there are moments that make it feel worthwhile. "Saturdays are great because that's when families come in and you'll get parents giving their kids money to get them used to donating. Last Friday somebody came up and said he felt guilty for not donating for a long time and handed me a $100 note," Alan says. "A retired doctor from Tuggeranong regularly donates $500 and he's done it for years." However, Alan is quick to stress that any donation is appreciated. "It doesn't matter whether it's $1, $2, or even a silver coin, it all helps," he says. Then there is another side to the collection process the social side. "I reckon he does it because he likes the people and has lots of regulars," Joy says with a playful wink. Being in contact with Alan helps others in ways that extend beyond financial support. For many it is just having somebody to talk to, who will listen, but for a regular visitor Vick there was something extra. "He had a bung hand and couldn't manicure his nails so he'd come up and I'd help him," Alan says. "That was the blind leading the blind because he's got a shaky hand," Joy adds. "Another of my regulars was a former air chief marshal, the late Sir Neville McNamara. He died in the middle of last year, and like me, also had prostate cancer. When he would drop by he'd always want to swap stories about how our treatments were going. He said talking about it made him feel better," Alan says. At this point Alan proudly reaches for a book from his shelf. It is The Quiet Man by Sir Neville and the inscription reads "Alan, in admiration of your own dedication to a very worthy cause". The ongoing dedication shown by Alan is even more amazing in the face of his own declining health. "Apart from the cancer, I've had a couple of heart attacks and several kidney stone operations, and had to spend two Christmases in Calvary Hospital, and that really ruined the Christmas collections," he says. "Every four weeks I go to Canberra Hospital for oncology treatment, and that's been happening for seven years, and for those days I can't find anyone to replace me in doing the collections. "I'm also gone in the hip and my right leg and I'm having trouble walking so it takes me a long time to get back to the car park carrying the stool. "But I'll keep going until I keel over." At the end of our conversation, Alan shares something else that keeps him going. "On December 31, Joy and I are celebrating our 60th wedding anniversary and that's what I live for." A sunlit golden umbrella, lowered by a crane on Sunday, has completed external construction of a stunning pagoda in Lyneham. Almost 1000 people, including Thailand's ambassador to Australia Chirachai Punkrasin, attended a ceremony to celebrate the completion of stage two of the pagoda at Wat Dhammadharo. Hundreds of people attended a ceremony at the Wat Dhammadharo Buddhist temple in Lyneham, where a crane lifted a golden tiered umbrella on to the main dome of the partly constructed pagoda. Credit:Graham Tidy The pagoda has been under construction for a number of years and was commissioned with the royal permission of Thai monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej to mark the 60th anniversary Thai-Australian diplomatic ties. "The building is to honour the King of Thailand and a cultural gift from the Thai community, both in Canberra and from around the world, to Canberra," project liaison officer, Tip Suthinee, said. Emergency services were called to a gym at Kingston shops on Monday when a small electrical fire ignited in the gym's air conditioning system. Emergency services received a call at about 1.30pm with reports of a fire at Club Lime on Kennedy Street. People in the gym had evacuated as a precaution. A small electrical fire broke out at Club Lime in Kingston. Credit:Emma Kelly Fire and rescue said the fire was caused by a melted electrical component in the air conditioning system. Three fire pumpers, a Bronto aerial platform, a breathing apparatus unit and two commanders responded to the incident, the Emergency Services Agency said. National Australia Bank finance chief Craig Drummond says the bank has had to temper its expectations about the float price of its British lender Clydesdale Bank due to the volatility rocking global sharemarkets. After a tumultuous start to the year for sharemarkets, NAB on Monday said it expected to float Clydesdale in early February at between 1.75 and 2.35 a share. The pricing range would mean that Clydesdale has a market capitalisation of between 1.54 billion and 2.07 billion. Credit:Erin Jonasson The pricing range would give Clydesdale a market capitalisation of between 1.54 billion and 2.07 billion ($4.3 billion) and it comes after extensive talks with investors. NAB plans to spin off 75 per cent of the Clydesdale, a retail and business bank, to its shareholders, and sell the remaining 25 per cent to institutional investors in an initial public offering, which would see Clydesdale listed on the London Stock Exchange. The second point was that mutual need and vulnerability finally drove both the Iranian Islamic government and the Barack Obama administration to negotiate. International sanctions, particularly those by the US-led West, accelerated from mid-2012, and the mismanagement of the Iranian economy, especially under the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, imperiled Iran's economic situation savagely. The Iranian economy and aging oil industry have badly been in need of structural reforms and an overhaul. However, all the skeptics and opponents missed three points in their assessments. The first was that the Iranian Islamic regime had all along insisted that its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes, and Iran's powerful religious and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, without whose support no major Iranian domestic and foreign policy can materialise, had insisted that a nuclear bomb was "unIslamic". Instead Tehran had pursued the acquisition of nuclear know-how, technology and infrastructure, which it has now achieved. It does not need to cross the threshold to produce nuclear weapons. When Iran signed the historic nuclear agreement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) on July 14, 2015, after nearly two years of intense negotiations, many skeptics in the United States, Iran and the region seriously doubted Tehran's good intentions. Not only American, Iranian and regional hardliners, but also many academics and observers on Iran around the world echoed this sentiment. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have come a long way since the start of their enmity after the Iranian revolution 36 years ago. They are now availed a valuable opportunity to move towards a rapprochement to repair their ruptured relations and contribute to stabilising a region that cries out for stability and security. This could not be achieved without the lifting of sanctions and inflow of foreign investment and high technology. Moderate President Hassan Rouhani was largely elected on the promise of achieving something substantial on this front. If he and his able Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had failed to overcome the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, they would have had little to show to their hardline domestic Islamist opponents something that could only perpetuate the latter's dominance in the Iranian power structure and state institutions. On the other side, President Obama, who had all along preferred diplomacy over a military confrontation, could clearly see that the sanctions had affected Iranian society, but had done little to weaken the Islamic government's survivability or to diminish its capacity to be an influential regional player. Tehran has been successful in building strong leverages in various zones of conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq to Syria to Yemen and in rivalling Saudi Arabia and its allies as well as Israel in geopolitical and strategic terms. In other words, President Obama and his aides have clearly sensed that in the event of improved relations with Iran, Washington could be in a position to play an important role in securing a resolution of some of the regional conflicts, and to arrest the declining US influence in the region. The third point was that the critics could not read perceptively the changing Iranian national and regional environment. The Iran of today is not that of the early 1980s, when the revolutionary fever propelled the country's Shia religious establishment to power to transform Iran into a Shia Islamic Republic in defiance of the prevailing regional and international order. Despite its theocratic nature and many of its shortcomings, the Iranian Islamic government has grown to be more pragmatic than ideological in both its domestic and foreign policy behaviour. On the domestic front, whenever it has found it necessary or expedient, it has allowed for political contestation within the unique Islamic framework established by its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. As a result, while the hardliners have controlled many levers of power, they have not allowed their power ambitions and ideological stance to blind them totally to the need for reformation by their moderate and pragmatist factional opponents in order to preserve the Islamic system of governance. In its foreign policy conduct, Iran's government has rarely lost sight of pragmatism when its interests have dictated. It has projected a revolutionary anti-hegemonic stance, but has not shied away from making compromises and alliances in order to boost its security and that of Iran in the region and beyond. In this context, it refrained from standing in the way of the US invading Iraq in 2003 (which deposed Iran's arch enemy, Saddam Hussein), intervening in Afghanistan in 2001 (when the anti-Iranian Sunni Extremist regime of the Taliban was toppled), and leading the international coalition against Islamic State, just to give a few examples. Lately, Tehran has also found it advantageous to compromise Khomeini's foreign policy of neither East nor West but pro-Islamic by making a common cause with Russia in a co-ordinated military operation to save the allied regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. After the worst start to the sharemarket year in living memory the obvious subject is whether we are about to see some sort of calamitous collapse in world markets. George Soros is telling us it looks like 2008. RBS wrote some research last week telling us to "sell everything". Albert Edwards at Societe Generale says the US market could fall by 75 per cent. JP Morgan advises selling the US sharemarket on any upswing. Kerr Neilson's Platinum International fund has shorted the US market. The Chinese market is flirting with last year's panic-level low and the People's Bank of China has started devaluing the yuan again which is what kicked it all off in the first place. And some economists are suggesting they should stop fiddling about and simply drop it 10 to 15 per cent to a price the market will support. That might lance the boil but it would be a calamitous moment. Credit:Michael Mucci On the domestic front a major broker just downgraded its year-end target for the ASX 200 to 4800. Surely not. A broker, who relies on the market going up, forecasting the market to fall, what next? Then there's the ASX 200 chart which is flirting dangerously with a 38.2 per cent Fibonacci retracement level. But it's all just commentary and voodoo so far. The biggest worry is something else, a potential 2016 X factor that we glimpsed last year and threatens to inject a new uncertainty into the market mix. It is an extrapolation of that "Glencore moment" when Glencore, a $US16.3 billion company, fell 30 per cent in a day at the end of September as some no-name analyst floated the notion that at current commodity prices the company might arguably be worthless. His research forced us all to contemplate the prospect of lower commodity prices for longer and consider the Armageddon that could unfold if the market started to worry about which resources major could no longer service its debt and on the back of that which banks were lending to those resources majors. Since that research was written commodity prices have notably fallen further and the credit-rating risk on major resources stocks has risen even further. Bikies are working their way back to the Gold Coast and the business community is worried about the possible impact, LNP deputy leader John-Paul Langbroek says. But police commissioner Ian Stewart said a comprehensive strategy at local, state and national level was attacking bikie crime in the region. Reports suggest criminal bikies are moving back to the Gold Coast. Credit:Paul Rovere On Sunday Mr Langbroek said he had been told by the Broadbeach Alliance that bikies were returning. "There is a just general sense among the business community at a very busy time of year that the bikies are back," Mr Langbroek said. Business / Companies by Staff reporter National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) requires about $2 billion to be fully revitalised and transformed spokesperson for the parastatal, Fanuel Masikati has said.In the medium term, he said the organisation needed $500 million to restore its infrastructure to acceptable levels.He said NRZ was currently implementing a number of strategies to enhance capacity in the short term using a combination of its own resources and funds received from government through the Public Sector Investment Programme. The man who wants Cr Graham Quirk's job as Brisbane's lord mayor for the Labor Party has promised to investigate a "$1 billion plus" light-rail project similar to Gold Coast's light rail - for Brisbane's CBD. The first stage of Labor's future light rail at this stage just an un-costed idea - would be to run somewhere between Newstead and West End. Labor's mayoral candidate Rod Harding says it is time for a light rail network in Brisbane. Credit:Michelle Smith However that is a similar route as the popular existing blue City Glider high frequency bus service. And the man who already has the job Lord Mayor Graham Quirk describes Labor's idea as "an expensive solution to something that is not a problem." By blowing up Twitter with controversial comments and posting 15-second political videos on Instagram, Donald Trump is proving to be a master manipulator who understands social media more than any other presidential candidate, according to experts on politics and social media. "Donald Trump would not be where he is today without the amplification of social media," said Mindy Finn, who has worked for President George W. Bush, 2012 candidate Mitt Romney, Google and Twitter. "Facebook has the widest reach by far but Trump has understood that you go to Twitter, erupt a controversy, say something outrageous to drive controversy, and then you dominate the news cycle for 24 hours." A satellite to measure the heights of the oceans was launched successfully on Sunday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Jason-3 mission, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and EUMETSAT, a European weather satellite agency, will bounce radar signals off the water to precisely measure the sea surface height within a couple of centimetres. The data will help scientists track rising seas as global temperatures increase. The data will also be used to track the speed and direction of ocean currents, aiding the forecasts of hurricanes. An artist's rendering of the Jason-3 satellite. Credit:NASA SpaceX, which launched the satellite on one of its Falcon 9 rockets, had aimed to recover the first-stage booster but was unable to do so. Last month, SpaceX successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This time, one of the landing legs failed to lock, and the booster tipped over as it attempted to set down on a platform in the Pacific. New York Times Business / Companies by Staff reporter fastjet on Monday, 18 January, announced its newest international routes - from Johannesburg to Harare and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.The launch of these routes comes after fastjet received clearance from the Zimbabwean and South African governments to operate flights between the two respective countries.Return flights from Harare International Airport and Victoria Falls International Airport to Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport will operate using fastjet's modern Airbus A319 jet aircraft with seating for up to 144 passengers.The Johannesburg/Harare route will commence on 1 February 2016 and operate daily with an additional daily flight on this route expected soon, the airline said in a statement.Flights linking Victoria Falls to and from Johannesburg will initially be three times a week on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, commencing 3 February 2016.Tickets for flights will be on sale this week, with fastjet advising passengers to book early to take advantage of its lowest priced fares on both routes of $80 one-way. This excludes government and airport taxes $50 departing Zimbabwe $35 departing South Africa.The initial daily flights will depart from Harare at 06:15 and land in Johannesburg at 07:55, a flight time of 1 hour 40 minutes. The return flight from Johannesburg to Harare departs at 08:40, landing at 10:15 (all local times).Finalised slots and timetables for the flights linking Victoria Falls and Johannesburg are still to be confirmed by the respective airports. News / Africa by Staff Reporter PROPHET Themba Ngwamba had a vision of the EFF's leadership falling apart because of infighting.The prophet from KaNyamazane in Mpumalanga has warned EFF leader Julius Malema against leading his party like a dictator."There is a dark cloud hanging over the party," he said."I see the problem being the result of Julius Malema refusing to take the grievances of members seriously. Some members within the party are not happy with how he is running the party," said Themba.He warned that Malema's refusal to listen will lead to the party being destroyed.The prophet said there was only one solution. "I advise them to pray to God to help them to respect each other and make them listen. This is the solution. Failure to do so will result in serious factionalism which will see the EFF losing its top party members."EFF national spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said they will take Ngwamba's warning seriously."We shall pray," said Ndlozi. News / Local by Ivan Zhakata A Harare woman gave her husband a thorough beating for doubting their minor child's paternity, a Harare Civil Court has heard.Clifford Dhewa was allegedly assaulted by his second wife, Anesu Manyawu, after asking her for DNA tests. Dhewa, who was seeking a protection order against Manyawu, told magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa that besides the assaults, Manyawu also locked him in the house demanding sex."I am seeking a protection order against this woman. She is my second wife and she assaulted me and threatened to kill me after I asked her that she should go for a paternity test because I doubt that the child she has is mine," said Dhewa."She also locks me inside her house and demands that I engage in sex with her or she will assault me again. She comes to my house and threatens my family so I want her to stop," Dhewa said.She told the court that Dhewa had chased her out of the house. "I have never assaulted, insulted, threatened him or refused to conduct the DNA tests as he is alleging," Manyawu said.Mrs Gofa ordered Manyawu to stop abusing Dhewa and keep peace towards him at all times. News / Local by Mashudu Netsianda A BULAWAYO man who allegedly fatally stabbed a rival suitor on Christmas Day during a fight over a girlfriend has been granted $150 bail pending trial.Lindani Caphu, 20, of Old Magwegwe suburb, last week filed a bail application at the High Court pending trial citing the State as the respondent.Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi on Friday granted Caphu $150 bail and ordered him to reside at his given address until the matter is finalised.In his ruling, the judge ordered Caphu to surrender his passport and to report to Luveve Police Station twice a week and not to interfere with State witnesses as part of the bail conditions.Caphu allegedly stabbed Limukani Ncube, 24, on both shoulders with a kitchen knife, leading to his death. In his application, through his lawyer Prince Butshe-Dube of Mcijo, Dube and Partners Legal Practitioners, Caphu pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder.Butshe-Dube said if given bail his client would not abscond since he is waiting for his O-Level results. "The fact that the applicant has no formal employment is hardly a reason for denying someone bail. The applicant completed his O-Level studies last year and he is waiting for the results and he is also looking forward to proceeding to A-Level," said Butshe-Dube.Nonhlanhla Ndlovu, for the State, argued that if granted bail, Caphu was likely to abscond given the gravity of the crime."It's humbly submitted that it can't be doubted that the charge the applicant is facing is a very serious offence. Murder by its nature is a very serious crime for which upon conviction an accused can be sentenced to a lengthy prison term or life and therefore the applicant is likely to abscond if granted bail. As such applicant is not a suitable candidate for bail and the state prays that the application be dismissed," said Ndlovu.The court heard that on December, 25, 2015 shortly after 9PM in Cowdray Park suburb, Caphu and Ncube had a misunderstanding over a girlfriend. The dispute degenerated into a fistfight during which Caphu pulled out a kitchen knife and stabbed Ncube on both shoulders.Ncube was taken to Empopini Police Base in a wheelbarrow, but died on the way due to excessive bleeding. The court heard Caphu left the knife at the scene and fled with a mob chasing after him. He was later rescued by a relative and whisked away in a South African registered vehicle. Caphu was later tracked down and arrested. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 15, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 15, 2016 | 01:20 PM | PADUCAH, KY Several local business leaders are serving as Business Champions as part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems (KCTCS) Fuel the Force campaign, which is asking for restoration of postsecondary education funding. The WKCTC Business Champions Council is asking legislators to support the Council on Postsecondary Educations budget request that recently was submitted to Gov. Bevin. In the request, CPE asks for half of the decrease in state appropriations since 2008 be restored to the nine public postsecondary education institutions, which includes KCTCS. WKCTC officials say business leaders are concerned that the loss of funding is affecting their ability to hire skilled workers and the effect it has on local economies. Fifteen local community and business leaders signed on to serve as the Business Champions Council. Retired waterways industry executive Ken Wheeler of Paducah will chair the local Council. Local leaders are part of the statewide group of hundreds of business leaders serving as Business Champions. Community colleges are the engine of Kentuckys workforce and are the states largest providers of workforce education and training, said Wheeler, a member of the Paducah Junior College. Inc., Board of Trustees. To be a better state, we have to have a well-educated workforce and now is the time to reinvest in Kentuckys higher education. Kentucky is one of only three states in the nationjoining Oklahoma and West Virginiathat has continued to cut per student funding for higher education over the past two years. Were very appreciative of the Business Champions Council and their willingness to tell policy makers the importance of reinvesting in our colleges and universities, said WKCTC president Dr. Barbara Veazey. By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require some form of postsecondary degree. Therefore, higher education has to be a community priority. Champions will attend a legislative rally and reception on Feb. 18 in Frankfort. Other outreach efforts include calls, emails, inviting legislators to visit a workplace or other face-to-face meetings. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 16, 2016 | 03:25 PM | CAIRO, IL The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to see changes in the Alexander County Housing Board. Board Chairman Chalen Tatum told WSIL-TV that he has received "tons of letters from HUD," asking him to remove Irene McBride and Judson Childs. HUD claims Childs neglected his duties while numerous civil rights violations occurred, and that McBride broke rules when she took money for her service. Childs told WSIL a regional director of HUD threatened to remove him from the board, but Childs said he "won't be a yes man," and will do things as he sees fit. He and McBride have reportedly quit coming to meetings but won't resign. Childs claims the mostly white board members won't come down to the mostly black neighborhoods they oversee - where he lives. Tatum said he's willing to begin the process of removing Childs and McBride from the board so they can continue to get HUD funding. Meanwhile, a grassroots group that includes Cairo's mayor believes more changes are needed. Mayor Demetrius "Tyrone" Coleman told WSIL that board members Andy Clark and Monica Smith should resign because they have deep ties with the former executive director of the board James Wilson, who quit during a spending scandal. All of this is happening while the board is still hoping to hire Wilson's replacement. Kentucky State Police are looking for a missing Monticello woman last seen in Hopkinsville By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 18, 2016 | 05:06 AM | MURRAY, KY Hoverboards are banned at Murray State University, effective immediately. University officials said the ban is based upon recent fire incidents across the country, the warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and Murray State University safety standards. The ban prohibits the use, possession, storage and charging in residence halls, college courts, all other campus buildings, campus grounds and regional campus locations. The ban will remain in effect until more information and better safety standards exist for all models of the equipment. The CPSC has issued a strong warning about hoverboards after batteries within the devices were reported to burst into flames especially while being charged resulting in a metal fire that can burn with intense heat. This ban represents a trend across the country. Numerous other campuses have also banned these devices. By West Kentucky Star Staff Jan. 15, 2016 | 06:08 AM | PADUCAH, KY Memories of mild temperatures going into the weekend are long gone, and an arctic air mass will make things almost thirty degrees colder by Monday. The National Weather Service in Paducah has issued a special weather statement that notes the high on Martin Luther King Day Monday will be in the mid-20s, and wind chills will remain around zero or just below. Temperatures will gradually recover to the 30s on Tuesday, but wind chills could still be in the single digits. A chance for snow, sleet and freezing rain is included Tuesday night, changing over to rain on Wednesday and Thursday. On the Net: News / Local by Yoliswa Dube A GANG of seven armed robbers raided Luveve High school in Bulawayo where they allegedly raped two teachers and a 19-year-old woman before stealing household goods at the staff compound.Police were called to the scene and sniffer dogs helped to track down the armed robbers. Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango could not immediately comment on the incident which happened on Saturday night.The Chronicle yesterday visited the school that also has boarding facilities. A teacher, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the gang arrived at the school and found a car parked just outside the gate at around 10 PM.A woman - the daughter of a staff member at the school and her boyfriend - were inside the car. "They knocked on the windows demanding that the couple open the doors. As soon as they opened the doors, one of the robbers raped the woman."The robbers force marched the couple to the school's administration block where they demanded to be shown the safe and hoped to get some cash. But they couldn't access the safe as it was locked," said the teacher.After they failed to access the safe, the source said, they force-marched the woman around the school compound asking her to direct them to where the safe's keys could be found."She led the robbers to one of the teachers' houses where they failed to find the keys. They rummaged through the house looking for the keys before they took some household appliances and raped the teacher," said the teacher.The gang allegedly went to the next house and raped another teacher before stealing more household goods. "They loaded the loot into the car belonging to the woman's boyfriend and drove away from the premises."Fearing that the car would be tracked, the robbers dumped it in a nearby bush before fleeing on foot only to be caught a few hours later through the help of sniffer dogs," said the teacher.The woman's father, who lives at the school, declined to comment. However, a source said police with sniffer dogs caught up with the armed robbers later and they were arrested. The armed robbers were allegedly taken to Luveve police station.Sources said the matter was now being handled by CID homicide. A person who answered Bulawayo provincial education director Dan Moyo's mobile phone said he would be available for comment today. What is it about two blokes in jerkins having a sword fight that says 'theatre'? Let me go back a step. Last week, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Qatar with the company from Shakespeare's Globe touring Hamlet to every country on earth (except the really dodgy ones). As part of the trip, we went round Doha, the Qatari capital, trying to get a photograph that told the whole story in an instant - a location that screamed Qatar and a pose that screamed Hamlet. You can probably picture the image. Think skyscrapers, sand and a skull. Bingo. To get some alternatives, the photographer asked the actors playing Hamlet and Laertes to draw their swords. As they leaned into each other, foils crossed, faces snarled, I suddenly clocked the oddity of that set-up: two men in period costume duelling on a patch of grass by the side of a motorway, surrounded by parked cars and picnicking Arabs. They could only be one thing: actors. That was the strangest thing: that they should be so recognisable as actors. Just as a man with a skull is the universal symbol for Hamlet, so a swordfight stands as shorthand for theatre. Except, that's not what I mean by theatre, and it's still less the sort of theatre I love. The stage has its fair share of jerkins and jousting, admittedly, but there's something problematic in the way that that image can stand for the entire art-form. If theatre has an image problem - and I believe it does, even now - it's encapsulated in its iconography. That dominant image reinforces a certain idea of theatre - all period costume and received pronunciation - and that acts as a barrier to new audiences. Since most people don't go to the theatre, their understanding of it comes from elsewhere: from popular culture, from the media, from marketing. These representations of theatre shape the wider perception of it. For most people, theatre is the pictures that run down escalators, the front page wraparounds on the Evening Standard and the trailers for NT Live on cinema screens. Have you seen the RSC's Henry IV posters? Aren't they awful? A red-faced Antony Sher, shining under the stage lights, holding up a flagon and guffawing. It looks like an advert for Madame Tussauds - the actors as waxworks, theatre as a shoddy museum. How many people have seen them and sworn off theatre, I wonder? By contrast, take the Donmar's marketing for the Les Liaisons Dangereuses NT Live screening. Though Tom Scutt's stage design puts the cast in panniers and periwigs, the cinema trailer has Dominic West and Janet McTeer swanning around a gallery in slick modern dress. It looks sexy, contemporary and, yes, theatrical. Where the actual costumes might have been a barrier to non-theatregoing audiences, the advert might just tempt a few in. These adverts aren't just selling a show. They're selling an entire art-form - and they sit next to blockbuster films and fresh television shows. They have to be top quality. But even if they are, they only represent a small cross-section of theatre: big shows in big auditoriums with big advertisting budgets. Imagine a campaign designed to disrupt that: a series of posters plastered around public transport of less visible styles of theatre. Imagine the Sultan's Elephant looming over the entrance to Brixton station; Bryony Kimmings on the back of a bus; the Pomona trailer playing before films. Would that change the perception of theatre? No jerkins. No swords. No skulls. Just vivid, contemporary images of a vivid, contemporary art-form. According to press reports in Italy, AC Milan are being taken to court for fraud after it emerged that a 19-year-old youth team player lied about his age. Yusupha Yaffa, who hails from Gambia and claims to be 19, first signed for the Rossoneri in 2013 and went straight into their academy set-up. Currently playing for German side MSV Duisburg, Yaffa is now being summoned back to Milan to face fraud charges after it emerged hes alleged to actually be 28. Oggi e scoppiato il caso Yusupha #Yaffa. Io gia tre anni fa scrissi di qualche incongruenza che lo riguardava pic.twitter.com/VLRfH9aHqN Sciabolata Morbida (@sciabolatablog) January 16, 2016 According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Yaffa is claiming that he misplaced his personal papers when he turned up at the immigration office at the Cuneo police department in Italy in 2009. He claimed he was only 12 years old at the time, born on 31 December, 1996. Heres the pleasingly literal translation provided by Google: The former Milan player would have claimed to have lost the documents several times. A trick, according to the indictment, used to rejuvenate. However, former schoolmates subsequently recognised Yaffa after his photo circulated on Facebook. It has since been revealed that he was indeed born on 14 November, 1987 making his 21 at the time of his arrival in Cuneo. While the prosecution are keen to press on and , the defence are holding up proceedings by insisting that the trial take place in a juvenile court. You couldnt make it up. News / Local by New deportation rules for 'broke' Zimbabwean migrants in UK ZIMBABWEANS in the United Kingdom earning less than 35,000 per annum after living in that country for more than five years face deportation.The latest development is in line with the new UK immigration regulations that are set to be effected in April. The new earnings threshold of 35,000 is applicable to non-European Union (EU) migrants.Zimbabweans, particularly those in low skilled jobs, are among those that will be affected when the changes take effect in three month's time. Those who fail to meet the new standard will be deported. Home Secretary Theresa May said the changes would help cut the number of non-Europeans and their dependants from 60,000 to 20,000.She said the plan would create a temporary migrant workforce in the UK."Overseas workers who have lived in the UK for five years will have to prove they will be paid the new minimum threshold in order to stay in the country. Skilled migrants will only qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), also known as settlement, in the future if they are earning a minimum salary of 35,000," said May.The new rules will mean that any skilled worker who has been in the UK for five years will now need to earn at least 35,000 per annum in order to qualify for ILR. Those who fail to demonstrate earnings of more than 35,000 will be deported, according to the new Home Office policy.However, the UK government temporarily exempted nurses and doctors from the new rules last autumn in response to fears about widespread shortages of workers across the National Health Service (NHS).May said the medical practitioners' were likely to be affected in future should the government decide to take them off the Shortage Occupation List. The pay threshold will apply to people wanting to remain permanently after more than five years working in the UK. Immigrants who have already acquired permanent residence status will not be affected by the new regulation.According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Zimbabweans in the UK live in most of the major metropolitan areas with an estimated 40,000 in London, followed by Leeds and Luton with 20,000 each.The UK Office of National Statistics reported that the Zimbabwean population in Britain increased from 47,158 in 2001 to an estimated 200,000 in 2010, clearly showing the rising numbers in migration.The pay threshold is the first time that a British government has imposed an economic test on the right to settlement in the UK. For decades, settlement has been granted on the basis of length of time living in and ties to the UK, recognising that people who have been living in the country for five years have made it their permanent home.The plan by the British government has received condemnation from opposition parties and some sections of British society. Critics to the new policy argue that the new earnings were "discriminatory" and likely to starve Britain of vital talent in the teaching, charity and entrepreneural sectors.Former Cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael, who was Prime Minister David Cameron's Scottish Secretary before the election, told a British newspaper, The Independent, that discriminating on the basis of income would harm the UK's place at the "forefront of the global economy."Shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer said there were "real concerns" over how key industries would be affected. He urged ministers to "look more closely" at the threshold, which is currently 20,800 around 5,000 less than the average UK salary.A petition on the website of the UK parliament in support of a rethink had by last night attracted more than 36,000 signatures. If it attracts 100,000 signatures before end of July, the matter will be debated in parliament. The government is expected to respond to the matter after the petition exceeded 10,000 signatures as is required for that move.Joshua Harbord, who set up the petition, told The Independent, that he decided to take action because he knew a number of "incredibly upset and scared" people who were set to be affected by the changes but had no one speaking up on their behalf."These aren't the benefits-scrounging, baby-sprouting terrorists that everyone seems so afraid of. They are people who have worked in the UK for years, making friends and families, building homes and communities and contributing to this country's culture and economy," he said. News / Local by Letwin Mubonesi A woman who sent an abusive message to her boyfriend's wife in breach of a standing court order was fined $100 by a Mutare magistrate.Tariro Pajoni (21) pleaded guilty to breaching a court order that restrained her from contacting her boyfriend's wife, Melody Mutasa with the intention of insulting her or causing violence.The order was made at Mutare Civil Courts after Mutasa approached the court praying for a protection order, alleging that Pajoni was in the habit of insulting her using vulgar text messages.Senior magistrate, Sekai Chiundura heard that on December 1, 2015 at Nyamajuru Primary School, Pajoni sent an abusive message to Mutasa threatening her. She threatened to send people to assault her at Marymount Teachers' College where she resides.The sent message reads: ("Vanhu endai kumatests nguva ichiripo, kuonda kudaro hanzi chiiko ko, iye Talent mwana mudiki kuperezeka, ndine hurombo. Handiite makwikwi nehure kana nechembere, usaone zvako ndichidai murume waunoti wako iyeye ndiye akandipa mvumo. Gore rino hariperi usati wachema neni. I have no mercy nemboko")"Go and get tested while there is time since you are losing weight. Your child Talent is so frail. I do not compete with an old woman and a prostitute. Your husband gave me the permission to do as I wish with you. Before year-end I will do something that will make you weep. I have no mercy with a fool," said Pajoni.Pajoni told the court that she was just replying to the messages she was receiving from Mutasa."I was in love with her husband. I am heavily pregnant and about to give birth. She used to send me hurtful messages and I was not replying them. She is now hurt because I replied some of her messages," said Pajoni.Chiundura advised her to desist from that behaviour and ordered her to pay $100 fine or serve 60 days in jail. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Many Manitobans follow their Bibles, but these days theres a sudden devotion to some whisky-soaked scripture. The words from Jim Murrays Whisky Bible 2016, which anointed the Gimli-distilled Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye as the World Whisky of the Year in December, has turned a seemingly simple bottle of rye into one of the most precious made-in-Manitoba products ever made. Or at least one most talked about at parties. Forget about stopping at a provincially owned Manitoba Liquor Mart outlet to pick one up for the list price of $32. Theyre long gone, leaving behind tales of tipplers lining up outside the doors prior to a stores opening that are reminiscent of the way Apple promotes its latest technological wonder. They hope to have a new batch in at the end of the month. In Alberta, where privately owned liquor stores rule the retail roost, the demand for Northern Harvest Rye ratcheted prices up to more than $50 a bottle if a store could get any to put on its shelves. Like Manitoba, most were high and dry. The mania behind Northern Harvest Rye is the latest dram of excitement involving Canadian whisky. For years, whiskies such as Crown Royal were the workhorse of the spirits industry, selling a lot, especially in western Canada, but fascinating few. Meanwhile, whisky connoisseurs were walking past the bottles of Crown Royal and Canadian Club and heading to the single malt and Irish whisky shelves, forking out bigger bucks for bigger flavour. Supplied photo Davin de Kergommeaux, Ottawa-based author of Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert. I was always a single-malt guy. I always drank the bottom-shelf Canadian whiskies, and they did the job and that was about it, said Davin de Kergommeaux, Ottawa-based author of Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert (McClelland & Stewart, $22). In the last 10-15 years Canadian whisky was in a slow decline in sales, he said. About three years ago this suddenly turned around. It was around that time the Toad in the Hole pub, the Osborne Village watering hole, expanded and added a whisky bar to its venue. We kind of started it before there was a demand for it, said daytime manager Tim Roth. One of the owners went to Scotland and went on distillery tours, and when he came back thought we should do something a little different. Mad Men kind of started the idea too. We thought we could offer some whiskey sours and cocktails, and it took off. A global trend toward cocktails Mad Mens Don Draper always had a bottle of Canadian Club on his office bar cart on the popular TV series got the ball rolling because Canadian whisky traditionally lends itself to cocktails. But whisky companies, such as Diageo, the multinational conglomerate that owns the Crown Royal brand, also started targeting whisky connoisseurs with more flavourful Canadian whisky, he said. De Kergommeaux said a visit to Canadian distilleries, including Diageos Gimli facility, by Dave Broom, an influential writer for the Whisky Advocate, changed whisky drinkers opinions of Canadian whisky. What this is doing is really telling people about Canadian whisky, and making Canadian whisky respectable. If Broom made Canadian whisky respectable, Murray, the author of the Whisky Bible, turned it into a sensation, de Kergommeaux said. Theres just no doubt he sells whisky, he said of the Whisky Bibles Murray. If he says its the best whisky in the world, it will sell. Murrays effect has already shown in Manitobas Canadian whisky sales, said Gary Dawyduk, a product ambassador for Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries. Were up two per cent from last year, which doesnt sound like a lot, Dawyduk said, but were talking about a massive category that has actually been flat or shrinking for a number of years until very recently. I think part of the reason why its up two per cent is because of the revival (in Canadian whisky). Dawyduk said shelf space at Manitoba Liquor Mart outlets for deluxe brands of Canadian whisky thats the kind of whiskies that are generating the excitement has also shot up, from 33 to 50 per cent more in the past several years. At the Toad, whisky from all over the world, including Canadian whisky, has been popular, Roth said. We started with just one shelf, but now we have 250 (brands) and they all get used, said Roth. People are out to try something different. Canadian whisky distillers blend many different whiskies from many different grains, he said. Corn and wheat are the most common, but a hint of distilled rye whisky is added that makes Canadian whisky Canadian. Canadian whisky such as Crown Royal Deluxe, the mainstay brand produced at the Gimli distillery, uses only four to six per cent of rye whisky as part of its blend, Dawyduk said. Canadian whisky distillers are now flipping the blend; Northern Harvest Rye includes 90 per cent rye whisky while Canadian Club has a variety that is made of 100 per cent distilled rye. This Northern Harvest Rye is emphasizing the flavour from one of the distillates that they use as a flavouring, but now is being showcased on its own, Dawyduk said. But its unmistakably Canadian because although it has a lot of flavour, its also very light. Canadian whiskys price point almost all Canadian whiskies range from $22 to $75 for a 750-millilitre bottle, according to Manitoba Liquor Marts website makes it a relatively inexpensive experiment for whisky drinkers who havent been scared away by bottles of single malt imported from the Scottish highlands that can cost $100 a bottle and up. Once I started buying the more expensive ones, and theyre really only $5 or $10 more than the cheap ones, I started having these wonderful experiences, de Kergommeaux said of premium Canadian whiskies. He said Canadian whisky companies may be tinkering with blends and releasing whiskies that have been aged longer in oak barrels longer than usual, but that isnt the real reason why Canadian whisky has risen in popularity. Theres a perception that Canadian whisky is suddenly getting better and that is not the case, he said. What is happening is that people are suddenly discovering great whiskies that have been there all along. But is this all a fad? No chance, de Kergommeaux said. Canadian whisky has been the best-selling whisky in North America since 1865. Nobodys whisky, not the Irish, not the Scots, not the Americans, nobody sold as much whisky a year as Canadian did until 2010, when bourbon caught up and were now shoulder to shoulder with bourbon. I think this pique in interest in Canadian whisky will carry forward because when people taste it they say My goodness, this is so much better than I thought it would be. alan.small@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @AlanDSmall Other (Northern Harvest-coated) voices Sweetness and apple pie with hints of roses that develop tingly spices, crispy wood and typical rye fruitiness. Smooth vanilla pudding with a buttery finish. HHHHH out of five. David de Kergommeaux, canadianwhisky.org Rye, that most eloquent of grains, not just turning up to charm and enthral but to also take us through a routine which reaches new heights of beauty and complexity. To say this is a masterpiece is barely doing it justice. 97.5/100. Jim Murray, whiskybible.com Intense spice, baked apple and toasty herbal notes just keep rolling across the palate, lingering on the warm, peppery finish. It runs circles around peers such as the Canadian Club Chairmans Select 100 per cent rye. Believe the hype. 5 stars out of five Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson, Winnipeg Free Press News / Local by Tendai Gukutikwa A SOUTH African-based truck driver who on two occasions violently resisted arrest and escaped after he had stabbed his brother with an okapi knife was slapped with a four-month jail term.Agrippa Goneso (26) had been initially slapped with an eight-month jail term, but four months were suspended on condition that he does not commit a similar offence in the next five years.Goneso will serve an effective four months imprisonment.Mutare magistrate, Langton Mukwengi presided over the matter with Mr Brian Goto representing the State.The court heard that on December 2, 2015, Goneso hit his brother, Sydney Goneso (24) with a beer bottle once on the forehead before stabbing him once on the left side of the forehead.Goto said sometime in August 2015, Sydney and Agrippa had a family dispute after Agrippa faked his own death while in South Africa. Agrippa wanted to gain sympathy from family members who had disowned him over his wayward behaviour.When he came to Zimbabwe on December 2, Agrippa arrived at Sydney's Hob house residence and was welcomed. He refused to take a seat, but started assaulting his brother with a bottle and an okapi knife.Agrippa went away leaving Sydney bleeding. Goneso violently resisted arrest on two occasions and managed to escape.However, luck was not on his side on December 5, when he was arrested at Mutare Provincial Hospital while seeking medical attention for injuries he had sustained from his second escape in the Mazoe area.Sydney sustained two lacerations on the forehead. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. A new Manitoba law now in effect to guard against the sharing explicit images online without consent can stand as an example for other provinces, Attorney General and Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh said. While introducing the new Intimate Image Protection Act Monday, Mackintosh said the province was careful not to emulate similar anti-cyberbullying and child pornography legislation in Nova Scotia that was struck down as unconstitutional shortly after it came into effect. This is about taking action in a way that is constitutionally sound and sound in the best interests of Manitoba youth in particular, the minister said. JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Attorney General Gord Mackintosh holds the hand of the mother of a victim affected by distribution of intimate images. The mother spoke briefly this afternoon at the introduction of the new Intimate Image Protection Act I would hope that other provinces might look to Manitobas experience. As well, we are going to very carefully review and examine the impact of Manitobas law the legislation requires a formal evaluation at the five-year mark, Mackintosh added after the news conference. Manitobas legislation aims to help victims get their images removed from websites and social media by setting up a civil suit process that allows victims to sue offenders without going through criminal court, while still allowing their identities to be protected through publication bans. The new law also officially recognizes CyberTip.ca and its power to work with victims and to have explicit images removed the province is contributing $175,000 annually to CyberTip.ca to do that work. Staff at CyberTip have been able to get explicit images of youth taken offline within a day, which is often all the victims want, but such cases can take months for police to investigate. The new provincial law applies when someone distributes, or threatens to distribute, images in which a youth is nude or engaged in sexual activity. Its meant to complement federal Criminal Code provisions that made it illegal to distribute explicit images without consent as of last March. The Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which runs the CyberTip.ca tip line, says it has received nearly 350 reports of such images being shared without consent since March 2015 across Canada. About half of the reports involved teens 15 to 17 years old. Teens often feel pressured to send explicit images, and even if they do so willingly, they are likely to experience anxiety as a result, said Lianna McDonald, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. Youth who view those images might think its funny to forward them without realizing its illegal, she said. Theyre doing typical, sort of adolescent behaviour, but that behaviour combined with the impact of technology is creating a whole different problem for young people today, McDonald said. The mother of a victim in one recent case broke down in tears Monday when called upon to read a statement reflecting on the new law. The Manitoba case saw three youth convicted for their involvement in distributing explicit images of a girl without her consent. The identities of those involved are protected by a publication ban. The mother said her daughters traumatic experience happened within a matter of days and had lasting effects. She is my baby girl, the mother said before breaking down and having the remainder of her statement read aloud for her. An experience in youth should not follow her and haunt her, but it does. Internet child exploitation units at both the Manitoba RCMP and the Winnipeg Police Service welcome the new law, saying it gives them more tools to fight those who exploit children online. WPS receives about two or three reports per week from youth about explicit images shared without their consent, while RCMP handle 150 to 200 cases a year from across the province, excluding Winnipeg and Brandon. Police will still get involved and criminal charges will be laid in serious cases, including those involving revenge porn and extortion, said Sgt. Stephen Rear, head of the Manitoba RCMPs Internet Child Exploitation unit. The RCMP lays charges in about a dozen explicit-image-sharing dozen cases per year, and those are usually dealt with through a court diversion program, meaning the offender avoids a child-pornography conviction, which carries a sex-offender designation. Unless it really warrants it, we dont really want to label a 17-year-old or a 16-year-old as a sex offender because it really shuts a lot of doors in their future, and we really dont want to send them down a path of failure, Rear said. Currently, the majority of the RCMP Internet Child Exploitation units caseload about 65 per cent involves youth sharing explicit photos of their peers. Rear said hes hopeful the new legislation and the civil-suit process it sets out will give police more time to focus on adult offenders who are luring or extorting children online. A Nova Scotia judge struck down that provinces Cyber-safety Act last month, ruling it was unconstitutional because it defined cyber-bullying too broadly and amounted to an infringement on freedom of expression. The legislation was passed in 2013 in the aftermath of the suicide of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons, who was sexually assaulted and harassed after images of the assault were posted online. Justice Minister Mackintosh said Manitobas law is not modelled after Nova Scotias failed legislation. Katie.may@freepress.mb.ca CONVICTED Jeffrey L. Steinhoff, 50, of Racine, was fined $1,694 and sentenced to 65 days in jail for third-offense operating while intoxicated. He was arrested in Buffalo County in July. Steinhoff was credited for one day already served in jail and granted work release privileges with permission to serve his jail time in Racine County. Michael L. Stewart, 20, of Menomonie, pleaded guilty to operating with a restricted controlled substance and was fined $937.50. He was ordered to pay court costs for possession of marijuana. A charge of possessing drug paraphernalia was dismissed. His drivers license was revoked for 6 months. CHARGED Dawn H. Grable, 40, of Fountain City, has a court hearing Jan. 20 on misdemeanor charges accusing her of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct and resisting or obstructing a police officer. Adam D. Esser, 21, of Winona, Minn., had an arrest warrant issued Jan. 14 for failure to appear in court as scheduled on misdemeanor charges accusing him of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia. Derrick D. Carpenter, 20, of Kellogg, Minn., has a hearing Jan. 20 on a misdemeanor charge accusing him of disorderly conduct and citation alleging underage drinking or possession of alcohol intoxicant. Derick L. Birtzer, 21, of Mondovi, has a hearing Jan. 20 on misdemeanor charges accusing him of possessing marijuana and resisting or obstructing a police officer. Birtzer has pleaded not guilty. William G. Collier Patton, 26, of Hampton, Minn., has a hearing Feb. 3 on a misdemeanor charge accusing him of possessing a switchblade knife. Adrianna L. Danielson, 31, of Menomonie, has a hearing Feb. 3 on misdemeanor charges accusing her of possessing marijuana and carrying a concealed weapon. Stephanie M. Treu, 27, of Black River Falls, has a hearing Feb. 3 on a misdemeanor charge accusing her of possessing a controlled substance. Savana Leigh Au, 23, of Buffalo City, has a hearing Jan. 20 on a misdemeanor charge accusing her of disorderly conduct. Dustin O. Silvera, 31, of La Crosse, has a hearing Feb. 17 on a felony charge accusing him of second-offense possession of marijuana. James J. Martin, 26, of rural Fountain City, pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge accusing him of second-offense operating while intoxicated. CHARLESTON, S.C. (TNS) Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed Sunday over health care and gun control in their final debate before voting begins in the Democratic presidential contest. The two main contenders were more combative than in their three previous debates as polls show the race tightening just two weeks before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus Feb. 1. Clinton and Sanders are neck and neck in both Iowa and New Hampshire, site of the first primary. Both candidates, as well as former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, who is down in the polls, also outlined sharp differences with the large Republican field for president, especially front-runner Donald Trump. Main takeaway Sanders was on the defensive for most of the night, pressed on his plans to raises taxes on the middle class, his last-minute switch on controversial gun legislation and a newly released health care proposal. Clinton wasnt challenged on as many issues. That allowed her to play the aggressor early, especially on guns and health care, after largely ignoring Sanders for months. She was helped that the first questions were about gun control, race relations and drug addiction, which she has talked about for months on the campaign trail. Health care In one of the most contentious moments of the debate, the two offered sharply different visions of health care. Sanders pushed for a single-payer system that would replace the recently enacted Affordable Care Act based on private insurance. Clinton urged building on the existing system. Clinton accused Sanders of wanting to rip apart the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obamas signature legislative achievement, for the government-run plan that some have estimated to cost $15 trillion I dont want to see the Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, and I dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate, Clinton said. No one is tearing this up. Were going to go forward, Sanders said. Were not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it. Hours before the debate, Sanders released a plan to raise income taxes across the board, substantially more on high earners, to pay for a universal health care plan that includes an expansion of Medicare. He said the plan would ultimately save most families thousands of dollars a year on out-of-pocket health-care costs. Guns The two front-runners clashed over gun control with Clinton accusing Sanders of voting with the NRA and the gun lobby numerous times and saying that she was pleased that he had reversed his position on a 2005 vote to shield gun makers from lawsuits. Sanders, who a day earlier announced that hed now support a bill to strip legal immunity from gun manufacturers, called Clinton very disingenuous for suggesting that he was weak on gun control. He countered that he had a D-minus rating from the NRA, despite hailing from a state that does not embrace gun control. He dismissed Clintons suggestion he had flipped on the issue, saying he had not wanted smaller mom and pop gun shops to be held liable, but was now willing to back stronger provisions. Black voters In South Carolina, the first state where the black vote will dominate the Democratic primary, Sanders was pressed on his lack of support among minority voters. In 2008, African-Americans made up 55 percent of the Democratic primary vote in South Carolina and whites made up 43 percent, according to exit polls. Indeed, Clinton owes her lead in the state the first state where she does have a clear edge largely to a big lead there among African-Americans. She led among African-Americans by 78 percent-19 percent in a CBS News survey last month. But Sanders argued that as the African-American community becomes familiar with his record and agenda his numbers will increase as they have overall. Top quotes Bernie Sanders: I think Secretary Clinton knows what she says is very disingenuous. Hillary Clinton: I will go anywhere, to meet with anyone, at any time to find common ground. Again and again on the campaign trail, the presidential candidates have been faced by Americas rising concern about addiction, particularly to opioid painkillers and heroin. And from Hillary Clinton to Chris Christie, the politicians have responded by pledging their support for drug courts. This bipartisan reaction is correct, in principle: Drug courts, which now exist in every state, can motivate people to overcome their substance-abuse problems more effectively than punishment can. But to make the courts work in practice, states need to see that theyre adequately funded and properly run. Typically, states offer drug courts as an alternative to prison for addicts who are arrested for nonviolent crimes only: In exchange for pleading guilty, a defendant can spend a year undergoing assessment, treatment and monitoring. Crucially, this opportunity is offered under the threat of sanctions (including jail time) for not following the program. Theres good evidence that the strategy works: Recidivism rates among people who have participated in drug courts are as much as one-quarter lower than for those who have not, and lower still for those who complete the programs. For every $1 spent on drug courts, a state saves about $2.21 on its criminal justice and corrections systems. But states and counties have struggled to pay the courts upfront costs mainly salaries for the case managers and coordinators who ensure that defendants get treatment. And with funding limited, drug courts have too few spaces to accommodate all the people who might benefit. The federal government has pitched in by offering grants to plan, start or expand drug courts. But that funding has been minimal, and usually temporary. For the next president to truly expand access to drug courts, he or she will need to make more federal money available. Restrictions on eligibility further reduce the reach of drug courts. One study of recently incarcerated inmates found that more than 80 percent of those who could benefit from the courts were excluded. Many drug courts also need better management. Consider that judges, rather than physicians or other medical professionals, determine peoples treatment. And very often judges fail to appreciate the value of so-called medication-assisted therapy in addiction treatment the use of methadone and other alternatives to help people avoid the drugs to which theyre addicted. Indeed, a 2013 study found that two-thirds of drug courts prevented those who had been using illegal opioids from being treated with methadone or similar medication, often on the mistaken belief that such drugs prolong addiction. As a result, many people fail to complete their programs who otherwise could, and even face a higher risk of overdosing. The federal government said last year that it would deny grants to courts that ban such treatments, but court budgets are mainly funded by states. And they wont provide effective treatment unless doctors are in charge. Drug courts can be a good strategy for treating the U.S.s twin epidemics of substance abuse and mass incarceration. But they need to be used more often, and more carefully. Submit items for the Around Town calendar to bnr-news@capitalnewspapers.com. A complete listing is available at www.baraboonewsrepublic.com. Questions? Call 608-356-4808. Today Easter Seals AmeriCorps members at Camp Wawbeek will hold a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service from 9 a.m. to noon at the camp, 1450 Highway 13, Wisconsin Dells. The community is invited to assist. The morning will be spent constructing benches for around camp, as well as decorating the new dining hall addition at Respite Camp. Lunch will follow. For more information, call Anna Korb at 608-254-8319 or email volunteer@eastersealswisconsin.com. The Barboo Area Senior Center will hold a Senior Financial Program from 1-2 p.m. at the Center, Room 24, 124 Second St. Katie Bedward of Edward Jones will discuss Preparing Your Estate Plan. There is no cost for the program. For more information, call Diane Pillsbury at 356-8464. Tuesday, Jan. 19 The Fortnightly Literary Club will meet at 7 p.m. at the University of Wisconsin Baraboo/Sauk County, in the executive dining room, 1006 Connie Road, Baraboo, with Aural Umhoefer as hostess. The program, continuing the theme of Women of influence will be given by Cathy Sperl on Lady Deborah MoodyNew Yorks First Lady Liberty. Guests are welcome. Notify the hostess at 608-356-2318 to attend. Wednesday, Jan. 20 The Ruth Culver Community Library, 540 Water St. in Prairie du Sac, will host the M&M Bookworms at 6 p.m. to discuss Holes by Louis Sachar. Kids reading at 4th-5th grade level are welcome to join. Parents are invited (but not required) to participate. Contact Beth at 643-8318 with questions. The Reedsburg Public Library, 370 Vine St., will offer the Palm of the Hand Memoir Writing Group at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room. The group will meet on the third Wednesday of each month. For more information, call 768-READ (7323). Thursday, Jan. 21 The American Red Cross will hold a community blood drive from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Sauk Prairie Healthcare, 260 26th St., Prairie du Sac. To make an appointment or for more information, call 800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit www.redcrossblood.org. The Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., will hold its monthly book discussion group at 1 p.m. The first book will be The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman. Several copies available at the library for check out. Just ask. For more information, contact Emily at 643-8346. The Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., will hold Teens Underground Movie at 5:30 p.m. Youth ages 12-18 can watch the October 2015 movie based on the 1980s TV series Jem and the Holograms. Rated PG; 118 minutes run time. Popcorn will be served. For more information, call Katelyn at 643-8346. The Rock Springs Public Library, 101 First St., will present Charcoal Expression with Robbie Gorder at 6 p.m. This basic drawing class will promote self-expression, allowing attendees to leave the event with a personally drawn piece of art. The cost is $30 and includes instruction fees and the cost of materials. Register online at www.charcoalexpressions.com/events. For more information, call Haley at 608-522-5050 Martha Laning, Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, will be the guest at the meeting of the Democratic Party of Sauk County, at 7 p.m. in Room 11, at the Baraboo Civic Center, 124 Second St. Democrats and progressive voters from the area are invited to attend the session. For more information, call Judy Spring at 608-356-7325 or email, saukdems@gmail.com. Author Keri Olson will speak at the Baraboo Public Library at 7 p.m. at 240 Fourth Ave. Olson, a Baraboo native, will explore her journey with illness and loss, search for joy in difficult times, and ultimate discoveries about the blessings that abound. She will read from her e-book, Time to Be: An Almanac of Short Essays About the Extraordinary Joy of Ordinary Moments, which was recently added to Overdrive, Wisconsins digital library available through the Baraboo Public Library. The public is invited to this free presentation. The Ice Age Trail Alliance Lodi Valley Chapter will meet at 7 p.m. at the Lodi Medical Clinic, 160 Valley Drive, Lodi. Attendees will learn what is happening with the area Ice Age Trail. For more information, contact Joanna at 608-592-7817. Friday, Jan. 22 The Blood Center of Wisconsin will hold a blood drive from 1:30-5:30 p.m. at Pulse Fitness and Training, 501 Hitchcock St., Baraboo. Appointments can be made at www.bcw.edu/baraboopulse. Walk-ins are also welcome. An open house and game night will be held from 4-6 p.m. at Community Christian School, E12654 Highway T, Baraboo. Take a tour of the school and play family board games. Admission and popcorn are free. The eighth grade students will be selling ice cream concessions to raise funds for their upcoming class trip. For more information, call 608-448-2191 or email bderse@barabooccs.com. St. Peters Lutheran School, 346 N. Locust St. in Reedsburg, will hold its annual spaghetti dinner from 4:30-7 p.m. at the school gym. Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for children, ages 5-12, free for kids younger than age 4; and are available at the school office. A silent auction will also be held. Artists from around the region will exhibit their art at a free opening reception from 5-7 p.m. at River Arts Center, 105 Ninth St. in Prairie du Sac. The public is invited to celebrate the Wisconsin Regional Art Program, Sauk Prairie Photo Contest, and Portrait Photographers of Sauk Prairie exhibits. Tickets are available at www.riverartsinc.org or call 608-643-5215. The concealed carry law, gerrymandering and the erosion of the middle class, were some of the topics of discussion when Rep. Dave Considine, D-Baraboo, held a listening session Saturday morning at Driftless Glen Distillery in Baraboo. Considine handled the session on his own, since a medical emergency sent his listening session colleague Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, to the hospital. Over 40 people stopped in to discuss their concerns with the representative. One of the first issues brought to his attention was gun control and concealed carry legislation. Considine expressed concern over the amount of guns in the hands of the public. Five years ago, because of violence, there was talk of putting guns in teachers hands, he said. I said no way, I dont want guns in the building. He said he would rather go the route of the Weston principal (John Klang), who sacrificed his life for his students in 2006, than have guns in the hands of educators. Lets face it, hand-held guns are not super accurate unless youre within 10 or 20 feet, especially if youre not well trained, he said. Richard Peidelstein, a Baraboo resident, emphasized the point about accuracy. He said the ability to take down someone with a hand gun is exaggerated. Odds of being effective are really slim, Peidelstein said. I understand the fear completely, but what the solution is, I dont necessarily know. Peidelsteins wife, Nancy, asked about public transportation,and Considine said transportation funds are dismal on both a state and federal level. When one listener spoke up about concerns regarding gerrymandering, the redistricting of congressional and legislative boundaries to favor one political part over the other, Considine said one group is challenging the recent gerrymandering of a Republican-controlled state. It will go to the judges to decide, he said. We have to trust our judicial system. When and how can we stop erosion of middle class? one audience member asked. Some said the passing of Act 10, a collective bargaining law that took effect four years ago in Wisconsin, destroyed the middle class. One audience member, Scott Frostman, who has run on the Republican ticket for Assembly seats in the past, argued Act 10 was not destroying the middle class. Thats really a partisan issue and a philosophical ideal, Considine said. He said he would rather see the state fund real small business, dividing money between 50 and 100 small businesses, rather than trying to bring in one large corporation. That is one solution to support those who create jobs, he said. When asked by Baraboo Mayor Mike Palm about local control, Considine said there is an argument to be made for balancing certain areas of the state differently. Despite referring to the Republican party as them, Considine said he prides himself on being as non-partisan as possible. One audience member suggested the newspaper stop making the distinction of Republican or Democrat which follows an elected officials name in publications. I love that, Considine said. Mental health, STEM At the start of the session, Considine said there are some positive changes being made in the Legislature in the area of mental health reform. We are making it easier for mental health providers to be in schools, he said. He said there are also proposals to expand Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education in the form of $5,000 grants to schools for robotics programs. Considine said he feared the Fox Valley area would receive the bulk of the funding. My plan is to contact all of the schools to make sure they apply for these funds, he said. Environmentally, especially, there is not a lot of good news, he said. When asked about the regulation of high-capacity wells, Considine said My hope is that, since they had public hearings on it, maybe it wont come up again. He said he wanted a balanced approach to the planning of any high capacity wells, to make sure there is no diminishing of aquifers, but communication across the aisle has been a challenge. We really arent discussing things very well, he said. Considine encouraged everyone to vote and spread the word about the importance of getting to the polls in both the spring and fall elections. Considine said he was pleased with the attention Baraboo residents had given political issues over the time he has been in office. I applaud your local officials for how frequently they contact me, he said. Many Republican leaders agree that if either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz become the nominee, the Republican Party wont exist anymore. Thats not good for the Republican Party, the country, or the Democratic Party, either. This battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party is not new. There have long been reactionary forces, e.g. Barry Goldwater, who tried to drag the Republican Party so far to the right it lost touch with the vast majority of American voters. But until today, they were never successful. Saner voices prevailed. I experienced this first hand. My first political job was as chief of staff to California State Sen. Peter Behr, a Nelson Rockefeller Republican. One of the most respected politicians in the state, Behrs most determined political enemies were not Democrats, but far right-wing Republicans, who believed he was too willing to compromise. Nevertheless, as a young Democrat, I was still proud to work for a Republican because this socially moderate, fiscally conservative party actually delivered on many important issues. President Eisenhower, for example, built the federal highway system, established the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and warned against the military-industrial complex. Richard Nixon delivered the Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Air Act, and opened relations with China. Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 3.2 million illegal immigrants. George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act and repudiated the NRA. George W. Bush raised the minimum wage and added prescription drug benefits to Medicare. These were all actions Democrats could and did support in an age, not that long ago, when Republican and Democratic leaders were willing to reject extremist elements in either party and work together for the common good. As recently as the 2012 Republican primary, when it looked like the party might veer too far to the right with an extremist candidate like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain or Rick Santorum, party leaders once again came to their senses and realigned behind establishment candidate Mitt Romney. But thats not the case today. Look at the 2016 GOP primary. The inmates have taken over the asylum. Riding a wave of anti-Washington sentiment, outriders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz dominate the field, despite the fact that even most GOP strategists agree that Trump and Cruz are so far out of the mainstream that, were either one to become the nominee, the Republican Party would get wiped out, lose the White House and Senate, and maybe even the House, and cease to be a real political force. Dont take it from me. Veteran Republican operative Peter Wehner writes in The New York Times, Trumps nomination could pose a profound threat to the Republican Party and conservatism in ways that Hillary Clinton never could. And GOP pollster Dave Sackett recently warned House Speaker Paul Ryan and his leadership team that Ted Cruz would be an even bigger drag on House Republicans. Supporters of Trump and Cruz dismiss that concern, arguing that the success of two outsiders merely reflects the fact that America has become much more conservative. Nonsense. Whatever he is politically, Donald Trumps no conservative. He supports single-payer insurance. He says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a mistake. He supports the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage. He wants to raise taxes on millionaires. Hes no liberal, but hes no conservative, either. Ted Cruz, on the other hand, is definitely a conservative. But even if Americans have veered right, which I strongly dispute theyre nowhere near as far right as Cruz, Mr. Tea Party himself, who would shut down the government over Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, or anything else he doesnt like. How to get out of this mess? So far, no Republican leader has called to ask my advice. But here it is anyway. If they want to win in 2016, and not just score points, they need to do two things. First, convene an old-fashioned smoke-filled room, where all other wannabes agree to drop out and get behind one candidate against Trump or Cruz. Second, stop saying theyd vote for Trump or Cruz as the partys standard-bearer and vow to block them at the convention, if necessary. In other words, Republican leaders need to do whatever it takes to prevent Trump or Cruz from getting the nomination. Otherwise, they can kiss the Republican Party good-bye. There was a day when far too many people considered drunken driving something to wink at, something rather humorous. Thankfully, public attitudes have changed, for the most part. Theres nothing funny about drunken driving (not that there ever was). Its dangerous. Its deadly. Unfortunately, the laws of Wisconsin have done a lousy job of emphasizing the importance of curbing drunk drivers. Were the only state that continues to consider first-offense drunken driving a civil violation. In essence, its treated like a speeding ticket in our state. Our newspaper carries far too many stories about drunken drivers who have reached double figures in arrests. Yet law enforcement will tell you that taking away the keys, the license, the registration none of it matters to someone who has a buzz, a vehicle and a place to go after drinking. Eighty-five people were killed in drunken-driving collisions in Wisconsin in 2015, according to preliminary figures from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Its shameful. Just as shameful is the lax penalty for drunken driving in Wisconsin, because it sends a message thats more of a wink than a wake-up call. A Republican initiative is moving quickly through the Legislature to toughen up some of the penalties, and its a move that deserves support. As you would hope, the penalties should grow with the number of drunken-driving offenses. But heres the problem: As Wisconsin law stands, prosecutors cant count drunken-driving offenses that happened five years earlier. So, if youve had three drunken-driving convictions, the fourth doesnt count as the fourth if it occurs five years and a day after the third. Why is that important? Because the fourth offense in Wisconsin is a felony. A third offense is a misdemeanor, which is less serious when it comes to punishment. The Assembly Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a measure last week that would make the fourth offense a felony with no exception for when it occurs. That would carry a prison sentence of up to three years. Sadly but wisely, the measure also boosts prison time for drunken-driving offenses five and six (from three to five years) seven, eight and nine (from five to seven-and-a-half years) and 10 or more drunken-driving offenses (a maximum of 10 years, up from 7). Were always concerned about the rising cost of corrections especially because Wisconsin is now in the embarrassing position of spending more on corrections that it does on the University of Wisconsin System. But, as weve said, merely winking at the problem and taking away the keys and the license wont get these dangerous, problem drinkers off our streets and highways. Its a good sign when the Tavern League has registered its support along with the Association of State Prosecutors, Wisconsin Chiefs of Police Association and the Wisconsin Medical Society. The time for winking at the problem is long past. News / National by Samantha Chigogo LAW enforcement agents must do all they can to arrest criminals who broke into Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa's office at the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs last week, Home Affairs Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo, has said.Unknown people broke into Acting President Mnangagwa's office on Tuesday last week.It was the fourth such break-in at the same office.The intruders drilled a ceiling panel to gain entry into the office that is guarded 24 hours.A crack team comprising specialists from all the country's security agencies has been set up to investigate the case.In an interview with The Herald, Dr Chombo said there was need to tighten security at all Government offices. "The incident that happened on Tuesday whereby the office of the Acting President was broken into is an issue of serious concern to us. As Government we have several agents from various ministries that are concerned, interested and involved with the security of senior Government officials," he said.Dr Chombo said police and special intelligence agents had intensified investigations."These agents, including the Zimbabwe Republic Police, are on the ground and making sure that thorough investigations are done," he said."I can assure you that the culprits will be brought to book very soon. Work is in progress and we will update you as soon as we have something to tell the nation."Minister Chombo dismissed assertions that previous break-ins into Government officials' offices had been ignored."In line with cases of this sort that have happened before, no we do not want to pre-empt the findings of the ZRP and other law-enforcing agents that are involved in the matter," he said."But let me assure you that all our systems are busy working tirelessly to make sure that the perpetrators of this cowardly act are accounted for." He said Government would not be swayed by concoctions by the private media.Dr Chombo said an announcement on the matter would be made once investigations were completed. The probe team comprises the police, army and the Central Intelligence Organisation.They are conducting scientific analysis to establish the identity of the perpetrators and their motive.Intruders have broken into Acting President Mnangagwa's offices six times four times at the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, once at Defence House when he was Minister of Defence, and at his Zanu-PF Headquarters office in 2014. While the project is still a few years away, expect the south end of New Lisbon to look quite different by the summer of 2020. The city, along with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, is planning a large reconstruction project along South Monroe Street (Highway 80) on the south side of New Lisbon. The project will begin at the south city limits and extend to U.S. Highway 12. On Wednesday, representatives from the WisDOT Southwest Region in La Crosse held an open-house style meeting at New Lisbon City Hall to hear feedback from interested citizens. Project leader Paul Valenti said the Highway 80 project is part of the DOTs long-term highway improvement plan. We like having the benefit of a couple of options: bring it in front of the public and give them what they want, Valenti said. With pavement along that portion of Highway 80 becoming worse as the years progress, WisDOT believes its time to refurbish the roadway. We have an inventory of all the existing pavements in the areas and as we look at the conditions of the pavements as we update them, we look at which ones are deteriorating faster, and slower and such, Valenti said. There comes a time in every pavements life cycle where a maintenance operation, like an overlay, just isnt cost effective anymore. You can get some benefit out of it, just not as much as you want. This pavement (on Highway 80) has been overlaid a couple of times. It was originally built in the 1950s, and the wear is showing. Its time for us to invest in the roadway a little more and find something thats easier to maintain down the line. The project is scheduled to begin in April 2020 and will include reconstruction of the existing two-lane roadway from the city limits to the south approach of the Highway 12/80 intersection. It will include installation of curb and gutter, replacement of the storm sewer system, and an urban shoulder. The urban shoulder is being considered in two widths: six feet and eight feet, with the eight-foot option in consideration of it being used for ATV traffic without sharing the traffic lane with cars. According to the DOT, the project may also include a pedestrian sidewalk on both sides of the roadway and possible work on an existing culvert. The two-barreled box culvert underneath Highway 80 between Highway 12 and Mauston Road is also being examined for impacts from the project, which could mean extending one or both ends of the structure. If the east side is being extended, we will investigate and coordinate removal of city utilities from the structure, Valenti said. Construction should be completed within one construction season, ideally within the summer, between Memorial Day and Labor Day. To accommodate part of the construction plan, the DOT expects to purchase a portion of land in August of this year. Valenti said additional right of way will be required around intersections to allow for smoother vehicle turns. He said a strip of land may be purchased to accommodate the additional roadway width in alternatives with wider shoulders and pedestrian sidewalk. In terms of traffic control, Highway 80 will be open to local traffic only during construction. Local residents and business traffic will be able to access the project area, though work operations may not allow for vehicles to cross the entire work zone. Work on the box culvert and railroad crossing will prevent traffic from crossing these areas. A detour is planned to utilize Highway 16 (West State Street), County Highway A (Leer Street), and County Highway B to maintain access around the work zone. Temporary driveway closures will be necessary during parts of the construction process, Valenti said. WisDOT will contact homeowners and businesses in advance before temporarily closing driveway. Valenti said the project, with a price tag of about $1 million, will be supported by both state and local funds. The state puts up a portion of the money and a lot of it is state federal highway money. There will be some city participation as well; they will be doing some utility improvements in conjunction with the project, Valenti said. It only benefits the city. We dig up the road; they deal with some of the underground stuff win-win situation. Depending on which alternative (plan) they select, there may be some city participation in that as well. Depending on state budgets, Valenti believes the project could begin earlier than the spring of 2020. We also have to coordinate it with Canadian Pacific Railroad and whenever you get a railroad involved, you have to give it time to do what they do, Valenti said. In the grand scheme of things, its not that long of a project. WisDOT is also looking to put a curb on both sides of the roadway to address drainage issues. Valenti called the current area pancake flat, which isnt ideal for water runoff. For more information on the New Lisbon Highway 80 project, contact Valenti at 608-785-9053. Officials of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation are seeking the publics input on what to do about one of Portages hazardous intersections. A public involvement meeting has been scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 26 in the second-floor Common Council chambers at the Portage Municipal Building, 115 W. Pleasant St., to talk about alternatives for a stretch of Highway 16 near the entrance ramps for Interstate 39. In considering solutions, DOT officials are using the R word roundabout. According to a DOT news release, DOT Project Manager Matthew Dapp included a roundabout in which all traffic goes around a central circular island as a potential fix for the Highway 16-Highway 127 intersection near the Interstate 39 southbound entrance ramp. Other options could include modifying the intersection geometry or installing traffic signals. Project improvements would include resurfacing Highway 16 between Boeck Road and the railroad bridge south of Silver Lake Drive. But its the intersection with Highways 16 and 127, and the I-39 ramp, that has long been a topic of discussion at quarterly meetings of the Columbia County Highway Safety Commission. At the commissions February 2013 meeting, Ryan Mayer, DOT traffic safety engineer, said there had been seven accidents, none fatal, at the intersection in 2012. The area is susceptible to crashes because its difficult for travelers driving south on 127 to judge the position and speed of oncoming traffic on 16 before they try to cross six lanes to get onto the I-39 entrance ramp. Because the Highway 16 median is narrow, few drivers cross partway and wait in the median for traffic to clear in the other direction. The public meeting will include maps of the area slated for improvement, and what each of the possible alternatives would look like. At the Highway 16-127 intersection, discussion of a possible roundabout has gone on for several years. The Columbia County Highway Safety Commission composed of representation from law enforcement, county government, the DOT and other sectors talked at some length about roundabouts, at this intersection and in another accident-prone area where Highways 51, 60 and 22 converge, at the May 2012 meeting. Traffic studies have shown that there are fewer crashes in roundabouts than there were in the intersections that they replaced. However, people who are not familiar with them often dont know how to navigate them. Columbia County currently has no roundabouts, although there are several nearby including at the intersection of Highway 51 and Dane County Highway V near DeForest, and on Highway 12 at Lake Delton, near Interstate 90-94. Discussion of a roundabout at Wisconsin Street (Highway 51-16) and DeWitt Street is still on the table, though concerns about this have been raised by city of Portage officials, as well as officials from Columbia County, who are in the process of building two new structures in that area. At the Jan. 26 session, DOT representatives will be on hand to answer questions and take comments about the proposal for Highway 16 around I-39. Anyone who cannot go to the meeting is invited to share questions or opinions in any of the following ways: By mail to Matthew Dapp, WisDOT Southwest Region, 2101 Wright St., Madison, WI 53704. By email to matthew.dapp@dot.wi.us. By phone calls to Dapp at 608-246-5353. Melba Jonas, 93, of Portage, went to be with her Lord Jesus on Jan. 15, 2016. Melba was born in Portage, on March 21, 1922. She was the daughter of Edmund and Ella Marquart of Cambria. She was baptized on April 16, 1922, and confirmed in the Lord on April 14, 1935, in Cambria. She was a graduate of Randolph High School and attended Spencerian Business College in Milwaukee. On Nov. 11, 1943, she married Walter Jonas in Friesland, and after the war, they lived their entire life in Portage. She worked as an accountant and secretary and joined City Bank and Trust Company of Portage (now US Bank) in March 1963. She held numerous positions from secretary to the executive officer, as well as becoming personnel officer of the bank in 1972, assistant cashier in 1973 and vice president in 1975 from where she retired after 21 years. After her retirement, she devoted much of her time to various volunteer work and to her family. She was a member of St. Johns Lutheran Church in Portage. She is survived by one son, Douglas (Laurie); three grandsons, Mark, Kevin (Lauren) and Andrew; two great grandsons, Drake and Dean; one sister, Norma Krueger; and many nieces and nephews. Melba was preceded in death by her husband, parents and one sister, Gertrude Anderson. Thank you to all the angels dressed as staff at the Heritage House of Portage where she has resided for the past eight years, and to St. Croix Hospice for all of their help. You are all such a blessing! Visitation will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pflanz Mantey Mendrala Funeral Home in Portage and from 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday at St. Johns Lutheran Church. Funeral services will be held at the church at noon, with the Rev. Greg Hovland presiding. Interment will take place at 2 p.m. at Randolph Cemetery. Memorials may be given in her memory to St. Johns Lutheran Church in Portage. The Pflanz Mantey Mendrala Funeral Home (www.pmmfh.com) in Portage is assisting the family The lady who loved to travel and to share her many adventures has made her final trip. Irene (Henne) Zastrow of Portage passed away Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Irene was born in Deerfield Township, Waushara County, on May 30, 1921, and was an active and proud citizen of Portage for most of her life. She was a member of the Portage High School Class of 1940, and continued to gather with that group until their last annual meeting in the summer of 2014. On June 21, 1941, she married Robert Zastrow of Portage. That marriage and the birth of her daughter, Barbara, continued to be the major adventures of her life. For many years, Bob and Irene made their home on the 400 block of East Carroll Street where many friends, relatives, and neighbors came to see and enjoy the beautiful backyard she kept with the assistance of her best friend, her mother Lula Henne. Irenes many travels took her to every state in Union with the only exception being Alaska. She also traveled as far afield as Ireland, Rome and Tunisia. Objects in her home and her charm bracelet were a tribute to the places she had seen and enjoyed. Two of her favorite destinations were Nashville, home of her beloved Grand Ol Opry, and California, where she and Bob had lived when he was stationed there in WWII. Though she was an only child, Irene was proud of the close and loving relationships she shared with her many friends and cousins. She never met a cousin she didnt like and continued to meet with them at least monthly whenever possible. Irene was preceded in death by her parents, Lula (Lipke) Henne and Frank Henne; her beloved husband, Bob; an infant daughter, Roberta; and a number of treasured friends and cousins. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Barbara (Zastrow) and Vernon Hockerman of Pewaukee; her nephew, John Bremner of Harmony Grove; and too many cousins to mention though she would want us to make special mention of Connie (Mrs. Ron) Eddy of Portage; David and Joanie Curtis of Lakeville, Massachusetts; and Diane Curtis of Portage. She would also like us to offer special thanks to those who helped make her last years at home so comfortable and lastly, the staffs at Tivoli and Southern Care Hospice. Irene will be remembered for her love of flowers and parties, her excellent culinary skills, and her ability to share the many family stories she carried with her. Funeral services for Irene will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Johns Lutheran Church, Portage, with visitation beginning at 1 p.m. The Rev. Greg Hovland will be officiating. Inurnment will be at a later date. The family is being assisted by Picha Funeral Homes, Portage (www.pichafh.com). Hail to the Chief! Planning nutrient management prior to harvest Harvest is always a fast-paced season for growers, that's why it is important to meet nutrient management goals prior to harvest. News / National by Dumisani Sibanda CORRUPT elements in both the government and private sector should be thrown in jail to arrest the scourge that is stifling development, Zanu-PF Politburo member, Joshua Malinga, has said.He also said there is a need to cultivate a culture of having robust public debates on government policy issues before implementation for the country to fully develop.In an interview on the sidelines of a meeting with members of the Bulawayo Press Club at a city hotel recently, Malinga said there was no justification for corruption. "No country can develop with corruption," he said. "People are greedy and people have been allowed to be greedy. I think we should do something. People must go to jail."Malinga said corruption has now permeated society and it was worrying that it has not been effectively dealt with in both government and the private sector."It's everybody, a lot of people are involved, government officials and ministers and so on," he said, adding that businesspeople in the private sector were also involved. "It's a question of everybody is almost corrupt including Joshua Malinga. It's like a cancer, once a cancer reaches a certain level, you can't control it. That's where we are, cancerous stage," said Malinga.President Robert Mugabe has declared zero tolerance on corruption and some measures have been taken to rid parastatals of graft.In some entities, some executives awarded themselves obscenely high salaries while their organisations were collapsing and the government has moved to stop the rot. Recently, the government instituted an audit into the operations of the State Procurement Board following complaints in the past of alleged maladministration and underhand dealings.Apart from corruption, Malinga said nepotism, tribalism and lack of public debate and discussion were stifling development in the country. "Public opinion should be heard and allowed to be heard," said Malinga, who is Zanu-PF's Secretary for the Disabled and Disadvantaged."There is robust debate among us in our party Politburo but I'm saying the public should be involved (in public debate of issues). You can't come here and say you're consulting people. Consultation doesn't mean that you are going to listen. It means you are going to listen and still go ahead and do what you want. I'm thinking of robust public debate," he said.The Politburo member said his address at the Bulawayo Press Club was meant to provoke debate on a number of issues as this was healthy for development. In his address, he touched on various issues, including the land reform, the plight of the disabled, education and corruption. News / National by Staff reporter THE ruling Zanu-PF party is reportedly planning to splash at least $800 000 on President Robert Mugabe's 92nd birthday bash to be held in the drought-stricken Masvingo province next month.Zanu-PF secretary for finance Obert Mpofu yesterday declined to comment over the banquet, referring all questions to the party national youth finance secretary Tongai Kasukuwere."The event is being organised by the Youth League and they have a secretary for finance who is handling all the fundraising and the budget. Talk to him, he should give you the details," Mpofu said.Kasukuwere said they were still finalising the budget for the annual jamboree, with various State enterprises, individuals and party structures expected to bankroll the festivities slated for February 28."We are still finalising the budget because we are still waiting for all departments to draft their own budgets before we could incorporate it into the main budget for the celebrations," Kasukuwere said.However, party insiders who spoke on condition of anonymity said the birthday celebrations were expected to cost $770 000 - a figure big enough to import large quantities of maize to feed thousands of starving villagers in several parts of the country who were bearing the brunt of this year's El-Nino-induced drought.The host province - Masvingo - has, according to the party's provincial commissar Jappy Jaboon, been tasked to raise $100 000 for Mugabe's birthday bash despite facing acute food shortages, where most villagers were reportedly surviving on wild fruit, while over 5 000 cattle have succumbed to drought.Jaboon said the other nine provinces would raise $30 000 apiece, while the national team headed by Zanu-PF Youth League secretary Pupurayi Togarepi was given a target of at least $400 000.Zanu-PF last year spent over $1 million in food, transport and accommodation for its delegates in Victoria Falls, with farmers in Matabeleland North province donating cattle and wildlife, among other goodies, to pamper the veteran politician, who is seeking to extend his term of office by another five years in 2018. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page News / National by Stephen Jakes The Gwanda resident Association official Bekezela Fuzwayo has said the most talked about politician in most parts of the country this time is former Vice President Joice Mujuru whop is being viewed as an alternative to dislodge President Robert Mugabe from the helm he held since independence in 1980.I have a passion of going out into the rural areas of our country or being among the ordinary discussions by people in their free spaces and listen more than talk and hear what ordinary Zimbabweans are thinking and wishing for," he said."The talk on the ground of late is Mujuru and Mujuru and Mujuru very little of Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition. The people suddenly appear so excited on having found that alternative to Mugabe and Zanu PF."Fuzwayo said on the social media where the so called think tanks are or those who say they know the subject is the same albeit in a different perspective."The "think tanks" are busy bashing Mujuru and calling her a Zanu PF project which is contrary to what the ordinary people on the ground are seeing. Looks like people right now careless about whatever story one may tell them, all they want is change and the Mujuru factor appears to be coming in at an opportune time for them," he said.He said he met guys at an outlet sharing a two litre bottle of Ingwebu a traditional brew and somehow after joining them their discussion changes from the rains to politics."The Mujuru issue immediately took centre stage and one of them says something to me which I have since shared with others in one WhatsApp discussion platform,|" he said."He says Maduma, why don't you talk to Welshman Ncube to join up ties with Mujuru and be Mujuru's Secretary General. I naturally asked why? He says there is no one else who can come in and help Mujuru shape this country he can redirect Mujuru from the Zanu PF of old and bring a new leader in her then after ten years we can then put Welshman as the new leader of the country."Fuzwayo said he asked them why Welshman and not Morgan Tsvangirai who is already said to be in talks with Mujuru."The guys all at once shouted no ways they have had enough of Tsvangirai and if he is brought into the Mujuru equation he will spoil everything. I was very surprised at this kind of thinking from ordinary farm and mine workers who our so called elite undermine and hope to always force to a certain direction and thinking," he said."Am sitting here right now thinking what is the real direction that this country will take come the next few months. Is our political leadership really paying regard to the wishes and aspirations of the people they are leading? Is our new direction not always delayed because those who lead us always think that they know more than the people they are leading?" US invests in advanced reactor development 18 January 2016 Share The US Department of Energy (DOE) has selected projects to develop a pebble bed reactor and a molten chloride fast reactor to receive multi-year cost-share funding worth up to a total of $80 million. The DOE will fund cost-shared research and development activities with industry to support X-energy's Xe-100 Pebble Bed Advanced Reactor and Southern Company Services' Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR). The projects were selected following a competitive process. The DOE's initial investment will be $6 million for each project. According to the DOE, the possible multi-year cost-share value for the research is up to $80 million. The awards are an example of the public-private partnerships envisioned under the DOE's Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) initiative, announced in November, to provide the nuclear energy community access to technical, regulatory and financial support to accelerate the commercialization of new and advanced reactor designs. US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said: "In order to ensure that nuclear energy remains a key source for US electricity generation well into the future, it is critically important that we invest in these technologies today." X-energy is working in partnership with BWX Technology, Oregon State University, Teledyne-Brown Engineering, SGL Group, Idaho National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on its Xe-100 pebble bed high temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) reactor. According to the DOE, the next-generation reactor's advanced safety features and smaller size than traditional nuclear reactors would potentially enable it to serve a wider array of communities - particularly densely populated areas - while ensuring public safety. The design builds on earlier DOE investment in Triso (tristructural-isotropic) fuel technology, and X-energy said that the funding will focus on technology development, including core modelling, fuel fabrication and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) "outreach". Harlan Bowers, president of X-energy, said that together with the company's internal investments the DOE funding positioned the Xe-100 among the "most promising" advanced reactors currently under development. "We are thrilled that the DOE recognizes the Xe-100's advantages," he said. Southern Company Services, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is developing the MCFR in partnership with TerraPower, Electric Power Research Institute, Vanderbilt University, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The funding will be used to perform integrated effects tests and materials suitability studies to support reactor development. Southern Company CEO Thomas Fanning said that nuclear energy's importance will continue to grow as the USA transitions to a low-carbon energy future. "This collaborative research effort will help accelerate the development of next generation nuclear reactors," he said. Molten salt reactors use molten fluoride salts as primary coolant, at low pressure. The technology was demonstrated in reactors that operated in the 1960s and 1970s. With potential enhanced operational performance, safety, security and economics relative to other advanced reactor concepts, various molten salt reactor concepts are being studied in countries including China. American Nuclear Society President Eugene Grecheck said that the announcement of the grant winners demonstrated the DOE's commitment to the development of new nuclear energy resources in the USA. "Grants such as this, along with expanded nuclear research and development at DOE labs, have nuclear energy poised for growth," he said. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Implementation day for JCPOA 18 January 2016 Share Implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the E3/EU+3 countries has begun after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had taken all the necessary measures. New technology will play a key role in the IAEA's Iranian monitoring activities. Amano greets Salehi and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at IAEA headquarters on 16 January. (Image: D Calma/IAEA) Implementation followed the 16 January release of a report by IAEA director general Yukiya Amano confirming that Iran had completed the necessary preparatory steps based on verification by IAEA inspectors. The report was submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors and the United Nations Security Council. Implementation of the JCPOA clears the way for the lifting of nuclear-related economic sanctions imposed against Iran. The JCPOA was signed in July 2015 by Iran and the E3/EU+3 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and the USA - also referred to as the P5+1 - plus the European Union). Under its terms, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment activities, eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium and limit its stockpile of low enriched uranium over the next 15 years. Since the JCPOA was adopted in October 2015, Iran has reduced its stockpiles of enriched uranium to agreed levels, including the shipment of 11 tonnes (25,000 pounds) of low-enriched uranium materials from Iran to Russia. Other measures include the removal of numerous centrifuges and related infrastructure from its uranium enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow, and the removal of the core from the Arak heavy water reactor which has been rendered inoperable by filling openings into the calandria with concrete. Iran will now start to implement provisionally the Additional Protocol to its IAEA safeguards agreement, which together with other measures under the JCPOA will increase the agency's ability to monitor nuclear activities in Iran and verify that they are peaceful. Amano congratulated all those who had helped to make implementation of the JCPOA a reality. "We have come a long way since the IAEA first started considering the Iran nuclear issue in 2003," he said. Speaking in Iran today, Amano said that relations between the IAEA and Iran were now entering a new phase. Amano said that he had agreed with Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, to further strengthen cooperation between Iran and the IAEA. "We are committed to continuing our work in an impartial, factual and non-political way," he said. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the implementation as a "significant milestone that reflects the good faith effort by all parties to fulfil their agreed commitments". The United Nations Security Council announced on 17 January it had removed Iran's Bank Sepah and its international subsidiary from a sanctions list following the IAEA's report. Bank Sepah had been under a Security Council-mandated asset freeze since 2007. Technology 24/7 The IAEA has unveiled a new tool that it is using to monitor uranium enrichment activities at Iran's Natanz plant. The Online Enrichment Monitor (OLEM) was installed at Natanz as part of the preparatory work ahead JCPOA implementation. The sealed equipment measures the characteristics of gaseous uranium hexafluoride flowing through the processing pipes out of the cascades of centrifuges in the enrichment plant, providing round-the-clock monitoring to verify that enrichment levels do not exceed 3.67% as required by the JCPOA. OLEM: unobtrusive monitoring (Image: V Fournier/IAEA) The autonomous monitoring device is connected to an on-site computer which performs calculations, stores results and encrypts data. All the components, including the computer, are under IAEA seal and are tamper-indicating. Previous IAEA methods to verify enrichment levels have required samples to be shipped to the agency's laboratories for analysis, taking three weeks or longer. Massimo Aparo, head of the IAEA's Iran Task Force, said that some traditional sampling and analysis will still be performed in conjunction with OLEM. Nevertheless, the continuous measurement provided by the new technology will reduce the amount of sample taking and environmental sampling needed, resulting in greater efficiency and cost savings for the IAEA. Aparo said that the IAEA had accelerated the development of the real-time monitoring technology in light of the requirements of the JCPOA. The IAEA intends to roll out the monitor to gas centrifuge enrichment plants in other countries. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Fuel removal machine for Fukushima Daiichi 3 18 January 2016 Share A remotely operated system will be supplied by Toshiba for the removal of the remaining debris and fuel assemblies from the used fuel pool of the damaged unit 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. Meanwhile, Nukem Technologies will conduct feasibility studies on the development of further technologies for the plant's decommissioning. The fuel removal system (Image: Toshiba) The section of the reactor building that sheltered the service floor of unit 3 was wrecked by a hydrogen explosion three days after the tsunami of March 2011 - leaving the fuel pond exposed and covered by debris including machinery and many twisted steel beams. In early August, plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) announced that it had removed the 20-tonne fuel handling machine, the largest remaining piece of rubble, from unit 3's used fuel pool at the top of its reactor building. Its removal followed months of preparation and cleared the way for the remaining rubble and the 566 fuel assemblies in the storage pool to be removed. Toshiba today unveiled at its Yokohama facility a system to carry out this task. The system - developed by PaR Systems - comprises a 74-tonne fuel handling machine - for removal of the debris and fuel - and a 90-tonne crane for bringing in fuel transfer vessels, sealing them and transferring them to the ground-level floor of the reactor building. The fuel handling machine is equipped with two manipulators - developed by Westinghouse - capable of cutting and grabbing debris, together with a mast and fuel grapple tool for removing fuel assemblies. The manipulator tips, auxiliary hoists and fuel grapple tool attached to the mast can be replaced with an appropriate cutting or gripping jig via remote control, depending on the state of the debris in the pool. The crane section of the system consists of the main hoist with the transfer vessel lifting rig and an auxiliary hoist for removing and securing the transfer vessel primary lid. The fuel removed from unit 3 will be transported to the site's nearby communal fuel storage pool, although it will need to be inspected and flushed clean of dust and debris. Testing of the system and training of operators was carried out up to last December, Toshiba said. Installation of the system at Fukushima Daiichi 3 will now get underway. The removal of debris and fuel using the system is scheduled to begin in fiscal 2017, Toshiba said. Tepco plans to install a protective cover over the unit to protect it from the weather and prevent any release of radioactive particles during subsequent decommissioning work. Contract for Nukem Technologies Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) of Japan has awarded a contract to Germany's Nukem Technologies for four feasibility studies related to developing technologies for the decommissioning of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi reactors. MHI will be a major contractor for carrying out this work. Under the contract, Nukem Technologies will carry out studies on the scanning and removal of materials within the units' primary containment vessels, as well as cutting and dismantling the biological shielding walls. The other studies will cover the remote installation of a rail system and a remotely operated fuel debris transportation system. These studies are to be completed within seven months, after which Nukem Technologies could play a role in carrying out the decommissioning work, the company said in a 15 January statement. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Minister sets benchmark cost for French repository 18 January 2016 Share French energy minister Segolene Royal has signed a decree setting the 'reference cost' of a national repository for the disposal of high- and intermediate-level waste at 25 billion ($27 billion). The parties involved in the project had earlier estimated the cost at between 20 billion and 39 billion. France plans to construct the Centre Industriel de Stockage Geologique (Cigeo) repository - an underground system of disposal tunnels - in a natural layer of clay near Bure, to the east of Paris in the Meuse/Haute Marne area. The facility is to be financed by radioactive waste generators - EDF, Areva and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) - and managed by waste management agency Andra. In 2005, Andra estimated the cost of the facility at between 13.5 and 16.5 billion ($14.6 and $17.9 billion). However, in 2009 it re-estimated the cost at around 36 billion ($39 billion). In a confidential file submitted to the Ministry of Ecology in October 2014 - the contents of which were recently made public - Andra gave a revised cost estimate for Cigeo of 34.4 billion, based on 2012 prices. This estimate includes 19.8 billion for the facility's construction, 8.8 billion for operational costs over 100 years, 4.1 billion in taxes and 1.7 billion in miscellaneous expenses. However, EDF, Areva and the CEA maintained that the cost of Cigeo will be between 20 billion and 30 billion. Meanwhile, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorite De Surete Nucleaire, ASN) even suggested Andra had actually underestimated the cost. The French energy minister has now ruled, in a ministerial order, that the 'reference cost' for the facility will be 25 billion, based on the economic situation as of 31 December 2011. The order also says the cost of the project will be regularly updated and at least at each key milestone in its development. EDF noted the new 25 billion reference cost will "substitute the estimated benchmark cost of 20.8 billion on which EDF Group relied in its consolidated financial statements at the end of December 2014 and at the end of June 2015". "Taking into account this cost will therefore result in an increase of around 800 million in the provisions for long-term radioactive waste management for future expenses relating to the deep storage project Cigeo on EDF Group's consolidated accounts at the end of 2015," the company noted. "The increase in provisions will have a negative impact of around 500 million post-tax on net income group share in 2015." Areva said its will "integrate the impact of this revised quote in its 2015 accounts, taking a complementary provision of approximately 250 million, on the basis of the methodology used to determine the existing provision. Andra is scheduled to submit the safety and retrievability options report for the Cigeo repository to ASN later this year. Detailed design studies are expected to take place over the next two years. The application to regulators to construct Cigeo should be submitted in 2017, with construction itself starting in 2020. The pilot phase of disposal could start in 2025. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics News / National by Staff reporter Political analysts and opposition parties said the Zanu-PF leadership was no longer concerned with the welfare of its people at grassroots level.This is after the ruling Zanu-PF party has been reportedly planning to splash at least $800 000 on President Robert Mugabe's 92nd birthday bash to be held in the drought-stricken Masvingo province next month."They don't care. That is the biggest tragedy that we have as country, and our political leaders do not care about the welfare of our people," analyst Ibbo Mandaza said."In the past 10 years, we have had this economic crisis, but this has not stopped Zanu-PF from holding a big bash, bigger each passing year. It's an insult to the people of Masvingo, who are suffering, but it does not stop Zanu-PF from partying in the sea of poverty."Another analyst Alexander Rusero said: "There is nothing wrong in celebrating the birthday of a leader or even anyone because life is precious. But what is important is the aspect of priority. What is number one priority list of Zanu-PF? Is it to wine and dine in these trying times or is it to ensure human security through providence of political goods such as food? It's ironic actually that the banquet is going to be held in Masvingo, one of the most starving provinces of the country."Rusero added: "But who knows, maybe President Mugabe will spring a surprise and channel some of the proceeds towards alleviating hunger and starvation in Masvingo. It's too early to judge and pre-empt. Mugabe is a man of surprises."MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said: "This is not surprising to us, but disappointing given the level of starvation our people are going through. It's painful that Zanu-PF wants to spend such a huge amount of money on a nonagenarian leader who has led this country into this calamity."We all know that we have had a bad season in terms of rainfall, thanks to this El-Nino, but we believe that Zanu-PF is worse off than El-Nino. That money should have been used to buy maize for the suffering Zimbabweans and it is not surprising that Mugabe and his regime have decided to feed themselves, leaving the ordinary citizen to wallow in poverty."Former Energy minister and Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe leader Elton Mangoma said: "This shows that the Zanu-PF government has no interest of the people at heart. The moral ground to be a leader with such extravagance that you spend close to $1 million just one day when millions in your country are suffering and your own workers have not yet been paid their bonuses is unheard off."Zanu-PF national spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo's mobile phone went unanswered yesterday. A change in policy has Muslim workers upset at an equipment manufacturing plant based in Brillion, Wisconsin, according to The Blaze. Ariens Manufacturing announced a change to their policy allowing for Muslim workers to take a five-minute break twice a day for prayer to meet the requirement of their faith to pray five times per day. The companys new policy asks their Muslim workers to pray during scheduled meal times, and the employees are pushing back. According to the article, there are 53 employees at the firm that are affected by the policy change, and only 10 have said they will continue to work at the plant in light of the new regulations. Ariens released a statement saying, We are asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms. Our manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production. The company added they respected the faith of its workers, and they respected their decision even if it means they choose not to return to work at the facility. The management says employees are welcome to come back to work at the plant providing they will abide by the policy rules in force, or if they can choose a shift that does not interfere with their prayer times. The Muslim employees say it goes against their faith to pray at meal times, because it does not align with the prescribed times for prayer and invocations. Many of the workers say they were served with unemployment papers if they said they would not comply with the new regulations. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission states, an employer does not have to accommodate an employees religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer [such as] decreased efficiency, according to an article on wbay.com, a Green Bay television station. Supporters of the Muslims impacted by the new regulation fear they will not be able to find work in the area and will be forced to move away, but Ariens says they are offering to assist the employees to find positions on other shifts that might better accommodate their prayer obligations. Researchers feel confident that upcoming tests on space particles could be the key to finding out more about the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Particles from space collected from inside the Egyptian Bent Pyramid may soon provide clues as to how the 4,600-year-old wonder was constructed. Researchers will soon begin analyzing these cosmic particles, which were collected on plates planted inside the pyramid last month. The radiographic particles, known as muons, fall from earths atmosphere. They easily pass through empty spaces, but are deflected or absorbed by harder surfaces. By studying the accumulations of these space particles, scientists hope to learn more about the Pharoah Snefrus construction of the pyramid. The scientists will study the patterns of the particles. Hany Helal, vice-president of Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute which is conducting the study, says there is no single theory as to the pyramids construction that is 100 percent proven. All are hypotheses. With the new technology the team would like to either confirm or change or upgrade or modify the hypotheses that we now have on how the pyramids were conducted. The Scan Pyramid project, which is expected to go on until the end of 2016, involves four ancient pyramids. The study will be conducted through the application of muon radiography imaging, 3D reconstruction and infrared thermography. Thermal anomalies were also been found in the 4,500-year-old Khufu Pyramid in Giza, known as the Cheops pyramid. Canadas Laval Universitys Matthieu Klein said at a news conference in November that they found a clear separation of temperature on the west face of the Red pyramid. The bottom is colder than the top. Researchers feel confident that upcoming tests on space particles could be the key to finding out more about the ancient Egyptian pyramids. Mehdi Tayoubi, who is president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, says that even if they find one square meter void somewhere it may help solve the definitive questions. The Bent Pyramid is located in Dahshur, about 40 kilometers from Cairo. It is thought to be the ancient Egyptians first attempt at constructing a smooth-sided pyramid. News / National by Stephen Jakes The Zanu PF United Kingdom chapter has mocked the President Robert Mugabe death rumour mongers for always wanting to declare the head of state dead each time when he goes on holiday.This comes amid the circulation of rumours that Mugabe collapsed and have since died in the Far East where he had gone for Holiday. But His spo0kesperson George Charamba denied the claims and said the President is alive and strong."Every January there is a gruesome and repugnant tradition of declaring the Zimbabwe State President Robert Mugabe dead. It is always the same people with the same macabre and hideous imaginations," said the Zanu PF UK. "When a spritely President Mugabe emerges from his holidays invigorated the people of little shame do not apologise for the distress they cause other people, they just wait for another year to start again. Does it have to take a holiday for President Mugabe'e health to fail?"The Zanu PF UK said is there a suggesting that resting is not good for the President's health?"On one hand the same people are crying for the President to rest and on another hand they imply that if he rests he dies. Should that be the argument then for the preservation of life his Regai Vatonge," said the chapter. Sundays Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina was an exercise in demagogy and bad faith, with all three candidatesformer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and former Governor Martin OMalleyusing populist rhetoric to promote the false claim that the Democratic Party is a vehicle for opposing Wall Street and the domination of American society by the financial elite. Led by Sanders, who calls himself a socialist, the candidates sought to outdo one another in painting themselves as opponents of social inequality. Their rhetoric was clearly a response to what they see as growing opposition to the political establishment and the capitalist system, particularly among workers and young people. Earlier Sunday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd noted in an interview with Hillary Clinton that 43 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers identified themselves as socialist, while only 38 percent of likely Democratic caucus goers identified themselves as capitalista reality he suggested might cause Clinton to lose next months Iowa caucus vote to Sanders. The debate took place against the backdrop of a deepening economic crisis, following two weeks of massive losses on US stock exchanges and the announcement by Walmart that it will close 269 stores and slash 16,000 jobs. Only hours before the debate, the British charity Oxfam released a study showing that the worlds 62 richest people controlled more wealth last year than the bottom half of humanity, some 3.5 billion people. The report revealed that the wealth of these 62 people had increased by 44 percent since 2010to $1.76 trillionwhile the wealth of the worlds poorest half had fallen by 41 percent. The alienation of broad sections of the American population from the entire political establishment and the growth of anti-capitalist sentiment have manifested themselves in growing support for Sanders, who talks of a political revolution in the interests of the middle class and working families. Sanders has been gaining on Clinton in national polls and is within striking distance of defeating Clinton in both the Iowa Caucus on February 1 and the New Hampshire primary on February 9. Sanders sought to take the offensive throughout Sundays debate. He called for breaking up the biggest US banks and boasted that he did not accept money from Wall Street, unlike Hilary Clinton, who, he pointed out more than once, received $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in a single year. Clinton replied, Theres no daylight on the basic premise that there should be no bank too big to fail and no individual too powerful to jail. Former Governor Martin O'Malley declared, I have put forward a plan that would actually put cops back on the beat of Wall Street. Amid such denunciations of the subordination of the government to Wall Street, what none of the candidates cared to mention was the fact that the sitting president, who has spent the last seven years looking after the interests of the banks, is the leader of their own party. All three of the debaters repeatedly declared their support for Obama. Even as the Treasury and Federal Reserve funneled trillions of dollars in virtually free cash to the banks and hedge funds, the Obama White House made the expansion of poverty-wage jobs the basis of its 2009 auto restructuring and supported the gutting of workers pension benefits in the Detroit bankruptcy. Under Obama, not a single Wall Street banker has been prosecuted for the criminal activities that triggered the 2008 financial meltdown and threw millions of workers into poverty. But when asked about his relationship to the current president, Sanders declared, In 2006, when I ran for the Senate, Senator Barack Obama was kind enough to campaign for me. In 2008, I did my best to see that he was elected, and in 2012, I worked as hard as I could to see that he was reelected. Sanders did not attempt to square this support for a pro-Wall Street president with his supposed socialist politics. Later in the debate, Sanders reiterated his campaign call for a political revolution to rein in the handful of billionaires who control economic and political life in this country. But of what does this political revolution consist? Sanders has repeatedly rejected any call for public ownership of industry, telling ABC News George Stephanopoulos that very morning that he opposed the nationalization of the oil companies or utilities. Sanders revolution is nothing of the kind. It excludes any change in basic economic relations or even the party in power, which, as he himself admits, is dominated by the financial elite. He evidently wants the public to believe that like the Walls of Jericho, Wall Street will come tumbling down with one blast of hot air. Beyond his rhetorical denunciations of the banks and invocations of socialism, what Sanders is proposing is nothing more than what was not so long ago considered run-of-the-mill liberal Democratic politics. But even his modest reform proposals will be dropped entirely if Sanders is elected president, just as Clinton and Obama broke their campaign pledges and countless other Democrats before them. The real character of the candidates was revealed when they spoke on international affairs. All three accepted entirely and without question the framework and underlying premises of US foreign policy, dominated by military violence and war crimes around the world. Sanders called on countries like Saudi Arabiaa bloody semi-feudal dictatorshipto intervene in Syria with our support and the support of other major countriesa further escalation of the US-led war that has already killed hundreds of thousands of people and turned millions more into homeless refugees. Despite the candidates populist blather, the reality underscored by the debate is that the Democratic Party is an imperialist, pro-war party whose aim is to defend and expand the wealth and power of the billionaire oligarchs who dominate American society. US drug makers kicked off the New Year with a new round of drug price hikes despite growing public anger and political backlash. At the top of the list was Pfizer, which recently announced a $160 billion merger with Allergan that will make the new firm, which will keep the Pfizer name, the worlds largest pharmaceutical companyin addition to substantially cutting Pfizers tax rate. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets, on January 1 Pfizer raised the prices of 105 of its drugs. The average price hike for 60 of its branded drugs was 10.6 percent, including the intravenous muscle relaxant Quelicin (42.3 percent), the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra (12.9 percent), the pain drug Lyrica (9.4 percent) and the breast cancer drug Ibrance (5 percent). Eight of the companys products saw price increases of 20 percent or more. Meanwhile, Allergan boosted the prices of 40 of its brand drugs by an average of 9.1 percent. Horizon Pharma increased the prices of five of its drugs by 9 to 10 percent. Endo International raised the price of its pain drug Percocet by 25 percentthis is in addition to the 25 percent increase in 2015 and 30 percent increase in 2014. Vanda Pharmaceuticals likewise raised the price of its new drug to treat a sleep disorder in blind people by 10 percent, to $148,000. Acorda Pharmaceuticals raised the price of its multiple sclerosis drug Ampyra by 11 percent. The company has raised the price of the drug several times since it was first introduced in 2010. It now costs more than $23,650 per patient and generated $315 million in sales for the company in the first nine months of 2015. Drug companies often increase prices at the start of the year, and, in many cases, continue to do so over the course of the year. For example, last year Amgen raised the price of its anti-inflammatory drug Enbrel by 8 percent in May, 10 percent in September, and an additional 8 percent in December. The drug now costs $36,000 a year, nearly four times as much as the $10,000 it cost when it was first approved in 1998. Christopher Raymond, an analyst with Raymond James, told the Journal that the price hikes for Enbrel and other drugs seem to have increased in magnitude and frequency. Rebates may offset some of the price increases, but companies generally dont make the amounts public and repeated increases can offset the rebates. According to the Truveris OneRx National Drug Index, drug prices rose an average of 10.4 percent in 2015 (compared to 10.9 percent in 2014). Last year branded drugs rose by 14.8 percent (the same as in 2014), specialty drugs went up by 9.2 percent (9.7 percent in 2014), and generics increased by 2.9 percent (4.9 percent in 2014). Were in our third year of double-digit [price increases], A.J. Loiacono, the chief innovation officer at Truveris, a firm that tracks drug prices, told the Washington Post. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, US prescription drug spending grew 12.2 percent in 2014 to $297.7 billion, largely due to increased spending on specialty drugs such as those that treat Hepatitis C, compared to the 2.4 percent rise in 2013. Mary Brainerd, chief executive of the non-profit HealthPartners, told the Journal that drug-industry practices are becoming increasingly intolerable for consumers, health plans, doctors and hospitals. The drug companies are moving ahead despite public outcry over the price hikes, criticism from the leading Democratic presidential candidates, and recent congressional hearings and investigations. This signals theres still pricing power, Jeffries analyst David Steinberg told the Journal. Unlike other countries, theres no mechanism whereby regulatory authorities can control price. Democratic legislators recently made a half-hearted proposal. US representative Lloyd Dogget, a Texas Democrat, issued a letter on January 11 signed by more than 50 other House Democrats asking the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to exercise its march-in rights as a method of controlling prices. As part of the federal 1980 Bayh-Dole Act, the NIH was given the authority to march-in and issue patent licenses for drugs developed using public funding if the patent holder does not make the drug available to the public on reasonable terms. The failure to act in the past has undoubtedly sent an unfortunate signal that prices for federally funded inventions can be set as high as a sick or dying customer will pay, stated the lawmakers letter. The proposal by the Democrats is simply a smokescreen for the elections. NIH Director Francis Collins has stated in the past that it is not appropriate for the agency to exercise this authority to control drug prices. Thus, the NIH is unlikely to follow the suggestion, although it is preparing to respond directly to lawmakers. The Democrats, however, were careful to emphasize that even this limited measure should be used sparingly, only when wrongdoing occurs so innovation should not be threatened. The goal is not to address the underlying cause of skyrocketing drug pricesan economic system where health care is subordinated to the profit interests of corporationsbut, instead, to protect the profits of the pharmaceutical industry as a whole by reining in the worst offenders. There is a difference between earning a profit and profiteering, stated Dogget in a press release. Nonetheless, the drug industry responded belligerently to the proposal. The biotech industry trade group BIO stated that it would disrupt the biopharmaceutical innovation ecosystem with intrusive governmental intervention, according to Bloomberg BNA . The group issued a veiled threat that the drug industry stop developing federally funded inventions if the NIH acted on the suggestion. At this months annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, Ron Cohen, the chairman of BIO, claimed that profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry was a perversion of reality, while calling public anger at rising drug prices an abomination, according to STAT News. Protests over high drug prices were staged at the conference aimed at Gileads pricing of its HIV and Hepatitis C drugs. Gilead CEO John Milligan dismissed their concerns as more of a campaign issue than an actual issue, reported the San Francisco Business Times. According to a Senate Report released last month, Gilead priced its Hepatitis C drugs (Sovaldi at $84,000 per treatment and Harvoni at $94,500) to maximize profits, knowing full well that the prices would put treatment out of the reach of millions and cause extraordinary problems for Medicare and Medicaid, in the words of Senator Ron Wyden. The rising prices do not correspond to any significant increases in demand for the drugs. For example, in October, the Wall Street Journal examined the wholesale pricing data for 30 top-selling drugs in the US. It found that the growth in prices (76 percent) and revenue (61 percent), far outstripped the rise in prescriptions (20 percent). To justify the price hikes, drug companies often argue that the added revenue is pumped back into research and development to produce new drugs. An analysis of how drug companies spend their revenue, however, belies this argument. A recent investigation by CBS Mone y Watch looked at the 2014 financial data for 16 publicly held pharmaceutical companies, including their annual revenue, spending on R&D (research and development) and SG&A (sales, general, and administrative, which includes marketing), and net income (profit after taxes). The news outlet then listed these figures as a percentage of annual revenue. For example: Pfizer ($49.6 billion revenue; $9.14 billion profit): R&D spending as percentage of revenue (19 percent) versus sales, general and administrative (SG&A) spending as percent of revenue (28 percent). AstraZeneca ($26.1 billion revenue; $1.23 billion profit): R&D spending (19 percent) versus SG&A (42 percent). Sanofi ($34.11 billion revenue; $4.39 billion profit): R&D spending (14 percent) versus SG&A (27 percent). Novartis ($55.63 billion revenue; $10.21 billion profit): R&D spending (17 percent) versus SG&A (28 percent). GlaxoSmithKline ($23 billion revenue; $2.76 billion profit): R&D spending (14 percent) versus SG&A (33 percent). (According to Fortune, in 2014 Pfizer spent $8.4 billion on R&D, but spent 14.1 billion on sales, informational and administrative costs, including advertising, and $12 billion on share buy backs and dividends to investors). In all cases but one, corporate overhead was higher than R&D, and often significantly so, CBS reported. In half, after-tax profits were higher than the research-and-development expenses the industry typically points to as the major reason for high costs. The CBS story referred to a May 2015 Credit Suisse report that found that drug price increases were the key driver for profit growth. Credit Suisse estimated that whilst traditional SG&A grew only 4 percent in 2014, when this spend[ing] is combined with rebate expenses, overall promotional costs rose 17 percent, well ahead of reported sales growth. One way of looking at this is U.S. consumers pay more to subsidize marketing activities and profits than to finance new-drug research, the CBS report concludes. The author also recommends: US Senate holds hearing on rising generic drug prices [11 December 2015] US pharmaceutical industry price-gouging and the case of Martin Shkreli [24 September 2015] Surge in prices boosts drug industry profits [14 July 2015] The Essonne department in the Ile de France (greater Paris) region is threatening to unilaterally cease financing mandatory essential services for dependent people. Besides associations for child protection, and social and medical establishments providing care for the aged and the handicapped, these cuts would also target home help, benefits and compensation for handicapped people. The Essonne is represented in the National Assembly by Manuel Valls, the current prime minister of France. At the end of December, the president of the Essonne department council, Francois Durovray of former president Nicolas Sarkozys conservative Les Republicains (LR) party, sent a circular to 600 establishments informing them that the department was unable to pay bills now outstanding [amounting to 108m owed to them]... as of November 20, 2015. For a local government to renege on these statutory obligations is unprecedented and puts in question basic social rights guaranteed by the French constitution and legal system. The circular blamed the constant rise in obligatory expenditure (social solidarity, schools, roads)...and a big reduction in our resources, notably the national states subsidies to local authorities. Durovray sought to dissuade care establishments from taking legal action to oblige the council to pay them by claiming that the central government representative, the pr e fet, had given the council the go-ahead with its scheme to reschedule over 6 years its 108 million debt to them. Guillaume Quercy, the Ile-de-France director of the regional union of private health and associations (Uriopss), declared : This is an obligatory expense, one has to pay it. Its totally outrageous and unheard of in France, the most vulnerable people are being hit. He pointed out that several establishments and associations have no funds and could be put in a very precarious situation if payment were delayed. Vital services are already reporting a breakdown of their ability to aid persons in need. The director of Residence Soleil, which runs institutions for handicapped people in Essonne, told the press: Ive got people who were packed and ready to go to a new home...I had to spend 20 minutes explaining to them that they couldnt go. A woman was crying...These are mentally deficient people and this situation is completely beyond them. She added, The departmental councils decision was taken from funds already earmarked and moreover without any consideration of the tragic human consequences. These choices are being made to the detriment of the most helpless citizens. Welfare associations, exasperated by the wrangling over responsibility for the situation in Essonne between the former PS council leader Jerome Guedj, defeated in the March 2015 departmental elections, and his LR successor Durovray, told the media on Wednesday that they resented being taken hostage in political manoeuvres. Durovray, backed by accountant Michel Kopfer, accuses the PS of illegally manipulating budgetary allocations to hide the 108 million debt to the 600 aid providers. He points out that Essonnes debt had risen five-fold between 1998 and 2015 under the PS and is now at 1 billion, including a toxic debt incurred to finance the fire and rescue service. Guedj has retorted that the PS administration left Essonnes finances in a sound state and pointed to LRs budget cut of 30 million and pledge to cut taxes. According to Le Monde , All people acquainted with the affair concur that, on Manuel Valls territory, a political game is being played between the new right-wing majority and the former left one. Indeed, the PS government reduced national local government endowments by 1.5 billion in 2014 and 3.5 billion in 2015. This will rise to 10 billion by 2017 under conditions where their debts were already above 9 billion in 2013. These cuts are accompanied by a massive propaganda attack on lazy local government workers and the services they provide, with sackings, lengthening of working hours and reduction of hourly rates and holiday rights already being imposed in towns including Nanterre and Agen. The Essonne councils callous assault on basic social needs of the most vulnerable sections of the population is part of a European-wide offensive supported by social-democratic parties like the PS, the trade unions and their satellites to repay debts to the banks and effect a massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the super-rich. It is part of the same process of destruction of social services and living standards which has pauperized the Greek working class under governments run by the social democrats, the conservatives, and finally the Syriza party. Under conditions of the current three-month state of emergency, which gives the state the right to repress any resistance to its policies with arbitrary searches, imprisonment and house arrest, and in the context of jail sentences for workers at Air France and Goodyear for defending their jobs, the government is clearly using Essonne to test reactions and resistance to the deepening of attacks on social rights in preparation for the next phase. The Obama administration declared a state of emergency on Saturday, in response to the poisoning of Flint, Michigans water supply. Flint has become the center of national and international media attention in the wake of revelations that state and local authorities sought to conceal the exposure of thousands of residents to high levels of toxic chemicals, including lead. Public anger has grown so intense that the candidates at Sunday nights Democratic presidential debate felt compelled to make a few demagogic remarks about the disaster. The crisis in Flint concentrates the basic features of the broader crisis gripping American and world society. Under conditions of a social catastrophe which require a sweeping mobilization of resources, including billions for programs to treat and provide sustained health care for children and others irreparably harmed by the extensive contamination of the citys water system, the Obama administration has nothing to offer but a pittance in federal aid, various public relations maneuvers and military-police repression. In the face of an immense public health catastrophe, the American federal government, touted by President Obama last week as the most powerful state on Earth, has mustered the meager sum of some five million in federal funds. These emergency response measures add insult to the grave injuries already inflicted on the population. The crisis itself emerged as the product of conspiratorial policies and decisions by the office of Michigans Republican governor, Rick Snyder, and the Democratic political establishment, which ignored mounting evidence that the citys water supply had been contaminated. The events in Flint highlight the imperviousness of the American government towards the concerns and needs of the population. They also underscore the advanced state of decay of Americas infrastructure and the horrific social conditions now facing a large and growing section of the working class. Residents lodged grievances that the water being drawn from the polluted river caused health problems at least as early as 2014. Unusually high levels of lead, sufficient to produce damage to the brains and other vital organs of children and adults, were found in blood samples taken last year. In spite of this damning evidence, both big business parties worked together to cover up evidence and contain the fallout. The Obama administrations emergency decree itself came after a formal request from Governor Snyder, whose office has pushed for some $100 million in federal aid, but has failed to convince the Obama administration to classify the crisis as a major disaster, rather than an emergency. Ironically, this objection by the Republican Governor, himself the favored boogey-man of Michigans Democratic Party establishment, was repeated numerous times by the Rainbow PUSH Coalitions Jesse Jackson and a lineup of local politicians and community leaders, as they spoke to a small assembly in Flint on Sunday. The political elites at the local, state and national levels are in damage control mode and are increasingly anxious over the surge of social opposition. The aged Jackson has spent four decades trying to put out social fires and contain popular anger within the Democratic Party. In recent years this has occurred with less and less success, as seen in the hostile reception Jackson received from youth in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Repeat after me, Jackson told the audience, This is a Disaster, not an EmergencyAn Emergency means too little moneyThe federal government needs to give us more money, he said without mentioning Obama by name. Recent days have seen Democratic politicians and other Democratic Party-linked fixers arrive in Flint, where they have sought to channel popular opposition, and whitewash the role of the Obama White House. The administration has deliberately starved state and local governments and used the resulting crisis to force implementation of privatization schemes that transfer vast amounts of public wealth to the financial houses. Cities, school districts and other government institutions in Flint, Detroit and other cities have been forced to rely ever more on the banks and to seek to raise quick cash through the sell-off of city assets and slashing of public workers wages and benefits. In Detroit, this has taken the form of the regionalization of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), which has served as a means to kick-start the creeping privatization of the citys water infrastructure. This coincided with a campaign to shut off water to poor residents and the hiking up of rates to water users. Faced with rising costs, the former Emergency Manager of Flint, Democrat Darnell Earley, switched the water supply from Detroitwhich gets its water from the Great Lakesto the Flint River, long known as a virtual sewer for General Motors and other corporate polluters. During the Detroit bankruptcy, the White House ordered the Justice Department to step in to block any legal challenge to the emergency manager laws and clear the way for the savage cuts to retiree health care and pensions. The federal emergency declaration opens the way to the further deployment of National Guard soldiers, which, while ostensibly sent to assist in distribution of water and other supplies, are no doubt seen by the authorities as important force to maintain public order and prevent social unrest. The Michigan National Guard doubled its official troop presence from 35 to 70 on Sunday, positioning new forces at water distribution areas throughout Flint. This is not the first time the guardsmen have been deployed in the city. In 1936-37 troops seized control of the city and erected machine gun nests at key intersections in response to the sit-down strikes by autoworkers. The state of emergency authorization signed by Obama empowers the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other sections of the state apparatus to exercise expanded powers over Flint and surrounding areas, which they will use as testing grounds for the US governments expanding emergency management doctrine and programs. On Saturday, filmmaker and Flint resident Michael Moore explicitly endorsed the military mobilization, declaring, We need the Army Corp of Engineers in here as if they are invading Iraq. We need everything here to rebuild the infrastructure. The administration, however, has no intention to expend the necessary to resources to rebuild the infrastructure of Flint or any other city. The administration, which spent trillions to bail out Wall Street, will do nothing to undermine the profit interests of the financial elite. One should also contrast the insulting $5 million being sent to Flint to the trillions of dollars on the military and purchase of advanced weaponry, including ultra-expensive weapons platforms such as the F 35 jet fighter, which costs between $150-330 million per plane. Teams of WSWS reporters visited Flint this weekend to speak to residents about the deepening crisis over the poisoning of the water system. Over the last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder called out the National Guard into Flint to help with the distribution of water and lead filters in the city and Thursday appealed to President Obama to declare a federal disaster in Flint and provide federal aid, saying the needs of the city surpasses the resources that the state can provide. Saturday, Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint, but because the catastrophe was not the result of a natural event, aid was limited to three months and a paltry sum of $5 millionworking out to $50 per residentwas the most that could be committed. Since the poisoning of the city was the result of a cost-cutting measure by the state-appointed emergency manager to switch the citys water source to the Flint River and sever the decades-long relationship with the Detroit water system, the federal natural event loophole is being used to preclude an all-out effort to rectify the damage that has been done to Flint citizens. Shica, who lives in the northernmost area of Flint which she calls the projects, asked WSWS reporters to visit her area. The situation is affecting us deeply. We are concerned about washing our bodies, cooking our food, brushing our teethnormal things that people do every dayour lives have been tampered with. Its not the same. Its sad because nothing is getting done. Youve got people out here distributing water, but theyre not distributing it to the poorest people of Flintthe people who need it the most. No one has come into this area to distribute anythingfilters, water, anything. No ones knocked on doors And we are at the very edge of Flint. We get forgotten all the time. If you cross that yellow line, youll be in Mt. Morris. Thats the edge of Flint. Neighbor Debra Carter works at a nearby warming center for the homeless. She told the WSWS, The homeless are being totally forgotten in this situation. No one is delivering water to them on a regular basis. I have COPD. A nice steamy hot shower opens up my lungs and makes me feel better. I cant do that anymore because the lead is vaporized in the steam. When we had Flint River water, I have seen them flush out fire hydrants into the street and the water was red with rust. It never cleared though. When they finally closed the hydrants up, the water was still running rusty. We got a lead filter when they were giving them out at U of M [University of Michigan] Flint. But you have to replace the cartridge every two or three months. Where are you supposed to go to get them? Over the weekend, events were held in the city by filmmaker Michael Moore on Saturday and longtime Democratic Party advocate Jesse Jackson on Sunday. The Michael Moore event was a poorly organized media circus. With no loudspeaker system, the media, who surrounded Moore with microphones and all manner of recording devices, were the only ones who could hear anything he was saying. Some 150 people, including the press, attended the event in front of the Flint City Hall. Flint resident Wanda Kelly spoke with the WSWS. I have to go out and pick up water every day. And tomorrow, the next day. Every chance I get a chance to do it, I do it. The kids are going to school and not allowed to drink the water. Its bad, how Flint is right now. Downtown development, their water is working good, Im sure. But when you get beyond Fifth Avenue or so, I think thats where the water is poison. All the way from Hurley Hospital on down. We have a hospital and still the water is poison. People sick at the hospital are not allowed to drink the water. Thats bad! Dave Kroner also attended the Michael Moore event on Saturday. All of Flint has been poisoned. My granddaughter has been drinking that water! Now you cant even take a shower. You splash some water in your face and call it day. Its absurd! And I believe Snyder knew it. I believe the EPA knew it. I believe Attorney General Bill Schuette knew it! Weve got to get all of those folks out of Lansing. Id like to see the whole Tea Party mess out of Lansing! Yes, we absolutely have to rebuild the infrastructure! In 1968 I watched a documentary that said the whole northeastern corridor of the Unites States, cities need new infrastructure. Because its antiquated! My wife worked at the water company here in Flint. She saw guys come in with wooden pipes. Wooden fittings. Right out here off Miller Road. Antiquated! But we arent getting the money. The man doesnt pay his taxes! People pay taxes. The middle class pays taxes. But the man doesnt pay his taxes. I think we are living under an oligarchy now. There is a tremendous degree of sympathy with the plight of the residents of Flint. In southeast Michigan, many workers are on their own initiative volunteering their time and efforts to bring bottled water up to Flint to help. Some 60 miles south of Flint, Southfield residents Mike Lake and Chris Ray are among them. They spoke to WSWS reporters on Saturday. We decided to do what we can to get water to the people in Flint. Were small businessmen. We heard of the need in Flint, so we are getting donations of bottled water from people here and driving it up to Flint later in this afternoon. But were not just dropping it off at a fire station or something. The people who really need the water arent getting it. So, were going into the neighborhoods door-to-door and getting right into the homes of people who need it. Whats happening in Flint is terrible. We dont want to just be hearing about this on the news, so we decided to do something about it. Jesse Jackson spoke at a Flint church on Sunday morning before holding a public event later in the afternoon. Kimberly Manley, a DOW Chemical worker, lives down the street from the church. She denounced the duplicity of city officials as they sought to cover up the effects of the toxic water: When the water started coming out brown, I went over to my neighbors, and I said, Whats going on? The city officials said they were just doing work on the pipes. The mayor was on TV saying it was safe, and I said, Thats not true! Since the water switched over, Kimberlys daughter has been diagnosed with Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a disorder caused by low levels of platelets in the blood that can lead to easy or excessive bruising and bleeding. Her other children have been breaking out in rashes. My son says his skin breaks out every time he comes to visit, she said. He breaks out in rashes every time he comes here. The social situation here is bad, she added. Its not just in Flint. Whats happening here could happen in other places, too. After the afternoon Jackson rally, Jennifer Reyna, a student at Oakland University majoring in social work, said, Ive never been to a rally before, so I thought coming to hear Jesse Jackson would be good. But it wasnt what I expected. I thought there would be a solution but he had nothing. I didnt see him offering a solution to the Flint water problem. I was expecting so much more. The situation makes me so worried, because Im getting ready to start a family, but nothing is getting better. Tuition is constantly going up, so college is not getting cheaper. I dont see paying off my student loans until I retireI already owe $48,000 without interest being added yet, until I retire! Im quite shocked about what is happening in Flint. I dont understand why it is taking so long to do anything. Children are being poisoned. The conditions in Flint are like a third world country where people have to fight for water. In the US, theres no work, no water. What are people supposed to do? I had hope for Obama, but nothing he said he would do happened. I listened to his State of the Union speech. What recovery is he talking about? Dana Poindexter, an auto parts worker who moved out of Flint a few months ago because of the water situation, also spoke after the Jackson rally. Many of us were concerned when the announcement to switch the water to the Flint River because we knew the river was polluted. I come from a family of fishermen, and we would never fish there. GM stopped using the river because engine parts were rusting. I have small grandchildren so I became very concerned. In the summer of 2014 I noticed brown water spewing out of a fire hydrant. My husband has acne and psoriasis and he got serious problems when the water switched. You have no idea how many times I changed bath wash, detergent, soaps. We were told by the city officials to just boil the water and everything would be okay. And then on top of the poison water, the water bills went way up! Those water bills will kill you. Can you imagine paying for water you cant use? And then they want to shut people off for not paying? I think Snyder, Walling, Darnell Earley and all those who had a hand in this are responsible. They all knew and they were never going to tell us until it leaked out. This is about gentrification. Getting rid of the poor and keeping the rich richer. This has been going on for a long time. Its not just in Flint. I dont know who to trust anymore. My father was a GM worker in Flint. Theyve turned the clock back since then. As workers we get nothing. We are the creators of everything, we make it all happen and we get nothing in return. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a clear victory in the Taiwanese elections on Saturday, setting the stage for rising tensions with China. While president-elect Tsai Ing-wen is unlikely to move towards declaring formal independence from China, her policies cut across moves towards closer integration with Beijing under the incumbent president, the Kuomintangs (KMT) Ma Ying-jeou. Tsai won the presidential race with 56 percent of the vote, compared to just 31 percent for her KMT rival Eric Chu. President Ma was constitutionally barred from standing, having served two four-year terms in office. The DPP also won an absolute majority of 68 seats in the 113-seat national legislature, with the KMT winning only 36 and the remaining seats going to independents and smaller parties. The election campaign was dominated by the stagnant economy, with both candidates promising to alleviate the worsening social crisis confronting working peopleincluding falling real wages, high housing costs and rising unemployment. The islands gross domestic product contracted in last years September quarter and is likely to do the same in the December quarter. Trade figures released last week showed a plunge in exports of 13.9 percentthe 11th straight monthly decline. Overall exports fell by 10.6 percent in 2015, the biggest annual drop since 2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis. Economic policy is inextricably linked to the central issue of Taiwanese politics: relations with China. Ma won the presidency in 2008 promising a new era of economic growth through closer economic links with China and rapidly concluded a series of agreements to boost trade, travel and investment. The sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy has undermined these plans. Exports to China, Taiwans largest market, fell by 12.3 percent in 2015. Mas efforts to extend the expansion of trade to include service stalled amid widespread opposition to the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, which was signed in 2013 but not ratified after a student-led movement occupied the parliament in 2014. The so-called Sunflower Movement, reflecting the interests of sections of Taiwanese business concerned about the impact of Chinese competitors, formed the New Power Party and won five parliamentary seats in Saturdays elections. The DPPs presidential candidate Tsai offered a stream of empty promises to voters: a shorter working week, higher wages and more affordable housing. The DPP, no less than the KMT, is a big-business party committed to the agenda of pro-market restructuring that has widened the gulf between rich and poor. The DPP lost the presidency to Ma in 2008 due to the widespread disaffection produced by the social impact of its economic policies. The DPP emerged out of the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s against the US-backed KMT military dictatorship, which was established on Taiwan after the 1949 Chinese Revolution. After martial law was lifted in 1987, the DPP, previously illegal, promoted Taiwanese identity, hinted at Taiwanese independence and whipped up hostility to mainlandersthose who had fled from China in 1949 and their descendants. Tsai declared on Saturday that she stood for constant, predictable and sustainable relations with China, which has declared that it would forcibly oppose any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence. Both sides have a responsibility to do their utmost to find mutually acceptable ways to interact with respect and reciprocity and ensure no provocation and no surprises, she said. At the same time, Tsai warned: Our democracy, national identity and international space must be fully respected and any suppression would undermine the stability of cross-Strait relations. In particular, Tsai and the DPP do not recognise the so-called 1992 Consensus between Beijing and Taipei, an informal accord agreeing that Taiwan was part of One China, but about which each side has developed different interpretations. The KMT, which fled the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, styled itself as the legitimate government in exile of all China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), on the other hand, treats the island as a renegade province and has offered reunification under a similar arrangement to the one with Hong Kong. In response to Tsais electoral victory, Chinas Taiwan Affairs Office issued a cautious statement warning against any moves to declare Taiwanese independence. On important issues of principle like protecting the countrys sovereignty and territorial integrity, our will is as hard as rock, it declared. At the same time, the statement suggested that Beijing was willing to strengthen contact with any political partythat agrees that the two sides of the Strait belong to one China. The DPP represents layers of the Taiwanese ruling class frustrated with the lack of international recognition that impedes trade and investment with the rest of the world. Tsai has declared that she will seek Taiwans entry into the US-led Trans Pacific Partnershipan economic bloc directed against China. While Taiwans involvement with the TPP will open up opportunities for sections of Taiwanese business, it will inevitably be a source of friction with China. The election of Tsai takes place amid the Obama administrations escalating pivot to Asiaa diplomatic offensive and military build-up throughout the Asia Pacific aimed at subordinating China and the region to US economic and strategic interests. Any hint by Taipei or Washington of a shift towards closer relations will inflame tensions with Beijing. The US acknowledged the One China policy as part of its rapprochement with China in 1972, but under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act is committed to selling arms to Taiwan on the pretext of preventing a forcible takeover. US State Department spokesman John Kirby issued a bland statement over the weekend declaring: We share with the Taiwan people a profound interest in the continuation of cross-Strait peace and stability. In December, however, the Obama administration gave the green light for a $1.8 billion arms sale to Taiwan, including two guided missile frigates as well as antitank missiles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles and amphibious assault vehicles. Pressure for an even tougher stance was signalled by John Bolton, former senior Bush administration official, who, writing in yesterdays Wall Street Journal, denounced the Obama administrations passivity towards China and urged playing the Taiwan Card to force Beijing to back down to US demands in the South China Sea. He called on Washington to use a diplomatic ladder of escalation starting with upgrading US representation in Taipei all the way up to full diplomatic recognition to compel Beijings attention. While Bolton does not spell it out, such provocations would greatly heighten the danger of war with China. His comment points to the discussion and debate taking place within US foreign policy and military circles over the next steps to be taken in ratcheting up the confrontational pivot to Asia. The emergence last week of coordinated teacher protests in Detroit, organized independently of the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT), came as a shock to state and local authorities, the news media and the trade union apparatus. Having long relied on the DFT and other unions to suppress opposition to the decimation of public education and other essential services, there was a clear disorientation in the official response, which varied between denunciations and phony claims of sympathy. Three straight days of sick outs led to the shutdown of 93 of the districts 97 schools. Teachers used social media to expose the intolerable conditions in their decaying schools and to demand increased staffing and resources to lower class sizes, address chronic poverty among schoolchildren and recoup years of lost wages and benefits negotiated by the DFT. Within leading corporate and political circles there was fear the spreading protests and open defiance by teachers of the union and legislators threats of fines and dismissal could become the catalyst for a far broader movement of the working class. Detroit has been the epicenter for the attacks on the working class, including the 2013-14 bankruptcy when both parties, with the full support of the unions, looted city worker pensions and public assets on behalf of Wall Street bondholders. In nearby Flint social anger is at a boiling point over the lead poisoning of the water supplyby the very same emergency manager overseeing the Detroit schoolsand late last year thousands of autoworkers engaged in a near rebellion against the pro-company contracts pushed through by the United Auto Workers. Every section of the political establishmentfrom Republican Governor Rick Snyder and the Republican-controlled state legislature, to the Democrats, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, city and state officials, all the way up to President Obamaare hostile to the teachers demands. All of them defend the right of the banks, wealthy bondholders, and for-profit education businesses to decimate public education and teachers living standards. After recovering from their initial shock, the enemies of teachers regrouped and began a counter-assault last week. This included: *On Wednesday, January 13, Judge Steven Rhodesnotorious for his role in imposing the Detroit city bankruptcy by voiding the state constitutional protection for city workers pensionsbegan working out of Governor Snyders office, meeting with dozens of Republican House members to assist in gaining support for reorganization legislation. Politicians have seized upon the announcement two weeks ago that DPS debt will balloon to $26.8 million a month, and now the teachers effective protests, to ram through the reorganization efforts, which have been stymied in the state legislature since last spring. *Also on January 13, Mayor Duggan announced that all DPS schools were to be inspected by the end of April, claimingfor the first timethat if violations are found, the city would take appropriate steps to rectify them. *On Thursday, January 14, Michigan state senator Goeff Hansen (R-Hart) introduced Senate Bills 710 and 711 for the purpose of legally dissolving the Detroit Public Schools, establishing a new Detroit Community School District directly under the thumb of the Michigan Treasury and a financial control board appointed by the governor and mayor. The legislation would create a Detroit Education Commission, appointed by the mayor and governor, which would hire a chief education officer with dictatorial control over school openings and closures. One revision made since the original proposal last April calls for the existing Financial Review Commission created under the Detroit bankruptcy to also have fiscal oversight of the old and new districts instead of creating a new oversight panel. *The same day, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers unionthe DFTs parent unionflew into town to address a mass meeting of angry and militant teachers, many of whom were looking for the sanctioning of a strike. While feigning support, Weingarten opposed a strike authorization vote. Instead, she said the AFT would be buying a full page ad in the local newspaper, launching a petition to emergency manager Darnell Earley and Governor Snyder calling for the full funding of Detroit schools, and holding a meaningless protest at the Detroit Auto Show. When these toothless proposals were met by hostility, Weingarten began interrupting and shouting over teachers who were attempting to speak. *On Friday, January 15, the hypocritical attempts at damage control continued from additional corners. State Superintendent of Education Brian Whiston met with Earley and other district officials, purportedly to encourage teachers to report problems to principals, something teachers have, of course, done for a very long time. This suggestion was then hailed by David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan, who applauded Whiston for prioritizing Detroit. Hecker added, We look forward to positive outcomes from their meeting. They are desperately needed and needed now. *Most seriously, in fact of critical importance to the Democrats and Republicans in Lansingfinance industry experts in The Bondbuyer noted on Friday that Moodys has labeled Snyders proposed restructuring credit positive. The publication approvingly reports that, Under the proposal, the former DPS entity would remain intact to continue collecting tax revenue until its debt is repaid. Those debts include $1.5 billion of unlimited general obligation bonds, $199 million in borrowing from the states School Loan Revolving Fund, and $259 million in limited GO [General Obligation] debt paid by district operating revenues, rather than a dedicated debt service levy. The chief aim of the reorganization is to secure the interests of the hedge fund owners and investors in municipal bonds. As in the bankruptcy of Detroit, the ruling elite is overseeing the transfer of huge resources from the working class to the banks, in this case through the destruction of public education. The state sends its checks to the district after holding out money to repay short-term borrowings. Whatever is left is available to pay teachers, buy books and turn on the lights, explained the Citizen Research Council. Its upsetting to see the poor conditions of the Detroit school system, but as bondholders, we are largely insulated because of the strong support provided to the bonds by the state, explained Paul Mansour, the head of Connings municipal research which oversees $11 billion of state and local debt, including some of Detroits. The reorganization of Detroit schools envisioned by Senate Bills 710 and 711 will not just insulate the bondholders, it will enforce the drastic shrinking of the public schools, the further impoverishment of teachers and other school workers, and the elimination of school services, all to more firmly secure the debt. As the bills sponsor pointed out, We want to establish stringent academic standards and strict financial measures [emphasis added] in the citys public school system. That is our goal in this legislative process. An inseparable part of this effort is growing the for-profit education business sector in the city. That this is also a major goal of the legislation was demonstrated when the main spokesperson for the charter school industry in Michigan, Dan Quisenberry, signaled his approval of the legislation, calling it a step in the right direction. For tactical reasons, the hated emergency manager will be removed, but Wall Street and other corporate interests will maintain their dictatorial hold. The state will impose its fiscal control and increasing privatization on the new Detroit Community District in several ways. This will take place first through an interim nine-member school board appointed by the governor and mayor. Second, the appointed school board will hire the superintendent of schools who cannot be removed even once an elected board takes office in January 2017. Most fundamentally, the citys financial review commission will have complete oversight powers over spending. Finally, the bottom 5 percent of schools will be entirely under the direction of a state-appointed CEO, which it appears could either continue the hated Education Achievement Authority or potentially turn it into charters. Reportedly, the legislation does not address a source of funding for the $515 million in short-term debt. The conspiracy by both big business parties, the financial aristocracy and the unions can only be defeated if rank-and-file teachers fight to mobilize the full strength of the working classin metro Detroit and throughout the US and internationallyto conduct a common fight to defend public education and other social rights. For their part, autoworkers and other workers should follow the example of teachers by organizing their struggles independently of and in opposition to the trade unions. Over the weekend, the World Socialist Web Site spoke to Detroit teachers about the issues in their struggle. Last week, teachers conducted three straight days of sick out protests that forced the closure of 92 of the districts 97 schools. Rank-and-file teachers organized the job actions independently of the Detroit Federation of Teachers to demand the removal of the state-appointed emergency manager and adequate staffing and resources to repair decaying school buildings, lower class sizes and provide social services to children facing chronically high levels of poverty. Teachers also insisted on the return of wage givebacks negotiated by the DFT and the protection of their health and pension benefits. A young teacher who has been active in the protests told the WSWS, With the sickouts and the social media coverage, there is now overwhelming support for teachers. Its been kind of surreal. The dynamic has changed so much. The question now is how to use this attention effectively. Teachers are now on the front lines. We waited a long time for effective leadership. It was a debacle last year. But now members are finding their way to each other. They are realizing that it is not just this or that building. Some of the younger teachers had been involved in the Occupy protests and have experience with grassroots organizing. We posted the pictures of the buildings first. It was a smart move. Of course the photos were shocking and theyve gone all over the Internet. It was like opening Pandoras box. Were trending on Facebook and Twitter. But now were concerned that the more serious issues are not getting the traction they deserve. We have huge class sizes, 40 plus, a teacher shortage running as many as 200 missing teachers, there is privatized staffing and Teach for America. But we fear that the legislation being introduced is an emergency manager system with a different name. Were terrified of that. That includes the coded language promoted by the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren. Will there be a board that decides to open and close schools? Everyone has an agenda, an angle. How do we know who to trust? This is highly political and were not political ourselves. If the Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT)/American Federation of Teachers (AFT) plan active events, well participate. But if they dont move forward, we will still organize and hope they support us. But were not waiting. Most of us have devoted ourselves to the kids and we dont understand why our allies have betrayed us. How can the union be allowing or even supporting charter schools? We are hopeful, we are strong, but are we strong enough to go against all the entities we are coming up against? Its been shocking how deep the corruption goes, but things are becoming clear to us. Money talks. As for the Democrats and Republicans, Im the third box common sense. Theyre not two parties, theyre one party and a lot of people feel that way. We need to align ourselves with everyone in this, with other workers. For example, the building engineers have told us there are unmanned boilers in the schools and the students are in danger. A veteran teacher with the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) also talked to the WSWS about the challenges teachers face and the political experiences they are making in the fight to defend public education. Its horrendous whats going on. They are not able to retain teachers. Its not just in my building; my friends in other buildings tell me the same thing. People are leaving the DPS in droveseven to work at Walmarts or factories because they are tired of all the demands. The authorities claim we have low enrollment but you cant prove it by the classroomswith 45 and 50 children in elementary school classrooms. We are expected to give test after test. But our school has no social studies teacher, the math teacher left and so did the science teacher. There are substitutes running all of these classes. The kids just get worksheets. They learn no study skills. They dont care about these kids, black or white. There are failing ceiling tiles in my room. I am sure there is asbestos in the building. Describing the impoverished conditions of large numbers of Detroit school children, she continued, Most of these kids spend two or three different days with different relatives. They have no heat because their moms checks cant go that far. My kids are telling me this all the time. Things like, they did their homework but forgot it at their grandmothers. They are travelling around all the time because they have no heat. Then there are kids who come to school smelling of kerosene. These kids probably have neither heat nor water at home. I bring in soap, deodorant, towels and sanitary pads for my kids, and tell them Come see me privately and Ill take care of you. Ive been doing this for years. Kids tell me how they take an extension cord from one neighbors house to their own home so that they have light. They are using ice and coolers to store their food. I didnt know kids lived like this, until I came to DPS! Last week the AFT people came to our building and said, Were here to organize. I said, Organize what? Well, they wanted us to attend the union meeting that took place Thursday. So I went along with many others. We went there to prepare to strikethats what teachers thought would happen. The sickouts have unified us and we are not stopping. [Governor] Rick Snyder is shaking in his boots. Its us and the water crisis in Flinttheir plans arent going as planned. We went to the meeting but the union didnt call a strike. We listened to that mess [AFT President] Randi [Weingarten]. I think these organizers are here to demolish the district. Randi basically didnt even wait for teachers to finish their questions and she really didnt like the direction of the discussion at the meeting. Instead of a strike, she organized a petition calling for funding the Detroit schools. We signed it, but we couldnt care less about this. [DFT interim president] Ivy Bailey tried to take credit for the sickouts but she was never for them. In fact, she put it on the web site that teachers should get doctors notes for missing daysbut I know that its in the contract that we dont need a doctors note unless we are out for more than four days. I know for a fact that Bailey has been having tea with [emergency manager] Darnell Earley behind closed doors. The WSWS asked what the teacher thought about Weingartens question in the union meeting Are you here for Earley or for Lansing? in which she tried to deflect criticism of the Democrat EM Darnell Earley and divert teachers anger solely against the Republican governor. She said, We were there for both! It doesnt matter, Democrat or Republicanits all about the money game. In fact, this is what Ive been trying to explain to teachers. My friend admitted that after the meeting her eyes were opened. She had thought the union was for us. Many thought wed be on strike the next day. This has been happening for a while. Id say since 2006 the union has gone to the dogs. [Former DFT president] Keith Johnson was paid under the table. They started taking gains from the workers, making them pay for the health care and getting no raises. It used to be that after Christmas, wed come back to work and the floors were all shiny and refinished. Now theyre swept and mopped, thats it. They claimed the Democrats were supposed to be for us. And [Democratic former governor] Jennifer Granholm brought in [emergency manager] Robert Bobb. He carried through more cuts and layoffs and scared people. Ive never made the money I did before 2009. We are not happy with the union. We finally acted independently. We should have done it in 2009, but we are doing it now. The parents are backing us. We have the kids coming in and telling us that theyre for us. Thats coming from their homes. Barack Obama did nothing for working people. Did they really save the UAW people from bankruptcy? I dont think about what they say, but what they dont say. My family came up from the South and my dad voted Democratic all his life and even he says Obama has done nothing for me. We are going backwards. The author recommends: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/15/teac-j15.html News / National by Staff reporter A ZIMBABWEAN murder suspect was shot and killed by Botswana police following a scuffle in Ditladi village.According to Botswana media reports, the deceased was a suspect in the murder of a fellow Zimbabwean, Tshepo Habana.Botswana police confirmed the shooting incident which took place on January 7 this year.In a statement, police said three other suspects, Farai Dube, Canious Ncube and Pati Sibanda who are also Zimbabwean nationals were on Monday last week arraigned before Francistown Principal Magistrate, Dumisani Basupi in connection with the murder case."The three accused and the other suspect who is currently on the run murdered Tshepo Habana in Ditlatsana ward in Ditladi village on the 7th of January 2016," police said.The accused are not represented and their plea has been reserved.Prosecutor, Sub Inspector Kenneth Edward from Tonota Police Station last Monday asked the court to remand the accused in custody as investigations were still at a preliminary stage.He submitted that the matter was fresh and the investigations were still at an initial stage as they were still waiting for a post-mortem report and the next of kin to the deceased to be informed. One of the suspects is still at large.Edward also said the suspects were a flight risk as they also do not have travel documents and none of them has a permanent residence in Botswana.The suspects were remanded in custody January 25. 25 Years Ago | 50 Years Ago | 75 Years Ago | 100 Years Ago 25 years ago: First week of bombing in US war against Iraq On January 19, 1991, after two days of relentless air strikes on Iraqi forces during the Desert Storm operation, military analysts declared the Iraqi air force was so crippled that it could no longer be regarded as any kind of a serious threat. The expectation then was that the 2,000 daily sorties would continue indefinitely. Maj. Gen. Robert Johnston, chief of staff of the US Marine Corps Central Command, told the press, This is going to be a long campaign. It will be done with great caution and very professionally, and with the objective of minimizing our friendly casualties. While the first days of the air assault were targeted at incapacitating Iraqs command-and-control system, press reports announced that the killing is about to begin. On the fourth day of the war, US Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Charles Horner ordered a shift in air targets to include attacks on Iraqi ground forces, using specialized planes such as the low-flying A-10 Warthog anti-tank plane. The pro-war media gushingly promoted the high level of technically superior US forces, touting the surgical character of the air strikes. A January 19 article in the Los Angeles Times, opened with a breathless description of an F-111 fighter plane dropping a 2,000-pound laser-guided bomb with pinpoint accuracy, blowing to smithereens the headquarters of the Iraqi air defense, as like a scene from Star Wars. The article went on, For the first time in history, US forces are able to take advantage of their technological superiority to target enemy command and control systems at the outset of a war, a strategy that American commanders believe already has undermined Iraqs ability to strike back. Throughout the ages, it has been a dream of military commanders to wage a quick and easy war by mounting a successful attack on enemy commanders operating behind the linesleapfrogging the masses of enemy tanks, artillery and fortified positions that make traditional warfare such slow and bloody work. The story on the ground in Baghdad was very different. Almost immediately after the bombing began, with untold civilian casualties, a constant stream of thousands of fleeing refugees made their way toward Jordan. Aside from the major strategic aims, one of the important purposes of this war was to test out the weaponry which the US military had assembled. Along with the United States, virtually every imperialist power participated in the campaign, looking upon this murderous exercise as some sort of exciting experiment. They wanted to see whether it was possible to use this kind of advanced weapons technology to subdue millions of people. They wanted to see whether it was possible to launch a push-button war and annihilate hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of people, and render entire populations defenseless. [top] 50 years ago: Pentagon asks for more troops in Vietnam On January 20, 1966, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara outlined Pentagon plans to more than double US troop strength in Vietnam during the year to over 400,000. In testimony before a Senate committee, McNamara asked for a supplementary military appropriation of $12.3 billion. He said the request was based on the assumption that the war would continue through June 1967. McNamara proposed troops be added to all branches of the armed forces, including an entire new Marine Corps division. The creation of the new division, he said, would avert the necessity of calling up any reservists. McNamara noted that ammunition for ground forces was being expended at the rate of $100 million a month and that this would increase. The cost of bombs and missiles used in the massive bombardment of Vietnam would increase from the current level of $110 million a month, he warned. He also reported aircraft losses for 1965 of 275 fixed-wing aircraft and 76 helicopters. The defense secretary said this figure would rise substantially and therefore proposed the construction of an additional 900 fighters and 2,000 helicopters. Senate leaders assured the Johnson administration that the request for additional military would be quickly approved. The Stalinist bureaucracy in China meanwhile denounced the proposed massive new US military buildup, lamenting that it exposed the fraud of the recent peace initiative by the United States. In the face of the preparations for US escalation, China sent a squadron of 25 fighter planes to North Vietnam in an attempt to maintain credibility as defenders of the Vietnamese anti-colonial struggle. [top] 75 years ago: Churchill government crackdown on Communist Party On January 21, 1941 Britains Home Secretary Herbert Morrison ordered the suppression of the Daily Worker, newspaper of the British Communist Party. The crackdown was carried out because of systematic publication calculated to foment opposition to prosecution of the war to a successful issue. Scotland Yard followed up by raiding the Daily Worker s offices and stopping publication of an issue that was just going to press. The suppression of the British CPs paper had nothing to do with its having a genuine internationalist opposition to British imperialism. The British CP had been loyally defending Stalins alliance with Hitlers Germany against Britain. The British Stalinists flip-flopfrom having called for the popular front alliance of the democracies with the USSR against Germany, to support for the Stalin-Hitler pact in 1939 when World War II broke outhad seriously undermined support for the British CP among workers and made them the most vulnerable target for suppression by the home secretary. On the same day, the government of Prime Minister Winston Churchill called for legislation to provide for drafting workers into the defense industries. Because of a shortage of labor in the key industries and the widening of the conflict to defend Britains European and colonial interests, Churchill now wanted the right to conscript workers from non-essential industries into production of war materiel. Churchill implemented these two measures only after he was assured that US President Franklin Roosevelts Lend-Lease legislation, which provided for large amounts of military aid to Great Britain, had sufficient support within Congress and no opposition from the AFL and CIO unions. Roosevelt had maneuvered the United States behind British imperialism against Nazi Germany on the basis that he was supporting democracy against dictatorship. [top] 100 years ago: British parliament introduces conscription On January 24, 1916, the House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Military Service Act, a bill to introduce conscription into the army for single men between 18 and 41 who did not have dependents. Dubbed the Bachelors Bill, it was subsequently passed by the House of Lords and entered into law on January 28, having received royal assent. Under conditions of prolonged trench warfare on the Western Front following the initial battles of World War I in late 1914, and ongoing heavy casualties, a discussion had developed in British ruling circles over the necessity to boost the numbers of the armed forces. In October, the Derby Scheme, named after Lord Derby, the Director-General of Recruiting, was introduced. The scheme involved calling up military-aged men to attest to their willingness to serve with a view to subsequently enlisting them in the army. It was widely viewed as a failure, with some 2 million men failing to present themselves for attestation. The Liberal Prime Minister H.H. Asquith had resisted calls for the introduction of conscription because of the absence of general assent, i.e., the widespread opposition to the proposal. A host of pacifist, religious, liberal and working class organizations had vocally opposed the prospect of enforced conscription from the outset of the war. In late 1915, the radical Independent Labour Party held meetings throughout working class areas on the slogan Stop Conscription. In September 1915, the Trades Union Congress had passed a resolution opposing conscription. A Labour Party national conference in January opposed conscription by 1,766,000 to 219,000 votes. There were other displays of opposition, including a pledge by the South Wales miners federation to strike if the bill passed. Expressing the fear of widespread opposition in the working class, the bill included a number of exemptions for ill-health or business difficulties. It also included an exemption for conscientious objectors, but they were to be hauled before a military tribunal which would adjudicate their cases. Conscription did not cover Ireland, where refusal to fight for British imperialism was a well-nigh universal sentiment. Labour and the union leaders played the key role in suppressing opposition to the bill. They supported the Asquith government and held positions in its cabinet. Three Labour MPs who threatened to withdraw from the government remained when Asquith pledged not to introduce conscription for married men, a measure that was subsequently introduced in May. Colonel Charles Repington, writing in the Times, the principal organ of the British establishment, hailed the role of the Labour Party, declaring, we certainly owe much to the good sense and patriotism of Labour which has realised that there is no other means of reinforcing our heroes at the front adequately except by the passage of the Bill into law. [top] In a craven capitulation to anti-Muslim agitation, Wheaton College has begun termination proceedings against Dr. Larycia Hawkins, a tenured professor who attracted national attention in December by wearing a hijab during the Christian Advent period to show solidarity with Muslims. Explaining on social media her decision to don the Islamic garb, Hawkins wrote, I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book. And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God As part of my Advent Worship, I will wear the hijab to work at Wheaton College, to play in Chi-town [Chicago], in the airport and on the airplane to my home state that initiated one of the first anti-Sharia laws (read: unconstitutional and Islamophobic), and at church. Wheaton is a private evangelical Christian college located 25 miles west of Chicago. The college was founded by abolitionist opponents of slavery in 1860. In response to Hawkins actions, the college released a statement to the media declaring that the theological implications of Hawkinss claim violates the Wheaton College Statement of Faith, which all students and faculty are required to sign. On December 15, four days after she posted her statement, Provost Stanton Jones presented Hawkins with a document accusing her of blasphemy, and Hawkins was placed on paid administrative leave. On December 17, Hawkins submitted a four page theological statement re-affirming her commitment to the Statement of Faith. College officials are nevertheless moving forward with procedures to terminate Hawkins. A committee of nine tenured Wheaton professors is expected to arrive at a decision within several weeks about Hawkinss future employment at the college. College president Phillip Ryken will then refer the professors recommendation to Wheatons Board of Trustees for a final decision. Hawkins has received support from students and colleagues, who have denounced the administrations justifications for her termination. On January 11, the first day of the spring semester, over 100 students staged a protest outside the schools main chapel. Students are also continuing a sit-in, begun last semester when Hawkins was put on leave, outside the offices of Jones and Ryken. One participant, senior Annika Bouwsma, told the Wheaton Daily Herald, I dont think theres been enough transparency and I dont think that she (Hawkins) deserves termination or leave. Protest leader Joshua Mangis said he is hopeful that the college will reconcile with Hawkins, adding, Theres definitely an atmosphere on campus just that this is an important thingA lot of professors are opening class with a statement about it and encouraging students to read up on it. One student held a sign reading Academic rigor = academic freedom. A group of faculty has also registered a protest of the administrations decision, declining to take part in a mandatory prayer service at Bedman Chapel, choosing to hold an alternative service in a nearby chapel instead. Gary Burge, professor of New Testament Studies at Wheaton, told Time, I have seen no theological argument from the college that would deem her commitments unacceptable[Hers] is a clear, compelling affirmation of what we believe in Wheatons Statement of Faith. Benjamin L. Corey, writing for the liberal Christian news site Patheos, observed that the glue that holds fundamentalism together is the agreement upon a common enemy to fight, and Dr. Hawkins has rejected the notion that Muslims are the common enemy. Internal emails from the college administration appear to confirm that the move against Dr. Hawkins is a concession to the anti-Muslim hysteria that is being whipped up by the political establishment and the media. In one email, Jones acknowledged that Hawkins statement was innocuous, but complained, Articles are already being written in a variety of news sources, and the media are pounding on our door asking for comments about our faculty who are endorsing Islam. In another email, he wrote that her theological comments are being taken up as an endorsement of Islam. This episode at Wheaton College is part of a broader trend on college campuses of chilling and suppressing dissent. In October, George Washington University student Ramie Abounaja was forced by police to remove a Palestinian flag he had hung from his dorm window. The school was unable to cite any regulation he had violated and eventually apologized under threat of legal action from a Palestinian civil rights organization. In 2014, the University of Illinois rescinded a job offer to Professor Steven Salaita after he criticized the Israeli government on Twitter. On January 7, New Jersey high school student Bethany Koval was called to the principals office because a fellow student reported her tweets in support of Palestinian rights as bullying. She alleges that she was threatened with prosecution under state anti-bullying laws, denied access to legal counsel, and forced to sign a statement against her will. She has since retained a lawyer. In 2012, Wheaton College joined a number of other religious institutions in a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the Affordable Care Acts requirement that health insurance for employees or students include contraceptive coverage. The Obama administration had decided in February of that year to allow religious institutions to exempt themselves from the requirement, instead requiring insurance companies to cover the expense. All that an institution would have had to do under the Obama administrations regulations was to fill out a two-page form and submit it to the government. Wheaton argued that this requirement was unduly burdensome and violated the colleges religious freedom. In Wheaton College v. Burwell (2014), the US Supreme Court decided in favor of Wheaton College. The college has since discontinued health coverage for students altogether. News / National by Staff reporter Buhera South Zanu-PF member of parliament Joseph Chinotimba yesterday made a passionate plea for assistance from the United Family International Church to complete the construction of a clinic in his constituency.This comes after the Emmanuel Makandiwa-led church through its Agape Family Care Charity arm, last December, conducted hundreds of free eye cataract surgeries in Buhera, Chipinge and Chimanimani.On average, the cost of a cataract operation on both eyes costs between $2 000 to $3 000 in Zimbabwe, which is far out of reach for the impoverished rural folk. You are the owner of this article. News / National by Thobekile Zhou Applications are to be forwarded to the following address: Enclosed in the letter should be a stamped self-addressed envelope, 3 passport size photographs and certified photocopies of the following: Birth Certificate. National identity card. Educational / professional certificates. Recommendation letter from previous headmaster or community leader. The Zimbabwe National Army is embarking on a massive recruitment this week a move that has been mocked and condemned.Regular Officer and Cadets Medical Cadets are being sought. It is not clear how many people are to be recruited countrywide.The exercise said to be on this week.Gwanda resident Association official Bekezela Fuzwayo said recruitment spree was funny' but warned people to be prepared.He wrote "Very funny but scary our government is recruiting more soldiers into the army and air force plus more police but retrenching teachers, nurses and doctors!"The army, air force and police are always first to get paid their salaries and bonuses, got the best equipment and vehicles compared to schools and hospitals."Rastas say "big tings are gwan" to say big things are coming. Am I right?"Be prepared".Below is the recruitment noticeRecruitmentRegular Officer CadetsAge. 18 to 22 years for Advanced level holdersAge. 18 to 24 years for diploma and degree holdersEducational Qualifications. Three Advanced Level passes with a minimum of 6 points. Adegree or higher diploma is an added advantage.Physical Fitness.Candidates have to pass an officer selection before training.Members are commissioned by the President on completion of the cadet courseMedical CadetsEducational Qualifications Candidatesaccepted for undergraduate degree training by recognized universities are recruited.Age. Age 18 to 25 years.Members are commissioned by the President on completion of medical training.General Duty (GD) SoldierAge. 18 to 22 yearsEducational Qualifications. Five Ordinary Level passes, including English Language andMathematics at Grade 'C' or better.Physical Fitness.Recruits will undergo 6 months Basic Military Training. They passout as Private soldiers.Technical/Specialist Personnel.Age. 18 to 30 yearsEducational Qualifications.Potential Officers undergo a 6 months Basic Officers Course (BOC).They are commissioned on successful completion of the BOC.General requirements:Medical: Recruits are to pass a medical examination administered by an Army MedicalOfficer.Height and Weight: Average height for candidates is 1.7m. Their weight should be aminimum of 57kgs.Vetting: Candidates are thoroughly security screened for suitability.DO YOU WANT TO JOIN?Recruitment into the ZNA is a continuous process. Advertisements for all recruitmentcategories are placed in the media.The Army Recruiting OfficeP. Bag CY7720Harare Hundreds arrived at the Givat Shaul cemetery on Monday morning to accompany Dafna Meir, who was murdered by a terrorist in her home, on her final journey. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Meir, 38, is survived by her husband Natan and their six children: Renana, 17, Akiva, 15, Ahava, 10, Noa, 11, Yair, six, and Yaniv, four. The four older children are Dafna and Natan's biological children, and the two younger ones - Yaniv and Yair - are brothers that the couple adopted. At their mother's funeral, the children could not stop crying. "I didn't just lose a mother, but also my best friend," said Dafna's eldest daughter Renana, 17, at her mother's funeral. Dafna Meir's husband and children arrive at the Givat Shaul cemetery (Photo: Reuters) "It's hard for me to think we will not laugh together or fight anymore, that you won't accompany me to the IDF induction center, down the aisle, and to the maternity ward," Renana continued. "I'm sorry that in your hardest moments I was unable to help you." It was Renana who witnessed her mother's murder and called for help. "My mother was stabbed, my mother was stabbed. Help me," she cried into the phone. Dafna fought off the terrorist, in an effort to stop him from hurting her children, and Renana's screams helped scare him off. "You left me with six treasures, I will keep them safe for you," husband Natan said in a voice choked with tears. "My Dafna is one in a million, who grew up in a house that wasn't a home and still managed to rehabilitate. She decided to give back grace to the world, and she did," Natan said of his wife, who grew up in foster homes since she was 13 years old. "We met when we were soldiers, at the south Lebanon border. It only took us a moment to fall in love. My Dafna, thank you for every moment I had with you," he continued. "Our love is too strong to be a passing thing." The grieving family at the funeral (Photo: TPS) "You came to us when you were 13," said Dafna's adoptive mother Atara. "I remember the first time you came to us, I wanted to hug you and you took two steps back, you weren't able, I guess you didn't know what love is and what family is, that you can hug and kiss them and spend Shabbat together. And it was on your birthday." "With time we got used to each other and you became a daughter to us, and we were so happy with you, even though you came from a completely different background. It's only now that I realize how God brings people together," Atara continued. Atara also spoke about Dafna's desire to adopt children. "Dafna told me, 'I want to share something with you that I haven't told you until now. When Natan asked for my hand in marriage, I told him I had one condition - it doesn't matter how many children we have, we will also adopt children." Some 1,500 people attended Dafna Meir's funeral at the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem. Among them were Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) and Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) - who also spoke at the funeral. Culture Minister Miri Regev comforting Dafna's husband and children (Photo: TPS) "Dafna, I came to ask for your forgiveness," said Regev. "Our job is to keep you safe, like all other Israeli citizens. We were unsuccessful this time." She lamented the "spiritual poison that poisons the hearts of the murderers who go out to kill with a knife in hand. It's easy to spread the poison; it's hard to deal with it." The culture minister also issued a warning to "the Arab public in Yatta, Arara and Hebron - faith, prayer and good deeds are welcomed, but the State of Israel will not allow murderous beliefs as part of the freedom of religion. Those who threaten our freedom will not get to enjoy it." "We are facing a nation that sends its children to protect murderers, monsters who sanctify death, and a nation whose leaders rejoice at every violence," Bennett said. "If we weren't so sad, we'd feel sorry for you - a nation whose heroes murder our mothers. A nation like this could never be part of the community of nations, and a nation like this will never have a state. There's no state for hatred," the education minister added. Opposition lead Herzog, right, standing alongside Education Minister Bennett and Chief Rabbi David Lau at the funeral (Photo: TPS) Chief Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau also spoke at the funeral. "This isn't the first time over the past four months we've been here, and every time the pain formulates anew," Rabbi Lau said. Dafna, he continued, "was devoted to Jews, Arabs, everyone. Good Lord! You said you would not take a mother of children, and here was a mother taken in front of her children." Also in attendance were Opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union), Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben Dahan (Bayit Yehudi), and MKs Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) and Moti Yogev (Bayit Yehudi). Relatives of Eitam and Na'ama Henkin, who were murdered in front of their children in a drive-by shooting in early October, also attended the funeral. Some 1,500 come to accompany Dafna Meir on her final journey. Meir, the 28th victim of the current wave of murderous terror attracts, was well-known in the settlements. "She was a happy woman, full of joy, optimistic, responsible, loving," neighbor Yishai Klein described her on Sunday evening. She was a naturopathic practitioner specializing in fertility and the woman's body, and worked as a nurse at the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva. "Any person in pain at the settlement knew they could turn to her 24/7," Klein said. Prof. Yohanan Peiser from the Soroka Medical Center eulogized her on Monday morning in Otniel: "Who would've believed that we would be standing here on such tragic circumstances. Dafna was saving lives here and her own life was taken in front of her children. She always did above and beyond." Husband Natan and son Akiva read Kaddish (: ) X Hundreds residents of Otniel gathered outside the settlement's synagogue to eulogize Meir early Monday morning. "We lost a sister who was in our hearts and souls," Efrat Dahan eulogized her friend Dafna. "We met four years ago when we were sitting at the playground and we immediately became friends." "Dafna, ask for mercy for Natan and the children. We, down here, will watch over them," Dahan promised. Dafna Meir's husband and children at the Otniel synagogue (Photo: TPS) Abigail Rosenberg, another friend, had a hard time speaking. "How do you eulogize a friend? Every meeting was a basis for laughter and humor. You shared your life with us with such openness, and this is how you were with many others. You were a devoted mother and sister." On Sunday evening, Dafna's friend Liron Shtrenberg spoke of "a woman who enjoyed life, the wittiest woman I knew, who knows how to spice her speech with winged words and fine cynicism. "She was always searching for ways to help others, whether it was taking in two foster children, or as a nurse at the neurosurgical department. I'm a social worker in Beit Hagai, and she was always inviting teens who didn't have anywhere to go to her home." Family and friends gather in Otniel (Photo: Elisha Ben Kimon) Liron also told of Dafna's work as a naturopathic practitioner. "Women with fertility problems from all over the country called her; they all knew they could turn to her. She taught awareness to fertility. She had hundreds of students. To her, this was a mission, to help women be aware of their fertility, what times of the month they could get pregnant," Shtrenberg said. A pregnant woman was moderately wounded in a stabbing attack in Tekoa near Jerusalem on Monday morning. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The terrorist, around 17 years old, infiltrated Tekoa through an existing breach in its fence and arrived shortly after 10am to a second-hand clothes store in the Tekoa industrial area. The manager of the store turned to the young attacker to ask him what he was looking for. In response, he drew out a knife and stabbed 30-year-old Michal Fruman, one of the employees, in her chest. He then fled back towards the breach in the fence. Security forces ordered him to stop, but he ignored them, at which point he was shot and critically wounded by an armed civilian. He was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Scene of the attack in Tekoa (Photo: Gush Etzion Spokesman) Following the attack, the commander of the Etzion Brigade ordered the immediate removal of all Palestinians workers from settlements in the area, and IDF forces searched for any accessories. "In light of situation assessments and following recent terror attacks ... Palestinian workers have been instructed to leave (Gush Etzion) communities," an IDF statement said. Fruman, who is 18 weeks pregnant, was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem in moderate and stable condition. Her unborn baby was unharmed and there was no risk to her life. Michal is the wife of Shibi Fruman, who worked as former education minister Shai Piron's aide in the Knesset. Shibi Fruman's father, Rabbi Menachem Fruman, was the rabbi of Tekoa. Michal Fruman evacuated to hospital (Photo: Reuters) Michal's husband, Shibi Fruman, said the knife had broken a bone and raptured her lung. "She says she felt that the terrorist wanted to die more than he wanted to kill her, and the two things together express how serious the situation is," Shibi said. "We seek peace and there's no reply, because we're facing a culture of death," he added. Michal's mother-in-law, Hadassah Frum, said her son's wife was "very frightened," after the attack. "Something in people's personal sense of security is broken. People want to turn this place into a sane place of coexistence, but they see the situation persists," she said. "From my extensive experience of the situation on the ground, it's very clear to me that until the terrorists' families are expelled from here to Gaza, this situation will continue." Michal, Hadassah said, was a friend of Dafna Meir, who was murdered in Otniel on Sunday afternoon by a terrorist outside her home. "We spoke about the situation yesterday, about how to bring life into this reality," she said. The stabber who killed Meir escaped, and a manhunt for him continued on Monday morning in the southern Mount Hebron area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday morning that "the abhorrent terrorist who murdered Dafna Meir, who along with her husband raised six children, will be caught. I would like to send my condolences to Natan and the children, to the entire family. The entire Jewish People grieves with you." Monday evening, following reports of stones being thrown at Jerusalem's light rail in Shuafat, in northern Jerusalem, searches were carried out by detectives. A detective spotted an Arab youth wielding a knife coming towards them. The detectives approached him and identified themselves as policemen. The suspect tried to escape but was caught and arrested. The knife was seized. No injuries were reported. DUBAI - Iran on Monday said new US sanctions on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program were illegitimate, vowing to continue developing its conventional military deterrent. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals on Sunday for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program in a move delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of US prisoners The new measures also came after the lifting of far more comprehensive nuclear sanctions "The Islamic Republic will respond to these aggravating and propagandistic measures by pursuing its legal missile program stronger than before and developing its defensive capabilities," a foreign ministry statement said. Iran tests ballistic missile (Photo: AP) Iran conducted a ballistic missile test in October , which the United Nations called a breach of a resolution prohibiting the Islamic Republic from developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Iran insists the missile was designed to carry a conventional payload. Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Washington's sales of weaponry to allies in the Middle East, worth tens of billions of dollars each year, was used to commit "war crimes against Palestinian, Lebanese and most recently Yemeni citizens". "The US sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program ... have no legal or moral legitimacy," he said. Hardline newspapers Kayhan and Vatan-e-Emrooz splashed the news on their front pages, crowding out a triumphal speech by President Hassan Rouhani, who on Sunday hailed the lifting of the nuclear sanctions. "Sanctions are back!" ran the Kayhan headline. The article pointed out that Tehran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said new sanctions under any pretext would constitute a breach of the nuclear deal. The Health and Environmental Protection Ministries warned Israelis on Monday not to spend too much time outdoors due to the heavy pollution caused by the haze that has blanketed the country. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The Economy Ministry urged contractors not to do construction work at higher floors or operate cranes in the coming days. The levels of air pollution measured on Monday were unusually high. A significant increase in air pollution was measured around noon time due to the high concentration of dust and sand particles in the air. Haifa on Monday morning (Photo: Mont Galpaz) In Modi'in, the level of air pollution measured on Monday morning was nine times the average, while in Rehovot and Be'er Sheva it was eight times the average, and in Tel Aviv, Beit Shemesh and Ashdod, levels of air pollution were seven times the average. In Haifa, air pollution levels stood at six times the average. The levels of air pollution throughout the country went down on Monday afternoon. As of 2pm, the levels of air pollution measured were: Hadera, 5.4 times of the average; Arad, 4.5 times; Tel Aviv, 4.4 times; Kiryat Ata, 4.1 times; Beit Shemesh, 3.9 times; Caesarea, 3.8 times; Modi'in, 3.8 times; Jerusalem, 3.8 times; Gush Etzion, 3.7 times; Be'er Sheva, 3 times. Tel Aviv this morning (Photo: Yaron Druckman) The Environmental Protection Ministry recommended that heart and lung patients, the elderly, children, and pregnant women avoid any strained physical activity outside, and in general do not go outside if it's not necessary. "The problem is that the haze has tiny particles of dust and metals flying through the air," said Prof. Aharon Kessel, the head of the Israeli Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society. "If you breathe these particles, they sink inside the respiratory system. For asthma patients and older people, this could lead to inflammation and to their condition getting worse." The Meteo Tech weather forecasting company said winds will become stronger throughout the day. Sand storms are expected mostly in southern Israel, but possibly also in the central region. Haze in Rehovot (Photo: Avi Mualem) It will start raining in northern Israel in the afternoon, and the rain system will move southwards to central Israel during the night. Strong winds are expected on Tuesday that could reach up to 85 kph, mostly along the coast and in the mountainous areas. Snow is expected to fall on Mount Hermon, and it will rain in northern and central Israel, with flooding possible on coastal cities. The weather will improve on Wednesday with the rain stopping in the afternoon. A video released on Monday afternoon shows the escape of the terrorist who stabbed Dafna Meir to death outside her home in the settlement of Otniel the previous day. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter X The video shows the terrorist hiding in the bushes, and then fleeing the settlement after the attack. On Monday, residents of Otniel were instructed to remain in their homes, lock their doors and close their shutters as security forces continued searching for the terrorist in the settlement. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot visited the scene of the attack, accompanied by GOC Central Command Roni Numa, Judea and Samaria Division Commander Lior Carmeli, and the Commander of the Yehuda Regional Brigade Yariv Ben-Ezra, who briefed him on the search efforts. IDF chief Eisenkot, second on the right, in Otniel (Photo: IDF Spokesman) The terrorist escaped the murder scene on Sunday evening, reportedly towards the Palestinian village of Khirbat al-Karmil on the outskirts of the town Yatta. Overnight, IDF and Border Police troops arrested 27 wanted Palestinians. Twenty-four of them are suspected of involvement in terror activity and violent rioting. Several are from the southern Mount Hebron area, where the attack occurred. Security forces still don't know how the terrorist entered Otniel. The settlement is fenced only in the forested area between one of the large yeshivot and Highway 60, from which terrorist infiltrated in the past. In other parts of the settlements there is no fence, but there are electronic measures such as motion detectors and security cameras. Moroccan authorities have arrested a Belgian national of local origin directly linked to the attackers who carried out the Paris shootings and bombings in November that killed 130 people, the government said in a statement on Monday. The interior ministry gave only the suspect's initials in Arabic and said he fought in Syria with al-Nusra front before joining the Islamic State. The suspect, whose initials could be translated to J.A. or G.A., was arrested on Jan. 15 in the city of Mohammedia, the statement added. "He went to Syria with one of the suicide bombers of Saint Denis," it said. News / Regional by Mashudu Netsianda A FIGTREE teenage herdboy who raped his employer's one-year-old daughter has been sentenced to 20 years in jail.Moses Muleya, 19, of Manda village, was on Friday convicted of rape by Bulawayo regional magistrate Sibongile Marondedze.He will serve an effective 18 years in jail after two years were suspended for five years on condition that he does not within that period commit a similar crime.Marondedze, in her judgment, said although Muleya pleaded not guilty to the charge, there was enough evidence linking him to the crime. "From the evidence before the court we're satisfied that the State has managed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and you are accordingly found guilty as charged," Marondedze ruled.The magistrate expressed concern over an increase in the number of rape cases."Rape is a very serious crime that is prevalent and in the circumstances deterrent sentences are called for. Muleya betrayed the trust bestowed on him by his employer when he raped the man's daughter. What is aggravating is that instead of protecting the victim, Muleya chose to rape her despite her age," said Marondedze.She said Muleya was a danger to the community and deserved a lengthy prison term."The court frowns upon such kind of behaviour and cannot condone it. People like Muleya should be removed from society because they are a danger to their communities."A clear message has to be sent to the community that rapists have no place in our modern society. In the circumstances a lengthy prison term will meet the justice of the case," ruled Marondedze.Prosecuting, Paida Zengeni said on December 15 last year shortly after 6AM, Muleya, the victim and her mother proceeded to the fields to work.The court heard that about two hours later, Muleya complained of a headache and his employer excused him after he asked to go to the homestead and take a rest. Muleya left the field with his employer's daughter."Muleya took the victim with him to the homestead. He took the girl to his hut where he raped her," said Zengeni. A neighbour, Tawanda Muchenje, heard the girl screaming and went to investigate."Upon arrival Muchenje found Muleya lying on the floor with the girl beside him and she was crying," said Zengeni. The court heard that when Muchenje quizzed Muleya, he lied and told him that the girl was suffering from a severe headache.The offence was discovered when the girl's mother was bathing her.The tot was bleeding.The woman became suspicious and informed her neighbours who advised her to report the matter to the police leading to Muleya's arrest.The victim was taken to Plumtree Hospital for treatment and a medical report confirmed that she was raped. A new technology school launched by the Jerusalem Municipality, in partnership with Israels Ministry of Education, opened in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina this past week. The school is meant to offer some of Jerusalems most qualified and advanced Arab students the necessary tools to tackle the technological challenges of the 21st century. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter One of the schools goals is to reduce the existing gaps in the education system of Jerusalems Arab sector, a Jerusalem Municipality spokesperson related to Tazpit Press Service. All students in Israel and in Jerusalem particularly, are entitled to equal opportunities and therefore we all have a common interest in succeeding to incorporate Arab students with the tools to help their integration into Israeli society and ensure their future careers, the municipality spokesperson added. Beit Hanina in East Jerusalem (Photo: Tazpit) Jerusalems Mayor Nir Barkat also celebrated the new schools opening. This is another stage in the revolution that includes reducing gaps and improving the quality of education in the Arab sector of Jerusalem, commented Barkat. The school is the product of a process and an ongoing dialogue between the municipality and parents in the Arab sector who are also very much interested in framing advanced education that will provide technological studies. The reduction in the education gap will partially be accomplished by following the Israeli matriculation curriculum. The studies in the school will allow students to learn according to the Israeli matriculation curriculum, thus reducing educational gaps and opening up many possibilities in higher education institutions, the municipality spokesperson explained to TPS. These tools will help make integration easier in the future, both in academia and in the labor market. Even though one of the schools goals is to reduce existing gaps in education for Jerusalems Arab population, the school will only serve students with advanced academic abilities. The new technological school in Beit Hanina was designed to address a population of students demonstrating a high level of ability in the fields of sciences, math and technology, the municipality spokesperson noted to TPS. The intense curriculum of the school, which includes six school days per week as well as various workshops that will take place over vacations, is aimed at giving advanced Arab students in Jerusalem more of an auspicious future that they likely would not have had otherwise. We plan to make it possible for students to have advanced levels of education along with the creation of tools and opportunities for their academic education and future integration into the labor market, the spokesperson said to TPS. The school is the first of its kind in the Arab sector of Jerusalem in which the level of education will be on a higher level together with first tier teachers according to their respective professions and concentrations of study, the spokesperson continued. The Jerusalem municipality has invested approximately NIS 4 million for use of the building as well as for the purchase technological equipment. The school will have 14 classrooms, 9 workshop rooms as well as other auxiliary rooms and an outdoor courtyard. The members of the schools faculty have previous teaching experience and have advanced academic degrees in the fields of engineering and high-tech. IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot on Monday touched on a range of security issues affecting Israel, during his speech at a convention taking place at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Eizenkot addressed the Iran deal, which led to the lifting of sanctions, saying: "The sanctions relief and the nuclear deal with Iran represent a strategic shift that the IDF will have to tackle over the next decade." IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot speaking at an INSS conference in Tel Aviv (Photo: Motti Kimchi) He noted that the highest ranks in Israel, and in particular the Prime Minister's Office, are addressing only the risks bound up in the agreement. "At the end of 2005 the main threat was Iran," Eizenkot continued. "The agreement is a significant change of course for Iran. There are many risks but also opportunities. We are re-evaluating this shift in the IDF's corridors of power. "I would estimate that over the next five years Iran will make considerable efforts to fulfill its part and get the benefits from that," he said. "Iran is still near the top of our list in terms of the need to monitor them. Their vision of obtaining a nuclear weapon will continue insofar as Iran views itself as a regional power. "Iran manages a war against Israel by means of proxies such as Hezbollah , which today represents the most serious threat to Israel. "We also see (Iran's) attempt to influence Arab Israelis and those in the Gaza Strip, and the estimation is that as Iran's economic situation improves, over the next one-to-two years, it will divert considerably more resources into opposing Israel, via the Iranian military industry," Eizenkot continued. "The Iranians have so far transfered around a billion dollars each year to Hezbollah and we estimate that this will increase. They also try to transfer tens of millions of dollars to Hamas each year." Turning to the wider situation in the Middle East, Eizenkot estimated that the battle will encroach on Israel: "To my understanding, the Sunni-Shi'i conflict and the fighting in Syria will continue for many years. I think that the involvement of two powers is the key to reaching a settlement. The successes against Islamic State , in my view, raise the likelihood that we will see them turn their attention to us and the Jordanians. "The IDF needs to be on standby for an escalation. We cannot rely on this slippery idea of deterrence. It's taken hold in Lebanon and it could change in any number of ways tomorrow," Eizenkot said. "Whoever is standing in my place in a decade will, along with the army, be tackling greater challenges," he said in response to a question about whether the rules of the international game are changing, and whether following the rules is appropriate given that so many seem to be broken in the current age. The ramifications of the nuclear agreement with Iran were also discussed at the conference, as well as the impact of the various actors in the Middle East such as the increasing presence of Russia , the US's withdrawal, the IDF's recently-formulated strategic analysis and extremist Islam. The chief of staff also touched on the wave of terror attacks and noted that the 101st stabbing attack in recent months occurred on Monday. "We had no warning of any of the 101 stabbing attacks in the wave of terror," he admitted. Looking forward, he emphasized that "terror in Judea and Samaria will continue for many years. "The populations are mixed together, which creates a huge operational challenge," Eizenkot continued. "Despite the wave of terror we maintain that there is a separation between terror and the population and every day 120,000 Palestinians go to work in Israel and in Judea and Samaria, to support their families. "I think that it's in Israel's interests to be restrained, as well as to maintain security cooperation with the Palestinians as a shared interest. You don't need to be a strategist or an intelligence officer in order to know that this will continue," Eizenkot added. Last August, the chief of staff unveiled "The IDF Strategy," a document that detailed how he would operate in "routine, emergency and war" scenarios, what could be expected from him and what he expected from the political rank in order to be able to fulfill his role and bring results. The document represented a milestone in which the army clarified, for the first time, what it requests are from the political echelon in order to function effectively. "The IDF Strategy" also clarified that the political rank could present the army with two types of request in the event of a war against a non-state enemy, such as Hamas, Hezbollah or Islamic State: either full military engagement or restricted and localized strikes against the enemy. During Operation Protective Edge , for example, the political echelon requested limited strikes against the enemy and not to overwhelm them. US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro directed harsh criticism at Israel during a speech he gave at an Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv on Monday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro speaking at an INSS conference (: -) X In the aftermath of two terror attacks in as many days, Shapiro attacked Israel's policy towards the settlements and claimed that "too much vigilantism goes unchecked." Shapiro said that the US is concerned by the ongoing building in the settlements and also criticized the Israeli authorities' investigation into Jewish terrorism in the West Bank. US Ambassador to Israel speaking at an INSS conference in Tel Aviv (Photo: Motti Kimchi) "At times there seem to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law (in the West Bank): one for Israelis and another for Palestinians," Shapiro said. Nonetheless, he also noted that "the indictments in the Duma murders are an important demonstration of Israels commitment to prosecute acts of terror." Shapiro began his speech by addressing the current wave of terror. "Like so many Israelis, I have had to attend funerals, made shiva calls, and paid visits to hospitals. "Like all Israelis, I have worried about friends and neighbors, colleagues and family members, against the backdrop of this latest wave of terrorism. Among the victims have been American citizens," Shapiro said. "Yesterday, a young mother of six, Dafna Meir, may her memory be blessed, was brutally murdered in her home as she fought to protect her children from a Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife. "And today, a young pregnant woman was viciously stabbed and badly wounded by another terrorist," Shapiro continued. "The United States condemns unequivocally these barbaric acts of terrorismWe offer support and sympathy to the bereaved families and the woundedand we are committed to do everything we can, and call on all others to do everything they can, to bring an end to the violence and help restore security and stability," he added. Shapiro, who followed IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot's speech , also addressed the lifting of sanctions against Iran . "While the US and Israeli governments differed on the approach in this agreement, our objectives were and remain the same: to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. To us, that is part and parcel of our commitment to Israels security. "Two-thirds of Irans 19,000 centrifuges, including the disconnection of every single nuclear enrichment centrifuge at the Fordow facility, have been removed," Shapiro continued. "Irans 'breakout' time has now been extended significantly, from two-to-three months, to well over a year." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office stated that "the ambassador's words, on a day when a mother of six is buried and a day when a pregnant woman is stabbed, are unacceptable and incorrect. Israel enforces the law against Israelis and against Palestinians. It is the Palestinian Authority who is responsible for the political deadlock and which continues to incite and refuses to negotiate. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the comments of US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro during his speech at a security conference on Monday, saying: "The ambassador's statements, on a day on which a murdered mother six has been buried, and on a day on which a pregnant woman has been stabbed, are unacceptable and incorrect," Netanyahu wrote in his response. "Israel applies the law to Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for the freeze in the political process and continues to incite while refusing to negotiate." In his speech, Shapiro had accused Israel of applying two standards of law in the West Bank - one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned during a speech he gave at a security conference on Monday that the Islamic State group has infiltrated Israeli Arab society. "Islamic State is already here and it's no longer a secret. I'm not talking about on Israel's borders but inside the country. Whoever knows Arab society knows that over the last few years there has been vast radicalization." Rivlin called on Arab leaders to condemn the phenomenon and on the state to take responsibility for the Arab sector in Israel and to increase law enforcement within it. Nine people were arrested on Monday on suspicion of being involved in a plan of six leading tourism companies to fix prices on Israeli high school students' trips to Poland, in order to prevent competition in their market. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The investigation, a joint effort between the Israel Police and the Israel Antitrust Authority, revealed that the companies were working in the style of a cartel in order to push out the competition. The March of Life at Auschwitz, Poland (Photo: AP) The suspects, who had won tenders from the Ministry of Education to send groups of teenage students to Poland, also divvied up areas of the country between themselves so as not to create competition for schools. On Monday morning, detectives from the Lahav 433 crime unit and members of the IAA raided the houses of the nine suspects, who included a senior official at a large agency and two CEOs from smaller companies, arrested them and detained them after their interrogation. The police forces also searched the suspects' houses and offices, confiscating property, assets and bank statements. Several of the suspects were due to appear at the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' Court on Monday evening for a hearing to extend their remand. They are suspected of breaking the antitrust law and committing fraud. Additionally, one arrestee is suspected of bribery. The delegations of teenagers who go to Poland, which is part of the curriculum in Israel, costs parents thousands of shekels and criticism has often been heard regarding the fact that students with financial difficulties cannot participate. The military court in Jaffa on Monday sentenced Maj. Yosef Yazid, an officer in the Civil Administration, to five years in jail after he was charged with taking bribes and forging documents that endangered state security, as well as committing fraud and assisting Palestinians to enter Israel illegally. The court ruled that the officer took bribes to the sum of around NIS 250,000 in order to illegally issue permits over a prolonged period of time. This act, it was ruled, was liable to harm state security. Yazid was also fined NIS 30,000 and demoted from his army rank to private. The brutal attack Sunday in Otniel symbolizes two important points regarding the current wave of terrorism: an escalation in the severity of attacks and the fact that Hebron has become the "terror center" of this wave. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The first point is the escalation of the severity of the attacks and the transition from stabbings at intersections and on roads, which ended up with the terrorist being killed, to terror at people's doorsteps, which is more focused and much more deadly. The second point is the official transformation of Hebron into the "terror capital" and the producer of the largest number of terrorist attacks in the current intifada. According to the Shin Bet, out of the 150 attacks carried out by terrorists so far, 55 originated in the Hebron area. The most severe attacks of the current terror wave, which has claimed the lives of 29 people came from the area. Two soldiers stabbed in Hebron in December 2015 (Photo: Elyashiv Tzviel) The initial investigation of the Hebron Brigade revealed that the terrorist entered the settlement of Otniel, which is not surrounded by an electric fence, came to the family home and stabbed Dafna Meir in front of her daughter. Apparently, her screams had driven him from the settlement, but not before he was caught by the security cameras. A manhunt was carried out in the near-by villages of Yatta and Khirbet al-Karmel, where IDF soldiers and Shin Bet agents were active all night long. During the second intifada, in December 2002, it was the severe attack at Yeshivat Otniel which marked an escalation in the type of attacks. The settlement had no fence, and two Palestinians dressed in IDF uniforms, armed with rifles and hand grenades, infiltrated the settlement, entered the yeshiva's kitchen and opened fire. Four students were killed, and some of their friends, along with soldiers called to the scene were wounded. The settlement and they yeshivah became a symbol. Community and the meeting became a symbol. Getting back to current wave: the Hebron sector rose up later than East Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah. Hebron and its surrounding area quickly became the primary infrastructure from which terrorists emerged, and for now the Shin Bet and the IDF do not have a solution to restore peace. It's possible that the Shin Bet data showing that there has been a drop in the number of attacks last month are true, but definitely not with respect to the severity of the attacks. Every day there was an incident there, the main threat being, as published in Yedioth Ahronoth, the Hebron sniper, who has acted several times and has wounded soldiers from a distance near the Cave of the Patriarchs, and until now the authorities have been unable to capture him. The security forces' main worry is from copycats who may be emboldened by Sunday's successful attack, just as happened at the start of the current terror wave. Therefore, Central Command has instructed to stick closely to security procedures with regards to the settlements in the West Bank, where security has been beefed up lately. News / Regional by Border Gezi graduates offer free labour NATIONAL Youth Service (NYS) graduates in Matabeleland North have offered free labour services to paratastals that need extra hands.Matabeleland North National Youth Service Commander, Matthew Mleya, who is also Hwange Rural District Council chairperson, said the decision to volunteer at state firms was reached at a meeting held in Kamativi on Saturday."Considering the economic status of the country and the July three months' notice job terminations which saw many rendered jobless, we felt it wise to assist where needed. National Youth Service graduates are going to offer their labour voluntarily to struggling parastatals. Companies like the National Railways of Zimbabwe, Cold Storage Company, CMED and many others are free to forward their requests and we are ready to offer free services," said Mleya.He said they want to help the government to revive the ailing economy, in line with Zim-Asset."Voluntary donation of our labour is not unique but part of the ethos of the National Service which also involves defending the gains of independence with our own blood. National Youth Service graduates will continue to preserve the legacy of their fore bearers," said Mleya.Recently, Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister, Patrick Zhuwao, said the 80,000 graduates scattered around the country must have a hand in economic development.He said in line with the economic empowerment strategy that the Ministry was finalising, the NYS would play a crucial role through programmes such as Youth Build Zimbabwe, Youth Feed Zimbabwe and Youth Secure Zimbabwe which would be implemented at community level as there are 80,000 graduates that are willing to contribute to their country."This is a huge amount of human capital that we should be taking advantage of. I'm going to coordinate your interactions with government because the solution to the Zimbabwean economy lies with us Zimbabweans. Foreigners will only come to assist us and they do that on our terms. We're taking a strategic focus which centres on Zim-Asset and the 10-point plan and we looking at localising the 10-point plan so that it's implemented at ward level and coordinated at the constituency level," Zhuwao said. News / Regional by Munyaradzi Musiiwa ZANU-PF Midlands Province has concluded hearings in a matter in which three Ministers allege that they were threatened for allegedly being members of the so-called G40 (Generation 40).Sport and Recreation Minister Makhosini Hlongwane ; Tourism and Hospitality Deputy Minister Anastasia Ndhlovu as well as Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Deputy Minister Tapiwa Matangaidze complained to the party's leadership that the provincial secretary for security Owen "Mudha" Ncube, youth chairperson Edmore Samambwa and the provincial youth league secretary for administration Justice Mayor Wadyajena threatened them.Ncube, Samambwa and Wadyajena were yesterday summoned for a hearing by the disciplinary committee led by provincial vice chairperson Daniel McKenzie-Ncube. Mckenzie-Ncube told The Chronicle that the three party members accused of threatening the Ministers gave their side of the story.He said the disciplinary committee would present its findings and recommendations to the provincial executive committee in due course. Mckenzie-Ncube said the three Ministers were also interviewed on Saturday."We have completed the investigations after all the parties involved in this matter were interviewed. We are going to brief the provincial chairman and also present the findings and our recommendations to the provincial executive," he said.Hlongwane, Ndhlovu, Matangaize wrote a letter to Zanu-PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, which was also copied to Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, saying they were seeking protection against the three party members whom they alleged threatened and derided them in public.The trio alleged that the provincial members said their ministerial appointments were "G40 motivated". Kasukuwere then instructed the province to set up a disciplinary committee to preside over the matter.Recently, Hlongwane reported to the police that he had found a live bullet in his hotel room in Harare and police have since said they are investigating the matter.Last week, there was also a break-in at the office of Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the Justice, Legal and parliamentary affairs Ministry and a crack team has been activated to investigate the matter. According to the government, the eight properties, valued between $200,000 and $5 million, bring the total number of forced sales since the Coalition formed government to 27. The eight properties in question were owned by investors from five different countries. The individuals involved come from a range of countries Canada, China, India, Malaysia and the United States of America, Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison said. "The foreign investors either purchased established residential property without Foreign Investment Review Board approval, or had approval but their circumstances changed meaning they were breaking the rules, Morrison said. Morrison said the discovery of the illegal ownership of the eight properties was thanks to new powers granted to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). "The Government's transfer of responsibility to the ATO for compliance has enabled more active investigations and actions targeting illegitimate purchases, he said. "Since this transfer in May, over 1,500 matters have been referred for investigation. Through information provided by the public, together with the ATO's own enquiries, over 800 cases remain under active investigation. The eight foreign investors in question have three months to sell the properties, but they wont be referred for criminal prosecution. Under tougher laws introduced late last year, Illegal real estate purchases by foreign citizens attract criminal penalties of a $135,000 fine or three years' imprisonment, or both for individuals; and up to a $675,000 fine for companies. The new rules also allow capital gains made on illegal investments to be forfeited. According to the ABS figures, just over $33.3 billion worth of home loans were written in November, representing a 1.8% increase from October 2015 figures. Increased activity from owner occupiers was the driving force behind the monthly increase, with lending commitments to those buying their own homes increasing by 2.4% over the month. The increase means that owner occupied mortgage commitments now total $21.753 billion, while an increase of 0.7% saw the total value of investment loans hit $11.5 billion. While the figures show the level of investor lending in November sat 7.7% lower than the same time in 2014, Mortgage Choice chief executive officer John Flavell said the November monthly increase is a positive sign for the real estate market in Australia. Last month, we saw a significant drop in the total value of investment loans written a drop we attributed to the recent investment lending changes, Flavell said. This month, we have seen investment lending increase slightly, which is very pleasing as it suggests the housing market remains robust, he said. Flavell isnt the only one to welcome the November figures, with Housing Industry Association senior economist Diwa Hopkins believing they hold good signs for the property sector in 2016. This is a positive update for Australias housing sector, showing that lending activity remained healthy toward the end of last year, Hopkins said. Looking at the detail, lending activity among investors is still below what appears to be the cyclical peak back in April last year. More strength is evident in the owner occupier segment of the market, with the latest level of lending activity on par with recent highs, she said. These signals from housing finance are consistent with other indicators pointing to very healthy levels of activity in the residential construction sector in early 2016. Opinion / Columnist When a nation goes through economic hardships they are unable to trace its cause, corruption thrives since corruption lies at the heart of human ill will centred on selfishness in self-preservation of a dynasty of few to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest. Political decay derives from greediness founded on short cuts always caused by men lacking in experience and integrity but ambitious without a vision, let alone practice, of building nationhood.Poor governance is not an act of human invention or lack of intelligence but the highest level of poor mind with a self-centered vision always scheming on a get rich method devoid of proper management accountability therefore a recipe to management of failure cultured on love for power for its own sake. Power for personal glorification emanates from the perspectives of desire for self-preservation excluding majority but working with a clique of hideous people of similar ambitions. Examine in detail the rise of Robert Mugabe to power and subsequent maintenance to power methods he adopted-force of violence.Less knowledge and skills on dealing fairly with others renders a tyrant more susceptible to suspecting expertise preferring instead to work with the gullible, which care less about procedures or the good of accountability but thrive on exploitation of decay and corrupt systems. Inevitably, Zimbabwe fell into poor management accountability syndrome by inheriting an advanced economy by African standards then except for the economies of South Africa and Egypt. Zanu leadership although bookishly read were not schooled in management as a system of accountability and delivery of services. The practice of separation of power meant little to Zanu in 1980 as it still means nothing to Zanu in 2016. Mr. Robert Mugabe did not understand fully the essence of constitutional supremacy and its being the true pillar in practice to building good governance.The liberation struggle experience of 1970s through 1980 mantle, in my opinion, had sincerely built a false hope that all things were resolved through the barrel of a gun. One way to understanding, what I am saying, is to view the Edgar Tekere saga in 1980 of an open battle with a white farmer and killing him. Much remained unclear in that case to this day. In black and white on paper and according the laws of the land life of a citizen had been taken illegally by a top most government minister and driver of Zanu government policy making body the central committee.The acts of Tekere in shooting a white farmer cold blooded can only make sense when viewed as an act of a collective, namely Zanu government. Subsequently that philosophy on the disregard of human life has run strong in the circles of Zanu-life-line of governance for the last thirty-six years at the helm of government in Zimbabwe. The problem is a war fought on the premise of black against white in many people's minds has cost us many years watching and failing to see where Zanu government was, is and has gone wrong. If we saw it then but concealed it, then the selfish desire and ambition of building a system on hidden corrupt practices has to this day driven the country blindly into the bottomless pit of a cancerous greedy appetite.Time has convinced me to the academic prowess of many people in Zimbabwe yet without any hands on experience to make the country produce tangible business results in 1980. Few men of integrity have stood to condemn Zanu activities costing the country many years of negative publicity and development. Many from outside the country and others from within have urged against the demise of corrupt and inept government in Zimbabwe without much success. Yet a few more others have relocated their businesses and have done well economically outside Zimbabwe. At independence, Zanu had so many Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph D) and Medical Doctors in its cabinet. Mr.Mugabe had hoped in his mind all his governance misgivings would fly away by simply having a team of 'educated' men around him.We must acknowledge though that Zanu leadership at independence celebration in 1980 had received strong educational advice on governance from people like President Julius K Nyerere of Tanzania. I was at Rufaro National Stadium in Harare that night as the country celebrated good-bye to colonial legacy and well coming independence. The only conclusion I had and have had since was that Zanu is incorrigible, arrogant and poor willed to correct mistakes of the past let alone acknowledge them. That legacy is devilish and lingers strong in the mind of many who have lived in Zanu and even those who witnessed its callous brutality on masses in the country.The country has failed from simple issues like lack of transparency on human rights abuse and accountability of government on her expenditure. The phenomenally huge budget on the presidency grew big year after year and the work it did grew unaccountable as well. The efforts to silence people from talking on the government shortcomings grew stronger and one can disappear or handled by government forces cruelly and have very little said on the part of government. The recent case of Itai Dzamara is fresh apart from many others of arrests without trial and/or arrest for talking against the president.Freedom, which is the recipe to a thriving successful private enterprise has virtual disappeared in Zimbabwe, so has gone the spirit of private enterprise. Too much government control based more on greedy than correctional measure to share structure in corporate world has shrunk private sector to a zero growth point with many investors running out of the country as well as individuals. There is no recorded success of Mugabe government listening to anyone except being a very rude and none respectful government in dealing with other governments, with citizens during elections, with investors in business of industry, trade and commerce and agriculture.It is the acts of none transparency and lacking in accountability by Zanu government that led the police, soldiers, secret service and civil servants to be a chain of corruption prevalent as a system of governance in Zimbabwe today. Too many cases of government failing to meet payments are signals that government has chewed funds without accounting for it.What is the prescription to all this cancer spreading so viciously in the country? Many people have lost hope if any resistance need built against Zanu government and by whom. Zanu is at its weakest point today much as sadly all opposition is in disarray as well. The greatest danger in Zimbabwe is the rate at which opposition is mushrooming, suggesting all is not well in opposition politics. Either Zanu has mastered corrupting opposition politics to reduce chances of opposition strength to win an election ever irrespective of Zanu famous rigging record.Power lies in thinking outside the box and being honest to ourselves to rid oppressive machination of a weak Zanu. Zanu is weak but also strong because she has learnt to plant imposters who agitate as though opposing while they measure strength of true opposition left. Change is not an accident but a concerted effort of visionary leadership whose narrative should be honest, consisted and strong at discrediting Zanu historically as well as today. To the extent that opposition still talk on already agreed reforms are an acceptable to Zanu, clearly shows the lethargy among the plethora of opposition political parties mushrooming up daily if not hourly.As long as many of us either in the Diaspora or at home regard building of personal nests as strength of the future, it should not surprise anyone that Zanu, divided though she is will replicate and keep ruling. We need drive hard the spirit of togetherness at Dispora level and connect with the sincere to dislodge politically and constitutionally the political hegemony of Zanu.We need not rely on the passing away ultimately of Mr. Mugabe, that will naturally come, as helpful to politics in the country as long as we have no moral courage to challenge seriously Zanu both on paper and physically. Challenging Zanu on the ground is doable if we disassociate ourselves from the cunningly sly wealth allocating methods Zanu has used before in pacifying strong challenge. Similarly, the death threats hung on anyone's head as far as Zanu capacity to spill blood is her number one tool.Strong lobbying on tangible evidence of wrongdoing by Zanu consistently without flip-flopping will find support in the country and outside for a permanent solution to Zimbabwe political impasse. In 1999 is a good case when opposition was little existing giving chance to forceful emergency of opposition, reliant on people power than leadership power temporarily did it if not for the failure to concede to shifting paradigms in leadership and styles.There can no longer be much blood spilling from Zanu without meeting the wrath of the world. We have built strong African nations like Botswana, Nigeria and Tanzania from democratic processes on going that they will have a voice at African Union. The world had spoken wrong or right on Libya, Iraq and Egypt. The role and help of world social profit organizations such as the world group of political elders, is an influential force on global political issues.Without the world group of political elders, Zanu would have spilt blood to squeeze out potential threats from those she expelled from her arty with accusations in December 2014. We have underplayed international politics too much as Zimbabweans and sometimes to the advantage of Zanu long stay in power. We have to carry our SWOT analysis of putting a strong opposition on Zanu not only from those who failed before but from our reservoir of capable, honesty men and women inside and outside the country. As a homeowner, you probably already know that you should be working to maintain your home. But, chances are, you Read More Opinion / Columnist A short humorous story by Brian Moyo *The asylum seekers letter will be published in a book of five short stories by Brian Moyo, in February 2016. For more information contact the author on: bmoyo27@gmail.com Dear Father Thompson in London. If you are at this moment holding this missive and reading it, it means you are still alive and kicking well.That makes me happiest person in all world, including all small villages, towns and cities and all continents and islanders I never seen or heard of. And if such good fortune is upon you, Father, that you are alive, well and can read with your own eyes, I will praise the almighty for a long time.As you know, many old peoples do not see good at all. Some can read only with big glass that make small letters big. Others have to carry white sticks to tap around them as they walk to shops or bus stop. That is why you be very lucky Father if you can still see good, because I think you are now somewhere between 80 and 85 years.Anyway, just to know that this missive has finally reached your hands after the postman has delivered it to your address will not fail to fill my heart with joy, love and hope.It really funny Father, but as I hold this biro and making it spill out the words on writing paper, I am trying to think what you now look like. I saw you last when you was standing in front of worshippers at our Roman Catholic church in Luveve township in Zimbabwe. I remember too good that you was wearing your church collar, holding your bible, preaching and preaching until you run out of breath and out of words.The funny thing in my head, when trying to think of your face Father, is that you look the same way you did twenty years ago, your face doesn't want change even a little bit. Ah! and I start remembering too the lessons you taught me from the old bible you never put down. You remember those many years ago also, Father when I was a picanini?Heee! Heee! Father I sure hoping you remember me! I was naughty boy number one, always cause trouble by fights with other boys or sometimes run away from school to ride donkeys in the forest.You remember well the tallest boy in church you catch drinking blessed wine behind altar? That was me. But I am grown up man now. I wish I had listen very much to your good words of wisdom and learnt and learnt until I could learn no more. But I run away from school and join band where I play guitar. Many girls liked me very much when I play in band.But first let me tell you why I am writing this missive and where I am as I note down the words you are reading now. I am in a prison in London, at a place they call Brixton.I arrive in London three years past now with the band. We play everywhere, here and there and make many people dance like crazy monkeys. Many times white people come and smile at me and say my guitar sound like Jimmy Hendricks. When it was time for band to return home, a girl I love say to me. "Don't go back, Jabu, stay with me. You can go to college and improve your learning because you can't play guitar until you are old man."Many people also tell me education is good in London and afterwards you get job with more and more money. But to tell the whole truth, my papers are not in right order to stay and work in London. But I found job and work hard before police found out and arrest me for immigration reason.The thing that I want to ask you Father is this - can you help to get me out of this Brixton prison?Not just me. I am including two friends, Jamal and Abuja. They want to get out prison also. Jamal is thin tall man from Somali and Abuja is big and strong, he comes all way from Nigeria in Western Africa. Abuja tell me when I first know him that he come from a village near Ibadan, but now he say he come from Lagos.Together, we three, are good friends who come to England to look for work, study hard at college, go to university, find best work so to send money home to our families and then go back after some years.Jamal and Abuja are always with me. Even before they put us three in Brixton prison cell, we were together in working place, and in flat we share and also in church where we pray.Jamal and me are also sad about cold weathers in London. We talk many time, saying whoo! London is so cold and not like hot Africa where fish can cook in river water when the sun is hot like oven! But Abuja say: "Hot sunshine in Africa where we come from never for one day put food in any belly, that is why we come to cold place, to escape hunger and dizziness after hunger hit you many times."But in serious talk we talk about plans to save big moneys for buy big houses in Zimbabwe, Somali and Nigeria. You see, Father we are really good people. We not trouble no one. So for all us jail is hard and baddest place. Please, please, please, Father, help get us out! Help, Help, help now quick!We done nothing bad, like stealing, robber or murder someone. The biggest truth to you is we have done not a single sin. God is witness to us together.We was arrested right in middle of night. We was very fast asleep as we was tired like old donkeys that work all day in the fields and not eat even one grass. We work hard for five days in one week in building sites. Me, Jamal and Abuja work there with building men who wear hard hats. Before I find work there, I never seen a building where no bricks and cement were used.Ha! These building men use wires, panels and frames made of metal and long and short pipes to build very tall buildings. For all day long me, Jamal and Abuja carry these things from lorries to the builders. It is no joke when I say the work is hard.When I tell Abuja I am too tired, he say. "Sing song like me when you carry heavy building things. You feel less tired when your ears enjoy music."Abuja always sing a song called; Sweet mother I never forget you for suffering you suffer for me. Sometimes tear come down him eyes and I say, why a big man like you cry like this? He say: "I missing my home and mother." Jamal just shake head and say: "Let's work faster, guys."Jamal is clever chap and talks more English than Abuja and me. But when I tell him not call me or Abuja "guy" because the word means someone not with a good heart, he shakes his head and just laugh and laugh!But I must tell you the story about how the three of us were arrested. Four policemen broke into our flat door in the middle of night. I don't know what time, but I think even witches had gone to bed. Hey! The police pull us rough from our beds and make us wear our trousers and shirts. Their leader say to us: "You are under arrest for being illegal immigrants. After you go to court, you will be sent back to Africa."Oh! How we cry and beg the police to feel sorry for us! But the police leader just shake him big head and laugh and say. "Don't waste your time and your breath begging me."To tell you the whole truth, Father, we don't want to return to Africa now. May be a few more years when we have save some money we can return with some things for our families. We can't just go with empty hands. People will laugh at me and say: "There is Jabu the guitar man who came back from London town without a suitcase or one pound in his pocket."Jamal doesn't want to go back to Somalia because bad people there are waiting to hit his head with a knobkerrier. Jamal tell me better to die in London first than go Somali and meet bad men who like to kill others. He say they always hit heads with big stick or with butt of big gun until a person drops dead.Abuja don't want to hear about going back to Nigeria. He is afraid of a juju man with powerful bad medicine. The man wait for him there forever because he say Abuja not finish yet to pay him money for sending him London way.Juju man say that he made Abuja reach London safe without arrest, because he use powerful magic to make passport people think Abuja was a white man when he walk into Heathrow airport from Nigeria plane. Abuja has send too much money already but Juju man phone and phone all time wanting even more money still.So if Abuja go back to Nigeria Juju man will make bad things happen very quick to him. For example all males in Abuja family, including their dogs, can go blind and see no more. Or all men in Abuja family, including his brothers, cousins and brothers-in-law, can fail to produce any babies, not even a one eyed baby.As for me, going back home is big mistake and will present huge problems. For sure no job can come to me there. I saw someone fresh in London from home who tell me sad stories. He say many many people are looking confused walking around streets looking for jobs that are not there.My old friends who went to school until they grew big beards are still looking for work. Even those who learn big courses and degrees at university are loafing about, or making little money selling sweets, oranges and tomatoes in the streets.Father, do you remember Ngwalo-Ngwalo the man with big head who used to headmaster a primary school in Luveve? He was to be seen in Bulawayo town walking without shoes until he go South Africa. They say him wife left him after he was retire from school.If you know how pride Ngwalo-Ngwalo was, you maybe cry for him a little bit. He was always in smart suit and knew about all English jaw breakers. I know that not many white people can speak their language better than him.Now Ngwalo-Ngwalo get a job in South Africa working hard as waiter and toilet cleaner in restaurant. This is honest truth! Sipho, my little brother who live in Johannesburg saw Ngwalo- Ngwalo with his own eyes working in the restaurant. Sipho tell me he nearly faint when he saw Ngwalo-Ngwalo washing the floor.So if big education man like Ngwalo-Ngwalo work as waiter and cleaner in South Africa, how can low education guitar man like me find job in Zimbabwe?Now I am in big trouble. All three of us is in big trouble. But if you talk to immigration people and tell that you know me as good person they can maybe think again. Jamal say when white men talk jaw-to-jaw they agree on many things. He also say because you are big priest who work for Africa many years, what you say will be listened to very careful.Please Save me, Father. Save us all three together. My hope grows big and bigger when I know you read letter. Remember where I say they keep me and Jamal and Abuja? It called Brixton prison.Brixton is place in London with many many black people live at. You see them everywhere. If you never been to Brixton prison ask some people in street, even a little child and may be tell you: "Oh, yes Brixton prison is not far far away. You walk that road, then take that next road, pass big shops and travel for some time. Then you see big building standing alone with high wall."I will be so happy to see you enter Brixton prison to get me and my friends out. All of us want to leave the place and go to our flat. I promise now and forever and ever that if you get all us out, I will pray like no body business.Sometime I think I am like Daniel who was thrown into lions den for praying to God. That story you told so well Father, long time ago in Luveve township has stayed on and on in my head even today. When I think it, your picture come in my head.You are like King Darius who asked Daniel if God had protect him. I am like Daniel when I reply with wise words you said many time. "My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, O king." (Daniel 6:22With help from you Father, I will be cast out of my stinking cell. I will walk free like Daniel and may be later we can all kneel and pray hard, together with Jamal and Abuja. Make no mistake about Jamal and Abuja, they have strongest Christian hearts, they smile a lot also, talk a lot and laugh a lot. When I told them i know a big priest Father Thompson who now lives in London they don't believe me first.But I repeat and repeat until my serious truth is clear to them like sunshine. But I swear to God I no tell them about the little baby born for you by that girl Angelina who used to wash many times your shirts in church before you pregnant her.Before I leave Zimbabwe, I saw your sonny. He has grown big, Father. I saw him walking with Angelina. He has blue eyes, just same like you Father, but he become very naughty too quick at school and beat a teacher.Angelina cry and cry and say: "Oh! my baby make trouble too much. If Father of him, Father Thompson was there he pray for boy to become right and proper."When I tell Angelina I was going overseas to be in London, she show me picture of your house and say may be I visit you and tell you she cries many cries thinking about you. She say you have big house next to Barking Palace where Majesty Queen and she husband stay in peace with tiny dogs and big horses.Angelina say she likes you to send money for she and your boy sonny. Together they buy aeroplane ticket and come and live with you so she can wash wash your shirts again. She make me laugh when she say you may talk to Majesty Queen and ask her and husband if they have job for her in Barking Palace.He! He! he! The things Angelina tell me about you and she in church make me laugh many time, Father. But I am no talkative man, specially about things such as that. I make promise to Angelina never to say anything to any soul about you and she making baby who is now trouble number one.Now let me say a few words about Jamal, about Abuja and about me too. We are very afraid in prison. We are surround by murderers, killers, stealers of cars and stealers of money from banks. Some of men have red eyes, you think pepper has been put inside them. Abuja say one big man called Jah Rasta can scare the devil himself if he came to Brixton prison even for the shortest time.If you just imagine that, you see straight away why Jamal say he sleep with one eye open in here, Father. That is why Abuja say I write strong letter for you before too late and say "we are in shit." But I disagree because such word as "shit" not nice. Do you know that ever since I born and learn talk talk I never talk such bad words as shit?I only talk words that hurt no body, shock nobodies and have no insult or sin in them. Even jaw breakers I don't use at all, although I can spill them out like no body's business if I wanted. A teacher who learn me English many years ago say it many time to me; "Jabu you write well because you always use simple and good words."So now I write simple words to you and let my biro dance across the page as I inform you my learned Father Thompson that the biggest problem for us is that we have fallen fowl of British immigration rules and regulations.As I write, Jamal and Abuja are looking with eyes full of big hope. I make promise to them, "don't worry, Father Thompson is good and Godly man. He will come like Angel of mercy and get us out."Abuja want to know why you pregnant Angelina if you are like Angel of Mercy so I tell him it was not your fault. I tell him Angelina tempt you badly with her short skirt and nice thighs. That is all I tell him Father. I leave out many things Angelina told me you two were doing when you were alone in church. You can trust me keep the secret forever and forever!Before I put this missive in envelope with your address, I ask Jamal and Abuja to place hands on it. Together we pray and pray for safe journey for the letter to your holy hands, Father.Your obedient servant in Brixton prison.Jabu Mlilo Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! The directors of "Making a Murderer" Netflix series have admitted that they did not include some evidence in the show. The Guardian reported that Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos defended their "Making a Murderer" Netflix series. The documentary focused on Steven Avery, who was released from prison after serving 18 years for a rape that he allegedly was falsely accused of. It was previously reported that ever since the "Making a Murderer" Netflix series was aired in mid-December, protagonist Steven Avery has received an onslaught of support from viewers who believe him to be innocent. Advertisement There was even a petition of more than 275,000 signatures asking President Obama to pardon him. However, the series has been criticized for omitting evidence and presenting misinformation. "This is a documentary - we're documentary filmmakers," Ricciardi said of their project at the Television Critics Association winter tour. "We're not prosecutors, we're not defense attorneys, we do not set out to convict or exonerate anyone. We set out to examine the criminal justice system and how it's functioning today." The "Making a Murderer" Netflix series director added that it would have been impossible for them to show all evidence in the show. "So we took our cues from the prosecution, what they thought was the most compelling evidence. That's what we includ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/making-a-murderer-director-defends-856464 ed," she continued. "Of course we left out evidence. There would have been no other way of doing it. We were not putting on a trial, but a film. Of what was omitted, the question is: was it really significant? The secret is no." According to The Hollywood Reporter, Demos urged the public to be discerning of media reports since not all of them should be taken at face value. "I would challenge people to do some research about what is being presented as truth," she said. Meanwhile, Steven Avery presented other culprits for the death of photographer Teresa Halbach. People reported that the "Making a Murderer" Netflix series protagonist claimed that his brothers could be suspects in the case. Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! Residents and tourists are flocking over Taiwan's southern province of Chaiyi to take a picture of the 55-foot tall and 36-foot wide sparkling blue church shaped like Cinderella's high-heeled glass slipper that is set to open in February 8, reported BBC News on Friday. The $686,000 structure is made out of more than 320 tinted glass panels and features a blue open stage, equipped with spotlights. The local government in Taiwan's famous tourist spot of Southwest Coast National Scenic Area were reportedly behind the fairytale-like creation, and administration recreation section manager, Pan Tsuei Ping, noted that the glass slipper church will only be available for use in pre-nuptial photo shoots and wedding ceremonies. Advertisement "In our planning, we want to make it a blissful, romantic venue," said Pan. "Every girl imagines how they will look like when they become the bride." According to CNN on Monday, the church, which sits on a sandy spot at the Ocean View Park in Budai Town, was noted to include "chairs for lovers, maple leaves, biscuits and cakes," ideal for a romantic event. Its design was inspired by a 24-year-old local woman's story in which her wedding did not push through after her legs were amputated due to her Blackfoot disease, and she decided to live the rest of her days inside a church. Spokesman of the Southwest Coast National Scenic Area Zheng Rongfeng noted that the glass slipper church will have 100 female-oriented features, where 71 have already reportedly been completed. "It will be tailored to women, especially female tourists visiting the area," the official noted. Comments and criticisms started pouring in from netizens, including females, who seem unable to appreciate the idea behind the structure. "Besides copying, what kind of standard does this church have?" asked one person on Taiwan's online forum PTT. "What were the authorities thinking when they commission such a hideous-looking building in the area?" asked a user from China on their microblogging site Weibo. "It's just disrespectful," "Most girls love fairytales, it's great that officials want to focus on women for once," said one person in defense. Sign up to get the latest news delivered to your inbox every week! Dutch researchers claim that some adults do not outgrow attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), carrying the disorder even in the last decades of their lives, reported Medpage Today on Friday. According to the report prepared by a team led by Dr. Sandra Kooij of the European Network of Adult ADHD for the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) meeting, approximately three percent of adults in Netherlands older than 60 years of age still had ADHD. "ADHD is not outgrown in adults, and neither in older people," Kooij said. "The prevalence is a little lower, but the disorder can still be found in older individuals, who also still suffer from typical ADHD problems like restlessness, distractibility, and from concurrent depression and anxiety." Advertisement Many believe that ADHD only occur during the childhood years, but several studies have found that symptoms are still observed into adulthood in some cases. The treatment for ADHD is the same for children and adult, usually with stimulant drugs, as well as psychotherapy and treating accompanying mental problems. According to NPR on Monday, ADHD expert Dr. David Goodman of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have diagnosed many adults for the first time with ADHD at 50 years of age and older. Since most elderly people today grew up in the 50s and 60s, less people were aware of the disorder during that time, with many not being diagnosed until today. For adults, the disorder is not focused on disruptive behavior as it is with children, but more on their inability to focus. For the researchers' study, they analyzed data on 231 adults between the ages of 61 to 95 from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) using the 9-item Barkley ADHD screening list for phase one, and the DSM-IV criteria on phase two. They have found that 2.8 percent had syndromatic ADHD, while 4.2 percent had symptomatic ADHD. They concluded that ADHD do not wipe out in adulthood, and that more research are needed to discover the health implications of ADHD symptoms in the elderly. "We are currently asking older people about their treatment wishes, and trying to identify typical themes for older people with ADHD, whom in our country usually have had no diagnosis or treatment before," said Kooij. "We aim to develop a diagnostic and treatment protocol for older people with ADHD the next months." If you're puzzled by your dream, use the Search Box to see if one or more of the hundreds of dreams on this site can give you some insight. Each entry has a sketch, the dream, and an interpretation. Presiden Iran sebut kesepakatan nuklir awal masa jaya Teheran http://www.merdeka.com/dunia/presiden-iran-sebut-kesepakatan-nuklir-awal-masa-jaya-teheran.html Hassan Rouhani. freepressphotos.com 2013 Merdeka.com Merdeka.com - Presiden Iran Hassan Rouhani mengatakan kesepakatan nuklir antara Iran dengan negara-negara dunia, merupakan masa keemasan bagi Teheran. Kesepakatan nuklir itu diresmikan pada Sabtu pekan lalu. "Kesepakatan nuklir merupakan kesempatan yang harus kita ambil untuk membangun negara. Ini dapat meningkatkan kesejahteraan bangsa, serta menciptakan stabilitas dan keamanan di kawasan," ucap Rouhani, seperti dilansir dari Reuters, Minggu (17/1). Rouhani meyakinkan kesepakatan tersebut bakal membawa hal yang positif bagi Iran. "Semua orang bahagia kecuali Israel. Mereka penghasut perang terjadi di negara-negara Islam," lanjut dia. Dampak dari kesepakatan nuklir Iran langsung terasa di negara itu. Isolasi ekonomi terhadap Iran langsung dicabut sesaat badan pengawas nuklir PBB, Dewan Energi Atom Internasional (IAEA) mengumumkan kesepakatan ini. Selain bahas perjanjian nuklir, Teheran juga mengumumkan pembebasan lima warga Amerika Serikat. Pertukaran tahanan ini dibalas dengan dibebaskannya tujuh tahanan Iran oleh Negara Paman Sam itu. [ard] Ini syarat membangun pembangkit listrik tenaga nuklir di Indonesia Reporter : Reporter : Novita Intan Sari | Minggu, 10 Januari 2016 17:08 http://www.merdeka.com/uang/ini-syarat-membangun-pembangkit-listrik-tenaga-nuklir-di-indonesia Ilustrasi Nuklir. 2015 Merdeka.com Merdeka.com - Pemerintah Jokowi-JK tengah menggodok kebijakan energi nasional, salah satunya dengan membangun Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Nuklir (PLTN). Pembangunan pembangkit ini bertujuan mengatasi krisis listrik di dalam negeri. Anggota Dewan Energi Nasional (DEN), Syamsir Abduh menyebut, pemerintah perlu memenuhi beberapa persyaratan jika ingin membangun PLTN. Setidaknya, Indonesia harus memiliki teknologi canggih. Jakarta, Minggu (10/1). "Memang ada beberapa syarat dan pertimbangan pada prinsip nuklir bisa digunakan. Pertama harus ada kajian teknologi keamanan, kebutuhan energi yang semakin meningkat, pengurangan emisi karbon, bagaimana kepentingan nasional, artinya energi nuklir bisa dimanfaatkan," ujarnya saat acara diskusi Energi Kita yang digagas merdeka.com, RRI, Sewatama, IJTI, IKN dan IJO di Gedung Dewan Pers,, Minggu (10/1). Menurut dia, sampai saat ini pihaknya belum menerima konfirmasi dari Badan Tenaga Nuklir Nasional (BATAN) terkait pembangkit nuklir. Berdasarkan jajak pendapat Sigma Research menyebut 75,3 persen masyarakat Indonesia setuju pembangunan PLTN. "Kegunaannya hingga saat ini belum konfirmasi, tetapi kalaupun benar persoalan siapa yang melakukan tidak harusnya ada lembaga independen di mana tingkat kepercayaan publik tinggi jadi dari sisi metode pantas dipersoalkan," jelas dia. Menurutnya, riset tersebut juga harus dapat disosialisasikan lebih luas agar masyarakat dapat menerima. "Kalau kajian sudah dilakukan mendalam, pemahaman sudah juga harus didiskusikan kalau ada ruang diskusi nuklir ini," ungkapnya. Seperti diketahui, Kepala BATAN Djarot Sulistio Wisnubroto mengatakan berdasarkan jajak pendapat yang dilakukan lembaga riset Sigma Research sejak 2011, persentase masyarakat yang mendukung pembangunan PLTN sebagai solusi mengatasi krisis listrik berangsur meningkat. Jika pada 2011 persentasenya mencapai 49,5 persen maka pada 2015 menjadi 75,3 persen. Jajak pendapat tersebut dilakukan kepada 4.000 orang perwakilan dari 34 provinsi sejak Oktober hingga Desember 2015. Menurut dia, jajak pendapat rutin dilakukan BATAN melalui lembaga riset independen yang dipilih melalui proses tender tersebut merupakan permintaan dari pemerintah untuk mengetahui sikap masyarakat terhadap nuklir sebagai pembangkit listrik. Berdasarkan jajak pendapat tersebut, ia juga mengatakan dapat diketahui bahwa pernyataan Presiden yang paling ditunggu masyarakat sebagai jaminan PLTN akan berjalan aman. Ilmuwan dan BATAN justru berada di urutan ke-2 dan ke-3 yang ditunggu masyarakat terkait PLTN. [idr] Future Risks of an Iran Nuclear Deal If Iran balks at an inspection, then a commission which includes Iran can decide on punitive steps, including a reimposition of economic sanctions. A majority vote of the commission suffices, so even if Iran, China and Russia objected, the sanctions could go into effect. That is the theory. In practice, reimposing sanctions could be politically challenging. Iran has warned that if sanctions are reimposed it will no longer be bound by the accord. The I.A.E.A., perhaps fearing its inspectors would be kicked out, might hesitate to start the 24-day clock. Mr. Moniz argues that the 24-day time frame is sufficient because Iran will not be able to cover up evidence of nuclear work during that period, since traces of nuclear materials could be expected well after three weeks. But some experts say that Iran could cover up smaller-scale illicit activities, including work on the specialized high-explosives that might serve as a trigger in a nuclear bomb. Jamal Assad is commonly accepted as the SNC representative in Croatia. He is an ardent admirer of the so-called Syrian jihadists and is particularly close to Al-Farouk Brigade .. photographed wearing the faction's uniform. Al-Farouk Brigade was formed by FSA in 2012. By 2013 it split into several groups mostly run by foreign terrorists. At present there are hardly any Syrians in Al-Farouk Brigade. Croatia has been suspected of supplying planeloads of weapons to AQ and FSA groups in Syria since 2013 when suddenly an influx of new models of rocket & grenade launchers and recoilless guns - all Croatian made - began arriving in the country to assist the invasion. Croatia is not yet a part of the EU and thus not facing an official arms embargo. Utilizing this loophole, it's in a favorable position to participate as a double proxy in the Syrian war on behalf of Western powers and itself. Though the Croatian government denies it, Al-Arabiya happily acknowledged "The Croatian capital (Zagreb) has served for months as a transit point for Saudi-financed weapons for Syrian rebels." Most Syrians defending their homeland have little doubt that Croatia has been illegally and frequently supplying weapons to terrorists in Syria. Opinion / Columnist It is quite interesting that a whole Member of Parliament (MP) or House of Assembly for Mabvuku - Tafara Constituency, James Maridadi was persecuted for fighting graft. The honorable MP was recently arrested at Beitbridge border post for recording a video in a protected area in violation of some provisions of the law.Charges were preferred against Maridadi and he pleaded guilty. The mere fact that Maridadi pleaded guilty indicates that he is a rogue MP and his behaviour unbecoming and not expected from an MP. A legislator should know what a protected area is and security zone is. You did not do justice to yourself Mr MP as there is too much rumbling. It seems that the honourable MP did not have enough papers to clear the car.Maridadi should have followed the proper procedures and avoid being hauled before the courts. Lets just not politicize issues here; there are laws to be followed. Why not follow them? The man is at it again. Sometime last year the MP made headlines when he ran away with a ticket book belonging to the Harare city council parking officials.Maridadi casting himself as being persecuted shows the true reflection of himself as indecisive and inarticulate. His references to himself as being imbued with leadership qualities are laughable and misplaced in a serious autobiography. The man is in a desperate mode to raise his political profile. The truth is that this man suffers from an extreme case of self-congratulation.The government should put in place measures to fight graft and clip the wings of overzealous personalities like Maridadi. The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) should be capacitated to fight against this cancer called corruption. ZACC should aim to build and sustain a corruption free society in Zimbabwe.There is need to combat corruption, economic crimes, abuse of power and other improprieties in Zimbabwe through public education, prevention, investigation and persecution. There is also a need to open up toll free numbers and put in place an enabling act to fight corruption. It is high time that we should come up with a specialized court to deal with corruption.The economic woes facing the country can be minimized if we fight against corruption and deal with the perpetrators decisively. For together as one the nation will prosper. It's not only Bibi who is "licking his wounds." The House of Saud is in for a rough ride too. For over 3 decades Saudi Arabia had the upper hand in its share of Asia's oil market. That prerogative will likely become history sooner rather than later as Iran prepares to produce up to a million barrels of oil a day! It will cause a greater drop in oil prices yet the analysis is interesting. While Saudi Arabia may boast it will boldly face the challenge in the oil market, at titude alone won't be enough for the Kingdom to win. Other than Iran's total independence in running its system, it has a hugely diversified economy unlike Saudi Arabia's crippling dependency on oil (and also its dependency on foreign workers for the maintenance of its economic infrastructure). Observers have surmised that if oil production was to stop in both Iran and KSA within the next 24 hours, KSA's immediate budget deficit would be nearly 60% overnight while Iran's would be barely 8% .. less than the deficit of Western countries. That puts Iran in a far more favorable position than Saudi Arabia to balance its national budget based on the current low oil prices. Hyderabad: Defending its action, the Executive Council of Hyderabad Central University had taken a "lenient view" by not imposing "complete suspension" of five research scholars, including the Dalit Ph D student who committed suicide on Sunday, as recommended by Proctorial Board, so that the students' academics are not affected. The suicide has triggered protests from students even as Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and the VC were named in an FIR in this regard. In a statement issued here a day after the Dalit PhD scholar Rohit Vemula was found hanging in a hostel room on the campus, the varsity mentioned the sequence of events since August last year. "The Executive Council determined not to affect the students' academics and taking a lenient view, decided to only suspend the students from their hostels and curb their involvement in public gatherings unlike complete suspension as suggested in the Proctorial Board report," the statement added. The deceased was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. The varsity has offered its "deepest sympathies and condolences for the unfortunate demise" of Rohit. The EC (executive council) sub-committee was constituted by present Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and was chaired by Prof. Vipin Srivastava, it said. "In the month of August, there was a fight involving students of the Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) and Susheel Kumar of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which eventually reached the court. "With regard to this incident, the Proctorial Board of the University was asked to submit a report with suggestions of the quantum of punishment, following which five students were suspended," it said. The statement said the then VC RP Sharma had held a meeting of deans and heads of departments after the students of ASA claimed lapses in the inquiry by the Proctorial Board. "The meeting debated the merits of the Proctorial Board's decision and eventually the suspension of the students was revoked pending review by the newly formed Prof. Sudhakar Reddy committee," it stated. The statement further said the Reddy Committee members expressed lack of power to review the decision by a statutory body like the Proctorial board and further suggested that the then VC convene an Executive Council meeting to look into the same. "Meanwhile, the matter was taken to the court by Susheel Kumar's mother," the statement said. "It was around this time that Prof Appa Rao came in as the Vice Chancellor and after almost a month of him assuming the office, the court ruled that the varsity should implement the Proctorial Board's decision before filing a counter," it added. The varsity said it had used possible mechanisms to address the problem under the given circumstances. "The court's decision is expected tomorrow and the unfortunate incident occurred even before the court verdict, leaving the University in a state of extreme shock and sadness," the statement added. Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Police has begun a new experiment to try and end the long drawn out guerilla war with Naxals in the restive Bastar region of the state. This time their weapon of choice is not the AK-47. Instead, the police are trying a soft, humane, approach to wean away naxalites. On Saturday, Jagdalpur- the biggest town in south Chhattisgarh was the venue for a special wedding. Former naxals Podiyami Laxman and Markam tied the knot in presence of government officials and people from various walks of life in Jagdalpur with the local police turning into revellers for the ceremony as wished by the couple. "The newly-married couple who had surrendered earlier were also appointed as constables in district police," Bastar Superintendent of Police R N Das said. He referred to a provision under which state government can offer job to naxals who have laid down arms and joined the mainstream. Markam had worked as a member of the Platoon no. 26 of Darbha Division Committee before she turned herself in before police last year. Laxman, who served as a deputy commander of Indravati Area Committee, had laid down arms in 2014. The marriage could be made possible with the 'Samajik Ekta Manch', an NGO, bearing the expenses for the bride Markam while police have taken Laxman under their wings. Their love blossomed while they were working as Naxal cadres, but they could not muster courage to express their love or get married as it is forbidden for ultras. Opinion / Columnist It is a disgrace that Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) President, Takavafira Zhou is making noise in the private media trying to seek relevance especially from opposition political parties and donors, through accusing the Government of threatening him over the planned go slow by his union.It is well known that the government is putting much effort in trying to address civil servants' grievances. Zhou is quite aware that the civil servant representatives will meet and have dialogue on pending issues with government this week. I am quite sure that the government is more than ready for negotiations with civil servants representatives on their grievances. Why then should government intimidate teacher unions through the alleged law enforcement agents in Masvingo? The Government is a well-organized entity and is committed to improving the conditions of service for its workers.It is unfortunate that people like Zhou are seeking attention from the private media and mostly donors. Surely, one would be tempted to believe that PTUZ is working in conjunction with opposition parties in trying to effect regime change. Embarking on a go-slow is a pure reflection of sabotage. In previous years, most opposition parties declared that they were going to weaken the Government through escalating crisis in the country. As it stands, this is indeed another form of increased crisis which has now come under the guise of PTUZ.To make matters worse, Zhou was reported to be linked to former Mwenezi East Legislator and People First member, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti. Though Zhou, quoted in a local daily press was quick to dismiss that his dialogue with Bhasikiti was not connected to the go-slow, but merely academic, who knows, maybe Zhou was revealing and sharing Government secrets with the ex- Mwenezi East Legislator. PTUZ should avoid accommodating people like Bhasikiti as his line of thinking is more aligned to destruction rather than being constructive.PTUZ members must be ashamed of their behaviour. Failing to teach children whose parents would have sacrificed to pay their school fees fully, is actually a disappointing factor to both the parent and the school children. After all, at the end of the month those teachers will not feel guilty of their actions, but rather go to their respective banks to withdraw salaries for the money they would not have worked for.Honestly, one would wonder what exactly is the motive behind PTUZ's go slow? PTUZ should perform like other teachers unions that work in good faith with the Government. Teachers unions should resist from being used as political tools by politicians especially by the opposition who are fighting to quench their thirsty of changing the ruling Government.Like any other civil servants unions, PTUZ should just give dialogue a chance. Go-slow is counterproductive, hence, not an option by Zhou and his colleagues. Acts of sabotage by members of PTUZ is mainly driven by the desire of that union to disrupt service delivery in the education sector so as to harm the Government. PTUZ's motive is crystal clear wants, to tarnish the good image of Government.On the other hand the private media is setting an agenda of regime change through publishing articles that demean the operations of the Government.Recently, a workers' union by the name National Education Union of Zimbabwe (NUEZ) peddled false information to the private media that the Government was embarking on a programme of banning all School Development Committees. NUEZ, just like PTUZ was seeking relevance through the press.In a nutshell, PTUZ should be encouraged to stick to its mandate as a teachers' union and avoid being used as a political tool of effecting regime change. Meanwhile, the Government has promised to look at civil servants complaints among them mobilizing funds to pay them their 2015, 13th cheque. New Delhi: The Students Federation of India (SFI) is protesting outside the Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry in the national capital to vent their ire over the untoward incident in the University of Hyderabad where a Dalit scholar committed suicide by hanging himself. The police personnel deployed on duty to control the agitating students used water cannons to bring the situation under control, ANI reported on Monday. "We believe this is a murder not suicide and those involved in this like HU administration, the goons of ABVP and the MHRD, everyone should be punished. Even the BJP MP from Telangana should be punished," said Sadvik Karan Singh, one of the protestors. "This is a murder which has been committed by the government, the RSS and by the goons of ABVP and BJP. We totally oppose this," said another protestor Prakash. One of the five dalit scholars, expelled from the University of Hyderabad 12 days ago, hanged himself to death last night. 25-year-old Rohith Vemula, who belonged to Guntur district of Amravati, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff between two student groups in August last year. The five researchers were supported by 10 other students' outfits on the campus including ASA, Students Federation of India, Dalit Students Union and National Students Association among others. On Sunday, the students from each of the outfits had started relay hunger strike asking the university administration to take back the students all of whom hailed from backward socio-economic backgrounds. The students protested against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya. The students demanded the revoking of the suspension of the five Dalit research scholars. They also demanded Dattatreya's apology for interfering in University matters and branding the students of University of Hyderabad as casteists, anti-nationals and extremists. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: A French army contingent on Monday carried out a rehearsal parade ahead of India's 67th Republic Day in New Delhi . India celebrates Republic Day on January 26 every year to commemorate the day when the country's constitution was adopted and it was declared as sovereign republic in 1950. The soldiers of French army marched to the drum beats at Rajpath in a perfectly synchronised manner. For the first time an army contingent of a foreign country will take part in the Republic Day parade known for showcasing India's defence prowess. Soldiers of Maratha light infantry regiment of the Indian army had marched shoulder to shoulder with French army back in 2009 at Champs Elysees. Earlier this month, the French army contingent participated in a joint military exercise with India. Adding to the French flavour for India, France's President Francois Hollande will be the guest of honour at this year's Republic Day celebrations. This will be the fifth time that a French leader will be the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations. India is also in the process of negotiating a deal to buy 36 Rafale jets from France. Every year military weapons, battle tanks and missiles are displayed at the majestic Republic Day parade, which stretches from the president's palace to India Gate, a memorial dedicated to unknown soldiers. New Delhi: A woman attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while he was addressing a gathering at Chhatrasal stadium in New Delhi on Sunday, to celebrate the success of odd-even formula. The woman threw ink at CM Kejriwal alleging that she made several attempts to meet the Delhi Chief Minister and state Transport Minister Gopal Rai in connection with a multi-crore CNG scam. However, she was turned down every time and thus,carried out the attack. Here are things we know about the woman ink-attacker. The woman is 26-year-old and has been identified as Bhavna Arora. She is said to be unmarried and stays with her family at Rama Vihar in Rohini. She has claimed to be in-charge of Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Party Sena. Aam Aadmi Party Sena is a splinter group of Aam Aadmi Party which was formed after AAP members grew dissatisfied with the ruling tactics of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Last time, Bhavna Arora was in news after she publicly blamed Arvind Kejriwal for the death of farmer Gajender Singh Kalyanwat at an AAP rally. In April last year, another AAPS member threw ink on AAP controversial leader Somnath Bharti over Gajender Singh's death. Bhavna Arora has claimed that Kejriwal-led Delhi government is involved in multi-crore CNG scam in New Delhi. She has accused the AAP government of giving CNG certificates during odd-even scheme on two-wheelers numbers in exchange of money. According to Arora, she has a CD containing the sting which she will produce before the court today.Tin In the past too, Aam Aadmi Party Sena (AAPS) has opposed Kejriwal government on several occasions. Arora was the chief of Aam Aadmi Party Sena Delhi Mahila Morcha when the party staged a protest outside Kejriwal's residence over failed administration in April last year. Panaji: Although Louis Berger is under scanner in Goa for the alleged bribery scam, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has said that the US firm was not blacklisted in the state. "Louis Berger company is not registered as a consultant with PWD, and as such no action is initiated against them towards blacklisting," Parsekar said in a written reply tabled on the floor of the House during recently concluded winter session of the Goa Legislative Assembly. The CM's response was to a query by Independent legislator Rohan Khaunte during the assembly session. Responding to another question, Parsekar said the bribery scam in Goa was that of USD 9,76,630. The Crime Branch is investigating this case of alleged payment of bribe by officials of Louis Berger to an Indian minister to win consultancy for a water augmentation and sewerage project funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Goa. The investigating agency has booked former chief minister Digambar Kamat, former Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao, former Project Director of JICA in Goa Anand Wachasunder, Louis Berger's former India Vice President Satyakam Mohanty, alleged hawala operator Raichand Soni and others in the pay-off scandal. They have been booked under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence and giving false statement) of Indian Penal Code and various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. Parsekar told the House that police were trying to seek custodial interrogation of the 61-year-old Congress leader, under whose tenure the scam took place. "The application for cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to Kamat who is the prime conspirator in this case is pending before Supreme Court. The investigation in respect of accused (Kamat) could not be completed as his custodial interrogation is essential to unearth the deep rooted conspiracy. "The supplementary report will be submitted before Special Judge, Panjim after conclusion of investigation in respect of the prime conspirator," he said in reply. Last year, a local court had granted anticipatory bail to Kamat who has rejected all charges against him as politically motivated. Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad police on Monday filed chargesheet against convenor of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel in connection with a sedition case filed against him here. The move comes in the wake of reports that Patel has now expressed his willingness to sit down for talks with the Gujarat government to break the logjam over a host of issues, including reservations for the Patel community here. Patel has been in custody for nearly months in connection with several cases, including rioting and sedition. Hardik Patel had spearheaded the quota agitation by the Patel community in Gujarat. The state government has also reportedly agreed for talks "if officially communicated" by the 23-year-old Patel community leader. Hardik, convenor of the PAAS, had earlier rejected any compromise with the government till the Patels were granted reservation on the lines of Other Backward Classes. Patel had told reporters that he is "ready for talks" if acceptable to the government. Hardik and 14 other PAAS leaders are in custody since October 18 on various charges and all their efforts to secure bail have been opposed tooth and nail by the government. The state government had recently indicated that it would not oppose bail applications of the PAAS leaders if they agreed to talks. Tbilisi: A 39-year-old man was confirmed as the first case dying of complications after being infected with swine flu, Georgian authorities announced on Sunday. The man was transferred from western Georgia to the capital city when he was in a very critical condition, but died soon last week, Xinhua quoted Paata Imnadze, head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as saying. He confirmed that the cause of the death was the infection of the swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus. However, Imnadze said there is no threat of major outbreaks in Georgia. "We expect some increase since last December but not outbreak," he said, adding that the situation is under control. New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday alleged that the ink attack on Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal was orchestrated by none other but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sisodia also claimed that the Saffron scripted the attack on CM Kejriwal with the help of Delhi Police, which work under the Centre. Talking to reporters, Sisodia said, "The entire incident was scripted by BJP with the help of Delhi Police. They can even get Arvind Kejriwal murdered." Adding further he said, "It is a very serious issue. The Delhi Police were acting mere spectators at the event, when the incident took place. It is very surprising that whole Delhi Cabinet was sitting there but there wasn't enough security by Delhi Police. People were allowed to enter the premises without any checking. There was not even a single policeman when the woman ran towards the stage to throw ink at CM Kejriwal." Lashing out further at Delhi police, Sisodia said, "This incident has proved that the Delhi Police are not concerned about the safety of the CM and ready for a deadly attack on Kejriwal. The incident is scripted by BJP with the help of Delhi Police. They can even get the Chief Minister murdered." Kejriwal was addressing a thanksgiving rally at Chhatrasaal Stadium in New Delhi when a woman named Bhavna Arora splattered ink on him. Hyderabad/New Delhi: The protests over suicide of a Dalit research scholar rocked University of Hyderabad on Monday while police booked central minister Bandaru Dattatreya and three others for abetment of suicide and also for violations of the SC/ST act. A day after Rohith Vemula hanged himself in a university hostel room, protests broke out on the campus of the central university and echoed in the national capital, where students tried to lay siege to the office of Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani. Police used water canons and arrested several students as they broke the barricades. The protestors, carrying pictures of BR Ambedkar and raising anti-government slogans, clashed with police. The central ministry constituted a two-member committee to probe the suicide. The panel will submit report in two days. Irani, while expressing sympathy with the student's family, declined to comment on the incident. She merely said the ministry had no administrative control over the central universities. The varsity campus in Hyderabad remained tense since morning when police used force to take possession of Rohith's body, which the students had locked in a room and were insisting should be visited by Vice Chancellor Appa Rao. Policemen in riot gear used batons to disperse the slogan-shouting students and arrested eight of them before shifting the body to Osmania Hospital for autopsy. The 28-year-old, a second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department, was found hanging in his friend's room in the hostel on Sunday. He was one of the five students expelled from the hostel and barred from all facilities except their classrooms following a clash with leaders of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The students belonging to Ambedkar Students Union (ASU) had been staging protest on the campus for last 15 days against this "discrimination" and "social boycott". Hailing from a poor family in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Rohith in his six-page suicide note said no one was responsible for his suicide. "I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write," he wrote. His mother Radhika along with students and leaders of various Dalit groups staged a sit-in on the campus, demanding that the vice chancellor come to them and explain why her son was suspended. A Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups blamed growing influence of right-wing groups on the campus for the incident. A JAC leader said nine Dalit students have committed suicide during last five years. They held central minister Bandaru Dattetreya, the vice chancellor, ABVP leader Sushil Kumar and Vishnu responsible for the suicide. A case for abetment of suicide and for violation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was booked against the four in Gachibowli police station on a complaint by a student. A police officer told IANS that they will take further action after investigation. Dattetreya, who is union labour minister, had written to Irani, demanding action against "anti-national" and "anti-social" elements on the campus, which led to the suspension of the students. While defending his action, the minister said he or the Bharatiya Janata Party had nothing to do with suspensions or suicide. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K Kavitha alleged that the pressure by two union ministers on the vice chancellor led to suspension of five Dalit research scholars. She said Dattetreya should not have intervened into the campus politics. The Congress demanded that Dattatreya be removed from the cabinet. "The minister, against whom an FIR was filed, should immediately be removed from the cabinet. The vice chancellor and others involved in this crime should also be removed from their respective posts," Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said in New Delhi. The row between the students groups broke out in August last year when ASU took out a rally to condemn the ABVP's attack on the screening of a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots at Delhi University. ABVP leaders took objection to the protest. Later, Sushil Kumar lodged a complaint that ASU activists assaulted him. The accused students however denied the allegation. (With Agency inputs) Jerusalem: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will kick off her Israel tour with wreath laying at Yad Vashem, a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust, on Monday. "She will call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a dialogue, followed by a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin," said External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup. During the visit EAM will hold discussions with the Israeli leadership and review entire gamut of the India-Israel bilateral relations. India and Israel share close and multifaceted relationship. She will also interact with the Indian community in Israel. "India's relations with Israel are part of its engagement with the broader West Asia region and are independent to its relations with any country in the region. The visit will augment India's bilateral relations with Israel and further strengthen the linkages between the two sides," said an MEA statement. During her two-day visit (January17-18), Swaraj will be accompanied by Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa and other MEA officials. This is the first visit of Swaraj to Israel, which comes after the State visit of President Pranab Mukherjee to Israel in October. New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government over decision of scrapping the management quota in nursery admissions. The notice was issued on private unaided schools' petition against Delhi government order of scrapping management quota. The Delhi High Court said, "If Delhi government improves conditions of state-based government schools, then there won't be any fight for admissions in private schools." Terming the move by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as absolutely illegal, arbitrary, whimsical and unconstitutional, the schools had argued that the government order is contrary to and violates various judgments of the Supreme Court and the High Court, and impacts the autonomy of private unaided schools to regulate their admissions. The writ petition, filed by the Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools that comprises 400 schools, has requested the court to issue a writ, order or direction quashing the government's order and asking the government to pass further orders granting relief to them. The Delhi government had earlier scrapped management quotas for admissions to private schools, a move that offers more seats for those seeking general admission. The court has asked the Kejriwal government to file reply in the matter by January 25. The next hearing in the case has been fixed on January 28. Lahore: Pakistan will not make public any information on the probe into the Pathankot terror attack until the joint investigation team (JIT) completes its work, Law Minister of Punjab province Rana Sanaullah has said. Sanaullah said that a joint investigation team has been constituted to investigate the January 2 terrorist attack in Pathankot. India has sought action by Pakistan on the evidence provided for apprehending the JeM terrorists suspected to have been involved in the attack. India has linked the fate of the Foreign Secretary-level talks to action by Pakistan. "Nothing about the work of joint investigation team would be made public until it finished its job," Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying. Whenever Pakistan embarked on the journey to progress, its enemies started to mislead people and used them to stop development, he added. India and Pakistan were to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on in Janaury 15 which were rescheduled after the attack. New Delhi: A special court here on Monday allowed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to conduct a lie-detector test on senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh in connection with the Pathankot terror attack probe. After the special NIA court today allowed it to conduct the polygraph (lie- detector) test on Singh, the officials of the central terror investigation agency briefed CFSL experts CFSL about the possible questions that he can be asked. Singh, currently posted as Assistant Commandant of 75th Punjab Armed Police, had claimed he was kidnapped by suspected JeM terrorists hours before they attacked the Pathankot Indian Airforce Station in the wee hours of January 2. He was travelling with his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal when the alleged abduction took place. The terrorists had slit Verma's throat, almost killing him, and set Singh and Gopal free before fleeing in the police officer's vehicle towards the IAF base. Some alleged inconsistencies in Singh's statements has prompted the agency to subject him to polygraph test. Meanwhile, NIA has failed to have a clear view of the faces of the six terrorists involved in the attack. The agency, which chalked out the possible route taken by the terrorists to travel to IAF base, had sought help from the public to share footages, if any, from CCTV cameras installed in their premises. However, except for a brief coverage at a toll post, the NIA has drawn a blank, sources said, adding even that footage was of little help in carrying forward the probe. Seven security personnel were killed during the three-day terror siege, while six perpetrators were also claimed to have been felled. (With Agency inputs) Bengaluru: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Monday the NDA government would act on the Ram temple issue on the basis of the Supreme Court verdict and not on pro-Ram Mandir rhetoric of saffron leaders. The Lok Janshakti Party leader said there was no question of relations between his party and BJP souring over the issue as the government would act on basis of the apex court verdict. Also, Prime Minister's politics revolves around development, not around controversial issues such as Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid and Common Civil Code among others, Paswan said here. "In the last one-and-half years of Modi's rule, the Prime Minister has not even once spoken about Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid, Common Uniform Civil Code and Article 370, among others. "His only aim is that there should be development in the country... how to solve the unrest among the youth, and strengthen the image of India, internationally, which no other Prime Minister could do as better as Modi," he said. To a question, he said: "There is no question of Modi's image taking a beating and relations between LJP and BJP souring over the Ram Mandir issue because the NDA government will act on SC's verdict, not on pro-Ram Mandir rhetoric of saffron leaders including Pravin Togadia." Replying to a query, Paswan said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi does not have the moral right to demand capping of taxation percentage in the GST Bill because they did not do anything on it during the decade-rule of the UPA. Paswan said Congress was misusing the strength of numbers in the Rajya Sabha to stall the GST Bill. "The Bill should have been passed last year. They (Congress) are enjoying majority in Rajya Sabha, and they are misusing this position to their advantage. This is not good." Asked whether the GST dilemma is spoiling the image of Modi or Congress, he said more than the image of Congress, the image of the country has taken a massive beating. "The image of Congress has taken a beating big time, but the biggest damage has been done on country's image." Tel Aviv: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Monday, met Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv and discussed a wide range of issues. Addressing a joint press conference, Swaraj said, Our bilateral cooperation has developed well in number of areas over past decades, but potential of our relationship is much more. The potential of our relations is much more, we are two vibrant democracies. On his part Netanyahu said, We admire India, and by working together we can do a lot for each other and for the world. Swaraj will also meet President Reuven Rivlin, Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel Tzipi Hotovely (Netanyahu has retained foreign ministry portfolio with himself) and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon. The other important event in Swaraj's itinerary will be to address Indian Community in Israel later today. Many in Israel see Swaraj's visit as a "build up" to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the region. Netanyahu and Rivlin are also expected to visit India after having received invitations from Mukherjee in October during his visit to the region - the first by India's Head of State to the region. Tel Aviv: A day after she held extensive discussions with Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas, External Affairs Minister, Monday, will meet the top political leadership of Israel. Swaraj will meet Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu (who also retains the portfolio of foreign minister) and President Reuven RivlinReuven Rivlin. She will also discuss bilateral issues with Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel Tzipi Hotovely and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon. The other important event in Swaraj's itinerary will be to address Indian Community in Israel later today. Many in Israel see Swaraj's visit as a "build up" to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the region. Netanyahu and Rivlin are also expected to visit India after having received invitations from Mukherjee in October during his visit to the region - the first by India's Head of State to the region. Yesterday, during her visit to Palestine, Swaraj said that the entire Indian leadership remained steadfast in its commitment to the Palestinian cause as Palestine sought Indias participation in the West Asia peace process to help defuse crisis in the region. India's External Affairs Minister reaffirmed Indias support for the Palestinian cause, emphasising that there has been absolutely no change in its policy in this regard. Describing India as not just a friend but a brother, Mahmoud Abbas applauded New Delhis consistent support for the Palestinian cause. New Delhi: RSS on Monday condemned the attack on its worker in Ludhiana where two men opened fire at a worker outside a 'shakha' there early on Monday. "Attempt to attack RSS worker at Ludhiana is condemnable and certainly a cowardly act," RSS's Prachar Pramukh (communications department head) Manmohan Vaidya said. Rejecting reports about firing at Ludhiana RSS office, he said the "shakha in-charge aborted an attempt to fire at him by some unidentified miscreants before the start of its shakha early in the morning." According to a statement, Naresh Kumar, an RSS worker, had gone early in the morning to a park in Ludhiana's Janakpuri area where the RSS holds a shakha every morning. When enquired about the presence of unidentified persons at a dark spot outside the park, he went and questioned them upon which one of them fired at him. Hearing the shots, some other RSS workers rushed to the spot, and realising that more people were collecting, the men escaped on a bike. RSS Pranth Pracharak Kishore Kant asked Sangh workers and people not to be misled by rumours on Ludhiana incident and asked them to be vigilant. He said RSS 'shakhas' would continue as usual. New Delhi: Bhavna Arora, the woman who threw ink on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while he was to begin his address at a rally here on Sunday, has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of being involved in a CNG scam. The odd-even rule was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I had a sting. That is why I wanted to meet Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Transport Minister Gopal Rai, but they didnt agree to meet, Bhavna Arora said. She further stated that in the scam, CNG stickers were issued on bike numbers. "They have done scam in CNG and I have evidence to support it," the woman claimed. I will submit all papers and the sting before the court. Investigation should be done in the matter, she said a day after throwing ink at the Delhi CM while he was addressing a gathering on the positive response to the odd-even rule. The woman also blamed the party volunteers of manhandling her after the attack and thanked the Delhi Police for bringing her into safety. Kejriwal was to begin his address at Delhi's Chhatrasal stadium when the woman breached the security and threw ink and some papers at him. She was seen being dragged out of the venue by the policemen. However, the Chief Minister told the cops to leave her. Leave her; she is talking about some scam. Please take that paper from her she is mentioning some CNG scam, he said. The 26-year-old woman, who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Party Sena, was later detained by police and whisked away to Model Town police station for questioning. She was released on Sunday night on a personal bail bond. (With inputs from ANI) Mumbai: Mocking Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his 'tolerance' remarks at a literary meet in Pune, the Shiv Sena today said India is a 100 per cent tolerant nation considering the hospitality and "red carpet welcome" it gives to Pakistanis despite numerous infiltrations from across the border. "They (the government) gave a red carpet welcome to (former Pakistan External Affairs minister) Khurshid Kasuri and provided him security and now talks of tolerance. India should continue being tolerant and play host to Pakistanis despite infiltrations and numerous killings at the border," the Sena said in an edit in party mouthpiece 'Saamana.' "If this (welcoming Pakistanis despite border killings) is tolerance, India was and will continue to remain a tolerant nation," the Sena said. Speaking at the 89th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Pune, Fadnavis had on Saturday said India is and will continue to remain a tolerant nation and had asked authors to stop focusing on "negative writings". The Sena said that when it stopped ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali from performing in Maharashtra, states like West Bengal, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh invited him to perform there, thereby showcasing their tolerance levels. "Terrorists were attacking our Air Force base in Pathankot and soldiers were dying there.. some naive politicians were welcoming Ghulam Ali when there was firing and bomb blasts taking place. If this is what tolerance is, India is a hundred per cent tolerant nation..Do these people have the right to call themselves Indians anymore?" it questioned. Further attacking the Karnataka government, the Sena said that it has displayed an exemplary tolerance by banning the film "Marathi Tigers" at the border. "Will our Chief Minister answer the tolerance shown by Karnataka government by banning the film that gave a voice to people of Belgaum?" it asked. Guwahati: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Assam, three Bodo organisations have once again raised the statehood issue and demanded Centre clear its stand on the long-pending demands of the Bodos by tomorrow. The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Progressive (NDFB-P) militant group that favours negotiations, and Peoples Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement (PJACBM) were together in reiterating the demand for a separate Bodoland state. "The Bodos have been agitating for many years for a separate state. Over 7,000 people have lost lives during the Bodo movement. Our demand is for a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution," ABSU president Promod Boro said on Monday. "We have seen the creation of new states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in the past. During Congress government`s rule, Telengana was created. However, nothing has been done for a separate state for the Bodos," Promod Boro said. NDFB-P general secretary Gobinda Basumatary said Bodo people were awaiting eagerly the Prime Minister`s visit. "A Bodoland state was on the BJP election manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But nothing was done to fulfill the demand even as the party formed the government at the Centre," Basumatary said. PJACBM convener Jebraram Moshahary said the civil society group hoped Modi would patiently consider the legitimate demand for a separate state. Washington D.C: A new study has revealed that rats can absorb disease agents from their local environment and spread them. The results of the study conducted by the University of British Columbia also indicate that the threat rats pose to the health of poultry and humans has been underestimated. Researchers studied the feces of rats caught at an Abbotsford, B.C. poultry farm and discovered they all carried avian pathogenic E. coli, a bacteria with the ability to cause disease in chickens and potentially humans. More than one quarter of the rats were carrying multidrug resistant strains of the bacteria. The findings support lead author Chelsea Himsworth's theory that rats act as a pathogen sponge soaking up bacteria from their environment. Himsworth said that if rats can absorb pathogenic E. coli, then they could potentially be a source of all sorts of other pathogens that we have not anticipated. Himsworth was surprised to find that the E. coli strains carried by the farm rats were very similar to those found in chickens and totally different from E. coli strains found in urban rats. She said that rat infestations ought to be taken seriously. They need to be tackled with an educated, informed approach in collaboration with scientists and pest control professionals. The research is published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases. NEW YORK CITYThe SDR Show, hosted by comedian Big Jay Oakerson and radio personality Ralph Sutton, welcomed Kelly Shibari to their studio this past week. The groundbreaking adult entertainer, and first plus size model featured in the January 2016 issue of Penthouse, shared anecdotes of her background before and during her near 10-year career in the adult industry, including having been a roadie and a production designer in mainstream Hollywood. In Episode #86 entitled, Jays Spank Bank, it was also discovered Shibari was Oakersons frequent fantasy porn crush. Kelly Shibari came in to not only discuss being the first plus size model in Penthouse magazine, but also how apparently she's one of Jay's long-time desires, said Sutton. She was super cool and fun to have on the show. To hear the full Kelly Shibari interview prior to broadcast, click here. To subscribe to the podcast and listen to past episodes of The SDR Show, click here. You can follow The SDR Show on Twitter, as well as Big Jay Oakerson, and Ralph Sutton. Karachi: Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was today acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The court in Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti's son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, the Dawn reported. "They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free," Rajput said. "We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it," Rajput told reporters outside court. Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Two co-accused - Musharraf's then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan - were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost. He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year. Lucknow: Senior BJP leader Vinay Katiyar was detained in Kanpur on Monday while heading towards Uttar Pradesh`s Fatehpur town where communal violence broke out last week. Officials said Katiyar has been put under preventive detention and taken to the Kanpur circuit house as the district administration felt his visit to the violence-hit town could foment trouble. Sharply reacting to his detention, the Rajya Sabha member accused the Samajwadi Party (SP) government of Uttar Pradesh of trying to muzzle democracy. "The SP and BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) have joined hands to create an atmosphere of fear in the state by triggering communal violence," Katiyar said while seeking immediate action against district officials whose delayed action led to violence in Fatehpur. Violence broke out in the town on Makar Sankranti on January 14, marking heavy stone pelting and gutting of shops. While many people have been arrested so far, tension still prevails. The BJP leader`s supporters have begun to protest after news of his detention in Kanpur spread, and heavy security has been put in place to avoid any untoward incident. New Delhi: In a significant development in the Kolkata hit-and-run case involving a Trinamool Congress leader's son that led to the death of an Indian Air Force corporal, the Delhi Police later on Sunday arrested Sambia Sohrab's friend 'Sanu' alias Shahnawaz Khan. Sanu is alleged to be the co-passenger at the time of the accident. He was produced at the Tis Hazari court, which issued a transit remand for him to be taken to Kolkata. The arrest in Delhi came a day after Sohrab's bail plea was rejected by a Kolkata court, which remanded him in police custody for 14 days. Sohrab has been charged with murder in the hit-and-run case which claimed the life of 21-year-old Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud. The IAF officer was mowed down by a speeding brand new Audi with Sambia allegedly at the wheels after it broke through gaurd rails on Red Road in the morning of January 13. Sambia has been booked under IPC sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 212 (harbouring offender) and 427 (mischief causing damage). Sambia's counsel, pleading for his bail, told the court that the FIR has said the speeding vehicle that mowed down the air force officer was driven by an 'unknown' person and that he had cooperated with Kolkata Police sleuths. The public prosecutor said the offence of the driver was not only hitting and killing a person but also breaking into a "prohibited place" where around 5000 defence personnel were rehearsing for Republic Day parade. Sanaa: An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killing at least 20 people and wounding about 15, security officials said on Monday. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Police vehicles parked in the facility's courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. Security forces sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The airstrike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials, who had no further details. Reporters were barred from approaching the facility, they said, speaking today on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognized government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed yesterday just outside Sanaa in an "apparent" airstrike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. The fighting in Yemen has, since last March, killed more than 5,800 people. Beijing: Expressing concern over a planned visit by a former American official to Taiwan for talks with the new government on the island, China on Monday asked the US to be cautious on the Taiwan issue and not medddle in China's internal affairs. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press briefing that China has already expressed concern over the planned Taiwan visit by US former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns , who is to meet with senior officials of Taiwan. Hong reiterated that Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory and Taiwan affairs are China's internal affairs. Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the elections in Taiwan on Saturday, becoming the first woman president of Taiwan. She was strong critic of pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party which lost the polls. Hong asked the US to firmly abide by the one-China policy and the principles in the three Sino-US joint communiques, and live up to its commitment to opposing "Taiwan independence". "We urge the US side to do more things that are conducive to the stable development of China-US relations and peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, not vice versa," Hong said. Both China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the civil war. But Yaiwan has never declared independence and China still consider it as part of its territory awaiting reunification. Meanwhile, China's state-run Global Times today warned Tsai against pursuing a pro-independence path saying that formal split from the mainland would be a "dead end". Zhou Zhihuai, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in the daily that if Tsai "parts ways with the mainland, she will go down a dead end. An editorial in English-language China Daily newspaper said that the Kuomintang lost the election due to issues such as rising unemployment and inequality, rather than its Beijing-friendly approach. Tsai's policy towards the mainland "remains ambiguous". "She has a responsibility to keep the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations on track," it said. Quetta: At least five security personnel were killed and two others sustained injuries in a road-side bomb targeting a convoy of security forces in Marget area of Quetta on Monday. Five security personnel have been killed as a result of an IED blast targeting a security forces convoy in Marget area, security sources told The Express Tribune. At least 15 killed in suicide blast near polio centre in Quetta. The bodies and the injured were shifted to a nearby medical facility while a search operation was launched in the area to arrest the suspected terrorists. The deceased personnel were later identified as Awais Muhammad, Muhammad Qaseem, Fareed, Muhammad Saleem, Mubashir Nadeem while Aqeel and Gulab received injuries, sources said. The attack comes days after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polio vaccination centre in Quetta on January 13, killing at least 15 people, mainly police. The policemen had been gathering outside the centre to accompany polio workers on the third day of a vaccination campaign which are frequently targeted by Taliban and other militant groups in Pakistan. Soon after the attack, the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed responsibility. A TTPs special unit carried out successful attack at Quettas Satellite Town area, killing and injuring several security officials, the TTP spokesperson, Mohammad Khorasani said. Balochistan, is home to a raging insurgency that has claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers and militants since it re-ignited in 2004, with rebels often attacking government installations and personnel. The provinces roughly seven million inhabitants have long complained they do not receive a fair share of its gas and mineral wealth. Charleston: United States Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton went on the offensive against top challenger Bernie Sanders at a debate on Sunday in reaction to his rise in opinion polls, saying he is soft on gun control and that his proposed healthcare overhaul is unrealistic.Clinton, who leads in polls nationally but has seen Sanders gain in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, tried to raise questions repeatedly about the self-styled democratic socialist at their last face-to-face encounter before Iowa holds the first nominating contest of 2016 on Feb. 1. Clinton pounced on Sanders` "Medicare-for-all" plan that was announced just hours before the debate and came in response to Clinton`s criticism of his previous record on healthcare over his career as a U.S. senator from Vermont. The former secretary of state, former U.S. senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton said Sanders` healthcare plan would undermine President Barack Obama`s signature Affordable Care Act at a time when Republican legislators are still trying to repeal and replace it. "I have to say Im not sure whether were talking about the plan you introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times over 20 years," she told Sanders. "But the fact is we have the Affordable Care Act. ... We have already seen 19 million American get insurance." Sanders said he wanted to build on the Obama law by making health insurance more affordable. "Nobody is tearing this up," he said, referring to the program popularly known as Obamacare. "We`re moving forward." Sanders` rise in the polls threatens to derail Clinton`s presidential plans for the second time. In 2008, Obama defeated her in the race for the Democratic nomination. He referred to his rising poll numbers in saying he believed he could expand his number of supporters to include more African-American voters, noting that when his presidential campaign began, Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him in the polls. "Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close," he said. Clinton also accused Sanders of being weak on gun control. She welcomed Sanders` decision on Saturday night to back a bill in Congress rescinding portions of a law giving gunmakers immunity from lawsuits. But she said Sanders` record showed a more lenient attitude toward the demands of the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby. "He voted to let guns go on Amtrak (trains), guns go into national parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Let`s not forget what this is about: 90 people a day die of gun violence in our country," Clinton said. Sanders defended himself, saying he has a strong record on trying to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands and standing up against the powerful NRA. "I think Secretary Clinton knows what she says is very disingenuous," he said. The leading Democratic contenders have stepped up their attacks on each other during the past week, battling over guns, healthcare and Wall Street with growing intensity as polls showed Sanders gaining ground on Clinton in key states. Clinton and Sanders were joined by former Maryland Governor Martin O`Malley, who lags badly in polls, in what was the fourth debate between the Democratic contenders. Sanders has pulled into a statistical tie with Clinton in recent polls in Iowa, whose caucuses on Feb. 1 are the first contest in the race to pick a nominee for the November election. He also leads Clinton in the next state to vote, Vermont neighbor New Hampshire, on Feb. 9, according to polls. Hours before the debate, Sanders answered Clinton`s demand to explain funding for his healthcare plan, proposing a "Medicare-for-all" system funded by a 2.2 percent "premium" on individuals and a 6.2 percent payroll tax paid by employers. The plan also includes a new estate tax on the wealthiest Americans and changes in the tax code to make rates more progressive. The top rate, 52 percent, would apply to those making more than $10 million a year. Jerusalem: Israel bristled on Sunday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe`s nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defence aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday ruled Iran had abided by last July`s deal with world powers curbing its nuclear programme, spelling a windfall in sanctions relief. A parallel Iranian-U.S. prisoner exchange, devised in secrecy, drove home the adversaries` desire to reengage diplomatically. The developments put paid to years of intensive Israeli lobbying for more comprehensive curbs on Tehran - a campaign that strained relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Netanyahu sounded unrepentant on Sunday - even as one Israeli official grudgingly commended Iran`s statecraft and a former senior adviser to the prime minister accused him of having pursued a dangerously failed strategy. "Were it not for our efforts to spearhead the sanctions and foil Iran`s nuclear programme, Iran would have already had nuclear weapons long ago," Netanyahu told his cabinet. He called on world powers to impose "harsh, aggressive sanctions" for any nuclear violations by Iran - actions which, his office said in an earlier statement, Israel would "continue monitoring and flagging up". Speaking to reporters at the White House later on Sunday, Obama repeated U.S. assurances to the security of Israel and other regional allies. "We remain steadfast in opposing Irans destabilizing behavior ... including its threats against Israel and our Gulf partners, and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen," Obama said. Ram Ben-Barak, director-general of Israel`s Intelligence Ministry, predicted Iran would invest in economic recovery in the coming years while remaining able to restart its nuclear drive "overnight". "The Iranians are celebrating, and rightly so. They managed to spin everyone around their little finger," Ben-Barak told Israel`s Army Radio. "VERY WORRIED" "The Americans are satisfied because, in their thinking, diplomacy succeeded. But we are very, very worried and the Gulf countries are very, very worried and it is absolutely clear to everyone that this hiatus is utterly temporary," Ben-Barak said. Israel argues that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran has been eclipsed, for the time being, by the threat of conflict with Lebanon`s Hezbollah and other guerrillas who now stand to get increased funding from Tehran. That, along with the sectarian strife rippling through the region, has prompted Israel to request a boost in U.S. defence aid to as much as $5 billion annually when the current package worth an average of $3 billion expires next year. Netanyahu said those negotiations were in the final stages. "This is important as part of the fixed policy between us and the United States, our ally, and also important in order to fend off the regional threats, chief of which is the Iranian threat, of course," he said. U.S. officials have said the Obama administration was unlikely to fully meet the Netanyahu government`s request for increased aid, though they affirmed Washington`s commitment to Israel`s security. Uzi Arad, a former Netanyahu national security adviser, said Israel`s naysaying on the Iran deal had eroded its leverage - especially with Obama, an outgoing Democratic president who saw the rightist premier as siding with his Republican rivals. "The question is, do we today have an understanding with the Americans as to what should be done if there is this-or-that (nuclear) violation? I`m not so sure," Arad told Israel Radio. "To judge by the outcome, we lost. In any event, their (Iranian) diplomacy won, and that`s a pity." Diyarbakir: Kurdish militants detonated a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Sirnak overnight, killing three police officers and wounding four others in an armoured vehicle, security sources said on Monday. The mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by daily violence since a 2013 ceasefire between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants collapsed last July, reigniting a three-decades-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people. Sources said the blast occurred around 11:30 pm (2130 GMT) in the Idil district of Sirnak, near the border with Syria, and simultaneously PKK fighters attacked a security force base in the area with rifles. There were no casualties in that attack. The PKK, which says it is fighting for autonomy for Turkey`s Kurds, took up arms against the state in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The towns of Cizre and Silopi, further east of Idil in Sirnak, have been under round-the-clock curfew since Dec. 14 as security forces battle Kurdish fighters there. Turkey`s army says it has killed 320 militants in Cizre, 135 in Silopi and 101 in the Sur district of Diyarbakir city since operations began last month. The pro-Kurdish HDP party says some 100 civilians have been killed in these areas. Diyarbakir: Kurdish militants detonated a roadside bomb in southeast Turkey overnight, killing three police officers in an armoured vehicle while a rocket attack knocked out power in part of the region`s main city, security sources said on Monday. The mainly Kurdish southeast has been hit by daily violence since a 2013 ceasefire with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels crumbled in July, reviving a 31-year conflict that has killed 40,000 people. Sunday night`s bomb ripped the armoured vehicle apart at 11:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) near the municipality building in the town of Idil, in Sirnak province near the Syrian border, the sources said. Seven police officers were hurt and three died of their wounds in hospital. PKK fighters simultaneously attacked a local military base with rocket launchers and rifles, causing no casualties, sources said. Reinforcements were sent to the town from neighbouring Cizre and clashes were continuing in the area. In the region`s largest city, Diyarbakir, PKK militants fired a rocket launcher at a police armoured vehicle around 00:30 a.m. (2230 GMT) but missed, instead hitting a transformer that triggered a blast which cut off power supplies in the area, sources said. The PKK, which says it is fighting for autonomy for Turkey`s Kurds, took up arms against the state in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. Ankara launched a peace process with the PKK`s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan in late 2012, but it ground to a halt early in 2015 and Turkey`s leaders have vowed to continue operations until the militants are defeated. For much of the insurgency, fighting has stayed largely in the countryside, but the latest violence has focused on urban areas, where the PKK youth wing has set up barricades and dug trenches to keep out security forces. The towns of Cizre and Silopi, further east of Idil in Sirnak province, have been under round-the-clock curfew since Dec. 14 as security forces battle Kurdish fighters there. Turkey`s army says it has killed 320 militants in Cizre, 135 in Silopi and 101 in the Sur district of Diyarbakir city since operations began last month. The pro-Kurdish HDP party says some 100 civilians have been killed in these areas. Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday embarked a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between them. People in Pakistan and abroad await the outcome of the initiative taken by Nawaz Sharif to bring the two rivals to the negotiating table, Dawn online reported. Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran on January 18-19 to exchange views on regional and international issues, a foreign office statement said on Sunday. The statement did not mention if Nawaz Sharif would fly directly from Riyadh to Tehran or make separate visits to the two countries. With Raheel Sharif in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The foreign office in its statement said Pakistan was deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity particularly during these challenging times," the statement said. Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the statement said. The execution earlier this month of a Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after its embassy in Iran was set ablaze by protesters. Kabul: A rocket landed near the Italian embassy in Kabul on Sunday, a police official said, a day before a meeting of Afghan and international officials aimed at laying the groundwork for possible peace talks with the Taliban. The official, who asked not to be named, said there was no immediate word on any casualties or damage from the blast, which followed a series of suicide attacks in Kabul earlier this month. Local media said two security guards had been injured. It was not immediately clear whether the embassy, which is located near other foreign missions, had been specifically targeted. Following talks in Islamabad last week, officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China are due to resume meeting in Kabul on Monday to try to agree a road map for a negotiated settlement with the insurgents. The Taliban, increasingly successful on the battlefield since international troops ended most combat operations in 2014, have yet to agree to take part in the process. In the great tradition of political heroes, Martin Luther King's legacy has been sanitized and purged of its most radical and urgent notions, watered down to a kind of meek pacifism that omits his beliefs in radical political change as a necessary condition of attaining real justice. King's 1952 letter to Coretta Scott lays out his political views: I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human system it fail victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. This point of view was no secret it was hotly tracked by the US government and America's ruling classes. JFK compared him to Karl Marx and authorized Bobby Kennedy to wiretap him. King linked American military adventurism in Vietnam to the civil rights struggle, characterizing them as part of the same system. He called for "a better distribution of wealth within this country for all of God's children." This was a hugely controversial view at the time, and it alienated him from the US establishment. President Lyndon Johnson cut off all contact after this, private remarking, "What is that goddamned nigger preacher doing to me? We gave him the Civil Rights Act of 1964, we gave him the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we gave him the War on Poverty. What more does he want?" It wasn't just war than King linked to the civil rights struggle. He was a union supporter who campaigned against "right to work" legislation and called for a "grand alliance" between black people and poor white people. If all this sounds familiar, it may be because it's effectively Bernie Sanders's position. With the Poor People's Campaign, launched in 1968, King escalated this campaign, aimed at providing good jobs, housing, and a decent standard of living to all Americans. Decades before American protesters took to the streets of New York City and other locales to "occupy" space to protest inequality, King proposed a massive tent encampment in Washington, D.C. to demand action on poverty He never saw it come to fruition. He was assassinated that year while organizing striking Memphis sanitation workers. Southern Christian Leadership Conference president Ralph Abernathy and Coretta Scott King followed through with the plan, setting up tens and shacks on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Deemed "Resurrection City," this encampment lasted a month before the Department of Interior forced it to close down. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebrations Overlook His Critiques of Capitalism and Militarism [Zaid Jilani/The Intercept] (Image: Martin Luther King, Jr. Montgomery arrest 1958 [Charles Moore/public domain] By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS - NBCUniversal, Disney and four other U.S. studios together with Sky UK on Monday rebuffed European Union charges of anti-competitive movie-licensing deals in a crucial hearing ahead of a decision later this year. The companies' defense at a three-day closed-door hearing came six months after the European Commission accused them of preventing consumers outside Britain and Ireland from accessing films and other content broadcast by the British pay-TV group. Clauses in the deals also prevent other broadcasters from making their pay-TV services available in the UK and Ireland. The accusations by the EU antitrust enforcer came amid a campaign to end restrictions hindering cross-border trade, aimed at boosting e-commerce and growth in the 28-country bloc. Defenders of territorial licensing, however, say that the system preserves the region's cultural diversity and safeguards fair payment for artists and content providers. Other Hollywood studios involved in the case are Paramount Pictures, part of Viacom, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers. Sky UK and the studios face fines up to 10 percent of their global turnover if found guilty of breaching EU rules. Cecilio Madero, the EU deputy director general for antitrust, and Krzysztof Kuik, the chief of its television unit, led the Commission's team at the hearing. Other participants included France's Canal Plus, German media company ProSieben, Telefonica's DTS unit, the European Producers Club, British Film Institute, Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT), French cinema producers body APC and Italy's cinema and audiovisual group Anica. Pan-European consumer group BEUC also attended the hearing. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Heinrich) NEW YORK (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc and the provincial government of Guizhou in southwest China unveiled on Sunday a $280 million joint venture for the design, development and sale of advanced server technology, as the U.S. chipmaker deepens its Chinese relations. Qualcomm officials in Beijing signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the government of Guizhou province and announced the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co Ltd, a joint venture with initial capital of 1.85 billion renminbi. Qualcomm also will establish an investment company in Guizhou that will serve as a vehicle for future investments in China, the company and the provincial government said in a statement. The joint venture, cooperation agreement and formation of an investment company are important steps for Qualcomm as it deepens its cooperation and investment in China, said Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm Inc. Aberle said that in addition to its capital investment, Qualcomm was licensing its server technology to the joint venture, assisting with research and development and would supply expertise to implement the project. "This underscores our commitment as a strategic partner in China," Aberle said in the statement. (Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Peter Cooney) [PHOTO COURTESY: Terri Coles] Old Man Winter is causing Canadians a variety of hassles from slippery roads to cancelled flights. Frozen mailboxes can also be added to the list, as people across Canada report that theyre locked out of their community mailboxes. In recent weeks, residents in Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador have reported being locked out of community mailboxes for days when locks are jammed shut because of ice and cold weather. The unseasonably warm rainy weather immediately followed by a flash freeze and harsh winter conditions in various areas of the country has impacted many locks, including community mailboxes, Canada Post spokesman Mouktar Abdillahi tells Yahoo Canada News. More than 30 complaints came in directly to the Canadian Union of Postal Workers last Wednesday, from both customers and letter carriers, union official Craig Dyer told VOCM radio station on Sunday. Nineteen of those came in from Mount Pearl, N.L., and 13 came from letter carriers who had their keys stuck in the boxes. Similar complaints have hit several parts of Canada this winter. In late November, new community boxes froze up in P.E.I. At that time, Canada Post said that the new box design was more susceptible to freezing, and not all boxes had been weatherproofed by the time the cold weather began. Ottawans complained that Canada Post wasnt responding to their complaints earlier this month, after rain followed by a swift drop in temperature sealed many community boxes up with ice. Residents in Saguenay were locked out of their boxes for days up to two weeks in some cases due to locks on community mailboxes that were frozen shut. Canada Post blamed those problems on an unusual mix of humidity and cold, and told CBCs Quebec AM it was outright replacing locks that couldnt be fixed or defrosted. The mail service also pointed out that community mailboxes in the notoriously chilly city of Winnipeg had been in use for more than a year with no issues. Story continues And now Montrealers are the ones left fumbling with keys, lighters and lock de-icers as they try to access their mail. Ontario residents in Whitby and Thornill also told CityNews last week that their boxes are inaccessible because of frozen locks. Our teams are out there working on de-icing the locks in both new and older models, Abdillahi says. We appreciate everyones patience as we work to resolve this as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the carriers union says the new community mailbox routes are too long and often require overtime to finish even without taking inclement weather into account. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said Friday that members are often working a couple of hours of overtime each day in order to complete their new routes. Plans to roll out community boxes across Canada, eliminating door-to-door delivery, were put on hold for review late last year by the new Liberal federal government. In the meantime, Canadians with iced-up mailboxes or any other issues with their community boxes are advised to contact Canada Posts customer service online or by phone (866) 607-6301), Abdillahi says. Unlocking frozen mailboxes Its bad enough to wait for an important piece of mail, but even worse to know its likely in your box the box you cant get into because of an iced-up lock. Canada Post advises Canadians with issues accessing its community mailboxes to contact customer service online or via Twitter. It also asks that you dont DIY a solution to a frozen mailbox. If your mailbox lock has frozen, please do not use heat, lock de-icer or any other product to free it, as this may damage the lock, the Canada Post website reads. "Instead, complete the online form so we may resolve the problem for you as quickly as possible. However, the Internet has a few ideas: Six Quebecers, including a family of four, were having a last meal together before they were killed during a 12-hour siege Friday in Burkina Faso's capital city. Gladys Chamberland and her spouse Yves Carrier, 65, along with their children Charlelie and Maude, died when four jihadist attackers linked to al-Qaeda stormed the Splendid Hotel and nearby Cappuccino Cafe in Ouagadougou. Louis Chabot and Suzanne Bernier accompanied the family on a humanitarian mission and were also killed during the attacks. The family from Lac-Beauport, Que., left for Africa at the end of December on behalf of the Congregation des surs de Notre-Dame du Perpetuel Secours, a religious congregation based in nine different countries. According to Rose-Anne Rousseau, member of a Quebec City religious community that helped co-ordinate the trip, the six were in Africa as humanitarian volunteers, and had spent much of their time there helping to paint and repair a school. Rousseau said the majority of the group had been in Africa since just before Christmas, and three of the six were expected to fly out the evening of the attacks. "They had come back to pack their bags, and were having one last dinner before going to the airport," she said. A community in mourning: 'It's not fair' "There are many students in Quebec who are mourning today," said Louise Godin, a retired principal at Jean-de-Brebeuf where Yves Carrier was vice-principal and Louis Chabot was a teacher. Five of the six victims were active or retired teachers. "It saddens me because Yves is such a generous person, it's not fair," Godin said of Carrier. "Out of his generosity he did humanitarian work and he loses his life? It's infinitely sad," Godin added. Jean-de-Brebeuf and Cardinal Roy secondary schools in the Quebec City area have both decided to cancel classes on Monday and will remain open for students who need support. A school board in Quebec City said four of the six victims were current or retired teachers in the Quebec City area. Story continues "The commission scholaire de la Capitale learned with dismay of the death of two members of our teaching staff as well as two retired principals in the attacks Friday in Burkina Faso," it wrote on its Facebook page. A music program for Jean-de-Brebeuf, a Quebec City-area school, where three of the victimes worked, also issued a statement. "Colleagues and friends, we have all been blessed to know them. They will always be some of the kindest, most authentic and generous people we have known," the Musique Brebeuf program wrote on its Facebook page. The victims' families issued a statement asking for privacy as they mourned the death of their loved ones A 'kind soul' Le Saisonnier, an outdoor centre where Charlelie Carrier was a camp guide, took to Facebook to pay their respects to their colleague. "He was the ultimate redhead," the affectionate post read. A guide who changed the lives of many young people and a kind soul, especially in his last mission." 'The most beautiful person I ever met' Karine Paquet, who has been friends with Maude Carrier since high school, said her close friend seemed emotional over the phone the night before she left for Africa. "It was painful for her to leave her two little daughters to go there, but at the same time she knew she would live an extraordinary experience," she said. Paquet said volunteering for a humanitarian mission was in keeping with her friend's generous personality and love of helping others. "She knew how to welcome people, she was respectful and loving the most beautiful person I ever met." 'It's unbearable' Louise Brunet, the mayor of Lac-Beauport, told CBC News that it was a great loss for the community, and the family was generous. It's not acceptable it's unbearable," said Brunet. "It's people in your community here in Quebec, it's really difficult to accept." Charles-Philippe Drolet, a neighbour of the family, told Radio-Canada he is shocked. "A humanitarian trip isn't supposed to end like this," said Drolet. 'Unspeakable and tragic loss' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke Sunday about the attack that began late Friday and ended Saturday. "Yesterday we got terrible news of violent terrorism in Burkina Faso where six Canadian people were killed," said Trudeau, who was visiting a mosque in Peterborough, Ont. "In solidarity with their families that are suffering an unspeakable and tragic loss, I ask you to join me in a moment of silence and reflection." Trudeau led a moment of silence at the reopened Masjid al-Salaam mosque to honour the victims. A statement released by Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion identified the Canadians as "aid workers and volunteers." Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose condemned the attacks, offered condolences to the victims' families and said what happened in Burkina Faso is proof that Canada must be seen to do more in fighting terrorism. "These ongoing attacks are proof that decisive action is required to confront this threat, including fully supporting our coalition allies and keeping our CF-18s in the fight in Iraq and Syria," Ambrose said in a statement. 3 days of mourning Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders. In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster, Burkina 24, that security forces would step up their efforts to thwart future attacks and asked people to comply with the new restrictions. "These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation," said Kabore. Rumble Introducing the recipe for seafood Chijimi (Korean pan cake) made with Nira (garlic chives) and squid. Adding carrots adds a gentle sweetness and the indescribably enchanting texture of fluffy, chewy pancake is almost addictive. Thinly cooked with the flavor of sesame oil and dipped in the authentic homemade sauce, this dish is a delicious dinner or finger food. The recipe can easily be modified for restricted diets, substituting the squid for thinly sliced pork, or even subbing all animal based products with vegetarian ones (roasted vegetables instead of meat - vegetable broth instead of chicken, etc). ============================================================= YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDvC... Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/hungrycooki... ============================================================= 00:38 Prepping Ingredients 01:25 How to Gut a Squid 03:43 How To Make Chijimi Dipping Sauce 05:28 Putting Together the Chijimi 06:43 How to Cook Chijimi Ingredients (for one chijimi) Weak (Cake) flour... 1/3 cup Potato starch ... 2 tbsp Water... 1/3 cup Garlic chives ... 1/3 bunch Carrots ... 1/8 (about 5cm) Squid ... 1/2~1 Salt Torigara (chicken bone) soup stock base (or Hondashi) 1 tsp Olive oil Sesame oil Sauce Soy sauce... 2 tablespoons Vinegar... 2 tablespoons Kochijang... 2 tsp Ichimi chili pepper Sesame oil... 1 tablespoon La-Yu (chili oil) Sesame Cooking Recipe Slice the Garlic Chives into 3~5cm pieces and julienne the carrots. Gut, wash, and prep the squid into about 3-5cm strips. This is a good time to prepare the sauce, so mix the sauce ingredients together to create the dipping sauce for the pancakes. Add cake flour and potato starch, mixing loosely. Add water, salt, and torigara (chicken bone broth concentrate) or a different stock base like Hondashi, and stir until smooth. Lastly, add prepped vegetables and squid into the bowl and mix to incorporate. Place the a pan over high heat and when hot, pour in sesame oil and olive oil. Add the batter made in step 4 into the pan, shape, and cook for 1~1.5 minutes on one side. When solid and lightly browned, flip the pancake and cook the other side through, pressing down with a spatula as needed. Before completely cooked through, pour sesame oil along the rim of the pan and cook for 1~1.5 minutes more until browned. Reduce heat to medium and cook until both sides are both sides are fragrant and of good color. After removing from the pan when fully cooked, cut into bite sized pieces and serve with prepared dipping sauce. Cooking tips Thinly sliced pork is a delicious alternative to squid. This recipe can also be made vegetarian by subbing meats with roasted eggplant or other hearty vegetables, and broth subbed with vegetable broth concentrate. If you like a sweeter dipping sauce, add a pinch sugar when putting the sauce together. If you add an egg the taste will be much richer. However, add more flour to the batter as too small of an amount will result in a heavier, less crispy pancake. A recommended ratio will be about 1 cup of flour to 1 egg. When cutting pancakes, the chives are a little hard to cut and tend to lose their shape so cut them carefully. The pancake is easier to cut if you have a pizza cutter on hand. Rumble The idea of making cheese at home can be really intimidating. Cheese feels like something you have to buy at the store or the farmer's market. But not anymore, you can make fresh cheese at home with four simple ingredients: whole milk, lime juice, apple cider vinegar and sea salt. Queso Fresco translates from Spanish is "fresh cheese." It has its roots in Spain but has been popularized by Mexican food culture. It's mild taste is a perfect canvas to bold build flavour profile. This video shows you how to make Queso Fresco three different ways: sweet, savoury and spicy. Bon Appetit! check out my first novel. https://www.amazon.co.uk/KAT-Matthew-... Whole milk 2L - 3.5 pints Lime 1 large Vinegar 120ml - 1/2 cup - 4fl oz Salt 2 tbsp Heat the milk gently to 77c - 170f, squeeze in the lime juice and stir with a slotted spoon. Keep heating to 87c - 190f and add the vinegar. Turn off the heat and stir occasionally for 15 minutes, strain into cheese cloth sitting in a sieve or colander and leave to drain for between 30 minutes and 2 hours. The cheese remaining will be quite firm, turn into a bowl and beat with a fork or your hand with the salt for a few minutes to create a smoother mixture. Muy caliente chopped pickled chilli pepper, garlic, hot sauce and coriander Honey and rosemary Basil and sun-dried tomato (fresh and puree) Iran's President says his country has "opened a new chapter" in its history after crippling economic sanctions were lifted. Hassan Rouhani said the deal struck after the UN confirmed Iran had scaled back its nuclear programme satisfied all parties - except some radical extremists. "In (implementing) the deal, all are happy except Zionists, warmongers, sowers of discord among Islamic nations and extremists in the US. The rest are happy," he said. He said Iranians had "reached out to the world in a sign of friendliness, and leaving behind the enmities, suspicions and plots, have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world". He added: "We are a messenger of peace, stability and security in the region and the world." The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed on Saturday that Iran fulfilled its side of last year's landmark nuclear deal with six world powers. In return, the United States, European Union and United Nations have lifted a raft of nuclear-related sanctions. The move will allow Iran to immediately recoup some $100bn (70bn) in assets frozen overseas. Western powers imposed the sanctions over fears Iran was planning to use its atomic programme to develop nuclear weapons, although Tehran always maintained its nuclear ambitions were peaceful. Celebrations in Tehran were relatively muted at first because the announcement, made in Vienna, came well after midnight Iranian time. But on Sunday, many Tehran residents expressed optimism about the future of the Iranian economy. "Unbelievable! This is a day without sanction after years," taxi driver Reza Khoei told Associated Press. "I lost my technical job in a petrochemical complex in south of Iran because of the damn sanctions." Fahimeh Lotfi, a mother of two, said: "I am very happy. Now we are like other countries. "No more will we to go to bed every night while worrying about the worsening situation. Bravo Rouhani!" Story continues US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Vienna: "The United States, our friends and allies in the Middle East, and the entire world are safer because the threat of the nuclear weapon has been reduced." Britain's Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond said it would make the world a "safer place". Others are alarmed at the prospect of the West moving closer to Shia Iran, including Sunni Saudi Arabia and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran "has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilise the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world". Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton took credit for helping to start the sanctions pressure on Iran during her 2009-2013 tenure as Mr Obama's secretary of state. But she also urged new sanctions on Tehran over its ballistic missile testing programme. It is thought that since 2012 the sanctions have cost Iran some 102bn in oil revenues alone. Iran has the fourth biggest oil supplies in the world and the free flow of Iranian oil into the world market could mean lower prices at the pumps. Some sanctions not linked to the nuclear deal will, however, remain in place, including European sanctions relating to human rights and US sanctions relating to terrorism. Before the sanctions were lifted, the US and Iran reached an agreement on a prisoner swap earlier on Saturday, bringing an end to 14 months of negotiations. Tehran confirmed that four inmates with dual Iranian-US nationality have been released from its jails, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. US officials say a fifth American, student Matthew Trevithnick, has also been freed, but that his release was not part of the prisoner swap. Seven Iranians, being held in prisons across the US, have been released in return. Toshiba UCedge Adds XMPP Protocol Support Share Tweet By Rory Lidstone Contributing Writer By Rory LidstoneContributing Writer Toshiba (News - Alert) America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division recently rolled out an update for its popular UCedge unified communications (UC) app, introducing an extensive feature enhancement. The enhancement is support for the XMPP protocol, but the update also adds tighter integration with Toshibas IPedge and VIPedge applications. XMPP protocol support enables users connected to different servers, whether deployed on site or in the cloud, to: Whitelist each other to share contacts View presence status information Exchange instant messages Call users via one touch This includes external organizations that use Toshiba software, along with Skype for Business clients via XMPP gateway and other third-party systems that comply with XMPP standards. UCedge is being promoted as redefining UC with enhanced visibility, collaboration and XMPP federation across Toshiba premise and cloud business telephone systems, as well as third-party solutions like Microsoft Skype for Business. (It should be noted that last April, Toshibas UCedge took home the 2015 Unified Communications (News - Alert) Product of the Year Award from TMC). "UCedge gives users the power to communicate how, where and when they wantvia smartphone, PC or tabletand with whomever they wantvia XMPP federationby unifying their communications across platforms," said Brian Metherell (News - Alert), vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division. "UCedge increases productivity for users in different locations and on diverse Toshiba and third-party platforms, including Microsoft Skype for Business." UCedge is available for Android and Apple (News - Alert) mobile devices, as well as for computers running Windows or Mac OS X. It works with Toshibas VIPedge cloud and IPedge premise telephone systems, as well as Strata CIX systems with an IPedge Application Server. In terms of VIPedge and IPedge integration with UCedge, this UCedge update adds new softphone for iPhone (News - Alert) and iPad with Cloud Sync functionality across platforms, multi-line support for softphones or pairing with desk phones that enables users to have multiple calls on the mobile devices at the same time, and support for fax mail messages. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Article comments powered by Disqus Edited by Peter Bernstein By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A rampaging Roger Federer kicked off his 17th Australian Open campaign with a 6-2 6-1 6-2 demolition of Georgian battler Nikoloz Basilashvili to reach the second round on Monday. On a day when match-fixing allegations cast a pall over the tournament's opening matches, the purity of Federer's game shone through in a floodlit Rod Laver Arena as the Swiss master put on a masterclass of clean hitting. Spared the sweltering conditions of the day session, Federer barely raised a sweat in hammering Basilashvili, sending 31 winners whistling past the 117th-ranked Georgian. Having battled a flu during his run to the final of the Brisbane International, the 34-year-old, a winner of four Australian Open titles, was grateful to save his energy for more taxing encounters ahead. "I'm really pleased how I was able to play. Definitely gives me a bit of a lift in confidence, you know, because this year I haven't been able to play properly yet," Federer told reporters. "I mean, I had some decent matches in Brisbane, but it was all under sort of a cloud knowing that I wasn't 100 percent. "But this was a match where I was able to focus on my game, on tactics, all that stuff. So it was nice to play that way." Federer's only wobble came early, when he surrendered serve in the sixth game of the first set, but he responded by winning six straight games to leave the Georgian reeling. The third seed preserved his perfect record of surviving the opening round at the year's first grand slam but faces a stiffer test against 35th-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov, a hard-hitting Ukrainian with two tour titles. "I think it's going to be very tough, to be honest," said Federer, who practised with the mercurial 27-year-old in the off-season in Dubai. "He's got the fitness, the power, the speed, tennis IQ, all that." (Editing by Justin Palmer) CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwired - Jan 18, 2016) - All dollar amounts are in United States ("U.S.") dollars unless otherwise indicated. Gran Tierra Energy Inc. ("Gran Tierra" or the "Company") (GTE.TO)(GTE.TO) is pleased to announce its 2016 capital and operating budget. Given the current volatility in commodity prices, the board of directors of Gran Tierra has approved a flexible budget focusing capital allocation on projects to grow and expand the assets in Colombia, while maximizing the value of assets in Brazil and Peru. "An important part of our base and development budget is underway now and will be completed over the first six months of 2016. If the price of oil remains below $50.00 per barrel through the second quarter of 2016, the Company may choose to defer some discretionary components of our exploration and development budget to preserve cash. We plan to continue to allocate capital to acquisitions and joint ventures, consistent with our strategy of expanding and diversifying the Company's growth portfolio in Colombia," commented Gary Guidry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gran Tierra. The Company's strategy is to efficiently grow and diversify its current portfolio of exploration, development and production opportunities in Colombia. In addition to implementing a flexible approach to optimize capital allocation, the Company continues to implement both temporary and permanent cost structure reductions in operating, capital and general and administrative costs. Highlights: The Company operates over 80 percent of its production and therefore has significant flexibility on capital allocation. At a $40.00 Brent price, the Company will generate funds flow of $95 to $105 million which will fund the majority of the 2016 base capital expenditures, including required 2016 exploration commitments. At a $52.50 Brent price, the Company will generate funds flow of $155 to $165 million which would fund both the base capital and discretionary growth program. Story continues The Company has a robust portfolio with $61 million of identified growth projects scheduled in the second half of 2016. In the event of an increase in commodity prices, the Company will deploy free cash flow to these projects. Based on a $40.00 Brent price; The Company is forecasting 20% growth in 2016 working interest ("WI") production over 2015 average WI production. The Company expects to maintain a strong balance sheet in 2016 and does not anticipate utilizing its $200 million undrawn credit facility. The Company anticipates exiting 2015 with working capital of approximately $161 million. The net cash portion of the Petroamerica Oil Corp. ("Petroamerica") acquisition was $45 million, and the proposed PetroGranada Colombia Limited ("PetroGranada") acquisition is $19 million. The Petroamerica acquisition closed January 13, 2016 and was funded from cash on hand, and the Petrogranada acquisition is anticipated to close in January and will be funded with cash on hand. Estimated working capital at the beginning of 2016 is approximately $97 million, after giving consideration to these acquisitions. 2016 PRODUCTION GUIDANCE The 2016 average WI production from the Company's assets in Colombia and Brazil is expected to average approximately 27,500 to 29,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day ("boepd"), representing an increase of 20% over our 2015 average production of 23,400 boepd. The 2016 production guidance includes 900 to 1,000 boepd of production from the Company's assets in Brazil. The Company is expecting 2016 WI exit production of 29,000 to 30,000 boepd. BASE CAPITAL PROGRAM OF $107 MILLION The base capital budget for 2016 is estimated at $107 million, with the majority of the budget allocated to Colombia. The budget includes low-risk committed exploration capital required for the Putumayo-7 block ("PUT-7 Block") in the Putumayo Basin of Colombia. The major components of the base capital work program include the following activities: Base Capital Program ($million) Maintenance and Development Capital: Chaza Block 50 - Drill 2 water injection wells at Costayaco - Drill 3 development wells at Moqueta - Facilities work - increased water injection, and new well tie-ins Brazil 8 Non-Operated Blocks in Colombia 6 Total Maintenance and Development Capital 64 PUT-7 Block 20 - Drill 2 exploration wells - Drill 1 development well Peru 6 Other - Capital Allocations 17 Total Base Capital Program 107 Well Summary for Base Capital Program: Gross Wells Net Wells Development Wells 6.0 6.0 Exploration Wells 3.0 2.5 Total Wells 9.0 8.5 Also included in our 2016 Base Capital Program is an exploration well on the Llanos-10 block, of which Gran Tierra is carried and has a 50% WI. DISCRETIONARY GROWTH CAPITAL OF $61 MILLION For 2016, the budgeted discretionary growth capital will target exploration and development drilling and seismic activities in Colombia. Gran Tierra's discretionary exploration and development work program is as follows: Discretionary Growth Capital Gross Wells Net Wells ($millions) Putumayo Basin 7.0 3.2 37 Llanos Basin 4.0 1.9 18 Sinu Basin - 281 km of 2D seismic - - 6 Total Discretionary Growth Capital 11 5.1 61 Gran Tierra has additional exploration drilling opportunities that could be accelerated given higher oil prices and higher than anticipated funds flow from operations. Alternatively, the discretionary growth capital outlined above can be deferred to 2017 if low commodity prices prevail. ACQUISITIONS AND NEW PROJECTS Gran Tierra continues to identify and analyze acquisition and joint-venture opportunities in Colombia (and potentially Mexico) to expand and diversify its growth portfolio. Gran Tierra's strong cash and working capital position and undrawn credit facility provide the Company with the flexibility to continue its active exploration and development program, accelerate the appraisal of any new discoveries and/or expand the growth portfolio through acquisition and new joint-venture projects. PERU AND BRAZIL BUSINESS UNITS The capital program in Peru is $6 million, and includes only those activities required for retention of lands and security of assets. In Brazil, the capital program approved for 2016 is $8 million, and includes minimal activity to implement water injection for reservoir pressure maintenance, and to preserve current production levels. In both Peru and Brazil, operations have been scaled back significantly, with the aim of allowing time for the Company to explore and execute on options to maximize shareholder value. The operations are now structured in such a way that the free cash flow from production in Brazil offsets the spend in Peru, ensuring that these assets remain in-tact without being a burden on the free cash flow generating core assets of the Company. FUNDS FLOW FROM OPERATIONS With expected 2016 average production of 27,500 to 29,000 boepd, the Company expects 2016 funds flow from operations and 2016 cash netbacks to be as follows. Brent ($US/barrel) 40.00 52.50 57.50 Funds Flow from Operations ($million) 95 - 105 155 - 165 175-185 Cash Netbacks ($US/barrel) 9.00 - 10.00 15.00 - 16.00 17.00 - 18.00 Operating Netbacks ($US/barrel) 11.50 - 13.50 19.00 - 21.00 22.00 - 24.00 Cash netback is defined as operating netback less general and administrative, finance and tax expense 2016 BUDGET SUMMARY ($million, unless otherwise indicated) 2016 Budget 2016 Budget Brent ($US/barrel) 40.00 52.50 Average Production (boepd) 27,500-29,000 27,500-29,000 Oil Percentage of Production 99% 99% Funds Flow from Operations 95 - 105 155 - 165 Cash Netbacks ($US/barrel) 9.00 - 10.00 15.00 - 16.00 Capital Budget Base Capital Program: Colombia 76 76 Brazil 8 8 Peru 6 6 Other 17 17 Total Base Capital Program 107 107 Discretionary Growth Capital: Putumayo Basin - 37 Llanos Basin - 18 Sinu Basin - 6 Total Discretionary Growth Capital - 61 Total Capital Budget 107 168 The Company will continue to monitor and review realized oil prices and the resulting funds flow, in conjunction with the Company's capital program. With changes in funds flow expectations, the Company will defer or accelerate discretionary capital projects and ensure capital expenditures can be funded by funds flow from operations. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON GRAN TIERRA ENERGY INC., PLEASE GO TO: www.grantierra.com DISCLAIMER This press release contains opinions, forecasts, projections, and other statements about future events or results that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and financial outlook and forward looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about: future projected or target production and the growth of production including the product mix of such production and expectations respecting production growth, expected future funds flow from operations; our strategy regarding changing oil prices; our intentions regarding the use of our credit facility; expected cost savings; anticipated capital expenditures, including the location and impact of capital expenditures, our business strategies; our ability to grow in both the near and long term and the funding of our growth opportunities; our possible creation of new core areas; the plans, objectives, expectations and intentions of the company regarding production, exploration and exploration upside, development; Gran Tierra's 2016 capital program including the changes thereto along with the expected costs and the allocation of the capital program; Gran Tierra's financial position including liquidity and financial capacity, and the future development of the company's business. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect several material factors and expectations and assumptions of Gran Tierra including, without limitation, assumptions relating to the performance of the Petroamerica and PetroGranada assets and Gran Tierra's existing assets, log evaluations, the accuracy of reserves estimates, that Gran Tierra will continue to conduct its operations in a manner consistent with its current expectations, the accuracy of testing and production results and seismic data, pricing and cost estimates (including with respect to commodity pricing and exchange rates), rig availability, the effects of drilling down-dip, the effects of waterflood and multi-stage fracture stimulation operations, the extent and effect of delivery disruptions, and the general continuance of current or, where applicable, assumed operational, regulatory and industry conditions including in areas of potential expansion, and the ability of Gran Tierra to execute its current business and operational plans in the manner currently planned. Gran Tierra believes the material factors, expectations and assumptions reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable at this time but no assurance can be given that these factors, expectations and assumptions will prove to be correct. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements in this press release are: risks relating to Gran Tierra's ability to realize the anticipated benefits from the Petroamerica and PetroGranada acquisitions; Gran Tierra's operations are located in South America, and unexpected problems can arise due to guerilla activity; technical difficulties and operational difficulties may arise which impact the production, transport or sale of our products; geographic, political and weather conditions can impact the production, transport or sale of our products; the risk that current global economic and credit conditions may impact oil prices and oil consumption more than Gran Tierra currently predicts; the ability of Gran Tierra to execute its business plan; the risk that unexpected delays and difficulties in developing currently owned properties may occur; the timely receipt of regulatory or other required approvals for our operating activities; the failure of exploratory drilling to result in commercial wells; unexpected delays due to the limited availability of drilling equipment and personnel; the risk that oil prices could continue to fall, or current global economic and credit market conditions may impact oil prices and oil consumption more than Gran Tierra currently predicts, which could cause Gran Tierra to further modify its strategy and capital spending program; and the risk factors detailed from time to time in Gran Tierra's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, under the caption " Risk Factors" in Gran Tierra's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 2, 2015, and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed November 3, 2015. These filings are available on the Web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the current capital spending program and long term strategy of Gran Tierra is based upon the current expectations of the management of Gran Tierra, should any one of a number of issues arise, Gran Tierra may find it necessary to alter its business strategy and/or capital spending program and there can be no assurance as at the date of this press release as to how those funds may be reallocated or strategy changed. All forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the fact that this press release remains available does not constitute a representation by Gran Tierra that Gran Tierra believes these forward-looking statements continue to be true as of any subsequent date. Actual results may vary materially from the expected results expressed in forward-looking statements. Gran Tierra disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities laws. Gran Tierra's forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The estimates of future production and funds flow from operations set forth in this press release may be considered to be future-oriented financial information or a financial outlook for the purposes of applicable Canadian securities laws. Financial outlook and future-oriented financial information contained in this press release about prospective financial performance, financial position or cash flows are based on assumptions about future events, including economic conditions and proposed courses of action, based on management's assessment of the relevant information currently available, and to become available in the future. In particular, this press release contains projected operational information for 2016. These projections contain forward-looking statements and are based on a number of material assumptions and factors set out above. Actual results may differ significantly from the projections presented herein. These projections may also be considered to contain future-oriented financial information or a financial outlook. The actual results of Gran Tierra's operations for any period will likely vary from the amounts set forth in these projections, and such variations may be material. See above for a discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to vary. The future-oriented financial information and financial outlooks contained in this press release have been approved by management as of the date of this press release. Readers are cautioned that any such financial outlook and future-oriented financial information contained herein should not be used for purposes other than those for which it is disclosed herein. The Company and its management believe that the prospective financial information has been prepared on a reasonable basis, reflecting management's best estimates and judgments, and represent, to the best of management's knowledge and opinion, the Company's expected course of action. However, because this information is highly subjective, it should not be relied on as necessarily indicative of future results. NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES This press release includes non-GAAP measures as further described herein. These non-GAAP measures do not have a standardized meaning under GAAP. Investors are cautioned that these measures should not be construed as alternatives to net income or loss or other measures of financial performance as determined in accordance with GAAP. Gran Tierra's method of calculating these measures may differ from other companies and, accordingly, they may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Funds flow from operations, as presented, is net income or loss, net of income taxes, depletion, depreciation, accretion and impairment expenses, deferred tax recovery or expense, non-cash stock-based compensation, unrealized foreign exchange gains and losses, financial instruments gains and losses, equity tax and cash settlement of foreign currency derivatives. Management uses this financial measure to analyze performance and income or loss generated by Gran Tierra's principal business activities prior to the consideration of how non-cash items affect that income or loss, and believes that this financial measure is also useful supplemental information for investors to analyze performance and Gran Tierra's financial results. Operating netback as presented is calculated as oil and gas sales net of royalties and operating expenses. Management believes that netback is a useful supplemental measure for management and investors to analyze operating performance and provide an indication of the results generated by our principal business activities prior to the consideration of other income and expenses. For more information on "funds flow from operations", and "operating netback" see "Non-GAAP Measures" in our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015. DISCLOSURE OF OIL AND GAS INFORMATION BOE's may be misleading particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6 thousand cubic feet of gas to 1 barrel of oil is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. In addition, given that the value ratio based on the current price of oil as compared with natural gas is significantly different from the energy equivalent of six to one, utilizing a BOE conversion ratio of 6Mcf:1bbl would be misleading as an indication of value. The estimates of reserves and future net revenue for individual properties may not reflect the same confidence level as estimates of reserves and future net revenue for all properties due to the effects of aggregation. By Nerijus Adomaitis OSLO (Reuters) - Demand for natural gas is expected to grow further in Europe this year, particularly in Britain and Germany, the head of marketing for Norwegian oil and gas firm Statoil (STL.OL) said, as countries seek to reduce carbon emissions. European gas industry association Eurogas said last October it expected European Union gas demand to have risen by 7 percent for the whole of 2015, after a 9 percent rise in the first six months. European spot gas prices fell by 30 percent last year due to more supply and their price link to oil, which has fallen around 70 percent since mid-2014. Statoil's Tor Martin Anfinnsen said increased demand on the continent would support the gas market. "What you see in the UK now is a clear trend there at least for a swing up," Anfinnsen told Reuters in an interview. "Similarly, although not to the same extent, we believe, based on the government signals in Germany, that there is a potential for a swing up there as well in their strive towards reaching the emission levels." Germany has set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, and by 80-95 percent by 2050. Gas-powered electricity plants emit about 50 percent than coal. France's plans to reduce reliance on nuclear energy could also mean more demand for gas in addition to a higher share of renewables, Anfinnsen said. Despite increased demand, Anfinnsen said Statoil expected its gas sales to be steady in 2016 compared with last year. "We are roughly on the plateau level. This year will not be significantly different from the last year," he said. Europe's top gas suppliers Russia and Norway both reported higher pipeline gas exports last year, but the market is braced for imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, which could add pressure to prices and sales. "It is likely that (U.S.) LNG volumes could primarily be heading to Europe," Anfinnsen said. The first LNG cargo from Cheniere Energy's (LNG.A) landmark Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana, however, will be delayed until later February or March, its subsidiary said last week. Story continues Norwegian exports peaked at a record 108.4 billion cubic metres (bcm) "a result of higher demand from Europe", the Norwegian Petroleum Department said last week. INDEXATION MOVE Statoil, which markets about 80 percent of gas to Europe at prices linked to spot prices on the European gas hubs, such as British NBP and Dutch TTF, also plans to move away from oil-indexation completely. "We believe that we will be moving closer towards the 100 percent mark through this year," Anfinnsen said. Statoil has come under pressure to move away from indexation as buyers want a pricing system that better reflects the market and the higher availability of LNG imports. Low gas and oil prices weighed on Statoil's results in the third quarter, when the company posted less than expected operating profit and further cut capital spending. On Monday oil prices hit the lowest level since 2003 as the market braced for additional Iranian exports after sanctions against the country were lifted over the weekend.[O/R] "The more supply you add to the mix, all things equal, the lower prices will go and for longer," Statoil's Tor Martin Anfinnsen told Reuters. Asked whether he was worried about new oil supplies coming from Iran, Anfinnsen said: "As a trader I don't have to be, as a producer, of course, I am." ($1 = 8.7748 Norwegian crowns) (Additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen; editing by Susan Thomas) BALTIMORE, Oct. 28, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- University of Maryland (UM) Ventures and Educational and Scientific LLC (ESL), announced today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) granted ESL exclusive licensing rights to its interest in the commercial development of a molecule whose anticancer properties were jointly discovered by ESL and UMB. The molecule has consistently demonstrated its potential for the treatment of a variety of cancers, particularly lung, Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, pancreatic and prostate cancer. Henry Lowe, Ph.D., D.Sc., F.R.S.H., an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) is the Founder of ESL. Dr. Lowe collaborated with Dr. Joseph Bryant, DVM, Associate Professor of Pathology and Director, Animal Models Division, at the UM SOM Institute of Human Virology (IHV) in the realization of this discovery. ESLs leadership also consists of Ngeh J. Toyang, Ph.D., whose background is in the study of the medicinal potential of plant isolates. He is a vital part of Dr. Lowes research team and is serving as ESLs CEO. Dr. Toyang holds a Ph.D. in pharmacognosy from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. The discoveries and projects are part of a wider effort to examine Jamaicas medicinal plants for potential therapeutic purposes. To date, the Jamaican plant Tillandsia recurvata (more commonly known as Ball Moss) has shown promise as a potential treatment for cancers and as a neuroprotective agent, for diseases such as Parkinsons disease. Dr. Lowe established ESL, which is based in Baltimore, to conduct further research and development on bioactive plant compounds and to develop new pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. ESL will work in collaboration with the Bio-Tech R&D Institute in Jamaica, which Dr. Lowe also founded and of which he is the Executive Chairman. Philip J. Robilotto, D.O., M.B.A., Chief Commercialization Officer with UM Ventures, said, This unique discovery exemplifies some of the broadly innovative research currently ongoing at UMB. This agreement will allow ESL to move forward with developing a treatment that could positively impact the lives of the many individuals living with cancer. Dr. Lowe is internationally recognized for his research in the field of Ethno-medicinal Chemistry, Molecular Pharmacology and Biochemistry. A Jamaican-born medicinal chemist, he spent nearly 50 years extensively studying the potential for plant-based compounds to treat a range of chronic diseases. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Lowe, in tandem with the IHV team, has demonstrated significant anti-cancer activities of a number of plant isolates. He has also been granted several U.S. Patents for his discoveries and has published numerous peer-reviewed studies and books. Dr. Lowe attended the University of the West Indies, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Natural Sciences (London University/University College of the West Indies). He then received his Master of Science degree from the University of Sydney and his Ph.D. degree from Manchester University. It is often stated that it takes 10 to 12 years to take a drug from basic science to commercialization. My team and I have now completed 10 years of work on this Ball Moss project and we are satisfied that we are well on our way to commercialization. I am particularly pleased to say with confidence that we now have a drug with the potential not only to save lives, but also to create wealth for all involved, stated Dr. Lowe. I am grateful for the assistance given to us by the University of Maryland. We are excited about moving our findings forward and developing a novel compound using Ball Moss isolates to combat some major cancers, said Dr. Toyang. This agreement provides us the momentum to move forward in the development of our compound. About Educational and Scientific (ESL), LLC Educational and Scientific, LLC (ESL) is a commercial venture established by Dr. Henry Lowe to conduct further research and development of medicinal plant isolates for the development of new pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products. ESL is headquartered in Baltimore. About UM Ventures UM Ventures is an initiative to channel the tremendous technical resources and research expertise of the University of Maryland, engaging partners in industry and social ventures to expand real world impact. By encouraging students and faculty, and by providing expert advice and business services, more discoveries will reach the market. By engaging directly with external partners, UM Ventures brings new investment, expanded markets and more start-up ventures. Visit http://umventures.org/ to learn more. BALTIMORE, Jan. 17, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A Jhpiego health informatics advisor was rescued by French troops early Saturday, following a terrorist attack at a Burkina Faso hotel where he was staying during a work trip for the global health nonprofit organization and Johns Hopkins affiliate. Edward Bunker, who is based in Jhpiego's Baltimore headquarters, was a guest at the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou preparing for his departure when the hotel, a favorite of Westerners, came under attack by militants. He was visiting the West African country to assist Jhpiego's country office with its information and data systems related to health programs. Bunker recounted the Friday night attack in an interview with the BBC, describing the gunfire and chaotic events "like a scene out of a movie." Bunker credited Jhpiego's Global Human Resources team in Baltimore, their security consultant, and "good wifi" for getting him through the ordeal safely. "I ended up spending the night in my bathroom with my computer and - luckily - a good wifi connection," the affable Bunker told the BBC. "I was able to get in touch with family and friends and crucially also a security consultant from my organization as well as the US embassy. It was amazing how quickly the night passed and I was thankful to have the internet for the whole time. In fact, it was a great distraction to catch up on emails and pretend it was a normal working day." Leslie Mancuso, Jhpiego's CEO and President, was kept informed of the situation until Bunker was out of the hotel. Jhpiego's global human resources staff were in constant contact with his family. "Jhpiego is a close partner of the government of Burkina Faso and we are terribly saddened by this tragic event and the loss of 26 lives," said Mancuso. "Our employees are safe and I'm extremely thankful for that. Our prayers are with the people of Burkina Faso." Jhpiego has been working in Burkina Faso since 1996, assisting the government strengthen its health system and prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. Jhpiego helps develop and implement programs in maternal and child health, reproductive health cervical cancer prevention and treatment, malaria prevention and treatment and family planning. Bunker, who lives in Baltimore, joined Jhpiego in 2009. He is Health Informatics Advisor there, Associate Director of the Public Health Informatics Certificate Training Program in the Hopkins' Department of Health Policy and Management; and associate instructor in the university's Department of International Health. About Jhpiego Jhpiego (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), is an international non-profit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. For 42 years, Jhpiego has empowered front-line health workers by designing and implementing effective, low-cost, hands-on solutions to strengthen the delivery of health care services for women and their families. Jhpiego works to break down barriers to high-quality health care for the world's most vulnerable populations. For more information go to www.jhpiego.org. A photo accompanying this release is available at: http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=38492 HOUSTON, Texas, Jan. 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - AcctTwo, a leading consulting firm and provider of cloud-based ERP and Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) solutions, announced that Gravity Midstream LLC - a provider of supply, infrastructure, and logistics solutions to the North American petroleum production, refining, and distribution complex - has moved its finance and accounting function onto the AcctTwo BPaaS platform. Gravity Midstream's expertise centers on providing midstream logistics for crude and refined products. The company's oil and products experience lends itself to unique intermodal storage and logistics solutions focused on enhancing opportunity and optionality for their customers. After a rigorous software and services evaluation, Gravity Midstream chose AcctTwo over both on-premises and cloud ERP solutions, as well as other finance and accounting outsourcing providers, as the best fit for the company's needs. Previous Business Challenges Faced by Gravity Midstream: As a private equity backed start-up, Gravity Midstream did not have an in-house finance and accounting team that could handle the company's planned growth. Gravity was in the process of acquiring multiple assets and needed sophisticated finance and accounting capabilities to manage those assets. Gravity was not interested in hiring an in-house accounting team as their focus was on growth and acquisitions. Because of its limited functionality, QuickBooks was not a viable accounting solution, and Gravity saw the benefit of AcctTwo's BPaaS services on the Intacct ERP platform. AcctTwo and Intacct will provide Gravity's management team with real-time insight into the company's financial and operational picture via custom reports and dashboards that are accessible at any time from anywhere. AcctTwo's shared services BPaaS model provides Gravity both with specialization and expertise across the finance and accounting function, as well as scalability when transaction volumes increase or decrease. Visit Gravity Midstream on the web Visit accttwo.com Follow the AcctTwo Blog About AcctTwo: AcctTwo is a leading consulting firm and reseller of cloud-based accounting and ERP software. Our sophisticated systems solve the issues growing middle market companies face today. AcctTwo also provides Business-Process-as-a-Service solutions, allowing clients to focus on the core competencies of their business. We provide the people, processes, technology, and office facilities to perform these functions, while allowing clients to collaborate interactively through an on-line portal. AcctTwo is headquartered in Houston, Texas. For more information, please visit http://www.accttwo.com or call 713-744-8400. Contacts: Peter Wagner Director of Marketing AcctTwo Cell: 512.415.6846 Email: pwagner(at)accttwo.com Chris Wailes VP, National Media Relations Pierpont Communications Direct: 713.627.2223 Email: cwailes(at)piercom.com This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/01/prweb13159135.htm 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 By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - A Turkish police officer and a soldier were killed by sniper fire and two Kurdish militants were shot dead in separate incidents in the mainly Kurdish southeast's biggest city, security sources said on Sunday. Two police officers were also wounded by shrapnel from a homemade explosive during operations in the district of Sur in Diyarbakir. The soldier was shot and killed on Sunday, while the police officer was hit on Saturday before succumbing to his wounds a day later, they said. Sur has been under a round-the-clock curfew since Dec. 2 as security forces try to eject militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from urban centers. The cities of Silopi and Cizre, further east near the Syrian and Iraqi borders, have also been under curfew since mid-December. The military General Staff said 135 PKK militants in Silopi, 308 in Cizre and 101 in Sur have been killed since Dec. 15. according to media reports. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which has Kurdish roots, said the number of civilians killed in the three areas has reached 97, according to an emailed statement. It was not possible to verify either the military's or the HDP's figures. Turkey resumed strikes on the autonomy-seeking PKK after a 2-1/2 year ceasefire collapsed in July, and the southeast is seeing the worst violence in two decades. The PKK took up arms against the state in 1984, and more than 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died. A court on Sunday remanded in custody two suspects in a truck-bomb attack on a police station on Thursday that killed six people, including three small children, in one of the biggest strikes since July, the prosecutor said. President Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to continue operations until the PKK threat is eradicated. Operations in Cizre continued on Sunday, and the sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard, witnesses said. Residents tied white rags to sticks in order to evacuate their houses as armored vehicles entered their neighborhoods to remove barricades erected by the PKK, the witnesses said. Lines formed outside of a bakery where up to 1,500 people receive daily handouts of bread, they said. Water and electricity have been cut across much of Cizre. In Diyarbakir, masked assailants used Molotov cocktails to set on fire a middle school late on Saturday, damaging parts of the building before firefighters brought the blaze under control, security officials said. (Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Stephen Powell) Beirut (AFP) - In a surprise reversal, a leading Lebanese politician on Monday endorsed the presidential candidacy of a rival, Michel Aoun, potentially defusing an 18-month crisis over the post. Samir Geagea, whose party belongs to a Western- and Saudi-backed political bloc, said he would support Aoun, whose party is allied with Shiite movement Hezbollah for the presidency. "After lengthy study, reflection, discussions and deliberations by the executive body of the Lebanese Forces, the Lebanese Forces announces its endorsement of General Michel Aoun's candidacy for the presidency," LF leader told a news conference. He said the endorsement was aimed at "emerging from where we are now to a safer position", in reference to the country's lengthy presidential void. The endorsement came despite the bitter rivalry between the blocs to which Geagea and Aoun belong, which has been exacerbated by the war in neighbouring Syria. Geagea's bloc broadly backs the uprising against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and opposes Damascus's influence in Lebanon. Aoun by contrast is allied with Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and has dispatched fighters to Syria to bolster Assad's regime. Geagea and Aoun, both Christian leaders, also have a tense personal history, having fought on opposite sides during parts of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. Geagea and his political bloc had fiercely opposed Aoun's candidacy, which Hezbollah backed, and the stalemate left Lebanon without a president since Michel Sleiman's mandate expired in March 2014. Geagea said his endorsement was motivated by the damage caused by the vacancy, and he said he and Aoun had agreed on a series of points, including preserving the independence of Lebanon's foreign policy. Lebanon has officially maintained a policy of "disassociation" from Syria's conflict, despite the involvement of Hezbollah in the war. Geagea urged his political allies to support his endorsement, but several of them are unlikely to do so, making it uncertain whether the about-turn will add up to sufficient votes to see Aoun elected. Lebanon's president is elected by parliament, and the post is always reserved for a Maronite Christian under a powersharing agreement. The post of prime minister is reserved for a Sunni Muslim, while the speaker of the parliament is a Shiite Muslim. Ouagadougou (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Monday named three gunmen behind a deadly attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe. Burkinabe troops fanned out across the capital, Ouagadougou, with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat. The toll from the weekend attack rose to 30 late Monday with the death of French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, Morocco's MAP news agency reported. She was severely wounded when jihadist gunmen stormed the Splendid hotel and the nearby Cappuccino cafe she was visiting on Friday evening. Alaoui, who has had several international exhibitions of her work, was on assignment in Burkina for Amnesty International. A source close to the investigation said 20 people were arrested on Sunday and Monday in connection with the attack, which killed more than a dozen foreigners. Some of those arrested were later released. Boni Yayi, speaking on behalf of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, said: "We're not going to just sit on our hands. We will react and respond". He spoke as details emerged about a delayed, ill-equipped response from Burkina Faso's security forces, which have been weakened by recent political turmoil. Twenty five of the victims have now been identified, public prosecutor Maiza Sereme told AFP, confirming that six Canadians and eight locals were among the victims. Internal Security Minister Simon Compaore earlier said the foreign dead also included three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person. The US State department has said an American also died. - Search for clues - French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone on Monday with his Burkinabe counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kabore, pledging "any assistance needed... for a proper investigation of these heinous acts". Story continues The first such incident in Burkina Faso, it came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people. At the Ouagadougou crime scene, an 18-strong team of French investigators, including forensic experts, joined local police combing for clues at the hotel and cafe. In a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE, AQIM said the Splendid Hotel was "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent". It published photos of the three young gunmen dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons, identifying them as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari. The operation was claimed by AQIM in the early hours of Saturday morning while the attack was still ongoing. In their earlier statement, AQIM said the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Authorities in Burkina Faso have said the bodies of three assailants had been identified, but several witnesses said they saw more than three attackers and a manhunt was under way for accomplices. - 'Equipment issues' - Until recently, Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence spreading in the restive Sahel region and the hotel assault will heighten fears that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in west Africa. Witnesses said security forces waited hours before taking action against the attackers, with the first on the scene poorly equipped. "Our men were raring to go. We were trained for this," said a gendarme military police source. "We had equipment issues. No night vision goggles, no bulletproof shields, no door breaching tools." The elite presidential guard unit, which had a well-equipped and trained anti-terror squad, was disbanded after a coup attempt it staged in September. Additionally, the authorities jailed the unit's commander, General Gilbert Diendere, who led the intelligence services. Previously the spying operation had provided intelligence to various countries, including France, during attacks and kidnappings across the region. The attack began around 7:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Friday when the attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou. The hotel and surrounding area became a battleground as local troops, backed by French forces based in the city under a regional counter-terrorism initiative, launched an attempt to retake the hotel around 2:00 am. In a reminder of the fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in Burkina Faso's northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali. Morocco said Monday it had arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent who it said was directly linked with some of those behind the jihadist attacks in Paris in November. The interior ministry said in a statement that the suspect, arrested on Friday in the port city of Al-Muhammadiyah near Casablanca and Rabat, had "direct links with some" of the Paris attackers. The statement said the man had travelled to Syria along with one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up in the northern Paris district of Saint-Denis near the Stade de France national stadium. While in Syria the suspect, who was not named, initially joined Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate, Al-Nusra Front, before linking up with the Islamic State group, which claimed the Paris attacks. During his stay in Syria he took military training and made connections with IS commanders, including "the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in the French capital," the statement said. The suspect had entered Morocco via The Netherlands, after travelling from Syria through Turkey, Germany and Belgium, the statement said. Belgian prosecutors named the man as Gelel Attar, while Moroccan website le360 said he was arrested at the home of his mother, who was in Belgium. Prosecutors in France have identified the alleged planner of the November Paris attack as Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in a shootout with police days after the onslaught. Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of Abaaoud. One of the gunmen in the attacks was last week identified by French authorities as Belgian-Moroccan man Chakib Akrouh, with Brussels prosecutors saying he had travelled to Syria in 2013 to join IS. The series of coordinated shootings and bombings in Paris killed 130 people, the bloodiest attacks in Europe since the Madrid train bombings in 2004. Addis construction Ethiopia, which has averaged double-digit GDP growth over the past decade and enjoys a close strategic relationship with the US, is one of Africa's emerging economic and political powers and an example of a country that's improved its economic fortunes without opening its political space. A January 11 Bloomberg News story hints at a huge problem the country might be facing moving forward. According to Bloomberg, the Ethiopian government canceled a 2010 lease that Karuturi, an India-based agricultural company, had taken out on 100,000 acres of farmland. Despite making an over $100 million investment in the country's farming sector, Karuturi was accused of breaking its lease agreement in developing only 1,200 acres thus far. But the company claimed that it had received waivers from the Ethiopian government in the past, and said that it did not recognize the project's cancellation. According to Bloomberg, Karuturi had taken over land that the Ethiopian state had sold off as part of a controversial program in which the government leased 3.3 million acres of farmland to foreign investors after allegedly displacing some of that land's original tenants. It's the kind of undertaking that would be substantially harder if Ethiopia were a multiparty democracy, rather than one of Africa's most thoroughgoing dictatorships. While Karuturi arguably stood to benefit from Ethiopia's centralized single-party regime, it's now learned the risk involved in pouring $100 million into an opaque authoritarian state. And Ethiopia's leaders, who want both economic prosperity and total political control, might soon find that these objectives aren't nearly as mutually reinforcing as they'd hoped. Oromo Story continues Like Karuturi's disappeared $100 million investment, the Addis Ababa expansion plan embodies the perils and contradictions of the Ethiopian regime's long-term strategy of securing internal calm through economic growth and strong ties with foreign powers like the US and China. As in past eras, the Ethiopian capital is being built up as a showpiece of the country's modernity and development, and as a reflection of Ethiopia's sense of its unique place in the world. Addis has one of Africa's first light rails, a Chinese-built, 19.6-mile system that opened last year. The city and the surrounding area are home to both of the country's Chinese special economic zones, industrial parks where Chinese companies get tax breaks in exchange for operating in Ethiopia and hiring local employees. The Addis expansion plan would have incorporated neighboring areas into the capital district, enabling more holistic and centralized urban planning for a rapidly growing and economically vital capital city. But the expansion plan also came at the expense of land in the Oromia Region and it ended up exposing some of the deepest fractures in Ethiopian society. The Oromo are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group but have been historically excluded from centers of power. Because Ethiopia lacks an ethnic majority (and perhaps because it has a 1,500-year history rife with conflict between the country's centers of power and it geographic and social periphery), the country's regions are supposed to receive a certain degree of autonomy under Ethiopia's 1995 Constitution, which actually gives the regions a right to secede under certain circumstances. In practice, the center still holds all of the power. Screen Shot 2016 01 15 at 6.19.23 PM The current Ethiopian government, which is entirely run by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which is descended from the militia that overthrew the ruling communist state in 1991 after a protracted civil war, is among the most oppressive in Africa. The EPRDF regime is dominated largely by elites from the Tigrayan ethnic group. But its rule depends on a baseline of inter-communal harmony just as it depends on the appearance of progress and economic growth. The Addis plan is one instance in which these two objectives came into direct conflict. Protests over the plan, which Oromo viewed as a land grab undertaken by an oppressive and unrepresentative central government, broke out in late 2015. The government responded with a crackdown that killed 140 people, marking perhaps the deadliest outburst of political violence in the country since its civil war ended in 1991. Even if the plan has been suspended, the Addis Ababa expansion push is an extension of aggressive growth policies that are fundamental to the regime's self-image and possibly its survival, policies enabled by strong arm tactics that a country might not accept accept. But the protests showed that economic growth and authoritarianism can't paper over a general sense of frustration. As Jeffrey Smith, head of the RFK Center's sub-Saharan Africa-related advocacy programs explained to Business Insider, the suspension of the plan will do little to reduce popular discontent towards the regime. "If the government is trying to head off larger protests and discontent in the country, then it's much too little and much too late," Smith wrote in an email. "During the protests, an estimated 140 people were killed and thousands were injured, opposition leaders and journalists were jailed, and the constitution was shredded ... there has been no accountability for the deaths of protesters and dissent continues to be criminalized and violently suppressed." ethiopia rail system As with Karuturi's apparent ejection from the country, the contradictions of trying to build a robust economy without genuine political freedom or basic transparency are manifesting themselves. But with the Addis plan, the stakes are much higher for the regime. The Oromo protests are "engendering an intensified ethnic awareness that has also revitalized calls for genuine self-rule in the region," Smith writes. That's a huge threat to a government that's itself came to power following an ethnically fractious civil war. "I think leaders in Addis Ababa has gotten much more than they bargained for," says Smith. NOW WATCH: This animated map shows how humans migrated across the globe More From Business Insider By Morag MacKinnon PERTH (Reuters) - An Australian couple reportedly kidnapped and held by militants in Burkina Faso have dedicated their lives to providing medical services to people in the remote north of the country, a family spokesperson said on Sunday. Dr. Ken Elliott and his wife Jocelyn, were kidnapped overnight in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a televised address to the nation on Saturday after al Qaeda fighters staged an attack on the capital Ouagadougou. It is not known if the Elliotts abduction was related to the attack. The doctor and his wife are in their 80s. Hamadou Ag Khallini, a spokesperson for Malian militant group Ansar Dine, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that jihadists from the al Qaeda-linked Emirate of the Sahara group, which operates in northern Mali, are holding the couple. More details would be released soon, Khallini said in a brief phone message. Recent news from the country indicates an alleged abduction of Ken and Jocelyn on Friday night, however no reason is yet given for this and their whereabouts is still unknown, a family spokesperson said, in a statement released by Australias foreign ministry. The couple have operated a 120-bed clinic in the town of Dijbo, where Ken is the only surgeon, for more than 40 years. They are held in high esteem by the local people, the spokesperson said, requesting that their family be granted privacy. Until Friday's attack, Burkina Faso, an ally of Western governments against jihadist groups in the arid reaches of the southern Sahara, had largely been spared the violence that has plagued its neighbours. An Australian foreign ministry spokesman said its office in Ghana is working with authorities and declined to comment further. (Reporting by Morag MacKinnon; Editing by Kim Coghill) By Aubrey Belford and Agustinus Beo Da Costa JAKARTA (Reuters) - Another person has died from injuries sustained in last week's militant attack in Indonesia's capital, police officials said on Sunday, bringing the death toll to eight. "The victim was an employee of a branch of Bangkok Bank nearby," Jakarta police spokeswoman Yulia Hutasuhut told Reuters. The person was Indonesian. The gun and bomb attack on Thursday, for which Islamic State has claimed responsibility, injured around 30 in Jakarta's commercial district. Four attackers were among the dead, revised down from an earlier five. Indonesia has the world's largest number of Muslims, the vast majority of whom practice a moderate form of Islam. Security forces have been largely successful in stamping out homegrown militancy, but last week's attack confirms concerns about a resurgence inspired by IS. Police arrested 12 people linked to the Jakarta attack in raids across the country at the weekend, and found evidence the group had planned further attacks targeting security officials and foreigners in other cities like Bandung. National police chief Badrodin Haiti told reporters on Saturday the alleged mastermind of the attack, an Indonesian man living in Syria called Bahrun Naim, had transferred thousands of dollars to local accounts in the lead up to the attack. "The total amount transferred was pretty big, but there were several transfers that moved through various accounts before reaching the destination. We are investigating what exactly the money was used for," Haiti said. (Writing by Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Kim Coghill and Elaine Hardcastle) BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State militants kidnapped at least 400 civilians when they attacked government-held areas in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday families of pro-government fighters were among those abducted. "There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," said the Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahamn. Deir al-Zor is the main town in a province of the same name. The province links Islamic State's de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighbouring Iraq. Syria's state news agency SANA said earlier that at least 300 people, including women and children, had been killed during the attacks in Deir al-Zor, but it made no mention of people getting kidnapped. Syria's government condemned the killings which it described as a "horrific massacre against the residents of Begayliya in Deir al-Zor". A source close to the Syrian government side said on Saturday that some of those killed had been beheaded. Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports. Islamic State has previously carried out mass killings following military assaults in Iraq and Syria, including the slaughter of 200 soldiers captured from the Tabqa airbase in Raqqa province, and hundreds of members of the al-Sheitat tribe in Deir al-Zor in 2014. The group, in control of most of Deir al-Zor province, has laid siege since March on remaining government-held areas in the city of Deir al-Zor. Residents are facing severe food shortages and sharply deteriorating conditions. Of those under siege in the city, 70 percent are women and children, and many have been displaced from their homes elsewhere and are living in temporary shelters. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Editing by Gareth Jones) By Shihar Aneez and Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Maldives on Sunday backtracked on an unconditional agreement to allow jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed to travel to Britain for surgery, his lawyers said. On Saturday, the government granted permission for Nasheed to travel after pressure from the international community including human rights groups and his lawyer Amal Clooney, who lobbied for sanctions on Maldives leaders. However, the government has since demanded that a close relative remain behind in the Maldives' capital Male "effectively as a hostage" until Nasheed's return to jail, said Hassan Latheef, another of Nasheed's lawyers. "The government reneged on the agreed deal at the last minute, demanding a close family member of Nasheed remain in Male, effectively as a hostage, until he returns from the UK," Latheef told Reuters. "If Nasheed does anything that breach the terms of the government, the family member could then be criminally prosecuted. This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous." President Abdullah Yameen agreed to grant Nasheed permission to leave the country on medical grounds after pressure from rights groups and the United Nations. Political colleagues say Nasheed is suffering from back pain. Eva Abdullah, Nasheed's family spokesperson, told Reuters that Nasheed's lawyers were never informed of any conditions through British, Indian, and Sri Lankan diplomats who helped secure the deal and Nasheed "will not barter somebody else's freedom for his". Home Minister Umar Naseer said the law required the nomination of a family member as a guarantor and added that Nasheed could depart to the airport the moment he authorises a family nominee. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. The United Nations, the United States and human rights groups have said Yameen's government failed to follow due process and that the case was politically motivated. Amal Clooney, who is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney, early this week criticised Yameen's administration, saying that "democracy is dead in the Maldives". (Additional reporting by Douglas Busvine in New Delhi; Editing by Ros Russell) ALGIERS (Reuters) - Mali called for the swift implementation of a peace agreement with Tuareg-led rebels during talks on Monday seen as vital for preventing a resurgence of Islamist militant attacks in the vast West African nation. The two sides signed the United Nations-backed deal last year but the Tuareg-led coalition has complained that it falls short of their demands for their northern region, which they call Azawad. Political analysts say confidence has steadily eroded between the government and the rebels, slowing peace initiatives on the ground. The government and the rebel alliance - Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) - have both accused each other of stalling on implementation. "We need to speed this up, to make this agreement real on the ground. We need a pragmatic approach to the difficulties," Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said before the closed-door talks in Algiers. "Everyone is impatient for this to move on." Rebel leader Bilal Ag Cherif also sounded a note of urgency, calling for progress on security arrangements, including local patrols and a role for rebel fighters, that are part of the deal. "There are many things that are not yet achieved, we must be ready for the next stage," he said. Tuaregs have risen up four times since Mali's independence from France in 1960. Most recently, they formed an alliance with Islamist militants in 2012 to seize the desert north. A French-led military intervention scattered the insurgents, although attacks continue. Western powers now worry that any further stalling of the Mali peace accord will allow militants to regain ground. Armed men attacked a food convoy in northern Mali last Friday and four attackers and two soldiers were killed. Further south, armed men attacked a village in the more central region of Mopti, killing at least one person. Militants based in the desert north killed 20 people in an attack on a luxury hotel in the capital Bamako on Nov. 20, 2015, and also kidnapped a Swiss citizen from a house in Timbuktu at the beginning of the year. (Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Gareth Jones) A Mercy Malaysia mission today distributed food parcels, heaters, fuel and medical supplies to the refugee camp clinic in Auda Camp, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. The camp has its own cottage industries which involve a grocery shop, bakery and school for 200 refugee children run by the volunteer teachers from within the refugee community. Refugees are becoming more vulnerable by the day, and living in a stressful context with no way out. Last year, the World Food Programme cut rations to 1.6 million Syrian refugees, and those living in Lebanon only had US$13 (RM57) to spend on food each month. Last years deadly winter was the worst in years, with thick snow and storms laying siege to refugees who had no where to flee. Mercy Malaysia team leader Pak Azam said, "Children who have forgotten how to play can break anyone's heart. "Our work here is far from done, this is just the beginning." He was referring to the need for mobile clinics, more food and medical aid, and education for the children who remain the future of a fractured nation. The Syria crisis which began in 2011 has continued into its fifth year and the size of affected population has increased. About 1.2 million Syrian refugees have crossed into Lebanon alone, half of them children. In October 2015, Mercy Malaysia conducted an assessment mission to Jordan and Lebanon to identify the current needs and status of Syrian refugees in the region. January 18, 2016. MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group said on Sunday it had captured some Kenyan soldiers during an attack last week on a military base in the west of Somalia near the Kenyan border. The group, which did not say how many soldiers were held after Friday's assault, also said in a statement that more than 100 Kenyan soldiers were killed, revising up the number from the more than the 63 dead it had previously claimed. There was no immediate comment from the Kenyan military or AMISOM, the African Union force in which the Kenyans serve. Both have offered limited information about the attack. A Kenyan official said on Sunday the army would issue a statement without saying when. Al Shabaab often cites vastly higher figures than those given by officials. There was no independent death toll. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Friday that "some of our patriots in uniform" were killed. Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said on Saturday the wounded were being evacuated to Nairobi for treatment and bodies of those killed would be brought home. Neither gave figures. "Mujahideen fighters ... stormed the Kenyan base in the early hours of Friday morning, killing more than 100 Kenyan invaders, seizing their weapons and military vehicles and even capturing Kenyan soldiers alive," al Shabaab said. AMISOM and Kenyan forces had said al Shabaab attacked a Somali National Army base and AMISOM forces counter-attacked. AMISOM and the Somali army launched a joint offensive last year that has driven al Shabaab from its major strongholds. Al Shabaab said the attack was in retaliation for the Kenyan "invasion of Muslim lands" and what it said was the army's "persecution of innocent Muslims" inside Kenya, a reference to the government's pursuit of suspected militants in the country. Some critics say the Kenyan authorities often use heavy-handed tactics. The government, which has faced a spate of attacks in Kenya in the past two years or more, insists it acts justly and within the law to deal with a security threat. Kenyatta has repeatedly said he would not be coerced into withdrawing Kenyan forces from Somalia, saying the troops are protecting Kenya. "With our allies, we will continue in Somalia to fulfil our mission," he said in Friday's comments. The comments were echoed by AMISOM. "Our resolve can only be rejuvenated, to fight on until Somalia is freed of all elements of terror," AMISOM said on its Twitter feed. (Reporting by Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle) By Ben Blanchard and Faith Hung TAIPEI (Reuters) - For China, whose President Xi Jinping is already taking an increasingly muscular approach to claims in the East and South China Sea, the question of Taiwan trumps any other of its territorial assertions in terms of sensitivity and importance. After eight years of calm in what had been one of Asia's powder kegs, the landslide election of an independence-leaning opposition leader, President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, has thrust Taiwan back into the spotlight as one of the region's most sensitive security issues. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China claims Taiwan as its sacred territory, is estimated by Taiwan to aim hundreds of missiles at the island over a narrow stretch of water and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. China carried out rare live-fire drills in the sensitive strait that separates the two sides in September, though Taiwan's defence ministry described them at the time as routine. "She (Tsai) is going to deal with a very tough-minded leader in Beijing," said Chu Yun-han, a professor at the National Taiwan University. But Tsai will also have to be accountable to her own constituency, especially the more radical, pro-independence younger generation, Chu added. "That doesn't give her too much room for manoeuvre." The election in 2008 of the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou, and then re-election four years later, ushered in an unprecedented period of calm with China, with landmark trade and tourism deals signed. Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is at pains to stress its election will not cause a return to tensions. She addressed the issue of China almost immediately upon claiming victory, saying she would strive to maintain the peace, but added she would defend Taiwan's interests and its sovereignty. 'BITTER FRUIT' While China has been relatively measured in its response, repeating its standard line about opposing independence, great uncertainty lies ahead. China's official Xinhua news agency warned any moves towards independence were like a "poison" that would cause Taiwan to perish. In an online commentary on Sunday, Wang Hongguang, a lieutenant general and former deputy commander of China's Nanjing military region, said the People's Liberation Army was now better prepared than ever for operations against Taiwan. "The front line forces are like a tiger who has grown wings," he wrote. "Tsai Ing-wen and her Taiwan independence forces shouldn't think they'll get away with it. The mainland will not swallow the bitter fruit of Taiwan independence." The outside world should not underestimate the continued importance of Taiwan to the Chinese leadership, said a senior Western diplomat, citing recent conversations with Chinese policymakers on Taiwan. "Nothing is more important than Taiwan to Beijing." Beijing will have to bear in mind the opinion of a Chinese public that has always been brought up never to question Taiwan's status as an inherent part of China. On Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, the popularity of the phrase "use force to unify Taiwan" soared. "We are just waiting for you to say the phrase 'Taiwanese independence'," said one Weibo user. In the United States, which has no formal ties with Taiwan but is its most important diplomatic and military supporter, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said the election was "a beacon of light to their neighbours yearning to be free". "Now more than ever, we must stand with Taiwan and reaffirm our commitment to their security," he said in a statement. Taiwan is a key fault line in the Beijing-Washington relationship. A month before the election, the Obama administration formally notified Congress of a $1.83 billion arms sale package for Taiwan, prompting anger in Beijing which said it would put sanctions on U.S. firms involved. MISSILE TESTS A Beijing-based Chinese source, with ties to the People's Liberation Army and who meets regularly with senior officers, told Reuters the election would have "far-reaching" consequences for China's ties with Taiwan, and Sino-U.S. relations. "I'm very worried about what is going to happen now," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Things have become much darker." Tsai's election is also an embarrassment to Xi, who held a historic meeting last year in Singapore with Ma, and used the occasion to call for both sides not to let proponents of Taiwan's independence split them. China and Taiwan have nearly gone to war three times since 1949, most recently ahead of the 1996 presidential election. Then, China carried out missile tests in waters close to the island hoping to prevent people voting for Lee Teng-hui, who China suspected of harbouring pro-independence views. Lee won by a landslide. Ties were also badly strained when the DPP's Chen Shui-bian was Taiwan president from 2000-2008 because of his independence rhetoric, even as he tried to maintain positive relations with Beijing. But then, the DPP did not have a majority in parliament, which constrained its agenda. This time, the DPP has also won a parliamentary majority, which gives it much more leeway to push legislative priorities. In any case, China does not need to rattle its sabres to pressure Taiwan - Beijing already holds all the economic cards as the island's most important trade partner and investment destination. "Taiwan can't survive without international support," said Michael Kau, a former Taiwan foreign ministry official and now a senior fellow at Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. "Because our adversary is giant China." (Additional reporting by J.R. Wu and Yimou Lee, and Sui-Lee Wee in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie) MADRID (Reuters) - A majority of Spanish voters oppose holding another election to resolve the political stalemate created by an inconclusive national vote last month and want parties instead to agree on a coalition government, a survey showed on Sunday. The ruling centre-right People's Party (PP) won the most seats but fell well short of a parliamentary majority in the Dec. 20 election. The Socialists (PSOE) came second, losing much of their support to third-placed leftist newcomer Podemos, while centrist upstart Ciudadanos placed fourth. The result means that at least three parties are needed to form an alliance and allow a stable government, an unprecedented situation in Spain where the traditionally dominant PP and PSOE have enjoyed strong majorities over the last 40 years. According to the monthly opinion poll from Metroscopia published by El Pais newspaper, only 33 percent of voters favour a new election while 61 percent prefer to see an agreement between the parties. Asked whether the lack of a majority for any party was a good or bad thing, 61 percent said they saw it as positive. Spain's King Felipe will meet leaders of the political parties throughout next week in an attempt to help break the political impasse. If no solution were found and a new election did take place, its results would be only marginally different from the December vote and the deadlock would therefore persist, the survey also showed. The PP and Podemos would be the main winners in any rerun of the election as they would see their support edge higher, respectively to 29 percent from 28.7 percent and to 22.5 percent from 20.7 percent. The PSOE would come third as it would fall to 21.1 percent from 22 percent. Ciudadanos would remain fourth although it would rebound to 16.6 percent from 13.9 percent in December. The poll was carried out between Jan. 12 and 14 among 1,200 people. (Reporting by Julien Toyer; Editing by Gareth Jones) By Matthias Blamont PARIS - One person has been left brain dead and five others have been hospitalised after taking part in a clinical trial in France of an experimental drug made by Portuguese drug company Bial, French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said on Friday. In total, 90 people have taken part in the trial, taking some dosage of the drug aimed at tackling mood and anxiety issues, as well as movement coordination disorders linked to neurological issues, Touraine said. The six men aged 28 to 49 had been in good health until taking the oral medication at the Biotrial private facility that specialises in clinical trials, she said. "This is unprecedented," Touraine told a news conference after meeting volunteers and their families in Rennes, western France. "We'll do everything to understand what happened." Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the case. The six men started taking the drug on Jan. 7. The brain-dead volunteer was admitted to hospital on Monday, the minister said. For three of the five others - who went in on Wednesday and Thursday - there are fears of irreversible handicap, doctor Gilles Edan said, though he still hoped that would not be the case. One of the six had no symptoms but was being carefully monitored, he said. Testing had already been carried out on animals, including chimpanzees, starting in July, Touraine said. All trials on the drug have now been suspended and all volunteers who have taken part in the trial are being called back, the health ministry added. The medicine involved is a so-called FAAH inhibitor that works by targeting the body's endocannabinoid system, which is also responsible for the human response to cannabis. Bial said in a statement it was committed to ensuring the wellbeing of test participants and was working with authorities to discover the cause of the injuries, adding that the clinical trial have been approved by French regulators. The company said five people, rather than six, had been hospitalised, including one left brain dead, without explaining the discrepancy with the official French figures. Cases of early-stage clinical trials going badly wrong are rare but not unheard of. In 2006, six healthy volunteers given an experimental drug in London ended up in intensive care. One was described as looking like "the elephant man" after his head ballooned. Another lost his fingertips and toes. "INHERENT RISK" In the initial Phase I stage of clinical testing, a drug is given to healthy volunteers to see how it is handled by the body and what is the right dose to give to patients. "Undertaking Phase 1 studies is highly specialist work," said Daniel Hawcutt, a lecturer in clinical pharmacology at Britains University of Liverpool. Medicines then go into larger Phase II and Phase III trials to assess their effectiveness and safety before they are finally approved for sale. Europe has strict regulations governing the conduct of clinical trials, with Phase I tests subject to particular scrutiny. But Ben Whalley, a professor of neuropharmacology at the University of Reading, said these could only minimise risks, not abolish them. "There is an inherent risk in exposing people to any new compound," he said. The 2006 London trial led to the collapse of Germany's TeGenero, the company developing a medicine known as TGN1412. The drug has since gone back into tests for rheumatoid arthritis and is showing promise when given at a fraction of the original dose. (Additional reporting by Ben Hirschler, John Irish, Noelle Mennella; Writing by Ben Hirschler and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Michel Rose and Andrew Heavens) A plane carrying three American citizens who were imprisoned in Iran has landed in Germany. The released inmates departed Iran earlier today as part of a prisoner swap which has also seen the release of several Iranians from US jails. After a brief stopover in Geneva, they have now headed to a hospital near the US military's Ramstein air base - and there is little word on when they might return to America. A fourth man released under the agreement, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, about whom little is known, was not among them, a US official said. Those "who wished to depart Iran have left", the Obama administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said. The Washington Post confirmed its journalist Jason Rezaian was among those who "safely left the country" alongside American pastor Saeed Abedini. Former US Marine Amir Hekmati who was facing a death sentence in Iran as an alleged spy, was also on board, his family said. "Today, our brother, son and friend Amir Hekmati has been released from Iran. We have now been officially told that he is on a plane leaving the country," the family said in a statement. "It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now. But we remain in hopeful anticipation until Amir is in our arms." A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithnick, who was also freed on Saturday is also understood to have left the country. US officials say his release was not part of the prisoner swap. In exchange for the four American citizens, the US has granted clemency to seven Iranians being held in jails across the United States or awaiting trial. Several were released from prison on Sunday, their lawyers confirmed. Six of the Iranians who were in US custody had been accused or convicted of violating economic sanctions. The prisoner swap was welcomed by US President Barack Obama who told reporters: "Americans unjustly detained are finally coming home". Story continues "When Americans are freed, that's something we can all celebrate," he said in a televised statement from the White House. It was one of several landmark agreements reached between Western powers and Iran this weekend. Western powers lifted crippling economic sanctions against Iran on Saturday after it was confirmed Tehran had fulfilled the terms of last year's landmark nuclear deal. The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Iran had scaled back its nuclear programme. Western powers had feared Iran had been trying to develop atomic weapons. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has heralded the fulfillment of the deal as a "new chapter" for Iran. Iranians have "reached out to the world in a sign of friendliness, and leaving behind the enmities, suspicions and plots, have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world," he said. The US has, however, maintained sanctions relating to human rights and terrorism and has now imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals over Iran's ballistic missile programme. By Umaru Fofana FREETOWN (Reuters) - A woman who died of Ebola this week in Sierra Leone potentially exposed dozens of other people to the disease, according to an aid agency report on Friday, raising the risk of more cases just as the deadliest outbreak on record appeared to be ending. Just a day earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had declared that "all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa" after Liberia joined Sierra Leone and Guinea in going six weeks with no reported new cases. The three countries had borne the brunt of a two-year epidemic that killed more than 11,300 people. The WHO warned of the potential for more flare-ups, as survivors can carry the virus for months. But the new case in Sierra Leone is especially disquieting because authorities failed to follow basic health protocols, according to the report seen by Reuters. Compiled by a humanitarian agency that asked not to be named, the document said the victim, Mariatu Jalloh, had come into contact with at least 27 people, including 22 in the house where she died and five who were involved in washing her corpse. But its account suggested others could also be at risk. Jalloh, 22, began showing symptoms at the beginning of the year, though the exact date is unknown, the report states. A student in Port Loko, the largest town in Sierra Leone's Northern Province, she travelled to Bamoi Luma near the border with Guinea in late December. Sierra Leone's northern border area, a maze of waterways, was one of the country's last Ebola hot spots before it was declared Ebola-free on Nov. 7, and contact tracing was sometimes bedevilled by access problems. By the time she travelled back to her parents' home in Tonkolili district, east of the capital Freetown, using three different taxis, Jalloh had diarrhoea and was vomiting, the report said. She sought treatment at the local Magburaka Government Hospital on Jan. 8 where a health worker, who did not wear protective clothing, took a blood sample. It was not immediately clear whether the sample was tested for Ebola. She was treated as an outpatient and returned home, where she died on Jan. 12. Health workers took a swab test of Jalloh's body following her death, which tested positive for Ebola. "The sample was tested for the first time on Thursday morning around the same time as the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak over", said Tim Brooks of Public Health England, the British agency that tested the sample at its lab in Sierra Leone. PUBLIC ANGER The missed diagnosis has led to anger in some quarters. Dozens of young people gathered outside the hospital on Friday in a noisy demonstration, some holding placards accusing the health department of negligence. "We are demonstrating because we want the authorities to explain to us why the woman was discharged and allowed to go home, where she died, and her corpse was given to her family to bury. We are now concerned that some family members may have been infected," said local youth leader Mahmud Tarawally. Asked about apparent errors in handling the case, Sierra Leone health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis said that the patient had been tested for the virus and had received treatment in a government hospital. He did not give further details. Information campaigns calling upon residents of Ebola-affected countries to respect government health directives have been largely credited with turning the tide of the epidemic. However, safety measures, particularly a ban on traditional burial ceremonies, have faced stiff resistance at times. The report stated that five people who were not part of Jalloh's parents' household were involved in washing her corpse, a practice that is considered one of the chief modes of Ebola transmission. Almost all the victims of the regional epidemic, which originated in the forests of Guinea in 2013, were in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. As of Thursday's WHO announcement that Liberia had gone 42 days with no new cases, all three nations were apparently Ebola-free. But Liberia had twice been given the all-clear last year, only for a fresh cluster of cases to emerge. And the case in Sierra Leone adds further uncertainty. "It is really important that people don't understand this 42-day announcement as the sign that we should all just pack up and go home," WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said on Friday. "We should stay there and be ready to respond to these possible cases." Ben Neuman, an Ebola expert and lecturer in virology at Britain's University of Reading, said: A hospital in Sierra Leone completely misdiagnosing a case of Ebola, apparently without sending a sample to one of the many testing labs that are being kept open for just this reason is ridiculous -completely unacceptable." He said Ebola was hard to distinguish from many other diseases that cause pain, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. "The only way to know for sure is by testing whether pieces of the Ebola virus are present in the blood," Neuman added. "People still make better doctors and nurses than computers, but people will always make mistakes. Unfortunately this mistake is a big one. Ebola is passed on through blood and bodily fluids, and kills about 40 percent of those who contract the virus. While the WHO has said that another major outbreak is unlikely, it says the risk of flare-ups remains because of the way the virus can persist in those who survive it. Research on survivors has located it in semen, breast milk, vaginal secretions, spinal fluid and fluids around the eyes. (Additional reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Emma Farge in Dakar and Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Joe Bavier and Mark Trevelyan) MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he has not talked to the traditional opposition, the Socialists, on possible pacts to form a government after the inconclusive election in December as they have not wanted to talk to him. "If the PSOE (Socialists) don't want to negotiate with us, it's very difficult to negotiate," Rajoy said during a radio interview on Monday. Spain is still to form a government following the Dec. 20 election after no single party won a majority, though stark ideologically differences between the four main contenders suggests the country will have to return to the polls. Rajoy also said he doesn't plan to change the government's 2016 economic forecasts due to political uncertainties in Spain or global economic uncertainties such as the price of oil. (Reporting by Tomas Cobos; Writing by Paul Day) Reuters ROME (Reuters) -Consultations on the formation of Italy's new government, which is widely expected to be led by nationalist leader Giorgia Meloni, will be held on Oct. 20 and 21, President Sergio Mattarella's office said on Wednesday. Meloni led a rightist bloc comprising her Brothers of Italy party, Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Matteo Salvini's League to a general election victory last month. Under the constitution, Mattarella has to consult with all the main political party leaders before he can invite the election winners to form an administration. Sports and wellness-focused venture capital firm Will Ventures has picked up $150m for its sophomore fund, almost triple the total it collected for its debut vehicle in 2020. CANNONFIRE is back! From 2004 to 2021, the original CANNONFIRE blog kept finding ways to irk nearly everyone on nearly every side of nearly every issue. Last year, Google shut down the site. Why? Dunno. The banishment occurred without warning. Despite numerous inquiries, Google refused to explain or to rescind its edict. The shutdown may have some connection to the compromising of my email. (Damn hackers!) Or maybe it has some connection to my history as a surly, unclassifiable oddball. But now the site is back. Don't ask me why or how. Resurrection is a mysterious business and this one is particularly confounding. Revival came only when a reader calling herself Faust -- I'm not making this up -- employed incantations and conjurations unknown to mere mortals and thereby compelled the gods of Google to raise the dead. I owe this female Faust much. As a notable 18th century highway commissioner once said: Das ewig weibliche zieht uns hinan. The site may migrate to another platform in the future. Google's capriciousness has injured my trust. My name is Joseph Cannon. That's the name I've used professionally throughout this century; feel free to call me Joseph or Joe. I've decided to use my former name -- my 20th century name, if you will -- when writing about true crime and other non-political topics. Why? Reasons. If Google can be mysterious and capricious, so can I. Email: cannonfire [at] vivaldi [dot] net Rules for comments: Do not insult the host. Try to stay on-topic. Casas por Cristo (Houses because of Christ) is a mission organization, founded in 1993, that builds homes for families in need in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. In four days, volunteer teams transform an empty lot into a complete home. Families served receive a renewed trust in Gods love and faithfulness as volunteers are awakened to the realities of poverty and the importance of humanitarianism and service in the name of Christ. EF BRIEFS: Mirova, RES, Masdar, Irena, Abu Dhabi Channels: Equity, Investment, Policy, Renewables Companies: Mirova, RES, Masdar, Irena, Natixis, Mirova and RES firm team up on Swedish wind farm Mirova, the sustainable investment arm of French bank Natixis, is to buy an 80% stake in a Swedish wind farm for an undisclosed sum. The asset manager will acquire the interest in the 27.6MW Vasberget project from Swedish wind energy developer Nordisk Vindkraft, which will retain the remaining 20%. The purchase will be made through Mirova's third renewable energy fund, Mirova-Eurofideme, which was launched 18 months ago and has invested in six assets primarily in France. Mirova has, altogether, invested in three renewables projects in Sweden. Nordisk Vindkraft is a subsidiary of Renewable Energy Systems (RES). It will build and operate the site, which is expected to be connected by September. Newsec has acted as M&A advisor to Nordisk Vindkraft in the transaction. Masdar reported to be eyeing 200MW in Jordan Abu Dhabi's state-owned renewable energy firm, Masdar, is reportedly planning to build a $200 million solar plant in Jordan. According to reports, the firm will build a 200MW site as part of its ambitions to grow its portfolio in the country. Earlier this month, Masdar's CEO was reported to have said that Jordan was one of three "key markets" in the region for renewable energy, alongside Egypt and Morocco. Irena and Abu Dhabi fund back more renewables projects in developing nations The International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) are to provide $46 million in concessional loans for four renewable energy projects in developing countries. They are: a wind and solar project in Antigua and Barbuda, a solar project in Burkina Faso, a solar and wind project in Cabo Verde, and a solar project in Senegal. All four projects are potentially replicable or scalable, Irena said, and will have a combined generating capacity of almost 12MW. This funding represents the third round of financing by the $350 million Irena/ADFD Project Facility, which aims to increase the use of renewables in developing countries, and takes the total allocated to date to $144 million. Loans are provided to finance up to 50% of each project, attracting co-financing from banks, international financial institutions and other partners. Irena is an intergovernmental agency, backed by more than 160 countries, that works to promote the use of renewable energy globally. Boosting use of renewables would increase global GDP, says report Doubling the share of renewables in the global energy mix to 36% in 2030 from about 18% in 2010, would increase global gross domestic product (GDB) by about $1.3 trillion, or 1.1%, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). Japan would see the biggest positive GDP impact (2.3%) but Australia, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea would also see growth of more than 1% each, the intergovernmental agency said in a report: Renewable Energy Benefits: Measuring the Economics. In addition, there would be even more significant improvements in human welfare, and employment in the renewables sector would rise to more than 24 million by 2030 from about 9.2 million global jobs today, Irena estimates. "Mitigating climate change through the deployment of renewable energy and achieving other socio-economic targets is no longer an 'either/or' equation," said Adnan Amin, Irena director general. "Thanks to the growing business case for renewable energy, an investment in one is an investment in both". Open Energy lends to SunLight General Solar Fund Internet-based commercial solar debt finance provider Open Energy has closed a $1.2 million loan to SunLight General Solar Fund III to finance four projects. The New York City-based investment fund received a hybrid term and construction loan for four commercial solar projects, including a school district and a private business in New Jersey, as well as a school district and a municipality in Massachusetts. Open Energy's online platform, launched in the Autumn, provides developers, installers and asset owners a simplified loan application and due diligence process that is both time- and cost-efficient. Foresight makes first investment via anaerobic digestion fund Foresight Group has invested in an anaerobic digestion plant in Ireland via a newly-created fund dedicated to the space. The Foresight AD EIS fund, which raised 25 million ($35.7 million) of private investment at financial close last month, has committed 3.9 million to the 499kW plant, which is expected to become operational in October. Foresight has made three other investments into 'on-farm' anaerobic digestion ventures in Northern Ireland, through its other vehicles. Sheep producers need to act fast and get their hands on ewes to check the body condition of in-lambers in regions that have endured severe wet weather this winter. Its already clear that ewes hardest hit by the weather have lost more condition than farmers realise a situation causing concern as early pregnancy scan results predict a bumper lamb crop. The low feed value of waterlogged grazing has added to the deterioration of ewe condition in many flocks that have endured rain every day for almost three months. Sheep advisers say flockmasters should assess ewes without delay, and house or re-locate ewes to avoid a crisis at lambing-time. See also: Advice on ewe nutrition to cut costs While sheep scanners report results in some North of England Mule flocks to be up from around 200% to 213%, some flocks in the regions worst affected by the winters weather have recorded rain every day for over 70 days. Leicestershire-based sheep adviser Lesley Stubbings says ewes in the wettest areas are slipping condition and action needs to be taken before its too late to have any beneficial impact in the run-up to lambing time. Ewes gathered for scanning need a body condition check. The big risk sheep are in flocks that dont scan or where ewes are away-wintered and so dont get handled. Grass is wet and is low in dry-matter, but getting feed to in-lamb ewes isnt easy where the ground is so water-logged. So producers need to house ewes if they can or get them to somewhere that affords better control of their nutrition. I know there may be extra costs involved but losses later could far outweigh costs incurred now if the situation is ignored, says Ms Stubbings. Condition score Ewes in lowland flocks need to be in condition score 3-3.5 in the approach to lambing; any ewes in poor condition need to be managed separately, but with many flocks expecting a high number of triplets this spring, starting to feed triplet-bearing ewes early will be critical, she says. See also: How to body condition score ewes No one wants a crop of unthrifty lambs and ewes with no milk and thats on the cards if no action is taken to assess ewe condition, she warns. Trials The importance of not allowing ewes to lose condition during mid-pregnancy has been highlighted in the interim results of an ongoing AHDB trial. It has shown that the body condition score of ewes at tupping and when taken again at scanning had a direct influence on the total weight of weaned lambs produced per ewe. Vet Joe Henry of Alnorthumbria Vets says ewe condition could be deceptive when sheep were carrying heavy fleeces. Its essential for farmers to get their hands on these ewes as soon as possible. You cant put weight back on skinny ewes, but at least if you act now you can prevent any further loss in condition and avoid more problems at lambing time. Good quality forage 10.5 ME plus will help ewes to hold condition, but vets fear intakes have been hampered by atrocious ground conditions around feeders. And Mr Henry adds that farmers needed to make sure ewes have access to water troughs. It may seem strange when there has been so much rain but its essential that ewes can drink when hay or forage is on offer. Fluke Fluke problems are also being highlighted following the mild and wet conditions and in some cases will be responsible for worsening the level of condition loss, even though ewes are receiving extra feed. SRUC sheep specialist John Vipond advises farmers concerned about fluke risks to consult their vets without delay. But all many pregnant ewes need now is simply the chance to lie down in a dry place. Ewes have been unable to find any dry ground and that can be a problem in itself. Weve had cases where ewes have been brought inside and had feed on offer, but their first instinct was just to lie down once they were given the chance of a dry bed. See also: How to best check your sheep for fluke Mr Vipond says farmers worried about eating into silage stocks at this stage of the winter could offer forage to housed ewes for just part of the week. If ewes are fed good quality silage for five days of the week they can be given some decent big straw bales to pull at in the feeders for the other two days. Good use can be made of low cost cereals too where ewes have lost condition, but are still at least two months off lambing. Feeding 0.5lb of oats/head for some much needed energy is very good value and when fed alongside some forage should stop any further loss in condition. Meanwhile it looks like south-west flocks are also heading for a big lamb crop. Exmoor-based sheep scanner David Takle says: We had good weather at tupping time and our winter hasnt been as wet as in the north. Most of the flocks Ive scanned so far are showing an increase of about 10% in the number of lambs being carried. The year 2015 was one of inspiring resistance and revolution. Lets carry that same ferocity into the new year! We are glad to be starting 2016 off with the 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair.The Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair plays a part in strengthening connections and solidarity for building a new world.We are excited, as many of you are, about the Rojava revolution, along with the uprisings across the U.S. There is a lot happening; lots to talk about!The 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair is bringing it January 23rd, 2016!We will have publishers and community organizations tabling in the main hall, with Pirate radio DJing the event, great, free food provided all day by Food Not Bombs, and The Kids Corner will hosted by the YES house this year with free childcare so that you can catch all our fantastic presenters.There are workshops and presentations all day in meeting rooms A and B.Here is the line-up so far:True North Organizing NetworkStudent Unions and Combative Syndicalism:Fannie from Montreal will talk about their experience in the largest and most successful student strike, which helped bring about the largest general strike in Canadian history. They will discuss the ideas, methods, and organization that made it all possible. There may also be organizers from HSU to present some of their organizing work.Local Radical/ Independent Media Panel:Greenfuse, Humboldt Free Radio Alliance, Edge Newspaper, Slingshot, Fifth Estate, and more TBA.Direct Action Workshopscott crow, author of Emergency Hearts, Molotov DreamsAddressing Our Needs Through Direct Action and Cooperation:Ryan Ayala of Humboldt Area Harm Reduction Services andLeah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, co-author of The Revolution Starts At HomeSlam Poetry Workshop: Gork and JovannahCrimethinc: Democracy or Freedom? with CrimethInc. ex-Workers Collective:Whats the difference between democracy and anarchy?Democracy is the most popular buzzword in politics. From the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea to the most radical social movements, nearly everyone claims to be democratic. In this provocative presentation, we will discuss what ties all these different understandings of democracy together and what sets anarchism apart. Reviewing how recent social movements have experimented with democratic rhetoric and practices, we will conclude by exploring other ways to understand what we are doing together when we make decisions.Anarchist Organizations In Social MovementsPanel: Humboldt Grassroots, Black Rose LA, CrimethincOne of our keynote speakers will be Michael with Tatort Kurdistan from Berlin, Germany. He is a co-author of the book Democratic Autonomy in Northern Kurdistan and Revolution in Rojava. He will be discussing democratic autonomy as it is being developed in the Kurdish movement, including models for gender equality and racial democracy. Michael is doing his Ph.D. work on the revolution in Rojava and will have lots to share with us about that.Our other keynote speaker will be Paul Z. Simmons, journalist, and author recently back from the Rojava Revolution and working on his new book The Rojava Revolution.Paul Z. Simons, writing under the pen name, El Errante, is the author of a series of recent dispatches from the liberated territories of Rojava in Northern Syria. Simons has just returned from a region besieged by war yet is also in the midst of one of the most far-reaching social experiments of the 21st Century: the Rojava Revolution. The liberated territories of Rojava are a thriving example in new forms of democratic practice and of a people who are overturning traditional, coercive institutions in favor of direct democracy and the empowerment and enfranchisement of women. Simons talks about his experiences including crossing international boundaries under false pretenses, attending commune meetings in Kobane, high-velocity detours around ISIS sympathetic villages, and the camaraderie of the YPG militias. Simons had full access to the various revolutionary organizations and militias and will discuss their mandates and implementation issues associated with realizing a new society. Paul Z. Simons report is a part adventure, part journalism, and part political analysis, of the Rojava Revolution.We will be updating the schedule as the event comes closer.Please remember this is a family-friendly event.The 8th Humboldt Anarchist Book Fair is coming!This is a FREE, all-day, radical event! Join us in the main hall at 10am to nourish your body with some of the FREE FOOD cooked up by Food Not Bombs and friends (which theyll be serving up the whole day), browse the tables of radical publishers and community groups, mingle with some good, free-thinking folk, listen to a little comedy from Robo and poetry from Gork and Jovannah. This is a family-friendly event with the Kids Corner featuring FREE CHILD CARE and activities, hosted this year by The YES House. The kids can hang out there while you move between the two meeting rooms to catch inspiring presentations from authors and activists and share your own ideas and experiences during interactive discussions, beginning at 11am.Here is the line-up so far:11am:Room A:Addressing Our Needs Through Direct Action and Cooperation:Come join us for an open discussion led by Ryan Ayala, a recent graduate from HSU in Psychology. Looking at the Queer community, he will discuss the challenges of bureaucracy in making social change and ways in which such topics as harm reduction can be approached in substance abuse.Room B:Workers Power Panel:Bruce and friends will be discussing the ways that workers can gain power over their lives. They will share success stories from the struggle and some good strategies for getting the bosses off your back.12pm:Room B:Student Unions and Combative Syndicalism:Fannie from Montreal will be Skyping in to talk about their experience in the largest and most successful student strike, which helped bring about the largest general strike in Canadian history. They will discuss the ideas, methods, and organization that made it all possible. There may also be organizers from HSU to present some of their organizing work.1pm:Room A:Lessons for Rural and Small Town Anarchists:Doug Gilbert discusses strategies and lessons learned from his involvement in the group Modesto Anarcho, based out of Modesto, California located in the Central Valley. Modesto Anarcho published a magazine of the same name, ran a social space, Firehouse 51, and was involved in a variety of struggles including organizing with families of those killed by police, gentrification, foreclosures, and housing, and much more. More than just a history, Gilbert will discuss how anarchists in small and rural towns face special challenges, especially in areas that do not have established anarchist groups and spaces.Room B:Crimethinc: Democracy or Freedom?CrimethInc. ex-Workers Collective:Whats the difference between democracy and anarchy?Democracy is the most popular buzzword in politics. From the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea to the most radical social movements, nearly everyone claims to be democratic. In this provocative presentation, we will discuss what ties all these different understandings of democracy together and what sets anarchism apart. Reviewing how recent social movements have experimented with democratic rhetoric and practices, we will conclude by exploring other ways to understand what we are doing together when we make decisions.2pm:Room B:Emergency Hearts, Molotov Dreams:Author scott crow will give a talk about his new book, which is a selected collection of interviews and presentations that scott crow has given over the last five years covering a variety of topics such as- anarchy, cooperatives, police brutality, prisons, animal liberation, environmental justice, surveillance and political movements.3pm:Room A:Anarchist Organizations In Social Movements Panel:Humboldt Grassroots, Black Rose Anarchist Federation LA, Crimethinc4pm:Room A:Slam Poetry Workshop:Gork Burns and Jovannah HobooRoom B:The Rojava Revolution:Our keynote speaker will be Paul Z. Simmons, journalist, and author recently back from the Rojava Revolution. Writing under the pen name, El Errante, he is the author of a series of recent dispatches from the liberated territories of Rojava in Northern Syria. Simons has just returned from a region besieged by war yet is also in the midst of one of the most far-reaching social experiments of the 21st Century: the Rojava Revolution. The liberated territories of Rojava are a thriving example in new forms of democratic practice and of a people who are overturning traditional, coercive institutions in favor of direct democracy and the empowerment and enfranchisement of women. Simons talks about his experiences including crossing international boundaries under false pretenses, attending commune meetings in Kobane, high-velocity detours around ISIS sympathetic villages, and the camaraderie of the YPG militias. Simons had full access to the various revolutionary organizations and militias and will discuss their mandates and implementation issues associated with realizing a new society. Paul Z. Simons report is a part adventure, part journalism, and part political analysis, of the Rojava Revolution.We are sad to report that Michael Knapp, from TATORT Kurdistan, who was going to be visiting us from Berlin, Germany to discuss his own experience with the Rojava Revolution, has been denied entry by the U.S. government due to a recent policy which allows them to turn away without cause or explanation anyone who has even visited Northern Syria. How convenient during this refugee crisis. FUCK BORDERS!5pm:Room A:Radical/ Independent Media Panel:Greenfuse, Humboldt Free Radio Alliance, Slingshot, and 5th Estate.Youre SO in, right?! Worried about how youre gonna get there? We thought of that too! The Manila Community Center is one of the stops on the Redwood Transit Line that travels between Eureka and Arcata with stops in Manila. Get on the bus for us! Mo Tom Looks Toward Kentucky after LeComte Score: The Road to the Kentucky Derby recently passed through the Fair Grounds to hand out another set of 10-4-2-1 points to potential Derby contenders. The top horse, Mo Tom, finished well and looks like a potential horse to challenge on Derby Day. The LeComte Stakes has had a few stars pass through. However, the race has yet to produce a Kentucky Derby winner. There have been top horses such as Ron the Greek, Hard Spun, and Oxbow take the race, but the best finish of these three came in the form of a second-place result in 2007 for Hard Spun. This year, Mo Tom exited the LeComte Stakes with 10 more points toward the Kentucky Derby, giving the colt 12 points total and leaving him at #7 on the leaderboard. The colt is likely going to train and remain at the Fair Grounds, following that path through the Risen Star and Louisiana Derby. The colt is trained by Tom Amoss, a veteran to the horse racing world at this point. He even trained Ron the Greek in his 2010 LeComte win. He also trained Mylute to a third-place finish in the 2013 Preakness Stakes behind Oxbow. Im sure Corey (Lanerie) would agree, when the distance gets further, the better our horse is going to get, so were really excited about that, Amoss said. I have to say Gayle Benson has been great, shes a great owner and she gets a big assist from her partner Tom Benson. Were really pleased, theyre both New Orleans natives; were really happy. Mo Tom is aptly named after his sire, Uncle Mo, who was the leading first-crop sire of 2015 and looks to keep things going in 2016. Uncle Mo won at distances of six furlongs to 1-1/16 miles. He won the Breeders Cup Juvenile to cap off an undefeated two-year-old season. After being the favorite for the Kentucky Derby, he was scratched due to a stomach illness. He came back to win the Kelso Handicap and Timely Writer Stakes. As a stallion, Uncle Mo is represented by horses like Uncle Vinny, Gomo, and Nyquist, who was just named 2015 Champion 2-Year-Old Male. Uncle Mo is the only United States stallion to ever have two-year-old earnings of over $3 million in one crop. Mo Tom is out of a mare by Rubiano, an excellent sprinter. Winner of the NYRA Mile, Carter Handicap, and Vosburgh Stakes, all Grade I races, Rubiano was the sire of multiple fast horses, including Too Much Bling and Burning Roma. His offspring are best between 7 and 9 furlongs. Rubiano carried on the Fappiano sire line and also the Nijinsky II sire line through his broodmare sire. Rubiano is the broodmare sire of Tapit, the leading stallion in the U.S. Mo Tom is looking to continue down the road towards Kentucky. Trainer Tom Amoss clearly believes this colt can outrun his speedy pedigree and continue to improve as the distances get longer. The LeComte proved the colt could easily handle 1 mile and 70 yards. The colt broke his maiden sprinting and won his first stakes race, the Street Sense Stakes, at Churchill Downs over one mile on the Louisville oval. The colt has never finished worse than third in five starts. So far, the $150,000 yearling purchase is living up to expectations. Related Links: Mo Tom Earns Ten Kentucky Derby Points With Lecomte Win Pope Francis is set to release a new childrens book in February, entitled Love Before the World.The book published by Loyola Press (orig. Italian title Lamore prima del mondo) contains the Holy Fathers responses to letters written by children from around the world.What did God do before creating the world? God loved.Why do my parents fight sometimes? They are human.These are some of the questions put to Pope Francis by children between the ages of 6-13 from 26 countries, including Albania, China, Nigeria, and the Philippines.Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, director of La Civilta Cattolica, met with the pope at the Casa Santa Marta several times during the last months, giving the Holy Father a chance to respond to the childrens letters spontaneously.These are hard questions, Pope Francis said, smiling.The drawings and questions of 31 children were chosen for the book, which will be presented to the Holy Father by several of the children who wrote the letters on 22 February."Love before the World" hits shelves in Italy on 25 February 2016, and on 1 March in the rest of the world.It comes just after the release of the Holy Fathers book "The Name of God is Mercy."-- Via Vatican Radio. Los Angeles, CA Retailer Hollister Company (Hollister) has been hit with a Retailer Hollister Company (Hollister) has been hit with a California labor lawsuit over policies regarding on-call shifts that many major retailers have already begun to back away from. While there has been no word on whether Hollister will take a similar cue, the lead plaintiff in what has been proposed as a class-action lawsuit is looking for nothing less than $5 million after accusing her former employer of improper compensation. According to court documents, Maria Garcia worked for a year as a sales clerk at Hollister in one of the retailers Los Angeles stores. One aspect of her job - and those of other employees - involved being available for on-call shifts either scheduled in advance, or shifts for which employees were called in on a more impromptu basis.According to Garcias California labor code lawsuit, employees were required to be available as part of their workweek for two kinds of on-call shifts: a scheduled stand-alone on-call, where employees would be required to either report to the workplace or at the very least call in to see if they were needed that day, or call-in shifts that could be scheduled either immediately before or after an employees regular shift.In all situations, an employee would have to clear the day to be available for a call-in shift and were prevented from contacting the employer to see if the employee would be needed after all, prior to one hour before the scheduled start of their on-call shift.Heres where Garcias California labor lawsuit comes in: were an employee to report for a call-in shift, only to be told after the fact that the employee wasnt needed after all, there was oft times no compensation for the employee for his or her time, or so it is alleged.Garcia alleges such lack of compensation is a violation of California Labor Code and the California Unfair Competition Law.While employees must treat all call-in shifts as mandatory, defendant frequently does not allow employees to work a scheduled call-in shift, thereby depriving the employee of the opportunity to earn wages for the time they have made available to defendant, Garcia says, in her complaint. Regardless of how many days and hours employees are in fact permitted to work, employees are required to mold their lives around the possibility that they will work each and every call-in shift.Garcia asserts that all too often, employees were not paid. She also asserts in her California labor employment law class action that Hollister did not pay employees who had left the employ of the company in a timely manner, and failed to issue correct wage statements to employees.In addition to monetary compensation, Garcia and those similarly situated are seeking an injunction to force an end to the scheduling practice at Hollister - a decision made by other large retailers following an inquiry into the practice by the attorney general for the state of New York last spring. Garcia et al want Hollister to end the practice as well.The California and labor law class action isCase number 2:16-cv-00154, in the US District Court for the Central District of California. Editor's Note: Like many other big cities, Lagos has its dark spots. Uwana Joseph, Legit.ng Lagos contribtutor looks into the dark sides of the city and narrows down on some areas in Bariga, one of Lagos most notorious areas for cult clashes and gangland skirmishes. A street in Somolu Bariga area of Lagos noted for cult clashes and gangland slayings While we do not intend to scare you or give Bariga bad publicity, we thought it is important for you and visitors to be aware and for government make the places mention safe for inhabitants. Located in the heart of Lagos Mainland, Bariga is one of the most interesting parts of the state that one can look forward to visiting. In fact, it is the closest to one of Nigeria's most prestigious tertiary institutions, University of Lagos (UNILAG) and has produced some of the best talents to come out of Nigeria. READ ALSO: Top 5 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Lagos However, in recent years, there have been worries about the security of lives and properties in the area, especially with clashes between rival cult groups. In the course of this violence, many lives have been lost and fears have grown in the hearts of residents. Legit.ng has therefore, compiled a list of 10 areas which you have to be wary of when doing business or passing through Bariga. Below are the top ten most dangerous places in Bariga. 1. Idi-aba: It is more popular for unannounced sporadic gunshots. The worst part is that the gunshots are often during the day when people might still be going about their routine businesses. Idi-aba is also a weed joint for the big boys. They converge here to do their 'thing' without any disturbance. 2. Igbogunu: This is an area in Bariga which you cannot talk about just as you please, because it is more like the 'base' where the strong men wrap and unwrap their 'joints'. Any visitor passing through this area has to be extra careful and try not to look jittery. 3. Ilaje: In this area lies one of the biggest hideouts for strong men who rarely come into the streets. In fact, it looks like the seat of power, where the young men who perpetrate any form of atrocity gets his orders. 4. Odunsi: Those who are not familiar with this area will be slow to know that this another base for the biggest boys in Bariga. There are rival cult groups in the area and this makes it pretty difficult for one to move in Odunsi without much care. Like Ilaje, it also houses the strong men. 5. Ladylak: Unless you have any business here, it is strongly advised that you do not move unguarded in this base. Apart from the fact that it is another vital base for the strong men in Bariga, it is also the battleground for most atrocities and has 'hosted' the killing of many casualties during a fight. 6. Kusa: It is very vital for any first timer or newcomer to Bariga to note that movement in this area has been 'censored'. Based on past experiences, this is one of the places where the young boys run to after operation. It was also gathered that this, as well as other joints- well known to Police officers- is a no-go area before during and after an operation. 7. Bajulaiye: Unlike other areas that seem volatile, what Bajulaiye is more prominent for is the fact that guys converge there to crack joints. It is like the headquarters of Indian hemp smokers in the area. Unless you are interested in joining them, you have to mind your business when you're passing through this area. READ ALSO: See The Top 10 Most Dangerous Places To Live In Lagos 8. Adifase: Unless you have possessions that you are ready to give out to people, it is advisable that you steer clear of this area because it is the obtaining ground in Bariga. No matter how smart you are, if the boys here decide that they need the possessions in your custody, they are sure to pick it up without any stress. 9. Oreofero: This place is to Bariga, what FRCN training school is to journalism. Here, you'll find young, developing terrorists taking 'tutorials' from older and more experienced seniors before launching out. It is only those who have been certified to be good enough that are allowed to join others during any operation. 10. Ogundiya: Although this street is not bad in its right, there is a place in this area where people who do not 'belong' dare not pass through. It is so bad that the boys there are always lurking, with the expectation that a novice will ignorantly step into the street. Residents within this area already know this trick and they seldom fall victim. But newcomers, first timers may not know and that's why we have this article. This, like other articles like it, is not meant to scare people away from seeing the interesting areas in Bariga. But to draw the consciousness of newcomers to the possibility of being faced by any of these challenges. [article_adwert] Source: Legit.ng Editor's Note: Lagos is a market place. As the commercial hub of Nigeria, there are many market places in the city. Traders bring goods from the hinterland and other West African countries. There are also a lot of import goods that arrive in Lagos markets. Legit.ng's Lagos contributor, Tope Oduntan takes a tour of the markets of Lagos In Lagos foodstuff markets one can buy almost anything one needs A market is a geographical area where commercial demand and supply exists. It is a fairly spacious site where traders set up stalls and buyers browse the merchandise. Goods, commodities and services are put up for sale in as much as human needs are met. However, some markets are popularly known for specific goods being sold; such as; foodstuff, Clothing materials, Cosmetics, Building materials, Provisions, Motor spare parts, fairly used goods etc. Legit.ng Lagos City Guide has decided to analyse to you, 10 Top Foodstuff markets in Lagos to enable you have a stress free and easy shopping when the need arises. 1. Iddo Market - This is situated at Ebutte meta, very close to Oyingbo. This market is widely known for the sale of bags of rice, beans, groundnut oil among others in bulk or wholesale. Traders here are mostly from the northern part of the country and neighbouring states. 2. Mile 12 Market From Ojota to Ketu, you can easily access this market. It is a very large market highly dominant of different tribes in Nigeria. It is majorly known for food stuffs, more often, trailers are seen conveying foodstuff from the market to other parts of the country. Vegetables, Rice, Pepper in large baskets, Onions can be gotten from here. This a wholesale market for retailers who move to other markets to resell. READ ALSO: Top 10 Slangs To Get You The Best Buy In Lagos Markets 3. Daleko Market Majorly known for wholesale of Bags of rice, beans, groundnut oil, palm oil, semo, sugar etc., it is located at Isolo local government, very close to Mushin as well. Goods are available at very reasonable prices for Retailers as well 4. Oke Odo Market located in the heart of Agbado oke odo local government area with traders emanating from neighboring states and farms. Foodstuffs, Vegetables, Groundnuts, Palm oil, Yam, Garri, Elubo, and Plantains are some of the things you are guaranteed to get there. 5. Oyingbo Market This is another large ancient market in the vicinity of Ebute Meta. The market has become so big that it is now being extended to streets in the area. This market deals majorly in food stuff of all kinds i.e. Stock fish of different species, vegetables, Crayfish, local delicacies. All these are available in large quantities depending on your purse. 6. Idi Oro Market Popularly known to be Plantain market, it is located few kilometers away from Oloosa in Mushin. Bunch of both ripe and unripe Plantains are available based on your choice and at a very reasonable prices, Wholesalers and Retailers buy to resell to consumers. However, other fruits are sold as well, but Plantain is very dominant. 7. Ijora Fish Market Just like its name, sea fishes of different species can be gotten from here. It is located very close to Apapa sea port and PHCN Ijora. Sea Fish of different species and with amazing sizes are always available. Fresh fish in cartons and live fish called Onmi which means live fish still breathing are always on sale as well according to your demand. 8. Liver pool Under Bridge This is very close to Tincan Island Apapa and also Creek road. This market deals majorly in both fresh and dry fishes. It is a relatively big market with other foodstuff on sale as well. READ ALSO: Top 10 Snacks Which Lagosians Love The Most 9. Ogba Sunday Market - This is majorly for foodstuffs to enable the working class meet up with their various shopping due to the fact that weekdays are not conducive for most of them. Situated off Ogba Ijaiye Road. Several years back, it is strictly on Sundays, but recently due to popular demand, the markets now operates every day. 10. Abattoir Market This is a large market where cows, sheep, cattle etc are sold and slaughtered daily for both sale and public consumption. It is located at Agege local Government Area. Butchers assemble very early in the morning to purchase various quantities to meet demands of their customers [article_adwert] Source: Legit.ng A suspected suicide bomber affiliated with the Boko Haram sect has detonated a bomb at a mosque in northern Cameroon on Monday, January 18, killing four worshipers in the process, a security source has said. Boko Haram, has been waging a six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria According to AFP, the suicide attack occurred in the village of Nguetchewe in the countrys border with Nigeria which is has come under constant attacks by the terrorists. READ ALSO: Army Repels Another B'Haram Attack On Military Base In Yobe [article_adwert] Security sources told AFP that the suicide bomber, a young boy, arrived in the village by foot, adding that a "witness had noticed his behaviour seemed suspicious and had tried to intercept him. The bomber ran towards the mosque, where he set off the explosives he was carrying with him. This recent attack comes five days after a similar attack left 12 people dead. It is the second deadly blast to hit the far north in less than a week, following a bombing at a mosque in Kolofata district during morning prayers last Wednesday. READ ALSO: Techincally Defeated? How Boko Haram Fared This Week Cameroons far north which is notorious for Boko Haram attacks has recorded about 1,200 deaths at the hand of terrorists, according to communications minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary. Bakary told Press Tv that Boko Haram militants had carried out 315 raids and 32 bomb attacks in the countrys northern border areas in recent times. In November 2013, French priest Georges Vandenbeusch was kidnapped from Nguetchewe, with the Boko Haram Islamist group claiming responsibility. He was freed after around 50 days in captivity. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS), according to an audio statement it posted online in March 2015, since then, the group has stepped up attacks in Nigeria and neighbouring countries. This prompted Cameroon to boost its military presence along the Nigerian border to curtail the activities of the terrorists. Source: Legit.ng Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna state, has launched a free school feeding programme in public primary schools in the state. El-Rufai launches the School Feeding Programme in public primary schools in Kaduna. Leadersip reports that the flag off took place at LGEA Primary Schoolin Aliyu Makama Barnawa-Kaduna, Kaduna South local government area, on Monday, January 18. In his speech, El-Rufai explained that the school feeding programme will provide one meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools. It is an unprecedented undertaking in this state, but one that we solemnly pledged to do when we were campaigning, he added. READ ALSO: Zaria Massacre: Shiites Give Buhari, El-Rufai Difficult Conditions [article_adwert] El-Rufai expressed gratitude to the vice-presidents office for providing technical support and the commitment to reimburse the state government up to 60% of the cost of the school feeding programme. The governor further noted that the school feeding programme would create 17, 000 jobs for catering vendors, each of whom will need to employ workers to help them deliver food to the pupils. See some photos below: Governor El-Rufai is tasting the food. The School Feeding Programme will provide one meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools. While some Nigerians commended the governor for launching the programme, others called on him to pay salaries and allowances to children's parents in time. Earlier this month, El-Rufai gave 30 female students in the state scholarship awards to study medical courses in Uganda. The governor's aim was to encourage girl-child education by enhancing access to educational opportunities. Source: Legit.ng Lai Mohammed, the minister of information, has disclosed how much was stolen by looters from Nigeria's coffers during the 7 past years of the ruling of the Peoples Democratic Party. [article_adwert] The minister stated that some 1.34 trillion naira ($6.72 billion, 6.15 billion euros) was supposedly stolen between 2006 and 2013 by just 55 people. Mohammed said: "The situation is dire and the time to act is now." He continued that tackling corruption was key to the President Muhammadu Buhari government. but added that it involved everyone. The period covered commences toward the end of the second tenure in office for country's first civilian president after military rule, Olusegun Obasanjo. He was succeeded in 2007 by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. READ ALSO: Lai Mohammed: Boko Haram Is Funded By Corrupt Nigerians Goodluck Jonathan, immediate past president, took over in 2010 when Yar'Adua died in office. Mohammed gave the breakdown as follows: - 15 former state governors stole 146.84 billion naira; - 11 businessmen took 653 billion naira; - Eight people in the banking industry stole 524 billion naira; - 12 former state and federal public servants made off with more than 14 billion naira; - Five former lawmakers pilfered 8.35 billion naira; - four former ministers took seven billion naira. The minister continued: "Using World Bank Rates and Costs, one third of the stolen funds could have provided 635.18 kilometres of road; built 36 ultra modern hospitals, that is one ultra modern hospital per state; built 183 schools; educated 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level at 25.24 million per child; and built 20,062 units of 2-bedroom houses. READ ALSO: Nigerians Blast Lai Mohammed For 'Technically' Re-Awakening BH "This is the money that a few people, just 55 in number, allegedly stole within a period of just eight years. And instead of a national outrage, all we hear are these nonsensical statements that the Government is fighting only the opposition, or that the government is engaging in vendetta. Before he got into power in May, Buhari, a retired Army General, pledged to probe all corruption cases, past and present, and to bring to book all the culprits. In fact, he campaigned and won Nigerias presidential elections in March, on among other things, the pledge of fighting corruption in his country. Source: Legit.ng The high volume of hotel sales in recent years has resulted in a significant increase in the number of branded hotels in Ireland. According to a new report from Savills Ireland, over 25% of all hotel bedrooms in the Republic of Ireland now carry the brand of a hotel [] Javascript Error Javascript is deactivated in your browser. To use all functions on this portal, for example the login, Javascript must be activated. Please activate Javascript in your browser settings. P resident Obamas misplaced trust in Iran is alarming. I am very concerned the Obama Administration is moving forward with implementation of its dangerous deal and sanctions relief when Iran refuses to play by the rules. As we learned from recent international inspection into Irans past military dimensions, Iran dragged its heels and stonewalled IAEA investigators. Iran has further destabilized the Middle East with its continued support of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the rogue regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Further, Iran continues to illegally test ballistic missiles violating multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. Yet, President Obama is rewarding Iran for these illicit actions with access to roughly $100 billion and suspending many of the most impactful sanctions on Iran. This is a grave mistake. It is time for President Obama to finally stop placating Tehran, punish past transgressions, enforce current international agreements, and develop a comprehensive strategy for the Middle East to stymie bad actors, not embolden them. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management has appointed Xavier Mouette, as Head of Key Client Group. He has 20 years of experience in Real Estate and he will be reporting to Barbara Knoflach, Global Head of Investment Management at BNP Paribas Real Estate. In his position, Mouette will be respons... [] After a near sold out 2015 Australian tour, it didnt take long for Swedish Fuzz rockers Truckfighters to bring back the Fuzz in early 16. The Trio have been a staple on the international touring circuit since their last trip down under with shows in Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Belgium, USA, gracing the stages of major festivals such as Open Air, Hellfest, Pukkelpop, Frequency, Rock Im Revier, Free & East, Roadkill and so many more. When they visited early Jan, the guys popped by Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra before heading down south to visit Melbourne and Adelaide. While here they captured some fun moments, check it all out below. Just when you were getting settled back in at work and reacclimatising to the 9-5 daily grind, Australia Day rears its delightful head and reminds you of how great the holidays were. No, we love it really. Even if youre not a fan of barbecuing with your friends and family or having the day off (if youre not, you should seek help), youve gotta love the Hottest 100. As always, Australias national youth broadcaster will be broadcasting its eagerly anticipated fan-voted music poll this Tuesday, 26th January , which for many, is an Australia Day staple. But if youre looking to have some fun while you wait for that highly coveted number one to drop, you might want to hit up one of these awesome Hottest 100 parties in your town. Bowled Over Where: St Kilda Bowls Club, 66 Fitzroy St, St Kilda When: 12 Noon, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: $25-$50 Website: bowledover.com.au Melbournes biggest Hottest 100 party, Bowled over, is returning for its sixth year next Tuesday. For one day every year, the historic St Kilda Bowls Club is transformed into Melbournes premier Australia Day party venue, this year featuring a lineup of Harts, Grenadiers, IV League, and more while the Hottest 100 will be broadcast around the venue. Goat Island Sounds Where: Sydney Harbour National Park When: 11am, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: $62.50 | Website: www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au To celebrate Australia Day in Sydney, join some of Australias fastest rising stars of electronic music, including Kilter, Just A Gent, Ok Sure, LUEN and Klue on Goat Island for a Hottest 100 party like no other. Youll be ferried across the harbour to a boutique island utopia overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Pretty lux way to spend a Tuesday! Celebration of the Tin Where: Small Ballroom, Newcastle When: 12 Noon, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: $19 Website: Facebook event Australian beer tin connoisseurs, The Tinny Appreciation Society, have unveiled their first event that (just as the name suggests) celebrates the admiration of the humble Tinny on Australia Day 26 January 2016. Taking place at Newcastle venue, The Small Ballroom, the event will feature ten live bands including headliners Skegss, The Pinheads and local crowd-favourites Maids. Hottest 100 will be blasting through the speakers all day too. The Rocks Australia Day Where: The Rocks, Sydney Harbour When: 12 Noon, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: FREE Website: www.therocks.com Hey Sydney mates gather your friends together and revel in an unforgettable afternoon of free live music thanks to The Rocks. Home-grown artists, such as The Grates, Tuka, Katy Steele, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, Gordi, and more, will bring their original sounds to the festivals outdoor stages. Celebrate and refresh at the Rocks Brewing Companys open-air bar. The Corner Hottest 100 Rooftop Party Where: Corner Hotel 57 Swan Street, Richmond When: 12 Noon, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: FREE Website: Facebook event As usual the legends at The Corner are continuing the Triple J Hottest 100 Party tradition with another huge day (and night) in the Corner Hotel Rooftop Bar this coming Australia Day. The Hottest 100 Party in our sunny rooftop bar will celebrate local and international acts with a BBQ from midday, drink specials, and the Hottest 100 streaming through the venue all afternoon and into the evening. Australia Day In Parramatta Where: Parramatta Park, Parramatta When: 12 Noon, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: FREE Website: Facebook event The Parramatta council are giving friends the chance to celebrate Australia Day at Parramattas massive all-day party at Parramatta Park with a line up thats one of the best weve seen ever. Featuring Jungle Giants, I Know Leopard, KLP (live), World Champion, Hau, Polish Club, Luen, Letters to Lions, and MC Shantan Wantan Ichiban we dont know why you wouldnt be there. Love Skegss? Get the latest Skegss news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more JOIN Unity Where: The Boundary Hotel, 137 Boundary Street, West End When: 2pm, Tuesday 26th Jan Tickets: FREE ENTRY Website: www.theboundaryhotel.com.au Unity is a unique Australia Day event, providing punters with a celebration of multicultural Australia by showcasing music from across the globe, dancers, story-telling, and open mic discussions (upstairs), a mouth-watering international food market (car park), and a triple j Hottest 100 Party (downstairs). Bartender Corey Faircloth fills a glass at Spacebar, a bar in Falls Church, Va., that sells 24 craft beers on tap and 20 kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches. (Evy Mages/For The Washington Post) It was a startling announcement: As of Dec. 1, 2015, the Brewers Association had counted 4,144 breweries in the United States, the most ever operating simultaneously in the history of the country. According to historians, the previous high-water mark of 4,131 was set in 1873. The new number includes giant Budweiser, artisan Dogfish Head and your neighborhood brewpub. Although beer industry observers have known this day was coming, the pace of growth was explosive: At the end of 2011, there were 2,033 breweries, or fewer than half as many as now. In 2005, there were only 1,447. And 25 years ago? The Brewers Association, a trade group for small and independent breweries, logged a mere 284 in 1990. So this is a golden age for beer lovers. It is easier than ever to find a great IPA (the most popular craft beer style in America), stout or session ale at a bar or liquor store. Previously ignored styles such as gose and Berliner weisse have become trendy, while brewers have a free hand to experiment with Belgian IPAs or saisons packed with unusual herbs. On the other hand, the expanding market at least two breweries open every day has created a new set of problems for brewers. New arrivals, riding the craft beer wave, are finding it difficult to stand out. And its not as if bars have doubled the number of their taps in the past five years. So not only do the new breweries need to squeeze past their rivals even to make it in front of consumers, but they might need to convince bars that theyre more deserving of a chance than better-known beers from Lagunitas or Great Lakes. Graham MacDonald, left, and Matt Humbard launched Handsome Beer at Washington-area bars in Sept. 2015. (From Handsome Beer) Graham MacDonald, the co-founder of Washingtons new Handsome Beer, estimates that his beers have been sold at around 140 bars, restaurants and stores in the District and Maryland since last fall. Even so, he describes the process of getting into those establishments as a bit of a challenge. Theres been a huge influx of breweries whove come to market in the last year, he says. Only two or three years ago . . . it was easy to go in and say, Heres a new IPA, heres a new pale ale, heres a new stout. But now its not just the other new guys who are making the same thing; its all the other established breweries. The sentiment is the same on the other side of the bar. Picking the draft list has become exponentially harder than it was two or three years ago, says Jace Gonnerman, beer director for the Districts Meridian Pint, Brookland Pint and Smoke and Barrel. You have to balance styles, but how many spots do I have for national breweries? What local breweries do I want to focus on? Every time a local brewery opens making really, really high-quality beer, it pushes a national brewery off. We keep a good mix of national breweries on, because people are looking for that. But you have to say no to people way more than you say yes. Bartender Ben Brown pours from the tap at Pint on a recent Friday night. The restaurant's general manager, Drew Swift, says half of the bar's draft beers come from breweries located within a 60-mile radius of the establishment. (Lexey Swall/For The Washington Post) Even when they are given a chance, some small brewers have expressed frustration with the way beer bars order products. Instead of buying three kegs of a new beer and running through them all, as it might have done when local beers were a novelty, a bar tends to buy a keg and, once its empty, fill the draft line with a competitors product, and then another one, and so on, before rotating back to the first brewerys beer weeks or months later. Dave Delaplaine of Roofers Union in Adams Morgan, which regularly swaps beers on and off 16 of its 22 draft lines, defends the practice. Thats what the culture of the beer world is: In order to have really fun beers, these crazy one-offs, you have to change a lot, he says. Breweries are approaching it as an art and want to try new things. Id take that any day: Thats what got people to try their beer in the first place. When brewer Jason zumBrunnen and his partners began planning Ratio Beerworks in Denvers River North district, they knew what they were up against. I think weve had 10 breweries open in the neighborhood since 2010, zumBrunnen says. Colorado is the forefront of craft beer in general. Making great beer is just the barrier to entry. Five years before us, opening a brewery was a very cool thing to do. The difference now is the amount of brands. Theres a finite number of tap handles at Falling Rock or Euclid Hall, two Denver beer bars known for outstanding craft selections. Ratios business plan didnt rely on getting beer bars to put their French-style saison and Scotch ale on tap. Instead, it called for 90 percent of all sales to take place onsite. The brewery built a modern-industrial taproom that encouraged lingering, and it made deals with local music promoters to host acoustic performances and meet-and-greets with bands. For outside the brewery, Ratio made arrangements with a handful of modern restaurants and beer bars, not necessarily the fastest-moving accounts, zumBrunnen says, but establishing the kinds of place we wanted to be in, so that customers at those places think, Oh, Ive heard of them, Ill go check out the taproom. Luke Stanton, 21, and Brennan Ewing, 22, visit RAR Brewing in Cambridge, Md. Most of the companys beers leave the premises to be sold elsewhere. (File photo by Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) RAR Brewing, which opened as a brewpub in Cambridge, Md., in the summer of 2013, took the opposite approach. It began distributing its beers around the Eastern Shore and eventually in the District and Baltimore last fall, and the citrusy Nanticoke Nectar IPA became a hit. Nectar sold so well that [bars] believe in us, says co-founder Chris Brohawn, and that gets our foot in the door when theyre trying to get bars to carry a saison or a seasonal beer. About 85 percent of the beer RAR makes leaves the premises. Still, with an increasing number of local breweries fighting for the same oxygen, Brohawn knows buzz can be fleeting. This year, RAR plans to stay in the spotlight by releasing limited-edition beers in cans at its brewpub monthly, if not bi-weekly, Brohawn says. RAR has experimented with placing local radio and print ads, but he says the social-media buzz surrounding a beer release increases the word-of-mouth tenfold. Many in the beer industry pin their hopes for small breweries on localization: the idea that consumers would rather drink beers made down the road than across the country. Lary Hoffman, who co-owns Galaxy Hut in Arlington and Spacebar in Falls Church with his wife, Erica, prefers to stock most of the taps with Virginia breweries, such as Blue Mountain, Champion and Three Notchd. You can get any style of beer locally now, and the quality is on par with the best beer in the world, so why not seek out the regional option? he asks. A handful of national brands, including Bells and Avery, show up on the 28 taps at Galaxy Hut and the 24 at Spacebar, but theyre the exception. Customers would be angry if our draft lineup looked like a Safeway shelf, Hoffman says. In national surveys conducted by the Brewers Association, 67 percent of craft beer drinkers said it was important to them that their beer be locally made, while 61 percent said it was important that the brewery was independent. Meanwhile, the craft category is growing faster than the total beer market, and in 2014 reached a double-digit (11 percent) share of the marketplace by volume. Those trends arent lost on Terry Haley, vice president for marketing at World of Beer, which has 77 craft-focused locations along the Eastern Seaboard and throughout the South. Haley says his company tries to make sure local and craft regional beers are well represented among the roughly 50 taps found at each tavern, even though theres definitely a point of emphasis to have what we call craft beers across the major styles: Stone, Lagunitas; here in Tampa, Cigar Citys Jai Alai [IPA]. You have to have some of these standbys. Customers Jeff Babka, left, and Steve DeBacco at the World of Beer bar and restaurant in Arlington in August. Each restaurant in the chain has about 50 taps that always include a mix of local and regional beers. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post) Of the 50 drafts at World of Beer in Arlington last week, 12 were from the DMV. They included 3 Stars, Parkway, Oliver and Escutcheon, as well as the more widely distributed Devils Backbone and Flying Dog. Other World of Beer locations had a similar ratio: 14 of 46 drafts in Atlanta came from Georgia; Louisvilles 50 taps included 11 Kentucky or Indiana beers. Brewers Association economist Bart Watson called the number of brewery openings pretty incredible, but he points out that America isnt exactly saturated with beer makers: In a 2014 article, he noted that the United States has fewer breweries per capita than the United Kingdom, Germany or Latvia. Last summer, after the number of breweries hit 4,000, Watson calculated that there are also nearly 1,000 cities with a population of more than 10,000 that dont have a local brewery yet, and numerous neighborhoods in larger cities without a local brewpub or taproom. Other markets are hyper-competitive. Mike Sardina, president of the San Diego Brewers Guild, says that while there are at least 100 breweries in the county, there are also plenty of bars that will give a shot to newcomers. But the beer has to be killer from a quality perspective, and the angle has to be that its not just another pale ale, he says. These bars support San Diego craft beer to a degree that theyll bring in any new beer, but if its not up to par, its tough to get a second chance. That law-of-the-jungle competitiveness will guide whether or not new breweries make it, says Scot Blair, owner of San Diegos Hamiltons Tavern, a fixture on national Best Beer Bar lists, and the Monkey Paw and South Park breweries, both of which have been honored at the Great American Beer Festival. Local doesnt mean better, he says. The emphasis has to be on making good beer. We have maybe 110 breweries in San Diego. We were better when we had less breweries, because we were focused more on quality. Its like real estate. Everybody jumps on when its a bubble. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, pictured in June, is one of several politicians speaking about being raised in an immigrant household this election cycle. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Its a story that really isnt that different from the story of millions of Americans. And yet. When South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley declared herself the proud daughter of Indian immigrants in the Republican response to the State of the Union address last week, her brief personal narrative felt like a departure from the folksy, Kohls-shopping, burger-flipping yarns that so many politicians tell about themselves in an election cycle. Candidates have been laying out politically calculated versions of their origin stories from the stump for as long as weve had a popular vote. Haley a rising GOP star whose name is being bandied about as a possible vice presidential pick just became the latest ambitious politician to play up not her American rootsiness but her immigrant roots. On the campaign trail, it seems, being an immigrants kid suddenly has cachet. Among Republicans, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has evoked his parents emigration from Cuba (while notably titling his 2012 memoir An American Son) and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has campaigned with his Cuban-born father at his side. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders last week shouted down Republican contender Donald Trumps birther rhetoric by comparing his own background with that of the sitting president, saying, Like Obama, I am the son of an immigrant father. (And hows this for a twist: Trumps mother was an immigrant, too, from Scotland, though no one in Trumps camp is quite shouting that fact from the rooftops.) This election cycle, declaring oneself a child of immigrants is to play simultaneously politics and identity politics, to tap into the bootstrapping American value of making ones way through ingenuity and hard work while, perhaps, making nice with Latino and Asian American voters who may have similar backstories. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions, Haley said in her address, should ever feel unwelcome in this country. [Haleys plea for tolerance draws cheers and jeers, revealing GOP divide] For Haley and other Republicans, drawing attention to a first-generation American upbringing may actually be a delicate dance that also makes their policies seem more palatable, says Jennifer Lawless, a professor of government at American University. Its an ideal way to couch the partys hard line on amnesty and refugees before an election in which immigration policy may well take center stage. It legitimizes your position, says Lawless, because you can say that you understand that experience on a personal level and this is still how you feel about the issue. Its not this knee-jerk anti-immigrant reaction, she says. Its seen as a reaction linked to their own personal experience. Candidates have identified themselves as coming from immigrant stock before, but in the past, it was considered more politically risky. Of our 43 presidents, only seven have had immigrant mothers or fathers, reported Fusion, the news network launched by ABC and Univision, last fall. John F. Kennedy was widely known to have been just a few generations removed from Irish immigrants, but his family largely played down that heritage, says Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia. It was only after his election that he embarked on a historic trip to Ireland to visit his familial home, perhaps emboldened by being already in office. In 1988, Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis evoked his upbringing, arguing in one speech, The best America is a nation where the son of Greek immigrants, with your help, can seek and win the presidency of the United States. But rather than hoping to tap into some Greek American voting bloc, says Lawless, I really think it was just a bullet on his bio. With last Tuesdays speech, Haley may not have been shoring up the Indian American vote either, but the larger bloc of immigrants and their children, who may make for a powerful force at the polls. According to data compiled by the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, between 1996 and 2012, the number of immigrants and their American-born children who registered to vote rose by more than 10 million. Haleys first-generation upbringing is already resonating in the media and in her party. Since Tuesday, she has been described as the youthful daughter of Indian immigrants, and by one slightly confused GOP senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, as simply, an immigrant. On one level, and I think she meant it sincerely, shes proud to be a daughter of Indian immigrants, says Deepa Iyer, a senior fellow with the Center for Social Inclusion and the author of We Too Sing America, a book that looks at recent immigration. Shes said that before, many times, and I think she sincerely wants to claim it. And it is a way to connect to groups of different Americans, given all the demographic shifts were seeing in the country. But, Iyer says, its also a way to show the Republican Party as anything but xenophobic and divisive. At his monument on the Mall, keepers of Martin Luther King Jr.s legacy work hard to keep his story alive, imparting lessons to crowds, recalling his speeches, and acknowledging civil rights foot soldiers who arrive here, literally walking through the statues split in the Mountain of Despair. Here, National Park Service guide John W. McCaskill often greets civil rights icons visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. They are older now. Many in the crowds of tourists fail to recognize them or their sacrifices. I have seen so many people who were part of the struggle come through this Mountain of Despair, McCaskill says, pointing to the walkway carved in the sculpture, which is called the Stone of Hope and draws its name from a line in Kings famous I Have a Dream speech: With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. At the entrance to the memorial, two huge stones split apart, symbolizing the Mountain of Despair. A slice of the sculpture is pushed out several feet from the split, and from this slice, Kings image emerges. Ive seen Dick Gregory, Dr. Dorothy Cotton, John Lewis, the Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian, McCaskill said. I go and honor them, and all of them at the end of the conversation, say, Thank you for being here. And I say, Uh-uh. You thanking me? No. Because if it wasnt for you, I wouldnt even be here. Light snow falls on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Jan. 17. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) McCaskill, 52, a D.C. native who has been a park guide since 2011, stands in the shadow of the monument as people mingle around him. A historian, he loves this post. No question is too small or too big. With three masters degrees in history, he rattles off dates, quotes and context about King and civil rights leaders who worked in Kings inner circle. McCaskill remembers the summer of 2013, when he looked across the memorial grounds and saw civil rights legend Cordy Tindell C.T. Vivian, who that year had been awarded the Medal of Freedom for his participation in Freedom Rides and sit-ins, which helped usher in integration in this country. I saw him out the corner of my eye and it registered. Im like, Is that the Rev. C.T. Vivian? You know C.T. Vivian was on the steps of the municipal building when they were trying to register to vote, down in Birmingham, McCaskill recalled. And Jim Clark, the sheriff and segregationist who led the Bloody Sunday violence against civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, was standing there, saying, You cant register. Vivian demanded an explanation. In an exchange that was widely televised, Clark punched Vivian so hard that he broke his hand. Blood is coming out his nose and mouth, McCaskill said, and this is what Vivian says on camera: We are willing to be beaten for democracy. McCaskill tears up, standing in the shadow of Kings monument. Around him, tourists are snapping selfies. Parents are explaining to their children Kings contributions to social justice. A group of protesters wave flags and shout about injustices in Syria, from which thousands of refugees have fled. One woman carries a sign that reads Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. McCaskill says the memorial is a place where hundreds come to reflect on justice and efforts for peace. The memorial also is a place, McCaskill said, where people come to express gratitude to civil rights workers. McCaskill continues his story about the day he saw Vivian, who worked on Kings executive staff. I go over to him and I extend my hand, and before I get to him, I drop to one knee. I thanked him about 20 times. I said, Sir, you were willing to lay your life down for a generation you havent even met. And he said, Yeah, but I knew they were coming. McCaskill stomps his feet with emotion. So, yeah, its personal for me. Im standing on his shoulders, he said, and others are standing on his shoulders and others who came before him. Whenever McCaskill has the opportunity, he retells that story. Its one thing to lay your life down for your family, but for those who havent been born yet? Where do you find a group of people like that? On Monday, as the country collectively celebrates Kings life more than 30 years after Congress voted in favor of making his birthday a national holiday, crowds swell at the memorial. Many began celebrating Kings birthday Friday, on the actual date of his birth. CeLillianne Green, a poet, teacher and social justice activist who lives in Northeast Washington, visited the memorial Friday. She walked down the winding path and stopped where Kings image emerges from the giant stone. I prefer to come when its quiet and when you can actually feel the light from the words that are lit up, said Green. People are much more contemplative about why they are here. You can really connect with the spirit of Dr. King. In 2011, Green wrote a poem about King, which she titled A Mans Worth. There is no question about his value or his worth. There is no question about why this nation celebrates his birth. He came and he left this nation and this world profoundly changed. For his work, a national memorial bears his name. Stand and commit to doing the work that remains to be done; the work needed to heal this nation and its people one by one. . . . Stand and truly honor this honorable man. Then ask: Am I doing the very best I can to preserve his vision and fulfill his plan? Sherron Goffigan, 36, arrived at the memorial with nine of his classmates from a military school in Petersburg, Va. We just wanted to stand around the monument , Goffigan said, and just reflect on his legacy and the things that he has done not just for African Americans but for people in general. People sometimes use the King holiday as a day off work, Goffigan said. I tear up when I think about his life. This was one of the greatest men who has lived on this planet. He gave his all for people, and somebody took his life away and cut him short. McCaskill, walks the path along the granite wall, which contains some of Kings most famous quotes. He stops at his favorite quote: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy Strength to Love, 1963. The quote still moves him. As he walks, McCaskill fields questions from visitors. He meets a woman whose mother brought her as a little girl to the 1963 March on Washington. The woman explains where she was when she heard King was assassinated in 1968. When people tell their stories, McCaskill is silent. They were there, he says. Their words have import. McCaskill remembers the day in 2011 when the memorial was dedicated and a woman rushed up to him disturbed the carving did not show Kings full portrait. She wanted to know why they had cut him off at the knees, said McCaskill, who explained that image was meant to portray King as still emerging from the Mountain of Despair, symbolizing he wasnt finished yet. Its important to keep the legacy alive, McCaskill said, because a lot of people sacrificed their lives for equality. A lot of people have died and many of us are standing on their shoulders. Volunteers including Prince Hall Masons, Americorp volunteers and members of the Omega Psi Phi gathered in the plaza outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in D.C. on Monday to offer food and clothing to people in need. (Hamil Harris/The Washington Post) Volunteers including Prince Hall Masons, Americorp volunteers and members of the Omega Psi Phi gathered in the plaza outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in D.C. on Monday to offer food and clothing to people in need. (Hamil Harris/The Washington Post) Flynn Williams had helped take everything out of the kitchen cabinets, and now she was cleaning the shelves at a house she had never been to before because, she said, Martin Luther King wouldnt want us to just take a day off in honor of him he would want us to go out and do something good for people. Williams, a freshman from Connecticut, had joined a group of other volunteers from Catholic University to help clean a home for people with developmental disabilities. Hundreds of students from Catholic and countless other people around the Washington region spent Monday picking up trash in parks, serving meals and visiting with elderly patients for a Day of Service to honor Kings legacy. At the plaza in front of the Martin Luther King Library, volunteers from several groups including Americorps and the Omega Psi Phi fraternity handed out food and clothing. At the Bethlehem House in Northeast Washington, Dolores Wilson was spinning around directing volunteers and handing out cleaning supplies. Just take this white sponge and wipe it around the doorknobs, Wilson said. Isnt it amazing? You can be the white-sponge girl. Wilson, a tiny, earnest, enthusiastic woman with white hair, founded Bethlehem House in 1986 after teaching at a school for people with disabilities for many years and directing, for more than 20 years, the office for people with disabilities for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. She helped push for legislation to protect people with disabilities, and trains seminarians in how to guide them in their parishes. Dolores Wilson, foreground, founder of Bethlehem House, works with Catholic University student volunteers who have come to help her clean as part of the annual MLK day of service, on Jan. 18, 2016 in Washington, D.C. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) But she kept hearing from parents worried about what would happen to their children if they could no longer care for them. Where would they live? Who would help? So all those years, the dream was in my heart, Wilson said. Now she lives in the small house in Brookland full of donated and thrift-store furniture, helping to care for three adults. One of them, Tom, handed out trash bags and chatted with two students organizing the basement closet. (Sorry, spider, sophomore Courtney Grosse said, as she squashed it.) The other residents watched as Williams, junior Rachel Leppert and sophomore Danielle Harttraft cleaned the kitchen cabinets. When King was alive, Wilson hung her favorite quote from him at school. And she remembers vividly the moment when one of the nuns took the microphone in the auditorium and said: Everyone listen, please. There has been a shooting Martin Luther King is dead. There was that shock, and then the nun went on: There are riots breaking out in Washington already. We want you to get in your cars and get home as quickly and safely as you can. It was a slow journey home, stopped repeatedly by crowds of children and teenagers leaving schools. In the days that followed, Wilson and many others volunteered at a hospital that was suddenly short-handed, doing laundry and bringing trays of food to patients. They helped deliver food, too, to people who were afraid to leave their homes. Wilson pulled out a card that Catholic University volunteers sent her last year, with a quote from King on the front: If you cant fly, run. If you cant run, walk. If you cant walk, crawl. But by all means keep moving. No excuse for not changing, Wilson said, or helping with change. Williamss wipe squeaked over the white cabinet, Leppert stood on a stool to put cookies out of reach on a high shelf, and a residents steady low moan echoed from the kitchen table as she watched. Im glad the memories never died and the young people who never saw him are still inspired by his words, Wilson said. That morning on campus, Williams had been fascinated by a woman telling about her experiences in the civil rights movement in Washington, and Kings march; it was the first time Williams had heard from someone who lived that history. Oh! Williams said, pointing to a woven-rush cross hanging on the wall. I have the same St. Brigids cross, she said, lifting her necklace off her red T-shirt and cradling the cross to show Wilson. That was her confirmation saint and she feels a strong connection, Williams said. The things she did, you could say they were small, but they made a big impact. Last semester, Williams brought food to homeless people in parks, but she has been looking for a regular volunteer commitment for the spring. Id like to come back here, she said. Helen, one of the residents, blew a kiss. Wilson shot her hand out and closed her fingers: I caught it! she said, smiling at Helen. We have our down days just as any family would, Wilson said. But they have the power of transformation. People cant get to know them, she said, without being changed. Oh! I remembered the last word of the quote from King, Wilson added, my favorite, that I hung up on a big banner at school. I think this is it: I just want to be here. In love. In justice. In truth. To make the world a better place. There are many people who claim a novel entitled West End is one of the best that was printed last year. What I mean is that it stands on its own legs as a marvelous book that is full of politics, money, power and shenanigans in a make-believe place called Bluff City. But in December it was learned there is no author by the name of Crockett White like the book cover claims -- and thats when the dancing really began. Jim Squires, who worked in the newsroom of the Nashville Tennessean back in the 60s before becoming a big-city editor in Orlando and Chicago, revealed he had actually written the book at some event held at Vanderbilt. But it wasnt even before dessert was served that certain people who had already read West End were looking peculiarly at one another. You see, the biggest game in Nashville right now is figuring out who-is-really-who in A Novel of Envy, Revenge, and Dirty Money. Make no mistake, the fictitious Bluff City is in fact Nashville, where Squires and his memory go back to the real 1960s. For example, the newspaper publisher in the book is a crusading character named Jack Hickenlooper but any fool can see it is the late John Seigenthaler, who was quite the crusading publisher of the Tennessean at the time. The narrator of the book, David Arthur is obviously Squires and Im told the colorful attorney who is neck-deep into politics and shenanigans (Tate Weston III) is actually none other but John Jay Hooker. But thats not the fun part. The headline in yesterdays Tennessean tells you what is causing the bigger stir: Salacious Nashville Novel West End Sparks Speculation. As Squires told his friend Frank Daniels when he finished the book it didnt include any sex but he figured a novel needed a little something extra, something Daniels noted in yesterdays story, Many readers are struck by the salacious nature of the book, which does not shy away from the sexuality of its characters. Envy, revenge and dirty money, indeed! Those who dont know much about Nashville should understand whats called the west end of the city 50 years ago is where the rich, powerful and sometimes wild people would eat lunch at the Belle Meade Country Club every Sunday. You are talking old money, Im telling you, and the buzz is that Squires novel finally lifts the lid off some juicy stories. Hal Hardin, a Nashville attorney who 50 years ago was John Jay Hookers driver while working his way through school, was quoted in yesterdays paper, I had to start making a list of who I thought was who. Its a wonderful book but there is a lot that is made up in it. Squires said that is right. None of the things in this book happened to anybody that looks like somebody else in the book. But all those things happened to many, many people in many, many places like Nashville over the last 20 or 30 years, the author said. So why is it that Larry Woods, a bookseller in Nashville, is getting about 20 emails each week since New Years that read: I know you know who everyone is in the book. Tell me! Squires revealed in yesterdays paper that most of the sex stories he got when he was gathering material about the salacious press corps in Washington. I had a lot of material, he laughed with the Tennessean writer. Turned out I needed it. I lived during the sexual revolution but I didnt get to experience it, he quipped. A description of West End on Amazon reads, THE BREW: Westons extraordinary charisma, confidence and resolute purpose to be elected president; Arthurs uncertainty, naivete, inferiority complex, and streak of exceptional luck; Hickenloopers grasp of the Kennedy power and their Machiavellian brand of end-justifies-the-means politics. And, oh yes, the doting mother, the perfect wife, the seductive receptionist, the crotch artist and the amazing Henri, and of course the soiling staples of politicsenvy, revenge and dirty money. Squires said he used a pen name because his other books, one on the newspaper business and a great read on Nashville politics back in the 60s, are non-fiction. Everything Ive written until now had been true. I didnt want people to see my name because they might think West End was true. In other words, Squires wanted to make sure his good name wasnt connected with any salaciousness! Jim is a little older than me so I figure I have about a year or two before I gather up all I know and pen my own novel. Im thinking Ill just come on out with it and call the book, SALACIOUS A Novel about Coca-Colas, Moon Pies, and the Fun Things People Did Together Who Like Them. I can get John Wilson to help me with the historical facts and the geography but, I promise you this, I am already loaded for bear when it comes to salaciousness oh my! Am I ever! Then there is this. When I start handing out my best-of-shenanigans, there aint going to be any rules. No one is going to be safe and, in my way of thinking, lets just say there will be multiple printings. Nashville may be bigger but when it comes to salaciousness, we have some envy, revenge and dirty money that is world class. royexum@aol.com Streets in some of Northern Virginias aging neighborhoods are becoming marred with potholes, corroding asphalt and other problems that can make driving a headache, local officials say. In Fairfax County, the states largest jurisdiction, state transportation officials estimate that nearly 80 percent of local streets are in poor or very poor condition, up from 70 percent in 2011. In Prince William County, the proportion of streets rated poor or very poor is climbing toward 70 percent. Officials in Fairfax say the state should allocate more money to repairing streets in the county, which has dipped into its own funds in recent years to make repairs that it says Richmond should be financing. We have gotten ourselves in a position of having to do that because of the derelict actions on the part of the state, said Fairfax Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee), whose district includes some of the countys oldest neighborhoods and most problematic streets. [Report:Cost of fix aging, roads, sewers, schools far exceed funds] In 2014 and 2015, the county used about $360,000 of its funds to fill potholes and resurface asphalt on local roads. The state spent about $135 million in 2015 repaving Northern Virginia roads but most of that money went to highway repairs. Jennifer McCord, a spokeswoman with the Virginia Department of Transportation, said local streets in Northern Virginia will be a high priority this year, after a period in which the state concentrated more on upgrading highways and major avenues. The state has earmarked about $86 million for repaving neighborhood streets in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties this year. Highways and major roads in the region are at a place where theyve improved, McCord said. Now, were focusing on the secondary roads with all our funding. We recognize that they are a problem, and we want to get to that. An estimated 40 percent of roads in Arlington County are in need of repaving, about on par with the state average. Arlington maintains its own roads and plans to spend about $12.7 million on repaving during the current fiscal year, which ends in July. In Loudoun, which has many newer neighborhoods and subdivisions, the proportion of roads rated poor or very poor is about 28 percent. On virginiaroads.org, a state website that provides details on road conditions and plans for repaving, large swaths of Fairfax are designated as having roads in poor or very poor condition. State officials who monitor road conditions annually score their driveability on a scale of zero to 100. Streets deemed very poor generally have enough cracks, holes or bumps to record a score of 49 or below, officials said. Under state guidelines, roads that are poor score between 50 and 60 but are still considered deficient and in need of evaluation for repairs. In Mount Vernon, Dean Lohmeyers block on Leo Lane is part of an area with several streets designated very poor. The roads are riddled with small cracks and a few potholes. Lohmeyers cul-de-sac street is fairly well paved but has a sinkhole in the middle of the road that has been there for at least two years. When you hit that hole, you hear this loud bang, Lohmeyer said. It doesnt physically hurt, but it hurts you because youre like: Oh, what did I just do to my car? In the Annandale area, a patch of road in front of Ashling Thurmond Osbornes home on Fairland Street has worsened steadily. That block and most of the surrounding streets look as though they are crumbling, earning very poor designations from the state. When Thurmond Osborne and her husband, Jonathan, moved in four years ago, the pavement problem in front of their house was fairly small and easy to ignore, she said. It is now a ditch that spans the width of two driveways, with dirt visible under the broken asphalt. This past summer, we were removing chunks of asphalt about the size of a dinner plate and just putting them in the trash, Thurmond Osborne said. I know we have an aging infrastructure, and I know it costs a lot of money to fix, she said. But at the same time, roads are pretty basic. D.C. voters cast their ballots in 2014 at the H.D.Cooke Elementary school in Adams Morgan. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post) Elections in the District have been handicapped by faulty voting machines, inadequate polling staff, inaccessible polling stations and delays in vote tallying. And yet it is unclear whether any of those problems will have been remedied by the time the District holds its next major election in six months. These are the concerns held by D.C. Council member Kenyan R. McDuffie and a handful of other close observers of the citys election process who say the D.C. Board of Elections appears to have made no clear progress toward fixing its long-standing problems ahead of the June primary contests or addressed how the board has managed millions of dollars in federal funds. As of last week, a full month after board members testified before the D.C. Council that they were unaware of how much new voting machines would cost, the board still had not determined whether it can afford to purchase new ones or whether it will lease them. The potential lengthiness of the citys procurement process also raises the question of whether the board will have enough time to test the machines and train election workers, if it does acquire new ones. McDuffie (D-Ward 5), who has called on elections officials and experts to testify before the councils judiciary committee, says he is deeply concerned. I think that the publics confidence in the boards ability to administer an election will depend on how the board administers the 2016 primary in general, he said. Last month, McDuffie appeared to grow exasperated during a Judiciary Committee hearing when board members appeared unable to provide answers to basic questions about the state of the boards finances. Acting board chairwoman Deborah Nichols said she had only recently become aware that the office is in possession of $4.9 million in federal funds, which could be used to purchase new voting machines despite years of complaints from board members that they lacked the funds to do so. We did, or at least I thought we needed funding, Nichols said during the Judiciary Committee hearing. It wasnt until six to eight months ago that I really found out the magnitude of what we had. Said McDuffie: You are the folks charged with administering the elections, and the issue you presented [in the past] was the equipment was outdated, and you also presented a lack of funding. Today you have the funding. Who was supposed to know the funding exists, if its not you all? U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) records show that the D.C. Board of Elections has received $18 million in federal funds since 2003 to use toward purchasing modern equipment and training election workers, among other things. But an EAC audit of the boards expenditures from 2003 to 2013 also found that it did not appropriately categorize expenditures as Federal grant expenditures; that its accounting records did not support the financial reports that it submitted; that its equipment management was inadequate; and that it expended around $300,000 for purposes that were not allowed for that federal funding. As of the end of September 2014, the Board of Elections had a balance of about $11 million, according to the EACs latest nationwide fiscal report and contrary to what the board told the D.C. Council. The Board of Elections had also reported roughly $7 million in expenditures to the federal government, according to EAC records. Bryan Whitener, a spokesman for the EAC, said that as of the end of September 2014, the D.C. Board of Elections had roughly $3 million in unspent federal funds. It was not immediately clear what accounted for the discrepancy between the $11 million, $3 million and $4.9 million amounts that the EAC report, the EAC spokesman and the Board of Election reported as being the boards most recent balance. Whitener said he believed the report may have been amended. The most recent fiscal report on the EACs website shows a balance of about $11 million. Neither former board director Clifford Tatum nor the Board of Elections responded to requests to explain the financial reporting. McDuffie said his office also is examining the issue. Dorothy Brizill, an activist and journalist who has monitored elections and regularly attended board meetings for years, first drew attention to the boards faulty financial reporting during a council hearing last month. She said that she is now more concerned about the boards ability to administer the upcoming primaries than she has ever been. If you look at the budgets that were submitted by the Board of Elections to the council, you will never ever see an indication that there was federal grant money available to the Board of Elections, she said. Now it turns out they were given money from the federal government for new voting machines. . . . Why werent they ever acquired? There are other outstanding problems. According to the D.C. Auditors Office, more than 64 percent of the precincts it inspected during the Districts last major election, in November 2014, experienced technical difficulties. More than a quarter of the areas voting precincts also didnt have the minimum number of election workers on Election Day, largely because they didnt show up to the job. And more than 40 percent of the precincts were at least partly inaccessible to disabled voters. Board members complained that D.C. Public Schools requirements at certain precincts hindered access for people with disabilities. And yet, the board has yet to meet with school officials to try to resolve the issue. (McDuffies office recently scheduled a conference call between the two.) While the board has said it is currently exploring the possibility of relocating several precincts to be in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, it is presently slated to use the same 143 polling locations that were used in the 2014 November General Election, Nichols said at the hearing last month. Kristina Majewski, a legal expert on disability rights, told the council that her organization saw little improvement in disabled access during the smaller 2015 special election. It is also unclear whether the Board has taken any new steps to guarantee a larger pool of election workers this year. Were going to make sure we do everything possible to make sure every polling location is adequately staffed, board spokeswoman Margarita Mikhaylova said earlier this month. Mikhaylova also said that the boards lack of permanent leadership would have no impact on its ability to execute an election. There is no concern here within the agency as to whether or not well be prepared, because well be prepared, she said. Governor Larry Hogan (R) kicks off Project CORE, or Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise, in west Baltimore's Sandton-Winchester neighborhood in Baltimore on Jan. 5. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) Gov. Larry Hogan used an appearance at a breakfast on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to promote his Change Maryland agenda. The challenges are formidable, but our will is strong, Hogan said during opening remarks at the 35th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at Anne Arundel Community College on Monday. Hogan (R), who is trying to roll back taxes and fees, a central part of his campaign, is about to begin battling with Democrats over the budget in the coming days and weeks. [For one day in Annapolis, bickering mostly gave way to celebration] The governor said last week that his budget will contain modest tax cuts for senior citizens, low-income families and some manufacturing businesses and a reduction of fees for permits, applications and services across state government. The budget will be presented to legislative leaders Wednesday. [Hogan: Tax relief will apply to retirees, families making less than $53,000] Democratic leaders have raised concerns about what they know so far about Hogans plan. They said they will push for the states surplus to be used on education, health care and job creation. While Hogan briefly mentioned his effort to improve Maryland, the majority of his remarks were dedicated to King and the civil rights leaders life and legacy. Dr. Kings dream was one of equality, it was a dream of social justice and a call to action, Hogan said. Each and every one of us should pursue Dr. Kings dream because striving for a world built on compassion and acceptance for all is a fight worth fighting. The governor was among a number of elected officials who attended Mondays breakfast. Hogan and House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), who are political nemeses, sat next to each other on the dais. ACTS food pantry needs volunteers to stock shelves, prepare food bags and make grocery store pickups either on a regular schedule (flexible) or on an on-call basis. To complete an online application, visit actspwc.org. ACTS Helpline needs volunteers to answer the suicide-prevention hotline. 703-221-1144. American Association for the Advancement of Science needs scientists, engineers, mathematicians and physicians to assist K-12 STEM teachers. Victor Crawford, 703-732-9004. vicris51@verizon.net. American Cancer Societys Road to Recovery needs drivers to take patients to appointments. 410-781-6909. jen.burdette@cancer.org. Beacon for Adult Literacy trains people to help adults with literacy and English-speaking skills. 703-368-7491. beaconliteracy.org. BEAT Cancer Coalition needs drivers 55 and older to take patients to appointments. Retired and Senior Volunteer program, Colleen, 703-369-5292. Birmingham Green needs volunteers who speak Vietnamese. 703-257-6252. Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington-Manassas needs volunteers. bgcgw.org/prince-william. Catholic Charities Hogar Immigrant Services needs teachers for its English as a Second Language and citizenship classes. Training provided. 571-208-1572. volunteer.hogar@ccda.net, hogarimmigrantservices.org. ESL and Immigrant Ministries trains volunteers to teach English to adults. 703-841-0292. office@eslim.org, eslim.org. Friends of Feral Cats of PWC needs volunteers and donations of cat food. Nancy, 571-719-0657. Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind needs volunteers to raise and train puppies. 866-282-8046. guidedog.org. Habitat for Humanity needs help with projects, ReStore and providing lunch to volunteers. 703-369-6708. volunteer@ habitatpwc.org. Historic Dumfries needs docents for the Weems-Botts Museum to help with events and research projects, gather and transcribe local oral histories and other projects. 703-221-2218. Keep Prince William Beautiful needs help with its storm drain program and educational outreach. 571-285-3772. kpwb.org. Literacy Volunteers of Prince William needs adults to help adult students improve their literacy skills. Training provided. 703-670-5702. www.lvapw.org. Mutt Love Rescue needs foster homes for rescued dogs. 703-577-0106. adopt@muttloverescue.org, muttloverescue.org. Northern Virginia Family Service is seeking foster parents. 571-748-2500. Prince William Area Free Clinic needs volunteers for the Unified Health Center. pwafc.org . Prince William Cooperative Extension Program needs facilitators for the Parent Education Programs Systematic Training for Effective Parenting groups. Training provided. Janice Brody, 703-792-4678. jbrody@pwcgov.org. Prince William County Historic Preservation Division needs tour guides and assistance with special events, educational programs and gardening. 703-792-4754. historicpreservation@pwcgov.org. Prince William Health District needs community health worker volunteers from 8 a.m.-noon Tuesdays at the Manassas Park Community Center clinic. Candidates must complete a background check and have a valid drivers license. Training provided. 703-792-6755. valda.wisdombrown@vdh.virginia.gov. Prince William Trails and Streams Coalition needs volunteers to help build and maintain trails in the county. pwtsc.org. Project Mend-a-House needs help for home-safety repairs. 703-792-7663. kristen@pmahweb.org. ReSET seeks volunteers to lead elementary and preschool students in science and math learning. John Meagher, 703-250-0236. reset@resetonline.org , www.resetonline.org . SERVE needs drivers for the food distribution center. Jan Hawkins, 571-748-2621. St. Paul United Methodist Church needs bus drivers Thursdays to transport people to and from a community dinner. Drivers must have a class C license withP endorsement. 703-494-2445. The Wildlife Rescue League needs hotline volunteers, wildlife transporters and rehabilitators. Training provided. 703-391-8625. volcoord@wildliferescueleague.org. Compiled by Sarah Lane TO SUBMIT AN ITEM E-mail: pwliving@washpost.com Fax: 703-392-1406 Three concert-goers at the State Theatre in Falls Church were shot and wounded early Monday after a fight broke out just as a show there was ending, authorities said. According to a Falls Church police spokeswoman, officers were sent to the theater a converted movie theater which now hosts concerts just before 2 a.m. after a fight broke out inside. The spokeswoman, Susan Finarelli, said people were just beginning to head for the exits making for a chaotic scene. Finarelli said that near a side street and parking lot outside, someone fired multiple rounds, wounding three people. One man who was struck in the shoulder went back inside and sought help, and was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, Finarelli said. The other two men reported on their own to a hospital in Frederick, Md., and told authorities that they had been shot in Falls Church, Finarelli said. Finarelli said none of the mens wounds were thought to be life-threatening. It was unclear what sparked the fight or if that led directly to the shooting outside, Finarelli said. She said police think there was only one shooter, though they did not have a good description of him, other than that he was a male standing about 58. Falls Church police are searching for a suspect who shot and injured three people during a concert at State Theater early Monday. (WUSA9) According to information on its website, the theater, on North Washington Street, was hosting a go-go show Sunday night called Love, Peace and Unity 2, featuring Northeast Groovers and Scarface. Finarelli said all of those wounded had attended the concert, though she was unsure whether the suspect had or if the shooting was in any way related to the show. Those with information are asked to call Falls Church police at 703-248-5053. My 9-year-old looked up at the fancy treehouse dividing a neighborhood not far from the U.S. Capitol. Adults are mad about this? he demanded, astounded. This is so cool. Weve read about a magic treehouse. Is this one magic? Maybe. Dark magic, though. Because this cutesy, overdesigned little treehouse in a tucked-away, narrow pedestrian alley near 6th and G streets in Southeast Washington has done more than spark a neighborhood turf war. It has provided us with yet another example of the countrys growing intolerance for childhood and all the imperfections that come with raising kids. What else explains the full-throated legal, political and regulative fury over treehouses, lemonade stands, a rural back-yard ice rink and other kid-fueled enterprises? This Capitol Hill treehouse has sparked debate among neighbors, with some saying it shouldn't have been constructed 20 inches over their property line into the alley. (Larry Janezich/Capitol Hill Corner) Meanwhile, weve got shows such as Treehouse Masters a parade of ultimate adult treehouses with hot tubs, martini bars, A/C and big-screen televisions. Even Dale Earnhardt Jr. has one. But you, young children who live next to grumperella? Not for you. [This treehouse extends 20 inches into an alley, and its dividing neighbors] The parents who built the Capitol Hill treehouse for their daughters, ages 3 and 5, checked with the city on permits before constructing their little castle in the sky. It sits in an elm tree on their property that has branches that extend into the alley. The treehouse, which looks more Pottery Barn Kids than Henry Huggins, is about 10 feet off the ground and juts into the alley by 20 inches. This isnt the corrugated steel, wood scraps, tar shingles and carpet remnants of the treehouses of my youth. Its actually nice (and safer). And given that its in view of maybe eight neighbors, probably the stuff that went down in our 70s treehouse wont happen there. But the alley, Archibald Walk, is one of those little spaces thats all artsy-fartsy-wine-party-eclectic. The neighbors put out potted plants and benches, there are little statues in wall alcoves and colorful tiles. The bollards leading up to it have been painted in carnival stripes. Its like a feature in Southern Living where they charm up urban alleys. Once, when I was picking up the kids from their tae kwon do class in the church next to the alley, there was a full-on disco ball party happening there. All weekend, a parade of visitors gawked at the treehouse and debated its merits. Oh, its not that bad. Its kind of charming, a woman said. It doesnt belong, her husband ruled. The law says it doesnt belong. Its the city, move to the suburbs if you want a treehouse, a lot of other folks said. But its happening in the burbs, too. There were two recent battles in Northern Virginia where folks were cited and treehouses on private property had to be torn down when neighbors didnt like what they were seeing. In Pennsylvania, a 14-year-old girl who engineered and built an amazing treehouse in her suburban front yard had to dismantle it because officials decided it was against town regulations, which make no mention of a treehouse and were studied extensively by Elisa Truchans family before construction began. [Inspectors may close a backyard ice rink honoring a stepdaughters memory] This kind of adulthood buzzkill is also about to whack a back-yard ice rink in Poolesville, Md., that has been a magnet for kids. Officials intervened because the synthetic rink sits in an agricultural reserve, which doesnt permit public use. How about the wave of crackdowns on lemonade stands? Kids across the country have been shut down and fined for not having permits to sell. Way to go, grown-ups, for trying to kill important parts of becoming an adult: discovery, risk, independence. I recently chaperoned a field trip to a museum. After the kids were attentive and well-behaved inside, we took them over to a public space to play. They organized games of sharks and minnows and freeze tag, zigging and zagging and, yes, occasionally whizzing past museum-goers out for a stroll. The other parents and I were on edge, waiting for a not-amused adult to holler. Sure enough, there she was. An older woman in her going-to-a-museum whimsical scarf unlinked arms with her husband and headed right toward us across the lawn. Are these children with you? she asked. Um, yes, we chirped. Well, I want to congratulate you. It is so refreshing to see children acting like children. To see them run and play outdoors. To hear them laugh and scream, she said. We exhaled so hard we nearly knocked her over. Its so much better than having them closed away and with their electronics, not bothering anyone. Right on, museum lady. Hear that, folks? There are times to let it go, to embrace or at least accept the messier aspects of childrens lives. To give an inch, or maybe 20. Twitter: @petulad Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of a culinary business. It is FreshLe.Prep, not Fresh LePrep. The story has been updated. Deb Cohen, who runs Little Sugars with her mother and sister, decorates cookies at Frontier Kitchen, a culinary business incubator, in Lorton. Lissy Tropea, left, of Pies + Petals and staff members from Casero Creations also make use of the space. (Jonathan Hunley/For The Washington Post) Its like theyre hiding in the Batcave of commercial kitchens. At least a few of those hoping to be Northern Virginias culinary stars of the future are honing their craft not at a highfalutin downtown hotel, but behind a rolling garage-style door in an industrial park a couple of minutes from Interstate 95. This perhaps unlikely location in Lorton is one of two homes of Frontier Kitchen, a business incubator for the food industry that began operation in late May. The other is in a converted school in Haymarket. Owners of culinary start-ups know how to cook, but they might not have a handle on how to organize a business, market it or make sure it conforms to government regulations. So they go to Frontier Kitchen chief executive Brenda C. Brown for that help. The Woodbridge resident, 40, said last week that the project got started in February 2014, when her husband, Grant Brown, was getting out of culinary school. He wanted to share kitchen space, and the Browns heard that vendors at a local farmers market also needed a place to work. Now, 31 companies are members of Frontier Kitchen. The Frontier name refers to the early stage of those enterprises, but the concept of the culinary incubator is relatively new, as well. A couple hundred are operating nationally, Brown said, including Union Kitchen and Mess Hall in the District, but she said hers is the only one of its kind in Virginia. Frontier members represent a broad range of the food industry, Brown said. There are caterers and bakers, for example, and those making products to be sold at retailers. The Farm Effect, a company with a food truck, and FreshLe.Prep, which packages prepared meals, were toiling one day recently at the custom-built Lorton kitchen. The entrepreneurs are of different ages and from various backgrounds. Some are holding down other jobs while they develop their businesses. Deb Cohen is a psychologist who is focusing on a cookie venture called Little Sugars with her mother and sister. Cohen, who lives in Oakton and usually bakes at Frontier Kitchens Haymarket location, aims to donate much of her profit to charitable organizations that benefit veterans. She said that running Little Sugars has been a bonding experience for her family since the death of her father, a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, about a year ago. And her treats seem to be catching on: Little Sugars produced thousands of cookies between September and December, Cohen said, doing about $2,000 worth of business. Frontier Kitchen has really helped me to launch, she said. Working next to her in Lorton recently was Lissy Tropea of Nokesville, the baker behind Pies + Petals. As a visitor tasted one of her scones, Tropea said that her favorite part of Frontier Kitchen is the monthly member meetings. It gets old working in the kitchen by yourself, Tropea said, and her peers are glad to swap ideas and even share recipes. The atmosphere is more communal than competitive. I dont feel like I have to be better than anyone, she said. Jim Neighbors, a partner in the Springfield-based Cascade Beverage Co., likes the networking opportunities. Cascade is concentrating on nitro coffee, a brew that flows from a tap and has a foamy head, which makes it look more like beer than a cup of joe. Neighbors connected his coffee bean vendor with a Frontier mate who needed help on a project outside of the food industry. Whats fascinating is you have so many people of like minds at the culinary incubator, he said. Kristen Tenerys business involves beverages, too, but not in the traditional sense. Sweet on the Bubbly makes jams with wine and top-shelf liqueurs. Tenery, who lives in Alexandria, said in an email that a culinary incubator can help emerging businesses with resources and improve visibility within the culinary community because the incubator is established and has connections. Hunley is a freelance writer. WEATHER Midwest enters deep freeze An arctic air mass moved across the upper Midwest on Sunday, freezing water pipes in Minnesota and leading Chicago officials to ask residents to check on neighbors. Because of El Nino, winter got off to a mild start. But a blast of dangerous cold moved east across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes over the weekend. Temperatures bottomed out at 36 degrees below zero in Fosston in northwest Minnesota. More than 800 miles to the southeast, wind chills in Indianapolis were expected to plummet to minus-20. Parts of Illinois were in the single digits. The National Weather Service warned wind-chill numbers could drop to near 30 degrees below zero overnight Sunday into Monday. It was so cold in western Minnesota that traffic lights went dark Sunday morning in Montevideo when a transformer blew. One homeowners bid to thaw pipes in West Duluth caused a fire that led to $37,000 in damage, WDIO-TV reported. Many cities sought to ensure no one succumbed to the cold. The Indianapolis Star reported that the state Department of Homeland Security would send anyone needing shelter from the weather Sunday and Monday to a Salvation Army facility. Winter weather advisories were in effect along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where lake-effect snow was expected to generate more than six inches in some areas. Associated Press Indiana Tests at 100 farms negative for bird flu No additional turkey farms in a southern Indiana county have tested positive for bird flu since an outbreak at 10 farms, where nearly 250,000 turkeys will be killed as a result, authorities said Sunday. That 100 farms tested over 24 hours came back negative was a sign control measures appear to be working, said Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. She called the current bird-flu outbreak one of the worst to ever strike Indiana, adding that it could take several weeks before it is known for sure that it has been contained. The infections were reported Friday and Saturday. Associated Press Hawaii Ocean search for Marines continues The search for 12 Marines who are missing after two helicopters crashed off Hawaii entered the third day with no plans Sunday to call off or suspend the massive effort, the Coast Guard said. Although high surf complicated the mission for rescuers on the water, a green laser off Haleiwa Beach Park on Saturday night struck a Coast Guard plane, forcing crew members to alter search patterns. Its a very, very dangerous thing, Coast Guard spokeswoman Tara Molle said of the laser, adding that it can be life-threatening for crews flying at night. The crew of the HC-130 plane wasnt exposed and didnt have to land, but they changed their search pattern to avoid being hit again. The Coast Guard reminded the public that targeting a laser at an aircraft is illegal and can result in a fine of $11,000 per violation. Rescuers have been searching round-the-clock since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday of the crash by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then disappear. Associated Press Three found dead near campus: New York authorities are investigating the deaths of three people who were found in a house in a town about 35 miles south of Rochester. The bodies were discovered after police responded to the home on Wadsworth Street in Geneseo about 6 a.m. Sunday. The victims were identified as Kelsey Annese, 21, of Webster, Collin Kingston, 24, of Geneseo and Matthew Hutchinson, 24, of Vancouver, British Columbia. The house is near the campus of the State University of New York at Geneseo. Police say Annese and Hutchinson were students at Geneseo and Kingston was a former student. Police said they think the perpetrator was one of the victims. Driver arrested in killing of student: Police have made an arrest in connection with a fatal Arizona road-rage shooting of a student visiting from China. Tempe police Lt. Michael Pooley said Sunday that Holly Davis, 32, has been booked on three charges including first-degree murder. According to police, Daviss vehicle was involved in a collision about 2:40 p.m. Saturday. Davis allegedly got out of her car and fired several shots into the other vehicle, hitting Yue Jiang several times. Pooley said Jiang, 19, lost control, crashing her vehicle into another car carrying a family of five. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. Police said Jiang was a university student. Senator targets spotty cellphone service: Theres one thing Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) says is driving New Yorkers crazy: dropped cellphone calls in dead zones all over the city. Schumer announced Sunday that hes starting a crowdsourcing campaign to field complaints about spotty service locations. Hell then release names of the biggest culprits to the public, while challenging wireless carriers to fix connections. Cellphones are essential for New Yorkers, but what good is a cellphone unless you have good coverage? he said at a news conference, noting that lack of service could prove dangerous in emergencies. New Yorkers are using wireless carriers far more than landlines to keep in touch with loved ones and to place important calls and so, our wireless carriers need to make sure our cellphone coverage is uninterrupted, the senator said. From news services Family-owned and operated Tire Discounters, the nations eighth largest independent tire retailer, opened its newest location in Fort Oglethorpe, marking the 100th store in the companys nearly 40-year history and its first in the state of Georgia.Located at 2925 Battlefield Pkwy., the Fort Oglethorpe store will feature 7,900 square-feet of space, eight service bays and will employ 12 people. With this latest addition, Tire Discounters now has a five-state regional footprint, with a presence in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Georgia.Tire Discounters built its business on giving its customers complimentary services that extend the life of tires and improve overall performance, officials said.Any new tire purchase (1, 2, 3 or 4 tires) includes: Free Alignment for safer handling, longer lasting tires and improved gas mileage; and Free Lifetime Tire Maintenance Package (includes lifetime rotation, balancing, and valve stems).Officials said, "Most name brand tires and value-based tires are in stock, and virtually all brands are available, ensuring a variety of prices for a range of budgets. Tire Discounters also offers full menu of factory recommended maintenance services performed by ASE Certified Technicians.""We are extremely proud and thankful to reach this great milestone," said Chip Wood, founder and chairman of Tire Discounters. Our faithful customers have been integral to our consistent growth over nearly four decades and we are excited to continue building by providing unmatched service and doing the right thing.Tire Discounters officials said their success can also be traced to a company culture that attracts the top employees in the industry. We are committed to doing the right thing for our employees and investing in them, their development and their well-being, said Sarah Stimson, Tire Discounters executive vice president of talent development.Tire Discounters is currently hiring sales people, management trainees, mechanics and technicians of all experience levels across the region. Interested candidates can apply online at www.tirediscounters.com/careers The U.S. Forest Service said 10 million acres that burned in 2015 set a record, but a 1940s poster suggests that up to 30 million acres burned some years in the early 20th century. (Courtesy of Tom Swetnam) Wildfires scorched a vast swath of the American wilderness last year. But whether the 10 million acres that burned is a record, as the Obama administration recently announced, or an exaggeration, as some environmentalists claim, is a source of heated debate in a long-running fight over how to manage the nations forests. A network of about 30 small environmental groups that view wildfires as a natural part of the ecology and think more should be allowed to burn consider the U.S. Forest Services record declaration a scare tactic. These critics say the service suppresses too many fires as part of what Chad Hanson, a fire ecologist for the John Muir Project, calls a 19th-century notion that they damage the ecology and are bad. The dispute could have ramifications on Capitol Hill and for communities surrounded by wilderness and the firefighters who defend them. The Agriculture Department, which controls the Forest Service, spent $1.7 billion battling last years blazes and is pressing lawmakers to provide more funding this year. Climate change has extended the fire season, officials say, and more huge fires are likely given the ongoing drought in the West. But the critics want Congress to deny the request, saying the way the service manages the woods with logging contractors cutting trees and removing underbrush is actually causing more intense and damaging fires. Hanson and fire historians say that in the early 20th century, up to 30 million acres burned each year, mostly in the understory of trees and with less severity. Over a dozen years of scientific inquiry tells us that increasing logging, especially the clear cutting and intensive thinning operations proposed in Agricultures request for more funding, would damage habitat, threaten species, the groups wrote in a letter to senators last month. Along the Pacific Coast Highway in Ventura County, California, a charred sign bears witness to a late December wildfire. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters) [Agriculture secretary demands more money to fight wildfires] Much of their concern is focused on what the service does after a fire, when it clears charred trees and other debris to prevent it from reigniting. They say birds and small mammals use those damaged trees as habitat, and new plants thrive again within a few years. Fires are necessary and important for our forest ecosystems . . . and should not be universally extinguished at great cost to taxpayers, the groups wrote. But the environmental community itself is divided over the issue. Nearly 150 larger organizations sent their own letter to Congress in November supporting the Forest Service. They said the agency is responding to wilderness and an ecology that has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. Millions of acres of wildlands that once burned routinely have given way to homes and businesses, something the service must consider, they noted. We need to have intelligent fire fighting, said Chris Topik, director of the Restoring Americas Forests program at the Nature Conservancy, which signed onto the November letter. More than half of new homes built since the 1990s are on the edge of wild land, he said. The essence is, theres so many more people at risk. There are things we all really care about, like wilderness and wildlife, but you have to gauge it with the risks. Moreover, the drinking water for millions of Americans comes from rivers and streams that are often filled with soot and eroded debris after fires another reason the Forest Service says cleanup is important. Criticism of the services methods is not new, and officials dismiss the accusation that 2015 was not an unprecedented year, saying that the way wildfires are measured now is far superior to the haphazard record-keeping of the past. A firefighter mops up during a wildfire in the Solimar Beach area of Ventura County, Calif. in December. (Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters) The National Interagency Fire Center relies on state and federal agencies across the country as part of a coordinated system that did not exist before 1960. Satellite and laser mapping are used in the effort. Were not arguing about fire, were arguing about forest management, said Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie, who oversees the Forest Service. Public lands management is not without controversy. [California drought: a 500-year record breaker] Thomas Swetnam, a professor emeritus at the University of Arizona who studies wildfires, says comparing those from the early and mid-1900s with ones today is like comparing apples and oranges. Back then, Gulf Coast states such as Florida, Alabama and Mississippi regularly set massive fires in a forest ecosystem that stretched over 90 million acres; officials believed it should be cleared for various reasons, including as a preemptive measure. Those intentional blazes were once included in the Forest Services historical tally, but no longer. The statistics posted online by the interagency center the ones used to mark 10,125,149 acres burned in 2015 as a record only go back 55 years. Yet a more important change, Swetnam said, is the change in fire geography and behavior. The big fires are primarily breaking out in the West, and theyre more frequent, hotter and bigger, something he links to warming temperatures. Whats been happening in the last 30 years is absolutely unprecedented in the western U.S., he said, adding by email, The trend[s] . . . are genuine, and very damaging and worrisome. But the Forest Service is also to blame, said Terry Davis, director of the Mother Lode chapter of the Sierra Club, which encompasses 24 Northern California counties. Before the 1960s before the service started removing brush and charred trees to try to prevent future occurrences most wildfires in his neck of the woods tended to be low-severity burns that simmered in the underbrush, he said. Now the trend after fire suppression is [that] half of fires are high severity, he said. Instead of having a nice burn that eliminated fuels, they climb up to the top of trees and crown. Davis sees fires as instrumental, even necessary, in shaping forests: The dry Western forests like we have in California evolve with frequent fire. FRANCE Man dies after taking part in drug trial A man taking part in a trial for an experimental painkiller died in a hospital on Sunday and five other participants remain hospitalized in one of Frances most troubling medical incidents. French prosecutors have launched a manslaughter investigation into the case, which shined a spotlight on the practice of testing drugs on paid, healthy human volunteers. Scores were given the drug. The Portuguese pharmaceutical company testing the drug, Bial, said it is working with health authorities to determine what caused this tragic and unfortunate situation. The Rennes University Hospital Center in western France announced the death but did not identify the patient, who was brain-dead. He was among six male volunteers ages 28 to 49 who were hospitalized last week after volunteering to take the drug. French authorities have said that three of the hospitalized volunteers face possible brain damage. The Paris prosecutors office said the investigation was expanded after the death to include potential manslaughter charges. The drug trial, which began Jan. 7, involved 90 healthy volunteers who were given the experimental drug in varying doses at different times. Associated Press YEMEN Attack in Aden targets police chief, kills 7 A suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the police chiefs house in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on Sunday, killing seven civilians and security personnel in an assassination attempt. Militants elsewhere in the country killed two other security officials. Aden Police Chief Shallal Shayei had survived a similar assassination attempt last month, as did the governor this month. Adens previous governor was killed in an attack claimed by a local affiliate of the Islamic State militant group. Officials said Sunday that an armored vehicle blocked the suicide car bomber a few yards from the gates of Shayeis house. The explosion ripped through a bus that was passing by. Yemen has been mired in a conflict pitting Shiite Houthi rebels against the internationally backed government, which is allied with a Saudi-led coalition. The fighting has killed more than 5,800 people since March, when the coalition began striking Houthi targets from the air. The chaos has allowed a powerful local al-Qaeda affiliate and a recently formed branch of the Islamic State to expand their reach here, including in Aden, Yemens commercial hub. U.S. drones have carried out strikes since the start of the year targeting al-Qaeda, according to security officials and witnesses, who said drone strikes killed 13 militants on Sunday in Jaar, a town seized by the group last year. They did not know the affiliation of the militants. Elsewhere in Yemen, Police Chief Adel al-Asbahi of Bayda province was killed by a bomb planted in his vehicle Sunday, while Mohammed al-Dhali of the special forces was killed by gunmen in the rebel-held capital, Sanaa. No group has asserted responsibility for the killings. Associated Press EASTERN EUROPE Blizzard conditions cut travel and power Blizzards battered parts of Eastern Europe on Sunday, causing road closures, train and flight cancellations, and power outages. The snow blanketed parts of Romania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Poland, while Croatias Adriatic coast was hit by unseasonably low temperatures and high winds. Romania said 12 major roads were closed Sunday because of heavy snow and three Black Sea ports had to shut down because of high winds. Authorities said 20 trains were canceled, as were at least three flights. About 14 communities in Romania suffered power outages, and the Education Ministry said schools would close Monday in Bucharest, the capital, and in other southeastern regions. The cold snap also gripped other countries, causing traffic problems and power outages. Polands Interior Ministry said last week that 72 people have frozen to death since November, when temperatures first dipped below zero (32 degrees Fahrenheit), while 29 people were asphyxiated by fumes from coal heaters. In Bulgaria, snowfall of up to 15 inches was recorded in parts of the Balkan nation and temperatures dipped to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Hundreds of refugees traveling from Macedonia trudged through the snow, braving freezing temperatures to arrive Sunday at the registration center in Presevo in southern Serbia. Subzero temperatures and strong winds hit the Adriatic Sea coast in Croatia, disrupting some ferry lines and air traffic in the coastal city of Dubrovnik. Associated Press Suicide attack kills 13 in Afghanistan: A suicide bomber targeting a gathering in eastern Afghanistan killed 13 people, including seven members of a prominent pro-government clan, officials said. Fourteen people were wounded in the attack on the home of Obaidullah Shinwari, a scion of the clan and member of the Nangahar provincial council, the officials said. He was not harmed. The attack came a day before international talks aimed at reviving the peace process between the government and the Taliban. Egypts parliament backs anti-terrorism law: Egypts parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and shields its enforcers from legal ramifications. The law is one of about 400 issued by executive decree during the more than three years in which Egypt was governed without a parliament after it was dissolved in mid-2012. Egypt is confronting an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where militants have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Cairo and other cities also have suffered Islamist attacks. From news services Max Stier is president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, which this week is launching a new Center for Presidential Transition to help candidates prepare to govern. Dear presidential candidates: A little over a year from now, one of you will take the oath of office. Before Inauguration Day is over, the unexpected could occur a terrorist threat, a global or domestic crisis and require your immediate attention. Will you be ready? The hard work of governing our nation probably seems a long way off given that you must still secure your partys nomination and win the general election. But the inauguration will come at warp speed. If you are not preparing now, you could be putting the nation in jeopardy and risk starting your presidency at a disadvantage from which your administration might never recover. As president, you will be in charge of the largest and most important organization in the world. You will have to make 4,000 political appointments, including more than 1,000 for Senate-confirmed leadership positions; oversee a $3.7 trillion budget; and manage a workforce of 2.1 million civilian employees and more than 2 million active-duty and reserve members of the armed forces. You will have to make decisions on a wide range of critical issues and reach accommodation with an often unruly 535-member board of directors known as Congress. Despite the magnitude of this task, most candidates do not adequately prepare to govern. Campaigns are contentious and consuming, and carrying out transition planning well in advance of the election has been derisively viewed as presumptuous, with candidates often accused of prematurely measuring the drapes before votes are counted. But the 77 days between the election and the inauguration do not provide enough time to identify and vet your top management team or get up to speed on the complex policy and management issues you will face. Even waiting to begin this work until after your partys nominating convention this summer will be far too late. In a scene from the 1972 film The Candidate, Robert Redfords character turns to his campaign manager after winning a hard-fought Senate race and asks, What do we do now? You do not want to be in this position. Luck and hope are not a strategy. As you devote your time and energy to the campaign, you must simultaneously lay the groundwork for a disciplined, well-organized transfer of knowledge and power should the American people elect you as our next president. You should be ready to announce a transition chairman by the first week of April so that person can set up a transition office by May to take full advantage of a law Congress approved in 2010 that provides pre-election transition resources to the nominees immediately following their partys conventions. Your transition staff should compile lists of potential top-level appointees, including people who know how to manage large enterprises, and you should set a goal of having your core team members, including the White House staff and the top 100 agency leaders, in place immediately after Inauguration Day, and another 300 key appointees on the job by the August congressional recess. The transition team should formulate your administrations policy agenda and develop a management strategy for implementing your priorities. Presidents champion policies and shape the direction of the nation. Yet they often fail to appreciate the direct link between the success of their administration and the need for a sound plan and capable people to advance their policies and programs. Every administration experiences unexpected early crises think about the 2008-2009 financial meltdown and the 2001 terrorist attacks and serious management failures, such as the poor emergency response to Hurricane Katrina early in George W. Bushs second term and the botched rollout of Healthcare.gov, the online portal for President Obamas signature domestic policy initiative. Such missteps only contribute to the publics distrust of government. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that just 19 percent of Americans trust government always or most of the time, and only 20 percent would describe government programs as being well run. For the second consecutive year, Gallup reported that the public identified dissatisfaction with government as the nations top problem in 2015. This, more than anything, needs fixing. As voters, we long for substance instead of sound bites. There is nothing more substantive for a candidate to do than to fully prepare to run the incredibly complex enterprise that is our federal government and plan ahead to competently meet the needs of the public. Restoring faith in our government can only be accomplished by making government work better. Your success in this will depend in large part on the steps you take now. There is a lot to do, and Inauguration Day will be here before you know it. Its time to get to work. LITTLE WONDER that the only study to conclude that the Districts proposal to give workers up to 16 weeks of paid family leave is affordable was funded with a grant from the Obama administration. It was clear from how the White House enthusiastically promoted the plan that it saw the Wilson Building as the route to achieve political objectives it couldnt win in the Capitol. But whats most insulting about using the District as a petri dish for a leave plan unprecedented in its expansiveness is that it comes after seven years of this administration doing virtually nothing to advance D.C. interests. Conflicting conclusions about the costs of establishing a program of universal paid leave for almost every part-time and full-time employee who wants time off to take care of a new baby, sick parent or themselves were aired last week before the D.C. Council. The Institute for Womens Policy Research, which received a grant from the federal Labor Department, said a proposed 1 percent salary tax on employers would be sufficient to pay for the program while a study commissioned by a Washington-area business group concluded there would be a shortfall of about $380 million. A think tank that does gender-focused analysis and companies facing the prospect of yet another tax are likely to start out with certain predispositions. So we hope lawmakers were paying attention when D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Dewitt warned about a disparity of revenues collected and benefits paid and the substantial costs that would be involved in administering the program. Or when Norton Francis, a top researcher with the Urban Institute, said program costs were underestimated not only by the federally financed study but also by the D.C. business owners group. And we would recommend that the council study the thoughtful essay by two public policy experts that appeared Jan. 17 in The Posts Local Opinions pages on how to provide paid leave in a fiscally responsible way. No one can dispute that the United States is behind other advanced countries in helping workers get the time off they need to tend to critical family matters. But its concerning that seven of the 13 council members jumped on the bandwagon for this preposterous plan. Its important they proceed more cautiously and thoughtfully. And if the president wants to get involved in D.C. matters and is looking for things to do in his final year in office, we suggest he take up the cause of D.C. residents, who are denied voting representation in Congress. The Jan. 14 editorial Approve the trade deal cited economic predictions of the positive impact the Trans-Pacific Partnership would have in the future on jobs here and elsewhere, ignoring the utter failure of past trade agreements to fulfill similar forecasts. H. Ross Perots opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement was expressed in the colorful phrase that There will be a giant sucking sound going south. Of course, Mr. Perot was right. Try finding products made in the United States. Isnt it possible to make a shirt in the United States? Its hard to believe that it cant be done. Its believable, however, that the profit margin is much larger using Chinese labor paid a pittance and working in bad conditions. The heads of U.S. corporations have decided that bigger profit margins are more important than any commitment to American workers. They are guided by the new 11th commandment: At all costs, increase shareholder value, and damn the consequences to their compatriots. That is what is guiding the drive for the TPP, not a belief that this will benefit U.S. workers. Benjamin L. Palumbo, Arlington In the Republican debate last week, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich offered tactical arguments against Donald Trumps proposed ban on Muslims coming to the United States. The policy would make it impossible to build the coalition necessary to take out the Islamic State, Mr. Bush said. The United States is going to need a coalition made up of Arabs and Americans and westerners, Mr. Kasich agreed, and if we call everybody the same thing, we cant do it. Their argument is correct (weve made similar points in editorials), and their responses were a cut above those of other candidates on the stage. Asked whether they would support a ban, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio all deflected the question with boasts about how tough theyd be fighting the Islamic State or keeping refugees out of the country. But on the holiday set aside to honor Martin Luther King Jr., it is worth recalling that tactical consequences are not the principal reason Americans should find the Trump proposal repellent. We are a nation founded on the ideal that every individual has value and deserves to be judged on his or her own merit. Each of us can make choices about the importance, to ourselves, of our racial or national heritage, our religion or lack thereof, our sexual identity. No one else has the right to make those choices for us. Being Muslim, or black, or Irish American doesnt tell anyone else who you are, much less what you are worth. When we start judging people based on the categories they belong to, we diminish ourselves. In April 1963, while he was in jail for leading nonviolent demonstrations against segregation in Birmingham, Ala., Dr. King, an Atlanta minister, faced criticism for having come from outside the state to stir up trouble. He rejected the outside agitator label. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider, he wrote. That might leave room to think of foreigners differently; nations have a right to decide who may enter. But Dr. King would have been the first to say that recognizing the humanity of every person is essential in those decisions as in domestic affairs. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny, Dr. King wrote in the same letter. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Thats a precept that can be found in some variation in most of the worlds religions. Its easy to preach, harder to practice. Our difficulty in sensing our place in that inescapable network of mutuality helps explain why a police officer may be more likely to shoot a fleeing suspect who doesnt look like him, why we may be more forgiving of drug addiction when it afflicts people who do look like us and why we can harden our hearts to desperate refugee children whose families worship an unfamiliar God. What makes this campaign season so ugly is that leaders are not just failing the test of empathy but taking pride in their failure. We would hope to hear candidates for president making clear that bigotry against Muslims is wrong because it is wrong because whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Clinton put Sanders on the defensive through much of the two-hour debate, but a hoarse-voiced Sanders got in numerous digs. He accused Clinton of being too cozy with Wall Street and beholden to the financial industry. He noted that Clinton has accepted millions in campaign donations and hundreds of thousands in speaking fees from the financial sector. With raised voices, interruptions and wonky examinations of one anothers voting records and policies, Sanders and Clinton battled over who had the more progressive or more workable solutions. Their exchanges were the most combative and personal of the campaign so far, reflecting the newly potent threat Sanders poses to Clinton in her second White House run. The debate revealed a stark contrast between a status quo vision of pragmatism represented by Clinton and the lofty aspirations of the most leftward wing of the party represented by Sanders. While Clinton pledged to work with both parties in Washington, Sanders insisted that progressive change will come only with a dramatic shake-up in the political system. Nothing real will happen unless we have a political revolution, he said. The three Democratic presidential contenders engaged in heated exchanges on health care, gun control, former president Bill Clinton and other issues in Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 17. Here are the key moments from the two-hour debate in three minutes. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) One of the sharpest exchanges came over health care, an issue that has vexed the Democratic Party for decades, and one on which Clinton has tried to seize the high ground. Two hours before the debate in a graceful hall in Charlestons genteel historic district, Sanders released details of his health-care plan, which if enacted would raise taxes. [The Democratic debate transcript, annotated] The plan would cost about $1.38 trillion a year, according to the Medicare for all document he released. Sanders proposes to pay for his plan through a combination of premiums paid by employers and households, new income tax rates and other changes to the tax code, and savings from current health-care spending that he says the plan would achieve. Clinton suggested that Sanderss latest plan was unserious Again, we need to get into the details, she said and charged that in pursuing his goal of a single-payer system, Sanders would jeopardize Obamas landmark Affordable Care Act. The Democratic Party in the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed, Clinton said. We finally have a path to universal health care. Weve accomplished so much already. I dont want to see the Republicans repeal it, and I dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate. Sanders delivered a snappy retort: No one is tearing this up. Were going to go forward. He bemoaned that the costs of health care in the United States are far greater than in other industrialized nations like Canada and France and that his Medicare-for-all plan would bring necessary improvements. Sanders said that some middle-class families would pay slightly more in taxes, an acknowledgment that advisers to Clinton quickly trumpeted on Twitter and elsewhere. [What the Clinton-Sanders health care debate is all about] Throughout the debate, Clinton found ways to cast herself as the rightful heir and protector of the Obama legacy. On health care, she said she was the one to preserve the Affordable Care Act. On financial reform, she commended him for the Dodd-Frank bill regulating Wall Street. And on foreign policy, she recalled her days as secretary of state advising the president in the White House Situation Room. The debate came 15 days before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, a key test of both candidates strength and momentum. It was the last debate and probably the final face-to-face meeting for Clinton and Sanders before the Iowa contest, which has suddenly become a dogfight after several sleepy months during which the raucous Republican campaign drowned out the Democrats. Long-shot candidate and former Maryland governor Martin OMalley joined Clinton and Sanders for the debate sponsored by NBC News, YouTube, the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and the South Carolina Democratic Party. The leading candidates also sparred over financial regulations. Sanders said Clinton was too friendly with Wall Street over two decades in national politics to be trusted to effectively crack down on the industry. Can you really reform Wall Street when they are spending millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and when they are providing speaker fees to individuals? Sanders asked. Its easy to say, Im going to do this and do that, but I have doubts. [With first two states in danger, Clinton goes on the attack against Sanders] The senator from Vermont said the financial system was corrupt, noting that it is very strange that a major financial institution that pays $5 billion in fines for breaking the law, not one of their executives is prosecuted while kids who smoke marijuana get a jail sentence. Clinton said there was no daylight between their plans for the banking industry. She said that experts had determined her proposals were effective and strong, to which OMalley interjected: Its just not true. He said Clinton would not go far enough to punish financial institutions and their top executives. Clinton used the exchange on financial regulations to drive a wedge between Sanders and Obama. She noted that Sanders in the past has criticized the president for accepting contributions from Wall Street and called the president weak and disappointing. Im going to defend Dodd-Frank and Im going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the financial industry and getting results, Clinton said. Co-moderator Andrea Mitchell raised the issue of Bill Clintons extramarital affairs, asking Sanders why he has criticized the former presidents past transgressions. Frustrated, Sanders said he cannot walk down the street without reporters asking him to attack Hillary Clinton. His behavior was deplorable, Sanders said of Bill Clinton. Im going to debate Secretary Clinton and Governor OMalley on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clintons personal behavior. At that, Clinton nodded and smiled. [Fact checking the fourth Democratic debate] Clinton had held a sturdy lead of between five and 10 percentage points in Iowa for most of the fall, but her advantage has evaporated to a statistical dead heat. In New Hampshire, which votes second, Sanders appears to have a slight lead. Sanders pointed to the polls, cracking a smile as he noted that when the campaign began Clinton had a roughly 50-point lead over the then-little-known senator from Vermont. Under the new dynamic, Clinton faces heavy pressure to show she can hold off Sanderss surge and avoid a replay of 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama surged ahead of her in Iowa. Sanders is also under pressure to offer more specifics on some of his policy proposals, as the self-described democratic socialist has come under heavier scrutiny. I have made it clear based on Senator Sanderss own record that he has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times and against the Brady gun-control law, Clinton said. He voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak, guns go into national parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Lets not forget what this is about, 90 people a day die from gun violence in our country. Thats 33,000 people a year. Sanders replied evenly, I think Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous. OMalley, who signed sweeping gun laws as governor, interjected to say: Theyve both been inconsistent when it comes to this issue. Im the one candidate on this stage that actually brought people together to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation. [Bernie Sanders still has a non-white voter problem] Clinton has singled out Sanderss 2005 vote for a bill that provided immunity for gun manufacturers, something she opposed as a senator from New York. Sanders initially defended his vote, but late Saturday he announced he supported legislation to repeal the bill. Sunday morning, Clinton slammed the shift as a debate-eve conversion and accused Sanders of a flip-flop. Clinton also has called on Sanders to join her in supporting new legislation to close what some call the Charleston loophole, which allows gun buyers who would fail a background check to still purchase a gun in the event that the background system malfunctions. The loophole is how Dylann Roof was able to obtain the gun he allegedly used to kill nine people in last years shooting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a few blocks from the debate venue in Charlestons historic downtown. Sanders said on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos that he would take a look at such legislation, which would give law enforcement more time to conduct criminal background checks on individuals looking to buy guns. He also touted his D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association as evidence that he is a staunch supporter of gun-control laws. Clinton is well positioned in South Carolina, which votes Feb. 27. She was about 40 points ahead of Sanders here in polls taken in December, largely on the strength of African American Democrats. The debate here was held on the eve of Martin Luther King Day, and all three candidates invoked the civil rights leader in their opening remarks. John Wagner in Charleston and Sean Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report. For anyone who has paid only scant attention to the Democratic nomination contest, it took only a few minutes Sunday night to grasp the state of the race. Two weeks before Iowans gather for their caucuses, Hillary Clinton sought to blunt the momentum behind Bernie Sanderss grass-roots insurgency. In response, Sanders raised the volume and the stakes, appealing to Democrats to support his call for a political revolution. For two hours, the two leading candidates for the nomination traded arguments over guns, health care, Wall Street, taxes and political change. But at heart, those issues were fodder for a display of competing styles, ambitions and arguments about how much to embrace the policies and record of the Obama administration and build on them. At moments, role reversal seemed to be underway. Clinton, still considered the favorite to win the partys nod, aggressively challenged the details of Sanderss agenda as if her nomination was at risk. Sanders, the underdog who has energized the grass roots, sought to keep focused on the big picture and a clarion call for change in what appeared to be an effort to prevent any erosion in his strength and standing. There were good reasons for Clintons posture in the debate. With polls showing a tightening race in Iowa, she cannot afford a loss there on Feb. 1. So she set about trying to raise doubts about where Sanders stands and whether he can really do what he says he wants to do. The differences between the two were most apparent in a very sharp exchange over health care a dramatic argument over the best way to insure the most Americans and a proxy for who has a governing strategy that can produce results. Sanders has called for a Medicare-for-all program, a single-payer system, to replace the Affordable Care Act enacted during Barack Obamas presidency. Clinton warned that what Sanders has proposed amounts to starting over and threatens to plunge the country into a new and highly contentious fight just as the ACA is taking hold. Rarely have Clinton and Sanders so underscored their contrasting views of the presidency. Clinton has become the candidate of continuity. She has differences with Obama on some issues, particularly in foreign policy. But in these final days before the first votes are cast, she has emphasized time and again her desire to extend and build on what the president has done in domestic policy. Sanders wants to go much further, and he has found an audience inside a Democratic Party whose liberal wing shares Sanderss critique of the political system as dominated by the rich and the elites and applauds Sanders for wanting to use the power of big government to raise wages, rebuild the countrys infrastructure and break up the big banks. The debate reflected the campaign in another way. There was a sense of urgency in the performances of both Clinton and Sanders. They talked over one another and past one another. Former Maryland governor Martin OMalley repeatedly tried to interrupt, but neither Sanders nor Clinton seemed willing to yield much space to him. In the end, its not likely the debate changed many minds, but it might have reinforced the supporters each of the candidates has. For sure, there are undecided voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, and history suggests that minds will change between now and those contests. But it will be left to Clinton and Sanders barnstorming over the next few weeks to drive those voters in one direction or another. With no more debates before Iowa and New Hampshire, the campaigns will be focused more than ever on final efforts to sway undecided voters and make sure identified supporters show up to vote. The calendar ahead offers opportunities and dangers for both Clinton and Sanders. But there is no disputing that Iowa will play a huge role in establishing the tone and direction of the Democratic contest. The most recent round of polls shows the state closer than it was a few months ago, a virtual dead heat. Iowa was the state that launched Obama toward the White House in 2008 and it is best remembered inside Clinton headquarters as the state that dealt her the cruelest defeat of the campaign. Swamped by an unexpected surge in turnout, she finished third. This time, her organization has been built on top of those sour memories, strategically designed to maximize opportunities to win the delegate count on caucus night. But Sanders has countered with the kind of grass-roots enthusiasm that has proved successful in some past caucuses. A Sanders victory in Iowa would boost his chances of winning New Hampshire possibly decisively. He already holds an advantage, in part because he represents neighboring Vermont in the Senate. Sanders victories in the first two states would dramatically change the dynamic of the race and likely guarantee a longer battle than otherwise might be expected. It would also bring about a fresh round of second-guessing among Clintons outside advisers, donors and loyalists. Clintons team continues to feel confident about the two states that follow Nevada and South Carolina. Her advisers see both as likely firewalls to give her a chance to regroup should she lose in Iowa and New Hampshire. In South Carolina, Clintons ties to the African American community give her a potentially significant advantage. Sanders is working hard to make himself better known and more appealing to black voters. Based on current polling, which shows Clinton with the overwhelming support of African Americans, Sanders faces an uphill struggle to make South Carolina competitive. However, his advisers, and some Democrats in the state, believe that victories in Iowa and New Hampshire would give him the opportunity to make the race here far closer. In Nevada, Clinton won the popular vote in the caucuses eight years ago but not the delegate count. This time, she benefits from the fact that Robby Mook, her campaign manager, and Marlon Marshall, who is overseeing the first four states, were top Clinton organizers there four years ago and have been paying close attention for months to organizing efforts. Once past the first four states, the Super Tuesday calendar sets up well for Clinton, with a group of contests in the South, where African Americans will make up a significant portion of the electorates. But that is all well into the future. Right now, the focus is on Iowa and New Hampshire and the strength of the Clinton and Sanders ground operations. Sundays debate amounted to the opening of a closing argument. With the choice clearer than it has been in this campaign, Democrats are heading for a noisy and consequential showdown. Joshua Fattal, center, with fellow detainees Shane Bauer, left, and Sarah Shourd in Tehran in 2010. Fattal, released in 2011, said he lost his keys to his first post-captivity apartment. I wasnt allowed to touch keys for a long time, he explained. (REUTERS) Its a long trip from Tehran, but it wont really end when three Americans released from Iranian prisons over the weekend touch down in the United States. It may be months before they can reclaim the freedom to live an ordinary life, before they feel as if they are truly at home again. Journalists, diplomats and others who have been held overseas have suffered sleeplessness, nightmares and illnesses induced by their imprisonment. They have confronted the inevitable choices about whether to seek privacy or accept publicity. For the prisoners released Saturday, those questions will be complicated by a heated presidential campaign. And then there are the little things. Joshua Fattal, an American who was arrested by Iranian officials while hiking near the border between Iraq and Iran and who spent two years in captivity, recalled moving into his first apartment after his release in 2011. He promptly lost his keys. I wasnt allowed to touch keys for a long time, he explained. How individuals respond to captivity varies widely, said Frank Ochberg, a psychiatrist at Michigan State University and a leading figure in research on traumatic stress. A gate at the U.S. military medical center in Landstuhl, Germany, moments after Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and two other Americans landed at Ramstein Air Base on Sunday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) I dont think we really know why one person is more emotionally and physically resilient than somebody else, he said. [The ordeal of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian] For those leaving prison, a comprehensive medical checkup is crucial, Ochberg said. Poor nutrition, unsanitary conditions and environmental toxins in prison can combine with stress to produce or exacerbate a range of medical conditions, such as diabetes, infections, thyroid disorders, circulatory problems, multiple sclerosis and Crohns disease. Three of the American prisoners leaving Iran Jason Rezaian, a correspondent for The Washington Post; Saeed Abedini, an evangelical pastor; and Amir Hekmati, a former Marine arrived in Germany on Sunday afternoon, where they were receiving medical attention at a U.S. military hospital. A fourth prisoner, student Matt Trevithick, was released and left the country separately. A fifth American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, was also released but chose to remain in Iran. In general, Ochberg said, seeing a psychologist isnt always necessary, especially for the former prisoners who have family and close friends to return to and a sense of purpose in their professional lives. That isnt to say that acclimating to freedom is easy. Roxana Saberi, a journalist imprisoned in Iran in 2009, had a habit of looking over her shoulder when she first returned to the United States. Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian has been freed from prison, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. He was arrested in Iran in 2014 and convicted of espionage last year. Here's what you need to know about the case against him. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) While she was in prison, the Iranians had demanded that she spy for them once she was released. It took her some time to shake the feeling that they would kidnap her and imprison her again because she was not cooperating. Those captors were very good at putting that fear in my head, that they could find me wherever I was, Saberi said. Its not a fear thats based in reality. Its just that some of those fears are, kind of, ingrained in my psyche. Like Rezaian, Saberi had been living and reporting in Iran when she was arrested, accused of espionage and locked up in Evin Prison. An appellate court ordered her release, and she was freed after spending 100 days in captivity. Back at home, she couldnt sleep at times. I had nightmares that people were coming for me, because I was taken from my apartment in Tehran, she said. Those nightmares are very rare now, she added. It took me probably a good two years to feel like I was really in a good place. Saberi chose to share her ordeal with the public. I tried to focus on writing about my experiences and talking about my cellmates I had left behind, she said. It gave me a sense of purpose. For others, the notoriety is disorienting. Fattal often felt as though people in the United States saw him only as a symbol in the political controversy surrounding Iran, not a human being. People have such strong opinions about the politics, where as a prisoner, thats your life, he said. It was strange to find everyone arguing about you and what you mean, he added. You just want to kind of get your feet on the ground and figure things out again. That discomfort might be even more pronounced for Rezaian, Abedini and Hekmati, who are returning to the United States during a presidential campaign in which candidates on both sides of the debate about Iran probably will invoke their names and their stories in support of their positions. Fattal predicted that Democratic and Republican candidates alike will point to what Rezaian suffered behind bars to show that Iran cant be trusted. Rezaian, a journalist, will have a chance to write about his incarceration and set the terms of the debate over the episode himself. He will have to make a decision about how soon he wants to be public, how much he wants to say that could be private and intimate, said Ochberg, the psychiatrist. There are definitely people who are going to be curious. For now, all that is still in the future, and Rezaian and his fellow former prisoners can enjoy their freedom. Initially, its absolutely fantastic, said David Rohde, an investigative journalist for Reuters. The Taliban kidnapped Rohde in Afghanistan in 2008 while he was reporting for the New York Times. He escaped after seven months in captivity. Youre not locked in a room. You eat when you want. You hug your loved ones when you want, Rohde added. Whatever difficulties you face, its so much better than being there. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, now in the two-week stretch before the first votes come, are laying down a choice for Democrats: Lead with their heads, or with their hearts. As the race has gotten tighter than just about anyone would have expected a few months ago, the two leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination are engaging each other more intensely and drawing distinctions that could reshape the identity of their party. History suggests that it is difficult for any party to keep the White House for three terms. For Democrats, the question is whether the best path to retaining power is the pragmatic or the ideal. This campaign is about a political revolution to not only elect the president but to transform this country, Sanders, a senator from Vermont who calls himself a democratic socialist, said during their debate Sunday night in Charleston, S.C. The Democratic battle is not the bitter rebellion of the grass roots against the establishment that is underway on the Republican side. For Democrats, 2016 is turning into a soul-searching exercise, reminiscent of many contests the party has seen in recent decades. A Bernie Sanders supporter carries a sign through a maze of political sign for Sanders and opponent Hillary Clinton before the start of the debate. (Randall Hill/Reuters) After a week when the former secretary of state had been thrown off balance by a set of alarming poll numbers, she was back on surer footing during Sundays debate, presenting herself as the pragmatic pick a reliable steward of President Obamas achievements and a realist with the experience to pick the fights that are winnable in an era of polarized politics. As were coming into the close here, the question is who can go toe to toe with the Republicans and protect the progress made under President Obama, Robby Mook, Clintons campaign manager, told reporters after the debate. Clintons aura of inevitability could be dented if she loses the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, reminding voters of how she stumbled the first time she ran as a formidable front-runner in 2008. For the first time, having Sanders as their standard-bearer is no longer outside the realm of possibility for Democratic elders. Im concerned that candidates in purple states would really face some problems with Senator Sanders at the top of the ticket, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell said in an interview. There has been a lot of energy in the Warren-Sanders-de Blasio wing of the party, Markell added, referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. I think that is unfortunate, both in terms of substance and in terms of politics. . . . Weve got to have a message thats compelling not only to Democrats but also to independents and even a few Republicans. [The fourth Democratic debate, annotated: Who said what and what it meant] Supporters of Sanders and Clinton rallied outside the Gaillard Center before the start of the debate. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Sanders, who, according to polls, has closed the gap with Clinton in Iowa and is leading her in New Hampshire, has struck a chord with the Democratic base by invoking both their aspirations and their disappointments that the Obama years have not delivered what they hoped. He also argues that Democrats including Clinton have been too cozy with Wall Street and the big banks. People are tired of being dominated by big-money interests, and Bernie Sanders expresses that, and I think he expresses it in a way that says, You know what? As Democrats, we also need to be about bold ideas, and not be afraid of bold ideas, said Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D), who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. One of the boldest of those is a single-payer health-care system, which Sanders describes as Medicare for all a massive expansion of government that many liberals believe is the only way to reach their cherished goal of medical coverage for everyone. That was the area where the two candidates had some of their harshest clashes during Sundays debate, their final one before the Iowa caucuses. The fact is, we have the Affordable Care Act. That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party and of our country, Clinton argued. Now, there are things we can do to improve it, but to tear it up and start over again, pushing our country back into that kind of a contentious debate, I think is the wrong direction. No one is tearing this up. Were going to go forward, Sanders retorted. But [what] the secretary neglected to mention, not just that 29 million still have no health insurance, that even more are underinsured with huge co-payments and deductibles. . . . The vision from FDR and Harry Truman was health care for all people, as a right, in a cost-effective way. There are those in Clintons camp who still dismiss the idea that Sanders is a threat to her, even if he wins Iowa and New Hampshire. As the race heads south after that, Clinton is counting on her more centrist profile, and her long-standing ties to African American voters, to carry her through. In South Carolina, for instance, black voters constituted 56 percent of the Democratic primary electorate in 2008 and could account for an even greater share this year, said Jamie Harrison, the state party chairman. I never, ever expected that Senator Bernie Sanders would get this far. But really, I dont see how he is any particular political challenge, said Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus. No one knows who the hell Bernie Sanders is, and its not his fault, he added. Bernies a nice guy from Brooklyn, found his way to Vermont and the House and the Senate, but it has nothing to do with establishing relationships with minority communities. Others, however, say that beating the formidable Clinton operation in the first two contests could change the dynamic of the entire race. Winning cures many ills in a campaign, said Jeff Weaver, Sanderss campaign manager. People give you a second look, or a first look in some cases. That was what happened in 2008, when Obama, a first-term senator, pulled out a stunning victory in Iowa. I think if Bernie wins Iowa and New Hampshire, I would bet, not the farm, but I would bet he wins South Carolina, said Phil Noble, a Charleston businessman who was one of Obamas earliest supporters in the state and who is now backing former Maryland governor Martin OMalley. The safe candidate is Hillary. To move to Bernie, its almost as though we need permission, Noble added. Thats what Iowa did for Obama. [Democratic debate: A choice between continuity and change] Jacqueline Gowe, a 20-year resident of Charlestons Daniel Island, is one who has been feeling the pressure to change her allegiance from Clinton to Sanders. It is coming from her 17-year-old son, Christopher. The two worked as volunteers in the cloakroom at Sundays debate. My son has been relentless in talking to me and trying to persuade me. He believes that Hillary is an establishment candidate, and he really drove this until Im beginning to see things differently, Gowe said. She respects Clinton and would like to see a female president, Gowe said. But with Christopher and his two siblings not that far from going to college, she also finds Sanderss promise of free tuition at public universities appealing. Many Clinton allies say they were worried last week when her campaign began lashing out at Sanders in some cases, mischaracterizing his positions. Her daughter, Chelsea, for instance, claimed during an appearance in New Hampshire that the senator from Vermont wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the [childrens health insurance] program, dismantle Medicare and dismantle private insurance. Some Democrats noted that, skilled and seasoned as Hillary Clinton is at deflecting Republican criticism, she is not so deft when the challenge comes from within her own party. She doesnt take incoming fire well. She hunkers down, one longtime Clinton adviser said. She gets very defensive and lashes out. Indeed, as her campaign stepped up its attacks on her rivals health-care plan last week, his campaign circulated a 2008 video of an outraged Clinton complaining that Obama was doing the same to her. Since when do Democrats attack one another on universal health care? Clinton said. So shame on you, Barack Obama. This is far from the first time that Democrats have seen this type of struggle within their party between pragmatism and idealism. Usually, the establishment-backed front-runner wins as President Jimmy Carter did over Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) in 1980, former vice president Walter Mondale did over Sen. Gary Hart (Colo.) in 1984, and Vice President Al Gore did over Sen. Bill Bradley (N.J.) in 2000. And occasionally, the insurgent triumphs as Sen. George McGovern (S.D.) did over Sen. Edmund Muskie (Maine) in 1972 and, of course, Obama did over Clinton in 2008. But it nearly always takes a toll. Of all of those races, the only time the Democratic nominee prevailed in a general election was when Obama won. In the end, many believe that liberals will find their way to embracing Clinton, especially if, as expected, she ends up being their only alternative to whomever the Republicans nominate. When you cut through it, progressives can be comfortable with her running at the top of the ticket, said Steve Rosenthal, a longtime political strategist for the labor movement. But its going to take a while to get them there. Abby Phillip, Philip Rucker, John Wagner and Vanessa Williams contributed to this report. At the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition convention, the name Barack Obama drew immediate grimaces and groans. Only two other words came close to matching that reaction. Wall Street. If we go someplace and order dinner for $15, and we dont pay, we get a criminal record, said Sarah Pawlikowski, a tea party activist from Columbia. Why is Wall Street treated any different? I think a lot of people should have gone to jail, said Cooper Wellons, a local land developer. If Id have done some of the things they did on Wall Street, Id have gone to jail. Eight years after the start of the Great Recession, and seven years since the Troubled Asset Relief Program was implemented, the anger at major financial institutions has only grown in both parties. On the left, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is fending off the surprisingly potent populism of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the accusation that she is Wall Streets candidate. On the right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and New York developer Donald Trump have come to dominate the Republican field, and both have ties to Wall Street. Both are running as fast as their legs can carry them from the Wall Street brand. [41 years. $3 billion. Inside the Clinton donor network.] The polling on views of Wall Street suggests that Sanders, Cruz and Trump have the right strategy. In 2013, a Reuters-Ipsos poll of more than 1,400 Americans found that just 22 percent approved of TARP years after the banks had been stabilized. Last year, when Lake Research Partners polled on behalf of the progressive Americans for Financial Reform, it found 70 percent agreeing with the statement that most people on Wall Street would be willing to break the law if they believed they could make a lot of money and get away with it. Thats how pop culture has remembered the crisis. The Big Short, the new Oscar-nominated film adaptation of Michael Lewiss book, features scene after scene of hedge-fund managers marveling at the corruption of the banks. When one character naively assumes that the Wall Streeters behind the housing bubble will be punished, their banks broken into pieces, a narrator played by Ryan Gosling interrupts the scene, offering a sort of epilogue. The banks took the money the American people gave them and used it to lobby the Congress to kill big reform, he says. And then, America blamed immigrants and poor people. That despondent history of the crisis has taken hold on the left. That troubles former congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee co-wrote the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, often called Dodd-Frank. But he understands the anger. Its because nobody went to jail, he said. The big banks are still more powerful than people would like. The fractured politics of Wall Street were on display in South Carolina last week, as both parties candidates descended for debates and campaign events. In Sunday evenings NBC-hosted debate, Sanders repeatedly warned that Clinton was too compromised to police the financial industry. Who is satisfied that millions of people have police records for possessing marijuana when the CEOs of Wall Street companies who destroyed our economy have no police records? he asked. Can you really reform Wall Street when they are spending millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and when they are providing speaker fees to individuals? Clinton responded to that including the direct reference to her paid speeches by defending the Obama administrations record on financial reform. Im going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, she said. Sanders has criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street, and President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession. That argument has not quieted the Democratic Partys resurgent left. The run-up to 2016 produced plenty of articles about Wall Streets hopes for a Clinton restoration, and her past campaign donations from Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein have achieved mythic status. On the day of the debate, at a rally for Sanders, a retired Charleston paralegal named Michele Phillips explained that honest people could have seen the crisis coming. Sanderss tenacity on Wall Street reform was among the reasons shed been drawn to him. Hes like a dog with a bone, she said. Hes not going to let the issue go. Sanders, who opposed both TARP and the 1999 Financial Services Act that deregulated the banks, has a record neither Clinton nor Republicans can mirror. But since the inception of the tea party in late 2008 and early 2009, the financial crisis has been blamed less on banks than a government that encouraged cronyism and rent-seeking. Conservatives have told themselves a story about the financial crisis in which Wall Street is either an accomplice or a stooge of ACORN and the government, said Mike Konczal, a fellow at the progressive Roosevelt Institute. It overlaps a little with what youll hear from liberals, because part of their theory is that regulators were asleep at the wheel. As Cruz stumped across South Carolina, he found his audiences receptive to a story about how Washington colluded with Wall Street. At a town hall meeting in Columbia, the states Republican attorney general, Alan Wilson, introduced Cruz by insisting that Dodd-Frank is to the financial industry what Obamacare is to the health-care industry, a popular conservative framing. Its centralizing power in the federal government to unelected bureaucrats, Wilson said. Its causing small banks to struggle against the Too Big to Fail banks. Republicans have argued for dismantling Dodd-Frank on that basis, though studies have found the argument wanting. Last month, a Government Accountability Office report requested by the party found that residential mortgage loans as a fraction of assets have generally grown for banks of all sizes and for some smaller credit unions but have decreased for larger credit unions. But theres a gulf between what a report may say and what voters may feel. In his speech to the tea party convention, Cruz ran right through it. You cant be tea party and at the same time have supported TARP, Cruz said. You cant be tea party and support corporate welfare and cronyism. So, if you really want to know what kind of president someone is going to be, you can ask yourself, where did they stand on TARP and the stimulus and cronyism? Cruzs rivals, led by Trump, have not rebutted that by defending TARP. They have highlighted Cruzs connection to Goldman Sachs. Two hours after Cruz left the stage, Trump reminded the crowd that Cruz had gotten a loan guarantee from Goldman during his 2012 Senate race. One day later, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) complemented Trumps defense of New York values by saying that Cruz wanted to vacuum up Wall Street cash without any of the consequences. Ted Cruz has no problem with New York values when hes collecting [money] from New York hedge funds, Christie said. Then New York values are just great. Those people have great values, Im sure, when they are writing him seven- and eight-figure checks. If he really has a problem with New York values, then he should return that money. Neither man pointed out that Cruzs wife, Heidi, worked for Goldman Sachs until her husbands campaign began. They hardly needed to. Go back and look at where all the five or six last treasury secretaries worked. They were all at Goldman Sachs, said William Bowers, a tea party activist from Columbia. That just jumps out and slaps you in the face on Christmas morning. That was not true, but it indicated just how much anger remained at the major financial institutions, even as they funded political campaigns. According to a late 2015 analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics, $5.9 million of Wall Street money made it into Clintons campaign or super PAC. Cruz had received $12.5 million; the fading campaign of former Florida governor Jeb Bush, more than double that. But there is no upside in claiming support from Wall Street and nothing but upside in attacking it. Over the weekend, the conservative powerhouse American Crossroads debuted a new ad, aimed at Iowa Democrats, that warned them not to embrace Wall Street by supporting Clinton. Hillary Clintons gotten 54 times more money from Wall Street interests than from all of Iowa, intoned a narrator, over images of Manhattan and falling dollar bills. Hillary rewarded Wall Street with the $700 billion bailout. Then, Wall Street made her a multimillionaire. It sounded like a blast of economic populism. To Frank, it also sounded transparently ridiculous. They are as eager to see Sanders nominated as I am to see Trump, he said. John Wagner in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report. Immigration rights activists take part in a demonstration on Lafayette Square in front of the White House in Washington on Jan. 15, 2015. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) The Obama White House is working frantically to quell the political outrage among immigration rights advocates and Latino leaders who say they feel betrayed by a recent series of deportation raids launched by the administration, mostly against women and children from Central America. While the raids continue with administration support, White House aides announced an expanded State Department partnership with the United Nations to resettle Central American refugees in the United States and elsewhere, and Vice President Biden traveled to the region last week to meet with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The goal of this effort is to provide a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently taking in the hands of human smugglers, said White House spokesman Peter Boogaard. Expanding resettlement opportunities is a key part of our broader response to the situation in the three nations, he said. The administrations decision to launch the raids has reopened old wounds between the White House and many Latino communities, and it has compromised the presidents efforts to create an election-year contrast with Republicans on immigration. U.S. officials said the operations are aimed at sending a strong message of deterrence to Central American families and avoiding a repeat of the 2014 border crisis when an influx of tens of thousands of migrants from the region overwhelmed patrol stations on the Mexican border. Federal authorities launched a nationwide operation to remove Central American illegal immigrants from the U.S. Here is what you need to know about why agents are targeting this group. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) But growing blowback from congressional Democrats and advocacy groups has put the White House on the defensive just 14 months after President Obama sought to repair strained relations with Latino voters by taking unilateral steps to ease the deportation threat for those with deep ties to the United States. The centerpiece of that program which would allow up to 5 million illegal immigrants to gain work permits without fear of being deported has been suspended by a federal judge who is reviewing a lawsuit over its constitutionality. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court announced it will rule this spring on the Obama administrations appeal of the lower courts injunction that has delayed the deferred action program for nearly a year. Administration officials have said they hope to get that program started before Obama leaves office, while the Republican candidates for president have vowed to overturn it. Administration officials fear that a failure to enforce the deportation orders against the Central American families would undermine their legal rationale for the deferred action program, which is based on the concept of prosecutorial discretion. DHS officials said the government has limited resources for immigration enforcement and they have prioritized the removals of felons, people with terrorist ties and recent border crossers who do not qualify for aslyum protections. The Obama White House has publicly supported the raids by the Department of Homeland Security, which this month apprehended 121 Central Americans with outstanding deportation orders in several states. In private meetings last week, DHS officials told immigrant rights advocates that they are considering expanding the raids to include minors who entered the country on their own, a move to further boost deterrence efforts, according to several people involved in the talks. Also reportedly under consideration for removal are Central Americans who failed to show up for their court hearings and have been ordered out of the country in absentia, those sources said. DHS officials declined to comment on the private meetings. Disappointed immigration reform advocates compared the current tactics to those employed by the George W. Bush administration, which ramped up raids on homes and workplaces in Bushs final years in office. They expressed bewilderment at the move in light of Obamas staunch defense of Muslim refugees fleeing civil war in Syria. The president harshly criticized the idea, advanced by some GOP presidential candidates, that the United States should temporarily ban Muslim refugees from entering the United States over fears of terrorism. Though relatively small in scale 77 people have been deported the DHS raids have gained resonance for their focus on women and children who have fled nations with soaring rates of gang violence, drug cartels and domestic abuse. President Obama's executive order would allow more than 4 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the U.S. for three years, but the Supreme Court could strike it down. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post) When President Obama stood up for the [Syrian] refugee program and stood up against the blanket racism directed at anyone who appeared to be Middle Eastern or Muslim, I think people were happy, said Paromita Shah, associate director off the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. But they cant square it with what he is doing now. Were asking ourselves, Why are we here at this point? Why did he have to do this? A group of 140 House Democrats sent a letter to Obama demanding that he halt the operations, and the three major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, including Hillary Clinton, have denounced the raids. At a demonstration outside the White House last week, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) joined protesters, including one who held up a news photograph from 2000 of a federal agent pointing a rifle at Elian Gonzalez, a 6-year-old from Cuba who was living in Miami. Obama aides scrambled to tamp down the criticism from their traditional allies. A top White House lawyer met on the afternoon of Obamas State of the Union address last Tuesday with half a dozen House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Bidens meeting with the presidents of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras focused on $750 million in newly allocated developmental aid from the United States that had been promised after the 2014 border crisis. In an interview, a senior administration official blamed the public outcry on sensationalized news coverage and a climate of fear fostered by GOP campaign rhetoric. Leading Republican presidential candidates, including real estate magnate Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), have pledged to deport all of the nations 11 million illegal immigrants and build a wall to keep them out. Its the combination of hysteria before anything happened and a moment when theres a lot of talk about deportation coming from folks in the political sphere, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because was not authorized to speak on the record. Its an atmosphere of high emotion, and that emotion has been reflected in ways that are understandable. . . . But theres just a gulf between that conversation and the reality of the enforcement that has taken place. Immigrant rights groups have been skeptical of the Obama administration since deportations reached a record high of more than 400,000 per year by the end of his first term. Under pressure from Democrats to scale back, Obama moved to reshape immigration policies through executive action after Congress failed to pass a comprehensive border-control bill in 2014. Days after the midterm elections, the president announced a new program to defer the deportations of up to 5 million illegal immigrants most of them parents of U.S. citizens who have lived in the United States at least five years. At the same time, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said his agency would focus its enforcement operations on the highest priorities. White House officials pointed to the 231,000 deportations in 2015, the lowest level of Obamas tenure, as evidence that the administration is pursuing more humane policies. Each of the Central Americans apprehended this month had been ruled ineligible for asylum by an immigration judge and ordered deported, officials said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employed female agents to make arrests of female immigrants and limited the amount of tactical gear agents wore in order to minimize the anxiety in the community, the officials said. Advocates applauded the beefed-up refugee resettlement program announced by Secretary of State John F. Kerry last week. But they said its creation served to highlight the disconnect between the nature of the immigration flow from Central America and the raids aimed at helping staunch it. Unlike previous generations of illegal immigrants, who came across the Southwest border seeking economic opportunity, the newer migrants are fleeing violence and physical abuse. Furthermore, advocates contend that the administrations focus on deportations as a deterrence strategy has lost potency. The number of Central American families crossing the Southwest border tripled in the final three months of 2015 compared with a year earlier, and the number of unaccompanied minors doubled, according to federal statistics. It seems that the fear in the community and the problems the raids have triggered far outweigh any perceived gains of deterrence, said Royce Murray, policy director at the National Immigrant Justice Center. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), while praising Kerrys refugee plan, called on the administration to immediately halt domestic immigration raids that fast-track the deportations of the very same families we are hoping to aid. For the immigrant communities, the raids have added to their frustration that Obamas deferred action program has been blocked for nearly a year by a federal court judge who is considering a lawsuit from Texas and 25 other states over its constitutionality. Immigration enforcement is a fact of life, said the administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record. This administration was the first to establish a set of priorities and the first to act on those priorities. Some of the very people who saluted the priorities when they were issued are now saying DHS should not execute on them. GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He is unexpectedly popular among evangelical. (Drew Angerer/Bloomberg) Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. stood before more than 10,000 of his students and some visitors Monday morning and laid out the case for why conservative evangelicals like them should support a presidential candidate like Donald Trump the cursing, self-promoting, thrice-married billionaire who bungles Bible references. Its not that Trump is the most religious or pious of the candidates, Falwell said, although he described Trump as a servant leader who lives a life of helping others, as Jesus taught. Its that Trump is a savvy businessman who speaks the truth publicly, even if it is uncomfortable for people to hear, and who is not a puppet of major donors. Falwell, who said his comments were not an endorsement, compared Trump to Ronald Reagan, the actor turned politician whom his father once supported over Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. When he walked into the voting booth, he wasnt electing a Sunday school teacher or a pastor or even a president who shared his theological beliefs; he was electing the president of the United States with the talents, abilities and experience required to lead a nation, Falwell said of his father, the late televangelist Jerry Falwell. After all, Jimmy Carter was a great Sunday school teacher, but look at what happened to our nation with him in the presidency. Trump, a mainline Presbyterian, is unexpectedly popular with many evangelical voters, who often play an outsize role in some early-voting states. These are the same sorts of voters who are attracted to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a Southern Baptist and son of a pastor who frequently discusses his faith on the campaign trail. As the race for the Republican presidential nomination narrows, the competition between Trump and Cruz is best illustrated by their fight for the votes of evangelicals. In national polls, Trump is either leading among evangelicals or roughly even with Cruz. But in Iowa home to the Feb. 1 caucuses Cruz has a substantial lead. Some of Trumps outreach efforts to evangelicals have seemed forced such as when he proclaimed the Bible the greatest book ever written, even greater than his own books, but could not name his favorite verse. Or when he handed out photos from his childhood confirmation at a rally in Iowa. Or when he commented that Cruzs father is from Cuba, and not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba. Republican candidate Donald Trump stated his intentions to "protect Christianity," when speaking at Liberty University on Jan. 18. He went on to quote a passage from "Two Corinthians," which is more often called "Second Corinthians." ( / Reuters) As Trump spoke at Liberty on Monday, students snickered when he referred to Two Corinthians instead of Second Corinthians, and Cruz campaign staffers joked about the mistake on Twitter. Liberty claims to be the worlds largest Christian university, and students are required to attend a chapel service three times a week called convocation. Its here that Cruz launched his presidential campaign. Two other Republicans former Florida governor Jeb Bush and retired surgeon Ben Carson as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), a Democratic presidential hopeful, have all been recent guest speakers. Trump first spoke at a convocation in 2012 and has kept in close touch with Falwell. On Monday, the Liberty audience was heavy with fans of Cruz and Carson, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The crowd was more likely to politely laugh at Trumps jokes than to boisterously cheer his campaign platforms. Those who plan to vote for Trump often said they would do so for reasons other than his religion, echoing Falwells opening thoughts. Jonathan Cody Hildebrand, a 19-year-old sophomore studying marketing, said he likes Trump, Cruz and Carson but he plans to vote in the Virginia primary for Trump because he has the best chance of beating Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. What I do know is that the Republican ideals line up with my Christian faith, so anyone on the right is better suited for me than anyone on the left, Hildebrand said. I know a lot of people speak of his ego and how thats not a Christian value but I honestly think his ego is what gets things done. Im okay with an egotistical president. He wants to be the best, and I think for that reason, he gets things done. Kenny Brown, 62, who owns a company that makes machine parts, said that he respects the religious beliefs of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (R) but that Huckabees spiritual beliefs are so hard, so strong, that they could get in the way of leading the nation. Brown said he likes that Trump has a good set of guiding morals but would put the good of the country above all else. He does lose his temper quite often, but Jesus lost his temper quite often, too, Brown said. . . . Hes not a perfect man, not perfect by a long ways, but when you look at what our country needs, youve got to have a good man, an honest man. Maria Teague, the 48-year-old mother of a Liberty student, said that right now Cruz is her top pick because of his Christian values, but she also likes that Trump is an outsider who isnt tied to big donors. I just feel like Trump will stand up for our country versus some of the regular politicians that weve had for years, said Teague, who drove more than four hours from North Carolina for the event. He doesnt have anything to gain hes got all of the money that he ever needs, he has all of the popularity that anybody would ever want. I mean, what other reason would he want to be president? Teague isnt convinced by Trumps claims of religious devotion, however: He didnt know where his favorite scripture was that kind of showed me that he was kind of bluffing that one a little bit. Some high-level evangelical leaders are baffled at why their colleagues and followers would embrace Trump. They are concerned about Trumps personal history, inflammatory comments about minorities, and unwillingness to seek forgiveness or admit fault. The late Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr. would be rolling over in his grave if he knew the son who bore his name had endorsed the most immoral and ungodly man to ever run for President of the United States, John Stemberger, president of Florida Family Action, said in a statement Monday. Trump is a thrice married owner of casinos with strip clubs and would give us the first First Lady who has proudly posed in the nude while supporting gay marriage and funding Planned Parenthood with taxpayer money. Russell Moore, an official with the Southern Baptist Convention, said that he was disturbed that Falwell invited Trump to speak on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and that Trumps comments about immigrants and African Americans constitute race baiting. As Trump spoke, Moore posted a stream of critical comments on Twitter: Politics driving the gospel rather than the other way around is the third temptation of Christ. He overcame it. Will we? In another tweet he wrote: This would be hilarious if it werent so counter to the mission of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pulliam Bailey reported from Washington. Scott Clement and Jose DelReal in Washington contributed to this report. Washington Post Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl describes Jason Rezaian's reunion with his family and Washington Post colleagues. Rezaian was freed Jan. 16, after being detained for 545 days in an Iranian prison. (The Washington Post) Washington Post Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl describes Jason Rezaian's reunion with his family and Washington Post colleagues. Rezaian was freed Jan. 16, after being detained for 545 days in an Iranian prison. (The Washington Post) Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter freed Saturday after almost 18 months of incarceration in an Iranian prison, met with Post editors Monday for the first time since his release and said he was feeling good physically as he recovers in a U.S. military hospital here. The Washington Posts executive editor, Martin Baron, and foreign editor, Douglas Jehl, said Rezaian looked good during their two-hour meeting in a conference room at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein Air Base. Rezaian, 39, was flown out of Iran on Sunday along with two other freed Iranian Americans as part of a prisoner deal with Iran linked to the implementation of a landmark nuclear agreement. [Freeing a reporter: Secret talks and a scary last-minute delay] Baron and Jehl said Monday evening that the face-to-face meeting so soon after Rezaians release from Tehrans notorious Evin Prison was an encouraging sign. Doctors and psychiatrists at the hospital are still assessing his health, and the recovery process in similar cases has taken months or years. 1 of 26 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad The scenes of arrival of three Americans freed by Iran View Photos A historic deal between Iran and the United States means the release of long-imprisoned Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and former Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati. In exchange, seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations will be granted clemency. Caption A historic deal between Iran and the United States led to the release of long-imprisoned Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Marine veteran Amir Mirza Hekmati. In exchange, seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations were granted clemency. Jan. 19, 2016 Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian sits at the Fisher House at the U.S. military medical center in Landstuhl, Germany, after his release from an Iranian prison. He and two other released Americans were flown to Landstuhl for medical evaluations. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue. I want people to know that physically, Im feeling good, said Rezaian, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans provided to him aboard the Swiss plane that flew the men to freedom. I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time. Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian has been freed after 544 days in Iranian prison. He was arrested in Iran in 2014 and convicted of espionage last year. Here's what you need to know about the case against him. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) Also released in the deal were former Marine Amir Hekmati, 32, of Flint, Mich., and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, 35, of Boise, Idaho. Accompanying Rezaian on the flight were his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian, and his mother, Mary Rezaian. A fourth Iranian American released as part of the arrangement, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran. An American student who was freed separately, Matthew Trevithick, 30, flew out Saturday on his own. [Photo gallery of scenes of arrival and anticipation] Abedini had been imprisoned since July 2012 for organizing home churches. Hekmati spent more than four years behind bars on spying charges following his arrest in August 2011 during a visit to see his grandmother. The historic nuclear accord with Iran dropped economic sanctions against the country and returned tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets in exchange for restrictions and tighter safeguards on Irans nuclear program. Members of Hekmatis family and the congressman from their district, Rep. Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.), met with Hekmati at the U.S. military hospital for about 15 minutes Monday, the family announced. On Monday, Rezaian described months of extraordinarily limited human interaction and said that at one point he spent 49 days in solitary confinement. Later, he was put in a 15-by-20-foot room with three cots and no mattresses. For exercise, he said, he would walk for up to five hours every day around an 8-by-8-foot concrete courtyard. [The ordeal of Post reporter Jason Rezaian] Rezaian also talked about some of the conditions of his detention, which Baron and Jehl said they could discuss only partially. For most of his time in prison, Rezaian said, he was being held by Irans powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps, a military force aligned with hard- liners in the government that answers to Irans supreme leader and acts independently of the presidency. Even when Rezaian was taken to hospitals twice for eye infections and once for a groin infection as his health suffered in prison, they were facilities run by the Revolutionary Guard. There were concerns that Rezaian could be used as a bargaining chip by hard-liners in the Iranian government who wanted to derail talks over the nuclear deal. It was only in the final hours of his incarceration that Rezaian said he was transferred to the Ministry of Intelligence, a body more closely allied with President Hassan Rouhani. Rezaians departure from Iran was touch-and-go until the last minute, he said. The plane was delayed for hours, and U.S. officials were privately concerned that the prisoner deal had gone bad. Those hours, Rezaian said, were hugely stressful. I was not handed over to the Swiss until I was actually on the plane, he said. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington. When the plane finally took off, the passengers including Rezaian, the other released Iranian Americans, and Rezaians wife and mother burst into applause. When they left Iranian airspace, they applauded again. Later on Monday, Rezaian was permitted to leave the hospital for several hours to meet at a nearby guesthouse with his brother, Ali Rezaian, along with his wife, mother and his visiting congressman, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.). I want to thank my family, especially the efforts of my brother, Ali, and my wife in Iran and my mother everywhere she was, Rezaian said. They have been incredible. I also want to thank everybody at The Post and my colleagues in other media as well, as well as everybody in the U.S. government who played an important role in my release. Once the Americans had left Iran, the Obama administration announced new sanctions related to participation in Irans ballistic missile program. The sanctions, which applied to 11 people and companies, were issued under U.S. restrictions that remain in place despite the lifting Saturday of international sanctions linked to Irans nuclear program. [For three Americans held in Tehran, reason for travel was deeply personal] The Treasury Department said the new sanctions apply to, among others, the Mabrooka Trading Co., based in the United Arab Emirates, and its networks there and in China. It said they have used front companies to deceive foreign suppliers about the true end-users of sensitive goods for missile proliferation. [Transcript of Obamas remarks on Iran nuclear accord and prisoner deal] The Iranian government and military said Monday that the new sanctions show continued U.S. hostility toward Iran and vowed defiantly to further develop the missile program. Irans defense minister, Revolutionary Guard Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, accused Washington of demonstrating hatred toward the Iranian nation with useless attempts to weaken Irans defense power. He said Irans missile industries are fully homemade and impervious to sanctions, the semiofficial Fars News Agency reported. Dehghan said Iran would expand its program by unveiling new missile achievements soon. In a statement, Irans Foreign Ministry said that Irans missile program has not been designed for carrying nuclear weapons at all, and therefore it doesnt violate any international rule. Separately, Rouhani, the president, pledged to the visiting chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency that Iran would never pursue nuclear weapons, even without the intensified safeguards imposed by the newly implemented nuclear deal. We will be committed to the fact that our nuclear program is peaceful and will never deviate to weapons, he told Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in a meeting in Tehran, the Mehr News Agency reported. In Landstuhl, Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.), who arrived Monday as part of a welcoming delegation for Abedini, said he joined in campaigning for Abedinis freedom after hearing his wife, Naghmeh, speak at a church in Charlotte about the case. Naghmeh is expected to arrive Tuesday, he said. Pittenger said by telephone from the hospital grounds that he had not seen Abedini but that he had been briefed that all the freed hostages were, generally speaking, in pretty good condition. Physically, at least, he added. Pittenger said doctors would test for communicable diseases to see whether any of the patients needed to be isolated, followed by longer-term evaluations and analyses with the doctors and psychiatrists. Particularly with Saeed, it was 3 1/ 2 years in that kind of condition, he said. Its going to have an emotional impact of a serious nature. There are no estimates on when the men may be discharged from the hospital. Im told that when people come here, they spend from five to 10 days, Pittenger said. It can be shorter, but having been in isolation and mental torture for 3 1/ 2 years, I dont think theyre going to jump out of here real quick, he said. In a telephone call with The Posts editors before they were able to meet Monday, Rezaian said that isolation was the most difficult part of his time in prison. Still, snippets of information had reached him, among them that his Christmas greetings from prison, conveyed via his mother, had made the rounds and reached everybody, which is what I intended. He also said that he found escape in the novels he was allowed to read while in prison facing trial on a charge of spying. Rezaians health was reported to have suffered because of poor conditions at the prison and a lack of medicine for his high blood pressure. Family members said last year that he had lost weight and suffered from back pain and chronic infections. He told the editors that his health had improved in the past several months. Evin Prison, where Rezaian was held, has been used for decades by Irans Islamic revolutionary government and the monarchy it overthrew in 1979 to incarcerate and, human rights groups say, abuse political prisoners. Rezaian was tried in secret there last year and was sentenced to an unspecified prison term. Branigin reported from Washington. Read more: The ordeal of Post reporter Jason Rezaian Obama: Iran nuclear deal, prisoner release show the power of diplomacy Journalists react on Twitter as #FreeJason becomes #JasonIsFree Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian is greeted by U.S diplomat Brett McGurk upon his arrival in Geneva on Sunday. The reporter, formerly imprisoned in Iran, later traveled on to Germany. (State Department) American officials were adamant. The deal they had reached with Iran to free imprisoned Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, had always included his Iranian wife. Rezaian, they knew, would never leave Tehran without her. But as a Swiss plane sat for hours Saturday on the tarmac at Tehrans Imam Khomeini International Airport, waiting to take Rezaian and two of the other released Americans to freedom, neither his wife nor his visiting mother could be found. At the White House, there was growing nervousness that something had gone badly wrong in a prisoner deal that was to coincide with the diplomatic triumph announced earlier in the day final implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement. In Vienna, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, there for the nuclear ceremonies, held a tense telephone conversation. In Germany, where the released prisoners were due to arrive at a U.S. air base, Rezaians brother, Ali, anxiously worked the phones to Tehran, trying to locate their mother and Jasons wife. For Rezaians family and his employer, who had fought and lobbied for his release, and for the Obama administration officials who ultimately obtained it, the nail-biting denouement was perhaps a fitting closure to the reporters 18 months of imprisonment. Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian has been freed from prison, according to U.S. and Iranian officials. He was arrested in Iran in 2014 and convicted of espionage last year. Here's what you need to know about the case against him. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post) [Timeline: The ordeal of Post reporter Jason Rezaian] Even after the plane took off, with all aboard after a delay of more than 12 hours, it was unclear whether the problem had been the result of simple miscommunication on the Iranian side or something more nefarious. Mystified and concerned On July 22, 2014, Post foreign editor Douglas Jehl received a poorly connected cellphone call from a contact in Tehran. Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, then 38, and his wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi, had been arrested, the caller said. Jehl immediately reached out to Jasons brother, Ali, a biotechnology consultant in California, and to Iranian and U.S. officials. We believed, and very much hoped, this was a misunderstanding . . . nothing more than the kind of unpleasant glitch that sometimes happens in Iran, Jehl recalled Sunday. Rezaian, a U.S.-born Iranian American, was an accredited journalist, operating normally, doing nothing wrong, Jehl said. But hopes that it could be quickly resolved were dashed three days later when a senior judicial official confirmed the arrests. Four Americans and seven Iranians were set to be exchanged in a deal linked to the imminent implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers. Here's what we know about who they are. (Jason Aldag/The Washington Post) Martin Baron, The Posts executive editor, released a statement saying officials at the paper were mystified and profoundly concerned about Rezaians well-being. The State Department said it was concerned, but had no further comment due to privacy concerns. At the time, after years of on-and-off negotiations over an Iranian nuclear program that the United States and its allies were convinced had been designed to build a bomb, the West was involved in promising negotiations with Tehran. [Sanctions relief could help Irans reformers, but perils remain] Rezaian was not the only American known to be held by Iran. At least two others former Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini had been convicted on charges that the United States said were bogus. U.S. officials said they raised all these cases, along with that of Robert Levinson, a CIA contract worker who had disappeared from Irans island of Kish in 2007, on the sidelines of every nuclear and other meeting with Iranian officials. This account of the efforts to secure Rezaians release is based on interviews with the Rezaian family, Post executives and senior administration officials, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic matters. Opening back channels As time went on with little news, concern grew that the administrations eagerness to conclude the nuclear deal had tempered its zeal to press Rezaians case with Iran. Although they were in frequent contact with administration officials, the family and The Post had little information about what was going on behind the scenes. They were certainly focused intently and primarily on the nuclear talks, Jehl said of the administration. I think we sometimes felt that Jasons fate was secondary in their priorities. Baron, Jehl and other Post editors met with Vice President Biden, Kerry, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, Obama national security adviser Susan E. Rice and counterterrorism advisor Lisa Monaco, among others. But all along, the administration was reluctant to get into a lot of details with us, Baron said Sunday. Although Post executives dealing with the administration and Iran on Rezaians imprisonment erected a wall of silence, excluding Post reporters separately covering it as a news story, administration officials remained concerned throughout, to the very end, that if they provided us details it would somehow end up being public. Separately and together, Ali Rezaian and the Post undertook their own efforts, both to open channels to the Iranians, through other governments and private citizens, and to ensure that the world didnt lose sight of Jasons case, Baron said. Ali Rezaian started an Internet petition that half a million people signed. Foreign governments were asked to bring it up in their meetings with Iran; Post reporters raised the issue in news conferences and interviews. Free Jason pins and posters were liberally handed out. The Post hired lawyer Robert M. Kimmitt of WilmerHale, a former senior State Department official who was involved in previous hostage releases. But in Iran, Jasons health worsened even as his legal situation became even more opaque. In late September 2014, Salehi, Rezaians wife, was released on bail. In December 2014, Iran said he would be tried on unspecified charges in a closed hearing; he was denied legal representation and bail. In January 2015, his case was ominously transferred to a branch of the Revolutionary Court, closely aligned with Irans intelligence service; shortly thereafter, hard-line judge Abolghassem Salavati was picked to preside over a trial. An indictment indicated that he was being charged with espionage and other counts that each carried a maximum prison term of 10 to 20 years. That May, a closed-door trial was adjourned after one day, only to reconvene in June for three hours, and again in July. No details were released. It became clear as the process went along, Ali Rezaian said, that diplomatic channels werent going to be able to solve this problem. . . . Parts of the internal Iranian security apparatus were going to have to participate to move things forward. With Irans decision makers Shortly after Rezaians arrest, Iranian nuclear negotiators mentioned that there were a number of Iranians in U.S. prisons that they would like to see released. But it was not until the fall of 2014 that it became clear that Iran was proposing an exchange. [What is known about the seven Iranians offered clemency] In response, the two sides appointed separate teams, uninvolved in the nuclear talks, to begin discussions in Geneva about prisoners. The teams included officials from agencies across both governments including, most importantly on the Iranian side, the Ministry of Internal Security and other decision makers outside the foreign ministry. Several U.S. officials insisted that the two issues were never directly tied that the United States never indicated that it would alter its position on the nuclear issue in exchange for concessions on prisoners. Kerry, in an interview Sunday morning aboard his returning plane, said he told Zarif: We believe they are wrongfully held. . . . You believe they violated something in your system. Okay . . . but it could have a profound effect on the way people perceive your country. But the prisoner talks continued in fits and starts, to some extent, Kerry said, because the Iranians haggled over the number of their citizens to be released by the United States. For a long period of time, this didnt move because of the people they were asking for, he said. Obama insisted that no one charged with terrorism or a violent crime would be released. After a long-term nuclear deal was finally signed last July, U.S. officials said, the tempo of talks on the prisoners increased. In November, when he saw Zarif in Vienna at a meeting on Syria, Kerry said, he thought the prisoner deal was done. We actually shook hands, thinking we had an agreement, he said. But it had again hit a snag over U.S. releases, and a deal was blocked by some folks back in Tehran in a different department, Kerry said, declining to identify it. The missing wife and mother Early this month, agreement was finally reached on the seven Iranian prisoners to be released. At the same time, it was clear that implementation of the nuclear deal was about to happen. While numerous officials said that they hadnt planned it that way, they acknowledged that sychronization of the two issues, and the combined diplomatic success they represented, had an undeniable appeal. For Ali Rezaian and lawyer Kimmitt, there were signs that something was afoot. Regular interrogations that Salehi underwent had taken on a different tone. Last week in Washington, Jehl said, we learned from Washington Post reporting that a deal was very close and that it would be prudent for a reporter to get to Switzerland. And we learned from a contact in Iran that Jason and his family [there] had been told that a release was coming very soon. But it was not until Saturday morning that they heard directly from the U.S. government that a plan was unfolding. In Vienna, away from the public ceremony announcing implementation of a nuclear deal, Kerry and Zarif signed an agreement on the prisoners. In Washington, Obama had signed the clemency orders for the Iranians. Switzerland, which handled U.S.-Iranian diplomatic matters on the ground in the absence of relations between the two countries, sent a plane to Tehran. We did exactly as promised, Kerry said. We wanted to prove to people [that] when we say something, we do it. Zarif, he said, had made it very clear wed get it done, and done well. The agreement included a stipulation that any spouses were allowed to accompany the prisoners. And then they waited. Unknown to those in Europe and the United States, Rezaians wife had been told by Iranian officials that morning that Jason was about to be released and flown out of the country, but that she would not be allowed to go. She and his mother, Mary Rezaian, who was visiting from California, could go to the airport and view his departure from afar. For most of the day, they sat in another part of the airport. They had no contact with the outside world Salehis cellphone had been taken away when she was arrested, and neither felt comfortable using one in Tehran. As night fell, they decided to return to Salehis apartment in Tehran. Kerry exchanged numerous calls with Zarif, who said he didnt know what was going on, but promised to find out and do something about it. In Germany, where his brother was supposed to eventually land, Ali Rezaian was frantically calling friends in Tehran, trying to find the women. Finally, he said Sunday, I got them on the phone, told them what was going on, and coordinated with State to make sure they could get taken to the airport. When they arrived, there were additional problems. Mary Rezaian was not on the manifest. It was not until 6:58 a.m. Washington time that Kimmitt got a call on his cellphone from the State Department. The plane, with all aboard, was wheels-up. Motorists pass by the apartment complex where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq. (Khalid Mohammed/AP) Three Americans reported missing from a Baghdad neighborhood were kidnapped by militiamen from an apartment in the capital, a senior police official and a resident of the building said Monday. A statement from the Baghdad Operations Command confirmed that three people with American citizenship were abducted in the capital. A Baghdad police colonel, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the Americans are employed as contractors at Baghdad International Airport. He did not say which company employed the individuals. Another police official in Baghdad, a major general also speaking on the condition of anonymity, gave the names of the abducted individuals as Amro Mohamed, Wael al-Mahdawi and Rusul Farad, a woman. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad did not respond to a request to verify the names. Two senior security officials said the missing Americans are of Iraqi origin. The three Americans appear to have been seized by Shiite militiamen in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the police colonel said. The area from which they were taken is controlled by Shiite militias, including Iran-backed Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or League of the Righteous, he said. The colonel said the group had been invited to the home of their Iraqi interpreter. But a resident of the apartment building where the Americans were reportedly seized said they were taken from a second-story apartment that he described as a well-known brothel. The police major general also said the apartment was a brothel. The resident said the apartment is subject to frequent raids by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, although typically the men found inside are simply told to leave. He said that he witnessed part of the raid but that it happened late at night and was over quickly. The Baghdad Operations Command described the apartment as suspicious in its statement. An intelligence officer assigned to Dora said that agents had raided the apartment in the wake of the kidnappings and found whiskey bottles but that the residence had been abandoned. The owner of the apartment is a man locals refer to as Abu Maria, the intelligence officer and other residents in the area said. Abu Maria is known for throwing illicit parties, they said. They went to an inappropriate place, Iraqi lawmaker Iskander Witwit said of the Americans, referring to the alleged brothel. Iraqi security forces are working very hard now to locate them. A burned-out car in eastern Baghdad, a day after a bomb attack Jan. 12 that killed at least 12 people while a double blast at a cafe north of the Iraqi capital claimed 20 more lives. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images) A wave of attacks against civilians by the Islamic State and rival Shiite militias in a volatile Iraqi province has raised fears about the potential for deadly sectarian violence, even in areas where the extremist militants were officially declared eradicated. The violence over the past week played out amid a rise in security-related incidents across the country, including a deadly attack on a mall in Baghdad and the abduction of three Americans by gunmen, also in the capital. The sectarian clashes in northeastern Diyala province which began with two deadly bombs at a local cafe but soon spiraled into retaliatory attacks on Sunni residents prompted a public condemnation Friday from Iraqs most influential Shiite cleric. That same day, a gunman on a motorcycle assassinated a prominent Sunni sheik in Diyalas Muqdadiyah area, about 50 miles northeast of Baghdad. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the top Shiite cleric, called on the government to rid Iraq of militants operating outside state authority, and he urged unity among Iraqi citizens. The Islamic State has waged a campaign of terror against Iraqi civilians for years, staging deadly car-bomb attacks on Shiite neighborhoods and markets across the country. But Iraqs Shiite militias, too, have grown powerful and have also carried out widespread abuses, rights groups say. [Iraqs top Shiite cleric condemns Diyala violence] Iraqi officials said Monday that it was likely that the Shiite militia Asaib Ahl al-Haq had abducted the three Americans in Baghdad, in a neighborhood where that group holds sway. But sectarian violence has plagued Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Diyala, a patchwork of Iraqs diverse ethnicities and sects that borders Iran, has long been a flash point for those tensions. Last January, Iraqs government declared Diyala free from the Islamic State, but the province fell under the influence of the Shiite militias spearheading the fight against the extremist group. The fresh attacks this month, in which scores have been killed, were a reminder of the divisions still driving violence in areas where the Islamic State has been ousted. [Iraqi official: 3 Americans missing in Baghdad were kidnapped by gunmen] Diyala is targeted because it represents the social fabric of Iraq and because it was the first province liberated from ISIS, said the provinces deputy governor, Bassim Samarrai, using a common acronym for the Islamic State. Iraqs population is majority Shiite, but Sunni Arabs make up a large minority. Sunnis have accused the Shiite-led government of sectarian repression and abuses. Shiite leaders say Sunnis helped give rise to the Islamic State. Diyala is a microcosm of the country, Samarrai said. We must return life here back to normal. The recent violence in Diyala began the night of Jan. 11, when the Islamic State claimed twin bombings at a coffee shop in Muqdadiyah. The two bombs an improvised explosive device, followed by a car-bomb attack on the crowd that had gathered killed more than 40 people, local officials said. Security forces then declared a curfew in the area. But in the hours after the attack, at least six Sunni mosques were burned or destroyed. Assailants set fire to Sunni shops in the market, and some residents said their Sunni neighbors were executed after militiamen dragged them from their homes. It was unclear how many civilians were killed. Then, on Tuesday, the bullet-riddled bodies of two journalists for Iraqs al-Sharqiya TV, a news channel seen as sympathetic to Iraqs Sunnis, were found outside Muqdadiyah. Sharqiya executives said Shiite militias had killed the reporters at a checkpoint. The militias with the strongest presence in Diyala are the Badr Organization and Asaib Ahl al-Haq, both backed by Iran. Local lawmakers suggested that Islamic State militants staged the attacks and executed civilians to implicate the militias and deepen divisions. But locals said that the militias have intimidated them for years and that they were caught between the violence on both sides. The militias took my cousin after the explosions [at the cafe], and now nobody knows where he is. We dont dare leave our houses right now, said Mohamed Ali, a 27-year-old taxi driver and Sunni resident of Muqdadiyah. The militias are in the streets, he said. The situation is very critical. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi traveled to Diyala on Thursday in a bid to calm tensions, but he did not visit Muqdadiyah. Some Iraqis pointed to his absence from the area, a rural area that is home to about 300,000 people, as a sign of the growing insecurity. The militias recent rise in Diyala can be traced to the period following the Islamic State takeover of much of northern Iraq in 2014. [From 2014: Shiite militia seizes control of Iraqi town, slowing ISIS drive toward Baghdad] In the period after that offensive, the militias began harassing local Sunnis in Diyala, where the extremists also had carried out attacks. Some local Sunni men were executed, and many families were either displaced or prevented from returning home, Human Rights Watch said. The New York-based rights group said the attacks in Muqdadiyah appeared to be part of a militia campaign to displace residents from Sunni and mixed-sect areas after the Islamic State had been routed. The attacks on mosques and houses in Muqdadiyah is a threat to Iraqi coexistence, the Sunni speaker of parliament, Salim al-Jubouri, said in a statement. A Sunni lawmaker on Sunday said that Iraqs major Sunni political parties would boycott parliament Tuesday and demand that the government punish those who carried out the attacks in the province. Its wrong to think that armed groups operating outside the state will defend us, Jubouri said, referring to the militias. They are criminals and gangs, and they will turn their weapons against us. Mustafa Salim contributed to this report. More than 32 months after Bangladeshs worst industrial disaster, the Rana Plaza factory collapse that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, a court last month indicted the building owner and 40 others, including local government officials, on murder charges. After the police took more than two years to file charges in June, Senior Judicial Magistrate Md Al-Amin decided on December 21 to proceed with the trial. This process is essentially a belated face-saving attempt by Awami League-led government in Dhaka, which has a long record of disregard for the appalling conditions facing apparel workers. The multi-storey Rana Plaza building, which housed five garment factories at Savar, just outside Dhaka, collapsed on April 24, 2013. At least 1,135 workers were killed, while about 2,400 were rescued. Around 300 were injured, many seriously. Prosecutors charged Sohel Rana, the owner of the building as the prime defendant. A regional leader of the ruling Awami League, he is accused of ordering workers to return to the building despite reports of cracked plaster and an engineers opinion that the building was unsafe. Ranas parents, who jointly owned the building with him, and the mayor of Savar, were also charged, along with associates of Rana who slapped and forced the workers to join the shift, the prosecutor said. Seven owners of factories housed in the complex and 12 safety and inspection officials were charged. Four government factory and building inspectors were indicted, despite attempts by the government to shield them from prosecution by citing public service immunity rules. Rana is in custody, 16 others are on bail and 24 defendants have fled. If convicted, they can face life imprisonment. In a separate case, Rana and others have been charged with violating building codes and with illegally extending the six-storey building, which was initially approved as a shopping mall, into a nine-storey factory complex. This public relations exercise does nothing to rectify the conditions of Bangladeshs workers, who continue to be brutally exploited, on poverty wages, in unsafe conditions, for the benefit of the countrys ruling elite and global clothing chains. After the Rana Plaza tragedy, in the face of worldwide outrage, giant international retailers such as Walmart and Gap in the US and Marks and Spencer, H and M, Carrefour and Tesco in Britain, all of which have deals with Bangladesh garment companies, declared they would intervene to correct the situation. To date, however, the victims of the catastrophe have not been paid adequate compensation, and these corporations continue to profit from the labour of some of the lowest paid workers in the world, toiling in death-traps. Just six months before the Rana Plaza collapse, 112 workers burnt to death at the Tazreen Apparel factory. Apart from cosmetic moves, such as some safety inspections of factories, and the closure of a few unsafe locations, the situation remains the same. Two recently-released reports have shed light on some of the worst conditions. A 43-page report, Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Bangladeshs Forgotten Apparel Workers, was produced in mid-December by New York Universitys Stern Business School Center for Business and Human Rights. Based on analysis of factory data collected from public sources as well as a field survey, the report identified more than 7,000 factories feeding into the global fashion industry, contradicting previous estimates of 3,600 factories. The report noted that around 3,800 factories, employing some 3 million workers, were engaged in subcontractingan essential element of Bangladeshs low-cost, high-volume model of garment production. These indirect-sourcing-factories operated on very tight margins and with very little oversight, increasing the vulnerability of workers to safety violations and labor rights abuses. Of the 479 factories surveyed last June in two sub-districts of Dhaka, 32 percent were informal subcontractors. Of these, 91 percent produced at least partly for exports. Most of the factories operated outside the two limited safety programsthe Bangladesh Accord for Fire and Building Safety (Accord) and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance)initiated after the Rana Plaza disaster. These programs cover just 27 percent of garment factories. The other report, by the International Labor Rights Forum, based in Washington, noted that production targets and workloads of workers were so high that managers prevent them from taking restroom breaks, drinking water, stopping work at a reasonable hour, or seeking leave to attend to their own or family members medical emergencies. The 108-page report, Our Voices, Our Safety: Bangladeshi Garment Workers Speak Out, was based on interviews given by more than 70 people, despite a chilling web of intimidation. Workers said wages were low and sexual harassment and abuse were routine, with authorities using threats and violence to keep workers silent about fire, electrical and structural safety issues. Dalia Sikder, 22, a sewing machine operator, described what happened when she sought to help form a union. Local thugs harassed us on our cell phones. They got our number from factory management. Youll need to leave the union if you want to stay at the factory, they told us. They also called my mother threatening her. Describing the factory conditions, Sikder said: The factory management began to mentally abuse the workers. They increased our workload and did not allow us to use the toilet freely. A guard would follow us to the toilet to make sure that we didnt talk to anyone. I was supposed to do 50 pieces before; now I had to do 150 pieces in an hour. I sewed waistband linings onto pants. While I was doing that job they yelled at me more than ever before. If I couldnt do the workload in eight hours, I had to stay for 11 to 13 hours until I was done but they only paid for eight hours. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) rejected New York University Centers report at a December 24 press conference. The employers group said the report was confusing because it failed to distinguish local manufacturers from export-oriented ones. BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman claimed that only 3,600 factories produced garments for the international market and buyers did not allow any illegal sub-contracting. He declared that the BGMEA will not take the responsibility of the non-member factories, which was a tacit admission of the widespread abuses. In reality, the garment sector earned its highest-ever export earnings in 2015, precisely because of this low-cost regime. For all the false sympathy expressed by Western governments and international retail giants after the Rana Plaza debacle, what attracts them to Bangladesh is its cheap labour. According to Bangladeshs Export Promotion Bureau, between January and November 2015 garment exports raked in $26.26 billion, more than $2 billion higher than for the whole of 2014. This was despite adverse currency shifts, which cut income by an estimated $3 billion. The employers hope the situation will be even better in 2016, aided by a cleaned-up public relations image. The BGMEAs Siddiqur Rahman said that 2016 will be better than 2015 as all the factories have already been inspected and are safer now. With more Chinese factories exiting the garment sector due to relatively high labour costs, Bangladesh is seeking to become the globes largest apparel exporter. For this to happen, the Daily Star called for the restoration of international retailers confidence in the structural soundness of Bangladeshi garment factories. Though 60 percent of their exports currently go to Europe, Bangladeshi apparel exporters hope to expand their market shares in countries like Australia, Japan, Brazil and even China. With the scheduled signing of the US-dominated Trans-Pacific Partnership this year, however, Bangladeshs main competitor, Vietnam, will gain over Dhaka in the US market. This will only increase the pressure on the garment workers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed a wave of venom against Israels Palestinian citizens following a lone attack by a Palestinian Israeli on Jewish Israelis in Tel Aviv. In so doing, he is inciting his right-wing supporters to adopt vigilante tactics, exacerbating tensions and whipping up an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. In early January, a Palestinian Israeli killed two young people and injured several others in a Tel Aviv bar. After fleeing the scene, the shooter killed a Palestinian Israeli cab driver. Speaking immediately after the attacks, Netanyahu branded the entire Palestinian community as criminals. He accused Israels 1.5 million-strong Palestinian community, who make up 20 percent of Israels population, of maintaining a lawless state within Israel. He added, Whoever wants to be Israeli must be Israeli all the way. One cannot say, I am Israeli in my rights and Palestinian in my responsibilities. I will not accept two states within Israel. There are enclaves without law enforcement, with Islamist propaganda, with plenty of weapons often fired during wedding celebrations, with constant crime, he said. He demanded that Palestinian legislators condemn the attack without hesitation or rhetorical phrasing. Netanyahu promised to beef up law enforcement in all parts of the state--the Galilee, the Negev, the Triangle and everywhere, referring to the predominantly Palestinian areas of the country. His message was very clear: peace with the Palestinians in Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, is simply impossible. The whipping up of anti-Arab sentiments by the Israeli bourgeoisie is part of a broader effort to deflect the growing social tensions over the lack of affordable housing, declining public services, inequality and rampant corruption, and preventing any united opposition emerging to government policies. These efforts come amid Israels brutal crackdown on the unrest provoked last summer by right-wing elements with the support of the security forces. Right-wing groups provocatively demanded access to the Al-Aqsa mosque complex and clashed with Palestinians whose access to the mosque has been increasingly restricted. In recent months, lone Palestinian youths from the West Bank with no organisational affiliation have killed 24 Israelis and an American, using stones, screwdrivers and knives, or their cars. The Israeli security forces have responded with methods of collective punishment. They have killed more than 140 Palestinians, injured thousands, arrested hundreds, demolished the family homes of alleged attackers of Jewish Israelis and expelled Palestinian residents from Jerusalem. In this case, the alleged killer, Nashat Melhelm, was a 31-year-old from the northern Israeli village of Arara who worked at a greengrocers in Tel Aviv. His father identified him from video footage and reported him to the police. A disturbed young man, Melhem had a record of violence against his own family and had served time in prison for trying to snatch a soldiers gun to avenge the death of his cousin who was killed by the police. Local people, especially Wadi Ara residents, condemned the attack. Despite this, the media branded him a terrorist and the police arrested Juadat Melhem, the suspects brother, and later his father, along with five other relatives and family friends. They treated the murder as a terrorist attack and conducted a week-long manhunt that caused widespread panic. Melhems relatives told the Associated Press that the police overturned their house, damaging a car and several home appliances. Hundreds of police officers descended on Arara, a town of some 22,000 people, and sealed off part of it in an attempt to prevent anyone from entering. Police searched homes at random, leading human rights groups to say that the authorities were unfairly targeting Israels Palestinian citizens. The police then descended on the building where Melhem was hiding and shot him, claiming that he had fired on theman allegation that locals denied. At the same time, the authorities raided Palestinian students apartments in Tel Aviv, apparently without search warrants. There were reports of doors being broken down, officers entering with weapons drawn and rooms being ransacked. Many Palestinian citizens are now afraid to go out to public places in case they happen to be at the scene of an attack where they could be either a suspect or a target. Such was the hysteria caused by the police mobilisation in search of a terrorist that 50 percent of students at the university stayed away from school. The media glorified Melhems murder by the police, impervious to the basic norms of the right to a trial before being found guilty and sentenced. Newspaper headlines screamed Account Settled and The Assassination. Netanyahu praised the extra-judicial execution of Melhem and chillingly promised similar action against whoever tried to harm Israel, both at home and overseas. Amid the frenzy, the political establishment seized on the incident to demand tighter security and deterrent measures. Likud legislator Amir Ohana called for the immediate loosening of gun control laws so that every army reservist without a criminal or medical record could carry a personal gun. Gun license applications have risen from 200 per day to 3,000 per day following the call from the mayor of Jerusalem for Jewish Israelis to arm themselves. Israels Palestinian citizens, while considerably better off than their counterparts in the occupied territories and refugee camps in neighbouring countries, have suffered decades of discrimination under Israeli rule. After the new Israeli government confiscated the land belonging to the Palestinians who were driven out or fled in 1948, the government nationalised 93 percent of Israeli territory, reserving most of it for the Jewish population. As a result, only 3 percent remains in Palestinian ownership, and very little of that is authorised for development, leading to severe overcrowding and unlicensed building. Poverty amongst both Palestinian Israelis and Jewish Israelis is on the rise, with over half of Palestinian Israelis and nearly one-quarter of Jewish Israelis classified as poor. As capitalism fails to provide even the most basic needs for the populations of Israel and the rest of the Middle East, relentless attacks on the rights of Palestinians serve primarily to prohibit the development of a unified movement of workers of all national and religious backgrounds. Amid escalating military operations against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Turkish government is moving to crush the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), which has 11 percent of the vote and 59 deputies in the Turkish parliament. Yesterday, the Turkish army announced it had killed 19 PKK members in several districts across southeastern Turkey and seized weaponry from the PKK. It also said that a Turkish police officer had died during a PKK operation in the southeastern province of Siirt. The escalating fighting comes after the HDP announced at the end of last year that it was considering pushing for an autonomous, or possibly independent, Kurdish state along the Turkish-Syrian-Iraq border. This provoked accusations of treason and escalating threats from the Turkish government against the HDP. According to the state-owned Anatolian Agency, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared on January 6 that his government was determined, driven and strict in the face of everyone digging up ditches in [southeastern districts of] Cizre, Silopi and Sur, as well as those who encourage terror in any illegitimate manner. Davutoglu included in his statement a clear warning to the HDP deputies: We wont let anyone be silenced for voicing their opinions as an MP but we will also not put up with anyone who hides behind the armour of immunity and acts in a way that ignores a societys fate and the most basic human right to life, he said. Davutoglus commentary comes after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a criminal investigation into leaders of the HDP over their positions on Kurdish self-rule. The statements of the HDP leaders are constitutional crimes. There are investigations started by prosecutors against them. These should be followed up, Erdogan told reporters on January 1. On Wednesday, January 6, Erdogan once again called for the arrest of more pro-Kurdish politicians. Speaking to village headmen invited to the presidential palace in Ankara, Erdogan demanded that HDP co-chairs Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag be stripped of their parliamentary immunity. Both Parliament and the judiciary should take action against those who act as though they are members of a terrorist organization, he said. Following the two-day congress of the Democratic Society Congress (DTK), on December 26-27, prosecution offices of Diyarbakir and Ankara launched investigations against Selahattin Demirtas, co-chairman of the HDP over his remarks he made at the congress in favour of a greater self-governance of Kurdish people. In recent days, Turkish security forces have launched raids on HDP offices and arrested scores of politicians, as well as mayors, whom Davutoglu accused of transferring state funds provided to southeastern municipalities to dark channels. The two co-mayors of Diyarbakirs Sur district, and two co-mayors of the Silvan district of Diyarbakir, were among those arrested on charges of disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state for their statements on self-governance. Ankaras latest moves against Kurdish forces emerge directly from the drive for a new imperialist carve-up of the Middle East. The imperialist powers have increasingly used Kurdish militias in Iraq and Syria as proxies against both Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militia. As the Turkish army responded by attacking Kurdish forces it saw as a threat to its interests in Syria, fighting has spread to Turkey in the form of urban warfare. As war threatens to spread across the entire Middle East, the Turkish government and the Kurdish nationalist forces are both seeking to cut deals with various imperialist countries and regional powers, to get crumbs from the planned redivision of the region. While PKK officials told Le Monde that they had support both in Moscow and in factions of the US foreign policy establishment, Turkey is marketing itself as a warmongering ally of US imperialism to mount an all-out assault on Syria. The Erdogan government is using the escalating military operations in Kurdish-populated areas to press ahead with its plans to transform Turkeys fragile parliamentary system into a presidential dictatorship. Expressing the drive towards dictatorial forms of rule that is emerging across Europe, Erdogan said on January 6 that Turkey has a need for determining its governance system in accordance with its own needs. Last week, Erdogan provoked a firestorm of criticisms internationally when he suggested that Nazi Germany could serve as a juridical model for a Turkish presidential system in which the president had power in a unitary Turkish state. Theres no such thing as no presidential system in unitary states. When you look at the world there are examples, including from the past. When you look at Hitlers Germany, you see this, he said after a visit to Saudi Arabia. The Kemalist opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party have opposed the presidential system, while pro-Kurdish HDP had given signs before the last conflict that it would support a presidential system in return for a federal or semi-federal Turkey, where Kurds have their autonomous region. Erdogans renewed war against the Kurds and his insistence on a presidential system are bound up with the escalating tensions with the major regional powers in the Middle East, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the rapidly rising danger of all-out war. Last week, the Turkish president criticised Iran for the attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad by demonstrators, while defending the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr by his Saudi ally. Saudi Arabia took the decision to go ahead with the execution long ago and it was implemented accordingly. Approving or not approving is another matter. But this is a matter for the domestic law of Saudi Arabia, Erdogan said. With the predatory aim of dominating Syria and Iraq, Ankara has long backed Sunni forces in order to fuel sectarian conflict across the region, playing his part in the NATO powers strategy of divide and rule, which has already turned the Middle East into a neo-colonial battle ground. On January 10, the election season for the presidential election to be held on May 9 officially opened in the Philippines. At the center of all of the campaignscharacterized by corruption scandals and threats of electoral disqualificationis the threat of war with China. President Benigno Aquino was elected to office in May 2010. Over the past six years, as Washington pushed ahead with its drive to militarily contain and subordinate China, tensions over the disputed South China Sea have been raised to a fever pitch. Working closely with the Obama administration, Aquino has made Manila the spearhead of Washingtons pivot to Asia. From the legal case against China in The Hague, to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) for the basing of US forces in the Philippines, to the deliberate provocation of Beijing in the South China Sea, Washington hasin large part through its proxy Aquinobrought the region to the brink of war. Deepening economic crisis, massive social inequality and the imperialist drive to war have shifted bourgeois politics sharply to the right. Not one of the major presidential contenders presents even token opposition to the restoration of US bases in the country. When in 1991, the Philippine Senate voted 12-11 not to renew the lease on the bases, the so-called Magic 12 were hailed as heroes of bourgeois nationalism. Today, this vote is spoken of by leading political figures as having been a mistake. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the countrys leading paper, which gave fiery editorial support to the ending of the bases deal in 1991, now just as fiercely advocates for the restoration of the bases. There are, however, significant sections of the Philippine bourgeoisie who are concerned that the tensions over the South China Sea are jeopardizing key business ties with Beijing. China is the Philippines second largest trading partner after Japan. In 2014, trade with China accounted for 14.3 percent of all Philippine trade, while the United States accounted for only 11.2 percent, a difference of over $4 billion. These sections of the bourgeoisie would like to initiate bilateral talks with China in an attempt to defuse tensions and maintain trade ties. Current vice president and, according to recent polls, front-runner in the presidential election Jejomar Binay, represents these interests. Binay attempted to cultivate US support for his candidacy, announcing that he was running at the headquarters of the influential think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and stating that he unwaveringly supported the EDCA basing deal. However, Binay also desired to pursue closer ties with China. He announced that he favored a bilateral resolution to maritime disputes and would even support joint ventures for energy resource exploration in the South China Sea. Binay was quoted as saying, China has money, we need capital. Washington will not tolerate such a balancing act. A series of major corruption scandals were launched against Binay. The evidence for many of the allegations against him was supplied by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC). The AMLC was created in the Philippines with direct assistance from Washington and figured prominently in the impeachment of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona. The impeachment of Corona laid the groundwork for the approval of the EDCA. Binay is currently polling at 31 percent of the vote, according to a Business World-Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted on January 10. His nearest rival is Grace Poe, who is polling at 24 percent. Poe is the adopted daughter of Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ), who was likely the most famous and popular movie actor in the history of Philippine cinema. FPJ ran for president in 2004 against Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and was defeated in an election for which charges of electoral fraud were later brought against Arroyo. FPJ died in December 2004. Grace Poe spent the majority of her adult life in the United States. She was educated at Boston College, graduating with a degree in political science in 1991. She interned for the Republican governor of Massachusetts, William Weld. She moved to Fairfax, Virginia, and lived there until the death of her father. In 2010, Aquino appointed her head of the Movie and Television Review and Censorship Board (MTRCB). In 2013 she ran for Senate, largely on the strength of her fathers name. She received the support of the Makabayan Coalition, a political front organization of the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Poe has a very limited political track record. She is, however, strongly pro-Washington and was herself an American citizen until quite recently. Binays party led the campaign to file a suit for the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to disqualify Poe from running for president in part on the reactionary grounds that Grace Poe, who was adopted as an infant, was a foundling and as such by definition stateless. In other words, it was impossible to be certain that Poes biological parents were Filipino citizens. In December, Comelec voted to disqualify Poe. She appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court has issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on her disqualification while it adjudicates the case. Poe continues to campaign, but it is quite possible that she will be legally removed from the race before the election. Neck and neck in the polls are Mar Roxas and Rodrigo Duterte, at 21 percent and 20 percent respectively. Mar Roxas is the administration candidate. He has been the right-hand man of Aquino since the beginning of his administration. A Roxas presidency would be a continuation of the policies of the Aquino administration. Roxas is the grandson of president Manuel Roxas, who was handpicked for office by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Mar Roxas was educated at Wharton School of Business and was a New York-based investment banker for years. Mar Roxas is not a popular candidate; no amount of populist posturing during stump speeches can turn the man of Wall Street into a man of the people. Ernie Bower, head of Southeast Asia at the CSIS, summed up Washingtons dilemma with Poe and Roxas in an article published last week. Grace Poe and Mar Roxas are the two candidates most likely to carry on Aquinos course. Poe, though independent, aligns closely with the Liberal Party [of Aquino]. Roxas is a longtime member of the Liberal Party and has repeatedly supported the presidents approach to China. But Poes likelihood of staying in the race is looking increasingly unlikely as she appeals her disqualification by the Commission on Elections, and Roxas polled in the middle of the pack for both presidential surveys released in December. The final leading candidate is Rodrigo Duterte. The long-time mayor of Davao represents the emergence of the far-right onto the main stage of Philippine politics. Duterte has styled himself as being based in the masses, but polls have repeatedly shown that the majority of his support comes from the upper middle class. Duterte has been a close ally of the CPP and its front organizations for decades. Duterte makes no attempt to hide that he is closely connected to Davaos death squads, telling the media that he has been responsible for the extra-judicial killings of hundreds of alleged drug pushers and criminal elements. He publicly warned anyone who might file a legal complaint against him, If you file a case, I will mow down your family too. Duterte has stated that if elected he would bring back the death penalty in the form of public hangings. He has called for several Philippine islands to be turned over to multinational corporations as their own territory. He strongly supports the return of US basesopenly offering half of the major island of Palawan for exclusive US occupationand has called for mandatory military enrollment for all young men in preparation for war with China. Duterte announced that if the legislature opposed him in these measures he would declare martial law. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., on Jan. 18. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) If you grew up going to an evangelical church, as I did, chances are you attended youth groups at which a leader asked everyone to name their favorite Bible verse. When I was in middle school, I had a trusty Scripture ready for any such occasion: Proverbs 27:17. Its nine words long, easy to memorize, and it was just substantive enough to let me skate by without any meddlesome questions about the state of my soul. Donald Trumps awkward Scripture recitation in front of a large evangelical audience Monday reminded me of those youth group days. The Republican presidential candidate spoke at Liberty University Monday to an audience of roughly 13,000 people inside the schools main events building, the Vines Center. Most in the audience were students required by school policy to attend a weekly convocation meeting. After beginning his remarks with his usual mention of how well he is doing in polls, Trump tried to identify with his audience by talking about the issues he thinks matter most to them. As is his way, Trump moved to his topic abruptly. Were going to go through New Hampshire, through South Carolina, Trump said, discussing the early primary voting states. Were going to go right through the whole group, and I think we can do something really special. And were going to protect Christianity. And I can say that. I dont have to be politically correct. Were going to protect it. I hear this is a major theme right here, Trump added. It seemed to be a reference to the religious liberty debate, which has boiled over in the wake of a Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage and Obamacares contraception mandate. But Trump didnt clarify. Instead, he brought out the Scripture verse he had chosen to share with the deeply religious crowd, who are accustomed to speakers citing the Bible and then talking at length about the word of God. Story continues Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians 3:17, thats the whole ball game, Trump said, as laughter rippled through the audience, perhaps because most Christians refer to the book as Second Corinthians. Trump then read the verse: Where the spirit of the Lord right? Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And here there is Liberty College, Liberty University. But it is so true. You know, when you think, thats really is that the one? Is that the one you like? I think thats the one you like because I loved it, and its so representative of whats taking place. But we are going to protect Christianity. If Trump had been talking about religious liberty, he wasnt now. He mentioned Christians in Syria who have been beheaded (the so-called Islamic State has killed Muslims and members of small religious sects as well). And he said that the Christian faith is under siege. Bad things are happening, said Trump, before branching off into a discussion of what sounded more like religious identification along cultural or ethnic lines than the kind of devout faith that many American evangelicals are familiar with. I dont know what it is, we dont band together, maybe. Other religions, frankly, theyre banding together and theyre using it, Trump said. The power we have, somehow we have to unify, we have to band together, we have to do in a really large version what theyve done at Liberty, because Liberty University has done that. Youve banded together. Youve created one of the great universities, colleges, anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world, and thats what our country has to do that around Christianity. So, get together folks and lets do it because we can do it. And that was all the religion Trump could stomach. He fled quickly back to discussing his own popularity. No matter where I go, were having tremendous crowds and were setting records everywhere, he said. Trump spent 45 more minutes on familiar material: his standard, rambling stump speech bashing President Obama and Hillary Clinton, the media and super-PACs, with an extra flourish on how he would negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program and the release of American hostages. Trumps handling of the Bible on Monday added to what is now a substantial list of comments indicating a superficial relationship, at best, with the words that Christians look to for guidance and spiritual sustenance. Trump has compared the Bible to a great, incredible movie. He could not name a favorite verse or passage of Scripture when asked in August. Weeks later, his answer to that question was: Proverbs, the chapter never bend to envy. No such phrase exists in Proverbs, and so Trump was forced to clarify that he was talking about Proverbs 24, which begins with the words, Do not envy the wicked. Last summer, he said he did not think he had ever asked God for forgiveness, a statement he repeated this past Sunday in an interview on CNN. Even so, Trump continues to pull support from a significant percentage of evangelical voters in some polls. To some extent thats because Trump has been inoculated by comments like those made before his speech Monday by Liberty Universitys president, Jerry Falwell Jr. Falwell heaped praise on Trump during his 14-minute introduction. It was an implicit endorsement of his candidacy by the evangelical leader even though Falwell did not specifically say the word endorse. There were rumors that Falwell might endorse Trump in Iowa on Tuesday. Falwell, one of two sons of the schools now deceased founder, directly addressed concerns among evangelicals about Trumps three marriages or his lack of familiarity with the faith. His father, Falwell said, was criticized for supporting Ronald Reagan in 1980 because he was a Hollywood actor whod been divorced and remarried and Jimmy Carter was a Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. My father proudly replied that Jesus pointed out that we are all sinners, every one of us, Falwell said. And while Jesus never told us who to vote for, he gave us all common sense to choose the best leaders. Dad explained that when he walked into the voting booth, he wasnt electing a Sunday school teacher or a pastor or even a president who shared his theological beliefs. He was electing the president of the United States, and the talents, abilities and experience required to lead a nation might not always line up with those needed to run a church or lead a congregation. After all, Jimmy Carter was a great Sunday school teacher, but look at what happened to our nation with him in the presidency, Falwell said. Falwell called Trump one of the greatest visionaries of our time, and asserted that the businessman and reality TV personality is loved by his staff because of his servant leadership. Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air, Falwell said, in a nation where the political establishment from both parties has betrayed [its] constituencies time and time again with broken promises and a continuation of the status quo. Falwells praise for Trump drew a stinging rebuke from a top leader in the Southern Baptist Church. Russell Moore, president of the churchs Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, watched a live stream video feed of Falwells introduction of Trump with mounting anger. After listening to Trumps opening remarks on Christianity, Moore took to Twitter to comment on the proceedings. Trading in the gospel of Jesus Christ for political power is not liberty but slavery, Moore wrote. He added, This would be hilarious if it werent so counter to the mission of the gospel of Jesus Christ. #TrumpatLiberty And Moore described Falwells praise of Trump as absolutely unbelievable. Moore expounded on his trading in the gospel comments for me after the speech. The problem is not supporting Trump or any other candidate, he explained. The problem is with allowing Trump to present himself as a man of faith and character, without calling him out on both. Trump has said that he has nothing for which to seek forgiveness. This is despite leaving two wives for other women, destroying families with casino vice, and trafficking in ugly, racially charged rhetoric. Portraying this lost soul as a brother in Christ is not only doing wrong to Trump himself, it preaches an anti-gospel to all who hear. The gospel is about repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, not about excusing sin and injustice for the sake of political power. Another evangelical leader, not in a position to criticize Liberty openly because he does not speak for his organization publicly, said that the Trump appearance would set Liberty back years. Jerrys intro alone will make [the university] the scorn of the evangelical world, he said. From left, Cornel West, Killer Mike, Bernie Sanders and Nina Turner discuss Martin Luther King Jr.s legacy. (YouTube/Bernie Sanders) Following Sundays Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, S.C., Killer Mike represented Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the spin room, where a reporter asked what drew him to the self-described Democratic socialist. Smoking a joint and reading his tweets, the rapper responded. Hours earlier, Sanders and Killer Mike sat down with Dr. Cornel West and former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner for an informal discussion about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s legacy on the eve of the federal holiday marking the birthday of the late civil rights leader. Let me tell you what kind of blew me away when you think about Dr. Kings life, Sanders said during the discussion, which was live-streamed on his campaigns website. Obviously it took an enormous amount of courage to stand up to the segregationists, racists they got jailed, they got beaten up an incredible amount of courage. But what impressed me even more he couldve rested on his laurels. The establishment wouldve said, You are a great black leader. Look what you did: You got the Voting Rights Act. Wow! You broke down segregation in the South. Incredible! But you know what? This is what courage is about. He said, Enough. If he was going to be consistent with his own inner soul, he had to ask other questions. West and the other panelists were not hesitant to compare the Vermont senators crusade against the rich to the movement King started. I was sitting in church today, Mother Emanuel Church, and we were reading the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and it just makes you shake and quiver, West said. And I said to myself, This is what the Sanders campaign is about. This is what its about. Its about the poor, working people. Its about keeping track of the weak and the vulnerable. Its about mustering the courage to tell the truth about Wall Street, about wealth inequality. Story continues During the discussion, West referred to Sanders as Brother Bernie. Even the pastors sermon was preaching your gospel, Turner told Sanders. Dr. King, one of the last things he did in his life was the poor peoples movement. And people dont want to talk about that. He went to Memphis with the striking garbage workers. We have so many people who talk the talk, but they dont walk the walk. And when they are in halls of power, they get afraid to speak up for the poor and disenfranchised. One of the things the pastor talked about this morning, he said, We hear a whole bunch of people talk about the middle class. But aint nobody talking about the poor. Dr. West and I, we nudged each other and we said, We know one. The Vermont senator and Democratic presidential hopeful, Turner said, is using that title to shine a light in the same way Dr. King used his title. His ascendancy was not just for himself, but it was for the people who did not have a voice. .@KillerMike on how he ended up supporting Bernie Sanders: Smoking a joint and reading his tweets. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/UszbIRTnVQ Deanna Pan (@DDpan) January 18, 2016 Killer Mike, who has become one of Sanders most visible supporters, said King was killed for many of the same reasons this man is campaigning for. He was killed because he spoke against the military-industrial complex, Killer Mike said. He was killed because he had the courage to say it and had the courage to demand it out of corporations. The rapper said that when he saw a Sanders tweet about the restoration of the Voting Rights Act, I knew I had met the real deal. Everything youve shown me since then has been in that line, and thats why you have a guy named Killer Mike sitting next to you talking about the most nonviolent warrior my race has ever created. It wasnt the first time, however, that Sanders found himself sitting next to Killer Mike. In November, the rapper spent five hours with Sanders in Atlanta, where the pair met for a wide-ranging discussion at Killer Mikes barbershop followed by lunch at Busy Bee Cafe, a popular soul food restaurant. Bernie Sanders and rapper Killer Mike at Busy Bee in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/jqOiLlMgrQ John Wagner (@WPJohnWagner) November 23, 2015 Brought this guy to Busy Bee on MLK in ATL. pic.twitter.com/K93EUniUZE Killer Mike (@KillerMike) November 23, 2015 Make sure that wherever you go, you take the name, the ideas, the philosophy and the ideology of Bernie Sanders there, the rapper said while introducing the candidate at an Atlanta rally. And you make sure when you leave, they are on fire because they have felt the Bern! Whatever the case, Sanders needs more supporters like Killer Mike and his campaign knows it. A poll of likely Democratic voters in South Carolina conducted last fall found an overwhelming 80 percent of African-Americans support Hillary Clinton, while just 8 percent supported Sanders. We recognize that Secretary Clinton and President Clinton, too, have a long relationship with the African-American community that goes back decades, Tad Devine, a strategist for the Sanders campaign, told the Wall Street Journal in December. People respect that. We believe Bernie can succeed with the African-American community for a lot of reasons. Its his story a powerful story about someone who has a lifetime commitment to civil rights. Bernie Sanders as Burlington, Vermonts socialist mayor (left) and as a Democratic presidential candidate speaking at Dartmouth College this year. (Photos: Craig Line/John Minchillo/AP) In July 1985, Bernie Sanders traveled to Nicaragua, where he attended an event that one wire report dubbed an anti-U.S. rally. The leftist Sandinista government was celebrating the sixth anniversary of the revolution that saw it take power from an American-backed dictator, Anastasio Somoza. Sanders was in a crowd estimated at a half million people, many of whom were clad in the Sandinistas trademark red-and-black colors and chanting Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die. Onstage, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused the U.S. government of state terrorism for supporting the rebels who were seeking to overthrow him. The Sandinistas and the CIA-backed Contras would fight into the next decade, with allegations of human rights abuses on both sides. At the 1985 rally Sanders attended, Ortega vowed the Sandinistas would defend the revolution with guns in hand. Sanders was being hosted by the Sandinistas as part of a delegation of American solidarity groups. He told reporters their decision to show support for the Nicaraguan government was patriotic. We want to show support for a small country trying to be independent, and we want to tell the truth to the American people when we return, Sanders said. Sanders was in the midst of a revolution of his own. Four years earlier, in 1981, he won a shocking victory by only 10 votes to become mayor of Vermonts largest city, Burlington. Sanders was elected on a socialist platform and led a mayoral administration that he boasted was more radical than any other in the country. And he had a vision. Sanders believed his work in Burlington could spread socialism throughout America. In April 1985, the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy interview with Sanders in which he outlined his plan to spark radical change. Story continues I think from one end of this country to the other, people are ripe for political revolution. Fifty percent of the people do not bother voting in the presidential and statewide elections, Sanders said. The vast majority of those not voting are low-income people who have given up on America. The whole quality of life in America is based on greed. I believe in the redistribution of wealth in this nation. Sanders went on to suggest his mayoral administration had demonstrated the peoples contempt for conventional old-fashioned Democratic and Republican politics. "The radical change in America that must come has to begin on a local level, and it is happening now in Burlington. Then it will spread to state and national levels, Sanders said, adding, Of all the 50 states, I believe Vermont more than any other has a good chance of electing Americas first socialist governor. Now that I have proven that I am a good mayor, perhaps the time will be ripe for me to run for the highest office in the state. Sanders ran for Congress rather than governor after leaving Burlingtons City Hall in 1989. But today, his dream of bringing his values to higher office and a national audience is closer to fruition than at any time his life. A two-term incumbent U.S. senator, Sanders is within striking distance of frontrunner Hillary Clinton in this years Democratic presidential primary, with recent polls in Iowa showing the two neck and neck and a Sanders lead in New Hampshire. As Sanders journeyed from the fringes of Vermonts political scene to the national stage, many aspects of his agenda and even rhetoric have remained remarkably consistent. However, an extensive examination of his statements and views at the beginning of his political career shows Sanders has moderated some of his positions over the years. Among other things, during the 1970s and 80s, Sanders regularly called for public takeovers of various businesses, including utilities and the oil industry. Sanders advocated seizing money from corporations and from one of Americas richest families. And, as a mayor, Sanders made forays into foreign policy that included meetings with representatives of hostile nations, rebel groups and Canadian separatists. Yahoo News first reached out to Sanders presidential campaign to discuss this article last week. In addition to inquiring about Sanders past support for nationalizing various industries, Yahoo News asked about Sanders presence at the Sandinista rally. This included a request for the campaign to confirm whether a report in the alternative weekly Seven Days that claimed the trip to Nicaragua was paid for by the Sandinista government was correct. The campaign declined to comment. Yahoo also contacted the campaign of Sanders Democratic primary rival, Hillary Clinton, which has become increasingly critical of the Vermont senator as the race tightens. It declined to comment as well. Sanders is now vying to be the Democratic Partys presidential nominee, but his record reflects just how far outside of the two-party system he started out. In fact, throughout his early career, Sanders expressed distaste for both Democratic and Republican politicians. His first campaigns were long shot bids as a member of the Liberty Union Party, a radical, anti-war group that he helped found. Under the Liberty Union banner, Sanders ran for one of Vermonts U.S. Senate seats in 1972. He ran for the states other Senate seat in 1974. Sanders, who served as Liberty Unions chairman, was also the partys candidate in Vermonts governors races in 1972 and 1976. In all four campaigns, Sanders attracted support in the single digits. In interviews at the time, Sanders was fairly open about the fact he did not expect to win any of these races. Rather, he suggested the Liberty Union Party could serve as a force to mainstream socialist ideas ahead of an eventual national shift. During his Senate campaign in 1974, the local Bennington Banner quoted Sanders telling attendees at a Liberty Union event about what he hoped to accomplish with his long shot candidacy. You have a reason to knock on doors, Sanders said. Its a good way to organize and educate people. Talk the issues. People cant see alternatives. Our job is to open their eyes and give them a vision. At a press conference for his second gubernatorial bid in 1976, Sanders predicted it would have a national impact if the Liberty Union candidates had a decent showing at the polls because it would show voters there were alternatives to the traditional party system. He said voters sense that Democratic politicians have similar views about such issues as rising utility rates, an unfair tax system, low wages, and high unemployment, UPI reported. Some of his pitch to voters was quite similar to his current platform. As a Liberty Unionite, Sanders railed against income inequality and decades before the Occupy movement what he described as a system that privileged the wealthy 2 or 3 percent. As he does now, Sanders called for progressive reforms to taxes and campaign finance. Other parts of Sanders Liberty Union platform went well beyond anything he is currently advocating. In 1973, UPI reported that Sanders urged Vermonts congressional delegation to give serious thought to the nationalization of the oil industry. The following year, the Bennington Banner reported Sanders Senate campaign was focused on two prime issues. The first was rate increases for electric and telephone service, which the paper said Sanders sought to confront with public takeover of all privately owned electric utilities in the state. Sanders plan for public ownership of utility companies involved the businesses being seized from their owners. It was a view he would carry forward into his 1976 gubernatorial bid: That year Sanders said the Liberty Union platform called for a state takeover of utilities without compensation to the banks and wealthy individuals who own them. These werent the only assets Sanders suggested should be seized from the wealthy. Sanders second main theme in his 1974 Senate race was what the Bennington Banner called his own pet issue, the incredible economic power of the Rockefeller family. As a presidential candidate and member of Congress, Sanders has assailed the influence billionaires and megadonors hold over American politics and media. However, his plan for the Rockefellers went much further, with Sanders implying he would push to have the familys fortune used to fund government programs. In a 1974 press release, Sanders said the incredible wealth and power of this family must be broken up. The Rockefellers billions should be used to create a decent standard of living for all people by being redirected toward government social programs for the elderly or lower taxes. Sanders was in the middle of running on an anti-Rockefeller platform in August 1974 when reports began to emerge that President Ford planned to nominate Nelson Rockefeller to be his vice president after the impeachment and resignation of President Nixon. Sanders was apoplectic and sent a letter to Ford urging him to pick someone else because the Rockefellers are already the richest and most powerful family in the world. Sanders warned that the appointment could be the beginning of a virtual Rockefeller family dictatorship over the nation. Rockefeller was officially nominated about a week later and went on to become vice president. In late 1977, Sanders left the Liberty Union Party. His departure came after the group endangered its major party status by failing to hold local caucuses required by state law. Sanders said the situation showed the party failed to live up to a promise to supporters that it would remain active beyond campaigns and would not disappear from the scene the day after the election. But Sanders didnt drop out of Vermont politics or stop advocating for private assets to become public property. In 1979, he penned an opinion column for the Vermont Vanguard Press about another industry he felt was ripe for a public takeover television. The editorial, titled Social Control and the Tube, called for people to address the control of television as a political issue, and organize to win. Sanders argued the owners of commercial television stations sought to intentionally brainwash people into submission and helplessness through constant advertising interruptions and the well-tested Hitlerian principle that people should be treated as morons and bombarded over and over again with the same simple phrases and ideas. He said the television industry was designed to create a nation of morons who will faithfully go out and buy this or that product, vote for this or that candidate, and faithfully work for their employers for as low a wage as possible. Sanders suggested a public takeover of the airwaves could remedy the problem. The potential of television democratically owned and controlled by the people is literally beyond comprehension because it is such a relatively new medium and we have no experience with it under democratic control. At the least, with the present state of technology, we could have a choice of dozens of channels of commercial-free TV, he wrote, adding, At the moment serious writers are, by and large, not allowed to write for commercial television for fear they might produce something that is true and hence, upsetting to the owners of the media. Under democratic control, people with all kinds of views could make their presentations, and serious artists would be encouraged to produce work for the tube. Sanders had a chance to pursue public control of television broadcasting, as well as his fight against utility companies, when he became mayor of Burlington in March of 1981. Though he identified as a socialist, Sanders ran as an independent when he won his shocking upset. According to the Associated Press, Sanders made it to City Hall with the help of a coalition of college professors, poor people, labor unions, neighborhood groups and students. "The decisions in this city are not going to be made in the offices of banks and big businesses any more, Sanders warned after his victory. Still, Sanders promised he would be extending the olive branch to Burlingtons business community and political establishment. Im not looking for war, Sanders said. Sanders might not have been spoiling for a fight, but he sure got one. He began his mayoralty with only two supporters on the citys 13-member board of aldermen. The rest were Democrats and Republicans who vehemently opposed Sanders. In his first months in office, the aldermen blocked Sanders appointments. He also accused city officials of firing his secretary and even opening his mail. One day Sanders rust-covered car was ticketed when he parked in his special mayoral spot. I guess now what I expect is that the Democrats on the board are going to attempt to make every day of my life as difficult as possible, Sanders said at a June 1981 press conference about the rejection of his appointees. Thats fine. We will reciprocate in kind and we will work vigorously to carry out in one way or the other the mandate we were elected to carry out. As mayor of Burlington, Bernie Sanders fought in court for the right to hire city appointees and found tickets on his car when he parked in the mayors spot. (Photo: Donna Light/AP) Burlingtons new mayor was a lot for some of his constituents and colleagues to get used to. Sanders is a Brooklyn native with a decidedly confrontational and prickly demeanor. The New York Times reported on an incident that took place a little over six months after he took office when Sanders essentially insulted a room full of charity workers. Sanders had been invited to speak at the 40th annual Chittenden County United Way fundraising drive. When he stood up to speak at the banquet, Sanders let the attendees know he didnt support their work. I dont believe in charities, Sanders said before explaining that he felt government should be responsible for social programs. Gary De Carolis was one of Sanders Progressive Coalition allies on the board. De Carolis spent six years in Burlington city government during the Sanders administration and grew to be close friends with him, he told Yahoo News. According to De Carolis, Sanders initial battles with the aldermen were brutal, very nasty and unbelievably loud. Most nights you went in there and you knew it was going to be hell, De Carolis explained. You had to stand up for what you believed in it was not pretty. De Carolis attributed the anger at Sanders to the citys Democratic establishment losing power to an independent socialist. Most times he had, in a sense, the law and the statutes of the city behind him, said De Carolis. A lot of what was coming at him was total anger for the loss of power from the Democratic Party. Sanders appearance may have stood out almost as much as his policies. Multiple articles about the early days of his mayoral administration allude to his casual and even sloppy personal style. Sanders reportedly purchased a suit an hour before his inauguration and lived in an apartment that De Carolis described as a mess. In 1982, Knight-Ridder news service spoke to James Burns, one of Sanders rivals on the board of aldermen. Burns said he didnt get along too well with the mayor and went on to mock Sanders. Hes quite crude, Burns said before imitating the way he claimed Sanders would slouch at meetings. It doesnt put forth an executive image, when you see someone slinked in a chair. Still, in spite of the rocky start, Sanders eventually won over the board literally. By 1985, six of the aldermen were members of Sanders Progressive Coalition. During his four terms in office, Burlingtons socialist mayor presided over a prosperous economic climate and his treasurer discovered a $1.9 million surplus that had gone unnoticed in the budget. Though Sanders installed a new tax on money spent at hotels, restaurants and bars, he pushed for lower property taxes. Sanders also audited the citys pension fund and initiated competitive bidding for many government contracts. I am a socialist, Sanders told the New York Times in 1987. But what were doing here is not socialist. Its just good government. Sanders also began dabbling in mainstream politics. He endorsed his first Democratic presidential candidate, Walter Mondale, in 1984. Sanders even wore a suit sometimes. De Carolis said Sanders would dress up for his visits to the State House in Montpelier. The Associated Press pointed out Sanders wore a suit for a debate when he was running for re-election in 1983 though the reporter said aides had to help Sanders fix his tie before he went out onstage. I used to dress up a little bit better than Bernie, De Carolis recounted. He used to say to me, Gary, you got to teach me about these ties and all this nice coordinated clothing. Of course, Sanders still pursued a staunchly progressive agenda while he was mayor. He continued battling with Vermonts utility companies. He charged them new fees for excavating on city streets and pushed for them to raise commercial rates in order to lower costs for residential clients. And while he didnt try to seize the local television industry, Sanders sought to establish a city-owned and -operated cable system to compete with the private Green Mountain Cable Television network. Sanders was an early crusader against gentrification. During his eight years in office, Sanders fought for rent control and tenants rights. He also battled to secure public space on the Lake Champlain waterfront when developers wanted to use the land for high-end housing. Almost immediately after being elected in 1981, Sanders declared, luxury condominiums will not be the priority of this administration. We have a city that is trying to help a developer build $200,000 luxury waterfront condominiums with pools, and health clubs, and boutiques, and all sorts of upper-middle-class junk five blocks from an area where people are literally not eating in order to pay their rent and fuel bills, Sanders said. The waterfront park Sanders pushed for was eventually built. In fact, its where Sanders stood when he held a rally to launch his presidential campaign last year. Along with fighting development on the lakefront, Sanders also established anti-pollution programs and a community land trust. Other progressive achievements during the Sanders administration included a law requiring women to get 10 percent of city-funded trade jobs, a 1985 resolution supporting gay rights, and programs that allowed city employees to have input on personnel policies including sick leave. Still, Sanders most radical actions as mayor had little to do with Burlington. While in office, Sanders pursued a foreign policy agenda independent of and at times at odds with the aims of Washington. This included engagement with controversial international political groups and countries that had hostile relationships with the United States. Sanders found multiple ways to involve himself in the war between the Sandinistas and the Contras in Nicaragua. In addition to traveling to the country and attending Ortegas rally, Sanderss Progressive Coalition on the board of aldermen passed a 1985 resolution pledging Burlington would defy President Ronald Reagans embargo of Nicaragua. Sanders also established a sister city relationship with a Nicaraguan town, Puerto Cabezas. His actions drew such attention that the Doonesbury comic strip infamously nicknamed Sanders city the Peoples Republic of Burlington after he took office. Along with visiting Nicaragua, UPI reported, Sanders traveled to Cuba and the Soviet Union during his years as mayor. And on Dec. 6, 1981, Sanders went to Canada for the policy convention of the Parti Quebecois, the separatist party that led the Canadian province of Quebec. At that gathering, which reportedly was also attended by representatives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the PQ voted to push for independence from Canada even if it required breaking economic ties. Sanders diplomatic efforts also included welcoming dignitaries to City Hall in Burlington. In 1985, the Los Angeles Times noted politicians from France, England, Mexico, Scandinavian countries, visitors from the Soviet Union and China, and representatives from the Irish Republican Army have stopped by Sanders office during the past four years. Sanders also told the paper about his unusual idea for confronting Cold War tensions. A handful of people in this country are making decisions, whipping up Cold War hysteria, making us hate the Russians. Were spending billions on military. Why cant we take some of that money to pay for thousands of U.S. children to go to the Soviet Union? Sanders asked, adding, And, why cant the Soviets take money theyre spending on arms and use it to send thousands of Russian children to America? Weve got to start breaking down the walls of nationalism. Weve got to get people to know one another. De Carolis, Sanders friend and ally in city government, said Sanders was able to delve into foreign policy because he focused on Burlington first and constituents were happy with basic services. If youre going to take on bigger national and international issues, you better take care of the home front first, De Carolis said. He was very good about making sure the streets were plowed, the sidewalks were in good repair, all those things that concern people every day of their life. He was great about that, and that afforded him the opportunity to develop relationships with various countries around the world. Sanders left the mayors office in 1989 after deciding not to run for re-election. He was followed by Peter Clavelle, whom UPI described as his hand-picked successor. Sanders, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1988, won a House race two years later, beginning his career in Washington. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Sen. Bernie Sanders smiles as former Sen. Paul Kirk, not pictured, endorses him for the Democratic presidential nomination at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. (Photo: John Minchillo/AP) As a presidential candidate, Sanders has maintained the relentless focus on income inequality and tax reform that was a hallmark of his earlier career. Still, theres no question he also has moderated some of the views he espoused at the start of his political career. Sanders was an independent in Congress and an opponent of the two-party system. Today, his very presence in a Democratic presidential primary signals a shift in his longstanding position and a softening of his views. He also has stopped calling for the nationalization of industries. In November of last year, as his campaign gained steam, Sanders gave a landmark speech defining his democratic socialist ideals. In the address, he explicitly said he does not believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production. Washington writer Harry Jaffe, author of the new book Why Bernie Sanders Matters, suggested that this turn away from advocating for the public takeover of industries has been the biggest change in Sanders platform over the years. The basic socialist plank is public control of the means of production, Jaffe said. He believed that because he said it and I quote him as saying that. Hes totally changed that. Indeed, leftists have criticized Sanders for no longer supporting nationalization of industries and openly speculated about whether his current brand of democratic socialism is socialism at all. Once Bernie Sanders made it clear that he wasnt a socialist in the classic terms, hes pretty much stayed true to his basic positions that theres too much of a difference between the rich and the poor, Jaffe said. Hes been pretty straightforward on that. I think hes been pretty straightforward on the universal health care. Jaffe described the situation as a deal with the devil Sanders made as he sought higher office. Bernie Sanders is not stupid. Hes a very canny, canny political operator. He just really is smart and hes expedient, said Jaffe. He made a deal with the devil. Its a very, very slick and small deal in that, you know, he said, OK, I will come off of my hardcore socialism, but Im going to stick very tightly to the rest of my basic belief system. He certainly did that. Sanders foreign policy ideas are also far more mainstream than they were when he was mayor of Burlington. Jaffe cited Sanders votes to approve increased defense spending even though they came begrudgingly as another area where his views have moderated. Though Sanders has heavily focused on the fact he voted against the Iraq War, Sanders has voted to authorize military force in other instances. Jaffe said this is another shift for a politician who began his career extremely skeptical of war. He voted a couple of times for troop involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, Jaffe said. Hes going to shove his first vote in front of Hillary Clinton forever because he did vote against the Iraq War, but after that, he did vote for troop engagement. Though his campaign has promised he would move away from a policy of unilateral military action, and toward a policy of emphasizing diplomacy, Sanders is not opposed to military action. In Congress, he voted to authorize NATO bombings in the Kosovo War in 1999 and in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks. Since the start of the Iraq War, Sanders has voted to approve funds used to finance that conflict, leading to criticism from the left. As Sanders ran for Senate in 2006, the website of the Socialist Worker newspaper described those votes as betrayal. When asked if Sanders has moderated his views since the early days, his old friend De Carolis allowed that facing past political fights may have led Sanders to temper his positions somewhat. Knowing what hes been through the last 20 or 30 years, maybe to a degree but not much, De Carolis said. What you hear today is very much what you heard back then, he said. However, Sanders ally has noticed one major difference. These days, Sanders generally wears a suit and tie. If theres anything thats changed, its that he dresses much nicer now, De Carolis said. Hillary Clinton used her closing remarks at the Democratic presidential primary debate Sunday to express her outrage at the water contamination crisis in Flint, Mich. and to suggest that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was slow to respond because Flint residents are largely poor and black. SLIDESHOW The 4th Democratic debate >>> Offered an opportunity by debate moderator Lester Holt to raise any issue that the two-hour NBC News-YouTube debate in South Carolina had failed to address, she pointed to the lead-poisoning crisis that arose in 2014 after Flint city administrators appointed by the state moved the city off the Detroit water system in an effort to save money, and began drawing water from the Flint River. The corrosive river water leached lead from pipes, making the water unsafe to drink, especially for children leaving an unknown number poisoned and the population dependent on bottled water, even after the city switched back to its original source. President Obama signed an Emergency Declaration on Monday, which will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide water and water filtration equipment to the stricken town. I spent a lot of time last week being outraged by whats happening in Flint, Mich., and I think every single American should be outraged, Clinton said. Weve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didnt really care. "He had a request for help that he had basically stonewalled. Ill tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there wouldve been action. "So I sent my top campaign aide down there to talk to the mayor of Flint, to see what I could do to help. I issued a statement about what we needed to do, and then I went on a TV show and I said it was outrageous that the governor hadnt acted. And within two hours, he had. (Cover tile photo: Randall Hill/Reuters) The three Democratic presidential candidates sparred over gun control early on in their debate in Charleston, S.C., on Sunday night. Their exchange began with questions about the shifting position of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on a bill limiting liability for gun manufacturers and sellers whose products are used in crimes. As Sanders has gained in the polls, frontrunner Hillary Clinton has attacked him on the issue. Though the spotlight was on Clinton and Sanders, the long-shot third-place candidate Martin OMalley got in the last word on gun control. OMalley, the former governor of Maryland, argued that both Clinton and Sanders are inconsistent on guns. SLIDESHOW The 4th Democratic debate >>> Ive listened to Secretary Clinton and Sen. Sanders go back and forth on which of them has the most inconsistent record on gun safety legislation, and I would have to agree with both of them. Theyve both been inconsistent when it comes to this issue, OMalley said. OMalley went on to tout his record. When it comes to this issue, Im the one candidate on this stage that actually brought people together to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation, he said, later adding, It did have a ban on combat assault weapons, universal background checks, and you know, we did not interrupt a single persons hunting season. Ive never met a self-respecting deer hunter that needed an AR-15 to down a deer. The exchange began with the moderators asking Sanders about reversing his position on a 2005 bill that gave some gun manufacturers and sellers immunity from liability. Sanders voted for the legislation, and Clinton had been attacking him for it before he announced a change of heart on Saturday, just before the debate. Sanders claimed Clintons efforts to paint him as soft on gun control as disingenuous. I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA. I was in 1988, there were three candidates running for Congress in the state of Vermont. I stood up to the gun lobby and came out and maintained the position that, in this country, we should not be selling military-style assault weapons, Sanders said. I have supported from day one an instant background check to make certain that people who should not have guns do not have guns and that includes people with criminal backgrounds, people who are mentally unstable. I support what President Obama is doing in terms of trying to close the gun show loopholes, and I think it should be a federal crime if people act as straw man. Sanders also referenced the shooting that took place at a historic African-American church in Charleston last year. We have seen in this city a horrendous tragedy, of a crazed person praying with people, and coming out, and shooting nine people, said Sanders. This should not be a political issue. What we should be doing is working together, and by the way, as a senator from a rural state that has virtually no gun control, I believe that I am in an excellent position to bring people together to fight for sensible gun safety legislation. After the moderators pointed out that Sanders had not addressed the question about his shift on the liability law, he said he chose to take a further look at the legislation. What we also said is that a small mom-and-pop gun shop who sells a gun legally to somebody should not be held liable if somebody does something terrible with that gun, Sanders said. What I said is I was going to re-look at it, we are going to re-look at it, and I will support stronger provisions. Clinton responded that she was simply pointing out Sanders own record. Look, I have made it clear based on Sen. Sanders own record that he has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby, numerous times. He voted against the Brady bill five times. He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted for immunity for gun makers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. He voted to let guns go onto Amtrak, guns go into national parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives, Clinton said of her rival. Clinton concluded by saying 33,000 people a year die from gun violence. She said she looked forward to Sanders joining other members of Congress who were fighting to strip gun manufacturers and sellers of legal immunity. There is no other industry in America that was given the total pass that the gun makers and dealers were, and that needs to be reversed, Clinton said. (Cover tile photo: Randall Hill/Reuters) Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appeared separately on several of the same political talk shows on Sunday. (Photo collage: CNN/State of the Union) Hours before the first Democratic presidential debate of 2016, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appeared on several political talk shows offering a preview of Sundays showdown with the former secretary of state accusing the Vermont senator of flip-flopping on the issue of gun control. Senator Sanders has, for years, voted many times on behalf of the NRA gun lobby position, Clinton said on ABCs This Week With George Stephanopoulos. And one of the most egregious of those votes was the vote to give immunity from all liability to gun makers and sellers. Sanders has since indicated he would support a bill currently pending in the House and Senate to repeal that immunity when it comes to being held liable for gun deaths. Im very pleased that he flip-flopped, Clinton said on CNNs State of the Union. Now I hope he will flip-flop on what we call the Charleston loophole, and join legislation to close that, because its been a key argument of my campaign that we Democrats, in fact, Americans, need to stand up to the gun lobby. In a separate interview with This Week, Sanders said he wants an amendment to the bill that protects small gun shops from liability in legal sales of firearms. My view has always been, and what is most important, is that we have a strong instant background check, Sanders said. I have supported that from day one, and I want to see that expanded and look, at the end of the day, what almost every American understands is we have got to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have those guns. That has been my position from as far back as I can remember. On the issue of healthcare, the Clinton campaign has warned that Sanders yet-to-be-released single-payer system will effectively tear down the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Story continues Last week while campaigning for her mother, Chelsea Clinton said Sanders plan would dismantle the U.S. health care system. Nonsense, Sanders said Sunday. What everybody understands is that what a Medicare-for-all program is is guaranteeing healthcare to all people. We still have 29 million Americans today who have no health insurance. We are the only major country on earth that doesnt guarantee healthcare to all people, and yet we spend far, far more per capita on healthcare than do the people in other countries. Chelsea Clinton is a very smart and capable young woman, Sanders said on CNN. Im sure she loves her mother and shes trying to do everything she can to make sure her mom wins; thats pretty natural. I have four kids, seven grandchildren; theyre rooting for me. But I was a little disappointed that what Chelsea said was simply not accurate. Hillary Clinton denied using her daughter to attack her chief rival. I didnt use her, Clinton said on CNN. She answered a question. According to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll released Sunday, Clinton leads Sanders 59 percent to 34 percent among likely Democratic primary voters. But recent surveys conducted in early-voting states show Clinton and Sanders neck and neck in Iowa and Sanders with a double-digit lead in New Hampshire. On NBCs Meet the Press, Sanders said Clintons latest attacks against him smack of desperation. Secretary Clinton and her campaign understands that, you know, theyre losing ground, Sanders said. We started this campaign off at 3 percent in the polls, and now were closing in in Iowa. But were doing really well in New Hampshire. So I think in the next two weeks, youre going to see a lot of nonsense being thrown around. Meanwhile, Clinton laughed off an ad released by American Crossroads, the Republican super-PAC led by GOP strategist Karl Rove, highlighting her ties to Wall Street a line of attack Sanders has frequently used against her. I think it shows how desperate the Republicans are to prevent me from becoming the nominee, Clinton said on ABC. I find that, in a perverse way, an incredibly flattering comment on their anxiety, because they know that not only will I stand up for what the country needs, I will take it to the Republicans. I have a track record which shows I know how to stand up to them and I will win. On CNN, Clinton was asked to comment on a different kind of new release: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, the Michael Bay-directed film that opened in theaters over the weekend. "Are you planning to see it at all? host Jake Tapper asked Clinton. Im just too busy campaigning, she replied. I am still very focused on making sure we do everything we can, as I did when I was secretary of state, as I testified to over 11 hours, to make sure that nothing like that happens again, insofar as we are able to prevent it. If for some strange reason you didnt have a chance to watch the Democratic debate Sunday night holiday weekend, anyone? but you still want to know how the partys two major contenders, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, will be trying to close the deal with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire in the coming weeks, one moment in particular summed it up: their heated back-and-forth over health care. A little background first. In recent days, multiple polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationally have shown that Sanders, once the longest of long shots, is either gaining ground on Clinton or, in the case of the Granite State, pulling farther ahead. In response, the formerly restrained Clinton campaign has finally started to go after the Vermont senator on guns, in part, but also for his longtime support of a single-payer, Medicare-for-all health insurance system. (Sanders released a specific plan hours before the debate.) Before Sunday, Clintons health care attack appeared to be backfiring. Even though its real-world prospects are pretty close to nil, [single-payer] is still iconic in the eyes of a large proportion of the Democratic left, John McDonough, a former Senate staffer who helped draft the Affordable Care Act, told Politico. A lot of people will interpret this attack in a way that may be even more hostile to Clinton. SLIDESHOW The 4th Democratic debate >>> But on stage in Charleston, S.C, the former secretary of state pivoted to a more positive vision, and the maneuver served her well. She stopped accusing Sanders of wanting to raise taxes on middle-class Americans to pay for his plan, and she didnt repeat the debunked claim by her daughter, Chelsea, that Sanders would empower Republican governors to take away health insurance for low-income and middle-income working Americans. Instead, Clinton laid out why she believes pursuing single-payer health insurance at this point wouldnt work while maintaining that she respect[s] Sen. Sanders intentions. Story continues The Democratic Party and the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed, Clinton said. We finally have a path to universal health care. Weve accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it, and I dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it. Sanders, of course, fought back. He name-checked Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman, who believed that health care should be available to all of our people, as he put it. He expressed hope that America could follow in the footsteps of Europe and our neighbors to the north, questioning why we are spending almost three times more than the British as well as 50 percent more than the French [and] more than the Canadians on health care. And he promised that while were not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act we are going to move on top of that to a Medicare-for-all system. But Clinton wasnt swayed. With Republicans just vot[ing] last week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, starting a whole new debate over government-run health insurance would set us back, she insisted and she delivered a history lesson to prove her point. Even during the Affordable Care Act debate, there was an opportunity to vote for what was called the public option in other words, people could buy into Medicare, Clinton said. And even when the Democrats were in charge of the Congress, we couldnt get the votes for that. So what Im saying is really simple, Clinton concluded. This has been the fight of the Democratic Party for decades. We have the Affordable Care Act. Lets make it work. By returning again and again to the theme of what works and what doesnt Clinton positioned herself as the chief pragmatist in the race: the one whos been there, done that, and isnt going to waste precious time daydreaming about pie-in-the-sky proposals that dont stand a chance of passing Congress. It was, and always will be, a much better fit for her than enemy of single-payer health care but it isnt exactly the most rousing of closing arguments, especially for primary voters looking to be inspired. Sanders, on the other hand, didnt retreat from his embrace of a health care model that Democrats couldnt enact even when they controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress (which isnt likely to be the case in 2017). In the process, he reaffirmed his unwillingness to compromise on his ideals, which is what his supporters love most about him. Both candidates played to their strengths Sunday night. The question now is which vision of politics Democratic primary voters will prefer when they finally go to the polls next month: politics as it is, or politics as you want it to be. (Cover tile photo: Randall Hill/Reuters) By Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian authorities will review the defences of government computer systems, including at airports and railway stations, after a cyber attack on Kiev's main airport was launched from a server in Russia, officials told Reuters on Monday. Malware similar to that which attacked three Ukrainian power firms in late December was detected last week in a computer in the IT network of Kiev's main airport, Boryspil. The network includes the airport's air traffic control. Although there is no suggestion at this stage that Russia's government was involved, the cyber attacks have come at a time of badly strained relations between Ukraine and Russia over a nearly two-year-long separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. "In connection with the case in Boryspil, the ministry intends to initiate a review of anti-virus databases in the companies which are under the responsibility of the ministry," said Irina Kustovska, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's infrastructure ministry, which oversees airports, railways and ports. Ukraine's state-run Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) issued a warning on Monday of the threat of more attacks. "The control centre of the server, where the attacks originate, is in Russia," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said by telephone, adding that the malware had been detected early in the airport's system and no damage had been done. A spokeswoman for the airport said Ukrainian authorities were investigating whether the malware was connected to a malicious software platform known as "BlackEnergy", which has been linked to other recent cyber attacks on Ukraine. There are some signs that the attacks are linked, she said. "Attention to all system administrators ... We recommend a check of log-files and information traffic," CERT-UA said in a statement. In December three Ukrainian regional power firms experienced short-term blackouts as a result of malicious software in their networks. Experts have described the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. A U.S. cyber intelligence firm in January traced the attack back to a Moscow-backed group known as Sandworm. The Dec. 23 outage at Western Ukraine's Prykarpattyaoblenergo cut power to 80,000 customers for about six hours, according to a report from a U.S. energy industry security group. Ukraine's SBU state security service has blamed Russia, but the energy ministry said it would hold off on attribution until after it completes a formal probe. (Editing by Matthias Williams and Gareth Jones) It's sad that there are people who would spend this kind of money on this rather than spending it to do good in the world. I'm done living in fear of an oppressing force. I'm going to uphold my oath to the Constitution and sleep great at night knowing that I did everything in my power to ensure what our founding fathers did for us will not be lost. To my family, I love you very much and I am sorry I can't be there with you. Please look at this as a deployment, only this time I'm actually serving my country rather than being sent over seas to line the pockets of corrupt politicians. It is our sacrifice as a family that will make this country great again, not some election. And we are not alone. I am among some of the most honorable, and selfless people I have ever met. People who are dedicated to making the same sacrifice for this country. Read the constitution people. Get educated and don't let your rights be taken. If your a Patriot and you feel the calling in your heart then all I can say is follow your heart. Don't let the fear consume you. We all have lives but if we don't make the sacrifice what kind of country are we leaving for our children. The status quo can't go on any longer. We either take a stand against tyranny or we fail. Come be a part of history. And I am so proud that our country has become civilized enough that we can bring about change and right this wrong without any bloodshed. America is blessed. 23 Chicago Police Officers Called To Testify On Laquan McDonald Shooting By Kate Shepherd in News on Jan 18, 2016 6:55PM A still from the video Nearly two dozen Chicago police officers have been called to testify over the Laquan McDonald shooting before a grand jury, according to NBC5. Police officers started testifying about the case in June and have been appearing as recently as Dec. 23, according to documents from a Chicago Tribune Freedom of Information Act request released to NBC. But not all of the 23 subpoenaed cops are on active duty. The summons also does not mean that they are under investigation. "The United States Department of Justice is investigating the circumstances around Mr. McDonalds death and we eagerly await the results of that investigation," Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told NBC. "Should any officer or employee of this department be found guilty of lying or purposely misrepresenting any facts, they will face immediate discipline ranging from termination to prosecution." Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot Laquan McDonald, plead not guilty in December to the murder charges he's facing over the shooting. This is the blog of China defense, where professional analysts and serious defense enthusiasts share findings on a rising military power. Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), speaks at a press conference in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 17, 2016. This was the first press conference of the AIIB, a China-initiated multilateral bank, after it started operational on Saturday. [XInhua] The AIIB's door has been opened and the door will stay open, said Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), at a press conference on Sunday. Jin made the remarks in response to a question about whether the AIIB's door is open to Japan and the United States. "I'm very grateful to all the governments of the member countries who have been supporting, and I am grateful to all the governments of the countries which are on the waiting list, and we will try to resolve their membership issues as soon as possible," Jin said. The press conference was held after the conclusion of the two-day inaugural meeting of the AIIB's board of governors, which approved by-laws, rules and codes of conduct for the bank. Thirty of the 57 prospective founding members, representing over 74 percent of the shares, have ratified the article agreement, thus becoming full members of the AIIB, and the remaining ones will have completed their membership processes by the end of this year, Jin said. "This bank is warmly embraced by so many countries in the world. We have member countries in every continent, from north to the south, from east to the west, it is truly a great achievement," he said. The new multilateral financial institution was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013 and officially established late last year. It is headquartered in Beijing. With authorized capital of 100 billion U.S. dollars, the AIIB prioritizes investment in energy, power generation, transportation, rural infrastructure, environmental protection and logistics. While addressing the inaugural meeting of the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) Board of Governors on Jan. 16, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang elaborated on his vision for the new multilateral development bank and the Chinese economy in the new year. "It is our hope that the AIIB will fully draw on the useful experience of existing multilateral development institutions, well identify its own role and cultivate its unique features," he said. Li encouraged the AIIB to work with other multilateral development institutions including the ADB (Asian Development Bank) and member countries to synergize development strategies by supporting infrastructure development and regional cooperation. "With production capacity cooperation, we can generate effective demand by providing effective supply," he told the gathered Board of Governors of AIIB at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse. "It is important for the AIIB to follow the trend of economic globalization and regional integration and meet needs of developing members for industrialization and urbanization. Staying committed to business first, government support and solid market principles, the AIIB is in a position to provide developing members with low-cost, technology-intensive, energy-efficient and environment-friendly solutions, equipment and financing support to facilitate industrialization and urbanization. It should fully leverage its strength as a cooperation platform to explore diverse and multi-dimensional cooperation models such as tripartite or multi-party cooperation as well as cooperation on financial resources and technical know-how, for deeper integration of regional and global industrial and value chains." Li also highlighted China's identity as a developing country by calling for stronger efforts on inclusive development, uniting development efforts between developing and developed members, and among various sectors in each country the AIIB works with. Responding to the audience's interest in the Chinese economy, Premier Li said the 10-trillion-dollar Chinese economy is among the fastest growing major economies in the world despite challenges of a sluggish world economy and difficulties at home. Employment is good and income for both urban and rural households grows steadily. There are positive changes in the economic structure too. The services sector already accounts for half of the GDP, consumption contributes to nearly 60% of economic growth and there is an upsurge in new technologies, products, business forms and models. Li said the Chinese economy is highly resilient with considerable space for readjustment. China will endeavor to seize opportunities while handling the challenges. Strong efforts will be made to advance structural reform, implement the innovation-driven development strategy, promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation and develop new drivers of development while improving and upgrading traditional advantages. Li added that China has 1.3-billion people, a 900-million-strong workforce and 150 million skilled professionals. China's economic growth will depend less on natural resources and more on human resources. China has the capacity to maintain medium-high growth and achieve medium-to-high level of development. And that will bring more opportunities to the global economy. A Chinese-born Australian man, who stabbed his estranged wife to death and left his mother-in-law in a vegetative state in Perth, was sentenced by a Shanghai court to life imprisonment. Australia and China do not have an extradition treaty but the two countries agreed to cooperate in the case. China also gave assurances to Australia that it would not impose the death penalty as he was an Australian citizen. The Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court passed the ruling late in December but only released the details of the case this weekend. Chinese-born businessman Zhao Yan was named as a suspect by the Australian police for the murder of his wife in September 2010. Zhao, who had fled Australia, was tracked down in native Shenyang, Liaoning Province, by Chinese police in 2011. China decided to take over the case as both the suspect and victim were born in China. Besides, Zhao was captured in China. Shanghai police was assigned the case in 2012. The Australians passed on all the investigation details to their counterparts in Shanghai. According to the court, Zhao's wife, Sun Hong, and her mother, Kang Jie, were found lying in front of their house on September 30, 2010. Sun was declared dead while her mother remains in a vegetative state. Both of them also hailed from Shenyang. Australian police investigations revealed the murder was committed at about 7:30pm when Sun and her mother were driving to their residence in Perth. A car blocked them and Zhao got out of the car and targeted Kang with a speargun. He missed, and then took a hammer and hit her on the head as she collapsed on the ground. He then approached Sun in the car and stabbed her several times with a knife. Australian police suspected Zhao and even found the speargun in his home. But he had an alibi Zhao had reportedly left for Shenyang on September 10, 2010, and there was no record to prove he had re-entered Australia again. But a crucial evidence by a traffic police nailed him in the end. The traffic police took a picture of Zhao, who was in a car with a driver, on their way to Sydney. The traffic police said Zhao was behaving strangely. It emerged that Zhao had entered Australia on a passport that belonged to his friend on September 23. He had bought a new car just seven days before the murder, police said. After committing the crime, he abandoned the car and called for a driver to take him to Sydney. He left for China on October 3 from Sydney. Police said Zhao and Sun were locked in a bitter divorce and Zhao feared losing a big chunk of his property. They had a daughter in 2008. Zhao's property in Perth was auctioned off and the money was to be used for his daughter's upbringing. His daughter, who was not named, lives with another family in Perth and she is in touch with her grandfather. You are here: Home Hundreds of domestic and international flights from and to Istanbul were called off for Sunday and Monday over a forecast heavy snowfall. The Turkish Airlines, the national flag carrier, canceled 246 flights, including those to several European, Middle Eastern and Caucasian cities. Twenty-five domestic and international flights with Turkey's budget Pegasus Airlines were also grounded due to "bad weather conditions," the company said on its website. A snowfall of 20 cm is expected to hit parts of Turkey's northwest, the State Meteorological Service announced on its website. Flights and ferries have been frequently called off in Istanbul due to seasonal snowfalls and strong winds. You are here: Home As many as 1,505 people have taken shelters at higher grounds as floods hit Aceh Utara district of Indonesia's Aceh province, a government spokesman said on Monday. Due to heavy downpours since Sunday morning, water has overflowed the banks of Pase and Keureten rivers and submerged many places in district, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the national disaster agency, told Xinhua by phone. Evacuation of the flood-affected persons is still underway now, Sutopo said. Indonesia has frequently hit by floods during the rainy season that usually lasts from November to March every year. Flash Beautiful sunrise at Blyde River Canyon, a landmark natural feature of South Africa. (Photo provided to China Daily) Chinese tourists don't need transit visas anymore when they travel through South Africa's OR Tambo, Cape Town, King Shaka and Lanseria international airports to its six neighboring countries Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, according to the country's embassy in Beijing. That's just one of the moves that South Africa has made to attract more Chinese mainland tourists in the past few months. Besides existing visa centers in Beijing and Shanghai, it opened new ones in Chengdu and Guangzhou last August. To strengthen business communication, it will issue 10-year multiple-entry visas to corporate executives of fellow BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India and China if they provide sufficient documents. China has become a core market for the country in recent years. In 2013, the number of tourists from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong reached 151,847, an increase of 14.7 over 2012. Bradley Brouwer, South African Tourism's president for the Asia Pacific region, said his agency will work closely with Chinese partners to offer more convenience to Chinese consumers, so they can enjoy the country's natural beauty, diversified cultures and varied wildlife. Flash A cozy Ger camp near the ancient capital of Karakorum.(Photo/Shanghai Daily) The thunderous sound of a thousand horses rages in the near distance. From across the seemingly infinite steppes of the Central Asian hinterlands, the air is transformed into a deafening roar of hooves, howls and cries. Huge iron swords ready at the hilt, piercing eyes gazing from hardened leather helmets, stout bodies shrouded in tough hide armor, the noses of their fierce mounts flared in flaming fury. In the long shadow of impending doom, it is then that one realizes: It is too late. Genghis Khan has arrived. From the 13th to the 14th centuries, Genghis and his Khan descendants, the ground quaking under the weight of their mighty armies, unleashed a fury of global conquests that became the largest contiguous land empire the Earth has ever known, ruling over one-fifth of the world's land mass and subjugating a staggering 25 percent of the planet's population. The extent of the Mongol Empire are nearly impossible to comprehend, stretching across a huge swath of land from Eastern Europe all the way to the Korean peninsula, touching the Mediterranean, the Himalayas, Arabian deserts, Siberia and the shores of the Sea of Japan. An adventurous start In Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, sand was pouring down from the sky like rain during a monsoon. It was one of their frequent sandstorms, and we were stuck in Beijing. After numerous delays and a day-long wait, making good friends among our hodgepodge group of stranded yet spirited strangers, we finally took off and, upon landing in Mongolia, the entire plane broke out in frenetic applause. Ulaanbaatar and its surroundings offer some impressive sights, including a mystical temple in the mountains at Aryabal Meditation Center, a towering 26.5-meter-high golden statue of the Buddhist figure Avalokitesvara at Ganden Monastery, the magnificent Winter Palace of Mongolia's last emperor and a grandiose public square featuring a gigantic statue of Genghis Khan, seated regally on a majestic throne. As interesting as Ulaanbaatar is, I was eager to get to the destination I had truly ventured here for, the location where the great Genghis Khan embarked on his extraordinary campaign across much of the known world. From whence a mighty cavalry once rode Sitting in a quaint valley, surrounded by soft, rounded mountains, the legendary town of Karakorum was the capital of the Mongol Empire. It was from this exact spot that Genghis Khan rallied his troops before advancing into much of Western Asia. Born as Temujin, he became a respected tribal leader and consolidated his growing power base through politics and warfare. During a kuriltai (traditional council meeting) in 1206, he was elevated to the super status of "Genghis Khan," meaning supreme leader or king of kings, uniting all the regional nomadic peoples as the head of "all who lived in felt tents". While very little remains that reveals Genghis Khans' once powerful presence in Karakorum, save for some old fire pits and palatial foundations, his power can be felt just by trekking atop the very soil that his mighty cavalry embarked from. When all was quiet, I could almost hear the rumbling of horses as the Mongol's fierce armies charged their way into Europe and China. Eventually undone by overextension and infighting, the ambitiousness and brutal rule of Genghis Khan and his successors still reverberates centuries after their fateful demise. A run-in with a modern Genghis Khan Driving among grazing cattle, curious camels and meandering sheep, we made our way to Erdene Zuu, the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. While exploring the extensive grounds and remarkable temples, I met a large Mongolian man whose intense eyes were imbued with strength and confidence. He was wrinkled and weathered. He wore a thick moustache, a dark leather coat with fine embroidery and an enormous silver-studded belt that looked like it belonged to an emperor's tunic. His appearance was imposing, and I felt as if I was staring at Genghis Khan himself. As I gazed up at him, I reached my hand out. He shook it and smiled warmly, his dark-hued eyes staring straight into mine. A portal into the past The wind howls through a small opening at the top of the simple, round tent. Through the ger's opening, I can see eagles roam and horses saunter while dust blows over the stark, dry terrain and the lingering goats a moment that seemed frozen in time. A ger is a traditional, portable Mongolian tent, made from a wooden frame and covered with skins or felt. Surprisingly spacious, they seem almost impossibly larger inside than outside. No trip to Mongolia would be complete without a crisp night under the infinite arrays of stars in a local tent, the same way the nomads of the world have been living for thousands of years. After a pleasant stay in a cozy ger camp, it was time to head back to Ulaanbaator. Luckily for us, a special treat was in store: From out of nowhere emerged the 80km stretch of giant sand dunes known as Mongol Els, part of the outer extremities of the mighty Gobi Desert. Here, the hot grainy sands of the arid landscape stream over mounds of gold, conspiring to form magical mirages and drifts of dreams. Genghis himself may have traversed these very same trails. In this wondrous place one can meander under the soaring sun, frolic about in the sea of sand or take a ride on the affable two-humped Bactrian camels that trudge along this area. Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Flash Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York, the United States, on Dec. 17, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua] When we mention Iran, people tend to think of the exquisite Persian carpets and brilliant colorful miniatures. Actually, Iran also played a role as an important connection of the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe, between the East and the West. Friendly exchanges between China and Iran started thousands of years ago and never stopped afterwards. In the future, China-Iran friendship is believed to go further and deeper through the "belt and road" initiative. The initiative was proposed by the Chinese government in 2013. It refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which envisages the linking of development strategies of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. Back to the 2nd century BC, the ancient silk road opened a business channel linking China to Europe. As an important country along the road, contacts between the two were established. Thousands of years afterwards, the friendship between China and Iran has become more and more solid. In 1971, China and Iran established diplomatic ties and the dialogues and exchanges between the two sides have entered a new era. With a series of high-level exchanges over the past decades, friendship and cooperation between the two countries have been further strengthened. During that period, the two countries have attached great importance to exchanges between their peoples, a solid foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation. It's believed that in the future the two countries will continue to maintain high-level exchanges and continuously enhance mutual trust, strengthen pragmatic cooperation and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability. At the same time, bilateral economic and trade exchanges and cooperation have been continuously strengthened. In 1991, the trade volume between China and Iran was only 313 million U.S. dollars, but after 20 years economic and trade cooperation has seen rapid development. In 2014, bilateral trade volume reached 50 billion dollars. Currently, nearly 100 Chinese companies are active in various sectors in Iran, such as infrastructure construction, high-tech, telecommunication, chemicals, petroleum and natural gas. In July last year, a comprehensive agreement on the Iran's nuclear issue was reached, giving Iran an opportunity to experience faster development after the West lifting sanction on the country. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani noted last September in New York during a meeting there with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Iran cherishes friendly relations with China and, under the new situation, Iran is willing to work closely with China to deepen the strategic long-term cooperation in the areas of economy, trade and energy and push bilateral relations forward. On the same occasion, President Xi stressed that China is willing to focus on promoting Iran's infrastructure projects and expand cooperation in railways, highways, automobile manufacturing, electricity, construction machinery, high-tech and environmental protection, with the priority to promoting energy and financial cooperation. As the leaders pointed out, China is restructuring its economy while Iran is entering a new period of development. The belt and road initiative will serve as a bridge linking Iran's needs for foreign investment with China's demands to enlarge overseas market. With such a solid foundation for win-win cooperation, people can believe that the initiative will help strengthen investment, trade and technological cooperation between Iran and China. In addition, the initiative will bring about significant growth opportunities for the two countries so as to deepen traditional friendship between the Chinese and the Iranians and usher in a brighter future for their mutually beneficial cooperation. Flash A Chinese diplomat says President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to Saudi Arabia is going to improve relations between the two countries. Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia Li Chenwen says the high-level contact between the two countries will keep the relationship moving forward. "Former President Hu Jintao visited Saudi Arabia twice; Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah also visited China twice. President Xi's first foreign visits as vice president included Saudi Arabia; King Salman also visited China in 2014 as crown prince. President Xi Jinping's state visit to Saudi Arabia will be of important significance, which I think is historical." Statistics show that the bilateral trade volume in 2015 amounted to over 69 billion U.S. dollars, 230 times of that of 1990 when diplomatic relations were established. In 2014, China imported 50 million tons of oil from Saudi Arabia, representing over 16 percent of China's overall oil imports. Saudi Arabia is also a key marketplace for Chinese engineering firms. Currently, more than 160 Chinese enterprises have invested in Saudi Arabia in areas including rail, construction, ports, power plants, and telecommunications. Li says cultural and people-to-people exchanges have been warming up. The ambassador recalled how Riyadh offered assistance to Beijing after a mega-quake rocked Sichuan province. "Especially I remember in 2008 when earthquakes rocked Wenchuan of Sichuan Province, Mr Yahya Al-Zaid, who was the Saudi Arabian ambassador to China, led more than 40 staff of the embassy to donate blood for quake victims. I am still moved by it." Li says the two sides can achieve mutual benefits under the framework of China's "Belt and Road" initiative. "Saudi Arabia is located on two roads, or the junction of the 'one belt' and 'one road.' Saudi Arabia has also become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. I think a lot of energy in the bilateral relationship comes from the consensus that building the 'Belt and Road' together will forge, deepen, and prolong our relations, and enable the two countries to play more active and effective roles in global and regional affairs as well as regional development." Speaking of the prospects for Beijing-Riyadh ties, Li says China and Saudi Arabia can further their inter-cultural dialogues and join hands to combat the threat of terrorism, helping to promote stability and development in the greater Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the first stop of President Xi Jinping's 3 nations-tour in the Middle East region, which will kick off on Tuesday. He is also expected to visit Egypt and Iran. Flash The Islamic State (IS) militant group [File photo/Xinhua] The Islamic State (IS) militant group kidnapped a total of 400 people from a town its militants had stormed in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported on Sunday. The IS militants stormed the town of al-Bughailiyeh on Saturday, killing over 280 people, mostly women and children, and tossing their bodies in the Euphrates River in the countryside of Deir al-Zour, near Iraq. The IS attack on the neighborhood was carried out earlier on Saturday, with several suicide bombers blowing themselves up at government forces' positions, the TV said. Syria's state news agency SANA also reported the mass killing, saying tens of people were massacred by IS in al-Bughailiyeh. Meanwhile, the oppositional Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based watchdog group, said the IS snuck into al-Bughailiyeh earlier on Saturday, killing tens of government forces. The IS attack on the neighborhood comes amid renewed battles between the IS and the Syrian military forces in several areas in Deir al-Zour, including the vicinity of the main airbase near the Iraqi borders. The winners of the past six state Supreme Court races have at least one thing in common: Each received the most support of independent groups, including unregulated spending on thinly veiled campaign commercials known as issue ads. In particular, conservative groups have spent heavily two dollars for every one spent by liberal groups in recent years to help produce a right-of-center majority on Wisconsins highest court. Overall, outside interest groups have spent an estimated $13.2 million on issue ads alone since 2007 on behalf of Supreme Court candidates, according to data compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Such dark money ads are contentious because their funders arent required to be identified. And while they purport to be about policy issues rather than a particular candidate, such ads rarely surface outside of an election and are intended to influence the election. Interest groups and observers say the millions of dollars typically spent on Supreme Court candidates likely will continue this spring as Justice Rebecca Bradley, appointed to the states highest court by Gov. Scott Walker on Oct. 9, seeks to keep her seat. She is being challenged by Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Joe Donald and Court of Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg. The three will face each other in the Feb. 16 primary, with the two prevailing candidates squaring off in the general election April 5. The largest and most influential player in court races in recent years is the states business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. It has spent nearly $6 million on issue advertising for conservative-leaning candidates in the past six Supreme Court races and will likely spend high again. We fully expect to be involved in the same type of issue advocacy that weve done on issues surrounding the Supreme Court and the judiciary, said WMC lobbyist Scott Manley. He declined to provide details or expected spending amounts, though he added we do expect to be involved at the same level (as) in the past. Manley wouldnt say which candidate WMC was leaning toward, but in a September column on the groups website promoting Bradley, WMC spokesman Jim Pugh called her a judicial traditionalist and described Kloppenburg as a Madison liberal judge and Donald as a Milwaukee County liberal judge. The Greater Wisconsin Committee, which supports liberals, has spent around $4 million on candidates who won two of the six races. Officials with the group did not return calls seeking comment. In 2011, the group spent $1.6 million on behalf of Kloppenburg, according to Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimates, on ads against her opponent Justice David Prosser who won that race. Prosser was the beneficiary of $1.1 million spent by WMC and $520,000 spent by the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Citizens for a Strong America, an arm of Club for Growth, also spent $985,000 on advertising and other efforts to support Prosser or attack Kloppenburg. The third-highest spending group in the past six Supreme Court races was the Wisconsin Club for Growth, dispensing $1.8 million since 2007. Overall, conservative candidates receive more support from more groups than liberals. Since 2007, eight conservative-backing interest groups have spent $8.9 million on Supreme Court candidates, while two liberal backing groups have spent $4.3 million. Influence on candidates While outside spending is part of the formula for a successful candidate, those in this years race were reluctant to endorse it or address whether they could be successful without it. Donald said his decision to run was pushed by his belief that the citizens of this state truly want an independent, nonpartisan justice but said he realizes the spending is a reality. Thats one of the things that concerns me if candidates are truly independent, he said. (Voters) want you to be beholden to the law and the constitution and not to politics, not to politicians, not to special interest groups. I believe my candidacy will send a message. Its not like I was this hand-picked or created candidate. Ive been a judge for 20 years and I decided to step up and say, Look, Im going to run for our state Supreme Court. Bradley declined to be interviewed for this story. A campaign spokeswoman said it would be improper to comment on any spending outside groups may do in order to take part in the spring election because the campaign is not coordinating with any outside groups. Justice Bradley intends to continue running a positive campaign focused on her experience, judicial philosophy and service to the people of Wisconsin, and she encourages all other candidates and outside groups to do the same, Bradley spokeswoman Madison Wiberg said. Kloppenburg said theres no question that large amounts of money from unregulated special interests that dont have to disclose their donors threatens to undermine peoples confidence in the court. She said shes running for the court a second time because Wisconsin residents want the court to act as an independent check and balance on the other branches of government. We dont control that we cant control that, Kloppenburg said about the prospect of ads purchased on her behalf by special interest groups. The special interests dont and cant define me. Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said spending will ramp up after the primary. I imagine the huge spenders like WMC will be holding their fire (until then), he said. Rothschild said you can bet Bradley will receive backing from WMC and the Wisconsin Club for Growth but wasnt sure which liberal-leaning candidate would draw the most support from groups looking to spend to promote liberal interests. He said spending on Bradleys behalf will be substantial from groups that have seen cases go before the court. They appreciate the return on their investment, when they are able to essentially purchase a seat on the state Supreme Court, he said. (The court has) ruled almost universally in favor of WMC and got the John Doe off their backs. Last year, the court ruled 4-2 to end a second secret criminal probe, known as a John Doe, of coordination involving Walker and his gubernatorial campaign with independent groups. Walker was never charged. Wisconsin Club for Growth, Citizens for a Strong America and WMC spent millions to support the candidacies of Justices David Prosser, Pat Roggensack, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman over the past seven years. WMC also helped write the controversial recusal rules under which justices and other Wisconsin judges decide whether to sit on a case. Those rules, adopted on a 4-3 vote, state that judges cannot be forced off a case based solely on their acceptance of legal campaign contributions or independent efforts done on their behalf. The court in July also ruled there is a First Amendment right to such coordination that prompted the John Doe investigation. The courts ruling cleared the way for candidates to coordinate with issue advocacy groups if they choose. Rebecca Bradley has had the backing of such independent issue advocacy groups. Wisconsin Club for Growth, a group that supported Walker and was investigated as part of the John Doe probe, spent $167,000 in Bradleys race to retain her seat on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2013. But Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel at the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said its not just a conservative issue groups on both sides spend in order to promote ideologies, and the major players have become the mechanism to do so. The Greater Wisconsin Committee and WMC have become the vehicles to which a lot of this spending is done, Esenberg said. People are giving them money in order to spend money on Supreme Court races. Scott Greytak, senior policy counsel for the judicial election-tracking group Justice At Stake, said Wisconsin is the textbook example of a court that has fallen prey to special interest influence and special interest spending. He said Wisconsin mirrors national trends in judicial election spending in that business groups, like WMC, battle against groups representing trial attorneys or labor unions. Greytak said the states recusal rules have contributed to a loss of trust in the integrity of the court system. All four justices had benefitted from spending from outside groups and sided with the majority in the decision to drop the John Doe case talk about a hit on public confidence, he said. Esenberg said Supreme Court races became salient about 10 years ago, after the court made key decisions that set policy. Whether you like what they did or disliked what they did, they were significant decisions that appear to have represented a departure from past practice, Esenberg said. That had a significant policy impact, and when courts do that, people become very interested. MADISON Waupun Correctional Institution officials failed to notify inmates for months that Wisconsin had dramatically lowered the maximum time in solitary confinement for rule violations, Department of Corrections records and interviews show. One inmate, Markell Simon, charged he was tricked into agreeing to six months in seclusion because he was unaware the DOC had cut maximum sentences by 75 percent for individual offenses from 360 days to 90 days. Another inmate, Hurcel Staples, who was released from Waupun Oct. 6, also told the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism that he had never been notified by prison officials of the changes in solitary confinement. Records released to the Center by the DOC in December show Waupun officials were told to post a copy of the new policy for inmates on Aug. 13 10 weeks after it had been enacted. The Center had filed a public records request Sept. 29 seeking verification that Waupun inmates had been notified of the new approach to solitary confinement. DOC spokeswoman Joy Staab declined to answer a question about why Waupun inmates were not notified of the new policy when it was enacted June 1, saying only that staff implemented the changes at that time. Wisconsin is among several states, including New York, that are reducing use of solitary confinement, largely in response to lawsuits and research showing that spending up to 23 hours a day with little or no human contact and little constructive activity can cause lasting psychological damage. A top United Nations official has said more than 15 days in isolation is tantamount to torture. Wisconsins new policy has reduced the number of prisoners in so-called restrictive status housing by more than 200, from 1,098 at the beginning of 2015 to 892 as of Dec. 31, Staab said. Waupun inmate Simon said in a Sept. 21 letter to the Center that he voluntarily agreed to serve 180 days in solitary confinement only because I was under the assumption and understanding that if I went to my hearing and contested the time, I would be risking receiving 360 day(s) the former maximum penalty. In fact, under the new policy, Simons maximum punishment for assault, disruptive conduct and disobeying orders could have been as little as 120 days. Part of DOCs new policy involves one-on-one negotiations between an officer and an inmate, a top DOC official told the Center in a July interview. The DOCs mental health director, Dr. Kevin Kallas, said the agency was encouraging such negotiations so discipline could take effect now and start now rather than needing to wait for some formal process for every little thing. But for at least two and a half months, Waupun inmates were at a distinct disadvantage: They were not notified that maximum terms had been sharply reduced. In addition, mitigating factors, such as a documented history of mental illness, can reduce time in solitary while enhancers, such as repeat violations, can add time to the punishment, according to the new rules. DOC records show Simon pleaded guilty in July, agreeing to serve 180 days in solitary for assault, disobeying orders and disruptive conduct after fighting with two other inmates. Under the new policy, the maximum penalty without enhancers for Simons offenses would have been between 120 and 180 days, depending on whether disruptive conduct was treated as a lesser included offense to assault that does not carry additional time. Records provided by the DOC show at least two other inmates also may have voluntarily agreed to longer-than-maximum punishments. Simon said he found out about the new policy through news coverage around Aug. 25 while he was still in isolation. He found the revelation shocking. In my opinion, the Waupun administration is attempting to circumvent the new policy changes made by Madison by preying on the ignorance of the inmates incarcerated here, wrote Simon, who is serving a two-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. None of us were aware of these revisions because there was never a memo or mention of them whatsoever by the administration. Staples told the Center he also was unaware of the new policy while he was incarcerated at Waupun. They didnt let me know any of them (changes), Staples said. I saw something on the news that the DOC made an agreement about how theyre going to do segregation. Waupun warden led changes The lack of notification is noteworthy given that then-Waupun Warden William Pollard was co-chairman of the work group that devised the new DOC policy. Pollard, who is now the warden at Dodge Correctional Institution, has since been replaced by Brian Foster, former warden of Green Bay Correctional Institution. In 2014, the Center documented dozens of allegations of physical and psychological abuse of prisoners in solitary confinement by correctional officials at Waupun, 55 miles northeast of Madison. Corrections officials have said the inmates are lying. Asked why Waupun failed to notify inmates of the rule changes in a timely way, Staab responded in an email, This policy for staff to follow was implemented immediately upon completion in June. She made no mention of inmate notification. Staab did not answer when asked via email what steps, if any, Waupun had taken to modify disciplinary sentences that were meted out before inmates were made aware of the new policy. The email and disciplinary records showed that on Oct. 19, three weeks after the Centers public records request, Pollard did overturn two disciplinary actions taken in July and August for inmate Demetrius Thompson. Pollard wrote that officials had failed to consider mitigating circumstances as required under the new rules that would have resulted in shorter terms in isolation. Sentences can be shortened for factors including a documented history of mental illness or if the inmate stopped the misconduct after directed by staff. In one of those cases from July, the records show, Thompson had agreed to 150 days in solitary 60 days longer than the maximum amount for any one offense. No other details of either incident were included in the DOC records. The records show that another inmate, Theodore Duerst, agreed on July 31 to 90 days in isolation, although the new maximum penalty for his offense, disobeying orders, is 30 days. On Aug. 25, Duerst agreed to a punishment of 120 days for again disobeying orders four times the maximum under the new rules. Duersts offenses were refusing to move into a cell he deemed too hot and refusing to continue rooming with an inmate with whom he had trouble, according to the records. The Rev. Jerry Hancock said the incident demonstrates the DOC is not sincere in enacting the less punitive rules. He added the lack of notification by Waupun bolsters the call by his faith-based group, Wisdom, for effective, independent oversight of the agency. It proves conclusively a need for an outside monitor for the ... implementation of solitary confinement policies in DOC, said Hancock, a minister of Madisons First Congregational United Church of Christ and a former prosecutor. Without an outside monitor, there is no reason to trust the DOC when it comes to implementing this policy. In my opinion, the Waupun administration is attempting to circumvent the new policy changes made by Madison by preying on the ignorance of the inmates incarcerated here. Markell Simon Dear Editor: Whats next, WIAA? Now that high school student sections cannot chant such offensive cheers as air ball, fundamentals," You cant do that, is total team support a thing of the past? All of us can understand that personal attacks and demeaning chants should not be allowed, but this? Then you go and tattle to the school of a student/athlete who tweeted her displeasure with your email and she gets suspended for five games. One cannot voice an opinion anymore? Hey, high school athlete parents and fans, be sure to check in your vocal chords when you buy your ticket. Welcome to the World of the Perpetually Offended. Kim Richman Madison Send your letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. Christian Standard Media Releases Fifth Book in Beth Guckenberger's Storyweaver Series: 'Tales of the Never Alone' Guckenberger's New Book is Featured in CSM's Deep Sea Discovery 2016 VBS, Her First Public Book Signing Will Be Thursday, January 21 CINCINNATI, Jan. 18, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Loved by kids of all ages and adults as well, the newest book in Beth Guckenberger's Storyweaver Series is a collection of true stories that follows five young men and women, and the people they encounter, as they discover the God who never leaves us. Daniela receives healing for unknown wounds. Gervens brings light out of dark places. Happy discovers strength in new words. Tanya travels far to come home. Mario lets go and reaches for his future. Their languages and locations may be different, but these stories unite our hearts through the promises made by our great Storyweaver God -- our Guide, who leads us into adventures we couldn't dream of and travels we might not have signed up for on our own. Available now from Christian Standard Media, formerly Standard Publishing, Tales of the Never Alone is the fifth book in the Storyweaver Series, which was launched with the publication of its first installment, Tales of the Not Forgotten, in 2012. "Tales of the Never Alone might be my favorite yet. It has stories of children from some of my favorite places, with conclusions that still leave me in awe of God," said Beth Guckenberger, the book's author and Co-Executive Director of Back2Back Ministries, dedicated to orphan care and education worldwide. "Beth has a passionate heart for God, and for her mission of storytelling the incredible ways God transforms the lives of the orphans around the world whom she has known and cared for. Her captivating, real life stories grab and inspire the hearts of children and leaders alike," said Peter M. Esposito, CEO, Christian Standard Media. Tales of the Never Alone leads both kids and adults to explore how God works through the lives of young people in difficult circumstances, to develop an understanding of the needs of others, and to consider how they can serve others in their own community and around the world. This lively and engaging book features country maps to go with the story settings, photos showing the real people and scenes involved, facts and trivia about the cultures and issues, definitions of foreign words and concepts, plus journal prompts to inspire readers to connect with their own stories. Guckenberger's latest collection of uplifting stories makes a great gift for all book lovers. Parents will love its ease of use as a family activity, using the prompts provided to encourage deeper conversation. Church leaders will also love using it to teach kids how they can be missionaries in their own communities and to inspire kids to a lifetime of service. In fact, this is the reason Christian Standard Media has incorporated Tales of the Never Alone into their newly released Deep Sea Discovery 2016 VBS -- it fits powerfully into the "Service with a Lasting Purpose" component of their award-winning VBS program. Guckenberger's first public book signing will be Thursday, January 21, 2016 at the Children's Pastors' Conference in Chattanooga, TN. The conference is sponsored by the International Network of Children's Ministry (INCM) and is being held at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Tales of the Never Alone will be signed in person by the author at 3:30-4:30 pm in Christian Standard Media's booth on the 21st, as well as following Guckenberger's main stage keynote at 11:00am on Saturday, January 23, 2016. Tales of the Never Alone can be purchased at Christian retailers across the United States and online at christianstandardmedia.com About Beth Guckenberger Beth Guckenberger is the Co-Executive Director of Back2Back Ministries and the author of seven books, including the five books of the Storyweaver Series published by Christian Standard Media, formerly Standard Publishing. She is the recipient of the 2013 International Network of Children's Ministry Legacy Award and the Cincinnati Christian University Salute to Leaders Award for the impact made on children internationally. She travels and speaks regularly at conferences, youth gatherings, and church services. Back2Back Ministries is a nonprofit Christian organization dedicated to providing "care for today, hope for tomorrow" to orphaned and impoverished children around the world. Learn more at www.bethguckenberger.com Christian Standard Media LLC is committed to continuing the nearly 150-year tradition as a Christian mission-driven leader in true-to-the Bible resources that educate, encourage, and enrich adults, youth, and children. From the founding of a journal devoted to New Testament Christianity in 1866 to the first publication of Vacation Bible School (VBS) materials with a five-week, all day program in 1923 to its contemporary publication of its award-winning 2015 VBS -- Christian Standard Media will continue the legacy of serving church communities worldwide. Today - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday in the United States - brought us to Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp. There is no question in my mind that Dr. King would weep at the way Palestinians are treated. Some will blame the failure of Palestinian leadership for the refugee crisis here - and there is truth in that their leadership has not always made wise decisions - but no group of people should live in the hopeless poverty we saw today. So what exactly are these camps? The United Nations explains: Nearly one-third of the registered Palestine refugees, more than 1.5 million individuals, live in 58 recognized Palestine refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. A Palestine refugee camp is defined as a plot of land placed at the disposal of UNRWA by the host government to accommodate Palestine refugees and set up facilities to cater to their needs. Areas not designated as such and are not recognized as camps. However, UNRWA also maintains schools, health centres and distribution centres in areas outside the recognized camps where Palestine refugees are concentrated, such as Yarmouk, near Damascus. The plots of land on which the recognized camps were set up are either state land or, in most cases, land leased by the host government from local landowners. This means that the refugees in camps do not 'own' the land on which their shelters were built, but have the right to 'use' the land for a residence. Socioeconomic conditions in the camps are generally poor, with high population density, cramped living conditions and inadequate basic infrastructure such as roads and sewers. Israelis have built giant walls cutting off refugee camps from other communities. They are like prisons. It is difficult to travel in or out if you are Palestinian. Freedom of movement does not exist. Most of the resistance to these living conditions take the form on non-violent action but there have been periods where violence has erupted. It would seem a silly hope for violence and terror not to thrive in conditions such as these. Still, many people, like those we met today at the Alrowwad for Cultural Arts, are seeking means of non-violent creative resistance. There are no easy answers to how to solve the Israeli - Palestinian question but there is no question these camps violate basic human rights. are Marxist adherents. Seamus Milne has made statements, for example, which not only advocate Marxism, but the narrow revolutionary offshoot of Marx, Marxism-Leninism. He has made I do not know if Jeremy Corbyn subscribes 100% to Marxism as a political agenda. He has certainly praised Karl Marx and suggested that there is much that can be learned from his writings . Even if Mr. Corbyn is only an admirer, rather than an adherent, of Marxism, it opens up a myriad of questions. For whether Mr. Corbyn himself is a Marxist or not, many key players in his emerging leadership team unquestionablyMarxist adherents. Seamus Milne has made statements, for example, which not only advocate Marxism, but the narrow revolutionary offshoot of Marx, Marxism-Leninism. He has made statements which support the position of Stalin , even in his most bloodthirsty policies. The problem I have here is that there is no government that has been accepted as Marxist that has not launched the most vile crimes against the people they purport to govern. Every single government that has been Marxist has also been a murderous tyranny The Soviet Union killed an estimated 20 million of their own citizens through famine, murder and the GULAG. China, in the "Great Leap Forward", and the "Cultural Revolution" may have killed as many as 90 million. Pol Pot's Cambodia killed about third of the entire population, at least 2 million people. From Angola to Vietnam, from North Korea to Benin to Congo, every Marxist state has become a charnel house of butchery. There is no moral difference between Soviet Socialism and National Socialism. Indeed the death toll of Communism far exceeds that of Fascism. So why do Corbyn's cronies still speak up for a political brand that is utterly ruinous? In the case of Milne, it seems inescapable that he genuinely believes in the tenets of Communism, as such he is a moral leper, and utterly unworthy of any role in a democratic society. In the case of Corbyn? Well who knows? However, flirting with the worlds most murderous ideology is very dangerous. History shows us time and again that the "price of freedom" is indeed "eternal vigilance". The fact is that it is not good enough to say that one may believe that the states that called themselves Marxist were not in fact "true Marxists". When every single Marxist state has become a tyranny, why should anyone still use the Marxist political brand? Unless, that is that they believe in it, and therefore think the bloody death toll of Communism "a price worth paying", in which case they are the deadly enemy of Liberalism and indeed Democracy Many, especially amongst the Conservatives may ask "So what"? The fact is that partly because he espouses this vile ideology, Corbyn's Labour can never be elected. Yet the fact is that this could be complacent in the extreme. Suppose the Tories are wrecked either in the European debate in in some other argument or scandal- then Corbyn, disastrously, may yet claim the prize. Meanwhile, of course, Ken Livingstone, who famously deposed the nominal leader of the GLC, after the voters endorsed Labour to run London, also knows that once power is attained, it can be used , and by people and in ways the electorate may not wish for and did not vote for. In the end Marxism believes in Democracy only as a vehicle to enact Marxism. Mr. Putin may be a nominal Russian nationalist, but his methods are still out of the Leninist book of subversion, and the West has been caught napping. Somehow, I don't think that Mr. Milne minds that too much. For by making that appointment alone, Jeremy Corbyn has demonstrated that he must be stopped from ever wielding power. On Newsstands Now: Here's Everything You'll Find in CityBeat's Latest Issue From a Bigfoot hunt to delightfully spooky ghost stories from one of Cincinnati's watering holes, here are the stories you'll find in CityBeat's latest print edition. By CityBeat Staff Oct 19, 2022 For many of us, Bigfoot is a legend present only on an episode of Ancient Aliens, or perhaps only among the towering, mysterious pines of the Pacific Northwest. However, for CityBeat's latest issue, we went on a hunt for Bigfoot in a place where the massive furball had allegedly been spotted before Ohio's Pleasant Hill Lake Park... I'm a communications strategist and writer with a long history of journalism in Canada, including 14 years of writing a column for the Victoria Times-Colonist. I'm back in B.C. as of May 2016 after almost five years of living and working in Central America with Cuso International. Boating adventures of the crew on the motor vessel "Sunset Delight" - a Krogen Express 52 (Blog entries prior to January 2017 cover travels, including our Great Loop Trip, on our previous motor vessel - a 350 Mainship named "Sea Moss" thus the name of the blog.) This Page has moved to a new address: Sorry for the inconvenience Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service A dozen Nebraska towns and one regional power provider have spurned Nebraska Public Power Districts demands for 20-year wholesale electric contracts. Many have opted to shop around for their electricity, with some choosing to buy it from as far away as Ohio. For most of NPPDs wholesale customers, this is the first contract negotiation in which it has been feasible to look to a broader market of electric providers for power, thanks to the Southwest Power Pool. While NPPD does serve some end-user customers, the majority of its business is wholesale electricity, unlike Lincoln Electric System, which serves end-user customers who cannot choose where they buy their power. NPPDs current 20-year contracts are up at the end of 2021, so the district wants its customers to commit to new ones to protect its bond rating. Having longer contracts in place shows bond holders that lending money to an entity is a safe bet. NPPD has inked new contracts with 62 of its 75 wholesale customers, which include rural public power districts and municipal wholesale buyers. Those customers made up 92 percent of the districts revenue in 2014. NPPD Vice President of Customer Services Ken Curry called that a strong showing of support from its customers. If our process is an indicator of the future, our customer base strongly and vocally supports public power and our utility, he said. Those that are staying with us, they valued the things in this contract that are unique and very positive for them and the end-use customers we serve. Norris Public Power District is one of those that opted to sign a new long-term contract. Norris considered other options, said General Manager Bruce Vitosh, but opted to stay with NPPD because of its history of providing affordable electricity. Weve had a great relationship with NPPD and felt that was the best option for our customers, Vitosh said. Norris often turns to NPPD when it needs expertise, engineering services and in times of disaster, he said. And if there is a natural disaster such as a tornado, Norris officials know NPPD will be there for its customers with lights and generators. Those services are something cities leaving NPPD will no longer have access to, Curry said. The amount of business NPPD has lost is roughly equal to how much it will pick up from a new industrial client, Monolith Materials, which is expected to come online as the customers that are leaving begin shifting to their new suppliers. San Francisco-based Monolith Materials, which develops technologies that convert natural gas into chemicals and materials for customers around the world, will be the largest industrial electric customer in Nebraska, Curry said. It plans to use electricity to extract carbon from natural gas. The process also produces water and hydrogen. Monolith plans to sell the hydrogen to NPPD as fuel to power one of two steam boilers at Sheldon Power Station near Hallam. An uncertain future Nebraska electricity rates have grown at a much faster rate than those in other states in recent years, according to a recent study done by Creighton University economists and funded by the Platte Institute. But Nebraska still has the 14th lowest statewide average electric rate in the nation. The cost of electricity depends heavily on the price of the fuel used to generate it. In the past, Nebraska has benefited from its proximity to cheap coal from the Wyoming Powder River Basin. But the once reliably cheap fuel could be facing financial upheaval due to the Clean Power Plan, new federal regulations aimed at reducing carbon emissions from coal-fired plants. Nebraska is one of 24 states suing to stop the new rules. Currently, NPPD generates nearly 52 percent of its power from coal, 30 percent from nuclear, 6.5 percent from wind, 5.5 percent from purchases, 5.3 percent from hydroelectric sources and 1 percent from natural gas or oil. As an energy source, coal has the second highest level of uncertainty regarding the range of expected prices from 2015 to 2020, according to the Platte Institute report. Only the price of solar is considered more volatile. Beatrice City Council members rejected NPPDs contract because they didnt want to be locked into a 20-year deal with no price guarantees, said City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer. Instead, the city opted to sign a five-year deal with Columbus, Ohio-based AEP Energy Partners Inc. NPPD did offer a provision in its new contract to assuage concerns with price targets based on rates of other wholesale utilities across the nation. If NPPD misses the target, its customers will be allowed to begin buying a portion of their power from other companies. Tempelmeyer said that wasnt enough of a guarantee for Beatrice, which gave NPPD a required five-year cancellation notice last month. The municipal utility can start reducing the power it buys from NPPD three years from now and shift entirely to AEP Energy at the end of the five years, according to his interpretation of the contract with NPPD. Tempelmeyer estimates Beatrice will save 15 percent on power costs annually after it stops buying from NPPD. While Beatrice will be buying its power from a for-profit source, he said, the city is still a public power entity that owns and maintains all infrastructure in town. We are still public power; were just going to buy our energy source from somebody else, he said. The out-of-state power will still be transmitted to Beatrice on NPPD power lines. Federal regulations from the 1990s require electric companies to open their transmission lines to competitors. Pooling power When NPPD last asked companies to sign contracts in 2002, it wouldnt have been feasible for a town like Beatrice to get its power from an Ohio company, said Sarah Jones of the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska. That changed in recent years because of the way energy markets are organized over a broader geographical area through regional transmission organizations. The Southwest Power Pool oversees the vast majority of the electric grid and wholesale power market in 14 states on behalf of utilities and transmission companies. Based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Southwest Power Pool got its start during World War II when 11 power companies joined to keep an Arkansas factory working around the clock to produce aluminum for airplanes. It evolved, becoming a nonprofit regional transmission organization in 2004 and started an integrated marketplace in March 2014 to coordinate electric generation among its members. There is a significant amount of capacity that is available within SPP that is not committed to serving a load, said Carl Monroe, the pools executive vice president and chief operating officer. This integrated marketplace gives them more flexibility in the use of generation they have either contracted for or own. Nebraskas three largest electric utilities NPPD, LES and OPPD joined in 2009 and pay a variety of fees for services. In exchange, Southwest Power Pool offers a range of benefits, including coordinating reliability, balancing electric generation and load, access to a larger energy pool and market monitoring, as well as major transmission line cost sharing. Beatrice residents, for example, dont need to worry about their lights not turning on if there is a power outage in Ohio, AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said. The electrons AEPs generators pump into the system are not necessarily the same ones that will light up bulbs and run blenders in Nebraska. All of the power providers in Southwest Power Pool commit to putting power into the system and Power Pool officials decide which generators run based on need and efficiency. Then it becomes an accounting transaction for who is buying and who is selling. Using a swimming pool as an example to represent the transmission system, AEP pours a bucket of water into the pool, then Beatrice dips its bucket in and takes what it needs. The Southwest Power Pool records the transaction. Beatrice might not have gotten the same water AEP put in, but each contributed or took away its contracted amount. If AEP isnt able to put enough electricity into the pool to meet its customers needs say because a generator is down for maintenance then the companys contract says it will buy power on the market to meet the needs. Any eligible utility, like Beatrice, can become a Southwest Power Pool transmission customer after jumping through some regulatory hoops. They pay for transmission and other various tariffs. Whos opting out Other entities that have decided to leave NPPD include Northeast Nebraska Public Power District and the towns of Hebron, South Sioux City, Wakefield, Wayne, Valentine, Lodgepole, Superior, Scribner and Snyder. Most plan to buy their power out of state, although Snyder plans to join another in-state utility, Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska. South Sioux City has signed a six-year contract with AEP for its energy and a capacity agreement with LES. It also is working to develop a 3-megawatt solar array that will span about 21 acres. Walthill has declined to sign NPPDs contract but has not yet signed with another power company. In November, Butler Public Power District told NPPD it wants to continue under the terms of the current contract and declined to sign a new contract, said Butler General Manager Gary Westphal. NPPD continues to have discussions with Butler and hopes to come to an agreement that will let them continue their relationship, NPPD spokesman Mark Becker said. Four city utilities South Sioux City, Wayne, Wakefield and Valentine and the Northeast Nebraska Public Power District are suing NPPD, saying it has unfairly raised rates for customers that declined to sign the new 20-year contracts. NPPD is raising rates for those leaving by 3.8 percent while increasing rates for those utilities that are staying by .06 percent. NPPD says the bigger increase is to collect $25 million in retiree health-care costs associated with past service. Companies that sign on with NPPD through the next couple of decades will pay the health-care costs they owe over the course of those contracts. Their rate increase is more moderate because it is more spread out, NPPD said. We have customers that are going to go elsewhere, but they have also received that service of those employees and the benefit of that service over the years. They should pay for that service that they received, Curry said. The lawsuit says the move unfairly punishes utilities that opt to get their power elsewhere and coerces customers into signing the new contracts. 1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. 2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. 3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. 4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. 5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. 6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. 7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. 8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. 9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. 10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. 11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.) 12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. 13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. 14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. 16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. 17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. 18. Gain control of all student newspapers. 19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. 21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. 22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." 23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art." 24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. 25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. 26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." 27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." 28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." 29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. 30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." 31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. 34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. 35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. 36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. 37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. 38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand. 39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. 40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. 42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems. 43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. 44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. 45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. History is a set of lies agreed upon. The Dude The African Network for Environmental Sustainability (ANFES) aims to ensure that environmental sustainability research agenda and commercial exploitation of local communities natural resources benefit local communities by responding to their needs and aspirations and by improving their livelihoods opportunities. SUNDAY, Jan. 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials issued a travel warning late Friday for 14 countries and territories exposed to the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to a torrent of birth defects in Brazil. The travel alert targets pregnant women and those who want to become pregnant and follows reports that thousands of babies in Brazil were born last year with microcephaly, a brain disorder experts associate with Zika exposure. Babies with the condition have abnormally small heads, resulting in developmental issues and in some cases death. The alert, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lists the following countries and regions in Central and South America and the Caribbean: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. The alert recommends that women who are pregnant postpone travel to those areas, and that women wanting to become pregnant consult their doctors before setting out on any trip to those areas. In all cases, the alert said, women should take steps to avoid mosquito bites. "We believe this is a fairly serious problem," Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of the CDC's Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases, said during an evening press conference Friday. "The virus is spreading fairly rapidly throughout the Americas and a large percentage of the population may become infected," he said. "Because of the growing evidence that there is a link between Zika virus and microcephaly, we thought it was very important to warn people as soon as possible." Also Friday, the first case of Zika virus-linked brain damage in the United States was reported by health officials in Hawaii. The Hawaii State Health Department said a baby born in an Oahu hospital with microcephaly had been infected with the virus. The CDC confirmed the presence of the virus, The New York Times reported. The infant's mother had lived in Brazil last May and probably was bitten by a mosquito then, when she was early in her pregnancy, the health department said. There have been no confirmed cases of Zika virus transmission within Hawaii, state health officials said, the Times reported. Petersen said he had no idea when the travel advisory might be lifted, noting it would probably still be in effect when the summer Olympics begin in Brazil in August. "It's a dynamic situation and we are just going to have to wait and see how it all plays out," he said. "It's really impossible for us to speculate what will happen." Although new test results provide new evidence of a link between Zika and microcephaly, it isn't known if Zika alone is responsible or if other risk factors might be involved, Petersen said, adding more studies are planned to examine the link. Between 2007 and 2014, 14 cases of Zika virus were confirmed among travelers returning to the United States from South America, Petersen said. In 2015 and so far in 2016, 12 cases have been diagnosed, he added. The government action follows reports that at least 3,500 cases of microcephaly appeared in Brazil between October 2015 and January 2016, the CDC said. A CDC news release added: "CDC scientists tested samples provided by Brazilian health authorities from two pregnancies that ended in miscarriage and from two infants with diagnosed microcephaly who died shortly after birth. For the two full-term infants, tests showed that Zika virus was present in the brain. Genetic sequence analysis showed that the virus in the four cases was the same as the Zika virus strain currently circulating in Brazil. All four mothers reported having experienced a fever and rash illness consistent with Zika virus disease (Zika) during their pregnancies. " Dr. Marc Siegel, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, thinks a travel warning is wise, but said people shouldn't assume they will get infected if they visit Brazil. "It's extremely rare, but it's not impossible for a pregnant woman to get Zika on a trip to Brazil," he noted in comments made before the alert was issued. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is reportedly conducting research to determine how Zika affects fetuses. Brazilian health officials think the greatest risk of microcephaly and malformations happens during the first trimester of pregnancy. The Zika virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito -- the same one that carries other diseases that infect humans, including yellow fever, West Nile, chikungunya and dengue. The virus typically causes relatively mild symptoms -- fever, headache, skin rash, red eyes and muscle aches, according to the CDC. Symptoms usually clear up within a few days. There is no vaccine or specific drug to treat this virus. Besides South America and Puerto Rico, outbreaks of Zika virus have been reported in the past in Africa and Southeast Asia. More information For more information on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. JavaScript is disabled on your browser. CORDIS website requires JavaScript enabled in order to work properly. Please enable JavaScript. Via Momentum, the blog of the Baylor College of Medicine: Dr. Peter Hotez shares his latest concerns about zika virus. Excerpt (but you'd better read the whole post): On Friday the CDC issued travel advisories for pregnant women in the areas of Latin American and Caribbean region currently affected by zika virus infection. In the Caribbean currently zika is found only in Haiti, Martinique, and Puerto Rico, but I believe this situation could quickly escalate and expand. My rationale is this is more or less what we saw with another arbovirus infection transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes known as chikungunya. In the New World chikungunya first appeared on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin in December of 2013, but by the following year the virus had spread throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, such that currently the virus is found in 45 countries in the Americas. If zika uses the same playbook we can expect it to become widespread in the Caribbean over the coming weeks and months. Accordingly, it will be important for women who are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant to consider the potential implications of travel to the region. Thus although the CDC travel advisories focus mostly on areas known to be infected by zika we must recognize that this is very a rapidly moving target. Im especially worried about Haiti, where I believe the area's worst human tragedy could emerge. According to their ministry of public health, zika has arrived in Haiti with five known cases in Port-Au-Prince, the capital. The reason I am specifically concerned about Haiti is because of its extreme level of poverty, together with findings published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases that arboviruses (viruses transmitted by mosquitoes) disproportionately affect poor people. The links between poverty and neglected tropical diseases such as arboviruses need to be better studied but there are some plausible explanations for the association. They mostly include factors that increase contact between humans and mosquitoes such as poor quality housing without window screens or air conditioners and outside degradations of the environment (including piling up of refuse or discarded tires) that allow mosquitoes to proliferate. According to UNICEF there were 264,500 babies born in Haiti in 2012, which roughly translates to a quarter of a million pregnancies annually I believe that we now need to consider all of these pregnancies at risk for maternal zika virus infection and the potential for a large birth cohort of microcephaly cases later this year or beginning next year. That is of course unless we can begin intervening now with enhanced surveillance and vector control programs. I've been vaguely aware of this issue for a few days, but now it's becoming a real story. Via the Detroit Free Press: 8 more petitions to recall Gov. Rick Snyder filed. Excerpt: LANSING Eight new recall petitions have been filed with the Secretary of State against Gov. Rick Snyder for his role in the handling of the Flint water crisis. Seven of the new ones come from Detroit pastor Angelo Scott Brown, whose previous attempts to have recall language approved failed before the state Board of Canvassers. The eighth comes from Quincy Murphy, a Flint resident, seeking to recall Snyder for failing to protect the health and safety of the citizens of Flint, which has resulted in a state of emergency for Genesee County because of toxic lead levels in the drinking water. Browns petitions call for Snyders removal from office because, they say, he let down the people of Flint; has demonstrated incompetency; has broken his promise to the taxpayers of the state; has violated the standards of the governors office; has made more problems for the residents of Flint, and because his oversight in the first nine months of 2015 did not work well for the residents of Flint and he should be held accountable for allowing residents to continue using contaminated water. His previous petitions - he's now filed 11 recall petitions against Snyder - were rejected by the Board of Canvassers, first because he referenced events that took place during Snyders first term and secondly, because he didnt state his reasons clearly or factually. The petitions come as Snyder is dealing with a growing crisis related to Flints drinking water. It began when the city's drinking water became contaminated with lead in 2014 after its supply source was switched from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to water from the Flint River treated at the city's water treatment plant. Immediate complaints about the odor, smell and taste of the water were downplayed and largely ignored by the state before the Department of Environmental Quality acknowledged in October that it had failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals, which resulted in lead leaching from pipes and fixtures into the water. Snyder has declared a state of emergency in the city and in Genesee County, asked for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and ordered the Michigan National Guard into Flint to help distribute water and filters to residents. On Wednesday, it was revealed that Flint experienced a spike in Legionnaires disease including 10 deaths but couldnt attribute the increase to the lead in the water. The lung infection is caused by a type of bacteria that grows best in warm water and usually enters the body because it is breathed in. Via The New York Times, a report datelined Rio de Janeiro: Zika Warning Spotlights Latin Americas Fight Against Mosquito-Borne Diseases. Excerpt: In the campaign against mosquitoes, Brazil has deployed soldiers to destroy habitats where the insects thrive. Colombia is releasing swarms of mosquitoes treated with bacteria that limit their capacity to spread disease. Mexico is testing the first vaccine against dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus raging throughout the region. Yet at each turn, mosquitoes are outwitting their human opponents, a challenge highlighted by the United States decision to advise pregnant women to postpone traveling to more than a dozen Latin American or Caribbean countries and Puerto Rico where mosquitoes are rapidly expanding the reach of Zika, the virus linked to a surge in cases of infants born with brain damage. The warning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has intensified a debate across Latin America over the hemispheres growing vulnerability to mosquito-borne diseases. These concerns are especially acute in Brazil, the regions largest country, where officials hope that tourism can help revive a beleaguered economy as they prepare to host the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Henrique Alves, Brazils tourism minister, took issue with the C.D.C.s warning on Saturday. He argued that the Brazilian authorities were adopting measures to prevent Zika from intensifying in the country, even though health officials were investigating more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly, a previously rare condition linked to Zika in which infants are born with abnormally small heads. Asked in a telephone interview if Brazil was a safe destination for pregnant women, Mr. Alves responded, I think so, without a doubt, emphasizing that his governments decision to refrain from travel alerts regarding Zika coincided with World Health Organization policies. Mr. Alves added that he expected the Zika outbreak to ease to the point that the Olympics here in August would not be affected. Yet others in Brazil applauded the C.D.C.s alert, pointing to the countrys struggle not just with Zika, a virus with origins in Uganda that is thought to have made the leap to Brazil in 2014, but also with two other mosquito-borne viruses, dengue and chikungunya. Last year, Brazil registered more than 1.6 million cases of dengue, a virus causing fever and joint pain, with 863 people dying from the disease. The announcement by the C.D.C. is entirely appropriate, given the risks in Brazil, said Dr. Artur Timerman, 62, an infectious disease specialist in Sao Paulo. He said that he had advised his own daughter, who is 32, to avoid getting pregnant now in Brazil. If she wants to do so, her best course of action is to leave the country and go to a place where Zika is not a problem, he said. A string of social science snapshots, remarks, observations, data from the South Caucasus. On Saturday, February 13, 2016,magazine in conjunction with the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association (TAAA) will host the fourth annual Tucson Star Party at Pima Community College (PCC) East Campus. Activities will start at 10 a.m. and conclude around 9 p.m. The TAAA will have several properly filtered telescopes during the day to safely view the Sun. Visitors will see sunspots, prominences, and other solar activity. During the evening (starting around 6 p.m.), the club will deploy about 10 telescopes to observe some amazing celestial objects. These will include (but not be limited to) the Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, the Orion Nebula (M42), the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), double stars, star clusters, and other highlights. Visitors can view objects directly or on a monitor (for those who have difficulty viewing through a telescope). All activities will take place near the PCC observatories on the south side of the campus. The colleges observatories also will be open throughout the day. In addition to viewing celestial objects, several groups will have displays set up and volunteers to interact with the public. These include both Astronomy magazine and the TAAA, the Southern Arizona chapter of the International Dark Sky Association, and the OSIRIS-Rex asteroid sample return mission. This is a free event open to the public. Pima Community Colleges East Campus is at 8181 E. Irvington Rd. For more information about the TAAA, visit their website at tucsonastronomy.org. Here's a little one-question one-answer quiz. Question: What's the second best thing you can do to mitigate supply chain risk in 2016? Answer: (please select one) a) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference b) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference c) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference d) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference Sedex Conference in March in London in 2016 should be part of your schedule. should be part of your schedule. Whether you selected answer a) b) c) or d), read on. Learn more about why the I grew up in the supply chain. In my formative years as a young manager with Procter and Gamble, I was responsible for logistics in Scotland and Northern Ireland in my very first management role, and then, over eight years until I decided to move on to pastures new, I took on successively diverse and challenging roles across different aspects of the supply chain in Europe including purchasing, customer service, distribution center management and more. And today, working with clients on strategy and reporting, I always feel at home discussing the opportunities (and risks) relating to ethical and sustainable supply. In that context, Sedex often crops up as one of the most influential players in the field of sustainable sourcing and responsible supply chain practice. I am looking forward to attending the 2016 conference, not only because I'll have the chance to speak (you all know how I love to talk), but mainly because I have the feeling that I am going to learn a lot . Sedex is a not for profit membership organisation dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. As the largest collaborative platform for sharing ethical supply chain data, Sedex is an innovative and effective supply chain management solution, helping companies to reduce risk, protect their reputation and improve supply chain practices. is a not for profit membership organisation dedicated to driving improvements in ethical and responsible business practices in global supply chains. As the largest collaborative platform for sharing ethical supply chain data, Sedex is an innovative and effective supply chain management solution, helping companies to reduce risk, protect their reputation and improve supply chain practices. Sustainability Report is complete without critical supply chain disclosures. It seems that Sedex is in the right place at the right time. And by attending the Sedex 2016 Conference ( I could write reams about the vital importance of ethical supply chain management and the increasing risk as businesses become more global in scope and more complex in scale. It's also a gobbler-upper of resources. Monitoring, audits, training, communications, evaluations, assessments in a context of increasingly strict regulatory requirements means that both customers and suppliers must invest significant resources to stay not only cost-effective but also low-risk. At the same time, the supply chain, if you treat it right, can be a fabulous source of innovation and creativity, enabling business expansion and growth. And of course, nois complete without critical supply chain disclosures. It seems that Sedex is in the right place at the right time. And by attending the Sedex 2016 Conference ( #Sedex16 ), you will be too! Check out the agenda here I posed a few questions to the Sedex CEO, Jonathan Ivelaw-Chapman, about supply chain sustainability and the conference. Check out his insights: What's the most important aspect of your role at Sedex? What's most challenging and what's most satisfying? Jonathan: Since joining Sedex, what has struck me is our people and the passion they bring to the organisation. For me, its our values and our people that are the most important aspect at Sedex. The most satisfying part of what I am doing is seeing our employees engage in future-thinking in fresh and innovative ways. They are all here because they care and are passionate, and the talent and energy we have seems endless. This is wonderful to observe and participate in. Coming from the technology industry, where for nearly 30 years, hype, language and behaviors were all about self-justification and increased investment, I now sense an exit to the hype that we have all experienced. I want to help avoid any similarities to the IT industry, by bringing clarity and affordability into the sustainability industry. The challenge for Sedex is to help our industry and membership navigate in an increasingly complex sustainability world. We will do this by simplifying our language, facilitating opportunities to work collaboratively, and giving our members an industry roadmap, with a vision of the way responsible sourcing can work. The Sedex Conference 2016 theme runs under the banner of simplification. Everyone seems to talk about the sustainability landscape becoming increasingly complex! How realistic is simplification? Jonathan: The business and sustainability landscape is rapidly changing. From natural resource scarcity to human rights, child labour to an evolving regulatory landscape, our industry is facing a range of challenges. With all these new topics coming up, sustainability is becoming a complicated space with new initiatives, frameworks, certifications, and schemes, creating silos in industries, countries, topic areas themselves. Sedex is already looking at simplifying supply chains and recognising the interconnectivities between different issues such as bribery and health and safety and whether there could be more effective ways for companies and their suppliers to manage these issues as one as opposed to treating them in silos. There is no need to re-invent the wheel but rather try to scale up pick whats relevant to you and collaborate with other stakeholders. We might not have all the right answers just yet, but we are getting there. The conference will provide a great forum to discuss and address the challenges and hear from the industry leaders on how they are going about simplifying the challenging issues and approach to tackling them. What's going to be different about the SEDEX Conference 2016? What highlights should we look out for? Jonathan: This will be our largest conference so far, bringing together around 1,000 leaders in responsible sourcing for two days of discussions. The conference will be live-streamed and for the first time, we will also have live interviews with conference speakers straight from the conference hall. The conference agenda will cover the most relevant topics for supply chain sustainability from modern slavery legislation, how organisations can quantify, value, and improve their impact on society, to best practice in agricultural sustainability measurement and reporting tools and resources and much more. We have an exciting line up of speakers from multinational companies such as Kellogg and Mars, to organisations such as International Trade Centre and Thomson Reuters across plenary sessions, master-classes, workshops and spotlight talks. *********** And now another little one-question one-answer quiz: Question: What's the first best thing you can do to mitigate supply chain risk in 2016? Answer: (please select one) a) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference b) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference c) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference d) Attend the Sedex 2016 conference For the first time ever we will also host the VIP Networking Dinner event at the Barbicans tropical plant conservatory in the heart of the City of London. Our conference delegates often ask for more opportunities to network and this dinner, designed for just 150 guests, will provide an exclusive opportunity to connect with industry experts and discuss hot sustainability topics. We are delighted to have John Morrison, Executive Director of the Institute for Human Rights and Business , speaking during the dinner. As a well-known and influential voice on business and human rights, and a highly engaging and knowledgeable speaker, John's speech will be a real highlight of the evening. Look forward to seeing you there! Drop me a note if you'd like a 50% discount on the standard ticket price on registration. Who wouldn't? HARRISBURG The 100th Pennsylvania Farm Show couldnt have been more different than the first Farm Show. This years show, which ended on Saturday, covered 1 million square feet compared to 10,000 square feet in 1917; attracted more than half a million people comparted to 5,000 people; lasted eight days compared to three; and featured 8,390 animals compared to none. Yet officials of both shows declared them successful. State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding called the 2016 Farm Show a blue ribbon show with no major glitches. We put a lot of emphasis on our 100-year history, he said. The public seemed intrigued about how the Farm Show started. People also liked the Farm to Shelf exhibit where they learned what happens to food from the farm to the consumer. This years Farm Show, with its theme of Our Commonwealths Blue Ribbon Experience, attracted people of all ages from throughout Pennsylvania and nearby states. Sharon Altland, Farm Show executive director running her first Farm Show, said it went exceptionally smooth this year and attracted huge crowds. Farm Show officials dont keep count of visitors because admission is free and the event is held in a complex with multiple doors. We had to close all our lots on opening Saturday and Sunday because they were filled, Altland said. We couldnt use the grass parking because its been so warm the ground didnt freeze. During the Farm Show, the Farm Show Complex has use of 3,500 parking places on site, 3,500 at the Elmerton Avenue lot and 4,500 at HACC, Altland said. She said more people carpooled this year, perhaps because parking fees rose from $10 a vehicle to $15. The show stayed relatively peaceful despite a group of animal rights activists interrupting Gov. Tom Wolfs address during the opening ceremony. Altland said the Farm Show had increased security and officials kept urging visitors to report anything suspicious to officials. Sheree Hunter, Farm Show security director, said state police and the Army Civil Service support unit supplemented her staff. The state police direct traffic outside and are responsible for inside safety, she said. Capitol police direct traffic at Cameron and Azalea streets. Our staff handles parking lot payments and directs parking there. She said security dealt with about 20 lost children or lost parents as she put it. We also dealt with lost and found, including a wallet, cellphone, shoes and gloves. One year, we even found dentures! Animals and food Although the Farm Show had no poultry this year (birds were banned due to the threat of highly pathogenic avian influenza), there were plenty of animals to see. Heidi Svonavec, Farm Show assistant director who this year handled livestock registration, said there were 8,390 animals, including alpacas in their first show here. All our livestock numbers were up, she said. Svonavec said the horse events were highly attended and the angora palooza, a new rabbit fiber production exhibit, also was popular. The 100th Farm Show included new food, new breeds and new events, including Make It and Take It sessions in Family Living. These hands-on sessions gave youth visitors a chance to make bookmarks, fiber art, bracelets, bird houses and trail mix. Redding said the Farm Show brings tremendous economic benefits to vendors and to the greater Harrisburg area. The Food Court is the major fund raiser for our commodity groups, he said. These eight days sustain them for 365 days. Food Court vendors reported record or near record sales. We sold 12,600 pounds of pulled pork so far and well still going strong, Mindy Fleetwood, PennAg Industries spokeswoman, said Saturday as the lunch crowed swirled around that booth. She said Penn Ag sold more than 5,000 of the new fish nachos, 100 gallons of PennAg barbecue sauce and more than 8,000 slices of chocolate covered bacon. Rahn Troutman, manager of the Pennsylvania cooperative Potato Growers Inc., said baked potato sales were down but French Fries and potato doughnut sales were up. Our new cinnamon and sugar potato doughnuts are selling well, he said. Weve had a very good year. Dave Smith, head of the Pennsylvania Dairymens Association and its booth manager, said the 2016 Farm Show set records for the association. Weve been selling up to 20,000 milkshakes a day, he said. Chocolate is still the best seller but people liked the strawberry, which we offered only this year for the centennial. Business has been outstanding. J. Aaron Fisher said the Pennsylvania Beekeepers Association booth sold out of its salty caramel with honey ice cream by Wednesday and had a brisk business with waffles and honey ice cream. The blended mushroom burgers, chopped beef and mushrooms, from the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania, sold well along with traditional fried mushrooms, a booth spokeswoman said. HARRISBURG With a Feb. 16 deadline looming for would-be candidates to gather the voter signatures they need to get on Pennsylvania's primary election ballot, the high profiles of some statewide contests are overshadowing other races. Nomination races for president and U.S. Senate have been heating up for months. So has the battle over the state attorney general's office, where incumbent Kathleen Kane faces at least five potential opponents for the Democratic nod amid questions about whether she can qualify for the ballot. The state Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended her law license, and a formal effort to oust her from office is under way in the state Senate as she awaits trial on perjury charges for allegedly leaking grand jury information. Yet hardly any attention has focused on the two other row offices treasurer and auditor general that will be on the April 26 ballot. Those office-holders receive the same salary as the attorney general $158,764 this year serve the same four-year terms and oversee the same statewide jurisdiction. Similarly obscure are proposed amendments to the state constitution that would increase the mandatory retirement age for Pennsylvania judges and complete the abolishment of the former Philadelphia Traffic Court. Each proposal has received two rounds of legislative approval. A closer look: Treasurer A race for the Democratic nomination is shaping up between Joe Torsella of Montgomery County, a former state Board of Education chairman who President Barack Obama appointed to a top United Nations post in 2011, and Albert Baker Knoll of Pittsburgh, son of the late Lt.Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll and a former oil industry lobbyist. Otto Voit, a business executive from Berks County, is the only Republican hopeful to surface so far. This would be the first statewide campaign for all three candidates. Torsella said fundraising since 2014 has left his campaign with $1.5 million on hand, while Voit has sunk about $500,000 of his own money into his campaign. The current treasurer, Tim Reese, is not seeking a full term. Gov. Tom Wolf appointed him to finish the second term of ex-Treasurer Rob McCord, who resigned a year ago before pleading guilty to attempted extortion for using his post to strong-arm state contractors into contributing to his gubernatorial campaign. Auditor general First-term incumbent Eugene DePasquale, a Democratic former state legislator from York who is seeking re-election, has no apparent primary opposition but faces a general-election challenge from Republican John Brown, the elected executive of Northampton County. DePasquale has been an aggressive auditor who sounded alarms over rising municipal pension debt and school-district borrowing forced by a partisan budget stalemate at the state Capitol. Brown is a former mayor of the tiny borough of Bangor who scored an upset in 2013 when he defeated Bethlehem's better-known and better-financed mayor. Brown, who has 30 years of executive experience, allowed that he faces an uphill fight but said he and DePasquale possess "different skill sets" for the job. Judge retirement age The state's 1,029 judges and justices currently must step down by the end of the year in which they turn 70. The constitutional amendment would move the age to 75. Proponents of the change argued that it would benefit the judiciary by allowing seasoned judges to stay on the bench longer. Opponents called it unnecessary. Twenty judges will turn 70 in 2016, according to the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts. Philly traffic court The traffic court, portrayed by authorities as a patronage pit where judges routinely fixed tickets for politically connected friends, was abolished under legislation signed by Gov. Tom Corbett in 2013. The amendment would complete the process by removing the traffic court from the constitution. Unusual twist Because the primary election is open only to registered Democrats and Republicans, this one will require special arrangements for independent or third-party voters who want to vote on the constitutional changes. Those voters will be given a special electronic access card, a separate voting machine or a paper ballot that allows them to vote only on those items, state elections officials said. HARRISBURG Democrat Tom Wolfs first year as Pennsylvania governor was consumed by a knock-down, drag-out budget fight, and perhaps it had to be expected. Pennsylvania governors historically have had difficult first years and Wolf, the scion of a business family, had run as a liberal, soundly defeating an unpopular Tom Corbett to win the right to share power with the largest and perhaps most conservative Republican legislative majorities in modern Pennsylvania history. Wolf pledged in his inaugural speech to be a different and unconventional governor who would use his business-world experience of focusing everyone on the same mission. A year later, he has not secured any of his leading campaign promises or budget goals, key among them making the states tax system fairer to the middle class, and fixing massive funding disparities between rich and poor school districts. State government set a record-long budget stalemate that has crowded out other major priorities and virtually overshadowed anything else he did accomplish. He very nearly struck gold in December, securing the votes for a budget deal he backed and a $1 billion-plus tax increase that hit yet another roadblock before Christmas. In an interview, Wolf said 2015 was not a normal first year for a governor, but he gave no apologies for a stalemate that has many in the Capitol shaking their heads. Wolf, a first-time office holder unaccustomed to political deal-making, insisted he wasnt learning on the job, and does not claim to have all the answers. But, he said, he stood up for what was right, like when it came to refusing to paper over a long-term budget deficit that has damaged the states credit rating. I am trying to change Harrisburg, Wolf told The Associated Press. I am a different kind of governor. ... I recognize that Im not going to change everything in one year. For sure, Wolf had victories. His administration fixed complexities and pitfalls in the Medicaid expansion begun by Corbett and oversaw the extension of health insurance to hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians. It introduced an online voter registration system that enrolled more than 60,000 people and won a state Supreme Court case over his refusal to sign execution warrants until he is satisfied with the fairness of Pennsylvanias death penalty. But he signed no major laws, and Pennsylvania remained among the slowest states in job growth. Key constituencies labor unions, big-city mayors, Democratic Party leaders and environmental groups still support Wolf, and nearly every Democratic lawmaker stuck with Wolf through the budget fight. A Franklin and Marshall College poll from late October showed more voters blame lawmakers than Wolf for the budget stalemate. Allies biggest criticism of Wolfs first-year missteps is that he did not deal quickly and severely enough behind the scenes with Republican obstinacy. Some allies say Wolf showed the backbone necessary in the budget battle vetoing GOP-penned budget plans, for instance to show that he cant be pushed around. Few Republican lawmakers and business advocates warmed to Wolf, and many accused his administration of being ideologically rigid, unduly political and spiteful. Senate Republicans complained that Wolf could not, or would not, force House Democrats to split with labor unions and seal a bipartisan budget deal. Lawmakers closer to the political middle tend to assign responsibility broadly to Wolf and top GOP lawmakers. I think theres enough blame to go around, said Rep. Eugene DiGirolamo, R-Bucks. Some saw the first year as an inevitable testing ground and learning process for an ambitious governor and the huge, entrenched and increasingly conservative GOP majorities. You need to switch out of campaign mode and into governance, and that is not unusual for that to take about a year, said David Patti, president and CEO of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Business Council. Wolf now faces the prospect of delivering his second budget address, on Feb. 9, with billions of dollars for schools still in limbo and a yawning deficit unresolved. Perhaps this kind of year was entirely predictable. Pennsylvanias last three elected governors Tom Ridge, Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett all had had difficult first years, said pollster and political science professor G. Terry Madonna of Franklin and Marshall. Ridge and Rendell recovered and handily won re-election. Corbett did not. Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, warned that Wolf is in danger of traveling the same path as Corbett, who, he said, failed at building relationships with legislators and, as a result, had little to show when he ran for re-election. Not one major piece of policy to help move Pennsylvania forward has (Wolf) brought home in his first year, Scarnati said. And this is the year when he has all his gravitas. India's Dinesh Sharma elected to board of directors of AIIB Published: January 18, 2016 Indias Dinesh Sharma has been elected to the board of directors of the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He has been elected to the 12-member board through a secret ballot. This is the first board of directors of AIIB in which 57 nations are founding members including India. The inaugural meeting of the board of the governors of the AIIB also held in Beijing after its formal launch. The meeting approved by-laws, rules and codes of conduct for the bank. It should be noted that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is the designated governor of the AIIB from India. However he was represented by Mr. Sharma at the meeting. Presently, Dinesh Sharma is serving as Additional Secretary of Union Ministry of Finance. Comment The election of India to board of directors of the AIIB is expected to provide significant role for it as it is the forum that approves the loans for projects. With authorised capital of 100 billion dollars, AIIB is expected to begin loan approvals before the end year 2016. It will provide financial support for infrastructure development and regional connectivity in Asia in sectors including energy, transportation, urban construction and logistics as well as education and healthcare. Month: Current Affairs - January, 2016 Topics: AIIB Banking Current Affairs 2016 Dinesh Sharma India Latest E-Books Have you picked up a Christian magazine recently? There are some good ones about. But quite often it seems that these magazines are produced by people who ... 6 years ago - : , , Editors note: Over the next several days we will look back on the stories which impacted our readers and filled the front pages of the Daily Journal in 2015. This is a multi-part series. November Farmington Farmington voters gave approval for the Farmington City Council to enact an ordinance amending the municipal code to include smoking regulations. The measure was approved by a vote of 500 in favor of enacting the ordinance to 349 voting against the ordinance. A Park Hills man was arrested in connection with a house fire at 518 Boyce St. Bruce R. Nations, 57, was charged with first-degree arson, a Class B felony. Early totals showed the Help the Hungry Bake Sale raised $56,000 some $3,000 more than the previous years total and a new record for the fundraiser. Karen Roman retired as director of the Farmington Public Library. Travis Trokey was named the new director. The Farmington City Council approved a resolution laying the framework for the consolidation of Farmington dispatch services with the countys 911 emergency dispatch services. The consolidation is expected to be implemented by Oct. 1, 2016. The council also expressed their support for the use of the first floor of the former St. Francois County jail as a history museum. A local group working on the project brought their proposal before the Public Services committee. Desloge The Desloge Board of Aldermen is moving ahead with reconstruction of the old WPA channel, located on the west side of the city, after approving a bid of $968,486 submitted by a Florissant landscaping company. A report on the results of the city of Desloges annual audit was given to the board of aldermen by CPA Tamber M. Alsop of Hochschild, Bloom & Company LLP. She told board members that the city was in excellent shape financially and that there had been no problems with the audit. Leadington The Leadington Board of Aldermen discussed a $7,891 bill received from the Missouri Department of Revenue for excess revenue collected in relation to traffic violations. The board voted to pay the amount owed in the month of December. Park Hills A dedication ceremony was held for the gazebo built by Boy Scout Brandon Norfolk at Veterans Park in Old Elvins. The ceremony included raising a flag that was donated by a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and a song honoring veterans performed by Contemporary Christian artist Dean Berry, pastor of Crossroad Heritage Worship Center in Farmington. At the monthly school board meeting, Centrals Assistant Superintendent Troy Bollinger reported that the new classroom addition at the middle school had been completed. Council members voted in favor of the engagement of Architect John David Limp from Farmington for the design and engineering of the construction of a new public works facility to be located at 348 10th St. The facility will be used by the street department for maintenance and repair of city vehicles and will include an area for employees to take breaks for meals and clean-up. Park Hills long-awaited sidewalk project along East Main Street began on Nov. 20. New sidewalks are being installed beginning near Berry Street toward the top of Federal Hill, and will extend along East Main Street, turn onto Crane Street and continue to Juniper Street, ending at Haney Park. The project is expected to be completed by mid-March, depending, of course, on the weather. Leadwood National Merit Scholarship semifinalist William Cureton, a senior at West County High School, earned a perfect 36 points on the ACT college readiness assessment. Cureton is the first West County student to ever earn a perfect score on the American College Test. The accomplishment is a rare event. Of the 1,845,787 students who took the ACT in 2014, only 1,407, or 0.076 percent, scored a perfect 36 on the exam. The Leadwood Board of Alderpersons voted to place on the April 2016 ballot a change in the term limits of mayor and board members. Leadwood residents will have the opportunity to vote in April whether to change the current two-year terms to four-year terms for mayor and alderpersons, to become in effective in 2017. Just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday break, members of the Leadwood Police Department conducted a seat belt check at West County Elementary School. Between 6:30 and 8 one morning, Police Chief Tim Hansen and two of his officers set up the checkpoint in the schools parking lot to see whether drivers and their passengers were abiding by the law. Those who were in compliance received either a Sonic coupon or a coupon for a free drink from Spradfields grocery store in Leadwood. Staying with the positive spirit of the check-point, drivers and passengers who were not wearing seat belts were given an amusing reprimand. Bonne Terre The Missouri Department of Conservation received help from some local Boy Scouts to create a fish habitat for the Bonne Terre City Lake. All of the habitats were dropped in to the lake, creating areas for park goers to catch fish in. Sharo Shirshekan made another generous donation to the city of Bonne Terre by offering them the old gymnasium and the remaining apartments upon completion. Renovations to the old gymnasium would be in the hands of the city. The Bonne Terre Chamber of Commerce partnered with the city for Project Snowflake to raise money for new Christmas decorations for the utility poles throughout the city. Their goal was to raise enough money for 10 new snowflakes, but ended up raising enough to purchase 30 snowflakes. Bismarck Bismarck Board of Aldermen discussed the return of the annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. As in years past, the event was once again co-sponsored by the Depot Committee, Bismarck Chamber of Commerce and city of Bismarck. Bismarck parent Brenda Goodman appeared before the Bismarck Board of Education to complain about the quality and quantity of the food being served the students at lunch. She was accompanied to the meeting by several students and parents. Egypt's Parliament Egypt's parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial anti-terrorism law that sets up special courts and shields its enforcers from legal ramifications. The law is one of roughly 400 that were issued by executive decree during the more than 3 years in which Egypt was governed without a parliament after its democratically elected chamber was dissolved in mid-2012. It details sentences for various terrorism-related crimes ranging from 5 years to the death penalty, and shields the military and police from legal penalties for what it calls proportionate use of force. The law also fines journalists for contradicting the authorities' version of any militant attack. The original draft was amended last year following a domestic and international outcry after it initially stipulated imprisonment for such an offence. The newly elected legislature is constitutionally obliged to review the executive decrees within 15 days of its 1st session, which was on Jan. 10, and either approve or reject them. The anti-terrorism law passed by an overwhelming 457 votes to 24 without a single amendment to the original decree issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last year, parliamentary sources said. Egypt's new parliament, which has 568 elected members plus another 28 appointed directly by the president, is dominated by the "Support Egypt" coalition, an alliance of over 400 MPs loyal to Sisi. Human rights groups accuse Sisi, who as military chief deposed a freely elected Islamist president in 2013, of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Opposition legislator Mohamed Salah Khalifa, a leader of the Islamist Nour Party, which holds just 12 seats after controlling about a quarter of the previous parliament, said the law employed ambiguous wording. "I fear that it will be used broadly when it is applied," he said. "The (anti-terrorism) law was imposed during exceptional circumstances when the country was exposed to danger but, after these dangers subside, there should be a balance between protecting the state and its institutions and preserving human rights." Parliament also approved a 2014 decree on the protection of critical government facilities. The law increases the jurisdiction of military courts, allowing them to try civilians accused of attacking buildings and cutting off roads. Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, is confronted by an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where the most active militant group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Cairo and other cities have also suffered Islamist attacks. Sisi has presided over a no-holds-barred crackdown on Islamists. Thousands of alleged Islamist supporters have been jailed and scores have been sentenced to death. Source: Reuters, January 17, 2016 Public flogging in Saudi Arabia (file photo) Manama: A court in Dammam has sentenced a man to eight months in jail and to 240 lashes for harassing girls at shopping centres. The man, aged in his 20s, was spotted and arrested by members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in the Eastern Province, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Sunday. He was referred to the Public Prosecution and was charged with harassment. Online users hailed the ruling, arguing it was fair although some viewers said that the penalty should have been more severe. Some users said that in some cases the young women through their attitudes and some gestures encouraged the men to approach them. Saudi Arabia has a strict policy towards harassing women in public areas and judges often include lashes in their verdicts. In July, the country expressed outrage when a video clip showing a mass harassment by a gang of youngsters of two girls in the Red Sea city of Jeddah emerged. The video showed how the group of adolescents followed the two girls, one of whom was fully veiled and the other with only the upper half of her face showing, as they were taking a stroll along the corniche. The two girls pleaded with the raucous teenagers to leave them alone, but their pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears. The harassment was recorded on a smartphone and the video clip went viral on the internet, prompting social media users to call for strong action against the anti-social elements. Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Governor of Makkah Province, issued directives to arrest those involved and to intensify security presence in parks and recreational areas to ensure the incident was not repeated. In 2013, young men arrested for harassment were flogged inside the mall where they had verbally abused a group of girls. The young men were arrested after a video clip of their verbal confrontation with the girls at the malls parking lot went viral on social networks. The court issued jail sentences of between one month and five months and ordered that the lashings be carried out at the mall. According to a media report, around 60 per cent of harassers in Saudi Arabia were Saudis while the remaining 40 per cent were foreigners living in the kingdom. Source: Gulf News , Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief, January 17, 2016 Ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. (Photo: AFP) Washington: While five American citizens were freed from detention in Iran this weekend, the US government vowed Sunday to work tirelessly for the release of another missing for nine years. Ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. He was reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region. Levinson, 67, is considered to be the longest-held hostage in US history, if still alive. "Even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about Bob," President Barack Obama said in a White House speech. "Each and every day, but especially today, our hearts are with the Levinson family, and we will not rest until their family is whole again." Of the US citizens who have been freed by Iran, four were part of a prisoner swap with America, while a fifth was released in a separate process, according to US officials. Taking to Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry said "For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in #Iran at every opportunity." For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in #Iran at every opportunity. John Kerry (@JohnKerry) January 18, 2016 He added: "Iran also agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate Robert Levinson. We won't rest until the Levinson family is whole again." Iran also agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate Robert Levinson. We won't rest until the Levinson family is whole again. John Kerry (@JohnKerry) January 18, 2016 The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his return. "The FBI expects our Iranian counterparts to fulfill their commitment to locate Bob and help bring him home safely," the agency said in a statement. "Bob forever remains part of the FBI family, and we remain committed to bringing him home safely to the family who misses him so much." The FBI said "we continue to investigate and follow up on all information we receive, no matter how insignificant it might seem." In 2013, US media reports revealed that Levinson had been paid by the CIA to gather information during his visits to Iran. He had been hoping to meet an informant during his trip who could provide information about Tehran's disputed nuclear program, they said. The White House has denied Levinson was working for the US government when he vanished. Washington has repeatedly requested information from Iran concerning Levinson. Iranian officials have denied all knowledge regarding his disappearance. A father of seven, Levinson suffers from diabetes and hypertension, factors which have raised fears from his family that he may not be receiving proper healthcare. Iran Prez Hassan Rouhani, right, speaks with Director General of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano. (Photo: AP) Tehran: The United States announced new sanctions linked to Irans ballistic missile program, just a day after sanctions targeting its nuclear program were lifted. In remarks shortly before the US announcement, Irans President Hassan Rouhani said that any new American sanctions would be met by an appropriate response. The US Treasury Department said in a statement that it had added five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China to an American blacklist. It said the network had obfuscated the end user of sensitive goods for missile proliferation by using front companies in third countries to deceive foreign suppliers and that the five individuals had worked to procure ballistic missile components for Iran. Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that Irans ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, China has built massive structures over South China Sea reefs claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan, including a 3,000-metre (9,842-foot) runway on Fiery Cross reef. (Photo: AFP) Manila: The Philippines said Monday it would install a civilian flight-tracking system in the disputed South China Sea after China landed several aircraft on one of its man-made islands in the potential flashpoint region. The automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) machine, which detects aircraft positions using satellite signals, will be operational by November on Pagasa island, the biggest Filipino-occupied feature in the disputed Spratlys, said Rodante Joya, acting director of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). An average of 200 civilian flights pass over the Spratlys daily, Joya said adding the Pagasa surveillance system was part of a broader 10-billion-peso ($209 million) effort to expand the country's commercial flight radar coverage to 80 percent from the current 30 percent. "Our objective is to track all commercial flights passing over our airspace," Joya said, adding the radars would not be used to monitor military aircraft. China has built massive structures over South China Sea reefs claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan, including a 3,000-metre (9,842-foot) runway on Fiery Cross reef. The Philippines has expressed concern that China's test landings on Fiery Cross reef earlier this month would lay the groundwork for the declaration of an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) similar to the one Beijing claimed over the East China Sea in 2013 that riled Japan. Joya said a CAAP plane received a radio message as it was about to land on Pagasa Island on January 6, warning against landing in "Chinese territory". The message, which was in English, appeared to have been taped, he said. The Filipino crew ignored the message and proceeded to land and survey the site for the plane-tracking ADS-B machine. Presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters the Philippine foreign affairs department has been informed of the incident. The Philippines has asked a United Nations-backed tribunal to declare China's sea claims as invalid and expects a decision early this year. Truly defining the phrase, Art has no boundaries, Nirmal Raja and Santosh Sakhinala, who live in two different parts of the world, came together to collaborate and curated an art show titled Confluence at Nehru Arts Gallery With an intention to showcase the works of her colleagues and her own in India, Nirmal Raja approached Santosh Sakhinala via a common friend and fellow artist Sudhakar Chippa. Initially brainstorming over emails about how to bring about cohesiveness with such diverse artists, the idea of Confluence evolved. Keeping the theme open to possible connections and bringing these people together was at the heart of this endeavour, she says. Apart from that, the main aim was to juxtapose the works of the two groups. She tells, In some places, we installed framed 2D next to 3D installations and in others we installed the same media next to each other but made by different artists, who did not know each other. On the whole, the idea was to create an experience that formed connections beyond the geographical backgrounds of the artists and possibly invoke a sense of common creative spirit. Personally for her, life seems to have come full circle. This city first kindled my creative interest. In some way, watching the artists interact with each other gave me immense pleasure. It felt as if my two worlds have come together in order to create something beautiful and meaningful, she says. The Indian connect A research scholar from Centre for Studies in Social Science (CSSS), Santosh Sakhinala, debuted as a curator with Confluence. I did not plan to become a curator. But when the opportunity came along, I decided to take it. Initially, the plan was to showcase only the works of the 10 artists from Wisconsin, but then he came up with the idea of bringing onboard another 10 artists from India. But selecting the right artists was his first big test. We were following a certain pattern based on the practices of the artists. The American artists used their own materials in a particular way, so we were looking for Indian artists who were also exploring different materials. The idea was to blend their works seamlessly and maintain a certain flow, which was our guiding principle. As the confluence was happening at an art college, the biggest benefactors from this confluence were the students, he says. Students had a great learning opportunity as artists from both groups discussed the thought process behind their work. Houston: Uber Technologies Inc will partner with Airbus to launch a pilot project this week to provide on-demand flights with the aerospace giant's helicopters, a top Airbus executive has said. California-based Uber has said that it will be partnering with France-based Airbus on a test programme to provide helicopter rides on demand through its application just as it currently does with car rides. "It's a pilot project, we'll see where it goes, but it's pretty exciting," Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, told The Wall Street Journal on Januray 17. For Uber, helicopters could prove to be a big ticket item that expands its reach beyond taxi rides and helps justify its lofty USD 62.5 billion valuation. Uber has also experimented with offering boats and smart routes that mimic bus lines as well as on-demand food and package deliveries, all to fuel rapid growth. An Uber spokesperson confirmed the partnership and said the trial run would take place at the Sundance Film Festival in the US state of Utah, which starts on Januaray 21. Prices and broader rollout plans were not made public. Uber has dabbled with helicopters in the past, offering one-off rides as promotional stunts at Cannes Film Festival, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and more. UberCopter, or UberChopper as it is known in many markets, launched as a trial service from New York to the Hamptons in 2013. It has since been offered on a trial basis in other cities around the world including Bangalore, Cape Town, Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Shanghai. UberChopper rides have cost as much as USD 400 per person. A woman, who identified herself as Bhavna, threw ink at the Delhi Chief Minister in protest over an alleged CNG scam. (Photo: Twitter) New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Sunday rubbished the allegations made by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia of former being involved in the conspiracy behind the ink attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that all security arrangements as per level were made. "The police had made all security arrangements at the level as per the practice. One armed company was deployed besides the local police," Rajan Bhagat, PRO Delhi Police told ANI. "The allegations of conspiracy against the Delhi Police are baseless," he added. He also said that case has been registered in this regard and all aspects will be looked into. Earlier, Manish Sisodia had alleged that the ink attack was scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. "The whole incident was scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. The BJP can even get the Chief Minister murdered," he said. "The incident shows that the Delhi Police are ready for a deadly attack on Kejriwal. Police are not even concerned about the safety of the Chief Minister and the people of the city," he added. "It is a very serious and dangerous incident. The Delhi Police were acting mere spectators at the event, where the whole Delhi cabinet was sitting. It is very astonishing that there was not even a single policeman when the woman rushed to the stage and threw ink at Kejriwal. Not even a single policeman was checking people and was looking after the security of the place," Sisodia said, while adressing reporters after the incident. Taking on B.S. Bassi-led Delhi Police, Sisodia said, "The Delhi Police keep on shouting that there is high alert in the city. Where is the high alert? Who will take the responsibility if a person comes and throws acid at the Delhi Chief Minister and his cabinet?" "This incident only shows that the Delhi Police are ready for a deadly attack on Kejriwal. Police are not even concerned about the safety of the Chief Minister and the people of the city. The whole incident is scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. They can even get the Chief Minister murdered. The whole incident was scripted by the Saffron Party with the help of the Delhi Police," he said. A woman, who identified herself as Bhavna, Punjab in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Sena, threw ink at the Delhi Chief Minister in protest over an alleged CNG scam. The woman was immediately apprehended by the police. However, the Chief Minister told the cops to leave her. "Leave her; she is talking about some scam. Please take that paper from her she is mentioning some CNG scam," he said. The event was organised by the AAP Government to thank the people of Delhi for making the odd-even experiment, which ended on January 15, a 'success'. Picture of garbage dump at Krishnanagar Colony. The residents of the colony allege GHMC vehicles are dumping garbage in a private land located in the middle of the residential area. (Photo: DC) Hyderabad: Residents of Krishna Nagar colony in Lalapet have lodged a complaint with police, saying GHMC vehicles are dumping garbage in a private land in the middle of the residential area. And, with GHMC polls approaching, both the civic body as also the cops are promising prompt action to set things right. As per the complaint, the open plot, which has a big shed, is generally used for conducting functions. At nights, miscreants use the area for boozing and disturbing the areas peace. To top it, tens of GHMC trolleys are dumping garbage on this campus on a daily basis for the past few days. Rag pickers, then on, segregate cables and burn them to extract metal from them to be sold as scrap. Nearly ten such people are engaged in sorting out plastics, tyres, cardboard and other material, to be sold as scrap. According to the residents, the plot is owned by someone who resides in Tarnaka, and that he gave it on lease to one Venkatesh Yadav, a resident of Chandrababu Colony in the neighbourhood. The compound was empty till January 12, with only two big sheds in it used for functions. From January 13, GHMC trolleys started coming in and dumping loads of garbage. The vehicles were less first, but it increased to more than 20 trolleys a day. They are dumping all kinds of garbage in the premises and evening time, they burn tyres and cables, which produced foul smell and full of smoke, said colony association president D.S. Narayana. We did not object the rag pickers coming in, as they live on this, said K. Hari Yadav, son of Venkatesh. GHMC official said using GHMC trolleys for such purposes cannot be allowed. The complaint came to our notice also. We will verify facts and take action on the trolley drivers if they violated rules, said Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Circle 18 sanitary supervisor Krupanandam. Police investigations are on. We have got in touch with the GHMC. We will do the needful, said Lallaguda inspector Karan Kumar Singh. Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi; A 32-year-old man from Haryana's Mewat district has been arrested by Delhi Police for suspected links with al-Qaeda, fifth arrest in its ongoing operation against the terror outfit, police said on Monday. Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said. Sami, a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, is alleged to be a key operative of al Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS), police said. On January 6, the Special Cell had arrested Maulana Anzar Shah, a cleric from Bangalore, for alleged links with AQIS. In December, they had arrested three suspected AQIS operatives. While Mohammed Asif (41), the first one to be arrested from Seelampur in Delhi, is believed to be one of the founding members and the head (amir) of AQIS's motivation, recruitment and training wing, another operative Abdul Rahman (37) was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha. The third suspected AQIS terrorist to be arrested was Zafar Masood, who allegedly acted as a financier for the module. He was arrested from mohalla Deepa Sarai in UP's Sambhal district. Shah, the fourth to be arrested, had allegedly met Mohammed Asif at a religious congregation in Bangalore, following which he was introduced to Abdul Rahman and Zafar Masood. He was asked provide logistical support whenever the need arose, said an official privy to the investigation. They were all booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The police have yet not disclosed Sami's role in the module. Dr Nagareddy Narendra Kumar Reddy, a psychiatrist in Clayton County, Georgia, has been put behind bars on suspicion of overprescribing prescription medication and running a pill mill, reports from the US said. Hyderabad: An Andhra Pradesh-origin psychiatrist dubbed Dr Death by the police has been arrested in the US after 36 of his patients died with at least 12 killed by overdose on prescription medication. Dr Nagareddy Narendra Kumar Reddy, a psychiatrist in Clayton County, Georgia, has been put behind bars on suspicion of overprescribing prescription medication and running a pill mill, reports from the US said. Dr Kumar Reddy is an alumnus of Kurnool Medical College. According to Medical Council of India records, Dr Kumar Reddy was registered with the council in 1981 and his address is shown as LIG-H quarters, Barkatpura, Hyderabad. He holds an MD from the University of Alabama Medical Centre and is a board-certified psychiatrist in Jonesboro, Georgia. He was working with Southern Regional Medical Centre. Legal documents of Clayton County court revealed that 36 of Nagareddys patients have died while being prescribed controlled substances from Dr Nagareddy, 12 of which have been confirmed by investigators through autopsy reports to have been the result of prescription drug intoxication. The documents also said, Former and current patients have admitted to obtaining controlled substance prescriptions from Dr Nagareddy without having a legitimate medical need. Dr Nagareddys offices searched, assets seized Clayton County police said he has been overprescribing opiates and benzodiazepine and the last several years has seen a multitude of overdoses and overdose deaths. DEA agents searched his house and office. Clayton county district attorney Tracy Graham Lawson told WSBTV, a local TV station, Hes charged with prescribing pain medication which is beyond his professional brief as a psychiatrist and not for a legitimate purpose for the patient. The district attorneys office also filed a civil action suit to seize his assets. Nearly 40 federal and local agents raided Dr Nagareddys offices and later moved on to his home to seize more assets. People come to this person for help, and instead of getting help, they suffer deadly problems, Clayton County Police Chief Register was quoted as saying. If the allegations are true, he is Dr Death, no doubt about it. One of Nagareddys patients has been identified as Audrey Austin, a 29 year-old mother of two. She died of a fatal prescription drug overdose just days after she visited Dr Nagareddy. She was an addict and he made it very easy for her, Ms Audreys mother Ruth Carr was quoted as saying by New York Daily News. Kurnool Medical College principal Dr G.S. Ram Prasad did not have information regarding the arrested doctor. Most of the professors who taught the 1980 batch have retired by now, he said. New Delhi: Around 70 students were detained after scores of them engaged in violent protest outside the HRD Ministry to vent their ire over the alleged suicide of a Dalit research scholar of Hyderabad Central University. Students under the banner of Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA) and Students Federation of India (SFI) and Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) marched to Shastri Bhawan to seek HRD minister Smriti Irani's intervention in the issue. The protest turned violent as students tried to jump over barricades and attacked security personnel causing injuries prompting the police to use water cannons and detain students. Police detained several students after the protests turned violent. "The protest turned violent and several police officials including an Additional DCP and SHO of Connaught Place police station were injured," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said. According to police officials, around 70 students have been detained so far. The dead student, Rohith Vemula, was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. They were also kept out of the hostel. The suspension was revoked later. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor were named in an FIR over the death of the scholar, which triggered massive protests and demands for their removal from their posts. The issue also took a political turn with allegations that the extreme action was a result of discrimination against Dalit students at the behest of Dattatreya, who had written a letter to Irani, seeking action against their "anti-national acts". The HRD ministry has constituted a two member fact finding team to look into the the incident. Hyderabad: Ruling out suicide angle in the death of Dr D Prabhakara Rao, accused in the bail scam case of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, his wife Dr Marilyn Prabhalatha and the police have said that it was a case of cardiac arrest. Prabhakar Rao was found dead under suspicious circumstances in his house at East Marredpally on Saturday and the issue came to light on Sunday. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle Marilyn Prabhalatha, a doctor at Government Hospital at Patancheru said , "My husband is not a coward to end his life. He was courageous. He suffered a massive heart attack on Saturday night. I am a doctor. I spoke to the autopsy doctors who revealed primarily that it was a case of cardiac arrest." Read: Gali Janardhan Reddy gets bail in bribe-for-bail case She added, "He was innocent and framed in the bail scam case. He felt tortured. My husband was fighting his case on his own in the court. The false allegations of his involvement in the case had pained him and the family. But he didnt commit suicide." Tukaramgate police registered a case of suspicious death under 174 CrPC and have initiated investigation. Gopalapuram Assistant Commissioner of Police Shiva Kumar said, "It appears to be a case of hearth attack. For Christmas family came and stayed in their Marredpally residence, their ancestral home. His wife left to their Kompally residence, but he continued to be put up there as he wanted stay there for few more days. On Saturday morning wife tried reaching him to call him for the church prayer service. "She alerted her relatives as her calls went unattended, following which they went and broke open the door to find him dead. His body was shifted to Gandhi hospital where the autopsy was conducted. We are awaiting the report. Prima facie there is no evidence to stay it as a suicide and all clues point to cardiac arrest." Prabhakar Rao is survived by wife, daughter Dr Susan, and son David Prashant. However relatives of the retired district judge suspect that he may have taken the extreme step. The younger son of the Trinamul Congress leader Muhammad Sohrab initially did not cooperate during interrogation but later admitted he was driving the car. (Photo: DC) New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday sent a youth, arrested in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an IAF corporal was killed during Republic Day rehearsal in Kolkata, to two days transit remand. 24-year-old Shahnawaz Khan, resident of West Bengal, was arrested here this morning and produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Pooran Chand who allowed Kolkata Police's plea to take him to Kolkata for his interrogation. He was brought to the court in muffled face. "In view of the facts and circumstances, the accused be given in transit remand to sub-inspector Sumit Bhattacharya to be produced before CMM Calcutta on January 20," the court said. The court also said that if the police along with the accused reach Kolkata before or after January 20, he be produced before the duty magistrate. Khan was arrested from Ajmeri Gate in Central Delhi by a team of Kolkata Police, Anti-Rowdy Section of Detective department at Lal Bazar, Kolkata. According to the police, Khan was in the Audi Q7 being driven by Sambia Sohrab, which allegedly mowed down Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the rehearsal of Republic Day parade on January 13 in Kolkata. A case of murder and criminal conspiracy under the IPC was registered at Police Station Maidan in Calcutta. Also read: Air Force officer killed in Kolkata, number plate of speeding SUV missing Ex-MLA's son was driving car that killed IAF officer, confirms police Kolkata hit-and-run case: Friend says prime accused was 'intoxicated' Prime accused in Kolkata's Red Road hit-and-run case arrested Kolkata hit-and-run case: TMC leader's son sent to 14-day police custody Seeking Khan's custody, police told the court he has to be taken to Kolkata by train which would take two days and sought that he be sent to transit remand till January 22. The court, however, granted his transit remand till January 20 and directed the police to get the accused medically examined before boarding the train. Police said in its application that the 21-year-old IAF Corporal was knocked down and killed after being hit by the brand new Audi car during the Republic Day rehearsal parade on the Red Road. Police said Khan was called for questioning on the night of January and allowed to go but since then he was absconding. His relatives lodged a missing diary at Bowbazar and police were looking for him. Cops then got to know from sources that he was in Delhi and the Kolkata Police zeroed on him last midnight. Based on the location of his mobile and the mobile tower, police spotted and arrested him, the police said. Khan and prime accused Sambia would be questioned together after being brought to Kolkata, it said. Sambia, son of a Trinamool Congress leader, was arrested on the night of 16 January from Park Circus seven-point crossing while he was heading towards his in-laws' house. New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has deferred a discussion on the recent terror attack on the Pathankot air base after it was told that probe into the incident was at a crucial stage and can't be deliberated at this stage. The decision came after the Home Ministry sought more time to brief the members of the Parliament attached to the Ministry about the January 2 terrorist attack. "The Union Home Secretary (Rajiv Mehrishi) has informed that the Home Ministry is not in a position to brief the Standing Committee on the terror attack on Pathankot air base. Hence we have discussed today about the recent floods in Chennai," CPI leader D Raja told PTI. The Pathankot incident may be taken up for discussion by the Standing Committee in its next meeting expected to be held on January 27. Seven security personnel were killed and several others were injured when six militants, suspected to be of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, stormed the Pathankot air base on January 2. In the gun fight, which lasted for three days, all six terrorists were also killed. Srinagar: American Film Institute graduate Tassaduq Hussain and son of former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, may join active politics, in which case he is likely to be assigned immense responsibility and given important party work in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well. The 44-year-old Hussain who has lensed Bollywood blockbusters like Omkara and Kaminey attended a meeting of the PDPs extended core group held here on Sunday, giving credence to reports that he has been successfully persuaded by the family and some close associates of his late father to join active politics and supplement the effort aimed at taking his (Mr. Sayeeds) mission forward. The meeting chaired by his sister and party president Mehbooba Mufti discussed threadbare a slew of issues particularly forming a new government in Jammu and Kashmir. Hussain had during the lifetime of his father repeatedly said that he is not interested in politics. His mother Gulshan Nazir Ara when asked about it had in an interview said, "Wherever he is, he should be happy." But sources in the PDP said that he has now agreed to help his sister and party president Ms. Mufti who is likely to take over as chief minister of the State at the head of PDP-BJP coalition government later this month. The PDP was launched by Mr. Sayeed and his daughter Ms. Mufti in 1999 after quitting Congress party. PDP cobbled together a coalition government with ideologically divergent BJP in March 2015 at the head of its patron Mr. Sayeed. He died in a Delhi hospital on January 7. Hyderabad: High tension prevailed in University of Hyderabad campus on Sunday evening following the death of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula. Scores of students gathered at the NRS hostel, where Rohith was found hanging, and started an protest. When a team of police officials came to spot to shift the body for autopsy, the students did not allow them inside. The agitators damaged an ambulance, which was called by the police, eyewitnesses said. A security official, who tried to persuade the students, was roughed up by the crowd, the witness said. The protestors said that they would not allow the police to shift the body until vice-chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile came out to talk to them. The VC has been hiding for many days. He and his aides are the reason for this death, one of the agitators alleged. The students also demanded that the police book a case against Prof. Podile. No university official is said to have visited the hostel so far. The body remained in the lobby of the hostel till last reports came in. Madhapur police officials said that the situation was under control. No violent incidents have been reported so far, said a senior police official. Dont trouble anybody, says suicide note I am alone responsible for my death. Nobody instigated me to commit suicide. Please dont trouble anybody in the name of my death, Rohith Vemula wrote in his suicide note. The five-page suicide note indicated he was extremely disappointed about the recent past. He stated that the money from his fellowship should be given to his family. It started with Yakub hanging The suspension of five Dalit students, which reportedly resulted in the suicide of PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, actually started with the hanging of Yakub Memon last year for the Mumbai blasts. Students owing allegiance to the Ambedkar Students Association had protested the hanging on university campus. ABVP student alleges assault An argument ensued between ASA students and activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. Following this, ABVP activist N. Susheel Kumar posted a comment on Facebook in August first week last year calling ASA students goons. Kumar later alleged that around 30 ASA members beat him up in his hostel room around midnight. Board clears ASA activists A Proctorial Board inquired into the incident and, on August 12, 2015, came out with a report that there was no medical evidence or to prove that Kumar was harmed by the ASA activists. The board recommended letting the ASA youth off with a strong warning. Board changes its stand A few days later, the Proctorial Board came out with another decision saying that the ASA activists were guilty of manhandling and causing harm to Kumar and decided to suspend four dalit research scholars belonging to the ASA for an entire semester. The four students were Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide on Sunday, P. Vijay, Dontha Prashanth and C. Sheshu and V. Sunkanna. Sukanna was to be treated as a security threat as he was not a bonafide student of the university. The students had then alleged that the board had changed its decision due to the intervention of BJP Legislative Council member N. Ramachandra Rao. Temporary relief only After protests by ASA students the then in charge vice-chancellor, Prof R.P. Sharma, ordered another inquiry committee to be set up and revoked the suspension of four Dalit scholars. Panel decides to punish students After Prof Sharma retired and Prof. Appa Rao Podile took over as vice-chancellor, the Executive Council meeting in its meeting in December decided to suspend the students from the hostel. The new inquiry committee reasoned that the older judgement of the Proctorial Board cannot be questioned because it is a statutory body. Students take matter to HC ASA students had gone to court against the judgement and the hearing is on January 18. The students and their associates have been holding daily protests in the university. Letter from Dattatreya It came to light in January that on August 17, Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya, the BJP MP from Secunderabad, had written to Union human resource minister Smriti Irani saying the UoH has become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. In the same letter, he wrote that the UoH administration had become a mute spectator to Susheel Kumar getting beaten up. Activists have alleged that UoH took a hardline after this letter. Rohith had told V-C: Give poison One week before his death, Rohith Vemula had reportedly written to University of Hydera-bad Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile asking him to give the protesting students poison instead of humiliating them. According to a close friend of Rohith, the letter was written to the vice-chancellor to prove his innocence in the case of alleged assault of an ABVP activist last year. Give us a bottle of poison instead of humiliating us without any reason, Rohith had reportedly written to the vice-chancellor. He wrote that the order suspending the students cannot be justified since the allegations made against him and other four students were baseless, according to his friend. He also wrote to the vice-chancellor requesting him to allow him and other students continue their studies peacefully. Rohith wanted to become a science writer Gachibowli police officials said they received an alert from the University security officials after 6 pm. A police team rushed to the NRS hostel room, where the body was found hanging. In the suicide note, Rohith wrote: I wanted to become a scientist and a science writer. But, this is my last piece of writing. He continued the long letter mentioning about the humiliation and alienation he faced in his academic life. He stated that he could not take it anymore and nobody could understand his devastation. CHENNAI: With just a month left for the model code of conduct for the Assembly elections, the secretariat is now buzzing with activity. After Pongal holidays, the departments are racing against time to get government orders and pending payments cleared. Officials are also now working over time on administrative files related to transfers and promotions, said informed sources. Meanwhile, contractors and service providers associated with Chennai corporation are also frequenting the civic engineers and senior officials to get the bills and work order papers released. Ministers and other authorities shall not sanction grants, payments out of discretionary funds from the time elections are announced, a senior official told DC. Transfer of more IAS and IPS officers is likely by next week. There is a three-fold increase in file movements at the secretariat since last week. Pongal holidays had also accumulated files. The officers are now seen glued to their seats clearing files. The flood relief files related to Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore added to the existing burden and routine files are now being cleared to get over the backlog, said an under secretary. My road repair bill is pending for the past two months. Last week, the engineers requested me to complete a few more road repair works, but when I insisted on my bills, they said the deputy commissioner concerned has been transferred and I have to wait for a few more weeks, said a corporation contractor. CHENNAI: Normal work in Commercial Tax Offices (CTOs) across the State would be paralysed on January 19 and 20 as 6,500 CTO employees will go on leave en mass to highlight several long-pending demands. The Joint Action Committee of Commercial Taxes Association, which comprise Tamil Nadu Commercial Taxes Services Association and Tamil Nadu Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax Officer and Deputy Commercial Tax Officer Association, has called for the pro-test. The department has been collecting tax under 10 major categories including VAT. To draw the governments attention to the issues, 6500 employees including clerks, assistants, typists and Assistant Commissioners, will go on leave en mass on Tuesday and Wednesday. As their demands were not met, the Government, which was earning nearly 70 per cent of the revenue from the department, has been losing revenue over the years steadily. The revenue growth has come down sharply from 27.09 per cent in 2011-12 to 5.54 per cent in 2014-15. The president, Tamil Nadu Commercial Taxes Services Association, N.Janarthanan, said the department has passed over 100 notifications, which were not useful in increasing revenue. The notifications have been affecting independence of the employees and they undergo mental agony. Seniority of employees was not being considered while giving promotions. He appealed to government to file its reply to writ petitions filed regarding this and expedite the proceedings. The president, Tamil Nadu Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax Officer & Deputy Commercial Tax Officer Association, M. Rajendiran, said several employees were suspended a day prior to their retirement date. The anti employee attitude has been opposed by the association for years. Chennai: It was Monday morning blues for commuters heading back to work after Pongal break with traffic snarls across GST Road, particularly in the suburbs. Additional government and private buses returning from Southern districts after Pongal vacation with their prolonged halts clogged the 10-km stretch from Tambaram to Vandalur. Local residents blamed the police force for not acting at the right time. While the police successfully managed the situation during Deepavali, lack of force worsened the situation. I took one hour to reach the 1-kilometre distance from Perungalathur to Tambaram. Had more force been deployed, haphazard parking on the highway road could have been restricted, said G. Udaya, a resident. Buses, which started reaching the suburbs as early as 5 pm from districts such as Madurai and Dindugal prolonged the halting time, creating a huge bottleneck during peak hour. Commuters questioned the absence of police personnel during rush hour. There were just four to five officials from Tambaram to Vandalur. Additional force came in after 10 am, said F. Haseena, a regular commuter. The students alleged in their complaint that Mr Dattatreya had influenced the Union human resource development ministry to take action against Dalit students at the UoH. Hyderabad: A day after PhD scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide on the University of Hyderabad campus, Cyberabad police registered a case against Union minister of state for labour Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the death. Read: I have nothing to do with Dalit student's suicide: Bandaru Dattatreya University vice-chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile, BJP legislative council member N. Ramachandra Rao and ABVP activist Susheel Kumar from the UoH have also been named in the First Information Report, Gachibowli police said. Read: Vice-Chancellor has no courtesy to meet us: Rohiths mother Susheel Kumar had complained of an assault by activists of the Ambedkar Students Association, of which Rohith was a member, last year. That led to the suspension of five Dalit scholars, including Rohith. Read: Netizens slam Smriti Irani, Bandaru Dattatreya The students alleged in their complaint that Mr Dattatreya had influenced the Union human resource development ministry to take action against Dalit students at the UoH. Read: Ambedkar ideas inspired Rohith Vemula TS DGP Anurag Sharma told this newspaper, An FIR has been registered to probe into the UoH students death. We will investigate the case with all transparency. New Delhi: Delhi Police has arrested a 32-year-old man from Haryanas Mewat district, suspected to be a key operative of al Qaeda who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan, making it the fifth arrest in its ongoing operation against the terror outfit. The accused, Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Polices Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said on Monday. Sami, a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, said a senior police official. Rahmans arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al Qaedas module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS) and sent for training. While Sami has been arrested, the other two identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi are still believed to be in Pakistan, said the official. He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns. My letter has no connection with students death. A group of students affiliated to ABVP met me and gave a representation complaining they were beaten up by anti-social and anti national elements. I forwarded it HRD ministry. I dont know what action has been taken. Neither me no BJP has any connection to the incident, he said Hyderabad: Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday said he has nothing to do over suicide by Dalit research scholar Rohit of University of Hyderabad which has triggered a row. No comments he said when asked about police booking a case against him and others. My letter has no connection with students death. A group of students affiliated to ABVP met me and gave a representation complaining they were beaten up by anti-social and anti national elements. I forwarded it HRD ministry. I dont know what action has been taken. Neither me no BJP has any connection to the incident, he said. Dattatreya said he has asked the officials to ensure peace in the University and check on anti social elements and action would be taken based on inquiry report. Gachibowli police booked cases under section 306 of IPC, under SC, ST act and abetment to suicide against Dattatreya, University Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, ABVP leaders Sushil Kumar and Vishnu on acomplaint by a student Prashant. Mr. Koliwad questioned why there was a huge mismatch with regard to information on the number of lakes and the extent of encroachments. BENGALURU: A secret committee will be constituted to supervise the information provided by all the tahsildars, ACs and survey authorities to verify the facts, said K. B. Koliwad, chairman of the legislature committee on encroachment of lake beds. Lashing out at Tahsildars and Deputy Commissioners, on Monday, for furnishing half- baked information on lake encroachments, he announced that the committee will be empowered to scrutinize the total information all over again. Officials who are found guilty would be suspended, warned Mr Koliwad. During the review meeting with officials, Mr. Koliwad questioned why there was a huge mismatch with regard to information on the number of lakes and the extent of encroachments. He also questioned Tahsildars of Yelahanka and Bengaluru (North) for their reasons for refraining from issuing notices to government offices and asked them bluntly what favours they get in return. Is there a rule that government offices should not be issued notices? If there is any such rule, let the committee be informed to exempt public offices which have encroached on the lake land, said Mr. Koliwad. Mr. Koliwad ordered deputy commissioners to inquire why most Tahsildars had mismatched information on the number of lakes. If Tahsildars were found guilty for furnishing wrong information they would be liable for appropriate action. Deputy commissioner (Rural) S. Palaiah said he was not informed about the meeting and no notices have been issued to encroachers. However, he sought a weeks time to issue notices to both public and private encroachers. Mr. Koliwad fixed a fresh deadline of February 29 for slapping notices to both private and public encroachers. Besides, he directed all the Assistant Commissioners (AC) to review the information furnished by the Tahsildars. Though the committee was satisfied with the Tahsildars committee, he directed Deputy Commissioners to reconstitute the ACs committee for better scrutiny. Final report on encroachment in 3 to 4 months: Panel head The final report on the encroachment of lakes in Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts along with recommendations will be submitted to the government within three to four months to nail land sharks, said Mr K.B. Koliwad, chairman of the legislature committee on encroachment of lakebeds. After the review meeting, he told reporters on Monday that demolition of structures built on lakebeds has been stopped until the final report is given and the committee members will later decide on the fate of encroached buildings. Asked how they will ensure implementation of the report, he said that the lake committee has followed principles of natural justice and given a chance to the victims to present their case. Earlier, Mr Lakshman Rau, the then BBMP administrator, has given a report on lake encroachments. Mr A.T. Ramaswamy could not submit the final report as the government was dissolved and a report by Mr V. Basasubramanian had not been accepted by the government. But the lake committee report, which has heard the encroachers, will be implemented. This is different from other reports. Encroachers will it find it difficult to get a stay from the court, he said. BDA warned against lake encroachment The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has granted an interim stay following a petition filed by two people. Why is the BDA, which has earned a bad reputation of encroaching 23 lakes, is still encroaching lakes for Kempegowda Layout, Mr Koliwad asked. In reply, BDA Commissioner T. Sham Bhat said that as many as 14 lakes fall under the layout and measures have been taken to develop them. As far as the stay is concerned, the BDA has obtained environment clearance. The petitioners have sought ex-parte stay form NGT. The tribunal will be briefed about the ground realities, he said. Mr Koliwad said that apart from 23 lakes, the BDA has been accused of encroaching 97 acres on 18 other lakes. The committee members also sought a written reply within a week. Survey Raja Kaluve in two months Lake committee members S. Suresh Kumar and N.A. Haris asked the BBMP and revenue department what was stopping them from surveying Raja Kaluves in the core areas of Bengaluru. Mr Koliwad said that the city has 1,088 km of Raja Kaluves, of which 596 km has been surveyed. Most of the surveyed areas fall in the periphery of the city. Five months had been sought to given the complete survey report. But already, three months have lapsed. The report has to be given in another two months, he said. The Survey Department has sought time till April 30 to give the report. Suggestions CHENNAI: Wholesale flower sellers evicted from Badrian Street at George Town here on Monday, were occupying the pavement illegally under the guise of retailers despite being allotted shops in Koyambedu market, according to CMDA officials. The CMDA was executing a 2012 Madras high court order which directed the removal of 130 wholesalers from Badrian street. We have managed to remove only 47 because the flower sellers opposed (eviction). They have also filed several petitions in lower courts now, said a CMDA official. After the state government enacted the Tamil Nadu Specified Commodities Markets (Rules of Location) Act, 1996, fruit, vegetable and flower wholesalers were moved to the custom-built Koyambedu market complex. However, a few flower wholesalers continued to conduct double business on these pavements, the sources said. In 2004 and 2009, Badrian Street wholesalers petitioned the high court seeking protection from eviction under the umbrella of Chennai Retail Flower Merchants Welfare Association, which the Chennai Koyambedu Flower Wholesalers Association (CKFWA) along with CMDA opposed. A field enquiry was conducted by CMDA and we identified 130 of them conducting wholesale business. They claim they are retailers but they start their business at 4 am and sell loose flower petals and shut shop before noon, an official said. A CKFWA member, on condition of anonymity, told DC that Badrian street wholesalers were eating into their revenue. All these wholesalers have shops allotted at Koyambedu. But they left since these allotments were in the first floor or in a corner place where they felt there would be no business. Since Broadway has more connectivity, flower farmers are content selling it to them and also because they get a higher rate. Buyers also find it easy to purchase from Broadway, the member added. CMDA is now banking on a hearing slated for February 4 in the HC and is hopeful of a final binding order. Flower sellers reluctant to go to Koyambedu market CHENNAI: Owners of the 19-year-old flower market that houses 151 shops in the narrow lanes of Badrian Street told DC that moving to Koyambedu market complex would eventually lead to closure of their business. When we have our own private spaces here where we pay between Rs 3,000 and Rs 7,000 as monthly rent, why should we end up giving Rs 30, 000 and more as rent and an advance that will be anywhere near Rs 4 lakh to the owners over there, asked T. Murugesan, a flower trader owning a shop on Badrian Street for the past 10 years. Over hundreds of elderly women who came to sell flowers from Kasimedu and Pallavaram were left empty-handed after they found that the shops were locked. At this age it is not possible for me to travel to Koyambedu flower market as it will not just prove a physical burden, but will force me to shell out more money, said 79-year-old Naga Chellamma. Radhika had moved to Uppal, Hyderabad from Guntur about 20 days ago so that she could stay close to her two sons. Raja works on a project fellowship at NGRI. The mother had not met Rohith since she came to Hyderabad and was expecting that he would come to meet her Sunday. Hyderabad: The bereaved family members of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit PhD scholar who committed suicide, did not receive any word of consolation from the University of Hyderabad administration when they went to the university on Monday. Rohiths mother Radhika Vemula and younger brother Raja Vemula and some of the deceaseds relatives and close friends from his native Guntur made a futile attempt to meet Vice-Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile. The mother was left weeping and complaining in anguish. At one point, her pulse weakened and she was rushed to the universitys health center. She was upset also for the reason that the university did not bother to inform the family of Rohiths suspension. Raja said, We just wanted to meet the V-C to have some clarity on the incidents preceding the suicide, but he didnt show the courtesy to meet us. He should be suspended. Radhika had moved to Uppal, Hyderabad from Guntur about 20 days ago so that she could stay close to her two sons. Raja works on a project fellowship at NGRI. The mother had not met Rohith since she came to Hyderabad and was expecting that he would come to meet her Sunday. That turned out to be the day he committed suicide. As per one of Rohiths relatives, his father who works a watchman in Guntur is an alcoholic and never cared for his sons. Raja said, Rohith used to tell me now and then that there were troubles in the university. He informed me about the suspension from the hostel only two days before he ended his life. Sometimes, he sounded worried. Once when I asked him what he would do if things went wrong, he said he would come back to Guntur and set up some business. He was always involved in the university issues. So much so, he didnt attend his own brother's engagement in December. V-C Appa Rao: Did no wrong University of Hyderabad Vice Chancellor Prof Appa Rao Podile said here on Monday that he did no wrong in the events leading up to research scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide on the campus on Sunday. He said that the incident leading to the suspension of Rohith and others happened before he became the Vice Chancellor. After he became the VC, he has ensured that the punishment given to Rohith and others was not harsh. After his discussions with professors it was decided that the students/research scholars will be suspended only from the hostel, he said. Nasir also said that, they were also told that their parents were disbelievers and that their first job was to go and murder their parents. (Representational Image) London: In a shocking revelation, a 12-year-old child soldier from Syrias Raqqa, who was held captive by Islamic State, revealed how militants brainwash children to murder their parents. The child soldier claims that he was asked to kill his own parents while being trained by ISIS. Nasir, the escapee, told CNN that he was one among 60 children who were being trained to become suicide bombers. After finishing their training, they would have then been infiltrated into the Islamic States terror base in Raqqa. While the captive children underwent suicide bombing training, they were repeatedly told that ISIS cares for them more than their own parents. "The scariest times for us all were when the airstrikes happened. They'd lead all of us underground into the tunnels to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us but they, the fighters, they loved us. They would look after us better than our parents," Nasir said. Nasir also said that, they were told that their parents were disbelievers and that their first job was to go and murder their parents. He was also forced to appear in one of the propaganda videos of ISIS and was instructed not to cry during the any of the training sessions. Fortunately for him, his ordeal came to an end when he managed to escape from ISIS and made his way to a refugee camp where he was reunited with his parents. "When we escaped and I saw my mother again, it was like coming back to life," he said. Nasir's testimony comes in the wake of the recent incident where an Islamic State militant executed his mother in public in the Syrian city of Raqqa because she had encouraged him to leave the group. The woman in her 40s had warned her son that a US-backed alliance would wipe out Islamic State and had encouraged him to leave the city with her. The Islamic State group, which controls wide areas of Syria and Iraq, has executed hundreds of people it has accused of working with its enemies or breaching of its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. London: The UK government on Monday warned that migrants on spousal visas who fail to speak English may face deportation, as it ann-ounced a new 20 million pound fund to improve the language skills among migrant Muslim women. Writing in The Times newspaper, Prime Mi-nister David Cameron warned that migrants who failed to improve their fluency in English after two years may face deportation. New rules will mean that from October this year, migrants coming to the UK on a five-year spousal visa with poor or no English skills will have to take a test after two and a half years to show they are making efforts to improve their English. We will now say if you dont improve your fluency, that could affect your ability to stay in the UK. This will help make it clear to those men who stop their partners from integrating that there are consequences, Cameron wrote in a commentary. Arguing that community cohesion is the best antidote to extremism, Cameron pledged to fund English language classes for female migrants. We will also fund a dramatic improvement in the way we provide English language services for women. With a new 20 million pounds programme, we will make sure every woman from isolated communities with no English at all has access to classes. Cameron also flagged up the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities as the heart of the language barrier in the country. He wrote: We must also make more progress on English language. New figures show that some 1,90,000 British Muslim women speak little or no English despite many having lived here for decades. Mumbai: The equity markets closed at their lowest level in last 20 months as continuing slide in global crude oil prices and data showing decline in Indias merchandise exports for the thirteenth consecutive month triggered broad based selling on the domestic bourses. The small and mid-cap stocks were hammered badly on Monday with the BSE small-cap index plunging over four per cent and the BSE mid-cap index posting a loss of 2.72 per cent. This, according to market participants, is mainly on account of profit booking by retail and high networth investors. On the other hand, the Sensex slumped 266.67 points or 1.09 per cent dragged down by a five per cent fall in Reliance Industries Ltd. The Sensex closed the day at 24,188.37 while the 50-share Nifty ended the session at 7,351 down 86.80 points or 1.17 per cent. Equities extended losses in most of Asia and Europe, with energy firms taking a hit from a fresh collapse in the cost of crude oil. Another 5-10 per cent correction in small and mid-cap stocks in the indian markets cant be ruled out in the coming days as flow of funds from domestic fund houses have slowed down in the last few weeks, pointed out Uaday Narayan Dubey, vice-president, institutional desk at R.K. Global. According to him, the Nifty has immediate support at 7,300 and 7,200 levels and it is likely that traders who had created short positions would square off their positions at those levels. This could help the markets to stage a technical bounce-back. Global investors continue to be worried about the state of the global economic recovery. The negative macro economic data further dampened street sentiments. A 14.7 per cent fall in exports in the month of December 2015 coupled with a widening of the trade deficit by 27.1 per cent during the same period put the already spooked investors in a cautious mood, noted Shreyash Devalkar, fund manager, equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund. According to the provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign portfolio investors sold equities worth Rs 1,203.84 crore, pulling the rupee down against the US dollar for the third session. The rupee on Monday dropped nine paise to 67.68 per dollar on sustained demand for the US currency from banks and importers amidst sharp fall in equities. The rupee has dropped by 83 paise or 1.24 per cent in three days. Wipro on Monday said that it posted two per cent rise in third-quarter, which is in line with its own expectations and market estimates.(Representational image) Bengaluru: After the two top IT firms, TCS and Infosys, announced contrasting results, Wipro on Monday said that it posted two per cent rise in third-quarter, which is in line with its own expectations and market estimates. The net profit for the third quarter was Rs 2,234 crore, as compared to Rs 2,193 crore a year earlier. The operating margins for IT services business, however, fell to 20.2 per cent in the quarter ended December, from 21.8 per cent a year earlier, said current CEO TK Kurien, who will become executive vice chairman next month. Wipro earlier this month named Abidali Neemuchwala as its new chief executive, who said going forward the focus of Wipro will be to crank up the execution engine as he starts in his new role from February 1. Consolidated revenue in the Q3 FY16 rose seven per cent YoY to Rs 12,861 crore. Mr Kurien said that the market has been changing rapidly and contrary to its expectation, oil prices slumped rapidly in the recent months causing a massive hit for the energy and utility sector. Energy, natural resources and utilities contributed 14.4 per cent of revenue for during the quarter against 14.7 per cent in the second quarter and 16.4 per cent a year ago. Commenting on Wipros performance for the quarter, Dipen Shah, senior VP, Kotak Securities said: Wipros Q3FY16 results were lower than our estimates with 1.4 per cent CC revenue growth and a 45bps fall QoQ. According to him, Wipro continues to be impacted by the lack of scale up in large accounts, apart from the continuing challenges in the energy and telecom segments. Lahore: Pakistan will not make public any information on the probe into the Pathankot terror attack until the joint investigation team (JIT) completes its work, Law Minister of Punjab province Rana Sanaullah has said. Sanaullah said that a joint investigation team has been constituted to investigate the January 2 terrorist attack in Pathankot. India has sought action by Pakistan on the evidence provided for apprehending the JeM terrorists suspected to have been involved in the attack. India has linked the fate of the Foreign Secretary-level talks to action by Pakistan. "Nothing about the work of joint investigation team would be made public until it finished its job," Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying. Whenever Pakistan embarked on the journey to progress, its enemies started to mislead people and used them to stop development, he added. India and Pakistan were to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on in Janaury 15 which were rescheduled after the Pathankot attack. Hubballi: Janata Dal (S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy has alleged that the state government is facing a severe financial crunch due to poor revenue collection. Addressing reporters here on Sunday, he claimed that CM Siddaramaiah is flagging off various projects launched by JD(S)-BJP government in 2006-07 without making any fund allocation for pending works. He said the development process has suffered owing to lack of financial aid from the Central government. Ridiculing the state-wide tour of the Chief Minister to inaugurate various development projects, he said the Congress will suffer defeat in the ZP, TP elections due to its poor governance. Revenue collection in the state has dropped to Rs 16,000 crores this fiscal. Due to this, development works have been hampered and problems confronting farmers have not been resolved. Onion, cotton and grape growers have failed to get compensation though several months have passed after they lost their crops, he said. Reiterating that JD(S) will contest ZP, TP elections on its own, he said the party will not field candidates in the three Assembly by-polls. Mumbai: Mocking Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his 'tolerance' remarks at a literary meet in Pune, the Shiv Sena on Monday said India is a 100 per cent tolerant nation considering the hospitality and "red carpet welcome" it gives to Pakistanis despite numerous infiltrations from across the border. "They (the government) gave a red carpet welcome to (former Pakistan External Affairs minister) Khurshid Kasuri and provided him security and now talks of tolerance. India should continue being tolerant and play host to Pakistanis despite infiltrations and numerous killings at the border," the Sena said in an edit in party mouthpiece 'Saamana.' "If this (welcoming Pakistanis despite border killings) is tolerance, India was and will continue to remain a tolerant nation," the Sena said. Speaking at the 89th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Pune, Fadnavis had on Saturday said India is and will continue to remain a tolerant nation and had asked authors to stop focusing on "negative writings". The Sena said that when it stopped ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali from performing in Maharashtra, states like West Bengal, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh invited him to perform there, thereby showcasing their tolerance levels. "Terrorists were attacking our Air Force base in Pathankot and soldiers were dying there while some naive politicians were welcoming Ghulam Ali when there was firing and bomb blasts taking place. If this is what tolerance is, India is a hundred per cent tolerant nation..Do these people have the right to call themselves Indians anymore ?" it questioned. Further attacking the Karnataka government, the Sena said that it has displayed an exemplary tolerance by banning the film "Marathi Tigers" at the border. "Will our Chief Minister answer the tolerance shown by Karnataka government by banning the film that gave a voice to people of Belgaum?" it asked. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and information minister Roshan Baig at a meeting on the International Film Festival at the CMs home office, Krishna in Bengaluru on Monday. Bengaluru: The coming Hebbal Assembly bypoll has created divisions in the Chief Ministers camp. Mr Siddaramaiahs close associate H.M. Revanna is battling for the party ticket against another follower of the CM, Bairati Suresh. Mr Revanna, during the KPCC executive committee meeting on Monday, moved a resolution saying that non-party members should not get the ticket and got it ratified in an attempt to scuttle the chances of Mr Suresh. Meanwhile Muslim leaders in the Congress are trying hard to get the seat for a community leader. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader said Mr Revanna was apparently furious with Mr Suresh, who has been trying hard to get the Hebbal ticket. Mr Suresh had surfaced in Hebbal in November last year organising orchestra-nights, on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava. I have been working in this constituency for the last eight to 10 years, therefore, it is not appropriate to give the ticket to a person, who is trying to win over the electorate through money power, a leader said quoting Mr Revanna. Meanwhile, Congress veteran C.K. Jaffer Sharief has been lobbying hard to secure the ticket for his grandson, Rehman Sharief, who had lost the seat in 2013 by around 5000 votes. Sons and wives! BJP stuck in a groove The state BJP has failed to arrive at a consensus on the candidates for the three Assembly constituencies which will go to polls on February 13. The BJP core committee which met here on Monday, failed to arrive at a consensus on the candidates to Bidar, Devadurga and Hebbal Assembly constituencies. Among the three constituencies, Bidar and Hebbal were represented by BJP and Devadurga was won by the Congress. Sources in BJP said the party has almost made up its mind to give the Bidar ticket to Suryakanta Nagamarapalli, son of Bidar MLA Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli, who died recently. In Devadurga, the party has almost zeroed in on former minister Shivanagowda Naik. However the party is caught in a bind over the candidate for Hebbal. Party workers want Ms Lalitha, wife of Jagadish Kumar, the BJP MLA of Hebbal, who died recently, to be fielded. However, former minister and BJP leader Katta Subramanya Naidu has demanded the ticket for his daughter-in-law Sowmya. Many in the BJP are not keen on the ticket being given to a family member of Katta, who was involved in a series of land scams and was even jailed like former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa. Meanwhile, BJP MLC, Narayanaswamy is also demanding the Hebbal ticket. Former Chief Ministers B.S.Yeddyurappa and Jagadish Shettar did not attend Mondays meeting. Speaking to the media after the meeting, BJP state president Pralhad Joshi said, since two core committee leaders did not attend the meeting, the committee will meet again on January 21 to finalize the candidates. The sudden and shocking manner in which Kiku Sharda was taken into custody for allegedly hurting religious sentiments has triggered off a fear psychosis among televisions well-known stand-up comedians who are now wondering what exactly they should avoid to get into trouble. Says a source, We are constantly walking on glass while trying to raise a cheer. Who knows what we say to generate laughter that could trigger off a negative reaction in some community or individual? Apparently the comedy sector on television has taken a decision to stay completely away from jokes on godmen and politicians. Says a popular comic actor known for his digs at celebrities from showbiz, If I spoof Jagjit Singhs ghazals his fans or his wife or both may object. They may even sue me for my bad pronunciation of Urdu words. If I do a send-up on Amitabh Bachchan his fans from Afghanistan may sue from their country. How will I keep running to Afghanistan? Who will pay my legal bills? It is felt by the comic community that enough was not done to protect Kiku Sharda from being arrested. Pre-emptive action could have been taken. The offending show happened in December. The channel couldve applied for Kikus anticipatory bail. It is frightening to be taken away by the cops in the middle of the night. In future we want a lawyer to be present when we are recording our skits to ensure we do nothing libelous, says a colleague of Kiku from Comedy Nights With Kapil. The shooting of part two of Baahubali series Baahubali The Conclusion is going on and now the unit is leaving for Kerala for shooting some important scenes. Yes, we are leaving tonight and the shoot will start in Kerala from tomorrow onwards, says Shobhu Yarlagadda, one of the producers. He added that the entire unit will be part of the 15-day shoot after which they will return to Hyderabad for another schedule. The movie will release this year, he confirms. 40 per cent of the shoot was completed during that of part 1; we are planning to complete the rest as soon as possible as we plan to release it this year, says Shobhu. When he was asked about the rumoured big-budgeted movie after Baahubali, the producer said that currently only Baahubali was on their mind. We are concentrating on the second edition and nothing else, he clarifies. This is the new Liberal narrative.....make the Bush Administration's economy look as bad as possible, so that they can make the weak Obama Admin's economy look great, so that they can argue to keep Socialist/Democrats elected to continue the false trend...And like usual it is all ********... Now for reality I had to employ people during the Bush Administration....We were busier than a one armed paper hanger..... There was no one to employ.....unless you wanted to sub-contract out to illegals....I refused to do that..The only people out of work during the Bush years were the totally incompetent or the ones who just did not want a job.....The only bad time during the Bush years was 2008, when the bottom fell out of the housing bubble....Bush did not cause that stupid!!!....That was the consequences of the "community Reinvestment Act of 1978" which was put on steroids by the new Act ginned up during the Clinton Administration in 1998....Obama's economic policys have only retarded the recovery from the 2008 crash.....and now we are looking at a new crash... Camelot said: You didn't even know that the Flint River was being used as a temporary alternative while the infrastructure to the Detriot water system was completely replaced. If you're not willing to even learn the basics of the story, you should remain quiet and avoid sounding ignorant. Click to expand... And who controlled the state when this occurred. D E M O C R A T S not only that they were L I B E R I A L DEMOCRATS.They threw money during the boom times, down the drain.now it is time to pay the piper and you want to blame a 2nd year republican, that became aware of the problem in October who is working to find a solution to the problem, and not just throwing money willy nilly look, i get being patriotic. it makes sense to be proud of your country, to acknowledge her history, both good and bad. but this goes beyond nationalistic pride and becomes nationalistic narcissism. i am sorry if this hurts your ego, but it has to be said. there are actually things that happen in the world that the united states of america did not do. americans might like to think you are actually the worlds policemen and nothing happens without you deciding it is allowed to, but its not actually like that. fundamentalist islamic extremism is a good example of this. its been around for 1400 years so far, its driven by the quran and hadith, its all about islam. fundamentalist islam has been in afghanistan since it was invaded and colonised by jihadis about 1000 years ago. when the soviets came in they met fundamentalist islam, it had been there for a long time. it wasnt invented by americans, it was already there. the CIA might have funded one particular branch of them, helped smuggle them weapons and supply them to make them more effective against the soviets, but fundamentalist islam was already there, it wasnt created by america. fundamentalist islam has been in syria, iraq, turkey, egypt, lybia, nigeria also for about 1000 years or more. whenever there is a power vacuum fundamentalist islamists see their chance and rise to try and fill it. they did this in saudi arabia and iran and now fundamentalist islam runs those countries. they did this in egypt through elections. they did it in syria and lybia through civil war. they did it in iraq simply by waiting for america to leave, knowing the domestic iraqis were not up to the task of keeping fundamentalist islam down. its happened in nigeria due to the government simply not being strong enough to suppress them. none of this was created by america. Florida Senator and presidential contender Marco Rubio told reporters Monday night that he has not been focusing on the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, which has left tens of thousands of residents without drinkable water and with possibly irreversible damage to their health.While admitting to not know much about the situation, Rubio did say he believes the federal government should stay out it.Id love to give you a better answer on it, Rubio said. Its just not an issue weve been quite frankly fully briefed or apprised of in terms of the role the governor has played and the state has played in Michigan on these sorts of issues.Rubio went on to say that hes unable to give a deeply detailed answer on what the right approach should be, other than to tell you that in general I believe the federal governments role in some of these things [is] largely limited unless it involves a federal jurisdictional issue.Yet Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) asked the Obama Administration last week to declare a federal emergency and send millions of dollars in aid to buy residents bottled water, water filters, and lead-testing kids. The federal government has approved $5 million in aid so far, and says they will send more if necessary. Snyder, who is now facing a class action lawsuit from Flint residents, had also requested $96 million and the designation of a major disaster declaration. No arrests have been made and no suspects have been detained in connection with the Friday night shooting outside of Shari's Restaurant in Corvallis, police said Saturday afternoon. The Corvallis Police Department released the name of the 29-year-old victim who died at the scene. Jason Scott Williams, of Corvallis, died from injuries suffered during the shooting, which took place at around 7:45 p.m. Friday outside of the restaurant at 1117 N.W. Ninth St., according to the Corvallis Police Department. The Oregon State Medical Examiners Office in Portland is scheduled to conduct the autopsy. Corvallis police also confirmed that a 35-year-old Forest Grove woman suffered a minor injury during the shooting and was transported from the scene to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. The woman, whose name is being withheld at this time, was treated and released, according to police. The second female victim and Williams are acquaintances, and had been at the restaurant together prior to the shooting, Corvallis police said in the press release. Lt. Cord Wood, a spokesman for the Corvallis Police Department, said Saturday that he did not believe there was a threat to the community. He declined to elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. Wood also declined to release any information about the shooter or the weapon used in the shooting. "It's not the time to talk about evidence," he said. "It's an ongoing investigation." The Corvallis Police Department, Benton County Sheriffs Office, Benton County Search and Rescue and the Linn Benton Major Crime Team are continuing an investigation and search for evidence at the scene, according to the release. Northwest Ninth Street was reopeed to traffic Saturday morning, although one lane in front of Sharis remained closed from about Beca Avenue to the north and Buchanan Avenue to the south of the restaurant. Incident command vehicles remained at the scene along with several police vehicles. Corvallis Police are asking anyone with information, or who may have seen something suspicious around the time of the shooting, to call 541-766-6913. The homicide outside of Shari's Restaurant Friday night is the 14th in Corvallis since 1990. Among City of Corvallis cases, only the Shari's homicide and the homicide of Kimberly Theresa Hakes case remain unsolved. Hakes, 42, was found dead on Feb. 15 inside a tent at Alan Berg Park, a wooded area across from downtown, on the east bank of the Willamette River. The owners of Edgewater Village, a subdivision bordering Water Avenue and the Willamette River in east Albany, are hoping to build apartments, townhomes and possibly retail on the 6.4-acre property instead of constructing about 60 single family homes. The change was proposed at a board meeting for the Central Albany Revitalization Area last month, though detailed plans havent been developed or approved. While this is a change, I think this is a really exciting development. This is ripe with potential and an even better match for what we are doing down there, said Kate Porsche, the city of Albanys economic development director. She and City Manager Wes Hare said the switch might result in more tax revenue generated from the property and certainly would bring more residents to contribute to the economy and live near the downtown core. The more residential density we can create in central Albany, the better that is for businesses in that area, Porsche said. Edgewater Village is a centerpiece of the citys attempts to transform the bank of the Willamette River, she added. The development is planned on the former site of the Inland Quick Freeze plant, which was vacant and a draw for transients when it burned down in 2006. About $2.4 million of CARA funding has been committed to the project. Roughly $1 million of that was used to clean up the Inland Quick Freeze site so Portland-area owners George and Paula Diamond would invest their own money. The other $1.5 million is a forgivable loan from CARA to the developer. If the project is completed, the forgivable loan functions as a grant. However, if the property isnt built out, the loan must be paid back or the city would acquire the property. So far, with new streets and other infrastructure, the Diamonds have contributed $2 million of their own money, Hare said. The total cost of the project was expected to be about $17 million with single family homes. Porsche thinks that with a focus on apartments, the cost and assessed value will be higher. The plan, back in 2007, was originally to develop the property with as many as 150 condominiums, but the Diamonds switched to single family dwellings in early 2014. During the recession, the bottom fell out of the condominium market. Lenders were not lending money to developers to build condominiums, Porsche said. Five houses have already been built at Edgewater Village, but only two have been sold to Diamond family members, and they are being used as rental units. Hare said that the high cost of construction for the homes led to a price tag of more than $250,000 for buyers. They were priced higher than the market could handle, he added. The Diamonds have now switched back to apartments, believing there was more of a demand for those units in the area, Hare said. A few more homes still are planned for the east side of the project. Again, that change hasnt yet been approved by the CARA board. If he (George Diamond) comes back with a plan that looks good and fits with what CARA wants to accomplish, I think they would approve it, Hare said. The plans would eventually need to be approved by the Albany Planning Commission, as well, and that will result in public hearings. Married couple Laura Bryngelson and Mark Martin own the Calapooia Brewing Company, which is across the street from Edgewater Village. Weve been looking at this scraggly piece of land for 10 years. The houses that theyve built are adorable. Were definitely looking forward to its completion, Bryngelson said. The way the property has been most of the time, its kind of been a magnet for less-than-legal uses frequently. Its kind of been a blight on the neighborhood, she added. Her husband said that they thought Edgewater Village would have been developed years ago, but he was excited about the potential for development. The change from a focus on houses to apartments could result in more potential customers, Martin added. Anything is an improvement over what it is now. Id just like to see it go forward. If its apartments, so be it, he said. CORVALLIS Senator Sara Gelser (D-Albany/Corvallis) will host a forum to address questions from employers and citizens about the implementation of Oregons new statewide paid sick leave law at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Corvallis Benton Public Library. Representatives from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries will be on hand to provide up to date information about technical aspects of the law, and the rules adopted by the agency. Im proud that so many Oregon workers now have access to paid leave when they need to care for themselves or a loved one, Gelser said. Many employers in my community have questions about how to comply with the law, and this forum is intended to offer needed information specific to the needs of Albany, Corvallis and Philomath. Effective January 1, all Oregonians employed by a company with 10 or more workers is entitled to earn up to 40 hours a year of paid sick leave. Leave is earned at a rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked. Accumulated leave may be taken after the employee has worked for an employer for 90 days. Companies that already have a Paid Time Off policy that allows at least 40 hours of leave per year may be considered compliant with the law. The event is free and open to the public. It is appropriate for public and private employers and employees across the region. For more information, or to request accommodations under the ADA, contact Bobby Schueller at 503-986-1708. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Martin Luther King Jr. No one is born hating another person People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. Nelson Mandela We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist James Baldwin There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence. Newton Lee The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. Albert Einstein You've got to be taughtTo hateAnd fearYou've got to be taughtFrom yearTo yearIts got toBe drummed in your dear little earYou've got toBe carefullyTaughtYou've got to be taughtTo beAfraidOf peopleWho's eyes are oddly madeAnd people who's skin is a different shade South Pacific Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers Donald Trump had a literal meltdown on Twitter issuing a bizarre series of personal insults, screeds, and disjointed attacks on Ted Cruz. I guess the honeymoon is over. Too bad, they would have gone well together. Ted Cruz mocked him for it. His retort was epic: So, the gloves have come off and now Trump is slinging mud as fast as he can. Hes claiming Cruz is not a U.S. citizen which is patently ludicrous. Hes claiming that Cruz took loans he has not declared, which is also not true. Trump says that Cruz is bought and paid for by Goldman Sachs. Why? Because his wife used to work there? Also bull crap. I used to work for Lionel, Sawyer and Collins and Harry Reid doesnt own me. Ted is living rent-free in Trumps head and it is driving him nuts. Everyone knows what Cruz meant on New York values he was referring to radical Marxists like de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg. Get a grip, man, before you implode. Mark Levin has staunchly defended Ted Cruz, pointing out the obvious, that he is indeed a U.S. citizen. Now, hes coming to his defense again on this New York nonsense. Levin said that you have to be out of your mind to believe that Ted Cruz was trashing the police, firefighters or any emergency personnel in New York. There is no one out there that respects New Yorkers and what happened on 9/11 more than Ted Cruz does. As I just said, hes referring to the values of New York progressives that run the state. When Trump brought up 9/11 in response to Cruzs explanation on this, Levin said he actually started to cringe. Levin asked what the World Trade Center has to do with anything? Its something hed expect a liberal to say because it has nothing to do with Ted Cruzs point. Evidently, Trump thinks the birther angle got him some traction and he is doubling and tripling down against Cruz because the poll numbers in Iowa favor Ted. He was roundly booed in South Carolina when he started taking cheap shots at Cruz. Ive never seen a crowd turn on Trump for attacking another candidate, but they sure as heck did in South Carolina. The rally was held in Myrtle Beach, SC. Donald Trump attempted to attack Ted Cruz using a New York Times hit piece and was booed by the crowd. Watch and see for yourself: Here's some more detail: NBC News: Donald Trump Booed By Conservative Crowd After Attacks on Ted Cruz Among conservatives, Donald Trump can typically do no wrong until he attacks Ted Cruz. On Saturday, Trump drew boos from a grassroots conservative crowd during remarks at the South Carolina Tea Party Coalition Convention for his attack on Cruzs previously undisclosed loans. You give a campaign contribution to Ted Cruz, you get whatever the hell you want, he said, before boos erupted from the crowd. Trump went on as the boos grew louder: Say whatever you want, its okay, he didnt report his bank loans. Hes got bank loans from Goldman Sachs, hes got bank loans from Citibank, folks, and then he acts like Robin Hood? Trump was less than popular at that gathering. It looks like he hit a brick wall there. The strategy to go after Cruz this way was badly considered. He calls Cruz a nice guy over and over as he campaigns, but that just changed as well. On ABC this morning, Trump said Cruz is a nasty guy that nobody likes. Thats stepping over the line even for me. You wont find a nicer or more Godly man than Ted Cruz. By all accounts, he is a kind and genuinely good man. Hes not liked because he wont compromise his principles and he believes in the Constitution. Going on ABC that way is hitting below the belt and is not the mark of a leader with character. From Donald Trump: Look, the truth is, hes a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, Come on Ted. Lets go, okay. But hes a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. Hes a very hes got an edge thats not good. You cant make deals with people like that and its not a good thing. Its not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy. He added: Hes a total hypocrite. Im trying very hard here not to get really ticked off. Funny how Trump thought Ted was a friend and a great guy until he rose in the polls and looked like he would take Iowa. Even after his New York comment, he won the New York Straw Poll. Heres how CNN reported Cruzs response to Trumps venomous attacks: Cruz declined to comment on the Times report when asked by a CNN reporter during an appearance in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday. But speaking to reporters at a church not far from Charlotte on Saturday, Cruz, who once declined to attack Trump, shed any caution he may have had about laying into his top rival. I would note that Donalds record does not match what he says as a candidate, Cruz said, gamely tackling questions he routinely swatted away for seven months. Cruz also aggressively ridiculed Trumps obsession with the latest opinion surveys, saying that Trumps attacks on Twitter come because he is dismayed about a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showing a competitive race. I imagine it pulled him out of bed this morning and send him tweeting and tweeting and tweeting, he said. I think in terms of a commander in chief, we ought to have someone who isnt springing out of bed to tweet in a frantic response to the latest poll. Cruz referred repeatedly to an interview Trump did with NBC News Tim Russert 17 years ago, in which he defines his New York values as distinct from Iowa values. Cruz said those values pro-abortion rights, including supporting partial birth abortion and pro-gay marriage explained Trumps world view. And he dredged up the former Democrats donation history to some of the states leading politicians, including Hillary Clinton. Given the fact that for much of his life, Donald was financially supporting those politicians writing checks to Hillary Clinton, writing checks to Andrew Cuomo it is a fair inference that he supports their policies, Cruz said. The Texas senator, then asked for some differences on national security between him and Trump, offered that was unaware of what Trumps foreign policy is. To be honest, I dont know what Donalds position is, Cruz said. Everyone needs to take a breath here. This is exactly what the leftists and the RINOs want. For anti-establishment Republicans to be at each others throats. Trump is floating Scott Brown as a VP now. Seriously? Brown is a Progressive and a stone cold stupid pick for VP. We are getting close to the Iowa caucus and I still expect Ted Cruz to win it. Trump needs to consider his attacks, words and choices out there very carefully now. Run on the issues, not each other and lay off the Twitter attacks. Ill leave you with what Mark Levin had to say he nailed it: "This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and afflicted man who trembles at my word." ~Isaiah 66:2b http://donpolson.blogspot.com/ Bringing you the very best information, analysis and opinion from around the web. NOTE: For videos that don't start--go to article link to view. Bones Name: Yaakov Kirschen Location: Israel I started Dry Bones in Jan 1973. Since then I've been known as "Bones" to friends and colleagues. This is the first time I've ever shared the "stories behind the cartoons." Enjoy. more This is a personal political blog looking mostly at local and state news and issues, but also national and global events. Note: I am still on the fence about her, I need to hear more of her views on Israel, she once made anti-Israel remarks but she has since ... Dyckia sp, what does this mean? ...and what else? Dyckia sp is the very same as Dyckia species, in fact short for Dyckia species. It refers to an unnamed Dyckia species. A Dyckia sp can not be a hybrid Dyckia and never a Dyckia you do not know the name but a nameless Dyckia species. The fact that you do not know the plant it does not mean a nameless one. A new Dyckia species must be published in order to have its name valid. This obligation doesnt counted on Iternet publications as The World Wide Web didnt exist and publication meant : journals, books, magazine, scientific report magazines. Nowadays nothing is better published than in the WWW. Publishing means getting public and there is nothing equal nor close to the WWW. Public means everybody not just a bunch of selected guys. These are mates, collegues, fellows not public. Here people publish new Plant species on very restricted magazine or very specialized magazines and assume as published. Publishing means everybody who is willing to know of it. Also the world doesnspeaks Portuguese, nor spanish and less than this doesnt understand old Latim ( Not even those who publishes a new species. They rely on claves and many mistakes are made.) Today publishing means WWW!!! Today it means English!! If a new species is published here in Brazil it must be in Latim as in any other place on the Earth, Portuguese and for Gods sake also in English and entirely not a sinopsis only. Publications with a very restrictec and exclusive public is out of question. Publications with on purposal omitted data is also out of question and not valid. A bunch of readers is not public. A group of readers are collegues never public!!!Public is WWW and your reader may be in Reykjavick or Auckland, Rio or Tokyo and everywhere in between. Portuguese is a lovely sounding language. It makes feel home...but who is going to undertand me in ...in...everywhere else besides people which countries speak Camoes language? English, English for Godssake. Also there is no sense publising without precise data. Preservation means showing, educating not hidding an less yet iluding. What Light is for if it doesnt Brighten up high above everything? Light is to iluminate or it is not Light and if it isnt Light it isnt Science! On the third Monday of each January, Americans honor the memory of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King, a Baptist minister from the southern state of Alabama, was a leader in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, advocating social change through non-violent means. On January 15th, he would have celebrated his 86th birthday. Believing that "change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle," Dr. King organized and participated in mass-action boycotts, sit-ins, peaceful marches and other non-violent acts of civil disobedience. Dr. King once stated that "an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law." And so, activists sometimes deliberately, but peacefully and respectfully, broke laws aimed at segregating the white citizenry from the non-white, thus hoping to bring attention to the inherent unfairness of such legislation. Thus, when a black seamstress named Rosa Parks broke the law in Montgomery, Alabama, by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, and subsequently was jailed for her transgression, her plight generated national attention and increasing sympathy for her cause across the country. Dr. King was 39 years old when he died by an assassin's bullet on April 4th, 1968. But his legacy lives on. In the fullness of time, segregationist laws were repealed, discrimination is a legally punishable and punished offence. And even as we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and enormous contribution to society, Barack Obama, the first ever African-American U.S. President, begins his seventh year in office. "I never thought in my lifetime that I would see one of us aspiring to be the head of our nation," said Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest sister, Dr. Christine King Farris. "Mr. Obama leading us toward the presidency is like the Promised Land for us." Dr. King's life is well summed up in his own words: "The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." This page has found a new home Four Great Books and Three Good Ones I Read This Past Year I recently posted a blog about my various travels in 2015. If I had been able to plan last year ahead of time I doubt it would have been as interesting everything just rolled, like a ball going downhill....sometimes slowly, sometimes faster. After making a list of some of the books I read over the last year, I realized I'd also been traveling in books, too! Quite an education I obtained, on several levels of culture and faith, too! I love autobiography and biography because they encourage me to live well, endure suffering, and to esteem others more highly than myself. I tend to see myself as a survivor my life has been really painful at times - and I enjoy reading about other people who survived hardships, too. And truth is often stranger than fiction! Each of these books, with the exception of Kim (a novel based on real facts of India), contain real life experiences. They describe people who lived with great perseverance under life adversity, persecution and trials of many kinds. They took stands to do and say what they saw was right - and they suffered for it. I'm not sure many people get through life without suffering, but when you overcome by responding rightly, then you have a story to tell. I highly recommend the books I marked GREAT (my designation of "great" is more for a writing style than subject matter): I Married An Arab by Mary Bushakra - GREAT Through this book, printed in 1951, I traveled to Lebanon, to learn a lot about small details inside one Middle Eastern family. Their life and cuisine were fascinating. The book also speaks of the Druse people, during the late 1930's on through the WWII era. I didn't realize before that the British were fighting the French, in Lebanon, during the WWII time period. A very well-written and well-told life story! Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef - GREAT Thanks to my aunt Helen, I first watched the excellent documentary The Green Prince , which is based on this book. Son of Hamas arrived from the local library before I left Maine in May, but I didn't have time to read it. I left Maine thinking I'd probably never see this book again. But strangely, a couple weeks later in Maryland, the family I stayed with had a copy! So I stayed up late reading and finished it. This account really clarifies a lot of confusion over different political groups named in the news in the Middle East. Mosab gives the reader fifteen years of his amazing life story. He made many sacrifices to save lives and shares very interesting insights into the Palestinian and Isreali conflict. He tells how he became a believer in Jesus Christ and how, for peace to exist in the Middle East, we must practice loving our enemies. The Last Jews of Berlin by Leonard Gross - GOOD Excellent picture of what went on back in the 1940's in Berlin, Germany, even if the top review on Amazon has some merit on the organization of the people's stories. And I learned how to properly spell Wannsee - a place with much meaning to me and my partially-German family, who emigrated to America before WWI. Wild Swans, Three Daughters of China - by Jung Chang - GREAT This weighty book took me months to read, for I have been traveling around and the book was too heavy to take with me. I was amazed by the minute detail and the incredibly vast vocabulary, for someone speaking a second language! It contains so much suffering, so many reasons to stand for justice and righteousness in our time here in America! I appreciated learning, through Jung Chang's brilliant account, of Mao Tse Tung's reign of terror. Very good lessons in this book. It takes you all over China! Jung Chang has several You Tube videos which reveal her as a very special, articulate and intelligent, bright-eyed little lady! God Knows My Size - by Harvey Yoder - GOOD A book whose title reminds me of George M u ller's fine biography. This biography is of a Romanian woman, Silvia Tarniceriu, who was persucuted for her faith in Christ during the time of the Communist rule. I always like being reminded of how our Father provides for other's specific needs through prayer. A little choppy in the writing style, but a good message. Kim by Rudyard Kipling - GREAT For a book printed in 1901, I was shocked to learn I was reading an early spy novel! I had no idea when I began reading what I was getting into but I loved traveling via these pages through India, over a century ago. I'd heard Kim mentioned for years, but had no knowledge about what mysteries it contained. I LOVED the way the book pages came alive with feeling, sounds and smells. I can really relate to not wanting to gain too many attachments to be free to travel the open road in life...even though Kim was a teenager all the way through the book =]. I guess I was tied down with responsibilities for many, many years...and the freedom to just BE these last few years has been very special to me. A really neat book! It speaks about a Tibetan Lama's search for a River of Life, begging for food everywhere he went, and not interested in "The Wheel of Things" in the midst of Hindu, Jain and Muslim beliefs. I can see why Rudyard Kipling won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907!! And, according to his bio, Kipling lived in beautiful Vermont for four years and I read he got a lot of work done while here, writing The Jungle Book, among other things. Under a Red Sky by Haya Leah Molnar - GOOD This is another Jewish Survivor Story from Romania, behind the Iron Curtain in the late 1950's to early 1960's. If you question if Jews were really hated and killed, and did not just die from typhoid, read this book. It's gruesome in parts but most Jewish Survivor stories are. A good message of how one family stuck it out together, during hard times. Still painting and reading in secluded, wintery Vermont! Your friend in good thought, Elise You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~ C.S. Lewis "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ~ Philippians 4:8 The Spanish town that is sinking into the earth Illegal work to create network of caves in Navalcarnero will cost millions to repair The latest hole to appear in Navalcarnero. The small town of Navalcarnero, around 30 kilometers southwest of Madrid, is in danger of disappearing into the earth, according to its mayor. Jose Luis Adell, of the Socialist Party, blames his predecessor for building a two-kilometer-long series of multi-layered subterranean galleries that runs directly under the center of the community. The caves, supposedly part of a network of underground storage areas used by local farmers more than three centuries ago, were in fact constructed between 2004 and 2011 by the previous administration without any prior geological surveys or licenses. The new mayor says the total cost of the cave project eventually amounted to more than 200 million Navalcarnero is sinking, said Adell last week after the ground collapsed in a central square, creating a one meter-wide and three-meter-deep hole next to a large bronze statue and damaging nearby buildings. The situation is very serious: one day we could see a tragedy here. What has happened here could happen above any of the areas where the caves have been built, says Adell. The cave where the collapse took place is around 40 square meters, and belonged to a home whose owners died in testate, meaning the property was ceded to the local council. In 2006 it eventually abandoned plans to link it to the other underground storage areas after a number of other holes opened up. Adell says the total cost of the project eventually amounted to more than 200 million. Pipes exposed by the caving in of the tunnel. Over the years, the ground has subsided, because the council just filled in holes with sand, the weight of which brought down the roof of the cave underneath, says Juan Benito, president of the local residents association. The courts ordered work on the cave complex to cease in 2011. The former mayor, Baltasar Santos of the Popular Party, faces charges of misuse of public money, abusing his authority, and financial irregularities. Santos wanted to create a network of caves that would serve as a tourist attraction. For centuries, people in the area have built cellars under their homes and farm buildings to store wine and olive oil, but officials say that most of the so-called caves under Navalcarnero were excavated by the council. Its going to cost millions to put things right, says Adell, pointing out that the affected area is criss-crossed with gas and water pipes, along with electric cabling. One day there will be a spark and who knows what that could do, he warns. Madrid regional government and City Hall officials are pessimistic about the future of the Edificio Espana after sources told EL PAIS last week that the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group has backed down from its plans to refurbish Madrids iconic skyscraper because of technical difficulties. Dalian Wanda is yet to notify either the Madrid regional government or City Hall about its decision. EL PAIS also learned last week from sources from the groups representative offices in Spain that Dalian Wanda may end up selling the building, which it bought in 2014 and planned to turn into a shopping center and luxury hotel. The decision was presumably made after studies showed the technical difficulties involved in tearing down the 25-story building. The Chinese firm has not given any reasons, or even explained its decision to close its office in Madrid, as Okdiario first reported. The point of contention between Madrid government officials and Dalian Wanda has been the conservation of certain parts of Edificio Espana. The Local Historical Heritage Committee had ordered the firm not to touch the facade and side wings because of their historic value to the city. For safety reasons, Dalian Wanda had offered to tear down and rebuild the facade brick-by-brick. The two sides had been in loggerheads since the project was first announced. Last October during a lecture at the Harvard Business School, Wang Jianglin, the chairman of Dalian Wanda, said that it was not the Spanish government that vetoed the proposal, it was a personal campaign against us by Madrid. This is a perfect example of freedom in the West anyone can express their view and use signatures on a website to protest our rebuilding efforts, Wang said in response to a question about the Madrid project. This is a perfect example of freedom in the West anyone can express their view and use signatures on a website to protest our rebuilding efforts You are bound to encounter problems, whether it be through investment or through the development process, he explained. What do you do when you encounter a problem? You be patient. Slowly, they state their reasons. You can give me suggestions, and I can hire a PR team or lawyers to rebut you, right? This matter is still ongoing, and we wait patiently for an outcome. This is not the first time that Madrid officials have had problems attracting private investors. In 2013, American business magnate Sheldon Adelson abandoned his plans to build the casino complex EuroVegas in Alcorcon after he was unable to get the Spanish government to relax certain laws, which included allowing customers to smoke while they were betting. In April 2014, British architect Norman Foster also canceled his plans to establish a foundation in one of Madrids historic buildings after the Local Historic Heritage Committee imposed conditions. Dalian Wanda is yet to notify the Madrid regional government or City Hall about its decision Recently, Madrids leftist mayor, Manuela Carmena, has come under fire from both the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos for the cancellation of the Wanda project. This is despite the fact that the Local Historical Heritage Committee falls under the Madrid regional governments jurisdiction, which is controlled by the PP with the support of Ciudadanos. Since last week, both the regional government and City Hall have been unable to contact anyone who can give them precise details about the future of the project. On Friday, Mayor Carmena said that no one has notified her whether the plans have been cancelled. What has happened if something has happened I dont know... she said. No one has notified us, so City Hall is going forward and, if everything goes well, they should start on their remodeling work in two-and-a-half months. A City Hall source said that if Wanda arrives here next week, it will surely be to meet with government officials. The point of contention between Madrid and Dalian Wanda has been the conservation of certain parts of Edificio Espana This is a serious matter, said Esperanza Aguirre, the PP municipal spokeswoman. She claimed that City Hall didnt want to issue permits to allow Dalian Wanda to do what it wanted to do with the entire structure. They are saying that there is an opinion issued by the Heritage Committees board of directors. Thats not true, Aguirre said. In fact, the panel issued not just one but two opinions about the project. In March 2014, the committee, which is presided by the director general of Cultural Heritage Paloma Sobrini, decided to allow the partial demolition of the building. The 1950s-era structure, which has been lying vacant since 2007, was described as being very dilapidated due to inactivity. But the committee still insisted that the Chinese investors preserved the facade and side wings because of their architectural value. A study had been conducted by Spanish bank Santander, which at the time owned the building. In July 2014, Edificio Espana was sold to the Dalian Wanda group for 265 million Four months later, in July 2014, Edificio Espana was sold to the Dalian Wanda group for 265 million. The Chinese firm filed its own study in July 2015 when it sought permits to tear down the entire building, including the facade, and rebuild a new structure. According to Dalian Wanda, it wasnt safe to work around the preserved facade. In any case, it offered to dismantle it brick-by-brick and rebuild it. Jose Manuel Calvo, urban development councilor and a member of Carmenas Ahora Madrid party, was against the offer. But he passed along the petition to the Heritage Committee, which in October again ruled that Dalian Wandas plan wasnt viable. In its second opinion, the committee stated that the Chinese firm must guarantee precise security in the remodeling project, especially when it comes to preserving the facade. This is not the first time that Madrid officials have encountered problems attracting private investors The committees first opinion was issued when Ignacio Gonzalez a member of the PP who had been Aguirres right-hand man was regional premier. The second ruling was issued under the current regional government of premier Cristina Cifuentes, who is also a member of the PP. Cifuentes is currently in office thanks to the support of Ciudadanos. Begona Villacis, Cuidadanos leader in Madrid, has publicly blamed Mayor Carmena for Dalian Wandas reported backing out of the project and told her to stop putting obstacles and scaring off investment possibilities. English version by Martin Delfin. Mexican ex-governor Humberto Moreira in 2011. REUTERS The former president of Mexicos powerful Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) is being held in Madrids Soto del Real prison after he was detained on Friday on a money-laundering arrest warrant issued by the United States. Humberto Moreira, a former governor of Coahuila state, was stopped by authorities at the Spanish capitals Adolfo Suarez-Barajas International Airport as he tried to make a connecting flight to Barcelona. The 49-year-old former politician was taken before the High Court where Judge Jose de la Mata considered him a flight risk and denied his lawyers petition for bail. In his writ, which EL PAIS has obtained, the judge said Moreira had the resources, economic means, ties with other countries, and international connections that could help him flee Spanish justice if he were to be released. Moreira could now face years in a Spanish jail for alleged money-laundering and other offenses The judge also said there was a risk that he could destroy evidence and tamper with the investigation and witnesses. He was ordered to appear in the shortest time possible before High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz, who will oversee the investigation. Moreira, who stepped down as PRI president just five years ago, could now face years in a Spanish prison for alleged money-laundering, heading up a criminal organization, embezzlement of public money, and bribery. The warrant was issued by a US District Court in San Antonio, Texas where Moreira has for years been under investigation for stealing public funds and money laundering while he was governor of Coahuila state, which borders Texas, from 2005 to 2011. In 2011, Moreira became PRI president but had to resign nine months later after the amount of public debt he accumulated as governor was revealed. He left politics after his son was killed by drug hit men in 2012 and moved to Barcelona to study a masters degree He left politics and Mexico after his son was killed by drug hit men in 2012 and moved to Barcelona the following year to study a masters degree. According to the High Court, Moreira received around $218,000 during his year-long stay in Barcelona. The former governor explained that the money had come from his own companies and was to pay for his familys living expenses while he continued his studies. But the judge ruled that Moreiras explanations did not justify the large amounts of cash he received. The judge also mentioned that the former Mexican governor had made a series of phone calls to other people concerning the money transfers. Wiretapped calls, bank account statements and transfers, and details of people and businesses that are connected to the alleged criminal organization are now part of the Spanish High Court investigation. English version by Martin Delfin. Luisa Fernando Urrea, in an image recorded on video by Caracol Television. More information La policia colombiana que amamanto a una bebe abandonada In the seven years that Luisa Fernanda Urrea, 28, has worked for the Colombian Police, she has never had to put on a uniform that wasnt hers. Until January 11, that is, when her sister, who is also on the force, called her for help. A newborn infant had been found abandoned in Tulua, a town in the western part of Colombia. The baby girl still had her umbilical cord attached and was showing symptoms of hypothermia. Urrea, a patrol officer who had given birth herself just 11 months ago, took some time from her vacation leave, put on her sisters uniform (regulations required her to do so before getting involved in the case), and went to the place where the baby was being looked after so she could nurse her. The breast-feeding moment was captured by the Caracol television network and soon became a viral sensation on social media. The story was picked up by Buzzfeed, Mashable, The Independent, Spains Noticias Cuatro and other news media. In its tweet, Caracol reported: An example of life: police officer breastfeeds abandoned baby found in found in a meadow in Tulua, Valley. The baby, which was born an hour ago, was found wrapped in burlap and discovered by a 59-year-old woman. I never thought that such a simple act would have had such a global impact and much less become one of the most commented stories on social media, says Urrea, who has become a symbol for those who defend breastfeeding. I tried to make her feel that she wasnt alone, and wanted to give her a little bit of love and affection Urrea, who is still feeding her own child, says it was a miracle that she was on vacation in Tulua and not in Pereira, where she lives. We were here with my baby for a few days of rest, and I didnt have my regular uniform, she explains. But things happen and I believe maternal instinct, which I still have intact, meant I didnt have to think twice about what I was going to do. The following day, the baby was taken to the Tomas Uribe Hospital in Tulua. about verne In past times, explorers, adventurers and writers scoured the Earth seeking out the wonders of the world. Today, we have the internet. VERNE: a thousand marvels a minute. Click here for more verne stories in English, and here for the Spanish page. Urrea explains that she tried to breastfeed her a second time but could not get access to the child. I tried to make her feel that she wasnt alone, and wanted to give her a little bit of love and affection, she says. The baby had been in contact with a well and had contracted an infection. As such only health professionals could come into contact with her. When she got home she says saw her own baby in a different light. You would never think that something so common as breastfeeding could save a life, but I proved that it could. she explains. The infant will receive treatment while authorities try to find her mother. If no family member can be found, she will be taken to Colombias Institute for Family Welfare, where she will be put up for adoption. English version by Martin Delfin. Oxfam Intermon has once again put figures on one of the most pressing economic and social problems of the 21st century: inequality. Last year the 20 richest people in Spain together amassed a total fortune of 115.1 billion the same amount as the countrys poorest 30% combined, according to the NGOs study An Economy For the 1% . The report also took a look at the global picture and found that the 62 richest people in the world have the same total wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion, a proportion that Oxfam describes as intolerable. Two homeless men on the street in Madrid. Susana Vera (Reuters) The size of Spains biggest fortunes has increased by 15% in the past year, while the wealth of the remaining 99% has fallen 15% in the same period, the survey found. According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, Spain is among the European countries that have seen the biggest rises in inequality since the start of the economic crisis almost 10 times the EU average. It sits only behind Portugal, Italy and Greece in terms of inequality among European nations, according to Oxfam. Spain sits only behind Portugal, Italy and Greece in terms of inequality in European countries, Oxfam says The poorest households have continued to lose purchasing power as a result of ever more regressive salaries and fiscal models, it found: Over the last 15 years, the 30% of the population who live in a situation of risk and exclusion have seen their net assets rise barely 3% while those of the richest 10% have shot up 56%. Spain continues to have one of the lowest effective tax burdens in Europe 8.2 points below the euro-zone average with 85% of the effort falling upon families, according to the study. Nine out of every 10 euros collected comes out of the pockets of workers, while less than one euro comes from capital gains. The fiscal gap in Spain explains in large part why we collect much less that we ought to, why we collect little from those who have more, why we collect and barely redistribute, and why we have one of the highest levels of tax evasion and avoidance among our European neighbors, Oxfam notes. The flight of resources into tax havens plays a key role in the growth of inequality, says the Oxfam report, adding that multinationals and the economic elite play by a different set of rules from the rest, exploiting every possible niche to avoid paying what is fair. The fact that 188 of the 201 biggest companies have a presence in at least one tax haven is a clear indicator that it is now time to act, adds Jaime Atienza, chief of Oxfams campaign and citizenship department According to the charity, 82% of Spaniards believe regulatory bodies need to be strengthened, while 70% think that fiscal engineering carried out by large transnational firms deprives access to education and healthcare in developing countries. English version by Nick Funnell. Freed Spanish firefighters Enrique Gonzalez, Julio Latorre and Manuel Blanco. EFE Three Spanish firefighters who were arrested by Greek authorities last week while they were searching for a group of refugees off the coast of Lesbos were due to return home to Seville on Monday. After spending three days in a Greek jail, they were released on bail on Saturday night after being charged with human trafficking. Their nightmare began at around 3am Thursday when Julio Latorre one of the three firefighters received an alert as he was helping a group of refugees who arrived on a vessel near the beach on the island of Lesbos. They took our fingerprints and our mugshots, but at no point did they tell us that we were under arrest A fellow volunteer aid worker said that another boat carrying a group of migrants was sinking in the middle of the Aegean Sea. We then headed to the area by boat but couldnt find [the vessel]. We searched for the boat for some time with two spotlights without any luck, explains the 32-year-old Latorre, who added that they had navigated pretty far away from the shore. Besides the three Spaniards, two Danish volunteers were also with them. At one point, another of the three, Manuel Blanco, warned that they were approaching Turkish waters. Thats when we decided to return, but within five minutes the port authority police appeared, Latorre says. After spending three nights in jail, Julio and his two other companions from the NGO Proem-aid were released on 15,000 bail after they were charged with human trafficking. Until the investigation is concluded, the three wont know whether the charges will be dropped or if they will have to eventually face trial. If convicted, they each face up to four years in prison. It is unbelievable that such jail cells still exist in 21st-century Europe In a telephone conversation with EL PAIS, Latorre described the ordeal he and his friends have gone though over the past few days. From the beginning, Latorre says, the officers insisted in escorting them but told them they were not in any trouble. They took our information, fingerprints and took our mugshots. But at no point did they tell us that we were under arrest. But at around 11am, the demeanor of the police officers changed. They became aggressive. They threw us all in a jail cell, which measured about three square meters and was very dirty. It had one toilet very inhumane, says Latorre. It is unbelievable that such jail cells still exist in 21st-century Europe. Latorre, Blanco and Jose Enrique Rodriguez the third Spaniard who was arrested were held inside the cell for hours along with the two Danish nationals. Then they told us that they were going to take us before a judge on charges of illegal trafficking of humans. They handcuffed us and took us away as if we were terrorists, he recalls. We had to spend three nights in jail. Psychologically it has been very tough; it was an emotional rollercoaster ride Their lawyer had asked for a 48-hour delay so that he could review all the evidence. As such the five did not go before a judge until Saturday. We had to spend three nights in jail. Psychologically it has been very tough; it was an emotional rollercoaster ride. The three men were not aware of efforts being undertaken by the Spanish government and Proem-aid to secure their immediate release. After hearing their arguments, the judge granted them bail at 9pm Saturday. Nevertheless, the Greek authorities are continuing their investigation. The 15,000 was a guarantee so that they would appear again in case it is necessary, according to a Proem-aid spokesperson. While Latorre, Blanco and Rodriguez return to Seville, three other aid workers from the organization will take their place in Lesbos. English version by Martin Delfin. Helping to create a greener, more sustainable and resilient El Paso Southwest. SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully Google Ad The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression Khachatur Sukiasyan suggests that politicians apologize and leave politics if they ever err Former Armenian lawmaker Khachatur Sukiasyan has not decided yet whether he will return to politics or continue his business activities. We shall study the sphere and understand our future actions. If there is a desire for legitimacy, I mean if you want to see everything in order, in accordance with the law, it encourages you to go to politics. On the other hand, we should consider the players in the political domain. After all, people want to see a change of generation, they want to see new people, hear new ideas, new proposals and new demands, Mr Sukiasyan told media representatives on Monday. He says the field is outdated; it has not been changed for 25 years. They jump from this sidewalk to the other and the vice versa. I think it is time to establish new standards and pose new demands. The owner of the SIL Concern says we should be guided by Western standards, i.e. allow a politician or party leader ascend to the speaker's rostrum, apologize for his global error and leave the political arena. No matter what one does in Armenia, they say he has not erred. It means that our society is passive, but people must pose that requirement, he said. Khachatur Sukiasyan says he is also disappointed. Of course I am disappointed when I see illegal things happening. You all know what I am talking about, he said. SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Google Ad Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully Google Ad The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression Fifty people left Georgia for Syria to cooperate with IS (video) The devaluation of the Russian ruble affects the lives of Armenians in Javakhk, Johnny Melikyan, an expert in Georgian studies, said today. Speaking about the regional changes and their impact on the lives of Georgian Armenians, Mr Melikyan said, Social conditions in Georgia are gradually deteriorating as the Georgian Lari continues devaluing. If we speak about Javakhk separately, I must say that many families there receive finances from Russia, he said. The specialist says the Georgian special services have fixed at least fifty people who went to Syria and cooperate with the IS. Georgia even initiated legislative changes which consider cooperation with the IS a crime, Mr Melikyan said. Speaking about the ban on a group of Armenian figures who were recently denied entry to Georgia, he said there are still problems remaining unaddressed by the previous authorities. There are people who once made anti-Georgian statements and were declared persona non grata by Georgia. I think, such issues should be resolved through diplomatic contacts. Certain forces make use of the anti-Georgian statements made in Yerevan. In the past, they were used against the Armenian community in Georgia, Mr Melikyan said. Permyakov Trial: Judge rejects petition challenging him and prosecutor (video) Judge Harutyunyn Movsisyan, who is presiding over the trial of Valery Permyakov, a former Russian soldier charged with killing a seven-member Armenian family in Gyumri city, has rejected lawyers petition to challenge him and the prosecutor. While doing this, the judge said a judge recuses himself if he/she may hinder the Court to reach a fair and just adjudication, but he does not see such grounds in the case. The lawyers did not file more petitions. The next hearing is scheduled for January 22. 16:30 When Judge Harutyun Movsesyan returned from the consultation room after a 30-minute recess, Artur Sakunts, who presents the interests of legal successors of the Avetisyan family, said the judge is biased against the relatives of the victims. He said the judge showed his attitude with his actions when he goes to a consulting room after each petition to make a decision. In her turn, lawyer Lusine Sahakyan said the judge could not simply be impartial as the trial was being held at the Russian military base in rough violation with the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia. It speaks to the biased attitude of the judge. Valery Permyakov, in his turn, did not mind the lawyers petition to challenge the judge. The judge again retired to the consulting room to make a decision. 15.19 Upon returning from the consultation room, Judge Harutyun Movsesyan announced that the petition submitted by the relatives of the Avetisyan family was not grounded. Artur Sakunts asked for time to prepare for the trial. judge announced a break of 30 minutes. 15.08 The relatives of the Avetsiyan family massacred last year in Gyumri by Valery Permyakov, a 20-year-old Russian soldier, today a petition for the proceedings to be transferred to the Shirak court of general jurisdiction. The previous court sitting showed that proper conditions are not provided for lawyers. Permyakov cannot consult with his lawyers in a proper way either. During the previous sitting, we could not hear his replies properly which is a flagrant violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Holding the trial at a Russian base, the Court shows that it is not conducive to an unbiased and effective investigation, said Artur Sakunts. the relatives of the victims also complained about some inconveniences in the small courtroom of the military base, including shortage of chairs, absence of proper desks, poor acoustics and asked for better conditions to be provided for them at the next hearing. The Court also heard Permyakovs opinion about the petition. For me, it makes no difference, he said. The Court retired to consider the petition. Varuzhan Avetisyan: Even a fly cannot move from point A to point B without Khan's consent (video) The regime wants to break the type of Gevorg Safaryan by hurting him and creating hellish conditions for him, a spokesman for the New Armenia Public Salvation Front told today. Varuzhan Avetisyan then read out Safaryans words who reminded the young people that freedom can be won through constant struggle. Safaryan also urged the youth not to obey to illiterate people like Lfik (Samvel Alexanyan) and Liska (Suren Khachatryan), lawless looters like Serzhik and Sashik and their stooges policemen who pose illegal claims. We will not allow them to treat us as a flock. We are not sheep, Varuzhan Avetisyan repeated the words of Gevorg Safaryan who had asked him to convey his words to young people. Safaryans lawyer Tigran Hayrapetyan said, in turn, that an act of terrorism is being plotted against his client. He does not rule out the authorities may attempt to kill the activist through the hands of criminal elements. The lawyer reminds that Safaryan, who is charged with violence against a government representative, was kept in a spate cell after the arrest, then he was transferred to another cell and finally to the cell of hunger striking inmates. Tigran Hayrapetyan says after the visit of Armenian lawmaker Zaruhi Postanjyan three more convicts were brought to the cell of hunger strikers. Gevorg said they were clearly instructed how to behave. Those criminal elements said the activists were equal to police officers for them and they did not want to stay in the same cell with Gevorg, the lawyer said adding that Gevorg decided to end his hunger strike the following morning. Now he is in a cell which is not controlled by criminal circles. The lawyer adds that if Gevorg is again transferred to another cell, he will again start a hunger strike. The spokesman of the New Armenia opposition movement, Varuzhan Avetisyan, adds, in turn, that everything is controlled by Baghramyan 26 (where the Presidential Palace is located). Without the consent of the Khan, even a fly cannot move from point A to point B. It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the AMC declines to consider appeal of Swiss Glusco Energy on buying Rosneft chain in Ukraine The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) has declined to consider the appeal of Swiss-based Glusco Energy S.A. on the purchase of the Rosneft network of fuel filling stations in Ukraine, the AMC press service has told Interfax-Ukraine. "On January 11, 2016 the AMC received an appeal from Glusco Energy S.A. on granting permission for concentration, which was left without consideration," reads the report. The AMC has not clarified the reasons for which it made such a decision. As reported, the Rosneft network of fuel filling stations in Ukraine includes 141 objects in 12 regions, operating under the brands of Formula, TNK, Gold Cheetah (Zoloty Hepard), and Smile. Glusco Energy S.A. is part of Proton Energy Group S.A. (Switzerland), an oil and petroleum products trader. In Ukraine the company's activity is based on diesel fuel supply via seaports. According to preliminary data, in 2015 Proton Energy supplied about 500,000 tonnes of diesel fuel to Ukraine. The global trade turnover of Proton Energy is about 3.5 million tonnes per year. Gas stocks in Ukraine's UGS since start of heating season 27.8% down Ukraine since the beginning of the 2015/2016 heating season has reduced natural gas stocks in its underground gas storage facilities (UGS) by 27.8%, or 4.741 billion cubic meters. According to data from PJSC Ukrtransgaz, as of October 29, 2015 some 17.064 billion cubic meters of gas were stored in the UGS, while on January 16, 2016 gas reserves in the underground has storage facilities amounted to 12.323 billion cubic meters, which is 20.6% more than on January 16, 2015. In October 2015 gas taking was 10 million cubic meters, in November 2015 some 835 million cubic meters, in December 2015 some 2.224 billion cubic meters, and on January 1-16, 2016 the figure was 1.673 billion cubic meters. According to the company, on January 16, 2016 the gas taking regime was 73.34 million cubic meters per day, while on January 16, 2015 some 73.23 million cubic meters of gas per day. According to live data from European operators of gas transportation systems, gas imports from Slovakia on January 16 totalled 34.2 million cubic meters, from Hungary 1.4 million cubic meters, from Poland 1.3 million cubic meters. Imports from Russia were suspended from November 26. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko will make a working visit to Switzerland through January 20-22, during which also plans to take part in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. "It is expected that the head of the Ukrainian state will take part in the informal meetings of the world economic leaders on the topics 'Imperatives for 2016' and 'Fight Against Hybrid Challenges'," the president's press service reported. The program also foresees bilateral meetings of Poroshenko with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, President of International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, along with the leading representatives of international business and investment circles. A Ukrainian soldier, who was arrested on January 14, 2016 by Russian law enforcers on the Ukrainian-Russian border, has returned to Ukraine, head of the press center for the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters Oleksiy Mazepa has said. "Last night he returned to Ukraine. Now our experts are working with him to find out all the circumstances of the incident," he told Interfax-Ukraine on Saturday. As reported, on January 13, Border guards in Russia's Rostov region detained a Ukrainian military serviceman for allegedly illegal stay in Russian territory. The Rostov regional border department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said that border guards detained the serviceman in the community of Chertkovo. He had allegedly crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border [through] bypassing an official crossing point and did not have identification documents. The staff of the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine confirmed the detention of a Ukrainian serviceman and said it was looking into the details of the incident. "A Ukrainian contract serviceman was detained on a road between the Ukrainian populated area of Milove and the Russian one Chertkovo. His surname is Shliakhovy. The causes and circumstances of the incident are being looked into. At the present moment, our serviceman is [being] held by the Russian side," Mazapa told Interfax-Ukraine. U.S. will lift sanctions against Russia if Minsk accords successful, those with respect to Crimea will remain U.S. State Department's Coordinator for Sanctions Policy Daniel Fried has stated that in case of settlement of the conflict in Donbas the United States could remove common sanctions against Russia, but will retain sanctions with respect to Crimea, the Ukrainian service of Radio Svoboda has reported. "A satisfactory decision is likely to be achieved in the east of Ukraine, while Crimea will remain under Russian occupation. In this case we would remove general sanctions against Russia but remain sanctions with respect to Crimea. The United States and Europe specially introduced separate sanctions in relation to Crimea to have this opportunity," the official said. Fried also said that Russia remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the conflict in the east of Ukraine, and this could happen in 2016. "If we had not imposed sanctions, I do not know what the current situation in Ukraine would be. But I am sure that much worse. Do you remember Novorossiya, in which Russia claimed one-third of Ukraine? That idea disappeared. Russia is more oriented for a diplomatic solution. We accept this. And hope we'll achieve this in the current year," the U.S. diplomat added. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite believes that Ukraine can get the visa-free regime with the EU by the end of 2016 - the beginning of 2017. "Over the past two years, Ukraine has done a great job of preparing for the liberalization, and I want to welcome a very positive report the European Commission issued in December last year, which said: 'Ukraine is ready.' Which means, what is left is only a political procedure the approval by the EU Council. And I think that it is possible that this year, in late 2016 or early 2017, Ukraine will receive a visa-free regime with the EU," Grybauskaite said in an interview with ICTV channel on Sunday evening. She stressed that the matter of visa liberalization is "technical", whereas the ratification of the agreement on the free trade area requires the consensus of all EU member states. The Lithuanian president has recalled the Netherlands planned referendum on this matter. "But in any case we are already applying this agreement through opening the European borders for Ukraine," she said. Members of the Ilovaisk Brotherhood organization are holding a rally on Independence Square in Kyiv on Monday, to demand punishment of the culprits behind Ilovaisk and other military tragedies, which have happened during the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) in Donbas. About 100 people are standing on the staircase between Khreschatyk sidewalk and Independence Stella, on the central square of the Ukrainian capital city, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports. The protesters are criticizing high-ranking officers of the Ukrainian General Staff and the Defense Ministry for the poor planning of the Ilovaisk operation, and demand that the culprits be punished. The Ilovaisk Brotherhood was founded in November 2014, to unite people who had survived the so-called 'Ilovaisk pocket', and families of the deceased and the missing, the organizers said. The protesters are now walking towards the Ukrainian Presidential Administration's building in order to deliver their demands to the national administration. According to the official statistics of the Ukrainian Main Military Prosecutor's Office, the events near Ilovaisk in Donetsk region in August 2015, killed 366 Ukrainian army servicemen and law enforcement officers, 429 were injured, and 128 were taken prisoner. The material damage suffered by Ukraine in the Ilovaisk operation stood at UAH 298.290 million. The enemy encircled volunteer battalions and units of the Interior Ministry and the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Ilovaisk in late August 2014, which resulted to heavy casualties and capture of Ukrainian servicemen. Only 1,050 Ukrainian servicemen were involved in the hostilities in Ilovaisk, Ukrainian Main Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said, referring to a comprehensive examination. The European Union is aware of the non-compliance with the Minsk agreements by Russia, so the sanctions will remain in place, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has said. "It is important that Europe understands and agrees with the principles set out in the Minsk agreements, and they are not observed. Therefore, sanctions will remain in place," the Lithuanian president said in an interview with the ICTV channel on Sunday evening. She also referred to her country's relations with Russia. "We (the people of Lithuania) have a first hand knowledge of what this neighbor means. As for Italy or Greece, they are located too far, they have not had such a relationship with the Russian Federation, the shared history. And from their point of view, their perception of Russia's behavior is somewhat different. But we feel the danger, we can better understand what is happening," Grybauskaite added. The Lithuanian president is convinced that it is crucial to seek a dialogue and peaceful solutions to problems with neighboring countries. "It is important not to fight with neighbors, but to seek solutions peaceful means and dialogue whenever it is possible. And, of course, to attract the international community to this matter as much as possible," Grybauskaite said. The Ukrainian army did not suffer any fatalities in the anti-terrorist operation zone in Donbas over the past day, yet three servicemen were injured, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Andriy Lysenko has said. "None of the Ukrainian servicemen were killed in the hostilities over the past day, but one was injured. In addition, two Ukrainian servicemen suffered injuries in contact with explosives," he said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday. According to Lysenko, tensions have been escalating in eastern Ukraine. "During the day, the enemy has repeatedly used heavy armaments outlawed by the Minsk agreements - 82mm mortars and armored vehicles," he said, adding that the Ukrainian army had to open fire to stop enemy provocations. The hostilities were concentrated on the Donetsk sector, he said. Ukrainian army positions twice came under fire from infantry combat vehicles near the village of Luhanske. A mortar attack on Ukrainian army positions by militants was observed in Zaitseve. Tensions flared in Novhorodske on Sunday as the enemy used infantry combat vehicles and 82mm mortars, Lysenko said. According to the representative of the Presidential Administration, the enemy delivered two attacks from infantry combat vehicles on Ukrainian army positions near Starohnativka in the Mariupol area.Militants have become active east of the Talakivka-Lebedynske defense line, he said. "The enemy fired two dozen 82mm mortar mines on our positions and opened grenade launchers and machinegun fire," Lysenko said. The enemy breached the truce in Maryinka and Hranitne. A hostile drone was seen flying over the Sea of Azov, he said. Russian representatives' rhetoric has slightly softened with respect to the situation in Donbas, but remains unchanged on key positions, Ukrainian parliament member of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction Vadym Denysenko has said. Denysenko drew attention to the concept aired by Boris Gryzlov, the Russian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, that "the Donbas problem is an issue of Ukraine and Donbas" when speaking at an Interfax press conference in Kyiv about the recent interview of the Russian politician with Russian media. "All in all, Gryzlov said nothing new. Russia's rhetoric has slightly changed, becoming softer. Instead of the 'militiamen' and 'self-proclaimed republics', these entities are referred to as 'Donbas' of a kind. But on the key positions, Russians continue to stick to their old postulates, the main of which is that Russians are not ready to give Ukraine control over the border," Denysenko said. "Until Ukraine is given control over the border, until then, I suppose, there is no use talking of any negotiations like Minsk II or Minsk III," he said. Gryzlov said earlier in an interview with Russia's Kommersant that the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine are Kyiv and Donbas. Gryzlov explained that the question of holding local elections in Donbas is an important item on the agenda of the Contact Group. European Commission in first quarter of 2016 will recommend the Council of European Union to introduce a visa-free travel regime for Ukrainians, Commissioner for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said. Speaking to the journalists in Brussels before the meeting of the Council of EU, Hahn has said he expects the European Commission to file a formal proposal on Ukraine and Georgia visa-free travel in the course of the first quarter of 2016. The EU Commissioner has said Ukraine still needs to meet certain commitments undertaken by president and prime minister. As reported, on December 18, 2016 he European Commission approved a positive report on the implementation by Ukraine of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization (VLAP) with the EU. "Based on this assessment and the commitments taken, and given the outcome of the continuous monitoring and reporting carried out since the launch of EU-Ukraine Visa Liberalization Dialogue in October 2008, the Commission considers that Ukraine meets all the benchmarks set in respect of the four blocks of the second phase of the VLAP. Taking into account overall relations between the EU and Ukraine, the Commission will present, early 2016, a legislative proposal to amend Regulation (EC) No 539/2001," reads the report of the European Commission. Besides, the document describes Kyiv's progress achieved in document security, including biometrics, integrated border management, migration management and asylum, public order and security, external relations and fundamental rights. However, Kyiv leadership still committed to ensure that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau and specialized anti-corruption prosecution are fully operational in the first quarter 2016; ensure independence and integrity of the specialized anti-corruption prosecution office; ensure that the National Agency for Corruption Prevention is fully operational in the first quarter 2016 and verification of assets and potential conflicts of interests of public officials in areas and positions most vulnerable to corruption will be launched immediately after; and to adopt legislation on procedures concerning seizure of assets and special confiscation with a view to make the Asset Recovery Office fully effective. Kyiv is also obliged to ensure in the state budget for 2016 and onwards the necessary financial resources for the well-functioning anti-corruption institutional framework, including the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. According to the procedure, European Commission must submit a recommendation to European Council and European Parliament to take a decision over establishment of the visa free regime for the citizens of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has called on the international community to continue putting pressure on Russia to ensure the implementation of the Minsk agreements. "We are calling on our international partners not to fall for deceitful maneuvers by the Russian aggressor, which regularly demonstrates discrepancy between its rhetoric and real actions. Against this background, political pressure on Russia and the application of diplomatic and sanction instruments is critically important in order to return the Kremlin to the international legal framework," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Despite a new agreement on ceasefire in Donbas, which was achieved within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group on January 13, the number of acts of provocation against Ukrainian military servicemen along the frontline keeps growing, it said. "The gunmen fired upon the ATO [antiterrorist operation] forces and civilian sites 48 times on January 17, 36 times on January 16, and 40 times on January 15. Apart from small arms, they also used 82mm and 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft systems, and weapons installed on armored fighting vehicles. The attack on the OSCE SMM [Special Monitoring Mission] vehicle on January 16 was especially glaring," it said. The circumstances of these attacks show that they were carefully planned, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. "Not only do they undermine the essence, logic, and timeline of the Minsk agreements, but they also devalue all efforts that Ukraine and the international community are making to restore peace and stability and in fact preclude the implementation of the political part of the peace plan," it said. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Russia of "deliberately disregarding the Minsk agreements and bearing full responsibility for the situation in some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions." "Because of the Kremlin's purposeful policy of maintaining a hybrid war against Ukraine, we have to declare that, nearly a year after the adoption of the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the situation in eastern Ukraine remains extremely fragile and is far from the restoration of peace, security, and viability of the districts that have suffered at the hands of terrorists," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. On Wednesday, January 20, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference of the All-Ukrainian Association of Automobile Importers and Dealers (VAAID) entitled "The Introduction of Euro 5 in Ukraine: Legislation on Environmental European Standards does not Work! Who Makes a Profit on Health and Lives of the Ukrainians?" Participants: CEO of the VAAID Oleh Nazarenko; MP, member of the Committee on Taxation and Customs Policy Dmytro Svyatash; Head of the Registration, Provision of Information and Monitoring Department of the State Road Transport Research and Design Institute state-run enterprise Kostiantyn Zharov; marketing director of the AIS Group of companies Serhiy Borovyk (8/5A Reitarska Street). Accreditation by email: vaaid@voliacable.com, map: http://interfax.com.ua/press-center.html KYIV. Jan 18 ( Interfax- Ukraine) The Center for the Research of Russia and Occupied Territories studied financial flows in the parts Donetsk and Luhansk regions beyond Ukraine's control, counted financial sums, which were illegally embezzled by the leadership of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and forecasted the tendencies for the current year. " The Center for the Research of Russia and Occupied Territories has conducted a special study to make for us clear regarding the sums of money being circulated and the nature of this war," Petro Poroshenko Block MP Vadym Denysenko said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine during the presentation of the results of the study on Monday. Denysenko has said that so-called LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky, who in fact stole around $30 million last year, holds the first place. "The so-called DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko, who embezzled $22 million, is on the second place. 'DPR income and tax minister' Alexander Timofeev, according to our estimates, stole around $17 million; 'LPR former energy and coal minister' Dmitry Liamin stole around $15 million," Denysenko said. According to him, the sources of this illegal enrichment were on the one hand the means obtained from Russia, and, on the other hand, profited from misappropriation of factories and enterprises on the mentioned areas. " Now, everything that was easy to steal, has been stolen, so this year their profits [of the self-proclaimed officials] will be lower and, thus, the fight for the money will be much tougher," Denysenko added. Speaking of the development of the situation on the DPR and LPR controlled territories and also of the relations between them, Ukrainian MP noted that currently economic ties between DPR and LPR have almost ceased and soon the conflict might sparkle between the two formations. "I think that for the time being Russians won't intervene, they don't yet fully understand what they should do and how to interfere. Also this escalation will only continue, moreover, we can project specific local conflicts on certain territories," Denysenko said. At the same time, he said that Ukraine should use this internal strife of paramilitaries to weaken DPR and LPR. On his part, co-chairman of the Prava Sprava (Right Affair) Civil Initiative NGO Dmytro Snyehyriov said that any preconditions for the unification of DPR and LPR into the joint territorial formation were absent. " The main conflict revolves around the business interests of the two parties Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky. Now both leaders of self-proclaimed republics have on their orbits of financial interests the so called counterfeit production of alcoholic beverages and tobacco," the expert said. He added that the struggle for the influence zones and, in fact, for the sale of counterfeit goods, is conducted "using both economic and military leverages." "On the subject of the trade wars between LPR and DPR, I would like to emphasize that the key aspect of the origin of the funding for these self-proclaimed republics is once again sale of coal to the Ukrainian territory. The coal industry ministry of the self-proclaimed DPR has already said that it was ahead of the plans for the coal extraction by 1.5 million tonnes during 2015," Snyehyriov said. Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), speaks at a press conference in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 17, 2016. [Photo/China Daily] The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank will be a 21st-century multilateral lender with rigorous corporate culture, its first president said on Sunday. It will have a lean staff and will strive to avoid red tape, according to Jin Liqun. Jin, making his debut appearance as the banks president, said at a news conference that he envisions a bank that is clean, lean and green. It will combine the merits of existing multilateral development banks and competitive private companies, he said. Im committed to running the bank according to the highest possible standardsand according to the principles outlined in the articles of agreement transparency, openness, accountability and independence, said Jin, who spoke in English. He vowed to set a clear division of responsibility between the banks board and management, saying there will be a special unit on compliance, effectiveness and integrity, which will exercise oversight of the management and report directly to the board. To fulfill the lean commitment, staff members in the banks first year will only be increased to between 100 and 150. The initial staffing level is 50. Referring to the clean commitment, Jin said implementation of this is crucial. It is important that you dont just have something brilliant on paper, it is important to implement it. ... As president of the bank, I will ensure that the oversight mechanism is implemented without any compromise. Missing Hong Kong bookstore owner Gui Minhai has rejected conspiracies over his whereabouts and confessed to having killed a young woman in a drink-driving incident in Zhejiang province more than 11 years ago, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. Gui - a 51-year-old China-born Swedish national who co-owns Mighty Current publishing company in Causeway Bay - told Xinhua he had voluntarily gone to the Chinese mainland and surrendered himself to the police in October last year. He said he was prepared to shoulder the responsibility and willing to be penalized in whatever way he deserved, adding that he didn't want any organization to intervene or spread malicious rumors about the matter. Gui was sentenced in August 2004 to two years in prison, suspended for two years, for the fatal traffic accident. But he fled the mainland while on probation by using a fake identity out of fear, and had since absconded overseas. Mainland authorities started a manhunt for Gui online in 2006. According to Gui, his father's death in June 2015 had prompted him to give himself up as he was unable to see his father when he breathed his last. The victim in the drink-driving incident, surnamed Shen, was a college student and her parents' only child. Her father, who was more than 70 years old, had tried to commit suicide after her daughter's death. In her confession, Gui also expressed his remorse to the Shen family. Xinhua said investigations into Gui are continuing as he is also involved in other crimes. Major principles and policies concerning Taiwan are consistent and clear, and will not change after the results of the island's elections held on Saturday, according to the mainland's Taiwan affairs authority. The authority was commenting in a statement after Democratic Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen was elected Taiwan leader. The statement, issued by the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, reiterated the importance of adhering to the 1992 Consensus. It said the mainland is willing to enhance communication and exchanges with all political parties and groups that recognize the principle that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. "We will continue to adhere to the 1992 Consensus and resolutely oppose any form of secessionist activities seeking Taiwan independence'," it said. In the past eight years, both sides have jointly explored a path for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations, set up a framework for exchanges and cooperation, and maintained peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, the statement said. Tsai, who defeated Kuomintang candidate Eric Chu and People First Party chairman James Soong in a three-way race, has become the island's first female leader. Of the 113 seats in the legislature, the DPP won 68, the KMT 35 and the New Power Party five. Three seats went to the PFP, one to the Nonpartisan Solidarity Union and one to an independent candidate. Ni Yongjie, deputy director of the Shanghai Institute of Taiwan Studies, said, "Tsai and the DPP had total success but will also face many challenges," including reviving the economy. Zhu Songling, director of the Institute of Cross-Straits Relations at Beijing Union University, said the KMT's failure stemmed from internal contradictions and a failure to keep up with the times. File photo of Peking University Third Hospital (Source: Beijing Youth Daily) Physics institute, hospital in Beijing trade words after incident involving family members, staff A dispute has erupted between two of China's powerful medical and scientific organizations after the sudden death of a pregnant employee of one of the groups at a Beijing hospital. The deceased woman's family was accused by the hospital of destroying hospital property and chasing and beating some hospital staff members. The woman's husband denies the accusation. But while physical altercations over treatment disputes have repeatedly made news, a confrontation between prestigious organizations is rare, if not unprecedented. A woman surnamed Yang, 34, who worked at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was admitted to Peking University Third Hospital for hypertension on Dec 28, according to the hospital. Yang was 26 weeks pregnant when she entered the hospital and was in stable condition after treatment, the statement said. However, she complained of pain before her heart stopped on Jan 11, and she died despite emergency resuscitation efforts, the hospital said. Autopsy results showed that Yang died of an aortic rupture, which is fatal in most cases, the hospital said. A rupture can occur in the aorta, the main blood vessel leading from the heart, if a tear develops and blood flows between layers of the vessel wall. High blood pressure and pregnancy are among the risk factors for the condition, according to the US National Institutes of Health website. The CAS institute that employed Yang said in a statement on its website on Saturday that it sent an official letter to the hospital on Thursday requesting a thorough investigation into the death of Yang in response to her family's concerns. It demanded a "fair, transparent and thorough" investigation. But in a statement released on Saturday night, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association questioned the legitimacy of the institute's letter and retorted that the institute should first of all educate its employees to follow the law. Huang Yong, deputy chief of the physics institute, told ThePaper.cn on Sunday that the institute sent the letter to the hospital at the request of Yang's family because some family members had complained that the hospital was reticent to include them in the investigation of Yang's death. The letter was meant to call for the hospital to find the cause of the death as quickly as possible, not to put pressure on the hospital, he said. The hospital said after Yang's death that dozens of her family members and relatives gathered at the hospital, destroyed property and chased and beat some medical staff members, which seriously disrupted the hospital's operations. They left when police arrived, it said. Zhang Ziqiang, Yang's husband, said on Sina Weibo on Sunday that he and his family members had disputes with the hospital within two days of Yang's death for reasons that included the hospital's failure to provide them with a detailed medical record and death report. But he denied the accusation that they ever beat any of the medical staff or destroyed any property. Neither the hospital nor Zhang could be reached for comment on Sunday. Li Huijuan, a lawyer at Zhonglun W&D Law Firm in Beijing, said it is not proper for the institute to send the letter to address a private issue between a patient and a hospital. "Public institutions should check their power and refrain from acting arrogantly," he said. BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 -- The Iraqi security forces killed 35 Islamic State (IS) militants on Sunday in clashes in the provinces of Anbar and Salahudin, security sources said. In Anbar province, the security forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters fought fierce battles with IS militants and managed to extend their grip in Sajjariyah and Juwiba districts in the eastern part of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, a provincial security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The battle, which were covered by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, left at least 25 militants killed and six of their vehicles destroyed, while four security members were also killed and some nine others wounded during the day, the source said. The security forces captured downtown Ramadi from the IS on Dec.28, raising the Iraqi flag on the government complex there, but small parts of the city has not yet been fully secured due to a large numbers of bombs planted by the IS. For months the troops have been fighting to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS militants who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. In Salahudin province, the security forces and allied paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, repelled an IS attack in the early morning in the village of Salam, south of the oil refinery city of Baiji, some 200 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. At least 10 IS militants were killed, a provincial security source anonymously told Xinhua. A recent UN report estimated that more than 7,500 people have been killed and 14,800 injured in 2015 due to the armed conflict in Iraq. SYDNEY, Jan. 18 -- Sydney is celebrating its 40th anniversary of Sydney Festival from Janurary 7 to 26. Numerous creative activities have been attracting thousands of audiences. Hyde Park, located in CBD of Sydney, is one of the main showing grounds. With the theme of Meriton Festival Village, various dancing and singing events have been held. At the entrance, there are a group of people wearing headphones and waving their hands with the choreographer. Interestingly, what they are hearing is not music but the Choreographers funny talks. In addition, what attracts more children is bubble disco, where they are dancing in the sea of bubbles. Another showing ground is in Parramatta where the audiences can enjoy the exhibition of arts, concerts, theaters and so on. The 1000 Bells in Prince Alfred Square are created by people from different places, expressing the diversity of Sydneys communities. The first Sydney Festival started in 1977 and it has grown into one of Australia's largest annual cultural celebrations. A British couple have spent more than 2,300 on bringing home a disabled puppy after falling in love with the dog while on holiday in India. Indy the dog has no use of her back legs after being attacked as a small puppy, but after a nine-month process, she is now enjoying UK life on her very own set of wheels. Angela and Ian Szczypka, from Benfleet, Essex, fell in love with the dog during a visit to a rescue centre in Goa, west India, in December 2014. Heartbreaking: Indy the dog, pictured as a small puppy in Goa, had lost the use of her back legs after being attacked by another dog, and lived in a rescue centre when the Angela and Ian Szczypka found her Indy, now 18 months old, had lost the use of her back legs after a fight with another dog, and when the couple found her, she was moving by dragging her legs behind her. The couple have already spent thousands on Indy, which includes her time in an Indian daycare centre, flights, vet bills, her wheelchair and other equipment including a special pair of trainers. But there is hope that the 18-month-old dog may one day be able to walk again, after vets discovered that her back is not completely torn off, and that she can still wag her tail. Mr and Mrs Szczypka, who have their own smallholding of animals back at home, were so moved by the sight of Indy that they returned to volunteer at the centre every day until they left. Mrs Szczypka, 29, described the moment she and her husband locked eyes on the sorry pup. Happy days: Nine months after the couple met Indy and decided to adopt her, the puppy arrived in the UK and was given a specially made 'wheelchair' Chance meet: Angela and Ian Szczypka fell in love with Indy after meeting her at the rescue centre in Goa, west India, while they were in the country on holiday in December 2014 She said: 'We went to India at Christmas in 2014 for a month. We were going to go for a nice relaxing beach holiday. But we saw photos of an animal rescue centre and we wanted to go and visit. 'We've got a smallholding here in the UK with chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats. So we like our animals. 'We were quite shocked by what we saw there. It was basically this big compound. They were all fed and looked after there, but it was quite graphic. 'Indy was the saddest looking dog there. She had had a broken back, so was just dragging her back legs around. We were told she'd been attacked by a bigger dog. 'Coming from England we'd never seen a dog in a state like that before. There were trails of bloody where we was dragging her legs along the concrete, and flies were following her around. 'She was just a frightened little dog that sat in the corner. Other puppies were hanging on her back legs. It was just terrible.' The 29-year-old mother-of-one told of how she and her husband developed a relationship with the injured dog. She said: 'We went to the rescue centre every day to volunteer and walk the dogs for a few hours every morning. A Chinese diplomat says President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to Saudi Arabia is going to improve relations between the two countries. Chinese ambassador to Saudi Arabia Li Chenwen says the high-level contact between the two countries will keep the relationship moving forward. "Former President Hu Jintao visited Saudi Arabia twice; Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah also visited China twice. President Xi's first foreign visits as vice president included Saudi Arabia; King Salman also visited China in 2014 as crown prince. President Xi Jinping's state visit to Saudi Arabia will be of important significance, which I think is historical." Statistics show that the bilateral trade volume in 2015 amounted to over 69 billion U.S. dollars, 230 times of that of 1990 when diplomatic relations were established. In 2014, China imported 50 million tons of oil from Saudi Arabia, representing over 16 percent of China's overall oil imports. Saudi Arabia is also a key marketplace for Chinese engineering firms. Currently, more than 160 Chinese enterprises have invested in Saudi Arabia in areas including rail, construction, ports, power plants, and telecommunications. Li says cultural and people-to-people exchanges have been warming up. The ambassador recalled how Riyadh offered assistance to Beijing after a mega-quake rocked Sichuan province. "Especially I remember in 2008 when earthquakes rocked Wenchuan of Sichuan Province, Mr Yahya Al-Zaid, who was the Saudi Arabian ambassador to China, led more than 40 staff of the embassy to donate blood for quake victims. I am still moved by it." Li says the two sides can achieve mutual benefits under the framework of China's "Belt and Road" initiative. "Saudi Arabia is located on two roads, or the junction of the 'one belt' and 'one road.' Saudi Arabia has also become a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. I think a lot of energy in the bilateral relationship comes from the consensus that building the 'Belt and Road' together will forge, deepen, and prolong our relations, and enable the two countries to play more active and effective roles in global and regional affairs as well as regional development." Speaking of the prospects for Beijing-Riyadh ties, Li says China and Saudi Arabia can further their inter-cultural dialogues and join hands to combat the threat of terrorism, helping to promote stability and development in the greater Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the first stop of President Xi Jinping's 3 nations-tour in the Middle East region, which will kick off on Tuesday. He is also expected to visit Egypt and Iran. The sign of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Beijing, capital of China.(Photo/Xinhua) BEIJING, Jan. 17 -- While addressing the inaugural meeting of the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) Board of Governors on Jan. 16, Chinese Premier Li Keqiangelaborated on his vision for the new multilateral development bank and the Chinese economy in the new year. "It is our hope that the AIIB will fully draw on the useful experience of existing multilateral development institutions, well identify its own role and cultivate its unique features," he said. Li encouraged the AIIB to work with other multilateral development institutions including the ADB (Asian Development Bank) and member countries to synergize development strategies by supporting infrastructure development and regional cooperation. "With production capacity cooperation, we can generate effective demand by providing effective supply," he told the gathered Board of Governors of AIIB at the Diaoyutai state guesthouse. "It is important for the AIIB to follow the trend of economic globalization and regional integration and meet needs of developing members for industrialization and urbanization. Staying committed to business first, government support and solid market principles, the AIIB is in a position to provide developing members with low-cost, technology-intensive, energy-efficient and environment-friendly solutions, equipment and financing support to facilitate industrialization and urbanization. It should fully leverage its strength as a cooperation platform to explore diverse and multi-dimensional cooperation models such as tripartite or multi-party cooperation as well as cooperation on financial resources and technical know-how, for deeper integration of regional and global industrial and value chains." Li also highlighted China's identity as a developing country by calling for stronger efforts on inclusive development, uniting development efforts between developing and developed members, and among various sectors in each country the AIIB works with. Responding to the audience's interest in the Chinese economy, Premier Li said the 10-trillion-dollar Chinese economy is among the fastest growing major economies in the world despite challenges of a sluggish world economy and difficulties at home. Employment is good and income for both urban and rural households grows steadily. There are positive changes in the economic structure too. The services sector already accounts for half of the GDP, consumption contributes to nearly 60% of economic growth and there is an upsurge in new technologies, products, business forms and models. Li said the Chinese economy is highly resilient with considerable space for readjustment. China will endeavor to seize opportunities while handling the challenges. Strong efforts will be made to advance structural reform, implement the innovation-driven development strategy, promote mass entrepreneurship and innovation and develop new drivers of development while improving and upgrading traditional advantages. Li added that China has 1.3-billion people, a 900-million-strong workforce and 150 million skilled professionals. China's economic growth will depend less on natural resources and more on human resources. China has the capacity to maintain medium-high growth and achieve medium-to-high level of development. And that will bring more opportunities to the global economy. COLOMBO, Jan. 17 -- The 21st Chinese naval escort taskforce, comprising the guided-missile frigates Liuzhou, Sanya and the comprehensive supply ship Qinghaihu, arrived here on Sunday for a five-day visit. The Sri Lankan Navy held a welcoming ceremony for the visiting Chinese naval taskforce, attended by Chinese Ambassador Yi Xianliang and over a hundred Chinese officials and merchants. After the ceremony, the three Chinese naval ships were open to the public visit. The 21st Chinese naval escort taskforce departed from the Gulf of Aden on Jan. 3, after completing its four- month merchant ships escort mission in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somali coast. Colombo is the second leg of the Asia visit of the taskforce, following Karachi, Pakistan. A foreign young lady in traditional Chinese wedding gowns, accompanied by an elderly Chinese lady, walks along a street in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province on January 17, 2016. Together with two other beauties, the young lady who dressed in phoenix coronets and robes of rank is on her way to attend a traditional Chinese ceremony known as "Find Mr. Right by throwing a flower ball," which is part of an ongoing cultural festival called "Love in Nanjing". [Photo: Chinanews.com] A female Chinese student was shot dead by an American woman after her car was hit by the woman's car in Arizona last Saturday. According to the local police, the victim, named Jiang Yue, was a 19-year-old Chinese exchange student studying at Arizona State University. The suspect, identified as Holly Davis, 32, was arrested on suspicion of first degree murder and several other charges, including illegal possession of a firearm. The incident started when two vehicles, one driven by Davis and the other by Jiang, collided near Broadway Road and McClintock Drive at about 3:40 p.m. Saturday, police said. After that initial collision, Davis got out of her car and fired several rounds into the other vehicle, striking Jiang. After being hit, Jiang lost control of her car, which then struck a third vehicle carrying a family of five, including a pregnant woman and three children. Jiang was later pronounced dead after being sent to the hospital. Davis tried to flee the scene after the shooting but was caught by the police. Her motivation for shooting is still under investigation. iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- Airport workers across the country are using Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to call for higher wages. They want to unionize and see the minimum wage get bumped up to $15 an hour. Despite sub zero temperatures, several airport workers in Chicago rallied outside of United Airline's headquarters. About a dozen of them locked arms and stood in the street. They were eventually taken away and cited by police. The protest in Chicago is just one of several demonstrations of not only headquarters, but airports across the country. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: The CSR Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan organized the 5th Annual Tax Conference on the development of and compliance with the tax system, at the Conference Hall of the Hilton Hotel on 18 January. Being a founder member, EY is a gold member and sponsor of AmCham. Mr. Ilgar Veliyev, EY Country Managing Partner for Azerbaijan and AmCham President, opened the meeting by welcoming guests and members of the committee. The conference invited more than 30 leading governmental and non-governmental organizations from Azerbaijan. The Committee meeting featured presentations on administrative measures taken in relation to recent amendments to the Tax Code, as well as on future tax reforms and which tax models to apply. Zaur Gurbanov, Tax & Law Manager, gave a presentation on "Possible tax reforms during economic difficulties: International steps". This presentation was dedicated to reforms that could support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and preserve jobs in tough economic times. "Before making precise recommendations, many aspects of these reforms, as well as their applicability to Azerbaijan, should be carefully examined, given that this topic is very complicated and requires analysis and discussion. Taking this into account we have mainly focused on conceptual matters and presented various reforms carried out in a number of other countries," said Zaur. In the course of his presentation Zaur also discussed the significance of tax incentives as a major component of reforms, their objectives and types. He highlighted possible solutions by comparing international practice with Azerbaijan's practice, and, specifically, tax exemptions at the industrial parks vs tax exemptions for important categories of business activity. Further, Zaur discussed newly adopted changes to tax legislation. The Conference provided professionals with the opportunity to discuss issues of common interest and exchange their expertise. About AmCham The American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan is composed of over 250 members and associates active in every sector of the Azerbaijani economy. The Chamber represents 80% of all foreign investment, as well as a significant portion of local investment, in Azerbaijan. Through its industry sector committees Chamber members share information, raise issues of common concern and propose possible solutions. As AmCham members, companies and organizations have access to a vast network of business information and contacts, in Azerbaijan and in the US. About EY EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and economies around the world. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In doing so, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities. EY works together with companies across the CIS and assists them in realizing their business goals. 4,500 professionals work at 20 CIS offices (in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Togliatti, Vladivostok, Almaty, Astana, Bishkek, Baku, Kyiv, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Minsk, and other locations). EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. EY in Azerbaijan EY made a major commitment to the development of Azerbaijan and the region by opening the office in Baku 21 years ago. Today, in addition to being the leading audit and consulting firm in Azerbaijan, we are the leading firm in the region. As a result of our experience and competence, we have been able to assist both domestic and international companies as well as state-owned entities to develop and manage the challenges of the international economy. There are currently 170 people working in our Baku office that serve our clients in Azerbaijan. EY's strength in the Caspian Region and the firm's commitment of resources are important to the entities operating in the region. It means that as we grow, EY will continue to demonstrate a tradition of hiring and training local professionals to be leaders in our practice. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Official exchange rate of the Azerbaijani national currency - the manat - against the US dollar was set at 1.6028 manats/$1 for Jan. 19, said the Azerbaijani Central Bank Jan. 18. The average rate of manat was set following the interbank transactions on the Azerbaijani currency market, said the Central Bank. Nearly $194 million was sold to the banks via the auction Jan. 18. This amount was ensured by SOFAZ (State Oil Fund of the Azerbaijan Republic). Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Orkhan Guluzade - Trend: Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan are working to improve the joint armed forces in the framework of TAKM project, Minister of National Defense of Turkey Ismet Yilmaz said in an exclusive interview with Trend Jan. 15. The work has been launched to share the experience with Central Asia and the Caucasus, starting since 2011, as part of the Association of European and Mediterranean gendarmeries and police forces with military status (FIEP), according to him. The joint forces of four countries - TAKM (the first letters of the member-states) were established with the participation of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia in February 2013. The organization was established to strengthen the cooperation among the law enforcement organizations of military status located in Eurasia. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: This week Azerbaijan will mark the 26th anniversary of the January 20 tragedy of 1990 and Lithuanians fully understand people of Azerbaijan, since less than a year after that tragedy, similar events took place in Lithuania, said Valdas Lastauskas, Lithuanian ambassador in Baku, speaking to Trend. "Twenty-six years ago it became clear that the Soviet Empire was unable to survive any longer, since its foundation was based not on the free will and free choice of people," said the ambassador. "The tanks in the cities and towns during the peace period since the events in Budapest and Prague, and in Tbilisi in 1989, in Baku in 1990 and in Vilnius in 1991 didn't scare people," he added. "It strengthened people's will to become free and choose the future of the country themselves." "The Baku events made some impact on Lithuania and encouraged its people to seek independence courageously and consistently," Lastauskas further noted. "Last week Lithuania marked the 25th anniversary of the deadly dispersal of pro-independence demonstrators in Vilnius by Soviet troops in 1991, one of the catalysts of the breakup of the Soviet Union," he added. "Marches, gatherings, church services, and other events were held across the country on January 13." The ambassador also said that in order to remember people who sacrificed their lives and to honor those who courageously withstood coming tanks singing national songs and holding Lithuanian flags on Jan. 13, 1991, this day was named Freedom Defenders Day. The ambassador added that the flower forget-me-not, which he said is a flower for remembering, for reminding and for the freedom, was chosen as a symbol of this day. "Events of January in 1990 and 1991 even stronger bridged Lithuania and Azerbaijan," noted Lastauskas. "Those days show us that Lithuanians and Azerbaijanis are the nations of the same tragic fate," said the diplomat. "They also show that both countries can be proud of the courage of their peoples, their strength of mind, their self-sacrifice to put up peaceful resistance to the aggressor and to stand against tanks for the freedom of their motherlands, for the dignity of their nations, for independence." "That is why today we enjoy achievements of our countries and see wide perspectives for cooperation," Lastauskas added. Soviet army began military action overnight from Jan. 19 to Jan. 20, 1990 against Azerbaijan without declaring an emergency situation. An investigation found out that 132 people were killed, 612 were injured, 841 were illegally arrested and hundreds of buildings were destroyed as a result of this perpetration, according to the Prosecutor General's Office of Azerbaijan. This crime also inflicted huge material damage to the state and its citizens. --- Edited by EA Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Azerbaijan welcomes implementation of Iran's Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the message of Azerbaijan's ministry of foreign affairs said Jan.18. Iran and the P5+1 group finalized the JCPOA in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented the JCPOA on Jan.16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Azerbaijan supports determination and will of the parties that were demonstrated in achieving this progress, according to Azerbaijan's foreign ministry. Azerbaijan also congratulates the Iranian people and expresses confidence in the fact that this positive process will give impetus to further development of the mutually beneficial partnership between Azerbaijan and Iran, the message of the ministry said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Azerbaijan welcomes West's lifting sanctions on Iran, which was achieved as a result of talks, read a statement by Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administration's foreign relations department. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) finalized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal) in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 implemented the JCPOA on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. "Azerbaijan doesn't see the use of sanctions against countries in international relations for various reasons as a successful and fair step," said Novruz Mammadov. "Consequences of sanctions in all cases become a burden for the populations of countries on which they are imposed. This also prevents the interstate and intercivilizational understanding, dialogue and cooperation in modern world, and inevitably creates certain tension," he added. Mammadov also said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke against the use of sanctions on Iran at a briefing in front of the White House during his first official visit to Washington in April 2006. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev accepted the credentials of newly-appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden Ingrid Tersman Jan. 18. The ambassador reviewed the guard of honor. Tersman handed her credentials to President Aliyev. President Aliyev then had a conversation with the ambassador. Noting that Azerbaijani-Swedish ties had a good history, the president stressed the importance of expanding cooperative relations between the two countries in a variety of fields, adding there was good potential for this. President Aliyev also underlined the significance of increasing relationship between the representatives of business in terms of the development of economic ties, and exploring new opportunities in this sphere. Noting that there were certain economic challenges in the region, where Azerbaijan is situated, and certain problems in Europe, the president expressed hope that bilateral relations between the two countries would contribute to the strengthening of the regional cooperation. Saying Azerbaijan-European Union ties were developing successfully, President Aliyev stressed the importance of keeping these relations on the agenda of the bilateral bonds. President Aliyev wished the ambassador success in her diplomatic activities in the country. Tersman conveyed greetings on behalf of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden to President Aliyev. She said her country wants to enhance existing dialogue with Azerbaijan. Tersman noted that the two countries shared a common position in a number of fields, including regional development and security, migration and culture, as well as international issues. Hailing economic relations between the two countries, the ambassador expressed confidence that these ties would be developed even further. Tersman said bilateral relations between the two countries played a special role in expanding Azerbaijan-European Union cooperation even more. The ambassador noted that she would spare no efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries during her tenure in Azerbaijan. President Aliyev thanked for the greetings of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf, and asked Tersman to communicate his greetings to the King of Sweden. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree Jan. 18 on additional measures to encourage investments. The decree was signed to expand investment activities, improve business environment, increase industrial production, as well as create a mechanism and normative legal acts related to encouragement of investments, in accordance with the action plan for realization of the "2015-2020 State Program for Development of Industry in Azerbaijan." --- Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: The situation with crime in Baku's Nardaran township is fully under control, said the minister of internal affairs of Azerbaijan Ramil Usubov during the meeting with the residents of the township, the press service of the interior ministry of Azerbaijan reported Jan.18. Usubov said that employees of the ministry, prosecutor's office and state security bodies carry out operative-investigative and preventive measures to fully ensure public safety in the township. The minister said that the ongoing construction and development work in the township, as well as the work to resolve social problems of the residents will continue. It was noted that solution of problems of the township's residents is in focus of the country's President Ilham Aliyev. Residents of the township expressed their gratitude, adding that the issues with supply of gas, electricity and water have been resolved, adding that the township's children normally attend school. The situation with crime in the township escalated on Nov. 26, when five members of a criminal group, operating under the guise of religion, were killed during a police operation in the township of Nardaran, some 25 km northeast of Baku. Two police officers were also killed in the standoff. Fourteen members of the criminal group were arrested along with the group's ringleader Taleh Baghirov. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: BHOS first year students are attending 10 day security training on Human Life Protection Offshore organized by SOCAR Education Training and Certification Department. The above SOCAR Department informs students on preliminary work and instructions on security for stationary marine platform and floating drilling installations. Students also joined survival and fire combat training at fire training ground attached to the well training complex. BHOS 115 students divided into 4 groups are participating in the said training. Students get acquainted with the corresponding international conventions (STCW-78, SOLAS-74/78) of the International Marine Organization. They also attend training on security regulations observation during emergency situations organized in accordance with the resolution A.891(21) on recommendations related to the staff training at offshore petroleum installations. Information concerning offshore security, fire security, ensuring security at hydraulic facilities, measures on emergency situations preventions, the use of life jackets, life preservers, hydrothermic suits, thermal tools, lifeboats and rafts as well as the principles of offering first aid will help students to be ready for danger while working at the industries. In addition students are instructed on survival (getting on lifeboat and boat launching on water surface) at the well training complex, diving from the one meter high springboard, formation of gilder and round figures on the water surface, getting on rafts and placement on it, getting off the rafts, preparation of lifeboats and their launching on water surface, regulations on getting people on the lifeboat upon hearing alarm signal, the rules on how to get by swimming to the helicopter winch. Students also attend training on fire combat at the smoke simulator attached to the fire training ground, taking care of injured people and offering first aid as well as fire extinguishing regulations. It should be pointed out that the trainings organized in line with the agreement signed between BHOS and SOCAR Education Training and Certification Center also correspond to international standards and international conventions Azerbaijan is party to. Upon completion of trainings students will be awarded the certificates recognized in 171 countries of the globe and related to corresponding international conventions (STCW-78, SOLAS-74/78) of the International Marine Organization and the resolution A.891(21) on recommendations related to the staff training at offshore petroleum installations. Certainly these documents will play a significant role in future career of BHOS students. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Samir Ali - Trend: A cassational appeal was made against the verdict concerning Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova, Ismayilova's lawyer Fakhraddin Mehdiyev told Trend Jan. 18. The lawyer said that the cassational appeal has already been sent to the Supreme Court. The complaint consideration period will be determined in the near future. The Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced Khadija Ismayilova to 7.5 years in prison on Sept. 1. Ismayilova was charged under the articles 179.3.2 (large-scale misappropriation and embezzlement), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship), 213.1 (tax evasion) and 308.2 (abuse of official duties) under the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. The cassational appeal was made against the verdict, but the Baku Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the first instance court. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Samir Ali - Trend: The Narimanov District Court considered a lawsuit of the arrested former chairman of the International Bank of Azerbaijan Jahangir Hajiyev Jan. 18. The lawsuit concerns his detention in the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime, Hajiyev's lawyer Agil Layijev told Trend. The trial was chaired by Judge Turgay Huseynov. The state prosecutor was not involved in the process. As the judge considered his participation important, the trial was set for January 19. Hajiyev was taken from a detention facility to the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime under the interior ministry December 30 for ten days in connection with the investigative actions. Hajiyev is still there. Hajiyev is charged under various articles of the Criminal Code, including the misappropriation, the abuse of office, fraud by causing huge damage, embezzlement through the abuse of office, bribing. According to the decision of the Narimanov court, a preventive measure in the form of arrest for a period of four months was chosen. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: The Gazprom Kyrgyzstan company has paid off to KazTransGas the long-term debt amounting to $41.6 million for the previously purchased natural gas, the press service of the Kazakh company reported. This debt was formed in 2004, for the consumption of gas, which Kazakhstan transported through the Kyrgyz territory. Within the framework of the previously signed contracts, a part of the fuel was taken up by Kyrgyzstan for its needs. However, over ten years, the Kyrgyz side had been unable to repay the debt to its neighbor, even though KazTransGas repeatedly warned about its intentions to cease gas supply to the republic. The situation got off the ground only after the largest Russian concern Gazprom, which is in a close partnership with KazTransGas, entered the Kyrgyz market. Prior to this, the company (namely Chairman of the Board Kairat Sharipbayev) held a series of complex negotiations, during which it was offered a variety of options for repayment of the old debt. But its monetary equivalent was not specified in the list of proposals. "Back in 2010, the Kazakh side considered various options of debt relief, having lost all hope of receiving the money," the statement reads. "Eventually, the perseverance of KazTransGas made it possible to achieve repayment of quite impressive amounts." --- Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Jan. 18 By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend: The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project was discussed during a meeting with a delegation of Afghanistan headed by Afghan Finance Minister Eklil Ahmad Hakimi. The meeting was held at the Turkmen foreign ministry. The sides also confirmed their mutual commitment to the further intensification of a bilateral dialogue, the Turkmen government said Jan. 18. They discussed the situation in the region and the priorities of developing the Turkmen-Afghan cooperation in various fields. An important role of the interstate cooperation in trade-economic, fuel-energy and transport sectors was stressed during the meeting. Turkmenistan started constructing the TAPI gas pipeline December 13, 2015 with a project capacity up to 33 bcm of gas per year. The basic document for the TAPI is Ashgabat's interstate agreement of the member-states signed in 2010. Tehran, Iran, January 18 By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend: Iran has confirmed that the total release of its blocked assets in the US has amounted to $1.7 billion, starting back from 1979. Hossein Jaber Ansari, the spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry, said that the US has freed $400 million worth of Iran's frozen assets. Speaking at the press conference, Ansari said that adding the delay compensation to the mentioned sum makes up a total of $1.7 billion, Trend's correspondent in Tehran reported from the event. Previously, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US would pay Iran $400 million and also $1.3 billion in interest, dating back to the Islamic Revolution. The release of funds to Iran comes following the removal of sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Jan.16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Hossein Jaber Ansari also said that by accepting the nuclear deal, the US recognized that the pressure policy doesn't work and is doomed to fail. "The repayment, which settles a suit brought under an international legal tribunal, is separate from the tens of billions of US dollars in frozen foreign accounts that Iran can now access after the end of nuclear sanctions," he said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: Bank of Azerbaijan's license has been cancelled upon a decision of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA). A temporary administrator has been appointed in the bank Jan. 18. The decision was taken because Bank of Azerbaijan violated the minimum requirement for total capital and its total capital adequacy ratio was less than three percent (the CBA's requirement is 10 percent), CBA said in a message. "The bank is unable to fulfil its obligations to creditors," CBA said. "Its current activity doesn't correspond to prudential rules. The management of the bank is unreliable." CBA also said the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund will pay compensations to the bank's depositors in accordance with laws. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Aygun Badalova - Trend: The lifting of the sanctions against Iran makes the country's gas an interesting alternative both for Turkey and Europe, analyst at "Eurasia Energy Observer" Andrej Tibold believes. "However, the lifting of the sanctions against Iran does not mean that Iranian gas will come to Europe," Tibold told Trend. International sanctions imposed on Iran with regard to its nuclear program were removed as the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) entered the implementation phase on Jan. 16. Tibold believes that the existing disagreements between Iran and Turkey over Syria will complicate the realization of Iranian gas supplies to Europe via Turkey. He stressed that the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project was halted as a result of the conflict in regional geopolitical interests over Syria between Turkey and Russia. "Iran similarly has interests in Syria and the region, which do not align with those of Turkey and might diverge even furthermore," Tibold said. Tibold believes that it would make sense for Iran to put its money on LNG export capabilities. "This would give it the options to supply global markets and not be physically tied to a single market," Tibold said. Iran has already expressed its interest to export LNG to Europe. Earlier Head of National Iranian Gas Exports Company Alireza Kameli said that the export of gas to Europe is not economically beneficial for Iran. "A pipeline of about 5,000-km length should be constructed from 'South Pars' gas field to Europe to transit Iranian gas to the continent, but alongside the cost of this huge project, the big gas transit fees make Iranian natural gas export to the EU uneconomical," he said. Iran has already developed an LNG plant by 50 percent and it is expected to become operational in 2018 with 10.5 million tons annual production capacity. Within the next three years the country expects to launch five LNG projects. Currently Iran reportedly is in talks with France, Germany and Belgium for construction of LNG tankers. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend: Iran's entering the oil market will not have any significant consequences, Valentyn Zemlyansky, the director of energy programs at the Center of World Economy and International Relations of Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences, told Trend Jan. 18. Zemlyansky said that Iran is not a major player and it will have to find its niche on the oil market. "The Iranian oil supplies can increase the market supply by no more than one percent," Zemlyansky said. While commenting on Oman's statement about readiness to cut oil production by five-ten percent, Zemlyansky said that it can cause a short-term speculative effect on the stock exchange. The IAEA countries received a final report of the agency's experts on the Iranian nuclear program October 16 preceding the official start of its implementation. The document confirms that the Iranian side has fulfilled its obligations as part of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program. Afterwards, the EU and US have confirmed lifting the economic and financial sanctions from Iran related to its nuclear program. Iran and P5 +1 (the US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) reached a historic agreement on Iran's nuclear program July 14. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Anahanum Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.18 By Aygun Badalova - Trend: Azerbaijan's oil production is estimated to have remained stagnant during 2015 averaging 0.86 million barrels per day (bpd), according to OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report published on January 18. This figure was revised up by 10,000 bpd from the previous report. On a quarterly basis, Azerbaijan's oil output is estimated to average 0.89 million bpd, 0.85 million bpd, 0.85 and 0.85 million bpd, respectively. OPEC expects Azerbaijan's oil production to decline by 40,000 bpd to 0.82 million bpd in 2016. The main oil output in Azerbaijan comes from Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field. This offshore block produces Azeri Light oil with 0.15 percent sulfur and 35 degrees API. The contract for the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli development, with proven reserves of nearly 1 billion tons of oil, was signed in 1994. Shares in the contract are as follow: BP (operator) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - 8 percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent. Low oil prices have seen BP rein in spending and it is likely the capital will be diverted to resources which the company judges to have better long-term prospects - such as the Shah Deniz II gas field project, according to OPEC report. "Indeed, gas will be a key driver of BP's production portfolio over the coming years. Maintenance in 2015 was much lower compared to 2014. Despite lower maintenance, output declines in 2015 stepped up to more than three percent and are only likely to increase in 2016," the report said. Azerbaijan's proved oil reserves amounted to 7 billion barrels at the end of 2014, according to BP's Statistical Review. BP and its partners produced 16 million tons during the first half of 2015 on ACG block, which is the same as in the first half of 2014. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.18 By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: Kazakhstan plans to open direct flights to Iran in June of 2016, said the message of the Ministry of Investments and Development of Kazakhstan. The message said the Almaty-Tehran flight will be carried out three times a week. The flights will be carried out by the Kazakh Air Astana company. The corresponding protocol was signed during the official visit of Kazakh delegation of Civil Aviation Committee of the ministry to Iran. In addition, the plans of the parties include opening of Astana-Tehran flights. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Jan. 18 By Demir Azizov- Trend: Uzbekistan plans to double the gross domestic product (GDP) volume by 2030, President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov said at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the 2015 results. "Our main guideline should be continuous technological and technical renewal of production, as well as the constant search for internal reserves and the implementation of deep structural transformations in economy, modernization and diversification of industry," he said. "The most important direction of implementation of our internal resources and capabilities should be gradually increasing the depth of processing of the domestic raw material resources, mineral and vegetable, which is rich in our land, and the expansion of the volumes and nomenclature of production of products with high added value," said Karimov. Islam Karimov said that it is necessary to develop and realize programs on production of all types of raw materials to produce semi-ready and ready products. Uzbek leader said that Uzbekistan can increase production of petrochemical industry by 3.2 times by 2030, non-ferrous metals - by 2.2 times, ferrous metals - by 2.3 times, chemical products, including mineral fertilizers, - by 3.2 times in the result of production of goods with high added value. Deepening of processing of cotton fiber, fruits and vegetables based on modern technologies will increase production of demanded products of textile and light industry by 5.6 times and fruit and vegetables - by 5.7 times by 2030, the Uzbek president said. President Karimov said that production of ready products with high added value, demanded at external markets, will also ensure sustainable growth of exports. President said that it is necessary to develop programs for deep processing of raw materials and semi-ready products till 2020, 2025 and 2030. He said that Uzbekistan should double its economy by 2030. He added that the country should increase share of industry in GDP to 40 percent of GDP by 2030 against 33.5 percent in 2015, while decreasing share of agriculture from 16.6 percent to 8-10 percent. Uzbekistan should reduce the energy intensity of GDP by about two times via widespread introduction of energy saving technologies, he said. Islam Karimov said that it is enough to ensure average annual growth of GDP at the level of 4.8 percent to double GDP of the country in 2016-2030. He recalled that in last 11 years, Uzbekistan's economy grew at least by 8 percent. Iran and Spain are discussing a plan to build a joint oil refinery, which will be finally owned by Iran, at the Gibraltar Strait, Press TV reported. The announcement was made by the Spanish foreign minister on Monday, just two days after sanctions against Islamic Republic were lifted, Reuters reported. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he hoped the planned refinery, which would be built in the southern port city of Algeciras with local Spanish firms, would be the first of many deals between the two countries in the post-sanctions era. On Saturday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, announced during a joint press conference in Vienna the beginning of the implementation of a nuclear deal reached by Iran and six world powers in the Austrian capital, Vienna, last July. The announcement came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its latest report confirming Tehran's compliance with its commitment as per the nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). According to a statement read out by Zarif and Mogherini, "UN sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted. United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed the JCPOA, will from now onwards, together with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), be the sole international legal framework related to Iran's nuclear activities, terminating provisions of resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2007), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), 1835 (2008), 1929 (2010) and 2224 (2015)." Margallo told reporters in Brussels that the Iranian energy industry needs restructuring after its return to the international economy, adding that Spain was well placed to assist. "What we see here is a new chance for the region to stabilize and for our companies to secure good business opportunities," Margallo said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers, adding, "Our political relationship with Iran is very good because we moved faster than other countries and are now very well placed for future business." The Spanish minister also stated that an Iranian refinery in Algeciras would boost employment in a region that has the highest unemployment rate in Spain. Last November, Abbas Kazemi, deputy oil minister and managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the country was mulling a plan to build or buy refineries in other countries in order to guarantee long-term sale of its crude oil. He noted that investing in overseas refineries is one of the most common ways used by oil producing countries to boost crude exports, saying, "Therefore, the Iranian Oil Ministry is planning to invest in refineries in countries whose crude oil is being supplied by Iran." At present, some littoral states of the Persian Gulf, which are among world's major oil exporters, own a remarkable number of oil refineries in American, European and Asian countries, which has greatly increased their clout in global energy markets. Iran has likewise received proposals for buying or building overseas refineries in Asian, European, African and American countries, none of which has been finalized yet. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano met Jan. 18 with the Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, IRNA news agency reported. Amano arrived in Tehran Jan. 18. He will meet with other senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani. The report says that Amano's visit to Tehran is aimed to strengthening the relations between IAEA and Iran. According to the IAEA, Amano and Iranian officials will discuss IAEA's role in verifying and monitoring Iran's nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal). International sanctions imposed on Iran with regard to its nuclear program were removed as the JCPOA entered the implementation phase on Jan. 16. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, France, the UK, Germany, China, and Russia) in July 2015 agreed on a landmark nuclear deal to curb Tehran's sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Iran announced Jan. 17 that it started implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Additional Protocol allows unannounced inspections outside the declared nuclear sites and it is seen as a vital tool at the IAEA's disposal to make sure that a country doesn't have any hidden nuclear work. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Lifting sanctions off Iran is an important step "in the right direction" for the entire region, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, RIA Novosti reported Jan. 18. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Jan.16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. On this day, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) submitted a report confirming the readiness of the country's authorities to implement the program, on a significant reduction of its nuclear potential, created for it by long negotiations. Later, the EU and the US have confirmed Iran's withdrawal from the economic and financial sanctions related to its nuclear program. "What we did on Saturday in Vienna - is a big and important step 'in the right direction' for the entire region, not only for the security in the world in terms of Iran's nuclear program," Mogherini said. "We have shown that even under the most difficult relationship, positive results can be achieved through dialogue, diplomacy, and cooperation," she said upon arrival at the new year's first scheduled meeting of foreign ministers of 28 EU countries in Brussels. --- On Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran's compliance with the agreement on country's nuclear program and implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) came into effect. Soon after that, the regime of sanctions imposed on Tehran has been substantially weakened. "Those banks that are delisted by the Implementing Regulation will now automatically be able to reconnect to SWIFT, following the completion of our normal connection process (i.e. administrative and systems checks, connectivity and technical arrangements)," the statement said on Sunday. The statement added that because not all the restrictions imposed on the Iraninan banks were lifted, SWIFT remained prohibited from providing specialized financial messaging services to the EU-sanctioned Iranian banks that remained listed under EU Regulation. On July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany, signed the JCPOA. The agreement guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief of sanctions, including the EU nuclear-related financial messaging restrictions. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Elena Kosolapova - Trend: The sanctions against Iran will not be fully lifted soon, Vladimir Yevseyev, the Russian military expert, the head of the Eurasian integration and SCO development department of the CIS Institute, said. "Only the possibility of easing the UN Security Council's sanctions on the basis of IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano's positive report on Iran's nuclear program was discussed in Vienna Jan. 16," Yevseyev told Trend Jan. 16. Earlier at the meeting in Vienna, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the sanctions imposed on Iran due to the nuclear program will be lifted Jan. 16. Yevseyev reminded of the four sanction resolutions of the UN Security Council, saying that they can not be cancelled immediately. "This must be preceded by a long preparatory process," he said. As for the sanctions imposed by the EU and the US, just some of them will be lifted. "The statements of the Iranian side are mainly stipulated by the internal political reasons because people begin to urge Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to fulfill the promises on the economy," he said. "It is necessary to try to convince people that these changes will be made tomorrow." The expert said that it is particularly important on the eve of two important events in Iran, namely, the parliamentary election and Assembly of Experts election, to be held in late February. "At the same time, even in case of lifting the sanctions, it will be difficult to supply Iran's oil to the world markets, as all of them are not free," he said. "Moreover, the investments are required to constantly increase exports. But there is a lack of investments and they can appear, at best, in the summer of 2017." Yevseyev said that the investors are now waiting for the change of administration in the White House. "The inauguration of the US next president will be held in January 2017," he said. "Afterwards, the senior officials of the administration must be appointed. This will take several months. Only then the attitude of the new administration towards the Iranian nuclear program, as well as its readiness for the resumption of relations with Iran will be evident. Big investors will not appear in Iran before this period." "While speaking about the impact of Iranian oil on the world oil prices, the expert said that Iran, according to the experts, will be able to increase export by only one million barrels at the world consumption of more than 90 million barrels but in case of available investments," he said. "The impact of these volumes on oil prices will be much smaller than the impact of dumping of Saudi Arabia." Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukia Amano arrived in Tehran Jan. 18. Amano will meet with senior Iranian officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's Fars news agency reported. Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi earlier said that Amano will not visit any nuclear site. According to the IAEA, Amano will discuss the IAEA's role in verifying and monitoring Iran's nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) with Iranian officials. The international sanctions imposed on Iran with regard to its nuclear program have been removed as the JCPOA entered the implementation phase on Jan. 16. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, France, the UK, Germany, China, and Russia) in July 2015 agreed a landmark nuclear deal to curb Tehran's sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic. On Jan. 17 Iran announced that has started implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Additional Protocol allows unannounced inspections outside of declared nuclear sites and it is seen as a vital tool at the IAEA's disposal to make sure that a country does not have any hidden nuclear work. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iranian Foreign Ministry slammed the new US sanctions against the Islamic Republic's missile system. The Foreign Ministry released a message on its official website Jan. 18 saying, "selecting the very day, when the removal of unfair nuclear sanctions on Iran started, to announce the names of another group of individuals and companies for imposition of yet new sets of sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury because of their alleged involvement in Iran's defense program, is nothing but an attempt to please power circles and lobbies both inside and outside the US." Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) implemented a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal) on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Previously, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the US would pay Iran $400 million and also $1.3 billion in interest, dating back to the Islamic Revolution. Iran's Foreign Ministry statement welcomed the US decision about releasing these funds. The Department of the Treasury announced in a statement Jan. 17, only a day after sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program were lifted, that 11 people and companies involved in Iran's ballistic missile program were added to sanctions list. Earlier on October 11, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired its first guided ballistic missile dubbed Emad. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 By Umid Niayesh - Trend: Iran's ex-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani hailed the recent implementation of the nuclear agreement, saying that Iran will launch a fusion-based nuclear reactor. Rafsanjani said Iran has achieved success in fission-based nuclear science, however this is an old technology, Mehr reported Jan. 18. "Thanks to normalization of the country's nuclear activities, Iran can pursue more advanced technologies," he said. "We have good achievements at the Amirkabir University of Technology and Islamic Azad University in nuclear fusion sphere." "It is expected that the first fusion-based nuclear reactor will be constructed soon," added Rafsanjani. He also said that with achievement of fusion technologies, the greenhouse gas problems in the world will get solved. The fusion-based nuclear energy is among the safest energies in the world and its generation produces no pollution. Generation of the fusion-based nuclear energy is similar to a process taking place in the Sun - called fusion - during which hydrogen atoms fuse and form helium under millions of degrees of heat. Scientists have tested this method, but so far they haven't achieved any result in controlling the huge amount of energy released during fusion for more than several seconds. The fusion-based nuclear energy technology can also be used in producing hydrogen bombs. Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany) implemented a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Georgia's energy policy must not cause any questions in the society, the US ambassador to Georgia Ian Kelly told reporters, Sputnik Georgia reported. The negotiations between the Georgian authorities and the Russian Gazprom company caused a stir in the Georgian society. The representatives of the opposition and experts claimed that the cooperation with Gazprom will deprive Georgia of energy independence. "It is always important for the government to be transparent in terms of energy policy," Kelly was quoted by Georgian Rustavi 2 TV company. "The country must not depend on one source of energy, so it is necessary to think about diversification," the diplomat said. "The Georgian authorities' negotiations with Russia, as a potential energy supplier, are a far-sighted action. Supporters of Daesh militant group, who fled Daesh-occupied territories are among Syrian refugees in the camps near the Syrian-Jordanian border, Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammad Momani said. On Sunday, Momani held a press conference regarding country's policy toward accepting refugees. He was asked a question about the future of some 12,000 Syrian refugees from camps across the Syrian-Jordanian border. "Jordan maintains its open door policy...[but] we do have security concerns, and this group specifically came from the far northeast of Syria, areas that are controlled by Daesh," Momani said on Sunday, as quoted by The Jordan Times newspaper, adding that there were Daesh supporters and even members of the group among the refugees. He added that Jordan took the issue of its security very seriously. Syria has been engulfed in a civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting against opposition factions and extremist groups such as the Daesh, which is prohibited by many countries, including Russia and the United States. The internal conflict have already made more than 4,6 million refugees flee Syria to neighbouring countries, including more than 630,000 of them to Jordan, according to UN data. On Sunday, Italy's embassy in the Afghan capital has been hit by a rocket. Local media reported that two Afghan nationals, who used to ensure safety of the embassy, were injured in the attack. "We're all fine, the situation is calm and we keep up our spirits," Pezzotti said on Sunday, as quoted by the Italian L'Unione Sarda newspaper. He added that the explosion occurred "just outside the entrance of the compound." Afghanistan is experiencing political, social and security instability, as the Taliban Islamic movement and other radical extremist organizations such as Daesh militant group, prohibited in many countries, including the United States and Russia, continue staging attacks against civilian and state targets, seeking to establish the rule of Sharia law in the country. Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis on Jan.18 morning was admitted to Gailezers Hospital in Riga, Latvian LETA news agency reported. The hospital confirmed that the president has been hospitalized, without however giving further information on the matter. The Latvian State Chancery said that Vejonis will not be participating in public events this week due to the illness. Vejonis was admitted "to ensure the speediest possible recovery from a viral infection. Meanwhile, the president will continue to discharge his duties while in hospital, but will not take part in public events this week," it said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 18 Trend: Deputy Speaker of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of the country's Federal Assembly, Nikolai Levichev said that his country and Iran should abolish visas on a bilateral basis, Russian news agency Tass reported Jan. 18. "Bilateral abolition of visas between Russia and Iran will be a logical step in the development of cooperation between the two countries," he said. Levichev went on to add that Iran has great interest in Russia and its culture. "Iran could become a popular destination for Russian tourists," he said. "Last year, Russian tourists lost two popular holiday destinations - Egypt and Turkey. Islamic Republic of Iran with its indescribable oriental flavor of ancient Persia could fill the vacant niche." He also said the conditions for visa regime abolition couldn't be more favorable than now. "Relations between Moscow and Tehran are on the rise," said Levichev. "Islamic Republic of Iran came back to the international community mostly through the efforts of our country." He added that Russia and Iran implement "hundreds of joint projects in various fields - from agriculture to space." Iran and the P5+1 finalized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented the JCPOA on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 19 Trend: Two police officers were killed and 10 others were injured as a result of terrorist attack on a police bus in the southeastern province of Shirnak in Turkey, Milliyet newspaper reported. The vehicle was seriously damaged in the attack and two policemen in the vehicle were killed. Ten others police officers who were also in the bus were injured. A large-scale operation was launched in the province to capture attackers. Indian Soldiers Practice Ahead Of Republic Day (Photo : Getty Images) India is holding training for 500 women who will be deployed to guard the country's border with China. The all-female squad underwent 44 weeks of training in battle craft and mountain survival. Their final training is acclimatization, and then the women guards - with the rank of constable - would be assigned along a 3,488-kilometer area known as the Sino-India Line of Actual Control (LAC), reports the Times of India. They will be spread in 20 locations, where the height is between 8,000 and 14,000 feet, beginning in March. Advertisement One of the 20 stations where the "mahila" squad would be sent is the Mana Pass border, the last village on India's side in Uttarakhand. They would be divided into four battalions, deployed to check Chinese aggression at the LAC, reports Indianexpress. Krishna Chaudhary, director general of the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP), after a parade, challenged the women border guards to use the best skills they learned during their training. "You will be further trained in field training and high-altitude acclimatization before your final deployment. I am sure you will do the country and the force proud," Chaudhary told the trainees after taking the salute at the Basic Training Center at Bhanu. The 1962 China aggression led to the creation of the ITBP. But more than 50 years after its creation, this is the first time that the force is deploying female guards in areas considered difficult and with harsh climate and extreme mountain terrain. The force is constructing residential and logistical facilities for the women squad. The ITBP recruited them in February 2015. The 500 who will finish their training come from the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir. JD Finance, JD.com Inc.s financial subsidiary, plans to raise 6.65 billion yuan ($1.01 billion) to develop its financial technology ecosystem. (Photo : www.financeasia.com) JD Finance, JD.com Inc.s financial subsidiary, has announced intention to raise 6.65 billion yuan ($1.01 billion) to be used in developing the companys financial technology ecosystem, Shanghai Daily reported. Advertisement JD Finance said it had signed an agreement to raise the funds with investors that included Sequoia Capital China, China Harvest Investments and China Taiping Insurance. According to JD, the fundraising is set to be completed in the first half of this year. "By partnering with top financial and startup service institutions, we will be even better positioned to create China's leading financial technology ecosystem," Liu Qiangdong, JD.com CEO, said. According to a statement released by the company, JD.com will maintain majority stake in JD Finance after the fundraising. "During this phase of rapid development, we will benefit from the operating expertise that world-class financial institutions bring," a spokesman for JD.com told Reuters. "We will continue to evaluate all options for future additional financing but plan to maintain a majority ownership in any eventuality." The report said that the influence of local Internet companies such as JD and Alibaba Group in the financial sector is becoming increasingly strong as the heavy online transactions provide a strong base for the companies' online payment and financial services. The Internet finance arm of JD.com's rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. also sought additional funding last year. Established in Oct. 2013, JD Finance offers consumers financial services like e-wallet and small loans for qualified vendors who sell on JD.com's platform. It was earlier reported by media that JD Finance also plans to list on the strategic emerging industry board in 2017, but JD officials declined to comment on the plan. The Shanghai Stock Exchange may launch the board for domestic high-growth and innovative enterprises in the Internet, alternative energy and bio-medicine sectors in the first half this year, the report said. Jin Liqun, appointed as the first president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has vowed to make a "clean, lean and green" institution. (Photo : www.devex.com) Jin Liqun, the first president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has assured on Sunday, Jan. 17, that the bank will be a 21st-century multilateral lender with rigorous corporate culture, China Daily reported. Advertisement According to the chief, the bank will have a "lean staff" and will try its best effort to avoid red tape. Jin made the remark at his debut appearance as the bank's president during a news conference, telling media that he envisions a bank that is "clean, lean and green." He added that the bank will combine the merits of existing multilateral development banks and competitive private companies. "I'm committed to running the bank according to the highest possible standards and according to the principles outlined in the articles of agreement: transparency, openness, accountability and independence," Jin said in English. The report said that Jin also pledged to set a "clear division of responsibility" between the bank's board and management. A special unit on compliance, effectiveness and integrity will also be established, which will exercise oversight of the management and report directly to the board. The bank has an initial staff of 50 and it will only be increased to between 100 and 150 to fulfill the "lean" commitment and implementation, which Jin considers as crucial. "It is important that you don't just have something brilliant on paper, it is important to implement it. . . . As president of the bank, I will ensure that the oversight mechanism is implemented without any compromise," Jin said. According to the report, the new chief is planning to approve the first loans before the end of this year. The scale of loans will be modest, between $500 million and $1.2 billion, in the first year and will prioritize energy, power, transportation, rural infrastructure, environmental protection and logistics. Jin added that the AIIB has been working closely with the World Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to identify possible co-financing projects. "We already have a very good project pipeline, including co-financing projects and standalone projects vetted by our own professionals. We are also open to other partners in the private sector," the chief said. Jin, however, said that setting the stage by building a corporate culture and making employees accountable are "far more important" things to do by the first president than "preparing the pipelines and making the loans." He said the bank is also drafting the core policies on environmental and social framework. Jin Liqun graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University as an English-language major. He joined the Ministry of Finance and was sent to the World Bank Group in the 1980s as an alternate executive director for China. In 1998, he was appointed vice minister of finance and was named as vice president of the Asian Development Bank in 2003. In 2008, Jin became chairman of the board of supervisors at China Investment Corp., where he worked closely with Lou Jiwei, the current finance minister. He became chairman of China International Capital Corp. in 2013. The new chief is fluent in English and French and described by his peers as "experienced, savvy and pragmatic." He also loves Chinese classic literature. Qualcomm will start production of its custom chips for China next year (Photo : www.telecomlead.com) The high-tech sector in Guizhou Province has received a boost as chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. on Sunday, Jan. 17, pledged a major investment by building a 1.85 billion yuan ($280 million) joint venture to produce server chips for the domestic market in the less-developed southwestern province, China Daily reported. Advertisement According to the report, the joint venture, named the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co., will be 55 percent owned by the Guizhou provincial government's investment arm and 45 percent by a Qualcomm subsidiary. At a news conference in Beijing, Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm, told media that the venture will focus on the design, development and sales of "advanced server chipset technology" in China. The report said that the venture company will be based at a technology park near the provincial capital, Guiyang. Aberle said that as part of the deal, Qualcomm will also license its proprietary server chip technology and provide research and development processes to the venture. Sun Zhigang, the acting governor of Guizhou, said that as a major step for the country's semiconductor industry, the collaboration will also assist Guizhou to set up a world-class chipmaking plant as well as build up its high-tech industries such as cloud computing and chipmaking, which will help grow its economy in the coming decade. "The partnership is a win-win deal for both Guizhou and Qualcomm," Sun said. Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the partnership sets a good precedent for cross-border technological innovation as the key to economic growth. "China is open to foreign investment. . . . We welcome more overseas investment flowing into China, especially in the western part of the country," Xu said. Wu Lianfeng, vice president and chief analyst at research firm International Data Corp. China, said that joint ventures in China are expected to increase as more overseas technology companies will gain access to highly profitable government procurement deals. To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant. Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry. Disclaimer Endrtimes does not necessarily endorse or agree with every opinion expressed in every article/video posted on this site. The information provided here is done so for personal edification; It's up to the reader to separate truth from error, and to examine everything (like the Bereans) from a Biblical perspective. Let the Holy Scriptures be you guide! - - - FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages/videos may contain copyrighted () material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available to advance understanding of ecological, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, economic, DEMOCRACY, scientific, MORAL, ETHICAL, and SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. Egypt's newly elected parliament formed a committee at the end of Sunday's session to investigate the allegations by Egypt's top auditor Hisham Geneina that state corruption led to the loss of LE600 billion from 2012 to 2015. The parliament committee will start its investigation into Geneina's statements after the House approves the laws passed in the absence of parliament. Geneina is chairman of the Central Auditing Agency (CAA), which acts as the country's main watchdog on public authorities. The CAA has been under the purview of the president of the republic since 1996. Last week, a large number of MPs affiliated with the Support Egypt coalition requested parliament's speaker Ali Abdel-Al to entrust a parliamentary fact-finding committee with opening an investigation into Geneina's statement. Abdel-Al said that the findings of the committee, which accused Geneina of "deliberately defaming state authorities," will be reviewed by all 596 MPs. The committee says that the claims are "misleading, exaggerated and lacking credibility." However, Geneina stood his ground following the committee's accusation, insisting that he can support all his statements with evidence. The report said that the committee which consists of a number of officials from the justice, planning, finance and interior ministries had contacted Geneina on 27 December to verify his statements before he sent the study he prepared through CAO based on which he released his statement to the committee. The study was undated, according to committee's report, although Geneina says it covers the period from 2012 to 2015. However, the committee said his statements were about incidents that took place over the course of 10 years. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's parliament rejected on Sunday a decree-law banning third-party challenges to contracts signed between the government and investors after a majority of MPs voted against it, state news agency MENA reported. The law number 32, which was passed in April 2014 under the former interim president Adly Mansour, aimed to assure investors that their deals with the Egyptian government would be shielded from lengthy legal disputes incurred by citizens' legal complaints. The law has caused a major source of controversy since it was passed, with critics alleging that it opens a door to corruption by restricting appeals to the parties involved only; the government and investors. "In the view of most MPs who voted down the law, it legalises corruption," Medhat El-Sherif, an MP and member of the economic committee, told Ahram Online by phone on Monday. This move means that anyone can currently challenge government contracts in court, said El-Sherif, denying that there is any article in the investment law passed by the parliament tackling challenges to contracts. Since the 2011 uprising, at least 11 court rulings have ordered the state to rescind privatisation deals made under the government of former autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The court cases were brought by lawyers and activists claiming that some deals involved corruption as companies were cheaply sold to businessmen. Defending the law, legal and parliamentary affairs minister Magdy El-Agaty told the assembly Sunday that "the government does not protect corruption" through the law but rather reclaims its right to protect its deals. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al suggested Sunday the law be referred back to the respective committee for discussion. The vote on the bill comes as part of parliament's review of 341 laws within 15 days as of its first meeting last week. This includes laws issued by Mansour and current President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi since the new constitution was passed in January 2014. Search Keywords: Short link: Egyptian MPs told reporters Monday that the controversial 2013 protest law will not be on the agenda of parliamentary debates anytime soon A number of Egyptian MPs who are members of parliament's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee stressed Monday that the controversial protest law (law no.107/2013) will not be up on the agenda of parliamentary debates anytime soon. Bahaaeddin Abu Shoqa, chairman of the Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee, told reporters that the protest law has never been on the agenda of the committee. "In accordance with Article 156 of the constitution, we are reviewing 341 presidential decrees that have been passed since the implementation of the new constitution on 16 January 2014, [not all laws passed since former president Mohamed] Morsi was removed from office," said Abu Shoqa. He added that "the protest bill was signed as a law-effect decree by former interim president Adly Mansour on 24 November 2013, and as a result it is out of the scope of our current review of the 341 decrees." Abu Shoqa said he was surprised by some evening newspapers alleging last week that the committee had endorsed the law. "It was not on the agenda for discussion in the first place," he said. Mostafa Bakri, a journalist and MP affiliated with the Support Egypt coalition, told reporters that Egypt's protest law is by no means harsh, comparing it to laws regulating protests in the United States and England. "The penalties for conducting street protests without prior authorisation in these two Western countries are much higher than in Egypt, not to mention Egypt has the full right to safeguard its internal security in a region fraught with civil wars, sectarian strife and chaos," said Bakri. The US constitution guarantees the right to protest for all citizens, with protesters required to inform authorities if marches will obstruct the flow of traffic. Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat, an independent MP and chairman of the liberal Reform and Development Party, told Ahram Online that even though the law is not currently on the agenda, "this does not mean we do not have the right to revise it at any time." Sadat also stressed that "several decrees dealing with different aspects of human rights in 2014 and 2013 have to be revised because many of their articles proved detrimental to many of these rights." Sadat also criticised on Sunday the approval of a 2014 decree regulating the use of force by police in prisons. "The National Council on Human Rights has criticised this law, urging the House to amend it as soon as possible to improve the conditions for inmates in Egyptian prisons," Sadat said. The exclusion of the protest law from parliamentary debates this week comes a few days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the 25 January protests that led to the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. By Monday, the assembly approved 248 decrees passed in 2014 and 2015, with 73 laws to undergo review on Tuesday. Among the list were two decrees that aimed at fighting terrorism; the anti-terror law (94/2015) passed on 14 August 2015, and the Terror Entities Law (law no.8/2015) passed in 17 February 2015. The first law was endorsed by 457 MPs, while deputies affiliated with the Islamist Nour Party objected. Salah Khalifa, a Nour MP from Alexandria, said that the party objected to the decree because it "granted state authorities sweeping powers to detain citizens and many of its articles could be ruled unconstitutional." In its two morning sessions on Monday, the House approved around 30 decrees, mostly dealing with economic issues. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al told MPs that he is aware of media criticism of parliament's debates, "but I have to bear the constitutional responsibility of meeting the requirements stipulated by Article 156 of the constitution because failing to implement it on time could lead to the collapse of the legal structure of the state as a whole." Abdel-Al stressed that 221out of the 341 decrees, must be debated and voted on before 25 January. "We are in a race against time because Article 156 of the constitution has pushed us into a very difficult corner; that is to review 341 decrees in just 15 days," said deputy speaker Soliman Wahdan, indicating that "while we are facing criticism from the media that we have become a rubber stamp parliament, we are also facing an obligation we have to meet before 25 January, otherwise we could face a constitutional gridlock." Wahdan insisted that while many decrees were rejected, MPs insisted that once they meet the requirement stipulated by Article 156 they will be ready to revise all laws, including the protest law, at any time. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypt's Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Wednesday that his cabinet could present its programme to the House of Representatives at the end of the month. Ismail's press statements came after a meeting with the new parliament's speaker Ali Abdel-Al. The PM stressed said that there will be cooperation between the cabinet and the parliament. Ismail's cabinet was sworn in by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi in September 2015. Based on Article 146 of the constitution, if Ismail's government does not secure the confidence of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives within 30 days of convening, the president is to appoint a prime minister based on the nomination of the party or the coalition that holds a plurality of seats in parliament. If a majority in parliament is not reached in support of a newly appointed prime minister and his government within 30 days, the house is dissolved and the president calls for the election of a new legislative body within 60 days from the date the dissolution is announced. Search Keywords: Short link: The return of the frozen assets of toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak "depends authoritatively on the work and findingd" of the Egyptian judiciary, the attorney-general of Switzerland said on Sunday. Mubarak recently exhausted his appeals in a corruption case where he was found guilty of embezzling state funds. A meeting between Egyptian judicial authorities and the office of the attorney-general of Switzerland took place on Saturday to exchange information regarding the criminal proceedings in the case and Mubarak's frozen funds in Swiss banks. The funds seized amount to 590 million Swiss francs ($589 million/539 million euros) . Under Swiss law, assets can only be forfeited if there is a proven connection to a crime. "Since the start of the criminal proceedings, the office of the attorney-general of Switzerland (OAG) has asked for information from the Egyptian authorities in about 30 requests for legal assistance," a statement by the attorney-general read. The office stressed that it has compared the information provided with the findings of its own criminal investigation, and is working to determine whether the assets frozen in Switzerland originate from crimes committed in Egypt. In 2011, the OAG opened three criminal proceedings which were later combined into one proceeding against 14 accused individuals from the Mubarak regime. The proceedings were initially related to money laundering on the basis of reports from the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS), but later included investigations into possible involvement in a "criminal organisation." The OAG statement said that in June 2015 it abandoned the part of the investigation involving participating in a criminal organisation, but this was not put into effect after an appeal made by Egypt. Search Keywords: Short link: During their visit to Cairo on Sunday, a delegation of members of the British House of Commons and the House of Lords affirmed they would recommend the resumption of British air flights to Sharm El-Sheikh upon their return to the U.K., the Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman said. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received the joint delegation comprised of representatives of the ruling Conservative Party in the context of the latter's visit to Cairo, following the formation of the Egyptian parliament. The Egyptian parliament convened for the first time on 10 January for its procedural session. This marks the third and final pillar of the political transition roadmap. The British delegation further asserted its determination to strengthen relations with the people and government of Egypt, according to the foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid. Abu Zeid added that the delegation acknowledges the significance of the tourist sector to the Egyptian economy, and seeks to overcome the difficulties that may have affected Egyptian-British relations recently. The downing of a Russian plane in the Sinai Peninsula late October had caused wide scale ramifications on an international scale, leading to several countries cutting off air flights to Sharm El-Shiekh. ISIS affiliates in Egypt, formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, claimed responsibility for downing the Russian plane. The Russian Parliament, Kremlin, previously announced that the results of the Russian investigation into the passenger plane crash found that it was an act of terrorism, and suspected that a homemade bomb had been leaked into the plane. However, an Egypt-led committee tasked with investigating the cause of the Russian airliner crash has announced late December that it has yet to prove the existence of "unlawful interference or a terrorist act". Egyptian tourism was slowly inching towards recovery when the Russian plane crashed and Egypt fears that the ramifications of this incident will cause damage to its tourism sector, a vital source of much-needed hard currency. Search Keywords: Short link: Egypts irrigation minister Hossam Moghazi said on Sunday Cairo would not leave the future of the country's water resources in the hands of anyone who would put them at risk, whether inside or outside the region. Moghazi sounded optimistic on the future of negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to reach a resolution on the latter country's controversial Grand Renaissance Dam, which is being built on a tributary to Egypt's Nile; the country's only source of water. He asserted that the declaration of principles which was signed by the presidents of the three countries is the "umbrella that holds a positive vibe between the three countries to solve the dams problem and reach an agreement that would the fulfil welfare of our countries." Moghazis statements came during the 56th session of the Egyptian-Sudanese Joint Technical Commission on the Nile. The joint commission was born as part of the 1959 bilateral agreement between Egypt and Sudan on the utilisation of the Nile. The minister said the agreement between Cairo, Addis Ababa and Khartoum on naming two foreign consultancy firms to conduct impact studies was a positive sign. The French Artelia and BRL firms are tasked with conducting two studies on the impact of the dam on Egypt and Sudan. The risk assessment study to start in February is projected to be completed in eight months, while the other study, which addresses environmental concerns, is to take three months to conclude, with both studies scheduled to be finished in 11 months. Moghazi reiterated Egypt's appreciation for the role Sudan is playing in bridging differences during negotiations on the dam and ensuring the interests of the three countries. He added that both Egypt and Sudan are keen on finalising the technical studies professionally and as soon as possible in order to assess the possible impact of the dam and deal with it. Last week, the Egyptian minister said in a TV interview that although Egypt is "worried" about the dam, it does not view it as a threat. The interview came one day after Ethiopia rejected an Egyptian proposal to redesign parts of the water outlets of the dam, increasing the number of outlets from two to four to allow increased water flow to the downstream countries. Last week, Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed the importance of reaching a solution regarding Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam at a Cairo meeting with Sudanese foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour. El-Sisi told Ghandour that reaching an understanding is critical given that the River Nile is the only source of water for Egypt. Although Egypt has repeatedly expressed concern over the dam's possible effect on the country, Ethiopia insists it will not negatively affect Egypt's share of Nile water. Search Keywords: Short link: The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR) said on Monday the interior ministry informed it of the whereabouts of a number of Egyptians who had been missing in recent months, following widespread public complaints of forced disappearances. The semi-governmental council said in a statement that it has learned from a ministry report the whereabouts of 118 out of 191 people who were mentioned of a complaint recently filed with the ministry regarding forced disappearances. "Fifteen citizens have been released 99 are facing charges in different criminal cases, three are considered fugitives, and one individual ran away from their family," the NCHR reported. Three other citizens were said to be located by the council. Halim Hanish, the lawyer for the missing Ashraf Shehata, said in press statements his client was not among the names released by the NCHR, and that another person of the same name on the list is currently serving a five-year sentence in Sharqiya's Zagazig prison. Hanish's statements came after a meeting with officials in the interior ministry. The interior ministry has repeatedly denied that Shehata, who has been missing for 744 days, was arrested by the countrys state security. In November, the deputy minister for public relations and media Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim said in a TV interview that Shehata left the country according to a certificate of movement from the ministrys passports authority. The interior ministry has repeatedly said that there are no cases of forced disappearances in Egypt, and that "whoever claims otherwise must provide evidence," the assistant to the interior ministry's human rights sector Salah Fouad told state owned MENA agency, adding that the NCHR reports of forced disappearances were merely "rumours." Several social media campaigns were launched in recent months to inquire about the whereabouts of 26-year-old former activist Mostafa Massouny, who has been missing for nearly seven months. The interior ministry denied that Massouny was arrested "by the police or any affiliated security apparatuses." Search Keywords: Short link: On Sunday, Brennan met with President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi where the duo discussed strengthening their strategic and military relationship Egypts interior minister Magdy Abdel-Ghafar met on Monday with the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) John Brennan in Cairo where they discussed terrorism domestically and internationally. The duo discussed the activities of militant groups regionally, especially the ISIS group, state news agency MENA reported. Abdel-Ghafar also explained to Brennan all the interior ministrys efforts in the face of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood, the group that the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi hailed from. The minister added that the latest terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe show "without a doubt" that all countries have become targets for extremist groups. He stressed the need for cooperation between all states in the fight against terrorism and to address the reasons behind the spread of this phenomenon. On Sunday, Brennan met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to discuss the strengthening of the strategic and military relationship between the two countries. This is the second visit by Brennan to Cairo in less than a year. He also met with El-Sisi in Cairo last April, where they discussed regional and international political affairs. In March 2015, US President Barack Obama released $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, which was suspended after the ouster of Morsi in July 2013, in an effort to boost Cairo's ability to combat the extremist threat in the region. Search Keywords: Short link: Kurdish militants detonated a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Sirnak overnight, killing three police officers and wounding four others in an armoured vehicle, security sources said on Monday. The mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by daily violence since a 2013 ceasefire between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants collapsed last July, reigniting a three-decades-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people. Sources said the blast occurred around 11:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) in the Idil district of Sirnak, near the border with Syria, and simultaneously PKK fighters attacked a security force base in the area with rifles. There were no casualties in that attack. The PKK, which says it is fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, took up arms against the state in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union. The towns of Cizre and Silopi, further east of Idil in Sirnak, have been under round-the-clock curfew since Dec. 14 as security forces battle Kurdish fighters there. Turkey's army says it has killed 320 militants in Cizre, 135 in Silopi and 101 in the Sur district of Diyarbakir city since operations began last month. The pro-Kurdish HDP party says some 100 civilians have been killed in these areas. Search Keywords: Short link: A Palestinian stabbed a woman in a West Bank settlement Monday and was shot by security personnel, the Israeli army and medics said, in the second such incident over the last 24 hours. The 30-year-old woman stabbed in the Tekoa settlement south of Jerusalem was reported to have moderate wounds. There were conflicting reports on the alleged attacker's condition, with Israeli medics saying he had been taken to hospital and Palestinian officials reporting him dead. Since Israel started using force against Palestinian protesters in October, 155 Palestinians lost their lives, while 23 Israelis were killed. *This story was edited by Ahram Online. Search Keywords: Short link: Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Emir of Qatar on Monday discussed the Syrian crisis, as global powers seek to push the warring sides towards the negotiating table. "Russia plays a main role when it comes to stability in the world," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at the start of the meeting at the Kremlin. "We very much want to develop relations with Russia and find a solution to a number of problems related to stability in some countries of our region," he added in translated remarks released by the Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said both Moscow and Doha were expecting that, in accordance with a UN-backed plan, talks between the Syrian government and the opposition would begin "in the nearest future, already this month." Global powers are seeking to push the Syrian regime and opposition to the negotiating table in a bid to end the nearly five-year war that has cost the lives of 260,000 people. The UN-backed plan foresees talks between the various sides starting on January 25, the establishment of a transitional government within six months and elections within 18 months. Lavrov said Russia and Qatar had also agreed to step up measures to battle terrorism. "Concrete steps that can facilitate this have been agreed," he said in televised remarks, without elaborating. The two countries also agreed to ramp up economic cooperation, with Putin telling Sheikh Tamim that Russia is keen to coordinate efforts in energy, "especially in the gas sphere." "I am hoping that all the efforts we've made over the past years to build our ties will serve a good basis for further steps," Putin said. "Investment cooperation is deemed to be very important," the Qatari ruler said for his part. Amid persisting tensions with the West over the Ukraine crisis, Russia has over the past few years has sought to forge closer ties with Middle East powers including Qatar. Search Keywords: Short link: The 4th edition of Luxor Arab and European Film Festival will open with the Palestinian film 3000 Nights for director Mai Masri, with the screening to be held at the Luxor Culture Centre. This year's festival runs from 30 January to 5 February. The film centers on a young newly-wed Palestinian school teacher who is jailed in a top -security Israeli prison where she eventually gives birth. 3000 Nights premiered in September 2015 at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Whats new in this edition of the festival is an Arab competition, as well as European countries participating for the first time, said the festivals artistic director, film critic Mohamed Atef at a press conference on Sunday. This year 50 films are participating from 30 countries in the official competition as well as the festivals various sub sections. Executive director of the festival Wadid Shoukry stated that Technology will play a huge role in the upcoming edition, as audiences will be able to watch films and follow events online through the festivals official website. Shoukry added that the festivals closing will be held at Karnak Temple. For this edition, Egyptian actress Lobna Abdel-Aziz was selected as honorary president of the festival. I am very happy with the festival and the vibrant activity on the cinema scene, and I hope this edition will help tourism after its big contribution to Egyptian and regional cinema, Abdel-Aziz said at the presser. For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Among the compositions performed by the Biblitoheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra will be Haydn's Symphony dubbed The Queen On Saturday 23 January, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller, will perform works from the Classical music era. The evening will include Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Symphony in F, H.665 (Wq.183/3), Mozart's Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201/186a and Haydn's Symphony No. 85 in B flat major, dubbed "La Reine." C.P.E. Bach was Johann Sebastian Bachs second (surviving) son, the composers fifth child. C.P.E Bach represents a bridge that moved music history from Baroque towards Classicism. He composed many choral and liturgical works, chamber pieces, keyboard sonatas, concertos, as well as over 20 symphonies. Symphony in F is a brief, 10-minute long composition. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was only 18-years-old when he composed his Symphony No. 29. It is considered one of the finest works of that time, testifying to the mastery of the young musician. An interesting story lies behind Haydn's Symphony No. 85 in B flat major "La Reine," the favorite composition of Marie Antoinette (1755 1793), Queen of France. The fourth of the six "Paris" symphonies composed in 1785, the work is one of the Haydns most remarkable achievements. The creation of the Paris Symphonies is linked to the time when Frances various societies enjoyed the concert-life practice. Haydn's music has been very popular in Parisian circles, being played in salons and concert halls. When Marie Antoinette expressed her appreciation towards Symphony No. 85, the publisher instantly added the subtitle La Reine de France (The Queen of France) to the first edition. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Christoph-Mathias Mueller, the Peru-born Swiss/German conductor, is currently also the General Music Director of the Gottinger Symphonie Orchester (Germany). Mueller has several conducting achievements to his name and is frequently invited to conduct international orchestras. He won the International Conducting Competition in Cadaques, Spain (2000). Between 2001 and 2005, he was assistant conductor to Claudio Abbado at the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. In the 2004-2005 season, he was the Cairo Symphony Orchestra's principal conductor and music director. Programme: Saturday 23 January, 7pm Bibliotheca Alexandrina, great hall, Alexandria For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: (Hong Kong) Investors in Hong Kong have shown little interest in an IPO by an education company over what one analyst said are concerns about the legal status of private schools on the mainland and the company's debt problems. Virscend Edu, a private school group in the southwestern city of Chengdu, went public on the Hong Kong stock exchange on January 15, but investors bought just 28 million of its shares, about one-third of the total on offer, before trading started. The company said it had found other buyers for the unsold shares, including the mainland cornerstone investors China Orient Multi-Strategy Master Fund and CRRC (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of train building China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. CRRC (Hong Kong) and China Orient Multi-Strategy Master Fund, a subsidiary of state-owned China Orient Assets Management Corp. bought 32.3 million shares each. Virscend Edu runs five kindergartens, three high schools and one college in Chengdu. It planned to issue 750 million shares at a price of between HK$ 2.19 and HK$ 2.92 apiece, according to its prospectus. In the end it sold 722 million shares at HK$ 2.4 each. Investors in Hong Kong have been wary of initial public offerings by companies on the mainland since stock market turmoil last summer, several analysts say. One said that investors are particularly concerned about legal status of private schools on the mainland. The analyst, who asked that his name not be used, said private schools have been operating in a gray area because for-profit schools are banned on the mainland. The law says privately funded schools can operate for "reasonable returns" as a non-profit group. Legislators were considering lifting the ban, but a vote was delayed at the end of last year. Since Maple Leaf Education, a chain of international schools, listed in Hong Kong in late 2014, few private school firms on the mainland have gone public. EIC Education, a chain offering courses for students preparing to study abroad, is also working on an IPO in Hong Kong, people close to the company say. Investors in Hong Kong were also concerned about debts held by Virscend Edu, the analyst said. Its prospectus showed its debt-to-equity ratio, a measurement of debt-related risks at a company, stood at 206.3 percent at the end of June. Short-term debts of 348 million yuan will come due this year. Virscend Edu's executive president, Xu Ming, said on January 15 that the company will use one-fifth of the HK$ 1.7 billion it raised from the IPO to repay short-term debts. It will spend nearly half of the proceeds on expansion, he said. The company reported profits of 96 million yuan in 2012, 54 million yuan in 2013 and 114 million yuan in 2014. Virscend Edu shares were down nearly 1 percent to HK$2.41 on January 18. (Rewritten by Li Rongde) He says he thinks they have already, at hand, many measures to react to the changes in Taiwan, but he thinks they will give the benefit of doubt, or a "grace period." He says more people in his circle believe the "wait and see" period will be now, not after the inauguration. Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan, says China will monitor the president-elect until she takes office in May. The landslide election of Tsai Ing-wen over her rival from today's ruling party in Taiwan met a cool but calm response from Beijing. China has claimed sovereignty over the island since the 1940s and Tsai heads a political party that is backed by voters hoping for formal independence as an extension of today's self-rule. China insists the two someday will unify. Taiwan's president-elect received jubilant approval at home and a cautious response in China a day after her sweeping victory. Taiwanese mainstream media called the election a mass win for a once struggling opposition party that historically dislikes Beijing. Officials in China are expected to wait and watch for now. Working with China Taiwanese mainstream media reacted after Tsai's election eve comment that she wanted to work with Beijing if the island is treated equally and with dignity. Tsai is the first female president in Taiwan or China, winning 56 percent of the vote. Media and pundits in Taiwan have focused since Saturday on what Tsai would do with China. The 59-year-old party chairperson is considered knowledgeable because she led Taiwan's China policymaking body for three years during her partys only term in office. People close to the president-elect, who's a lawyer by training with a doctoral degree, also call her a skilled negotiator. Analysts expect Tsai will figure out China, but not be cowed by it. One Taiwan newspaper said China had gone into "stop-watch-listen mode." Ross Feingold, Taipei-based senior adviser with American political risk manager DC International Advisory says Taiwanese expect peaceful relations. Experience in China issues "Tsai Ing-wen has a lot of experience dealing with China issues. Voters and other stakeholders are assuming that she will be able to manage the relationship in a way that China will react not negatively, but again we should always prepare for the worst," says Feingold. When Tsai's party ruled from 2000 to 2008, its president angered China by pushing for constitutional independence. The party still draws support from pro-independence voters. During the past eight years, Taiwans Nationalist Party government has negotiated a series of economic deals with China, but Tsai disputes China's precondition that both sides talk as parts of a single China, just subject to different interpretations. The Nationalist government has agreed with that precondition. The president-elect said throughout her campaign she would avoid upsetting China and not try to break away legally. The Global Times newspaper said Sunday that Tsai's election was neither a vote for Taiwan independence nor a gauge of relations between the two sides. Beijing's China Daily paper said Tsai should waste no time showing she's sincere about peace and stability with Beijing. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic republic has entered a "new chapter" in its history, in a speech Sunday praising the end of international sanctions. The White House simultaneously issued an executive order putting U.S. measures for sanctions relief into place. However, U.S. sanctions against Iran for other issues, such as human rights abuses, remain in place. He added that continued verification of Irans compliance would remain the "backbone of the agreement." In a separate appearance in Vienna, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday marked "the first day of a safer world." "I hope that this could open the way for different kinds of relations among the actors in the [Middle East] region," she added. Later, in an interview with VOA Persian, she said the negotiations that led to implementation "shows not only that diplomacy works but that it delivers." Mogherini, reading a statement, said the "historic deal" was both "fair and strong" and that its "proper implementation" would be a "key contribution to regional and international peace." In a joint appearance in Vienna, European Union foreign policy representative Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced the removal of the economic and financial penalties that have slowed Tehran's economy. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday certified that Iran had met the provisions of the nuclear deal crafted by world powers, a move that cleared the way for Tehran to get relief from crippling international nuclear-related sanctions. Mixed Reactions But the historic moves were not hailed by all. In Israel, the most vocal opponent of the deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that "Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilize the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world." Many of U.S. President Barack Obama's Republican opponents, especially the party's 2016 presidential candidates blasted Saturday's announcement. "That Iran deal is the dumbest deal I think I've ever seen," said presidential candidate Donald Trump at a recent campaign event. Rouhani dismissed such criticism during his speech Sunday to the Iranian parliament. He said everyone is happy "except Zionists, warmongers fueling discord in the Islamic world, and hardliners in the U.S." At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the achievement of reaching "Implementation Day," calling it a "significant milestone that reflects the good faith effort by all parties." U.S.-Iran Prisoner Swap Word of implementation came on the same day that Iran and the U.S. swapped prisoners. The five Americans freed included Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian and Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine. Kerry had been raising the status of detained Americans in all of his nuclear-related talks with Iran's Zarif. He said while the two tracks of negotiations were not directly related, there was "no question" that the pace of progress in the talks to free the Americans "accelerated" because of "diplomatic channels unlocked" in the nuclear talks. A senior administration official said the U.S. didn't want the citizens held by Iran to be used as leverage or bargaining chips in the nuclear talks, which might have jeopardized their release. The official agreed with Kerry that the deal had given the U.S. more opportunities to deal with the Americans being detained. Conclusion of Lengthy Process The implementation of the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was the culmination of nearly two years of intense negotiations. Iran and the major world powers -- the United States, the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany and the European Union -- reached agreement last July on the deal, in which Tehran pledged to scale back its uranium-enriching activities and submit to inspections, in exchange for a rollback of sanctions. Implementation of the agreement has proceeded during the ensuing six months. In one of the final steps, Iran said Thursday that it had removed the core of its Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor and pumped cement into that portion of the reactor, meaning it could not be returned to service to produce a nuclear weapon. World powers have voiced their suspicions for years that Iran was trying to build nuclear weapons, although Tehran said its nuclear program was intended for peaceful purposes. In addition to the sanctions that shut down much of the West's trade with Iran, financial penalties imposed on the Islamic Republic "froze" or blocked at least $50 billion of the country's assets held abroad. Tehran is also now free to expand trade with other countries. Iranian President Rouhani had campaigned on a pledge to reform his country's economy. Freedom from crippling sanctions has been a key component of his pledge. Impact in U.S. But the impact of Iran's sanctions relief will be limited in the United States, said Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. "A number of sanctions on human rights, on terrorism will remain in place that will make it very difficult for companies to navigate," she said. In a Friday briefing, an administration official said the biggest impact for U.S. businesses would be in three categories. The official said one category involved food and other products, such as importing pistachios from Iran as well as Iranian carpets. The second category would be more freedom for Iran to purchase civilian aviation equipment from the United States. Third, the official said, foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies will have more freedom to engage with Iran, as long as they abide by other U.S. government requirements. Countries that have engaged in extensive trade with Iran in the past are likely to see the most benefits from Iran's sanctions relief, said Atlantic Council Iran initiative director Barbara Slavin, who spoke via Skype. These are "Asian countries, where Iran already has a lot of assets in their banks, money that has been frozen, oil revenues that have been frozen," said Slavin. She also said some European countries and Russia could benefit. "The Russians will try to sell Iran some more nuclear power plants," Slavin added. Flashpoints Remain Although implementation will open the door to some trade between the U.S. and Iran, it will not result in the U.S. overlooking other areas of concern about Tehran, said State Department spokesman Mark Toner. "None of us have rose-colored glasses on," said Toner. "None of us believe that suddenly once we reach Implementation Day that a whole new world is going to open up and we are suddenly going to cooperate with Iran." Those areas of concern include Iran's recent ballistic missile tests and its firing of rockets near a U.S. military ship in December. On Saturday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, called for sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program. There are also U.S. concerns about Iran's treatment of 10 U.S. sailors who were briefly detained after they entered Iranian waters. Iran's release of a video showing the detained sailors with their hands over their heads drew U.S. criticism from politicians, including Republican presidential candidates, many of whom cited the incident in a GOP presidential debate Thursday. Deal Still Opposed The deal was widely panned by Republicans and some Democrats, and the agreement has been brought up repeatedly on the campaign trail. Some U.S. presidential candidates have vowed to undo U.S. participation in the agreement, if elected -- a move that Davenport said could prove to be difficult, if the first year of compliance goes well. "If there are no violations and the deal is seen to be working -- to be preventing Iran from moving toward a nuclear weapon -- then I think it will be much more difficult for a president to justify moving out of the deal," she said. There is also concern about the deal on Capitol Hill. The U.S. House of Representatives voted on a measure Wednesday that would have prevented President Barack Obama from lifting some Iran-related sanctions. However, lawmakers then revoked their vote and scheduled another vote on the provision in late January. Any U.S. move to unilaterally undercut the agreement would be viewed poorly by the other world powers involved in the agreement, said Davenport. "If the U.S. sabotaged the deal unilaterally, I think we would be out on a limb by ourselves," she said. Compliance Monitoring A senior administration official said that since Oct. 18, Iran had shipped about 25,000 pounds of enriched nuclear material to Russia, reducing its nuclear stockpile by 98 percent and reducing its number of centrifuges by two-thirds. Those steps and others have reduced Iran's "breakout time" for developing a nuclear weapon from two months to about a year, according to the official. The official also said Iran had agreed to "unprecedented monitoring" of its nuclear program for years to come. Slavin said Tehran's compliance, in the long run, would depend on its "threat perceptions." "It will depend on whether there is proliferation around them, whether the Saudis try to get nuclear weapons," she said. A baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii, was infected by the Zika virus, U.S. health officials said Saturday. It's the state's first known case of the mosquito-borne virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects in thousands of babies born recently in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. Health authorities said the child's mother had lived in Brazil until May 2015. They suspected she was infected during her early pregnancy, with the virus reaching the embryo and damaging its developing brain. The microcephaly virus, which causes unusually small skull and brain development, is believed to be transmitted by a mosquito that has bitten an infected human. Symptoms of the illness include mild fever, joint pain and skin rash. North Korea is making "slow progress" in building an experimental light water reactor at its nuclear site in Yongbyon, the website 38 North claimed last week. The website, which is run by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S., concluded the facility is "edging closer to becoming operational." It offered two reasons based on satellite images taken on Jan. 11. First, "the completion of two channels that will feed water into a cistern connected to the reactor's pump house for its cooling system" and second the completion of the reactor's electric transformer yard with the installation of two new transformers." "However, predicting when construction will finish and [the reactor] will be become operational has proven to be difficult," the website admitted. The exterior seems to have been completed last October, but it "remains unclear whether the North has succeeded in fabricating the fuel assemblies necessary to power the reactor." Once completed, the facility could help the North produce much-needed electricity and lead to the construction of further reactors. It could also produce some fissile material for nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington said analysis of the satellite images suggests the North is operating its existing 5 MW graphite moderated reactor at Yongbyon at a lower power level or intermittently. Last year's satellite photos showed hot water being discharged from the reactor. But recent ones show no such discharges, the institute's David Albright, said. But he speculated that since there is no snow on the roofs of the centrifugal separator and adjunct buildings, the North probably keeps operating them to enrich uranium. The U.S. and EU on Saturday lifted sanctions against Iran that were imposed when the country aroused international suspicions of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program. The sanctions were lifted after Iran complied with an international deal limiting its nuclear program, and now the country is emerging from economic isolation for the first time since 2002. Cuba, another country that had been the target of decades of vindictive U.S.-led sanctions, is also in the process of rejoining the international community after normalizing diplomatic ties with Washington. That leaves North Korea the only isolated country under international sanctions. Unlike Iran, whose nuclear arms program was never more than a persuasive rumor avidly stoked by U.S. rightwingers and Israel, North Korea did actually carry out four nuclear tests and has vowed it will never give up its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang has even included in its constitution the possession of nuclear weapons as its sovereign right. Of course the North is unique in several ways, including being ruled by a deranged dynasty, whereas Iranians, though ultimately ruled by a band of elderly clerics, elect their leaders in an approximation of democratic process. Yet it is the radically different approach by the international community, chiefly the U.S. and China, that has led to such different results in North Korea. When suspicions arose over Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program, the UN Security Council agreed four times to impose economic sanctions on the country, and the U.S. and EU pressured Tehran with their own sanctions, which were broader than anything imposed on North Korea. A key example is the so-called "secondary boycott" which sanctions companies even in third countries that engaged in business with Iran. The net result was to suffocate Iran, which derives the bulk of its income from oil exports. The U.S. and Israel also constantly threatened military action should the sanctions prove ineffective, a very real threat until quite recently. No such threats have troubled North Korea. China is mainly responsible for blocking any really effective sanctions. Beijing is understandably worried that the North Korean regime would collapse if tough sanctions bite, removing a vital buffer against the South Korea-U.S. alliance. The U.S. is partly reluctant to lock horns with China over North Korea, but it is chiefly not that interested in the North Korean nuclear threat because the North has no oil. China continues to place higher priority on supporting the North Korean regime, and the U.S. is comfortable blaming Beijing for the ineffectiveness of sanctions. If this continues, any further sanctions against the North will be equally ineffective. That is the reality that must change before the North Korean nuclear threat can be tackled effectively. Read this article in Korean Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for AFICher has been out of the spotlight lately, but she's doing good work behind the scenes. She's teaming up with Icelandic Glacial spring water to donate more than 181 thousand bottles of water to the residents of Flint, Michigan. President Obama has declared a federal emergency in the city, where the residents haven't had clean water to drink since 2014. In April of that year, the city started drawing its water from the Flint River, rather than from Detroit. The water has since been linked to a number of serious illnesses, and this past September, a group of doctors urged the city to stop using the Flint River after finding high levels of lead in the blood of children. Cher, who'd been following the story and has been critical of Michigan's lack of response, reached out to a friend who is an investor in Icelandic Glacial. The company committed to doubling Cher's purchase, and the water -- 181,440 bottles -- will arrive at the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan on Wednesday. It will be distributed to community centers, food banks and fire houses in low-income housing areas. Calling the situation "a tragedy of staggering proportion," Cher said in a statement that it's "shocking that it's happening in the middle of our country." She adds, "I cannot wait for the water to get there to help these people who have been poisoned because the water they've been getting out of their taps has been polluted for so long and remains that way without the state or the federal government stepping in with any substantial plan to resolve this problem." Cher also tweeted, "MAYBE FELLOW ARTISTS WILL HELP FLINT, IN ANYWAY THEY CHOOSE. BIG [money], SMALL [prayers]. PPL IN 'SHOWBIZ' R NOTORIOUSLY GENEROUS& TRULY CARE ABOUT THOSE IN NEED." The diva noted on Twitter that she feels a personal connection to Michigan because her former husband and musical partner, the late Sonny Bono, was born in that state. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Obama: we have cut off every path for Iran to obtain nuclear bomb 2016-01-18 01:51 US President Barack Obama delivers a statement on Iran at the White House in Washington, January 17, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama on Sunday heralded the implementation of a nuclear deal with Iran, saying world powers had cut off every path it had to a nuclear bomb and that a prisoner swap showed what was possible with diplomacy. "This is a good day because once again we are seeing what's possible through strong American diplomacy," Obama said at the White House. "These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and with wisdom." The president said the United States still had profound differences with Iran and would continue to enforce sanctions against its ballistic missile program. He said he was hopeful the events signaled an opportunity for Iran to work more cooperatively with the rest of the world. China, Algeria to build mega sea port 2016-01-18 09:28 ALGIERS, Jan. 17, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Wen Jingfei(L), China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) representative, Zhou Sheng(C), the China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) and Director in Charge of Ports at the Algerian Transport Ministry, Mohamed Boussehaki(R) shake hands after signing the deal in Algiers, Algeria, on Jan. 17, 2016. Algeria and China on Sunday inked a 3.3-billion-U.S-dollar deal to build and exploit the new center transshipment port of Cherchell. (Xinhua) ALGIERS, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Algeria and China on Sunday inked a 3.3-billion-U.S-dollar deal to build and exploit the new center transshipment port of Cherchell. The agreement was signed between Algeria's Transport Ministry, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) in Algeria. Under the deal, the two sides will create a consortium company to build the port, some 60 km west of the capital Algiers. Creation of the company is expected to finalize later in March 2016, with the approval from the Council of State Shareholdings and the signature of its shareholding pact. The port will have 23 docks capable of processing 6.5 million 20-foot containers and 26 million tons of goods per year. According to forecasts by Algeria's Transport Ministry, port traffic in the country's central region is expected to hit 35 million tons or two million 20-foot containers per year by 2050. The project is planned to complete within seven years, and gradually put into service within four years with China's Shanghai Ports Group ensuring its management. Bringing in Shanghai Port Group "would help driving international shipment traffic coming from the Southeast Asia and other continents to pass from this Center Port, under transshipment process to continue sea transport to elsewhere, or use the Algerian highway and railway networks to carry shipments to Africa," said Algerian Transport Minister Boudjemaa Talai. Wen Jingfei, CHEC representative at the signing ceremony, told Xinhua that this project is important not only for Algeria but for the whole Mediterranean region and Africa. He said the Algerian government has wanted to build this mega Central Harbor for many years, and it has positioned it as a transit port at the Mediterranean area that will provide service to North Africa and Europe. Algeria's landlocked neighbors such as Mali also need a port like this, he added. Zhou Sheng, the CSCEC representative said the agreement will be a milestone in the history of Algeria, a country that is facing a rare difficult period due to the slumping. "The Algerian government selected Chinese companies to build this project regarding the traditional friendship between the two nations and strong bilateral relationship in political, economic and cultural fields," he said. Spotlight: China, Iran to expect more robust cooperation in post-sanctions era 2016-01-18 09:29 by Xinhua Writer Mu Dong TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- When we mention Iran, people tend to think of the exquisite Persian carpets and brilliant colorful miniatures. Actually, Iran also played a role as an important connection of the ancient Silk Road between China and Europe, between the East and the West. Friendly exchanges between China and Iran started thousands of years ago and never stopped afterwards. In the future, China-Iran friendship is believed to go further and deeper through the "belt and road" initiative. The initiative was proposed by the Chinese government in 2013. It refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which envisages the linking of development strategies of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa. Back to the 2nd century BC, the ancient silk road opened a business channel linking China to Europe. As an important country along the road, contacts between the two were established. Thousands of years afterwards, the friendship between China and Iran has become more and more solid. In 1971, China and Iran established diplomatic ties and the dialogues and exchanges between the two sides have entered a new era. With a series of high-level exchanges over the past decades, friendship and cooperation between the two countries have been further strengthened. During that period, the two countries have attached great importance to exchanges between their peoples, a solid foundation for mutually beneficial cooperation. It's believed that in the future the two countries will continue to maintain high-level exchanges and continuously enhance mutual trust, strengthen pragmatic cooperation and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability. At the same time, bilateral economic and trade exchanges and cooperation have been continuously strengthened. In 1991, the trade volume between China and Iran was only 313 million U.S. dollars, but after 20 years economic and trade cooperation has seen rapid development. In 2014, bilateral trade volume reached 50 billion dollars. Currently, nearly 100 Chinese companies are active in various sectors in Iran, such as infrastructure construction, high-tech, telecommunication, chemicals, petroleum and natural gas. In July last year, a comprehensive agreement on the Iran's nuclear issue was reached, giving Iran an opportunity to experience faster development after the West lifting sanction on the country. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani noted last September in New York during a meeting there with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Iran cherishes friendly relations with China and, under the new situation, Iran is willing to work closely with China to deepen the strategic long-term cooperation in the areas of economy, trade and energy and push bilateral relations forward. On the same occasion, President Xi stressed that China is willing to focus on promoting Iran's infrastructure projects and expand cooperation in railways, highways, automobile manufacturing, electricity, construction machinery, high-tech and environmental protection, with the priority to promoting energy and financial cooperation. As the leaders pointed out, China is restructuring its economy while Iran is entering a new period of development. The belt and road initiative will serve as a bridge linking Iran's needs for foreign investment with China's demands to enlarge overseas market. With such a solid foundation for win-win cooperation, people can believe that the initiative will help strengthen investment, trade and technological cooperation between Iran and China. In addition, the initiative will bring about significant growth opportunities for the two countries so as to deepen traditional friendship between the Chinese and the Iranians and usher in a brighter future for their mutually beneficial cooperation. Boonie Bears sequel sets rare record From:chinadaily.com.cn | 2016-01-18 15:29 A still shot from Boonie Bears III. [Photo/Mtime] It is one of the highest-grossing animated franchises in China, but Boonie Bears has recently created a new box-office record with sneak previews of its latest sequel.The upcoming installment, Boonie Bears III, has grossed a record 25 million yuan($3.79 million) in a three-day test release, a frequently used means to test the market reaction. Usually the test screening is done for around two to three weeks ahead of the nationwide release. The results are then used to decide the first weekend's screenings and promotional strategies. Adapted from its namesake animated TV series, the Boonie Bears is the story of two bears' bid to protect their habitat from a vicious lumberjack. The sequel, which is to be released on Jan 16, takes the story further. In it, the bears' friends are captured and sold to a circus troupe. The bears then seek to rescue the kidnapped animals. Ding Liang, the director, says the sequel's inspiration came from a national study. "According to data, up to 90 percent of Chinese children are mainly educated by their mothers. They are good students with high scores, but lack the courage to take up challenges and adventures," says Ding. Ding hopes the animated title will encourage young viewers to be bolder. He also says that the crew traveled to Russia and Las Vegas to learn about circus animals. Taiwan pop star Chyi Chin sings the film's theme song The Outside World. Related: Kung Fu Panda 3 premieres in California The Revenant leads Oscar nomination with 12 nods The latest advisory comes in the view of a martial law imposed by Putin in parts of Ukraine. #DP DP bristles at prosecution probes targeting top officials of previous administration The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) strongly protested prosecution investigations that led to arrest warrant requests for former top officials of the previous Moon Jae-in gov... #MLB Padres' Kim Ha-seong singles, scores in NLCS win The San Diego Padres' South Korean shortstop Kim Ha-seong singled and scored a run in his club's first victory in the National League Championship Series (NLCS). Batting seventh... Go Girls! Leave the men (and the kids) at home and make a break for some serious fun in the great Irish outdoors. Make waves on a surfing trip, beat a path around a mountain or zip it up with some high wire acts! Here are some great girlie outdoor breaks in Ireland but for lots more ideas check out www.discoverireland.ie @discoverirl Make Waves in Waterford Aloha girls! Make waves and splash out on some fun surfing with expert instructors from Oceanics Surf School in the beautiful Tramore in Co. Waterford, one of the best surfing spots on the Copper Coast. Keep an eye out for confirmation of dates for the Oceanics annual Ladies surfing weekend taking place later this year where surfing, yoga and cocktails are all expected to be part of this super fun weekend. Bond in Ballyhoura Escape for a bonding breather to beautiful Ballyhoura, an area of unspoilt landscape and thrilling outdoor activities spanning counties Tipperary, Limerick and Cork. Saddle up at Ballyhoura Horse Trails Equestrian Centre near the picturesque village of Kilfinane for some mountain trekking or explore one of the areas challenging cycle trails. Make it a home from home and book a magical woodland cabin with Forest Holiday Homes in Ballyorgan, the perfect base for fun girlie adventure. Beat a path to the Blackstairs Brush away the cobwebs and forage for food on a spectacular guided eco adventure with Blackstairs Eco Trails near Borris in Co. Carlow. This fun adventure will bring you around stunning Mount Leinster and along the gentle River Barrow tow paths. You will learn to make wild garlic pesto which you can wash down with delicious home-made sloe gin. On your bike Saddle up for great girlie fun on a Clifden Cycle Hub trail set between the rugged peaks of the Twelve Bens and the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean in Connemara. The 16 kilometres Sky Road Loop promises spectacular views of Inishturk Island and Clifden town. Dive into the Burren Discover a fascinating underwater world snorkelling the Flaggy Shore (made famous in the Seamus Heaney poem Spirit Level) in Co. Clare with the Burren Outdoor Education Centre. The waters here are teeming with starfish, scuttling crabs and waving seaweed. Enjoy a capital raft Splash out and explore Dublin from a completely different angle - rafting down the River Liffey through the beautiful Strawberry Beds. Taking around two-and-a-half hours, you navigate four weirs as you flow downriver, passing stunning wildlife and discovering some intriguing history on the way. Zip-it in Louth Round up the girls and reach new heights swinging, screaming and climbing as you release your inner Jane at Skypark Zip Line Trekking Park at Carlingford Adventure Centre in Co. Louth. If that is not enough excitement for you sign up for more thrills canoeing, kayaking, windsurfing or rock-climbing in this beautiful part of the North East. Map your way to Kilkenny You dont have to be queens to tackle the new orienteering courses around the magnificent grounds of medieval Kilkenny Castle. If you dont get lost along the way make your way afterwards to the Kilkenny Design Shop based in the old castle stables across the road for some retail therapy. For lots more girlie getaway ideas check out www.discoverireland.ie @discoverirl Join our efforts to get the IRS out of Israel, and other countries! The great rural walls of China Updated: 2016-01-18 11:04 By Ma Si(China Daily) Slogan-styled Taobao.com advertisement on a wall in Wantou village of Binzhou, Shandong province. [Photo/China Daily] Five years ago, when Hu Wei, 40, founded Cuncunle.com, an online-to-offline creative services startup, he never imagined e-commerce giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com would one day make a beeline for him. But, as China's Internet majors scramble to expand their presence in the country's vast rural areas, firms with village connections like Cuncunle.com are in great demand. "We help companies do marketing in the countryside by leveraging our 10 million rural users," Hu said. Last year, the company painted over 7 million square meters of village walls with advertisements. "For JD alone, we painted over 10,000 walls." The company relies on crowd-sourcing. It has built webpages for each of China's 640,000 villages. Thus, it has established a humongous online community comprising rural residents. Using Cuncunle.com, they showcase their lives and communicate with each other. And when the website posts wall-painting jobs, they undertake them. They paint walls closest to their houses. One wall will help them earn 50 yuan ($7.6) to 200 yuan. Cuncunle.com is not a one-of-its-kind website. To be sure, there are others who are capitalizing on Internet companies' desire to go rural. But what makes Cuncunle.com stand out is its self-developed mobile app. The app enables users to take pictures of the painted walls, and indicate the time and location of the painting. To ensure ads get enough exposure before being replaced, the app requires users to take another photo of the same wall a month later. "With a large user base and an effective performance tracking system, we are the largest platform in China that can swiftly execute promotion campaigns in villages, which are traditionally hard to reach," Hu said. Cuncunle.com is already profitable, Hu said, but declined to share its financials. Cuncunle is now trying to go beyond community building and wall painting. It wants to meet every need of its rural users whom it considers the most valuable asset that gives it its competitive edge. "Rural residents' top priority is to make money while staying at home. They have abundant energy and time. What they lack are ideas and good projects. That's exactly where we come in," Hu said. To tap its users' talents, the company has developed a system of "virtual village heads", who voluntarily run the official webpage of his or her village and organize offline marketing activities. "Currently, we have 300, 000 virtual village heads who are eager to put good business projects into practice," Hu said. Most of them are either village officers or people with a business sense, like owners of grocery stores. Cuncunle recently rolled out a project for rural residents aimed at bringing them high-quality products. As part of the project, it helped chemical and fertilizer companies to find sales partners in villages. Now, the companies supply products directly from factories to them. "Rural markets have long been plagued by fake products because items must go through layers and layers of distributors and retailers before reaching consumers in the countryside. Even e-commerce can not solve the problem due to poor logistics infrastructure," said Tan Naixun, an industry analyst at consultancy Analysys International. Lv Minghe is a beneficiary of the project. The virtual head of Beiduan village in Hebei province made about 10,000 yuan by selling chemicals and fertilizers in September, about three times the salary he earned while working at a small manufacturing company in a town. Now the 29-year-old and his several fellow villagers are applying to be a team of Cuncunle's entrepreneurship initiative which helps rural residents start businesses by offering ideas, mentoring and commercial resources. "Cuncunle opened a new door for me. I never expected to access so many business opportunities in the countryside," he said. But in the eyes of Hu, Cuncunle's business strategies are all inspired by its users. "They often surprise us by coming up with new demands, which prompted us to branch out into new directions," he said. Cuncunle is now discussing with several banks plans to use its social networking data to measure its users' creditworthiness, so as to simplify rural financing. Sail Ma, a researcher at Peking University, said the company's crowdsourcing model is an effective way to boost rural productivity. But he also warned that "Cuncunle's users vary considerably in abilities and their willingness to enforce contracts. If its user base continues to grow, some disputes may occur. How to manage such risks will be key to its future growth". We want your comments and your story tips! geniusofdespair@yahoo.com (use ALL caps in subject line) afarago@bellsouth.net. Actually I never look at my email, Genius, so write to Gimleteye. give $2.3 Million to Florida legislative campaigns If what they are doing is so righteous, why did Florida Power and Light (FPL)(Miami Herald)? They do want a massive rate hike, but...I imagine they are flooding the legislature with campaign contributions -- to keep you in the dark! I would like to take the time to thank you for being a voice for the voiceless and speaking for Floridas Black Bears. I was a check station monitor and it was truly the hardest thing I have ever had to endure. During my time at station #21 in the Ocala National Forest, I recorded 11 lactating females and 1 cub brought in; there were bears that the FWC promised would be protected and they did nothing. As a lifelong educator, I work hard to teach my students that Floridas unique ecosystem is truly our treasure and more valuable than strip malls or condominiums. I work to show them that we can strike a balance between our communities and those of our wild neighbors. I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to show my students that there are caring people in our government who also see the value of wild lands and animals. Sincerely, Thomas Allison Ocala, Fl Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest and South Miami have passed resolutions opposing future Bear hunts in Florida. Florida Fish and Wildlife instituted and supported the hunts and plans to repeat the fiasco next year.This thank you letter to Cindy Lerner, the Mayor of Pinecrest says it best:In less than 2 days in October 295 bears were killed by hunters. Disgusting.A big thank you goes out to Palmetto Bay, Pinecrest and South Miami for being humane to our wildlife. Now everyone contact Fish and Wildlife. Having trouble viewing? View this mailing online. SUBSCRIBE TO THE FLAME HOTLINE DONATE TO FLAME FORWARD TO A FRIEND January 19, 2016 The West levels Ramadi in order to save itbut where's the outrage we saw regarding Gaza? Dear Friend of Israel: On December 29, Iraqi army forces, backed by heavy U.S.-led air support, finally seized ISIS' military headquarters in Ramadi, marking the end of a three-month campaign to recapture the city, which had been lost to ISIS back in May. Unfortunately, according to the al Jazeera news agency, "the victory would appear as a loss, as the Iraqi state won back Ramadi, but utterly devastated the city in the process." As you'll read in this week's FLAME Hotline featured article, more than half the city of Ramadi has been destroyed, most of that residential, which could amount to as many as 40,000 destroyed homes in this city that once housed more than 450,000 residents. So far neither Western news media, nor Western politicians nor the U.N. Human Rights Council have raised an objection to this devastation of civilian habitats, let alone any accusations of war crimes. This, of course, is in stark contrast to reporting on the damage caused in 2014 Gaza war , which was initiated by Hamas terrorists shooting more than 3,000 missiles at Israel within a few months prior to that war's start. For example, the UK Independent newspaper reported that "more than 20,000 homes are estimated to have been rendered uninhabitable by shelling and air strikes that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed targeted only 'terrorist' sites used by Hamas for military purposes." As you'll see in the article below, that number is a substantial exaggeration probably by a factor of 100 percent. There's also no mention in the Independent report that Hamas terrorists were embedded among Gaza City's residential buildings, just as ISIS fighters were in Ramadi. More telling was the New York Times, summarizing a U.N. Human Rights Council report on the Gaza war, which notes that in six cases of residential building damage in Gaza City following Israeli aerial bombing, the U.N. panel "found little or no information to explain why residential buildings 'which are prima facie civilian objects immune from attack, were considered to be legitimate military objectives.'" Yes, residential buildings are indeed "prima facie civilian objects," and under normal warfare conditions they might indeed be considered inappropriate military targets. Tell that to the U.S. Air Force , which led the bombings of Ramadi, and to the Iraqi soldiers who no doubt fired thousands of rocket-propelled grenades into Ramadi residential buildings to clean out nests of embedded ISIS militants. I doubt that these coalition forces courteously dropped warning notes on Ramadi homesas Israel did obsessively in Gazabefore they leveled them with heavy armaments More importantly, I seriously doubt we'll be reading any New York Times or U.N. outrage about the illegitimacy of American or Iraqi conduct in the Ramadi victory. For a better understanding of the hypocrisy of Western politicians and media regarding the disparate treatment of Israel during the 2014 Gaza war and the U.S.-led devastation in Ramadi, please take just a few minutes to read commentator Evelyn Gordon's incisive article below. This piece will better equip you to expose the double standards we see regarding Israel almost on a daily basis in American and world press, as well as among self-righteous politicians and pundits. Please take a minute to review this brief analysis, then pass it on to your friends and colleagues who may benefit from it. I hope you'll also review the P.S. immediately below, which describes FLAME's hasbarah campaign to explain how the mainstream media unfairly fail to make the obvious connection between Islamist terrorism in France, the U.S. and worldwide with terror attacks in Israel. Best regards, Jim Sinkinson Executive Vice President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME) P.S. Just a few months ago, the world was shattered by the attacks against innocent civilians in Paris (and then again in San Bernardino), just as we Israel advocates continue to be unnerved by the so-called "knife intifada" being carried out against innocents in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel. Yet the press has been unable to connect the dots between this tale of three cities. That's why FLAME is now publishing a new position paper in media nationwidewhich explains how the Paris terrorists' motivation is precisely the same as that of the terrorists in Israel. I urge you to preview this outspoken hasbarah message today: "Paris. Jerusalem." This hard-hitting paid editorial appears in magazines and newspapers, including college newspapers, with a combined readership of some 10 million people. In addition, it has been sent to every member of the U.S. Congress and President Obama. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel's behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. Remember: FLAME's powerful ability to influence public opinion comes from individuals like you, one by one. I hope you'll consider giving a donation now, as you're ablewith $500, $250, $100, or even $18. (Remember, your donation to FLAME is tax deductible.) To donate online, just go to donate now. Now more than ever we need your support to ensure that Israel gets the support it needsfrom the U.S. Congress, from President Obama, and from the American people. As of today, more than 15,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. If you're not yet a subscriber, won't you join us in receiving these timely updates, so you can more effectively tell the truth about Israel ? Just go to free subscription. Ramadi, Gaza, and Western hypocrisy by Evelyn Gordon, Commentary During the Hamas-Israel war of 2014, both Obama Administration officials and their European counterparts repeatedly accused Israel of excessive force over the "massive" destruction of civilian property in Gaza. But if those officials retain even a shred of intellectual integrity, the recent devastation of Ramadi during a joint Western/Iraqi effort to retake the city leaves them only two options: either hand themselves over to the International Criminal Court as suspected war criminals, or publicly apologize to Israel for all the slurs they hurled at it over far less extensive damage. As the New York Times reported last week, the successful recapture of Ramadi from the Islamic State left the city "in ruins." Reporter Ben Hubbard described one neighborhood as "a panorama of wreckage so vast that it was unclear where the original buildings had stood." The city has no electricity or running water, and "Many streets had been erased or remained covered in rubble or blocked by trenches used in the fighting." When Hubbard asked an Iraqi officer how residents would return to their homes, the officer replied, "Homes? There are no homes." Indeed, a different Iraqi officer told the Associated Press "that more than half of the city's buildings have been destroyed, including government offices, markets, and houses." This is devastation orders of magnitude greater than what Gaza suffered. According to UN figures, 9,465 homes in Gaza were completely destroyed and another 9,644 badly damaged, out of a total of roughly 319,000 (the latter figure is my own calculation based on official Palestinian statistics: Dividing Gaza's total population of 1.82 million by its average household size of 5.7 people gives you 319,000 households). Thus even according to the UN - which traditionally exaggerates Palestinian casualties and damage - only about 6 percent of Gaza's homes were destroyed or badly damaged. That's a far cry from "more than half of the city" in Ramadi. But the reasons for the destruction, in both places, are no less significant than its scope. One, as Hubbard noted, is the inherent difficulty "of dislodging a group that stitches itself into the urban fabric of communities it seizes by occupying homes, digging tunnels, and laying extensive explosives." In Ramadi, he reported, Islamic State built tunnels under the streets and planted explosives in roads and buildings. Indeed, "Entire areas are considered no-go zones because they have yet to be searched for booby traps left by the jihadists." These are the same tactics Hamas used in Gaza: Tunnels, booby traps, and weapons stockpiles were placed in and under civilian buildings on a massive scale. On July 30, 2014, for instance, three Israeli soldiers were killed by "an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic that housed a tunnel entry shaft," the Times of Israel reported. At the same press briefing where those deaths were announced, an Israeli officer said Hamas had thus far detonated more than 1,000 bombs, destroying "thousands of buildings" in Gaza. As an example, he cited a street the army searched the previous night in which 19 out of 28 buildings were booby-trapped. But in Gaza, both the Obama administration and European officials blamed Israel for the ensuing destruction. In Ramadi, in contrast, both American and Iraqi officials quite sensibly "placed blame for the city's destruction on the jihadists, who mined roads and buildings." The other factor in Ramadi's devastation was airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition. As AP reported, these strikes "smashed large parts of the city into rubble." Nor is that surprising: When a target area is extensively booby-trapped, even precision airstrikes often cause greater-than-expected damage, because the attacking force can't know which buildings are wired with explosives, and hitting a wired building will set off massive secondary explosions. Yet airstrikes are unavoidable when fighting militants entrenched in a sea of tunnels and booby-trapped buildings, because using ground troops alone would result in unacceptably high losses for the attacking force. Consequently, a Pentagon spokesman correctly blamed Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) for the damage to Ramadi: "One hundred percent of this is on ISIL because no one would be dropping any bombs if ISIL hadn't gone in there," Colonel Steven H. Warren told Hubbard. Yet in Gaza, both the Obama Administration and European officials largely blamed the damage on Israel rather than Hamas, even though Israeli airstrikes were employed for the exact same reason, sometimes caused greater-than-expected damage for the exact same reason, and obviously wouldn't have been launched at all had Hamas not attacked Israel to begin with. Indeed, Israel's airstrikes were arguably far more justified than America's were: Islamic State wasn't firing missiles at America from Ramadi or digging attack tunnels into American territory from Ramadi. In contrast, Hamas had fired thousands of rockets at Israel from Gaza over the previous decade and dug dozens of cross-border attack tunnels, including one that notoriously emerged right next to a kindergarten. Ramadi, incidentally, is far from the only example of the way the Obama Administration and Europe hold Israel to a double standard. On Monday, the Elder of Ziyon blog highlighted another one: According to the Herald Scotland, "The British government is refusing to accept evidence of civilian fatalities in UK air strikes from human rights groups monitoring the results of bombing raids" in Syria and Iraq; instead, it relies exclusively on "evidence from its own internal surveillance." But that same government uncritically accepted NGO reports saying that almost 70 percent of Palestinian casualties in Gaza were civilian, even though Israel scrupulously investigated those reports and found that in reality, about half the casualties were documented members of either Hamas' military wing or smaller terrorist organizations like Islamic Jihad. I don't really expect any Obama Administration or European official to admit to having unjustly criticized Israel during the Gaza war. But any fair-minded person comparing the devastation of Ramadi to that in Gaza should reach the same conclusion a group of high-ranking Western military experts did in a comprehensive report issued last month: that during the Gaza war, Israel "met and in some respects exceeded the highest standards we set for our own nations' militaries." HOME SUBSCRIBE DONATE PR FOR ISRAEL HOTLINE ARCHIVE ABOUT CONTACT US THIS MONTH'S AD APPEARED IN PUBLICATIONS REACHING 10 MILLION READERS IF YOU SUPPORT PUBLISHING FLAME'S BOLD PR MESSAGES, PLEASE HELP US!! FLAME is the only organization that defends Israel with paid editorial hasbarah messages placed in media nationwide every month: The dire threats from Iran, Hamas and Hizbollah, the injustice of BDS, Palestinian anti-Semitism and more. If you support a bold voice that tells the truth about Israel in American media, please donate now. FLAME'S WEEKLY HOTLINE E-NEWSLETTER FLAME's Hotline e-newsletter keeps you up to date on the most important pro-Israel advocacy issues and features our choice of the week's most informative and thought-provoking article on Israel and the Middle East. If you only subscribe to one pro-Israel news service, make it the FLAME Hotline. Facts and Logic About the Middle East PO Box 50359 San Francisco, CA 94159 Copyright 2016 FLAME. All rights reserved. It was, for a few brief moments, the wild, wild east. A haredi mob leaving a hasidic rebbes Shabbat tisch on the edge of the uber-haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim Friday night reportedly attacked a large group of IDF soldiers who were themselves on their way to a Shabbat meal in a prominent haredi kiruv rabbi's home. Above: (File photo) Haredim throwing stones at police in Mea Shearim, July 2011 Haredi Mob Attacks 80 IDF Soldiers In Jerusalem Shmarya Rosenberg FailedMessiah.com It was, for a few brief moments, the wild, wild east. A haredi mob leaving a hasidic rebbes Shabbat tisch essentially a gathering for hasidim in which the rebbe eats a meal and leaves leftovers on his plate for the hasidim, who vie to grab them and eat them, believing the rebbe has made them holy by elevating the divine sparks in the food on the edge of the uber-haredi Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim Friday night reportedly attacked a large group of IDF soldiers. According to a report in Yeshiva World based on the reporting of the Israeli haredi news website Kikar HaShabbat, about 80 soldiers were walking on Shmuel HaNavi Street in Yerushalayim on Friday night when the haredim leaving the tisch noticed them and attacked without provocation. A female soldier was struck in the with a projectile, but did not require hospitalization. Other residents of the neighborhood saw what was happening and intervened to stop the attack because, Yeshiva World reported, they did not want to stand by and let the soldiers get attacked because that would give the haredi community and Judaism a bad name. The soldiers were reportedly on their way to a Shabbat meal in the home of the Machlis family, which has been known for decades in the kiruv (haredi missionary outreach) community for hosting dozens of secular overseas college students for Shabbat meals each week. Rabbi Machlis reportedly told the soldiers the attackers do not represent the majority of the haredi community. Three months after Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum was killed in Beershebas bus station by a Bedouin security guard, members of Israels security services, and a Jewish mob all of whom allegedly mistook him for a terrorist newly-obtained security camera footage shows Zarhum lay critically wounded on the floor and gasping for breath for 18 minutes without being helped by Magen David Adom, Israels version of the Red Cross, even though Magen David Adom was at the scene 10 minutes before Zarhum was shot and beaten. Above: Haftom Zarhum Shame: Eritrean Asylum Seeker Mistaken For Terrorist And Killed Lay Untreated For 18 Minutes After Security Forces Shot Him, New Video Shows Shmarya Rosenberg FailedMessiah.com Three months after Eritrean asylum seeker Haftom Zarhum was killed in Beershebas bus station by a Bedouin security guard, members of Israels security services, and a Jewish mob all of whom allegedly mistook him for a terrorist security camera footage newly-obtained by Haaretz shows Zarhum lay critically wounded on the floor for 18 minutes without being helped by Magen David Adom, Israels version of the Red Cross, even though Magen David Adom was at the scene 10 minutes before Zarhum was shot and beaten. At the conclusion of a terror attack in the bus station on October 18 that killed an IDF soldier and wounded 18 other people, three members of Israels security services mistook Zarhum who was unarmed and unthreatening for one of the terrorists. Following what amounted to shoot to kill orders from Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and from top defense and security agency brass, the security forces shot the unarmed man, firing from a distance outside the terminal, likely because he was dark-skinned and looked foreign. Zarhum is hit and then is quickly shot again by a Bedouin security guard. Some of those shots hit Zarhum while lying on the floor incapacitated. He is then almost immediately savagely kicked and beaten by a Jewish mob. Nine people can be seen in the video beating Zarhum. To date, only four of them have been indicted. Zarhum lays on the floor in agony bleeding profusely and struggling to breathe. The Jewish mob, including some soldiers, attacks with. Zarhum is hit with a rifle butt to his head, savage kicks to his body and head, and a chair is thrown at him. An Israel Prison Service officer hits Zarhum repeatedly with a heavy bench. He was also spat on and photographed by onlookers. Four minutes after he was shot the actual terrorist emerges from a bathroom where he had been hiding and fires more shots, which can be heard by the mob. But the mob does not stop beating Zarhum. All this time, Magen David Adom does not treat him or bring him to a hospital, in part likely because police and Magen David Adom have made a decision to treat the victims of the attack first before treating the terrorists. But as so often happens in chaotic situations like this, who is and who is not a terrorist isnt always clear, and the innocent Zarhum suffered in agony. It took 16 minutes from the time Zarhum was shot for a policeman to actually check Zarhum to see if he had explosives or a weapon. Only after that did Magen David Adom treat Zarhum and evacuate him. The Israel Prison Service officer who hit Zarhum with a bench was not charged because, despite the video clearly showing the bench being used to hurt Zarhum, state prosecutors chose to accept the Israel Prison Service officers clearly false claim he used the bench to keep the mob away from Zarhum. A policeman is seen kicking Zarhum as he lay under bench slammed on him by the Israel Prison Service officer. An onlooker in a yellow shirt tries to stop him, but the cop pushes the man away, causing the man in the yellow shirt to fall down. The yellow-shirted man gets up and fights off the mob that was trying to smash Zarhum. He was pushed and hit by the mob but refused to back down. Magen David Adom claims security officials in the bus station thought that Zarhum was the terrorist and prevented Magen David Adom from treating him. As soon as security personnel allowed it to approach Zarhum, Magen David Adom reportedly said, Zarhum was among the first to be evacuated. Physicians for Human Rights lashed out the political atmosphere that caused the tragedy and at Magen David Adom for its behavior. Despite the promise of the director of Magen David Adom that treatment is based on medical considerations alone, without judging the wounded for their actions preceding their injury, the teams on the ground are influenced by the public atmosphere. The statements of irresponsible politicians are eroding medical ethics. We cannot ignore the deterioration in ethics and values, from which the medical community is not immune. We shouldn't think that these are only isolated cases, or that a promise by the directors is enough to prevent its repetition," it told Haaretz. Several prominent Israeli Orthodox rabbis have called on Magen David Adom not to treat downed terrorists and on security forces to shoot to kill. And if the terrorist is downed and disabled but not dead, some of these rabbis have called on security forces or passing civilians to murder them. An autopsy conducted by the state claims to show that Zarhum was killed only by the security guard's bullets, not by any injuries inflicted by the mob a claim many observers believe to be false. Related Posts: All Haftom Zarhum Killing Posts. iStock/Thinkstock(DANVILLE, Ohio) A police officer in Danville, Ohio, was killed Sunday night and a suspect is in custody, according to the Knox County Sheriff's news statement. A Danville woman called authorities around 11:20 p.m. ET and told them her ex-boyfriend, Herschel Ray Jones, had left with weapons and was looking to kill an officer, the statement said. Dispatch personnel tried to make contact with the Danville officer but were unsuccessful. Authorities from Knox County Sheriff's Office searched the village before finding Police Officer Thomas Cottrell on the ground behind the Danville Municipal Building. He was dead. Officials saw Cottrell's service weapon and vehicle were missing, they said. A man was observed running from a residence at about 1:36 a.m. ET, police said. After a short chase on foot, the suspect was identified as Herschel Jones III and was taken into custody, police added. Officers from the Knox County Sheriffs Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are investigating the incident. Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. BUENOS AIRES, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Argentina has lowered soybean import barriers, the government said on Monday, in a move aimed at increasing exports of soymeal livestock feed and soyoil at a time when processing plants in the country have an idle capacity of 30 percent. The decision was the latest free-market reform brought by President Mauricio Macri, who was elected in November on promises of revitalizing the ailing economy. The previous government had put up bureaucratic barriers to imports from neighboring soybean producing countries like Paraguay and Brazil. The policy affected global exporters like Bunge and Cargill, which operate in the region. "When the result is exportable soyoil, soymeal or pellets (processed livestock feed), soybean imports will not have to be registered with the Register of authorized Soy Operators (ROSA)," said a resolution published by the government. Argentina is the world's top exporter of soyoil and soymeal, and its No. 3 supplier of soybeans. (Reporting by Maximiliano Rizzi; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli) bernie sanders Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) criticized NBC moderator Andrea Mitchell for a question about former President Bill Clinton's White House sex scandal. During the Sunday-night Democratic debate, Sanders saying recently that the former president's indiscretions were "totally disgraceful and unacceptable." And he was irritated that Mitchell even asked about it. "That question annoys me," Sanders said. Sanders complained that the media put too much pressure on him to attack the former secretary of state. "I can't walk down the street Secretary Clinton knows this without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton. Want me to get on the front page of the paper? I make some vicious attack. I have avoided doing that, trying to run an issue-oriented campaign." "You didn't have to answer it that way, though," Mitchell said, referring to Sanders answer about Bill Clinton's indiscretions. "Then if I don't answer it, that's another front-page story," Sanders responded. He added: "His behavior was deplorable. Have I ever said one word about that issue? No I have not. I'm going to debate Secretary Clinton and Governor O'Malley on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clinton's behavior." NOW WATCH: Here's who was leading the polls in January in the past three election years none of them made it to November More From Business Insider IRVINE, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2016 / Dr. Ihab Emil Hawary DDS, a leading practitioner of dentistry, announces that he is opening up additional dental services to his patients. Ihab Emil Hawary of Irvine, California demonstrates expert skill in all areas. His office, "Art of Dentistry Institute", has given top rated care, time and time again. With outstanding accomplishments, such as an Accreditation from AACD, Dr. Ihab Hawary, proves to be one of the finest dentists in America. Though the occasional procedure is often necessary to maintain a brilliant smile, most people still find themselves hesitate to get the care they need due to fear and discomfort. However, Dr. Hawary has managed to find a way to provide choice comfort which can ease the nerves of any hesitate patient. From Veneers to Crowns, Dr. Hawary can care for the needs of every patient. Anyone who finds themselves under the care of Dr. Hawary will be surrounded by soothing staff and a more than qualified dentist. Dr. Hawary has several, highly qualifying accomplishments under his belt. On top of being the founder of California Smile Design Dental Group, Dr. Ihab Hawary is one of the few who have achieved Accreditation from the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (AACD). With only 266 other Accredited dentists across the globe, Dr. Hawary has earned himself a place among the best. After achieving this prestigious standing he continued to prove his expertise by acquiring several gold medals from AACD for his work. With so many outstanding accomplishments it leaves little wonder as to how Dr. Hawary's office, "Art of Dentistry Institute", (located in Irvine California) can offer the top results. Throughout the years, Dr. Ihab Hawary has made quite a name for himself in the field of Dentistry. With proficient skills and expertise, he continues to provide quality care for all individuals, regardless of dental problems. Fixing smiles is what this savant is best at; as such, he offers quick, painless and outstanding work that is affordable to all people. Through the acceptance of CareCredit, many families and individuals find his office to be fiscally convenient. Thanks to a vast choice of other financial options, Dr. Ihab Hawary's office proves to be the highest quality and the most frugal option for every person. Story continues For more information or to schedule an appointment: Contact: www.artofdentistryinstitute.com call 949-955-3366 SOURCE: The Art of Dentistry Institute A customer is served at a counter at a foreign exchange store in Hong Kong, China, August 13, 2015. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/Files By Pete Sweeney and Samuel Shen SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's yuan rose on Monday as the central bank announced a fresh move to deter offshore speculation in the currency, while stocks rebounded modestly from near levels last seen at the depths of last year's summer crash. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would start implementing a reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on offshore banks' domestic deposits, in a move that seemed intended to soak up additional liquidity. "The market sees that this is a gesture by the PBOC to warn speculators that are betting on a fast depreciation of its currency," said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist for Asia at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. A turbulent start to 2016, with currency and stock markets tumbling, has stoked concerns that Beijing's policymakers are in danger of fumbling as China heads towards its slowest growth in 25 years. Beijing will release GDP data for 2015 on Tuesday. Global markets have also tumbled in January, with Asian shares sliding on Monday to their lowest levels since 2011 following weak U.S. economic data and sharp falls in oil prices. Ever-contrary, China's notoriously volatile stock markets opened sharply lower on Monday but reversed course to buck the global trend, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index and the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen both edging up 0.4 percent. After recent jitters about the health of the world's second-biggest economy, investors took some comfort from data that showed a continuing recovery in the housing market. But sentiment remained fragile, with analysts expecting further turbulence ahead. Chinese equities had tumbled on Friday, with the Shanghai index closing lower than at any time since December 2014, leaving most investors who put their faith in Beijing's measures to end last summer's crash nursing losses. "After experiencing the crashes last year, the sentiment is quite vulnerable and pessimistic now," said Xiao Shijun, an analyst at Guodu Securities in Beijing. Story continues SQUEEZING SPECULATION China's currency has fallen around 5 percent since August, and while most analysts expect further weakening the authorities have been loath to allow it to depreciate too fast. Monday's move by the PBOC was seen by some as being - at this stage - more of a symbolic warning to banks, aimed at discouraging them from being too active in yuan dealings as part of its broader campaign to deter those betting offshore that the currency will fall. Setting an RRR - requiring banks to hold a certain level of currency in reserves - could tighten liquidity leaving less yuan for banks to lend and so making it more expensive for speculators to bet against it. On Friday, the yuan had weakened sharply offshore, opening up a gap of more than 1 percent with the steady onshore market. China's central bank tightly manages the onshore market by setting a daily target for the yuan, which is allowed to trade within a 2-percentage point band either side. The spot market opened at 6.5800 per dollar on Monday and was changing hands at 6.5790 by mid-afternoon, 0.08 percent firmer than the previous close. The central bank had set a firmer tone by raising the mid-point to 6.5590. The offshore yuan was trading at 6.5855 per dollar, around 0.1 percent softer than the onshore spot rate. A senior dealer in Shanghai suggested that the RRR move "will help drain yuan liquidity offshore, and will dampen banks' interest in conducting offshore yuan business". Confusion over China's foreign exchange policy and its commitment to reforms has sparked mayhem in financial markets in recent weeks, as the PBOC allowed the yuan to fall sharply in early January and then moved aggressively to try to steady it. China's major share indexes have lost 16-18 percent so far in 2016, taking them back to around the levels plumbed in August, when the market slumped more than 40 percent in a summer crash. Xiao Gang, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), pledged over the weekend to strengthen oversight of the market. "The abnormal stock market volatility has revealed an immature market, inexperienced investors, an imperfect trading system, and inappropriate supervision mechanisms," Xiao said at an annual meeting. His remarks were published on the CSRC website. (Reporting by Pete Sweeney, Samuel Shen and Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Neil Fullick) Inkkas, the New York-Based Handmade Shoe Brand, Is Pleased To Announce Their Partnership with Marcus Lemonis, American Businessman, Television Personality and Philanthropist NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2016 / Inkkas, the New York-based handmade shoe brand, is pleased to announce their partnership with Marcus Lemonis, American businessman, television personality and philanthropist. To inaugurate their partnership, Inkkas will appear on the January 19th episode of The Profit, airing on CNBC at 10 p.m ET/PT. Inkkas was selected by Lemonis to appear on this popular show on CNBC late last year. The show helps small businesses navigate the many obstacles they face as they try to break into often very competitive industries. Lemonis is widely known as a business guru who has successfully launched businesses across many industries from the automotive sector to the restaurant industry to outdoor gear. Fans of the handmade shoe brand can tune in to participate in the Inkkas journey as they gain top-level insight from Lemonis and give viewers an inside look at the challenges that come with being a startup shoe brand in New York City - one of the world's premier fashion capitals. Inkkas is a startup global footwear brand based in New York City that was founded in 2012 by Dan and Dave Ben-Nun and David Malino. The brand sells shoes with designs inspired by various regions of the world including Peru, Morocco, Brazil and Japan. Inkkas shoes are primarily produced in South and Central America and they are sold in stores such as J. Crew and Whole Foods in the US and over 20 countries worldwide. Marcus Lemonis is known as the "business turnaround king" and star of CNBC's prime time reality series The Profit, but his rise to stardom is no Hollywood construction. Lemonis' notoriety has been established by his tenacity, shrewdness and determination. His biggest success is as the chairman and CEO of Camping World, the nation's largest RV and outdoor retailer, and Good Sam, the world's largest RV owner's organization. While some may rest on their laurels with such a resume, Lemonis' unique vision and large ambition keep him looking forward. Lemonis recently announced the launch of his new series with CNBC, the Partner, where he will seek new business talent to help him run his business empire in exchange for a stake in all the businesses he manages. Story continues About Inkkas: Inkkas is a startup shoe brand based in New York City that was founded in 2012 by Dan and Dave Ben-Nun and David Malino. The brand sells shoes with designs inspired by various regions of the world including Peru, Morocco, Brazil and Japan. Inkkas are primarily produced in South and Central America and they are sold in stores such as J. Crew and Whole Foods in the US and over 20 countries worldwide. Contact: Danny Ben-Nun pr@inkkas.com 347-689-4422 SOURCE: Inkkas Part of a group of 300 Cuban migrants rest in a shelter in La Cruz, Costa Rica, near the border with Nicaragua on November 26, 2015 (AFP Photo/Ezequiel Becerra) San Jose (AFP) - A group of 180 Cuban migrants is to fly from Costa Rica to El Salvador on Tuesday, blazing a trail thousands of their compatriots stranded in Central America hope will see all of them securing new lives in the United States. The "pilot" scheme worked out between the governments of several countries in the region will see the 180 arriving in El Salvador to be put on buses to cross neighboring Guatemala to the Mexican border. They will then have a 20-day Mexican visa to find their own way to the border with America. They are allowed to cross that frontier under a US law passed nearly 50 years ago, during the Cold War, that specifically welcomes refugees fleeing Communist-ruled Cuba. If no problems arise, a second flight with a similar number will leave Costa Rica a week later. "We are doing this in stages. We need to create experience, to build confidence. We need to guarantee that all goes well," said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez. - Closed land borders - The hope for nearly 8,000 other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica is that the air bridge will continue afterwards. The main condition to get a place on the flights is that the migrants pay for plane-and-bus trip themselves: $535 each. That is a fortune for Cubans coming from a homeland where the monthly state wage is a meager $20. Most of the migrants sold everything they had to pay for flights to Ecuador and for "coyotes" -- slang for people smugglers -- to get them across Colombia and into Central America. That clandestine path got blocked in November, when Costa Rica busted a people-smuggling ring they had been depending on, then Nicaragua -- a Cuban ally -- steadfastly refused to let any of them cross its border. That bottleneck on the narrow Central American isthmus saw the thousands of Cubans pile into Costa Rica with no route north. A frustrated Costa Rica itself blocked the entry into its territory of any more Cubans from December 19, leading to Panama finding itself caring for 2,000 Cuban migrants unable to cross the border. Story continues Costa Rica pleaded with other Central American countries to accept an air bridge skipping over Nicaragua to allow the Cubans on its soil a way out. After multiple rejections -- including initially from El Salvador -- the nascent flight deal emerged two weeks ago, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration. - 'Joy' over flight - A plane owned by the Colombia-based airline Avianca has been chartered to fly the group of Cubans out of Costa Rica's northern city of Liberia late Tuesday, at 10:25 pm (0425 GMT). An hour later, it will disembark in El Salvador's capital. Buses will take the Cubans to the town of La Hachadura, on the border with Guatemala, then across that country to Tecun Uman, on the border with Mexico. Other Cubans stranded in Costa Rica believe the air-and-land experiment will eventually lead to them also making it to America. "It was a moment of great joy when they told us some of us will be able to get out. I wanted to be in the first group but I wasn't in charge of that decision," said Henry Roque, a 42-year-old Cuban doctor. Roque intends to get to Miami, where his brother is living. He found himself stuck in Costa Rica when Nicaragua closed its border and posted police and soldiers along it. Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders For months, when Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) had a clear shot at Hillary Clinton, he pretty much stepped aside. Take the first Democratic debate. Sanders was asked about Clinton's use of a private email sever while secretary of state, an issue that's dogged her campaign and raised issues about her trustworthiness. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails!" Sanders exclaimed, as the audience cheered. "Me too, me too," Clinton said, laughing. Clinton, for her part, had all but avoided even saying Sanders' name on the campaign trail, hoping to avoid riling up a support base that she'll need in a general election. But with the race beginning to tighten, both candidates have stopped playing nice. Sanders is surging in polls of Iowa and firmly ahead in New Hampshire, the first two nominating states. He has also sharply closed the gap nationally. It's unlikely that their next meeting, at Sunday's Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, will be cordial. Already, Democrats are bracing for a nastier debate. "This is no longer a hypothetical," a top Democratic strategist unaligned with a presidential campaign told Business Insider. "I think that Clinton is going to be a lot more aggressive. I think shes going to make the contrast." "Itll be interesting to see Sanders has never shrunk from a fight. I mean hes pretty abrasive to begin with, even when hes trying to be nice. So I think those two together will make for more fireworks." People close to the Sanders campaign have said recently that given the nasty rhetorical turn in both camps, it's hard to see how the debate itself won't be nastier than past meetings. Some Clinton campaign officials also told Business Insider on background that they're prepared for the possibility. That's with good reason: In the past two weeks, Sanders and Clinton have taken a slew of direct shots at each other. Clinton has raised questions about Sanders' tax plan, drawn sharp contrasts with him on guns, and called on him to release a full accounting of how he'll pay for a universal-healthcare plan, which she says would "end all the kinds of healthcare we know." Story continues "And so Im just saying that were only engaging in substantive differences. And I think thats what youre supposed to do when youre in a contest as important as this one. Whats your policy? Whats my policy? How do you defend it? How do you explain it? And then we let the voters make up their minds," Clinton told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in an interview recently. Sanders has been quick to respond to the attacks. He has said Clinton's campaign is "in trouble." And his campaign has even taken to Twitter on multiple occasions to troll Clinton and some of her top staffers over their previous support for universal healthcare. "To Bernie Sanders with thanks for your commitment to real health care access for all Americans..."-@HillaryClinton pic.twitter.com/XMVPEx8fT8 Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 13, 2016 If you ever want to work for a campaign that shares your values on health care, there's always room at Bernie 2016. https://t.co/sFhjtVhepF Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 11, 2016 The shift in tone has been notable, in part because of how relatively mum the Democratic side of the race has been up until this point. Earlier this year, Sanders said that he wouldn't go negative on Clinton out of principle, and out of a political calculation that he had more to gain by staying above the fray. I know the media would like me to attack Hillary Clinton and say all kinds of terrible things and tell the world that Im the greatest candidate in the history of the world and everybody else running against me is a jerk and terrible, awful people," Sanders said. "Nobody believes that stuff. bernie sanders But during the past week alone, the Clinton and Sanders campaigns both released ads that appeared to implicitly criticize the other on issues of gun control and Wall Street regulation. Clinton appeared on camera in her ad, released ahead of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. She declared that she was "with" Obama on the issue of holding gun manufacturers liable when crimes are committed with their products, which has been a source of campaign controversy for Sanders. Sanders also went direct to camera in a spot that took an indirect shot at Clinton's support of Wall Street. It led the Clinton campaign to hold a conference call with reporters and accuse Sanders of breaking a pledge not to run negative ads during the campaign. "We were very surprised today to see that Bernie Sanders had launched a negative television advertisement against Hillary," Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said on the call. "We were particularly surprised because he had personally pledged and his campaign had pledged never to run a negative advertisement," he added. In a statement to Business Insider responding to that Clinton campaign call, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs suggested that his team rejected the idea that Sanders had directly targeted Clinton. "This is not an ad directed at Secretary Clinton exclusively. It's about people in the Democratic establishment who believe you can take Wall Street's money and then somehow turn around and rein in the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior," Briggs said. Briggs went on to sharply contrast the Clinton and Sanders approaches toward Wall Street regulation. "Obviously she is part of the establishment that Wall Street has showered with financial support. Bernie is not," he continued. "She wants Wall Street and corporate special interests to like her. Bernie does not. Bernie is showing that you can take on the corrupt campaign-finance system." Democratic insiders say that Sanders rise has clearly struck a nerve within the campaign. "The race is tightening," a top Democratic strategist told Business Insider. "And the reason that you know that it is tightening is that in the last week, Ive seen more attacks from Clinton and pro-Clinton group on Bernie Sanders than in the months prior combined. Theres been a lot more communication among Clinton supporters, more talking points theyve just been more aggressive." Colin Campbell contributed reporting. NOW WATCH: Watch out Hillary Clinton new polls show Bernie Sanders is leading in New Hampshire and Iowa More From Business Insider donald trump Real-estate tycoon Donald Trump began his Monday-morning speech on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by touting his "record" crowd size. Trump was speaking in Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University's convocation. The Republican presidential front-runner noted that he also drew a big audience in 2012 when he addressed the Christian university. "I will say this: It's an honor to be here, and especially on Martin Luther King Day," Trump said on Monday. "We broke the record. We had the record for about three or four years the last time." Trump said he checked with Liberty University's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., and his wife, Becki, about the crowd size before he addressed the student body there. "And the first thing I said to Jerry and Becki when I got here: 'Did we break the record?'" he recalled. "They said, 'Yes you did, by quite a bit.' So we'll dedicate that to Martin Luther King, a great man. And that's a little bit of an achievement, I will tell you." Trump finished his speech by again dedicating his crowd size to King's memory. "It's an honor to be here again. It's an honor, in terms of Martin Luther King, to have broken the record," he said. "We're dedicating the record to the late, great Martin Luther King, OK? But it's an honor." The school's students are required to attend convocation events, including those featuring presidential candidates. According to Liberty University's website, attending convocation "is an agreed upon expectation that is clearly communicated to all applicants who desire to be a residential, undergraduate student at Liberty University." NOW WATCH: Watch Trump go on a rant over a 'popping' microphone at a rally: 'Don't pay the son of a b----' More From Business Insider ATHENS (Reuters) - Hellenic Petroleum, Greece's biggest oil refiner, will meet top Iranian oil officials on Friday to discuss crude oil imports from Iran, a company source said on Monday, after world powers lifted sanctions against Tehran at the weekend. Hellenic Petroleum was a major buyer of Iranian crude, which accounted for about 20 percent of the company's total annual crude oil imports before sanctions were imposed. Sanctions cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak, to little more than 1 million bpd. On Monday, Iran issued an order to raise oil production by 500,000 bpd. "Since the embargo has been lifted, Hellenic Petroleum can now discuss the possibility of a deal on crude oil supplies and on settling outstanding financial issues between the two sides, the official said. Hellenic Petroleum is estimated to owe $550-600 million for oil it bought from Iran but was unable to pay when the international embargo was imposed, a source close to discussions between Iran and Greece told Reuters last month. Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Amir Hossein Zamaninia and officials from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will be in Athens on Friday to meet Hellenic Petroleum executives, an official at Hellenic Petroleum told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The Iranian delegation will also meet Greece's Energy Minister Panos Skourletis on Friday, an energy ministry official said. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; editing by Susan Thomas) (Updates throughout, adds detail) ATHENS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Greece is willing to discuss pension reforms with the International Monetary Fund provided it receives assurances that a review of its bailout programme will be concluded "in a timely manner", the finance minister said on Monday. Greece's international lenders - the IMF and the European Union - are widely expected to launch a review this week of the reforms Athens has adopted as part of a bailout package it clinched last year to avert bankruptcy. Technical teams are already in Athens. "We are even ready to discuss the pension reform, as long as the IMF wants to conclude this discussion in a timely manner," Euclid Tsakalotos told a news conference. Pension reform is a particularly sensitive issue for the leftist-led government. It has presented a plan which increases social security contributions and recalculates future pensions but has also promised to protect pensioners on whom entire households can sometimes depend. "It is very important for us that there is no further reduction in pensions," Tsakalotos said, adding that the IMF had "higher demands" than other lenders on such reforms. The minister toured six European capitals last week on a charm offensive to convince Greece's EU partners that it deserves a positive assessment of its reform efforts. The review, if concluded sucessfully, could pave the way for discussions on debt relief that Greece has long sought, coax back investments and help its crippled economy return to growth. "Time for us is precious... if the assessment is swiftly concluded, we can move swiftly to a discussion on debt (relief)," said Tsakalotos. Athens has promised to cut public sector spending and increase efficiency under the terms of the international bailout, its third since 2010. The reform programme requires Athens to pare some 1.8 billion euros from its pension bill this year, a red flag for Greek workers who have declared a national walkout on Feb. 4. (Reporting By Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Gareth Jones) The Company Won the Award for Best Business Practices and Setting the Standard for Professionalism and Integrity LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / January 18, 2016 / Advantage Contracting, a company that specializes in home improvement services such as kitchen and bath remodeling, was recently named a winner of Remodeling Magazine's Big 50 Business Excellence Award. The award honors 50 companies that have set the standard for professionalism and integrity through smart marketing, exemplary business practices, unique design, and extraordinary impact on their communities or industries. To be eligible for the award, businesses must also meet the industry standards of operating excellence and certain financial benchmarks. Advantage Contracting is best known for its impeccable customer service, quality, reliability, and trust, much of which stems from the example set by its owner, Rich Graniere. According to a company spokesperson, Graniere personally oversees every job undertaken by Advantage Contracting and prides himself on achieving the highest standard of work. "This commitment has been a factor to his success, evident in his large customer referral business," explained the spokesperson. "This award exemplifies his core values and proves that his basic business model is appreciated by his customers and industry experts." At this time, Advantage Contracting offer a wide variety of services, with specializations in categories such as remodeling and installing decks, kitchens, bathrooms, basements, and roofs. Advantage Contracting also handles electrical, plumbing, and general carpentry needs. The company works with top local and national suppliers to outfit their clients' homes with high quality products. Individuals interested in learning more about Advantage Contracting and its work can visit the project management services company for additional information. Readers are encouraged to follow Advantage Contracting on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates from the company. Story continues About Advantage Contracting: Advantage Contracting has been completing home improvement projects, including bathroom and kitchen remodeling, room additions, and more, for home-owners in Essex, Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties for over the last 20 years, and is committed to making sure its business reputation lives up to its values. Located in North Wayne, New Jersey, Advantage Contracting is a member of the National Home Builders Association, the National Association of the Remodeling Industry and the National Kitchen and Bath Association and is a licensed and insured contractor. The company's success is measured by client satisfaction. For more information, please visit http://www.advantagecontracting.com. Contact: Clay Mason admin@rocketfactor.com (949) 555-2861 SOURCE: Advantage Contracting By Randy Fabi and Fergus Jensen JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian police killed one suspected militant and arrested two more in raids across the country on Friday, a day after an attack by Islamic State suicide bombers and gunmen in the heart of the Southeast Asian nation's capital. Just seven people were killed in Thursday's late-morning siege near a busy shopping district, despite multiple blasts and a gunfight, and five of the dead were the attackers themselves. Nevertheless, it was the first time the radical group has targeted the country with the world's largest Muslim population, and the brazenness of the attack suggested a new brand of militancy in a country more used to low-level strikes on police. Police chiefs across the country were on high alert, some embassies in Jakarta were closed for the day and security was stepped up on the resort island of Bali, a draw for tourists from Australia and other Asian countries. "It's clear that the (Jakarta attackers) didn't set this up themselves. For this, we are searching for the networks and who was involved in this action," said Anton Charliyan, national police spokesman. Security forces killed one suspected militant in a gun battle in Central Sulawesi, while two others were arrested in the city of Cirebon in West Java. The three were believed to be Islamic State supporters, but not directly connected to the Jakarta attack, police said. Returning to the area outside Jakarta's oldest department store, Sarinah, where Thursday's attack unfolded, the city's police chief said the rise of Islamic State was a cause for serious concern. "We need to strengthen our response and preventive measures, including legislation to prevent them ... and we hope our counterparts in other countries can work together because it is not home-grown terrorism, it is part of the ISIS network," Tito Karnavian said, using an acronym for the Syria-based group. In response to the Jakarta attacks, Philippine President Benigno Aquino ordered security forces to strengthen defences of "soft" targets. Malaysia placed the country on its highest alert. Story continues Experts agree that there is a growing threat from radicalised Muslims inspired by Islamic State, some of whom may have fought with the group in Syria. However, they said the low death toll on Thursday pointed to the involvement of poorly trained local militants whose weapons were crude. An Indonesian and a man of dual Canadian-Algerian nationality were killed along with the attackers. Twenty-four people were seriously wounded, including an Austrian, a German and a Dutchman. Islamic State said in its claim of responsibility that "a group of soldiers of the caliphate in Indonesia targeted a gathering from the crusader alliance that fights the Islamic State in Jakarta". Police confirmed that Islamic State was responsible and named an Indonesian militant, Bahrun Naim, as the mastermind. They believe Naim leads a militant network known as Katibah Nusantara and is pulling strings from Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria. "His vision is to unite all ISIS supporting elements in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines," Jakarta police chief Karnavian said. Islamist militants from those three countries have a record of working together, and several Malaysians are known to have carried out suicide attacks in the Middle East. ECHOES OF PARIS Indonesia has seen attacks by Islamist militants before, but a coordinated assault by a team of suicide bombers and gunmen is unprecedented and has echoes of the siege in Mumbai seven years ago and in Paris last November. In a recent blog post, entitled "Lessons from the Paris Attacks", Naim had urged his Indonesian audience to study the planning, targeting, timing, coordination, security and courage of the jihadis in the French capital. The country had been on edge for weeks over the threat posed by Islamist militants, and counter-terrorism police had rounded up about 20 people with suspected links to Islamic State. There was a spate of militant attacks in Indonesia in the 2000s, the deadliest of which was a nightclub bombing on Bali that killed 202 people, most of them tourists. Police have been largely successful in destroying domestic militant cells since then, but officials have more recently been worrying about a resurgence inspired by Islamic State. Many experts believe, however, that Indonesia, a vibrant democracy where the vast majority of Muslims practise a moderate form of Islam, is not likely to be tipped into a cauldron of radicalism. (Additional reporting by the Jakarta bureau and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Robert Birsel and Mike Collett-White) el chapo On the morning of January 8, the Mexican government recaptured fugitive drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, and hours later frog-marched him from northwestern Sinaloa state, where he was captured, back to the prison near Mexico City from which he escaped in July where he will reportedly be even more closely monitored. But the fight in court against Guzman and in the streets against his cartel is far from over. The details that have emerged about the extradition case indicate that it could be years before Guzman faces trial. 'It's a very complicated process' el chapo Collage Most observers believe that Guzman will eventually end up in the US. The key word is "eventually," however, as the legal and political processes are likely to delay his extradition. "The reality is extradition takes a long time. It's a very complicated process ... especially cases like this, where the individual in question has a lot of resources to challenge extradition in court," David Shirk, a University of San Diego professor and director of the school's Justice in Mexico program, told Business Insider. "It's also procedurally quite complex because you're dealing with law-enforcement agencies, diplomatic agencies, on both sides of the border that are processing these things," Shirk added. On January 10, the Mexican government said that it activated the extradition process for Guzman. But according to a former US federal prosecutor, the pace of this procedure is still largely up to the Mexican government. Guzman "has already filed various actions in Mexico to stop his extradition, and I'm sure that some of those are still pending, so the question is whether or not the government in Mexico is going" to let him continue fighting the process, said Marcos Jimenez, a former US attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Story continues El Chapo Guzman escape "They can challenge the judge, challenge the probable cause, challenge the procedure," said Juan Masini, a former US Department of Justice attache at the US embassy in Mexico. As of January 11, several of those challenges had paid off, as two judges in Mexico accepted petitions filed by Guzman's attorneys, temporarily preventing extradition. Jose Manuel Merino, the official in charge of international processes for the Mexican attorney general's office, also said on January 11 that the extradition process could take at least a year or more because of such filings. "If [Guzman] puts up resistance it could take four to six years," Manuel Merino added. pena nieto and obama There are also political complications that could delay Guzman's departure from Mexico. Some see extradition as interference in domestic affairs, and view the need to send major criminals to another country for trial and incarceration as an affront. Guzman's legal team has played on this, with his attorney, Juan Pablo Badillo, an expert on extradition, saying that Mexico "must respect national sovereignty, the sovereignty of its institutions to impart justice." It's conceivable, Shirk notes, that Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration could time the proceedings so that he is out of office before any decision has to be made. "They could basically keep the ball in limbo until the next administration comes in" in late 2018, Shirk said, "and then the next administration would basically be the ones responsible for figuring out what they're ultimately going to do." Moreover, it's possible that Guzman's lawyers and the Mexican government could negotiate and ultimately reach a deal that precludes Guzman's extradition in exchange for some information or action that benefits, or perhaps protects, the government, former US attorney Jimenez noted. Mexico cartel shootout "There's a lot of speculation out there that he's got a lot of information on corrupt [military] officials," and other public officials, Jimenez said, but added that failing to extradite Guzman at this point could have consequences for Mexico's relationship with the US. "To not extradite him ... it's going to make the Mexican government look pretty bad, at least it's going to make them look bad in the eyes of" policymakers and officials in Washington, Jimenez said. Mexico's Sinaloa cartel without 'El Chapo' Whatever Guzman's ultimate fate, it seems that his Sinaloa cartel will remain a threat to the people of the US and Mexico and to their governments, but perhaps for two different reasons. First, as suggested by Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope, Guzman's capture may indicate that the cartel has weakened in recent years, leaving Guzman without sufficient resources to bribe and influence authorities. "The organization probably has fewer informants and collaborators with the federal security apparatus," Hope wrote in the hours after the arrest. "The result? A less agile response to the moves of his persecutors." El Chapo Guzman home town Don Winslow, an author who has researched Mexico's drug wars, echoed this suggestion of a loss of influence. "The most likely scenario [leading to his capture] is that Guzman had lost the support and confidence of his partners in the cartel, and with it the political influence and power that protected him," Winslow wrote at CNN. This loss of control and influence could have ugly consequences. In the past, the takedown of a cartel leader would lead to violent recriminations, as others within that cartel, as well as rival cartels, jockeyed for position. chapo guzman epn That trend has receded in recent years despite the Pena Nieto administration taking down 98 of the 122 most wanted criminals but if Sinaloa is truly weakening and if Guzman is finally out of commission, then Mexico's narco landscape could return to the instability and bloodshed that characterized it during the late 2000s. "Unfortunately what happens with these cartels is that when you take out their leader is that someone takes his place," Jimenez told Business Insider. "As long as there is an appetite for drugs in the US," he added, "someone will take over and control the drug trade in Mexico, which is the current, most active transit point for drugs into the US." On the other hand, recent history suggests that the Sinaloa cartel, which is better understood as a group of affiliated factions, is in a position to survive without Guzman, maintaining its control of the drug trade. According to government data gathered by Animal Politico's NarcoData project, the Sinaloa cartel has only expanded during the Pena Nieto administration, which entered office in 2012. "The Sinaloa cartel operated at the end the six-year term of Felipe Calderon [in 2012] ... with eight criminal cells, and through October 2015 it had ten," NacroData wrote. It would seem that Guzman's cartel's power hasn't been negatively influenced by his time in jail. And while, as Shirk noted, the Sinaloa cartel may feel the heat if Guzman starts to trade information for leniency, it may already be adept at operating in Guzman's absence. dea el chapo narco map "You can't imagine that during his escape he was particularly effective in running the cartel," Shirk said. "I think he was probably much more preoccupied ... with evading authorities, and much less focused on bankrolling or managing logistics of the operations of his organization." This perseverance in Guzman's absence likely has much to do with the role of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, one of the founding and current leaders of the cartel, whose ties to Colombian cocaine production have aided the Sinaloa cartel's rise to primacy. Sinaloa's internal dynamics aren't well-known, but Zambada would appear to be Guzman's silent partner, Shirk told Business Insider. "Maybe he's actually the guy behind the guy. Maybe he's really the guy who runs the show and who's sort of the main operator. It's really hard to say," he said. el mayo sinaloa Even a scenario in which the Sinaloa cartel continues its dominance without Guzman contains seeds of discord. Zambada is close to 70, as is a third leading partner, Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno, aka "El Azul." A potential void at the top of the narco hierarchy in Mexico is something that factions within the Sinaloa cartel, as well as other cartels and criminal organizations that have proliferated in the country in recent years, will have to face. "What does their future look like in a post-Chapo, maybe post-Zambada, maybe post-Sinaloa world?" Shirk asked. NOW WATCH: The fight is far from over here's what's next for 'El Chapo' More From Business Insider By Jatindra Dash and Krishna N. Das NEW DELHI (Reuters) - National Aluminium Company NALCO will soon send an official team to Iran to explore setting up a smelter complex worth about $2 billion, its boss said, as world powers lift sanctions on Iran that had made negotiations difficult. NALCO Chairman Tapan Kumar Chand told Reuters on Monday that the ending of sanctions on Iran in return for the country's curbs on its nuclear programme could help the company finally move ahead with its long-held goal to set up a smelter there to make use of cheap gas resources. "It's a major bottleneck which has been cleared," Chand said. "As far as Iran is concerned they have already informed us that they are ready to receive the team." Cash-rich NALCO will also visit Oman and Qatar in the next two months to work out the best place to set up a 500,000-tonnes-per-year smelter and an associated power plant in the Middle East. Balvinder Kumar, the secretary of the mines ministry that controls NALCO, said the company's interest was at a preliminary stage though it should invest aggressively to expand wherever possible. SHARE BUYBACK NALCO is trying to push back on a finance ministry request to buy back 25 percent of its shares from the government, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's asset sales plan which looks set to fall well short of its goal this fiscal year. The company has agreed to repurchase 10 percent but says it also needs money for expansion - including the Middle East project - and to diversify into sectors such as nuclear energy. NALCO is a rare Indian aluminium company managing to make money despite a sharp drop in the metal's prices and rising imports from China that have badly hurt private competitors such as Vedanta Ltd and Hindalco . One factor is its easy access to raw materials such as bauxite, an aluminium ore. As a result, NALCO enjoys total liquid reserves of about 120 billion rupees ($1.77 billion), around half of that in cash, Kumar said. The finance ministry, which has managed to raise less then a fifth of the roughly $10 billion it had projected in divestments for 2015-2016, now wants NALCO to shell out about 32.5 billion rupees ($481 million) to buy back shares out of the 89 percent holding the government has in the company. "We're working on the 10 percent but a call on the rest will be taken by the board," Chairman Chand said, adding the buyback demand comes amid the fall in aluminium prices, eroding profitability and the need to have funds to grow. ($1 = 67.6850 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Jatindra Dash and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mark Potter) Bernie Sanders debate Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) tussled during Sunday night's Democratic debate over healthcare, with Clinton painting Sanders' proposals as unproductive and Sanders blasting Clinton's attacks as "nonsense." Clinton argued that Sanders' single-payer plan details of which he released hours before the debate's start would undermine those who want to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare. "We finally have a path to universal healthcare," she said. "We've accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it. And I don't want to see us start over again with a contentious debate." Sanders accused Clinton of dodging the issue at hand, which he said was her campaign's attacks against his plan. "Secretary Clinton didn't answer your question. Because what her campaign was saying: 'Bernie Sanders he wants to end Medicare, end Medicaid, end the Children's Health Insurance Program.' That is nonsense!" he said. He added: "What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country healthcare for every man, woman, and child as a right!" Clinton's campaign had framed Sanders' single-payer healthcare plan as one that would get rid of other, popular healthcare programs. A number of liberal critics said they found Clinton's attack as disingenuous, as anyone who lost their coverage would then be covered by Sanders' alternative. The former secretary of state didn't back down on Sunday, however. She responded to Sanders by defending Obamacare, which she said would have to be scrapped for Sanders' plan. "The fact is we have the Affordable Care Act. That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of our country. And we have already seen 19 million Americans get insurance," she said. Clinton added: "To tear it up and start over again, pushing our country into that kind of contentious debate, I think is the wrong direction." Story continues Sanders jabbed back by saying Clinton's argument was "absolutely inaccurate." "No one is tearing this up," he said. "We're not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it. But we are going to move on top of that to a Medicare-for-all system." NOW WATCH: Affluenza teen and his mother detained in Mexican resort town More From Business Insider A man stands to wait for refueling for his car at Cosmo Energy Holdings' Cosmo Oil service station in Tokyo, Japan, December 16, 2015. Picture taken December 16, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/Files By Nia Williams (Reuters) - Oil prices slumped to a 2003 low below $28 per barrel on Monday as the market anticipated a rise in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran over the weekend. Responding to Tehran's compliance with a nuclear deal, the United States and major powers revoked international sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was down 29 cents at $28.64 by 1850 GMT. U.S. crude was down 48 cents at $28.94 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. Trading volumes were thin with U.S. markets closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. "You can't say this was unexpected but the Iran news is an additional factor that's working against oil prices," said TD Securities analyst Bart Melek, who also pointed to global oversupply and concerns about demand from China. He said oil could fall further if Chinese economic data released overnight, including GDP and retail sales data, points to more weakness in the economy. "If we get nasty economic numbers from China there's potential for another swoosh lower," Melek said. Analysts expect Iran will realistically be able to export an extra 500,000 bpd in the short term from storage, but there are doubts whether the state of Iran's oil infrastructure will allow further boosts anytime soon. SEB Markets assumes Iranian oil output will rise by 400,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd in 2016, while Tehran has said it will add 1 million bpd to its existing output by the year-end. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market. In a sign of the pain low prices are inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organisation would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghadder in London, Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by David Goodman, Dale Hudson and Frances Kerry) YouTube unveils their new paid subscription service at the YouTube Space LA in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California, United States October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/Files By Tommy Wilkes ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Monday it had removed a three-year ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a local version that allows the government to remove material it considers offensive. Pakistan banned access to YouTube in September 2012 after an anti-Islam film, "Innocence of Muslims", was uploaded to the site, sparking violent protests across major cities in the Muslim-majority country of 190 million people. The Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom said in a statement that under the new version of YouTube, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority can ask for access to offending material to be blocked. "On the recommendation of PTA, Government of Pakistan has allowed access to recently launched country version of YouTube for Internet users in Pakistan," the ministry said. "Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan." Blasphemy is a highly sensitive subject in Pakistan, where angry mobs have killed many people accused of insulting Islam. The crime of blasphemy can carry the death penalty, although a death sentence has never been carried out. Pakistan has blocked thousands of web pages it deems undesirable in the last few years as internet access spreads, but activists say the government sometimes blocks sites to muzzle liberal or critical voices. (Editing by Nick Macfie) (Adds quotes, Sierra Gorda mine, political background) LUBIN, Poland, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Poland's KGHM, Europe's second-biggest copper producer may have to cut its 2015 dividend if it has to write down the value of its assets as a result of the copper rout, KGHM's chief executive said on Monday. Last month, KGHM said it would have to run an asset impairment test because of continued low commodity prices. Copper, used in power and construction, touched $4,318 on Friday, its lowest since May 2009, putting KGHM at a risk of generating losses. "I think the test's results will be known at the turn of January and February. Depending on the outcome, I cannot rule out that it could result in a proposal of a lower dividend from 2015," KGHM CEO Herbert Wirth told Reuters. KGHM's strategy is to pay out up to one third of its annual standalone net profit as a dividend. Last year the state-controlled company paid out 800 million zlotys ($195.5 million) from net profit at 2.4 billion zlotys. Chinese demand worries have weighed on the copper price, which in turn ate into KGHM's profit. The rout also raised the treasury's concerns about the value of KGHM's largest foreign asset, the Sierra Gorda mine in Chile, which it co-owns with Japan's Sumitomo. KGHM gained control of Sierra Gorda in 2011 when it bought Canadian rival Quadra FNX for C$2.87 billion ($1.98 billion), the largest ever foreign acquisition by a Polish company. KGHM's CEO may lose his job in the coming weeks following a wide reshuffle of management of Poland's state-run companies after the Law and Justice (PiS) party won parliamentary elections in October. Local media reported earlier that Wirth could be replaced by Krzysztof Skora, who had been KGHM's CEO in 2006, when PiS was previously in power. (Reporting by Wojciech Zurawski; Writing by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Louise Heavens) By Dominique Vidalon PARIS (Reuters) - French retailer Casino said on Monday it was committed to maintaining its "investment grade" after ratings agency Standard & Poor's threatened to downgrade its debt to junk status, citing weakness in Brazil and high debt. Casino said that an expected improvement in its operating performance in France in 2016 and the scale of its divestment plan would help strengthen its financial structure. A strong liquidity position would also enable Casino to meet all its debt repayments in coming years, the company said in a statement. The credit rating agency on Jan. 15 placed Casino's long-term 'BBB-' and short-term "A3" debt ratings on credit watch, saying it may lower the long-term ratings "by not more than two notches". The warning from S&P comes as another blow for Casino, which has been in the crosshairs of Muddy Waters since December when the research and investment firm said the retailer was "dangerously leveraged", used financial engineering to mask a deteriorating core business, and was only managed for the short-term.. "This comes only a month after S&P affirmed the company's ratings - a stunning reversal," Muddy Waters said in an email to Reuters. "S&P is recognizing the conflict of interest between Rallye and Casino, and that Casino is going to pay dividends in order to service Rallye's huge debt load; however, the best use of this cash would be to pay down Casino's own debt." S&P said in its report it would also re-evaluate the impact of Casino's ownership by leveraged parent Rallye, which S&P said "further restricts Casino's financial flexibility given the need to upstream dividends to service Rallye's net debt". Rallye owns 48.4 percent of Casino and depends on dividends from Casino to service its 2.4 billion of net debt. Rallye's majority shareholder is Fonciere Euris, which in turn is owned by Finatis, both of which also have their own debt to service. Casino launched a 2 billion euro ($2.18 billion) disposal plan last month that was increased to around 4 billion with the planned sale of Thai subsidiary Big C. Story continues Thailand's largest retail conglomerate Central Group is keen to bid for Casino Group's Thai and Vietnam operations, a company executive said. The plan is aimed at substantially reducing Casino's debt by the end of this year. It stood at 7.55 billion euros at the end of 2014. (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by James Regan and Anand Basu) HONG KONG (Reuters) - Russia expects the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to approve its first loans within six months, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday. China officially launched the new bank, which is seen as a rival to the U.S-led World Bank, on Sunday Russia, the third largest shareholder in the AIIB after China and India, would like the new bank to contribute to infrastructure projects in the so called Arctic or Northern Sea Route, the deputy prime minister said. These could be railways to transport cargo to port along the maritime route. "At the board of directors today we will hopefully decide on policy guidance," Dvorkovich told the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong. "Hopefully we will have first loans provided within six months." The AIIB is expected to lend $10 billion-$15 billion a year for the first five or six years. Despite opposition from Washington, U.S. allies including Australia, Britain, German, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have agreed to join the bank in recognition of China's growing economic clout. Cash-strapped Europe, which is just emerging for the crisis that rocked euro zone countries, is hoping to play an important role in the AIIB initiative, European ministers attending the Asia Financial Forum Said. Some hoped the bank could ease ongoing global geopolitical tensions by building an economic bridge between different regions of the world. "The AIIB is a sort of a peace initiative. If the economies of the Silk Road are more intertwined we get more stability," said Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg. (Reporting by Lisa Jucca; Editing by Shri Navaratnam) Iceland's fish exports to Russia have more than halved, from 118,000 tonnes in 2014 to 50,000 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2015, according to official statistics (AFP Photo/Joel Saget) (AFP/File) Reykjavik (AFP) - In Iceland's small harbours, a Russian embargo on European fish imports isn't just a headache for fishermen -- it's a headache for everyone. "Of course we're worried," says Astvaldur Sigurdsson, a grocer in Neskaupstadur, a town of 1,500 people nestled in a cove in eastern Iceland. "This is bound to lead to lower income." Russia suspended food imports from most Western countries in August 2014 in retaliation for sanctions the West imposed on Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis. Iceland has been on the blacklist since August 2015. The embargo has dealt a harsh blow to the crucial seafood exports of a country which had invested heavily in the Soviet market in the 1980s, following a thaw in ties between the United States, a Reykjavik ally, and Moscow. Iceland's fish exports to Russia more than halved, from 118,000 tonnes in 2014 to 50,000 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2015, according to official statistics. The value of the exports plummeted over the same period to 10.3 billion kronur (70 million euros, $77 million) from almost 24 billion. It may not seem like much, but Russia accounts for 10 percent of Iceland's fish exports -- which in turn make up 40 percent of its overall exports. After the North Atlantic island's 2008 banking and financial collapse, fishing has become the country's biggest industry. And those figures exclude the Icelandic fish shipped to other European ports, from where it was sent to Russia before the import ban. "Sanctions like these and our symbolic participation in them is not going to lead to a solution in the Crimean dispute. There is no way of telling how long these sanctions will last," lamented Fisheries Iceland. The biggest impact has been on the export of pelagic fish -- ocean fish which swim neither close to the bottom nor near the shore, such as mackerel, herring and capelin. Pelagic fishing is run by big established companies that can get by despite the embargo, but Russia accounted for 40 percent of mackerel exports before the sanctions. Story continues The loss of income has been heavy not only for the companies, but for local authorities seeing their tax revenues eaten up. - Boon for the Faroe Islands - With a fleet of seven trawlers registered in Neskaupstadur, Sildarvinnslan (SVN) is one of the heavyweights in Iceland's fishing business. Chief executive Gunnthor Ingvason has looked around for other markets to try to diversify distribution, but he's facing tough competition from foreign fishermen also looking for new opportunities. "With increased production from our pelagic stocks for human consumption, the share of the Russian market in the company's turnover has grown significantly," Ingvason said. The devaluation of the Icelandic krona at the end of the 2000s did not help either. "The ban closes down all sales of frozen products into our most important market," he said. Mackerel, cod and herring can usually be sold elsewhere than Russia, albeit at much cheaper prices, but red snapper and capelin -- appreciated by Russians for their eggs -- are harder to sell. SVN has seen its sales revenues plunge by 35 percent for mackerel and herring, and by 50 percent for capelin. "The losses in capelin production will hit the communities and the employees hard, in lower income," predicted Ingvason. For his company, that means 80 people on shore and 32 at sea will be affected, not to mention all the others who depend on the activities of a fishing port, such as shopkeepers and suppliers. A standoff has pitted fishermen against Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, who has accused them of defending their own "private interests" over those of Iceland. The country's woes have meanwhile been a boon for the Faroe Islands, an autonomous Danish territory unaffected by the sanctions and therefore able to pick up some of Russia's demand. Its overall cod exports rose by four percent in the first three quarters of 2015 from 2014, but prices have surged by 16 percent in a year. "The main change was not how many products we sold but the price," a Faroese government source said. As far as Astvaldur Sigurdsson is concerned, "the authorities should never have gotten involved. We have no business in this military tussling". BANGKOK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets fell in line with Asia on Monday as a slide in oil prices triggered selloffs in energy shares, bringing Singapore's key index to a more than four-year low and the Philippines touching a near two-year low. Singapore's Straits Times Index was down 1.5 percent at 2,591.87, the lowest since October 2011, in active trading volume which was about 80 percent of a full-day average over the past 30 days. "Singapore shares slumped on renewed selling pressures amid talks of fund redemptions and margin calls selling," said Singapore-based broker NRA Capital in a midday report. Shares of oil and gas service firm Sembcorp Marine Ltd dropped 4.3 percent as the weak oil market dented the outlook of oil-related businesses. Singapore's weaker-than-expected exports in December also weighed on market sentiment. The Philippine composite index was down 2.1 percent at 6,312.68, the lowest since February 2014, with shares of oil refining company Petron Corp off nearly 6 percent, the index's worst performer. Vietnam's key index shed 3.2 percent to the lowest since August 2015, led by a 6.4 percent plunge in shares or PetroVietnam Gas. Losses in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand were relative modest, partly reflecting bargain hunting of battered shares. In Bangkok, investors selectively bought shares of banks ahead of earnings this week, sending state-run Krung Thai Bank almost 2 percent higher. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change at 0626 GMT Market Current Previous Close Pct Move Singapore 2591.87 2630.76 -1.48 Bangkok 1245.5 1245.85 -0.03 Manila 6312.68 6449.5 -2.12 Jakarta 4486.293 4523.976 -0.83 Kuala Lumpur 1619.12 1628.55 -0.58 Ho Chi Minh 523.73 543.04 -3.56 (Reporting by Viparat Jantraprap; Editing by Anand Basu) Its a possibility, analysts say. There is a likelihood that Sembcorp Marine might get privatised as it faces the worst oil price downturn in its history, according to a report by Maybank Kim Eng. Maybank Kim Eng hazards that if conditions deteriorate further, SMM may require additional funding to sustain its operations. If this materializes, then its parent firm Sembcorp Industries or even Temasek Holdings might step in to salvage the rigbuilder. The report cited three reasons that could back such a move. First, instead of injecting capital into SMM through a rights issue, privatisation allows SCI to take full-control, and allocate capital more efficiently. Secondly, SCI could use its balance sheet to support SMMs working capital needs and finance construction activities until the industry turns around for SMM to monetise the asset. The importance of rigbuilding to Singapores economy might also fuel privatisation. SCIs majority shareholder Temasek Holdings may have strong longterm strategic plans for the company. A Temasek-led privatisation will also relieve SCI of the additional strain that it may have to carry if it were to undertake the privatisation, said the report. More From Singapore Business Review South Korean soldiers search for suspected North Korean leaflets on a field in the border city of Paju near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas on January 13, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yonhap) (YONHAP/AFP) North Korea has scattered nearly one million propaganda leaflets in South Korea over the past week, Seoul said Monday, in an escalating propaganda battle triggered by Pyongyang's latest nuclear test. The leaflets, floated across the border by helium balloons, are an apparent response to South Korea's decision to blast a mix of K-pop and propaganda messages into North Korea using giant banks of speakers on the heavily militarised border. North Korea has retaliated with its own loudspeaker broadcasts along with the leaflets attacking South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The tit-for-tat exchanges are the result of the North's fourth nuclear test carried out -- to near universal condemnation -- on January 6. The defence ministry said the Norths leaflets were being air-dropped on a near daily basis and estimated the number that had been scattered at close to one million. Most have been recovered near the border in Gyeonggi province, though some have made it as far as Seoul. A ministry official told AFP that the North was using helium balloons with timers that cause them to explode and scatter the leaflet packages. It can be a blunt propaganda tool. Last week an unopened package of nearly 10,000 leaflets slammed into a car, imploding the roof. Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the Seoul-based University for North Korean Studies, said the leafleting was largely a reactive gesture. "They couldn't just sit idle while South Korea launches a psychological warfare front," Yang said. As well as the loudspeakers, Seoul is considering installing giant electronic signboards on the border to display messages and videos. South Korea halted official leaflet drops following an inter-Korean agreement reached in 2004, but civic groups have kept up balloon launches into the North for years -- much to Pyongyang's annoyance. As per a recent Reuters report, Spanish telecom behemoth Telefonica, S.A. TEF is interested in purchasing AT&T, Inc.s T Latin American pay-TV assets. According to sources, the assets are valued at roughly $10 billion. Notably, in Jul 2015, AT&T scaled up to the highest position in the U.S. pay-TV market with the acquisition of DIRECTV and its Latin American properties. The Latin American business comprised satellite and cable TV services in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and various other countries. Notably, Telefonica has been making efforts to modify and restructure its asset mix in order to ease its debt burden. In March last year, the company announced its decision to divest its U.K. wireless operations, which run under the O2 brand, to Hutchison Whampoa for GBP 10.25 billion (roughly $15.25 billion). Moreover, recent Reuters reports suggest that Telefonica is looking to divest its network infrastructure assets in Spain. Though it has a strong presence in the Latin American wireless market, the company is still lagging behind AT&T and America Movil S.A.B. de C.V.s AMX Claro in terms of its pay-TV offerings. Thus, Telefonica clearly aims to solidify its control over the Latin American pay-TV market with the takeover of AT&Ts assets. Meanwhile, the Reuters report quoted an unconfirmed source that suggested that U.K. cable TV behemoth Liberty Global plc. LBTYA may vie for AT&Ts Latin American assets. Thus, with more parties showing interest in AT&Ts assets in particular countries, the company may reportedly opt to sell its possessions in the region via multiple sale processes. Notably, AT&T leads the market and presently has over 19 million pay-TV customers in Latin America, which includes Mexico and Caribbean. However, depreciating currencies in Brazil and other Latin American countries have dealt a heavy blow to the companys profits. Moreover, AT&T intends to make use of DIRECTVs pay-TV assets only in the U.S. and is thus planning to divest the Latin American pay-TV assets. Notably, the carrier primarily intends to divert its focus to the Latin American telecom market. At an industry conference held in Dec 2015, AT&Ts CEO Randall Stephenson had stated the companys intent to vend its Latin American pay-TV assets but hasnt declared anything concrete yet. Thus, after its successful foray into the Mexican telecom industry with the acquisition of Gurpo Iusacell and Nextel de Mexico, AT&T now aims to expand its presence in the wireless market of Latin American countries. The proceeds from the sale of its Latin American pay-TV assets should therefore aid AT&Ts expansion endeavors. Both AT&T and Telefonica presently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 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 >> 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 AT&T INC (T): Free Stock Analysis Report TELEFONICA S.A. (TEF): Free Stock Analysis Report LIBERTY GLBL-A (LBTYA): Free Stock Analysis Report AMER MOVIL-ADR (AMX): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research AMSTERDAM, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The Netherlands has chosen ABN Amro, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank to coordinate the possible listing of state-owned insurer ASR, the state agency in charge said on Monday. The insurer, the former insurance arm of Belgian financial group Fortis, is slated to be privatised this year as the Dutch financial sector puts the 2008 financial crisis behind it. The NLFI state agency said it would select further syndicate members and co-lead managers after a debate in the Dutch parliament. The insurer reported a book value of 3.37 billion euros at the end of the first half of 2015. NLFI said fees would be capped at 4.5 million euros shared between all the syndicate banks. NM Rothschild & Sons and Lazard were appointed financial advisers while international law firm Clifford Chance will serve as legal adviser. (Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by David Clarke) A emergency exit sign is pictured above a logo of German car manufacturer Daimler AG, before the annual news conference in Stuttgart February 18, 2010. REUTERS/Johannes Eisele FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daimler said on Monday it had signed letters of intent with Iran Khodro Diesel (IKD) and the Mammut Group, as part of the German truck maker's re-entry into the Iranian market. The areas of cooperation include a joint venture for local production of Mercedes-Benz trucks and powertrain components, plus the establishment of a sales company for Mercedes-Benz trucks and components. Furthermore, there are plans for Daimler to return as a shareholder in the former engine joint venture Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing Co. (IDEM). Daimler Trucks intends to open a representative office in Tehran during the first quarter of 2016, the Stuttgart, Germany-based company said. The first Mercedes-Benz Actros and Axor trucks could be supplied to the country in the form of CKD (completely knocked down) kits - or fully disassembled - before the end of the year, Daimler said. In addition to the plans for Mercedes-Benz trucks, Daimler Trucks also sees great opportunities for its Mitsubishi FUSO brand especially in the light-duty truck segment. To open up this market, Daimler and Mammut have signed a distribution agreement for the FUSO brand. Daimler can build on a long and successful history in Iran: The company has been present in the market with Mercedes-Benz trucks and passenger cars since 1953, interrupted only by the sanctions phase between 2010 and 2016. Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles are still present there and remain very visible on Iran's roads. Previously, Daimler sold up to 10,000 vehicles per year in Iran, most of them commercial vehicles. (Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Mark Potter) donald trump Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Monday morning that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) had misfired an attack against him at the Democratic debate the night before. During the debate, Sanders said he couldn't imagine electing a president who believed that climate change is "a hoax invented by the Chinese." Sanders specifically cited Trump to make his point. That was an apparent reference to a 2012 tweet by Trump, in which the real-estate mogul wrote, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive." Trump was asked about Sanders' attack the next day during a "Fox & Friends" interview. He said his accusation against the Chinese was an obvious joke. "I think that climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax. A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change," Trump said. "I've received many environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China obviously I joke but this done for the benefit of China." He added: "Because China does not do anything to help climate change. They burn everything you can burn. They couldn't care less. Their standards are nothing. But in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it's very hard on our business." Trump has for years used words like "hoax," "canard," "mythical," "con job," "nonexistent," and "bulls---" to reject mainstream climate science: It snowed over 4 inches this past weekend in New York City. It is still October. So much for Global Warming. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2011 Global warming has been proven to be a canard repeatedly over and over again. http://t.co/RK1UoS8e The left needs a dose of reality. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2012 In the 1920's people were worried about global cooling--it never happened. Now it's global warming. Give me a break! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2012 Let's continue to destroy the competitiveness of our factories & manufacturing so we can fight mythical global warming. China is so happy! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 1, 2012 Global warming is based on faulty science and manipulated data which is proven by the emails that were leaked http://t.co/5BeAhats Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2012 We can't destroy the competitiveness of our factories in order to prepare for nonexistent global warming. China is thrilled with us! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2012 Looks like the U.S. will be having the coldest March since 1996-global warming anyone????????? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2013 They changed the name from global warming to climate change after the term global warming just wasnt working (it was too cold)! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2013 Another freezing day in the Spring - what is going on with "global warming"? Good move changing the name to "climate change" - sad! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2013 It's 46 (really cold) and snowing in New York on Memorial Day - tell the so-called "scientists" that we want global warming right now! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2013 The people that gave you global warming are the same people that gave you ObamaCare! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 24, 2013 Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2013 We should be focusing on beautiful, clean air & not on wasteful & very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit! China & others are hurting our air Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2013 We should be focused on clean and beautiful air-not expensive and business closing GLOBAL WARMING-a total hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2013 What the hell is going on with GLOBAL WARMING. The planet is freezing, the ice is building and the G.W. scientists are stuck-a total con job Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2013 The con artists changed the name from GLOBAL WARMING to CLIMATE CHANGE when GLOBAL WARMING was no longer working and credibility was lost! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2013 NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2014 Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2014 Give me clean, beautiful and healthy air - not the same old climate change (global warming) bullshit! I am tired of hearing this nonsense. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2014 NOW WATCH: Obama has been getting the best of Trump for years More From Business Insider By Joel Schectman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program in a move delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of U.S. prisoners, sources familiar with the matter said. The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blacklisted the UAE-based Mabrooka Trading, and its owner Hossein Pournaghshband for helping Iran's produce carbon fiber for the program. Financial institutions and companies are barred from dealing with those on the U.S. blacklist. U.S. official and congressional sources said President Barack Obama's administration had held back from taking action for more than two weeks during the tense negotiations that ultimately freed five Americans under a prisoner swap. Iran conducted a precision-guided ballistic missile test capable of delivering a nuclear warhead violating a United Nations ban last October. U.S. President Barack Obama said the test was a violation of Iran's "international obligations." "As a result, the United States is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Irans ballistic missile program. And we are going to remain vigilant about it. Were not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners," Obama said in a televised statement on Sunday morning from the White House. The announcement of the new sanctions came hours after three Americans detained by Iran including the Washington Posts Jason Rezaian -- boarded a Swiss plane departing Tehran. At the same time, the U.S. State Department announced it had agreed to release $400 million and $1.3 billion in interest for funds that had been frozen by the United State. The settlement, reached through arbitration at the Hague Claims Tribunal, related to funds once earmarked for Iran to buy U.S. military equipment before Irans revolution in 1979. But the sanctions announced today almost scuttled the prisoner deal weeks earlier, people involved said. The action had originally been planned for Dec. 30, as Secretary of State John Kerry was negotiating the prisoner trade that secured the release of five Americans from Iran this weekend. Story continues But the day before the sanctions were to be imposed, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned Kerry that if Washington went ahead, the deal could be endangered, according to a U.S. official and congressional sources. Obama administration officials decided to delay the sanctions announcement until after the deal was completed, the sources said. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a senior administration official said the United States "did not want to complicate what was a very sensitive and delicate effort to bring Americans home" by imposing the sanctions. Treasury Secretary Adam Szubin said today's sanctions show authorities will continue to punish Iran if it steps out of what is allowed by the nuclear deal. The prisoner exchange, which also dropped charges or obtained early release for at least nine Iranians, came as the U.S. lifted many sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear deal. For example, Most non-American companies will now be able to do business with Iran's energy sector. (Reporting by Joel Schectman; additional reporting by Julia Edwards, David Lawder, Lesley Wroughton, Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick; editing by Richard Balmforth) By Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian authorities will review the defenses of government computer systems, including at airports and railway stations, after a cyber attack on Kiev's main airport was launched from a server in Russia, officials told Reuters on Monday. Malware similar to that which attacked three Ukrainian power firms in late December was detected last week in a computer in the IT network of Kiev's main airport, Boryspil. The network includes the airport's air traffic control. Although there is no suggestion at this stage that Russia's government was involved, the cyber attacks have come at a time of badly strained relations between Ukraine and Russia over a nearly two-year-long separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. "In connection with the case in Boryspil, the ministry intends to initiate a review of anti-virus databases in the companies which are under the responsibility of the ministry," said Irina Kustovska, a spokeswoman for Ukraine's infrastructure ministry, which oversees airports, railways and ports. Ukraine's state-run Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) issued a warning on Monday of the threat of more attacks. "The control center of the server, where the attacks originate, is in Russia," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said by telephone, adding that the malware had been detected early in the airport's system and no damage had been done. A spokeswoman for the airport said Ukrainian authorities were investigating whether the malware was connected to a malicious software platform known as "BlackEnergy", which has been linked to other recent cyber attacks on Ukraine. There are some signs that the attacks are linked, she said. "Attention to all system administrators ... We recommend a check of log-files and information traffic," CERT-UA said in a statement. In December three Ukrainian regional power firms experienced short-term blackouts as a result of malicious software in their networks. Experts have described the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. A U.S. cyber intelligence firm in January traced the attack back to a Moscow-backed group known as Sandworm. The Dec. 23 outage at Western Ukraine's Prykarpattyaoblenergo cut power to 80,000 customers for about six hours, according to a report from a U.S. energy industry security group. Ukraine's SBU state security service has blamed Russia, but the energy ministry said it would hold off on attribution until after it completes a formal probe. (Editing by Matthias Williams and Gareth Jones) Not entirely, analysts say. Manufacturers are hoping that the depreciating Singapore dollar will jolt the city-states exports back to life. but analysts caution that currency weakness alone will not be enough to rescue Singapores exports. Although the weak Singapore dollar will make the city-states products cheaper and more attractive to buyers, the bigger question is whether or not demand will pick up, said a note by UOB. We think that the more important factor for 2016 is not how much cheaper Singapore exports can get due to FX effects, but whether the final demand conditions particularly coming from the G3 and China will pick up, said UOB. And if the December non-oil domestic exports (NODX) figures is anything to go by, then theres a slim chance that Singapore exports will bounce back materially this year. The drag on NODX was mainly due to the staggering 10.3% year-on-year decline in non-electronic exports in December, along with an 18.7% year-on-year decline in exports to China. From the December data, the heightened concerns about China will remain in the near term. We had initially forecast 2016 NODX growth at 2.1%, from -1% in 2015, but even at such conservative expectations, we fear that the risk to outlook still tilts towards the downside, especially in light of the China growth uncertainty & the decline in crude oil prices, said UOB. More From Singapore Business Review 2000 - 2022 24 .- . focus-news.net, () . 24 . 24 . . 24 . We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. To activate the text-to-speech service, please first agree to the privacy policy below. Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou () said Monday that he still hopes the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will agree to form a new Cabinet after its victory in Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections, adding that he will not approve the resignation of the current Cabinet for the time being. Taipei, Jan. 18 (CNA) The fate of the Cabinet headed by Premier Mao Chi-kuo () appeared to be in limbo on Monday when he announced it was resigning en masse even though President Ma Ying-jeou () said earlier in the day that he would not accept the resignation for now. The State of Ohio last Thursday released the report cards for school districts, as a benchmark as to how the states public schools are performing.While graduation rates in Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) high schools rose to 65.9 percent, up from 64.3 percent and up 14 percentage points since 2011, East Tech High School in particular showed stellar results.In just one year, the school went from a 46 percent graduation rate to a 72.9 percent rate for the 2013-14 school year, the most recent reporting year. Its been a process, says Paul Hoover, East Techs co-principal with Temujin Taylor. Weve turned it around using a couple of strategies to build the graduation rate at East Tech.One of those strategies is moving to an innovative support model with full inclusion, says Hoover, where regular education students and special education students are in the same classrooms. With both a regular teacher and a special education teacher in each classroom, the data proves that all students do better academically.It benefitted both groups because all the students have the opportunity to work with two teachers, explains Taylor. Its individualized one-on-one learning. You can walk into a classroom and you wont know the difference between teachers or students.Furthermore, the school has assigned near peers AmeriCorps volunteers in the City Year program to every core classroom. These volunteers work with students who are struggling through tutoring, mentorship and after school programs. Its a very targeted approach, says Hoover. Its not just this years graduation rate. Were setting it up [for continued success].Part of that setup is a no nonsense nurture approach, explains Taylor, which entails incentives and merits for good performance. Students can earn monetary Scarab Bucks (the schools mascot) based on academics, attendance and behavior. The bucks can then be used at the school store. This year, students can even use their rewards to buy homecoming and prom ticketsWeve seen decreases in the number of discipline incidents weve had happen in the building, says Taylor. This is to get back on track.Being a CMSD investment school under the Cleveland Plan , Taylor and Hoover say efforts are paying off. Prior to the Cleveland Plan, everyone got the same resources, says Hoover. The Cleveland Plan has given us the flexibility we needed to align the right support with what our students needed.Hoover says the jump in graduation rates is just the beginning of good things to come for East Tech students. This is not a blip, its significantly impressive with whats going on here, says Hoover. Its a good plan, but we have a really fantastic team here. All these people really worked hard.The current numbers indicate that this years seniors should show a 72 to 73 percent graduation rate, says Hoover, while the upcoming senior class is on track to exceed 80 percent. Reflections on the state of the world which proceed with the scriptures in one hand and the newspaper in the other Numerous media attendees are arriving from across the globe to cover the highly anticipated Bahrain International Airshow (BIAS) 2016 which will be held at the Sakhir Airbase, Kingdom of Bahrain, from 2123 January 2016. The aviation industry will soon receive some major announcements from the airshow. The show will see representation from the US, UK, France, India, Russia and Turkey. Furthermore, the high level aviation event will also see more participation from MENA states, with the largest participation yet from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from which numerous companies including Saudi Arabian Airlines will be joining for the first time, alongside Kuwait Airways, Emirates and previous attendees Qatar Airways. Multi-national organisations to date include Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Chevron, CFM, Finmeccanica, Lockheed Martin, Rolls Royce, Turkish Aerospace Industries, TAG Aeronautics and Thales Group. Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrains national carrier, already signals that they will make some announcements. As the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain and a key national infrastructure asset it is integral for us to be involved in this significant, biennial event that adds great value to the growing prominence of the Kingdoms aviation sector in the international arena. Held under the patronage of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, King of the Kingdom of Bahrain, this three day event is a key business platform for international aviation companies and I am pleased to say that Gulf Air will have some very exciting aircraft announcements to make at BIAS 2016. commented Gulf Air A/Chief Executive Officer Mr. Maher Salman AlMusallam. Qatar Airways also announced its presence in the airshow where the company will exhibit three aircrafts; Qatar Airways A350, for which it was the global launch customer, an A380 and Qatar Executives Bombardier Global 5000 business jet. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, said: We look forward to welcoming guests and visitors on board our very latest aircraft at the Bahrain International Airshow, and celebrating the one year anniversary of A350 operations as the global launch customer. This aircraft is the very latest in design, technology and comfort, and will make its first appearance at the air show this year, which will delight aviation enthusiasts, families and other visitors to the Middle Easts first major aviation event of 2016. On the second day of the show (22nd January 2016), the Air Transport in the 21st Century Conference will be held. The first session of the conference will focus on Airlines and Passenger Experience and sees Kuwait Airways Philip Saunders; Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker, Tamur Goudarzi-Pour from Lufthansa Middle East and Paul Byrne from Flymas discussing some of the major issues affecting Middle East carriers including increased competition, passenger experience, deregulation and the Open Skies agreement. Session two will focus on Middle East Airports and Airspace and features a panellist of Middle East aviation industry experts including Ahmed Al Nemah from Bahrains Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications Civil Aviation Affairs, Richard Philips from Serco, Mohamed Yousif AlBinfalah from Bahrain Airport Company, John Swift from NATS, Alan Corner from Helio and Salvatore Scervo from Selex ES. IATA will host a seminar regarding its new safety programme for smaller aircraft which will be held on the third day of the show (23rd January 2016). Based on its internationally recognised IOSA programme the IATA Standard Safety Assessment (ISSA) programme will allow operators of smaller aircraft to participate in and benefit from the safety assessment standard. The programme is aimed at aircraft operating below 5,700 Kg Maximum-take-off weight as well as those whose business model does not allow conformity with the IOSA requirements. The seminar will explain what operators need to know about participating in the voluntary programme and the commercial benefits of doing so to their organisation. Now in its fourth edition, BIAS is a focused global aviation event providing its elite list of aerospace business participants the opportunity for high-level networking in exclusive surroundings. With just 40 chalet participants and dedicated exhibition space, the event allows participants the opportunity to meet the extensive civil and military delegations invited as guests of HH Shaikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa - HM the King's Personal Representative and Head of the Supreme Organising Committee of BIAS. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) announced another record year in international tourist arrivals. UNWTO said that international tourist arrivals grew by 4.4% in 2015 to reach a total of 1,184 million in 2015. According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, some 50 million more tourists (overnight visitors) travelled to international destinations around the world last year as compared to 2014. China, the USA and the UK lead outbound travel growth. International tourism reached new heights in 2015. The robust performance of the sector is contributing to economic growth and job creation in many parts of the world. It is thus critical for countries to promote policies that foster the continued growth of tourism, including travel facilitation, human resources development and sustainability said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. Demand was strong overall, though with mixed results across individual destinations due to unusually strong exchange rate fluctuations, the drop in oil prices and other commodities which increased disposable income in importing countries but weakened demand in exporters, as well as increased safety and security concerns. 2015 marks the 6th consecutive year of above-average growth, with international arrivals increasing by 4% or more every year since the post-crisis year of 2010. Growth in advanced economy destinations (+5%) exceeded that of emerging economies (+4%), boosted by the solid results of Europe (+5%). By region, Europe, the Americas and Asia and the Pacific all recorded around 5% growth in 2015. Arrivals to the Middle East increased by 3% while in Africa, limited data available, points to an estimated 3% decrease, mostly due to weak results in North Africa, which accounts for over one third of arrivals in the region. Berkeley river, AustraliaPositive prospects for 2016 Results from the UNWTO Confidence Index remain largely positive for 2016, UNWTO projects international tourist arrivals to grow by 4% worldwide in 2016. By region, growth is expected to be stronger in Asia and the Pacific (+4% to +5%) and the Americas (+4% to +5%), followed by Europe (+3.5% to +4.5%). The projections for Africa (+2% to 5%) and the Middle East (+2% to +5%) are positive, though with a larger degree of uncertainty and volatility. 2015 Regional Results Europe (+5%) led growth in absolute and relative terms supported by a weaker euro vis-a-vis the US dollar and other main currencies. Arrivals reached 609 million, or 29 million more than in 2014. Central and Eastern Europe (+6%) rebounded from last years decrease in arrivals. Northern Europe (+6%), Southern Mediterranean Europe (+5%) and Western Europe (+4%) also recorded sound results, especially considering the many mature destinations they comprise. Asia and the Pacific (+5%) recorded 13 million more international tourist arrivals last year to reach 277 million, with uneven results across destinations. Oceania (+7%) and South-East Asia (+5%) led growth, while South Asia and in North-East Asia recorded an increase of 4%. International tourist arrivals in the Americas (+5%) grew 9 million to reach 191 million, consolidating the strong results of 2014. The appreciation of the US dollar stimulated outbound travel from the United States, benefiting the Caribbean and Central America, both recording 7% growth. Results in South America and North America (both at +4%) were close to the average. International tourist arrivals in the Middle East grew by an estimated 3% to a total of 54 million, consolidating the recovery initiated in 2014. Limited available data for Africa points to a 3% decrease in international arrivals, reaching a total of 53 million. In North Africa arrivals declined by 8% and in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1%, though the latter returned to positive growth in the second half of the year. (Results for both Africa and Middle East should be read with caution as it is based on limited available data) China, the USA and the UK lead outbound travel growth in 2015 A few leading source markets have driven tourism expenditure in 2015 supported by a strong currency and economy. Among the worlds top source markets, China, with double-digit growth in expenditure every year since 2004, continues to lead global outbound travel, benefitting Asian destinations such as Japan and Thailand, as well as the United States and various European destinations. By contrast, expenditure from the previously very dynamic source markets of the Russian Federation and Brazil declined significantly, reflecting the economic constraints in both countries and the depreciation of the rouble and the real against virtually all other currencies. As for the traditional advanced economy source markets, expenditure from the United States (+9%), the worlds second largest source market, and the United Kingdom (+6%) was boosted by a strong currency and rebounding economy. Spending from Germany, Italy and Australia grew at a slower rate (all at +2%), while demand from Canada and France was rather weak. Berchtesgaden National park As 2.6 million Europeans have traveled to Germany for nature vacations, the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) announced the marketing theme for 2016 as Fascinating nature vacations in Germany. Worldwide marketing campaigns and trade activities will be centered on the 130 natural landscapes throughout Germany, including 16 national parks, 15 UNESCO protected biosphere reserves and more than 100 natural parks. Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the GNTB said, Next to France and Austria, Germany is the most popular worldwide nature destination amongst Europeans. More than one third of Germany consists of protected natural sites, and the countrys consistent and responsible treatment of the environment is another reason for the GNTB to position Germany as a sustainable travel destination. Fascinating nature vacations in Germany is an online campaign with several elements, starting with the enhancement of the homepage www.germany.travel/natur. Comprehensive information and an interactive map are available in several languages, and showcase the variety of Germanys natural wonders. The GNTB has further created an interactive element called the destination finder, at www.germany.travel/enjoy, which allows the user to discover their favorite spot and share it with friends via social media channels. The campaign video www.youtube.com/germanytourism illustrates the diversity of offerings throughout Germanys natural landscapes, including trekking, climbing, para- and hang-gliding, canoeing, mudflat hiking and wildlife watching. The GNTB cooperates closely with partners such as EUROPARC Germany the governing body of the national natural sites, the union for German nature parks and the marketing organizations of the federal states. Photo Credit: DZT/Photo-Center Greiner & Meyer Zoeann Murphy/The Washington Post via Getty Images(LANDSTUHL, Germany) Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post reporter imprisoned in Iran for 18 months, is a free man now. Rezaian was one of four U.S. citizens freed by Iran Sunday as part of a prisoner swap. "I'm just happy to have my brother home," Ali Rezaian, Jason's brother, told ABC's Good Morning America Monday. Ali Rezaian spoke to ABC News from Landstuhl, Germany, where Jason is receiving medical care. "You know he's happy to be out and on his way home," he said of his brother. "He's really fortunate to have the folks here at the hospital." Ali Rezaian said his brother has been doing "OK" despite being "neglected" for a long time. He hasn't gotten a chance to see Jason, but expects he will Tuesday. He told ABC News that Jason's doctors hadn't expressed anything "serious" about his condition to the family. "Our main concern right now is to make sure that he integrates back in, that he gets the right psychological treatment that he needs so that he can be successful and come back home soon," Ali Rezaian said. Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl sent a memo to the Post's staff, detailing their conversation with Jason Sunday. They described Jason as being "in good spirits" and said "his mind is sharp." "He [Jason] found escape in the fiction he was allowed to read, and today he was avidly reading whatever he wanted," they wrote. Rezaian told his co-workers he looked forward to seeing them soon, saying, "I hear there's going to be a big party." He landed in Geneva before flying to Ramstein Air Base in Germany with his mother and wife. ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos Copyright 2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. U.S.-born game designer Amir Mizra Hekmati has been released from Iran after being held in custody for over four years. Hekmati, who was previously sentenced to death after allegedly confessing to spying on the country and creating propaganda games for the C.I.A., was released as part of a prisoner swap that also involved Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, Christian preacher Saeed Abedini, and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. According to an NBC report, Hekmati - whose death sentence was overturned in 2012 - left Iran on Sunday, January 17. His plane, which was also carrying Rezaian and Abedini, then landed in Geneva before heading on to Germany. U.S. State Department special envoy Brett McGurk confirmed the men had safety left the country on Twitter. "It is hard to put into words what our family feels right now. But we remain in hopeful anticipation until Amir is in our arms. As many of you know, Amirs father is very ill and soon he will embrace his son once more," said the Hekmati family via Facebook. "We are incredibly grateful for todays news. We thank our government, and we thank all of you whose thoughts and prayers helped us tremendously since Amir was taken from us in 2011." A former U.S. Marine, Hekmati worked at Kuma Reality Games, the studio behind the KumaWar first-person shooter series. KumaWar featured episodes in which players killed militant Islamist figures, and led a U.S. assault on Iran in order to cripple its nuclear weapons program. The New York City-based developer had previously accepted contract work from the U.S. government to develop training software for military applications, including "Second Language Training," a language retention training program commissioned by the Department of Defense. While in detention Hekmati purportedly made a number of public confessions incriminating himself and Kuma, however, according to the White House, the Iranian-American game designer was simply in Iran visiting his grandmother. In an attempt to clarify the situation and shed light on Kuma's motivations, Polygon made a public records request of the C.I.A. in October last year. That request that was subsequently denied. Conservative thoughts on the issues of today Welcome to the underWorld! But, we will concentrate on what's on the surface: the living landscapes of the dead. All photographs taken by me, D.J.Z. Futures this evening show Brent Crude is just over $28 a barrel, down another 3.4 percent. At one point futures were $27.67. Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) sits at a relatively firm price near $30. The key word being "relatively", not firm. Sanctions Lifted The Wall Street Journal reports Irans Sanctions End as Deal Takes Effect The EU has confirmed that the legal framework providing for the lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions is effective. The United States today is ceasing the application of its nuclear-related statutory sanctions on Iran, said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, reading the joint statement. Governments across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council are taking unprecedented measures to counter the slump in oil prices, curtailing some of the worlds most generous welfare systems to plug widening budget deficits. In some countries, contractors are facing delays in government payments, while companies are reducing their workforces to trim costs. Every major stock index in the Middle East, with the exception of Tehrans, plunged on Sunday as the prospect of Iran adding to an oil supply glut pummeled markets already reeling from falling crude prices and a global sell-off in equities. With oil priced below $30 a barrel, governments may have to eat further into benefits that citizens have enjoyed for decades -- at a time of growing regional turmoil and a proxy confrontation with Iran from Syria to Yemen. The Saudi Arabian central banks net foreign assets fell by $96 billion in the first 11 months of 2015 to $628 billion, and the government sold bonds for the first time since 2007 to finance a budget deficit of about 15 percent of economic output. The political contract between the rulers and the citizens is based on a provision of wealth to the citizens, so any adjustment of the subsidies or of the other services will have some political risk, said Toby Matthiesen, senior research fellow at the University of Oxford and author of The Other Saudis: Shiism, Dissent and Sectarianism. The oil industry is braced for an increase in Iranian production after western powers lifted many of the sanctions linked to its nuclear programme, paving the way for Tehrans full return to the international market. The re-emergence of Iran, which claims it can swiftly boost production and exports by 500,000 barrels a day, threatens to add to the glut of oil that has pushed prices to a 12-year low of less than $30 a barrel. It comes as relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Opecs largest producer and de facto leader, have soured. UN inspectors said on Saturday that Iran had dismantled significant elements of its nuclear programme, paving the way for the country to increase exports of its crude to global markets after nearly four years under economic and financial sanctions. Hassan Rouhani, Irans president, on Sunday announced we have started selling more oil as of today. But a senior oil official told the Financial Times that there had been no rise in sales yet. When we say we sell more crude, we mean we already have the capacity to increase exports by 500,000 bpd almost immediately, he said. Now, we have customers to buy about 300,000 more barrels per day and will do it as soon as financial restrictions are removed which may take one more week. More than 100m barrels of crude oil and heavy fuels are being held on ships at sea, as a year-long supply glut fills up available storage on land and contributes to port congestion in key hubs. From China to the Gulf of Mexico, the growing flotilla of stationary supertankers is evidence that the oil price crash may still have further to run, as the worlds energy infrastructure starts to creak under the weight of near-record inventory levels. Sky-high supertanker rates have prevented them from putting more oil into so-called floating storage, shutting off one of the safety valves that could prevent oil prices from falling further. JBC Energy, a consultancy, said in many regions onshore oil storage is approaching capacity, arguing oil prices may have to fall to allow more to be stored profitably at sea. Onshore storage is not quite full but it is at historically high levels globally, said David Wech, managing director of JBC Energy. As we move closer to capacity that is creating more infrastructure hiccups and delays in the oil market, leading to more oil being backed out on to the water. Traders looking to make money by storing oil at sea faces a number of challenges. The average daily hire rate for a very large crude carrier has been close to $60,000 a day this year and briefly hit $108,000 last month as producing have scrambled to find customers further afield because of a supply glut estimated at up 2m barrels a day. Traders estimate it may need to reach $6 to make sea storage viable. The Guardian reports Lifting of Iran Sanctions is 'a Good Day for the World' I agree, having previously commented "".Warmonger Republicans and Israel would not agree, but most of the world is on my side.The end of sanctions does mean that Iran will be free to sell its oil.The biggest beneficiary is consumers. The biggest losers are the other oil producing states, the warmongers, and Israel.Bloomberg says Iran's Oil Will Just Make Life Worse for Gulf Rivals The Financial Times reports Oil Industry Braced for Re-Entry of Iran On November 15, the Financial Times noted Oil Glut Deepens with 100 Million Barrels at Sea If it takes a $6 spread to make a profit in six months, the flotilla buyers barely have it.September Crude is sitting right about $35 bucks.Arbitrage profit is declining across the board. And what happens if the tankers cannot unload oil in six months because onshore storage is filled up?Supertankers sitting may have fueled the totally inaccurate report that not a single transport ship in the North Atlantic is moving.My rebuttal was Investigating Claims "North Atlantic Trade Ground to a Halt, No Ships Moving"; The Real Shipping Story Tankers are moving, just not very fast.Under sanctions, Irans crude oil exports have nearly halved in three years according to the US Energy Information Administration.Those numbers are as of June 2015, reflective of 2014.Thus, we are looking at an addition of roughly 1.4 million barrels a day, perhaps more if exports shrank in 2015 as well.Stockpiling is out of the question. Reserves nearly everywhere are full. Ultimately, supply must equal demand.Barring a supply shock of some sort or a huge cutback in production by other OPEC members, price just may have quite a bit more to fall.For the short-term, more energy-related pain appears on the horizon.Mike "Mish" Shedlock We do not know if we will ever again see the equivalent of the siberian traps. We can see a super volcano at work, but that is likely to be... Montreal, Quebec, January 18, 2016 SEMAFO Inc. (TSX, OMX: SMF) today reports that its employees are safe and were not involved in the terrorist attack on the Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso between January 15 and January 16, 2016. Operations at the Mana Mine, which is located 270 kilometers southwest and a five-hour road trip from Ouagadougou, are unaffected. The safety of our employees continues to be our top priority. As a preventive measure, we have increased security at the mine. We will continue to closely monitor the situation with our partners to protect the health and safety of SEMAFO employees and our operations. The Corporation would like to express its deepest sympathy to families of the victims and its solidarity with the Burkinabe people. About SEMAFO SEMAFO is a Canadian-based mining company with gold production and exploration activities in West Africa. The Corporation operates the Mana Mine in Burkina Faso, which includes the high-grade satellite deposits of Siou and Fofina. SEMAFO is committed to evolve in a conscientious manner to become a major player in its geographical area of interest. SEMAFOs strategic focus is to maximize shareholder value by effectively managing its existing assets as well as pursuing organic and strategic growth opportunities. The information in this release is subject to the disclosure requirements of SEMAFO under the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instruments Trading Act. This information was publicly communicated on January 18, 2016 at 7:00 a.m., Eastern Standard Time. For more information, contact NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against ERBA Diagnostics, Inc. (ERBA or the Company) (NYSE:ERB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, and docketed under 15-cv-24425, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons or entities who purchased ERBA securities between April 14, 2014 and November 23, 2015 inclusive (the Class Period). This class action seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act). If you are a shareholder who purchased ERBA securities during the Class Period, you have until February 1, 2016 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll free, ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and number of shares purchased. ERBA develops, manufactures, and markets diagnostic test kits or assays, and automated systems that are used to aid in the detection of disease markers primarily in the areas of autoimmune, infectious diseases, clinical chemistry, hematology, and diabetes testing. The Company also develops, manufactures, and markets autoimmune reagents and research products for use by research laboratories and commercial diagnostic manufacturers. The Company markets its products through its sales force to hospitals, reference laboratories, clinical laboratories, and research laboratories, as well as to other commercial companies that manufacture diagnostic products in the United States; and through sales representatives and independent agents in Italy, as well as through independent distributors internationally. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Companys business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company lacked adequate controls over financial reporting; (ii) the Companys financial statements during the Class Period were materially false and misleading; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants statements regarding ERBAs business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. On November 20, 2015, post-market, ERBA disclosed that the Companys previously issued financial statements for each of the years ended December 31, 2014 and 2013 and for each of the interim periods ended March 31, 2015 and June 30, 2015 (collectively, the Non-Reliance Periods) should no longer be relied upon. ERBA further disclosed that it intends to restate its financial statements for the Non-Reliance Periods. On this adverse news, ERBAs shares fell $0.30, or over 17%, to close at $1.44 on November 23, 2015. The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, 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 70 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 t3hbwang wrote: All, I would greatly appreciate any feedback on my upcoming school visit plan as there are likely things I haven't taken into consideration. I'm currently based in Okinawa, Japan as a military officer. Looking to apply in 2016 and have pinpointed 22 April - 9 May for the following schools (UCLA Anderson, UCB Haas, UW Foster, LBS, INSEAD - Fontainebleau). It's an extremely ambitious trip, and I'm worried that I'll be overcommitting myself. The current itinerary is as follows: Fri 22 April - Mon 2 May (OKINAWA-LAX-SF-SEA with a dash of visiting friends/family since I'm from California) Mon 2 May - Mon 9 May (SEA - LON - PARIS - OKINAWA): I'm most worried about this leg because I have never been to Europe before. The plan is to arrive in London late Tuesday evening, and spend Wednesday visiting LBS. On Thursday morning I will take the Eurostar to Paris and then make my way to Fontainebleau, where I will be staying until Saturday or Sunday (I have a friend who is a current student). It's a tight schedule without much wiggle room, especially in Europe. I'm thinking of eliminating SEA and leaving for Europe earlier so I can give myself time to adjust to the time difference. Thanks in advance for any and all responses! If you provide an overview of your profile, I would be in a better position to evaluate this list. Foster is an outlier, but depending on your profile it may be one you should include or perhaps one you are fine not to worry about. You should also keep in mind that it is not necessary to visit all of the schools you apply to. Plenty of people don't travel and do a lot of research from afar, so if you cannot get everywhere do not worry about it.Best,Scott_________________ Four Brooklyn men are suing American Airlines after a flight attendant allegedly kicked them off of their return flight from Toronto in December. According to the suit, the attendant ordered the four friendsthree Muslims and a Sikhto revoke their seats because they were making the flight crew "uneasy." One of the men, a construction worker identified in the suit as M.K., allegedly asked the attendant if he and his friends had been kicked off because of their appearance. According to the suit, she replied that it "did not help." The flight was operated by Republic Airlines, a regional company under the American Airlines banner. In an interview with the Daily News, an attorney representing the men explained that the group was approached soon after boarding, when Shan Anand and Faimul Alam switched seats with fellow passengers in order to sit near their friends. Prior to boarding, Alam and Anand had paid a $75 change fee to take the same flight as the rest of their group, which numbered six in all. M.K. and another friend, a fashion designer identified in the suit as W.H., had both paid $70 upgrades to business class. Apparently, the flight crew was so unsettled by this seat shifting that they ordered them off of the plane. "She [the flight attendant] said the stewardess and the captain felt uneasy with us being on the flight," W.H. told the News. "She said there were inconsistencies of our behavior traveling as a group because two of us upgraded and two of us didn't." Their two other companions, Hispanic and Pakistani respectively, were not kicked off of the flight but were told to "just be peaceful," according to attorney Tahanie Aboushi. Aboushi said that this language suggests that these men, also, were considered a threat. The four men ultimately returned to LaGuardia on the flight Anand and Alam had originally booked, with the same airline. Each of them is seeking $6 million in damages. Speaking with Gothamist this morning, Aboushi said that the airline's decision to put the men on the next flight was particularly unusual. "What usually happens with these cases, is that law enforcement comes on board and takes statements. Just putting these men on the next flight the way it went down, if it were a legitimate security threat it would not have gone down the way it did," she said. "These young gentlemen cleared TSA, and then the captain of the flight made a personal observation," she added. "It was very capricious and arbitrary." "We have not received the lawsuit yet, thus we cannot comment," American Airlines spokesman Matt Miller said in a statement. In December, a Virgin Airlines crew barred Texas lawyer Bobby Abtahi from his flight to Dallas, allegedly because they did not feel "comfortable" having him on board. The airline later apologized, calling the incident a "misunderstanding." A 43-year-old Muslim man who was ambushed and beaten by two men shouting "ISIS! ISIS!" had reportedly never even heard of the radical fundamentalist pseudo-nation-state. Mujibur Rahman was walking his 9-year-old niece home from the Bronx's PS 119 at around 5:30 p.m. Friday, when two men wearing ski masks approached them. "They said 'ISIS! ISIS!'" Rahman told the Post. "I never heard of ISIS before this attack." Rahman's assailants punched his body, head, and face, forcing him to the ground and kicking him before running off. He was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he was treated and released. Rahman had been wearing traditional South Asian Islamic clothes at the time. "I was dressed like a Muslim," he told the tabloid. "That's why I was attacked. This has never happened before. I hope and wish this doesn't happen in the future to anyone else." My niece is shaking and scared to go back to school. She doesnt know what ISIS is," Rahman added. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident. A police spokesman confirmed that no arrests have been made. Rahman told ABC Sunday "I believe as a Muslim they hate us, they hate me, and that's why," but stressed that he will not change his style of dress, or where he goes in the city. Support for Rahman, calls for justice, and demands for a stop to violence have begun to mount. In a statement released Sunday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. asserted "An attack on one of us over race, religion, gender or sexual orientation is an attack on us all." Last month, a store owner in Queens was bloodied by a man who told him "I'm going to kill muslims." State assemblyman Luis Sepulveda will lead a rally in support of Rahman at 9 a.m. Tuesday in front of PS 119. "I am appalled by this latest hate crime in the heart of our community, Sepulveda said in a statement. "An attack on one member of our community is an attack on us all." Thomas McAnulty, a 73-year-old sculptor and Professor Emeritus at Adelphi University, was fatally struck by a motorcycle driver while crossing Amsterdam Avenue in the crosswalk on Thursday evening. The crash took place half a block from the artist's Upper West Side home. Police responded to the intersection of Amsterdam Avenue and West 96th Street around 5:06 p.m. last Thursday, January 14th. There, they discovered McAnulty in the road with head trauma. The victim was transported to Saint Luke's Hospital, and succumbed to his injuries the next day. Scene of the crash (David Torres). According to a preliminary investigation, McAnulty was crossing south on Amsterdam Avenue when he was struck by the driver of a Ducati motorcycle riding east on West 96th. The driver, whose name has not been released, remained on the scene. No charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing. A spokesman for the NYPD confirmed that, according to a preliminary investigation, McAnulty was in the crosswalk when he was struck. McAnulty studied to be a Catholic priest before turning to art full time, according to DNAInfo. He and his wife Mary had been together for 42 years at the time of his death, and raised two children. McAnulty was also a Vietnam veteran, and attended art school on the GI bill. He received his BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art and his MFA from Indiana University, according the biography on his website. Retired from his 20-year teaching post at Adelphi, he spent the last decade leading an annual study-abroad program in Florence, Italy. The bulk of McAnulty's work was relief sculpture, often depicting simple, everyday objects. He also worked with charcoal on paper, and took commissions for sculptures at Christian churches. "My work is about the simple act of looking," wrote McAnulty in his artist statement. "I am especially drawn to simple common objectsa peach, a bottle or a table I present these things stripped of unnecessary elements while retaining their essential and archetypal features." In the days since his death, family, friends, colleagues and students have taken to Facebook to praise McAnulty's work and character. "Tom and I shared a studio for the past 10 years or so," wrote artist Erin O'Keefe. "He taught me so much in that timeabout life and humility and compassion, and about how to be an artistto show up and work and look with enthusiasm and openness." "He was an amazing prof and I feel very fortunate to be able to have him as a instructor for several classes at Adelphi," wrote a former student. "One of my favorite memories of Tom was as a freshman and bumping into him as I made my way to the LIRR to visit the MET. He was on his way to campus to help with portfolio reviews and took the time to pause and chat with me before going on his way." McAnulty's family is asking anyone who may have any tips pertaining to the crash to email them here. "We are looking for any leads or tips that would help the police with this case," wrote McAnulty's niece in an e-mail to DNAinfo. "At this time it has not yet been deemed a criminal event, only an accident." Oxfam reported Monday that the 62 wealthiest people alive now possess more wealth collectively than half the human race. The report also points out that that upper-crust subset has shrunken considerably in recent years. In 2010 a whopping 388 people held as much wealth as half the planet, but now that number is down to a nice and cozy 62. Two main factors are at play here. One, the rich are getting richer (worldwide, across the U.S., and here in NYC), while the world's poorest inhabitants get poorer. The Oxfam report reveals that that bottom 50% lost a trillion dollars in wealth since 2010, even as the human race added another 400 million to its total population. All told, the richest 62 people alive now lay claim to $1.76 trillion. Only nine of them are women. "While such extreme inequality is bad for all of us, it's the poorest among us who suffer the grimmest consequences," Raymond C. Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America, told ABC in a statement. And Offenheiser is right UNICEF stresses that extreme poverty puts children at a greater risk of labor, exploitation, and HIV infection, while in the U.S., 4.5% of all deaths in 2000 were attributed to poverty. In their new report, Oxfam stresses that the average annual income of the poorest 10 percent has risen by less than $3 per year over the last 25 years. Measures like the closing of offshore tax-dodge havens, redoubled investment in public services, and a rise in wages for the world's lowest-paid workers are the three primary recommendations offered by Oxfam. Here are some other gems, pulled from today's report: "As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is estimated to be held offshore, costing an estimated $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year" Governments lose an estimated $190 billion each year due to offshore tax havens "Had inequality within countries not grown between 1990 and 2010, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty" Speaking to the Guardian, the Equality Trust's Duncan Exley stressed that Inequality, both globally but also in the UK, is now at staggering levels. We know that such a vast gap between the richest and the rest of us is bad for our economy and society. We now need our politicians to wake up and address this dangerous concentration of wealth and power in the hands of so few. Welcome Visitors! Live Traffic Stats READING LIST The Lucky One, Nicholas Sparks--2 stars Chestnut Street, Maeve Binchy--5 stars Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng -- 4 stars While I Was Gone--Sue Miller--4 stars Olive Again--Elizabeth Strout--4 stars The Burgess Boys--Elizabeth Strout--4 stars The Offing--Bernard Myers--4 stars Rainsong--Sue Hubbard--5 stars Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet--5 Stars Christmas at War --5 Stars The Wife's Tale--Lori Lansens -- 5 Stars Patron Saint of Ugly--Marie Manilla -- 5 Stars Christmas at Harringtons--Melody Carlson-- 1 Star A Time to Dance and Other Stories -- 4 Stars Midwinter Break--Bernard Laverty --4 stars On Folly Beach---2 stars Olive Kitteridge--Elizabeth Strout--5 Stars A Spool of Blue Thread--Anne Tyler -- 5 Stars The Girl From Hoxley--5 Stars Addie: A Memoir--Settle --5 Stars Don't Tell 'Em You're Cold--Manley --5 Stars The Glass Castle--Walls -- 5 Stars Where the Crawdads Sing--Owens --2 Stars There, There--Tommy Orange -2 stars Dust Bowl Diary --5 Stars The Peace of Wild Things --5 Stars Delights and Shadows--Kooser --5 Stars Bedside Book of Famous French Stories --4 stars Ghosts of the Ohio River --3 Stars Big Book of Ohio Ghost Stories --3 stars The Moon-Eyed People --Peter Stevenson-- 5 Stars Morality for Beautiful Girls (No.1 Ladies Detective Agency)--5 Stars Haunting Experiences: Ghosts in Contemporary Folklore --4 Stars Cornish Ghost Stories -- 5 Stars The Persecution of Witchcraft and Magic --4 Stars A Pity Youth Does Not Last An Old Woman's Reflections What Lies Beyond the Frame Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling World Made and Unmade Country Life in England Cornish Tales The Good Earth by Pearl Buck Good Earth Mother (Buck biography) River Rats The Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm Outwitting the Devil The Hogboon of Hell Broonies, Silkies and Fairies Miracle at Hominy Falls The Civil War Diary of Henrietta Fitzhugh Barr Winter Morning Walks by Ted Kooser Irish Ghost Stories by Jeremiah Curtin The Apple That Astonished Paris by Billy Collins Volume 24, WV Encyclopedia Volume 25, WV Encyclopedia Windfall by Maggie Anderson (poetry) Mountain Trace Book 3 The Handy Book Snyder's Hound and Other Poems by Elaine Rowley Hickory & Lady Slippers: Life and Legend of Clay County People, vol 3 Remarkable Words with Astonishing Origins by John Train Green Risks provides information to understand the natural world especially in our local region. The blog is a mix of technical guidance and interesting information with a slant towards information to live a greener and more sustainable life. You will find articles on a wide range of water and environmental topics including help with water well problems and maintenance, septic systems and regulations, solar energy, low impact development, and many others all with the intent of teaching practical ways to solve problems and revive common sense in our society. "exceptionally terrific" - Blawg Wisdom "A protein-laden dose of big thinking on criminal justice reform." - Evan Smith, Editor-in-chief and publisher, The Texas Tribune "A powerful and well-researched site." - The Austin Chronicle GFB is "an indispensable handle if you're interested in criminal justice in Texas." - Emily Bazelon, Slate " Grits is the first thing I read every morning and I learn something every single time." - Pam Colloff, ProPublica/NY Times Magazine "plenty of biting commentary and credible research" - San Antonio Current Scott Henson is "one of the nations finest criminal-justice policy wonks." - Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic Grits for Breakfast "is the best blog about criminal justice in Texas" and "as usual extremely fair" - Erica Grieder, The Economist "the best coverage of criminal justice in the entire state" - Pamela Colloff, Texas Monthly I respect the work Scott does and appreciate his thoughtful and extensive coverage of Texass criminal justice system Jim Bethke,"Grits for Breakfast has done a terrific job covering Texas prison overcrowding issues." - Doug Berman, Sentencing Law & Policy "the indispensable blog on criminal justice and law enforcement in Texas" - Marie Gottschalk, author of 'Caught' "plugged in and well written" - DallasBlog "I always tell people interested in these issues that your blog is the most important news source, and have had high-ranking corrections officials tell me they read it regularly." - Scott Medlock, Texas Civil Rights Project "a helluva blog" - Solomon Moore, NY Times criminal justice correspondent "Congrats on building one of the most read and important blogs on a specific policy area that I've ever seen" - Donald Lee, Texas Conference of Urban Counties GFB "is a fact-packed, trustworthy reporter of the weirdness that makes up corrections and criminal law in the Lone Star State" and has "shown more naked emperors than Hans Christian Andersen ever did." -Attorney Bob Mabry, Conroe "Grits really shows the potential of a single-state focused criminal law blog" - Corey Yung, Sex Crimes Blog "I regard Grits for Breakfast as one of the most welcome and helpful vehicles we elected officials have for understanding the problems and their solutions." Tommy Adkisson, Bexar County Commissioner "dude really has a pragmatic approach to crime fighting, almost like hes some kind of statistics superhero" - Dirty Third Streets "concise, knowledgeable, in-depth and sometimes counter-to-prevailing wisdom"- Rob Patterson,"Scott Henson's 'Grits for Breakfast' is one of the most insightful blogs on criminal justice issues in Texas." - Texas Public Policy Foundation "Nobody does it better or works harder getting it right" David Jennings, aka "Big Jolly" "I appreciate the fact that you obviously try to see both sides of an issue, regardless of which side you end up supporting."Kim Vickers,Grits for Breakfast "has probably broken more criminal justice stories than any TX reporter, but stays under the radar. Fascinating guy."Maurice Chammah,"unrestrained and uneducated" John Bradley, Former Williamson County District Attorney, now former Attorney General of Palau "our favorite blog""Scott Henson ... writes his terrific blog Grits for Breakfast from an outhouse in Texas." - To the People 2004 Koufax Award Winner:Best Single Issue Blog Winner of Blawg Review's 2006 Equal Justice Award Public Defender Investigators' 2007 "Editors Choice Award" 2009 Austin Chronicle 'Best of Austin' Award Ranked among Top 3 most influential independent law blogs in North America, 2012 Well, I don't wear a Stetson But I'm willing to bet, son, That I'm as big a Texan As you are. Zapoper's modem went and got drunk yesterday and now it doesn't recognize him anymore. As a result, he lost his internet and pho... Opinion Destination Sharjah Come November and all roads will lead to Expo Centre Sharjah. Every year, we wait for this moment to arrive. The 41st edition of Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) is all set to begin from Nov.2. Everybody in the UAE is super excited for SIBF. Lots of authors of international repute will grace the much-loved event. A total of 1,632 exhibitors from 83 countries will attend the event. I am also looking forward to meet and listen to a few of them. 1. To believe in the existence and providence of G-d. 2. Not to believe that there are any other gods. 3. To believe that G-d is an absolute unity. 4. To love G-d. 5. To fear G-d. 6. To guard oneself from foreign thoughts. A space to lay down the words behind the images. From Asia to Africa to the Americas, the portraits are made, stories are recorded and lives are represented through photography. Walk into the Montana Historical Society this week and step into a life-sized Stan Lynde comic strip Western town. The historical society is celebrating the famous Montana cartoonist with a new exhibit, From the Heart: Stan Lyndes Comic Creations, opening Thursday, Jan. 21, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Here youll meet some of Lyndes most legendary characters -- Rick OShay and Hipshot. His two most famous comic strips, Rick OShay and Latigo, reached 15 million readers from 1958 to 1983. Lyndes Montana-based comic strip, Rick OShay, began in 1958 and ran until 1977 in up to 100 newspapers across the country -- including the countrys biggest newspapers, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and many Montana newspapers, including the Independent Record. It also had an international following, appearing in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, as well as French, Italian and Spanish newspapers. He created Latigo in 1978, and it ran until 1983. The exhibit will recreate his studio with drafting table, office chair and art supplies, similar to the one he had in his Helena home. Lynde lived here for his final 15 years in Montana, before moving to Ecuador in 2013. The exhibit also features artifacts, like Lyndes trademark Stetson with a beaded and quilled band, one of Hipshots guns, an array of early and later comic strips, including ones that were singed but rescued from a 1990 house fire that destroyed much of his art and many mementos from fans. You can see photos of him on horseback, and also the chaps, saddle and spurs he wore for the Great Montana Cattle Drive of 1989 that he co-founded and organized. Youll also get to read Hipshots famous pardon letter, penned and signed by Montana Governor Tim Babcock in 1966, forgiving Hipshot for all misdeeds committed in Montana. The pardon was apparently instrumental in Hipshot recovering from nearly fatal injuries and continuing to have a starring role in the comic strip with Rick OShay. Thursdays event includes talks by Lynde's widow, Lynda Lynde, his son, T.J. Lynde, and also Denney Neville, who was Lyndes inker and letterer for the comic strip from 1971 to 1977. Lynde would do the comic strip drawings in pencil and write out a script for the characters and Neville would ink in the drawings and do the lettering, said MHS curator Amanda Streeter Trum. Visitors will see the various stages of how Lynde developed his comic strips, said Trum, from notes and rough sketches to the inked and colored panels to the printed comic. Also on display are some of his earliest drawings and comics, which have never been printed or exhibited. Viewers can also reflect on how his artwork evolved and grew more sophisticated over the decades. There will even be a selfie spot, where you can step into a blank comic strip panel and join Rick OShay and Hipshot. Im really excited to share Stans passion for the West and to showcase his many talents, said Trum. We want visitors to feel immersed in Stans comic world and my hope is that people walk away with a sense of how much Stan loved Western life and how skilled he was at presenting it to others. There will also be stations where kids can try some hands-on comic strip work. Trum hopes it will inspire kids to dream big. We already knew that Stan was an inspiration for Montanans when he created his comic strips, and I hope that this exhibit will inspire a new generation, Trum said. Born on Sept. 23, 1931, in Billings and growing up on a ranch near Lodge Grass on the Crow Indian Reservation, Lynde was surrounded by cowboys. Cowboys were my heroes, he said in a 2012 interview with the Independent Record, when he donated some of his original art and possessions to MHS. He and his wife Lynda were moving to Ecuador at that time. Lynde said the cowboys were his only playmates during parts of his childhood. They and the people of Lodge Grass became the models for his characters -- Rick OShay, Hipshot, Gaye Abandon and other folks in his imaginary town of Conniption. Most were composites, he said, of the old time cowboys and the people I knew growing up. His mother started him drawing when they lived in isolated sheep camps to keep him from roaming in rattlesnake country. He recalled that every Sunday the Billings Gazette and Denver Post arrived at the family ranch and his parents would read the comic strips out loud to him. It was an epiphany, he said. I wanted to be a cartoonist all my life from age 5 or 6 thats what I wanted to do. Its a dream that took him through some very lean years in New York City, where he arrived with just $30 in his pocket. He recalled making soup from hot water and ketchup and living on automat food, popcorn and the generosity of a friends big, boisterous Irish family who would invite him to dinner. He would find success in his 20s, which news articles of the time noted was highly unusual, since most syndicated cartoonists werent picked up until their 40s. Lynde returned to live in Montana in 1962. In addition to his famous comic strips, he also wrote eight Merlin Fanshaw western novels, whose characters were also inspired by people from his youth. In Lyndes memoir, he recounts being asked, Where are Rick, Hipshot and all the other characters from the strip now? He replied, I suppose theyre where theyve always been, living in and around Conniption in that special time and place that is theirs alone. No doubt joining them is Lynde, who died of cancer in August 2013. Longtime friend Tom Cook, MHS public information officer said, He told the Montana story to the whole nation and really the world. ...He had the West in his blood. BILLINGS -- For a guy with such a fragile name, Hugh Glass must have seemed unbreakable. Shot twice and mauled by a grizzly bear, the mountain man made famous in the book and acclaimed movie The Revenant grew to mythological proportions in his era. Yet after cheating death so many times, and under such unusual circumstances, in real life his adventures were ended on the Yellowstone River, just east of Billings, in 1833. "He was quite a character," said Jay Buckley, an associate professor of History at Brigham Young University, who is familiar with Glass' story. "We don't know a ton about that era, but we wouldn't know anything about Hugh Glass if he hadn't been attacked by a bear." Glass was a fur trapper in the heydays of the mountain man, the 1820s to 1840s. It was a really pivotal time in history, said Laurie Hartwig, who served as director of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming, for 14 years and is now a staff member. The mountain men traveled on the heels of western explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, some of the first Euro-Americans to explore the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages in Montana. The routes the fur trappers traveled, Hartwig said, are the same paths that settlers would later follow to lay claim to the West. The living dead A revenant is a person who has returned from the dead, and Glass certainly fit that definition. Although he never wrote about his near-death encounters, parts of his life have been pieced together from accounts written by others he associated with, as well as by articles of the era based on stories that mythologized the man. There isnt a lot of actual information about any of the mountain men, Hartwig said. Were hoping somebody is going to find a diary up in their attic. Buckley said there are four accounts from which Glass' life has been pieced together, including one line from a journal of one of the men on the trip with Andrew Henry's Rocky Mountain Fur Co. when Glass was attacked that reads in part: "one man was torn nearly all to pieces by a bear." From what has been woven together, though, the museum created its own Hugh Glass website hughglass.org to help separate fact from the fictionalized version now showing on movie screens around the world. It is from that website and other historical books written about the period in history from which this story is pieced together. Local history buffs contacted for comment had never heard of Glass until this movie was advertised. Its a fascinating story and movie and special effects, said Bill Cole, a Billings attorney who has led preservation efforts for western scout Yellowstone Kellys gravesite on the Rimrocks north of the city. But you cant be too concerned about the authenticity. Hugh who? As near as historians can establish, Glass was born around 1783 in the Philadelphia area. If thats the case, Glass was about 40 years old when he joined a group of 100 men traveling up the Missouri River in 1823. The group had been assembled by William Ashley, who together with Henry had formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. to exploit the rich beaver lands of the new West. Portrayed in the movie by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, there are no known photographs, lithographs or paintings of the real Hugh Glass, Hartwig said. Henry had already made other trips into the new territory, first under the sponsorship of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Co. Led by scout John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Henry and a party of men in 1810 established the first of several Fort Henrys near Three Forks in the heart of traditional Blackfeet Indian territory. The crew only lasted two months at Three Forks because of the unceasing Indian raids. Abandoning the fort, Henry and his men went upstream, where his name was bestowed upon Henrys Lake and the Henrys Fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho. Twelve years later, in 1822, Henry returned to the region with a party of 150 men to establish a trading post and another Fort Henry near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers about 20 miles southwest of present-day Williston, North Dakota. Bad luck begins It was this same fort that Henrys partner Ashley was traveling up the Missouri River from St. Louis in 1823 to resupply via keelboats, along with a party of 90 men that included Glass and a 19-year-old Jim Bridger, who had reportedly signed on as a blacksmith. While en route, Glass was shot in the leg during a skirmish with Arikara Indians who had attacked the party. The Indians had killed 14 members of the group and all 19 of the horses they had traded to the mountain men. Eleven other men in the group were wounded. This was Glass first of several dangerous encounters with the semi-nomadic Plains Indian tribe. Given the difficulty of traveling via the river in boats, Ashley decided to break the group into two teams. One led by Henry and including Glass and Bridger would travel overland on foot using horses to pack their gear to reach the latest Fort Henry. The other, led by Jedidiah Smith, set off about four weeks later after finally acquiring enough horses. Grizzly attack It was while on this overland trek with Henrys party of about 15 men and six pack horses that Glass was attacked by a sow grizzly with two cubs, supposedly along the upper Grand River south of Lemmon, South Dakota a landscape much flatter than that shown in the movie. The mauling was so devastating his throat slashed, chunks of flesh gouged from his back that Glass was expected to die. Im sure there were hundreds of people mauled by grizzly bears back then, because they were everywhere on the plains, Hartwig said. He was popular among the mountain men because of surviving a grizzly bear attack. Since Glass clung to life, Henry decided to make a stretcher to carry Glass. After two days, Henry was worried that the groups slowed progress would endanger all of them. To save the many he was willing to sacrifice the one. Eager to return to the small band of trappers he had left at Fort Henry, he offered to pay two men a bonus to stay with Glass until he died and then bury him. Bridger and John Fitzgerald volunteered for the grave-digging duty. After staying behind for five days, Bridger and Fitzgerald became concerned they would be too far behind to catch up with the rest of their party, as well as feeling vulnerable to another Indian attack. Stripping Glass of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, fire-starting kit, shot and powder, they left him for dead next to a stream. Somehow Glass regained enough strength to begin hobbling east toward the Missouri River. Some accounts have him feeding off a wolf-killed bison for nourishment. Upon reaching the river he obtained a boat to float downstream to Fort Kiowa, located near what is now Chamberlain, South Dakota. The trek had covered an estimated 250 miles. By the time Glass arrived at the fort it was already October about the same time the rest of his party finally reached Fort Henry. Not one to wait around after healing his wounds for a couple of days, Glass set out to reportedly seek revenge against Bridger and Fitzgerald for abandoning him. Traveling upstream with a group of five traders by boat to a Columbia Fur Co. trading post, he went ashore rather than paddle around a large oxbow. The rest of the party, which remained in the boat, was killed by a group of Arikara Indians. Glass narrowly escaped capture, aided by some Mandan Indians. In addition to being mauled by a grizzly and left to die, Glass had been involved in three Indian attacks in which 21 men were killed and 16 wounded, wrote Clay Landry, a Helena mountain man re-enactor and history buff who authored some of the hughglass.org articles. While this number of close calls would give most men pause, Glass actions indicate he remained focused on his current situation and his pressing need to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. One more time It was late November when Glass set off across the Dakota territory for whats believed to be a 38-day hike to Fort Henry. His revenge would have to wait, though, since the party had abandoned the fort for lack of beaver to establish a new winter outpost near the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers, closer to the friendly Crow Indians. Undeterred, Glass set out again in the middle of winter to make another 250-mile trek. How he knew where to go is uncertain; perhaps Henry had left a note at the old fort. According to trapper George Younts account, Glass reached the newest Fort Henry on New Years Eve of 1823. The man who everyone in Henrys trapping party thought had died on the Dakota plains was very much alive and, one would have to believe, looking for vengeance against the men who had left him for dead. Otherwise, why would he have ventured so far in such perilous winter weather? Even among modern travelers the frigidity of the Dakotas is well-known and feared, a place where low temperatures are commonly in the single digits or below zero during December and January. Unfortunately for Glass, Fitzgerald was not with the group, and Bridger was pardoned, possibly because of his youth and after claiming he was influenced by the older Fitzgerald into leaving Glass. Fitzgerald had set out for Fort Atkinson. Possibly he and Glass had passed within miles of each other on their excursions in opposite directions. On the trail again When Henry asked for a volunteer to deliver a dispatch to Ashley in St. Louis to update him on the trapping partys endeavors, Glass supposedly volunteered in hopes of catching up to Fitzgerald. On Feb. 29, 1824, Glass and four others set off on the journey to reach Fort Atkinson, located near present Omaha, Nebraska, at the junction of the Missouri and Platte rivers, more than 1,000 miles to the southeast. En route, Glass and his compatriots would have yet another run-in with the Arikaras, this time along the North Platte River. Two of the men were killed. The other three, including Glass, scattered and were without their rifles. Once again, Glass was walking back to a prairie fort. This time, however, he at least had his knife and fire-starting kit. Supposedly Glass told another trapper, Although I had lost my rifle and all my plunder, I felt quite rich when I found my knife, flint and steel in my shot pouch. These little fixens make a man feel right peart when he is three or four hundred miles from anybody or any place. In mid-May Glass finally arrived at Fort Kiowa the same place he had ventured to after the grizzly attack. It was there he learned that Fitzgerald had enlisted in the Army and was now at Fort Atkinson, farther down the Missouri. In June he arrived at Fort Atkinson but was denied access to Fitzgerald because he was now protected as a government employee. Glass had to settle for getting his cherished rifle back as his only consolation. Meanwhile, Henry decided to abandon his fort at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers. According to a National Park Service account, Henry and his men ventured south along the Bighorn River, through Bad Pass above Bighorn Canyon, to explore Wyomings Green River region. From there the men later returned to St. Louis, and Henry ended his raucous career in the fur business. Shot once more That same year, 1824, Glass set out on a trading adventure to New Mexico where he was shot with an arrow in the back by a Shoshone Indian. After healing from this latest wound the metal arrowhead cut out by a fellow trapper using a razor Glass supposedly returned to the Yellowstone country. By the spring of 1830 historical records confirm that Glass was on the payroll at Fort Union, near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, working as a hunter for the American Fur Co. Supposedly Glass killed so many bighorn sheep that lived on the side of nearby badland cliffs that they named it Glass Bluffs. In yet another attempt to establish trade with the Crow Indians, in 1832 Fort Cass was built by the American Fur Co. three miles downstream from the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers close to the last Fort Henry location. Glass, now about 50 years old and tattooed with scars from his many brushes with death, supposedly moved to the new fort to provide his services as a hunter. It was here that Glass would fail to cheat death again, where all of his wild adventures would finally come to an end. This time the Arikaras who through some quirk of fate had so far only managed to injure the hardy mountain man would finally kill him. Last fall As mountain man history buff Landry writes on the hughglass.org website, In the early spring of 1833, Glass, accompanied by Edward Rose and Hilain Menard, departed Fort Cass to trap beaver a short way downriver from the fort. As the trappers were crossing the ice of the frozen river they were ambushed by a large party of Arikara Indians who had been concealed on the opposite bank. All three men were shot, scalped and plundered. It was these mens misfortune that an Arikara war party, bent on stealing horses, had been scouting the area around the fort when they spotted the trappers. Sometime after his death, two members of the Arikara war party that killed Glass supposedly were buried alive and scalped by other trappers near the headwaters of the Powder River north of Casper, Wyoming. The trappers had recognized Glass rifle in the Indians possession and sought vengeance. Even from beyond the grave it appeared as though Glass was exacting some measure of revenge. So somewhere along the banks of the Yellowstone River are buried the remains of a mountain man who has now gained fame beyond anything he could have imagined. After seeing the movie and given her long association with the Museum of the Mountain Man, Hartwig is hopeful that there will be a resurgence in interest in the era, its history and the unusual cast of real-life characters that populated the brief period. Already Hartwig and other members of the museum have received calls from magazines as diverse as Cowboys and Indians and Maxim. Not since Robert Redford starred in the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson have mountain men drawn such widespread attention, she said. Thats why were so excited about this movie, because it will renew interest in the mountain man and fur trade. Stephen Steve Edward Lohman, 57, passed away after a brave battle with Leukemia on January 15, 2016, surrounded by his loved ones. Steve was born in Annapolis, Maryland on February 20, 1958. He attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy in Maryland before moving to San Francisco, California. Steve met the love of his life, Victoria at the Bill Grahams Day on the Green, September 20, 1975 in Oakland, Ca. They married on July 12, 1982, on the beach in Carmel, Ca. At an early age he was drawn to the water, catching blue crab or sailing in his small sailboat in the Chesapeake Bay. An adventurer at heart, as a young man he traveled the United States from east to west coast before joining his family in San Francisco. His appreciation for architecture, history and craftsmanship lead him to discover his passion and talent for the building trades. He found his calling initially working with the San Francisco Cable Cars and remodeling historic Victorian homes, before becoming a decorated journeyman carpenter with the Carpenters Union. Our comedic Papa Bear won over everyone he met with his smile, humor, and spot on impersonations. He was a fierce San Francisco 49ers and Giants fan; our historian who had an unparalleled gift in recalling any name or date pertaining to war history, sports, and of course, Rock & Roll. He was at his happiest taking drives with his love, and best friend, Victoria, along the coast of Monterey Bay, or through the Mountains of Montana; telling tall tales, and jokes, to his audience of friends and family in any accent requested; and spending time bouncing his twin granddaughters on his knees. Steve was preceded in death by his father, Harry Ray Lohman, and his mother, Barbara Bobbie Agnes Lohman. He is survived by his wife, Victoria, and children: Jaela Lohman Nuovo (Tony Nuovo) of Los Angeles, Paris Lohman of Helena, Joseph Lohman of Los Angeles, and granddaughters Sicily Scarlette Nuovo and London Rose Nuovo of Los Angeles. He is also survived by his big sister, Susan Nowell of Monterey, niece, Meghan Nowell of Las Vegas; as well as sisters Bridgette Mazurek of Helena and Elizabeth Viera Proulx of Missoula; and multiple brothers Daniel Proul of Spokane, Rhett Robert Ussery of Sacramento, David Mazurek of Helena, and Mark Viera of Helena, as well as multiple nieces and nephews. He enriched our life and charmed us all. He was a character of characters. Cremation has taken place, and a celebration of life will be held at Retz funeral home on January 19, 2016 at 11:00 a.m with a Potluck reception to follow; location to be announced at the Service. Please visit www.retzfuneralhome.com to offer the family a condolence or to share a memory of Steve. Some say preventing future sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy may depend on ending the requirement for celibacy and allowing women into the priesthood. But if thats not likely to happen any time soon, then strict screening and psychological testing of those seeking ordination might be the best way to prevent future crimes by clergy against children. These differing perspectives come in the wake of confirmation by the bankruptcy court of Coeur dAlene, Idaho, in March that settled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the Diocese of Helena. The judge approved a nearly $21 million plan to compensate the roughly 380 people who said they were sexually abused by Catholic priests and the Ursuline Sisters. The bankruptcy courts action comes after claims against the diocese were filed in 2011 by those who said they had been sexually abused. The Associated Press reported in March 2015 that the majority of allegations were against Jesuit priests at the Ursuline Academy and the St. Ignatius Mission in St. Ignatius. The abuses ranged from rape and fondling to perpetrators taking sexual photographs of children, which began in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s, according to court documents cited by The Associated Press. Attorneys for victims and an outspoken former priest offered little optimism for ending child sexual abuse by clergy without changes in the priesthood. As soon as they get good priests in there, the problem will change. When you get rid of the celibacy requirement and allow priests who can be married, have families of their own, youre going to see a lot less child sexual abuse, said Craig Vernon, who with Lee James, represented some 270 people in the bankruptcy and reorganization plan. And I think thats probably what the membership would like to see, but youre speaking to a non-Catholic, Vernon said. James shared that assessment and said, In the larger picture, I think what would be most persuasive is to see changes, fundamental changes in the church, that are designed to help assure that child-sexual abuse along with other problems dont occur in the future. In addition to allowing priests to marry and ordaining women, James said lay people need to be put in positions of power over priests. Because, after all, for centuries clergy has had an exclusive lock on power in the Catholic Church over lay people, he continued. And what our cases illustrate is they blew it. They used that power in ways that were wrong and inappropriate, not only the abuse itself but generally speaking, when you find these cases its cover-up, its abuse of power, James added. Diocese of Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas doesnt dodge the accusation and said, I think the Catholic Church did blow it. But were not alone in that. Its no consolation. Thats why back in late 80s and 90s I was adamant in the archdiocese of Seattle and here that this culture of privilege and secrecy and internal governance is a big mistake and why the community has to absolutely be involved in this kind of oversight. When the diocese in Seattle faced claims of sexual abuse, it turned to the community, Thomas said, and created a committee that tapped the county prosecutors office, mental health professionals, parents, law enforcement and those involved in social work to help lead it through the crisis. Thomas said he relied on those experiences when he was assigned to the Diocese of Helena in 2004. We have a review committee in our own diocese here that helps to guide any decisions that I make. Part of it is directed toward policies. I want to make sure that our policies are very consistent with civil and criminal law. Its a high level group and they ask very poignant questions of me, and our commitment obviously is to ensure that we do very careful screening and evaluation of seminarian candidates, that we require psychological testing of anybody thats in seminary candidacy. People that are in any kind of ministry, volunteer or otherwise, we do background checks and fingerprinting, Thomas said. If I get any kind of a complaint involving violation with a minor then our first contact is law enforcement. Training to avoid trouble A.W. Richard Sipe, 83, comes from a devoutly Catholic family, according to his website biography. Hes also the author of several books, the most recent is Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012. He spent 18 years as a Benedictine monk and a Catholic priest where he was trained to deal with the mental health problems of priests, his biography noted. Sipe said he also taught in seminaries from 1967 to 1996. The bishops have put out a lot of different words and documents about (sexual abuse). And in a sense the documents in themselves are positive and some of the steps they take are positive in terms of being more careful about who they hire, being more sensitive to victims and victims claims, he said. However, basically nothing has changed in the education of clergy that I know of that would change the propensity of priests to abuse. The education of those priests, Sipe continued, has not changed at all. Among Catholic priests, 6 percent did get involved sexually with minors, he said of his research. The problem can no longer be denied, Sipe said. The problem has not gone away. And the problem will not go away because of the system. A lack of training in sexual abuse prevention would have been the case in prior decades at seminaries, Thomas said, but the men that the diocese has at four different seminaries do receive training to avoid risk and sexual abuse. Also when they come into the diocese, I require the recertification, participation recertification, in Virtus training even though theyve been through it in the seminary. For everbody. Im doing everything humanly possible, Thomas said. Sexual abuse, Thomas said, "its a societal problem. Its endemic. It has to be recognized as a societal issue, not a Catholic Church issue. Our numbers are sadly, any abuse by a clergy person is deeply damaging, theres no question and the violation of trust is terrible. But our numbers are sadly no different than the rest of American society, probably 4 percent over a 50-year period. One case is too many, but the profile sadly is the same with other white American males. Challenging the system Sipe takes aim at the system in the Catholic Church that produces priests and asked, What is it in the system that allows, that educates the choosers that produces men who have a propensity for sex with minors? He offers his opinion. The church favors men who are psycho-sexually immature. That is, they are men who have adolescent idealism, who have enthusiasm, who have that willingness to identify with the system or with authority, Sipe said. In some ways theyre much like young recruits going into war. These men who are invincible, who have no responsibility, who are taken care of and the church fosters them. Of course if you move up in the system, you can only exist if you have certain sociopathic tendencies, that is that your conscious is not developed as an individual, responsible conscious. It is the conscious of the system that takes over. And dont forget that priests have responsibility or have control, so to speak, over sin. They are the ones that forgive sin and define sin. And so theyre given all this power and at the same time theyre faced with this internal problem of priests sexually acting out, Sipe said. Thomas has a different view of how to govern a diocese and select those who are ordained here. The seminarians we having coming forward in the Diocese of Helena are a bit older, these are all post-college graduates, he said. I take very seriously the screening, the psychological testing, the formation reports, family history. I know each of the seminarian candidates individually and very well by the time theyre ready for ordination. Its a very lengthy process. Its five or six years post-college through the seminary process. So I am a little tougher in that world than maybe many bishops. Im not into the numbers game, Im into the quality, he said. I depend very heavily on the style of collaborative leadership where the laity, women and men, work hand-in-hand with me in the overall direction of this diocese. So theres a real sense of collegiality, open governance, transparency. I think the thing that Sipe is referencing is the old system of clericalism, which is based on entitlement and clerical privilege. I mention secrecy, wink and nod in terms of prosecuting these cases, sometimes collusion with police agencies in yesteryear. And that is a recipe for disaster, the bishop said. The crisis in the Diocese of Helena, even though the cases are decades old, has also been highlighted by the crisis on the national front and on the international front, Thomas said. All I do is say in my own shop, the Diocese of Helena, is were working very hard to assure the laity that were doing everything humanly possible to prevent further abuse and to insure a healthy, balanced atmosphere for the kids. So weve got a credibility issue thats going to take a long time to mend. And while the nonmonetary provisions of the diocese's bankruptcy settlement and reorganization plan required listing the name of all alleged perpetrators, Thomas said he didn't seek to differentiate between those accused and credibly accused. The only way to regain credibility is through transparency and truth telling, Thomas said. Considering Sipes criticism, Thomas suggested there is a greater threat to the Catholic Church. I think that the bigger danger is the culture of secrecy and clericalism. I think if you want to look at a system where there has been dis-ease, its the clericalism culture. It is closed. Its hermetically sealed. Those are really big problems, Thomas said. I think having the active involvement of the laity in the wider community, law enforcement, the social-work community, to me thats the corrective -- opening windows, bringing in light and air and the active advice of very informed people. That is what dispels the clericalism and secrecy culture. To me, at least, thats been my experience in Seattle as well as here, he said. Vow of celibacy Sipe said his long-term research concluded that at no time are more than half of Catholic priests observing celibacy. Mandatory celibacy, the fact of requiring a man to promise celibacy before he is ordained a priest is a travesty, and I think is the cause of a great deal of sexual hurt and sexual perversion, Sipe said. No question about it. Theres a great deal of sexual activity from the top down. You see, if celibacy were practiced on that level, you wouldnt have any problem down here in the younger priests practicing, Sipe said. Thomas disagrees. If celibacy is the issue then youve got a whole another problem because the research that Im familiar with shows that over 80 percent of sexual abuse takes place in the context of marriage and family, he said. So it would be a big leap to say that celibacy is the cause. I think there is a fundamental issue that has to change across not just the church, but I would say in school systems and in nonprofits, and that is a culture of secrecy, where in our case over the years known offenders were removed from point A to point B. And the secrecy, the very poor decisions, those kinds of things have to be removed from the culture of secrecy where laity are actively involved in decisions having very highly-informed lay people involved in every step of the process from the selection of candidates, the supervision of candidates for priesthood, assisting the diocese in making good decisions around who is selected for leadership, Thomas said. In our case women and men and laity and clergy work hand-in-hand and have for decades in the Northwest. Idaho attorneys Vernon and James say the vow of celibacy deeply affects an individual. Its more than just sex, James said. Youre asking an individual, a man, to live their life, a lonely life with no confident, no one close to them who will be with them for their adult life, to share their life experiences with, to speak to in troubled times, to share their life concerns, their worries. So they are in a situation where they are in a potentially psychologically disabling situation where people who are allowed to have intimate, emotional and personal relationships, and again Im talking not just about sex, something way more than sex. The person in the middle of the night that you can wake them up and roll over and wake them up and say Im really stressed, Im worried. When a priest is alone, they cant do that, James said. So they live this life of loneliness and it can create very unstable situations that the experts like Sipe and others can talk about, he explained. My personal belief is until they adopt change like we had recommended, I think it will continue because who is going to go into the priesthood? asked Vernon. Who wants to take a vow of celibacy? And history has shown us that the vow of celibacy really does not work, that most priests dont keep their vow of celibacy and its easier to make little kids not talk than it is a housekeeper, a fellow priest or a nun. And so I dont believe that theres going to be fundamental change. Its going to be harder because its more out in the open, maybe priests will be more careful because theres more risk that theyre going to get caught, Vernon continued. Until theres fundamental change, I think were still going to see this problem. Thomas doesnt share their view on the cause for sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. The culture of secrecy and entitlement is probably the lay equivalent of clericalism and that can happen with public school teachers, it can happen with the various denominations, with 4-H or whatever. It puts power over the safety of children, and Im just not there. Were doing everything humanly possible to see it doesnt happen again, he said. I cant say never but were sure giving it our best. Were using all the resources that we have at hand in the best way, Thomas said and added, At the end of the day Im asking the Lord to ensure that Im doing the right stuff. DECATUR A new tool on the city's website uses aerial photos to show how far Decatur has come in 70 years. The Transfer House's former location at Main and Main streets is shown in contrast to its new home in Central Park. A mosaic of farmland covers the area now known as the Midwest Inland Port's intermodal hub. Rows of homes and businesses replace trees and fields in the South Shores area. The comparison is provided by A Guided Tour of Decatur: 1941 & Today, a link at the top of the website at decaturil.gov. Viewers can slide a map to show the progress from one era to the next. You can put in any address in the city and have the map zoom to that area of town and kind of see what your house or neighborhood looked like back in 1941, said Seth Stark, the city's Geographic Information Systems (GIS) administrator who developed the feature. In addition to providing a peek into the past, the tool has proven useful for city staff. For instance, the city's water management department used it to see areas of Lake Decatur where dredge crews might expect to run into more sand, clay or gravel. We find it very handy, said Keith Alexander, director of water management. Stark said the tool could also be used to lay site plans for a new development, such as a hotel or restaurant, over the current map to show how the area would change. Having moved from Southern California three years ago, Stark said he was struck by how much history the city can claim. He hoped residents would find the view interesting and even feel a sense of civic pride at Decatur's evolution. Because the comparison tool is provided by software the city purchases for other uses, the map was virtually free to develop, Stark said. The 1941 aerial photos were available for free from a state website, and Stark said it didn't take long to plug in the two sets of data. He hopes to find more inventive ways to use the city's software capabilities in the future. We have a lot of things in the pipeline that are going to be making the city's data available to city employees in the field as opposed to just in the office, hopefully making them a little more efficient and giving them all the information they need to make the best decisions possible in the field, he said. WAYNESVILLE Once a mustang running wild and untamed, Bogus the horse was adopted and became the beloved pet of Bonnie Christianson. They had 19 happy years together until Bogus galloped to the end of life's trail in 2009 when he died July 7. But he didn't leave his owner's side for long. The ashes of Bogus now reside in a 23-by-16-by-11-inch Amish custom-crafted oak box. It bears a brass plaque with his name and dates and carved cowgirl touches such as a lasso, riding boots, hat and saddle. He was born free and is free again, says an inscription. Christianson means every word and likes the idea that not only all dogs, but all pet creatures great and small go to heaven, where those who loved them will see them again. I'm hopeful about that, she says. I really am. In the meantime, Christianson says giving their pet horse, pony, dog, cat, bird, lizard or whatever a decent send-off provides devoted pet owners such as herself a sense of closure and a way to memorialize their furry, feathered or scaly friend. That's the guiding principle behind Christianson's Companion Cremations, a business started nine years ago with her husband, Richard, and based out of their five-acre homestead in Waynesville. Operating in a 50-mile sweep that includes Decatur and many surrounding towns, (and statewide for horses), they will come and pick up you dead pet and cremate them for you. If you only want to live with the memory and never see the cremains, the service stops there; straight cremation prices range $20 to $35 for smaller pets and up to $400 for a horse. But many owners do want the constituent dust of their favorite of God's creations to return to them, and the Christianson's are happy to oblige. They will hand-deliver the mortal residue in wooden cremains boxes available in various sizes and with all kinds of personalization. Inclusive prices range from $75 to $500, depending on the size of the animal. The cost includes nice little detail touches like a gold-embossed Certificate of Cremation listing the pet's name, owner's name, and when he or she was taken on a final journey. On the back will be a poem, targeted at the animal involved. One recently cremated pony named Mr. Banana Pants, for example, has a certificate quoting these words by author Stanley Harrison: ... somewhere in time's own space, there must be some sweet pastured place, where creeks sing and tall trees grow, some paradise where horses go. For by the love that guides my pen, I know great horses live again. We want to provide the kind of service we'd accept for our own pets, says Richard Christianson, 65. And we want to do it at a price that's affordable; we don't want people to feel like they were raked over the coals. How does someone get into the pet cremation business? Bonnie Christianson had been working on the production line at the Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal when a layoff ended her personal production run in 2004. She begun casting around for a good entrepreneurial career opportunity, and her husband spotted an article about the pet cremation business in a magazine. The idea didn't do anything for me at first, she says. And others said it would never fly. But the deeper the Christiansons sifted the facts, the more they realized the venture wasn't just so much hot air: Pet cremation turned out to be a solid business opportunity tapping a need for owners to deal with their grief and dispose of their best friend. The couple had to make a hefty investment in cash and time to get the equipment and the various complex licensing and planning approvals needed, but they had their first crematorium big enough to take a horse up and running by the end of 2006. Richard Christianson, a Mitsubishi production worker himself for 24 years who managed to retire in 2013 before the plant went belly up, runs the cremation service full time. His wife, who also has a day job in the office of a veterinarian, works the family business every spare hour she gets. They both do critter pickups and returns with Richard Christianson, these days assisted by a hired employee, operating the diesel-powered cremation machines that hit temperatures of 1,400 degrees. And that is now machines in the plural, having worn out and replaced the original big cremator and added two smaller ones to cope with increasingly heated demand. Our business has far surpassed what everybody, including me, thought it would ever do, Richard Christianson says. And serving people like this, it really gives us so much satisfaction. I think this was God's calling for us. That calling extends to extensive customization, right down to redistributing beloved ex-pets however their owners want. Christianson recalls one very particular owner whose cat had to be returned with its cremains divided among seven small urns. They put one in each room of their house, he says. They just liked the idea of the cat always being in the same room they were in. DECATUR -- Government and hospital officials in Decatur are watching closely for the next step following an appellate court ruling that hospitals' tax-exempt status is unconstitutional. Last week, the Illinois 4th District Appellate Court reversed a 2012 ruling that allowed Illinois' charity care law to be applied to hospitals, which meant they didn't have to pay income or property tax. The battle, which has been fought for a decade, will likely head to the Illinois Supreme Court. Decatur Memorial Hospital and HSHS St. Mary's Hospital are nonprofit organizations and have tax-exempt status, according to Macon County Supervisor of Assessment Josh Tanner. Tanner said he has no idea how much the two hospitals would generate in tax revenue. "They've been exempt, so we have no value for them," Tanner said. "If they were to be put back on, we would have to come up with a value. Traditionally, hospitals have always been exempt, so there's no historical value to go back and look at." The appellate court ruling involves a 2012 case against the city of Urbana and other local taxing districts brought by Carle Foundation Hospital, which was seeking relief from taxes in 2004-2011. A lower court sided with the hospital, but the appeals court reversed that decision, saying the Illinois Constitution allows lawmakers to exempt only property used exclusively for charitable purposes. Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing said the city has lost 11 percent of its assessed tax value since 2012 when Carle was relieved of paying $6.5 million a year in property taxes, the vast majority of which went to Urbana and its school district. It was the largest taxpayer in the city. Carle spokeswoman Jennifer Hendricks-Kaufmann said the hospital is considering options, including an appeal. If Carle does appeal, the Illinois Supreme Court would have to take the case, according to state law. St. Mary's chose not to comment, referring the matter to the Illinois Health and Hospital Association. Danny Chun, vice president of corporate communications and marketing, said the association was disappointed in the ruling and praised the 2012 law that had "ended a decade of uncertainty regarding the test for hospital property tax exemption." "The law is clear, fair and reasonable," Chun said. "It was one of the most thoroughly debated, discussed and vetted pieces of legislation in the books. A panel of leading lawyers and tax experts helped draft it with the state constitution in mind. We strongly believe the law is constitutional and will be upheld upon further review." Chun pointed out that Illinois hospitals provide $5.5 billion in benefits to their communities annually, including more than $1 billion in charity care alone. A statement from Mike Cassell, DMH marketing director, stressed that aspect and also said paying taxes could affect the quality of the hospital. "Taxing hospitals diverts dollars that could be used to care for patients and to upgrade equipment, modernize facilities and hire needed staff," Cassell said. "(DMH) already provided charity care at a cost to the hospital of more than $1.4 million in 2015. In addition, DMH provided care to the medically indigent for which the cost of these services exceeded the payment by more than $11.4 million." Chun said the appellate court ruling wasn't a final decision and has no immediate impact. "This is likely headed to the supreme court, and that could take some time," Chun said. "In the meantime, hospitals currently with tax-exempt status are still tax-exempt." Tanner concurred. "The decision was just made in 2016, so we're assuming they're still exempt for 2015," Tanner said. "At some point in 2016, the Department of Revenue would need to issue some kind of guidance. "I'm assuming that the legislature steps in at some point, but they may wait until the Illinois Supreme Court makes a decision." The Illinois Supreme Court weighed in on the issue in 2010, when it suggested nonprofit hospitals that behave like businesses shouldn't qualify for tax exemptions. Citing that court decision, the state Department of Revenue denied tax exemptions to three hospitals in 2011 and signaled more denials for other hospitals could follow. That led to lawmakers' actions in 2012, in which hospitals won a broad definition of charity care and were required to provide free care to some patients. "This could require, in the end, an amendment to the Constitution in order to effect the needed change," said Laurence Msall of the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government research group that supported the 2012 legislation as "a reasonable compromise" that balanced the interests of hospitals and government. Dear Dr. Roach: I am a 64-year-old woman. I have been an avid exerciser and runner since 1980. I am in excellent health and take no medications, except for a low-dose rheumatoid arthritis medication, methotrexate. Over a month ago, I developed a throbbing pain that radiated down the left side of my leg, the top of my foot and my big toe. The left side of my leg was numb down to my big toe. Then I noticed the foot drop. An MRI and X-ray showed that my back is in excellent shape, and a rehab doctor said the pain is not back-related. The pain continued for weeks. I could not sleep. Finally, doctors determined that it must be a nerve problem. I was put on painkillers so I can sleep. I am now scheduled for a nerve study with a neurologist. What will this study do for my "foot drop"? Running is not only exercise for me, but a social thing. The training and racing with friends is a big part of my life. I continue to walk, weight-train and stretch. Not having control over this situation is trying and frustrating. In your experience has anyone overcome "foot drop"? D.F. A: Foot drop is caused by damage to a nerve. This damage can occur at many sites, including the back, which is why the MRI was important to get. The area of numbness you describe and the foot drop itself suggest that the peroneal nerve is being compressed, which most commonly happens where the nerve wraps around the fibula, the smaller of the two leg bones. If that is the case, which can be supported by the nerve studies (electromyography, or EMG, and nerve conduction velocity), then your doctor will recommend ways to reduce pressure on the nerve and likely will recommend a splint to keep the foot from dropping. The prognosis depends on how much weakness you have. If there is no muscle activity at all, it is unlikely to recover, whereas if there is some strength, muscle function is likely to recover. Long-term antibiotics Dear Dr. Roach: Your recent column on long-term use of antibiotics concerns me, as I have been on a 50-mg daily dose of minocycline for almost a year, per my dermatologist, after trying topical steroids and erythromycin for several years. My condition is recurring scalp acne. The minocycline does work, but my questions about long-term use were met with indifference by my primary care doctor. J.D. A: I received several comments on the column from a woman with unexplained fevers for seven years on long-term broad-spectrum antibiotics, and I was concerned more about the possibility that a serious condition could be missed than about the long-term effects of the antibiotics, even though that is important, too. One woman wrote in that she had kidney cancer, not an infection, and several readers wrote in with stories of intestinal abscesses finally being found after weeks or months. In your case, you are using a relatively safe drug, minocycline, for a specific purpose. There always are concerns with long-term antibiotic use, including development of resistance, but there is extensive experience using low-dose minocycline long-term for acne, and it is generally considered to be safe. n n n High blood pressure is one of the most common ailments for the general population. The booklet on it describes what it does and how it's treated. Readers can order a copy by writing: Dr. Roach Book No. 104, 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803. Enclose a check or money order (no cash) for $4.75 with the recipient's printed name and address. Please allow four weeks for delivery. On his Facebook page, Karen Andreasyan, Armenias Human Rights Defender until resigning on January 12, says that the reason why he stepped down is too complex to sum up in a few words. In a nutshell, however, Andreasyan, who served at the post for five years, says that if he continued as human rights defender, this important institution would no longer be as effective as it had become after long years of difficult work. Andreasyan, in his Faceboook post, doesnt clarify why he believes this to be the case. In conclusion, Andreasyan asks the forgiveness of those whose expectations he failed to achieve during his tenure as Armenias human rights defender. A man from Kansas and a woman from Texas have been arrested by the FBI in connection with a multimillion dollar fraud targeting a Turkish businessman, according to a news release by the U.S Attorneys Office in Kansas City, Kansas. Investigators say Laura Lee Sorsby, 62 and Nagy Shehata, 55, have been indicted on charges of wire fraud and money laundering. They allegedly convinced Said Haifawi, who opened Turkeys first private hospital, to invest 6 million (US$ 6.5 million) in 2010 to construct a shopping mall in the Turkish capital of Ankara, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. Sorsby had met Haifawi in 2009, when they worked together on a project to open a hospital in Syria. The suspects allegedly diverted the money for personal use while avoiding Haifawi for the next five years, the FBI said. Shehata bought a house for US$ 855,000 and a car for US$ 110,000, while Sorsby bought a US$ 163,000 house and US$ 77,000 car, the agency said. Haifawi was hesitant to report the crime to the police before being contacted by the FBI in 2015. According to the Hurriyet Daily News, Haifawi was talked out of reporting the fraud because his advisors said it would very difficultto open a case in the United States. If convicted, both suspects face up to 20 years in prison. occrp.org Armen Vardanyan Iran-West relations entered a new phase after signing of the historical accord between Islamic Republic and the six leading world powers 14 July 2015 in Vienna. Tehran gradually came out of international isolation. If formerly the Islamic Republic of Iran was perceived as a state threatening to international security, and along with Iraq, South Korea, Libya and a few other countries was included in the list of so-called axis of evil by the USA, currently the status of this Middle Eastern state is step by step growing on international arena, and it is no more a rogue state. Figuratively speaking, after July 14 the era of Irans demonization is over, and improvement of Tehrans positions and authority on international arena has begun. Until mid-2013 the West, particularly the USA, had been pursuing a policy of deterrence towards Iran, striving to isolate it from international arena by all means, while adopted a policy of its engagement after Hassan Rouhani was elected as president. By de-isolating Iran, integrating its economy in world economy, the country is becoming more predictable for the international community. Irans utmost role in the war on Islamic state, as well as realization in the West that solution of regional conflicts, especially in Syria, is impossible without engagement of that country, were not less important among incentives. Not accidentally, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, participated in negotiations on Syrian conflict 29 October 2015 in Vienna for the first time. Earlier, due to objections by Saudi Arabia and the USA, the Iranian side didnt take part in previous talks in Geneva respectively in 2012 and in 2014. Currently Iran is regarded as regional power in the Middle East. A conviction is being formulated, that in near future its positions will be more strengthened not only in the Middle East, but in the Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Afghanistan and other regions as well. If Central Asia and South Caucasus countries were limited to deepen ties with Iran before, now, in the post-sanction period, Iran takes serious steps to develop relations with them. At the moment, Iran possesses all necessary preconditionslarge political, military, economic, demographic and ideological resources, to appear as a regional power. Iran is one of the leading states of the Islamic world, which provides a huge political impact for this country. Presently Tehran enjoys greater influence on Iraq, Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen (Shiite Houthis), and Shiites of Kuwait. In Syria Iran supports a Shiite branchAlawites, led by Bashar al-Assads regime. About 4 million Shiites live even in Saudi Arabia, which is Irans main ideological, military, economic and political adversary in the Middle East and in the Islamic world. They also display utter sympathy for Iran and a hostile attitude towards Saudi Arabia. Iran-led Shiites of the above mentioned countries shape a Shiite arc or a Shiite crescent. Iran also has great military potential, i.e. one of the most powerful armies of the world. Iranian army comprises personnel of about 500.000, from which 350.000 is the Iranian army, and 125.000Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpse. Iranian army is ranked the 8th in the world by number of soldiers. There is also Basij paramilitary force, a branch of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corpse, which obeys countrys spiritual leader Ayatollah Khameini. Besides ground forces, Iran also possesses powerful naval and air forces. A few hundreds of warplanes, a few submarines, a few thousands of tanks, helicopters and etc. are recorded in its armament. Economically Iran is a country of big potential as well. Despite many years of sanctions, as per GDP its the second country after Turkey with greatest economy of the Middle East and the Islamic world, in general. International Monetary Fund estimated Irans GDP for 2015 as USD 393.5 billion. GDP growth comprised about 1% for the same year, while in the period of 2016-2017, after lifting sanctions, its expected to reach 4-5,5%, and will be stabilized at the level of 4% in mid-run. Irans GDP per person is USD 5.100. Currently the country negotiates over its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, despite Irans economic hardship, its assumed, that, from January 2016, when Iran is totally unsanctioned, its economy will record positive growth. First and foremost itll be possible through increasing export of Iranian oil and gas by a few times. Iranian high-ranking officials have repeatedly announced on it. Demographically, Iran is also a country of immense potential. Currently the number of its population is around 80 million, yearly increasing by 1 million. Moreover, birth rate has noticeably gone down in recent years and the state is taking serious measures to stimulate it. Its noteworthy, that the youth comprise the majority of Irans population. People aging 15-64 form countrys 70,9%. Hence, Iran is one of the world countries with youngest population. Thus, obviously Iran is becoming powerful day by day with its increasing place and role in contemporary international relations. The country has already achieved a great impact in the wider Middle East, therefore, Armenia should strive to deepen ties with southern neighbor. The more are interrelated economies of the two, the higher the level of political relations between them will be. If formerly for certain objective and subjective reasons official Yerevan was unable to have closer ties with Tehran, currently, after the July 14 agreement wide perspectives open before Armenia to deepen its ties with Iran. However, certain obstacles are still existent for deepening Armenia-Iran relations and strategic programs. Dependence of Armenias authorities on Russia is the first obstacle. Armenia cant take steps that might contradict Russias interests. In that context Yerevan is not considered a fully reliable partner for Tehran. The second hindrance to develop Armenia-Iran relations are high customs tariffs applied for the goods of the two. Although Iranian officials have repeatedly announced that theyre ready to deepen cooperation with Armenia both within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and beyond it, the fact is, that after Armenias membership to EEU, the latters common customs dues, set in the country, complicate access of Iranian goods into Armenian market. Export tariffs of Iranian goods to Russia and EEU reach 20%, which, in terms of competition pretty complicates the condition of private sector. Currently Iran negotiates with Armenia, as well as with Russia, to decrease customs tariffs. The same can be said on the oppositehigh customs dues and non-tariff payments defined by Iran, practically makes export of Armenian goods impossible. The issue has been repeatedly raised by authorities of the Republic of Armenia, however, didnt reach its positive solution yet. Another issue is visa regime between the two countries. Armenian authorities should take measures to lift visa regime with Iran. The number of Iranian tourists visiting Armenia will radically grow as a result. Armenias authorities also should rapidly accomplish construction of North-South road, which joins Armenias north to south. Finding investors for the construction of Armenia-Iran railway is important, too. Implementation of these two projects of strategic importance will enhance Armenias export of goods to Iran and countries of Persian Gulf, as well as enable Iran to export its goods through Armenia to Georgia, Russia and Europe. Thus, after Irans complete unsanctioning, favorable preconditions will open for Armenia, to mitigate the impact of Armenias isolation by Turkey-Azerbaijan tandem. Obviously, in near future, Iran will become a powerful regional actor with growing impact in the South Caucasus, where its weak yet. To that end Armenian authorities should exert maximum efforts to more deepen the level of Armenia-Iran political and economic ties. Improving Security Policy Debates in Armenia Program (NED) The Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs (AIISA) The Legend..... but should danger ever come, then Holger Danske will rouse himself, and the table will burst asunder as he draws out his beard. Then he will come forth in his strength, and strike a blow that shall sound in all the countries of the world. - Hans Christian Andersen Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less. State Debate: Rep. Bob Gannon 'over the top,' but he's called attention to legitimate issues, argues the Beloit Daily News Members of the University of Illinois Black Chorus perform during the 35th Annual Tribute and Ceremony honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wis. Monday, Jan. 19, 2015. John Hart -- State Journal Two administrators quit and 14 employees are on leave as an investigation continues into charges that children were abused and neglected at the Lincoln Hills facility for young offenders in northern Wisconsin. DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS PHOTO Tim could have gone into the family business, which is Comstock tires, when he was young, but his dad knew, he needed adventure in his life. He did everything parents want to see a son do, he earned a law degree from SMU in Dallas, but did not like practicing law. He was a captain in the army and was stationed in Italy as a legal officer in the corps of engineers. He then got a degree in education from Harvard. He taught social studies in Colorado, bought a sail boat and in the summer took the kids to Europe, where they had adventure on the boat and on land. He then sold that boat, bought another sailboat and sailed to the Caribbean, where he started in the charter industry. He met his now wife, Mercedes, and together, they ran a very successful charter business, from the Virgin Islands to Venezuela. They then bought a motor yacht, which they ran in the summers, chartering in New England as well as the inland waterways of the United States and Canada. After September 11 they decided to work on other peoples larger yachts and he captained yachts up to 130', taking him to Ireland, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Ten-year-old Jadon Colbert read Martin Luther King, Jr.s words loudly and with confidence Sunday morning in front of a group of nearly 600 people that included Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Schools Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham. He received huge applause and an ovation at the end. ... when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of Gods children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last! Jadon read. Jadon spoke during the 32nd annual Urban League Youth Recognition Breakfast at Edgewood High School, one of many Martin Luther King-related events held over the long weekend the culminates with Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday. He said afterwards that all people need to be treated equally. There should be no discrimination between people not just black people, but anyone, said the fifth-grader from St. James Catholic School. Jadon, who read parts of Kings speech last year on live television in front of the governor and others during the state tribute and ceremony, called it an honor to recite parts of Kings speech because of the power of the words. We need to always be thinking about what peoples freedom is because some people get freedom and some people dont, Jadon said. We need to be fair and equal to everybody. Ruben Anthony, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Madison, told the group of 200 or so middle and high school students of color being honored that if they dream hard they can have a better life. Education is the great liberator. Dont let anyone take that away from you, he said. Despite Dane Countys well-documented racial achievement gap, Anthony called area schools some of the best in the country, and encouraged the young people to do whatever they want, and to dream big like King did. No matter what hardships you face, you can overcome, he said. Its never too late to make a change. Cynthia Maduka, 17, a senior at East High School, is dreaming big, and said she was awarded the 2016 Betty Franklin-Hammonds Memorial Scholarship Sunday because of her hard work and perseverance throughout high school and throughout her life. She has a 3.0 grade-point average, and has volunteered at the East Madison Community Center since middle school. She is also active with the organization UNIMA, Union of Nigerians in the Madison Area. Cynthia, who was 4 when she came to the United States from Nigeria, was deeply affected in 2014 when nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by a jihadist group. She helped lead a solidarity march to the Capitol and tried to raise awareness about what was going on. Overcoming challenges was a part of the application process, and Cynthia said her family basically had to start over when they came to the U.S. Her mothers Nigerian college degree didnt mean anything here, so she worked as a certified nursing assistant, or CNA, while Cynthias grandmother took care of Cynthia, her three siblings, and her four cousins. Then, when Cynthia was in fourth grade, her grandmother was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer. Cynthia has been accepted to UW-Milwaukee, and plans to study nursing because of what her grandmother went through, and because of her experiences last summer interning in the radiology department at UW Hospital. To Cynthia, Martin Luther King Jr. symbolizes hope. Theres always going to be a better tomorrow, she said. You shouldnt let the obstacles youve been through define you as a person. [Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a correction. In the original, the first name of Jadon Colbert was misspelled.] Gov. Scott Walker is seeking new student representatives to join the governing boards of the University of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Technical College systems. Walkers office announced last week it is seeking applicants for the Regent, who will represent non- traditional UW students, such as parents or those who are working. The student Regent will serve for two years. To be eligible, undergraduate applicants must be Wisconsin residents enrolled at least half-time in a UW System school, and they must be at least 24 years old. A student seat is also open on the Wisconsin Technical College System Board; that appointment will last through May 2017. The position is similarly open to state residents who are enrolled at least half-time in good academic standing at a WTCS school, but applicants need to be only 18. Because their institutions have recently produced student representatives, Walker said, his office will not accept applicants from UW-Madison, UW-Whitewater, Madison Area Technical College or Waukesha County Technical College. Walker made headlines in 2013 when he withdrew a UW-Platteville students appointment to the Board of Regents after the student acknowledged he had signed the recall petition against Walker two years prior. The qualifications released by the governors office last week make no mention of the recall petition. Students interested in the positions must fill out an online application and supply a resume, cover letter and essay. The application can be found by visiting walker.wi.gov, clicking the Apply button on the right side of the screen and then selecting Boards/Commissions. The deadline for applications for both positions is noon Jan. 29. UW bans hoverboards in dorms UW-Madison officials are telling students who live on campus to leave their so-called hoverboards at home when they return from winter break. After noting earlier this month that campus rules prohibited people from riding the popular self-balancing electric scooters on UW property, officials said Thursday they have also banned the devices from campus dorms. Like more than 20 other institutions that have barred or restricted the devices on their campuses, including Madison Area Technical College, UW-Madison police cited safety concerns and fire hazards as their reasons for prohibiting the devices in residence halls. Both UW-Madison and MATC have been getting news of the hoverboard restrictions out to students as they return for the spring semester, which starts Tuesday at both campuses. A Sun Prairie group hopes a simple loaf of bread will produce new ways to fight homelessness and poverty in the community. Sunshine Place, an organization that provides food services, clothing and supplies to impoverished people, is using 1,000 boxes of Pillsbury Quick Bread to encourage sharing during a monthslong campaign that aims to gather public input on how to change circumstances that keep people in poverty. Instead of asking for more donations of money and personal items, Sunshine Place wants ideas that would combat transportation, food and housing challenges that face as many as 2,400 residents of the northeastern Dane County community. Its a conversation starter. Its the idea of breaking bread but in a means that even I could do, said Sunshine Place executive director Peter Curran. The concept is that you can make dessert for your family tonight and use the Quick Bread, and then sit down and talk about ways to change the circumstances of poverty. A 2014 U.S. Census estimate placed Sun Prairies population at 31,752 and earned the community the title of Wisconsins fastest-growing city. But amid the growth, Curran said hes seen a rise in use of his organizations services, which include a food pantry, a weekly community meal, and free bedding, clothing and school supply programs. Thats why hes looking for ideas to help people get out of poverty. Whether its coming up with busing solutions to get people without transportation access to cheaper groceries, or allowing employers to set aside transportation flex dollars that would help poor people save on transportation expenses by using pre-tax dollars, Curran wants to collect as many ideas as possible. Mayor Paul Esser hopes that the ideas shared during Conversation Week can inform city officials on where the need is the greatest and how they can alleviate those issues. Poverty is definitely an issue, Esser said. We know there are people paying more on housing than their income allows them to. For example, there are 300 senior households living in the city paying more than they should be for housing. That means theyre not spending the money they need to on medication, transportation and food. Esser also mentioned an estimated 1,100 households with children in the area who share the same financial burden as the senior households. In an effort to help the growing city control its rising poverty, Esser is overseeing a mission to take charge of the issues raised by Conversation Week. Committees will be formed to address the concerns that are raised throughout the year and then measures will be taken to eradicate the problems starting in 2017. Were working in 2016 to get more engaged in solving poverty. ... Conversation Week will open the window for us, Esser said. Quick Bread boxes are being distributed in baskets at several public locations around Sun Prairie, including the library, the senior center and a Starbucks. Several conversation baskets are also being passed from person to person throughout the community. Each Quick Bread comes with an action plan that describes the campaign and encourages people to share ideas at www.conversationweek.com. The brainstorming period formally culminates with Conversation Week, which will begin March 20. A public forum will be held in April where the public will be invited to analyze and prioritize the ideas, and decide which community organizations are best-suited to address each plan. Our community is super generous. Now were asking for their brain power, Curran said. The Worlds Largest Brat Fest has called Willow Island at the Alliant Energy Center home for the past 11 years, and will be on the island for the next 15 years, at least. Metcalfes Markets, originator and organizer of the Memorial Day weekend festival, has signed an agreement with Dane County to hold the festival on the Alliant Energy Center grounds through 2030, officials said on Monday. Brat Fest started in 1983 as a thank you to customers of Metcalfes supermarket (then a Sentry store) at Hilldale Shopping Center, and it kept growing until it became too big for the stores parking lot and moved to Willow Island in 2005. This is the perfect type of event for Alliant Energy Center to host, said Mark Clarke, executive director of the complex. Willow Island is one of the best-kept secrets on the campus and is well-suited for outside events such as Brat Fest. About 150,000 people attend the four-day event each year. Brat Fest raised over $125,000 for over 100 local charities in 2015 and has raised almost $1.5 million since it started 32 years ago. I am proud we can continue our partnership with the Worlds Largest Brat Fest, said Dane County Executive Joe Parisi. This is a great event that benefits many important organizations in our community. Brat Fest will sizzle May 27-30 this year. CHARLESTON, S.C. By broad consensus, the winner of last weeks GOP debate was Donald Trump, followed by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, with most of the post-game commentary focused on the fight between Cruz and Trump. Oh, how we love a good fight. But the real fight was revealed a couple of nights earlier when South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave the Republican Partys response to President Obamas State of the Union address. She pulled no punches and brought the fight to her own party. Nice and pretty-like. Rather than exclusively critiquing Obamas presidency as many expected, Haley turned her sights on the angry tenor of GOP politics and our dysfunctional government, for which she said Republicans are partly responsible. There is more than enough blame to go around, she said. We as Republicans need to own that truth. ... We need to accept that weve played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it. Whoo-hoo. Sorry, but sometimes it takes a girl. Noting that we live in anxious times, she nonetheless urged her fellow Republicans to resist the siren call of the angriest voices. Gosh, wonder who she meant? To a certain kind of Republican, this was pure heresy. But it was also brave, necessary and true especially if the GOP is to survive or ever hope to reclaim the White House. Haleys gentle cri de coeur neatly exposed the battle lines. On one side are those who deploy anger, bias, nativism and fear. On the other are those who want to reshape the GOP into a party thats based on ideals of inclusiveness and respect for others (like, maybe, a first-generation Indian-American daughter of Sikh immigrants), exercises caution through reformed immigration policies without demonizing swaths of people, and recognizes that winning hearts and minds begins with civility and communication. Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. Thats just not true, Haley said. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference. Haley confirmed on NBCs Today Show the following morning that she was, indeed, referring to Trump, who shouldnt take it personally. During the debate on Thursday, Trump said he is happy to wear the mantle of anger because he is angry, and he assured the audience that he and Haley, who was beaming in the crowd, are good friends. Thats nice. But whats clear is that Haley, who is widely considered a likely vice-presidential candidate, had decided that she didnt need a Trump alliance and was choosing the establishment lane of the party, or, as some prefer, the rational lane. In other words, she signaled her support for Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Jeb Bush. But which is it? What does Haley know that we dont know? As unlikely as it seems at this juncture that any of these but Rubio has a reasonable shot at the nomination, we might assume that shes banking on Rubio. This would be a dream ticket for Republicans. A bilingual Cuban (check Hispanic vote), a woman (check), both first-generation Americans, coverage in two crucial states, South Carolina and Florida, and perhaps most important, a younger generation of leadership without the baggage of the establishment. They would completely collapse the smallish Republican tent of older, white males and build a rainbow-hued edifice of diversity in which race and religion are not the first questions on anyones mind. Haley, whom Ive known for several years, is a polished politician. She doesnt accidentally do anything, such as fumble the most important speech of her career. I also know from previous conversations that she has been changed by her time in office, altered by her experiences dealing with the horrific murders of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church and by her subsequent decision to remove the Confederate battle flag from her statehouse grounds. The latter was a calculated political risk and her speech a gamble that truth wins in the end. This truth includes the lesson of South Carolina after the shootings, when the states people embraced one another in love and dedication to a shared, higher purpose of unity, forgiveness and racial reconciliation. Haleys point: If we can do this as a state, we can do this as a nation. Its a worthy goal and a battle worthy of its opponents. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Westall Incident and still there are no satisfactory explanations of what happened that day. It was 11 AM on April 6, 1966, when Australias most famous mass UFO sighting took place and when it did, students, teachers and other faculty members from Westall High School, along with members of the general public claim to have all witnessed the event, which was three metallic objects fly stealthily and silently through the sky, then land smoothly and leave quickly. And this all during the day light. After this incredible sighting, several eye witnesses claim men in dark suits (a prominent theme in major UFO sightings) warned them about speaking about what they had witnessed to anyone. The warnings, however, did not deter some people from speaking out though, about the profound and mind blowing experience they had just witnessed. Joy Clarke was 12 at the time and clearly recalls the events that occurred that day as follows: I was in class when students rushed in and told us the story. We rushed down to the oval and I saw three flying saucers on that day My personal belief is they werent of this world. They were definitely from somewhere else because I have never seen anything like it all The army had arrived and the police were there. We were told we were hysterical and it didnt happen, while men in black interviewed some of the other kids. As you can hear, something clearly bizarre took place that day. But what do other people have to say about the experience? Terry Peck was another young student who witnessed the event and had this to say: I was about six metres away from it. It was bigger than a car and circular. I think I saw some lights underneath it Two girls were there before me. One was terribly upset and they were pale, really white, ghostly white. They just said they had passed out, fainted. One was taken to hospital in an ambulance We all got called to an assembly and they told us all to keep quiet Id absolutely just like someone to come forward from the services just to say yes, it did happen, and it landed and there was a cover-up. Stephen Cairns, aged seven at the time, also recalls the incident with his mother as follows: In the distance I saw a silvery disc-like object. However, at first, it was so far away I was not quite sure what it was.. The silvery disc-like object moved with amazing speed until it was directly above us it hovered for a few moments then, as quickly as it came, it flew away. Suesan Crosthwaite, Pauline Kelly, Terry Peck and Kevin Hurley can remember vividly the 6th of April 1966 when mysterious flying objects flew overhead and landed a short distance away. Source: News Limited Clearly there is more to this story than the authorities would like us to believe. Shane Ryan has been investigating this incident closely for the past decade and, after interviewing more than 100 witnesses, he believes that something incredible and strange definitely occurred. It was so unusual it occurred in broad daylight and had been seen by so many people landing on the ground, before taking off again The event was obviously sizeable enough to muster a big response. Whatever it was that happened led to government agencies examining the site and taking soil samples. Ryan explains that he certainly believes there has been a major cover up of the event: [The media] kept meeting an official wall of silence, so it just stopped being a story and only remained as a memory for those involved, he said. Despite all the incredible testimony and obvious cover up though, we still know very little about what truly happened that day and the governments silence on the matter, only adds fuel to the fire. Below you can watch a 49 minute documentary that goes into more detail about this incredible event: By EWAO | Reference: News AU Hemp or cannabis oil was used by numerous people for centuries, but it was banned in the second half of the 20th century, as a result of the rise of the billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry. Rick Simpson is a mechanical engineer and a self-taught doctor, who was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2002 and fought this disease using this miraculous oil. Nowadays, he is one of the greatest world activists for legalization of hemp oil. Using this treatment, he has cured over 5,000 people. He attended a debate organized in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, on this topic. He states that hemp or cannabis oil can cure a vast variety of serious health issues, like diabetes, arteriosclerosis, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, asthma, psoriasis, as well as some of the deadliest forms of cancer. Rick recounted his story to the Serbian magazine Telegraph: I always tell people Cannabis will cure you, and you will see that at present, it is the best cure there is in the world! He began his story: It was 2002. The doctors had given up on me because Id had more than one unsuccessful operation on three pigmented lesions on my faces skin. As soon as these were removed, they would reappear even more infected! Since I had been studying plants as a hobby for years, one day as I was looking at my wounds in the mirror, I remembered a study from the University of Virginia that said that THC, an active component of cannabis could cure cancer. I took some cannabis oil I had prepared beforehand from the cabinet and dripped a few drops directly on the wound. No significant results could be noticed at first. He bandaged his wounds again after applying the oil and waited for few days. Then, he went on: After four days I removed the bandages and I couldnt believe my eyes! The wound was no longer there, and my skin was regenerated! I immediately started talking to people about how I had cured skin cancer with cannabis oil Everyone laughed at me, but then eleven and a half years have passed, and the cancer still hasnt returned. From then on, Simpson decided to help people in need for this cure, and his work resulted in thousands of cases effectively solved. His last case was an 80-year-old man who was dying from lung cancer. The man was all swollen from chemotherapy, open wounds on his legs and was barely breathing! After the doctors had given him no more than 48 hours, his son brought him to me. As I had recommended cannabis oil therapy, the young man had also consulted his fathers doctor. The doctor, of course, rejected such treatment, so in the end the young man took the oil from me, soaked a small cracker in it and gave it to his father. In less than thirty minutes, the old man finally started breathing normally again and his breathing completely stabilized during the night. Although the doctors explained that before death, his vital functions would return briefly, his son didnt want to wait any longer so he checked his father out of the hospital the next morning. He also stopped all of his fathers prescribed therapy. After six weeks of cannabis oil treatment, the old man no longer needed insulin, and after three months he was completely cured from cancer, says Rick Moreover, he stated that cannabis oil therapy is equally effective in all cases, for it knows no age limit. It can even be given to babies. In order to supply fresh raw ingredients for his hemp oil, Rick soon started growing marijuana, but his field was raided four times in three years by the police. People who publicly claim to cure cancer are threatened 5-40-year imprisonment, according to laws in North America. So, Jack was imprisoned for four days in Canada in 2005, for cultivating, owning and selling marijuana. However, at one point he was liable for 12 year imprisonment. He was fined 2,000 dollars. The worst of all was that the jurors were people whose dearest I had cured with cannabis oil. Even the judge knew it was all a farce! At one point he even told me that I should be rewarded, instead of tried! All knew, and no one could do anything! They didnt even allow ten patients I have cured to testify! They also didnt allow the doctors to come out on the bench, nor me to show a pile of medical documents about the effects of my oil. If you dont know the meaning of a coward court, go to Canada and you will see what I mean, claims Jack. Rick claims that he has never sold weed, but only hemp oil, and as he was deeply disappointed by the Canadian government and corrupted doctors, he even put the recipe for hemp oil on the web page phoenixtears.ca. According to him, the preparation of this miraculous oil is extremely easy. Simpsons treatment starts with several drops of hemp oil three times a day. The usual dose I give to cancer patients is 60 grams within 90 days. And, it is never too late for the patient to start cannabis oil therapy. There isnt such an excuse as, It is late If you ask me, if I approve of smoking marijuana, I will tell you it isnt as effective as cannabis oil, but it is scientifically proven that people who smoke marijuana live six years longer than those who dont. Moreover, he adds that as opposed to Europe, North America still puts a blind eye when it comes to legalization of cannabis. He believes that every country in the world should allow their citizens to cultivate and use cannabis for medical purposes. He also points out that pharmacies should be opened for those who cant cultivate it. Little is known that cannabis has been used as one of the most healing remedies hundreds of years before Christ. In the ancient Persian religious scripts, which among other things describe the most healing herbs, cannabis takes the first place, concludes Rick. His biggest wish and goal is to live in a world without cancer. The high poverty rate in the black community continues because the very tools that should be used to promote economic opportunity instead keep low income and minority communities in chains. We have a school reform movement that continues to penalize low income and minority students by keeping them trapped in failing schools rather than giving them the choice to attend schools that best suit their academic needs. We have a school reform movement that rewards national teachers unions at the expense of what is best for our students. My education plan, provides school choice to families, empowers local communities, encourages the innovative spirit of educators, rewards good teachers and creates a streamlined student loan process. Politicians have not had the resolve to make these essential changes, but I am not a politician. We are kidding ourselves if we believe that an education system that takes power away from parents and gives it to bureaucrats in Washington will improve lives and bridge the education gap. It will not. I am proof positive of what happens when parents have the power to make the right decisions for their children. Through Gods grace and my mothers wisdom, my brother and I were able to escape poverty. I know that education is the great liberator. And if we do not make significant changes to our education system, in the years ahead when we celebrate Dr. Kings legacy, minority communities will still lag behind. The pro-LGBTQQIAP magazine the Advocate openly admits and celebrates the stunning ramifications of this bill: The pro-homosexual, pro-transgender Equality Act poses the gravest threat to religious liberty and speech rights yet concocted by Leftists. If passed it will confer special privileges on people based on their non-objective, deviant erotic feelings and their confused desires to be the opposite sex. This dangerous bill would add the Leftist terms sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would expand protections beyond those areas to which the Civil Rights Act now applies. In an unsavory desperation move, Mark Kirk -wannabe Robert Dold , who ill-serves the 10th Congressional District in Illinois, has the dubious honor of being the first and so far only Republican to support the anti-liberty, pro-sexual deviance bill dishonestly titled the Equality Act . The Equality Act would include protections in public accommodations, public education, employment, housing, federal funding, jury service, legal protections, and credit. The bill would also clarify that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act cannot be used to defend discrimination against LGBT people. The proposed legislation also clarifies that sex-segregated facilities must admit individuals in accordance to their gender identity.[emphasis added] You read that right. This federal bill would legally mandate that perverse sexual desires nullify religious libertythe liberty upon which this country was founded. This is the same Robert Dold who during his first and short-lived congressional career opposed a bill that would have banned sex-selection abortions. This is what I wrote at the time about his intellectually and morally vacuous position: Rep. Dold has the audacity to call himself a moderate while being one of only seven Republicans in the U.S. House to vote against the ban on sex-selective abortions (Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act). Thats right, folks, Dold defends the right of a woman to kill her unborn baby for no reason other than that the babys biological sex doesnt happen to suit her fancy. If Dold had any bona fides with women, surely he should have lost them when he cast that morally repugnant vote. Illinoisans concerned about the apparent lack of sound moral reasoning can rest assured, however, because in a statement Dold shared how deeply offensive he finds sex-selective abortions: Abortions based on gender-selection are reprehensible, but federal legislative intervention and criminalization of this decision is not the proper approach to addressing gender discrimination. These are serious issues, particularly in some foreign countries, but todays legislation would obligate American doctors to police and report thought crimes in the women they serve and would put the federal government between the doctor-patient relationship. Dold asserts that this law would obligate American doctors to police and report thought crimes to authorities, even though the bill did not obligate doctors to even ask about a mothers motivation for terminating the life of her gestating baby. The law would have prohibited doctors from knowingly performing an abortionbased on the sex, gender, race or color of the child. Dolds revulsion at the imagined possibility of doctors having to report thought crimes to authorities was far greater than his revulsion at the reprehensible practice of sex-selective abortion. Dold finds the prospect of the federal government getting in between a doctor and patient more reprehensible than doctors getting in between an unborn baby and her unalienable right to life. I wonder if Dold objects to laws prohibiting physician-assisted suicide, because such laws put the federal government between the doctor-patient relationship. Of course, there are differences between the two situations: in the case of physician-assisted suicide, all parties directly affected are able to offer their consent. Wouldnt the reprehensible act of taking the life of someone who cannot offer consent justify at least the same degree of legislative intervention? While Dold believes that Abortions based on gender-selection are reprehensible, he also believes that federal legislative intervention and criminalizationis not the proper approach to addressing gender discrimination. Seriously? Here are some examples of federal legislation that address gender discrimination, the absence of which laws, however, will never result in the death of a human being: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which prohibits employment discrimination based on genetic information about an applicant, employee, or former employee The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex The Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex Federal legislation protecting women from housing discrimination is justifiable, but Dold gets the moral shivers at the prospect of federal legislation that protects preborn baby girls from extermination. Just how immoderate and incoherent is Dold? Heres what Laura Bassett wrote on the Huffington Post about Dold: Planned Parenthood does not have many GOP friends in Congress, but one rare, pro-choice Republican in the House of Representatives stuck his neck out on Wednesday and announced his plan to protect the family planning provider from his partys political attacks. Let me understand this: Dold is a pro-choice Republican who finds nothing problematic with using public money to fund the chief provider of abortion in the country and yet he wants the public to believe he finds sex-selective abortion reprehensible? Yeah, right. With friends like Robert Dold, unborn babies dont need enemies like Planned Parenthood. With Dolds endorsement of the anti-liberty Equality Act, we now know that Dold is no friend of religious liberty either. Conservative Illinoisans in the 10th Congressional District need to do what Princeton law professor Robert George has recommended in such situations: The partisans of abortion and marriage redefinition have a lock on the Democratic Party now. Effective dissent of any type is not possible. Having gained that lock on one party, they are now turning their resources and attention to weakening the pro-life and pro-marriage reality witness of the Republican Party.I can think of no more urgent priority than preventing that from happening. Maintaining and solidifying the pro-life and pro-marriage reality stance of the Republican Party is critical. Thats why tactical voting, including voting for bad Democrats over bad Republicans, is IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES (e.g., where the election of a Democrat does not jeopardize Republican control of a legislative house), morally legitimate and perhaps even advisable. We must not let the pro-abortion and pro-marriage redefinition movements strengthen their positions in the Republican Party. Please vote in such a way as to ensure that Dold does not get re-elected. Its critical that he not be allowed to do further damage to the cause of life, religious liberty, the health of the republic, or the integrity of the Republican Party. If Dold loses and the GOP knows the reasons for Dolds loss were his morally degenerate views on critically important social issues, they just might start seeking and funding better candidates. And then the GOP can demand that socially progressive Republicans hold THEIR noses and vote for those better candidates. SPRINGFIELD - Former Governor Jim Edgar wrote in the Springfield Journal Register Monday that he's very pleased that Congressman Rodney Davis voted to pass U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan's negotiated compromise budget before the Christmas break. Illinois is into its seventh month without a functioning budget, and that is bugging Edgar. I learned I couldnt get everything I wanted at one time, Edgar said on WGN 720 in October. My sense is (Rauner) thinks other things are just as important, and thats probably where he and I probably have a different point of view. I just think the budget, particularly with the states history of the last decade of some real serious financial problems, we need to concentrate first on that. Edgar's op-ed Monday was especially interesting because its content could be interpreted as serving two purposes: publicly patting Congressman Davis on the head for playing nice in D.C. and privately back-handing Governor Bruce Rauner for being so stubborn and uncooperative. "Bernie gave the liberal Democratic voters more of a reason to feel good for voting for him. This was a stronger performance by Bernie than the first three debates as he for the first time drew a strong contrast between Hillary and himarguing that he, unlike her, is not a pawn of big drug and insurance companiesand of Wall Street," Berkowitz writes. "So, he came out looking like he would fight harder and better on domestic, progressive financial and healthcare issues." On guns, Sanders said before the debate he changed his mind and would now vote to remove liability immunity for gun manufacturerswhich sort of took that issue off the table, Berkowitz writes. "On foreign policy, Bernie said he voted against the Iraq War, which will please Democratic primary voters immensely," he observed. "Yes, Bernie forgot to remind viewers that Hillary voted for the Iraq Warbut many should remember from 2008 that Hillary went the wrong way on Iraqwhich is the main reason she lost in 2008 to Obama. "Wouldnt it be funny if Hillary lost the 2016 Democratic Presidential primary for the same reason she lost in 2008? Advantage Bernie." The rest of Berkowitz' observations are HERE. Your digital subscription includes access to all content on our agricultural websites across the nation. Access unlimited content and the digital versions of our print editions - This Week's Paper. CHICAGO - Two weeks from today, Iowa caucuses will be taking place, and who wins there, as well as in New Hampshire, could make a difference in which candidate emerges as the Republican or Democrat Party's presidential nominees. In the Iowa caucuses, Iowa voters meet in precinct caucuses in all of Iowa's 1,681 precincts and elect delegates to the corresponding county conventions. At these meetings, they discuss and defend their candidate choices until one in each major party emerges as the winner. Chicago-based Real Clear Politics poll averages show Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton leading in Iowa, and Trump and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders leading in New Hampshire. By India Today Web Desk: Making his hometown proud, the 23-year-old Chennai boy, James John Britto, has obtained an all-India first rank in the CA (Chartered Accountancy) final examination in his very first attempt. The results for the same were announced on Sunday, i,e January 17. A B.Com graduate, James completed his graduation from Loyola College, he appeared for the CA final exam conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in last November and December. The second rank was obtained by Mohan Kumar Nagolu from Thottamledu, a non-descript hamlet under Chodavaram village panchayat near Srikalahasti in Chittoor district, Andhra. According to newspaper reports, Britto secured 74.38 per cent (595/800) and Mohan Kumar obtained 71.50 per cent (572/800). Avinash Sancheti, from Kolkata, came third with 70.75 per cent (566/800). CA final exam is one of the toughest exams which is divided into three levels, namely, Common Proficiency Test (CPT), Integrated Professional Competence Course (IPCC) and the final examination. ICAI holds the exams twice a year. advertisement Britto gives the credit of his success to his sheer dedication and focus. He used to study hard for 10 to12 hours on an average every day. His father too, is a successful CA and has been in the industry for the past 30 years. He helped Britto a lot during the preparations, and Britto owes much of the credit for his success to his father as well. It was Manoj Fadnis, the president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), who called up Mohan to inform him about his results. His father is a farmer, while his brother Bhanuprakash has completed his B.Tech. Out of all the students who appeared in both groups in the final exam, overall 5.75 per cent students passed the exam. A total of 12.61 per cent of the candidates passed among students who appeared for the first group, and 11.99 per cent passed in the second group. Like previous years, this time too, students and experts complained that the ICAI evaluation was too strict, resulting in the low pass percentage. Students have complained about flunking in aggregate or in a subject by one or two marks. Read: CA CPT Results: Declared at icai.org By India Today Web Desk: Scientists in China have developed a new bioartificial liver that can help patients with liver failure survive long enough for an organ transplant. Based on human liver cells, the bioartificial liver has been designed to be attached outside a patient's body. The research finding by the Chinese scientists was published in the new issue of international science magazine, Cell Research in mid of January 2016. As per the reports, the device, in its first clinical use in January, saved a 61-year-old woman who was dying from acute liver failure. The operation was performed by the scientists from the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences and doctors from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital. A bioartificial liver can help recover patients' liver functions and prolong their lives so they can wait for suitable donor livers for a transplant, says the study. Also, this is currently the only solution to critical cases. advertisement The new device known as bioartificial liver is based on cells taken from human skin, fat or other tissues and reprogrammed into the liver cells. It was also revealed that the device using human cells is safer and less likely to cause a rejection reaction. Earlier, scientists and researchers in China have been using such devices based on liver cells from pigs, quoted one of the professors from the team. The first bioartificial liver device was developed by a US doctor, Kenneth Matsumara and was named an invention of the year by Time magazine in 2001. Liver cells obtained from an animal were used instead of developing a piece of equipment for each function of the liver. Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section. PM Modi provide start-up founders with an array of facilities that have never been seen before. By India Today Web Desk: On the last Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced the Start-up India, Stand Up India' initiative. On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 19-point action plan for start-up enterprises in India. He also announced a self-certification scheme related to nine labour and environment laws. He also said that there would be no inspection of the enterprises during the first three years of the launch. Modi has announced an all-inclusive action plan to boost such ventures that would boost employment generation and wealth creation. Here are the 19 plans Modi has for start-ups: 1. Self certification The start-ups will adopt self-certification to reduce the regulatory liabilities. The self-certification will apply to laws including payment of gratuity, labour contract, provident fund management, water and air pollution acts. advertisement 2. Start-up India hub An all-India hub will be created as a single contact point for start-up foundations in India, which will help the entrepreneurs to exchange knowledge and access financial aid. 3. Register through app An online portal, in the shape of a mobile application, will be launched to help start-up founders to easily register. The app is scheduled to be launched on April 1. 4. Patent protection A fast-track system for patent examination at lower costs is being conceptualised by the central government. The system will promote awareness and adoption of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) by the start-up foundations. 5. Rs 10,000 crore fund The government will develop a fund with an initial corpus of Rs 2,500 crore and a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore over four years, to support upcoming start-up enterprises. The Life Insurance Corporation of India will play a major role in developing this corpus. A committee of private professionals selected from the start-up industry will manage the fund. 6. National Credit Guarantee Trust Company A National Credit Guarantee Trust Company (NCGTC) is being conceptualised with a budget of Rs 500 crore per year for the next four years to support the flow of funds to start-ups. 7. No Capital Gains Tax At present, investments by venture capital funds are exempt from the Capital Gains Tax. The same policy is being implemented on primary-level investments in start-ups. 8. No Income Tax for three years Start-ups would not pay Income Tax for three years. This policy would revolutionise the pace with which start-ups would grow in the future. 9. Tax exemption for investments of higher value In case of an investment of higher value than the market price, it will be exempt from paying tax 10. Building entrepreneurs Innovation-related study plans for students in over 5 lakh schools. Besides, there will also be an annual incubator grand challenge to develop world class incubators. 11. Atal Innovation Mission The Atal Innovation Mission will be launched to boost innovation and encourage talented youths. 12. Setting up incubators A private-public partnership model is being considered for 35 new incubators and 31 innovation centres at national institutes. 13. Research parks The government plans to set up seven new research parks, including six in the Indian Institute of Technology campuses and one in the Indian Institute of Science campus, with an investment of Rs 100 crore each. 14. Entrepreneurship in biotechnology The government will further establish five new biotech clusters, 50 new bio incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 bio-connect offices in the country. 15. Dedicated programmes in schools The government will introduce innovation-related programems for students in over 5 lakh schools. 16. Legal support A panel of facilitators will provide legal support and assistance in submitting patent applications and other official documents. 17. Rebate A rebate amount of 80 percent of the total value will be provided to the entrepreneurs on filing patent applications. 18. Easy rules Norms of public procurement and rules of trading have been simplified for the start-ups. 19. Faster exit If a start-up fails, the government will also assist the entrepreneurs to find suitable solutions for their problems. If they fail again, the government will provide an easy way out. Interested in General Knowledge and Current Affairs? Click here to stay informed and know what is happening around the world with our G.K. and Current Affairs section. The Director-General of School Education (DGSE) Pradeep Aggarwal has issued an order, which asks Punjab government school students from classes 6 to 10 to sit for a 50-mark Vedic mathematics test on Tuesday. By India Today Web Desk: The Director-General of School Education (DGSE), Pradeep Aggarwal has issued an order, which asks Punjab government school students from classes 6 to 10 to sit for a 50-mark Vedic Mathematics test on January 19. The test results will have to be sent to the DGSE office by 4 pm on the same day. Consequently, District Education Officers (DEOs) would prepare a list of schools, which didn't conduct the test and send the same to the DGSE office. The motive of the test is to assess how well students understood Vedic maths, for a better curriculum plan in future. The school curriculum doesn't include Vedic maths as yet. The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) had forwarded a Rs 3.5 lakh grant to Punjab for this entire process. As preparation before the test, 5,000 mathematics teachers in the state took a three-day training course on Vedic maths. advertisement The course was conducted by 110 resource persons, trained in October by a five-member team from the Indian Institute of Vedic Mathematics and Abacus (IIVA) at the Regional Institute of Cooperative Management in Chandigarh. Educationist Dinanath Batra, an ardent follower of Vedic maths, traces the subject to India's ancient mental mathematics model, which allows complicated sums to be done at great speeds. Critics, on the other hand, say that the subject is not associated with the Vedas. However, the website of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), Punjab School Education contains a module of Vedic Maths, which was prepared in collaboration with the Delhi-based IIVA. The module describes the subject as an ancient system of mathematics, formulated over many centuries, which was rediscovered between 1911 and 1918 from the Vedas by Jagadguru Swami Shri Bharti Krishna Tirathji Maharaj. Assistant State Project Director for Maths and Science in the Punjab school education department, Amarbir Singh told the Indian Express, "We studied the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka models and found out that students there are faster in calculations because of Vedic maths." Punjabi University's senior mathematics professor, Rakesh Kumar Nagaich said, "Vedic maths uses simple tricks, which make complicated calculations easier. Using these tricks, complicated calculations can be solved in seconds. But a three-day training for teachers or a test for students will not serve the purpose. Vedic maths should be made part of the regular curriculum so that students use it while solving questions." Check: President proposes measures to halt falling Indian educational standards Click here to get more education news. Get latest updates on exam notifications and scholarships across India and abroad here . As Congress gets its first non-Gandhi chief, Mallikarjun Kharge, in 24 years, we raise these questions on the show: Can Mallikarjun Kharge bring change? Is Mallikarjun Kharge stop-gap chief? What will be Gandhis' role? Watch as panelists debate these and more on this episode of News Today. The Bengaluru police raided a brothel in Peenya industrial area and arrested two people while rescuing three girls from North India. By Mail Today: The Bengaluru police raided a brothel in Peenya industrial area and arrested two people while rescuing three girls from North India. According to the police, Vishwamurthy and Narendra Babu had taken an apartment on rent in Babanna Layout in Peenya a few months ago. They lured three girls working in different companies under the pretext of helping them with better jobs and salaries. However, they held them captive in the apartment and forced them into flesh trade. When these girls complained to their neighbours about their plight, they alerted the police. The police have registered a case and further investigation is on in the matter. Get ready to be amazed by the video entirely shot using Samsung smartphones. By Vivek Surendran: Phone manufacturers across the globe are constantly working towards putting the best into high-end phones. One of the prime feature many look for in phones is its camera, and Samsung Galaxy S6 just proved the quality of its camera, for an entire music video has been shot using it. Acclaimed photographer Ajay Menon, who has got a massive 3,93,530 followers on his official photography page Ajay Menon Photography, also co-owns Papaya Media Designs Private Limited, a media and branding firm based out of Cochin, Kerala, with Saiju Sreedharan and Abhilash Kumar. Saiju has earlier been the editor of a Mammootty starrer Malayalam movie Gangster, directed by Aashiq Abu and is working on an upcoming Malayalam movie titled Maheshinte Prathikaram starring Fahadh Faasil. Abhilash is the scriptwriter of Malayalam movies like 22-female Kottayam and Da Thadiya. advertisement Also read: Auditya Venkatesh's 'Sikkim In A Blur' will awe you Papaya Media caters to a wide array of clientele ranging from Malayalam movies to music bands. 4th Hue is a band based out of Cochin that embraces an alternative approach to music and trying to explore experimental scapes with ambient and psychedelic undertones. The band was founded by Samuel Leo, Sunil Silvester and Charles Nazereth. Samuel produced the music and was mixed by Rex Vijayan, founder member of the famous band Avial. The video was directed by Abhilash and edited by Saiju. Photo: papayamedia.in When Papaya Media joined hands with 4th Hue for the second time now, to shoot their new single - Be.Here.Now - the result is nothing less than awe-inspiring! Ajay has shot the entire video using two Samsung Galaxy S6 phones and when the magic in his frames blended with Saiju's editing and colouring, Be.Here.Now elevates to another level. In their YouTube description, 4th Hue says - "Be.Here.Now talks about being in the present and enjoying the spectacular Now. We often spend our time thinking about the past and future that we miss out on savouring the fleeting present. The song puts forth the idea of total freedom from being completely available to take advantage of the moment at hand." Enough of gyaan we guess, watch the video here, right now! With just a few days left to his retirement, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi came under fire from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which accused him of being part of a conspiracy behind the ink attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. By Mail Today: If Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi was looking for a ceremonious retirement due next month, his plans may not go the way he wants it. With just a few days left for his retirement, Bassi came under fire from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which accused him of being part of a conspiracy behind the ink attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia termed the attack as major security lapse and alleged that the 'conspirators' could also kill AAP leaders and Cabinet ministers. Bassi, who has been at loggerheads with the AAP government, is due to retire in February. "I can see a BJP conspiracy. They want to take advantage of such a situation and attack Kejriwal and the entire Cabinet. They may also kill people because they cannot stand the success of the odd-even scheme and AAP's popularity among the masses. Delhi Police is a part of the conspiracy," Sisodia said reacting to the incident. advertisement A young woman threw ink on Kejriwal when he was addressing a 'thanksgiving' for the odd-even scheme at Chhatrasaal Stadium on Sunday evening. The woman, who claimed to be a member of AAP, alleged a CNG scam in the name of odd-even scheme before throwing ink at Kejriwal who was in the middle of his speech. All Cabinet ministers were seated on the dais at the time of the incident. The woman was later whisked away by cops and questioned at the Model Town police station. Reacting sharply to the incident, an agitated Manish Sisodia slammed the Delhi Police while calling the incident a major security lapse and wondering whether it was sitting in readiness to stage an attack on Kejriwal. There was a commotion following the ink attack, forcing Kejriwal to halt his speech for around seven minutes. Kejriwal later said, "Leave her. She is referring to some scam...CNG scam. Take the papers from her. Whenever something good is attempted in the country or in Delhi, some forces create all sorts of hurdles." When asked about the incident, police said the woman was being interrogated but refused to divulge her name. The woman, on her part, claimed that she has proof in the form of a CD that these people have committed CNG scam. Sisodia said the issue was not about Kejriwal's security alone as the consequences, had it been a bomb or acid attack, would have been ghastly. "Where is their (police) high alert? Delhi Police seems not to care for an event where thousands had gathered. There was no checking and police was not concerned about public security. That means police is a part of the conspiracy and is with BJP," Sisodia said. Delhi Police, however, refuted the allegations. In a statement, Delhi Police said all arrangements were put in place as per the norms. "Certain allegations have been leveled against Delhi Police by some functionaries of AAP and even by Deputy CM. These are misconceived and unfounded." Also read: Woman throws ink at Arvind Kejriwal during odd-even thanksgiving rally What we know about the woman who splattered ink on Arvind Kejriwal Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay on Monday said the allegations levelled by Bhavna Arora against AAP government over the sale of more than 1 lakh CNG stickers to non-CNG cars in the national Capital exposes double standars of the government. By India Today Web Desk: CNG sticker allocation scam shadows the success of Aam Aadmi Party's much hyped odd-even programme. In the aftermath of the ink attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay on Monday launched a scathing attack on the AAP government. Speaking on the CNG scam, Upadhyay on said, "The allegations levelled by Bhavna Arora against AAP government over the sale of more than 1 lakh CNG stickers to non-CNG cars in the national Capital exposes double standars of the government". "AAP has emerged as the most corrupt party than Congress," Upadhyay tweeted. However, the Aam Aadmi Party has claimed that BJP is behind the ink attack conspiracy. After throwing ink on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party Sena's Punjab in-charge Bhavna Arora on Sunday alleged that she has ample proof that the AAP-led Delhi government is directly involved in the CNG scam. advertisement "Inhone CNG ka ghotaala kiya hai, mere paas proof hai," Bhavna said. After her release, Bhavna alleged that there was a CNG scam behind the successful implementation of odd-even formula. "The odd-even scheme for vehicles was a positive step. But there was a big CNG Scam behind the success of the formula, of which I had a sting too," claimed Bhavna. "That is why I wanted to meet CM Kejriwal and Gopal Rai, but they didn't agree to meet," she added. Bhavna, who has sought an inquiry into the alleged CNG scam in Delhi, will appear before court today. She told reporters that she possesses a CD, pertaining to the alleged CNG scam. "I will submit all papers and the sting before the court. Investigation should be done in the matter," she said. Bhavna threw ink on Kejriwal when he was addressing a 'thanksgiving' for the odd-even scheme at Chhatrasaal Stadium on Sunday evening. ALSO READ: Woman throws ink at Arvind Kejriwal during odd-even thanksgiving rally What we know about the woman who splattered ink on Arvind Kejriwal A day after Rahul Gandhi said the Congress would pass the contentious GST Bill in 15 minutes if its demands were met, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu blamed the opposition party for setting conditions. By Mail Today: A day after Rahul Gandhi said the Congress would pass the contentious GST Bill in 15 minutes if its demands were met, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu blamed the opposition party for setting conditions. "It is not fair to set conditions for the passage of the GST Bill. If the said clauses were so crucial, the UPA could have brought these in the original Bill when it was in power," said Naidu. "One condition (cap on taxes) put forth by Congress and reiterated by Rahul Gandhi in an event in Mumbai was not liked by anybody. The government has agreed. The issue is about this cap which the Congress has not proposed and it had not proposed it when it brought the Bill and is suddenly now making it a condition. That is not fair on its (Congress') part," said Naidu. advertisement He also held discussions with Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on the possibilities of advancing the Budget session so that the GST Bill is passed. Naidu had recently met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi regarding the passage of the GST bill. She had said that she will discuss the issue with her party and get back to the government. The issue is set to a major bone of contention between the BJP and the Congress during the budget session. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said he expected the bill to be passed in the budget session. Naidu said he would discuss the budget session dates with PM Modi. "When you want to change any proposal, you have to call a Parliament session, then you have to get it approved by two-third majority. Then you have to go to states and all... This is a very complicated thing you are creating for yourself," said Naidu. Also read: Narendra Modi, Amit Shah do not want GST Bill, says Jairam Ramesh Mad Max Fury Road was awarded nine trophies at the Critics' Choice Awards 2016. A still from Mad Max Fury Road, which picked up five trophies at the Critics' Choice Awards 2016 By India Today Web Desk: Mad Max Fury Road took as many as nine awards at the 21st annual Critics' Choice Awards. The movie won in Best Director (George Miller), Best Action Movie, Best Actress in an Action Movie (Charlize Theron), Best Actor in an Action Movie (Tom Hardy), Best Production Design, Best Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Visual Effects, Best Hair and Make-up at the Critics' Choice Awards this year. ALSO READ: Oscars 2016 panel leaves out people of colour yet again, social media expresses outrage with #OscarsSoWhite ALSO READ: Oscars 2016 nominations list - 12 nods for The Revenant; Mad Max Fury Road, The Martian in race for best film The awards gala, where Leonardo DiCaprio bagged the Best Actor Award for The Revenant and Brie Larson won the Best Actress trophy for the film Room, took place on Sunday night in Santa Monica. advertisement Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy, was named the Best Picture at the event. The Best Comedy Film award was presented to The Big Short, and lead actor Christian Bale was handed the Best Actor in a Comedy trophy for the same movie. Amy Schumer won the Best Actress in a Comedy for the 2015 film Trainwreck, which is directed by Judd Apatow. The Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role was given to Sylvester Stallone for Creed and Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl respectively. Ex Machina, Inside Out and Amy bagged the Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie, Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature respectively. The Delhi government is now all set to crackdown on pan masalas. To this end, the Delhi government's Health Department has written to six Bollywood stars asking them to withdraw from any pan masala related advertisements. By India Today Web Desk: The Delhi government is now all set to crackdown on pan masalas. To this end, the Delhi government's Health Department has written to six Bollywood stars asking them to withdraw from any pan masala related advertisements that they might have appeared in. The six Bollywood actors who have been sent the letters include Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Arbaz Khan, Govinda and Sunny Leone. The letter sent by the Health department's additional director Suresh Kumar Arora states, "... this is to bring to your notice that you are often seen on TV/other medias for advertising the pan masala products like Shilajeet Panmasala." "Even if these Pan Masalas do not contain tobacco/nicotine but they surely contain areca nut (Supari) and now there are lot of scientific evidences which prove that Supari causes cancer. advertisement "Moreover some of these pan masala advertisements are surrogate advertisements of tobacco products through which the tobacco companies try to promote the brands of tobacco products. "Tobacco and "Pan Masalas" stands for Disease and Death and they affect the users physically, econonmically and socially as well. It also affects our environment adversely. WHO data indicates that in our country 30 per cent of TB, 40 per cent of all cancers, 90 per cent of oral cancers and significant percentage of Atherosclerotic disorders like hypertension, brain stroke, heart attack, diabetes etc and many other diseases are due to tobacco habits. In our country, every year nearly 9-10 lakh people are dying because of tobacco habits. "You are the role model for youngsters, they watch you and your lifestyle/habits and try to copy/adopt it. These advertisements attract the vulnerable population especially children and other females very strategically and are directly/indirectly responsible for the increasing trend of tobacco use in youngsters and others. This is worth mentioning that tobacco use is increasing gradually in Indian females as compared to decreasing trends in rest of the world. These advertisements apart from e-cigarettes and hookah smoking are playing major role in increasing trend of tobacco use among females and youngsters in India. "So I humbly request you for not to participate in Pan Masala or any other similar advertisements which are harming our society especially the younger generations. "Rather I request you to join us in anti-tobacco campaign to save lakhs of preventable deaths." More steps need to be taken apart from the odd-even scheme to clean Delhi's air. This was the message that came out of the Capital's first public movement for pollution-free air, called 'Help Delhi Breathe,' which was held at Jantar Mantar on Sunday. By Mail Today: More steps need to be taken apart from the odd-even scheme to clean Delhi's air. This was the message that came out of the Capital's first public movement for pollution-free air, called 'Help Delhi Breathe,' which was held at Jantar Mantar on Sunday. Experts on the subject like Anumita Roychowdhury from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Sunil Dahiya from Greenpeace India and Parthaa Bosu from Clean Air Asia spoke at the event. Expatriates and children formed a chunk of the crowd wearing symbolic masks and holding up colourful banners with slogans like: 'Delhi's dirty air. Not so fair'. Roychowdhury from CSE said, "It's a spontaneous reaction by citizens who are affected by the pollution malaise? a rare community articulation seen in Delhi. We have seen that whenever public opinion has been mobilised, such as during the 1998 Supreme Court order of converting all buses to CNG, a great achievement has been made." advertisement "More measures must be taken by the government like providing a world-class public transportation system, making Delhi a pedestrian-friendly and bicyclefriendly city. Some steps need to be taken by the citizens as well, like switching to more nonmotorised trips," she added. Sunil Dahiya emphasised on the central government now taking the campaign to smaller cities and towns. "Last year, we got the National Air Quality Index or NAQI. However, in its network, only Delhi has 10 air quality monitoring stations, of which five are functional. The rest either have one station or none at all." NCR's role in reducing air pollution in the Capital was also stressed upon. Vikrant Tongad from NGO, SAFE, said, "Pollution in Delhi will not disappear till biomass burning in Punjab and Haryana is not stopped. Also, more greening and forestation is required to act as natural absorbents." Also read: Improved version of odd-even formula soon: Arvind Kejriwal Travellers will soon be able to explore some really ancient Buddhist caves that have been discovered in Mumbai recently. By India Today Web Desk: A discovery it is! Residents of Mumbai, and travellers from all parts might soon be able to visit a possible heritage destination that has just been discovered on the northern fringes of Mumbai. According to a report by The Times of India, seven caves have been found in forests of the sprawling Sanjay Gandhi National Park, in the Borivli area. These caves are believed to be Buddhist viharas or monk residences, that were used by the monks as a shelter during the monsoons. The report says that even though the site still awaits a formal approval from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for more detailed exploration and documentation with regards to these new caves, they are believed to have been constructed way before the nearby Kanheri Caves, between 1st century BC and 5th-6th century AD. advertisement Also read: These unexplored caverns and forests will leave you spellbound Although all the caves indicate strong evidences of being viharas, one of them has shown the remains of harmika, which refers to the top railing of a stupa. The discovery was made in February last year, and is said to be the result of a systematic survey of the area, which included a detailed study of the area's topography and water sources, followed by extensive field work. The credits of this discovery goes to a three-member team that carried out this job under an excavation programme, which was jointly conducted by the Centre for Archaeology, Mumbai University, and the department of ancient Indian culture, Sathaye College, Vile Parle. "The newly discovered caves may have been older than the Kanheri Caves as they were simpler in form and they lacked water cisterns, which are found in the more evolved architecture of Kanheri. Moreover, we found monolithic tools which were prevalent in the 1st century BC. The absence of water cisterns also indicate that monks lived there in the monsoon," said team leader Suraj Pandit in a quote given to The Times of India. The first look of this crowd sourced documentary which captures the essence of India in a day is truly promising! By India Today Web Desk: On October 10, last year, Google launched a unique project of a crowdsourced documentary, produced by Emmy Award and three times Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott and with our very own Anurag Kashyap. The project had Zoya Akhtar and Shekhar Kapur as the creative consultants. The project which solely relies on footage captured by participants, was first screened during Sundar Pichai's keynote at the Google for India event, held in December, last year. The video sheds light on how technology and internet revolutionized the lives of people living in the most remote parts of the country. Check out the trailer of India In A Day below: Looks nice, yeah? The full feature length film will release later this year. --- ENDS --- By India Today Web Desk: While the Pakistan government has been claiming action against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) which orchestrated the January 2 Pathankot terror attack, there has been no confirmation whether the terror group's chief Masood Azhar has been detained or not. Despite a ban, funds continue to flow for JeM in Pakistan. India has prepared a 'terror' dossier detailing Masood Azhar's fund raising mechanism. Sources have told India Today that New Delhi will soon be handing over this dossier to Islamabad to nail Azhar further. The dossier has details about JeM's overseas funding. The terror files would also include details about key Jaish operatives, including Rouf Azghar Azhar. Apart from that details about India's most wanted men Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba's top commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim are also included in the dossier. advertisement According to reports, JeM is functioning openly all over Pakistan including the occupied Kashmir despite a ban on it. JeM generally conducts big congregations twice a year at Haripur and Bhawalpur in Pakistan. The outfit has huge infrastructure including offices and landed property in the name of local trusts/NGOs and charitable organizations. It runs a chain of educational institutions in different names and has built a huge hospital at Muzaffarabad. Also read: The making of JeM chief Masood Azhar After the five-match ODI series, India will be playing three T20 Internationals against Australia starting January 26. By India Today Web Desk: Jasprit Bumrah has been named as replacement for injured Mohammad Shami in India's T20 squad. India will be playing three T20 Internationals against Australia starting January 26. Shami making a comeback into India's limited-overs side after a 10-month injury lay-off again pulled up his hamstring before the Australia series started and returned back home last week. The hamstring injury is expected to keep him out of action for at least four to six weeks. Bumrah is the joint-highest wicket-taker in the ongoing T20 tournament, Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy with 14 wickets from nine matches. Moreover, in Gujarat's successful victorious Vijay Hazare Trophy campaign, Bumrah impressed by becoming the highest wicket-taker in the tournament by claiming 21 wickets off nine matches. "The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jasprit Bumrah in the India T20I team as the replacement for Mohammed Shami, who has been ruled out due to injury. The Indian team is scheduled to play three Twenty20 matches starting January 26, 2016," BCCI said in a media release. advertisement Bumrah will leave for Australia on January 22 along with other T20I team members - Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya, the release added. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that 100 per cent prohibition of liquor was ruled out, as it would lead to spurious liquor trade. By Mail Today: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that 100 per cent prohibition of liquor was ruled out, as it would lead to spurious liquor trade. "We alone cannot impose 100 per cent prohibition. Miscreants will find a way to retail spurious liquor and spirits from neighboring states. A national level consensus is needed for 100 per cent prohibition," he told the media in Bagalkote, a central Karnataka town. The contribution of Excise Department to the state's revenue is one of the highest at Rs 14,000+ crore every year. A total ban on sales of liquor would adversely impact the revenue mobilization for the state. Will she, won't she? Yes, she will. Bollywood actress and Salman Khan's ex-girlfriend will be joining him on the Bigg Boss 9 stage for the grand finale on Saturday. By India Today Web Desk: Ever since Kartina Kaif started the round of promotions for her upcoming movie Fitoor, there was only one question on everyone's mind. Will she or will she not promote Fitoor on her ex-boyfriend's show, Bigg Boss 9. Dispelling the uncertainty, Salman Khan confirmed on Sunday night's episode that Katrina will be seen on the grand finale of the show along with her Fitoor co-star Aditya Roy Kapur. At an event held recently in Mumbai, when someone asked Katrina whether she will be visiting the sets of Bigg Boss or not Katrina being Katrina gave a diplomatic answer and chose to keep everyone guessing. "We will go wherever the promotion teams tells us to go and that's how it is. I would like to promote it everywhere," is what she said. Also read: Rahul Roy to Gautam Gulati - What makes a Bigg Boss winner? advertisement The last time Katrina appeared on Bigg Boss with Salman as host, was to promote the Farah Khan directed Tees Maar Khan in 2010. And as you would recall, she had a tough time deflecting Salman's jokes targeted at her beau Ranbir Kapoor and their relationship. It may also be recalled that Ranbir Kapoor had allegedly refused to promote his film Tamasha on Bigg Boss 9 after being reportedly snubbed by Salman Khan at Anil Kapoor's 2015 Diwali party. Also read: "First finalist" Priya Malik eliminated from the show However, with Katrina and Ranbir's break-up rumours surfacing, and Salman being touted as one of the possible reasons behind the split, it seems things have now changed. On Saturday night Salman and Katrina were snapped at the same place and at the same time. Post these developments all eyes will be on Salman and Katrina in the grand finale on January 23. Also read: Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur and their attempt at dumb charades RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav has come out in support of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ban on sirens on cars with blue and red beacons. By India Today Web Desk: RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav has come out in support of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's ban on sirens on cars with blue and red beacons. Speaking at the function in Patna where he took over as party president for the seventh term, Lalu said that "Nitish Kumar had done the right thing". "Everyone knows it was being misused rampantly and Nitish, by issuing the order, preempted any possible misuse," he said. The ban on the sirens had caused much heartburn among the VIPs of the state with some party workers saying that Nitish Kumar's decision was unfair and that it was aimed at stripping the ministers of their privileges of using a car with a red or blue beacon. Also Read Lalu Prasad Yadav crowned RJD chief for ninth term advertisement Madhya Pradesh is set to organise the country's first Jal Mahotsav at the Hanuwantiya Island in Madhya Pradesh. By India Today Web Desk: In an attempt to boost tourism in the state, Madhya Pradesh is all set to organise the country's first Jal Mahotsav next month. Starting February 12, the 10-day festival will be hosted at the Hanuwantiya Island, which is situated on the Indira Sagar Dam. The celebrations will provide ample of opportunities to a traveller to explore and experience the colourful customs and rich traditions of Madhya Pradesh that will be portrayed through art, craft, folk music, dance and cuisines. Also read: Hanuwantiya Island: Madhya Pradesh gets a new tourist destination Besides, in order to keep the tourists entertained, the festival will also be a host to numerous activities such as local sightseeing, adventure sports, tug of war, volleyball, paragliding, treasure hunt, and much more. advertisement Addressing the media in a recent inaugural function, Tanvi Sundriyal, IAS-Additional Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC) said, "It is a first-of-its-kind event going to be organised in Madhya Pradesh. The aim is to encourage more tourists to this destination. The mega event will be inaugurated by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan." According to the officials, the main objective of this event will be to showcase the cultural heritage of Madhya Pradesh and spark festivities that can become a tradition across generations in the future. "MP tourism has taken this initiative to raise awareness about the importance of water through Jal Mahotsav, which is an enthralling mix of cultural performances and adventure activities taking place against the beautiful background of the Indira Sagar Dam", said Om Vijay Choudhary, Executive Director, Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC). For the last 35 years Soumya De Sarkar has passed through, or by, Kaliachak. The editor of 'Voice of Malda', a webzine, knows the place inside out: the mango trees that lean over the National Highway 34, the singing boatmen on the Pagla, Fulahar rivers, the villagers who go about typically in lungi and half-sleeved 'fatua', the red terracotta ruins of history that dot the landscape. Kaliachak looks just like any other godforsaken Indian village. But to De Sarkar, Kaliachak is a ticking political time bomb in a hotbed of sin and vice, that's just waiting to explode. What happened here on January 3, when thousands converged to protest an insult to Prophet Mohammad that had happened a month ago in distant Uttar Pradesh and went berserk, torching the police station, BDO office, ransacking the Khalitpur Railway Station, attacking buses, trucks and over three dozen police vehicles-has stunned the nation. Questions are being raised: why the violence? Was it a Hindu-Muslim riot? Was it a murky game of political brinkmanship? Is Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee's treatment of Muslims as vote bank turning the state into a communal tinder box? Is it a reflection of Bengal's new political currency ahead of 2016 Assembly polls, slated to take place in April? advertisement Heart of darkness All those questions would remain unanswered without understanding the heart of darkness that pulsates under the idyllic exterior of this Malda village. Those who knew the old Kaliachak, saw it change right before their eyes in the last 20 years. "There's a free flow of money here," says De Sarkar. The mud huts with terracotta-tiled roofs have disappeared, just as the horse-drawn carriages that used to be the prime mode of transport even a decade ago. Narrow, potholed roads are chock-a-block with shops selling snacks, clothes or plastic wares. In between, there are "luxury" hotels, about 26, with fancy names: Reshmi, Mayaban, Meghdoot, Royal Park. Opium poppy cultivation in Malda's Golapganj area Here students of the only girls' school come to class only thrice a week. Boys of Kaliachak High School get embroiled in fights and stop only when the police fire in air. With 89 percent of its 3 lakh population as Muslims, brawls over who would carry their Muharram procession first turn deadly. College unions heckle teachers and principals. Huge cache of arms, poppy seeds and ingredients for manufacturing narcotics are recovered before elections. Block development officers take turns to stop child marriage. Bomb explosions rock the area while news of murders, rape and abductions hit daily papers. Armed forces scorch poppy fields. And sometimes, just sometimes, the police file FIRs against poppy cultivators who are long dead. Some people are more special than others here: one clue: on December 15, 2015, while Banerjee inaugurated 32 projects and laid the foundation stone of 42 more around the district Malda, a 50-something man was seen strutting around the dias confidently, to the consternation of local people. Asadullah Biswas, a notorious criminal-a CPI(M) party member until 2010, TMC now-is among the most wanted in Kaliachak: for murder, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, bribery, gang wars and international trafficking in fake currency, drugs, human, arms and labour. A man of humble beginnings, as the most influential underground leader in the area since the 1990s, he now rides a Pajero SUV, surrounds himself with a bevy of armed bodyguards, and enjoys a flashy lifestyle. He is feared by politicians, administrators and the police. And he is not alone. There are others as well; Tuhur Ali Biswas, Bokul Sheikh, Zakir Sheikh, the terrors of Malda, who change their political colours when and as it suits them. Being less than 10 km from the border with Bangladesh-where Chapainawabganj is the acknowledged hub of fake notes and anti-India terror activities-and with easy escape routes to Bihar, Jharkhand and Nepal, Kaliachak is the unofficial capital of India's illegal trans-border poppy, arms and fake currency syndicates. The cynical game Politically, a curious game is playing out over Kaliachak: there is unusual silence. The state government is tightlipped, the ruling Trinamool Congress is trying to play it down, the CM, after maintaining a six-day silence has finally called it "a clash between local residents and the Border Security Force personnel" on January 9. Quiz master-turned Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien has termed the Kaliachak violence a "criminal and not communal" incident, where the police has "handled the issue tactfully". BJP/RSS tried to turn it into a communal issue by trending hashtags on Twitter, sharing year-old photographs and posting irresponsible tweets with the help of its social media army," says the Trinamool Congress' national spokesperson.Surprisingly, the opposition parties are also resorting to mild rants about the state's deteriorating law and order situation. Leader of Opposition and CPI(M) state secretary Surya Kanta Mishra has called it "complete lawlessness" in the state. BJP Lok Sabha member from Darjeeling SS Ahluwalia, one of the five-member BJP fact finding team, denied permission to visit Kaliachak on January 12 by district authorities, citing prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC, said, "We are law-abiding citizens and we are not here to incite or instigate anyone. The whole purpose of the visit was to console the people, to restore their confidence that something like this will not happen in future," while waiting at the VIP lounge of Malda station. advertisement The scent of elections is clearly in the air. "Since the Assembly elections are forthcoming, all political parties seem to be interested in using the Kaliachak violence for electoral gains," says political observer, Udayan Bandopadhyay, political scientist affiliated with the University of Calcutta. "They are still not sure if this will give them an extra mileage to win minority votes in this year's Assembly polls or not," he says. While O'Brien points to BJP's "Communally Insensitive Narrative, 100 days before the state goes to polls" as a tactic they follow in all election-bound states, Ahluwalia has asked: "Is it an appeasement of politics of the Trinamool Congress to get Muslim votes in Bengal? Is this the indication that if they cast votes in Trinamool's favour they can get away with any serious offence they commit, even at the cost of national security?" advertisement The leadership vaccum In the background is the contest to carve up the Congress stronghold on Malda. As De Sarkar points out, Malda has been a Congress bastion since Independence. Kaliachak, like the rest of the district, has believed in the towering personality and authority of just one man for 40 long years: "Barkat da" or ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, veteran Congress leader and former Union minister, who represented Malda from 1980 till his death in 2005 and never lost an election from the district. Even the Left Front, in its 32 years in Bengal, could not gain a toe-hold here, despite efforts made by veteran leaders: Pramod Dasgupta to Biman Basu, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to Sailen Sarkar. With Ghani Khan's demise, his family split politically, with battle lines getting sharply drawn between his brothers and his niece, since the Lok Sabha polls 2009 and one of the brothers leaving the party to join Trinamool Congress in 2015. Prominent Congress leader and MLA from Englishbazar assembly seat, Malda, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, also left the party and joined TMC in 2012. A slice of political pie advertisement But there are reasons for Banerjee to be anxious about her party's performance in Malda. During 2011 assembly elections, TMC had won just one out of the total 12 assembly seats in Malda: Manikchowk assembly constituency. Mamata has made both Krishnendu Narayan and Sabitri Mitra, candidates from Manikchowk, ministers in her government. Yet, with the two ministers not being on talking terms, Malda continues to be a weak support-base for TMC. The effort to keep Kaliachak out of bounds for BJP, Congress and CPI-M leaders has been questioned by CPI-M MP Mohammed Salim on January 12: "I along with another leader from my party were going to Kaliachak. It was pre-planned, but suddenly a huge police contingent stopped us, 35km from Kaliachak. I told them that being an MP it is my duty to find facts and talk to people. But they said they can't allow me. I want to ask the administration what they are trying to hide that they are stopping all other political parties?" Incidentally, the Left Front has fared extremely well in Malda in the 2013 panchayat elections, especially in traditional Congress citadels. What about the BJP? This has been an area where the saffron brigade has had deep pockets of influence. During the time of the Partition, the Hindu Mahasabha had formed a formidable network, especially as Malda was declared a Pakistan territory for three days (Malda celebrates Independence on August 17). Even under the Left rule in Bengal the RSS had organised itself subterraneously in the tribal belts of Bamangola, Habibpur, English Bazar and Gazole. Tapan Sikdar, once the BJP's West Bengal state president and the union minister in the Vajpayee government, hails from Habibpur. Over the years, the RSS has developed about 37 branches in Malda, with 4,000 active members and over 25,000 supporters, points out De Sarkar. BJP has more committed voters here than elsewhere in the state, picking up 17 per cent votes in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. No man's land Kaliachak has turned into a ghost town. People don't venture out. Armed jawans strut the streets. All the 10 accused are in police custody. CCTV footage of the attack is being examined to identify "real culprits". Home Minister Rajnath Singh is slated to tour Kaliachak on January 18. The National Investigating Agency, which has declared Malda to be the locus of criminal activities, with links to the ISIbacked network of terrorism, is waiting to be brought in to investigate what happened in Kaliachak that day. Didi, meantime, has said facts are being distorted: "You all are getting distorted facts." There was no communal tension. The police was not attacked. The state was not involved. "We don't allow all this" in Bengal. If only. Follow the writers on Twitter @dattadamayanti and @Soudhriti Alia Siddiqui today filed an FIR against 4 people for physically assaulting her. By India Today Web Desk: Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife today filed an FIR against 4 people for physically assaulting her. Alia Siddiqui registered an FIR against 4 people, saying they tried to enter the house forcibly and assaulted her when she resisted. The FIR was registered under sections 143, 147, 149, 354, 452, 506 /34 of the IPC. The counter FIR by Alia Siddiqui came after an FIR was registered against Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Sunday by a woman residing in the same housing society, for physically assaulting her following a dispute over parking space. Siddiqui responded to the allegations today, saying the allegations are false and the society members are by his side. "Being a responsible citizen I came and gave my statement. Society's members are with me, all allegations are false," he said. advertisement ALSO READ Nawazuddin Siddiqui booked for assaulting woman over parking space TE3N: Amitabh Bachchan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui ride a scooter on the streets of Kolkata PDP President Mehbooba Mufti hasn't yet deliberated upon government formation in the Valley and her party maintains a stoic silence on the fate of its coalition with BJP. By India Today Web Desk: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday blamed the PDP-BJP coalition for causing inordinate delay in government formation in the state. "While the (Peoples Democratic Party) PDP has declared that the PDP-BJP 'Agenda of the Alliance' is a 'sacred document' and that PDP continues to be in awe of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is an inexplicable delay in government formation," Omar wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday night. PDP President Mehbooba Mufti hasn't yet deliberated upon Government formation in the Valley and her party maintains a stoic silence on the fate of its coalition with BJP. Omar, the working president of the opposition National Conference, was reacting to the PDP statement issued after the meeting of its Core Group in Srinagar last evening. advertisement "From the statement issued to the media at the conclusion of Sunday's meeting by the PDP, it has become evident that the PDP-BJP alliance stands, that no conditions have been set by the PDP, that no negotiations are being conducted and the formation of the new PDP-BJP government is a foregone conclusion," Omar said. He said the general perception about the delay in government formation was that it is being done to salvage some bare minimum credibility for the PDP and "to create a smokescreen of stiff morality. "The people of Jammu and Kashmir continue to be deprived of an elected government while two political parties with a combined majority continue to be in an alliance -which is bizarre and unprecedented. This posturing and political drama comes at the cost of uncertainty, instability and chaos in the state." Omar said PDP president Mehbooba Mufti and her party has two options - to either deliver on the promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir or to break the alliance with the BJP. "To hang on to this alliance with the BJP for dear life while pretending to be the unwavering example of high morality is akin to aspiring to have the cake and eat it too. "If Mehbooba Mufti can't rise to the occasion she should end PDP's alliance with the BJP based on PDP's alleged reservations and regrets over the previous 10 months and we can go back to the people again for fresh elections," he added. Omar said the longer Mehbooba delayed the imminent government formation with the BJP, the more people will expect her to extract concessions from the Centre. "I wish her the best of luck in her political games with the genuine disappointment that these political games and theatrics come at a grave cost to the common man in Jammu and Kashmir who continues to be surrounded by an eerie political uncertainty," he said. ALSO READ: Farooq Abdullah bats for dissolution of J&K Assembly, fresh polls PDP-BJP alliance to face review test of past 10 months By Sandeep Unnithan : The night before the Kurukshetra war, the Mahabharata recounts, the Kauravas' general Bhishma held a parlay in his tent. He laid down the rules of dharmic combat for both sides, among them-"No one should fight at night". He would have approved of the military operation to flush out four terrorists at the Pathankot airbase on January 2 this year. The operations halted every night over the course of three days. The black dungaree-clad National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, linked to Ved Vyas' epic through Lord Krishna's discus on their arm patches, had no choice but to abide by Bhishma's dharmic code. They lacked the long-range night vision devices and handheld thermal imagers which would allow them to track the terrorists at night. They did not have the drones that could fly continuously to scan the target area for suspects. There was no command centre from where they could monitor the progress of operations. advertisement Fears of a blue-on-blue incident (what happens when you are killed by friendly fire) haunted them as the 2,200-acre base was packed with air force Garud commandos and Indian army soldiers, forces that had never operated together. Operations resumed in full swing only at daybreak. It took over 200 NSG commandos over 70 hours to completely sanitise the airbase, delays which ended up having political and diplomatic repercussions. The conduct of the operations called into question National Security Adviser Ajit Doval's January 1 decision to send the NSG into the airbase. Senior army officials questioned whether the NSG was suited for the task at hand. They felt that the local infantry units could have terminated the operations far quicker and more efficiently. It took an unprecedented January 9 visit to the airbase by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dispel doubts about a failure of coordination and pronounce the operation a success. The larger question of whether the NSG is fit for purpose remained unanswered in the high wattage operation. A Rs 1,400-crore modernisation plan that would have transformed it into a modern fighting force by 2017, remains a pipe dream. The NSG is a force hollowed out by years of neglect, lurching from one crises to another. The road to Pathankot started in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, a far more grievous terrorist attack which exposed the vulnerabilities of a premier counter terrorist force. All that the NSG has acquired for its commandos since then are sniper rifles, submachine guns and pistols. The force multiplier high tech gear is still stuck in paperbound proposals. In Pathankot, for instance, the force had to rely on circling IAF Mi-35 gunships, which used their thermal imagers on the 2200-acre base to locate the terrorists. Fast moving targets, picked up by the helicopters in the elephant grass around the base often, turned out to be wild boar. The NSG borrowed armoured vehicles from local army units to undertake combing operations. They had no command post from where officers could direct operations. It was an unusual combination of jungle warfare operations and what the military calls fighting in built-up areas. "We were fortunate that we could prevent the terrorists from reaching the technical area," says an officer who participated in the operations. What aided the security forces was luck, an incredible fightback from a Defence Service Corps sentry, Honorary Captain Fateh Singh, who grappled with the terrorists and killed one of them, the incompetence of the terrorists who stopped to shoot up vehicles in the IAF motor transport pool, losing sight of their prime objective-the fighter aircraft and gunships parked in the technical area. "In the next attack," the officer says, "we may not be as lucky." A home ministry spokesperson did not respond to an India Today questionnaire. Click here to Enlarge Graphic by Saurabh Singh and Naveen Chandra Upreti The blind cats The NSG is the home ministry's premier strike force with a special mandate for handling terror or hijack situations and to deal with multifarious operational situations. Yet, the appalling neglect of this weapon of last resort over the years is eclipsed only by the Indian Air Force's spectacular ineptitude in protecting its frontline airbase from terrorist attack. At Pathankot, terrorists had easily scaled a 10-feet high wall and remained hidden in the high grass for a day before they ventured out to attack their primary targets-service personnel and parked aircraft, only to be halted by air force commandos, army and the NSG. advertisement The NSG does not lack in physical standards, marksmanship or pay and allowances-commandos run 24-kilometre speed marches with 20-kg backpacks, and fire, on an average, 60 rounds a day. It is a lucrative career. They get 25 per cent of their basic pay as 'commando allowance'. Yet, the force continues to be bedevilled by a shortage of cuttingedge equipment and training aids. The NSG announced its arrival to the world in a surgically precise operation, just four years after they had been raised in 1984 following the disastrous storming of the Golden Temple by the Indian Army. Operation Black Thunder, in May 1988, ended with 41 militants being shot dead inside the Golden Temple by snipers, with zero casualties. The technological edge was gradually whittled away over the years, from Akshardham in 2002 and finally Mumbai in 2008 where the NSG's chronic shortages came to the fore as they battled eight highly motivated Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in three parallel sieges of two five-star hotels and a Jewish centre in Mumbai. The commandos' civilian Motorola handsets ran out of battery charge, they lacked critical protection gear like helmets and ballistic shields and ineffective night vision devices. What was worse, commanders even lost contact with their men. advertisement The complex 48-hour-long NSG operation in Mumbai led to some soul searching. "The force is not special," a veteran of the 26/11 attacks said in a presentation to home ministry bureaucrats, "it is just a force." Graphic by Saurabh Singh In the months that followed the 26/11 attacks, the NSG prepared a list of transformative requirements. India Today accessed a copy of this distilled wisdom, the home ministry's August 2012 document (Home Ministry No.IV-17014/55/2005-Prov-I ) which laid out a comprehensive roadmap for the NSG. It listed 240 major and minor items of equipment to be acquired over five years at a cost of over Rs 1,400 crore. Since "time was of the essence in all NSG commando operations, an all-weather operating capability and technological interpolation was inevitable," the MHA paper wrote. The plan advocated a "real time sensor shoot grid, data assimilation and analysis decision making centre of action and for equipping the force with latest equipment, weaponry and communication capabilities". To a casual observer, this would have appeared a mere list of expensive toys but NSG officers describe it as a building up of capabilities that would allow them to prevail over terrorists. All commandos would be seamlessly linked through voice and video links with GPS-equipped wearable computers and body cameras and portable satellite phones. Sitting in a special mobile command post, a commander would know the location of all his commandos. Screens on his console would relay what his men were seeing in real time. A Sniper Coordination System would tell him the location of all his shooters and also feed the images back from their scopes. Drones and portable aerostats would give him continuous coverage of the battlefield. Vision and thermal image fusion cameras would be able to tell them the difference between man and animal. The equipment to be procured would revive three atrophied arms of the force-the Electronic Support Group, the Technical Support Group and the Special Weapons Squad, responsible for setting up command and control and providing firepower for the force. advertisement After nearly two years of consultations, the UPA government approved a list of 200 items in the NSG modernisation plan for over Rs 1,400 crore. The five-year programme would equip the force with advanced radios, long-range sensors, thermal imagers, portable radars. Eight years later, only a handful of items on the list-sniper rifles and submachine guns and one armoured truck-have been purchased. The NSG's website shows at least 27 items-shotguns, door-breaching grenades, semi-automatic sniper rifles, hostage negotiation communication sets, wall contact microphones meant to snoop in on rooms- remain in the nascent Request for Information (RFI) stage. At the current rate of acquisition, it will take the NSG at least five years to acquire the equipment. The fault in its DNA At the heart of the NSG's worries is the fact that it is a deputationist force. This means it lacks permanent cadre of its own. Army personnel come into the NSG on a two-year deputation, paramilitary personnel serve five-year deputations. This transient character of the force has killed its institutional memory. The seeds of the NSG's neglect perhaps lie in the MHA's modernisation plan itself. The document terms it as a "Central Armed Police Force", a nomenclature that effectively spells death for the special force. The NSG's upgradation has remained largely paper-bound because of frequent changes at the top. Click here to Enlarge Graphic by Saurabh Singh The Director-General (D-G), based at NSG headquarters near Delhi airport, heads the provisioning and procurement units. Since 26/11, the NSG has changed six D-Gs, each of whom has served for an average of 14 months. "It takes six months for one to understand the process. By the time he decides, it is time to go," says an NSG official. "The UK's elite SAS is also a deputationist force but retains a 25-per cent permanent component. Indian army commandos spend over 10 years in their special forces battalions," says Major General V.K. Datta (retired), who took part in Operation Black Thunder in 1988. Proposals to create a similar permanent component for the NSG have failed to see the light of day. The NSG was to operate in concert with the Special Rangers Group (SRG), three battalions of nearly 1,000 commandos each, all drawn from the paramilitary forces. The SRG were to provide the cordon around sieges but are never available for the task because nearly two-thirds of these SRG battalions are deployed for VVIP security. At Pathankot, the NSG deployed an SRG battalion in active operations for the first time in recent years. Critics argue that the home ministry's post-26/11 decision to expand the force into four other metros-Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai-effectively spelled its death knell. At over 10,000 personnel, the NSG is larger than the Indian army's parachute commando forces. Hubs lack equipment like aircraft entry ladder systems which could be used to intervene in case they have to storm hijacked aircraft. "When you expand forces the way NSG has done over the years, you dilute manpower training and equipment," says Lt. General Prakash Chand Katoch (retired), an army special forces officer. He lists the four global truths about special forces: humans are more important than hardware, quality is better than quantity, special forces cannot be mass-produced and they cannot be created after emergencies. France's elite counter-terrorist force GIGN has just 650 personnel. Germany's GSG-9, which the NSG is modelled after, has just over 200 commandos. The NSG, created as a federal contingency force in an era when police forces were inadequately equipped or ill-trained to handle terrorists, continues to wrestle with shortfalls. It has not even started the process of acquiring helicopters and borrows them from the IAF or the RAW's Aviation Research Centre to train its commandos in slithering operations. Arvind Ranjan, former NSG D-G, says equipment shortfalls are only a smokescreen that hides graver issues of competence. "What ails the force is the lack of vision, accountability and responsibility on the part of its officers," he says. Insiders say the force has been tardy in fixing most of the equipment in its inventory-key equipment like Total Containment Vessel (TCVs), portable robots and helmet-mounted night vision devices are off-road because their annual maintenance contracts are yet to be drawn up. The NSG base in Manesar still lacks a modern firing range with pop-up targets and a night shooting range. A Rs 6-crore requirement, projected soon after the 26/11 attacks, was never installed because officials squabbled over the specifications. The NSG's modernisation was part of a major overhaul set into motion by the UPA government. The contours for this were laid out in the NDA-1's landmark Group of Ministers report in 2001 that followed the Kargil Review Committee. The GoM recommended a sweeping overhaul of the internal security apparatus. These reforms began being implemented only after the 26/11 attacks. The UPA lost sight of the home ministry reforms towards the end of its tenure, a worrying drift that has continued under the NDA. The possibility of more strikes like the ones in Pathankot and Gurdaspur have only increased the chances that the force will be called into action again soon. Terrorists are unlikely to wait for the elite force to emerge from its time warp. Four, five or six? How many terrorists at Pathankot? Confusion over the number of attackers Indian intelligence agencies are fairly certain that the Pathankot attack was planned by Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar, the mastermind behind the IC-814 hijack in 1999 that led to Azhar's swap with the passengers. Yet, nearly a week after the January 2 terrorist attack on the Pathankot airbase, various government agencies have conflicting reports on the number of attackers, killing six security personnel. So far, bodies of only four terrorists and four AK-47s have been recovered. All of them were believed to be killed on the night of January 2, after a 15-hour firefight. The IB too believes there were four terrorists. But the NSG says it killed two more terrorists on January 3 after firing was reported from an abandoned building in the airbase. Operations ended on January 4 after the NSG demolished the building using an Army armoured personnel carrier. Bodies of four slain terrorists at Pathankot airbase On January 12, the NIA said it would issue black corner notices to Interpol to identify the bodies of four dead terrorists. Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who claimed he had been abducted by "four or five" terrorists on the night of December 31 is now being interrogated by the NIA, which is probing the case. A 10-member NIA team led by a DIG continued search operations in the area of the encounter in Pathankot. IB officials believe there is a possibility that the second team of two terrorists actually fled the Pathankot airbase and have infiltrated into Delhi to disrupt Republic Day celebrations on January 26, prompting a high security alert in the national Capital region. "This second team is possibly the one that abducted and later killed a taxi driver whose vehicle was found on the Katloh bridge over the Ravi river," says an IB official. There is little doubt, however, that the attackers came from Pakistan, a fact that has put pressure on Islamabad to act against the JeM. On January 9, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif told US Foreign Secretary John Kerry that his government had detained, at least, two suspects in Bahawalpur and Sialkot. Two days later, Pakistani media reported that authorities took Masood Azhar and Abdul Rauf into "protective custody". With India linking Foreign Secretary level talks between the two countries to the progress on the terror investigation, the Pathankot terror attack has become a test case for the peace process. Follow the writer on Twitter @SandeepUnnithan According to reports, BSF DIG NK Mishra of Gurdaspur sector and Commandant SS Dubas, have been replaced by BSF DIG A. Shreenivasan and Commandant Inder Parkash Bhatia respectively. By India Today Web Desk: In the aftermath of the terror attack on Pathankot air base in Punjab, the BSF has transferred two top officials in the Gurdaspur sector. The action was taken after the security agency conducted an internal probe into how six Pakistani terrorists managed to slip in across the border. According to reports, BSF DIG NK Mishra and Commandant SS Dubas, have been replaced by BSF DIG A. Shreenivasan and Commandant Inder Parkash Bhatia respectively. Days after the Pathankot terror attack rocked the country, the Punjab Police arrested a BSF constable, who was allegedly involved in helping a cartel of drugs and arms smugglers infiltrate heroin and weapons into India. Interrogation led the investigators to constable Anil who was deployed with the 52nd Battalion of the Border Security Force. advertisement Former Border Security Force (BSF) DG and security adviser EN Rammohan had told India Today Television that corrupt BSF officials are hand-in-glove with drug rackets active in Punjab and they helped the Pakistani terrorists sneak into India from the border with Pakistan. However, the BSF rejected Rammohan's smuggling theory and made it clear that it did not find any breach anywhere in the fence in 20-km stretch of border. BSF speculated, the terrorists might have used a tunnel on the Punjab border to sneak into India or have come all the way from Jammu and Kashmir to launch a Fidayeen attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, Punjab. On January 1, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists entered the airbase from the western periphery wall of the airbase where a clump of eucalyptus trees tower over the 11-foot-tall wall. In a pre-dawn attack, the terrorists attacked the IAF base on January 2. Six Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists were gunned down by the security forces after a four-day gun battle. Seven Indian security personnel also lost their lives. Senior MoD officials on January 16, 2016, were dismayed at non-maintenance of the 11-foot-high perimeter wall at Pathankot air base (in Punjab) which faced a major terror attack on January 2, 2016. Three weeks after the terrorist attacked the Pathankot airbase - the National Investigation Agency's (NIA) investigation is in full swing. The investigating agency is likely to move court for conducting lie detector test on Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh who had claimed that he, along with his cook and a friend, were abducted by terrorists on his way back from Panj Pir shrine. ALSO READ: #PathankotTerrorAttack: Corrupt BSF official-drug cartel nexus helped terror operatives #PathankotAttack: BSF man's arrest exposes dark links After a four-hour-long meeting, chaired by party president Mehbooba Mufti at her residence on Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) authorised her to take any decision about the alliance with the BJP. By Naseer Ganai: After a four-hour-long meeting, chaired by party president Mehbooba Mufti at her residence on Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) authorised her to take any decision about the alliance with the BJP. Also, on the expected lines, Mehbooba will take final call on the formation of the government. "This meeting wholeheartedly and unanimously supported Ms Mehbooba Mufti as its leader and expressed full confidence in her leadership qualities. The party authorised the president to take any decisions needed to carry forward Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's mission and implementing his political and developmental vision," the PDP chief spokesman Mehboob Beg said in a statement released after the meeting. PDP leader Naeem Akhtar said there was no condition on part of the PDP but he didn't give any timeline on the government formation with the BJP. advertisement Indicating that PDP would seek assurances given by the BJP on the Agenda of Alliance to be implemented before taking any decision on the government formation, party spokesperson Beg said the meeting reiterated that PDP would work, with fresh resolve, towards accomplishing the vision of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to create a space of dignity, opportunity and prosperity for the people of Jammu & Kashmir in the paradigm of friendship and cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan. Without spelling out that the party would seek assurances on external and internal dimension of the Kashmir issue, Beg went on to describe the belief of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to carry the point across. "It was firm belief of Mufti Sahab that the resolution of the problems of J&K is possible only in the paradigm of cordial ties between India and Pakistan with J&K becoming a hub of this cooperative relationship. He tirelessly worked towards realising this objective and used to repeatedly reiterate the inevitability of maintaining peace along the borders and expanding the scope and sphere of the cross-LoC movement of people and trade to free the people of the state from the mentality of siege," Beg said. He said it was only because of Mufti Sayeed's sustained efforts that a significant movement forward was seen on cross-LoC confidence building measures, both in 2002 and 2015. "The meeting welcomed the new initiative taken by the PM to improve relationships with Pakistan which is an important objective of the agenda of alliance and Mufti Sahab's political legacy," he added. He said the meeting observed that both in 2002 and 2015, PDP's power sharing arrangement either with the Congress or with the BJP took time and effort to materialise as Mufti Sayeed wanted to ensure adequate safeguards for the state's interests. "He raised the bar for all political stake holders, be it about accords, alliance or collation politics by devising common minimum programme in 2002 and agenda of alliance in 2015 which, unlike in the past, were aimed at safeguarding the state interests," Beg added. Also read: PDP core group authorises Mehbooba Mufti to decide on govt formation in J&K Farooq Abdullah bats for dissolution of J&K Assembly, fresh polls All India Hindu Student Federation, in a complaint to Mohali Police, has accused him of hurting religious sentiments by dressing up as Lord Vishnu. Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim, whose followers had recently accused stand-up comedian Kiku Sharda and eight others of hurting religious sentiments, is now facing similar charges himself. All India Hindu Student Federation, in a complaint to Mohali Police, has accused him of hurting religious sentiments by dressing up as Lord Vishnu. All India Hindu Fed. lodges complaint against Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for posing as Lord Vishnu pic.twitter.com/VBenkVJnlI&; ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 All India Hindu Student Federation has accused him of insulting Lord Vishnu and hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by dressing up as Lord Vishu. The self-styled godman can be seen descending from the sky as Lord Vishnu, a gimmick that left federation activists fuming. While cops are yet to register an FIR in Zirakpur, student leaders have threatened to move the court if action is not taken against Gurmeet Ram Rahim. advertisement "We will not tolerate Gurmeet Ram Rahim insulting our gods and gurus. He first insulted Guru Gobind Singh ji and is now seen as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in one of the videos. What is this? He got TV actor Kiku Sharda arrested just for mimicking him after which the police arrested the actor immediately. We gave a complaint to the Zirakpur police station, which is hesitating to register a case against him. We will move the court if the case is not registered immediately," Nishant Sharma, president of the All India Hindu Student Federation, told Mail Today. Police officials, however, confirmed having received a complaint but refused to come on camera. Sources say the government may not be keen to take action against the baba due to the upcoming elections in the state as the self-styled godman has a strong support base in Doaba region of Punjab. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has drawn flak for dressing up like Lord Vishnu in a music video. Gurmeet Ram Rahim has drawn flak for dressing up like Lord Vishnu in a music video. "We have received the complaint but the jurisdiction lies where the video was shot. The complaint should be registered where the video was shot," said Deep Inder Singh, SHO, Zirakpur (Mohali). This is the second such case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim who is already facing a blasphemy case registered in 2007. He is also accused of dressing up like tenth Sikh guru Gobind Singh - an allegation that the self-styled godman has denied. On February 5, 2015, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February had issued notices to Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Punjab government while hearing a petition seeking cancellation of a 2014 Bhatinda court order acquitting the self-styled godman of blasphemy charges. The court, while issuing a notice to the Dera chief, had asked why the 2014 order may not be cancelled. Petitioner Jaspal Singh Majhpur had told the court that Gurmeet Ram Rahim had, on May 11, 2007, organised a congregation of his followers in village Salabatpura. He had then dressed up like Guru Gobind Singh. THIS is not the first time that Gurmeet Ram Rahim has courted controversy for allegedly hurting religious statements. Sikh bodies have cried foul over the self-styled godman dressing up as Guru Gobind Singh in the past. Members of Sikh organisation Naya Daur Party, protesting against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, were seen locked in a verbal spat with the Baba's followers at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Sunday. Policemen deployed on the spot had to intervene to stop the verbal spat from turning ugly. Also read: Mimicry is the greatest form of flattery, says Kiku Sharda Haryana Police stack up cases against comic Kiku Sharda By India Today Web Desk: Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor have supposedly broken up over 'unresolved differences', several tabloids went to press with the news a couple of days ago. When news broke that Katrina and Ranbir had broken up and Ranbir had moved out of their Carter Road, Mumbai penthouse, Katrina was in Delhi addressing the media regarding her upcoming film Fitoor. ALSO READ: Did Katrina Kaif meet Salman Khan at YRF studios? SEE PICS: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, ex-lovers, snapped at same place, same time. What's brewing? When she was asked about the reported break-up, a glare from Katrina was what it took to silence the people in attendance. Fitoor director Abhishek Kapoor had to intervene and divert the topic of discussion during that January 15 presser at a restaurant in Delhi. advertisement Later that evening, when Katrina was asked the same by a reporter from NDTV, the Phantom actor's response was, "It is better to not speak about (my) personal life." Kaif went on to say, "Many times, you want to come out and speak your heart openly and just want to say exactly what you feel at the moment. But from my personal experience, it is better to not speak much about your personal life and speak about your profession. Try and let your work speak for itself because at the end of the day, that's what you want your identity to be, and you want your respect to come from your work. That's what should be out there." Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas brunch last year. Photo: Milind Shelte, India Today Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas brunch last year. Photo: Milind Shelte, India Today Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif have been in a relationship for several years, before their reported parting of ways a few days ago. As recently as on Christmas 2015, the usually camera-shy-together couple Ranbir and Katrina shed all inhibitions and smiled and waved at the lenses. The two were at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas brunch, where the rest of the Kapoor clan too was present. The rest of the Kapoor clan - apart from Ranbir's mother Neetu, that is. The moment Neetu's absence from the Christmas festivities was noticed, wagging tongues left no stone un-turned in lending the Neetu-doesn't-like-Katrina angle to the turn of events. Ranbir's mother later had to clarify that she had taken her granddaughter Samara (Riddhima Kapoor's daughter) to a hotel to see Santa Claus, and as a result, ended up missing the family brunch. Seems like it will be a while before we actually get to know what really happened between Katrina and Ranbir, that led to their supposed break-up. By Amarnath K. Menon : She sprung into limelight in 1991 essaying the lead role in her first film, Prema Thapassu (Penance of Love), shot in the temple town of Tirupati. Twenty five years later, its reverse-hate mongering-is her claim to fame. R.K. Roja, 43, an MLA of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh, is barred from entering the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly for a year, until December 2016, for hurling invective at Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and others in the Assembly on December 18. This is for the first time in the history of the Andhra Pradesh legislature, before and after the bifurcation of 2014, that an MLA has been suspended from the House for a year. "The gravity of the indiscipline warranted stringent action against her. Though she expressed regrets over her behaviour in the earlier session, she did not mend her ways and repeated the same," says Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, refusing to discuss details. advertisement Several Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislators sought her suspension pointing out she made wild allegations against Naidu on his statement on the floor of the House about the 'call money' sex racket in the state. She even led a group of YSRCP MLAs to the podium, very close to where Naidu stood, prompting him to remark that there was no security for the Chief Minister inside the House. Roja made several fiery comments (see box). On December 22, she was suspended for her gestures and use of abusive language against Dalit MLAs. This is not the first time that Roja has used objectionable language in the Assembly. Following a series of incidents of abusing party leaders, the ruling TDP wants her expelled for the rest of the tenure until 2019. The Assembly's deputy speaker M. Buddha Prasad is heading a committee, which has a representative each from the three parties in the House, to look into the matter. The Prasad panel will then submit a report to the Privileges Committee, which in turn will place the report with its recommendations before the House in February to discuss further action. Ironically, Roja started her political career in the TDP, and it was Naidu who had inducted her in the party and later made her the president of the Telugu Mahila, the TDP's women's wing, to target the Congress and other Naidu detractors. After her defeat in the 2009 Assembly polls, she joined the Congress. This is after a barrage of caustic remarks against the Congress and incumbent chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. In August 2009, after calling on him to express her readiness to join the party, her instant remarks to the media were about "how the chief minister set aside the past and received her politely". Later, in 2011, she joined YSRCP. The move proved lucky for her. In 2014, she won the Nagari assembly seat defeating the local strongman Gali Muddukrishnama Naidu of the TDP. As one unmindful of the implications or consequences of her words, Roja has earned the reputation of a motormouth. In September 2015, she struck the aggressive posture making controversial comments over the removal of Rajasekhara Reddy's portrait from the Assembly lobby. "Your pants and dhotis will get wet when you see YSR's picture. That is why your government has removed the great leader's portrait," said Roja, alleging the TDP MLAs were scared of facing it. Earlier in March 2015, she alleged some TDP MLAs indulged in hooliganism in the Assembly. "What can they do to me? They do not have guts to rape me. They may either kill me or file a case accusing me of atrocities on SCs and STs. They cannot do anything more than that," she told journalists after the House was adjourned following unruly scenes. In December 2014, she kicked up a storm in the Assembly resulting in the manhandling of a TDP veteran and five-time MLA G. Butchaiah Chowdary. Roja's defence is that her utterances follow provocation by her political rivals. "I will research and fight it out in court for sure," she says about her plans. But she is irrepressible. Following her suspension, on January 2, she questioned "Naidu's wisdom after being in politics for four decades". When Naidu declared his target of achieving 15 per cent growth in the state, she called him a daydreamer and argued that when the national economy was projected to grow at 5.6 per cent and China was expected to grow at less than eight per cent, what the chief minister indulged in was preposterous rambling. advertisement Her latest demand is that the state administration withdraw several Government Orders (GOs), which allocate development-related work in the districts to ruling TDP nominees, ignoring the local MLAs, and argues that this is against the spirit of governance. "The GOs assign TDP leaders, including those who lost in the last Assembly polls, to carry out specific development projects and releases funds to them which is against the rules," says the firebrand MLA, warning, "if the government fails to act, we will take up the issue in a big way." The YSRC, which backs Roja to the hilt, is deepening the controversy by planning a no-confidence motion against the Speaker accusing him of being unfair to the only opposition party in the state assembly. "The chief minister signals to his MLAs to rise and when they unleash a barrage of unpleasant words, there would not be any objection. And this happens almost every day during the assembly sessions," claims YSRC MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, demanding permission for all TV channels to air the Assembly proceedings. "We will fight it out in court," said YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy. "Instead of introspecting and hanging their head in shame for such vulgar behaviour, the party leadership supporting her is unacceptable," says TDP MLA K. Srinivasulu. The party's strategy and pressure tactics may not yield the desired goal-to help Roja get away lightly. In fact, Roja may well set a record for the longest period of suspension ever faced by a legislator in the country. advertisement Follow the writer on Twitter @AmarnathMenon "I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster," he wrote. By Vivek Surendran: Rohith Vemula, a 26-year-old PhD scholar, was one among the 5 research scholars suspended by the Hyderabad Central University administration last year. All five of them were accused of assaulting an ABVP student leader. Rohith Vemula was a Dalit. Rohith Vemula is no more. He hanged himself in a hostel room yesterday, after he was expelled from the hostel 12 days ago. He had been sleeping in the open since then, requesting reinstatement. Before he decided to end his life, he left a suicide note. The heartbreaking note that started with, "I would not be around when you read this letter. Don't get angry on me," contained the whole of him, his dreams, his passion, his anger, his remorse, everything. advertisement He said, "I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster". He always wanted to a writer, a writer of science like Carl Sagan, he had written. He would have sighed writing the next sentence - "At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write." Rohith's comrades (he used to be with SFI, but he left the organisation owing to ill-treatment from a few) had been active on social media, informing others of what's happening in the campus. Massive police deployment on Vice Chancellor's instructions. They are ready with batons, tear gas shells and rubber...Posted by Arpita Jaya on Sunday, January 17, 2016 Rohith's body was, however, sent for postmortem. His friends had carried his body around the campus raising slogans and asking an SC/ST Atrocities Act case to be registered against Union minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya (who has since been charged), for he has insisted for action against the 5 scholars, all members of Ambedkar Students Association. Another post by a friend of Rohit's, tells us his background. His mother brought him up by working as a tailor in Savitribhai Nagar in Guntur. She worked till Rohith got his first Junior Research Fellowship. He had a double JRF in hand, but faced many hurdles to get his PhD admission because of what his comrade calls "oppressive attitude of bureaucracy and brahminical mindsets of a few". The genius Rohith was, is evident from his words. He said, "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living". Deciding not to live anymore is a big step, and Rohith took that step after writing this - "I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this". He requests to the readers of his note only two favours, one, to ensure his family receives the Rs 1,75,000 stipend he was supposed to get and two, to return Rs 40,000 he had borrowed from a friend, Ramji (who never asked it back, he mentioned), from the stipend. He apologises in advance to Uma, whose room he used to end his life, and wishes his funeral to be silent and smooth, for he is happier dead than alive. He ends his note by stating, "No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone." Watch famous filmmaker Hansal Mehta's short film 'Reach For The Stars' in which 'Raanjhanaa' actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub reading Rohith Vemula's suicide note will shake you to the core. Here is the full text of the suicide note: Good morning, I would not be around when you read this letter. Don't get angry on me. I know some of you truly cared for me, loved me and treated me very well. I have no complaints on anyone. It was always with myself I had problems. I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. advertisement I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. I loved Science, Stars, Nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt. The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. I am writing this kind of letter for the first time. My first time of a final letter. Forgive me if I fail to make sense. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. advertisement But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this. People may dub me as a coward. And selfish, or stupid once I am gone. I am not bothered about what I am called. I don't believe in after-death stories, ghosts, or spirits. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars. And know about the other worlds. If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get 7 months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some 40 thousand to Ramji. He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that. advertisement Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive. "From shadows to the stars." Uma anna, sorry for using your room for this thing. To ASA family, sorry for disappointing all of you. You loved me very much. I wish all the very best for the future. For one last time, Jai Bheem I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone. The loot was carried out in Bihar's West Champaran district. By India Today Web Desk: Rs 20 lakh was looted from a cash van of a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Bihar's West Champaran district on Monday by unidentified criminals, police said. SHO, Dhanha police station, Rajesh Ranjan said incident occured near Samsherwa village when five armed criminals boarding a Bolero Jeep intercepted the van and looted Rs 20 lakh cash after injurying the security guard. He said staff of SBI Madhuvani Branch under Dhanha police station were returning after collecting Rs 20 lakh cash from SBI Pandrauna Branch of Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh. After getting information Superintendent of Police, Anand Kumar along with SHO Rajesh Ranjan rushed to the spot. Abhay Kumar, the injured security guard has been admitted to a government hospital where his condition said to be out of danger, the SHO said. --- ENDS --- The court told the police to ensure safety of lawyer Naushad Ahmed Khan after he claimed that he is receiving death threats for challenging the decision of Ayyappa temple, Sabarimala, Kerala to ban the entry of women. By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court today asked the Delhi Police to ensure safety of the petitioner in the Sabarimala case. The court told the police to ensure safety of lawyer Naushad Ahmed Khan after he claimed that he is receiving death threats for challenging the decision of Ayyappa temple, Sabarimala, Kerala to ban the entry of women. The apex court, which issued the order in this regard to Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi, would hear the matter next on February 8. The court had earlier said a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) once filed and heard cannot be withdrawn. The observation had come during a hearing on a lawyer's plea that he was getting threats for filing a PIL seeking entry of girls and women in Sabarimala Temple. An apex court bench comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Justice NV Ramana had then said once a PIL is filed and entertained, the litigant cannot withdraw it. advertisement The apex court bench noted this when Naushad Ahmed Khan, President of Indian Young Lawyers' Association which has filed the PIL on Sabarimala issue, sought urgent hearing of the matter. Khan had said that he has received 500 threat calls, asking him to withdraw the PIL. With a population of around six lakhs, the state also known as the Land of Flower, will now be known for its Organic initiative too. By Manogya Loiwal : Sikkim is now the first fully organic state of India. Believe it or not, the landlocked state in Eastern India has done what many other states could not. Sikkim is now a completely organic state officially. With a population of around six lakhs, the state also known as the Land of Flower, will now be known for its Organic initiative too. Though the state attained the status in December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the official announcement during his maiden visit to the state of Sikkim. The twitter had a reflection of Prime Ministers expression to his visit, "I am particularly delighted that the conference is being held in Sikkim'. He also said that focus will be given to sustainable development, organic farming and ecotourism. Photo: Rajen Pradhan advertisement Sikkim is a landlocked state nestled in Himalayas with no train or commercial flight connectivity till date. But Sikkim managed to succeed in its mission overcoming all the obstacles. Around 12 years ago, in 2003, the then Pawan Chamling led government took this decision through a declaration in the legislative assembly. And the journey began. Over the years around 75000 hectares of land has been converted into certified organic farms following the guidelines as prescribed by National Programme for Organic Production. However it had its share of struggle. Though sikkimese farmers never depended on chemicals heavily but there was the use of synthetic fertilizers. It was when the state banned its use that the farmers were compelled to go the organic way. Organic cultivation doesn't involve the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and thus helps to maintain a harmonious balance among the various complex ecosystems. Also it has improved the quality of the soil which further improves the standards of the crops produced there. Within 1.24 million tonnes of organic production in the country around 80000 million is supplied by Sikkim alone. Photo: Rajen Pradhan As an entirely organic it can now boast of being a state where the tourists can savour fresh organic vegetables in the heart of Himalaya. Sustainable farming goes a step ahead as it provides environmental protection, bio diversity conservation and better agricultural products. It also lowers down pollution thus maintaining the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan state. Bestowed with varied agro-climatic conditions, some of the major crops produced in Sikkim are cardamom, ginger, turmeric, off-season vegetables, flowers, Sikkim mandarin, kiwi, buck wheat, paddy maize and millets. Setting an example for the entire nation, Sikkim now join hands with the organic states of the foreign countries like California, Wisconsin among others. Several other parts of India now also inspire the same and working hard to achieve the status. Leading the race is Kerala followed by Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Being an organic state, it now enjoy its own effort. Sikkim, also a major tourist attraction for domestic and international tourist now has a new feather in its cap. Away from the hectic schedules in Mumbai, a solo trip to Gangtok, with its peace, monasteries, and simple folk can lead you to a journey of self discovery. By Sriti Jha: I have a disability of beginning with disclaimers. I must tell you beforehand that I am yet only an aspiring traveller. But the bug has bitten me. Going to Gangtok was a decision made in precisely 15 minutes. And the bookings--hotels and cab--were made in the subsequent hour. I figured that I wouldn't be needed in Mumbai for a few days, so I decided to get away. I think I am at the nascent stage of travel addiction, where when I am not on a vacation I am planning for one. I had just five days in hand which was enough for Gangtok and around. A second trip will be made hopefully to North Sikkim. The solo vacation was beyond beautiful. In the very short period I fell in love with the spirit of Sikkim. As I reached Gangtok, I was welcomed by a nip in the air. And there's nothing better than a warm bowl of thukpa, a traditional Tibetan dish, to rescue one from the chill. You can get a spectacular view of the Kangchenjunga from Gangtok and the town makes for a perfect base for travel through the state. advertisement The next morning was blissful. A morning with no blaring car horns on the street below, or your maid turning up late. But the cherry on the cake was the view of the mountains from my balcony. It was so beautiful I literally had to tear myself apart to leave for sightseeing. My day began with the visit to the Dro-dul Chorten, a monastery that was built in 1945. Surrounding the edifice are 108 prayer wheels. The complex also houses a religious school. The thing about the monasteries is that you can never have visited enough of them. Also the walk to the monastery was beautiful. Something everyone must do in Gangtok is to walk around, it's peaceful and genuinely an elating experience. Being a centre of Buddhist learning and culture, Gangtok's most important Buddhist institutions are the Enchey monastery, the Dro-dul Chorten Stupa complex and the Rumtek Monastery. Later during my travel, I also visited the Ranka Monastery, one of the most peaceful refuges I have ever been to. Although it is not very famous, this monastery in vibrant colours is sure to grab your attention. It is managed by Sikkimese Gharwan Rimpoche and its splendid architecture symbolises the traditional Tibetan tradition. The people at the monastery embrace you with such t want to leave. But my tryst with spirituality was just beginning. I was left awestruck by Siddhesvara Dham. Apart from being a tourist destination, the dham is also a pilgrimage centre with devotees queuing up for offering prayers. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that Lord Shiva, after losing Sati in Agnikund, had gone into a period of seclusion and became a hunter in the forests of Sikkim. Then there's Namchi, 75 km from Gangtok, which is fast emerging as a tourist destination. Namchi means sky high and living up to its name you find there on the Samdruptse hill a 'sky high' image (at 120 feet) of Guru Rinpoche, the patron saint of Sikkim. It is believed that the Samdruptse hill is actually a dormant volcano. Buddhist monks have been known to walk to top of the hill and offer prayers to the volcano to keep it calm. And as the Samdruptse hill was calm, so was I. I was really beginning to enjoy my solo journey. Sure, I didn't know anyone around, but then wasn't travelling among strangers and returning with friends, the entire charm of the journey. The best part of travelling alone is that you have to ask strangers for ways around the place, for tips for where to eat, where to go and also to click your picture. They're ever so helpful. You can get a spectacular view of the Kangchenjunga from Gangtok and the town makes for a perfect base for travel through the state. Picture courtesy: Sriti Jha Apart from immense beauty of the state what I enjoyed the most was the food. Travellers to the state have plenty of food options to choose from. Take your pick from Nepali and Tibetan to ethnic Lepcha and Bhutia cuisine. Even North Indian food is available in restaurants here. The thukpa, momos, and Nepali food were the best ever. During the journey I frequently ate at humble dhabas run by families with just one table but amazing food. MG Road, the prime street in Gangtok, is a great place to hang out. It is also the country's first litter and spit free zone. Vehicles are not allowed here. advertisement I developed a peculiar habit on my journey -- much to the annoyance of my cab driver. I would constantly stop by the highway at a quiet corner where there was nothing, and which was not necessarily a tourist spot. I guess it gave me a sense of satisfaction of owning my private space in a land unknown. I stopped frequently on the way to Tsongmo, a glacial lake, located at a height of 12,400 feet. It is 40 km from Gangtok and the road to Nathu La passes the lake on the northern side. Tsongmo Lake falls in a restricted area and an inner line permit is required to visit the place. The lake is considered sacred by the local people. It is also a home of brahminy ducks and remains frozen during winters up to mid-May. The way to the lake was so serene--the quiet, the sound of the breeze, you know it is a sort of time where even the voice in your head falls silent. advertisement And yet, while Tsongmo Lake filled me with inner solitude, for me a journey was more than just about sightseeing. It was the experience in its entirety. A million people might read the same book, but individually they'll have their own very personal experience of reading it. Taking a vacation is like that for me--the experience of the journey is exclusive and personal. And it becomes even more exclusive when you travel alone. Only so much can be expressed in words. I believe that a bit is always left unexplained and that's what you have only for yourself, a part of you that you leave behind and a part of your journey that you carry within yourself. Solo travel check list Please let your people (family, parents, guardian) know the details of your plan. No matter how much they disagree with you, they must know. Carry comfortable clothes but remember extra luggage will only bog you down. Note down the local vehicle number and the driver's phone number and message it to someone you know. Carry comfortable shoes. In a place like Gangtok you will want to walk a lot and will enjoy it. Don't let fashion steal that joy from you. Choose early mornings for these walks instead of nights. advertisement Have enough cash in your wallet. The ATMs in many of the small towns are placed afar. AT A GLANCE GETTING THERE Bagdogra in West Bengal is the nearest airport (approx 125 km). From the airport, you can hire a shared taxi or a private vehicle to reach Gangtok in two hours. There is also a daily helicopter service but that depends on weather conditions. The nearest major railway station to Gangtok is 148 km away in New Jalpaiguri. The station is well-connected to Kolkata and New Delhi. From New Jalpaiguri, you can hire a taxi to Gangtok. The journey will take about 5-6 hours. WHEN TO GO: Gangtok has gentle to moderate climate throughout the year. The best time to visit is between September and June. STAY: Stay in Gangtok at the luxurious Mayfair Spa Resort; tel: (0359) 2250 555 ,+913592250555 ,(0359) 2250 555 reservations@mayfairhotels.com SHOP: Visit the Sikkim Handloom and Handicraft Emporium. It also has a little museum that'll give you a peek into the history of Tibetan and Sikkimese heritage. EAT: Start with momo and thukpa. Both these dishes are found easily. I would also recommend small Nepali eateries serving home-made food. Funny as it might sound, you must go to the quirky sounding 'Gangtalk' on MG Road. The Bakers Cafe is a cosy little place. For North Indian food hop across the road to Parivar on MG Road. SEE: The Lake Tsongmo: A sacred Tibetan lake and an almost frozen one no less. Chardham: It has replicas of the Chardham and the 12 Shivalingas. It's a trip that incorporates a visit to many places. Banjhakri falls: It is a beautiful site, along with that is the myth of the 'Banjhakri' tribe attached to it. The monasteries: Enchey, Dro-dul Chorten, Rumtek, visit them all. The Supreme Court fined a Mysuru based medical college to the tune of Rs 5 crore for flouting orders and admitting students beyond its sanctioned strength. The bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice R K Agrawal said that a strong message needed to be sent to medical colleges that they could not violate its order with impunity. It directed JSS Medical College to deposit the amount within four weeks. Terming the conduct of JSS Medical college as most unfortunate the Court said, "Since the College has not complied with the orders passed by this Court in the above cited case and has permitted the students to continue their studies, to send a message to the College and other medical colleges, we are of the view that it would be appropriate if the JSS Medical College is directed to deposit an amount of Rs.5,00,00,000/-(Rupees five crores only) in the Registry of this Court within four weeks from today." advertisement The court, however, allowed the students admitted by the college to continue with their studies. It said the students have completed four-and-half years of their MBBS course and it was not proper to pass an order which would disturb their education. It also said that for the academic year 2016-17, the college would be permitted to admit only 150 students as against the sanctioned strength of 200. Also read: Sabarimala case: Lawyer gets death threats, Supreme Court orders police protection This is a straight case of much ado about nothing. Supriya Sule's remark-"If you ask me what was said, after the fourth speech, I am unable to do so. We speak to some other MP... We discuss things like: from where did you buy your sari and from where did I get mine"-should be taken as light-hearted banter and nothing else. If anything it reveals, that women are able to do multiple things at the same time. Why must we force Parliamentarians to project a boringly serious image? It only reveals our lack of imagination and attempts to stereotype and straitjacket a woman. I love clothes and discuss them a lot. In no way does it detract from my firm commitment to the Women's Reservation Bill. Women's issues are at the core of my concern and I have been working on them for over three decades. So am I to wear a khadi topi and become humourless? Says who ? And why? Sorry I am not biting the bait. I will dress as I please, discuss clothes and movies and exchange notes about exciting sales deals on the internet. Plus, I will hold no punches when it comes to defending women's rights. advertisement Supriya Sule is born into a political family-politics is in her blood. She says it straight in Parliament and does so with facts and figures on her fingertips. She gets along well with her colleagues cutting across party lines. Mockery of the legislative? Now surely the ones asking this question are the ones who should be mocked at. Shabana Azmi Women's issues are important because 50 per cent of the world's population comprises women. For far too long, solutions to all problems are sought to be resolved from the male point of view.I believe men and women are different-not better, not worse, just different and that difference needs to be embraced when politics, arts, economics or governance issues are debated. All over the world women are proving their worth and articulating their concerns with conviction and intelligence. The solitary hold of men on world affairs is slowly but steadily losing its monopoly. Attacking a woman because of a light-hearted moment shared with colleagues is a mischievous attempt to cut her down to size and say "Well what else are women capable of discussing?" To you, dear critics, I say, " Get a life, guys." Shabana Azmi is an actor and a former MP I was intrigued to see a piece of news on television being run with much fervour about my friend Supriya Sule who at a function, apparently, said that we in Parliament discussed saris. The story, I believe, was trying to give a message that this was an instance of casual attitude of a parliamentarian. I was intrigued because as politicians, we are undoubtedly expected to be on the job. But I never imagined that a comment, made casually, could cast aspersions on the commitment of a parliamentarian who has a remarkable record. It is through Sule that I learnt how I could work beyond the limits of my constituency and the Lok Sabha. She introduced me to a citizen forum, which works to fight malnutrition and also a group of parliamentarians who have turned themselves into a pressure group demanding larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. As the record of the house will speak for itself, she has also spoken on numerous bills and on almost every issue being debated in Parliament. Her questions are always relevant and never repetitive. Sushmita Dev Sushmita Dev I think what she might have been trying to do in her informal address to the children at a non-political function was simply attempting to relate to them. To tell them everyone has fun while on the job and we are like anyone else. No doubt as parliamentarians, we are always on call. We as public representatives, can hardly demarcate when our work starts and when it ends. That's the inherent nature of our job and given, the same, our conduct is always open to public scrutiny.Despite all of this, most of us find time to make small talk and the best opportunity is always during session and inside Parliament, because given our time constraints, we are rarely at one place or in any private environment. I think the same goes for the men in Parliament as well. We generally do so in the Central Hall over a cup of tea or coffee. Unless it borders on moral turpitude, like watching inappropriate adult content on mobile phones, our performance in Parliament should always be judged by what's on record-whether it is our speeches or our attendance.This particular statement definitely doesn't call for judgement. advertisement Sushmita Dev is an MP from Silchar Here's what happened at the Hyderabad Central University that led to the suspension of five Dalit research scholars and the suicide of Rohith Vemula. By India Today Web Desk: The nation is discussing Rohith Vemula's suicide, and his last words. The 26-year-old scholar, pursuing his PhD from the Hyderabad Central University, hanged himself in a hostel room. Rohith spent over 12 days in the open after he was expelled from the hostel, in what was called disciplinary action taken against him and 4 other PhD students accused of assaulting an ABVP leader in August last year. After Rohith's suicide, his friends had protested carrying his body around the campus raising slogans and asking an SC/ST Atrocities Act case to be registered against Union minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya. Now, a case has been filed by Hyderabad police under section 306A against Dattatreya, University of Hyderabad Vice-Chancellor Apparao, ABVP HCU unit president Susheel Kumar and his brother Vishnu. advertisement But what had happened last year that led to the suspension of 5 students, their expulsion from the hostel, and finally to Rohith's tragic suicide? Here's what happened as recounted by the Ambedkar Students Association and published on Facebook. 5 PhD students, Dontha Prasanth, Rohit Vemula, Vijay Kumar, Sheshaiah Chemudugunta and Velpula Sunkanna, all Dalits, were banned from entering hostels, the administration building and other common places in groups, and were restricted from participating in the Students' Union elections, following certain incidents that happened between ABVP and ASA on August 3, 2015. The decision to suspend these students was taken by an Executive Council, the highest body of the University, without conducting a proper inquiry. The ASA compares this to the prevalent practice of upper castes ostracising a Dalit household from villages. The suspension was also against the then Vice-Chancellor's order that revoked the earlier suspension demanding a fresh inquiry on the incidents that happened on August 3 and 4. Here's the suspension order: What happened on August 3, 2015? 1) ABVP-HCU unit president Susheel Kumar updated his status on Facebook referring to ASA members as goons. Here's a screenshot: 2) As per the note, when ASA asked for an explanation, Susheel said he used the term goons since ASA had organised a protest against ABVP activists who disrupted the screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hain (Montage Film Society) and referred to the ABVP act as hooliganism. 3) The Facebook note by ASA has proof of the poster they had used, and the poster doesn't use the word 'hooliganism' on it. 4) ASA then asked for a written apology from Susheel (in the presence of security officials), and left the place when he complied. What happened on August 4, 2015? 1) Susheel Kumar, along with his brother Vishnu, who is a member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, went to a private hospital alleging he was beaten up by ASA students including Rohith. 2) Meanwhile, ABVP activists, along with BJYM cadres, spread false allegations against the suspended students. 3) Ramachandra Rao, a BJP MLC, met the then HCU Vice-Chancellor and insisted on action against Dalits, terming them anti-national. Later, an inquiry committee was constituted by Professor RP Sharma, former Vice-Chancellor under the chairmanship of Professor Alok Pandey. 4) The Inquiry Committee's report had the following findings: "The Board could not get any hard evidence of beating of Susheel Kumar either from Krishna Chaitanya or from the reports submitted by Dr.Anupama. Dr.Anupama's reports also could not link or suggest the surgery of the Susheel Kumar is the direct result of the beating." "According to DSO Dilip Singh, who was the first to reach to the spot, there was a big gathering of ASA cadres discussing with Sushil Kumar. When asked about the beating, he told that he didn't witness any beating of Susheel Kumar during his presence." "Krishna Chaitanya could not present any hard evidence of Susheel Kumar's beating in support of his letter." "It was clear from all depositions that Susheel Kumar posted the said comments on Facebook and ASA people went to Susheel's room to seek apology and for the removal of the post." This whole argument ended with the apology letter of Susheel Kumar. Despite both the Medical Officer and the Duty Security Officer confirming the absence of any physical attack, the final decision of the proctorial board was this - "Based on the Medical officer report (explained by Dr.Anupama), main complainant Susheel Kumar's deposition and pictures by him and the depositions of two eyewitnesses (names are kept confidential) of the incident, it was evidently cleared that Mr.Susheel Kumar was abused, manhandled, beaten, forced to wrote apology letter by a group of more than 30 students, lead by Prashant. The main and most active students involved and named by the complainant and mostly confirmed by eyewitnesses, in abusing and hitting are Prashant, Rohith, Seshu, Vijay and Sunkanna." advertisement The decision was revoked owing to an immediate protest organised by ASA, and the then Vice-Chancellor constituted a new committee to conduct a fresh inquiry. The present VC, Professor Podile Apparao, however, hadn't ordered for any fresh inquiry, and kept the accused students in dark about the order to form of a fresh committee from the Executive Council. The Facebook note ends by stating 'Dalit Research Scholars were victimized on account of Political Pressure from the BJP and right-wing forces' and that the actions of the present Vice-Chancellor was a desperate attempt to show his allegiance to such forces. It also says 'the present VC negated natural principles of Justice and violated the SC/ST Atrocities Act'. The rest is, now, history. Speaking on India Today TV's To The Point, Abdullah made it clear that the PDP-BJP will form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the alliance should be given more time to decide on government formation. By India Today Web Desk: There are no signs of government formation in Jammu and Kashmir even over a week after Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's death. Will the PDP-BJP alliance continue or will it fall apart? Amid the suspense, National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah created a flutter by saying that his party's "doors were open" for BJP. Farooq, however, later denied making any such remark. Speaking on India Today TV's To The Point, Abdullah made it clear that the PDP-BJP will form the government in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the alliance should be given more time to decide on government formation. "There is no open door or closed door. The final settlement has been done by the two parties because they have the mandate from the people. And if they have the mandate, they must carry on working for the betterment of the people," Abdullah said. advertisement Big questions Srinagar vacuum: How long will it last? Farooq-Omar divided over support to BJP? Is Mehbooba's silence making BJP nervous? Will PDP rethink terms of alliance with BJP? Possibility of NC-BJP alliance in valley? Will J&K go for fresh elections? He added that Jammu and Kashmir is one state that can ill afford to be without a government. "I had said clearly that we don't have the mandate. Let us see what happens and then party's working committee will meet but for the present we have no intentions of forming any government," the former J&K CM told Karan Thapar. "I am the president of the party but the decision will be taken by the working committee. I cannot say anymore than that," Abdullah said. The ball is in Mehbooba Mufti's court and she appears to be undecided over whether to continue the alliance with the BJP or not but Abdullah said that possibility about his party joining hands with the BJP is farfetched. "She is in discussion with people regarding various things but they will form the government. We are not going to form the government. We've only 15 people (MLAs) and 15 people don't form a government," Abdullah said. Responding to a question about his statement that fresh elections should be held in the state if PDP-BJP fail to form government, Abdullah said," What's wrong in that. We should go to the people. Let people decide. Governor cannot govern the state, meet all the people. It is the members of the Assembly who meet all the people and look at their grievances. It is vital to have a government to address the needs of the people." ALSO READ: Farooq Abdullah bats for dissolution of J&K Assembly, fresh pollsPDP-BJP alliance to face review test of past 10 months State Internet Information Office has been flooded with public complaints about Baidu. By Indo-Asian News Service: Baidu, China's top search engine, is facing punishment over forums containing pornography, libelous posts, and adverts for unlicensed hospitals. The State Internet Information Office summoned Baidu executives for a grilling on Friday and ordered them to immediately remove the content. It also ordered Internet regulators in Beijing, where Baidu is headquartered, to punish the company, Xinhua reported. The State Internet Information Office has been flooded with public complaints about Baidu, it said in a statement on Saturday. The complaints also claimed Baidu had leaked users' personal information. "In addition, some search results on Baidu are not impartial or objective, and its news channel has spread harmful information involving violence and terror," according to the statement. Samsung initiated the talks after General Electric (GE) walked away from a deal with Electrolux AB due to opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators. By Reuters: Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd held talks with General Electric Co about buying the U.S. company's appliances businesses but negotiations broke down on antitrust issues, South Korea's Yonhap News agency reported on Saturday. The report said Samsung initiated the talks after General Electric (GE) walked away from a deal with Electrolux AB due to opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators. Without citing its sources, Yonhap said GE ended talks with Samsung after U.S. regulators expressed concerns about antitrust issues. The South Korean firm is a major player in the U.S. appliances market. China's Haier Group said it would buy the GE business for $5.4 billion. A Samsung spokeswoman declined to comment, while GE could not be immediately reached for comment. Ingredion to invest $30m in Mexico Ingredion has announced that it plans to invest approximately $30 million in Mexico to expand capacity at the companys San Juan del Rio manufacturing facility, which has been has been increasing production to support the company's growth. Ingredion has announced that it plans to invest approximately $30 million in Mexico to expand capacity at the companys San Juan del Rio manufacturing facility. Over the past several years, the company said that this facility has been increasing production to support the growth demands of Ingredions core and specialty products. The expansion project is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2017. We are excited about this incremental investment. With close to $1 billion in annual sales, Mexico is a profitable and growing market for us. It has a positive economic outlook and favorable demographics, said Jim Zallie, Ingredion executive vice president, global specialties and president, Americas. As our customers continue to invest in Mexico theres an increasing demand for our ingredients and our local manufacturing capabilities are a competitive advantage. This investment will position us to address our customer needs while further enhancing shareholder value. 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According to him, people's deputies who voted for amendments to the Tax Code were confident in the possibility of putting changes in the first quarter of 2016. "Farmers are now preparing specific changes to these documents. I can assure you all: our parliament will have to change the decisions made. Grain exporter did not lobby anything, we do not want VAT refunds, we did not ask for that," the UGA president said. According to Klymenko, grain exporters have not been demanded "kickbacks" for three years after the abolition of VAT compensation for them. "We ask to retain VAT refunds for producers to avoid the appearance of thieves who will mooch on exporters," he added. Klymenko added that UAH 23 billion is needed to refund VAT to grain traders, while there is no this money in the budget. Ukrtransgaz cuts share of Alfa-Bank in structure of raised loans to 32.5% in 2015 The share of PJSC Alfa-Bank in the structure of loans attracted by PJSC Ukrtransgaz in 2015 has decreased from 44.2% to 32.5%, energy company spokesman Maksym Biliavsky has said. According to him, as of January 1, 2015 the portfolio of loans raised by Ukrtransgaz in Alfa-Bank was $35 million, while now it dropped to $6 million and UAH 300 million. "As of January 18, 2016 the total loan portfolio of the company amounted to UAH 1.371 billion, while loans raised from Ukrgasbank accounted for 67.5%," the press secretary of Ukrtransgaz wrote on his Facebook page. As reported, Ukrtransgaz, 100% owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storage facilities in the country. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has reported that four Ukrainian citizens, among them one child, were killed in a recent terrorist attack on a hotel in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou. "I have been shocked by this terrorist attack in Burkina Faso and the death of a Ukrainian family - three adults and one child," Klimkin wrote on his Twitter account early on Sunday morning. The killed child was only nine years old, he said. It was reported that on Friday evening two car bombs were detonated near Ouagadougou's Splendid Hotel, which is frequently used by UN staff and Western tourists, and then a group of masked gunmen attacked the building. The siege was claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its branch Al-Mourabitoun, both of which are outlawed in Russia. The attack in Ouagadougou claimed the lives of at least 23 people from 18 states, Western media reported on Saturday, citing a source in Burkina Faso's security services. Militants conducted 48 attacks on Ukrainian army positions in Donbas over the past day, by use of small arms, mortars and grenade launches, the anti-terrorist operation press center said. The shelling incidents were most intense in the Horlivka area, the press center said in a report posted on Facebook in the morning. Militants used small arms and grenade launchers in provocative fire on Ukrainian army strongholds near Mayorsk, Zaytseve and Novhorodske. The enemy stepped up its activity near Starohnativka in the Mariupol sector. Ukrainian positions were attacked by infantry combat vehicles there. "Tensions persist in the ATO zone," the report said. Representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People's Republics have not responded to the Ukrainian side's proposal announced in Minsk on January 13 to release 25 Ukrainian citizens being illegally held in Donbas, Iryna Gerashchenko, the Ukrainian president's envoy for the peace process in Donbas, has said. "Those who went through the hell of the [Donetsk] airport still remain in militants' captivity. We have included these heroes' surnames in each list of persons who should be freed. So far, the militants have been blocking their release, and there is still no reply to our January 13 suggestion to release 25 Ukrainians," Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook account. It was reported that the issue of prisoner exchanges was a key one on the agenda of a January 13 meeting of the humanitarian subgroup within the trilateral Contact Group for Ukraine in Minsk. According to Gerashchenko, the Ukrainian side provided all lists and proposals back on January 6 and submitted them again at the latest meeting in Minsk, but there was still no response as of January 15. On January 15, Gerashchenko also mentioned remarks made by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister of Germany, which currently chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who said at the OSCE's first session this year in Vienna that militants could release captives in the coming days. Boris Gryzlov, Russian Representative to the Contact Group for Ukraine, permanent member of the Russian Security Council, feels cautiously optimistic about prospects of the Donbas peace process within the Minsk process framework. "I would like to call your attention to the fact that we are not seeing the current situation as a stalemate. There are lots of ways and breakthrough options. It is my task to explain this to the parties of the process. But you are right: there are forces interested in the impasse. And worse yet, some would like to avoid responsible actions in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and it is advantageous to them to present the situation as a stalemate. Still, I have no doubt that we can make significant progress in the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements. This is proven [through] the meetings I have had in Kyiv and Minsk," Gryzlov told Kommersant in an interview published on the publication's website. "Certain progress has been made in each of the groups," he said. "For instance, prisoner exchanges continue, although not in the 'all for all' format but in other formats. Demining problems and humanitarian issues are being resolved, and even the political group, which gets much attention, has made some progress," Gryzlov said. He strongly objected to the stalling of the Minsk agreements by artificial means. "Russian participants in the Contact Group and the subgroups are processing plenty of details, so that no one can hide behind them. Everyone must remember about liability for stalling solutions before the national administrations and people suffering from the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe," the Russian envoy said. "Every provision of the Package of Measures needs to be fulfilled, and, if this requires additional time, all of the sides need to take maximum efforts for fulfilling the agreements," he said. "The Contact Group will hold regular meetings. The next [meeting] is scheduled for January 20. Its agenda has already been planned. Yet, the scope of work is huge and it is not only limited to these matters," he said. As to the media claims of the format changing to the so-called Minsk III, Gryzlov said that Russia adhered to the Minsk Package of Measures. "The Russian Federation sticks to the positions and measures declared in Minsk on February 12, 2015. We have no grounds to speak about any other agreements," Gryzlov said. Kyiv and Donbas are the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, he said. "According to the Minsk agreements signed by Ukraine, amendments to the Ukrainian constitution in the field of decentralization and the law on elections need to be coordinated with Donbas," the envoy said. "There are only two sides: Donbas and Kyiv. The Contact Group may support the determination of specific deadlines for the fulfillment of the provisions of the Package of Measures. Yet, it is important to remember that Ukraine has not coordinated with Donbas and has not passed amendments to the constitution and the special status law, without which the complete implementation of the rest of the Minsk Package of Agreements would be impossible," Gryzlov said. Local elections in Donbas are an important item on the Contact Group's agenda, he said. "I think we have a good foundation for negotiations - the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the first anniversary of which will be observed on February 12. Indeed, all signatories to these agreements want to achieve results. It is important that these results fully meet the Package of Measures, the letter and the spirit of the Minsk agreements. Presently, an important question of the Contact Group and the political subgroup is the law on elections [in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics]. It is also necessary to implement an agreement reached at the January 13 meeting - the exchange of prisoners of war," the envoy said. Gryzlov called constructive the attitude to the elections issue exhibited by the Donbas representatives to the Contact Group. "The Contact Group will keep on working in this area. Representatives of the southeastern regions are constructive. It is a task of the Contact Group to be a platform for reconciliation of all positions, fulfillment with international demands, and, in the end, strict compliance with the letter and the spirit of the Minsk agreements," he said. "There is no alternative to the Minsk agreements, and the decision to carry on the Minsk format in 2016 has been quite logical after it became clear that provisions of the agreements would not be fulfilled in 2015," he said. Gryzlov hopes that Kyiv will deal with provocative fire coming from Ukrainian positions along the Donbas contact line amid the truce. "I think that commands sent from the top may not reach the bottom. According to Donbas representatives, provocative fire sometimes comes from the positions of so-called volunteer battalions and, less often, from the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. I am sure that this information should be thoroughly examined by the Ukrainian side," he said. MORE ABOUT ME: I'm an author with The Story Factory. My literary and film agent is Shane Salerno. I was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. After studying philosophy at Oxford University I emigrated to New York City where I lived in Harlem for 7 years working in bars, bookstores, building sites. In 2001 I moved to Denver, Colorado where I taught high school English and started writing fiction. I lived in Oz for 10 years from 2008 - 2018 in the beautiful suburb of St Kilda. In 2019 I moved back to NYC. My first full length novel Dead I Well May Be was shortlisted for the 2004 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, was optioned by Universal Pictures and appeared on several best of the year lists. I'm probably best known for my Sean Duffy series of detective novel set in Belfast during the Troubles. Those books have won the Edgar Award, Ned Kelly Award, Barry Award, Anthony Award, Audie Award etc. I have a new standalone coming out in 2019 called The Chain... PACE rapporteur to visit Kyiv on Jan 19-20 to examine fight against corruption in Ukraine Rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Michele Nicoletti (Italy) will visit Kyiv on January 19-20 to examine the situation in the field of fight against corruption, the PACE press service reported. Nicoletti's fact-finding visit to Kyiv is part of the preparation of his report on "Corruption as a governance regime: a barrier to institutional efficiency and progress," the press service said. "This visit is part of a global fact-finding mission covering different European geographical areas and aims to examine, in particular, best practices in fighting corruption as well as the role of anti-corruption bodies in fighting the corruption of high level officials," reads a statement on the organization's website. In Kyiv, the rapporteur is due to meet the Verkhovna Rada speaker, the foreign affairs minister, the chair of the committee on fight against corruption and representatives of political fractions. Meetings are also scheduled with Head of Odesa Regional Administration Mikheil Saakachvili, the prosecutor general and representatives of the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the National Agency for Prevention of Corruption, international organizations, NGOs, journalists and the international community. Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that the situation in Ukraine is of vital importance for Poland and is a priority matter. "I think that the Minsk agreement should be implemented, however this has not happened yet. It is necessary to oversee the implementation of the agreement so that peace could prevail in Ukraine," Duda said at a press conference on Monday after a meeting with President of the European Council Donald Tusk. The Polish president noted that only international law can be a real foundation for peace. "Redrawing Europe's borders by force is a serious violation," he said adding that only well-controlled application of the international law can be a guarantee of peace. If the world accepts the outrageous violation of the international law, this will have negative consequences for the world, and this could bring it back to some episodes from the past history of conflicts in Europe, the Polish president said. One must not forget the lessons of history, Duda added. Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. Benjamin Franklin To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future What You Can't Discuss: This is a partial list of taboo topics within progressive-left venues around the Arab-Israel conflict. You cannot discuss this material because it undermines the "Palestinian narrative" of perpetual victimhood. This narrative is a club used by the Arab and Muslim enemies of Israel, along with their western progressive allies, to delegitimize that country in preparation for its eventual dissolution. 1) The centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the boot of Islamic imperialism. 2) The recent construction of Palestinian identity, its connection to Soviet Cold War politics, and how this is an Arab people with a Roman name that refers to Greeks. 3) Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict. 4) The ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism. 5) The Palestinian theft and appropriation of Jewish history. 6) "Pallywood." 7) The historical connections between the Nazis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Palestinian national movement. 8) The perpetual refusal of the Palestinian-Arabs to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one. 9) The progressive portrayal of terrorists as those fighting a righteous war of "resistance." 10) The Arab-Palestinian indoctrination of children with Jew hatred. 11) Human rights violations against women, children, and Gay people in the Muslim Middle East. 12) The fact that violent Jihadis call themselves "Jihadis" and claim to love death above life. This is only a partial list, so please let us know the many more that we are missing. [January 18, 2016] Global Cloud Xchange Upgrades Transatlantic Route with Ciena Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) has deployed Ciena's (NYSE: CIEN) Packet Networking solutions to enable high-capacity Ethernet services on its transatlantic route. Extending from GCX's Cloud X location, a high-performance enterprise-class node that serves as a strategic point of presence (POP) in London, the route upgrade ensures seamless global connectivity for international carriers, large multinational enterprises and new media customers. Leveraging Ciena's packet networking capabilities, GCX is facilitating flexible, high-bandwidth connectivity for global content and application distribution and Internet connectivity, supporting critical business transactions, data-intensive applications and high-bandwidth cloud computing services. Key Facts: GCX, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, is an international integrated communications solutions provider. Its extensive, privately-owned subsea, terrestrial and IP networks connect most major telecommunications hubs across the globe. Ciena's 5160 enables GCX to provide scalable 1G and 10G Ethernet business services as part of its comprehensive data communications portfolio. With industry-leading 10G Ethernet density in a small footprint along with zero-touch provisioning and flexible transport options, the 5160 ensures operational efficiency and accelerates service turn-up. GCX is also utilizing Ciena's advanced management solutions for carrier-grade automated self-service activation, creation, and management to optimize bandwidth utilization across their entire access and submarine network. Ciena is also providing Enablement, Fulfillment and Installation (EF&I) services via its Specialist Service portfolio. This deployment builds on a long-standing relationship between Ciena and GCX (formerly Reliance Globalcom (News - Alert)) who uses Ciena for its transatlantic subsea routes connecting London to New York and India. Executive Comments: "GCX is committed to giving our customers the flexibility to create, manage and connect their networks globally and we always ensure that our network leads the industry in technology and cost efficiency. We can now further unify our global network with the upgrades for seamless service delivery along the critical transatlantic corridor to help our global enterprises to transform and succeed in the digital economy." - Wilfred Kwan, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Communications (News - Alert) (Enterprise) and Global Cloud Xchange "GCX sought to offer its customers 1GE and 10GE bandwidth connectivity with the flexibility to software configure and aggregate traffic across the submarine cable, versus directly connecting to end users to a router port or SLTE. The aggregation capabilities of Ciena's 5160 saves precious submarine bandwidth while software provides a complete view of both the access and submarine networks on one system." - Anthony McLachlan, Vice President and General Manager, Asia Pacific, Ciena Supporting Resources: Overview: Packet Networking Packet Networking Data Sheet: 5160 Service Aggregation Switch About Global Cloud Xchange Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, offers a comprehensive portfolio of solutions customized for carriers, enterprises and new media companies. GCX owns the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning more than 67,000 route kms which, seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications' 200,000 route kms of domestic optic fiber backbone, provides a robust Global Service Delivery Platform. With connections to 40 key business markets worldwide spanning Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East, GCX delivers Managed Services to more than 160 countries and offer extensive VPLS-enabled Ethernet network capabilities globally. GCX is equipped to support businesses through the deployment of next generation Enterprise solutions across its Cloud Delivery Networks. About Ciena Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPn architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @Ciena or on LinkedIn. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC (News - Alert) filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use. Note to Ciena Investors Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors disclosed in its Report on Form 10-K, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 21, 2015. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160118005436/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Itongadol.- Already close collaborators in areas like defense and agritech, Israel and India will soon be working together on health technologies, through the good offices of the World Banks International Finance Corporation. Following a deal signed last Wednesday, Israels Economy Ministry is to join the IFCs TechEmerge program, which seeks out innovative tech solutions for the developing world. Under the deal, TechEmerge will identify top health technology innovators and match their services with interested healthcare providers in India, the IFC said. The organization runs programs throughout the developing world to help modernize and develop economies. Companies chosen for the program will receive funding, as well as guidance on how to succeed in the Indian economy. The Israeli firms will build up new business relationships, while Indian health providers will get access to advanced medical technologies. The agreement was signed at the second annual Foreign Trade Conference, sponsored by the ministrys Foreign Trade Administration. The FTA hosted hundreds of entrepreneurs and investors who came to meet representatives of the 41 Israeli trade delegations spread around the world. According to the IFC, India is in great need of advanced medical tech to reduce the cost of care. The vast majority of the countrys hundreds of millions of households pay for healthcare expenses out of pocket; with advanced care expensive and the average Indian earning less than $5,000 a year, many people go without the care they need. With that, the Indian healthcare market is expected to grow to $280 billion by 2020. While Israels biggest trading partners have traditionally been in Europe and the US and more recently, in China Israeli trade officials believe that there is a lot of opportunity for Israeli tech firms in emerging markets. According to Ohad Cohen, head of the FTA, Israel is already making inroads in places like Africa and South America. Israel, for example, is an observer in the Pacific Alliance, a free-trade organization consisting of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, and has free-trade agreements with the latter two countries as well. In Africa, said Cohen, Israeli medical technology has been welcomed with open arms as has Israels administrative knowhow in healthcare. For medical technology to be usable, you have to have a working healthcare system, Cohen told The Times of Israel at the Conference. Thats really the first step, and weve found that African governments are very interested in using our models of health care fund administration in their own countries. But the real prize for foreign trade expansion remains in the East. We have a lot more work to do in Asia, especially in China and India, which within a decade and a half will be responsible for 40% of the worlds GDP. While China is already doing a good amount of business with Israel, said Cohen, there are many areas of the country that are still in great need of the mobile, cleantech, and communications tech that Israel can offer. But in India, Israels presence outside of the agritech and defense industries is very small. Both offer substantial opportunities for trade expansion. These are the markets we have to reach, and the Foreign Trade Administration is ready to help any exporter achieve those goals, he said. India is a prime emerging market. Over the past four years GDP growth in India has averaged about 7.5% but economists warn that a general slowdown in the world economy could drag India down too, chopping its annual GDP growth in 2016 to 7%. Ministry officials are enthusiastic over the program. Our life sciences industry is ranked first globally for the number of medical device patents per capita, and Israel, being well-positioned in the life science realm, could take an active and meaningful role in the TechEmerge program, said Amit Lang, director of the Economy Ministry. I firmly believe that this fact coupled with other proven strengths of the Israeli life science industry will allow for it to significantly engage in the program. This is our first agreement with IFC, and we see it as a milestone in our collaboration with the various international financial institutions. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with IFC. Developing countries are struggling to expand access to quality health services and to cope with increased demand associated with communicable diseases as well as aging populations and the rising prevalence of chronic diseases, said Alzbeta Klein, IFC director, Global Manufacturing, Agribusiness and Services. Israel and other partners in the TechEmerge program will help emerging market health systems adopt innovative technologies that can drive greater access to health services. MATTOON -- It was limited to mostly burning federal warehouses instead of disrupting the presidential election and perhaps mustering a new chance for the Confederacy during the Civil War. But for one month in 1864, Mattoon was the center of activity for a special operative who helped lead a more subversive mission after Southern leaders realized the war couldn't be won "on the battlefield." On Sunday, local historian Steve Thompson was the featured speaker at a meeting of the Coles County Historical Society. He told the organization that the "principal personality" behind what was the first example of this type of military activity was Thomas Henry Hines, a Confederate Army captain. The effort's biggest plan centered on Chicago, an attempt to influence the 1864 Democratic Party presidential nomination, free Confederate prisoners and acquire new weapons and troops, Thompson said. But Hines eventually realized the plan wouldn't work, and he then traveled to Mattoon. Thompson said Hines and others were headquartered at what then was the Essex House hotel, near the Mattoon train depot where Sunday's meeting took place. "You guys are right at ground zero for their activities," he said. Hines took part in Confederate raids and other operations in Indiana and Ohio in 1863, trying to coordinate efforts with the area's Copperheads, northerners who opposed the war or supported the Confederacy, Thompson said. He was eventually captured but despite being held in an Ohio penitentiary "considered the supermax prison of the day," he escaped, Thompson continued. He said it was the start of the following year when Confederate leaders, faced with the reality of several battlefield losses, decided on a new approach. It led to the first-ever special operatives method of going behind enemy lines to use sabotage and disruption, he explained. "It was something never undertaken before in U.S. military history," Thompson said. The "Chicago Revolt" plan centered around the Democratic convention and federal prisons in the area but died when it was discovered by federal authorities and because of second thoughts by some who were supposed to take part, he continued. "There wasn't enough alcohol in the city of Chicago to do all this," Thompson said. Hines' time in Mattoon was brief, spending the month of September 1864 based at the hotel to plan raids on the federal warehouses and other activities. Hines was on his way to a meeting with other Confederate leaders in Sullivan, Ind., when he learned that the plan had been discovered, Thompson then said. He was eventually sent to Canada to try to restart his effort and was there when the war ended. Noting a resemblance between Hines and John Wilkes Booth, Thompson said Hines was soon in Detroit and mistaken for the actor and presidential assassin. He hijacked a ferry to escape and returned to Canada, but went back to Detroit in 1866 and took an oath of loyalty to the Union. He later published a newspaper, worked at a law firm and became an appellate court justice before he died in 1898. Thompson said he doubted if Hines' efforts and plan would have had much effect had they been successful. Still, he continued, the longer result was to make the military approach common and accepted, he said. "We've got a moral dilemma here," Thompson said. "It planted the seed of moral tolerance for that type of activity." ince its very inception theaddressed itself to all Indians irrespective of caste and creed.It appealed to all communities to eschew the path of violence and mutual hatred and to settle down to,the task of building a Righteous Society on stable and abiding foundations. About the photos, and permission to use All photographs (unless otherwise noted) on these web pages are the exclusive property of Jim McCormac, and are protected under United States and International copyright laws. The photographs may not be copied, reproduced, stored, distributed or manipulated without written permission. All rights are reserved. All photographs are available for purchase. If interested in an image(s), please feel free to contact me at: jimmccormac35 AT gmail.com If you contact me requesting free photos, the reply may be long in coming :-) I've been taking photographs for a few decades, but never became fully engaged in photography until 2003. That's when I got my first digital camera. Since then, photography has become a passion and a steadily growing addiction. If you delve back far enough into this blog, you will see photos that were made with a range of cameras. Early on was a Canon Rebel DSLR, followed by a Nikon D7000. I've since returned to Canon, and use their gear exclusively. My current camera bodies are a Canon 6D II and 5D IV - both are awesome cameras, each with their primary use. The lens bag includes a number of Canon lenses that collectively cover most bases, ranging from macro to super telephotos. I do lots of macro, and my typical flash gear is the Canon Twin-Lite setup, or sometimes a diffused Canon 600 speedlite. If the gear needs three-legged stabilization, it is mounted on either an Induro tripod, attached to an Induro Gimbal head, or a Gitzo 3542 tripod and Wimberly WH-200 head. Finally, I've got a GoPro Hero, which is fully waterproof and can be used for underwater work. Sometimes I even use the camera or video feature on my iPhone 7 smartphone - it's amazing how good phone cameras have become. Job Announcement of Resident Engineers (RE) for the construction of Surface Parking Projects Addis Ababa City Government Transport Programs Management Office (TPMO) is looking for dynamic, self-driven individuals to take up a Resident Engineer (RE) position at the project sites located within the City Job Title: Resident Engineer (RE) Quantity: 7 Category: Engineering Job Type: Contract Duration: five (5) months with the possibility of extension Salary: with Negotiation Place of work: Addis Ababa Responsibilities: Supporting the Plan International Liaison Offices work related to meetings/events Support the Office in meetings of the AU related to the issues of Child Rights, Child Protection, Education and Youth empowerment/employability. Support the office in meetings of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) networks operating at the AU on the issue of Child Rights, Child Protection, Education and Youth empowerment/employability. Follow up on issues and events related to the Day of the African Child at the AU. Provide logistical, organizational, planning and administrative support for the Plan Pan Africa Office related to events and meetings and possibly minute-taking of any Team or external meetings involving the Pan Africa Program/AU Liaison Office happening in Addis Ababa Support the administration and logistics of the CSO Forum Supporting the ACERWC sessions at the AU Provide support for the production and dissemination of the session documentation. Provide support for the dissemination of the ACERWC messages into a wide range of communication forums, including newsletters, press releases and social media activity. Supporting the Pan Africa Office on Information Sharing To improve effectiveness in information sharing and coordination between the pan-African program/AU Liaison office and Plan International other related offices. Support the office to ensure the AU is regularly provided with new information from Plan International Support for the management/information sharing of (administrative, finance, research and communications) activities carried out or supported by the Pan Africa/AU Liaison Office Following up with country programs, RO and other Plan Office as the need arises Logistics Facilitate Travel, Meetings and Trainings Support any Plan staff coming to Addis Ababa on missions with the AU (such as drafting invitation letters, booking meetings, supporting staff with logistics, etc) Support the Pan Africa Office with its External relationship with service Providers Follow up on consultants and contractors of the Pan Africa Program/AU Liaison Office to ensure high quality service delivery Key experiences to be gained: Be involved in the front line of work at the African Union on the rights of the child, Protection , Education Be part of a truly global advocacy and campaign team. Experience all dimensions of advocacy, communications, programme and Administration. . Connect with AU staff, AU Member State representatives and Civil Society in their different functions. .Connect with Plan staff around the world in their different functions. . Enhance your networking, advocacy and communications skills. Monday, January 18, 2016 Panning Pat: New City Councilor Davis Already A Recall Target, Plus: Driver's Licenses Forever; Guv PAC Up With TV Spot, And: Gator Radar Tracks Torraco Things move quickly these days. ABQ Dem City Councilor Businesses up and down Central--saying it would cost them customers--are banding together to fight the plan which would be financed by an $80 million federal grant and $20 million in city funds. Davis is not yet backing off from his support, but says if it doesn't ultimately satisfy the concerns of business owners, he could go against it. A judge would have to determine if the recall advocates have a valid legal argument. If they pass that test they must then gather about 1,400 petition signatures to force a recall election. The obvious irony here is that Davis was elected in his progressive district with the hope that he would be a leading council critic of Republican Mayor Berry. But in his first high profile issue he is agreeing with Berry. His liberal UNM area district is not just filled with Nob Hill business owners but many strong backers of public transit. Davis was elected with a huge victory margin and is going to survive any recall effort but the effort is getting his attention and that's the point. DRIVER'S LICENSES FOREVER Why is Governor Martinez taking out a meat axe when what's needed to solve the state's never-ending One of the PACS affiliated with her is up with The TV ad could also be aimed at shoring up Martinez's public support after it was shattered by that infamous boozy staff holiday party that went national and dented her credibility big time. The public is strongly supportive of license reform and this issue positions the Governor with them--unlike the pizza party in which she was seen acting imperious as she bullied a hotel desk clerk and a Santa Fe police dispatcher. By the way, the new ad mispronounces the name of GOP State Rep. Paul Pacheco, one of the bill's sponsors. How could such an obvious mistake not be caught? Maybe Jay has been busy with that federal grand jury probe regarding the Guv's campaign finances. . . GATOR RADAR Sen. Torraco Our Alligators raised the red flag on this one a while back. They said that there were rumblings that ABQ GOP State Senator We have 3 people seeking the one position on the NM Court of Appeals: Steve French, Ned Fuller, Lisa Torraco. Gov. Martinez is going to appoint a judge to fill the vacancy created by Even thought the three R's don't know who will get the appointment, they are collecting petition signatures now because they are due by early March and not easy to get. First they must pass muster with the Court of Appearls nominating commission which will send a recommendation to the Governor. That panel meets later this month. So, if Torracco gets on the nominating list and then gets an appointment from Gov. Martinez she will indeed vacate her Senate seat, the possibility initially raised by the Gators. And if she gets lucky with Susana (the two ain't the best of pals) then you could see ABQ GOP State Rep. Conrad James--who recently announced he would not seek re-election to his seat---make a run for the Senate seat that would be vacated by Torraco. Now that's what you call being on Gator Radar. This is the home of New Mexico politics. Interested in reaching New Mexico's most informed audience? Advertise here. ( c)NM POLITICS WITH JOE MONAHAN 2016 Things move quickly these days. ABQ Dem City Councilor Pat Davis took office December 1 and already a batch of his constituents are working to have the liberal SE Heights lawmaker kicked out of office. It's that controversial proposal to tear up Central Avenue from Louisiana to Coors for Mayor Berry's rapid bus transit plan that has Pat getting panned and a petition circulating that would lead to a recall election.Businesses up and down Central--saying it would cost them customers--are banding together to fight the plan which would be financed by an $80 million federal grant and $20 million in city funds. Davis is not yet backing off from his support, but says if it doesn't ultimately satisfy the concerns of business owners, he could go against it.A judge would have to determine if the recall advocates have a valid legal argument. If they pass that test they must then gather about 1,400 petition signatures to force a recall election.The obvious irony here is that Davis was elected in his progressive district with the hope that he would be a leading council critic of Republican Mayor Berry. But in his first high profile issue he is agreeing with Berry. His liberal UNM area district is not just filled with Nob Hill business owners but many strong backers of public transit.Davis was elected with a huge victory margin and is going to survive any recall effort but the effort is getting his attention and that's the point.Why is Governor Martinez taking out a meat axe when what's needed to solve the state's never-ending driver's license dilemma is a soft touch? Because that's how she and the Machine roll. That's why.One of the PACS affiliated with her is up with a TV spot urging the public to call their lawmakers in support of the bill that would give NM a two-tiered license/driving privilege card system akin to Utah's. It's not a bad bill and could be a starting point for a long-sought compromise over giving driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, but putting the public onus on the lawmakers before they even gather could make a compromise more difficult. Martinez has been doing that for years and it has gotten her nothing, except a great political talking point with an upset public (which appears to have been the point all along).The TV ad could also be aimed at shoring up Martinez's public support after it was shattered by that infamous boozy staff holiday party that went national and dented her credibility big time. The public is strongly supportive of license reform and this issue positions the Governor with them--unlike the pizza party in which she was seen acting imperious as she bullied a hotel desk clerk and a Santa Fe police dispatcher.By the way, the new ad mispronounces the name of GOP State Rep. Paul Pacheco, one of the bill's sponsors. How could such an obvious mistake not be caught? Maybe Jay has been busy with that federal grand jury probe regarding the Guv's campaign finances. . .Our Alligators raised the red flag on this one a while back. They said that there were rumblings that ABQ GOP State Senator Lisa Torracco was a possible no go for re-election this year. She shot that down but now the Gators are back and vindicated. The chairman of the Bernalillo County Republican Party, Frank Ruvolo, confirms that Torracco is one of three R's gathering petition signatures for a run for the NM Court of Appeals. He told a GOP friendly newsletter:Gov. Martinez is going to appoint a judge to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Justice Cynthia Fry. That new judge will have to seek election in November to fill out Fry's term, if they want to stay on the court.Even thought the three R's don't know who will get the appointment, they are collecting petition signatures now because they are due by early March and not easy to get. First they must pass muster with the Court of Appearls nominating commission which will send a recommendation to the Governor. That panel meets later this month.So, if Torracco gets on the nominating list and then gets an appointment from Gov. Martinez she will indeed vacate her Senate seat, the possibility initially raised by the Gators. And if she gets lucky with Susana (the two ain't the best of pals) then you could see ABQ GOP State Rep. Conrad James--who recently announced he would not seek re-election to his seat---make a run for the Senate seat that would be vacated by Torraco.Now that's what you call being on Gator Radar.This is the home of New Mexico politics. E-mail your news and comments. (jmonahan@ix.netcom.com) Lincoln Industries Director, Integration Engineering, Chris Millet, is pleased to announce the promotions of JR Heinz and Jared Ronnebaum both to senior integration engineer. Heinz started with Lincoln Industries in 2004 and Ronnebaum in 2007. Most recently both served as integration engineers. The promotion of Heinz and Ronnebaum serves to acknowledge their significant contributions to date and expanded project leadership role going forward. Lincoln Industries Controller, Scott Miller, is pleased to announce the selection of Karen Peppmuller to the role of accounting manager. Peppmuller is not a new face to Lincoln Industries, having worked for the company in a finance role from 2006 to 2012 after which time she took the position of director of administration for Seim Johnson, LLP, a large CPA firm in Omaha. Peppmuller brings a solid history of accounting experience both in public practice as a CPA with Arthur Andersen and Deloitte Touche, as well as leadership roles with Seim Johnson and the Nebraska Hospital Association as vice president of finance. Peppmuller will serve as lead staff accountant for DS Manufacturing, responsible for monthly bookkeeping and financial close-out, and analysis. She will also assist in developing new processes and systems, tax programs, general ledger and financial accounting, and executive financial management. Lincoln Industries is the largest and most diverse privately-held metal finishing company in North America. They are a growth-oriented company who for over 60 years has been solving technically difficult problems for premium brands like Harley Davidson, PACCAR, John Deere, Polaris, Navistar and Mercury Marine. Known for its unique company culture, Lincoln Industries has been named to the Top 25 Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work for in America List, seven times. When economic development consultant Angelos Angelou first came to Lincoln in the early 2000s and made recommendations on how the city could improve, officials took action that resulted in huge projects including Pinnacle Bank Arena and Innovation Campus. So when Angelou came back last summer and provided another set of recommendations, officials knew they needed to get busy figuring out how to implement them. "We were energized," said Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Wendy Birdsall. Angelou's report had "many great recommendations that we wanted to get started on immediately," she said. And they did. For example, the Chamber moved quickly to hire a full-time person to concentrate on workforce development, which was one of the report's main themes. But it contained several other important recommendations as well -- "It was just too massive for us to do on our own," Birdsall said. As with the effort a dozen years ago, the Chamber would have to get help and buy-in from community members. That won't be a problem. "People were falling all over themselves to be involved," said Pat Haverty, vice president of the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development. The Chamber and LPED chose to focus on three main themes from Angelou's report: workforce, entrepreneurship and technology infrastructure. One of the groups, the technology infrastructure task force, had its main recommendation -- using the city's existing fiber conduit to entice a telecommunications company to offer high-speed Internet service -- fulfilled before it could even put out a report. In November, Nelnet announced its purchase of ALLO Communications of Imperial and said ALLO would lease the city's fiber conduit to provide 1-gigabit Internet service to all businesses and homes in Lincoln by 2019. Less than a month later, Windstream announced that it will offer 1-gigabit service on a limited basis in Lincoln starting next year. Birdsall said the task force didn't want to just assume its work was done because Lincoln will be getting ultra-fast Internet, so it adjusted to emphasize the need to "showcase Lincoln's status as an elite, wired community," as well as "to formulate a community plan of action aimed at capitalizing on abilities ultra-fast Internet provides." Said the report: "No community ultimately succeeds simply because of a piece of wire in the ground." To truly take advantage of the improved infrastructure, the community has to figure out a way to utilize and promote the public-private investment, the report said, and to do that it proposed a small working group "of end users, big thinkers, strategists and community builders." The entrepreneurship task force was charged with coming up with ideas that will "help Lincoln foster a globally competitive entrepreneurial ecosystem." According to a ranking system the task force used, Lincoln does best in quality of life, both overall and for startup entrepreneurs; and in supporting and promoting entrepreneurs. It has work to do in producing enough talent for startups and in providing access to investors, capital and markets. It came up with four main strategies to do that: accelerate commercialization, grow a cluster of mentors and angels, own an entrepreneurial event and attract international entrepreneurs. Contained in those general categories are more specific targets, which the committee prioritized. The biggies: * Form a committee to research and recommend how to implement a certified capital company, similar to one the group studied in Texas, that works as a government-sponsored venture capital investment company to quickly raise large pools of capital from finance and insurance companies. * Create a fund of as much as $100,000 per year to provide support for local startups. * Hire a full-time startup ambassador. Workforce development, another theme from Angelou's report, echoes what some Lincoln businesses -- particularly high-tech ones -- have lamented for years. The task force that worked on the issue noted that Lincoln, with its 2.1 percent unemployment rate, has a shortage of workers in all categories of employment -- unskilled, highly skilled, technical, professional, etc. This year, many businesses raised wages to help attract and keep entry-level workers. Among the top recommendations for workforce development: * Encourage the sponsorship of international employees. * Market Lincoln, focusing on the benefits of living here and the "fun factor." * Have the Partnership for Economic Development lead a community welcoming and engagement strategy. * Expand the existing talent development pipeline between the private sector and training and educational institutions. Stop me if youve heard this one. A woman wearing a Texas sweatshirt walks into a Beatrice general store and uses someone elses debit card to make a purchase. The woman obviously needed money for season tickets, says a post on the Beatrice Police Departments Facebook page, quickly followed by a disclaimer it was only speculation. In this instance, the debit card is believed to have been taken from a hotel room, dubbed Hotel Generosity in the departments post. In another instance, a motorist goes from car to car in a parking lot looking in windows, apparently looking for something he lost. I cant think of any other reason why someone would park next to several different cars, get out, and look inside several different cars. Can you? the Facebook post asks. The suspect eventually took items that didnt belong to him from a car. These posts from Beatrice police are two examples of a new strategy to use social media in identifying persons of interest: humor. And it's working. Officer Kris Gill, the brain behind the humorous Facebook posts accompanied by security snapshots, said 100 percent of the people pictured in the posts have been identified. I think social media has changed (law enforcement) in good and bad ways, Gill said. Im hoping this will be positive. You cant please everyone and some people dont like it. It looks like the majority enjoy it and its been successful so far. If this brings a smile to someones face and brings something positive, thats great. Beatrice police already had routinely shared security footage with a simple message that anyone who could identify the subject of a given photo should contact them. That strategy provided limited results, prompting Gill to take the departments Facebook page in a new direction. People say they dont read past the first couple sentences because its just boring, she said. Weve posted pictures before and say to contact us, and we dont get a lot of interest in those. But the department has a board at its office where officers post people or vehicles of interest for other officers to be aware of. Starting about two weeks ago, Gill posted all of the images on Facebook -- with creative descriptions. And all of them were identified, thanks in large part to public tips. In some cases, the person in the photo contacted police directly. I started with one and got a really great response, so I thought Id do them all, she said. I took them all down and went through them. About 10 suspects have been identified thanks to the approach. Gill stressed that the people in the photos arent necessarily criminals, and the 100 percent success rate means only that all of the people were ID'd, not that they were criminally cited. Police Chief Bruce Lang said it was amazing how fast some of the crimes were solved following the posts, reinforcing the role social media can play in modern law enforcement. But, he added, it can be tricky to find the right balance of humor and seriousness when dealing with alleged crimes. Any time you insert humor into serious matters, you have to be very careful, Lang said. We hopefully are doing that. ... Its clearly been productive, and I hope were able to continue to find that balance of keeping things interesting on minor offenses. Gill said some subjects have been embarrassed by the posts and said the department isnt trying to embarrass anyone. Rather, she said, police want a better way to attract community support in identifying suspects. When I do these posts, my intention is not to embarrass anyone or shame anyone. My purpose is to get the public involved. There are some people who are upset about it and come in upset because they feel embarrassed. I dont want anyone to think thats my purpose. The #Dreamers, fresh from a march through the frozen streets of downtown Lincoln Monday morning, were ready to face the crowd filling the state Capitols Warner Chamber. Theyd been practicing -- reciting their lines plucked from songs and speeches at the March on Washington that drew hundreds of thousands to the nations Capitol in 1963 and became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Theyd added their own dreams to those whod spoken that day 53 years ago, and incorporated Kings iconic I Have a Dream speech from that march. Theyd recited their lines 35 times a day -- in the mirror, in front of their parents -- performed for their classmates in preparation for Monday and what has become a growing tradition at Belmont Elementary School. For several years, members of the north-Lincoln schools fourth-grade leadership group have stayed together in fifth grade, selecting a name for themselves as well as a book about the civil rights movement. They've turned the book into a performance for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Rally and March or the pre-rally program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln student union. This year, the students selected I Have A Dream, an illustrated book based on Kings famous speech. But Lincoln Public Schools' youth development team coordinator Pete Ferguson, who has coordinated the youth rally for years, has a rule: limit focus on the I Have A Dream speech during the annual event. He wants rally participants to dig deeper than the famous words. Theres more to his dream and Dr. Kings vision than just one speech, just a catch-phrase, he said. So he challenged the #Dreamers of Belmont Elementary School: Find out about that march, about the other things that helped Kings dream, his vision, move forward. They talked about the other speakers, how few women spoke. They learned about the mission of the march and what the organizers wanted to accomplish. Poni John, one of the #Dreamers, wanted to be Daisy Bates before she even knew much about the civil rights advocate. But she wrote a report on the journalist leader of the school integration crisis in Little Rock Arkansas, Ferguson said. And on Monday she recited a portion of Bates' speech at the Capitol. "She just owned Daisy Bates," Ferguson said. Kayla Blackson sang, like Mahalia Jackson did 53 years ago. The other #Dreamers took turns, belting out their lines, telling about the mission of the march. And they included portions of Kings I Have a Dream speech. Their performance was joined by other students from Lincoln high schools and middle schools, who sang and gave speeches that combined the past with the present and their theme Action Through His Passion on What is Yet to Be Done. They used todays social media hashtags to help get their message across: #YouthAction1993, #Reach the Mountaintop, #Need More. The #Dreamers, who will perform their piece at UNL later this week, ended their performance with their own dreams. Let freedom ring, they said: So I can graduate from college. For all U.S. troops. For my family in Iraq. "For my grandma in South Carolina." For those who were killed or injured in Paris. And the crowd at the Capitol went wild. At Fredstrom Elementary, the number of students cooling their heels outside the principals office because of one misdeed or another is noticeably less so far this year. Principal Vicki Schulenberg is pretty sure Jessica Northup is largely to blame for that. Northup is the schools counselor, a new position for the school, and part of a concerted effort by the district to increase the numbers of grade school counselors. Weve only been at it for a semester but we already can see the difference, Schulenberg said. Many grade school counselors became victims of budget cuts in the mid-1990s, when schools assumed the cost of those positions along with other teaching staff, said Brenda Leggiadro, the districts coordinator of counselors and social workers. Before that, the district provided the positions to schools, rather than schools paying for them out of their budgets. When that happened, many administrators had to make hard choices. And they often opted for more classroom teachers or -- as the focus on testing and core subjects intensified under the federal No Child Left Behind Law -- hiring more teachers to help struggling students in core subjects. When Leggiadro came to LPS in 1994, most of the elementary schools had counselors. It was one of the things that appealed to her about the district. There was ample evidence at the time that grade school counselors made a difference in student's behavior and performance, not just in grade school but throughout high school. You could see the impact, Leggiadro said. Despite that, by the end of last year just five of LPSs 38 elementary schools still had full-time counselors. LPS officials -- who have long noted the increasing behavior and family problems that students bring to school -- decided it wanted to change that and added about $229,000 in the budget to hire more social workers and counselors. The district has always provided social workers to schools, though schools share the limited number of positions so social workers are at any given school a limited amount of time. Leggiadro hired two additional social workers and created a system to try to encourage schools to bring counselors on full time: for two years the district will pay half the cost of a counselor, the school the other half. After that, the school assumes the full cost, and the 50-percent-off offer will be open to other schools. Fredstrom signed on, as did Hill and Prescott. Pyrtle and Rousseau are sharing one counselor. Fredstrom has never had a counselor, Schulenberg said, but she's seen more and more students who could benefit. And Northup's work has paid off, she said. Fewer students are getting referred to the office overall, and teachers report up to 40 percent fewer behavior problems that require some intervention on their part. Teachers now track such information under a new behavior model being used by the district, Schulenberg said. Northup meets with students on an individual basis -- to talk though personal problems, and in small groups. She also does classroom topics on everything from character to strategies for reducing stress during test-taking, along with lessons on perseverance and grit. The role of counselors is different than social workers, though the two work closely together and their jobs can overlap, Leggiadro said. Social workers are therapists; counselors have teaching certificates. Social workers tend to focus on mental health and external issues students face, helping to connect families to community resources, she said. And they tend to work with fewer students. Counselors help all students build social and emotional skills, she said, with a broad focus on attendance, behavior and achievement. Their work is aimed at both preventing problems by teaching students problem-solving communication and teamwork skills. They help solve existing problems with individual students or friends, and teach skills to help kids be successful academically. In addition to helping students in the classroom, Northup meets with small groups. Shes got "lunch bunch" groups and a fifth-grade girls group. She coordinates a social skills group called Falcon Flight School, which is part of the behavioral system being used districtwide. Its designed for students who need extra help behaving in school, remembering such things as waiting their turn to speak in class, respecting other students personal space and considering others feelings. Teachers fill out a chart indicating how students did during the day and they check out at the end of the day with Northrup, or others such as the principal. Although all schools use the system, because Northrup is a counselor she has more time to spend with students, and she keeps the feedback positive so students gain confidence in themselves, Schulenberg said. It has been effective and I think that is part of the reason weve seen a decline in the numbers of students weve seen in the office, because theyre getting feedback and striving. Students are proud to show Northup how they've done during the day. Some like it so much they don't want to graduate, and Northrup works hard to help them transition out. That also tells us kids are thriving on that special attention and they know someone at school besides their teachers are noticing and supporting them, Schulenberg said. Both Northup and Schulenberg have seen big changes in some students. I see children who are quiet and withdrawn walk through the lunchroom and they immediately light up and start waving at Mrs. Northup, Schulenberg said. Theyre kiddos who would have gone through school just fine, but they wouldnt have had this relationship with a special adult. A coalition of business advocates and county officials is hoping to convince state officials to fund the East Beltway. Lancaster County Engineer Pam Dingman said last week shes worried the states new Department of Roads director doesnt see the East Beltway as a priority. The new director did express reservations about funding it, she said. The beltway would connect the yet-to-be-constructed South Beltway and Nebraska 2 with Interstate 80 near Waverly. It has no timeline, but design work likely wouldnt begin until after work starts on the South Beltway. Kyle Schneweis, the states roads director, didnt include the East Beltway on a list of priority projects to be constructed through 2022 as part of the 2011 Build Nebraska Act, which diverts a quarter cent of the states sales tax revenue to roads. He said the beltway could be added to future Build Nebraska Act priority lists. He rejected the idea that state officials dont see the beltway as important to Lincoln and surrounding communities. I think its an important project for the region, he said. Were committed to working with the city and county, and it could be part of Build Nebraska. State officials will host a public meeting from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland to get opinions about future priority projects. The series of meetings across the state began last week. Schneweis said the East Beltway also could potentially draw from the infrastructure banks that Gov. Pete Ricketts has proposed for funding highway construction and repairing structurally deficient bridges. There are a lot of needs out there, Schneweis said. This is another one that people want. Dingman said she plans to ask the Lancaster County Board for additional funding to pay for acquisition of right-of-way in the future East Beltway corridor. She said a recent purchase of land east of 120th Street and Pine Lake Road depleted the nearly $100,000 the county had set aside for land acquisition. By comparison, the city puts aside $250,000 a year to buy land in the East Beltway corridor and has accumulated $3 million for that purpose. With 13 miles of East Beltway corridor, Dingman estimated the city and county will have to spend nearly $9 million to buy property along the route. The city and county each pay half the cost of buying land for the beltway project. She said she plans to ask the County Board to aggressively set aside money in a fund for land acquisition. This fund needs to have at least $1 million in it so that if the need to purchase major sections of right-of-way comes up we could afford to purchase them now, she said. While the East Beltway doesnt yet have a price tag, Dingman estimated it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and require financial support from the state and federal government. Dingman said she plans to work with the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce and Lincoln Independent Business Association to convince state officials to make the East Beltway a priority. LIBA CEO Coby Mach said he plans to meet with state roads officials soon to talk about the importance of the East Beltway to the local business community and to improving the safety and efficiency of Lincolns transportation system. Its incumbent upon us as a community to reach out to the Department of Roads, he said. The entire community needs to let them know how important this is. Instead of watching "Frozen" for the 451st time or playing hours and hours of Xbox, kids have a new way to escape the cold and have fun. Every Sunday afternoon until May, kids can participate in activities that focus on science, technology, engineering, art and math through hands-on activities -- also known as STEAM -- at the Lincoln Childrens Museum. Were hoping that with being able to do this every week for an extended period, the kids will learn something each week, said Jason Helgren, special event coordinator for the museum. If they come in each week or more frequently it will stick with them and get them thinking more often. Maybe theyll leave here and want to try some of these things at home. Each week, a new community partner comes to the STEAM program to help the museum host new activities that include science experiments, art projects and building things. The program's first partner, City Impact, brought all the materials and mentors to help the kids learn how to build Rube Goldberg machines, a type of engineered chain reaction. (By building), kids learn self esteem, confidence, patience, Tim Linsenmeyer, a City Impact mentor, said. They learn how to look at their things in a different light, learn how they can start thinking creatively and start applying physics and technology without thinking about it. One of the kids Linsenmeyer works closely with, 10-year-old Gio Arizola, has spent many hours making elaborate Rube Goldberg machines and what he calls stick bombs -- an elaborate layout of tongue depressors that spring upward when a single stick is removed. (My favorite part is) just building them and having fun, he said. I like building the stick bombs because theyre fun to build and they clear your mind. Helgren said hes most looking forward to meeting with all of the community partners -- like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's chemistry and physics clubs and the American Society of Civil Engineers -- and planning the activities for each week. Ill kind of get to be a kid again myself by working with all the different partners, finding out what activities will be fun, then getting to see it in action with the kids and see how they have fun with it. STEAM take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. On Feb. 8, 2016 at 3 p.m. the Lincoln City Council will meet and decide the course of our local bus system for the future. The easiest thing for the council to do would be to simply adopt the preferred alternative submitted by the consultants who have been studying our system. However, the consultants were handcuffed by the terms of their contract which required them to submit a revised system "assuming that StarTran will receive the same amount of money for 2016-2018 as it did for the 2015 budget." The result of this clause was to force the consultants to recommend a preferred alternative far different than they would have recommended if they had not been handcuffed. In order to add service in one area, they had to take away service in another area, resulting in the creation of "transit desert" areas in Lincoln. The mayor refuses to reallocate funds from other projects to StarTran and says that StarTran must find additional federal funds to address its problems. A check with the Kansas City office of the Federal Transit Agency shows, however, that StarTran is receiving the full amount of Federal funding under current programs. Additional funds will have to come from either state funds or shifting money within the city budget. StarTran, the ugly stepchild, has already fallen behind because of underfunding for years. Other ugly stepchildren are the city libraries, which have been forced to cut hours, and Parks & Recreation which doesn't have enough money to cut the grass in the parks. Meanwhile the favorite sons -- the police and fire departments -- get regular sizable increases from budget to budget. It is difficult to understand how the mayor can suddenly "find" $8 million unspent in Antelope Valley's account to fix streets and spend $3.2 million for the N Street bike superhighway which our Lincoln climate guarantees will not see the 2.5 million trips that represent StarTran ridership. Also the mayor finds money to decorate alleys. A city councilman who initiated a move to get more public input on StarTran was quoted in the Journal Star that he doubted that much new stuff would be learned from the January hearings and that the council was unlikely to vote StarTran any more money. If the council has its mind already made up, why are we bothering with the January hearings? Voters in Lincoln and throughout the U.S. are expressing the feeling that it won't do any good to try to change things because those in power don't listen. I hope that is not correct regarding the need to fix StarTran. If the mayor and council don't listen, the message is that "You who ride the buses are second class citizens and we don't care if Lincoln doesn't have late evening service, crosstown runs to shorten trips or if you have to wait an hour for the next bus if you mistimed your walk to the bus stop." The mayor and city council should consider carefully that without additions to the preferred alternative and more funding for StarTran, Lincoln will probably remain at the bottom of the list of peer cities regarding bus service. Lincoln not only won't be "globally competitive," it won't be regionally competitive. The mayor and city council should remember that in the summer 2015 survey of citizen satisfaction regarding 21 areas of city service, the two that received falling grades were street repair and StarTran. The mayor is fixing potholes but not our bus system. All the wonderful art works in the alleys and Haymarket can't be enjoyed by transit-dependent people unless the bus system is able to transport them there. As a Nebraskan, I strive to live up to the heartland values I believe in. One of these values I hold dear is treating others as I would want to be treated. Thats why I was disappointed to learn that in Nebraska, you can still be fired for being gay or transgender. It makes no sense to me that a state that wants to be known for Nebraska Nice and support the good life would put our reputation at risk by allowing discrimination against some of our friends, family, and neighbors ("LGBT group thumps Lincoln for lack of anti-discrimination laws," Dec. 17). By doing so, we tell the nation that Nebraska is a good place to live, unless you dont conform. In Nebraska, we believe in getting ahead through hard work and being judged on the merits of our work. This is the same standard our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Nebraskans expect to be held to; no special treatment, simply equal treatment based on work ethic and skill. By allowing discrimination against this community, we are putting an additional governmental and legal burden on them so that they cannot be judged solely on their work ethic and product but rather are judged based on who they are or who they love. This is unethical. A nondiscrimination law that protects against discrimination on sexual orientation and gender identity will benefit everyone. No one should be judged on their identity or orientation. It impacts the success of the state I love. True equality will attract the best and brightest businesses and workers, which we sorely need to attract. I strongly encourage us to be proactive in moving forward to protect the LGBT community here in Nebraska. This is the best way to live up to the values we hold so dear. Lori Straatmann, Lincoln Very soon our state legislature will vote on LB18 that adds the meningitis vaccination to the current required vaccines for all middle and high school students. This vaccination helps prevent a disease that infects nearly 3,000 young people a year and often results in death within hours. Id like to tell you I know nothing about meningitis but the fact is I know more than I want to now. In 2007, meningitis took the life of our precious daughter, Rachelle, at the age of 26. She wasnt vaccinated at an earlier age and, while I cant turn back time, I can speak out as her mother in her memory. I appeal to every parent out there to support this measure and to the senators who are considering this bill. Please protect the children of Nebraska from this terrible disease so another mom, dad or loved one does not have to write a letter asking you to do so. Meningitis broke our hearts, please dont let it hurt anyone else. OMAHA The mother of Omaha mall gunman Robert Hawkins says she had this sense that something was wrong the night before he fatally shot eight people in a department store before killing himself. Maribel Molly Rodriguez told ABCs Good Morning America on Thursday she got that feeling upon returning from a brief outing to her ex-husbands house, where she and Hawkins had eaten supper earlier the night of Dec. 4. Police and Rodriguez have said Hawkins took the assault rifle he used in the Dec. 5 rampage from his stepfathers closet. The stepfather was vacationing in Thailand at the time. Asked by ABCs Diane Sawyer what she had to say to the families of those shot during the rampage in the Von Maur store at Westroads Mall, Rodriguez replied, The only think I can say: Im sorry. Rodriguez said her son had left a voice mail for her on the day of the slayings, saying he loved her, that he was sorry and that he would talk to you later. Hawkins, 19, was buried in a private ceremony this week, Rodriguez said. She put a note in his coffin expressing her love for him and included a photo of the two of them. Hawkins was a troubled teenager who spent four years in a series of treatment centers, group homes and foster care after threatening to kill his stepmother in 2002. He had broken up with a girlfriend and lost his job at a McDonalds in the days preceding the shooting. He was without hope. He was without faith. He was without courage, Rodriguez said Thursday. Because you dont do that to other people. You just dont do that to other people. Asked what she could have done differently as a mom, Rodriguez replied, Theres not one thing I could ever do to hurt that little boy. But Im not perfect, I know that. So you tell me: What could I have done differently? OMAHA A car slowed to a crawl in front of the home and the driver rolled down her window. "Ahhh, what is it?" she asked. A bearded man wearing a thin thermal shirt despite the cold didn't give it away. "Come back later today and you'll know," he said. She may never drive by again. She may not catch how Matt Seeley and his son turned the snow in their front yard into art because the temperature will rise and melt it. But for a brief moment, she was entranced. And for the artists, that's the point. This scene plays out almost every winter at the Seeley residence. Matt Seeley, 51, and Taylor, 20, are two-thirds of Team Nebraska, the Cornhusker state's representative at the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This year, Feb. 1-6, the team will compete at nationals for its ninth consecutive year. Members Matt and Taylor Seeley and family friend Katie Bounds will pack their tools custom handsaws and ice picks and prepare themselves for a week of transforming a lumpy 9-foot-tall cylinder of snow into a porcelain-smooth masterpiece. The competition is a chance to bond and create. As with their artwork not long for this world the experience matters as much as the result. But that doesn't mean they'll settle for a participation ribbon. "This year, we're gunning for that national trophy, and I want it bad," Matt said. Team Nebraska will be one of 15 competing at nationals this year. In most cases, competitors must earn a spot at the competition by winning at the state level, said organizer Don Berg. But there's no state competition in Nebraska, so the Seeleys and Bounds return every year by invitation. It started years ago with Matt, a systems engineer, goofing off in the backyard. When his sons were young, he would build elaborate domed igloos with chimneys and ice-sheet windows. Together, they shaped snow into alien beings or ravenous sharks devouring people. "I've always made art a part of my life," he said. "Everyone understands physical exercise helps keep you in shape. What about your mind? That creative part of your mind gets fat and out of shape." For the Seeleys, science and art often go hand in hand. Once, to demonstrate the stability of a domed structure, even one made of snow, Matt had Taylor's entire Boy Scout troop stand on the roof of one of his igloos. Taylor, now an engineering student at Doane College, took the experiences to heart. His dad, he said, showed him how to do things with snow that he would have never dreamed were possible. About nine years ago, a representative of the national snow-sculpting competition saw some of Matt's work online and asked him to participate. So he formed a team with his older son, Thane, and eventually roped in one of Thane's high school classmates, Katie Bounds. Taylor began subbing in for Thane when his brother's job as an operations manager at an Arkansas airport made his annual winter pilgrimage to Lake Geneva uncertain. "Seeing that sculpture evolve into a good-looking piece of art is probably one of the best feelings in this sport," Taylor said. Each team member has a special role. Matt is the creative force conceptualizing the sculpture and leading the design. Taylor is the engineer determining where to start and what elements will make the most structurally sound piece. Bounds, 27, is a cake decorator by trade and handles the detail work. One year, when the team sculpted an octopus crushing a clock, she made tiny ice-chip suction cups for the tentacles. "When I'm just doing cakes at home, I'm just creating by myself. It's great when you're with a community," she said. "You get to meet all different kinds of people. We all have this artistic urge to express, and we want to say something with what we do." Last year, the team sculpted a 15-foot-tall praying mantis, complete with inch-wide antennae. The year before that, the team built a UFO crashing into a vintage car, the shattered windshield made with ice from the lake near the competition grounds. And before that, the group crafted a huge Native American headdress with textured feathers. This month, just for fun, the Seeleys hauled their gear into the front yard to make use of the wealth of material offered by recent snowfalls. Their sculpture, a mother rabbit wearing a gas mask and nursing her babies, was based on an original piece by artist Kate MacDowell. Sculpting in the yard isn't quite like sculpting in the competition, Matt said. The snow at nationals is man-made and packed tightly into huge cylinders. It's more like shaving down a block of ice than building a snowman, he said. Traditional logging saws will sometimes bind while cutting through the hard snowpack. So Matt began experimenting with ways to make the job easier. He started using a water cutter to create custom saws with holes in the blades that allow them to cut cleanly and swiftly through the snow. Now, he sells his tools to other snow sculptors. The experience has opened other doors as well. In 2012, he went with several other sculptors to China to represent the U.S. in the International Snow Sculptor Competition. In 2014, he teamed up with a group from Minnesota to set the Guinness World Record for the largest ice cream scoop. (It weighed 3,010 pounds.) Calling himself an ephemeral artist, Matt Seeley chooses to create only works that will quickly disappear. Along with his ice and snow sculptures, he draws elaborate murals in sidewalk chalk. Working with these materials, he said, has been humbling. It's taught him to appreciate impermanence, to not get too attached to material things and to focus on experiences and memories. "The statue of David, one day, is going to be no more than dust. It was before and it will be again," he said. "If you're going to wait until you have money to be able to buy a chunk of marble, good luck." The rabbit in the Seeleys' yard would eventually begin to drip. Its ears would sag. The fine details of the gas mask would blur. No worries, they said. They'd just give her a nose and whiskers. RACINE COUNTY One of the the holiday seasons hottest presents is now considered contraband at many U.S. colleges. More than 30 universities have banned or restricted hoverboards on their campuses in recent weeks, saying the two-wheeled, motorized scooters are unsafe. Beyond the risk of falls and collisions, colleges are citing warnings from federal authorities that some of the self-balancing gadgets have caught on fire. In the Racine area, officials say hoverboards largely have the same restrictions as other small transportation devices namely, skateboards. While not an outright ban, officials at Carthage College said hoverboards are covered under an existing policy drafted to prevent unsafe usage of rollerblades and skateboards. The college is considering a review of that policy. At Gateway Technical College, hoverboards like skateboards are allowed on sidewalks and parking lots but not inside buildings, spokesman Lee Colony said. The University of Wisconsin-Parkside, meanwhile, does not allow hoverboards based on a University of Wisconsin System policy prohibiting self-balancing transportation devices on university land, spokesman John Mielke said. He added that university police, so far, have rarely encountered students riding hoverboards. Bans issued elsewhere Elsewhere in the country, college officials have taken stronger stances. Kean University in Union, N.J., told students in an email that any hoverboards found on campus would be confiscated. Its clear that these things are potentially dangerous, said Len Dolan, the universitys managing director of fire safety. These things are just catching fire without warning, and we dont want that in any of our dorms. Outright bans also have been issued at schools such as American University and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Other schools said they will forbid the scooters in dorm rooms or campus buildings, a policy adopted at colleges including Louisiana State University, the University of Iowa and the University of Arkansas. Bryce Colegrove, a sophomore at Shawnee State University in Ohio, got an email from his school telling students to leave their hoverboards at home after the holidays. It was bad timing for Colegrove, who had just received one as a gift from his girlfriend and had even plotted his new routes to class. Honestly I was really disappointed, said Colegrove, 20. I dont think its right to ban them. I mean, its a college campus; its not a high school. Withering on the Vine The Demographic Time Bomb is Most Marked in Japan The demographic time bomb whereby the elderly population assumes a greater and ... Government Sexual Libertinism Coming to a Government School Near You Further to our piece yesterday on the promotion of sexual libertinism in government schools, we rep... Some Random Observations The Aftermath of Mass Pre-Mediated Murder A few observations on the murder of 14 people in San Bernadino and the wounding of many more see... Letter From the UK (About State Tyranny) Ta-ta UK freedoms! Miranda matter outs vindictiveness of wounded police state Annie Machon is a former intelligence of... The Big One The Panoptican State Is Actually Operational Yesterday the "big one" dropped. The Guardian reported that the US and UK spy age... Fraud Central German Professor: NASA Has Fiddled Climate Data On Unbelievable Scale by James Delingpole BreitbartLondon A German professor ha... Statist Groupthink More and More Fashionable The Rise of Liberal Intolerance in America Edward Luce Financial Times I t ought to be a triumphal moment for American liberalism .... Vacuous Greenism Anti-Fracking Luddiocy Think of any technology that involves carbon based energy and its utilisation, and the lunatic fringe can be found ... "It is Finished": the Sixth Word from the Cross It is Finished: our Lords Sixth Word from the Cross What is history? That simple question covers a multitude of complexity, profundity... Authorities in Germany arrested an unidentified 26-year-old Algerian man on Monday on suspicion of committing sexual assault during New Years Eve celebrations in Cologne. The man, who is reported to be an asylum seeker, is accused [The Guardian report] of groping a woman and stealing her mobile phone. He was arrested at a refugee home in the nearby town of Kerpen over the weekend. The arrest comes in the wake of an investigation into a string of sexual assaults that triggered a debate about integration in Germany. According to a spokesman for the prosecutors office, Ulrich Bremer, 497 women have reported sexual assaults, including three rapes. Twenty-one other individuals have been charged with non-sexual offenses including pick-pocketing, luggage theft and drug-related offenses allegedly committed during New Years Eve, while many more have been detained by police. According to police, some of the detained include [WSJ report] individuals suspected to be living illegally in Germany. Germany has been struggling in its attempt to balance the rights of refugees against the security interests of its own citizens. Last September, Germany invoked temporary border controls [JURIST report] at the nations southern border with Austria, after thousands of immigrants entered the country within days. Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel [official profile, in German] has presented various initiatives [WSJ report] in recent months aimed at discouraging individuals from leaving their countries for Germany for purely economic reasons and to deport those who have no chance of gaining asylum or who have committed crimes. Also in September, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged [JURIST report] the global community to develop comprehensive solutions to allow for safe and legal migration. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants similarly urged the EU to create [JURIST report] a new human-rights-minded migration policy to empower migrants. Iran has condemned the US for imposing new sanctions in connection with the countrys missile defense program. The sanctions were imposed [NTY report] Sunday by the US Treasury Department [official website] against 11 companies and individuals connected to Irans ballistic missile program. According to officials in Iran, the missile system is not designed to carry nuclear warheads and therefore, it is not at odds with any international norm. Iran has stated its intention to respond to the sanctions by pursuing its legal missile program more seriously and enhance its defense and national security capabilities. This new development comes within two days of the announcement of the lifting of other US sanctions against Iran and confirmation from the US about a completed deal [JURIST report] with Iran on an exchange of prisoners. Over the past several years Iran has been subject to numerous sanctions for its contentious nuclear program. Iranian leaders have repeatedly claimed [JURIST report] that the developing nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but the international community, Israel in particular, worries that Irans enrichment program was designed for military purposes. The US and France agreed [JURIST report] in March to strengthen nuclear talks with Iran to persuade the nation to restrain its nuclear program in exchange for relief from sanctions and in April Iran agreed [JURIST report] to a framework deal to restrict its nuclear plan. Developments in this regard were largely positive and resulted in subtle improvement in ties between the US and Iran. A report obtained by the Associated Press in July from the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website] showed [JURIST report] that Iran has been keeping its commitment as part of a preliminary nuclear deal from 2013 barring Iran from expanding nuclear programs during negotiations. The Iranian Parliament accepted [JURIST report] the nuclear agreement in October and moved the process on to the Guardian Council [BBC backgrounder], which determined [FRE/RL report] the legislation was consistent with the constitution and Islamic law. And as little two days ago, Iran agreed to release [JURIST report] four US citizens in exchange for seven Iranians being held in the US for violating former US sanctions. The Dutch government on Friday announced the establishment of a special court being set up in The Hague to investigate and try alleged war crimes committed by ethnic Albanian rebels during and after Kosovos 1998-99 guerilla war. According to the government announcement [press release], the court, which is called the Kosovo Relocated Specialist Judicial Institution and is funded by the European Union, will try serious crimes allegedly committed in 1999-2000 by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army against ethnic minorities and political opponents. The court, made up of international judges, will apply Kosovo laws, making it a Kosovan national court administering justice outside of Kosovo rather than an international tribunal. Witnesses against KLA fighters are often reluctant to testify [Reuters report] in Kosovo, as such fighters are often viewed as freedom fighters there. Kosovos Parliament approved [JURIST report] the creation of such a war crimes court in August. War crimes committed during the Kosovo War have been prosecuted in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website], but relations between Serbia and Kosovo remain strained. In July, 11 Kosovo Albanian men were sentenced [JURIST report] to prison for war crimes. In February 2014 Serbias war crimes court convicted [JURIST report] nine former paramilitaries for their involvement in the genocide of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999. Two former Serbian secret service officials were arrested [JURIST report] under suspicion that they planned the 1999 killing of an anti-government journalist. In 2013 Amnesty International [advocacy website] accused [JURIST report] the UN Mission in Kosovo of failing to adequately investigate war crimes committed during the conflict. Kosovo held its first local elections [JURIST report] in November 2013 since it seceded from Serbia in 2008. Serbia still does not recognize the secession. Florida State Attorney Jeff Ashton [profile] is requesting that state judges temporarily delay death penalty case trials after the US Supreme Court [official website] ruling [opinion, PDF] that Floridas capital sentencing scheme violates the Sixth Amendment. The request, he stated, is being made as a precaution [AP report] until lawmakers are able to address the Supreme Courts concerns while the legislature is in session. Ashton first spoke publicly [Orlando Sentinel report] on the Hurst v. Florida [docket] ruling on Thursday, initially expressing his belief that the ruling would not have much impact on local cases and would only apply in rare circumstances. This comes just days after Floridas Supreme Court denied a request [JURIST report] from a death row inmate to delay his execution in light of the recent US Supreme Court ruling. The court did, however, agree to hear oral arguments on whether the recent ruling could be applied retroactively. Use of the death penalty [JURIST news archive] has been a controversial issue throughout the US. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in December upheld [JURIST report] the authority of Governor Tom Wolf [official website] to postpone executions in the commonwealth. In October the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously granted [JURIST report] a request from Attorney General Scott Pruitt to halt all of the states scheduled executions to allow for an investigation into why the prison received incorrect lethal injection drugs. In June the US Supreme Court held that the use of the drug midazolam may be used in executions [JURIST report] without violating the constitution. In April the Tennessee Supreme Court postponed the execution [JURIST report] of four inmates on death row while it determines whether current protocols are constitutional, effectively halting all executions in the state. Also in April the Delaware Senate voted to repeal [JURIST report] the death penalty, but the legislation included an exemption for the 15 inmates currently on death row. Build back better Govts have moral obligation and social responsibility to protect civilians during natural disasters FinMin urges China to settle pending issues Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel on Sunday urged his Chinese counterpart Finance Minister Lou Jiwei to conclude the issue of trade, transit and investment between the two countries Iran condemns new US sanctions over missile test Iran has denounced new sanctions imposed by the US over its ballistic missile programme. Psychology of fear forced bureaucrats to seek political protection Over the last 25 years, Nepals administrative efficiency has been on a downward spiral. Senior govt officials reluctant to join NRA The National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) faces an uphill battle to recruit the required human resourcepartly due to the reluctance of senior government officials to work under an untested chief executive and the lack of clarity on career prospects, sources say. 1. Yes. Its important to cast my votes early and avoid the lines on Election Day. 2. Yes. With nearly two weeks of early voting, its a more convenient way to take part. 3. No. Its better to wait until Election Day, in case any last-minute information surfaces. 4. No. Im not planning to vote early or on Election Day. It isnt worth my time. 5. Unsure. It depends on how the campaigns are shaping up. Ill play it by ear. Vote View Results Cabinet has approved the Sugar Bill that seeks to provide a regulatory framework for the sub-sector. The Bill spells out clear conditions for registration and licensing of sugar producers, and intends to ensure greater quality and high production standards. While presenting the Bill before Cabinet, Trade Minister Amelia Kyambadde said if passed into law, the new Bill will solve the outstanding problems that are facing the sugar industry. The proposed National Sugar Act 2015 is to replace the outdated Sugar Control Act of 1938 and its effectiveness has been overtaken by events in the existing set up of the sugar sub sector. The new law provides for the establishment of the Uganda Sugar Board that will monitor, oversee and coordinate all activities relating to, and ensure a fair, efficient and effective administration and operation of the sugar industry. The Board is to advise on new procedures and requirements for setting up and expanding existing sugar production facilities. The Sugar Board will have representatives from government ministries, the sugar millers and out-growers, and the chairperson will be selected from the private sector. The Sugar Board will be responsible for licensing the sugar mills and jaggery mills, facilitate the export of sugar produced in Uganda, arbitrate disputes between parties in the Sugar industry, review on a regular basis the problems and prospects of the industry, monitor the production, importation and consumption of sugar and its by-products with a view to ensuring a viable industry among other functions. It will also be a responsibility of the Sugar Board to collaborate with relevant bodies and ensure that all sugar produced locally and imported into Uganda complies to the relevant quality, safety, environmental and health standards. Story By Benjamin Jumbe Kendallville, IN (46755) Today Partly to mostly cloudy. Low around 30F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly to mostly cloudy. Low around 30F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Steuben Takes A Ride transportation director Sandy Baughman has a 12-vehicle fleet that drives about 15,000 miles monthly within and beyond Steuben County. She also volunteers to help people with Medicaid, State Health Insurance Program and Affordable Healthcare Act issues. Photo by Jennifer Decker The University of Minnesota Beef Team is proud to host the annual Cow/Calf Days Seminar Tour and Trade Show at 10 locations across the state in January and February. For southeast Minnesota, the event will be held at the Heintz Center, 1926 Collegeview Rd E, in Rochester at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28. This event has been held for over 40 years and continues to be the leading information, technology and research outlet for cow/calf producers in the state of Minnesota. The 2016 event will feature information on cow/calf confinement systems, trace mineral nutrition and calf health protocols. Information on the Minnesota Grazing Lands Conservation Association and capturing more value from calves will also highlight the event. The corresponding tradeshow will feature vendors with new information, technology and products with a wide-array of practical uses for the operators in the cow/calf sector. The program is directed at cow/calf producers, allied industry representatives, and is open to the public. A meal will be served with the program and a registration fee of $20 will include the meal, proceedings book and program materials. More information can be found at the Cow/Calf Days Seminar Tour and Trade Show website at www.extension.umn.edu/beef. To pre-register, contact the Winona County Extension office at 507-457-6440 or Eric Mousel at 605-690-4974. A green rectangular box with a solar panel on top and weather instruments jutting into the air sits at the edge of Doug Hagers field south of Mankato. Theres a flume on the ground to the left, and beyond that is another green box, a trail camera and rain gauge. The setup looks mysterious, but all that equipment is helping Minnesota farmers protect water quality and soil fertility. Hagers farm is one of 11 Minnesota Discovery Farms, which is a farmer-led effort to collect real-world, on-farm water quality information from different types of farming systems. By making the information we collect available to farmers, it helps them make better nutrient management, tillage and other decisions, said Warren Formo, executive director of the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resources Center. We also want to use this data to explain whats happening on farms. The 11 Discovery Farms are located throughout the state and, in order to collect data that is usable for farmers across Minnesotas diverse farmlands, represent typical farms in each region. Hagers farm is representative of the upland, flat farmland located near ravines that open to creeks and rivers in southern Minnesota. We have an accurate picture of whats really leaving the field, said George Rehm, Discovery Farms Coordinator. This is real-world data from actual fields. So what has the Discovery Farms team learned after more than three years of data collection? Mainly, that nutrient management is not a one-size-fits all endeavor. For example, just because one farmer loses 15 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer per acre doesnt mean every farmer is losing the same from their fields. What works to help that farmer losing 15 pounds per acre reduce his losses might not work for a farmer in a different part of the state who is also working to reduce nutrient loss. As we find out local conditions that might lead to higher nutrient loss numbers, then we can do educational programs and nutrient management education to help bring those numbers down, Formo said. Remember the green box at the edge of Hagers field? Inside is equipment measuring water runoff going through the flume. The other green box measures water going through Hagers tiling system. The weather instruments help calculate evaporation so the Discovery Farms team knows exactly how much water went where. And its all monitored by video camera and computer. Its a great use of modern technology, Rehm said. And you have the great cooperation of farmers like Doug Hager. Hes right on top of things and hes really concerned about what goes on in his fields. This is the third year Discovery Farms has been monitoring Hagers field and the nutrient loss through surface runoff or the tile line has been minimal. Of course, losses vary throughout the 11 Discovery Farms sites. All the data can be viewed at www.discoveryfarms.org. Another unique aspect of Discovery Farms Minnesota is the support it receives from a variety of funding partners. In addition to grassroots farmer organizations like the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Discovery Farms receives support from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, MAWRC and local soil and water conservation districts. You dont see cooperation and partnerships like this in many other states, Rehm said. Its really a unique thing we can be proud of here in Minnesota. AARP and the Friends of the La Crescent Public Library will be providing free income tax assistance for 2015 tax returns for low-income and elderly individuals and families. Services include preparation of the federal and state returns, and the Minnesota property tax refund for renters and property owners. CHARLESTON, S.C. (TNS) Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed Sunday over health care and gun control in their final debate before voting begins in the Democratic presidential contest. The two main contenders were more combative than in their three previous debates as polls show the race tightening just two weeks before the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus Feb. 1. Clinton and Sanders are neck and neck in both Iowa and New Hampshire, site of the first primary. Both candidates, as well as former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, who is down in the polls, also outlined sharp differences with the large Republican field for president, especially front-runner Donald Trump. Main takeaway Sanders was on the defensive for most of the night, pressed on his plans to raises taxes on the middle class, his last-minute switch on controversial gun legislation and a newly released health care proposal. Clinton wasnt challenged on as many issues. That allowed her to play the aggressor early, especially on guns and health care, after largely ignoring Sanders for months. She was helped that the first questions were about gun control, race relations and drug addiction, which she has talked about for months on the campaign trail. Health care In one of the most contentious moments of the debate, the two offered sharply different visions of health care. Sanders pushed for a single-payer system that would replace the recently enacted Affordable Care Act based on private insurance. Clinton urged building on the existing system. Clinton accused Sanders of wanting to rip apart the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obamas signature legislative achievement, for the government-run plan that some have estimated to cost $15 trillion I dont want to see the Republicans repeal the Affordable Care Act, and I dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate, Clinton said. No one is tearing this up. Were going to go forward, Sanders said. Were not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it. Hours before the debate, Sanders released a plan to raise income taxes across the board, substantially more on high earners, to pay for a universal health care plan that includes an expansion of Medicare. He said the plan would ultimately save most families thousands of dollars a year on out-of-pocket health-care costs. Guns The two front-runners clashed over gun control with Clinton accusing Sanders of voting with the NRA and the gun lobby numerous times and saying that she was pleased that he had reversed his position on a 2005 vote to shield gun makers from lawsuits. He voted to let guns go onto Amtrak, guns go into national parks, she said. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Sanders, who a day earlier announced that hed now support a bill to strip legal immunity from gun manufacturers, called Clinton very disingenuous for suggesting that he was weak on gun control. He countered that he had a D-minus rating from the NRA, despite hailing from a state that does not embrace gun control. He dismissed Clintons suggestion he had flipped on the issue, saying he had not wanted smaller mom and pop gun shops to be held liable, but was now willing to back stronger provisions. Black voters In South Carolina, the first state where the black vote will dominate the Democratic primary, Sanders was pressed on his lack of support among minority voters. In 2008, African-Americans made up 55 percent of the Democratic primary vote in South Carolina and whites made up 43 percent, according to exit polls. Indeed, Clinton owes her lead in the state the first state where she does have a clear edge largely to a big lead there among African-Americans. She led among African-Americans by 78 percent-19 percent in a CBS News survey last month. But Sanders argued that as the African-American community becomes familiar with his record and agenda his numbers will increase as they have overall. Sanders called for taking a very hard look at the justice system and investing in jobs and education, not in jails and incarceration. Clinton called for a concerted effort to address what she called the systemic racism in our criminal justice system, including retraining police officers and looking at ways to end racial profiling. The Obama administration was right when it insisted that the capture and release of 10 American sailors by Iran showed the benefits of a cooperative relationship with Tehran. The crux of the arrangement is simple: The Iranians agree to humiliate us (and pursue their long war against the United States and their hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East), and we agree not to care. It is, as Secretary of State John Kerry says, diplomacy at its best. What Vice President Joe Biden called standard nautical practice involved the Iranians making our sailors get on their knees on their captured boats, eliciting an apology from the commander, and photographing and videotaping all of it to broadcast for propaganda purposes in clear violation of international law. This obviously wasnt another Carter-era Iranian hostage crisis (it wasnt even a hostage crisis), but it was another national humiliation to add to a sour public mood that President Barack Obama doesnt get, let alone understand his own role in creating. His State of the Union address was devoted to a pep talk for the country that did more to demonstrate that he is out of touch an occupational hazard for late-second-term presidents than that anyone is wrong to feel pessimistic. Yes, the economy has had a long recovery, but it has been slow and weak and, by some measures, hasnt been felt in much of the country. Yes, we are the most powerful nation on Earth, but our adversaries, from Vladimir Putin to the Islamic State to Iran, have been gaining and are eager to demonstrate our toothlessness in the case of ISIS, with spectacular acts of evil. The presidents version of world events in the State of the Union was particularly wan. He touted the marginal gains against ISIS without coming to grips with the catastrophes that made its rise possible; he boasted of the Iran nuclear deal, with nary a hint that the pact hasnt moderated Iranian behavior as hoped; and he spoke as though partnering with local forces and leading international efforts in Syria is an effective response to that countrys hellish meltdown. True to form, in what was supposed to be a visionary speech, Obama continually took ill-disguised shots at his potential Republican successors, Donald Trump foremost among them. He scolded the 2016 GOP field for its fear, cheap sound bites and pandering. There is all of that, of course it is a primary campaign, after all but there also is a deeper disgust with the direction of our country and the failures of its institutions, and a yearning for something better. The president can wave off the discontent Trump in particular is tapping into as ill-informed or distorted, but an overwhelming majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. It isnt just the right. The embodiment of the left-wing reaction to this discontent, Bernie Sanders, is drawing enormous crowds and threatening to defeat Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. The presidents line that anyone claiming that Americas economy is in decline is peddling fiction could have easily been directed at the Vermont socialist. The day after the State of the Union, the images from Iran emerged to provide a picture worth more than President Obamas 6,000 words. The president has actively sought Americas diminishment abroad. For him, this is a shrewd play that avoids costly entanglements and makes us stronger. But there is no doubt that we are less respected and feared around the world. The public feels it, and doesnt like it. President Obama may fancy himself above the old Thucydides trinity of motives honor, interest and fear but most people arent. Many of them, as a certain presidential candidate puts it, want to win again. They look at the photographs and videos of those American sailors, and it feels like a punch in the gut. The Obama administration looks at them and says to the Iranians, thank you very much. Milwaukee County Judge Joe Donald once supported state Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, one of his rivals in this years race for the high court. Donald was listed as a reference on Bradleys application for an appointment to the court of appeals in 2015 and endorsed her in a 2013 campaign to retain her seat as a Milwaukee County judge, the political website WisPolitics first reported Friday. Donald told WisPolitics he has since been bamboozled by Bradley. I really thought she was about being a trial court judge, Donald said. It became apparent that it had nothing to do with it, that this was clearly a process to put her in place to put her on the Supreme Court. Gov. Scott Walker appointed Bradley to the Supreme Court last fall, following the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks. The appointment came after Walker in 2012 appointed her to the Milwaukee County bench, and again to the District 1 Court of Appeals in May 2015. Donald did not return a phone call seeking comment. Campaign spokesman Andy Suchorski said in an interview that Donald supplied the reference because he was essentially a supervisor of Bradley, and that his endorsement in 2013 was part of a common practice on the part of judges to support incumbents. But Bradley in an interview said Donald offered his endorsement during her circuit court race unsolicited. Hes always been supportive of my judicial career and a friend to me, Bradley said. And, to me, this sounds like his campaign talking. Donald told WisPolitics he also was a reference for Judge Timothy Dugan, who applied for the post. In that reference, Donald wrote to Walker that In your review of all the candidates I can only hope that you will arrive at the same conclusion: that Tim will make a fantastic Court of Appeals judge. In an interview with the State Journal last week, Donald emphasized his desire to be an independent candidate and not one created to support conservatives or liberals, though he has drawn broad support from Democrats. Donald was first appointed to his seat by former Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. Bradley appointed to a temporary seat on the states highest court by Walker will face Donald and State Court of Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg in a Feb. 16 primary for a permanent seat. The top two vote-getters will face off in the general election April 5. Kloppenburg spokeswoman Melissa Mulliken said Donalds past support of Bradley and his explanation raise troubling questions. He allowed Rebecca Bradley to use his name as a reference, but when asked by the governors office he gave a better reference to another applicant for the same job? she asked. He was bamboozled into supporting Rebecca Bradley a year ago because he didnt understand who she was? Suchorski said its untrue Donald supported Bradley twice. The Kloppenburg campaign is grasping at straws here, he said. The Beat is New Mexico!---Do we have to be stuck at the bottom of the barrel?--- Perspectives from Southern NM and the border region On my first Rhodes trip I found this presumably Italian bunker while jogging. Three years in a row we have been spending a week or two on ... It shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem [in the war of Armageddon] shall even go up [to Jerusal... 2 days ago Scientists are developing a medical device that could tell them more about the human body, and help them develop more-effective treatments for cancer, heart disease and brain disorders. It would be the worlds first full-body PET scanner. PET stands for Positron Emission Tomography. PET scanners create 3-D images of what is happening in the body. Researchers are calling the large scanner that they are developing Explorer. It will give medical workers images of what is happening in the entire human body that have never been seen before. PET scanners now give doctors images of only parts of the body. The U.S. National Institutes of Health gave a research team at the University of California at Davis $15.5 million to build the scanner. Ramsey Badawi is a professor of radiology at UC Davis. He says the scanner will give researchers new information about how human organs work together. Were a system of organs and all the organs interact with each other. And weve never really been able to interrogate that with imaging before, and now were going to be able to look at that. X-rays and MRIs give images of bones and organs. PET scans show doctors how organs and tissues are working on a molecular level. These images help them identify and follow diseases. The new scanner will help them do that even better. Simon Cherry is a professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. He says the PET scans can show the progress of both disease and medical treatments. With PET scans were looking at function. Were actually able to say something about what the cells in the body are doing -- how actively theyre metabolizing, for example, or how quickly theyre dividing. Taking a cancer example, that could be tremendously powerful to see if, when you give a drug, whether that shuts down the metabolism of the tumor. PET scans use a radioactive substance to find tumors. Professor Cherry says the Explorer uses a much lower amount of radiation than current PET tests, and creates images more quickly. So we can do scans in maybe 30 seconds that currently take 20 minutes. Or we can drop the radiation dose significantly, and do scans at a fraction of the radiation dose that we currently do them at. A complete view could help researchers develop new medicines that target diseases and parts of the body. It could help doctors reduce harmful side effects by following the movement of medicines through the body. The researchers hope to test the Explorer with humans in three years. Im Christopher Jones-Cruise. Deborah Block reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. Jill Robbins was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story device n. an object, machine or piece of equipment that has been made for some special purpose scanner n. a medical device that is used to see inside something entire adj. complete or full; not lacking or leaving out any part interact v. to act together; to come together and have an effect on each other (often + with) interrogate v. to ask questions or research X-ray n. an image that is created by using X-rays and that is usually used for medical purposes MRI n. magnetic resonance imaging organs n. a part of the body (such as the heart or liver) that has a particular function tissue n. the material that forms the parts in a plant or animal function v. to work or operate molecular adj. relating to the smallest possible amount of a particular substance that has all the characteristics of that substance metabolize v. to change (food) into a form that can be used by the body; to process and use (substances brought into the body) by metabolism shut down expression to stop the operation of something, especially when a special process is required radioactive adj. having or producing a powerful and dangerous form of energy (called radiation) substance n. a material of a particular kind tumor n. a mass of tissue found in or on the body that is made up of abnormal cells dose n. the amount of a medicine, drug or vitamin that is taken at one time fraction n. a (usually small) part or amount of something side effect n. an often harmful and unwanted effect of a drug or chemical that occurs along with the desired effect A day after lifting economic sanctions against Iran for meeting the terms of the nuclear agreement, the U.S. announced new, limited sanctions against several Iranian citizens and companies for helping Irans ballistic missile program. The new sanctions were announced shortly after a plane carrying Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and two other American citizens, freed in a prisoner exchange, arrived in Switzerland. On Saturday, the U.S. released or dropped charges against seven Iranians either convicted or accused of helping Iran avoid the longstanding sanctions in exchange for Irans release of five Americans. The exchange came after the United Nations nuclear agency confirmed that Iran had met the conditions of an agreement it signed last July after two years of negotiations to limit its nuclear activities. Under the agreement, Iran moved almost all of its nuclear fuel out of the country, destroyed and removed its nuclear equipment and gave international inspectors greater access to its nuclear facilities. Shortly after the announcement that Iran had met the terms of the agreement, the United States and other world powers lifted oil and economic sanctions. They had severely damaged the Iranian economy. On Sunday, President Barack Obama said that strong American diplomacy led to the end of sanctions and the release of American prisoners held by Iran. Also on Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the new sanctions on five individuals and several companies. The president said last years nuclear agreement was never intended to resolve all of our differences with Iran. We will continue to enforce these (new) sanctions vigorously. We are going to remain vigilant about it. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech to the Iranian people that the country had entered a new chapter in its history. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed the nuclear agreement since it was announced. Saturday, after the UN said Iran had met the terms of the agreement, he warned that Iran has not ended its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilize the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world. Many of President Obamas political opponents also criticized the end of the sanctions. Im Jonathan Evans. VOANews.com reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story sanction 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, by not allowing economic aid for that country, etc. (usually plural) condition n. something that you must do or accept in order for something to happen access n. permission or the right to enter, get near, or make use of something or to have contact with someone (usually + to) vigorous adj. done with great force and energy vigilant adj. carefully noticing problems or signs of danger There has been praise and condemnation for Hollywood star Sean Penn this week. Sean Penn has had controversial moments throughout his public life. But this week, the public learned that Penn met with the leader of a brutal Mexican crime group. The Sinaloa group is known for especially vicious killings, torture and drug dealing. The actor interviewed Joaquin El Chapo Guzman in October 2015. Guzman had escaped from a Mexican federal prison in July. It was his second escape. He was on the lam from 2001 to 2014 after the first prison break. He was serving a 20-year sentence for murder and drug trafficking. Rolling Stone magazine published Penns interview online January 11. Mexican federal police recaptured El Chapo a day earlier. In his article, Penn explained why he wanted to meet the crime leader. The actor wrote that he wanted to explore what may be inconsistent with the American government and medias descriptions. Penn is a longtime political activist. He has involved himself in international affairs at high levels. In 2007, he met and befriended Hugo Chavez, who was then the socialist president of Venezuela. The U.S. government was not a fan of Chavez, who allied himself with Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro. When Chavez died in 2013, Penn said the U.S. lost a friend that it never knew it had. Penn also has met with Raul Castro. And he got involved in the Falklands dispute between Britain and Argentina. The actor met with Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in 2012, after Britain made military moves toward Argentina. Penn sided with Argentina in that dispute. He said the world would not accept archaic colonialist ideology. Penn has written about his experiences for the news media before. He visited Iraq in 2004, and Iran the following year. He wrote about those experiences for the San Francisco Chronicle. Penn had been to Iraq earlier to protest international military strikes against the country. The star also helped in times of natural disaster. He started a foundation to help victims of the earthquake in Haiti. He also went to New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina and reportedly rescued some survivors. And in 2012, Sean Penn went to Bolivia to visit a U.S. businessman jailed there. Jacob Ostreicher had been jailed for months and never charged with a crime. Penn promised to work for his release. A year later, Ostreicher was out of jail in the care of Penn. He has publicly thanked Penn for his efforts. Penns interaction with Joaquin Guzman, the drug kingpin, was set up by another actor. Kate del Castillo has expressed support for the crime group leader for several years. She said she believes the Mexican government is the more corrupt of the two. Guzman and Castillo exchanged a series of texts. She suggested that the criminal meet with Sean Penn. Reports now suggest that Guzman had never heard of Penn. His interest in meeting del Castillo was apparently stronger. Penn said in his Rolling Stone report that he wanted to see the other side of the drug war. He has said that professional journalists are too focused on talking to different sides in an issue. Perhaps this is why Sean Penn did not ask Guzman about the hundreds of reporters killed in Mexico to protect organized crime. Among the many media professionals angered by Penn, Mexican reporters are especially upset. Journalist Leon Krause wrote about the actors article in El Universal newspaper. He described it as perfect act of propaganda for Guzman. He wrote that Penns version of Guzman "is almost likeable if it wasn't for (his cartel's) 10,000 murders." Other reporters criticized Penn and Rolling Stone for sending the piece to Guzman for approval before publication. Sean Penn dismisses the journalistic objections to his story. He says the press is simply jealous that he was able to get to Guzman. But Penn also says his interview and article were a failure. He told television host Charlie Rose that he had hoped the story would start an honest and critical conversation about the drug war. But he said, "I have a regret that the entire discussion about this article ignores (that) purpose Officials in Mexico have said that Sean Penns interview helped them find and capture Guzman. Penn denies this and says he does not fear the Sinaloa crime group. Im Caty Weaver. Caty Weaver wrote this story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. Do you consider Sean Penn a journalist? Do you respect his work in the field? Write to us in the comments section or on our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story controversial - adj. relating to or causing much discussion, disagreement, or argument brutal - adj. extremely cruel or harsh interview - v. to question or talk with (someone) in order to get information or learn about that person on the lam - expression trying to avoid being caught by the police inconsistent - adj. not in agreement with something archaic - adj. old and no longer used ideology - n. the set of ideas and beliefs of a group or political party kingpin - n. a person who controls an organization or activity conversation - n. an informal talk involving two people or a small group of people: the act of talking in an informal way The government of Sierra Leone is investigating an agreement to import waste from Lebanon. The agreement permits the import of non-hazardous waste into Sierra Leone. It does not permit the import of toxic or dangerous materials. The agreement was negotiated by Ibrahim Ben Kargbo. He is a former minister and senior presidential aide. He was recently elected to parliament. In a statement released Monday, the government said it did not give permission to Kargbo to negotiate the deal. It said President Ernest Bai Koroma had ordered an investigation of the deal. It said it understands the health and environmental risks of toxic wastes and would not expose its citizens to such wastes. Kargbo told VOA that the agreement was part of a deal to build a fertilizer factory. He said he wrote a letter of agreement to a representative of a Dutch farm in Lebanon who said he wanted to come here and set up a plant to manufacture fertilizer. I did inform him in that letter that if he wanted to go through the process of investing in this country, he should be very certain that, even if it is utilizing domestic waste, it should be toxic-free. Kargbo also said he told the representative that none of the imported waste can be toxic and that the agreement had to be approved by the government. On Monday, investigators questioned Kargbo. He says he told them the letter of agreement came from his office. But he says the investigators released him because there was nothing illegal about the agreement. He says he protected his country from the import of toxic waste. He said he was only working with the Dutch company to build a fertilizer factory in his country, which does not have such a factory. Kargbo said President Koroma was not told about the agreement because it was still being negotiated. But he says the president would have been told about it. He says investors were to first meet with lower-level government officials. Then, when it was clear what the investors wanted to do, the president would be told. Im Christopher Jones-Cruise. VOA's James Butty reported on this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. Do you believe your country should permit the import of non-hazardous waste? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story hazardous adj. dangerous or harmful toxic adj. containing poisonous substances expose v. to cause (someone) to experience something or to be influenced or affected by something, sometimes negatively (often + to) plant n. a building or factory where something is made utilize v. to use (something) for a particular purpose The government of Zimbabwe is denying a report that President Robert Mugabe has suffered a heart attack. Presidential spokesman George Charamba told reporters on Thursday that the report by the website ZimEye.net was false. He said the report was published to increase the number of users, or people who visit the website, so its owners could increase their earnings. Reports that Mugabes health is poor are common. He will be 92 next month. He leaves the country for a long vacation every January. The presidents spokesman does not usually react to reports about the presidents health. But this time, Charamba complained about frequent reports that Mugabe has died. He said you cannot doubt that there will be a story on the presidents alleged death every January. Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, when the country gained independence from Britain. He is the worlds oldest head of state. He has said he does not suffer from poor health. But last year he fell down stairs at Harare airport. And in September, he read the same speech to parliament that he had given a month earlier. His long rule and his age have created concerns about what will happen to the presidency after his death. Some experts believe Senior Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa will become president. But the presidents wife, Grace Mugabe, has been making political moves. She is the head of the womens membership group of the ruling ZANU-PF party. Im Christopher Jones-Cruise. VOANews.com reported on this story . Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted for the story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story vacation - n. a period when someone spends time away from home, school or business, usually for traveling complained - v. saying or writing about something you do not like frequent - adj. many times; often doubt - n. a feeling of being unsure about something alleged - adj. accused or suspected of doing something stairs - n. a series of steps that go from one level of a building to the next Richard Lamphere, 78, of Albany, passed away Friday in Eugene. Arrangements are by Fisher Funeral Home. Most of us go through life so absorbed in the cocoon of ourselves that we rarely stop to consider the other. Of course, we think that we do; indeed, we may pride ourselves on our capacity for empathy; we may be considerate and thoughtful in our dealings with others, but how often do we stand before them. so to speak, and experience what it is to be them?--Domenica Macdonald The Unbearable Lightness of Scones Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.--Katharine Hepburn +++ One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship "Two people... told me that the word "Christian" would turn people off. I wouldn't mind if to be a Christian were accepted as being the dangerous thing which it is. I wouldn't mind if, when a group of Christians meet for bread and wine, we might well be interrupted and jailed for subversive activities. I wouldn't mind if, once again, we were being thrown to the lions. I do mind, desperately, that the word "Christian" means for so many people smugness, and piosity, and holier-than-thoughness. Who, today, can recognize a Christian because of "how those Christians love one another"?--Madeline L'Engle, "A Circle of Quiet" , by Alexander McCallSmith+++--Audrey Hepburn+++Agatha Christie+++ The Plum Creek Community Players (PCCP) are pleased to announce they will host the Missoula Childrens Theatre (MCT) in Lexington from Feb. 15-20, 2016, for a production of the MCT version of Rapunzel. In recent years PCCP has hosted MCT for productions of Cinderella and Treasure Island at the LexingtonMiddle School. The middle school will again be the site for the 2016 production and performance. MCT, based in Missoula, Montana, is the nations largest touring childrens theatre will visit nearly 1,200 communities this year with up to 44 teams of Tour Actor/Directors. A tour team arrives in a given town with a set, lights, costumes, props and make-up, everything it takes to put on a play...except the cast. The team holds an open audition and casts 50-60 local students to perform in the production. The show is rehearsed throughout the week and two public performances are presented on Saturday during the week of their visit. All MCT shows are original adaptations of classic childrens stories and fairytales . . . a twist on the classic stories that you know and love. Also included in the residency are three enrichment workshops presented by the Tour Actor/Directors. Creativity, social skills, goal achievement, communication skills and self-esteem are all characteristics that are attained through the participation in this unique, educational project. MCT's mission is the development of lifeskills in children through participation in the performing arts. More details on the MCT visit will be shared through area elementary, middle and high schools during January. Area students in kindergarten through 12th grade are eligible to audition for the 50-60 cast positions or volunteer as support crew for the production. Please mark Feb. 15-20 on your calendars and be watching local media for signup and audition information. A Regular Commentary on Strategic Affairs from a Leading Commentator and Analyst 2021 book: Future War and the Defence of Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press) The London Guantanamo has been campaigning since 2006 for the return of all British residents from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, the release of all prisoners, the closure of this prison and other similar prisons and an end to the practice of extraordinary rendition. Human rights for all. Highlighting Louisiana books and authors and literary events happening in the Bayou State. An analysis of the latest happenings in the area of Elementary/Secondary education with emphasis on state level policies as they affect teachers and school administrators. Send any comments or suggestions to louisianaeducator@gmail.com By: Michael Deshotels News Story not available This story has been published on: 2022-10-20. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. This story is no longer available on our site. Comment Policy Advance Indiana allows you to post comments via this blog subject to the guidelines set forth herein. You understand that any comments you post are your own and are not those of Advance Indiana. You further understand that Advance Indiana is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced in your comments. 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Actor Gulshan Grover, who attended Mr Bedi's birthday celebration on Saturday night, said that he wished him 10 more marriages. "I admire him and he has done some tremendous work. He is someone I look up to and he is the nicest person in the show business. Wishes come from heart. I wish him all the very best and I wish him 10 more marriages," Mr Grover told reporters at Mr Bedi's birthday celebration on Saturday. Mr Bedi, who walked the red carpet with Parveen Dusanj said, "Welcome to my annual 70th birthday. I have always said anybody in this business who survives 25 years or more deserves an Oscar for survival so I am an 'Oscocanadian' in that sense." "I wish to thank every single person who has loved me, wished me, supported me and wanted the best for me. I hope I live up to their expectation and believe me the best is yet to come," he added. (Also Read: Sandokan Director Changed Kabir Bedi's Life 'Forever') Ms Parveen further revealed that a Sufi band from Delhi has been called on his birthday and many more surprises were waiting for him. The couple had visited a gurudwara on Thursday to seek blessings. The wedding was held on Friday, attended by close family and friends. IANS Kolkata: Award-winning documentary filmmaker Supriyo Sen feels people talk about the World War II but shy away from discussing Partition of the country, which caused the biggest migration in history. "Political reality of the sub-continent changed because of Partition - both economically and politically. But people more talk about the Holocaust and Second World War but not about Partition, which was responsible for the biggest migration in history," he told PTI. The director was speaking after the screening of his short film 'Wagah', which has won over 50 international awards including Karlovy Vary in 2009. 'Wagah' was screened as part of the 'Beyond Frontiers' art show - a two-day meet of filmmakers, photographers, music performances and discourse "centred on shadow lands of constructed geographical borders". Supriyo feels that coming from a refugee background helped him identify the angst of the displaced. "I remember while making Wagah I did not get the visa to go to Pakistan. I was sitting in the visitors' gallery on our side of the border to watch the parade. My producer was a German and we had a cameraman from Pakistan shooting from the other side. This seemed to me the funniest experience and that element was there in the narration." Supriyo has to his credit other foreign festival feted shorts like 'The Nest', 'Way Back Home', 'Hope Dies Last in War', 'Why Not Tell Stories in a Smaller Way'. "I believe many important things can be narrated in a brief span. While feature films will have their place, short films are important to reach out to the younger generation who might have lesser attention span. Some of the present day audiences might not be inclined to the two-and-half to three-hour format of story telling. "In fact I think both formats will thrive and cater to their audiences," he said. Supriyo said west has a vibrant short film culture unlike India where "Many people are making short films, but not seriously." To a question, he said he would be making his feature debut soon which will reflect his vision on social reality. PTI Rohith Vemula (26), a second year PhD student at University of Hyderabad, committed suicide on Sunday evening. According to The New Indian Express report, Vemula was active in student politics, but had grown increasingly silent after the disciplinary action was initiated against him by the university. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups said Rohith was highly depressed due to suspension and expulsion from the hostel. According to the latest CNN IBN report, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and University vice chancellor have been booked under SC/ST act. JNU students are protesting over this issue near the HRD ministry and have written a letter to Smriti Irani about the same, seeking resignation of the Hyderabad University's VC. What led to the incident This incident stems from an incident that occurred in August last year, the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), along with Ambedkar Reading Group, University of Delhi, Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, IIT Madras, ASA (TISS) in Mumbai and concerned students from IIT Bombay issued a joint statement condemning an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attack on screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hain. Later, ASA's University of Hyderabad chapter organised a protest demonstration. According to Counter Currents, five dalit students were asked to vacate their accommodation in January 2016 and were asked to find different quarters for themselves. Their living spaces were locked by the hostel administration. One of the reasons cited for this was that the students opposed the death sentences awarded to Yakub Memon. JAC said the student was hurt due to the social boycott. The research scholars were expelled from their hostel in December. They were denied access to hostels and other buildings on the campus except their classroom, library and conferences and workshops related to their subject of study. They were evicted from their rooms on January and since then they were forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus. he screening of Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hain was stalled by the ABVP and according to the report on Counter Currents, derogatory remarks against ASA students were made on the Facebook page. When an apology was demanded, local BJP and RSS supporters pressurised the vice-chancellor of the university to expel the ASA leaders based on "false allegations". This did not stick because of student protests. According to another report on Counter Currents on this issue, the students (Dontha Prashanth, Rohith Vemula, Vijay Kumar, Seshu Chemudugunta and Sunkanna) were also denied permission to participate in the student union elections. After the then VC's retirement, new chancellor Apparao was appointed. Apparao promptly dismissed the students after receiving a letter from the HRD ministry. The move was recommended by Bandaru Dattatreya, Secunderabad MP and Minister of Labour and Employment, who called the ASA group "casteist, extremist and anti-national". Read the letter here. The suicide and student politics Vemula, the UoH student who committed suicide by hanging himself on the university campus on Sunday; The used the blue banner of ASA for hanging. Vemula was known for his active participation in student politics. However, post the disciplinary action initiated against him by the varsity administration, he had grown extraordinarily silent. He along with four other suspended students had been staging protest on the campus for last 15 days. They were sleeping in open to protest expulsion from the hostel. On Sunday, Rohith left the camp to spend the day in NRS hostel room. Pranay Rupani, a fellow PhD student who met with Vemula during the protests told Firstpost, "The University Administration could have handled this so much better and in the process saved the life of a young research scholar. The University is nothing like that, and the minister of labour and employment should be busy creating jobs not getting involved in a campus scuffles." Criticising the way the university administration is trying to stifle dissent among students, Rupani added, "If we cannot have a free opinion in an informed deliberative space like a University then what is the use of a democracy, what is the use of my vote." Shortly after the news of his suicide broke, various student activist groups have expressed their solidarity and support. Ambedkar Periyar Circle tweeted: According to this NDTV report, a group of students sat with Vemula's body all night and refused to allow a funeral unless the university authorities gave them a listen. A police team arrived later and took the body and eight students were arrested. Rupani mentioned that police lathi charged students, including the mother and sister who were present near the dead body. The police took the body away for post mortem after a scuffle. Brutal lathi charge on protesting students in University of Hyderabad! Posted by Arpita Jaya on Sunday, January 17, 2016 Speaking to Firstpost, Rupani said that the university sent a letter stating the university will be closed without disclosing any information. In his suicide letter, Vemula wrote that he "always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write...Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs colored. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt. The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living." Drawing attention to the fact that he had yet to receive a pending scholarship stipend worth Rs 1,75,000, Vemula urged readers to ensure that the sum be disbursed to his family. Read the entire letter: Letter Source With agency inputs The Dawood of Tamil Nadu 'Don Sridhar' is ready to return to his home state from his lair in Dubai if he is assured of a fair trial, reports The Indian Express. Sridhar Dhanapalan or 'Don Sridhar' re-appeared on the police radar on January 3, when he threatened a police inspector in Kanchipuram over phone after at least seven of his associates, including his brother, were detained under the Goonda Act. 'Don Sridhar' Tamil Nadu's most wanted man, is reportedly in Dubai and runs a real estate mafia near Chennai "worth at least Rs 500 crore." The Express reports that Sridhar has at least 43 cases against him of which seven are for murder. Sridhar, now around 43 years old, began as an illicit liquor-seller in Kanchipuram. His business visa reportedly expires in 2017; The Express reports that Sridhar fears he may be killed in an "encounter" with the TN police. If the Tamil Nadu DGP or a good IPS officer asks me to come tomorrow and promises me a fair trial, I am happy to settle all my cases. They dont have to kill me in an encounter, I myself will commit suicide with cyanide if there is any basis for the charges against me, Sridhar told The Indian Express. A red corner notice has been issued against Don Sridhar. Senior police officers also confirmed that Dhanapalan left India in March-April 2013 after being released from prison following a six-month term and hasnt returned from Dubai since. They said he had previously undergone multiple jail terms on a number of cases. Police and Dhanapalan confirmed that his passport was cancelled in 2015, and an Interpol notice issued in his name. By Sriram Karri Rohith Vemula was a bright 26-year-old PhD student on the politically active and (recently) intensely controversial Hyderabad Central University (HCU) campus, who was among five students suspended by the administration and protesting against it. He had potential and a bright future ahead. Had. He might have been someone. Might have. Now, he is gone and the very politics that consumed him on one of Indias best campuses, is back to make a spectacle and score brownie points, even as we are adeptly missing the most crucial point. He hanged himself in the room of a friend, to whom he apologised in his final letter: His suspension meant that he was not allowed into the public areas, including the hostel; and was therefore camping in the open. Simmering political confrontations Trouble has been brewing on campus for over a year now with the ABVP and Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) and Telangana SFI being in constant conflict. Events organised by Leftist students associations such as the Kiss of Love, Beef Festival and a memorial for Yakub Memon after he was hanged and protests against increased police presence and intervention by police were opposed by the ABVP students. The current round of confrontation began when the ABVP complained against five students, including Rohith, of attacking them during the protests and counter-protests over the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai and the funeral prayer organised for Yakub Memon. The previous committee led by the vice-chancellor absolved the five charged students of any wrong-doing. A new committee was set up by the new VC to investigate the matter again, which with the intervention of a BJP Member of Legislative Council and a letter from Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya to Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, led to both the police registering a case and the five Dalit students being suspended. Students feel this is yet another instance of right-wing domination of the life of students and the culture of the campus. Who cares enough to counsel? Despite the trouble and increasing tension on campus, while politicians prepared to fight on both sides, nobody bothered to reach out humanely to the students protesting by camping in the open. The suicide of students on Indias best campuses is a tragedy that we do not wish to acknowledge or recognise. Aamir Khan's character asked the question in 3 Idiots: If we have such a high alarming number of suicides on our college and university campuses, something must be wrong We ignored it. And we will perhaps ignore the last angst of Rohith Vemula, the boy who might have been. He was a Dalit. He was a PhD student. He was suspended. He was part of the ASA, and in confrontation with the students of the ABVP on campus. But he is more He loved science. He said he wanted to become a science writer like Carl Sagan. In the humdrum and pandemonium of politicised campuses, such subtle tunes are lost. Profound last words The last words Rohith Vemula wrote were profound, noble and far more benevolent than the campus politics that killed him. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone, he wrote. He did not hate anyone or wish to use his final act against anyone, including those he was fighting against. He was making a more profound point. A point we will love to miss. Newspaper headlines are already screaming: 'Dalit student kills himself'. The angst was not based on caste, despite the seeming backdrop of political confrontation. He did not find space in the campus to pursue his true love science. He was sucked into the black-hole of mutual destruction by binaries that campus politics has become: You are either this or that, you are either with us or against us. Politics damning core purpose of varsities What he was born as has dominated the narrative so much, that what he wanted to become was buried, and never given a chance. The suspension, police entry into campus, frisking, cases, violence, dharnas, beef festivals, counter pork festival, strikes have all enough justification and spokesperson, have a point of view, but together failed in the basic promise that he would have space to purse his real passion in science. Report after report, mis-event after mis-event, I have spoken to students from the campus, including two who were friendly with Rohith and knew him irrespective of the department they hailed from, they only spoke politics. Students have power to shape nations. They have a larger responsibility to their community and in opposing fascist policies of the government, Syed Mohib Ali, an M.Phil economics student on campus, told me three evenings ago. Actually, they dont. They have a responsibility to themselves, to their mission of becoming better minds and finding place in society; from which point both directly, and indirectly as a role model, they could achieve a lot more for themselves, as well as their social roots. Students are not politically powerful. They are misled into thinking so by groups which wish to misuse them for their political ends. Politics on campus is vicious, despite the unimpeachable need to create concerned citizens with a awakened sense of country, political awareness and willingness to fight for a cause. But not by creating a permanent divide between students based on party lines. Not by setting an inescapable agenda to protest and fight at all times. Lost message and opportunity Since morning, the campus has been tense. His body was blocked by students from being taken away, making demands from retraction of the suspension of the other students, action against the ABVP students for registering false complaints, apology from union minister Dattatreya, withdrawal of police presence, punishing the committee which suspended the students, among others. Instead, the police charged in, over 100 of them, imposed section 144 and removed the body forcibly. The students in protest have created a Facebook page to take their message. But sadly, the politics that took his life will make a spectacle of him. It will become another pitch to battle ASA versus ABVP; left versus right; this versus that and skip the larger question can campuses allow politics to completely overtake their mission of academics, of their responsibility to produce successful people who will rise in life, and above all, give them a good intellectual-curiosity and learning providing ecosystem? Can we let our campuses become recruiting grounds for political parties And little else? Rohiths death should and could become our mission, a lesson for all of us and we should speak up. What died was a dream, before its time and nothing is more painful or tragic. Who died was a science writer who wanted to explore the universe, staring at the stars; but was stuck in the mud of group violence and a self-serving polity. Let my funeral be silent and smooth, he wrote as his last wish. Instead, student organisations claiming to represent him have called for a bandh, and are demanding removal of vice-chancellor and chief warden. Slogans holding Union ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani responsible for his death and seeking cases for SC/ST atrocities against the vice-chancellor have arisen. We must will this death to be the last on any of our campuses. We must not let politics eat into our campuses. We must stop the burden imposed on Rohith, the Dalit, and preventing him becoming Rohith, the science writer. As slaves of the past, we cannot poison forever the possibility of the future. Most students fear the campus would have more confrontations, more police presence, more agitations, and tension in coming months. We will lose more freedoms we will face more police action. More decisions will be thrust on us what we can eat, what we can wear, what we can say, and what we can believe, said Mohib Ali. If there is anything at all I believe, I believe that I can travel to the stars, Rohith signed off. Let it become the true mission of all students and campuses in our country. Sriram Karri is the author of the bestselling novel Autobiography of a Mad Nation, which was long-listed for the MAN Asian Literary prize. The author is based in Hyderabad and his research interests lie in student politics and its role in the affairs of the nation. Indore: Appealing the Congress to shed its "ego", Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the opposition should facilitate passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the national interest. "National interest should be above the political ego. I appeal to Congress that it should give up the ego so that GST bill gets cleared in the Parliament," he said. After losing the general elections, Congress was putting up impractical conditions on GST and some of these conditions, if accepted, would infringe on the states' rights, he said. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had said in Mumbai two days ago that if the NDA government accepted its three conditions, the GST bill can be passed quickly. Prasad, however, said the Congress had not yet come to terms with its defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, or it perhaps believed it would never come to power again. The senior BJP leader said that one should wait for the Supreme Court's decision on Ram temple at Ayodhya, but a large section of the society is of the view that the issue should be sorted out through consensus. On the call drop issue, Prasad pointed out that the private telecom companies set up 25,000 towers in the last three months following the government's tough stand. The state-run BSNL had put up many towers to improve its network in the last two years. On NDA government's stand on the net neutrality, Prasad said there were different views on it world-over, and before taking a policy decision the government was waiting for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's report. Alleging that the law and order situation in Bihar was worrisome, Prasad said the Nitish Kumar government should crack down on criminals and a message that this government was finding itself overwhelmed by the criminals should not go out. PTI The All India Hindu Federation has lodged a complaint against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for hurting religious sentiments by allegedly posing as Lord Vishnu in a video. We saw a video of Gurmeet Ram Rahim where he poses as Lord Vishnu, this has hurt religious sentiments of people, said Nishant Sharma, President, All India Hindu Federation. The video shows the Dera chief in multiple outfits, not just the godly. Apart from playing the beatific Vishnu blessing the faithful, Ram Rahim also turns out in a fitted white tee and green pants that look like a cross between a patiala salwar and a silk night pant, posing near fountains and foliage while the bhajan-like background music drones on. The complaint came a week after comedian Kiku Sharda was arrested for mimicking Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh on his show. Kiku was arrested for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the self-styled godmans followers. Slamming the arrest of comedian Kiku Sharda last week, Congress said such actions make India look like a "tin pot republic" and the Haryana Police should be "ashamed" of carrying out the arrest. Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said comedians like Kiku should be awarded, not arrested. "Arrest of #kikusharda a slap on judicial system,where killing people is ok, but mimicking will land u in jail ! "V look like tin pot republic or like sum imploding nbours," he said in a series of tweets. "As nation & as individuals v shd be proud to laugh at ourselves. Comedians like Palak shd be awarded not arrested. He makes us laugh so much" The Haryana Police should be "ashamed" of carrying out the arrest, Singhvi said. "V as nation & as persons esp Haryana Police shd b ashamed that comedian Sharda (palak) was arrested!V r proud of vibrant demo & free speech!". Arrest of #kikusharda a slap on judicial system,where killing people is ok, but mimicking will land u in jail ! Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 13, 2016 Abs no limit of ctal free speech/reasonableness/decency crossed by Sharda "palak". V look like tinpot republic or like sum imploding nbours. Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 14, 2016 As nation & as individuals v shd be proud to laugh at ourselves. Comedians like palak shd be awarded not arrested. He makes us laugh so much Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 14, 2016 V as nation & as persons esp haryana police shd b ashamed that comedian Sharda (palak) was arrested!V r proud of vibrant demo & free speech! Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) January 14, 2016 Kiku Sharda was arrested by Haryana Police on Wednesday on a complaint alleging that he hurt religious sentiments by mocking Dera Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. With PTI New Delhi: A woman, alleging a "CNG scam" in the AAP government, threw ink at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday at a public gathering held here to mark the "success" of the odd-even traffic restriction scheme but missed him. Kejriwal, who was speaking at the Chhatrasal Stadium in north Delhi, remained unruffled. Police detained the woman. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and the Aam Aadmi Party accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and Delhi Police of conspiring to attack Kejriwal, but union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju expressed dismay over the charges, saying that he was "upset" over the accusations. Delhi Police denied the allegation and termed them "misconceived and unfounded". "Adequate arrangements were in place. As far as the allegations are concerned, these are misconceived and unfounded," Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said. He said a case has been registered against the woman. The woman, who identified herself as Bhawna Arora from the Aam Aadmi Party's breakaway group in Punjab, managed to reach near the stage to fling the ink. "A very big scam has taken place. I have proof. They are involved in a CNG scam," she said. Kejriwal asked the police officials, who were seen taking the woman away, to "let her go". "She is talking about a scam. Take papers from her. Let her go," he said. Sisodia alleged it was a "conspiracy" to attack Kejriwal and his ministers. "There was no security provided by Delhi Police. It is a conspiracy by the BJP and Delhi Police is also involved in it," Sisodia said after the incident. "Who will take the responsibility if any woman or man throws acid at Delhi's chief minister where thousands of people are sitting. What if a bomb goes off," he asked. The AAP said: "At a time when Delhi Police claimed to be on a high alert after 'fidayeen' attack in Pathankot, it is unimaginable that in this state of alertness, an ordinary woman easily breaches the security cordon of the Delhi Police and attacks Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal without connivance of Delhi Police officials." IANS The Aam Aadmi Party would like to believe that the ink attack on Arvind Kejriwal at Chatrasal stadium on Sunday is part of a much larger conspiracy. Aap log iss baat ka intajar kar rahen hai ki Arvindji ka katal ho jaye?...bada rehearsal kiya ja raha hai. Test kiya ja raha hai (Are you guys are waiting that Arvind Kejriwal is killed?...Big rehearsals are taking place , tests are conducted), AAP leader Ashutosh told the media today. He added that's the way big assassinations have taken place. So, what could be Bhavna Aroras motive? Prime facie, she, like many other youngsters, appears to be inspired by the idea of transparency and probity in public life. Looks and initial ideas about anyone can be deceptive but her mode of public protest at Chatrasal stadium doesn't put her in the bracket AAP spokespersons want to place her. Is it Ashutosh's intention to let people speculate, all negatively, about the girl in her early or mid-20s? The provocation for the alarmist statement was a question at his media conference as to why AAP was making such big fuss about the supposed lapse in Kejriwal's security when it had earlier opposed the security paraphernalia for him. The party now wants a highest level of security protocol for the Delhi chief minister. Though it's not saying it in as many words, elaborate statements ranging from Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia downward make it clear. It's true that it is the job of the security agencies to protect a public personality, an occupant of high constitutional post, or for that matter any ordinary citizen but why resort to such tactic to seek enhanced security for the Delhi chief minister? The AAP leaders, what has by now become a settled practice for them, would not settle for anything less than a response from the prime minister. It doesn't matter that they have already blamed prime minister for the "security lapse". The AAP wants heads to roll in Delhi Police and the security establishment. But for that someone must explain for what crime or what kind of dereliction of duty. AAP says what if she was a terrorist? It linked the incident to Pathankot incident and so on. That's, of course, an absurd argument to make. The AAP and Delhi chief minister are getting paranoid over a simple minor incident of ink-throwing. The question now is why? Before anyone could ask questions about who the lady was and what were her grievances she claims she was not allowed to meet the powers that be in the AAP establishment in Delhi the partys think tank decided to give the incident a spin. A conspiracy angle was found; the BJP was blamed for conspiring and conniving with the girl; and then it went to an absurd limit of a "rehearsal" for possible assassination of Delhi chief minister. Post the incident, the AAP is looking at a pattern, a conspiracy of sorts, by claiming that Kejriwal was not attacked during his journey to Punjab or on return from there after addressing a public rally. Calling an incident of ink throwing as "ink attack" gives the impression that some kind of crime has been committed as in case of an acid attack. Ink-throwing gets status of an attack, which is suggestive of some kind of an act intended to cause hurt and violence. The IPC or CrPC does not have any provision to bracket it as attack and accordingly, book the person under existing provisions of the law who throws ink on another person of whatever stature. Ink-throwing is an attention-seeking mode of protest, perhaps a step ahead of waving a black flag or shouting murdabad. Whether or not this should be taken as yet another mode of non-violent public protest is a matter of debate. The AAP should remember that it chose Jarnail Singh, who hurled a shoe at then finance minister P Chidambaram at a press conference at AICC headquarters way back in April 2009, as its official candidate for 2014 parliamentary elections. New York: The Secretary did not answer your question! Bernie Sanders called Hillary Clintons bluff fair and square in the last Democratic debate before America begins voting in the first of the presidential nominating contests early Febuary. The final democratic debate was checked off Sunday, 17 January in South Carolina, a southern state where black votes will count heavily. Desperate to yank her sinking poll numbers up, Clinton ditched her earlier refrain Obama picked me for Secretary of State and instead painted arch rival Sanders, 75, as the anti-Obama Democrats must fear. Links:As Iowa caucus nears, ghosts from the 1990s are back to haunt Clinton Explainer: Iowa and its perplexing election process Angry old man Bernie Sanders' rock star appeal is denting Clinton's ratings almost as badly as it did in 2008 when a young man named Barack Obama demolished her in Iowa. Sanders speaks of a political revolution that would offer vast new government-funded benefits to individual Americans, including health insurance, paid maternity leave and free tuition at public colleges. We cant afford to undo @POTUS progress. Health care for millions of Americans is too important. https://t.co/mdt5rTDsNN Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 18, 2016 Defending Obama as a Moses-like figure under attack from Sanders, Clinton painted the Vermont Senator as just the guy you want to avoid on a train ride. Under attack for her cosy relationship with the wealthy, Clinton wounded Sanders repeatedly on gun control. "He voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak, guns go into National Parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives," Clinton said. In 2009, Sanders voted to allow Amtrak passengers to store firearms in their checked luggage. President Obama eventually signed this provision into law in a separate bill. That year, Sanders also voted for a bill to allow licensed gun owners to bring firearms into national parks. President Obama eventually signed that bill into law, too. Sanders responded painting Clinton as precisely the kind of person the American economy is rigged to protect that Clinton wore diamond studded jewellery helped further the angy old mans rallying cry. How can you expect a person who takes $ 600,000 as speaking fees from Goldman Sachs to do anything about Wall Street, he asked. In answer, Clinton hugged Obama tighter than ever, hoping the audience forgets the zeroes in $ 600,000. She also offered the Dodd Frank refrain as a defence. Dodd who? Like Sanders rammed in, the Secretary did not answer to the questions. She used Obama as a shield, offering 4 more years of the same. Sanders offered revolution, police officers that look like the community they work in, taxes on Wall Streets speculative activity, "medical insurance for all." "I don't need Wall Street's money, I am fighting for a political revolution that rises from the middle class and those are the people who are funding my campaign," Sanders said lashing out at "corrupt campaign financing." How come Senator Sanders is beating you 2-1 with young voters? the NBC moderator asked Clinton in a debate that leaned heavily on social media indicators to inform the second line of questioning. This snapshot from Sanders twitter page answers that. Its the thing thats worrying the Clinton camp most. Its why emails like these are spewing out from the Clinton camp: I just finished the last debate of this primary before voting begins. We always knew that this election would get close and that wed have a real race on our hands -- well, now were in one. And another: Public polling shows we have a real race on our hands in Iowa and New Hampshire -- and make no mistake, we could lose one or both of these contests. This one comes from John Podesta, Chair, Hillary for America. Where do the candidates get their money? #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/mlazemqWN2 Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 18, 2016 I hope Hillary had a good lunch, because somebody ate hers today, said John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary magazine on how the debate went for the former Secretary of State. From the beginning, Clinton was perceived as too negative toward Sanders. The attacks not only didnt resonate, they made him appear even stronger as he was able to reinforce his message in response, said Chris Kofinis of Park Street Strategies, which conducted a focus group of likely Democratic voters in South Carolina. In hugging Obama so tight, Clinton, in her desperation to wrest Iowa, has gone to the other extreme of her original campaign rhetoric: "I'm not running for my husband's third term. I'm not running for President Obama's third term. I'm running for my first term." With Sanders in a dead heat with Clinton in Iowa and ahead of her in New Hampshire, Clinton's line that she's running for her first term is not working. By embracing Obama's legacy so abruptly, Clinton has just given her "enemies" the Republicans, the tag line for their next ad: How do you know what she will say next? Karachi: Pakistan's former dictator General Pervez Musharraf was on Monday acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the 2006 murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the first major relief to the ex-military ruler entangled in several high-profile cases. Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for resource-rich Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest province. He was killed in a military operation on the orders of then president and army chief Musharraf in the restive province in 2006. Musharraf ordered the military crackdown in Balochistan in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the southwestern province. 72-year-old Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered Bugti's killing. The court in Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti's eldest son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, Dawn reported. "They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free," Rajput said. "We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it," Rajput told reporters outside court. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti's killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Balochistan nationalists have accused Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, of exploiting their natural resources. Two co-accused - Musharraf's then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan- were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. PTI Charleston, South Carolina: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders jumped headlong into Sunday night's presidential debate by tangling over who's tougher on gun control and sketching sharply differing visions for the future of health care in America. It was the last Democratic match-up before voting in the 2016 primary race begins in two weeks, with both sides intent on seizing the momentum. Clinton rapped Sanders, the Vermont senator, for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. We must end mass incarcerationreform mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenses, increase mental health & drug treatment, & more. Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 18, 2016 Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was "disingenuous." On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman and child as a right." Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care plan. Health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege. This is not a radical idea. It exists in every other major country on earth. Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 18, 2016 The debate over gun control an ongoing conflict between Clinton and Sanders took on special import given the setting. The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. On Saturday night, Sanders announced his support for legislation that would reverse a 2005 law he had supported that granted gun manufacturers legal immunity. His changed position came in a statement after days of criticism from Clinton, who had attempted to use his previous vote to undercut his liberal image. In an interview with Time magazine on Sunday, Sanders said that his plan would ultimately save taxpayers money by lowering their health care bills. Sanders, meanwhile, has questioned Clinton's liberal credentials, casting the former secretary of state as a Wall Street ally who will switch her positions for political gain. But he's vowed to forgo negative attacks, a position that may be hard to maintain as the race intensifies. Both candidates are competing for black voters in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth primary contest. At a party fundraising dinner Saturday night, they vowed to change criminal justice policies. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who's been stuck in single digits since announcing his campaign last spring, also will be on the debate stage. The evening offers perhaps his last chance to improve his standing in the race. The debate was sponsored by NBC, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. Hillary on racial injustices: Surprised by the deportation of a Russian citizenFather Serafimby immigration authorities at the Chennai International Airport, the Russian embassy in New Delhi on Monday condemned the incident and termed it "unacceptable". Unacceptable is the fact that Russian diplomats were denied for seven hours contact with the priest at the airport, the embassy said in a statement. He was also denied basic assistance, including food, despite the requests from the embassy and the consulate general of the Russian Federation in Chennai. Such disrespect, shown to a priest from a friendly country, goes against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation characteristic of Russian-Indian relationship, it said. A report in The Hindu said that Father Serafim was slated to take part in a special prayer in Chennai as part of a trip to Asia. The tour was meant to 'give spiritual support to officials' of Russian embassies, as per the report. However, airport sources said the individual, identified as Anuireikravhenko, with passport number 7Z7405543 had arrived from Abu Dhabi on Etihad airlines flight HY283 at 9.30 am on Sunday. "He was quizzed for three hours by immigration authorities and deported at 10 pm after being told that there were restrictions on his entry in the country," they said. He was sent back on an Etihad flight, the sources said. Meanwhile, Russian news agency Tass quoted a Russian diplomat as saying that the incident was a violation of consular agreements between Russia and India and that the country would raise the issue with Indian authorities. An official from the Russian embassy in New Delhi told Itar-Tass that it is "a bureaucratic rather than political incident." Serafim is said to be the superior of an Orthodox church registered in Delhi, and arrived in Chennai from Pakistan. With input from PTI & IANS Vatican City: Pope Francis on Sunday welcomed 5,000 migrant worshippers at a special mass at St Peter's to mark the world day of migrants and refugees, urging them to treasure their "culture and precious values". "Your presence here at this square is a sign of hope in God. Don't let yourselves be stripped of this hope and joy of living," he said at the close of his weekly Angelus prayer. Francis has repeatedly called on European states to welcome people fleeing war and misery amid the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War II. After the prayer, the pope hailed "with great affection the ethnic communities present" in the Vatican City and "the people who help and welcome" the migrants. "Dear migrants and refugees, each of you carries a story, a culture and precious values," Francis said. "Alas, many of you have experienced misery, oppression and fear." The event was part of the Catholic church's Jubilee Year, which Francis on Sunday called "the jubilee of migrants." Meanwhile the pope also called on the worshippers to pray for the four victims of Thursday's Jakarta attack and the 29 killed in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, in a jihadist assault on Friday night. After the prayer, thousands of migrants were set to enter the basilica through one of the "holy doors" opened for the special year which is dedicated to the theme of mercy. The Lampedusa crucifix, a cross made from the wood of a boat used by migrants, was brought to Rome for the occasion. Francis also thanked three prisoners serving sentences for murder in a prison near Milan for making the communion wafers for the mass. AFP A Harvey Norman franchisee has been fined $52,000 for repeatedly telling customers with new but problem-plagued computers that it couldn't help them. The Federal Court found a Harvey Norman store on the Gold Coast breached two sections of consumer law by falsely telling customers with malfunctioning computers that it had no obligation to provide a remedy and couldn't assist any further without payment. One woman, whose Sony laptop sometimes failed to start, failed to shut down and was slow, kept being told by a salesperson: "We can't help you." Woolworths' looming sale or closure of its Masters hardware chain has left thousands of workers and their families facing an "uncertain future", unions say. Australia's retail union the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association said up to 9,000 Masters workers were grappling with the grim news after waking up on Monday. The National Union of Workers said people's livelihoods were on the line. Credit:Rebecca Hallas "This is obviously a devastating time for workers and their families," union national secretary Gerard Dwyer said. "The SDA will be doing everything we can to support them during this uncertain period." An antenna repairman has been charged with indecently assaulting a woman in a shower after he was called to a western Sydney home to carry out repairs. Police allege the repairman, 42, was called to a house on Hutchens Avenue at Mount Pritchard to conduct repairs on the property's TV antenna in December last year. While the woman, 36, was taking a shower the man allegedly went into the bathroom and indecently assaulted her. The woman allegedly told him to leave and then contacted police after he had left. After a month long investigation, police from Cabramatta Local Area Command arrested the man on January 18 at a police station. The shelter under Denison Bridge in Bathurst where Reginald Mullaly slept and where his body was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty Days later, staff at the Newcastle Morgue removed his six layers of clothing and found 11 stab wounds on his body. "It's a cowardly attack on a vulnerable member of the community," Detective Senior Constable Adrian Graham said. A bag where Reginald Mullaly's body was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty Mr Mullaly was last seen about 3.15pm on Thursday September 17, when a taxi dropped him off at his usual spot near Lions Club Drive. Police are still hunting for the person or persons responsible for Mr Mullaly's death but they believe his financial status, in stark contradiction to the itinerant life he led, may have been a motive. A hat where Reginald Mullaly was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty While detectives found about $70 in Mr Mullaly's wallet at the crime scene, his attackers may have been disappointed to find he did not have a bank card to access the money in his account. He inherited tens of thousands of dollars after his mother died a few years ago but resisted putting it towards accommodation. Reginald Mullaly was last seen getting out a taxi on September 17 last year. Credit:NSW Police It was no secret that Mr Mullaly had money but the exact figure would fluctuate depending on who you spoke to in town. Twice a week he would withdraw enough cash to cover his daily routine, which seldom changed. Detective Senior Constable Adrian Graham stands near the shelter where Reginald Mullaly's body was found. Credit:Kate Geraghty Some days he would sit beside Kerry Hodge, as he strummed his guitar and sang Johnny Cash songs on the Howick Street footpath. "With his little bag alongside him, he would have a bit of a beer hidden and he kept it so nobody could see his beer," Mr Hodge said. Reginald Mullaly's sister Dawn holds a lock of his hair. Credit:Kate Geraghty "But I knew and I didn't mind because he never, ever, ever, said anything to upset me. "Then he would come along with bread and feed the little sparrows. Kerry Hodge, a friend of Reginald Mullaly and one of the last people to see him alive. Credit:Kate Geraghty "Now that he is gone, I am feeding the sparrows for him." Mr Hodge, who was one of the last people to see "Reggie" alive, had heard that Mr Mullaly often knocked back offers for accommodation. Despite his generosity, people would sometimes confront Mr Mullaly for money, Mr Hodge said. One of five children, Mr Mullaly was well known in the area, having grown up fishing and shooting on a property near Newbridge, about 30 kilometres outside Bathurst. He moved between the family property and his sister Dawn's house in Bathurst and worked as a wardsman at the Bathurst Base Hospital and a shearer in adulthood. But it was his penchant for a drink and Dawn's loathing for alcohol that often caused their relationship to become unstuck. "He lived with me for 13 months and just one day he would pick up with fellas that he knew," Dawn said. "He always knew he could come back [to my house] but the conditions were no drink and you smoke your rollies outside." They were simple conditions that would have put a roof over his head. Yet Mr Mullaly wanted to do things his way, even if it meant sleeping in the dirt between two bridge pillars. "Say he lived with you and you had the TV too loud, if you started the mower or vacuum cleaner or you were watching Home and Away on TV, that would be enough to make him pack up and leave," Dawn said. "He packed up and left in what he stood up in. "I just don't understand it because Dad was a hard worker and mum was and the four of us girls don't drink." Despite their differences, Dawn always kept a caring eye on her drifting brother and was there when he needed help. On Wednesdays, Mr Mullaly would meet Dawn's daughter at the river, where they would feed the ducks together. Sometimes he would return with his niece to Dawn's neat and comforting home. If he didn't show up, Dawn would go looking for him. Once she reported him missing. Now Mister Zimi has a staff of 45 people with factories in Bali and shops in Bali, Australia and online, which sold more than 1700 pieces of clothing in the last week alone. Hall has built her business on corporate high fliers who want to destress and escape. Credit:Steve King While Paul won't reveal turnover, on conservative estimates, the business, which sells clothing that retails from between $50 for a "Mini Zimi" dress and $350 for a leather jacket, has a turnover of more than $10 million a year. "Bali was amazing in terms of allowing us to push ourselves, and find strength in our self-belief and be as creative as we wanted to be without anyone judging our inexperience or making us feel inferior for not having any traditional training," Paul says. Klim says it's a logistical challenge operating a business between Bali and Australia. Credit:Josh Robenstone "But god was it tough. It's not all sunset cocktails and swimming pools." With two young children the Pauls juggle life between two countries. Michael Klim, with wife Lindy Klim and family, splits his time between Bali and Melbourne. Credit:Gusde Mahendranata It's not all sunset cocktails and swimming pools. Zoe Paul "I have to travel back and forth quite a lot," Paul says. "Twice a year we will go for a long stint to Bali as a family for two to three months." The Pauls have an Indonesian owner of the Mister Zimi business in Bali, as laws prohibit Westerners from owning a business there. "The process of setting up a business in Bali takes a long time and it is very expensive and extremely difficult and frustrating because the way everything works in Indonesia is so different to Australia," Paul says. "We have been doing it for seven years and I am still really baffled by it." Paul says entrepreneurs need to be "open minded" in order to succeed in Bali. "All those people who think they can go to Bali and start a business, it is a massive undertaking," she says. Janine Hall, founder of Escape Haven Janine Hall was working as a marketing manager when she took a "much needed" holiday to Bali for three weeks. "Feeling burnt out and stressed" Hall came up with the idea for Escape Haven wellness resorts, which are now located in Bali, Byron Bay, Noosa, Sri Lanka and Morocco and turnover more than $2 million a year. "It felt like a change of pace and just going to yoga every day, having spa treatments and eating healthy foods made me recognise the importance of creating a space for other busy corporate women around the world to give them that spark back," Hall says. She initially started the Escape Haven business in Brazil but it failed and Hall lost all her start-up capital, so she returned to Bali with "a meagre amount of money" eight years ago. Since then Escape Haven has had 2000 women come its week-long retreats, with about 50 per cent of the women from Australia. Hall says she is now "location independent" and running a business partly from Bali allows her to be part of a "wonderful" culture. "The way they do things in Bali is very much based on community," she says. "The Balinese find everything funny so it is difficult to get as stressed and as frazzled as you do in Australia, so it's a lovely work environment." Hall says the lifestyle in Bali is "amazing". "I have never worked in a place where you have the freedom to be at the beach in a minute from waking," she says. But like Paul, Hall says life as a Balinese entrepreneur "definitely comes with its challenges". "Bali is a third world country and so the law is not black and white like Australia," she says. "Now I'm a lot more comfortable with it but when I first started it was very confusing to have so much ambiguity." Michael Klim, founder of Milk & Co Former Olympic swimmer Michael Klim was already splitting his time between Bali and Australia when he started up his skincare business Milk & Co, so running a business across the two countries was a natural progression. "Initially it wasn't really about the business, the objective for us was to set up the family there for a short period of time. With [my wife] Lindy's Balinese background we wanted to expose the kids to a Balinese upbringing," he says. Milk & Co now employs 12 staff and turns over more than $5 million a year, with its products stocked in 13 countries around the world. "It requires a fair bit of commuting but ultimately for me it creates a really good work-life balance," Klim says. "I've got a really great team here in Australia and I feel confident that I can go away and things will still run well." Klim says technology has made it easier to stay in touch wherever you are based and he splits his time between the two countries, spending about two-to-three weeks at a time in each place. "It's a lot of logistical organisation but it's doable," Klim says. "Living in Australia you can be time poor trying to fit everything in and the natural pace in Bali is much more relaxed," he says. "I like that in Bali I can surf and live a healthier lifestyle. It's a good balance." The difficulty for Klim comes when he needs to be physically in Melbourne and gets stuck in Bali due to flight delays or volcanic ash. Iraq has attacked two Israeli cities with Scud missiles, prompting fears that Israel may be drawn into the Gulf War. Israels largest city, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, its main seaport, were hit in the attacks, which began at 0300 local time (0100 GMT), when most residents were asleep. Reports from Tel Aviv say the air was filled with the wail of sirens and minutes later up to eight missiles streaked in and exploded in balls of flame. Residents scrambled for protective clothing and gas masks, issued to most of the population before the conflict began. Casualties are believed to have been light nobody was killed, and only a few people injured. It is the first time Tel Aviv has been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict. Initial reports that one of the missiles had a chemical warhead were quickly proved wrong. Air raid sirens went off again this evening amid fears of a second Scud attack, but they were swiftly followed by an all-clear as it proved to be a false alarm. Israel has the strongest military forces of any Middle Eastern country, and has said that any attack by Iraq would bring massive punishment. The American President, George Bush, issued an appeal to Israel to hold back from retaliation for the attack. Allied commanders have been ordered to make special sorties to seek out and destroy Iraqi missile sites and mobile launchers which could threaten Israel, and Mr Bush emphasized his determination to protect Israel from further attack. The Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, called an emergency meeting of the ministerial defense committee of senior ministers and military officers to decide Israels response. After the day-long meeting, the Foreign Minister, David Levy, told journalists no decision had yet been taken on whether to retaliate. Israel reserves the right to retaliate in the manner and with the scale and method of its own choosing, he said. Any Israeli military action could break apart the multi-national coalition against Iraq by provoking the Arab members to withdraw their support. Meanwhile, the Allied air bombardment of Iraqi military targets is continuing at the rate of 2,000 sorties a day. Courtesy BBC News In context Israel decided to leave retaliation to Allied forces, to the relief of the Coalition. Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israeli cities again the next day and throughout the Gulf War, but failed to provoke Israel into unilateral retaliation. After more than a month of intensive air attacks, the Allies launched a land offensive on 24 February. One day later, the Iraqis began retreating. On 28 February, President George Bush declared victory. Kuwait was liberated but Saddam Hussein remained in power in Baghdad. The US and Britain launched a second war against Iraq in 2003. Saddam Hussein was overthrown and captured to be put on trial for war crimes. He was eventually executed in December 2006. A democratically-elected government was sworn in after elections in 2005. Tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims have spilled over into brutal sectarian violence, prompting fears of civil war. The execution in December 2006 of Saddam Hussein, himself a Sunni Muslim, did little to heal the widening rift between the two groups. Coalition and Iraqi troops have faced armed rebellions and guerrilla-style attacks. American and British troops have so far been unable to pull out despite repeated guerrilla attacks which have killed more soldiers than the war itself. The Al-Qaida fighters who stormed a popular hangout in Burkina Fasos capital at dinnertime came with a mission to kill as many people as possible, firing at people as they moved to a nearby hotel and setting the cafe ablaze, survivors and officials said Saturday. When the gunfire stopped after a more than 12-hour siege, at least 28 people had been slain in an unprecedented attack on this West African country long spared the jihadist violence experienced by its neighbors. Like the extremist attacks from Paris to Jakarta, the assailants in the Friday evening attack targeted an area where people from different nationalities gathered to enjoy life. Here in Ouagadougou, the victims had been grabbing a cold drink outside or staying at one of the capitals few upscale hotels. In this city with a large aid worker presence, the attackers sought to shoot as many non-Muslims as possible, screaming Allahu akhbar (Arabic for God is great) as they entered. An audio tape later released by the al-Qaida group claiming responsibility for the carnage was entitled: A Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts. Among the victims from 18 different countries were the wife and 5-year-old daughter of the Italian man who owns the Cappuccino Cafe, where at least 10 people died in a hail of gunfire and smoke after the attackers set the building ablaze before moving on to the Splendid Hotel nearby. Some survivors cowered for hours on the roof or hid in the restaurants bathroom to stay alive. Two French and two Swiss citizens were confirmed among the dead late Saturday by the two countries foreign ministries. The mother-in-law of an American missionary confirmed Saturday that he was among the dead. Carol Boyle said Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Florida, had been working in Burkina Faso since 2011. Riddering died in the Cappuccino Cafe, where he was to meet a group planning to volunteer at the orphanage and womens crisis center he ran with his wife Amy. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement Saturday that six of the dead were Canadians. Authorities said the four known attackers all killed by security forces had come in a vehicle with plates from neighboring Niger. At least two of them were women and one was of African descent. Witnesses said they wore the turbans often worn in the sand-swept countryside of the Sahel, and some spoke in French with an Arabic accent, suggesting some may have come from further north in Africa. I heard the gunfire and I saw a light by my window and I thought it was fireworks at first, said Rachid Faouzi Ouedraogo, a 22-year-old accounting student who lives near the scene of the carnage. I raced downstairs and once outside I saw people running through the street and four people firing on the people at Cappuccino. Burkinabe forces backed by French soldiers based in neighboring Mali managed to help free at least 126 hostages though officials have said the true number of those held hostage may be higher. Dozens were wounded in the overnight siege, including many suffering gunshot wounds. We appeal to the people to be vigilant and brave because we must fight on, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said on national radio Saturday. The North Africa branch of al-Qaida, founded in Algeria, claimed responsibility for the bloodbath even as it was unfolding in a series of statements published and translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. The al-Qaida affiliate known as AQIM now working in tandem with feared extremist Moktar Belmoktar later released an audio clip it said was a conversation with one of the fighters later slain in Ouagadougou. The message said the attack was directed at the occupiers of our lands, the looters of our wealth, and the abusers of our security, according to SITE and sought to punish them for their crimes against our people in Central Africa, Mali, and other lands of the Muslims, and to avenge our prophet. Burkina Faso is a largely Muslim country though it is home to a number of French nationals as a former colony of France. Islamic extremists in the region have long targeted French interests, incensed by Frances military footprint on the continent more than a half century after independence. France led the military effort in 2013 to oust extremists from their seats of power in northern Mali, and continue to carry out counterterrorism activities across the Sahel region. French special forces were also front and center early Saturday, as police and military forces fought to take back the Splendid Hotel. After freeing the hostages there, forces then scoured other buildings including the Hotel Yibi where they killed the fourth attacker, the president later said. The horror closely mirrored the siege of an upscale hotel in Bamako, Mali in November that left 20 people dead and shattered the sense of security in the capital of a nation whose countryside has long been scarred by extremism. Burkina Faso was better known for the role its president and officials played in mediating hostage releases when jihadists would seize foreigners for ransom in places like Niger or Mali. Now though, it appears Burkina, too, has been turned into a place where Westerners are at high risk. Last week Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement that an Australian doctor and his wife had been kidnapped in Burkina Fasos north. The two were abducted from the town of Djibo near the border with Mali. Australian media reported the couple are surgeon Ken Eliot and his wife Jocelyn. The couple are in their 80s and are originally from the Australian city of Perth. The reports said the couple have lived since 1972 in Djibo, near Baraboule, where they work in a volunteer medical clinic which they built. Jihadists also hold a third foreigner: a Romanian national who was kidnapped in an attack last April that was the first of its kind at the time. Some analysts point to the security vacuum that has emerged in Burkina Faso since late 2014, when the longtime strongman leader fled power in a popular uprising. Members of the military jockeyed for power, and the country suffered through a short-lived coup earlier this year before democratic elections were allowed to go forward in November. Most in Burkina Faso recoil at the idea of extremism now taking hold here, adding to the woes of one of the poorest countries in the world. We know that the gunmen wont get out of the hotel alive, said one witness of the overnight siege, who gave only his first name, Gilbert. Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong. Brahima Ouedraogo, Baba Ahmed, AP Didi Kuaidi registered a total of 1.43 billion completed rides across Beijings seven main services in 2015, including by private car, taxi, Hitch, designated driver, Didi bus, test drive and enterprise services, according to its reports. This figure is almost double the total number of taxi rides in the United States last year and 1.4 times Ubers global rides since its launch in 2009. Didis completed monthly rides exceeded 200 million in December 2015. ACN Newswire claimed that Didi processed over 1 million private car requests in Beijing, which is eight times the number of daily private cars counted in New York. Chinas mobile-based transportation system has transformed its travel habits, creating a world-leading innovative industry and significant developments in its overall mobile transportation market. It also makes China the worlds largest mobile transportation market in terms of the numbers of drivers, passengers and rides. mgm macau welcomes the year of the monkey Various set menus, a la carte dishes and dim sum specialties will be prepared at MGMs Imperial Court by Chan Pak Chung and the celebrity chef Chow Chung. Signature dishes such as the braised whole South African abalone with sea cucumber in oyster sauce will be made available. Two CNY set menus will be served at MOP11,880 for a table of 12 persons and MOP 880 (per person, minimum two persons). All dishes and selections are available from February 8 to 17. More East-meets-West dining options are available at MGM Macau. At Rossio, the CNY lunch, brunch and dinner buffets feature a host of fresh seafood including Boston lobsters, fresh oysters, Alaskan king crab legs and more. Apart from all of the festive menus, the Pastry Bar and the Grande Praca Cafe will also offer a fine array of homemade festive puddings such as the traditional Chinese New Year Pudding, Turnip Pudding and the exclusive flavor Hashima, Red Date and Water Chestnut Pudding, along with festive cookies and luscious pastries. sheraton grand awards travel partners The Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel Cotai Central, hosted its Travel Trade Appreciation Awards for 2015 last week as a means of acknowledging the contributions and support of more than 100 travel partners from Southeast Asian countries including Macau, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. The awards aim to honor travel trade partners for ensuring that Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel has remained the preferred hospitality choice among their customers. Twelve travel trade partners were recognized in the Appreciation Awards, and Chinas GZL International Travel Service Limited achieved the highest sales across all segments, making them the Business Partner of the Year for the third year in a row. A group of six people, including five police officers on active duty and one former police officer, were arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) last week for their alleged involvement in an organized crime scheme. The six suspects, who had already been taken to a preliminary hearing where they received the news that they will be held in preventive custody, were caught in an operation by the PJ that aimed to stop people illegally entering Macau. The group is suspected of having received large sums of money as bribes in order to allow mainland China gamblers to cross the border and enter the territory illegally to gamble at casinos. The PJ revealed in a press conference that this investigation has been in development for a period of over two years. In addition, according to the preliminary conclusions, they might have profited more than MOP1.8 million from this scheme, charging as much as MOP220,000 per person in exchange for aid, for transportation in and out of the territory, as well as for protection services during their stay. The group might have been in operation for a period of more than four years. The Secretary for Security, Wong Sio Chak, reacted to the arrests by stating that he was deeply concerned about this matter and expressed his deep regrets over the involvement of law enforcement agents in illegal activities. Mr Wong also mentioned that he has already ordered a full investigation into the case plus a review of internal controls and supervisory measures in the police force. According to the information provided by the PJ, at the moment of the detention, four of the officers held in custody were a part of the criminal intelligence unit of the Public Security Police Force, one was a member of the Immigration Services, and the last was a retired police officer who left his position about one year ago. Although there is no clear information about the groups operations, several international news agencies connect the case with the junket business, in which the group participated by providing high-roller gamblers for at least one of the junkets operating in one of Macaus casinos, which has not yet been identified. police found guilty of sexual abuse A police officer who was found to have sexually abused 16 female students has been sentenced to eight years in jail. The Court of First Instance has found the accused guilty of coercion, sexual extortion and the sexual violation of teenagers, in which two of the victims were only 13 years old. The court stated that the officer blackmailed the teenage girls for more photographs and sexual favors. The man disguised himself as a female model recruiter to obtain nude photographs from the teenage girls online. Authorities have found over 1,700 nude photographs and video clips of the victims on the officers computer. The policemans illegal activity was first discovered on December 24. One of the eight men killed in an audacious attack by Muslim militants in the heart of Indonesias capital was a civilian and not one of the bombers as first thought, police said yesterday. The victim, 43-year-old Sugito, was suspected of involvement because he crossed the road to a traffic police post next to Dian Joni Kurniadi, one of four confirmed attackers, Jakarta police spokesman Col. Muhammad Iqbal said. Sugito, who uses one name like many Indonesians, was one of four civilians killed in Thursdays attacks by suicide bombers and gunmen who targeted a Starbucks cafe and the traffic police post in bustling central Jakarta. More than 20 people were wounded. It was the first major assault by militants in Indonesia since 2009. Police said the attackers were tied to the Islamic State group through Muhammad Bahrunnaim, an Indonesian fighting with IS in Syria. Iqbal told reporters that a thorough police investigation into Sugitos records concluded he was an ordinary resident of West Javas Karawang city. Police are still investigating whether Kurniadi was the attacker who blew himself up at the traffic police post, killing two civilians and badly injuring a police officer. Two attackers had known militant backgrounds: Afif Sunakin, who in 2010 was sentenced to seven years in jail for his involvement in militant training in Aceh province, but was released early; and Muhammad Ali, who was sentenced in 2010 to five years in prison for robbing a bank to finance extremist activities. Police identified the fourth attacker as Ahmad Muhazan Saron, who blew himself up inside the Starbucks. The other civilians killed were Canadian Amer Quali Tahar and Jakarta residents Rico Hermawan and Rais Karna, who died of his injuries Saturday. Police have arrested 12 people suspected of links to Thursday attacks and are searching for others. Niniek Karmini, Jakarta, AP Pope Francis has approved the appointment of Hong Kongs Stephen Lee as the new bishop of Macau, the Holy See Press Office revealed. Speaking about the selection of Lee, Benedict Keith Ip, a theologist and the associate editor at O Clarim (Macau Catholic Weekly) said: I have mixed feelings Lai will be missed, but we can expect some changes [with the new appointment]. [Lee is] very knowledgeable and quite well-known. He is knowledgeable in canon law and educational affairs, and church history. The former Auxiliary Bishop of Hong Kong will replace the outgoing Macanese Bishop Jose Lai, who is resigning due to health reasons. His appointment will be effective from January 23. O Clarim reported on the weekend that Stephen Lee will take possession of the Diocese of Macau on Saturday, January 23, at 3 p.m. with a Eucharistic celebration that will take place at the Cathedral to mark the 440th Anniversary of the establishment of the Diocese of Macau. Keith Ip claimed that the appointment of 59-year-old Lee is quite remarkable because it follows the tradition of appointing a 50-something-year-old. Jose Lai was appointed in 2001 at the age of 55, but he did not take office until June 2003. They are both quite young for this appointment, added Ip. In response to speculation that Lee will bring a dose of Hong Kongs political activism to the role, Ip said that it was probably too early to tell. In general the Church needs to be more active in participating [in society] and contributing to universal values. This is not only the responsibility for a priest, however, but a responsibility for all of us, he said. Staff reporter A suicide bomber targeting a gathering in a volatile eastern province of Afghanistan killed 13 people, including seven members of a prominent pro-government clan, Afghan officials said. Another 14 people were wounded in the attack on the home of Obaidullah Shinwari, a scion of the clan and member of the Nangarhar provincial council who was not harmed in the attack, the officials said. The attack came a day before a second round of international talks aimed at reviving the peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. A Taliban spokesman tweeted that his group was not involved. The head of the council, Ahmad Ali Hazrat, told The Associated Press that the bomber mingled with a crowd at the family event in the provincial capital of Jalalabad before setting off his payload. Malik Osman, the head of the family and a respected community elder in the Shinwar district near the Pakistan border was wounded and flown to Kabul for treatment, Hazrat said. The family has strongly supported President Ashraf Ghanis efforts to bring peace to the country after almost 40 years of war and 15 years of Taliban insurgency. The family and guests had gathered to mark the release of another of Osmans sons, Samiullah, eight months after he was kidnapped and held by the Taliban. Samiullah was wounded in the attack, but not seriously, according to Zabiullah Zamaray, another provincial council member. The day before the attack, hundreds of residents of Achin district where Shinwaris nephew Nasim is governor held a demonstration calling on authorities to rid the region of insurgents, including a newly formed Islamic State affiliate that recently seized parts of the province after a summer of fierce fighting with the Taliban. An attack last week on the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, which is close to Shinwaris home, was claimed by the IS affiliate, which refers to itself as Khorasan Province and was recently listed as a terror group by the U.S. government. Ghani condemned the attack, saying in a statement that as terrorists lose their ability to fight Afghan forces on the battlefield, now they are carrying out terror attacks on residential areas. Representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China are due to meet in Kabul on Monday for the second time this month to formulate a roadmap for peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban. The Taliban are not taking part in the talks. Lynne ODonnell and Humayoon Babur, Kabul, AP The Sinulog 2016 Grand Parade and Festival was held yesterday in Tap Seac Square to roaring crowds of Filipinos, Chinese, and Westerners. The religious procession began at around 2 p.m. from the square, circling throughout downtown Macau, before returning to Tap Seac for the big showdown, which pitted the various groupings against each other to the crowds delight. The festival, which began in Macau in 2003, has become a widely anticipated event for the community. Some even regard it as the biggest Filipino event in Macau. Many of the performers started rehearsing as far back as November in preparation for the event that customarily takes place on the third Sunday of January. The festival is a celebration of the time when the Filipinos embraced Catholicism in the 16th century and rejected their former animist beliefs. In the Philippines, the celebration, which originated in Cebu, begins nine days before the grand parade. The parade itself can last up to 12 hours, and sees a traditional Sinulog dance in which participants take two steps forward and one step back, swaying to the rhythm of the drums. The movement is intended to resemble the current of the main river in Cebu. Sinulog fiesta or celebration is very popular in the Philippines, especially in Cebu because it is a form of thanksgiving and praise to the infant Jesus. This is because this Saint Nuno, according to history, was a gift, Father Agustin Datu, a member of the organizing committee, told TDM news. Some of the procession participants could be seen holding little statues of Jesus Christ as they danced to the drums and music. The infant Christ is the patron symbol of the festival. In Macau, the festival was organized by the Santo Nino de Cebu in Macao Association, in cooperation with the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau, the Macau Foundation and the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO). Staff reporter The 102nd World Day of Migrants and Refugees was celebrated yesterday at the Saint Joseph School Auditorium in Macau. Celebrations included a fellowship lunch with food treats from the different communities represented, along with several musical and ethnographic performances. The program of the event, which was organized by the Diocese of Macau, also included a lucky draw. The participants were mainly women, with origins in Myanmar, East Timor, Indonesia and the Philippines. Events of this kind are a way for these women to get together with others, sharing the same difficulties and hopes. Mirna, a migrant worker from Myanmar was enthusiastic: It is nice! I like this kind of party where we can relax and meet some other people that are also working here. It is a way to forget the hard work and have fun, she told the Times. Anna, a domestic worker from the Philippines who has been in Macau for over six years, shares the same opinion in short words: It is good. I like it. I feel happy to be here and share this joy. The Secretary-General of Caritas Macau, Paul Pun, attended the event and took the opportunity to advise the migrants to be informed and updated with the local news through the newspapers, TV or by using their smartphones. In his opinion, being informed about Macau is a way of avoiding falling victim to scams and other dangers Pun also urged the migrants to denounce cases of exploitation and other instances where they feel they are being unfairly treated and to help each other, especially their fellow citizens that need help or are ill. This years theme Migrants and Refugees Challenge Us. The Response of the Gospel of Mercy came by direct initiative of Pope Francis in the awakening of the migration movements, namely in Europe. According to the Popes message for the day, it is crucial to deal with the present emergency phase by providing programs which address the causes of migration and the changes it entails. The Pope used the World Day of Migrants and Refugees as a pretext to address the tragic stories of the millions of men and women who are impacted by unacceptable humanitarian crises occurring in different parts of the world. These situations include those in which the indifference and silence of people lead to a form of complicity. Francis urged citizens to be aware of these cases locally and to solve them as much as possible locally too. TWIN FALLS Water quality challenges, endangered species and worker safety are all perennial topics of concern when you are a trade association representing crop-protection companies. But thanks to the voters in Oregon and Colorado, CropLife America has a new challenging issue to watch marijuana production. Jay Vroom chuckled a bit as he introduced that topic among his laundry list of other issues, but its no laughing matter. Crop protection companies were aware marijuana growers were using pesticides to grow their undercover crop but now that pot has been legalized in two states, some want to lawfully use those products. Unfortunately, for them, there are no federally approved labels for any pesticides to be used on marijuana and Vroom doesnt expect to see any issued by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as long as the federal government prohibits marijuana production. No company is willing to do the research to determine tolerances required by the EPA to label a product for use on a plant because they would be violating federal law. Some growers who have over-applied or misapplied products in violation of the federal label have run into problems with their customers because of high residues in the final product. This is a serious problem, Vroom said. He is president of CropLife America. Marijuana growers are not all good farmers. His advice to these growers is the same as to a corn farmer seeking to control earworm or a crop consultant working with a custom application read and follow the label directions. And since no product is labeled for use on marijuana, following the directions should be simple just dont do it. Many of the regulatory or legal challenges facing the crop protection industry in the coming years arise from either the Clean Water Act or the Endangered Species Act. Both laws have been on the books for more than 40 years, but still conflict with each other procedurally. For example, the EPA has approximately 600 staffers to work on pesticide registrations and ensure no product will harm the environment, humans or animals when used according to the label directions. But if an aquatic endangered species is involved, the National Marine Fisheries Service, with a staff of around 12, must redo all the registration work the EPA has already completed. Thats unnecessary redundancy, Vroom told crop consultants attending the Far West Agribusiness Associations annual meeting in Twin Falls. Until last year, environmental groups had not sued to stop any new active ingredients from being registered. The self-imposed ban was an acknowledgement that newer chemistry developed after those environmental laws were passed were safer than the older products that would eventually be phased out. While Vroom declined to name the active ingredient that was challenged, he said it is still on the market but added it was a travesty to have that kind of legal action hanging over the industry. Congress needs to give us a clear path for the regulatory process, he said. Pollinator health is another issue the crop protection industry is wrestling with as some pesticides are linked to honeybee colony collapse. But other pollinators are also attracting attention. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety just filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in early January. The two groups say the federal agency was supposed to decide by last month whether to add the monarch to the Endangered Species List. Another huge case CropLife America is watching is the lawsuit filed by the Des Moines (Iowa) Water Works against three upstream water districts for intentionally polluting the Raccoon and Des Moines rivers. The suit contends that the water is high in nitrates and that water from tile drains should be regulated as a point source. Oral arguments in that case are scheduled for August 2016. Vroom anticipates the case will eventually be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Even as CropLife America is distributing more educational materials to farmers in Iowa, the organization recognizes that the general public is scrutinizing farming practices across the country more closely. We need to continue to improve our voluntary stewardship activities, Vroom said. TWIN FALLS Canyon Ridge High School senior Ashlynn Hall is about to get an up-close look at how U.S. government works. The 17-year-old is one of two students representing Idaho in the U.S. Senate Youth Program. Shell spend March 5-12 in Washington, D.C. Ashlynn, a student body leader at Canyon Ridge, has never been to the nations capital and wants to learn about government beyond the classroom. Im really excited to see our national government in action, she said Friday. She has already been chatting with other youth delegates, too, and is looking forward to meeting them. The U.S. Senate Youth Program was created in 1962 for high schoolers interested in public service careers. This year, 104 delegates will participate. Theyll hear policy addresses, and meet federal agency officials, lawmakers and a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Idahos U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch announced last week that Ashlynn and Boise resident Mark Jerome will represent the Gem State. Ashlynn heard about the program after her friend Amanda Solomon of Kimberly was selected last year. I saw all of her really fun posts about it, she said. In the fall, Canyon Ridge school counselor Don Fowler presented to student council about the program. Interested students took a politics and government test. The top two scorers including Ashlynn were invited to apply and received letters of recommendation. They also wrote an essay. Ashlynns paper focused on the differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives, and how they work together. Ashlynn became interested in government and politics after receiving top honors in the Magic Valley Distinguished Young Women program. She spent the summer preparing for a fall state competition. The interview is a big part of it, she said. She focused on political topics such as presidential campaigns. Ashlynn thinks she did well on the school test because the topic was fresh in her mind. And she already has leadership experience as Canyon Ridges student body publicist. Student leaders recently wrapped up a Pennies for Possibilities fundraiser, where the school raised $22,100 to give presents and basic household items to local families in need. It was just amazing this year, Ashlynn said. Ashlynn is also a member of Canyon Ridges show choir, SYNERGY! The group works on choreography at 6 a.m. on school days. Its the perfect start to my day, she said. Then, the ensemble practices singing during their class period at the end of the school day. Ashlynn is also a member of Business Professionals of America and National Honor Society, and plays piano. She applied to several universities around the western U.S. and plans to study occupational therapy. TWIN FALLS The City Council will consider whether to post speed new speed limits in three areas in Twin Falls at its Tuesday night meeting. The council will not meet Monday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. City staff did traffic studies at Washington Street, which becomes Sixth Avenue West, from Shoshone Street to Addison Avenue, Wendell Street from Filer Avenue to Cheney Drive West and South Park Avenue West from Washington Street South to Butler Street. The studies found driver confusion in all three areas. Sixth Avenue West and Washington Street has an overlap in posting that causes confusion for drivers and difficulties for police enforcement. At South Park Avenue West, conditions have changed since Victory Road was built. The Traffic Safety Commission recommends that the city post Washington Street and Sixth Avenue West from Addison to Shoshone as a 35 mph zone, post Wendell Street from North College to Cheney as 30 mph, but keep the 25 zone where the road is narrow between Falls Avenue West and North College Drive. The commission recommended that the city make no change to Wendell Street between Falls Avenue West and Filer Avenue West. The Commission also recommended South Park Avenue West be posted at 35 mph. The Council will also: Consider a request to approve the addition of draft beer for consumption at Don Juans Mexican Restaurant, 1007 Blue Lakes Blvd. N. Consider a request to approve a name change on a beer and wine license from 3D to Bumpin Bernies at 139 Shoshone St. N. Consider a request to authorize the mayor to sign a Cooperative Agreement with the Idaho Transportation Department for Americans with Disabilities Act Curb Ramp Program Award. The program pays for sidewalk curbs to be made wheelchair accessible. The City Council meets at 5 p.m. at 305 Third Ave. E. JANUARY 20 WEDNESDAY Make It program/Burley A Make It program will be held for ages 9-18 at 4-4:45 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The program helps children deepen their understanding through hands-on exploration. 22 FRIDAY Teen 3D printing/Burley Teen 3D printing for ages 12-18 will be 4-5 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The program is for beginners. They'll meet the printer, get started with basic software and build a basic object. There is no cost. Story time/Burley Story time for ages up to 4 will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The theme is trains, the color orange and the letter T. There is no cost. 23 SATURDAY Adult 3D printing/Burley Adult 3D printing will be 10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The class is for ages 18 and older. Beginners will meet the printer, get started with basic software and build a basic object. 25 MONDAY Computer class/Burley A beginners computer class for all ages will be 11-11:45 a.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The class will include basic introduction to computers, Internet and Word. There is no cost. 27 WEDNESDAY Make It program/Burley A Make It program will be held for ages 9-18 at 4-4:45 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The program helps children deepen their understanding through hands-on exploration. Thriving vs. Surviving presentation/Burley A Thriving vs. Surviving discussion will be held at 7 p.m. at Waters Gift and More, 2211 Overland Ave. There will be a short presentation on food storage ideas, given by Sharon Hardy Mills. The event is open to everyone in southern Idaho. 28 THURSDAY Story time/Burley Story time for ages up to 4 will be 10:30 a.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The theme is behavior, the color pink and the letter U. There is no cost. 29 FRIDAY Story time/Burley Story time for ages up to 4 will be 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. The theme is behavior, the color pink and the letter U. There is no cost. 30 SATURDAY Local authors day/Burley A Local Authors Day will be 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Burley Public Library, 1300 Miller Ave. All ages may visit with local authors. 31 SUNDAY Potato bar/Rupert The Minidoka Christian Association potato bar fundraiser will be 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at First Christian Praise Chapel, 1110 Eighth St., Rupert. Freewill donations will be accepted. The menu is ham, cheese, chili and other toppings for the potatoes, cookies, rolls and drinks. Information: Marcia Hallett, 208-436-3794. FEBRUARY 20 SATURDAY Stockmans feed/Rupert The Rupert Elks Lodge, 85 S. 200 W., will hold its annual Stockmans Feed at 7 p.m. Social hour begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25. RUPERT |The M. H. King Company based in Burley awarded a $1,000 grant to St. Nicholas Catholic School in December. Diane Brumley, teacher, applied for the grant through the Idaho Community Foundation to gain funds for St. Nicholas Catholic Schools Technology program. The money will go towards purchasing apps for iPads and to purchase a printer for the iPads. In 2012, St. Nicholas Catholic School embarked on a project to bring iPads into the hands of every student. Because of the cost of the technology, the project has been implemented in stages; this grant from M. H. King will go towards the final stages of implementation. Ahead of her book signing on Tuesday, I caught up with Times-News reporter and author of Hidden History of the Magic Valley, Mychel Matthews, for a Q&A on synchronicity, vicarious ties through the people she writes about and her favorite stories that can be read in her book. Matthews, who prefers to be called a story-teller rather than a historian, is our go-to reporter for learning about the strange and not-so-obvious history of this high desert farming region. Shell be at the Times-News office at 132 Fairfield Street West in Twin Falls for a book signing on Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. How do you find a good historic story from the Magic Valley that few people know about? They tend to land in my lap, Matthews said. In 2012, when Twin Falls founder I.B. Perrine was to be honored at the Idaho Hall of Fame, the event was previewed in the Times-News. The next day, a man came in to the Twin Falls County Historical Museum, where Matthews worked as the director. He had with him a copy of an article written the day Perrine died in 1943. In the article were quotes from an editor of another area newspaper who spoke with three-time presidential candidate and friend of Perrine, William Jennings Bryan. Bryan told the editor that one day people would recognize Perrines importance to the Magic Valley and that he wanted to be the first in line to honor him. Matthews brought that article to the Perrine family. All of a sudden I went Oh my God, I made it happen full circle, she said. I brought William Jennings Bryans words to the ceremony where they were actually acknowledging I.B. Perinne. Ever explore a story and discover your family or friends family was involved somehow? Ive always been interested in genealogy, Matthews said. In a Hidden History column in the Times-News, she wrote about Mormons settling in Idaho. Curious about their origins, she looked no further than her own family. Her great-great grandfather, William Matthews, left England in 1850 headed for America along with his wife, Elizabeth. She died on the journey. He later married an English woman he met aboard the ship, but she died in 1852. After a third marriage, Matthews great-great grandfather moved south of Salt Lake City. His son, Harrison Reynolds Matthews, married a 20-year-old woman in 1883 and moved to what is now known as Oakley. Matthews said shes defined a part of herself by her family history. What Kinds of historical pieces fascinate you the most? Any specific one that comes to mind? Theres a surprising story on Jimmy Yamamoto, she said. Yamamoto, a man who worked on a Japanese ship, longed to move to the United States. That chance came when the ship docked at Tacoma, Wash. one night in 1915. After lying to his boss about needing rest, Yamamoto, slipped past immigration officials and slid into the water. He swam to the pier and ran into the woods with nothing but limited English skills and some valuable silk handkerchiefs. He took up work in Seattle at a salmon cannery before eventually moving to Idaho, where he retired from farming in Gooding in 1966. When Matthews found an old Times-News article about Yamamoto, she was drawn by what she called a twinkle in his eyes. She became fascinated with how he ended up in Gooding. I really go by my gut in so much of this stuff, she said What do you get out of exploring Magic Valley history? The tie that I have with my own family, she said, Its like I have this vicarious tie with these other people that Im writing about. Matthews said that she enjoys writing about someones family history when they otherwise couldnt. That was the case recently when a man whose family was tied to a story she wrote about purchased the Hidden History book. That mans grandfather, Carl Anderson, posted bail for a man accused of tarring and feathering a Twin Falls mortgage holder in the 1930s. John Goertzen was charged with kidnapping a man named P.J. Pringle but was released on a $2,500-bond paid by two men, Charles Casey and Anderson. Matthews was excited to meet Andersons grandson. Things come full circle, she said. And thats very gratifying. Blood Drives The American Red Cross will hold blood drives from 12:30 to 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, and 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, in the Zion Lutheran Church gymnasium, 2410 Miller Ave., Burley. Schedule an appointment: Eileen Heins, 208-670-4161. Infant Safety, CPR Infant safety and cardiopulmonary resuscitation classes, 6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, and Wednesday, Jan. 20, in the Oak Rooms on the lower level of St. Lukes Magic Valley Medical Center, 801 Pole Line Road W., Twin Falls. New parents, grandparents and caregivers learn CPR and what to do if a baby chokes. The class isnt a certification course. Free; no registration required. 208-814-0407. Victims Support Support group for victims of domestic violence, 6:30-8:30 p.m. every Tuesday at the Mini-Cassia Shelter Haven of Hope, 323 First St. in Rupert. Information: Rachel, 208-312-7021. Alzheimers Support Alzheimers Association, Greater Idaho Chapters Caregiver Support Group meeting, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20, at Twin Falls Senior Center, 530 Shoshone St. W., Twin Falls. The group meets on the third Wednesday every month. Information: Pattie Dennis, 208-734-4264 or 208-539-4290. Grief Support Visions of Hope meeting, 5 p.m. every Thursday at Hospice Visions, 1770 Park View Drive, Twin Falls. This grief support group is open to everyone in the community. Information: 208-735-0121. Mental Health Support Mental Health Support Group, 5:30 p.m. every Thursday at Family Health Services/Behavioral Health building, 1102 Eastland Drive N., Twin Falls. The free support group is open to Magic Valley residents. 208-734-1281. Asthma Education Free asthma education class for patients and caregivers to assess and manage asthma will be from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. The class is presented by St. Lukes Magic Valley and meets on the third Thursday of each month. Pre-registration is required. To register and for location of the class: 208-814-8765. Anxiety Support Anxiety Support Group, 6 p.m. every Thursday at Magic Valley Fellowship Hall, 801 Second Ave. N., Twin Falls. Support for those who experience anxiety, panic attacks or depression. Learn about the signs, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and coping skills. Information: Cathy Shaddy, 208-410-2768. Joint Replacement Free class on total joint replacement, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, at BridgeView Estates, 1828 Bridgeview Blvd., Twin Falls. Meet in the lobby. Topics: Preparing for joint-replacement surgery, amount of pain, recovery time, insurance coverage, care after surgery, discharge planning and long-term rehabilitation. Tours of the BridgeView rehabilitation facility are available. Pre-registration is required, Amy at 208-280-0047 or Sarah at 208-280-0045. Education was the centerpiece of Idaho Governor C.L. Butch Otters state of the state address last week, and that expectedly included an element little-heard from in Idaho SOS speeches for a generation: Higher education. Higher education has been on state policymakers back burner for a long time. Up to this year, it has gotten only peripheral mention in Otters state of the states; the biggest references have been to his support for local creation of the College of Western Idaho). But by the time Otter took office that had been the norm. Governors Dirk Kempthorne and Phil Batt did much the same. In 2015, the higher ed reference consisted mostly of a passing reference to more pronounced, targeted and sustainable investments in such programs as the computer science initiative at Boise State University, an employee readiness initiative at the University of Idaho, career path internships at Idaho State University, and the Complete College Idaho program throughout our higher education system. In Otters first state of the state he remarked, I am recommending that we neither significantly expand existing programs nor add any major new initiatives would require a continuing revenue flowand that certainly seemed to apply to higher education. (His major reference to colleges and universities then was, Speaking of our universities how about those Broncos!) Last weeks speech was vastly different. To begin, he proposed a good deal of additional funding, a 9.6 percent increase for community college and 8.8 percent for the four-year institutions. He spoke at some length again about the College of Western Idaho, reasonably since its been growing extremely rapidly. He also got the point behind that growth: That speaks to a huge pent-up demand for the kind of lower-cost, relevant and responsive education and training programs that have been created at CWI. But he also delved into activities at other colleges and universities: Besides additional funding for our college completion and high-demand academic and professional-technical programs, I recommend expanding Boise State Universitys materials science program, the University of Idahos Go On initiative to increase enrollment, and Idaho State Universitys health science programs. These are major efforts at these institutions, not the small or peripheral programs so often mentioned. Higher education has been taking a hit in recent years in many states and certainly in Idaho. That is a central, and not often enough mentioned, reason behind the explosion in college tuition and fees. But Otter had something to suggest about that too. He proposed a tuition lock to hold costs steady through the fours years of a standard academic run through the major institutions. He suggested a $5 million increase in the Opportunity Scholarship, which likely will have only modest overall effect. But then he proposed something new: that another $5 million be allocated for the new Completion Scholarship. Its designed to encourage Idaho citizens who have some post-secondary education to return to the classroom and finish up. It will provide a real benefit for financially strapped adults who are trying to upgrade their job skills. Higher education has been waiting a long time in Idaho for a chance to catch up. Maybe, just possibly, this is the legislative session when it happens. Well begin to know as lawmakers weigh in. About Me Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah I am Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah, who resides in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. I hold a post-graduate law degree from the United Kingdom. I blog to tell MALAYSIANS THE TRUTH. View my complete profile Blog Archive HAL Tejas ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Rinju9) Author- Kabir Taneja The Bahrain International Air Show slated to be held between January 21-23 at the Sakhir Airbase in Bahrain is supposed to be the first international symposium where India will showcase its indigenously built, but much delayed, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tejas light combat aircraft. This move, reportedly taken at a political level, could place the Tejas as an export option in the future and will expose it to much wider scrutiny over its performance and offerings in the international market. However, even though this may become an exciting time for the Tejas as a potential option for foreign militaries for their arsenal, it has an interesting competitor from its own neighborhood. The JF-17 Thunder fighter jet, jointly developed by Chinas Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and its Pakistani partner, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), is also now in the export variety with similar attributes to those of the Tejas. In fact, at the Bahrain air show both the Tejas and the JF-17 are quite literally going to be pitted against each other, as they share parking space on the flight line tarmac right next to each other. The HAL Tejas is still looking for its carpe diem moment, as the Indian Air Force, the projects main beneficiary, has made no qualms in admitting that it is not pleased about the delays over the Tejas Mk II variant of the model that it urgently wants to induct into its fleet. Meanwhile, manufacturer HAL has offered the IAF a Mk 1A variant instead, saying the Mk II variant is not expected to have its first flight before 2019, or enter series production before 2024. On the other hand, the Block 1 JF-17s have already seen service with the Pakistan Air Force, and are now expected to be upgraded to Block 2 standards (which includes mid-air refuel capabilities and improved avionics). Both India and Pakistan understand the worth of a fighter jet such as the JF-17 and the Tejas in the specific markets where they are likely to compete. The light, maneuverable, low-maintenance and comparatively cheap offerings represented by both variants could find many takers; however the fact that the JF-17 is available for purchase today has already given it a head start, even if its production output remains sluggish. Other countries such as Myanmar, Nigeria and Azerbaijan are known to have shown interest in the JF-17. Both India and Pakistan themselves have operated the MiG 21 (Pakistan as the Chinese license built version Chengdu F-7), one of the worlds most successful, duplicated, and cost-effective combat jets. Like the MiG 21 during its high-sales days, both the JF-17 and HAL Tejas could build customer bases in financially challenging areas such as Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, with many states looking for low-end solutions to air defense needs. The JF-17, now a predominantly a for Pakistan by China project (China does not operate the type in its military) made recent news after reports suggested that Sri Lanka was interested in purchasing eight JF-17s with further options. News of the deal came as Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made a state visit to Colombo; however, since the visit Indian apprehensions regarding the deal, attempts to sell the Tejas instead, and a recent quick visit by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar seem to have stalled any such deal, if indeed one was in the making. Sri Lankan media outlets have said that the JF-17 discussion was not on the table with Pakistan, while an Indian defense news website has claimed that New Delhi is considering offering upgraded MiG 27s, a type already operated by Sri Lanka, free of cost to the countrys air force. Even if India has, or in the future does manage to scuttle Sri Lankas attempts to procure the JF-17, the fact that it does not have the appropriate variant ready for IAFs very own needs, let alone international suitors, is a wake up call to the countrys domestic military complex. Indias previous homegrown success story in military aviation, the HAL Dhruv or the Advanced Light Helicopter, also ran into turbulence with its only international military buyer, the South American nation of Ecuador had purchased seven of HALs Dhruv ALHs. However, since its addition to the Ecuadorian forces in 2009, four out of the seven helicopters have crashed. Two of the crashes were attributed to pilot error, but the other two were blamed on mechanical faults. Ecuador in October last year unilaterally cancelled its deal with HAL. The new initiative by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi under his governments flagship Make In India program, a drive to uplift Indias manufacturing sector, has accorded great importance to military development. India is currently one of the worlds largest importers of weapons despite having many indigenous flagship military programs, specifically in the aviation sector. However, a concoction of poor project execution, stretched resources, political oversight, and lack of culpability over failed programs have stalled or completely cancelled critical projects like the Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), forcing the armed forces to look abroad to plug gaps. For Make In India to be successful, concrete moves to develop Indias R&D sector and involving the private sector heavily into the fold with pro-market policies will be essential. India has huge potential not only to successfully service its own military needs, but to become an exporter of arms in the extremely competitive global military industrial complex, but only if it applies correct policies, political will, and strategic tact. While the HAL Tejas remains a proud symbol of Indian industry, the fact that it took nearly three decades for the project to get where it is today should be made into a handbook for the government and associated agencies on how not to botch critical national security projects in the future. As of today, the JF-17 with its operational experience makes more sense for potential buyers. India may have had some influence in Sri Lankas interests for the JF-17, but it may not have the same leverage if other neighbors such as Myanmar or even Bangladesh consider the same option. About the author- Kabir Taneja is a journalist and researcher specializing in foreign affairs, energy security and defence. THE DIPLOMAT ( ALL RIGHTS RESERVED) Time Travel: Blog Archive October 2007 (2) November 2007 (30) December 2007 (31) January 2008 (27) February 2008 (29) March 2008 (32) April 2008 (30) May 2008 (31) June 2008 (30) July 2008 (31) August 2008 (32) September 2008 (32) October 2008 (31) November 2008 (32) December 2008 (32) January 2009 (32) February 2009 (28) March 2009 (31) April 2009 (30) May 2009 (31) June 2009 (30) July 2009 (31) August 2009 (31) September 2009 (28) October 2009 (31) November 2009 (30) December 2009 (31) January 2010 (31) February 2010 (28) March 2010 (31) April 2010 (30) May 2010 (31) June 2010 (30) July 2010 (32) August 2010 (31) September 2010 (30) October 2010 (31) November 2010 (30) December 2010 (31) January 2011 (31) February 2011 (28) March 2011 (31) April 2011 (31) May 2011 (31) June 2011 (30) July 2011 (31) August 2011 (31) September 2011 (30) October 2011 (32) November 2011 (30) December 2011 (31) January 2012 (31) February 2012 (29) March 2012 (31) April 2012 (33) May 2012 (31) June 2012 (30) July 2012 (33) August 2012 (31) September 2012 (30) October 2012 (31) November 2012 (30) December 2012 (31) January 2013 (31) February 2013 (29) March 2013 (32) April 2013 (30) May 2013 (31) June 2013 (30) July 2013 (32) August 2013 (31) September 2013 (30) October 2013 (31) November 2013 (30) December 2013 (31) January 2014 (31) February 2014 (28) March 2014 (31) April 2014 (30) May 2014 (30) June 2014 (32) July 2014 (32) August 2014 (31) September 2014 (30) October 2014 (31) November 2014 (30) December 2014 (31) January 2015 (31) February 2015 (28) March 2015 (31) April 2015 (31) May 2015 (32) June 2015 (30) July 2015 (31) August 2015 (31) September 2015 (30) October 2015 (31) November 2015 (30) December 2015 (31) January 2016 (31) February 2016 (29) March 2016 (31) April 2016 (30) May 2016 (31) June 2016 (30) July 2016 (31) August 2016 (31) September 2016 (30) October 2016 (31) November 2016 (30) December 2016 (31) January 2017 (32) February 2017 (28) March 2017 (31) April 2017 (30) May 2017 (31) June 2017 (30) July 2017 (31) August 2017 (31) September 2017 (30) October 2017 (31) November 2017 (30) December 2017 (31) January 2018 (31) February 2018 (28) March 2018 (32) April 2018 (30) May 2018 (31) June 2018 (30) July 2018 (31) August 2018 (31) September 2018 (30) October 2018 (31) November 2018 (30) December 2018 (30) January 2019 (33) February 2019 (15) March 2019 (11) April 2019 (1) August 2020 (16) September 2020 (4) October 2020 (2) November 2020 (1) December 2020 (1) September 2021 (1) October 2021 (1) The inauguration of the fifth is nigh so maybe things are far enough removed from the ruling of the Supreme Court in the presidential electi... Less than 48hours after sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program were lifted, the U.S. announced new sanctions targeting 11 entities linked to Irans ballistic missile program. Iran is banned by the U.N. to conduct missile tests but in October 2014, it held a precision-guided ballistic missile test capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. U.S. Treasury departments acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence Adam J. Szubin said Tehrans ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions. A Hong Kong based trading firm and a North Korean state-owned mining company are among the eleven entities that would be barred from using the U.S. banking system under the new sanctions. Tehran has not reacted to the sanctions reportedly announced when it was clear that the flight carrying four U.S. citizens held in Iran was out of Iranian territory, a fifth was freed separately, part of a deal under which Washington also freed seven individuals convicted of violating sanctions and engaging in covert activities on Irans behalf. Szubin who criticized Iran for supporting terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses and ballistic missile said the U.S. has always stressed that it will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities. To critics who described the swap as a very dangerous precedent President Barack Obama defended the move as a reciprocal, humanitarian gesture that was a one-time event. Meanwhile, a separate settlement between the two countries will make the U.S. repay Iran $400m in funds frozen since 1981 and an extra $1.3bn in interest. As oil prices continue to fall and as Iran is about to increase its output after the lifting of sanctions, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said he continues to be optimistic about the future increase of oil prices. The minister who was speaking at an event in the presence of the Mexican president and energy minister on Sunday said he was upbeat as to the return of stability to the global oil markets, the improvement of prices and the cooperation among the major producing countries despite the failure of members of the Oil Producing Exporting Countries (OPEC) to agree on reducing output to help increase prices. Cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Mexico would contribute to making it this happen, he said. Riyadh which produces around 40% of the global output is fiercely opposed to reducing oil production. Market forces as well as cooperation among producing nations always lead to the restoration of stability, the Saudi oil minister stated as he thinks that Mexico can be a crucial partner. Mexico and the kingdom have an especially important role to play in achieving this objective, in the past, at the present, and in the future, al-Naimi said citing their joint effort in 1998 as an example when prices were around $10. Mexico is a non-OPEC member. Shares in global oil producing companies have been drastically falling and last week, analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland warned that this year would be a cataclysmic year for the global economy and urged investors to sell everything in the wake of the oil rout. A statement from the Egyptian presidency announced that the National Defense Council agreed to prolong the participation of its armed forces engaged in a combat mission in the Gulf, the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. It is the fourth extension of the mission of the Egyptian forces in the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi Movement and their allies in Yemen. The one year extension followed the 40-day authorization by Cairo for its forces to partake in the coalitions operations when it was launched in March before extending it by three months in May and by additional six months when it expired in August. The Egyptian government said its participation was necessary because it will help to secure the safety of shipping routes in the Red Sea and passage through the Bab al Mandab Strait. The safety of those shipping routes will help to boost traffic at the Suez Canal and that would contribute to increase revenues especially after the completion of the second phase. More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since the start of a Saudi-led bombing campaign against rebels, about half of them civilians, according to the United Nations. Negotiations to end the war have been going at a slow pace and the rebels have been resisting the attacks of the coalition forces since March 26 2014 when it was launched. The objective of the coalition is to reinstate Hadi as the legitimate president of Yemen and Egypt could extend again its participation if that is not achieved. Cairo is also a member of the 34-state Islamic military alliance announced in Riyadh last year. The alliance is said to be dedicated to fighting terrorism. The presidential council established under the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) delayed the announcement of a unity government saying on Sunday that it needs at least 48hours. The move was not welcomed by the U.N. Special envoy to the country Martin Kobler who stressed that time is of essence and Libya can no longer wait. The presidential council led by Fayez al-Sarraj said in a post on Facebook that the delay is necessary to complete further arrangements and that Libyans will understand the importance of the postponement. The new cabinet should be composed of 17 individuals and will be based in Tripoli but it is still unclear how it will be effective on the ground because it lacks local support even though it is backed internationally. Around 80 of the 188 deputies of the Tobruk-based House of Representatives and 50 fellows of the 136 member General National Congress, based in Tripoli, signed the LPA. Reasons for the delay are unknown but Kobler regretted the decision pointing out that the LPA timelines should be respected because Libyans are suffering the consequences. The National Accord Government should have been be made at the latest 30 days after the signing of the LPA, a deadline that is now expired following the postponement, and it should be approved by the Tobruk-based parliament within 10 days after the announcement. Kobler urged the presidential council to respect the new 48 hour deadline it has announced. British ambassador to Libya, Peter Millet tweeted that naming the government is urgent in order to deal with terrorism and rescue the economy. The new government will be faced with several challenges but 16 of its members could soon be heading to the courtroom after Prime Minister Khalifa al-Ghwell instructed the attorney general to investigate and open legal proceedings against them. Egypts central bank is expected to borrow one billion dollars in a concessional loan from China to help shore up its foreign reserves. The loan agreement will be sealed during the visit the Chinese President Xi Jinping is paying to Egypt this week, Egyptian ambassador in Beijing announced Sunday. The North African nations foreign reserves have been steadily declining since the popular uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak in January 2011. Currently standing at around $16.4, foreign reserves amounted to almost $36 billion before 2011 According to Egypts ambassador to Beijing, Magdi Amer, the Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive later this week, and the two countries are expected to discuss potential Chinese investments in an array of Egyptian projects. China was also due to sign a $700 million agreement with the state-owned National Bank of Egypt to provide a line of credit to finance future projects. The grant will be invested in infrastructure, healthcare and Suez Canal development projects. Before he lands in Egypt, Xi Jinping will meet Saudi Arabias King Salman in Riyadh. Xi Jinpings tour, his first of the region as President, comes amid mounting tensions over the war in Syria and after protesters ransacked and burned the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. 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This comes as congestion continues to hamper operations at the countrys major ports. Local media reported that the project is the largest infrastructure development since the countrys independence from France. The port which will be developed under a public-private partnership will be able to handle 6.5 million 20-foot containers and 26 million tons of goods per year. It is planned to complete within seven years and gradually put into service within four years with Chinas Shanghai Ports Group ensuring its management. Chinese construction firms have won billions of dollars worth of infrastructure contracts from Algeria in recent years. Bringing in Shanghai Port Group would help driving international shipment traffic coming from Southeast Asia and other continents to pass from this Centre Port, under transhipment process to continue sea transport to elsewhere, or use the Algerian highway and railway networks to carry shipments to Africa, said Algerian Transport Minister Boudjemaa Talai. Algeria ambitions to develop the port into a major transhipment hub with strong intermodal connections, Boudjemaa said. Your digital subscription includes access to content from all our websites in your region. Access unlimited news content and The Canberra Times app. Premium subscribers also enjoy interactive puzzles and access to the digital version of our print edition - Today's Paper. Cooks, chefs and food manufacturers are looking for natural ways to reduce sodium in recipes in nearly every culture. A big challenge to doing that is taste. Consumers typically describe reduced-sodium foods as lacking in taste and flavor. Findings of a study in the January issue of the Journal of Food Science, published by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), found that Vietnamese fish sauce added to chicken broth, tomato sauce and coconut curry reduced the amount of sodium chloride by by 10-25 percent while still maintaining the perceived deliciousness, saltiness and overall flavor intensity. Fish sauces are a standard condiment and ingredient in various Southeast Asian cuisines that add an umami element to many foods. Fish sauce is made by combining sea salt and long-jawed black anchovies in large vats to slowly ferment for 8-12 months, during which the protein breaks down to free amino acids and increases the umami taste. It is used as a readily available source of protein and seasoning in the Asia region. This researchers, a team of researchers (Linh Hue Huynhm Robert Danhi, and See Wan Yan) from Taylor's University in Malaysia showed that fish sauce may be used as a partial substitute ingredient for salt as a means to reduce sodium content in food without diminishing palatability. These results could aid chefs and food manufacturers in creating foods lower in sodium content that would meet the needs of consumers, healthcare providers, governmental organizations, and consumer advocacy groups without compromising taste. Explore further Food scientists strive for sodium reduction More information: Hue Linh Huynh et al. Using Fish Sauce as a Substitute for Sodium Chloride in Culinary Sauces and Effects on Sensory Properties, Journal of Food Science (2016). Journal information: Journal of Food Science Hue Linh Huynh et al. Using Fish Sauce as a Substitute for Sodium Chloride in Culinary Sauces and Effects on Sensory Properties,(2016). DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.13171 It takes time for a human to become good at diagnosing ailments, but that learning is lost when they retire. Credit: Shutterstock/Poprotskiy Alexey Until now, medicine has been a prestigious and often extremely lucrative career choice. But in the near future, will we need as many doctors as we have now? Are we going to see significant medical unemployment in the coming decade? Dr Saxon Smith, president of the Australian Medical Association NSW branch, said in a report late last year that the most common concerns he hears from doctors-in-training and medical students are, "what is the future of medicine?" and "will I have a job?". The answers, he said, continue to elude him. As Australian, British and American universities continue to graduate increasing numbers of medical students, the obvious question is where will these new doctors work in the future? Will there be an expanded role for medical professionals due to our ageing populations? Or is pressure to reduce costs while improving outcomes likely to force the adoption of new technology, which will then likely erode the number of roles currently performed by doctors? Driving down the costs All governments, patients and doctors around the world know that healthcare costs will need to reduce if we are to treat more people. Some propose making patients pay more, but however we pay for it, it's clear that driving the cost down is what needs to happen. The use of medical robots to assist human surgeons is becoming more widespread but, so far, they are being used to try and improve patient outcomes and not to reduce the cost of surgery. Cost savings may come later when this robotic technology matures. It is in the area of medical diagnostics where many people see possible significant cost reduction while improving accuracy by using technology instead of human doctors. It is already common for blood tests and genetic testing (genomics) to be carried out automatically and very cost effectively by machines. They analyse the blood specimen and automatically produce a report. The tests can be as simple as a haemoglobin level (blood count) through to tests of diabetes such as insulin or glucose levels. They can also be used for far more complicated tests such as looking at a person's genetic makeup. A good example is Thyrocare Technologies Ltd in Mumbai, India, where more than 100,000 diagnostic tests from around the country are done every evening, and the reports delivered within 24 hours of blood being taken from a patient. Machines vs humans If machines can read blood tests, what else can they do? Though many doctors will not like this thought, any test that requires pattern recognition will ultimately be done better by a machine than a human. Many diseases need a pathological diagnosis, where a doctor looks at a sample of blood or tissue, to establish the exact disease: a blood test to diagnose an infection, a skin biopsy to determine if a lesion is a cancer or not and a tissue sample taken by a surgeon looking to make a diagnosis. All of these examples, and in fact all pathological diagnoses are made by a doctor using pattern recognition to determine the diagnosis. Artificial intelligence techniques using deep neural networks, which are a type of machine learning, can be used to train these diagnostic machines. Machines learn fast and we are not talking about a single machine, but a network of machines linked globally via the internet, using their pooled data to continue to improve. It will not happen overnight it will take some time to learn but once trained the machine will only continue to get better. With time, an appropriately trained machine will be superior at pattern recognition than any human could ever be. Pathology is now a matter of multi-million dollar laboratories relying on economies of scale. It takes around 15 years from leaving high school to train a pathologist to function independently. It probably takes another 15 years for the pathologist to be as good as they will ever be. Some years after that, they will retire and all that knowledge and experience is lost. Surely, it would be better if that knowledge could be captured and used by future generations? A robotic pathologist would be able to do just that. Radiology, X-rays and beyond Radiological tests account for over AUS$2 billion of the annual Medicare spend. In a 2013 report, it was estimated that in the 2014-15 period, 33,600,000 radiological investigations would be performed in Australia. A radiologist would have to study every one of these and write a report. Radiologists are already reading, on average, more than seven times the number of studies per day than they were five years ago. These reports, like those written by pathologists, are based on pattern recognition. Currently, many radiological tests performed in Australia are being read by radiologists in other countries, such as the UK. Rather than having an expert in Australia get out of bed at 3am to read a brain scan of an injured patient, the image can be digitally sent to a doctor in any appropriate time zone and be reported on almost instantly. What if machines were taught to read X-rays working at first with, and ultimately instead of, human radiologists? Would we still need human radiologists? Probably. Improved imaging, such as MRI and CT scans, will allow radiologists to perform some procedures that surgeons now undertake. The field of diagnostic radiology is rapidly expanding. In this field, radiologists are able to diagnose and treat conditions such as bleeding blood vessels. This is done using minimally invasive techniques, passing wires through larger vessels to reach the point of bleeding. So the radiologists may end up doing procedures that are currently done by vascular and cardiac surgeons. The increased use of robotic assisted surgery will mean this is more likely than not. There is a lot more to diagnosing a skin lesion, rash or growth than simply looking at it. But much of the diagnosis is based on the dermatologist recognising the lesion (again, pattern recognition). If the diagnosis remains unclear then some tissue (a biopsy) is sent to the laboratory for a pathological diagnosis. We have already established that a machine can read the latter. The same principle applies to the recognition of the skin lesion. Once recognised and learnt, the lesion will be able to be recognised again. Mobile phones with high-quality cameras will be able to link to a global database that will, like any other database with learning capability, continue to improve. It's not if, but when These changes will not happen overnight, but they are inevitable. Though many doctors will see these changes as a threat, the chance for global good is unprecedented. An X-ray taken in equatorial Africa could be read with the same reliability as one taken in an Australian centre of excellence. An infectious rash could be uploaded to a phone and the diagnosis given instantly. Many lives will be saved and the cost of health care to the world's poor can be minimal and, in many cases, free. For this to become a reality, it will take experts to work with machines and help them learn. Initially, the machines may be asked to do more straightforward tests but gradually they will be taught, just as humans learn most things in life. The medical profession should grasp these opportunities for change, and our future young doctors should think carefully where the medical jobs of the future will lie. It is almost certain that the medical employment landscape in 15 years will not look like the one we see today. Explore further Computers learning to find Australian cancers and broken bones that people miss This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Credit: Vera Kratochvil/public domain Forget about needing beauty sleep. It's your brain that may suffer the most from a lack of deep shut eye. Brain researchers have long noticed a connection between sleep disorders and memory problems. More recently, the link between disrupted sleep and an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease has been documented by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. It's believed that sleep acts like a dustbin for the brain - cleaning out toxins, including harmful proteins tied to Alzheimer's. Recent animal studies show sleep's cleansing process in action. But now scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are preparing to conduct a study on humans that would further explain deep sleep's effect on human brains. Their biggest challenge: finding a minimally invasive way to study the human brain at work while the patient sleeps. On that note, sweet dreams. Explore further The yin and yang of sleep and attention 2016 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A dried flower bud of the Cannabis plant. Credit: Public Domain A new analysis is challenging the idea that smoking marijuana during adolescence can lead to declines in intelligence. Instead, the new study says, pot smoking may be merely a symptom of something else that's really responsible for a brainpower effect seen in some previous research. It's not clear what that other factor is, said Joshua Isen, an author of the analysis. But an adolescent at risk for smoking pot "is probably going to show this IQ drop regardless of whether he or she is actually smoking marijuana," said Isen, a lecturer in psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The study was released Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Some prior research has led to suggestions that the developing adolescent brain is particularly vulnerable to harm from marijuana. Studying the topic is difficult because children can't ethically be randomly chosen to either take illicit drugs or abstain for years so that their outcomes can be compared. Scientists have to assess what people do on their own. For the new work, the researchers examined data that had been collected for two big U.S. studies of twins. They focused on 3,066 participants who were given a battery of intelligence tests at ages 9 to 12before any of them had used marijuanaand again at ages 17 to 20. They tracked changes in the test scores and studied whether those trajectories were worse for marijuana users than for non-users. Most tests revealed no difference between the two groups, but users did fare more poorly than abstainers in tests of vocabulary and general knowledge. If smoking pot harmed test scores, the researchers reasoned, people who'd smoked more pot should show poorer trends than those who'd smoked less. But that's not what the data revealed. Among users, those who'd smoked more than 30 times or used it daily for more than a six-month stretch didn't do worse. The study also looked at 290 pairs of twins in which one had used marijuana and the other had not. The members of each pair had grown up together and 137 sets were identical twins so they shared the same DNA. Again, the pot users did not fare worse than their abstaining twin siblings. So, the researchers concluded, pot smoking itself does not appear responsible for declines in test scores. Isen noted, however, that the work says nothing about other potential harmful consequences of smoking marijuana in adolescence. Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said that while the study has some limitations, it is important and deserves to be followed up with more research. She noted the government has already launched a project to follow about 10,000 children over time to assess the impact of marijuana and other drug use. A prominent 2012 study had indicated long-term IQ harm from pot smoking in teenagers. An author of that research said the new work does not conflict with her finding. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University said her study dealt with marijuana use that was far more serious and longer-lasting than the levels reported in the new work. Explore further Canada top court rules marijuana cookies, teas legal More information: "Impact of adolescent marijuana use on intelligence: Results from two longitudinal twin studies," by Nicholas J. Jackson et al. PNAS, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1516648113 Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences "Impact of adolescent marijuana use on intelligence: Results from two longitudinal twin studies," by Nicholas J. Jackson et al. 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. A TEM micrograph showing Dengue virus virions (the cluster of dark dots near the center). Image: CDC (Medical Xpress)The mosquito-borne dengue virus infects up to 390 million people a year. Symptoms of dengue fever include a measles-like rash, fever, body aches and joint pain. In a small subset of cases, the disease develops into life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding and low platelet count; this can progress to dengue shock syndrome, which manifests as dangerously low blood pressure. There are four dengue virus serotypes, DENV1-4. The risk factors for developing disease include exposure to a heterologous DENV serotype, the specific infecting strains, the interval of time between infections, age, ethnicity, genetics, and others. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) are believed to provide long-term protection against infection and the development of severe forms of dengue. The goal of researchers is to produce dengue vaccines that provide protection against all DENV serotypes, but vaccine development is inhibited by a lack of knowledge about the association of homotypic and heterotypic NAb titers. A group of researchers from Nicaragua, the U.S. and the U.K. have collaborated on a study into the correlation between antibody titers and protection from symptomatic infection. They have published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers analyzed data from the Nicaraguan Pediatric Dengue Cohort Study (2004 to present), described as a community-based study featuring passive surveillance with an active cohort of ~3500 children aged two to 14. Data was culled from healthy annual blood samples; symptomatic dengue infections were confirmed in children who presented to the health center with suspected dengue. Using the data to reconstruct the immunological histories for each child, the authors analyzed the results and concluded that higher preinfection neutralizing antibody titers correlate with a lower probability of symptomatic infections in children. They also determined that levels 0f cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies are maintained in healthy children over a long period of time, possibly due to re-exposure. The authors write, "We observed that a higher median preinfection NAb titer or NAb titer to the 2 infecting serotype, but not the NAb titer to the 1 serotype, was significantly associated with reduced probability of 2 symptomatic DENV infection, indicating that cross-reactive NAbs determine protection, as others have proposed." The researchers also found by tightening or loosening their own criteria for inapparent infections that the protective effect of preinfection NAbs remained. In addition to determining that higher levels of cross-reactive preinfection NAbs likely confer reduced probability of developing symptomatic dengue, they also believe that in endemic settings, NAb titers do not become increasingly type-specific. The study also suggests that the major independent predictor of symptomatic infection is epidemic force, and that age and the time between 1 and 2 infections were lesser predictors. While this contrasts with the results of previous studies, the authors note that those studies used age and the years between infections as indirect measures of NAb titers, while the current study directly observes the effect of NAb titers on infection outcomes. They write, "Our findings have potential implications for vaccine development and implementation. Vaccines that generate higher levels of NAb titers will potentially reduce the probability of symptomatic infection, but the level of NAbs required for protection against symptomatic disease may differ from year to year in endemic settings." Explore further Study could lead to vaccines and treatment for dengue virus More information: Neutralizing antibody titers against dengue virus correlate with protection from symptomatic infection in a longitudinal cohort. PNAS 2016 ; published ahead of print January 4, 2016, Neutralizing antibody titers against dengue virus correlate with protection from symptomatic infection in a longitudinal cohort.2016 ; published ahead of print January 4, 2016, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1522136113 Abstract The four dengue virus serotypes (DENV14) are mosquito-borne flaviviruses that infect 390 million people annually; up to 100 million infections are symptomatic, and 500,000 cases progress to severe disease. Exposure to a heterologous DENV serotype, the specific infecting DENV strains, and the interval of time between infections, as well as age, ethnicity, genetic polymorphisms, and comorbidities of the host, are all risk factors for severe dengue. In contrast, neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) are thought to provide long-lived protection against symptomatic infection and severe dengue. The objective of dengue vaccines is to provide balanced protection against all DENV serotypes simultaneously. However, the association between homotypic and heterotypic NAb titers and protection against symptomatic infection remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that the titer of preinfection cross-reactive NAbs correlates with reduced likelihood of symptomatic secondary infection in a longitudinal pediatric dengue cohort in Nicaragua. The protective effect of NAb titers on infection outcome remained significant when controlled for age, number of years between infections, and epidemic force, as well as with relaxed or more stringent criteria for defining inapparent DENV infections. Further, individuals with higher NAb titers immediately after primary infection had delayed symptomatic infections compared with those with lower titers. However, overall NAb titers increased modestly in magnitude and remained serotype cross-reactive in the years between infections, possibly due to reexposure. These findings establish that anti-DENV NAb titers correlate with reduced probability of symptomatic DENV infection and provide insights into longitudinal characteristics of antibody-mediated immunity to DENV in an endemic setting. Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2016 Medical Xpress A new King's College London study examines suicide deaths within and outside the period surrounding childbirth, specifically in women who had been in recent contact with mental health services. Suicide in pregnant and postnatal women is an important cause of maternal death, yet evidence to guide suicide prevention in this group is scarce. The researchers hope these findings, published today in The Lancet Psychiatry, will inform suicide prevention strategies for those who suffer from serious mental health problems during or after pregnancy. The study used UK national data on suicides by people with past-year contact with psychiatric services in the period 1997-2012. Over that period nearly 5,000 women in recent contact with psychiatric services died by suicide, and the team at King's found that roughly one in 50 of these women were new or expectant mothers. The researchers compared women who died by suicide in pregnancy or the first postnatal year (perinatal suicides) with those who died by suicide outside of this period (non-perinatal suicide). Suicide in the perinatal group was more often violent (most commonly by hanging or jumping). However, once clinical characteristics such as diagnosis and illness duration were taken into account, there was less of a difference in the nature of the methods used by perinatal and non-perinatal women. The higher frequency of violent suicides among perinatal women might reflect greater illness severity or higher suicidal intent in this group, according to the study authors. The researchers also found that women who died by suicide in the perinatal period were more likely to have a diagnosis of depression and less likely to be receiving active psychiatric treatment, including medication. Dr Hind Khalifeh from the Health Service and Population Research Department at King's College London said: 'This finding is particularly concerning as it suggests that women with serious mental illness may not be getting the treatment they need. 'The decision not to take antidepressant medication in the perinatal period might be due to fears of potential harm to the unborn baby or breastfeeding infant. 'Reports often focus on the possible risks of using antidepressants during pregnancy but our research has highlighted the potential serious risks of untreated severe depression in the perinatal period.' According to the study authors, clinicians need to closely monitor perinatal suicide risk not only in women with psychotic illnesses, but also in those with depression. Dr Khalifeh added: 'Depression is arguably under-recognised as a leading cause of perinatal suicide, with much public and clinical attention focused on the scarce, but very high-risk presentation of postnatal psychosis. 'Clinicians should be aware that women with severe perinatal depression in particular are a group at risk of suicide who need careful monitoring and treatment. Therefore decisions about use of medication need to be made after carefully weighing up the potential risks and benefits for both mother and baby. Clinicians should ensure that women who choose not to take medication are offered adequate and timely alternative treatments and appropriate follow-up.' Professor Louise Howard, also from King's College London, said: 'Although the number of pregnancy-related deaths has been steadily falling, the frequency of indirect deaths linked to mental health is a major cause for concern. 'Fortunately women who are new or expectant mothers rarely die by suicide. However, when it does occur it is obviously a deeply tragic event. 'We welcome David Cameron's promise this week of more services to address mental health problems in pregnant and postnatal women.' Explore further Maternal suicides more could be prevented More information: Hind Khalifeh et al. Suicide in perinatal and non-perinatal women in contact with psychiatric services: 15 year findings from a UK national inquiry, The Lancet Psychiatry (2016). Hind Khalifeh et al. Suicide in perinatal and non-perinatal women in contact with psychiatric services: 15 year findings from a UK national inquiry,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)00003-1 WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DEMOCRAT PARTY? I can no longer remain in todays Demo Party that is now under the control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively undermine our freedoms, are hostile to people of faith, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after opponents.TULSI GABBARD Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin OMalley sparred over guns and health care in the first Democratic presidential primary debate of 2016, two weeks before caucus voters in Iowa head to the polls. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, started the debate by calling Clintons attacks on his gun bill voting record "disingenuous," bragging about a poor rating from the National Rifle Association. But Clinton doubled down on her criticisms, insisting Sanders has broken with supporters of gun control many times. Sanders and Clinton also clashed over their approaches to reforming the nations health care system. Sanders wants to scrap the Affordable Care Act for a universal single-payer health care proposal. Clinton said thats unrealistic given the intense intraparty fight over health reform even when Democrats had full control of Congress and the White House. Sanders had released details about how he would pay for his Medicare-for-all health plan just a couple hours before the debate started. Heres what the candidates got right and wrong in their attacks from PolitiFact. @ByKristenMClark After removing the Confederate battle flag from the Florida Senate's emblem last fall, senators are expected to vote again this week to make further changes to the chamber's seal. The additional revisions were expected, because some senators wanted an overhaul of the seal in its entirety rather than simply swapping out the Confederate battle flag for the state flag in a design that the Florida Senate had had for 40 years. That design includes a banner of five flags in all -- the four others being: the United States flag, the 1513 Spanish flag, the 1564 French flag and the 1763 Great Britain flag. The new design that the Senate Rules Committee endorsed last week would remove the foreign flags and leave only the state and U.S. flags. A mock-up of that concept is not yet available. Rules Committee Chairman Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, cited historical accuracy as the reasoning behind the additional proposed changes. It was the same explanation he gave for supporting the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the seal -- although the impetus of that request by Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner, of Tampa, was the racially motivated church shooting in Charleston, S.C. last summer and the Confederate icon's use in that and other instances dating back to the civil-rights era as a symbol of racism and intimidation. Speaking of the foreign flags on the seal, "only one of those - the Union Jack -- was an official national flag at the time Florida was occupied by foreign powers," Simmons said last week. "The other flags on the seal are arguably speculative. ... Given the Senates legendary intolerance for historical error, were correcting this." The proposed additional change garnered unanimous, bipartisan support from the Rules Committee. "Going in this direction certainly shows that as a body we are willing to continue to discuss what gives angst to one senator or another and we can reach an amenable compromise," said Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville. "Because, truly, the seal is the seal of the Senate and should represent every senators wishes." Simmons said Friday he'll bring the proposed rule change to the full Senate when it convenes for session on Thursday afternoon. It's expected to pass and needs approval from a two-thirds majority, or support from 27 of 40 members. Senate staff temporarily replaced the seal behind the chamber's rostrum for the 2016 session with one that removes the Confederate battle flag. That emblem and all other appearances of it throughout the Capitol are expected to be replaced over the summer to reflect this latest, more-permanent design. @PatriciaMazzei Marco Rubio has made headlines with his opposition to abortion, having taken the position that he would support -- but not require -- legislation banning the procedure even in cases of rape and incest. He doesn't get into that level of detail in his latest Iowa TV ad, though he does specify opposition to late-term abortion. In the rest of the piece, he characterizes his position as one made on moral and religious grounds, a direct pitch to Iowa's religious conservatives (he's already airing an ad discussing his faith). Rubio also spoke in some length about his views on abortion and birth control in an interview last week with Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS 4. "I believe there should be an exception to save the life of the mother, and while I don't require there to be an exception for the other things people talk about, I'll support a bill that has them," he told Jim DeFede. Would Rubio seek to ban emergency contraception, such as the "Plan B" pill, as president? "I'm not going to outlaw that, and it's available in many cases over the counter now," he said. via @learyreports Marco Rubio went shopping for a handgun on Christmas Eve, tying it to the threat of ISIS. I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us, he said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation. In fact, if ISIS were to visit us, or our communities, at any moment, the last line of defense between ISIS and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them, or from a criminal, or anyone else who seeks to do us harm. Millions of Americans feel that way. Rubio first disclosed the gun purchase on Friday while visiting Sturm, Ruger & Co. in New Hampshire. He linked guns and ISIS again while in Iowa on Saturday. If God forbid Isis pays a visit to you, to our community, the last thing standing between them and our families may be the ability to protect ourselves with our guns," he said in Sioux Center. "And theres no way were going to take that away from the American people, not when Im president. Rubio inferred Sunday this was his second gun purchase. The first coincided with his U.S. Senate run. In September 2009 he went through training for a concealed weapons permit but and said he purchased a .357 Magnum in February 2010. Rubio on Sunday also criticized the Iran deal and exchange of prisoners. The president has pardoned them in exchange for a release of hostages which had done nothing wrong, and it proves once again that now nations and enemies of America around the world know there's a price for Americans," Rubio said. "If you take an American hostage, Barack Obama will cut a deal with you, whether it's Bergdahl, what he did with the Castro brothers, and now what he's done with Iran." As news of Irans release of American prisoners spread, Republicans were quick to deny President Barack Obama much credit for the deal. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio said the United States should not have made any concessions to Iran. Part of the deal included Obama granting clemency to seven Iranians charged in U.S. courts with violating economic sanctions against Iran. "Our enemies now know that if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it," Rubio said on Meet the Press on Jan. 17, 2016. Host Chuck Todd pressed Rubio on that position: "So under President Rubio, you would not have negotiated any sort of prisoner exchange for those four American hostages?" Rubio replied: "When I become president of the United States, our adversaries around the world will know that America is no longer under the command of someone weak like Barack Obama, and it will be like Ronald Reagan, where as soon as he took office the hostages were released from Iran." We flagged Rubios comment as a misleading framing of history. Reagans inauguration in 1981 may have coincided with the release of the hostages, but historians say it did not cause it. Instead, the Iranians had tired of holding the hostages, and that the administration of Jimmy Carter did the legwork to get the hostages released. Turn to PolitiFact to keep reading the fact-check by Angie Drobnic Holan and Louis Jacobson. @ByKristenMClark Thousands of supporters of a controversial voucher-like education program plan to rally at the Florida Capitol on Tuesday, and they'll be led by a special guest: Martin Luther King III, son of the civil rights leader whom the nation is honoring with its annual federal holiday today. King is set to be the keynote speaker at the rally, which was organized by the "Save Our Scholarships Coalition" and other school-choice groups to emphasize support for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. The 15-year-old state program helps low-income families afford to send their children to private schools. The state's largest teachers union is challenging the constitutionality of the program in court, and rally-goers on Tuesday want the Florida Education Association to drop the lawsuit. Tampa-based Florida Voices for Choices says it has more than 240 schools signed up to participate -- including three dozen from South Florida and about 30 from the Tampa Bay area -- with buses arranged to ferry parents and children to the state capital. Catherine Durkin Robinson, the group's executive director, said in a video promoting Tuesday's rally that participants will receive free bus transportation to Tallahassee, meals and snacks, drinks, rally t-shirts and poster materials. The video was paid for by the American Federation for Children, which supports alternative options to traditional public schools. An email advisory from Capitol Police said officers are preparing for as many as 10,000 people. The rally-goers plan to meet at the Civic Center in Tallahassee and march to the Capitol, forcing the closure of some downtown Tallahassee roadways. Historian Michael C. Hardy's quest to understand Confederate history, from the boots up. Exposing pro-Israel bias, propaganda, disinformation and spin in Australia's mainstream media. Monitoring pro-Israel influence in Australia's public and political arena. As for the reviews it should be noted that I don't like to summarise books and I am prone to revealing spoilers. I started reviewing books on Goodreads, and the more I added my own personal experiences to my reviews, the more I began to wonder if that was the appropriate place for such intimate reflections; not that I expect this to get too personal, really, but at least I'm off the beaten path here. My baseline assumption is that, despite the mounting pageviews, no one is actually reading this. Polson's own international film festival kicks off its fourth year next weekend with a lineup of documentaries and narrative films, both features and shorts. "Overall, the quality of the films that we received this year was a step above what we've had in previous years," said festival co-chairman David W. King. Montana films are well-represented at the three-day festival. Missoula filmmaker Damon Ristau is scheduled to screen "The Bus," his 2012 movie about the history and cult appeal of Volkswagen's signature van, at 7 p.m. Friday with a filmmaker discussion to follow. A vintage 1968 film by a Polson-area rancher, Chuck Jarecki, titled "Investment in Grass on a Northwest Montana Cattle Ranch," is scheduled to show for the first time in decades at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. King said the "delightful film" was shot on 16mm with a classical music soundtrack, and delves into the dos and don'ts of caring for grass and maintaining a ranch. Jarecki, a longtime member of the community, will be in attendance for a filmmaker discussion after the screening. The festival, through websites like withoutabox.com and filmfreeway.com, has received submissions from around the world. A feature-length comedy, "The Galloping Vet," is coming all the way from Turkey. "It's a wacky kind of slapstick comedy that is very well made," King said. A contingent of Southern California filmmakers will travel up for "Six Bullets to Hell," a grindhouse spaghetti Western shot to look like the European Westerns of the 1970s. It is scheduled to show at 9 p.m. Saturday with a discussion to follow. There are more serious films on tap, too, such as "Rising Voices," at 9 p.m. Friday. "It's a documentary about trying to preserve the Lakota language and the culture shaped by that language," King said. "We Sing Where Im From" follows Blackfeet and Salish tribal members on the powwow trail. It is scheduled to show at 9 p.m. Friday. "The Saddlemaker," directed by Elliot Lindsey of Bozeman, sketches a portrait of an Ohio man who moved to Montana to learn to work with leather. It is scheduled to show at 4:30 p.m. Saturday with a filmmaker discussion to follow. Screenings will take place at Polson's Showboat Cinemas. For a complete schedule and ticket information, go to flicpolson.com. *** Flathead Lake International Cinemafest offers a number of special events through the weekend. The opening night party is scheduled at 5 p.m. Friday at the KwaTaqNuk Resort. As the theme is "00FLIC," partygoers are invited to wear James Bond-style attire, whether agent or villain. Tickets for the evening featuring dinner and drinks are $40. Screenings are slated to start afterward at 7 p.m. After the awards are given Sunday, the festival will hold encore screenings the following Tuesday through Thursday. At 8:30 a.m. Saturday, the festival is scheduled to hold a free family movie screening of the 2014 remake of "Paddington." Attendees can show up in their PJs and eat a free breakfast. No advance tickets are available, and seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Saturday evening features a no-host after-party with filmmakers in attendance. It kicks off at 10:30 p.m. at the Vine and Tap. Sunday features an awards show from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Showboat. Attendees can eat dessert while awards in 20 categories are distributed. *** King, who's been involved with the festival since its first year, said the festival received about 80 submissions this year, and more filmmakers are traveling to Polson for the event. "It's exciting when they are selected to be in the festival, and we're a pretty small festival but we're beginning to matter, I think," he said. "Just the fact that it's Montana and that's pretty exotic down in California and out on the coast with Washington, it's a fun thing." He said attendance has been creeping upward, and has improved noticeably for screenings of the more obscure movies. The prime-time screenings, meanwhile, are heavily attended. "I anticipate we'll have to turn people away from some of the screenings because I think they're going to be popular," he said. Encore screenings of popular and award-winning films are planned for the week following the festival. In the long term, organizers hope to grow FLIC into a destination film festival. "By that, I mean a prestigious film festival where studios send representatives looking for new product," said King, who worked in the industry in southern California for 32 years before relocating his production company to Polson. "We would like to have more films screening on more screens over a longer period of time as the festival grows," he said. That would require building a theater for Polson to accommodate more films. For now, though, he said organizers are thankful for the interest within the town, the Mission Valley and beyond, in addition to all the work of the festival volunteers. BILLINGS For a guy with such a fragile name, Hugh Glass must have seemed unbreakable. Shot twice and mauled by a grizzly bear, the mountain man made famous in the book and acclaimed movie The Revenant grew to mythological proportions in his era. Yet after cheating death so many times, and under such unusual circumstances, in real life his adventures were ended on the Yellowstone River, just east of Billings, in 1833. "He was quite a character," said Jay Buckley, an associate professor of History at Brigham Young University, who is familiar with Glass' story. "We don't know a ton about that era, but we wouldn't know anything about Hugh Glass if he hadn't been attacked by a bear." Glass was a fur trapper in the heydays of the mountain man, the 1820s to 1840s. It was a really pivotal time in history, said Laurie Hartwig, who served as director of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyo., for 14 years and is now a staff member. The mountain men traveled on the heels of western explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, some of the first Euro-Americans to explore the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages in Montana. The routes the fur trappers traveled, Hartwig said, are the same paths that settlers would later follow to lay claim to the West. *** A revenant is a person who has returned from the dead, and Glass certainly fit that definition. Although he never wrote about his near-death encounters, parts of his life have been pieced together from accounts written by others he associated with, as well as by articles of the era based on stories that mythologized the man. There isnt a lot of actual information about any of the mountain men, Hartwig said. Were hoping somebody is going to find a diary up in their attic. Buckley said there are four accounts from which Glass' life has been pieced together, including one line from a journal of one of the men on the trip with Andrew Henry's Rocky Mountain Fur Co. when Glass was attacked that reads in part: "one man was torn nearly all to pieces by a bear." From what has been woven together, though, the museum created its own Hugh Glass website hughglass.org to help separate fact from the fictionalized version now showing on movie screens around the world. It is from that website and other historical books written about the period in history from which this story is pieced together. Local history buffs contacted for comment had never heard of Glass until this movie was advertised. Its a fascinating story and movie and special effects, said Bill Cole, a Billings attorney who has led preservation efforts for western scout Yellowstone Kellys gravesite on the Rimrocks north of the city. But you cant be too concerned about the authenticity. *** As near as historians can establish, Glass was born around 1783 in the Philadelphia area. If thats the case, Glass was about 40 years old when he joined a group of 100 men traveling up the Missouri River in 1823. The group had been assembled by William Ashley, who together with Henry had formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. to exploit the rich beaver lands of the new West. Portrayed in the movie by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, there are no known photographs, lithographs or paintings of the real Hugh Glass, Hartwig said. Henry had already made other trips into the new territory, first under the sponsorship of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Co. Led by scout John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Henry and a party of men in 1810 established the first of several Fort Henrys near Three Forks in the heart of traditional Blackfeet Indian territory. The crew only lasted two months at Three Forks because of the unceasing Indian raids. Abandoning the fort, Henry and his men went upstream where his name was bestowed upon Henrys Lake and the Henrys Fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho. Twelve years later, in 1822, Henry returned to the region with a party of 150 men to establish a trading post and another Fort Henry near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers about 20 miles southwest of present Williston, North Dakota. *** It was this same fort that Henrys partner Ashley was traveling up the Missouri River from St. Louis in 1823 to resupply via keelboats, along with a party of 90 men that included Glass and a 19-year-old Jim Bridger, who had reportedly signed on as a blacksmith. While enroute, Glass was shot in the leg during a skirmish with Arikara Indians who had attacked the party. The Indians had killed 14 members of the group and all 19 of the horses they had traded to the mountain men. Eleven other men in the group were wounded. This was Glass first of several dangerous encounters with the semi-nomadic Plains Indian tribe. Given the difficulty of traveling via the river in boats, Ashley decided to break the group into two teams. One led by Henry and including Glass and Bridger would travel overland on foot using horses to pack their gear to reach the latest Fort Henry. The other, led by Jedidiah Smith, set off about four weeks later after finally acquiring enough horses. *** It was while on this overland trek with Henrys party of about 15 men and six pack horses that Glass was attacked by a sow grizzly with two cubs, supposedly along the upper Grand River south of Lemmon, South Dakota a landscape much flatter than that shown in the movie. The mauling was so devastating his throat slashed, chunks of flesh gouged from his back that Glass was expected to die. Im sure there were hundreds of people mauled by grizzly bears back then, because they were everywhere on the plains, Hartwig said. He was popular among the mountain men because of surviving a grizzly bear attack. Since Glass clung to life, Henry decided to make a stretcher to carry Glass. After two days, Henry was worried that the groups slowed progress would endanger all of them. To save the many he was willing to sacrifice the one. Eager to return to the small band of trappers he had left at Fort Henry, he offered to pay two men a bonus to stay with Glass until he died and then bury him. Bridger and John Fitzgerald volunteered for the grave-digging duty. After staying behind for five days, Bridger and Fitzgerald became concerned they would be too far behind to catch up with the rest of their party, as well as feeling vulnerable to another Indian attack. Stripping Glass of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, fire-starting kit, shot and powder, they left him for dead next to a stream. Somehow Glass regained enough strength to begin hobbling east toward the Missouri River. Some accounts have him feeding off a wolf-killed bison for nourishment. Upon reaching the river he obtained a boat to float downstream to Fort Kiowa, located near what is now Chamberlain, S.D. The trek had covered an estimated 250 miles. By the time Glass arrived at the fort it was already October about the same time the rest of his party finally reached Fort Henry. Not one to wait around after healing his wounds for a couple of days, Glass set out to reportedly seek revenge against Bridger and Fitzgerald for abandoning him. Traveling upstream with a group of five traders by boat to a Columbia Fur Co. trading post, he went ashore rather than paddle around a large oxbow. The rest of the party, which remained in the boat, was killed by a group of Arikara Indians. Glass narrowly escaped capture, aided by some Mandan Indians. In addition to being mauled by a grizzly and left to die, Glass had been involved in three Indian attacks in which 21 men were killed and 16 wounded, wrote Clay Landry, a Helena mountain man re-enactor and history buff who authored some of the hughglass.org articles. While this number of close calls would give most men pause, Glass actions indicate he remained focused on his current situation and his pressing need to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. *** It was late November when Glass set off across the Dakota territory for whats believed to be a 38-day hike to Fort Henry. His revenge would have to wait, though, since the party had abandoned the fort for lack of beaver to establish a new winter outpost near the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers, closer to the friendly Crow Indians. Undeterred, Glass set out again in the middle of winter to make another 250-mile trek. How he knew where to go is uncertain; perhaps Henry had left a note at the old fort. According to trapper George Younts account, Glass reached the newest Fort Henry on New Years Eve of 1823. The man who everyone in Henrys trapping party thought had died on the Dakota plains was very much alive and, one would have to believe, looking for vengeance against the men who had left him for dead. Otherwise, why would he have ventured so far in such perilous winter weather? Even among modern travelers the frigidity of the Dakotas is well-known and feared, a place where low temperatures are commonly in the single digits or below zero during December and January. Unfortunately for Glass, Fitzgerald was not with the group, and Bridger was pardoned, possibly because of his youth and after claiming he was influenced by the older Fitzgerald into leaving Glass. Fitzgerald had set out for Fort Atkinson. Possibly he and Glass had passed within miles of each other on their excursions in opposite directions. *** When Henry asked for a volunteer to deliver a dispatch to Ashley in St. Louis to update him on the trapping partys endeavors, Glass supposedly volunteered in hopes of catching up to Fitzgerald. On Feb. 29, 1824, Glass and four others set off on the journey to reach Fort Atkinson, located near present Omaha, Neb., at the junction of the Missouri and Platte rivers, more than 1,000 miles to the southeast. Enroute, Glass and his compatriots would have yet another run-in with the Arikaras, this time along the North Platte River. Two of the men were killed. The other three, including Glass, scattered and were without their rifles. Once again, Glass was walking back to a prairie fort. This time, however, he at least had his knife and fire-starting kit. Supposedly Glass told another trapper, Although I had lost my rifle and all my plunder, I felt quite rich when I found my knife, flint and steel in my shot pouch. These little fixens make a man feel right peart when he is three or four hundred miles from anybody or any place. In mid-May Glass finally arrived at Fort Kiowa the same place he had ventured to after the grizzly attack. It was there he learned that Fitzgerald had enlisted in the Army and was now at Fort Atkinson, farther down the Missouri. In June he arrived at Fort Atkinson but was denied access to Fitzgerald because he was now protected as a government employee. Glass had to settle for getting his cherished rifle back as his only consolation. Meanwhile, Henry decided to abandon his fort at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers. According to a National Park Service account, Henry and his men ventured south along the Bighorn River, through Bad Pass above Bighorn Canyon, to explore Wyomings Green River region. From there the men later returned to St. Louis, and Henry ended his raucous career in the fur business. *** That same year, 1824, Glass set out on a trading adventure to New Mexico where he was shot with an arrow in the back by a Shoshone Indian. After healing from this latest wound the metal arrowhead cut out by a fellow trapper using a razor Glass supposedly returned to the Yellowstone country. By the spring of 1830 historical records confirm that Glass was on the payroll at Fort Union, near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, working as a hunter for the American Fur Co. Supposedly Glass killed so many bighorn sheep that lived on the side of nearby badland cliffs that they named it Glass Bluffs. In yet another attempt to establish trade with the Crow Indians, in 1832 Fort Cass was built by the American Fur Co. three miles downstream from the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers close to the last Fort Henry location. Glass, now about 50 years old and tattooed with scars from his many brushes with death, supposedly moved to the new fort to provide his services as a hunter. It was here where Glass would fail to cheat death again, that all of his wild adventures would finally come to an end. This time the Arikaras who through some quirk of fate had so far only managed to injure the hardy mountain man would finally kill him. *** As mountain man history buff Landry writes on the hughglass.org website, In the early spring of 1833, Glass, accompanied by Edward Rose and Hilain Menard, departed Fort Cass to trap beaver a short way downriver from the fort. As the trappers were crossing the ice of the frozen river they were ambushed by a large party of Arikara Indians who had been concealed on the opposite bank. All three men were shot, scalped and plundered. It was these mens misfortune that an Arikara war party, bent on stealing horses, had been scouting the area around the fort when they spotted the trappers. Sometime after his death, two members of the Arikara war party that killed Glass supposedly were buried alive and scalped by other trappers near the headwaters of the Powder River north of Casper, Wyo. The trappers had recognized Glass rifle in the Indians possession and sought revenge. Even from beyond the grave it appeared as though Glass was exacting some measure of revenge. So somewhere along the banks of the Yellowstone River are buried the remains of a mountain man who has now gained fame beyond anything he could have imagined. After seeing the movie and given her long association with the Museum of the Mountain Man, Hartwig is hopeful that there will be a resurgence in interest in the era, its history and the unusual cast of real-life characters that populated the brief period. Already Hartwig and other members of the museum have received calls from magazines as diverse as Cowboys and Indians and Maxim. Not since Robert Redford starred in the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson have mountain men drawn such widespread attention, she said. Thats why were so excited about this movie, because it will renew interest in the mountain man and fur trade. LIBBY When a Libby taxidermy firm confirmed it had signed a contract with a sporting goods chain to supply natural habitat displays for its new outdoor recreation stores, one of the local owners predicted hed be expanding his building and adding 20 jobs. Now, he and two other defendants are being sued. A Virginia company that builds fake cliffs, boulders and trees for wildlife dioramas says it has been stiffed for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work already done, and says Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy of Libby is in breach of a contract worth a minimum of $1.2 million. Createk, a Winchester, Virginia, company that manufacturers taxidermy habitats, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Virginia. It alleges that one or more of the taxidermy owners effectively looted Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy in a fraudulent scheme to deprive the company of resources to satisfy its obligations to Createk. The lawsuit names Milfred Kevin Mel Siefke and Ann Siefke of Libby, and Kevin Neidigh of Troy, as defendants. It says Dicks Sporting Goods contracted with the northwest Montana taxidermy business to provide habitat dioramas for several new Field & Stream stores it was opening, and that Dicks had paid Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy in full for dioramas that were installed. The lawsuit also alleges that, in a phone conversation in November, Mel Siefke told Createk CEO Greg Fritz that Neidigh the taxidermy firms vice president had frozen Wildlife Recapture Taxidermys bank account due to a personal dispute with the Siefkes. *** Createk terminated its contract with the Libby taxidermists on Dec. 1 because, it says, it has not been paid for work done on four dioramas, and is seeking the $1.2 million it says Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy guaranteed it, plus interest, costs, attorney fees and other damages. Mel Siefke did not return a phone message seeking comment. In a 2013 story in Libbys newspaper, the Western News, Siefke was quoted as saying that because of the national contract with Dicks to supply wildlife dioramas to Field & Stream stores, Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy was looking at adding 20 jobs and expanding into a 20,000-square-foot building. Dioramas for Field & Stream stores in Troy, Michigan; Charleston, South Carolina; and Polaris, Ohio, have been installed in the last year, according to the lawsuit. Createk says it billed the taxidermy firm $273,075.31 for its work on those displays, but has never been paid. It also says it hasnt been paid $150,000 for work ordered by Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy for a fourth Field & Stream store, in Asheville, North Carolina. WRTs breach of the supply agreement, and failure to cure the breach before the supply agreement was terminated, did not relieve WRT from its obligation to purchase at least $1.2 million worth of product from Createk, the lawsuit says. Because WRT had a contractual obligation to purchase at least $1.2 million worth of product from Createk and failed to do so during the term of the supply agreement, WRT has caused damages to Createk in an amount to be proven at trial, but no less than $1.2 million. *** Dicks Sporting Goods began its expansion into the hunting, fishing and camping retail market long dominated by firms such as Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops in 2013, when it opened its first Field & Stream store in the Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. It already has 18 more Field & Stream stores in nine states in the South, Midwest and East, with plans to bring the total to 30 to 35 by 2017. Large outdoor recreation retail stores often include elaborate displays of stuffed and mounted wildlife. Createk was contracted by Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy to provide the natural-looking settings where animals obtained, preserved and mounted over artificial armatures by WRT are displayed in the stores. The lawsuit says that on Dec. 1, Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch ordered Wildlife Recapture Taxidermy to be involuntarily dissolved. Blair Fjeseth, communications director for the secretary of state, said such orders usually indicate a business has failed to file required paperwork such as an annual report, and do not stop businesses from continuing to operate. An employee answered the phone at the taxidermy shop Wednesday afternoon and took a message for Mel Siefke, who had not returned the phone call by Thursday evening. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Virginia on Dec. 18, and amended on Dec. 29. The defendants have not yet filed a response. The case was assigned to Judge Michael Urbanski. One of the big stories from last week was Arch Coal, one of the nations largest coal producers, following a handful of other large coal companies into bankruptcy. Then China, one of the primary markets for export coal, announced it would no longer issue new coal mining permits. On Friday Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said her agency is halting new coal leases on federal lands until it conducts a comprehensive review of fees on mining and coals impact on the environment. Toss in a precipitous drop in oil prices to less than $30 a barrel and it appears King Coal isnt just sick, its dang near dead. Whats strange, especially here in Montana, is the reaction of our politicians from both parties to what seems the inescapable conclusion that coals big day on the energy stage is over. Instead, faced with upcoming moves by both the Oregon and Washington state legislatures to reduce reliance on coal-fired energy, politicians from Gov. Steve Bullock on down are digging in their heels in a futile attempt to derail the inevitable shutdown of Colstrips oldest and dirtiest power plants. Point in case is the industry-dominated committee Bullock appointed to push back against the Obama administrations Clean Power Plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions. Why any leader in the era of global climate change and its increasingly disastrous consequences would want to defend coal energy is a good question. But thats just what Montanas politicians are doing. Republican Attorney General Tim Fox has tossed his hat and taxpayer-funded lawyers into the fray by joining 27 other states in a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan. Bullock has previously indicated support for Foxs intervention on behalf of coal while saying Montana cannot let the federal government dictate what happens in Montana. Really? Whats next, secession? In the meantime, legislators from both parties are going to Washington to plead against mothballing Colstrip Units 1 and 2. That the rhetoric is rising in direct proportion to the mounting obstacles for coal-fired power is not surprising, but the claims are getting more than a little wild and unrealistic. State Sen. Duane Ankney, a Republican who likes to call Colstrip the town that coal built, bluntly announced that taking any Colstrip units offline would be the death of Montanas economy. That, of course, is nothing but fear-mongering. Montanas economy was around long before Colstrip was built and will be around long after it puffs its last polluting breath. Some of us remember when Colstrip was first proposed in the early '70s with the stated intent to turn Montanas coal fields into the boiler room for the nation. The blowback from citizens and particularly the local ranching community was significant. The drafters of the 1972 Montana Constitution, having suffered the corruption of the Copper Kings, presciently established the Coal Severance Trust Fund to continue producing interest revenues after the coal industry petered out. Yet, even with a 30 percent severance tax, the construction of the Colstrip power plants went forward. Unbelievably, some politicians are now suggesting draining that trust to buy Colstrips old units, forgetting that Montana already gave the coal industry a significant break in 1985, when Democratic Gov. Ted Schwinden pushed legislation to cut the severance tax in half. Calling it a window of opportunity to make Montanas coal competitive with Wyomings, Schwinden ignored the reality that Wyomings coal fields were closer to markets and cutting our severance tax, while significantly reducing income to the states tax base, did nothing to diminish transportation costs. Our current politicians also forget that when those plants were permitted in the mid-'70s they were expected to operate for about 50 years, a term thats just about up. As Interior Secretary Jewell said in her announcement to halt new federal coal leases: It is abundantly clear that times are different than they were 30 years ago, and the time for review is now." Indeed, times are different. With a global glut of cheap oil and gas, coal is simply no longer competitive neither economically nor environmentally, especially with the rapid rise of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Ironically, the loudest proponents of the free market economy are now the ones willing to toss government interference into its operation on behalf of coal. Politicians looking in the rearview mirror arent leading. King Coal had its day. But that day is gone. Now its time to embrace, not fight, a new and cleaner energy future. Leaders under fire for poor performance resort to desperate measures in order to keep their jobs. These measures follow a predictable pattern: First, through surrogates and proxies, they blame their predecessors for leaving them with a mess. Next, they use those same surrogates to scapegoat critics courageous enough to point out how badly they are failing. And third, they try to avoid breaking bad news fully and completely at any one time, so as to avoid a wholesale rebellion among their employees. All of these measures are being employed by the current University of Montana leadership. After four years at the helm, the UM president and his administration have been unable to move past such desperate measures, and they continue to refuse to accept any responsibility for the present crisis facing UM. Given that the situation at UM has a direct impact on our local economy, we need to confront the following facts (and not allow the current administration to dissuade us from doing so): 1. Since 2010, UM has lost nearly 3,000 students; 2. Tens of millions of dollars in revenue have been lost as a result; 3. This same timeframe saw UMs reputation damaged by federal investigations into how the university handled reports of sexual assault; 4. In an attempt to address budgetary shortfalls, the UM administration has chosen to cut low-pay staff and faculty positions, but has refused to cut any highly paid administrators; 5. Even as they eliminate over 200 positions, top UM administrators will receive a 2 percent raise, and the president is slated to receive a $500,000 bonus; and 6. As staff and faculty positions are cut at UM, the Office of Commissioner of Higher Education in Helena, which is pushing for the downsizing of UM, is busy creating new administrative positions for itself. For example, upon leaving her post as the lieutenant governor, Angela McLean landed a position at OCHE, which is headed by Missoula businessman Clayton Christian. McLean made $86,360 as the lieutenant governor, and in her new job she will receive a salary of $102,000, although the position was initially advertised for a salary of $82,000 to $92,000. Meanwhile, Commissioner Christian himself, whose present salary stands at $302,000, is awaiting a $455,000 bonus. Christian was appointed to the commissioners post after the Board of Regents decided not to conduct a national search for the position. At the same time, the regents did away with the requirement that the commissioner hold a doctoral degree. Coincidentally, Christian holds only a bachelors degree. By all objective measures, UM suffers from weak leadership both in Main Hall and Helena. A local businessman without an advanced university degree and no real experience in higher education management has been empowered to map the future of a 122-year-old liberal arts institution. A university president responsible for representing and defending his staff and faculty has abdicated those responsibilities and shows little courage or potential to stand up for his campus. Cut, cut and cut again is not a sustainable approach for a university that is fighting to maintain its state flagship status: the fewer faculty members, the fewer courses; the fewer courses, the weaker and less attractive the curriculum; the less appealing the curriculum, the fewer students attracted to the university. Potential students are not seeking an institution of higher education that caters to the latest whims of the job market, but rather a university that will provide them with a well-rounded liberal arts education, one that will broaden their prospects for finding not just a job, but a career, at the end of their academic studies. A strong and diverse curriculum is the best marketing tool UM could possibly have. Millions spent on hiring a vice president for integrated communications, an assistant vice president for marketing, a director of marketing and outreach, an associate vice president for enrollment and student success, etc., have not turned UMs enrollment numbers around. Continuing to throw money at expensive administrative positions is not a viable solution. Cutting the size of the bloated administration and eliminating massive bureaucratic expenditures that have failed to produce any positive results may be the first step toward addressing the structural issues confronting our beloved university. Its no surprise that Montana Human Rights Network writer Travis McAdam would slander the principle of county supremacy and refer to citizens at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as county supremacists in a Jan. 14 commentary. Apparently the fulcrum principle of federalism the balance between federal and state governance is irrelevant to MHRN, as are states themselves. Note that the writer lives in Butte, America not Butte, Montana. With such disdain for states and their authority, the MHRN should remove the word Montana from its organizations name. The MHRN has a lengthy history of supporting the human rights of some humans, depending upon ethnicity. MHRN supports the United Nations and One World Order that calls for the ending of state government, and a transition to an internationally governed North America. A rumor that the Ammon Bundy folks may convene their own illegitimate court and sentence the lawman (county sheriff) to death," and to equate these folks with Timothy McVeigh, is classic MHRN smear. Likewise, Sen. Jennifer Fielder leads a minority of Montana legislators actually abiding by their oath of office to protect the state and its citizens from rogue federal land and water grabs. Is she, too, an insurrectionist? The U.S. Constitution and its amendments, particularly the First and 10th, are of no consequence to MHRN that promotes aboriginal, indigenous and international governance to take down the individual sovereignty of citizens and states. For an organization that lacks respect for the governing authority of its host state or its elected officials, lacks support for all humans irrespective of ethnicity, and all rights, including federal and state constitutional, MHRN gets the grand prize for most misleading organizational name. Perhaps relocation to some other country MHRN actually respects would bring comfort to these real insurrectionists and their poisonous prattle. Elaine Willman, Ronan I watched most of last week's Republican debate, the sixth so far and first of the new year. I listened as these candidates tried to paint the grimmest possible portrait of our country, which they feel is in decline morally, economically and militarily. As a retired combat veteran, I take exception to the claim that any one of them would improve our national security by beefing up the military, whatever that means. You have to remember that these are Republicans, a group of politicians who never launched an armed conflict they didn't like and believe democracy starts at the end of a rifle or receiving end of a missile-loaded drone. But they're all chickenhawks. Not one of them performed any kind of military service, although the current frontrunner thinks he's a veteran because his parents sent him to a private military prep school back east (probably to get rid of him). Mr. Bluster, the No. 1 candidate, rivals the artful dodger Dick Cheney in the number of deferments he secured (because of an owie on his foot) during the Vietnam War period. I don't know of any staff studies, military or civilian, that have shown our country to be any safer now because of all the countries we've invaded since the Korean War. So keep banging the national security (war) drum, GOP, because we all know it's good for business. Jim Hamilton, Florence BUTTE - A 23-year-old man who police say robbed a Butte casino at gunpoint was arrested within 10 minutes Monday morning. Shane Tenold of Butte was apprehended after a Butte-Silver Bow off-duty police officer spotted him fleeing from the Lucky Charm Casino, 2325 Harrison Ave., and followed him until police arrived at the scene, said Undersheriff George Skuletich. The suspect allegedly pointed a loaded Smith and Wesson 40-caliber pistol at a female casino attendant and demanded money, standing behind her as she retrieved an undermined amount of cash shortly before 8 a.m., the undersheriff said. Tenold, who was wearing black clothing, was seen throwing two money bags and the pistol while fleeing toward the yard of a residence on the 2100 block of Ottawa Street. Police ordered Tenold to lay on the ground and he was arrested without incident. The attendant was not injured, but she was shaken up, Skuletich said. The undersheriff said most casino robberies occur at night. A daytime heist is unusual, and he cited the great police work that led to Tenolds arrest. We were in the right place at the right time, and we were able to apprehend him within 10 minutes, Skuletich said. Police do not believe the robbery was drug related or that an accomplice was involved in the incident, which remains under investigation. Police say potential charges would include felony armed robbery. Montana Standard BROWNING A note from Browning's mayor to the towns citizens is taped to the front door of City Hall. The toll from events over the past two years, Mayor Willie Morris writes, has forced the town to reduce operations to just four hours a day, four days a week. Browning is broke. Last month it posted a press release online telling its citizens it was at risk of disincorporation. The town blames its financial troubles on the Blackfeet Tribe and the tribes Two Medicine Water Co., two entities the town has clashed with for years over management of the water utility that serves residents. The tribe says the town must accept responsibility for its own poor fiscal management, dismissing the suggestion that the utility dispute caused Brownings problems. The tribe says the town owes it money, a share of water bill collections that Browning agreed to pay so the tribe could pay debts it incurred to build the system that brings water into town. By the end of a town council meeting Wednesday night, the four aldermen seemed resolved Browning wont disincorporate; bankruptcy is the best option. Us as the council, the aldermen, we decided that were not going to disincorporate, Alderman Leo Kennerly said from the small meeting room inside city hall. Were going to call a bankruptcy attorney and ask where were going from there. Getting rid of a town in Montana isnt a simple process. Either 15 percent of registered voters in the town can ask the county commissioners to disincorporate, or two-thirds of the towns council can resolve to. After that, it goes to a vote and needs 60 percent in favor of disincorporation to pass. The town must create a schedule for the repayment of its debts, and if theres not enough money to do so, the county can levy and tax on land within the former town to make up the difference. It isnt clear just how broke the town is, but the sign on the door paints the picture of how Browning is out of funds. Even the clerk taking minutes at Wednesdays council session wasnt being paid for her time. Near the middle of the meeting, Kennerly asked Glacier County Commissioner Tom McKay and Commission Chairman Michael DesRosier, who were in attendance, if the county could loan the town money to keep workers going. Were broke, and (I) was wondering if maybe a loan, loan on our tax money that is supposed to be coming in come up with some funding until we can talk to our bankruptcy lawyer, come up with a little bit of an idea what were going to do? When DesRosier asked just how much trouble the city was in, Alderman Kelly Edwards answered by describing the towns situation: Right now were working half hours, half days, shut down Fridays, he said. If theres no gas to run the fire trucks, are you going to stand back and let them burn up? What we need is some revenues, some money to keep everything afloat. DesRosier said Glacier County doesnt have a fund it can draw from for a loan like that, and asked the town for the lay of its financial land. It would help see on paper where the debt lies, how much you owe, what inventory you got, what assets there are, he said. Kennerly didnt have information in the form of numbers Wednesday night, but he asked about selling scrap iron in the city yards to keep us rolling. The questions ran like that at the meeting, focusing on whats now, whats immediate, what happens tomorrow. The narrative going forward isnt clear yet, and its just as fuzzy looking back to reconcile the towns version of what happened with the tribes description of events. In 2009 a new pipe was built to bring tribal water into Browning and surrounding areas. Both the tribe and city agree it was supposed to be run cooperatively through a memorandum of understanding, but that agreement broke down a few years later. The water system, Blackfeet Tribal Business Council member Joe McKay said, was a tribal-led effort. We went out and got millions of dollars of grants and loans to build it, he said. The deal was the tribe was going to bring the water down from Two Medicine Lake, which is on the reservation, and connect to the rest of the system, which the town would maintain. The town would bill residents and reimburse the tribe, which was paying the loans. Joe McKay, who is Tom McKays brother, said things started to fall apart when it came time for the town and tribe to work together to set water rates. Not long after that the town stopped cooperating, Joe McKay said. People started getting big water bills. McKay said he heard of one that was $5,000. His own bill went from $56 one month to $800 the next. He said the town has no meter readers and just estimates water usage. People were getting outrageous bills and the town was not paying the tribe any money, he said. At that point, the tribe assessed its options. It could do nothing, try to continue talks with the town or start its own water company to collect what it was owed. The tribe formed Two Medicine Water Co. and started sending out its own bills around 2013. Some residents started paying the tribe instead of the city, which is when the city says its financial situation became dire. McKay said he has the fiduciary responsibility to protect his peoples resources. The town is responsible for its own actions, Joe McKay said. Its a lot like the towns been drunk on tribal money and theyre in denial. McKay said the tribe has been able to make debt payments, but its eating up money that could be used for other purposes. He said Two Medicine has brought in about $900,000 annually since launching. At least it cuts our losses, McKay said. The town has been in a financial spiral downward for some time. They were taking the money from the people and using it to subsidize city government operations. Tom McKay, the county commissioner, said at the town council meeting it was his understanding that the town of Browning basically ran all its operations with what it collected from water bill payments. In light of the dispute and towns finances, even Glacier County hasnt been paying its water bill. The county is putting the money for its water bill into escrow. McKay said he hasnt paid a bill for his home or business since the trouble started. I couldnt see much sense in paying two bills, and I certainly didnt see much sense in paying someone who didnt have the capability of giving me the service if something went wrong. *** There are accusations being lobbed in both directions the town saying the tribe is threatening people with water shutoff notices, using lawyers as bullies and forcing businesses to hook up to the water system. The tribe says the town is using it as a scapegoat for long-simmering internal management problems. Terry Bremmer, who had served as alderman before his current stint, said the town used to have an excess fund, but it was piddled off. He attributed that to over-budget spending by town employees. The town hasnt had an annual audit, which is required by state law, since 2010, and Kennerly said he doesnt know why the previous town leadership didnt keep up on them. Joe McKay said the last audit he saw, from 2006, had a negative cash balance of $161,000. McKay acknowledges the tribe had trouble too, and had its own audits to catch up on but is making progress, filing one for 2014 last week. Were on target for the first time in years, he said. Why isnt the same thing fair for the city? Joe McKay said the city is now going after the towns street lights sending out a letter to Browning residents saying they will shut off because the town cant afford to pay the electric bill in another attempt to paint the tribe as the villain. Why would the city do that, in the dead of winter? McKay asked. It is trying to put the pressure on the tribe and make the tribe look like the bad guy. The tribe has done nothing more than try to protect its citizens. On Dec. 14, the attorney for Glacier Electric Cooperative said sent a letter to the town of Browning, confirming its receipt of a letter the town sent asking the co-op to shut off all the lights in town except the ones around the school. The attorney wrote that since it was such a drastic measure, it needed the town to again confirm the request in writing. It is unclear when, or if, the lights will be turned off. After reading Brownings letter, tribal leaders have sought to pay the bill, but details about how that would work and who would collect from residents are still being sorted out. The flurry of resulting letters from all parties feature the same tense tone as the water dispute. Differing accounts At the city council meeting, Tom McKay encouraged the Browning aldermen to sit down with the tribal council. I think the thing to do would be to go in there and be honest with the council because I really dont think they want to own a town, he said. Both sides say the council and the aldermen met in early December, though accounts of that meeting differ. Kennerly said they gave the tribe an MOU and after an initial positive reaction, they didnt hear back from the tribe. Joe McKay said the draft agreement was not OK from a tribal standpoint and didn't hold the town accountable for paying back the tribe nor provide evidence of improved fiscal management. Both Kennerly and McKay said they would still be open to working with the other, although they each expressed reservations. DesRosier encouraged cooperation. Some of the most productive ideas come out of just sitting around drinking coffee, throwing all this out on the table realizing were all in the same family, same boat, same community. HELENA Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas held prayer services in seven Montana communities last year in the wake of a nearly $21 million settlement to resolve claims by about 380 people who accused the Diocese of Helena of sexual abuse. Thomas spoke at churches in Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Cut Bank, Columbia Falls, St. Ignatius and Missoula, according to a list of the outreach efforts. The services held in these seven communities were part of numerous non-monetary provisions in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the diocese that was confirmed by the Coeur dAlene, Idaho, bankruptcy court in March 2015. Resolution of the bankruptcy and reorganization plan came after lawsuits had been filed in state court by two groups in 2011, according to the Associated Press. Though the outreach was required, Thomas said with or without that agreement, this would have been necessitated by pastoral care. I think that the church has the obligation for outreach and conciliation, but also to pray for those who were victimized or aggrieved. And so I would have done that with or without any agreement with the plaintiffs. During an interview in his office Friday, Thomas, who became the bishop here in 2004, said he believed that less than five hours was spent in court during the roughly 13 months between when the bankruptcy court filing was made by the church and its conclusion. But I do know that this could have been dragged on for years. Had we chosen to fight the whole thing and stay in court, we would have looked at 20 to 30 years of trials. And when you have claimants in this particular age bracket, they would never see any resolution. So pastoral care was the obvious solution, he said. I think part of the difficulty is that our particular cases or the profile of our cases go back 30 to 60 years, so obviously theres a good chunk of time, and all of the defendants in the diocese are long deceased so its more complicated that way. You dont have live people defending their lives or their cases," he said. One of the approaches I took is that the victim survivors would be believed and respected, Thomas said. So I rejected the notion of going into this protracted defense mode in favor of pastoral care and outreach, and I also eschewed the idea of prolonged court battles where the only beneficiaries are attorneys. His statements echo those contained in a January 2014 news release where he said, On behalf of the entire Diocese of Helena, I express my profound sorrow and sincere apologies to anyone who was abused by a priest, a sister or a lay church worker. No child should experience harm from anyone who serves in the church. He also noted in that news release none of those who have been credibly accused remain active in ministry. *** Its uncertain what effect the seven services across a portion of the state had on those who had sued the church. Bryan G. Smith, an attorney with Tamaki Law in Washington state whose firm represented about 90 clients, said its uncertain if anyone besides those who had identified themselves as victims would be able to say if the bishops outreach was helpful. Few of his clients in this case would attend any church service, Smith said, adding all of them lost faith in the church as a result of what happened to them. You have a church that betrays them as children, he continued and explained this created extreme turmoil in their lives for decades into adulthood. It comes late, the sincerity is called into question by the claimants themselves, Smith said. While saying he believed the bishops intentions were good, he didnt know how many people might have been reached. Thomas estimated 1,200 people attended the services. There were a few, perhaps a couple, of the victim-survivors at some of the services. Others saw five or perhaps six or seven, Thomas said. Prayer for guidance to fill the void of inadequacy that he said he felt led him to ask victim-survivors for words that others would find helpful to provide healing. They were deeply touched by the prayer service. But also remembering its part of the healing journey. Its not the final whistle stop," he said. I wanted to make it very clear that I felt just profoundly saddened by the damage that was inflicted on them, even in yesteryear, the bishop said. The sexual abuse of children by either parents or clergy has just devastating results. Even though things happened 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, the pain is in the present tense. So its so important to acknowledge that and I wanted to have the opportunity in a public forum to express profound sadness and sorrow and apology for what they had undergone albeit it years ago, he continued. Secondly, the whole diocese suffered as a result of this, Thomas said. There was shame and embarrassment on the part of the laity across the whole diocese. So the healing journey was also directed toward them. Coeur dAlene attorneys Lee James and Craig Vernon are also uncertain about the value of the services for those who said they were sexually abused by Catholic clergy. Vernon and James represented roughly 270 clients, the majority of those involved in the dioceses bankruptcy and reorganization plan settlement. Vernons assessment on the effect of abuse decades ago for the majority of his clients, was that there was probably less than 10 that remained Catholic, that identified themselves as Catholic. The issue we have here, the vast majority, over 95 percent, dont identify as Catholic, so these liturgies mean nothing to them if they dont identify as Catholic, Vernon said. Its more that hes preaching to the congregation. Thats the reality. Part of the disconnect that occurs when a child is violated and their trust is violated, James said, is that they ultimately lose their faith and leave the church. Because theyve discontinued their relationship with the church, theyre not going to hear the message because theyre not in the church, theyre not in the building, James added. If there are survivors that are still Catholic and therefore still care about that, I think anything is better than nothing, Vernon said. James shared that opinion and said expressing acceptance of responsibility, to say theyre sorry, is good for the church hierarchy to do that. I dont want to minimize that. The bankruptcy settlement plan and reorganization plan called for the diocese to pay $2 million, according to James Stang, an attorney with Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones, which has offices in Delaware, New York and California, who helped assemble the settlement. Nearly $16.4 million came from insurance companies, he said, and $4.45 million was from the Ursuline Sisters. Stangs involvement was as a negotiator for the committee that considered the settlement and to assist in distributing the money. Under Mr. Obama, the Presidents Malaria Initiative has grown into a $618 million program that works in 19 African countries as well as the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia. The program continues to distribute mosquito nets and pays for household insecticide spraying and the rapid diagnosis and treatment of the sick. The program accounts for a significant portion of global spending on anti-malaria efforts, which reached $2.5 billion in 2014. The United States government is responsible for about half of the total, and about half of Americas spending comes from the presidents initiative. Despite undeniable progress, serious challenges remain. Malaria deaths have fallen by about two-thirds since 2000 in large measure because more than half of Africas population now sleeps under mosquito nets, compared with just 2 percent in 2000 and 6.2 million lives have been saved. Even so, last year the world had an estimated 214 million new malaria cases and 438,000 deaths. Of those fatalities, 91 percent were in Africa. Experts note that the decades spent on the as-yet unsuccessful campaign to eradicate polio demonstrate the profound challenges of ridding the world of a disease, and malaria could prove an even tougher fight. Nets wear out, for example, and resistance develops to pesticides and drugs. Resistance to artemisinin, a recently discovered malaria-fighting compound, is already widespread in Southeast Asia. More important, there is no malaria vaccine several are in development, but none is consistently effective. Some experts believe a vaccine will never be made, in part because surviving a natural infection does not produce lifelong immunity. But Mr. Obamas anti-malaria pledge is optimistic, and perhaps was influenced by the remarkable success over the past year of efforts to fight the Ebola virus and climate change. Mr. Rhodes said that somewhere in the stack of books and briefing documents that Mr. Obama took on vacation to Marthas Vineyard this past August is the reason he became aware of the success of previous anti-malarial efforts. Yet Mr. Obamas travels in Southeast Asia and his relatives in Africa gave him a human understanding of the toll that malaria takes on communities, Mr. Rhodes said. BRUSSELS The European Union is torn between upholding its values and pursuing its interests in the multiple crises over refugees, challenges to the rule of law, relations with Russia and Turkey, and Britains membership that are shaking the bloc. Political and economic interests are mostly prevailing over the European Unions declared values and governance standards, but it is not clear that the outcomes are any more effective. To critics including human rights campaigners, Europe is too willing to betray its principles. To supporters, it is growing up and acting less naively. Politics is the art of the possible, but this is very different from the conception of Europe promoted for the last half century, said Michael Leigh, a former senior European Commission official and now a senior adviser at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think tank on trans-Atlantic relations. After more than a million migrants flooded into Europe last year, European Union governments are divided on whether the bloc should give priority to its commitment to give asylum to refugees, or whether the main aim should be to toughen border controls and pay other countries to keep potential asylum-seekers at bay. But he could move dirt and speak Russian, and he had some recently acquired expertise in college drinking games that he said was in great demand at night. By luck, he said, the researchers on the dig turned out to be the great and the good of British neolithic archaeology. One of them was Chris Gosden, the chairman of European Archaeology at Oxford, who later invited him to do a one-year master's degree in archaeology at Oxford. That eventually led to a doctoral program after he spent some time in graduate school in the United States. The current project began when he became fed up with the lack of ancient DNA evidence in papers about the origin of dogs. He called Dr. Dobney, of the University of Aberdeen in 2011, and said, Were doing dogs. After receiving the grant from the council in England, he and Dr. Dobney organized a conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, to gather as many people involved in researching dog origins as they could. His pitch to the group was that despite their different points of view, everyone was interested in the best possible evidence, no matter where it led. If we have to eat crow, we eat crow, he said. Its science. A 32,000-Year-Old Skull Mietje Germonpre, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, is one of the many scientists participating in the dog project. She was one of a number of authors on a 2013 paper in Science that identified a skull about 32,000 years old from a Belgian cave in Goyet as an early dog. Dr. Wayne at U.C.L.A. was the senior author on the paper and Olaf Thalmann from the University of Turku in Finland was the first author. It is typical of Dr. Larsons dog project that although he disagreed with the findings of the paper, arguing that the evidence just wasnt there to call the Goyet skull a dog, all of the authors of the paper are working on the larger project with him. In November in Brussels, holding the priceless fossil, Dr. Germonpre pointed out the wide skull, crowded teeth and short snout of the ancient skull all indicators to her that it was not a wolf. The Afghan unity government, brokered by the United States after the bitter election dispute between Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah in 2014 threatened to tear the country apart, is in a race against time to meet the requirements of the political agreement it was founded on, set to expire in October. That agreement requires the government to hold local elections, which are already months overdue, by the time it completes two years in office in October. It is also supposed to have convened a grand assembly of elders from across the country by October to amend the Constitution and create the position of prime minister for Mr. Abdullah to move into. Pressure from political opposition groups has been increasing on Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah in recent months. Some of the groups have warned that the government, severely pressed by Taliban offensives across the country, will lose its legitimacy if it does not hold the elections soon. Other groups have given up on the current government entirely, calling for early presidential elections to bring in a new administration. Reforming the electoral process was at the core of the political agreement that brought Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah together. Mr. Abdullah has insisted that this is one area he will not compromise on, and his aides have said the existing election commission needs to go before any vote is held. The entire political process has been frozen by a lack of compromise, with the two leaders camps clashing every step of the way and constantly missing deadlines. LAHORE, Pakistan Late one night, the imam Shabir Ahmad looked up from prayers at his mosque to see a 15-year-old boy approaching with a plate in his outstretched left hand. On it was the boys freshly severed right hand. Mr. Ahmad did not hesitate. He fled the mosque and left the village, in eastern Punjab Province. Earlier that night, Jan. 10, he had denounced the boy as a blasphemer, an accusation that in Pakistan can get a person killed even when the accusation is false, as it was in this case. The boy, Anwar Ali, the son of a poor laborer, had been attending an evening prayer gathering at the mosque in the village, Khanqah, when Mr. Ahmad asked for a show of hands of those who did not love the Prophet Muhammad. Thinking the cleric had asked for those who did love the prophet, Anwars hand shot up, according to witnesses and the boys family. He realized his mistake when he saw that his was the only hand up, and he quickly put it down. But by then Mr. Ahmad was screaming Blasphemer! at him, along with many others in the crowd. Dont you love your prophet? they called, as the boy fled in disgrace. Counterterrorism officials regard the Libyan branch as the Islamic States most dangerous affiliate, one that is expanding its territory and continuing to mount deadly attacks, including several this month. But to stop its advance, the United States and its European allies have been forced to court unreliable allies from among a patchwork of Libyan militias that remain unaccountable, poorly organized and divided by region and tribe. Image Gen. Khalifa Hifter in Libya in March 2015. His Libyan National Army is one of several armed factions vying for power. Credit... Mohammed El-Sheikhy/Associated Press The search carries particular risks for the Obama administration, which once relied on local militias to help protect the American diplomatic compound in the northeastern city of Benghazi. They failed to provide protection when militants overran the compound in September 2012, an attack that led to the deaths of the United States ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans. Analysts also warn that any foreign effort to empower individual proxy forces could fuel new rivalries as the United Nations tries to bring together Libyas warring factions after years of civil war that followed the toppling of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011. The mix-up at the base, about 70 miles from Tripoli, came during a time of growing alarm in Washington and in European capitals about the rise of the Islamic States wing in Libya. American spy agencies say the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has in the past few months redirected several hundred foreign fighters originally bound for Syria to its camps in Libya. In November, an American airstrike killed the Islamic States senior leader in Libya, Abu Nabil, an Iraqi national who led Qaeda operations in western Iraq from 2004 until 2010, American officials said. GeneNews Announces Notification of TSX Continued Listing Review TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GeneNews Limited (GeneNews or the Company) (TSX:GEN) announced today that it has received notice that the Toronto Stock Exchange (the TSX) is reviewing the eligibility for continued listing on the TSX of the securities of the Company pursuant to Part VII of the TSX Company Manual. GeneNews has been granted 60 days in which to demonstrate compliance with the continued listing requirements (the Listing Requirements) of the TSX, pursuant to the TSX's Remedial Review Process. As previously announced on December 7, 2015, GeneNews has initiated an orderly restructuring of the Company's operations, which may include a strategic financing, sale, merger or other business combination. The completion, if any, of a transaction pursuant to the restructuring process may have a positive impact on the Companys ability to demonstrate compliance with the Listing Requirements. The restructuring process is ongoing. No decision has been made with regard to these alternatives, and there is no assurance that any transaction will be entered into or consummated. About GeneNews GeneNews is focused on developing and commercializing proprietary molecular diagnostic tests for the early detection of diseases and personalized health management, with a primary focus on cancer-related indications. The Companys lead product, ColonSentry, is the world's first blood test to assess an individual's current risk for colorectal cancer. In 2013, GeneNews created a U.S. joint venture, Innovative Diagnostic Laboratory, LLP ("IDL"), that it is committed to help become a leader in molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine, serving as a strong commercialization outlet for advanced cancer tests. Taking a multi-view approach to the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, IDL is working to assemble, through a combination of internal pipeline development, third-party licenses and potential acquisitions, a robust menu of novel, proprietary tests to be offered by it throughout the United States. GeneNews' common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol 'GEN'. More information on GeneNews and IDL can be found at www.GeneNews.com and www.MyInnovativeLab.com, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements identified by words such as "expects", "will" and similar expressions, which reflect the Company's current expectations regarding future events, including the restructuring of its business. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and material assumptions - including those related to general business and economic conditions as well as our ability to complete an orderly restructuring of the Company's operations which may include a sale, merger, strategic financing or other business combination - that could cause the Company's actual events to differ materially from those projected herein. Investors should consult the Company's ongoing quarterly filings and annual reports for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to these forward-looking statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Company Contact: James R. Howard-Tripp Executive Chairman Office: (905) 209-2030 jhoward-tripp@genenews.com Investor & Media Contact: Stephen Kilmer Kilmer Lucas Inc. Office: (647) 872-4849 stephen@kilmerlucas.com Copyright 2022 HT Digital Streams Ltd All Right Reserved "The fine detective story, be it repeated, does not consist of a clue. It is a ladder of clues, a pattern of evidence, joined together with such cunning that even the experienced reader may be deceived: until, in the blaze of the surprise ending, he suddenly sees the whole design." - John Dickson Carr ("The Grandest Game in the World," 1963) "Gold comes in many forms. For literal-minded people gold may be merely a precious metal, physically stripped from the earth. For fans of Golden Age detective fiction, however, gold can be artfully spun out of the human brain, in the form not of bricks but books." While I'd love for you to freely share any information, photos and stories you find here with friends and family, please contact me before printing or for public use. Thank you! The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of OMS International nor of Emmaus Biblical Seminary. Notes From Kenya is a blog run by the students in the Holekamp Lab at Michigan State University College of Natural Science , East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.A. Help Support the Research You can help support our research by making a donation to the Hyena Research Fund at MSU. Your contributions provide necessary resources for the students and scientists to continue our work. HELENA Some say preventing future sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy may depend on ending the requirement for celibacy and allowing women into the priesthood. But if thats not likely to happen, at least soon, then strict screening and psychological testing of those seeking ordination might be the best way to prevent future crimes by clergy against children. These differing perspectives come in the wake of confirmation by the bankruptcy court of Coeur dAlene, Idaho, in March that settled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the Diocese of Helena. The judge approved a nearly $21 million plan to compensate the roughly 380 people who said they were sexually abused by Catholic priests and the Ursuline Sisters. The bankruptcy courts action comes after claims against the diocese were filed in 2011 by those who said they had been sexually abused. The Associated Press reported in March 2015 that the majority of allegations were against Jesuit priests at the Ursuline Academy and the St. Ignatius Mission in St. Ignatius, Montana. The abuses ranged from rape and fondling to perpetrators taking sexual photographs of children, which began in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s, according to court documents cited by The Associated Press. Attorneys for victims and an outspoken former priest offered little optimism for ending child sexual abuse by clergy without changes in the priesthood. As soon as they get good priests in there, the problem will change. When you get rid of the celibacy requirement and allow priests who can be married, have families of their own, youre going to see a lot less child sexual abuse, said Craig Vernon, who with Lee James represented some 270 people in the bankruptcy and reorganization plan. And I think thats probably what the membership would like to see, but youre speaking to a non-Catholic, Vernon said. James shared that assessment and said, In the larger picture, I think what would be most persuasive is to see changes, fundamental changes in the church, that are designed to help assure that child-sexual abuse along with other problems dont occur in the future. In addition to allowing priests to marry and ordaining women, James said lay people need to be put in positions of power over priests. Because, after all, for centuries clergy has had an exclusive lock on power in the Catholic Church over lay people, he continued. And what our cases illustrate is they blew it. They used that power in ways that were wrong and inappropriate, not only the abuse itself but generally speaking, when you find these cases, its cover-up, its abuse of power, James added. Diocese of Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas doesnt dodge the accusation and said, I think the Catholic Church did blow it. But were not alone in that. Its no consolation. Thats why back in late 80s and 90s I was adamant in the archdiocese of Seattle and here that this culture of privilege and secrecy and internal governance is a big mistake and why the community has to absolutely be involved in this kind of oversight. When the diocese in Seattle faced claims of sexual abuse, it turned to the community, Thomas said, and created a committee that tapped the county prosecutors office, mental health professionals, parents, law enforcement, and those involved in social work to help lead it through the crisis. Thomas said he relied on those experiences when he was assigned to the Diocese of Helena in 2004. We have a review committee in our own diocese here that helps to guide any decisions that I make. Part of it is directed toward policies. I want to make sure that our policies are very consistent with civil and criminal law. Its a high-level group, and they ask very poignant questions of me, and our commitment obviously is to ensure that we do very careful screening and evaluation of seminarian candidates, that we require psychological testing of anybody thats in seminary candidacy. People that are in any kind of ministry, volunteer or otherwise, we do background checks and fingerprinting, Thomas said. If I get any kind of a complaint involving violation with a minor, then our first contact is law enforcement. Training to avoid trouble A.W. Richard Sipe, 83, comes from a devoutly Catholic family, according to his website biography. Hes also the author of several books, the most recent being Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis 2002-2012. He spent 18 years as a Benedictine monk and a Catholic priest where he was trained to deal with the mental health problems of priests, his biography noted. Sipe said he also taught in seminaries from 1967 to 1996. The bishops have put out a lot of different words and documents about (sexual abuse). And in a sense, the documents in themselves are positive, and some of the steps they take are positive in terms of being more careful about who they hire, being more sensitive to victims and victims claims, he said. However, basically nothing has changed in the education of clergy that I know of that would change the propensity of priests to abuse. The education of those priests, Sipe continued, has not changed at all. Among Catholic priests, 6 percent did get involved sexually with minors, he said of his research. The problem can no longer be denied, Sipe said. The problem has not gone away. And the problem will not go away, because of the system. A lack of training in sexual abuse prevention would have been the case in prior decades at seminaries, Thomas said, but the men that the diocese has at four different seminaries do receive training to avoid risk and sexual abuse. Also when they come into the diocese, I require the recertification, participation recertification, in Virtus training even though theyve been through it in the seminary. For everbody. Im doing everything humanly possible, Thomas said. Sexual abuse, Thomas said, "its a societal problem. Its endemic. It has to be recognized as a societal issue, not a Catholic Church issue. Our numbers are sadly any abuse by a clergy person is deeply damaging, theres no question, and the violation of trust is terrible. But our numbers are sadly no different than the rest of American society, probably 4 percent over a 50-year period. One case is too many, but the profile sadly is the same with other white American males. Challenging the system Sipe takes aim at the system in the Catholic Church that produces priests and asked, What is it in the system that allows, that educates the choosers, that produces men who have a propensity for sex with minors? He offers his opinion. The church favors men who are psycho-sexually immature. That is, they are men who have adolescent idealism, who have enthusiasm, who have that willingness to identify with the system or with authority, Sipe said. In some ways theyre much like young recruits going into war. These men who are invincible, who have no responsibility, who are taken care of, and the church fosters them. Of course if you move up in the system, you can only exist if you have certain sociopathic tendencies, that is that your conscious is not developed as an individual, responsible conscious. It is the conscious of the system that takes over. And dont forget that priests have responsibility or have control, so to speak, over sin. They are the ones that forgive sin and define sin. And so theyre given all this power and at the same time theyre faced with this internal problem of priests sexually acting out, Sipe said. Thomas has a different view of how to govern a diocese and select those who are ordained here. The seminarians we having coming forward in the Diocese of Helena are a bit older; these are all post-college graduates, he said. I take very seriously the screening, the psychological testing, the formation reports, family history. I know each of the seminarian candidates individually and very well by the time theyre ready for ordination. Its a very lengthy process. Its five or six years post-college through the seminary process. So I am a little tougher in that world than maybe many bishops. Im not into the numbers game, Im into the quality, he said. I depend very heavily on the style of collaborative leadership where the laity, women and men, work hand-in-hand with me in the overall direction of this diocese. So theres a real sense of collegiality, open governance, transparency. I think the thing that Sipe is referencing is the old system of clericalism, which is based on entitlement and clerical privilege. I mention secrecy, wink and nod in terms of prosecuting these cases, sometimes collusion with police agencies in yesteryear. And that is a recipe for disaster, the bishop said. The crisis in the Diocese of Helena, even though the cases are decades old, has also been highlighted by the crisis on the national front and on the international front, Thomas said. All I do is say in my own shop, the Diocese of Helena, is were working very hard to assure the laity that were doing everything humanly possible to prevent further abuse and to ensure a healthy, balanced atmosphere for the kids. So weve got a credibility issue thats going to take a long time to mend. And while the non-monetary provisions of the diocese's bankruptcy settlement and reorganization plan required listing the name of all alleged perpetrators, Thomas said he didn't seek to differentiate between those accused and credibly accused. The only way to regain credibility is through transparency and truth telling, Thomas said. Considering Sipes criticism, Thomas suggested there is a greater threat to the Catholic Church. I think that the bigger danger is the culture of secrecy and clericalism. I think if you want to look at a system where there has been dis-ease, its the clericalism culture. It is closed. Its hermitically sealed. Those are really big problems, Thomas said. I think having the active involvement of the laity in the wider community, law enforcement, the social-work community, to me thats the corrective opening windows, bringing in light and air and the active advice of very informed people. That is what dispels the clericalism and secrecy culture. To me, at least, thats been my experience in Seattle as well as here, he said. Vow of celibacy Sipe said his long-term research concluded that at no time are more than half of Catholic priests observing celibacy. Mandatory celibacy, the fact of requiring a man to promise celibacy before he is ordained a priest is a travesty and I think is the cause of a great deal of sexual hurt and sexual perversion, Sipe said. No question about it. Theres a great deal of sexual activity from the top down. You see, if celibacy were practiced on that level, you wouldnt have any problem down here in the younger priests practicing, Sipe said. Thomas disagrees. If celibacy is the issue, then youve got a-whole-nother problem, because the research that Im familiar with shows that over 80 percent of sexual abuse takes place in the context of marriage and family, he said. So it would be a big leap to say that celibacy is the cause. I think there is a fundamental issue that has to change across not just the church, but I would say in school systems and in nonprofits, and that is a culture of secrecy, where in our case over the years known offenders were removed from point A to point B. And the secrecy, the very poor decisions, those kinds of things have to be removed from the culture of secrecy where laity are actively involved in decisions having very highly informed laypeople involved in every step of the process from the selection of candidates, the supervision of candidates for priesthood, assisting the diocese in making good decisions around who is selected for leadership, Thomas said. In our case women and men and laity and clergy work hand-in-hand and have for decades in the Northwest. Idaho attorneys Vernon and James say the vow of celibacy deeply affects an individual. Its more than just sex, James said. Youre asking an individual, a man, to live their life, a lonely life with no confidant, no one close to them who will be with them for their adult life, to share their life experiences with, to speak to in troubled times, to share their life concerns, their worries. So they are in a situation where they are in a potentially psychologically disabling situation where people who are allowed to have intimate, emotional and personal relationships and again Im talking not just about sex, something way more than sex. The person in the middle of the night that you can wake them up and roll over and wake them up and say, 'Im really stressed, Im worried.' When a priest is alone, they cant do that, James said. So they live this life of lone-ness, and it can create very unstable situations that the experts like Sipe and others can talk about, he explained. My personal belief is until they adopt change like we had recommended, I think it will continue, because who is going to go into the priesthood? asked Vernon. Who wants to take a vow of celibacy? And history has shown us that the vow of celibacy really does not work, that most priests dont keep their vow of celibacy, and its easier to make little kids not talk than it is a housekeeper, a fellow priest or a nun. And so I dont believe that theres going to be fundamental change. Its going to be harder, because its more out in the open, maybe priests will be more careful because theres more risk that theyre going to get caught, Vernon continued. Until theres fundamental change, I think were still going to see this problem. Thomas doesnt share their view on the cause for sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. The culture of secrecy and entitlement is probably the lay equivalent of clericalism, and that can happen with public school teachers, it can happen with the various denominations, with 4-H or whatever. It puts power over the safety of children, and Im just not there. Were doing everything humanly possible to see it doesnt happen again, he said. I cant say never, but were sure giving it our best. Were using all the resources that we have at hand in the best way, Thomas said and added, At the end of the day Im asking the Lord to ensure that Im doing the right stuff. The state still hopes to get a financial contribution from Atlantic Richfield Company to remove the Parrot tailings behind the Civic Center, state officials said at a Thursday meeting. The cost of removing the Parrot tailings is estimated to run between $16 million and $23 million and take two to three years, Doug Martin, restoration program chief for the state's Natural Resource Damage Program, said during the meeting. The money the state is putting up to remove the Parrot tailings is expected to come from public money that is the result of legal settlements the state reached with ARCO in 1999 and 2008 to restore the landscape after more than 100 years of mining. Neither ARCO nor the Environmental Protection Agency, which has federal oversight of all Superfund cleanup issues, believes the removal is necessary. The state has been arguing for at least a decade the Parrot must be removed in order to protect Blacktail and Silver Bow Creeks from contamination in the future. Some, such as Montana Tech professor John Ray, argue EPA should order ARCO to do the Parrot tailings cleanup. That would force ARCO to cover all the costs as part of its remediation work on the Butte Hill and upper Silver Bow Creek. Ray made a statement during the public comment session during Thursday evenings meeting, making the case for EPA to take charge of the cleanup. The purpose of Thursday evening's meeting was to allow the public to have an opportunity to weigh in on the state's removal plan. Ray was one of several who stood up and spoke. About 20 people attended the meeting. At an earlier December meeting, state officials announced the excavated Parrot tailings will be dumped into the Berkeley Pit. This announcement has rattled some. Commissioner Cindy Perdue-Dolan spoke during the public comment session that people in her district, which runs east of Harrison Avenue and south of Interstate 90, are "nervous." Perdue-Dolan said she wants to know how the Parrot tailings will affect the pits critical water level and the toxicity of the pit's water. The state says adding the 270,000 cubic yards of tailings into the Berkeley Pit will raise the critical water level enough to hasten the critical water level only by a month. When the Berkeley Pit reaches critical water level, ARCO must begin pumping and treating Berkeley Pit water in perpetuity. The pumping and treating is currently anticipated to begin in 2023. The state has promised to provide results on closer studies that will look at both how the toxicity of the Berkeley Pit will be affected by the Parrot tailings as well as how soon it will affect the critical water level. That information will become available in the spring, Martin said. But Perdue-Dolan said she is not happy that the results won't come in until after the public comment session ends Feb. 1. Montana Resources manager of environmental affairs said the amount of tailings coming from the Parrot excavation is an insignificant contribution to the overall volume of water in the Berkeley Pit." Larry Winstall, who lives within walking distance of the Parrot removal project, said he has talked to the EPA, which says the Parrot doesn't need to be removed. Winstall said he is not convinced the EPA's remediation, which is a five-foot-deep subdrain above the 50-foot deep Parrot tailings, is a failure. "It's very confusing to me," Winstall said after the meeting. "I don't believe this is money well spent." Winstall said he believed more studies need to be done before the state tears down the county shops. Relocating the county shops is part of the overall plan. Elizabeth Erickson, chair of the Butte Natural Resource Damage Council, said she was glad to hear the public comments and welcomes more. She said the state has done a number of studies already and has been working on this for a decade. The problem is complex, and its difficult to explain in a few short sentences, Erickson said. Rick Douglass, a retired Montana Tech professor, called the states plan wonderful. His wife Kriss echoed his comments and said, I think weve worked on this long enough. Its time to go ahead. Butte-Silver Bow Chief Executive Matt Vincent said Buttes been waiting three decades to see the Parrot tailings removed and added that he sees this as a potential catalyst on the rest of the corridor. The Parrot tailings is not the only tailings the state wants to see excavated out of Butte to protect Silver Bow Creek. The state spent around $128 million to clean up the lower part of the creek. The work took 16 years to complete. There are additional tailings along the 1.5-mile stretch that runs from Texas Avenue to George Street that the state wants to see removed through Superfund work. Chris Brick, who traveled from Missoula to attend the meeting, said she commends the state for making this project a priority. Brick is the science director for the Clark Fork Coalition. I dont think our grandkids are going to look back on this and say, What a dumb idea they took the tailings out. A 23-year-old man who police say robbed a Butte casino at gunpoint was arrested within 10 minutes Monday morning. Shane Tenold of Butte was apprehended after a Butte-Silver Bow off-duty police officer spotted him fleeing from the Lucky Charm Casino, 2325 Harrison Ave., and followed him until police arrived at the scene, said Undersheriff George Skuletich. The suspect allegedly pointed a loaded Smith and Wesson 40-caliber pistol at a female casino attendant and demanded money, standing behind her as she retrieved an undetermined amount of cash shortly before 8 a.m., the undersheriff said. Tenold, who was wearing black clothing, was seen throwing two money bags and the pistol while fleeing toward the yard of a residence on the 2100 block of Ottawa Street. Police ordered Tenold to lay on the ground and he was arrested without incident. The attendant was not injured, but she was shaken up, Skuletich said. The undersheriff said most casino robberies occur at night. A daytime heist is unusual, and he cited the great police work that led to Tenolds arrest. We were in the right place at the right time, and we were able to apprehend him within 10 minutes, Skuletich said. Police do not believe the robbery was drug related or that an accomplice was involved in the incident, which remains under investigation. Police say potential charges would include felony armed robbery. Is the well-publicized scientific quagmire surrounding the Parrot tailings too esoteric for the general public to understand? The battle between the state of Montana and Environmental Protection Agency must seem like a schoolyard "'tis-'tis not" argument. But the truth is simple the scientific debate between the state and EPA exists because of a vast margin of scientific uncertainty surrounding two key what if questions. 1. What if the Parrot ground water plume continues to expand? 2. What if the MSD Sub-Drain (aka reverse French Drain) is not capturing all contaminated groundwater? If the contamination plume is advancing and the sub-drain is not capturing it all, then ever increasing amounts of copper, zinc and cadmium will poison Silver Bow Creek and degrade the states $140 million stream clean up. Removing the Parrot and associated mine waste will remove that long-term threat. In 2006, the state was very clear about this threat leaving the Parrot tailings, Diggings East tailings and the North Side tailings in place poses a significant and permanent threat to groundwater and to the long-term water quality in Silver Bow Creek (Record of Decision). That same year a group of local geoscientists independently voiced the same concern in a letter to EPA. The letter was subsequently published under the title Cut and Run by the organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. Recent studies have only reinforced the states and local geoscientists concern. The battle between EPA and the state can be boiled down to this: When deciding the final remedy, where there is such uncertainty for the long-term health of Silver Bow Creek should EPA err on the side of caution? For an agency tasked to protect the environment the answer should be obvious. EPA is betting on the riskier solution: continue monitoring ground water, wait until the future arrives and then fix problems as they arise. The obvious fault in that strategy will BP/ARCO still be around to pay for the fix? The recent statement by EPA project manager Nikia Greene if a contamination issue arises in the future and ARCO fails to pay, the EPA would cover the cost (Montana Standard July 19, 2015) is rather thin insurance. Nikia is an honest, hardworking man, relatively new to EPA and the Butte project. But it is doubtful that Greene has the authority to make that commitment. Can Montana EPA Superfund administrator, Joe Vranka, give that assurance? How about Region 8 administrator Sean McGrath? Gina McCarthy, EPA administrator? In the consent decree, the legal and binding agreement that will define the remedy once and for all time will EPA commit $30 million that the state has estimated it will cost to remove the Parrot? Can an agency that is subject to political whim even make such a commitment? If you consider the case of Zortman-Landusky Gold Mine, it is clear why the state has backed removing the Parrot. The mine was planned, permitted and bonded under DEQ and BLM oversight. Pegasus Gold, the mine owner, went bankrupt and left the agencies footing the bill for $12 million reclamation beyond what was covered by the bond. Additionally, there are approximately $2 million annual water treatment and general maintenance costs borne jointly by DEQ and BLM. This is what hindsight looks like. Given the large margin of scientific uncertainty, and the long-term risk to the creek that runs through our town and connects us to all the communities in the watershed, the public should insist that the Environmental Protection Agency make the right choice and err on the side of caution. In response to Commissioner Koopmans Jan. 12 commentary about the Clean Power Plan and renewable energy, we highlight that wind energy is one of the biggest, fastest, cheapest ways we can cut carbon pollution, cut costs and grow the states economy for years. All energy forms receive federal support. Over the last 100 years, American taxpayers have paid over $500 billion and counting to subsidize the fossil fuel and nuclear industries. Many of these incentives are permanent and thus make it very difficult to create a level playing field for renewable energy, which does not receive this type of generous treatment. That said, the performance-based federal tax incentive for wind power has helped make the U.S. a global leader in wind production, with enough wind energy generated annually for 19 million American homes. Along with American innovation, this policy has led to a 66 percent drop in costs in just six years. Those savings are now being passed on to American homeowners and businesses. Over time, these savings will increase because wind power isnt subject to fuel price volatility. This point is underscored by newly released data from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE): new investments in wind power can yield over $650 million in potential savings through 2050 for Montana ratepayers. Here are the credible studies that back up the point that winds already low prices will not climb: investment firm Lazard, the Energy Information Administration and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Another point wed like to clarify is that wind power actually makes the utility system more reliable. Whereas other types of power plant can shut down suddenly, changes in the aggregate output of a wind fleet occur gradually and are predictable. Wind now supplies Iowa with nearly 30 percent of its electricity; Kansas and South Dakota rely on wind ! power for more than 20 percent. At one point in November wind met over 66 percent of the electricity demand on the main Colorado grid. Finally, economic benefits accruing to Montanans are another plus as the state diversifies its energy portfolios with more wind power. Wind already supports hundreds of well-paying jobs in the state while paying rural landowners $2 million a year to host wind turbines on their land. With wind powers growth in Montana, more well-paying jobs will be created and those land-lease payments could grow to over $10 million a year by 2030. -- Tom Darin, based in Colorado, is senior director of Western State Policy, American Wind Energy Association, headquartered in Washington, D.C. On Jan. 4, the Montana Republican Party appealed Judge Brian Morris' decision to conduct a trial. Matthew Monforton's reason: Montana has been conducting unconstitutional primary elections that infringe upon the Montana Republican Party's First Amendment rights to control its own messaging. Over and over, Matthew Monforton fills his court documents with astounding confessions. We learn that Republicans of the tea-party persuasion get elected by misleading the voters about their true beliefs. Monforton assures us that the open primary forces candidates into "self-censorship," "chills the Party's message" and "dilutes messages." Republican candidates "adulterate," "avoid issues" and "modify their message." Monforton's meaning could not be clearer. If the voters know what right-wing Republican candidates want, they will elect the Democrats. -- Carole Mackin, Helena President Obama has given his final State of the Union Address. One particularly shining moment during Obamas address was his staunch defense of climate change and the need for immediate climate action, stating that if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. Youll be pretty lonely, because youll be debating our military, most of Americas business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree its a problem and intend to solve it.'' This bold statement comes on the heels of the Paris climate summit and the finalization of the EPAs Clean Power Plan, which will reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 30 percent by the year 2030. Here in Montana, we are beginning to make strides towards meeting our statewide carbon reduction goal of 47 percent. Governor Bullock recently established a Clean Power Plan advisory council to provide recommendations for reducing our emissions. Unfortunately, fossil fuel interests and their political allies will be fighting tooth and nail against the Clean Power Plan in Congress. With votes late last year attempting to repeal the plan, and state implementation plans due in 2016, we surely havent seen the last of Congressional attacks on our climate. Thats why we need Senator Jon Tester to stand up and defend the Clean Power Plan for the good of all Montanans and our climate. -- Corey Bressler, Missoula, Environment Montana Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamist militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following 2 deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region. Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al-Qaeda militants siezed the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least 7 More details here... MUSCATINE, Iowa Authorities have identified the suspect shot after allegedly stealing a vehicle then trying to flee upon being pulled over. Timothy Seefeldt, 41, was shot once in the upper torso and was transported to the University of Iowa Hospital for treatment, according to a press release from the Iowa Department of Public Safety. His injury was non-life threatening, the press release stated. A sheriff's deputy conducted a traffic stop with the assistance of a Muscatine police officer upon spotting a Hummer that matched the description of one stolen in town about a half hour earlier on Friday night, Jan. 15. The person driving the blue 2008 Hummer pulled over into the parking lot of the Pearl City Inn/Best Western at 305 Cleveland Ave. The suspect then tried to drive away, hitting several vehicles parked in the hotel lot including one of the fully marked law enforcement vehicles, according to a press release from the Muscatine Police Department. "Preliminary reports indicate only the deputy discharged his duty weapon," the press release from the department of public safety stated. Per protocol, the names of the deputy and police officer will not be released until they have been interviewed, the press release stated. Several shots were fired by law enforcement, the press release from MPD stated. The driver of the vehicle suffered a gunshot wound and was transported initially to Unity Point Hospital then transferred to University of Iowa Hospitals. A Hummer was reported stolen from Guadalajara restaurant, at 208 E. Second St., a little after 10 p.m. Friday. A criminal investigation is being conducted by the Muscatine Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be released pending the interviews of the officers involved in the incident, the press release from the department of public safety stated. The Iowa Department of Public Safety's (DPS) Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting with this officer-involved shooting investigation. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Lt. Tim Hull of the Muscatine Police Department at 563-263-9922 ext. 608. Callers may remain anonymous. The Cold War is over, but it still deeply distorts U.S. immigration policy. Consider the bizarre situation at our southern border. A wave of migrants is expected to appear there, hoping for safe passage into the U.S. and an expedited path to legal status and eventually full citizenship. They will get it. These lucky migrants won't be Mexicans fleeing drug cartels. They won't be Hondurans, who must endure the world's highest murder rate. And they won't be citizens of El Salvador, where the Peace Corps just suspended operations due to the increasing violence. No, we deport those people. They will be Cubans. In recent months, increasing numbers of Cubans have been leaving their island country, flying to Ecuador first and then traveling northward through Central America. They wish to migrate to the U.S., fearful that thawing diplomatic relations will end the special treatment that Cubans who leave the island have long received. That special treatment needs to end. The hypocrisy that is embedded in U.S. immigration law will be on full display as the Cubans begin arriving, which could happen within the next few weeks. Since 1966, the Cuban Adjustment Act has given Cuban people an extraordinary advantage over other migrants wishing to enter the U.S. The law was originally intended as a political and humanitarian reply to communism and the oppression of Fidel Castro. No proof that a person has suffered persecution. Where he or she arrives from is enough. When people attempt to arrive through the Florida Straits, the policy that developed was dubbed "wet foot, dry foot." If a Cuban can get one foot on dry U.S. soil, they can stay and are offered permanent legal status in a year and many other benefits of welfare and help to restart their lives. The benevolence of the law made sense in decades past. But a good argument can be made that many of the migrating Cubans are fleeing not persecution but economic turmoil. And in doing so, they are not any more desperate, perhaps even less so, than those fleeing the violence and poverty of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Thousands of Central Americans arrived and asked for asylum in the summer of 2014. But those people are the wrong type of Latino for our policies. Many of them are indigenous, poor and have little formal schooling. So they were held for months in detention camps at the border. Many were eventually released, free to stay the U.S. at least until their pleas for asylum status or legal residency can be assessed by an immigration judge. Raids and deportations of undocumented immigrants continue. Meanwhile, as many as 8,000 Cubans who have been stranded in Costa Rica will soon be making their way northward through Mexico, after agreements were worked out by several Latin American governments. The Obama administration plans to open refugee screening centers in Central America, an attempt to stem the flow of non-Cuban migrants. In this election year, especially in light of the GOP's appeals to anti-immigrant sentiment, the migrant Cubans will present a political test. GOP presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio, whose parents left Cuba before Castro took over, has introduced legislation to curb abuses of the American generosity toward Cubans. The Sun Sentinel of South Florida in 2015 documented cases in which Cubans claiming to be exiles were taking U.S. government benefits or committing other types of fraud, even after returning to Cuba. How far Rubio's legislation and the companion bill in the House will advance remains to be seen. And there is virtually no appetite in an election year to overhaul immigration for the benefit of more than just Cubans. Amnesty is still a curse word in most GOP circles. In decades past, that didn't matter in the case of Cubans, who could be counted on to become Republicans. If the GOP is to have any hope of salvaging the Latino vote this presidential cycle it will have to traverse this sticky thicket, also acknowledging the needs of other Latino migrants. They have to beat back the anti-immigrant bleating of Donald Trump, as South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley did in her response to the State of the Union speech. They must vow to be just. They must promise to rewrite immigration law to weigh all humans' needs equally and fairly, with no favor based on country of origin or likely partisan affinity. And they must not bow to nativist screeds. Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at msanchez@kcstar.com. Since 1986, Americans have observed the third Monday of January as a federal holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Schools and communities put on marches and commemorative events. Some workers (sadly not including most of the working poor of all races to whose advancement King dedicated his life) get the day off. It's an election year, so we can expect bombardment by politicians' pledges of allegiance to this or that sub-set of Dr. King's values. Republicans will piously assure us that they hew to King's dream of "a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Then they'll get back to finding new ways to keep African-Americans from voting. Democrats will highlight their support for voting rights and likely also name-check Dr. King's final effort, the "Poor People's Campaign," even as they inveigh against the gun rights that made the civil rights movement possible and against the emerging sharing economy that's freeing and empowering America's working poor without any help from government. Neither party's prominent presidential candidates will likely address themselves to Dr. King's thoughts on war and peace. The Democrats have already driven their only peace candidate, Lincoln Chafee, from the race, and on the GOP side Rand Paul's mildly non-interventionist campaign is on life support. King opposed the great American war of his public life, the war in Vietnam, rightly referring to the US government as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." What would he think of a Democratic Party whose standard-bearers (not to mention the first African-American president!) never met a war they didn't like, or of a Republican Party whose front-runners are so intent on fomenting war with Iran that they'd rather leave American prisoners in Iranian hands than bring them home, and posture over the Iranian release of American naval personnel caught out in a covert operation in Iranian waters as if that constituted Iran provoking the US rather than the other way around? I was less than two years old at the time of Dr. King's assassination. He's never been anything but a larger-than-life historical figure to me. Nonetheless it offends me that nearly 50 years after his death he's become a mere plaster saint, periodically and faux-prayerfully invoked by competing political factions who want to traffic on his popularity without bothering to live his values. It should offend you too. Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi [] Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes [] Do you want to buy the items which are sold in Japan? This is a blog provide useful shopping information and help shopping for foreign people who want to buy Japanese items at reasonable price! Cape Town has become known as a hub for new start-ups in the technology market, fuelled by initiatives like Silicon Cape. While Gauteng has also seen the launch of numerous successful tech companies, Cape Town enjoys the title of South Africas Silicon Valley. It is not hard to see why Cape Town and the Stellenbosch region have gained this reputation many successful technology companies were founded there. Here are some of the most successful technology companies which had their roots in the Cape region. Thawte bought by Verisign in 1999 for $575 million Thawte Consulting is a certificate authority for X.509 certificates, which was founded in 1995 by Mark Shuttleworth. In 1999, Verisign acquired Thawte in a stock purchase from Shuttleworth for $575 million. Fundamo acquired by Visa in 2011 for $110 million Fundamo is one of the largest specialist providers of mobile financial services in the world. It has played a major role in the development of the mobile financial services industry since 2000, and was headquartered in Cape Town. In June 2011, Fundamo was acquired by Visa for $110 million. Mxit sold for close to R400 million in 2011 Mxit was founded by Herman Heunis in 2003 in Stellenbosch, and quickly became a major IM player in South Africa. In 2011, MIH Holdings (a subsidiary of Naspers) and Heunis sold their shareholding in Mxit to World of Avatar for close to R400 million. While Mxit succumbed to WhatsApp, its success cannot be denied. iKubu bought by Garmin in 2015 for an undisclosed amount iKubu, which developed a low-energy bike radar system called Backtracker, worked on computer vision and radar systems from its workshop in Stellenbosch since 2006. In 2015, Garmin acquired iKubu, and recently launched its Varia Rearview Bike Radar product. WooThemes acquired by WorldPress owner Automattic in 2015 for an undisclosed amount WooThemes a leading WordPress theme and plugin provider was founded by Mark Forrester, Adii Pienaar, and Magnus Jepson in 2008, and headquartered in Cape Town. The company later developed WooCommerce, which powers over 30% of all online stores. The company was acquired by WorldPress owner Automattic in 2015. 22seven acquired by Old Mutual in 2013 for an undisclosed amount 22seven, a free app that helps you manage your money, was started by Christo Davel and Kenny Inggs in Cape Town in 2012. A year later, Old Mutual purchased 22seven. Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services is a collection of remote computing services that make up a cloud-computing platform offered by Amazon.com. Amazon EC2 was built by a team in Cape Town under Chris Pinkham and lead developer Chris Brown. The list above is only a snapshot of some of the tech companies which were founded and operate from Cape Town. Others include Zando, Takealot, and Snapscan. More on tech start-ups in South Africa South African start-up included in US accelerator Cape Town tech start-up creates common mobile payment thread Since Edward Snowden revealed the existence of internet surveillance programmes such as XKeyScore, Prism and Tempora, there have been many discussions of digital snooping and its implications for privacy, freedom and civil rights. Public discourse has focused on the dangers of the emergence of a surveillance-industrial-complex, in which secret services, global communications corporations and private security companies collaborate. This focus has somewhat distracted public attention from another form of snooping that affects many of us in everyday life: employee surveillance. A recent ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has alerted us of the developments in this realm of surveillance: a Romanian engineer complained to the ECHR about his dismissal in light of his personal use of Yahoo Messenger on a company device during working hours. He had not just messaged professional contacts, but also his family. The ECHR rejected the complaint that the companys monitoring of the employees communications violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects everyones right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. Whos watching you work? Companies surveillance of employees online communication is widespread. According to a survey of 300 company recruiters, 91% of British employers check job applicants social media profiles. Another poll showed that in the US, 66% of employers monitor their employees internet browsing and about a third have fired workers for internet misuse. But why is there so much employee surveillance today? Companies in general tend to favour the surveillance of communications of job applicants, their workplace and staff, property, consumers and competitors in order to ensure control over the production, sale and consumption of their commodities, thereby guaranteeing the accumulation of capital. Surveillance and control are inherent features of capitalism. The key point in the ECHRs ruling is that there has been no violation of Article 8 of the convention because the court found that it is not unreasonable for an employer to want to verify that the employees are completing their professional tasks during working hours. It is important to note that the ECHRs judgment was taken acknowledging that the company monitored two Yahoo Messenger accounts of the dismissed employee, one used for professional and one used for private purposes. The implication is that employers are legally allowed to monitor all employee communications during working time on company-owned devices. Always on the job The ECHRs legal judgment seems to disregard changes to working life in the digital age that do not allow us to strictly separate working and leisure time. Under the conditions of neoliberal digital capitalism, the boundaries between working and leisure time, the workplace and the home, labour and play, production and consumption, and the private and the public have become blurred and liquefied. Employees tend to also access and answer e-mails at home as well as on the way to work and back home. Many people search for job-related information on the internet out of regular working hours at home, in cafes, on the train anywhere you care to imagine. Social media profiles often have no clearly private or professional character because social media are convergence media our online contacts and communication involve people from different social contexts, including our family life and friendship groups and involve our working life, politics, civil society engagement and the rest. The general tendency is that there is a 24/7 always-on culture that benefits companies profits and turns ever more leisure time into labour time. Given that under such conditions many employees tend to complete professional tasks out of regular working hours, it is ethically unreasonable to grant employers the legal right to monitor all employee communications on company-owned or other devices. It is also not reasonable to assume that all employees can carry around multiple privately and company-owned laptops, mobile phones and tablets that they use either for personal or professional purposes with separate private and professional social media and email accounts at clearly defined and separated times of the day in order to communicate with neatly separated groups of private and professional contacts. Need for flexibility An employee messaging a personal friend via social media on a device owned by the company he works for, using either his personal or professional ID, is taking a break from work. Given the complexity of todays economy and the emergence of flexible working times, it is feasible to assume that employees breaks also need to be flexible. Company rules, regulations and legislation need to be brought up to date with these complexities. The unfortunate reality seems, however, to be that many employers, legislators and judiciaries assume that large parts of the day have to be seen as labour time that employers are allowed to monitor. In my view, such surveillance practices do not merely undermine the right to privacy and the right to private and family life, but also the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours. They furthermore advance a workplace culture of suspicion, distrust and control that harms both employees and companies. Adequate protection of workers rights in the digital age is a key political task. It can only be achieved by strengthening existing protections at the European and global level in the interest of working people, not by undermining such rights in the interest of corporations. In the digital age, labour time continues to be a strongly contested realm of human life. Christian Fuchs, Professor of Social Media, University of Westminster This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. More on security Extra-secure BlackBerry phones cracked Hello Barbie, hello hackers Who can believe the unbelievable election results with 1.8 million majority? I can not trust this as most of the people whom talked to me af... SAN FRANCISCO The family of a black man shot and killed by San Francisco police in an incident captured on video is demanding a federal civil rights investigation. Mario Woods' mother, Gwendolyn, is expected to be on hand at a news conference Monday with the family's attorney, John Burris, to announce their request. The family has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the officers who shot Woods on Dec. 2 and review the department's use of deadly force, stops, and detention and searches of African American and Latinos citizens for possible civil rights violations. According to police, five officers shot and killed 26-year-old Mario Woods after he appeared to raise an 8-inch knife he was carrying and approach one of the officers. Woods' family has disputed that account and filed a lawsuit against the department. SACRAMENTO Authorities said a Sacramento man has been arrested in the killing of his 88-year-old mother, who was found at home with a head injury. KRCA-TV reported Sunday that Sacramento County deputies on Sunday arrested 55-year-old Karl Hutton on murder charges after his mother died in a hospital. Authorities said deputies were called to a home where they found the woman with a serious head injury. Investigators said Hutton attacked his mother after an argument. Hutton was booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail, where he was being held without bond. AMERICAN CANYON The countys second-largest city is well ahead of the regions trend toward increased ethnic diversity, possibly becoming a minority majority city within the next 15 years, according to a new analysis. The yearlong process, conducted by the citys Parks and Recreation Department with the help of PROS Consulting, concluded that this already diverse city will not only remain so by 2030, it will nearly become a minority-majority city and not the kind that most people hear about in California. With the influx of immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, many communities are expected to someday become 51 percent or more Hispanic during this century. American Canyon, however, is projected to have nearly a majority of its population be of Asian background within the next 15 years. Mike Svetz with PROS Consulting reported to the Parks and Recreation Department that he expects the city to increase in size by about 25 percent by 2030. Residents of Asian ancestry will drive most of that increase, accounting for about 40 percent of the new growth, according to Svetz. As a result, The diversity in the community is projected to change as nearly one out of every two residents of American Canyon in the year 2030 will be of Asian descent, Svetz wrote in his report. Meanwhile, whites as a percentage of American Canyons population will decline, not because they are leaving town, he said, but because they will largely stay the same in number while other groups, like Asians and Hispanics, will continue to grow. Svetz included this demographic data in his report because the changes could affect how the parks department does its job providing activities and programs for residents. Recreation experiences are sometimes cultural, he told a joint meeting of the Parks & Community Services Commission and the Open Space Advisory Committee in December. So its important to understand how the different cultures want to experience recreation. In addition to the city becoming more Asian, it will also get a little grayer in the coming years, though not as much as some of its neighbors in the valley. Right now, adults 35-54 years old make up the largest age group in American Canyon: 30.5 percent. The next largest group is kids/teens, who comprise 28.3 percent, followed by young adults age 18-34 (21 percent). Seniors (55 and older) are 20.2 percent of the population. But by 2030, seniors will represent 27.9 percent of the population, and be the largest segment. Adults age 35-54 will drop to 24.5 percent, and kids/teens to 23 percent, while young adults age 18-34 will go up to 24.6 percent. The increase in the senior population will not be as noticeable as in Napa, Svetz pointed out, where half of the population is projected to be 55 and older within 15 years. In American Canyon, the increase in older residents could also influence the parks departments planning, Svetz indicated. The Senior Center is a parks department operation, and managed by a parks employee, Vincent Lin. He currently works less than full time, and the Senior Center itself is only open until 2 p.m. each day. Svetz recommended expanding the Senior Center coordinator position to full time, and making more use of the building, both for seniors and non-seniors, particularly since another finding of the assessment project was that the parks department lacks enough facilities to offer more and different kinds of classes for residents. Omar Salems chosen method of reaching out is the simplest and most direct: to talk. And as a member of Napas small Muslim community, the 30-year-old police officer and son of Middle Eastern immigrants felt the time had come again to speak out for his faith and against those who in recent months have killed in its name. On Sunday, members of one local church invited Salem to lead the latest in its monthly dialogues on religion, with the memories of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks still fresh. Speaking to about three dozen audience members, Salem, a frequent spokesman for the estimated 150 to 220 Muslim families in Napa County, urged his listeners to separate the faith of a billion followers one-seventh of humanity from the militants he said hijack it for political gain. Theres a verse in the Quran that says if you kill a person, its as if you have killed all of humanity and if you save one person, its as if you save all humanity, said Salem, a Napa Police resource officer at Vintage High School, during the Conversation with a Muslim program at the Napa Valley Unitarian Universalists church. And if you kill another Muslim, there is no pardon for that. The program was part of the monthly series Thinking about Religion, which the Unitarian church hosts at its Salvador Avenue sanctuary. And amid the fierce anti-Muslim blowback that has followed deadly terrorist acts by people identifying themselves with the Islamic State group culminating in Donald Trumps promise to block Muslim immigration into the U.S. if elected president few such speeches had been as timely or as necessary, according to Jim Craig, a congregation member and the events moderator. It seemed to me that with all the recent news on anti-Muslim sentiment, it might be a good time to do something like this, he said last week. Were concerned to know what, if any, negative expressions the local Muslim community has been experiencing. When that happened, it was a moment of dread: Here we go again, Salem said of the San Bernardino shootings. Typically, I get called when theres a crisis, whether in our country or abroad; when its not a crisis, its the off-season. Much of the modern battle over the Qurans message, he told his audience, is a tug-of-war over the meaning of the Quranic passage that begins: And fight for the sake of God those who fight you; but do not be brutal or commit aggression, for God does not love brutal aggressors. If you want to know about Islam, dont look at what the militants do; dont look at what I do, he told his listeners. Read the books; really learn about the religion, not just the people of the religion. During a patient, hourlong dialogue with a sympathetic audience, Salem took on not only the battle against extremism but the other aspects of living as a Muslim in a secular world the tasks of integrating faith and work; the outreach mission of Zaytuna College, the Muslim liberal arts school in Berkeley; the controversies over women wearing the hijab, the face veil whose public wearing the French government has banned along with other similar coverings. Ive not read the Quran; Im not well read in anything Islamic, said Beth Bevington, a member of the Napa Unitarian church. And thats why Im here, because I want to learn. Even as a church member, Bevington was weary of the conflicts inspired by those proclaiming their faiths. Our religions have caused so much strife, she said. Every war has a religion behind it. For some Napans in the audience, the most forceful words may have come not from the California-raised Salem but his father Louis Salem, a native of Iraq who came to the U.S. with his Afghanistan-born wife in the late 1970s. In no uncertain terms, he denied the right of the self-styled caliphate that has seized swaths of both Syria and his former homeland to speak for him, his people or his religion. ISIS is the state of terrorists, not the state of Islam, he said, drawing applause from his listeners. We have to love and honor and respect every human being. We are not the only ones who will go to heaven. People ask me if Im a Muslim, and when I say yes, they ask, Are you a bad one or a good one? Theres no bad Muslim or good Muslim; there is a bad person or a good person. In December, parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 wrote a letter to the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Florida accusing a professor at Florida Atlantic University of harassing them for proof that the murders really happened. The professor, James Tracy, was fired by the university earlier this month. Since then, the boys father, Lenny Pozner, has gotten several death threats. Tracys alleged harassment was hardly the first, Pozner said. Theres a whole network of people who believe the media reported a mass shooting that never happened, he said, that the tragedy was an elaborate hoax designed to increase support for gun control. Pozner said he gets ugly comments often on social media, such as, Eventually youll be tried for your crimes of treason against the people, . . . I wont be satisfied until the caskets are opened. . . and How much money did you get for faking all of this? A few days after Tracys firing was announced, Pozner got several death threats. A woman (judging by the voice) left messages on his phone that sounded like, Youre gonna die you [expletives and slurs deleted] . . .And what are you going to do about it? You can do absolutely nothing. . . . this is coming to you real soon [expletive deleted]. You going to die, and You [expletive deleted] look behind you, justice is coming to you real soon. A message seeking comment at the number where the call originated was not returned Tuesday. Pozner said he also got emails with similar threats. I am concerned for my safety, he said. I try to remain vigilant at all times. He said he believes the now-daily hateful postings on social media may have been prompted by news of Tracys firing, of President Barack Obamas recent executive order on gun control, or both. He said people who believe recent mass shootings are a hoax are in a sort of echo chamber, with the same misinformation and theories traded around. He particularly objected to Tracy, he said, because some people have a tendency to take his word at face value because he has a PhD at the end of his name. Thats unfortunate, because if they were to simply fact-check his hoax claims, theyd find that they just dont hold up to scrutiny. Tracys theories about Sandy Hook are as ludicrous and unfounded as those cult leaders who fear-monger about the end of the world. Tracy said in an email that he moved things out of his office at Florida Atlantic on Jan. 8 and is hiring another attorney. Unfortunately, most news media have failed to present a fair and accurate account of the controversy that has led to the termination of my tenured professorship at FAU, he wrote. The news of his firing worried some advocates for academic freedom, who said that even controversial research, such as Tracys into press coverage of mass shootings, should be protected, and that he should have a fair hearing. But it was welcomed by others who were shocked that a professor would go beyond questioning events and analyzing the media in an academic setting to seeking out grieving families and demanding information from them. In 2012, 27 peopleincluding 20 young childrenwere shot and killed by a gunman who then turned a gun on himself in Newtown, Connecticut. Tracy has written extensively about whether the shooting really happened. A post apparently written by Tracy on the Hoax at Sandy Hook Facebook page held that no one was killed at the elementary school that day, that the shooting was staged, that co-conspirators got money after acting as grieving parents, and that the Pozners were trying to intimidate the university into firing him for his research seeking the truth. Veronique and Lenny Pozner wrote in the Sun-Sentinel: . . . Tracy even sent us a certified letter demanding proof that [their son] Noah once lived, that we were his parents, and that we were the rightful owner of his photographic image, they wrote. We found this so outrageous and unsettling that we filed a police report for harassment. Once Tracy realized we would not respond, he subjected us to ridicule and contempt on his blog, boasting to his readers that the unfulfilled request was noteworthy because we had used copyright claims to thwart continued research of the Sandy Hook massacre event. Tracy wrote Tuesday, I am not aware of any threats made to the Pozners, yet their action has encouraged many against me. Since their public letter in December, he wrote, I have received at least 100 profane or threatening emails and telephone calls. Tracy also wrote, Are you aware of Mr. Pozners concerted efforts to harass individuals who publicly question the Sandy Hook event? There is copious documentation of this, yet some fear retaliation and have stayed silent. On the blog Tracy maintains, a guest post last week claimed theres a network of people founded by Lenny Pozner to seek out, identify, stalk and harass anyone who investigates the suspicious and confusing facts surrounding the Sandy Hook incident. They are dedicated to investigating individuals backgrounds, places of employment, family and friends, and then attacking their targets by posting personal information, pictures and even contacting peoples employers with accusations of harassment. Pozner declined to comment on Tracys claims. Pozner wrote in an email that it has been extremely difficult to deal with all of this, as a father trying to balance grief with the necessity of raising two daughters while honoring the memory of my murdered son. . . . Each day we endeavor to fill the void that Noahs absence left. As a father I struggle to find peace for my family but to no avail. . . . Why is this happening? Well, quite simply because persistent deniers of high profile tragedies have painted a target on our backs. YouTube channels and Facebook communities have become a breeding ground for hatred and defamation against those of us seeking to heal from this unconscionable crime against humanity. They accuse us of faking our loss as part of some fantastical gun confiscation plot. Pozner wrote that since Tracy, a conspiracy theorist who has spearheaded a libelous campaign against my family, was fired, it had not stopped the harassment. In fact, its aggravated the assaults. Loyalists to Tracy have sent hateful emails promising revenge, sometimes describing the gruesome violence they intend to execute upon my family. Its been three years since my sons life was snuffed out by an act of senseless violence and Im left in a fog of disbelief. Disbelief that a deranged madman could be so callous to kill our children, but perhaps even more baffled that there are those who would deny us the peace we so desperately need to overcome our insurmountable loss. Right now Im just. . .Im just numb! State taxation of multistate and multinational corporations is not an issue for the fainthearted. The formulas for calculating their tax liabilities are complex and interpreting them has involved decades of political and legal wrangling, fueled by the issues multibillion-dollar stakes. The issue bugged Jerry Brown during his first governorship four decades ago, and as his second governorship winds down, its still percolating. Just before Brown was elected governor in 1974, the state joined a multistate compact to bring uniformity to corporate taxation, its major feature being the use of three equal factors payroll, property and sales to calculate what portion of corporate income should be attributed to each state. To illustrate: If a company had 21 percent of its sales, 12 percent of its payroll and 17 percent of its property in California, 16.67 percent of its income would be considered taxable by the state. However, to audit corporations tax returns, state tax officials required access to their internal books, and multinationals headquartered in other countries Japan and Great Britain, particularly bridled. Sony Corp., which had a large operation in San Diego, was particularly resentful, and its executives, as well as those of other corporations, hammered on Brown over the issue. Initially, Brown backed the states position, but after a trip to Japan he flip-flopped, accusing the states crusty top tax official, Martin Huff, of feeding him flaky data. Huff, in effect, called Brown a liar and the governor backed a successful and very sneaky effort in the Legislature to get rid of him. In 1993, after years of wrangling, then-Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature modified the system to double the weight given to sales in the tax formula, which benefited California-based corporations. A coalition of out-of-state firms led by the Gillette Co. sued, saying that changing the formula violated the 1974 multistate tax compact. and in 2009 legislators changed the formula again, giving corporations the option of using only sales as a factor, or the three-factor formula. Three years later after Brown had returned to the governorship an appellate court declared that the 1993 change illegally violated the compact, and in response the Legislature formally withdrew from the compact. Meanwhile, a 2012 ballot measure made sales the only factor in apportioning income, effectively raising state taxes on out-of-state companies and using the proceeds for energy conservation. Last month, the state Supreme Court overturned the appellate courts Gillette ruling, declaring that the state was not bound to follow the compact. It appears to protect the state from refunding hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to Gillette and other corporations. However, Gillette plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, so an issue that confronted Brown when he first became governor in 1975 may still be unsettled when his second governorship ends 44 years later. Dan Walters writes for The Sacramento Bee. The St. Helena Historical Society recently sent out a year-end letter asking the community for their support. We are overwhelmed by the positive responses that we have received so far and want to thank all of you who have given us your very generous gifts. The Historical Society is a nonprofit 501c3 organization that depends entirely on memberships and the good will of people like you to support our programs and collection development. Above all, these gifts ensure that we can continue to work toward a permanent home for the Historical Society, where both the community and visitors can experience the rich history that is St. Helena. Susanne Salvestrin, Vice President St. Helena Historical Society Another great way to donate to NASGA is by doing your online shopping with Goodshop! They will donate up to 20% of your purchases back to us and offer great savings at places like Neiman Marcus Adidas , and Sundance Catalog . So, you can save money and help us stop guardian abuse too! Disclaimer Victim stories are written and submitted by individual victims. NASGA has no knowledge or responsibility as to the accuracy or validity of their statements. Use of any such story or information contained therein in any manner is not authorized without prior written consent from NASGA or the individual author. Comments on this site are moderated. NASGA reserves the right to accept, reject or delete any comments posted. Comments are the sole responsibility of the sender. This site contains links to web sites controlled or offered by third parties (non-affiliates of NASGA). NASGA hereby disclaims liability for any information, material, products, services, or any other, posted or offered at any of the third-party sites. By creating a link to a third-party site, NASGA does not endorse or recommend any products or services offered. NASGA further disclaims liability for the content, security, validity or accuracy contained in said third-party sites. (As delivered) President Andrzej Duda, it is a great pleasure and honour to welcome you here at NATO headquarters. We last met just a few weeks after you were elected as president last summer. And when I visited Poland last summer I met with you, that was in connection with the first exercise of the new Spearhead Force of NATO, which were exercising in Poland. So that was just another example of how we are working together and how NATO is adapting to a new and more challenging security environment. And ever since Poland joined NATO, Poland has proven to be a very strong Ally. And a committed Ally. Today, you are committing practically. With hundreds of troops building security in Afghanistan and in Kosovo. With exercises on land, at sea, and in the air. And with contributions to Baltic air policing and maritime patrols. You are also committing politically including through strong support for our partners. You lead our logistics Trust Fund for Ukraine, and help with defence education. And Poland is committing financially. You devote 2% of GDP to defence, with 30 % of that to be spent on investments in modern equipment. This is significant, and it shows Polands leadership. And we thank you for that. There is a lot of Poland in NATO, and a lot of NATO in Poland. You host our Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin. And one of our new Force Integration Units small headquarters. Both will make rapid deployment of our forces easier, and will support planning and exercises. You also host the Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz, which is part of the NATO command structure. This spring, we will break ground for a key site in Poland for NATOs Ballistic Missile Defence. And a significant number of Allied exercises have taken place in Poland, with many others underway. Over the past year, we have been implementing the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War. NATO now has a persistent military presence in the region of which Poland is part. And I trust that after the Warsaw Summit, we will see more NATO in Poland than ever before. Today, we discussed the preparations for the Warsaw Summit, which are well on track. We are fundamentally adapting our Alliance to the challenges we face, to a more challenging security environment. We all must ensure that when we leave the Summit, the Alliance is stronger and more flexible. And committed, as firmly as ever, to the values on which NATO was founded: democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. These values are a vital source of our unity. And unity is our greatest strength. So, Mr President, I look really forward to working with you to make the Warsaw Summit a great success. So once again, welcome to NATO Headquarters and we are looking forward to working closely with you and your staff in the preparations for the Summit in July. OANA LUNGESCU (NATO Spokesperson): Just a few questions, Ill start with the lady over there. Q: Dorota Bavoik (Televisia Polsat) [Speaking through interpreter] The first question, to both gentlemen. The more and more allies who due to other challenges to NATO or fight against terrorism and the Syria conflict, see their next ally in Russia, try to build a coalition with Russia in order to combat those threats together. So therefore is there a chance to implement the Polish Postulate in terms of increasing the presence of NATO on the eastern flank without, without tickling Russia? Will other allies[Begins speaking English without interpreter]. For sure, are you sure for 100 % about that? Because there are some signals from the United States that there are some doubts. You said that the countries of NATO should respect the rule of law, the rule of law in Poland is currently under supervision of the European Commission. If, until summer, there will be some more signals of unhappiness from the EU institutions, some more doubts about it, is it possible that the place of the summit will be changed? JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General): The decision to have the next summit in Warsaw was taken by 28 heads of state and government at our last summit in Wales in September 2014 and there is no issue at all to discuss to change that decision. So that decision stands and we are actually looking very much forward to have the summit in Warsaw and the preparations are on track and the President and I, we discussed a wide range of issues which are related in different ways to the preparations for the next summit in Warsaw. So Im looking forward to the summit in Warsaw in July. When it comes to your first question I think its important to underline that NATO faces a changed and more challenging security environment, both because of the behaviour of Russia, a more assertive Russia, a Russia which is investing heavily in defence which is exercising its troops and which is able and willing to use force to change borders in Europe as we have seen in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and the policy of destabilizing Eastern Ukraine and also having forces in Georgia. So NATO has to respond to a more assertive Russia which is conducting a substantial military build-up close to our borders. At the same time we have to respond to the turmoil, to the violence, to the instability we see to the south with terror and the threats stemming from North Africa and the Middle East. And NATO does not have the luxury of choosing between either responding to the challenges stemming from the south or the challenges stemming from the east, we have to do both at the same time. And thats the reason why we are adapting, thats the reason why we have implemented the biggest reinforcement to our collective defence since the end of the Cold War and thats the reason why we are increasing the readiness and the responsiveness of our forces so we are able to defend, protect all allies against any threat whether they come from the east or the south or wherever they come from. ANDRZEJ DUDA (President of Poland): [Speaking through interpreter]. Madame let me answer you right away. Of course within the North Atlantic Alliance there are 28 nations and often those nations have got different interests, nevertheless I am convinced about one thing, namely that some issues are obvious for all. It is an obvious thing that Russia over the last years has conducted a series of activities which cannot be called differently than an aggression. It is also obvious that Russia is building up its military potential and in a very clear way it has been demonstrating it through different exercises, through such actions which are named by some in North Atlantic Alliance as activities of provocative nature, of testing nature, they are testing the resilience both political and to a certain extent also psychological resilience of those who are taking important decisions in the North Atlantic Alliance countries. That is why I strongly believe that all these phenomena are being followed by all the nations of the North Atlantic Alliance. If Russia today is building up its military potential, for instance in the Kaliningrad Oblast or near the borders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and other places the following question arises, why is it doing that and whether such actions which are clearly, well because no provocative actions are exercised against Russia in those areas, there are no offensive weapons there. So the question is why is Russia engaged in such an activity? Quite logical answer is that unfortunately these actions are not purely of defensive character and if so then taking into account the nature of the North Atlantic Alliance, which I want to stress very strongly, the North Atlantic Alliance defence alliance, purely defence alliance, it is absolutely not aimed at any kind of expansion or any actions of offensive nature, it is only defensive in nature and natural consequence of that is strengthening the defence potential. And I hope that every single member of the alliance following what is happening in the international space is seeing those phenomena and understands them. Of course also we are seeing situations with decreased level of security at the southern flank of NATO and we also need to take adequate action there, action which will strengthen us as far as anti-terrorist actions are concerned which will strengthen our security vis a vis the ISIL. All of these are the elements which in a natural way are outlined in front of NATO, NATO has to face up in an adequate way to all those challenges and I count on common sense in this respect on part of the member states and I count on their approach of understanding even from those nations which geographical location is distant from the places which are facing problems and threats today. Q: (Wall Street Journal) the multinational core northeast or do you want to see an actual combat troop presence, persistence presence in Poland or the Baltics? And if they dont will that weaken deterrence? Mr. Secretary General I wonder if you are worried about the rule of law issues in Poland, challenges to the independent judiciary and press and do you think that these controversies will weaken the support for increasing a troop presence in Poland at the Warsaw summit? ANDRZEJ DUDA: [Speaking through interpreter]. Let me answer in the following way, yes in such a way that the security of eastern NATO flank is provided, is truly provided. Today there are indications showing that what we need to do is both to have significant presence of both infrastructure and troops on the ground in Central and Eastern Europe and we also need a well-developed system for supporting those troops, for supporting defence. If any kind of an aggressive act happened we want NATO forces to be visible which means common exercises, improving coordination of actions and I believe that this is the direction in which we should be developing our cooperation and in this direction we should also be taking decisions at the Warsaw summit. Let me stress once again we very much count on this summit to be a decision making summit, a forward looking summit which will be a universal summit so that it builds the infrastructure of the North Atlantic Alliance in the sense of its adaptation to the current security circumstances. JENS STOLTENBERG: President Duda and I we had full and wide ranging talks covering many different issues and of course, naturally, we also discussed the importance of adhering to the core values of NATO. And I think we all understand that the core values of NATO being democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law are important for all allies and are important for the alliance. They were important when the alliance was established and they are still important for the alliance. And for me these values are important because they are key for the unity of the alliance and the unity is the most important strength of the alliance because the whole alliance is based on the idea of 28 for 28, based on some core values which we all share. OANA LUNGESCU: Thank you very much. Question -- What is the goal of this website? Why do we share different sources of information that sometimes conflicts or might even be considered disinformation? Answer -- The primary goal of Nesaranews is to help all people become better truth-seekers in a real-time boots-on-the-ground fashion. This is for the purpose of learning to think critically, discovering the truth from withinnot just believing things blindly because it came from an "authority" or credible source. Instead of telling you what the truth is, we share information from many sources so that you can discern it for yourself. We focus on teaching you the tools to become your own authority on the truth, gaining self-mastery, sovereignty, and freedom in the process. We want each of you to become your own leaders and masters of personal discernment, and as such, all information should be vetted, analyzed and discerned at a personal level. We also encourage you to discuss your thoughts in the comments section of this site to engage in a group discernment process. "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle 11 White House is puzzling over how to avoid meeting between Putin and Biden at G-20 summit Eduard Aghajanyan: Once again I remind that Armenia was deprived of opportunity to protect rights of people of Artsakh U.S. says that limiting Russian oil prices is not aimed at OPEC OSCE sends mission to Armenia to assess situation on Armenian-Azerbaijani border Jeff Bezos warns that U.S. economy may face recession Kiev says nearly 40% of Ukraine's energy infrastructure has been damaged Raisi: Iran will use all its capabilities and potential to end war in Ukraine Qatar gets first pandas in Middle East Armenian president delivers lecture at St. Kliment Ohridski University in Sofia More than half of Britons think Liz Truss should resign Bloomberg: Putin and Erdogan's cordial relationship arouses Western anger Dutch government invests up to 3.5 billion in military procurement Erdogan discusses latest developments in Ukraine with Zelenskyy School in Paris expels student from class for denying Armenian Genocide Germany would like to participate in EU observer mission to Armenia U.S. is considering plan to co-produce weapons with Taiwan Poland to buy K239 Chunmoo from South Korea Air defense system repels several missile attacks by Ukrainian troops at Kakhovskaya HPP Baku court does not definitively terminate criminal prosecution of Yunus spouses Liz Truss has no plans to resign CSTO countries agree on draft agreement on standardization of military equipment EU countries agree to sanction eight people and organizations over Iranian drones Congressman David Price meets with rector of Yerevan State University Chairman of Amsterdam City Court visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan ASPU supports process of unification of universities Deputy Chief of Police on new draft law: 'Citizen of Azerbaijan' is extremely relative notion Benny Gantz: Israel will not supply weapons to Ukraine Saudi Arabia lifts ban on Turkish soap operas Armenia lawyer arrested Remains discovered during renovation of Ministry of Culture building in Tbilisi are transferred to Armenian Pantheon Dollar goes up, euro falls in Armenia IRGC special forces conduct helicopter operations on third day of exercises on border with Azerbaijan MFA: France position on achieving Armenia-Azerbaijan peace is unchanged Foreign Minister: Iran will not allow blocking its communications with Armenia Kremlin: Russia does not intend to close borders amid introduction of martial law in four regions EU mission delegation visits some border communities of Armenias Gegharkunik Province (PHOTOS) Armenias Papikyan attends defense ministers assembly in India Brusov university rector: Armenia education minister offered me a high position in new university, I declined Putin imposes martial law in new territories of Russia Yerevan to host Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting Putin holds meeting of Security Council Armenia MOD spox: Azerbaijan still preventing search operations Iran announces retaliatory sanctions against EU Russian Defense Ministry reports on strike on military facilities in Ukraine Artsakh Foreign Minister receives Ruben Vardanyan Israel calls Australia's refusal to recognize Jerusalem as capital of Israel 'pathetic decision' Armenia to tighten penalties for overloading of trucks Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey army elite units conduct demonstration military drills Luxembourg parliament speaker: Azerbaijan aggression is direct attack on Armenia sovereignty Russia Investigative Committee chief confirms theory of Crimean Bridge explosion accomplices Uruguay vice president: We express our solidarity with Armenian people GeoProMining's ZCMC has tripled tax payments to the state budget of Armenia Yerevan judge to be arrested Paul Krekorian unanimously elected as LA City Council President ThePrint: Armenia eyes procuring Akash missiles, loitering munitions from India Armenia MP to international colleagues: Azerbaijan intends to carry out new aggression Ukraine military hits Energodar city hall Armenia PM: We hope Azerbaijan will cooperate in clarifying destiny of our compatriots Newspaper: Where is 1991 declaration by which Armenia, Azerbaijan once recognized each other's territorial integrity? Azerbaijan fires at Armenia positions at midnight PACE lawmakers call for Azerbaijan militarys immediate withdrawal from Armenia Australia reverses decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel capital Armenia MPs meet with European Parliament colleagues, reflect on recent Azerbaijan attack Nouriel Roubini: In some sense, World War III has already started EU considers paying Elon Musk to provide Starlink Internet to Ukraine U.S. will continue to take practical, aggressive steps to make it difficult for Iran to sell drones to Russia German Prosecutor's Office searches Deutsche Bank headquarters Head of Germany's national cybersecurity agency fired amid reports of ties to Russia Uruguayan Chamber of Deputies condemns Azerbaijan's invasion of Armenian territory Spanish minister: EU is far from solution to energy crisis Fake Azerbaijani names of Syunik province communities removed from Google Maps and Google Earth apps Artsakh President presents details of meetings held in Yerevan to MPs Lavrov: Russia sees no point in maintaining its previous presence in Western countries UAE: OPEC+ decision has no political motive Opposition to David Price: Right to self-determination is the right of people of Artsakh to survive Iran is ready to negotiate with Ukraine to resolve ambiguities Deputy Speaker of Armenian National Assembly: 47 PACE deputies made written statement condemning Baku's aggression Lapid will discuss Kiev request for Israeli systems with Kuleba Morawiecki: Poland is not afraid of losing EU funds Armenian President meets with Sofia Mayor Speaker of Armenian National Assembly to Norway FM: Withdrawal of Azerbaijani Armed Forces from Armenia is a priority Nikol Pashinyan receives delegation headed by Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt Iran responds to Borrell's garden and jungle statement: EU needs to accept realities or it will continue to wither Pashinyan: No one can accuse Armenia of evading its obligations Congressman: U.S. was not active in terms of security in Armenia, but now situation is changing Indian defense company Solar group says it has received orders from Armenia for 'Pinaka' missiles Price: U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan will not be used for offensive purposes against Armenia Military expert assesses possibility of new hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan Russian Embassy: Armenians' attitude towards Russians who moved to Armenia remains very friendly Clarification by Price: What Could Armenian-American military cooperation look like? Armenian Defense Minister visits DEFEXPO exhibition in India President of Artsakh talks about results of discussions held in Armenia Borrell angers UAE with his comparison of world outside Europe to 'jungle' Public Council formed in Artsakh China Daily: Party's anti-graft efforts generate fruitful outcomes Price: We demand that Azerbaijan return to its initial positions Aghajanyan: This visit should be seen as another stage in dynamic development of Armenian-American relations Ukraine will officially ask Israel for transfer of air defense systems Head of National Assembly Commission: 2023 state budget turned out to be biggest in Armenia's history Turkey conducts test launch of its own ballistic missile over Black Sea YEREVAN. - Thanks to consistent work, serious success has been achieved in reducing corruption risks in the procurement process. Armenias Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan told the aforementioned in his speech during the consultation held by the Armenian Defense Ministry today. The consultation was dedicated to material and technical supply of the countrys Defense Ministry and procurement organization. During the consultation, Ohanyan said that due to consistent work carried out during the previous years by the Material and Technical Supply Department at Defense Ministry, including studying of market prices, serious success has been achieved in lowering corruption risks and procurement process, as well as material and technical supply of the Defense Ministry, Armenias Defense Ministry press-service reports. Stressing that that process is in the center of the Armenian Presidents attention, Ohanyan instructed to attach special attention to the issues on drawing out the technical characteristics of the acquired means, researching the price policy and enhancing control over the quality of agreement implementation. Summing up the results of the consultation, Seyran Ohanyan gave specific instructions on the transparency of the procurement process and activation of works on reducing corruption risks. Since then, BBC Iraq correspondent Ahmed Maher says, there has been no claim of responsibility and the fate of those kidnapped remains unknown - a sign of how secretive and complicated the negotiation process is. Courtesy: BBC Last month, a group of Qatari hunters, including members of the ruling family, was kidnapped in the Iraqi desert.Since then, BBC Iraq correspondent Ahmed Maher says, there has been no claim of responsibility and the fate of those kidnapped remains unknown - a sign of how secretive and complicated the negotiation process is. "We are working with the full co-operation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," said a state department official.Unconfirmed reports from Iraqi security circles said three Americans and an Iraqi translator were seized on the southern side of Baghdad.But US officials did not say how many were held or where they were seized.An official in Baghdad told CNN three contractors went missing on Friday."A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing two days ago. They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," the senior security official said."The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority," said US state department official John Kirby.If it turns out to be a serious kidnapping, reports the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad, it would be a major blow to hopes for stability and progress in Iraq.An attack on a Baghdad shopping centre last week, claimed by so-called Islamic State militants, brought to an end a relative lull in violence that had seen no major bloodshed in the city in months.Before US forces pulled out of Iraq in 2011, a number of Western citizens were kidnapped and killed by radical Shia groups as well as Sunni militants, but none has been abducted since then, our correspondent says. About Me africanelections www.africanelections.org contact us at africanelectionsproject AT gmail.com View my complete profile 16:44 "I'm wondering," CNN IBN senior journalist Bhupendra Chaubey tells Sunny Leone, "whether I'm being morally corrupted because I'm speaking to you."Then comes, "Do you believe that your body will ultimately take you everywhere?"Or, "If I was to turn the clock back, would you still do what you did?"And the supercilious, "Pardon me if I'm being offensive here - how many people would dream of growing up to be a porn star."Bollywood actress and former porn star Sunny Leone Leone, is in the eye of the storm for her interview to CNN-IBN's Bhupendra Chaubey, on The Hot Seat on January 17.Sunny, who made inroads into Indian showbiz with reality show "Bigg Boss" and then landed a role in Bollywood with "Jism 2", is busy these days promoting her new film "Mastizaade", which is why the interview to CNN IBN.Leone had to deal with condescension camouflaged as innocuous questions, in the journalist's attempt (and what a failed attempt it was) to verbally undress the actress and point out that she was in fact nothing but a port star.That Leone has never hidden her past or apologised for it, seems to have been ignored by Chaubey.At one point Chaubey actually asks Sunny, "Do you not sometimes get affected by the fact that your past your past that you were this porn queen will continue to haunt you? Or maybe continue to pull you back? When maybe you could've gone far higher."To this Sunny replies, "You're the only person. It's the press and the media that says holding back or haunt. I've never said haunt. I've never said held back. I am not held back. Maybe I don't know yet. Maybe one day I get to work with somebody who is this huge star. At this moment, I don't know any better so it doesn't affect my life."Following the interview, Leone has seen enormous support and congratulatory tweets for being dignified, while Chaubey has been vilified. Rishi Kapoor @chintskap tweeted "Very unfair& rude interview with Sunny Leone on CNN IBN.She is taking it on her chin sportingly,obviously in the interest of her coming film."Actor Sushant Singh Rajput @itsSSR tweeted, "How beautifully u held your own in that stupid interview @SunnyLeone .Some1 should have taught him how to respect a woman when he was a kid."Aalia Bhatt tweeted her support, "That was literally NOT an interview.. Just hyper-opinionated statements with a question mark at the end!!! No Grace? Chivalry? Ridiculous!"While, Anushka Sharma said, "This downright distasteful interview shows d journalists intellect & lack of basic human respect & nothing else.kudos @SunnyLeone."The sun is indeed out for Leone.Also read: The Remarkable Sunny Leone! Russia expects the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to approve its first loans within six months, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday.China officially launched the new bank, which is seen as a rival to the U.S-led World Bank, on SundayRussia, the third largest shareholder in the AIIB after China and India, would like the new bank to contribute to infrastructure projects in the so called Arctic or Northern Sea Route, the deputy prime minister said. These could be railways to transport cargo to port along the maritime route."At the board of directors today we will hopefully decide on policy guidance," Dvorkovich told the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong. "Hopefully we will have first loans provided within six months."The AIIB is expected to lend $10 billion-$15 billion a year for the first five or six years.Despite opposition from Washington, U.S. allies including Australia, Britain, German, Italy, the Philippines and South Korea have agreed to join the bank in recognition of China's growing economic clout.Cash-strapped Europe, which is just emerging for the crisis that rocked euro zone countries, is hoping to play an important role in the AIIB initiative, European ministers attending the Asia Financial Forum Said.Some hoped the bank could ease ongoing global geopolitical tensions by building an economic bridge between different regions of the world."The AIIB is a sort of a peace initiative. If the economies of the Silk Road are more intertwined we get more stability," said Pierre Gramegna, Minister of Finance of Luxembourg. REUTERS PS NS0955 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-543915.Xml Gen Sharif met Saudi Arabias deputy crown prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman upon arrival in Riyadh. After arriving in Riyadh, the army chief met the Saudi defence minister, Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement. The prime minister wants to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran in a peaceful manner, a statement issued by Pakistan's Foreign Office said. Pakistan has deep rooted, brotherly relations with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, and is concerned over ongoing tension between the two Muslim countries, it added. The premier is accompanied by a high-level delegation, including his foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz, special advisor Tariq Fatemi and National Security Advisor Nasir Khan Janjua. Prime Minister Sharif will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz and follow it up with talks with Irans President Hassan Rouhani on January 19 in Tehran, a statement from the prime minister's house confirmed. Tensions between Riyadh and Tehran have been running high since the January 2 execution of leading Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al Nimr by Saudi Arabia and the subsequent attacks on Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran. Saudi Arabia and some of its allies have cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, triggering a crisis in the region. Earlier, a senior Pakistani official revealed that in one of the recent high-level meetings, the civil and military leadership of his country was informed that Pakistan could become a battleground for a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran if their relations continue to deteriorate. Fear of sectarian polarisation and proxy war between the two countries in Pakistan has compelled Islamabad to mount a diplomatic push to mediate between the two key Muslim countries, sources said. The visit by Nawaz Sharif was described as a wise step in the best interest of the Muslim world, and leading politicians and analysts have hailed the premiers visit both to Saudi Arabia and Iran. --Indo-Asian News Service ahm/vt ( 368 Words) 2016-01-18-18:47:37 (IANS) Iran on Sunday called on international entrepreneurs to participate in its economy after the comprehensive deal on Tehran's nuclear programme officially took effect on Saturday. "We are in need of investments and technology and the ground in our country is prepared for such activities," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said at a press conference after the European Union (EU) and the US lifted their economic, financial and energy sanctions on Iran on Saturday. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano announced on Saturday that Iran has completed the necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an international deal on Tehran's nuclear program reached in July, 2015. Iran also promises more transparency in its nuclear programme, letting UN nuclear inspectors monitor Tehran's atomic plan. The US and EU sanctions on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme have largely cut Iran out of the international financial system during the past years. They have also put restrictions on foreign ventures to engage in Iran's energy and infrastructure development. "Our country has necessary attractions for foreign investments. It has stability, security and tranquility. The Iranian government has implemented its pledges pertaining to economic promises and is committed to do so," Rouhani said, vowing to raise the GDP from the current three percent to five percent in the next year. "Moreover, we have educated and capable human resources as well as energy sources, which makes it a proper ground for investments in diverse areas," he added. After the nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers in July 2015, a number of Western officials and business delegations have visited Iran for post-sanction cooperation. Lifting the sanctions would unfreeze a huge amount of assets, around tens of billions of US dollars, and allow Iranian oil to be sold internationally. Tehran would be able to get access to the international financial system after being isolated for years. Meanwhile, the Iranian president suggested that resolving the nuclear issue could also be a model for resolving disputes among regional states. "Following the implementation of the JCPOA, our economic and political relations with our neighbours and regional states will improve far better than the past," Rouhani added. --Indo-Asian News Service ahm/dg ( 378 Words) 2016-01-17-22:15:36 (IANS) The 32-year-old actress, who also visited a farm in Badin, got clicked with Provincial Minister for Culture and Tourism Sharmila Faruqi, the Express Tribune reports. While the reason behind 'The 'Margarita, with a Straw' actress visit is still unknown. There are speculations that she might be there to sign a new project. Previously, veteran actor Om Puri visited Karachi to announce his Pakistani debut film 'Actor In Law.' Kalki, who has been quite vocal about her child sexual abuse. is widely praised for her commendable performance in commercial flicks like 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' and 'Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani'. (ANI) Srilankan maritime forces arrested three Indian fishermen and impounded a mechanized fishing boat for allegedly straying into the territorial waters of the Island nation and indulged in illegal poaching, mid night last night. A senior official of Tamilnadu state fisheries department said here today that the fishermen hailing from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai district were detained by Srilankan naval personnel, when they were fishing in sea North-West of Kareinagar in Lanka. The arrested fishermen were taken to Kankasanthurai port, where they were handed over to the officials of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Jaffna) for onward action. UNI GSM VV VS1242 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0415-542808.Xml The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to three power discoms in national capital New Delhi, asking them what objection did they have to being audited by the office of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). Monday's notice came three days after the Delhi Government had moved the apex court to challenge a Delhi High Court verdict that disallowed the CAG audit of power distribution companies in the national capital. The Delhi High Court had in October last year quashed a Delhi Government decision to get the accounts of the capital's three private power distribution companies scrutinised by the CAG. The high court order had then upheld the plea of the three companies -- Tata Power Delhi Distribution, BSES Rajdhani Power and BSES Yamuna Power -- against the Delhi Government's January 7, 2014 order for CAG scrutiny of their accounts. The three companies had then maintained that since they were privately owned and run, they did not come under the purview of the CAG purview. According to a CAG petition, the three Delhi-based discoms enjoyed funding of more than Rs 5,000 crores from the Delhi Government since their inception on July 1, 2002, and therefore, required to be audited. "Considering that the discoms enjoyed funding of more than Rs 5,000 crore from the state by way of equity, debt, transferred assets and also receivables, there is a nexus with the consolidated fund of the state, and hence the CAG has a statutory duty to scrutinize the books of accounts of discoms," the CAG said in its petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Delhi High Court order quashing the federal audit of discoms. The petition further said "there were huge discrepancies in their (discoms) accounts" and the state government's decision in seeking an audit of their books was not unjustified. The three discoms-Anil Ambani's ADAG-owned BRPL and BYPL and the Tata-owned NDPL-are joint ventures between these private companies and the Delhi Government. In each of the discoms, the Delhi Government has a 49 percent stake, while the private entities have a 51 percent stake each. (ANI) The symposium has been jointly organised by the Japan Foundation and the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) in collaboration with the Japanese foreign ministry. It is a follow up to the "Hindu-Buddhist Conference for conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness" that was organised by VIF in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation and Tokyo Foundation in New Delhi in the first week of September, 2015. This initiative has come from the talks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in which they identified conflict and environment as the two major challenges facing the world today. The symposium in Tokyo will be attended by approximately 600 people representing 13 countries. Prime Minister Abe will address the inaugural function, where a video message from Prime Minister Modi will be played. The symposium will attract renowned Asian political, social, academic, and religious leaders to explore the values that have formed the basis of democracy and inter-state relations in Asia. Rijiju is also scheduled to visit the ancient Buddhist temple of Todaji at Nara, Japan on January 20, before departing for India on January 21. (ANI) "A day before yesterday, a video of Gurmeet Ram Rahim had come to my mobile through social media. In the video, he is seen dressing up as Lord Vishnu. That hurt my feelings," All India Hindu Federation chief Nishant Sharma told ANI. The complaint has been registered in the Zirakpur Police Station and an investigation is underway. Nishant, however, said the case has not yet been filed by the police. "We called a meeting. Today we are going to meet the DGP and if the complaint is still not filed then we will approach the court," Nishant said. "We have always worked to carry forward the ideology of sanatan dharm and we will continue to do so," he added. He also said they have requested that a case should be filed against the godman for hurting religious sentiments. (ANI) : Hundred students, who have completed English Access Microscholarship Programme, sponsored by the US Department of State in association with Womens Muslim Association (WMA), were given graduation certificates. Speaking on the occasion, Regional English Language Officer (RELO) Bradley Horn, who presented the certificates to the students at Cardova Public School here, said the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General, Chennai, and RELO, New Delhi, coordinated with the WMA for programme implementation. The programme provides a Foundation of English language skills to bright, economically disadvantaged 13-20 year old through two-years of after school instruction and intensive sessions. Since its inception in 2004, over 100,000 students in more than 85 countries have participated in the access programme. In India, 6000 Indian students have been benefited from the programme, since 2004, and currently 2000 students are attending the programme at Ahmedabad, Aligarh, Amritsir, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kolkata, Puducherry and Vaniyambadi. As the United States prepares to mark the birthday of reverred Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, I would like to remind us all that Dr. King himself repeatedly cited Mahatma Gandhi as the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change. Gandhijis influence was so profound that Dr. King travelled to India in 1959 to better understand how lessons from Indias struggle against colonial rule could be adapted to end racial segregation and improve civil rights in the United States. After returning from the five-week tour which, incidentally, included a stop in Thiruvananthapuram Dr. King wrote: I returned to America with a greater determination to achieve freedom for my people through nonviolent means. As a result of my visit to India, my understanding of nonviolence became greater and my commitment deeper. Today, of course, we see the fruits of Dr. Kings application of Gandhijis teachings in a more just and inclusive United States, for which the citizens of my country owe both men our undying gratitude. After witnessing the remarkable progress in students' communication skills and their confidence level, RELO Horn encouraged the students to continue develop and improve themselves, so that in turn they can play a constructive role in making their community and our world a more just tolerant and inclusive place. This batch of students attended the classes from December 2013 to December 2015. UNI DS KVV RSS 1250 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0324-544078.Xml The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission has announced to hold the block pramukhs polls on February 7. As per the notification issued by the Commission here today, nominations would be accepted on February 5 from 1100 hours to 1500 hours and thereafter the papers would be scrutinised. February 6 is the date of withdrawal from 1100 hrs to 1500 hours. The polling would be held on February 7 from 1100 hours to 1500 hrs and thereafter counting of votes would be taken up till all the results are declared. Earlier, the Commission had sent a proposal to hold the block pramukh elections on January 28 but it was not accepted by the Panchayatiraj department. Later, it was decided to hold the elections in the first week of February in 819 blocks of 74 districts in the state. As per the schedule, after the issuance of notification by the Commission today for the election, now tomorrow the same would be done by the District Magistrates of 74 districts. However, the term of the present block pramukh would end on March 17. The electoral college for the election of the 819 block pramukhs has been completed. As many as 77,534 newly elected members of the khetra panchayat are elegible to vote in the February 7 elections. The Commission has conducted all the elections of the three-tier panchayats in the state since October, 2015 and now only the elections of block pramukh was to be conducted. Earlier, amid sporodic incidents of violence, the Commission successfully completed the elections of the pradhans and other posts of the panchayats in the state, which was the largest rural poll exercise of the world. Over 11 crore electorate were elegible to exercise their votes in the panchayat elections and around 70 per cent of them had participated.UNI MB SV NS1341 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-544124.Xml Police Commissioner Parmraj Singh Umranangal said the incident occurred around 0630 hourswhen the RSS workers were yet to gather for shakha as one of the assailants opened fire from his pistol. After the firing both of them fled from the scene. He said that police have recovered one empty cartridge of .32 bore pistol. No one was injured. An inquiry was on into the incident, he added.UNI XC ADG VP1310 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544028.Xml The apex court, which issued the order in this regard to Delhi Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi, would hear the matter next on February 8. The court had earlier said a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) once filed and heard cannot be withdrawn. The observation had come during a hearing on a lawyer's plea that he was getting threats for filing a PIL seeking entry of girls and women in Kerala's Sabarimala Temple. An apex court bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and N.V. Ramana had then said once a PIL is filed and entertained, the litigant cannot withdraw it. The apex court bench noted this when Naushad Ahmed Khan, President of Indian Young Lawyers' Association which has filed the PIL on Sabarimala issue, sought urgent hearing of the matter. He said he has received 500 threat calls, asking him to withdraw the PIL. (ANI) The Delhi High Court on a petition before it Monday issued notice to the city government questioning its decision to scrap the management quota in nursery admissions in private schools. Justice Manmohan sought response from the Delhi government and its education department by January 25 and posted the matter for hearing on January 28. The plea filed by the Action Committee Unaided Recognised Private Schools held that the government circular was "absolutely without jurisdiction" and should be quashed as it completely takes away the autonomy of schools. "The order is also liable to be quashed in as much as it completely takes away the autonomy of schools, which is part of fundamental right of private unaided educational institutions to carry on occupation, guaranteed to them under the Constitution," it added. "About 99 percent of private unaided recognised schools functioning in Delhi are following and have specified absolutely fair, reasonable, just and transparent criterion for admissions in their respective schools," it said. Announcing the decision on January 6, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the decision was taken to bring more transparency in the admission process of private schools. He said the existing provision of 25 percent seats earmarked for students from poor families will remain in place. However, he added that the schools are free to grant admission to the children of their employees and can allocate points in their criteria. Currently, the schools keep 20 percent or even more seats under the management quota, while 25 percent seats are reserved for economically weaker sections (EWS) students and the rest are open for the general category children. Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung had in December 2013 issued a notification abolishing management quota in nursery admissions but this was challenged by the affected schools. In November 2014, the high court quashed the admission guidelines issued by the Lt. Governor and gave autonomy to schools to decide on the criteria as per the Ashok Ganguly Committee guidelines. The city government appealed to refer the matter to a larger bench. --Indo-Asian News Service gt/sd/vt ( 355 Words) 2016-01-18-14:17:36 (IANS) The woman, who threw ink at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a public meeting at the Chhatrasal Stadium yesterday, was on Monday sent to one-day police custody. "There are two grounds which need to be considered. It has to be found whether this is a conspiracy or an individual act. We have asked the court that she is a woman and there is no offence against her for which she should be on bail," complainant lawyer C.L. Gupta said. The woman, who identified herself as Bhawna, the Punjab in-charge of Aam Aadmi Sena, was released last night on a personal bail bond. The woman accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government of being involved in a CNG scam. "The Odd-Even formula was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I have proofs. That is why I wanted to meet the Chief Minister and Gopal Rai ji (Transport Minister), but they didn't agree to meet me," said the attacker. She further stated that in the scam, CNG stickers were issued on bike numbers. The woman also blamed the party volunteers of manhandling her after the attack and thanked the Delhi Police for bringing her into safety. She was, however, seen being dragged out of the venue by the policemen. The incident took place when Kejriwal was expressing his gratitude to the people of Delhi for making the Odd-Even formula a success. The woman rushed close to the dais and threw ink at Kejriwal. She was immediately apprehended by the police. However, the Chief Minister told the cops to leave her. "Leave her; she is talking about some scam. Please take that paper from her she is mentioning some CNG scam," he said. The event was organised by the AAP Government to thank the people of Delhi for making the odd-even experiment, which ended on January 15, a success. (ANI) On January 15, a band of dacoits abducted the seven traders at gunpoint between Rongcheri and Kalawe area in North Garo Hills after selling their goods at weekly market in Dokongsi under Kharkutta police station. Initially, the dacoits abducted ten traders but later released three traders unharmed before kidnapping the seven others. The trio reported the incident to North Garo Hills police the next day. The abducted seven merchants from Assams Doranggri area have been identified as Tustu Paul,Manoranjan Sarkar, Putul Mukherji, Piyush Biswas, Pradip Das, Bijoy Sarkar and Ganesh Basu. There is no breakthrough in the kidnapping case but a joint operation between the Assam and Meghalaya police is on full swing to rescue the traders, Inspector General of Police (Operations) G H P Raju told UNI. However, the Meghalaya police official rued that the family members of the abducted victims are not cooperating with the law-enforcing agencies who make their efforts to rescue them. Meghalaya police has pressed in the Combat Battalion for Resolute Action and Special Weapons and Action Team commandos to rescue the traders. Mr Raju said the prime accused in the kidnapping of the traders has been identified as Rexfuller, a tribal Garo criminal who is wanted in several kidnappings and extortion cases in Garo Hills region. UNI RRK BM ADG AS1458 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-544170.Xml Within 24 hours of the arrest of prime accused Sambia Sohrah, the police arrested his friend Sanu alias Shahnawaz Khan from Delhi, a senior official of the Kolkata police detective department here said. Shahnawaz is likely to be produced before a local court in Delhi today and then will be brought on transit remand to Kolkata. He will be produced at the Kolkata court later. Police has slapped charges - 302 (murder) and 120 (b) criminal conspiracy against him. Reports said police arrested Shahnawaz Khan in Delhi. He is a friend of Sambia Khan, who allegedly drove the Audi Q7 SUV on January 13 and hit the 21-year-old Air Force corporal Abhimanyu Gaud. Khan was with Sambia when the accident took place, the police said. Sambai was arrested in Kolkata on January 16. A third person also believed to be in the car is missing. Sambia's father Mohammad Sohrab, a former lawmaker, was reported to be a leader of the Trinamool, but the party has denied this.UNI BM JN AS1421 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-544218.Xml The Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the city government on a petition questioning its decision to scrap management quota in nursery admissions in private schools. Justice Manmohan sought response from the Delhi government and its education department by January 25 and posted the matter for hearing on January 28. Saying the government can't take away the "autonomy of private schools", the court said parents shall fill the nursery admission forms as per the criteria prescribed by the schools, but it will be subject to the final outcome of the case. Meanwhile, the court questioned the government on the condition of public schools in the national capital. "There is a rush in private schools because the standard is not good in public schools. When can't you improve public schools? You are taking over private schools. Set your house in order," the court said. The court was hearing a bunch of pleas, including one filed by the Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools that the government circular was "absolutely without jurisdiction" and should be quashed as it completely took away the autonomy of schools. "The order is liable to be quashed in as much as it completely takes away the autonomy of schools, which is part of fundamental right of private unaided educational institutions, as guaranteed to them under the constitution," the plea said. "About 99 percent of private unaided recognised schools functioning in Delhi are following and have specified absolutely fair, reasonable, just and transparent criteria for admissions in their respective schools," it said. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on January 6 said the decision to scrap the management quota was taken to bring in more transparency in the admission process of private schools. He said the existing provision of 25 percent seats earmarked for students from poor families will remain in place. However, he said, schools were free to grant admission to children of their employees and could allocate points in their criteria. Currently, the schools keep 20 percent or even more seats under the management quota, while 25 percent seats are reserved for economically weaker sections (EWS) students while the remaining are open for the general category children. Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung issued a notification in December 2013, abolishing the management quota in nursery admissions but it was challenged by the affected schools. In November 2014, the high court quashed the admission guidelines issued by the Lt. Governor and gave autonomy to the schools to decide on the criteria as per the Ashok Ganguly Committee guidelines. The city government appealed to refer the matter to a larger bench. --Indo-Asian News Service gt/tsb/vt ( 450 Words) 2016-01-18-15:27:35 (IANS) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar today said that Congress should play a a positive role with regard to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) bill pending in Lok Sabha for approval.''It is not proper to oppose every decision of the government and Congress should clear its policy on GST before next Parliament session,'' Mr Pawar said during a press conference. ''When various opposition parties are positive on this bill then Congress should also play an agreeable role as bill like GST are required for the country,'' Mr Pawar said, adding that the bill was brought byCongress party and now it was opposing it.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had recently said in Mumbai that the GST bill will be passed in Parliament in ''just 15 minutes with the support of Congress, if the government accepts the conditions set by his party.''More UNI SSS NV JN 1600 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-544125.Xml Shiv sena today criticised Mahrashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis remarks on 'tolerance' that India is a 100 per cent tolerant nation considering the hospitality and "red carpet welcome" it gives to Pakistanis despite infiltrations from across the border. Reacting to the CM remarks at a literary meet in Pune, the Samana edit says ''They (the government) gave a red carpet welcome to (former Pakistan External Affairs minister) Khurshid Kasuri and provided him security and now talks of tolerance. India should continue being tolerant and play host to Pakistanis despiteinfiltrations and numerous killings at the border,''. ''If this (welcoming Pakistanis despite border killings) is tolerance, India was and will continue to remain a tolerant nation," the Sena said. During the 89th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, which was held in Pune, Mr Fadnavis had on Saturday said India is and will continue to remain a tolerant nation and had asked authors to stop focusing on "negative writings". The Sena said that when it stopped ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali from performing in Maharashtra, states like West Bengal, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh invited him to perform there, thereby showcasing their tolerance levels. "Terrorists were attacking our Air Force base in Pathankot and soldiers were dying there.. Some nave politicians were welcoming Ghulam Ali when there was a firing and bomb blasts were taking place. Ifthis is what tolerance is, India is a hundred per cent tolerant nation..Do these people have the right to call themselves Indians anymore ?" it questioned. Attacking the Karnataka government, the Sena said that it has displayed an exemplary tolerance by banning the film Marathi Tigers at the border.UNI AAA NV ADG AS1543 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-544384.Xml The MoU was signed by Managing Executive Officer of the bank Tatsufumi Sakai and Managing Director, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Sudhir Rajpal in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar in Tokyo today. Haryana Industries Minister Capt Abhimanyu and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kavita Jain were also present on the occasion. Mr Khattar had very fruitful discussion with the representatives of the Mizuho Bank, which is a global financial institution with a strong Japanese client base. Mizuho is having business relationship with 70 per cent of listed Japanese companies including more than 250 Fortune 1000 Companies. The HSIIDC and Mizuho have agreed to cooperate and to exchange information, based on the current amicable relationship existing between both parties to encourage investments from Japan so as to promote industrial and infrastructure development in the State, generate employment opportunities and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the State of Haryana for overall development of the State. Mizuho hopes to facilitate and support resource and investment activities in both India and Japan, by leveraging its vast customer base to promote Japanese investment in India. Such cooperative efforts will be targeted at both existing and new industries and also various Japanese government backed projects.UNI NC ASH AS1540 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544312.Xml The Congress Party on Monday branded the BJP-led NDA Government as 'anti-Dalit' amid the ongoing uproar over the suicide by a Dalit scholar from the University of Hyderabad and demanded immediate removal of the varsity's Vice-Chancellor. "We have seen the oppression of Dalits in various states like Haryana and Rajasthan. The Congress has expressed its concern over the systematic oppression of Dalits and backward classes in India. The anti-Dalit mindset of the government was revealed in the last Union Budget where Rs. 19,000 crore outlay was cut in the SC sub plan," Congress leader RPN Singh told the media here. "The Vice Chancellor and the people involved need to be immediately removed. Also the minister, who has an FIR filed against him in this case, needs to be removed from the cabinet," Singh said. Accusing the Centre of being controlled by the Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never condemned or apologised for Mohan Bhagwat's remarks against reservation for the backward classes. As per reports, the Cyberabad Police on Monday charged Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya with abetting the suicide of a Dalit scholar, who hanged himself at a University of Hyderabad (UoH) hostel yesterday. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police detained several students, who were protesting outside the Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry in the national capital to vent their ire over suicide of the Dalit scholar. To bring the situation under control, the police personnel deployed on duty also used water cannons to control the agitating students. One of the five dalit scholars, expelled from the University of Hyderabad 12 days ago, hanged himself to death last night. (ANI) The Human Resource Development Ministry has sent a two-member fact-finding team to Hyderabad to inquire into the circumstances leading to the suicide of expelled PhD scholar Rohith Vemula. According to Ministry sources, action will be taken on the basis of the report submitted by Shakila Shumshu, OSD in the ministry, and Surat Singh. However, no time frame has been specified for submission of the reportby the Central team. Meanwhile, National SC/ST Commission chairman P L Punia said he will visit the Hyderabad University to meet the protesting students after one of the five expelled scholars committed suicide last night by hanging himself. The Chairman, condoling the student's death, also sought a report on the reasons culminating in the expulsion of the students. He will be personally visiting the campus to look into the matter. Rohith was one of five Dalit scholars expelled by the Hyderabad Central University authorities for their reported attack on an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad student activist in August. The student from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh was expelled along with four other research scholars a fortnight ago. Ever since their expulsion, the students of the Ambedkar Students' Association had been on a sleep-in strike in the open campus. UNI SD-RBE SW AE 1648 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0005-544619.Xml Eight-year-old Shivampet Ruchitha, who saved her two school mates from being run over by a train, was among the proud winners of 2015 National Bravery Awards, conferred on 25 children, each of whose story is an instance of exemplary courage that inspires millions of other children.The awardee children saved the precious lives of whosoever found in danger without thinking about their lives, Gita Siddhartha, President of the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) said here while announcing the names.The coveted Bharat Award was conferred on 15-year-old late Master Gaurav Kawduji Sahastrabuddhe of Maharashtra, who sacrificed his life in an attempt to save four of his friends, whereas Kumari Shivampet Ruchitha of Telangana is the recipient of the prestigious Geeta Chopra Award for showing valour in saving two precious lives when a train hit her school bus.The Sanjay Chopra Award recipient is 16-year-old Master Arjun Singh of Uttarakhand, who displayed outstanding bravery in fighting a tiger to save his mother.Master Ramdinthara (15) of Mizora, who saved two people from electrocution, Master Rakeshbhai Shanabhai Patel (13) of Gujarat who saved a boy from drowning and Master Aromal S M (12) of Kerala who also saved two women from drowning will receive the Bapu Gaidhani Award.Other recipients include Master Kashish Dhanani (Gujarat), Master Maurice Yengkhom and Master Chongtham Kuber Meitei (both from Manipur), Joena Chakraborty and Master Beedhovan, Master Nitin Philip Mathew, Master Abhijith K V, Master Anandu Dileep and Master Shamnad (all from Kerala), Master Abinash Mishra (Odisha), Master Bhimsen alias Sonu and late Master Shivansh Singh (both from Uttar Pradesh).The selection is made by a high-powered committee comprising representatives of various Ministries, departments, NGOs as well as office bearers of the ICCW.The children will receive awards from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 24 and will participate in the Republic Day parade. President Pranab Mukherjee will also host a reception in their honour. The awardees receive a medal, certificate and cash. Since the inception of the award in 1957, the ICCW has given prizes to 920 brave children, including 264 girls.UNI PR SW AE 1613 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0105-544486.Xml Around 200 members of several student organisations today staged a protest outside the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry here, demanding removal of Hyderabad Central Universitys Vice-Chancellor Appa Rao for alleged victimisation of a Dalit student who later committed suicide. Raising slogans against Union Human Resource Minister Smriti Irani, the protestors also demanded action against ABVP, a student wing of BJP, for allegedly pressuring the Dalit student to take such an extreme step. Rohith Vemula (26), a Dalit student of the varsity, hanged himself yesterday after he was suspended and expelled from hostel early this month. Displaying placards, which said sack VC for having committed an institutional murder and BJP ABVP Murdabad, the protestors demanded probe into the matter and alleged that Rohith was pushed to death by varsity administration. Decrying caste based bias, Gurinder Azad, a protestor, alleged that same incidents were happening across the country against students, belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. "Rohith was a bright student. Letters were written against him to HRD, demanding action because he raised his voice against discrimination. Only after he was suspended, he thought of suicide, Mr Azad said.Despite repeated warnings by police officials to vacate the area near Shastri Bhawan as Section 144 of CrPC was imposed, the demonstrators, remained undeterred and continued their protest, following which water cannon was pressed in. Few protestors have also been detained after they tried to break police barricades. UNI RG SW AE 1640 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-544601.Xml Former Pakistan royal Rana Hamir Singh said there is no insecurity to minorities like Hindus in Islamabad but the problem is of terrorism which excludes none. On his visit to India, Mr Singh told mediapersons that terrorists spare none and Hindus are happened to be the victim of terrorism. They do not spare anybody and not only temples but mosques, gurudwaras and churches are also the target of terrorists. He said neither the Pakistan government nor people are against India and the Indian youth also had to change its attitude towards Islamabad. He hoped that India and Pakistan would live like European union nations and lauded the efforts made in improving relations between the two countries. UNI PJJ SW AE 1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0386-544388.Xml This was disclosed by Hideaki Domichi, Senior Vice-President of JICA while interacting with the delegation led by Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar in Tokyo today. Mr Domichi said the introduction of a Japanese Call Centre, no enhancement policy and plugging of all the breaches in the boundary wall of Manesar were steps that make it very clear that Haryana has changed under the leadership of Mr Khattar. He said the Chief Minister's vision, speed and scale make it imperative for JICA to shoulder greater responsibility in economic development of Haryana. He said that Haryana was well positioned to receive the benefit of the stronger alliance between Japan and India under the leadership of Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mr Khattar sought the assistance of JICA in giving a big boost to dairy development in Haryana and building of Gurgaon-Manesar-Bawal Mass Rapid Transport System for which JICA has committed long term funding of US 2.5 billion dollars.UNI NC AE AS1652 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544325.Xml The National Student Union of India (NSUI) on Monday staged a protest outside the residence of Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani, demanding the government's response over the suicide of a Dalit scholar from the University of Hyderabad. "The HRD Ministry has forwarded the letter to the University. This government has pressurized the University to take actions on Dalit students. This is gross injustice and we demand that the Vice-Chancellor should be sacked. Bandaru Dattatreya should be removed and the HRD Ministry and the government must give answer on this matter," said a NSUI student. "The incident happened in the University several months back. Actions were taken against students. It was revoked and later on, after the BJP leader pressurized the University, it has taken action again on the students. This is completely unacceptable and the government should give answer for this," he added. The student alleged the involvement of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the incident. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police detained the NSUI protestors and also several students, who were protesting outside the HRD Ministry in the national capital to vent their ire over suicide of the Dalit scholar. To bring the situation under control, the police personnel deployed on duty also used water cannons to control the agitating students. One of the five dalit scholars, expelled from the University of Hyderabad 12 days ago, hanged himself to death last night. (ANI) India celebrates Republic Day on January 26 every year to commemorate the day when the country's constitution was adopted and it was declared as sovereign republic in 1950. The soldiers of French army marched to the drum beats at Rajpath in a perfectly synchronised manner. For the first time an army contingent of a foreign country will take part in the Republic Day parade known for showcasing India's defence prowess. Soldiers of Maratha light infantry regiment of the Indian army had marched shoulder to shoulder with French army back in 2009 at Champs Elysees. Earlier this month, the French army contingent participated in a joint military exercise with India. Adding to the French flavour for India, France's President Francois Hollande will be the guest of honour at this year's Republic Day celebrations. This will be the fifth time that a French leader will be the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations. India is also in the process of negotiating a deal to buy 36 Rafale jets from France. Every year military weapons, battle tanks and missiles are displayed at the majestic Republic Day parade, which stretches from the president's palace to India Gate, a memorial dedicated to unknown soldiers. (ANI) Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today condemned the incident of firing by two unidentified gunmen near RSS shakha in Ludhiana. We may not agree with the RSS ideology but that does not mean anybody should try to indulge in violence against its activists or create a sense of fear, Capt Singh said in a statement issued here, while appealing for peace and harmony. The PCC president asserted that such incidents must be nipped in the bud and those responsible would be identified and punished. Punjab cannot afford the repeat of the dark days of 1980s again as it has already paid a heavy price, he warned, hoping that the police should be able to arrest the culprits at the earliest.UNI NC SHS AS1855 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544811.Xml Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today demanded an explanation from the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal over the revelations reportedly made by the detained SP Salwinder Singh during his custody with the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The revelations are too grave and serious and Badals must come out with an answer, he said, hoping that NIA may expand the scope of the inquiry to ensure that people who have helped and patronised the SP are also investigated, exposed and held responsible. Reacting to the media reports wherein the detained SP revealed to the NIA that he used to get paid in diamonds for facilitating drug smuggling into India by the international smugglers, Capt Singh said, these were serious revelations and the Badals cannot wash off their hands by simply putting the onus on the Centre and the Union home ministry. The rot certainly lies within the Punjab police as much as it lies elsewhere, the PCC president remarked, while pointing out, the SP is an employee of the Home department which is headed by Sukhbir Badal and he must own responsibility for it. He further pointed out that the SP has been posted in the area for a long time and wondered how come that he went on indulging in all this without getting noticed. What the SP is reported to have indulged in is the direct outcome of the systematic undermining of police hierarchical system by the Akalis, Capt Singh remarked, saying that when the police officials are made accountable to jathedars instead of their own senior officers, the system is bound to collapse and SP Salwinder is only a system of this scourge as the rot lies much deeper. The former Chief Minister said, the father-son duo cannot escape responsibility by shooting off letters to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister in a clear bid to shift the blame. Either all of this has been happening with their knowledge and consent or they have no idea as to what is happening in their state, he observed, adding that in any case they are guilty of omission or commission for which they must be held accountable.UNI NC RJ AS1848 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544844.Xml Punjab Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today condemned the smearing of ink on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a lady at a function in New Delhi. Capt Singh said, such acts are highly condemnable and unacceptable in a democracy. If somebody has some difference of opinion or does not agree he or she has no right to indulge in such acts, he said in a statement here. The former chief minister said, ''all such acts whether hurling a shoe, or smearing ink on someone are all signs of intolerance which must not be encouraged at any cost for petty partisan reasons.''UNI NC AE AS1838 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-544867.Xml Court sources said that during in-camera proceedings, district judge Amar Nath directed the NIA to conduct the polygraph test on Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh within three days. The NIA earlier told the court that Singh's statements on his alleged abduction were inconsistent and the lie detector test was required to ascertain the truth. The NIA had questioned Singh as he was suspected of helping the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base on January 2. The police officer had claimed that he along with his friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal was abducted by four or five heavily-armed terrorists near Kolia village in Punjab prior to the attack on the airbase. Seven security personnel were killed in the attack. All six terrorists suspected to have crossed over from Pakistan also were shot dead by the security forces in the counter-offensive. --Indo-Asian News Service akk/ao/tsb/vt ( 194 Words) 2016-01-18-19:06:10 (IANS) Abdul Sami, a resident of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, was arrested from Nuh, the district headquarter of Mewat on the Delhi-Alwar highway, about 45 km from Gurgaon. "We arrested Abdul Sami from Nuh today (Monday). He was produced before a district court in Delhi that sent him to police custody till February 1," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep told IANS. Sami is the fifth terrorist to be arrested within a month in the ongoing operation by the Delhi Police Special Cell against the Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent (AQIS). Delhi Police officers on January 6 arrested Maulana Anzar Shah from Bengaluru, who is in police custody till January 20, for plotting to carry out a series of terror strikes in the country. The Special Cell had in December last year arrested three AQIS operatives -- Zafar Masood, Abdul Rehman and Mohammed Asif. Asif was the recruitment and training head of AQIS. Special Cell chief Arvind Deep told IANS that Sami was in constant touch with Abdul Rehman who was to give him further tasks. "As Rehman was arrested before he could give any terror assignment to Sami, we managed to stop a possible terror strike," Deep told IANS. The police officer said Sami had visited Mansehra in Pakistan in January 2014 via Dubai and Karachi and received special training till he arrived in India in January 2015. --Indo-Asian News Service rak/pm/ ( 270 Words) 2016-01-18-19:25:37 (IANS) Hussainabad police station ASI K K Singh and policeman Devendra Singh were suspended by the SP after a report in this regard was submitted by DSP A Khan. A letter to the DC has also been written urging to take action against four Chowkidaars. Earlier also the officer in-charge of Hussainabad police station Vyas Ram was supended by the SP. The action has been initiated against the policemen as a docity had took place in the SBI branch located at Indira Chowk on January 11. A dacoit Surendra Yadav was later arrested by the police but he managed to flee from the police custody. The SP had ordered the DSP to conduct a probe in the entire incident.UNI XC-AK AE AN1938 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-545080.Xml "The CBI has arrested Durga Prasad, regional provident fund commissioner, Chennai, two enforcement officers of EPFO and four private people in an alleged bribery of around Rs.14.5 lakh," a CBI official told IANS. Later in a statement, the BI said a case has been registered against the EPFO's regional commissioner, two enforcement officers, a city based group of institutions and the conduit for the bribe. According to CBI, Prasad had allegedly demanded Rs.25 lakh from a group of institutions as illegal gratification for favouring the group. The favouring was in the matter of subterfuge of wages for the purpose of provident fund deduction/remittance in respect of the group employees. The CBI had laid a trap and intercepted the vehicle in which Prasad was travelling soon after collecting the alleged bribe of Rs.14.5 lakh from a conduit. The CBI has also arrested the estate officer-cum-public relations officer of the group of institutions as the bride was alleged handed over to the conduit by him. Searches were conducted at the residence and office chamber of the EPFO's regional commissioner and also 18 other places including the premises of conduit which led to recovery of several incriminating documents and property documents. The searches are still continuing. --Indo-Asian News Service vj/vd ( 247 Words) 2016-01-18-20:13:36 (IANS) Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today expressed shock and concern over the boat tragedy near Panama in which 20 Punjabi youth on their way to the United States are feared to have drowned. The PPCC president has sought immediate attention and intervention of the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, urging her to ask India's diplomatic mission in the US to verify the reports. Capt Singh shared the concern of the families whose children are missing saying, it was tragic and traumatic for the family members that their boys who had gone in search of better life were feared to be drowned. Praying for their safety, the former CM hoped that all the boys who have gone missing will be safe and they will soon hear about their well-being.UNI NC AE CS2014 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-545245.Xml More than 300 members of various students' bodies on Monday staged a protest outside Shastri Bhavan here, demanding the resignation of the Hyderabad University vice-chancellor over the suicide of a Dalit scholar. Shastri Bhavan houses the human resource development ministry among others. The students, many from Left leaning organisations, raised slogans against Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), like "Smriti Irani sharam karo" (Shame on you, Smriti Irani) and "Hindutvawadi faansiwad murdabad" (Down with Hindu fascism). The protesters gathered outside Shastri Bhavan at about 3 p.m. and displayed placards on the suicide of 26-year-old Ph.D scholar Rohith Vemula, allegedly due to harassment by certain students aligned with right wing groups and the consequent suspension by the University of Hyderabad in connection with the beating up of an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) worker. Minutes after the protest, Delhi Police deployed heavy security in the area and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), banning any gathering of five or more people. Police used water cannons and detained several students as they broke the barricades. The protesters, carrying pictures of B.R. Ambedkar and raising anti-government slogans, clashed with police. Vemula, a student of Hyderabad University, hanged himself in his friend's hostel room on Monday after he, along with four Dalit research scholars, was barred from the university hostel after their suspension. Vemula hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. The research scholars were expelled from their hostel in December 2015 following a clash with leaders of the ABVP, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. They were evicted from their rooms and forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus. In one way they (five suspended students) were socially boycotted in an official manner. This was very shameful that the University of Hyderabad boycotted its own students, said Apurvanand, Delhi University Hindi professor who took part in the protest. He also said the university should own up its moral responsibility in the wake of the scholar's suicide and the vice chancellor should submit his resignation. More than 100 students were detained at Parliament Street police station at around 4.30 p.m. Jatin Narwal, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), New Delhi, told IANS: The clashes took place after the situation aggravated. Additional DCP Deepak Guari sustained foot injury during the protest. Five more of our police personnel sustained minor injuries during the scuffle. The DCP blamed the agitating students for the incident. Meanwhile, the central ministry constituted a two-member committee to probe the suicide. The panel will submit its report in two days. Irani, while expressing sympathy with the student's family, declined to comment on the incident. She merely said the ministry had no administrative control over the central universities. Students from the Krantikari Yuva Sangthan (KYS), Students Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Association (AISA), Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) participated in the protest. --Indo-Asian News Service ar/anu/sd/bg ( 513 Words) 2016-01-18-21:11:36 (IANS) Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Opposition Leader Radhakrishan Vikhe-Patil today met students from the state, who were on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar-Mantar, here, pressing for Reservation in Education. The Opposition Leader, who was on tour to Delhi, met the students and assured them that he will pursue the matter with the state government and also requested them to withdraw the strike. Mr Patil said he will urge the state government to hire a noted lawyer to represent state government in the court, as earlier, the Bombay High Court had rejected the state government's announcement to give reservation to the Maratha community. The students are on an indefinite hunger strike from Friday last, and one student named Shivaji Kolse Patil had fallen sick and was admitted in the hospital, he added.UNI ST RB NP RJ BD2125 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-545323.Xml Haryana Transport Minister Krishan Lal Panwar has urged people in the state to drive carefully by following traffic rules, especially during the foggy weather. Mr Panwar assured reflector tapes will be fixed on all kind of vehicles to prevent such accidents. Apart from this, the Department is installing speed governors in all commercial vehicles to put a check on over speeding of such vehicles. Drunken driving, over speeding as well as smoking and using mobile phones were the main cause of accidents. Therefore, special campaign is being implemented to check such driving and also those found driving without helmets and seat belts, over speeding and overloaded vehicles, he added. The Minister said that although people were becoming aware of traffic rules as a result of initiatives of Transport Department and Traffic Police and the number of road accidents have reduced, as compared to previous years, yet a lot more is needed to be done for strict compliance of traffic rules.UNI NC MI RJ AN2236 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-545293.Xml In the wake of outbreak of jaundice epidemic in the parts of this capital town and rural areas of Shimla district adjoining Ashwani Khud, the district administration has clamped ban on sale of Golgappa and other eatables in open places in the town as precautionary measures. Deputy Commissioner Dinesh Malhotra today said that the ban has been clamped on the sale of Golgappa and other eatables in open places as number of jaundice and water born diseases cases registered sudden spurt in the last few days . The administration took this action after convening a meeting chaired by Deputy Commissioner Dinesh Malhotra to check the outbreak of the epidemic which has so far infected 800 people and taken two lives in the town. After the meeting, the DC told mediapersons that people should only take tap water in the town. It was also decided to provide clean water in more public taps which would be installed in the town soon. Issuing advisory to food eatery, the administration said that they should have to provide boiled water to their customers, besides using boiled water to prepare eatables. Golgappa sellers have installed their makeshift booths near Mall road besides vendors keep on ferrying in different areas of the town. District administration also urged Shimla residents to clean their water storage tanks. Mr Malhotra also directed Irrigation and public health officials to check the water supply regularly. Regular sampling should be done at various places to check the water quality, he said, adding, Besides this proper chlorination should be done, District administration would also send teams comprising health officials to sensitise people about jaundice. People need to take precautions in such situations. We will send health officials in different areas to aware people, he said. Mr Malhotra also decided to give clean water from water dispensing machine at Vikasnagar- outer area of Shimla town- free of cost. Earlier the clean water was availed by spending 50 paise per litre but now district administration has decided to give clean water free of cost.UNI ML DB RJ CS2115 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-545318.Xml The saffron party activists gathered outside the Deputy Commissioner office here and raised slogans against the state government. Local legislator and former Rajya Sabha member Suresh Bhardwaj alleged that the state government and Shimla Municipal Corporation failed to tackle the jaundice outbreak in the city. Number of affected persons from jaundice is increasing day by day and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that situation was under control. Mr Bhardwaj further said that Shimla Municipal Corporation and government failed to ensure clean drinking water to Shimla town. It is due to the failure of Congress government and Shimla Municipal Corporation that people of Shimla were supplied contaminated drinking water, he charged, while addressing the gathering outside the DC office. If sewerage treatment plant was not functioning perfectly, why action was not taken against the responsible party, Mr Bhardwaj asked. Government blamed locals for the contamination by saying that sewer waste was leaked from private houses. Government should have checked it in time, he remarked. Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Ganesh Dutt said a high level probe should be ordered in this case, besides taking stern action against the officials found guilty. "Around 800 people are affected from jaundice. Government should take strict action against the culprit," Mr Dutt demanded, while addressing the BJP activists.UNI ML DB MI RJ AN2120 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0293-545371.Xml Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday praised Sikkim for being the only state to have reached new heights of development while preserving the sanctity of the nature, and also lauded Chief Minister Pawan Chamling for his vision of welfare for farmers and tribes The Prime Minister inaugurated the Sikkim Organic Festival 2016, and addressed the Plenary Session of the National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, at Gangtok in Sikkim. Five presentations on reports of different groups of state Agriculture Ministers, Agriculture Production Commissioners and Agriculture Secretaries were made to the Prime Minister. He digitally launched the logo of "Sikkim Organic" and launched three new Orchid species developed in Sikkim. Lauding Chief Minister Pawan Chamling for his vision of welfare for farmers and tribes, the Prime Minister said the welfare and development issues raised by Chamling would be looked into by the Union Government. The Prime Minister described Sikkim as an example of resolve despite difficulties and struggle, towards organic agriculture. He said today the whole world had recognised this effort of the farmers of Sikkim. He said the winds of this organic effort would now spread across the country. Recalling the recent CoP-21 meeting in Paris, where the idea of "back to basics" had been raised forcefully, he said Sikkim has already achieved that feat of living in harmony with nature, and is therefore a model of development which also protects nature. Referring to the recently announced crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the Prime Minister said the scheme had instilled confidence among farmers, and efforts should be made to increase coverage of insurance. Asserting that farmers have to be motivated for schemes such as soil health card, he said a network of soil laboratories should come up across the country, and even school labs could be used during summer holiday months for this purpose. He reiterated his suggestion for a small amount of fruit juice to be mixed with aerated drinks and said that organic exports would receive a huge boost with the building of an airport in Sikkim. (ANI) "It is shocking that a public representative has done this. Nitish Kumar should immediately look into it. He should be asked to resign. This will be a test for Nitish Kumar," Raja told ANI. Resonating similar sentiments, women activist Shamina Shafiq said, "It is shocking and shameful. He must apologise or give his clarification." A case has been filed against Alam at GRP police station at Patna junction, and he has been booked under sections 341, 323, 290, 504 and 354A of IPC. Alam is an MLA from Jokihat of Kishanganj, and is the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Taslimuddin. (ANI) A Jewish-American group that lobbied for the Iran nuclear agreement said the prisoner swap and Tehran's release of captured US sailors were positive signs for US-Iranian relations but that strict verification remained paramount.But improved relations do not indicate a detente with Iran, which has a history of being a troublemaker in the region, said Dan Kalik, chief of staff at J Street, a "pro-Israel, pro-peace" advocacy group."I don't think we're at a place where just because we have a nuclear deal with Iran, they're now trustworthy or even an ally," Kalik said.Other Jewish-American organizations remain deeply opposed to the deal, which has also been sharply criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Republicans. The issue has sharply divided American Jews.The International Atomic Energy Agency ruled on Saturday that Iran had fulfilled last year's landmark agreement with the United States and five other world powers to curtail its nuclear program, triggering the end of sanctions.Days before the accord's implementation, nerves were rattled when Iran briefly held 10 U.S. sailors who the US military said made a navigational mistake that led them into Iranian waters.The leader of another Jewish-American organization that had not taken a position on the nuclear agreement in the months leading to its implementation, invoked a biblical saying from the book of Psalms to "seek peace and pursue it."But Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said: "Iran's support of terror, a strong inspections regime, Iran's human rights and religious freedom violations, and the United States' standing in the world remain uppermost in our minds, as is ensuring Israel's security.".The Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the nuclear deal, said on Saturday that Tehran's release of several Iranian-American prisoners this weekend was a positive step. But it expressed hope Iran would soon release Robert Levinson, an American held captive for nearly nine years and whose fate remains unknown.US officials said on Saturday the United States would continue to seek Levinson's whereabouts and try to bring him home.The ADL also urged "strong US pushback" on human rights violations, Iran's regional expansionism and further missile development, which it said exemplified "ongoing militarism."The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said the deal, which it strongly opposed, was a turning point for Iran's strength as a "terrorist state" and its ability to pursue regional dominance, as tens of billions of dollars are repatriated."This is a dangerous moment for America and our allies," AIPAC said in a statement on Saturday. It said Iran must be held to the commitments it agreed to under the nuclear accord and that its support for militant groups and arming of regional proxies must be confronted.REUTERS GAU RAI 0604 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0100-543861.Xml The two leaders discussed issues of mutual interests, Australian cooperation with Afghanistan, bilateral ties, war on terrorism, the peace process, human rights and the rights of the women in the country, reports Tolo News. The president also called on the Australian leader to provide Afghan air force with technical support so that it can maintain its technical equipment. The Australian PM directed the commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan to take into consideration the demand of Afghan government in this respect. He pledged to increase the number of Australian troops in Afghanistan to 270 to help Afghan police and army forces maintain security in the capital Kabul. Ghani thanked the Australian leader for his country's cooperation to Afghanistan in various fields and paid homage to 41 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan in their counterinsurgency mission. The Australian prime minister also invited Ghani to visit his country and the invitation was swiftly accepted by the Afghan president.(ANI) China intends to retain a balanced stance in the Middle East, a senior Chinese diplomat said on today, as President Xi Jinping prepared to leave on an unusual visit this week to Saudi Arabia and Iran, regional powers currently locked in a bitter dispute.Tensions between the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Muslim Iran have escalated since Saudi authorities executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on January 2, triggering outrage among Shi'ites.In response, Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad, prompting Riyadh to sever relations. Tehran then cut all commercial ties with Riyadh, and banned pilgrims from travelling to Mecca.Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming told reporters China was not taking sides."Regarding some of the region's problems, China has always taken a balanced and just position," Zhang said, when asked about tensions between Riyadh and Tehran."If the Middle East is not stable, I'm afraid the world can't be very peaceful. If a country or a region is not stable, it cannot realize development," he added."China firmly supports regional countries individually exploring a development path that suits their national conditions."The trip, that also takes in Egypt, has been shrouded in a rare level of secrecy, even for a country which tends to keep details of its top leaders' activities under wraps. Zhang would not even say on which days Xi would be in the countries.While relying on the region for oil, China has tended to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France and Russia.But China has been trying to get more involved, especially in Syria, recently hosting both its foreign minister and opposition officials.A Chinese president has not visited Saudi Arabia since 2009 when Hu Jintao went, and Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to visit Iran, going in 2002.Iran emerged from years of economic isolation on Saturday when world powers lifted sanctions in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear ambitions.China is Iran's top oil client and the countries have close ties across the board. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach a nuclear agreement.Zhang did not say what may lie ahead for China and Iran now, though said energy was an "important part" of cooperation.But Beijing clearly has big ambitions.China's official Xinhua news agency said yesterday that Iran would be a key part of China's new Silk Road initiative to develop trade and transport links across Asia and beyond, which Beijing refers to as the "one belt, one road" strategy."In the post-sanction era, Iran can expect a rapid development. But it still needs foreign investment, technological support and infrastructure updates to sustain its economic comeback," it said.Potential exists for cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, high-speed rail, natural gas and oil pipelines, Xinhua added.China also has its own worries about radicalisation of the Muslim Uighur people who live in China's far western region of Xinjiang, which has been beset by violence in recent years, blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants.China says some Uighurs have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight with militant groups there.In November, Islamic State said it had killed a Chinese citizen it had taken hostage in the Middle East."China and Middle East countries are all victims of terrorism and are also important cooperative participants in the fight against terrorism," Zhang said. REUTERS PS VP1202 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-544046.Xml Kurdish militants detonated a roadside bomb in the southeastern province of Sirnak overnight, killing three police officers and wounding four others in an armoured vehicle, security sources said today.The mainly Kurdish southeast has been rocked by daily violence since a 2013 ceasefire between the state and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants collapsed last July, reigniting a three-decades-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.Sources said the blast occurred around 11:30 p.m. (0300 IST) in the Idil district of Sirnak, near the border with Syria, and simultaneously PKK fighters attacked a security force base in the area with rifles. There were no casualties in that attack.The PKK, which says it is fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds, took up arms against the state in 1984. It is designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.The towns of Cizre and Silopi, further east of Idil in Sirnak, have been under round-the-clock curfew since December 14 as security forces battle Kurdish fighters there.Turkey's army says it has killed 320 militants in Cizre, 135 in Silopi and 101 in the Sur district of Diyarbakir city since operations began last month. The pro-Kurdish HDP party says some 100 civilians have been killed in these areas. REUTERS PS NS1232 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-544101.Xml The cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the decision. Later, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam briefed the media on the same. Earlier,the Supreme Court upheld a High Court verdict that directed authorities for making the retirement age 65 from the prevailing 57 years, reports The Daily Star. The apex court, however, said the government can take any decision regarding the raising of the retirement age of freedom fighters. The Information ministry also placed the National E-Service Act 2015 at the meeting today, which the cabinet sent back without approval.(ANI) An Indonesian community is fighting to prevent the family of one of the militants in last week's Jakarta attacks from burying his body in their village, MetroTV said today, quoting residents.Ahmad Muhazan and three other attackers launched a brazen bomb and gun assault in the heart of Indonesia's capital last week, leading to their deaths and those of four others. "Our residents here are very tolerant, not radical, let alone kill. What (Muhazan) did has marred Islam," MetroTV quoted Nasrullah, a resident of Kedungwungu in West Java, as saying. The village chief was mediating in talks between the family and villagers, it said.REUTERS PS NS1300 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-544138.Xml Iran today said new US curbs on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile programme were illegitimate, vowing to continue developing its conventional military deterrent.The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals yesterday for supplying Iran's ballistic missile programme in a move delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of US prisoners.The new measures also came after the lifting of far more comprehensive nuclear sanctions."The Islamic Republic will respond to these aggravating and propagandistic measures by pursuing its legal missile programme stronger than before and developing its defensive capabilities," a foreign ministry statement said.Iran conducted a ballistic missile test in October, which the United Nations called a breach of a resolution prohibiting the Islamic Republic from developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Iran insists the missile was designed to carry a conventional payload.Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Washington's sales of weaponry to allies in the Middle East, worth tens of billions of dollars each year, was used to commit "war crimes against Palestinian, Lebanese and most recently Yemeni citizens"."The US sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile programme ... have no legal or moral legitimacy," he said.Hardline newspapers Kayhan and Vatan-e-Emrooz splashed the news on their front pages, crowding out a triumphal speech by President Hassan Rouhani, who yesterday hailed the lifting of the nuclear sanctions."Sanctions are back!" ran the Kayhan headline. The article pointed out that Tehran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said new sanctions under any pretext would constitute a breach of the nuclear deal.REUTERS PS NS1340 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-544206.Xml Reviewing an emerging relationship. EAM's second day of engagements in Israel begins with a call on PM @netanyahu, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Sushma Swaraj, who arrived here on Saturday, went to Ramallah, the administrative capital of Palestine, on Sunday where she held bilateral discussions with her Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki and also called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Indian minister is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials during her visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. --Indo-Asian News Service ab/vt ( 146 Words) 2016-01-18-14:43:36 (IANS) Wenzhou, one of the richest Chinese cities in south eatsern Zhejiang province, is all set to be part of 'Make in India' programme with several of its leading companies having signing 10 MoUs with their Indian counterparts for investing millions of dollars in India in various sector, including renewable energy. The city, famous for its entrepreneur-led Wenzhou Model of growth', jointly hosted the launch of India China Economic and Cultural Center (ICECC) with the Consulate General of India at the famous Wenzhou Great Hall of the people this week. As many as 120 leading entrepreneurs from the city who are looking at investing in India, along with the city leadership (including vice-mayor and vice-chairman of Wenzhou CPPCC) participated in the event at the MoUs were signed, the Indian Consulate General said here today. It was also decided that under the aegis of the ICECC, which will be exclusively channelizing all Wenzhous activities towards India, an India Culture Week would be organized in mid June 2016 in Wenzhou, during which an Indian Food Festival, an Indian Film Festival and Indian cultural festivals will be organized. ICECC also brings together all leading Yoga clubs from Wenzhou, who will jointly organize the International Day of Yoga on 21 June 2016 in the citywith thousands of yoga lovers from Wenzhou joining in. Mr. Sun Wei Qing (Johnson), local entrepreneur and CEO of Sindoz, who also partnered in initiating the ICECC and would also be leading a business delegation from the city to attend the Make in India Week to be held in Mumbai from 13 - 18 February 2016. Wenzhou entrepreneurs also put up an annual pavilion of Wenzhous key exhibits every year in December in Mumbai. The core strengths of Wenzhou small and medium industry include textile machinery, electronic goods, switches and electrical products, which also have a huge potential in India. Several Wenzhou manufacturers are also planning to set up manufacturing units in India in 2016. Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce (ZFIC) president Nan Cunhui(whos also heads Chint Group and had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year) has big investment plans for India in the range of 1.6 million dollars in the renewable energy sector. Similarly, another leading group from Wenzhou, the Aokang Group, which is into leather, real estate development and textile machinery is also looking at investing in India, said its President Mr Wang. Yalong Group, one of Chinas leading group for technical training equipment, signed an MoU with a Rajasthan-based institution for supplying technical training equipment to further improve the skill set of youth in Jaipur. With the opening of the ICECC, Wenzhou has become the first city in mainland China to have launched an exclusive center to promote economic and cultural activities in India, with approval of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. ICECC has planned a series of activities for 2016 in consultation with the Consulate General of India in 2016, which will be jointly organised in Wenzhou henceforth. The Indian part at the launch of the ICECC in Wenzhou and the Business Forum on 'Make in India' was led by the Consul General of India in Shanghai and included China representative of CII and CEOs from GMR and ICICI.UNI XC NAZ SW AE 1524 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-544395.Xml Several people were wounded and at least one feared killed after a mortar shell which appeared to have been fired from Syria struck a school in Turkey's southeastern border province of Kilis, security sources and local media reports said.Footage broadcast on the website of the Hurriyet newspaper showed what appeared to be a body lying by the door of the school in Kilis town, the provincial capital, as shocked women and children were escorted from the building.Security sources said as many as two people may have been killed, while local media reports said four people including pupils were wounded, one of them seriously. A government official told Reuters the authorities were investigating the number of casualties and the cause of the blast.Kilis is on the edge of a roughly 100 km strip of Syrian border territory controlled by Islamic State. Turkish towns in the region have frequently seen artillery fire spill over during Syria's civil war, about to enter its sixth year. Turkey's armed forces have responded in kind.But NATO member Turkey, part of the US-led coalition against the Sunni radicals, has also become a target for Islamic State. A suicide bombing last week in Istanbul, blamed on the group, killed 10 German tourists, while bombings in Ankara and the border town of Suruc last year killed more than 135 people.Turkish tanks and artillery bombarded Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq in the days after last Tuesday's bombing in Istanbul, killing almost 200 of its fighters, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said.Kilis mayor Hasan Kara told Turkey's NTV that at least two mortar shells were thought to have been fired from Syria, one hitting the school and the other landing in an empty field.Ankara has been accused by some Western allies of waking up too late to the threat from Islamic State and allowing foreign fighters to cross its territory and join the group's ranks in the early stages of the conflict, charges it denies.REUTERS SHS VP1522 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-544424.Xml Ms Swaraj, who has travelled to this West Asian country, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis expected visit later this year, discussed a wide range of issues with Israeli leaders. Cooperation in defence, security are understood to have been the focus of her discussions with the leaders here. Before meeting Mr Netanyahu, Ms Swaraj said she attached great importance to Indias relations with Israel. "Our bilateral cooperation has grown in a number of areas over the past two decades but the our relations have much more potential, she said. Besides, the Prime Minister and the President, the External Affairs Minister also met Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon and Deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotovely and Minister of Infrastructure Uval Shteinitz. Mr Netanyahu said he had special pleasure in welcoming her and "sending my regard to good friend and colleague Prime Minister Modi. He said the growing relationship between the two countries had been given expression in the visit of the President, the first ever by and Indian head of State.'' Ms Swaraj, who began her Israeli trip with a visit to Yad Vashem, also interacted with members ofthe Indian community here. Earlier, Ms Swaraj visited Palestine, where she said India was working for closer political interaction, deeper economic and academic engagement with the country. "India's solidarity with Palestinians and principled support to the Palestinian cause is rooted in our own freedom struggle. We are working for closer political interaction, deeper economic and academic engagement with Palestine, she said, addressing a gathering after inaugurating the India and Palestine Digital Learning Centre at Al Quds University yesterday.UNI NAZ SW AE 1731 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-544718.Xml Security forces in Baghdad were hunting for three US citizens who Iraqi lawmakers said today had been kidnapped, which, if confirmed, would make them the first Americans abducted in the country since US troops withdrew in 2011.Unknown gunmen seized the trio from a private apartment on Friday in the capital's southeastern Dora district, said Mohammed al-Karbouli, who sits on parliament's security and defence panel. It was not immediately clear if their motives were political or criminal.Iskandar Witwit, deputy head of the same panel, gave a similar account citing senior security officials who said the civilians had been taken from the district's Sihha residential complex.Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim militia fighters, seen as a bulwark in the fight against Islamic State militants, have a heavy presence in that part of the predominately Sunni district.Witwit said the three were employed by a private company and two of them also have Iraqi citizenship.Dora was a bastion of the insurgency against the 2003 US led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and the site of intense sectarian bloodletting that peaked around 2006-07. Federal police now run most checkpoints there.The capital of Iraq, OPEC's second biggest oil exporter, has seen a proliferation in recent years of well-armed criminal gangs that carry out contract killings, kidnappings and extortion.Iraqi police set up extra checkpoints in Dora on Monday and sent out helicopter search parties. Two Iraqi army helicopters were seen hovering over the district, while police vehicles patrolled the streets, residents said.The US State Department said yesterday it was working with Iraqi authorities to locate Americans reported missing, without confirming they had been kidnapped.The Iraqi government has struggled to rein in the Shi'ite militias, many of which fought the US military following the 2003 invasion and have previously been accused of killing and abducting American nationals.Iraq has seen a series of abductions of foreign nationals in recent months. At least 26 Qatari hunters kidnapped last month in the southern desert by unknown militants have not yet been found.In September, 18 Turks taken in Baghdad by an armed group that used a Shi'ite Muslim slogan were released following several weeks in detention.The radical Sunni militants of Islamic State have maintained a limited presence in Baghdad, regularly claiming bomb attacks against Shi'ite neighbourhoods. REUTERS MI CS2002 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-545219.Xml Lawyers for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan filed a lawsuit against the main opposition leader today for implying that Erdogan was a dictator, presidential sources and the opposition party said.Erdogan, Turkey's most popular politician, is known for his intolerance of criticism and his readiness to take legal action over perceived slurs. Last week he urged prosecutors to investigate scores of academics for signing a declaration criticising military action in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey."Academics who express their opinions have been detained one by one on instructions given by a so-called dictator," Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said on Saturday, referring to the petition's signatories, who oppose the military crackdown on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and have urged an end to curfews."You may not agree with the content of the declaration. We also have issues with it, we also have our disagreements. But why limit freedom of speech?" Kilicdaroglu said in comments to his party's congress in Ankara.A prosecutor from the Ankara prosecutors' office also launched an investigation into Kilicdaroglu's comments on charges of "openly insulting the president", local media reports said. The prosecutor was not immediately available for comment.In Turkey, insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in jail. As a lawmaker Kilicdaroglu enjoys immunity from prosecution, though parliament could vote by a simple majority to remove that protection.Last Friday Turkish security forces briefly detained 27 academics accused of terrorist propaganda. Erdogan denounced the more than 1,000 signatories of the petition, who include US philosopher Noam Chomsky, as "dark, nefarious and brutal".Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, first as prime minister and since 2014 as its first popularly elected president, has sued a number of people in the past, including cartoonists, teenagers and a former Miss Turkey winner. REUTERS MI CS2004 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-545263.Xml Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea will back his arch rival Michel Aoun for the presidency on Monday, local media reported, an apparent break with his Saudi-backed allies that aligns him with a civil war era enemy supported by Hezbollah. Media cited Melhem Riachy, a media official in Geagea's Lebanese Forces Party, as saying Geagea would state his support for Aoun's candidacy during a news conference expected later today. The move boosts Aoun's chances of filling the presidency that has been vacant for 20 months, but does not guarantee him the post. Beyond his existing allies, among them the Iran-backed Hezbollah, Aoun still needs the backing of other groups to secure the necessary parliamentary backing. The Lebanese president, who must be a Maronite Christian, is elected by parliament. REUTERS MI AN2206 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-545486.Xml The 10 US sailors who were briefly detained by the Iranian military last week were held at gunpoint and had a verbal exchange with Iranian personnel before they were released, the US military said today. In its most comprehensive timeline of the incident to date, the US military the sailors also had two SIM cards pulled out of their satellite phones, but that there was no gunfire exchange. There were no details on the verbal exchange. The US sailors, who were aboard two patrol craft, were detained by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on January 12 when they inadvertently entered Iranian territorial waters. They were released the next day. The US military said the Americans were intercepted after the diesel engine in one of their boats developed a mechanical problem, although it was unclear if the crew was aware of their precise location. The sailors were released unharmed and are in good health. Their prompt release came just days before world powers lifted crippling sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran's implementation of a deal curbing its nuclear program. Secretary of State John Kerry said on CNN that once he heard about the sailors' detention, he was "very frustrated and angry", and that "I raised it immediately with the Iranians." He declined to give the content of his conversation, but added: "Suffice it to say that I made it crystal clear how serious this was. It was imperative to get it resolved."REUTERS MI AN2208 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-545505.Xml Islamic State captured ground from Syrian government forces near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor today, a group monitoring the war said, pressing a three-day assault which state media says has killed 300 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was still no word on the fate of over 400 people it reported kidnapped when IS began to attack government-held areas of the city on Saturday. State media has made no mention of the abductions. Deir al-Zor is the main city in a province of the same name. The province links Islamic State's de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighbouring Iraq. Islamic State, in control of most of Deir al-Zor province, has laid siege since March to remaining government-held areas in the city of Deir al-Zor. This is the third day of IS attacks on the towns of Ayyash and Begayliya, which lie to the northwest of Deir al-Zor city on the approach from Raqqa. IS has now taken control of areas in the south and west of Begayliya, and has seized the Saeqa military camp near the town of Ayyash, the Observatory said. A Syrian official source told Reuters the Syrian army repelled the attacks but IS is continuing the offensive.Speaking to Al Mayadeen television news early on Monday, Deir al-Zor's governor said the security situation in Begayliya was "excellent". Syria's state news agency SANA said yesterday that at least 300 people, including women and children, had been killed during the attacks in Deir al-Zor. The Observatory says around 400 people said to have been kidnapped have been taken to countryside to the west of the city, closer to Raqqa. The United Nations has warned that around 200,000 besieged residents in Deir al-Zor face severe food shortages and sharply deteriorating conditions. The Syrian government has dropped some basic commodities into the city in recent weeks, and Russia said on Friday it had dropped 22 tonnes of aid to the besieged part of the city. The Syrian foreign ministry said on Monday it had written to the United Nations condemning the attack. Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, also condemned the attacks by IS in a statement today.REUTERS MI AN2220 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0387-545515.Xml America is in the midst of a raging cultural and spiritual war. Forces of Good, Light, Conservatism and a Judeo-Christian Worldview daily battle the forces of Evil, Darkness, Socialism, False Religions and Philosophies. A Good Choice is on the frontlines exposing evil across Americas political and social spectrum. With the Iowa caucus just around the corner, on Feb. 1, and only two more presidential debates on the calendar before the nation's first votes are cast, the race to win the nomination is heating up in both parties. Candidates are bringing out the big guns: trumped-up TV ads, unapologetic social media bids for the hip young contingent's support, pop-culture laden talk show appearances and pointed jabs at other contenders' families and origins. How are those strategies working out for the presidential contenders? Here's what the most recent polls have to say about the possible direction the 2016 election could take. Who's still running? The Democratic candidates, who will debate for the fourth time Sunday night, are Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. The Republican ticket remains ever crowded, although the number of candidates has thinned somewhat in recent weeks. The 12 GOP presidential hopefuls include former businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, ex-Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Virginia Gov./under-the-radar candidate Jim Gilmore. Democratic polls: According to Real Clear Politics, Clinton has an average 12.7 point lead on Bernie Sanders nationwide: 51% versus 38.3% for Sanders, and 2.3% for O'Malley between Jan. 4 and Jan. 13. RCP looked at four polls, the two most recent of which came up with somewhat contradictory data. Going into the Jan. 17 Democratic debate, a poll by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal found that Clinton has a 25 point lead on Sanders, with Clinton polling 59% support amongst primary voters, Sanders polling 34% and O'Malley polling 2%. Of those surveyed by NBC/WSJ, 79% said they could envision voting for Clinton (versus 18% who couldn't), 66% said they could envision voting for Sanders (versus 25% who couldn't) and 22% said they could imagine voting for O'Malley. 51% could not. Story continues A poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS News, however, suggested that Sanders is gaining on Clinton among younger voters: Of the 389 Democrats polled, those under 45 tended to prefer the Vermont senator to the former Secretary of State by a 2-to-1 margin. Sanders also attracted 55% of liberal voters' support, against 40% for Clinton. She polled better with older voters and with moderate Democrats, 51% of whom opted for her against 33% who went with Sanders. Clinton is leading in the women's vote, but Sanders has slightly more support amongst men: 45% of those surveyed would vote for the self-described democratic socialist, versus 40% who would vote for Clinton. Even so, seven in 10 Democrats surveyed in the CBS/NYT poll thought Clinton would win the party's nomination, regardless of their candidate preference. Clinton polled 48% support against Sanders's 41%, perhaps because the party sees her as more presidential: roughly 80% of respondents thought Clinton had the right kind of temperament to serve as president, versus about two thirds for Sanders. Four in 10 Democrats surveyed were "very confident" in her ability to command the country's armed forces, while only two in 10 said the same of Sanders. Democratic candidate standings, Jan. 1 to Jan. 17, 2016. Republican polls: Real Clear Politics places Trump ahead of the GOP pack for the period between Jan. 4 and Jan. 13. Nationwide, Trump enjoys a 15.2 percentage-point lead; he has an average of 34.5% of the party's support, while Cruz has 19.3% and Rubio has 11.8%. Each of the other nine candidates has polled less than 10%, according to RCP. Of these top three candidates Trump, Cruz and Rubio the NBC/WSJ poll of Republican voters found that of the 400 people interviewed, 71% could see themselves casting a ballot for Cruz in the general election, versus 25% who couldn't. 67% could envision voting for Rubio, versus 28% who couldn't. 65% could imagine voting for Trump, while 34% could not. So, while Trump still ranked highest in terms of primary voter percentage 33% of those surveyed named Trump as their choice for the GOP's candidate, while 20% chose Cruz and 11% went with Rubio Republican voters as a whole may be less likely to vote for him than for his two most formidable opponents. The same CBS/NYT poll found that 36% of 442 national Republican primary voters support Trump, compared to 19% who back Cruz and 12% who would vote Rubio. An approximate third of those polled, however, reported that they'd definitively chosen their candidates; 52% of Trump supporters are committed to voting for the former businessman, who has overtaken Cruz for the evangelical vote (42% to 25%). The area where he's losing? Temperament: about half of those polled responded that Trump has a presidential personality, versus two thirds who said the same of Cruz and Rubio. Republican candidates' standing, Jan. 1 to Jan. 14, 2016. Democratic polling in Iowa: And yet, with the Iowa caucus mere weeks away, all this is likely primed to change. RCP puts Clinton an average 4 points ahead of her two opponents, polling 46.8% against Sanders's 42.8% and O'Malley's 5.2%. For the Republicans, things are looking a little different in Iowa than they are nationwide. Trump is up, but only just: according to RCP, he has an average 1.1 point lead on his fellow GOP contenders. With 26.7% support, Cruz is gaining on Trump's 27.8%. Rubio, meanwhile, is polling 11.7%. The most recent data from the "gold standard" of political polls, the Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll, indicated on Jan. 14 that Sanders is gaining on Clinton amongst potential caucus attendees: 42% of the 503 Democrats polled named Clinton as their first choice, while 40% went with Sanders. What is may come down to is whether the party places a greater emphasis on issues or leadership during the primary: 50% of those who think issues are the focus of the 2016 election support sanders, versus 37% who support Clinton, the poll found. Of voters who believed the election to be about leadership, however, 50% were with Clinton and 29% were with Sanders. All told, the survey says, 57% of respondents thought the race was about issues. Data from the 'Bloomberg/Des Moines Register' poll puts Clinton ahead of Sanders but only just. Repubican polling in Iowa: As for the Republican candidates, the Bloomberg/DMR poll found that, of the 500 probable participants in Iowa's Republican caucus, Cruz is the more popular presidential candidate but only just. Cruz drew 25% support from those surveyed, while Trump polled 22%, Rubio pulled in 12% support and Carson followed close behind, with 11% support. As a second choice, Cruz leads Trump 48% to 33%: Cruz is the second choice of some 47% of Trump voters, the survey says, but not the other way around; 25% of Cruz's base would go with Trump as a second choice. Amongst Rubio supporters, 50% say they would go with an "establishment candidate," versus 27% who would opt for an "anti-establishment one." What does that mean? That Trump likely won't see an influx of support once his lower-polling opponents are out of the race. Among Trump's most substantial support margins are "those who say disrupting government is their top or major consideration," the survey says, while Cruz is more popular with "those who consider themselves very conservative" and the over-65 crowd. 42% of Republicans polled said that government disruption would be "a major consideration" in deciding who gets their votes. Data from the 'Bloomberg/Des Moines Register' polls show Cruz most popular first- and second-choice GOP candidate Cruz is leading Trump in favorability: 76% of survey respondents thought positively of the candidate, while Trump's ratings have slid three points since the last Iowa poll in December. His favorability rating sits at 54%. Of likely caucus attendees polled, 52% reported that leadership was more important than were issues (with 40% support) in the 2016 election, while 72% said that a candidate's values were most important, versus 55% who said that the candidate's ability to win in a general election was top priority. Democratic polling in New Hampshire: The New Hampshire primary takes place on Feb. 9, shortly after Iowa's caucus. As such, it's contested campaign ground for both parties. Within Democratic voters, RCP places Sanders in front of Clinton by an average 6.2 lead, with 48.8% support to Clinton's 42.6% and O'Malley's 3%. According to the most recent Monmouth University poll, Sanders leads Clinton 53% to 39% amongst the 413 likely voters surveyed, 52% of whom reported that their minds were made up. 49% of decided voters stood with Clinton, versus 55% who backed Sanders. Clinton registered 73% approval, while Sanders got 90%. "New Hampshire's modified primary system and same-day registration will bring out a large number of voters who are not partisan diehards, but registered Democrats will almost certainly make up the majority of February's electorate," the survey reported. Sanders is now leading Clinton 50% to 42% within this demographic, as well as within independents, with whom he leads Clinton 58% to 34%. According to Monmouth, Sanders has also swung the New Hampshire women's vote his way: 50% of those surveyed would vote for him over the former first lady. Democratic candidates' polling status in New Hampshire, Nov. 1, 2015 to Jan. 12, 2016. Republican polling in New Hampshire: Trump is leading the race in the Granite State, according to RCP: he has an average 17.6 point lead on the competition, with 30.4% support against Rubio's 12.8%, Kasich's 11.2% and Cruz's 11%. In Monmouth University's most recent Jan. 10 study, 32% of 414 likely Republican primary voters polled reported being completely decided of those, 46% would go with Trump, who attracted 32% support from respondents. 14% of those polled would pick Cruz as a first choice and 20% would back him as a second choice, versus 8% who would opt for Trump. Cruz registered 57% approval, whereas Trump got 52%, behind Rubio's 56%. Of the issues closest to the hearts of Monmouth responders, national security and terrorism came in first for 35% of voters, followed by the economy and jobs for 20%, followed by taxes and government spending for 13%. Republican candidates' standing in New Hampshire polls, Oct. 1, 2015 to Jan. 15, 2016. In a general election: According to match-ups by RCP, Clinton would beat Trump 45.3% to 42.8% in a general election, while Sanders would best him by 5.3 percentage points (46.8% to 41.5%). Running against Cruz, Clinton could be less lucky: Cruz leads her by an average of 1.8 points, with 46.3% of national support to her 44.5%. Sanders, on the other hand, could win in a contest with Cruz: his average advantage is 3.3 percentage points on the Texan senator, with 45% support to Cruz's 41.7%. (The most recent poll for this pairing, however, comes from Dec. 20.) Who will win? It's still too early to know for sure, but things only promise to get more interesting the closer we get to primary season. The tender marital drama "45 Years" won three London Film Critics Awards on January 17, as many as blockbuster action film "Mad Max: Fury Road." Patricia Highsmith adaptation "Carol" had led the nominations with seven nods, but finished the night as recipient of the technical achievement award for the work of its cinematographer, Ed Lachman. Instead, it was "Mad Max: Fury Road" that scooped Film of the Year, with Director of the Year going to its helmer, and franchise creator George Miller. The Australian production was also named once more as British actor Tom Hardy collected British / Irish Actor of the Year. As well as his turns in Oscar Best Picture contenders "The Revenant" and "Mad Max: Fury Road," Hardy starred as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray in London gangster portrait "Legend," and stage adaptation "London Road," which not only tackled the sensitive real-life events that befell a rural English town as five women's bodies were discovered, but did so while adopting the form of a musical. But the overall award for Best Actor went not to Hardy but to Tom Courtenay ("Doctor Zhivago," "The Dresser,") for "45 Years", and Charlotte Rampling of "Under the Sand" and "Restless" received Best Actress for the same film ahead of Saoirse Ronan, British / Irish Actress of the Year with "Brooklyn." The experienced pairing together accounted for two of the three LFC awards given to Andrew Haigh's "45 Years," which was also named Film of the Year, a reminder of the production's potency as the Academy Awards approach. On February 28, Rampling will be within sight of the first Oscar of her celebrated 51-year screen acting career, with Ronan, Cate Blanchett ("Carol"), Brie Larson ("Room") and Jennifer Lawrence ("Joy") the younger actresses also in contention. Winning Documentary of the Year was Amy Winehouse portrait "Amy," while another non-fiction piece won Foreign Language Film of the Year in "The Look of Silence," a Danish production about an Indonesian catastrophe and another Academy Award nominee. Kate Winslet's supporting performance in "Steve Jobs" was a Golden Globe winner earlier in January, here replicated in London, with Globe actors' nominee Mark Rylance ("Bridge of Spies") receiving the men's award. Among other award winners, Kenneth Branagh, who went from directing Shakespearean adaptations "Hamlet" (1996), "Love's Labour's Lost" (2000) and "As You Like It" (2006) to Marvel smash "Thor" in 2011 and Disney's fairytale "Cinderella" in 2015, was recipient of the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film. Washington (AFP) - An American student released by Iran after 40 days in prison has returned home to Massachusetts for an emotional reunion with his family, The Boston Globe reported Monday. Matthew Trevithick was freed Saturday along with four Americans of Iranian descent, but left the country separately the same day via a commercial flight from Tehran, the report said. The Globe said he arrived Sunday at Boston's Logan Airport and strode quickly to his mother, putting his arm around her shoulder before guiding her out the door. Trevithick, 30, was studying Farsi at an institute in Tehran associated with Tehran University when he was picked up by Iranian authorities in early December, CBS reported. His detention was not publicly acknowledged until his release, negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry. His family had notified the State Department after they failed to hear from him in early December. They received a phone call from him about half way through his imprisonment, which was made in the presence of a prison monitor, his mother Amelia Newcomb told the Globe. The next time he called was after his release on Saturday. "We're very excited. We were happy to hear Matt's voice today. We are thrilled he is out of Iran," Newcomb told CBS Boston before his arrival. Three other Americans, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, left the country Sunday on a flight to Geneva and were undergoing medical examinations at a US military hospital in Germany. A fourth Iranian-American detainee, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran. The Iranian-Americans were exchanged for seven Iranians held by the United States, a deal that came together at the same time as the culmination of a parallel Iran nuclear deal. Mark Werts, CEO of apparel brand American Rag Cie and furniture label Maison Midi, is putting his Hollywood Hills Spanish-style home on the market for $2.195 million on Monday. The house, which was purchased in December 2005, features three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, as well as a formal living and dining room and an extensively remodeled kitchen. Located on 2345 Castilian Dr., the Outpost Estates property offers gorgeous canyon views around the entire house and "perfect for the buyer seeking a sanctuary that is just minutes to Hollywood, The Studios and Beverly Hills," according to listing agent Katrina Webb. See more Everyone in Hollywood Showed Up for Stella McCartney's L.A. Presentation The master suite includes a bathroom with a view, steam shower and French doors opening to its own private patio. The two additional bedrooms also feature shiny wood floors and period built-ins. "[The] house is a Californian Mediterranean, as I am the owner of American Rag and our Mediterranean home wares division, Maison Midi, I did the house myself using many of the products we sell at Maison Midi," says Werts. "I also used our prop warehouse for many of the whimsical details. Furnishings are all from Maison Midi." PRETTY IN PINK: The dining room. Amenities include a walled courtyard entry, direct access garage and multiple patio areas, including a large terrace with a fireplace for outdoor entertaining and dining, as well as a comfortable tile hot tub. Adds Werts: "Whoever is the lucky one to purchase this home will be surrounded by a wonderful karma and a sunny positive vibe!" Associate partner Katrina Webb and president/co-founder Nick Segal of Partners Trust are the listing agents. COMFY STAY: One of the three bedrooms. BY THE KITCHEN: Another dining area. WHAT'S COOKIN': The kitchen. CANYON VIEWS: The living room. OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT: The terrace with a fireplace. The pressure is building on The Americans. When the FX spy drama returns for a fourth season in March, it will largely focus on the threat of bioweapons and spies Elizabeth and Philip Jennings' (stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) big secret getting out. Executive producer Joel Fields, on hand at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour to promote the series, suggested that he and creator Joe Weisberg are about two-thirds of the way through the story they want to tell. Fields acknowledged that he isnt sure how long the series will run. What we do know is that if you were to think of it as a three-act story structure, it feels like were coming toward the end of the second act. Whether it takes a fifth season or a sixth or fifth season to tell the rest of that story, well discover as we start to dig into next seasons work, he said, adding later in the panel: I really dont have an answer about how many seasons except that well do whats right for the storytelling and we always seem to surprise ourselves. Read More: 'The Americans' Bosses on the Finale Cliffhanger: "Its a Ticking Time Bomb" Rhys hinted that the upcoming season will start to bring parts of the previous seasons together and offer a number of surprises. The payoff of having four seasons is that you can start planting these ticking bombs with the knowledge that, sooner or later, they will go off, he said. With each season, the intensity increases. For Phillip, it becomes a quest for survival. His goal has become more narrow and pure in that he want his family to be OK. Russell echoed Rhys comments about the building pressure. This season has really been about opening Elizabeths perspective, and its a lot about the emotional cost that all these choices over the last three years has had on her, said the actress, whose character will run a longer operation over the course of this season that Fields insisted will challenge in new ways. There is also a bigger sensitivity to the fragility of the family this season. Story continues Fields also noted that Russells pregnancy hasn't affected the story at all (theyre currently shooting episode eight of 13 in New York). We havent made any changes, he said, with Rhys adding in jest, She's now terribly effective with a blowdart in a sitting position from 12 feet. Read More: 'The Americans' Star on Lack of Awards: "We Havent Been Sleeping With the Right People" Holly Taylor, who plays the Jennings' daughter, Paige, will continue to play a pivotal role in the drama moving forward. I was hoping that if Paige ever found out that shed be put into a wig straight away. That was my dream, she joked about finding out that her parents are Russian spies and not travel agents. Taylor added that she understood why her character called her pastor to tell him the news: When you think about it realistically, if any teenager was in that position and found out a huge secret like that, what would you do? No one can keep that all in. Her whole life is a lie, so I understand her actions. For her part, Phillip's "second wife" Martha (Alison Wright) is still very much trying to figure out how shes going to deal with the new information about her husband. Last season, Phillip showed up to her apartment not in disguise as his alter ego Clark for the first time (I was just running late that day and that was just how that scene turned out, joked Rhys on stage.) Said Wright of what can be expected of her character: Shes still living in the grey area. We dont know what she thinks about it and what shell do moving forward. Read More: 'The Americans' Star Keri Russell on Season 3: Is it Sexist to Not Recruit Paige? As for whether theyll be more disguises for Phillip and Elizabeth this season? Theres a closet of wigs and it hasnt gone anywhere, quipped Fields. The Americans will return March 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX. Like their cohort on the ground, astronauts aboard the U.S. segment of the International Space Station will take a day off today (Jan. 18) to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra and European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake, the first British astronaut to visit the International Space Station, will be off-duty today, NASA spokesman Dan Huot told Space.com. The three cosmonauts aboard the station Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov and Yuri Malenchenko have a full day of tasks scheduled. NASA itself is also paying tribute to King. On Friday (Jan. 15), NASA posted a video "celebrat[ing] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service": Last year, and in 2014, NASA tweeted a photograph of King's hometown, Atlanta, as seen from the space station. Kopra and Peake finished a spacewalk Friday Peake's first and repaired one of the space station's eight power channels before returning early because of a water bubble in Kopra's helmet. The main upcoming task on their schedule, Huot said, is Kelly's test run for the SPHERES Zero Robotics Program, which let high school students write algorithms for three free-flying robotic satellites operated from the space station. The winning research designs are used to run the actual satellites in space. Kopra, Peake and Malenchenko arrived at the space station in December to join Kelly and Kornienko, who are several weeks away from the end of their yearlong mission in space, as well as Volkov. Story continues Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Nieuw-Namen (Netherlands) (AFP) - As the two cooling towers at Belgium's Doel nuclear power belch thick white steam into a wintry sky, people over the border in the Dutch town of Nieuw-Namen are on edge. They are part of a groundswell of concern in the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg over the safety of Belgium's seven ageing reactors at Doel and at Tihange, further to the south and east. "I'm happy Holland, Germany and Luxembourg are reacting because they (officials) don't listen to you and me," butcher Filip van Vlierberge told AFP at his shop in Nieuw-Namen, where people can see the Doel plant. Benedicte, one of his customers, nodded in agreement. Van Vlierberge said he was particularly uneasy with the Belgian government's decision in December to extend the lives of 40-year-old reactors Doel 1 and Doel 2 until 2025 under a deal to preserve jobs and invest in the transition to cleaner energy. "I'm concerned they are too old," he said. Belgium's creaking nuclear plants have been causing safety concerns with its neighbours for some time now after a series of problems ranging from leaks to cracks and an unsolved sabotage incident. Luxembourg's sustainable development minister Camille Gira is due in Belgium on Monday to raise his concerns. Then Dutch Environment and Infrastructure Minister Melanie Schultz will visit Doel with Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon for a joint inspection on Wednesday. - Unsolved sabotage - Doel 1, the country's oldest reactor, was originally shuttered in February 2015 under a law calling for the country's gradual phaseout of nuclear power, but the government then restarted it under the extension deal. But the plant, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) as the crow flies from the major port city of Antwerp, had to be closed three days later due to a generator problem. It has now restarted a second time. Meanwhile Belgian operator Electrabel said in December it had restarted a reactor at its Tihange plant, just days after being forced to shut it down following a fire in the electricity supply system. Story continues Tiny cracks discovered in 2012 in the reactor pressure vessels of Doel 3 and Tihange 2 caused lengthy closures of those two reactors. They were both restarted at the end of last year, one having to close quickly again, for a few days, after a water leak. And the Doel 4 reactor was also shut down urgently in August 2014 after a leak in the turbine hall, caused by tampering, gushed out 65,000 litres of oil lubricant. Belgian prosecutors told AFP the investigation into who was responsible is continuing, and they do not rule out terrorism or an "act of vengeance". Peter, a Dutch docker returning from work in Antwerp, was especially worried about the unsolved sabotage case. "I don't understand how such things can happen," Peter told AFP in Nieuw-Namen, adding that "people are a little afraid" over the range of reactor problems. Germany's environment minister Barbara Hendricks in the past week sent a set of safety questions, including on the cracks, to the Belgian nuclear watchdog AFCN, which maintains all reactors are safe. Both Electrabel and AFCN said the recent problems have only been in the non-nuclear parts of the reactor and there is no danger from the nuclear cores despite the microcracks. "We resumed service following an audit from a US research firm, an international firm that guaranteed the structural integrity of the vessels," Electrabel spokeswoman Florence Coppenolle told AFP when asked about the cracks. - Fukushima, Chernobyl ghosts - But Eloi Glorieux, Greenpeace's nuclear campaigner for Belgium, insists the microcracks in the Doel 3 and Tihange 2 pressure vessels are cause for concern because they are "one of the most vulnerable parts" of the plant. "If the reactor pressure (vessel) fails, then we have a Chernobyl and a Fukushima-type accident," he warned. In March 2011, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan triggered meltdowns at the Fukushima plant, the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in Ukraine 25 years earlier. It was Fukushima that persuaded Germany to phase out its own nuclear plants. Glorieux warned that any catastrophe in Belgium would be far worse than in Fukushima or Chernobyl, because its plants are near such densely populated areas. Tihange is 20 kilometres from the Belgian city of Liege, 40 kilometres from the Dutch city of Maastricht and 60 kilometres from the Germany city of Aachen. The authorities in Maastricht and Aachen have hired lawyers to consider possible legal action against Belgium to ensure plant safety, or even make them close down. Electrabel's Coppenolle said the criticism of Belgium was misdirected as the Dutch have extended by 20 years the lifespan of their reactor on the Belgian border until 2033 while nine German reactors will run until 2022. Bill Clinton's hand appeared to tremble as he campaigned for his wife in Iowa, raising questions about his health. Observers noticed that his fingers appeared to shake as he delivered a speech over the weekend to a crowd of 5,000. In the past, he's said it's simply a condition of aging. Read: Bill Clinton Campaigns For Hillary After She's Heckled Over His Past In 2013, Clinton denied he had Parkinson's disease, saying: "I have a condition that sometimes you get with aging. You may have noticed it; my hand has a little tremor when Im tired and a lot of people do when theyre older. During the 69-year-old's speech, he explained why his wife partnered with Wall Street after the 9/11 attacks. He said: She was making the point that the people devastated on 9/11 were people to her, not categories. Bill Clinton was also a topic during the Democratic debate on Sunday night. Senator Bernie Sanders was asked to explain his recent comments about the former president. Moderator Andrea Mitchell asked Sanders: You've called Bill Clinton's past transgressions 'totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable. Senator, do you regret saying that? Sanders hit back: That question annoys me... Yes, his behavior was deplorable. Have I ever once said a word about that issue? No, I have not. I'm going to debate Secretary Clinton, Governor O'Malley, on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clinton's personal behavior." Read: Eric Trump: My Father Has Been Grooming Us to Run His Company Since Birth Hillary Clinton only discussed what role her husband would play in her administration, saying: Well, it'll start at the kitchen table, we'll see how it goes from there. She added: I'm going to use him as a goodwill emissary to go around the country to find the best ideas we've got, because I believe, as he said: Everything that's wrong with America has been solved somewhere in America. Watch: Donald Trump Attacks Bill Clinton: There Was Certainly Abuse of Women Story continues Related Articles: Brent crude fell below $28 a barrel in Asia on Monday for the first time in more than 12 years on fears about a worsening supply glut after Western sanctions on Iran were lifted, allowing Tehran to resume oil exports. Up to half a million barrels per day of Iranian crude could be added to already saturated markets after US and European leaders ended a crippling embargo put in place over Tehran's nuclear programme. The news led to further selling of the black gold, which has fallen by about three quarters since mid-2014 owing to the supply glut, record output levels, weak demand and a slowing global economy. Brent for March delivery tumbled to as low as $27.67, or by 4.4 percent from Friday's close, before rebounding to trade at above $28. The last time Brent closed below $28 was in November 2003. At around 0600 GMT, the contract was trading 49 cents, or 1.69 percent, lower at 28.44. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in February was down 41 cents, or 1.39 percent, at $29.01. "The drop was due to the Western sanctions on Iran being lifted. This means we will be seeing a bigger oil glut with Iranian crude exports coming back to the market," said Phillip Futures analyst Daniel Ang. He said prices rebounded on some bargain-buying. The United States and European Union lifted the sanctions on Sunday after the UN's atomic watchdog confirmed that Iran had complied with its obligations under a landmark deal in July to curb Tehran's nuclear programme. Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said that while Iranian oil could come in quickly, suppliers still needed to find buyers. - Downward pressure - "Iran has quite a large storage of oil at the moment. They are in a position to sell that if they choose to do so and increase supply quite quickly," Spooner told AFP. But "they've got to get the buyers and that's one of the key questions", he said. "I think Iran's main priority is going to be re-establishing its customer base and re-establishing its market share. They will want to be doing good, sound, attractive deals for their customers." Story continues Ang added that Iran is likely to sell first the oil it has in its storage facilities before considering to ramp up production. "They were telling the market that they have quite a bit in storage. Over the longer term, I don't know how much more they can produce considering prices are so low," he told AFP. Banking group ANZ said Iran is likely to offer discounts to entice buyers, leading to "further downward pressure on prices in the near-term". Singapore's DBS Bank said in a research note that adjusted for inflation oil is now cheaper than at any time since 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis. DBS said expectations are that exports from Iran will grow by 300,000 barrels per day in the short term and rise to 500,000 barrels per day by mid-year, which would more than offset a drop in US production over the past six months. Analysts expect supply to continue to outrun demand over the next two years, which would keep prices low. DBS said that over the past 18 months, the United States had been responsible for more than half of supply growth. Saudi Arabia accounted for only 4.0 percent, while Iraq and Brazil contributed 38 percent. "If supply growth were cut to zero today, demand would not catch up with supply until January 2018," DBS said. "In the meantime, inventories would continue to grow and, at least from a fundamentals perspective, downward pressure on prices would remain." By Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai court on Monday charged a British human rights activist with defaming a Thai fruit company, a case which could see him jailed for up to seven years if found guilty. Natural Fruit, Thailand's biggest producer of canned pineapples, accused Andy Hall of defamation and computer crimes over a report published in 2013 that he helped author for Finnwatch, a Finland-based watchdog group. The report, "Cheap Has a High Price", alleged ill-treatment of migrant workers at a factory owned by the firm. Natural Fruit denied the allegations. The indictment means Hall will face a second trial over the report after a previous lawsuit was thrown out by a Thai court on a technicality in 2014. Natural Fruit filed four lawsuits against him, and is appealing the dismissal of the first. Rights activists have criticized Thailand's defamation and computer crimes legislation, which they say politicians and corporations have used to muzzle critics. Hall on Wednesday denied the charges against him. "I only collected raw data and took no part in analyzing the data. Finnwatch officials were responsible for that," said Hall after the indictment. "They also put the report on the website, not me." The case will begin in mid-May and is expected to conclude in late July. Hall is on bail and has had his passport confiscated. He said on Monday he had been given permission to leave Thailand at the end of January for a week. In the two other pending cases, Natural Fruit has demanded 400 million baht ($11 million) in compensation for damages. (Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Simon Webb and Nick Macfie) By Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Nadoun Coulibaly OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region. Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people. The assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States. In a statement on the Burkina Faso assault that was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, AQIM said: "This blessed operation is but a drop in the sea of global jihad." The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent. The exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as AQIM and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach. For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso's authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants. "There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism," said Burkina Faso's prime minister, Paul Kaba Thieba. Thieba and his Malian counterpart Modibo Keita visited the outside of the Splendid Hotel on Sunday, where bullet holes and a charred exterior offered reminders of Friday evening's attack. Tight security was in place around the hotel. Inside, Burkinabe and French security officials were conducting an investigation. Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed. Survivors said the militants targeted white victims at the hotel and at the restaurant, both of which were popular among westerners. According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed. A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy's foreign ministry said on Sunday. The boy, Michel Santomenna, and his mother were the son and wife of the restaurant owner, Gaetano Santomenna. She was not Italian and has not yet been named. "Italy will continue to work to ensure that the international community remains united and intensifies its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, which once again showed its most inhuman and cruel face by targeting innocent civilians," it said. (Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome and Peter Cooney in Washington; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Chris Reese) Ottawa (AFP) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed an openness to restoring diplomatic ties with Iran, four years after Canada shuttered its embassy in Tehran. Such a move would be a reversal of the foreign policy set by the previous Tory administration, which had vowed to keep its sanctions regime against Iran after a preliminary deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program in 2013. Trudeau said Iran had made "significant movement towards respecting international expectations" regarding the dismantling of parts of its nuclear program that the West feared could have led to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. "That is something positive and I expect there will be (diplomatic) links now between Canada and Iran," he said. "We will certainly be discussing that further at a cabinet meeting in the coming weeks," he added. Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in September 2012. At the time, then foreign affairs minister John Baird did not cite a specific incident for the breakdown in relations but issued a strongly worded attack on the Islamic republic's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, its "incitement to genocide" against Israel, and its leaders' failure to account for their nuclear program. Ties were strained by Tehran's jailing of Iranian-born Canadians. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and authorities have denied Canadian detainees consular protection. In July, Iran and global powers reached a deal in Vienna that saw sanctions lifted this weekend. On Sunday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Ottawa would decide "in a timely fashion" whether to also lift sanctions in order to allow Canadian companies to join US and EU firms rushing to do business in Iran. "Because if other countries move before us, it's not a way to help our industry," he said, adding that Canadian sanctions alone would not be very effective. Paris (AFP) - Cuban President Raul Castro will meet his counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris on February 1, the French presidency said Monday. The visit will mark "a new step in the reinforcement of relations between the two countries," the Elysee Palace said in a statement. Hollande travelled to Cuba in May, becoming the first Western leader to visit the country for more than 50 years. It was announced last month that Castro would make an official state visit to France. The visits follow the end of the half-century diplomatic freeze between Cuba and the United States. During his trip to Cuba, Hollande called for US economic sanctions to be lifted, saying they had "harmed" the island nation. CAIRO (Reuters) - China is expected to lend Egypt's central bank $1 billion to help shore up its foreign reserves during a visit by the Chinese president this week, Egypt's ambassador to Beijing said in comments to the official MENA news agency late on Sunday. Egypt is battling to overcome an acute dollar shortage with a raft of rules aimed at cutting back imports and thereby reducing demand for hard currency. Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive later this week, and the two countries are expected to discuss potential Chinese investments in an array of Egyptian projects including one to build a new administrative capital. Egypt's ambassador to Beijing, Magdi Amer, said China was also due to sign a $700 million agreement with the state-owned National Bank of Egypt to provide a line of credit to finance future projects as well as a $100 million loan agreement with Banque Misr aimed at financing small and medium-seized projects. Egypt's central bank has faced strong pressure to devalue the currency in line with other emerging markets but has continued to defend it despite dwindling foreign reserves. Foreign reserves in Egypt have fallen to $16.445 billion in December from around $36 billion before the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of turmoil, which scared off foreign investors and tourists -- key sources of hard currency. The Chinese leader is visiting Egypt as part of a regional tour that will also take in Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran. (Writing by Ola Noureldin, Editing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Hugh Lawson) By John Whitesides and Amanda Becker CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Democratic White House candidate Bernie Sanders went on the offensive against front-runner Hillary Clinton on Sunday in the most contentious of their four presidential debates, accusing her of cozying up to Wall Street and misrepresenting his stance on healthcare and guns. Reflecting Sanders' rise in opinion polls, the two battled with new urgency over who was best suited to lead Democrats in the November election. Sanders cast himself as the outsider who would lead a political revolution, while Clinton touted her experience and embraced President Barack Obama's legacy. In their last televised debate before Iowa's caucuses launch the nominating race on Feb. 1, Clinton raised questions about the self-styled democratic socialist's positions on Wall Street reform, healthcare and gun control. Sanders pushed back at every turn. He painted Clinton as a defender of the status quo who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees as a former secretary of state from Wall Street backers. "I don't take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs," the U.S. senator from Vermont said, adding, "I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street." He referred to his rising poll numbers in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he has pulled even or ahead of Clinton, saying he believed he could expand his number of supporters to include more African-American voters. He noted that when his presidential campaign began, Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him in the polls. "Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close," Sanders said. The debate followed a week of rising tension between the two leading candidates. Sanders was noticeably more animated that in previous debates, sometimes grimacing and shaking his head during Clinton's answers. Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who lags badly in polls, was often a bystander although he joined Sanders in criticizing Clinton's Wall Street ties. Clinton said she would build on Obama's agenda, accusing Sanders of voting to deregulate the financial market in 2000 in a way that led to the central causes of the financial collapse of 2008 that pitched the U.S. economy into a deep recession. Clinton tried to undercut Sanders' support among supporters of Obama, who remains a popular figure in the Democratic Party. "He's criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street. And President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession," she said. "Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama." HEALTHCARE SPAT Clinton pounced on Sanders' "Medicare-for-all" plan that was announced just hours before the debate after Clinton had criticized Sanders for refusing to explain how he would pay for the proposal. The former secretary of state, former U.S. senator and wife of former President Bill Clinton said Sanders' healthcare plan would undermine Obama's signature Affordable Care Act at a time when Republican legislators were still trying to repeal and replace it. "I have to say Im not sure whether were talking about the plan you introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times over 20 years," she told Sanders. "But the fact is we have the Affordable Care Act. ... We have already seen 19 million Americans get insurance." Sanders said he wanted to build on the Obama law by making health insurance more affordable. "Nobody is tearing this up," he said, referring to the program popularly known as Obamacare. "We're moving forward." The debate was held across the street from the Charleston church where a white gunman killed nine black worshippers in June, and Clinton made reference to the incident while accusing Sanders of being weak on gun control. She welcomed his decision on Saturday night to back a bill in Congress rescinding portions of a law giving gunmakers immunity from lawsuits, but said his record showed a more lenient attitude toward the demands of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby. Sanders defended himself, saying he has a strong record on trying to prevent guns from getting into the wrong hands and standing up to the NRA. Sanders supporters watching in Manchester, New Hampshire, said he seemed more engaged than in past debates. "I thought that Bernie was much more prepared," Chris Haigh, 66, said. Sanders has pulled into a statistical tie with Clinton in recent polls in Iowa, whose caucuses are the first contest in the race to pick a nominee for the November election. He also leads Clinton in the next state to vote, Vermont neighbor New Hampshire, on Feb. 9, according to polls. After those two states, the race moves to Nevada and South Carolina, which have more diverse voting populations and where polls show Clinton leading. On March 1, or "Super Tuesday", voters in 11 states, many of them in the South where Clinton has big poll leads, will cast primary ballots. (Additional reporting by Alana Wise and Luciana Lopez; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis) Dont tell anyone, but theres a Democratic primary debate tonight. The Democratic National Committee has understandably been mocked for suspiciously scheduling most of the partys debates during times when few people are likely to be watching. The last two were on Saturday nights, and this onein South Carolina and airing on NBC at 9 p.m.comes in the middle of a holiday weekend. Its a shame, because the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is actually getting interestingor as Clinton has been saying, its the get real period of the primary. Sanders is closing the gap with Clinton both in national polling and in Iowa while maintaining his lead in New Hampshire. The increasingly plausible prospect that Clinton could lose the first two early-voting states has prompted her campaign to challenge Sanders more aggressively on the issues. She has picked a fight with him over one of his core issues, Wall Street reform, and she has stepped up attacks on his gun record. And in Clintons most unusual move, her campaign deployed Chelsea Clinton to criticize Sanderss support of a single-payer health-care plan from the right, arguing that it would mean gutting Obamacare and kicking people off their insurance. Sanders, in turn, has drawn a sharper contrast as well. While the Vermont senator has vowed not to run attack ads, he filmed a commercial implicitly criticizing Clinton over her ties to Wall Street. There are two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street, he says in the ad. One says its okay to take millions from big banks and then tell them what to do. Even though Clintons name wasnt mentioned, her campaign accused Sanders of running an attack ad and breaking his pledge against negative campaigning. Meanwhile, Martin OMalley was probably just miffed that he was left out of the whole kerfuffle. Speaking of the former Maryland governor, he will be in Sunday nights debate, having just barely cleared NBCs threshold for inclusion. That came as a bit of a surprise to NBCs own Jimmy Fallon, who had Clinton on his show Thursday and was under the impression that only she and Sanders would be debatinguntil Clinton rather awkwardly reminded him that OMalley would be there, too. It has been clear for a while now that OMalley probably wont win the Democratic nomination, but as my colleague Nora Kelly noted, the tightening of the race between Clinton and Sanders actually makes OMalley more relevant in Iowa, where because of the complicated caucus format, his voters could help break a tie. Recommended: Will the Republican Party Rip Itself Apart? For Clinton, however, the start of 2016 has been a nightmarish flashback to this time eight years ago, when Barack Obamas victory in Iowa gave him the momentum to upend her bid for the Democratic nomination. The most concerning numbers for Clinton are not those that show a closer head-to-head race with Sanders; theyre the ones that have Sanders, who is six years older than Clinton, drawing more support among younger voters and performing better in hypothetical match-ups with Republicans. For all the talk about how a self-described Democratic socialist could never win a general election, the polling snapshot makes Sanders look like he could be the partys best bet in the fall. Clintons struggle has sent Democratic bigwigs into a fairly predictable tizzy as they worry that despite the general-election polling, hed be a far weaker candidate than Clinton. Im deeply concerned that in November swing voters are not going to vote for a socialist, Representative Steve Israel, the retiring former Democratic campaign chairman, told The Washington Post. As she did eight years ago, Clinton has put up a strong front. Her campaign always expected a close race, shes said, and she told Fallon on The Tonight Show that her much bigger lead for much of last year was artificial. But the campaigns more aggressive posture toward Sanders speaks even louder. Clinton hasnt hesitated to go after Sanders in the first three Democratic debateswill she punch even harder on Sunday night? And will she continue to go after him on the issues, or will she shift to an electability argument? Whatever the strategy, itll be the last opportunity for Clinton and Sanders to confront each other before both the Iowa and New Hampshire contests. The debate might be buried in the middle of a three-day weekend, but it should be one to watch. Read more from The Atlantic: This article was originally published on The Atlantic. KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said it would not free warlord Germain Katanga at the end of his International Criminal Court (ICC)-imposed jail term on Monday as it is investigating him for other offences including the killing of nine U.N. peacekeepers. The decision to hold Katanga is the latest chapter in a conflict that flared up in northeastern Congo over a decade ago but has continued to scar the province of Ituri. Katanga, former commander of a militia in Congo's northeast, was convicted by The Hague-based tribunal in 2014 of murder, pillage and assaults on civilians during a 2003 raid on a village that killed some 200 people. He was returned to the Congolese capital Kinshasa last month to serve the remaining weeks of his sentence. He had been scheduled to be the first ICC convict to be freed. [nL8N1480AC] But Congo Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe said that Katanga would not be released on Monday as investigators were exploring other accusations against him. "We want to interrogate him notably on the role he could have played in the assassination of nine blue helmets," he said, referring to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country. It was not clear when the justice department would make the decision on whether to prosecute Katanga further. The ICC charges pertained exclusively to the 2003 attack on a village and did not cover the killing of the peacekeepers, who were killed in a separate attack in 2005. Katanga's Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) is one of a constellation of rebel groups in the vast, chaotic central African country that have terrorised civilians and exploited its rich reserves of gold and other minerals. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Makini Brice and Mark Heinrich) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on China on Monday to avoid actions in pursuit of territorial claims in Asia that could make conflict with the United States more likely. Speaking in Washington ahead of a meeting with President Barack Obama on Tuesday, Turnbull said Chinese President Xi Jinping had spoken of his desire to avoid the so-called Thucydides Trap - an academic theory that sees a risk of rivalry between a rising and an established power turning to conflict. "If avoiding the Thucydides Trap is a core objective of China's strategy, as President Xi insists it is, then we would hope that China's actions will be carefully calculated to make conflict less likely not more," Turnbull told the Centre for Strategic and International studies think tank. He said China should be seeking to reassure neighbors and build confidence about its intentions. "The legitimacy of claims to reefs and shoals should be a secondary consideration when that objective is focused on," Turnbull said, referring to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has been building artificial islands to extend its reach. Turnbull said rival claims should be settled under international law and referred to a case the Philippines has brought in the arbitration court in The Hague over its competing claims with China. Turnbull, who has a tricky balancing act to maintain between China as Australia's largest trading partner and the United States as Canberra's main security ally, said a strong and enduring U.S. presence was needed in Asia to ensure the region's unprecedented economic growth continued. In announcing Turnbull's visit earlier this month, the White House said Obama and the Australian leader were expected to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal awaiting ratification and the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, in which both countries are engaged. Turnbull met U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday and the two discussed Iraq and Syria and the need to continue close collaboration on security in the Asia-Pacific, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said. (The word "avoid" has been added to the headline) (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Marguerita Choy) (Corrects S. Jaishankar's designation to India's Foreign secretary in 7th graph) By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - The Maldives on Saturday granted permission for jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed to travel to Britain for surgery after pressure from the international community including human rights groups and his lawyer Amal Clooney. Nasheed, the Maldives' first democratically elected leader, is serving a 13-year sentence on terrorism charges after a rapid trial last March. The case drew international criticism. The decision by President Abdullah Yameen's government, which rejected the same request two months ago, comes after pressure by rights groups and the United Nations over the case. "Maldives has granted permission to former President Mohamed Nasheed to travel to the United Kingdom to undertake a surgery at his request," the Maldives foreign ministry said. "Nasheed was granted permission under the condition to serve the remainder of the sentence upon return to the Maldives after the surgery." Political colleagues say he is suffering from back pain. The permission was granted after a visit of Indian Foreign secretary S. Jaishankar, an unannounced visit by Sri Lanka's two top ministers and ahead of a visit of Hugo Swire, British minister of state for Asia. Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic Party spokesman, said a similar request was rejected two months ago, but was granted this time after Nasheed's legal team headed by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney started lobbying for sanctions on Maldives leaders. "This medical leave comes after heavy international pressure. The whole trial process is wrong," he told Reuters. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. The United Nations, the United States and human rights groups have said Yameen's government failed to follow due process and that the case was politically motivated. Clooney, who is married to Hollywood actor George Clooney, early this week criticised Yameen's administration. "Democracy is dead in the Maldives," Clooney told NBC News. "Literally, if there were an election now there would be no one to run against the president. Every opposition leader is either behind bars or being pursued by the government through the courts." (Additional reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Stephen Powell) Rome (AFP) - A former Vatican accountant known as "Mr 500" for his cash-rich lifestyle was acquitted by an Italian court on Monday of corruption and attempted money-smuggling. Monsignor was a chief accountant for APSA, the organisation that manages the Vatican's vast real estate portfolio, before his arrest in June 2013 for allegedly plotting to smuggle millions of euros in cash into Italy. Investigators had accused Scarano of hatching a plot to use a private plane to repatriate 20 million euros ($22 million) that were untaxed from Switzerland, on behalf of a rich family of ship owners from Naples. A court in Rome found Scarano innocent of corruption and attempted money-smuggling but guilty of making false accusations against one of his co-defendants, slapping him with a two-year suspended sentence. The monsignor is still on trial in southern Italy in his home town of Salerno on separate charges of money-laundering through the Vatican's bank, the official name for which is the Institute of Religious Works (IOR). After his arrest in 2013, the Vatican froze assets worth 2.2 million euros belonging to Scarano, who the press dubbed "Mr 500" for the large amounts of 500 euro notes he was reported to carry on him. The prelate insisted he was innocent and wrote a letter to Pope Francis accusing his lay bosses of abusive activities which he said were covered up by some cardinals, who he claimed were being blackmailed. - Charity donations, luxury apartment - When fresh charges were brought against him in 2014, Italian police seized his luxury 17-room apartment and blocked nearly nine million euros on current accounts linked to the senior Italian cleric. In the second, ongoing trial, Scarano is accused of taking cheques marked "Donation for the Poor" and in return giving cash from accounts at the Vatican bank. Police at the time said they had uncovered at least five million euros that Scarano "had at his disposal" and alleged he made extensive property investments in Salerno. Story continues The prelate's lawyer, Silverio Sica, said his client used the money for charity and could not be responsible for the provenance of donations he received. The affair landed the IOR bank, renowned for a murky past and links to the mafia, back in the global headlines. The Vatican, the world's smallest sovereign state, has launched a series of reforms aimed at bringing the institution back into line with international standards against money laundering. The bank has been plagued by scandals in the past and its former president, Paul Marcinkus, sheltered in the Vatican for years to fight off repeated attempts by Italian judicial authorities to arrest him in the 1980s. In December the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee -- which combats money laundering and terrorist financing -- urged the Vatican to start prosecuting people found to have used the IOR and asset management body for criminal ends. While it found an internal review of the accounts, which has accelerated under Pope Francis, "appears to have been a success", it was more equivocal about progress on ASPA pending the full findings of ad hoc inspections. Duncan Jones has returned briefly to social media for the first time since his father David Bowie's death to share a thank you letter from a palliative care specialist written to the late British musician. Jones had confirmed to the world the sad news of his fathers death Jan. 10 after an 18-month battle, signing off with a message: "Ill be offline for a while." Jones ended his silence to retweet a post by the Marie Curie organization linking to an essay published by Cardiff, Wales-based palliative care consultant Dr Mark Taubert. A thank you letter to David Bowie from a palliative care doctor. https://t.co/ibFYRY8wc1 - thanks for sharing @DrMarkTaubert Marie Curie (@mariecurieuk) January 17, 2016 Read More: David Bowie's Legacy: He "Helped Give Voice to Several Generations of Misfits and Weirdos" Whilst realization of your death was sinking in during those grey, cold January days of 2016, many of us went on with our day jobs," wrote Taubert. "At the beginning of that week I had a discussion with a hospital patient, facing the end of her life. We discussed your death and your music, and it got us talking about numerous weighty subjects, that are not always straightforward to discuss with someone facing their own demise. In fact, your story became a way for us to communicate very openly about death, something many doctors and nurses struggle to introduce as a topic of conversation. Taubert went on to thank Bowie for his music, which played a soundtrack to his and the lives of many others. And how Bowie's gentle death at home had given strength to others working in palliative care and those facing the last stages of their life. "Thank you for Lazarus and Blackstar," Taubert added. "I am a palliative care doctor, and what you have done in the time surrounding your death has had a profound effect on me and many people I work with. Your album is strewn with references, hints and allusions. As always, you don't make interpretation all that easy, but perhaps that isn't the point." Story continues Read More: David Bowie's 'Blackstar' Album Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 Chart Read Taubert's essay here. Bowies critically acclaimed 25th and final album, Blackstar, has bowed at No. 1 on the albums charts in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. The album was released on Jan. 8, Bowie's 69th birthday. This article originally appeared on Billboard.com. Athens (AFP) - A delay in talks with international creditors on the evaluation of Greece's reforms and debt relief could ultimately doom the new bailout, the Greek finance minister warned Monday. "If (the evaluation) is not concluded within a reasonable timeframe this programme cannot work," Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos told a news conference. Greece's leftist government in July signed a third debt rescue programme worth 86 billion euros ($94 billion) after the country looked to be on the brink of crashing out of the eurozone. Representatives of the creditors -- the European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and the ESM European bailout fund -- are expected in Athens later this month to monitor adherence to the programme. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, earlier this month told reporters that the process was likely to take "months (rather) than weeks." Greece hopes that the end of this evaluation will kickstart a discussion on how to make repayment of its huge public debt more sustainable. "We need several weeks to close the evaluation... It is in everybody's interest to find a solution and not have a Greek crisis," Tsakalotos said. But the International Monetary Fund has still not decided whether it will participate in the third financial bailout for Greece, and continues to set out tough conditions. Athens must reach agreement with the creditors on a new overhaul of its ailing pension system -- and the International Monetary Fund in particular is expected to criticise plans by the government to increase social contributions by employers. "We are worried that the IMF may not share our concern about time," Tsakalotos said. "Every month of delay creates the impression that this country has not turned a page, which is unfair. We and the creditors are shooting ourselves in the leg," he said. MELBOURNE (Reuters) - World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic marched imperiously into the second round of the Australian Open with a dominant 6-3 6-2 6-4 victory over Chung Hyeon on Monday. The 28-year-old Serb looked as untroubled by the Melbourne heat as he was by the South Korean teenager in the 115-minute contest, charging around Rod Laver Arena and rattling off 40 winners. World number 51 Chung showed he had some impressive weapons at his disposal, particularly in the opening set, but was not always able to convert his best shots into points. The 19-year-old stalled Djokovic's progress in an absorbing fifth match of the second set, holding serve after eight deuces, but the five-times champion soon advanced to a second round date with either French teenager Quentin Halys or Ivan Dodig. (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by John O'Brien) By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British Muslim groups accused Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday of demonizing their communities by saying that Muslim women needed to learn English to reduce the risk of extremism. Cameron said some migrants to Britain who cannot pass an English test within 2-1/2 years of arriving may not be allowed to stay, a move aimed at fostering greater integration by Muslim women. He said while there was no direct causal link between poor English language skills and extremism, those who were not able to integrate into British society were at risk of being more susceptible to extremist ideologies. "The statements from this government regarding Muslims continue to further demonize and marginalize the Muslim community and are counter-productive," the Muslim Women's Council said in a statement. "Whilst we welcome the additional funding pledged today by the Prime Minister for English language support for Muslim women, we do not agree with the assertion that there is a link between a lack of English and extremism." Cameron said there were 190,000 British Muslim women who spoke little or no English and Britain needed to take on the "backward attitudes" of some men whom he said exerted damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters. The government will invest 20 million pounds ($28 million) in English classes for women in isolated communities, and from October this year will begin testing those who have come to Britain on a spousal visa to check if their language skills have improved. Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain said Cameron's efforts will "fall at the first hurdle" if he were to link language skills and better integration to security, and to single out Muslim women. "Muslims are only one third of the minority population. Reports suggest a significant proportion of immigrants from Eastern Europe struggle with English," Shafi said in a statement. Faeeza Vaid, executive director of the charity Muslim Women's Network UK, said it wasn't just a lack of language skills preventing the full integration of Muslim women. "We have broader societal issues of institutional patriarchy, discrimination and Islamophobia and all of those systems also need to be challenged," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. "I don't agree that this sort of project should be linked to preventing radicalization." (Reporting by Magdalena Mis; Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org) Kinshasa (AFP) - The Democratic Republic of Congo said it plans to prosecute notorious militia leader Germain Katanga, who had been scheduled to leave prison in Kinshasa on Monday after completing a sentence handed down by the International Criminal Court. "He will not leave" prison, Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told AFP in an interview Monday. He said Katanga was implicated "in other cases just as serious" as the one he was convicted for by the ICC in 2014 -- that of arming an ethnic militia which in 2003 carried out a brutal village massacre, killing some 200 people. One of the other cases concerns his alleged role in the killing of nine UN peacekeepers in the violence-torn Ituri region in the country's northeast in 2005, Thambwe Mwamba said. Another, which is in the hands of military prosecutors, involves "contacts" that Katanga "continues to have with other officers who are being prosecuted". The minister declined to give further details on this second case in order not to violate the confidentiality of the investigation. He said Katanga would get a "fair" trial and have "access to all the lawyers that he wants to defend himself". Katanga, 37, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year by the ICC in The Hague for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over the 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro, including murder and pillage. Nicknamed Simba ("lion" in Swahili) due to his ferocity, he was convicted of supplying weapons to his militia in the attack in which some 200 people were shot and hacked to death with machetes, but acquitted of enforcing sexual slavery and using child soldiers. In November, the ICC cut Katanga's sentence after he voiced regret and for good behaviour, and he had been scheduled to complete his prison term on Monday. Last month Katanga and former warlord Thomas Lubanga, sentenced to 14 years by the ICC for recruiting and enlisting child soldiers, were transferred to a prison in Kinshasa to serve out their sentences. Story continues Lubanga's request for early release was turned down by the ICC as "unjustified". "For us it's a relief that Germain Katanga will be prosecuted over the other accusations against him," Junior Safari, head of the Ituri-based Congolese Association for the Protection of Human Rights, told AFP. But he deplored the "lack of compensation or reparations for all the crimes committed" in the region. - Apologies to victims - Human Rights Watch had called on Kinshasa to convict Katanga on further charges upon his return home, urging a "fair and speedy trial". Arrested in 2005 and then transferred to The Hague in 2007, Katanga was only the second person to be sentenced by the tribunal since it began work in 2003 as the world's first permanent court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. He would have been the first to be released from jail after serving out an ICC sentence. A former member of the armed fighters of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI), he has offered his apologies to the victims, insisting he had turned his back on the militias which still wreak havoc in parts of the DR Congo. DR Congo was torn by two wars between 1996 and 2003, and its eastern provinces remain ravaged by conflicts between ethnic groups and local warlords and over control of mineral resources. Many atrocities such as rape, killing and enslavement have been been committed, with almost all going unpunished. But since 2014, Congolese authorities have taken steps to end the impunity that many of those responsible have enjoyed and which has been condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups. President Joseph Kabila has named a special representative to tackle crimes of sexual violence and recruiting child soldiers. Several senior officers, some of them former rebels integrated into the army, have been convicted of war crimes by Congolese courts. The gold-rich Ituri region where the Bogoro massacre occurred has been riven by violence since 1999, when clashes broke out that killed at least 60,000 people, according to rights groups. By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday defended the Obama administration's handling of a crisis in Flint, Michigan with lead-contaminated drinking water. Speaking to reporters after an event at a Washington soup kitchen, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy defended the federal government's response. "EPA did its job but clearly the outcome was not what anyone would have wanted. So we're going to work with the state, we're going to work with Flint. We're going to take care of the problem," McCarthy told reporters. "We know Flint is a situation that never should have happened." She said EPA has established a task force of experts and is conducting an audit of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's water program "to make sure whatever improvements need to be made get made and get done quickly." Flint, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Detroit, returned to using Detroit's water in October after tests found elevated levels of lead in the water and in the blood of some children. Lead contamination can cause brain damage and other health problems. On Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's handling of the crisis. She suggested that if the problem had occurred in a wealthy, predominantly white suburb of Detroit "there would have been action." "Weve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didnt really care," she said at a televised debate. Snyder has apologized for the state's handling of the crisis as calls for him to resign have grown over the last week, including from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. On Saturday, President Obama declared a federal emergency over the Flint water crisis. But he denied an additional request for a major disaster declaration sought by Snyder. Obama ordered federal aid for state and local efforts in Genesee County, where Flint, a city of just under 100,000 residents, is located. The financially-strapped city was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water from Detroit's system to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 in a cost-cutting move. The more corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from city pipes more than Detroit water did, leading to the current problems. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Nick Zieminski) Brussels (AFP) - EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed a statement on the stalled Middle East peace process and Israeli settlements after resolving differences over wording which some felt was too critical of Israel. "We unanimously approved (the statement), it is a good and common basis for our common position and our engagement in the region," EU external affairs head Federica Mogherini said after a meeting of bloc foreign ministers in Brussels. Both Israel and the Palestinians gave a reserved welcome to the decision by EU foreign ministers. Their statement expressed the EU's deep concern at continuing violence, holding both sides to account for their actions. "The EU firmly condemns the terror attacks and violence from all sides and in any circumstances, including the death of children," it said. "The EU is convinced that only the reestablishment of a political horizon and the resumption of dialogue can stop the violence." The 28-nation bloc restated its commitment to a two-state solution and said it would closely monitor developments on the ground which undermine that outcome. The statement had been expected to be passed without discussion but differences emerged over the weekend, notably on the consequences of an EU decision to label products from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as "Made in Israel." French state secretary for European Affairs Harlem Desir, standing in for his foreign minister Laurent Fabius, said some countries, including Greece, wanted to see changes to the text, thinking it too critical of Israel. - 'Watered down' - One EU diplomatic source told AFP: "The text has been watered down slightly but the language remains very close to what it was (previously)." "Greece had some problems and they got most of what they wanted; they felt there was too much emphasis on violence by (Jewish) settlers," the source said. When the labelling decision was announced late last year, Israel reacted very sharply, saying it was hostile and smacked of a boycott. Story continues As a result, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended diplomatic contacts with the EU on the Middle East peace process which has been stalled since April 2014. The Israeli foreign ministry said the EU ministers had "toned down" their statement after diplomatic efforts by Netanyahu and the ministry. But it charged the bloc was still applying "double standards" by disregarding the Palestinians' responsibility in the deadlock in the peace process and their incitement to violence. On the Palestinian side, chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said it was "a step forward towards accountability", although the EU should "take immediate steps, such as banning settlement products". At the weekend, Haaretz newspaper said the Israeli government was trying to prevent EU foreign ministers from approving a text which would highlight the distinction between Israel proper and settlements in the occupied territories, exposing them to possible sanctions. In Monday's statement, foreign ministers reiterated that the settlements were "illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state solution impossible." "The EU and its member States are committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products," it said. Ministers also agreed that the EU would ensure that all agreements with Israel should "unequivocally and explicitly" state that they did not apply to the occupied territories. BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk said on Monday he would not agree to any sort of discrimination in changes to the European Union to keep Britain in the EU and called for "a reasonable compromise" on London's reform demands. "It is in the interest of Poland and the United Kingdom that the United Kingdom stays as member of the EU," Tusk told a joint news conference after talks with Poland's President Andrzej Duda in Brussels. "We need to come up with a reasonable compromise that is not detrimental to the basic freedoms. There will be no room discrimination," he added. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Gabriela Baczynska, Wiktor Szary) , . , 12 2000 . , - . , . , . , . BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said on Monday he was "not very enthusiastic" about Brussels launching a probe into the rule of law under a new conservative government in Warsaw. Tusk, who chairs the meetings of leaders of 28 EU countries, said the situation in Poland was not on the agenda of the next such meeting planned in February and that he hoped it would not get to that later on either. "I don not believe it's a good idea to discuss the situation in Poland at the European Council," Tusk said. Asked whether the European Commission, the bloc's executive arm that launched the procedure against Poland, was wrong to do it, Tusk said he believed it had acted in good faith but that it could have achieved its goals by different means. (Reporting by Witkor Szary, Jan Strupczewski, Gabriela Baczynska) Paris (AFP) - Former British soldier Robert Lawrie, who risked jail for trying to smuggle a four-year-old Afghan girl out of a French migrant camp, said Monday everyone should seek to help refugees. Lawrie last week escaped a potential jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to 30,000 euros ($33,000) after trying with her father's agreement to spirit Bahar Ahmadi out of the squalid camp near the northern port of Calais known as "The Jungle" and take her to relatives in England. But in a case which has deeply divided public opinion, a court in nearby Boulogne-sur-Mer warned him he would have to pay 1,000 euros ($1,085) "for endangering life" if he re-offended. At the time, Lawrie, 49, said he knew the plan was "irrational." But on a visit to Paris he urged people to understand the desperation of migrants fleeing war and misery as they languish in a camp with some 4,000 inhabitants, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq but also Sudan and Eritrea. "You can't help everyone. But everyone can help someone", said Lawrie, a father-of-four from northern England who has visited The Jungle several times to build shelters for the migrants. "So they are my someone for now," he explained as he contributed to a huge fresco in Paris' Place de la Republique which graffiti artists have created in homage to the refugees. "I am gonna fight for them -- but I am gonna do it legally. I have got meetings with human rights lawyers, to try, first of all, to get Bahar and her father to the UK legally," Lawrie said. "When they are sorted and with their family, I'll find another someone to help. "People call them immigrants, migrants -- even in law they are known as aliens." But "they are not from Mars!! They are human beings," Lawrie said. Aurore Cyrille, behind the fresco, said: "Rob Lawrie symbolises the solidarity towards migrants. He did something really great. Few people help refugees and why is that? It's because it's also illegal." BERLIN (Reuters) - Facebook Inc began a Europe-wide campaign on Monday to thwart extremist posts on social media, after German politicians in particular raised concerns about a rise in xenophobic comments linked to an influx of refugees. The U.S.-based group launched its "Initiative for Civil Courage Online" in Berlin, pledging over 1 million euros ($1.09 million) to support non-governmental organizations in their efforts to counter racist and xenophobic posts. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said hate speech "has no place in our society", including in the Internet. Facebook's ground rules forbid bullying, harassment and threatening language, but critics say it does not enforce them properly. On Friday, the firm said it had hired a unit of the publisher Bertelsmann to monitor and delete racist posts on its platform in Germany. In November, prosecutors in Hamburg launched an investigation into Facebook on suspicion of not doing enough to prevent the dissemination of hate speech. Top German politicians and celebrities have voiced concern about the rise of anti-foreigner comments on Facebook and other social media as the country struggles to cope with a tide of new migrants that amounted to 1.1 million last year alone. Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged Facebook to do more, and the Justice Ministry set up a task force with Facebook and other social networks and Internet service providers with the aim of identifying criminal posts more quickly and taking them down. ($1 = 0.9187 euros) (Reporting by Thorsten Severin; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Kevin Liffey) By Joel Schectman and Yeganeh Torbati WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As part of a prisoner exchange with Iran, the White House said on Saturday it had offered clemency to seven Iranians who were convicted or facing trial in the United States. In addition, the Obama administration said it had removed Interpol detention requests and charges against 14 Iranians overseas. Through interviews with attorneys and a review of court records, Reuters has identified seven cases in which the United States offered clemency for Iranians serving sentences or awaiting trial in the United States. The U.S. Justice Department on Sunday evening confirmed the identities of the seven individuals receiving pardons or commutations. Reuters has also found four cases in which the U.S. Justice Department moved to drop charges against overseas Iranians. Prosecutors moved to have those cases dismissed early on Saturday, before the release of the Americans jailed in Iran was announced. Here are details on the 11 Iranians identified by Reuters as part of the prisoner deal. Iranians granted clemency in the United States: * President Barack Obama pardoned Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afghahi and Tooraj Faridi, a lawyer for one of the men said. The men were charged in 2015 with shipping electronics to Iran. Mechanic and Afghahi were both being held in a Houston jail awaiting trial. Faridi, an employee at Mechanic's electronics company, had been out on bail. * Obama commuted the sentence of Ali Saboonchi, a U.S. citizen and resident of Maryland, who was convicted of export violations in 2014, his attorney said. He was serving a two-year sentence in Virginia and was due to be released in November 2016. Between 2009 and 2013, Saboonchi and several associates tried to export industrial parts to customers in Iran, according to an indictment filed in 2013. Saboonchi was released in the early hours of Sunday, as part of the prisoner exchange announced on the weekend. * Obama also commuted the eight-year sentence of Nader Modanlo, an Iranian-American convicted in 2013 of helping Iran launch its first satellite in exchange for a $10 million payment. Modanlo walked out of a Virginia federal prison in the early hours of Sunday, according to his attorney. * Obama commuted the 78-month sentence of Arash Ghahreman, who was released this weekend, his lawyer said. Ghahreman, an Iranian-American in his mid-40s, was serving a 78-month sentence after being convicted in 2015 of trying to export U.S. built marine navigation to Iran. * Nima Golestaneh, an Iranian, who pleaded guilty to allegations that he helped in cyber attacks against a Vermont-based defense contractor, was also freed, according to the Swiss Foreign Ministry that helped broker the deal. He was in an upstate New York jail awaiting sentencing earlier this week, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case. Fugitives outside the United States against whom charges were dropped: * U.S. prosecutors have filed a motion to drop charges against Matin Sadeghi, who is out of the country. Sadeghi had been charged in the sanctions violation case against Mechanic and the two other men. * Prosecutors asked to drop charges against Seyed Abolfazl Shahab Jamili, accused in 2014 of helping to ship thousands of Chinese-manufactured parts "with nuclear applications" to Iran. Jamili was also accused of exporting to Iran U.S.-built pressure transducers, used in nuclear centrifuges. In a filing on Saturday, prosecutors asked to dismiss charges against Jamili, based on "significant foreign policy interests." * Prosecutors asked to drop charges against Alireza Moazami Goudarzi, who was charged in 2012 with trying to purchase aircraft parts from a U.S. supplier for shipment to Iran. He was arrested in Malaysia in 2012 in connection with the case, and the United States was seeking his extradition, according to the Justice Department. * Prosecutors also moved to drop charges on Saturday against Koorush Taherkhani, who lives in Iran. Taherkhani was accused in 2014 of using a Dubai front company to buy U.S.-made marine navigation equipment for use in Iran, in violation of sanctions. (Editing by Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney) OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Jan 18, 2016) - Government of Canada Today, the Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, together with the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health, publicly posted the final report of the External Panel on Options for a Legislative Response to Carter v. Canada. The report summarizes the results and key findings of the External Panel's consultations on physician-assisted dying. Thousands of individuals, experts and organizations, both within Canada and abroad, have provided their views on this complex and sensitive issue since the Panel was established by the Government of Canada in July 2015. The panel included three members: Panel Chair, Harvey Max Chochinov, MD, PhD, FRCPC, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Canada Research Chair in Palliative Care at the University of Manitoba, and Director of the Manitoba Palliative Care Research Unit, CancerCare Manitoba; Catherine Frazee, Professor Emerita at Ryerson University, where prior to her retirement in 2010 she served as Professor of Distinction and Co-Director of the Ryerson-RBC Institute for Disability Studies Research and Education; and Benoit Pelletier, LL.B., LL.M., LL.D., LL.D. FRSC, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa, constitutional expert and former Liberal member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1998 to 2008, and Quebec Cabinet minister from 2003 to 2008. The report will be reviewed by an all-party Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying established by Parliament. The Committee will also consult with experts, stakeholders and Canadians, and make recommendations on the framework of a federal response on physician-assisted dying. The Government of Canada thanks the Panel for their extensive work and personal commitment to advancing a national dialogue on physician-assisted dying. Quick Facts On February 6, 2015, in Carter v. Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada held that sections 241(b) and 14 of the Criminal Code violate the constitutional rights of certain grievously and irremediably ill adult individuals. These sections of the Criminal Code currently make it illegal for anyone, including a doctor, to assist in or cause the death of another person. Story continues The Supreme Court suspended its declaration for one year to give the federal Parliament and the provincial and territorial legislatures an opportunity to develop an appropriate response and to put in place a system of safeguards to protect vulnerable persons. The Supreme Court of Canada has since granted the Government of Canada an additional four months to respond. The Court granted an exemption to those who wish to exercise their rights by allowing them to apply to the superior court of their jurisdiction for relief. The Court also specified that Quebec is exempted from the four-month extension. The Panel consulted directly with 73 experts through 51 meetings in five countries, and 92 representatives from 46 Canadian organizations. The Panel received more than 300 document submissions from stakeholders and nearly 15,000 responses to its online consultation. Quotes "Our government is profoundly grateful for the dedication of Panel members in producing a report on this complex and deeply personal issue for Canadians of all ages and backgrounds. The report will contribute to a thoughtful, well-informed legislative response." The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada "I would like to acknowledge the dedication and expertise that the External Panel brought to advancing a national dialogue on physician-assisted dying. The report provides a sense of how truly important this matter is for Canadians. Our Government will draw upon its observations and findings when considering how best to implement physician-assisted dying in Canada." The Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health Related Products Consultations on Physician-Assisted Dying - Summary of Results and Key Findings Associated Links Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying Follow Department of Justice Canada on Twitter (@JusticeCanadaEn), join us on Facebook or visit our YouTube channel. Defending champions Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams raced into the Australian Open second round Monday as the year's first Grand Slam was rocked by claims of widespread match-fixing in tennis. Former winners Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova also progressed smoothly on a day of high temperatures at Melbourne Park, where one ballboy felt faint and had to be helped from the court. Djokovic's main opponent was the 35-degree Celsius (95-degree Fahrenheit) heat as, cooling himself with ice vests on the change-overs, the top seed dispatched Korean rising star Chung Hyeon 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. "You try to stay composed, not get carried away by heat, get distracted," said the Serb, who was forced out of the 2009 quarter-finals as he struggled with the heat. "Of course, there were some long rallies, long exchanges that got both of us a little bit short on air. But I think physically I was really good on the court." Williams also made a positive return to competitive tennis, four months after a heartbreaking defeat in the US Open semi-finals ended her bid for a rare calendar-year Grand Slam. Showing no discomfort from the swollen knee that forced her out of this month's Hopman Cup mixed-team tournament, Williams toughed it out 6-4, 7-5 against Italy's Camila Giorgi. "I haven't played a competitive match in a really long time so it was good for me to come out here and get through it," Williams said. "I was able to stay in it and stay calm and that is what matters most." Williams, 34, is seeking an Open-era record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title, while Djokovic can become only the second man to win six Australian Open crowns after Roy Emerson. Federer was also untroubled in his 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 win over Georgia's Nicoloz Basilashvili as he continued his quest for a record-extending 18th Grand Slam title. Sharapova, the women's winner in 2008, beat Japan's Nao Hibino 6-1, 6-3 in just 73 minutes in her first match of the year after a forearm injury forced her out of the Brisbane International. Story continues "I'm feeling really good, which is a positive. I'm just happy to finish off today and be able to get ready for the next one," said the Russian. - 'No cover-up'- Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Australia's Nick Kyrgios also went through without significant problems, while Caroline Wozniacki was the biggest casualty on day one. The former world number one, who joined fellow seeds Sloane Stephens, Sara Errani and Ivo Karlovic on the sidelines, was stunned in three sets by Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva. "You know, I let her back into the match, and it was basically my own fault that I'm not here as the winner," the downcast Dane told reporters. Canada's Eugenie Bouchard safely reached the second round, and Spain's Carla Suarez earned applause when she helped a ballboy from the court as he swooned in high temperatures. However, the day was overshadowed by a report which said top-50 players, including Grand Slam champions, had repeatedly been suspected of match-fixing without facing action. Three suspect matches were at Wimbledon, and eight of the players under suspicion were due to take to the courts for the Australian Open, the BBC and BuzzFeed claimed. Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) chief Chris Kermode rejected any suggestion that match-fixing evidence had been covered up or ignored. "The Tennis Integrity Unit and the tennis authorities absolutely reject any suggestion that evidence of match-fixing has been suppressed for any reason or isn't being thoroughly investigated," Kermode told reporters. "And while the BBC and BuzzFeed reports mainly refer to events from about 10 years ago, we will investigate any new information, and we always do." Flint, Michigan The city of Flint still charges its constituents for water. Water that a team from Virginia Tech revealed to be toxic, in many cases. Water that runs yellow and brown and smells like sewage even when it doesn't. And according to Flint residents who spoke to Mic this weekend, that water costs between $100 and $200 a month. "I noticed the middle of July 2014 we were getting $150 water bills," longtime Flint resident Tyrone Wooten told Mic while he picked up a case of water for his wife and two kids at Flint Fire Station 3. That was a year before the Virginia Tech team arrived to check the water and discovered high lead content and, in extreme cases, enough contaminants for the EPA to dub it "toxic waste." In 2013, Flint made the cost-cutting decision to stop buying water from Detroit and, instead, connect to a future pipeline coming from Lake Huron. When Detroit stopped selling water to Flint before the pipeline could be built, Flint started drawing water from the extremely corrosive Flint River. The water wreaked havoc on the city's old plumbing, flooding residents' pipes with lead. People of Flint figured it out when their faucets released brown liquid that made their hair fall out and gave them rashes. Since then, 10 people have died from the pneumonia-like condition Legionnaire's disease. The city finally admitted it needed help. Gov. Rick Snyder called in the Michigan National Guard to bring aid to Flint. Source: Max Plenke/Mic At no point during the sickness and death did Flint stop charging its residents for the poison in their sinks. "We've been paying for it for so long," Wooten told Mic. "Sometimes it's like, 'Don't flush the toilets sometimes; we don't know how much that costs.'" Wooten told Mic his bill is usually somewhere between $125 and $150 each month. He said the increased costs of water caught the attention of local businesses in the area, presumably because it might mean locals would switch to bottled water when tap water got too expensive. Story continues At the grocery stores, he said, "water used to be a few dollars. Now it's up two extra dollars for a case of water. We were paying more for water than what we were usually paying when they found out the water prices were really bad." Wooten's isn't the only case. Of everyone Mic spoke to in Flint over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, only one resident said she paid less than $120 a month. Some large families were paying upward of $200 a month. Nisa Seal, a bartender at the Torch Bar & Grill, pays $110 a month for water at her house. "I don't drink it," she told Mic. "I just wash and flush it." "This shit is criminal," Kendrick Boyd, a Flint resident, told Mic. "[Governor Snyder] deserves to go to prison for this. ... They gave [former Detroit mayor] Kwame Kilpatrick 28 years for stealing money. This man just endangered lives. People die from this." "This shit is criminal," Kendrick Boyd, a Flint resident, told Mic. "People die from this." "Not only that," Boyd said, "it's something they've known for two years. It's not something they didn't know. Before they switched our water back to Flint, the previous year they told us the river was condemned. Then they gave us the water to drink. So if this wasn't a blatant or conscious decision, I don't know what was." Boyd and his mother, , say they pay over $200 a month for the water coming through their faucets, shower heads and toilets. Boyd says that after switching back to Detroit water, the water he receives now is even worse than it was before, due to lead pipes that were ravaged by the corrosion from the Flint River. "It's still in the pipes," Tekera told Mic. At the Boyd house, the water smells like sewage. Source: Max Plenke/Mic "It's a fear of turning on your faucet water, that don't make no sense," Tekera Boyd told Mic. "I refuse to put it in my mouth. My son filters the water, puts it in the microwave, and my grandson takes his bath with it. We shouldn't have to go through all that." Currently, the Michigan National Guard mans select fire stations around Flint, handing out cases of water, faucet water filters and testing kits to measure water for lead content. However, as residents told Mic, it's not always enough. "We appreciate , but we get one pack of water per household," Kendrick Boyd told Mic. "How far does that go?" With the future of Flint's water crisis still indiscernible, it's impossible to tell. Its beautiful to be sure. But is Belize safe for tourists right now? (Photo: Thinkstock) A Chicago woman was murdered last week while on vacation in Belize, according to local law enforcement. Anne Swaney, 39, an executive producer for ABC7 Chicago online, was found dead on Friday morning with injuries consistent with being strangled. She had been traveling in the Central American country alone and was staying at a horse farm close to the border with Guatemala when she was killed. Related: Go Inside the Secret Cheese-Making Industry in Belize Sadly, Swaney isnt the only foreigner in recent years to be murdered in the country. Lynn Nichiporowich, a 57-year-old Vancouver native, was stabbed to death in October 2013 in the remote village of Consejo. And earlier this month Canadian filmmaker Matthiew Klinck was found dead in the doorway to his home in Spanish Lookout, Belize. He had also been stabbed. The minister of tourism expressed his condolences for Swaneys family and, in a statement to Yahoo Travel, noted that violent crime has been decreasing in the country. While this is a tragic situation that requires the full attention of the Belize Police Department, violent crime in Belize has seen a double digit reduction in the past year. Over one million people visited Belize last year, and while it is extremely rare for a tourist to fall victim to a violent crime, we will remain committed to the safety and security of all people who visit, said Manuel Heredia, The Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation for Belize. But now our focus is where it should be: working with police to bring justice to the person who committed the horrible act. After such horrific, repeated incidents, many travelers are left wondering: Is Belize safe? Belize is a small country on the eastern coast of Central America, with beautiful beaches and lush, dense jungle that is teeming with wildlife. But along with its overwhelming natural beauty, Belize has one of the highest murder rates on earth, with 44.7 murders per 100,000 of the population, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Only Honduras and Venezuela are worse. Story continues But to put this into context, the U.S. city of Detroit has a rate of 43.5 and New Orleanss rate is 38.7, suggesting that visitors are no more at risk in Belize than they would be in some of our own cities. Belize also has an incredibly high crime rate; the majority of the offenses are burglaries and thefts, according to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). "Corruption, human smuggling/trafficking, the drug trade, money laundering, and organized gang activity remain significant problems, OSAC stated in its most 2015 Crime and Safety Report on the country. The highest rate of murders in the country occurs within the Belize District, which includes Belize City largely related to the high number of street gangs operating in the area. The U.S. State Department advises visitors to "avoid areas of the south side of Belize City where numerous gangs are known to operate, and exercise caution when traveling along remote areas of the Belize border. But major crime levels remain low in the more tourist-driven areas and attractions, such as the Mayan ruins and resort areas along the coastline. Tourism is a vital part of the Belizean economy, accounting for 14 percent of all jobs and 23 percent of GDP for the country, and hundreds of thousands of visitors travel to the country each year, most without incident. To protect tourists, the Belizean government established a tourism police in addition to its regular force, which is tasked with patrolling and overseeing specific locations and attractions. But as with anywhere you travel to, there is always a risk of falling victim to a crime. To minimize your risk, however, there are several things you can do. "We encourage U.S. citizens to exercise caution and good situational awareness in all their travel activities, the State Department recommends. "Visitors should travel in groups and only during daylight hours. Avoid wearing jewelry or carrying valuable or expensive items. It also suggests traveling in groups and remaining only in the main plazas when visiting the Mayan ruins. Although there are armed guards stationed at many of the archeological sites, armed criminals have been known to prey on persons walking alone or in small groups from one site to another, the State Department website explains. Related: Whos Got a Barrier Reef and Jungle Ruins? Belize, Thats Who Avoid walking around Belize City at night. Instead, get a taxi to your destination. Do not leave valuables unattended on the beach, in a vehicle, or in hotel rooms, and consider leaving expensive items, such as jewelry or camera equipment, at home. If you do become the victim of a crime while in Belize, report it to the local police and the U.S. Embassy immediately. The emergency number for the police in Belize is the same as in the U.S., 911, and the contact information for the embassy can be found here. Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Paris (AFP) - Michel Tournier, a major French literary figure in the latter half of the 20th century, died Monday at the age of 91 in his home near Paris, his family and the local mayor told AFP. "He died at 7:00 pm (1800 GMT)," surrounded by his loved ones, said his godson Laurent Feliculis, whom the author considered his adopted son. Tournier's death was confirmed by the mayor of Choisel, a village of some 550 residents southwest of Paris where Tournier, a devout Catholic, had lived for the past 50 years. Tournier is considered one of France's most influential authors of the second half of the 20th century. He won in 1970 the prestigious Prix Goncourt prize for "The Erl-King", a haunting novel about a man who recruits children into the Nazi regime. Decades later, along with Arthur Miller, Gunter Grass, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and other major authors, Tournier contributed in 2004 to a collection of short stories named "Telling Tales" whose sales financed the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa. He also wrote children's books, and loved to talk about his books at schools. French President Francois Hollande in a statement paid homage to Tournier, describing him as a "great writer" of "immense talent". Feliculis said his godfather's health had deteriorated badly in recent months. "In recent times, he just didn't want to fight any more, it was old age," he said. Alain Seigneur, the mayor of Choisel, said the author wanted to be laid to rest in the village he had lived in since 1957. "He was a little in love with the village. He had chosen where he wanted his tomb to be, at the foot of a tree." Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on Monday for the government to push through new funding for Israeli Arab communities to help counter the influence of Islamic State group extremism. Warning Israelis that the "Islamic State is already here," Rivlin told a conference in Tel Aviv that more support was needed for Arab communities. A number of Arab Israeli citizens have travelled to fight with IS in neighbouring Syria. The Israeli government in December agreed in principle to increase financing for Arab-Israeli communities, but the funding has not been finalised. Rivlin, whose position as president is largely symbolic, said that while radicalism was not unique to Israel, "I am concerned that the more the state avoids taking responsibility, the more the state distances itself, the faster the jihadi Salafists will rush in to fill the vacuum." Recalling a meeting with a teacher in an Arab community, Rivlin said he was told many Arab Israelis feel like second-class citizens in the country. Arab Israelis say they are discriminated against and face marginalisation in Israeli society. "If the children are growing up without a dream, without hope and without aspirations, with the feeling that their blood, their lives, are of a lesser value in the state of Israel, then we must think how we can offer them a dream, hope, and faith," he said. Rivlin called on the government to push the funding through as quickly as possible. "The recent resolution by the government on a system-wide plan for the economic integration of the Arab population is a step in the right direction," he said. "The plan has many detractors among the Jewish population, and it is clear why. But it is the correct and essential step, for it is a decision that represents a systemic change of direction." Rivlin has often been at odds with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though both come from the rightwing Likud party. Story continues Arab Israelis, the descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948 and who are citizens of the Jewish state, make up about 18 percent of its population. Israeli security forces estimate around 50 of them have travelled to Syria to fight alongside IS. A shooting spree in Tel Aviv by an Arab Israeli this month that killed three people led to speculation that the gunman may have been inspired by IS, but his motive remains unclear. He was killed in a shootout with police about a week later. By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon said it recalled its ambassador to Paris after France's prime minister appeared to question the legitimacy of President Ali Bongo's election in 2009. The latest sign of fraying relations between Gabon and its former colonial ruler follows a French investigation into the origins of the wealth of the Bongo family, which has ruled the oil-producing west African nation since 1967. Asked during a television interview on Saturday whether Bongo had been democratically elected, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "No, not as I understand it." Gabon's opposition disputed the election result at the time. Bongo, who succeeded his father Omar, is expected to seek a second seven-year mandate in August and will run against one of his main critics, Jean Ping, a former African Union chairman. Francois Conradie, analyst at South Africa-based NKC African Economics, suggested Valls' comment could boost the opposition's chances. "Mr Valls' undiplomatic exclamation has spread like wildfire in Gabon, and has further damaged Mr. Bongo's public image," he said in a note on Monday, while noting Ping's candidacy also had its critics. Gabon's Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya told state television late on Sunday the government was seeking clarification of Valls' remark. "We are surprised and shocked by the words of Manuel Valls when our two countries have such excellent relations," he said. France's foreign ministry said it was "extremely attached" to its relationship with Gabon under Bongo's presidency. Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters that the ambassadors of both countries had met government representatives in each capital on Monday, "to remove any misunderstanding". Gabon has twice before recalled, and then reinstated, Ambassador Germain Ngoyo Moussavou in recent years. For decades after Gabon's independence in 1960 the two countries were close allies under the "Francafrique" system that gave veteran African leaders security guarantees in exchange for business deals. Gabon is one of Africa's richest countries but wealth is very unevenly distributed. France remains a key player in Gabon's economy, with more than 100 companies based there, including oil major Total. It also has a military base in the capital Libreville with more than 400 French soldiers. (Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and John Stonestreet) LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon has recalled its ambassador to Paris after France's prime minister appeared to question the legitimacy of President Ali Bongo's election in 2009, the central African country said. The latest sign of fraying relations between Gabon and its former colonial ruler follows a French investigation into the origins of the wealth of the Bongo family, which has ruled the oil producing nation since 1967. Asked during a television interview on Saturday whether Bongo had been democratically elected, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "No, not as I understand it." Gabon's Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya told state television late on Sunday that the government was seeking clarification of Valls' remark. "We are surprised and shocked by the words of Manuel Valls when our two countries have such excellent relations," he said. France's foreign ministry said it was "extremely attached" to its relationship with Gabon under the presidency of Bongo since he was elected in 2009 after the death of his father, Omar Bongo, who had ruled since the 1960s. Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters that the ambassadors of both countries had met government representatives in each capital on Monday, "to remove any misunderstanding". In August Bongo is expected to seek a second seven-year mandate and will run against one of his main critics, Jean Ping, a former African Union chairman. Gabon's opposition disputed the result of the 2009 election at the time. Gabon has twice before recalled Ambassador Germain Ngoyo Moussavou in recent years, although each time he has been reinstated. For decades after independence in 1960, France and Gabon remained close allies under "Francafrique" - a system whereby veteran African leaders were given security guarantees in exchange for business deals. Gabon is one of Africa's richest countries but wealth is very unevenly distributed. France remains a key player in Gabon's economy, with more than 100 companies based there, including the country's biggest oil producer, Total. It has a military base in the capital Libreville with more than 400 French soldiers. (Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) By Gerauds Wilfried Obangome LIBREVILLE (Reuters) - Gabon said it recalled its ambassador to Paris after France's prime minister appeared to question the legitimacy of President Ali Bongo's election in 2009. The latest sign of fraying relations between Gabon and its former colonial ruler follows a French investigation into the origins of the wealth of the Bongo family, which has ruled the oil-producing west African nation since 1967. Asked during a television interview on Saturday whether Bongo had been democratically elected, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "No, not as I understand it." Gabon's opposition disputed the election result at the time. Bongo, who succeeded his father Omar, is expected to seek a second seven-year mandate in August and will run against one of his main critics, Jean Ping, a former African Union chairman.. Francois Conradie, analyst at South Africa-based NKC African Economics, suggested Valls' comment could boost the opposition's chances. "Mr Valls' undiplomatic exclamation has spread like wildfire in Gabon, and has further damaged Mr. Bongo's public image," he said in a note on Monday, while noting Ping's candidacy also had its critics. Gabon's Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya told state television late on Sunday the government was seeking clarification of Valls' remark. "We are surprised and shocked by the words of Manuel Valls when our two countries have such excellent relations," he said. France's foreign ministry said it was "extremely attached" to its relationship with Gabon under Bongo's presidency. Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters that the ambassadors of both countries had met government representatives in each capital on Monday, "to remove any misunderstanding". Gabon has twice before recalled, and then reinstated, Ambassador Germain Ngoyo Moussavou in recent years. For decades after Gabon's independence in 1960 the two countries were close allies under the "Francafrique" system that gave veteran African leaders security guarantees in exchange for business deals. Gabon is one of Africa's richest countries but wealth is very unevenly distributed. France remains a key player in Gabon's economy, with more than 100 companies based there, including oil major Total. It also has a military base in the capital Libreville with more than 400 French soldiers. (Reporting by Gerauds Wilfried Obangome and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy and John Stonestreet) BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's transport minister has urged her to prepare to close Germany's borders to stem an influx of asylum seekers, arguing that Berlin must act alone if it cannot reach a Europe-wide deal on refugees. Alexander Dobrindt said Germany could no longer show the world a "friendly face" - a phrase used by Merkel as refugees began pouring into Germany last summer - and that if the number of new arrivals did not drop soon, Germany should act alone. "I urgently advise: We must prepare ourselves for not being able to avoid border closures," Dobrindt, a member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper. The CSU, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), has ramped up pressure on the chancellor over her open-door refugee policy that saw 1.1 million migrants arrive in Germany last year alone. CSU leader Horst Seehofer told Der Spiegel magazine in a weekend interview that he would send the federal government a written request within the next two weeks to restore "orderly conditions" at the nation's borders. Bavaria is the main entry point to Germany for refugees. "I would advise us all to prepare a Plan B," Dobrindt said in an advanced release of an interview to run in the Muenchner Merkur's Tuesday edition. Merkel has vowed to "measurably reduce" arrivals this year, but has refused to introduce a cap, saying it would be impossible to enforce without closing German borders. Instead, she has tried to convince other European countries to take in quotas of refugees, pushed for reception centres to be built on Europe's external borders, and led an EU campaign to convince Turkey to keep refugees from entering the bloc. But progress has been slow. Dobrindt rejected Merkel's argument that closing borders would jeopardise the European project. "The sentence, the closure of the border would see Europe fail, is true in reverse. Not closing the border, just going on, would bring Europe to its knees," he said. (Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by Ralph Boulton) Berlin (AFP) - Police have arrested an Algerian asylum seeker over alleged sexual offences during New Year's Eve festivities in Cologne, prosecutors said Monday, the first directly linked to a spate of sex crimes that shocked Germany. Hundreds of women were groped and robbed in a 1,000-strong throng of mostly Arab and North African men outside the main railway station of the western city on the night. Police have also made seven other arrests over the rampage, but these were all related to thefts and robberies. The Algerian suspect, 26, was picked up by police Saturday at a refugee shelter, for allegedly groping a female victim and stealing her mobile phone, along with another Algerian asylum seeker, 22, arrested on theft charges, prosecutors said. Some 883 victims have filed 766 police reports over offences ranging from groping to theft to two reported rapes in Cologne. The rampage blamed on North African and Arab men has darkened the mood on the refugee influx in Germany, and raised questions on whether Europe's biggest economy will manage to integrate the 1.1 million asylum seekers who arrived in 2015. Berlin (AFP) - Greece's President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday accused Turkish border authorities of facilitating people smuggling by turning a blind eye to the trafficking of thousands of migrants to Europe. "I have a strong fear that Turkish smugglers have the support of the authorities,who act like they have seen nothing," he told German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "There are even cases where the smugglers are helped. We have evidence. It's a type of slave trade," he said, stressing however that he was not speaking of Turkish leaders. Human rights and aid organisations have on several occasions raised similar concerns about the alleged complicity of Turkey's border guards. Pavlopoulos, who was on a visit to Berlin where he met German President Joachim Gauck, also accused Ankara of allowing thousands of migrants to head to Greece even though they were not bona fide refugees fleeing conflict. "We will respond in an appropriate manner to the refugee question but Turkey must also fulfil its engagements," he said following talks with Gauck. "These illegal economic migrants, who arrive in Greece because Turkish authorities are not doing their work, should be sent back to Turkey under the accords in force," added Pavlopoulos. Greece and Turkey, which have a historically difficult relationship, are both on the frontlines of Europe's biggest migrant crisis since World War II. Greek islands in the Aegean Sea saw more than 800,000 migrants -- many of them refugees fleeing war-torn Syria -- land on their shores from Turkey in 2015, their first EU stop on a journey to new lives in Germany, Sweden and elsewhere. Turkey itself has taken in 2.2 million refugees from neighbouring war-ravaged Syria. More than 3,700 migrants died or were reported missing in the Mediterranean last year while making the dangerous crossing to Europe, 800 of them while trying to make it to Greece and the rest heading towards Italy. Greek, Turkish and German leaders are due to hold a mini-summit in Greece in February, with the Europeans expected to make a push for Ankara to take stronger action in stemming the flow of migrants into Europe. BERLIN (Reuters) - Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said Turkey was not doing enough to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Europe and accused Turkish port officials of helping people smugglers, drawing a denial from Ankara on Monday. Turkey reached a deal with EU officials late last year to keep more refugees inside its borders and stop them traveling onto Europe. Thousands fleeing civil war in Syria have made the perilous journey from Turkey, across the Aegean Sea to Ankara's long-term regional rival Greece, many of them dying on the way. "I greatly fear that Turkish people smugglers are getting support from the authorities," Pavlopoulos said in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung published on Monday. "In particular, the port authorities act as if they don't notice anything. There are cases in which smugglers have supposedly been helped. We have evidence for this," he said. A senior Turkish official strongly denied the allegations, saying Ankara was determinedly fighting irregular migration. "Allegations that Turkish authorities have closed their eyes to human trafficking and helped smugglers are baseless and slander," the official told Reuters. He said statistics showed Turkey had prevented the passage of nearly 200,000 irregular migrants and caught more than 3,800 people smugglers in 2015. "In an environment where bilateral cooperation in the fight against irregular migration has intensified so much, the Greek president's comments were met with astonishment," he added. Pavlopoulos said Greece was still prepared to contribute towards the 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) pledged by the EU to Turkey to help care for Syrian refugees as long as Ankara fulfilled its obligations. "Up to now Turkey has not delivered," Pavlopoulos, who is due to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later on Monday, told the paper. The European Commission said earlier this month it was far from satisfied with Turkey's containment of migrants as the number of new arrivals to Europe remained far too high. ($1 = 0.9184 euros) (Additional reporting by Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Sarah Young) Melbourne (AFP) - Veteran baseliner Lleyton Hewitt will begin his final tournament at the Australian Open on Tuesday as Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal also enter the men's draw. Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza, the world number two and three, and two-time winner Victoria Azarenka highlight the women's competition on what is forecast to be another hot day in Melbourne. Hewitt, the former world number one and a two-time Grand Slam champion, will fancy his chances against the inexperienced Jack Duckworth, whom he captains in Australia's Davis Cup team. It is just the second time that Hewitt, who is playing a record 20th consecutive Australian Open and reached the final in 2005, will have faced a fellow countryman at his home Grand Slam. "To tell you the truth, I don't know how it feels," he told reporters in Melbourne, when asked what it was like to be one defeat from the end of his career. "A tad strange feeling, but I'm trying to soak it up as much as possible. I guess it's different in the fact that if you do go out then, yes, it is the end. "But you've got to try to block that out as much as possible. You could go through all the same emotions again two days later, as well. That's going to be the tough part to deal with." Murray, a four-time finalist who is yet to lift the trophy, will get his campaign underway against giant German teenager Alexander Zverev, who is just 18 but stands 6ft 6in (1.98m) tall. The opening assignment for Wawrinka is Russia's Dmitry Tursunov as the Swiss number two looks for his second Australian Open title and third Grand Slam victory overall. Nadal could face early trouble against fellow Spaniard Verdasco, whom he overcame in a five hours, 14 minutes epic semi-final before winning his only Australian Open title in 2009. "Very tough first round. Not a lucky first round, I think, for me. For him either," said the 14-time Grand Slam winner. Temperatures are forecast to be slightly lower than a sweltering day one, when the mercury rose to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit). The first day's action was also overshadowed by a BBC and BuzzFeed report which alleged widespread match-fixing in the sport. Tehran (AFP) - The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog Yukiya Amano arrived in Tehran Monday for talks with President Hassan Rouhani, two days after Iran's nuclear deal with world powers went into force. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed late Saturday that Tehran had complied with its obligations under last summer's accord, leading the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear programme that crippled its economy for a decade. These obligations included Iran dramatically downscaling its nuclear programme, including slashing by two-thirds the number of centrifuges, which can make uranium suitable for nuclear power but also for a nuclear bomb. Combined with closer IAEA oversight, this will make it extremely difficult for Iran to make a nuclear weapon, and the limits on the size of Iran's activities remain in place for at least a decade. Additional sanctions will be lifted on the so-called "Transition Day" eight years after the deal, so in 2023. But this can happen sooner if the IAEA issues before then its so-called "Broader Conclusion". This is a clean bill of health certifying that all nuclear activities in Iran are being used for peaceful purposes, and Amano said last year that this could take "years and years". Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation, said that "we want to shorten this period and this is possible with the help of the Agency," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying on Monday. Amano was also to meet Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's atomic organisation, to discuss monitoring and verifying Tehran's commitments under the agreement, which allows for greater IAEA inspections. London (AFP) - Movie star Idris Elba urged Britain's television industry to become more diverse, in a speech at the Houses of Parliament Monday, saying he had to move to the United States to make it big. London-born Elba, who is best known for his starring role in US series "The Wire", told a meeting at the Houses of Parliament how he worked as a tyre fitter and at a Ford motor plant before forging a career for himself as an actor in Britain. But he said he was forced to move to the US to take the next step in his career because of a lack of major roles for black actors in British television. It is highly unusual for a star of Elba's profile to come to the Houses of Parliament and his speech drew around 100 MPs plus others involved in politics, who gave him a standing ovation. "I got to a certain point in my career where I saw the glass ceiling," he said to a packed committee room. "I got so close I nearly banged my forehead. I was busy, I had lots of work but I realised I could only play so many best friends or gang leaders." He added: "If I aspired to be on the level of the Denzel Washingtons or the Robert de Niros of the world, then I had to reinvent myself. "I didn't go to America because I couldn't get parts, I went to America because I was running out of parts." Elba's breakthrough role in the US came in gritty Baltimore crime series "The Wire", which ran from 2002-2008. The star, whose father came from Sierra Leone and mother from Ghana, is now touted as the possible first black James Bond and plays the lead in crime drama "Luther", one of the BBC's most successful shows. He urged British television executives to fish for talent more consistently among people of diverse backgrounds and called for targeted policies to help level the playing field. "I used to fit tyres in Forest Gate and now I make movies in Hollywood -- the difference between the two is opportunity," Elba said. By Nita Bhalla NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Two teenage girls from rural India, lured by traffickers with promises of marriage and a good life in the city, were rescued from brothels in Delhi at the weekend, a senior police official said on Monday, adding that a search was on for a third girl. North Delhi's Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma said the three girls -- aged between 16 and 17 -- were brought from the eastern state of West Bengal to Delhi, where they were held and repeatedly raped by several men for a month. "The three youths got in touch with the girls through social networking sites and then through phone calls and convinced them of marriage," Verma told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "On December 13, they took them first to Mumbai where one of the girls was sexually assaulted by two of the youths, and then they were brought to Delhi where they were sold to brothels." Verma said one of the girls, who was confined to a brothel in north Delhi's Majnu-ka-tilla area, managed to escape on Saturday and was "in a bad condition" on the street when she was approached a policeman to whom she recounted her ordeal. The police raided the brothel and another one in the city's red light district of Garstin Bastion Road, popularly known as G.B. Road, where they found the second girl. Two women who were running the brothels have been arrested, but the three alleged traffickers named as Raj, Victor and Suraj have fled, with one of them taking the third girl, police said. A search is underway to find the suspects and the missing girl, said Verma, adding that charges filed against the two women and three men included rape, abduction and confinement. "The West Bengal police has been informed and they are traveling to Delhi. They will take the girls, who are currently in a children's home, back to their families," he said. Almost 36 million people are enslaved worldwide -- trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labor, victims of debt bondage or even born into servitude, says the 2014 Global Slavery Index. Almost half - 16 million - are in India. Many are from poor rural regions and are lured with the promise good jobs or marriage, but end up sold into domestic work, prostitution, or industries such as brick kilns or textile units. In most cases, they are unpaid or held in debt bondage. Some go missing, with their families unable to trace them. (Reporting by Nita Bhalla, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org) Mumbai (AFP) - India's largest car maker Tata Motors on Monday appointed its first permanent chief executive since its previous head fell to his death from a hotel in Bangkok two years ago. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Tata Motors, the owner of luxury British brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), said former Airbus CEO Guenter Butschek would take over as chief executive and managing director from February 15. Cyrus Mistry, chairman of the sprawling tea-to-software Tata Group, has been acting CEO since former chief Karl Slym apparently committed suicide in the Thai capital in January 2014. "I am confident that Mr Butschek's ability to lead high performing teams will enable our company to achieve sustainable, profitable growth," Mistry wrote in the statement. Butschek will be tasked with turning around the domestic operations of Tata Motors. The Mumbai-based firm's profits have become hugely reliant on revenues from JLR, which it bought for $2.3 billion from Ford in 2008. In November, Tata Motors reported a quarterly loss of $65.4 million, citing a massive one-off hit from a gas explosion in Tianjin, China. Brent crude oil fell as low as $27.67 a barrel in Asian trading - its lowest level since 2003 - as the collapse in world prices showing no sign of easing soon. The latest declines followed the announcement over the weekend from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that Iran had met its commitments to limit its nuclear programme - enabling the lifting of US sanctions which had limited Tehran's oil exports. Iran's deputy oil minister has said that his country is now ready to increase its crude exports by half a million barrels per day - roughly translating to a 50% increase - in response. The move comes at a time when the oil price is already under sustained pressure due to the Chinese economic slowdown. Brent crude is 43% cheaper than it was 12 months ago and oil has now lost more than three-quarters of its value since its record high of $126.65 a barrel in April (LSE: 0N69.L - news) 2011. The oil rout has prompted Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) to reduce its oil price forecast for 2016 from $60 a barrel to just $37 a barrel. However, the latest monthly report by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - released on Monday - suggested it was expecting to claim victory in its battle for market share with US shale producers. OPEC, led by fierce Iran critic Saudi Arabia, has refused to cut production to raise prices. Its report said: "After seven straight years of phenomenal non-OPEC supply growth, often greater than two million barrels per day, 2016 is set to see output decline as the effects of deep capex (capital expenditure) cuts start to feed through. "Non-OPEC marginal barrel production in the next six months will be sensitive to sustained low oil prices, whereby its breakeven point would not be able to tolerate the price conditions at that time." Meanwhile, a type of low-quality American crude oil is now being sold at a 'negative price'. Flint Hill resources which is owned by the world's richest brothers, Charles and David Koch, is offering to pay $0.50 for someone to take a barrel of North Dakota Sour. Sour oil has a high-sulphur content which means that it contains impurities which need to be removed before it can be refined into the petrol we put in our cars. The negative price reflects capacity issues. By paying for people to remove low-yielding oil the refiner can use its resources to pipe higher-margin oil. DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran on Monday said new U.S. curbs on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile program were illegitimate, vowing to continue developing its conventional military deterrent. The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals on Sunday for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program in a move delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of U.S. prisoners. The new measures also came after the lifting of far more comprehensive nuclear sanctions. "The Islamic Republic will respond to these aggravating and propagandistic measures by pursuing its legal missile program stronger than before and developing its defensive capabilities," a foreign ministry statement said. Iran conducted a ballistic missile test in October, which the United Nations called a breach of a resolution prohibiting the Islamic Republic from developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Iran insists the missile was designed to carry a conventional payload. Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Washington's sales of weaponry to allies in the Middle East, worth tens of billions of dollars each year, was used to commit "war crimes against Palestinian, Lebanese and most recently Yemeni citizens". "The U.S. sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile program ... have no legal or moral legitimacy," he said. Hardline newspapers Kayhan and Vatan-e-Emrooz splashed the news on their front pages, crowding out a triumphal speech by President Hassan Rouhani, who on Sunday hailed the lifting of the nuclear sanctions. "Sanctions are back!" ran the Kayhan headline. The article pointed out that Tehran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had said new sanctions under any pretext would constitute a breach of the nuclear deal. (Reporting by Sam Wilkin; Additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by William Maclean and Toby Chopra) BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Sunni lawmakers and ministers decided to boycott Tuesday's parliament and government sessions to protest violence targeting their community in a town east of Baghdad, the independent al-Sumaria TV channel reported on Monday.A coalition of Sunni Arab parliament members took the decision after a meeting chaired by parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri, who is also the most senior representative of the community in the Iraqi state, the channel said, citing lawmaker Badr al-Fahl. Anti-Shi'ite bombings claimed by Islamic State on Jan. 11 in the town of Muqdadiya triggered retaliatory attacks on the Sunni community, leaving an unknown number of people killed. Police have not yet announced a casualty toll for the anti-Sunni violence in Muqdadiya. At least 23 people were killed and 51 wounded in a twin blast in an area frequented by Shi'ite militia fighters of the town on Jan. 11, according to security sources. "The parliamentary and ministerial blocs representing the (Sunni) Forces Coalition ... has decided to withdraw from the government session of Tuesday and also the parliamentary session because of the events in Muqdadiya," parliament member Fahl said in an interview with al-Sumaria. Addressing a news conference on Sunday, Jabouri reported "retaliatory operations targeting journalists and innocent people and places of worship," in Muqdadiya, without giving further details.The Iraqi government is led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a moderate Shi'ite politician. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) By Aidan Lewis TUNIS (Reuters) - The attacks against Libya's biggest oil terminals were lethal and sustained. The last two weeks have seen suicide bombings, huge fires at storage tanks, and a hole blown in a major pipeline. The oil ports of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf had been closed for more than a year, and the Islamic State militants advancing on them backed off after three days of shelling and clashes. But the escalation of violence in Libya's coastal "oil crescent" has underscored the threat to an energy industry that, despite the political chaos plaguing the country, still provides vital income to the state. Oil is central to Libya's livelihood and the power struggles following the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi often focused on the industry. The OPEC member's exports plunged from 2013 as armed groups began shutting down production to press political demands. Last year, as two rival governments competed for power from Tripoli and the east, Islamic State gained a foothold in the city of Sirte and launched its first attacks against oil infrastructure. The group has not taken control of oil fields, as it has in Syria. But it has pushed along the coast from Sirte, consolidating its presence in towns including Ben Jawad, just 30 km (19 miles) west of Es Sider. "I think the danger is very grave, especially in Es Sider," Mohamed al-Harari, a spokesman for the National Oil Corp (NOC) in Tripoli, told Reuters by telephone. "The area seems to be secure, but nobody can guarantee anything." The recent spate of attacks began on Jan. 4 with a double car bombing at a Petroleum Facilities Guards outpost near Es Sider. As the violence intensified, the NOC posted a "cry for help" on its website. And as a precaution against further attacks, the company said on Thursday that it had sent a tanker to remove oil from the terminals, though guards, citing security concerns, had not granted it access. The guards are a military sub-division created in 2005 and paid by the NOC. Their numbers swelled to at least 12,000 after the uprising, but analysts say their allegiances are uncertain and their fighting capacity limited. At least 18 guards were killed in the recent clashes, and spokesman Ali al-Hassi told Reuters the force expected another Islamic State attack "at the earliest opportunity". With militants threatening to puncture defenses at Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, "there is a very real risk" of an attack on the still-functioning Brega terminal another 115 km (70 miles) to the east, said Richard Mallinson, an analyst at research consultancy Energy Aspects. They could also potentially strike the oil fields of Sarir, Messla and Nafoura, which account for about 60 percent of Libya's current oil output of just under 400,000 barrels per day, he said. Libya produced 1.6 million barrels per day before the uprising. DESTROYING, NOT HOLDING So far, Islamic State has aimed to destroy infrastructure to damage state revenue streams and undermine a U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) scheduled to take power in the coming weeks, said Claudia Gazzini, senior Libya analyst at the International Crisis Group. Islamic State's Libyan forces, estimated to number in the low thousands, might not be able to seize control of oil facilities from the guards, she said. But control may not be a priority. Libya's oil industry is largely structured on exports of crude oil across the Mediterranean, so it is hard to make significant profits locally. "They're aiming to create a deficit of the public funds and create social and economic upheaval," said Gazzini. Es Sider and Ras Lanuf -- with an export capacity of 600,000 barrels per day -- were processing about 300,000 bpd before they were shut in December 2014 amid fighting that had already damaged some of the terminals' 32 storage tanks. Two more tanks were hit, and the fires spread to a further five during this month's clashes. NOC spokesman Harari said the company had not yet been able to assess the damage accurately, but he estimated that up to 850,000 barrels had been destroyed. Backers of the unity government hope the threat from Islamic State, which also claimed a suicide attack this month that killed at least 60 in the western town of Zliten, will push Libya's myriad factions to unite against a common enemy. "The fight against Daesh (Islamic State) and the fear of Daesh expansion, this is one of the consensus topics," said UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler. "I see a growing tendency to rally behind the political agreement." But the agreement for the GNA still faces fierce opposition from some factions, and it is unclear how and when the government will move to Tripoli. "It's a mountain to climb for the GNA to establish legitimacy, even before we start talking about organizing security against Islamic State," said Mallinson. (Additional reporting by Ayman al-Warfalli in Benghazi; editing by Patrick Markey and Katharine Houreld) BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State captured ground from Syrian government forces near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Monday, a group monitoring the war said, pressing a three-day assault which state media says has killed 300 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was still no word on the fate of over 400 people it reported kidnapped when IS began to attack government-held areas of the city on Saturday. State media has made no mention of the abductions. Deir al-Zor is the main city in a province of the same name. The province links Islamic State's de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighboring Iraq. Islamic State, in control of most of Deir al-Zor province, has laid siege since March to remaining government-held areas in the city of Deir al-Zor. This is the third day of IS attacks on the towns of Ayyash and Begayliya, which lie to the northwest of Deir al-Zor city on the approach from Raqqa. IS has now taken control of areas in the south and west of Begayliya, and has seized the Saeqa military camp near the town of Ayyash, the Observatory said. A Syrian official source told Reuters the Syrian army repelled the attacks but IS is continuing the offensive. Speaking to Al Mayadeen television news early on Monday, Deir al-Zor's governor said the security situation in Begayliya was "excellent". Syria's state news agency SANA said on Sunday that at least 300 people, including women and children, had been killed during the attacks in Deir al-Zor. The Observatory says around 400 people said to have been kidnapped have been taken to countryside to the west of the city, closer to Raqqa. The United Nations has warned that around 200,000 besieged residents in Deir al-Zor face severe food shortages and sharply deteriorating conditions. The Syrian government has dropped some basic commodities into the city in recent weeks, and Russia said on Friday it had dropped 22 tonnes of aid to the besieged part of the city. The Syrian foreign ministry said on Monday it had written to the United Nations condemning the attack. Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside President Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, also condemned the attacks by IS in a statement on Monday. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Mariam Karouny; Editing by Tom Perry and Dominic Evans) By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bristled on Sunday at the lifting of international sanctions on Iran and vowed to flag up any violations of its arch-foe's nuclear restrictions while drawing on U.S. defence aid to prepare for a possible military face-off in the future. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday ruled Iran had abided by last July's deal with world powers curbing its nuclear programme, spelling a windfall in sanctions relief. A parallel Iranian-U.S. prisoner exchange, devised in secrecy, drove home the adversaries' desire to reengage diplomatically. The developments put paid to years of intensive Israeli lobbying for more comprehensive curbs on Tehran - a campaign that strained relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Netanyahu sounded unrepentant on Sunday - even as one Israeli official grudgingly commended Iran's statecraft and a former senior adviser to the prime minister accused him of having pursued a dangerously failed strategy. "Were it not for our efforts to spearhead the sanctions and foil Iran's nuclear programme, Iran would have already had nuclear weapons long ago," Netanyahu told his cabinet. He called on world powers to impose "harsh, aggressive sanctions" for any nuclear violations by Iran - actions which, his office said in an earlier statement, Israel would "continue monitoring and flagging up". Speaking to reporters at the White House later on Sunday, Obama repeated U.S. assurances to the security of Israel and other regional allies. "We remain steadfast in opposing Irans destabilizing behavior ... including its threats against Israel and our Gulf partners, and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen," Obama said. Ram Ben-Barak, director-general of Israel's Intelligence Ministry, predicted Iran would invest in economic recovery in the coming years while remaining able to restart its nuclear drive "overnight". "The Iranians are celebrating, and rightly so. They managed to spin everyone around their little finger," Ben-Barak told Israel's Army Radio. "VERY WORRIED" "The Americans are satisfied because, in their thinking, diplomacy succeeded. But we are very, very worried and the Gulf countries are very, very worried and it is absolutely clear to everyone that this hiatus is utterly temporary," Ben-Barak said. Israel argues that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran has been eclipsed, for the time being, by the threat of conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah and other guerrillas who now stand to get increased funding from Tehran. That, along with the sectarian strife rippling through the region, has prompted Israel to request a boost in U.S. defence aid to as much as $5 billion annually when the current package worth an average of $3 billion expires next year. Netanyahu said those negotiations were in the final stages. "This is important as part of the fixed policy between us and the United States, our ally, and also important in order to fend off the regional threats, chief of which is the Iranian threat, of course," he said. U.S. officials have said the Obama administration was unlikely to fully meet the Netanyahu government's request for increased aid, though they affirmed Washington's commitment to Israel's security. Uzi Arad, a former Netanyahu national security adviser, said Israel's naysaying on the Iran deal had eroded its leverage - especially with Obama, an outgoing Democratic president who saw the rightist premier as siding with his Republican rivals. "The question is, do we today have an understanding with the Americans as to what should be done if there is this-or-that (nuclear) violation? I'm not so sure," Arad told Israel Radio. "To judge by the outcome, we lost. In any event, their (Iranian) diplomacy won, and that's a pity." (Additional reporting by Joel Schechtman in Washington, writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Kevin Liffey) By Dan Williams TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Islamic State's battleground setbacks in Syria have increased the chance of an attack by the insurgents or their allies on Israel and Jordan, Israel's military chief said on Monday. While focused on shoring up its Syrian and Iraqi fiefdoms, Islamic State has in recent months stepped up attacks abroad and issued public threats to include Israel among its targets. Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, chief of Israel's armed forces, said that with Russia intervening last year to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the insurgents' advance had been largely arrested. An exception to this, Eizenkot said, was in the southern Syrian border nexus with Israel and Jordan. "The successes against ISIS raise the probability, in my eyes, that we will see them turning their guns both against us and against the Jordanians," he told a conference hosted by Tel Aviv University's Institute for International Security Studies. Islamic State itself does not have a strong presence on Syria's south-west border region, but one of several Islamist forces in the area, the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, is believed by its opponents to be linked to the ultra-hardline militant group. It has fought rival insurgent forces from Syria's al Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham for control of territory next to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and close to northern Jordan. "In their strategic logic, there is a certain logic in connecting Israel with Jordan," Eizenkot said, and in the border area "they are not experiencing what the organisation and other global jihadi groups are experiencing inside Syria". A voice recording release on social media three weeks ago and attributed to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warned that Israel was a target. Jordan, one of two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel, has largely weathered the upheaval in much of the Middle East over the past five years, though it has absorbed major refugee influxes from Syria and Iraq, another neighbour wracked by Islamic State insurgents. Jordan has low-key military backing from the United States and Israel, cooperation that the parties rarely discuss publicly. Israel has formally kept out of the almost five-year-old Syrian civil war, though it has launched occasional bombing raids to thwart suspected transfers of advanced arms by Assad's government to allied Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah, which fought Israel's technologically superior military to standstill in the 2006 Lebanon war, remained a major threat and stood to receive boosted support from its Iranian patron thanks to the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran, Eizenkot said. But he also described Hezbollah as cautious to open a new front with Israel, noting that while the Shi'ite militia had gained combat experience reinforcing Syrian government forces against Sunni Islamist-led rebels, it had also suffered losses. Some 1,300 Hezbollah guerrillas had been killed and almost another 5,000 wounded in Syria, out of a regular fighting force of 20,000 and a reservist force of 20,000-25,000, Eizenkot said. Hezbollah generally does not publish details on its casualties, and says it is ready to fight Israel again. (Editing by Dominic Evans) By Dan Williams TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Islamic State's battleground setbacks in Syria have increased the chance of an attack by the insurgents or their allies on Israel and Jordan, Israel's military chief said on Monday. While focused on shoring up its Syrian and Iraqi fiefdoms, Islamic State has in recent months stepped up attacks abroad and issued public threats to include Israel among its targets. Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, chief of Israel's armed forces, said that with Russia intervening last year to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the insurgents' advance had been largely arrested. An exception to this, Eizenkot said, was in the southern Syrian border nexus with Israel and Jordan. "The successes against ISIS raise the probability, in my eyes, that we will see them turning their guns both against us and against the Jordanians," he told a conference hosted by Tel Aviv University's Institute for International Security Studies. Islamic State itself does not have a strong presence on Syria's south-west border region, but one of several Islamist forces in the area, the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, is believed by its opponents to be linked to the ultra-hardline militant group. It has fought rival insurgent forces from Syria's al Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham for control of territory next to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and close to northern Jordan. "In their strategic logic, there is a certain logic in connecting Israel with Jordan," Eizenkot said, and in the border area "they are not experiencing what the organization and other global jihadi groups are experiencing inside Syria". A voice recording release on social media three weeks ago and attributed to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warned that Israel was a target. Jordan, one of two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel, has largely weathered the upheaval in much of the Middle East over the past five years, though it has absorbed major refugee influxes from Syria and Iraq, another neighbor wrecked by Islamic State insurgents. Jordan has low-key military backing from the United States and Israel, cooperation that the parties rarely discuss publicly. Israel has formally kept out of the almost five-year-old Syrian civil war, though it has launched occasional bombing raids to thwart suspected transfers of advanced arms by Assad's government to allied Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah, which fought Israel's technologically superior military to standstill in the 2006 Lebanon war, remained a major threat and stood to receive boosted support from its Iranian patron thanks to the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran, Eizenkot said. But he also described Hezbollah as cautious to open a new front with Israel, noting that while the Shi'ite militia had gained combat experience reinforcing Syrian government forces against Sunni Islamist-led rebels, it had also suffered losses. Some 1,300 Hezbollah guerrillas had been killed and almost another 5,000 wounded in Syria, out of a regular fighting force of 20,000 and a reservist force of 20,000-25,000, Eizenkot said. Hezbollah generally does not publish details on its casualties, and says it is ready to fight Israel again. (Editing by Dominic Evans) By Tova Cohen and Steven Scheer TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Israel's pension funds are facing calls to invest more in the country's thriving high-tech sector, with complaints growing that the Israeli public is missing out while foreign investors reap the returns of the country's technology boom. Burned by the tech bubble that burst in 2000 and hampered by regulatory constraints, Israeli pension funds have shied away from high tech over the past decade, during which billions have been generated from high-profile takeovers or flotations. Now, with pension funds posting sluggish returns of between 2 and 3.6 percent during 2015, bankers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are saying they should put more into the country's best performing industry. "It's mostly guys from California enjoying the fruits of the Israeli high-tech success," said Yaron Bloch, chief executive of Bank Leumi's investment banking arm Leumi Partners. Israeli tech mergers, acquisitions and IPOs rose 16 percent in 2015 to $9.02 billion, according to the Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Centre and the Meitar law firm. At the same time Israeli venture capital firms raised $1.02 billion, but the funds mostly came from U.S. investors, and increasingly from Asia, rather than Israel's risk-averse institutional investors. However, recent successes such as Google's purchase of Israeli navigation app Waze and the large initial public offering of driver-assistance technology provider Mobileye are expected to gradually boost institutional interest. U.S. CONTRAST U.S. funds such as the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System have invested billions of dollars in Silicon Valley and Israeli venture capital (VC) firms such as Pitango, Carmel and Giza. The $185 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest in the United States, has invested over $140 million in Israeli venture capital firms and $22 million in two Israel tech-focused private equity funds. Israeli institutions have started to place small amounts with venture capital - mostly in late-stage growth funds targeting companies with sales over $10 million. But specialists say it's not enough to deliver major pension fund returns. "The government should give incentives to long-term investors to start investing in the high tech industry. It has to happen," said Eldad Tamir, CEO of the Tamir Fishman investment house and a partner at the Eucalyptus Growth Capital fund. Israeli pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds manage 1.6 trillion shekels ($407 billion). In contrast to the United States where pension funds allocate 50 percent of assets to equity investments, in Israel it's under 10 percent - the eighth lowest of 31 OECD countries. Israeli institutions invest about 40 percent overseas, some of which goes to money managers to invest in private equity and investment funds. Ironically, some of that money is allocated to private equity and venture capital funds that then invest in Israeli high tech, said Koby Simana, CEO of the IVC Research Center. SIGNS OF CHANGE One fund that raised money from Israeli institutions is Israel Growth Partners (IGP), which focuses on small but growing tech firms. It received $250 million from five institutions, including Leumi Partners. "Things are changing," said Haim Shani, IGP's general partner. Institutions "prefer to invest in the growth stage which has a different risk-reward curve." Assaf Shoham, chief investment officer at Migdal Insurance - Israel's largest insurer with $50 billion under management - said he was examining investing in a fund of funds that would invest in private equity and venture capital. One problem for institutional investors though is the time it takes to show a profit. "You won't see results for seven or eight years," Ilan Artzi, chief investment officer at investment house Halman Aldubi, noting funds could book an accounting loss early on. The government can help not only by offering tax incentives to encourage pension fund investment but also by easing the restrictions imposed by the insurance commissioner on the amount pension funds may pay to external managers, such as venture capital funds, venture capitalists and pension fund managers say. In the United States there is no restriction. A Finance Ministry spokeswoman said the regulation's purpose is to ensure institutions don't charge too much in management fees, enabling higher returns for investors. "That regulation that was meant to protect investors had good intentions but was done without properly understanding how VCs are structured," said Dan Shamgar, a partner at the Meitar law firm, which represents most of Israel's major venture capital firms. (Editing by Adrian Croft) By Randy Fabi and Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Afif was an inmate in a high-security Indonesian jail when he transformed from aspiring radical Islamist to soldier for Islamic State, ready to sacrifice his life for a group based thousands of miles away in the Middle East. His journey ended with his death last week on a busy intersection in central Jakarta, after the gun and suicide bomb attack he launched with three other militants that brought Islamic State's brand of violence to Southeast Asia for the first time. Afif's graduation from jailbird to jihadi shines a light on a prison system where staff shortages, overcrowding and corruption have allowed extremists to mingle and emerge as determined killers in the name of Islam. Security officials say Afif, also known as Sunakim, was sentenced to seven years in prison for taking part in a militant training camp in the province of Aceh, where Islam is generally practiced in a stricter form than other parts of Indonesia. Once behind bars, he refused to follow deradicalization programs, the officials added. Akbar Hadi, spokesman for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, declined to comment on whether Afif's activities were monitored after he was released last August. Police said he planned the Jakarta siege with the three other attackers, one of whom was also a former convict. Four civilians died in the attack along with the militants. A report by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) last year said that 26 prisons across Indonesia housed about 270 "convicted terrorists", but Islamic State supporters accounted for only a small minority of them. National Police Chief Badrodin Haiti told Reuters that at least five jailed militants were believed to have been in communication with the plotters in the lead-up to the attack. COURIERS, CELL PHONES While inside Jakarta's Cipinang prison, Afif was one of some 20 convicts heavily influenced by fellow convict and firebrand Islamist cleric Aman Abdurrahman, experts said. From behind bars, Abdurrahman heads an umbrella organization formed last year through an alliance of splinter groups that support Islamic State. "They shared the same cells, they prayed together, they cooked together," said Taufik Andrie, Jakarta-based executive director of the Institute for International Peacebuilding. Abdurrahman regularly spread "takfiri" doctrine, a belief among Sunni militants who justify their violence by branding others as infidels, through his sermons and lectures. Abdurrahman was moved to a maximum security prison in Nusakambangan in Central Java in 2013, but continued to communicate with Afif and a growing group of around 200 followers using couriers and cell phones. A lawyer for Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, another high-profile radical inmate at Nusakambangan, told Reuters it is easy to convey messages to the outside world from inside prison. "Any kind of visitor is allowed and even if they don't exchange any cell phones, there is still an exchange of information and the visitor can interpret that," said Achmad Michdan. SOCIAL MEDIA A KEY TOOL Experts say radical inmates like Abdurrahman still get away with disseminating sermons by email, Facebook, and hard copies. Despite being behind bars, Abdurrahman was able to make an online pledge of allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. "Those with more radical thinking can also hold religious sermons on a regular basis and it is very easy to convey radical ideas to others," said Farihin, a former militant who participated in a government deradicalization program during his time in a prison in Palu on the island of Sulawesi. Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief, Saud Usman Nasution, told Reuters in November that prison officials were unable to halt this type of communication because of overcrowding. "We are aware that there is a problem with convicts being allowed to communicate using the Internet and cell phones. There is definitely room for improvement," said Ministry of Law and Human Rights spokesman Hadi, adding that inmates cannot be forced to join deradicalization programs. Experts say access to social media and messaging apps like Telegram is a large part of the problem. Police believe the alleged mastermind of the Jakarta attack, an Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria called Bahrun Naim, used social media to communicate his radical ideas to followers in Indonesia. He may also have transferred thousands of dollars to accounts here, police said. Since the attack, Indonesia has blocked websites and sent letters to social media networks Twitter, Facebook and Telegram, asking them to take down radical content. (Additional reporting by Aubrey Belford; Editing by John Chalmers and Mike Collett-White) When the cast and crew of Grace and Frankie took the stage Sunday at the Television Critics Associations winter press tour, they did so with money on their mind. Partway through the session, star Jane Fonda revealed that anyone on the panel who could make the cavernous ballroom of reporters laugh would get paid $100. We were told you were very serious and dont laugh very much, the actress joked, racking up an easy $100. Over the course of the lively panel, her Netflix co-stars Lily Tomlin and Sam Waterston found themselves cleaning up, too. In between the laughs, however, came poignant insights about what made their comedy about two seventysomething women whose husbands have fallen in love with each other resonate. "I think people are astonished by this show," said Waterston. "They dont expect such delicate, difficult and hard subjects as late-life sexual orientation changes, divorce, death itself and aging to be funny at all." Fonda added that the series likely gives its older viewership hope as well. Among the show's season-two additions is actor Sam Elliott, who will play Fondas love interest. ("The sex was good," she cracked.) He had been on hand earlier in the day to promote The Ranch, and told reporters he had a crush on Fonda from 1971's Klute. Asked to comment, the actress earned another quick $100. Who wouldnt have had a crush on me back then? she deadpanned. Fonda then returned the compliment, recalling a time when Elliot came to Montana to visit her and the man she calls her favorite ex-husband, Ted Turner. When they took Elliott to the office, Fonda suggested every woman was panting. Read More: Netflix Renews 'Grace and Frankie' for Third Season Grace and Frankie co-creator Marta Kauffman used the TCA platform to tease additional guest stars and different delicious pairings for the series second season, which returns in May. What wont happen at that time: a 9 to 5 reunion. Though Fonda and Tomlin have pitched an idea for how to get their 9 to 5 co-star Dolly Parton to guest on the series, Kauffman acknowledged she simply wasnt ready. Were still creating a world, and the world is Grace and Frankie, she explained. And the minute you bring in Dolly Parton, who I love, its 9 to 5 ... and youre taken out of the show. Story continues At several other points during the half-hour, the discussion veered away from the series, focusing instead on Fonda and Tomlins robust post-75 careers and longstanding friendship. We have a special bond, said Fonda. I come from a long line of depressed people, and [Lily] has a true funny bone. Asked later what their secrets were to aging as gracefully as they have, Fonda tossed out terms like health and attitude. Showcasing that funny bone (and pocketing another $100), Tomlin chose another: denial. Read More: Netflix's Content Chief on Profitability Digs and "Too Much TV" Debate Washington (AFP) - Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post journalist released by Iran over the weekend after 1.5 years in the country's notorious Evin prison, told his editors Sunday he feels "a hell of a lot better." Rezaian is among four US citizens freed by Iran in a prisoner swap, and arrived in Germany on Sunday, a US official said. A fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, was released in a separate process, according to a US official. "Jason was in good spirits," his editors said in a memo to newsroom staff following brief telephone conversations with Rezaian. "Asked how he was doing, he said, 'I'm a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago.' He said that he feels better than he did several months ago and that his mind is sharp." Rezaian's family reported that his health deteriorated in prison, where he lost weight and suffered from high blood pressure, and that he was held for months in isolation without access to a lawyer. The Post also said he was subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse before finally being convicted of espionage in what it called a sham trial. "Isolation, as you might expect, was the most difficult thing. When told, well, you're a social person, he laughed and responded, 'Yes, I am!'" Post executive editor Martin Baron and foreign editor Douglas Jehl said. "He found escape in the fiction he was allowed to read, and today he was avidly reading whatever he wanted... remarking on how strange it was to see himself being talked about so much," they added. "We told him we've been talking about him for 545 days." Above all, the editors said, Rezaian "wanted to express his deep appreciation for the strong and unwavering support from everyone at The Post." "Jason said he'd been able to read some of the coverage of his release on his mom's iPad while on the plane to Germany," Baron and Jehl added. Story continues "The support of the Post 'means everything,' he said." And Rezaian expressed hope he could thank his colleagues personally in the newsroom in Washington as early as Monday. "I hear there's going to be a big party," the editors quoted him as saying. They added: "For now, we agreed, he just needed to get some sleep." Rezaian, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in California, was detained in Iran on July 22, 2014. He was arrested at the same time as his wife Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian who at that time was a journalist for The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper. She was released on bail a few months later. Both Rezaian, 39, and his wife left Iran on a plane earlier Sunday. The Post's editors said the reporter had become a hostage to the nuclear talks, being detained at the behest of hardline opponents of President Hassan Rouhani within Iran's regime. The nuclear deal was finally implemented on Saturday, with sanctions on Iran being lifted. (Reuters) - Rev. Jesse Jackson said on Sunday that Flint, Michigan is a "disaster zone" and could be the next epicenter in the fight for economic and social equality as the city struggles through a crisis with lead-contaminated drinking water. Speaking at a church rally in Flint a day after President Obama declared a federal emergency, the prominent civil rights leader compared the city to Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, places where the civil rights movement in the 1960s unfolded. "The people of Flint have been betrayed," he said. "This is the time for us to make a bigger statement than we have made in a long time. You can never tell when the spirit will strike and then it's time for everyone to move." Flint, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of Detroit, returned to using that city's water supply in October after tests found elevated levels of lead in the water and in the blood of some children. Lead contamination can cause brain damage and other health problems when ingested. Obama declared an emergency in Michigan on Saturday and ordered federal aid for state and local response efforts in Genesee County, where Flint, a city of just under 100,000 residents, is located. The financially strapped city, where a majority of residents are African-American, was under control of a state-appointed emergency manager when it switched its source of tap water from Detroit's system to the nearby Flint River in April 2014 in an effort to save money. "We have been treated like we don't matter because we are from Flint," said Melissa Mays, a member of the Coalition for Clean Water during the rally. "It's our job to stand up and say no, we're done. We're not going to put up with this anymore." Republican Governor Rick Snyder has apologized for the state's handling of the crisis as calls for him to resign have grown louder over the last week. The more corrosive water from the Flint River leached lead from the city pipes more than Detroit water did, leading to the current problems. Last week, the Michigan attorney general said his office would investigate whether any laws were violated in Flint related to the crisis. His probe follows one launched earlier by the U.S. Attorney in Detroit. Some Flint residents sued Snyder, other officials, Michigan and the city on Jan. 7 in Genesee County court and are seeking class action status covering all residents. Other Flint residents late last year filed a federal lawsuit. Genesee County also has seen a spike of Legionnaires' disease resulting in 10 deaths that may or may not be related to the water crisis, state officials previously said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Alan Crosby) By Herbert Lash NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Jewish-American group that lobbied for the Iran nuclear agreement said on Sunday the prisoner swap and Tehran's release of captured U.S. sailors were positive signs for U.S.-Iranian relations but that strict verification remained paramount. But improved relations do not indicate a detente with Iran, which has a history of being a troublemaker in the region, said Dan Kalik, chief of staff at J Street, a "pro-Israel, pro-peace" advocacy group. "I don't think we're at a place where just because we have a nuclear deal with Iran, they're now trustworthy or even an ally," Kalik said. Other Jewish-American organizations remain deeply opposed to the deal, which has also been sharply criticized by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Republicans. The issue has sharply divided American Jews. The International Atomic Energy Agency ruled on Saturday that Iran had fulfilled last year's landmark agreement with the United States and five other world powers to curtail its nuclear program, triggering the end of sanctions. Days before the accord's implementation, nerves were rattled when Iran briefly held 10 U.S. sailors who the U.S. military said made a navigational mistake that led them into Iranian waters. The leader of another Jewish-American organization that had not taken a position on the nuclear agreement in the months leading to its implementation, invoked a biblical saying from the book of Psalms to "seek peace and pursue it." But Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said: "Iran's support of terror, a strong inspections regime, Iran's human rights and religious freedom violations, and the United States' standing in the world remain uppermost in our minds, as is ensuring Israel's security.". The Anti-Defamation League, which opposed the nuclear deal, said on Saturday that Tehran's release of several Iranian-American prisoners this weekend was a positive step. But it expressed hope Iran would soon release Robert Levinson, an American held captive for nearly nine years and whose fate remains unknown. U.S. officials said on Saturday the United States would continue to seek Levinson's whereabouts and try to bring him home. The ADL also urged "strong U.S. pushback" on human rights violations, Iran's regional expansionism and further missile development, which it said exemplified "ongoing militarism." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said the deal, which it strongly opposed, was a turning point for Iran's strength as a "terrorist state" and its ability to pursue regional dominance, as tens of billions of dollars are repatriated. "This is a dangerous moment for America and our allies," AIPAC said in a statement on Saturday. It said Iran must be held to the commitments it agreed to under the nuclear accord and that its support for militant groups and arming of regional proxies must be confronted. (Editing by Frank McGurty and Peter Cooney) BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea backed his rival Michel Aoun for the presidency on Monday, in an apparent break with his Saudi-backed allies that aligns him with a civil war era enemy supported by Hezbollah. The announcement edges 80-year-old Aoun closer to the presidency vacant for 20 months and marks a rare show of unity in a Christian community riven by divisions for years. The presidency is reserved for a Maronite Christian. Geagea made the announcement in a televised news conference sitting alongside Aoun. He also called on his allies in the March 14 alliance, led by the Saudi-backed politician Saad al-Hariri, to support Aoun's candidacy. (Reporting by Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry; editing by Ralph Boulton) The Trudeau government would like to see additional pipeline capacity in Canada, but Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr says he has no intention to rush any decisions on a plan to assess future projects. The federal government is working "intensely" to come up with a strategy that will assess pipeline projects, such as the Energy East pipeline, Carr said during the Liberal cabinet's retreat in St. Andrews, N.B. The federal government is working "collaboratively" on a strategy that will see more pipeline infrastructure built in Canada, but Carr said the policy must balance responsible economic development with environmental sustainability. "There has to be public confidence in the regulatory process if we are going to sustain the movement of these resources to tidewater," Carr told reporters. All 30 members of Justin Trudeau's cabinet are attending the day-and-a half retreat in the resort community. - LIVE BLOG: Follow the live blog from the Trudeau cabinet retreat - ON MOBILE? Follow the live blog from the Trudeau cabinet retreat Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci said in an interview on Saturday that it's imperative more pipelines are built in Canada. He said a lack of pipeline capacity will leave the Canadian economy stuck in neutral. The New Brunswick government has been a firm supporter of the Energy East pipeline, which is being proposed by TransCanada Corp., and would bring Alberta crude oil as far as Saint John, where it could be refined and then exported. Government House leader Dominic LeBlanc, a New Brunswick MP, said after the Liberals formed government that he felt the Energy East project needed a "robust" review. The falling price of oil has put more pressure on provinces, such as Alberta, that rely on revenue from the oil and gas industry. That, however, will not prompt the federal government to rush a decision on the review process for pipelines. "You don't rush your way into decisions that affect not only today, but generationally in Canada in the new world of sustainably moving resources to market," he said. The natural resources minister added the falling price of oil may have changed how investment decisions are being made, but won't alter the government's path. "But ultimately there has to be a regulatory process in place that carries the confidence of Canadians," he said. The Hague (AFP) - Outspoken far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders Monday called for all Islamic male refugees to be locked up in their asylum centres, saying women needed to be protected on the streets. He made the comments in a new video for his Freedom Party (PVV) in the wake of a series of New Year's Eve sexual offences in Cologne, Germany. As the refugee issue polarises the Netherlands, the PVV is riding high in opinion polls suggesting if elections were held now it would win the largest number of seats in the Dutch parliament. Denouncing the attacks in Germany in which hundreds of women were groped and robbed by a throng of mostly Arab and North African men, Wilders said it was "sexual terrorism, sexual jihad." In the video released in both Dutch and English, he repeated calls for the Netherlands to close its borders to all "asylum-seekers from Islamic countries." "But as long as this doesn't happen, as long as our women are in danger from the Islamic testosterone bombs, I propose that we lock the male asylum seekers up in the asylum centres." As Europe grapples with the worst migrant crisis since World War II, the Netherlands took in a record number of asylum-seekers in 2015, receiving more than 54,000 by the end of November. The next parliamentary elections are not due until 2017. But the latest polls collated by the Dutch public broadcaster NOS on January 9 said the PVV would grab some 36 seats in the 150-seat Lower House if they were held now. That would be the party's best showing ever, and well up from the 12 seats it currently enjoys, giving it the upper hand in trying to form a coalition government. Wilders's views have already proved controversial. He is expected to go on trial in March for inciting racial hatred after pledging in local elections that he would ensure there will be "fewer Moroccans" in the country. In another provocative move, the PVV is planning to hand out fake pepper spray to some women at a weekend rally planned in the town of Spijkenisse on Saturday. Carrying pepper spray is illegal in the Netherlands, but Wilders has said it should be legalised. By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon on Monday rejected international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney's criticism that democracy was "dead" in the Indian Ocean island. Clooney, the international lawyer acting for jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed, last week used a high-profile interview with U.S. news channel NBC News to condemn President Abdulla Yameen's administration in the Maldives. Nasheed, who was the Maldives' first democratically elected president, is serving a 13-year sentence on terrorism charges for the alleged abduction of a judge after a rapid trial last March in a case which drew international criticism. Clooney, in an interview with NBC, had said her client's case showed that democracy is "dead in the Maldives". Defending the Maldives, popular for its pristine beaches, scuba diving and high-end tourism, Foreign Minister Maumoon told Reuters that Clooney had "spun a compelling tale" but it was not true. "My appeal to the rest of the world is to have a good understanding and not be persuaded purely by charm-filled Amal Clooney when she goes and gives some of these stories," she said. Maumoon's comments came as Nasheed was permitted by the Maldives government to leave Male and fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he is likely to stay for some time before leaving for surgery in Britain, party sources told Reuters. There had been some confusion over whether the government would grant him permission to travel or not, as Nasheed refused to nominate a guarantor, someone who could face criminal prosecution if Nasheed does not return to Maldives. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. His conviction was condemned by United Nations, the United States and human rights groups as being politically motivated. Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney, had sought to draw attention to political turmoil in the country. In her NBC interview, she said: "Every opposition leader is either behind bars or being pursued by the government through the courts." (Reporting by Shihar Aneez; editing by Sarah Young/ Richard Balmforth) The Maldives government said Monday it was "disappointed" that jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed would not travel to Britain for surgery after he rejected a demand for a relative to guarantee his return. The government had said Nasheed, whose conviction last year on terror-related charges has been widely criticised, could travel to Britain for 30 days to receive urgent spinal cord surgery. He was due to leave late Sunday under a deal brokered by diplomats from India, Sri Lanka and Britain, but his lawyer accused the government of introducing the "illegal" last-minute condition. "The government reneged on the agreed deal at the last minute, demanding a close family member of Nasheed remain in Male, effectively as a hostage, until he returns from the UK," Hassan Latheef told AFP. "If Nasheed does anything that will breach the terms of the agreement by the government, the family member could then be criminally prosecuted," Latheef said. "This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous." The foreign ministry said the law required any prisoner requesting treatment abroad to sign a document committing to return which must be co-signed by a guarantor. In a tweet, it said the government was "disappointed by the refusal of former president Nasheed to travel to UK for surgery, as requested by himself". Home Minister Umar Naseer told reporters Nasheed would only be allowed to travel if he provided a guarantor for his return to serve the remainder of his 13-year jail sentence. "This is not holding someone hostage," Naseer said. "It is appointing a guardian until the inmate returns to (the) Maldives." - Guarantee return - Nasheed, 48, became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2008 and served for four years before he was toppled in what he called a coup backed by the military and police. Last year he was sentenced to 13 years in jail on terrorism charges relating to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012, when he was still in power. Story continues The United Nations has said his trial was seriously flawed and he should be released and compensated for wrongful detention. But hardline President Abdulla Yameen has refused to accept the UN ruling and is resisting international pressure to release Nasheed. The country's prisons chief Mohamed Husham announced at the weekend that Nasheed had been granted 30 days' leave from prison to receive surgery for a spinal cord problem that requires specialist treatment. The government initially said Nasheed could have the procedure on the tiny archipelago, but then agreed to allow him to travel to Britain for treatment. The announcement of the concession came as Britain's Deputy Foreign Minister Hugo Swire visited the Maldives for talks with Yameen as well as the opposition and rights groups. Swire tweeted that he "talked through concerns and opportunities" with the president, but full details of their discussions were not disclosed. He left Male on Monday with Nasheed still locked up in a cell at the Maafushi prison on an island near the capital. London-based barrister Amal Clooney is part of the legal team fighting for Nasheed's unconditional release. President Yameen is a half-brother of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years until his defeat by Nasheed in the country's first multi-party elections in 2008. He has cracked down on dissent and arrested political opponents. Berlin (AFP) - Chancellor Angela Merkel's party Monday said Germany should declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia "safe countries of origin", making it easier to reject asylum requests by its nationals. The conservative party's proposal comes as Germany, struggling with a mass influx of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, has also seen arrivals spike from North African countries. And it follows public outrage over a rash of reported sexual attacks and robberies against women on New Year's Eve in the western city of Cologne blamed on North African and Arab migrants. Party leaders made the proposal Monday, said Peter Tauber, general secretary of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), who rule in coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). The idea would need the backing of the lower house, where the CDU-SPD alliance has a crushing majority, and in the upper house, where SPD and Greens party-led states would also have to agree. Tauber demanded a "speedy outcome", arguing that the three nations can all be considered stable. Last year Germany declared six Balkans countries safe -- Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia -- meaning their citizens have very little chance of being granted asylum in Germany. Tauber pointed to sharply reduced asylum requests by people from those countries and said adding the three North African nations to the list was "appropriate and necessary". Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported a day earlier that Merkel and Bavarian state leader Horst Seehofer had agreed that Algerian and Moroccan asylum seekers should no longer be put in shelters throughout the country. Instead, they would be housed in existing expulsion facilities in Bavaria until their claims have been heard, similar to current practice for applicants from Balkan countries. Germany has said it wants to free up resources to help people fleeing war-ravaged countries such as Syria, who made up about 40 percent of those who arrived last year. The numbers of Algerian asylum seekers coming to Germany rose to 2,296 in December from 847 in June, while those from Morocco jumped to 2,896 from 368, the interior ministry said. MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who helped Hollywood star Sean Penn conduct an interview with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been called to give testimony about the kingpin, an official said on Monday. Del Castillo will be questioned by authorities next week, according to the official at the attorney general's office. The longtime head of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman was caught on Jan. 8 in the northwestern city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, six months after his brazen escape from prison through a mile-long tunnel. Rolling Stone magazine published an article the following day by Penn, based on a secret meeting with Guzman while the Mexican was on the run. Last week, a government spokesman said Mexico is not directly investigating del Castillo or fellow actor Penn for meeting with Guzman, but it would look into the circumstances of their meeting. Del Castillo's publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of flirtatious phone messaging chats between Guzman and del Castillo have gripped Mexico, and an official said last week the druglord's "obsession" with her led him to lower his guard and be caught. Last week, del Castillo took to Twitter to thank her supporters and wrote: "Not surprisingly many have chosen to make up items they think will make good stories and that aren't truthful." She pledged to give her story in due course. Attorney General Arely Gomez has said that the meeting between Penn and Guzman, which del Castillo also attended, was "essential" to finding Guzman. Penn last week rejected the notion that his meeting with Guzman was crucial to his capture. (Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein; Editing by Frances Kerry) PARIS After winning a string of awards for his perf in the Oscar-nommed Spotlight, Michael Keaton received one of Frances highest honors, becoming Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters during a Paris ceremony hosted by Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin. The honor, which has previously been given to Jim Jarmusch, Robert Paxton, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, highlighted Keatons career achievements. Keatons latest film, Tom McCarthys Spotlight, has been nominated for six Oscars. The movie won yesterday the Los Angeles Critics Choice Award for outstanding film of 2015. Yours is a culture that has such respect for beauty and art that if I even in the smallest way made a tiny contribution to beauty or art in this culture, or in any culture of the world for that matter, Im honored and grateful and proud. This is one of the biggest days of my life, said Keaton on stage. Speaking of his role in Spotlight, Keaton said Im blessed with this is unbelievable good fortune to do something that can change peoples lives and make a difference. () I demonstrated against the war when I was in college, Ive always been ecology-minded, my generation is one that fought for womens rights and equal rights for minorities and Im part of that world. And now I get to do this for a living. During her speech, Pellerin praised Keatons work with Oscar-winning helmers such as Tim Burton, Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard and Alejandro Gonzales, who directed him in Birdman. I wanted to honor you because you are indefinable and thats the trademark of immense artists, said Pellerin. The intimate ceremony took place at Frances culture ministry and was attended by Boston Globes real-life Spotlight members including Walter Robinson and Mike Rezendes, as well as Iris Knobloch, Warner Bros. Frances boss, and Emmanuel Durand, senior VP of marketing. The Order of Arts and Letters was created in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to the arts in France and throughout the world. Story continues Warner Bros. will release Spotlight on Jan. 27. Related stories Vegas Odds for the 2016 Oscars 6 Silver Linings to the Oscar Nominations: From 'Mad Max' to Charlotte Rampling 'The Revenant,' 'Mad Max' Lead Oscar Nominations London (AFP) - Leaflets outlining the benefits of remaining in the EU will appear in millions of letter boxes in England this week as a possible agreement on the reforms demanded by Britain begins to take shape. Some 10 million brochures will be sent around England -- the part of Britain where opposition to the European Union is at its highest -- by Britain Stronger in Europe, the campaign group leading the movement to stay in. Among the mostly economic arguments made in the leaflets are the jobs created by EU membership, greater consumer choice, lower prices as well as the investment coming from other European countries. "UK businesses can create more jobs in Europe than out on their own," Karren Brady, a businesswoman and a board member of the campaign group, is quoted as saying in the leaflet. The EU "also provides access to global markets through free trade agreements with more than 50 countries around the world," she said. Hugh Orde, a former senior British police officer, also talks about security advantages of staying in the EU saying: "The threats we face today are global in nature -- whether it is ISIS (the Islamic State group), cyber-crime, a more assertive Russia or even climate change." Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined a series of demands to reform Britain's relationship with the EU and has said he will campaign in favour of staying in if he is successful, in a referendum to be held by the end of 2017. Most experts expect the vote to be held later this year and the campaigns for and against have heated up in recent days. London and Brussels say they are optimistic about the possibility of a deal with Britain at the EU summit in February. According to a poll this weekend that excluded undecided voters, 53 percent of Britons are in favour of leaving the EU. Abuja (AFP) - Nigerian state governors, ministers, business leaders, public officials and bankers allegedly stole $6.7 billion in public funds in seven years, information minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday. Mohammed told reporters in the capital, Abuja, that some 1.34 trillion naira ($6.72 billion, 6.15 billion euros) was allegedly stolen between 2006 and 2013 by just 55 people. "The situation is dire and the time to act is now," he added. Giving a breakdown of the alleged theft, Mohammed claimed: - 15 former state governors stole 146.84 billion naira - 11 businessmen took 653 billion naira - Eight people in the banking industry stole 524 billion naira - 12 former state and federal public servants made off with more than 14 billion naira - Five former lawmakers pilfered 8.35 billion naira - four former ministers took seven billion naira. The period covered starts toward the end of the second term in office for Nigeria's first civilian president after military rule, Olusegun Obasanjo. He was replaced in 2007 by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. Goodluck Jonathan took over in 2010 when Yar'Adua died in office. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May last year, vowing to crack down on endemic corruption in Africa's most populous nation. He accused Jonathan's administration of leaving the treasury "virtually empty" and vowed to recover what he said were "mind-boggling" sums stolen from the public purse. Former national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and a string of high-profile figures are currently facing corruption charges over allegedly bogus arms deals to the tune of $2 billion. Last Friday, the investigation was widened to military top brass who served under Jonathan. Mohammed said tackling corruption was central to Buhari's administration but added that it involved everyone. "This is Nigeria's war," he said. Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Buhari of conducting a witch-hunt against its members. Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan were all PDP presidents. But the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government would not spare anybody who has stolen public funds, regardless of their political affiliation, ethnicity or religion, added Mohammed. Tehran (AFP) - Iran's long-sidelined reformist movement on Monday demanded a review after only one percent of its parliamentary election candidates were approved, prompting allegations turnout would suffer. The vast rejection of candidates -- monitors said about 60 percent of more than 12,000 would-be MPs were barred -- could damage the credibility and legitimacy of the February 26 ballot, analysts said. Those seeking to become lawmakers in Iran must first be screened by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated committee of clerics and jurists, before running. The vetting procedure has been contentious for months, as the poll is an opportunity for reformists and moderate politicians to make gains against a currently dominant conservative camp in parliament. On hearing of the rejections, reformists asked President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric, to intervene and seek changes. Rouhani is hoping his allies can capitalise in the elections after Saturday's implementation of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers lifted longstanding sanctions. Ali Motahari, an outspoken conservative lawmaker, was among incumbents rejected this time round, media reported. "Out of more than 12,000 registered candidates, 4,700 -- or about 40 percent -- were approved," Siamak Rah-Peyk, a spokesman for the Central Elections Supervising Committee was quoted as saying by state television. Hossein Marashi, an official from the reformist camp, was quoted by the Shargh daily as saying that "out of over 3,000 reformist candidates across the country, only 30 have been approved -- only one percent." "In Tehran, only four reformist candidates were approved," he said of the capital, where 30 lawmakers will be elected to the 290-seat parliament. "We are supposed to present a list of 30 candidates. How are we supposed to do that with just four names?" Marashi added. The Reformists' High Council for Elections called for the Guardian Council to revise its decision. Story continues - Appeals expected - "We are concerned that such a trend of extensive rejections of reformist and pro-government candidates might lead to people's reduced participation in the elections," it said in a statement, according to the official IRNA news agency. "We expect the Guardian Council to... revise the disqualifications and we ask the president -- in charge of implementing the constitution -- to interact with decision-makers and act to fix the current problem." The ISNA news agency Monday quoted Elham Aminzadeh, the vice president for legal affairs, as saying Rouhani would "negotiate" with the Guardian Council "to defend the rights of the rejected (candidates) in case mistakes were made". Rouhani is aiming to accelerate political and social reforms he promised before being elected in 2013, an outcome more likely if there are fewer hardline conservatives in parliament to block his legislation. Applicants can appeal their rejection and the council will publish a final list of vetted candidates on February 4. Those rejected included some with criminal convictions and others who submitted incomplete documents, said Rah-Peyk. However, Saeed Laylaz, a political analyst close to the reformist camp, said he was hopeful there would be a rethink and that many more candidates would be approved on the final list, possibly more than 100. "The game is not over yet," he told AFP. "We expected rejections from the Guardian Council. But I am hopeful that there will be a solution as these rejections represent a risk to the credibility of the election." The parliamentary polls coincide with the election of Iran's highest clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee which monitors the work of Iran's supreme leader. However its more important task -- 88 members will be elected to eight-year terms -- is likely to be selecting a replacement for the incumbent, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 76, if he dies during the next assembly's tenure. In 2012, 62 percent of nearly 5,300 registered candidates for the parliamentary elections were approved. Reformists did not actively participate in the polls at the time, having disputed the result of a presidential election three years earlier that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned to office. The decision to stay away four years ago left the reformist camp ravaged, with few MPs in parliament. Since Rouhani's election in 2013, however, the movement has regrouped. Family and friends of a Ryerson University dance student are trying to raise money for medical treatment and a trip home after a tragic incident in Cuba left him paralyzed. Napu Boychuk was just a few months from graduating when, while swimming off of Cuba's Varadero beach on Dec. 13 last year, he was pulled underwater by a strong undertow current. Part of his spinal cord was shattered in the ordeal and he nearly drowned. He was resuscitated and taken to Havana's Cira Garcia hospital, where he underwent an emergency operation during which surgeons realigned his fifth and sixth vertebrae with a surgical implant. According to a statement circulated to Ryerson faculty by the chair of the school's theatre department, the surgery was a success, but Boychuk has not recovered the use of his arms or legs. He remains on a ventilator in the hospital's intensive care unit, as the incident left his lungs badly damaged by sea water and sand. Doctors have recommended Boychuk stay in Cuba until at least mid-February. An online crowdfunding campaign has begun to help his family raise enough to pay for his hospital care. His travel insurance expired on January 7, and according to his sisters, the cost of treatment already exceeds $20,000. The effort has raised over $1,400 so far. Boychuk's family has been posting regular updates and photos to his Facebook page. Netflix might not be done with Steven Avery just yet. The filmmakers behind buzzed-about true crime docuseries Making a Murderer told reporters Sunday that they have had several phone calls with the convicted murderer since their 10-part expose on his trial debuted last month on Netflix. "We did record those calls with an eye toward including them in any episodes, should there be any future episodes," said Laura Ricciardi, who along with Moira Demos began working on Murderer 10 years ago. "This story is ongoing, these cases are open," Demos later added. "If there are significant developments, we will be there." But will Netflix give them a season two pickup? Given the groundswell of attention that Making a Murderer has received in the month since its Dec. 18 premiere, it seems unlikely that the streaming giant would pass on new installments of the Avery case. But content chief Ted Sarandos tells The Hollywood Reporter that he has yet to have those conversations with the filmmakers. "We're not talking about a second season," he says, explaining that the past month has been too much of a "whirlwind" for those discussions. Making a Murderer, which spends nearly 11 hours examining how Avery could transform from an innocent man who served 18 years for a crime he didn't commit into a convicted murderer, was an unlikely hit for Netflix. Sarandos, speaking at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour Sunday, said even he didn't anticipate the way that audiences, and the media, would become captivated by the story. In an exclusive interview with THR, Sarandos talks about his interest in a second season and why the filmmakers shouldn't be put on trial for their portrayal of Avery. Read More: 'Making a Murderer': Nancy Grace Details Why Steven Avery is Guilty (Q&A) How realistic is a second season? There's no idea for a second season, there's no pitch for a second season; we're not talking about a second season. What I was saying about other people covering the story now, it is its own thing and it is its own news cycle. So if Nancy Grace wants to make a lot of talk about it, it's because her audience is talking about the show and she knows it. They're very smart about what's in their zeitgeist and that's why they're talking about it. That's why Discovery is picking up on it [with ID's follow-up special] because they have the same sense that we all did: 'My god, everyone in the world is talking about this case.' Story continues This was a 10-year process with 700 hours of footage. Is the book closed on doing more? No. I know you're asking for me to say that we're doing something or not, and we don't know yet. Honestly, this has been a whirlwind since the show went live in a way that the filmmakers didn't anticipate and in a way that we didn't anticipate. They've been in that bubble of talking to the press, more so than we've been talking to each other even. Do you want more? For sure. It's a really compelling story. People are recognizing that it's not about whether or not he's guilty or innocent; it's really about did he get a fair shake and is it fair what happened to him and could that happen to me. That's what people are really reacting to. What would be the ideal format for a follow up? Another 10 episodes in 10 years? An hour special? It really depends on what happens in the next couple months. I think there's been such pressure to look at this case in a different way. [Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker] has been ignoring it. President Obama can't do anything about it. It's on their dockets. I have no idea how it's going to break. Have the producers been filming everything? They've mostly been doing the press so they haven't been working on the film much. It feels like the series itself is on trial. They shot 700 hours of footage and they tell a really compelling case in 11 hours. You can decide for yourself: does it prosecute the case or not? I think everyone who has been trying to poke holes in it has failed to poke many holes in it. But the beauty of it is, just watch it and make your own choice. Considering they have so much material to draw from, are there any plans to draw from the material that they haven't used before? We'll talk through some different possibilities. It might just be that this is it, that this is how it stands. Read More: 'Making a Murderer' Director Defends Netflix Series: "Impossible to Include Every Piece of Evidence" ABUJA (Reuters) - Fifty-five people who were government ministers, state governors, public officials, bankers and businessmen stole 1.34 trillion naira ($6.8 billion) from Nigeria's public purse over a seven-year period, the information minister said on Monday. Endemic corruption has enriched a small elite but left many Nigerians mired in poverty despite the country being Africa's top oil producer and having the continent's biggest economy. President Muhammadu Buhari, a 73-year-old former military ruler, took office in May after winning an election largely fought on his vow to crackdown on corruption. Since then corruption charges have been leveled against a former national security adviser and a former defense minister, and the president last week ordered the investigation of ex-military chiefs for an alleged arms procurement fraud. Speaking in the capital, Abuja, to launch a corruption awareness campaign, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told reporters around $6.8 billion was stolen between 2006 and 2013. "This is the money that a few people, just 55 in number, allegedly stole," said Mohammed, adding "the time to act is now" to address what he called "Nigeria's war". He gave a breakdown which included the theft of 147 billion naira ($742.42 million) by 15 former state governors, 524 billion Naira ($2.65 billion) by bankers and 7 billion naira($35.35 million) he said was stolen by four former ministers. "If we don't kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria," added Mohammed, who did not provide any proof to support the figures he provided. Buhari has said his government will recover "mind-boggling" sums of money stolen from the oil sector and that public coffers were "virtually empty" when he took over from his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan. Buhari's presidency ended a period from 1999-2015 when the People's Democratic Party (PDP) was in power. The PDP, now in opposition, has accused the president of mounting a witch-hunt against its members. ($1 = 198.0000 naira) (Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram) KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan police are looking for rogue policemen who are accused of shooting dead nine colleagues in a so-called insider attack and then stealing their weapons before fleeing to join the Taliban, local officials said on Monday. The gunmen shot the men at a police checkpoint on Sunday evening in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan, Dost Mohammad Nayab, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. "A preliminary investigation shows that up to four policemen carried out the attack," he said. "An operation is underway to arrest those responsible." The Taliban have not yet claimed responsibility for the attack. The militant group last year claimed responsibility for assassinating the provincial police chief and then his successor over a period of six weeks. Last year was one of the bloodiest on record in Afghanistan, following the withdrawal of most foreign troops at the end of 2014. In recent months, the Taliban have won territory in the southern province of Helmand, briefly captured the northern city of Kunduz, and carried out a series of suicide attacks in the capital, underlining how hard Afghan government forces are finding fighting on their own. (Reporting by Sayed Sarwar Amani. Writing by Andrew MacAskill; editing by Ralph Boulton) Tehran (AFP) - International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano was due to hold talks in Tehran Monday on ensuring Iran's continued compliance with a nuclear deal the US and Iranian presidents hailed as a historic breakthrough. The UN's atomic watchdog said Amano would meet with President Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, to discuss monitoring and verifying Iran's commitments under the agreement. "A lot of work has gone into getting us here, and implementation of this agreement will require a similar effort," IAEA chief Amano said in a statement after the deal. The IAEA confirmed late Saturday that Tehran had complied with its obligations under last summer's accord, leading the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear programme that crippled its economy for a decade. Rouhani, a moderate whose 2013 election victory helped launch a huge diplomatic effort toward the deal struck on July 14 in Vienna, said the implementation was a crucial moment for his country. "We Iranians have reached out to the world... have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. In Washington, President Barack Obama said the breakthrough was vindication of his contentious policy of engagement. "We achieved this through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East," he said in an address to the nation. But Obama also noted that "profound differences" with Tehran remained over its "destabilising activities". In a sign of those differences, Washington announced it had decided to target the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme with new measures. Five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury announced. Story continues The White House had threatened to impose the measures last month but withdrew them after Rouhani hit out at both their timing and intent. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement. Asked before the new sanctions were announced how Iran would react to fresh measures against it, Rouhani on Sunday had said: "Any action will be met by a reaction." - Freed Americans leave Iran - The new sanctions came after four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released in a prisoner swap with the United States. The exchange involved Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former US Marine Amir Hekmati and a fourth man, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. "Today, Jason Rezaian, ... Saeed Abedini, and Amir Hekmati arrived in Germany, and soon they will be reunited with their families," Secretary of State John Kerry tweeted. The three arrived at a US military base in Germany, after a brief stop in Geneva, a US official said. Kerry also confirmed the release of the fourth Iranian-American freed in the prisoner swap, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, and American Matthew Trevithick, who was released in a separate process. Washington Post publisher Frederick Ryan said: "We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over." Under the exchange, Washington said it had granted clemency to seven Iranians, six of whom were dual US-Iranian citizens, and dropped charges against 14 others. Obama welcomed the Americans' release, saying: "When Americans are freed, that's something we can all celebrate." Rouhani, who has promised that 2016 will be a "year of prosperity" for Iranians, said that following the lifting of sanctions Iran would seek foreign investment of $30-$50 billion annually, to dramatically spur growth to eight percent. Iran can now increase its oil exports, long the lifeblood of its economy though Rouhani has moved away from relying on crude. Brent crude briefly fell to fresh lows below $28 a barrel Monday, tumbling to $27.67 on fears of a worsening supply glut with Iranian exports returning to the market. The nuclear deal will also open up business in the 79-million-strong country. Kerry said the United States would repay Iran a $400 million debt and $1.3 billion in interest dating to the Islamic revolution. - Rollercoaster negotiations - The Vienna agreement was nailed down after two years of rollercoaster negotiations following Rouhani's election. It drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action. The steps taken so far by Tehran extend to at least a year -- from a few months previously -- how long Iran would need to make one nuclear bomb's worth of fissile material. They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium -- enough before the deal for several bombs -- and removing the core of its Arak reactor, which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium. Iran has always denied wanting nuclear weapons, saying its activities are exclusively for peaceful purposes. By Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - The amount of heat soaked up by the oceans has surged in the past two decades in a sign of worsening global warming despite a slowdown in temperature rises at the Earth's surface, a U.S. study showed on Monday. The trend of warmer oceans, blamed on man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, is pushing fish stocks towards the poles, damaging coral reefs and nudging up world sea levels because water expands as it heats up. The report, examining ocean temperatures to depths of more than 2,000 meters (6,500 ft), found that "half of the total global ocean heat uptake since 1865 has accumulated since 1997". The year 1865 is taken as the start of wide use of fossil fuels. And more than a third of the surge in heat in the oceans since 1997 was at depths exceeding 700 meters - a part of the ocean rarely studied, the scientists wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change. "We expect that the deep ocean will absorb an increasing amount of heat," lead author Peter Gleckler, of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, told Reuters in an email. The increase in the oceans' uptake of heat has coincided with a puzzling slowdown in the pace of temperature rises at the Earth's surface since the late 1990s, even as man-made emissions of heat-trapping gases have kept rising. That slowdown may now be over with record temperatures in 2015 and 2014. Understanding ocean heat "is vital to improving projections of how much and how fast the Earth will warm and seas rise in the future," LLNL wrote in a statement. Most of the extra heat from man-made global warming ends up in the oceans. The scientists said it was hard to judge the role of ocean heat in what the United Nations panel of climate scientists calls a "hiatus" in surface warming, which had heartened those who doubt big man-made impact on the climate. "The 'hiatus' is a surface phenomenon. The Earth is still warming, and the oceans have been taking up the bulk of that heat," Matt Palmer, a climate scientist at the British Met Office Hadley Centre who was not involved in the study, wrote in a statement. John Shepherd, of the University of Southampton, said it was unclear if the extra heat absorbed by the oceans would return to the atmosphere or stay in the depths. "It's certainly not a cure for climate change, nor any reason to be less concerned with it," he said in a statement on ocean warming. Last month, almost 200 governments agreed a deal in Paris meant as a turning point from fossil fuels, blamed for causing more heat waves, downpours and rising sea levels. (Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) By Nia Williams (Reuters) - Oil prices slumped to a 2003 low below $28 per barrel on Monday as the market anticipated a rise in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran over the weekend. Responding to Tehran's compliance with a nuclear deal, the United States and major powers revoked international sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was down 29 cents at $28.64 by 1850 GMT (1350 ET). U.S. crude was down 48 cents at $28.94 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. Trading volumes were thin with U.S. markets closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. "You can't say this was unexpected but the Iran news is an additional factor that's working against oil prices," said TD Securities analyst Bart Melek, who also pointed to global oversupply and concerns about demand from China. He said oil could fall further if Chinese economic data released overnight, including GDP and retail sales data, points to more weakness in the economy. "If we get nasty economic numbers from China there's potential for another swoosh lower," Melek said. Analysts expect Iran will realistically be able to export an extra 500,000 bpd in the short term from storage, but there are doubts whether the state of Iran's oil infrastructure will allow further boosts anytime soon. SEB Markets assumes Iranian oil output will rise by 400,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd in 2016, while Tehran has said it will add 1 million bpd to its existing output by the year-end. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market. In a sign of the pain low prices are inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organization would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghadder in London, Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by David Goodman, Dale Hudson and Frances Kerry) Buenos Aires (AFP) - A year after Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death, neither his own mysterious demise nor the politically explosive case he was investigating appear any closer to being solved. Nisman, the lead investigator into the horrific 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, was found dead in his bathroom on January 18, 2015, a .22-caliber revolver at his side. He had been due to appear before a congressional hearing the next day to deliver a scathing report that accused then-president Cristina Kirchner of shielding high-ranking Iranian officials from prosecution over the bombing. A year on, Argentina has turned the page on the Kirchner era with the arrival of conservative President Mauricio Macri. But both unsolved cases continue to trouble the country, especially its 300,000-member Jewish community, the largest in Latin America. The July 1994 bombing at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) remains the deadliest terror strike in the country's history: it killed 85 people and wounded 300. After a botched investigation tainted by corruption allegations, Nisman was appointed to lead a new probe. In 2006, he accused Iran of ordering the attack via Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. But his efforts to prosecute five Iranian officials, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, were cut short when Kirchner's administration signed a deal with Iran to set up a Tehran-based joint commission to investigate the attacks. Nisman accused Kirchner of sealing the deal in exchange for oil and trade benefits, basing his accusations on hundreds of hours of wiretaps. Kirchner dismissed the allegations as part of a plot by disgruntled intelligence agents to discredit her. With Argentina heading toward elections, suspicions swirled with Nisman's death. Independent investigators hired by his family concluded he was killed, but that version has never been backed up by the official probe. Macri, a bitter opponent of Kirchner, met with Nisman's daughters Sunday and vowed to "bring justice in honor of their father's memory." Story continues The new president has ordered all documents on Nisman declassified, and set up a special unit to take over the investigation into the 1994 bombing. The Jewish community has called a candlelight vigil Monday to demand justice for Nisman's death. The late prosecutor's allegations against Kirchner have been repeatedly thrown out by the courts, which found he lacked a case. The investigation into his death remains open. ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 in a bloodless coup against current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was acquitted on Monday of the murder of a separatist leader in 2006, removing one of several cases against him. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest province and the richest in mineral resources. He was killed in a battle between tribal militants and government forces in the restive province in 2006. Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered the killing. But on Monday, an anti-terrorism court in the provincial capital, Quetta, acquitted him. "We aren't satisfied with the judgment and will challenge it in court," Sohail Rajput, the lawyer for Bugti's family, told reporters outside the court. For decades, Baluchistan nationalists have accused Punjab, Pakistan's most populated province, of exploiting their natural resources. Militants have targeted government installations, security forces, gas pipelines, railway tracks and electricity pylons. Musharraf ordered a military crackdown in Baluchistan in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the province. In late 2006, Pakistani forces killed Bugti and dozens of other rebels at a hideout in Baluchistan's rugged mountains. Musharraf has also been charged in connection with the 2007 assassination of prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the murder of a prominent cleric since returning to Pakistan from exile in 2013. Musharraf was granted bail in the Bhutto assassination and treason cases and remains free, mostly living in Pakistan. (Reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; Editing by Nick Macfie) By Andrew MacAskill KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States sat down to talks on Monday aimed at laying the ground for a negotiated end to almost 15 years of war between U.S.-supported government forces and Taliban insurgents now firmly on the offensive. Taliban forces have stepped up their campaign in the last year to topple the Kabul government, which has struggled since most foreign troops left at the end of 2014. High-profile suicide attacks and Taliban territorial gains in Helmand province have underlined how far Afghanistan remains from peace. The Taliban, who now control or contest more territory than at any time since they was ousted by a U.S.-led intervention in 2001, did not attend the talks. The four nations in a statement after the meeting in Kabul called on "all Taliban groups to enter into early talks with the Afghan government to resolve all differences politically." The next round of talks will be on Feb. 6 in Islamabad. The ultimate goal of the diplomatic maneuvering is to get representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban into direct negotiations. The first formal peace talks with the Taliban since the start of the war in 2001 collapsed last year after it was announced its founder, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for two years, throwing the militant group into disarray. The Taliban remain split on whether to participate in talks. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said earlier on Monday the public would not accept an open-ended process without results and warned the Taliban not to delay joining talks any further. A suicide bomber who killed 13 people in eastern Afghanistan and a rocket which landed near the Italian embassy in Kabul on Sunday were a reminder of what is at stake. "The talks are strategically important for everyone involved, but are unlikely to go anywhere right now," said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group. "The Taliban are making gains and the army is on the defensive. Until there is a stalemate, the talks are unlikely to succeed." Although the Afghan army and the Taliban are intensifying fighting on the battlefield, a political settlement is seen as the most likely solution to the conflict.A statement on a Taliban website on Saturday did not rule out joining talks but rejected U.S. involvement, saying the country was to blame for a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans. "On the other hand, they take the first row among peace negotiators," the statement said. (Editing by Nick Macfie) Riyadh (AFP) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday expressed "deep concern" to Saudi King Salman over escalating tensions between the Sunni kingdom and predominantly Shiite Iran. Sharif visited Riyadh in an effort to ease those tensions and is to head on Tuesday to Saudi's rival Iran where he is expected to meet President Hassan Rouhani. "The prime minister expressed our deep concern on the recent escalation of tensions" between Riyadh and Tehran, Islamabad's foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said. "He also called for an early resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Ummah (the Islamic nation), particularly during these challenging times." Saudi Arabia and a number of its Arab allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran in early January, sending already tense relations between the rival nations to a new low. Riyadh reacted after protesters burned Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran after the kingdom on January 2 executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. He was among 47 people put to death in a single day for "terrorism". Most of those executed were Sunnis. According to the Saudi Press Agency, Salman "welcomed the prime minister of Pakistan and his delegation" to his palace. The report gave no details of their discussions, which SPA earlier said were to touch on regional as well as bilateral issues. "The purpose of the visit is to mediate and to end the standoff between the two countries," a Pakistani government official told AFP, requesting anonymity, before the prime minister arrived. Sharif landed in Riyadh two days after a historic international deal lifted sanctions on Iran in return for a scaling back of its nuclear capabilities. Riyadh fears the agreement will only further embolden Iran, which it accuses of regional interference. SPA said the prime minister was accompanied by Pakistan's powerful army chief, General Raheel Sharif. Story continues Pakistan is a majority Sunni country but 20 percent of the population is Shiite. The country's parliament last year refused to send forces to help a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen. But during Monday's meeting, Pakistan "assured the kingdom of its support" for a separate Saudi coalition of 34 nations to combat "terrorism" in the Islamic world, the Pakistani statement said. "It was agreed that both countries would work together to defeat our common enemy - terrorism and extremism." Diplomats have said it remained unclear how the 34-nation coalition will work in practice. Pakistan has deep military connections with Saudi Arabia and it has long benefited from the oil-rich kingdom's largesse. Sharif himself has close personal ties with the Saudi royal family who sheltered him during years in exile. MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines plans to install a $1-million satellite-based system to track commercial flights over the disputed South China Sea, after China landed its first test flights this month on a reef it built in the Spratly islands. China's increasing military presence in the Spratlys has stirred fears it could lead to an air defence zone the country controls, which would escalate tension with other claimants, and the United States, in one of the world's most volatile areas. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge oil and gas deposits, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the sea, through which about $5 trillion in trade passes every year. "In the absence of a radar in the area, the system will help track aircraft movements, enhancing safety and security," said Rodante Joya, a deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines. Joya said the Philippines would install the 50-million-peso ($1.05-million) surveillance system on the island of Thitu, calling it by its Philippine name of Pagasa, to track about 200 commercial flights through the area each day. The area in the South China Sea is among the blind spots in the Philippines' airspace, he added. The Philippines and Vietnam protested against China's test flights on the Fiery Cross reef this month, saying Beijing might impose an air defence identification zone, restricting flights by commercial airlines over the South China Sea. On January 7, China warned a small civilian plane carrying Philippine aviation officials who inspected Thitu, where the surveillance equipment is to be set up this year, as their craft flew near Beijing's man-made island. "The foreign ministry has been informed about the reported incident involving our civil aviation team," presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma told reporters, adding that the foreign ministry was expected to make a statement on the matter. The Philippine civil aviation agency has limited radar coverage and the military is expected to sign a deal this year for three aerial radars to detect airspace intrusions as far as 250 miles (402 km) away, beyond the exclusive economic zone. Joya said the agency was waiting for approval from security and foreign affairs officials as the tracking system, or automatic dependent surveillance broadcast system, as it is called, is to be located on a military base in a disputed area. Seven civil aviation radar stations will also be added, he said. ($1=47.6700 Philippine pesos) (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) Brussels (AFP) - Polish President Andrzej Duda on Monday urged the European Union to find a compromise to keep Britain in the EU or risk a major crisis and even the bloc's collapse. "It is not in Poland's interest that the UK leaves the EU," Duda told a press conference flanked by European Council President Donald Tusk after talks in Brussels. "We need to reach a compromise as the EU in order to ensure the UK's place in the EU," Duda said. "We think it would lead to a big crisis and even collapse if the UK left the EU," he added. "We must seek a compromise but a cautious compromise, not to undermine basic freedoms in the EU which are very important to Poles," he said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Friday he was confident the EU and Britain would reach a deal at a summit in February on reforms that London has demanded to stay in the 28-nation club. British officials have said a referendum on a possible "Brexit" from the 28-nation EU could be held in the first half of this year if an agreement is reached next month. British Prime Minister David Cameron's most controversial proposal is a four-year ban on top-up benefits for EU migrants working in Britain, which critics say is discriminatory and threatens freedom of movement in the EU. Poland is especially concerned by this issue because hundreds of thousands of its people have gone to Britain to work and settle. Cameron also wants the EU to give Britain safeguards against more political integration, to protect countries that do not use the euro currency and to boost economic competitiveness. By Andrew MacAskill KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States hold talks on Monday aimed at laying the ground for a negotiated end to almost 15 years of war between U.S.-supported government forces and Taliban insurgents now firmly on the offensive. Taliban forces have stepped up their campaign in the last year to topple the Kabul government, which has struggled since most foreign troops left at the end of 2014. High-profile suicide attacks and Taliban territorial gains in Helmand province have underlined how far Afghanistan remains from peace. Representatives from the four countries will meet in Kabul to revive a peace process that collapsed last summer. The ultimate goal of the diplomatic maneuvering is to get representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban into direct negotiations on the country's future. A previous round of talks took place in Islamabad a week ago. The Taliban, which now controls or contests more territory than at any time since it was ousted by a U.S.-led intervention in 2001, will not attend the talks. A rocket which landed near the Italian embassy in Kabul on Sunday brought a reminder of what is at stake. It was not known if the embassy had been specifically targeted. A police official had no immediate word on any casualties or damage, though local media said two security guards had been injured. "The talks are strategically important for everyone involved, but are unlikely to go anywhere right now," said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group. "The Taliban are making gains and the army is on the defensive. Until there is a stalemate, the talks are unlikely to succeed." Afghan's chief negotiator said last week Monday's talks would focus on creating a peace plan to persuade the Taliban to give up violence. Although the Afghan army and the Taliban are intensifying fighting on the battlefield, a political settlement is seen as the most likely solution to the conflict.A statement on a Taliban website on Saturday did not rule out joining talks but rejected U.S. involvement, saying the country was to blame for a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans. "On the other hand, they take the first row among peace negotiators," the statement said, with a turn of irony. (editing by Ralph Boulton and Richard Balmforth) Moscow (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin and the Emir of Qatar on Monday discussed the Syrian crisis, as global powers seek to push the warring sides towards the negotiating table. "Russia plays a main role when it comes to stability in the world," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said at the start of the meeting at the Kremlin. "We very much want to develop relations with Russia and find a solution to a number of problems related to stability in some countries of our region," he added in translated remarks released by the Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said both Moscow and Doha were expecting that, in accordance with a UN-backed plan, talks between the Syrian government and the opposition would begin "in the nearest future, already this month." Global powers are seeking to push the Syrian regime and opposition to the negotiating table in a bid to end the nearly five-year war that has cost the lives of 260,000 people. The UN-backed plan foresees talks between the various sides starting on January 25, the establishment of a transitional government within six months and elections within 18 months. Lavrov said Russia and Qatar had also agreed to step up measures to battle terrorism. "Concrete steps that can facilitate this have been agreed," he said in televised remarks, without elaborating. The two countries also agreed to ramp up economic cooperation, with Putin telling Sheikh Tamim that Russia is keen to coordinate efforts in energy, "especially in the gas sphere." "I am hoping that all the efforts we've made over the past years to build our ties will serve a good basis for further steps," Putin said. "Investment cooperation is deemed to be very important," the Qatari ruler said for his part. Amid persisting tensions with the West over the Ukraine crisis, Russia has over the past few years has sought to forge closer ties with Middle East powers including Qatar. For this year's Quebec Tobacco-Free Week, advocates are focusing on a lesser-known consequence of smoking: throat and mouth cancer. The Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health says throat and mouth account for about 10 per cent of all cancers in the province. "They know that smoking causes lung cancer. People know this," said Dr. Alex Mlynarek, a surgeon and McGill University professor who specializes in cancers of the head and neck. "A lot of people don't realize that smoking does cause other cancers that not just kill them, but really change their life completely." Watch the TV ad for this year's Tobacco-Free Week: Doctors say those who suffer from these cancers can have trouble eating, speaking, and their facial appearance may change. Smoking. Suffering. Dying. Doctors say cigarettes are to blame for as many as 70 to 80 per cent of throat and mouth cancer cases. The other cases are caused by the HPV virus, but when tobacco is the culprit, the cancer is more aggressive and treatment is less effective in saving a patient's life, Mlynarek says. To raise awareness, this year's Quebec tobacco-free week has released a series of video testimonies under the slogan "Smoking. Suffering. Dying." "It may shock some people," said Mario Bujold, executive director of the Quebec Council for Tobacco and Health, "but that's the reality for many smokers." On the question of e-cigarettes and marijuana, doctors say their are no studies exploring their possible link to throat and mouth cancers. Though it's too soon to tell for sure, doctors say if it was them, they wouldn't take any chances. The council is also encouraging people to visit its Facebook page or the website, smokefreeworld.ca. Quebec Tobacco-Free Week starts Sunday. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, freed from Iran on Sunday after being held in custody more than a year and half, is in good spirits and doing "a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago," the newspaper said on Sunday. Rezaian and two other Iranian-Americans arrived in Germany after leaving Tehran on Sunday in a prisoner swap following the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran under last year's landmark nuclear accord. Rezaian, 39, the Post's Tehran bureau chief, was arrested in Iran in July 2014 and sentenced last November to a prison term. Iranian prosecutors had accused him of espionage, charges the Post had dismissed as "absurd." In a statement after the release of Rezaian, Washington Post Publisher Frederick Ryan said: "We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over." In a phone conversation on Sunday evening with Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl, Rezaian thanked the paper for its strong and unwavering support during the time he was held prisoner. "Asked how he was doing, he said, 'Im a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago,' the Post said in a memo to Post staff, which was released by the newspaper. The Post said Rezaian reported feeling better than he did several months ago and that his mind was sharp. "He found escape in the fiction he was allowed to read, and today he was avidly reading whatever he wanted," the Post memo said, adding that Rezaian found isolation the most difficult thing about his ordeal. "Jason expressed hope that he can see us both in person tomorrow, and he looks forward to seeing everyone at The Post very soon," the newspaper said, quoting Rezaian as saying: I hear theres going to be a big party. (Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Chris Reese) The guests have been officially announced for Oren Moverman's upcoming The Dinner. Steve Coogan, Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Chloe Sevigny and Rebecca Hall have joined the cast of the drama, based on Herman Koch's best-selling novel. Coogan, Gere and Linney had previously been attached to star but have now been confirmed. Shooting is set to start later this week in New York. The Dinner sees Coogan and Linney playing a couple who head out for a meal with Coogan's politician brother (Gere) and his wife (Hall). Tensions already exist between the two siblings, but the drama in the restaurant unfolds when a dark secret emerges about their respective children, who have committed a major crime. Herman Koch's The Dinner is an extraordinarily provocative, conscience-bending ride that takes on culturally relevant issues and turns them into an intricate menu of human passions and primal fears," said Moverman, who directed Gere in last year's Time Out of Mind and saw his film The Messenger pick up two Academy nominations. "I am honored to be tackling this international phenomenon as an American film with our family of talented artists and brilliant actors." Cotty Chubb, Lawrence Inglee, Eddie Vaisman and Julia Lebedev are the producers of the pic, which is a Code Red, ChubbCo and Blackbird production. Code Red is fully financing, and Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales. Executive producers on the project are Leonid Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Olga Segura and Eva Daniels. Protagonist will introduce The Dinner to buyers next month at the EFM in Berlin. Read More: Steve Coogan, John C. Reilly Board Laurel and Hardy Biopic Rights campaigners dismissed an apparent confession by a missing Hong Kong bookseller paraded on Chinese state television as "worthless" and a "smokescreen" Monday as the city's leader distanced himself from the case. Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, is one of five missing booksellers from a Hong Kong-based publisher known for salacious titles critical of the Chinese government. Their disappearance has sparked alarm in the southern Chinese city which is guaranteed a range of freedoms not seen on the mainland. In his confession on state broadcaster CCTV Sunday Gui said he had returned to China to "take legal responsibilities" for killing a college student in a car accident 11 years ago. Weeping Gui said he had fled the mainland after he was convicted of the crime, despite only receiving a two-year suspended sentence. Amnesty International's East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said Gui's confession raised more questions than answers. "From the legal standpoint the video is worthless," he told AFP. "Where is he? Under what authority is he detained? What are the circumstances under which he gave this interview? We cannot exclude the possibility that he made the statement under duress," he said. The disappearances have fuelled growing unease in Hong Kong over the erosion of freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, which was handed back to China from Britain in 1997. But despite deep public concern, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying refused to discuss Gui's case. "The Gui Minhai case has not been reported to the Hong Kong police or the Hong Kong government," he told reporters at a financial forum in Hong Kong. Swedish deputy minister for finance Per Bolund -- also speaking at the financial forum -- said Stockholm "is quite concerned about the development" and asked for more "openness" from the mainland authorities, according to the South China Morning Post. Story continues The Swedish consulate in Hong Kong said it had no comment. Gui is thought to have gone missing from Thailand, where he has a holiday home. - 'Smokescreen' - Leung said he attached "great importance" to any new information on another bookseller, Lee Bo, the only one of the five men to have disappeared in Hong Kong. The other three men went missing from southern mainland cities. Lee's disappearance raised fears that Chinese security authorities were working in Hong Kong's territory, against the city's laws. A letter, purportedly from Lee, was published Sunday taking aim at Gui on Hong Kong news website Headline Daily. "He killed a person in a drink-driving crash and irresponsibly fled overseas," it read. "This time he has implicated me," it said, without giving any further detail. All five men worked for the Mighty Current publishing house which operates a bookstore in the commercial heart of Hong Kong. Lee Cheuk-yan, a pro-democracy lawmaker in Hong Kong, said of the Gui confession that China was "trying to hide the fact that they are detaining him for the bookstore". "The traffic accident has nothing to do with it and there was nothing in the video that says how he ended up in China," he said, describing the broadcast as a "smokescreen". CCTV's website ran a news report in 2005, in which a man named Gui Minhai was said to have fled overseas in 2004 after he was given a two-year suspended sentence for killing a 23-year-old college student in the eastern city of Ningbo. While the report could relate to the missing bookseller, there are nevertheless discrepancies. CCTV says Gui was 46 in 2005, but on Sunday state news agency Xinhua gave his current age as 51. Paris (AFP) - Convicted rogue trader Jerome Kerviel appeared in a Paris court Monday seeking a retrial over his fraud conviction stemming from risky bets that nearly brought down Societe Generale, one of Europe's biggest banks. "The time of reckoning has come for those who fiddled this case," Kerviel's lawyer David Koubbi said as he arrived at the court with his client The hearing before the review court's investigating committee is the first step towards a possible retrial in the sensational case over Kerviel gambling away 4.9 billion euros ($5.5 billion) through unauthorised trades in 2008. Branded a crook by his ex-employer and a scapegoat by his apologists, Kerviel insists his bosses knew what he was doing and turned a blind eye to it as long as the profits kept rolling in. Kerviel, now 39, was convicted in 2010 of breach of trust, forgery and entering false data, and sentenced to three years in jail, a verdict that was upheld on appeal. He was also ordered to repay to Societe Generale the 4.9 billion euros he lost -- although an appeals court overturned the order, arguing that the bank's internal oversight mechanisms had failed. Kerviel left prison in September 2014 after spending less than five months behind bars, winning conditional release that initially required him to wear an electronic bracelet and stay home on weekday evenings. He points to the testimony of the top detective in the case, Nathalie Le Roy, who told the court that she was "certain" Kerviel's superiors "could not have been unaware" he was taking wildly risky bets on equity derivatives. She charged in a French TV documentary that the bank tried to manipulate her, "taking me in the direction they wanted to go". On Sunday, explosive new support emerged for Kerviel in the form of remarks secretly recorded by Le Roy in which a former prosecutor said it was "obvious, obvious" that Societe Generale was aware of Kerviel's dealings. Moscow (AFP) - Russia has detained a top engineer on its delayed Vostochny cosmodrome project on suspicion of accepting a bribe, investigators said Monday in the latest setback for the country's troubled space programme. The FSB security service arrested the engineer overseeing road construction materials at the site on suspicion of taking a 50,000-ruble ($632) bribe from contractors, the Investigative Committee of the far eastern Amur region where the project is located said in a statement. Russia is building the $4.8 billion cosmodrome at Vostochny, some 7,800 kilometres (4,846 miles) east of Moscow, to make its space programme independent of former Soviet neighbour Kazakhstan, where it currently rents the Baikonur cosmodrome used for trips to the International Space Station and satellite launches. The high-profile project, with a budget is estimated at 300 billion rubles ($3.8 billion at the current exchange rate ), has been beset with multiple corruption probes and complaints from workers that they have not been paid. Tatiana Golikova, the head of the national audit chamber, said last year that the total overspend at Vostochny exceeded 13 billion rubles. Investigators in the latest case said that the engineer received a bribe for ensuring that the contractor's building materials were accepted without any problems. The suspect was caught allegedly in the act of taking the bribe in a car. If charged and found guilty, the engineer faces up to six years in prison and would have to pay back six times the value of the bribe. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space sector, responded to the engineer's detention on Twitter, saying: "We warned all of you: don't thieve." Russian President Vladimir Putin in a visit in October said it was realistic for the first unmanned launches to take place in spring 2016 rather than in December 2015 as planned. Manned flights are planned to start in 2025. The state company in charge of the construction, Spetsstroi has filed 31 cases over contractors, asking for compensation of more than 4 billion rubles. It has won 17 of the cases, resulting in a payback of 3.5 billion rubles, said Spetsstroi's deputy director Alexander Mordovets on Monday in an interview with RIA Novosti state news agency. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on Sunday evening unveiled details of his plan to move the country beyond the Affordable Care Act to a universal national health care program that would cost about $13.8 trillion over the coming decade and require a sweeping increase in taxes, especially for the wealthiest Americans. Under pressure from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to show his hand on his health care initiatives, Sanders campaign released details of the proposals just ahead of last nights two-hour nationally televised Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. Related: Sanders Surge Threatens a Replay of 2008 For Clinton Health care reform has become a highly contentious issue in the Democratic race, with Clinton criticizing Sanders for proposing to supplant Obamacare just as the program is gaining traction and Sanders insisting that much more needs to be done to help an estimated 29 million Americans who still have no insurance coverage. We finally have a path to universal health care, Clinton said last night during the debate. We have accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it and I do not want to start over again with another contentious debate. Sanders said that he backed President Obama in winning passage of the Obamacare program of subsidized private insurance coverage sold on state and government operated exchanges, but that right now we have to deal with the problem that 29 million Americans still have no health care. Congress, including many Democrats, rejected the idea of creating a national health program like the ones in Canada and Great Britain during negotiations early in Obamas first term over the Affordable Care Act. However, Sanders for years has persisted in arguing in favor of single-payer or Medicare for all system in the spirit of Democratic presidents dating back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Essentially, under this approach, all Americans would be entitled to health care coverage closely akin to the quality of care currently provided by the Medicare program for elderly people. Story continues Related: Clinton Facing a Long Fight as Sanders Fundraising Soars While critics say such an approach would be far too costly and unwieldy, Sanders has argued that it would actually save trillions of dollars in the long run by eliminating inefficiencies and costly premiums of private insurance companies and enable the government to crack down on price gouging by the pharmaceutical industry. According to The New York Times, here are some highlights of the plan: By Amanda Becker CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released details on Sunday evening about his "Medicare-for-all" universal healthcare funding plan and how he would pay for it. The plan was released hours before Sanders was to square off in a Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, against Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Clinton's campaign had taken aim at Sanders in recent days, saying the U.S. senator from Vermont had not said how he plans to pay for his healthcare plan and that he needed to before the first party-nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 1. Sanders said that expanding Medicare, a government-run program that insures the elderly, would save $6 trillion over the next 10 years when compared with the current system, which was established by President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Individuals would pay a 2.2 percent "premium" and employers would pay a 6.2 percent payroll tax to fund the healthcare plan. Individuals making $250,000 to $500,000 a year would pay a tax rate of 37 percent and those making more than $10 million would pay a 52 percent tax rate, according to details provided about the plan. The average annual healthcare costs for a working U.S. family are nearly $5,000 in insurance premiums and another $1,300 on deductibles for care that is not covered, Sanders' campaign said. Under Sanders' plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay $466 to the Medicare program, saving roughly $6,000 per year, the campaign said. Clinton favors building on the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and has said Sanders' state-administered plan would jeopardize the healthcare of those with Republican governors. Sanders has said the federal government would intervene in such a scenario. "It would be a mistake to really thrust our country into another contentious national debate about how we're going to provide quality, affordable healthcare to everybody," Clinton told CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday. Sanders defended his forthcoming proposal on the same CNN program. "I believe healthcare is a right for all people; it will be politically difficult to achieve, but I will maintain that vision and fight for it," Sanders said. Sanders last week tweeted a 1993 photo of himself and Clinton signed by the then-first lady, who was waging her own fight for universal healthcare, which thanked him for his commitment to "real access to healthcare for all Americans." (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) Washington (AFP) - Senator Bernie Sanders, hours before taking the stage to debate Democratic presidential nomination favorite Hillary Clinton, unveiled his universal health care plan which would raise taxes on Americans across the board. His "Medicare for All" proposal would save some $6 trillion over the next decade compared with the current system, in part by eliminating "expensive and wasteful private health insurance," Sanders said. "Universal health care is an idea that has been supported in the United States by Democratic presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman," he said in a statement. "It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege." The independent senator from Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, has caught flak throughout the campaign from Clinton, who has accused him of pushing a federally administered national single-payer system. Sanders's plan, he said Sunday, would cost $1.38 trillion per year, expenses that would be covered through "progressive" higher tax rates, particularly on the wealthy. Households earning $250,000 to $500,000 would be taxed at 37 percent, slightly above their current rate, while the wealthiest -- those making $10 million or more annually -- would be taxed at a rate of 52 percent, substantially higher than the current top bracket of 39.6 percent. Taxpayers would also be slapped with a 2.2 percent "premium" based on income, and businesses would face a 6.2 percent health care payroll tax. Estate taxes on the wealthiest Americans would also rise. A Clinton aide described Sanders's plan as a "harried" release before the debate. "When you're running for president and you're serious about getting results for the American people, details matter -- and Senator Sanders is making them up as he goes along," Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said. Story continues A University of Massachusetts at Amherst economist, Gerald Friedman, analyzed the plan and concluded it would save $6 trillion over the next 10 years compared to the current system, Sanders said. According to Friedman's calculations, the typical family earning $50,000 a year would save nearly $6,000 annually in health care costs. Savings would ultimately accrue because the system, which would expand the popular Medicare health care program for seniors to everyone, would dramatically reduce overall health care costs including current private premiums and deductibles, according to Friedman's analysis. By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi officials have said little in public, but they fear the end of sanctions on Iran could boost what they see as its subversive activities in the Middle East while also enriching a diverse economy that the oil-dependent kingdom views as a major competitor for regional influence. Saudi-Iranian political rivalry has aggravated tumult across the Middle East for years, but has escalated in recent months as Riyadh's new rulers have taken a harder line and as the nuclear deal has relieved pressure on Tehran. Iran's international rehabilitation also opens the prospect of economic rivalry, with Saudi Arabia facing not only a fellow oil producer in an era of oversupply and low prices, but also a more self-reliant and multi-skilled economy. Even without public pronouncements, Riyadh's private consternation could be discerned in the pages of semi-official media and comments by influential clerics. The main cartoon in al-Watan daily simply showed a pencil broken mid-way through writing the word "peace", while an opinion piece underneath it asked "Will Iran change after the nuclear deal enters implementation?" Its answer: probably not. Saudi Arabia, a conservative Sunni Muslim monarchy, sees revolutionary Iran as the paramount threat to the Middle East's stability, because of its support for Shi'ite militias that Riyadh says have inflamed sectarian violence and undermined Arab governments. For the Al Saud dynasty, the nuclear deal was a double blow, freeing Iran from sanctions it believed helped check those regional activities and raising the spectre of a rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh's most powerful ally, the United States. Under King Salman, Saudi Arabia has launched a war in Yemen to stop an ally of Tehran gaining power, mobilised Muslim states to freeze Tehran out of regional and Islamic influence, and has boosted support to rebels fighting Iranian allies in Syria. Iran's pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, who has publicly reached out to Riyadh repeatedly since his election in 2013, on Sunday rebuked the Al Saud for their own regional stance and called on them to "take the path that will benefit the region". Such comments, which mirror accusations Riyadh makes about Iran, infuriate Saudi officials who regard Rouhani as a smooth-talking cipher for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and see no point engaging with him instead of his harder line superior. They disdain the campaign by U.S. President Barack Obama to bring Iran in from the cold, believing him pusillanimous in the face of what they see as Iranian aggression and guileless in accommodating Iran's moderates when Khamenei pulls the strings. TUMBLING STOCKS Between the full-page adverts Saudi companies had run in Monday's newspapers to congratulate King Salman on the Islamic calendar anniversary of his becoming monarch, the opinion columns and cartoons despaired at Iran's comeback. The role of Western powers, particularly Riyadh's oldest ally the United States, in facilitating Tehran's relief from pariah status and their hopes of cashing in on Iran's newly opened economy did not go unremarked. The al-Jazirah daily's cartoonist showed an incarnation of American capitalism in striped trousers and top hat carrying a bottle marked "sanctions", from which emerged a genie in the guise of a Shi'ite militia fighter, his turban marked "Iran". When Salman visited Washington in September, the main focus of talks was the push by his powerful son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to win investment from American firms, an apparent riposte to Iran's overtures to Western companies. Sunday's news that sanctions would indeed be lifted raised fears of a slide in oil prices below their existing low level of under $30 a barrel as Iran immediately ordered an increase in output, while Saudi stocks fell by 5 percent. There could be no more pronounced contrast with the mood in Iran, freed from years of increasingly tough sanctions which have eroded its currency and allowed Saudi Arabia to eclipse its economy. In 2000, Iran's gross domestic product was larger than Saudi Arabia's, according to International Monetary Fund data; now, the $650 billion Saudi economy is much bigger than Iran at $400 billion. That trend may now start reversing, altering how far each country can afford to mount political and military adventures overseas, and the extent to which they can use trade relations to build alliances with foreign powers. Saudi Arabia's economy is slowing sharply because of low oil prices, which the entry of new Iranian crude into the market will intensify. Iran is looking forward to a trade and investment boom as sanctions are lifted; it has big non-oil sectors such as agriculture and car manufacturing that the Saudis lack. WIDER ALARM The volatile nature of Saudi-Iranian relations, aggravated already this month by a diplomatic row following Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite cleric, is causing alarm among world powers who fear things will get worse. This week a procession of top officials from around the world will visit Riyadh, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. While they all have other business to discuss, the question of Saudi Arabia's handling of its rivalry with Iran, and the wider risks it entails, are likely to be addressed, with both Xi and Sharif planning also to visit Tehran. What they all fear is that if competition between the Middle East's foremost powers cannot be contained, it will complicate efforts to end wars and political struggles across the region or even break out into new fighting elsewhere. Such concerns are only compounded by the sectarian lines along which the rivalry has become drawn, and the likelihood that hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran will translate into religious competition that fuels militancy across the world. A letter signed by 140 Saudi clerics, including prominent names, calling on the government to beware what they termed Iran's "record of criminality and treachery" and to support regional Sunnis cannot have assuaged international alarm. Neither can the Tweet by Sheikh Saud al-Shuraim, imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, using a derogatory term often employed by Arab Sunnis to describe Iranians and Shi'ites, after the sanctions were lifted. "There is no surprise in the alliance of the Safavids with the Jews and Christians against the Muslims, history witnessed this. But there is surprise at minds delaying their understanding of this truth until this moment," he wrote. (Additional reporting by Andrew Torchia and Sam Wilkin in Dubai; Editing by William Maclean and Giles Elgood) Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Monday suspended the import of poultry, eggs and dairy products from seven French regions over a bird flu outbreak. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority said the regions include France's southwestern Dordogne, where the highly virulent H5N1 strain of the virus was identified in November. The director of the French Aviculture Confederation, Christian Marinov, played down the significance of a move which does not cover Brittany or Vendee, the only regions to export and to date free from bird flu. "It's of no consequence as exports are from Brittany and Vendee" via the Doux group, which handles "100 percent" of exports from France to non-EU states, Marinov told AFP. Several countries including Japan and China had already banned French poultry imports as a result of the outbreak. "This temporary ban is to continue until the health status of the livestock is stable," SFDA said. It added that poultry, eggs and dairy products that have been treated thermally or in another way to eliminate the virus are exempt from the suspension. According to Business France, the French export promotion agency, France was the second-biggest exporter of poultry products to Saudi Arabia in 2013 and volume had risen 64 percent since 2009. The World Health Organization says the H5N1 virus does not infect humans easily but when it does it is fatal in about 60 percent of cases. On Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the family received a phone call from a distraught Scott Disick. Kim Kardashian explained, Khloe calls me hysterical saying, Scott sent me this text message [and] that he just cant take it anymore. And Khloe tried to call Kourtney, but shes on flight back from Montana. Kim and Kris listened in as Scott spoke to Khloe saying, My life is officially over. I just want it over. He went on to lament the end of his relationship with Kourtney before breaking down in tears. Knowing that Scott is in a vulnerable place, fighting addiction, the Kardashians worried for Scotts safety. They called one of Scotts friends, Chris Reda, who was able to track Scott down and make sure hes OK. Once they knew he was safe, Kris hoped that this served as a wake up call for Scott. I thought Scott hit rock bottom. He hadnt. Its frustrating on so many levels, but my hope is this is the final straw for him inside his own soul. Keeping Up with the Kardashians airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on E!. Watch Scott Disick apologize to the Kardashians. To learn more about Yahoo SuperFan and Yahoo TV, be sure to follow us on Twitter: @YahooTV, Facebook, and Instagram for your daily dose of all things TV and Movies! Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn told 60 Minutes' Charlie Rose that one of the conditions for his access to drug lord Joaquin Guzman Loera was that the fugitive known as "El Chapo" would have final say over his Rolling Stone piece. Penn admitted to Rose during an interview that aired Sunday night that he was in total disbelief that Guzman agreed to meet with him for a sit-down interview in October. I was stunned that he would risk our trip. I was stunned, Penn told Rose, according to a transcript provided to THR by CBS News. Guzman had been on the run from Mexican authorities after escaping a maximum security jail in July. Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo met with Guzman in his secure jungle compound. Read More: Sean Penn on El Chapo Meeting: "We're Not Smarter Than the DEA or the Mexican Intelligence" Guzman was recently recaptured. Authorities credit Guzman's reaching out to filmmakers in attempt to make his story the main reason he was recaptured. Penn, who wrote in the Rolling Stone piece he spent eight hours with Guzman, called the controversial interview "experiential journalism." "I don't have to be the one that reports on the alleged murders or the amount of narcotics that are brought in," Penn said. "I go and I spend time in the company of another human being, which everyone is. And I make an observation and try to parallel that, try to balance that with the focus that we -- that I believe we -- we tend to put too much emphasis on." Despite all of his work, the story would have been killed if Guzman did not like what he read, the actor said. "What was brokered for me to have the interview with El Chapo was that I would finish the article, send it to him, and if he said no, then that was no harm, no foul to any reader," Penn said. "It would never be printed." Penn was recently blasted by one of Guzman's attorneys for writing that the drug lord openly boasted about his business and empire. Story continues "It's a lie, absurd speculation from Mr. Penn," attorney Juan Pablo Badillo said. "In a way, yes, it does complicate [his defense]. Mr. Penn should be called to testify to respond about the stupidities he has said." Penn said it was not a matter on whether he was hard enough on Guzman, but that he would not have changed anything had he been pusher. "I think the policy of the war on drugs, which so deeply affects all of our lives, seems not to change. It seems to be so unmovable. And it occurs to me that often, because we want to simplify the problem, and we want to look at a black hat and put our resources into focusing on the bad guy and I understand that," Penn said. "I absolutely understand justice and the rule of law." Read More: El Chapo's Lawyer Criticizes Sean Penn For "Stupidities" During Rolling Stone Interview Penn said his overall goal was to kick-start the conversation on the war on drugs. So far, it has not gone as well as he'd hope, Penn told Rose. We all want this drug problem to stop. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs, just as many of your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers, the teachers at school, are doing these drugs. Just as many, Penn said. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out, talking about that? 1-1%? I think thatd be generous. Niamey (AFP) - At least six Niger soldiers were killed on patrol when their vehicle hit a mine in the Diffa border region used by neighbouring Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, local authorities and media said on Monday. "An army vehicle ran over a mine causing deaths and injuries but we do not have the exact figures," Abari El Hadj Daouda, the mayor of the town of Kabalewa where the incident happened on Saturday, told AFP. Private television Tenere and local radio station Anfani both reported that six soldiers were killed, with five to seven others wounded, Images broadcast by Tenere showed the bodies of six soldiers draped in the national colours of orange, white and green laid out in a cemetery, with military personnel and civilians attending the burials. According to the United Nations, there were at least 74 attacks last year by Boko Haram Islamists involving their fighters and Niger's army in the border region of southeast Niger. By Marja Novak LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerar refused to accept the resignation offered by Finance Minister Dusan Mramor earlier on Monday and praised the minister's achievements in fiscal consolidation. Over the past year, Mramor reduced Slovenia's budget deficit to some 2.9 percent of gross domestic product, in line with demands of the European Commission, from 4.9 percent in 2014. The government plans to cut the deficit further this year, to 2.3 percent of GDP. "As the prime minister I have to assess the work of the minister so far and he has managed to achieve the goal of this government ... I do not accept his resignation," Cerar told a news conference. Mramor offered to resign over the issue of extra income he received when he worked as a dean and professor at Ljubljana's Faculty of Economics. Local media say Mramor had received about 45,000 euros since 2008 for being on call to work whenever he was needed. Regulators said such ongoing availability was not permitted for professors. A number of trade unions had demanded Mramor's resignation as well as the resignation of Education Minister Maja Makovec Brencic, who also received extra income for being similarly available as a professor at the same university. The unions said the finance minister lacks credibility in attempts to curb public spending after he received the illicit extra payments during Slovenia's years of financial crisis. The previous government had to pour more than 3 billion euros into local banks in 2013 to prevent them collapsing under the weight of bad loans. Injecting the funds helped Slovenia to avert an international bailout. "Minister Mramor accepted the income believing that it was legal. He apologizes to everyone that was in any way hurt by his action and will return all the money received in that way," the finance ministry said in a statement. Cerar said that minister Mramor was one of the best financial ministers in Europe and that "past actions should not be the reason for his resignation", particularly since he apologized and obliged himself to return the money. Analysts said the affair weakened the centre-left government, which took power in 2014, particularly since Mramor has so far been the strongest minister of the cabinet and the creator of its economic policy. "By rejecting Mramor's resignation Cerar took upon himself the anger of the public... Troubles of the government could escalate particularly in the autumn when budget plans for 2017 will be discussed," Tanja Staric, a political analyst of the national radio station Radio Slovenia, told Reuters. The next general election is due in 2018. (Reporting By Marja Novak, editing by Larry King) By Matt Smith DUBAI (Reuters) - A Dubai-based Iranian businessman blacklisted in new U.S. sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile program said on Monday that he and his small company with just a single employee had been targeted by mistake. Washington added 11 companies and individuals to a sanctions list on Sunday for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program, in a move that was delayed by more than two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of U.S. prisoners. The United States, European Union and United Nations are lifting the broad financial sanctions that barred Iran from the global financial system for years, after a U.N. body certified on Saturday that Tehran was complying with an agreement to curb its nuclear program. The move amounts to the biggest return of a country to world commerce since the Cold War. But Washington also maintains a separate, far more narrowly-focused list of companies and people who face sanctions over Iran's missile program, unrelated to the nuclear sanctions. The missile blacklist is not being lifted, and the new names are being added in response to the test-firing of a missile three months ago. Iran says it has not agreed to any limits on its missile program, which is intended to carry conventional warheads not nuclear bombs, and the sanctions are illegal. Keeping the missile sanctions in place is an important part of the U.S. government's response to hardline critics at home and among allies in the Middle East, who accuse President Barack Obama's administration of making too many concessions to Tehran. Those added to the U.S. blacklist on Sunday include two Iranian businessmen based in Dubai: Hossein Pournaghshband and Rahim Reza Farghadani, and their respective companies, Mabrooka Trading Co and Candid General Trading. The U.S. Treasury said Mabrooka had supported an Iranian company in its efforts to acquire a production line for carbon fiber "probably suitable for use in ballistic missile components". Candid was targeted for providing or attempting to provide "financial, material, technological, or other support to Mabrooka Trading and Pournaghshband". But Farghadani said his firm had been targeted by mistake because it shared an address with Mabrooka. The two companies share a small office with half a dozen desks on the fourth floor of an eight-storey office block in Deira, a dilapidated commercial area on the northern bank of Dubai's creek in the United Arab Emirates. Hassan Khaja, an office assistant at Candid Trading, said he was its only other employee, apart from Farghadani. Mabrooka had two employees apart from Pournaghshband, he said. None were there. Whatever the companies' role, their operations appear on their face to be a far cry from huge organizations like Iran's central bank and state oil and shipping firms, which are having global sanctions lifted as a result of the nuclear agreement. Farghadani, a middle aged Iranian man dressed in an open shirt and jacket, told Reuters he could not understand why Candid had been sanctioned. The two companies were entirely separate, he said, apart from sharing office space and a local sponsor, whom Khaja named as Ali Hashemi. In the UAE, companies operating outside free zones must be 51 percent owned by an Emirati citizen. Farghadani said Mabrooka had ceased operations and Pournaghshband left the country three months ago. He declined to comment further. The online registry of Dubai's Department of Economic Development showed no record of Mabrooka Trading Co. Candid General Trading is registered. Its listed activities include trading of various goods including watches, computers and photographic equipment. Iran on Monday said the new sanctions were illegitimate, vowing to continue developing its conventional military deterrent. (Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Sam Wilkin, William Maclean and Peter Graff) MADRID/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Iran and Spain are discussing the construction of an Iranian-owned oil refinery at the Gibraltar strait, the Spanish foreign minister said on Monday, a day after sanctions against the economically isolated Islamic republic were lifted. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he hoped the planned refinery, which would be built in the southern port city of Algeciras with local Spanish firms, would be the first of many deals between the two countries. The United States and European Union on Saturday revoked crippling sanctions against Iran, which had cut its oil exports by about a half since its pre-sanctions 2011 peak, in return for Tehran complying with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions. Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Abbas Kazemi said in November that buying or investing in overseas oil refineries would be Iran's policy after the end of sanctions given its plans to significantly boost its oil output. On Monday, Iran ordered a rise in oil output by 500,000 barrels a day, Iranian official media reported. Margallo told reporters in Brussels the entire Iranian energy industry would have to be restructured following its return to the international economy, and Spain was well placed to assist. "What we see here is a new chance for the region to stabilize and for our companies to secure good business opportunities," Margallo said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers. "Our political relationship with Iran is very good because we moved faster than other countries and are now very well placed for future business," said Margallo, who investigated opportunities in a post-sanction Iran during a visit in 2014 and has often spoken favorably about closer dialogue. Margallo added that an Iranian refinery in Algeciras would boost employment in a region that has the highest unemployment rate in Spain. Kazemi said last week a possible facility would refine around 200,000 barrels a day, almost equaling Spain's current largest Gibraltar-San Roque refinery, owned by Spanish firm Cepsa. Neither Kazemi or Margallo have yet said which Spanish firms would be involved in the project. (Reporting by Angus Berwick and Robin Emmott; Editing by Julien Toyer) Nairobi (AFP) - Second half substitute Chisom Chikatara inspired Nigeria to a crushing 4-1 win over Niger in their African Nations Championships opening match at Kigali's Nyamirambo stadium on Monday. The Abia Warriors star grabbed a hat-trick late in the second half to give Nigeria bragging rights over their West African neighbours. After a barren first half, Nigeria turned on the heat when winger Osas Okoro put them ahead a minute into the second half. Okoro had a role in the second when his long ball deep in the Niger area found Chikatara, who controlled the ball on his chest before firing home his first after 74th minutes. Zakaria Adebayor pulled one back for Niger in the 81st minute. Earlier, debutants Guinea twice came from behind to earn a deserved 2-2 draw with Tunisia, in a match two opposing strikers each grabbed a brace. Tunisia drew the first blood through Ahmed Akaichi in the 33rd minute when the Etoile du Sahel dangerman flicked home a right cross from Hamza Mathlouthi. Seven minutes later Alseny Camara Agogo punished a sloppy Tunisia defence, tapping home a Ibrahim Bangoura's low cross from the left flank. Tunisia reclaimed their lead in the 51 minute when Akaichi scored his second on the counter attack, but Agogo came back to level after 83 minutes to cap an evenly contested encounter. Group D matches get underway on Tuesday at the Umuganda stadium in Gisenyi, where neighbours Zambia and Zimbabwe meet in the first match before Mali take on Cecafa champions Uganda. By Amrutha Gayathri and John Tilak (Reuters) - Canada's largest oil producer Suncor Energy Inc (Toronto:SU.TO - News) has reached a deal to acquire rival Canadian Oil Sands Ltd (Toronto:COS.TO - News) on Monday by raising its all-stock offer, a move seen marking the end of a months-long battle for the synthetic crude asset. The deal, valued at about C$4.24 billion ($2.93 billion), came days after Suncor's hostile bid fell short of support from Canadian Oil Sands shareholders. Canadian Oil Sands' shares rose about 11 percent, while Suncor fell 4.7 percent. Oil sands producers have been struggling with tumbling global crude oil prices, which have slid to their lowest levels since 2003 over worries of a global supply glut. Suncor will now offer Canadian Oil Sands shareholders 0.28 of a Suncor share for each share held, up from the initial bid of 0.25 shares. The new offer values Canadian Oil Sands at C$8.74 per share, a premium of nearly 17 percent over the closing price of both stocks on Friday. In response to the hostile bid, Canadian Oil Sands had adopted a shareholder rights plan that acted as a poison pill, and urged investors to reject the offer. Seymour Schulich, a major Canadian Oil Sands investor who had opposed the initial bid, said he was satisfied with the outcome. "It's the best we could do in the environment we're in. I wish we had a better environment, but we didn't," he said in an interview. The owner of 5 percent of Canadian Oil Sands shares, Schulich was involved with the deal negotiations. "They're going to get an overwhelming majority of the shares now." Including Canadian Oil Sands' C$2.4 billion debt, the deal is valued at about C$6.6 billion. With the takeover, Suncor's 12-percent stake in Syncrude - the oil-sands mining consortium in northern Alberta in which Canadian Oil Sands has a 36.7-percent stake - would rise to 49 percent. "It makes sense from the standpoint that Suncor has a lot of value to add to Syncrude," said Scott Vali, portfolio manager and vice-president, equities at CIBC Asset Management, one of the biggest shareholders in COS. Story continues "It's a fair price for all parties involved." JP Morgan and CIBC World Markets are financial advisers to Suncor, while Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP are its legal advisers. RBC Capital Markets, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP are advising Canadian Oil Sands. D. F. King provided Suncor with proxy solicitation advice, and Kingsdale advised Canadian Oil Sands. (Reporting by Amrutha Gayathri and John Tilak; Editing by Paul Simao, Nick Zieminski and Marguerita Choy) On Tuesday, a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC sent campaign regulators a seemingly perfunctory letter, all of 30 words long. This letter serves to officially notify the Federal Election Commission that Priorities USA Action will file its reports on a monthly basis to the Commission as of January 1, 2016, it read. Sounds harmless enough. But that little note and more just like it from other super PACs allows top presidential bankrollers to remain hidden as the campaign grows white hot. Thats because, thanks to a quirk in federal law, such letters give those super PACs the power to withhold their January donors names until well after the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries are conducted next month. Also secret: the potentially massive amounts of money the donors are contributing in order to affect the outcome of those crucial contests. Instead, the super PACs will file campaign finance disclosure reports that only include contributions theyve received through December. Beyond Priorities USA Action, 10 other presidential super PACs have so far taken advantage of this opportunity to withhold information about their January donors, a Center for Public Integrity review of federal records indicates. They include: The situation is really inappropriate the whole point of disclosure is to provide information to voters when they need it, said Ann Ravel, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission who served as the agencys chairwoman last year. Story continues Ravel, however, acknowledged theres little the FEC can do about it at this juncture, and current FEC Chairman Matthew Petersen concurred. Lee Goodman, a Republican FEC commissioner, noted that political action committees commonly change their filing status during election years to put themselves on a predictable, monthly schedule. Otherwise, theyd be forced to file campaign finance disclosures before every primary contest in which they participated an onerous prospect. This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation. Don't miss another Politics investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email. I dont think theyre doing this for subterfuge, and Ive never heard of a voter who based his or her vote on the identity of a donor to a super PAC, Goodman said. But this does, perhaps, leave a gap in disclosure, which is important and certainly something the commission could look at. Heres how the super PAC filing loophole works: Most major super PACs filed just one campaign finance disclosure report during 2015, as the law allows them to do. But this month, these semi-annual super PAC filers whove spent money in the New Hampshire primary campaign race face a choice. They may choose to do nothing, maintain their current status and be required to submit a pre-primary report on Jan. 28 12 days before New Hampshires Feb. 9 primary. Such a pre-primary report would reveal everyone whos given a super PAC money and how much through Jan. 20. (Because of a 36-year-old FEC ruling, presidential caucus contests such as the one Iowa conducts on Feb. 1 dont trigger such reports.) Or, as many super PACs already have, they may this month notify the FEC that theyre switching to a monthly filing schedule. Doing so exempts a super PAC from filing Jan. 28 pre-primary reports, and therefore, revealing their income from Jan. 1 through Jan. 20. Instead, theyll file a report disclosing their 2015 fundraising on Jan. 31 and another report detailing their January fundraising on Feb. 20, per FEC rules. Some presidential race-focused super PACs pulled a similar donor-hiding switcheroo ahead of the 2012 election, although this time around, super PACs are raising exponentially more money to promote their candidates of choice or lambaste those they oppose. Technically, the FEC could deny such filing change requests. But the agency almost never does. Pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action spokesman Justin Barasky declined to comment on the super PACs switch, as did pro-Bush Right to Rise USA spokesman Paul Lindsay. None of the other presidential super PACs whove switched their filing status responded to requests for comment from the Center for Public Integrity. One person whos steamed about the situation is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, whos emerged as Clintons strong primary rival while disavowing all super PACs. Im shocked, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said when told of the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action filing switch. Youve got to ask the question, What are they afraid of? The Supreme Courts 2010 decision in Citizens Untied v. Federal Election Commission helped lead to the initial creation of super PACs later that year. Super PACs initially exotic political vehicles that sprung into existence following Citizens United have this election cycle evolved to become conventional weapons of most presidential efforts. Unlike traditional PACs, which may only raise money in limited increments, super PACs may raise and spent unlimited amounts of money to advocate for or against political candidates so long as they dont directly coordinate messaging with a candidates campaign. Together, super PACs have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to support White House hopefuls, and before Election Day in November, theyll assuredly raise hundreds of millions of dollars more. Dozens of individuals had already given super PACs at least $1 million by June 30, when such groups were last require to report their income. University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala says he doubts the revelation of some 11th-hour super PAC donor would sway most New Hampshire primary voters votes. But theres always a chance of something surprising occurring perhaps a major Democratic donor funding blanket attack ads on a Republican, or billionaires Charles and David Koch suddenly pumping cash into some effort after month remaining neutral. Youd like them to err on the side of transparency, Scala said. This story was co-published with the Concord Monitor and Al Jazeera America. Related story: See how much the 2016 presidential candidates have raised so far This story is part of Buying of the President 2016. Tracking the candidates, political committees and nonprofits that are making this presidential election the most expensive in history. Click here to read more stories in this investigation. Related stories Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. Maybe Ted Cruz isnt the smartest guy on the planet after all. For months, as the crafty Texas Senator surged in the polls, voters were told that Cruz is the most intellectual candidate in the race, the best debater someone the renowned law professor Alan Dershowitz called off the charts brilliant. His every move has been judged a Machiavellian masterstroke, as he drafted behind Donald Trump, sucking up his energy and lurking behind to suck up his fans, stoking Iowans fears about immigration and ISIS, presenting himself as a consistent conservative in a pond of flip-floppers. Most importantly, calculating just the right moment to end the bromance with The Donald. Related: Trump and Cruz Feud Ignites Into a Full-Blown War as Race Tightens But suddenly, Cruz is on the defensive. It turns out he missed a few beats, such as properly reporting loans received from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup those Big Bad Banks four years ago that financed his 2012 campaign. This was not a casual oversight. The lapse is not only a violation of the law; it also destroys a significant part of the Cruz narrative. You know, the part where he says to his lovely wife, Sweetheart, Id like us to liquidate our entire net worth, liquid net worth, and put it into the campaign, and she says Absolutely, with no hesitation, as he told The New York Times. Its a great tale they sink their fortune into his improbable campaign for the Senate and miraculously vault Rafael (his real name) into that esteemed chamber, which he then set about turning on its head. Too bad its not true. Thats not the only story Ted Cruz is revising. Donald Trump has adroitly alerted voters to Cruz Canadian birthplace, which was not a secret to the political cognoscenti but came as a thunderbolt to those enamored with his anti-immigrant agenda. Most likely, Cruz qualifies as a natural born citizen and is eligible to run for president. But, the issue has never been adjudicated. Trump has cleverly suggested that for the good of the party, and his own wellbeing, Cruz should get a ruling on the matter from the courts. That, of course, would only give the issue greater legitimacy, not to mention bog down Cruz campaign. Story continues The problem for Cruz is that this birther issue has ushered in a great deal of scrutiny, which has been about as pleasant as a tick bite. It turns out that the names of both Ted Cruz parents appear on a 1970 list of Calgary electors for Canadas federal election of July 8, 1974. Inclusion on that document suggests Canadian citizenship, but the campaign has denied that the senators mother was ever a Canadian citizen. His father, originally a Cuban citizen, did indeed become a Canadian citizen while living up north. Related: Trumps Attacks on Cruz Take on a Desperate Tone Breibart explains, Under U.S. law, Cruz would have inherited his citizenship at birth in 1970 from his mother, provided she remained a U.S. citizen. She likely would have retained her U.S. citizenship even if she had become a naturalized Canadian citizen, though Canadian law required naturalized citizens formally to renounce all foreign allegiances until 1973. Further investigation has turned up a discrepancy contained in Cruz memoire, A Time for Truth. Voters are about to learn that Cruz may have sanitized his mothers history. In his book, Cruz says that Eleanor Darraghs first marriage to Texan Alan Wilson ended because of her agony at having lost a son to crib death. However, records indicate that the baby died in 1966 in England, where she lived at the time. Wilson claims they were divorced around 1963 and that he was not the father of the infant. For Cruz, who wowed attendees of the Value Voters Conference in 2014 by pressing the importance of marriage and who is trying to lock up Evangelical voters in Iowa, this could get sticky. People will wonder: did Cruz intentionally polish up his mothers history? Or did his mother misrepresent her past to her young son? Curiously, Darragh used her first husbands last name Wilson on Ted Cruz birth certificate in 1970. Why she did so is unclear. She had married Rafael Cruz in 1969. Perhaps she wanted to be sure that her son would be assured of American citizenship, and used Wilsons name to avoid uncertainty. Whatever the reason, it is odd since that was not her name at the time of his birth. Related: The First Cruz Birther Lawsuit Is Here -- and Its Absurd Given the conflicting narratives and timelines, the confusion over Cruz being a natural born citizen is understandable. Other issues challenging Cruz are not confusing such as his absurd posturing as a Washington outsider. Cruz is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, clerked for a Supreme Court judge, became a high-priced corporate lawyer for several years representing the kinds of corporations he now decries, worked on the George W. Bush presidential campaign, has served in the U.S. Senate, and is married to a woman who until recently was a Goldman Sachs Managing Director. Thats about as insider a background as you can have. Ted Cruz is a political phenomenon a junior senator who made a name for himself being disruptive and disrespectful of our political institutions, who has campaigned on being disliked, and who has most recently gone out of his way to insult millions of Americans. Bottom line: it took Ted Cruz to make Donald Trump seem acceptable. Cruz is a phony. At least The Donald is authentic. The United States and other world powers lifted a raft of crushing sanctions against Iran on Saturday as a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran took effect. Hours earlier, Iran released five Americans it had detained, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. The sanctions relief move hastens Tehrans return to the global economy and gives the Islamic Republic access to more than $50 billion in assets frozen in accounts around the world. The move was triggered by a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency verifying that Tehran has placed curbs on its nuclear program as agreed to in the deal in July between the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran. We welcome that Iran has followed through on the promises it has made, Secretary of State John Kerry said during a press conference in Vienna. It kept its word, and we will continue to do the same. The IAEA report certifies that Tehran shipped stockpiles of its enriched uranium out of the country, reduced the number of its centrifuges by two-thirds and disabled its Arak nuclear reactor, among other steps. The measures extend Irans breakout time, or how long it would take for Tehran to develop enough fuel for a nuclear bomb, to one year. The Islamic Republic will also be under invasive monitoring by the IAEA for years to come, and face restrictions on imports of technologies used for the development of a nuclear weapon. The deal, which overcame intense political pressure from pro-Israel lawmakers in the U.S. Congress, required over two years of close collaboration between Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. That engagement has led the two governments to use the diplomatic channel to address issues outside the nuclear realm. Since Jan. 1, the two diplomats have phoned each other at least 11 times on issues ranging from the nuclear deal to tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia to peace efforts in Syria. Last week, the open channel proved crucial in quickly resolving a tense flashpoint after Tehran detained 10 U.S. sailors who entered Iranian waters. Tehran returned them within 24 hours. Story continues But given the unique and personal nature of the Kerry-Zarif partnership, its unclear who will steward the bilateral relationship into the next administration especially if a Republican wins the White House in the 2016 elections. In Washington, GOP leaders immediately decried the lifting of economic sanctions in a flurry of statements. Today, the Obama administration will begin lifting economic sanctions on the worlds leading state sponsor of terrorism, said House Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement. Iran is likely to use this cash infusion to finance terrorists. On Saturday, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton welcomed the implementation of the nuclear agreement, but noted her opposition to Irans recent test of a ballistic missile. Her campaign has subtly conveyed that Clinton would be tougher on Tehran if she becomes president. For international observers, the fast pace with which Iran complied with the deal surprised analysts who expected the process to drag on for months. Most experts believed implementation day would not come until the spring or summer of 2016, but instead it is in mid-January, Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and former Obama administration official, told FP. A main driver of Irans breakneck compliance is a calculation by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani that he needs to produce tangible relief from sanctions for his constituents before parliamentary elections on Feb. 26. The election, which comes two years after he assumed power, is widely viewed as a referendum on the moderate leader who was elected in part by promising an end to the punishing international sanctions. Western leaders prefer Rouhani over his right-wing predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and made plain that if sanctions relief helps the current presidents electoral prospects, its just another benefit of the landmark nuclear deal. We hope that [Rouhani] will garner some support because of the sanctions relief, German ambassador to the U.S. Peter Wittig told reporters Friday. Implementation clears the way for Iranian citizens to feel benefits of the agreement. It will allow Iranian banks to restore ties with the European banking system, and open new business opportunities in the country to multinational corporations. But the economic relief for Iran wont be immediate. Iran owns more than $100 billion in assets around the world, in banks in Japan, South Korea, China and other countries. Now that the funds have been unfrozen, about half will service Irans pre-existing debts. It will also take time for the available funds to be released to Iran. To defreeze these frozen assets is a time-consuming process. This will be a long haul, Wittig said. Experts also said that despite the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, foreign businesses will be wary to invest right away. The hangover from businesses and banks being resistant to doing business with Iran is going to be fierce, Richard Nephew, the former sanctions chief for the U.S. negotiating team, told FP. I think Iran will only really start to feel strong positive economic impact in 2017. Shortly before the IAEA report was finalized, Iran released Rezaian and three other U.S citizens imprisoned in Iran. In exchange, the U.S. granted clemency to seven Iranians. In a separate agreement, Iran released a fifth American, a recently detained student. Rezaian, who was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial that sparked widespread condemnation from free speech advocates, had been held by Iranian authorities since July 2014. Besides Rezaian, Iran released Amir Hekmat, a former U.S. Marine, Saeed Abedni, a pastor, Matthew Trevithick, a student, and Nosratollah Khosravi. A U.S. official said Iran has also committed to continue cooperating with the United States to determine the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran several years ago. The seven Iranian individuals who were granted clemency reportedly ran afoul of U.S. sanctions laws prohibiting trade with Iran. The United States also removed any Interpol red notices and dismissed any charges against 14 Iranians for whom it was assessed that extradition requests were unlikely to be successful, said the official, who released details of the agreement on condition of anonymity. This post has been updated. Getty Images SheKnows Elizabeth Hurley is back wearing the designer who put her on the map in the 1990s: Versace. Like all fabulous creations from the fashion house, its sexy and stunning. The 57-year-old actress shared some moody snapshots with her Instagram followers in her gorgeous Versace dress. While only the top half of her outfit is seen [] Baghdad (AFP) - Search operations were under way Monday for three Americans kidnapped from a "suspicious apartment" in Baghdad, in a rare abduction of Western nationals in the Iraqi capital. Kidnappers in Iraq have recently seized groups of Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, with Iraqis suffering the most from kidnappings for ransoms or to settle scores. The Islamic State group, which overran large areas in 2014, has abducted thousands of people in Iraq, while Shiite paramilitary forces opposed to the jihadists have also carried out kidnappings. "Three people carrying American nationality were kidnapped while they were in Dura... inside a suspicious apartment," a spokesman for the Baghdad security command said in a statement. "Security forces have begun searching for them," he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abductions and the identities and employment of the victims were unclear. A police colonel said on condition of anonymity that an Iraqi translator took the Americans for "drinking and women" at an apartment in the Dura area. - Rise in kidnappings - Militiamen "attacked the place", the colonel said, adding that "they were kidnapped from inside the apartment, not from the street." They were apparently taken to another area, as Dura was searched and they were not found, the officer said. He said that the translator was also kidnapped. Brothels and alcohol shops have been repeatedly targeted by powerful Shiite militia groups in Baghdad over the years. Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned the rise in "cases of foreigners being kidnapped in Iraq," saying it would harm the country's relations with other states. "The kidnapping of the American citizens yesterday, and before them the Qatari hunters, whose fate is still unknown, without a doubt indicates the increasing work of organised gangs in Iraq," Juburi said in a statement. Story continues US State Department spokesman John Kirby said Sunday that the US was "working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals." Both Juburi and the police colonel said the kidnappings took place Sunday, but some reports indicated they happened earlier. Iraq turned to paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias in 2014 to help combat IS jihadists. These groups, which fall under an umbrella organisation known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation units, have played a key role in the fight against IS. - Qataris and Turks abducted - But they and their affiliates have also been accused of abuses including summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of property. The US is leading a coalition of countries that have bombed thousands of IS targets in Iraq and Syria and which are providing training to Baghdad's forces. Washington has also dispatched special forces to Iraq to carry out raids against the jihadists. Both American forces and Shiite paramilitaries are battling IS, but relations between the two sides have been tense, especially due to fighting between them in the years after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. IS also has ample motive to target Americans, but while it is able to carry out bombings in Baghdad, it does not have a major presence in the city. Dozens of foreign nationals have been kidnapped in two incidents during the past five months. Last month, gunmen kidnapped more than two dozen Qataris who had come to southern Iraq to hunt. Their whereabouts are still unknown, as are the identities of their kidnappers. But Shiite militia groups have a major presence in southern Iraq, while IS does not. The kidnapping of the Qataris came a little over three months after gunmen seized 18 Turks in Baghdad. They were later released unharmed. The kidnapping of the Turks was claimed by an organisation that presented itself as a Shiite group called "Furaq al-Mawt", or "Death Squads", in a video claiming the abductions. Iraqi security forces clashed with fighters from the powerful Ketaeb Hezbollah militia during the search for the kidnapped Turks. It has been years since an American was kidnapped in Iraq. Issa T. Salomi, an American of Iraqi origins, went missing in Baghdad in January 2010 and was later freed by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a powerful Shiite group that is now one of the leading forces in the Hashed al-Shaabi. With an increasing number of drivers in the Philippines becoming more environmentally conscious, hybrid cars have seen a surge in sales over the past few years. If you are interested in lowering your carbon footprint and also keeping your fuel costs down, Carmudi Philippines has listed the top 5 hybrid cars available in the country, so you can see what is on offer in this innovative car segment. Lexus CT200h hybrid car thecarconnection.com The Lexus CT200h is a hybrid electric premium sports hatchback that has been in production since 2011. It is the smallest car model produced by the luxury brand and the third hybrid model from Lexus to be released in the Philippines. It was first revealed to the world at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show and released globally in 2011, including the Philippines. It saw a refresh in 2014 with a redesigned spindle grille (Lexuss signature) along with a revised front bumper and fog lights that elevated the CT200hs classic look even further. The CT200h features a 1.8 L DOHC VVTi straight-four gasoline engine that is said to match the power and output of a regular 2.0 L engine due to its advanced hybrid technology. Mileage wise, the CT200h gives a decent 21 km/L. The CT in its name stands for Creative Touring, highlighting the true nature of this dynamic beauty. Prices for the Lexus CT200h start at P2.5 million for the standard model and can reach an eye-watering P 3.2 million for the F-Sport trim. Honda CR-Z hybrid hybrid car rankingsandreviews.com The Honda CR-Z is a sports hybrid coupe that was first released by Honda in 2010. It cleverly combines conventional sports car features with a hybrid engine, giving it an edge over competitors such as the Mitsubishi Lancer. CR-Z stands for Compact Renaissance Zero, reflecting Hondas attitude toward revolutionizing car mechanics. The CR-Z was first introduced to the world as a concept model at the 2007 Tokyo Motor show. It followed two other hybrid concept models created by Honda, namely, the Honda Remix and Honda Small Hybrid Sports. In the Philippines, it has been available since 2013 and comes in 3 trims levels: Standard, Mugen and Modulo. Story continues The CR-Z is fitted with a Honda Hybrid System 1.5 L SOHC 16-valve i-VTEC gasoline engine which comes with either a 6-speed manual or CVT transmission and can get you on average around 20 kilometers for every liter of fuel used. In terms of pollution, it has been rated one of best cars for its limited fuel emissions in the US. Prices for brand new Honda CR-Z 2016 models start at the P1.8 million mark, while second hand Honda CR-V models (from 2013), are priced from 1 million upwards. Honda Legend 3.5 Sport Hybrid Honda Legend 3.5 Sport Hybrid hybrid car www.autodeal.com.ph Late last year, Honda revealed the Legend 3.5 Sport Hybrid to the Philippines, a luxury hybrid car that merges high end features with the newest hybrid technology. The Legend 3.5 Sport Hybrid is the 5th generation of the Legend line, a luxury mid-size car that was first released in 1985. The newest model was first made available in Japan in 2014, and is available in the Philippines starting this month. This elegant eco-car is equipped with a 3.5 L V6 direct injection i-VTEC with Variable Cylinder Management (VCM) engine and features a 7-speed Dual Clutch transmission system and All-wheel drive. The engine uses Hondas Earth Dream Technology, aimed at reducing fuel emissions and improving fuel economy, which stands at a respectable 17 km/L. The Honda Legend 3.5 Sport Hybrid is only available in one variant and costs a hefty P4,380,000. Lexus NX300h Grey Lexus NX300h hybrid car bild.de Another Lexus model has made our list, and this time its the luxury compact crossover car, the Lexus NX300h. The NX300h was introduced to the world in 2014 and became available in the Philippines the same year. This Nimble Crossover, as its NX initials denote, is an agile beast that offers drivers the niftiness of a compact car with the determination of a brawny SUV. Under the hood, the NX300h houses a 2.5 L Atkinson-cycle hybrid gasoline engine with CVT and and All-wheel drive. In terms of fuel consumption, the NX300h can give 16 km/L, quite good for its engine size. This model was designed with the active urban driver in mind, and has an array of technological features including a Remote Touch Interface. If you fancy driving the NX300h into your garage though, it will set you back just under P4 million. BYD Qin White BYD Qin hybrid car aolcdn.com The BYD Qin was first unveiled in 2015 at the Manila Auto Show and is one of the most innovative hybrid cars on the market today. The Qin is a plug-in electric hybrid and is equipped with a 1.5 L internal-combustion turbocharged engine as well as a 110kW electric motor that can give an amazing 50 km/L fuel mileage. The Qins interior is also top-of-the-range with features such as an 8-inch touch screen monitor and navigation system as standard. The Qin is one of the cheaper alternatives in the hybrid segment, with a brand new Qin costing P2,488,000. What may put some potential buyers off the plug-in type hybrid is the price to charge the car, but BYD has confirmed that it will only cost P100,000 to get your Qin back in the fast lane. The post Top 5 Hybrid Cars in the Philippines appeared first on Carmudi Philippines. Paris (AFP) - Toulouse will aim to thwart Paris Saint-Germain in their quest for a second straight domestic treble when the two sides meet for the second time in four days in the last 32 of the French Cup on Tuesday. PSG left Toulouse with a narrow 1-0 win in Ligue 1 on Saturday courtesy of Zlatan Ibrahimovic's second-half strike, but Dominique Arribage's side were buoyed by their display against the runaway league leaders. "It won't be the same story tomorrow (Tuesday)," Arribage said at Monday's press conference. "It's up to us to rise to the occasion. We have plenty of hope because they know we could hang with them and beat them. "We have to go to the Parc des Princes full of ambition. We're setting ourselves up for a good performance, we're not going there to concede five (goals) but that could happen." Laurent Blanc will be without injured stars Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Javier Pastore and Marco Verratti, but Argentine winger Angel Di Maria is set to return after sitting out Saturday's game with a sore foot. Blanc may also rest Marco Verratti, who is struggling with a groin problem, amid a congested fixture list which includes another meeting with Toulouse on January 27 in the semi-finals of the League Cup. PSG are set to embark on a run of seven matches in little over three weeks before hosting Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on February 16, and they would play another game before facing the Premier League champions should they advance on Tuesday. "We're playing matches every three days, but it's the same for a lot of teams," said Blanc. "The players are ready for it and we will rotate because we have to keep them fresh. (But) you can't become obsessed by just the Champions League. There is more to it than that. "We would like to have everyone fully fit to take on Chelsea but to do that, to make sure players remain match fit, they have to play." Story continues There are three other all-Ligue 1 ties, with record 10-time winners Marseille hosting Montpellier, 2014 champions Guingamp visiting Gazelec Ajaccio and Angers at home to 2013 winners Bordeaux, as a record 17 top-flight sides remain in the competition at this stage. Lyon will look to recover from Sunday's 1-0 defeat to bitter rivals Saint-Etienne when they travel to third-tier Chambly on Wednesday, while Monaco go to second-tier Evian. Fixtures Tuesday (all times GMT) Gazelec Ajaccio v Guingamp, Rennes v Bourg-en-Bresse (1700), Angers v Bordeaux (1730), Bastia v Sochaux, Sarre Union v Niort (1800), Paris Saint-Germain v Toulouse (2000) Wednesday Trelissac v Lille, Evian TG v Monaco, Mantes v Nantes (1700), Chambly v Lyon, Concarneau v Troyes (1730), Boulogne v Lorient (1800), Marseille v Montpellier (2000) Thursday Saint-Etienne v Ajaccio (2000) Lynchburg (United States) (AFP) - Donald Trump declared himself a defender of besieged Christians in a campaign speech to more than 11,000 people, as the Republican presidential frontrunner openly courted evangelicals two weeks before the first nomination vote. The 69-year-old billionaire found a receptive audience at Virginia's Liberty University, an evangelical bastion and a rite of passage for conservative presidential candidates from Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to Ted Cruz, Trump's main Republican rival. After a Christian rock band warmed up the crowd, the real estate tycoon stressed his ties with evangelicals, who largely vote for conservatives and play a key role in which candidate ultimately wins the party's nomination. But evangelicals also typically back Republicans that are conservative on social issues, an area of weakness for Trump. The audience at the Vines Center was mostly filled with youths, including students who were excused from class, but also included other supporters. Many attendees at the event, which was open to the public, wore t-shirts and sweatshirts bearing Trump's name. "We've done great with the evangelicals. The evangelicals have been amazing," Trump told the crowd to cheers. "We're going to protect Christianity. If you look what's going on throughout the world -- you look at Syria, where if you're Christian, they're chopping off heads." Trump, who is known more for his multiple wives, extravagant lifestyle and bombastic rhetoric than piety, kept Christianity at the fore as he spoke at the university founded by Southern Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell. "You look at the different places, and Christianity, it's under siege," he said. "I'm a Protestant, I'm very proud of it, Presbyterian to be exact, but I'm proud of it, very, very proud." - Controversy never far - Trump, who has urged a ban on Muslims entering the United States, upset some by speaking on a US holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Story continues A handful of students who came to protest were quickly corralled by Secret Service agents behind barricades at a distance from the amphitheater. "Dr King is someone who spent more than a decade fighting for equality for all people," said protest organizer Eli McGowan, 21. "Mr Trump, in his words and actions, likes to divide people and ridicule them. He magnifies people's differences. Their racial, ethnic and religious differences." During his speech, Trump brushed the criticism aside, declaring: "It's an honor to be here, especially on Martin Luther King Day. He was a great man." Trump again directed his anger and frustration at Washington politicians, which he says are incompetent, as the candidate, who has never served in public office, bolstered his anti-establishment credentials. "We've been dealing with politicians for so long. All they do is debate, but they never get things done," Trump said. He also delved into the hot-button issue of immigration, saying "we need powerful borders, strong borders," as he once again pressed for building a wall at the US border with Mexico. "Two thousand years ago, China built the Great Wall of China. This is a serious wall, and they didn't have Caterpillar tractors," he quipped. "I have to make it but I have to make it beautiful. Why? Because someday they'll name the wall Trump Wall." Audrey Bennit, sporting a Trump pin on her sweater, said she was blown away. "I think it was amazing, he talked about a lot of the things I was looking forward to him to talk about," she said. "Immigration is just a really big problem in this country... He's one of the only ones that talk about protecting Christians, that's very important." - Two weeks from voting - Trump is locked in a tight race with Cruz in Iowa, which on February 1 becomes the first state to vote for party nominees. Cruz, a Texas senator whose father is a Cuban-born evangelical preacher, already enjoys strong support from the evangelical community. According to polls, nearly two-thirds of evangelical Republicans say a candidate's position on abortion is the most important issue driving their voting decision. But Trump, who during his political life has been a Democrat and an independent, is only a recent convert to the "pro-life" anti-abortion position. In recent weeks Trump has stressed his own faith as he steps up efforts to reach out to the critical group. The seething fight between billionaire Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, his nearest rival for the GOP presidential nomination, boiled over this weekend with the two denouncing one another as hypocrites and phony conservatives. Their unseemly political battle raised questions about whether either man has the temperament to be commander in chief. Look, the truth is, he's a nasty guy, Trump told George Stephanopoulos in an interview taped earlier this weekend on ABCs This Week. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, Come on Ted. Let's go, ok. But he's a nasty guy. Related: Trumps Attacks on Cruz Take on a Desperate Tone Nobody likes him, said the GOP Republican frontrunner, who has made plenty of political enemies as well. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a veryhe's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy. With two weeks to go before the caucuses Cruz, holds a slender lead over Trump in some Iowa polls. He seemed to gloat over Trumps discomfort during an appearance on Fox News Sunday when he portrayed Trump as a closet supporter of abortion, gay rights and other liberal New York values that he says are out of step with Iowa and the rest of the country. On Saturday, Cruz told reporters following an event in Fort Mills, S.C., Donalds record does not match what he says as a candidate. It seems Donald has a lot of nervous energy. For whatever reasons, Donald doesnt react well when hes going down in the polls, according to The Washington Post. The bitter exchanges seem less like the typical heated rhetoric ahead of an important political event like the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, and more like the hissing of two dangerous Cobras facing off for primacy. Related: Trump Shines in a Substance-Free GOP Debate For months, Trump and Cruz struck an odd harmonious relationship during debates and joint appearances. They avoided taking pot shots at one another, even while they were competing for the same group of conservative and Evangelical Christian voters. Cruz repeatedly chided the media for trying to provoke him into attacking Trump, while he privately belittled Trump to some of his supporters and conceded he was biding his time until the Trump began to falter. Story continues Trump did a 180 when Cruz began to surge ahead of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and others. Cruz has pointed to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that has been beating Trump in a hypothetical two-man race, although Trump leads Cruz substantially when pitted against the entire field. Then Trump played the birther card stoke a renewing a controversy over whether the Canadian-born Cruz whose mother is a U.S. citizen was a natural born citizen eligible to serve as president under the Constitution. Trump also pounced on a New York Times report late last week that Cruz had failed to report to the Federal Election Commission two personal loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank totaling nearly $1 million that he used to help finance his long-shot 2012 Senate campaign. Trump subsequently portrayed Cruz as a hypocrite who ran against Wall Street as a Tea Party candidate while becoming beholden to big bankers. Related: Cruzs Unreported $1 Million in Bank Loans Wont Help His Presidential Bid Any pretense at civility vaporized during last Thursday nights sixth GOP presidential debate, when Cruz berated Trump for raising the birther issue only after he had begun to slip in the polls. Cruz also accused Trump of campaigning under the false colors of a conservative when he has long espoused liberal views on abortion, gay marriage and other New York values. Cruzs campaign followed by tweeting and emailing a video of Trump appearing on Meet the Press from 1999. In that interview, the Trump described himself as against abortion personally but very pro-choice and conceded that he viewed gay rights far more positively than others might around the country. Cruz claims it was Trump who first coined the phrase New York values in explaining his worldview. The attacks and counter-attacks raged on yesterday on national television. Top Reads from The Fiscal Times: 0117_Russia_Turkey_Hack A Turkish hacker group downed the website of Facebook page. Russian and Israeli authorities managed to restore the website back to operational later on Sunday. The cyber attack is the second against the Russian government by Bortecine Siber Tim this month. The group claimed responsibility for hacking the Instagram account of Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov during the first week of January. It temporarily took control of the account and posted Turkish flags and images of the downed Su-24. Related Articles Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish police were Monday hunting a man who sprayed a teahouse in the northwest of the country with bullets after he took umbrage for being charged "double" for a glass of traditional tea. A fight erupted between the man and the owner of the teahouse in Kocaeli province near Istanbul when he was asked to pay two Turkish liras (about 65 US cents) for a glass of tea -- usually sold for half that price at teahouses across the country. The angry man was ushered out by his friends, but returned minutes later, firing four times at the teahouse from inside his car, before driving off, Sabah daily reported. An elderly person sitting at the teahouse at the time of the attack was injured in the ear, Sabah said. Police were still looking for the suspect. Turkey's ubiquitous black tea, served in tulip-shaped glasses, is the most popular hot drink in the country and a cornerstone of Turkish culture. Turkey has one of the highest per capita tea consumption in the world, averaging about 1,000 cups per year. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Sunday said the United States "condemns in the strongest terms" the recent attacks in Burkina Faso, and mourns for those killed, including American citizen Michael Riddering. "Acts of terrorism will not stop efforts by brave Americans and others from around the world who travel far and wide to support governments, civil society groups, and others working to strengthen democracy, improve healthcare, and increase economic opportunities for all," said White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. In a statement, Price said the United States will remain a partner of the government of Burkina Faso in fighting terrorist groups. (Reporting By David Lawder) (Reuters) - Iranian authorities "continued to manipulate" Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian until the moment he was released with four other Americans in a prisoner swap over the weekend, his brother said on Monday. A deal had been negotiated between Washington and Tehran for the swap but at the last minute, Iranian authorities tried to stop the Iranian-American journalist's wife, Yeganeh Salehi, from leaving with him, Ali Rezaian told CNN. "The Iranians, as they have done all along, continued to manipulate them, continued to try and mess with them and prevented Yeggie for leaving for some period of time," Ali Rezaian told CNN in an interview from outside a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. "The U.S. stuck to its guns, they had said Yeggie had to come along with Jason and they got her out," Ali Rezaian said. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that a delay in the departure of the plane taking some of the detainees from Iran was partly due to a "temporary misunderstanding" about whether Rezaian's mother, Mary, and his wife, who is also a journalist, were on the plane, as had been agreed. They were later confirmed as being on the plane. Rezaian and two other Iranian-Americans arrived on Sunday in Landstuhl where they were undergoing medical evaluations. The prisoner swap followed the lifting of most international sanctions against Iran under a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program. Ali Rezaian said his brother had recounted to him some aspects of the 545 days he was held in Iranian custody after being accused of espionage. He said Iranian authorities grilled him about fellow journalists who cover the country. "We talked about a couple of things some folks here, Iranian folks people that cover Iran. The only thing he said was, 'I was interrogated about them,'" Ali Rezaian told CNN. Washington Post editors flew to Germany to meet with Rezaian, 39, who appeared in a photograph on the newspaper's website wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans and said he was feeling fine. "I want people to know that physically I'm feeling good," the Post quoted Rezaian as saying. "I know people are eager to hear from me but I want to process this for some time." Rezaian spent 49 days in solitary confinement before he was assigned a roommate in a 15-foot (4-meter) by 20-foot (6-meter) cell, one of his editors, Doug Jehl, told CNN after the meeting in Germany. He occupied his time by walking around an 8-foot (2-meter) by 8 foot (2-meter) concrete courtyard, reading fiction and looked forward to periodic visits from his wife and his mother. "He wasn't sure until the plane took off that it was the end of his ordeal," Jehl told CNN. Other Americans freed with Rezaian included Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine, who was detained while visiting family in Iran in August 2011, and who appeared smiling in a photograph taken in Germany on Monday. Also released was Saeed Abedini, 35, an Iranian-American pastor from Idaho who was setting up an orphanage in Iran in 2012 when he was detained. The fourth American freed was Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, who did not travel on the plane that departed Tehran on Sunday. The fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, who went to Iran in September to study Farsi at a language center affiliated with Tehran University, was seen in photographs in the Boston Globe returning to family in Massachusetts on Sunday. (Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Frances Kerry and Sandra Maler) Tim Kennedy may not be active in the cage or on the battlefield currently, but he has a fight on his hands, and thats a situation in which Kennedy is most comfortable. A war of words with ISIS, whose threats towards the UFC fighter and Army Green Beret were confirmed as legit by the FBI this week, has ruffled Kennedys feathers, that look astonishingly like a bald eagles feathers, flying in the wind with the grace of an American flag. Kennedy has no time for ISIS online tough guy threats, and in sitting down with FOX News, he made it clear that if they want Tim, they should come to Texas to talk it out like men. Im desensitized and dont respect them all because I think theyre pathetic humans. A normal person, who gets a picture of a beheaded human with a message that says this is going to happen to you would freak out. I get this picture and Im like, dude, why dont you just come here, well talk about it so I dont have to travel to find you And the FBI was like, thats not normal you need to figure out that these people can be dangerous. I was like, no. Theyre pathetic. Im not going to give them any clout whatsoever and Im not going to cower to online tough guys. Whether this is a smart move or not remains to be seen, but you have to respect Mr. Kennedys cajones in the face of potential violence from the Islamic State. (Via FOX News) London (AFP) - Britain's Home Retail Group, which recently rejected a takeover approach from supermarket group Sainsbury's, announced Monday the sale of home improvements and gardening unit Homebase to Australia's Wesfarmers. HRG, which also owns catalogue chain Argos, said in a statement that it has agreed to sell Homebase to conglomerate Wesfarmers for 340 million ($485 million, 444 million euros) in cash. The London-listed group plans to return approximately 200 million to shareholders from the proceeds. HRG had already confirmed last week, in response to press speculation, that it was in advanced talks with Wesfarmers over the Homebase sale. Perth-based Wesfarmers added in a separate statement on Monday that it would re-brand Homebase under its Bunnings Warehouse banner over the next three to five years. Homebase has more than 270 stores, employs around 18,000 staff and turned over about 1.5 billion last year. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of this year. Earlier this month, Sainsbury's had revealed that HRG had rejected its takeover approach made in November. Sainsbury's -- which wants Argos for its distribution capability as it seeks to build a store-based and online business -- did not give the level of its offer but media have put the price at about 1.1 billion. The supermarket giant now has until February 2 to decide whether to make a formal bid, under British takeover rules. Zaatari refugee camp (Jordan) (AFP) - UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Monday he fully understands the security concerns which have led Jordan to limit the flow of refugees entering the country from war-torn Syria. "We have full appreciation and understanding for Jordan's security concerns," the UNHCR chief said on a visit to Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Amman. Jordan has insisted it must screen newcomers to ensure they are genuine refugees and not jihadists seeking to infiltrate the country. It estimates the number of refugees from Syria at 16,000, while Grandi said it has climbed to 17,000. The kingdom is now only allowing in a few dozen refugees each day after the screening process to keep out Islamic State group jihadists, and last week it said around 16,000 were massed on the Syrian side of the border waiting to cross. "The refugees issue continues to get tangled with the security issue. This is a reality with which we have to cope," said Grandi. "What we are saying to the Jordanians is that once those security concerns are satisfied, once people are screened properly and it is a certain that there is no dangerous elements among them, then they should be progressively but as rapid as possible admitted to Jordanian territory," he said. "The response that I got is very encouraging." The Italian diplomat said Geneva would host a conference to find host countries for the refugees in March, after a fund-raising conference in London on February 4. The UN's refugee chief, on his first visit to the region since his appointment at the start of January, held talks with Jordanian officials and King Abdullah II. Washington (AFP) - While five American citizens were freed from detention in Iran this weekend, the US government vowed Sunday to work tirelessly for the release of another missing for nine years. Ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. He was reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region. Levinson, 67, is considered to be the longest-held hostage in US history, if still alive. "Even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about Bob," President Barack Obama said in a White House speech. "Each and every day, but especially today, our hearts are with the Levinson family, and we will not rest until their family is whole again." Of the US citizens who have been freed by Iran, four were part of a prisoner swap with America, while a fifth was released in a separate process, according to US officials. Taking to Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry said "For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in #Iran at every opportunity." He added: "Iran also agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate Robert Levinson. We won't rest until the Levinson family is whole again." The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his return. "The FBI expects our Iranian counterparts to fulfill their commitment to locate Bob and help bring him home safely," the agency said in a statement. "Bob forever remains part of the FBI family, and we remain committed to bringing him home safely to the family who misses him so much." The FBI said "we continue to investigate and follow up on all information we receive, no matter how insignificant it might seem." In 2013, US media reports revealed that Levinson had been paid by the CIA to gather information during his visits to Iran. Story continues He had been hoping to meet an informant during his trip who could provide information about Tehran's disputed nuclear program, they said. The White House has denied Levinson was working for the US government when he vanished. Washington has repeatedly requested information from Iran concerning Levinson. Iranian officials have denied all knowledge regarding his disappearance. A father of seven, Levinson suffers from diabetes and hypertension, factors which have raised fears from his family that he may not be receiving proper healthcare. FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Volkswagen plans to hire Louis Freeh, former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to help the carmaker deal with authorities in the United States investigating an emissions scandal, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said. A special committee on Volkswagen's supervisory board is due to discuss his appointment on Tuesday, according to an advance excerpt of Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Tuesday edition. Asked whether VW was about to hire Freeh, a spokesman for Volkswagen said the company declines to comment on "speculation". The carmaker is facing a legal onslaught on several fronts. U.S. owners of vehicles with higher-than-stated emissions are expected to seek billions of dollars in damages, while the U.S. Justice Department has sued VW for up to $46 billion under the Clean Air Act. Sueddeutsche researched the story together with German broadcasters NDR and WDR, the paper said. (Reporting by Edward Taylor; editing by Susan Thomas) Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL The long-awaited reunion between Miss Colombia (Ariadna Gutierrez) and Steve Harvey finally took place on the hosts talk show. Harvey wished to air the moment when he apologized, which makes sense. After all, his massive Miss Universe mistake was televised to global audiences, and he wanted to get the reconciliation out for the record. Harvey became the butt of internet-wide memes and jokes as the world piled on. Most of us make mistakes in relative privacy, but Harvey paid dearly for one quick blip. On Fridays episode, Harvey spoke with Miss Philippines (Pia Wurtzbach), who urged the host to stop beating himself up. He was very emotional and said his family received death threats after his flub. Now Harvey is getting real with Gutierrez. The initial confrontation shows Harveys welling eyes as he confessed to being beyond sorry, and this is only the beginning. Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL In this clip, Harvey admits he needs closure after sleepless nights. He feels awful for the pain he caused Gutierrez, and she accepts his apologies. Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL The situation grew awkward when Harvey asked for feedback on how he handled the immediate crisis. Gutierrez bluntly responded, You have to learn how to read cards. Because it was on the card. Then she pointed to the back screen (which flashed Harveys moment of realization) and said, Look at your face. The audience wasnt sure whether they were allowed to laugh, but it happened anyway. Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL To be completely fair, Gutierrez offered her advice with a small grin, and Harvey handled it like a pro. They both endured a prolonged media firestorm, but this episode was handled with grace. Hopefully, both Gutierrez and Harvey will sleep easier tonight and put this episode behind them. Facebooks WhatsApp instant messaging app for iPhone, Android and many other platforms including the web, is going free of charge, the company announced. That means you wont have to pay the annual subscription fee of $1/year anymore. DONT MISS: Watch Kylo Ren go nuts in a hilarious SNL spoof Nearly a billion people around the world today rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family, the company said in a blog post announcing its decision to subscription-free on all platforms. From a new dad in Indonesia sharing photos with his family to a student in Spain checking in with her friends back home to a doctor in Brazil keeping in touch with her patients, people rely on WhatsApp to be fast, simple and reliable. The company continued, For many years, weve asked some people to pay a fee for using WhatsApp after their first year. As weve grown, weve found that this approach hasnt worked well. Many WhatsApp users dont have a debit or credit card number, and they worried theyd lose access to their friends and family after their first year. So over the next several weeks, well remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service. WhatsApp will become Facebooks second free chat app after Facebook Messenger, which is nearly as popular among Internet users. But the company plans to keep making money from its product. WhatsApp said itll start testing tools that allow businesses and third-parties to communicate with their customers, and thats how WhatsApp will make money. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight, WhatsApp said, revealing that such notifications can potentially replace standard SMS messages in the future. Related stories 10 paid iPhone apps on sale for free today Meet your new digital butler New study shines light on one of the iPhone's biggest advantages over Android More from BGR: iOS 9.3 may hint at Apples plans to shake up its iOS release strategy This article was originally published on BGR.com London (AFP) - Kate Winslet tipped her "Titanic" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio to win this year's best actor Oscar, though he lost out at the British film critics' awards on Sunday. Winslet, 40, said she would be "surprised" if DiCaprio did not land an Oscar on his sixth nomination when the Academy Awards roll around in Hollywood on February 28. Speaking on the red carpet at the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at the city's May Fair Hotel, she said she thought it was "probably going to be Leo's year". "You can sort of feel it and I think everyone wants it for him," she said. "It would be amazing. It's also quite difficult for me too because Michael Fassbender is also nominated and I was his right hand woman for three months making 'Steve Jobs'. I saw how hard he worked and I thought his performance was extraordinary. "But I think you can feel the temperature and it's probably going to be Leo's year." At the 36th London Critics' Circle Film Awards, "The Revenant" star DiCaprio lost out to British veteran Tom Courtenay, 78, for his role in British drama "45 Years". British actress and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling won the actress of the year gong for her role in the film. Mark Rylance received the supporting actor honour for his part in Steven Spielberg's "Bridge Of Spies", while Winslet won the supporting actress gong for her role in the "Steve Jobs" biopic. She is up against Jennifer Jason Leigh, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams and Alicia Vikander for the best supporting actress award at the Oscars. "I really can't believe it because it has been a very strong year," she said of her nomination. "No one has been a shoo-in. People have been flitting in and out of this best supporting actress category for quite some time. "They were like the golden tickets this year. They were really very coveted spots, particularly in this category, so I'm absolutely thrilled." George Miller's post-apocalyptic thriller "Mad Max: Fury Road" was named film of the year on Sunday, while Miller won the director of the year award. The awards are voted for by 140 members of the Critics' Circle Film Section. Airport workers on Monday began picketing at several airports across the country to draw attention to wage disputes. Strikes and rallies were slated for Monday to coincide with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday, at at least nine U.S. airports, according to the Washington Post. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was among the earliest airports to see workers picket, according to local news sources. Strikes and rallies were reportedly planned for Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Miami, Chicago and Portland, the Post reported. Workers said they planned to picket through airport terminals, block bridges and protest out front of airline headquarters. VIDEO: Menzies workers picketing at Sea-Tac Airport http://kiro.tv/1Rw2HWL Over the past few months, workers at several major U.S. airports have been calling for higher pay and an end to alleged workplace discrimination and adverse work environments. Monday's demonstrations come on MLK Day, the national holiday dedicated to civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Before his assassination in 1968, King Jr. supported striking sanitation workers who demanded a decent wage and safety standards in Memphis, Tennessee and announced that he would be leading the Poor People's Campaign, a fight for economic justice. "We've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end," King Jr. said in his iconic 1968 speech, "I've Been To The Mountaintop." "Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We've got to see it through." The Poor People's Campaign: The little-known protest #MLK was planning when he died. http://bit.ly/1Cd0Lcu #MLKDay pic.twitter.com/GUYIwgIHI6 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZA8KXvUsAA1VCe.png:large "These men and women are calling for real change at all these airports in the hopeful and visionary spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King," Jaime Contreras, head of 32BJ Service Employees International Union for the Washington area, told the Post. "We are protesting what we already know is a gross injustice and humiliating working conditions." Story continues Airport workers protest for higher wages and union rights http://on.whdh.com/1ZGLFKh?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_7News ... #7News pic.twitter.com/Blb659Ql5G https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZAJBU4UEAA0_RK.jpg:large Airport workers taking part in the demonstrations are seeking a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a benefits package, job protections and support in their efforts to unionize, according to the Post. The protests will look differently across the country. In Portland, protesters have planned to march through the airport terminal and drop a banner from a bridge at the Alaska Airlines terminal, while airline protestors in Boston and Newark plan to march past ticketing agents and security, which may lead to arrest. "Enough is enough," wheelchair attendant Onetha King Jr. told The Washington Post. "We have rallied at City Hall, delivered petitions to contractors, and even gone on strike three times. We deserve the basic dignity that Martin Luther King demanded for workers over 50 years ago." January 18, 2015 12:22 p.m.: This story has been updated. By Michael Martina and Chen Aizhu BEIJING (Reuters) - China intends to retain a balanced stance in the Middle East, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Monday, as President Xi Jinping prepared to leave on an unusual visit this week to Saudi Arabia and Iran, regional powers currently locked in a bitter dispute. Tensions between the Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Muslim Iran have escalated since Saudi authorities executed Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2, triggering outrage among Shi'ites. In response, Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad, prompting Riyadh to sever relations. Tehran then cut all commercial ties with Riyadh, and banned pilgrims from traveling to Mecca. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming told reporters China was not taking sides. "Regarding some of the region's problems, China has always taken a balanced and just position," Zhang said, when asked about tensions between Riyadh and Tehran. "If the Middle East is not stable, I'm afraid the world can't be very peaceful. If a country or a region is not stable, it cannot realize development," he added. "China firmly supports regional countries individually exploring a development path that suits their national conditions." The trip, that also takes in Egypt, has been shrouded in a rare level of secrecy, even for a country which tends to keep details of its top leaders' activities under wraps. Zhang would not even say on which days Xi would be in the countries. While relying on the region for oil, China has tended to leave Middle Eastern diplomacy to the other four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France and Russia. But China has been trying to get more involved, especially in Syria, recently hosting both its foreign minister and opposition officials. A Chinese president has not visited Saudi Arabia since 2009 when Hu Jintao went, and Jiang Zemin was the last Chinese president to visit Iran, going in 2002. OIL DIPLOMACY Iran emerged from years of economic isolation on Saturday when world powers lifted sanctions in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear ambitions. China is Iran's top oil client and the countries have close ties across the board. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also been active in pushing both the United States and Iran to reach a nuclear agreement. Zhang did not say what may lie ahead for China and Iran now, though said energy was an "important part" of cooperation. Chinese energy firms are seeking a bigger role in both Saudi Arabia and Iran, which together supply nearly a quarter of the country's crude imports. [O/CHINA1] An official at state giant, Sinopec, said Xi may attend a ceremony to mark the successful operations of its joint venture Yasref refinery in Saudi Arabia. Sinopec is targeting more engineering and construction contracts for refineries and petrochemical plants, said the official. CNPC, parent of PetroChina <0857.HK>, is also restructuring its Middle East operations, aiming to offer more integrated services from exploration to engineering, a company source said. China's official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday that Iran would be a key part of China's new Silk Road initiative to develop trade and transport links across Asia and beyond, which Beijing refers to as the "one belt, one road" strategy. Potential exists for cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, high-speed rail, natural gas and oil pipelines, Xinhua added. ISLAMIST MILITANTS China also has its own worries about radicalisation of the Muslim Uighur people who live in China's far western region of Xinjiang, which has been beset by violence in recent years, blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants. China says some Uighurs have traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight with militant groups there. In November, Islamic State said it had killed a Chinese citizen it had taken hostage in the Middle East. "China and Middle East countries are all victims of terrorism and are also important cooperative participants in the fight against terrorism," Zhang said. (Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ed Davies) New York (AFP) - New York reached a deal that will almost halve the number of horses licensed to perform carriage rides in Central Park after the mayor called them inhumane to animals. The agreement, which will keep the industry alive, comes after Mayor Bill de Blasio promised two years ago to abolish the rides popular with tourists, loved-up couples and immortalized in movies. The deal, which will start to come into effect from June 1 and take three years to be fully implemented, will reduce from 180 to 110 the number of licensed horses by December 1, the city council said. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number to 95 and to give 75 horses a long-term home in Central Park stables, therefore banning public horse rides on the streets of Manhattan. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement in concept on the future of New York's horse carriage industry," said the mayor's office said. "We look forward to working together on the final details of this legislation and getting this passed," it added in a statement. The agreement demands that by October 1 2018 stables will be established in Central Park to house 68 carriages and 75 horses, the city council said. Horses not at work must be on furlough outside the city, and no carriage can operate for longer than nine hours a day by December 1. NYClass, one of the groups demanding a ban on carriage rides, has collected more than 35,800 signatures in an online petition. The petition calls the carriage horse industry "cruel, inhumane and unsafe" and demands the horses to be retired to sanctuaries. "Horses do not belong in a congested, urban setting where they constantly breathe exhaust while dodging dangerous traffic," it says. The group was not immediately reachable for comment to the deal. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's presidency issued an embarrassing correction on Monday to rectify an erroneous reference last month by President Jacob Zuma to Africa being the "largest continent". Speaking at a business dinner on Dec. 9, Zuma, who has no formal education, also described Africa as so big that "all continents put together will fit into Africa". The comments were seized upon by Zuma's opponents, who argue that his lack of schooling makes him unfit to lead a sophisticated emerging economy. It was unclear why the presidency decided to issue the correction after a delay of nearly six weeks. "Africa is in fact the second biggest continent in terms of population size, and the biggest continent in this regard is Asia. The President regrets the error," the statement said. Zuma's comments about Africa's size came hours before he fired respected finance minister Nhlanhla Nene in favour a relative unknown, triggering financial turmoil that sent the rand, bonds and stocks plummeting. (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng Editing by Jeremy Gaunt) KFC teams up with Prescott for 2016 Part of being all-inclusive means supporting the younger generation and doing exactly this is something that KFC is proud of as Simon Hardy, VP KFC TT noted in the media release, KFC is big on supporting upcoming stars like we did with Olatunji a couple years ago. Now, KFC has teamed up with Kerwin Prescott, another young star, for the 2016 Carnival season. Prescott produced the brands Carnival jingle, which also features his vocals. He also stars in the KFC Carnival TV commercial. In the release, Prescott summed up his feelings about working on the campaign: KFC and Carnival are two of the treats I always look forward to as a child. I travelled to many places and trust me, no KFC taste like KFC in Trinidad and Tobago; this is a great project to be a part of. As a recording artist/producer, Prescotts main ambition was to be different and collaborate with massive producers. And so he did with names like GotSome, Diskord, T&T/UK duo JusNow, and The Prototypes whose collaboration POP IT Off aired on MTV and won best Drum and Bass Video for 2015 featuring Prescotts alter ego (Mad Hed City). Fusing his rapso background with UK bass beat, Prescott saw and headlined many prestigious festivals including the Liverpool International Music Festival, WOMAD Festival, and Bass Culture Festival (Brazil), the release said. He was also the first-locally produced soca/rapso artiste to perform at the world famous Glastonbury music festival 2013, and headlined 2014 and 2015, the release said. He has also opened for acts such as Dead Presidents, Damian Jr Gong Marley and Shaggy. KFC looks forward to supporting other future stars like Kerwin and moreover, to make this Carnival truly all-inclusive, the release said. Kerwin Prescott on social media: http://instagram.com/kerwinprescott https://twitter.com/ kerwinprescott Agriculture must demand respect Every single industry worldwide that has grown has had careful nurturing, and has had incentives given to it by governments. The oil and gas sector in Trinidad and Tobago (TT) had tremendous incentives given to it to start up by the Government of TT (GoTT). Addressing the 77th annual general meeting of the Agricultural Society of TT (ASTT) yesterday at St Augustine Secondary School, Bharath told hundreds of farmers present, You have to stand up for the agricultural sector now and say, we need to be given those same incentives. We need to look at food production, food security in TT with a different pair of eyes. He said, It cannot be that the GoTT and the Ministry of Agriculture believe that because they wield power at governmental level, they could withhold resources from the farmers of TT. The manufacturing sector, that Government was now talking about as being the panacea the silver bullet to rescue the economy he said, has been given major incentives and has been nurtured from government to government. Noting the need for consultations, Bharath said that every item in the 2010 to 2015 food production plan he initiated, came out of the belly of the farmers of TT. Putting it together, he said, required consultations that brought out the challenges farmers have suffered on a daily basis for the past fifty to 100 years. Many of the challenges required simple solutions, which the plan had catered for, he said. Had we followed it we would have been a lot further down the road as far as agriculture was concerned, but for many reasons we chose not to, or, successive ministers chose not to, and we are where we are, but we arent too late, he said. Successive governments, including the Peoples Partnership of which he was a part, he said, felt in many instances that agriculture was not the most important item on the agenda, without clearly understanding that if we could not feed ourselves, then we had nothing. You can have as much money in their pocket but if you cannot buy food with that money you have nothing. The perception of farmers in society was that they were the lowest rung on the ladder, he said, a perception by even those in government. This he experienced, he said, when he served as food production minister from 2010 to 2012. It was the perception that farmers were people who became farmers because they had nothing else to do. Therefore they werent given the respect as other farmers throughout the world, he said. Rebuilding the sector, instilling confidence, getting young people involved in agriculture, he said, has to start from knowing that if we could not grow our own food and create food security, save valuable foreign exchange, change our culture eating foreign foods, then our agro sector would completely die, and we would be at the mercy, as indeed we are today, of imported foods coming into TT. Meanwhile, Bharath told Newsday that he will be leaving TT during mid-February to work on mergers and acquisitions for a large oil company in Nigeria. I have got to earn a living. I got to work and I have to look for the best opportunities that is available to me, he said. His new job, he said, was another extension of what he did before becoming involved in politics. Before entering politics he was head of Global Marketing with Gulf Oil. The current position is for an initial two-year period with sixmonth breaks in between. Eating local depends on availability In the Presidents Address yesterday at the 177th annual meeting of the ASTT at St Augustines Secondary School yesterday, Sookoo said the ASTT has a strong membership and as such a strong platform to implement governments agricultural policies to aid in diversifying the economy. With a membership from over 86 agricultural groups across the country functioning in a more structured way, she said, the Ministry of Agriculture, relevant State agencies and corporate entities would be better able to consult with farmers and allocate resources to them in a more structured and holistic way. The meeting attracted hundreds of farmers who took part in the election of a new 26-member committee of management. Sookoo was also seeking an eighth term as president. Calling on all stakeholders to put their differences behind them, Sookoo said, Government, and the minister and Ministry of Agriculture can only guide policies, but it is the farmers who are implementers. Let us walk this talk and show to the world that we are serious about food security in TT, she said. Farmers who were sidelined over many decades, she said, were now being called to play a leading role to salvage the countrys economy and reduce the countrys high food bill on account of the steep drop in the price of oil and gas in recent times. What is happening with our economy is something that the ASTT was warning government about for the last seven years, she said. We had indicated that while we had the money we should have used that opportunity to diversify our economy. There was very little done, she said. She continued, Today you hear everyone, even the Prime Minister (Dr Keith Rowley) calling on citizens to eat more local. We can only eat local it if is available. There has to be availability of our local foods. In the past, policy makers and leaders in society, she said, were responsible for allowing our citizenry to acquire foreign tastes. How we break that cycle will be very interesting in the coming years. Much of the responsibility for changing the face of agriculture, she said, will rest on the shoulders of young farmers and young entrepreneurs. The previous committee of management she led, she said, had 13 members under the age of 35 and the slate she was leading to contest yesterdays elections had 17 persons in the same age group. Referring to a number of young farmers who earn their livelihood through agriculture, she said, if they can do it, others can do it too. Queries over Land and Building taxes Hamel Smith and Company, has questioned Governments proposal to raise $203 million from Land and Building Taxes, saying she didnt see how this was possible since the Land and Building Tax Act and the Municipal Corporations Taxes Act Part 5, were both repealed in 2010. She said according to the Budget Estimates, $3 million of this sum was to come from Land and Building Taxes and $200 million from Industrial and Land Tax. Bart, who is a partner in the firms Transactional Department, made the point while speaking on Taxation, Government Revenue and its impact on Business at a seminar last week organised by the American Chamber (AmCham) to present its Economic Outlook for 2016. The seminar was held at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain. Bart said that in the 2015/2016 Budget, based on an oil price of US45 per barrel and US$2.75 per million metric British thermal units for natural gas, estimated total tax revenue was $40.8 billion. However, she said given the current turmoil in international oil markets she is uncertain how revenues would be generated by the various sectors to permit Government to collect targetted sums. She said some analysts were even predicting the price of oil would drop to US$10 per barrel and wondered whether in the current state of the economy the tax revenues anticipated by Government could still be generated. Pointing to the $3.2 billion the budget expected to collect from oil companies, she questioned whether that figure is reasonable or even realistic given current market realities. Bart added retrenchment, wage freezes or wage cuts would also put the $8.2 billion expected from individual taxation in doubt, and this would also impact on earnings expected through the Health Surcharge. On Value Added Tax (VAT) she pointed out that in addition to the reduction of the VAT rate and widening of the net of items on which VAT is to be charged, the threshold for registrations of businesses liable to pay VAT is also being increased from $360,000 to $500,000 per year. Registration is important when we are talking about the ability of a business to charge VAT on its customers and also to recover VAT that it is spending in its day-to-day operations, Bart said. She said that while the VAT rate was being reduced there was an increase in the food items which will attract VAT, adding that it is possible that households will experience an increase in their grocery bills, because of the tendency of businesses to pass on costs to customers, especially when taxation is involved. Interestingly enough, importers and other businesses buying in bulk may save because packages that are 50 kg or more are exempted under the standard rated regime. So while you and I may be paying more for tomatoes, beans, potatoes, bamboo shoots and things like that, buying in bulk over 50kg you presumably will be enjoying a zero rate of Vat on those specific items. Bart also questioned the rationale of a reduction in VAT on cars, professional services, furniture and big ticket items that would generally contribute large sums to Governments tax revenues. I find it difficult to understand how we are going to generate revenue when supposedly big ticket items that are currently paying VAT at 15 percent would now be paying VAT at 12.5 percent, and we are moving a few food items into that standard rated supply zone. It seems to me, it perhaps would have made more sense to have a more scaled rate approach where you leave certain big ticket items at the 15 percent, even if you were considering an introduction of VAT on certain food items. However, she said she would leave it to the economists to consider the impact of the measure. AOI: Focus on farming The statement urged that hard decisions be made to remedy 25 years of neglect of the agriculture sector, and so cut the countrys current $2 billion annual food import bill. The AOI said, It is much easier for a food importer to place a pallet of US tomatoes into a mixed container of vegetables, than to deal with multiple farmers. Labour shortages have led to less acreage being cultivated, added the statement. While the last two governments focused on mega farms which have not proven to be as effective as envisaged, said the AOI. The traditional farmer has complained for over 30 years of the major hurdles faced, including flooding, no crop insurance, praedial larceny and lack of irrigation. He said past governments have not addressed these concerns. The current shortage of foreign exchange in the system can provide the impetus to kick start Agriculture. and begin to stimulate the agriculture economy of Trinidad and Tobago. The statement made several suggestions. Firstly Pires urged that a committee be set up to identify three or four crops to cultivate, in a threeyear plan to stimulate local production, and agro-processing. We suggest starting with tomatoes (paste production), onions, hot peppers (pepper mash) and papaya (tomato paste substitute), said the AOI statement. This committee could develop the infrastructure needed, coordinate markets, assist in finance and develop exports. Secondly, the AOI chairman urged the Government to create Agriculture Parks in strategic locations, similar to industrial parks. What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames news PM launches Start-up India movement, unveils action plan for encouraging Start-ups New Delhi, Mon, 18 Jan 2016 NI Wire The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, launched the Start-up India initiative in New Delhi. The launch by the Prime Minister this evening, was preceded by a day-long workshop on various aspects of entrepreneurship. The Prime Minister visited a virtual exhibition and interacted with Start-up entrepreneurs. 10 outstanding Start-up innovators shared their thoughts and experiences before the Prime Minister delivered his address. He said that when he had launched the Start-up India Initiative on 15th August, the announcement had virtually gone unnoticed, but today it had registered with people. He said successful start-ups are usually created by those who are driven by an idea, or an urge to solve a problem that people face. He said making money is not the primary objective, but is often a by-product. He said Start-up innovators are often driven by a sense of compassion for others. The Prime Minister said he wishes to turn the youth of India from job-seekers to job-creators. He said if a Start-up can offer employment to even five people, it would be doing a great service to the nation. He mentioned some areas where youth innovators should focus, including crop wastage, and cyber security. The Prime Minister unveiled the highlights of the Start-up Action Plan. He said a dedicated Start-up fund worth Rs. 10,000 crore will be created for funding of Start-ups. He said Start-ups will be exempted from paying income tax on their profit for the first three years. He said the Government is working on a simple exit policy for Start-ups. He also said the Government is working towards fast-tracking of Start-up patent applications. He announced an eighty percent exemption in patent fee for Start-up businesses, and said a self-certification based compliance system for Start-ups would be introduced for 9 labour and environment laws. He said the Atal Innovation Mission will be launched to give a boost to innovation. Source: PIB We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Norfolk has grown, but some of the needs and wants havent kept up with the growth. A proposed half-percent sales tax would get the city caught up with many of those needs and wants with safety, streets, sports and recreation. FATHER AND SON Dale Taylor of Lincoln, formerly of Norfolk, and Jay Taylor of Traverse City, Mich., banter in this screen grab from the documentary "8000 Miles with Dad." The documentary, which follows the adventure of the father and son as they embarked on a motorcycle journey to the Amazon Rain Forest in 2014 to spread the ashes of Dale's parents. How bad are Australia's refugee gulags? So bad that someone is trying to kill themselves every two days: Incident logs from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection covering one year, obtained under freedom of information laws, paint a picture of depression, desperation and violence at Australia's domestic and overseas detention camps and in the community. They raise fresh questions over the human rights implications of Australia's tough border protection regime, which has been condemned by the United Nations, and will fuel calls for children to be immediately released from detention. The data shows that in the year to July 2015 there were 188 incidents of self-harm involving asylum seekers at Nauru, about one every two days. There were 55 such self-harm acts at Papua New Guinea's Manus Island. They included detainees swallowing poisons, stuffing tea bags down their throats and hanging by bed sheets or other makeshift nooses. Its even worse in their onshore detention camps, where there are an averag eof two self-harm incidents a day.This is an entirely predictable outcome. Austrlaia's gulags are purposely designed to mentally torture detainees in an effort to force them to "voluntarily" return home. But faced with a choice between ongoing persecution in an Australian gulag, and persecution at home, it is not surprising that refugees are seeking the only escape available: death.Every refugee who injures or kills themselves in these gulags was effectively injured or killed by Australian Ministers and their officials. Its the purpose of their policy, and they should be held accountable for it - by trying them for torture if they ever set foot in New Zealand In 2003, Abu Omar was kidnapped in Italy by the CIA. He was rendered to Egypt, where he was tortured. The rendition became public in 2005 and the Italian justice system was eventually forced to act; in 2009 22 CIA agents were convicted in absentia for their role in Omar's kidnapping and torture. One of them was Sabrina De Sousa, a dual Portuguese-US citizen. She was detained in Portugal in October on a European Arrest Warrant, and a Portuguese court has just ruled that she should be extradited to Italy to serve her sentence: A Portuguese court has ruled that a former C.I.A. agent should be handed over to Italy after being found guilty by an Italian court of taking part in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003, one of the renditions ordered by the administration of former President George W. Bush. The former agent, Sabrina De Sousa, holds dual American and Portuguese citizenship. Ms. De Sousa has denied any wrongdoing or involvement in the kidnapping, which took place while she was working undercover for the C.I.A. as a diplomat in Milan. She will appeal this weeks ruling, her lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, said by email on Friday. Good. And hopefully the other 21 will soon be following her to face justice for their crime. The Islamic State group seems to be on the verge of refreshing its tactics as it continues to lose territories. The latest attacks claimed by the Sunni inclined Islamic State group have targeted public places in Shia areas especially in Iraq where ISIS eventually lost Ramadi to the Iraqi troops. Shia groups retaliated to these attacks and targeted Sunni interests and religious places. The possible change of tactics comes at a moment when Saudi Arabia and Iran are strongly opposing each others actions diplomatically amid fears that they could raise regional sectarian crisis to another level as Gulf States give their support to Riyadh. Tehran has strong ties with Lebanese based Shia militant group Hezbollah and is said to be supporting the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen while the Gulf States back rebel groups in Syria with Saudi alleged to be behind Sunni Islamist groups such as Jaysh al-Islam. Abdulkareem Khalaf, a retired general and former spokesman of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, warned that Daesh had to use the sectarian card to ignite the area (Iraq) and find another burden to be added onto the shoulder of the (Iraqi) security forces following suicide attacks in Shia-dominated neighborhoods because it wants to create further problems and hurdles to complicate the security situation. Sectarian tension could flare up in Iraq and possibly spread to other countries if the attacks increase as Haitham al-Joubori, a Shia politician and ally of former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, stressed that the security breach that took place in Baghdad and Diyala (last Tuesday) is a big scandal which cannot be ignored, like its predecessors adding that it would have been followed by massive resignations if it had occurred in another state. Switzerland has informed the Egyptian government that the funds deposited by President Mubarak and his two sons during his rule in Swiss banks would not be returned to the State unless Bern is certain that the funds were illegally obtained as alleged. The announcement was made by Swiss attorney-general Michael Lauber during a press conference in Cairo on Saturday. The Egyptian Court of Appeal found Mubarak and his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, guilty of embezzlement last week after they appealed against a May 2014 verdict which found them guilty and charged them a total of LE125 million and an additional LE21 million fine to the state. Lauber said Switzerland is currently analyzing the recent rulings but underlined that the money in Swiss banks will not be returned if there is no direct correlation between the verdict and the funds in Switzerland. The Swiss government estimates Mubaraks assets in Swiss banks to be around LE5 billion. Valentin Zellweger, the director of the taskforce on asset recovery at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), had said in June 2015 that evidence from the Egyptian court would be used to determine if the funds were illegally obtained. Lauber recently stated that the whole issue is really complicated and I do not have an estimate for when we can give our final say on the matter because the situation is very complex and all the verdicts recently made will be analyzed. Egyptian authorities have repeatedly requested the Swiss Prosecutors help to recover assets they suspected were held in Swiss banks after Mubarak left power but Lauber stated at the press conference that the Swiss judiciary does not interfere in banking affairs. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Sunday condemned the delay by Serraj-led Presidential Council for another 48 hours of the announcement of the Government of National Accord (GNA) endorsed on December 17 in Morocco. The mission led by German veteran UN official Martin Kobler regrets failure by Libyan Prime Minister-designate Faiez Serraj to meet the deadline stated in the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA.) The Prime Minister Serrajs Presidential Council announced on Sunday it postponed for 48 hours the announcement of the GNA citing on-going debates. The move counters the timeline and decision that the announcement of the unity government should be made within 30 days following the December historic agreement, which means that January 17 midnight is the deadline. The UNSMIL condemned the delay and urged all Libyan stakeholders to hold the countrys national interests above all consideration. UNSMIL calls on all relevant political and security stakeholders to hold Libyas national interests above all considerations. No effort must be spared nor any opportunity missed to utilize the window of opportunity that Libya has to halt any further expansion by terrorist groups represented in Daesh, Ansar al-Sharia and al-Qaida, mission said in a statement. The UNSMIL also vested the GNA with power to ensure that it marshals around it all necessary measures and forces it needs to fight the ever-growing terrorist organizations which have been imposing their laws on innocent Libyans. In this regard, the GNA must lead the collective efforts of the army and its leaderships alongside other security institutions and their leaderships, in the fight against terrorism, the UNSMIL added. The GNA has to prioritize the provision of the necessary training, as well as arming and equipping to enable the army and police institutions to defeat the terrorist groups. Only a collective effort by all patriotic Libyans will save Libya from the scourge of terrorism. It furthermore reiterated its full commitment and that of the international community to support the GNA in overcoming the challenges. Also on Sunday, in a related report, Kobler reportedly met separately with the President of the House of Representative (HoR) Ageela Salah and other hardliners including Mustafa Abushagur opposed to the GNA in an attempt to convince the HoR to vote without delay in favor of the GNA to be proposed to the House. Salah and the other hardliners have expressed their discomfort with the GNA by delaying HoRs meetings to back the UN-backed unity government to be led by rival General National Congress member Faiez Serraj. Egyptian President Fatah al-Sissi Sunday urged the United States to expand its cooperation with Egypt beyond security and counter-terrorism. At a meeting with CIA boss John Brennan, the Egyptian President called on Washington to diversify its ties with his country and expand cooperation to social, cultural and intellectual realms. Egypt and the U.S. have strong military cooperation and Cairo has backed the U.S.-led international coalition against IS in Iraq and Syria though it is not militarily engaged. John Brennan who arrived in Cairo on Saturday told reporters following the meeting that Egypt is a strategic and key ally and that he was in Cairo to get informed on Egypts vision of regional issues, including counterterrorism approaches. According to a presidential statement, President al-Sissi told his interlocutor that one per cent of the Sinai Peninsula area is affected by terrorism activities. Egyptian security forces have been embroiled in repeated attacks by IS-affiliated militants in the Sinai since 2013 following the ouster of Egyptian Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Last week, two attacks claimed by IS targeted foreign tourists and a resort hotel in Cairo and in Hurghada. The militants in October last year claimed the downing of a Russian passenger jet carrying 224 people and Western experts findings concluded that the crash was an act of terrorism. However Egyptian authorities rejected the claims saying that their own investigation did not reach the same findings. The recent remarks made by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy expressing his firm support to Moroccos Sovereignty over Western Sahara have irked Algerian authorities. Although the Algerian government has not yet reacted officially, a top diplomat at Algerian Foreign Affairs ministry has termed Sarkozys statements as a provocation and upsetting. Speaking at an international conference in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates,) the ex-French Head of State deplored Algerian intransigence and refusal to reopen its land borders with Morocco, saying that borders have been closed for many years now, affecting the regions annual economic growth. This situation undermines the Maghreb Union and its common market project, dashing the hopes and dreams of the Maghreb people for unity, said the Former French president, head of the UMP party. He recalled that the borders between the two countries remain shut due to the Western Sahara issue. Sarkozy has also voiced his utter rejection of the idea of creating a new entity in Western Sahara, affirming that France has always supported Moroccos sovereignty over its southern provinces. France has always supported the Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara, said Chief of the French Republicans party, recalling his first visit to Laayoune in Southern Morocco, in 1991. It would be difficult to convince me of the need for a Sahrawi republic in this region of the world threatened by terrorism, he said, stressing the danger of terrorism and insecurity spawning in the Sahel region. Moroccans are lucky and should be proud of having King Mohammed VI as their Sovereign. The Moroccan monarch has ushered in major constitutional reforms at a time Arab countries were rocked by popular social uprisings that led to the collapse of many Arab regimes, Sarkozy said. Morocco has launched landmark and bold political and constitutional reforms which enhanced the Kingdoms peace and stability, added the former French president. These reforms have enabled the North African country to emerge as a model in the region and haven of peace, gaining trust of investors worldwide. The Secret to Happiness is the Joy of the Lord; and the joy of the Lord is His manifest presence in your life. It is our Privilege and Responsibility to Glorify God; and we glorify God by manifesting His character every moment and in every situation. Humility and Pride You can tell a humble man that he has a problem with pride and he will agree with you; but if you tell a proud man that he has a problem with pride, he becomes your enemy. This one thing I know for sure, that whenever there is a problem with my relationship with the Lord, it is not His fault. Some people are just plain lazy; some people are just overly sensitive to gravity; others are simply economical with their energy. It's not enough to preach the Gospel; you must be the Gospel. If you can describe your life in a nutshell, there's a good probability that you're a nut. As a good Canadian, I'd like to apologize in advance for anything I might say that offends you; sometimes my mouth hits high gear while my brain is still in low. Never allow the thought, "I am of no use where I am"; because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Oswald Chambers We cannot even begin to approach the Truth until we are willing to go wherever the Truth leads us. The newest object of idol worship is 'my opinion'! Suffering is the only experience we have in common with every other human who ever lived. By Amanda Becker By Amanda Becker CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released details on Sunday evening about his "Medicare-for-all" universal healthcare funding plan and how he would pay for it. The plan was released hours before Sanders was to square off in a Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, against Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. Clinton's campaign had taken aim at Sanders in recent days, saying the U.S. senator from Vermont had not said how he plans to pay for his healthcare plan and that he needed to before the first party-nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 1. Sanders said that expanding Medicare, a government-run program that insures the elderly, would save $6 trillion over the next 10 years when compared with the current system, which was established by President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Individuals would pay a 2.2 percent "premium" and employers would pay a 6.2 percent payroll tax to fund the healthcare plan. Individuals making $250,000 to $500,000 a year would pay a tax rate of 37 percent and those making more than $10 million would pay a 52 percent tax rate, according to details provided about the plan. The average annual healthcare costs for a working U.S. family are nearly $5,000 in insurance premiums and another $1,300 on deductibles for care that is not covered, Sanders' campaign said. Under Sanders' plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay $466 to the Medicare program, saving roughly $6,000 per year, the campaign said. Clinton favors building on the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and has said Sanders' state-administered plan would jeopardize the healthcare of those with Republican governors. Sanders has said the federal government would intervene in such a scenario. "It would be a mistake to really thrust our country into another contentious national debate about how we're going to provide quality, affordable healthcare to everybody," Clinton told CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday. Sanders defended his forthcoming proposal on the same CNN program. "I believe healthcare is a right for all people; it will be politically difficult to achieve, but I will maintain that vision and fight for it," Sanders said. Sanders last week tweeted a 1993 photo of himself and Clinton signed by the then-first lady, who was waging her own fight for universal healthcare, which thanked him for his commitment to "real access to healthcare for all Americans." (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency. The familiar emergency alert system, the one where we in the U.S. occasionally hear a radio or television broadcast interruption that... Photo: Bernat Armangue/AP/Corbis If the wealthiest 62 billionaires on the planet decided to pool their resources, they could buy up every last thing owned by the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report from Oxfam. The report, which was released just as some of those billionaires were arriving in Davos for the World Economic Forum, shows that the gap between rich and poor has grown wider in recent years: In 2010, the bottom half owned as much as the richest 338 individuals. Analyzing data collected by Credit Suisse, the anti-poverty organization further reports that the global one percent controlled as much wealth as the bottom 99 percent in 2015 a milestone that was reached one year earlier than Oxfam had previously predicted. Most concerning, this growing divide isnt just the product of the rich getting richer: According to Oxfam, the wealth owned by the poorest 50 percent fell by a trillion dollars over the past five years, a 41 percent drop. The net worth of the richest 62 people grew by $542 billion, a 44 percent gain. However, the loss of wealth in the bottom half came despite improving conditions for the poorest people on earth. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of humans living in extreme poverty was cut in half. The rate of progress toward eliminating extreme poverty has slowed in recent years, but the trend has not reversed direction. Thus, the decline in the wealth of the bottom half appears to be driven in part by the growing indebtedness of individuals in advanced countries a point emphasized by some of the reports critics. The methodology of adding up assets and subtracting debts and then making a global net wealth distribution implies that many of the poorest in the world are those in advanced countries with high debts, said Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a British think-tank, to the BBC. Whilst we might have sympathy for the Harvard law graduates plight, it is unclear that worrying about her should be the focus of a development organization. Whether or not an indebted American millennial is poorer than a worker with a positive net worth in Bangladesh, both would stand to benefit from Oxfams recommendations for reducing inequality, which include cracking down on tax havens to fund greater investment in public services. The report notes that the plutocratic class has an estimated $7.6 trillion in offshore accounts. If that income were taxed, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year. Such revenue could be used to subsidize the cost of public college in the U.S., or to aid in the eradication of preventable illnesses in the developing world. As Oxfam notes, growing inequality hurts the worlds poorest even when the cohorts absolute living standards are improving. The charity finds that as much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing the continent $14 billion in tax revenues each year. Were that wealth invested in social welfare instead of in the Cayman Islands, 4 million childrens lives could be saved through better health care, and enough teachers could be hired to put every African child into a classroom. As an organization that exists to tackle poverty, Oxfam is unequivocal in welcoming the fantastic progress that has helped to halve the number of people living below the extreme poverty line between 1990 and 2010, the charity writes. Yet had inequality within countries not grown during that period, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty. Mujibur Rahman Photo: Screencap/WABC-7 A Bangladeshi man was attacked and beaten on Friday in the Bronx by two men in ski masks who chanted ISIS during the assault, according to WABC-7. Forty-three-year-old Mujibur Rahman was walking his nine-year-old niece home from school in Parkchester at the time of the attack, and was wearing a shalwar kameez, which is traditional garb for someone from South Asia. The father of three had just left the school with the young girl when two still-unidentified men ambushed him, repeating ISIS and Muslim several times while punching him in the head and then kicking him after he fell to the ground. Originally left unconscious by the assault, Rahman was sent to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was treated and released. The girl was physically unharmed, but NY1 reports that she is now afraid to leave her home as a result of the incident. Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, and the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling for the FBI to get involved as well. This post has been updated to clarify that a shalwar kameez is traditional clothing across South Asia, and not just for Muslims. Bernie Sanders. Photo: Mary Schwalm/Reuters/Corbis Until very recently, nobody had any cause to regret Bernie Sanderss presidential campaign. Sanders is earnest and widely liked. He has tugged the terms of the political debate leftward in a way both moderates and left-wingers could appreciate. (Moderate liberals might not agree with Sanderss ideas, but they can appreciate that his presence changes for the better a political landscape in which support for things like Mitt Romneys old positions on health care and the environment were defined as hard-core liberalism.) Sanderss rapid rise, in both early states and national polling, has made him a plausible threat to defeat Hillary Clinton. Suddenly, liberals who have used the nominating process to unilaterally vet Clinton, processing every development through its likely impact on her as the inevitable candidate, need to think anew. Do we support Sanders not just in his role as lovable Uncle Bernie, complaining about inequality, but as the actual Democratic nominee for president? My answer to that question is no. Sanderss core argument is that the problems of the American economy require far more drastic remedies than anything the Obama administration has done, or that Clinton proposes to build on. Clinton has put little pressure on Sanderss fatalistic assessment, but the evidence for it is far weaker than he assumes. Sanders has grudgingly credited what he calls the modest gains of the Affordable Care Act, which seems like an exceedingly stingy assessment of a law that has already reduced the number of uninsured Americans by 20 million. The Dodd-Frank reforms of the financial industry may not have broken up the big banks, but they have, at the very least, deeply reduced systemic risk. The penalties for being too big to fail exceed the benefits, and, as a result, banks are actually breaking themselves up to avoid being large enough to be regulated as systemic risks. It is true that the Great Recession inflicted catastrophic economic damage, and that fiscal policy did too little to alleviate it. The impression of economic failure hardened into place as the sluggish recovery dragged on for several years. Recently, conditions have improved. Unemployment has dropped, the number of people quitting their job has risen, and as one would predict would happen when employers start to run short of available workers average wages have started to climb. Whether the apparent rise in the median wage is the beginning of a sustained increase, or merely a short-lived blip, remains to be seen. At the very least, the conclusion that Obamas policies have failed to raise living standards for average people is premature. And the progress under Obama refutes Sanderss corollary point, that meaningful change is impossible without a revolutionary transformation that eliminates corporate power. Nor should his proposed remedies be considered self-evidently benign. Evidence has shown that, at low levels, raising the minimum wage does little or nothing to kill jobs. At some point, though, the government could set a minimum wage too high for employers to be willing to pay it for certain jobs. Even liberal labor economists like Alan Krueger, who have supported more modest increases, have blanched at Sanderss proposal for a $15 minimum wage. Sanderss worldview is not a fantasy. It is a serious critique based on ideas he has developed over many years, and it bears at least some relation to the instincts shared by all liberals. The moral urgency with which Sanders presents his ideas has helped shelter him from necessary internal criticism. Nobody on the left wants to defend Wall Street or downplay the pressure on middle- and working-class Americans. But Sanderss ideas should not be waved through as a more honest or uncorrupted version of the liberal catechism. The despairing vision he paints of contemporary America is oversimplified. Even those who do share Sanderss critique of American politics and endorse his platform, though, should have serious doubts about his nomination. Sanders does bring some assets as a potential nominee his rumpled style connotes authenticity, and his populist forays against Wall Street have appeal beyond the Democratic base. But his self-identification as a socialist poses an enormous obstacle, as Americans respond to socialism with overwhelming negativity. Likewise, his support for higher taxes on the middle class while substantively sensible also saddles him with a highly unpopular stance. He also has difficulty addressing issues outside his economic populism wheelhouse. In his opening statement at the debate the day after the Paris attacks, Sanders briefly and vaguely gestured toward the attacks before quickly turning back to his economic themes. Against these liabilities, Sanders offers the left-wing version of a hoary political fantasy: that a more pure candidate can rally the People into a righteous uprising that would unsettle the conventional laws of politics. Versions of this have circulated in both parties for years, having notably inspired the disastrous Goldwater and McGovern campaigns. The Republican Party may well fall for it again this year. Sanderss version involves the mobilization of a mass grassroots volunteer army that can depose the special interests. The major political, strategic difference I have with Obama is its too late to do anything inside the Beltway, he told Andrew Prokop. You gotta take your case to the American people, mobilize them, and organize them at the grassroots level in a way that we have never done before. But Obama did organize passionate volunteers on a massive scale far broader than anything Sanders has done and tried to keep his volunteers engaged throughout his presidency. Why would Sanderss grassroots campaign succeed where Obamas far larger one failed? Sanders has promised to replace Obamacare with a single-payer plan, without having any remotely plausible prospects for doing so. Many advocates of single-payer imagine that only the power of insurance companies stands in their way, but the more imposing obstacles would be reassuring suspicious voters that the change in their insurance (from private to public) would not harm them and more difficult still raising the taxes to pay for it. As Sarah Kliff details, Vermont had to abandon hopes of creating its own single-payer plan. If Vermont, one of the most liberal states in America, cant summon the political willpower for single-payer, it is impossible to imagine the country as a whole doing it. Not surprisingly, Sanderss health-care plan uses the kind of magical-realism approach to fiscal policy usually found in Republican budgets, conjuring trillions of dollars in savings without defining their source. The Sanders campaign represents a revolution of rising expectations. In 2008, the last time Democrats held a contested primary, the prospect of simply taking back the presidency from Republican control was nearly enough to motivate the partys vote. The potential to enact dramatic change was merely a bonus. After nearly two terms of power, with the prospect of Republican rule now merely hypothetical, Democrats want more. The paradox is that the presidents ability to deliver more change is far more limited. The current occupant of the Oval Office and his successor will have a House of Representatives firmly under right-wing rule, making the prospects of important progressive legislation impossible. This hardly renders the presidency impotent, obviously. The end of Obamas term has shown that a creative president can still drive some change. But here is a second irony: Those areas in which a Democratic Executive branch has no power are those in which Sanders demands aggressive action, and the areas in which the Executive branch still has power now are precisely those in which Sanders has the least to say. The president retains full command of foreign affairs; can use executive authority to drive social policy change in areas like criminal justice and gender; and can, at least in theory, staff the judiciary. What the next president wont accomplish is to increase taxes, expand social programs, or do anything to reduce inequality, given the House Republicans fanatically pro-inequality positions across the board. The next Democratic presidential term will be mostly defensive, a bulwark against the enactment of the radical Ryan plan. What little progress liberals can expect will be concentrated in the non-Sanders realm. So even if you fervently endorse Sanderss policy vision (which, again for the sake of full candor, I do not), he has chosen an unusually poor time to make it the centerpiece of a presidential campaign. It can be rational for a party to move away from the center in order to set itself up for dramatic new policy changes; the risk the Republican Party accepted in 1980 when Ronald Reagan endorsed the radical new doctrine of supply-side economics allowed it to reshape the face of government. But it seems bizarre for Democrats to risk losing the presidency by embracing a politically radical doctrine that stands zero chance of enactment even if they win. Sanderss posture might work, if he were a Republican. Photo: Andrew Burton/2016 Getty Images If only Democratic primary voters were as furious at their own partys powers-that-be as are Republican voters, the posture taken by Bernie Sanders in the NBC/YouTube debate Sunday night wouldve been a clear winner: Both parties have been bought by wealthy interests, and only an anti-corporate crusader like Bernie can avoid the terrible policy mistakes committed by and under the Clinton and Obama administrations. Indeed, if a sizable majority of Democrats thought the last two administrations of their own party were the corporate betrayals that many of Sanderss most avid supporters consider them to be, HRC would be the perfect symbol of the continuing DINO establishment that had to be overthrown to install progressive governance. Alas for the Sanders campaign, thats not how Democrats feel. According to the latest Gallup weekly presidential-job-approval tracking poll, the 44th presidents rating among Democrats is 84 percent. Among self-identified Liberal Democrats its at 89 percent; among African-Americans its at 85 percent. Yet it is extremely difficult for Sanders to make his case that HRC is too close to Wall Street or too militaristic or too timid on domestic policy without co-indicting the incumbent president. Hillary Clinton understands that, which is why she took so much care in the NBC debate to identify her approach to the regulation of Wall Street with Obamas; to defend Obamacare in contrast to Sanderss advocacy of a single-payer health-care system; to remind Democrats she was a major architect of Obamas foreign policy; and to refuse opportunities to separate herself from Obama even though some consultants probably think shell need to do that to win a general election. Meanwhile, Sanders is on the horns of an excruciating dilemma: Even if he manages to win in both Iowa and New Hampshire early next month, the long-term success of his campaign will depend on a breakthrough with minority voters in the South and large industrial states who dont particularly know or have reason to trust him, and dont particularly want to hear the first nonwhite president who has been, and is continuing to be, assailed by Republicans on a daily basis as a hopeless incompetent and near-traitor being instead described by a Democrat as a corporate whore. Yet an implicit indictment of the Obama administration (and less directly, Bill Clintons administration) as compromised by corporate ties and hobbled by unprincipled centrist compromises is at the heart of the entire Sanders campaign, and intrinsic to the kind of activist energy hes showing in the first two states and other hotbeds like the Pacific Northwest. Beyond that, it seems difficult for Sanders to think or talk beyond the Evil Corporate Cash Nexus to embrace other Democratic voter concerns. Even when he stops talking about economics as he briefly did in this debate in a very well-wrought and comprehensive answer to a question about police conduct you get the sense he wants to get back to his Great White Whale. In a conversation on climate change, Sanders insisted fossil-fuel industry campaign contributions were the sole reason for climate-science denialism, ignoring the regional, cultural, and even religious factors feeding the reactionary position of the GOP and the conservative movement on this subject. Sanders did get in some telling shots at Clintons acceptance of speaking fees from Goldman Sachs (though one wonders if the name of that firm inspires the same fury in his listeners as better known banks they deal with every day), and defended his oscillating position on guns pretty well. And even his response to the bipartisanship question the Naderite position that both parties have been bought and sold wasnt that much less convincing than Clintons or OMalleys stale rap about reaching across party lines and forging the kind of coalitions that have become largely a distant memory. But Bernies plight was perhaps best captured by the moment observers are already calling one of his best in the debate, when he sharply replied to Andrea Mitchells out-of-context quote of his condemnation of Bill Clintons behavior in the Lewinsky scandal by saying: I cannot walk down the street, Secretary Clinton knows that, without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton. Thats undoubtedly true. His core supporters want a civil war for the soul of the Democratic Party, as the pundits love to say. But its doubtful the Democratic Party, and particularly the voters he most needs to expand his beachhead in nearly all-white states into more representative Donkey territory, wants its soul contested. You wont be seeing this for much longer. Photo: Spencer Platt/2014 Getty Images Good morning and welcome to Fresh Intelligence, our roundup of the stories, ideas, and memes youll be talking about today. In todays edition Mayor de Blasios feud with Central Parks carriage drivers appears to be resolved, the Democrats held an awkwardly timed debate, SpaceX stumbles, and Whacking Day is all too real. Heres the rundown for Monday, January 18. WEATHER Lots of extreme weather over the weekend: Thunderstorms and deadly tornadoes struck Florida, storms continued to inundate Northern California, and some of the first snow of the season dusted New York City. Monday will see a high of 28 degrees in the city, with a chance of flurries. [AccuWeather] FRONT PAGE Future of NYC Carriage Horses Is Stable The de Blasio administration announced a deal late on Sunday that will end the mayors long headache over Central Parks horse-carriage industry. Under the agreement with the carriage drivers, the number of horses will drop from 180 to 95, the animals work day will go down to nine hours, and theyll be confined to the park, with the city springing for new stables. City council must approve the deal, and a hearing could take place this week. [N.Y. Daily News, NYT] EARLY AND OFTEN Clinton, Sanders, and Other Guy Butt Heads in Lively Debate Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders got a bit meaner in Sunday nights NBC News/YouTube debate (though their feud is still nothing compared to whats happening on the Republican side). Sanders jabbed Clinton, and the entire political system, for being too close to the big banks. Meanwhile Clinton, whose once-substantial lead has narrowed considerably heading into the Iowa caucuses, suggested shes the only candidate who will make Obamas third term a reality. Sanders Cribs Bulworth Health Plan Just hours before the debate, Bernie Sanders unveiled his plan for universal health care. As promised, the plan is predicated on a substantial tax hike on high-earners up to 52 percent for people making over $10 million a year. Thats exactly 52 percent more than Trumps proposed tax plan. [Reuters] Trump Gives Cruz Another Taste of New York Values Last week Donald Trump responded to Ted Cruzs attack on New York with a burn so good the senator literally applauded, but the front-runner still isnt over it. Hes a nasty guy, Trump said on ABCs This Week. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. Trump then uninvited Cruz to his birthday party. [Bloomberg] Alabamans Feign Surprise at Corrupt Governor Alabamas Republican governor Robert Bentley is under attack for using funds awarded to the state by BP after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to renovate the historic mansion he uses as a coastal retreat. Its like a really boring episode of True Detective down there. [Vice] THE STREET, THE VALLEY Apple Tries New Strategy: Alienate Customers Apple has announced that it is phasing out the popular, free iTunes radio and will start only offering the service to paying subscribers. Beats 1 will remain free, so if youve actually listened to Beats 1, enjoy. [CNN] SpaceX Flight a Success Despite Crashing SpaceX, Elon Musks private space-exploration company, is hailing a test flight over the weekend as a success, even though the rocket flubbed the landing, breaking one of its legs. The rocket did achieve its primary goal of launching a satellite into low orbit. [Popular Science] Japanese Zombie Water Bears Rise From Dead Japanese scientists are one step closer to realizing their goal of making the plot of Demolition Man a reality. They were able to revive water bears who had been frozen for more than thirty years. Before you get too excited, it turns out water bears are actually microscopic aquatic bugs. [WSJ] Worlds Worst Uber Passenger Hits Reverse Benjamin Gold, the exTaco Bell executive who was filmed drunkenly abusing his Uber driver, has retracted his apology in favor of a lawsuit. In particular, he is suing the driver, saying the injuries he sustained when Gold punched him were his own fault for picking up such a drunk jerk. Seriously. [CNBC] MEDIA BUBBLE Non-Oscars Award Show Takes Place Sunday nights Critics Choice Awards the first time the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association have combined their annual award ceremonies saw big wins for Spotlight, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Brie Larson. AOL Distances Itself From AOL AOL is considering changing its name in a bout of comprehensive re-branding after belatedly realizing no one thinks theyre cool. Despite owning both Huffington Post and TechCrunch, the company is still best known for free CD-ROMs, and being the preferred mail service of Meg Ryan. [Business Insider] PHOTO OP Disaster Zone in Flint, Michigan President Obama declared a long-sought state of emergency in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday to address the citys contaminated water supply. Below, Justin Roberson, 6, and Mychal Adams, 1, wait on a stack of bottled water at a rally where the Rev. Jesse Jackson called on officials to do more. This is a disaster zone, not just an emergency, he said on Sunday. Maybe there should be (police) tape around the city of Flint, because Flint is a crime scene. Photo: Bill Pugliano/2016 Getty Images MORNING MEME Debates are fertile ground for memes, and this one takes the night. No one throws shade like Bernie throws shade. OTHER LOCAL NEWS Florida Celebrates Whacking Day The Python Challenge kicked off in Florida over the weekend. The state-sanctioned, month-long, gleeful bloodbath sees 600 cudgel-happy amateur snake hunters descend on the Everglades competing for prizes for most pythons killed or captured, and biggest python killed or captured. The python is considered an invasive species in Florida where it is wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem. [CNN] In Other Snake News A California doctor has been sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of felony probation after poisoning her estranged husbands plants, hurling abuse at his new girlfriend, hiding rats in his house, and ultimately hiding a python in his house. Not sure what the endgame was there. [SFGate] HAPPENING TODAY Today Is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day And a lazy day off is not a fitting celebration. There are events and marches across the country including a commemorative march in Harlem, an interfaith peace march in the Upper West Side, and the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Parade in Washington, D.C. Iraqi security forces search for missing Americans in Baghdad. Photo: Khalid Mohammed/AP/Corbis Three Americans were kidnapped in Baghdad Friday night, according to local security officials. If early reports prove true, this would be the first abduction of Americans in Iraq in more than five years. A Shiite militia appears to have kidnapped the three Americans from an apartment in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, officials told the Washington Post. However, while some reports suggest the apartment belonged to the Americans interpreter, others claim the unit was part of a well-known brothel. At least two of the abductees are believed to be dual citizens of Iraq and the United States, while the third is thought to be an Egyptian-American, the New York Times reports. The men are reportedly employees at the Baghdad airport. Dora is located in the southern part of the capital and became a haven for Al Qaeda in Iraq, after the American invasion. But today parts of the neighborhood are under the control of powerful Shiite militias with ties to Iran. Those militias are supposed to serve as security forces, under the direct control of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi. But a series of alleged abuses and kidnappings by these forces has cast doubt on the prime ministers capacity to police his own police. The militias are suspected of kidnapping 17 Turkish construction workers from Baghdad last year, only to release them later, unharmed. In mid-December, more than two dozen Qataris, some with ties to that nations royal family, were taken from Iraqs southern desert. Authorities believe they were abducted by a Shiite militia for political reasons. Those abductees have yet to be found. The State Department said it was aware of the alleged abduction late Sunday night. We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals, spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. Sanders was a little more diplomatic about the issue Sunday night than he was Sunday morning. Photo: Andrew Burton/2016 Getty Images Since international sanctions over Irans nuclear program ended this weekend, naturally Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were asked about future relations with the country during Sunday nights Democratic debate in South Carolina. Both applauded the nuclear deal and its newly U.N.-certified success, but they differed somewhat in their responses when asked if they would seek to restore full diplomatic relations with Iran. Sanders said that the U.S. should move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran, noting that while he wouldnt reopen the embassy tomorrow, I think the goal has got to be, as we have done with Cuba, to move in warm relations with a very powerful and important country in this world. (The U.S. reestablished full diplomatic relations with Cuba last year.) Sanders also said that the U.S. should be working with Iran (and Russia) to deal with ISIS and the conflict in Syria. The more traditionally hawkish Clinton, on the other hand, was much more keen on emphasizing her part in pressuring Iran up to this point, rather than envisioning a better relationship in the near future. Noting how she helped impose the nuclear-program-related sanctions, which ultimately forced Iran to negotiate, she added that We still have to carefully watch them, as well. Weve had one good day over 36 years, and I think we need more good days before we move more rapidly before more normalization, she said. And we have to be sure that they are truly going to implement the agreement, and then we have to go after them on a lot of their other bad behavior in the region. On Sunday, after a plane carrying newly released Iranian-Americans had left Iran, the White House imposed new sanctions on the country, not related to their nuclear program, but regarding ballistic-missile tests they recently conducted a move Clinton had herself called for prior to the announcement. Sanders also criticized Clinton regarding Iran on Sunday morning, mentioning how, in 2007 during the Democratic primary race, she had called President Obama naive when he said he would be willing to sit down and talk to Iran. Sanders said the successful nuclear agreement proved that Obama was right and Clinton was wrong, though as PolitiFact notes, Clinton was in fact seeking a more cautious approach than Obama at that time, rather than explicitly ruling out direct diplomacy as Sanders is implying. Watch the candidates full Iran answers from Sundays debate below: No more golfing with bagpipe-playing caddies? Photo: Derek Blair/AFP/Getty Images The British Parliament began debate Monday on the grave question of whether to ban future American president Donald Trump from the shores of their island nation. The real-estate tycoon turned right-wing demagogue first drew Britains ire when he proposed a ban on all Muslims entering the United States last month, shortly after the ISIS-inspired attack in San Bernardino. Trump further antagonized our former colonial overlords by claiming that Muslim communities in London had become so radicalized, even the citys police force was afraid to enter certain neighborhoods. British prime minister David Cameron called Trumps comments divisive, stupid and wrong. That inspired 570,000 Britons to sign an online petition demanding that Trump be banned from the United Kingdom, easily crossing the threshold of 100,000 signatures that a public petition needs to earn a debate in the House of Commons. The legislation exists to protect the public and the people of Britain from individuals such as this, said lawmaker Tulip Siddiq, referring to the British Home secretarys power to ban dangerous individuals from the country. Siddiq argued that Trumps defamation of Muslim communities was already inciting racial violence. I draw the line with freedom of speech when it actually imports violent ideology which is what I feel is happening, she said. If other people have been stopped from coming into the country the same rules need to apply to Donald Trump. But her fellow Labor Party member Paul Flynn argued that the ban risked only increasing Trumps appeal in the United States. The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood, Flynn said. The line will go out here are these foreigners interfering, telling us what to do. Tory MP Andrew Murrison conceded that Trump was a ridiculous figure, but implored his colleagues not to discount the possibility that America could actually elect such a buffoon. Murrison expressed concern for the diplomatic implications of a ban that the United States would view as an almighty snub. Even if the unthinkable happens and Donald Trump somehow fails to become the next American president, the ban could still have grave economic consequences for the United Kingdom. USA Today reports that Trump has threatened to withdraw his plan to invest more than $1 billion in Scottish enterprises should he be banned from the country. While the British Parliament doesnt actually have the unilateral authority to ban an American from the U.K., the British Home secretary Theresa May can and has. Conservative radio host Michael Savage was banned in 2009 for being an agent of extremism and intolerance. In 2011, Florida pastor and eminent Quran-burner Terry Jones also lost his U.K. privileges. Escape From the Internet! John and Sherry Petersik built a cult following with their website, Young House Love. Then they tried to walk away. Photographs by @younghouselove The rebellion began a little after 10 a.m. on a Thursday in September 2014. At precisely 10 a.m. on almost every weekday for the past seven years, Sherry and John Petersik had uploaded a chatty, photo-laden post to their do-it-yourself home-decor blog, Young House Love. During those nearly 3,000 posts, they catalogued kitchen renovations, decorating projects, moves to three different houses, and the births of both their children. Readers of YHL, as its known to their millions of fans, knew an absurd amount about the Petersiks lives, including the brand of shampoo the couple shares (Burts Bees) and the fact that Sherry owns only one bra. For years, the Petersiks had appeared to delight in the oversharing, letting no vacation, birthday, or parenting milestone go un-blogged. But they had recently started to chafe under the microscope. In Instagram photos, the Petersiks friendly grins seemed to be hardening into tragicomic Greek masks. They approached every blog post or Facebook status in a defensive crouch: What would get the most likes and shares? What would trigger a backlash? There was no escaping the onslaught of feedback, positive or negative. The ceaselessly churning, real-time response machine of the internet never sleeps and, especially since the birth of their second baby earlier that year, neither did John and Sherry. In recent weeks, the Petersiks had been chronicling the overhaul of their homes laundry room, and today, fans were anticipating the big reveal. But John wasnt done installing the baseboards or the under-cabinet lighting, and Sherry hadnt hung art or shot any after photos. Questions about the delay were already popping up on Facebook. So while John nailed and caulked upstairs, Sherry sat at her laptop in their white and turquoise-accented office and scrolled through unanswered emails and comments. A debate had broken out about their choice of countertop, so she wanted the new post to make readers finally understand how the wood counter played with her wood picture frames, storage baskets, and clothespins. And also, Sherry thought, its my damn laundry room. But she couldnt figure out how to explain it all. So instead she hopped on the previous days post a drapery giveaway titled Its Curtains For You! and wrote: Update: We hoped to have a Thursday post for you guys, but it didnt go as planned. So sorry! By the time John came down to lunch, comments were pouring in; most were unkind: Honestly, 5 posts a week isnt that much for readers to expect wrote one. You make big bucks from this blog (I have no problem at all with that) and ITS YOUR JOB. Others defended the Petersiks time and talents. The post ultimately got just under 2,000 comments. That weekend, after the kids were in bed and the laundry room was finally done, they started talking about putting a match to this thing they loved so much. Sherry was ready to quit right then, but John wasnt convinced. The YHL brand was their primary income. I wanted us both to calm down. And I wanted to know what our next move would be. They both made lists of old freelance clients from their days in advertising who might take them back. It felt terrifyingly uncertain, but also, liberating. In a perfect metaphor for the moment, Johns laptop promptly died. The next morning, while John rushed his computer in for life support, Sherry published an announcement. We felt this shift from John and Sherry to Young House Love: The Brand [and] the blogosphere as a whole has become increasingly sponsored/corporate lately, she wrote by way of explanation. Almost immediately, 5,348 comments began to roll in: Ignore the jealous people. Are you breaking up with us? :( And the refrain: Well be here when you come back! The next month, they logged on again, to publish a farewell post. We thought it would be nearly impossible to click off that urge to over-share this past month, they wrote. But it actually felt just right. The Petersiks have always portrayed their success as uncalculated and even accidental: Oh man, I wish we had done a business plan at the beginning, because that would be hilarious to read now, says John. Were sitting on their covered back porch on a muggy May afternoon, and Im perched in a wicker egg chair the arrival of which was heralded by a 1,225-word blog post in 2014 which is slightly surreal for me. I followed the Petersiks for six years of their online adventure, stumbling onto Young House Love when the Petersiks were still in their first Richmond ranch house, and my husband and I were buying our first home and realizing the limitations of our own DIY abilities. At first I winced at its humble-cute tone they waxed poetic about decorating their Christmas tree with homemade citrus-fruit ornaments but eventually I succumbed to the charms of their pun-based post titles (Oh My Gourd chronicled the purchase of a squash-shaped lamp; Hosta La Vista documented landscaping adventures) and their other verbal ticks, like their partiality for colors that are moody (used 124 times) or glossy (used 358 times), and their way of ending posts with so there you have it (210 times). I am fully aware that Im obnoxiously enthusiastic, Sherry wrote in a 2012 post. Im the less cool version of that adorkable Zooey Deschanel. Even as my love for them became increasingly less ironic, I remained suspicious that their success could really all be so disarmingly uncalculated. But how could we have had a plan when nobody had ever made money off a blog before? says Sherry when I push on the business-plan question. Its true that when the Petersiks got into this game in 2007, there was no Instagram, no Vine, no Periscope. Twitter and the iPhone were in their infancy, and having an aggressive social-media presence was not yet seen as a viable career path. Its hard to overstate how quickly this world has evolved and how completely weve come to accept its central tenets. Anyone with a social-media presence now understands the lure of more posts, more followers, more shares. Which means that both the Petersiks rise and their decision to walk away offer a preview of a world in which maintaining the appearance of our lives online can make it impossible to actually live that life. And yet, even knowing what they know, the Petersiks cant quite leave it all behind. The Petersiks met in 2004 while working at the same New York City ad agency. Sherry was a recent FIT grad from New Jersey. John was a clean-cut Southerner with a surprisingly dry wit. They began dating in 2005. Early on, they flirted with various paths to public life, auditioning together for The Amazing Race I still think John would have killed it, Sherry says and trying to sell a book about weird pet names. But despite entertaining visions of reality-show stardom for a hot second they also decided to leave New York for Richmond, attracted to its slower pace of life and affordable real estate. Looking back, thats kind of the first time we made a big, dramatic decision in the name of a more balanced life, John notes. The blog started as a way to share progress reports on their first kitchen renovation with family and friends. Four months later, they entered a home-improvement blogging contest and won the $5,000 grand prize. The Petersiks joined Google AdSense soon after their contest win, making $10.59 in the first month. By the end of that year, the blog was up to 100,000 page views per month and had become the bulk of Sherrys work life, a transition she describes as a big leap of faith, since it would be another year before she began to duplicate her old salary. The early posts on YHL have a distinct MySpace vibe, with small, badly lit photos. In one, Sherry wrote about buying John a new suit and a poster for his birthday, without including a single photo of either gift. Their earnest blend of self-deprecating humor and raw enthusiasm turned out to be insanely attractive to readers. By 2009, YHL had reached one million page views per month. When their daughter, Clara, was born in 2010, monthly traffic was up to 2.5 million. John quit his advertising job. The couple looks back on that time as the blogs golden year, when they were essentially getting paid to live their life and talk to a group of friends about it every day. By the next year, Sherrys narrative of Claras traumatic birth had elicited 2,385 comments. But even Johns far more prosaic account of choosing between three bath mats sparked a 338-comments-strong discussion. The Petersiks soon joined the first wave of bloggers who leveraged their personal lives for real-world success. They landed a two-book deal, a Benjamin Moore paint-color collection, and a line of whimsical hooks shaped like octopuses and Chihuahuas for Target. During a 20-city tour for their first book in 2012, the Petersiks spoke to crowds of 600 to 800 per night. Fans showed up at book signings wearing homemade T-shirts, dressed as Blazer Sherry (an inside joke about the black blazer that Sherry always wears for public appearances), or bearing cupcakes decorated with Petersik family faces. Pieces of fanmade art are still displayed throughout their house. But as the social-sharing economy expanded, so did the Petersiks business, which is when that happy setup started to break down. Grace Bonney, the creator of Design Sponge, points to shifts like the rise of Pinterest and Instagram, which, she says, have all but killed blogs. We all have homes, we all talk about the pretty things we want to buy; thats not unique anymore. The only thing that sets us apart is who we are and what our lives are. Bonney explains, You will not find a single blog with that kind of cult following that doesnt have a personal connection. But what creates that kind of devoted following can also be problematic. At some point you have to ask: Do you want your life to become your business? By 2011, YHL was getting over 5 million monthly page views (with a million unique visitors), and the Petersiks were regularly working a second shift after Claras bedtime and throughout weekends and vacations. Family outings had to include something bloggable, like a stop at an antique store. Each holiday required fresh seasonal content. The Petersiks were also picking up all those side projects that felt like huge wins, but required a tremendous amount of additional work. They admit the blog made money a nonissue in its final years. For a long time, we thought we were doing okay if we could duplicate our salaries from our old advertising jobs; then it got to the point where we could bring in much more, says Sherry. But I kept saying, I dont want more money, I want more time. Shed spend school field trips sneaking onto her phone to respond to comments from the zoo or the aquarium. I felt like any day where I was being a great blogger, I was being a bad mom and vice versa, Sherry says. She and John both worried that their marriage was being reduced to essentially co-workers. By this time, the Petersiks had entertained and refused at least 50 offers from reality-TV-show producers, many of which were designed to play up their sex appeal. They would be like, We see John using power tools with lots of sawdust blowing around and then youll be bringing him water, Sherry says. I get that from the outside, it looks like we were chasing fame, but that kind of thing was never our goal. Meanwhile, their audiences demands to be let in on their lives only grew. Back in 2010, it took them four days to mention the birth of their daughter on their blog, but when Teddy was born in 2014, John says, It was like, okay, we have a few hours to get something for Instagram. Sherry pauses when he says that, but she doesnt disagree. Where we ended up was kind of a reality show in itself, she says. And like all successful reality stars, the Petersiks had built an audience that simultaneously knew everything about them and didnt really know them at all. In person, John and Sherry arent nearly as cloying as their blog makes them seem. The internet flattens you, says Sherry. They talk intelligently about competing-blog business models and the rise of sponsored posts. I hear them both drop F-bombs. During my visit, Sherry wears the same outfit (Target black T-shirt, Old Navy skinny jeans) twice. When we sit down for lunch, its at their rather famous reclaimed-wood pedestal table (made by Restoration Hardware, but found for 70 percent off at an outlet store). Im hoping it will be one of those hand-down-to-your kids pieces that outlives John and me, Sherry blogged about the purchase in 2013. When I compliment it, John hints that its unlikely to survive their upcoming kitchen renovation: Were kind of over it. Then he passes around avocado sandwiches, tossing us paper napkins and bags of chips. (They have since sold the table.) That night, back out on the covered porch, we start talking about overexposure, and they struggle to put into words how it felt to live so publicly for so long. The metaphor they settle on is, naturally, that of a house: Its like we left the curtains open in one room, Sherry says. And of course, we knew we were being watched in there. We made choices about what wed say or do in that room. But over time, they shared more. Its like we were opening other curtains throughout the house. John jumps in: Well, and also, it was like that one room was getting bigger. People saw into that room and thought that was the whole house. Right! Sherry takes it back. It feels like, oh thats all you did today? Because Im not telling you that I was volunteering at school, or the baby has an ear infection. But then it tempts you to open more curtains, so you can give that context, says John. And then its like, now I have all of my windows open. As the blog became more successful, the scrutiny, along with a righteous sense of what the Petersiks owed their audience, intensified. I bought you your house, one reader told them in the blogs final months. John and Sherry dont blame their audience for blurring the lines between blogger, customer, and best friend. We did this, says Sherry and gets a little teary when she says it. We put ourselves on the public stage, and then we realized it wasnt where we wanted to be. They also worried about the effect living online was having on their kids. Im already afraid of what Clara will find when she Googles herself, Sherry admits. I wonder all the time if we should have changed her name or never shown her face at all. What Clara will find is not that different from what many new parents share on their social-media accounts except in the Petersiks case, it inspired threads on hate sites like Get Off My Internets. Once, when Clara was out for ice cream with her grandparents, a fan recognized her and approached the family. It was perfectly friendly and innocent, but it weirded us out to realize Clara could get recognized without us there, says John. After that, they made sure Clara always wore shorts under dresses, in case somebody snapped a picture of her upside down on a jungle gym. The internet can be a dark place, says Sherry. The Petersiks spent the first year post-blog working a mix of freelance advertising gigs. Altogether, they say their income is roughly half what it was in the blogs heyday. Meanwhile, a Young House Love hardware line has popped up at Home Depot; some of their designs have even been tested in stores without the YHL label. We were stunned that anyone would even think thats an option, says Sherry as she shows me plastic prototypes of forthcoming items. We thought for sure theyd say youre nothing without your blog. It starts to feel like your audience is all you are. A few weeks after my visit, Sherry asks me to call. We just want to make sure it doesnt sound like were never going to blog ever again, she says when we get on the phone. We dont plan to, so we dont want to get anyones hopes up. [The internet] will never again be 100 percent of our existence. But if it fuels our brand in a way that works with our life, were open to it. Were not business idiots. In September, the Petersiks released the second installment of their two-book deal: Lovable Livable Home. When we talk before its release, they seem legitimately shocked that their publisher hasnt dropped them after they stopped blogging. In the lead-up to the launch, I began to see an uptick in their social-media shares: six Facebook posts in August, a dozen more in September. That same month, they updated the blog with a single post highlighting some of their adventures over the past year. The post ends with a video spoof of John and Sherry pretending to be Real Housewives. I cant help but overthink that choice is it a deliberately ironic statement to cast themselves as reality-TV stars? Or meant more as a callback to their blog-nerd roots? In the months since, there have been three more updates, all about the kind of mundane home projects (think landscape lighting) that made fans fall in love with the Petersiks in the first place. The new posts are friendly, but there is a distance. Projects are only posted as a final, finished reveal; were no longer watching every coat of paint dry. And the sites comments have been disabled. Readers can still comment on the Young House Love Facebook and Instagram feeds, but the conversation is far more muted. I talk to the Petersiks again just before they leave for their book tour. Lately, John tells me, theyve been wondering if they might be able to maintain an online audience without letting that audience rule their lives. I ask if they think they could have reached this new middle space without the dramatic blog exit last October. Absolutely not, says Sherry. People are excited to see us back in any capacity; it would have been impossible to generate this enthusiasm if we had just dialed things down. The Petersiks dont know whether anyone will continue to care about them now that their house and lives have ceased to be our communal property, but they seem happy inside their new boundaries. Were not pretending that were coming back in a big way; theyre not pretending that theyre supporting our whole family by reading the blog, says Sherry. For so long, we lived in fear of everyone leaving us. Were less desperate now. Sanders questioned Clinton hard on how she expected to be able to control Wall Street and big banks when she had taken so much money from them, and she went after him aggressively about his record on guns. Then they dug into a real, substantive conversation about their different approaches to health care, with Clinton settling into a far clearer explanation than she has so far of her reluctance to overhaul the health-care reforms that took generations of Democratic effort to put into place. Agree or disagree, its a meatier, more substantive critique of Sanderss single-payer plan than one that rests on the gross threat of raising taxes or simply stripping people of their current ACA benefits, which had been the thrust of her campaigns sloppy attacks over the past few days. The quality of the exchanges between the candidates made it all the more regrettable that moderators asked no questions about drone strikes; the lead poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan (though Clinton did raise the topic herself, righteously and forcefully hitting Governor Rick Snyder, in her final remarks; in his own remarks, Sanders followed by calling for Snyders resignation); or the labor movement, despite an upcoming Supreme Court case that might significantly weaken unions. There was a question, directed at Hillary, about the role her husband, former president Bill Clinton, would play in her administration, and one directed at Bernie about what he thought about Bill Clintons past sexual indiscretions. If you include the previous debates question about whether Hillary would have her husband do flower-arranging as First Gentleman, that makes three questions in four debates that somehow relate to the masculinity of a guy who wasnt even on the stage, but not one about the millions of Americans who experience restricted access to legal abortion services, many of them Americans who also have limited access to sex-education programs and affordable contraception, not to mention the jobs, educations, state benefits, affordable child care, and early schooling options that would make decisions about if, how, and under what circumstances to start or grow a family more just. The lack of interest in the topic of reproductive justice is particularly galling, since this primary season which has included talk of political revolution coming mostly from Sanders has lately also featured some revolutionary language coming from Clinton, not a candidate usually known for being on the radical edge of debate. But as too few people seemed to have noticed, Hillary Clinton has spent the past ten days campaigning vocally and without apology against the Hyde Amendment. Hyde, a legislative rider first passed in 1976 and added to appropriations bills every year since, prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for abortion, which means that the low-income women, many of them women of color, who rely on Medicaid for health insurance cannot use their insurance to terminate their pregnancies except in cases of rape, incest, or their life being in danger. It is a discriminatory law that perpetuates both economic and racial inequality. And the notion of repealing it has remained a third rail in American politics until about five minutes ago or, more precisely, until this summer, when California representative Barbara Lee introduced the EACH Woman Act, which would effectively repeal Hyde. So far, the bill has 109 co-sponsors but a vanishingly small chance of going anywhere. Which is what makes it so notable that Hillary Clinton who, despite a strong record of supporting reproductive rights, has not always spoken about them with righteous vigor (her 2005 discussion of abortion as a sad, tragic choice for many enraged many activists) has decided to publicly do battle against Hyde. Even more important, she is explaining her stance in terms that offer a crucial and long-awaited corrective to the course of the abortion debate in America. In the days after being formally endorsed by both Planned Parenthood and NARAL last week, Clinton brought up Hyde at a rally, describing it as a law that [makes] it harder for low-income women to exercise their full rights. A few days later, when asked by Alicia Menendez at the Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum whether she would support a congressional effort to repeal Hyde, she answered yes unequivocally and described reproductive rights as a fundamental human right. After that event, Clinton answered two further questions in an interview with Fusions Anna Holmes. Clinton told Holmes that she believes the Hyde Amendment deprives low-income women from being able to access the full range of reproductive health services. She acknowledged that repeal of the law could be difficult in a conservative-controlled Congress, but that as president she would work to expand the services Planned Parenthood provides, since she is not only against defunding Planned Parenthood, but would like to see Planned Parenthood get even more money because it is oftentimes both the first and last resort. Need for the affordable reproductive services it provides, Clinton went on, is only going to grow because of the pressure the courts are putting on [providers], so we will have to do what we can to provide access to quality affordable health care that includes the full range of reproductive health, including abortion. Remarkably, Clinton wasnt done. She finished off by noting that in places where providers are being shut down, the people who are going to suffer the most are low-income women of color, and that shes very worried about the upcoming Supreme Court decision in Whole Womans Health v. Cole, a Texas case that will determine states abilities to enact further debilitating restrictions on reproductive-health-care access. Clinton then proclaimed that she would treat Planned Parenthood as one of her partners at the table, trying to figure this [crisis of access and inequality] out. Later, for emphasis, she tweeted, I would like to see Planned Parenthood even get more funding and A right without the opportunity to exercise it isnt a right. Low-income women deserve health care. The Hyde Amendment should be overturned. If you care about abortion and womens equality, this was a bravura set of responses, breathtakingly comprehensive in its acknowledgement of the impact of the Hyde Amendment, the difficulties of congressional action to repeal it, the particular impact state restrictions have on certain already-disadvantaged populations, and the reference to the Supreme Court case and what it might mean in a new presidents term. It is also notable for its lusty embrace of Planned Parenthood, a group that in recent years has been attacked more obsessively by congressional Republicans than any entity save for perhaps Hillary Clinton herself. If youve followed Democratic politics for the past couple of decades, Clintons full-throated expressions might well have left your jaw on the floor. For years, conventional wisdom has led mainstream Democrats, including Clinton herself, to tread around abortion on cats paws, often referring to the procedure euphemistically or as a kind of necessary evil. This distance and distaste, the unwillingness to defend abortion on moral grounds, has only reinforced the belief that an embrace of reproductive rights is a risky move and allowed uninterested pundits (many of them male) to calmly sideline the ever-more-restricted rights of women as a sideshow, as some subsidiary single issue, as a part of the culture wars. Living the Orthodox Catholic Faith in the Anglican Tradition When Uganda and Total appeared to scuttle the deal for a joint Kenya-Uganda pipeline citing security concerns in October 2015, Kenya pledged that it would execute the plan alone if necessary. The January 5th 2016 announcement by Robert Godec, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, that Washington would assist in raising the $18 billion to build the pipeline from the oil fields to the coast in Lamu was a strong public statement to Uganda of the Kenyan governments seriousness to win the race to become the first East African oil exporter. Press quotes Ambassador Godec as saying Kenya needs $18 billion worth of financing, [for the construction of the pipeline] so one of the questions we are discussing is how we can work together with the private sector and governments to raise that sum, to find ways to make certain that this financing become available. The eye popping number $18 billion suggests that the U.S. will seek to play a role in financing not just the pipeline, estimated at $4.5 billion, but also other energy sector projects. The pipeline is the anchor feature in LAPPSSET, a massive regional integration project that includes a port, power plant and oil refinery at Lamu, a crude pipeline from Southern Sudan and a highway to Ethiopia. Related: Saudi Aramco IPO More About Geopolitics Than Finance The announcement also suggests a broadening of the initiatives that PowerAfrica the Obama Administrations signature Africa initiative will undertake. PowerAfrica focuses on eliminating bottlenecks that hinder power projects deals being brought to close. The initiative provides expertise to assist African governments in transaction-specific areas in support of negotiations with partners. For example, if negotiations between a government and private developer have stalled because of the absence of a power purchase agreement (PPA), PowerAfrica can provide experts who can help the parties hash out a PPA. Remarks by Ambassador Godec and Mr.Keter, Kenyas Energy Cabinet Secretary, suggest that PowerAfrica may expand its role in Kenya to the oil sector. According to media coverage, Mr Keter said a technical team comprising Energy ministry experts and the American governments PowerAfrica initiative side will work out details of the pipeline and electricity generation ventures. Kenya is impatient at the perceived slowness in bringing its oil to market since Tullow Oils discoveries in Lokichar. Energy Cabinet Secretary Keter is quoted as saying Commercially viable oil reserves were discovered in 2012 but to date nothing has happened which makes Kenyans wonder what happened. We are confident that the PowerAfrica initiative will help us realize our pledge to Kenyans. Kenya hopes the U.S. will help .fast track this project so that we join the many countries who are exporters of oil, and so that we can lower the cost of fuel in the country Keter told reporters. Related: Forget $20 - Oil Prices At $8 Per Barrel In Canada December 2015 media reports in Kenya indicate that a State House team will report to the President at the end of January 2016 on the modalities necessary for Kenya to become an oil exporter by September 2016. Plans are to transport crude by truck and railway to the export terminal in Mombassa. The team has been asked to work on the report expeditiously as the thinking in government circles is that Kenya has to start producing oil, The East African quotes a confidential source. Energy Cabinet Secretary Keter is tasked with delivering on this goal as one of his priorities. Kenyas impatience with the pace of oil pipeline development will run smack into the current realities of the global oil market and the difficulties inherent in the project. Kenyas heavy, waxy crude, which requires a heated pipeline, is 850KM from the proposed port in Lamu. Further complicating things, the required heated pipeline, the longest in the world, will pass through environmentally-sensitive areas. Tullow Oil, in its 2015 Half Yearly Report, indicated first oil will be three and a half years after project sanction which is expected at the end of 2016. This puts first oil in 2020 at the earliest. Related: Saudi Arabia: A Weak Kingdom On Its Knees? Mr. Keter, Kenyas Energy Cabinet Secretary, indicated that the U.S. EX-IM Bank will assist in raising financing for the pipeline. EX-IMs due diligence will come up against the same set of micro- and macro-economic facts that Kenyan officials appear impatient about oil projects are expensive, complex and can take a long time. With the world awash in oil and crude prices flirting with $30/barrel, Kenya appears undaunted by any challenge to find takers for its oil. Its proximity to Asia, with refineries ready to handle heavy crude, is in its favor. Its possible that Kenyas announcements will spur Uganda to make a decision about whether it will pursue the joint pipeline with Kenya, or go it alone. But East Africas largest economy, happy to share joint-first East- African-oil-exporter acclaim with its neighbour, is not keen to be a runner up. In 2013, Bloomberg quoted Martin Heya, Kenyan Petroleum Commissioner saying Uganda drilled a long time ago, but its possible that we can produce earlier than anybody else. We shall be happy. The world might have one new oil exporting nation by the end of 2016. By Ronke Luke of Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Energy analysts Wood MacKenzie said last week that low oil prices have now caused the delay of 68 planned petroleum projects globally. Representing $380 billion in frozen capital expenditures. And news late last week shows its not just the private sector shutting things down in oil development. Governments are also now looking to hold off on developing their in-ground reserves at low prices. Led by oil powerhouse Brazil, which said Friday that it will discontinue offering new offshore projects in one of its most prospective regions. Related: When Will Petrobras Fire Sale Start? Thats the deepwater pre-salt play. A target that over the last several years has yielded some of the biggest multi-billion barrel finds seen anywhere in the world. But Brazils President Dilma Rousseff told a press gathering Friday that there will be no more new exploration in the pre-salt for the foreseeable future. Saying that the government will hold off auctioning new blocks in the play for the short-term. No one holds an auction for an exploration block with the barrel below $30 unless you want to give it to someone, Rousseff was quoted as saying by local press. Related: Did Shell Take On Too Much Risk In This Oil Price Environment? Rousseff did say Brazil may still offer licenses over less-prospective targets. Including projects in the onshore, which she described as less profitable than offshore plays. This is an interesting move basically amounting to a government admission that it would rather keep oil in the ground than produce it at todays lower prices. That suggests officials are willing to forego royalties and taxes today in the hopes that prices rise down the road. Hopefully lifting payments to the government if oil is produced after a resurgence in the market. Related: Oil Prices Plunge 5% As Traders Fear A Wave Of Iranian Oil This may make some sense. If prices rise, then development will be more profitable in the pre-salt. And if the market stays depressed, project deferrals like those identified by Wood Mackenzie will likely mean lower development costs which could increase profitability, and potentially boost payments to the government. All of which amounts to an interesting sign of the current uncertain times in the oil business. Watch for further slowdowns in activity, as E&Ps, governments, and services firms look for direction on where the market might be headed. Heres to banking it By Dave Forest More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Ive been speaking the last few weeks with friends in Canadas oil hinterland of Alberta. And the view is bleak. With benchmark crudes like WTI and Brent slipping below $30 the last week, oilpatch professionals in Alberta are worried about their jobs. Fearing that new rounds of layoffs may be just around the corner in the E&P sector, and at midstream firms and services companies. Ive heard stories about people in the industry literally bursting into tears over dinner. Professionals here are that worried. I sympathize having worked as a geologist in ever-cyclical industries like energy and mining, I know how scary it is to watch your sector crumble around you. And in a spot like Alberta where most business is somehow linked to oil its daunting to think of finding other employment once a job is lost. It always strikes me as interesting though, the way people react when these inevitable downturns present themselves in the resources industry. Namely, they take it as the end of the world. People Ive been speaking with lately talk about the oil sector like its on the verge of disappearing. The thinking seeming to be that at $30 crude, all the pumps will stop and fields will simply be left to go to seed while pipelines run dry. And nothing could be further from the truth. Related: EIA Forecasts Miss the Mark, But Do Better Than Most Lets go back to the last time WTI was below $30 in December 2003. A period when crude was actually rising off a low of $10 set in December 1998. That period of ultra-low prices from 1999 to 2003 certainly had an effect on production. Across the U.S. for example, crude output showed a steady decline during those years. But not to the extent we might imagine. In December 1998 when oil touched $10, the U.S. was pumping out just over 187 million barrels monthly. And when crude finally jumped above $30 in late 2003, production had fallen to 172 million barrels monthly. Thats only an 8 percent decline in total production due to this period of low prices. Showing that the industry was far from packed up and put away. And this time around things will be the same the industry isnt going to disappear. In fact, theres still a lot going on in petroleum these days. Just this week, U.S. midstream giant Plains All American got a $1.5 billion investment from private equity showing that big investors are still very much focused on oil and gas. In fact, statistics from private equity analysts Preqin released this month show that energy private equity firms had another banner year in 2015 raising a total of $56.9 billion in funds, which will be available now for deployment into new oil and gas investments. Related: There Might Be More Oil Under The North Sea Than Previously Thought One of those groups is American Energy Partners (AEP), a private investment vehicle run by former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon. Which late this week made a big move into a play thats emerging as a huge story in oil and gas for 2016. Thats Argentina. Where AEP Thursday announced a $500 million investment in the Vaca Muerta shale play. AEPs investment targets a three-year pilot development project across 200 square kilometers in the Vaca Muerta. Bringing this high-profile shale player alongside other energy majors recently entering Argentinas shale including ExxonMobil and Chevron. This big buy along with the $165 million ENAP deal in Argentina discussed above comes after last weeks announcement that Argentinas government is setting its crude price for 2016 at US$67.50 per barrel. A fact that almost certainly helped push AEP over the line on an investment decision here. Importantly, all of these events appear to cement Argentina as the current leader in the race to develop significant shale production outside of North America. That competition had been coming down to a fight between Argentina and Australia. But this weeks AEP deal shows that Argentina has now pulled into the lead. Related: Saudi Aramco IPO More About Geopolitics Than Finance Just look at the investment dollars involved. Last August, AEP also entered the Australian shale space striking deals worth $100 million in the countrys northern McArthur Basin. But this weeks $500 million Argentina deal dwarfs the Australia expenditure. Showing that today, the shale experts at AEP would rather bet big on the Vaca Muerta. Add that to Exxons planned program of up to $14 billion in the Vaca Muerta, and the new leader in global shale is clear. This is going to be one of the most important spots to watch in energy during 2016 and may surprise many observers who think the oil and gas industry is headed for mothballs this year. Heres to it always being 5 oclock somewhere By Dave Forest More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The activists called for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the movement and the Radio Biafra director.Protesters in the hundreds gathered in the early hours of the morning, singing songs in solidarity with the IPOB.The pro-Biafra supporters stormed the Asaba-Benin expressway, blocking one part of the road for several hours from the Federal Road Safety Corp junction through Summit Junction in Asaba the capital of Delta state.Watch the video below:There were also pockets of protest in the densely populated Abakpa Nike, a suburb of the Enugu, where the activists marched round in demonstration chanting patriotic songs.In another development Nigerian separatists said police killed eight people during renewed violent protests in southeastern Aba city.However, the Movement for the Actualization of a Sovereign State of Biafra has replied ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, insisting that, contrary to his claims in the media, Biafra is not dead and will never die. This three-day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake was the only thing I knew I wanted to do in Myanmar before I left home. The treks I've done around the world have been some of my most memorable travel experiences: Quetzaltenango to Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, the W in Torres del Paine in Chile, the Usumbara Mountains in Tanzania, the Simien Mountains in Ethiopia... This particular trek just got written up in the New York Times' travel section a few weeks ago, which I purposefully didn't read because I didn't want it to create certain expectations about what it was going to be like. Kind of like how I won't read a movie review before watching a movie. I also was hopeful that the article was recent enough that any increase in popularity would happen after I did it. I ended up trekking with Ever Smile Trekking Company because Patrick, a Swiss guy I had met at 2:30 a.m. the previous morning looking for our hotel after an early morning bus drop-off, had heard good things about it. The cost of 40,000 kyat (around $35) for three days including food, accommodations, guide, boat, and luggage transfer seemed really reasonable and was cheaper than the quote I had gotten from another agency, so I didn't spend any more time shopping around. Later, after talking with other people at the hostel who had trekked with other companies, it seems like we had found the cheapest company but perhaps at a cost to the delicious-ness of our meals. Some other groups had their own cook, while we had food cooked by the family whose home we were staying in. So no real coffee and banana pancakes with chocolate for us. Even though our food was simple, it was nourishing and it definitely tasted good after a long day trekking! Left to Right: Patrick (Switzerland), Michelle (Sri Lankan Canadian, taking a break from traveling with her parents), our guide Zar Win, David and Isabelle (France) Over three days, we hiked approximately 53 km from Kalaw to Inle Lake. The first day was about 22 km from the Ever Smile company office to Ywa Pu, a little village of 21 houses. The second day was about 21 km from Ywa Pu to Pat Tu Bauk. And the last day was around 10 km to one of the tributaries of the lake, ending with lunch and a boat ride to Nyaung Shwe. The first morning's hike was through what they called "deep forest" to a reservoir and was pleasant enough but nothing special. We lunched at a nice viewpoint where we ate delicious chapati and avocado salad (a less mashed up version of guacamole). I don't know if this is a universal "this is what you prepare for Westerners who trek" but it is exactly what my trekking guide prepared for me in Tanzania-- chapati and avocado salad! Then we passed through terraced farmland, where farmers were growing all types of vegetables and green tea, a Palaung village where they made green tea, and a few Pa-O villages. Every couple of hours we had a tea break. The guide didn't seem to be carrying any water, so we were guaranteed many tea breaks. We spent the night in the Pa-O village practically next door to the home where a wedding was going to be held the next day. Our sleeping quarters on night one Apparently, the night before a wedding, it's traditional to blast music all night. It was really difficult to sleep because of the noise, but at least it turned out we were invited to the wedding! Breakfast at the wedding The wedding was from 7:00 a.m to 2:00 p.m. Village weddings are held early because people come from far away. We had breakfast at the wedding, heard the monks praying with the couple, and greeted the wedding couple. The bride was a trekking guide and the groom was trekking cook. I don't know if there was a ceremony, but unfortunately, we had to leave. Bride and groom My favorite day was the second day. After the wedding, we hiked through more hills and farmland. Red peppers were in season, so the fields were dotted with patches of drying peppers. Pa-O women picked and sorted them. The French couple on the trek said it looked like Provence. A patchwork of of different colors everywhere you looked. White fields of radishes used to make oil, avocado trees, ginger root. Our guide seemed particularly into plants and what was growing, so he always took time to point out the particular crops. We jokingly said we should start a game of "Name that Crop." Pa-O women heading to the monastery There were quite a few other tourists out trekking, but everyone stayed at different houses and perhaps even different villages, and different groups started at different times (our group always got a lazy start to the morning). You might see the same couple groups over and over again, but it didn't feel like too much. The second night, we spend also in a local house in a Pa-O village. The floor was as hard as the first night and it was just as cold, but at least there was no music! At this point, we had definitely started dreaming of mattresses and warmer showers. The second village we stayed at had a beautiful monastery in the town center and was circled by mountains. Mother and daughter at the house we stayed pound rice to make a rice flour Group photo- the second day we were joined by an Italian couple who were doing the two-day trek By the time the last day rolled around, we were a bit on hiking auto pilot. The scenery wasn't quite as interesting, and I think we were all ready to get to the lake. We passed people hiking in the reverse direction from Inle Lake to Kalaw, but I think it was definitely better to go from Kalaw to Inle Lake. The lake was so lovely that it seems fitting to be greeted by the star attraction after all of that work. In "Shades of White", Schjeldahl writes about the cliche "spiritual time capsule" conceptualized in the art - or absense of color - painted by Robert Ryman, an American painter identified with the movements of monochrome (aka - only one color and in his case, no color) painting, minimalism, and conceptual art. Yup, he's best known for abstract, white-on-white paintings. In other words, as Schjeldahl explains, the gadgets used to hang Ryman's paintings are more interesting than what's on the canvas- bolts or staples? "There's no savoring of style, just stark presentation," writes Schjeldahl. Honestly, I don't know what's "stark" about white on white but then I'm just an amateur art critic. What do I know? So, my point is this. Every amateur art critic, and I'm proudly among them, goes into an exhibit, museum, collection or show with the same question, "Do I like this art, or not?" Therefore, if my amateur logic works, this is how I understand Ryman's art: When there's no art to look at except for the bolts or staples hanging it, then, by logic, there simply can't be any criticism of the painting! My amateur take-away from Schjeldahl's article is about how artists like Robert Ryman gain the prestige of being the subject of an article in The New Yorker, in the first place. If painting with "no color" or, more precisely, the absence of colors, makes one an art collection's attraction, then why bother to go to art school, at all? "What is a painting?", asks Scheldahl. (OMG! Hello? Now that's as amateurish a quesiton as his "spiritual time capsule" cliche is an anachronism.) To add to my personal sense of controversy, there's even agism in Schjeldahl's review. He claims an appreciation of Ryman's art has to do with how old you are. Well, I'm not nearly as old as Leonardo da Vinci, but I still like looking at his Mona Lisa. In fact, there's more color in the Wikipedia sketch of Robert Ryman than there is contrast in his absence of color art. As am amateur art critic, I find it insulting to be told that a white on white painting is appealing, and "no museum collection of paintings since the nineteen sixties can be authoritative without an example of his work." I disagree. In my amateurish opinion, any art gallery or museum that has one of these Ryman paintings might just as well feature a Hans Christian Anderson cartoon of the fable about the emporer who has no cloths. There's probably more appeal in a colorful graphic of a cliche, than in the absense of color being conceptualized as a "spiritual time capsule". "The Emporer's New Cloths" by Hans Christian Anderson has more appeal than a Ryman painting, just my amateurish opinion. Too bad for the many talented artists who work tirelessly to perfect their art and to create a special style, when a man with the talent of Tom Sawyer painting a white washed fence can gain collectionable status and the attention of Schjeldahl's New Yorker critique. To be fair, even Schjeldahl gives "the emporer with no cloths" some conceptual attention, but not before leading the reader into thinking there's something to be gained by learning how to understand the absence of color as somehow being a "stark presentation". Surely, Peter Schjeldahl can create better prose than the Ryman art that he's critiquing. "Spiritual time capsule" is a descsription of art that describes "nothing". Here's the article: Shades of White A Robert Ryman retrospective. BY A succinct retrospective of twenty-two works by Robert Ryman has just opened at the Dia Art Foundation in Chelsea, and it offers a tacit reproach to todays art-world circus. Ryman, now eighty-five, has been making all-white abstract paintings, in square formats of different sizes, for most of the past six decades. He appeals more to cognoscenti than to popular audiences, but no museum collection of painting since the nineteen-sixties can be authoritative without an example of his work. His arts phlegmatic allure involves qualities of different paint mediums, applied dead smooth or textured by brushstrokes, on canvas, board, paper, aluminum, and other surfaces. At times, the mainor, really, onlyevent is an emphasis on the way a work is attached to a wall: by bolts, staples, brackets, or flanges. Always, Ryman invites contemplation of the light that falls on his paintings (which when I saw them, on a recent cloudy day, was glumly tender as it filtered through the Dia skylights) and of their formal relation to the rooms that contain them. Theres no savoring of style, just stark presentation . His works economy and quietness may be pleasing, but its chief attraction is philosophical. What is a painting? Are there values inherent in the mediums fundamental givenspaint skin, support surface, wallwhen they are denied traditional decorative and illustrative functions? Such questions absorb Ryman. Do they excite you? Your answer might betray how old you are. Ryman is rooted in a phase of artistic sensibility that was coincident with early minimalism and Pop, and is still in need of a name. Call it the Age of Paying Attention, or the Noticing Years, or the Not So Fast Era. American art underwent convulsive changes in the late nineteen-fifties and early sixties, following the triumph and swift decline of Abstract Expressionism. A vast cohort of young artists and intellectuals, many of them academically trained, flooded into formerly patrician or bohemian scenes. To qualify as hip, you registered fine distinctionsbetween a photograph of Marilyn Monroe and Andy Warhols silkscreen of a photograph of her, say, or between Carl Andres stack of bricks on a gallery floor and a stack of bricks anywhere else. Skeptical attitudes, averse to mimesis and metaphor, put a withering pressure on painting, including even the simplest abstraction. Barely passing muster were the evenly pencilled grids of Agnes Martin, the broody monochromes of Brice Marden, and Rymans taciturn brushstrokes. What you saw, while not a lot, stayed seen. The mental toughness that defined sophistication in art back then is rare now. Rymans Dia show is a spiritual time capsule. The work isnt dated, exactly; it seems classical. But whats missing is a confident assumption that there will be an audience eager to put up with it. Ryman came to his vocation indirectly. When he arrived in New York, in 1952, from his native Tennessee, it was with a saxophone and the ambition to be a professional jazz musician. (He took lessons from the pianist Lennie Tristano.) At first just to support himself, and then with a growing fascination, he worked as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art, from 1953 to 1960. His co-workers included the future leading minimalists Dan Flavin and Sol LeWitt. He also met and became friends with Roy Lichtenstein. The earliest of Rymans paintings in the show, made in 1958, are small, awkward, oddly charming arrangements of impasto strokes, which have a generic look of expressive paintingat a time when the swashbuckling style of Willem de Kooning was much in fashionbut are as matter-of-fact as cards laid out for solitaire. Ryman was likely affected by Jasper Johnss recent, sensational Flags and Targets, in which sensitive-looking touches of thick paint wander like sheep without a shepherd. Other artists, too, were mocking Abstract Expressionisms painterly rhetoric. Robert Rauschenberg did it by repeating the same spontaneous-looking strokes on twin canvases, Factum I and Factum II (1957). But Ryman eschewed imagery and any apparent irony. There was, as there remains, something monkish about his submission to austere forms and procedures. For a while, in the early sixties, he flirted with color and with mildly decorative effects, such as layering whites atop reds and blues. It was as if he were straining against a principled compunction and toward an indulgence in the hedonistic rewards of painting. That stopped in the late sixties, with a double commitment to whites and to treating paintings as self-evident objects. I well remember the pleasant shock of his show at Virginia Dwans gallery, on Fifty-seventh Street, in 1971, of identically big, square, white paintings on sheets of vinyl, which were held to the wall by paint that ran over their edges. (Tiny blank patches showed, where pieces of masking tape had secured the vinyl while the paint dried.) It was like entering a luminous fog bank in which nothingexcept everythingwas palpable. Under its spell, you could deem even the most astringent works of other artists fatally fussy. The Dia show is a career sampler, which means that it lacks the engulfing experience of Ryman shows that present series of closely related works en masse, with a practically chapel-like air of consecration to some mysterious ideal. I can imagine a devotee of Ryman visiting Dia twenty-two times, to give each of the paintings, in turn, an hour of undistracted communion. As it is, you hopscotch themes, with variants of tone, including the majesticas in Counsel (1982), a large, densely brushed canvas, held out from the wall by steel fastenersand the bizarre, as in Pair Navigation (1984/2002), which incorporates a painting on fibreglass mounted, horizontally, on a table-like, wood-and-metal structure that projects from the wall. If I could have one work from the show, to satisfy my somewhat equivocal appetite for Rymanism, it would be the delicately befuddling Arista (1968), a six-foot-square painting on unstretched linen, which is stapled to the wall and abutted, on the wall, by ruled lines in blue chalk. The lines suggest a guide to placement, but there they are in place, themselves, as the most interesting feature of the work. The particular meaning, if any, of a Ryman commonly tiptoes just out of mental reach. Back on the philosophical front: What is white? As light, it is the apparent no-color that contains all colors except its antithetical no-color, black. But, as pigmentation, it rarely lacks some ghostly tint, and it is never without relative tone. (Juxtapose any two whites and watch one turn gray.) Ryman generally favors cool whites, whispering of blue. A warm-white painting, Untitled (1973), jumps out in the show like a sunflower on fireif, that is, you have spent enough time for your perception to adjust, like eyes in the dark, to the pitch of excruciating discrimination that Ryman demands. The exercise may offer its own reward, refining the viewers eye and mind, but it comes with ponderous intellectual baggage. Rymans reductions of painting to basic protocols are engaging only to the extent that you regard painting as an art that is both inherently important and circumstantially in crisis. You must buy into an old story, which bears on Rymans extreme, peculiarly sacramental standing in the history of taste. Rymans is a kind of mute art that, generating reverent and brainy chatter, puts uninitiated citizens in mind of the emperors new clothes. (I have in hand, as tinder for such derision, Robert Ryman: Critical Texts Since 1967, a thick volume of often gruellingly dense essays.) Yet, actually, the populist fable rather befits the serious aims of Ryman and his avant-garde generation, who insisted on something very like full-frontal nudity in artistic intentions. The emperorroughly, high-modernist faith in arts world-changing missioncould retain fealty only if stripped of fancy styles and sentimental excuses. That was Rymans formative moment. It was succeeded by a suspicion, now amounting to a resigned conviction, that contemporary art is an industry producing just clothes, with no ruling authority inside them. (Maine Writer summary- I guess, if a reader can even understand the Schjeldahl review of the Ryman collection, than the "white on white" art might make some sense. Nevertheless, for an amateur like me, I'd prefer to write blogs about "paintings" rather than waste space in The New Yorker giving credibility to white washed fences. In fact, Tom Sawyer lives on....!) Labels: Hans Christian Anderson, Robert Ryman, The Art World, Tom Sawyer Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is an American politician who is the junior U.S. Senator from Texas. He is a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is an American politician who is the junior U.S. Senator from Texas. He is a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 presidential election. Wikipedia He was born in Calgary, Canada in 1970. (My goodness, even "Ted" isn't his real name!!!) Any candidate who's sincerely patriotic about being elected the leader of the free world would've had the question of citizenship settled before running for president. Not so with "Senator Ted Cruz to loose" the Senator from Texas who says he's the person voters should elect to be president. Yet, "Cruz to loose" has not completely resolved his eligibility as a "natural born citizen" as required in the US Constitution. Frankly, my opinion is that the place where "Cruz to loose" was born, as in "Canada" has little to do with his elibibility to be president. His problem is really credibility. In fact, "Cruz to loose" challenged President Obama's elibility to be president of the US, because the "certificate of live birth" issued in Hawaii where Barack Obama was born was not considered proof of citizenship. "Cruz to loose" is an egotistical right wing politican. Regardless of how many hypocritcal situations he finds himself embroiled in, his response is to blame others (especially the media) rather than find a solution. He uses an entrenched fundamentalist, conservative base of followers to create political myths, like "birtherism"- claiming President Obama was not born in the US. For some unexplainable reason, the Cruz talent is his skill to create truths from myths and he's able to attract "political lemmings" from among the zealots who believe him. The National Journal reports: by S.V. Date Is Ted Cruz American Enough? Out of all the people who hope to become president, only one would find it a complete waste of time to campaign in his hometown. Ted Cruzs Calgary, after all, is in the Canadian province of Alberta , which offers precisely zero electoral votes in a U.S. presidential election. Former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen acknowledges the irony: A party with a sizable faction that still questions the legitimacy of someone who actually was born in the United States now features among its best-financed candidates a man who, unquestionably, was not. I doubt that even 20 or 30 percent of primary voters are aware of that, he said and then joked: Clearly, Donald Trump needs to launch an investigation on this issue. Hed be the perfect person to do this. As it turns out, Trump who four years ago vowed to get to the bottom of President Obamas birth certificate and now is a candidate himself is already on the case. He was born in Canada , Trump told a New York TV station when Cruz entered the race in March. If you know and when we all studied our history lessons, you are supposed to be born in this country, so I just dont know how the courts would rule on it. But its an additional hurdle that he has, that no one else seems to have. (More recently, with Cruz one of the few Republican candidates publicly defending Trumps efforts to make illegal immigration a top issue, Trumps campaign told National Journal that Trump is not an elections law expert and would not comment on Cruz.) Cruz explains that because his mother was an American citizen when he was born, that satisfies the constitutional requirement that a president be a natural born citizen. On the day he announced his run, he told Fox News Sean Hannity: As a legal matter, the issue is quite straightforward, that if you or I travel abroad and we have a child thats born abroad, and were American citizens, that child is a natural born citizen. But what Supreme Court or federal-appeals court ruling can Cruz cite to back that up? Actually, none. There isnt any, which is why, although Cruz has so far not faced any legal challenges since he entered the race, one leading expert says that is certain to change. From Maine Writer- it seems like patriotic common sense to expect our candidates, who run for public office, especially for President of the USA, to be crystal clear about their qualfiications to run for the office they seek. Shame on Senator "Cruz to loose" for not resolving this issue before declaring his intention to run for President. Regardless of the Cruz "natural born citizen" issue, the fact that he didn't bother to resolve this citizenship issue, especially after he made such a ridiculous brouhaha about "birtherism", makes him unqualified to be Preisdent. Labels: birtherism, Calgary Canada, National Journal, Texas The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said last month that Muslims should be banned from entering the country for security concerns. Earlier, he argued that he would "strongly consider" shutting down U.S. mosques in response to the Paris attacks. To counter this and other types of growing negativity, nearly 20 congressional Democrats invited Muslim guests to President Barack Obamas final State of the Union last week including U.S. Congressperson Mark Pocan who hosted Madison Ald. Samba Baldeh. "We did this to show that this is the real face of the Muslim community in America," Pocan told Madison365 in an interview from his congressional office in Washington D.C. "Its not at all like what some of the [Republican] presidential candidates are putting out there in order to pander to an extreme element of voters. Muslims are our neighbors, our friends and our community leaders. In Sambas case, he is a community leader at multiple levels." Baldeh represents Madisons far northeast side and was elected last year. A software engineer and entrepreneur with two businesses, he also has an extensive record of community involvement including volunteering with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County and the AIDS Network. Baldeh has held leadership roles in the local Senegambia Association and the African Association and is a member of the 100 Black Men of Madison. "Samba is the reality; not what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz say. The fact that their vitriolic rhetoric is out there is disheartening," Pocan said. "We want to make sure that people understand that that is not the position of leadership in this country or of the people of south central Wisconsin. Im just really honored that Samba is here to enjoy this moment with me." Pocan is no stranger to State of the Union addresses, but he said that he enjoyed this one quite a bit because it was Obamas last one. "At a time when our country faces complex challenges both home and abroad, the president delivered a positive, aspiring message on how we can meet these challenges through constructive cooperation between elected officials, community leaders and everyday Americans," he said. The Obama administration also invited a Muslim guest: Refaai Hamo, a newly arrived Syrian refugee who lost his wife and daughter in a missile attack. He sat in first lady Michelle Obamas box during the address. Members of Congress get a chance each year to invite a guest to the State of the Union address, and Baldeh was extremely happy that Pocan chose him. "This has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me," Baldeh told Madison365. "This is President Obamas last State of the Union address ever, so it is very important." Members of Congress (back row) invited Muslim citizens to be their special guests at the State of the Union address. The political atmosphere on refugees and terrorism has been contributing to a further deterioration in the perception of Muslims among Americans, and thats why Baldeh said Pocans invitation was so significant. "What Mark is doing is very important. America is a nation of immigrants," Baldeh said. "I have been to all of the mosques in Madison, and all of them are getting letters from neighbors and community members supporting them and telling them that if they are hearing of any problems that they are here to help." Around the nation, religious institutions have been getting hate mail and graffiti, and women who wear head scarves are getting teased and accosted. Baldeh said that he has had a few e-mails initially from his constituents that have not been nice, but nothing to deter him. "Im not afraid to go about my day," he said. "And those e-mails have died down." "It was important for [Congressman] Mark [Pocan] to come forward and for me to come forward to show people that in many ways we are very normal and that this is our country as much as it is your country," he added. "Muslim Americans know that this is the best place to raise a family. We know that many people are very accepting of us, and we dont want Donald Trump and people like him to scare them." Baldeh is an immigrant from the West African nation of Gambia, where roughly 90 percent of the population is Muslim. He is the second Gambian-born elected official in the United States. "If you look at any group of immigrants in the United States through its history, there has always been some discrimination towards immigrants," Baldeh said. "But we are optimistic. Most of the time, American people on the whole do not discriminate. Im very hopeful that all of this furor will soon die down. When Americans really figure out what is going on, they will say, No, this is America. We are not going to move forward like this." More than half the nations governors most of them Republicans said they would refuse to accept Syrian refugees. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have called for granting refugee status to Syrian Christians. "When somebody says something that is not right factually or morally, we have to speak out. Just because these people are pandering for votes among some extreme elements of voters doesnt justify it that its real," Pocan said. "We need to stand up to it because if we dont it could become something that people eventually accept. Were a country of immigrants and we welcome immigrants and we welcome refugees. We have this great reputation internationally for over 200 years. We dont want to throw that away for the short-term gain of a few politicians that want to get votes for a presidential race." If youre familiar with Norse mythology, the term Valhalla is sure to resonate. Its a heavenly place (of sorts) reserved for brave warriors whove been chosen to fight in the ultimate battle at the end of days. Its also the proposed name for a new Scandinavian bar and restaurant moving onto Old World 3rd Street. And you wont need to be a war hero to partake in what theyve got brewing. Valhalla, which will be located at 1111 N. Old World 3rd St. adjacent to Brick 3 Pizza, will be operated by Melissa and Ken McNulty, owners of Wisconsin Cheese Mart and Uber Tap Room. They originally purchased the building in 2011 to use for warehousing and shipping cheese; but, now that operations have outgrown the space, making it into a gathering space seemed natural. As for the concept, "I wanted to pay homage to my heritage," says McNulty. "My dad grew up in a little farmhouse in Vernon County, Reedstown. My mom was from Viroqua. My great-grandparents on both sides came from Norway and settled in the area." The restaurant, she says, gives her an opportunity to revisit some of the traditional foods shes eaten over the years, as well as those shes experienced while traveling. "My father traveled to Scandinavia regularly," she notes. "And in his later years he started a Scandinavian tour business. I havent spent as much time there as Id like, but I utterly fell in love with Copenhagen while we were there. I remember getting to the airport and just feeling at home." Valhallas menu, says McNulty, isnt quite nailed down at this point. But offerings will reflect traditional Scandinavian dishes, while incorporating local products in potentially unique ways. Foods like lefse, herring and cod are likely to have a place among the offerings, each of which will have its own unique Milwaukee spin. "Valhalla will really be more a bar than a restaurant," she says. "Well have aquavit and aquavit-based cocktails, also ciders and hopefully Scandinavian beer." Her hopefulness is based in consideration of current exchange rates, which are higher for Scandinavian products, since they do not operate on the euro. Currently, the 1880s vintage building which once held a cigar factory is under construction. The facade has been restored, bringing it back in line with the vintage of the building. Entry doors have been refurbished so that they can be opened fully in the summer, offering up an open-air bar area. The next step, says McNulty, will be to begin work on the bar. As far as the look and feel of the space, McNulty says it will be a casual environment that incorporates upcycled materials and dark wood, along with original exposed Cream City brick. There will be a Viking theme with nods to mythology; but, the decor wont be cluttered or heavy. "Were aiming to create a comfortable place that stays as true to the Scandinavian culture as we can," she says. "Well keep things simple and let the food and beverage do the rest of the storytelling." But, she notes that customers will also play a role in shaping the concept. "People who come to a place really begin to shape what it becomes," she says. "And I have hope that this will be the sort of place where that happens." McNulty says shed love to open before syttende mai (May 17), a holiday celebrating the day on which the constitution of Norway was signed, declaring the country an independent nation. Update: On Jan. 27, promoters of the show announced a new opening act with the following news release: "Curb recording artist Lee Brice was ready celebrate the New Year by launching his "Life Off My Years" concert tour with his good friend and running buddy Tyler Farr and Dylan Scott beginning Feb. 4 in Salisbury, MD. But, with Farr undergoing emergency vocal chord surgery and enforced vocal rest, the Academy of Country Music Song and Single of the Year winner is forced to give his friend time to heal and has tapped CMA winners Maddie & Tae to fill Farrs boots." On Nov. 15, country artist Lee Brice played at Brewhouse Music & Grill in Rome, Ga. The concert sold out minutes after it was announced, and was significant in that it marked the 50th state in which Brice had played in 2015. He also played Wisconsin State Fair last year with Chris Young in August. This year, Brice will headline the "Life Off My Years" tour and bring his show back to Wisconsin to the Milwaukee Theatre on April 7. The tour was announced in November, but the venue finalized today. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. The tour, featuring Brice's longtime friend and Columbia Nashvilles Tyler Farr, begins in Salisbury, Md., on Thursday, Feb. 4, and will stop in 21 U.S. cities. Dylan Scott also is on the bill. Brice, 36, is still riding high off a huge 2014 that saw him record two number one singles, "I Don't Dance" and "Drinking Class." His 2010 hit, "Love Like Crazy," was the top country song of that year. He starred in Farr's video for "Red Neck Crazy" and is currently enjoying air play with his latest single, "That Don't Sound Like You." Pre-sale begins Wednesday, Jan. 27. Tickets begin at $29.75 and officially go on sale Friday, Jan. 29 at 10 a.m. To comment on a topic click on the head line and scroll to the bottom of the page. Anyone can post, membership is not necessary. Afghan govt will fight those who shed the blood of our innocent people: Ashraf Ghani JALALABAD: At least 14 people were killed on Sunday when a suicide bomber struck a gathering of tribal elders at a prominent politicians home in Jalalabad, prompting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to warn that the security forces will go after the culprits with all their strength. When terrorists lose the ability to fight face-to-face with our security forces, then they target public places and kill our innocent people, Mr Ghani said in a statement. The government will fight those who shed the blood of our innocent people. The Taliban denied responsibility for the bombing, which also left 13 people injured on the eve of a second round of four-country negotiations aimed at restarting peace talks with the insurgents. The carnage came during a jirga of tribal leaders at the home of politician Obaiduallah Shinwari, who escaped unscathed. Fourteen people were killed and 13 others injured when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives in the house of Shinwari, Najibullah Kamawal, the health director of Nangarhar province, said. Ambulances rushed to the scene, which was littered with pieces of human flesh, sandals and charred debris. Mr Shinwari is a well-known member of Nangarhars provincial council and his family is said to be actively involved in local politics. The United Nations also condemned the killings, reiterating its plea to all armed groups to stop the deliberate targeting of civilians. The bombing is the second deadly attack in the city since Wednesday, when the Islamic State groups militants claimed responsibility for a four-hour gun and bomb siege targeting the Pakistani consulate. All three attackers and seven members of the security forces were killed in the assault, the first major IS attack in an Afghan city and on a Pakistani government installation. The group, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq, is making gradual inroads in Afghanistan, challenging the Taliban on their own turf. It has managed to attract disaffected Taliban fighters increasingly lured by the groups signature brutality. In a sign of its growing reach in Afghanistan, the group has taken to the airwaves with a 90-minute Pashto-language radio show. The government has said it is trying to block the broadcast, which is beamed from an undisclosed location and aimed at winning new recruits. The uptick in violence comes amid renewed international efforts to revive peace talks with the Taliban, which are locked in a tussle for supremacy with the IS in Afghanistan. Last week, representatives of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China met in a bid to revive stalled peace talks with the Taliban, even as the insurgents wage a brazen winter campaign of violence. The so-called roadmap talks were meant to lay the groundwork for direct dialogue between the Afghan government and the Taliban to end their 14-year insurgency. The four-country group is set to hold the next round of discussions on Monday in Kabul. PM and COAS left for Riyadh ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff Gen Raheel Sharif left for Riyadh on Monday in order to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran amid growing fears that a prolonged confrontation could have serious consequences for the region. The premier and army chief, who are travelling to Saudi Arabia in the same plane, will later visit Tehran in an attempt to persuade the two rivals to de-escalate and resolve their disputes diplomatically. They are accompanied by National Security Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Nasser Janjua and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi. Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran on Jan 18-19 to exchange views on regional and international issues, said an official statement released by the Foreign Office on Sunday. With the army chief in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tension between the two countries. Pakistan is deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tension between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity, particularly during these challenging times, added the official release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday. It further said that Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The Foreign Office said in its statement that Pakistan enjoyed cordial and brotherly relations with both the countries, which were characterised by strong bonds of affinity, mutual respect and solidarity, and drew strength from shared historical, cultural and Islamic values. Although, the two countries have been on the opposing sides for a long time, on matters relating to the Middle East or international issues, Riyadh and Tehran have of late become quite aggressive against each other. The execution earlier this month of Saudi dissident Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after its embassy in Iran was ransacked by protesters. With Pakistan embroiled in its own fight against terrorism, the sudden spike in rivalry between its two friendly countries put additional strains on the civil and military leadership. Analysts regard the leaderships diplomatic initiative a wise step to help Riyadh and Tehran prevent the current tensions from taking a hazardous turn which could endanger peace of the entire region. Moreover, with successful culmination of talks between big powers and Iran over the latters nuclear issue, Pakistan certainly eyes certain economic benefits from Tehran re-entering world trade. With Iran re-joining the world trade, Pakistan can look forward to meeting its energy needs from across the border by completing the pending gas pipeline, remarked an analyst. USA lifted nuclear-related sanctions from Iran WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama confirmed on Sunday that the United States had lifted certain nuclear-related sanctions from Iran after the Islamic Republic successfully implemented a deal signed in July last year. At the same time he announced a settlement between the US and Iran at The Hague, in which Iran received $400 million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion in interest. This, he said, would save US money and time, as there was no point in dragging out this dispute and continuing to pay interest on the money. Now that Irans actions have been verified, it can begin to receive relief from certain nuclear sanctions and gain access to its own money that had been frozen, said Mr Obama while addressing his nation from the White House. And perhaps most important of all, weve achieved this historic progress through diplomacy, without resorting to another war in the Middle East, he said. But earlier in the day, the US Treasury Department announced it was imposing sanctions on 11 people and companies involved in Irans ballistic missile programme. Mr Obama referred to these new sanctions in his speech as well to indicate that the lifting of nuclear sanctions did not remove other restrictions placed on Tehran. On July 14, 2015, China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, the US and the European Union signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran. The plan, also known as the nuclear deal, ends Irans pursuit for a nuclear weapon in return for the lifting of sanctions. Yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, Mr Obama said. The remarks capped a 24-hour period that significantly reshaped US relations with Iran. With the International Atomic Energy Agency certifying that Iran had complied with its agreement to scale back its nuclear programme, Mr Obama signed an executive order lifting nuclear-related sanctions. In the order, sent to both chambers of the US Congress, he declared: I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, have determined that Irans implementation of the nuclear-related measures specified in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as verified by the IAEA, marks a fundamental shift in circumstances with respect to Irans nuclear programme. As agreed in the deal, I am taking steps to lift nuclear-related sanctions, he added. In a side agreement, Iran released five Americans held captive, and President Obama agreed to grant clemency to seven Iranians held in the US. Mr Obama waited until the last of the released Americans including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian -- had left Iranian air space before speaking to reporters in the Cabinet Room of the White House. He said the completion of the nuclear deal with Iran had cut off every path Tehran had to an atomic bomb. This is a good day because once again we are seeing whats possible through strong American diplomacy, Mr Obama said. These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and with wisdom. He said the US still had significant differences with Iran and would continue to enforce sanctions against its ballistic missile programme. Even as we implement the nuclear deal and welcome our Americans home, we recognise that there remain profound differences between the United States and Iran. We remain steadfast in opposing Irans destabilising behaviour elsewhere, he said. To quote Larry Kudlow: Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity! Matters of business and free enterprise are discussed on this blog. Included are company press releases, 3rd party news articles and videos, articles and videos pertaining to small business, and white collar crime. From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As... In late December, the high court of Massachusetts issued a decision in Maling v. Finnegan, Henderson. The decision is accessible, if you search for Maling, here. Boiled down, the court affirmed the grant of the firms Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss a complaint that in broad terms alleged that the Finnegan firm had a conflict because it represented the plaintiff and another client in obtaining patents claiming screwless eyeglass hinge inventions. There are two broad issues: when is prosecution of patents for one client adverse to another, and when are two patent applications so close that prosecuting them creates a material limitation on the lawyers ability to represent either client. With respect to adversity, this form of conflict is sometimes viewed as a finite pie conflict, where two clients are fighting for a resource that cannot meet both their demands. In Maling, the court relied on a case that Ive cited for two decades now that involved a firm representing two companies each pursuing a license to a radio channel. The court reasoned there that so long as they were not fighting over the same channel, and there was no electrical interference between the two channels, there was no direct adversity and so no conflict. By analogy, the courts essential holding was that unless patent claims interfere or are to obvious variations of each other, there is no direct adversity. (The court also noted that giving an infringement opinion to one client about another clients patent would be adverse, but that was not alleged, apparently, here.) With respect to material limitations, this form of conflict arises when a lawyers obligations to anyone (including himself) precludes him from competently representing a client. The basic test is: imagine what a lawyer without the obligation would do; and then ask whether the obligation the allegedly conflicted lawyer had would result in a material limitation. Simple example: if a lawyer represents a car wreck plaintiff, the lawyer generally cannot cross-examine that plaintiff even in an unrelated matter if it doing so would involve, say, exposing eyesight problems that could be used against the plaintiff in the car wreck. The court in Maling contrasted the allegations in the complaint to situations where firms have shaved claims for one client to avoid another clients patent. There was nothing like that here, and nothing like what the court suggested might otherwise be a material limitation. The court ended with admonitions to lawyers to be sure to monitor for conflicts carefully. Ill end by noting that this is not the first, or last, word on this topic. Be careful out there, as they said in Hill Street Blues. 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Photos with pinhole camera 47 photos taken with pinhole camera of the changing landscapes if you follow the rivers Lek, Rhine and IJssel from Kinderdijk to Kampen in the Netherlands. "Scientists studying the formation of antihydrogen ultimately hope to explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe." Antihydrogen is a particular kind of atom, made up of the antiparticle of an electrona positronand the antiparticle of a protonan antiproton. Scientists hope that studying the formation of anti hydrogen will ultimately help explain why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. In a new study published in EPJ D, Igor Bray and colleagues from Curtin University, Perth, Australia, demonstrate that the two different numerical calculation approaches they developed specifically to study collisions are in accordance. As such, their numerical approach could therefore be used to explain antihydrogen formation. There are several methods of explaining anti-hydrogen creation. These involve calculating what happens when a particular kind of particle, made up of an electron and a positron bound together, called positronium, scatters on a proton or on an antiproton. The trouble is that devising numerical simulations of such collision is particularly difficult due to the presence of two centres for the occurrence: the atomic level with the proton and at the positronium level. The authors employed two very different calculations using a method dubbed coherent close-couplingfor both one- and two-centre collisions respectively in positron scattering on hydrogen and helium. Interestingly, they obtained independently convergent results for both approaches. Such convergence matters, as it is a way to ascertain the accuracy of their calculations for anti-hydrogen formation. They then also compared the estimates of the area in the vicinity of the atom within which the positronium would need to be to ensure collision. They found excellent agreement with the two methods for hydrogen. However, their method did not prove quite as good for helium. This indicates that there is further room for improvement in the theory for helium before the approach can be applied to more complex atoms, such as magnesium and molecular hydrogen. Explore further Physicists find ways to increase antihydrogen production More information: Igor Bray et al. Internal consistency in the close-coupling approach to positron collisions with atoms, The European Physical Journal D (2016). Journal information: European Physical Journal D Igor Bray et al. Internal consistency in the close-coupling approach to positron collisions with atoms,(2016). DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2015-60591-7 Provided by SciencePOD A group of greater anis (Crotophaga major) at a communal nest in Panama. All females in the group lay their eggs in the same nest and all group members participate in parental care of the shared clutch. Reproductive competition within the group is intense, however; before laying her first egg, each female ejects any eggs that have already been laid in the communal nest. Credit: Christina Riehl, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Balanced in a small boat on the reedy edge of a Panama lake, Christina Riehl rigged a camera above the nest of a bird called the greater ani, a species of cuckoo that lives in Central and South America. Checking the footage a few days later, she saw something that had never before been documented in the species. A female ani landed on the nest, cocked her head to inspect the single egg, and then pushed the egg out of the nest and into the water below. The egg, it turned out, belonged to another female that shared the nest. Riehl was the first to specifically study and document egg-ejection behavior in greater anis (Crotophaga major), and to explain why the birds share nests despite high reproductive competition. At the time, Riehl was a graduate student in Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. This fall, four years later, she returned to Princeton as an assistant professor, and a main focus of her research is to explore the reproductive costs and benefits of group nesting. In the process, Riehl hopes to inspire her students to investigate animal behavior at a deeper level. Riehl's research focuses on the evolution of cooperation and the greater ani's extraordinary breeding behavior. Many species of cuckoos lay their eggs in the nests of other species, but anis nest communally. Up to eight individualsfour breeding pairsconstruct a single nest in which all the females lay their eggs, and all group members participate in incubation, defense and food delivery. Reproductive competition within the group is intense, however; before laying her first egg, each female ejects any eggs that have already been laid in the communal nest. Previous researchers found that a female stops ejecting eggs once she has laid her first egg, presumably to avoid accidentally removing her own. As a result, the first female to begin laying eggs in the communal nest invariably loses at least one eggsometimes severalwhereas the last female to lay loses none. Anis' nests are difficult to study because they are built in low shoreline vegetation accessible only by boat. For her fieldwork in Panama, Riehl must paddle through narrow coves that are choked with waterweeds and stumpsand commonly home to crocodiles. A greater ani is trapped and fitted with leg bands for identification before being released. Riehl's work in Panama was the first to document egg-ejection behavior in greater anis and to explain why birds share nests despite high reproductive competition. Credit: Christina Riehl, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology The egg ejection Riehl caught on film presented technical challenges as well. Egg ejection usually occurs 24 to 48 hours after the first egg is laid, once the other females have had time to come back to the nest and see that the egg is there. But the battery life on Riehl's video cameras was much shorter. She had to play a guessing game of when to put the camera in place. Riehl and her Panamanian assistants tried to predict where and when the egg-ejection behavior would occur. There were several false alarms. One day, Riehl put up a camera, came back and saw that the egg was gone, and thought that she had finally captured the ejection on film. But when she reviewed the video, she saw that a snake had eaten the egg instead. After much persistence, Riehl finally captured the egg-ejection footage. "It was really a special moment," she said. The video revealed the significant amount of time and energy it takes for the female to roll the egg out of the nest. The eggs are quite large and it usually takes a couple of tries. The behavior that Riehl was finally able to capture on film had been proposed by earlier researchers in the 1970s, and it had been documented in two closely related species. However, Riehl was the first to confirm it in greater anis using both video and genetic evidence. "I think there was some satisfaction among more-established behavioral ecologists who were pleased to see the earlier findings both replicated and extended by my work," Riehl said. A greater ani communal nest filled with eggs from three different females. Although greater anis sharing a nest are not genetically related, Riehl found that they do benefit directly from breeding in groups because larger groups are better able to compete for a high-quality nesting spot safe from snake predation. Credit: Christina Riehl, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Riehl's decision to study these birds was "a combination of my own personal interest and serendipity," she said. In graduate school, she went to Panama for the first time to study animal movement with her Ph.D. adviser Martin Wikelski, a former Princeton associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who is now the director of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. She was surprised to find that, although greater anis were very common, no one had studied them in the wild. "I knew they were a terrible subject for the study of animal movement, because they don't go anywhere, but they turned out to be a great subject for the study of social behavior," Riehl said. One example of the birds' fascinating social behavior is that the communally breeding pairs of anis are not genetically related to one another. "This is unusual, and intriguing," Riehl said. "The benefits of cooperative breeding are generally assumed to be through kin selectionan individual helps pass on its genes by helping relatives that share those genes." Although greater anis sharing a nest are not related, they do benefit directly from breeding in groups, Riehl found in her 2011 paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Larger groups can more easily escape predation by snakes, which attack up to 70 percent of greater ani nests in Panama. Riehl found a strong correlation between the size of the nesting group and the likelihood that the group will be able to compete for a high-quality nesting spot, such as one in a bush or emergent tree surrounded by water. Snakes rarely swim to these isolated nests. Riehl said she first became interested in biology "solely through birds." She was an avid bird watcher by age 11. Her parents were neither birders nor scientists, but they always encouraged her. Her dad gave her binoculars and found a field guide for her to use. "The thing I wanted to do more than anything was just go outside with binoculars and identify all of the bird species I could see," Riehl said. "I still love doing that." This early passion led Riehl to start thinking of careers that would allow her to spend most of her time watching birds. As she learned more about their behavior, she recognized that understanding the evolution of sociality and cooperation is the problem that fascinates her most. After receiving her doctorate from Princeton in 2011, Riehl entered Harvard University's Society of Fellows to continue her research as a postdoctoral fellow. She is excited to have returned to the department where her work on anis began. "I think one of the things that is most special about Princeton is the independence it affords its researchers and the amount of interaction between colleagues," Riehl said. "It's the kind of place where you can work with undergraduates and help them design their senior-thesis projects, and where graduate students have a lot of independence. It is a place where the community and the resources make a lot of exciting research possible." Riehl is excited about the opportunity to do research and teach. She is teaching an undergraduate course in behavioral ecology that introduces students to the array of behaviors found in the animal kingdom and challenges students to think about why behaviors occur and how they might have evolved. The first assignment for the class asked students to go outside and observe a wild animal for 30 minutes, record the animal's behavior, and then think critically about what they had seen. In her class, students learn to formulate questions and hypotheses and to think of how to test these hypotheses. Riehl looks forward to developing new courses, including field courses for undergraduates, and bringing students to Panama to be involved in her work. The unanswered question that excites Riehl most about anis is, "How do individuals in groups come to collective decisions together?" Her previous research has shown that it is beneficial to be in a group, but how groups form is still unknown. She also doesn't yet know how they decide things such as where to build the nest or when to start laying eggs. All members of the group have about equal influence, and they must somehow come to a consensus. If females in a group aren't able to synchronize their reproduction by laying their eggs at the same time, the cost can be very high. The maximum number of eggs Riehl has seen pushed out of one nest is 21, which happened when the first three females in the group had started laying. The last female was behind in her laying cycle and had no eggs, so she just kept pushing the other birds' eggs out. "The females in that group were just not on the same page," Riehl said. Explore further Bad parenting could give zebra finches the evolutionary edge More information: C. Riehl. Living with strangers: direct benefits favour non-kin cooperation in a communally nesting bird, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2010). Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B C. Riehl. Living with strangers: direct benefits favour non-kin cooperation in a communally nesting bird,(2010). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2010.1752 A photo from a 1994 excavation of the plague mass grave of lObservance Marseille. Credit: Olivier Dutour An international team of researchers has uncovered new information about the Black Death in Europe and its descendants, suggesting it persisted on the continent over four centuries, re-emerging to kill hundreds of thousands in Europe in separate, devastating waves. The findings address the longstanding debate among scientists about whether or not the bacterium Yersinia pestis responsible for the Black Deathremained within Europe for hundreds of years and was the principal cause of some of the worst re-emergences and subsequent plague epidemics in human history. Until now, some researchers believed repeated outbreaks were the result of the bacterium being re-introduced through major trade with China, a widely-known reservoir of the plague. Instead, it turns out the plague may never have left. "The more plague genomes we have from these disparate time periods, the better we are able to reconstruct the evolutionary history of this pathogen" says evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, director of McMaster University's Ancient DNA Centre and a principal investigator at the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. Poinar collaborated with Edward Holmes at the University of Sydney, Olivier Dutour of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in France, and Kirsti Bos and Johannes Krause at the University of Tubingen, and others, to map the complete genomes of Y.pestis which was harvested from five adult male victims of the 1722 Plague of Provence. To do so, they analyzed the dental pulp taken from the five bodies, originally buried in Marseille, France. Researchers were able to extract, purify and enrich specifically for the pathogen's DNA, and then compare the samples with over 150 plague genomes representing a world wide distribution as well as from other points in time, both modern and ancient. By comparing and contrasting the samples, researchers determined the Marseille strain is a direct descendant of the Black Death that devastated Europe nearly 400 years earlier and not a divergent strain that came, like the previous pandemic strains Justinian and Black Death, from separate emergences originating in Asia. More extensive sampling of modern rodent populations, in addition to ancient human and rodent remains from various regions in Asia, the Caucasus and Europe, may yield additional clues about past ecological niches for plague. "There are many unresolved questions that need to be answered: why did the plague erupt in these devastating waves and then lay dormant? Did it linger in the soil or did it re-emerge in rats? And ultimately why did it suddenly disappear and never come back? Sadly, we don't have the answer to this yet," says Poinar. "Understanding the evolution of the plague will be critically important as antibiotic resistance becomes a greater threat, particularly since we treat modern-day plague with standard antibiotics. Without methods of treatment, easily treatable infections can become devastating again," he says. The research was published online today in the bioarchive bioRXIV, and is under review at the journal eLife. 2015 was almost certainly the hottest on record for the planet as a whole When future generations write the history of humanity's faltering quest to repair Earth's climate system, 2015 will have its own chapter. Nature, along with the usually fractious family of nations, conspired to make it a landmark year: almost certainly the hottest on record for the planet as a whole, and a rare moment of unity when 195 states pledged to curb the carbon pollution that drives global warming. Whether the December 12 Paris Agreement is the key to our salvation or too-little-too-late depends on what happens starting now, experts and activists told AFP. "The most compelling thing you can say about Paris is not that it saved the planet, but that it saved the chance of saving the planet," said Bill McKibben, founder of the grassroots organisation 350.org and an architect of the worldwide movement to divest from fossil fuel companies. Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, was also chary: "We will only be able to judge whether it is truly a success years, perhaps decades, from now." But whatever lies ahead, they all agree, the last year has been a "tipping point" on climate change. Trend in the average temperature of the Earth's surface 1880 - 2015 (90x68 mm) "Paris represented a real sea change in seriousness in coming to grips with the issue," said Alden Meyer, a veteran climate analyst from the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists who has followed the UN process for nearly three decades. Much of that seriousness was driven by a crescendo of deadly extreme weather and the growing confidence of science in connecting the dots with long-term shifts in climate. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will likely report Wednesday on record-breaking heat in 2015. The 'golden spike' They could point to the most powerful hurricane ever registered; freakish, above-freezing temperaturesif only for a dayat the North Pole in December; or life-threatening droughts in eastern and southern Africa. Some of that will be chalked up to El Nino, a natural weather pattern that creates havoc along the tropical and southern Pacific Rim every five or six years. But the very fact that this El Nino is the most intense ever measured may itself be a by-product of global warming. Bill McKibben (L) representing the grassroots organisation 350.org (USA) receives the Right Livelihood Award from Jakob von Uexkull (R) during a ceremony at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on December 1, 2014 Scientists reported last week that climate change has probably pushed back the next Ice Age by 50,000 years. That may sound like good news, but more than anything it is a stunning testament to the extent to which human activitymainly burning fossil fuelshas played havoc with the planet's thermostat. Experts have also come a step closer to concluding that our impact on Earth's bio-chemical systems has been so massive as to justify the christening of a new geological era. The "golden spike", or start date, for the Anthropocenethe "Age of Man"will probably be the mid-20th century. What Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka, calls a "greater planetary consciousness" on climate has shown up in business and politics as well. In the World Economic Forum's annual survey on global risks over the coming decade, released last week, some 750 experts put "failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation" at the top of the list for the first time. Wildfires in Australia fanned by hot, dry conditions engulfed more than 100 homes outside Melbourne in early December 2015 "Mitigation" means cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and "adaptation" refers to coping with the consequences of climate change. In third and fourth position are "water crises" and "large-scale involuntary migration". Record clean energy investment In the business arena, the balance of investment is shifting away from fossil fuels and towards renewables, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported recently. Despite tumbling oil and gas prices, global investment in clean energy reached $329 billion (300 billion euros) in 2015, a new record, Bloomberg said. US President Barack Obama has dealt the US coal industryalready reeling from bankruptciesanother body blow in announcing a freeze on new coal mine permits on federal land. The 2015 watershed on climate change has crystallised a gradual shift from debate over the reality and extent of global warming, to a discussion on what to do about it. "After having concentrated for years on the problems generated by climate change, we are seeing across the globe solutions responding to the crisis," said Pascal Canfin, a former French government minister and the new head of WWF France. But Canfin and others caution against undue optimism. "There's a huge amount of resistance and inertia built into the system," said Huq. "Changing the global economy is not a trivial matter." Much of that resistance will come from the fossil fuel industry, faced with the fact that 80 percent of known reserves must stay in the ground to have even a shot at holding global warming to "well below two degrees Celsius" (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above mid-19th century levels, much less the 1.5 degree target climate-vulnerable countries fought so hard to include in the Paris Agreement as an aspirational goal. "The writing is on the wall for coal. But the oil and gas industry is much bigger and more powerful," said Meyer. "You don't want to delude yourself that they are going to go away quietly." Explore further Planned UN climate deal blow to fossil fuels: green groups 2016 AFP Fragile Families researchers have collected data on children from birth to age 15 from a range of sources, including parents, children, caregivers and teachers. Data collection has varied in each wave of the survey based on research needs and funding. Credit: Kyle McKernan, Office of Communications On the second floor of Lewis Thomas Lab at Princeton University, researchers are working to better understand the complex interactions between environmental conditions and human DNA. At the University of Michigan, researchers are using magnetic resonance imaging to study the brains of adolescents from disadvantaged backgrounds. And researchers at Stony Brook University are examining what affects sleep patterns among such teenagers. These projects and many others have been made possible by the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Studya research project based at Princeton and Columbia University that has built an unmatched trove of data by following 3,700 children born to unwed parents in large U.S. cities from their birth in the last years of the 20th century well into adolescence. The study has gathered information on the children's physical and mental health, cognitive function, social-emotional skills, schooling and living conditions, as well as the makeup, stability and financial resources of their families. Using that information and data on a control group of children born to married parents, the Fragile Families study has played a foundational role in helping researchers understand the capabilities and deficits of unmarried parents and the challenges faced by their children. Results of the research have painted a detailedand worrisomeportrait of these unmarried parents and their children. Data collection for the Fragile Families study began at the bedside of new mothers at hospitals in 20 large U.S. cities more than 15 years ago, an effort coordinated by McLanahan and other researchers. "Most of these unmarried parents wanted to marry and had 'high hopes' for a future together at the time of their child's birth," said Sara McLanahan, the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, director of Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, and principal investigator for the Fragile Families study. "At the same time, over a third of these parents had not finished high school, and only 3 percent had a college degree. A large proportion of the fathersnearly 40 percenthad spent some time in jail or prison. In short, the story was 'high hopes and low capabilities.'" As compared with children born to married parents, those born to unmarried parents have lower scores on cognitive tests, more mental health problems and more physical health problems such as asthma and obesity, even after taking account of differences in their families' economic resources. The Fragile Families data, which cover a diverse group of families with many from disadvantaged backgrounds, have also proven important to researchers studying a wide range of related topics. More than 6,000 researchers have accessed the project's publicly available data. The data have been used in more than 550 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 46 books and book chapters, 85 dissertations, and more than 80 working papers. Princeton students often use the data for their senior theses. "The Fragile Families study has inspired numerous new scholarsin sociology, demography, economics, psychology and the biomedical sciencesto focus their research on child wellbeing," said Christina Paxson, president of Brown University, who was a principal investigator on the study during her time on the Princeton faculty. "The investigators have not only made it a priority to make the data readily available. They have also offered numerous data workshops that help graduate students and early-career researchers learn about the great potential of the study." The emergence of 'fragile families' The percentage of births to unwed parents in the United States began to rise around 1960, and by the late 1990s, about 35 percent of all children were born to unmarried parents. Combined with a decline in divorce, this trend meant that most single mothers and most fathers owing child support had never been married. "There was considerable debate over the nature of these partnerships, with some people arguing they were 'one-night stands' and others arguing they were much more committed," McLanahan said. With prompting from Ron Mincy, then an official at the Ford Foundation, which had funded some of their earlier work, McLanahan and her colleague and husband Irwin Garfinkel, the Mitchell I. Ginsberg Professor of Contemporary Urban Problems at Columbia, began to study what Mincy termed "fragile families." McLanahan and Garfinkel wanted to focus on the unmarried fathers: Who were they? Could they afford to support their children? Would they? Data were hard to find. The fathers were hard to track down, and few men questioned as part of broader surveys admitted to having fathered a child out of wedlock. The answer, McLanahan said, would be to start at the hospital, interview new mothers and ask them to help find the fathers who didn't come visit the baby. Staying connected to the mothers would also help researchers keep track of the fathers because mothers were more residentially stable than fathers. That led to a major shift in focus that would transform the project. "We started off being interested in the father and what he could pay to support the child, but pretty soon we realized that the much more interesting and broader question was just how do these children who are born to unmarried parents do?" McLanahan said. "What began as a study of unmarried fathers morphed into a much more ambitious, longitudinal study of unmarried parents and their children." The first wave of data collection began in 1998 and took place in 75 hospitals in 20 cities across the country over two years. The result was a nationally representative sample of children born in large U.S. cities. Researchers interviewed mothers of newborns in their hospital room, spending 35 to 45 minutes gathering a wide range of information about mother, father and the newborn. "We'd say we'd like to interview the father, and we would wait to see if he came to visit the baby," McLanahan said. "If he didn't, we would try to reach him by phone." Princeton senior Terry Zhu, who is majoring in molecular biology, is conducting research for her senior thesis in the lab of Daniel Notterman, a lecturer with the rank of professor in molecular biology and a principal investigator on the Fragile Families study. Zhu's research focuses on the effect of chronic stress on telomeres, a research area advanced by Fragile Families data. Over two-thirds of unmarried fathers were interviewed at the hospital. Important initial funding came from the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and major funding throughout the project has come from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and more than a dozen other foundations. Other researchersincluding Paxson, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn at Columbia and otherscame on board with related research projects that helped support the core study. Those researchers brought more funding and, just as important, additional expertise and new perspectives to the project, McLanahan said. Researchers returned to the field to conduct follow-up research at one, three, five and nine years after the initial survey. A 15-year follow-up is underway, with data collection expected to continue until the middle of 2016. The goal is to interview 90 percent of families who participated in the nine-year follow-up. "The breadth of data collected by the Fragile Families study is remarkable," Paxson said. "The study started with the innovative idea of enrolling new families in the study at the time of a child's birth. Over the next 15 years, these 'in-hospital' interviews were supplemented with telephone and in-person interviews, child assessments, administrative records collection and more. The data have been put to excellent use: elucidating the factors that promote the health and development of children and families, and using these findings to inform public policy." The worrisome portrait While most of the unwed couples in the survey were living together or dating at the birth of their child, 61 percent of the couples had broken up by the child's fifth birthday. The families of unmarried parents experienced a great deal of instability in relationships, as mothers and fathers broke up, formed new relationships and, in many cases, had children with new partners. "Thus the vast majority of children born to unmarried parents experience a great deal of family instability and complexity, defined as families composed of half siblings and stepsiblings," McLanahan said. "These families require a great deal of time and energy to manage, and the children in these families do less well than children in stable two-parent families, especially in terms of their social and emotional development." The struggles of these children with social-emotional problems present a big challenge that is too often overlooked in education and other areas, McLanahan said. "Education policy should address the impacts of instability and expand beyond its focus on improving test scores, which, for many children, is too narrow an approach for securing long-term success," McLanahan said. "It must also tackle the mix of aggression, anxiety and other long-term mental health problems, particularly among boys, that can be dominant legacies of family instability." Research using DNA samples from study participants has begun to yield additional insights that underscore the way living in disadvantaged situations affects parents and children right down to their DNA. Daniel Notterman, a pediatrician and a lecturer with the rank of professor in molecular biology at Princeton, joined the Fragile Families project in 2007 with the goal of better understanding how our genes interact with our environment to affect physical and mental health. Nottermanalong with Princeton and Columbia colleagues and Colter Mitchell at the University of Michiganhas used the Fragile Families data and genetic analysis to show in mothers and boys that certain genetic characteristics make people more susceptible to negative effects of stressful environments but also more likely to flourish in positive environments. "A gene-variant combination that was adverse in one environment was favorable in another environment," Notterman said. "We showed these genes don't convey risk, as some thought, but sensitivity to the environment." Notterman and his colleagues are beginning to examine the policy implications of their findings, such as the affect parental incarceration has on children. "I want to emphasize that we hope to be able to use the genetic and demographic and other social science data to begin to look at broad questions of policy in a systematic way, not just policy but policy directed to human health," he said. "This work is soon going to become important for policymakers." Into the future McLanahan and other researchers are putting the finishing touches on a book that uses Fragile Families data to study the impact of the Great Recession that began in 2007 on families, tackling topics including the economic effects of the recession, how the welfare state responded, and the effects on children, their parents and the relationships of the parents. In Notterman's lab, new samples and data from the Fragile Families study are arriving alongside important technological and methodological advances. "We're just now beginning to develop the tools and to have the mass of data to apply big genetic data to the big social science data that Sara and her colleagues have collected over the last decade and a half," Notterman said. "We think there will be a great deal of excitement over this work over the next three or four years." Other academic publications continue to flow from the project as well. One example is a journal article titled "The Great Recession and Mothers' Health" published in the November issue of The Economic Journal. In the article authors Janet Currie, the Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton and a Fragile Families principal investigator; Valentina Duque, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan; and Garfinkel use Fragile Families data to investigate the impacts of the Great Recession on the health of mothers. The researchers report increases in the unemployment rate are related to decreases in self-reported health status and increases in smoking and drug use. Another new project is using Fragile Families data, combined with other sources of information, such as county-level data on economic mobility and city-level data on school and neighborhood quality, to understand what allows some children to enjoy more success in life than others from similar backgrounds. McLanahan said the researchers are making plans to continue what is already one of the longest-running birth cohort studies in the United States, using Internet-based outreach to continue following the parents and children. Many of the parents the researchers first met at a hospital bedside are now in their 40s and facing health problems related to the stresses of their lives. No longer children, their offspring will soon be leaving home, entering the workforce and beginning families of their own. And as those transitions happen, the researchers hope to follow them and extend the lessons learned from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Explore further More than half of all children in the US will likely live with an unmarried mother More information: Janet Currie et al. The Great Recession and Mothers' Health, The Economic Journal (2015). Janet Currie et al. The Great Recession and Mothers' Health,(2015). DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12239 The interior climate of many buildings is poor. This is also the case for offices, schools, hospitals, and other public and semi-public buildings. Small-scale research suggests that plants can make a significant contribution to the resolution of problems in interior climates. A group of research institutes, social organisations and companies is now set to perform large-scale research into this. Companies and care institutes wishing to participate can register. Plants add moisture to the air, can help purify the air of undesired substances and also create a pleasant environment. All these factors can also deliver cost savings, both from a technical perspective (reduced need for artificial climate control, energy savings, etc.) and from the perspective of the improved performance of the users of the building (for instance expressed in lower rates of sickness absenteeism). So why has there not yet been a large-scale introduction of plants in buildings? "Because there are as yet insufficient concrete figures on the matter and insufficient innovative and usable green solutions," explains project leader Annemieke Smit of Alterra. "There is a lack of awareness and hard evidence of the economic effects achieved through cost savings on the technical side and improvements for the user. In other words, no cost-benefit analysis has been carried out on which companies and institutions can base their policies and actions if they want to make the interiors of their premises greener." The research should lead to an improved use of greenery in buildings for a more sustainable set-up and a healthier living and working climate. The research that has been performed so far has generally been of too small a scale, too fragmented or carried out under laboratory conditions. A new innovation project will not only look at what plants physically contribute to the air quality in buildings, but also the influence of this on the health and well-being of the people working or living there. In this way, the researchers want to examine the actual effects of the large-scale use of plants on the interior climate. As part of this, attention will also be devoted to the costs and benefits of this. For instance, can savings be made with regard to the traditional, energy-wasting air treatment systems? Can plants reduce sickness absenteeism, or boost people's powers of concentration and therefore also their productivity? The study forms part of De Groene Agenda (The Green Agenda), an overarching programme for a healthy living and working environment, thanks to a grant from the Horticulture & Propagation Materials top sector, and will be carried out by a large consortium of institutions and companies, including Alterra Wageningen UR, Fytagoras, Wageningen University, the IVN, the Dutch Green Building Council, the iVerde foundation, FloraHolland, Noviflora, Donkergroen and Priva. "We are now just looking for companies and health-care institutions that would like to participate; in other words, practical locations at which we can carry out the research," says Annemieke Smit. "Interested parties can contact us." Explore further How a green building influences the health of its occupants Market Demand for Point-to-Point-Encryption Drives 10x Adoption of On-Guard in 2015 NEW YORK, NY(Marketwired Jan 18, 2016) At the annual NRF Conference & EXPO , Retails BIG Show, in New York City, Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 ING), global leader in seamless payment, announced that three out of four PCI-validated point-to-point-encryption (P2PE) offerings available in the US are powered by its On-Guard P2PE solution . In 2015, adoption of Ingenico Groups On-Guard grew by 10x as US merchants upgraded their systems for EMV and concurrently implemented additional security measures to help fortify their payment acceptance infrastructures. In a P2PE environment, sensitive card data is encrypted at the point of entry and remains protected until decrypted at a secure end point so that its never exposed to retailer internal systems or legible to cybercriminals. P2PE solutions like Ingenico Groups On-Guard can help merchants reduce their PCI DSS scope, decrease their vulnerability to cybercriminal attacks, and protect their brand reputation. As the demand for P2PE solutions accelerated in 2015, several leading payment solution providers selected Ingenico Groups On-Guard technology and obtained PCI P2PE validation for their end-to-end payment solutions, including Bluefin Payment Systems, CardConnect LLC, and FreedomPay Inc. These On-Guard-based solutions now represent 75 percent of the PCI-validated P2PE solutions in the US. Additionally, several leading gateways and processors anticipate offering the On-Guard powered solutions to their retail clients in 2016. Through these various channels, On-Guard is now fueling the protection of card data within retail environments across all merchant tiers from small businesses to national retailers. Industry experts, including analyst firms such as Gartner , recommend that merchants upgrade their security infrastructure to incorporate P2PE as they upgrade their point of sale systems for EMV and NFC acceptance. One retailer using the Bluefin/Ingenico Group solution is HoneyBaked Ham, a premium food retailer with more than 400 locations nationwide. Protecting your customers and your corporate brand continue to be the biggest challenges faced by IT executives. To meet that challenge, we began working with Bluefin and Ingenico Group to adopt a PCI-validated P2PE payment solution across all our stores in a simplified and cost-effective way, said Bill Bolton, VP, Information Technology, HoneyBaked Ham. Greg Boardman, CTO, North America at Ingenico Group, said, P2PE is a simple concept, but many merchants did not consider implementing it until last year when the EMV deadline created the right inflection point for retailers to bear the implementation. Because EMV enablement requires changes to the terminal and/or POS infrastructure, adding P2PE to the project became an achievable and timely resolution. We are continuing to see our P2PE adoption rates grow month-over-month, and anticipate continued growth into 2016 and beyond as the overall US retail market penetration of this technology charges ahead. Companies that want to learn more about Ingenico Groups P2PE solutions can visit http://ingenico.us/security-solutions/point-to-point-encryption-on-guard . Ingenico Group will demonstrate its full line of secure payment acceptance solutions during the annual NRF Conference & EXPO , Retails BIG Show, taking place Jan. 17-20, 2016 in New York City (Booth 1743). About Ingenico Group Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the worlds largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the worlds best-known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise. Learn more at www.ingenico.com or twitter.com/Ingenico. Innovative Retail Engagement Analytics Solution Delivers In-store Intelligence #nrf16 NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ News facts: Improves shopper experience and store performance by delivering actionable shopper engagement intelligence, enabling stores to detect, connect and engage with customers The Fujitsu Connected Retail approach 1 enables retail clients to grow efficiencies, customer base, and business through IT solutions that solve current and future business challenges enables retail clients to grow efficiencies, customer base, and business through IT solutions that solve current and future business challenges Fujitsu delivers rapid, secure and agile services to retailers around the world Fujitsu today addresses the dramatic disparity in the high degree of actionable shopper engagement intelligence available for e-commerce, and the current severe lack of such insights in stores. The new FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution is a cloud-based analytics solution that integrates seamlessly with Point of Sales (PoS) and key retail information systems to further improve customer experience and store performance. Having completed a successful proof of concept trial with an international fashion retailer, and with other trials planned, this new solution provides retailers with a transformational means of detecting, connecting and engaging with customers. Whether shoppers make a purchase or not, stores can now maximize sales opportunities and customer satisfaction by using in-built business process management to turn analytics insights into action. For example, retailers will be better equipped to respond to customer traffic congestion in different departments by adding more associates and when integrated into the retailers enterprise via a loyalty app can engage with shoppers while they are still in the store, making it more likely that they can make or save a sale. They also can use the analysis not only to highlight sales conversion by shopper volume, but also build a deeper understanding of promotion effectiveness over time. In the online world, much is known about shopper behavior. In the store-centric world, where 90 percent of all sales still take place2, most retailers have no credible source for accurate, location-based shopper intelligence, said Marc Janssens, executive vice president of Retail at Fujitsu America, Inc. Todays hyperconnected retail landscape requires technology solutions both online and in-store to enable a seamless shopping experience for both the retailer and the consumer. With brick-and-mortar stores continuing to be the epicenter of retail, Fujitsu is dedicated to developing and deploying the latest innovations for a completely integrated solution that improves the consumer experience while driving sales. Edward Westenberg, head of Retail Europe for Cisco: We are excited to expand our global partnership with Fujitsu into the Retail industry. Through Ciscos Connected Mobile eXperiences (CMX) delivered either on premises or from the cloud, our Wi-Fi infrastructure and the associated Cisco intelligent network capabilities allow our Retail customers to leverage the power of Fujitsu Retail Engagement Analytics in order to enhance the shopping experience and benefit from operational control, including location-based services, targeted advertisements, seamless and secure Wi-Fi onboarding, advanced analytics. This allows our customers to use Wi-Fi services to build customer loyalty, boost sales, and improve business operations. Anne McClelland, head of the Partner Ecosystem for Ciscos US Business Transformation team: With Fujitsu, Cisco is gaining a new and powerful Retail IT hardware, software and services partner who shares a wide visibility into larger, global retail organizations. How the FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution works The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution collects data from the latest connected sources in stores leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) and analyzes it in conjunction with retail data (such as sales data) to provide retailers with a transformational and visual means of understanding, analyzing and responding to shopper behavior. It uses Fujitsu-patented Flow Discovery Technology3 to deliver detailed and reliable analysis of shopper behavior, such as the number of visits per period, zonal volume of visitors, traffic flow through the store, number of repeat visitors, dwell time and sales department conversions that can be tracked, visualized, monitored and actioned. Alerts can be sent to store associates to enable proactive responses to avert potential problems before they occur. The solution enables store associates and managers to monitor and manage store performance with insightful and intuitive dashboards, reports, heatmaps and floor maps. For example, to drive revenue and profitability in their stores, retailers can use the solution to garner insights on how consumers interact with the physical store space, the patterns they use throughout the store and how long they dwell in a particular area; this information significantly helps managers make more informed decisions in how they merchandise their products, where they place and concentrate staff, whether the lighting needs to be adjusted, etc. all with a view to improving the experience for customers and driving revenue. Additionally, the analytical insights provide a rich and accurate source of data for the business teams planning store layouts, merchandising, marketing, CRM and labor scheduling. Delivered as a cloud offering, the solution is built on a platform that is specifically designed for precision analytics at scale and up to 500-times4 faster than traditional databases, made possible by Fujitsu advanced and high-performance database technology. The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution is built from the ground up with maximum security and privacy in mind. To address customer and country-specific privacy policies, Fujitsu also can deliver a privately-hosted version of the solution over its own secure Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5, delivered via the companys global network of data centers to meet customers security requirements. The new solution is being showcased at the Fujitsu booth (#3805) at the National Retail Federation (NRF) BIG Show on January 17-20, 2016 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Availability The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution will be available from April 2016 with rollout starting in North America. For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Here are the instructions how to enable JavaScript in your web browser From the electric cars made by Tesla, to the trucks in Rio Tinto mines, some vehicles already can drive without humans. But the technology is still new and needs research. Companies arent the only ones investing, though. Now Singapores government is joining the trend of self-driving vehicles. Lien Hoang goes for a test drive in Singapore. Ive buckled into a Toyota minivan, and the first thing we do is not turn the keys in the ignition. Instead, an engineer in front of me uses a touch screen to type in where we want to go. When the computer finishes mapping the route, the car starts moving -- all by itself. No driver This is a self-driving car. But unlike most smart cars, this one doesnt belong to BMW, or Google, or Uber. Nope, its funded by Singapore tax dollars. Two years ago I think most of the industry was talking about 2030. My own gut sense now is that by 2025, I suspect that we can see the technology mature enough to be deployed in a pretty decent and significant way, he says, Thats my own forecast. Thats Pang Kin Keong, Permanent Secretary at Singapores Transport Ministry. He says research is advancing a lot faster than originally expected. Its the reason why the Singaporean government has started to invest in autonomous trucks, buses, and cars, partly to be included in the public transit network. Han Boon Siew is one of the engineers working toward 2025. Hes head of the autonomous vehicle department at the states Agency for Science, Technology and Research, or A*STAR. Han takes me on a test drive in the minivan, which has a huge computer that takes up an entire back seat. There are three different screens, plus a small robot on the dashboard that tells us when were approaching a roundabout, or when a pedestrian is coming. On the exterior, it seems like theres a laser and camera on every corner of the van to help navigate. We drive around construction zones to see how the van reacts to new situations. Han explains. The vehicle needs to be intelligent enough for itself to move around and make very precise decisions to move safely, he says, And second, it needs to have very good perception to adapt to local weather conditions, especially for Singapore, which is raining most of the time in the year. Some everyday Singaporeans are already fantasizing about all the possibilities, if driverless cars become reality. Ronak Shah is a student. Definitely it could save a lot of time because I could do so many things. Instead of spending time driving I could perhaps eat or drink or have a nap even, he says, So thats just on a personal level. But even transporting and things like that, you could save so much cost in terms of labor and in terms of transport. It makes everything much more convenient in terms of transport, even public transport, buses and taxis. However, Shah still has his concerns. Like many drivers, he would be afraid of handing control over to a computer. Han understands the fear and his team is working to create a vehicle that the public can trust. During our test drive, he shows me how a human can take over the driving, change the route, and otherwise maintain control. But in some ways, Han said a self-driving car could be safer than human drivers. So this is one of Singapores traffic rules. Even where there are no cars, you have to stop, make sure theres no car, and turn left, Han explains, Usually this type of practice will not be done by the humans. But autonomous vehicles, one of the advantages is, it always has the perfect driving behavior just to make sure everythings safe and it goes. Private businesses are joining the party, too. James Fu is director of the Singapore operations at nuTonomy, which makes software for driverless cars. The company hopes to work with the government to test out its technology, which it eventually would sell to auto manufacturers. Fu says Singapore needs such technology because the island nation has limited space for roads and not enough workers for transport jobs. There is a huge manpower shortage in Singapore, says Fu, I think this is probably true for many affluent cities where a lot of the blue-collar jobs, its hard to find sufficient people to fill those gaps. And Singapores population is growing really fast... So with more people you need a better and more robust transportation system. Pang, from the transport ministry, agrees Singapore needs a robust system of getting around. He says driverless technology should be more ambitious than just getting people to switch from normal cars to self-driving cars. Private cars are not a sustainable future, he says, so people need to think about the bigger picture for public transit. I think we have a reputation that when the government of Singapore sets its sights on doing something, for example an area of infrastructure, we get there, he says, Were able to marshal in every single public sector agency to make it work, singularly focused on what we want to achieve. And I think through many projects in the past weve shown that we can deliver. Womens groups in India have stepped up their campaign for a law that can ensure fairer representation in parliament. Women are hugely underrepresented in Indias government a situation they say is preventing the formulation of effective policies for women. From New Delhi Bismillah Geelani reports on demands to pass a law, 10 years in the making, to put such a quota in place. Fifty seven-year old Santosh Ahlawat is a member of parliament from the northern state of Rajasthan. She is currently the lone woman MP from the state and the first ever woman elected from her constituency. From a small village to national politics, Ahlawats political journey has been spectacular, and challenging. When she first started at the village council, there was very limited infrastructure some schools didnt even have classrooms. It was very challenging to turn the situation around. People often mocked me, they would say, She is a woman what can she do? It was sometimes very humiliating but I took it all in my stride and moved on because I had come with a mission, I had to prove that women are equally capable, says Ahlawat. Before joining politics, Ahlawat worked as a social activist setting up schools for poor children and raising awareness about various issues. Her fight against rampant female feticide was especially remarkable. The gender ratio in our district was so skewed there were only 650 girls for every thousand boys. It was an alarming situation, she says. It was also an issue that was personal for Ahlawat. I identified with the problem more personally because as a child I had also faced rejection, she explains, My parents had a son before me but he did not survive, they were expecting the second child also to be a son but my birth came as a bad news and the entire family was upset. Ahlawat says it was a tough fight, but with a strong team they launched an effective campaign. And the latest census shows a marked improvement in the district, with the number of girls now at 950 per one thousand boys. Ahlawat also serves as a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Womens Empowerment. But with women hugely underrepresented, womens empowerment remains a distant dream. Women lawmakers currently hold a mere 11% of the total parliamentary seats. Ahlawat believes that increasing womens representation through affirmative action is a must. Men and women are like two wheels of a vehicle if you strengthen one and keep the other weaker there will be imbalance, which can be dangerous. Women have to be brought on par with men, she says. But political parties have not yet to reach a consensus on the quota issue. The Womens Reservation Bill that seeks to reserve 33% of total seats in parliament and state legislative assemblies for women has been awaiting parliamentary approval for more than a decade. Shamina Shafiq, a former member of National Commission for Women blames the patriarchal mindset of politicians for the delay. Unfortunately, the patriarchal mindset extends to every and anybody who is sitting in position, this is how we women perceive it, she says, And thats why perhaps despite all their differences all the political parties unite when it comes to not giving power to women. Womens groups have now intensified their campaign and are demanding the government pass the Womens Reservation Bill immediately. They have also raised their demand from 33% to 50% They argue the current government has absolute majority in parliament and no longer needs a consensus to get the bill through. Gargi Chakravarty is president of the National Federation of Indian Women. They have always used the argument of consensus as a delaying tactic. It is just an excuse to keep women out, says Gargi, They have passed so many laws, why are they reluctant about this? Because they know that when their will be more women it will affect policies and it will affect politics and that is what they dont want to happen. Citing the example of neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal where women already have reserved seats in parliament, Chakravarty says the condition of women in India is in stark contrast with the countrys status as the worlds largest democracy. It is true that womens reservation in all these countries came after a long struggle and India being bigger perhaps needs a longer struggle but the fact that sixty five years after Independence we are still on the streets demanding our dues is in itself a matter of shame for any democracy, she says. As the main opposition party a few years ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a vocal supporter of the womens reservation. As a government, however, the party has remained silent on the issue so far. CAMBRIDGE Police have determined a 62-year-old Easton man was the person who died in Friday nights one-vehicle crash on North Park Street. Waite J. Palmer, 62, of Beadle Hill Road, was the driver of the sport utility vehicle that slammed into a tree at about 8 p.m., causing the vehicle to burst into flames before he could be pulled out. Cambridge-Greenwich Police Chief George Bell said an autopsy was performed Monday at Albany Medical Center, and forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Sikirica determined that Palmer died of injuries suffered during the crash and not from the fire. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, and there were no indications that any medical issues played a part in the cause of the crash, Bell explained. Dental records were needed to confirm Palmers identity. Bell said excessive speed was a factor, and the force of the crash ripped the engine from the 2012 GMC Yukon SUV that Palmer was driving. In my 38 years responding to these, this was probably the worst I have seen, Bell said. The southbound vehicle went off the road near Woodlands Cemetery, within sight of the Cambridge-Greenwich police station, and hit a large tree head-on when Palmer lost control on a curve. Bell said police dont know where Palmer was headed. He had left a friends house near Cambridge Central School, south of the crash scene, a short time earlier, and officers believed he may have gotten confused and headed east on Route 313 before he doubled back and was heading south to get to Route 372 or Route 59 to head west to Easton. He had been out at a restaurant having a bite to eat before going to a friends home, and routine toxicology tests will be performed to determine if alcohol was a factor, Bell said. Anyone who saw Palmer the night of the crash, or has information as to where he had been, is asked to call Cambridge-Greenwich Police at 677-3044. BALLSTON SPA | A Greenwich man who is serving a state prison term for a burglary in Hartford has been sentenced to an additional prison term for burglaries in Saratoga County. Robert G. Hartwell II, 40, of Hill Street, pleaded guilty to third-degree burglary in connection with July 2014 burglaries in the towns of Saratoga and Stillwater, part of a two-county theft spree in which he targeted vacant homes to steal pipes and other metal to sell for scrap. Saratoga County Judge James Murphy sentenced him to 1 1/3 to 4 years in state prison. It was unclear Monday whether that term will run consecutively or concurrently with a 1- to 3-year prison term in Washington County for a burglary in Hartford. GLENS FALLS | The words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. echoed for hours Sunday afternoon during the Glens Falls NAACPs 21st annual celebration of the birth of the civil rights leader. From the first speaker at Glens Falls City Hall, to the signs held by those who marched to Christ Church United Methodist, to the celebration there and finally to the reception more than three hours later, Kings words were repeated time and again. As the group got organized on the main floor at City Hall prior to the march, Jim Clark Jr., the councilman for the Fifth Ward, repeated a King quote his pastor had used that morning. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Queensbury Supervisor John Strough followed with He Speaks to Us Still, in which he quoted King several times. Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. When the marchers, some carrying signs with King quotes, arrived at the church, they were joined by several hundred others, including members of high school choirs from Glens Falls, Queensbury and Hudson Falls. This is the biggest one we have ever had, NAACP First Vice President Lee Braggs said. We printed up 250 programs, and those all got snapped up. Pastor Meredith Vanderminden welcomed the packed house, and the master of ceremonies, the Rev. Leonard Oates of Faith Tabernacle Baptist Church, added a couple of King quotes of his own. We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Lifes most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others? The event is titled Expressing the Dream through the Arts and included childrens artwork from the World Awareness Childrens Museum, high school musical groups and a community choir, as well as poems and speeches from several local students, including some from the Temple Beth-El congregation. For the first time this year, members of the Queensbury Masonic Lodge marched, along with a multi-racial group of citizens, including police officers, children and NAACP members. As Oates wound up the event, he used one final King quote to punctuate his speech. Faith is taking the first step even when you dont see the whole staircase. Last year, the focus was on the law-enforcement community in the wake of the issues in Ferguson, Missouri. This year, while there were a number of law-enforcement officials in the march, the focus was more on the youth of the region and Dr. Kings words. Kate Hogan, Warren Countys district attorney, did return to last years theme briefly, saying, I will do everything in my power to make sure we do not have another Ferguson, Akron or Staten Island here in Warren County. Former Mayor Ed Bartholomew, under whom the march got its start, used his own words, not Kings, but they resonated nonetheless. Its not about color, race or gender, Bartholomew said. Its about being a human being. QUEENSBURY A German research company studying Lyme disease will not be setting up shop at SUNY Adirondack after all. InfectoLab was going to occupy space in the colleges Adirondack Regional Workforce Readiness Center, which is being funded with a $9.7 million SUNY 2020 Challenge Grant. The 10,000-square-foot center will be connected to one side of the existing science building. It will house health care simulation laboratories along with a Business Central, which will feature an entrepreneur development program, resources for local companies looking to start or expand and other training programs in health care and other fields. The Office of Continuing Education will relocate there, too. InfectoLab was going to be part of the project. It made for a natural partner, since SUNY Adirondack Adirondacks microbiology professor Holly Ahern is active with Lyme disease research and prevention. The company already does testing for customers in the United States and was seeking to expand its business and become more efficient with a U.S. operation. SUNY Adirondack President Kristine Duffy said the company had to look elsewhere, however, because of its timetable. Because its been such a long process, they have chosen to find a location at the University at Albany, she said. Sadly, we dont have vacant space sitting around and UAlbany does, Duffy added. A UAlbany spokesman said there were no firm plans at this time to bring InfectoLab to the campus. A representative from InfectoLabs parent company did not return an email seeking comment. Duffy said SUNY Adirondack will continue to find ways to bring in research partners and search for summer internship and research opportunities. SUNY Adirondack has a busy slate for the next couple of years. College officials anticipate breaking ground this fall on both the Workforce Readiness Center and its $17 million facility for NSTEM short for nursing, science, technology, engineering and math. The state has committed $10 million to that project, with the balance of the cost being picked up by Warren and Washington counties. The 26,500-square-foot building will be connected to the north side of the existing science building. It will increase the number of science laboratories from six to nine. There will be physics and geology labs, computer rooms, classrooms and space for collaboration. There will also be a microbiology lab, greenhouse and office space. WHITEHALL Increasing focus on literacy and adding more professional development are among the goals of a plan the Whitehall Junior-Senior High School has submitted to the state to improve its academic standing. Whitehall has been designated as a school that needs improvement because of poor performance by low-income students on state tests. Only 17 percent of students in grades three and four passed the English language arts exam, and 11 percent of students in those grades passed the math test. The high school graduation rate is about 85 percent. Seventy-two percent of students receive free or reduced lunch, according to the required Local Assistance Plan filed by Whitehall. Among the problems the school identified in its report to the state is that the long-term mission, vision and goals of the junior-senior high school are not commonly understood. Also, the district has not been doing an adequate job of analyzing student data to drive instruction. School officials said in the plan that they have reinstated the department chairperson positions to help improve instruction and are holding professional development sessions every Wednesday after school. They implemented the Keys to Literacy program through the local BOCES and added an extended school-day program and English and math lab period for middle school students. Other aspects of the plan are implementing the Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS) program to improve student behavior by offering rewards. School officials are also adding movie nights and parents nights to increase parental involvement and reviewing of transcripts with each student. Interim Principal Mark Doody said he and Interim Superintendent William Scott put together the plan with input from the department chairpersons for English, math, science and social studies, as well as the guidance department, school psychologist and other support staff. He said their input is important because they will be at the school after he and Scott finish their interim service. Lets try to begin the process of putting together a plan for the new people when they get on board, Doody said. Staff members want more training on how to differentiate instruction for students and how to use student data to improve instruction, according to Doody. One of the clear objectives is to improve professional development. Doody said instead of doing a one-shot training, the goal is to come up with a plan for the next couple of years. Another important objective is providing support services to help students social and emotional development. The staff is cognizant of its importance and does a pretty good job at the school, Doody said, but a more formal structure needs to be in place. Iraq and Syria: Siege Warfare and Attacks Against Islamic State Funding BAGHDAD (UPI) -- Siege warfare continued taking its toll in Syria last week as coalition forces conducted attacks against Islamic State revenues in Iraq. Syria IS militants reportedly abducted at least 400 people in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Sunday. The move came after a Saturday assault into northwestern portions of the provincial capital, where several government-held areas are under siege by the militants. Activists said at least 135 people -- 85 civilians and 50 pro-government fighters -- were killed in the attack, which saw IS forces utilizing a mixture of suicide bombers and infantry. Syrian state news put the number of dead at 300. The prisoners were reported to be family members of pro-government fighters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS controls at least 60 percent of Deir Ezzor, which is one of several locations in Syria under siege. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have encircled multiple areas around the capital Damascus, including portions of eastern Ghouta, the western suburb of Darayya and the nearby mountain towns of Zabadani and Madaya. Rebel forces, on the other hand, are besieging the villages of Foah and Kefraya in Idlib province. In northern portions of Latakia province on Sunday, government forces captured two villages and surrounding hills, as well as four nearby mountains, according to Syrian state news. Pro-Assad forces have been on the offensive in Latakia and other areas of northwestern Syria in recent months following Russia's intervention on behalf of Assad in late September. On Sunday, SANA reported rebel forces in the area retreated to positions near the town of Rabiaa on the Turkish border. The previous Monday, pro-Assad forces captured Salma, a strategically important town in Latakia overlooking portions of a rural mountainous region known as Jabal al-Akrad. By Wednesday, SOHR reported, government forces -- including Russian advisers and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters -- began advancing from Salma into the surrounding hills. Also on Sunday, activists said airstrikes killed at least 40 people, including eight children, in the de facto IS capital of Raqqa, but it was not clear whether the strikes were conducted by Russia, the Syrian government or the U.S.-led coalition -- all of which fly sorties over the city. The U.S. Department of Defense said coalition aircraft conducted airstrikes against Raqqa on both Jan. 16 and Jan. 17 but reported the strikes targeted IS positions. In the nearby Aleppo province on Thursday, rebel forces captured the town of Khan Toman, killing at least 21 government troops and allied militiamen, according to SOHR. The village fell amid three-way fighting across the province among the Syrian military, an alliance of rebel factions and IS. Activists said government forces were advancing against IS in Aleppo's east as IS simultaneously seized the village of Ghazal from Turkey-backed rebels the same day Khan Toman fell. Strategy Bloody back-and-forth fighting across Syria is overshadowing Vienna peace talks scheduled for Jan. 25. The conflict's many actors are seeking battlefield gains in an attempt to strengthen their positions leading up to the talks. The Syrian military, backed by Iran and Russia, launched a series of counter-offensives following the addition of Russian airstrikes to its arsenal on Sept. 30. A fragmented series of rebel alliances are meanwhile vying for control in various portions of the country, including a U.S.-backed rebel coalition of Kurds, Assyrians and Arabs in Syria's northeast, while IS forces attempt to maintain and expand lands comprising their self-declared caliphate. Several major rebel groups met in Saudi Arabia last month to hammer out a unified framework for the Vienna talks, but Kurdish rebel cells such as the YPG and militants with the Nusra Front, a rebel group linked to al-Qaida, were not invited. However, the U.S.-backed rebel coalition known as the Syrian Democratic Forces held their own conference on Dec. 11 in the al-Hasakah province, announcing the formation of a political wing known as the Syrian Democratic Council. The Syrian government has said it will join the Vienna talks but wanted to know in advance whether they would be attended by "terrorist groups" -- a distinction used broadly by Damascus, as well as Moscow, in reference to all of Syria's opposition. Previous attempts at peace talks collapsed in the face of Syrian government intransigence over allowing rebel cells a seat at the negotiating table. Further complicating the matter is the recent deterioration of relations between Saudi Arabia, which supports much of the Sunni opposition in Syria, and Iran, which provides open backing for the Alawite government of Assad. The Saudi execution of a revered Shia cleric earlier this month was followed by protesters sacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting multiple Sunni states, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Sudan, to cut ties with Iran. Still, British United Nations Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said Thursday he is "optimistic that 2016 will be the year when finally we turn this around." "Look, we've known all along that Saudi Arabia and Iran have very different and opposite views on the future of Syria and on so many other issues," CNN quoted him as saying. "But the Vienna process has as one of its strengths the fact that those two countries are both inside that single tent." Iraq Iraqi security forces said they killed at least 40 IS militants Sunday in eastern portions of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. Police told IraqiNews.com the clashes occurred in the city's Juwiba and al-Sedikiya neighborhoods, and that officers disarmed 16 improvised explosive devices and destroyed six defensive positions and five vehicles used by the militants. The center of Ramadi fell to the Iraqi military and allied Sunni tribal fighters late last month after a costly assault, and government forces are still clearing small groups of IS militants from various neighborhoods. IS has reportedly re-oriented its efforts west of the city, launching multiple failed attacks against Haditha and Barwana. Security forces repelled such an attack on Saturday, Iraq's interior ministry said. In Baghdad on Sunday, a bomb attack in the southern Mahmudiya district killed at least two people and injured nine, the interior ministry said. The attack came six days after IS militants conducted a gun and bomb assault against a shopping mall in a predominantly Shia area of Baghdad, killing 18 people. Diyala province saw further attacks against Shia Muslims; on Monday twin blasts cut through a cafe in Muqdadiya, killing at least 20 people -- mainly members of the Hashid Shaabi, an anti-IS umbrella group of Shia militias that enjoys support from Iran's Quds Forces. Some of the fighters reportedly launched reprisal attacks against local Sunnis, performing summary executions and burning shops, mosques and homes. The same day, coalition aircraft dropped two 2,000-pound bombs on a bank used by IS militants in Mosul, capital of Nineveh province. The resulting explosions incinerated millions of dollars garnered through black-market oil sales and extortion, officials said. Five days later, Kurdish officials said IS militants executed at least 25 people attempting to escape Mosul, which the militants have controlled since July 2014. Four women and six children were among the dead. Strategy The Iraqi government seeks to evict IS fighters who seized large portions of northern and western Iraq in 2014. Last year, Baghdad saw success in cities such as Tikrit and Sinjar but also reverses in places like Ramadi, where Iraqi security forces retreated from an IS assault in May. The Iraqi military regained the city late last month after suffering heavy casualties and continues to clear eastern neighborhoods where small groups of IS fighters have stalled a complete victory. IS, meanwhile, has redirected efforts in western Anbar, conducting multiple assaults on Haditha and Barwana, using a favored tactic: coordinated thrusts of infantry and car bombers. Suicide bombers have also wreaked havoc on soft targets around Baghdad and other parts of the country as the U.S.-led coalition continues with an air campaign against IS that has been ongoing since August 2014. "May is when [IS] reached their culminating point of offensive operations," Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren said earlier this month. "Since then, all they've really managed to do is lose ground." Multiple areas of Anbar province -- notably the IS-held city of Fallujah, where U.S. troops fought two bloody battles against insurgents in 2004 -- have yet to be cleared, however, and still looming is the main objective of Baghdad and the U.S.-led coalition: Mosul. "Our campaign plan's map has got big arrows pointing to both Mosul and Raqqa," Military Times quoted U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter as saying at Fort Campbell, Ky., on Wednesday. Carter met with top military leaders at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday to discuss details of an accelerated anti-IS campaign. The strategy reportedly calls for Kurdish Peshmerga forces to push in from the north and east of Mosul while the Iraqi military assaults from the south. Coalition aircraft will provide fire support. The Iraqi military will also attack west from Ramadi toward the Syrian border. In Syria, a similar plan is being developed to capture the IS capital of Raqqa. U.S.-supported rebel groups in northeastern parts of the country, such as the SDF in al-Hasakah province, are already capturing territory north of the city in preparation for an eventual assault against the IS stronghold. Much of this plan, however, relies on Turkey sealing its border with Syria in order to cut off the militants' main supply line to the outside world. Carter said recent coalition battlefield gains have "allowed us to accelerate the campaign, gather momentum, and pressure [IS] in Iraq and Syria on more fronts than at any other point in the campaign." "This pressure is having an effect against [IS]," Carter told reporters. "It is also generating additional opportunities to further accelerate the implementation of the campaign." Alongside the targets of Mosul and Raqqa is IS revenue. The Monday airstrike against an IS bank in Mosul came amid Operation Tidal Wave 2, a coalition effort targeting IS funding, mainly through airstrikes against oil infrastructure. In one such strike in November, the coalition said it destroyed more than 280 IS oil trucks in Syria's al-Hasakah province. "We believe these airstrikes are markedly degrading one of [IS]'s most important sources of funding," Adam Szubin, the U.S. Treasury's acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said last month. Threatening ultimate success in Iraq, however, is the specter of sectarian division. Experts say the Iraqi military's collapse in 2014 -- when 30,000 armed and trained Iraqi troops retreated from 800 lightly-armed IS militants attacking Mosul -- was rooted in the sectarianism of the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. The purging of Sunnis from several government and military command positions by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki alienated Iraq's minority Sunni populace, which sympathized with attacking IS fighters. It also ensured that inexperienced Shia cronies, rather than merit-based candidates, were in charge of Iraq's U.S.-trained and -equipped military. When Tikrit fell to government forces last year, the Iraqi military relied heavily on U.S. air power and the Hashid Shaabi. U.S. officials denied working with the Shia militas, which had to be pulled from the majority-Sunni city following reports of extrajudicial killings, arson and looting. A Hashid Shaabi spokesman promised to punish those responsible for the recent reprisal attacks against Shiites in Mahmudiya, but such incidents could threaten to push moderate or undecided Sunni Arabs into alliance with IS. A loose knit organization of people pursuing Good Times and Grins and I am just a humble member. As a founder member of Mystery Women in 1997, promoting Crime Fiction has always been my passion. Following the closure of Mystery Women, a new group was formed on 30th January 2012 promoting crime fiction. New reviews are posted daily, but to search for earlier reviews please click on the Mystery People link below and select 'reviews' from the welcome page. This will display an alphabetic option for you to find the review you would like to read She said: "The law says don't fish for Juveniles, what are the juveniles? They are the tiny fish that will grow to become the big fish. So if you sweep everything from the bottom of the ocean, there'll be nothing and the law empowers the enforcement unit to ensure that you don't take the juviniles." The fisheries ministry is also considering new methods and technology in fishing, she said, including reducing the month stay of trawlers to three months. However, members of the trawlers association said the new measures will be too expensive to implement. The SADA zone holds major agricultural promise that when harnessed will not only make the country highly secure and less dependent on imports, but more importantly transform the lives of the zones inhabitants quite significantly -- the zone currently records lower performances in all major indices of socio-economic performance compared to the national average, Mr. Abugre said. The guide was produced by the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority with support from the Soil Research Institute, the Queiroz Galvao of Brazil, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre and the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Read more: Partnership AGI to help transform SADA Today people are able to buy almost anything from houses to cars over the Internet, and pay for it. This was not possible some three or four years ago. Though the Internet was as vibrant and reliable as it is today, there was no way to monetize value transfer. There was no adequate payment system. The internet was not a money making tool. Today, local techpreneurs have stepped up to fill the void after foreign giants like Paypal and Mastercard left Ghana in the cold. DreamOval's SlydePay which was formerly I wallet, Express Pay, Mpower, and others have made online payments possible. One of such innovators who has taken this to the next level, is Ghanaian born American- based techpreneur Paul Miller. Paul was asked by a friend in the U.S who is now his co- founder to send some cash to her mom. On his way to deliver the money upon arriving in Ghana, Paul though that there ought to be a simpler way for Ghanaians living abroad and foreigners in general to remit money to relatives in Ghana in a more convenient way and not encountering the difficulties posed by traditional money transfer systems. That was how Sika App was born. " So on my drive to Tema to deliver the money to my friend's mom, I wondered if there could be a more convenient way to send money without either party having to leave the comfort of their homes or offices, or inconveniencing anybody. That was how Sika App was born." So this will give people the chance to send money across borders in the comfort of their homes, that is what the power of the Internet can give. On the face of it, Sika App may not look like the life saver it is in practical terms, " Transferring money to relatives or others can be a matter of life and death. Imagine a relative who is sick and bed- ridden and cannot go out to claim a transferred fund. This becomes a life and death issue. That relative should be able to get that transfer in the comfort of their homes and even go on to get whatever medications they need online", Paul says. Dumor died on 18 January 2014 in his London home after a cardiac arrest, having been on air the day before. President of Ghana John Mahama said in a message on Twitter that Dumor was one of Ghana's "finest ambassadors" and "was a broadcaster of exceptional quality and Ghana's gift to the world." On 3 February 2014 Komla Dumor's body was flown back to Ghana, where it was received at Kotoka International Airport by a group of family members, friends, government officials, sympathizers and members of the Aflao traditional council, who also performed some traditional rites, since Aflao was his hometown. In life and even in death, Dumor was an inspiration to many, a clear example that there is no such thing as overnight success, but success was a sure thing with hard work and perseverance. inline READ MORE: 200 nations sign deal to cut greenhouse emissions Starting in the new year, Black Star Energy, a Ghanaian subsidiary of U.S.-based Energicity Corp, aspires to join these leaders as a part of the climate change solution. Black Star Energy seeks to reduce deforestation in Ghana, specifically in the rural communities of the Ashanti region, by providing solar panels as an alternative to wood fuel. Deforestation has been identified as a critical environmental issue in Ghana, where 33.7 percent of forested land, equivalent to 2,500,000 acres, has been lost since the early 1990s. Between 2005 and 2010, the rate of deforestation was estimated at 2.19 percent per annum, the sixth highest deforestation rate globally for that period. In Ghana, wood fuel use is dominant in rural households. More than 2.2 million families depend on it for cooking and heating, and at least 280,000 of them use it for small-scale processing activities, such as fish smoking, pottery making, and oil extraction. There are some 600,000 small-scale businesses, such as chops bars, street food, and grills, which depend on wood fuel or charcoal as their main sources of energy. In addition, 1.3 billion people do not have access to grid-powered electricity, and 700 million do not have a reliable enough source of electricity to support their daily lives. Wood fuel is thus crucial for food preservation, food security, and cash earnings for both rural and urban people. RELATED : Five things you need to know about the Paris climate deal To cope with a life without electricity, people resort to purchasing kerosene lamps, batteries, and generators, spending between 290 -575 per year on poor substitutes for electricity. In addition to the high cost of these substitutes, kerosene lamps, open cook fires, and diesel generator fumes are responsible for millions of deaths each year. Lack of access to reliable electricity leads to reduced life expectancy rates due to inadequate health care facilities, contributes to the growth of mega cities as people leave their home communities seeking access to basic services, and stymies overall economic growth. Black Star Energy has two grids totaling 9 kilowatts which supply power to 400, providing enough electricity for people to have lights, fans, stereos, and TVs. Once built, all seven grids will provide electricity to 2500. Members of the company work side by side with local professionals, such as masons, electricians, carpenters, machinists, and engineers, to develop the community infrastructure for the projects. Climate change may be a global issue, but it can be addressed in a variety of ways at the local level. Deforestation should be understood as a consequence of a lack of energy alternatives. Communities in Ghana should not be expected to bear the brunt of climate change solutions without being provided an effective and sustainable energy source aside from wood fuel. This is the impetus behind Black Star Energys construction and operation of a solar powered micro-grid in Ghana, which so far reaches upward of 2,500 people. Following his sweeping victory last October, Magufuli has become an international hero due to cost-cutting measures introduced across the country. Now, Magufuli has surprised the public once again, by banning mini skirts across Tanzania. The move comes just a few months after the country banned "twerking". According to The Net, the provocative dance was banned following an announcement by Cultural Development Director Herman Mwansoko. Mwansoko disclosed that twerking supposedly threatened original dances and impacted negatively on the new generation. Magufuli seems to have followed in much the same vein, announcing that mini skirts and short dresses encourage the spread of HIV/Aids. Tanzanian women have since been given three weeks to rid their wardrobes of the "offending" garments. Local media reported that police had been searching for the 18-year-old after learning of a posting that was reportedly posted on her Facebook page. It read in part: Last night, my ex was drunk ... was fighting me... hit me in the face... and I get the knife and stabbed him. Didn't think I would hurt him. Sorry, lord, hopefully you forgive me, and sorry, Dorian Powell. RIP. Ms James was taken into custody by Hemet police after officers responded to a tip, Lt Rich Lawhead, of the San Bernardino Police Department, told ABC News. At about 2.35am, police received a call regarding a person who had reportedly been stabbed by his girlfriend, according to a news release issued that day. Officers responded to the 2000 block of North Central Avenue, where they found Mr Powell suffering from injuries consistent with a stabbing. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Later the next day, an apparent confession was published on a Facebook page purportedly belonging to a person named Nakasia Macc James. The author of the post wrote that she had been fighting with her ex, who hit her in the the face. We was really fightn and I gt (sic) the knife and stabbed him, the statement said, adding that she ddnt think I would hurt him BT I did he died. Police have declined to comment on the social media post. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the attack in the West African nation. A statement signed by Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh, said "We offer our heartfelt condolences to President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the relatives of the deceased victims, and the Government and people of Burkina Faso. We stand with our sister country of Burkina Faso in this difficult time and are ready to enhance our cooperation and work together to see an end to this terrorist threat." Below is the full statement: Government of Ghana condemns Terrorist Attacks in Burkina Faso The Government of Ghana strongly condemns the terrorist attacks that took place over the last two days in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The attacks which started on Friday at the Splendid Hotel, the Cappuccino Cafe and also the Yibi Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso have since ended. Over twenty-eight persons lost their lives as a result of this tragedy. We offer our heartfelt condolences to President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the relatives of the deceased victims, and the Government and people of Burkina Faso. We stand with our sister country of Burkina Faso in this difficult time and are ready to enhance our cooperation and work together to see an end to this terrorist threat. We commit ourselves to work with the countries within our ECOWAS region to ensure that our citizens can live in peace and security. Signed: This follows the directive by the Chief of Staff to the Attorney-General (A-G) and Minister of Justice to recover excess payment for the rebranding of 116 new buses. A payment schedule submitted by lawyers for Smarttys confirmed that the payments would be made in three instalments, with the first instalment to be paid by the end of January. It has emerged that a pro-forma invoice dated 17th July 2015, and signed by the Accounts Officer of Smarttys Management and Productions and copied to the Ministry of Transport, put the total cost of branding for each bus at Ghc30,420.00. The Ministry of Transport has been the centre of controversy in parliament as debated the 2016 budget. The minority leader drew the speaker's attention to an item in the accounts of expenditures made from the petroleum revenues fund by the Ministry of Transport in 2015 which had to do with the amounts spent on branding 116 Metro Mass Transit buses. Referring to the 2015 Annual Report on the Petroleum Revenues Fund, the Ministry spent GHC31,000 on branding the images of eight former presidents on each Metro Mass Transit bus. Dzifa Attivor resigned following her Ministrys decision to spend GHC 3.6 million on the buses. She tendered in her resignation to the president. Following public backlash over the matter, the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah ordered the Attorney General to thoroughly investigate the contract and recover GH1.9 million from Smarttys. President John Mahama has assured Ghanaians that government is on track to retrieve excess money from Smartyys Productions over the GHC 3.6 million spent on re-branding 116 buses. Concerns have later been raised as to how Government will be swift in retrieving the said amount. According to him, it is to put security agencies on high alert for cases of any attack. At least over 28 people are reported to have been killed and dozens more taken hostage after Islamist gunmen stormed a hotel in the Burkina Faso capital on Friday on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. Thirty-three hostages were evacuated from the Splendid Hotel after security forces in the early hours of Saturday began an assault to reclaim the 147-room building, part of which was on fire. See also: Nana Addo condemns terror attacks in Burkina Faso Speaking on the attacks in an interview with Accra-based Kasapa FM, Mark Woyongo said the incident "came as a shock and it means we are all vulnerable". He noted that the controversies on the security implications should not be a bother to Ghanaians. According to her, she was asked by President Mahama who was then the vice president to engage in an AIDS campaign but just a year into the project, the Director General of the AIDS Commission, Dr Angela El Adas, terminated her contract. She said the situation left her homeless and is therefore demanding compensation from President Mahama who according to her, was the Chairman of the AIDS Commission at the time. In an open letter to President John Mahama, the controversial Ghana AIDS Ambassador said I therefore humbly request of him [President Mahama] to pay me my compensation and my shelter which was agreed upon since Madam Angela has taken it away from me, I do not need a lawyer since am powerless to fight the state, but I therefore will leave the entire nation only to the judgment of the almighty God if am still denied of my right. She had before then indicated she was a carrier, as she engaged in several campaigns on HIV/AIDS. In her recent letter, she explained that Love for my children and fear for the future concerning HIV related stigma compelled me to publicly deny my HIV status putting the entire world in the state of shock. Below is the full letter: My heartbroken apology letter to President Mahama and Ghanaians for public denial of my HIV positive status My heart broken and apology letter to President John Mahama, to all schools and churches, to all institutions and the media in Ghana and abroad who have hosted me to educate them with my HIV story I lied about my HIV status to protect my children. I test positive to HIV in the year 2007. Love for my children and fear for the future concerning HIV related stigma compelled me to publicly deny my HIV status putting the entire world in the state of shock. I entered into an agreement with the Ghana AIDS Commission five years ago to disclose my HIV status publicly giving a human face to HIV. With my past experience of stigma and rejection from house to house, abuse and discrimination, I requested for shelter protection from the AIDS commission which was agreed. The campaign finally kicked off with my images on billboards and my videos being aired across the nation. I have so far attended over two hundred and fifty schools and an uncountable number of churches nationwide with my education. A year after my contract, Dr Angela El Adas Director of AIDS commission terminated my contract leaving me homeless, and my compensation for risking myself and family also taken from me. These were reasons for my termination. A journalist called Rebecca Awuah at GBC interviewed me on GTV and in the process showed a gospel music I recorded when I was barely 17 years. Due to that, Angela said i was using the HIV campaign to promote my music. I was unable to attend a particular program because my mother in law wasnt available to help me with my new baby. I heard some staff of AIDS commission say I belonged to an opposition party which I think may also be another factor for my termination. The termination letter affected me both physically and psychologically for years and I struggled many times with sleepless nights even as at now. But since my termination wasnt made public, schools and churches continued to engage my services. I then decided to intensify my education with a movie I produced using my story. I took loan from UT Bank and from some individuals to produce this movie leaving me with huge debt as at now. My ex-husband decided to run away from Ghana due to stigma which he blamed me severely for. My children started experiencing rejection at school making my little boy always telling me he wouldnt go to school again because he was being called AIDS boy. This broke my heart as a mother. I needed a new life for my children and since Ghana as a nation left me to my fate after all I have done to achieve a great reduction in HIV new infections especially among pregnant women and their babies in Ghana. In order to get a new life for my children, I took the wrong decision to publicly deny my HIV status. I am not a criminal, neither am I fraudulent AIDS ambassador. The CID can attest to that. To prove to that, I thereby give the go ahead to the CID to publish my health status which was recorded in Korle bu maternity block in the year 2007, 3rd September. The principal nursing officer at the Korle bu maternity block called Joyce Dodoo conducted my first HIV test on 3rd September 2007. Yes indeed my current HIV viral load test for some years now shows undetectable meaning I have no virus in my blood anymore, which some may call wonders of scientific retro-viral drugs, but I see it as a miracle. And I believe any person living with HIV can also achieve with Constance intake of the medication and with prayers. His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama is the chairman of the AIDS Commission and he launched the campaign I embarked on when he was the vice president of Ghana. I therefore humbly request of him to pay me my compensation and my shelter which was agreed upon since Madam Angela has taken it away from me. I do not need a lawyer since am powerless to fight the state, but I therefore will leave the entire nation only to the judgment of the Almighty God if am still denied of my right. I therefore use this medium to express my sincere gratitude to all who stood by me and to all who judged me wrongly in my trials and tribulations. God Bless our Homeland Ghana Dzidzor Yawavi Mensah But, in an interview with Accra-based Joy FM, Irbard said the call is baseless as Nana Addo was duly briefed by the Americans before the decision about the two was made. I can tell you on authority that Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo based on my contacts, that he was duly informed about the arrival of the Gitmo guys more than six months before they touched down in Accra, Angry Ghanaians, including several religious bodies have called on President Mahama to return the two former terror suspects for fear they might pose a security threat to the country. But Irbard said the presence of the two "will pose no existential threat to our security. He further asked politicians not to be hypocritical in discussing the two former terror suspects. In his response, Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea said the claims by Irbard are untrue. According to him, a few weeks before the arrival of the two, the US Embassy in Ghana informed the agreement between it and Ghana government. The two ex-detainees: Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, arrived in Ghana on Thursday January 7, 2016 for a two-year stay as part of a deal reached between the United States of America and the Government of Ghana. The president of the Bishops Conference, Most Rev Joseph Osei Bonsu has told Kumasi-based Ultimate FM that Ghanaians should rise and protest until the detainees are returned. No terrorist will come and tell you that Im a terrorist there are problems here already. Ghanaians should wake up and if its necessary for Ghanaians to take to the streets to show that they are serious they should do so absolutely, I will be part of the demonstration in this particular instance because our security is paramount, Most Rev. Bonsu stressed. Meanwhile, the two former terror suspects have denied being part of any terrorist group. In an interview with Accra-based Uniiq FM, the two Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees said they only want to live in Ghana "quietly and peacefully." We have been wrongly arrested for 14 years without any charge against us. We have suffered but we are not looking for revenge. We want to leave in Ghana quiet and peacefully. And we want to put our lives together. We are very happy for the warm reception that Ghana is known for. I like Ghanaian people because they are very good people, they are very polite, we are very, very excited to come here because we know some of the things about Ghana. The development dented the image of the Commission as it was seen as using a non-HIV person for its HIV 'Heart to Heart' campaign. The situation also turned the donor community against the commission as it was being investigation for alleged fraud. In a recent open letter to President Mahama, Former AIDS ambassador, Dzidzor Mensah is demanding compensation from President John Mahama following services rendered for a Ghana AIDS commission campaign five years ago. According to her, she was asked by President Mahama who was then the vice president to engage in an AIDS campaign but just a year into the project, the Director General of the AIDS Commission, Dr Angela El Adas, terminated her contract. She said the situation left her homeless and is therefore demanding compensation from President Mahama who according to her, was the Chairman of the AIDS Commission at the time. But, in a response, the GAC in a statement said: "GAC states categorically that it has never received a petition from Ms. Joyce Mensah requesting payment of any compensation allegedly due her. As a Public Entity, the GAC may only consider requests that are formally received, based on their merits and demerits. Ms Mensah is hereby advised to formally submit a petition to GAC for consideration." Oxfam cites data from Credit Suisse to make this case adding that the gap between the rich and the poor is reaching dangerous levels. According to Oxfam this development is happening earlier than it had predicted. The reports says "today we live in a world with levels of inequality we may not have seen for over a century Oxfam also says in 2015 the 62 richest individuals in the world owned the same wealth as 3.6 billion people representing the poorest in the world. This figure has dropped significantly from the initial 388 individuals in 2010. While the wealth of the richest people increased by 44% more than half a trillion dollars from 2010 to 2015, the bottom half fell by over a trillion dollars. Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the worlds population has received just 1% of the total increase in global wealth, while half of that increase has gone to the top 1%. The average annual income of the poorest 10% of people in the world has risen by less than $3 each year in almost a quarter of a century. Their daily income has risen by less than a single cent every year. Growing economic inequality is bad for us all it undermines growth and social cohesion. Yet the consequences for the worlds poorest people are particularly severe. The report said. Oxfam is calling on governments across the globe to take steps to reverse this trend, and close the inequality gap. From living wages to better regulation of the activities of the financial sector, there is plenty that policy makers can do to end the economy for the 1% and start building a human economy that benefits everyone The report added. He made these assertions at this year's edition of Okyeman congress at Bunso in the East Akim municipality in the Eastern region. "We dont have anybody who speaks for us in this government today. We don't. "Kwaku, (a known NDC member in the area) is a pure NDC member, but as he sits here, he is unemployed. If he had been given an appointment, I could go to him and ask for development for our community. But even he is unemployed. The prominent Akyem NDC member today, he is without a job. Lets look at this critically. A person of Kwaku's calibre, why must he be sidelined by the president in his appointment?" he wondered. He continued: The only reason I can assign is sheer mischief. Let's rally ourselves and look after one another as Akyems. If you find yourself in an establishment where you can employ people, consider Akyems if they are qualified. "When your akyem sisters are looking for jobs help them get some. When they make it, they can contribute to the progress of the Abuakwa state and the nation as a whole. We the Akyems can boast of human resources; 3 members of the Big Six who fought to liberate Ghana were Akyems". Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has hit back at the Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin for saying President John Mahama has sidelined people from his region in government. He made these known at this year's edition of Okyeman congress at Bunso in the East Akim municipality in the Eastern region. He also called for decentralisation of our government system if only we want to develop the economy. According to him the country cannot develop fully if government still runs the economy from the National capital, Accra. "I have said it over and over again that Ghana can never develop if central government continues to manage the economy from Accra". "Mining has had no impact on our communities as all mining communities continue to struggle for development" he said. He has also accused President John Mahama of not meeting the regional balance in his appointment of Akyems in his government. Hs comment follows recent attack in Ghana's neighbouring country, Burkina Faso. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the attack in the West African nation. A statement signed by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Sunday said "These attacks are a stark reminder about the threat terrorism poses to the world, with some countries in Africa being recent targets, and the duty it imposes on us all to help combat this scourge." Below is the full statement: The news about the terrorist attacks that took place over the weekend at the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso, which left 28 persons dead and several scores of people injured and traumatized, have left me in utter shock and horror. I join the rest of the world in condemning these attacks, and sympathize with the families of the dead and wounded. These attacks are a stark reminder about the threat terrorism poses to the world, with some countries in Africa being recent targets, and the duty it imposes on us all to help combat this scourge. The citizens of Burkina Faso deserve to go about their daily lawful activities without being terrorised by a group of cowardly people. I appeal to all Burkinabes to remain steadfast. They have the solidarity of the Ghanaian people and of all peace-loving people in Africa. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore and the people of Burkina Faso need to be assured with deeds, not just words, that the world stands with them and stands ready to support them in the necessary fight against such evil. It really doesnt work that well, Koum said Monday, speaking at the DLD conference in Munich. He noted that while a buck a year might not sound like much, access to credit cards is not ubiquitous. We just dont want people to think at some point their communication to the world will be cut off, recode reported. However, Koum promised that WhatsApp would not follow Facebook and Instagram in introducing adverts, saying that it would fund itself with business accounts. In a blog post, WhatsApp said "Naturally, people might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if todays announcement means were introducing third-party ads. The answer is no." "Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want to hear from." "That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today through text messages and phone calls so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam." WhatsApp required users to pay subscription fee for using the app after their first year. Many WhatsApp users don't have a debit or credit card number, according to the company, and "they worried they'd lose access to their friends and family after their first year." One of the few Caribbean nations to resist the whaling industry, a new compulsory primary school curriculum educates kids to care for marine life, including whales. Literacy is at 94% of the population. Free healthcare and a hospital partnership with nearby islands increases the nation's quality of emergency care. But it has yet to decriminalize consensual same-sex relationships. Samoa As part of the Small Island Developing States coalition with Tonga, FS Micronesia, Grenada and Tuvalu, it pushes for climate change action. Its installation of new solar plants last year sees it well on its way to achieve 100% sustainable energy by 2017. Cabo Verde The African island nation targets to draw half of all its energy needs from renewable sources before 2020. Many women also take up leadership positions in both public and private sectors here; there is also a high chance that it will elect its first female Prime Minister this year. Grenada The 'Island of Spice' in the Caribbean is pro-active towards the protection of coral reefs. It is a new addition to the 2016 list for its progress towards the consideration of LGBT decriminalization. Tonga The Polynesian kingdom is building solar arrays on nine of its outer islands. Mongolia Mongolia is the first developing nation in mainland Asia to make it to the list. Conservation efforts by the government to protect the environment from the mining boom can be improved; in partnership with the UK government and Zoological Society of London, Mongolia is looking to stem the wildlife trade with tougher law enforcement. Tuvalu The Family Protection and Domestic Violence Bill criminalizing domestic violence was passed by Tuvalus parliament last year. Tuvalu is also part of The Vulnerable 20 (V20) which looks at applying innovation to climate finance. Panama Its new national animal welfare law regulates performing animals in circuses, while prohibiting bullfighting, dogfighting, greyhound racing and hare coursing. Unemployment rates are under 5%, and life expectancy is high, averaging at 79 years. Uruguay While Uruguay needs further work on the protecting savannas from large-scale ranching, it is a stellar performer in green energy. 90% of its electricity was powered by renewable sources in 2015. It has plans to power all its public transport with electric energy, plus build the worlds first fully sustainable airport. Federated States of Micronesia The country set in the western Pacific Ocean has passed 78 acres of forested wetland in the Yela Valley to be protected. While trafficking remains problematic, it has retained at a Tier 2 ranking. The nation will grow renewable energy to 30% or more by 2020. Social Media Week Lagos (SMW Lagos) produced by AFRIKA21 and Dragon Africa returns to Lagos, Nigeria for its 4th edition on the 22nd - 26th of February 2016. SMW Lagos is part of the larger Social Media Week global conference hosted in 12 cities around the world. The first African city to host the annual event, to date over 20,000 people have participated in SMW Lagos. The global theme for the February 2016 edition of Social Media Week is The Invisible Hand: Hidden Forces of Technology. Informed by the global theme, locally the SMW Lagos theme, The Networked African: Technologys Impact on Africa (and How We Can Harness it for Good), will explore how mobile technology, networked connectivity, data and other technologies are radically changing industries and communities across Africa. SMW Lagos 2016 will be held at the SMW Lagos Campus located at Landmark Center, a state of the art event space in Lagos, Nigeria. Facebook @SocialMediaWeekLagos & Instagram @smwlagos Have you registered for @smwlagos? General admission is free & early bird price of an Executive VIP badge ENDS Feb. 1 http://socialmediaweek.org/lago s/attend/ #SMWLagos More @smwlagos perks, access to private boardrooms, networking lunches & #CirocLifeNGR cocktail parties! Purchase your #SMWLagos Executive VIP Badge soon! Early bird registration ENDS Feb. 1 http://www.afritickets.com/event/social- More @smwlagos perks, access to private boardrooms, networking lunches & #CirocLifeNGR cocktail parties! Purchase your #SMWLagos Executive VIP Badge soon! Early bird registration ENDS Feb. 1 http://www.afritickets.com/event/social-media-week-lagos #SMWLagos Twitter @smwlagos Don't procrastinate - buy your @smwlagos VIP badge at the early bird price: http://www.afritickets.com/event/social-media-week-lagos #SMWLagos Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Giving Garage is an ambitious initiative that seeks to engage, train and assist young social entrepreneurs in Africa by improving the way societal problems are addressed. Our research reveals that most social entrepreneurs do not have a solution space for the purpose of networking, idea development, and productive collaboration. The initiative is a platform that provides support for social innovators. The support comes in various forms e.g. networking, self-development, workshops, crowd funding and so on. So the platform is like a 'garage' it would also create the requisite awareness that will encourage and promote social good. At Giving Garage, we understand that a certain kind of environment is needed to nurture idea and develop sustainably. Therefore, our core objective is to create a virtual space that will provide support system for social innovations to thrive in Africa. The will feature CHASTE CHARITY AT 31, to celebrate the innovators birthday as well as 3K4Orphans which arises from the dire need to assist Orphans. The idea is that if three hundred (300) people donate three thousand naira (N3000) each, 3K4Orphans will successfully raise nine hundred thousand naira (N900,000) for Orphans. The funds will go towards the Heart of Gold Hospices (Orphanage) to start an entrepreneurial venture that would help sustain the home on a monthly basis. For more enquires on the Campaign and on how to donate Call 09054831859 | Follow @ChasteCharity on Twitter | E-mail givingarageinfo@gmail.com | Log on to www.giving-garage.com It was gathered that the two had lodged in a hotel in Nakuru for the night only for Chepkwony to murder her in the night. It was the CCTV footage installed in the hotel revealed that Chepkwony first walked into the hotel alone, made a booking with his identification card as well as mobile phone number. He later went out and came back with Cherotich and that was the last time she was seen alive. He was later traced and arrested Chris, a resident of Ajegunle area of Lagos, is facing a four-count charge of stealing, obtaining money under false pretences, unlawful damage and forgery. Prosecutor Tony Etibeh told the court that the accused committed the offences on Oct. 1, 2015 at No. 42, Kirikiri in Apapa. Chris took delivery of a bus from the complainant, Mr Osamede Momni, with a promise to pay by instalments and used the bus for transport business, said Elibeh, an inspector. According to him, the accused failed to pay for the bus as agreed; instead he absconded with the bus. "When Momni did not get a feedback from the accused, he decided to confront him and ask for his money through his address. "When they finally caught Chris with the bus, he had damaged the bus," he said. The offences contravened the provisions of Sections 285, 312, 348 and 363 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 312 prescribes a 15-year jail term for obtaining money under false pretences, while Section 285 stipulates three years imprisonment for stealing. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge. The Pastor identified as Felix Olu Fadare, who reportedly presides over the Redeemed Christian church of God, Fullers Field Parish located in Ajah was arrested for his alleged involvement in a N100m land fraud with the Lekki Re-setlement Schemes in Eti-Osa Local Government, Lagos State. Fadare who hails from Ondo state had according to reports, been apprehended at what is described as his hideout following a petition leveled against him by one of the alleged victims, identified as Kehinde Ola. The police has reportedly revealed that Fadare had conspired with one Adeola Ajidahun, to defraud Kehinde Ola, of N30m under false pretences of selling some plots of land located at the Lekki resettlement Scheme in Eti Osa Local Government. Ajidahun and Fadare are reported to have flaunted fake documents in a bid to convince Ola of their genuity, going on to take him to the area, showing him different parcels of lands. Ola had gone on to pay for a parcel of land he later chose from the choices shown to him, not knowing that the land had already been sold to another family. According to PM News, Ola was not the only victim who had fallen for the lies used to defraud him by Ajidahun and Fadare. The duo had also duped one Tony Ezeoke, of over N10 million for a parcel of land which had been marked by the government to be used as road leading into the resettlement area. Following the discovery that he had been defrauded, Ola had immediately petitioned the Anti-Special Fraud Unit, SFU, leading to Ajidahun's arrest and subsequent charge to court. Further police investigations are reported to have revealed that the duo had defrauded many others, while Fadare posed as an estate agent. Fadare was later arrested and charged before the court over charges of conspiracy, obtaining under false pretence and stealing under the Criminal Code. Following his arraignment, Fadare had pleaded not guilty over the charges leveled against him. Presiding Magistrate, Mrs A. O. Awogboro, reportedly allowed Fadare bail in the sum of N5m with two sureties in like sum, as well as an order that the said sureties must provide proof of tax payment for the last years. John, from Adamawa State, whose father is a retired Chief Justice in the state, and Nuhu who is from Kano State, were nabbed at about 2am while trying to cart away the carcass of a vehicle chassis. The vandalised vehicle chassis Photo Credit: Pulse The two thieves who were severely beaten and stripped naked and paraded around the estate, were said to have already collected the money from their ready buyer who is yet to be apprehended. According to witnesses, they are said to be regular thieves who go about stealing vehicle part as well as robbing early risers. In his confession to Pulse, John agreed to the allegation, blaming his attitude on drugs and his stubbornness. "My father is a retired Chief Justice in my state. He is not a poor man but I have been rebelious right from my childhood and actually ran away from home to Lagos. I am a drug addict and I take tramadol. It is true I joined Nuhu to steal the chassis because he told me the man had already paid him for it. I am sorry. Please help me beg the police to forgive me. I will not steal again." The vandalised vehicle Photo Credit: Pulse On his part, Nuhu said he actually called John to join him in the act. "I am a scavenger and someone told me he wanted the chassis and I brought him last night to see it, promising him I would deliver the thing to him. At about 2am, John and myself came to Ugbogoh Iweanya where the thing was and we had successfully taken it to Admiralty Way when the police patrol team caught us." Read on: "My name is John Chukwueze, a businessman based in Lagos. I have been married to Chinyere for the past five years and we have two kids but I never knew I was married to a I love my family so much and I try as my best possible to make them happy. Due to the nature of my business, I have to travel outside the country, at times for months but anytime I am in town, I make sure they get my time and the very best of me. Even when friends tell me that my wife was not as faithful as I thought, I never believe such allegations and have even had to quarrel with some of my friends. In October of 2015, I had to travel to China, Malaysia and Dubai to seal up a business deal, with the intention of coming back in time for the Christmas but towards the end of November, I knew that was never going to be possible. I called my wife and told her to take the children to her hometown to spend the yuletide. Chinyere sounded so happy with the suggestion but it did not dawn on me that she had an ulterior motive. I finally came back to Nigeria in th last wk of December and sent my driver to go and bring them back to Lagos since I was still tied up with paper works on clearing my goods at the port. They came back on December 30, and we spent the New Year together, having loads of fun as a family. But barely a week later, I began to have a burning sensation whenever I wanted to urinate and a day later, I had boils around the tip of my penis. I had to go for a test and it was revealed that I had contracted a very serious Sexually Transmitted Disease. I could not have contracted from anyone apart from my wife because throughout my stay in Asia, I never indulged in a sexual activity. When I got home, I confronted my wife but initially, she denied ever sleeping with another man but when I told her she must go with me for the test, she broke down and confessed that she ran into her ex-boyfriend during the Christmas and they hung out and before she knew it, the guy seduced her and they had sex. She also confessed to having slept with other men in the past whenever I travelled. I was so mad at her for betraying me that much and I am yet to forgive her. She has been begging me to forgive her but how can I ever trust my wife again? John." How Nigeria voted: 57% - Yes, I will forgive him/her 43% - No, I will never forgive the person The minister made the comments on Monday, January 18, 2016, during an interview on Channel TVs Sunrise Daily. Some people will want to consider it as a sign of failure. I will tell you in Oyo State, we had a case of denial, (but) when I met the Governor (Abiola Ajimobi), he was angry that he would not want anybody to deny the existence of the case of Lassa fever in Oyo State but that we should forward to him, a proposal for active case fight and prevention across the state, Adewole said. I think at professional level, people must just admit that an outbreak should not be considered as a fault in the system but as something to be reported and actively to be presented. We have also dispatched drugs to the state and we are reactivating all our treatment and diagnostic centres in a bid to ensure that we are able to make diagnosis promptly. We are also sending teams all over the states to ensure that we uncover cases that hitherto, were not reported. What we will activate will be community surveillance, where we have a functional community surveillance, we will get to know right from the community level. We also want to appreciate Lagos State that has activated the entire spectrum of prevention and control activities ranging from alert, adequate detection as well as treatment, he added. National President of the association, Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo who made the commendation on Monday said the move by the Governor would prevent frequent farmers and herders clashes. Bodejo said the association is ready to support any plan made by the Governor that would prevent crisis. Miyetti Allah is in support of Al-makuras plans to create cattle routes across the states in order to prevent farmers and herdsmen clashes," Bodejo said. "I am calling on all Fulanis in the state to obey the laws and should not put laws into their hands during and after these processes, the Fulani leader added. This was contained in a statement issued by Commissioner for Information, Dr Udeuhele Ikechukwu Godwin on Sunday, January 17, 2016. The statement reads: The attention of the Enugu State Government has been drawn to the publications in the national dailies to the effect that there was tension in South East following an alleged threat by the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB and the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB to stage a protest in all the states of the zone on Monday, January 18, 2016, over the continued detention of the Director of Radio Biafra, Mr Nnamdi Kanu. The State Government hereby distances itself from the planned protest and therefore call on the people of the state to ignore the said threat and go about their normal business as all security measures have been put in place to forestall any breakdown of law and order in the state. Consequently, we appeal to parents and guidance to advise and watch over their children and wards to ensure that they are not being used for such unlawful acts. We equally appeal to leaders in our various communities, especially Traditional Rulers to ensure that their youths do not engage in any activity that could undermine the existing peace and tranquillity in the state. Enugu State Government will continue to ensure that lives and property of the citizens are protected for them to continue to enjoy more dividends of democracy. The renewed Biafra protests are believed to have been caused by the arrest and detention of Radio Biafra boss, Nnamdi Kanu. FAAN's General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Mr Yakubu Dati, in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, urged the public to disregard such recruitment rumour. He said that the last recruitment exercise took place between March and May, 2015. According to him, the exercise was to recruit officers into the Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting Service (ARFFS),Aviation Security (AVSEC) and Information Communication Technology departments. He said that the departments had shortage of professional staff and the recruitment exercise was concluded in May 2015. According to him, FAAN, at the appropriate time, will invite candidates successful in the exercise for mandatory training before deployment to various airports across the country. "We wish to emphasise that no recruitment exercise is taking place in FAAN at the moment," he said. "In some cases, these people are duping unsuspecting applicants by giving out misleading information about an ongoing recruitment exercise in FAAN. "Please, be informed that the only and authentic website that belongs to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria is www.faan.gov.ng," he said. The over 200 girls were abducted from their school in Chibok, Borno State on April 14, 2014, almost two years ago. Their abduction gave rise to the #BringBackOurGirls movement and a group which has tirelessly campaigned for their rescuedespite the many odds faced. At a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, January 14, 2016, some of the girls mothers were seen weeping profusely, poverty and pain etched on their faces. It was very obvious that they had been receiving very little care, if any at all from the government. Therefore, a very important question that must be asked is, what are the Chibok girls coming back to? A person who is incarcerated in the very best of circumstances would still require emotional and mental assistance before he or she could be expected to return to a normal existence. The Chibok girls would have been subjected to the worst possible conditions known to man because they were kidnapped by murderous, savage, blood-thirsty terrorists who think nothing of taking a human life. Those of them who are still alive have been held by these animals for almost two years, one cannot even begin to imagine what theyve been forced to endure. The failure to rescue the girls is one thing, but what happens if or when they come back? Where are the medical experts who will treat their physical and psychological wounds? Why havent these experts been treating their mothers? How safe will they be from fresh Boko Haram attacks? Chibok and the villages around it have been attacked several times since the mass abduction. Is this government, which announced that the girls werent kidnapped under its watch, ready to handle them if or when they return? What happens if some of them have been radicalized to a point of almost no return? What happens to those who were forced to kill for the sect? The Kaduna state government set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the cause of the clash between members of the Shiite sect and the Nigerian Army. President of the sects Media Forum, Ibrahim Musa said they will not honour the invitation of the commission, if their leader does not give them the go ahead. Musa said The leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria should be released unconditionally. The Nigerian Government is holding the leader of the Movement incommunicado knowing that he is the custodian of the documents of the Movement and has to give direction to the movement in the preparation of its Memorandum and the assembling of its witnesses. Adding that The Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police must make a full disclosure of the number of persons in their various detention centers and grant lawyers of the movement access to most of them. The Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police must also make full disclosure of the number of persons they took to the various hospitals and the location of the hospitals to enable the lawyers of the movement have access to them and interview them preparatory to the inauguration of the commission. He also said The Commission of Inquiry must also give full assurance that the members of the Movement that will give evidence will be fully protected. The Kaduna State Government and the Kaduna State Police Command must disclose the number of persons it has charged to court and the number of persons it has in prison custody. Punch Newspapers reports that the boat and the suspects have since been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Speaking to newsmen, the Base Information Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship Pathfinder, Port Harcourt, Lt.-Cdr. Hamman Ahmed said in a statement, on behalf of the Commander of NNS Pathfinder, Commodore Sanusi Ibrahim that During investigation, we discovered that the vessel manned by two crew members had no competency to justify them serving on board the vessel. Similarly, the vessel had no authorization from both the navy and other relevant government agencies to move petroleum products. The navy will continue to maintain its zero tolerance on crude oil theft, illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism and piracy in the nations maritime environment. On his part, the Head of Counter-terrorism and General Investigation of the EFCC in Rivers State, Mr. David Iyang, thanked the Navy, adding that those found guilty will be prosecuted. Vanguard Newspapers reports that Soludo said Recent revelations regarding the arms-gate and the apparent abuse of the CBN as ATM by the presidency should get reasonable people thinking. He likened it to former Ugandan President, Idi Amins style of governance. The former CBN Governor said imagine a scenario where a president can order the CBN to create an intervention fund for national stability and CBN literally prints say, N3 trillion, and doles it out cash to the Presidency to prosecute an election campaign or for just about anything he fancies. It is a scary thought. Adding that We are going down a dangerous path that ruins the economy. I dont know any other country where such is tolerated, except perhaps what I watched in a movie about Idi Amin and his governor of central bank. The former CBN Governor recently accused President Buhari of copying the budget of the last administration. The JTF Commander, Maj.-Gen. Alani Okunlola, gave the warning on Sunday while inspecting the site of Fridays pipeline explosion site at Egwa 11, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta. "This warning is coming as a result of the recent multiple attacks on oil facilities and platforms by suspected militants in the Niger Delta, he said. The JTF commander, who described the acts as economic sabotage, assured that the command would apprehend the perpetrators. He, therefore, advised them to desist from further destruction of the nations oil and gas facilities. He called on government officials and community leaders to furnished OPS and other security agencies with information that would facilitate the arrest of the perpetrators of the attacks. He said that the acts were criminal in nature and were capable of undermining the security of the country. "There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the criminals to get away with it. "It is a massive sabotage and critical to national assets; we must fish out those responsible for it. "We dont have our men on ground in the area that is why they were able to carry out the act, he said. He assured Niger Delta residents of JTFs determination to eliminate illegality from the region. The Brigade Commander, Brig.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya and the Commander, 3 Battalion, Igwe Omoke were on the team that visited the explosion site. Kanus counsel, Vincent Obetta also said that rumours that the Biafra leader was being tortured by the Department of State Services (DSS) are false, The Cable reports. I would like to say that as a solicitor and advocate of the federal republic of Nigeria, I have sworn to an oath, to defend the defenceless and above all, to say the truth and be fair to all, at all material times, Obetta said in a statement. Having said that, I must add that I have been inundated with calls and I also read in several mediums, all manner of ruse about my client; that he has been tortured by the DSS, transferred to a more deadly cell, and also that he has been critically ill. I am still wondering where such information came from. I can authoritatively say that apart from the British governments team that visited him (Nnamdi kanu) last year, I am, and have been the only one who has been privileged to have access (though limited) to him and all through my visits, there has not been any overt or covert situation pointing to a case of torture on him by the authority of the DSS. He is neither sick nor have fallen sick since his incarceration on the 14th October, 2015. During my last visit (14th January, 2016), we had robust and cheerful discussions even with his captors. He was also in good health, full of life and in high spirits contrary to the media reportage that he is being tortured, has been sick and broken. The media should do more in the area of investigative journalism before going to the tabloid. The lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, is said to have appeared at the Abuja Federal High Court instead of Kanus official counsel, Vincent Obetta, according to The Cable. Kanu has been charged with treason by the Federal Government but at his last court date he expressed his lack of confidence in the court leading the presiding judge to step down. The Radio Biafra boss was arrested in October and supposedly granted bail but he was never freed. Kanu's continued detention has led his followers to launch protests in various part of the country to demand his freedom. Speaking in Okada, Igbinedions ancestral home, where he commissioned class room blocks at Iguomo and a three-storey office complex, Oshiomhole said the influential Chief does not belong to the four levels of government - Federal, State, Local and Traditional Institution, so he should not disrespect his office. He said: I heard the Chairman talking about my quarrel with Igbinedion. I have no problem with anybody. There are only four levels of government, federal, state, local and traditional institution. The House of Igbinedion does not belong to any of this. He is a chief and I respect him as a chief but he must respect constituted authorities, the office of the governor of Edo State. This governor cannot be harassed, he cannot be blackmailed. And I stand ready to defend that office. The women distributed relief materials while the interior minister is to determine whether government should reintroduce civil authorities in the captured areas. But Abba Musa is still not satisfied with his inability to get back to his community in Monguno despite the liberation of his community by the Nigerian Military. Monguno is among the over 20 Local Government Areas liberated from Boko Haram insurgents fighting a seven year war to carve out an Islamic state in North Eastern Nigeria. "I regret not owning properties in Maiduguri town before this crisis," Abba said referring to his properties that were destroyed in Monguno making him an IDP in Borno state capital. Maiduguri and Jere have been overstretched following the influx of people from other local government areas. Thousands who flew to neighboring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger have been returned but are still living at Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camps in Maiduguri, which is also the Borno State capital, raising the population of the area from 1.2 million to over 3 million, a local resident Ibrahim Mustapha told Pulse. The war has seen almost all the Local Governments Areas in Borno State moving to Maiduguri and Jere, except people living in Biu, Ngazai- Shani, Kwaya -Kusar, Bayo, Askira-Uba Local Government Areas. Locals said Abadam, Bama, Chibok, Damboa, Dikwa, Gubio, Guzamala, Gwoza, Hawul, Kal/Balge, Konduga, Kukawa, Mafa, Magumeri, Maiduguri, Marte-Borno, Mobbar, Monguno and Ngala local governments are yet to be occupied by returnees. "But there are camps mostly in local government secretariats," a vigilante youth Shehu Dogo said. Another resident Musa Ngala said the only people he see during a visit to these local governments are uniform men who have pushed the insurgents out of the community after years of occupation. "We are not happy collecting relief materials and seeing VIPs coming from Abuja and other places. All we need now is for us to be returned to our various villages," Ngala added. The Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has said that the war against insurgency has been technically won, but residents still fear attacks from insurgents in liberated communities judging from the massive coordinated suicide bombings in the troubled North East in recent days. Relocating displaced persons to communities is a challenge to an administration whose budget has been affected by fall in oil revenue. The Shehu of Borno Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Amin El Kanemi said about 2 million people from other local government areas are currently living in his domain. "Maiduguri is congested. The former outskirts is now the town," said Abba Maman an entrepreneur who left his local government to build and settle in Maiduguri. "I had properties in Mungono but all are gone now," Abba said. "My friends in Maiduguri and other states helped me to build this house in Maiduguri town." Days back, 1,350 displaced pregnant women and nursing mothers in Dalori IDP camp in Maiduguri metropolis, received relief materials from the Wife of Nigeria's President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari. Dalori camp still has about 20,000 IDPs. In Dikwa town the displaced are put at 55,000. Bama, which has an area of 4,997 kilometers with a population of 269,986, according to the 2006 census, has approximately 50,000 IDPs. Many of the residents are afraid to return to their villages following revelation by the Chairman of Bama Local Government Area in Borno state, Alhaji Modu Alhaji Gujja, that hundreds of corpses dumped under a bridge by Boko Haram militants were buried upon return, a story corroborated by a local, Mustapha Sani.Nigeria's Vice President's Wife, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, has flagged off distribution of relief items in Maiduguri. The gesture was an initiative of wives of the security chiefs. Mrs. Osinbajo, saw fear, tears, and trauma from the locals. "We see trauma but we see hope and courage in the faces of the women and children." "As wives of Nigeria's service chiefs, we don't sleep at night just as our husbands don't also sleep at night," Mrs. Omobolanle Olonisakin, Wive of the Chief of Defence Staff said. Members of the Defence and Police Officers Wives Association, DEPOWA, are: Mrs Omobolanle Olanisakin, DEPOWA President; Hajiya Ummu-Kalthum Tukur Buratai, President NAOWA; Hajiya Hafsat Sadiq Abubakar, President NAFOWA; Mrs. Therisa Ebas President NNOWA and Mrs. Agarase Solomon Arase, President POWA. Wife of Borno State governor, Hajiya Nana Shettima believes the long years of insurgency has caused physical harm and psychological trauma to thousands of innocent citizens in the state mostly women and children. A humanitarian, Mohammed Jidda said returning civil authorities in liberated areas in Borno State will give confidence to the displaced willing to return to their communities. "But for now, government will continue to spend billions of Naira in feeding millions of people." According to the AMVCA nominee, she would probably be a doctor today if her mum had not supported her. When I actually got to the UK, I was actually meant to go into the sciences and do Medicine and all that. But as God would have it, I failed one subject I was supposed to pass. I was having this meeting with my Guidance Counselor and I was like I really dont wanna do this, I actually want to act. So the Guidance Counselor called my mum, so we have this meeting where I was like mummy, its actually acting I want to do. Imagine telling an African woman that you want to be an actress. Its actually amazing because my mum took it so well. She was behind me a hundred percent. If not for my mother, I wouldnt be acting, I would probably be in a hospital somewhere." ALSO READ: undefined Apart from the political crisis rocking the area, scores have been killed in Nasarawa State when gunmen suspected to be Fulani herders invaded Udeni Gida, Udeni Magaji, Kpana and surrounding villages displacing many. Admiral Suleiman Apoche, Naval officer commanding Eastern Naval Command, had his house burnt as a result of the crisis. The State governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Ahmed Tukur, promised to return the displaced to their places of abode. Over a million people have been killed in the last four years including Senator Gyang Dangtong in Neighboring Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Niger, Federal Capital Abuja and Southern Kaduna, which made up the middle belt.Head of the Nigeria Human Rights Commission, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, after a tour to some of the destroyed communities said the situation is worrying. A report is yet to be released concerning the commission's findings. "After massive killings in mid-2014, hostilities have returned with the killing of over 20 people in our community," Moses Ishaya, a resident of Udeni Gida said. "16 People were also Killed while two Policemen Hospitalized following an attack on our community, a former councilor from Odeni Magaji, Hon Isaiah Koki said. Udeni Magaji and surrounding villages have experienced four different attacks in a month, spokesman of the Nasarawa State Command of the Nigeria Police, ASP. Ismaila Numan has confirmed. Governor Almakura said he will hold traditional rulers and stakeholders responsible for any outbreak of violence in their respective communities, referring to the renewed violence in Udeni Gida and surrounding villages of the state. The government is planning to evacuate cattle from areas that do not belong to them but warned farmers to desist from taking laws into their own hands. Creation of Cattle routes and reserves is a subject of controversy in Nigeria's National Assembly. Over the years, a bill seeking for creation of cattle reserves has always been rejected. But Al-Makura said he will create cattle routes across the state to prevent further farmers/ herdsmen clash. "Anybody caught poisoning cows or killing them will be punished." The displaced in Nasarawa has rejected relief materials sent to them by the State Emergency Management Agency (NASEMA), over neglect, calling on the National Emergency Management Agency to come to their aid because many of the IDPs are seeking refuse in neighboring Benue and Kogi states. NASEMA Boss, Dr Abubakar Idris has refute of neglect, claiming the state government released N1 million for relief materials. "Nasarawa State is under fire," Agah in a letter of complain said. "The displaced Odeni people are sleeping in the open in spite of the bitten effect of winter on Children, Women and the elderly and no single support is coming from the government," the former councilor said. His comments were contained in a statement released by his media office on Friday, January 15, 2016. It reads: The writer, Amako Nneji, concocted the latest work of political deceit. No sane reporters would dare put their true names to this screed; it is pure libel. If the disciple of this libel truly believes in this account, we challenge him to visit Tinubus office or to announce where he can be found. Tinubus attorney will serve the writer with a complaint for libel. The writer will then have a chance to defend and explain himself in open court and before the public. If he is so sure of the fidelity of his tale, let him speak openly before us as to what he wants us to believe is the truth instead slinking about writing lies in the anonymous dark. The falsity of the article is patently clear in that it does not even comport with the minimal standards of journalism. The writer fails to divulge the date or the place the alleged statement was made. This omission is wilful. The writer does not state these basic facts because the meeting never happened; to give such information would make it even easier to prove his work is a lie. The writer has not seen Tinubu and has no idea where Tinubu was on any given day. Worse, the writer says Tinubu was speaking to newsmen. If so, why have no other newspapers carried this story? The answer is simple. There was no such meeting between Tinubu and several newsmen. Because the story is the figment of one awfully wounded. The story contains a long quote supposedly from Tinubu. There is no way a true journalist would have tried to transcribe this by hand. He would have taped it. We dare this journalist to produce the tape. The story falls in the genre of the hit-man tactics of the politically desperate. Clearly, the schemers behind this are minions of the collapsing PDP. Their party is falling apart before our eyes, with multiple defections by the day. They fabricated this story to discourage further defections and to sow discord in the APC. However, the discord will remain where it belongs: the PDP. Tinubu has never publicly commented on the defections of people from the PDP, much less making derogatory remarks about the phenomenon. In fact, if you check, he has welcomed many former PDP members into the APC. Tinubu is a democrat and a progressive. He believes that the APC is and shall always be opened to those who share its progressive beliefs and who are committed to a better Nigeria. The more people of like minds gather, the stronger the party and the more likely it is to achieve the objective of building Nigeria anew. The writer of this fable tries to bring discord between Tinubu and Buhari regarding 2019 election and the budget. The attempt will fail. President Buhari was elected less than a year ago. The challenges he inherited are many. We must all seek to help him do the great things he envisions. 2019 is such a long, far road away. Let 2019 take care of itself. Today presents enough challenges of its own. Those who want Nigeria to succeed should be more concerned with tackling the difficulties of today and not stirring up trouble based on what might happen tomorrow. For the record, Tinubu supports the governments expansionary budget and has no qualms with its objectives and programmes. For the writer to say Tinubu complained about the figures is to pile lie upon lie. Whosoever wrote the story is serpentine. But their venom will not hurt Tinubu, Buhari or the APC. They are like the mad snake that mediated its own demise by biting itself. There has been an inflow of PDP members into the APC since the former lost its ruling party status during the 2015 elections. The programme tagged Achievers Platform is expected to be hosted by Youth Network Nigeria in conjunction with CEOAfrica which is the first business and leadership social media network designed to identify and celebrate African leadership and entrepreneurship thus creating a medium for positive change in African economy. Rev. Fr. Victor Ogunyemi, founder of Inspire Youth Network Nigeria has said objectives of the reality show are: Build up spiritual life amongst the youths, Promote culture of peace and conflict resolution, establish communal living amongst the youths, to inculcate leadership abilities on the participating housemates, to instil in the housemates, problem solving abilities, ability to cope with unfavourable conditions which will help in their psychological, moral, religious development and empowerment and to contribute our quota in poverty alleviation through financial empowerment of the Youths. The reality show, which is the first of its kind in the whole of Africa, is expected to house 25 housemates from all parts of the country with good spiritual background. Nigeria CommunicationsWeek quotes a publication called Business Journal as stating that a top official of MTN Nigeria confided to it that the telecoms company has mapped out strategies to avoid paying the NCC fine. I can tell you that MTN Nigeria will not pay a single penny or dime to the NCC. We have already instructed the seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria [SANs] handling our legal action against NCC to keep the matter perpetually in court, up to the Supreme Court, by all means necessary until Buhari leaves office or Danbatta, Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC completes his five-year term. Now, even if Buhari and Danbatta secure a second term, that would be eight and 1O years respectively, but we can keep the case in court beyond 1O years, the MTN official allegedly said, according to the report. Furthermore, the official also stated that the South African-based company could not pay such a huge fine without going under, arguing that the fine was imposed in bad faith and not something to be expected from a regulator. The report also alleges that the official revealed that the second strategy which the company intends to use is to withdraw from the Nigerian market entirely and expand into other African countries to make up for the revenue shortfall. Our second strategy is to leave the Nigerian market entirely and expand into other territories in Africa and probably, the Middle East, to cushion the expected revenue gap from Nigeria, the official reportedly said. Two years on, a rhetorical flourish meant to evoke a fearful but unthinkable scenario has come true as jihadists seeking new hide-outs and bigger targets have spread south from Saharan bases into formerly stable capital cities. Since November, al Qaeda fighters have twice stormed hotels in the Malian and Burkina capitals, killing dozens of Westerners in mirror image attacks distinguished chiefly by greater sophistication. Assailants in Ouagadougou planted explosives to slow rescuers and sent an apparently live audio message from the scene entitled: "Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts". The remote deserts and savannahs of French-speaking West and Central Africa, once a playground for hikers, motorists and lion hunters, have been effectively out of bounds for Westerners for years due to kidnapping risks. But plush hotels in big cities were thought to be safe havens. Often they lodge the very people who are trying to fix the problems of the Sahel - a fragile, poverty-racked region on the fringes of the Sahara where governments are struggling to provide opportunities for a booming youth population. Burkina's Splendid Hotel is popular with French troops while Mali's Radisson Blu was hosting a team trying to implement a flagging U.N.-brokered peace deal in Mali when it was attacked. But despite billions of Western dollars spent on aid, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism, the red no-go zones on French consular maps have bled southwards from a stronghold in north Mali and into Burkina Faso. Analysts warn that weak border control and a failure to address some of the root causes that allow such groups to recruit and thrive mean that more strikes should be expected. "There's no reason to think Burkina Faso should be the last country hit," said Cynthia Ohayon, West Africa analyst at International Crisis Group by phone from Ouagadougu. "If you strike the capital, you are seen to be striking harder and the threat is there for other cities like Dakar and Abidjan," she said, referring to Senegal and Ivory Coast. RISK OF REGIONAL ENGULFMENT France says its 3,500-strong Barkhane Force which superseded the 2013 Serval operation in Mali and has a broader regional mandate has made progress, conducting 150 operations last year. But Ohayon says France may actually have contributed to the spread of jihadists by driving them out of their former heartland in Mali's desert north and into Burkina, which is seeking to recover from instability following the ousting of long-ruling leader Blaise Compaore in 2014. In a sign of their expanding reach, France has warned of kidnap threats in a popular national park straddling Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger which is more than 600 kilometres east of the Malian border. Two Australians were also kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso on Saturday just a week after a Swiss citizen was seized in Mali's northern city of Timbuktu. Security sources say the rise in Western abductions after a period of relative calm may represent a bid by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to replenish coffers with ransom money. The also say jihadists are profiting from a growing regional ivory trade. Mali has called for a rapid intervention force to fight militants and Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop warned this week that the region could be "engulfed due to connections or even a link-up between terrorist groups in the Sahel," referring to Islamic State in Libya to the north and Boko Haram to the east. Tie-ups are already happening on a limited scale. AQIM has said in recent videos as part of an expanded media campaign that it has joined forces with al Mourabitoun, led by Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. "BABY-FACED" JIHADISTS Thomas Miles, an independent scholar and Sahel expert, says there is little sign that recruitment in remote areas has ended since the French operation of 2013, although it may have slowed. Witnesses described one of the Ouagadougou attackers as a young, black African and both Bamako gunmen were also young. They have not been formally identified. The Malian army complains that a failure to implement a peace deal between the government and secular armed groups signed six months ago has made it harder to fight jihadists since they cannot distinguish between fighters. The lack of progress has also facilitated the formation of new local jihadist groups such as Mali's Massina Liberation Front in a country where many are desperate and 60 percent of under 35s are unemployed. Other groups could be forming elsewhere in the Sahel. This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC spokesman and issued to newsmen on Monday in Abuja. It listed the two Facebook accounts as: https://www.facebook.com/ibrahimmustafa.magu andhttps://www.facebook.com/magu.ibrahim.77. "The two accounts have become platform for various unwholesome activities including soliciting for gratification and influence peddling using the name of the EFCC boss. "The general public is therefore advised to be mindful of telephone calls by persons claiming to be acting on behalf of the acting chairman and soliciting for gratification. "Such calls and persons should be reported to the EFCC or the nearest police station, it said. The statement also urged the public to be vigilant and help the commission in unmasking the perpetrators, who it said, were bent on soiling the reputation of Magu and the EFCC. "The commission does not solicit money or gratification of any sort to carry out its statutory duties. Gui Minhai, who vanished from his apartment in Thailand last October, voluntarily returned to China to answer a conviction from 2004 for killing a student, state media said on Sunday. "I am returning to surrender by personal choice, it has nothing to do with anyone," Gui, looking distraught, said in a China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast. "This is a personal responsibility that I ought to bear." Gui, a naturalized Swedish citizen, is one of five members to have gone missing from a Hong Kong bookstore that specialises in selling gossipy political books on China's ruling Communist Party leaders. The disappearances, and China's silence, have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. In recent years, state media has publicised a string of what is presented as confessions made by high-profile suspects. Critics say these accounts deprive the accused of the right to a fair trial. Earlier this month, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had raised Gui's case with the Chinese ambassador to Stockholm. Gui's daughter Angela, who is based in Britain, told Reuters late on Sunday she believed the Swedish authorities were doing everything they could to help with the case. The law is one of roughly 400 that were issued by executive decree during the more than three years in which Egypt was governed without a parliament after its democratically elected chamber was dissolved in mid-2012. It details sentences for various terrorism-related crimes ranging from five years to the death penalty, and shields the military and police from legal penalties for what it calls proportionate use of force. The law also fines journalists for contradicting the authorities' version of any militant attack. The original draft was amended last year following a domestic and international outcry after it initially stipulated imprisonment for such an offence. The newly elected legislature is constitutionally obliged to review the executive decrees within 15 days of its first session, which was on Jan. 10, and either approve or reject them. The anti-terrorism law passed by an overwhelming 457 votes to 24 without a single amendment to the original decree issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last year, parliamentary sources said. Egypt's new parliament, which has 568 elected members plus another 28 appointed directly by the president, is dominated by the "Support Egypt" coalition, an alliance of over 400 MPs loyal to Sisi. Human rights groups accuse Sisi, who as military chief deposed a freely elected Islamist president in 2013, of rolling back freedoms won in the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Opposition legislator Mohamed Salah Khalifa, a leader of the Islamist Nour Party, which holds just 12 seats after controlling about a quarter of the previous parliament, said the law employed ambiguous wording. "I fear that it will be used broadly when it is applied," he said. Parliament also approved a 2014 decree on the protection of critical government facilities. The law increases the jurisdiction of military courts, allowing them to try civilians accused of attacking buildings and cutting off roads. Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, is confronted by an increasingly violent insurgency in North Sinai, where the most active militant group has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. Cairo and other cities have also suffered Islamist attacks. Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to a little more than three years in federal prison stemming from an incident in which police say he pulled out a handgun when he was arrested on an outstanding warrant in May. Hasan R. Stoner, 24, of County Club Hills, Ill., pleaded guilty in September in U.S. District Court, Rock Island, to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. At a sentencing hearing Jan. 8, Stoner also was ordered to serve two years of supervised release when he completes his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. According to police: At 7:39 p.m. May 13, a Moline police patrol officer saw Stoner driving into an alley in the 100 block of 5th Avenue. The officer was familiar with Stoner from previous police involvement and knew there was an active Rock Island County warrant for obstructing justice recently filed against him. During the stop, Stoner ran away on foot, and the officer chased him. A short distance away, Stoner tripped and fell into the street, and the officer attempted to arrest him. Stoner then took out a black .45-caliber handgun and threw it toward a second person who had involved himself in the incident. The officer pulled out his gun and ordered Stoner and the other individual to step away from the weapon. No shots were fired, and no injuries were reported, according to police. Stoner has previous convictions for possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number in Rock Island County. He initially was charged in Rock Island County with unlawful use or possession of a weapon by a felon and resisting a peace officer, a Class A misdemeanor. Prosecutors dismissed the charges in July when a federal indictment was filed. UPDATE: Here is the latest forecast from the National Weather Service. Today: Sunny and cold, with a high near 8 degrees and wind chill values as low as -25 degrees. Tonight: Mostly clear with a low around -4 degrees. Tuesday: Increasing clouds with a high near 17 degrees and wind chill values as low as -5 degrees. Tuesday night: Snow with a low around 15 degrees. The chance of precipitation is 80 percent with nw snow accumulation of around 2 inches possible. EARLIER STORY: Despite sunny skies, Sunday marked the coldest day so far this winter in the Quad-Cities as an arctic air mass moved across the upper Midwest. Meteorologist David Cousins of the National Weather Service, Davenport, warned wind-chill numbers could plummet to near 30 degrees below zero overnight Sunday into today. A wind-chill advisory remains in effect until noon as a blast of dangerous cold moves eastward. Todays high is expected to reach 8 degrees, and bitter, below-zero wind chill values will continue through Tuesday morning, Cousins said. Tuesday will feel warmer, though, with partly sunny skies and an expected high around 18 degrees, said Cousins, who noted a 70 percent chance of snow at night. Later in the week, Cousins expects some reprieve from the cold. By Wednesday, temperatures could climb into the upper 20s, and highs in the Quad-Cities could jump into the comparatively balmy 30s by Thursday. Much of the northern part of the country is shivering or soon will be. Due to El Nino, winter got off to a mild start. But a blast of dangerous cold moved east across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes over the weekend. Temperatures bottomed out at 36 degrees below in Fosston in northwest Minnesota. More than 800 miles to the southeast, wind chills in Indianapolis were expected to plummet to 20 degrees below zero. Many cities sought to ensure no one succumbed to the cold. The Indianapolis Star reported that the state Department of Homeland Security would send anyone needing shelter from the weather Sunday and Monday to a Salvation Army facility. Winter weather advisories were in effect along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, where lake-effect snow was expected to generate more than a half-foot snow in some areas. A man who had been evicted from a Philadelphia homeless shelter returned Sunday morning and opened fire, killing one employee and injuring another, police said. Some officials feared the shooting might deter people from entering shelters as frigid weather entered the region. "We're very, very, very concerned; this is not something that happens in the city of Philadelphia's shelters for people experiencing homelessness," Marie Nahikian, director of the city Office of Supportive Housing, told WPVI-TV. SIOUX CITY, Iowa A packed crowd welcomed Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie to Sioux City on Sunday evening the first time he had visited since throwing his hat into the ring. In his talk, Christie, governor of New Jersey, wasted no time deriding President Barack Obama about the recent swap of seven Iranian prisoners for four Americans as a lesson in failed negotiation. At this rate, I wouldnt let Obama help me buy a car, Christie said. Speaking on foreign policy, Christie said the world was on fire, with conflicts in the Middle East cutting the number of democratic nations in that area to lower than when Obama took office. That has created more violence at home, Christie said. Anything is a target for terrorism, he said. ISIS showed us that in San Bernardino. Christie then recalled the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the fear the nation felt during the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, and the unity felt afterward. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, was working in Manhattan near the towers that day. Afterward, the governor opened the floor for questions, taking more than an hour to speak on several issues, including foreign policy, the election, and of course Donald Trump. Christie said he was against Common Core educational initiatives, which he described as a bad idea. When asked about the war in Syria, Christie said he would institute a no-fly zone in the area. If (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to test that and fly in that zone, then you shoot down that plane, Christie said. Christie said he favored expanding treatment for those who suffer from addiction, instead of jail time. He also said he would, on the first day of his presidency, rescind every executive action Obama has made that he finds illegal. The issue of Trump being the current leader in the polls was brought up twice by questioners first, why Christie believes he himself still has a shot at the election, and what Christie will do if it comes down to himself and Trump. On the former, Christie said he does not believe the Iowa caucuses are a lost cause for himself. Im not conceding anything for anybody. Im not letting you people off easy, Christie joked. When asked how he could come out on top, Christie said he considered Trump a friend of his for 14 years and was not afraid to face him. In fact, Christie said he met him through Trumps sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who is a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. She asked me to have dinner with her younger brother. And I said, you mean Donald? Christie told the crowd. I even went to his 2005 wedding. I didnt even get paid to go. Earlier Sunday, Christie visited Milford, Iowa, and held a town hall at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor and Museum in Le Mars, Iowa. DES MOINES A handful of current and former state legislators are among the statewide leadership team announced Sunday by Marco Rubios presidential campaign. The Rubio campaign leadership team includes 320 people spanning all of Iowas 99 counties. Rubio, the Republican candidate and U.S. Senator from Florida, has been third in most recent polls on the race in Iowa, behind front-runners Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Rubios Iowa support squad includes state legislators Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton, Rick Bertrand of Sioux City, and John Wills of Spirit Lake, as well as former state legislator and current Iowa House Chief Clerk Carmine Boal. Rubios Iowa campaign chairman is another state legislator, Jack Whitver of Ankeny. The groundswell of support for Marco is exciting, and our town hall crowds are growing larger by the day, Whitver said in a campaign statement. This leadership team is working hard to sustain the momentum and ensure Marco has a successful caucus night on Feb. 1. Rubio is campaigning in Iowa this weekend. He held three events Saturday in central and western Iowa a fourth was cancelled due to weather and he has five more planned Monday in eastern Iowa. DES MOINES Rand Paul made a Martin Luther King Day campaign stop at a Des Moines barbershop on Monday, talking to employees and patrons about the need for criminal justice reform. Paul, a Republican presidential candidate and U.S. senator from Kentucky, said he supports sentencing reform, restoring voting rights for convicted criminals who have served their time and been released and expunging criminal records to remove a barrier for rehabilitated criminals to get a job. Because I think, frankly, kids make mistakes and they ought to get a second chance, Paul said Monday while discussing various issues with people at the barbershop Platinum Kutz, near the Drake University campus. I would say that Im one of the few Republicans who actually has been very outspoken on trying to do something about criminal justice. Later, while addressing reporters, Paul said he thinks sentencing reform should include giving judges more discretion and addressing mandatory minimum sentences. I also think we need sentencing reform where people arent going to jail for 15 and 20 years for youthful, non-violent mistakes, Paul said, drawing applause from many of the people in the barbershop. Paul said he has introduced roughly 10 bills in the U.S. Senate that address criminal justice reform, each of which has at least one Democratic co-sponsor. He said he will attempt to introduce some of those as amendments to sweeping reform legislation being shepherded through the chamber by Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. I think we go way too far with the war on drugs, Paul said. People want to be tougher and tougher. So everybody wants to act like they were tough on crime. But as a consequence, we ended up with a lot of injustice. Robert Presswood, the barbershops owner, said he liked what he heard from Paul and is glad he and other presidential candidates are discussing criminal justice reform. Thats real big for the young, black youth, Presswood said. Its a big issue. Any time you got a person going to prison for 15, 20 years for a non-violent crime, its ridiculous. Paul has been in the second half of the expansive GOP field in polls on the race in Iowa. He was removed from the main group for the most recent Republican debate, and instead of participating in the secondary debate, he did numerous media interviews and took an active role on social media. Paul said he thinks the strategy maximized his exposure. Our preference would be to be in the debate and not have the (Republican) party exclude us. I think the party made a big mistake. I think they dealt us a dirty, rotten, no-good deal, Paul said. But we made the best of it, and I think in the end we probably had more coverage. Paul said he thinks his campaign infrastructure for example, he said roughly 100 high-school and college students have made 500,000 phone calls for his campaign will help him outperform the polls on caucus night, which is two weeks away. We think were going to shock some people in Iowa, Paul said. On his way out of the barbershop Monday, Paul grabbed a catered lunch and asked for some barbecuing tips from Moe Cason, a Des Moines barbecue cook. Paul was scheduled to hold a campaign rally for fiscal sanity Monday night in suburban Des Moines. MAQUOKETA, Iowa Maquoketa landlords will see a major change in their business this year after the Maquoketa City Council recently approved a rental ordinance. The ordinance will take effect July 1 and requires all rental units to be inspected and landlords will have to have licenses issued by the city to rent their property. The ordinance applies to rental homes and apartments. Council members approved the ordinance without comment recently. The topic has been discussed by council members for several months. Some property owners had questions in previous weeks about the ordinance, but no one spoke when council members took the final vote. Some local real estate agents approached the council last summer, asking for some type of ordinance that would control rental units, especially for safety. Real estate agents expressed concern about rental units that were in bad shape and their possible effect on property values. A seven-member group of landlords and other residents appointed by the council met for several months to discuss a proposed ordinance. Maquoketa Police Chief Brad Koranda said his officers get complaints of apartment furnaces not working in the winter and landlords not making essential repairs. Without an ordinance, Koranda said, there's little police can do. The chief also said he would like part of the ordinance to include requirements that landlords prevent the properties from being used for illegal activity. The new ordinance requires landlords to get a background check on a potential renter and a signed lease with the tenant. Koranda said the city will provide background checks for free for the landlords. Landlords also can do their own background checks. The 11-page ordinance is specific on requirements for inspections and maintaining a safe environment, including exterior doors with functioning locks and bathroom fixtures free from leaks. City officials say there are 930 rental units in Maquoketa. Plans call for one-third of the units to be inspected each year. East Central Intergovernmental Agency has been contracted to do the inspections at a yearly cost of $18,380. Inspections also can be requested by tenants if there are problems with the rental unit. Property owners will pay $30 per year for each unit they own. Both outgoing council members Troy Thede and Ed Turney said they were glad to be part of making the rental ordinance happen. "We have a plan of action," Thede said. "It's good we got it done," Turney added. "It's not going to hurt nobody." MUSCATINE, Iowa Authorities have identified the man shot after police say he stole a vehicle and then tried to flee. Timothy Seefeldt, 41, was shot once in the upper torso and was transported to the University Hospital in Iowa City, according to a media release from the Iowa Department of Public Safety. His injury was non-life threatening, the release stated. A sheriff's deputy conducted a traffic stop with the assistance of a Muscatine police officer upon spotting a Hummer that matched the description of one stolen in the city about a half hour earlier on Jan. 15. The person driving the blue 2008 Hummer pulled over into the parking lot of the Pearl City Inn/Best Western at 305 Cleveland Ave., Muscatine. The suspect then tried to drive away, hitting several vehicles parked in the hotel lot including one of the fully marked law enforcement vehicles, according to a press release from the Muscatine Police Department. "Preliminary reports indicate only the deputy discharged his duty weapon," the media release from the department of public safety stated. The names of the deputy and police officer will not be released until they have been interviewed, the release stated. Several shots were fired by law enforcement, the release stated. A Hummer was reported stolen from Guadalajara restaurant, at 208 E. Second St., a little after 10 p.m. Friday. A criminal investigation is being conducted by the Muscatine Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The investigation is ongoing, and no additional information will be released pending the interviews of the officers involved in the incident, the press release from the department of public safety stated. The Iowa Department of Public Safety's Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting with this officer-involved shooting investigation. Hillary Clinton is pure evil. There is no better or more accurate way to characterize her. Her allegation the families of the Benghazi massacre lied, in two separate interviews, about what she said at Andrews Air Force Base upon the return of their loved ones remains was the last straw. All air had to be depleted from the Democrats sails when Vice President Joe Biden announced he would not join the race for president of the United States. That left liberals stuck with the stark reality of only two candidates, one a habitual liar and criminal, and the other a self-proclaimed socialist. Granted, Hillary has never, to my knowledge, been indicted or arrested for any of her exploits. Neither has Obama. Both should be in prison. To recap her immoral and illegal exploits would be fruitless. She obviously has the Democratic National Committee in her back pocket as well as the base. It is even probable she has the president, U.S. Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice there as well, although there is a glimmer of hope the FBI will not be intimidated. When I talk about her to my liberal, Democrat friends they both agree; Hillary is not morally, physically or mentally capable of performing the duties of president. State Representative Lynne DiSanto, R-Rapid City, is angry that Pennington County commissioners gave themselves a 20 percent raise, and she is calling for a repeal of the the increase. DiSanto is circulating an online petition titled, "Repeal Pennington County Commission's Pay Increase, and Require Attendance to get Paid." In a 4-1 vote at their Jan. 5 meeting, commissioners approved the raise, with only Commissioner George Ferebee voting "no." The petition claims that the commissioners should not have voted on a raise without the consent of the voters. The petition also calls for a requirement that commissioners get paid for only meetings they attend. As of Friday the petition reached 318 virtual signatures. Raising commissioner salaries is an administrative action and cannot be referred to a public vote according to state law. Further, DiSanto's petition has no legal standing, that is, it has no power to initiate any formal government action. DiSanto's husband, Mark DiSanto, recently announced he is running for the District 4 commission seat occupied by Commission Chairman Lyndell Petersen, who has not declared whether he will seek re-election to a third term. Petersen voted to approve the salary increase, although he said afterward he thought he was voting on a smaller raise. Mark DiSanto said that if he had been a commissioner at the time of the salary increase vote, he would have voted against it. Lynne DiSanto said her petition was not motivated by her husband's campaign. "As much as I know it could appear to be an attempt to create some controversy, this issue had been brought to me prior to him wanting to run," DiSanto said in a telephone interview. "I cant speak to all of Mark's reason to run, but Mark and I both realized there is a serious issue on the Pennington County Commission, which motivated him to run." In the petition, DiSanto leveled accusations against Commissioner Ron Buskerud, saying he lives in Arizona for half the year and "sporadically" attends meetings. In response to DiSanto's accusations, Buskerud said, "She's a liar." Buskerud said he goes to Arizona during the winter but spends a majority of his time in Pennington County. When Buskerud isn't physically in Pennington County for the commissioner meetings, he teleconferences into the meetings using Skype. According to commissioner meeting minutes, Buskerud missed 3 out of 24 regular meetings during 2015. Of the 21 meetings Buskerud attended, six were by teleconference. According to county Election Supervisor Lori Steverson, the only requirement for running for a commissioner position is being a registered voter living in Pennington County. There is no requirement to live in the county a certain amount of time per year. According to South Dakota open meeting laws, teleconferencing is an acceptable option for conducting public meetings. In the petition, DiSanto also alleges that commissioners work only 4 hours a month. According to Commissioner Deb Hadcock, in addition to twice-monthly regular meetings, commissioner business includes meeting with constituents, representing the commission on other county government committees, preparing for commissioner meetings and attending meetings with the state. Each commissioner sits on six to nine county government committees dealing with such matters as air and water quality, economic development and emergency planning. Commission meetings last been between 1 1/2 and 5 hours, according to videos of the meetings posted on Youtube. DiSanto said that constituents contacted her after reading about the commissioners' raising their salary from $1,250 a month to $1,500 a month on Jan. 5, the same day voters rejected the wheel tax. The annual increase is $3,000, to $18,000. DiSanto said that her constituents are concerned the commissioners don't understand their financial struggles. Commissioners, she said, "don't have an understanding that people are feeling pinched." She added, "In most of our jobs if we receive a 1.5 to 3 percent raise in any given year, we're happy. I think it's unheard of to get a 20 percent raise." Commissioners last received a raise in 2014, when their salary increased from $1,200 to $1,250 per month, a 4.2 percent increase according to commissioner meeting minutes. DiSanto asserted that county residents were not given enough notice on the salary increase vote. The notice was on the Jan. 5 commission meeting agenda, which was posted online on Dec. 31, according to commission department manager Holli Hennies. She said the agenda was posted the same day on the bulletin board in the Pennington County Administrative building. No one from the public spoke out for or against the salary increase at the meeting. At their first meeting every year, commissioners vote on their salary. In January 2015, commissioners did not raise their salary. Hadcock said a 2010 report of elected officials' salaries was one of the reasons commissioners voted for the raise. The consulting firm Condrey and Associates, Inc. published the report, which surveyed 13 other regional city, county and state governments' salaries for elected officials including commissioners, auditors, sheriffs and state's attorneys. Governments studied included those of Gallatin County, Mont., Burleigh County, N.D., and Laramie County, Wyo., counties that are comparable in size to Pennington County. The firm found the average county commissioner salary was $35,009 per year. The report recommended Pennington County Commissioners make $25,000 per year or $2,083 per month. DiSanto is starting the second year of her first term representing District 35, including Rapid City, in the South Dakota House of Representatives. She is a real estate agent for Keller Williams in Rapid City. South Dakota legislators make $6,000 per legislative session plus $140 per diem for each legislative day according to the State Auditor's Office. According to the South Dakota Legislative Research Council, legislators will have 38 work days this session. For 38 days of work, DiSanto could earn $11,320. DiSanto in the 2015 session of the Legislature was one of 11 representatives to vote against Senate Bill 1, which passed both houses and was signed into law. It increased vehicle excise and gas taxes and raised vehicle registration fees to fund the local Bridge Improvement Grant, or BIG, program. The law also required counties to institute a wheel tax to qualify to receive BIG funds. During the 2015 legislative session DiSanto voted on several bills related to legislator pay: She voted in favor of House Bill 1149, which set the minimum salary for legislators at $6,000, meaning legislators could not make less than their current salary. She also voted in favor of House Bill 1145, which gave legislators per diem or salary compensation for attending both the inauguration of constitutional officers and the governor's budget report. She voted against House Bill 1150, which would have adjusted legislator salaries annually. Ferebee not only voted against the salary increase, he also pledged to donate what he calls his extra $250 per month "windfall" to a local charity. He is leaning toward Wounded Warrior Project, but wants input from his constituents. According to Hennies, commissioners could rescind their motion on their salary increase by placing that request on a commission meeting agenda. The commission would then vote whether to rescind the motion on their salaries. If that vote succeeded, commissioners would need to vote once more on their 2016 salary. As of Friday, no commissioners had requested this action. NEW UNDERWOOD | Helen Marie Phillips, 99, passed into the loving arms of her Savior on Jan. 14, 2016. She was born in the family home near Woonsocket, SD, on Feb. 1, 1916, the daughter of Melvin and Ethel Larson. She grew up on the family farm and attended a rural grade school and Lutheran Church, where she was baptized and confirmed. She graduated from Woonsocket High School and Eastern State Normal at Madison, SD. Helen taught elementary school for 10 years in the 1940s. She was married to Wesley Fredricks in Oklahoma City in 1943. Wesley, a member of the US Air Force, sacrificed his life for his country that year. Helen returned to South Dakota and married Roy Phillips in 1949. Roy and Helen raised their family of three children on their ranch in Meade County, and Helen continued to ranch for a number of years after Roys death on Jan. 10, 1994. Helen was a loving and devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Grateful for having shared Helens life are her children Sandra and Keith Stover of Mankato, MN, Scott and Paula Phillips of New Underwood, and Gayla and Tom Raba of Rapid City; six grandchildren, Sara (Clint) Caffey, Brent Stover, Casey (Sarah) Phillips, Tami (Nathan) Hannan, Andrew Raba, and Mathew (Jammie) Raba. Also surviving are her five great grandsons, Gabriel and Benjamin Raba, Jacob and Joshua Caffey, and Sean Hannan. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, one brother, four sisters and an infant son. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, at Kirk Funeral Home in Rapid City. Services at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, at the Lord of Life Lutheran Church, 2000 Lancer Drive in Rapid City. Burial will follow at the New Underwood Cemetery. The memorials will go to the Roy Phillips Memorial Scholarship that Helen established 22 years ago to benefit a Meade County High School graduate who is enrolled at SDSU in the College of Agriculture. Family and friends may sign Helens online guest book at kirkfuneralhome.com Armenian businessman Airapetyan pleads not guilty to stealing $700,000 MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI, Artem Ponomarev) - A prominent Armenian businessman Levon Airapetyan pleaded not guilty to stealing $700,000 from the mother of former Bashkortostan senator Igor Izmestyev who had been convicted of terrorism and sentenced to life in prison, RAPSI reported on Monday from Moscows Zamoskvoretsky District Court. According to Airapetyans lawyer, the case has been framed up. Investigators believe that the businessman has misled the woman by promising a reduced sentence for her son. In practice, he could not influence the judgment. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Airapetyan also stands charged with involvement in an embezzlement case under which Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov, sold Bashneft, a midsized oil company he headed for three years, to the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Sistema in 2009 at a huge discount of $500 million. Airapetyan holds dual citizenship, has assets abroad and was until recently living in Monaco. Prosecutors presented this information as grounds for arrest. In early October 2014, Airapetyan was placed under house arrest. His defense attorney asked the court to release him, citing health problems. A Missoula driver is facing a felony charge for allegedly brandishing a gun during a road rage incident and threatening to shoot a pedestrian. Austin Tea Miles, 18, was charged with assault with a weapon during his initial appearance Monday before Missoula County Justice of the Peace Marie Andersen. According to court records, a Missoula police officer responded to the area of Orange and West Alder streets Thursday after receiving a report that a driver pulled a gun on a pedestrian, then left the scene. The victim stated he was crossing Orange Street when he heard a vehicle coming toward him at a high rate of speed after it exited the underpass. The small white passenger car allegedly didn't yield and came within a couple of feet of striking the pedestrian. After continuing north on Alder Street, the victim heard a vehicle approaching from the south. The same white passenger car stopped 20 feet away and the driver, later identified as Miles, got out with a collapsible baton in his left hand. Words were exchanged, and the victim told the officer Miles stated something to the effect of, Well see about that. Miles then walked back to the car and retrieved a silver semiautomatic gun, according to court records. He allegedly cocked the gun, working the slide as if placing a round in the chamber, and said something to the effect of, You dont think Ill (expletive) do it? The victim told the officer he believed Miles was going to shoot him, so he backed up and raised his hands as if to surrender. The victim observed a witness and yelled for her to call 9-1-1. Miles allegedly got back in the car and drove off at a high rate of speed, according to court records. The victim later identified Miles in a police lineup. In court Monday, Andersen set Miles bail at $50,000 despite his pleas to lower it. Lately, Ive been in treatment and Ive been applying myself in classes I find beneficial, he said. Ive never missed a court date. I just got this new job. All my (urine analyses) have been clean lately for pre-trial, which is really, really difficult to do and Ive been working really hard toward that. Ive been putting in community service hours at Goodwill. Im doing everything I can to keep my nose clean. Im open to signing up for anger management classes or counseling or whatever. I would go do this today, your honor. However, prosecutors argued for Andersen to keep bail at $50,000 because of past probation violations by Miles. HAMILTON A Stevensville man was charged with felony assault with a weapon after he allegedly used his vehicle to run over a man in an apparent road-rage incident. Frank C. OConnor, 70, appeared Monday before Ravalli County Justice of the Peace Jim Bailey. OConnor was arrested Oct. 17 after a Montana Highway Patrol trooper responded to a report of a hit-and-run near the Eastside Highway and Ambrose Creek Road. Shane Hawkinson told the trooper he was following OConnors vehicle on the Eastside Highway when it suddenly slowed to 15 to 20 miles per hour, according to an affidavit filed in the case. Hawkinson said he didnt know what OConnor was doing, so he passed him. OConnor then sped up and started tailgating Hawkinson to the point where he couldnt see his headlights. Hawkinson had his 8-year-old son in the car with him. He reported that he pulled over because he didnt know what OConnor was doing. After pulling his vehicle completely off the road, Hawkinson got out and was standing near the drivers side when OConnor allegedly pulled in close enough to hit Hawkinson with his vehicle. Hawkinson said he went over OConnors hood and fell into his own truck. Hawkinson jumped back into his truck and started to follow OConnor, who hadnt stopped. Hawkinson called 9-1-1 to report the incident. Hawkinson said he was trying to get close enough to read OConnors license plate when OConnor slammed on his brakes. Hawkinson couldnt stop and hit the back of OConnors vehicle. Hawkinson said he was going about 50 mph when the collision occurred. OConnor told the trooper that is was Hawkinson who stopped suddenly in the middle of the road. OConnor claimed that Hawkinson ran up to his vehicle and slapped the fender as he drove by. OConnor said he did brake hard when he saw that Hawkinson was following him in an attempt to get him to back off. The trooper noticed a strong odor of alcohol on OConnors breath, so he conducted a DUI investigation. OConnor was unable to complete a field sobriety test. A preliminary breath test resulted in a 0.117 blood alcohol content. In Montana, a driver is considered impaired with a BAC of 0.08. Hawkinson told the trooper the next day that he was treated for a concussion at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, where he was kept overnight due to concerns about possible brain swelling. Hawkinson said his son was traumatized after seeing his dad struck, and said he would likely seek some counseling for the boy. OConnor was charged with felony counts of assault with a weapon, negligent vehicular assault and two counts of criminal endangerment. He also faces misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and failure to remain at an accident. Bailey set bail at $20,000. KALISPELL (AP) A Whitefish man who shot at two motorcyclists during a road rage incident near Columbia Falls in 2014, and who later skipped his own sentencing hearing, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. The Flathead Beacon reports Christopher Showen was sentenced Dec. 28 on charges of bail jumping and assault with a weapon. It was not Showen's first run-in with the law. He was 19 when he stood trial for the 1998 shooting death of Carl John Storkson, a childhood friend. Showen was acquitted. Five years later, he spent a year in prison following a drive-by shooting in Alaska. In 2006, he was given a five-year suspended sentence for conspiracy to commit assault with a weapon following a shooting at the Eureka Police Station. This is really an awesome hotel. Unless you need a resort hotel near the beach, I still cannot find any reason not to stay here. You MUST tr... Amil Imani and James Hyde The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is yet another toothless U.N. body that is in for a whirlwind of frustration when it inspects Iran's nuclear program sites. The provisions of the agreement negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry and his team of sycophants make Neville Chamberlain's "peace in our time" negotiations with Hitler look like a stroke of genius. Iran's Islamic regime is an incredibly dangerous foe. Like ISIS (or Daesh, a moniker that group loathes), Iran has an apocalyptic view of current and near-future events. But this time around, a group of believers in Shia Iran, with tremendous resources, are intent upon forcing the issue, making the conditions so dire that they leave the reluctant Saheb-ul-Zaman, the Lord of the Age, the Mahdi, their messianic myth, no choice but to appear and assume his universal reign. Devotees drive both, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic State, to quicken the End Times apocalypse. Iranian leaders hold to a Shia brand. ISIS leaders hold to a Sunni brand. But both are obsessed by a belief that their messiah is coming. The Iran Shiites believe they must lay the groundwork for the messiah (Mahdi) to come and build their Kingdom or Imamate. ISIS isn't really waiting. They have propelled a jihadist storm to build the Caliphate now, so that the Mahdi will come soon. To the latter, there will be no manifestation until the world gets a front row seat to a full-blown cataclysmic event, and that's what's being planned now. Despite having negotiated the Iran deal to postpone Iran's acquisition of a nuclear device, Obama and Kerry have witlessly cut a Faustian bargain with Iran, whose theocratic supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is all too happy to lead chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" in response. We believe, based on comments made by two remarkable experts on this subject, Dr. Peter Pry of emptaskforce.org and Ambassador Hank Cooper of highfrontier.com, the latter of whom worked in the Reagan Administration, that Iran already has the bomb and is working on figuring out how to get it into a vehicle and send it our way. It will not, however deliver annihilation to any single city or cities in the conventional sense. That would be pointless, futile and suicidal. Instead, working together with North Korea, they will seek to take out our electric infrastructure and anything electronic via satellites they already have in space and others they'll put up into space. Unlike most satellites that orbit the earth horizontally (from west to east), the Iranian and North Korean satellites orbit from south to north over the poles, often going right over the center of the U.S. It's what they may have in those satellites that keeps us up at night. (We'll explain in Part Two of this dissertation.) What is of primary interest to us in Part One is where Iran is developing its nuclear weapons technology and it's not in the Middle East, even though that's where they want us looking. It's no secret that Iran and North Korea have been trading "buddies," but there are indications that they plan to work together to develop a "Complete America Annihilation" technology. The January 6, 2016, North Korean nuclear test may be the proof of that team effort. Kim Jon Un's farcical boast that he was testing a "small" hydrogen bomb is a red herring. To those who don't understand the difference between a standard nuclear warhead and a hydrogen bomb, the latter is 1,000 times more powerful and what was tested seemed closer to what fell on Hiroshima than something that could take out a couple of cities. To raise the stakes, both countries have expressed their ardent desire to destroy us. The Iranian regime has been working their way to a nuclear bomb for almost thirty years. While Iran may well have achieved its nuclear goal, testing their monster would not have been possible in Iran. It would be picked up quickly not only by military sensors, but the U.S. Geological Survey, which recorded the latest North Korean test as being equivalent to a 5.1 earthquake. While Iran is earthquake prone, we would know the difference between a nuclear test and a bona fide earthquake almost immediately. It would be far too risky to attempt in the Middle East. So, where else could they go to test? Most likely to North Korea with a gift of badly needed oil and perhaps with some money and food. In exchange, Iran would get North Korea to test their bomb for them and it may not be the first time. This was the fourth nuclear test conducted by North Korea. We learned from the Daily Beast and other sources, that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Iran's nuclear program, and other Iranian nuclear scientists had been present during North Korea's three previous nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, and were likely present during the most recent test on January 6. The Daily Beast suggests that, "In October 2012, Iran began stationing personnel at a military base in North Korea, in a mountainous area close to the Chinese border. The Iranians, from the Ministry of Defense and associated firms, reportedly are working on both missiles and nuclear weapons [there]." That would make Iran's recent missile tests in the Middle East decoys. By having a base in North Korea, Iran is able to escape any identification of their nuclear activities while back in Iran, and they appear to be compliant. The vicious mullahs want that $150 billion to finance not only Islamic terror, but both theirs and North Korea's efforts to utterly destroy the U.S. in an instant. Business Insider points to a study conducted by David Albright, a renowned nuclear physicist and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (I.S.I.S.) at the Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University. As he explained, North Korea has built enough physical infrastructure to greatly ramp up its (and/or Iran's) bomb materials production. "There's been a lot of construction of buildings, renovations, and some new structures at the [Yongbyon] site itself," Albright said. 'Certainly the light water reactor has materialized. What we have trouble with is figuring out what's going on inside those buildings.' "Researchers think North Korea has upgraded facilities to produce nuclear reactor fuel, but Albright says that it isn't known where the fabrication plant for the light-water reactor is located. And it isn't known how North Korea's uranium centrifuges are configured or how efficiently they're operating." North Korea is a hauntingly impoverished country. With China professing objections to its nuclear testing, it's not likely that they got the cash to build the new structures from their mentor to the north. So from whence came the money for all of these new buildings? Enter Iran. In addition, as stated above, it's not known how many or how sophisticated North Korea's centrifuges may be. It is known that Iran has state-of-the-art centrifuges, which it has been disassembling in accordance with the terms of the Iran deal, although those doing the work have mysteriously stopped. Reuters reports that, "Only decommissioned centrifuges were being dismantled to begin with, of which there were about 10,000 at Natanz and Fordow, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran has said." Over the years, Iran had successfully enriched uranium to 20 percent -- weapons grade -- in those centrifuges. Nuclear experts contend that enriching to 3 to 5 percent is ideal for a power plant. It's quite possible that at least some of those disassembled centrifuges have been flown to North Korea. But Iran may also have shipped some other things to their bosom buddies. Reuters also reportsthat when the IAEA entered the Parchin facility, they didn't find what they expected to. "Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work," the IAEA said in a report. "There was no equipment in the building." Inside they were expecting to find a containment vessel designed to test nuclear triggers. Could that have been shipped to Korea, too? The IAEA didn't find it anywhere else. So far, all four nuclear tests have been relatively "small" in terms of yield. But it's not so much about how much yield there is that's important here. They'll be focusing instead on emitting protons, lots and lots of protons. We'll explain in Part Two what they will most likely send our way, but we can tell you in advance that the United States is woefully unprepared for what may be coming, and soon. Sagarmatha Network Pvt. Ltd. is the organization dedicated in the field of printing, publishing service since 2001. As part of media, we've been publishing Review Nepal, an English medium weekly registered at District Administration Office (DAO) Kathmandu with registration number 130-162-163 and reviewnepal.com as an online digital newspaper, with registration number 849-075-076 at Department of Informational and Broadcasting (DIB) from Kathmandu, Nepal since 2003. Ever have a name just pop into your head with no rhyme or reason? Of course you have otherwise -- like a good lawyer -- I wouldn't have... Contributions to the Turner Report/Inside Joplin can be sent to: Randy Turner, 2306 E. 8th, Apt. G, Joplin, MO 64801. Send information, news tips, documents, or comments you prefer not to share on the blog or on Facebook to rturner229@hotmail.com. Idaho to Utah Next we stopped at BYU - Brigham Young University. No we are not mormon but I love watching their wholesome television shows, especially Studio C! It was Sunday so everything was closed but I got a few pictures to make my husband jealous. Thank you Utah for the random petting zoo at the truck stop. My daughter really needed that! Zion National Park This was by far my favorite park. Just look at our view of the outside of Zion National Park from our campsite! We spent the most time here, hiking different trails each day. We attempted one called Angel's Landing but the 2 year old on our shoulders, not being used to rapid elevation change, and choosing to do it our last day there added up to an incomplete hike. We all decided that we must come back someday and hike to the top. My favorite hike by far was walking up the river in the valley of the park, I don't have any pictures because we were nervous about taking our phones through the water. View from our campsite picnic table. happy hiker! 3 Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Bryce Canyon National Park Our second park took us 8, 000 ft above sea level and in a tent that can get pretty chilly! Emma and I snuggled down together in my sleeping back and shivered all night. The evening we arrived we drove around the top rim and enjoyed looking out over the unique formations. After raining a while we saw a gorgeous full double rainbow over the valley. The hike at Bryce was much different than Zion; You take a steep trail down to the bottom, weave through the valley and switchback up the other side. We experienced a torrential downpour and hail as we worked our way back to the top. I'll never joke about Missouri's weather again, at Bryce Canyon I got it all, hail, rain, freezing, and sweating. After some delicous over priced ice cream we moved on to a warmer place. Arches National Park By the time we made it here, we were tired. We drove most of this sprawling park and then hiked a large trail at the back. Due to a baby on our back we did not take the difficult trail, but still enjoyed some beautiful rocks. This was by far the hottest park. Open and flat with no trees or hills to block the sun. After almost a week of hiking around, the little princess decided to descend from her carriage and enjoyed climbing all over rocks, and running and playing. We were thrilled! Just outside the park and not far from our campsite was a unique restaurant perched up on a hill overlooking the town. It was set up inside a house built by a man who discovered uranium and became a millionaire. There was a lot history and a lot of amazing food! The second day at Arches we were hit with another bad rainstorm which sent our old and beloved tent into the dumpster. Through Colorado - on to Home We enjoyed a familiar ride through Colorado, ate at the unique Casa Bonita and took a train ride at Georgetown Railroad Loop. I think the divers at Casa Bonita and the train made this part of the trip a toddlers delight. Conclusion: We all enjoyed the lack of humidity and the abundance of fresh air and exercise. I think I know what my parents will be doing when they retire! After leaving Idaho for our trip to Utah we stopped at a Costco and bought some fun foods for camping. We ate at weird times and we ate strange combinations, we also enjoyed unique restaurants and a lot of homemade, hand scooped ice-cream. We swam when there was a pool available, and we stopped for handmade chocolates and fudge. Spoiled, out of the normal, and fun! Good thing we don't do that all the time! Where have you been? What was your most memorable family vacation? Sarah I've been meaning to write this post for 6 months now and I've just never gotten around to it. So here it is - my summer vacation coming to relieve you from the winter blues!My parents love to travel and they have made it possible for me to go to so many places as a child. I've always really appreciated that and obviously grown to love traveling myself. But my travel companions didn't forsake me once I was married and I was able to tag along on their vacation just last July. My brother got married in Idaho and well, you could just say we took the scenic route home - for about a week!Our caravan consisted of my parents, myself and my two year old daughter. After spending just under a week at a hotel for the wedding we ventured off into wonderland to camp and hike and eat good food!Our first stop was the Great Salt Lake. It was salty!! My legs burned from the salt and it made me incredibly itchy. Thank goodness for an outdoor shower to wash all of that salt off! Aggression raids on Amran kill two AMRAN, Jan. 14 (Saba) - The Saudi aggression waged on Thursday six air raids on a house in Amran province, a director general of Houth district said. The aggression struck the house of Mohsen al-Qumali in Houth district with six airstrikes, and lift al-Qumali and his wife killed, Abdulghani al-Baroshi said. Five of his children and al-Qumali's mother were injured, al-Baroshi said, adding the mother's health condition is critical. The houses of al-Qumali and his neighbor were completely destroyed. Houth district were bombed by the Saudi aggression many times before, causing more than 50 people killed and serious damage to the public roads and people houses, the director general said. HA/AF Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [14/January/2016] MSF confirms arrival of medical aid to Taiz AMSTERDAM, Jan. 17 (Saba) The Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) confirmed on Sunday the arrival of amounts of basic medical aid to Taiz province. "We managed to deliver aid and medical supplies to several hospitals in the province, which receive a large number of the wounded due to the war," said a statement issued by the organization. The basic medical supplies include chest tubes, anesthetics, intravenous fluids, surgical and suture kits and pain antagonists, which will support vital surgeries of life-saving in the hospitals, the statement elaborated. MSF's emergency manager in Yemen Karline Kleijer urged all parties to work to reduce the suffering of the Yemeni people and to continue to allow the flow of medical supplies and other necessities such as fuel and food to all the affected areas in the country. HA/BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [17/January/2016] Today, I began the journey of a lifetime. Something I could have only dreamed about. A day I have planned for since i chose to become a Sacred Hear student. Today, I feel many things: happy, anxious, blessed, and overall dazed. With little to no sleep, I set out to JFK with my 2 suitcases and 2 carry-ons in hand. Luckily, I a not attempting the biggest travel of my life alone, I have 2 other girls, Colleen and Amy, from Sacred Hart accompanying me. Saying my final goodbyes to my family, I felt as though I was simply out of tears. I set off with a hopeful heart and an open mind seeking adventure. We flew Norwegian Air and we had a 3 hour layover in Oslo, Norway. The flight to Norway was 7 hours and once we got there, we were pleasantly surprised to have 8 degree temperatures with snow on the ground, probably the first and only time we will physically see snow this year. Getting off the plane and having our passports checked by immigration, we met Bella, a girl from the University of Cincinnati who is also studying in Alicante through a different program. She was taking the same flight into Alicante as we were, so we decided to all stick together. If anybody reading this knows, me they know I am a member of kappa Delta sorority at Sacred Heart. Come to find out, Bella was not only a new friend in Alicante to keep ties with, but she is also a member of Kappa Delta at the University of Cincinnati! Boarding the flight from Norway to Alicante leaving the snow behind, I realized that I was surrounded by older people. Come to find out, Alicante is the "Florida of Europe." What we in the United States may call "snowbirds," or people who escape from the cold of the Northeast and flee to Florida for their warm weather fix, many people flee to Alicante for their warm weather fix! When we arrived in Alicante, we arrive a day before orientation began. We made our way to the hotel and then found ourselves exploring the streets of San Vicente, a city within the providence of Alicante, also where both the CIEE study center and La Universidad de Alicante are. After traveling all day, we made our way to a tapas bar. We tried our first Sangria (life changing) and tapas. I think i could get used to this! The travel in itself seemed more intimidating than it actually was... the hardest part was saying goodbye to my dog. I give my consent to Sakshi Post to be in touch with me via email for the purpose of event marketing and corporate communications. Privacy Policy Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to Support North Caucasus Separatists "We have to stop the infidels in the home. They have forgotten the Lubyanka Subway Blast." - ISIS commander Mohammad al-Adnani Mohammad al-Adnani photo courtesy: en.adalam.ir (SALEM, Ore.) - EDITOR NOTE: The meeting this article refers to was held prior to the January 7, 2016 statement from Iraq's Joint Operations Command that Mohammad al-Adnani was injured in an airstrike which took place in the Iraqi town of Barwanah, in Anbar province. The U.S. State Department officially labeled Adnani a terrorist in August 2014. ISIS commander Mohammad al-Adnani, during a meeting with Ahmad al-Barqawi in Russia said, "The time of negligence has passed." Mohammad al-Adnani added,"Based on our decision in coordination with Ukraine, you should send 20 of the most experienced jihadists to Ukraine for training jihadist operations. "We will also send 30 forces to Ukraine within (the) last 2 weeks of November. Assure your forces that lifetime allowance is allocated to the families of martyrs by our Saudi partners." He also went on to say, "We have to stop the infidels in the home. They have forgotten the Lubyanka Subway Blast." _________________________________________ Providing the Turks with Information about Kurds & PKK Insiders say US information is allowing the Turks to strike PKK bases. Recep Erdogan, Salem-News.com file photo (SALEM, Ore.) - During a meeting with some senior US military commanders, Turkey's Recep Erdogan is said to have agreed to U.S. requests to use the Incirlik Air Base for military operations in Syria and Iraq. According to the documents released by a high-ranking Turkish military officer, Turkey agreed to allow the U.S. to use air bases there. In return, commanders have pledged to provide Turkish government with all information and news about Kurds' activities in Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan Region especially collecting information on PKK's (Kurdistan Workers' Party) activities along with some information on their military weapons. It is noteworthy to say that one of the reasons that the Turkish army could target PKK bases was that U.S. troops and military officials in the Kurdistan Region provided the Turkish army with detailed information. _________________________________________ Judge denies conspiracy-laden effort to stop Kansas ballot drop boxes A federal judge in Kansas Wednesday denied a conspiracy-laden effort to stop the use of ballot drop boxes and electronic voting machines. Hello beauties, welcome to Asoebi fashion Friday!! We refuse to let you go into this weekend without looking glamorous and fabulous in your... Click On Our Advertisers Ads Most of our ads have links to take you directly to their Websites. Just click on an ad and away you go. " " This map and accompanying pictures depict the startling UFO incident at Fort Itaipu, Brazil. Intercontinental U.F.O. Galactic Spacecraft Research and Analytic Network Archives During the great sighting outbreak of early November 1957, a number of close encounters had a disturbing consequence: burns and related injuries to witnesses. One of the most dramatic occurrences took place at an army base at Itaipu along Brazil's Atlantic coast. At 2 A.M. on November 4 two guards saw a luminous orange disc coming in over the ocean at a low altitude and an alarming rate of speed. As it passed above the soldiers, the disc came to an instant stop. The two witnesses suddenly felt a wave of heat and a horrifying sensation as if they had burst into flame. Their screams brought other soldiers stumbling out of their barracks just in time to see the UFO streak away. At that moment the fort's entire electrical system failed. Amid great secrecy the two men were rushed to a military hospital and treated during the next few weeks for first-and second-degree burns to ten percent of their bodies. Advertisement But there were other burn cases as well. In the afternoon of the same day as the Itaipu incident, the engines of several cars along a rural highway near Orogrande, New Mexico, ceased to function as an egg-shaped object maneuvered close by. A witness who stood particularly close to it contracted a "sunburn." In the early morning hours of November 6, outside Merom, Indiana, a hovering UFO, which bathed his farm in light, also seriously burned Rene Gilham's face. He ended up spending two days in the hospital. " " More than three months after a green beam from a UFO struck Denise Bishop in, the burn on her hand could still be seen. Fortean Picture Library At around 1:30 A.M. on November 10 a Madison, Ohio, woman saw an acorn-shaped UFO hovering just behind her garage. She watched it for half an hour. In the days afterward she developed a body rash and vision problems that her doctor believed suggested radiation poisoning. Subsequent medical tests uncovered no apparent cause for her injuries. Print Media/Music/Video selections: RonDoids does not own the copyright to certain media posted within our site. "Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use." Activists throughout the Bay Area will be holding a series of protests through Monday as part of a campaign to "reclaim" Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "radical legacy." The second annual "96 Hours of Direct Action" have been going on throughout the Bay Area since Friday, with the stated goal of highlighting the high rate of African-Americans being incarcerated, gentrification, police brutality, and racial injustice across the area. On Saturday morning protestors gathered at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's house to "#CallOutLibby." Organized by the Bay Area chapter of Showing Up For Racial Justice, they wrote in the description of the event: Since Mayor Schaaf took office in January 2015, at least 8 Black men have been murdered at the hands of Oakland Police. At the same time, Schaaf and other civic officials have encouraged massive increases in commercial development that is resulting in the traumatic displacement of Black, Brown and working class folks across Oakland. Mayor Schaaf has made it clear that Black lives are less important to her than white and blue lives. Now we're coming to make it clear we see her complicity in Oakland's racial injustice as violent and grounds for her to RESIGN. "Given what is at stake, as a community we have an obligation to acknowledge and work to correct the wrongs of the past and the legacy they have left behind," Schaaf said in an email to ABC 7, in response to the protest. "At the same time we must resist the urge to judge every new set of circumstances on anything other than the facts at hand." Previous protests from this weekend include a demonstration against an Oakland Sprouts supermarket on Friday afternoon, which organizers say is emblematic of gentrification, and a panel at the San Francisco Public Library against the SFPD's desire to equip officers with Tasers. Demonstrations continue today, with a march in downtown San Francisco at 4:30, which organizers describe as "an opportunity to open connections between tech equity, diversity, and investing in our communities." Several more are planned for tonight and Monday, on the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Click here for more information on the events, including a Google Calendar with the schedule and details. A month after a beloved North Beach sketch artist suffered a fatal random attack at a Market Street bus stop, the San Francisco Police Department says that they have made an arrest in his death. As you might recall, 74-year-old Stuart "Stu" Jackson, who San Franciscans knew as a fixture at places like Caffe Trieste, Stella Pastry and Vesuvio, died on December 12 after he was attacked at Market and Van Ness in a beating SFPD described as "unprovoked." According to Jackson's brother, on December 5 "this perpetrator got up off of a bus stop bench and walked over and hit him in the side of the head." The blow was "so hard that it crushed his skull," his brother said, then as Jackson fell he again hit his head on the pavement. Jackson, who had been headed to a street fair, was instead was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital, but never regained consciousness. Jackson was known for drawing portraits of his fellow cafe patrons, much to their subjects' delight. He was kind of a unique, local character and a lot of people were familiar with him, a friend told the Chron at the time of his death. Stu Jackson, North Beach artist & teacher succumbed to injuries from assault in #SanFrancisco recently. Such a loss. pic.twitter.com/eBeqmMzkTJ The Dregs (@DeanVolker) December 14, 2015 A month after Jackson was assaulted, SFPD released video they said was of the suspect, asking the public's help in identifying the man. The Chron reports that just days after the video was released, they were finally "able to identify the man," and on January 7 arrested 38-year-old Collin R. White at his home in San Francisco. "Officers have yet to determine a motive for the violent attack," the Chron reports, "as White did not rob Jackson and it appears they did not know each other." According to San Francisco District Attorney's Office spokesperson Alex Bastian, White has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury (with an elder abuse enhancement), battery with serious bodily injury, and elder abuse (with an enhancement for causing death). White was arraigned on Thursday, and pled not guilty. As of Monday morning, White remains in San Francisco County Jail and had not posted his bail of $400,000. Previously: Fatal Beating Of North Beach Artist Takes SF To 49 Homicides For 2015 Have You Seen This Market Street Homicide Suspect? Witness says elderly man banged on window of your bus @ Divisadero & Post but driver kept going. #abc7now @SFPD pic.twitter.com/UiywjiOnrZ Katie Utehs (@KatieUtehs) January 16, 2016 According to the San Francisco Police Department, it's still too early to say who was at fault after the driver of a tour bus fatally ran over an elderly pedestrian as he crossed an SF street. The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office today identified the deceased as 82-year-old SF resident Pieter Roell, who was killed as he crossed at Divisidero and Post Streets at around 1 p.m. Saturday. According to witness Frank Zarich, who spoke with ABC7, Roell was crossing Post as he headed south on Divis. The bus driver was driving north on Divis, then turned right onto Post. Witnesses said Roell was banging on the bus window to alert the driver before he was struck, and according to Zarich "at the point that he's banging on the window he's on the driver's side." The old guy was at the intersection, waving his arms at the bus, Zarich told the Chron. "He was looking right at the bus, shouting something and waving his arms." "Based on the light, the pedestrian was walking on a red light, I'm not sure if he entered the intersection on a green light, or not...Then as the bus kept going I saw the guy stuck under the bus being dragged for a few feet and I'm yelling,'Stop, stop, stop,'" Zarich said. "I have no idea why (the driver) didn't see him unless he was looking somewhere else but he must have passed right in front of him," Zarich told the Chron. He wasnt driving fast, but he just kept going. Roell was declared dead at the scene after suffering fatal head injuries when the bus' rear tires ran him over. According to ABC7, the bus was part of the San Francisco Deluxe Sightseeing Tour Bus fleet. Their attorney says that the bus driver "has been with Deluxe Sightseeing for around two years and his mandatory certifications are current." SFPD Lt. Wilfred Williams says that "the tour bus company, as well as the driver, they are cooperating with our investigation at this time." Investigators have also interviewed tour bus riders and witnesses, and say that they are seeking surveillance footage of the intersection. According to Williams, "it is early in the investigation to say who had the right of way." As of yet, the driver has not been cited, but that doesnt mean [the driver] wont be [cited] later, SFPD spokesperson Officer Carlos Manfredi told the Ex. This is the third tour bus crash in San Francisco in the last two months, following a November 13 wreck in Union Square that injured 20 and a December 26 crash on the Embarcadero that injured eight. According to State Senator Jerry Hill, this recent proliferation in crashes indicated that California's tour bus industry needs stricter regulation. We need to look at this and see where the regulations are not adequately providing safety, Hill told the Chron. We want to know what we can do to better enforce and oversee an industry that is growing and may be unsafe. Previously: Tour Bus Driver Fatally Strikes Elderly Man At Post And Divisadero CHP Releases Its Report On City Sightseeing Buses, Finds Multiple Mechanical Problems Double Decker Tour Bus Crashes On The Embarcadero, Injuring Eight It begins easy and to your way! This way you will give to your body the time him necessary to adjust to the exercise and will cause that the sessions are pleasanter. Not to exercise itself too hard: on the other hand, some do not take the intensity of the sufficiently high exercise as to promote the burning fire of calories and to lower of weight. To compare itself with others: If your companion it is losing weight faster than your, that does not mean that there is something bad with you. All bajampos of weight of way different and to different radii. Concntrate in the gains that you are obtaining, not in the one of the other. 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Head of Security Clarence Barclay said the max capacity at the shelter is 80 people. More than 100 sat or stood to get away from the single-digit-degree weather that afternoon. We can give them a place to sleep, and help them stay warm. Were getting more donations of food today, too, Barclay said. Many of those who stay at the shelter are homeless, he added. According to Brad Temeyer, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, the low temps are here to stay for the week, with a chance of slightly warmer air this weekend. Wednesday through Friday highs are predicted to be around 25 degrees during the day. Saturday looks to be a scorcher at 33 degrees. Monday night has 1 to 3 inches of snow in store through Tuesday morning, Temeyer said. Not a lot of wind with this system though, so theres that. At the shelter, men came in bringing stacks of crackers, noodles and other dry foods for those who were hungry. Barclay informed another security officer that a pizza delivery worker would be by soon. When asked who provides the food, he shrugged. "Most of the donations are anonymous," Barclay said. "We're grateful for that." SIOUX CITY | It was a packed crowd that welcomed Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie to Sioux City Sunday evening -- the first time he had visited since throwing his hat into the ring. In his talk, Christie, who is governor of New Jersey, wasted no time deriding President Barack Obama about the recent swap of seven Iranian prisoners for four Americans as a lesson in failed negotiation. At this rate, I wouldnt let Obama help me buy a car, Christie said. Speaking on foreign policy, Christie said the world was on fire, with conflicts in the Middle East cutting the number of democratic nations in that area to lower than when Obama took office. That has created more violence at home, Christie said. Anything is a target for terrorism, he said. ISIS showed us that in San Bernardino. Christie then recalled the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the fear the nation felt during the attacks on the World Trade Center towers, and the unity felt afterward. His wife, Mary Pat Christie, was working in Manhattan near the towers that day. Afterward, the governor opened the floor for questions, taking more than an hour to speak on several issues, including foreign policy, the election, and -- of course -- Donald Trump. Christie said he was against Common Core educational initiatives, which he described as a bad idea. When asked about the war in Syria, Christie said he would institute a no-fly zone in the area. If (Russian President Vladimir Putin) wants to test that and fly in that zone, then you shoot down that plane, Christie said. Christie said he favored expanding treatment for those who suffer from addiction, instead of jail time. He also said he would, on the first day of his presidency, rescind every executive action Obama has made that he finds illegal. The issue of Trump being the current leader in the polls was brought up twice by questioners -- first, why Christie believes he himself still has a shot at the election, and what Christie will do if it comes down to himself and Trump. On the former, Christie said he does not believe the Iowa caucuses are a lost cause for himself. Im not conceding anything for anybody. Im not letting you people off easy, Christie joked. When asked how he could come out on top, Christie said he considered Trump a friend of his for 14 years, and was not afraid to face him. In fact, Christie said he met him through Trumps sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who is a U.S. Court of Appeals judge. She asked me to have dinner with her younger brother. And I said, you mean Donald? Christie told the crowd. I even went to his 2005 wedding. I didnt even get paid to go. Earlier Sunday, Christie visited Milford, Iowa, and held a town hall at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor and Museum in Le Mars, Iowa. SIOUX CITY | Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee will return to campaign in Northwest Iowa in seven events over two days. On Wednesday, Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, will speak at 2 p.m. at the Wall Lake Community Center, 209 West Second St., in Wall Lake, and at 4:15 p.m. at the Cherokee train depot renovation, at 119 S. Fourth St., in Cherokee. On Thursday, Huckabee will speak at 8 a.m. at Siouxland Center for Active Generations, 313 Cook St., in Sioux City; at 10:15 a.m. at Living Center and Habitue Coffeehouse, 112 Central Ave. NW, in Le Mars; at 12:30 p.m. at Interstates Companies, 1520 N. Main Ave., in Sioux Center; at 3 p.m. at Valley Machine Co., 1250 22nd Ave., in Rock Valley; and at 5 p.m. at JARD, Inc., 3149 Nest Ave., in Sheldon. SIOUX CITY | As part of celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, the Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 1421 Geneva St., will have several community leaders and elected officials take part in its planned events -- including singing in the choir. Flora Lee, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said four speakers will present essays on this years theme: A Day of Service. The event begins at 7 p.m., and will last about an hour and a half. All are welcome to attend. We are going to focus on the work that has been done by leaders who served the people in this community, Lee said. Those who have been instrumental in making changes, by being a voice for the disenfranchised. Children have written essays about four local leaders -- Beulah Webb, Sgt. John Rice, Connie Spain and Rabbi Albert Gordon. They were honored with bronze busts outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Transportation Center in October. Were not just focusing on Dr. King, but on local heroes, Lee said. The work they have done, both equity and equality. Back in the day, Blogger was one of the top blogging and website platforms. While its still a well regarded option today, many small businesses need a platform thats more robust and flexible. Thatd be a platform like WordPress. Sure, moving from Blogger to WordPress will provide many benefits, but there are few tasks more dreaded than moving a website. Getting you past that dread and helping you move your site is the purpose of the rest of this article. Thats right. If youre wondering how to move from Blogger to WordPress, the steps below should help you work through the process from beginning to end. Heres What Were Going to Do During the course of this example, youll see how to import the content (posts, pages, links, images and comments) from this Blogger site to the WordPress site shown below it: Step 1 The first thing you need to do is get your new self-hosted WordPress site up and running (these steps will not work with a site hosted on wordpress.com). Once thats done, read through the next section until you get to step 2. Why You Shouldnt Use the WordPress Built-In Blogger Importer One of the cool things about WordPress is the many importing tools that are included. As you can see, a tool for importing a Blogger website is included: Clicking on the Blogger link will open a screen from which you can install a Blogger importer plugin. Once the plugin is installed and activated, youll see this screen: Everything seems to be going smoothly however, once you hit the, Authorize button shown in the image above, youll see this error screen: This happens because, at the time this is being written, the importer plugin has not been updated in a long time and thus its no longer compatible with the way Google works. The solution? Use a plugin that does work with the new Google setup. Heres What You Should Do Instead Step 2 Click on the Plugins menu item on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard. Once you see the screen below, click on the, Add New button at the top. Step 3 On the next screen, enter Blogger Importer Extended in the the search box on the top right and hit return. See Also: Moving From Tumblr to WordPress Step 4 The Blogger Importer Extended plugin should be the first one shown in the left column. Click on the, Install Now button to add it to your WordPress install. Step 5 When you see the screen below, click the Activate Plugin link on the bottom left: Step 6 Next, go back to the Plugins list by clicking on the Plugins menu item on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard. Find the Blogger Importer Extended plugin that you just installed and click the, Start! link beneath the name: Step 7 When you see this screen, click the, OK, lets go! button: Step 8 Now youll be taken to the Google authorize screen where you can let Blogger now that its OK for this WordPress site to access your Blogger site. This is the step where the previous plugin failed. You may well wonder what Google has to do with all this. Google owns Blogger so when you sign into your Blogger site, youre also signing into your Google account. If youre not logged into Google at this stage, do so. Once youre in, click the, Accept button: Step 9 The next step is to select which Blogger site you want to import. In the example below, we only had one site. However, if you have more than one, they will all be shown. Click on the correct site to select it: Step 10 There are a couple of options available when you import your Blogger website. We recommend that you keep both selected as shown below: The Preserve slugs option is especially key as it will assure that the link to each post will retain the name it had when it was on the Blogger site. A posts slug is found at the top of the post editing screen. The highlighted text shown in the image below is an example: Step 11 As you can see below, your Blogger content will now be imported into your WordPress site. The blue bar shows a completed task, the gray bars are tasks still to be done. Note that tasks with, 0/0 displayed in their bar will never turn blue. Step 12 The last step in the import process is to assign a user to your content. This user will be shown as the author of each piece of content. As you see, you can use an existing user or create a new one right there: Step 13 If you see the smiley face, then youve successfully imported the content from your Blogger site. Yay! Results As you can see, our Blogger content now shows up on our WordPress site (yay, again!): Even comments were carried over: Cleaning-Up To make sure that all your content made it over in one piece, there are a few steps you should take: Step 1 During this example run-through, note that some of the imported content was dated to go live in the future instead of being live now. If some of your content is not showing up on your WordPress site, you need to fix that. Start by clicking on the Posts menu item on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard. Youll be taken to a list of your posts: Click on each of your posts and then look at the top right of the post editing screen. If the Scheduled for date is in the future, click the, Edit link to change it: Change the date and/or time as shown below and click the, OK button. Repeat this process for any missing posts, pages, comments and links. Step 2: Formatting Issues Look through your content for any formatting issues and correct them. Step 3: Widgets If you want to import the widgets from your Blogger site, youll have to do so manually. Do so by creating new widgets on your WordPress site and then copying and pasting the content from your Blogger widgets into each. Keeping Your Google Search Rank Finally, lets address your Google search ranking. If youve worked hard to have your Blogger posts ranked highly (i.e. near the top in search results), you dont want all that work to go to waste when you move to WordPress. The easiest way for non-techies to accomplish this is to use one of two plugins created just for this situation. Both offer detailed instructions which you should follow closely as changes need to made on your old Blogger site as well as on your new WordPress one. Blogger 301 Redirect The Blogger 301 Redirect plugin is the one recommended by the folks who created the Blogger Importer Extended plugin that you just used to import your content. For that reason alone, you may want to use this one to hold your search rankings intact. Blogger to WordPress If the previous plugin doesnt work for you, or if the developer stops updating it, you can use the Blogger to WordPress plugin as a backup. Wrapping Up Now that weve shown you how to move from Blogger to WordPress, youre ready to go. Therere a lot of stages, but if you take the process one step at a time, youll find the site migration straightforward and doable. Every small business needs local visibility online to grow. Whether you sell products exclusively online or operate a brick-and-mortar storefront, your local community can become a significant asset (for direct purchasing and as a referral source). In the remote parts of Alaska with limited cell service, you may get away with not having a local online marketing strategy for a few years. For the rest of us, however, local visibility online is a must-have marketing goal. Understanding Your Local Visibility Online Search engine optimization (SEO) drives all business visibility online. There are several types and focuses of SEO practices, and many of them overlap. By focusing on your local presence, you can effectively boost your business rankings in other search types. First, determine your current local SEO presence with an SEO audit. Here are two guides you can use to conduct a simple DIY audit: Improving Your Visibility, One Step at a Time During an audit, you may recognize simple changes that can boost your local visibility online. For instance, if your business has recently changed its name, location, or owner, you may notice that the wrong information pops up in certain listings. These fixes are simple, and can go a long way to enhance your local visibility. Consider these additional tips to make your website stand out: Get listed locally Focus your attention on local-specific listings such as your newspaper and local magazines, then branch out to more universal listings. Try the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and your local Chamber of Commerce, if you havent already. The BBB will boost your online credibility and joining the Chamber of Commerce is a worthwhile business venture online and offline. If youre already a member, review your online listings to make sure they reflect your business accurately. Other directories and listings you should look into include social media sites (from Facebook to LinkedIn), Google, Bing, Angies List, Yellow Pages, CitySearch, MapQuest, and Apple Map (mobile). Create a schedule to update listings Outdated listings dont produce results. Create a review schedule to update listings routinely, and particularly if the business undergoes changes. Keep a master list of places where you are represented online so you dont miss one when you update. Create a standard for listings Local search ranks businesses on consistency across listings using a simple standard called NAP (name, address, phone number). Wherever your business is listed, this information should look the same, so list Henriettas Feed & Supply Co. only in that manner, not as Henriettas Feed and Supply Co. or Henriettas Feed & Supply. Encourage and manage online reviews Online reviews really help local businesses stand out from the crowd. They build credibility, and can promote acquisitions that you may not get through referrals or local listings. Consumers want to see those 4 or 5 stars lit up when they look for a hair salon, restaurant or automotive repair shop. Maintain a consistent social media presence Small businesses often fall into the trap of updating social media pages sporadically. Try to make consistent social media engagement a priority, whether you interact online weekly or twice a month. Social search is gaining traction, and these social media engagements could really boost your visibility in 2016. Some of you may be wondering, Where am I going to get the time to do all of this? Remember that SEO strategy is a series of layered activities. Start with the audit and slowly incorporate these local visibility tips into a business routine. Ask a tech savvy high schooler for some help in return for a resume review or letter of recommendation. BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW January 5, 2016 * This communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of Berlin . Please share this with your Berlin friends and neighbors. If you're not already receiving this news directly by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com . * For current news look for " Berlin , Vermont " on facebook for a constant flow of information. You don't need to be a facebook user to access it, but if you do use facebook, be sure to "Like" it: For historical news look for " Berlin , Vermont Memories" on facebook. *********************** Below you will find: ACT 46 DENIES VERMONT 'S CULTURE, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY Please take the time to read this article and the comments also. http://vtdigger.org/2015/12/21/margaret-maclean-act-46-denies-vermonts-culture-geography-and-history/#comments *** ****** There is once again a petition for the Kellogg Hubbard Library to have a funding request on the Berlin ballot for Town Meeting Day. They are requesting the same amount as last year. There are a few folks going out to collect signatures and a copy of the petition can be found both at the library and at the Berlin Town office. Those on the voter checklist, please stop by to offer support by adding your signature. The 100 signatures need to be gathered by early January to meet the deadline for such submissions. It's a small cost to give all Berlin residents full access to all the services and materials that the library offers. *** *** KOHL'S HIRING Kohl's plans to open in March up across from the Berlin Mall and needs to fill about 100 full and part time hourly positions. Full-time jobs involve supervisory roles that range from merchandising and operations to service areas. Part-time positions include cashiers and customer service workers. Interested applicants can visit KohlsCareers.com for information on available positions and how to apply *** ****** BERLIN OFFICIALS DECRY WEBSITE'S 'DANGEROUS' RATING Pub. 12/31/15 Times Argus by Eric Blaisdell BERLIN Local officials arent happy about a recently posted report that called Berlin the second most dangerous city in the state. They say the report lacks crucial context. The report was written by Chris Kolmar in the infotainment site RoadSnacks.net. Rutland came in as the most dangerous community on the list and Hardwick was No. 5. The list was made by using FBI crime data from 2011 to 2013. Violent crimes are defined as rapes, murders, robberies and aggravated assaults, Kolmar wrote. We only looked at cities that have populations of more than 2,500 people as of 2013, which is the last year the report was available. This left us with a total of 32 cities in Vermont to rank. Finally, we made 2013 factor more heavily than 2012, since more recent crimes are a bigger determining factor in how dangerous a place is, the report read. For Berlin , Kolmar wrote, Located between Barre and Montpelier in central Vermont , Berlin s recent explosion of crime makes it the second most dangerous place to live in the Green Mountain State Between 2011-3, both violent and property crime rates nearly tripled, leaving residents with a 1 in 220 chance of being the victim of a violent crime and a 1 in 20 chance of being the victim of a property crime in 2013. That makes Berlin s 2013 violent crime rate 16 (percent) higher than (No.) 1 Rutland s, so if the trend continues, we can expect to see the town of Berlin top this list in a few years time. Its unclear why FBI data from 2014 wasnt used as that was made available in September. Attempts to contact Kolmar for this story were unsuccessful. In the 2014 crime data, Berlin s violent crime tally fell from 13 incidents in 2013 to four, and property crime such as burglaries and larcenies fell from 143 incidents in 2013 to 116. The report also doesnt take into account three Berlin homicides allegedly committed by Jody Herring this past summer. Herring, 40, of South Barre , accused of fatally shooting Department for Children and Families caseworker Lara Sobel in Barre, as well as three relatives in Berlin . She is facing four counts of murder. Select Board Chairman True Nelson emphasized Wednesday that Berlin is a safe place to live, work and raise a family. Nelson said using the population metric Kolmar used is misleading because, although Berlin has about 2,800 residents, there are many more people in town during the day due to the large number of businesses located in Berlin as well as the hospital. Between shopping and employment, Berlin s population during the day swells greatly, he said. What other town of 2,800 can support three supermarkets? Nelson said he looked at some past town reports and discovered a large majority of the calls to police were made at businesses. He said because Berlin has such a small population, a few incidents can throw off the statistics. Nelson said the police department does a great job. While any crime is unacceptable, he said he is not concerned with the report. Washington County State s Attorney Scott Williams lives in Berlin . Williams said he was surprised at first when he read the report, particularly the statement that residents in town have a 1 in 220 chance of being the victim of a violent crime. That is a skewed number, he said. The majority of our crimes, generally in Washington County but definitely in Berlin , happen to a relatively small population group. ... The 1 in 220 (chance); thats just simply taking the number of people and dividing by the total number of crimes reported. Thats not an accurate representation of any individuals risk to be the victim of a crime. Williams said, for example if one couple is charged with a domestic assault incident, a separate disorderly incident and a later violation of an abuse prevention order, thats three incidents in a year that just upped the crime stats significantly, and involved just two people. He said theres no doubt that crime does occur in Berlin , but the report is not an accurate representation of the data. The report does come with a disclaimer saying, We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where crimes occurred most frequently. Williams said Berlin comes in second or third in the county when it comes to crimes referred to his desk that he reviews to see if charges are warranted, but most are for retail thefts and bad checks; crimes reported by businesses. Berlin Police Chief William Wolfe said while the data is the data, the numbers do not accurately reflect the environment in town. Wolfe said Berlin doesnt deserve to be labeled the second most dangerous town in Vermont and it is a safe place to live, visit and work. He called the report hurriedly put together as it appeared there wasnt much research put into it. Wolfe said he was certain there were other towns and cities in the state where more crime occurs. Wolfes criticism of the RoadSnacks.net isnt the first time the site has come under scrutiny. Other responders to its articles echo the sentiments of those in Berlin , saying the ranking doesnt reflect whats actually happening in town. Some might characterize the sites content as clickbait, or stories and lists designed to be provocative or sensational so that the reader clicks on the story to read it. Nick Johnson, who founded the site with Kolmar , said this to Iowa Public Radio in August, One time we decided to flip the best lists upside down, and publish Where are the Worst Places in Florida ? Instead of Where are the Best? And it was like an immediate hit. We had about 350,000 page views. We were all over the news. Everybody was talking about us. *** *** BERLIN BOARD DEBATES WHAT'S AN 'EVENT' TO BE REGULATED Pub. 12/23/15 Times Argus by David Delcore BERLIN A mud bog event that masqueraded as a birthday party this year has town officials looking to create an ordinance that would give them the power to regulate such events, but they agreed this week that might not be as simple as it sounds. Hoping to avoid a slippery slope, members reviewed a draft ordinance prepared by Town Administrator Dana Hadley before proclaiming it a good start and noting that it needs work. The challenge involves isolating what type of events should require town scrutiny and a $150 fee for a local permit that could include conditions governing things like parking and traffic control, noise and hours of operation. Board members worried the language Hadley proposed was overly broad roping in any event where groups of people will gather to participate or observe. Arguably, that could include town meeting, chicken pie suppers, family reunions and lawn sales. Given the draft ordinances specific reference to sporting events, that would certainly include organized athletics. Would that mean a soccer game over at the school? Select Board member Brad Towne asked, kicking off the discussion Monday that featured more questions than answers. Based on the current wording, Hadley conceded it would. However, board member Jeremy Hansen wondered if simply excluding events on school property some of which are rather large, generate significant traffic and have nothing to do with school from the ordinance would resolve that issue. Before the board had a chance to react to Hansens idea, member Roberta Haskin was asking whether a permit would be required under the draft ordinance for a backyard wedding with perhaps 100 guests. Is that considered an event? she asked. If youre on private property, I dont think we have much say, Hadley replied. And theres the rub. Board members reminded him that the mud bog event that Chairman Ture Nelson noted was billed as a birthday party over the summer was on private property. So too, Towne noted, was the annual carnival that spawned the closest thing the town has to an event ordinance. That amusement ordinance, adopted in 1982, talks about carnivals, circuses and midways, but not much else. As a result, requests for permits have been few and far between, and in most cases voluntary. Complaints involving the mud bog held since 2004 on the Herring Family Farm on Route 12 brought the issue to a head over the summer. Noise and traffic were among the concerns expressed. Organizers applied for an amusement permit they said they didnt need and ultimately never received but hosted the three-day mud bog anyway. The ordinance Hadley drafted is an attempt to clarify the towns ability to regulate special events in the interest of public safety. However, board members wrestled with what would trigger the need to apply for a permit. Whats the distinguishing element? Hansen asked. Is it whats happening, or is it where? Haskin added. Towne suggested the board look for ways to narrow the list of events that potentially would be regulated by the ordinance. Not all of these events are open to the public, he noted a distinction that would allow the town to ignore weddings and family reunions and the like. Is that the distinguishing feature, that its open to the public, or charges a fee? Hansen asked hopefully. Based on those guidelines, Nelson said the mud bog event, which he noted was publicly advertised, likely would require a permit even though it doubled as a birthday party. Hadley agreed that modification was more in keeping with what he had in mind when he drafted the ordinance. I dont want to penalize people who are trying to have a party in their backyard, he said. Hadley volunteered to amend the proposed ordinance to reflect the boards suggestions and to review any similar ordinances in surrounding communities. The board didnt discuss how it would evaluate events such as chicken pie suppers and craft fairs that are open to the public or charge a fee. While the current language would require permits for those types of events, it gives the Select Board the discretion to waive the $150 fee. david.delcore @timesargus.com *** *** PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP BEHIND BERLIN REST STOP PROJECT Pub. 12/12/15 Times Argus by Neal Goswami BERLIN State officials have signed an agreement to create a Vermont Traveler Services Center at the site of a gas station and service center under construction just off Exit 7 on Interstate 89. Gov. Peter Shumlin, Transportation Secretary Chris Cole and Buildings and General Services Commissioner Michael Obuchowski signed the public-private partnership agreement with representatives of Maplewood Ltd. on Friday morning at a news conference. The 24-hour Vermont Traveler Services Center will be the states first, officials said. Heres the good news for Vermont taxpayers: Its going to serve, has the capacity to serve, more than 5,000 customers a day, Shumlin said at the construction site. Its going to be open 24 hours a day. Youll be able to stop and get not only all the services that youd expect at a rest area, but also all kinds of information about hotels, motels, tourist destinations in the area. The facility will be staffed by workers trained by the states Department of Tourism and Marketing. And guess what, its not going to cost Vermont taxpayers one single cent. This is really the first rest area and traveler information center thats going to be absolutely free to Vermont taxpayers, he said. The cost is going to be borne by the owners, the developers here at Maplewood . The state, under the agreement, will install and maintain signs on the interstate and Route 62 advertising the facility. This is an example of what we can do when were being creative to make sure that were serving the public, providing services, but doing it without costing taxpayers money, Shumlin said. Wayne Lamberton, a partner in Maplewood , said the $5.7 million, 9,000-square-foot facility will feature a diner and be powered by a 500-kilowatt solar installation. The facility will also count all vehicle and pedestrian traffic for reporting to the state and include an interactive information kiosk and courtesy phone that allows travelers to connect with additional hospitality services and area attractions. Im excited that the governor and the administration has shared our vision for how we can provide traveler services to the taxpayers of the state of Vermont . Im excited about the project, Lamberton said. It wont cost the taxpayers any money, which is a big step. Obuchowski said the model could be used for other facilities and allows the state to create service centers without the traditional costs. Its a situation in which entrepreneurs and the state of Vermont share the risk and share the reward, Obuchowski said. I want to thank the governor for letting us pursue private-public partnerships, because if we didnt have that opportunity, we certainly do not have enough money to build these projects ourselves. Its an example of Vermonters working together for the mutual benefit of all parties. Lamberton said the facility is expected to be open next fall in time for the foliage season. neal.goswami @timesargus.com BERLIN NEWS TO KNOW November 4, 2015 * This communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of Berlin . Please share this with your Berlin friends and neighbors. If you're not already receiving this news directly by email, send an email to request this to corinnestridsberg@gmail.com . * For current news look for " Berlin , Vermont " on facebook for a constant flow of information. You don't need to be a facebook user to access it, but if you do use facebook, be sure to "Like" it: For historical news look for " Berlin , Vermont Memories" on facebook. *********************** Of note: Don't forget that Monday, November 9th musicians Richard Wood and Gordon Belsher of Prince Edward Island will be performing at the Berlin Congregational Church, 1808 Scott Hill Road 7:30pm $15. Call 229-9504 TAX PAYMENT DUE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH China Moon Express - now open at the Berlin Mall, across from Bath & Body Works. Below you will find: CLARIFICATION TAX SALE POSTPONED CITRUS FRUIT ORDERS FOR U-32 MUSIC DEPT. ANNUAL SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR - CORRECTION OF HOURS SCHOOL BOARD & SELECTBOARD TOGETHER FOR MEETING VETERANS DAY ZONING REVISIONS AND PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CHANGE LEGO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP AT NORWICH UNIV. - FREE NEXT TAX PAYMENT DUE NOVEMBER 17TH MONTPELIER WANTING TO REGULATE BERLIN POND KEN SQUIER PROGRAM REBROADCAST HISTORIC REGISTERS HEADS UP - BAKED GOOD DONATIONS NEEDED LATER THIS MONTH THE RIVER OF LIGHT 2015 PARK ON MUZZY ROAD RECOGNITION OF MASTER SGT . MILLER MALL DENIED TAX BREAK FOR KOHL'S *********************** CLARIFICATION There have been several who have asked if I'm the one in charge of the Berlin Front Porch Forum. I am NOT. The only involvement I have with Front Porch Forum is to now and then post items, whether for myself, as the Assistant Town Clerk, and occasionally I'll post an item for somebody else and note that in the post. This "Berlin News to Know" email I have been sending out for many years and do so on a totally voluntary basis, whenever I can find the time. I also manage the " Berlin , Vermont " facebook page which has current news and the " Berlin , Vermont Memories" facebook page which is historical news. - Corinne Stridsberg *** ****** TAX SALE POSTPONED The tax sale scheduled on Thursday, November 05, 2015 at the Berlin Town office has been postponed. Please contact the Town Treasurer / Tax Collector with any questions. treasurer@berlinvt.org *** *** CITRUS FRUIT ORDERS FOR U-32 MUSIC DEPT. Citrus fruit orders, a fundraiser for the U-32 Music Department, can still be submitted online but don't delay. U-32 is expected to receive the orders between Dec 1st & 11th. Specific students can be selected to receive the credit or with no student chosen from the list, the money raised will go toward their scholarship fund. www.fruitorder.com U-32 ID#834899 *** *** ANNUAL SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR - CORRECTION OF HOURS Please note, the closing time of the book fair was incorrectly stated previously, the only day the book fair is open until 8pm is on November 6th. The following week the book fair closes at 6pm each night. Shop in person at the book fair in the school Learning Center November 6th 8am - 8pm and November 9th-13th 8am - 6pm . All proceeds go toward building the school library collection and classroom library collections. *** *** SCHOOL BOARD & SELECTBOARD TOGETHER FOR MEETING To discuss school funding and its effect on property taxes, the Selectboard will be attending the next Berlin Elementary School Board meeting on Monday, November 9th, 2015 *** *** VETERANS DAY Many thanks to all the Veterans and their families for the sacrifices they have and do make. In Montpelier on Wednesday, Nov. 11th the Veterans Day Parade will be at 10am Reminder - Berlin Town Offices will be closed on 11/11/15 On Veterans Day many restaurants and companies thank veterans by providing them with discounts or a free meal. http://themilitarywallet.com/veterans-day-free-meals-and-discounts *** *** ZONING REVISIONS AND PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING CHANGE Revisions to Berlin Zoning & Subdivision Regulations will be presented Wednesday, November 11th 7pm at Berlin Elementary School . Residents are encouraged to attend this interactive meeting where your questions are welcome! Also note the Planning Commission second meeting of the month will be the 18th (instead of the 25th) at the Town Office at 6pm *** *** LEGO LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP AT NORWICH UNIV. - FREE First LEGO League Inaugural Vermont State Championship event, Sunday, November 15th. Norwich University , Shapiro Field House. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free and open to the public. National robotics competition for 9- to 14-year-olds. Come and see students compete in this interactive robotics and innovation activity and visit other related points of interest on campus. STEM -related exhibits begin after noon *** *** NEXT TAX PAYMENT DUE NOVEMBER 17TH In order to meet this deadline, payments should be brought to the Treasurer at the town office no later than the 17th at 4:30pm or they can be left in the deposit box outside the front door (which will be checked Tuesday morning). Payments can also be postmarked (not an office meter but postmarked by the post office) by November 17th. Payments not made will incur a late fee of 8% penalty and 1% interest. The Treasurers office is open five days a week (Monday through Thursday 8am to 4:30pm and on Friday 8am to 4pm ). The next payments are due Feb. 17th & May 17th. *** ****** MONTPELIER WANTING TO REGULATE BERLIN POND From Montpelier "Berlin Pond - Discussion of a possible city charter change related to regulation of the pond is scheduled for the Nov. 18 City Council meeting. The state Supreme Court ruled the city doesnt have the authority to regulate public use of the pond, which serves as the citys drinking water supply, and the city is seeking to get that authority, Fraser said." 11/3/15"Berlin Pond - Discussion of a possible city charter change related to regulation of the pond is scheduled for the Nov. 18 City Council meeting. The state Supreme Court ruled the city doesnt have the authority to regulate public use of the pond, which serves as the citys drinking water supply, and the city is seeking to get that authority, Fraser said." *** *** KEN SQUIER PROGRAM REBROADCAST "Ken Squier, His Life...So Far", will be rebroadcast on Thursday, Nov 19, 6:57 p.m. on Vermont PBS. Program runs 70 minutes. *** ****** HISTORIC REGISTERS At the final meeting of the year on Tuesday, November 24th, the Berlin Historical Society will welcome Devin Colman, State Architectural Historian at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation to explain how structures get on to the historic registers and any implications of them being on those registers. The meeting will start at 7pm although we invite you to come at 6:30pm to have the chance to look at some photos and other materials. The Historical Society will not be meeting in December, January, or February but are considering hosting some open houses. Please let us know if this would be of interest to you. To stop by the Historical Society, you may find us there by chance with the "Open" sign on the door or you're most welcome to contact us to make an appointment - day, evening & weekend times are possible. Our phone is 552-8804 and email is historicalsociety@berlinvt.org *** *** HEADS UP - BAKED GOOD DONATIONS NEEDED LATER THIS MONTH Carole Lacasse of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Berlin Volunteer Fire Department is looking for baked good donations for their food booth at the Winter Festival of Vermont Crafters at the Barre Auditorium which is held the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving. YOUR help is very important as many bakers are needed to make this a successful event. Baked goods can be whatever you enjoy making - cupcakes, cookies, squares, breads. Breads may end up being sold whole or by the slice. Please drop off baked goods at the Fire Dept. on Friday, Nov 27th or Saturday, Nov 28th. Don't let transportation be an issue as Carole is usually able to pick items from those who can't get over to the station on Friday the 27th if you plan with her in advance. You can reach Carole at 229-9504 The funds raised have been used in a variety of ways over the years - after Tropical Storm Irene three complete wet suits were purchased, there have also been tools purchased, boots & gloves, turnout gear, stove & refrigerator for fire house, etc. It would be greatly appreciated if you can do a little extra baking to help out. *** *** THE RIVER OF LIGHT 2015 Time to mark those calendars for The River of Light 2015 which will be held Saturday, December 5th from 5-6pm in Waterbury . More details: https://ariveroflightinwaterbury.wordpress.com/ *** *** PARK ON MUZZY ROAD (this is from Selectboard member Jeremy Hansen) After the FEMA buyout of a flood-damaged property on the northwestern corner of Muzzy Road and Route 12, the Town of Berlin http://bit.ly/1XNeDni I'm also getting feedback from students at Berlin Elementary to come up with a name for the park. We're currently calling it " applied for and received a grant to convert the property into a publicly-usable space. (Please note that the conditions of the FEMA buyout prevent the Town from selling the property.) The town has incurred no cost, and will not have any expenses for the project for at least three years. The park will be under construction soon, and I've posted the initial sketch for the design here:I'm also getting feedback from students at Berlin Elementary to come up with a name for the park. We're currently calling it " Muzzy Road Park ", but other suggestions have come in, too. If you have ideas, please send them along to me. - Jeremy Hansen hansen.selectboard@gmail.com *** ****** RECOGNITION OF MASTER SGT . MILLER Master Sgt. Richard Miller, a machinist technician for the 158th Fighter Wing has created a reusable tool that allows a single person to fix a structural issue on F-16s. This new process saves the U.S. Air Force more than $33,000 per fix. Join me in congratulating Richard Miller. He is a U-32 graduate, Class of '82. He also lived in Berlin for many years as adult. See further details: https://www.dvidshub.net/news/179285/vtang-airman-bores-through-corrosion#.Vjq5C36rRUS *** ****** MALL DENIED TAX BREAK FOR KOHL'S Pub. 11/4/15 Times Argus by David Delcore BERLIN Unwilling to ignore the plain language of a voter-approved tax stabilization policy, the Select Board unanimously agreed this week that owners of the Berlin Mall will have to pay full freight for the Kohls department store that is under construction and scheduled to open in February. Though the Kohls project met every other criterion in the policy, which has been used three times since voters approved it in 2011, board members agreed some reluctantly that it clearly didnt meet one of them. The fact that construction was underway weeks before representatives of Berlin Mall LLC requested a tax break for the $4.85 million project proved to be what board Chairman Ture Nelson termed a fatal flaw. Mall owner Ken Simon and lawyer Charles Storrow sought to downplay the significance of a deadline they missed during what they characterized as a chaotic quest to keep Kohls from bolting amid uncertainty involving a state land use permit that the District 5 Environmental Commission finally issued in late July. The stabilization request was submitted a few weeks after work on the six-month construction project had started. Board members agreed that was a problem given the policy that requires all applications for tax breaks be received and approved before construction begins. I dont see anything that gives us discretion to waive that point, said Nelson, who invited Storrow and Simon to make a case to the contrary. Storrow did his best, pitching the glitch as a no harm, no foul oversight the board could ignore without requiring any adjustment to property values that were set in April. The requested stabilization agreement like the one the mall received for the recent Wal-Mart expansion would phase in the assessed value of the freestanding Kohls project over five years, incrementally increasing the tax bill for the mall property. This year, Storrow said, the mall is paying nearly $300,000 in property taxes including roughly $70,000 to the town and that figure would increase even if the stabilization agreement were approved. This isnt a matter of going backward, he said. This is a matter of not going forward as quickly as otherwise would be the case. After listening to Storrow and Simon, Nelson said he was sympathetic but not persuaded. I just dont see any legal way around it, he said of the policy. Select Board member Pete Kelley said he was as conflicted as Nelson with respect to the malls predicament, but wasnt prepared to ignore the policy. Somebody took the time to make these rules (and) to make these laws, and I think it would be a shame if this board watered those laws and rules down to something that was subject to our personal opinion at the time, he said, suggesting that would be a dangerous precedent. Storrow didnt dispute the policys requirements. It is in there. It is written down, but what, as a practical matter, really is the harm in terms of the policy itself? he asked, acknowledging that granting the request might invite criticism from residents. Board member Jeremy Hansen said the policy couldnt be clearer. This is about as explicit a rule as can possibly be written, he said. According to Hansen, others including the mall have been able to successfully apply for stabilization agreements, and he saw no reason to bend the rules to accommodate a late request. This is supposed to be an incentive, not a pat on the back saying: Good job, thanks for coming, said Hansen, who voted against the last two stabilization requests based on his view they amounted to little more than taxpayer-funded subsidies for projects that were going to happen anyway. Simon, who apologized for the delay and urged the board to consider the circumstances that led to it, politely accepted the outcome. I think you could have done something differently, but I respect your decision, he said after the board approved Hansens motion to reject the application. Based on the boards action, the full assessed value of the new store will be added to the mall propertys $14.9 million appraisal for the purposes of calculating the municipal portion of its property tax bill next year. Had the stabilization request been approved, only 10 percent of the stores value would have been added to the malls assessment next year. That figure would have increased to 20 percent in 2017, 40 percent in 2018, 60 percent in 2019 and 80 percent in 2020. In 2021, the mall would have been taxed for municipal purposes based on the full fair market value of the store. david.delcore @timesargus.com This communication is put together and distributed on a volunteer basis by resident Corinne Stridsberg simply in an effort to share information and build community, it is not from the town of friends and neighbors. If you're not already receiving this news directly by email, send an email to request this to " on facebook for a constant flow of information. You don't need to be a facebook user to access it, but if you do use facebook, be sure to "Like" it: at the school. The discussion agenda includes "Form a Study Committee With the Other 5 Washington Central School Districts to Analyze the Advisability of Forming a Union School District Under Act 46" as well as discussion of the Budget Process for 2015-2016. Also, it looks like there may be a vacancy on the school board. Follow this link for the agenda. I will post again when the pick-your-own date is set. It is weather dependent, heavy rain the night before or on picking day could postpone the event so stay tuned! The picking hours on the Sunday to be determined are 9am-5pm. I will post again when the pick-your-own date is set. It is weather dependent, heavy rain the night before or on picking day could postpone the event so stay tuned! Questions? Feel free to ask, we've been going for over 25 years! Enjoy this link to a story Julie Kelley of WCAX did a couple years ago which included Barb & Bob Chappelle and my daughter and grandson. There are also pre-picked 50lb bags of potatoes (chefs, bakers, unclassifieds) you can purchase at the field and on an on-going basis at their warehouse. Picking tip - if you'll be picking a large quantity, pick into smaller containers such as 5-gal buckets and have your burlap bags off to the side in the vicinity of the scales and dump a couple of your full buckets into each of the bags. You'll be able to bring your vehicle over near the scales after you've had the potatoes weighed and you've paid to load up. Bring your own buckets, crates, or burlap bags. Dress your feet for walking in the dirt. You may want a pair of gloves. The digger gets the potatoes up onto the ground surface and you reach down and pick the potatoes you want. Not sure of the exact cost per pound this year but I'm recalling maybe 35 cents per pound last year. They grow more than one type of potato, however, I believe it's the "Reba" white potato that is always available for pick your own. You can pick any quantity you wish, whether a couple of buckets or hundreds of pounds. Pick for yourself, your friends & family, neighbors or perhaps a church dinner coming up. We've even had kids pick as a way to raise funds for a school field trip by selling 10lb bags to folks who pre-ordered from them. In the past it's been either the same Sunday as Tunbridge Fair or sometimes the following Sunday. It's running a bit late this year, end of Sept/first of Oct as Mother Nature caused the planting to be later than usual. Pick your own potatoes (behind the digger) at one of the Chappelle fields in Williamstown happens just one Sunday - it's my favorite day of the year! (seriously!!) - DATE NOT YET SET Pick your own potatoes (behind the digger) at one of the Chappelle fields in Williamstown happens just one Sunday - it's my favorite day of the year! (seriously!!) - DATE NOT YET SET In the past it's been either the same Sunday as Tunbridge Fair or sometimes the following Sunday. It's running a bit late this year, end of Sept/first of Oct as Mother Nature caused the planting to be later than usual. You can pick any quantity you wish, whether a couple of buckets or hundreds of pounds. Pick for yourself, your friends & family, neighbors or perhaps a church dinner coming up. We've even had kids pick as a way to raise funds for a school field trip by selling 10lb bags to folks who pre-ordered from them. Not sure of the exact cost per pound this year but I'm recalling maybe 35 cents per pound last year. They grow more than one type of potato, however, I believe it's the "Reba" white potato that is always available for pick your own. Bring your own buckets, crates, or burlap bags. Dress your feet for walking in the dirt. You may want a pair of gloves. The digger gets the potatoes up onto the ground surface and you reach down and pick the potatoes you want. Picking tip - if you'll be picking a large quantity, pick into smaller containers such as 5-gal buckets and have your burlap bags off to the side in the vicinity of the scales and dump a couple of your full buckets into each of the bags. You'll be able to bring your vehicle over near the scales after you've had the potatoes weighed and you've paid to load up. There are also pre-picked 50lb bags of potatoes (chefs, bakers, unclassifieds) you can purchase at the field and on an on-going basis at their warehouse. Many of us have said the education system needs to change. I saw the posting below on Front Porch Forum and looked on line for a trailerof the 90 minute film "Most Likely To Succeed" and immediately noted Sir Ken Robinson in it who I've enjoyed listening to on some TED Talks. The free public screening at U-32 will be Sept. 16th All are welcome, no matter where you live or what school you or your children or your neighbors' children go to. The issues affect all of us alike. The movie runs for 90 minutes. We're reserving a hard-stop 30 minutes afterwards to talk about it as interactively (but also as coherently) as possible. We're not going to the trouble because we buy into everything the film contains. We're showing the film because a) it is a highly accomplished piece of work, b) it shows what some of our teachers and administrators have been up to in their professional development, c) it conveys a sense of the most advanced thinking on education in the U.S. at present, and d) it enables us to launch the discussions we need to start having among ourselves and with you, the public, in order to develop proficiency-based graduation requirements, the Next Big Thing on our agenda. U-32 and Washington Central Supervisory Union are holding a free public screening of director Greg Whiteley's education documentary "Most Likely To Succeed" in the U-32 auditorium on the evening of Wednesday 16 September. Feeling ground down by property tax bills, governance battles, back-to-school shopping, maybe even by the very fact of being back in school? Please join us to reconnect with the sense of excitement and uplift that education ought to be about. . The Agenda for this Caucus is as follows: 1. Election of Town Committee 2. Election of Officers by the Town Committee 3. Election of Following the caucus, we will be discussing Bernie Sanders' presidential run, and how to bring his "political revolution" to the state level. Please attend if you're concerned about income inequality, climate change, or getting big money out of politics! . The Agenda for this Caucus is as follows: I. Election of Town Committee II. Election of Officers by the Town Committee All Republican voters of the Town of Berlin, Washington County are hereby notified, in accordance with 17 V.S.A. Section 2303, to meet in caucus on 17, September, 2015 at the Berlin Town Offices at Many Americans don't know how to dispose of unused medications and throw them away or flush them down the toilet, which could lead to potential safety and health hazards. Medications will be labeled if they can safely be flushed down the toilet. Many Americans don't know how to dispose of unused medications and throw them away or flush them down the toilet, which could lead to potential safety and health hazards. Medications will be labeled if they can safely be flushed down the toilet. . Dispose of those prescription drugs no longer needed. Some studies show that people who abuse prescription drugs get them from home medicine cabinets, which may have medications left over from previous prescriptions. Elderly people may get confused by the multiple medications in their cabinets and some people could develop a resistance to antibiotics by attempting to self-medicate with out-of-date pills. member. All adult members must pass a FBI background check as part of the application process to ensure the safety of all of our members. also has opportunities for adults ! Adult members have a wide variety of jobs to specialize in. Some serve as instructors and mentors to cadets, others serve as pilots, radio operators, Chaplains, public affairs officers, legal officers, information technology specialists, etc. There is a niche for just about anyone who is willing to volunteer their time and serve their community as a ) and enjoy many free aerospace educational opportunities ranging from receiving lesson plans to participating in a teacher orientation flight aboard one of our Cessna aircraft. This unique membership category is designed for educators or others involved in promoting aerospace education in classrooms, museums, or other youth organizations. To stop by the Historical Society at another time, you may find us there by chance with the "Open" sign on the door or you're most welcome to contact us to make an appointment - day, evening & weekend times are possible. Our phone is 552-8804 and email is historicalsociety@berlinvt.org yet for agendas, minutes, and notices, please speak up if you'd like to be included. While it's not necessary to become a member to join us at the meetings, if any matters arise which require a vote, only dues paying members may vote. Dues are $10 for the year. Members also may purchase "A Place To Pass Through, If you're not on our email list yet for agendas, minutes, and notices, please speak up if you'd like to be included. While it's not necessary to become a member to join us at the meetings, if any matters arise which require a vote, only dues paying members may vote. Dues are $10 for the year. Members also may purchase "A Place To Pass Through, If you're not on our email list yet for agendas, minutes, and notices, please speak up if you'd like to be included. While it's not necessary to become a member to join us at the meetings, if any matters arise which require a vote, only dues paying members may vote. Dues are $10 for the year. Members also may purchase "A Place To Pass Through, to have some time to look at the slideshow we'll have going each of these nights on the big screen, and flip through some of the scrapbooks and materials we'll have out on the tables. The meeting itself will be in the meeting room area at the Town office. and thought how I really need to find the time to look more thoroughly through it. Although I've read numerous times the work in progresshas on this topic I am always looking for more details. I had the most incredible experience at the Berlin Historical Society. I looked around as I often do, always a little daunted by the number of projects I would like to delve into. I reached out for a binder regarding the postal history of I flipped through the binder, a typed page caught my eye and the name "Staples" in the top line jumped out at me. I was looking at a transcribed letter, the original Norb purchased back in August 1999 from a person with the Vermont Philatelic Society. ( www.vermontps.org ) The original letter is described as follows: "This is a folded letter which looks like it was sealed by a red wax. This was 'carried' outside the mails, i.e., as a favor by a traveler carrying a note to another person on his journey. In many cases, it was an excuse to stop and get some food or drink." that Joseph had just made to see family and friends. I'm very excited to have several names to now help me with my family research endeavors. . Peter's second child, Orson (my 2nd great grandfather) had just been born in June of 1816. The letter talks about a trip down to and has made a difference in many ways over the years in our community. Today had me both excited and in tears that Norb is responsible for my being able to read a letter from my ancestors written 199 years ago. Amazing!! Thank you Norb! he was able to find some old letters and also spent time acquiring postal cancellations during the time periods of our various . Norb has been a stamp collector since he was 10 years old. When he retired here to As soon as I got home I sent an email to Norb to let him know I found the transcribed letter, the connection, and how much I appreciated that his keen eye had returned this letter to For anybody not familiar with the WDEV Trading Post, please take the time to read the story at the following link. The Trading Post is quite the local treasure and many people have a story of something they've found or the speed in which they've sold something through the airwaves of WDEV. This is also the station to turn to during times of emergency. Hadley described the extension as a formality that would buy the town time it needs for the water system to be finished and for favorable financing through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to become available. Meanwhile, the board authorized Nelson to sign an amendment that will delay until January the due date for more than $400,000 in state planning loans obtained at the start of the water project. The loans were originally due to be repaid by last month, but delaying will let the town roll those costs into the federal financing for the project once work is complete. At a minimum, the new security system will include the installation of a key card access system for the police department, though Wolfe told the board it might be worth installing similar card-activated locks for the rest of the municipal office building. He also suggested surveillance cameras. In other business Wednesday, board members authorized Town Administrator Dana Hadley to work with Wolfe on the details of a plan to upgrade the security system at the town offices. They also agreed to request a five-month extension relating to a series of state planning loans obtained for the $4 million municipal water system that is under construction. Responding to a safety-related concern raised by board member Roberta Haskin, Wolfe said those who attempt to collect cash from motorists while standing on the narrow median at the intersection of Route 62 and Paine Turnpike cant be asked to move just because cars and trucks are whizzing by. As long as they stay out of the limited access highway and dont do something illegal, the law is on their side, he said. arent as popular with panhandlers as they once were. Wolfe told the board a couple of arrests were made at that corner. That might account for why Chairman Ture Nelson said complaints seem to have subsided and some spots like the entrance to the According to Wolfe, those who cross the line can be arrested for reasons ranging from disturbing the peace to simple assault. Some have been arrested since the ordinance was first proposed, and Wolfe said his officers have been keeping an eye on intersections that are popular among panhandlers. I really think that the majority of what these folks are doing is protected constitutionally, he said. Although many might not like the look of people holding cardboard signs asking for money at several high-traffic intersections, and some may even be intimidated by their presence, Wolfe said that isnt reason enough to force the beggars to move on or fine them. Wolfe agreed this week, advising the board to tread lightly and echoing Halperts observation that existing laws cover much of the conduct the revised ordinance would regulate. Halpert recommended the removal of several constitutionally questionable provisions of the draft ordinance, including one that would have required panhandlers to obtain town permits. He also noted that much of what remained was probably redundant. Like Halpert, Wolfe questioned the need to regulate public soliciting while sympathizing with the boards desire to curtail some of the reported behaviors that prompted members to propose the ordinance in March. Drafted in response to complaints about aggressive panhandling, the ordinance had already been heavily edited by the towns attorney, Rob Halpert, and on Wednesday Police Chief William Wolfe offered his 2 cents. Drafted in response to complaints about aggressive panhandling, the ordinance had already been heavily edited by the towns attorney, Rob Halpert, and on Wednesday Police Chief William Wolfe offered his 2 cents. Like Halpert, Wolfe questioned the need to regulate public soliciting while sympathizing with the boards desire to curtail some of the reported behaviors that prompted members to propose the ordinance in March. Halpert recommended the removal of several constitutionally questionable provisions of the draft ordinance, including one that would have required panhandlers to obtain town permits. He also noted that much of what remained was probably redundant. Wolfe agreed this week, advising the board to tread lightly and echoing Halperts observation that existing laws cover much of the conduct the revised ordinance would regulate. Although many might not like the look of people holding cardboard signs asking for money at several high-traffic intersections, and some may even be intimidated by their presence, Wolfe said that isnt reason enough to force the beggars to move on or fine them. I really think that the majority of what these folks are doing is protected constitutionally, he said. According to Wolfe, those who cross the line can be arrested for reasons ranging from disturbing the peace to simple assault. Some have been arrested since the ordinance was first proposed, and Wolfe said his officers have been keeping an eye on intersections that are popular among panhandlers. That might account for why Chairman Ture Nelson said complaints seem to have subsided and some spots like the entrance to the MONTPELIER Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott became the fourth candidate to jump into the gubernatorial race Tuesday, telling supporters in an email that he will focus on boosting the states economy. After much reflection, many conversations and much encouragement, I will be a candidate for Governor in 2016, the Barre native wrote. Let me be very clear, Ive made this decision because I believe too many families and employers are on the economic edge. For them to thrive and our state to prosper we must revitalize the fundamentals of a strong, healthy economy that expands the middle class, lifts wages, and attracts working families, entrepreneurs and new jobs. The 57-year-old Scott, a Berlin resident in his third term as lieutenant governor, has been publicly weighing a run for the top job after Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin announced in June that he would not seek a fourth two-year term. Scotts deliberate approach to determining whether he would run for governor had some questioning his desire. In an interview Tuesday morning, Scott said there is no question about his commitment to running or his desire to serve as governor. For those that say, Im not sure he has the fire in the belly, they dont know me very well, he said. Im competitive. You cant be in business for 30 years without being competitive. You cant race as long as I have for 30 or 35 years and be successful without being competitive, the stock car racer added. If elected governor, Scott would likely have to give up racing. He holds the record for career wins in the Late Model division at Thunder Road International Speedbowl in Barre Town . Scotts entry into the race will create a Republican primary. Former Wall Street executive Bruce Lisman announced his candidacy via email last week. The 2014 GOP nominee, Scott Milne, is also thinking of running again, as is 2012 nominee Randy Brock. Scott had previously said he was likely to run but needed to find a way to separate himself from his construction firm, DuBois Construction, which has received state contracts. On Tuesday, Scott said he is still finalizing a plan to do that. Its been something that Ive been working on with many attorneys and others to try and find the best path forward to make sure that the business is on a firm foundation so that my employees will feel secure, and to be honest, to have something that I can come back to, he said. Thats everything to me. I dont have stocks and bonds and other things for my later retirement. My retirement is in the business that I co-own. Scott said he has still not put all the pieces of the puzzle together concerning his business but feels good enough now to move forward with a campaign. That campaign, he said, will be focused on the states economy. Scott, largely viewed as a moderate, has used the platform of the lieutenant governors office to call for making Vermont a more affordable place to live. But policies and ideas on how to accomplish that have been lacking in his current role. Voters are likely to demand more specifics from Scott and other candidates looking to succeed Shumlin. Scott said he will be presenting his own ideas and policies for voters as the campaign progresses. I think we have an affordability crisis on our hands. I think we have to come to that reality, that we cant spend more than were taking in. Its going to take some fiscal responsibility, he said. We havent paid enough attention to the economy. We havent been competing the way we should in order to survive. So, I feel comfortable in going out to compete and creating that excitement. Part of Scotts economic message will be resisting new taxes. Whoever becomes governor has to deal with the reality that were taxed to the maximum and we have to grow the economy in order to bring revenues in more organically and naturally, he said. Scott cast himself as a steady leader who has the experience to hold the top job, seemingly contrasting himself with the more brash and bold Shumlin. My exterior is very calm. I think that is appealing to some, that Im steady. I dont make knee-jerk reactions unless I need to, he said. Those around me know that Im very quick to make a decision. I stick to what I say, and I follow through. That will become more clear as the campaign transpires. Scott has been a member of Shumlins Cabinet but has been more vocal in criticizing the governor in the past year. The email announcement said Scott plans to assemble a campaign team in the coming months and hold a formal campaign kickoff event later in the fall. Scott said he has no intention of engaging in campaigning yet. We will have election fatigue before you know it, he said. Its incumbent upon us to slow this down just a little bit so people pay attention. Before his election in 2010 as lieutenant governor, Scott served 10 years in the Senate representing Washington County . He attended Spaulding High School in Barre and the University of Vermont . There are many fitness goals out there that we desire. Some of us want to be leaner and others wish to put on muscle mass. The thing is, for you to achieve your fitness goals, you need to The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. More than once, Ive expressed my distaste for the cliche that Buenos Aires is the Paris of the South, when its really a New World immi... TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas legislation that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the state's anti-discrimination statute is drawing opposition, with critics worried the measure could lead to more lawsuits. The measure, which was the subject of a legislative hearing Thursday, would make it illegal to fire or evict someone for being gay or transgender, and ensure equal access to public accommodation, the Wichita Eagle reported. Supporters of the bill consider it necessary because the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Kansas routinely faces discrimination. Opponents say the measure would make Kansas residents who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds vulnerable to lawsuits and that transgender women would be allowed to enter women's bathrooms. Current law shields Kansas residents from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on race, religion, color, sex, disability, family status, national origin or ancestry. The new legislation specifically states that public accommodation shall not refer to religious organizations, the measure's sponsor, Democratic Rep. John Carmichael of Wichita, said after Thursday's hearing. Sandra Meade, a Navy veteran and transgender woman who heads the LGBT rights group Equality Kansas, warned during the hearing that opponents would use fear of predators in bathrooms to kill the bill and asked them to "reject that demagoguery on its face." "Coming out is risky," Meade said. "And it's risky in a conservative environment because of the amount of demagoguery that's going on." Meade added that requiring transgender women to use men's bathrooms puts them at risk. But Kellie Fiedorek, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a national group focused on religious freedom issues, insisted "these laws restrict everyone's freedom." She cited the potential financial consequences of a Washington florist being sued under that state's anti-discrimination law for refusing to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. "And if she loses her case, she will not only lose her business, but she will lose her entire life savings, her home. She will lose everything because of a law like this," Fiedorek said. Rep. John Whitmer, R-Wichita, said he worried that the legislation would "take rights from one group of people and bestow them to another." LUCEDALE, Miss. - A documented member of the Latin Kings street gang allegedly used a hammer to beat to death a transgender teen who once considered him a boyfriend. A George County grand jury indicted 28-year-old Joshua Vallum in the killing of 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson, of Theodore, Alabama. Williamson's death made national news last year when Caitlyn Jenner remembered her during an acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe award at the ESPY awards. The Sun Herald reports Vallum was transferred Friday from the East Central Mississippi Correctional Facility to the Jackson County jail to undergo a mental evaluation. He was to return to the prison in Meridian once the examination was completed. Vallum has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the case. The grand jury indicted him on the lessor charge of murder, which carries a maximum penalty of up to life in prison. His trial is set for Feb. 1. Vallum's attorney, David Futch, declined to comment. According to the indictment, Williamson died sometime between May 30, 2015 and June 2, 2015. District Attorney Tony Lawrence would not say Friday whether the case was still being looked at as a possible hate crime. "This investigation is still ongoing and I cannot comment on what additional charges, if any, will arise out of that," Lawrence said. Under state law, a hate crime is defined as a criminal offense against someone based on one's "race, color, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, national origin or gender." Federal law defines a hate crime as a crime committed against someone or someone's property due to one's bias against "race, religion, disability, ethnic orientation or sexual orientation." The Department of Justice has been involved in the investigation, with the George County Sheriff's Department heading up the probe. Sheriff's Capt. Ben Brown said last year that Vallum and Williamson had known one another for nine to 11 months. Brown also said he had been told Vallum knew Williamson was a transgender woman, but he said that remained under investigation. George County launched an investigation after Vallum's father called to say his son had told him he had killed someone. Deputies found Williamson's partially-decomposed body on June 1 in the rural Rocky Creek community. Williamson was among 21 transgender women killed in the United States last year compared 12 in 2014, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. A controversial bill that would have made it a punishable offense for men to come out as gay, bisexual or transgender has been rejected by the Russian Duma, Monday. The draft bill called for fines and arrests for offenders. According to Radio Free Europe, the bill, which was rejected on Monday, January 18, was initiated by lawmakers from Russia's Communist Party. It called for a fine of up to $5,000 rubles (approximately $65 USD) for for publicly expressing personal "nontraditional sexual orientation." The bill would have punished offenders with up to 15 days in prison for coming out at educational or cultural facilities for youth. "We have our own idea of honor and conscience, and we must respect tradition. The scum that comes to us from the West is unnatural to Russia. These unconventional sexual desires do nothing but disgust normal, smart, healthy people," said Communist MP Ivan Nikitchuk, who introduced the failed bill according to the Russian News Service. "It is sick that disgusting people feel they should be treated the same." In a report earlier this month, Gay Star News noted that the bill is only targeting gay men. Lawmakers said women are more "reasonable" and can "manage their emotions." THE CHEESE factory Bel in Michalovce supplies Slovakia as well as other countries with dairy products. Font size: A - | A + Among its most popular products is the cheese in a wax package, Mini Babybel. The Michalovce cheese factory has been producing it since 2009 as one of five plants worldwide. The Mini Babybel cheese originated in France and has been produced since 1977, the factory informed the TASR newswire. Each year, more than one billion of these cheeses are opened and eaten across the whole world. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The Bel Slovensko plant supplies also western-European countries, apart from Slovakia. It is the successor of the cheese-producing tradition in Michalovce which started here more than 60 years ago. Key to the production is cooperation with regional milk producers almost 70 of them. Annually, about 60 million litres of milk are bought from them. We make all cheese exclusively from Slovak milk, Martin Bursak, head of the Michalovce cheese plant, informed TASR. We buy milk daily from farmers from the whole eastern-Slovak region, from Bardejov through Moldava nad Bodvou, to Chonkovce in the Sobrance district. We do not buy outside Slovakia. The first cheese was produced in Michalovce in 1954; in the 1970s it was under the Eastern-Slovak Dairy in Kosice, which was then transformed into the Zempmilk joint-stock company. Later, it became part of the Bel group based in Paris, a prominent producer of an assortment of cheeses made in 28 plants and distributed to almost 130 countries. French investment patterns in Slovakia have shifted but ties are still strong. Font size: A - | A + THE ARRIVAL of a fourth carmaker to Slovakia should benefit not only the already established French firms in Slovakia, but also others who have signed agreements with Jaguar Land Rover in the past, according to Zuzana Desvergnes, head of the French-Slovak Chamber of Commerce (FSOK) in Slovakia. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The Slovak Spectator spoke with Desvergnes about the current business ties between Slovakia and France, investment in both markets, and also about the barriers French firms face when doing business here. The Slovak Spectator (TSS): Could you describe the current state of economic cooperation between France and Slovakia? What are the current trends and where are the deficiencies? Zuzana Desvergnes (ZD): France is Slovakias eighth most important business partner with about a 4 percent share of the countrys total foreign exchange. The balance is positive for Slovakia, especially thanks to the export of cars and their components. The foreign trade surplus amounted to 1.4 billion in 2014, with total exports at 3.2 billion and imports of French products at 1.8 billion. With more than 5 billion, France is the second most important investor in Slovakia after Germany (except for the banking sphere). The biggest investors are France Telecom/Orange (1.1 billion) and PSA (1 billion). The most important French investor, Gaz de France, which invested 1.4 billion into the Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel gas utility, sold its share in 2012. TSS: Several French investors left Slovakia in the past, for example energy companies GDF Suez and Electricite de France and the pharmaceutical company Sanofi. Are there any specific reasons? ZD: The reasons for the departure of the French investors you mention are not related to any problems with their business in Slovakia, with the local business environment or legislation. The reason was mostly the change of their parent companies orientation to other markets, the change in business plans, and of course the impact of the global economic crisis. TSS: On the other hand, French CCN Group built a new plant in Belusa while French chain Decathlon opened its second shop in Slovakia in summer. Do you have any information about investors or businesses that are to come to Slovakia or planned expansions by established companies? ZD: Capital, including from France, is still on the move. Certain French companies left Slovakia but others came and many more, which have been established here for some time, have expanded their activities in Slovakia. Among the newcomers is Mecaplast, a supplier to the automotive industry, while companies like Bourbon Automotive near Nitra and Cemm Thome in Presov expand their production capacities. TSS: How would you assess the current interest of French investors in Slovakia? Has this interest changed since the beginning of the economic crisis? ZD: Though Slovakia has never belonged to the priority destinations of small and medium-sized French companies, we currently register more than 400 French companies in Slovakia, employing more than 35,000 people. The number of firms has more than doubled since 2003. This growing trend has been positively impacted by several factors, especially the decision of PSA Peugeot Citroen to invest in Slovakia in 2003 and the accession of Slovakia to the European Union in 2004. Unfortunately, the global economic crisis caused several important investors like Gaz de France, Electricite de France or Sanofi-Aventis to leave Slovakia in recent years. Regarding absolute numbers, the number of French companies in Slovakia is now rather stable. The problem is that important big companies left the country and those which came are small and medium-sized enterprises. The result is that the volume of French investment as well as the number of employees in French firms dropped during the crisis. TSS: What do the French companies in Slovakia consider to be the main barriers in doing business here? Has FSOK noticed any changes in this respect? ZD: The barriers remain the same as for every other company doing business in Slovakia: low payment discipline, weak law enforcement, corruption, problems with available labour force in some regions and in some professions, as well as transport infrastructure. All in all, French investors are satisfied with the business environment in Slovakia. French companies established in Slovakia, similarly to the Slovak ones, encounter problems which are more or less specific for the particular business spheres. For example, French industrial companies have recently faced a problem with electricity prices that are several times higher than those paid by the same firms in other EU countries. This and other problems were the subject of three round table discussions organised by FSOK in 2013 and 2014 and attended by Slovakias prime minister, foreign affairs minister, economy minister, representatives of the ministries of economy, finance, labour and most recently by members of the parliamentary committee for economic affairs. TSS: Can potential French investors benefit from the arrival of Jaguar Land Rover in Slovakia? ZD: It can be expected that this investment will offer new possibilities to those French automotive industry suppliers who are already established in Slovakia, which might result in expanding their production capacities, and also subcontractors who have not yet discovered Slovakia but previously signed supply agreements with Jaguar Land Rover will force them to come closer to the new production plant and come to Slovakia. TSS: Is there any untapped potential in economic cooperation between France and Slovakia? ZD: There is nearly no sphere of business, goods or services in which French investors would not be present: 44 percent of French subsidiaries are in the service sector (banking and insurance, telecommunications, trade and food, transport and logistics); 21 percent are active in the energy sector, water and waste management, chemistry, plastics and pharmacy; 12 percent are represented by engineering and metallurgy companies. We can find other companies in the food industry and construction too. SLOVAKIAS presidency of the Council of Europe is nearing; it will start in July 2016. Before Slovakia, the Netherlands will preside over the EU, and afterwards it will be Malta. Font size: A - | A + At the end of January a special concert called Akkoord will mark the presidency, combining Slovak and Dutch musicians and composers. On Monday, January 25, in the historical building of the Slovak National Theatre (SND), the theatres orchestra will play Your Memories Will Remember You by Dutch composer Micha Hamel. The piece was composed specially for this occasion, for string orchestra and wind instruments. As a tribute to Slovak traditions, Hamel included a solo for the local instrument, fujara. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The musical work to open the concert is popular Musica Slovaca by local composer Ilja Zeljenka, and the modern side of national classical music will be represented by Four Compositions for String Instruments by Peter Zagar. SND Opera Orchestra will be conducted by Slovak Anton Popovic, with Raphaela Danksagmuller (NL) and Milan Pala (SK) as soloists. Akkoord is a Dutch word which has the same meaning also in Slovak approval or agreement of several sides. In music, it represents the harmony of three or more tones; and this is why organisers chose the term for the concert that is to officially launch the cooperation of the Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta during the EU Councils presidency, the SND website informed. The concert, organised by the Dutch Embassy in Bratislava and the Slovak Foreign Ministry, will be recorded in cooperation with the Slovak public Radio and Television, RTVS, and Radio Devin. Tickets const 3-8 and cna be purchased through the SND website or 02/2049-4290. For Canada, accepting nearly 250,000 new immigrants every year for the past 10 years has greatly enhanced the richness of the cultural fabric of our country. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled In July last year, I spent a long weekend at Mala Fatra National Park and on a very hot day, chose a trail that descended to Sutovsky vodopad. The way back was a steep climb. On the way, I met Jozef from Terchova who works as an industrial plumber in Germany. We agreed on the bad choice of hiking route in 35 degree weather. He told me how hard it is to live away from his family. And we disagreed on immigration and Slovakias response to the migrant crisis in Europe: I work in Germany to earn a decent salary, he said, and now we have to pay for the refugees flooding into Europe. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Jozef ran through arguments I have heard a hundred times already: Slovak salaries are below average, pensions are miniscule, migrants seek economic advantages. Slovaks did not create the problem so why should Slovaks solve the problem? he asked. I know this is a sensitive and difficult issue in Slovakia. Joining the EU meant closer alignment with Western Europe, better salaries, investment, and infrastructure. When Slovaks voted for EU membership, no one mentioned providing housing and food for migrants. Normally I dont debate this issue, but the sun was still shining and the climb ahead was daunting, so we sat down on tree stumps, exchanged granola bars, pulled fruit out of our backpacks, and I shared my point of view. Canada is a land of immigrants, I started. We are used to welcoming immigrants and my experience growing up was in a multicultural environment. In 1971, Canada was the first country in the world to adopt an official policy on multiculturalism. By so doing, Canada recognized that multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of our heritage and identity and that it provides an invaluable resource in shaping the nations future. Canadas approach to multiculturalism ensures that all Canadians are free to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage. The value and dignity of all Canadians is protected by promoting the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins and the elimination of any barriers to their participation. This helps to ensure that all citizens can have a sense of pride and belonging to Canada. Canadas successful approach to multiculturalism continues to encourage racial and ethnic harmony and cross-cultural understanding. Mutual respect helps develop common attitudes. Through multiculturalism, Canada recognizes the potential of all Canadians, encouraging them to take an active part in its social, cultural, economic and political affairs. All Canadians are guaranteed equality before the law and equality of opportunity regardless of their origins. All of these rights and freedoms are guaranteed through Canadian citizenship, the Canadian Constitution, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We believe that our diversity is a national asset. Recent advances in technology have made international communications more important than ever. Canadians who speak many languages and understand many cultures make it easier for Canada to participate globally in areas of education, trade and diplomacy. Immigrants to Canada are selected from hundreds of thousands of applicants from all over the world. Family reunification and refugee protection are also important parts of the Canadian immigration system. Canadians are not having as many babies as they used to, as is also the case in Slovakia. Therefore, immigration is needed to sustain economic growth. All applicants go through security screening and health checks which help protect everyone within our borders. Canadians do not expect immigrants to look and act alike. Immigrants are free to wear the style of dress, eat the food, and drink the drinks of their native land. Some drink beer, some drink wine and 64,000 Canadians of Slovak origin may still prefer slivovica. Most practice the religion, dances, and wedding traditions as in their native land. For Canada, accepting nearly 250,000 new immigrants every year for the past 10 years has greatly enhanced the richness of the cultural fabric of our country. One can say the true north gets stronger and richer, day by day. By Kathy Bunka, Canadian Charge dAffaires in Slovakia THE DREAM of a medal position came true for Slovak motorcycling racer Stefan Svitko at the 38th year of Rally Dakar; he placed second. Font size: A - | A + So far the best position for a Slovak racer was fourth Ivan Jakes placed fourth in 2013. Svitko, motorcyclist from Zaskova, aged 33, has already participated seven times in this race, with his best previous position being fifth, in 2012 and 2015. Svitko, as a private racer, placing second followed the feat of Pal Anders Ullevalseter from 2010. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement I feel great, Svitko said in an interview for the Slovak public television RTVS. I am not sure if it is not just a dream, but probably not. I am so happy that I finally made it... I was riding in a front position, for the whole Dakar. I have not vied for a total victory so far, I am enjoying what we have managed so far. It is not just my merit, my thank goes to the whole team and also sponsors, as well as my family. And I also want to thank fans for supporting me, keeping fingers crossed for me and helping me dream this dream. I hope it will be the same, or even better, next year. Unlike previous years, when he had a lukewarm start and only later got into a swift pace and good form, Svitko this time was among the best from the very start. He also became the third Slovak racer to win one leg of the rally (in the 10th leg from Belen to La Rioja), after Jakes (two times, in 2015) and Jaroslav Katrinak in 1999, the SITA newswire wrote. Svitko placed in the TOP in eleven out of twelve legs. Since leg 9, he was on the second place until the finishing line. After the third leg, he was even leading the peloton for a while which no Slovak has managed yet. During the whole Rally Dakar 2016, he was not worse than fifth. However, the racer was angry at organizers, during the race and also afterwards, at the festive ceremony. They purposely shortened the legs, they let some racers take whole legs while scrapping them for others due to bad weather and allotting them points according to their own estimates. At the final ceremony, Svitko could not enjoy the triumph with his team, as it had not arrived yet from the finish of the rally; they had to make 400 kilometres drive in five hours. Thus, he was joined only by two people instead of the whole team. They did wilfully whatever they wanted, he said, as quoted by TASR. Ivan Jakes gave up shortly after the beginning of leg 6, because of an injury from a previous part. CHAIRMAN of the Party of Roma Union in Slovakia (SRUS) Frantisek Tanko accused Igor Matovic of the Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) movement of buying votes of the Roma; however the latter denied this. Font size: A - | A + Tanko noticed the alleged vote buying in the eastern Slovak constituency of Sabinov. We have serious suspicion and information from our people from Sabinov that OLaNO has been already recruiting Roma in exchange for financial resources, Tanko said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. We have no evidence but a well-founded suspicion. We have direct testimonies of people that Igor Matovic with his group or collaborators, let us say is going to impact Roma on grand scale, through financial means. The first amount of money, amounting to 10,000, has already arrived in Sabinov, Tanko said on January 15. So far, he has not filed a criminal complaint. He added that Roma votes in the upcoming election will be bought up also by political parties. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement OLaNO leader Igor Matovic vehemently denied Tankos accusation. "I dont know whether it is worth it commenting on fools, he said. A folk saying has it that I judge you by myself. I strongly request him not to attack me in such a mean way. I suppose Mr. Tanko, as a person close to [Slovak Prime Minister Robert] Fico does some filthy jobs. Among other things, Tanko said that his SRUS party will not try to win votes of electorate in the upcoming March election. Too little has been done for improving the position of Roma in Slovakia, according to him, and the money form the European union to solve this issue was abused by people employed at various ministries. Each political party has only made promises but almost nothing has been improved, Tanko stated. We have proposed several things to Labour, Social Affairs and Family Minister Jan Richter; but so far we have not received any answer, Tanko explained, adding that a new Roma genocide has set in. He warned that due to immense social poverty, unrest may appear in Roma communities. THE COMBAT group of Visegrad-Four Group's (V4) countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) had a ceremonial line-up last week. First deputy of the Chief of General Staff of Slovak Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Peter Gajdos (L) and state secretary of the Defence Ministry Milos Koterec. (Source: TASR) Font size: A - | A + The 538 soldiers who will serve in the European Union are already prepared and on combat alert. The group features some 3,900 soldiers including support units, of which some 12 percent of soldiers were deployed by Slovakia. The group is already on combat alert, Slovak Defence Minister Martin Glvac said, as quoted by the Sme daily. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The ceremonial line-up took place in the Trebisov barracks. The battle-group is on alert, and this is a particularly important contribution to the EU for security, Glvac said for the TASR newswire. First deputy of the Chief of General Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces, Lieutenant-General Peter Gajdos, said that the current security situation in countries around the EU puts huge demands on the readiness of the Slovak armed forces, as well as on other V4 countries. The chance to be deployed has never been as high in the history of EU battle-groups as it is now, Gajdos noted. The minister said that the Slovak contribution to the battle-group was accepted after a detailed analysis of the armys skills. He added that the skills and abilities of the group should be preserved even after the alert ends; and not just for the purpose of the EU but also for NATO. The training of soldiers culminated in November 2015 during the international certification exercise Common Challenge 2015 in Poland. The V4 Countries EU Battle-Group is a joint project of the Visegrad Group within the Joint European Defence and Security Policy. In the next six months, members of the mechanized company, RCHBO company, transport company, and supporting units, together with staff members, will be ready for deployment within 6,000 kilometres around Brussels. These forces will be able to be engaged at any desired location within ten days since the EU decision. Based on the decision of EU institutions, the battle-group shall fulfil tasks like separating the factions of a conflict, stabilizing, reconstruction and military consultancy towards third countries, evacuations, assist in tasks for humanitarian operations or prevention of conflicts, TASR wrote. EDUCATION Minister Juraj Draxler participated in the TV discussion on the dire situation in the sector and on possible strikes of teachers. Font size: A - | A + On the TA3 news-only TVs discussion programme V Politike / In Politics on January 17, the Education, Science, Research and Sport Minister said that he does not expect all teachers to go on strike, but admitted that some schools might indeed remain shut for a period of time. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement I dont think any sort of across-the-board strike is in the offing ... this is almost out of the question at this point, he said. Im trying to avoid a situation that would involve closing some schools though. He spoke in response to the Slovak Teachers Initiative (ISU) announcing a strike alert on January 11, claiming that this move is due to the long-term disregard for the demands of teachers and professional organisations designed to ensure sufficient funds flowing into the sector. The disgruntled teachers warned that unless the government and parliament come up with specific laws by January 25 that meet their demands by the end of the current term, teachers will go on full-blown strike on that day. Draxler pointed to talks on the possibility of a strike that he had with organisations representing teachers and with teachers trade unions earlier this week. He learnt from them that some organisations oppose the initiative while some other endorse the main goals of such initiatives, but will not take part in them. It is a political initiative that does not seek to improve the standing of teachers, according to the minister. The requirement that the Government set aside 400 million towards teaching aids is absurd. I cannot fathom just how they have arrived at such a figure ... teaching aids worth 160 million have been bought since 2007, while 400 million is beyond the realm of possibility, Draxler said. Christian Democratic Movements (KDH) MP Martin Fronc, a former education minister himself (2002-2006), called it unfair to accuse teachers of being controlled by a political party. I acknowledge that their demands are justified, said Fronc in the discussion. Anybody who launches a strike makes excessive demands in order to ensure enough wiggle room for concessions in talks, he added. I recognize their right to go on strike and to choose a period of time that gives them the best prospects, he said. Despite having been in power for the last eight out of ten years, the governing Smer party has done little for the education sector, he added. Draxler noted that salaries in the education system would grow over 5 percent in the upcoming years, as cited by the Hospodarske noviny daily. He added, however, that that alongside the increased financing, also bigger transparency and effectiveness should be secured in the education system. Draxler opined for the SITA newswire. When I visit schools, I meet teachers questioning whether there has been any increase in salaries so far, he explained. The money goes via founders who run the schools regional offices in quite a complex way, and it really can happen that teachers felt no increase. Fronc added that it is also a problem that the Interior Ministry has acquired some competencies in financing the education sector. As for the current situation, Draxler will try to sit down and discuss the issue with Branislav Kocan and Vladimir Crmoman of ISU, he said as quoted by SITA. Privacy statement: This blog does not share personal information with third parties nor do we store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings. We are not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on January 1, 2017. If you have any questions feel free to contact Springfield Vermont News directly here: ed44vt@gmail.com North Korea's latest drone incursion into South Korean airspace over the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) again shed light on the country's extensive drone program, which could create a new wildcard in the two sides' 52-year standoff. Drone incursions from the North have created doubts as to whether South Korea can defend its airspace. North Korea is believed to possess around 300 drones according to South Korean military figures, some of which are capable of carrying out "suicide" airstrikes as well as reconnaissance. Alongside nuclear weapons and missiles possessed by or stationed on both sides, North Korean drones could provide Pyongyang with both artillery targeting intelligence and the ability to eliminate South Korean high-value targets without the use of more risky direct assassination. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Earlier in the day, former US Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said a hypothetical "reset" of Russia-US relations is possible, but would depend on what Washington obtained from it. "It would be a mistake to place any hope in Hilary Clinton," John Laughland, the director of studies at the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation in Paris, said, adding that she is "a very opportunistic woman who will say anything without thinking about it very much." Under Clinton, the idea of "a reset" was inconsistent, Laughland highlighted, citing as an example the appointment of Michael McFaul as US Ambassador to Russia, who in fact was "one of the most catastrophic ambassadors that America has ever sent anywhere I would say." Europe should help the US to realize that Russia isnt an enemy but an obvious ally in the battle against radical Islamists, according to Italian daily Il Giornale. "The US fought against Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi and Assad only to realize that toppled secular regimes are being replaced with Islamists," the newspaper points out. Furthermore, some Arab states that the US attempted to recruit to deal with this new menace actually ended up funding the Islamists instead of fighting them. But instead of addressing the threat, the Western governments kept antagonizing Russia, their 'most obvious ally', Il Giornale remarks. The US imposed sanctions against Russia and coerced other European states to back this campaign, effectively alienating the country which has always been a political and cultural part of Europe. VIENNA (Sputnik)Austrian authorities will take concrete measures to defend state borders from migrant inflow during a forthcoming meeting of the federal government later in the week, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Monday. "The meeting of the federal government, devoted to the refugee issue, will take place on January 20, and I assume that [some] concrete measures will be taken. As for me personally, it is obvious that if there is no an all-European solution [to the migrant crisis], such countries as Austria are obliged to take national measures," Kurz told journalists on Monday. According to Kurz, Austria received about 90,000 claims for asylum in 2015, which is three times more than usually, and the situation in 2016 should not be the same. The two parties officially agreed to end psychological warfare in 2004 to reduce tensions. South Korean activists, however, have been known to send leaflets promoting anti-government propaganda into the North Although several analysts doubt North Korea detonated a hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6, they are confident the North tested a nuclear device which enhances their capabilities of developing a nuclear arsenal. In response to the test, the United Nations Security Council pledged to pursue tougher sanctions on Pyongyang. However, its unclear whether China will jump on board. China, which is North Koreas most important ally, is a permanent member of the Security Council with power to veto resolutions. North Korea and South Korea have been engaging in Cold-War-style standoff since their war in the 1950s ended via an armistice rather than an official peace treaty. The two technically remain at war, and a force of more than 28,500 American troops is stationed in South Korea as a deterrent. However, others have taken a much harder stance against Trump's comments, calling on MPs and the Home Office to not give Trump preferential treatment and ban him for his divisive comments. #Trump is crucifying America's image abroad.God help us if he gets anywhere near the Oval office. View from UK pic.twitter.com/nw2QUeI7Ak JeremySmyles (@JeremySmyles) January 12, 2016 "The law needs to be applied to everyone equally and the Home Office has previous in banning hate preachers engaging in rhetoric similar to that of Trump," Muslim Labour MP Tulip Siddiq told the Telegraph newspaper. "To argue there is no precedent for banning him does not stand up to decisions taken by this Home Secretary, or indeed previous Labour Home Secretaries. "The real question is Why should we make an exception for billionaire politicians? We should not." Siddiq's calls were backed by fellow Muslim and Scottish National Party MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who called for the Home Office to be consistent and ban Trump on the ground of hate speech. "What I'll be doing today is asking [Home Secretary] Theresa May to exercise consistency in her approach to people who preach hatred," she told BBC Radio 4. "Now the Home Secretary has banned, by her own admission, 84 people in the past few years and my suggestion is that Donald Trump's remarks mean he should be number 85 because he has incited hatred and we actually now know his words have been used by ISIS/Daesh to convert people to their cause." Banning Trump Would Increase Publicity '100-Fold' Despite some calling for Trump to be banned, others agree with the prime minister and Corbyn that preventing him from entering the country would be a step too far. Liberal-Democrats leader Tim Farron said banning Trump would be "just the kind of attention this publicity junkie would want." "Get him over here and put him on a platform so his odious and, frankly, weird views can be shot down in flames." Labour MP Paul Flynn echoed Farron's sentiments in an interview with the BBC, saying that trying to ban Trump would lead to a "100-fold" increase in publicity, as was the case when the UK attempted and failed to ban controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders form the country in 2009. "I agree entirely that he's been guilty of hatred in his language, worse than many of the other people who have been banned. But sadly, a ban would perversely help him in America and that's where opinion matters. It would probably give him a halo of victimhood as a martyr and perversely that will attract more support for him." MPs will debate the petition calling for Trump to be banned from the UK for three hours on Monday. The EAU must also examine overseas revenue streams subsidizing jihadi groups in the UK. However, reports suggest that the government-led investigation could lead to a potential stand-off between the UK and Saudi Arabia Britain's biggest ally in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the UK's largest single market for British arms and the UK government's Strategic Defense and Security Review recently outlined Britain's intentions to continue to work with close allies including "vital partners, such as Saud Arabia, in the Middle East." However, Saudi Arabia has been publicly accused by German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel of funding extremist mosques and groups in the West. "Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia. Many Islamists who are a threat to public safety come from these communities in Germany," Sigmar Gabriel told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. Wahhabism a fundamental sect of Sunni Islam, practiced in Saudi Arabia has inspired terrorist groups, including Daesh, also known as Islamic State, as well as al-Qaeda. "We have to make it clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over. Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia," German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel added. The results of the UK-led inquiry into the overseas funding of extremists groups and mosques will be sent directly to the home secretary Theresa May this year. "I am glad that the home secretary is now undertaking this work at our urging but we will need to ensure that it is properly resourced, conducted and followed through," Alistair Carmichael, Lib Dem home affairs spokesman said. UK's counter extremism policy has given up countering extremism, and now just comes up with stuff focus grouped to appeal to key voters Amil Khan (@Londonstani) January 18, 2016 "We need to do everything in our power to counter extremism at home. External funding of extremist organizations from states like Saudi Arabia needs to be investigated and cracked down on if we're to be successful in countering this poisonous ideology," Carmichael said. Meanwhile, some experts are urging the British government to focus on the money funding extremists in the Gulf region first, rather than just jihadi militants and groups in Britain. Den Flyvende Hollnder is one of three nightclubs in the town that requires its visitors to be able to speak Danish, English or German. "It is clear that if we ask male visitors to leave a girl alone, they must understand what we mean. There were simply too many instances when they ignored our requests to leave the female guests alone," said Hollender. Rafi Ibrahim, a Syrian who has lived in Denmark for many years, told TV Syd that many refugees and migrants do not understand the culture they have arrived in. "Many of the refugees and asylum seekers who visit nightclubs at the weekend don't know the rules. If they see a girl, they run amok. They simply can't handle it. They try to pull at the girls' clothes or grope her." "In Syria and many other countries it's not normal if a girl you don't know smiles at you. The girls that they pestered were not dressed provocatively, or drunk. Sometimes it's just that they are girls," said Ibrahim. "Id like to point out that the petition regarding my naturalization was originally a petition about awarding me a Legion of Honor medal the 'citizenship' part was included later. And at first I was unaware about the petition itself it was launched by some public organization I knew nothing about," Didi told Sputnik. "I was quite surprised by this development because I didnt ask for anything like that. Also, naturalization isnt some kind of urgent issue for me as I have official papers," he added. The brave security guard confirmed that he met some of the people who he rescued on that fateful night who told him that they had signed the petition. "I must say that ordinary policemen and security guards simply dont have the firepower needed to deal with armed terrorists," Didi said. "They need the help of the military and special forces." Didi also remarked that the recent proposal by Frances authorities to strip French nationals convicted of terrorism of their citizenship would hardly be an effective measure against the people who are already willing to sacrifice their lives for a cause. However, it may become an effective punishment if used as a preemptive measure against people connected to terrorist networks, he pointed out. "These people arent worthy of being citizens of France because they dont accept the republics values," Didi said. On November 13, 2015 gunmen and suicide bombers launched a series of attacks at the Stade de France, the Bataclan music venue, as well as several cafes and restaurants throughout the city, killing 130 and injuring dozens. It became the deadliest attack on French soil since the Second World War. Turkeys ambitions have caused concerns from other experts, who are wondering if Turkey may eventually go rogue. Ballistic missiles have certain disadvantages like lack of precision. They can also be easily intercepted. Their limited payload is another problem. In comparison a modern fighter jet can carry up to four or five times more payload and is an agile aerial asset, said one London-based Turkey specialist. He explained that missiles are often preferred by rogue states as they can carry biological, chemical and nuclear warheads. Turkey is not a rogue state and it is curious that it has ambitions to develop offensive missile systems, he added. On January 7, Turkeys top procurement official, Ismail Demir, reiterated Turkeys ambitions to develop offensive missiles. It is difficult for a country to be deterrent with defensive missiles only This is why offensive [missile] systems too should be developed, Demir claimed at a briefing to the Turkish parliaments defense committee. The National Interest quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that apart from Daesh, Ankara is also threatened by the Kurdish nationalist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and its Syrian affiliate, the Peoples Defense Units (YPG). In this context, the magazine referred to Ankara's so-called "zero problems with neighbors" policy, which is aimed at establishing "better political and economic ties" with all of Turkey's neighboring countries. "But 'zero problems' has run its course. Thanks to the ill-advised foreign policies of Erdogan and [Prime Minister] Davutoglu, Turkey's problems with its neighbors have reached a zenith," The National Interest said. The magazine recalled that the YPG and Daesh had managed to take over "swaths of the Syrian border, meaning they are now Turkey's new neighbors." Exacerbating problems are Turkey's strained relations with Egypt and Israel, according to The National Interest, which also pointed to Ankara being directly at odds with "aspiring regional hegemon Iran and aspiring world power Russia." "All the while, Daesh terrorism has become the deadliest threat to Turks, killing more civilians in the last year than any other terror group, including the PKK," The National Interest said. Asked about the data sharing center that was set up last fall by Russia, Iraq, Iran and Syria, he said that any organization that keeps an eye on Daesh militants had the same significance as military reconnaissance. "This benefits us in different areas of the operation," Asadi noted. The Baghdad Information Center was created in September to coordinate efforts in the fight against the Daesh. It is aimed at collecting, processing, summarizing and analyzing data about Daesh activities in the Middle East and sharing it out between general staffs of the four countries involved. Small pockets of resistance by Daesh militants have prevented the Iraqi military from declaring the central city of Ramadi fully liberated, the head of the Iraqi counter-terrorism unit said. Iraqi security forces initially declared Ramadi free in December, after Daesh militants captured the strategic city in the Anbar province last May. "Ramadi both the city proper and the administrative district, as well as its suburbs has been taken under state control, but their Daesh presence in groups of three to four and the fact that they are holding families hostage is the reason why Ramadi has not been officially declared completely freed," Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani Asadi said. The Iraqi military said on December 28, that it was in full control of Ramadi, but the Anbar governor said later that in reality only 80 percent of the city was recaptured. Asadi said two weeks ago that the mission to liberate the city was complete by 95 percent. The northern Iraqi city of Mosul in the Nineveh province remains the main center of the Daesh militants build-up in the country, Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani Asadi, the states anti-terrorism forces commander, told Sputnik Monday. "At present, the major forces of the Daesh terrorist group are located only in Mosul," Asadi stressed, responding to a question on the Daesh current stronghold. He added that since a military operation in the Anbar province had been launched and the extremists had been expelled from the central province of Salah ad-Din, those who came with a certain plan, secured international support and possessed financial and human resources had gained a foothold in the country. "Its impossible to defeat them in a moment," he noted. The Iraqi central and local authorities still do not control the city of Fallujah in Anbar province, Asadi added. "In Fallujah, there are [Daesh ] forces. The situation beyond the control of the central and local governments has been kept in Fallujah for a year. But how long will the militants hold out in the city?" the anti-terrorism troops commander said, adding that the Iraqi army cut off the possibility to supply the militants with logistical and human resources. The presence of small groups of the Daesh militants in some areas of the formerly controlled by them city of Ramadi in western Iraq, as well as holding families hostage by the terrorists hinders the official announcement of a complete liberation of the city, Asadi outlined. He also pointed out that the situation was complicated by the fact that the insurgents mined the area before leaving it. "Ramadi is all mined," the military emphasized. Daesh seized Mosul, Iraqs second largest city, in June 2014. It has become the terrorist organizations main center in Iraq. Fallujah, located 42 miles west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, is one of the largest cities in the Anbar province. In mid-July 2015, Iraqi troops launched a major offensive to liberate Fallujah as well as Ramadi from IS militants. The Iraqi military said on December 28, 2015, that it was in full control of Ramadi, but the Anbar governor said later that in reality only 80 percent of the city was recaptured. Asadi stated two weeks ago that the mission to liberate the city was complete by 95 percent. LATAKIA (Sputnik)According to information received by the news agency, the coalition was carrying out airstrikes late Sunday night and struck the police headquarters. A source in the medical field confirmed that civilians were also injured in the strikes. The source added that the number of victims may grow as there are still people trapped under the buildings wreckage. Around 30 people, including police and civilians, whose homes were nearby the police department, were sent to hospitals, Xinhua said. Yemen has been plunged in a military conflict between government forces and an armed Shiite Houthi political opposition faction since 2014. "By and large, the most convenient bridgehead for an attack on Russia by conventional forces has been via the southern direction. The Germans broke through to Stalingrad via Ukraine. And in the north, they could not pass, stopping at LeningradIncidentally, the Wehrmacht's northern breakthrough failed not least because the Baltic states at the time were part of the Soviet Union. Here, the Germans were forced to break the first line of defense. The defense of Liepaja, Latvia, for example, lasted for almost a week." As for the worrying prospect of the US deploying tactical nuclear weapons in the Baltics, Konovalov explained that this too is now more likely, given that the latest modification of the B-61 variable yield nuclear bomb can be placed on any airborne platform, and is not limited to strategic bombers. "The same NATO planes which are now permanently patrolling Baltic airspace, flying near our borders, could be loaded up [with such weapons]. Europe now has 200 such bombs. Accordingly, the 16 aircraft at the bases at Zokniai, Lithuania or Amari, Estonia, can carry them onboard. And the pilots of these countries have been trained on how to use such weapons." Speaking to Svobodnaya Pressa, veteran defense commentator Viktor Litovkin agreed with his counterpart that ultimately, "the rotational character of the existing bases, in fact, is of little importance. [All it means is that] one group leaves, and another comes to take their place." As to whether the buildup in the Baltics and elsewhere in Eastern Europe violates the spirit of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, Litovkin suggested that in his view, "it obviously doesThe Pentagon uses uncertain wording, which forbids the placing of 'significant numbers of troops' [in the region]. What precisely is considered 'significant'? A company-sized force? A battalion? A regiment? A brigade? It is unclear. Moreover, Washington does not want to negotiate with Moscow on the concretization of this fuzzy definition." TOKYO (Sputnik) Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that the international community needs "constructive involvement" of Russia in the most significant international issues in order to solve them. "There are mounting questions the world is facing, such as Syria, the tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the Islamic State [militant group, prohibited in many countries, including the United States and Russia]. These are issues that have to be resolved by the international community. In order to do that, we need the constructive involvement of Russia," Abe said in an interview with The Nikkei and The Financial Times newspapers on Sunday. He added that though 70 years had passed since the end of the Second World War, Moscow and Tokyo had still not signed a peace treaty. According to Abe, he would like to have tenacious, persistent negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to solve territorial issues and to conclude the peace treaty. "Traditionally, the Western 'civilized world' treats countries which attempt to lift up their heads and declare their unwillingness to dance to the tune of others with contempt. It happened with Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution." "Then," Juma recalls, "when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president in 2005, sanctions were imposed against Iran. Under his presidency, due to his country's alleged uranium enrichment program, Iran was subjected to the most severe sanctions pressure the US and its allies could muster." "Nevertheless, Iran managed to become a leading regional power, which has now forced those who once sought to grind the country into dust to negotiate. Today, as sanctions against Tehran are removed, the Iranians stand before the world proud and independent." "Their circumstances," the journalist notes, "taught them to be independent to make everything with their own hands, from slippers to drones. Today, graduates of Iranian schools are becoming Nobel laureates and occupying leading positions in international high-tech centers. In medicine, the country is almost 100% self-sufficient, actively developing its pharmaceutical industry, carrying out difficult operations, and doing without imported equipment." "Of course, the country has its problems; the banking sector is suffering under the pressure of sanctions, the economy cannot boast of major innovations, and is growing more slowly than we would like. But it's worth remembering the situation the country faced 40 years ago and compare it with the Iran of today. Russia would certainly benefit from studying the Iranian experience in the field of import substitution, given that the West's anti-Russian sanctions, experts confirm, won't be removed any time soon." Economic, Energy, Political and Military Cooperation Furthermore, Juma argues, "post-sanctions Iran may become a very good partner for Russia in various fields, something the Russian president is well aware of. In November, following talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow's readiness to provide Tehran $5 billion in credit. Following negotiations, the heads of state selected 35 priority projects [related to] energy, construction, ports and railroads." At the same time, "the two countries agreed to cooperate in the oil and gas sectors. Thus, Mehdi Hosseini, the Chairman of the Oil Contract Restructuring Committee at the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, announced in late November that Gazprom and Lukoil have good prospects for receiving access to fields in Iran. At the same time, Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh expressed his confidence that following the removal of anti-Russian sanctions, cooperation between Moscow and Tehran in the energy sector will continue with a renewed vigor." "As for the military sphere," Juma recalled, "here, it seems likely that we will see new contracts worth billions of dollars, because given the unstable conditions in the Middle East, Iran needs to modernize its armed forces, which means that Tehran will be extremely interested in Russian weapons." And While Moscow and Washington continue to have their disagreements on the Syrian issue, in any case, Mirzayan writes, "both sides are now pursuing the same goal: the elimination of Daesh (ISIL/ISIS) and the stabilization of the Middle East via the ending of the Syrian conflict. That is why the US and Russia factually organized the process of negotiations and have done everything to ensure their successful beginning." Sponsors of Syrian Opposition May Yet Attempt to Disrupt Talks "The problem," Mirzayan argues, "is that the talks scheduled for January 25 may not start, and not by the fault of the US, Russia or Syria." "It's no secret that there are several countries in the region which openly sponsor the Syrian militants, including terrorists from the Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups. All of them, for various reasons, want to see the Syrian government overthrown, and have not given up on the idea, even following Russia's entry into the war and the lifting of sanctions against Iran, which has severely complicated their task." For its part, Damascus, the analyst recalls, "insists that it is precisely due to [the actions of] these countries that the civil war in Syria will not die down." Last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that "if these neighboring countries Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, were to implement the Security Council resolution to counter terrorism 70 percent of our crisis will be finished, and the remaining 30 percent I promise you would end before the end of this year." . If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the Access to the chat has been blocked for violating the rules . You will be able to participate again through:. If you do not agree with the blocking, please use the feedback form The discussion is closed. You can participate in the discussion within 24 hours after the publication of the article. In January 2015, the Russian government presented an anti-crisis plan, stipulating spending cuts in an effort to balance the countrys budget. In November, Russian Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said that the recession in the Russian economy had ended. According to the ministry, the country's GDP in 2016 will grow by 0.7 percent. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reiterated its GDP global growth forecast for 2016 standing at 3.4 percent in its report. "Global GDP growth for 2015 has been lowered to 3.0%, while the 2016 growth forecast remains at 3.4%," the report reads. According to OPEC experts, among the factors threatening the growth of the world economy, are slowing momentum in the emerging and developing economies, in particular risk of further weakening in Brazil and Russia, lower GDP growth in commodity producing states and volatility in Chinas asset markets. "Also, challenges remain in the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], as indicated by declining industrial production in the US and signals of a slowdown in Japan. Risks in the Euro-zone remain, despite its current solid momentum," the report stressed, adding that potential to the world GDP growth could come from the Eurozone and India while US private household consumption could boost the US economy. OPEC stressed that a number of ongoing country-specific economic challenges and geopolitical issues also remain a factor of concern. The author explains that Americans who fought those wars did so knowing it was wrong and, at least those who were not brain dead, did so in hopes that the Cold War would end and there would be no more useless bloodbaths such as Vietnam, one that killed off a generation of Americans. However, even though the Cold War ended the world is still on its way towards destabilization, conflicts and widespread poverty, while the US keeps looking for false pretexts for its invasions. The wars continued, each more corrupt, more vacuous than the next until the United States eventually became so discredited that no sane person could see America as anything other than the inheritor of the Soviet mantle in the struggle for not just world domination but enslavement of mankind. We know now that the American invasion of Iraq was based on intelligence so phony that any child could have figured it out, he says. However, those who spoke out at the Pentagon were fired, all of them, and replaced by true believers, and by that we mean corrupt, insane and ambitious. Another example cited by Duff is Pentagons hoax story of sarin gas attack by the Damascus government. "Later proven to have been staged by Turkish intelligence aided by the CIA, gas produced at an American facility in Tbilisi, Georgia, the lie lived and the truth never got through. At present, an airstrike mission is clearly just not enough in contrast to the earlier phase of the war, when Daesh was in the open. Now the fight has gone into where you need to be able to define and find your target, and then be able to have that impact on the ground, Sajjan stressed out. Canadas CF-18 fighter jets currently take part in air combat missions with the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (Daesh) militant group, which is outlawed in many countries including Russia. Canada has also deployed 70-strong special forces to train Kurds in the Iraqi Kurdistan since 2014. New Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said late last year that all Canadian aircraft will be withdrawn from the conflict by March 31, 2016. @RCAF_ARC CF-18 Hornets of 439th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Camp Canada Dry, Doha, Qatar. #DesertStorm pic.twitter.com/PdAnXnMfEQ Adrian Bouressa (@AdrianNov89) January 16, 2016 Boots on the ground After suggesting a ground force is now a key to the military victory against Daesh, minister Sajjan immediately refuted Canadian troops alone will get the job done. He seems a common advise and assist program will do fine for Kurds and Arabs in Iraq, who will be able to effectively stand against jihadists. While in Iraq, MND Sajjan also held talks with KRG officials and visited #CAF members deployed on #OpIMPACT pic.twitter.com/YAWrDwTvIo Canadian Forces (@CanadianForces) December 22, 2015 Just as we phased our training in Afghanistan and were able to slowly pull away, this is one of the effective tools were very good at, Sajjan, who was on military missions in Afghanistan three times, commented. Instead, Canadas military has another work to concentrate on at home: engaging more women and minorities to enlist. The military, even when I was serving, has made strides in trying to connect with all Canadians but we can do better, he pointed out. Currently, women account for under 15 percent of military members and minorities comprise about 5 percent. Negotiations are held by one group of people and the decision on the talks is confirmed by the government. The government may have a completely different opinion, Storchak added. Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said in December that Russia could give Iran $2.2 billion in state export credit as early as in 2016, as part of a state export loan plan in the amount of $5 billion. Preliminary agreements on granting Iran the $5-billion loan were signed during Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to Tehran last November. The loan is aimed at implementing joint projects. Russia will suspend granting any new loans to foreign countries due to budget cuts, but all previous loan agreements will be fulfilled, Sergei Storchak said. I believe that chances today of the government making a decision to grant new loans are very slight. The budget is overly strained. I think that we are objectively in a state when we are forced to take a break in regard to taking on obligations on new loans, Storchak told journalists. In the current budget situation, as it has formed, assuming new obligations on granting loans to foreign borrowers is integrated with heightened risks as well as risks in fulfilling these obligations in the future, Storchak added. On Friday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the country's 2016 budget is in need of serious cuts and a range of project must be scrapped, charging the Finance Ministry with submitting a plan to cut state expenditures by 10 percent. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Greek President Prokopios Pavlopoulos accused Turkey on Monday of facilitating the smuggling of migrants from its territory to Europe, in an interview with a German newspaper. "I have serious concerns that Turkish human traffickers get support from authorities," Pavlopoulos told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The Greek leader said that port authorities in Turkey did not do enough to prevent migrants from boarding smuggler boats bound for Europe. "In particular, port authorities are pretending to be unaware of this," he claimed. MOSCOW (Sputnik)Germany does not plan to deploy ground troops to Syria to fight the Daesh terror group, the countrys Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told a local newspaper in an interview published Monday. "No, Western ground troops would be a wrong answer in this situation," von der Leyen told Bild in response to whether the West should send troops to Syria following the Daesh-linked terror attack in Istanbul. Training local forces to uphold security in the country and take full responsibility for stability is the right way forward, she added, citing the experience of military involvement in Iraq. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The lifting of sanctions against Tehran will reduce the influence of the West on the bilateral relations between Russia and Iran, the countrys ambassador to Russia said Monday. "During the years of sanctions, Russian-Iranian relations have been influenced by a third factor, namely by the West. In the new circumstances, the effect of the third factor in the relations between two countries is being reduced," Mehdi Sanaei wrote in his Livejournal blog. He reminded that in recent months the dialogue at the presidential level was set up to expand and strengthen relations between the countries. Yonkers Raceway and the Standardbred Owners Association of New York have announced a joint contribution to assist those affected by the Classy Lane barn fire. The initial donation is $10,000 equally shared by the track and its horsemen with an initiative underway to increase that amount. As with the rest of the harness industry, we were stunned and saddened by what happened, said Raceway COO Bob Galterio. We have enjoyed a strong simulcast relationship with Ontario tracks for many years, and were thinking of those horsemen and their loss at this very difficult time. Its the worst thing that can happen to anyone in this business, so were just trying to assist in any way we can, said SOA of New York president Joe Faraldo. In addition to the first donation, Yonkers owners, trainers and drivers have been encouraged to set aside a portion of their purse earnings to be earmarked to the Central Ontario Standardbred Association. The SOA has specifically requested that half the money raised go toward caretaker assistance and for those trainers who had three or fewer horses. Distribution of the balance is at the sole discretion of COSA for those based upon financial need. Weve had any number of our members ask how they can help, said Faraldo. (Yonkers Raceway) Jeff Gural has said that he would be interested in partnering with a current Atlantic City casino operator if that is what is needed in order for him to secure a licence for casino gaming at the Meadowlands Racetrack. Early last week, the New Jersey Senate passed casino legislation that would see two casino licences introduced for the northern part of the state, thus breaking the casino monopoly that Atlantic City in the south has held. The bill is still being mulled by politicians. If ultimately passed, the legislation would result in a question on this falls ballot. The question would ask New Jersey voters if they approve of casino gaming outside of Atlantic City, which would end up being in the northern end of the state. If the vote is in favour of the casino expansion, the constitution would be re-written to reflect the change in policy. The legislation does include the caveat which stipulates that casino operators that are currently in business in Atlantic City will get the first right of refusal when it comes to running casinos in the northern end of the state. That caveat has forced Gural to alter his expansion plans. Last summer, the Meadowlands Racetrack and Hard Rock unveiled their proposed expansion plans for the East Rutherford raceway. Given the new wrinkle in the legislation, Gural has now said that he is willing to bring one of the current AC casino operators on board in order to secure a casino at his racetrack. I think I could find a way to work with one of the casino companies in Atlantic City to put a bid in, Gural has been quoted as saying in an article by The Wall Street Journal. Would I prefer that that wasnt the requirement? Obviously. The article also points out another interesting aspect of the bill. An initial version of the legislation gave potential bidders up to six months in order to submit bids. An amended version of the bill has shrunk that window substantially. Bidders will now have to get their ducks in a row and have their proposals submitted within 60 days. Gural has said that, given the new terms, his Meadowlands proposal would still include Hard Rock, but would recruit a current AC casino operator. The operator would help fund a public campaign to persuade voters to support expansion when and if ballot-time comes. The Wall Street Journal article states that Gural has already approached Resorts Atlantic City owner Morris Bailey. Gural has said that Bailey is interested. The legislation will require approval from three-fifths of both legislative chambers before it has a chance of appearing on the fall ballot. The bill will have to be passed by August in order to reach the ballot. (With files from The Wall Street Journal) Trip No. 40 for veteran Dover Downs' horseman and humanitarian Ken Wood is underway. Wood is again following up on his overseas schedule to fly to the West African nation of Ghana and now Tanzania. For the past six years, Wood has dug and installed more than 1,000 wells for drinking water for the many thousands of native residents. Prior to Woods personal challenge to get safe drinking water to the natives, they had to walk approximately five miles to reach often contaminated water. More recently, Wood has expanded his drilling to another African nation, Tanzania. His effort is a personal humanitarian effort, which he financially supports. Wood, a longtime resident of Easton, Maryland, is also a popular and successful horseman who has raced for more than three decades at Middle Atlantic region harness racetracks in the U.S. -- more recently at Dover Downs, Harrahs Philadelphia, Pocono Downs and The Meadowlands. With his son Ben, Wood operates a highly respected well-drilling company located on Marylands Eastern Shore, not far from Delaware. The deeply religious Wood became aware of an urgent need for good drinking water in the poor West African nation of Ghana and Tanzania. At his own expense, Wood sent his drilling equipment by boat and flew to West Africa to see in person the need for fresh water. Wood donated his digging equipment and personally purchased other necessities estimated at many thousands of dollars, to his ongoing project. He trains Ghana, and now Tanzania, locals to continue the ongoing work between his visits. Woods crusade has been aided by a number of Rotary clubs and has been recognized by AARP. (With files from Dover Downs) With even the most astute handicappers unable to solve four of the wagering options on the betting buffet at Pompano Park on Saturday night, the track has carryovers on their Pentafecta fourth, the Pick-5, the Pick-4 and the Super Hi-5 finale. Of particular interest on Sunday night is the Pick-4, covering races six through nine. With a $4,088 carryover, the track is offering a $20,000 guarantee for the Pick-4, followed by the Super Hi-5 finale, which has a lucrative carryover of $29,707.43 into the Sunday night program, leaving Director of Racing Brett Revington to say, "This speaks volumes for the competitive nature of the racing here in South Florida. Rarely there is an 'all-all' payout in the Super Hi-5 when there is a nine-horse field. There were only seven in our Super Hi-5 on Saturday night and nobody was able to get past the first three in a competitive field. "It should be quite an interesting Sunday night in South Florida." Pompano Park post time for the Sunday night card is 7:30 p.m. (Pompano Park) This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. The public is invited to participate in the nomination of horses and people who have made a significant contribution to Canadian horse racing, for induction to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2016. Since the inaugural class of people and horses were inducted in 1976, there are now over 500 honoured members in the CHRHF. Nominations for the following will be considered: MALE HORSE : Stallions or geldings whose contribution to Canadian racing occurred in the past 20 years. FEMALE HORSE : Mares whose contribution to Canadian racing occurred in the past 20 years. VETERAN HORSE : Horses whose careers have been concluded for 20 years, but less than 50 years. PERSON : Trainers, Drivers, Jockeys. BUILDERS : Includes, but not limited to Breeders, Owners, Officials, and others. COMMUNICATORS : Includes, but not limited to writers, broadcasters, photographers, announcers. VETERAN PERSON: Trainers, Drivers, Jockeys whose careers have been concluded for 20 years, but less than 50 years. New for 2016 is that all nomination submissions must be made using the form available on the CHRHF website. Form may also be obtained by contacting [email protected]. Complete eligibility criteria may be found here. The deadline for submissions is 5:00 p.m. (EST) on Wednesday, March 2. For further information, or to submit a completed nomination form, contact: Standardbred Nominations: Darryl Kaplan, Standardbred Nomination Chair, Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame 1-2150 Meadowvale Blvd., Mississauga, ON L5N 6R6 P: 905-858-3060 (Ext. 241) F: 905-858-3089 E: [email protected] (CHRHF) Pat Hall, a longtime horseman and horse racing official, and son of Don Hall, passed away on January 8, five days after his 67th birthday. Pat and his wife, Kathy, had been involved in a head-on car collision on November 23 and had been in intensive care at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor with multiple injuries since then. There will be a memorial service celebrating his life in mid-May, in Northville, Mich. Details will come later. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Pat Hall. (USTA) Er is iets heel griezeligs aan de gang in Nederland. Dat wij geleidelijk aan in een totalitaire 'democratie' wegzinken wordt steeds ... "If you destroy the labor unions in this country, you destroy liberty when you strike the blow, and you would leave the poor bound and shackled and helpless to do the bidding of the rich." Clarence Darrow "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. Robert F. Kennedy "History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days." Winston Churchill Trin Tr-Information. This is a purely informative post. Of late, I have received emails from some of you who have made it to a grad school in the US. First, ... No good bones, only funny bones Main aur meri tanhayi aksar yeh baatein karte hain The tanhayi in me is the voice in my head, a fiery, filter-less, chatty one. Youd... "The Elite Charade of Changing the World" Congratulations, ma'am. Apple will donate a part of the funds to support HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. Really? Where in Africa? Umm..... Food (scarcity) for thought I am not easily perturbed by news of the pandemic, but today feels different, hollow. Last evening, the municipal corporation announced a lo... A big basket of gratitude Imagine a day comes when you make an entry in your gratitude journal that reads like this: Today, I was able to place an order with Bigbask... Birthday tales Birthdays and birthday conversations are interesting. I usually call my mother once I wake up on my birthday so that she can wish me. Usuall... Thod(a)-Thod(a) A lot can happen over a banana stem (thod in Bangla) from the garden. Sunday morning, I saw my neighbor chop a few of the banana plants in t... Lockdown diaries For posterity. Today is May 2, 2020 Six weeks of lockdown over. The government just announced a 2-week extension. Last restauran... Irrfan Khan My life is a little richer because I have Irrfan Khan movies to watch. About his brilliant acting, there is nothing I can add that people ha... tech2 News Staff A new report from Accenture warns that businesses use of personal data from consumers is at risk and recommends key strategies and principles to properly protect consumer data, build trust and simultaneously grow their businesses. The report, Guarding and Growing Personal Data Value, acknowledges the benefits of using personal data to support innovation in customer service, product development and market development. However, it also identifies the growing challenges that businesses face when using personal data, as a result of changing sentiments among stakeholders such as customers, regulatory bodies and watchdogs. Customer data is a digital crown jewel for any business but an organizations ability to collect, analyze and monetize that asset in the future is under threat due to shifting perceptions, preferences, regulations and attacks, said Ryan LaSalle, managing director, Accenture Security. Above all, stewardship and effective safeguarding of personal data is paramount to establishing digital trust. The implications of failing to do so extend into a businesss operating model meaning businesses must be organized and have the capabilities to protect the data that is entrusted to them. The report is based on research conducted by the Accenture Institute for High Performance that included a survey of nearly 600 global business professionals across eight industry groups, interviews with academic experts, and other secondary research. Ninety percent of respondents said digital stewardship is the most important principle in terms of improving their business reputation and being responsible managers of personal data, and 74 percent said that their businesses are taking action on this principle. The report identifies several trends affecting the outlook of businesses using personal data including: A crisis of trust in data security: Customers wont do business with companies they dont trust with their data and customers trust in data security is lacking. Customers are acting on their privacy concerns: Customer actions to protect their data could compromise the amount and quality of personal data that businesses can use. Customers are demanding a data dividend: Nearly 60 percent of respondents from products and manufacturing companies reported their customers are actively monetizing their own data for instance, by selling it to data intermediaries. New technologies and startups are helping people go off grid: Growth in new privacy-enhancing technologies could impact the quality of customer data available to businesses. Regulation is changing the rules of data collection: Governments are increasing their regulatory response to concerns over data privacy. Watchdogs are increasing the scrutiny of business data practices: Groups like Fair Data (U.K.) and Electronic Frontier Foundation (U.S.) are scrutinizing the way businesses manage personal data. Rather than fight these trends, businesses should pursue proactive strategies that will help them adapt to the changes ahead, said Matthew Robinson, managing director, Accenture Institute for High Performance. This includes investing in the right talent and technologies to bolster their security capabilities and provide greater data protection, defining an operational model centered on risk management goals to better predict, detect, respond and recover from security threats, and taking action on the principles weve identified that can promote greater digital trust. The five principles outlined in the report include: Digital stewardship: Ensuring that management of personal data is consistent with the expectations of those providing it. Demonstrating personal data stewardship can help businesses differentiate themselves from the competition. Deutsche Telekom worked with email providers Web.de, T-Online and GMX to launch a secure end-to-end email communication service that stores user data within Germany, responding to fears of external surveillance of emails. The company saw a six-figure increase in new subscribers during the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013. Digital transparency: Demonstrating openness in how businesses use personal data. Companies can foster transparency by proactively showing customers and others how they are using and storing data. Nectar, a loyalty program that offers its 18 million customers full visibility of data collection and use, was singled out as an exemplar of transparency by the U.K. government. Digital empowerment: Giving customers greater control over their data. By mastering the two components of digital empowerment enabling customers to update data held about them and using data analytics to help customers make better decisions companies can improve customer satisfaction and unlock new sources of revenue. Digital equity: Clarifying and potentially increasing the benefits customers receive in exchange for sharing their data. Companies can strengthen digital equity by providing greater monetary or service-in-kind benefits to customers in return for their data. Kreditech a German start-up that assesses credit risks has issued more than 1.5 million small loans since its launch in 2012 on the basis of personal data from social networks or e-commerce retail accounts. Digital inclusion: Using personal data to multiply positive societal outcomes. Personal data that is shared appropriately can create significant value for society. In 2013, French telecoms company Orange worked with a think tank to map economic activity in Cote dIvoire using customer mobile phone data. Though designed to align urban development efforts with economic needs, the project also enables Orange to refine its business operations in Cote dIvoire. tech2 News Staff After announcing the 'Startup India, Stand Up' initiative to boost startups in India, PM Narendra Modi has set the ball rolling with the Startup action plan. He released a 30-page action plan that makes the journey smoother for startups and helps them grow. The industry has welcomed the initiative and hopes to see much more indigenous innovation in the days to come. Here's a look at what some insiders have to say. Shaifali Agarwal Holani,Founder and CEO,EasyFix - a labour development and construction focused company feels that India has sharpest brains and this initiative will give a platform to many enthusiastic but under confident talents to come out of their ordeal. "Encouraging privatisation will speed the pace at which India is developing and we will become a developed country soon," says Holani. https://twitter.com/travisk/status/688532665419481088 Rajiv Srivatsa, Founder, Chief Operating Officer, Urban Ladder seconds this sentiment of encouragement. It is encouraging to see the kind of attention the startup community is getting from the central government. It re-instills faith in the path many of us (entrepreneurs) have chosen. I'm confident the government will play a significant role to support the ecosystem, and help us build truly world class 'Made in India' companies. With introduction of self certification compliance and easier patent laws, entrepreneurs will be able to spend more mind-space on innovation. The move to make exits simpler is also encouraging and will encourage more risk taking and hence, disruption. https://twitter.com/maheshmurthy/status/688371371928358912 Mohit Mittal, founder and CEO of Voodoo welcomes the move by PM Modi to open 7 research parks in different IITs with a 100 crore backing each. "Exposure to a facility like the research park facilitated many a budding entrepreneurs and friends with funding and guidance. Scaling it to seven other institutes would definitely help the budding startup enthusiasts right from their first day in college, and that's really paramount to their future success. One has to start early and fail early to really learn the intricacies of scaling a company, college students should welcome this move with open arms," Mittal says. He started up his first company while studying at IIT Madras. Talking about the government's emphasis on making healthcare affordable via technology, Saurabh Arora, CEO, Lybrate, the online doctor consultation platform, says, The Startup Action Plan unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very encouraging, dynamic and invigorating. Measures like single point contact, patent protection, creation of funds of funds and on top of all tax incentives will provide a huge boost to the entire startup ecosystem and propel startups to the next level. The government is very supportive and believes in the tremendous potential of entrepreneurial ventures and how immensely they can contribute to the socio-economic growth of the country. The steps announced will further spur entrepreneurial mindset in India. The government has set the ball rolling for startups to excel and let them solve real problems facing the people of the country." https://twitter.com/ficci_india/status/688261692552159232 Bureaucratic bottlenecks often hamper the growth of startups and the change in policies, relaxation of tax and compliance norms also has been received positively. "Patent fee reduction of 80 percent will be huge for IP based startups who can not only protect their intellectual property , but patents once registered add to tangible valuation increase," says Swati Gupta, CEO and founder of Industrybuying.com. She adds that no inspections for three years will reduce the regulatory burden related to VAT set up in new states, warehouse procedures , new factory set ups and much more physical infrastructure related start ups." Also talking about tax and 'License Raj', Dinesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, AasaanJobs-a recruitment portal for entry level and blue collar jobs says, "The salient points of the Startup India initiative announced by PM Narendra Modi tax exemption for incubators and startups, IPR protection, patent fee reduction, setting up of research parks across IITs and IISC and a corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore to be utilised for startups all look quite promising in terms of attracting the best talent from far and wide to help India reach its potential. Other measures such as the exemption from capital gains tax when investing one's own wealth in a startup will ensure that many jobs are created in every level and human resource and talent acquisition will no longer be a bottleneck. Apart from this, no inspection for the first 3 years and self-certification for statutory compliance will enable startups to hire in bulk and scale up their operations, creating a cascading effect as far as job creation is concerned." He feels the true test of the government will now lie in how the policies are unfurled in the future to cut down red tape and 'escape the License Raj', as pointed out by Jaitley in his speech. https://twitter.com/firstpost/status/688248661046726656 Tax and compliance seems to be the industry favourite point to talk about. Amit Ramani, CEO, Awfis Space Solutions says, Indias start-up ecosystem and its players have been evolving at a phenomenal pace in the recent years. The Government through the Start-up India campaign has chalked out ambitious some guidelines in a bid to propel start-up activity and innovation in the world's fastest growing economy. Reforms on the income tax exemption for three years, capital gains tax waver, and a Rs 10,000 crore start-up fund will play a pivotal role in further fuelling the countrys start-up activity. In addition to this, push for practices such as the single day registration, will definitely have a positive impact on the start-up ecosystem and reduce compliances and clearances." The initiative launched by PM Modi today will surely set an enabling and conducive environment for startups in India. We are overwhelmed to have such support from the Government which will certainly make a big boom in the Indian startup ecosystem to fuel the economy and create new age jobs. The policies announced today at the program, open doors for massive opportunities, boost further investments and innovations. We look forward to implementation of Tax framework for startups and reduced regulations," says Prafulla Mathur, Founder and CEO, WudStay also hoping for smoother operations in the future. The backbone for startups faster, reliable and ubiquitous mobile connectivity is also being talked about with this update. "It is great to see the nation finally giving the much needed attention to the startup space. Government should make the necessary changes in the company laws to make incorporating startups, fund raising, issuing sweat equity etc. much easier so that entrepreneurs can focus on running the business than spending time with consultants and lawyers. Reliable, fast Internet and ubiquitous mobile connectivity are the basic necessity for our startups to build compelling value propositions for the global audience. It is imperative that government helps & enforces telecom operators and ISPs to provide quality services," feels Sony Joy, Founder and CEO of Chillr, a mobile app for peer-to-peer and peer-to-merchant payment to anyone in the phone book. Joy believes that giving incentive to citizens for using digital means of reaching out to government departments and making payments digitally can go a long way in reducing corruption and increasing the efficiency of the economy. Many advanced countries have in the past offered such discounts to boost digital payments at retailers and these measures have helped them earn great economic dividends later on. https://twitter.com/BhogleAnita/status/688916747408269312 Talking about expectations from the initiative, Sairee Chahal, founder of SHEROES.in says that she feels that the younger generation will be inspired and motivated to move from being job seekers to become job creators. She anticipates a change in entrepreneurial policies which were drafted mainly for SME kind of organisations and catered to the manufacturing sector. "Todays startups work with tech mainly focusing upon product and service kind of offerings. They require different kind of resources and have much lower input investments." Chahal hopes that more women entrepreneurs take benefit of the initiative. Prashant Rai, Founder and CEO, OneTimeJobs voices his opinion about the Startup India initiative being more than just about IT or the digital world. "The Start-up India initiative is not just about the IT or digital world, but an effort to assist people starting new business ventures, especially those involved in innovation. Although government is helping the startups in raising funds and help them grow on a wider scale, we would request the government on reducing the taxes on service industries. We would need governments support like the one on Smart City initiative. GST implementation is also a good way out considering the current scenario in business. Government should also help in making the internet connection available to all including the lower middle class and others so that people actively use apps for accessing startups services and connection with the real world. Naina Khedekar Last year PM Modi had announced Startup India, Stand Up, an initiative to boost startups and newer innovations in India. Now, a few months down and he is out with the Startup action plan. A 30-page action plan has been introduced in such a way that it paves a smoother path for startups and remove hurdles that could hinder their growth. Here's a brief summary about what has been announced at the Startup India event. The government will be rolling out a mobile app on April 1, especially for startups. The procedure of setting up and registering for a startup will be simplified using this mobile app. The Atal Innovation Mission has been announced to help incubate start-ups. It will grant seed funds and help strengthen existing incubation facilities. It will also offer pre-incubation training to entrepreneurs, among other things. Start-ups can self-certify their compliance with environment and labour laws. There will be no inspection for three years. For patent protection, the government will be setting up a panel of legal facilitators that will help file patents. It will also make the process of filing for patents easier and transparent. One can expect fast tracked patent applications too. Startups will also be given 80 percent rebate in filing patents, however, this is a pilot launch for one year. The Modi government plans to relax registration procedures for startups. Startups will get 90-days open window to close their businesses in case of failure. A fund of Rs 10,000 crore is planned for the growth and development of the startups. It will be an infusion of Rs 2,500 crore a year. In case a start-up is looking to shut down operations, then a person in charge of the company will be appointed and the assets of the company will be liquidated and its creditors paid within six months. The government has also announced credit guarantee fund worth Rs 500 crore per year. Tax exemption for startups have been announced to promote their growth. Starting April 1, 2016, startups will be exempted from income-tax for three years. This exemption will be given to those with/invested in capital gains in the funds of fund recognised by the government. Besides, investments made by incubators above fair market value (FMV) will also be exempted. (Also read: CP Gurnani on the tech ecosystem in India) To further promote startups, the government plans national and international startup fests. It plans 13 startup centres and 18 technology business incubators that will help setting up as well as scaling. There 31 centres of innovation will be set up at national institutions. The government also plans to set up 7 research parks. Then, 50 new bio-technology incubators, 150 technology transfer offices and 20 bio connect offices will also be created. (Also read: Flipkart's Sachin Bansal believes India isn't ready for internet IPOs yet) Students can also expect innovation focused programs. These programs will be targeted at school kids. A Grand Challenge Program (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) will award Rs 10 lakhs to 20 student innovations. However, to leverage these facilities, one has to adhere to certain rules to be recognised as a startup. The yearly turn over cannot exceed Rs 25 crore and a registered company/private company will be recognised as a startup, among other things. The business of the startup should be 'a new, innovative product that will add value to customers and their experience'. However, this is slightly tricky as who will decide whether the product is innovative? However, this may help with newer innovations rather than simply copying an existing model. hidden By Asheeta Regidi The Delhi High Court sentenced Uber driver Shiv Kumar Yadav to life for raping a young woman executive in his car last November. The rapist was sent to jail, but the problems resulting from the lack of responsibility borne by drivers operating under services like Uber, Meru and Ola persists. Heres what Ubers terms and conditions at the time of the Delhi rape said about its responsibility concerning drivers: Uber does not guarantee the suitability, safety or ability of third party providersyou acknowledge that you may be exposed to situations involving third party providers that are potentially unsafe, offensive, harmful to minors, or otherwise objectionable Uber shall not have any liability arising from or in any way related to your transactions or relationship with third party providers Though the terms have since been modified to contain language that is a little less contentious, the essence remains the same: Uber and other taxi services do not take responsibility for drivers. In other words, downloading a taxi service app and agreeing to its terms and conditions is an affirmation that you alone are responsible for your safety; the company cannot be sued no matter what the crime rape, murder or robbery. And whats more, these terms will be binding on you. While Indian courts havent yet ruled on this issue, they have been upheld to be binding abroad. The principal rider is that you had adequate notice as to terms and conditions governing use. This is why you are repeatedly forced to click an I Agree button before you can use the service, or why you are forced to scroll through the voluminous block of text before you click I Agree. It doesnt even matter whether or not you actually read them, so long as you had an opportunity to read them. In cases where you just have a hyperlink to the terms and conditions, and no I Agree button, the terms are still binding, so long as the hyperlink is conspicuous. For example, a small grey hyperlink on a grey background at the bottom of the screen does not constitute adequate notice. Six things you should know about terms and conditions 1. The Limitation of Liability Clause: The clause from the Uber terms and conditions quoted above is a limitation of liability clause, which states that you cannot hold the company responsible for anything that goes wrong. Amazons limitation of liability clause, for example, states that it is only an online platform, and will not be liable for any deficiencies in the goods provided by a seller. Ebays clause states that its liability for data loss will be limited to the fees paid by the user to use Ebays services. 2. The Jurisdiction Clause: Take note of when you can or cannot sue. Some terms and conditions restrict you to arbitration, while others restrict you to courts in a particular jurisdiction. Another issue that turned up in the Uber rape case was that the app restricted jurisdiction to the courts in Netherlands. In one controversial case, the terms and conditions contained a clause that if you liked the company on Facebook, you waived your right to sue. 3. The Privacy Policy: The Privacy Policy lists what sort of user information is collected, and what it can be used for. For example, the policy section of the Google Maps app states that it collects information on your phone number, calling party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls. One wonders why an app on geolocation services needs access to such detailed information on the calls you make. The policy also states that it may collect geolocational information. This means that Google keeps records of where you went, and when you went there. 4. License, Not Sale: It has now become apparent to those users buying music from iTunes that they dont actually own the music they download; they are only gaining a license to it. This applies to software too. In 2009, Amazon Kindle deleted George Orwells 1984 from user accounts on the grounds that some copies were sold by accident. Amazon had the right to delete simply because the books are licensed to users; they dont own them. 5. Suspension/ Termination of Account: Many companies retain the right to suspend or terminate the account at their sole discretion. Usually, this is not done except for a legitimate reason such as unlawful use by, or because the company is withdrawing its service. In one instance, an Amazon Kindle customers account was terminated, and her entire library of 43 books was deleted because Amazon said her account was directly related to another which has been previously closed for abuse of our policies. There was no clarification as to which account or how it was related. 6. Changes to terms and conditions: The particulars of the agreement usually contain a clause stating that terms and conditions can change at any time, without the service producer informing the user, and the user will be bound by these new terms. In 2011, Facebook changed its terms and made the previously hidden friends list public. This was done without the consent of the users. An action by the Federal Trade Commission in the US forced Facebook to change its policy and promise better privacy to its users. The main issue with these agreements is that they offer no room for negotiation its take it or leave it. You may use the services as they are or not at all. This does not, however, mean that you have no power to renegotiate terms. A behemoth like Facebook was forced to change its terms and conditions on account of public pressure and governmental intervention. If you see anything that you feel violates your rights, speak out against it. It just might resolve the issue. The author is a lawyer with a specialisation in cyber laws and has co-authored books on the subject. The next part of the series will examine cyber stalking and sexual harassment. hidden A cyber attack on Kiev's main airport was launched from a server in Russia, Ukraine's military spokesman told Reuters on Monday, as the state-run Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) warned of the threat of further attacks. Malware similar to that which attacked three Ukrainian power firms in late December was detected in a computer in the IT network of Kiev's main airport, Boryspil, last week. The network includes the airport's air traffic control. "The control center of the server, where the attacks originate, is in Russia," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said by phone, adding the malware had been detected early in the airport's system and no damage had been done. A spokeswoman for the airport said Ukrainian authorities were investigating whether the malware was connected to a malicious software platform known as "BlackEnergy," which has been linked to other recent cyber attacks on Ukraine. There are some signs that the attacks are linked, she said. "Attention to all system administrators ... We recommend a check of log-files and information traffic," CERT-UA said in a statement. In December three Ukrainian regional power firms experienced short-term blackouts as a result of malicious software in their networks. Experts have described the incident as the first known power outage caused by a cyber attack. A U.S. cyber intelligence firm in January traced the attack back to a Moscow-backed group known as Sandworm. Reuters Source: Forbes, Oxfam Eighty people hold the same amount of wealth as the worlds 3.6 billion poorest people, according to an analysis just released from Oxfam. The report from the global anti-poverty organization finds that since 2009, the wealth of those 80 richest has doubled in nominal terms while the wealth of the poorest 50 percent of the worlds population has fallen.To see how much wealth the richest 1 percent and the poorest 50 percent hold, Oxfam used research from Credit Suisse , a Swiss financial services company, and Forbess annual billionaires list . Oxfam then looked at how many of the worlds richest people would need to pool their resources to have as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent and as of March 2014, it was just 80 people.Four years earlier, 388 billionaires together held as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the world.Thirty-five of the 80 richest people in the world are U.S. citizens, with combined wealth of $941 billion in 2014. Together in second place are Germany and Russia, with seven mega-rich individuals apiece. The entire list is dominated by one gender, though 70 of the 80 richest people are men. And 68 of the people on the list are 50 or older.If those 80 individuals were to bump into each on Svenborgia , what might they talk about? Retail could be a good conversation starter 14 of the 80 got their wealth that way. Or they could discuss extractives (industries like oil, gas and mining, to which 11 of them owe their fortunes), finance (also 11 of them) or tech (10 of them).There might be some quiet voices in the room, though, because 11 of the wealthiest people on the planet were simply born into their money (19 others inherited their wealth and then made it grow). The remaining 50 names on the list, according to Forbes, are self-made billionaires.Oxfam notes that global wealth inequality is increasing while the rich get richer. If trends continue, the organization projects that the richest 1 percent of people will have more wealth than the remaining 99 percent by 2016.Heres the list of the 80 people with as much wealth as the worlds poorest 3.6 billion people: Welcome to the Scorpion and the Frog! Check back every week for a new post about animal behavior! *Origin: UK | Date: 2017 | ABV: 4.7% | On The Beer Nut: April 2016* In 2017 I was lucky enough to win a prize in BrewDog's short-lived Beer Geek Awards. ... 1 week ago No extension of retirement age limit for FF public servants: Cabinet It also returns ICT Ministry's draft proposal on E-Service Policy The Cabinet on Monday turned down a proposal of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry to raise the retirement age limit of freedom fighter public servants to 65 years from the existing 60 years. The decision came from the regular weekly meeting of the Cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam said the Public Administration Ministry placed a letter of the Prime Minister's Office regarding the freedom fighters age limit extension as per directives of the High Court and the Appellate Division. He said the Cabinet at the meeting came up with a view that the government earlier raised the retirement age limit of the freedom fighter public servants from 57 to 59 years in 2010. Later, on February 26, 2013, the government raised the retirement age limit for the public servants from 57 to 59 years and further raised it for the freedom fighter public servants from 59 years to 60 years. The Supreme Court gave the directives after a hearing on November 16, 2015 on the letter to comply with the High Court order and place it before the Cabinet within 60 days to get the Cabinet decision. Shafiul Alam said the Cabinet gave the decision today within the specified timeframe as it got the certified copy of the court order on November 24, 2015. He said the Cabinet also returned a draft proposal of the National E-Service Policy, 2015 of the Information and Communication Technology Division and asked the ministry to place it again after further scrutiny of the draft and incorporating its some observations. Ministers and State Ministers attended the meeting while concerned secretaries were present. --Dhaka, Jan 18 (UNB) Berlin, Brussels` shock tactic on migrants Migrants queue to enter a tent that serves as a waiting room at the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs (LAGESO), in Berlin, Germany. Reuters, Brussels :The Germans, founders and funders of the postwar union, shut their borders to refugees in a bid for political survival by the chancellor who let in a million migrants. And then-why not? -- they decide to revive the Deutschmark while they're at it.That is not the fantasy of diehard Eurosceptics but a real fear articulated at the highest levels in Berlin and Brussels.Chancellor Angela Merkel, her ratings hit by crimes blamed on asylum seekers at New Year parties in Cologne, and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker both said as much last week.Juncker echoed Merkel in warning that the central economic achievements of the common market and the euro are at risk from incoherent, nationalistic reactions to migration and other crises. He renewed warnings that Europe is on its "last chance", even if he still hoped it was not "at the beginning of the end".Merkel, facing trouble among her conservative supporters as much as from opponents, called Europe "vulnerable" and the fate of the euro "directly linked" to resolving the migration crisis-highlighting the risk of at the very least serious economic turbulence if not a formal dismantling of EU institutions.Some see that as mere scare tactics aimed at fellow Europeans by leaders with too much to lose from an EU collapse-Greeks and Italians have been seen to be dragging their feet over controlling the bloc's Mediterranean frontier and eastern Europeans who benefit from German subsidies and manufacturing supply chain jobs have led hostility to demands that they help take in refugees.Germans are also getting little help from EU co-founder France, whose leaders fear a rising anti-immigrant National Front, or the bloc's third power, Britain, consumed with its own debate on whether to just quit the European club altogether.So, empty threat or no, with efforts to engage Turkey's help showing little sign yet of preventing migrants reaching Greek beaches, German and EU officials are warning that without a sharp drop in arrivals or a change of heart in other EU states to relieve Berlin of the lonely task of housing refugees, Germany could shut its doors, sparking wider crisis this spring.With Merkel's conservative allies in the southern frontier state of Bavaria demanding she halt the mainly Muslim asylum seekers ahead of tricky regional elections in March, her veteran finance minister delivered one of his trademark veiled threats to EU counterparts of what that could mean for them."Many think this is a German problem," Wolfgang Schaeuble said in meetings with fellow EU finance ministers in Brussels. "But if Germany does what everyone expects, then we'll see that it's not a German problem-but a European one."Senior Merkel allies are working hard to stifle the kind of parliamentary party rebellion that threatened to derail bailouts which kept Greece in the euro zone last year. But pressure is mounting for national measures, such as border fences, which as a child of East Germany Merkel has said she cannot countenance."If you build a fence, it's the end of Europe as we know it," one senior conservative said. "We need to be patient."A senior German official noted that time is running out, however. Court grants 3-day remand to KJAL Chairman Chittagong Bureau : A Chittagong court on Sunday granted three-day remand to the chairman of Khan Jahan Ali Limited (KJAL) Nur Mohammad for his alleged involvement in bringing liquid cocaine with imported sunflower oil through Chittagong Port on June 8 in 2015. The court of Metropolitan Magistrate Rahmat Ali granted the three-day remand rejecting the bail prayer of the accused.The investigation officer Mohammad Mohiuddin Faruqi of RAB-7 sought 3-day remand to interrogate Nur Mohammad. Earlier, law enforcers arrested Nur Mohammad from the city on Friday and he was sent to jail after appearing before the court. The Custom Intelligence sealed 107 drums of sunflower oil at the NCT yard of the Chittagong Port on June 8, 2015 based on an intelligence report. Existence of liquid cocaine was found in barrels of edible oil, seized from a container at Chittagong Port, after their contents were retested in the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and Bangladesh Drug Testing Laboratory (BDTL). Sub-inspector of Bandar police station Osman Goni filed a case against Nur Mohammad, owner of 'Khan Jahan Ali Limited', and its employee Sohel under the narcotics control. Police arrested Sohel soon after the consignment seizure.Police later arrested four persons including A K Azad, Manager Cosco Bangladesh Shipping Lines limited and Golam Mostafa Sohel, manager of Khanjahan Ali Limited of Khatungonj for their alleged involvement in brining cocaine with imported sunflower oil through Chittagong Port. Richi`s exceptional array Sheikh Arif Bulbon :In last October, after passing leisure times with husband Rashek Malik in USA and then returning to Bangladesh popular TV actress Richi Solaiman has become engaged with acting again. But this time Rashek Malik has come to Bangladesh. Her husband Rashek came to Dhaka to celebrate Richis birthday on January 23. Legendary film actor Razzaks birthday is on that day. For this reason, Richis birthday always becomes concealed. But Richi always takes it normal. She passes the day by own way. This year Richi along with husband and her senior media colleagues will celebrate her birthday in exceptional way, she said. While talking in this regard Richi told this correspondent, Basically I always try to celebrate my birthday by own way. This year I will invite specially those senior actors by whom I acted with them in different times in different plays and serials. Therefore, my favourite faces will also get invitation from me in this connection. Everybody pray for me as I can successfully pass the day joyfully.Richi acted two serials: Golam Sohrab Doduls Palta Hawa and Sagor Jahans Milar Baranda are being aired now in two separte satellite channels.Besdies acting in serials, Richi also worked in several faction plays, she informed.Recently Richi singly performed in Chayanika Chowdhurys 300th play titled Sonar Manush, which story is based on Imdadul Haque Milons story. Ezaz Munna made its script and it will be aired in any satellite channel soon.In Sonar Manush, Dinat Jahan Munni rendered a Tagore song titled Tomarey koriyachhi jiboner dhrubotara, Richi mentioned. However, under Chayanikas direction Richi also acted in another play titled Bhitorey Bahirey. Ezaz Munna also wrote story of the play. Decades-old GMO regulation unfit for 21st century Klaus Ammann and Marcel Kuntz. : New methods of influencing genetic traits in diverse organisms are set to become available at an increasing speed and low cost. Before, plant breeding was divided into GMOs and non-GMOs, focusing worldwide (with rare exceptions) on processes. EU regulation deals with direct DNA transfer creating transgenic organisms, defining it as a legal object called a "GMO", which is altered in a way which does not occur in nature. We argue that future inclusion or exclusion of "gene editing" technologies from present day GMO regulation is building on a flawed conception of GMOs. EU regulation based on misconceptions Generally, the molecular processes of modern technologies are copied from natural ones, a view promoted for many years by Werner Arber, a Nobel Price recipient. This is why a separation between plants originating from natural against unnatural breeds has its pitfalls and is basically wrong - since many naturally occurring transgenic plants exist, amongst them the sweet potato. Another misconception is that crops with herbicide resistance obtained by natural mutation, or by artificial mutation through chemistry or radiation, are excluded from the regulation for political reasons. While the current EU regulation was meant to allow the use of biotechnology when proven safe, it has encouraged political polemics and stigmatisation, disinformation at a massive scale (unprecedented in the democratic world) and ultimately denied farmers the freedom of choice and scientists academic freedom, not to mention the shameless exportation of these problems to poorer countries. Call for new regulation In recent years, many important public institutions and researchers called for a new product-oriented regulation. "Product" should not be understood as the DNA construct, but as the final product which goes on the market (farmers and consumers do not buy "DNA products"). Globally, dozens of scientists and academies (such as the European Academies, EASAC) and others (e.g. UK House of Commons) are explicitly calling for a shift towards product-based regulation. New plant Breeding Technologies (NBT) Some of these new methods are applying micro-mutations at very precise genomic locations. In addition, these methods are becoming simpler and cheaper. There are regulators such as the German Consumer Protection Association (BVL) and Swedish scientists which call for the exclusion of such "gene editing" from the GMO regulation as long as such crops do not contain any "foreign" DNA. These arguments are derived from the analysis of regulatory paragraphs and present day molecular knowledge. This is a view with some merit, but which actually neglects existing potential risks which are, admittedly, low, but not non-existent. In addition, following this logic, focusing again on DNA structures would make some fall back into the old stigmatising regulation, with all the drawbacks listed above. Moreover, it is justified to say that it is practically impossible to give a clear definition of GMOs. Others have written about the "nonsensical GMO pseudo-category", a parallel to the failed attempt to genetically define human races. Similarly, it will be difficult to define "foreign" DNA. All these considerations mean that it is easy to predict that such a mixture of de-regulation/regulation of NBTs will encourage unnecessarily bitter disputes. Opponents have already opened new lines of argument, calling for strict moratoriums and the in-discriminatory inclusion of all NBTs into a regulatory regime. It is obvious that opponents (some generously funded by European public money) will succeed in propagating fears over non-regulated NBTs, which will be called "hidden GMOs" as is already the case for mutagenised crops such as some HT sunflowers (some fields have already been vandalised in France). It will indeed be difficult for non-experts to understand why decades-old GMOs are still regulated, with their regulation even strengthened or their marketing bluntly banned by the European Parliament, leaving aside science, in contrast to the advice of the European Food Safety Authority. In the meantime, novel biotechnologies should only be regulated partially. Focus on the benefits The benefits of modern breeding do not mean that we should remain in the old-fashioned techno-fix age and focus alone on the belief that technology will be the alpha and omega of progress in agriculture. There are plenty of data-filled papers and reviews demonstrating that the ultimate success of an introduction of new biotechnologies depends on many other factors, such as production structure, farmer lifestyle, family structure, crop ecology, landscape ecology, historical elements, as well as tradition. We have a dream What we actually need is a global regulatory system built on the best scientific knowledge (which evolves with time), including a possibility to differentiate according to the magnitude of risk impact related to applied technologies. The political implication should not always be limited to more regulation, bans and bargaining over modern agriculture. At a time when many have doubts about Europe, European policy should rather be about lifting political barriers, dropping unscientific stigmatisation and shedding light on factors that will allow modern agriculture to meet the agricultural challenges facing the 21st century. (Klaus Ammann is professor emeritus at the University of Bern, and Marcel Kuntz is Director of Research at CNRS, Grenoble). Our workers abroad should be looked after and not neglected A NATIONAL DAILY has reported that the government pays no attention to the country's migrant workers who toil abroad to boost the economy without getting proper treatment during sickness or suffering injuries at work. While the country's GDP outlook is increasing riding on the back of the vigorous remittance inflow, the government's indifference to the unsung heroes plights and pains is pathetic, morally unwelcoming and economically distressful. In our observation, no government has made any investment on migration; but the untrained workers take all the risks themselves to purchase future for their family and the country in exchange for hard labour. The government must take proper moves to ensure the remitters health safety in the workplace and medical treatment after returning home. As the migrant's health issues are being neglected by the host countries, many workers return home with chronic and communicable diseases, including AIDS, and workplace injuries without proper treatment. The migrant workers also do not get proper medical treatment in home country as the government shows no interest in their well-being. The Minister concerned also admitted that the government lacked a coherent policy to protect the migrant workers' interests. Such negligence only points to the fact that we are only interested in their hard earned foreign exchange. Right campaigners said that even young migrants come back dead mainly due to working without protective gears and unhygienic living conditions abroad. The overall scenario of the migrant workers rights violations and health danger are not tolerable, despite this, labour attaches and other officials in diplomatic missions do not paid attention to the migrants. Remittances from more than 10 million citizens abroad are one of the key sources of foreign exchange, a lifeline for us. In 2014-15 fiscal, the migrants sent $15.3 billion, the highest ever in a single year, while the remittance inflow was $1310 million in last December. The on average remittance inflow to Bangladesh is many times higher than aid flows and FDI. So, the government should take vigorous diplomatic moves to ensure a healthy workplace for the unnoticed heroes in abroad and free medical treatment in the home country. There is no more important area of cleaning up than the issue of migrant labour force's health safety. We also endorse the rights campaigners demand to provide compulsory health insurance coverage to all the workers before they leave the country to work abroad so that at least on return home they could get the needed medical treatment. Not only the government, civil society, media all of us need to work together for the craftsmen of our economy. If we can ensure a minimum level of human rights, including basic health services, for them in abroad and home, we think this is likely to increase the growth of Bangladesh. Zia`s birth anniv today UNB, Dhaka :BNP and its associate bodies will celebrate the 80th birth anniversary of party founder Ziaur Rahman across the country today (Tuesday).Born on January 19, 1936 at Bagbari in Bogra, Zia had become the country's 7th president and formed Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). BNP has taken up various programmes to observe the day.The programmes include hoisting of the party flag atop its offices, placing wreaths and holding a prayer session at Zia's graveside and arranging discussion and free medical camp.BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, the widow of the party founder, along with its leaders and activists will place wreaths on Zia's grave around 10am.A discussion on the life of Ziaur Rahman was held on Sunday at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh on the occasion.BNP's associate organisations and district committees have also chalked out various programmes to mark the day.Ziaur Rahman Foundation will hold a discussion at Dhaka Reporters' Unity at 3pm today.Doctors' Association of Bangladesh (DAB) will arrange a free medical camp and voluntary blood donation on the ground floor of BNP's Nayapaltan central office from 9am to 4pm on Tuesday. Besides, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir issued a message on the occasion showing profound homage to late Zia.He prayed for salvation of his departed soul.After the country's independence, Zia had become Bangladesh's Army Chief and later president. He rose to power on November 7, 1975 following the coup of mid-August and the counter-coup of November 3.In April 1977, he took over as president from Justice ASM Sayem, who had been installed in office by General Khaled Musharraf on November 6, 1975 but was kept on by the new military leadership.Zia had arranged presidential elections in June 1978 in which he defeated General MAG Osmany, the candidate of the combined opposition. In the same year, he founded the BNP. On his watch, general elections in early 1979 gave his new party a majority in parliament.Zia was assassinated by a cable of army officers at Chittagong Circuit House on the night of May 30, 1981. Since then, BNP is headed by his wife Khaleda Zia. DSCC employees threaten strike 2 SIs found guilty, says Home Minister Employees of DSCC brought out a procession from Nagar Bhaban to JPC protesting police assaults on two of their colleagues and also formed a human chain on Monday. Staff Reporter :Employees and workers of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) on Monday threatened to go for an indefinite strike if their demand for arrest of the cops involved in assaulting the corporation officials is not met within three days.Under the banner of Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP), they made the demand from a human chain formed in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the city with SKOP convenor Akhter Hossain Dewan in the chair.From the human chain, the DSCC employees and workers demanded exemplary punishment of the police men, including Sub-Inspector Arshad Hossain Akash, who were involved in beating up cleaning inspector Bikash Chandra Das. Motijheel police also tortured DSCC engineer Abdul Mazed in Baitul Mokarram Mosque area six months ago.They also threatened to stop removing garbage, switching on and off the streetlights and besiege police stations after the expiry of their three days dateline.Earlier, the employees and workers of 13 organisations took out procession from the Nagar Bhaban, the office of DSCC, at Gulistan. Parading different city streets, they formed human chain in front of the National Press Club. DSCC Sramik League President Mizanur Rahman Bhuyian said that six months ago Motijheel police tortured their engineer Abdul Mazed in Baitul Mokarram Mosque area."Now, SI Arshad Hossain Akash and others beat up our cleaning inspector Bikash Chandra Das. We strongly condemned the incident and demanded their immediate arrest and punishment," he said.Victim Bikash Chandra Das's wife Swarashati, who was also present in the human chain said, "My husband has been transferred to the ICU of Lab Aid Hospital. As his condition has remained critical, he couldn't move and even talk." On January 15, Bikash Chandra Das, 40, a cleaning inspector of the DSCC, was allegedly beaten up by the policemen near Mirhazirbagh Bazar of Jatrabari area around 5:00 am 'without any reason'.The SI Akash was suspended on Saturday night for assaulting DSCC inspector Bikash Talking to journalists at his secretariat office yesterday, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the police officials involved in blackmailing and torturing of Bangladesh Bank official Golam Rabbi and DSCC cleaning inspector Bikash Chandra Das will not be spared. "SI Masud was involved in blackmailing and torturing the BB official according to the primary investigation. Besides, SI Akash was also involved in torturing the DSCC cleaning inspector. Probe suggests their behaviour were unlike what it would be of a policeman at that time," he told journalists.The Home Minister said police must follow the dress code when they will be on duty."The detective branch (DB) of police will have to wear coat containing logo of the department. In the wake some incidents relating to extortion by the police, the Home Ministry asked the police department to obey the rules and regulations," he said. 3 Americans kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad The Washington Post, Baghdad : Three Americans reported missing from a Baghdad neighborhood were kidnapped by militiamen from an apartment in the capital on Saturday, a senior police official and resident of the building said. A Baghdad police colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said that the Americans are employed as contractors at the Baghdad International Airport. He did not say which company employed the individuals. Another police official in Baghdad, a major general also speaking on condition of anonymity, gave the names of the abducted individuals as Amro Mohamed, Wael al-Mahdawi, and Rusul Farad, a woman. The U.S. Embassyin Baghdad did not respond to a request to verify the names. The Americans appear to have been seized by Shiite militiamen in the Dora neighborhood in southern Baghdad, the police colonel said. The area from which they were taken is controlled by Shiite militias, including the Iran-backed Asai'b Ahl al-Haqq, or League of the Righteous, he said. The colonel said that the group had been invited to the home of theirIraqi interpreter. But a resident of the apartment building where the Americans were reportedly seized said that they were taken from a second-story apartment that he described as well-known as a brothel. A police major general also said the apartment was a brothel, in a building of eight residents, he said. The resident said the apartment is subject to frequent raids by Asa'ib ah al-Haqq, although typically the men found inside are simply told to leave. He said he witnessed part of the raid, but that it happened late at night and was over very quickly. "They went to an inappropriate place," Iraqi lawmaker Iskander Witwit said of the Americans, referring to the alleged brothel. "Iraqi security forces are working very hard now to locate them." Dora was a dangerous Sunni insurgent hub, and site of some of the worst sectarian cleansing in the capital in 2006-07. Some areas of Dora are now ruled by militias, residents and officials said. Iraq's Shiite militias have for years carried out raids on bars, brothels, and liquor stores, which they say are un-Islamic. An intelligence officer assigned to Dora said that his forces had searched the area "house by house" but had found no clues. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said on Sunday. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority. We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals. Due to privacy considerations, I have nothing further." Abductions for ransom or political reasons were widely practiced by militants and criminal gangs in Baghdad following the U.S. invasion here in 2003. But the rate of high-profile kidnappings had dropped off in recent years. A senior Iraqi security official also told CNN that the Americans had gone missing two days ago, along with their Iraqi interpreter. A spokesman for Baghdad's Joint Operations Command said Sunday that the three missing persons were Iraqis who had become U.S. citizens. That information also could not be confirmed. Some local media reports, quoting unnamed security officials, said the individuals were taken from Baghdad's Dora neighborhood on their way to the international airport. Both Sunni and Shiite militants are present in the Iraqi capital, but Shiite militias operate as powerful auxiliary forces, and the Islamic State does not have a major presence here. Many of Iraq's Shiite militias are backed by Iran. Some analysts who closely follow Iran and its regional proxies suggested Sunday that the abduction of American citizens in Baghdad, if true, may have been a projection of Iranian power, in particular by hard-liners who opposed the prisoner deal with the United States over the weekend. Iran released four Iranian Americans with dual citizenship who were being held in Iranian prisons; the United States offered clemency to seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations. American authorities also dismissed charges against 14 Iranians outside the United States. The Islamic State has also abducted Westerners, including U.S. citizens, in Syria, where it also commands wide swaths of territory. The jihadists beheaded two Americans, James Foley and Steven Sotloff. A third American, aid worker Kayla Mueller, was also killed in what the Islamic State said was a coalition airstrike on one of their compounds in the Syrian city of Raqqa. Govt has no plan yet to cut fuel prices: Minister Anisul Islam Noor :Oil prices fell below $28 dollar in the international market on Monday, touching their lowest level since 2003.The historic fall in oil prices was followed by the lifting of international sanction on Iran, a key oil exporting nation. When crude oil prices are continued to witness free fall in global market for nearly two years, the government of Bangladesh has been selling oil at the previous import rate of $100 dollar depriving the local consumers to get benefit of falling international oil prices. "We have no plan to cut the domestic fuel prices immediately although their prices came down to $28 dollar on Monday in global market," State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu told The New Nation on Monday. "The decision of oil price cut is largely depend on the government's high-ups, not my ministry," he added.Earlier, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on several occasions hinted that the government would cut the domestic fuel prices on account of their drastic fall in global market.But, the government is yet to come up with the step drawing criticism from business community and consumers' right group. Petroleum Corporation (BPC) said it gained a profit of Tk 15 to Tk 40 per litre by selling various petroleum products. However, sources said the profit margin is much higher.BPC settled all of its debts to the banks and other financial institutions from the profit it earned on petroleum products after the price fall in the international market. However, the finance ministry has now asked the organisation to return the subsidy it has paid so far.BPC chairman A M Badrudduja said this amounted to Tk 26,300 crore. If it has to be repaid, the oil price should remain at the current level for at least the next four years. That is why the government is not ready to decrease the oil price. In the meantime, BPC cannot enjoy full benefit of the low oil prices in the international market due to the purchasing procedure. BPC buys oil under the current long term Government to Government (G2G) system. The buying price of BPC has a big difference with the lowest international price because of this system. The government has decided to change the buying system to decrease the gap to the lowest. Now the oil will be brought through open tender instead of the existing G2G system. Half of the oil imported by BPC this year (2016) will be brought under the new system.BPC procures crude oil only from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The oil price of that country on the day when the oil is loaded on ships is counted as the oil price of BPC. BPC last brought the crude oil on 28 November. Every oil barrel loaded in the ship from Mardan port of Abu Dhabi cost US $ 43.55. Premier of US $ 4.4 will be added with each barrel. Asked about how much profit BPC earns from different petroleum products, after importing refined, and crude oil as well as buying from the local refiners and distributing through the three distribution companies, BPC chairman said the company is earning profit of Tk 40 from per litre octane, Tk 35 from per litre petrol, Tk 20 from diesel and kerosene, and Tk 15 from furnace oil. However, the profit is much higher unofficially. Per litre of the furnace oil is costing Tk 25 imported for the private power plants where BPC is selling the furnace oil to other power plants at Tk 62 per litre. The government paid tax and VAT from that money.Other than that, BPC last imported diesel on 21 December which was priced Tk 40 per litre including the tax, VAT, and the commission of the distribution company. And it is selling per litre of diesel at Tk 68. But no money was paid back to the finance ministry.According to the power and energy ministry, BPC, and other experts, the purchase of petroleum products has such technicality that it is not possible to assure achieving the lowest international price by just changing the purchase system. Nasrul Hamid said, the purchase of oil through open tender is at an experimental stage. The system will continue once it succeeds. Steps have been taken to increase the oil import through private sector. Talking about importing oil in new system, BPC chairman A M Badrudduja said they received the government directives to import half of the total oil import of BPC through open tender system. They also started taking preparation for this.If purchased through open tender: Energy sector expert and former BPC chairman Muktadir Ali said though brought through open tender system, the oil price will be only determined by the five days average of oil price published in the Platts. But the premier, insurance and other things will cost less in this case. The way BPC fixes the premier and does agreement for six months, it assures the ship owner business for six months and BPC also gets confirmation of getting the ship at the right time. There is no guarantee for both the ship owner and customer in the open tender system. Sometimes the ship costs might be high after the oil is bought. And sometimes, oil is available at low price in Singapore market. SI Masud should be dismissed: HC Staff Reporter :The High Court (HC) on Monday observed that Sub-Inspector (SI) Masud Shikder has committed a criminal offence by detaining and torturing Bangladesh Bank (BB) official Golam Rabbi. Masud, a SI of Mohammadpur Police Station, should be dismissed from the service as suspension is not enough for his crime, the court said while hearing a writ petition in this regard.Earlier, a HC bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Haque heard the petition submitted by AKM Ehsanur Rahman, SM Julfikar Ali and Zahid Hasan.The writ was submitted on Sunday seeking judicial probe into the matter and arrest of Masud.Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon took part in the hearing on behalf of the petitioners while Arobindu Kumar Roy, Assistant Attorney General, for the state. The court also ordered the Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Mohammadpur Police Station to record the complaint submitted by the victim as First Information Report (FIR).Earlier, Rabbi submitted the complaint to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Tejgaon zone) over his torture. "The court has ordered the OC to accept the complaint as the FIR, Assistant Attorney General Arobindu Kumar Roy told The New Nation after the hearing.He said, the HC bench also issued a ruling upon the government to explain in two weeks as to why the torture of Golam Rabbi by the police should not be declared illegal.Earlier on the day, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Masud Shikder did not act like a cop. "Primary probe suggests that his behaviour was unlike that of a policeman at that time." The probe committee of police on Sunday submitted a report into the torture of the BB official by SI Masud. On January11, the accused SI Masud Shikder of Mohammadpur Police Station was closed and attached to Tejgaon Division.Earlier on the night of January 9, Golam Rabbi, 28, an assistant director of BB was allegedly tortured by SI Masud Shikder for refusing to pay bribe of Tk 5 lakh.Around 11:30pm on the night, he was stopped by police at Mohammadpur area and first body-searched. Then he was asked to pay up or face lawsuit as a Yaba dealer and addict. Back-to-back sanctions Tehran protests US curbs on missile prog: Lifting N-ban to allow Iran to re-enter global oil market: Draw back $1.3b with interest for freezing $400m paid before Shah's fall for arms News Desk :The US has imposed fresh sanctions on Iranian companies and individuals over a recent ballistic missile test, according to BBC and International New York Times.The new sanctions prevent 11 entities and individuals linked to the missile programme from using the US banking system. The move came after international nuclear sanctions on Iran were lifted as part of a deal hailed by President Barack Obama on Sunday as "smart".Obama also announced the resolution of another argument between Tehran and Washington that dates to the Iranian revolution, this one over $400 million in payments for military equipment that the United States sold to the shah of Iran and never delivered when he was overthrown. The Iranians got their money back, with $1.3 billion in interest that had accumulated over 37 years.But perhaps the most notable part of Obama's statement on Sunday was its absence of triumphalism and its warning that problems with Iran over ideology, Syria and regional ambitions were not over. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, who orchestrated the events over the weekend, decided several weeks ago to delay the imposition of sanctions against Iranian companies and individuals for two missile tests, one in October and another in November, that had violated United Nations resolutions.Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, called the completed nuclear deal "one of the golden pages" of the country's history. Obama had vowed to continue to apply non-nuclear sanctions, even after last summer's nuclear agreement was signed. But State Department officials worried that the prisoner release would be imperiled if the sanctions were announced before the swap was arranged. "We didn't know how big the risk was," one senior official said. "But it wasn't trivial." While the appearance of the back-to-back sanctions announcements - lifting nuclear sanctions and adding missile sanctions - might seem to suggest that Washington was merely recategorizing old penalties, they are actually not comparable.The lifting of nuclear sanctions on Saturday allowed Iran to re-enter the world's oil markets; according to some estimates, by the end of the year its exports may increase by a million barrels a day, yielding about $30 million a day in revenue at current prices. Its ships will be able to enter and leave foreign ports, and its citizens will have access to global financial markets.The departure of three of the freed Americans - Jason Rezaian, Amir Hekmati and Saeed Abedini - came after a tense day in which the Swiss aircraft sent for them sat on the tarmac in Tehran. The main issue was the American insistence that Rezaian's wife, Yageneh Salehi, and his mother be able to fly out with him. They were eventually allowed on the plane.They were triggered by Iran conducting a precision-guided ballistic missile test capable of delivering a nuclear warhead last October, violating a United Nations ban."Iran's ballistic missile programme poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions," said Adam J Szubin, US acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.Moments later, President Obama hailed the nuclear deal, which is being implemented following verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had restricted its sensitive nuclear activities.What are the sanctions?Nuclear sanctions have been in place since 2006, on top of other sanctions stretching back decades:The economic sanctions being lifted now were imposed progressively by the US, EU and UN in response to Iran's nuclear programmeThe EU is lifting restrictions on trade, shipping and insurance in fullThe US is suspending, not terminating, its nuclear-related sanctions; crucially, Iran can now reconnect to the global banking systemThe UN is lifting sanctions related to defence and nuclear technology sales, as well as an asset freeze on key individuals and companiesNon-nuclear US economic sanctions remain in place, notably the ban on US citizens and companies trading with Iran, and US and EU sanctions on Iranians accused of sponsoring terrorism remain in placeA flurry of Iranian economic activity is anticipated:Nearly $100bn (70bn) of Iranian assets are being unlockedIran is expected to increase its daily export of 1.1m barrels of crude oil by 500,000 shortly, and a further 500,000 thereafterIran is reportedly poised to buy 114 new passenger planes from the Airbus consortiumThe prospect of Iran doubling its crude oil exports has contributed to the continuing fall in the oil price. Benchmark Brent crude closed below $29 (20.3) on Friday.Share prices in Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest stock market, fell more than 6% following the lifting of sanctions.The IAEA said it had installed a device at the Natanz plant to monitor Iran's uranium enrichment activities in real time, in order to verify that uranium enrichment levels were kept at up to 3.67% as agreed in the deal with world powers.As part of the deal, Iran had to drastically reduce its number of centrifuges and dismantle a heavy-water reactor near the town of Arak, both of which could be used in creating nuclear weapons.Iran has always maintained its nuclear programme is peaceful, but opponents of the deal say it does not do enough to ensure the country cannot develop a nuclear bomb. Iran has hit back at the US decision to impose sanctions on 11 companies and individuals linked to its ballistic missile programme and said it would upgrade its legal missile programmeA statement released by Iran's foreign ministry on Monday said: "The Islamic republic of Iran?.?.?.?will reply to such propaganda moves [new sanctions] by developing its legal missile programme more seriously and upgrading its defence capabilities as well as national security." America and Iran must fight together Israel`s threat to peace The lifting of international sanction on Iran by six major global powers including the USA, Russia, UK, France, Germany and China has showed that statesmanship can thwart the specter of war and give peace to the world; particularly when such risk of war was triggering in the Gulf region centering Iran's nuclear programme. But no sooner had the announcement of the lifting of the sanction come in exchange of scraping of Iran's nuclear capacity, fresh sanction by the USA on Tehran over a missile testing has unnecessarily overshadowed the beginning of a new era of responsible and trustworthy relationship between the USA and Iran. The Obama administration may have acted under pressure from US Jewish lobbies. However, it is not an international sanction, it is a sanction by the USA alone and Iran has already denounced it. We hope Iranian government will understand the Israel's arrogance about its influence on US policy and its inability to behave sensibly with regard to Muslim countries. The Jews never handled state power and now as nuclear power it has lost balance as a country especially under the leadership of Netanyahu. The lifting of international sanctions in Vienna at the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by Foreign Ministers of all six countries and Iran came as a relief to the peace-loving people all over the world. Iran can come out of isolation now, enter the global market, export oil and buy necessary equipment to modernize ailing industries. It can also get back its frozen assets worth around $ 100 billion now locked in different global capitals to improve the quality of life of its people. In fact Iran has to scrap its advanced nuclear capacity, send 98 percent of its enriched uranium to Russia into a safe custody, dismantled 12000 centrifuges and cemented one of the major atomic reactors designed to produce plutonium, which is used in producing bombs to get the sanction lifted. We welcome the breakthrough hoping that the fresh US sanctions would be sorted out soon so that the Iranian nation can enjoy full freedom of its sovereignty without jeopardizing peace. The agreement is the hard work of some very highly motivated elderly politicians who sought to get it done and got it through diplomacy and not by war. We appreciate Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's expectations that it would open a 'golden page' in his country's history by ending the isolation and the new breakthrough for peace in the region may also work as a model to resolve other regional issues when the war in Syria, Iraq and Yemen are ruining these nations and making millions homeless. His expectation is based on reduced hostility with Washington and better understanding between the two countries. Other than Israel, a tiny country known for its brutal violation of human rights against the Palestinians the whole world is happy about the nuclear deal reached with Iran. It is sad that a brutish country telling America what is best for America. We know peace in the region has many enemies. Israel attempted to thwart the agreement from the beginning and vowed to use its US lobbies now to defeat the agreement in the Republican majority Congress. US Secretary of States John Kerry who led the six powers negotiation said what many had doubted would ever come to pass has come to pass and he is right when he praised the Iran leaders and particularly its Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for taking significant steps to get it done. Israel under the leadership of Netanyahu has evil influence on the USA which cannot be good for American people or peace in the world. His threat that Israel will monitor Iran's nuclear programme despite the treaty, shows how it is ready to defy international opinion. American will have to regret giving too much importance to Israel, a country full of hatred against the Muslims. The good and sensible Jews must be ready to build for themselves the agreeable image they otherwise deserve or should deserve. We shall expect America and Iran to act together to foil the dangerous designs of Israel's Netanyahu to involve America into a serious confrontation with Muslim countries disrupting world peace. In our view, Israel under wrong leadership with nuclear weapons is the most irresponsible country for world peace and goodwill. Nicht Ihr Computer? Dann konnen Sie fur die Anmeldung ein Fenster zum privaten Surfen offnen. Weitere Informationen . NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams The Gay Courier has been established to provide news, information and info on, from and about the gay community, and other social events and happenings from around the world, from all sorts of sources, to all who are interested in this news, information and info! The postings are as is, and all copyrights and or ownerships are and remain with the original copyright-holder and or owner! Gov. John Bel Edwards is the first Democratic governor in recent history to have to work with a Republican-majority Legislature. Roughly an hour before he was sworn into office last week, Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards, the first Louisiana governor ever elected directly from the state House, saw the limits of his power tested when representatives selected a Republican speaker, Taylor Barras of New Iberia. The governors support is so critical that no House speaker has been elected in recent history without the backing of Louisianas top official. It was also a historic moment in Louisianas lower chamber, where there hasnt been a contested speaker election accompanied by a public voice vote since 1984. Rep. Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia Photo by Robin May Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Shreveport, said the vote was more about the House declaring its independence from gubernatorial control, which is a form of sway thats found less in statute and the state constitution than it is in Louisianas colorful political legend and lore. Its a true separation of powers now, said Johnson. And for Republicans, it was about principle. It was about making sure the governor did not get his choice for speaker. This makes it very clear that the governor is going to have a difficult time in the House with his proposals. Edwards is also the first Democratic governor in recent history to have to work with a Republican-majority Legislature. Louisiana has had Republican governors paired with Democratic Legislatures in the past, but those days were marked neither by red nor blue partisan politics. In the 1970s and 1980s, and even into the 1990s, lawmakers rarely if ever voted along stringent partisan lines. Today, however, the Legislatures issues are growing more nationalized and the divide is becoming clearer. If a color analogy is needed, John Bel Edwards has to have a purple Legislature again, said Joshua Stockley, a political science professor at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. As we moved away from Gov. (Kathleen) Blanco and into the term of Gov. (Bobby) Jindal, we saw less of that. Now those days seem completely gone, especially for the next four years. But something will have to give. There are not enough Democrats to ignore the Republicans and Republicans need to work with the governor because he does have veto authority. Ben Nevers, Edwards chief of staff, said the administration is excited about working with a Republican speaker and the House, but he doesnt know yet where or how compromises will be struck. I dont think the people of Louisiana want gridlock, Nevers said. Im very concerned right now about partisan politics. This scenario could force Edwards to rely heavily on executive orders, like modern presidents, which he is already doing with expanding Medicaid and other actions. But thats not real policymaking, said Stockley. Thats more like political cover and something you can use to say you are delivering on your promises. Gene Mills, president of Louisiana Family Forum, a Christian-based political advocacy group, said that Edwards should be pleased with the outcome, since the House leadership now aligns perfectly with some of his campaign vows on traditionally conservative issues This decision will help Gov. Edwards fulfill his pro-life and pro-family pledges, Mills said. Facebook Still there are others that argue that the promises from Edwards inauguration speech and early executive actions, such as expanding Medicaid; reversing food stamp restrictions; advocating equal pay for women; and proposing protections the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, show he wont necessarily be the moderate as portrayed by his 2015 campaign. The positions he is taking now are certainly not the ones he echoed and repeated during the election, said Bernie Pinsonat, a partner with Southern Media and Opinion Research. You can see people on social media starting to look at this and say, Wow. This guy is a liberal. Its going to be difficult for him to both maintain his Democratic base and please those conservatives and moderates who supported him. Rep. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, said the vote in the House puts Edwards in a position where hell have to give more to work with representatives, rather than lawmakers in the lower chamber trying to compromise with him. This puts us in a better position to get the governor to play ball on the budget and other issues, more so than if he would have gotten the speaker he wanted, said Talbot. Others believe the move gives Edwards political cover. Since the House now has independence, Edwards will be able to lay blame at its feet if representatives are unable to forge a compromise on upcoming budget negotiations. Theres a $750 million shortfall for the current budget year that concludes at the end of June and a $1.9 billion gap for the next fiscal year. Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, the chairwoman emeritus of the Legislative Black Caucus, said, All this shows is that Republicans wanted a Republican speaker and the House wanted independence. The last two years when Republicans had a majority we all managed to compromise. This body knows how to work together. Monet rahapelien ystavat ovat viime vuosina loytaneet netticasinot ja olleet ihmeissaan. Verrattuna kotimaisen Veikkauksen kivijalkarahapeleihin puhutaan aivan eri tason palautusprosenteista ja lisaksi pelaaminen on aarimmaisen helppoa ja turvallista. Netticasinoiden maara on tana paivana todella suuri ja niita loytyy jokaiseen lahtoon, suurin ongelma aloittelevalla pelaajalla onkin tehda valinta siita, minka netticasinon valitsee. Kaikkien netticasinoiden mainospuheet naet lupaavat kauniita asioita ja niiden lapinakeminen on tietysti tarkeaa. Nyrkkisaantona voidaan kuitenkin jo kattelyssa todeta, etta jos valitsemasi netticasino on lisensoitu ETA-alueella, sen kanssa ei tule olemaan ongelmia, ellei niita itse jarjesta. Kay tutustumassa parhaisiin netticasinoihin osoitteessa www.ilmaiskierroksia.info! Ensimmainen nyrkkisaanto on siis varmistaa, etta valitsemallasi netticasinolla on ETA-alueen lisenssi. Suurimmassa osassa tapauksista se on Maltan eli MGA:n lisenssi. Myos Viron, Englannin ja Gibraltarin lisensseja nakyy ja naissa valvonta on jopa Maltaa tiukempaa. Lopputulema on kuitenkin se, etta ETA-alueen lisenssi takaa suomalaisille verovapaat voitot seka sen, etta niita valvotaan kontrolloidusti. Maailmalla on iso nippu Curacaon lisenssilla toimivia netticasinoita ja niistakin suurin osa on laadukkaita. Ne eivat kuitenkaan ole suomalaisille asiakkaille verovapaita, joten emme suosittele niita. Tana paivana markkinoille on ilmaantunut paljon ETA-alueella toimiva netticasinoita ilman rekisteroitymista. Jos tarkoitus on vain pelata yksittaisia pelikertoja, on varsin helppo suositella naita. Netticasinot ilman rekisteroitymista tarjoavat palvelun tunnistautumisen verkkopankin avainlukulistan avulla ja saman palvelun kautta tapahtuvat talletukset ja mahdolliset voittojen nostot silmanrapayksessa. Normaaleihin netticasinoihin pitaa asiakkaan rekisteroitya, tehda talletukset ja tunnistautua dokumenttien avulla. Tama on lisenssiehtojen mukainen kaytanto, eika kovinkaan monimutkainen, mutta silti monet asiakkaat haluavat yksinkertaista ja nopeaa palvelua. Toki normaalit netticasinot tarjoavat usein asiakkailleen laadukkaita talletusbonuksia ja erilaisia kampanjoita, joten kannattaa tarkkaan punnita, kumman ratkaisun valitsee. Kannattaa myos muistaa, etta tunnistautuminen tehdaan vain kerran, joten mikaan jatkuva riippakivi se ei ole. Suomalaiset asiakkaat ovat netticasinoille tarkeita, joten kaikilla vahankin laadukkailla netticasinoilla on suomenkieliset sivut seka suomenkielinen asiakaspalvelu suomenkielisyys kannattaakin ottaa netticasinoa valittaessa nyrkkisaannoksi. Vaikka tana paivana englanninkielisyys on harvoille ongelma, on suomenkielisten netticasinoiden maara niin valtava, etta suosittelemme niiden kayttoa. Rahansiirrot ovat tana paivana niin hyvassa mallissa, etta niiden kanssa tuskin tulee mitaan ongelmia. Kolme tarkeinta segmenttia: Suomalaiset verkkopankit, luottokortit (Visa, Mastercard) seka nettilompakot (Skrill, Neteller) loytyvat jokaisesta laadukkaasta netticasinosta. Viime vuosien trendiksi noussut verkkokauppa on kehittanyt rahansiirrot niin laadukkaiksi ja nopeiksi, etta niiden suhteen ei ole enaa vuosiin ollut ongelmia. Luonnollisesti netticasinot kayttavat naita samoja palveluita ja hyotyvat kehityksesta. Naiden isojen linjojen jalkeen netticasinon valintaan vaikuttavat luonnollisesti tarjottavat tervetuliaisbonukset uudet asiakkaat saavat tana paivana kovan kilpailun myota merkittavia etuja netticasinoilta ja niita kannattaa luonnollisesti vertailla. Erilaiset talletusbonukset, ilmaiskierrokset seka ilmaiset pelirahat tuovat suuriakin rahanarvoisia etuja ja niiden vertailu on ehdottomasti kannattavaa. Myoskaan useampien tilien avaaminen ja tervetuliaistarjousten kayttaminen ei missaan nimessa ole huono idea. Kun edella mainitut asiat ovat mieleisia ja vaihtoehtoja on vielakin jaljella, mennaan jo nyansseihin. Toki pelivalikoima on yksi kriteeri, mutta taman paivan netticasinoissa tamakin asia on paasaantoisesti varsin samanlainen. Toki useamman samantasoisen netticasinon vertailussa kannattaa yleensa valita se, jossa on eniten peleja tarjolla. Vaikka omat suosikit loytyisivatkin useammasta, voi tulevaisuudessa mielenkiinto nousta joihinkin muihin peleihin ja silloin on tietysti mukavampaa, etta ne loytyvat valikoimista. Viimeisena voidaan nostaa esiin kaytettavyys joidenkin netticasinoiden sivut ovat vilkkuvia, valkkyvia ja epakaytannollisia. Omaan silmaan ja kaytettavyyteen sopiva sivusto on luonnollisesti aina se paras valinta. Tarjonta netticasinoissa on tana paivana valtava ja jokaiselle loytyy varmasti se oma netticasino onnea matkaan! Please consider a donation. We are a 501c3 Nonprofit and 100% volunteers working with law enforcement and families of missing. We thank you, in advance. The S.P.D. Murder of John T. Williams On a sunny, warm Seattle August day in 2010, Native American wood carver John T. Williams was murdered by the Seattle Police Department as he walked down the crowded downtown streets while on his normal daily routine of carving small totem poles with a small pen knife, then selling them to the tourists that flock by the Seattle Public Market. Seattle Police Officer Ian Birk noticed Mr. Williams walking down the city streets and deemed him a threat, do in major part I believe - simply because he was Native American. Williams was one of many homeless Native Americans who roam downtown Seattle. These people are usually dismissed and overlooked by Seattles daily bustle of businessmen, the working class, and tourists. When the officer approached Williams from behind, and then ordered him to freeze and drop his small carving knife and a stick of carving wood he was carrying, Williams was hard of hearing in one ear, and failed to hear the police officer over the traffic and pedestrians, thus did not immediately comply; officer Birk then instantly felt that this gave him the right to use lethal force against John T. Williams. No threat was ever given by the homeless woodcarver. Officer Ian Birk coldly gunned down John T. Williams from behind, murdering him in the streets of Seattle, Wash, right in front of many horrified citizens who later professed that they felt no threat from the homeless Native American man whatsoever. The officer was fired thats it, and was allowed to live his life somewhere else, work a steady job, live in a nice house, somewhere out of media sight, and out of the publics mind; smug in the fact that he got away with legal murder with just a slap on the wrist. We must all remember that this type of legal homicide happens every day all over this nation of ours, by those sworn to Serve and Protect us. And that this violent tragedy can happen to anyone, or anybodys family members, especially if they are citizens of color. This makes it everybodys problem who believes in justice, personal safety from unwarranted persecution, and true American freedom in the society they live in. Let us still remember John T Williams, and never forget the fact that he was ruthlessly murdered by the S.P.D. The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now. Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market. In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender. India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex. Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted. But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted? Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner. If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems. I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now. I want more variation in masturbation I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own. If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end. What is sex toys for Indian? Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation. It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms. They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable. Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner. The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner. It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past. In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping. Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order. In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing. Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own. But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance. More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around. Sextoy situation in India Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years. In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India. Mumbai Kolkata Bangalore Delhi Chennai Hyderabad These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India. In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well. If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too. If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it. What are Sextoys for beginner? Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms. Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy. I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion. I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy. If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma. Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it. Advantages of using sextoy for Indians There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways. Can have stimulating sex Can develop new sexual zones If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern. However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways. You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation. Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever. There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure. This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it. When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems. It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms). For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles [Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou... Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India. Sextoy for beginner men in India So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners. For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men! The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men Masturbator Cock rings Love Doll Sex Lubricants Toys for the prostate Lets check each one in detail. Masturbator The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products. It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands. Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands. They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.) Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much. Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! ! Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa SEXToys India PR (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018 Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood. If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ... [For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien... Cock Ring A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis. It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow. It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber. In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection. Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction. It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it. Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time. Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function. Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy. You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect. [Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat... Love Doll Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex. There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women. Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price. The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true. You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste. There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice. You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls. If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to... Sex lubricants Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules. It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution. Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse. There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent. Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent. If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here. What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many... Toys for the Prostate Another sextoy for men is prostate toys. The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line. Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men. Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men. What is the prostate? The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm. You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus. By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms. Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.) The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation. Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure. sextoy for beinner women in India The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy. The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy. Vibrator. Dildo Electric Masserger Lets check out what each one is in detail. If you want to check out womens toys, click here. [BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm... Vibrators A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator. Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy. It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy. Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women. For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators. Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex. Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself. This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual. Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men. When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons. Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most... Dildo A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis. It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass. A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it. They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well. It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device. A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo. Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands. For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis. This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one. To learn more about dildo, please click here. What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th... Electric Masserger A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores. It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low. Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels. Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation. It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure. For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm. It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out. If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager? To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here. What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th... How to choose a sextoy for Indian Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one. Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points: Does the size fit you (the partner)? Does the size fit you (your partner)? Is the environment able to produce sound without problems? Price range First of all, the choice of size is quite important. Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women. For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage. Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems. Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise. If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level. Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it. Finally, there is the price range. The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest. Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy. Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy? I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance. For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics. If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out. How to buy sextoys in India The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping. For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below. Sextoy is one of them. Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping. SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India. They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry. Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card. To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy. ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal. Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on. Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture. Cautions for Indians using sextoy When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind Keep sex toys clean Watch out for electrical leakage Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone. Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there. It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case. In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness. Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful. If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it. You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly. Summary What did you think? In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India. The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future. As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values. However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health. If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try? Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women. I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it. CARBONDALE Of the myriad of memorials to The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offered Monday morning, one left some audience members at the Southern Illinois University Student Center shaking their heads. Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry was one of four speakers to offer words of welcome during the 34th annual King Breakfast at SIU. Henry described an instance in 1963 in which, during a debate, a white newspaper editor from South Carolina had questioned Kings struggle against Separate but Equal policies. In setting the scene, Henry, who is white, referred to two African-American panelists as negroes. He repeated the phrase further into the story: When asked how he could forward his agenda with only 10-12 million negroes in the United States, Dr. King replied, We are not alone. And indeed you are not alone, Henry said to the audience of about 300 mostly African-American activists, community leaders and students. At the end of his speech, Henry addressed his word choice. I suspect youve noticed Ive used the term negroes several times this morning, he said. That word did not come to mind for many years until this past week when a good friend said their grandfather still refers to himself as negro. Frankly, I dont know if its proper or not. Doesnt seem like it is. I used it today because of the historical content of my message, to show how far weve come. Henry said he also used the word as a means to promote a documentary film, Racial Taboo, which is scheduled to play Jan. 31 at the Varsity Center for the Arts in Carbondale. Group hoping for talks on race relations CARBONDALE A few years ago, Fern Chappell said someone alerted police that her brother had As some audience members shook their heads and cast glances around the room to gauge others response, Henry offered one last mea culpa. My disclaimer: If I have offended anyone today, you have a free pass to give me one good verbal slap in the face emphasis on the verbal, he said, eliciting subdued laughter. Constance Burtley, a Carbondale resident and former Murphysboro teacher, said the phrase doesnt offend her, but she knows it offended others. We dont use that a lot now, but I wasnt offended by it, she said. I attribute some things to a persons ignorance that they dont know any better. MARION While applauding the citys commercial wherewithal Friday during the Marion Chamber of Commerces annual banquet, a kinder and gentler Mayor Robert Butler was not lacking in a jab or two, including at himself. Butler opened with a number of jokes, including one purportedly of him offering to donate to a groups favorite charity $50 that was to be given to him for a speech. An organizer told him it would go to the organization for better speakers. I continue my quest to be kinder and gentler, Butler started from the podium of the 95th Auction and Awards Banquet. Mayor Bob Butler receives lifetime achievement award MARION The Illinois Municipal League presented Mayor Robert Butler with a Lifetime of Ser That is not easy. Last year was an election year, and it was difficult, he recalled, pointing to an election day Facebook post claiming Butler had a heart attack that prompted phone calls and visitors to his office. Now, Im not paranoid, but I believe that at least one of them was disappointed, Butler said. Butler, 88, went on to describe his re-election as an indication of voter approval of his and the city councils administration. That approval perhaps, Butler said, is a reason why few people attend council meetings, despite reported complaints to a commissioner that Butler is intimidating. What a joke, Butler said. After 52 years in office, that is the first time I have heard such nonsense. Here I stand, full of the milk of human kindness. My cup runneth over with charity and benevolence. And some anonymous, obviously demented soul appoints me the intimidator. Butler also took a jab at The Southern Illinoisan and an editorial it ran after last years chamber dinner at which Butler joked about which he would keep and sell, Carbondale or Hell. I changed my mind, Butler said this year. Id give Carbondale away. And Ill hear about that, too. 6 years of Marion Illinois 13 construction almost done MARION Six years of road construction on Illinois 13 in Marion is nearing an end, a state Butler soon after transitioned to his applause of economic development efforts through the Illinois Municipal League, the regional Greater Egypt Planning and Development Commission, Williamson Countys Regional Economic Development Corp. He also defended the citys tagline as the hub of the universe, saying the city is the center of progress and development in Southern Illinois and positioned to assist smaller cities in need of help. The debacle that is Illinois government is in no position to help itself let alone smaller communities in dire circumstances, Butler said. He then pointed to several developments over the course of the year that he said involved millions of dollars in private investments and new jobs and added that new openings are planned, giving credit to the chamber. He listed several businesses that have also contributed to education and organizations in the city. You all deserve a lot of credit and congratulations, Butler said to his audience. CARBONDALE Two women were honored on Sunday night with The Spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Service Award for their work toward and dedication to building a better, more cohesive community. Ann Marie Shepherd, a retired city employee and longtime community activist, and Pastor Sonja Ingebritsen, who until recently was with the UCC Church of the Good Shepherd, were named co-recipients of the award at the 17th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Celebration at Carbondale Civic Center. In Shepherds introduction, she was called Mother of the Church at Rock Hill Missionary Baptist Church. The introduction continued: Just as Martin Luther King, Jr., based his work on his Christian values of peace and justice, Ann Marie Shepherd has been doing what is right and just and godly all of her life in every aspect. She has been quoted as saying, We are all Gods children and are equal in every way. She has practiced that belief in her life every day. Her volunteer activities and organizations of which she is a member include the Carbondale chapter of the NAACP, American Association of University Women, Alpha Kappa Sorority, Spirit of Attucks, Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau, and the Carbondale Park Districts Splash Park. In accepting the award, Shepherd said she was humbled and honored. It seems unreal, she told the crowd of roughly 200 that gathered Sunday evening. Since moving to Carbondale 45 years ago, Shepherd said she has felt compelled to help make it a better place for all citizens, but especially for the children. That's what is driving her commitment in seeing the Splash Park finalized, she said, as she asked people to continue to donate to the project. Ingebritsen honored for service The other recipient, Ingebritsen, was not present at the event, as she recently relocated to Madison, Wisconsin, though the award was accepted on her behalf. Ingebritsen announced in September that she would have to move on from Carbondale in December for financial reasons, because her church could not afford a full-time pastor. In her introduction, it was stated that Ingebritsen was the kind of person who likes to blend into the middle of a crowd or discussion, and not normally one to stick her neck out or find herself in the public forefront on anything. That all changed when she moved to Southern Illinois in 2009. Her introduction continued: As it turned out, she arrived at the place and time where she would be needed as a brave advocate for justice and equality around issues of race. She showed her mettle in social justice for the African-American community of Carbondale, according to the introduction, when she initiated a film viewing of the Angela Aguayo documentary 778 Bullets." that film chronicled a police raid in 1970 of a home where SIU students lived who were associated with the Blank Panthers. From that community viewing, the Racial Justice Coalition was formed, and people continue to meet regularly to tackle community concerns. She also was a longtime member of the annual celebrations planning committee, and was known for regularly making herself available to the LGBTQ student population for counsel and support. Sonja has worked tirelessly, reaching beyond her own naturally shy personality, to address the ideals of justice, equality, and social change. She recognized that her mission could not be passive, so by being a true ally of the oppressed, she bravely moved us forward to a more just society. The awards were jointly presented to Shepherd and Ingebritsen by Carbondale Mayor Mike Henry and Murphysboro Mayor Will Stephens. Every year, the award recognizes individuals or groups that exemplify the character and legacy of King., demonstrating a commitment to justice, equality, peace, social change, improved race relations or compassion undertaken in their home city of Murphysboro or Carbondale. 'A real statement of the message' The spirited Sunday event also included prayer, readings, interpretive dancing, singing and other performances. The Martin Luther King Community Choir, made up of community volunteers who come together specifically for this event, sang a stirring rendition of Ellas Song composed by Bernice Johnson Reagon in honor of longtime civil rights activists Ella Josephine Baker. The evenings theme -- We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes" -- was borrowed from the lyrics of that song. Pat York, choir leader, said the community gathering gave witness to the theme of the song, and the evening, as a diverse group of people joined together in celebration. To build community and also sing together is a real statement of the message, she said. Carolin Harvey, who sits on the steering committee for the annual event, said she sees the gathering as a way to remind people of what Dr. King did and hopefully inspire them to be involved. While the country has made many advancements in race relations, there is still much more work to do, she said. She often asks people to truly think about how many close friends they have who are of races other than their own, and if the answer is none or few, to ask themselves why. King celebrations continue Monday in Carbondale. The annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Commemorative Breakfast begins at 8 a.m. at the SIUC Student Center Ballroom D. It is sponsored by the NAACPs Carbondale branch. The theme this year is How Long? Not Long. The keynote speaker will be Jeff McGoy, who also performed a monologue at Sundays event meant to reflect on Kings contributions to society but also to inspire people to think and get involved. McGoy, who is the assistant dean of students at SIUC, said he didnt want to give away his speech prepared for Monday, but said it will focus on Dr. Kings principles, and seek to open minds and challenge people to think about racial justice issues still in need of attention. Some of those issues we still deal with today are some of those same issues that were dealt with in the past, he said. Breakfast is served at 8 a.m. and the program begins at 9 a.m. Tickets are $5 and available at the door. With just 41 days left until the Democratic presidential preference primary, Reginald Abraham has a nonstop daily schedule consisting of numerous meetings and phone calls. I love days like this! They just keep you on your toes, the Orangeburg native said as he waited for his next appointment. As Midlands field organizer for Hillary Clintons presidential campaign, Abraham says his job is to engage with groups of people and volunteers, teaching them to reach out to their communities and helping them organize groups that are willing to make phone calls and go door-to-door for the Clinton campaign. The Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School alumnus identifies team leaders, organizes teams and allows the teams to work together in their communities to educate other community members. Abrahams passion for working in the community was sparked after watching his parents, friends, mentors and teachers doing everything they could to help the people around them. My father was a principal and my mother was a social worker. Two of the main principles in my house growing up were youre going to get your education and youre also going to have an awareness of whats going on around you, he said. He says he carries those principles with him every single day. Abrahams typical day usually starts at 8 a.m. and keeps going. Theres absolutely no punch-in time or punch-out time, he said. Those days start with meeting people one on one just speaking to them about the type of issues that Hillary Clinton has a plan to address in their everyday life and letting them know how they can get involved with this campaign, he explained. He began his campaigning journey by working with Orangeburg County Democratic Party Chairwoman Betty Henderson. She taught me a whole lot and continued to go over various things with me. From there, I was able to work with Sheriff Ravenells race, Abraham explained. He also worked with the state Democratic Party in Columbia. I learned a lot of key organizing skills understanding how to plan out your day and how to execute X,Y and Z, Abraham said. Gaining experience along the way and understanding that volunteers are the core focus is the reason why Im doing it. It just went from opportunity to opportunity, he said. Abraham says the most rewarding part of his job is interacting with people. Every single volunteer that I get a chance to sit down with, every single college student that works with our fellowship program having the opportunity to work with them has been the greatest reward out of all of this, because so many of them are like me before I was volunteering, he said. I see their potential to become incredible leaders, Abraham said. He faces the challenge of constantly wanting to speak to everyone in his entire community. You dont want to leave anyone behind. You dont want anyone to not be informed. I think the challenging part is trying to speak to as many people as possible, but also trying to see how can I reach out to more people, Abraham said. The question is always: What more can I do? How can I do that to reach those people that I dont see? he said. Abraham says he engages in specific community outreach, going to community members personally. He says flexibility is one of the greatest tools he has to ensure that hes meeting with everyone. Whether its organization meetings, whether its church meetings, no matter what -- where people naturally congregate, were out there, he said. Abraham also supervises a Get out the Vote Fellowship, which allows local college students to take part in phone banks during the downtime in their college schedule. Communication is key. I know that theyre not going to be able to make every single phone bank. I want to make sure that that balance is established. Education is the most important. They have got to graduate, he said. Abraham also coordinated a free trip to Charleston for students to attend the Democratic debate on Sunday. Every single Democratic election and primary, Orangeburg County is always a very huge factor. As Orangeburg Countys turnout increases, you also see increases in Democratic turnouts throughout the entire state, Abraham said. Voting is your voice, Abraham said. The things that people want in life to happen, they are addressed through politics. These campaigns and specifically what were doing here with the Hillary Clinton campaign (Clinton) has specific plans to address concerns. She has an actual plan to make sure that healthcare is affordable to everyone, he said. Clinton will face Sen. Bernie Sanders, businessman Dr. Willie Wilson and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley in the Feb. 27 Democratic presidential preference primary. S.C. cotton growers meeting coming to Santee SANTEE -- South Carolina cotton growers will have their annual meeting Tuesday, Jan. 26. The meeting will be held at the Santee Conference Center on 1737 Bass Drive. The meeting will be sponsored by the South Carolina Cotton Board and Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service Registration for the conference is from 8:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. Attendees will hear reports from the Southern Cotton Growers Association, the boll weevil eradication program and the National Cotton Council. Attendees will also receive an economic and price outlook for 2016 cotton, crop insurance, weed control, management strategies for cotton insects, review of the 2015 cotton crop, new cotton varieties. Participants will receive commercial and private applicators pesticide re-certification credits. Certified crop adviser credits will be offered also. S.C. peanut meeting in Santee SANTEE -- The South Carolina State Peanut meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Santee Convention Center. The convention center is located at 1737 Bass Drive. Registration and industry exhibits will open at 8 a.m. and will last until 9:30 a.m. Attendees will receive a peanut market update, peanut irrigation scheduling, and research reports on variety performance and fungicides and insecticides. Following lunch, attendees will hear about marketing peanuts to the next generation and will learn about thrips/virus control options, response to growth regulators and nutrition supplements as well as a herbicide update and precision applications in peanut production. Prize drawings will also be held. Farmers urged to attend meeting about noxious weed CLEMSON New regulations resulting from the discovery of a damaging weed that can choke out some of South Carolinas most profitable crops will be the subject of a meeting for farmers and landowners from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 25 at the Dorchester County Cooperative Extension Office, 201 Johnston St., St. George. Officials with the Clemson University Department of Plant Industry (DPI) scouted fields in Dorchester, Colleton, Orangeburg and Bamberg counties Oct. 5-9, and discovered the noxious weed Benghal dayflower, which also is known as tropical spiderwort and Commelina benghalensis. Benghal dayflower steals nutrients from row crops like soybeans, corn, cotton and peanuts, and can seriously reduce crop yields. On Jan. 15, DPI issued regulations limiting the movement of Dorchester County soil and crops to avoid spreading the weed. Were going to explain in great detail the effects of the regulations and help farmers and landowners understand how they can gain an exemption. If youre a farmer or landowner in or around Dorchester County, you should attend this meeting, said Steven Long, assistant department head with DPIs plant pest-detection and nursery certification programs. The meeting is free and open to the public. Benghal dayflower is identifiable by its egg-shaped leaves, leaf sheaths with red hairs and small flowers. The flowers have three petals: two purple and one white. While the weed is pretty to look at, it can spread rapidly because it produces seeds both above and below ground and can thrive in both wet and dry conditions. It is also tolerant to glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Roundup, Rodeo, Accord and other pre- and post-emergent herbicides. The unusually wet, warm winter could also mean trouble for the springtime fight against the noxious weed. What is it about liberals? Why is their liberal narrative so important to them that they will constantly insist that fact be treated as fiction and fiction be treated as fact? Why are they so challenged by basic arithmetic? Recently, the New York Times, bemoaning the tragic killing of a young, African-American in Cleveland, claimed that too often police behaved as an occupying force in communities with large numbers of African-Americans. Let me be as clear as possible on this matter. Misconduct by police, abuse of their position or willfully imposing physical harm on citizens without cause is wrong and must not to be tolerated. This is true independent of race, gender, age or anything else of the victim. This said; a reality check is needed. On the one hand, liberals demand that minority neighborhoods not be ignored, that these neighborhoods receive protection. On the other hand, liberals demand law enforcement officials be absolutely perfect in the decisions they make in the heat of the moment. Here is a hard truth. The level of violence that exists in our inner cities with large numbers of African-Americans is astoundingly high. For starters, African-Americans are roughly 13 percent of the population, yet commit nearly half of the murders in the United States. Quite obviously, it follows African-Americans will be arrested disproportionately (relative to the population of the whole country) for such crimes. In a front page story, The Washington Post recently told the story of 12 of the 162 D.C. homicide victims of 2015. Overwhelmingly, those killed were part of a minority community. In nearby Baltimore, the number of murders reached more than 300 in 2015. Again, overwhelmingly, these victims were non-whites. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media seemingly ignores this reality. The overarching narrative in the mainstream media often seems to be that African-Americans are being hunted down in the streets by our police. The daily carnage of African-Americans largely killing other African-Americans is given short shrift. Ask yourself: Do you know more about these incidental instances of police killings or the basic statistics? To those more aware of exceptions of minority abuse than the norm of inner-city crime, I would ask they do three things. First, shadow the police as they go into neighborhoods where violence and law breaking is rampant. Watch, as they have to make life-and-death decisions, ones where they could well lose their lives, in real time. Then, decide if your suspicions are well founded. Second, hear what Paul Trantham, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner of the majority-African-American Ward 8 of D.C. dubbed violent by the Post had to say recently about the 54 percent increase in the number of killings in Washington. So many people want to blame the mayor, blame the police, but the police and mayor are not the ones out here shooting people and killing people. It is the people within our communities. Third, understand that demonizing the police has consequences. At a time when D.C. witnessed this 54 percent increase in homicides, the number of police in the District fell below 3,800 officers, the lowest in a decade. It is hardly stretching logic to conclude that a lot of men and women have decided the public does not support the police, and they now are unwilling to put themselves at risk. Are there bad cops? Yes, and we should do everything we can to eliminate them and punish them for any wrongdoing. Will cops make mistakes? Yes, however, the context is more a matter of making life-and-death decisions in real time than it is an indication of any racism. Even in Baltimore, the cop being tried for the death of an African-American is an African-American himself. Liberals strongly assert that it is primarily poverty that is responsible for the violence levels that exist in African-American communities. That may well be the case. If so, then, it makes sense to emphasize those things that help put someone above the poverty line. In the United States, if a person does only three things graduates from high school, does not get married until graduating from high school, and does not have children unless they are married the odds of living above the poverty line is in excess of 90 percent. Rather than dismiss these sorts of things as being white culture or matters of white privilege, we ought to say they are the stuff of a culture that can sustain itself. Violence in African-American communities is horrifically high. We can either spend a lot of time demonizing our police for a minority of misdeeds and honest mistakes, or we can spend that time working to eliminate the poverty that so highly correlates to levels of violence. For the latter to happen, we will need the mainstream media to start to be honest about the facts and what stories they choose to emphasize. Just as important, we need our leaders white and black to work together to change the culture and realities that exist in African-American communities. Strange Thoughts on Films. Turn Off Your Mind, Relax & Float Downstream. Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. An insider has informed Nigeriafilms.com that female rapper is in for another trouble in her career. According to what we were told, the... Azerbaijan welcomes Wests lifting sanctions on Iran, which was achieved as a result of talks, read a statement by Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administrations foreign relations department. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) finalized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal) in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 implemented the JCPOA on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Azerbaijan doesnt see the use of sanctions against countries in international relations for various reasons as a successful and fair step, said Novruz Mammadov. Consequences of sanctions in all cases become a burden for the populations of countries on which they are imposed. This also prevents the interstate and intercivilizational understanding, dialogue and cooperation in modern world, and inevitably creates certain tension, he added. Mammadov also said that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spoke against the use of sanctions on Iran at a briefing in front of the White House during his first official visit to Washington in April 2006. /By Trend/ President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received the credentials of the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Slovenia Igor Jukic. Ambassador Igor Jukic reviewed the guard of honor. Igor Jukic handed his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev then had a conversation with the Ambassador. Noting that Azerbaijan and Slovenia enjoyed a good experience of cooperation in a variety of fields, President Ilham Aliyev said mutual political relations between the two countries were developing successfully. President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of the expansion of the bilateral bonds. Highlighting the work of Slovenian companies operating in various fields of the country`s economy and Azerbaijani companies operating in Slovenia, the head of state noted the significance of defining the efficient cooperation areas in terms of the expansion of their activity even further. Expressing hope that relations between the two countries would successfully develop during Ambassador Igor Jukic`s diplomatic tenure in Azerbaijan, President Ilham Aliyev wished him success in his work. Noting that political relations between the two countries were developing successfully, Ambassador Igor Jukic stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of the strengthening of the bilateral ties. The diplomat said the representatives of business of the two countries were interested in boosting cooperation. The Slovenian Ambassador said he would spare no efforts to expand the bilateral relations between the two countries in a variety of fields even further. The sides emphasized the role of the bilateral relations between the two countries in developing Azerbaijan-European Union cooperation. /By AzerTac/ The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukia Amano arrived in Tehran Jan. 18. Amano will meet with senior Iranian officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, Irans Fars news agency reported. Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi earlier said that Amano will not visit any nuclear site. According to the IAEA, Amano will discuss the IAEAs role in verifying and monitoring Irans nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) with Iranian officials. The international sanctions imposed on Iran with regard to its nuclear program have been removed as the JCPOA entered the implementation phase on Jan. 16. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, France, the UK, Germany, China, and Russia) in July 2015 agreed a landmark nuclear deal to curb Tehrans sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic. On Jan. 17 Iran announced that has started implementation of the Additional Protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The Additional Protocol allows unannounced inspections outside of declared nuclear sites and it is seen as a vital tool at the IAEA's disposal to make sure that a country does not have any hidden nuclear work. /By Trend/ The Russian delegation will not attend the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, according to the decisions of both houses of the Russian Parliament, RBC news agency reported on Monday citing the Chairman of the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin. "The discussion over Russias participation started at a Fridays meeting of the Security Council (...) The Foreign Ministry addressed the meeting presenting several options, including not going at all, or going with a limited number of delegates (...) We dont want to go to Strasbourg to get yet another political spanking, the source close to the leadership of the Federation Council has told RBC. The decision to boycott the meeting, taken by the leaders of both houses of parliament, with the support of all factions, is final, the source said. The Russian delegation is ready to participate in PACE session only if it regains all authority, according to Leonid Slutskiy, head of the Dumas committee on CIS affairs, deputy head of the Russian delegation to the PACE. We will not tolerate discrimination, while any sanctions against Russia are unacceptable, he said. "At the present time the letter is being sent to the head of PACE Anne Brasseur signed by the speakers of [both] houses of the Russian Parliament stating that the request for regaining authority of the delegation of the Russian Federation for 2016 will be sent later. We will skip the January session," said the official, according to RIA Novosti. Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) kicks off in Strasbourg next week, on January 25. As UNIAN reported earlier, PACE can become the first international body, which will not retain formal restrictions imposed against Russia. Russia may get such a "fictitious victory" Russian Federation by simply not sending their delegation to Strasbourg for a winter session. It should be reminded that the Russian delegation is now under PACE sanctions, imposed in April 2014 due to the annexation of Crimea. According to the relevant resolution, the Russian deputies were deprived of the right to vote in the PACE, as well as the right to be represented in its governing bodies. Since then PACE has extended the sanctions against the Russian delegation twice, urging Moscow to return Crimea. /By AzerTac/ US-ANGLO CAPITALISM EU-NATO IMPERIALISM Illegitimate Transfer of Inalienable European Rights via Convention(s) & Supranational Bodies Establishment of Sovereignty-Usurping Supranational Body Dictatorships Enduring Program of DEMOGRAPHICS WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR on Europeans Enduring Program of European Displacement, Dismemberment, Dispossession, & Dissolution No wars or conditions abroad (& no domestic or global economic pretexts) justify government policy facilitating the invasion of ancestral European homelands, the rape of European women, the destruction of European societies, & the genocide of Europeans. U.S. RULING OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR TO SALVAGE HEGEMONY [LINK | Article] *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* | U.S. Empire's Casino Unsustainable | Destabilised U.S. Monetary & Financial System | U.S. Defaults Twice A Year | Causes for Global Financial Crisis of 2008 Remain | Financial Pyramids Composed of Derivatives & National Debt Are Growing | *U.S. OLIGARCHY WAGES HYBRID WAR* Who's preaching world democracy, democracy, democracy? Who wants to make free people free? [info from Craig Murray video appearance, follows] US-Anglo Alliance DELIBERATELY STOKING ANTI-RUSSIAN FEELING & RAMPING UP TENSION BETWEEN EASTERN EUROPE & RUSSIA. British military/government feeding media PROPAGANDA. Media choosing to PUBLISH government PROPAGANDA. US naval aggression against Russia: Baltic Sea US naval aggression against China: South China Sea . Continued NATO pressure on Russia: US missile systems moving into Eastern Europe. [info from John Pilger interview follows] War Hawk: Hillary Clinton embodiment of seamless aggressive American imperialist post-WWII system. USA in frenzy of preparation for a conflict. Greatest US-led build-up of forces since WWII gathered in Eastern Europe and in Baltic states. US expansion & military preparation HAS NOT BEEN REPORTED IN THE WEST. Since US paid for & controlled US coup, UKRAINE has become an American preserve and CIA Theme Park, on Russia's borderland, through which Germans invaded in the 1940s, costing 27 million Russian lives. Imagine equivalent occurring on US borders in Canada or Mexico. US military preparations against RUSSIA and against CHINA have NOT been reported by MEDIA. US has sent guided missile ships to diputed zone in South China Sea. DANGER OF US PRE-EMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKES. China is on HIGH NUCLEAR ALERT. US spy plane intercepted by Chinese fighter jets. Public is primed to accept so-called 'aggressive' moves by China, when these are in fact defensive moves: US 400 major bases encircling China; Okinawa has 32 American military installations; Japan has 130 American military bases in all. WARNING PENTAGON MILITARY THINKING DOMINATES WASHINGTON. Welcome to Trading for a Living, a technical analysis blog on stocks listed in Singapore Stock Exchange(SGX). Objective of this blog is to share ideas in trading stocks. Please note postings in this blog are based on my personal opinions which are neither investment advice nor inducements to trade. The blog owner does not accept any claim for any loss incurred by any reader acting on these postings. You are encouraged to seek professional advice when in doubt. Good Luck and Happy Trading! Emirates Islamic, a leading Islamic financial institution in the region, has reported a net profit of Dh641 million ($174.5 million) for 2015, marking a 76 per cent year-on-year increase. The banks total net income during the period rose to Dh2.43 billion, up 25 per cent compared to Dh1.95 billion in 2014, reflecting strong growth for the fourth consecutive year. Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, chairman of Emirates Islamic said: With consistently strong results and solid double-digit growth rates, Emirates Islamic continues to drive the expansion of the Islamic banking sector in UAE. In just a short span of time, the bank has asserted its position as a leading financial institution in the UAE, with strong contribution to the development of the Islamic finance sector. Going forward, I see Islamic banking playing an increasingly significant role in the UAEs economy as we create the solutions that support the evolving needs of individuals, corporates and SMEs, he added. Jamal Bin Ghalaita, chief executive officer of Emirates Islamic said: Emirates Islamics performance in 2015 is the result of our relentless pursuit of excellence, whether in providing innovative financial solutions to our customers or furthering the growth of Islamic banking in the UAE. We launched our transformation strategy in 2011 with a clear objective to become a leader in the Islamic financial sector and our achievements in 2015 are another milestone on this road to success. Our strong performance was achieved on the back of robust growth and high customer acquisition across our three core segments, namely Corporate, Individual and SME resulting in a 26 per cent increase in our customer base, a key testament to our winning offering. Through product and service innovation, we have continued to drive the growth of Islamic banking in the UAE and we will continue to strengthen our product proposition, invest in the latest technology and deliver outstanding customer experience, making Emirates Islamic a preferred banking partner for customers, added Bin Ghalaita. TradeArabia News Service Al Futtaim Auto and Machinery Company (Famco), a leading supplier of commercial vehicles, construction and industrial equipment in the region, is set to launch its Bahrain operations on Wednesday (January 20). Leading construction professionals will attend the launch that will take place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manama, with Famcos main brand, Volvo Construction Equipment headlining the event. "This is yet another milestone in our business expansion across the Middle East. Bahrain is a key market known for quality construction and infrastructure projects, said Paul Floyd, senior managing director, Famco Group, which operates across 10 countries and represents 30 leading industrial brands. In Bahrain, the company will distribute top brands such as Volvo Construction Equipment, SDLG construction equipment, Merlo telescopic handlers, Hartl crushers and screeners, Dexion industrial storage systems, Hart industrial doors, Steril warehouse docks, Nassau sectional doors and BP side loaders and forklifts. Mike Fritz, the general manager, (Bahrain, Oman and Qatar), said: Famco is renowned for its customer support which is a key differentiator. We look forward to the opportunity of bringing our proven standards to the Bahraini market. We take pride in knowing that we are providing our customers with global best practice that sets a benchmark within all relevant industries in the Bahrain as well as key markets across the region, he added.-TradeArabia News Service Bahrain-based global investment manager Arcapita said it has acquired a privately-held portfolio of senior living communities in Colorado, US, in a joint venture with MorningStar Senior Living, an experienced operating partner specialising in this sector, for $85 million. This transaction is expected to be the first in a series of acquisitions of senior living facilities by Arcapita as it looks to develop another sizable senior living portfolio in the US. Arcapitas management team has previously acquired, managed and exited from a series of senior living investments with total transaction values in excess of $1.5 billion in the US and United Kingdom, said a statement from the company. The current portfolio consists of three assisted living and memory care communities offering a total of 196 units and 243 licensed beds in the Denver and Colorado Springs. The modern communities were built in 2013 and 2014 and offer premium, state-of-the-art facilities including large courtyards, fireside living rooms, fitness and spa facilities, massage therapy rooms and other advanced features it stated. On the deal, CEO Atif A. Abdulmalik said: "The Arcapita team has extensive experience investing in the senior living sector, having previously managed and exited five successful senior living transactions, all of which have returned attractive IRRs and cash-on-cash multiples to investors." "We are excited about the prospects of this investment and about partnering with MorningStar, a high quality developer and operator in this sector. Our investment team will continue to pursue investment opportunities in the US real estate sector which offer investors stable income streams," he stated. Martin Tan, the chief investment officer, said the target age group for senior living facilities in Colorado was projected to grow by almost twice the national average over the next five years. "Through its experience in this sector, Arcapita has identified a seasoned operating partner in MorningStar Senior Living, a company that has deep expertise in the Western markets of the United States, and a management team with decades of operational experience in senior living," he added.-TradeArabia News Service General Electric Company said it would sell its appliance business to China's Haier Group for $5.4 billion in cash, another step in its push to sell its non-core assets and project itself as a technology company. The deal comes weeks after GE walked away from a deal to sell the business to Sweden's Electrolux for $3.3 billion, following months of opposition from U.S. antitrust regulators. GE said the deal values the appliance business at 10 times last 12 months earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (ebitda). Whirlpool Corp is valued at 7.7 times. GE shares fell 2.3 per cent in premarket trading. GE said earlier this week it would shift its headquarters to Boston, a move aimed at lowering its tax bill and tapping talent in city that is fast becoming a tech hub. For Haier, the deal means ownership of a century-old appliance business that makes refrigerators, freezers, clothes washers and dryers across brands such as Monogram, Cafe, Profile and Artistry. The business trails only Whirlpool Corp in the US white goods market and reported revenue of $5.9 billion last year. The deal, Haier's biggest ever, will give a big boost to its US business, which held less than 5 per cent of the market last year. The company has been mostly present in the highly competitive, so-called "value segment" of the US market and analysts expressed concern about the impact its bigger presence would have on the pricing dynamics. "Even if Haier doesn't have a history of dumping prices in the United States, as for example LG and Samsung has, this is still an unknown player, a Chinese player," DNB Bank ASA analyst Christer Magnergard told Reuters. "(Haier) may have a somewhat different agenda than just having high profitability in the United States in 2016." Haier said the transaction includes GE Appliances' 48.4 percent stake in Mabe, a Mexican appliance company that has a joint venture and a sourcing relationship with the business for 28 years. The deal will be subject to customary regulatory filings in China and antitrust approvals in the United States, Mexico and Argentina, said a person authorized to speak on behalf of Qingdao Haier Co Ltd, the Haier unit making the purchase. The deal is also to be approved by shareholders of Qingdao Haier as well as KKR and Haier Group, who jointly own 50.8 per cent of the company, the person said. Haier will continue to use the GE Appliances brand and retain the business's headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky and its current management team, the companies said. Goldman Sachs was GE's finiancial adviser and Sidley Austin LLP was its legal adviser.-Reuters Panasonic Marketing Middle East & Africa (PMMAF), a global leader in technology, is demonstrating its smart security solutions which feature the latest in 4K technology at Intersec 2016, the regions largest security exhibition. Intersec 2106 is taking place at the Dubai International and Convention Centre from January 17 to 19. Panasonic is showcasing its 4K fixed camera series, rugged mobile cameras, heavy duty tough PTZ, smart coding technology, people masking and home security systems. Intersec is one of the biggest and the most anticipated security and safety events of the year. For Panasonic, it serves as an excellent platform to showcase our new solutions and products whilst giving an opportunity to meet patrons from all over the Middle East which is very important for us, said Yasuo Yamasaki - director & divisional head, Systems Solutions & Communications Division, PMMAF. Keeping in mind the security and improved safety demands of various industries, we are bringing well-engineered solutions to the region, which will aid in changing the equation of growth & sustenance for our customers, he added. TradeArabia News Service Iran's emergence from economic sanctions will help Europe to diversify its energy supplies, but the Islamic Republic will need to invest at least $150 billion in infrastructure to become a major producer, the head of Italy's Eni SpA said on Sunday. "I'm very happy that Iran has returned because for us it means ... the European system will have a more diversified energy supply," Claudio Descalzi told RAI television. "To make the big jump, which could take four or five years, a jump that could have a real impact on the global market ... Iran would need to attract $150 billion for development," he said. "In today's market, finding $150 to $200 billion to invest in Iran is not something that can be done in a second." Iran ended years of economic isolation on Saturday when world powers lifted sanctions in return for Tehran complying with a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions. Eni was one of the main buyers of Iranian oil prior to the sanctions. Descalzi did not say how much oil Eni might be interested in purchasing now that the sanctions have been lifted. Reuters Royal Dutch Shell said on Monday it had decided to exit a multi-billion-dollar plan to develop jointly the Bab sour gas field in Abu Dhabi, the latest major project to fall victim to the worst oil-market downturn in decades. The Anglo-Dutch company said that "following a careful and thorough evaluation of technical challenges and costs" it would stop further joint work on the project with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc). Shell won in 2013 a tender valued at the time at $10 billion for a 40 per cent stake in a 30-year venture to develop the complex sour gas field, involving the treatment of potentially deadly gasses. The Bab joint venture envisaged building a sour gas processing plant that would yield 1 billion cubic feet per day, aimed at domestic consumption. The move was also seen at the time as a stepping stone for Shell to renew a coveted concession to develop the UAE's largest onshore oilfield. "The evaluation concluded that for Shell, the development of the project does not fit with the company's strategy, particularly in the economic climate prevailing in the energy industry," Shell said in a statement on Monday. The decision is not expected to result in a significant writedown for Shell, which reports interim fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results on Wednesday ahead of a key shareholder vote on its proposed acquisition of BG Group. Shell shares were down 0.5 per cent at 1445 GMT, compared with a 0.2 per cent gain for the sector index. The UAE's energy minister said the UAE was not worried about Shell's pullout. "The reason most probably will be (a) commercial reason because now the cost of gas and the price of gas and LNG has dropped more than 50 per cent," Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazroui said on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi. "We are not worried about supply of gas. We are planning well. If the company is pulling out, I'm not worried," Mazroui said. Analysts at Bernstein welcomed Shell's decision to exit "yet another high-cost (and) low-return project" even at the cost of risking long-term relationships with countries. "Such actions are increasingly placing Shell further down the cost curve while making it even stronger at the cycle bottom," they wrote. Bernstein rates Shell as "outperform". Shell pulled out of several major projects last year as a result of the steep decline in oil prices since June 2014, including its 80,000-barrels-per-day Carmon Creek thermal oil sands project and the 200,000 bpd Pierre River oil sands mining project in Canada.-Reuters Palazzo Versace, Dubai, an ultra-luxurious hotel in the UAE emirate, will host the fourth annual MICE Arabia Congress this March. Located along the shores of the Dubai Creek, in the Culture Village area of the city, the Palazzo Versace is only the second foray, for the high fashion brand House of Versace, into luxury hotels. The hotel, opened in 2015, features iconic art pieces and emblems of the Versace brand creating an impression of opulence and grandeur. Hosting dignitaries from the Arab world and wider geographic locations provides us a chance to display the intricate workmanship and attention to detail that has gone into making this hotel a work of art, truly symbolic of the Versace lifestyle, said a spokesperson from Palazzo Versace. On March 1 and 2, the MICE Arabia Congress will attract suppliers from all over the world to meet senior level executives from the GCC who are the decision makers for MICE and luxury travel activities. The fourth edition of the congress will emphasise the opportunities for inbound and outbound business as well as luxury travel. Synonymous with excellence, this high end hotel not only displays the glitz and glamour that comes to mind when Dubai is mentioned, but it also displays a beautiful integration of Italian art and Arabian culture and is the perfect setting for the distinctive MICE Arabia Congress, said Sidh N. C, director of QnA International - organisers of the congress. The congress will offer suppliers and decision makers from GCC corporate organizations as well as luxury travel buyers, the opportunity to meet one-on-one to conduct business. The event is the perfect platform to network, build relations and discuss commercial opportunities. The 2015 edition of the congress held over 1,800 meetings with over 50 destinations represented at the event. We have studied the success of our previous editions of the MICE Arabia Congress, and have put measures in place at the upcoming event to make the congress more productive for the delegates as well as the sponsors, thereby creating more opportunities to finalize deals, Sidh N.C said. The congress will feature numerous panelists and keynote speakers, covering topics such as the outbound MICE segment from the GCC, Global trends and challenges in MICE, and the intricacies when dealing with high net worth clients, to name a few. TradeArabia News Service After gaining immense popularity in Dubai, Studio Masr, the restaurant inspired by the famous Egyptian movie studios, has opened its doors at Dalma Mall Abu Dhabi. Located on the second floor of Dalma Mall, near the cinema, Studio Masr can accommodate up to 160 guests, featuring space of over 40-sq-m. Going with the theme, the interior is decorated with a large collection of movie star portraits, reviving famous characters in the golden era of the Egyptian cinema. We are very excited to bring Studio Masrs premium casual dining experience to Dalma Mall, and in the same time to open our third outlet in the UAE. Studio Masr has had an amazing journey so far in the UAEs food and beverage sector, and we will continue to amaze our guests with delectable Middle Eastern cuisine, and exceptional dining experience, said Wessam Eldin Shehata, general manager of Creme de la creme. The menu is infused with grill selections from Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan, all named after famous movies produced by Studio Masr. The signature dish, Ameer El Intekam (selection of grilled meat and chicken served with oriental rice with nuts, grilled vegetables, French fries and halaby bread) was named after the Egyptian movie produced in 1951. Studio Masr Dalma Mall is open on weekdays from 10 am until midnight, and until 1 am on weekends. TradeArabia News Service Mark Sedgwick, Against the Modern World: Traditionalism and the Secret Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.Available in paperback at $26.95 from Amazon.com (US) or 17.99 from Amazon.co.uk (Europe). Available on Kindle for $19.49. Amazon River is the greatest river of South America and the largest drainage system in the world in terms of the volume of its ... Help Yourself Stuff to help you. Kindle Fire basics The Natrona County Library will offer a Kindle Fire Basics class Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Crawford Room. Bring your own Kindle Fire tablet and learn how to use the touch screen, settings, and keyboard as well as discover how to download and use common Apps. Call 577-READ ext. 2 for more information. Following in Buddha's footsteps American Buddhist Monk, Gen Kelsang Rinzin returns to Casper from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on Saturday at the Healthy Life Studio in the Sunrise Shopping Center, 4200 S. Poplar St. He will be teaching on following in the Buddha's footsteps. Class includes a guided meditation, the teaching, a Q & A and some fellowship time. Study materials are available for purchase. A $15 donation is requested, but no one has ever been turned away. We are a friendly and diverse group of people who seek to bring peace to the world by starting with ourselves. Celebrate Recovery every Friday Looking for a nontraditional approach to recovery from your hurts, habits and hangups? Celebrate Recovery meets every Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Highland Park Community Church, just south of Elkhorn Valley Rehabilitation Hospital on East Second Street. Join us in a welcoming, positive environment where you can come as you are! We start with a family meal, followed by praise and worship. At 7 p.m., there's either a lesson from Celebrate Recovery's planned curriculum or a testimony by a person who has found recovery through Christ. Then, people go to gender-specific small groups until 8:30 p.m., when dessert and fellowship conclude the evening. Child care is available at no cost. For more information, contact Chris at 265-4073. Veterans help available Alisa Cochrane, a state of Wyoming veteran service officer, is available to meet with veterans and their families to discuss state and federal veterans' benefits, Department of Veteran Affairs claims or VA healthcare at the following places and times: Casper: Jan. 26, Vet Center, 1030 N. Poplar, Ste. B, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Jan. 20 and 27 at the VA Clinic, 4140 S. Poplar, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Jan. 25, Casper College Veterans Center, Goodstein Foundation Library, Room 108A, 1 to 4 p.m. Douglas: Jan. 21 and 28, Workforce Center, 311 N. Russell Ave., 9 a.m. to noon. If there is inclement weather, please check with the staff at the outreach locations to ensure Cochrane will be available. In addition to the scheduled outreach, she is available at other times by calling 472-0212. Saturday morning watercolor Art 321, Casper Artists Guild has reopened with our first exhibit of the new year, Anything Goes. Saturday morning watercolor classes have begun, 10 a.m. to noon, with the following lineup of classes: January 23, using photos for reference; January 30, practice session; February 6, trees, instructed by Jennifer Morss; February 13, practice session; February 20, reflections and shadows; February 27, practice session. For more information or questions about these classes, please call Ellen Black at 265-6783. We are looking forward to our next busy year of classes, workshops, exhibits and the making and sharing art! QuickBooks for business A class focusing specifically on using QuickBooks to prepare the books and payroll for the year-end is being offered through the Center for Training and Development at Casper College on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Taught by Tabetha Berge, CPA, the class QuickBooks: Year-end (CEU 1155 60) will focus on using QuickBooks to process W-2s and 1099s, annual and quarterly payroll reports, adjust payroll tax percentages, reconcile balance sheet items to the year-end trial balance, adjust inventory, close equity accounts, and set a closing date. The cost is $95 per person and those attending will also earn .4 continuing education units. For more information or to register, contact Ann Dalton, workforce training specialist at 268-2085 or adalton@caspercollege.edu. Bridal Extravaganza Saturday The annual Bridal Extravaganza is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday at the Casper Events Center. Tickets are $5 for ages 13 and up. Pre-register at www.casperbridalshow.com There will be 75 vendors, grand prize package worth thousands of dollars awarded at end of fashion show, Las Vegas weekend bachelor/bachelorette party drawing. "Afterparty" at 4 p.m. in the Three Trails Room features free mimosas and beer, prizes and the chance to try on gowns. The fashion show is at 3 p.m. The show is presented by Sandy Rickard of LaNeige Bridal and Tuxedo, formerly Hart's Tux & Gowns. Wedding Showcase Jan. 31 The VOWS Wyoming Wedding Showcase is noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 31, at the Parkway Plaza. VIP tickets are $25, general admission are $15, available only at Christina's, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Vendors will be there and so will Randy Fenoli, fashion and beauty expert and star of TLC's "Say Yes to the Dress," and "Randy to the Rescue." He will take the stage before or after the 2 p.m., fashion show and be available for questions. VIP tickets include front seating, a meet and greet and photo opportunity with Randy. The show is presented by Chris Reed of Christina's. Order trees from extension office Premium quality seedling trees, shrubs and perennials are available for windbreaks and wildlife habitat enhancement from the UW/Natrona County Extension. Order forms are available at the Agriculture Resource and Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Road, Casper, WY 82604. For more information, call Rose Jones at 235-9400. There are 40 species available: Bareroot species are 25 for $30; large tubed species, 30 for $83; small tubed species, 30 for $70; small trays are 50 for $99; XL potted species are $12 each. Order now for best selection with May delivery. Healing seminar set A Conscious co-creation/self-transformation and healing seminar taught by Cathy Hazel Adams, practitioner in Intuitive Quantum Transformation and Energy Healing, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 20-21 at the Agricultural Resources Learning Center, 2011 Fairgrounds Road. Price is $130. For more information or to register, visit www.cathyhazeladams.com or call 307-797-9677. Stop stressing and start living After the long dark nights of winter and pressures of the holidays, we invite you to join us in bringing more light into your life. Come learn some great stress reduction/ self care techniques with professionals, teaching some yoga, acupuncture, meditation, drumming, nutrition, breathing exercises and more. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the United Church of Christ-Casper, 1511 South Melrose. Please RSVP to Dan O'Dell at 307-247-1962 or Dee Lundberg at 406-930-1099 so that we have enough food available. This will not be a full blown lunch but generous healthy snack. Free will donations appreciated to cover costs. Free tax help begins The Wyoming Free Tax Service (VITA) will be opening January 26, 2016, and running through April 13, 2016. Our hours will be Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. We will be closed on Sunday and Monday as well as Easter Weekend, Friday March 25, and Saturday, March 26. Our location is the Aspen Creek Building, 800 Werner Court, Suite 180. This is a first come, first serve service so no appointments will be scheduled. Please bring your social security card, photo identification and appropriate paperwork that is needed, or we will not be able to assist you in your tax return. If you have any questions, please feel free to call (307) 315-1830 during our hours of operation. www.wyomingfreetaxservice.org Parkinson's support group Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinson's support group. Please join us at 5:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Rocky Mountain Therapy, 2546 E. Second St., Building 500. This support group is open to anyone with Parkinson's or caring for someone with Parkinson's. The next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. An informal question and answer discussion will be our program. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon. Rocky Mountain Therapy is offering a Parkinson's exercise program from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays. Thursday's class is tailored for the individual with more advanced Parkinson's and focuses on improving endurance, safety and managing symptoms. We are open to all ages and can tailor the class to meet varying exercise needs. The cost of the exercise class is $5. To RSVP, call 577-5204 and ask for Jerri or Shannon. To find out about Rocky Mountain Therapy please visit our website at www.rockymountaintherapy.org. Powerful tools for caregivers free Wyoming Dementia Care is offering family caregivers of those with dementia-related illnesses, including Alzheimers, a new self-care education program called Powerful Tools for Caregivers. The free class will meet each Tuesday for six weeks, beginning Tuesday, February 2 and ending on Tuesday, March 8 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Central Wyoming Senior Services, 1831 E. 4th St. Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a nationally recognized, evidence-based program that provides caregivers with the tools and strategies they need to better handle the unique challenges of caregiving. The six-week curriculum includes self- care options for relaxation and exercise, ways to reduce emotions like guilt and anger, how to confidently manage caregiving demands and suggestions on how to use local resources. The three hour per week class is provided at no cost to caregivers by Wyoming Dementia Care in collaboration with Powerful Tools for Caregivers, with partial funding from a Wyoming Geriatric Education Center grant. Class size is limited and pre-registration is required. Call Dani Guerttman at Wyoming Dementia Care, 265-4678, for information. Open Sky Meditation Saturday Morning Sits Open Sky Meditation Group is offering a three-hour meditation practice on the second Saturday of each month through May. Meditation will start at 9 a.m. and end at noon. First hour will be meditation instruction. Second hour will be open meditation. Third hour will be a guided meditation. On Feb. 13 and May 14, we will meet in the yoga room 101 at Skelton Energy Institute, Casper College. On March 12 and April 9, we will meet in room 217 of Strausner Hall, Casper College. These sits are open to all. Please feel free to come and leave as your schedule dictates. We hope to see you there. If you have questions, feel free to call Gale Sleep at 307-251-6959. BB&B recruiting restaurants now Its time again for Caspers favorite palate pleasing event, Bubbles Baubles & Beans, benefiting Natrona County Meals On Wheels. It will be held on Friday, January 29, 2016, from 4 to 8 p.m., at the Parkway Plaza Hotel and Convention Centre. We hope youll join us for this beloved event. In addition to providing our community with a great activity in January, the funds raised help offset the ever-expanding gap between the cost of providing meals to homebound residents and the money that our seniors can afford to pay towards the cost of these expenses. But most importantly, this is a great opportunity to promote your restaurant! Remember to bring marketing materials, coupons or other items to hand out. We would also love to see you decorate your booth! For more information, contact executive director Jamie Loveall at 265-8659. Here and Now: Dementia-focused monthly art class Every third Tuesday of the month from 1 to 3 p.m. There is no charge. Here and Now is a program made possible through a collaboration between Wyoming Dementia Care and the Nicolaysen Art Museum. It is designed to provide a supportive environment for people with dementia and Alzheimers and their loved ones. The class offers a chance to experience sensory and intellectual stimulation, communicate through art and explore various art media including paint, clay, collage and printmaking. To register for class contact Dani with Wyoming Dementia Care 265-4678, ext. 106, or at wyodementia@casperseniorcenter.com or Zhanna Gallegos at 235-5247 or at zgallegos@thenic.org City seeks boomer input The City of Casper is updating a 2008 study that evaluated how "boomer friendly" the Casper community is and what services or programs are needed to support that population. Casper area residents aged 50 and older are asked to complete a survey to help identify what has changed from 2008 and how the city can best help to meet the needs of this growing population segment. The survey can be picked up at the Casper Senior Center, Casper City Hall or the Casper Recreation Center or can be accessed online at the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CprSrSurvey. The survey link can also be found on the City of Casper and Casper Senior Services websites. Public forums and focus groups will follow the survey process. The study committee is scheduled to meet on the fourth Wednesday of every month from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Casper Senior Center. The meetings are open to the public. Recommendations from the study will be presented at public meetings for additional input prior to submission to the City Council. The plan is slated for completion in late spring of 2016. Adult learning hours Fall hours for the Adult Learning Center at Casper College are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday. The center is closed between 11 a.m. and noon each day and all day Friday and weekends. "The Adult Learning Center offers free assessment and instruction to out-of-school adult students, 16 years old and older, who need to improve their basic reading, writing and math skills in order to reach their educational and employment goals, said Chelse DePaolo-Lara, director. According to DePaolo-Lara, the Adult Learning Center also provides classes for people who want to improve their English language skills or prepare to take the citizenship exam. English as a Second Language classes are offered from 9:30 to 11 a.m. and noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. An evening session is also offered from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays. The Adult Learning Center at Casper College is located in the Werner Technical Center on the Casper College campus, and all programs offered at the center are free of charge. For more information, call the center at 268-2230 or visit caspercollege.edu/alc. Casper Family Literacy program A local nonprofit organization, Casper Family Literacy is a free program designed to give families an opportunity to earn their HSEC/GED or ESL. While parents are attending classes, we take care of their children in a high-quality preschool and infant/toddler program. Come see us at 500 S. Wolcott St., suite 103, or call us at 472-5640 for more information. We look forward to hearing from you! Food pantry open Poverty Resistance Food Pantry, 450 S. Wolcott St., in cooperation with the Wyoming Food Bank of the Rockies, has fresh produce and other perishable food items for distribution to low-income families. The pantry is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sunday to make the food more accessible to low-income working folks. Food availability info is posted on Mary Ann's Facebook page whenever a new shipment arrives. Income guidelines and verification are less rigid than many other programs. Generally, if a family is eligible for free lunch or CHIP, they are eligible for the food pantry. Monthly healing service Christ Episcopal Church, 415 W. Cedar St. in Glenrock, announces the addition of a monthly healing service to our schedule. "A Public Service of Healing" is a traditional liturgy in the church, and all are invited to come for comfort and support. The service will be held at 6 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month. For info, call Deacon Leigh Earle, 258-2524. The Episcopal Church welcomes you! Flag drop box The American Legion Post 2 of Casper has a flag drop box (for retired flags) on Seventh Street off Center Street in front of the Elks Lodge. It is a red, white and blue old mailbox that was donated by the Sons of the American Legion. The flags are collected and disposed of in the proper manner. God bless America and our brave service members, past and present. Chicken fried steak at Elks Wednesday Night Special at the Casper Elks Lodge is chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and corn. All you can eat for $7, children 5 to 12 are $3. Serving from 6 to 7 p.m. or until gone. Members, significant other and guest accompanied by a member. For more information, call 234-4839. Lodge closed The Casper Elks Lodge and Club will be closed for the employee Christmas Party this Friday. Harley winner takes possession Deanna Crouch of Rock Springs will take possession of her 2015 Harley-Davidson Dyna Street Bob at 1 p.m., on Saturday at Oil City Harley-Davidson in Casper. Crouch is a member of the American Legion Auxiliary and American Legion Riders. Crouch won the motorcycle through a contest and thought the call notifying her of her win was a hoax. Lunch and Learn Saturday The Fort Caspar Museum Association announces its winter Lunch & Learn program to be held on Saturday, with the optional lunch beginning at noon, followed by a lecture at 1 p.m. Douglas R. Cubbison, curator of the Wyoming Veterans Museum and a board member for both the Fort Caspar Museum Association and Wyoming State Historical Society, will present on the relationships between Casper Army Airbase and the City and Citizens of Casper between 1942 and 1945, titled Rosie Was Here!Casper Army Airbase and the City of Casper During World War II. Casper Army Air Base was established early in 1942, approximately 10 miles west of Casper, to train these combat aircrews. In short order, the base grew to almost a third the size of the city of Casper. Manning the base on an average day would be approximately 2,250 Army Air Force personnel and nearly 1,000 civilians. The presentation is free with the optional paid lunch OR free with paid museum admission. (Advance reservations are required for lunch and requested for the lecture.) Lunch will begin at noon. We are offering a buffet-style meal of fried chicken, sides, desserts, and beverages with an RSVP by Thursday. The cost for lunch is $5 for museum members and $8 for non-members; reserve your space in advance, but please plan to pay at the door. The presentation begins at 1 p.m. Those who choose not to join us for lunch may attend the lecture for free after paying museum admission ($1.50 for adults). Again, please call the Museum by Thursday to reserve a spot at the lunch: 235-8462. For more information, call the Museum at 307-235-8462, or visit our website at www.fortcasparwyoming.com. Fort Caspar Museum is located at 4001 Fort Caspar Road. Five Trails hears of philanthropy The Five Trails Rotary Club will hear from Ann Ruble on Thursday at noon at the Casper Petroleum Club. Community members are welcome to attend this presentation as guests of the Five Trails Rotary Club. Ruble, director of Regional Philanthropy for the Wyoming Community Foundation, will be speaking about the history of the Wyoming Community Foundation and its impact on the non-profit sector in the Casper region. As the director of Regional Philanthropy for the Wyoming Community Foundation, Mrs. Ruble is responsible for managing legacy investments and Foundation contributions in Natrona and Converse counties. She joined the foundation in May 2013 and in addition to her primary responsibility, she has also managed special projects and events for WYCF. Prior to moving to Wyoming in December 2010, Ruble served as Public Affairs Manager for Cox Communications Greater Louisiana where she was responsible for managing community relations and philanthropic programs for the communication systems seven-parish Baton Rouge region. Monthly vets ceremony The Natrona County United Veterans Council, the staff of the Oregon Trail Wyoming State Veterans Cemetery, and the Wyoming Army National Guard Honor Guard conduct a monthly memorial service for those known Wyoming veterans who have died since our last memorial service which was held on December 31, when we honored 107 Wyoming veterans, this months memorial service will be held at noon, January 29, in the Tom Walsh Chapel at The Oregon Trail Veterans Cemetery. All are welcome to attend. This memorial service is provided on behalf of a grateful state and nation as an expression of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by each of these veterans. The veterans name, Wyoming community and branch of service is read at roll call. There is a rifle salute, taps, and the folding of a flag. Free historic trails presentation Find out more about Wyomings National Historic Trails at the first in a series of free public presentations on Saturday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m., at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center. The illustrated presentation by Trails Center staff member Reid Miller will provide the audience with a closer look at the fundamental importance of identifying and preserving our common historic resources. Compelling persons such as Professor Howard Driggs, Ezra Meeker and William Henry Jackson and key legislation since 1900 will be profiled. This will give visitors a sense of how designation of nationally significant trails has itself been a long dynamic process. As we begin our fourteenth year of service to the public we want to illuminate some of the lesser known aspects of the history of the great westward migrations, said Trails Center Director Chris Wilkinson. The movement to preserve the historic resources of the National Historic Trails is one of the great untold stories of contemporary western history. This program will be the kick off for a varied series of free presentations lasting less than one hour that we will offer in 2016. We welcome everyone to visit us at the Trails Center this year! Current hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information please contact Reid Miller at the NHTIC, 261-7781. Church preschool has openings First Christian Church has limited openings in two of its classes this spring. We have three openings in our Pre-Kindergarten class, which is designed for 4 or 5 years olds. The class meets Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. This class is for children who will be attending Kindergarten next fall and meets all NCSD Kindergarten Readiness Skills in a fun, active setting. We have one opening in our Young 3s class that meets three mornings a week and is for children who have a late spring, summer or early fall birthday. All students participate in music, Spanish once a week, an educational thematic curriculum and fun outdoor play! Call the preschool at 472.0649 with any questions. Rides for seniors to symphony The Reveille Rotary Club of Casper is offering transportation for seniors over 60 to the Wyoming Symphony Orchestras performance this Sunday. Each season, the Reveille Rotary Club has partnered with the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra to provide transportation to concert-goers who prefer not to drive. Transportation arrangements to attend the performance can be made for everyone who already holds a Symphony ticket as well as for those who need a ticket. Anyone 60 years and over wishing to get a ride to the performance must call 235-8384 to reserve a spot by Thursday. There is no charge for transportation or for registering; however, a donation toward the price of the ticket is appreciated if feasible. Those who register will be given a general admission ticket to the event and a ride from home to and from the concert. For more information about the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra, please call 266-1478 or visit the Symphonys website at www.wyomingsymphony.org. Nominate woman of distinction The Casper Woman of Distinction Committee is now accepting nominations for the 2016 Casper Woman of Distinction. We are asking residents of Natrona County to think about the important work women do in our community through work and/or volunteerism. Nominate an important woman in our community to receive the 2016 Woman of Distinction Award. All nominees will be honored at our luncheon on March 10, 2016. Nominations are due by January 31, 2016 and forms may be obtained by contacting Kim at 472-4272 or by email kcyoumans@gmail.com Dyann Durst 237-1334 Pioneers meet Feb. 7 The Natrona County Pioneer Association will conduct its Winter Quarterly luncheon meeting Sunday, February 7 at 12:30 p.m., at the Parkway Plaza Adrian room. The cost of the luncheon is $10. Bruce McGirr will talk about the Battle of Red Buttes. Anyone interested is invited to attend. Contact Vaughn Cronin at 315-4659 for reservations or more information. Casper Mountain sled dog races Meet some mushers and the coolest athletes on earth! The 21st annual Casper Mountain Sled Dog Races will be held at Bear Trap Meadow on Casper Mtn. The races will be all day Saturday and Sunday, February 20 and 21, 2016, with the long distance races scheduled first. The mushers take off at 9 a.m. in front of the North Shelter. Its free to watch! Come experience the excitement and cheer on the dog sled teams as they cross the finish line in the meadow. Food, coffee and hot chocolate available. For information about the race, please call Pam Dunn at 577-7162. Additional info: CaninesForCharity.org The Natrona County Banquet and Auction associated with the Casper Mountain Sled Dog Races will be Saturday, Feb 20, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at the Parkway Plaza Hotel & Convention Center. Come support your Natrona County 4H! For tickets to the banquet and auction or more information, please contact Natrona County 4H office at 235-9400. Dog handlers and trail help needed Would you like to meet some very friendly, furry and focused athletes? Our dog sled teams need handlers to help get them to the starting line. We also need trail help for the Casper Mtn. Sled Dog Races. The races will be Saturday and Sunday, February 20 and 21, 2016 at Bear Trap Meadow on Casper Mountain. Volunteers meeting is 7 p.m., Tuesday, February 16, at the Parkway Plaza for information about your job. All proceeds benefit Natrona County 4H in Casper. Join us for one of the coolest events on Casper Mountain! For information please contact Floyd or Pam Dunn at 577-7162. Or go to CaninesForCharity.org Workshop at Art 321 ART321 Casper Artists Guild workshop for February: Upholstery workshop, instructed by Connie Atkinson (Hi-Mark Upholstery), will be held for three consecutive months: First session, Saturday and Sunday, February 20 and 21, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; second session, Saturday and Sunday, March 19and 20, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Third and final session, Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fee is $60 for members/$80 for non-members + a $10 supply fee. Open to all levels. Register on line or stop by the gallery please. 200 Club bowling results The 200 Club of Casper held a team tournament Jan. 16 at Sunrise Lanes. Here are the results: 1. Ernies Furnace, Maria Kellogg, Kathy Leinweber, Nikki Finn, Judi Mair; 2. Us-4, Sue Marsteller, Helen Hollandsworth, Lesley Travers, Donna Ragsdale; 3. Turks Masonry, Alma Cardinal, Connie Hemminger, Mary Ann Hagler, Pam Warren; 4. S&S Consulting, Christina Quinn, Roberta Smith, Tonya Enloe, Kristen Smith; 5. Great Ones, Debra Zeigafuse, Laurie McNally, Lavone Bachler, Marla Whitaker; 6. Misfits, Phyllis Rufenacht, Zelda Jensen, Anna Wilson, Pat Lawrence; 7. Triple Threat, Diana Porter, Stephanie Benton, Kay Griswold, Debbie Carabajal; 8. Beeches, Renae Berlinger, Lea Dole, Donna Morton, Vivian Murphy. 200 games: Roberta Smith, 204; Tonya Enloe, 203. KW Last Blast needs donations The Kelly Walsh 2016 Last Blast Committee is gearing up for another remarkable Last Blast for our Seniors. The Last Blast is a safe, alcohol and drug free celebration, hosted by parents, following the commencement ceremony scheduled for May 29, 2016. This event cannot be successful without the generosity and support of the Casper community. Please consider donating to this worthy cause honoring the graduates of the Kelly Walsh High School Class of 2016. Donations can include cash donations in any amount, coupons, gift certificates, gift cards, refreshments, and age appropriate purchased store items. If you have any questions regarding the 2016 Kelly Walsh Last Blast, please do not hesitate to call Janna Rone, 267-6728 or Sandy Young (307) 258-5508. If you are interested in making a donation, we ask that you send it to: Kelly Walsh Last Blast c/o Sandy Young, 4643 Smoke Rise Rd., Casper, WY 82604. Many thanks for your consideration and support. The Natrona County Commissioners have agreed to participate in a program to decide the future of Wyomings wilderness study areas. In November, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association launched an effort called the Wyoming Public Lands Initiative to resolve issues involving Wyomings long-standing Wilderness Study Areas. The states 45 Wilderness Study Areas cover more than 700,000 acres. Natrona County has four relatively small study areas totaling 32,575 acres, all in the vicinity of Independence Rock. They are: Lankin Dome, 6,316 acres; Split Rock, 12,789 acres; Miller Spring, 6,429 acres; and Savage Peak, 7,041 acres. Commission Chairman Forrest Chadwick said participating in the initiative would primarily require a commitment of time and effort. If we want to be involved we would have to set up a working group, Chadwick said. You have environmental groups, conservation groups, users, ranchers, and oil and gas although there isnt any oil and gas down there, and probably wont be because of the (Oregon/Mormon) trail issues. The Mormon Church should also be invited, Chadwick added, because of nearby Martins Cove Handcart Historic Site. Chadwick said the initiative was aimed getting Congress to act. If theyre going to be wilderness, lets have them be wilderness. If theyre not going to be wilderness, lets take them off of there, because right now they are managed as if they were wilderness, Chadwick told the other commissioners. The newly formed group would decide what should happen to the areas and make a recommendation to Wyomings Congressional delegation. Under WPLI guidelines all the working group meetings would be open to the public, and citizen comments would be taken in every session. Commissioner Rob Hendry, meanwhile, emphasized the need for balance on the committee. If we go ahead with this, our main deal is we need to come up with names of peopleand we need good names that are fair, that are both ways, that are not going to say absolutely not, no way, and we dont want people that say all right and just rubberstamp anything, Hendry said. Weve got to have a serious conversation about it, so I think thats where the main goal is, to have good people on the board. Vice-Chairman John Lawson said the working group could provide compromise, not limited to an up or down decision on a wilderness designation. Some places could become conservation areas, for example. The county commissioners association hopes to have a statewide land use initiative document created over the next three years, with the county advisory committees in place by this spring. The committee recommendations would be submitted to the WCCA by early 2018. The recommendations from the participating counties would be compiled by the WCCA. Legislation would be drafted and brought to Congress in consultation with the governor and the states congressional delegation. The commission selected Chadwick to lead the Natrona County group, noting he is already the co-chairman of the WCCAs Lands Committee. Hendry is the vice-president of the WCCA. Lawson, the former director of Bureau of Reclamation in Wyoming, also said he would advise and participate. The next WPLI meeting is Jan. 26 in Lander. Im going to go anyway, because being vice-chairman of the negotiations, whatever you guys bring forward I get to run with, said Hendry. Im going to carry your torch, and thats good for me, because it isnt my torch, its your torch. The Wyoming initiative is modeled on the Utah Public Lands Initiative, which was developed by U.S. Rep. Bob Bishop, R-Utah, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. This would not be the commissions first foray into the federal lands issue. The previous commission donated $1,000 to the American Lands Council, headed up by Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory. The ALC is seeking the transfer of all federal lands to the states. The Wyoming Legislature has also been studying the concept of the state taking over management of federal lands. A 28-year-old man who came from Wyoming to work in the North Dakota oil patch is going back to college, thanks in part to a new university system program meant to keep people in the energy industry from leaving the state when times are tough. Warren Logan is the first scholarship recipient for Bakken U, an initiative to help oilfield workers earn a degree or certificate from one of five colleges and universities in western North Dakota. He will receive $5,000 toward pursuit of a business degree from Dickinson State University. Logan, who works as district manager of fluid control for Denver-based National Oilwell Varco, said his family wants to stay in Dickinson and he wants to make sure he has a job. Ive invested a lot into this community, said Logan, who is married with three children. I like the stance that North Dakota is taking. They are putting their best foot forward and telling people, stay here, because there are great things to offer. Logan grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Riverton, Wyoming. He attended college at the University of Wyoming before deciding to take a job in the oil patch when some of his friends working there began showing off their newest toys. He started as an oil well operator seven years ago and worked his way up to manager. I have a good position with a great company, but theres always a chance of an unexpected loss of employment, Logan said. Education is important for upward mobility. The scholarship, sponsored by the North Dakota Petroleum Council, is open to recently displaced oil workers, current oil workers or spouses of oil workers. Logan was selected after a review by a scholarship committee. Bakken U is the brainchild of the university system Chancellor Mark Hagerott, who came up with the idea while touring the oil patch last summer. Jerry Rostad, director of Bakken U, said Logans circumstances made him an ideal candidate for the first scholarship. Weve got people who have come to North Dakota to work in the oil industry and now the oil price is turned down a little bit, Rostad said. There are still plenty of opportunities to work in the state; its a matter of getting some retraining and some education under their belts. A lot of these workers want to stay here. For a guy with such a fragile name, Hugh Glass must have seemed unbreakable. Shot twice and mauled by a grizzly bear, the mountain man made famous in the book and acclaimed movie The Revenant grew to mythological proportions in his era. Yet after cheating death so many times, and under such unusual circumstances, in real life his adventures were ended on the Yellowstone River, just east of Billings, Montana, in 1833. He was quite a character, said Jay Buckley, an associate professor of History at Brigham Young University, who is familiar with Glass story. We dont know a ton about that era, but we wouldnt know anything about Hugh Glass if he hadnt been attacked by a bear. Glass was a fur trapper in the heydays of the mountain man, the 1820s to 1840s. It was a really pivotal time in history, said Laurie Hartwig, who served as director of the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale for 14 years and is now a staff member. The mountain men traveled on the heels of western explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, some of the first Euro-Americans to explore the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages in Montana. The routes the fur trappers traveled, Hartwig said, are the same paths that settlers would later follow to lay claim to the West. The living dead A revenant is a person who has returned from the dead, and Glass certainly fit that definition. Although he never wrote about his near-death encounters, parts of his life have been pieced together from accounts written by others he associated with, as well as by articles of the era based on stories that mythologized the man. There isnt a lot of actual information about any of the mountain men, Hartwig said. Were hoping somebody is going to find a diary up in their attic. Buckley said there are four accounts from which Glass life has been pieced together, including one line from a journal of one of the men on the trip with Andrew Henrys Rocky Mountain Fur Co. when Glass was attacked that reads in part: one man was torn nearly all to pieces by a bear. From what has been woven together, though, the museum created its own Hugh Glass website hughglass.org to help separate fact from the fictionalized version now showing on movie screens around the world. It is from that website and other historical books written about the period in history from which this story is pieced together. Local history buffs contacted for comment had never heard of Glass until this movie was advertised. Its a fascinating story and movie and special effects, said Bill Cole, a Billings attorney who has led preservation efforts for western scout Yellowstone Kellys gravesite on the Rimrocks north of the city. But you cant be too concerned about the authenticity. Hugh who? As near as historians can establish, Glass was born around 1783 in the Philadelphia area. If thats the case, Glass was about 40 years old when he joined a group of 100 men traveling up the Missouri River in 1823. The group had been assembled by William Ashley, who together with Henry had formed the Rocky Mountain Fur Co. to exploit the rich beaver lands of the new West. Portrayed in the movie by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, there are no known photographs, lithographs or paintings of the real Hugh Glass, Hartwig said. Henry had already made other trips into the new territory, first under the sponsorship of the St. Louis Missouri Fur Co. Led by scout John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Henry and a party of men in 1810 established the first of several Fort Henrys near Three Forks in the heart of traditional Blackfeet Indian territory. The crew only lasted two months at Three Forks because of the unceasing Indian raids. Abandoning the fort, Henry and his men went upstream where his name was bestowed upon Henrys Lake and the Henrys Fork of the Snake River in southeastern Idaho. Twelve years later, in 1822, Henry returned to the region with a party of 150 men to establish a trading post and another Fort Henry near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers about 20 miles southwest of present Williston, North Dakota. Bad luck begins It was this same fort that Henrys partner Ashley was traveling up the Missouri River from St. Louis in 1823 to resupply via keelboats, along with a party of 90 men that included Glass and a 19-year-old Jim Bridger, who had reportedly signed on as a blacksmith. While enroute, Glass was shot in the leg during a skirmish with Arikara Indians who had attacked the party. The Indians had killed 14 members of the group and all 19 of the horses they had traded to the mountain men. Eleven other men in the group were wounded. This was Glass first of several dangerous encounters with the semi-nomadic Plains Indian tribe. Given the difficulty of traveling via the river in boats, Ashley decided to break the group into two teams. One led by Henry and including Glass and Bridger would travel overland on foot using horses to pack their gear to reach the latest Fort Henry. The other, led by Jedidiah Smith, set off about four weeks later after finally acquiring enough horses. Grizzly attack It was while on this overland trek with Henrys party of about 15 men and six pack horses that Glass was attacked by a sow grizzly with two cubs, supposedly along the upper Grand River south of Lemmon, South Dakota a landscape much flatter than that shown in the movie. The mauling was so devastating his throat slashed, chunks of flesh gouged from his back that Glass was expected to die. Im sure there were hundreds of people mauled by grizzly bears back then, because they were everywhere on the plains, Hartwig said. He was popular among the mountain men because of surviving a grizzly bear attack. Since Glass clung to life, Henry decided to make a stretcher to carry Glass. After two days, Henry was worried that the groups slowed progress would endanger all of them. To save the many he was willing to sacrifice the one. Eager to return to the small band of trappers he had left at Fort Henry, he offered to pay two men a bonus to stay with Glass until he died and then bury him. Bridger and John Fitzgerald volunteered for the grave-digging duty. After staying behind for five days, Bridger and Fitzgerald became concerned they would be too far behind to catch up with the rest of their party, as well as feeling vulnerable to another Indian attack. Stripping Glass of his rifle, knife, tomahawk, fire-starting kit, shot and powder, they left him for dead next to a stream. Somehow Glass regained enough strength to begin hobbling east toward the Missouri River. Some accounts have him feeding off a wolf-killed bison for nourishment. Upon reaching the river he obtained a boat to float downstream to Fort Kiowa, located near what is now Chamberlain, South Dakota. The trek had covered an estimated 250 miles. By the time Glass arrived at the fort it was already October about the same time the rest of his party finally reached Fort Henry. Not one to wait around after healing his wounds for a couple of days, Glass set out to reportedly seek revenge against Bridger and Fitzgerald for abandoning him. Traveling upstream with a group of five traders by boat to a Columbia Fur Co. trading post, he went ashore rather than paddle around a large oxbow. The rest of the party, which remained in the boat, was killed by a group of Arikara Indians. Glass narrowly escaped capture, aided by some Mandan Indians. In addition to being mauled by a grizzly and left to die, Glass had been involved in three Indian attacks in which 21 men were killed and 16 wounded, wrote Clay Landry, a Helena, Montana, mountain man re-enactor and history buff. While this number of close calls would give most men pause, Glass actions indicate he remained focused on his current situation and his pressing need to reach the mouth of the Yellowstone River. One more time It was late November when Glass set off across the Dakota territory for whats believed to be a 38-day hike to Fort Henry. His revenge would have to wait, though, since the party had abandoned the fort for lack of beaver to establish a new winter outpost near the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers, closer to the friendly Crow Indians. Undeterred, Glass set out again in the middle of winter to make another 250-mile trek. How he knew where to go is uncertain; perhaps Henry had left a note at the old fort. According to trapper George Younts account, Glass reached the newest Fort Henry on New Years Eve of 1823. The man who everyone in Henrys trapping party thought had died on the Dakota plains was very much alive and, one would have to believe, looking for vengeance against the men who had left him for dead. Otherwise, why would he have ventured so far in such perilous winter weather? Even among modern travelers the frigidity of the Dakotas is well-known and feared. Unfortunately for Glass, Fitzgerald was not with the group, and Bridger was pardoned, possibly because of his youth and after claiming he was influenced by the older Fitzgerald into leaving Glass. Fitzgerald had set out for Fort Atkinson. Possibly he and Glass had passed within miles of each other on their excursions in opposite directions. On the trail again When Henry asked for a volunteer to deliver a dispatch to Ashley in St. Louis to update him on the trapping partys endeavors, Glass supposedly volunteered in hopes of catching up to Fitzgerald. On Feb. 29, 1824, Glass and four others set off on the journey to reach Fort Atkinson, located near present Omaha, Nebraska, at the junction of the Missouri and Platte rivers, more than 1,000 miles to the southeast. Enroute, Glass and his compatriots would have yet another run-in with the Arikaras, this time along the North Platte River. Two of the men were killed. The other three, including Glass, scattered and were without their rifles. Once again, Glass was walking back to a prairie fort. This time, however, he at least had his knife and fire-starting kit. In mid-May Glass finally arrived at Fort Kiowa the same place he had ventured to after the grizzly attack. It was there he learned that Fitzgerald had enlisted in the Army and was now at Fort Atkinson, farther down the Missouri. In June he arrived at Fort Atkinson but was denied access to Fitzgerald because he was now protected as a government employee. Glass had to settle for getting his cherished rifle back as his only consolation. Meanwhile, Henry decided to abandon his fort at the junction of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers. According to a National Park Service account, Henry and his men ventured south along the Bighorn River, through Bad Pass above Bighorn Canyon, to explore Wyomings Green River region. From there the men later returned to St. Louis, and Henry ended his raucous career in the fur business. Shot once more That same year, 1824, Glass set out on a trading adventure to New Mexico where he was shot with an arrow in the back by a Shoshone Indian. After healing from this latest wound the metal arrowhead cut out by a fellow trapper using a razor Glass supposedly returned to the Yellowstone country. By the spring of 1830 historical records confirm that Glass was on the payroll at Fort Union, near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, working as a hunter for the American Fur Co. Supposedly Glass killed so many bighorn sheep that lived on the side of nearby badland cliffs that they named it Glass Bluffs. In yet another attempt to establish trade with the Crow Indians, in 1832 Fort Cass was built by the American Fur Co. three miles downstream from the confluence of the Bighorn and Yellowstone rivers close to the last Fort Henry location. Glass, now about 50 years old and tattooed with scars from his many brushes with death, supposedly moved to the new fort to provide his services as a hunter. It was here where Glass would finally fail to cheat death. This time the Arikaras who through some quirk of fate had so far only managed to injure the hardy mountain man would finally kill him. Last fall As mountain man history buff Landry writes on the hughglass.org website, In the early spring of 1833, Glass, accompanied by Edward Rose and Hilain Menard, departed Fort Cass to trap beaver a short way downriver from the fort. As the trappers were crossing the ice of the frozen river they were ambushed by a large party of Arikara Indians who had been concealed on the opposite bank. All three men were shot, scalped and plundered. It was these mens misfortune that an Arikara war party, bent on stealing horses, had been scouting the area around the fort when they spotted the trappers. Sometime after his death, two members of the Arikara war party that killed Glass supposedly were buried alive and scalped by other trappers near the headwaters of the Powder River north of Casper. The trappers had recognized Glass rifle in the Indians possession and sought revenge. Even from beyond the grave it appeared as though Glass was exacting some measure of revenge. So somewhere along the banks of the Yellowstone River are buried the remains of a mountain man who has now gained fame beyond anything he could have imagined. After seeing the movie and given her long association with the Museum of the Mountain Man, Hartwig is hopeful that there will be a resurgence in interest in the era, its history and the unusual cast of real-life characters that populated the brief period. Already Hartwig and other members of the museum have received calls from magazines as diverse as Cowboys and Indians and Maxim. Not since Robert Redford starred in the 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson have mountain men drawn such widespread attention, she said. Thats why were so excited about this movie, because it will renew interest in the mountain man and fur trade. Rare Element Resources, with its mine and processing project has brought rays of sunshine to northeast Wyoming, but Forest Service permitting delays continue to bring thunder and rain. The parade began in 2004 with renewed exploration; its at a standstill nowadays. First, the math realities of Rare Element Resources Bear Lodge Project are impressive. The Department of Energy deems it as a critically important development a project of significant national interest, according to one scientist. The discovery of the rare elements in this area of Wyoming just 12 miles from the South Dakota border dates back to the 1940s. The advanced and proven technology to process rests with Rare Element Resources, a Lakewood, Colorado-based company. People there are innovative and doing the best they can. Second are the math realities facing America, and the world, today. China produces now 90 percent of these elements today. Once refined these elements have magnetic, phosphorescent and catalytic properties and become the seeds of todays electronics, medical technologies, and support telecommunication and defense systems. Without these rare elements, modern society comes to a screeching halt. The third math reality relates to our everyday lives you and me. While China consumes 60 percent of the worlds supply today, in just four years they will need to import, not export. Where will the additional supplies for the rest of us come from as the world has only one non-Chinese mine? Who will be the base supplier for the tech gadgets we buy and use every day? So the math is pretty basic and quite dismal. Rare Element Resources has been in the permitting mode with the Forest Service since 2012. I know this for a fact as one of the speakers at a Forest Service scoping meeting in Upton in April 2015. The room was packed; local support was overwhelming. The Forest Service reps promised they would get at the EIS and get the job done quickly, with the final Record of Decision completed by the spring of 2015. Unfulfilled promises. The draft EIS targeted for this spring still hasnt been released; there is no information of potential preferred alternatives; and the diligent project manager transferring to another federal agency (the BLM) in another state. While there have been few results from the Forest Service, there has been diligent work by Rare Element Resources with positive feasibility studies, five patent filings on technology, etc. Crook and Weston Counties sadly have challenges 2.4 percent population growth (165 people) in Crook County and -0.1% percent growth (-7 people) in Weston between 2010 and 2014. The locals want a vibrant economy. The 130 people to be employed with Rare Element Resources, plus families and the economic multiplier effect, adds up to about 520.The math a real booster shot. Local leaders know this. Their resolutions and letters of support all in before the April, 2014 meeting are unanimous: four counties and seven cities, plus school districts and economic development groups. A previous guest column by another writer lamented the lack of Forest Service action and missed deadlines. The Forest Service, as the lead agency, has the responsibility to set the timetable (which they did in April, 2014) and enforce it by proactively moving the process forward (which they have not) with all cooperators, state and local. Is the Forest Service of a negative sum gain game mindset delay to the point that Rare Element Resources cant continue? The math equation doesnt add up. Local citizens now face the possibility of lost opportunities for decent jobs and increased home construction and retail trade in these tough times both for Crook and Weston Counties and Wyoming overall. Maybe an Oversight Committee led by one of Wyomings Congressional Delegation members could ask the Forest Service to explain the delays. Accountability is at the Forest Services doorstep. TCC: The company, billing itself as the nations largest Verizon premium wireless retailer, is donating to nonprofits in celebration of the opening of its new store at 1580 E. Tucson Marketplace Blvd. It has chosen five local nonprofits eligible to win either $1,000, $3,000 or $5,000: Tucson Cause for Canines, Higher Ground, Erik Hite Foundation, Last Alarm Foundation Inc. and Beat Cancer Fit Group. Three organizations will be chosen based on community votes. See www.TCCRocks.com to vote. Voting ends Monday, Jan. 18, at 9:59 p.m. The Metropolitan Education Commission will host a meeting Wednesday to help the public learn about an upcoming special election on education funding. Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit will speak on the subject at 4 p.m. at the Joel D. Valdez Library, in the lower-level meeting room, 101 N. Stone Ave. DeWit opposes the proposal, Prop. 123, coming before voters in May. Supporters of the initiative shared their views at an MEC meeting in December. TUSD to hold second meeting on facilities The Tucson Unified School District is hosting a second town hall meeting to discuss its facilities master plan. The first meetings was held Saturday at Palo Verde Magnet High School. The second is Tuesday, Jan. 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cholla Magnet High School, 2001 W. Starr Pass Blvd. The facilities master plan will identify improvements needed to provide an effective education as well as the funds needed to make them happen. TUSD hopes to make the improvements a reality through a bond election in November, though the Governing Board has not yet decided whether the issue will go on the ballot. The town hall meetings are an opportunity for community members to provide feedback. Child care and translation services will be available. Foothills open house for incoming freshmen Catalina Foothills High School is hosting a Future Falcon Open House for incoming students and parents on Tuesday, Jan. 26. The event, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will include an activities fair, student-led tours of the campus at 4300 E. Sunrise Drive and an information session. Prospective students are also invited to shadow a current Catalina Foothills student between Jan. 29 and April 29. To sign up, go to http://tinyurl.com/falconshadow 2 educators honored for teaching economics Two Tucson-area teachers are being recognized for their ability to make economics lessons fun and engaging for their middle- and high-schoolers. Gale Mitchell of Alice Vail Middle School and Jean McKnight-Guymon of Cienega High School were honored with the 2015 Ed Eisele Excellence in Economics Education Award and a check for $5,000. The recognition is from the University of Arizona Eller College of Management Department of Economics, the Office of Economic Education and the Thomas R. Brown Foundation. Mitchell and McKnight- Guymon were selected from among 30 nominees. We applaud Gale and Jean for their unwavering dedication to helping their students understand how important economics is to their lives, said Dirk Mateer, who directs Ellers Office of Economic Education. Foundation provides $90K to Sunnyside The Sunnyside Foundation awarded $90,000 in resources to Sunnyside Unified School District teachers and classrooms in 2015. The funds supported student competitions and field trips as well as academic, fine arts and music programming, vision screenings and other efforts, the foundation said. For more information about the foundation or to make a donation, visit sunnysidefoundation.org TUSD teachers can apply for grants Educators in the Tucson Unified School District can now apply for classroom grants through the Educational Enrichment Foundation. Grants between $500 and $1,000 are available for projects that enhance curriculum and enrich student learning. Proposals are due Feb. 29. Applications and more information are available at eeftucson.org A Tucson man whose real estate license was revoked last year has filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Real Estate contesting the punishment. After a 2014 real estate department audit, Jeremy Silverman was found to have committed multiple property management violations. In October, the department upheld an order to revoke his license and that of his business, Transaction Realty LLC, and assessed a civil penalty of $6,000. Earlier, an administrative law judge had disagreed with the departments conclusions and argued that, since no consumers were harmed by Silvermans actions, the departments penalties were too stiff. But the real estate department upheld the order, stating, While Mr. Silverman may have had good intentions in his activities, he has admitted failing to uphold the rules and statues that govern his chosen profession. Silverman sued in a Maricopa County appeals court, seeking to stay the departments order and have his license reinstated during the hearing process. Reached by phone, he declined to comment on the lawsuit until after the appeal hearing. The Arizona Department of Real Estate, which has been cracking down on property management violations, found that Silverman had committed numerous violations, including: Commingling client funds required to be kept in a trust account with funds in his business operating account. Failure to retain records and maintain a positive balance in the trust account, indicating a failure to supervise the companys property management activities. The real estate department does not comment on pending litigation, said Louis Dettorre, assistant commissioner of operations and legislative affairs for the department. In his September defense before an administrative law judge, Silverman said the trust account deficit occurred when a clients checks totaling $10,000 bounced. When he realized the problem, he used funds in his operating account to pay his property management clients money owed. He also said hed never had a complaint about his real estate activities until the 2014 audit, and that he was no longer practicing property management. The judge agreed that Silvermans companys license should be revoked, but argued Silvermans should remain intact. She recommended the $6,000 civil penalty, three years of probation and that Silverman not engage in property management. There is no evidence that any member of the public was harmed in this matter. Mr. Silverman credibly testified to his remorse, the judge wrote in a September order. The department did not establish that Mr. Silverman cannot be regulated or that it is necessary to revoke (his license) at this time to protect the public. But the Arizona Department of Real Estate upheld its order in October, stating, Mr. Silverman admittedly violated numerous statutes and rules that he is required to uphold as part of the real estate profession. Whether Mr. Silverman exhibits remorse for his violations, the public has a right to expect that someone licensed by the state to practice real estate will practice in accordance with all of the applicable statutes and rules. In December, Roadrunner provided a compilation of some major road projects in store for the region in 2016. It was not a comprehensive list, and many readers have called and emailed to ask about projects particular to their neighborhood or commute. Heres some information on those projects and what motorists can expect over the next few months: TANGERINE ROAD A big project in the pipeline for the northwest side is the Tangerine Road widening plan. The work, a Regional Transportation Authority project, includes adding a lane in each direction between La Canada and Dove Mountain Boulevard. The work for this nearly 5-mile stretch also includes new intersections, turning lanes, bike paths, sidewalks and drainage culverts. SUNSET ROAD BRIDGE The RTA project to rebuild the Sunset Road bridge over the Santa Cruz River will begin soon. The bridge and new roadway will re-establish the connection from Sunset Road and Silverbell Road to Interstate 10, which was lost when the bridge washed out during the 1983 floods. The work should be complete by the time the Arizona Department of Transportation begins major work on the Ina Road and I-10 interchange, said the RTAs Jim DeGrood. That project, reported previously here, will completely shut down the Ina/I-10 interchange and cause major havoc as interstate travel is redirected to interior roads like Silverbell. VALENCIA AT KOLB Later this year, we could see work start at the intersection of Kolb and Valencia roads. The plans include completely realigning the hugely congested intersection and adding indirect left turns and other improvements. DOWNTOWN The long-awaited Downtown Links project should begin in late 2016, once ongoing utility work wraps up. The project will link Barraza-Aviation Parkway to the I-10 frontage road at St. Marys Road. GRANT ROAD WIDENING Another long-anticipated project is the Grant Road widening. Work on the Oracle Road to Park Avenue section should go out to bid next month, and work is expected to begin a few months later, DeGrood said. Pima, Country club The city of Tucson has more Road Recovery Bond resurfacing work on tap, too. Resurfacing of Pima Street from Columbus to Country Club is scheduled for this year, as is Country Club from about Los Reales Road to Drexel Road. NOT BEING FIXED A few areas Roadrunner frequently hears about are Thornydale Road on the northwest side and Broadway east of Camino Seco on the far east side. Sorry to report, you wont see anything at either of these locations. Pima County transportation officials recently told Road Runner there were no immediate plans to resurface the rugged stretch of Thornydale north of Linda Vista Boulevard. Nor will the city resurface the jarring stretch of Broadway between Camino Seco and Harrison Road. (The good news for east-side residents, however, is that the RTA reconstruction of the same stretch of Broadway will begin sometime in 2017.) Another stretch or road that generates a lot of complaints is Valencia from about I-10 to Alvernon. This stretch will not see any improvements in 2016, sorry to say. But in 2017, the city plans to use some of the Road Recovery funds for resurfacing there. Again, todays list of projects is not comprehensive. Please keep sending your questions to roadrunner@tucson.com, and we will publish answers as quickly as possible. Down the road As part of the citys Downtown Links Phase III project, Century Link is continuing work to relocate existing facilities located within the project limits. On Monday, Jan. 18, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday, the northbound and southbound travel lanes on Sixth Avenue between Seventh Street and Sixth Street will be closed. The closure will allow Century Link to safely use a crane to install a shoring box. Pedestrian access will be maintained during this work. On Monday, Tucson celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a city street named after the civil-rights leader. Nobel Way, in the UA Tech Park at the Bridges, near East 36th Street and South Kino Parkway, will be renamed to ML King Jr. Way at an 8 a.m. ceremony, kicking off holiday festivities. An annual walk begins from the new location, starting after the ceremony and ending at Reid Park. The event also marks the end of Tucsons time on the short list of U.S. cities without a street named for King. It was something that we saw a need for here in the Tucson area ... We wanted it done for what Dr. King stands for, which is civil rights, peace for all, and there was nothing like that to show his existence here in Tucson, said Doris Snowden, president of the NAACP Tucson chapter. It was chapter members who approached Tech Parks Arizona about renaming a street in the Bridges development after King. King Day was not an official state holiday in Arizona until 1993. Phoenix named a portion of its Broadway Road for King only last year, and 2010 Census Bureau statistics place African-Americans at only 5 percent of the Tucson population. Struggles for social justice and equality have been an important part of Tucsons history, said Bruce Wright, spokesperson for the UA Tech Park and associate vice president of Tech Parks Arizona. This is part of our larger project, which were calling the Heritage Path, which is going to be an interactive celebration of the cultural history of Tucson, and so these two projects go together nicely. The project encompassing Heritage Path is called the Pathway to Discovery. ML King Jr. Way will be the main thoroughfare of the Heritage Path portion and will employ interactive kiosks to highlight and celebrate the cultural diversity and history of our community, Wright said. He hopes to see Heritage Path complete within two years. Annie Sykes, one of the NAACP members who approached Tech Park, says the UAs involvement, and that they own the street, made the name change possible. Even so, Sykes said the process took almost two years. Wright says the initiative went through a community steering committee, the county and, finally, the city, which will eventually own the road. With homesite developments expected on the west side of the new ML King Jr. Way, Wright says, Its going to be a major public thoroughfare connecting 36th to Tucson Marketplace drive. When we moved to Tucson in 59 it was still segregated. Snowden says. The swimming pools, the movie houses, we had to sit upstairs at the Fox Fairmount. Now we have the opportunity to live wherever we want to live and go to school wherever we want to go to school, Snowden said. Weve come a long way. But Snowden still sees room for improvement, citing the lack of African-American businesses in the area as an example. This is just a start because the street will ... be representative of all minority groups in Tucson. Snowden said. I think the Heritage Way project is a really great project. Its relevant to Dr. King in that Dr. King was for all people, not just for African-Americans. This reflects his vision. A federal review of 65 Arizona neglect and abuse cases shows the state has made some gains in recent years, but still falls short in six of seven recommended outcomes for children and their families. Children involved in the Department of Child Safety cases reviewed were receiving the right services for their educational needs, the report shows. But the state was not found to be strong in ensuring other positive outcomes for children: protecting them from abuse and neglect, ensuring safety at home, creating stable living situations, providing adequate services for their physical and mental-health needs and maintaining family connections and relationships. The final area that was not recorded as a strength pertains to childrens families receiving the services they need. Theres nothing thats a surprise to me in this report at all, said Katherine Guffey, the agencys chief quality-improvement officer. The concerns that are expressed here are concerns we had already. Guffey said the evaluation is intended to help the system continue to make improvements. No state has ever passed all the criteria, she said. If you passed, youre perfect, she said, and nobody has been perfect yet. Areas where the state scored well include staff training, training for foster and adoptive parents, diligent recruitment of foster and adoptive homes, assessing needs, and services provided to prevent removals or re-entry into foster care. For a state to be in substantial conformity with most outcomes, 90 percent or more of the cases reviewed must have achieved that outcome. However, 95 percent or more of the cases had to be in compliance for the state to do well in the categories of protecting children from abuse and neglect, and in children having permanency and stability in living situations. Guffey said some things pointed out in the report are areas the agency was already focusing on, including improving on case planning as well as services and engagement with parents, and shrinking waiting lists for services. One of the important things about this report is that it validates and supports the direction we are going, she said. Failure to comply with the recommendation could impact federal funding the DCS receives. Beth Rosenberg, director of child welfare and juvenile-justice policy with the Childrens Action Alliance, said no matter how well or poorly Arizona does on an assessment like this, It cant be overlooked that we have a growing number of children in state custody. Were not filling in the holes that need to be filled in, she said. When we bring kids into foster care, they are not stable. They are being moved from placement to placement. The finding that children in state custody were having their educational needs met was a surprise to Pete Hershberger, a former state legislator who runs FosterEd, a foster youth program based in Pima County. We know that these students are in a distinct subgroup, he said. Theres a dramatic problem with students in foster care, and yet this report says its a strength. His organization and the Arizona Community Foundation were behind a recent study that shows a staggering invisible achievement gap with foster children, who have the states highest dropout rate and among the lowest graduation rates. Forty percent of these children and teens changed schools during the 2012-13 school year and one in seven attended three or more schools that year, the report found. Their academic performance trails that of every other type of student even those facing significant risk factors such as poverty, limited English-language proficiency and a variety of disabilities. Hershberger said he doesnt mean to pile on already overworked caseworkers, but instead says it was inevitable there would be struggles, considering all the cuts to services in recent years. With the cuts that this agency has had, and with the accompanying cuts in our safety net, we are in a downward spiral, he said. This is the third time the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Childrens Bureau has assessed Arizonas child welfare system the others were in 2001 and in 2008, when DCS was called Child Protective Services. The cases reviewed this time were from Maricopa, Pinal and Yuma counties from April 2014 through January 2015, including 40 cases of children in foster care and 25 of children still living at home. The report notes that there have been substantial changes to the process, which make it not directly comparable to Arizonas two previous assessments. Majdi Khaleq dropped off his rental car and walked into the Tucson International Airport to catch a flight home to Denver on Sept. 22. But before he could get on a plane, a federal agent approached Khaleq, escorted him to a room, and seized $41,870 in cash from him. Despite not being arrested, Khaleq didnt see the money again until he filed a lawsuit in Pima County Superior Court and racked up about $20,000 in attorneys fees. After Khaleq challenged the seizure, the Pima County Attorneys Office withdrew its request for forfeiture at a Nov. 16 hearing. Superior Court Judge Gus Aragon then ordered the county attorneys office to do everything it can to expedite the return of this money, according to court documents. Aragon directed Deputy County Attorney Edward Russo to immediately deliver a certified court order to the Tucson Police Department, where the money was held, to release the $41,870 as quickly as possible and hopefully by the close of business today. The funds were released within days, and now Khaleq is asking a judge to order authorities to pay his attorneys fees and alleging violations of his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment protections against unlawful seizure and lack of due process. The county attorneys office still contends Khaleq is involved in illicit activity, but he has not charged him with a crime. Under Arizona law, authorities can seize assets without a conviction or even filing charges. A Pinal County case in which a womans truck was seized after her son was arrested for stealing accessories for the truck is currently being argued in U.S. District Court. The woman was not charged with a crime, but authorities sold her truck, a fact her attorney said shows the unconstitutional nature of the states forfeiture laws. Khaleq claimed in an Oct. 5 court filing that the money came from his legitimate businesses. The native Jordanian and U.S. citizen owns a convenience store, a laundromat and a check-cashing business in Denver, as well as a wholesale electronics distributorship in California. He does not have a record of money laundering or drug trafficking offenses in Arizona or Colorado, according to online court records. Khaleq says he traveled to Tucson to purchase a smoke shop on South 12th Avenue. The deal didnt work out, and Khaleq was on his way home when the Drug Enforcement Administration agent approached him at the airport. The DEAs Tucson office told Agent Michael Garbo, who was working with the Counter Narcotics Alliance at the time, that Khaleq would be carrying a large amount of cash on the flight, according to court documents filed Jan. 11 by the county attorneys office. Khaleq gave contact information for his potential business partners to the agent, but Garbo did not call them to corroborate Khaleqs story. Instead, the agent found Khaleqs account contradicted the DEAs information and was inherently suspicious, Russo said in court documents, citing the fact that most of the money was in $100 bills, was wrapped with rubber bands, and was not in the form of a cashiers check or other banking instrument. In addition, a University of Arizona Police Department dog alerted to the smell of drugs on the money after the money was placed in one of three boxes in a room at the airport, Russo said. The county attorneys office did not respond to a request for comment. Michael Harwin, the Tucson-based lawyer representing Khaleq, said he is unable to comment on a pending matter. In response to Khaleqs request for attorneys fees, Russo said in court documents that attorneys fees cannot be awarded in forfeiture proceedings. Help India! By Syed Zainulabedin, HYDERABAD: Renowned Islamic Scholar Dr. Tahir-ul-Qaudri plunged into a new controversy when he told Muslims to Forget the past and think of future. Dr. Qaudri who is on India tour was talking to newsmen in Vodadora, Gujarat which is ruled by BJPs strong Chief Minister Narendra Modi under whose regime hundreds of Muslims were massacred in communal riots 10 years ago. Dr. Qaudri spent two days in Gujarat and addressed series of meetings. Support TwoCircles Many Muslim Uelma and leaders of various Muslim organisations strongly condemned the remarks of Dr. Tahir -ul- Qaudri and demanded that he should either withdraw his remarks or apologise Muslims as the Gujarat riots are unforgettable and Muslims of this country want to see the culprits of the riots be punished and sent to jail. Qaudri was State Guest of Gujarat Dr. Tahir-ul- Qaudri who also runs an International Islamic Organisation Minhajul Quran with its head quarters in UK was given a status of State Guest by the Gujarat government during his two day tour which commenced just two days before the 10th anniversary of Godhra riots. He was given Z plus security and more than 300 policemen were posted around the venue where he addressed a huge gathering in Vadodara. The minister of state for home Praful Patel was among the dignitaries seated on the dais. Dr. Qaudri thanked the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his gesture and the hospitality. Hyderabad cleric calls to boycott Quadri Maulana Naseeruddin of Hyderabad who was prisoned more than 8 years in Gujarat jail for allegedly plotting the assassination of Narendra Modis ex cabinet colleague and former Home Minister Haren Pandiya termed Dr. Qaudris remarks unwarranted and demanded an apology from him. He appealed to Muslims of Hyderabad to boycott the meetings of Dr. Tahir-ul- Qaudri to be held from Feb29-March 4 in the city. He said that Narendra Modi is the worst enemy of Muslims today and he was not only behind the Gujarat riots of 2002 but also fake encounters of more than a dozen Muslim men and women. How can an Islamic Scholar praise a communal Chief Minister like Modi, he asked. Two sons of Moulana Naseeruddin are still in the Gujarats Sabarmati jail under various charges. Dr. Tahir -ul- Qaudri is not the only one and first person who praised Narendra Modi. Last year in Janaury the then Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband Moulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi praised the state government of Gujarat but that costs his job. The Majlis Shura of Darul Uloom, a leading seminary in India, removed Moulana Vastanvi for his remarks. An aide to Dr. Tahir -ul- Qaudri refuted this and said that Dr. Qaudri was attributed wrongly by media. In fact Dr. Tahirl -ul Qaudri refused to comment on the conditions of Gujarat or Muslims in the state and said he is not even aware about the state geagrophy of Gujarat. Dr. Tahir -ul- Qaudri arrived in Hyderabad on Tuesday and he is scheduled to address about 5 huge meetings in the city. Those includes two in the Quli Qutub Shah staduim in the old city. One at MIMs headquarters Darruslaam, Aghapura and two at the City Convention Center Nampally in the new city. He was received at the airport by Hyderabad Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain, MIM General Secretary and MLA Ahmed Pasha Qaudri and office bearers of Minhajul Quran Hyderabad Chapter. Help India! By Anurag Dey Kolkata : With the West Bengal assembly elections around three months away, a majority of state Congress leaders have been harping on the need for an electoral alliance with the Left Front to take on the ruling Trinamool Congress. Support TwoCircles State Congress general secretary Om Prakash Mishra, who has done a detailed analysis of the vote and seat projections for the 2016 assembly polls, asserts that only a Congress-Left combine can defeat the Trinamool. However, a section of the state Congress leadership, including leaders like Manas Bhunia, point out that party workers had repeatedly come under attack from Communist cadres during the 34 years of Left Front rule from 1977 to 2011. They fear that a majority of the Congressmen could switch allegiance to the Trinamool or sit idle in case of a tie-up with the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and it would be next to impossible to transfer the partys votes to the Marxists. Beyond the boundaries of Bengal, the Congress and the Left are political foes in Kerala and Tripura, and a tie-up in the eastern state could dilute their rivalry in the two other states, argue critics. In such a scenario, the BJP which has been trying to make inroads in Kerala and Tripura would stand to gain. But Mishra is dismissive of such arguments. Electorally, we have competed against each other for over 60 years in Bengal and will continue to do so. But at the same time, we are on the same page in opposing the Trinamools misrule. We cannot allow the Trinamool another reign of terror and, as opposition parties, it is our duty to provide the people a better alternative. So it is necessary for the Congress and the Left Front to come together, Mishra told IANS. Contending that 40 percent of votes which the BJP polled in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections would come to the Left-Congress combine, Mishra has twice written to party president Sonia Gandhi calling for seizing the political opportunity and tying up with the Left. No rational mind will bet on the BJP getting more than five percent votes, the civic polls last year are an indicator of that. In 2014, BJP got nearly 17 percent of the votes at the cost of both the Congress and the Left. So, with the BJP losing all its popularity and becoming insignificant, the opposition votes itself would consolidate when the Congress and the CPI-M combine, argued Mishra, claiming that the alliance could win around 170 of Bengals 294 seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, while the Trinamool secured 39.3 percent of the votes, the Left Front and the Congress had 29.5 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. In the last assembly elections in 2011, the Trinamool, then part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), had won 184 seats, the Left Front 62 seats, and the Congress 42 seats. The BJP did not win a single seat. Mishra, a Jadavpur University professor, worked for over two months preparing the assembly segment-wise vote projections and claims an electoral arrangement with the Marxists will not impact his partys opposition to the Left in Kerala, where elections will be held at the same time. The political dimensions vary from state to state. In Kerala we will compete, in Bengal we will cooperate. The Congress-left contest in Kerala or Tripura will not reflect in our combined effort to dismantle the Mamata government, he said. The possibility of a Left-Congress alliance has gained ground with Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and state CPI-M secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra and Marxist Politburo member Mohammad Salim publicly advocating such a coalition. Chowdhury, who had been earlier insisting on the Congress going it alone, is now pitching for an alliance and has flown to New Delhi to discuss the issue with the partys central leadership. Mishra insists the combine would sweep the Muslim-dominated Malda, Murshidabad and North Dinajpur districts considered Congress strongholds. All six Lok Sabha seats in these three districts went to the Congress (four) and the CPI-M (two). If we combine, we can very well win all the 43 assembly seats in these three districts, said Mishra, claiming Trinamools hobnobbing with the BJP has only furthered the disenchantment of the minorities against it. The disillusionment among minority voters has only been compounded with as many as four central ministers giving certificates of appreciation to the Mamata government, said Mishra, referring to the recently-held Bengal Global Business Summit where union ministers, including Arun Jaitley, showered praise on the Banerjee administration. Both the Congress and the Left are well-regarded by the minorities anywhere in the country and when both these forces unite, the minorities are bound to root for them, he said. Muslims comprise 27.1 percent of Bengals population, according to the 2011 census. The Congress has also been making efforts to reach out to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) to forge a grand alliance a la the Bihar polls where old foes Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad joined hands to inflict a crushing defeat on the BJP. Mishra said the effort will be to forge a formal alliance with a declared common minimum programme, a chief ministerial candidate as well as a deputy chief ministerial nominee. Help India! By TwoCircles.net, Staff Reporter Guwahati: The occasion of Magh Bihu is a cause for celebrations across Assam, but for the people of the state, it is also an opportunity to express their endeavour of living in peace and harmony with all communities. The procession rally in Hajo was a heartwarming case in point. Support TwoCircles Hajo is the home of Powa Mecca, one of Islams most sacred sites in India and Hayagriva Madhava Temple, another holy place for both Hindus and Buddhists. On Saturday, people take part in the procession rally from Powa Mecca to the Hayagriva Madhava Temple. Painuruddin Ahmed, Khadim of Powa Mecca and Siva Prasad Sarma, head priest of Hayagriva Madhava Temple exchanged flags and started the procession. It has been a special occasion for all of us. We the people of Hajo gleefully and proudly take part in the procession to send a message across the globe about the communal harmony and brotherhood. Though the world today has witnessed an increase of intolerance among each other in the name of religion, we still belief in that harmony and humanity. We should shun violence and follow Gods teaching on peace, said Painuruddin Ahmed after the procession. It is said that Powa Mecca was constructed from the soil brought from the city of Mecca. Standing atop the Garurachal Hill, it has the tomb of Pir Giasuddin Auliya, who was the pioneer of Islam in this part of the world. It was built by Sujauddin Mohammed Shah in 1657 AD. Meanwhile, Hayagriva Madhava Temple is situated on the Monikut hill. The present temple structure was constructed by the King Raghudeva Narayan in 1583. CS Lama, head priestess of the Guwahati Buddha Vihar also took part in the rally. The locals say that they feel proud to be a part of this unique event. I always feel proud with Hajo. When the whole country was in tensed after the demolition of Babri Masjid, the people of Hajo got united to set an example for the rest of the country. I have never come across any kind of incident of such communal hatred in this area, Amarendra Deka, a television journalist with Pratidin Times, told TwoCicrles.net. People from different communities visit Powa Mecca and Hayagriva Madhava Temple on the normal days as well. Siva Prasad Sarma, head priest of Hayagriva Madhava Temple said that this place is unique in the country for being a supreme example of communal harmony. Help India! By R Ravi Kumar for Twocircles.net By the time you read this article, most of you would have come to know about the death of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit student who was one among five Dalit scholars expelled by the administration of the University of Hyderabad. Support TwoCircles We shall not see this incident in isolation. Let me explain, in brief, what triggered the series of events in HCU. The Ambedkar Students Association started their agitation against the capital punishment still in existence in IPC. As followers of Dr. B. R. Ambedkars ideology and sensitive human rights defenders they started the protest well within the Constitutional framework about six months back. The right-wing ABVP members, who were against the agitation to scrap capital punishment, were very angry with the ASA and started mudslinging on ASA. Having gathered their strength on the campus with the appointment of Dr. P. Apparao as VC and their BJP /RSS members outside the campus, ABVP resorted for direct attack on the leadership of ASA. ASA members also protested the proposal of Apparao to make students wear vetti or lungi for all students in the recently-held convocation. Finally, the VC had to go back on his proposal leaving the choice of wearing a vetti or lungi on the students. These two incidents angered the ABVP leaders, who subsequently wrote inflicting and character-assassinating comments on Face book about the ASA leaders. Seeing this, the ASA members dragged the ABVP leaders to the security officer and got them deleted. Further the ABVP person apologised for the same. ASA thought it was all over. But the ABVP members lodged a complaint both with the local police and University authorities that one of their members was physically attacked by ASA. The University constituted a proctoral Committee to look into the matter, and the committee came out with a report denying all the charges. But this did not detere the ABVP, who made BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya and the BJP MLC Ramachandra Rao to write letters to the Minister for Human Resources and the VC. The VC then extended the proctoral Committee and got a report just against what the earlier Committee said and suspended five very promising scholars of ASA. Also, the ABVP filed a private complaint against the University seeking action taken report on ASA members. The University, with the help of police and security forces on the campus, disturbed the ASA agitation. At this juncture Rohit gave up his life. Why are we saying that this as a mere HCU campus issue? The recent attacks on Dalit students of EFLU, Hyderabad, attacks on Dalit students of Madras Law College students demanding the naming of their auditorium after Dr B R Ambedkar, all have similarities. In all these agitations, our youth were agitating well within the Constitutional framework. All their demands were concerned to the entire Indian community. They are, at the very basic, human rights issues and show a concern for justice and identity in a democratic country in order to uphold the dignity of the community. But in all these issues, the modus operandi of the aggressive authorities is similar: as if they had word of exchange. They have implicated our youth in police cases, so that their careers are doomed. They have been rusticated so that our youth will be disqualified to get any academic jobs. One very important and common to all our youth is they are the best students of their institutions. In HCU especially, it is not the first time. Fifteen years ago, the same Apparao was the Chief Warden when 11 scholars were rusticated for three years. Out of them only some students could revive their studies. Though they have done their Ph. Ds, they continue to face the restrictions wherever they go to apply for a job. Dont consider this as a mere campus issue of HCU. This is a well-planned clandestine coup against upcoming future Dalit intelligentsia. Lets join to attack the caste Hindu Monster, before we lose any more of our future generations leaders and intellectuals. The author is Secretary, National Dalit Forum. This piece is taken, with approval, from https://karthiknavayan.wordpress.com/ FACTS which contradict what is taught in the universities and which even run counter to the assumptions made by critics of misandry. Anglican Primates Draft Communique and Statements Update on St. James Newport Beach Fixed Date for Easter? The conclusion of the recent meeting of Anglican Primates fully pleased no one, and has led to numerous responses and commentaries on two of the documents drafted by those at the meeting. The third, a statement on evangelism , has been lost in the focus on the statement aimed at the Episcopal Church (which also sends a message to other provinces of the communion who might be thinking of allowing same sex marriage or blessings of unions) and the final " Communique " which appeared the day after the statement on the TEC was leaked. Justin Welby opened the meeting with a message that tried to make room for disagreement with the Anglican Communion while stressing the importance of remaining in that communion. After the meeting Welby tried to draw a distinction between "sanctions" which he said were beyond the power of the primates and "consequences." Despite much talk about a walkout by primates from the "Global South," only one, the Archbishop of Uganda, left. He did so when a vote requesting the primates of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada "voluntarily" to withdraw from the meeting until their churches repented of their positions on GLBTQ inclusion failed decisively. (The Ugandan version of this event is here and other news stories on his departure are here and here .) Although the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America participated in the meeting as a guest , ACNA was not admitted to the Anglican Communion. The primates have referred that decision to the Anglican Communion Council.The ACNA archbishop, Foley Beach, was disappointed in the final statement of this meeting as well as by the lack of action on his denomination's request for membership, but he characterized the outcome as a "step forward." TEC Presiding Bishop Michael Curry issued a statement reiterating the church's inclusive nature and focusing TEC on moving forward. A number of diocesan bishops have also made statements on this meeting including the Bishops of Pittsburgh New York , and Washington . Support for TEC has also come from bishops in other parts of the Anglican Communion, including Westminster, Canada . Other Anglican primates have issued statements showing a range of reactions. Those include New Zealand Ireland , and Rwanda . For thoughtful commentary, consider Mark Harris (and his previous post ) and Lionel Deimel The St. James Newport Beach congregation, locked out of their former building by Los Angles Bishop Jon Bruno, has announced that their priest, the Rev. Cindy Voorhees, has been named one of Newport Beach's 4 most influential people for the past year . The congregation has also filed further charges with TEC in the ongoing complaint against Bishop Bruno. These document a series of real estate dealings planned and under-way by the bishop which are inconsistent with his public statements. Much of the information came from a discovery process that is part of a legal suit filed as a result of the efforts to sell the building.The BBC and Christianity Today have reported that Archbishop Welby is in conversations with Pope Francis, the leader of the Coptic Church and Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew to see if it is possible to create a fixed date for Easter. The recent meeting of Anglican primates lent their support to this effort. Welby would like to see an agreement reached before his term as Archbishop of Canterbury is over. There have been previous attempts to do this, but none have been accepted by all the major Christian traditions. One major divide is between the orthodox churches still using the Julian calendar and the western churches using the Gregorian calendar. Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next. Mainland highlights 1992 Consensus as Tsai elected Taiwan leader Updated: 2016-01-17 03:45 (Xinhua) TAIPEI/BEIJING -- The Chinese mainland's Taiwan affairs authority has reiterated the importance of adhering to the 1992 Consensus after Tsai Ing-wen, candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was elected Taiwan leader on Saturday. In a three-way race to become Taiwan's next leader, Tsai defeated rivals Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Eric Chu and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong. A person in charge of the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said in a statement released late on Saturday that the mainland's major principles and policies concerning Taiwan are "consistent and clear, and will not change with the results of Taiwan elections." In the past eight years, on the political basis of adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence," both sides have jointly explored a path for the peaceful development of the cross-Straits relations, set up an institutional framework for exchanges and cooperation, and maintained peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, the statement said. "Such hard-won good momentum should be cherished," it said. "We will continue to adhere to the 1992 Consensus and resolutely oppose any form of secessionist activities seeking 'Taiwan independence'," it read. "On major matters of principle including safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, our will is rock-firm and our attitude is consistent," it added. The mainland is willing to enhance communication and exchanges with all political parties and groups which recognize the principle that the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one China, the statement said. "Together with people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, we are willing to maintain the common political foundation, the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and peace and stability across the Straits, and jointly create a bright future for the revival of the Chinese nation," it read. Taiwan residents began voting in the island's leadership and legislature elections at 8 a.m. on Saturday and the polls closed at 4 p.m. US Secretary of State John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has met all conditions under the nuclear deal in Vienna on Jan 16. KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS A lot happened over the weekend regarding Iran. On Jan 16, the US and European nations lifted the economic sanctions imposed on Irans nuclear program in return for Teherans compliance with the nuclear deal it inked six months ago with the so-called P5+1, namely the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany. At the same time, in an issue not directly related, Iran released five US prisoners while the US dropped its cases against seven Iranians, six of whom are dual Iran-US citizens, charged or imprisoned for violating nuclear sanctions. The US also dropped its pursuit against 14 Iranians outside the US. This is a good day, because, once again, were seeing whats possible with strong American diplomacy, US President Barack Obama said on Sunday. He also admitted a prolonged misstep in US foreign policy by saying that for decades, our differences with Iran meant that our governments almost never spoke to each other. Ultimately, that did not advance Americas interests. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi applauded what is known as Implementation Day of the Iranian nuclear deal as worth celebrating for the Iranian people and having a demonstrative effect while the international nuclear non-proliferation regime is facing a test, Wang told Xinhua News Agency in a written interview on Sunday. Wang called the Implementation Day a solid step on the way to the final political and diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue. According to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached last July, all of the nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran will be removed if the country is proved to have abided by the deal over the next 10 years step by step. Wang said that in the coming years, all sides should continue to fulfill their commitment based on the principles of equality, fairness and balance, according to the Xinhua report. While all the P5+1 nations and Iran should take credit for the progress, Obama is also right for the steps taken by his administration, despite vehement criticism on the issue from most Republican presidential candidates in their debate in South Carolina on Jan 14. Blaming the Iranians for detaining the American sailors for straying accidentally into Iranian waters, the Republicans seem to forget that the most often-seen notice in the US, probably on their own properties, is that trespassers will be prosecuted. Obama, however, did not talk on Sunday about the prospects of restoring diplomatic relations between the US and Iran, after they were severed in 1980 following the hostage crisis in Teheran. It was a mistake similar to the one that Obama finally corrected last year by restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba after a half century. Obama did not say whether the US will also reach out to the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea despite its recent nuclear test that was clearly a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolution. In his mostly celebratory statement, Obama said that the US is imposing sanctions on Irans recent ballistic missile test. There is no doubt that the US believes economic sanctions, which are often imposed by big and strong nations to smaller and weaker nations, are silver bullets despite historical evidence proving that most economic sanctions have been ineffective. On the contrary, economic sanctions imposed on poor and smaller nations often resulted in a punishment and suffering not for the leaders of the target country, but their people, including women and children. These sanctions are often inhumane and could be a crime as is the all-round one imposed on Cuba. China has long been promoting a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue through dialogue and played an important role in the JCPOA agreement. The US has been deeply engaged in the Middle East for decades in pursuing its geopolitical goals, topping regimes and arming rebels, but such a policy has failed miserably as proved by the low standing of the US in the region, according to this years Pew Center survey. Chinas approach has been quite different. On Jan 13, China issued its first Arab policy paper, focusing on win-win cooperation with the region rather than interfering in its domestic affairs. Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a five-day visit from Jan 19-23 to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. For ordinary Chinese, people in that region have long been our friends, and actually they kind of feel the same as I dined in an Egyptian restaurant in New York City a few years ago. The Egyptian manager invited me onstage to join the belly dancer, saying Chinese are our brothers. Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com Visitors take a photo on Jan 16 with a panda mascot in the queue outside the Panda House at the Smithsonian National Zoo,waiting to see Bei Bei (below), the giant panda cub who was making his public debut. PAN JIALIANG AND HE FEI/ FOR CHINA DAILY Bei Bei has rekindled panda diplomacy, according to the giant panda cubs caregiver. "I think this is panda diplomacy," said Marty Earie, a zoologist at the National Zoo in Washington who has been taking care of Bei Bei since he was born last summer. "It is so amazing that both of the governments can keep the pandas alive and show them to the public. "While there are some other things that our governments cannot agree on, we can come together for this," Earie said. Bei Bei made his public debut on Jan 16 at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington. "All she wants to do is see the panda since she watched Kong Fu Panda (an animated movie that is now a trilogy)," said John Smith, a professor at Georgetown University, referring to his 6-year-old daughter. A long queue formed early in the morning, many of whom were children accompanied by their parents. Staffers handed out red panda bumper stickers at the entrance. Closer to the queue, there is a panda store where people wear panda costumes and buy panda souvenirs. "Thanks to Bei Bei, we have got a lot more visitors today," a cashier at the store said. Born on Aug 22 last year, Bei Bei was the third cub for mother Mei Xiang and father Tian Tian. Bei Bei now weighs 25 pounds and he has started to nibble on bamboo. But he is still nursed by his mother, Earie said. Bei Bei not only has a larger body than his sister, Bao Bao, but also a much more outgoing personality. He likes to get closer to people and is calm in front of cameras, while his sister is more of an independent bear eating bamboo quietly in a corner, Earie said. Laurie Thompson, a biologist at the National Park, said people will get to see more of Bei Bei because his mother is less possessive than she was with her first two cubs. Bei Bei has been a household name in the US since he was a 5-ounce tiny pink creature. During President Xi Jinpings state visit to the US last September, Peng Liyuan and Michelle Obama, the first ladies of China and the US, jointly named the cub Bei Bei, meaning precious treasure. Pandas have such a large following that the panda house is always the first draw for zoo visitors, according to Thomson, who has been taking care of pandas for more than 20 years. Justin Kotze, who works for a consulting company, is a diehard panda fan. "I have been to Wolong in Sichuan province just to see the panda," he said. "And my heart was beating so fast when I held up a panda cub in my arms." Pan Jialiang in Washington contributed to this story. If you've ever seen a speaker-enabled LED lightbulb or heard music coming from an LED fixture, you might have come across products from Sengled, a Chinese brand that wants to be known to US audiences for its smart-home devices. The Shanghai-based Chinese lighting company, whose US operations are in Alpharetta, Georgia, has been manufacturing LED (light-emitting diode) lighting for private labels since 1997. Sengled made its foray into smart-home technology a couple of years ago and has gotten recognition for its products: The Sengled Voice and the Sengled Pulse Flex were both given the CES Best of Innovation award in the smart-home category this year at the Las Vegas consumer electronics show. The Voice is microphone- and speaker-enabled, and the Pulse Flex provides Wi-Fi audio-streaming. Sengled's smart accessories were featured on the Apple.com store website in 2014 and are now widely available in North America, Europe, China and Australia. In the US, Sengled's products are available at Costco, Best Buy, Home Depot and Lowe's. Its annual sales are in the $200 million range, according to Alex Ruan, the company's North American general manager. Smart-home products are starting to gain a following both with tech aficionados and casual users, said Ruan, adding that the company wants to be a leader in the smart-lighting space. "I think the US market, or global market, values innovation," he said. "Our goal and our strategy is to be the innovators in this arena. If you innovate, consumers will recognize innovation and recognize value. That in a nutshell is our strategy." Sengled makes millions of halogen and LED light bulbs for global brands, but the products don't carry the company's name. In 2011, the company began building a brand and developing products that would draw on its expertise in the lighting industry and be compelling enough for the mobile-connected user, Ruan said. "Ten years ago, before the advent of smartphones, we could only talk and text on a Motorola or Nokia typical phones that we used back then. Then Apple came up with the smartphone, and the rest is history," he said. "They put in cameras, they put in GPS," he continued. "Back 10 years ago, it was common for us to carry a Garmin GPS, a Sony or Canon point-and-shoot camera. With the advent of the smartphone and tablet, all those things go away. It's a single device that can accomplish all of that. Ruan said the company wondered that "if lighting is everywhere in our environments, what if we added additional functionality to lighting that can give convenience and declutter the home environment? That's where this whole vision and whole idea came from." Sengled also wants to be known for compelling products, he said. The company's Chinese headquarters and manufacturing base are in Zhejiang province, and in 2011, it started a US division to support North American customers better. In 2014, it began selling and marketing in the US. "You're familiar with the multitude of Chinese companies that sell globally," he said. "But one thing that's lacking is brand name. If you ask Americans, if you ask Europeans for a Chinese brand name, people would say something like Lenovo. "Those who go to Chinese restaurants know what Tsingtao beer is," he said. "Then you have companies like Huawei, Haier and maybe DJI. But after a handful of companies, very quickly people run out of Chinese brands. "So one thing that's unique about Sengled is we are very cognizant of building a brand, but building a brand requires you build a compelling product that leads the market, not just a fad-follower," Ruan said. Sengled's LED lightbulbs cost between $40 and $150. It currently has several smart lightbulbs on the market, and the new ones that debuted at CES the Pulse Flex and Voice will be available later this year, Ruan said. The privately held company is also exploring the possibility of an IPO, though Ruan declined to disclose a timetable. Haier's GE appliances purchase will allow US expansion Updated: 2016-01-18 11:56 By Paul Welitzkin in New York(China Daily USA) The ``GE of China'' Haier Group is buying a unit of GE in the United States to bolster its appliance business in that market. Haier, which makes refrigerators and other home appliances, agreed to pay General Electric Co $5.4 billion in cash for its appliance unit. The state-owned Haier tried to buy the unit in 2008, but the deal was canceled because of the global recession. The deal announced on Jan 15 comes one month after GE had attempted to sell the business to Swedens Electrolux AB for $3.3 billion, but that was scuttled when US antitrust authorities sued to block it. GE is selling to focus on technology-driven businesses such as medical equipment and jet engines. Haier has been referring to itself as the GE of China, Steven Winoker, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York, told China Daily in an interview. This will enable them to drive their global brand ambitions and also get a larger share of the US market. Under the agreement, Haier can use the GE brand name for 40 years, including in China. GE Appliances will remain headquartered in Louisville and the business will continue to be operated independently under the direction of a local board with the participation of GE's current senior management team, who will manage the business. Haier is committed to investing in the continued growth of the US business, the Chinese company said in a statement. Haier has a refrigerator factory in Camden, South Carolina, a research facility in Evansville, Indiana, and a plant in Mexico, all of which the company plans to keep open, according to a company spokesman. Haier is based in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao. The companys market share for major home appliances in China is 29.8 percent, but in the US it is 5.6 percent, according to market research firm Euromonitor. It reported 2014 revenue of $32.6 billion. GE Appliances reported revenue of $5.9 billion last year. GE said the deal values its appliance business at 10 times the last 12 months earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). "This is the chance of a life-time for Haier to become big outside China and specifically US, hence they are willing to pay this very high price tag," Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Johan Eliason told Reuters. The so-called white-goods market of home appliances in the US is dominated by Whirlpool Corp, Electrolux and GE. The proposed agreement would be the largest acquisition of an American business by a Chinese firm, surpassing the 2013 purchase of Smithfield Foods Inc by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd, according to Dealogic. I think it is highly unlikely there will be antitrust issues given Haiers relatively small share of the US appliance market, said Winoker. This is a very different situation from Electrolux. Haier and GE also agreed to form a strategic partnership to cooperate in areas such as the Internet, health care, and advanced manufacturing. "This strategic alliance provides a new starting point for Haier and GE and I am confident that this partnership will deliver enhanced value to the stakeholders of both companies, Zhang Ruimin, chairman and CEO of Haier said in a statement. Haier has a stated focus to grow in the US, build their manufacturing presence here, and to invest further in the business. GE Appliances provides Haier with great products, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and a talented team, said GE CEO Jeff Immelt. The acquisition includes GE Appliances' 48.4 percent stake in Mabe, a Mexican appliance company that has operated a joint venture and has had a sourcing relationship with GE Appliances for 28 years. China's Global Newspaper Sorry, the page you requested was not found. Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Chinadaily.com.cn, try visiting the Chinadaily home page Zillow reaches out to WeChat, NetEase on real estate Updated: 2016-01-18 10:50 By LIA ZHU in San Francisco(chinadaily.com.cn) Errol Samuelson, Zillow's chief industry development officer, said Chinese buyers still can find many affordably priced homes despite a recent jump in US housing prices. The Seattle-based online property listing company has formed a partnership with Chinese real estate Internet portal Leju for a co-branded website translated into Chinese. [PROVIDED PHOTO] The increasing influence of Chinese homebuyers has prompted Zillow Group, an online real estate-database company, to partner with Chinese social media app WeChat and web portal NetEase to connect China-based buyers with US real estate agents. "China-based buyers continue to be a huge influence in the US real estate market they are growing in numbers and spending more every year," said Greg Schwartz, chief business officer of Zillow Group. "We know China-based buyers are already coming to Zillow for their US home search. Through WeChat, we get to connect with them in a new way." In addition to connecting with a customer service team that speaks Chinese, Zillow is working on developing content in Chinese specifically for the WeChat channel so that China-based buyers can be well-educated about trends in the US market. "That knowledge, coupled with a direct connection to a Mandarin-speaking real estate agent, will be extremely helpful as buyers are starting their home search," Schwartz said. Through the WeChat channel zillow_china, home shoppers have access to market information and content translated into Chinese, such as homebuying tips and how to deal with agents and trends in the US real estate market. They also can find contact information for Zillow and US-based agents at the end of each article. So far, the market information is only available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, the most popular cities among Chinese homebuyers. On NetEase, visitors can search for US homes on Zillow and also connect directly with US-based agents. Prior to NeEase, Zillow had partnered with Beijing Yisheng Leju Information Services Co, a Chinese company for home searchers. According to the National Association of Realtors, in the 12 months ending March 2015, Chinese buyers purchased US properties worth an estimated $28.6 billion, an increase from $22 billion the previous year. "Given the interest in specific American cities, the impact of these sales can be felt. Theres a huge opportunity for US real estate agents to connect with those homebuyers, so we worked to develop a way for them to do so," said Schwartz, adding that Zillow hasnt seen a slowdown in traffic coming from China despite its economic slowdown and stock turmoil. Zillow has created a customer service team with Chinese-language skills and a network of Chinese-speaking agents in markets Chinese buyers are most interested in, including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. Contact the writer at liazhu@chinadailyusa.com Chinese student killed in road-rage incident Updated: 2016-01-18 12:48 By HENG WEILI in New York and AGENCIES(chinadaily.com.cn) Suspect of the Arizona road rage shooting Holly Davis [Photo/weibo.com] A Chinese exchange student at Arizona State University was killed in an apparent road rage incident in Tempe, Arizona. The student, Yue Jiang, 19, died after being shot and her car subsequently crashed, police said. Holly Davis, 32, of Mesa, Arizona, has been charged with first-degree murder, Tempe Police Lieutenant Michael Poole said. Davis' vehicle was involved in a collision at an intersection on Jan 16. Davis allegedly got out of her car at a red light and fired several shots into the other vehicle, hitting Jiang several times, police said. ABC15 reported that Davis walked to the driver side of Jiang's vehicle and shot through the window. Jiang's male passenger and friend walked out of the Mercedes to assess the damage when he saw Davis with the gun, ABC15 reported. The suspect was identified after witnesses took down her license plate. Pooley says Jiang lost control of her vehicle, crashing into another car carrying a family of five. The family did not suffer serious injuries. Davis fled the scene but was later located. She was arrested on suspicion of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, disorderly contact with a deadly weapon and prohibited possession. Screenshots show local police investigating the shooting. [Photo/Weibo.com] "Regarding yesterday's incident where ASU student Yue Jiang was killed, we just want to say that fellow students are being encouraged to talk with counselors, and that our thoughts and prayers are with the student's family," Jerry Gonzalez, an Arizona State spokesman, said in a statement. Five other people, three children, a pregnant woman and the male passenger in Jiangs car also were treated for injuries from the collision resulting from the shooting, according to azcentral.com. The incident started when two vehicles, one driven by Davis, the other by Jiang, collided near Broadway Road and McClintock Drive at about 3:40 pm, police said. After being hit, Jiang lost control of her car, which then struck a third vehicle carrying a family of five, including the pregnant woman and three children, Tempe police spokeswoman Officer Naomi Galbraith said. Police said Davis also pointed her gun at Jiang's passenger. Davis fled south on McClintock in a silver Volkswagen Passat, police said. According to police reports, she hid her car and her gun before returning to her apartment, where she took a shower and washed her clothes, azcentral.com reported. Davis had a previous conviction for resisting a lawful stop and fleeing in Missouri, according to arrest reports, and served three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. IS to withdraw from southern Damascus within 72 hours Updated: 2016-01-18 17:26 (Xinhua) DAMASCUS - The Islamic State (IS) militant group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front are expected to withdraw from areas under their control in south of the capital Damascus within 72 hours, local al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday. The IS and Nusra will pull out of the areas of the Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, and the adjacent districts of Hajar al-Aswad, said the newspaper. It added that local militants from the aforementioned areas will fill the void after the withdrawal of the hardline groups. Al Watan didn't give details about the destination of the IS and Nusra, but previous reports said those groups will head to the northwestern province of Idlib, a stronghold of the Nusra Front, and the al-Raqqa province, the de facto capital of the IS in northern Syria. Several truces and evacuation of rebels have taken place recently in Syria, particularly around Damascus, in the latest effort by the government to clear the vicinity of the capital from insurgent groups. The government concludes such truces by laying tight siege on rebel-held areas to force the rebels to abandon their positions under negotiated deals, largely mediated by the UN. Attacks are still taking place near Damascus. Al-Watan said Monday that the Syrian army foiled an attack by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front and likeminded groups in the town of Kharabo in eastern countryside of Damascus. The paper added several soldiers died in the attack. So far in my life, I have lived in three countries and in three continents (or four continents, depending on where you believe Russia is located). First, I lived in Russia which is located on the bother of Asia and Europe. Some people call it Europe, some call it Asia, and some others just call it Eurasia. I personally could not care less. Then I lived in Nigeria, located in the continent of Africa. Contrary to ignorant belief, Africa is actually not a country. And now, Im in America, located in the continent of North America. I have spent majority of my life in America. In fact, my time in America is more than my time in Nigeria and Russia combined. Although I was born in Russia, you will never hear me refer to myself as a Russian. I dont call myself an American either. If it pleases the American people to call me African-American, then they may do so. But I am not under the illusion that I am actually any type of American. American citizenship only makes me American on paper, and even if the American people want me to think otherwise, I know better. There are many things that remind me everyday that if shit hits the fan, my citizenship can be stripped and my ass will be on the first thing flying back to Nigeria. But I do love America. Thats why I never understand it when I hear Nigerians say things like, Me, I can never live in Nigeria oh! It is annoying as it is ignorant. And funny, too, when you consider who is saying it. When someone who has spent most of their lives outside Nigeria say it, it makes sense because they do not know that life. And I am not referring to someone like me who once lived in Nigeria. Im talking about someone who never lived in Nigeria, or who maybe spent the first couple years of their lives in Nigeria. Their willingness to live in Nigeria, a country they technically do not know is as likely as my willingness to live in Iran. No offense to the Iranian people. However, its not these people who have barely lived in Nigeria who say these things. No, its the ones who have actually lived in Nigeria. And not the ones who have spent my amount of time. No, its the ones who were born and raised in a remote village, who went to a school where English was the second language, who never lived in a big Nigerian city like Lagos or Port Harcourt or Abuja, and whose current presence in America is the result of winning the visa lottery or being filed for by a spouse or fiance. The ones who were too broke to have a good generator, the ones who paid their school fees late, the ones who did not have a family car, the ones whose roofs leaked with every rainfall, the ones whose stay in America has had no impact on their mentality or thinking ways, the ones who still think that a womans place is in the kitchen (or on a bed with her legs wide open) and that it is a mans birthright to sleep with everything his eyes sees, and whose accomplishments in America are micro and limited at best, and whose idea of living is working round the clock to look rich and stay broke. It is them who say these things. Meanwhile, there are people who never left Nigeria who are moving mountains, making history, changing lives, and giving the others a run for their money. I am not saying that every Nigerian needs to pack their kaya and return home. No, not at all. People have different reasons for preferring to live wherever it is that they live. Its okay if a Nigerian prefers to live outside of Nigeria, and God knows, there are many, many reasons to want to live outside of Nigeria. But to utter that they can now never live in Nigeria because of potholes and unstable electricity is humorous at best. How did they live there before? What if they had never gotten out? What makes them think they are better than the Nigerians who live there? And instead of preferring to enjoy the amenities that someone else produced in a foreign country, why not try to produce the same or better in Nigeria so that someone else can prefer to live in Nigeria? Being a Nigerian in a foreign country has afforded me a lot of insight and different points of view. America will never stop being in my heart because she gave me so many opportunities, because I became an adult here, and because I widened my mental horizon here. I sometimes try to imagine what my life would have been like if I had taken a different route, like if I had never come to America and stayed in Nigeria instead. Or like if I had gone to college at Clark Atlanta as I so badly wanted to. Like if I had not failed out of Nursing school. Would I be here today? Would I be a writer? Would I have started a business? Would I have met or married Igwe? Would God have found a way to still make all these happen in spite of the different route I had taken? There is no way to know. I digress. The point is that we, Nigerians need to learn how to be patriotic to our country, and it goes beyond waiving a flag on Independence Day or joining the trending hash tags on Nigerian Twitter. No, Nigeria is not close to perfect, and yes, we have a very long way to go and a laundry list of things to fix. But dont be the person who points out all the problems and never offers a solution. Dont go around saying reckless things like how youre unable to live in the country that belongs to you. When you do that, you become a part of the problem. There is a Nigerian proverb that says that if the owner of the calabash calls it a trash can, then the neighbors will join in calling the calabash a trash can. Stop calling Nigeria a trash can. The truth is that as a Black person in America, America primarily sees you as Black. We, Nigerians and Africans know that we are not just Black (not that theres anything wrong with being Black), but America does not care. You may have to work twice as hard to accomplish half as much as your White counterpart. I am not at all implying that being Black in America means that you can never accomplish your dreams, of course not, and if anyone tells you that, please disregard it. Believing that being Black is a burden instead of a blessing will send you into a downward spiral of failure, lack of accountability, and contentment with mediocrity. You do not want that. Unless you actually do, in which case, I cannot help you. As for me, I am a proud Nigerian, and I look forward to the day I can live on Nigerian soil again. Also, Ada Verastic may have been born in America, and she may have more rights than me (like she can actually run for President) but she will be taught to know that she is first Nigerian and should not be caught saying, Im American, but my parents are Nigerian. Statements like that will be rewarded with Nigerian slaps on both cheeks, followed by twenty-four lashes of two-mouth koboko. With that said, what kind of Nigerian are you? Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. In the Spirit of open-text, collaboration, communication and Good Anthropology... This blog is for educational purposes only; as such it is a capitalist-free zone. The views, images and opinions expressed here are those of the author only, unless otherwise noted. The author does not necessarily share or endorse any of the views or contents of linked sites. All responsibility for "Visual Anthropology of Japan" lies with the author and not any institution he may be affiliated with. Peace. The UN-AU peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur said today it is "deeply concerned" about an surge in fighting between government forces and rebels in the conflict-hit western region. The UNAMID mission said it was "deeply concerned about ongoing fighting between government forces and armed movements in the Jebel Marra area, central Darfur," near one of its bases in the town of Nertiti. "UNAMID personnel in Nertiti also reported five bombs being dropped on an area northeast of their location. The impact of the bombs was felt at the team site," it said in a statement. Businesses in the town of Nertiti have shut down for fear of attacks, the mission said. It gave no further details of the fighting and the Sudanese military did not immediately comment. There have been relatively few clashes between Darfuri rebels and troops in recent months, but the mountainous Jebel Marra area in central Darfur is where much of the fighting took place last year. Jebel Marra is seen as a stronghold for groups that rebelled against President Omar al-Bashir in the western region in 2003, complaining their region was being marginalised by his regime. In response to the rebellion, Bashir launched a campaign to crush the insurgents using ground troops, warplanes and allied militia. The Criminal Court indicted Bashir over alleged war crimes in the region, and the UN says more than 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict. There are also around 2.5 million people displaced by the fighting in Darfur, according to the UN. UNAMID peacekeepers were deployed to the region in 2007 to protect civilians and secure aid deliveries. Punjab government today urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to immediately dispatch a team to the US to assist the victims of Panama boat tragedy in which 25 youths from the state are feared drowned. "Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today had a telephonic conversation with the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who assured that the government would reach out to the victims immediately," an official spokesperson said here. Badal said the Punjab Government is also sending a team of senior officials to US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy. Meanwhile, referring to the report that as many as 25 youths from Punjab were feared dead as the boat in which they were travelling capsized near Panama, Badal said it is "alarming". The youths were reportedly headed to the US illegally in a boat when it capsized. The incident happened on January 10 and the parents of the youths got to know about it on January 12-13, he said. He said the incident took place at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama. Meanwhile, the Deputy CM has directed the Director General of Police and SSP Kapurthala to take action against travel agents involved in human trafficking. Kapurthala Police has registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Immigration Act against the travel agents. Interrogation would be conducted to ascertain how many youths were on the boat. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed grief over the boat tragedy. He said the state government was at the beck and call of the distressed families in the hour of crisis. "I am deeply anguished to learn about the ill-fated boat tragedy, which claimed the lives of our sons of soil and pray to Almighty for giving courage and solace to the bereaved families to bear this inconsolable loss," he said. He also asked the State Chief Secretary to provide the latest information with regard to this tragic incident to their family members. As per the directions of Badal, the Chief Secretary had set up a 24X7 Control Room here at Punjab Civil Secretariat to keep the families of victims updated about the latest information available with them. Any kin of the victims of the unfortunate boat tragedy could seek information from the officials on duty in the control room, he said. The CM assured that he was in constant touch with the Ministry of External Affairs and has directed the Chief Secretary to keep a close tab over the situation through maintaining liaison with the ministry, so as to keep him updated on this count from time to time. (REOPENS DES36) Meanwhile, the police have arrested two travel agents from Jalandhar in connection with the Panama boat tragedy in which 25 youths from the state are feared drowned. Officials identified the two agents as Harbhajan Singh alias Suchcha and Kulvindar Singh alias Multani. Both of them hail from Bhogpur area in Jalandhar district, they said. Police said that they are interrogating the two agents and are trying to find out the details about the incident. Just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion peoplethe bottom half of humanityin 2015, according to a new report, An For The 1%, by Oxfam, a global advocacy. This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010. The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen 44% in the five years since 2010, an increase of $542 billion (Rs 24,66,100 crore) to $1.76 trillion (Rs 1,07,36,000 crore), which is 86% ($2.05 trillion) of Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2014. The wealth of the bottom half fell by just over a trillion dollars in the same period, a drop of 41%. This scenario is a reminder of aphorism, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, a commonly used socialist criticism of capitalism. The findings provide some context to the forthcoming January 20 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland with the theme: Mastering The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Had inequality within countries not grown during 1990 and 2010, an extra 200 million people would have escaped poverty. That could have risen to 700 million had poor people benefited more than the rich from economic growth, the Oxfam report said. Global Income Accruing To Each Decile, 19882011 Source: Oxfam; Figures in $ billion Wealth Of The Richest And Poorest Source: Oxfam; Figures in $ billion There is no getting away from the fact that the big winners in our global are those at the top, the Oxfam report said. The poorest half of the worlds population received 1% of the total increase in global wealth, while half of that increase went to the top 1%, since the onset of the 21st century. In China, the rich 1% own a third of its wealth, while the poorest 25% own 1%, according to a recent study conducted by Peking Universitys Institute of Social Sciences. Our economic system is heavily skewed in their favour (the rich), and arguably increasingly so, said the Oxfam report. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate. Once there, an ever more elaborate system of tax havens and an industry of wealth managers ensure that it stays there, far from the reach of ordinary citizens and their government. How wealth is spirited away to tax havens Nine of ten companies, of 200 analysed, are based in at least one tax heaven. Corporate investment in tax heavens in 2014 was nearly four times larger than that in 2001, according to Oxfams analysis. One recent estimate is that $7.6 trillion of individual wealthmore than the combined gross GDP of the UK and Germanyis currently held offshore, the Oxfam report said. Similarly, around 30% wealth of Africas rich (around $500 billion) is held offshore, leading to a tax-revenue loss of nearly $14 billion to African countries. The gender pay gap is also quite evident53 of 62 worlds richest people are men. Women make up the majority of the worlds low-paid workers, concentrated in the most precarious jobs, the report said. In India, the pay of CEOs skyrockets The chief executive officer (CEO) of Indias top information technology firm makes 416 times the salary of a typical employee in the company, the Oxfam report said. Indian law makers passed a disclosure mandate in 2013, requiring CEO pay ratios to be made public, according to this report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a consultancy. Indias stock market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), is now releasing the first set of such data, the Oxfam report said. The top executive at ITC, the countrys largest cigarette manufacturer, for example, is paid 439 times the median salary for employees at his company, said the Oxfam analysis, quoting this report from Quartz, a portal. India has only 42,800 people with declared income exceeding Rs 1 crore; that is 0.1% of 35 million Indian tax payers, as former finance minister P Chidambaram mentioned in his 2013-14 budget speech. India has 172 million people below the poverty line, IndiaSpend reported earlier; we also reported how wealth is increasing in India but so is inequality. What the pharma industryone of the worlds most profitable industrieshas wrought The pharmaceutical sector, one of the most profitable industries on the earth, strongly protects intellectual property rights (IPR), which has paved the way for 90 billionaires. The report explains how pharmaceutical companies in the US pressure their own government and through it, the Indian government and Indian pharma companies to honour IPR. For instance, pharmaceutical companies spent over $228 million lobbying in Washington in 2014. In India, patient groups, civil society organisations and government have challenged pharma giants for access to cheap medicines. For instance, patient pressure groups claim that India has imported only small quantities of Onbrez (Indacaterol), a drug whose rights are owned by the Swiss multinational Novartis, whose drug could help as many as 30 million Indians suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. To meet the demand, an Indian multinational company Cipla, based in Mumbai, began manufacturing its own version of Onbrez and selling it for a fraction of the original price. (IndiaSpend is a data-driven, public interest journalism non-profit) Hawaii sees 1st U.S. birth with Zika virus HONOLULU (AP) A baby born in a Hawaii hospital is the first in the United States born with Zika virus. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday its also the first infant born in the country with microcephaly associated with Zika virus. Its a birth defect where a babys head is smaller than expected. The baby was born recently in an Oahu hospital. The mother likely had the mosquito-borne virus while living in Brazil and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb. Officials say theres no risk of transmission in Hawaii. Utah officer, suspect killed in shootouts SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A Utah police officer was shot and killed Sunday by a suspect who was later killed by police. Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said Unified police officer Douglas Barney was shot in the head shortly before 10 a.m. in the suburb of Holladay. Barney was helping to search for 31-year-old Cory Lee Henderson and a woman. Witnesses said both were in a BMW involved in a traffic accident with another vehicle. Occupants in the other car were seriously injured, and Henderson and the woman fled. Shortly after Barney was shot, responding officers encountered Henderson on foot. Henderson and police exchanged multiple rounds. Officer Jon Richey suffered three gunshot wounds. Henderson died at the scene. Richey had surgery and his condition was improving. Several Americans missing in Iraq BAGHDAD (AP) The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday several Americans have gone missing in Iraq after local media reported three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. Officials did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. A State Department spokesman said that due to privacy considerations he had nothing further to add. 2 dead after storms hit central Florida DUETTE, Fla. (AP) Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home. Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube said the victims in Duette were asleep in their mobile home when the tornado struck. Steven Wilson, 58, was killed immediately, while his wife, Kate, died from a heart attack after being taken to a hospital. Their son, also named Steven Wilson, crawled out of the wreckage and helped his four children out of the home. The children are between the ages of 6 and 10. Burkina Faso mourns after attack OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the countrys borders after al-Qaida militants killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. The national mourning began a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. When the gunfire and explosions finally stopped, authorities said 18 were killed in the hotel and 10 were killed at the nearby Cappuccino Cafe. Among the victims was a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the cafe and her son, 9. WATERLOO Darrin Speed acknowledges there might not be much demand for coins minted in the 18th century for the 13 colonies. But if there is, he says, hes ready. Speed, a Dunkerton native and Waterloo resident, has turned a lifelong passion for rare coins into a business, opening Cedar Valley Coins and Collectibles, at 1100 Ansborough Ave. in Waterloo. He says his rarest item, a pattern coin, was minted in England in 1791 as a template for legal tender in the original 13 states. There were very few minted and, lo and behold, I ended up with one, he said. The pattern coin had to be approved by the 13 states and ultimately was rejected for usage, Speed said. George Washington didnt like the design, which featured a likeness of the first president. Washington thought only kings and queens should be depicted on coins, Speed said. The design was rejected and, in 1792, they brought 12 more pattern coins back. Speed said he wasnt sure about the value of the coin, which he said was roughly the size of a modern half-dollar. One sold at auction, in a little better shape than mine, for $44,500, he said. Perhaps few coin holders know what a pattern coin is. Speed does. And that difference, he says, can build a business. Speed, who turned 52 on Jan. 11, said he learned about coins from his father, a collector in his own right. My dad was forced to sell a coin collection when I was younger; it was one of the few times Ive seen my dad cry, Speed said. But, the younger Speed continued to learn about coins. When I was 15, I heard that Waterloo and Cedar Falls had a coin club, and from there, the passion for it just took off. Speed said he has wanted to started a coin business for some time. I wanted to do it about five years ago, but my wife had some health issues and had to back off, he said. I have a lot of friends that are coin dealers. In fact, Speed has been trading coins for years. Ive done many, many coin shows throughout the years, he said. An older gentleman showed me the trade. Others have offered advice over time, he said. And I helped them out too, he said. A few of those people have passed away, so I wanted to carry on and keep the tradition going. Speed opened his business about a week before Christmas in 1,050 square feet of retail space previously occupied by a beauty salon. It was just a picture-perfect match for me, because I didnt have to add or take down any walls; it was just a great open floor plan, he said. Speed still maintains his full-time position as a lead man in the components area at Omega Cabinets, where he has worked for 30 years. The new enterprise, which he operates from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, fits well with his regular work schedule, although he said it doesnt leave him much free time. I start very early in the morning at Omega, like at 4 or 4:30, he said. I get eight hours in and then go to the store. Speed said he has had to adjust. He said his wife, Lynn, works during the day, and I get home pretty much the same time as her, but it takes up all the time to relax. Speed said he started the business with an investment of about $65,000 to $70,000. He took a 15-year mortgage on the building and expects to pay it off in five. Speed said he has a wide array of rare coins in stock, although I dont have everything in the shop. Speed said he expects to build the business slowly, in part because its so specialized. He noted that his shop and Casey Coins Precious Metals in Cedar Falls are now the only local coin dealers. Its going to be hard, not easy for first few years, he said. I just wanted to be a nice, honest coin shop around here, because a lot of coins that are in this area are leaving this area. People are traveling to Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Iowa City to get rid of their stuff. There isnt any competition around here, so people who are buying arent paying top dollar. Theyre paying pretty decent, but I just want to correct the market in this area, pay for things what theyre worth. Were in the business to make money, but we dont have to double up on our money. But thats just part of the story, Speed said. Its another job, yeah, but, to me, its more a passion. TRACI MAGSAMEN has joined The Accel Group as a human resources specialist. She has more than 20 years experience in human resources. HELEN HEITZ and EMILY SCHWICKERATH have been promoted at Community Bank of Oelwein. Heitz was promoted to cashier and Schwickerath to assistant vice president. Heitz has been with the bank since it opened in 1998. Schwickerath, a graduate of the Iowa Agricultural Credit School, joined the bank in 2013 as an ag loan officer trainee. SHERRY TURNER, RN, joined Friendship Village as director of health services. She had 20 years business experience before her nursing career, specializing in long-term care since 2009. KARA SHUGAR-DAVIS and PEGGY HENNING have been promoted at Community Bank & Trust. Shugar-Davis has been promoted to branch manager at the Cedar Falls office location. She has been with the bank for nine years, working as a part-time community banker, full time community banker and most recently as an account executive. Henning has been promoted to teller supervisor/account executive at the Kimball office location. She has been with the bank for 12 years and has many years of customer service experience. DR. RUSSELL ADAMS has joined the Allen Hospital board of directors as the medical staff president. Dr. Adams is also the director of medical services and has been employed at Allen Hospital for more than 30 years. BETH HANSEN, formerly the secretary of Allens board of directors, now fills the role of board chair. JOSEPH TRIPP-RIEKS remains on Allens board of directors and is now the board secretary. Four new associates have joined the Homelink Division of the VGM Group Inc. JULIE ROGGE is a new patient care coordinator. She comes to VGM from the Clinique Counter at Dillards. RAQUEL ZAPUTIL is a supply patient care coordinator. She is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and previously was at Klatt Law Firm. PETE FOWLER joins VGM as a senior programmer and was employed with J&P Cycles. FAWN DAVIS is an intake patient care coordinator. She is an Upper Iowa University graduate and comes to VGM from Aramark. DHAIVAT PATEL joins United Equipment Accessories Inc. as a quality engineer. Patel has a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and more than five years of technical expertise in quality assurance and manufacturing. MERCEDES BOIES has been promoted at CBE Cos. to supervisor, finance. Boies has been with CBE since 2013 and has an associate degree in accounting from Hawkeye Community College. American Legion schedules meal WATERLOO American Legion Post 138 at 728 Commercial St. will serve homemade chicken and noodles, as well as hot dogs, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday. Veterans and the public are welcome to attend. Hearst presents Bergman film CEDAR FALLS The Hearst Center for the Arts will continue its series of films directed by Ingmar Bergman with Persona on Tuesday. The unrated 1966 film is in Swedish with subtitles. It will be shown in Mae Latta Hall starting at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and no tickets are required. The Hearsts film series is sponsored by Far Reach. The Hearsts Bergman series will conclude on Jan. 26 with The Magic Flute, based on Mozarts opera. More information on the Hearst Center and its programs is available at www.TheHearst.org or by calling 273-8641. Diabetics, families offered support CEDAR FALLS Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare is offering free support group for people with diabetes and their family members. The next meeting is set for 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday in the first-floor conference room of Sartori Memorial Hospital. Staff from the Nutrition and Diabetes Education Center lead the group. Various topics for those managing their diabetes will be addressed. Programs take place the third Thursday of each month. Call 272-5856 for more details. Boy Scouts plan Groundhog Supper CEDAR FALLS The Boy Scout Troop 55 annual Groundhog Supper fundraiser is planned for 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Cedar Heights Presbyterian Church, 2015 Rainbow Drive. Barbecue pork sandwiches, baked beans, chips, drinks and homemade desserts will be served. Cost is $5. There also will be a silent gift basket auction. Walking club meets in Independence INDEPENDENCE The Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging is hosting a Walking Club for older people living in Independence. The group will meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays and Fridays at the Falcon Civic Center at 1305 Fifth Ave NE. Walking will occur indoors through April. If interested in being a volunteer for the walking club, call Janet Buls at (866) 468-7887. Volunteers are needed to help check-in walkers, to walk with participants and to recruit more walkers. WATERLOO Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz will return to Waterloo for a rally on Saturday night. The event, hosted by the Keep the Promise political action committee that is supporting Cruz, will also feature radio personality Glenn Beck, Cruz national co-chairs Steve King and Bob Vander Plaats, and conservative author David Barton. The rally will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center, 205 W. Fourth St. Doors open at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. People can RSVP at www.eventbrite.com/e/waterloo-rally-with-glenn-beck-and-senator-ted-cruz-tickets-20824995121. Reservations are required as space is limited. Cruz most recently completed a bus tour in early January that brought him through Northeast Iowa. Saturdays rally will be his fourth trip to the region. WAVERLY Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio pushed back at the notion he would be a pastor-in-chief if elected, but he also offered a passionate defense of faith in both his life and as a leader. Im going to share my faith, especially when Im asked, because my faith influences who I am in every aspect of my life, Rubio told an atheist voter at a stop at the Waverly Country Club on Monday morning. You shouldnt be worried about my faith influencing me. In fact, I think you should hope my faith influences me. He said thats because his faith teaches him he has an obligation to care about the less fortunate, to love his neighbor, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked and to minister to those in prison. Even before the question from Waterloos Justin Scott, who has been approaching 2016 presidential hopefuls about the rising influence of secular and nonbeliever voters, Rubio told the crowd of about 125 people they should be free to believe whatever they want or not believe anything at all. But he also made clear, while he would not force anyone to be a particular religion, people shouldnt be punished for practicing their religious beliefs. I dont believe in discrimination, but I can tell you this, we shouldnt have a country where a pastor is threatened for losing their tax-exempt status because they refused to conduct a same-sex ceremony. I dont think we need to live in a country where a baker or a florist is threatened with a fine because they refused to participate in a specific event, Rubio said. He praised Scott for standing up and asking his question, recognizing he was likely the minority in the room. After the event, Waverlys Kriss Fox, in fact, praised Rubio for talking about his faith. Im a Christian myself, and our values are trashed, Fox said. She added, based on his comments on faith and security, Today made up my mind to support Rubio in the Feb. 1 caucuses. Rubio also stressed the United Statess foundation is based on Judeo-Christian values, as the Declaration of Independence states Americans rights are endowed by their creator. He referred to the document again in answering a question about defunding Planned Parenthood. Rubio said hed already supported, and would continue to support, ending federal funding for the womens health agency and abortion provider. But he added it was no accident Americans inalienable rights begin with life. I recognize this is a hard issue. I do. Its a hard issue because theres two competing rights. On the one side, there is the right of a person, women and men to choose what to do with their bodies on the other side, if the right of a person to live, Rubio said. I chose life. Because without life, there is no liberty; without life, there is no pursuit of happiness. While Scott worried Rubio would be a pastor-in-chief rather than commander-in-chief, Rubio spent a great deal of time Monday focusing on national security. He said it is the most important job of the president to protect its citizens. When Im president, were going to have a real war on terror, Rubio said. America does not want war. We want peace, but sometimes you have to wage war to achieve peace because you have to defeat the enemies of peace. ISIS (Islamic State of Iran and Syria) is an enemy of peace. Dennis Litterer of Nashua said he already signed up to caucus for Rubio, before seeing him again Monday morning. He has the right values. Hes young, 44 years old, and has the desire and determination to make the final step that this country needs to get us back on track, Litterer said. WATERLOO Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum knows better than most that Iowa caucus-goers often decide late who theyre going to support. Those last-minute supporters gave him the edge on caucus night four years ago. Now, as he lags once again in the polls, Santorum told a crowd of more than a dozen at VGM Group on Monday afternoon the polls dont mean anything, as he found out in 2012. He said the only count that matters is Feb. 1. Instead of focusing on the polls, the former senator from Pennsylvania encouraged the attendees to look at the records of the other Republican presidential hopefuls. You want to know how to trust somebody? Look at their record, Santorum said. Theyre going to tell you what you want to hear, but dont be disappointed if the person you think is a conservative goes to Washington and doesnt turn out to be one. Because most of the people that youre looking at in this race right now have ... zero-track record of actually being a conservative who can get something done, much less being a conservative. Without naming any particular primary opponents, Santorum said many candidates have had epiphanies in the past few weeks on a number of issues to seem more conservative. He encouraged the audience to trust but verify those candidates records. Santorum said he took it as a compliment he hasnt changed in the past 20 years. He argued a candidates track-record is important because of the seriousness of the issues Americans face. Santorum said he ran again this year because of his experience on foreign policy and his desire to use the bully pulpit to talk about family values and restoring the middle class. Its a serious time now. I mean, I understand people are angry. I get that, Santorum said. My point to you is channel that anger into something that is going to result in a good solution. Santorum is currently polling at an average of 1.2 percent in Iowa, according to Real Clear Politics. While he noted his polling was low in 2012, Santorum also said hes been frustrated this year that the media and the Republican National Committee has segregated the Republican field and kept candidates like him from sharing the spotlight with front-runners. Because of that disadvantage, Santorum acknowledged he is setting his expectations a little different this time, he told the media in an interview before his event. I think for us, a showing here doesnt have to be a first or a second. I think it could be one that shows a real grassroots strength and real organizational strength and commitment for people who are going to vote for someone whos not been given a whole lot of air time and not been given a whole lot of attention in this race, Santorum said. Santorum said more than a third of Iowa Republican caucus-goers in 2012 made up their minds on caucus night to support him, and that was due to the strength of supporters speaking on his behalf in their individual caucuses. One of those supporters, Iowa Rep. Walt Rogers, R-Cedar Falls, said he has hope that can happen again in 2016. Rick Santorum will have a kick at the end of this caucus race, and he will outdo expectations, I have no doubt about that, Rogers said. He did it last time. Hell do it again. Grand proposal William Cornelius, 25, and his fiancee, Sheri Moore, 20, were arrested at the Bay City (Michigan) Mall in January, charged with theft. Police found a pair of earrings and a necklace swiped from Spencer Gifts on her, but she refused to snitch on Cornelius, who had minutes earlier proposed to her via a Wal-Mart loudspeaker and given her a ring, to applause from onlooking shoppers as she accepted. Cornelius, holding $80.93 worth of goods, was apprehended at the mall food court, having apparently, according to the police report, fallen asleep at a table while tying his shoe. National pride Factory worker Thanakorn Siripaiboon was arrested in December in a Bangkok suburb after he wrote a sarcastic comment on social media about the dog that belongs to Thailands king. For the crime of insulting the monarch, Thanakorn faces 37 years in prison. Caught on camera The manager of the Nandos Riccarton restaurant in Christchurch, New Zealand, is pretty sure that he knows who swiped the contents of the stores tip jar one December evening, based on surveillance video, but the man denied the theft and walked out. The manager told police there was less than $10 in the jar at the time but also that the man had paid his $14.90 tab for food, yet hurried off without eating it. Faith in the storm NPRs Morning Edition, reporting on the violent tornadoes that hit North Texas on the night after Christmas, interviewed one woman who said she was luckier than her neighbors because of her faith. She was entertaining 10 relatives when she heard the train-like sound of the winds approaching and took everyone outside to confront the storm: We ... started commanding the winds because God had given us authority over ... airways. And we just began to command this storm not to hit our area. We spoke to the storm and said, go to unpopulated places. It did exactly what we said to do because God gave us the authority to do that. WAVERLY A refugees tale from 1975 is making a difference more than 40 years later. Deborah Coble Wise asked her brothers wife about her familys journey to the United States from Vietnam. Her sister-in-law was just 7 years old at the time, so she had a hard time remembering much of what happened. Still, Coble Wise couldnt get the story out of her head. It started me thinking, all through the Advent season and into Christmas, we all had somebody help us, she said. Somebody had to do that for my sister-in-law. It just kept playing on my heart. Coble Wise found her passion to serve others through her pastoral work at Trinity United Methodist Church. Shes helped people in trauma before after Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi, after the EF-5 tornado in Parkersburg and now got to thinking about helping the refugee crisis. As a Christian, as a pastor, we read about Mary and Joseph escaping. Jesus was a refugee, escaping the soldiers that wanted to kill him, she said. The Bible stories paralleled what she was reading about Syrian refugees and others fleeing their war-torn societies. We are called to extend hospitality to strangers, Coble Wise said. If I can go, even for a short while, and be a point of hope ... They need people. So Coble Wise reached out on Facebook to a group of fellow United Methodists in north Texas planning a trip to the Greek island of Lesbos. Refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen arrive there by the hundreds daily. She asked if she could join the trip, and they readily accepted her. She leaves today and plans to return at the end of January. Im not there expecting huge things to happen, Coble Wise said. Im expecting to be used by God. Her church has supported her endeavor, collecting supplies like toothbrushes and shoes Coble Wise has packed into suitcases to give to refugees at Camp Moria. Refugees from Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen arent treated as political refugees like their Syrian counterparts because they arent recognized as such yet, Coble Wise said. But in their search for a better life, Coble Wise also sees parallels with how Iowa was settled. You send the person most likely to get a job, and some people are selling everything they own to send their sons off to a new world, she said. Records show that happened in Iowa people would send their sons away to establish a home, then send for their families. Our own founding of our state has roots in that. Those who wish to help with supplies may deposit funds into Coble Wises Go Fund Me account, which she can access with a debit card while she is in Lesbos, at https://www.gofundme.com/42hhfqsc People can also donate to Trinity United Methodist in Waverly, and the congregation will make the funds immediately available to Coble Wise. Its humbling to have the support of so many people to be able to go and be an extension of them, she said. DES MOINES (AP) - A former Iowa City insurance agent convicted in the 1979 execution style killing of a West Branch man has died in prison at age 69 after battling skin cancer. The state Department of Corrections says Robert Lee Kern died Saturday at the Iowa State Penitentiary. Officials said Kern died of natural causes. A Cedar County jury convicted Kern in 1979 for killing Ady Jensen, 39, at his parents' West Branch home. The Iowa Board of Parole found that Kern hadn't accepted responsibility for his crime and showed no remorse, then Gov. Tom Vilsack cited when he denied his commutation in 2002. Prosecutors said Kern conspired with his ex-wife Judy White and Jensen's wife Jeanne to split a $50,000 life insurance policy Jensen's wife took out on Ady Jensen. Kern sold the policy to Jeanne Jensen without Ady's knowledge. Judy White was also convicted of first-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. Jeanne Jensen, who cooperated with the prosecution, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a forcible felony and served less than five years of her sentence. WATERLOO -- A 15-year-old was taken into custody Monday for the armed robbery of a business Sunday. Chief Dan Trelka said the robbery was reported about 6:30 p.m. at Platos Closet, 2325 Crossroads Blvd. Anthony Torres was taken into custody for the robbery early Monday. The suspect, who was wearing a mask, brandished a pistol and fled with cash. There were several employees and customers in the store during the robbery. Several leads were quickly developed. CEDAR FALLS Preservationists in Cedar Falls have 8,000 new reasons to believe downtown someday will be a national historic district. The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs has granted the city $8,000 to prepare an application to the National Trust for Historic Preservation to have several blocks of downtown, mainly along the Main Street Parkade, added to the National Register of Historic Places. The designation would make properties in the district eligible for tax credits for renovation. The grant comes after about a year of work, including research by a corps of volunteers and University of Northern Iowa history students. Its a long process, said Dave Williams, chairman of the Cedar Falls Historic Preservation Commission. It may be late 2017 before the process is completed, according to city staff. It will include open houses and public meetings early next year. But simply winning the grant is a milestone to some commission members who can remember when downtown wasnt so vibrant. The 70s and 80s were such a mess. You could have rolled a bowling ball down Main Street, said commission member Rosemary Beach, also active for years with the Cedar Falls Historical Society. Its remarkable whats happened since then, she said, particularly since Cedar Falls Community Main Street was established in the late 1980s. Its been a labor of love to get it to this point. Adding this will help that much more Beach said. Also on the commission is UNI history professor Tom Connors, who coordinated student efforts. Last spring surveyors and a consultant identified 110 buildings downtown with historical features. The potential historic district includes 59 buildings constructed between 1860 and 1960. Of the buildings examined, 46 of were identified as significantly historic. Four of the 46 buildings are already listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Oster Regent Theater, the Black Hawk Hotel, the Soho building and the Odd Fellows Building at Fourth and Main streets. Buildings yet to gain designations by the National Register include the Maid Rite and the True North building at the corner of Main and Third Streets. Connors said the initial survey encompassed an area of downtown between State and Clay streets from east to west and First to Sixth streets from north to south. The inventory was narrowed to an area deemed to be a prime candidate for historic designation. Roughly, its a four block area along Main Street, from alley to alley on either side of the street, extending from First Street to the present Tonys La Pizzeria store front on the west side of the street and the old Rock Island railroad depot on the east side. The Maid Rite and former Woolverton Printing buildings east of Main Street also would be included. One of the things we have going for us is Tom Connors on the commission, Williams said. We get some volunteer help which we need, and it gives the history students a chance to gain some experience for something down the road. The Cedar Falls City Council tonight will vote to formally accept the grant money. From there, proposals will be sought from three consulting firms to prepare the application to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Connors anticipates UNI students will do follow-up work for that application. Community Main Street director Carol Lilly said her organization supports the effort and updates downtown property owners on the process. She and others emphasized the historic designation imposes no requirements on property owners unless they wish to apply for tax credits for renovation work. Beach said pursuit of the historic designation may stimulate interest in downtown, and projects such as the renovation of the old post office/annex building next to City Hall will encourage others to follow suit. WATERLOO Hawkeye Community College and University of Northern Iowa officials have endorsed Waterloo Community Schools $47 million proposal to build a career center, expand career and technical education and renovate its high schools. The Vote Yes committee backing a Feb. 2 bond issue referendum released letters of support from Hawkeye President Linda Allen and Jane Bradley, vice president of academic affairs, and UNI President Bill Ruud and Jim Wohlpart, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. Both letters emphasized the importance of a strong preschool through 12th-grade school system. The expansion of Waterloo Schools career and technical education programming will not only benefit students of Waterloo but it will also strengthen our programming at the college, read the Hawkeye letter. Career and technical education is proven to increase the percentage of students who go on for more education and training after high school. The letter continued to say the proposed change will introduce students to programs available at Hawkeye, but not duplicate them. The letter from Ruud and Wohlpart said students should have a variety of options available to them during their education, which would be provided through the expanded programming. Since this fall, the University of Northern Iowa, Hawkeye Community College and the Waterloo Schools have started to work on curriculum and articulation agreements for some of the pathways which would allow students to transfer from one institution to the next in order for them to prepare for careers and to complete their degree, said the UNI letter. This work will benefit all three educational institutions, but mostly (it) will benefit our students as they join the workforce in the local region. Waterloos Board of Education has pledged to offset all of the projected property tax increase to pay for the 20-year bonds. Much of the cost will be shifted to a surtax on Iowa income taxes of district residents with the remainder covered using 1 percent sales tax revenues. Passage of the referendum will require 60 percent approval at the ballot box. Go online to the Vote Yes committees Facebook page, Waterloo Career and Technical Center 2016, for more information about its support of the referendum. Good morning, Cedar Valley! It's Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday. There is no school today in Waterloo and Cedar Falls. The banks are closed and there will be no mail delivery. Today's forecast: Sunny and cold, with a high near 3. Wind chill values as low as -30. West northwest wind 8 to 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around -11. West northwest wind 5 to 7 mph becoming calm in the evening. Today in the Cedar Valley: --- Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio will be at the Waverly Country Club at 9:30 a.m. Candidate Rick Santorum will be VGN in Waterloo at noon. --- The Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley is holding a day of service to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Sponsored by the Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley and First Presbyterian Church, all elementary age youth and their families are invited to attend a morning of service. Participants will gather at First Presbyterian Church, 505 Franklin St., from 10 to 11:30 a.m. to take part in a variety of service projects for community agencies. --- University of Northern Iowa students, faculty and staff will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a day of service. The event is free and open to the public. The MLK Day of Service will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Maucker Union Ballroom. Participants will package 25,000 rice and bean meals for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank to be distributed to 16 counties in Iowa. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt and can register at www.uni.edu/involvement/slc. --- Waterloo Mayor Quentin Hart and his committee members plan on participating in two service projects today and are seeking help. The first project is at the Northeast Iowa Food Bank, where 10 volunteers are needed from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. to help sort and prepare donated food to feed the hungry across northeast Iowa. You can volunteer at other times by contacting Chris Madigan, volunteer coordinator, at 235-0507 or cmadigan@feedingamerica.org. This event is a collaborative project with the nonprofit agency, KBOL Radio 100.1 FM. The second project Coat, Covers & Clothes Drive will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Hart for Mayor Campaign office, 612 Mulberry St. Donations of new or gently used coats, covers and clothes are greatly needed. --- Wartburg Spiritual Life & Campus Ministry will host An Evening with Imam Tawil: Conversation, Fellowship and Peacemaking, featuring Imam Taha Tawil of the Mother Mosque of America in Cedar Rapids. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with refreshments and conversation in the Wartburg Chapel Commons on the lower level of the chapel; the program begins at 7. Tawils visit is a partnership with the MLK Committee and Trinity Methodist Church in Waverly. WATERLOO The Cedar Valley Chapter of Employers Council of Iowa will discuss hostile work environments and provide workplace safety training from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at in McBride Hall at Allen College, 1990 Heath St. Gregory T. Usher, associate attorney at Beecher, Walker, Morris, Hoffman & Johnson PC, will introduce frequently encountered workplace issues that create hostile work environments. Amanda Schara, UnityPoint Health, will discuss the impact of mental health in a workplace environment and suggest resources available to keep everyone safe. John Beckman, Hawkeye Community College, will conclude the meeting by providing awareness of potential violent or crisis situations and appropriate actions to take. No to Caseys DOUG KRUGER WATERLOO Is the uptick in Caseys General Store TV ads on KWWL related to a 12-pump Caseys zoning variance vote pending Feb. 2? Roughly 100 Waterloo affected residents signed to oppose the intrusion in their neighborhood. In November, Caseys invited us to a be neighborly meeting. Caseys agreed with lawyers present they expect about 1,300 transactions per day and a 35 percent increase in stop-and-go traffic here. Core math says thats nearly half a million people every year who are not our neighbors. Why were the lawyers at a neighborly meeting? A new police report states between Dec. 18 and Jan. 10, 85 signs valued at $225 were stolen from the vicinity of Ansborough and Ridgeway. I purchased 100 VOTE NO CASEYS signs for neighbors and placed them in their yards only where wanted. Today only 15 remain. Come support us at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Walnut Ridge and at 4 p.m. Feb. 2 at City Hall for the Waterloo Planning, Programming and Zoning Commission meeting. No lawyers necessary. Amendment is dated RAY BROST CLARKSVILLE The Second Amendment: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. (Dec 15, 1791) The 2nd Amendment codified what was the practice in colonial times: land-owners formed local militias in order to: Capture runaway slaves. Protect themselves against slaves who rebelled. Fight frontier Indians who went to war because their land was being taken from them. Defend themselves against groups of discontented poor whites who sometimes joined together to attack plantation owners. (Bacons Rebellion of 1676, for example). The Amendment clearly states the right to bear arms is for forming a well-regulated militia. The interpretation can at best be that we have the collective right to bear arms for self-defense via militias which are this is important well regulated, which is to say, a part of the law and order maintained to protect society. In 1791 there was no other protective force. Today there is no lawless frontier, and we no longer hold slaves or fight Indians. Our country provides all sorts of protection everything from first-responders to 700 military bases overseas. The Second Amendment is about 150 years out of date. Letter response MATT HIGHLAND CEDAR FALLS Gary Kelley in his Jan. 12 letter to the editor suggested perhaps the posse of cowboys who took over the Oregon wildlife refuge should return the real estate to its rightful owners, the indigenous people of the region. I am sure Kelley with his Anglo liberal guilt has put his money where his mouth is and parted with his property and compensated the previous tenants that inhabited the Iowa prairies. To celebrate the UK premiere of, Syfy is giving 1 lucky winner tickets to experience the latest extreme racing craze first-person-view (FPV) drone racing. Competition winners will be invited to put their space bounty hunting skills to the test at the ultimatein London, taking place on Thursday 21st January from 9am. Challenging one of the UKs top drone competitors, Brett Collis, in a group battle like no other, the winners will learn how to swerve, sweep and dodge their way through the circuit, hunting down the bounty drone. Thomas Greer, organiser of the FPV League, will also be there to provide a drone handling masterclass to get the winners race ready. The event will kick off with an exclusive screening of episode one of! From the producers of Orphan Black (Temple Street Productions) and Michelle Lovretta, the creator of Lost Girl,follows a fun-loving, hard-living trio of interplanetary bounty hunters sworn to remain impartial as they chase deadly Warrants (fugitives) throughout the Quad, a distant system on the brink of a bloody, multi-planetary class war. The series stars British actress Hannah John-Kamen, (Death in Paradise, West End musical Viva Forever), Aaron Ashmore (Warehouse 13, Smallville) and Luke Macfarlane (Brothers and Sisters).To be in with a chance of winning just answer the following question correctly:a) Hannah John-Kamen b) Gina Torres c) Sarah Michelle Gellar Please send your answers toTerms and Conditions for the Killjoys drone race competition:1. The search is open to UK residents except employees of NBCUniversal and Fever PR (Promoter) and their affiliated companies, their families or agencies or anyone professionally connected with the search. The Promoter reserves the right to verify the eligibility of entrants in its sole and absolute discretion. 2. Entry is open to all people over the age of 18.3. This competition opens at 16:00 on 18th January 2016 and closing date for entry is midnight on 19th January 2015. Any entries received after the closing date will not be accepted. Promoter does not accept any responsibility for any network, computer or software failures of any kind, which may restrict or delay the sending or receipt of your entry. 4. One fan will be drawn at random from all valid entries received and the promoters decision is final. Prize details below*.5. Email entry required. To enter the competition, entrants must send an email todetailing their answer, name, age and location. Only Entries submitted as above will be considered eligible. Entries must be 18 and over. 6. One Entry per person only. Entries sent in through agents or third parties will be disqualified. Entries that contain any sexual, defamatory or otherwise offensive content will be disqualified. Multiple, late, incomplete or otherwise ineligible entries will be disqualified. 7. You must be citizens and/or residents of the United Kingdom. 8. Entrants are required to meet the entry criteria but otherwise no other purchase is necessary and entry into the Competition is free.9. One fan will be drawn at random from all valid entries received and the promoters decision is final. Prize details below*. 10. The fan will be notified by email on 20th January 2016. If a winner cannot be contacted within four hours of the notification of said win, the promoter reserves the right at its absolute discretion to withdraw prize entitlement and award the prize to a substitute fan drawn at the same time as the original. Booking family holiday to Europe, Greece & Italy. So far, it has been okay, more on this as we travel. 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emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential.1-888-899-9377A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis. Youve got a decent hand. Youre sure of it, but you dont want to bet everything on it because you know the game and know that youll lose. What do you do? That depends in part upon how strong your hand is (or isnt). For example, if you have an ace low flush, you might be tempted to fold, knowing you probably wont make money betting with it. On the other hand, if you hold a pocket pair, you may have enough confidence in the strength of your hand to bet all-in, hoping for a full house or better. In order to get the most from your hand, you need to understand what the odds are against each possible outcome. Heres how you can figure out whether or not you should push your luck with a particular hand. The decision of the player to do the okbet login will provide him good return in the future. This is the platform that is considered as the reliable option. It provides the players with the high stake of the winning. Even a representative is there who will work to serve the people. The Value of A Pair Lets assume weve just dealt two cards and one player has three suited cards and another has four. If the first player bets, then hes going to win about half the time (assuming everyone else folds), so his expected return is 50 percent. The second player has a much tougher time. Hell have a good chance of winning only when he gets three of a kind, which happens 1/4th of the time. So he has a 25 percent chance of winning. When he makes the call, the third player has a 55 percent chance of winning. His expected return is 45 percent. Of course, if the first player loses, then the chances of the third player winning go way up about 80 percent. All of these percentages are based on the assumption that all players will fold. The value of the hand is calculated by taking the probability of winning times the amount you would win if you did win. This gives us a number between zero and 100. Well use $5 as our basic unit for calculating the value of the hands. If you had 10 chips and could choose any five, what would you pick? Well, wed obviously take the top hand, which is worth $50. The second best hand is a little bit worse $45 since youre giving up some equity for the opportunity to win more. So now lets calculate the value of the remaining hands. If the second player chooses a third card, his expected gain is $25, which represents the difference between the two hands. A fourth card increases the expectation to $30, while adding a fifth card drops it back down to $20. Since there are no sixth cards, the value of the hand is equal to the average of the five cards, which is $24.60. The value of a suit We can also figure out the value of a suit by looking at the value of each individual card within that suit. Lets say were dealing a standard deck of 52 cards. One person holds a KQ; the next person has a 7D; and the third has a 2S. Each person has a 20% chance of winning. What is the expected return of having this group of cards? Well, the KQ has a 5% chance of winning, the 7D has a 4% chance, and the 2S has a 3% chance. So the total expected return is 25%. The same logic applies to the other suits, where the probability of winning goes up as the value of the card decreases. For instance, the Aces have a 9% chance of winning, Kings have 8%, Queens have 7%, Jacks have 6%, and Tens have 5%. So the expected returns add up to 36%. Now lets add all of these numbers together to get an estimate of the value of a hand. Assuming that each hand was equally likely to come up, our total would be 60 percent. But we know thats wrong! Not every hand is created equal. It turns out that a royal flush beats the rest of the pack pretty consistently. So were going to adjust our calculations to reflect this fact. Royal Flushes So far, weve assumed that all of the cards were equally likely to come up. Actually, most poker players believe that Royal Flushes are extremely unlikely. In fact, many experts estimate their frequency at less than 0.1 percent. To account for this, lets increase the probability of winning for each card in a Royal Flush by 10 percent. Now when we calculate the value of a Royal Flush, well find that its actually worth 62.5 percent of what it used to be. The value of the cards in each rank will still add up to 100, but theyre now weighted differently. So what does this mean for you? Well, if you hold a Royal Flush, youre probably going to win about 75 percent of the time. And if you hold a hand like QJT, youll win about 75 percent of the time too. And if you hold a straight, youll win nearly 70 percent of the time. In short, the bigger your hand, the more likely you are to win. Of course, even though youre getting a higher hit rate, youll also tend to lose more often. So if you hold a straight, youre almost guaranteed to lose. But if you hold a Royal Flush, youre going to win about one-quarter of the time, and youll win about twice as much money. So youre almost certain to profit from such a hand, but youll also take a lot of losses. Now, I mentioned that youll lose money on any hand. In fact, youll lose money roughly half the time. So if you hold a straight, youll lose about 25 percent of the time. If you hold a flush, youll lose about 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, youll lose 35 percent of the time. In addition, if you hold a set one of the two highest ranks youll lose 35 percent of the time. Finally, if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, youll lose 30 percent of the time. But the interesting thing is that youll lose less money on those losing hands than you do on winning hands. Why is that? Well, suppose you hold a straight. Theres a 65 percent chance youll win. But suppose you hold a pair instead. Theres a 65 percent chance youll win. But you lost on your last hand. So theres now a 75 percent chance that youll lose again. On the other hand, if you hold a straight and lose, theres still a 65 percent chance youll win again. So youre only losing about 15 percent of the time. This means that you can minimize your losses by playing only hands that are reasonably likely to win. So if you hold a straight, youll probably lose around 25 percent of the time. But if you hold a flush, youll probably lose around 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, youll probably lose around 35 percent of the time. And if you hold a set, youll probably lose around 35 percent of the time. But if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, youll probably lose around 30 percent of the time. In summary, the higher the probability that youll win, the lower your loss percentage will be. And the lower the probability youll win, the higher your loss percentage will be. So the optimal strategy is to play only hands whose probability of winning exceeds your expected return. If you hold a straight, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 25 percent of the time. If you hold a flush, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 40 percent of the time. And if you hold a pair, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 35 percent of the time. But if you hold a set, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 35 percent of the time. And if you hold a high card in the lowest rank, theres a 65 percent chance of winning, so youll lose around 30 percent of the time. Of course, you shouldnt ignore your opponents actions entirely. You should always give them credit for being smart, making decisions, and doing whatever it takes to beat you. But just remember that youre being punished for having a decent hand. Jan 18, 2016 | By Alec The open source 3D printing revolution is ongoing with full power, and has already made affordable making possible in the far corners of the world. Well, not quite the far corners, as even the most modest home-made 3D printer requires a stable power grid to work. But even that could be changing, as a team of researchers from the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Lab has just successfully tested and shared a very intriguing innovative machine: an open source, solar-powered RepRap 3D printer. The Pearce Research Group at the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology center, as dedicated RepRap enthusiasts probably know, are focused on developing open and sustainable technology solutions. Through that focus they have already repeatedly run into what solar photovoltaic technology can do, while they are also firm supporters of the RepRap 3D printing movement. The combination of the two was logical, and the question arose if the time and energy consuming 3D printers could be powered by something as fickle as solar power. The answer is yes, as is apparent from the study by Jephias Gwamuri, Dhiogo Franco, Khalid Khan, Lucia Gauchia and Joshua Pearce. Entitled High-Efficiency Solar-Powered 3-D Printers for Sustainable Development, it recently appeared in the journal Machines. As the researchers explain in the paper, 3D printing is still impossible in off-grid communities of which there are many in the developing world. Approximately a billion people on the planet are still without access to electricity, though the decreasing costs of solar photovoltaic-powered mobile systems have proven to be an interesting solution. IEA predicts that by 2030 population growth particularly in sub-Saharan Africa will surpass the pace of electricity access, resulting in 75% of the population of sub-Sahara Africa not having access to electricity by 2040, they say. More importantly, those people could definitely benefit from low-cost 3D printing innovations for the developments of tools and missing components. The declining prices of 3-D printers, together with parallel development of open source-appropriate technology (OSAT),has enabled the opportunity for 3-D printers to be used for sustainable development in many impoverished areas of the world/ OSAT can vary in complexity from high-end medical equipment or simple agricultural tools. OSAT presents the users with the opportunity to modify and improve the physical designs of their printers in line with their needs resulting in explosive mushrooming of hardware developers, they explain. Household items, small farm tools, and even scientific or medical equipment like prosthetics could all be realized. In this study, the researchers have therefore decided to merge solar photovoltaic-powered mobile systems with a delta 3D printing system to limit the energy consumption as much as possible, in part made possible by recent 3D printing innovations. Improvements in print bed surface treatment, the adoption of low temperature filament materials, such as biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA), decreased the number of stepper motors in novel 3-D printers designs and has enabled the elimination of the heated bed, resulting in a drastic reduction of printer power consumption, they explain. The battery they used was a polymer Li-ion rechargeable battery pack (14.8 V, 20 Ah), which features an overcharge protection circuit that enables it to serve as an energy backup/reserve during low/no light conditions. The result is a particularly capable 3D printing setup. This solar-PV-powered system is designed to run the RepRap 3D printer regardless of solar flux, and can be built for around $1000 (with most of the costs going towards the solar cells). Theoretically, the machine can even be upgraded to a syringe printer, vinyl cutter, and PCB mill using free designs. In addition to the electronic components, the RepRap itself was used to provide a conversion kit which was designed in OpenSCAD, a parametric open-source script-based solid modeling program. 3D printed conversion parts are used to secure the panels to the printer frame, as well as to protect vulnerable printer components, such as the Melzi controller board, Li-Ion battery pack and the power supply circuitry during transit, they say. The whole assembly easily fits into a 36 inch (91 cm) drop-bottom wheeled duffel for transport to a location of interest. 3D printable solar panel modules. But of course the real question is: can it consistently operate on solar power alone? As associate professor Joshua Pearce of Michigan Tech explains, the answer is yes. The electrical system has been specifically designed for and tested outdoors under different operating conditions. (1) PV charging battery and running 3-D printer; (2) printing under low insolation; (3) battery powering the 3-D printer alone; (4) PV charging the battery only; and (5) battery fully charged with PV-powered 3-D printing, he says. The results show the system performed as required under all conditions providing feasibility for adoption in off-grid rural communities. He further added that these types of machines had the potential to be extensively used in poor rural areas and even reduce poverty through employment creation, as well as ensuring a constant supply of scarce products for isolated communities. In short, the machine did exactly what it was supposed to do, and performed as predicted. Its implications are clear: anyone in the far corners of African communities can now set up a mini factory in their backyard, using nothing but the sun as a source. It certainly has the potential to change the very nature of those communities. If you would like to see more information about this solar-powered 3D printer, check out its page on Appropedia, where you can find the full plans, electronic schematics, CAD designs, and software. Posted in 3D Printer Maybe you also like: Chandler Grieco wrote at 1/27/2016 3:39:05 PM:i like it Jan 18, 2016 | By Kira Last week we reported on the US Air Force awarding a record-breaking $241 million in combined contracts to leading aerospace and defense companies SpaceX and Orbital ATK to develop next generation, American-made launch vehicles and rocket engines, with metal additive manufacturing set to play an important role in the design and development processes. Orbital ATK won the biggest share of the money, taking home $47 from the US Air Force and contributing $31 million of its own to develop three highly advanced rocket propulsion system technologies. It seems as though the Air Force made an excellent decision in where to spend that dough, because Virginia-based Orbital ATK today announced that it has successfully tested a 3D printed hypersonic engine combustor at NASAs Langley Research Center. Not only did analysis confirm that the unit either met or exceeded all of the test requirements, but the 3D printed hypersonic engine combustor also proved capable of withstanding one of the longest duration propulsion wind tunnel tests ever recorded for a unit of its kind. According to Orbital ATK, this successful propulsion system component would have been impossible to pull off without the benefits of metal 3D printing technology. It was manufactured via Powder Bed Fusion (PBF), also known as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), a metal additive manufacturing technique in which a high-power laser is used to sinter metal powders one layer at a time, building up complex, solid 3D metal structures. Additive manufacturing opens up new possibilities for our designers and engineers, said Pat Nolan, Vice President and General Manager of Orbital ATKs Missile Products division of the Defense Systems Group. This combustor is a great example of a component that was impossible to build just a few years ago. This successful test will encourage our engineers to continue to explore new designs and use these innovative tools to lower costs and decrease manufacturing time. Essentially, metal 3D printing techniques such as PBF allow for complex geometries and assemblies that previously would have required multiple components, to be simplified into a single, cost-effective assembly, without compromising on strength or structure. At the same time, since the object is built layer-by-layer, advanced design features and components can be integrated directly into the design. The 3D printed hypersonic engine combustor, also known as a scramjet combustor, is one of the most challenging-to-make parts of the propulsion system as it must house and maintain stable combustion within an extremely volatile environment. In order to truly test Orbital ATKs 3D printed model, it was subjected to a variety of high-temperature hypersonic flight conditions over the course of 20 days, including one of the longest duration propulsion wind tunnel tests on recordyet that proved to be no problem for the metal 3D printed part. As part of the $47 million contract awarded by the US Air Force, Orbital ATK will develop the GEM 63XL strap-on solid rocket motor, the Common Booster Segment solid rocket motor and an extendable nozzle for Blue Origins BE-3U upper stage engine. All the best features of solid motors, including operational reliability, high lift-off thrust, shorter development schedules and, importantly, affordability have improved over time with the advancement of new technologies, said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of Orbital ATKs propulsion systems division. This means we can offer the Air Force a low technical risk and very cost-competitive American-made propulsion alternative. PFB/metal 3D printing is just one of several manufacturing methods being explored by Orbital ATK as it endeavors to develop these advanced rocket propulsion systems and technologies, however as the 3D printed hypersonic engine combustor proves, it is certainly one of the most promising and exciting, and well be paying close attention to see what metal 3D printed parts Orbital ATK tests out next. Posted in 3D Printing Application Maybe you also like: by Carl Pierer Published in 1932, Sunset Song is famed as one of the most important Scottish novels of the 20th century. As the first part in Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Trilogy A Scots Quair , it tells the story of Chris Guthrie coming of age in a rural community in Aberdeenshire. Set at the turn of the century, the novel depicts life in this traditional Scottish setting and explores how this age-old structure is transformed by the unfolding of World War I. As a classic text, it has received much attention and suffered many an interpretation, ranging from Marxist and Feminist to humanist and nationalist. But despite many doubtful attempts at classification, the work has defied reduction and remains a vivid testimony of rural life. Perhaps the most striking of the novel's virtues is its language. Written in a distinctive style, it infuses Standard English with the rhythm and words of Scots dialect, giving the prose a unique lyrical flavour. Gibbon skilfully and consistently uses dialectal terms to be true to his motive, without rendering the text unintelligible to a non-Scots speaker. That the melody of the text is deeply rooted in the highlands has provoked remarks of the following sort: The non-Scot can get a great deal out of Mitchell [i.e. Lewis Grassic Gibbon], but one can sympathize with Donald Carswell when he says that he did not appreciate the prose of Sunset Song until he heard a north-east girl reading it.[i] Comments of this kind aptly illustrate the difficulty of appreciating the literary value of the novel without sliding into dubious political territory, against the author's intent. The novel is a portrait of a particular region and its people, a love song and a hate speech at the same time. It describes its setting from within, and the lyrical, regional language contributes as much to the fullness of the picture as does the story itself, if this distinction can be sustained at all. Yet, it is precisely for its balance and its authentic coherence that it is hard to mistake the book for an appraisal of national uniqueness, or anything the like. But because the novel is about the land and the people populating it, their longstanding connection with the soil they are working, remarks of the above sort can all too easily come into the proximity of suspicious nationalistic ideas. Indeed, isn't the thought that you have to be a true Scot to feel the text already contained in the above requirement? The novel derives its strength and literary merit from the great detail in which it explores the tension between Chris Guthrie's individual, deeply personal story and the broader history of the community, whereof she is a part. The two antagonistic sides condition one another. Chris' story derives its depth and particularity from the intricate communal structure that is her horizon of daily experience. Communal life in an Aberdeenshire village is made vivid by its force on Chris. This idea is acutely illustrated by the rich picture painted of Chris' marriage celebration. All too soon after her father's death, Chris gets married to a local, causing plenty of gossiping. The intense discomfort and pressure exerted by the small, judgmental community is resolved in the gripping 20 odd page long description of the festivity. It is only against the background of the foregoing, stifling atmosphere that the exuberant and boisterous party conveys the folk's relaxation. In a sense, this is perhaps the strongest scene of the entire book, the author demonstrating in an overwhelming gesture his affinity to detail. The warmth, the lyrical choice of words makes the reader intimately sense the excitement of the party. In the broader structure of the book it is the constant change of perspective, the different voices from the community that the author makes heard, as well as the deeply personal and moving descriptions of Chris' internal life that present a lived experience of rural Scotland. In his recent adaption of the novel, Terence Davies presents the viewer with romantic pictures of a sublime Scottish countryside as well as hints of Vermeer as families huddle in semi-lit rooms, painterly compositions defined by an artist's attention to detail[ii]. Davies takes his time to show the land, to make the beauty tangible, thereby arousing in the spectator a strong sense of Fernweh. It is precisely this romantic sentimentality that produces also a shift of focus in the narrative, which here almost exclusively tells the story that is Chris' personal drama. The lingering tension in the book, that provides the story with depth and uniqueness, is eradicated in the film. The rich communal structure, such an essential part of Chris' lifeworld, gets relegated to the background, if not ignored. The criticisms, the ambivalence of a society caught in between tradition and the modernising pressure of industrialised culture, is lost. The private comes to the fore, at the expense of the public, the political: of the many richly and roundly developed characters, only John Guthrie (Chris' father), Ewan Tavendale (her husband) and, fortunately, Chris herself remain worth mentioning. Sunset Song persists to be tremendously popular in Scotland; a nationwide poll, the meaning and reasonableness of which may rightly be doubted, even chose it as the Best Scottish Book of All Time in 2005[iii]. It is not unsurprising then, that such a literary classic should finally be made into a film. Taken together with the fact that another adaption of a classic British regionalist novel (Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd) was released in April last year, it appears that there is a revived interest in the country, in the traditional and in society as it used to be. Of course, it would be possible to present grandiose and boring theories of how, threatened by Globalisation, the individual retreats to a perceived idea of a lost golden age. But maybe something more subtle can be said about this interest, and in particular, the shift of focus that it enforces. What can be observed in the change of emphasis as we move from Gibbon's original novel to Davies adaption is an elimination of the political. The intricate social structure, the richness of communal life is ignored so as to allow a sentimental indulgence in the romantic, albeit tragic love story. Yet, any analysis would be ignorant if this eradication of the political was not seen as a very political stance. Exactly because the politically unpleasant (the narrowness of a tiny rural community, the prejudices, the peer-pressure, etc.) is bracketed, the film can be seen to present a naive nationalism. Chris' story cannot be told without the constant tension between her self-realisation and the communal expectations. The dirty aspects of rural life persist, of course, whether they are made explicit or not. But if the film presents a retracted family life and reduces structural problems to individual conflicts, it suggestively insinuates a narrative, which idealises the communal and nationalist. The idealisation has to be discerned precisely in the difference between the critical examination in the original text and the inoffensive modern film. It is not simply that communal life is presented as idyllic or perfect, that would be laughable. The move derives its force from excluding communal or national life from the (apparent) discourse. But of course, because the individual story cannot be untangled from the historic society in which it unfolds, the national aspect is carried over as an unquestionable element of life. And isn't this Biedermeier retirement from the political politics in the pure form? Putting on the blinders and insisting that the private can be lived without any engagement with the political is obviously the strongest support possible for the status quo. It may then be suggested that this renewed interest in the regional can be seen as symptomatic of the highly political apolitical, akin to a similarly revived interest in the refined consumption of barista coffee and craft beer. Coffee, as brewed, pressed or otherwise excreted by the local barista can easily be consumed in abstraction from its embeddedness in the economy, for evidently it has been procured in a fairtrade agreement, which the barista set up herself during her gap year in Nigeria, where she built schools and water fountains and found her true self. That's precisely the beverage the SNP (Scottish Nationalist Party) is trying to serve: a left nationalism without the unpleasant connotations, internal inconsistencies and blatant obsolescence of the nation state (quite unlike other nations, obviously), a social welfare state like Norway but with the benefits of and integrated in the EU, a green economy but thriving on North Sea oil, etc.; more concisely, Scotland as a nation, but without being a nation. Just like the shift of focus in the film renders national identity a necessary concept outside of what is talked about, the left's shift to nationalism precludes questions about the global economic integration and organisation from the discourse. The structure of the SNP's narrative thus parallels the pattern which was discerned in the difference between the text and the film. Perhaps, eventually, this idea can be read backwards to suggest the conclusion that the cinematic adaption of Sunset Song simply mirrors the left's progressive move to the political apolitical. by Mathangi Krishnamurthy Many months ago, I wandered along with a bunch of enthusiastic companions, into a museum for sepulchral culture. Nestled in the charming, modernist city of Kassel, Germany, we were part of a conference group discussing reproductive loss, and I suppose our hosts considered it fitting that we make communion with death culture writ large. As we flitted curiously around, and up and down, seeking shelter from the sleet and wind outside, we noted little skeletal figurines, gravestones, tombs, tombstones, and ritualistic instruments meant to ease passage to other worlds. For a museum devoted to the seemingly morbid phenomenon of death, it left us surprisingly sanguine. The dictionary tells me that a sepulchre is a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. I worry at the oxymoronic, dead person. Other romanticized words like crypt, catacomb, and sarcophagus serve as synonyms for those who do not quite like the cadence of sepulchre. Together, in medieval-esque glory, they capture for us the stories of death, memory, and memorialization, and cultures of dying. For this we share with all humankind, in that people die. The sorrow of their loss is mitigated by cultural processes that allow us to believe that their lives meant something. There are no sepulchral museums in India. But memorialization is seen across the length of the country, from the sepulchral urns excavated at Adichanallur in South India, to the stone circles of Junapani in Nagpur, to the evidence of pit burials in Burzahoma, Kashmir. The Iron Age in these regions marks the beginning of the creation of separate areas for the dead. The Corporation of the City of Chennai, where I live, lists 38 burial grounds, one of them at a place called Kasimedu, separated into Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. In life, as in death, segregation before erasure. The Madras Cemeteries Board manages three cemeteries at Kilpauk, Kasimode, and Quibble Island at Santhome High Road. Their archived website tells me that the Kilpauk old cemetery opened in the year 1903, and that there are more than 50,000 bodies buried here. However, it has been closed for new burials since April 2005. Also, the graves of those buried 14 years prior to 2005 are being reopened in order to be reused by their family members, and tombs are being constructed on top of old tombs. In death, as in life, recycle, and build vertically. Further, there is the Madras War Cemetery for men and women who laid down their lives in the Second World War, set up in 1952 by the Imperial War Graves Commission, which is now known as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). The business of memory is clearly painstaking, bureaucratic, and sometimes must adjust for political happenstances like postcoloniality. And lastly, there is the business of memory without the presence of those who can remember. The Jewish cemetery, located off Lloyd's Road in Chennai, is the last memorial to what was once a significant Jewish presence in this city. For those willing to make the trek, the Armenian Church in Georgetown bears testimony to the vibrant and epoch changing influence of the Armenian merchants, who were around when Madras took birth as the first modern city of postcolonial India. Why this clambering for space, and this separation, I wonder. What is this nature of the uncanny body without life that haunts us, and must therefore be sent away? Since Descartes, much as we insist on the primacy of mind over body, the body without mind disturbs us and worries that insistence. A long time ago, I walked through a mall in America to the background score of Christmas carols even as I perused the controversial exhibition Body Worlds (The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies). The exhibition consisted of cadavers that once had life, mummified and preserved through Plastination, a process invented in 1977, by a Dr. Gunther von Hagens, an anatomist at the University of Heidelberg. It displayed real human specimens, including whole bodies as well as organs, and fetuses. I was glued. The beauty of those bodies sans life was an uncanny reminder of the separation we enforce and the body that we both obsess over, and ignore. Above all, we know mortality, but refuse it, in ourselves and in others. And yet, as I looked at those bodies, I could not look away. I, who turn away quickly from dead bodies as they pass by in street processions, spent two hours fascinated at the spectacle of these statuesque bodies that once had life. Even as they had been sanitized and their innards exposed like so many laboratory specimens, I couldn't help but remember that these machine-like objects once moved, and had the capacity for love, voice, feeling, and action. The controversy around the original Body Worlds exhibition was around the procurement of the bodies. In 2004, Gunther von Hagens consented to return seven corpses to China following an expose by the German magazine Der Spiegel, which revealed that the bodies might have been those of executed Chinese prisoners. He went on to state that the corpses would be buried. In life, as in death, only some bodies are allowed a cultural and cultured goodbye. One night, many nights ago, on a silent Pune midnight, a friend and I pushed my decrepit scooter along, and were offered company for a few streets by two policemen carting a bier with a body on it. They told us that it was the body of a jumper, someone who had committed suicide on the railway tracks, and it was therefore up to the policemen to cart the unclaimed, unnamed body to the morgue. Many months ago, on a bus to Chennai from Pondicherry, we all peered out as the vehicle came to a lumbering stop before a few hundred-body strong funeral procession. We sat still in the insulated air-conditioning as the crowd gathered strength, and police attempted to re-route traffic. Being the massive vehicle we were, we had no choice but to stay put in our first-class seats to the unfolding spectacle. Batons were wielded, instructions yelled silently as if in a pre-sound movie, and the quiet buzz of both morbid spectacle and public grief permeated the bus. The gentleman in front of me pulled out a newspaper reporting on the very incident we were watching. Somebody whispered that it was the deputy tahsildar, a local government official, who had committed suicide along with the entire family, four bodies in all. The crowd parted for a little bit as our bus shimmied alongside two vans carrying shrouded bodies. The middle-aged woman next to me commented as to how she could not make out how the bodies had been distributed between the two vans. I later discovered that the deputy tahsildar was a woman. She had set herself on fire. Her family rushed to help and had been engulfed by the flames. Sometimes, these unnamed bodies without life explode in our midst, and all together we decry our collective mortality. The heart of sepulchral culture lies perhaps in this melancholia as we remember that even the dead were once living. Delivers a Record 50% Growth in Annual Cash Collections Kuala Lumpur, Jan 18, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - iProperty Group Ltd ( ASX:IPP ), the owner of Asia's No. 1 network of property portal sites and related real estate services, today released its last 4C for 2015. iProperty Group reported record cash collections of A$32.3m, representing an increase of A$10.7m or 50% over 2014. This was achieved despite a worsening of the Malaysian Ringgit versus the Australian Dollar with Malaysian operations contributing more than 50% of the annual revenues and collections. The Group also managed to achieve a positive net operating cash flow in it's fourth consecutive operating cash flow positive period. This result is particularly good as iProperty incurred prepayments for the 2016 property expos, a weakening property market, unfavourable FX movements and expenditures relating to the IPP-REA merger (scheme) during the quarter. Georg Chmiel, iProperty Group Managing Director and CEO said "Yet again, this result is a reflection of the significant growth our businesses have been experiencing over the last several quarters. We are looking forward to continuing the growth as part of the REA Group from February 2016 as soon as the scheme is approved." To view figures, please visit: http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-IPP-902113.pdf About iProperty Group Ltd Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, iProperty Group Ltd (ASX:IPP) is focused on developing and operating leading real estate portals and delivering the most comprehensive set of related real estate services and project marketing across the Region. The Group owns portals which are market leaders in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Hong Kong Region and a leading portal in Singapore. The iProperty Group is continuously working to capitalise on its market-leading positions and the rapidly growing online property advertising market throughout the region. Signs Statement of Sales Intent with Hiller Carbon Perth, Jan 18, 2016 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Syrah Resources ( ASX:SYR ) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Statement of Sales Intent (SSI) with Hiller Carbon LLC (Hiller Carbon - www.hillercarbon.com), a leading supplier of raw materials to North American electric arc furnace (EAF) steel producers and other customers in the paper, foundry, lime, industrial, polymer and chemical sectors. Their areas of expertise include: - carbon products - operation of carbon processing and milling operations - supply chain management, including transportation logistics; and - product quality management. Syrah Managing Director, Mr. Tolga Kumova commented: "We are very excited to be working with Hiller Carbon to market Balama recarburiser in North America. This agreement supports our belief that Balama natural graphite is an ideal product for the EAF steel industry, which requires a high quality carbon additive with low impurities. In addition, this agreement is also highly synergistic with our Proposed Spherical Graphite Facility in the United States, which will produce recarburiser manufactured specifically to exacting standards of EAF steel customers. The ability to access the North American recarburiser market will create another revenue stream for the Proposed Spherical Graphite Facility." Key terms The SSI will be valid for a 5-year period with prices negotiated between Syrah and Hiller Carbon on an annual basis for the upcoming year. Hiller Carbon intends to purchase between 25,000 tonnes and up to 35,000 tonnes of Balama natural graphite recarburiser (Balama recarburiser) per annum for resale. Both parties expect that these volumes will continue to grow over time. Hiller Carbon will be granted exclusive rights to sell Balama recarburiser in the United States, Canada and Mexico (Territory). The parties will work towards a binding agreement as development of the Balama Project advances. Syrah and Hiller Carbon will also investigate the potential to market Balama natural graphite in other (non-battery) value add markets in the Territory. Hiller Carbon Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Martin Hiller commented: "We are very pleased to be granted the exclusive recarburiser marketing opportunity in North America. Existing and new Hiller Carbon customers will benefit greatly from a powerful combination of quality, supply reliability and transportation logistics. A proposed Syrah Resources processing facility represents a strong commitment to the steel industry in North America." EAF steel industry The Steel Industry has transitioned much of its production from iron-ore based Blast Furnace/Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) to majority EAF melting. The EAF's melt 80-100% scrap plus an iron component. They feature highly competitive, modern low cost facilities and flexible production capabilities. Through technology, EAF steel quality now matches the engineered quality grades previously produced only in the BOF. These grades continue to develop rapidly. High quality recarburiser is therefore becoming an increasingly important additive during the downstream Ladle Refining Furnace (LRF) process, common to all steelmaking. The engineered steel grades specify carbon solutions with ultralow impurity levels. Balama recarburiser meets the new LRF stringent carbon addition requirements with its high purity, fast and reliable solution rate and consistent sizing. Domestic recarburiser production provides a solid, secure logistics chain. These key attributes will differentiate Balama recarburiser as key ingredient for production of the highest quality engineered steel grades. Balama recarburiser has recently been successfully qualified through commercial scale test work by a major global steel producer. Syrah will seek to finalise an agreement with this major global steel producer to provide Balama recarburiser for its facilities around the world as development of the Balama Project advances. To view figures, please visit: http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-SYR-437081.pdf About Syrah Resources Ltd Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) is an Australian resource company that is rapidly progressing its flagship Balama Graphite and Vanadium Project in Mozambique to production. The Project hosts the largest graphite ore reserves in the world with an Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) compliant Ore Reserve of 81.4 Mt at 16.2% total graphitic carbon. Balama is a 110 km2 granted Mining Concession located within the Cabo Delgado province in the district of Namuno in northern Mozambique. The Project is approximately 260 km by road west of Pemba and is accessible by a sealed, main road, running directly from Pemba Airport. The Port of Nacala is approximately 490 km by road south east of the Project and is the deepest port in Southern Africa. Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in 1999 in a bloodless coup against current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was acquitted on Monday of the murder of a separatist leader in 2006, removing one of several cases against him. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for Baluchistan, Pakistans biggest province and the richest in mineral resources. He was killed in a battle between tribal militants and government forces in the restive province in 2006. Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered the killing. But on Monday, an anti-terrorism court in the provincial capital, Quetta, acquitted him. We arent satisfied with the judgment and will challenge it in court, Sohail Rajput, the lawyer for Bugtis family, told reporters outside the court. They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free, Rajput said. The court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, also acquitted former provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and former federal interior minister Aftab Sherpao. The leaders son, Jamil Bugti, had accused Musharraf and several of his aides of involvement in the killing of Akbar Bugti in an FIR filed in Dera Bugti in 2009. Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Two co-accused Musharrafs then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Ink was thrown at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while he was addressing a gathering about the success of odd-even road rationing scheme at Delhis Chhatrasal Stadium. He had just started his speech to the 5,000-strong audience; a woman in her early 30s walked towards the dais and threw ink, some papers and a CD towards him. She was immediately detained by the police. So far, nobody knows what those papers and CD were for. However, it looked like a planned vendetta. The woman has been identified as Bhavna Arora, who belongs to the Aam Aadmi Sena a splinter group of Aam Aadmi Party formed by party rebels. This group is the brain child of Bhushans, Yadavs and all those who were shown the door by AAP and silently rendering support to BJP. This new group was never in much limelight or people talked about. This attempt could be the reason for grabbing attention and increasing the goodwill of BJP leaders. May be this group is created for such activities, without holding the BJP responsible for any act. Whatsoever, these attacks needs to be stopped. Nowadays, we boast about tolerance but the fact is none of us are tolerant towards each other. Big question remains here is, what Delhi police were doing? How can there be security lapse? How could a girl get so closer to CM? Why she was not checked before entering in the stadium? What if she would have carried some acid instead of ink? And who must have managed to send that girl so close to Kejriwal? Well, for completing the formalities, police have sought a magistrates permission to arrest Ms. Arora, since women cant be arrested after sunset without his consent. A case has been registered. Many see it as BJP conspiracy, they think that the saffron party want to take advantage of such a situation and attack Kejriwal and the entire Cabinet. They may also kill people because they cannot stand the success of the odd-even scheme and AAPs popularity among the masses. Police is a part of the conspiracy. Anyway, this is not the first time such incidence has occurred. Right wing supporters and its leaders have gone berserk; they have crossed all the boundary of decency. Inking the faces of people has become most wanted news gimmick for them, but that does not work always. Recently, the activist Mallikarjun Bhaikatti, through an RTI query, revealed that around 14,000 square feet illegal construction was carried out in a four-storeyed building and boys hostel on the Latur-Nanded road. Bhaikatti had addressed a press conference to expose the illegal construction. The Sena workers brought Bhaikatti to the college premises when around 4,000 students were present and assaulted him with an iron rod, before blackening his face. The injured RTI activist was admitted to a hospital in Latur. In the same month, Sena workers had blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, in an ink attack ahead of the launch of Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insiders Account of Pakistans Foreign Relations authored by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. The Sena was opposed to a Pakistani politician coming to India and launching a book. Under pressure from the Shiv Sena, a concert by Ghulam Ali was also cancelled in the city. The Senas actions have been criticised by many social think tanks and even common public. The Rajasthan unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) issued a notice to MLA Kanwar Lal Meena to explain his role in the attack on NGO workers affiliated to organisations of activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey in Jhalawar, but then after that notice he was allowed to work. In October last year, Hindu Sena activists came rampaging inside the Press Club of India premises in New Delhi and attacked Independent Jammu and Kashmir MLA Engineer Rashid by smearing his face with black paint and ink. They were protesting against the beef party he had hosted in Srinagar. Earlier that month, Rashid had also been beaten up by BJP MLAs in J&K Assembly for hosting a beef party in the MLA hostel. The ink-smearing incident had taken place time and again. Either doctors faces were blackened or some politicians or whistle-blowers, this has rapid since BJP came to power. If we look little back, in 2013, a man running a non-governmental organisation threw black ink on Baba Ramdev during a press conference at the Constitution Club in Delhi. The accused was later arrested. Kamran Siddiqui (40), running Real Cause, in Okhla, had sought Ramdevs opinion on the 2008 Batla House encounter in which suspects of the Delhi serial blasts were killed. The yoga guru refused to take the question and soon afterwards Kamran allegedly hurled the ink he carried in a small plastic bottle. Ramdev had called the press meet to announce his plans to campaign in the Assembly elections on issues such as black money and corruption. Immediately after the attack, Ramdevs supporters caught hold of Kamran and beat him up before handing him over to the police. His shirt was torn and he was seen bleeding from the lips. The ink smeared Ramdevs face and stained only a bit of his clothing. Manchester United can still win the Premier League title, despite their stuttering campaign so far, after a 1-0 victory at arch-rivals Liverpool on Sunday moved them within seven points of top spot, manager Louis van Gaal said. The win moved United within sight of leaders Arsenal, who are level on 44 points with surprise package Leicester City after sharing the points in a 0-0 draw at Stoke City. Asked if United were still in the title race, the Dutchman told a news conference: It is seven points and seven points we can overcome that. This game shall give a big boost to the players, to the fans, to everybody in the environment of Manchester United and we have to continue of course. That`s not so easy, and we have seen that also today, but we can do it because we show every week that we can do it. To beat Liverpool is always important, he added. Today it was important because our competitors lost points and when the gap is like this we can overturn that. Van Gaal has many critics among United fans but has given them at least four reasons to smile since taking over at Old Trafford four wins in four league games against Liverpool. Sunday`s victory in the north-west derby at Anfield, thanks to Wayne Rooney`s 78th-minute volley, completed a second successive league double over Liverpool for Van Gaal following United`s 3-1 win at Old Trafford in September. Last season United beat Liverpool 3-0 at home and 2-1 away and he was delighted after Sunday`s victory in a drab game lifted United back up to fifth in the table. In the second half we played much better and kept the ball better and created chances and Wayne Rooney makes the fantastic goal again, Van Gaal told Sky Sports. While five American citizens were freed from detention in Iran this weekend, the US government vowed Sunday to work tirelessly for the release of another missing for nine years. Ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson disappeared in mysterious circumstances in March 2007 during a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. He was reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region. Levinson, 67, is considered to be the longest-held hostage in US history, if still alive. Even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about Bob, President Barack Obama said in a White House speech. Each and every day, but especially today, our hearts are with the Levinson family, and we will not rest until their family is whole again. Of the US citizens who have been freed by Iran, four were part of a prisoner swap with America, while a fifth was released in a separate process, according to US officials. Taking to Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry said For over a year, we have raised the cases of American citizens unjustly detained in #Iran at every opportunity. He added: Iran also agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate Robert Levinson. We wont rest until the Levinson family is whole again. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has announced a $5 million reward for information leading to his return. The FBI expects our Iranian counterparts to fulfill their commitment to locate Bob and help bring him home safely, the agency said in a statement. Bob forever remains part of the FBI family, and we remain committed to bringing him home safely to the family who misses him so much. The FBI said we continue to investigate and follow up on all information we receive, no matter how insignificant it might seem. Iraq Shiite Leader Calls for Return of Homes Illegally Taken From Assyrians Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has called for the return of homes and property illegally taken from Christian families in Baghdad, Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities. Chaldo-Assyrian Christian politician Pascale Warda has welcomed this call. Mrs Warda has asked all Iraqi citizens to support the reinstatement of the rights of the Christians owners - a cause that is also supported by several civil society groups in Iraq. Many Christian homes have been stolen, with the collusion of corrupt officials, who put themselves at the service of individual frauds and organized groups of fraudsters. The 'legalized' theft of the properties belonging to Christian families was closely linked to the mass exodus of Iraqi Christians, following the US-led military intervention to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. Opportunists took possession of homes and property which had been left empty, in the hops that none of the owners would come back to reclaim their property. MPs and Christian associations have long appealed to the local administrative institutions, asking them to cancel the false certifications. Muqtada al-Sadr is the leader of the Sadrist Movement, the party to which at least 30 Iraqi lawmakers belong. He was also the founder of the Mahdi Army, the militia - officially disbanded in 2008 - created in 2003 to fight the foreign forces in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Mediates Between Assyrians and Kurds in Qamishli Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II meets with family members of the victims of the restaurant bombings in Qamishli. Qamishli, Syria (AINA) -- Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem II, the supreme head of the Syriac-Orthodox Church, arrived in Qamishli on January 15 to mediate between Assyrians and Kurds, who clashed on January 15, resulting in the killing of one Assyrian fighter and 3 Kurdish fighters (AINA 2016-01-12). The Patriarch met with all relevant groups and initiated a meeting between the Assyrian groups and the Kurds to diffuse the tense situation. In the early hours of Tuesday, January 12th, members of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) conducted a large attack on Assyrian checkpoints, using more than 30 vehicles and hundreds of heavily armed Kurdish fighters against the Assyrian Gozarto Protection Forces (GPF) in the Assyrian neighborhood of Al-Wusta in Qamishli. The fighting lasted for at least three hours and ended after the Kurds called upon a Syrian government representative to mediate a cease-fire. The onslaught by Kurdish YPG fighters came after a demand by the YPG to cede control of Al-Wusta to them was refused by GPF. Al-Wusta is located in the center of the city and has no Kurdish or Arab residents. The attack also came in a time of increased tensions in Qamishli, less than two weeks after bomb attacks on three Assyrian restaurants, which killed more than 18 people, 14 of them Assyrians (AINA 2015-12-30). Assyrian security forces tightened security around Al-Wusta after the bombings. Upon arriving in Qamishli Patriarch Ephrem held a remembrance service for the victims of the restaurant bombings and other Christians killed in the city, met with all relevant groups to assess the situation and met with the families of the deceased to offer his condolences. The patriarch received Mr. Mohammad Zaal Al-Ali, the Governor of Hasaka, at the Archdiocese headquarters in Qamishli. On Saturday, January 16th, Assyrian and Armenian religious and civic representatives met with Kurdish and Arab representatives and issued a list of demands concerning the security of Christians in north-eastern Syria, in the province of Hasaka. In an interview with AssyriaTV, Ahikar Rashid, a representative of GPF who was at the meeting, said all Christian organizations had met a day earlier to formulate their concerns and demands for a sustainable peace in the province in the face of the threat from ISIS. A key demand is that Christians must independently protect themselves without control by any other political or military groups. The population of the province of Hasaka is nearly equally divided between Assyrians, Arabs and Kurds. The city of Qamishli was almost entirely Assyrian until the early 1980s and was established by Assyrian survivors of the genocide of 1915 perpetrated by Ottoman Turks against the Christian populations of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians. At that time many Kurdish clans acted as the henchman of the Ottoman government. It is natural that the recent developments in Qamishli recall those memories of Christians, who do not trust Kurdish expansionism and self-declared autonomy and control over the region. YPG's latest attacks on Assyrians came after their earlier attacks on Turkmen, Arabs and other Kurdish groups not willing to collaborate with them. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both recently documented massive human rights violations by the YPG, a Syrian PKK offshoot, including forced evictions and the destruction of homes and property of non-Kurdish populations in regions under its control (AINA 2015-11-10). A Gruesome Christmas Under Islam Left: The Miami restaurant was bombed by the Islamic State, one of three Assyrian-owned restaurants bombed in Qamishli, Syria on December 30, killing 16 people. Right: A number of youths set fire to a Christmas tree in a public square in Brussels, Belgium, while yelling "Allahu Akbar" ["Allah is Greater"]. On Christmas Day in the West Bank, two Muslims were arrested for setting a Christmas tree on fire in a Christian-majority village near Jenin. On the same day in Bethlehem, Muslim rioters greeted the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem with a hail of stones. Authorities subsequently arrested 16 "Salafi radicals" who were planning to carry out terror attacks against tourists celebrating Christmas. If this was Christmas in Bethlehem -- Christ's birthplace and scene of the Nativity -- Christmas in other parts of the world experienced similar abuse. In the United States, a 46-year-old Christian mother of three was among the 14 people killed in the San Bernardino terrorist attack targeting a Christmas party. Ironically, Bennetta Bet-Badal had fled Iran for the U.S. when she was 18 to escape the persecution of Christians after the 1979 Islamic revolution. After graduating from college with a degree in chemistry and marrying and raising three children, the jihad caught up with her. She was attending a Christmas luncheon and bringing gifts to her co-workers when Muslim terrorists burst in and massacred them. Belgium resembled Bethlehem: A video appeared showing a number of youths lighting a firebomb under a Christmas tree in Brussels. Seconds later, there is an explosion, and the tree is engulfed in flames. Young men shouting "Allahu Akbar," ["Allah is Greater"] run away. The person who originally uploaded the video, Mohamed Amine, has since taken his Facebook page down. In Germany, four Eastern Orthodox Christians were accosted in the early morning hours after Christmas Day in Berlin by a man shouting, "I am a Muslim! What are you?" The man and his friends then attacked and violently beat the Christians. The few anecdotes of Muslims terrorizing, beating, and even killing Christians on the occasion of Christmas in the West -- where Muslims are minorities -- were expanded in Muslim-majority nations. Stifling Christmas In Syria, the Islamic State "arrested, if not executed, some youths [five] in the city of Raqqa for befriending and greeting Christians on the occasion of Christmas." ISIS reportedly told the five youths that "they are being detained after an investigation [including their personal computers], found that they greeted the Christians and wished them a Happy New Year." When one of the youths tried to clear himself, an ISIS member replied: "Shut up! You accompany the Christians -- is that not so?" The five youths were then hauled to an unknown location. There has been no further information on their fate. ISIS was not alone. The governments of three countries -- Somalia, Tajikistan, and Brunei -- formally banned Christmas (celebrating its Gospel message, putting up trees, dressing like Santa Claus, and giving gifts). Transgressors can face up to five years in prison. Some Islamic clerics in Brunei stated: "Using religious symbols such as crosses, lighting candles, putting up Christmas trees, singing religious songs, sending Christmas greetings ... are against the Islamic faith." In Bangladesh, churches skipped traditional Christmas midnight mass because of the increasing number of threats against, and attacks on, Christian leaders. Although Christians constitute less than one percent of the Muslim nation, more than three dozen church leaders received death threats and at least four narrowly escaped attempts on their lives. Although not canceled, Christmas church services were tense and on high alert in the supposedly most "moderate" Muslim nation, Indonesia. More than 150,000 security personnel and others were deployed to safeguard churches around the country during Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. Days earlier, on December 20, police arrested six men who had bomb-making materials and jihadi literature. On December 25 in Iran, a group of about 10 Christians celebrating Christmas were verbally abused and arrested after plain-clothes government agents raided a private service in their home. Separately, on December 23, agents beat, handcuffed, and arrested a Christian man during a raid on his home. His books, computer, mobile phone, and a decorated Christmas tree were seized. Christmas Carnage On December 24 in the Philippines, Muslim jihadis terrorized the Christian-majority nation after they seized and executed 10 Christians. A military spokesman said the terrorist attack was intentionally launched on Christmas Eve "to make a statement." On December 25 in Nigeria, the Islamic group, Boko Haram, slaughtered 16 Christians, including children. The jihadi group has been bombing churches and massacring Christians on Christmas Day for several years in a row. One of the deadliest attacks occurred in 2011, when the jihadis bombed a Catholic church during Christmas mass. They killed 39 and wounded hundreds. On Christmas Eve in the Democratic Republic of Congo, over 50 people of the Christian-majority nation were massacred by the Ugandan-based group, ADF-Nalu, which "has acquired in recent years the characterization of a jihadist movement." On Christmas Eve in Iraq, the Islamic State bombed ten Christian homes and a convent in the Assyrian village of Tel Kepe. Several people were injured. On December 30, members of the Islamic State bombed several Christian-owned restaurants in Syria; 16 people were murdered. Muslim governmental officials -- not "ISIS" -- in nations such as Brunei, Somalia, and Tajikistan continue openly and formally to express their hostility for Christmas and Christianity. And extremist Muslims -- not "ISIS" -- continue to terrorize and slaughter Christians on Christmas in nations as diverse as Bangladesh, Belgium, the Congo, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Philippines, Syria, the West Bank, and even the United States. Turkish Jets Bomb Assyrian Village in North Iraq The Assyrian village of Upper Sharanish in North Iraq was bombed by Turkish jets on January 16, 2016. North Iraq (AINA) -- Turkish jets bombed the Assyrian village of Upper Sharanish in north Iraq on the 16th, under the pretext of targeting Kurdish PKK fighters who had entered the village. Nearly 25 Assyrian families fled the village in panic, heading for Zakho. The village of Lower Sharanish, which is completely Muslim, was not targeted. Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako condemned the bombing, calling it "unjust" and called on the Turkish government to "respect the lives and property of the population..." In August of 2012 7 Assyrian villages were bombed by Turkish jets, including Upper Sharanish (AINA 2015-08-12) again under the pretext of targeting Kurdish PKK fighters. European cargo hubs Liege and Munich both reported sizeable increases in airfreight volumes for 2015 versus prior year. Belgiums Liege handled nearly 650,000 tonnes in 2015, a 10% surge over 2014. The airports general manager, Luc Partoune, said: "The new airlines Qatar Airways and ANA Aviation have boosted our activity. And TNT has also shown very strong growth. CAL, El Al and Icelandair are also on the up." Belgiums number two cargo airport by volumes, Brussels, also performed well in 2015, with full year freight volumes up by 7.8% to just over 489,000 tonnes. In its outlook for 2016, a spokesperson for Liege said: There are encouraging prospects for 2016 as regards passenger traffic with connections between China and Liege doubling, from three to six flights a week. The investment programme of Liege Airport for 2016 amounts to 10m, with plans including the construction of a new business aviation area, creation of aircraft stands in the north, continuation of energy-saving investment with moves towards tri-generation, etc. He added: Moreover, investment in the Liege Airport Business Park will rise to 6m: a new freight hall in the northern zone, a storage facility, etc. The building serving as a reception centre for horses will be operational early June and will therefore be used to send the best horses in the world to the Olympic Games in Rio. Germanys southern cargo hub, Munich, reported that its growth in airfreight was up by about 9% to a new record level of over 317,000 tonnes. In a prior results interview with Air Cargo News, Markus Heinelt, director traffic development cargo for Munich, said of the Bavarian hubs freighter growth potential: This area has 43% of all German air cargo, and at present only 35% of it goes via Munich. But four years ago we handled only 29%, so we are getting more and more of the cake. That gives you a nice idea of the potential for the future. If new capacity comes, either bellyhold or maindeck, then it will be accepted by the market. Munich has outperformed fellow German gateway, Frankfurt Airport (FRA), Europes number one cargo hub by volumes, which saw its 2015 full year airfreight and airmail throughput fall by 2.3% to around 2.1m tonnes. Share this story January 18, 2016 CAIRO Becoming a member of parliament as the first Coptic woman to win an individual seat representing a district known for its tribalism and intolerance was a difficult feat. Mona Gaballah succeeded in entering the annals of Egyptian parliamentary history as the first Coptic woman to represent the al-Jamaliah and Manshiyat Nasser district. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Gaballah talks about the hurdles she faced during the electoral race, which includes societys prevailing patriarchal culture where even women refuse to vote for other women. Gaballah also opined that further developing the public sector requires the elimination of bureaucracy, though she rejects calls to amend the current constitution. The text of the interview follows: Al-Monitor: What are the main obstacles and difficulties that you faced in this electoral race, particularly considering that this was the first time that a Coptic woman succeeded in winning an individual seat? Gaballah: Prior to entering the race, my main concern revolved around the patriarchal culture that permeates society, to the point even where women refuse to vote for other women. Another concern was the fact that the al-Jamaliah and Manshiyat Nasser district that I represent is characterized by its tribal and familial affiliations that dominate the electoral scene. Yet I decided to enter the race despite not hailing from a prominent district family and residing in Heliopolis not al-Jamaliah or Manshiyat Nasser. In the end, through my office at the Free Egyptians Party, I gained voter confidence by working hard for the past three years to resolve my districts problems, succeeding in hooking up a great many houses to the central water supply, despite their lacking such services for the past 17 years. As a result my electoral chances were greatly improved. Al-Monitor: Al-Jamaliah and Manshiyat Nasser district suffers from many problems, such as poor health and housing services. As a member of parliament representing this district, how will you deal with these problems? Gaballah: First, I intend to join the Parliamentary Local Development Committee to combat corruption on the local and central levels. To solve my districts problems, we must decentralize the system of governance and give local leaders the authority to tackle issues dealing with health and education, for which they shall be held accountable. Now, when a local leader is admonished, he blames some other entity claiming that the matter was beyond his purview. In addition, a local parliament must be established in my district and be composed of local young constituents tasked with communicating with the people and drafting practical and realistic solutions to their problems. Al-Monitor: From your perspective as the first Coptic woman to win an individual seat, what do Copts want from the parliament? Gaballah: The attainment of parliamentary seats by 36 Copts in total, and my success as the first Coptic woman to win an individual seat since 1923, is proof that Egypt has overcome extremism. Therefore, I must now speak in my capacity as a deputy representing the nation and not just Copts. Laws must be enacted to do away with discrimination, and an anti-discrimination office should be established, as stipulated by the current constitution, to criminalize any activity deemed to discriminate between citizens. There are other laws that must be drafted to achieve social integration, among them a unified law for the construction of places of worship to establish clear nondiscriminatory regulations relating to the building of mosques and churches. Al-Monitor: Do Coptic women have specific demands from the current parliament? Gaballah: The demands of Coptic women are the same as those of Muslim women. Al-Monitor: As a defender of Egyptian womens rights, what are your legislative priorities? Gaballah: Through my visits to the district, I found that Egyptian women are most interested in the adoption of a new rental law, as the current one threatens the stability of Egyptian families, and a compromise must be reached between tenants and landlords in that regard. Evicting entire families at the end of their rental agreement is very detrimental, especially considering that rents are high to begin with. The Free Egyptians Party has drafted a law that deals with the rental crisis. Second on the list of priorities is a law that compels the state to provide assistance to female breadwinners who are responsible for their family's expenses. For example, the Ministry of Social Solidarity must grant women who are breadwinners low interest long-term loans, since the state does not aim to profit from such loans. Al-Monitor: As a founder of the Himaya [Protection] Movement that aims to develop the public sector and shield it from corruption, what are the key laws that you plan to propose inside parliament in order to achieve said goals? Gaballah: The party has many draft laws in the works, aimed at combating corruption and developing the public sector. We must do away with bureaucracy and encourage the public sector into thinking outside the box. For example, the Maspero Egyptian television building is losing 3 billion [Egyptian] pounds [$383 million] per year. We could rent out its studios to private television companies, thus putting its employees to work. Al-Monitor: How do you stand vis-a-vis calls to amend the current constitution? Gaballah: The Egyptian Constitution must be implemented and translated into laws before talking about amending it. As to the calls for increasing the presidents powers and reducing those of parliament, my opinion is that parliament will not stand against the president, but will cooperate therewith to solve Egypts problems. Al-Monitor: You stated that your success as the first Coptic woman to win an individual seat in parliament is proof that the nation is homogenous. In the coming years, will we see a Coptic woman holding the post of president of the Arab Republic of Egypt? Gaballah: A Coptic woman assuming that role would be a miracle from heaven. The Egyptian people are miracle workers, but personally I am not thinking of running for the presidency. Al-Monitor: Do you view the current parliament as one devoid of an opposition? Gaballah: Talk about parliament being a consensual non-opposition one is untrue. Parliaments job is to oversee the government and question ministers in relation to their performance and conduct, as well as review the governments plans and determine its ability to implement its programs. Al-Monitor: Will parliament oppose the government but not the president, particularly considering that the majority of the members of parliament stated their support for the president? Gaballah: Parliament will not oppose the president for the sake of opposing him. How can parliament oppose the president if he proposed a national project that benefits Egypt? The president wants Egypt to become a democratic state, and he is well aware that achieving that requires the existence of divergent opinions. As such, he will welcome any opposition that serves the public interest. Al-Monitor: Will the Free Egyptians Party ally itself with the Support Egypt bloc? Gaballah: The party officially refused joining this parliamentary bloc because the electorate chose their representatives based on their partisan affiliations and not their affiliation with a new coalition possessing unknown goals and programs. Therefore, prior to joining any new coalition, I must garner the consent of all my constituents. January 18, 2016 For more than two decades, Ephraim Sneh, a former minister from the Labor Party, has been following Irans nuclear project with great concern. As a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in 1992, he drew the attention of then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to Irans aspirations to develop a nuclear bomb. Since then and in every capacity he has served, including as deputy defense minister, he has not let up on this subject, delving deep into it. In an interview with Al-Monitor on the day the sanctions were lifted, he depicted a grim picture of what the Iranian victory means to world peace, calling it a "black day" not only for Israel but for humanity in general. The full text of the interview follows: Al-Monitor: The economic sanctions on Iran were lifted after it was established that it had complied with its part of the agreement, so why are you still concerned? Sneh: Because when you induct one of the darkest and most benighted regimes on earth into the family of nations and give it a red-carpet treatment, that is a black day for humanity. What it means is that the international community indeed, the most important democracies has lost its moral bearings. Those countries did not have the courage to confront this regime. Instead, they opted for a compromise that has satisfied most of Tehrans demands. What a lot of people dont understand is that having a nuclear weapon is not Irans end goal. Rather, it is one of its means toward becoming a global power. As soon as the Iranians got what they wanted and the sanctions were lifted, they simply put their nuclear program on a back burner. As far as theyre concerned, acquiring a [nuclear bomb] is only being delayed on their rout toward their strategic objective. Now that the sanctions have been lifted, Iran in addition to being inducted into the family of nations will also become richer. It will have much more money to buy modern weaponry and fund its regional expansion. This will make it easier for Tehran to apply pressure on the Western countries. For example, as soon as the sanctions were lifted, Tehran announced that it was poised to purchase more than 100 European-made Airbus aircraft. Given this state of affairs, I cant envision the European partnership in Airbus acting against Iran if the latter were to breach the nuclear deal. In addition, the other serious aspect of this deal is that it pronounces Iran as a legitimate hegemonic player in the Middle East. Not only is the international community lifting the sanctions and prepared to buy Iranian oil and let this evil country develop economically, but [it also enables] Iran to become a dominant factor in strategic affairs. It was already three months ago that the Iranians were invited as equal partners to the talks on Syria. They are also deviously playing the Islamic State card, saying, "Well help you [fight] against them." Its convenient to believe the Iranians, but what exactly is the big difference between the two? Its just a different version of the same barbaric Muslim fascism. Al-Monitor: What do you think about President Barack Obamas promise that Iran will not have a nuclear bomb? Sneh: For his promise to be serious, he also needs to make sure that if Iran violates the agreement, he will act vigorously against it, including the use of military force. I am not sure that he is resolved to do that during the last year of his presidency. From that perspective, he is a man of his word. He will complete his term with Iran not having acquired a nuclear bomb. But it would be a mistake to look at Irans danger only through the nuclear prism rather than having a broader perspective that looks at its aggression and endeavors to become a global force. Obviously we also need to bear in mind that it was the Obama administration that pushed for this agreement, so his statements on this issue are understandable. Thats his legacy. Two things drove him to broker the nuclear agreement: His tendency to avoid confrontations any confrontation, for that matter and his failure to see the Iranian regimes real intentions. He failed to draw a distinction between the means and the end. What he did was to temporarily take away Irans ability to advance its nuclear program that is to say, the means but he did advance the regime toward its end. It was easy for the Europeans to toe the line with Obama, because Europe, barring a few occasions, has always balked at confrontations. And it is also a captive of its own economic interests. None of this perish the thought stems from any hostility from Obama toward Israel. Rather, it has to do with his fundamental approach. He preferred to respond to the national mindset that shuns confrontations. In other words, he put political considerations ahead. That was further compounded by a naive view of what the ayatollah regimes true colors are. It was just last week that we got a reminder that even after the agreement and shortly before the sanctions were lifted, Irans hatred of America has not waned. Tehran simply could not pass up the opportunity to publicly humiliate the United States after taking the American sailors prisoner. The reason for this is its contempt for American values, and no leniency in the sanctions will ever change that. Al-Monitor: Doesnt your pessimistic outlook border on paranoia? There is an agreement; the nuke project has been checked and the nuclear facilities are being supervised. Some senior Israeli defense experts, the likes of Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Isaac Ben-Israel, even see some advantages in the deal. Shouldn't Israel feel calmer? Sneh: No one who has been bombarded by thousands of Iranian-made missiles during the past decade can be deemed paranoid. The missiles that Hezbollah fired at Israel from Lebanon and the rockets that Hamas fired from the Gaza Strip all originated from Iran, which was also the one pulling the strings. Let me make it clear: Israels main enemy is Iran. Its supreme spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, even wrote a book that was published just a few months ago, in which he explains how Israel will be annihilated: It will be surrounded by areas for launching missiles. So this isnt paranoia. What this means is that Israel ought to prepare militarily for this. It needs to prepare its defense arrays such as the Magic Wand system and procure missile defense batteries. It must also enhance its capabilities to operate against Hezbollah and Iran. The recent development the lifting of the sanctions emboldens Iran, and whatever emboldens Iran poses a danger to the State of Israel. Im not sure we wont need to resort to the military strike option in the future. Truth be told, Iran has been distanced from the bomb 10 to 15 years, according to the signatories of the deal depending on whether it cheats or not. In reality, all Iran is doing is putting its nuclear clear program on a back burner. Its not pulling the plug on it. Thats why the issue of intelligence oversight is very important. Such collaboration between Israel and the US is essential and still possible. This will enable us to find whether or not the Iranians are violating the agreement. Al-Monitor: According to your view, Israel got the short end of the stick in the nuclear deal. Could it even have had any input? Sneh: [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahus approach and fears are justified, yet the actions he took were miscalculated. The rift he has caused with the Obama administration has hurt Israels interests. A different Israeli government with a more constructive and intimate dialogue with the American administration might have averted this disaster or at least been able to have important changes made to the wording of the agreement. Yet Netanyahu chose to follow the interests of the Republican Party rather than Israels own security interests. From the very start of Obamas first term, I had called for a deal by which the government of Israel would adopt a more lenient approach toward the Palestinian issue in return for a tougher American posture on Iran. I said it seven years ago. They even called it Itamar for Natanz. Bibi would not hear any of it. Had we taken that approach, Obama would have had a foreign policy achievement to show for it and the entire picture would have been different. It took a long time for the sanctions to be crippling, during which Iran made headway, building more centrifuges and enriching more uranium. They constantly took advantage of the delays. Al-Monitor: So whos to blame? Sneh: I dont want to point fingers. All Im saying is that a different Israeli policy might have prevented ahead of time this detrimental development. Had Netanyahu not unilaterally identified with Obamas domestic rivals and had he adopted a different stance on the Palestinian issue, he could have demanded a tougher American policy in return. Al-Monitor: Arent you also concerned by Pakistans nuclear capability, another radical Islamic state? Sneh: Pakistan does not have aspirations to become a global force and take over the region. Pakistan doesnt want to impose a radical interpretation of Islam on other countries, nor is it seeking the State of Israels annihilation. India and China also have nuclear weapons. The main worry is when a nuclear bomb falls in the hands of an irresponsible regime. Ive been following Iran since 1992, and for many years I was the only one who warned of its danger. January 17, 2016 Nine women and 281 men. Such is the composition of the Iranian parliament. Rights activists believe this lopsided gender imbalance is one reason why so many discriminatory laws against women have been passed by the current legislature, in office since 2012. Ahead of the upcoming Feb. 26 parliamentary elections, a group of women's rights activists organized Changing the Male-Dominated Face of the Parliament, a campaign to address the dearth of women in the legislature. The campaign criticizes incumbent female members of parliament's failure to pursue womens rights and also encourages Iranian women to participate in the next elections as candidates as well as voters. The goal, stated on the group's website, is to win at least 50 seats for egalitarian women. To achieve this objective, members of the campaign have also formed committees such as Red Cards for Anti-Women Candidates, I Will Be a Candidate and 50 Seats for Egalitarian Women. So far, the number of registered female candidates for this year's election is three times greater than the number who registered to run in 2012. It is unclear, however, how many of the 1,234 prospective candidates will be disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets all registered hopefuls. In addition, an unprecedented 16 women have also registered to run in Assembly of Experts elections, to be held concurrently with the parliamentary balloting. In the 1980 legislative elections, the Islamic Republic's first, only four women earned seats. Serving alongside 324 male counterparts, these female members of parliament comprised slightly more than 1% of representatives. More broadly, with the exception of the fifth parliament, which took office in 1996, the percentage of women members of parliament has never exceeded 6%. In the current parliament, only 3% of members of parliament are female. In a conversation with Al-Monitor, Shahla Mir Galoy Bayat, one of the nine incumbent female members of parliament, described the machinations related to one bill that highlights some of the reasons why many want more women legislators and why they have been critical of current members of parliament. Bayat explained, When the administration sent one bill to parliament, the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission added certain clauses that would violate womens rights. We, members of the Womens Faction, held meetings with the speaker and discussed the bill. However, since our number is very small compared with the number of male parliamentarians, we thought that more than likely we would not be able to stop the bill. Therefore, we decided to approve it as it is, with the hope of changing it in the future. Bayat said Changing the Male-Dominated Face of the Parliament is a good initiative and that Iranian women should hold at least 30% of seats in the body. She also said, however, Women are unlikely to win 50 seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections. We should work harder to achieve these goals in future elections, and of course we should see how women rights activists are going to perform in the upcoming elections and how the general public will react. Of note, members of Changing the Male-Dominated Face of the Parliament are not just trying to increase the number of female parliament members. Rather, they want 50 seats for egalitarian women. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Nahid Tavasoli, a womens rights researcher and activist, said, The female members of parliament who are currently serving [in office] have shown, for whatever reason, that they do not believe in equality between men and women. Tavasoli told Al-Monitor she is hoping that with the aid of the campaign, legislators in the next parliament will be concerned about womens rights and will work toward ensuring equality for women. She added, We should not forget that womens civil society can never stop monitoring parliamentarians and should constantly follow-up to make sure that legislation that is passed is improving womens conditions and are not discriminatory against them. In this vein, incumbent female legislators appear to be more concerned with justice for both genders rather than gender equality. Bayat contends that if there is justice for both men and women in society, women will learn about their rights and pursue them through legal means. She added, however, I think gender equality can create problems for women. For example, if we want to implement gender equality, we should no longer allow women to take maternity leave. We have had many discussions in parliament in order to make sure that no bill undermining justice [for the two genders] is adopted. Avoiding politics and power The founders of Changing the Male-Dominated Face of the Parliament have insisted that they are not seeking political office themselves. They have, however, as individuals, occasionally backed certain political figures. When President Hassan Rouhani registered as a candidate for the Assembly of Experts elections Dec. 21, he urged all "eligible ladies" to register and participate in the parliamentary vote. Shahindokht Molaverdi, Rouhanis vice president for womens and family affairs, as well as Faezeh Hashemi, a former member of parliament who represented Tehran in the fifth parliament, have both advocated greater female participation in the upcoming parliamentary contest. Changing the Male-Dominated Face of the Parliament has been successful in gaining the support of womens right activists in cyberspace, including members of the Womens Campaign to Gain 100 Seats. Nonetheless, while acknowledging the increase in the quantity and quality of female candidates, Tavasoli believes that women still have a long way to go to reach their goal of occupying 50 seats in the parliament. For now, the more than 1,200 women who have registered to run for parliament, alongside more than 10,000 male candidates, must await approval by the Guardian Council. Tavasoli is not optimistic. She remarked, Considering their male-dominated views, members of the Guardian Council are more likely to disqualify female candidates. If you pay attention to the comments made by Friday prayer leaders about women, then you would understand why I am not optimistic. Tavasoli, also editor-in-chief of the cultural and artistic magazine Nafeh, had registered to run in the seventh parliamentary elections, held in 2004, but was disqualified by the Guardian Council. At that time, the council even disqualified some incumbent members of parliament. For the time being, members of the campaign to change the face of parliament who have reformist and moderate tendencies have independently registered as candidates are and like everyone else must wait for the Guardian Council's decision. Tavasoli says that if egalitarian women can reach their goal of winning 30% of seats in parliament, then perhaps there will no longer be a need for the kind of campaigns initiated this election cycle. For now, however, the struggle continues. Tavasoli said, Considering that right now women still have many unfulfilled demands and requests, it is likely that similar, additional campaigns will emerge as well. Therefore, as long as womens demands regarding legislative reform are not being addressed in parliament, we will continue this fight. January 14, 2016 The current Israeli government is quick to brand anyone criticizing its policies as an enemy of Israel. Friends of Israel are only those who agree with the government; US President Barack Obama is not one of them. A blatant example was the governments reaction to the European Union decision of labeling exported goods produced in Israeli settlements. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself criticized the EU for labeling Israeli goods instead of caring about Israelis being attacked by Arab terrorists. Likud Knesset backbenchers hinted at an analogy between the marking of Israeli products and the marking of Jews during the Holocaust. This is all part of the same mindset: You are either with us, or anti-Semitic. It dates back to the era of Golda Meirs tenure as prime minister when she coined the phrase: The whole world is against us; a deeply-rooted ghetto mentality. Clearly, this worldview is part of the current governments ideology and propaganda policy. It stems from a sense of paranoia and xenophobia. Government spokespeople actually believe that the EU policy on settlements, for instance, is rooted in historic hostility toward Israel and Jews. This mindset makes any political dialogue with other countries virtually impossible and does not lend to an effective foreign policy. It also serves well the domestic interests of this government. The description of the world in black and white, a world of good guys and bad guys and of a perpetual anti-Jewishness, fosters the fortress mentality, which, according to the governments chief, is the only answer. This mindset is actually an efficient public relations' strategy well-shaped for people traumatized by history. A senior official at the Quai dOrsay (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs) dealing with Middle East policy told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the decision of labeling goods produced west of the Green Line was also partly a French initiative. He said, The Hollande administration is in favor of Israel and has a balanced Middle East policy. For us, simply, the West Bank is not Israel. He complained that French diplomats are frustrated to hear, time and again, their Israeli counterparts in Paris and Jerusalem complaining of anti-Israel hostility and of anti-Semitism whenever France is in disagreement with Netanyahus policies. We can be against Netanyahus policies and pro-Israel at the same time, he added. This view is shared by the Obama administration. Then-White House Middle East Coordinator Philip Gordon at the Haaretz Conference in Tel Aviv on July 8, 2014, criticized Israeli policies severely for the occupation of the West Bank: How will Israel remain democratic and Jewish if it attempts to govern the millions of Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank? he said. He noted that this criticism does not contradict the great friendship of the US administration toward Israel. He added, The United States will always have Israels back. Thats why we fight for it every day in the United Nations. The dichotomy Gordon outlined has since characterized the Obama administrations attitude toward Israel and its policies. A senior official at the EU headquarters echoed to Al-Monitor the same sentiment. He expressed the prevailing European sense of resentment toward Israel's systematic labeling of any policy critical of it as anti-Israeli. The official said that the criticism stems from fundamental policy differences on a variety of important topics. The source further argued that the European positions in all the issues where Brussels and Jerusalem do not see eye to eye actually benefit Israel. The official listed several such examples of European stands benefitting Israel. The first example is the European unequivocal objection to any construction in settlements and to their expansion. The current Israeli settlement policies will, in Europes view, with time render the two-state solution impossible; Israel then will cease to be a Jewish democracy. Another example is the EU's strong support of the Iran deal, something that Netanyahu perceives as a betrayal of Israel, especially by Germany. Today, with Iranian initial compliance with the terms of the agreement, the EU perceives the deal to be in Israels interest. There is also the case of EU insistence for renewing peace negotiations based on the 1967 lines as a future border between the two states. Brussels believes that this is the only path to enhance Israels security, by also bringing to the negotiation table many of the pragmatic Arab countries, based on the Arab Peace Initiative. The last example he cited was that of the new Israeli association law (Transparency law), which is much criticized by the EU. This law requires peace and human rights nongovernmental organizations that receive their funding from international (primarily European) sources to be tagged when visiting the Knesset. The EU worries for the State of Israels democratic standards the primary basis of the long-lasting EU-Israeli friendship. Official Jerusalem disputes these positions. From the Netanyahu government's viewpoint, it is Israel, right or wrong or, rather, always right. Those who accuse it of being wrong are obviously hostile. That is a dangerous position, which may, with time, become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In reality, a real friend of Israel is obliged to share with it his true positions, especially on the necessary two-state solution. One can be anti-settlements and pro-Israel and, actually, in the view of many, this is proof of being a true friend of Israel. January 18, 2016 Israel's response to the lifting of sanctions on Iran was typically acrimonious. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Jan. 17, Israel will monitor the implementation of the deal and will notify of any violation. He added that Tehran has not abandoned its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons and continues to act to destabilize the Middle East and spread terrorism throughout the world, in violation of its international commitments. Netanyahu doesn't really trust the international community, including the United States, to keep meticulous track of how Iran implements the commitments it made in the nuclear deal. At his induction ceremony, Netanyahus new Mossad chief Yossi Cohen declared that the risks inherent in a post-nuclear agreement Iran are even greater than before. As far as Netanyahu is concerned, Israel is the last watchdog defending the free world from Irans nuclear ambitions. Most opinions among Israels defense establishment and the Israel Defense Forces are slightly different. Senior IDF officials speak of the nuclear agreement in very dissimilar terms, using concepts unlike those embraced by Israels political leadership. It is true, confirmed one top military source, speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. There is not a single expert in the IDF who believes that the Iranians have abandoned their nuclear aspirations. On the other hand, international pressure, sanctions and the clandestine campaign have induced them to sign the nuclear agreement, and it is our assessment that they will implement it meticulously. The agreement creates a 10- to 15-year window, which provides us with an enormous opportunity. We are talking about a strategic turning point. For the last 15 years, Iran has followed a steady vector leading to nuclear capacity. Now it has all been blocked, rolled back and frozen at a reasonable distance from that goal. This is real news. This is heresy, as far as Netanyahu is concerned. Even if the prime minister had similar thoughts, he would never admit it publicly. He is committed to one single agenda and always sees things from one angle. The perspective with which Israels security establishment the IDF, the Mossad, military intelligence, the Shin Bet and other branches of the defense forces assesses the situation is purely professional. They see a much more complex picture, replete with advantages and disadvantages. While they may not admit it publicly, at this particular stage, the advantages of the agreement with Iran outweigh its disadvantages. The agreement removes the Iranian nuclear threat from the agenda for 10 to 15 years, said another senior defense official on condition of anonymity. That is a lot more than an Israeli military attack or even an American assault would achieve. An achievement of this magnitude must not be belittled. As far as conventional weapons are concerned, Israels military establishment is almost as worried as the political leadership. In its initial stage, the agreement allows $100-150 billion to flow to Iran, said a third senior military official on condition of anonymity. We must not forget that the vision of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has not changed. They aspire to spread [former Supreme Leader Ruhollah] Khomeinis teachings and to destroy Israel. Over the next few years, Iran will be wealthier, more daring and more dangerous. We will witness these efforts in Iraq, in Lebanon, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria and even in Gaza. Hezbollahs financial crisis has become increasingly apparent over the past few months, but it is likely to end now. These are hardly positive developments for the region. It is like pouring oil on a fire. But the overall picture is a lot more complicated than the billions of dollars that Iran may or may not pour into its efforts to bolster international terrorism. Armies and intelligence forces have weaknesses, said one of the Israeli sources. They size up the decision-makers and top commanders of the opposing side as well as its military capacities. It is harder to evaluate deep trends within society itself. This is true of Iran as well. He is referring to the upcoming Iranian parliamentary election scheduled to take place Feb. 26. The IDF regards this election as a pivotal event that could indicate in which direction the Iranian people are heading. Within Iran, there is a historic clash of titans between two conflicting trends: continued domination of the revolution by the Quds Force and generals like Qasem Soleimani, or the desire for normalcy and the good life shared by the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people who, according to most Western experts, are now fed up with the Islamic Revolution. A top Israeli intelligence official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, We saw this trend in the 2009 riots, which were suppressed with considerable force. The ensuing election of [President Hassan] Rouhani was evidence that the real will of the Iranian people had not changed. The people want freedom. Right now, we dont know what will happen in the elections for the Majlis. Will the Quds Force be able to stir the pot and tilt the results in their favor? Another area where it is possible to identify signs of the structural conflict between the forces of Iranian radicalism and supporters of normalcy within the country is the attitude toward losses suffered by Iranian forces in the war with Syria. According to information that has reached the West, Iran has contributed some 2,500 elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps troops to the fight in Syria. They have suffered about 170 casualties, with hundreds more (between 300 and 400) wounded. As a result of these losses, Tehran has ordered at least some of these forces home, replacing them with Shiite volunteer militias from Iraq and Iran. It was surprising to see the Iranian sensitivity to casualties, said an Israeli official. We did not expect that. This is an important statement. Iranian society is drawing closer to normalcy and Western values. The ability to throw thousands of troops into a campaign and sustain heavy losses can no longer be taken for granted. The process is fascinating. It is interesting to note the similarities between top Israeli defense officials assessment of Iranian society and that of the US administration. The fundamental argument between President Barack Obama and Netanyahu is that Netanyahu contends that the nuclear agreement could perpetuate the rule of the ayatollahs, providing them with hundreds of billions of dollars to revive the economy and reinforce the regime at this particularly critical juncture. In contrast, the Americans claim that drawing closer to the West and opening the Iranian economy and society in general to Western influences under the agreement are the elements that could expedite a process of internal change in Iran and bring the revolution closer to an end. The Israeli defense establishment does not dismiss the American approach entirely. According to some analyses, the money that Iran stands to receive over the next few years will not be enough to really revive the Iranian economy and improve the living conditions of the average Iranian who is now struggling. According to these assessments, those precise circumstances pose the greatest threat to the regime. None of us would bet on where things will go from here. We have no way of knowing, a senior Israeli intelligence source told me this week on condition of anonymity. In this business, not everything is a precise science. There are a lot of unknowns that are hard to anticipate. All that is left for us to do for now is to take a good look at next months elections, and on that basis, try to understand what direction the country is taking. January 17, 2016 The presidents of Iran and the United States on Jan. 17 celebrated a mutual diplomatic victory that accomplishes key goals for both governments long-term limitations on Irans ability to make a nuclear weapon in return for the Islamic Republics re-entry into the global marketplace. Both Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani were careful not to claim an end to US-Iran differences over issues ranging from Irans intervention in regional conflicts to its treatment of domestic opponents. But the sense of mutual accomplishment was striking in their remarks, which appeared timed to allow audiences in both the United States and Iran to watch them in tandem. Rouhani, speaking first at a press conference in Tehran, declared, Today is the beginning of a new era, a new chapter [for Iran] with the region and the world. He listed the benefits of sanctions removal for Irans trade and investment, its oil and gas exports and banking, including the fact that 1,000 letters of credit were opened for Iranian banks just one day after the nuclear deal went into full force. Rouhani also tried to reassure Irans regional adversaries that Iran would not use the added resources it will receive including an estimated $50 billion in unfrozen assets in foreign banks for hostile purposes. Our country has a big power called the power of diplomacy, he said. Not long after, Obama addressed Americans and Iranians in a rare Sunday appearance. Obama heralded his administrations pursuit of diplomacy, too, for solving difficult issues and suggested it could lay the groundwork for expanded US-Iran ties in the future. We have a rare chance to pursue a new path a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world, Obama said in remarks in the White House Cabinet Room. Thats the opportunity before the Iranian people. We need to take advantage of that. I am hopeful that this signals the opportunity at least for Iran to work more cooperatively with nations around the world to advance their interests and the interests of people who are looking for peace and security for their families, Obama said. Where Rouhani had listed the economic benefits to Iran of the nuclear deal, Obama focused on the nonproliferation gains, which he said would ensure that Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. Iran has taken a series of steps that push out to more than a year the time it would take to produce enough nuclear material for a nuclear weapon. It has also agreed to an intrusive inspection system that would make it very difficult, Obama said, for it to try to build a bomb covertly. Obama delayed his remarks until after the US government received confirmation that a Swiss plane carrying three freed Iranian-Americans Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, pastor Saeed Abedini and former US Marine Amir Hekmati had departed Iran. Their departure had been expected on Jan. 16, but had been delayed to ensure that Rezaians wife, Iranian journalist Yeganeh Salehi, and his mother, Mary, could fly out on the same plane with him, Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists en route back to Washington from Vienna. A fourth freed Iranian-American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, had apparently decided not to leave Iran yet. A fifth American, Matthew Trevithick, who was detained in Iran in November while attending a four-month intensive Persian language program, flew out of Iran on a civilian airline Jan. 16, US officials said. In return for their release, the United States gave clemency to six Iranian-Americans and an Iranian jailed for sanctions violations, and agreed not to seek the extradition of 14 other Iranians abroad wanted for similar, nonviolent offenses. Obama called this a one-time gesture to Iran that benefited from the diplomatic channels opened by the nuclear talks. The releases of the detained US and Iranian citizens were the result of a secret, second diplomatic channel launched 14 months ago and led on the US side by Brett McGurk, Obamas special envoy on countering the Islamic State, US officials said. McGurk met with an Iranian intelligence official and other nondiplomatic Iranian representatives in secret meetings hosted by the Swiss government, US officials said. Those discussions intensified after the nuclear deal was reached last summer and the two sides were able to winnow down the list of Iranians whose release Iran was seeking. The United States only agreed to grant clemency to Iranians convicted of nonviolent offenses, US officials said. What happened today in getting American citizens home, for being able to do this, [involved talking] with elements of the Iranian system we dont normally engage with, a senior Obama administration official, speaking not for attribution, told journalists on a White House call Jan. 17 about the McGurk channel on humanitarian detainee releases. We were dealing with different parts of the Iranian system than Iranian diplomats, a second US official said, apparently referring to elements of Iranian intelligence and security apparatus. In addition, Obama said, the United States had resolved a decades-old dispute with Iran over American weapons paid for by the Shah of Iran and not delivered after the 1979 Iranian revolution. The State Department said Iran would receive $400 million left in a trust fund plus $1.3 billion in interest. A senior US official asserted later in the background call with reporters that Iran was seeking billions of dollars more and suggested that it was better to resolve the matter now rather than waiting for more interest charges to build up. Over the years, he said, Iran has paid more than $2.5 billion to settle 4,700 private US claims filed against the Iranian government. So, nuclear deal implemented. American families reunited, Obama said. With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well. Obama also announced new sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities over its ballistic missile program sanctions that had been widely anticipated but were postponed so as not to interfere with Irans implementation of the nuclear deal or its release of the jailed Americans. Taken together, the developments of the past few days including the rapid release of 10 American sailors who strayed into Iranian waters are almost breathtaking in scope but could be undermined by political developments in both countries. In Iran, the Guardian Council, a body that vets candidates for elected office, has disqualified a large number of Reformists from running for parliament in elections due at the end of February. Asked about this at a press conference, Rouhani suggested that he would try to persuade the council to reconsider. In the United States, Republican presidential candidates who uniformly oppose the nuclear deal harshly criticized Obama for agreeing to a prisoner exchange. A senior US official, speaking to reporters after Obamas remarks, expressed frustration about the criticism. He said the Republican candidates should be asked, Do you want to leave these Americans in prison? The official also said the exchange was not a swap a term used when spies are exchanged but releases undertaken by each side on a humanitarian basis. ... This was our opportunity to bring them home. Clearly, dynamics between the United States and Iran have changed under the Obama and Rouhani administrations. The senior US official noted that the two countries have had more diplomatic engagement in the past two years than they have had since the Iranian revolution, adding that when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Irans president, the United States did not have constructive engagement at all about nuclear issues or anything else. Asked by Al-Monitor whether these channels could be institutionalized to continue when Obama is no longer president, the official conceded that were obviously not opening diplomatic relations in the way the United States has recently done with Cuba. He said it would be up to the next [US] administration how they want to carry this forward and progress would also depend on Irans attitude. The choice is even more on the Iranian side than our side, the official said. January 5, 2016 RAMALLAH, West Bank Work on a Palestinian social security law began in October 2012, and the first draft was submitted July 27, 2015, to the Council of Ministers by the committee selected to develop it. The draft presented had shortcomings that required further amendment. The final version of the law was submitted in December to the Council of Ministers, which is expected to ratify it and send it to the president for signing. The law covers issues related to retirement benefits, maternity leave, disability and payments to families of deceased workers and compels companies to make contributions to the Social Security Fund on behalf of their employees. The draft law comes at a time when Palestinian workers are suffering hardships and dire conditions, with no guarantees of financial security. The minimum wage law is not being enforced, and Palestinians face rising unemployment and difficulty being allowed to work in Israel. Criticism of the social security law has been leveled by representatives of workers unions, who are divided between those who view it as better than nothing despite its shortcomings and others, the majority, who think its shortcomings undermine the concept of social security. The proposed retirement funds which the committee supposedly set at the minimum wage, 1,450 shekels a month ($366), which is also the poverty line are not commensurate with the cost of living and difficult economic conditions in general for Palestinians. In fact, critics argue, monthly payments would fall well below the poverty line under the draft plan. Ibrahim Dhouib, a member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, told Al-Monitor, The idea behind the law is to offer security to workers in case of disability and old age, neither of which is addressed in this law. The wage percentage received by workers whose employment has ended is greatly below their respective salaries and therefore cannot cover expenses. We expected these fundamental deficiencies to be addressed during discussions pertaining to the draft law, which, in its current form, does not achieve the objectives for which it was legislated in the first place. The draft law was penned by a 35-member committee appointed by the Council of Ministers and representing various sectors and interests. Among its members were Shaher Saad, secretary-general of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions; Ahmed Majdalani, a Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member; and Jamal Jawabra, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Ramallah. On Dec. 2, the committee issued a statement announcing the completion of the draft and its planned delivery to the prime minister, a sign of the impending inauguration of the social security system. The statement came amid calls by workers and their representatives that ratification of the law be postponed until amendments are made to deal with its deficits. Majdalani nonetheless anticipates that the draft will be adopted by the Council of Ministers and then submitted to the president for signing into law within the next two months. Under the statute, beneficiaries encompass all workers who are covered by the Palestinian Labor Law, private sector workers excluded from the provisions of the Public Pension Law and the Security Forces Wage Law, as well as some Palestinian employees of international organizations. According to Majdalani, the law provides social security to workers in the form of a national safety net and should be regarded as a support mechanism facilitating the Palestinian peoples steadfastness and ability to remain on their land and confront Israels displacement policy. Majdalanis contention that the law offers workers protection was met with skepticism by Muhammad al-Arouri, president of the World Solidarity Organization. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Arouri said, The law, in its current iteration, does not protect workers from wage erosion and the high cost of living [in retirement]. It also does not guarantee an equitable distribution of income. We think that there was collusion between employers and the government to adopt it in its current form. Arouri asserted that labor unions and organizations involved in protecting workers rights will not quietly go along with the law's adoption because it violates basic employee rights. He added, Unions and rights activists are waging a war to have the law withdrawn from the Council of Ministers and resubmitted to the council after revision. The key point of contention, according to Arouri, is the issue of contributions based on workers' wages, with the workers' share amounting to 7.5% and employers' 8.5%. According to Arouri, the figures were those preferred by business owners, and do not provide workers any added benefits beyond those guaranteed under the current labor law for end of service compensation. In addition, employers provide insurance in case of work-related injuries. Arouri compared the Palestinian draft law to its Jordanian counterpart. In Jordan, employers pay half the workers' contribution, which is 1.7% of workers' base salary, but employees' pensions on average are higher than their salaries at the time of retirement. The Palestinian plan, also based on 1.7% of base pay, affords employees an average net monthly pension of 700 shekels (about $179), which is far below the poverty line of 1,450 shekels. Meanwhile, the formula for Palestinian public sector workers, who are not covered by the law, is based on 2.2% of their base pay, with the government covering the full cost of the contribution. Where then, asked Arouri, is the social justice guaranteed by such a law? Dhouib, a member of the General Secretariat of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, concurred with Arouri's sentiment. He also said that the law would not, as workers and employee unions desire, replace Social Insurance Act No. 3 (2003), which the president repealed in a 2007 executive decree. He added, This law, in terms of employer participation and in terms of the minimum retirement funds that it guarantees which do not exceed 50% percent of the minimum wage would be catastrophic if adopted. Majdalani played down Arouri and Dhouib's misgivings, stating, The law is the culmination of three years of collective discussions and negotiations. Therefore, through common ground, compromise solutions were reached. Thus, the final outcome revolves around balanced formulas that safeguard the interests of all parties involved and affords the required and allowable minimum levels of protection to the interests of all. Majdalani reiterated that the remarks thus far after submission to the Council of Ministers have not been so deep as to require fundamental changes. As a result, its terms would be difficult to change. Having a law, even one that does not satisfy the aspirations of all parties, is better than having no law at all, Majdalani claimed. Those who disagree with this official position, namely workers and their representatives, question the futility of adopting a law that fails to guarantee workers a pension that affords them a dignified life in the event of disability and old age. January 14, 2016 On Jan. 12, Kadir Has University in Istanbul published the results of its fifth annual survey that investigated the views of Turkish citizens on the most pressing issues that are on the countrys agenda. The Survey of Social-Political Trends in Turkey 2015 was conducted in December, with the participation of 1,000 respondents aged 18 and older from 26 cities around the country. To better understand the results of the survey, it is important to note that about half of the participants voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last elections, followed by partisans of the Republican People's Party (CHP) (25%), Nationalist Action Party (MHP) (12.8%) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) (11.1%). In terms of the participants self-definition on the political spectrum, 20.7% defined themselves as conservative, 16.3% as nationalist, 14.7% as religious, 9.4% as social democrat, 7.3% as socialist and 2.9% as ultranationalist. About 65.7% defined themselves as ethnically Turkish and 11.1% as Kurdish, while 1.1% of the respondents were Alevis and 0.9% were Arabs. One of last year's most striking findings is the change in perception of the most serious problem on Turkeys agenda. While the respondents had cited unemployment as the most serious problem in the previous four years, in 2015 terrorism was No. 1 in all geographical regions where the survey was conducted, with 39.3% (compared to 13.9% in 2014); 16.3% of respondents considered "unemployment" to be the second-most pressing issue, which was considerably higher in 2014 with 33%. These were followed by corruption (8.3%), foreign policy questions (6.1%), Kurdish problem (5.2%), crisis in Syria, inequality, judiciary system, parallel structure and education. The increase in peoples anxiety about terrorism is not surprising given the recent escalation in the conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the medias focus on it. Government officials might not like the results of the survey that suggest that 45.8% of participants found the governments performance in the fight against the PKK unsuccessful. On the other hand, 28% found it successful, while 26.2% of respondents thought it was neither successful nor unsuccessful. Unsurprisingly, AKP supporters found the fight against the PKK more successful than the opposition voters. When asked what is the best way to solve the terror problem, roughly 31.6% of respondents stated military methods as the most effective way, while almost the same number of respondents (30.9%) stated political means as the best remedy. Interestingly, while the support for political measures remained almost the same in 2014 and 2015, last year, military means were perceived as less effective compared to the year before (39.2%). Still, in 2015, more than half of respondents stated support for security forces operations and curfews. Moreover, about 53% of respondents said that the peace process should restart, while 47% of respondents said it should not. When asked about the governments approach toward the Kurdish question in general, 29.9% of participants found the government to be acting effectively, while 40% thought the opposite. Notably, the governments performance was seen in a better light than in 2014, when 47.7% of participants had found the government's policies unsuccessful on this matter. The main reasons for those who consider the governments approach in dealing with the Kurdish issue to be successful is the peace process (19.1%) and cessation of discrimination against Kurdish citizens (10%). On the other hand, 36.8% of participants cited the continuing terror as the main reason for finding the governments approach toward the Kurdish question unsuccessful, followed by the perception that Kurds are not given their rights (11.5%) and the increased number of soldier casualties (9.8%). Interestingly, the majority of respondents seemed confused about the Kurdish representation in Turkey, as 32.2% believe the HDP represents the Kurds and 35.3% think the opposite. When the same question is asked about the PKK, the findings are a bit clearer, as 19.9% believe that the PKK represents the Kurdish people, while 52% stated it does not. In 2015, 28.1% of respondents believed that the PKK represents the Kurds in Turkey, with an almost equal number saying it does not. One finding that does not seem to fluctuate much from year to year is the perception of the influence of imprisoned PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan over the PKK and HDP. In 2015, 42.3% of participants stated that Ocalan completely controls the PKK, and 39.7% thought he had a lot of influence. The numbers were more or less the same in previous years. One considerable change, however, is perceived in a smaller number of people who think Ocalan has full control over the HDP. This rate decreased to 30.4% from 44.5% in 2014, thus suggesting that Ocalan is losing control of the Kurdish political party in peoples minds. Consequently, the number of people who believed Turkey is in danger of partition increased to 54.2% in 2015 from 46.2% in 2014. Expectedly, voters of the republican secularist CHP opposition, the nationalist MHP and supporters of the Kurdish HDP believed this danger to be larger than the AKP supporters. Nevertheless, the danger of the countrys division undoubtedly extends across party lines. According to 47% of respondents, Islam is what connects the Kurds and Turks, followed by common history (26.7%), common expectations of the future (10.3%), marriage and family ties (8.1%) and economic relations (7.9%). A vast majority of respondents (64.6%) believe that Turkey should remain "a unitary state," as opposed to a federation. On a more general note, the problem with terror that Turkey faces is not associated just with the PKK. The suicide attack in Istanbul on Jan. 12 and the terrorist attacks in 2015 in Diyarbakir, Suruc and Ankara affirm the persisting danger of terrorism in Turkey. The surveys results confirm that the majority of participants across party lines believe the Islamic State (IS) was behind these attacks. Yet notably, 18.5% believe it was the work of IS and the PKK," and some 13% believe it was the work of the PKK. However, while 86.4% of respondents see IS as a terrorist organization, that rate was 93.2% in 2014. Along the same lines, while 82.3% of respondents described IS as a threat to Turkey in 2014, that rate decreased somewhat to 78% in 2015. More than half of respondents think that Turkeys policy against IS should include more air raids, and a considerable number of respondents believe that Turkey should give more support to the coalition forces airstrikes. In summary, the results of the Kadir Has University survey show that although people in Turkey are united in their perception of terrorism as the main threat to the country, there is not much consensus on the identity of the perpetrators or how best to deal with them. January 17, 2016 Melih Gokcek has been the mayor of the Turkish capital, Ankara, since 1994. He is known as a flamboyant and loquacious member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and is quite active on social media. He appears on television frequently and has over 3 million followers on Twitter. He frequently engages pundits and colleagues into virtual duels. On Jan. 15, Gokceks target was US Ambassador John Bass. Bass recently gave an interview to the pro-government daily Sabah where he had criticized terror activities, particularly those of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). This news was shared widely by pro-government networks as a sign of US support for Turkey against separatist movements. Yet the mood changed quickly when the US Embassy posted a brief message indicating the ambassadors support for freedom of expression for academics who signed a petition titled We do not want to be partners to the crime, which asked the Turkish government to find a way for peace in the southeast. As Al-Monitors Cengiz Candar has written, the government sees the petition as supporting terrorism. Consequently, the academics were targeted on multiple fronts, with some being detained or suspended. The social pressure against them was not limited to traditional virtual attacks. It also involved marking office doors of academics who signed the petition, and even publicizing their home addresses, the religious affiliation of their spouses and occupations of their parents. Bass statement read: Expressions of concerns about violence do not equal support for terrorism. Bass said that while the United States may not agree with the opinions expressed by those academics, he emphasized US support for freedom of expression, regardless of the contents of the petition. Yet, what might seem to many a simple generic document from the US Embassy was branded as a direct attack on the government by the mayor. Gokcek shared 10 consecutive tweets on Jan. 15 directly addressing Bass. His tweets received hundreds of retweets and promptly became a trending topic in Turkey. The news that Gokcek declared Bass persona non grata made the headlines in national media outlets. In his Twitter feed, Gokcek said, Bass is incapable of comprehending what he reads. Those shady academics are saying there is a massacre against the armed terrorists. Dear Bass, in the US, the police shoot citizens like pears for simply not putting up their hands. And you guys call this [method] security? In our country, heavily armed terrorists are attacking the police and soldiers. You tell us to accept it in the name of democracy. Well, we cannot. Gokcek then shared some photos of the PKKs devastating attacks, with collapsed buildings and a few YouTube videos displaying PKK violence. He wrote: Bass, apologize to Turkey. Take a look at these [videos and photos] where PKK killed babies yesterday. Perhaps your blind eyes will see. You are the wrong choice for Turkey. I think you should go back to your country. Another ambassador who knows us should take your place. Gokcek concluded by stating that Turkish officials are trying to bring US-Turkey relations to their best level, while Bass is personally damaging the relationship. He recommended that Bass should at least know when to remain silent, and not back these academics who support murderers. On Jan. 16, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby addressed the issue at a daily press briefing and reiterated Bass comments that the United States is concerned about a troubling trend in Turkey. Addressing a question about Gokceks comments, Kirby said, Turkey has no better friend than the US and that is certainly represented in Ambassador Bass. Nobody is more committed in seeing Turkey succeed and to live up to its own constitution and democratic values than Ambassador Bass. It is because he deeply cares about the Turkish people and the health of the Turkish democracy that he spoke the way that he did, he issued the statement of concern that he did. Kirby emphasized the issue was not even about supporting the academics, but a matter of principle for the United States. It wasnt picking sides on the academics' arguments or not. That was not the issue; in fact, you can look at the statement and he makes it clear. It was the idea of being able to express opinions freely and openly and to challenge government in a peaceful, democratic way. Yet looking at the arguments these remarks generated in social media, it is difficult to say that Kirbys point is a concern for the general public. Most social media accounts addressing directly Gokceks tweets were divided into two camps: those who criticized the United States for its own police brutality, and others who recalled that during the 2013 Gezi Park protests, Gokcek had saluted the police for attacking unarmed protesters. Similarly, on Eksisozluk a public information sharing website known to be critical of the AKP most comments either ridiculed Gokcek as an Internet troll or were laden with virulent anti-Americanism. Gokcek reached his goal of diverting attention away from the idea of freedom of expression to that of standing with or against terrorists. The crux of Bass message, that verbal expression of concern for violence is not the same as support for terrorism, was lost to the public. Indeed, the debate in Turkey took a path in the opposite direction to justify further and deeper restriction on freedom of expression. There are a few reasons for that. First, the majority of Turkish public finds the AKP unsuccessful in dealing with the PKK. The latest public opinion polls from respectable sources such as Kadir Has University of Istanbul confirm this point as casualties rise due to PKK and Islamic State (IS) terror all around the country. By labeling any criticism as terrorism, the government is attempting to generate a rally-around-the-flag effect and a strong justification to silence dissent. For example, on Jan. 6, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, In colleges, schools, hospitals and in any public office, those who stand by the terror organization should be promptly exposed. This seems to result in pro-AKP trolls turning the US Embassy as an adversary by tweeting photos of victims coffins and threatening, Look at this and know your place. Second, many research institutes have documented that the level of trust among Turks or with foreigners and foreign countries is rather low. Anti-Americanism thus provides positive payoffs for flamboyant public figures such as Gokcek. Al-Monitor contacted 18 American expatriates in Turkey who all concurred that anti-Americanism is felt strongly on a daily basis. An English teacher who has been working in Istanbul for the last five years told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Yes, I believe what the ambassador has done is right. Yet as an American woman, I also fear that xenophobia is now displayed more frequently and ferociously. People I interact with on a daily basis directly hold me responsible for all US actions; in one day I counted 12 times I had to say I am not a representative of the US government, just a teacher. People blame the US for supporting the PKK as well as IS. But then again, they also blame Russia and Iran all the same. In general, populist rhetoric can be used to temporarily distract public opinion. But if the rhetoric is repeated often enough, it can redirect the public's focus from issues that really matter. In the case of the US ambassador being declared persona non grata by the mayor, we see that US and foreign policy pundits seemed to care much more about the issue than the Turkish government itself. The Turkish government did not even refer to the spat. One anonymous pundit closely associated with the AKP told Al-Monitor, People view Gokcek as a troll in Ankara, no one takes him seriously, so it does not really matter. When [Vice President Joe] Biden arrives in Ankara next week, it will all be sorted out nicely. And when Al-Monitor asked about freedom of expression, the answer was, Once we have security, then we can talk about it. image.jpeg "American Housewife" by Helen Ellis "American Housewife" by Helen Ellis It's been a long time since Tuscaloosa native Helen Ellis last visited Birmingham for a book signing, and from the sounds of it, she's happy to be back. When Ellis' debut novel, "Eating the Cheshire Cat," arrived for bookstores to review 15 years ago, Jake Reiss of Alabama Booksmith was the first to contact her publisher for a signing. Today Ellis returns to the Homewood bookstore to sign "American Housewife," a short story collection published last week. It's garnered attention from the book industry and popular media alike. She'll sign copies from 4-6 p.m. Here are three things we learned from a recent conversation with Ellis. 1. This book started with tweets. "Inspired by Beyonce, I stallion-walk to the toaster." After some time away from the publishing industry (admittedly not by choice; she has written several unpublished novels), Ellis found a new medium in Twitter. The first line of the first "American Housewife" story is the most-retweeted tweet from Ellis' account, @whatidoallday. Although she didn't approach it with anything more in mind, the medium has proven a testing ground for her witticisms. 2. Alabama definitely influences her writing. Ellis seemed overjoyed to hear an accent much like hers on the other end of the phone during our recent call. Although she moved to New York City two decades ago, Ellis says Alabama remains very much an influence. Take, for instance, the opening lines of the story "Southern Lady Code:" "'Is this too dressy?' Is Southern Lady code for: I look fabulous and it would be in your best interest to tell me so." Her story collection is filled with such sly observations. And if you head to this afternoon's signing, be sure to chat a while; Ellis will make you laugh out loud, whether you discuss common upbringing or gambling. 3. Poker, not writing, takes up much of her time. But the two have something in common. Ellis is a professional poker player, and in recent years that's absorbed more of her time than writing. After writing several unsold novels, she put down her pen and focused instead on the national poker circuit. Cards, like writing, have a meditative quality for her. When she's at the poker table, she's all there. It's relaxing. She's missing some of her regular poker tournaments for book tour, but Ellis says that's OK. "There will be another poker tournament," Ellis says. "There may not be another book." David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reminisced and laughed during "The X-Files" panel at the Fox TV Winter 2016 Press Tour Jan. 15 in Pasadena, Calif. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) PASADENA, Calif. -- In a loose, entertaining press conference for "The X-Files" event series that debuts Jan. 24 on Fox, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson playfully bantered about their chemistry as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Duchovny, Anderson and "X-Files" creator Chris Carter were on hand, along with guest star Joel McHale, to discuss the six-episode "X-Files" with reporters and critics during the TV Winter 2016 Press Tour at the Langham Huntington hotel. In returning to their roles after 13 years away from "The X-Files," Duchovny talked about how he and Anderson now have a history that informs their onscreen relationship as the conspiracy-hunting duo. Anderson commented that the chemistry was something she and Duchovny had "from the beginning." Duchovny responded that he wasn't saying he and Anderson didn't have chemistry from the start, then joked that they could add biology to their chemistry and history, and be ready to graduate from high school. On a more serious note, Anderson and Duchovny were both asked about the years immediately following the end of "The X-Files," when the actors seemingly went out of their to distance themselves from the characters of Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. Anderson said it took her a decade to appreciate "The X-Files" as "the gift" that it was, and to embrace playing such an iconic character in such an iconic show. "I was very lucky," Anderson said. Duchovny echoed Anderson's sentiments, that it took him a while to recognize how special "The X-Files" remains. His desire to not be typecast as Mulder, he said, acted as "a spur" for him to do more work, "to keep expanding myself as an artist, or as whatever I am." During the panel, "X-Files" creator Carter said that the original plan was to do eight episodes of "The X-Files" event series, but the order was cut to six because of scheduling concerns. Carter also answered a question about the return of the Lone Gunmen, the conspiracy experts who advised Mulder in the original series. Toward the end of "The X-Files" run, the characters died. In the new "X-Files," Carter said, the Lone Gunmen come back in a fantasy sequence. McHale talked about being a huge "X-Files" fan back in the 1990s when the show was gathering steam. He and his now-wife used to sit on the couch and watch new episodes, McHale recalled, and he added that he proposed to his wife on that same couch. "I can't believe I'm up here," McHale said, adding, it "seems like a mistake." McHale's "X-Files" character, a conservative talk-show host named Tad O'Malley, appears in the first episode of "The X-Files." Carter said that the first and sixth episode of "The X-Files" will focus on the series' mythology, while the tone will shift in the middle episodes , which feature some of the "Monster of the Week" cases that were fan favorites in the show's early days. "Think of it as a Bento Box of 'X-Files,'" Duchovny deadpanned. "The X-Files" event series premieres at 10 p.m. ET Sunday, Jan. 24, on Fox. -- Kristi Turnquist | kturnquist@oregonian.com | @Kristiturnquist In an interview Friday recalling the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday, AL.com asked civil rights historian the Rev. Wilson Fallin Jr. his favorite quote from King. Fallin, professor of history at the University of Montevallo and author of "A Shelter in the Storm," said it was this one: "We will live together as brothers or perish together as fools." That quote sums up much of the philosophy of King, who has a federal holiday dedicated to him today, Jan. 18. AL.com has compiled some additional quotations that help capture the essence of King and his fight for justice. Some are compiled from the MLK quotes of the week from The King Center, or as otherwise noted. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." "No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" "We refuse to believe there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation." "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." (From the book, "I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World) "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." (Speech, Feb. 25, 1967, The Nation Institute, Los Angeles) "Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity. (Letter from Birmingham Jail) "True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice." (From the book "Stride Toward Freedom") "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." (From "I Have a Dream" speech to civil rights marchers in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963) -- "Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty." (From "Letter from Birmingham Jail") -- "Let us march on segregated housing. Let us march on segregated schools, until ... Let us march on poverty, until ... Let us march on ballot boxes, until we send men ... who will not fear to 'do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.'" (Delivered on March 25, 1965, in Montgomery) -- "When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice." (From the book, "The Words of Martin Luther King") -- "The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefields of Vietnam, making the poor white and Negro bear the heaviest burden both at the front and at the home." (April 1967 speech at U.N. Plaza in New York) -- "We only assemble here because of our desire to see right exist. My friends, I want it to be known that we're going to work with grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city. "And we are not wrong; we are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream . . . (A few days after Rosa Parks was arrested, King addressing the First Montgomery Improvement Association at Holt Street Baptist Church a few days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the whites-only section of a public bus) "I could not in all good conscience pay a fine for an act that I did not commit and above all for brutal treatment that I did not deserve. With all due respect to you and your court, I am inwardly compelled to take this stand. (After being arrested Sept. 3, 1958 and found guilty of loitering and fined him) -- "And I'll tell you, I've seen the lightning flash. I've heard the thunder roll. I felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone." (Mount Pisgah Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago on Aug. 27, 1967) -- "I often feel like saying, when I hear the question 'People aren't ready,' that it's like telling a person who is trying to swim, 'Don't jump in that water until you learn how to swim.' When actually you will never learn how to swim until you get in the water. And I think people have to have an opportunity to develop themselves and govern themselves. (Interview, March 6, 1957) -- Somewhere somebody must have some sense. Men must see that force begets force, hate begets hate, toughness begets toughness. And it is all a descending spiral, ultimately ending in destruction for all and everybody. Somebody must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate and the chain of evil in the universe. And you do that by love. ("Loving Your Enemies" sermon, delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Montgomery, Nov. 17, 1957.) -- "The reason I can't follow the old eye-for-an-eye philosophy is that it ends up leaving everyone blind." (At Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, May 5, 1963) -- "The ultimate test of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and moments of convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and moments of controversy." (At Nobel Peace Prize Recognition Dinner, January 27, 1965) -- "World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. "Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built. ("Dreams of Brighter Tomorrows," Ebony Magazine, March 1965) -- "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction." (Sermon, "Loving Your Enemies," delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Montgomery, Nov. 17, 1957) butter crunch.PNG (Blue Bell Creameries) Blue Bell Creameries has announced it is adding another flavor as it returns to stores in parts of North Alabama this week. The company announced this morning, through its Instagram account, that it will be adding Butter Crunch - vanilla with chunks of chocolate and peanut butter candy. Blue Bell should be available in Athens, Decatur, Florence, Fort Payne, Huntsville, Muscle Shoals and Scottsboro this week. The company will also be expanding into middle and eastern Tennessee, north Georgia, parts of Kentucky, the Carolinas and Virginia. Next week, Blue Bell plans to expand into all of Florida, south Georgia and southern South Carolina. Blue Bell is also producing seven flavors of ice cream in the half gallon and pint sizes: Peppermint, Pistachio Almond, Buttered Pecan, Cookies 'n Cream, Dutch Chocolate, Homemade Vanilla and The Great Divide. Blue Bell shut down production and began a product recall in April after 10 people were infected with several strains of listeria by consuming ice cream in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Three deaths were reported. A woman who shot her boyfriend to death early today at a Wylam home will not be charged with any crime, police announced this afternoon. Birmingham police investigators presented the evidence to the Jefferson County District Attorney Office Sunday afternoon, and a warrant was declined. The shooting has been ruled justifiable. Ladarrius Moody, 24, was pronounced dead on the scene. The shooting happened just before 2 a.m. at 928 Erie Street. Birmingham police were dispatched to the home on a report of a person shot. Lt. Sean Edwards said they arrived to find Moody inside the home on the living room floor. Edwards said the shooting stemmed from a domestic violence altercation between the victim and the suspect. Moody was shot during a physical altercation with his girlfriend. Police wouldn't confirm whether the girlfriend's two young children were home at the time of the shooting. The girlfriend was taken into custody and questioned by detective at police headquarters. At least a dozen of Moody's friends and family were on the scene shortly after the shooting. Sonya Moody said her son had gone to the home with a friend to pick up some of his belongings. "He was tired of the drama and was going to leave, just like I taught him,'' she said. That's when Moody was shot in the chest, according to his mother. Police said they've been called to the home on multiple occasions for domestic arguments between the two, including at least one incident where guns were involved. Court records show Moody was indicted in October 2012, seven months after police say he shot and wounded another man. He was also arrested in 2014 on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance and possession of an illegal firearm. During a 2014 search warrant executed at his home, court records say Moody was in possession of a short-barreled shotgun, a fruit drink which contained codeine syrup, marijuana and digital scales. All of the charges against him were waived to a grand jury, but court records don't reflect dispositions in any of the cases. Moody is the city's fifth homicide in 2016. It is the first slaying to be ruled justifiable. Huntsville authorities have released the identity of a woman killed in a three-vehicle crash on Research Park Boulevard last week. Pok Schumacher, 63, was killed in the Friday wreck. Five other people were taken to the hospital for treatment. The crash happened just before 1 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Research Park Boulevard, just south of Old Madison Pike. A Mitsubishi crossed the median into southbound traffic, causing at least one car involved to overturn. The investigation is ongoing. Schumacher, a passenger in the Mitsubishi, was pronounced dead at the scene. According to an obituary, Pok Cha "Anna" Schumacher was born and raised in Busan, South Korea. "Pok Cha cared greatly for her family and friends with a kind, generous, and loving spirit especially for her grandchildren who called her Halmeon," it reads. Names - like everything else - change. In 2014, the most popular name for a baby girl born in the U.S. was Emma. That wasn't the most popular name in Alabama, however, where parents preferred Ava. (Emma was second, by the way, followed by Olivia.) But those names haven't always been the top choices for prospective parents. Names, like all other trends, come and go in popularity. We can see that in a series of maps from Jezebel, which traced the history of the most popular names in Alabama for the last six decades. Here are the top choices and, as you can see, some names hold on to the top spot for a while: 1960 - 1962: Mary 1963 - 1968: Lisa 1969 - 1970: Kimberly 1971 -1983: Jennifer 1984 - 1987: Ashley 1988: Jessica 1989- 1991: Ashley 1992: Jessica 1993 - 1994: Ashley 1995: Jessica 1996 - 2000: Hannah 2001 - 2003: Madison 2004: Emma 2005 - 2006: Madison 2007 - 2013: Emma 2014: Ava We'll look at the most popular boys' names tomorrow. Here's a little hint - the pool of choices is much, much smaller. Welcome to Monday's Wake Up Call. Today is a day set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Here's one of my favorite quotes from the late civil rights leader: "Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals." San Bernardino attackers tried to detonate bomb The couple who carried out the terrorist attacks last year in San Bernardino, California tried to detonate a bomb in the building, according to the FBI. Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik attempted to detonate a pipe bombs hidden inside a bag at the Inland Regional Center, David Bowdich of the FBI said. Farook reportedly carried the bomb inside a bag when he entered the building the morning of the attacks. It was armed and ready to detonate. Fourteen people were killed in the attacks; Farook and Malik were later killed by police. Live shark found in condo swimming pool Residents of a south Florida condo complex got quite a surprise recently when they discovered a shark in their swimming pool. It's not known how the 5-foot long black tipped shark ended up in the swimming pool at Mariner's Cay condominium in Hypoluxo, Florida. A resident said she saw two men running from the pool shortly before finding the shark. The shark was removed from the swimming pool and returned to the ocean. Secrets of Pyramids could soon be unraveled Experts said they are closer to unraveling the mysteries of Egypt's pyramids. Researchers from Egypt, France, Canada and Japan have been scanning four pyramids with thermal cameras to determine if there are any unknown structures inside. The scans show some of the limestone blocks near the top of the pyramids are cold than those on the bottom of the structure. The difference in the temperature is as much as 6 degrees in some cases, experts said. The scientists said they are investigating what is causing the difference but said the discovery could be significant. Animals frozen for 30 years brought back to life Microscopic creatures kept frozen for more than 30 years have been brought back to life, scientists confirmed. The tardigrades were collected from a frozen moss sample taken in Antarctica. They were stored at minus 4 degrees since 1983. In early 2014, two were taken from the deep freeze and revived. One died but one survived and later was able to mate and hatch eggs. Until tomorrow. Stacy Boxley was tired on August 15, 2013. The 34-year-old woman had worked two long night shifts for her job with World Airlines in Peachtree, Georgia, with a work meeting held the day in between. She was leaving her job headed to pick up her six-month old son Mark when police said she fell asleep behind the wheel. Her car crossed the middle line and hit an SUV. Stacy's husband, Jack, said his wife died a short time later, but not before letting one of the first people at the scene know that she was on her way to pick up her son and that they didn't have to look for the child they thought might have been in the car seat. "Stacy was aware enough to say that our son Mark wasn't with her. I was told she went in and out of consciousness a few more times but by the time I made it to the hospital she was gone," Jack said. At the hospital, Jack was given a little bag with Stacy's jewelry, including her wedding ring. She wore the ring during the funeral, though it was removed shortly before the casket was closed. Jack Boxley said the ring was being saved for his son. But in December 2015, Jack Boxley, who lives in Anniston, said the precious piece of jewelry was stolen from his house. He and his son were at his mother's in Kentucky when the ring was stolen, possibly by a female friend or some movers who had been in the house. The ring was one of several items stolen from Boxley's home but it's the thing he's most concerned about finding. "I just want the ring back," he said. Boxley said he believes the person who took the ring likely knew it was his late wife's. Either way, he's willing to take it back with no questions asked. It is white gold with a large Moissanite center stone. "It is fairly unusual so I am hoping someone recognizes it," he said. Anyone with information on the ring can call the Anniston Police Department at 256-238-1800. Donald Trump wants to make sure people are seeing the Benghazi movie "13 Hours." Trump rented space at an Urbandale, Iowa movie theater and gave away free tickets last week. The movie is considered to cast a negative light on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the current front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trump, a businessman turned politician, is leading Republican contenders. "Mr. Trump would like all Americans to know the truth about what happened at Benghazi," the GOP presidential candidate's Iowa co-chair Tana Goertz told the Des Moines Register. Trump showed "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" for viewers on Friday night. The movie tells the story of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on American diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya. Four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens were killed in the attacks. Clinton has been criticized for her handling of the attacks. A Georgia man was found early Sunday morning shot to death in the warning lane of Interstate 75 southbound at the Cobb-Cherokee county line, north of Marietta. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that armed men invaded the man's home in Emerson at around 9 a.m. and kidnapped him. His body was found an hour later and about nine miles away on the interstate. Passing motorists called 911 after spotting a body near the roadway. Cherokee County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker told Fox 5 the man was shot in the torso. The victim, whose name hasn't been released, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. An autopsy will be performed. Matthew Clate McDaniel arrest.jpg Matthew Clate McDaniel, 33, was arrested by the Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department and charged with murder. He appeared on the History channel show "Bamazon" in 2012. (Photo courtesy Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department, file photo) A Dadeville man known for his appearance on a History channel reality show has been charged with murder. Matthew Clate McDaniel, 33, was arrested by the Tallapoosa County Sheriff's Department. At 4:43 a.m. Sunday, the department responded to a call from hunters who found a body in a wooded area off Barrons Bridge Road south of Dadeville, according to a statement from Sheriff Jimmy Abbett. The victim was identified as 40-year-old Norman Deon Crayton, of Jacksons Gap. Authorities determined that he had been shot several times, and his body was taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for further investigation. McDaniel was charged with murder and remains in the Tallapoosa County Jail on $250,000 bond. He appeared on the 2012 History channel show "Bamazon," which featured eight out-of-work Alabama construction workers searching for a major gold deposit in South America. McDaniel's bio for the show describes him as "a brilliant excavator operator and a jack-of-all-trades" who is also a "yoga-practicing, nature-lover - 'a California hippie.'" McDaniel left halfway through the expedition and did not receive any of the team's $17,000 haul. Witnesses told the Alex City Outlook that the McDaniel and Crayton were seen at a local club playing pool on Saturday night. Further details have not been released, and the investigation is ongoing. Tensions between Democratic presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are intensifying. At rallies and events around Charleston, South Carolina where the fourth Democratic debate was held on Sunday night supporters openly tried to outshout one another with their pledges of loyalty. It was an indication of just how tight this competition has become. Shortly after announcing her intention to run for president, Clinton appeared to be the inevitable Democratic presidential nominee with little competition. Increasingly, though, this lead has slipped away, making 2016 look more and more like 2008, when Clinton lost the nomination to a then relatively unknown US senator, Barack Obama. Clinton and her supporters are working hard to make sure that doesnt happen again. As Clinton has watched her lead narrow in Iowa and disappear in New Hampshire, the attacks between the campaigns have become increasingly personal. Clintons statements and press releases in recent days have been carefully crafted to portray her as the candidate with the most foreign policy experience, who will be ready to take over in the Oval Office on day one. Shes also sharpened her attacks on Sanders past positions on gun control, criticising him for voting previously against a bill that would have held gun manufacturers responsible to crimes committed by weapons sold legally. Its been an attempt to portray the Vermont senator, who represents a sizable rural population of hunters and sportsmen, as being pro-gun even though Sanders has said repeatedly that he is in favour of enhanced restrictions such as increased background checks to ensure responsible gun use. Although Clinton is facing tough competition in both Iowa and New Hampshire, she still has a sizable lead in national polls and scores highly with conservative and older Democrats, along with voters of colour. Still, Sanders has captured the support of some of the same Democrats who came out strongly for President Obama in 2008 young people looking for change. While Clinton has sold herself as the candidate best poised to carry on the work started by Obama, Sanders has promised to implement further moves left more socialist economic policies that appeal to young Americans who feel forgotten by the stagnant US economy. Sanders has pledged, if elected to the White House, to work to overcome massive income inequality in the United States. Hes promising to expand healthcare and college opportunities for all Americans. He says he would break up the major banks and tax Wall Street corporations, many of which its reported have donated heavily in the past to Clinton. Its a message from Sanders that resonates with younger Americans who feel they have been left behind in the modern global economy. With memories of 2008 on their minds, the Clinton campaign seems determined not to let history repeat itself with less than two weeks until the first presidential nominating contest in Iowa. Clinton supporters are working to ensure that a once-inevitable lead does not slip away. Thats why one can expect the Democrat discourse and debate on the 2016 campaign trail to get a lot less cordial. As attacks on civilians continue in North Kivu, many say the UN mission there is doing nothing to help or protect them. Kalongo, Democratic Republic of Congo Androzo Bekere clearly remembers the attack on his village in Kalongo. Standing beside a graveyard where wooden crosses bear the names of those killed, he gestures towards a cluster of houses, abandoned by their inhabitants. It was about four in the afternoon when we were told that armed men had captured a girl from here, in the field where she was farming, he said. We called the army. They came with us to the field and we thought the rebels had escaped, but later that evening, they encircled the village and started attacking people with machetes. Six people were killed in that attack in May 2015, including the village chief and his wife. It was reportedly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group with ties to Uganda. It has been held responsible for most of the attacks in Beni territory, in which Kalongo is located, over the past year. According to Bekere, the peacekeepers at the nearby UN base, just 3km away in Mavivi, did not come to their aid. Usually, they come after attacks have taken place, he said. We have meetings with them and they use interpreters to talk to us, but we dont see any results. A statement from the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), says that their Joint Intelligence Operations Centre only received information about the attack at 10:30pm that night, several hours after it had begun. Worlds largest peacekeeping operation The perception that UN peacekeepers are not doing much, or that they are in Congo as tourists in helicopters is a common and not very new refrain among civilians in the North Kivu region. It is one of the milder criticisms levelled at the worlds largest peacekeeping operation, which has been in the DRC for 15 years and has around 20,000 uniformed personnel in the country. Protesters have taken to the streets after massacres to demonstrate their frustration with MONUSCO. In a damning 2014 report, Human Rights Watch accused the peacekeepers of failing to respond to repeated calls for help during an attack in which 30 people were killed. The peacekeepers were only 9km away, but arrived two days later. A few hundred metres away from Kalongo is the N4, the main road north of Beni city. Nepalese peacekeepers stand watch at intervals along the road, their weapons poised over armoured vehicles. To the north, the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) were recently involved in operations against suspected ADF fighters alongside the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), the UNs relatively new offensive combat force. Created by the UN Security Council in March 2013, months after the rebel group M23 captured the city of Goma in the presence of peacekeepers and to the embarrassment of the UN, the FIB was the first UN combat force authorised to carry out targeted offensive operations against armed groups. Working under the authority of the MONUSCO Force Commander, the FIB consists of three infantry battalions, one artillery, and one special force and reconnaissance company with headquarters in Goma, and has about 3,000 troops from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi. Before the creation of the FIB, the mandate of MONUSCO involved protecting civilians and supporting the Congolese government in consolidating its authority, while its predecessor, MONUC, was created to observe a 1999 ceasefire between the DRC and other states in the region. Although the FIB has been operational in the North Kivu region since mid-2013, attacks against civilians by armed groups have been frequent; according to a report by the UN Group of Experts, between 350 and 450 people were killed in the Beni area from October 2014 to June 2015. Residents of the Isle of Bute believe the 10 Syrian refugee families will have a positive effect on the community. Isle of Bute, Scotland In his office in Edinburgh, Michael Russell, a member of the Scottish Parliament for the district of Argyll and Bute, reflects on Europes response to the refugee crisis of 2015. I dont think its any surprise that Angela Merkel is Times Person of the Year: a slightly right-wing, conservative politician who has shown an extraordinary sense of leadership in saying We have an obligation to help and we are going to help, Russell says. Little wonder that many refugees want to go to Germany. What Russell would like them to say is We want to come to Scotland. There has been a strong feeling in Scotland that we should be doing more, and a frustration that we cant, he explains. As the country is part of the United Kingdom, decisions surrounding the resettlement of refugees in Scotland are made through the UK government, which has agreed to take in 4,000 Syrian refugees a year until 2020, a number Russell considers unduly restricted. A heaven-sent opportunity We have a moral duty to help. We cannot sit back and do nothing while these poor people try desperately to escape war-torn countries, risking their lives and their family's lives in the process. by Dick Walsh, regional council leader Not only does he believe that there is a moral obligation to do more, he thinks that taking in higher numbers of refugees could be socially and economically beneficial for Scotland. There are parts of Scotland where it would be immensely helpful to have refugees. Germany has a well-developed and flourishing economy. We have economic problems caused by depopulation in the west of Scotland, Russell explains. Here is a heaven-sent opportunity to do something sensible and to do something helpful. One location that has suffered from depopulation is the Isle of Bute, an island off the western coast of Scotland, located in Russells constituency of Argyll and Bute. Scotland is made up of a mainland and close to 800 islands. Although it is one of the most easily accessible islands in western Scotland, Bute is only reachable by an hour-long boat journey from the mainland. It may seem an unlikely location for the resettlement of refugees but in early December, 10 Syrian families took up residence on the island, which currently has a population of 6,500 people. Five more families are due to arrive over the course of January. Argyll and Butes Refugee Resettlement Group held their first meeting on September 18, 2015, to discuss the logistics of the refugees arrival. That same month, Dick Walsh, the regional council leader, said: We have a moral duty to help. We cannot sit back and do nothing while these poor people try desperately to escape war-torn countries, risking their lives and their familys lives in the process. If we can help just 20 people, then thats 20 people who will have the opportunity of a better life, he continued. The response of the island community On an icy-cold December evening, just as the last ferry of the day departed for the mainland, a queue began to gather outside Butes Discovery Centre Cinema, which overlooks the harbour of the islands main town, Rothesay. Inside was a screening of the Christmas classic Its a Wonderful Life, to raise money for local non-profit organisation Bute Oasis, which planned to provide 115 holiday hampers for Butes most vulnerable families. Bute Oasis founder Angela Callaghan stood at the head of the queue for the film screening, handing out traditional Christmas mince pies as the audience entered the theatre. When asked whether Bute Oasis holiday appeal would include the newly arrived Syrian refugees, Callaghan responded, Of course, theyre a part of our community. Callaghan described the response of the local island community to the arrival of the refugees as fantastic and amazing, and said she had witnessed no resistance whatsoever. Throughout Rothesay, and nearby Ardbeg, both of which will become home to the Syrian families, there was a palpable sense of a close-knit community welcoming the newcomers. Manvinder Kaur Virdi and her husband, Baljit Singh Virdi, own and manage Rothesays Londis convenience shop on Montague Street, a five-minute walk from the harbour. At the back of the shop, the Virdis have created a world food section, which they have recently expanded to include essential ingredients for Syrian cooking. We bought in Arabic bread and Arabic coffee, as well as coal for shisha pipes, Singh Virdi says. Also in the section are Syrian spices such as sumac and zaatar, and tahini paste, used to make hummus. Syrian families have already started coming into the shop regularly, and seem to appreciate the efforts he and his wife have made, he adds. They love it, they know the aisle well. Relaying conversations he has had with the families, Singh Virdi explains: I think they are settling down very well, theyre getting used to it. Its good for the island, we need more families it will be good for business, once they start working. A copy of the local newspaper, The Buteman, picked up in the Virdis shop, contains an advertisement placed by six of Butes churches, displaying the message, in both Arabic and English: The Christian churches on the Isle of Bute join together in welcoming our new friends from Syria. A number of the islands churches have offered space for the refugees to use for services, as they await confirmation on whether an imam will be available to travel from the mainland once a week to conduct Friday prayers. Craig Borland, the editor of The Buteman, was praised in early November for his comments on the refugees arrival. He wrote: I want Bute to be a place where people who come here with little more than the clothes they are standing in can feel safe and at home. I want Bute to be a place known not for narrow-minded bigotry, but for its warmth and humanity, and willingness to help people with nothing in whatever way it can. Borland says the reaction of the local community has been overwhelmingly positive. All is going really well. The volunteers have rallied round and are able to provide what they can. There havent been any shortcomings, he adds. In response to any unanswered questions the local residents may have, island councillors Robert MacIntyre, Isobel Strong and Len Scoullar placed a letter in The Buteman entitled: A few facts on Butes new families. In it, they explained that two local housing associations allocated houses which had been lying empty, and also outlined the sources of funding for services such as support staff: these services have been provided to the council through the UK government. England may be full but Scotland isnt We have empty social housing and lots of private lets as well. Partly the reason for it is that people move away if they cant get a career here, so theres lots of empty housing, Strong explains. Theres capacity in the schools; the school rolls have been falling. Weve got housing and education available in the community without depriving anybody else of anything. I came [to the Isle of Bute] as a young mum 40 years ago and Ive always felt I got a welcome here, Strong adds. Its a very friendly place; people smile at you in the street even when you dont know them. I think theres lots here for [the Syrian families], and its a good place to bring up children. Strong explains that the availability of resources such as housing is not unique to the Isle of Bute, as the population density across Scotland is low, and many communities across the west have steadily declining populations. England may be full up but Scotland isnt. There are lots of communities who have space and who would be happy to take in refugees. Another of Butes councillors, Robert MacIntyre, explains that the islands population has dropped by 10 percent recently, and as a result of this, the incoming refugees will be a valuable addition to the community. Both councillors agree that if the refugees were to put down roots on the island, they could have an incredibly positive impact on the community, and the same could be said for other parts of Scotland where populations are declining. Russell, a member of the Scottish parliament or MSP, says that in locations with ageing and declining populations, they need young, economically active, ambitious people. Refugees are often those things, he says, adding that they are determined to have a better life. Strong is not satisfied with the UK governments reaction to the refugee crisis. It has been dragging its feet, the councillor says. We think that theres room for them [in Scotland], and we want to give them refuge. I dont know how much truth there is in this, but some say St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, was Syrian, Strong muses. The refugee crisis: Scotlands response There has been discord between the UK government and the semi-autonomous Scottish government concerning the response to the refugee crisis in Europe. Since the May 2015 general election in the UK, the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, has held a majority in the House of Commons, with 331 elected members of parliament. Of these 331 MPs, only one was elected in Scotland. Out of Scotlands 59 available seats in the UK parliament, 56 are held by the Scottish National Party (SNP), a social-democratic party that supports Scottish independence. Scotlands first minister, and leader of the SNP, Nicola Sturgeon, has urged the UK government to offer far more support than has currently been agreed upon. With a population of around five million, Scotland makes up 8 percent of the UKs population. The proportionate commitment of the Scottish government was initially to take in 10 percent of the incoming refugees, but Scotland has, in fact, taken in around 40 percent of the refugees who arrived in the UK in late 2015. Humza Yousaf, an SNP MSP and Scotlands minister for Europe and international development, gives the UK government credit for the financial aid being sent to refugee camps, and their offer of assistance to make crossings safer for refugees in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas, but criticises its intake commitments. Britain can take in many more than the 20,000 refugees agreed by 2020, he says, adding: If theres a political will, theres always a way. The SNP has been encouraging the UK government to take in higher numbers of Syrian refugees, according to Yousaf. He points to the first Prime Ministers Questions of the new parliamentary session in June 2015, when Angus Robertson, the SNPs UK parliamentary group leader, raised the issue of refugee resettlement. The UK has an appalling record on the resettlement of Syrian refugees and is not prepared to co-operate with other European nations on accepting refugees who have been rescued in the Mediterranean, Robertson stated. Syrian refugees across Scotland Amer Masri first came to Scotland in 2007 to complete a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. When the uprising began in 2011, Masri returned to Syria, but comments he had previously made about the brutality of the government of President Bashar al-Assad led to him being imprisoned by the countrys intelligence branch for two months, during which time, he says, he was exposed to a range of physical and psychological torture. Upon his release, Masri returned to Scotland in July 2011. When I arrived, not a lot of people knew what was going on in Syria, he explains. But the images released of the body of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi in September 2015 triggered a strong reaction across the UK, particularly in Scotland, he says. Masri recalls hearing that Nicola Sturgeon was reduced to tears upon viewing the images. Masri has been living in Scotland for four years, and is now assisting the most recent wave of refugees to settle in and adapt to their new home. I am witnessing the Scottish government doing all it can to make sure the refugees feel welcomed and settled, he says. They have been registered straight away with GPs for health checks, they have been allocated social workers to check if anyone has post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have been allocated housing. I have seen a five-star welcome from the Scottish government and the public. There is a big difference between policy in Scotland and in England. We have seen how much the refugees are welcomed in Scotland, publicly and on a political level. It has never been the same south of the border. Masri is clear about what he believes needs to happen. Finishing the war is the first thing we ask for, he says, but with no signal that this will end soon, I would stress that more numbers must come to the UK, and Scotland in particular, as its a big country with lots of resources but a small population. MSP Russell also insists that Scotland has the space and resources to accommodate more refugees. We are not full up, we are absolutely not full up, he says. We have vast tracts of empty land, and places where we need additional population. William McIlvanney, the great Scottish writer who died [on December 5], described Scotland as a mongrel nation. I think thats a proud description, and one we should be pleased about. This will add to that diversity. Imagine that 10 Iranian soldiers aboard Iranian military vessels had turned up off the coast of the United States. Its safe to assume that, whatever course of action was selected by US officials in response to the incursion, it would not have involved briefly detaining the visitors and then sending them on their merry way without a disproportionate amount of bellicose rhetoric and conspiracy theories launched by the sectors of US and international society that specialise in such things. In recent years, Iran has hardly needed to raise a finger to get neoconservative and other parties united. Back in 2011, for example, a congressional subcommittee heard testimony regarding the alleged threat to US homeland security posed by Iranian actions in Latin America. READ MORE: Iran a victim of terrorism Among these actions was a reported request from the Iranian embassy in Bolivia for more than two dozen spaces at the international school in La Paz for the offspring of diplomatic personnel. Frightening stuff. La Paz, mind you, is no fewer than 6,225 kilometres from Washington, DC in other words, a much longer distance than that between the Iranian homeland and the US military boats which appeared last week in Iranian territorial waters. And while Iran released the 10 detained US soldiers in expedited fashion, various Western politicians and media couldnt help but exploit the opportunity to cast the Islamic Republic as the aggressor in this case. Out with the old, in with the new The incident took place just days before the lifting of many sanctions against Iran as part of the nuclear deal, widely hailed as the dawn of a new era in relations between the maligned country and the so-called international community. But just how bright is that dawn? READ MORE: The dawn of a new Iran For starters, the US imposition of entirely new ballistic missile sanctions against Iran even as the other sanctions were being lifted would seem to indicate that, as far as the international community is concerned, the Islamic Republic is still persona non grata. The United States' imposition of entirely new ballistic missile sanctions against Iran, even as the other sanctions were being lifted, would seem to indicate that, as far as the 'international community' is concerned, the Islamic Republic is still persona non grata. by Perennial squawking by the US political establishment about Irans destabilising activities in the Middle East is another indicator of the prevailing notion that, whatever superficial improvements the country might undertake, it is fundamentally and inescapably Axis of Evil material. Never mind that Israel, Americas partner in crime in the Middle East, would appear to occupy the position of regional destabiliser-in-chief and not only because it regularly massacres civilians. A non-signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (a document for ever invoked to demonise Iran), Israel happens to possess a sizeable covert arsenal of nuclear weapons threatening the entire area, as such weapons tend to do. And what do you know: Israel is now requesting an increase in US military aid to possibly $5bn annually, up from the astronomical sum it already receives, to counter Iran and related nemeses. A new dawn, indeed. Collective punishment Barack Obama & Co can blather all they like about the nuclear deal and attendant prisoner swap as constituting a victory for diplomacy. But the fact is that self-appointed diplomats have been waging war by other means on Iran for years. A key pillar of this war involves economic sanctions, with the first US sanctions on Iran dating back to 1979. American independent scholar Sayres Rudy recently discussed more contemporary incarnations of the sanctions regime at a conference entitled Fragments of Empire After the American Century fittingly held at one such fragment, the American University of Beirut. Joking that he develops a rash any time he hears the phrase international community, Rudy observed that that said grouping proudly and visibly collectively punished the Iranian population to achieve selective disarmament of the nuclear-unarmed Iranian state, although it remains targeted and threatened continually by nuclear powers. READ MORE: The personal touch: Zarif, Kerry and 10 US sailors The beauty of sanctions for those who deploy them, Rudy noted, resides in their seemingly bureaucratic, lawful, objective, transparent, and non-violent nature, which provides a civilised veneer for what can amount to the decimation of populations. A short 2013 dispatch on the New York Times website describes the devastating effects of sanctions on Iran, where the health of millions of Iranians has been compromised due to the shortage of Western medical drugs and supplies. In Iraq, as we all know, sanctions dispensed with some half a million children an outcome endorsed by Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, as follows: We think the price is worth it. Writing in the online magazine Warscapes in October of last year, meanwhile, Max Ajl pointed out that an eas[ing of] Iran into an accommodation with the US-dominated global system would require Iran to become a very different country than it is now one that does not contest Israeli interests [and] one that does not use its oil riches for human-centred development but rather for purchases from Lockheed Martin and other such goodies. Until that happens, Iran will effectively maintain its position as international bullseye. Maybe we should hold off on the new dawn celebrations. Belen Fernandez is the author of The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work, published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Like the pyramids of Giza, it is a colossal structure known to Egyptians and foreigners alike. Unlike the pyramids, it is the object of almost universal contempt and frustration. Yes, of course, I am talking about the Mogamma on Tahrir Square, the high temple of the Egyptian bureaucracy, as anyone familiar with Egypt will have realised. Egypts most hated building, as one news site put it, is scheduled to close in 2017, which is bound to result in millions of collective sighs of relief. And the dimensions of this monolith are truly imposing. The 14-storey complex houses some 30,000 government employees in 1,350 rooms, while some 100,000 citizens navigate its labyrinth of corridors in an often futile quest for the magical sequence of stamps required to legitimise their paperwork. Despite popular belief, the building was not a socialist edifice built by Gamal Abdel Nasser but was constructed during the era of King Farouq as a symbol of Egypts march towards the mid-20th century as Britain vacated its barracks there. Today, that seems like a pipe dream. Mogammaesque Kafkaesque does not even begin to capture the dust-laden, claustrophobic, yet boisterous and loud, alienation felt when one enters this bureaucratic maze. It can only be described as mogammaesque: one measure Kafka, one part Orwell, with a liberal dose of Magrittes surrealism and a dash of native wit. The Mogamma is real-life black comedy coloured by the irrepressible light-heartedness of Egypt. ALSO READ: A cultural shift as iconic Cairo cafe closes The indifferent, contemptuous gaze of the typical Mogamma civil-servant-cum-master causes the average visitor to metamorphose from a proud human into a shrinking, trembling, deferential insect. Ingratiating terms of respect like pasha, even though Egypt abolished the gentry decades ago are tossed around liberally to curry favour, in a variation of the old Egyptian adage: If the dog has something you need, call him master. One measure Kafka, one part Orwell, with a liberal dose of Magritte's surrealism and a dash of native wit. The Mogamma is real-life black comedy coloured by the irrepressible light-heartedness of Egypt. by Although bureaucracy is a global problem hobbling hundreds of millions of people around the world, the Egyptian version is especially convoluted, snail-paced, impenetrable and arbitrary, making it a haven for corruption and ineptitude. Despite the dominant and often traumatic role bureaucracy plays in Egyptian life, there is surprisingly no widely circulated local word for it, with Egyptians appropriating the English word routine to describe it. However, there is an abundance of words used to describe ways to circumvent it, including wasta (connections), mahsoubiya (favouritism) and kousa (courgette) to describe string pulling, or halawa (halva), shai (tea) or even bakshish (tip) to describe bribery. Given the outsized and tyrannical role played by bureaucracy in the lives of Egyptians and Egypts love of comedy, it is unsurprising that al-routine is a staple fare of street humour and popular satire. One Egyptian newspaper used to carry a memorable rogues parade of characters working in the civil service who frequented the Civil Servants Teahouse. Black comedy It also features in black comedy, such as in a film which explores the desperate attempts of a poor fisherman, who lives off the states radar on his Nile boat, to register his sons birth retroactively so he can start school. The Mogamma itself is the star of a 1990s hit film, el-Irhab wal-Kabab (Terrorism and Kebab) in which a hard-pressed man who works at Cairos sewage treatment plant visits the high temple of bureaucracy in a bid to transfer his son to another school. The man in charge of transfers is never there and his colleagues are too busy talking on the telephone, preparing vegetables for dinner or constantly praying. When security try to eject him for attacking the bearded civil servant, he manages to grab one of their rifles and triggers a panic that a terrorist attack is in motion. When asked by the interior minister what his demands are, the hostage-taker and the hostages cannot decide and so decide to order kebabs. When they finally demand the resignation of the entire government, the minister is so incensed he orders a raid on the building. Two decades later, real citizens took over Tahrir Square and demanded more than the resignation of the government: the downfall of the entire regime. Although they managed to decapitate it, the body survived and grew a new head. ALSO READ: Magazine Read: Everybody comes to Parisiana In 2011, protesters managed to shut down temporarily the despised Mogamma and, instead of seeking stamps and signatures, revolutionary artists signed and tagged it. The diverse graffiti included one expressive image of a young activist chiselling away at a pyramid-shaped rendition of the word corruption. And herein lies the crux. The Mogamma in itself is not the main problem; it is simply a symptom. Closing it down may remove some of the congestion from downtown Cairo and free up prime real estate, but rebuilding it elsewhere, as has previously been suggested, will not only be a colossal undertaking but will, without reform, result in the same colossal problems downstream. And with Egypts new parliament investigating the states chief auditor for defamation over his claims of endemic corruption, deep reform, never a serious prospect, now seems an ever-more distant hope. What Egypt needs is to rationalise its bureaucracy, in both senses of the word, decentralise its highly centralised state architecture, pay civil servants a decent living wage and, above all, weed out the rampant corruption choking citizens. This may result in less comedy but it will put a smile on every Egyptians face. Khaled Diab is an award-winning Egyptian-Belgian journalist, writer and blogger. He is the author of Intimate Enemies: Living with Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. He blogs at www.chronikler.com. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Republican presidential candidates in their January 14 debate tried to outdo each other in portraying the US President Barack Obama as weak on defence and woefully ineffectual against ISIL, but they offered little in the way of an alternative strategy except to advocate for a substantial United States military build-up. With Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky a lonely voice within the Republican party calling for less US military engagement overseas not included in the prime debate because of low poll numbers, the evening was essentially a debate among hawks. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, now running second to businessman Donald Trump, used the opening question to launch into a tirade against Obama for his Iran policy, saying the heartbreaking image of US sailors on their knees (after being captured by the Iranians) would not occur if he were president because Iran would feel the full fury of the US in such a case. US publics fears New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush called for rebuilding the US military, strengthening alliances, and making sure US enemies fear us. Trying to tie Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton to Obama, Bush even went so far as saying Clinton was a national security mess, while Senator Marco Rubio charged that Clinton was disqualified for the job of commander-in-chief because of her lies to the families of Americans killed in Benghazi and her mishandling of classified material. ALSO READ: Trump is a symptom not the disease Playing to the US publics fears, nearly all of the Republican candidates hyped up the threat from ISIL and said that Obama was not taking this terrorist group seriously. They denigrated Obamas State of the Union speech, given two days earlier, in which he tried to put the ISIL threat into some perspective. Nearly all of the Republican candidates hyped up the threat from ISIL and said that Obama was not taking this terrorist group seriously. by Former neurosurgeon Ben Carson called ISIL an existential threat and said that he worried about a scenario where a group such as ISIL attacks the US power grid, engages in a major cyber attack, and unleashes a dirty bomb. But when asked by one of the questioners whether they supported the position of former presidential candidate, Senator Lindsey Graham, who has called for the deployment of 20,000 US troops into Syria and Iraq to fight ISIL, all of the Republican candidates dodged the question. US combat troops Christie and Bush said that they would support a no-fly zone in Syria, and Christie said that the US should support Syrian President Bashar al-Assads departure because that would help draw more Arab allies into the fight against ISIL, but they, like the other candidates, skirted the issue of putting US combat boots on the ground. Although recent polling has shown that at least half of all Americans now support the deployment of some US combat troops in the Levant to fight ISIL, a similar percentage is concerned about getting bogged down in a quagmire. Still, because Obamas poll numbers on terrorism have dropped, the Republican candidates did their best to tie domestic issues like gun control to this perceived threat. Rubio, for example, said Obamas inclination to take guns away from US citizens would hurt the effort against ISIL because the last line of defence against ISIL is us. And Trump said that the death toll from the Paris and San Bernardino attacks would have been much less if people in those cities were armed, invoking a kind of shoot-out at the OK Corral. The one area where there was a major difference between the candidates on national security was Trumps earlier comment to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States, a comment that he repeated in the debate. Rash statements Bush went after him again on this issue, saying that it proves that Trump is unhinged. Bush added that sending such a signal makes it impossible to build support against ISIL among Muslim allies, and said a serious presidential contender should not make rash statements. ALSO READ: The Muslim woman who stood up to Trump Bush called on Trump to reconsider his statement, but the latter only responded with: I want security. Trump added that theres something going on thats bad, when no one who knew the San Bernardino killers reported to the authorities they had pipe bombs in their home for some time. Although Ohio Governor John Kasich said it was wrong to paint an entire group with a broad brush and talked about the need for an alliance with the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians and others, he called for a pause in admitting Syrian refugees into the US, a position that the other candidates also supported. Cruz, for example, said that he has sponsored a bill that would ban all refugees from countries that ISIL controls. The Republican candidates strategies are clearly to play on the US publics fears and to paint a picture of a United States that is in decline. Whether this is a winning strategy in the general election, however, is far from certain. Gregory Aftandilian is an adjunct professor of foreign policy at American University in Washington, DC, and is a former State Department Middle East analyst. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. The rich can no longer pretend that their wealth benefits the rest of us the only thing trickling down is inequality. Welcome to the worlds inequality countdown. In 2010, some 388 people owned as much wealth as the poorest half of the worlds population. Jump to 2014 and that 388 is down to 85 people. In 2015 the figure was 80, and today Oxfam has revealed that 62 rich individuals own as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people. If this deeply alarming inequality clock continues to tick as fast, by 2020 a mere 11 people could have the same wealth as half the world. Thats not even a dozen. This extreme inequality is not a sign of a healthy global economy as all the wealth is being sucked up by those at the dizzying top. Trickle-down economics is a fallacy this is not just Oxfams view but that of the World Bank also. The rich can no longer pretend their wealth benefits the rest of us. It doesnt: it harms us. The only thing thats trickling down is inequality, and powerlessness. The consequences of this extreme economic inequality are far-reaching. If inequality is not dealt with, we could see more social unrest across the world, a brake on growth and all the work that has been done in the last quarter-century on poverty halted potentially reversed. Unstable unequal world What this means to you and me is a more unstable, unequal world with fewer people able to escape poverty. The worlds most unequal region is still Latin America, despite income inequality there having fallen in recent years. In 2014, the richest 10 percent of people in Latin America had amassed 71 percent of the regions wealth. If this trend continues, according to Oxfams calculations, in only six years the regions richest 1 percent will have more wealth than the other 99 percent. ALSO READ: Faith in humanity should be restored Meanwhile, inequality in Asia has risen by as much as 18 percent since the mid-1990s. Had this rise not happened, 240 million people across Asia could have escaped poverty. What we need - what the world needs - is more action on dealing with extreme inequality and there has been some, but not enough. by In Africa, four million childrens lives could be saved each year if 30 percent of Africas wealth was not held in tax havens. This means an estimated $14bn is lost in tax revenues each year, a sum that could pay for life-saving healthcare for African mothers and children, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school. Across the world, Oxfam is seeing devastating effects on the people we work with. But it doesnt have to be this way. Inequality is not inevitable. Oxfam has done the analysis and we have some of the solutions. What we need what the world needs is more action on dealing with extreme inequality and there has been some progress, but not enough. In 2015, we saw the Sustainable Development Goals on extreme poverty and inequality enshrined. We also saw G20 governments agreeing on measures to curb tax dodging by multinational companies, but these reforms dont go far enough in ensuring that governments receive the taxes they are due. So more does need to happen, especially as tax havens are becoming an ever more common way of doing business. The leaders of some of these multinational companies will attend this weeks World Economic Forum in Davos. Oxfam has found that nine out of 10 WEF corporate partners have a presence in at least one tax haven and it is estimated that tax dodging by multinational corporations across the world costs developing countries at least $100bn every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014. Era of tax havens Thats why I am going to Davos to challenge governments, companies and elites to play their part in ending the era of tax havens, which is heightening economic inequality and preventing hundreds of millions of people from lifting themselves out of poverty. And it is also why Oxfam has released An Economy for the 1% just before this years Davos. This research has led to tax havens being at the top of our inequality to-do list. Tax may be boring to some, but the figures are eye-watering. Roughly $7.6 trillion of individuals wealth sits offshore. If tax were paid on the incomes this wealth generates, we are looking at an extra $190bn for governments to spend on services that are essential for a functioning society, such as schools and hospitals. We need to end the era of tax havens if we are to stop the inequality countdown. For the benefit of all of us, our governments which are meant to represent our interests need to shun the vested interests of the richest by stopping the race to the bottom on tax and pulling back the curtains on shady financial dealings. Winnie Byanyima is a grassroots activist, human rights advocate, senior international public servant, world-recognised expert on womens rights, and currently the executive director of Oxfam International. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. US embassy says its nationals are missing after local media reported three Americans kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. Iraqi security forces fanned out across Baghdad on Monday looking for three Americans who were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches. An Iraqi intelligence official told the Associated Press news agency that the Americans had been kidnapped from their interpreters home in the southern Baghdad neighbourhood of Dora. The United States embassy said several Americans had gone missing in Iraq. We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans, said Scott Bolz, the US embassy spokesman. Bolz did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said that due to privacy considerations he had nothing further to add about the missing Americans. The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority, Kirby said. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the abductions. Search under way According to witnesses, Iraqi security forces have set up checkpoints in the Dora neighbourhood southeast of Baghdad. Two Iraqi army helicopters were also seen hovering over the district while police SUVs patrolled the streets. The comments by US officials came after the Arab news channel al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. Iraqi media reports said that the Americans went missing in the south of the capital on their way to Baghdad International Airport. A Western security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, told AP on Sunday that he had been told three Americans went missing 24 to 48 hours ago. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Shia militias, as well as by criminal gangs demanding ransom payments, or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. ISIL claimed a number of attacks in Baghdad and neighbouring Diyala province last week that killed more than 50 people, including an attack on a Baghdad mall. The string of ISIL attacks on civilian targets within areas of Iraqi government control follow battlefield losses, most recently in western Iraq. Last month, Iraqi troops pushed fighters out of the centre of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province in Iraqs Sunni heartland. Many critical of controversial US Republican presidential candidate, but MPs agree a ban would go against free speech. British politicians have discussed banning Donald Trump from entering the UK, but agree the move would go against free speech. Most members of parliament said on Monday that Trump should be allowed into Britain where his crazy and offensive views could be challenged. I want to see Donald Trump come to this country I want him to get a sense of the fury and the frustration with his xenophobic remarks, said Gavin Robinson, a legislator from Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party. Trump caused outrage last month with his comments that Muslims should be banned from entering the United States. He spoke after 14 people died in a shooting spree in California, allegedly committed by two Muslims whom the FBI said had been radicalised. MPs also said the ban would give Trump more publicity or that it was not for Britain to get involved in US affairs. The debate was prompted by a petition with nearly 574,000 signatures that urged the MPs to keep the controversial US presidential candidate out of the country. There was no parliamentary motion or vote after Monday evenings debate, and only interior minister Theresa May can issue an order banning entry. The UK has previously denied entry for religious leaders accused of promoting extremist beliefs and politicians, such as Dutch MP Geert Wilders, and those who have faced charges of Islamophobia. Divisive, stupid, and wrong Responding to a question in parliament last month, David Cameron, the British prime minister, called Trumps comments during his campaign divisive, stupid, and wrong, but said the Republican frontrunner should not be banned. I think if he came to our country, he would unite us all against him, Cameron said. The debate came as a left-wing activist group, Rise Scotland, demonstrated at properties owned by Trump in Scotland in solidarity with minority groups in the US. We aim today to disrupt, however briefly, Trumps ability to generate profit in Scotland that will then be spent on his campaign of racist demonisation and scapegoating in the US, the group said in a statement on its website. Earlier, Trump demanded the construction of a Mexican-funded wall on the US-Mexico border to keep migrants out of the US. His views have attracted criticism domestically and internationally, as well as from within his own party. Yet, Trump holds a double-digit lead in the polls over his next closest opponent in the Republican nomination race. A poll of Arab opinion formers has found that 90 percent believe that relations between Iran and Arab countries are worse than they should be. Other poll findings 48 percent : Expect worsening relations between Iran and Arab countries over the next five years 85 percent : Object to foreign military intervention to confront Iran 88 percent : Strongly agree or agree that the Palestinian issue is used by Iran to increase its influence in the region, but 90 percent strongly agree or agree that this is due to Arab institutions failures in supporting Palestinians 60 percent : Both Iranian and Arab religious scholars play a negative role in increasing tension in Arab-Iranian relations 75 percent : There should be more cultural ties between Iran and Arab countries According to the poll, released on Monday by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, 69 percent of those questioned support the establishment of a cooperative regional security order between Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain. According to the Studies Centre, The opinion poll was conducted to better understand how Arab thought leaders, including politicians, policymakers, thinkers, academics and activists, view their regions relations with Iran overall, and where they believe these relations are headed. While the poll indicates that 81 percent of those interviewed by telephone from 21 Arab countries believe that there should be better relations between Iran and Arab countries, only 58 percent believed that Iran and only 35 percent believed that Arab countries were serious about improving relations with each other. The poll found an even split among those who view the warming of relations between Iran and the United States positively (44 percent) and those who view it negatively (45 percent). Al Jazeera spoke to Fatima Alsmadi, the Studies Centres Iran specialist who conducted the poll, about its findings and recent developments in the region. Al Jazeera: What are the criteria on which this poll was conducted? How did you determine who was an Arab thought leader? Fatima Alsmadi: Although the polling was actually conducted between September 30 and November 30, 2015, we began preparing for it in March 2015. In the beginning, we worked on identifying who the key people were in 21 different Arab countries. We did this by reaching out to our Al Jazeera bureaus across the region, as well as specialists such as journalists, analysts, and others on the ground and putting together a list of the most influential opinion makers in these countries. We focused on people working in politics, economics, academia, and those doing social work. And in some countries, such as Iraq and Yemen, we even made sure to identify key tribal leaders who hold a great deal of influence. Al Jazeera: This poll comes across as lumping the Arab world into a monolith, at the risk of not accurately reflecting the various and competing political views prevalent across the region. Alsmadi: It is true that the findings released in this study deal with wider, more general issues. But during our polling, we also focused on specific issues relevant to a particular country. While we asked about the political environment in general across the Arab world, we asked each respondent about specific issues they are facing in their respective country. We will eventually make some of those findings public, such as what some Iraqi opinion makers think of Iranian policy in Iraq, what Palestinians think about Irans role in the Palestinian issue, and so on. However, we have noticed a pattern among many of our respondents across the region regarding their views on more general issues with regards to Iranian policy towards the Arab world. We also asked open-ended questions, where we gave respondents the opportunity to answer however they pleased. These questions were asked with regards to specific issues such as Irans role in the Syrian civil war, the nuclear deal, and so on. Al Jazeera: You chose to focus on Irans image across Arab countries for this poll. Do you have any plans on doing polls about other regional powers, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey? Alsmadi: This is just the first step in a series of polls we hope to conduct. We chose Iran first because Iran is a country that the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies has specialised in. Much of our research has been done on the political role it plays in the Arab world. We do have plans to do one on Turkey, Israel, and other places. For now, however, Iran is clearly on the mind of many Arab thought leaders, and their policies are particularly sensitive to many Arabs given the role the country has played in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and even Palestine an issue near and dear to many Arabs. We also often talk in terms of the Saudi-Iranian relationship due to the impact it has on the region in general. There is no single [political] issue in the Arab world that does not involve Iran as a player. Al Jazeera: What do you think of the ongoing Saudi-Iranian dispute and the increase of sectarianism in the region? Alsmadi: This conflict is political in nature and is shaped by regional dynamics. But surely it has taken on other tones, which have been a result of this political dispute. The political factors are what created the sectarian tension, and not the other way around. The continuation of political conflicts has led to sectarianism; the lack of a solution to the Syria crisis, the conflict in Iraq, and so on. Nearly 80 percent of our respondents said that these conflicts would affect sectarian tension in these places. Iran says that its foreign policy is not built on sectarian motives. We know it has a close relationship with groups like Hamas and others that are not Shia Muslim groups, for political reasons. But its also true that they do consider the protection of the Shia Muslim community in the world to be a major issue for them. We cant say that their role in Iraq is not sectarian-based not in rhetoric, perhaps, but certainly it is in practice. At least 20 people reportedly killed in Arab coalition air raid on a police building in the capital, Sanaa. An air strike by the Arab coalition targeted a building used by police and rebel forces in Yemens capital, killing at least 26 people and wounding 15 others, security officials have said. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government rebels known as the Houthis, said on Monday that about 30 others were believed still to be trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Police vehicles parked in the facilitys courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, the Associated Press news agency reported officials as saying. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, officials said. Repeated calls for comment by Al Jazeera to Brigadier-General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Arab coalition forces in Yemen, remained unanswered. Security forces sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed for deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The air strike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials. The Arab coalition began air strikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, in alliance with the government of Yemens President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Journalist killed Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement it said Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli, 35, was killed on Sunday just outside Sanaa in an apparent air strike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britains Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. Since last March, more than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen. Clinton and Sanders go toe-to-toe over healthcare, foreign policy, and Wall Street during fourth presidential debate. In their final debate before the Iowa caucuses, the gloves came off between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Shouting over each other at times, the two leading Democratic presidential candidates engaged in some of their toughest exchanges of the campaign on Sunday night, underscoring the narrowing race between them in the first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton sought an advantage over the Vermont senator on curbing gun violence. Sanders, meanwhile, twice assailed the former secretary of state for accepting big money in speaking fees from Wall Street, drawing some boos as he did so. Healthcare emerged as a major dividing line, placing the future of President Barack Obamas healthcare law in the spotlight. Just two hours before the debate, Sanders released a proposal that would create a Medicare for all healthcare system funded by higher taxes on middle-class families and the wealthy. READ MORE: Discourse and debate between Sanders and Clinton Sanders and Clinton came to the debate stage loaded with stinging attacks for each other and they were ready to use them. Questioning her commitment to policing excess on Wall Street, Sanders twice invoked Clintons receipt of lucrative speaking fees after leaving her post as secretary of state in early 2013. Youve received $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in one year, Sanders said pointedly. Clinton worked aggressively to associate herself with President Obama, claiming credit for her role in the run-up to the Iran nuclear deal as well as praising the healthcare law. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obamas diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending US ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of US-Russian relations. My relationship with him its interesting, Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. Its one, I think, of respect. But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who will take as much as he possibly can. Woman, who was five months pregnant, moderately wounded in alleged stabbing by Palestinian man in illegal settlement. Israeli officials say a Palestinian attacker has been shot after stabbing and wounding a pregnant Israeli woman in the occupied West Bank. The attacker entered the Tekoa settlement and stabbed the 30-year-old woman on Monday before being shot by the settlements head of security, the Israeli military said. All Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land are considered illegal under international law. The attackers condition was not immediately known. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian citizen had been critically injured and was being treated in hospital, denying earlier reports of his death. Shoham Ruvio, a spokesperson for Jerusalems Shaarei Tzedek hospital, said the woman, who was five-months pregnant, was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the upper body. There was no damage caused to the foetus, Ruvio said, identifying the woman as Michal Froman. She is the daughter-in-law of a late settler rabbi known to promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews, according to Ruvio. Eli Bin, the head of Israels rescue service MDA, had earlier told Israeli Channel 10 TV that the woman was seriously wounded. The past four months have seen almost daily alleged attacks by, and killings of, Palestinians by the Israeli military. Since October 1, at least 160 Palestinians and 25 Israelis have been killed in the violence. Overall in 2015, Israeli soldiers or settlers shot and killed 180 Palestinians, including unarmed protesters, bystanders and alleged attackers. Protests surged in frequency in September as right-wing Israeli settlers carried out incursions into the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims. Unrest has since spread throughout the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, and Palestinian communities in Israel. After meeting in Kremlin, Sheikh Tamim voices hope for finding peaceful solution to conflict in run-up to Geneva talks. The leaders of Russia and Qatar have sought to narrow their differences on Syria, a week before planned Syrian peace talks in Switzerland. On his first visit to Moscow, Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani emphasised on Monday Russias role in the region during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, and voiced hope for finding a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict. Russia and Qatar have stood on the opposite sides of the conflict since it erupted in 2011, with Russia staunchly backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Qatar supporting his opponents. Putin began the Kremlin talks by praising Qatars role in regional affairs and expressing hope that they would be able to search for ways of settlement of the most difficult issues. Sheikh Tamim said at the start of talks with Putin that Qatar wants to develop ties with Russia and find a solution for problems concerning stability of some of the countries of the region. Geneva talks The Kremlin meeting came just a week before the Geneva peace talks, which are to bring together the Syrian government and its opponents. The talks, set to start on January 25, are intended to launch a political process that should produce a new constitution and elections in a year and a half. Hopes for their quick success are dim, with Assads forces scoring a series of battlefield gains which could make the government less inclined to negotiate a compromise. Sergey Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, said after the Kremlin talks that Russia and Qatar agreed on the need to convene the talks this month. He said the two nations agreed to raise the efficiency of anti-terrorist action in the framework of international efforts. His Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, said the two leaders had agreed on the need to search for a political settlement in Syria. In a separate development, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that at least five trucks loaded with humanitarian aid were targeted and destroyed by Russian air strikes in Aleppo suburbs. The trucks were heading from Aleppo suburbs to the city of Qamishli in Hasakah province, the observatory said. The Syria Civil Defence reported on Sunday evening that Russian air strikes targeted several areas in the city of Aleppo killing at least one civilian and injuring several others. The conflict in Syria, which began almost five years ago with protests against Assad, has escalated into an all-out war that has killed at least 250,000 people and displaced millions. Samir Geagea declares his support for Michel Aoun in rare show of unity in country without a president since May 2014. In a rare show of unity in a country divided and without a president since May 2014, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party has announced that he is supporting a rival to become president. Samir Geagea, speaking during a televised press conference with Michel Aoun on Monday, said he would back the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leaders nomination. I declare that the Lebanese Forces have endorsed MP Aouns presidential candidacy in the hope that it will end the deadlock, Geagea said. This is a historic day. We have indefinitely folded the page on the past between the Lebanese Forces and the FPM. Lebanons deepening crisis The declaration stressed the need to draft a new electoral law that is fair and truly represents the people and their aspirations. Aoun and Geagea respectively head the largest Christian parties in Lebanon. By law, the Lebanese president must be a Maronite Christian. We hope the election would take place in the near future; we intend to treat everyone equally and embrace all the Lebanese, Aoun said after receiving Geageas endorsement. I thank the Lebanese Forces that made the decision to back me for the presidency. Following Mondays announcement, Geagea called on his allies in the March 14 alliance to support this decision. The alliance includes the Future bloc the party with the most seats in parliament led by Saad Hariri, a former prime minister. Tackling Lebanese corruption one photo at a time Aoun is part of the rival March 8 alliance, which includes Hezbollah, led by Hassan Nasrallah, and Amal, led by Nabih Berri, the parliamentary speaker. Earlier Hariri had suggested the nomination of another Maronite politician and March 8 figure, Suleiman Franjieh, for president. The Lebanese president will be elected by the parliament, which is made up of 128 seats. Currently, 127 members are active one has passed away and not been replaced since. Future is followed in numerical strength in parliament by the FPM, Amal, Hezbollah and Walid Jumblatts Progressive Socialist Party. State media says Gui Minhai, who vanished in Thailand, voluntarily returned for a drink-driving accident conviction. A bookseller whose disappearance prompted fears in Hong Kong that he may have been taken by Chinese agents has mysteriously reappeared in China, claiming that he had voluntarily turned himself in to the authorities for a drink-driving accident that resulted in a death 11 years ago. Gui Minhai, who vanished from his apartment in Thailand last October, voluntarily returned to China to answer a conviction for killing a student in 2003, according to state media. I am returning to surrender by personal choice. It has nothing to do with anyone, Gui said in a China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast. This is a personal responsibility that I ought to bear. Guis daughter, Angela, who is based in Britain, told Reuters news agency late on Sunday that she could not confirm what was being reported, but she still believed her father had been abducted and his detention was related to his work. Theres got to be a reason it happened now and that the others were taken as well, she said. Separately, Bei Ling, a close friend of Gui and president of the Independent Chinese Pen Centre, told the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, on Monday that he doubts the story of CCTV, and what had happened was an abduction by a country. Gui, a naturalised Swedish citizen, is one of five members to have gone missing from a Hong Kong bookstore that specialises in selling gossipy political books on Chinas ruling Communist Party leaders. The disappearances, and Chinas silence, have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may been using shadowy tactics that erode the one country, two systems formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. Last week thousands marched in Hong Kong, a special autonomous territory, to condemn the disappearances. The five missing booksellers include Lee Bo, a British passport holder who disappeared from Hong Kong at the end of last month. In recent years, Chinas state media have publicised a string of what are presented as confessions made by prominent suspects. Critics say these accounts deprive the accused of the right to a fair trial. Sweden is continuing to seek clarifications from the Chinese authorities on Guis case, said Gabriella Augustsson, head of public diplomacy for the Swedish embassy in Beijing. Angela, Guis daugther, said she believed the Swedish authorities were doing everything they could to help with the case. It was not possible to contact Gui and it remains unclear whether he has a lawyer. Hong Lei, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, declined to elaborate on the case at a daily news briefing. As for the relevant case, the media reports are already quite detailed, Hong said, adding he had nothing new to say. Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kongs chief executive, said on Monday that the government was taking the case seriously and would continue to investigate the circumstances of those missing. His comments came after a Hong Kong-based Chinese official expressed concern on Friday at the disappearances but said that investigations were complicated. Local newspaper quotes interior ministry as saying suspect JA went to Turkey, then Germany and Belgium before returning. A Belgian national of Moroccan origin directly linked to the Paris attacks has been arrested in Morocco, according to a local newspaper report quoting Moroccos interior ministry. Hespress reported on Monday that a Belgian national had been arrested in al-Muhammadia port city on the west coast of Morocco, between Casablanca and Rabat, in the region of Casablanca-Settat. Quoting a ministry statement, Hespress said that the suspect was arrested four days ago and is a Belgian national of Moroccan origin who is directly linked to the Paris attacks. The ministry has identified him by his first two initials: JA. They said JA went to Turkey, then Germany and Belgium before coming to Morocco from the Netherlands. Multiple attacks on November 13, 2015, in Paris left at least 130 people dead, in what French President Francois Hollande said was an act of war organised by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. Four attackers killed at least 80 young people attending a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall, city hall officials said. Heavily armed policemen eventually launched an assault on the building. About 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris area, including an apparent triple suicide bombing outside the national stadium, Stade de France. The coordinated attacks came as France, a member of the US-led coalition waging air strikes against ISIL fighters in Syria and Iraq, was on high alert for attacks. Belgium has arrested 11 people so far on suspicion of involvement in the Paris attacks. With sanctions lifted, country eyes additional 500,000 barrels of oil a day, pushing crude price down to 13-year low. Iran has said that it plans to increase oil production by 500,000 barrels a day now that sanctions have been lifted under a nuclear deal with world powers. Analysts say the decision is likely to bring down the price of oil further in the world market. Roknoddin Javadi, deputy oil minister, said that Iran was determined to retake its market share, which collapsed after the sanctions were imposed in 2012. His comments were posted on the ministrys website on Monday. Iran used to export 2.3 million barrels a day but its crude exports fell to one million in 2012. Oil prices have recently fallen to about $28 a barrel, a 13-year low. READ MORE: The oil price, Iran and Saudis economy However, Richard Mallinson, an energy analyst, told Al Jazeera it remained unclear how quickly Iran could boost production. The UN nuclear agency, IAEA, certified on Saturday that Iran had met all of its commitments under last summers agreement, prompting the lifting of sanctions. And on Monday, Yukiya Amano, the IAEAs head, arrived in Tehran for talks with Irans President Hassan Rouhani. Amano will also meet the head of Irans atomic organisation. The IAEAs monitoring and verifying of Irans atomic programme is expected to be on the agenda. First comments With the lifting of the sanctions taking centre-stage, the United Arab Emirates energy minister said in Abu Dhabi on Monday that any extra supply of crude oil would harm the market. In the first comments by an Arab Gulf member of OPEC about Iran since most sanctions were lifted, Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said any new production that came into the market would delay the time for the market to balance itself. Does Iran have the right to do so? Yes of course; they are a member of OPEC and are entitled to that but is this going to help [the] situation? No, he said. We are having an oversupply and anyone who will introduce more supply in the current situation will make it worse. On Monday, OPEC gave reassurance that the price of oil would rebound later this year, saying non-OPEC countries would be forced to slow down production, thereby reducing supply and boosting the price globally. Jochem Wermuth, a market analyst in Abu Dhabi, said it was unlikely that oil prices would ever go as high up as the levels of July 2008, when it hit $147 a barrel. I would think that what the market would see is a further fall in the oil price, he told Al Jazeera. We think that it is a structural fall in the oil price. We dont think it will swing up again soon, or, indeed, ever. Moodys, the credit rating agency, said the sanctions relief would boost liquidity and economic growth in Iran. Moodys said Irans increased oil production would contribute to higher growth next year, with positive spillover effects on higher investment and consumption spending. Irans economy is expected to grow 4 percent to 5.5 percent in 2016 and 2017, largely because of increased oil production. Analysts say countrys policy of neutrality cements its role as a mediator between the two Muslim powers. A Pakistani delegation led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, has travelled to Riyadh in a stated attempt to ease tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Sharif met Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Monday, urging him to resolve the differences with Iran peacefully, according to Pakistani media reports. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia executed 47 people on terrorism charges, including Nimr al-Nimr, a Shia religious leader, and Fares al-Shuwail al-Zahrani, a convicted al-Qaeda leader. The execution of Nimr spurred Iranian demonstrators into ransacking the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting several Saudi allies to break off diplomatic ties with Iran. Pakistani analysts say the countrys neutrality in the conflict will allow it to act as a mediator between the two major Muslim powers. Sharif was accompanied during the trip by the countrys army chief, Raheel Sharif, who met Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi deputy crown prince and defence minister, according to a statement from the Pakistani military media wing ISPR. The delegation is due to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Tuesday. [The] Pakistani leadership has adopted a rational approach to the crisis up till now, Zafar Jaspal, a senior political analyst, told Al Jazeera. I am optimistic [that] somehow Pakistan will be successful in reducing the tension between the two Muslim countries. A Pakistani official, who did not want to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Al Jazeera the Saudi-Iran dispute had left Pakistan in a bind and remaining neutral was the only option. [This is] because the Saudis have very close relations with Nawaz Sharif, and theyve been supporting Pakistan with finance and investments, the official said. He said Pakistan was also hoping to restart its economic relationships with Iran following the lifting of international sanctions. READ MORE: Fears grow over Saudi-Iran row Hassan Khan, a senior Pakistani security expert, agreed that the only option was for Pakistan to play a mediatory role. Iran is a neighbour. Pakistan has a large Shia community, who have sympathisers in Pakistans National Assembly, such as the Pakistan Peoples Party, he said. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is a financier [and] a close ally 1.5 million Pakistanis are working in the kingdom and we share religious and cultural links with them. The only option we have left is to remain neutral, and we are utilising that option in a good way. Protesters rally in Buenos Aires as new government begins revising job contracts of what it calls political activists. Buenos Aires Thousands of state employees are protesting in Argentinas capital, accusing the new government of not renewing their contracts. Mondays demonstration came after ministries, the senate and cultural centres started revising contracts of their staff, prompting many job losses. The government is laying off state employees and they are accusing us of being activists, of getting paid and not coming to work, Mabel Mansilla, one of the protesters, said. I have three children to support, and my contract has not been renewed. Mauricio Macri, Argentinas new president, came to power promising change after 12 years of the government led by Nestor and Cristina Kirchner, accusing the latter of leaving the country financially crippled. Macris government says that for years the previous leadership handed over public jobs in exchange for political support or as a way of generating the jobs that the private sector did not. Andres Ibarra, Argentinas minister of modernisation, said: We are reviewing all contracts because we found very strange things. For example, in the last three years, we have seen an increase of 50 percent of state employees. If anyone is being paid and is not working, it is disrespectful to the workers. It is public money. One woman killed and several others injured in Kilis in explosion blamed by government officials on ISIL. Rockets have struck a school in Kilis, a city in southern Turkey near the Syrian border, killing at least one female staff member and injuring several others, including a pupil. Police were investigating Mondays explosion, which government officials blamed on rockets fired from across the border in Syria. Al Jazeeras Andrew Simmons, reporting from the scene in Kilis, said: One female staff member has died, and a female student in her teens has been critically injured and is in the hospital being treated. Two other people have been injured. This was a rocket attack and not a long-range mortar as some have been reporting. Turkish authorities identified the school as Eyup Gokce Imam Middle School. The semi-official Anadolu news agency said the woman who was killed was a school janitor, adding that another three people wounded in the attack were being treated at the Kilis State Hospital. Our correspondent quoted local officials as saying the rocket was fired from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions less than 20km away from the Syrian border. There have been previous attacks along the border, but not anything like this, he said. It is still unclear if the attack was an accident or on purpose. Istanbul attack Last week a suicide bomber blew himself up among groups of tourists in the historic centre of Istanbul, killing at least 12 people, including 10 Germans. Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkeys prime minister, said on Wednesday that the attacker was an ISIL member who had entered Turkey from Syria as a refugee. ISIL has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Davutoglu also said the Turkish army had fired at least 500 times on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq following the Istanbul attack, killing about 200 fighters. Turkey has become a target for ISIL, with two bombings last year blamed on the armed group, in the town of Suruc near the Syrian border and in the capital Ankara. The second blast killed more than 100 people. Tehran is re-engaging with the world after nuclear sanctions are lifted. After years of economic isolation, Iran is now open for business. The International Atomic Energy Agency announced on Saturday that Iran has held up its end of last years nuclear deal, prompting the US and European Union to begin lifting sanctions. For the first time since 2012, Iran will be able to sell its oil on the world market once again. Sanctions targeting its banking, steel and shipping industries are also lifted. US Secretary of State John Kerry described it as a historic day and said it proves that negotiations rather than war can be used to resolve problems. But can Western countries trust Iran? And what does this mean for the region and the world? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: Foad Izadi Professor of World Studies at the University of Tehran specialising in US-Iran relations Fahad Alsholaimi President of the Gulf Peace and Security Forum Hossein Rassam Former Iranian Adviser to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office Charity group Oxfam warns of global crisis, with the 62 richest billionaires owning as much wealth as half the world. Oxfam has said that the global inequality crisis is going from bad to worse. The global charity says inequality is worse than it has been in 100 years. It said 62 of the worlds mega-rich own as much wealth as the poorest half of the seven billion people on the planet and have become 44 percent richer while the poorest have become that much poorer in the past five years. The richest 1 percent already own more than the other 99 percent combined. World leaders who are meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos this week are discussing some of Oxfams concerns. But do they have any plans to tackle the growing divide? And can the wealth gap ever be bridged? Presenter: Sami Zeidan Guests: John Hilary Executive director of War on Want Jyrki Raina General secretary of IndustriALL Global Union Jan Randolph Director of sovereign risk analysis at IHS Global Insight AR's Editor Joe Shea Talks About Elections On Iranian TV Bear Stearns Saved By Fed As Lehman Bros. Falters; Major Bank Failure Looms Over Wall Street, Sends Markets Into 200-Pt. Dive Lie Upon Lie Five Years Into the Iraq War The Administration Still Churns Out Lies by Randolph Holhut A Small Tragedy Even at 90, As Friends Turn Cool She Knows the Show Must Go On by Joyce Marcel I'll Take Me Imagine John Wayne or Arnold In Heels, Silk and a Girdle by Elizabeth Andrews Sen. Nelson Calls For New Fla. Primary; Gov Crist Backs 'Do-Over' Who'll Win? Ask Spock Spock.com Engine Predicts Winners By Site Searches; It Can be Wrong by Jay Bhatti Chatting Up The Cat God Gave Me Dominion Over Him But I Think He's a Non-Believer by Constance Daley Death of a Thug The Life and Horrors of Suharto by Andreas Harsono ___________________________ This Just In Sierra Club: McCain Ducked All 15 Key Votes On Green Laws (AR) A Work By AR's T.S. Kerrigan Is Chosen As 'Best Poem' By Wordpress Site Murder At Mile 63 The Deadly Assault and Bush Administration Cover-Up by S. Eben Kirkesby and Andreas Harsono 5427 14th St. West, Bradenton, FL 34207 $6.99 Fish Fridays! Manatee Co.'s Only 24-Hr. FREE Wi-Fi Paid Advertisement On Native Ground AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum OFF TO SEE THE WIZARD by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - It's 1931, and a 14-year-old girl is standing alone on a stage. She's small and lively with dark curly hair, widespread hazel eyes, slender wrists and an open, eager face filled with the wonder of performing. Her name is Rose, and one day she will be my mother. But now she is performing an Eugene O'Neill monologue called "Before Breakfast" for a ladies' club in a wealthy suburb of Long Island. [MORE] One Woman's World COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I'm not sure but I think I may be socially incorrect. [MORE] On Native Ground ENOUGH FOR A WAR, NOT FOR A PEOPLE by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Last week, the National Governors Assn. met in Washington, D.C. One of the tasks the NGA had on its agenda was to ask President Bush to increase federal spending on roads, bridges and other public works projects as a way to stimulate the economy. He rejected their pleas out of hand, claiming that infrastructure projects wouldn't offer any short-term economic boost. [MORE] Brasch Words BEWARE THE SELF-REVERENTIAL PRESS by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Shortly before the primary votes this past week, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter called Sen. Barack Obama's surge to the Democratic nomination "inevitable." It also called for Hillary Clinton to "start her campaign for Senate majority leader." [MORE] Constance A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum OUT OF STRUGGLE, ART by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Here we are again at the crossroads of art and social change, having the opportunity to watch good and great films about the lives of women in support of the Women's Crisis Center. [MORE] Campaign 2008 HOW TO PREDICT SUPER TUESDAY II WINNERS? ONLINE SEARCH by Jay Bhatti NEW YORK, March 4, 2008, 7:00PM ET -- With the outcomes of the Texas, Vermont, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries to be decided tonight, how possible is it that online searching can predict who will win tonight's primaries? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T VOTE; IT ENCOURAGES THEM by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Call me angry and disgusted but don't call me un-American because I won't be voting come November. [MORE] On Native Ground BUSH AND THE KEYBOARD COMMANDOS by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- As the days tick down toward the eventual departure of President George W. Bush from the White House, it's a hopeful sign that most Americans are no longer moved by his Administration's constant exploitation of terrorism for political gain. [MORE] Momentum WHICH AMERICA DO YOU LIVE IN? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It's a little confusing. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] On Native Ground FIDEL RETIRES: NOW THE COLD WAR IS REALLY OVER by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Maybe now, we can finally say the Cold War is over. [MORE] Make My Dat THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies: WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008 AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008 CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE] Patricia Smith and Charles Woods, parents of two of the Benghazi dead, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, would disagree with the notion that history is a lie agreed upon. They do not agree with and do not consent to Hillary Clintons attempted rewriting of history and the attempted hiding of what is arguably her criminal negligence in what she calls the fog of war. Family members of the Benghazi dead talked to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly Wednesday night after viewing the world premier of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. Charles Woods and Jeremiah Woods, father and brother of Ty Woods, and Patricia Smith. mother of Sean, repeated their consistent statements that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and U.N. ambassador Susan Rice all told them in front of their sons caskets that Benghazi was the fault of a video and they would get, not the terrorists that killed their sons, but the filmmaker. As Matthew K. Burke notes on the Politistick blog: The most powerful moment of the interviews -- setting aside Charles Woods, whose son Ty Woods was killed in the Islamic attacks, who showed notes he took at the funerals of the victims which collaborate [sic] that Hillary Clinton told the families the known lie that the YouTube video was responsible, was a crying Pat Smith, who sadly declared the one thing she would like to say. The poor lady couldnt even make it through the whole movie, having to leave immediately upon seeing the actor portraying her son. Almost like Bill Clintons multiple victims of his sexual assault victims who were labeled as liars, Hillary Clinton claimed to not have told the families that the YouTube video was responsible -- in essence calling the families liars. Liar, interestingly enough, was the top word most associated with Hillary Clinton in an August 2015 Quinnipiac University poll. So who is lying about Benghazi? Perhaps the best answer is to ask who gains the most by lying. Not the parents, who only want to know how and why their sons had to die. Hillary Clinton has every reason to lie. The truth, as told by the three men who survived the firefight at the Benghazi mission and atop the CIA annex waiting for a rescue Hillary helped stop, would doom her candidacy. Shamelessly, Hillary Clinton is calling the families liars, as the Daily Mail reports The Daily Sun, a newspaper in rural Conway, New Hampshire, hosted an editorial board meeting with Clinton on Wednesday. Columnist Tom McLaughlin recounted for her the claims of victims' family members who said she had told them a crude Internet video that mocked the Islamic faith was responsible for inciting the attackers who killed their loved ones. Clinton has denied making any such statement, despite the accounts of four people. One, the father of a slain CIA security contractor, took written notes of her words. 'Somebody is lying,' McLaughlin told her Wednesday. 'Who is it?' 'Not me, that's all I can tell you,' Clinton replied, casting blame on the families. It would be hard to believe that all the members of the families who were there all have the same faulty recollection of Hillarys words. Kathleen Quigley, the sister of Glen Doherty, another fallen hero of Benghazi, in addition to Charles Woods and Patricia Smith, has also said that Hillary lied to the families: 'She knows that she knew what happened that day and she wasn't truthful,' Kate Quigley told the Boston Herald Radio's Morning Meeting on Wednesday. 'This is a woman that will do and say anything to get what she wants. I have very little respect for her. 'I know what she said to me and she can say all day long that she didn't say it. That's her cross to bear.' She adds: 'As someone who has suffered so much heartache over the loss of Glen, it is hard to consider the possibility that help could have come much sooner. Investors Business Daily reported the gripping 2013 testimony of Patricia Smith before Rep. Darrell Issas House Oversight Committee: Phony scandals don't produce body bags. Mrs. Smith testified how President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary Clinton, among other top administration officials, approached her at the casket ceremony when her son's body was returned to the U.S. "Every one of them came up to me, gave me a big hug, and I asked them, 'What happened, please tell me?' And every one of them said it was the video. And we all know that it wasn't the video. Even at that time they knew it wasn't the video. So they all lied to me." As IBD also noted, Charles Woods recollection of Hillarys statements was quite clear: Clinton expressed no regrets for repeating the video lie to Woods in front of his son's casket as it arrived at Dover Air Force Base: "Her countenance was not good, and she made this statement to me... she said we will make sure that the person who made that film is arrested and prosecuted," he told radio host Glenn Beck, adding that he "could tell that she was not telling me the truth." The movie 13 Hours is based on the book in which three CIA contractors Kris Paronto, John Tiegen, and Mark Geist, tells the tale of the battle they fought alongside Glen Doherty and Sean Smith in the terrorist attack which claimed the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens. It confirms that Benghazi was not a spontaneous demonstration gone bad due a video, despite Susan Rice repeating that lie on five Sunday talk shows, and President Obama repeating it six times before the United Nations. Hillary Clinton knew it was a lie, telling the truth to daughter Chelsea and an Egyptian diplomat before she lied to the parents of the Benghazi dead. It confirms that rescuers were told to stand down. 13 Hours should be the life expectancy of Hillarys candidacy after the films release. It confirms that Hillary Clinton is a liar who should never again see the inside of the White House unless she has a ticket for the next tour. Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is yet another toothless U.N. body that is in for a whirlwind of frustration when it inspects Irans nuclear program sites. The provisions of the agreement negotiated by Secretary of State John Kerry and his team of sycophants make Neville Chamberlains peace in our time negotiations with Hitler look like a stroke of genius. Irans Islamic regime is an incredibly dangerous foe. Like ISIS (or Daesh, a moniker that group loathes), Iran has an apocalyptic view of current and near-future events. But this time around, a group of believers in Shia Iran, with tremendous resources, are intent upon forcing the issue, making the conditions so dire that they leave the reluctant Saheb-ul-Zaman, the Lord of the Age, the Mahdi, their messianic myth, no choice but to appear and assume his universal reign. Devotees drive both, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic State, to quicken the End Times apocalypse. Iranian leaders hold to a Shia brand. ISIS leaders hold to a Sunni brand. But both are obsessed by a belief that their messiah is coming. The Iran Shiites believe they must lay the groundwork for the messiah (Mahdi) to come and build their Kingdom or Imamate. ISIS isnt really waiting. They have propelled a jihadist storm to build the Caliphate now, so that the Mahdi will come soon. To the latter, there will be no manifestation until the world gets a front row seat to a full-blown cataclysmic event, and thats whats being planned now. Despite having negotiated the Iran deal to postpone Irans acquisition of a nuclear device, Obama and Kerry have witlessly cut a Faustian bargain with Iran, whose theocratic supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, is all too happy to lead chants of Death to America and Death to Israel in response. We believe, based on comments made by two remarkable experts on this subject, Dr. Peter Pry of emptaskforce.org and Ambassador Hank Cooper of highfrontier.com, the latter of whom worked in the Reagan Administration, that Iran already has the bomb and is working on figuring out how to get it into a vehicle and send it our way. It will not, however deliver annihilation to any single city or cities in the conventional sense. That would be pointless, futile and suicidal. Instead, working together with North Korea, they will seek to take out our electric infrastructure and anything electronic via satellites they already have in space and others theyll put up into space. Unlike most satellites that orbit the earth horizontally (from west to east), the Iranian and North Korean satellites orbit from south to north over the poles, often going right over the center of the U.S. Its what they may have in those satellites that keeps us up at night. (Well explain in Part Two of this dissertation.) What is of primary interest to us in Part One is where Iran is developing its nuclear weapons technology and its not in the Middle East, even though thats where they want us looking. Its no secret that Iran and North Korea have been trading buddies, but there are indications that they plan to work together to develop a Complete America Annihilation technology. The January 6, 2016, North Korean nuclear test may be the proof of that team effort. Kim Jon Uns farcical boast that he was testing a small hydrogen bomb is a red herring. To those who dont understand the difference between a standard nuclear warhead and a hydrogen bomb, the latter is 1,000 times more powerful and what was tested seemed closer to what fell on Hiroshima than something that could take out a couple of cities. To raise the stakes, both countries have expressed their ardent desire to destroy us. The Iranian regime has been working their way to a nuclear bomb for almost thirty years. While Iran may well have achieved its nuclear goal, testing their monster would not have been possible in Iran. It would be picked up quickly not only by military sensors, but the U.S. Geological Survey, which recorded the latest North Korean test as being equivalent to a 5.1 earthquake. While Iran is earthquake prone, we would know the difference between a nuclear test and a bona fide earthquake almost immediately. It would be far too risky to attempt in the Middle East. So, where else could they go to test? Most likely to North Korea with a gift of badly needed oil and perhaps with some money and food. In exchange, Iran would get North Korea to test their bomb for them and it may not be the first time. This was the fourth nuclear test conducted by North Korea. We learned from the Daily Beast and other sources, that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Irans nuclear program, and other Iranian nuclear scientists had been present during North Korea's three previous nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, and 2013, and were likely present during the most recent test on January 6. The Daily Beast suggests that, In October 2012, Iran began stationing personnel at a military base in North Korea, in a mountainous area close to the Chinese border. The Iranians, from the Ministry of Defense and associated firms, reportedly are working on both missiles and nuclear weapons [there]. That would make Irans recent missile tests in the Middle East decoys. By having a base in North Korea, Iran is able to escape any identification of their nuclear activities while back in Iran, and they appear to be compliant. The vicious mullahs want that $150 billion to finance not only Islamic terror, but both theirs and North Koreas efforts to utterly destroy the U.S. in an instant. Business Insider points to a study conducted by David Albright, a renowned nuclear physicist and founder of the Institute for Science and International Security (I.S.I.S.) at the Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University. As he explained, North Korea has built enough physical infrastructure to greatly ramp up its (and/or Irans) bomb materials production. "There's been a lot of construction of buildings, renovations, and some new structures at the [Yongbyon] site itself," Albright said. Certainly the light water reactor has materialized. What we have trouble with is figuring out what's going on inside those buildings. Researchers think North Korea has upgraded facilities to produce nuclear reactor fuel, but Albright says that it isn't known where the fabrication plant for the light-water reactor is located. And it isn't known how North Korea's uranium centrifuges are configured or how efficiently they're operating. North Korea is a hauntingly impoverished country. With China professing objections to its nuclear testing, its not likely that they got the cash to build the new structures from their mentor to the north. So from whence came the money for all of these new buildings? Enter Iran. In addition, as stated above, its not known how many or how sophisticated North Koreas centrifuges may be. It is known that Iran has state-of-the-art centrifuges, which it has been disassembling in accordance with the terms of the Iran deal, although those doing the work have mysteriously stopped. Reuters reports that, Only decommissioned centrifuges were being dismantled to begin with, of which there were about 10,000 at Natanz and Fordow, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran has said. Over the years, Iran had successfully enriched uranium to 20 percent -- weapons grade -- in those centrifuges. Nuclear experts contend that enriching to 3 to 5 percent is ideal for a power plant. Its quite possible that at least some of those disassembled centrifuges have been flown to North Korea. But Iran may also have shipped some other things to their bosom buddies. Reuters also reports that when the IAEA entered the Parchin facility, they didn't find what they expected to. Inside the building, we saw indications of recent renovation work, the IAEA said in a report. There was no equipment in the building. Inside they were expecting to find a containment vessel designed to test nuclear triggers. Could that have been shipped to Korea, too? The IAEA didnt find it anywhere else. So far, all four nuclear tests have been relatively small in terms of yield. But its not so much about how much yield there is thats important here. Theyll be focusing instead on emitting protons, lots and lots of protons. Well explain in Part Two what they will most likely send our way, but we can tell you in advance that the United States is woefully unprepared for what may be coming, and soon. The Sanders-Clinton story is hitting a lot of people between the eyes, especially so many in the media obsessed with GOP divisions. We are not denying problems on our side of the aisle. However, it's about time for the media to check out what's going on the left side of the street. In other words, the cracking you hear from the Democrats is very genuine. The Democrat crackup started in the 1990s, when the Clinton presidency threw so many liberals under the bus to survive politically. The crack was really evident on Election Day 2000, when 4 million liberals voted for Nader and very likely made the Bush victory possible. What if Gore had won in 2000? The crackup would have hit the party like a nuclear attack. A Gore victory, and the very likely possibility that he would have invaded Iraq after 9/11, would have put Nader back in the race in 2004. My guess is that Nader 2004 would have gotten more than 4 million votes to turn Gore into a one-term president. Last, but not least, the 2004 Democrat convention would have made Chicago 1968 look orderly. The crackup was delayed by the Bush presidency and the Iraq War, the same one that most Democrats supported. In 2008, Obama came out of nowhere to give the anti-war wing a voice and something to get excited about. My point is that the Bush victories and the Iraq War brought the Democrats together. It gave them a Bush to hate and something to agree with. It's 2016, and the chickens have finally come to roost, to borrow a popular phrase from a recent election. Yes, the chickens are flying back and aiming for Hillary Clinton, as Kimberly Stroessel wrote this weekend: These movements and activists (who also embrace the gun debate, and the womens-rights debate, and socialized health-care debate) are now the beating heart of the Democratic Party. And they are rallying around Mr. Sanders. MoveOn.org has endorsed Bernie. The liberal Nation magazine has endorsed him. Bill McKibben, the head of 350.org, has endorsed him. Jodie Evans, the co-founder of the antiwar group Codepink has endorsed him. Celebrity activists likeSusan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo are feeling the Bern. Mrs. Clinton keeps insisting that shes not nervous at all about the nomination. She should be. True, Mrs. Clinton has a powerful organization and strengths, and she is lurching left to capture these new progressive voters. But the blunt reality is that the Democratic Party, of which the Clintons have long been the titular heads, isnt really their party any more. We don't know for sure what the Democrats will look like in six months. Hillary Clinton may get nominated by super-delegates who will force her on the party. However, it's hard to see how she picks up the pieces that started to break up when her husband was president. Which party is cracking up? My money is on the Democrats cracking up between an active left wing and a shrinking moderate base. It's hard to see how you put these groups on the same side to live happily ever after. P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter. Authorities in Cologne were covering up mass sexual assaults well before the New Years Eve riots, rapes, and robberies. In November of last year, German women were victims of another mass attack by newly arrived conquerors (aka refugees). And the context could not have been more ironic. The Express reports that a welcome party for refugees turned into a mass groping session. Young women who attended the event fled in terror as gangs of Muslim men groped women en masse, pressing in on them, touching, grabbing, and kissing. Apparently organizers of the party made several announcements in Arabic during the party asking the men to stop. As you can imagine, their pleas to behave in a civilized manner went unheeded. But quite frankly, its deplorable that all the organizers did was make these announcements. The party should have been shut down, and the police should have been called. But forgive me. Thats a 20th-century idea. Now were in a new century, where the West craves an earlier time. Like, say, the 7th century. In light of these new revelations, the police and the victims are enraged that the information was suppressed by the city council, as it is believed that many of the men who engaged in these abhorrent twisted sex crimes were among those who attacked women on New Years Eve. If only those in the West would realize that what we rightfully consider abhorrent is normal for the Islamic world, which is why we should not import people from Islamic lands. But the West refuses to see reality for what it is, and so the person on the city council who was responsible for integrating refugees in Cologne decided to keep a lid on what happened at the party because she did not want to make a fuss. We can now add not wanting to make a fuss to the ever-growing list of insane rationales dhimmis will offer up. (Of course, we know the real reason she did not want to make a fuss.) In addition to her disdain for fuss-making, she also suffered a bit of conveniently timed amnesia, stating that she could not recall if she told the victims to report the crimes to the police while she also felt confident that the student organizers had learned from the situation. Yeah, they learned, all right! One can only hope she learned the right lessons: that Muslim migrants are really an army of invaders, that they are to be avoided at all cost, that they should not be imported, that they should not be welcomed, and that the German government cannot be trusted. Considering that the women were at a party to welcome refugees, Im guessing they were quite indoctrinated in their thinking, and if even one of these potential lessons was learned, it would be a small miracle. Meanwhile, all of this has come to light only because one of the victims decided to step forward and file a report with the police after the events of New Years Eve were exposed. Its not as if any person in a position of authority had a moral twinge. One can only wonder how many women in Europe have been stalked, cornered, spit on, punched, groped, threatened, stripped, and raped who have not come forward. With each passing day, more and more women and teenage girls across the continent are sharing their stories of sexual assault (in some cases, ongoing threats and assault) at the hands of Muslim men and boys, whether on New Years eve or well prior. This is what happens when you import a depraved culture that follows the teachings of a depraved man that commands supremacy over non-believers supremacy that is asserted in all manner of ways. And the women and girls of Europe are feeling it. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz owes her position as chair of the Democratic National Committee to her ability to raise money for the party. Notorious for saying stupid things ("Photo I.D. laws, we think, are very similar to a poll tax"), she uses inept leftist rhetoric while cozying up to the big money sources of political funding. In the current fight for the Democrats presidential nomination, her thumb has been on the scale, heavily favoring Hillary Clinton, another big money candidate who feigns left wing positions to anesthetize the base while accepting Wall Street and corporate money by the millions. Now she is being called out from the left wing of her own party. Mike Lillis reports on The Hill: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) chief has infuriated many Democrats with her handling of the partys presidential primary debates. She drew further howls from liberals for deeming a whole generation of young women "complacent" about their abortion freedoms. And now she's facing a primary challenge from a liberal Wall Street reformer who says she's a corporate shill detached from her district. (snip) Timothy Canova, a professor at the Shepard Broad College of Law in Florida's Nova Southeastern University, says Wasserman Schultz's positions on trade, criminal justice, consumer protection and drug policy reform among others are evidence that she's sold out to corporate interests at the expense of her constituents. DWS might want to get Eric Cantor on the phone to discuss the vulnerability an establishment pol can have in the face of an insurgent primary challenge. Canovas rhetoric would sound familiar to the lobbyist: People here on the ground I hear left and right, you name it are just dissatisfied that she's not responsive, she takes people for granted, and it's becoming evident in the way she votes on an awful lot of issues," Canova said Friday by phone. She takes a lot of corporate money, and she votes for corporate interests contrary to the interest of her own constituents. As Hillary Clintons campaign troubles mount, one of her most reliable allies rigging the nomination process in her favor has new problems close to home. Twenty-sixteen promises to be the most amusing political year ever. A commenter on my recent piece regarding Hillary Clintons calling the Benghazi families liars raised a very valid point when he asked whether or not the mothers of the fallen warriors at Benghazi had the same absolute moral authority the media bestowed on Cindy Sheehan. Remember that womans fifteen minutes of fame a decade ago? Shrieking Cindy Sheehan, the Gold Star mother, whom I accused at the time of using her fallen soldier sons coffin as a podium from which she attacked George W. Bush and his administration, was the darling of the mainstream media. Cindy was a California housewife whose son, Casey, was killed in combat in Iraq in 2004. His death drove his distraught mother into such a state that she left behind and eventually divorced her husband of almost three decades to take to the barricades of peace activism. The leftist antiwar movement quickly elevated her to celebrity spokesperson status because her sons death, conferring on her a special cachet to speak with moral authority to the government conducting the war in which her son died. It was Maureen Dowd, writing about Sheehans campaign against Bush in the New York Times on August 10th, 2005, who enhanced Sheehans already elevated moral authority (emphasis mine): Selectively humane, Mr. Bush justified his Iraq war by stressing the 9/11 losses. He emphasized the humanity of the Iraqis who desire freedom when his W.M.D. rationale vaporized. But his humanitarianism will remain inhumane as long as he fails to understand that the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute. The rest of the Bush-bashing media immediately seized upon Dowds framing of this unquestioned right to speak and be believed without challenge bestowed upon parents of fallen sons. The antiwar movement quickly molded this moral authority into a club with which they and a compliant mainstream media beat down any Bush supporters who dared question Sheehans ear-piercing screeches. Bush himself was to dutifully accept Sheehans shrieking protests without objection, giving total deference to her absolute moral authority. That was thenthis is now. Can we rightfully expect the media to accord this same absolute moral authority to the Benghazi families who claim that Hillary Clinton lied to them at the ceremony where their sons coffins were being unloaded from the military aircraft that brought their bodies home? Now that the boot of moral authority is on the right foot rather than the left, will the media be professionally consistent and march in lockstep with the Benghazi parents, as they did a decade ago with Sheehan and her movement? And, most importantly, will the mainstream media insist that their much-favored choice for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton, conduct herself in the same manner as they expected of the Bush administration, and allow the assertions of these Benghazi parents to go unchallenged? Will they ask her to renounce her charge that these aggrieved parents are liars? I believe we all know the answers to those questions. People where I live don't care about New York City one way or the other. We think eight million people living all crammed together is unhealthy and unnatural, but if those people want to live that way, so be it. They like their high-tax, big-public-sector economy, and their rent control and gun control. They're amoral, cosmopolitan, and nonjudgmental; authoritarian and elitist; disconnected and unconcerned with the vast interior of America. They're different from the rest of us, but we don't really care. You see, we're pretty tolerant in my neck of the woods, even of people we find peculiar, a little off. It's a very big and highly diverse country. We don't want to take away their lifestyle. We just don't want it imposed on us. So when Ted Cruz starts talking about New York values, we get it. He's not telling the people of New York to change their ways. He's asking them to respect the rest of us. In American Nations, Colin Woodard dubs New Yorkers New Netherlanders to emphasize their distinctiveness. Politically they're normally aligned with Yankeedom, which stretches west from the Atlantic to the eastern fringes of the Dakotas. When the Left Coast and El Norte are added, this coalition approaches an electoral majority. Its natural and historical opposition is in the four sub-regions of the South (Tidewater, Deep South, New France, and Greater Appalachia) along with the Far West. The key in 2016, as it's been since 1840, is the Midlands, exemplified by Ohio and Iowa but including sections of at least nine other states, from Pennsylvania to the eastern halves of Kansas and Nebraska. The Democratic electoral base is New Netherlands and Yankeedom. Republicans penetrate it only in landslide elections, such as 1984. Ted Cruz knows New York's votes are the last he'll ever receive. When he points out the fact that the culture that Donald Trump was immersed in since childhood, and the culture that he champions and personifies, has very little in common with the Midlands, the heartland of America, he pays no political price. On the contrary, as even moderately sentient citizens of the heartland know full well, the people of New York City are a breed apart, and their sense of entitlement and superiority is well understood. Every year, the New York Yankees try to buy their way into the World Series, and the rest of the country roots against them. As Senator Cruz made pains to point out, he's not putting the regular people of New York down. Like the rest of us in flyover country, he finds much that is admirable, as starkly and unforgettably demonstrated by the NYPD and the NYFD on 9/11. New York City is part of America. It's just different. Timothy Sullivan was a notoriously corrupt Tammany Hall politician, and the sponsor of the anti-gun 1911 Sullivan Act. One historian of New York City is convinced Sullivan was motivated by his desire to have police plant guns on undesirables, such as Italian immigrants, in order to allow the police to arrest them. But for over 100 years, New York City has led the nation in gun control efforts. Today former mayor Michael Bloomberg sallies forth from Manhattan to less enlightened regions to fund gun control efforts across the country. Big media, headquartered in New York, does all it can to assist. In fact, if there is one trait which distinguishes New York City from the heartland it's the question of self-reliance. Most New Yorkers rely on public transport and other public services. They support an enormous police force to deal with crime. They're not prepared to defend themselves. In Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, people tend to look after themselves. They drive their own cars, and if need be, they will use their personal firearms to defend themselves, their families, and their communities. They know that by and large, the police solve crimes; they don't prevent them. For that, you're on your own. So to all you Gothamites who are upset with Cruz for disrespecting you, I have a message from the heartland. We're not going to try to change who you are. And we'd appreciate the same treatment. Fritz Pettyjohn was the chairman of Reagan for President, Alaska in 1979-1980; is a co-founder of the Balanced Budget Amendment Task Force; and blogs daily at ReaganProject.com In the desert valley of Wadi al-Hitan, some 150 km southwest of Cairo, Egypt has unveiled what it said is the Middle East's first museum dedicated to fossils that showcases an early form of whales, now extinct and known as the "walking whale." The sand-colored, dome-shaped Fossils and Climate Change Museum was constructed on a grant of 2 billion euros from Italy, according to Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari. The centerpiece of the museum is a 37-million-year-old and 20-meter-long skeleton of a legged form of whale that testifies to how modern-day whales evolved from land mammals. The Valley of the Whales' museum is also home to prehistoric tools used by early humans and various whale fossils exhibited in glass boxes corroborating the evolutionary transition of the early whales from land to water creatures. Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo But how did fossils of whales end up in the middle of the hottest desert? Thats because this valley was submerged in water some 40 to 50 million years ago by a sea called the Tethys Sea that reached far south of the existing Mediterranean. Wadi al-Hitan or the Valley of Whales contains valuable collection of fossils and bones of a now extinct, suborder of whales, called the archaeoceti. These fossils explains one of the greatest mysteries of the evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. The fossils of Wadi Al-Hitan dating back to 50 million years show the youngest archaeocetes, in the last stages of evolution from land animals to a marine existence. They already display the typical streamlined body form of modern whales, whilst retaining certain primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure, as well as hind legs. Many of the whale skeletons are in good condition as they have been well preserved in the rock formations. Semi-complete skeletons are found in the valley and in some cases, even stomach contents are preserved. The Museum was opened as part of concentrated government efforts to attract much-needed tourists, driven away by recent militant attacks, and restore confidence in the safety of its attractions. But Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy cautioned against interpreting the museum's opening as a "full endorsement of the theory of evolution," which conflicts with Islam. "That is an entirely different matter," he said. "We are still tied to our Islamic belief system." Read more about Wadi al-Hitan The sand-colored, dome-shaped museum is barely discernible in the breathtaking desert landscape that stretches all around. Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo The largest intact Basulosaurus isis whale fossil, which is on display at the Wati El Hitan Fossils and Climate Change Museum, on the opening day, in the Fayoum oasis, Egypt, Thursday, January 14, 2016. Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo Fossil of a sirenia (or "sea cow") is pictured in the natural reserve area of Wadi Al-Hitan, or the "Valley of the Whales", at the desert of Al Fayoum Governorate, southwest of Cairo, Egypt, January 14, 2016. Photo credit: Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo via Associated Press Christmas in Russia is different from Christmas celebrated in the rest of the world. For starters, they are celebrated on January 7, rather than on December 25. The date is different because the Russian Orthodox church uses the old Julian calendar for religious celebration days, and Christmas is mainly a religious event in Russia. Many orthodox Christians also avoid meat and fish during the 40-day Lent period preceding Christmas Day. The Lent period ends with the rise of the first star in the night sky on January 6. That day, many Christians go to the church to attend several long services including Christmas liturgy. Evening is time for family and friends and sumptuous dinners. Photo credit: Kristina Makeeva Russian Christmas started deviating from the rest of the world after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when religious celebrations were banned by the officially atheist state. So the Russian people started adopting Christmas tradition such as decorating spruce trees, family gatherings and gift-giving as part of the secular New Year celebration. Christmas became official in Russia only after the 1990s with the break up of the union. It began regaining popularity only recently, but New Year celebration is still very important to Russians, sometimes even more than Christmas. The official Christmas and New holidays in Russia last from December 31st to January 10th. During this eleven-day festive period, Christmas fairs open all over the country in towns and cities. Moscow especially turns into a magical land with brightly lit buildings and trees, as you can see in these images. Photo credit: Kristina Makeeva Photo credit: Kristina Makeeva Photo credit: Kristina Makeeva Photo credit: Kristina Makeeva Photo credit: rodham.livejournal.com Photo credit: Andrew Gutzkow / TVC.ru Photo credit: Andrew Gutzkow / TVC.ru Photo credit: Andrew Gutzkow / TVC.ru Photo credit: rodham.livejournal.com Photo credit: rodham.livejournal.com Photo credit: Darya Antonova / IA REGNUM Right now, everyone is expecting to hear news about the devices that will get Android Marshmallow as not many devices are currently running this version of the operating system. Sony has never been among the fastest manufacturers to release updates for their handsets, but they update many devices in their portfolio to newer versions of the OS. There are different approaches to updating a device into a new version of Android, one might be to periodically update it with almost every update that gets released and another one would be to skip a few versions only updating it to major versions of the OS. It seemed that Sony would take the latter approach in a few of their devices, but this week, it was reported that the company has updated the Xperia C4 to Android 5.1 and now, the update is being rolled out to one of the most unique looking phones of the company, the Xperia C5 Ultra. The Xperia C5 Ultra is a mid-range device, but its 6-inch display barely has any bezels on its sides and the front also includes a large 13-megapixel camera with LED flash. The Xperia C5 Ultra with model number E5553 and E5506 are getting updated to firmware version 29.1.A.0.87 and the Xperia C5 Ultra Dual with model number E5533 and E5563 is being updated to version 29.1.B.0.87. Android 5.1 was released a while ago for their flagship models, and it is currently running on the majority of their handsets. It contained improvements to the volume controllers, additional control options built into the shortcuts of WiFi and Bluetooth from the Quick Settings menu, a few UI changes such as new icons in the Settings menu and additional themes and other enhancements. Advertisement Users will receive this update OTA, so they should expect the notification any time now, but if they want to manually check for it, they could go the Settings menu, go into the About Phone section and tap Software Update. Lets remember that this kind of updates is usually rolled out in phases and it might not be available in every region at the same time. Elephone has held a press conference in China on Friday, and have announced a number of new devices, as well as some new projects it seems. Weve already reported that the company introduced the P9000 Edge, P9000 Lite and P9000 devices on Friday, as well as the Elephone W2 smartwatch. Now, the P9000 Edge is the companys bezel-less devices powered by the Helio P10 SoC, and is arguably the most interesting launch of the day. That being said, we managed to get our hands on some new information, it seems like Elephone had more to say at the press conference than we originally thought, read on. According to the info provided by our source at the company, Elephone is preparing the Helio X20-powered variant of the Elephone P9000 Edge. Now, this handset already offers really great bezel-less design, and a nice set of specs, including 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch fullHD display. Its SoC, however, is only mid-range, the Helio P10 is a solid 64-bit octa-core processor, but it seems like Elephone wants to introduce a true flagship later this year. We will definitely going to make sure to let you know if we stumble upon any additional info regarding this handset, so stay tuned for that. Advertisement Speaking of bezel-less devices, it seems like Elephone is getting ready to release yet another handset with no bezel on the sides, the Elephone S3. This handset has also been mentioned at the conference, and according to the provided info, it will sport a 5.2-inch fullHD (1920 x 1080) display, and it will sport a metal unibody design. The device is also expected to ship with a rear-facing fingerprint scanner. That is all we know about this handset at the moment, but the company did share its image though. If you take a look at the provided image, youll get to see the Elephone S3s render, which should give you a good idea of what will this phone look like in the end. So, it seems like were going to get at least two more Elephone-branded handsets this year which sport no bezel on the sides, which is great to hear. Google has been working on Self-driving cars for years now. However, now, they are looking to work with an auto maker to create self-driving cars that will be available to the masses. Google is said to be aiming at ride-sharing first, like Uber. And later down the road, aim these cars at consumers who would want their own self-driving car. There have been rumors that Ford and Google are working together on this venture, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. Google has, however, reached out to other auto makers in an attempt to partner up. Googles automotive VP, John Krafcik, stated last week in Detroit that his main goal for this year would be to work with auto makers to build self-driving cars. Effectively, they want to put their software into other cars. As they dont want to get into the complex scheme of building their own cars. Which makes sense, and would make things much easier for Google. As these auto makers already have the factories, and not to mention the experience, of creating cars. However, Google may be a bit behind here. As many auto makers have already begun working on their own autonomous software. In fact, Ford made a few announcements about their autonomous cars. Including tripling their fleet on public roads by the end of 2016. Not to mention the fact they have self-driving cars driving in snowy conditions, while Google doesnt. Theres also Tesla who has their own autonomous features already live in current Model S vehicles. Advertisement Autonomous cars still are a bit away from mass adoption, or even being able to buy one. But its clear that its coming and coming real soon. If CES and NAIAS didnt already tell us that. If self-driving cars for ride-sharing picks up, many people may never buy another car. As ride-sharing could be even cheaper than it is right now. Seeing as you dont need to pay for a driver. That right there would be the real future. Of course, we are still waiting on the Department of Transportation to draft up their rules and regulations for governing autonomous vehicles. The Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, gave them 6 months. So we should know more soon, especially what States will allow autonomous cars. Samsung has been involved in the wearable technology market for a long time now, announcing their first smartwatch, the original Galaxy Gear back in 2013. Since then, the Gear line has grown to include a VR headset, standalone smartwatches and more. The recently launched Gear S2 was a renovation for their wearable line of devices, and its been praised by critics and users alike. One thing that Samsung hasnt introduced for some time now, is a dedicated fitness tracker. The last offering like this was the Gear Fit, released back in 2014, but rumors of a new product have been swirling, and now its leaked out in images for us to take a look at. Known only as the SM-R150 right now, it appears the tracker will feature a fully-circular display just like the Gear S2, as well as a similar design to the Gear S2 Sport model. From the leaked images, it appears as though a launch isnt too far away, with Mobile World Congress just around the corner an announcement could be closer than we thought. The pictures include a number of shots of the SM-R150 on someones wrist, as well as strapped to someones chest. What that would be for is unclear, but it could be for more precise heart-rate monitoring or even tracking someones respiratory systems while working out. Rumor has it that this could be the first consumer product to sport Samsungs own Bio-Processor, a System-on-Chip similar to a Snapdragon specifically designed and tuned to be used in devices like a fitness tracker. This processor would be loaded with sensors and tailored to get the most out of a small battery. Advertisement Samsung have all the right parts to produce a compelling fitness tracker, with their own processors as well as OLED displays they can produce a long-lasting wearable. Not to mention all the research that has gone into previous products such as the Gear Fit and the S Health suite of apps. Sporting a similar look and feel to the Gear S2, this could help Samsung maintain a brand presence across the board, and help draw in more users that want some of the fitness features of the Gear S2, but not all of the smartwatch features. Xiaomi and Huawei are the two most successful smartphone manufacturers in China at the moment. These two companies are constantly battling for the number one spot in China, and it will be interesting to see what happens this year. Huawei has managed to become worlds third largest OEM in 2015, and Xiaomi is aiming to expand to more markets this year. That being said, both of these companies are planning on releasing laptops this year, at least according to various reports. Inventec has already confirmed that Xiaomis laptop is on the way, and Huawei is also said to be working on such a product. That being said, some new info has surfaced regarding Huaweis laptop. Now, according to this info, the company will actually introduce a hybrid laptop later in the year. This laptop will, reportedly, going to run both Windows and Android, so youll basically get dual boot here. Now, according to an industry source, the laptop will come with a detachable keyboard as well. So, it seems like Huawei is getting ready to launch a somewhat different product to Xiaomi, but still quite an interesting one. Xiaomi will, according to reports, announce a rather standard laptop, unlike Huaweis hybrid offering. Keep in mind that this is not confirmed info, of course, these are only rumors at this point, even though they come from an industry source. We also dont know when will this hybrid laptop launch, all that source said is later this year. Advertisement As you all probably know, Xiaomi has already released two tablets to the market, the Mi Pad and Mi Pad 2. The Mi Pad 2 has been announced quite recently actually, and Huawei has also introduced the MediaPad M2 10-inch variant recently as well. These two companies will go head-to-head on various levels it seems, which means were in for a rather interesting year. Will Xiaomi going to be able to battle Huawei, a company which has been around for a long time and has already entered a number of markets around the world? Well, well see, but Xiaomi has definitely proved its worth, they should not be underestimated. HTC, the maker of the original Nexus smartphone, is said to be working with Google yet again on a new Nexus device. However, not just one, but two devices for release in 2016. This is, of course, if a tipster on Chinese micro-blogging site, Weibo is to be believed. In 2015, Google worked with LG and Huawei to make two Nexus smartphones. That was the first time Google released two smartphones in the same year, in the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P. Were also hearing that we might see a 5-inch and a 5.5-inch smartphone from HTC and Google for the Nexus program. This would be the first time that a manufacturer has made two Nexus devices together with Google for the same release. LG has made three, although they were in separate years, 2012, 2013 and 2015. ASUS has also made three in 2012, 2013, and 2014. And so has Samsung, 2010, 2011, and 2012. The Nexus program is definitely evolving and with Android N which should debut at Google I/O in May its going to be interesting to see what Google may have up their sleeves this year. Advertisement The Nexus program isnt a top seller. In fact, many of the Nexus smartphones dont sell very well at all. However wed never know as Google and their partners never release sale numbers. Nexus is more about the symbol of pure Android. Or Android the way that Google thinks it should be. Working with HTC should be familiar for Google as theyve worked with the Taiwanese company on the very first Android smartphone, the HTC G1 or the HTC Dream outside of the US as well as the very first Nexus, the Nexus One. Not to mention the HTC Nexus 9 in 2014 as well. Typically, new Nexus devices are announced in fall. Around September or October, and released shortly after. So weve got quite a ways to go before we see the fruits of the labor. It was about this time last year, when reports of Huawei working with Google on a Nexus started to surface too. That shows us that this is the time of year when Google decides who will make it and gets down to business on making said smartphone. The battle in the patent courts between Samsung And Apple does seem as though it is one which has been going on for far too long. That said, more recently, it did seem the last of the arguments were being heard when Samsung agreed to pay Apple roughly $548 million in damages. Although, this was quickly followed by Samsung appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court and asking the Court to look closer and even reevaluate how patents are awarded and to some extent, defined. To some, this felt as though it was a last ditch attempt by the South Korean company to justify not paying, although Samsung did seem to be asking for a more wider review of the patent system, stating that this could in a system which could damage innovation going forward. Now it looks as though those sentiments have struck a chord with other companies and across the spectrum. It is now being reported that a number of companies have filed to be a friend of the court. A process which is known as amicus curiae. In short, the idea behind such a filing is to lend their support by offering what is considered information that may be relevant to the case at hand, although the information comes from parties which have no relevance to the actual case or have not been asked by the court or the parties involved. It would seem that the reason behind these companies getting voluntarily involved is that they are all looking to address the current status quo on how patents (in particular doesnt patents) are awarded and damages calculated. What makes these friends of the court filings so interesting though, is the length and breadth of those who are filing. On the one hand, some of the companies said to be lending their support are the likes of Google, Facebook, eBay, Dell, HP, among others. However, there are others who are also to be joining the fight and lending their support including the EFF, Public Knowledge, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Leadership Fund and even law professors from Stanford and Georgetown, again, among others. Advertisement The one common theme which all the groups and companies seem to agree on, is that the current patent system is one which is in need of updating. It is being thought that if the system stays as it is, it will continue to stifle innovation and choice and also increase the cost to consumers. All arguments Samsung made in their original appeal. Of course, whether these new friends of the courts will have any notable outcome on the Apple/Samsung case in particular, remains to be seen. But what it does clearly highlight is that going forward, the patent system is one which an increasing number of companies, groups and organizations would like to see changed, or at least, updated. There is little doubting that Wikipedia has become one of the go-to sources for information on the internet. Even if you are someone who always head to Google to find something out, there is a better than even chance that many of your what does this mean or what is searches direct you to Wikipedia anyway. Likewise, for many of those who make use of the dedicated Wikipedia app for Android, the app has become an essential part of their app toolbox and a quick way to find out what they need to know, when they need to know it. Well, for those who are using the app, the app is receiving an update today and one which brings with it a few minor changes that are designed to improve the overall experience. The biggest change being noted in the latest update is the inclusion of a new toolbar. The newly added toolbar appears under the main header image and firstly seems to offer a more unified look by changing color to match the overall color tone of the main image. More importantly though, the toolbar provides a quick means to saving or sharing the article. By hitting the first icon, you can directly save the article for offline reading. While the second icon is the more typical share icon and allows for direct sharing via your usual share options. Advertisement Moving on and the next visual change is that the similar pages and page issues have both now been moved to the overflow menu. This seems to be more of an effort just to further tidy up the look of the page overall. Closing out the update and there seems to be a number of bug fixes and improvements on offer. These include the reduction of memory usage and the number of out-of-memory crashes, along with fixes for saved page status issues and the thumbnail icon for similar pages. The Wikipedia changelog also notes that a fix has rolled out for Norwegian language support for those who were encountering the issue. The update is already listed on the Play Store and therefore, if you have the app installed you should see the update arrive soon enough, if you have not already. If you have yet to download the app, you can download the updated version through the link below. Manchester United can win league say every tabloid that wants Van Gaal sacked When Liverpool play Manchester United the Press like to hype it as a meeting comparable to Spains El Clasico, the shimmering fixture between Real Madrid and Barcelona. It isnt. Its a match between a mid-table side (Liverpool) and also-rans (Manchester United) in an ordinary Premier League league. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp calls these big matches the salt in the soup. But the soup is horribly thin and over-priced. In yesterdays poor match, Manchester United took all three points thanks to a Wayne Rooney goal scored with Uniteds single shot on target. Rooneys strike was the one moment of genuine skill in a game devoid of style, intensity, technique and excitement. The tabloids all lead with news that the result is all that matters. The Express: VanTitle Drive Rooney keeps United hopes alive Mirror: Van Gaal: We are back in title race and its all down to wayne goals. The Sun: Roo Gotta Believe Us We can still win title claims defiant LVG Daily Mail: Roo in Title Charge His goal puts United back in the frame A dull away win against a bang average Liverpool side and Manchester Untied can in the Premier League. Wow! And these are the same paper that a few weeks ago wanted LG sacked for being dull. Anorak Posted: 18th, January 2016 | In: Back pages, manchester united, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink Warning: Big Foreign Worms Invading Britain Big news in the Daily Star: Worms as big as snakes are invading Britain. Is that big? The worlds smallest snake named Leptotyphlops carlae is 10cm (4 inches) long and as thin as a spaghetti noodle. There are 3,100 known snake species. The worlds longest snake is a reticulated python 7.67 m (25 ft 2 in) long. Bow big is this invading worm? More than 2ft long, we learn. Experts warn the beasts, which are already the size of a newly-hatched adder, could grow bigger and bigger. An adder is poisonous. A long worm is not. And these long worms slithery predators have been found only on the remote Isle of Rum, off Scotland. Jeff Farrells story make no mention of how these worms have launched an invasion. The Star once supported the EDL. The fear is that self-styled British patriots are right now hunting down Lumbricus terrestris for slaughter and deportation. But the worm is also known as the common earthworm, a creature native to the British Isles. Although fears they they have radicalised in Scotland are hard to disprove. Anorak Posted: 18th, January 2016 | In: Reviews, Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink (ANSA) - Rome, January 18 - Italy on Monday was in shock over the violent death of nine-year-old Michel Santomenna, who was mowed down by Islamist fundamentalists in a terror attack in the Burkina Faso capital last Friday. Misha, as he was known, was the only Italian among the 29 people killed in Friday's al-Qaeda attack on the Cappuccino restaurant and bar and the Hotel Splendid in Ouagadougou. Also killed were his mother Victoria Yankovska, his aunt Yana and his grandmother, all three Ukrainian nationals. The whole of Italy expressed sympathy for the father, Gaetano Santomenna, a longtime Ouagadougou resident who owns the Cappuccino and several bakeries. "The violent hand of the terrorists doesn't stop, even in the face of a nine-year-old boy," said President Sergio Mattarella. Premier Matteo Renzi said that "as a father (and) a prime minister, there are no words to express the pain and the condolences of the whole of Italy for this death - for a young life cut short by hatred," said Premier Matteo Renzi. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni for his part tweeted that killing a child "is a horrendous crime". As of Sunday, the victims were identified as one American, at least seven Burkina Faso nationals, six Canadians, one Dutch citizen, two French, one Libyan, one Portuguese and one Swiss national. An unconfirmed number of terrorists were also killed by Burkina Faso and French forces. Burkina Faso has decreed three days of national mourning, which began Sunday. (ANSA) - Brussels, January 18 - European sources told ANSA Monday there is concern at the highest EU levels over a lack of communication channels with Rome. Communication issues can turn into political problems, the sources said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was and is Premier Matteo Renzi's friend and Italy's best ally, the sources said. Juncker and Renzi traded barbs Friday over economic flexibility clauses and migrants. Juncker had lost his patience, the sources said. They went on to qualify Italy's representative in Brussels, Stefano Sannino, as the best ambassador in the Belgian capital. What's missing, however, is continuous dialogue with experts and envoys on specific issues, such as the ones other European governments send in between major summits. This working method helps smooth rough edges long before leaders engage, the sources said. For example, France sent specialists to "negotiate for weeks" on its behalf over its national budget last fall. This communication gap has generated misunderstandings over Italy's four rescued banks, its troubled ILVA steelmaker, and the use of flexibility clauses among other issues, according to the sources. They went on to list two areas of EU concern over Italy: its protests after losing its only component on Juncker's cabinet, legal expert Carlo Zadra, earlier this month - Zadra quit and was replaced by a Briton after clashing with Cabinet Chief Martin Selmayr - and its blocking of a three-billion-euro fund for Syrian refugees in Turkey in spite of the fact that the Commission has "put it in writing" that the aid won't be included in deficit calculations. (ANSA) - Brussels, January 18 - European sources told ANSA Monday there is concern at the highest EU levels over a lack of communication channels with Rome. Communication issues can turn into political problems, the sources said. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was and is Premier Matteo Renzi's friend and Italy's best ally, the sources said. Juncker and Renzi traded barbs Friday over economic flexibility clauses and migrants. Juncker had lost his patience, the sources said. Italy "doesn't take part in pointless arguments", Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on his way in to a council of EU foreign ministers Monday. "I consider some of the remarks that came from Brussels to be useless," Gentiloni said after Premier Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker traded barbs Friday. "The situation in Europe is very delicate right now, both economically and on the migration front, and this delicate situation should be faced without the argumentative tones I heard coming from Brussels recently and which are, I repeat, pointless," the minister said. Gentiloni's comments came after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday hit back at growing criticism of the EU executive from Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in an unusual frontal attack on a member nations's head of government. "I think that the Italian prime minister, whom I love very much, is wrong to offend the Commission at every opportunity, I don't see why he does it," Juncker said. "In truth, Italy should not criticise it too much. We have introduced (greater budget) flexibility against the will of member States who some say dominate Europe". Juncker also accused Rome of blocking the plan to give Turkey three billion euros in exchange for cooperation on the refugee crisis. Renzi responded to Juncker's criticism by rapping back: "We won't be intimidated". Speaking to TG5, he said "Italy deserves respect". Renzi stressed that the EC, in his view, had only conceded flexibility on budget spending "after a lot of insistence on Italy's part". Renzi has frequently criticised the European Union, saying it is too focused on budget austerity and dominated by bureaucrats and does not give enough importance to promoting growth and employment. Furthermore, Rome reacted angrily when the Commission opened infringement proceedings last year against Italy for failing to respect the rules on taking the finger prints of asylum seekers. The Italian government responded by saying EU should thank it for the thousands of migrants it saves at sea and complained of slow progress on a deal to relocate refugees to other European countries. The was also tension when the Commission denied it had stopped the Italian government softening its rescue of four small Italian banks last year to lessen the effects on bondholders in this lenders. Juncker admitted that relations between the EC and Italy were not going well at the moment. "I'll probably go to Italy at the end of February because the atmosphere between Italy and the Commission is not the best," Juncker said. "Renzi always complains that I have not been to Italy since I became president". Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Italy's criticism of the European Commission was meant as constructive and not offensive. "There is no intent to offend on the part of the Italian government, but a constructive attitude," Padoan said. "(The relationship between the EU and Italy is a) relationship between the government of one of the main countries in the EU that is addressing the (European) Commission in an open and frank way, bearing in mind that we want to reinforce the EU but at the same time that we have rights on a par with those of others and we mean to make ourselves heard". Padoan also denied the charge that Italy was preventing the EU giving the three billion euros to Turkey. "Italy gives full backing to the support of Turkey to manage the migrant flows," Padoan said. "Italy is not blocking anything. But we believe it is necessary to clarify whether there is still space in the European budget to ensure that the three billion euros is fully covered without using contributions from the (member) States". Earlier Juncker blasted Rome's stance on this issue. "I struggle to understand Italy's amazing reservation about the three billion euros to Turkey because the money is not going to Turkey but is for Syrian refugees in Turkey," Juncker said. "These three billion are a question of credibility for the EU" Federica Mogherini, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said Friday that creating division within the block was senseless, when asked to comment on Juncker's comments. "It's stupid to create divisions within Europe," said Mogherini, who served as Italian foreign minister under Renzi before being nominated to her current post. "The Europeans need to be united when faced with the many crises that exist," she told reporters during a visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome. "Italy needs Europe like Europe needs Italy". Mogherini stressed that both Italy and the European Commission had wanted to introduce greater scope for flexibility in the EU's budget rules after Juncker argued that he had passed the changes, not Renzi. "There are lots of things that Italy and Europe have done together in the first year of the Juncker Commission," Mogherini said. "(These go) from the introduction of the rules on flexibility, which Italy very much wanted and which the European Commission very much wanted and which benefit everyone, to the great challenges at the European level on the management of immigration". (ANSA) - Rome, January 18 - Some of Italy's central and southern regions were reeling Monday after the weekend brought snowstorms, ice and plunging temperatures at the weekend. Schools were also shut down in the Abruzzo capital of Pescara after 30 municipalities told students to stay home as the region battles heavy snowfall. In Campania, heavy snow caused schools to be shut down in Salerno province and fire fighters rescued motorists in the Irpinia mountain region. The southern Molise region continued in emergency mode after 12 earthquake tremors overnight, snow, ice, and subzero temperatures. Schools in 80 out of the region's 136 municipalities were shut down as snowplows went into action throughout Molise. Temperatures dropped to -5 Celsius in the regional capital of Campobasso, which has gotten 50 centimetres of snow, and to -10 C in the town of Capracotta, located at altitude of 1,421 metres (4,662 feet). Further south, snow and 50-kilometer winds blowing from the northwest made connections difficult between the mainland and the seven Aeolian Islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea north of Sicily. Ferry service from the Sicilian coast town of Milazzo is still cut off, leaving 400 Aeolians stranded. A 35-year-old woman who went into labor on Lipari island had to taken to Milazzo hospital by helicopter on the night between Saturday and Sunday, local sources said. (ANSA) - Brussels, January 18 - Sunday's rocket attack near the Italian embassy and aid compound in Kabul was aimed at the West and NATO generally, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday on his way in to a summit of EU foreign ministers in the Belgian capital. "I believe Western diplomatic outposts and NATO were the target, not Italy (per se)," Gentiloni said. The Taliban Islamist fundamentalist militia has claimed responsibility for the attack that left two Afghan security guards slightly injured. (ANSA) - Kabul, January 18 - The Taleban Islamic fundamentalist militia on Monday claimed responsibility for a rocket that landed near the Italian embassy and aid compound in Kabul Sunday, wounding two Afghan security guards. The attack caused "heavy human and material losses", Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed in a WhatsApp message received by the ANSA newsroom in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. "Italy supported the United States invasion of Afghanistan," the message said. The officially verified toll of the explosion that set off a blaze at 21:30 Kabul time on Sunday night is of two injured Afghan security guards, who were hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries. "A rocket hit Shash Darak Road near the Italian embassy, wounding at least one person," Kabul Police Chief Faridoon Obidi told ANSA on Sunday. "A second rocket was neutralized," he said. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on his way in to a summit of EU foreign ministers Monday he did not believe the rocket was aimed specifically at Italian targets. "I believe Western diplomatic outposts and NATO were the target, not Italy (per se)," Gentiloni said. (ANSA) - Kabul, January 18 - The Taleban Islamic fundamentalist militia on Monday claimed responsibility for a rocket that landed near the Italian embassy and aid compound in Kabul Sunday, wounding two Afghan security guards. The attack caused "heavy human and material losses", Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed in a WhatsApp message received by the ANSA newsroom in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad. "Italy supported the United States invasion of Afghanistan," the message said. The officially verified toll of the explosion that set off a blaze at 21:30 Kabul time on Sunday night is of two injured Afghan security guards, who were hospitalized with non life-threatening injuries. "A rocket hit Shash Darak Road near the Italian embassy, wounding at least one person," Kabul Police Chief Faridoon Obidi told ANSA on Sunday. "A second rocket was neutralized," he said. (ANSA) - Brussels, January 18 - The situation in Libya, Syria and Iraq will be at the centre of a ministerial-level meeting of the anti-ISIS coalition to be held in Rome on February 2, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday. The meeting - the fourth after London, Paris and Brussels - "will be an opportunity to take stock not just of the military aspect, but of progress in the various theatres, from Syria to Iraq in particular, among the 'small group' of 22 countries that are most involved," Gentiloni said. The foreign minister also reaffirmed that Italy "is ready to make its contribution in Libya" but that "an additional step forward" is needed first. "Namely, a government that can turn to the international community with requests," Gentiloni said. Talks are under way in Tunis to form a government of national unity under a deal brokered by the international community last December. (ANSA) - Brussels, January 18 - Italy "doesn't take part in pointless arguments", Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on his way in to a council of EU foreign ministers Monday. "I consider some of the remarks that came from Brussels to be useless," Gentiloni said after Premier Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker traded barbs Friday. "The situation in Europe is very delicate right now, both economically and on the migration front, and this delicate situation should be faced without the argumentative tones I heard coming from Brussels recently and which are, I repeat, pointless," the minister said. Gentiloni's comments came after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Friday hit back at growing criticism of the EU executive from Italian Premier Matteo Renzi in an unusual frontal attack on a member nations's head of government. "I think that the Italian prime minister, whom I love very much, is wrong to offend the Commission at every opportunity, I don't see why he does it," Juncker said. "In truth, Italy should not criticise it too much. We have introduced (greater budget) flexibility against the will of member States who some say dominate Europe". Juncker also accused Rome of blocking the plan to give Turkey three billion euros in exchange for cooperation on the refugee crisis. Renzi responded to Juncker's criticism by rapping back: "We won't be intimidated". Speaking to TG5, he said "Italy deserves respect". Renzi stressed that the EC, in his view, had only conceded flexibility on budget spending "after a lot of insistence on Italy's part". Renzi has frequently criticised the European Union, saying it is too focused on budget austerity and dominated by bureaucrats and does not give enough importance to promoting growth and employment. Furthermore, Rome reacted angrily when the Commission opened infringement proceedings last year against Italy for failing to respect the rules on taking the finger prints of asylum seekers. The Italian government responded by saying EU should thank it for the thousands of migrants it saves at sea and complained of slow progress on a deal to relocate refugees to other European countries. The was also tension when the Commission denied it had stopped the Italian government softening its rescue of four small Italian banks last year to lessen the effects on bondholders in this lenders. Juncker admitted that relations between the EC and Italy were not going well at the moment. "I'll probably go to Italy at the end of February because the atmosphere between Italy and the Commission is not the best," Juncker said. "Renzi always complains that I have not been to Italy since I became president". Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said Italy's criticism of the European Commission was meant as constructive and not offensive. "There is no intent to offend on the part of the Italian government, but a constructive attitude," Padoan said. "(The relationship between the EU and Italy is a) relationship between the government of one of the main countries in the EU that is addressing the (European) Commission in an open and frank way, bearing in mind that we want to reinforce the EU but at the same time that we have rights on a par with those of others and we mean to make ourselves heard". Padoan also denied the charge that Italy was preventing the EU giving the three billion euros to Turkey. "Italy gives full backing to the support of Turkey to manage the migrant flows," Padoan said. "Italy is not blocking anything. But we believe it is necessary to clarify whether there is still space in the European budget to ensure that the three billion euros is fully covered without using contributions from the (member) States". Earlier Juncker blasted Rome's stance on this issue. "I struggle to understand Italy's amazing reservation about the three billion euros to Turkey because the money is not going to Turkey but is for Syrian refugees in Turkey," Juncker said. "These three billion are a question of credibility for the EU" Federica Mogherini, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, said Friday that creating division within the block was senseless, when asked to comment on Juncker's comments. "It's stupid to create divisions within Europe," said Mogherini, who served as Italian foreign minister under Renzi before being nominated to her current post. "The Europeans need to be united when faced with the many crises that exist," she told reporters during a visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio in Rome. "Italy needs Europe like Europe needs Italy". Mogherini stressed that both Italy and the European Commission had wanted to introduce greater scope for flexibility in the EU's budget rules after Juncker argued that he had passed the changes, not Renzi. "There are lots of things that Italy and Europe have done together in the first year of the Juncker Commission," Mogherini said. "(These go) from the introduction of the rules on flexibility, which Italy very much wanted and which the European Commission very much wanted and which benefit everyone, to the great challenges at the European level on the management of immigration". - BRUSSELS - The situation in Libya, Syria and Iraq on February 2 will be at the center of a ministerial meeting of the ''anti-Daesh coalition'', or anti-ISIS, in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday. The minister explained that ''it will be an occasion to discuss not only the military aspect but also the situation across different contexts, from Syria to Iraq in particular, inside the 'small group' of 22 countries that are engaged more''. This is the fourth meeting after those held in London, Paris and Brussels. Germany's defense minister on Monday did not rule out in an interview military action in Libya and used ''the language we have been using for weeks among Libya's allied countries, which is that we are ready to contribute if we will be asked to do so'', but a ''further step forward'' is necessary'', ''a government that can address the international community and make demands'', then noted Gentiloni. ''If this will happen, also from Germany, Italy will be absolutely pleased but the precondition is always that we need another step forward, which is under discussion in Tunis right now, with the creation of a government'', explained Gentiloni. The minister then observed that, ''there has never been such a serious level of humanitarian emergency in Syria and so, starting on January 25, negotiations between the regime and opposition are more urgent than ever''. Gentiloni expressed the hope for a ''European sign pushing on the humanitarian crisis and, in general, on the Syrian crisis''. Such a sign, according to Gentiloni, is ''fundamental also because today in New York a decision should be taken on the possibility of finally starting talks next Monday''. (ANSAmed) Anti-ISIS meeting of ministers on Feb. 2 in Rome - Gentiloni To discuss Syria, Libya and Iraq (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, JANUARY 18 - The situation in Libya, Syria and Iraq on February 2 will be at the center of a ministerial meeting of the ''anti-Daesh coalition'', or anti-ISIS, in Rome, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Monday. The minister explained that ''it will be an occasion to discuss not only the military aspect but also the situation across different contexts, from Syria to Iraq in particular, inside the 'small group' of 22 countries that are engaged more''. This is the fourth meeting after those held in London, Paris and Brussels. Germany's defense minister on Monday did not rule out in an interview military action in Libya and used ''the language we have been using for weeks among Libya's allied countries, which is that we are ready to contribute if we will be asked to do so'', but a ''further step forward'' is necessary'', ''a government that can address the international community and make demands'', then noted Gentiloni. ''If this will happen, also from Germany, Italy will be absolutely pleased but the precondition is always that we need another step forward, which is under discussion in Tunis right now, with the creation of a government'', explained Gentiloni. The minister then observed that, ''there has never been such a serious level of humanitarian emergency in Syria and so, starting on January 25, negotiations between the regime and opposition are more urgent than ever''. Gentiloni expressed the hope for a ''European sign pushing on the humanitarian crisis and, in general, on the Syrian crisis''. Such a sign, according to Gentiloni, is ''fundamental also because today in New York a decision should be taken on the possibility of finally starting talks next Monday''. (ANSAmed) Syria: refugees, Grandi meets King Abdullah in Amman First trip to Jordan of new UNHCR chief (ANSAmed) - AMMAN, JANUARY 18 - The new UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi on Monday met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Amman to discuss the situation of some 1.2 million Syrian refugees in the country. Grandi, who was visiting the Kingdom for the first time since his appointment as UNHCR chief, then met Prime Minister Abdullah Nesour, before visiting a refugee camp in Al Zaatari, the largest for Syrian refugees in Jordan. In a press conference, Grandi called on the international community to increase aid to confront the emergency, which sees over four million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries: Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. For his part, Nesour said Jordan's policy has not changed and that its doors ''remain open to refugees'', referring to recent accusations against Amman that it did not let 16,000 refugees cross into its territory, leaving them blocked in Syria, close to the border. However, added the premier, international aid to Jordan is ''insufficient''. Saudi Arabia-Iran: Oic to hold Foreign Ministers' meeting In Jeddah on Thursday (ANSAmed) - Rome, January 18 - The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world's second largest inter-governmental organisation in the world after the UN, with 57 member states, will hold an emergency Foreign Ministers meeting this Thursday on January 21 in Jeddah to discuss the response to the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia's embassy and consulate in Iran. According to a press release of the organization, it is expected that Foreign Ministers and representatives from 40 OIC member states from across the Islamic world will be present at the meeting. The OIC said that Saudi Arabia had sought for the Emergency Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of its Member States to be held following the incident. An OIC statement read "OIC Secretary-General Iyad Madani received a letter from Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir in which he called for holding the emergency meeting, which was discussed, and most member states have approved holding the urgent meeting". According to OIC guidelines, any member state may request a meeting on a specific issue and the OIC would hold such a meeting so long as the request receives the support of at least 29 member states. A preparatory meeting of the Ambassadors of OIC Member States will precede the Foreign Ministers meeting, the Jeddah-based organisation said. (ANSAmed). Operation Desert Storm was an exceptional example of Total Force integration in support of combat operations with an all-volunteer force. Jan. 16, 2016, marks the 25th anniversary of Desert Storm, the coalition effort to free Kuwait from the grips of an Iraq invasion force. Below are some factoids on Air Force Reserve contributions to the campaign, courtesy of the Air Force Reserve Command History Office. In the build-up to Desert Storm, Reservists provided fully 50 percent of the Air Forces strategic airlift aircrew and aerial port capability, 33 percent of its aeromedical evacuation aircrews and 25 percent of its tactical airlift forces.By August 1990, more than 15,300 Reservists had volunteered to serve, about 22 percent of the Air Force Reservists.The first Reserve assets to reach the theater of operations was a C-141 Starlifter aircrew that landed in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 8, 1990. By the eve of Desert Storm, Air Force Reserve aircraft and crews flew more than 107,000 hours, moved more than 135,000 passengers, 235,000 tons of cargo and delivered five million pounds of fuel.On August 29, 1990, an Air Force C-5, flown by an all-Reserve, all volunteer crew from the 68th Military Airlift Squadron, 433th Airlift Wing, Kelly AFB, Texas, crashed on takeoff from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Thirteen people died and four were wounded. Ten of the 17 were Reservists. Of those 10, nine died and one was injured. Staff Sgt Lorenzo Galvan, Jr., a loadmaster, earned the Airmans Medal for his efforts to rescue other crash victims. The nine who died were the only Reservists to lose their lives during the conflict. On Aug 22, 1990, President Bush authorized the call-up of 200,000 Reservists for 90 days under Title 10 US Code Section 678b. The decision, the first significant, conflict-related call-up of the Reserve component since 1968, marking the beginning of a process that would eventually see more than 20,000 Air Force Reservists called to active duty. By February 1991, more than 17,500 Reservists were on active duty. Roughly one in four was a woman; approximately 1,800 were Air Reserve Technicians, 1,300 were individual mobilization augmentees, and more than 500 were members of the individual ready reserve. More than 7,800 of the Reservists called up were in medical specialties. In expectation of massive casualties that never came, all Air Force Reserve medical units were called to active duty.Mobilization reached its peak on March 12, 1991 with almost 23,500 Air Force Reservists on duty. Of these, more than 20,000 were assigned to 215 Reserve units; 2,300 were IMAs, 960 were IRR or retirees. Most of the Ready Reserve were medical personnel.The Air Force Reserves first (and only) tactical fighter unit to be recalled was the 706th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 926th Fighter Group, Naval Air Station New Orleans. The A-10 squadron deployed to Saudi Arabia in mid-January just before the beginning of the air campaign against Iraq.Capt Bob Swain, a pilot with the 706th TFS, scored the first-ever A-10 air-to-air kill when he destroyed an Iraqi helicopter. During one day of combat, Lt Col. Greg Wilson, 706th FTS and 1st Lt. Stephan K. Otto of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, Myrtle Beach AFB, S.C., destroyed 10 mobile Scud launchers and a pair of ammunition dumps and helped F/A-18s destroy 10 more Scuds.Crews from the 1650th Tactical Airlift Wing (Provisional), drawn largely from the 914th Airlift Wing, Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, New York, and 927th Tactical Airlift Group, Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan, flew more than 5,000 hours, and 3,200 sorties in 42 days of combat.Tactical airlift forces played a major role in the redeployment of forces in northern Saudi Arabia as commanders set up what became the dramatic left hook into Iraq. A-10s operating from bases close to the front lines, attacked a full range of ground targets including Scud missiles. Reserve AC-130 Gunships and HH-3E helicopters also supported special operations as well as search and rescue missions.The Department of Defense authorized commanders of the gaining major commands to demobilize Reservists, consistent with military requirement, on March 8, 1991. Most Reservists had been demobilized by late June, but a handful remained on active duty through August and beyond. Watch Martin Luther King Jr. giving his greatest address, the I have a dream speech of Aug. 28, 1963, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Listen to his peerless Letter from Birmingham Jail of April 16, 1963, in which he defends direct-action nonviolence, explains its principles, expresses his disappointment with white moderates, and reminds us all, We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. (See an original typed document.) Starbucks took this full-page ad in this mornings New York Times to honor him: Its a brilliant use of the alphabet, worthy of poesie concrete. But the added remark dilutes the poetry by offering a bromide, notwithstanding the fact that it aligns with MLKs vision. Which makes the difference between an ad and a poem. by Sumon Corraya Indian Mullah Moulana Muhammad Sa'ad led the closing prayer. Participants called for Gods forgiveness and prayed for themselves and their families. The gathering attracted Muslims from 150 countries. A Catholic praised the events organization. "We Christians should learn from our Muslim brothers and sisters. They dont have any complain against organizers. They manage their own food and accommodation personally. Dhaka (AsiaNews) - At least two million Muslims took part in the final phase of the Bishwa Ijtema, the second largest Islamic pilgrimage in the world after the Hajj, which is held every year in Tongi (near Dhaka), on the banks of the Turag River. This year Muslims from 150 countries join together in prayers, invoking peace, prosperity, and unity of Muslim word. Md Jubiar Hossian, a 30 years old Muslim devotee, tolds AsiaNews about learning of this religious seminar and prayer. He says: I heard sermons from noted Muslim scholars and that I will apply in my life. Mofiz Uddin, another Muslim, adds: I realized I should follow all teachings of Islam, I should do good behavior with others and other faith. In Islam there is no room of militancy. I should respect to other faith people too. The Bishwa Ijtema (Global congregation or World Meeting in Bangla) is an annual event organised by the Tabligi Jamaat(Society for the spread of the faith), a transnational religious and non-political movement that seeks the spiritual reform of Islam. The event, which includes moments of prayer and preaching, draws millions of people from all over the world. Residents from 32 districts attended the first two phases this year while residents of the remaining 32 districts will attend next year. The government deployed more than 5,000 police agents to ensure security. Eminent Indian Islamic scholar Moulana Muhammad Saad conducted the 28-minute final prayer in Arabic and Urdu. Devotees prayed for apology from God. They also asked blessing for their personal and family life. On the Catholic side, a devotee comments the great organization for the event. He refers: We Christians should learn from our Muslim brothers and sisters. They took part in their prayer of Bishwa Ijtema very spontaneously, they dont have any complain against organizers. They manage their own food and accommodation personally. But when Christians organize any program, we first seek facility of accommodation and food from organizers. by John Ai Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Chinese state media launched the tirade against Gui Minhai, one of the five missing staff of Causeway Bay Bookshop in Hong Kong. Gui a Swedish national, went missing last October in Thailand. According to state-run media CCTV, Gui hit a female student in Ningbo to death after drinking in 2003, he was sentenced to two years in prison with two-year probation in 2004. I began to be afraid of being jailed, I committed such a crime, and I cannot develop in China any more, so I decided to leave, Gui said on CCTV. CCTV said Gui left China with other's identity in November, 2004, he was still in probation period and was not allowed to leave China. CCTV said, Gui felt fear and guilty for years of exile, though he accumulated wealth by running business. According to the report, in June 2015, Gui heard the death of his father, he was regret that he could not meet his father at last time and his mother is over 80 years old, so he decided to surrender himself to police. Gui said on CCTV that he was willing to burden legal liabilities and wanted to apologize to the female student's relatives. For his missing, Gui said it was his choice to return China to confess, he did not want any individuals or organizations to involve in this issue, or hype up maliciously. I hope Swedish authorities respect my choice, rights and privacy, said Gui on CCTV. CCTV said Gui was also suspected other crimes. Meanwhile, it is reported that another letter by Lee Bo, the one disappeared in late December, was released. According to Headline Daily, a newspaper affiliated by Sing Tao Daily, a pro-Beijing newspaper, Lee Bo's wife got another letter from him. In this letter, Lee Bo accused Gui of involving illegal activities and said Lee was immoral. Lee was also accused of Gui making him embroiled in the incident. The report said that Lee wrote in the letter that he did not want people to make a big stir about his spontaneous assistance with the investigation. The CCTV report was also questioned by netizens. According to a report in 2005, Gui was 46 when the accident happened (http://www.cntv.cn/program/lawtoday/20050411/100463.shtml), but the latest reported showed that Gui was born in 1964, which meant that Gui should be 39 when the accident happened. The age was not corresponding. Gui was reported to be taken away by a man in Pattaya, Thailand. Several people searched his apartment. Swedish authorities inquired Thai police after Gui's disappearance, Thai police told there was no departure record. The Gui's confession video aired by CCTV seemed not consecutive, for his different hairstyle and sweater. The whereabouts of the five staff are still not known. According to Lam Woon-kwong, the executive councilor that Lee Bo was probably under detention. by Nirmala Carvalho Russias ambassador to India had invited Fr Seraphym for a prayer with diplomats and their families. Instead, he was deported from Chennai, some believe because of concerns over possible evangelisation. For anonymous source, the incident bodes nothing well for Indian-Russian relations. Mumbai (AsiaNews) India and Russia are in a bit of tiff after customs officials at Chennai airport (Tamil Nadu) expelled a Russian clergyman upon landing in the Indian city. Rev Seraphym was supposed to visit India on the invitation of the Russian Ambassador, Alexander Kadakin, to lead a liturgical service for Russian diplomats and their families, but was prevented by customs officials, and sent back to Russia. Some believe he was not allowed into the country because of concerns over possible evangelisation. Speaking to AsiaNews, Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), slammed "the arrogant behavior of officials in Chennai who prevented Russian officials from giving the clergyman some food. For Mr George, this violates the Hague Convention and could have implications for the Indian community in Russia." Moscow responded last night. Consular officials explained that Fr Seraphym, who works at the Department of Foreign Relations in Asia of the Russian Orthodox Church, was visiting a number of Asian countries including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Afghanistan to provide spiritual support to diplomats and their families. However, the visa he had for India was no longer valid. Under Indian law, a tourist visa can only be used twice. His visa had expired and he could not go to Moscow to receive a new visa because of the holidays, a consulate official said. Indian consular services were also closed. When he arrived in Chennai, he tried to explain the situation, noting that he had already visited the country on previous occasions. However, Indian officials said he could only do sightseeing and could not get involved in other activities, the Russian consular official added. Fr Seraphym was supposed to meet Russian diplomats and their families. He was not here for preaching or evangelical work among Indian citizens, a source said. For Russian officials, his deportation violates the spirit of existing agreements between the two countries. Russian consulate sources said the tourist visa could be utilised for humanitarian purposes too. What disturbed the Russian diplomats most was they were not allowed to visit the priest at the airport to hand over food, the consulate official said. Since he was not allowed to be deported through Delhi, the Russian Embassy could not hand over his winter clothes. It is unfortunate that such disrespect was shown to a priest from a friendly country. Such disrespect will not augur well for the long-term business and cultural relationship between the two countries. This is the message the Church gives us today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: New wine in new wineskins. Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God. Vatican City (AsiaNews) This morning, during Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis said that Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God and Christians who obstinately maintain its always been done this way,' this is the path, this is the way, commit sin, and thus are idolaters and rebels. The pontiffs starting point was the passage in the Bible in which Saul is rejected by God as king of Israel because he chooses to heed the people rather than the Lord and thus disobeys. The people, after a victory in battle, wanted to offer a sacrifice of the best animals to God, because, he said, its always been done that way. But God, this time, did not want that. The prophet Samuel rebuked Saul: Does the Lord so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the command of the Lord? Jesus teaches us the same thing in the Gospel, the Pope explained. When the doctors of the law criticized Him because His disciples did not fast as had always been done, Jesus responded with these examples from daily life: No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak. If he does, its fullness pulls away, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse. Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the skins are ruined. Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins. What does this mean? That He changes the law? No! That the law is at the service of man, who is at the service of God and so man ought to have an open heart. Its always been done this way is a closed heart, and Jesus tells us, I will send you the Holy Spirit and He will lead you into the fullness of truth. If you have a heart closed to the newness of the Spirit, you will never reach the full truth. And your Christian life will be a half-and-half life, a patched life, mended with new things, but on a structure that is not open to the voice of the Lord a closed heart, so that you are not able to change others. This, the pope emphasized, was the sin of Saul, for which he was rejected. It is the sin of so many Christians who cling to what has always been done and who do not allow others to change. And they end up with half a life, [a life that is] patched, mended, meaningless. The sin, he said, is a closed heart, that does not hear the voice of the Lord, that is not open to the newness of the Lord, to the Spirit that always surprises us. This rebellion, says Samuel, is the sin of divination, and obstinacy is the sin of idolatry. Christians who obstinately maintain its always been done this way,' this is the path, this is the way, commit sin: the sin of divination. It is as if they went about by guessing: What has been said and what doesnt change is whats important; what I hear from myself and my closed heart more than the Word of the Lord. Obstinacy is also the sin of idolatry: the Christian who is obstinate sins! The sin of idolatry. And what is the way, Father? Open the heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God. Pope Francis noted that in Jesus time, good Israelites were in the habit of fasting. But there is another reality, he said. There is the Holy Spirit who leads us into the full truth. And for this reason he needs an open heart, a heart that will not stubbornly remain in the sin of idolatry of oneself, imagining that my own opinion is more important than the surprise of the Holy Spirit. This is the message the Church gives us today. This is what Jesus says so forcefully: New wine in new wineskins. Habits must be renewed in the newness of the Spirit, in the surprises of God. May the Lord grant us the grace of an open heart, of a heart open to the voice of the Spirit, which knows how to discern what should not change, because it is fundamental, from what should change in order to be able to receive the newness of the Spirit. by Mathias Hariyadi Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, and Taoists leaders join high-ranking government officials to reiterate that Indonesia "will not give in to the threat of terrorism." For Defence minister, "Every religion teaches the fundamental principle of love, whilst Every act of terror goes against the true values of every faith and for this reason we reject them." The death toll rises to eight. The authorities have 12 suspects under arrest. Jakarta (AsiaNews) Four days after central Jakarta was attacked, 10,000 people rallied in Lapangan Banteng (Banteng Field), a historic site in the Indonesian capital, to show that the country is peace loving and tolerant and that it "will not give in to threat of terrorism." Organised by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the countrys largest Islamic movement, the interfaith event had already been scheduled some ten days ago. Catholics, Protestants, Confucians, Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists had confirmed their participation, together with top raking government officials and representatives of civil society groups. Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifudin, NU leaders and representatives of many other interfaith organisations were in the front row. The Indonesian Bishops' Conference sent Mgr Yohanes Harun Yuwono, bishop of Tanjung Karang and president of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue. "Every religion teaches the fundamental principle of love, said former General Ryamizard Ryacudu. Religions invite their followers to love one another. Whether Indonesia develops or collapses, this depends on us, not on others. Every act of terror goes against the true values of every faith and for this reason we reject them." The Defence minister urged the thousands of people present to reinforce their patriotic spirit, because "terror and radicalism are our common enemy." Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Yohanes Harun Yuwono expressed his joy for the gathering in Jakarta, hopeful that similar events can occur in other cities. "I appreciate the initiative, he said. I really hope that those who want to strengthen Indonesias pluralistic spirit will be able to say so to those not present in the square." For their part, Indonesian authorities continue to hunt down terrorists linked to the Islamic State responsible for the attacks on 14 January. So far, police have 12 suspects in custody. Meanwhile, the death toll has reached eight (four civilians and four terrorists) after one of the wounded died in hospital. One of the dead, initially treated as the fifth, unidentified, terrorist, has now been identified as a civilian victim. During the demonstration in the square, Indonesias Defence minister said that it is every Indonesians duty to cherish the principle of Pancasila.* Restoring the nation is part of an unconventional war, the minister added, a war between religious ideologies that threaten to divide it. * Pancasila is the official philosophical foundation of the Indonesian constitution, from "panca" meaning five, and "sila" meaning principles by Wei Jingsheng Washington (AsiaNews) From the expulsion of the French reporter Ursula Gauthier, we can perceive Xi Jinping's plan to control public opinion. Since Xi Jinping came to power, nothing seems going smoothly for him, economically, politically, and diplomatically. Previously he pinned his hope on an anti-corruption campaign, thus defrauding the support of some people. But soon people realized that the campaign was false -- in fact it was his way to remove his dissidents through a selective way of anti-corruption, and therefore the people's support he received started to drop. What followed was the counterattack of the corrupt officials, including a panic mood by everyone of the bureaucratic class. In the recent Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party, Xi Jinping did not realize the dictatorship he wanted, but was made disappointed and depressed. Thus, he has to put his hopes on controlling military power and controlling the media. If he were successful on both, it would be possible for him to control the situation in the short term. Unfortunately, in my opinion, these are unlikely. Just like everything in the past three years has not been going smoothly for him, these actions will not be smooth. That is because his basic ideas are wrong, so even though the fine details are done delicately and accurately, the result would still be wrong to a degree that is irreparable. For example, Xi relies on punishing foreign correspondents to control public opinion. We can recall the era of Mao Zedong, to see if he won a favorable public opinion through punishing foreign correspondents. What Mao Zedong relied on was to make the Western public opinion more Marxist, or left-oriented, in addition with fully control the domestic media and surround the foreign reporters completely. This approach made the international public opinion of that time unable to see any of the domestic situation in China; yet to produce reports, they had to cite largely from the Communist Party's newspaper. Now the situation is completely different. The public opinion of the world has reversed from sympathy to the Communist Party to disgust with the Communist Party. Even the people on the left do not like the Communist Party anymore. They tried to draw a line to avoid being implicated by the authoritarian systems of the communist countries. Even the people of the communist countries have long abandoned the lies of the communism. Xi Jinping has the delusion to revive the Communist Party by the propaganda tune of the 1950's. This effort will only meet the Chinese ancient fables such as: "to drill the wood hoping to catch the fish"; and "to mark the boat in search of the sword that fell into the river". It looks just like a joke. Now the Internet and social media are so advanced, with updates every passing day. Without being stationed in Beijing or leaving home, one can still know events of the whole world. Public opinion domestically and internationally has formed as a whole, and is maintaining a strong trend that is unstoppable. The Internet police of Xi Jinping have also met one ancient fable in China, which is "the mantis raises its arm in an effort to stop the carriage". No matter how much money Xi Jinping funds his mantis' arm in an effort to maintain stability, a mantis' arm is only a mantis' arm that cannot stop the carriage. Even with the arms of many mantis one still can not stop the wheel of history, which can not be changed by one person's will. Another example is the current "military reform" in China. "Military reform" has become the most popular term in the media recently. A minimum of thought will realize such reform is just for the purpose of controlling military power through ways of playing magic. Things were changed from this to that, guards were moved from here to there, all are just excuses to clear the house of dissidents in a large scale while cultivating cronies. This rearrangement will inevitably lead to military instability, even uprising. To the least, it will result a sharp decline of military fighting power. There are numerous precedents in history already. Does the Chinese military need reform? Of course it is indeed needed. But first and foremost, the military needs a stable morale. What is the primary condition to have a stable morale in the military? That is to know whom they are and what they are suppose to do. In the era of the Communist Party when it was still popular, the Schutzstaffel nature of the Communist army was recognized and agreed to by its military officials and soldiers. As the illusion of the Communist Party has disappeared, especially with a very strong recognition of the state and national identity, could Xi Jinping's desire to restore the military back to the nature of the Schutzstaffel be agreed to with the recognition of the vast majority of officers and soldiers? The results can only be demoralization, with rebellious moods becoming popular. In the past when Chinese were poorly educated, Yuan Shikai could gather support from the military by advocating enough food to eat if one joins the army, thus creating a private army. During the eras of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, private armies were still very popular. The SS system that the Chinese learned from the Soviet Union was more suitable to meet soldiers' qualities of that time. It replaced the outdated private army, and was able to deal with the Japanese army that was more like an army of the country, for as long as eight years. After a lapse of more than half a century, the quality of modern people and military personnel has greatly improved, with rising national consciousness in people's hearts. The continuing SS system has been departing from the self-identity of the people and the military personnel. This is the main reason that the morale in the military has been falling apart in the past decades. The corruption of military officials is also a consequence from decline of identity, rather than the cause. The civil officials love money, and so do the military officials. Can patriotism be educated out? No. First the system of this country must be recognized by its people, and thus be able to improve the sense of recognition through education, leading the effect of consistent ideology. There is no political commissar and no political officers in the US military, yet its soldiers remain with a clear and unified political goal - fighting for their country and their people is not something they need to think about and to doubt. Regardless how Xi Jinping tries to change in his "military reform", he is still strengthening his SS system. Now the people do not recognize the corruptive one-party authoritarian system of the Communist Party anymore, how the slogan of "fighting for the Communist Party" will still be able to gather people's hearts? I am afraid that goal will be less consistent than the mercenaries who fight for money. Xi's military reform, inevitably will degenerate the SS army into private armies. This is the real chaos-creating action of usurping the military, that also makes a foundation for others to usurp the military and to create chaos. As the economy in China declines further, the social conflicts in China will deteriorate further as well. With the selective anti-corruption campaign becoming more and more cruel, internal fighting within the Communist officialdom will intensify. With the diminishing effect of money spread abroad, money diplomacy will be less and less effective, while international conflict becomes increasingly acute. This is the new situation in the New Year for Xi Jinping. The countermeasure policies of Xi Jinping could only focus on domestic affairs. He should set further back externally: giving up the sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, while repairing the relationship with the United States in order to get the cooperation of the United States and Europe in his economic adjustment, or at least not enter economic confrontation with them. This direction requires at the same time gradually establishing a democratic system and restoring the rule of law. Otherwise he will remain the opposition against the Western democracies, with both politics and the economy remaining in mismatch states to the Western countries. As the Western countries lose their need to fight against the Soviet Union, their tolerance toward China will gradually disappear. If he does not want to take this path but continues his path of one-party dictatorship, he will only run into a dead end. Richest 62 People Have Same Wealth As Poorest 3.5 Billion Trending News: Richest 1% Now Have More Wealth Than Rest Of The World Combined Why Is This Important? Because the well-being of humanity and the stability of society are at stake as a handful of uber-rich dodge taxes. Long Story Short Oxfam reports 62 people are as wealthy as the the poorest 3.5 billion people. The taxes they avoid paying on their wealth could save lives and improve the well-being of millions of the worlds poor. Long Story A new report published by Oxfam shows the worlds wealthiest individuals and the worlds poorest individuals are speeding away from each other. The wealth gap is widening more quickly than anyone had anticipated. Since 2010, the wealth of the worlds richest has soared 44 per cent to $1.76 trillion, while over the same period of time, the wealth of the worlds poorest individuals sagged by $1 trillion a drop of 41 per cent. Quoting numbers from Credit Suisse, Oxfam reports 62 people now make up the richest 1 per cent in the world and those individuals are wealthier than the remaining 3.5 billion people. The 1 per cent has overtaken the rest of the world population one year earlier than Oxfam predicted just a year ago. Winnie Byanima, executive director of Oxfam International, articulated what everyone else is thinking, when she declared, It is simply unacceptable that the poorest half of the worlds population owns no more than a few dozen super rich people who could fit onto one bus. In its report, Oxfam quotes billionaire Warren Buffet as boasting he pays a lower rate of tax than anyone in his office including his cleaner and his secretary. Oxfam is urging governments to take immediate action to ease the escalating inequality, which, it argues, threatens social cohesion and economic expansion. For one thing, the charity is calling for an end to tax havens, which allow the worlds wealthy to avoid paying their fair share to society. An estimated $7.6 trillion of individuals wealth is tucked away in offshore havens. Tax revenue generated by that wealth represents an extra $190 billion that governments could use to help ease poverty, spread quality health care, advance education and promote the rights of women. Most of the worlds lowest paying jobs continue to be held by women and, of the 62 richest individuals in the world, only nine are female. In its report, Oxfam points out with the $14 billion in African tax revenue lost each year to offshore havens, there would be enough money to save the lives of 4 million children every year and employ enough teachers to enroll every African child in school. As the wealthy skip out on paying taxes, the International Bar Association has described tax avoidance as an abuse of human rights. Oxfam is proposing a three-pronged approach to easing financial inequality: Crack down on tax evaders; invest more in public services; and increase wages for the poorest workers. Own The Conversation Ask The Big Question: What can a middle-income person do to help stop income inequality? Disrupt Your Feed: Governments should be penalized for failing to take steps to reduce tax avoidance. Drop This Fact: Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014 and tax dodging by multinational corporations costs developing countries at least $100 billion every year. Filed back in 2014 on behalf of a girl who claims to have developed a dental infection, stammer, separation anxiety and bed wetting while on Christmas Island, the action alleges that the Commonwealth and the Minister failed to provide reasonable health care for asylum seekers.Maurice Blackburn is committed to taking all necessary legal steps to enable those witnesses to do so, said principal lawyer Jacob Varghese.It is important that the court, and the Australian community, hear from people with first-hand experience of how Australia has treated asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, detained on Christmas Island.Varghese told The Sydney Morning Herald that this would be a significant opportunity for witnesses to provide information about the conditions of detention on Christmas Island without the fear of criminal sanction.The firm is particularly keen to speak to former detention centre workers including health professionals and interpreters, and anyone who might have had contact with detainees on Christmas Island between August 2011 and August 2014, the Herald reported.The names and addresses of potential witnesses would be provided to the Victorian Supreme Court in February, when the case returns to court. The trial is set to begin in September.The court will inspect that list and, if satisfied, grant orders that will enable the social justice lawyers handling the class action to conduct more extensive interviews with the witnesses without the witnesses facing criminal or other charges under the Australian Border Force Act 2015, a statement issued by Maurice Blackburn read.These controversial provisions of the Act, introduced into Parliament last February, make it a criminal offence punishable by two years' imprisonment for current and former entrusted persons to disclose, without authorisation, protected information acquired while working for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection at detention centres. Hi there, I'm an Australian living in Cambodia and I'm helping my Khmer boyfriend apply for a 2 month tourist 600 visa. He has a business and personal bank account, but he operates mostly with cash (as many small businesses do), so his bank doesn't show much money activity. I will be supplying a support letter stating financial support with a copy of my online bank statement showing significant funds. Does that mean my boyfriend still needs to show his bank statement and have money on the bank....or is my financial support enough? I will also have a letter from my employer stating I will be returning to Cambodia. Thanks for your help. The compact sedan from Tata features largest-in-class boot space of 420 litres; slated for launch in the second half of 2016. The Tata Zica's launch is just a few days away. However, the carmaker has already revealed its next affordable car, codenamed Kite 5, which is a sub-four-metre sedan based on the Zica. The Kite 5 shares its mechanicals and styling with the hatchback, with the additional boot being the only differentiator. Which means that it derives power from the same 1.2-litre, three-cylinder petrol engine and the 1.05-litre, three-cylinder diesel mills offered on the hatchback. Both engines come mated to a five-speed manual transmission, and will be later available with an AMT gearbox. Equipment levels are also on par with the hatchback, meaning the it gets ABS, dual front airbags, corner stability control, alloy wheels, fog lamps, a Harman-sourced audio system with USB, aux and Bluetooth connectivity. However, the USP of the Kite 5 will be its 420-litre boot, which is the largest in its class. Tata will slot the Kite 5 below its Zest and is likely to remain unrivalled at the time of launch. However, Chevrolets recently unveiled Beat-based compact sedan concept will compete with the Kite 5, when it launches later in 2017. Auto Expo 2016 complete coverage Audi has obtained the right to use the Q2 and Q4 names for its upcoming models, while the Italian-American company that used to own them will not have any future products with those alphanumeric combinations.The deal between Audi and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was confirmed by Rupert Stadler, Audi CEO, at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. According to Autoblog , the deal was agreed upon without any financial compensation. However, the exact cost of the Q2 and Q4 names is still a closely guarded secret between the two corporations.As Audis CEO explained, his counterparts at FCA pointed out that the Q2 and Q4 trademarks were not for sale, but the two companies eventually negotiated an unspecified trade. Most likely, Audi swapped another name for the FCAs Q2 and Q4. However, nobody knows what exactly did Audi give FCA in exchange for the Q2 and Q4 trademarks, especially since both parties mentioned the deal didnt include a financial part.We do know that FCA has retained its right to use the Q2 name for its differential technology, which has changed over the years from a mechanical limited-slip technology to an electronically controlled unit. The Q4 badge is currently found on four-wheel-drive Maserati models, such as the Ghibli.Audi still holds the rights to the trademark Duo, the only moniker not used by the German company on a current production model. However, this name might not be the secret behind the deal made by the two corporations. We expect the details of the agreement to be revealed in a few years, when the Italian-American company will eventually launch a car with a name traded from Audi.Meanwhile, both Audi and Volkswagen have a history of using Italian words for naming their models or technologies. After all, Audi is the Latin translation of Horch, the name of the companys founder and an adaptation of the verb horchen, which means listen. According to industry analysts quoted by Automotive News , the lawsuit scared shareholders and raised questions about the trust level of carmakers in general. When such scandals emerge, even if the allegations are untrue, the degree of confidence in the car manufacturer is questioned, as the situation is not the first when car makers have been accused of altering the truth.Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has an ambitious goal for the year 2018, and the company seemed to be on its way to achieving it. However, the Italian-American corporation must resurrect the Alfa Romeo brand on a global level to achieve its 2018 sales goal.Furthermore, the FCA must attain an annual operating profit of nine billion euros, and eliminating its net debt is mandatory if that objective is to be achieved.Until December 2015, FCA managed to attain 69 consecutive monthly sales increases and boasted about being the only Top 5 automaker to grow its market share in the U.S. market.Other industry analysts, such as Evercore ISIs Arndt Ellinghorst, has said that the companys condition is worrisome even without the allegations made by two of its dealers last week. Specifically, FCA has one of the highest dealer inventory levels in the industry.The passenger car stock of FCA dealers is of 109 days of supply. The analyst explains that such a high level of stock is risky in a market like the United States, where customers tend to go for SUVs and light trucks instead of hatchbacks and sedans. Ellinghorst also specifies that theres no reason to believe that FCA has breached any law in the USA.Even after the allegations against FCA are proven wrong, the company will need some time to get its market value back to the level it was before this whole scandal. This goes to show how hazardous some allegations can be and how volatile the stock market really is. The tests were done by a special technical committee started by the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy to ensure that the countrys main carmakers comply with regulations and with their homologated data.In Peugeot-Citroens case, the committee probed the diesel engines of the Peugeot 208 and 508. These models are fitted with BlueHDi diesel units that have Selective Catalytic Reduction Technology. PSA Peugeot-Citroen implemented the SCR upstream of the particulate filter to ensure elimination of up to 90% of the nitrogen oxides released by this engine category.The people of PSA Peugeot-Citroen claim their SCR fitment brings nitrogen oxide emissions to levels near to those of gasoline engines. However, diesel engines eliminate 15% less CO2 emissions than equivalent gasoline power plants, all while having a 20 percent better fuel efficiency.The French company first introduced its BlueHDi technology in late 2013, two years before the Euro 6 standard became mandatory for new cars sold in Europe. The PSA Peugeot-Citroen corporation invested several hundred million euros in the development of improved SCR technology. Their investment was safeguarded with around one hundred patents.The work of PSA Peugeot-Citroen engineers is far from over, though, as the company is planning a new engine range meant to comply with the next emission standards. We are talking about the Euro 6.2 standard, intended to become mandatory for all cars made and sold after September 2017.Until then, PSA Peugeot-Citroen waits serenely for the next wave of test results. The manufacturer prides itself on the fact that its engines were perfectly in line with the law and homologated results, as its main French competitor, Renault, was also probed by Government authorities and the results were not as good, apparently.Renaults diesel engines complied with the law, but had rather high emissions on specific models, and company officials were asked to explain why that happened and how would they fix it. Airbus has partnered up with Uber to make it possible for travelers to book a helicopter using the Uber app, CEO Thomas Enders said at an industry conference on Sunday. The app will be the first step in a project that aims to connect air transport to ground transport in an integrated way, he said. Enders, speaking at the DLD (Digital-Life-Design) conference, in Munich, said the project is part of the new Airbus Ventures venture-capital fund in Silicon Valley, which launched in May with $150 million. The fund will invest in promising, disruptive and innovative business opportunities around the globe, Enders said. That could include flying cars. We now have the precision of navigation systems and the computer power to make such things possible, Enders said, but we need investors with less close control. Enders also said his company is exploring new ways to use big data to create new businesses. For example, a flight from Munich to Barcelona generates 1 terabyte of data, documenting 450,000 parameters. But only 0.1 percent of big data is really used, Ender said. The company also is looking at the potential of building microfactories in communities around the world, which they hope will decrease the development costs and time-to-market for airplanes in the future, according to DLDs blog. The Airbus Ventures fund also has already invested in Local Motors, a company based in Phoenix, Arizona, according to Fortune. That company hopes to revolutionize auto and aerospace design by using the free contributions of volunteer engineers and researchers [and] then produce them using 3D printing technology, according to Fortune. Airbus wouldnt be the first to use an app for helicopter bookings Blade has been offering that service for New York City travelers for a couple of years. The ease of use has been blamed for an upsurge in helicopter flights in the region, causing conflict with summer residents of the Hamptons. The Sam LSA, an all-metal low-wing tandem airplane that first flew in 2013, has been acquired by brothers Sebastien and Matt Heintz, owners of Zenith Aircraft (U.S.) and Zenair (Canada). In a news release issued Monday, the brothers said they are considering several different options for the airplane, including an LSA version, a kit, a quick-build kit, and a sport aerobatic configuration. The airplane was designed by Thierry Zibi, of Quebec, Canada, who built just one copy of the airplane and flew it to many U.S. airshows in search of buyers. In 2014 he put the design up for sale, saying hed decided he was more interested in designing airplanes than in marketing and production. The Sam Aircraft design is a distinctive and fun airplane, and will be a welcome addition to the Zenith line of kit aircraft, Sebastien Heintz said in Mondays news release. The brothers said the Sam design, constructed primarily of 6061-T6 aluminum assembled with blind rivets, makes it easy and quick to build as well as durable and affordable. The brothers said they will announce further details about their design and production plans after they complete an engineering review and market research. Zenith will be an exhibitor at next weeks Sport Aviation Expo, in Sebring, Florida. AVweb contributor Larry Anglisano flew the airplane in 2014; click here for his video flight report. A new study suggests pilots hit by lasers in flight dont suffer any lasting eye damage from the attacks. Researchers at the University of Calgary said they looked at the medical records of 58 male and three female pilots who were examined shortly after reporting a laser strike between April of 2012 and November of 2014. Many reported momentary blindness and blurry vision after being hit by the laser but all recovered. Once their eyes settle down, theyre worried if theres any permanent damage that could affect their ability to fly in the future, Dr. Michael Fielden, an assistant clinical professor for the universitys Cumming School of Medicine, told the CBC. Fortunately we havent found any permanent damage. The study was done with pilots from a single unidentified airline who were sent to Fielden by the airline as part of its safety program. But while the lack of permanent damage is good news to pilots, Fielden said that doesnt mean laser strikes should be taken lightly. Safety issues notwithstanding, in terms of delays and passenger inconvenience, pointing that green or red light can be costly. Pilots are not allowed to fly until their eyes are examined, so thats multiple days off work, he said.And if the pilot is in Mexico, suddenly the plane is stuck in Mexico and requires another pilot flown down there, so theres big delays for these airlines. He said sales of laser pointers should be restricted. Last November, I transported 40 endangered sea turtles (stranded on Cape Cod) from the Boston area to a turtle rescue center center in Georgia. I put transporting endangered sea turtles in the comments section of my IFR flight plan and had two interesting exchanges on the trip. Providence Approach (PVD): 69 Tango, hows your cargo doing? Me (after looking at them): One is looking out the window through a hole in the box. PVD: Thats awwwesome. New York Approach (NY): 69 Tango, they normally dont allow the routing you requested, but I really like what yer doin with dem sea turtles, so let me see what I can do. Me: Roger. Thanks! NY: 69 Tango, you are cleared direct JFK; direct destination. Happy to report all sea turtles made it to destination, recovered, and have been released to the ocean. James Rose 18 January 2016 17:43 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Sadigova Despite high foreign exchange debts and tough economy the Armenian officials are squandering insane amounts of money on business trips without considering a deep economic crisis that country ongoing. The government did not fulfill its promises about 4.1 percent of economic growth, but it has not abandoned the generous embezzlement of the state budget. In December, the government has spent $13.700 for the Yerevan-Astana flight. The most ridiculous moment is that the day before the flight the Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan urged government members to refrain from unnecessary trips to cut the spending. And, for a two-day visit, the Government commissioned a charter aircraft Yerevan-Astana. This is not the first time when the Armenian government is engaged in such a "flight scandal". In 2015 the government paid a company that runs private flights about $66,000 to make a round-trip to Paris on official business for the prime minister. The most expensive commercial fare for the same trip was $3,340. Taxpayers shelled out about $34,500 for Abrahamyans private flight to Kazakhstan a few hours away to the Eurasian Economic Unions summit in May 2015. The costs of such flights are magnified in Armenia where roughly a third of the 3 million population lives in poverty and the average monthly nominal wage is about $383. --- Follow Laman Sadigova on Twitter: @s_laman93 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 17:27 (UTC+04:00) By Laman Sadigova Resignation of the Armenian Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan without any explanation to it has raised many questions in the Armenian society. The Armenian media reports urge that he has resigned under pressure of the country's authorities. Andreasyan, known for his openness to the press, made a brief statement o his resignation and refused to comment on his decision. Many suggest that the Ombudsman chose to resign rather than be a weak-willed puppet of the regime. Systematic large-scale human rights violations and the impunity of such acts in Armenia has become a commonplace. Urged to protect rights and freedoms, the Ombudsman is essentially a fiction in this country and is completely under incessant pressure. Human rights violation is a widely spread case in Armenia, where the current government suppresses all the manifestation of the freedom speech. The predecessor of Karen Andreasyan resigned on his own initiative, apparently for the same reason. Any kind of democracy and respect for human rights is out of question in the country which is covered with lie and based on lawlessness. Even without affecting military aggression against Azerbaijan, ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijani nation, the massacre in Khojaly and other "military feats", what human rights can be discussed in the country, deserted because of complete arbitrariness of the authorities and plundered by the so-called elite? In Armenia even the representatives of opposition are afraid to say something against the authorities with a fair of private security. The UN experts believe that the situation of human rights in Armenia has not changed for many years. Armenian does not implement the UN international obligations to protect human rights specified in the universal review. --- Follow Laman Sadigova on Twitter: @s_laman93 Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 13:11 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova Energy-rich Kazakhstan, the national economy of which has suffered a lot from decreasing oil prices on the world market, is keen on taking anti-crisis measures to prevent negative consequences of the global crisis. In this regard, the government plans to develop a scenario of economic development of the country with the expectation that oil prices could fall to $20 a barrel. Such a decision was taken after President Nursultan Nazarbayev instructed the government to develop such a scenario given the rapid decline in oil prices and volatility in the global markets. The government also plans to allocate additional funds from the state budget to finance the operational anti-crisis measures. In 2016, these funds will amount to roughly 225.5 billion tenges ($615.5 million). These funds will be used to support employment and additional funding for the "Nurly Zhol" development program. The developed scenarios will be discussed on January 19 at a meeting of the council on economic policy under the Kazakh government. Bruce Pannier, an expert on Central Asia, and the Senior Correspondent at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, believes the government's decision to develop new scenarios based on the economic reality in the world is important. "It might be necessary to base the budget on an even lower price for oil. Otherwise, there is not much that can be done," he told Azernews. Due to the fact that Kazakhstan depends on oil exports to support its economy, Astana cannot do anything to change the reality of falling oil prices on world markets. The country's two main trade partners - Russia and China - are suffering from the low price of oil and other economic problems and Astana cannot do anything about that either. The expert believes that the Kazakh government will have to cut more programs and projects. "There is already a plan on a massive privatization program, which will include major state industries KazMunaiGaz, Kazatomprom, the national airline, the railway, and on and on, some 780 enterprises to be partially or completely privatized," he noted. Meanwhile, Pannier believes that there is not much Kazakhstan can do "because most of the problems besetting the country are outside the Kazakh governments control." "Kazakhstan was warned years ago not to become dependent on oil exports, many other countries were warned also, and advised to diversify their economies," he said. "To the Kazakh governments credit, some steps were taken. Although oil and ferrous and non-ferrous metals are still a major part of the countrys exports, Kazakhstan exports other things. Kazakhstan is one of the worlds top 10 grain exporters for example." The expert is pessimistic about possible increase in oil prices on the world markets. "Past that, the Kazakh government will just have to wait, and hope that oil prices rise. But officials should keep in mind that with Iran about to start selling its oil and gas on world markets, and with the advances in non-traditional resources shale oil and shale gas there is little chance we will see the record prices of more than $100 per barrel that we saw several years ago," he stated. New Kazakh Mazhilis only to approve unpopular measures Commenting on appeal of the members of Mazhilis of the Kazakh parliament to President Nazarbayev on holding early parliamentary election due to aggravated economic situation in the country, Pannier said a new Mazhilis will not be able to do anything different to prevent the bad consequences of crisis to the national economy. "Some people have suggested Kazakh authorities want to hold an election now before the full extent of the economic crisis hits the country," he told Azernews. "I agree with that to some extent but I would point out the economic crisis has already hit Kazakhstan. It is likely crisis will get worse and it might become much worse but the situation is already bad. The [Kazakh national] currency, the tenge was being exchanged at about 185 to one U.S. dollar just six months ago and this week it was being exchanged at a rate of about 365 tenge to one U.S. dollar, double the rate of last June." Pannier expects the new Mazhilis to maintain strong support for President Nursultan Nazarbayevs policies, as the outgoing Mazhilis did. "The new deputies are going to need to approve some tough and unpopular measures over the coming months to combat the effects of a slowing economy," the expert noted. "That process has already started. The current government has already reduced funding to a series of domestic programs, from state support for housing to financing the completion of upgrades and modernization of the countrys three oil refineries." "So, a new Mazhilis "cannot do much and in fact, it will probably be responsible for approving unpopular measures to cut back on infrastructure projects, new or repaired roads, electrification projects, and home-heating," he stressed. Under the Constitution of Kazakhstan, in case of early termination of the MPs powers, snap election should be set no later than within two months. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 18:22 (UTC+04:00) By Aynur Karimova Establishment of joint Armed Forces of Turkic states in such a complicated world is of significant importance, military expert Uzeyir Jafarov believes. Commenting on works being conducted by Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan towards improving the joint Armed Forces in the framework of TAKM project, he told Azernews that such an army is necessary for resolving problems in the Turkic world. "I said this is a great idea and it is important to realize it [establish Joint Armed Forces]," he said. "The Turkic-Muslim world, in particular Azerbaijan and Turkey, has a lot of artificial problems. In this regard, establishment of a Turkic Armed Forces - a mini model of NATO can become beneficial for resolving these problems," he said. Last week Ismet Yilmaz, Turkish National Defense Minister, told Trend in an interview that Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan are conducting works towards improving the joint Armed Forces in the framework of TAKM project. Jafarov believes that these Armed Forces could play a stabilizing role in the Turkic world. "It is necessary to achieve this goal," the expert said. "Participation of fraternal Turkey - a member of NATO - in the establishment of this army is of significant importance. Turkey has a huge experience in this field. It enjoys both theoretical and practical knowledge." The joint Armed Forces of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia - TAKM were established in January 2013 to strengthen the cooperation among the law enforcement organizations of military status located in Eurasia. Jafarov believes that being near Turkey in achieving these goals is important for Azerbaijan. Touching upon the affect of establishment of such an army to Azerbaijan's army training, Jafarov said that it will have only a positive affect. "Azerbaijani army has achieved significant success in recent years thanks to the support provided by the Turkish army. Today, the Azerbaijani army is represented in the world scale at a high level both in Iraq and Kosovo. Over 90 members of the Azerbaijani army are attending operations in Afghanistan. I believe that establishment of joint army will become a good practice for Azerbaijan and it will have only a positive affect on us," Jafarov concluded. Military cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey - the two neighboring nations - dates back to 1992 when they signed an agreement on military education. Since then, the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments have been closely cooperating in both defense and security fields. In December 2010, both countries signed a range of treaties provisioning for military assistance should any of the party be attacked by third party. Based on numerous agreements on joint military exercises as part of bilateral progressive efforts towards military cooperation, the Azerbaijani and Turkish armed forces have held regular drills, featuring various tactical and combat tasks so far. Azerbaijan's defense ministry told local media that Baku and Ankara have started preparations for next joint military drills. On January 18, a meeting on basic planning of the "TurAz Sahini - 2016" exercises began in the Turkish city of Konya. Representatives of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces are attending the drills that will last until January 20. The joint tactical exercises entitled "TurAz Qartali-2015" of the Azerbaijani and Turkish Armies were held in Azerbaijan in September. The exercises, which were conducted as part of an annual joint military plan, lasted until September 18. The joint military exercises TurAz Qartal, TurAz Shahini and drills of the Land Forces represents the level of cooperation between the armies of both countries. -- Aynur Karimova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Aynur_Karimova Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 13:27 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijan welcomes implementation of Irans Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry reported on January 18. Iran and the P5+1 group finalized the JCPOA in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented the JCPOA on Jan.16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Azerbaijan supports determination and will of the parties that were demonstrated in achieving this progress, according to Azerbaijans foreign ministry. Azerbaijan also congratulates the Iranian people and expresses confidence in the fact that this positive process will give impetus to further development of the mutually beneficial partnership between Azerbaijan and Iran, the message of the ministry said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 14:11 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijan welcomes Wests lifting sanctions on Iran, which was achieved as a result of talks, read a statement by Novruz Mammadov, deputy head of Azerbaijani presidential administration, chief of the administrations foreign relations department. Iran and the P5+1 group of countries (the US, the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) finalized the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA aka nuclear deal) in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Irans nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Iran and the P5+1 implemented the JCPOA on Jan. 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. Azerbaijan doesnt see the use of sanctions against countries in international relations for various reasons as a successful and fair step, said Novruz Mammadov. Consequences of sanctions in all cases become a burden for the populations of countries on which they are imposed. This also prevents the interstate and intercivilizational understanding, dialogue and cooperation in modern world, and inevitably creates certain tension, he added. Mammadov further noted that President Ilham Aliyev spoke against the use of sanctions on Iran at a briefing in front of the White House during his first official visit to Washington in April 2006. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 16:00 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijan is much stronger today than it was in 1990s of the last century, said Arastun Mehdiyev, the deputy head of the public and political issues department at the presidential administration of Azerbaijan. Mehdiyev made the remarks addressing a meeting of the National Council of Elders on January 18. He said the processes taking place in the world have not bypassed Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is a part of the world, so these processes have also affected our country to a certain extent, he said. There is nothing surprising." Mehdiyev also said Azerbaijan is taking actions to eliminate the effects of the crisis. The joint efforts of the country and people will make it possible to cope with these difficult issues." Mehdiyev added that some forces, seeking to make Azerbaijan waive its independent policy, are trying to take advantage of the situation. They are supported by representatives of the fifth column, who are also trying to abuse the situation, said the official. But in this situation, Azerbaijani elders have their say, and they lead the society and the youth in the right direction. I believe that through joint efforts we wont allow these forces realize their nefarious intentions, added Mehdiyev. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 16:40 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli This week Azerbaijan will mark the 26th anniversary of the tragic events of January 20, 1990. The countrys leadership already approved the plan of events on the occasion of the tragedys anniversary. To bring the truth about the January 20 to the world nations, Azerbaijans embassies, diplomatic missions and Azerbaijani communities abroad will hold several events. The government will render the humanitarian aid to the families of the victims. Moreover, the countrys major religious confessions will hold special religious ceremonies dedicated to the victims. The Culture and Tourism Department of Baku will also host a number of events dedicated to the anniversary of the Black January. Round tables, literary and other events will be held in the houses of culture, music and art schools, libraries, centers and museums. The Museum Center in Baku will host Istedad program, dedicated to the tragedy at 15:00 on January 19. Since the Azerbaijani nation will commemorate the victims with ceremony of laying flowers at a memorial at the Alley of Martyrs on January 20 the several roads will be closed in Baku. Traffic Police warns that the transport along the Parliament avenue to the Alley of Martyrs and of tp Mehdi Huseyn street will be completely restricted from 07:00 to 18:00. The citizens will visit the Alley of Martyrs from 11:00 to 19:00. Meanwhile, Bakus emergency medical care station will operate in emergency mode on January 20. The memory of the victims of the tragedy will be honored by minute of silence, and ships, cars and trains will sound horns at 12:00. As a sign of mourning the state flags of Azerbaijan will be lowered in the country. Hundreds of civilians were crushed or injured by the Soviet troops in Baku on January 20, 1990, on an order from the USSR leadership that was trying to maintain the Communist regime in Azerbaijan and strangle the national liberation movement. The invasion was launched at midnight and was committed with brutality; even children, women and the elderly were not spared. As a result of the intrusion of troops into Baku and regions of the country, 133 people were killed, more than 700 wounded, and about 800 illegally arrested. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 17:47 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev has accepted the credentials of the newly-appointed ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, Ingrid Tersman, Azertac state news agency reported. The ambassador reviewed the guard of honor, and handed her credentials to President Aliyev. The Azerbaijani president then had a conversation with the ambassador. Noting that Azerbaijani-Swedish ties had a good history, the head of state stressed the importance of expanding cooperative relations between the two countries in a variety of fields, adding there was good potential for this. President Aliyev also underlined the significance of increasing relationship between the representatives of business in terms of the development of economic ties, and exploring new opportunities in this sphere. Noting that there were certain economic challenges in the region, where Azerbaijan is situated, and certain problems in Europe, the head of state voiced hope that bilateral relations between the two countries would contribute to the strengthening of the regional cooperation. Saying Azerbaijan-European Union ties were developing successfully, President Aliyev stressed the importance of keeping these relations on the agenda of the bilateral bonds. President Aliyev wished the ambassador success in her diplomatic activities in the country. Tersman conveyed greetings on behalf of His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden to the head of state. She said her country wants to enhance existing dialogue with Azerbaijan. The envoy noted that the two countries shared a common position in a number of fields, including regional development and security, migration and culture, as well as international issues. Hailing economic relations between the two countries, the ambassador expressed confidence that these ties would be developed even further. Tersman said bilateral relations between the two countries played a special role in expanding Azerbaijan-European Union cooperation even more. The ambassador noted that she would spare no efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries during her tenure in Azerbaijan. President Aliyev thanked for the greetings of King Carl XVI Gustaf, and asked Tersman to communicate his greetings to the King of Sweden. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 18:10 (UTC+04:00) Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev received the credentials of the newly appointed ambassador of Slovenia, Igor Jukic, on January 18, Azertac state news agency reported. Jukic reviewed the guard of honor, and handed his credentials to President Aliyev. The head of state then had a conversation with the ambassador. Noting that Azerbaijan and Slovenia enjoyed a good experience of cooperation in a variety of fields, President Aliyev said mutual political relations between the two countries were developing successfully. The president stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of the expansion of the bilateral bonds. Highlighting the work of Slovenian companies operating in various fields of the country`s economy and Azerbaijani companies operating in Slovenia, the head of state noted the significance of defining the efficient cooperation areas in terms of the expansion of their activity even further. Expressing hope that relations between the two countries would successfully develop during Jukic`s diplomatic tenure in Azerbaijan, President Aliyev wished him success in his work. Saying that political relations between the two countries were developing successfully, the ambassador stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of the strengthening of the bilateral ties. The diplomat said the representatives of business of the two countries were interested in boosting cooperation. The Slovenian ambassador said he would spare no efforts to expand the bilateral relations between the two countries in a variety of fields even further. The sides emphasized the role of the bilateral relations between the two countries in developing Azerbaijan-European Union cooperation. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 10:00 (UTC+04:00) By Nigar Orujova Azerbaijan is keen to redesign its tourism sphere to meet new challenges in the contemporary world suffering economic instability and security problems. The government regards tourism a priority area of economy, making a major focus this year on attracting large number of tourists to the country. Vugar Shikhmammadov, Official at Culture and Tourism Ministry, said that attracting foreign investors to the country, and facilitating the visa regime will be the key steps in this regard. Inexpensive hotels are under construction in the regions of the country to turn them into the favorite tourism destinations, he said adding the interest of entrepreneurs both local and foreign in this sphere. The first action in this connection is abolishing licenses for tourism and hotels activities." Reducing time for proceedings in an application from 10 to 5 days could significantly simplify the visa procedures, Shikhmammadov added. In addition, simplified visas to several countries are planned to be issued in the airport. Azerbaijan, that is in the process of switching to the non-oil sector of economy, has been developing tourism potential of its beautiful nature and captivating history for years now. Entrepreneurs working in the tourism sector in Azerbaijan can develop mass tourism, said Advisor to the Chairman of the Azerbaijan Tourism Association Muzaffar Agakerimov. Mass tourism is a form of tourism that involves tens of thousands of people going to the same resort often at the same time of year. The country has not seen price increases in tourist services, he stressed. Travel companies are now recommended not to pursue higher income, he noted. First and foremost we have to attract tourists to the country. Then, income can be increased through offering additional services. The experience of other countries shows that they use a variety of advertising and marketing techniques to attract tourists, the adviser added. For instance, Turkey, that has a profound experience in successful tourism, uses a variety of services to increase tourism revenue. These services include souvenirs and different types of tourism, Agakerimov explained. He noted the need in building more budget hotels that provide services at low prices for budget travelers. Currently, Azerbaijan hosts a series of luxury hotels Jumeirah, Excelsior, Hilton, Four Seasons, Fairmont, JW Marriott, Kempinski as well as many budget hotels for cost-conscious travelers. However, five star hotels in Azerbaijan are now facing with the low occupancy rate. Prices for accommodation in the country start from $15 and increase depending on the hotel class and amenities provided. The necessity of budget hotels both in Baku and in regions of the country has been discussed for a time. Such budget hotels would be attractive not only for foreigners but also for local tourists, as more and more Azerbaijanis now prefer to spend holidays and vacations in the country. This was most noticeable during the New Year holiday, when thousands of Azerbaijanis headed to the mountain resorts in the north of the country. The rooms in the hotels of the country were booked for 75 and even 90 percent ahead of the favorite holiday. Along with local resorts, the most popular destinations for Azerbaijanis are Turkey and Georgia. However, after depreciation of the manat, the number of tourists from Azerbaijan in the Georgian resorts has strongly reduced, according to Georgian media. Despite the unstable economy, people continue to travel and Azerbaijani experts believe, that depreciation of the national currency can be advantageous for foreign tourists, as the prices has decreased in manat with regard to dollar. __ Nigar Orujova is AzerNews staff journalist. Follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar Follow us on Twitter: @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 09:00 (UTC+04:00) MOSCOW, January 13, 2016 On the 6th of April 2016, oil & gas industry leaders will gather in Moscow, Russia, for the Fleming. event Pipeline Integrity International Summit, Russia & CIS. For 2 days, they will be discussing trends in Russia and CIS region regarding pipeline integrity management as well as up-to-date approaches, latest technologies and the best practices. Current economic challenges are making oil & gas companies optimize their activities and find the best solutions to ensure pipeline integrity throughout the whole pipeline lifecycle. Failure to ensure the necessary level of pipeline safety and reliability may lead to dramatic economic and ecological consequences for company and country alike. Hence the urgent need for a company operating midstream or field pipelines to keep itself up to date about the leading technologies and research in this area. Professionals from companies such as Gazprom, Salym Petroleum, Transneft, Bashneft and others will provide the update on the current situation in industry, for example regulatory aspects of pipeline safety, the lifespan and reliability of pipelines or peculiarities of offshore pipeline operation. The attendees from E&P Companies and pipeline operators will benefit from experience sharing provided in interactive way, through the case studies, practical examples, keynote presentations and roundtable discussions. Collecting the best international practices in pipeline planning, construction, operation, anti-corrosion methods and reconstruction makes this a unique learning and knowledge sharing opportunity. This interactive event will be the platform for pipeline professionals in Russia and CIS to meet and discuss the most relevant issues in pipeline integrity. Participants will gain lots of valuable ideas and insights on how to ensure decent level of safety, reliability and efficiency of the pipelines that they will be able to implement in their businesses. The detailed program of the summit is available on the official website. About Fleming. Fleming. connects people who know the answers, bring you the know-how you seek and the opportunities you desire, creating Critical Business Connections. After 13 years in the business, Fleming. has grown to offer a complete portfolio of Conferences, Trainings, Exhibitions, Blended Learning, and Online Conferences in 5 continents and various industries. More than 50,000 satisfied companies supporting, attending, and endorsing Fleming events and using its services every year prove that Fleming. is the right partner to support your business growth and help you achieve your goals. 18 January 2016 17:58 (UTC+04:00) Our interlocutor heads an organization that has a special weight in the economy of Azerbaijan, the company winning the trust of millions of users and is the most advanced and largest mobile operator in our country. He has also spent 10 years of his working experience in this Company. Of course, we are talking about Azercell Telecom and its CEO Mr. Vahid Mursaliyev. However, the Internet does not have a lot of information about a person who manages this large corporation. So, who is Vahid Mursaliyev, what type of person he is, and most importantly, how he will describe himself? This very question was the first in our interview with Mr. Vahid Mursaliyev: - Who is Vahid Mursaliyev? How do you normally present yourself when meet others? - You are well aware of my current position - I am the CEO of Azercell. I started my career in the company in 2005 as head of the Legal Department. In just 8 months this department was transformed into the Legal and Administrative Department. After that, I was appointed as General Counselor to the CEO and Director of Legal Affairs and General Administration. On January 5, 2015, I was appointed as the acting President of Azercell. According to the decision of the general meeting of the Company shareholders I was officially appointed to the post of the President of Azercell on December 1, 2015. From oil sector to telecom - You are a professional lawyer. In what area you worked prior to Azercell? - I have worked in the oil industry for many years. Since 1984 I worked as an operator on the Oil Rocks. After 7 years of a dedicated work as a laborer, I was appointed as an instructor of the trade union committee. In the summer of 1992, by chance, I got an offer to work in "Azerineft" Company. The former president of this company Senan Alizadeh liked my speech at one of the meetings on the Oil Rocks. Immediately after that event I was invited to join Azerineft. Then I received an invitation from the American "Mobil". At the time I was offered a very high salary, which was 10 fold of the on I had in the local oil company. Obviously enough, I accepted the invitation. In addition to this work, I also provided legal consultancy to a number of companies in the country. We have had discussions with corporations from the UK, USA, Turkey, signed different agreements. We worked on the largest oil projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. Since I was a member of the technical and commercial group, I often went on business trips. This experience turned out to be very useful in subsequent years. In 2000-2001, I have done a research in the field of corporate management at one of the most prestigious US universities - Case Western Reserve in Cleveland. I also took certified courses on business management. In 2005 I had the opportunity to participate in the experience exchange in one of the consulting companies working in the energy sector in Chicago, USA. Two days after the return from US, I received an invitation to join Azercell. At first I declined the offer, because I was happy with my current job. However, an employee who called the second time was more persistent and convinced me to attend the first interview. After several meetings, as August 12, 2005, I started working in Azercell. - Was not that risky to leave a promising oil and gas sector in 2005 and completely change your profile by joining the telecommunications? - Maybe it was. At that time, if someone had mentioned words as "frequency", "interconnection", or number portability, the say the least, it would surprise me. Only after starting a new job I realized how diverse the telecommunications sector is. To tell the truth, I have learned a lot, become an expert in a completely new field. Of course, while I worked in the oil company, I often traveled abroad, participated in meetings with large companies, international corporations, which helped to accumulate extensive international experience. But only in Azercell I became a part of an international corporation. During the research in the field of corporate governance in Cleveland, I got to learn the experience of many international companies, studied the duties and operation of the Supervisory Boards, the Boards of Directors and other management bodies. Despite Azerbaijan was lacking similar systems back then, Azercell has already been using corporate governance, as the Company was a part of large international and solid corporation as TeliaSonera, and was managed in accordance with its standards. The first thing I did was to start studying the founding documents of Azercell. We have made the necessary changes to the contracts, combined the management of legal and administrative units and created a department that functions like clockwork. I would also like to highlight that even back then we had very strong lawyers and experts the department. With their help and creativity we have been able to create the best system of contract management among companies of TeliaSonera Eurasia, and most likely in Europe. We have not had a chance to get bored. We had to work a lot to learn something new and advance. I never liked to lag behind the colleagues, I have always tried to be the best or one of the best. I do not know how I did it, but I always make an effort to achieve this. - Did you think then, that by accepting the offer to work as a lawyer, one day you would become president of the company? Was this one of your goals? - To the truth it was not. In general, there was no practice of nominating local staff to the senior positions. I took a huge responsibility as the head of the legal department. I was planning to increase its workload. In US, not the company, even an ordinary family has own lawyer and do not sign any documents without his consent. In Azercell I have achieved exactly this: the legal department must approve every document, which is deemed official. With confidence I can say that after all these steps the legal department of Azercell became the best in the Eurasian region. - What was the reason for not appointing the local staff as the company manager? - I believe it had nothing to do with distrust. There were a lot of local specialists and managers of international caliber, but since the telecommunications sector was relatively new for Azerbaijan, the country was in need of foreign experts to develop this sector. Invited experts attracted local talents and prepared them as professionals. Gradually, some of these local staff began to occupy leadership positions in the company. When I joined Azercell, big number of local specialists was holding senior positions here. Only the heads of financial and technical departments were Turkish citizens. Today, many staff members, who grew up in Azercell, occupy top positions in the business units of TeliaSonera Eurasia. In my opinion, my appointment as president of the company is a continuation of the same policy. To date, we have formed a very good, strong team. I am sure that everyone who is represented in senior positions here is very much capable to manage the entire company. Apparently, at this point, my nomination was not only substantiated, but also destined. - Mr. Vahid, how would you describe yourself? - This is the most difficult task for me assess myself. It is much easier to speak of my weaknesses. For example, I am a very soft-hearted person. Therefore, despite my profession, I could never work in the law enforcement. I believe this is not the most convenient trait for a manager. I have always tried, whenever possible, to do good to people. Sometimes, when I see negative feelings towards me, I do not let myself to live with a sense of revenge. Despite the fact that I am not a religious person, I strongly believe in GOD and I am sure that everyone gets a response to their actions from HIM, whether they are good or bad. Public opinion, the perception of others is very important for me. It might be my weak point. I cannot imagine that someone would ever lie looking straight into someone's eyes. I administer an injection better than the most professional nurse - Do you like to read? - Speaking figuratively, I do not read on the ground, but in the air. I love to read books, though not always find enough time for that. By the nature of my work, I am often on business trips, so I spend time flying. Since I cannot sleep in plains, I spend my time reading. Usually, I read the works of Chingiz Abdullayev. He does not get tired of writing, and I am fond of reading. At home I use my spare time performing on tar. I also graduated from a musical school, so as I get extra time, I go to the guest room, and perform something for my own pleasure. There was even a time when my performance was shown on TV. I played the oud in an ensemble, and played the solo guitar. - As we speak, you keep on revealing very interesting facts about yourself. What else would you share? - (Laughs) Since the fifth grade, I learned to do intramuscular injections. Today I'm doing an injection better than the most professional nurse. At the time when we lived in the village, my mother taught me that, in order not to look for a nurse when it was urgently needed. After the marriage, when children were sick, as a custom, they would only let me to do them injections. - So, you grew up in the village. When the transition to urban life happened? - Yes, I was born and grew up in a simple and low-income family of intellectuals in the village Midzhan of Ismayilli region. At a preschool age, due to my father's secondment, we lived for some time in Agsu and Shamakhi regions. Then, in the school years, we were back to Ismayilli. At first I studied in the eight-year school in our village, and then completed my secondary education in the school number 3 of Ismayilli city and entered the law faculty of the Baku (Azerbaijan) State University. I should point out that I was one of two candidates for the gold medal at the school, but the medal was fairly presented to another contestant. She knew exact sciences better than I did. In the 80s of the last century the national leader Heydar Aliyev (God bless him) took control of the admission process to the Law School. At that time, the children of law enforcement officers, shop managers, as well as of high-ranking officials were not allowed to enter this faculty. I was a boy from an ordinary family, who applied and got admitted. We were very poor. There were days when I had no money even for two meals per day. There were nights when I could not find the shelter and had to sleep at the railway station. - This means that a lot depends on the person? We had a preconceived impression that success in Azerbaijan is possible only with the help of connections or friends? - If a person has a purpose, will and readiness to fight - then the road is open. There is a possibility of a chance. All the rest - it's an excuse. In school, I went to a summer camp to learn Russian in the village of Ivanovka. When I was in the 9-10 year of the school I stayed up late at night, listening to the press conference of one of the leading politicians of his time, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. In those years, I memorized the entire text of the negotiations between the USSR and US on the strategic arms limitation (SALT 2). When I was 18-19 years, I enthusiastically studied the technical and military capabilities of nuclear submarines of USSR Navy. Plato said that the success in itself does not pursue someone and not waiting when someone comes. The man himself must strive for success. At that time, I was a graduate lawyer; I worked for 7-8 years as a laborer on the Oil Rocks. As I have already said, only by chance, I got a job in an oil company. I did not take it as granted and started learning English. I do not believe that someone's professional growth demands the help of any friends or acquaintances. Of course, someone's recommendation can seriously help you at some point, or change the entire life. But along with this, there are certain stages through which people must pass on their own, without outsider's help. The efforts never get lost. I always share my views with my children. I convinced them that a person would definitely reap the fruits of his efforts. - They are also hard-working and diligent? - I have two sons. The eldest is 26 years. He builds his career in marketing management in America and now works in a very large and well-known company. The younger son, with the support of the State Oil Company, received a bachelor's and master's degree in the UK. My sons are very interesting, educated and honest guys. They cannot even think of deceiving anyone, not to mention the parents. Besides their mother, they address all seniors, including myself, saying YOU. I raised them self-sufficient, tried to keep under control. Today I am confident about the integrity and diligence of my sons. - By the way, Azercell has always hired the most capable and young candidates. How do you feel of working with the youth? Does modern youth have sufficient diligence? - One could easily witness different trends among our youth during the transition times. The state has done a lot to prevent negative changes in the development of young people. From this perspective, the program of sending students to study abroad is of great importance. As I mentioned earlier, the younger son got his graduate education with the support of SOCAR. Young people around him, and I see this trend in our company, are developing rapidly. We have a lot of talented young people. Some of the startups in Barama Innovation Center turned out as a good surprise and delighted me. I believe, thanks to the State attention, these positive developments will move forward. My advice to young people is to urge them to be patriots and love their country, our Motherland, would be proud of the fact that they are Azerbaijanis, as the national leader Heydar Aliyev has said, and do their best to get an education and deepen knowledge. We must avoid bad habits, gossiping and envy. - Azercell is a company that serves millions of people every day. Probably, there are unhappy customers, who sound criticism. What is your reaction to the case of unjustified criticism? - Well, not only. We also face objective criticism and simple customer complaints. Azercell unites and serves 4.5 million customers, among which, of course, some might be dissatisfied. We never leave their questions unanswered. Sometimes the media presents inaccurate information to which we give a refutation. However, there are some absolutely baseless articles that spread totally ungrounded facts. Usually we do not respond to this kind of articles. - I wonder if your phone is open 7/24? How many hours a day do you talk on the phone? - Our work is very dynamic. Customers use our services around the clock, so our phones should be kept on. For this reason, for the first time in Azerbaijan, Azercell opened a customer service operating 24 hours a day. As for me, I'm on the phone for about 1-2 hours a day. - This year, TeliaSonera announced that it exits the Eurasian market. As we know, Turkcell has expressed interest in acquisition of Azercell. Is there any news on this? - This question is to our founders. I am sure that TeliaSonera will inform the public about the developments in due time. - What are the proposals developed by Azercell for 2016? - I will not reveal all the cards, but in general, I want to note that, loyal to its well-established tradition, Azercell will continue to launch new technologies, services and campaigns. Basically, we plan to expand the coverage of 3G and 4G in the regions. We set a goal to make the mobile Internet available to all. The number of subscribers using mobile Internet by Azercell is growing daily. Along with this, we also lower the prices. We are not afraid of a temporary drop in income, which is caused by the proliferation of the Internet and the creation of favorable conditions for the use of this service. Only in 2015 we reduced tariffs for mobile Internet by 55%. I can confidently say that on our market Azercell offers the most affordable and attractive mobile Internet in terms of price and quality. - What about the recent devaluation? How will that affect the company's operations and the tariffs? - Obviously enough, we would face challenging times, but customer satisfaction is the top priority in our strategy. Thus, we do not sadden our customers by increasing prices or lowering the service quality. Change of shareholders will not affect the overall activity of the company. Today, 4.5 million people choose Azercell, 48% of the market belongs to us and we work on increasing our share. - You have gone from a simple laborer to a company president. What does Azercell represent to you? - Azercell is part of my life. In addition, I also feel myself a part of Azercell. Today Azercell - one of the most exemplary companies in Azerbaijan. This is a great school. Azercell will work hard to maintain and develop its leading position in the mobile market and justify the confidence of our customers by providing them the best of everything. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 14:52 (UTC+04:00) By Gulgiz Dadashova BP Azerbaijan plans to start three-dimensional seismic surveys from March 1 in potentially promising structures located in the shallow waters around the Absheron peninsula in the Caspians Azerbaijani sector, the company reported in its report on Environmental and Socio-Economic Impact Assessment. The draft report prepared by AECOM company is open for proposals and comments until the end of February 2016. Geological exploration in the contract area includes both 2D and 3D seismic surveys. The purpose of the 3D surveys is to gather geophysical data, which will be used when planning the exploration and development of the contract area. 3D-seismic survey is scheduled to begin from March 1, 2016 and to complete within nine months - until November 24, 2016, the report said. The relevant agreement was signed between British BP and Azerbaijans state energy company SOCAR on December 22, 2014. This agreement is part of the government's plan to fully explore all the coastal areas of the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. The contract area is divided into five priority areas in which researches will be conducted alternately. The territory covered by the agreement, extends along the Absheron Peninsulas southern part and covers an area of about 1900 square kilometers. In this area the sea depth is about 25 meters, and the depth of the bedding of the potentially productive strata - 3000-5000 meters. The agreements term is 23 years with possible extension. It provides for parity (50%) participation of both sides. The agreement takes into account all SOCARs risks, as the Company will undertake commitments on financing its share only if BP finds a prospective structure within the exploration works, confirms the availability of commercially profitable volume of oil at such structure and prepares a program of the field development within 6 month term. Only in this case the SOCAR will start meeting its liabilities. In other cases, if the efficiency of the field is not confirmed or if its not found, SOCAR will not cover expenses of the second party. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 11:04 (UTC+04:00) Russian Gazprom Export LLC has officially notified the Turkmengaz State Concern about the pre-term unilateral termination of the purchase-sale contract since January 1, 2016, the Turkmen concern reported. Turkmenistan supplied its gas to Russia via the Central Asia-Center (CAC) pipeline, which was built in the Soviet period and later monopolized by JSC Gazprom. The gas was supplied on the basis of a 25-year contract signed in 2003. Gazprom was the biggest buyer of Turkmen natural gas until 2009, by acquiring up to 40-42 bcm. That period Russia was interested in buying cheap Turkmen gas, as it received big dividends by reselling it to the CIS countries and Europe. The Turkmen side has gradually decided to sell natural gas at the reasonable prices of the world market since 2009. Gazprom Export sharply reduced receiving the Turkmen natural gas in April 2009. According to Ashgabat, this resulted in an explosion on the CAC gas pipeline. Therefore, Turkmen gas supplies were suspended, but resumed in early 2010 in much smaller volumes. Despite the contractual arrangements, first, the volumes declined up to the level of 10-11 bcm a year for five years. The annual supply volume decreased by 2.5 times and amounted to four bcm in 2015. Gazprom explained a decrease in the procurement volumes by a decline in demand for Russian gas in Europe and Ukraine. The fixed price on Turkmen gas at $240 per 1,000 cubic meters did not suit the Russian side any more due to the fall in export gas prices in Europe connected to the constantly falling oil prices. Gazprom filed a suit against Turkmengaz in the Stockholm arbitration court in 2015, demanding to reconsider the contract prices on the gas supply. After Russia stopped buying gas in early January 2016, Turkmengaz stated its willingness to negotiate with Gazprom Export on a wide range of issues related to the economic ties between the two economic entities. "The Turkmen enterprises continue cooperating with foreign companies concerning natural gas supply, the Turkmen state concern said. They understand that the fundamental partnership principles are the mutual interest and mutual benefit. These important components of cooperation in the gas sector are mainly dependent on the financial and economic situation in the world." --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 11:25 (UTC+04:00) The US Radial Drilling Services Inc will carry out the radial drilling of 40 wells at the oil fields in Uzbekistan, a representative of the Uzbekneftegaz National Holding Company told Trend. The representative said that the work worth around $6 million will be implemented within the contract on radial drilling in the fields of Shurtanneftegaz unitary subsidiary enterprise, JSC Andijanneft and JSC Jarkurganneft. The contract was concluded between JSC Uzneftegazdobycha (a division of Uzbekneftegaz) and Radial Drilling Services Inc. A radial drilling technology is planned to be used to intensify the production at the oil fields. Currently, Uzbekneftegaz is implementing a project to increase oil production from the fields of the Surkhandarya oil and gas region. The countrys main reserves of heavy oil are concentrated there. The total cost of the project is $59.3 million. The implementation period is 2013-2036. The oil production growth is expected to reach 60,000 tons per year after the project is completed. Due to the depletion of deposits production of liquid hydrocarbons (including oil) has been decreased in the recent years in Uzbekistan. Data on the volume of produced oil is undisclosed. Works on radial drilling of existing wells throughout the country will enable to both intensify the production and bring hard-to recover reserves into production with an average growth in flow rate up to three tons per day, according to agencys spokesman. As it was reported earlier, Uzbekneftegaz implements a program to increase the production of hydrocarbons at several existing fields. Until the end of 2020, it is planned to implement further development of oil and gas fields with a total value of $2.35 billion. In general, it is planned to conduct deep drilling at more than 100 sites with the participation of foreign companies offering their experience of advanced technologies for enhanced oil recovery in fields with hard-to recover reserves. Uzbekistan with the existing volumes of hydrocarbons is provided with proven oil reserves for 21 and with condensate for 25 years, according to the data of Uzbekneftegaz. Capacity of Uzbekneftegaz NHC allows ensuring the production of liquid hydrocarbons in the volume of eight million tons per year. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 18 January 2016 15:45 (UTC+04:00) Lifting sanctions off Iran is an important step in the right direction for the entire region, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said, RIA Novosti reported on January 18. Iran and the P5+1 group implemented a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on January 16, which eliminated sanctions on the country, including the restrictions over banking sector, releasing blocked assets abroad, etc. On this day, the IAEA submitted a report confirming the readiness of the countrys authorities to implement the program, on a significant reduction of its nuclear potential, created for it by long negotiations. Later, the EU and the US have confirmed Iran's withdrawal from the economic and financial sanctions related to its nuclear program. What we did on Saturday in Vienna is a big and important step in the right direction' for the entire region, not only for the security in the world in terms of Irans nuclear program," Mogherini said. "We have shown that even under the most difficult relationship, positive results can be achieved through dialogue, diplomacy, and cooperation, she said upon arrival at the new years first scheduled meeting of foreign ministers of 28 EU countries in Brussels. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Bakery exports from Ireland increased by over 35% in 2015 and are now valued at around 185 million, based on sales figures from January to September 2015. Orla Donohoe, bakery market manager at the Irish Food Board, Bord Bia, told British Baker: Sales are primarily growing in the bread category, but cake products as well. She added: It has been a very positive picture for the bakery sector. We have a lot of new companies entering and others growing organically and we have a handful of very big exporters across the sector and they are really accounting for the majority of exports abroad. While the UK is the main market for Irish bakery exports, Sweden and Poland are considered to have great potential for sales. Donohoe recognised gluten-free products to be one of the big trends of the moment. She said: We are investing a lot in that area [gluten-free] this year to look at whats happening in some of the key markets such as the UK, and also some of the high growth European markets such as Sweden. But gluten-free is in double-digit growth. UK sales strong There were higher baked goods sales to the UK, in particular, but also to other EU markets. International markets increased in volume in places including Australia, North America and the Middle East. Chocolate and sugar confectionery also increased exports the UK was the largest market in that sector. Internationally, sales to the US were strong. United Biscuits (UB) has restarted production of McVities Gold biscuit bars at its Carlisle factory, after the site was devastated by floods in the wake of Storm Desmond. McVities Gold Bars are rolling off the production line at UBs flood-hit Carlisle factory. There are plans to restart other production lines as soon as possible, as over 400 employees, suppliers and contractors work on-site in a bid to finish the clean-up operation. The company has been touched and overwhelmed by the attitude of both its employees and the wider local community, according to factory general manager Mike Heaney. He said: Resuming factory production is a priority for us and our teams are well on track with this as our Gold bar production has started. However, we also recognise the importance of community at a time like this. He added: Many of our employees have taken the time to support those most affected by the floods and keep spirits high, providing local rescue centres with supplies and carrying out local door-to-door biscuit drops. forced to close When flooding affected homes and businesses across Cumbria in December, the biscuit factory lost power and was forced to close. On 21 December, Prince Charles visited the site to show his support to employees. Heaney said: Whilst the impact of the floods has been significant in the area and on the people who live here, we have been overwhelmed by the positive attitude and enthusiasm of the community and our employees over the past few weeks. United Biscuits greatly appreciates the support that has been offered, and our thoughts remain with the thousands of people in Cumbria who have been impacted by the floods. In Palm Harbor theres a one-room school house with a schoolmarm. Well actually, its a 21st century version of said school. Welcome to the Service Learning School. The schoolmarms name is Jaime Manfra. Manfra said it all began about two years ago when she decided to home school her two children, but wanted them to be with other students. Instead of doing it alone, I wanted to have a class for social interaction and that became a service based school of sorts. Weve done service projects in our neighborhood for years, Manfra said. Some of those projects include collecting aluminum cans to raise money for Shriners Hospital, collecting desperately needed medicine bottles for Malawi, and crayons for school children in Panama.. Making a difference at home and around the world, and in Manfras words, inspire the kids to serve the community, to volunteer. To address global and community needs also helps facilitate academic learning because theyre eager to work. Right now, there are 12 students at the school, and teaching at Manfras side, another mom, Alison Keys. Located at the Palm Harbor Community Recreation Center, the Service Learning School is non-profit organization and its ranks are full. Self-funded by Manfra and local contributions, she hopes to grow and accept even more students of all ages and from all grades. There is no tuition fee, just love and passion for a one room school and its students. The philosophy of the school is to get children to understand and recognize and actively seek out diversity so that they understand that were all human beings in this world and their role in social responsibility, their role in an ever advancing society is to reach out and assist and understand one another, Manfra said. After a deadly weather weekend in the Bay area, residents are trying to salvage what they can as the damage is assessed in Manatee and Sarasota counties. Two people were killed and four children were hospitalized after a tornado ripped through a mobile home in Manatee County early Sunday morning. At about 3:45 a.m. in Manatee County, a 911 call reported a structure collapse on Albritton Road in Duette. Minutes later, another twister struck near the beach community of Siesta Key in Sarasota County. Deadly tornadoes hit Manatee/Sarasota counties Click to see a map of the impacted areas, a slideshow of images from the damage and information on tornado preparedness Resources for storm victims: Sarasota to open resource center Monday at Edson Keith Mansion at Phillippi Estate Park, 5500 S. Tamiami Trail (11 a.m. - 2 p.m.) For more information, call (941) 861-5000. Steven and Kelli Wilson were killed while taking shelter in their mobile home with their four grandchildren and their son. Family friend Brendan Betancourt said the Wilsons were watching one of their grandchildren while his friends, Justin Hessinger and Leah Patten, were on a trip for their upcoming wedding. The Wilsons were Patten's parents. Her daughter, Faith, and her brother and his three children survived. Betancourt has set up a GoFundMe account for the family. So far they've raised more than $15,000. "I do want to thank everyone for the support," Betancourt said. "It's been very heart warming and welcomed and appreciate it very much. It's actually very touching to see everybody come together for some victims in our community." Betancourt said the money will go to pay for the children's medical bills and funerals for the Wilsons. He says he wouldn't be surprised if Leah and Justin had to cancel their wedding. This Gofundme.com site is not managed by Bay News 9/News 13. For more information on how the site works and the rules visit http://www.gofundme.com/safety Damage assessments, cleanup begins Many of the people whose homes were destroyed by the storms say cleanup will take months. "The debris coming across the fields knocking out a bunch of the fence lines and just the wind itself," said Manatee County resident Pat Carlton on Sunday while combing through debris. "Just tearing up a lot of things, it's just a perfect path across here but fortunately it missed the house on both sides." Governor Rick Scott toured the damaged areas Sunday afternoon. The governor was staying at his home in Naples when the storm hit and drove up Sunday morning to see the damage in person. Gov. Scott said he knew early on that things were going to be bad. Where I live it was really loud there," Scott said. "So I can't imagine what it was like here. In Naples they said the wind was anywhere from 20 to, they said gusts up to 80. But they said here it was probably 120 miles an hour. Can you imagine just going through that?" Gov. Scott said he would do whatever possible to help those impacted by the weather get assistance. Timeline of events from Sunday: 1:45 p.m Manatee County Sheriffs Office says two female children in serious condition, two male children and male adult in stable condition. Three of the children are siblings while one of the females is a cousin. All injuries are believed to be non-life threatening. 1:30 p.m The Skyway Bridge, a major thoroughfare in Tampa, has reopened. Officials closed the bridge earlier Sunday morning for the second time since midnight after wind speeds reached up to 50 mph with wind gusts up to 60 mph. Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home in the community of Duette. Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to tour damaged areas in Siesta Key at 1:45 p.m. 11:00 a.m. Officials in Tampa closed the Skyway Bridge, a major thoroughfare, Sunday morning for the second time since midnight after wind speeds reached up to 50 mph with wind gusts up to 60 mph. Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home in the community of Duette. Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube says two adults, their adult son, and their four grandchildren were inside the mobile home when the early morning twister struck. 11:45 a.m. The Florida governor's office has announced that Gov. Rick Scott will tour tornado damage in Siesta Key at 1:45 p.m. In Manatee County, the National Weather Service's preliminary tornado survey has determined that the deadly tornado in Duette in Manatee County was an EF-2 tornado with 127-mph peak winds. According to the NWS report, the survey crew found a single-wide trailer rolled over with debris blown to the northeast. One of four children in the trailer was severely hurt. The tornado also destroyed a 2,000-square-foot barn. 9:40 a.m. The Manatee Sheriff's Office has identified the man and woman killed when a mobile home collapsed in Duette. Steven Wilson, 58, was pronounced dead at the scene by deputies responding to the residence on Albritton Road just after 4 a.m. Kelli Wilson, 51, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Deputies also said that there were three adults in the mobile home, along with the four children. Steven M. Wilson, the third adult, was hospitalized along with the two boys and two girls ages between 6-10 years old. They are all thought to have non-life-threatening injuries, deputies said. 9:18 a.m. Sarasota County residents are encouraged to call 941-861-5000 to report issues or to ask for help. The Skyway Bridge has been closed a second time due to high winds, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Average wind speeds at the bridge are 40-50 mph, with 50-60 mph gusts. The FHP says to monitor its live crash and roadway reports page or check 511 for up-to-date information. 8:40 a.m. An official from the National Weather Service is on scene in Duette in Manatee County, surveying the damage to determine the intensity of the tornado. A full report is not complete, but a preliminary assessment finds EF-2 and EF-1 tornado damage. Two people were killed when a mobile home collapsed overnight. Four children were taken to hospital. About 17,000 homes in the Sarasota County area are without power. 8:20 a.m. Dangerous boating conditions, coastal flooding and a high rip current risk are expected for much of the day. 8:15 a.m. In Duette in rural Manatee County, a neighbor of the two residents killed in a mobile home collapse tells Bay News 9 reporter Jason Lanning that the couple were grandparents and had their grandchildren over for the night. The children in the mobile home were injured and taken to hospital. Sheriff's deputies are patrolling the area with ATVs. Manatee County authorities say they were receiving so many 911 calls during the worst of the storms that they opened their emergency operations center. 8:10 a.m. On Siesta Key, crews are working to restore power to the area. Near Baywinds Lane, roofs were ripped from homes, and several condominiums were destroyed. 7:27 a.m. Condominiums in Sarasota have sustained significant damage, according to Bay News 9 reporter Amy Mariani. Two people with minor injuries had to be pulled out of rubble. 7:09 a.m. Power is out to homes on Siesta Key. There are numerous downed tree limbs on U.S. 41 in Sarasota. According to Sarasota County Public Information Officer Drew Winchester, there was "significant damage to homes" but no reports of major injuries. 6:50 a.m. Two people, a man and woman, were killed on Albritton Road in Duette in Manatee County in a mobile home collapse. Four children have been hospitalized. 6:20 a.m. One person was confirmed dead and others injured in Duette in a home collapse. 5:15 a.m. Severe thunderstorm warning for Polk County until 5:45 a.m. Damaging winds. 4:39 a.m. Tornado watch canceled for Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough counties. 4:11 a.m. Tornado warning canceled for Manatee County. 4:00 a.m. Traffic Alert: The Sunshine Skyway Bridge closed because of high winds. 3:46 a.m. Storms moving toward northeastern sections of Manatee County, near Duette. Winds at 60 to 70 mph, heading toward Polk County. 911 reports of damage in Duette. A structure has collapsed. An unknown number of injuries. 3:30 a.m. Tornado warning for central and eastern Manatee County, east of Lakeland Ranch until 4:00 a.m. 3:27 a.m. Weather spotters: A confirmed tornado was located near Lakewood Ranch, 12 miles south of Sarasota, moving northeast at 45 mph. National Weather Service: Damage reported along Midnight Pass Road in Sarasota. 3:15 a.m. Severe thuderstorm warning issued for the following counties until 3:45 a.m.: Hillsborough Pasco Polk Sumter 3:14 a.m. A severe thunderstorm located near Zephyrhills, moving northeast at 65 mph. Expect damage to roofs, siding and trees. 3:04 a.m. A potentially dangerous tornado was located 8 miles southwest of Siesta Key, Saint Armands Key and Lindo Key, about 10 miles southwest of Sarasota. The tornado is moving northeast at 60 mph. 3:00 a.m. Tornado warning in affect for Sarasota and central section of Manatee counties. A little known chapter of Martin Luther King's activism took place in St. Augustine, not normally a locale that comes to mind when discussing the civil rights battles of the 1960s. But not only did King come to St. Augustine in 1964, it was a key moment in building momentum for the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Clennon King knows the story firsthand. His father was an attorney for (and not related to) the civil rights icon. "I grew up with death threats," Clennon King said. "Wed get late night phone calls from people." Those sorts of threats were commonplace for politically active blacks in St. Augustine in the 1960s. "You saw acid being poured in swimming pools where demonstrators were," Clennon King said. "You saw beatings at the beaches. You saw attacks with dogs and night marches." He felt compelled to tell that story and spent parts of the past 13 years putting together the documentary "Passage at St. Augustine," which was recently shown at Hillsborough Community College's Ybor City campus. In 1964, Dr. King and other Southern Christian Leadership Conference members were looking for a community with an active civil rights movement. In the wake of demonstrations and brutality in Birmingham, Ala., there was some talk that King would go to Washington, D.C. His concern was about violence erupting there and the possibility of disrupting legislators. That would be counterproductive to the goal. Filmmaker Clennon King (no relation) created the documentary "Passage at St. Augustine." It recently was shown at HCC's Ybor campus. So when Robert Hayling, a leader of the civil rights movement in St. Augustine, reached out to the SCLC for help in response to violence, officials responded. What met them was brutal violence, and what they found was a town ripe for change. Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine was where most of the reporters stayed. In June 1964, demonstrators jumped into the pool, and the motels manager poured muriatic acid into it in response. In the events that followed, Dr. King was arrested with demonstrators. Theyd throw rocks at us and bricks at us and everything downtown, said J.T. Johnson of Atlanta, an SCLC member who in 1964 jumped into the whites-only pool at the Monson Motor Lodge. People were very cruel in St. Augustine, he said. Why St. Augustine was the focal point of leaders in a crucial time was partly strategy. Leaders found an active movement here and knew what took place would grab the attention of the national media. While St. Augustine wasnt initially on the schedule for the SCLC, what happened in St. Augustine played a role in pushing the act along. Clennon King said the little-known piece of civil rights history in St. Augustine may be brief but played a large role in the civil rights movement. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Monsignor William Manger dutifully submitted his resignation seven years ago, but as he suspected and preferred, it was not accepted. That's because when the St. Anne priest turned 75 - the age at which all Catholic priests must tender a resignation so their bishops may decide whether they should continue - the Diocese of Beaumont had no young priests to replace him. "It said to me I now have a new input from God that says I better hang in there for the next 10 years so there's somebody to take my place, provided that God gives me the health, intelligence and everything else to function," said Manger, who turns 82 this month. Manger is one example of how the nation's aging priesthood and dwindling population has manifested in the Diocese of Beaumont, which has shown some strains alongside limited success in ramped-up efforts to recruit priests. Promoting the priesthood, open to only half the population, requires showing people the path exists, overcoming myths and securing a hard-to-get commitment to celibacy, local priests said. "It doesn't make sense to young men immediately," said Thomas F. Ryan, director of Loyola University New Orleans' Institute for Ministry. "I think that the priesthood is a counter-cultural institution." Total priests in the U.S. over time 1965: 58,632 1970: 59,192 1975: 58,909 1980: 58,398 1985: 57,317 1990: 52,124 1995: 49,054 2000: 45,699 2005: 41,399 2010: 39,993 2014: 38,275 Source: cara.georgetown.edu See More Collapse A 2012 study of U.S. priests found their median age was 59, up from 45 in 1970. The issue isn't specific to Catholicism, as other Christian churches are struggling to infuse their ranks with youth. One-fifth of Southern Baptist senior pastors are 65 or older, and half of ordained Methodist ministers are at least 55, according to reporting by the Houston Chronicle. The Beaumont diocese, which now has six potential priests in its seminary pipeline, could be in shape to replace Manger after his additional decade in the priesthood, but grooming more priests for the next several decades is another challenge altogether. Getting on the radar Father Shane Baxter of St. Elizabeth Parish in Port Neches was named the head of the Beaumont diocese's vocations about eight years ago and recently moved out of the job. That branch, now led by Father Tino Barrera, is tasked with promoting the benefits of the priesthood to young men. "One of the things I found is the youth didn't really think about it that much," said Baxter, a 50-year-old priest who was ordained at 38. "You've got to try to get people to listen." Baxter said he was the first full-time director of vocations, taking over for a priest who handled recruitment while leading his own parish. The job also includes saying mass to Lamar University's campus ministry. The diocese, when Baxter got the job, had no local men in seminaries, he said. That number went as high as seven and is now at six. To fill the pipeline, Baxter visited one of the diocese's 52 parishes every week. He addressed youth groups on Wednesdays and delivered homilies on Sundays. His goal was to increase awareness of clerical possibilities, explain how people could achieve those roles and urge pursuing a life of "joy and fulfillment," he said. Like Beaumont, the Archdiocese of New Orleans' prioritization of recruitment in recent years has translated to higher seminary enrollment. "It's not to the extent that would counter the number of priests who are retiring, but the trend is positive," Ryan said. Explaining priesthood Baxter brought prospective priests to tour a seminary in Louisiana, showed pictures of other campuses and explained to them that enrolling in a seminary was not an automatic commitment to priesthood, one of the misconceptions Baxter said he tried to dispel. Enrollees are expected to discern whether it's the right path for them while they study, not subject themselves to a lifetime of servitude before learning what that entails, Baxter said. Manger thinks that the trend toward smaller family sizes has increased the implied pressure on children to produce grandchildren, which he listed as one factor behind fewer men pursuing priesthood. Celibacy itself remains an obstacle promoters of the priesthood must overcome, because of a resistance among many young people to make that commitment. "I would try to explain why we have celibacy, and that is a sacrifice," Baxter said. "But being married is a sacrifice, too, in a different way." Baxter, who said he takes comfort in relationships with families throughout the diocese, said the broader message is that becoming a priest, despite celibacy, is not "lonely by definition." "Loneliness is something I've never struggled with," Baxter said. Read the complete story in the Beaumont Enterprise. EBesson@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/EricBesson_news Dublin Airport is continuing to evaluate plans for a second runway Dublin Airport is set to hire 180 staff this year, primarily in customer service roles. The airport made the announcement today as it confirmed that 2015 had been a record year for passenger traffic through Dublin. The airport handled 25 million flyers last year, higher than the previous record of 23.5 million that was set in 2008. Dublin Airport is one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe, with its expansion fuelled by a number of new destinations that are being served from the base. Additional services coming on stream this year include seasonal services to the Caribbean and Mexico, as well as Aer Lingus services to Los Angeles, and to Hartford, Connecticut. Irish Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe welcomed the expansion, saying that that a record number of tourists had come to Ireland last year. DAA chief executive Kevin Toland said that 170 people had been hired at Dublin Airport last year, and that the new hires will be working mainly in customer-facing areas. Dublin Airport is also continuing to evaluate its plans for a second runway. Christine Lampard has endorsed new fake tan brand A Northern Ireland fake tan brand endorsed by presenter Christine Lampard is announcing 10 new jobs. He-Shi Enterprises in Carryduff is recruiting for posts including a business development manager, an operations manager and two brand managers. Their investment is supported by assistance of 85,000 from Invest NI. The beauty product, which was started by the McMurray family from their home, has been endorsed by celebrities including Christine Lampard - better known as Christine Bleakley - and Caroline Flack. The new jobs will pay an average of 30,000, contributing around 300,000 in total to the economy. Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell praised the firm for its focus on export sales. Managing director Nick McDowell said He-Shi had an "ambitious strategy" and had already increased sales to Great Britain by nearly 40% in the last two years. A US-owned technology firm is opening up a new Belfast office at the City Quays building, with plans to almost double its workforce this year. MACOM Technology Solutions is producing advanced semi-conductors, used in mobile base stations. The firm, which is headed by Dr Andrew Patterson in Northern Ireland, is moving from its current base at Newforge Lane to its new top-end offices, with the help of property consultant Murphy Chartered Surveyors. The business now employs 22 staff, but with growing demand for its cutting edge technology, it's hoping to expand its workforce in the coming months. "Our design business locally is working with gallium nitride on silicon - high power semi-conductors," Dr Patterson told the Belfast Telegraph. "This is a technology which the company has acquired and they are growing...it's potentially a very big market." He said the new offices, which are owned by Belfast Harbour, harked back to the days when the city was known for its shipbuilding. "That type of building was hard to find in Belfast. We are happy to be located in the harbour, with the heritage. MACOM has links back to the first satellite probes in space in the 1960s. MACOM has expanded very rapidly... and we have opened design centres worldwide. There are opportunities for us to expand as we open the market." Dr Patterson said his current workforce was a mixture of staff from Northern Ireland, with others coming out of universities in England and Wales. "Out of 22 people we have seven or eight PhDs. Some are from local universities, but also Cardiff, Bristol and UCD." MACOM employs around 1,000 people across the globe. It's understood the new office is due to open in March. Graeme Johnston, property director of Belfast Harbour, said: "Although it's just 18 months since work began on City Quays 1, MACOM's move means that the Grade A office will be around 85% occupied by this spring. "The lease for the remaining space is currently being finalised with a fourth tenant. "The relative lack of investor-friendly, energy efficient office space in Belfast has been well highlighted and the speed at which City Quays 1 has been let to overseas investors confirms strong market demand for high quality office accommodation." Mr Johnston said initial interest in City Quays 2, which is due to be completed next year, "has already been strong". MACOM is the latest firm to move in to the harbour building. American tech company Cayan is also moving its operation to the City Quays 1 development, the Boston firm is occupying around a third of the waterfront property. It joins US law firm Baker & McKenzie. Meanwhile, Belfast company Lagan Building Contractors is starting work on an 18m project to build the new City Quays 2. It is the latest phase in Belfast Harbour's 250m, 20-acre regeneration plan for the area. Mad Max: Fury Road has roared to victory as film and TV critics honoured the best work on the big and small screen. The reboot of the dystopian action film scored nine gongs at the Critics' Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, including best action movie, a best actor in an action movie prize for British star Tom Hardy and a best actress in an action movie award for Charlize Theron. George Miller, who is responsible for the series, was named best director, while the film also took prizes for visual effects, hair and make up, costume design, editing and production design. Hardy, Theron and Miller were not present at the ceremony but co-stars Zoe Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whitely collected his award on his behalf. Kravitz said: "George created a film that was not only crowd pleasing but also ground-breaking." Huntington-Whiteley added: "It was a privilege for us to be part of his vision, especially since, in a male-dominated genre, this film was truly inspired by women." Spotlight, about the Boston Globe reporters who uncovered sexual abuse in the Catholic church, was named best picture. The cast, which includes Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, also won best ensemble. McAdams, who plays one of the journalists, collected the award, saying: "It is a little overwhelming to speak on behalf of our enormously-talented cast I had the privilege of working with. "I think we can all agree the true star ensemble is the real life heroes at Spotlight and the rest of the team, thank you for having the bravery to pursue this important story." The Big Short, a film about the collapse of the American housing market, was named best comedy movie. Accepting the prize, director Adam McKay said: "This is for the people who lost homes, lost jobs, lost savings. You are not alone, we were paying attention. A lot of people were paying attention." Brie Larson, who has already won a Golden Globe for her performance in Room, was named best actress but was not present to collect the trophy. Leonardo DiCaprio, who was also not present at the ceremony, was named best actor for The Revenant. Rocky star Sylvester Stallone continued his winning streak with a best supporting actor accolade. The 69-year-old actor, who recently won a Golden Globe for resuming his role of Rocky Balboa in Creed, was also nominated for an Oscar on January 14. Collecting his award on stage at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, he said: "I guess there is at least one upside to getting older. I am truly amazed, I did not expect this, I swear to you. There are so many great actors here and I'm kind of late to this party and I'm very appreciative of it. Alicia Vikander, who stars opposite Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, was named best supporting actress for her role as the wife of a transgender artist. The star also accepted the best sci-fi/horror film award for Ex Machina, in which she stars opposite Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson. Jacob Tremblay, nine, stood on a box to accept the best young actor/actress award for his role opposite Larson in Room. Dressed in a dark suit, he said: "This is super cool, this is the best day of my life. I first want to say thank you to all the critics who voted for me, it must have been super hard because of all the great actors in this category." The Star Wars fan added: "I know where to put this, on the shelf right next to my Millennium Falcon." Trainwreck director Judd Apatow presented the MVP (Most Valuable Player) Award to the film's star, writer and producer Amy Schumer, hailing her as "the nicest person I know". The comedian drew laughs from the crowd when she gestured to her stomach, saying: "If you're an actress and you have this area right here, you have to write your own stuff if you want it to get made. Referring to her partially-nude photographs taken in the Pirelli calendar, she added: "This is where I get really brave. That's what everyone said after my Annie Leibovitz photo. That's what you want everyone to say after a naked photo of you goes viral, 'Oh, what a brave photo'." Schumer who has spoken out about the need for gun control since two women were shot at a Trainwreck screening in Louisiana, concluded by saying: "I want to thank Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson who died in Lafayette because a mentally ill person got their hands on a gun, but we can end gun violence together." Schumer also scored the best actress in a comedy award for Trainwreck and collected the award wearing just one high-heeled sandal. The best actor in a comedy award went to Welsh actor Christian Bale for The Big Short, who planted kisses on his wife, McKay and his co-writer Charles Randolph. He accepted the award saying: "That was just a lovely make-out session with my wife, with Adam and with Charles. We all got to know each other very well. "Adam just told me Goodfellas never won anything so that puts everything into perspective." The best TV drama series prize went to hacker thriller Mr Robot, while the show's star Rami Malek was named best actor in a TV drama and co-star Christian Slater best supporting actor. Best comedy series went to Netflix show Master Of None. The show's creator and star Aziz Ansari accepted the award, saying: "I go to these things assuming I'm going to lose and just eat all these weird treats they give us like the tiny hot dogs. It's definitely better to get this in addition to that." Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a transgender father in Transparent, was named best actor in a comedy series and instructed the audience: "Change the world, it needs it." Meanwhile, the second season of Fargo scored four awards including best movie made for television or limited series. Kirsten Dunst won the best actress in a movie made for television or limited series prize, Jesse Plemons picked up best supporting actor in a movie made for television or limited series, and Jean Smart scored best supporting actress in a movie made for television or limited series. The Critics' Choice Awards are the result of votes by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA). Bridesmaid Cheryl Fernandez-Versini put her own marital woes behind her to celebrate bandmate Kimberley Walsh's final days an unmarried woman with a raucous "Last Wild Night" hen do. The pair joined Girls Aloud's Nicola Roberts, another of the eight bridesmaids, to let their hair down at London hotspot The Cuckoo Club on Friday before Walsh walks down the aisle at a secret tropical destination later this month with property developer and former Triple 8 band member Justin Scott. Fernandez-Versini told Hello! magazine: "Kimberley is just the best friend you could wish for. I'm so excited for the wedding. It is a celebration of two people in love that we've all been a part of, and I am so excited to celebrate their love story. "I always have fun when it comes to my girls." But Walsh revealed her famous bridesmaid would be to blame if she was found sobbing at her upcoming wedding. The 34-year-old confessed that Fernandez-Versini and her sisters are guaranteed to "set her off" on her big day. She said: "I used to be good at keeping up an icy exterior but since I had (16-month-old son) Bobby, I'm so much more emotional. "I'm slightly worried about the wedding to be honest. A few happy tears are fine, but I don't want to spend the whole day sobbing, so I'm going to have to be careful about even looking at Cheryl and my sisters, because they'll definitely cry and that will set me off." Saucy party games and copious passionfruit martinis kicked off the jungle-themed hen do, which saw male models in animal masks act as butlers for the evening and Kara Tointon and Denise Van Outen join as guests. The hen party played a naughty game called T**s or Tushie, where they grabbed the relevant part of their body to answer questions about how well they knew the bride and groom-to-be. Unlike Fernandez-Versini's whirlwind marriage, Walsh and Scott have been together since 2002 and the wild night out certainly did not make the Elf actress miss her single days. Asked whether she was nervous about getting married, Walsh replied: " More than anything, I'm excited. Tonight has made it all more real." Read the full interview in Hello! out now. Former Doctor Who Eccleston lost his father to Alzheimer's The makers of Wallace and Gromit have produced a short film to address people's misconceptions about dementia. The online video from Aardman Animations features former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston, whose father Ronnie died following a 14-year battle with the illness. The 90-second film for Alzheimer's Research UK uses stop motion techniques to show an orange being stripped away to demonstrate how diseases that cause dementia physically attack the brain. The brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain - about the weight of an orange. Eccleston, 51, said he hoped the film would "fight the misunderstanding and fatalism that surrounds dementia in our society". He said: " We have to think differently about dementia. We have to stop believing dementia is an inevitability - something that simply happens to us all as we grow older. If we don't, we're never going to truly fight it. "Dementia is caused by diseases and diseases can be beaten. We've tamed diseases like cancer and heart disease and a diagnosis of either is no longer a certain death sentence. "People with dementia deserve this same hope. This film aims to show that dementia is caused by physical processes that scientists can put a stop to." Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Major breakthroughs have been made in the battle against Aids and cancer, and research will bring these same life-changing advancements in the field of dementia. "To get there, we must stop fearing dementia as something that just happens as we age, and focus on fighting the diseases, most commonly Alzheimer's, that are the root cause of it. "There are still no treatments that can slow or stop the disease processes in the brain, but with the support of a nation, Alzheimer's Research UK will win the fight against dementia." Aardman, the Oscar-winning animation studio based in Bristol, developed the film with Alzheimer's Research UK and creative agency ais London. Alzheimer's Research UK has asked people the share the video on social media by using the hashtag #sharetheorange. Coronation Street's Carla Connor - played by Alison King - has been left for dead after getting caught up in an attack at Nick's Bistro. King is set to leave the ITV show after a decade in Weatherfield, with no plans to return to the character. In scenes aired on Monday evening, the feisty boss of local factory Underworld was attacked by Jamie Bowman (James Atherton) and his friend Lee as part of a botched robbery intended to scare employee Steph Britton (Tisha Merry). Unfortunately for Jamie and Lee, they found the Bistro in darkness and without anything worth stealing. A power cut had forced the cafe to close early, the tills were empty and Steph was absent. The two would-be burglars instead caught Carla drinking by herself after visiting Robert Preston (Tristan Gemmill) at the Bistro to warn him not to go into business with her fiance, Nick Tilsley (Ben Price). The only other witness to the robbery was Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford), who had come to the Bistro to surprise boyfriend Rob. Instead, she eavesdropped - and heard about Rob and Carla's secret one-night stand. Listening at the door, she had heard Rob say: "You and me keep quiet, no one ever finds out what happened." Carla told Rob that it was a bad idea for him to stay and go into business with Nick, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to move away, telling him: "What this is is dangerous. I'm asking you to look somewhere else." The two had a row, before Rob left her alone in the Bistro to collect her thoughts. T roubled Tracy was eyeing a kitchen knife when Jamie and Lee burst through the door. But Tracy was not inclined to help Carla get out of the sticky situation, especially having heard her tell Rob: "Tracy is like some kind of sick joke. It's not going to last. Tracy is an evil, manipulative coward. She will spit you out like a stone of an olive." Instead, she left Carla to fend for herself. Finding nothing else of value in the Bistro, a frustrated Jamie snatched Carla's handbag. Carla gave chase and was then dragged along the road by the getaway car as Jamie told her: "You're the stupidest woman I've ever met." Carla replied: "You're the stupidest robber." When Rob found her in the street, she was seriously injured and unconscious. Early reports had indicated that King was taking a temporary break from the soap. In May 2015, ITV released a statement saying she was "taking a sabbatical for creative reasons". But earlier this month she confirmed that while the show's producers had made it possible for her to return, she had decided to call it quits. The actress told the Radio Times: "It's been put out there that I'm taking a sabbatical, but I'm not." She added: "They've very graciously left the doors open for me to come back if I want to. And I haven't ruled that out. But this is a new chapter for me." During her time on the soap, King, 42, has been a key member of the Corrie cast. Her character's numerous trials and tribulations have included the breakdown of her first marriage to Paul Connor (played by Sean Gallagher), her second to Tony Gordon (Gray O'Brien) and her third to Peter Barlow (Chris Gascoyne). Carla was a victim of rape, was held hostage, battled alcoholism and attempted suicide. However, for many fans, the most memorable storyline was her torrid love triangle with brother-in-law Liam (played by Downton Abbey star Rob James-Collier) and his wife Maria (Samia Ghadie). The doomed love affair ended brutally in 2008 when Carla's jealous husband Tony hired someone to murder Liam. Talking about her tenure, King said: "I'm now going into my 10th year. So all Daisy (her daughter) has ever known is me getting out of the house at 7.30 in the morning and getting back when she's in bed. "I've probably only ever done about 20 pick-ups or drop-offs in all the time she's been at school, which is quite sad." (left to right) Grant Mitchell, Kathy Sullivan and Phil Mitchell are to be reunited in EastEnders Ross Kemp will reprise his role as EastEnders hardman Grant Mitchell in a heartbreaking family reunion to say goodbye to on-screen mother Peggy. The actor, who last appeared regularly in the soap in 1999, will make a "brief return" to coincide with Dame Barbara Windsor's final scenes where her character will pass away from cancer. Kemp said: "When I was approached about returning to EastEnders for Barbara's final episodes, it was something I could not turn down. "Barbara is a very close friend, so when I learned of the storyline it felt right that the Mitchell brothers are reunited with their mother for the last time. "I am really looking forward to going back to EastEnders and filming what are set to be some classic EastEnders episodes." Mitchell matriarch Peggy made a surprise return to the soap on January 15 to inform son Phil (Steve McFadden) that her cancer had returned. She is not scheduled to appear again until her final episodes in late spring, when Kemp will also return. Grant first arrived in the Square in 1990 alongside brother Phil and has been involved in some of the soap's classic storylines, including his marriage to Tiffany (Martine McCutcheon) and her death, and various run-ins with his brother. His return is likely to cause drama in Walford as Albert Square now plays residence to Grant's ex-wife Sharon ( Letitia Dean), currently married to his brother Phil, and Phil's ex-wife Kathy (Gillian Taylforth), who had an affair with Grant. EastEnders executive producer Dominic Treadwell Collins said Kemp's return had been "at the top of my wish list". He said: "Grant Mitchell is an EastEnders legend and finally he is returning home to Walford to say goodbye to his mother and be reunited not just with his old loves but also his brother. "To have the Mitchell brothers come face to face again, having to face losing their mother, is an opportunity to show Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden at their very best. "We are all so excited finally to have Ross back on the Square - and to have Ross Kemp, Barbara Windsor, Steve McFadden, Letitia Dean and Gillian Taylforth all on screen together at the same time as Peggy makes an exit like no other, this promises to be something very special." The Mitchells are involved in another big storyline at the moment as Phil struggles to control his alcoholism. Idris Elba has said "good old Prince Charles" helped him get his big break as he made a speech in Parliament about diversity in television. The star, known for his roles in Luther and The Wire, spoke about the importance of the creative industries to the British economy and called for "imagination" and "diversity of thought". He touched upon skin colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and social background in a speech that lasted about 30 minutes and was full of witty remarks that drew laughs from the packed committee room in Westminster. "The Britain I come from is the most successful, diverse, multicultural country on the earth. "But here's my point: you wouldn't know it if you turned on the TV. So many of our creative decision-makers share the same background," he said. Speaking about his own path to stardom, the 43-year-old actor said: "I'm a product of my imagination. "Made in Hackney. Made in Newham. Made in Dagenham. But above all, I was made in my mind: I'm seeing it, thinking it, doing it." Elba said he used to fit tyres and now he makes films in Hollywood. "And the difference between those two lives is opportunity. "By the way, I got my tyre-fitting job through the Youth Training Scheme," he said. The star added: "Before that, for a while I went to a disabled school because I had severe asthma. "I finally got my first break in the creative industries from the Prince's Trust. Yes, good old Prince Charles came in there." He said he was helped on his way into working in theatre, and from there TV and film. "The Prince's Trust subsidised one of my first jobs with the National Music Youth Theatre. They gave me 1,500, because my parents didn't have enough money. "There were hardly any black kids, because none of us could afford it. "And although back then I didn't get to meet Prince Charles, we had one thing in common. We both fell into the same line of work as our parents did. "It's true. My dad worked in a car factory, so before I could get any work as an actor, I ended up doing night shifts at Dagenham. "In fact Ford Dagenham had more opportunity and diversity than the TV industry I was trying to break into," he said. Elba was speaking on the eve of a major TV industry conference on diversity. The crowd also heard from Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham about what the channel achieved in 2015 in terms of diversity. Elba had the crowd in fits of laughter when he lightened the mood with some wit throughout his speech. "A long time after I left school, someone explained to me what the Magna Carta was. "Now for people in your industry, Magna Carta is the basis of modern democracy. "And for people in the music industry, it is an album by Jay Z," he joked. "So Magna Carta was a peace treaty between the kings and the barons. Shout out to the barons in the room," he said, provoking chuckles. He then added: "These jokes are horrible." Getting back to his point, he said: "In a funny way, broadcasting needs a Magna Carta. "We need to start doing things more fairly. "It's not so much a peace treaty; but an opportunity treaty. "We need to count up what everybody has, see the lay of the land, and see who has which careers in TV. "Who makes TV? Who's allowed on TV? "And when they get the opportunity, which roles do they play, off and on screen. "Are black people normally playing petty criminals? "Are women always the love interest or talking about men? "Are gay people always stereotyped? "Are disabled people ever seen at all? "Do some people have their careers taken away on a whim? "Is their talent unfairly ignored?" In conclusion, Elba said: "So my message today is, let's just get more professional about this whole area. "Our economy depends on it. Our future actually depends on it. "Nelson Mandela said 'Anything difficult always seems impossible until it's done'. Elba, who played Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, put on the famous leader's accent for that last quote, prompting applause from the crowd. He then joked: "I don't know how I got the job to do that." He added: "But the good news is, we're not trying to put a man on the moon. "We're trying to redesign the face and character of British television." Meanwhile, Channel 4 has announced that 2016 will be the broadcaster's Year of Disability. It will make commitments to increase representation of disabled people within the broadcasting industry both on and off screen. The channel said it will double the number of disabled people appearing in 20 of its biggest shows - with disabled contributors on programmes such as Gogglebox, The Island, Grand Designs, Hollyoaks, and First Dates. Three hundred thousand pounds will be invested in new talent initiatives, with an off-screen commitment to progress the careers of 20 disabled people already working in the industry in Channel 4's 20 biggest suppliers. And within the channel, 50% of all apprenticeships and 30% of all work experience placements will be ringfenced for disabled people, the broadcaster said. Channel 4's 360 Degree Diversity Charter found that over 2015 the broadcaster had achieved 24 of the 30 targets it set itself a year ago. Meanwhile, BBC director general Tony Hall has announced that four of the BBC's flagship measures to increase the representation of ethnic minorities on and off-screen have been given funding to continue for a second year. The corporation said the Assistant Commissioner Development Programme, 2.1 million Diversity Creative Talent Fund, Senior Leadership Development Programme, and Creative Access Graduate Trainee Interns have brought talent from a diverse range of backgrounds to the BBC and helped ensure that existing formats better reflect the diversity of the UK. The announcements come ahead of Lord Hall appearing alongside leaders from ITV, Sky and Channel 4 on Tuesday to discuss the broadcast industry's progress on diversity. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson said she is a "complete nightmare" to make a cup of tea for. The food writer and TV chef likes her daily cuppa made in a specific manner and admits: "I am incredibly precise and I know exactly how I want it." Lawson, 56, also doesn't make any diva demands when it comes to her "rider" and only asks for tea mugs, a kettle and milk in the hotel room fridge. Although she admits that these days she travels with her own kettle and has started travelling with her own mug because others are "not big enough". Lawson stars in the new TV advert for tea brand Typhoo and says the partnership is a "natural and happy fit". "I am a complete nightmare to make tea for," she told the Press Association. "I like it very strong with some milk in it and I have to have it at the optimum temperature which is just after it's too hot but before it gets anywhere near room temperature." The How To Be A Domestic Goddess author also always travels with her own tea bags and said she has a "slight superstition" when writing or working on a new recipe. "I can't wash up the mug that I'm using until the recipe is completed or what I'm writing is completed," she said. She estimates she drinks "nearer to twelve than eight mugs" of tea a day. The new advert shows a relaxed and casually-dressed Lawson in a white shirt and jeans as she shares her recipe for a perfect tea moment. "On a day-to-day basis I just have my two mugs of tea and then I chain-drink tea throughout the day. "My treat is some toast and good bitter marmalade and a mug of tea, but that's not an everyday matter - I often do that on a Saturday or Sunday," she explained. Tea has always been in the Lawson family. Her mother Vanessa Salmon was heiress to the Lyons Coffee House dynasty, and she said her grandfather was "said to have the best nose in Mincing Lane", a reference to the London street that became well-known for its tea establishments. She will be returning to TV screens in Australia on popular cooking show MasterChef as a guest judge, alongside Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. British chef Heston Blumenthal will also be making an appearance as a guest judge on the show. The team behind the hit Netflix series Making A Murderer have said they expected a backlash about the documentary in the media. During the Television Critics Association press tour, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos responded to the interest the 10-part series has created on both sides of the Atlantic. The series focuses on the case of Steven Avery, who was prosecuted in 2005 for the death of photographer Teresa Halbach. "The media are demonising this man in order to prove his guilt," Ricciardi said. The pair insisted they are film-makers - not prosecutors, and Demos added: "We did not consider this advocacy journalism in the least. "We are not taking sides. We don't have a stake in his character, in his innocence or guilt. That was not the question that we were raising. "If you watch the series, I think it's clear that the American criminal justice system has some serious problems and that it is urgent that we address them." Ricciardi and Demos ducked questions on their belief about Avery's guilt or innocence, even though they told Stephen Colbert on the CBS Late Show earlier this month that they believe he is not guilty. They instead pointed to questions the documentary raises about the US criminal justice system, and said they tried their best to reflect all of the facts in the case. Prosecutors - who the film-makers say declined their request to participate in Making A Murderer - have claimed the film omits physical evidence against Avery. Avery has recently filed an appeal against his conviction, claiming authorities used an improper warrant and that a juror was out to get him. The film-makers said they believe his request to watch Making A Murderer while in prison had been declined. Demos added: "We are ready to follow if there are significant developments and we are looking at other stories as well." A televised selection show for the song and act to represent the UK at this year's Eurovision Song Contest will be aired on the BBC. Eurovision: You Decide will show six shortlisted acts taking to the stage in a bid to impress viewers at home and a professional panel in the venue. The acts will compete for the honour of representing the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2016, held in Sweden. The Great British Bake Off co-presenter Mel Giedroyc will host the 90-minute programme, broadcast live from The O2 Kentish Town on February 26. "I am a huge fan of the Eurovish and am honoured to be hosting this fantastic event," she said. "It's very exciting that the Great British public will get the chance to choose who will be sent to Sweden and I know it's going to be an amazing night." An expert panel will be there on the night to offer their thoughts on how the songs could be made to look and sound on stage in Stockholm. The programme also heralds the arrival of Eurovision on BBC Four, which will also broadcast both semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 live from Stockholm on May 10 and 12. The final will be broadcast on BBC One on May 14. Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC Four, said: "I'm delighted that Eurovision: You Decide and both of the semi-finals are coming to the channel this year. "BBC Four is the home of music on TV in the UK and, as any fan will tell you, Eurovision is one of the biggest music events on the planet and is much more than just one night of TV, therefore it is only right that BBC Four is able to showcase Europe's favourite music TV event right here in the UK." Eurovision: You Decide will also feature special musical guest performances, to be confirmed on January 22 on The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2. Tickets for the show will go on sale on January 22 at 10am via www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision. Chris Evans is the new host of Top Gear The BBC has insisted filming of the new series of Top Gear is going ahead as planned, despite reports suggesting the show may not be ready for its May launch. The Metro newspaper had claimed the relaunch "has stalled", and said it is not known when the next series will be broadcast. But the BBC denied suggestions of problems with Chris Evans's relaunched version of the show. A BBC spokesman said: "Filming on Top Gear continues as planned and on schedule." Pictures that emerged at the weekend appeared to show the new host of BBC Two's popular motoring show looking unwell. Evans was photographed wearing a white helmet and holding his glasses as he was bent over on the track, watched by the show's crew. A report in The Sun claimed Evans felt ill after a fast drive in an Audi R8 V10 with his rumoured co-presenter Sabine Schmitz in California. Last week, former F1 driver David Coulthard was confirmed as a presenter for Channel 4's F1 coverage, officially ending speculation he was set to join the BBC Two presenting team alongside Evans. In December, reports suggested motoring journalist Chris Harris would be joining the presenting line-up. There was also news of the exit of executive producer Lisa Clark, who revealed she was leaving Top Gear after just five months of working on the new show. She said in a statement she was "moving on to new projects", and added: "I'd like to wish production all the very best with the show." The BBC issued a statement thanking Ms Clark for her "incredible work for the last five months readying new Top Gear for its busy filming schedule in 2016 and planned return in May". At the Television Critics Association winter press tour in California last week, Evans admitted rebuilding the show, which makes around 150 million a year for the corporation, has been a "baptism of fire". The BBC sacked former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson following a fracas with show producer Oisin Tymon. Clarkson is currently filming a new motoring show for Amazon Prime alongside fellow former Top Gear hosts James May and Richard Hammond. Strictly Come Dancing professional Aliona Vilani has hinted she may be giving up dancing for good. The Russian dancer, who won the last series with The Wanted's Jay McGuiness, said she has been dancing for 25 years and it may be time to call it a day. The 31-year-old revealed in December that she would not be returning to the hit BBC dancing show. Now it appears she may be wanting to hang up her dancing shoes forever as she told ITV's Loose Women panel that she "wasn't sure" if she would continue dancing off-screen. Talking about her decision to leave Strictly she said: "I've had an amazing seven years, and from a professional point of view you always want to leave on a high. I don't think it can get any better." She is the only professional dancer to have won the show twice, and was named the runner-up with Matt Baker in 2010. "On a personal level, Strictly takes up a lot of your time, you don't see you friends or family. I just want to live my life and hopefully start a family," she said. She married sales director Vincent Kavanagh in 2014, according to reports. "I'm not sure, I actually don't know, I might," she said when asked by the Loose Women panel if she would be giving up dancing completely. "It's (dancing) been my life, I think when you do something so intensely, I cannot do it half way, so either you do it full out or I just have to kind of leave it, and it's been 25 years of my life," she explained. She and McGuiness will hit the dance floor again for the Strictly Come Dancing tour which kicks off in Birmingham on January 22. The 59-year-old founded and is partner of Clubworld Travel with her husband Stephen. She lives near Portadown and has four children, Thomas (32), David and Robert (21) and Karen (20). The company was named the Northern Ireland Travel Agency of the Year in 2015. My best moment My best moments have all been when my children were born all of them. I couldnt say anything else. Outside of that opening Clubworld Travel 25 years ago was a very exciting and challenging moment for me. My best way to relax Cruising is one of my favourite ways to relax, but closer to home its enjoying my husbands cooking, as he is a great chef. I have a gin and tonic every night when I come from work and then have a delicious dinner. My best advice The one Ive always stuck with is to always treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Another piece of advice that my dad gave me was to never judge a book by its cover. My best song My friends hate me for it but Im a huge fan of Tom Jones I cant understand why people dont like him. I think hes a great showman and I love all of his songs. Its Not Unusual is my ringtone which can be a bit embarrassing in business meetings when I forget to put my phone on silent. My best job Although I originally trained to be a nurse, I now think I have the best job in the world as a travel agent. Last year, I was away somewhere about once a month. My best achievement Probably opening Clubworld Travel and developing it from one shop to seven across Northern Ireland. In 2015, we won the Northern Ireland Travel Agency of the Year Award and also an award for Top Agent in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Its fantastic but its not down to me, the staff are really good. My best gift My husband bought me an iPad a few years ago. Its brilliant because I can work from home or anywhere else. I even got an upgrade for it this Christmas my daughter has now put her name on the old one. My best buy Our three dogs which are Lhasa Apsos. They are Lily, Babbette and Harvey and theyre absolutely adorable. My best book I got a beautiful one from the children at Christmas called The Irish Light by Peter Cox and its a collection of photographs of Irish landscapes. Otherwise if Im reading I tend to go for Irish writers like Patricia Scanlan and Marian Keyes. Its a great way to switch off and I like it when they mention places I know My best film I do like a good film and its a great way to spend time with my children. Karen and I recently had a movie night and we watched Mr Morgans Last Love its about a man who takes up dance lessons and his son thinks hes having an affair. I like movies for escapism, so I go for light-hearted films like Bridget Jones Diary Council bosses who quit after a revamp of local government in Northern Ireland pocketed pay-offs of up to 350,000, it can be revealed Council bosses who quit after a revamp of local government in Northern Ireland pocketed pay-offs of up to 350,000, it can be revealed. A total of 150 senior staff have been awarded more than 10m to date. It is on top of a 2.3m payout to 136 councillors who retired under a similar severance scheme. At least two staff received packages worth more than 300,000 - double the salary of Prime Minister David Cameron. Earlier this year the 26 councils were replaced by 11 larger 'super councils' as part of a public sector cost-cutting drive. The number of councillors was slashed from 582 to 462. A series of senior staff posts were also abolished. Severance packages were agreed for staff and councillors who departed. In August this newspaper revealed how councillors had been awarded severance deals of more than 2m. Now it can be disclosed that pay-offs to staff have totalled at least 10,229,935 to date. That figure will be higher because Belfast City Council refused to disclose how much it paid to the sole employee who received a severance. The highest package is believed to have been awarded by the new Mid and East Antrim Borough Council. It did not disclose the exact amount, but said it ranged between 300,000 and 350,000. In December 2014 there was anger after it emerged that Sharon O'Connor would receive a 275,000 package following her departure as chief executive of Derry City Council. She later became chair of the Education Authority, earning 50,000 plus expenses for the part-time role. Ms O'Connor's severance was not included in the figures disclosed by Derry City Council, which relate to payments made only after April 2015. Ards and North Down Borough Council confirmed its highest severance package totalled 317,127. The highest package at Mid-Ulster District Council was more than 180,000. Belfast City Council, which saw relatively little change compared to other councils, lost just one member of staff. It refused to state how much this person received, citing Data Protection exemptions. The same exemption was applied by all councils to prevent the recipients being identified. To put the figures in context, Prime Minister David Cameron's salary is 142,500. First Minister Arlene Foster earns 114,535 a year. TUV leader Jim Allister said he was astonished by the size of the packages. He said severance deals should have been capped at a significantly lower amount. "There are two problems with these figures - the sheer quantum of them and the fact that they weren't capped at a reasonable level, and secondly the fact that people like Ms O'Connor were able to pick up their cheque on Friday and walk into another public sector job on Monday," said Mr Allister. "If you are getting a handshake, and returning into the public service, that should be discounted out of the handshake. "Patently it wasn't, and to have allowed that situation to develop without a reasonable cap was hugely irresponsible by the Executive, and has caused unjustified enrichment for these people, particularly if they are free and able to return to other public sector jobs." Dia Chakravarty, the political director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said the pay-offs were irresponsible. "This will come as a shock to residents," she said. "When necessary savings are having to be made across the public sector with colleagues having seen pay freezes or worse, these pay-outs to fat cats at taxpayers' expense are irresponsible and insensitive. Hard-pressed families expect their money to pay for essential services, not to line the pockets of already highly-paid public sector bosses." The Review of Public Administration (RPA) Staff Severance Scheme for Local Government, published last February, followed negotiations between local government employers and trade union representatives. It mirrored similar RPA schemes previously applied to staff in health and education in Northern Ireland. Nipsa was the lead trade union in the negotiations. Bumper Graham, Nipsa's assistant general secretary, explained that the severance scheme would save money in the long-term. "While there was some use of the voluntary redundancy scheme, it was quite limited overall," he said. "We lost 15 councils, so it was an average of 10 per council, which is not that big a number." Mr Graham said a formula had been agreed by the Assembly, which included a maximum amount that could be paid out. "There were claw-back provisions, which meant the value had to be made repayable in savings over a period of three years or so," he added. Stormont is urged to set a robust target to cut early deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer by a quarter over a decade Around 4,600 people die prematurely every year in Northern Ireland, a health charity warned. Reducing smoking, alcohol use and sugar intake are key to saving lives, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in Northern Ireland said. The organisation called on the Stormont Executive to set a robust target to cut the number of early deaths from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer by a quarter over the next decade . Head of the charity in Northern Ireland Jayne Murray said: "Today 12 families in Northern Ireland will lose a loved one prematurely because of a non-communicable disease such as heart disease, cancer or dementia. "If we met the World Health Organisation (WHO) targets a quarter of these mums, dads, husbands, wives and children would not be robbed of precious time with a much loved family member. Conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and dementia are responsible for around 13,000 deaths in Northern Ireland each year, or 87% of all mortality. A total of 4,600 of these deaths were classed as premature (those aged under 75), the campaigning charity added. Ms Murray added: "If Northern Ireland was to meet the WHO 2025 premature mortality reduction target 1,150 lives per year would be saved." Associate medical director of the BHF Dr Mike Knapton said: "The Stormont Executive urgently needs to take action to meet the challenge set by the WHO. "Preventing disease will play a vital role and we need to use targets like this to drive the public health agenda to reduce tobacco and alcohol use, salt intake, sugar intake, obesity, and raised blood pressure." He said the organisation fully supported reforming and modernising the health and social care system. "We believe it is about service redesign. If people with heart failure in Northern Ireland were diagnosed earlier and placed on optimal treatment quicker it would save lives and if the implementation of the Community Resuscitation Strategy for Northern Ireland that launched in 2013 was funded and finally implemented it would improve survival rates from out of hospital cardiac arrest significantly." Arlene Foster has attended her first question time session since being appointed head of the Northern Ireland Assembly Stormont's new First Minister has called for a reality check around police funding for long-running legacy cases. Arlene Foster was speaking during her first question time session since being appointed head of the Northern Ireland Assembly. She told MLAs the issue of funding should be raised with the UK Government. Mrs Foster said: "I think we really do have to get real. "If the police are being ordered to do particular issues then they should have the funding that comes with that." Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constables have repeatedly pressed the need for increased resources to probe historic cases. Last year George Hamilton warned that stringent budget cuts had left the legacy investigations unit severely overstretched but the demands of everyday frontline policing must be prioritised. Mrs Foster added: " If they (PSNI) are to become involved in a historic case then it is only right, from my perspective, that they should have the funding to deal with that particular case, otherwise they will have to take from other areas of their budget and I don't think there is anyone who would want to see that." Meanwhile Mrs Foster, who has first-hand experience of the sectarian violence, also revealed there was little prospect of resolving the vexed issue of dealing with the past before the election in May. The Fresh Start Agreement which was struck following months of negotiations in November failed to find a consensus on dealing with the toxic legacy of the Troubles. New mechanisms for tackling the past, including a new investigative unit, had been agreed by politicians in late 2014 - in the Stormont House Agreement - but were derailed by a row between Sinn Fein and the UK Government over a potential national security veto. As a consequence, the deal has been heavily criticised by a number of victims. Mrs Foster said: " We were very, very close to having a comprehensive agreement on dealing with the past. "That is why I think it is important to continue to engage with our own Government; with the government of the Republic of Ireland and most importantly with the victims' sector in trying to move this issue forward. B ut in doing so we have to be honest and open about the chances of doing that in a particular time. "I have been asked the question 'do I think this will be sorted before our next election' and I have to be honest with victims that I think it is not going to happen before the next election because there is an election coming in the Republic of Ireland; we have an election in May and I just don't think that we are going to be able to deal with those issues in the short timescale that we have." The DUP leader also said she would "resist" any attempts to rewrite history. Ulster Unionist Danny Kennedy, who has worked closely with a number of victims including relatives of those killed during the Kingsmill massacre in 1976, said: "It is essential that the Executive and Assembly deliver real, tangible benefits for victims." Bushmills Whiskey could snap up the Michelin tyre factory site in Ballymena, which is due to close in 2018. A spokesperson confirmed it has explored acquiring the site. Michelin told the BBC it had been contacted, but pointed out production will continue in Ballymena for another two-and-a-half years. The closure of the tyre factory will result in the loss of 860 jobs. Michelin said it is "running down" the truck tyre factory ahead of eventual closure in mid-2018. The move is part of a restructuring plan that will see investment in its facilities in Dundee and Stoke on Trent. Union bosses warned that 500 contractors who work with Michelin will also be affected, with many other local businesses whose trade relies on the plant. The Michelin factory in Ballymena opened in 1969. Jose Cuervo bought Bushmills Whiskey from Diageo in 2014. Northern Ireland's beleaguered retail sector suffered a challenging Christmas trading period, new figures have revealed. A report published today shows a 1.1% drop in shopper numbers in December compared to the previous year. But the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (NIRC) said footfall was significantly up on the 7.6% fall experienced in November 2015. NIRC boss Aodhan Connolly said retailers were rising to meet the ever growing demands of the marketplace. "This has been a challenging festive period for retailers with the strong pound against the euro as well as the growth of the online market," he said. "The fact that footfall was only 1.1% down year on year proves, however, that retailers have met this challenge head on by not only providing great value to Northern Ireland's consumers but a great shopping experience. "2016 brings challenges, especially in the rise of the cumulative burden of taxation and regulation but also opportunities, the biggest of those being the current review of business rates. "We need our politicians to have not only the will but the courage to change this outdated tax and make Northern Ireland truly ready for business in the 21st century." Retail expert Donald McFetridge said more consumers are now shopping online. "Information technology has improved, access to computers, tablets and mobile devices has increased at an amazing speed right across all age categories and in all socio-economic and lifestyle groupings," he said. "This year we have already witnessed strong growth in purchasing behaviour from mobile devices, particularly smartphones. Last year was the year of the tablet purchasing trend; this year the smartphone will reign supreme." UK footfall was down 2.2% in December compared to a year ago, following on from a 2.1% decline the previous month. Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at Springboard, said online shopping had a detrimental effect on the high street - although Northern Ireland fared better than other regions. "The 4% drop in UK footfall was the most severe since November 2014, and far deeper than the 1.8% drop in December 2014. However, high streets in Northern Ireland had greater resiliency with a more modest drop of just 0.7%," she said. Justin Welby is making a case for Easter to be on the same day every year Senior church figures in Northern Ireland have given a cautious welcome to the suggestion from the Archbishop of Canterbury that there should be a fixed date for Easter. Unlike other Christian holidays such as Christmas, the dates for Easter are not always the same from one year to the next. This year Easter Sunday falls on March 27, while next year it will fall on April 16, and in 2018 it will be on April 1. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, said he hopes to see Easter become a fixed date by the time he retires. Speaking after the meeting of Anglican primates in Canterbury this week, he said it might take a decade to happen. "I would expect between five and 10 years' time - I wouldn't expect it earlier than that, not least because most people have probably printed their calendars for the next five years," he told the Telegraph. "School holidays and so on are all fixed - it affects almost everything you do in the spring and summer. "The answer is, I don't know, but I would love to see it before I retire." Methodist President, the Rev Brian Anderson, said: "Bearing in mind different Churches in Christendom work on different calendars, if a single date could be arrived at to celebrate Easter, it would be beneficial to all for making arrangements for the celebration of Christ's resurrection." The Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly, the Rev Trevor Gribben, said Presbyterians "would, of course, be willing to take part in any discussions around setting a fixed date". He also said that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ "is absolutely central to the Christian faith". "This truth has significance for all of us throughout the year, and not just on a particular date," he added. Canon Ian Ellis, the editor of the independent Church of Ireland Gazette, said: "It is important any change on the observance of Easter should have wide agreement, across the different denominations and around the world. So any change would have to have international, ecumenical assent. It is clear that finding a fixed date would be a very complex process." Canon Ellis also commented on the motive for a change, saying: "I am somewhat concerned that the calls for a fixed date for Easter may be driven more by secular concerns than by the actual needs of the Church." Fr Patrick McCafferty of the Catholic Church, said: "Pope Francis has indicated his willingness to celebrate Easter on a date decided in agreement. "Personally, I see it as advantageous. It would allow the various Christian denominations to bear united witness to the Resurrection of the Lord." How the date is decided each year... The fixing of the Easter dates each year is complex, and arises from a decision made in 325 AD. Members of the Council of Nicea decided that Easter Day should be celebrated on the Sunday following the full moon that falls on or after the Spring Equinox. In practice this means that Easter is celebrated annually on a Sunday through several weeks stretching from mid-March to mid-April. A fixed date for Easter would dispense with the yearly variations and would simplify church, family, schools, business and other calendars throughout the world. The complexity of an agreement is underlined by the fact that the other great branch of Christianity, the Eastern Orthodox Church, already celebrates Easter on a different day from that chosen by the Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches in the West. The Council of Nicea of Christian bishops was convened in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. Child killer Robert Black spent the final days before his death in jail playing poker with fellow paedophiles, it has emerged. Black, who died in the high-security Maghaberry Prison last Tuesday, is understood to have been friends with Gerry Adams' child molester brother Liam Adams and convicted rapist and pensioner killer Trevor Hamilton. He was also friendly with child murderer Barry McCarney, who killed and sexually assaulted 18-month-old Millie Martin. The 68-year-old serial killer was serving life sentences for the murders of four young girls. There has been controversy over where the Scotsman should be buried and how his funeral should be paid for. A Northern Ireland Prison Service spokesman last night said he could not confirm if Black's body has been claimed by any of his family - or anyone else. "As this relates to an individual case it would not be appropriate for us to comment," he said. Jennifer Cardy (9), from Ballinderry, outside Lisburn, was one of the Scottish van driver's victims. He murdered the schoolgirl in 1981 after abducting her while on a job delivering posters. A suspect in up to 16 UK-wide child killings, Black had been imprisoned in Northern Ireland since being convicted of Jennifer's murder in 2011. Pat Cardy, Jennifer's mother, said the body of her daughter's killer should be treated with respect - but not buried here. "This is a man that we have to treat with respect - we have to treat his body with respect," she said. "My personal view is I would prefer him not to be buried here." Maghaberry sources told Sunday Life about the comfortable lifestyles enjoyed by the four hated inmates in the prison. "Robert Black, Liam Adams, Trevor Hamilton and Barry McCarney would spend all day playing poker," an insider said. The source also said Black often hinted about committing more murders than the four for which he was convicted. The DUP's Edwin Poots agreed that Black should not be buried in Northern Ireland. He said he was concerned that any potential grave could become a target for desecration and a reminder to the Cardy family of the pain Black had caused them. "Robert Black is the manifestation of evil and wickedness," Mr Poots said. "Black's only connection to Northern Ireland is that he came here and murdered a child. So, therefore, I don't believe there is any reason for his body to remain in Northern Ireland. The authorities need to find a reasonable and sensitive way of dealing with this issue." Justice Minister David Ford said: "There are protocols which will apply when somebody in circumstances like Black's dies in custody. What happens then is there is a dignified and appropriate disposal of the burial." A man accused of trying to stab a cashier in the head during a bid to hold up an east Belfast convenience store had drunk 24 tins of beer, a court heard today. Scott McCormick claims to have no memory of the alleged incident on Saturday morning where he was wrestled to the ground inside the Co-op shop. The 28-year-old appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with attempted robbery, threats to kill, common assault, possession of an offensive weapon and attempted grievous bodily harm with intent. McCormick, of Lichfield Avenue in the city, allegedly entered the store on the Beersbridge Road and went behind the counter area. A prosecution lawyer claimed he produced a knife and shouted "Open the f****** till". According to her account he lunged at a man working there, trying to stab him around the head area a number of times. The alleged victim managed to grab the attacker's arms and take the knife from him during the struggle. But the court heard CCTV footage shows McCormick punching the cashier about the body and to the jaw. Another member of staff helped restrain the would-be robber until police arrived. While he was being restrained McCormick allegedly shouted: "I know where you are, I'm going to kill you." District Judge Desmond Perry was told the defendant later claimed to have no recollection of what happened, having taken 24 tins of beer. Defence barrister Richard McConkey said: "It wasn't simply abusing alcohol, there were tablets as well." Mr McConkey contended that could have impacted on his client's conduct and memory. Bail was refused, however, due to the risks of re-offending and interference with witnesses. McCormick was remanded in custody to appear again by video-link on February 15. David Cameron faces a crunch meeting with EU leaders in February over his demands for a new deal for the UK MPs are to examine whether Brexit would have implications for the Northern Ireland peace process. The potential impact for the land border with the Republic and the loss of EU funds for promoting peace, reconciliation and cross-border co-operation will be among other issues considered by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. Opportunities following a split with Europe allowing the UK Government to increase spending in Northern Ireland and reduce taxes will also be examined. EU state aid rules currently restrict adopting some special measures for Northern Ireland. Committee chairman Laurence Robertson said: "It is 40 years since the UK held a referendum on membership of the then European Economic Community. The forthcoming vote therefore represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for people to express their opinion on this important issue. "Our aim is not to make a recommendation on whether the people of Northern Ireland should vote to leave the EU or remain a member. Rather, we will look to inform public debate on the specific issues affecting Northern Ireland that should be considered." The committee has invited written evidence on its inquiry with a view to holding public evidence sessions in February and March. The Prime Minister has admitted he is "very suspicious of Brussels" as he said there was a "good case" for new measures to assert the power of Westminster over European Union legislation. David Cameron, who faces a crunch meeting with EU leaders in February over his demands for a new deal for the UK, said he wanted a settlement that represented the "best of both worlds" - giving Britain the benefits of the single market without the euro or closer ties with Brussels. A referendum on Brexit could be held later this year, commentators have suggested. A former British government minister has said creating an EU border between Northern Ireland and the Republic would be a retrograde step. Lord Alf Dubs said Brexit endangered the close relations between different parts of the island and argued strongly in favour of the UK remaining in the EU. Freedom of movement restrictions, border controls and customs checking in Ireland were among concerns raised recently during a meeting of British and Irish parliamentarians. Police at the scene of the incident in Woodvale Drive Two men have been questioned by police after a violent disturbance involving a samurai sword and machete rocked a Belfast street yesterday morning. Detectives are investigating a murder bid after a brawl at Woodvale Drive in the north of the city which left four people with stab wounds and others with serious injuries. Police were alerted at around 7am on Sunday. Residents were horrified and said it was fortunate no one was killed. Householders had woken up to the sound of screams coming from the street. Forensic officers were in the street yesterday, where they examined the damage to a house. Blood could still be seen on the front of the house and windows were shattered. Alfie McCrory from the Twaddell & Woodvale Residents Association said: "We could have been talking about a fatality. "This is a very quiet area and we don't want this sort of incident in our area. "I have been speaking to people in the area and when they came out there was pandemonium in the street and police all over the place. People were being arrested so it was a very frightening experience for people living in the street," he told UTV Live. Sources claimed weapons including a samurai sword and machete were produced. The PSNI arrested a 26-year-old man and a 32-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder. The pair were arrested after being released into police custody from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, where they were being treated for injuries. North Belfast DUP MLA William Humphrey said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of this incident. "I would urge anyone who has information which may be relevant to what occurred to assist the PSNI with their ongoing investigation." Pastor James McConnell has said he is willing to meet the Muslim leader who reported him to police over his controversial comments about Islam. The firebrand preacher said that if he received a private invitation he would visit the Belfast Islamic Centre to talk to Dr Raied Al-Wazzan. "Even though his actions led to my prosecution, I am prepared to do the Christian thing and meet him. I am not a man for holding grudges and I wish Dr Al-Wazzan well," Pastor McConnell said. "But I would tell him that there was no call for him to report me to the PSNI and that he needed to start respecting the right to freedom of speech and freedom of worship." A fortnight ago, Belfast Magistrates Court found the 78-year-old preacher not guilty of making "grossly offensive" remarks about Islam. He had branded the religion as "heathen" and "Satanic" in a sermon in his Belfast Metropolitan Tabernacle church in May 2014. Dr Al-Wazzan, who was later himself to make controversial comments praising the rule of Islamic State in Iraq, lodged a complaint about the pastor's "offensive and disgusting" remarks with the PSNI four days after the sermon. Following Pastor McConnell's acquittal, the Muslim leader said he had no regrets about his involvement in the case. He told the BBC that he "would do it again if somebody was stereotyping the Muslim community". Dr Al-Wazzan said he hoped the Christian preacher had learned from his experience and "would choose his words carefully" in future. He added that he would be prepared to meet the pastor to discuss the issues involved. Pastor McConnell last night told the Belfast Telegraph: "If Dr Al-Wazzan privately asks me to meet him, rather than making such an invitation through the media, I would agree without a moment's hesitation. "I'd be prepared to visit the Belfast Islamic Centre and to shake his hand. There are many things I'd like to say to him face-to-face but I wouldn't want our meeting to be a media gimmick. If it takes place, it should happen in private, away from the cameras." The pastor said he would tell the Muslim leader that he had to respect freedom of speech: "I would tell him he never should have gone running to the police over what I said and that he shouldn't be so touchy in future. "I would say to him that he has to learn to take criticism of his religion. "He has to acknowledge that I am as free to condemn Islam as Muslim clerics are to condemn Christianity." Pastor McConnell expressed disappointment that Dr Al-Wazzan had not been present in court for the case. "His actions started the whole prosecution process. I had to appear in court seven times and I think that Dr Al-Wazzan was a coward for not going to court once," he said. "I know the prosecution didn't call him as a witness but he was free to attend the trial as a member of the public and to listen to proceedings. Given how important the case was to him, you'd think he would at least have done that." Last year Dr Al-Wazzan was embroiled in controversy when he said that Islamic State had made his home city of Mosul in Iraq "the most peaceful city in the world". Pastor McConnell said that had he wanted to retaliate, he could have called for Dr Al-Wazzan's prosecution for those comments. "But I didn't lodge a complaint with the police or anybody else because everybody has a right to freedom of speech," he said. "As strongly as I disagreed with what he said, I acknowledged his right to say it. I bear no ill-will to Dr Al-Wazzan. I have no bad feeling or hate in my heart for him." Pastor McConnell was charged under the 2003 Communications Act with "sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive". Finding him not guilty, Judge Liam McNally said: "The courts need to be very careful not to criminalise speech which, however contemptible, is no more than offensive. "It is not the task of the criminal law to censor offensive utterances." The pastor said that while he still remained strongly opposed to Sharia law, he regretted if his words had hurt Muslims. "I didn't mean to do that. I wouldn't hurt a hair on their head. I am against their theology, not them as individuals," he said. PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris has called for radical changes to the hearings system Police in Northern Ireland are deliberately obstructing inquests into contentious Troubles deaths in order protect their security force predecessors, bereaved families have claimed. The accusation was levelled on the opening day of a major review of long-delayed coroners' investigations into 95 legacy killings, many of which date back more than 40 years. Northern Ireland's Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan has tasked one of his senior judges, Lord Justice Weir, to preside over an intensive schedule of individual hearings to establish why progress has been painfully slow to date. The 56 cases include killings carried out by both paramilitaries and security forces - many involve claims of collusion or state wrongdoing. As the two-week review got under way in Belfast, the time taken by police to security-vet and disclose classified case files was repeatedly highlighted as a main obstacle in the way of progress. The stalled inquests into the Army shootings of 10 people in Ballymurphy, west Belfast, in 1971, and of five more civilians in nearby Springhill a year later, were examined on the opening day in Laganside Courts. The cases focusing on nine deaths linked to the Royal Ulster Constabulary's alleged "shoot to kill" policy in the 1980s were also assessed. A barrister for families of two INLA members shot dead by the RUC in 1982 - Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll - was scathing after the police said disclosure could not be completed ahead of a proposed September 2017 inquest date. A Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) representative told the court at least another year would be required. Barry McDonald QC accused the police of failing to honour a series of similar disclosure commitments since the shoot-to-kill cases were re-opened in 2007. "Obviously there is the suspicion within the families that the PSNI have been dragging their heels over disclosure in order to protect the RUC," he said. "They are fighting a rear guard action on behalf of the RUC, which they have done successfully to date. "The sad fact is the PSNI cannot be trusted to honour their commitments." He added: "When there's light at end of the tunnel for the families, the PSNI extend the tunnel." Outside court, Mr Carroll's brother Tommy echoed his lawyer's remarks. "It's over 30 years now and we would like the inquest to proceed, but the only thing that is stopping it is the PSNI protecting the RUC," he said. Ahead of the review commencing, a police commander insisted the disclosure delays were due to the huge pressures being placed upon the PSNI's Legacy Support Unit (LSU). Deputy Chief Constable Drew Harris said attempting to run the 56 inquests at the same time, rather than sequencing them in order, resulted in the LSU continually jumping from one case to the other. Judge Weir acknowledged prioritisation of cases was an issue. He likened the PSNI's current disclosure workload to a music hall act spinning plates. "Over the next fortnight, we need to establish which plates we need to spin most urgently," he said. In regard to the Ballymurphy inquest, the judge was told only one soldier involved on the three days of shootings had been traced. He was later informed there had been no substantive progress on disclosure in the Springhill inquest - 13 months after the new probe was ordered by the Attorney General. Outside court, John Teggart - whose father Danny was killed in Ballymurphy - said proper resources had to be directed at resolving legacy cases. "What you are talking about today, and the next couple of weeks, is 95 families sitting in the house with an empty space at the table," he said. "This isn't just figures - these are families, these are real people here. We need to remember that." Judge Weir said at the end of all the hearings he would file a report to Sir Declan setting out the issues of concern. He said the Lord Chief Justice would then decide which inquests could proceed in the near future, which could not, and also whether certain cases should be combined to enable a thematic investigation. But he added: "There may be cases he may feel are not capable of being dealt with under the current coronial process and, if that is the case, he will have to advise the Government." Sir Declan has previously suggested one potential solution for complex cases could be the establishment of a form of inquiry panel. A failure by politicians to sign off on proposed mechanisms to deal with Northern Ireland's toxic past means initiatives to better deal with legacy cases, including more support for the Coroners' Service, have yet to get off the ground. Judge Weir said he hoped the review hearings would "create some light without producing too much heat". A serving policeman who allegedly threatened to arrest one of Northern Ireland's most senior judges is set to be prosecuted by the Attorney General. Thomas Anthony Carlin was due to go on trial on Monday for contempt of court over his approach to Lord Justice Gillen. But having listening to a recording of the incident, another High Court judge informed him that the matter has been referred to Attorney General John Larkin QC. Mr Justice Horner advised: "You should carefully consider your own position, especially in light of what will appear on the CD and the consequences that may follow, including imprisonment should you be found guilty of contempt in the face of the court." The trial will now take place at a later date. Mr Carlin's alleged outburst came at the end of a ruling in a house repossession case in the High Court last week. The 43-year-old had been representing himself in the legal battle with Santander bank over a property in Co Antrim. At the end of the hearing he allegedly got up and moved towards the bench, claiming he was going to arrest Lord Justice Gillen. Security and court staff intervened before he was led from the courtroom. He was arrested on suspicion of two counts of common assault, but subsequently released without charge. The Police Ombudsman was also notified. Mr Carlin is alleged to have interrupted proceedings without justification, refused to resume his seat, approached the presiding judge, threatened to arrest him without lawful excuse and physically interfered with a court tipstaff. He has rejected the offer of legal representation and, so far, declined to apologise for his actions. At a previous hearing he turned up at court in full police uniform. But dressed in a suit today, he was told by Mr Justice Horner that the seriousness of the case and potential penalty if found guilty "demands this matter be prosecuted independently of the court". The judge disclosed: "I have decided to refer the matter to the Attorney General, who I'm confident will deal with it with expedition." Mr Carlin, whose continued his demands for an alternative trial by jury, is to be given a CD copy of the hearing where he allegedly threatened to arrest Lord Justice Gillen. He claimed the case against him was "procedurally defective" and questioned how a document setting out his alleged contempt was handed to him. "How can this come from a person unlawfully at large, who was under arrest?" he asked. He added: "I want these matters withdrawn." But Mr Justice Horner told him: "Please sit down. I have made my position clear." Investigations into dozens of youngsters considered for prosecution in Northern Ireland over indecent images of children have been halted, legal officials have revealed. Child protection expert Jim Gamble has proposed that the law be amended so that a child who takes or distributes a picture of him or herself will not commit a criminal offence. Police already deal with the matter "sensitively" and only one child was prosecuted out of 79 investigated by the authorities over the alleged sharing of intimate images during a two-year period, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) confirmed. Mr Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said: "It is about making the law more intelligent. "If we decriminalise it the children will come forward to get help and fewer will self-harm or commit suicide, which is what happens when the child is left with no hope when they have shared an image. "It is about the trauma they will have gone through while an investigation is going on and the message that sends out to other children." Victims who lose control of sexualised photos of themselves are vulnerable to bullying, blackmail or revenge porn, an assessment for Stormont's justice committee said. Greater access to the internet and smartphones has made it easier to rapidly share inappropriate images. Mr Gamble has recommended that provision should be made in law that a child who has an image of another child with malicious intent would commit a criminal offence. Between March 1, 2013, and March 31, 2015, the PPS received 48 files relating to 79 suspects below the age of 18 in cases of indecent images of children and related alleged offences. They included the suspected sharing of intimate images, either consensually or not, as well as cases where the recipient of an intimate image allegedly shared it with another child. The PPS stated that of the 75 prosecution decisions made to March 31, 2015, one was for prosecution, eight were for non-court diversions such as youth conferences or cautions and 66 were decisions of no prosecution, either because there was not enough evidence or it would not be in the public interest. By 2021 nearly all households will have internet access and it has been reported that 65% of children aged between 12 and 15 in the UK own a smartphone, according to the justice committee report: Online Risks and Children. An NSPCC spokesman said: "Sexting can be extremely damaging but we don't believe that the most effective way of dealing with it is to prosecute children for sharing indecent images, unless there are other factors such as extreme coercion, threats or blackmail involved. "If young people are involved in sexting, it is essential that they receive the appropriate support rather than being dragged through the courts. "We know that large numbers of children see sending these images as routine - despite the risks - and that they can quickly lose control of them, even with them potentially ending up in the collections of sex offenders." Schools in Northern Ireland could be transferred into common state ownership to cut costs, a report found. Nearly all the funding to build and run the system already comes from the taxpayer, according to a review for the Integrated Education Fund (IEF). It said there was a general consensus that Area Based Planning had not worked well. "Rationalisation could include a study of the feasibility of the transfer of school property into common ownership by the state. "Apart from revealing any cost benefits from an economic perspective, this could have benefits in terms of removing anomalies between different school sectors and emphasise education as a common public good for the benefit of all." It said this might include a similar process to the Forum for Pluralism and Patronage in the Republic, where steps have been taken to encourage transferring ownership to the state. The review was carried out by the Unesco Centre at Ulster University for the IEF late last year. It analysed legislation, policy and practices within the existing education system where change might lead to better integration. Education is provided by Catholic, controlled, integrated and other sectors. Integrated caters for 7%. The first conclusion of the report was that there may be a case for more thorough analysis of ownership and financing of the school estate. In the Republic the forum was established in the primary sector. However the Catholic Church has been unwilling to hand over schools to another patron. The report questioned how much it would cost to roll out shared education, where children from different schools come together for some classes, to every school. "So far there has been little analysis of how shared education will be mainstreamed after the initial tranches of philanthropic and European funding run out." The Garda sub aqua unit at the scene near the village of Ardclough, Co Kildare Business and property owners are being asked to check their premises for clues to the death and identity of a man who was murdered, packed into a suitcase and dumped in a canal. A third day of searches took place where the victim's headless torso was found by passers-by in the Grand Canal near Celbridge, Co Kildare, on Saturday afternoon. The dark-coloured suitcase was pulled from the water 500 metres from Ardclough, beside the Lyons Estate, on a stretch of towpath popular with walkers and cyclists. Gardai believe the man was murdered elsewhere and his dismembered remains put into the canal. While there are no fingerprints or teeth to confirm his identity, detectives are understood to be examining missing persons records in an attempt to draw up a list of potential victims. The dead man, possibly in his 20s, suffered a violent death, gardai said. Superintendent Gerry Wall said a huge number of people contacted the murder inquiry after appeals were made for anyone who may have been on the towpath between Thursday and Saturday. The suitcase is believed to have been in the water for a short time, with the man murdered a few days before the discovery. "We know that the man was killed at another location and the focus of our investigation is to find where the man was killed," Mr Wall said. "We are asking people returning to their property or premises after the weekend to check to see if there was anything unusual. "Was a room or equipment disturbed or their premises in any way different than when they left? Did you as an employee or employer notice anything different in your premises?" Mr Wall thanked people who have come forward and reiterated the appeal for any others who were in the area over the course of the three days to come forward. Anyone with suspicions about their property is urged to contact the investigations team at Leixlip Garda Station. The Garda sub aqua team and other search teams are scouring the canal and its banks for evidence. Advertisements for chocolate and bubble gum-flavoured e-cigarettes could attract children to try vaping, according to new research. The research, carried out by the University of Cambridge for the Department of Health, examined concerns that the use of e-cigarettes among children and adolescents could lead to tobacco smoking. The study found school children shown adverts for candy-flavoured e-cigarettes expressed greater interest in buying and trying them than their peers. It is illegal to sell e-cigarettes and e-liquids to under-18s in the UK, but their use rose from 5% in 2013 to 8% in 2014, researchers from the university's Behaviour and Health Research Unit said. Milica Vasiljevic, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: "We're cautiously optimistic from our results that e-cigarette ads don't make tobacco smoking more attractive, but we're concerned that ads for e-cigarettes with flavours that might appeal to school children could encourage them to try the products." The researchers said candy and liqueur-flavoured tobacco products were heavily marketed towards young people from the 1970s to 2009 when regulations were imposed. E-cigarettes are now being marketed in about 8,000 different flavours. The researchers said that the study supported moves for greater regulation of advertising for e-cigarettes, including rules that adverts must not be likely to appeal to under-18s. New rules have been issued by the Committee on Advertising Practice but do not include explicit prohibitions on candly-like flavours. They added: "The results of the current study support the imminent changes in EU regulations surrounding the marketing of e-cigarettes, but raise questions about the need for further regulation regarding the content of products with high appeal to children. "More research is needed to examine both the short and long-term impact of e-cigarette advertising, as well as the link between e-cigarette use and tobacco smoking." Professor Kevin Fenton, director for health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said the PHE was "cautiously optimistic" about the results that e-cigarette advertising does not make smoking tobacco more attractive. He said: "The UK already has some of the strongest regulations on e-cigarette advertising, and these will be further tightened by new European regulations being introduced in May. "Responsible e-cigarette marketing needs to recruit adults away from smoking and in the UK it has been effective in doing this. And there is no evidence that advertising has encouraged young people to take up regular vaping. "It's important we recognise that flavoured e-cigarettes can appeal to adults as an alternative to smoking." A snowman's head above a "Welcome To Middleton-in-Teesdale" sign in County Durham. Horses in a field near Larbert, Central Scotland, as freezing temperatures continue to grip the UK The graveyard at the Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, the church where James VI was crowned in 1567, is covered in snow Freezing temperatures will continue to grip the UK as the snowy cover of the weekend begins to clear. Clear skies and dry weather will ensure that the east of the country will continue feeling the winter bite even after most of the snow has melted. Despite the departure of the snow, forecasters say ice in the North could make travelling more difficult than usual. The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for ice in north-west and north-east England, Yorkshire and large sections of southern Scotland. It also issued snow warnings for the Strathclyde and the central, Tayside and Fife area. In England, there is a small chance of snowfall around Birmingham and Leicester, as well as Lincolnshire and Humberside, a spokesman added. Temperatures were expected to hover around zero in the North, Yorkshire and the Midlands overnight and into Monday. The capital will hover a few degrees above freezing, but it and the rest of the South East is unlikely to get much above five degrees over the next day. In the West, however, sleet and rain showers will keep temperatures markedly higher than the other half of the country. In Wales, Northern Ireland and the South West, temperatures overnight could reach up to 7C. It follows a white winter weekend which saw large swathes of the country covered in snow. Images from around the UK showed snowmen being built and sledges being manned as people made the most of the weather. David Cameron has insisted the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for security but said "we need to look very carefully" at the education programmes funded by the Gulf State. The Prime Minister defended the UK's ties with Riyadh but acknowledged that there were concerns about the funding for schools around the world that could "incubate a sense that one religion is right and another one is wrong". Mr Cameron also insisted that British military personnel working with the Saudis on the controversial bombing campaign in Yemen were trying to ensure that their efforts were "properly targeted". Asked whether there was a link between extremism in the UK and money from Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We do need to look at where money... it is already illegal for anyone to fund extremist groups in our country. We ban, proscribe, extremist groups. "I think there are deeper connections where you see what is being taught in schools - not perhaps always here but around the world - and the money that is funding those educational materials. "That's a conversation that's starting to happen." He added: "I think if you look at what Saudi Arabia is doing, they have a good programme for deradicalising people who have become radicalised and terrorists." "But if at the same time, money from states is funding educational programmes that can incubate a sense that one religion is right and another one is wrong, and anti-Semitic materials and what have you, then we need to look very carefully at that and that is exactly what we are doing. "I think Saudi Arabia and other countries know that is an area they need to look at." The UK is a major arms supplier to Saudi Arabia and it has been reported that British military personnel have been in the control room when strikes were launched by Saudi Arabia in Yemen. But Mr Cameron defended the close ties, saying: "Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh (Islamic State) and this extremist terrorism that is causing so much damage in our world. "When it comes to Yemen, we support the legitimate government of Yemen and work with others in order to try and help that country have the stability that it needs. "In terms of our arms exports, we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and I will always make sure those controls are properly operated." Saudi raids have been blamed for causing civilian casualties and striking a hospital run by Medecins Sans Frontieres. But Mr Cameron said: " We are trying to do everything we can to make sure that the work done by Saudi Arabia is properly targeted and that is right that we should do that." "We are working with them and others, a) on behalf of the legitimate government in Yemen, but b) what we are always doing is trying to encourage a political process in Yemen, because at the end of the day what we need in Yemen is a government that can represent every part of that country. "There is no military solution in Yemen, at the end of the day the parties have got to come together as they are now beginning to do so, and that is very much under the pressure that Britain has put on." A Yemeni man inspects the damage at a site reportedly hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images Yemeni blind and disabled people shout slogans during a demonstration to protest after a centre for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP/Getty Images A Yemeni man inspects the damage at a site reportedly hit by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images Yemeni blind men shout slogans during a demonstration gathering disabled people to protest after a center for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Yemeni blind men hold a banner during a demonstration gathering disabled people to protest after a center for the blind was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes in the capital Sanaa on January 6, 2016. Nearly 6,000 people have been killed since March, according to UN figures. At least 2,795 of them are civilians. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images TOPSHOT - Yemeni construction workers walk with their rollers for painting in the the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images A man uses his mobile to take pictures of the rubble of the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) An employee inspects a room inside the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Employees walk on the rubble of the Chamber of Trade and Industry headquarters after it was hit by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed) Yemenis look at destruction in the street following air strikes on the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images A general view shows the rubble of the building of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry which was destroyed during air strikes on the capital, Sanaa, on January 5, 2016. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED HUWAISMOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images A Yemeni worker looks at the damage at the Noor Centre for the Blind after it was reportedly destroyed by Saudi-led air strikes in the capital Sanaa on January 5, 2016. AFP/Getty Images David Cameron has defended the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and dismissed concerns that the Wahhabi state is funding Isis. The Prime Minister also defended arms exports to the oil-rich country and said that the UK monitors how British weapons are used. He BBC Radio 4s Today program: "Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh [Islamic State] and this extremist terrorism. "In terms of our arms exports, I think we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and Ill always make sure theyre properly operated. "Were trying to do everything we can to make sure that the work done by Saudi Arabia is properly targeted and its right that we should do that. "Were working with them and others on behalf of the legitimate government on Yemen." Cameron said that some educational training programmes funded by Saudi Arabia could be problematic, though he did not directly link them with extremists. Expand Close The civil war in Yemen has killed more than 5,800 people since March (AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The civil war in Yemen has killed more than 5,800 people since March (AP) Read more Read More "We do need to look at where the money... it is already illegal for anyone to fund extremist groups in our country. We ban, proscribe, extremist groups," he said. "I think there are deeper connections where you see what is being taught in schools - not perhaps always here but around the world - and the money that is funding those educational materials." The Conservative government has licenced 5.6bn in sales of arms, fighter jets and other military hardware to Saudi Arabia since David Cameron came to power, according to new figures released this month. New research by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) states that in the nearly six years since Mr Camerons election in May 2010, the UK has sold weapons to 24 of the 27 states included on its own list of countries of humanitarian concern. Read more Read More The deals come alongside over 2bn in sales to other countries accused of abusing of human rights. All of the other 24 have been licenced to make deals with British companies, from Saudi Arabias ongoing purchase of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft (which will be worth a total of 4.5bn upon completion) right down to Eritreas solitary 8,600 purchase of body armour. Overall, these deals are worth 6.2bn. Aside from the purchase of the Typhoon jets, major deals between Saudi Arabia and British companies include a 1.6bn agreement for Hawk fighter jets and bulk sales of machine guns, bombs and tear gas. Read more Read More Saudi Arabia have access to twice as many British-made warplanes as the RAF does, while bombs originally stockpiled by Britain's Armed Forces are being sent to Saudi Arabia for use in their bombing campaign against Houthi insurgents in Yemen. A UN investigation into Saudi war crimes in the Gulfs poorest nation was blocked by the Saudis themselves. It has been claimed that the Saudis' appointment on to the UNs human rights council may have been secured thanks to a secret voting deal forged with the UK. Read more Read More The Government is facing calls to halt the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia amid claims British-made weapons could have been used in air strikes which have left thousands of civilians dead in Yemen's bloody civil war. Human rights organisations have warned the UK is breaking national, EU and international law by supplying weapons to the Saudis while their warplanes carried out bombing raids in support of the Yemeni government. However, the Foreign Office has insisted that Britain is not in breach of its international obligations and that it operated one of the most rigorous and transparent arms control regimes in the world. Last month Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia was "illegal, immoral and indefensible". "The UK has fuelled this appalling conflict through reckless arms sales which break its own laws and the global Arms Trade Treaty it once championed," she said. "Thousands of civilians have been killed in Saudi-led air strikes, and there's a real risk that misery was 'made in Britain'." Since the war in Yemen broke out in March, nearly 3,000 civilians have been killed and 1 million have been displaced, according to UN figures. David Cameron has declined to join the chorus of calls for an apology to former armed forces chief Field Marshal Lord Bramall, insisting it would be wrong for a prime minister to seek to put pressure on independent police and prosecutors. But Mr Cameron said he hoped that if the authorities felt they had made mistakes in a case, they would "feel big enough to give people some comfort afterwards". The Metropolitan Police has faced a growing clamour to apologise to the 92-year-old veteran of the D-Day landings after it announced on Friday there was "insufficient evidence" to proceed against him over allegations of historical child sex abuse. During the course of the nine-month investigation by the Operation Midland inquiry team, Lord Bramall's home was raided by up to 20 officers while he had breakfast with his terminally-ill wife and his name was widely reported in the media. London Mayor Boris Johnson said that while much of the ensuing criticism of the police had been misplaced, Lord Bramall now deserved a proper apology for his treatment. Writing in his weekly column in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson said: "It is pretty clear that Field Marshal Lord Bramall is owed a full and heartfelt apology." Asked whether he backed calls for an apology, Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "(Lord Bramall) is a wonderful man with a great record of serving our country and I think what happened to him would have been very distressing." But he added: "I think it is very difficult for a prime minister to get involved in these arguments because the police and the prosecuting services must be free to follow the evidence where it leads and go after people, no matter how high and mighty they are. "But if they feel they get it wrong, I hope they can feel big enough to give people some comfort afterwards." Mr Cameron said: "Prime ministers can't go around ordering the police to apologise here or the prosecutors to drop this prosecution. We are a country of independent institutions. The police are independent - they can't be ordered around by me. The prosecutors are independent - they can't be ordered around by me. That's right. "But we are also a country, I hope, of common sense and judgment and the great thing about having independent institutions is they can exercise some independent judgment." Mr Johnson said Lord Bramall's eminent position and record of service to his country may have "made things worse" for him when allegations were made. He acknowledged the "extreme difficulty" police faced when it came to investigating such cases, saying it was Lord Bramall's prominence as an establishment figure that meant they felt the need to show "a scrupulous refusal to be intimidated". He wrote: "The police have a duty to follow the evidence - wherever it takes them. Imagine if it turned out that they had gone soft on the Field Marshal, just because he was so well connected. "You can't blame the police, in the current climate, for taking no chances, though I can imagine that such evidence may be treated with even more circumspection. In this case they were plainly barking up the wrong tree. "I hope a way will be found of making amends, because being a British war hero didn't help Bramall against these allegations; on the contrary, there was a sense in which his status simply made things worse. "He deserves to put the last year behind him and accept the continued thanks of his country." Journalist Sir Max Hastings, a close friend of Lord Bramall, told The Independent: "It seems to me that (Metropolitan Police commissioner) Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has a clear responsibility to make an apology to Lord Bramall and to make the statement that the Metropolitan Police should have made in its letter to him that these charges have been exhaustively investigated and have been found to be baseless. "That's what they should have done. They should also make some sort of offer to Lord Bramall. He has faced a huge legal bill because of this." The move is part of a plan to attract talent from a variety of different backgrounds, Penguin Random House UK said A top publishing house has announced that it is scrapping the requirement for future workers to have a university degree. The move is part of a plan to attract talent from a variety of different backgrounds, Penguin Random House UK said, adding that there is increasing evidence that there is no simple link between having a degree and performance in the workplace. It said that it has removed the degree filter from all its UK job advertisements, job descriptions and recruitment systems with immediate effect. The publisher also has no requirements for A-levels or UCAS points, it said, and only certain professional qualifications will be required in some cases. Neil Morrison, group HR director, UK and international, said: "We want to attract the best people to help grow and shape the future of our company, regardless of their background - and that means that we need to think and act differently. Simply, if you're talented and you have potential, we want to hear from you. "This is the starting point for our concerted action to make publishing far, far more inclusive than it has been to date. Now, we need to be more visible to talented people across the UK. "We believe this is critical to our future: to publish the best books that appeal to readers everywhere, we need to have people from different backgrounds with different perspectives and a workforce that truly reflects today's society." The firm is not the first to abolish a requirement for certain qualifications. Last year accountancy firm Ernst and Young announced it was to remove academic and education details, including degree classifications as well as school and university information, from its trainee application process and would decide who to interview based on candidates' performance in online tests. Meanwhile, PricewaterhouseCoopers said it would no longer be using A-level grades as a means of selecting graduates. Climbers and hillwalkers have been urged to take all safety precautions after two men died in Glencoe Mountaineers have repeated safety warnings after two climbers died in the Scottish Highlands. The pair had "fallen some distance" and were found by another climbing party on Stob Coire nam Beith, Glencoe, at around 4.30pm on Saturday. It is thought they may have been caught up in an avalanche during their hike. Glencoe Mountain Rescue team, which led the recovery operation, said the men were roped together, suggesting they had been on a climb. The men, who have not yet been named, were said to have been experienced and were carrying adequate equipment. The weather in the area was described as "a typical winter day - snowing with wind on top", and t he Scottish Avalanche Information Service labelled the risk in Glencoe on Saturday as "considerable", a warning that remains in place. Andy Nelson, leader of the Glencoe Mountain Rescue team, said: ''The guys were roped together, so it is possible they were still on the climb but they have clearly fallen some distance. ''My information is that they have been killed instantly by the fall. ''They had all the relevant equipment and there is nothing to suggest that they were ill-equipped or inexperienced." Mr Nelson urged climbers to check forecasts and warnings before heading out. He added: "Stay as part of a group and c limb as at least a pair, take all the relevant equipment for whatever you are planning to do and take some form of communication as well just in case there is an accident." The deaths are thought to be the first on Scottish mountains this year, but there have been a number of rescues and mountaineers have criticised some people who took to the hills ill-prepared. Lomond Mountain Rescue found two men "freezing" on Ben Lomond earlier this month, five hours after they were reported missing. The pair lost the path on the descent from the mountain. A rescue team spokesman said : "It is clear that they did not fully comprehend the dangers of winter walking. "On their descent in the dark, they fell a number of times and were extremely fortunate to survive their experience uninjured, taking into account the snow and heavy rain on the mountain. "Lomond MRT would like to remind hillwalkers that, despite the recent warm and wet weather, Scotland's mountains are experiencing full winter conditions. "Waterproof warm clothing, a fully charged phone, food and drink, a torch and axe and crampons are basics that are essential for safe travel." Tata's plant at Port Talbot is expected to be affected by the job losses A row over how much support the Government has given the crisis-hit steel industry is raging after another 1,000 jobs were axed in a devastating blow to steel-making communities. Indian-owned Tata confirmed workers' fears when they unveiled plans to cut 750 posts at the huge Port Talbot plant in South Wales, 200 in support functions and 100 at steel mills, affecting Llanwern, Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool. Almost 5,000 job losses have now been announced in the steel industry since last summer as firms struggle with high energy costs, business rates and cheap Chinese imports. Previously announced cuts include 2,200 at Redcar (SSI), 900 at Scunthorpe (Tata), 450 at various locations (Caparo), 225 at Dalzell (Tata) and 45 at Clydebridge (Tata). Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said: "I know this news will be unsettling for all those affected, but these tough actions are critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry." The Government came under attack from unions and Labour for doing "too little, too late", and offering merely "warm words", but ministers defended their action in supporting the industry. Prime Minister David Cameron said there was a worldwide glut and over-production of steel, affecting countries around the world. "The steel industry has asked us for action on energy prices - we've taken that. "They've asked us for action on procuring more British steel - we've taken action on that. "They want us to take action within the European Union and we've done that as well. "But we'll continue to work with them and I want to have a strong British steel industry at the heart of our important manufacturing base." Roy Rickhuss, leader of the Community union, hit back, saying: "If David Cameron wants to support the steel industry and make sure his Government doesn't preside over the end of steel-making in the UK, then he needs to stop being weak on China. "Everyone in the industry is clear that unfairly traded Chinese steel is the biggest contributor to the UK steel crisis and yet the Prime Minister and his Government are cheerleading for China in Europe. "You can't wring your hands over steel job losses and then shake hands with the Chinese government over cosy trade deals." In the Commons, shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said there were warm words from the Government, "but very little concrete action". Business minister Anna Soubry insisted the Government had responded to demands from the steel industry and was creating a "level playing field", such as cutting energy costs. Workers and businesses in Port Talbot were despondent, saying they now needed Tata to give assurances about the job prospects of the 3,000 employees who will remain after the latest redundancies. Alan Coombs, a Port Talbot steelworker and president of Community, said: "Here in Port Talbot we make some of the world's best steel, but cheap Chinese imports and high energy costs are crippling our industry." Gareth Stace, director of trade body UK Steel, said: "This is deeply disappointing news and I am very concerned about the future of the plant and community. This is a site of critical importance to our national industrial infrastructure." First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones announced that a task force will meet on Wednesday to draw up an action plan to support workers and local supply chains. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Cheap Chinese steel imports are wrecking the steel industry." Welsh actor Michael Sheen warned about the impact the job losses would have on Port Talbot. He told BBC 2's Newsnight: "It's a very frightening time for the town." The star, who has appeared in films including The Queen and The Damned United, called on the Government to be "honest" about whether it was letting the industry "die by stealth". He added: "The Government says that they are doing everything they can to help it but their actions and their words don't really fit together. "I'm no expert, I don't know what's exactly going on behind the scenes but I know a lot of people feel there's lot of positive words coming out but that the actions are not really backing that up, or if they are, it is happening too slowly and in too small a way." The pair will appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court Two men have been charged with Syria-related terrorism offences. Mohammed Iqbal Hussain, 23, of Castle Road, Walsall, has been charged with four counts of funding terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000. Mohamed Suyaubur Rohaman, 32, of the same address, has been charged with one count of funding terrorism. Both were arrested last Tuesday and are due before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, West Midlands Police said. Two other men arrested by counter-terrorism officers in Walsall on Thursday on suspicion of Syria-related terrorism offences have been released on police bail until a date in April pending further inquiries. The arrests were intelligence-led and there was no immediate threat to public safety, the force added. The boat caught fire off the New Zealand coast All 60 people forced overboard after their tourist boat caught fire off the coast of New Zealand have been rescued, according to authorities. Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said the blaze broke out as the PeeJay was returning from White Island to the town of Whakatane. She said all 53 passengers and seven crew members were forced overboard to escape the fire and smoke. She said one passenger and one crew member were taken to a local hospital after suffering minor injuries and smoke inhalation. Ms Perks said the boat was about 0.6 miles (1km) from shore when authorities were first notified of the incident, and they called on nearby boats to assist. She said the PeeJay crew then sent a mayday to say they were abandoning ship. Ms Perks said four other private vessels and the New Zealand Coastguard were able to get to the scene quickly and rescue everybody. She said the PeeJay later sank. White Island, 31 miles (50km) off the coast of North Island, is volcanically active and popular with tourists. White Island Tours, which operated the tourist boat, was not immediately available for comment. Whakatane resident Roger White told the Associated Press it was raining at the time of the incident but he could see some of what unfolded from his home. He said he saw some light smoke coming from the front of the vessel which then got heavier. After about 10 minutes, he said, the cabin burst into flames and fire quickly engulfed the boat. He said it appeared some evacuated on to two small dinghies while he could see the figures of others still on board as the flames grew larger. He said it was hard to make out but believes those people must have then leapt into the water. Mr White said plenty of boats arrived quickly to help out, including a fishing boat and some charter boats, which assisted the Coastguard in the rescue. The Belgian man reportedly had a "direct relationship" to the Paris attackers A Belgian man who has links to Islamic State and had a "direct relationship" to the Paris attackers has been arrested in Morocco, according to the country's interior ministry. The man, who is of Moroccan descent, had spent time in Syria getting military training and building relationships with IS field commanders, "including the mastermind" of the Paris attacks, and others who threatened attacks in France and Belgium, the ministry said in a statement. The statement identified the suspect only by the initials J.A., and did not explain his suspected relationship to the Paris attackers. Several of the Islamic extremists who targeted a Paris rock concert, stadium and cafes on November 13 last year had Moroccan origins and links to Belgium. The attacks killed 130 people. The ministry said the man was arrested in the town of Mohammedia near Casablanca after travelling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It said the suspect is under investigation. At least one of the Paris attackers remains at large. Pervez Musharraf has been acquitted of murder Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has been acquitted in a murder case involving the killing of a nationalist leader in a military operation. An anti-terrorism court announced the verdict in the south-western city of Quetta on Monday, according to prosecution and defence lawyers. Mr Musharraf's lawyer Akhtar Shah said the court accepted his argument that his client has nothing to do with the killing. Mr Musharraf's government had launched a crackdown on separatist insurgents in Baluchistan province, which led to the killing of Akbar Bugti in a raid in 2006. Separatists in Baluchistan province want complete autonomy and have been fighting for a greater share of revenue from their region's natural resources. Mr Bugti's counsel Sohail Rajput said he will appeal the verdict in a higher court. French president Francois Hollande has pledged to redefine France's business model and declared "a state of economic and social emergency". The announcement came as he unveiled a two billion euro (1.5 billion) plan to revive hiring and catch up with a fast-moving world economy. The measures he proposed, however, are relatively modest, and he said they would not "put into question" the 35-hour work week. With his country under a state of emergency since the Paris attacks in November, Mr Hollande did not seek to assume any new emergency powers over the economy. In an annual speech to business leaders, he laid out plans for training half a million jobless workers, greater use of apprenticeships, and aid for companies that hire young workers. Mr Hollande's Socialist government has struggled to boost long-stagnant French growth or reduce chronic unemployment, which has been at around 10% for years. His chances of winning a potential second term may hinge on whether jobs pick up before next year's presidential vote. Mr Hollande stressed the urgency of updating France's labour-friendly business model in an increasingly border-free, online economy. The measures included a loosening of France's rigid working time rules, and a bonus of 2,000 euro (1,520) to small businesses that hire young people. He stressed the need to integrate youth from France's troubled suburbs, including minorities who face job discrimination, into the global economy. High unemployment in France's North African and African communities is seen as one of the factors driving some youths to violent extremism or the drug trade. Some measures will be included in draft economic reform laws the government is presenting to parliament in the coming weeks. Zac Efron could not attend the High School Reunion tribute, but instead recorded remarks to be broadcast The stars of High School Musical are reuniting for a 10th-anniversary tribute to the TV movie. Actors Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman share memories of the movie when it is shown on the Disney Channel on Wednesday. Zac Efron, who played Troy opposite Hudgens' Gabriella, could not attend the pre-recorded group reunion because it conflicted with promotion of his movie Dirty Grandpa, a channel spokeswoman said. Efron recorded separate remarks that will be included in the broadcast. The High School Musical reprise comes during a wave of TV musical popularity. NBC has shown a series of live musicals and is aiming to put Hairspray on in December, while Fox is showing a live production of Grease on January 31 and ABC has plans for a Dirty Dancing TV movie. Investigators have formally asked Kate del Castillo to meet them about Sean Penn's encounter with Joaquin Guzman Mexican authorities say they want to talk to actress Kate del Castillo, who arranged Sean Penn's controversial interview with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. A federal official confirmed that investigators have formally asked del Castillo to meet them about her and Penn's encounter with Guzman. The official said del Castillo is considered a witness and is not accused of any crime. Guzman is the Sinaloa drug cartel chief who was captured earlier this month in Los Mochis, Sinaloa state, six months after escaping from a maximum-security prison. Penn's article about Guzman was published by Rolling Stone a day after his capture. Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for Mexico's presidency, said last week that the government would investigate whether a crime was committed during the meeting between the drug lord and the actors, but that there was no criminal probe of Penn or del Castillo. However he criticised the idea that someone with information about a wanted fugitive would not share it with authorities. Del Castillo responded to criticism last week on Twitter, writing: "Not surprisingly, many have chosen to make up items they think will make good stories and that aren't truthful. I look forward to sharing my story with you." The image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with the words 'North Korea Nuclear Test' is displayed during an anti-Pyongyang protest (AP) North Korea has launched an estimated one million propaganda leaflets by balloon into the South amid increased tension between the rivals following the Pyongyang's recent nuclear test, Seoul said. A Cold War-style stand-off flared after the North's claim on January 6 that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials. Seoul's defence ministry said the North's military had been sending the balloons on a near-daily basis and spokesman Kim Min-seok said the leaflets had reached Seoul as well as areas close to the border. Such leafleting by the North is rare, as the two Koreas officially stopped psychological warfare as part of tension-reduction measures in 2004. South Korean activists have still occasionally sent propaganda balloons towards the North, triggering angry responses from Pyongyang. South Korean officials believe their broadcasts will sting in the rigidly-controlled, communist country by demoralising front-line troops and residents. There are doubts in Seoul that the North Korean leaflets will have any impact on the public in the more affluent South. Many foreign governments and analysts remain highly sceptical about the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground is likely to push the country closer towards a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is not thought to have. The North previously conducted atomic bomb tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. South Korea, the US and other countries are pushing hard to have North Korea punished over the bomb test. Soon after the test, diplomats at the United Nations Security Council pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions on the North. But it is unclear whether China, the North's last major ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the security council, would co-operate on any tough sanctions that could force a change in the North. The two Koreas share the world's most heavily-fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea. Barack Obama hailed the release of US prisoners, but imposed sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile tests (AP) The United States has imposed sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile testing, even as President Barack Obama hailed the release of five Americans from Tehran's custody and a nuclear deal he hopes will stand among his lasting foreign policy achievements. Mr Obama pledged to counter vigorously Iran's "destabilising behaviour" across the Middle East even while the US engages with the Islamic republic. After the Americans had been freed, he announced economic sanctions against 11 individuals and entities following a ballistic missile launch in October. "We're not going to waver in the defence of our security or that of our allies and partners," he said. With the sanctions announcement, Mr Obama also sought to counter criticism from Republican politicians and presidential candidates that his actions had appeased a nation that has helped the spread of Islamic extremism. "It reflects a pattern we've seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists and making deals and trades that endanger US safety and security," Texas senator Ted Cruz, a leading Republican presidential contender, said on Fox News Sunday. "Our enemies now know that if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it," another Republican candidate, Florida senator Marco Rubio, said on NBC's Meet The Press. But Mr Obama said he decided that "a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government". Democratic politicians who supported the agreement applauded the sanctions announced by the president. I n a joint letter to Mr Obama, f ive senators said failure to impose the restrictions could encourage Tehran to breach international obligations with impunity. The Obama administration worked for nearly 14 months behind the scenes to negotiate the prisoner trade. Iran also agreed to work to locate American Robert Levinson, who vanished during a trip to Iran in 2007. In a reciprocal move, Mr Obama said six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the US were being granted clemency. He emphasised that they were not charged with terrorism or any violent offences. "They're civilians and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play," he said. Mr Obama said the US and Iran had also resolved a long-standing dispute over money Iran used to buy military equipment from America before the two countries broke ties. Iran will get more than 400 million dollars (280m), plus 1.3 billion (915m) in interest. The White House said its lawyers assessed that the US could have faced a "significantly higher judgment" if the case continued. "There was no benefit to the US is dragging this out," Mr Obama said. The president used his Sunday morning statement from the White House to speak directly to the Iranian people, saying: "We have a rare chance to pursue a new path - a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world." He said Iran had a vibrant culture that had so much to contribute to the world in commerce, science and the arts, but "your government's threats and actions to destabilise your region have isolated Iran from much of the world". The Obama administration said it was prepared to test whether additional co-operation with Iran was possible, most notably in resolving the civil war in Syria. White House officials said later that Iran could play a significant role in resolving the Syrian civil war, but profound differences existed. They said Iran needed to understand the fighting would not be resolved as long as Syrian president Bashar Assad remained in power. The officials said they knew Iran was not going to dramatically change its actions in the next year or two. "If Iran does act in a more constructive fashion, it would be a positive development in resolving difficult issues," they said. "If they don't, we will continue to enforce our sanctions and continue to have very strong differences." Polish president Andrzej Duda has called on Nato to make its presence "as permanent as possible" in Poland to safeguard his country and region from an aggressive Russia. "The point is that Nato troops are deployed and are visible," Mr Duda said while visiting alliance headquarters in Brussels. Poland is the host nation for Nato's next summit in July, and M r Duda made clear his hope that the meeting will decide on a long-term stationing of Nato troops in his country. Pressed by reporters to give details on what commitments he is seeking, he did not cite numbers, but said the minimum size of the Nato force should be large enough to "ensure the security of the eastern flank" of the alliance. He said: "Today everything suggests that we need a significant presence of infrastructure and of troops there, on the ground, in Central and Eastern Europe. We need a good system of support for these forces and a system of defence in case of any act of aggression." Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg made no commitment, but indicated Poland will not be disappointed. He said: "Nato now has a persistent military presence in the region of which Poland is a part. And I trust that after the Warsaw summit we will see more Nato in Poland than ever before." Some allies have been reluctant to commit to a significant and permanent Nato presence in Eastern and Central Europe because of a 1997 agreement with Russia. But Mr Duda said the Warsaw summit's main goal should be reinforcing the security of his and other former Soviet bloc countries now in Nato, as well as southern European countries threatened by a spillover of Islamic extremism from the Middle East and North Africa. He said: "We need such strengthening of security today. Nato must be adequately prepared for the rising challenges to security." A new children's picture book about George Washington and his slaves is being taken off the shelves amid claims that it sentimentalises a brutal part of American history. A Birthday Cake For George Washington, released on January 5, has been strongly criticised for its upbeat images and story of the first president of the United States' cook - the slave Hercules - and his daughter Delia. "While we have great respect for the integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator and editor, we believe that, without more historical background on the evils of slavery than this book for younger children can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn," publisher Scholastic said. The book, which depicts Hercules and Delia preparing a cake for Washington, has received more than 100 one-star reviews on Amazon.com. As of Sunday night, only 12 reviews were positive. The book also sparked discussions on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere on social media. While notes in A Birthday Cake For George Washington from author Ramin Ganeshram and illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton had pointed out the historical context of the 18th-century story and that Hercules eventually escaped, some critics faulted them for leaving out those details from the main narrative. "Oh, how George Washington loves his cake!" reads the publisher's description of the story. "And, oh, how he depends on Hercules, his head chef, to make it for him. Hercules, a slave, takes great pride in baking the president's cake. But this year there is one problem - they are out of sugar." The trade publication School Library Journal had called it "highly problematic" and recommended against its purchase. Another trade journal, Kirkus Reviews, labelled the book "an incomplete, even dishonest treatment of slavery". Ganeshram's previous works include the novel Stir It Up and the non-fiction FutureChefs, while Brantley-Newton's credits include illustrating the children's series Ruby And The Booker Boys. Andrea Davis Pinkney, an award-winning author who in 2013 won a Coretta Scott King prize for African-American children's literature, was the editor. In a Scholastic blog post from last week, Ganeshram said the story was based on historical research and meant to honour the slaves' skill and resourcefulness. "How could they smile? How could they be anything but unrelentingly miserable?" Ganeshram wrote. "How could they be proud to bake a cake for George Washington? The answers to those questions are complex because human nature is complex. Bizarrely and yes, disturbingly, there were some enslaved people who had a better quality of life than others and 'close' relationships with those who enslaved them. But they were smart enough to use those 'advantages' to improve their lives." The book's withdrawal comes amid a debate about the lack of diversity in publishing and recalls a similar controversy from last year. A Fine Dessert, written by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Sophie Blackall, was criticised for its cheerful depiction of a 19th-century slave mother and daughter as they prepared a blackberry dessert. Jenkins apologised, saying that her book, which she "intended to be inclusive and truthful and hopeful, is racially insensitive". The book, released by the Random House imprint Schwartz & Wade, remains in print. Copies of A Birthday Cake For George Washington" were not easy to find even before Scholastic's decision. The print edition on Amazon.com, ranked No 13.202 earlier on Sunday, was listed as shipping within "two to four weeks". Several Barnes & Noble stores in Manhattan did not have the book in stock. Scholastic spokeswoman Kyle Good said she could not provide an immediate reason for delays in the book's availability. Russia and Qatar have sought to narrow their differences on Syria a week before the scheduled Syrian peace talks in Geneva. On his first visit to Moscow, Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani emphasised Russia's role in the region and voiced hope for finding a peaceful solution at the start of his negotiations with President Vladimir Putin. Russia and Qatar have stood on the opposite sides of the Syrian conflict since it erupted in 2011, with Moscow staunchly backing Syrian president Bashar Assad and Doha supporting his enemies. Mr Putin began the Kremlin talks by hailing Qatar's role in regional affairs and voicing hope that they would be able to "search for ways of settlement of the most difficult issues". The conflict in Syria, which began nearly five years ago with protests against Mr Assad, has morphed into an all-out war that has killed 250,000 people and displaced millions. Mr Al-Thani said at the start of talks with Mr Putin that Qatar wants to develop ties with Russia and find a solution for problems "concerning stability of some of the countries of the region". The Kremlin meeting comes just a week before the crucial peace talks in Geneva, which are to bring together the Syrian regime and its opponents. The talks, set to start on January 25, are intended to launch a political process that should produce a new constitution and elections in a year and a half. Hopes for their quick success are dim, with Mr Assad's forces scoring a series of battlefield gains which could make the government less inclined to negotiate a compromise. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters after the talks that Russia and Qatar agreed on the need to convene the talks this month. He added that the two nations agreed to "raise the efficiency of anti-terrorist action in the framework of international efforts". His Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, said the two leaders had agreed "on the need to search for a political settlement in Syria". A Swedish doctor has been charged with rape and kidnapping after he confessed to drugging a woman with sedative-laced strawberries and locking her up in a soundproof bunker. Prosecutors said that the 38-year-old had intended to keep her in the bunker for years. The man's defence lawyer described the case as an elaborate plot to find a girlfriend, which unravelled when he walked into a police station with the woman on September 18 last year - allegedly to show police that she was fine. "I haven't seen any case like this. I think it's unusual," prosecutor Peter Claeson said. Defence lawyer Mari Schaub said her client has confessed to all allegations except rape, but wants the kidnapping charge reduced to a lower charge of deprivation of liberty. According to the indictment, the defendant built what was meant to look like a machine shed next to his countryside home in southern Sweden. Inside it was a concrete "bunker" with double metal doors. "The purpose of the building was to keep people incarcerated during an extended period of time without detection," the indictment said. The doctor, whose name was not published in Sweden in line with privacy rules, allegedly made contact with the victim by phone and met her once before he abducted her in Stockholm on September 12 after careful preparations. The woman, whose age was not provided in the indictment, passed out after he gave her chocolate-coated strawberries laced with Rohypnol, also known as a "date-rape drug". Prosecutors say he had sex with her while she was unconscious, which Ms Schaub said he denies. He then wheeled her to his car in a wheelchair and drove 530 kilometres (330 miles) to his home outside Knislinge, giving her drugs intravenously during the journey to keep her sedated. Prosecutors said he also brought two rubber masks "featuring an older man and older woman" to avoid being recognised. When they arrived the next morning, the defendant locked the woman inside the bunker where she remained until September 18, except for a few brief occasions when he led her in handcuffs to his home to take a shower, the indictment said. He allegedly told the woman he intended to have unprotected sex with her and took blood samples and vaginal samples to check whether she had any diseases. He said he wanted to keep her there for years and that he planned to lock up other people, too, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said the defendant's plot started falling apart when he returned to the woman's apartment on September 17 to fetch some of her belongings. That was when he found out that police were searching for the woman and had changed the locks on her front door. He returned to his home, picked up the woman, and drove to a Stockholm police station the next day with the intent of picking up the new keys to her apartment and making her assure police that she was fine. The police officers got suspicious and took the woman aside. She told them she had been kidnapped, and the defendant was arrested, the indictment said. Ms Schaub described her client as a "very sad and depressed person who wanted a partner" and said he deeply regrets what happened. "He never meant to hurt anyone," she said. A psychiatric examination found the defendant mentally fit to stand trial, both the prosecutor and the defence lawyer said. The trial is expected to begin next week. Syrian refugees wait to be approved to get into Jordan (AP) The new UN refugee agency chief has urged countries to find a fairer formula for sharing the burden of Syria's crisis - including taking in thousands of refugees from overwhelmed host nations. Filippo Grandi, who assumed his post earlier this month, heads an agency grappling with mounting challenges as Syria's five-year-old civil war drags on. Humanitarian aid lags more and more behind growing global needs, including those caused by the Syrian conflict. More than four million Syrians have fled their homeland, the bulk living in increasingly difficult conditions in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, while hundreds of thousands have flooded into Europe. Mr Grandi visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan after meeting with King Abdullah II in the capital Amman. His agency, UNHCR, hopes to raise money for refugees at a London pledging conference in February, followed by an international gathering in March in Geneva where countries would commit to taking in more refugees. "I think we need to be much more ambitious" about resettling refugees, Mr Grandi said. "We are talking about large numbers ... in the tens of thousands. "What is needed is a better sharing of responsibilities, internationally, for a crisis that cannot only concern the countries neighbouring Syria." Hundreds of thousands of refugees entered Europe in 2015, often with the help of smugglers who ferried them across the Mediterranean in dangerous voyages. Mr Grandi said it was time to create legal ways for some refugees to leave overburdened host countries. He and his Jordanian hosts also discussed a potentially contentious issue - the fate of some 17,000 refugees who have amassed on the Syrian-Jordanian border, with numbers rising rapidly in recent months. They are stranded in a remote desert area, with Jordan only admitting several dozen each day after stringent security checks. UNHCR has warned that the refugees face deteriorating conditions, including lack of adequate shelter. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said on Sunday that Jordan believes Islamic State supporters are among the refugees, many of whom fled areas of Syria currently under IS control. Mr Momani said Jordan's security is a priority, suggesting a change in the current admissions policy is unlikely. He said aid workers are given access to the area and that Jordan will fly the refugees to any country willing to accept them. The blast occurred at a school in Kilis, southern Turkey A woman has been killed after projectiles fired from Syria struck a school in the southern Turkish city of Kilis. The office of the governor of Kilis said a rocket had hit a schoolyard and killed a cleaning lady, while two other rockets fell in vacant land. A wounded student - a girl in the seventh grade - was taken to hospital for treatment, the governor's office added. The mayor of Kilis, Hasan Kara, told Turkish NTV television that "mortars" had apparently been fired from Syria. The broadcaster, quoting military sources, said the Turkish army responded with fire against targets in Syria. Earlier, the state-run Anadolu Agency said four people were injured in an explosion on the grounds of a middle school in Kilis. There are four schools in the area, just 10 kilometres (six miles) from Syria. The Syrian conflict has spilled over into Turkey many times, with artillery fire landing in Turkish border towns and the Turkish army responding in kind. Kilis lies near Syrian territory controlled by Islamic State. The news of a death is always a sombre reminder of the frailty of our humanity, and the loss of a young life is always a particular tragedy. This is true of Ellen Finnegan, aged only 19, who has died in a fire at Castlewellan. Even more poignantly, this took place on the third anniversary of the death of her mother, who also passed away at a young age. It is incomprehensible as to why some people have to suffer so much, down the generations. All our hearts go out to this grieving family, and also to Ellen's friends, who have mourned her untimely death, with heart-rending scenes at a service for her. Ellen was a bright young woman who had won a place at university. Now this is all "what might have been", and it is difficult for her young friends, and people of older age groups, to come to terms with reality. Death is hard enough for older people to bear, but it is especially traumatic for young people who are faced with its reality, for the first time in their lives. There are no words to describe what this can mean. The flat where Ellen died had no smoke alarm, and the local fire chief has underlined the need for everyone to make sure that their home has an alarm, in good working condition. Modern smoke alarms are inexpensive and relatively easy to install, and although many of us have good intentions about taking precautions for our safety, we do not always get round to taking action, or checking that the alarms actually work. This dreadful tragedy should be a reminder to all of us to make safety a major priority in our lives. We need to decide once and for all to install smoke alarms, and to make sure also that, if possible, other people in our homes are also aware of where these alarms are situated, and of the need to check them regularly. Most of our lives are so busy nowadays that it is easy to make good resolutions, but so many of us forget to carry them out. The installation of smoke alarms, and checking their conditions periodically, can be so easily overlooked, but in essence the careful attention to such tasks may save your life, and those of your loved ones some day. It is very sad indeed that the death of a young woman, who had so much of her life ahead of her, is also a grim reminder that fire can so easily kill, and that we must do everything we can to protect ourselves. This is a stark warning for every one of us. Dr Brian Patterson says that a lot of general practices in Northern Ireland are struggling with the demands of increased workloads GP Dr Brian Patterson talks to Lisa Smyth about the crisis in our health service and the need for courageous decisions to be taken to avert it collapsing under the strain it faces. Q. What happened in our accident and emergency departments at the beginning of the year? A. Clearly it was a holiday period and there are always difficulties over holiday periods. They are predictable, they do happen every year, but it couldn't have been down to winter in terms of true winter pressures. There were no flu epidemics, there were no huge frosts causing fractures, so clearly it was a reasonably normal situation where an increased number of people attended A&E. My view is that the situation in A&E is basically a symptom of a condition affecting the entire health and social services, and that is being caused by a huge number of factors. The pressure that each one of these generates results in the pressures at the front doors of hospitals, which are the A&Es, and in other services, although these are less visible. Q. What would you say are the factors that contribute to the problems in A&Es? A. We have an increasingly elderly population, and not only elderly people, but elderly and young people who have chronic, long-term conditions, and frequently more than one. We are also living in a world where dementia is becoming increasingly prevalent, which complicates all long-term conditions. We also have a population that has reasonably high expectations that are getting higher. In Northern Ireland, we also have a unique thing called waiting lists for outpatients, for operations, day procedures, diagnostics, and they are huge. You have people waiting for tests to find out whether they should go on a waiting list, but waiting is not a free gift. People who are waiting deteriorate and get sicker, they are suffering, and their condition gets worse and harder to fix. All of that costs money and while they're waiting, they frequently show up at the doors of their GP surgery or the A&E and that all costs money. We can't figure out why we can't deliver prompt care when we're spending a lot of money on waiting, which doesn't produce any benefits and just fights a fire while people are waiting. Q. Can you give an example? A. Take someone with gall bladder disease who needs an operation which costs 4,000 to 5,000 under UK tariff. If they have to wait for the operation, they attend A&E, they get admitted, they have to have other procedures, endoscopies, that sort of thing. They have to take time off work, they may need carers to come in to help them, they end up on benefits. Then, at the end of all that, they end up having the procedure but it is frequently more difficult than it would have been in the first place, so you end up spending thousands on someone waiting for a very simple procedure. Q. We hear a lot about people going to A&E when they don't need to be there. How big a problem is this? A. I do think that this issue is frequently exaggerated. In the Northern Trust, we have done pieces of work where we have actually put in GPs at the front doors of A&E departments to find these people who are attending inappropriately. The idea was that the GPs would deal with the patients but we actually had to remove those GPs because they were under -utilised. People don't go to A&E for the fun of it, and it is a very easy point, after you have done a lot of tests on someone, to say that they could have done without going to A&E. However, sitting in the community, without the benefit of those tests, it can be difficult to judge, so inappropriateness is sometimes diagnosed after the event rather than before it. Q. Statistics suggest six out of 10 attendances at A&Es are alcohol-related. How much of a role does this play in clogging up our hospitals? A. Mental health and addiction issues can be a problem if they are not dealt with properly. I had a paramedic tell me there was one patient who had been to A&E more than once a day for a whole year. This paramedic was going backwards and forwards collecting them, and that was because no one was doing anything about the problem. They were being discharged from A&E but coming straight back in again. Something had to be done to help that patient and, while there are little pilot exercises being done to address these problems, we need them to become mainstream. The problem is, there isn't the money to do this but it would save a lot of work and money. It really is the chicken and the egg; you can't spend money making something mainstream when you're busy spending money on the expensive services. Q. Do you think that a lack of resources in the community contributes to people going to A&E? A. A big difficulty in the health service in Northern Ireland is that virtually 90%-plus of all new resources are put in to fighting problems in acute care. You need to invest in social workers, domiciliary care packages, GP out-of-hours, who can all provide solutions to address the demand. I have to declare an interest as the chair of Crossroads, which provides domiciliary care, but it is about to flounder because the people in charge of the purse strings are prepared to fund domiciliary care by the trusts at a much higher level than by the community and voluntary sector. As a result, organisations like Crossroads are finding it harder and harder to deliver. At a conservative estimate, it costs well over twice per hour for the trusts to deliver the service than it does the voluntary and charitable organisations. Q. So, are you saying that charitable organisations are at risk of going under? A. Massively. If you don't get enough resources, you can't retain staff; if you can't afford to pay staff then you can't afford to provide care. Crossroads is finding it is getting harder to get by. For example, the trust is paid 20 for a service and we get 10. The trusts say it costs them more money because they have a huge infrastructure. It's sad because organisations like Crossroads could be a huge asset if we were equitably funded. Q. Do you think people are going to A&E because they can't see their GP? A. The evidence doesn't back that up, you just have to look at the GPs we put in A&Es in the Northern Trust to see that. I would imagine it is the case in individual cases but it isn't a major pressure. When we have drilled in to the figures in the past, we have found it isn't true that A&Es are being inundated with people who can't see their GP, but it makes a good soundbite. It takes the pressure off and blames someone else when the reality is that in the last 10 years, GP consultations have gone from six million to 12 million. That's six million more people who have found their way into the GPs and similar figures don't exist for A&Es. At the same time, the number of GPs has not increased, in fact there are actually less in whole time equivalent terms than 10 years ago. Q. How serious is the situation in the A&Es? A. If you treat it as an issue that reflects the NHS in general, and I include social services in that, it should ring alarm bells. But the solution is not ploughing more and more resources into A&E, the solution is addressing all the other things. I also think we need to focus on what happens in A&E. If you watch news footage in A&Es, it is clear that most people spend their time, not with patients, but with computers. I'm not blaming the people as it's what they have to do, but I would suggest there may be other people, not doctors and nurses, who would be better to stand and wait for results out of machines and then hand those to the clinicians. There are also quotas which state how many patients junior doctors are allowed to see in a 12 hour shift, I don't know what they are, but I know they exist. In my day you went from cubicle to cubicle and back again but that doesn't happen now. It's the same in theatres; surgeons are only allowed to do maybe four hips on their list for safety reasons. The fact they can do nine in a private hospital, we won't go there. I'm not saying anyone is standing around doing nothing, of course, but I do think we should be looking at how resources are used. Q. Why do you think so much money goes into A&Es? A. For some unknown reason, the health service is equated with hospitals and hospitals make the news. Waiting for four weeks to get a rail outside your landing or bath so you don't fall over doesn't make the news, but wait for 12 hours in an A&E department and it is on the news. However, someone falling due to the lack of a rail can end up waiting the 12 hours in A&E. It's worth remembering that we've had numerous reviews which have all said we need to prioritise resources into the community. We've had Developing Better Services, the John Appleby report, Hayes Review, Transforming Your Care and, most recently, Donaldson. They've all said the same thing, to prioritise resources into the community, and we have done the exact opposite. Q. Can you give an example? A. Over 5m went into the trusts for A&E support last year and they did see an extra 1,000 patients. That works out at about 5,000 per patient, but unfortunately the spin off from that is that about 800 elective procedures were cancelled. So while we paid for more people to be seen in A&E, we spent less on elective care so waiting lists went up, and those people probably ended up in A&E, so it is a vicious circle. What we need is to listen to all these reviews - basically courageous decisions are needed. At the moment, the balance is wrong, but that takes courageous decisions and debate, such as do we have too many hospitals, are we spending money on buildings that we don't need? I think that is what this new review is going to say, it would be the same as the previous reviews, that, yes, we do have too many hospitals. The question is, what are going to do about this? Q. Is there support for the change required? A. I welcome the new review announced by the Health Minister but my concern is there is no commitment to do anything about it. Donaldson said what needed to happen - he said he wanted external people to work on it, but our Executive decided against that. Not In My Back Yard is a problem, we're all guilty of it. We're in favour of change as long as it isn't in our back yard, but it's actually in all of our interests to have a properly functioning health service. It's no use having a local service that doesn't work rather than a centralised service, with fewer centres, that works better. The issue is that no matter what service is affected you are always going to get a campaign to keep it open. I always say, focus on what the service does for you, not where it is. Q. Has Transforming Your Care (TYC) had any effect? A. TYC has not been allowed to deliver because of a lack of funding and political will. I know there is a lot of good work going on but it is only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is there have only been tiny little attempts, and we need to get the concept across the health service in Northern Ireland. TYC said there are two options: we either do it in a planned, agreed and resourced way, or wait for the health service to fall apart. We aren't doing it in a planned, agreed and resourced way at the moment. Q. How close are things to falling apart? A. Well, you see what is happening to A&E, to domiciliary care, you see what is happening in GP surgeries and what is happening with doctors and nurses emigrating. Q. How bad are things in general practice at the minute? A A lot of practices are struggling to cope with increased workload. The workload has doubled over 10 years. There are a lot of practices vulnerable to collapse, with a lot of older GPs coming to retirement age and no younger GPs to replace them. Q. It has been claimed that the GP out-of-hours service is unsafe. Do you agree? A. It's not safe. You only have to look at litigation and the best key is what a medical defence organisation will charge you to cover you to work, and GP fees to work in OOH (Out Of Hours) are going up and up. Q. Why isn't it safe? A. The volume of patients, you are triaging extremely sick people from the not so sick. It used to be an emergency only service and now it seems to be a general healthcare service 24 hours a day. That's an expectation given to people by government. Q. Do you think seriously ill patients are getting lost among those waiting to be seen by the Out Of Hours service? A They do. When you have people who are waiting six or seven hours for a call back, doctors have to be very vigilant to pick out of that who they call back quickly. When you have people waiting six, seven or eight hours when they are acutely ill, that can be fatal. Q. Are you saying it is only a matter of time before someone dies? A. There might already have been, I don't know, it's impossible to tell. Although I'm not the best to say because I stopped doing OOH a lot time ago because I had concerns about safety. My understanding is that things have got a lot worse since I stopped doing it. Q. How frustrating is the current situation? A. It's frustrating in that people see the only solution is to throw money at a crisis or sack the chief executive - look at the decision to get rid of the Health & Social Care Board. If the car is broken, it won't be fixed by changing the driver - you need to look at why the car is broken. We do have to keep it in perspective though. I can produce thousands of people who have had a good experience in A&E when it matters. Unfortunately, the less positive stories are becoming more and more frequent. While they keep throwing money at A&E the problem is never going to resolve. It just means there is less money for the things that need fixed. Indian Muslim students in Mumbai listen to a speaker during a gathering to denounce the Islamic State, Nov. 20, 2015. A spate of recent arrests of suspected Islamic State (IS) sympathizers, coupled with a growing threat of the terror group targeting the sub-continent for recruitment has prompted Indian authorities to devise an educational strategy aimed at preventing Muslim youth from being lured by radical outfits. As part of a two-pronged educational program, titled Nai Manzil (New Goal), the government will provide financial help to Muslim youth who have studied in madrassas, or religious seminaries, to acquire modern education and vocational training to increase their chances of finding a job. The ambitious skills and development program, which aims to shield nearly 30 million Indian Muslims studying in roughly 300,000 madrassas across the country from radicalization, is being funded by the World Bank with a $50 million credit line, officials said. India is the worlds third most populous Muslim nation, with about 172 million followers of Islam, according to the 2011 census. The report also stated that the minority group has the lowest share of working people about 33 percent of all religious communities in the country. The educational project was initiated keeping in mind the threat of IS targeting the Indian sub-continent for recruitment, an official of the Ministry of Minority Affairs told BenarNews on condition of anonymity. The idea of the initiative is to provide training to the youth studying in madrassas so that they get good jobs, the official said, adding, Two programs skill development and Nai Manzil have been initiated in this regard to ensure that unemployed youth stay away from adverse anti-social activities. The skill development program, in which students are provided with hands-on vocational training, has been launched in madrassas in the states of Bihar and Maharashtra on a trial basis, the official said. The government had also tied up with minority institutes such as Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Uttar Pradesh and Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi for its Nai Manzil project. So far, around 100 students have enrolled in the program at AMU, he said. Skepticism But many are skeptical of the success of such a scheme, calling it mere lip-service. In the past, too, the government has announced several schemes for Muslim youth. But the success rate of such schemes is zero. I am yet to see any scheme getting implemented on the ground, Maulana Mohammad Qasim Rahimi, founder of the Delhi-based Madrassa Taleem al-Quran, told BenarNews. To implement any such scheme successfully you have to first create equal opportunities for Muslims in the country, he added. The government initiative follows a string of recent arrests and detentions of Indian Muslims, at least 10 of them minors, allegedly with leanings toward the IS. Last month, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Pune, Maharashtra, detained a 16-year-old girl, who was allegedly radicalized online by IS operatives. Security officials said the IS was trying to lure her to Syria with promises of funding her higher education. The girl has since been put under a deradicalization program with help from local Muslim clerics. Just days after the girls detention, security forces in disputed Jammu and Kashmir state arrested nine juveniles for alleged leanings toward IS. Security officials said the nine boys had been in touch with an IS recruiter in an African nation via the messaging application Whatsapp. Since late 2014, at least 20 suspected IS sympathizers and operatives have been detained or arrested in India, which for long had denied the militant outfits existence in the sub-continent. Kashmiri separatist accused On Dec. 27, three youths from south Indias Andhra Pradesh state were arrested while trying to board a flight to Srinagar, from where they were to allegedly travel to Syria to join the IS. The youths, all in their early 20s, reportedly told interrogators they were traveling to Srinagar to meet Kashmiri separatist leader Asiya Andrabi, who would facilitate their initiation into the extremist group. Andrabi, who heads the Dukhtarani-Milat, the first women-only separatist group in Kashmir, denied the allegation. The claim that I was helping those youths join the IS is simply ridiculous and unfounded. I am solely concerned with the ongoing movement aimed at liberating Kashmir from Indian occupation, she told BenarNews. According to an intelligence report, at least 23 Indians have traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the IS. Among them, six have been killed in battle. However, speculation is rife that the figure may well be higher than that stated by Indian intelligence agencies. Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Walid al-Moaulem confirmed during his state visit to New Delhi last week that four Indians who had arrived in Syria via Turkey with the intention of joining IS were being held in a prison in Damascus. Intelligence officials said they had prevented nearly 30 Indian youth from traveling to Iraq and Syria to join IS, while another 150 were under online surveillance for showing sympathy toward to the group. Indian values will triumph During a meeting in Delhi Saturday with top security officials from 13 Indian states to assess the IS threat in India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the traction that the terror outfit has got in India is extremely limited and almost insignificant to other countries. He, however, emphasized the need to keep up vigil on all fronts and not let the guard down in any manner. While noting that most Muslim organizations in India had come out against the IS and other forms of terrorism, Singh said: Indias traditions and family values will triumph over even this evil. With reports suggesting the IS is targeting potential recruits in India via the Internet, the countrys minority educational institutes, too, are keeping a close watch on what students are surfing. We are surveilling our students online activities closely to ensure they dont get influence by the propaganda of terrorist organizations, Zahir Kazi, president of Anjuman-i-Islam, which operates about 90 educational institutes in India, told BenarNews. We have fire-walled all computers in our institutes as we have reason to believe Indian youths are being radicalized online. It is our responsibility to take preventive measures, he said. Amin Masoodi contributed to this report The Bookseller is reporting that Penguin Random House has been experimenting with a non-graduate recruitment scheme. So successful has it been that they have now decided that they are going to waive the need for candidates to be degree qualified at all. The main point of universities was always to act as a filter for employers, revealing those best academically equipped for management positions. When Tony Blair decided to vastly increase the numbers of young people who went to university, that raison d'etre disappeared. Penguin's new approach is therefore simply a logical response. Is this the beginning of the end for university education? With the Port Talbot steelworks layoffs in the news, I was interested to see this tweet from Carbon Brief's Simon Evans this morning. The linked article, which seeks to divert blame away from energy costs, has this rather remarkable claim: The share of electricity in steel production costs is around 6%, according to one estimate for blast-furnace steel production, used at most major steelworks. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) says energy makes up 5.2% of costs for basic metals, which includes steel. Now having worked in manufacturing industry in the dim and distant past I have a bit of feel for costs, and so the figure of 6% immediate jumped out at me as being very low. A moment's further thought brought to mind a geography lesson at about age 10, when we learned that steel was made from coke and iron ore rather than electricity. Yet the whole of the Carbon Brief article discusses electricity costs alone. This page has a representative set of cost figures for a steel mill, suggesting that coal (from which plants like Port Talbot manufacture coke on site) is as much as 25% of total costs. It also confirms electricity costs as 6% of the total. I think it's fair to say that the Carbon Debrief has been caught with its pants down. Being an inquisitive kind of chap, I asked Simon Evans to explain. His reply was as follows: @aDissentient @CarbonBrief @LeoHickman as you can see, EII/EEF contributed to the article, & they didn't raise an issue with the analysis. Simon Evans (@DrSimEvans) January 18, 2016 Right. I'll drop a line to Richard Warren, the EEF source, to see if he wants to comment. The Independent is reporting research that suggests that investment in renewable energy is about to slump dramatically. The research comes from BNEF, so the usual caveats about reliability apply. The dour forecast comes as the industry celebrated a record-breaking year in 2015, with billions of pounds poured into solar and wind energy and more homes powered by nature than ever before. But experts have warned this is all about to grind to a halt as the Government abandons its commitment to green energy and instead invests in fracking and nuclear power. And of course this is all happening just as renewables become cost competitive with fossil fuels. Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist and policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: Wind and solar energy are at the point of becoming really competitive with fossil fuels, but failure to support them for another few years will result in huge losses of potential jobs. If this is true then it's good news for everyone other than the subsidy junkies. But we will have to wait and see. Success in Africa depends on many factors, including agility and localisation of strategy. These are the key factors shaping sustainable growth potential in Africa's dynamic marketplace in 2016: 1. Attraction vs. Action Current global attention on Africa is largely focussed on macro-economic factors such as population, growing economies, urbanisation, rising per capita GDP and previously untapped consumer needs. However, with 54 individual and unique countries, an array of diverse consumer segments and challenging infrastructure and developmental environments, success is actually determined by integrated, multi-dimensional indicators extending beyond the macro-economic figures. For example, Ethiopia is one of Africa's most attractive markets by macro standards, with more than 90 million people (4 million in Addis Ababa alone). However, on the ground it has poor road/rail connectivity, a largely traditional trade environment and a multitude of consumer preferences, spending and shopping dynamics. What investors can accomplish within that market may therefore be far more limited than initially thought. In contrast, smaller but easier to reach markets, such as Rwanda or Botswana, can provide a more fertile, although initially lesser considered, opportunity. KEY INSIGHT: Adopt a planning- and execution-based approach, where actionable variables outweigh initial attraction factors. 2. Confidence to Consumption Africa is home to some of the most confident nations in the world. For example, Nigeria and Kenya have one of the most optimistic consumer confidence scores, together with other developing markets like China, Philippines and India. However, despite the fact that consumer confidence in developing markets is an expression of positivity, it is less likely to be the most representative indicator of consumers' ability to spend or their actual spend, as there is often a low correlation between income and confidence. KEY INSIGHT: With deeper consumer understanding and knowledge of shopper spending dynamics, sentiment can be converted into spend, through suitable ranges of products, packages, variants and promotion, optimised for the consumer spectrum in good and bad times. 3. Middle Class: Mountain or Mole Hill? Africa's middle class, by income definition, is estimated at between 300 million and 500 million people, similar in size to China and India, and set to double by 2030. However, the majority of the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) middle class (217 million) is considered 'floating' (148 million or 68%), drifting in and out of poverty based on daily earnings of US$2-4. This floating group is more likely considered as variable potential, with the true accessible potential of the SSA middle class only around 69 million people. In addition, in light of Africa's 54 diverse countries, tapping into the accessible middle class needs to be assessed in relative and absolute terms. Countries with a higher proportion (%) of middle class consumers include: Gabon, Botswana, Ghana, Namibia and South Africa, whilst countries with a higher absolute number of middle class consumers include: Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana. Income numbers alone as the definer, therefore do not portray a complete picture, increasingly a middleclass needs to be distinguished by mindset, which includes openness to try new products, brand consciousness, shopping behaviour, store repertoires, media influence, access and use of technology, spend composition on food vs. non-food and other items. KEY INSIGHT: Redefine middle class opportunities and strategies based on a broader range of consumer-based factors, with market-by-market tactics. 4. Languid or Loyal Africa's consumers are characterised as being highly loyal to products and brands. This is determined by their purchase drivers, which emphasise choice based on considerations such as recommendation from friends and family, known/familiar/tried brands as well as brands that are easily available. The reality, however, is that consumers are unable to make costly mistakes by trying new brands when disposable income is low, and brand choice or ranges are small in terms of what is available, which has meant consumers stick with what they know. KEY INSIGHT: Loyalty may be short lived for brands that were previously the 'only ones there'. As more optimal products enter markets and provide solutions to real consumer needs, penetration and recommendation alone will no longer be the determinant of loyalty. When YouTube started out of beta phase a mere 11 years ago and made its first video available for public viewing, there were 7 billion possible sets of eyeballs available to watch one video. 2016 will see the a billion monthly active YouTube users, who are mostly aged 17 to 30, load 300 hours of content every minute of the day. A far cry from 2005's 'Day at the Zoo': Eyeballs and re-engagement The challenge has moved from developing emotionally engaging and remarkable content, to an extreme competition for access to eyeballs, and then re-engaging that audience periodically to urge them to act on a call to action. The concept of an elder of a community being a source of knowledge is starting to turn full cycle. In a digital community, persons of authority and respected for their opinions, are leading the conversation online, and bringing brands along with them. Influencer marketing is proving to be a highly effective means of transmission of a brand's message to an audience. Sugar-coated re-sharing The first lesson that brands learnt on social media is that trying to grow and sustain an audience for the single benefit of re-sharing sugar-coated messaging with them has yielded very little return, at significant cost. They're now learning that traditional unidirectional messaging to an online audience is risky - the internet holds a brand accountable to its promises and are quick to call them out when they fail to deliver. Social influencers hold the key to steering conversation, endorsing the good and flaming the bad. "Engagement" metrics that brands hold so dear are as much a vanity metric as page views - just because someone "Liked" your page doesn't mean that they'll buy your product. Brands aren't just competing with direct competitors, they're competing with every available product that's appealing to that particular audience segment, so justifying why it should win that share of wallet is becoming increasingly difficult. Move from vanity metrics to trust We expect to see the leading brands taking on a growing their market share by reaching new audiences through influencer marketing, and then sustaining their engagement by periodically re-engaging with that audience to remind their potential customers of their availability, not necessarily expecting a kick in sales overnight. Trust is earned over time, and those willing to earn it need to be consistent. "We might be shepherds, stewards, and guardians of our brands, but we no longer control them," says Wendy Clark, senior executive of Coca-Cola. Investing in influencer advocates will be a theme we see happening in 2016. Appreciating that the leverage effect of an influencer allows them to sustain a large interested audience, and that there is an overlap of brand audience within that, creates a basis for brands to enter the conversation online, and even be endorsed or recommended. Including that digital personality in the brand messaging from the outset and giving them the freedom to craft the messaging that their audience resonates with is crucial to audience appreciation of it. As audiences evolve and find their niche interests and digital communities, brands need to embrace the conversation, earn their seat at the table to share their wares, take comment onboard and evolve with the needs of that community. Aligning with the elders, in this case the social influencers, has never made more sense. For more on how influencer marketing is set to expand in Africa in particular, click here. Don't miss the Webfluential infographic on audiences in Africa. Finding the balance between the opportunities and the risks is the right way to do business in Africa. These are the key trends driving investment in Africa. Africa is a continent of contrasts. It is little wonder the first European settlers in South Africa described Cape Town as both the "Cape of Good Hope" and "the Cape of Storms". There are extremes everywhere - affluence and poverty; opportunity and misery; great natural beauty and environmental degradation. Not that many years ago, Africa was often seen as the 'hopeless' continent. Now it is a continent on the rise - the opportunity continent, the continent of hope. Both the reality and the narrative have been optimistic for a number of years now. There are six main reasons for companies to invest in/work in Africa. All of these include both opportunities and risks that need to be carefully balanced. 1. Better regulatory environment and better governance African countries are building local environments that are more conducive to doing business. But there are 55 different countries on the continent and therefore 55 different sets of regulations, political regimes, governments and processes. Therefore, for a company that wants to do business on the continent, it is crucial to have local partners on the ground to advise on, and to overcome, any potential pitfalls in these areas. 2. Greater political stability In 1991 there were eight democracies in Africa; today there are over 30! Growing and sustaining democracy is being driven by the emerging middle class and a vibrant private sector. When working in Africa, businesses need to understand the political environment. Local partners/advisors are important in doing this. 3. Demand for resources Africa is the richest continent when it comes to natural resources. This has given African governments more bargaining power and has led to new forms of relationships. For example, China is a customer/trade partner, banker and development partner. China is attracted to Africa's raw materials to feed its industries and at the same time needs a market for its increasing numbers of manufactured goods. Handled badly, this can lead to a fear of economic colonialism where companies are perceived to take advantage of the "unsophisticated locals and local leaders", to be plundering riches and leaving little behind in terms of benefits to locals, communities and countries. When doing business in Africa, companies need to demonstrate commitment to the local community and doing business in partnership with local people, and where necessary, with governments. 4. Expanding labour force Africa has the youngest and fastest-growing population in the world and by 2040, will have the largest labour force with 1.1 billion Africans of working age. This represents a labour force larger than those of both China and India and there must be an opportunity in that. However, in Africa, unemployment is still the biggest social and political risk. Poor education and skills levels mean that many young people are only suitable for lower level jobs/unskilled jobs. This can lead to social anger, frustration and potential unrest. It is clear that a concerted effort is required to improve education and training and companies that operate in Africa are required to play their part in this. 5. Urbanisation Urbanisation in Africa is currently at 40%, which is comparable to China and higher than India. By 2050, 60% of Africa's population is expected to be urbanised. Increasing urbanisation leads to an increase in consumer spending power and therein lies a huge opportunity for consumer goods companies and, in turn, all those involved in their supply chains - transport, shipping, etc. But, rapid urbanisation can also bring some risks. Higher levels of unemployment in the cities can create social problems - overcrowding, insufficient housing, social and health problems and increases in crime rates. All of these can impact on work attendance, productivity and service delivery. 6. An emerging middle class The emerging middle class is driving Africa forward, but it is not all positive. Adopting a 'one size fits all' approach to the middle class across the continent is incorrect, because it will lead to a misunderstanding of local markets and local consumers. Companies need to adjust their strategies and expectations for their different markets in different countries to be able to service appropriately for each market. In conclusion, despite the risks, the opportunities across Africa are significant and span every sector. But investors would be well advised to keep in mind the enormous importance of finding the right local partners to advise and to overcome potential challenges. Appropriate and market-relevant communications are key to success in Africa. I'll take a bet that most people are sick of seeing the words 'Content Marketing'. It's a term that reached its peak during 2015 and its growth on the communication scene is set to increase this year. Call it what you will, brands have been creating content for years, it's nothing new. What is new is the amount of ways we're able to create and distribute words, images, sound and video; the distribution and targeting of content will set certain brands apart in 2016. Email This may come as a surprise; my number one trend for 2016 is email. Email is one of the most underrated channels but it's a key one, particularly in South Africa. Companies have access to massive databases but don't actively use them to distribute key, targeted content or to ask for feedback. Similarly, we need to experiment with mobile messaging platforms in a more creative way to tell stories, share information and involve consumers. Less, but better Brands are fighting for consumers' attention constantly, the barrage of content is overwhelming and only the strongest stories survive. Brands will start to produce, and post, less content but better content that strives for deeper engagement and a genuine understanding of the market. After the 'snacking' frenzy of 2015 we'll see a move towards more meaty content production in 2016 - longer form, well-researched editorial pieces. Personalisation Following on from the above, content marketers will need to create content that targets individual or group needs. This not only helps to cut through the clutter but also speaks to consumer needs. Users expect personalised content and there is pressure on brands to start demonstrating their understanding of different customers in a relevant and personal way. Omni-everything I've long been a vocal proponent for brand owned spaces from which we distribute content. I understand that renting space on social media islands is essential if you want to fish where the fish are, but we do need to adopt at a true omni-platform approach to publishing and distribution. Think of a 'hub and spokes' approach with a publisher-owned space at the centre. Video In 2015 we saw the rise of new video driven platforms like Periscope and Snapchat. In 2016 video needs to be a critical delivery method for content in both the B2C and B2B space. Budget is always a consideration here, but if the story is relevant and well-targeted then sometimes the method of delivery or quality can be forgiven. Tell richer stories More GIFs! Live streaming, webinars, interactive PDFs, slide shows and infographics. Brands will start to experiment with different platforms and tech available to tell better stories and deliver more targeted experiences. The power of effective content strategy is something that will adapt and change in 2016. Focus on the consumer, find out what they need and want and keep it simple. Focus on fewer, but better. In the late 1990s, Bill Gates wrote a book predicting where technology would take humankind in the following decade. Just under 20 years later, few of his predictions have come true. Really? Ok - how many "smart", web-connected fridges do you see checking milk and eggs supply levels and automatically re-ordering online? And how many of you have digital photo frames which change their photographs automatically as your moods change? Predicting media trends is always going to be difficult - but doubly so in a sector where digital has so much influence. One has to be very wary of making predictions based on what you want to see happen as opposed to what consumers are actually going to do. By far, the biggest - and most ominous development for the digital sector - is the exponential growth of "ad blocking" software. It sneaked in to South Africa almost un-noticed last year while all the experts were predicting that "programmatic" digital ad buying was the unstoppable wave of the future. In Europe, towards the end of last year, the use of ad blockers among digital users was rising at a rate of 40 to 45 percent annually, whereas the US was increasing at just 15%. Even 15% growth is scary and a working group from the WAN-IFRA newspaper association effectively issued a disaster warning, saying ad blocking is "severely jeopardising the digital advertising ecosystem." In South Africa, there has been clear evidence about increased use of ad blockers. In the year ahead, digital agencies and advertisers who use the medium are going to have to re-think the way they have been doing business. Ad blockers are on the rise, but particularly in mobile settings, because ads have become intrusive and they gobble up the precious bandwidth of consumers. Those are issues which will have to be addressed. Advertisers themselves are going to be drawing back on expenditure in all media and brand managers are going to be asking for more accountability and the ROI (Return on Investment) question is going to be asked a lot more harshly this year. Traditional media will continue to be under siege, not only from digital but also from fundamentally changing consumer habits, as well as advertising budgets which will probably be tighter than at any other time in South African business history. TV now faces serious competition from streaming platforms like Netflix and ShowMax. The early adopters for those offerings are the sort of people who are a dream demographic for advertisers. Radio will continue to be a highly effective advertising medium and might well draw revenue away from other media. Newspapers will continue to deal with downward pressure on sales and will have to respond to advertisers by offering eyeballs in both the print and digital spaces and to get both the old and the new working together. Newspapers, though, will still continue to be the medium which will be the one to follow by all others in terms of breaking news stories. Similarly, print still offers a platform which is appealing to consumers because it is "opt in" and, therefore, not intrusive. I believe that South Africa will follow the trend abroad which has seen the mega-platforms - Google, Facebook and Twitter (along with Apple to a lesser extent) - gobbling up even more revenue as advertisers look for comfort in those big numbers. Media content companies will have to decide whether they play ball with the big guys - and run the risk of surrendering their own targets to the very different aims of the gorillas, in return for the promise of bigger numbers - or whether they develop their own platforms. Marketers and agency people operate in an industry rightly obsessed by its future. The challenges to the old agency model that we're facing are significant - mass digitisation, a data revolution, the accelerating need for integration. Whilst all the time, the world is getting more complex and budgets are being compressed. Agencies the world over, South Africa included, are facing the same fundamental issue - how to stay relevant (and valued) in the fully connected world. These are the non-negotiables that we will have to embrace to survive. 1. Understanding the customer The opportunity exists to know the customer far beyond their brief interaction with the brand. We should know the customer's full life context. The creative engagement opportunities are enormous if we can unlock this potential. Our challenge is to operationalise this systematically. This will almost certainly involve investing in access to new data sources and hiring scientists and mathematicians into our businesses. Another big leap forwards that we will make in being more customer-centric is to marry psychology and marketing. Leveraging known behavioural biases and defaults should be fundamental to any agency trying to help a client sell to its customers. Right now the effectiveness of creativity is pretty much educated guesswork. In the future, we will apply much more science to our creative output. 2. Inventing experiences across the customer journey We must acknowledge that product, service experience and marketing are ultimately becoming one and the same in the mind of the customer. It's the customer journey that agencies must master - how we can help brands add value to the customer throughout that journey - whether it's a purchase journey or their life's journey. The experiences that we build to make this happen will not necessarily always be a communications solution - we should allow ourselves to recommend service experiences, branded utilities and product innovations. In a world where we need to understand channel, we need to practice neutrality. Unless they become integrated, pure play agencies will become at best, production facilities and will lose their seat at the top table (if they ever had one). 3. Great curators as well as creators The creation and distribution of content is a defining characteristic of the connected age. The creation and sharing of content will continue to disrupt traditional brand-building strategies. The role of the agency as brand custodian has to embrace this exploding content landscape, as well as the array of continually evolving distribution channels. Agencies should play a central role - curating content, leveraging emerging ways to distribute beyond the simple paid model - acting like publishers as well as branded content architects. 4. Being investigative technologists In future, ideas that do not consider technologies devoid of an idea will fail. Creative teams must understand the art-of-the-technically possible. Agencies must be relentlessly curious, explorers of new technology. We must not think that our own inventions are enough - we must continually search and connect with technology providers and startups in the (global) marketplace. Curating technology and combining it in novel ways to bring an idea to life will become a fact of agency life. 5. Mastering the algorithm There are many routes into the connected world; search is currently the front door. Social is a critical route in and a growing part of the brand experience. Both arenas will evolve to serve more contextually relevant content, which will be accessed and presented in new ways. Agencies will need to follow changes to these platforms and their algorithms to help brands remain present. This service will be about helping keep the brand visible at the right time, in the right place to the right audience. 6. Partnering with our clients to transform This is all much easier said than done. There is a tremendous operational challenge and investment required to make it happen. In the agency journey to stay relevant and valuable, clients need to truly partner with agencies to make this happen. Clients must demand the breadth of thinking and service offering that will help agencies to transform to ultimately create value for their customers. The Brand Council South Africa (BCSA) elected a new chairperson and Board at the end of 2015. Leigh-Anne Acquisto was voted in as chairperson and Sbu Manqele as vice chairperson. Ivan Moroke, former chairperson, will stay on as a board member. Leigh-Anne Acquisto Acquisto is a brand behaviour specialist who has spent the last 15 years developing brands within some of the biggest organisations across the continent. During this time she has been awarded a number of awards for communication effectiveness, most memorably for the world renowned Trillion Dollar Campaign, which was given the accolade of the most awarded campaign in the history of Cannes. She is currently the founder and director of Liquorish Ink, a strategic communications consultancy that specialises in building focuses on building sustainable brands that meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Acquisto said she intends to solidify the role that the BCSA plays within the broader branding community. She also plans to raise the profile of brand marketing and communications as a strategic business discipline that can effectively assist in achieving business growth. The first step for the council in 2016 will be to address the issue of membership. The BCSA aims to build a membership base representing all fields of marketing and branding and in doing so urges all industry stakeholders to consider their role and engage with the BCSA. Board members Conservative news, video and comment from the Bluegrass state. Salai Isaac Kim said that the discussions will be conducted by the representatives of Chin National Front, Chin political parties and Chin Civil Society organisations. According to the terms of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA) a Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee meeting has to be held in February. This will be followed by the Political Dialogue which has to take place before the second Union Peace Conference in May 2016. Sixty Chin representatives attended the Union Peace Conference. representing the Chin National Front, Chin political parties; members of parliament and Chin national representatives. Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI During the five-day meeting in Naypyidaw, U Sai Paung Nub, a Wa Democratic Party (WDP) representative, asked for a Wa state to be set up in six northern and eastern Shan State townships, which, according to the 2008 constitution, have a Wa majority. He said: Wa people live in many places, such as Lashio, Tangyan and Keng Tung. There are also Wa people in eastern Shan State in Mongton Township and Mongsat District, therefore, we are demanding that these areas become a Wa autonomous state. The sentiments were supported by the Pa-O, who have had a designated Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in the southern Shan State townships of Hsihseng, Hopong and Panglaung since 2010. Colonel Khun Okkar, the chairman of the Pa-O National Liberation Organisation (PNLO) said: What we are demanding is not for only Pa-O people, but also for other ethnic groups to be recognized as [having the right to] self-administrated states, this includes the Wa and Taang people. Ethnic Taang (also known as Palaung) majority townships of Namhsan and Manton in northern Shan State have been designated as a self-administered zone. However, representatives from the Taang National Party (TNP) requested that a separate Taang State be formed in other parts of Shan State where Taang people live. The Shan-ni, or Red Shan also demanded, through their party the Tai-Leng Nationalities Development Party (TNDP), a self-administrated Shan-ni state comprised of parts of Kachin State and Sagaing Division. Instead of splitting into states, why we dont help each other and work together based on the principles of the Panglong Agreement? asked Sai Leik, a spokesperson for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), citing the landmark 1947 accord promising autonomy and equality to Burmas ethnic nationalities. As to why this conflict might have developed, Sai Leik attributed it to the fact that the ethnic nationalities who formed the union have never had their rights honoured. The Union Peace Conference, which was held from 12 to 16 January marked the beginning of political dialogue between the Burmese government and the countrys eight ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) who signed the controversial Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in October 2015. The meeting was attended by over 1000 representatives from the EAOs, government, parliament, military, political parties, civil society organizations and international representatives. Over 100 civil society organizations boycotted the event to protest against the ongoing conflict and the NCA not being inclusive because many EAOs did not sign it. By SAI AW / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N) Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI This is the first such international trip for the RCSS/SSA-S, the trip's theme is Power Sharing and Federalism: Comparative Experiences. The delegation of 14, which includes RCSS/SSA-S commander-in-chief Lt.-Gen. Yawd Serk, advisors, and members of education, health, peace, foreign affairs and anti-narcotics departments, were invited to the country by the Swiss ambassador in Yangon. They hope to gain further insight into Switzerlands federal government systemspecifically, how power is allocated between a central government and the countrys 26 'cantons' or states, and 'communes' or municipalities. Khuensai Jaiyen, an adviser to the RCSS/SSA-S, said that the group is interested in study[ing] not only about federal and state level governments, but also about local governments. During stays in four citiesBern, Geneva, Montreux and Murtenthe delegation will also meet representatives from international NGOs and study Swiss departments of defence, development, economics, education and healthcare. The visit overlaps with Burmas Union Peace Conference (UPC) in Naypyidaw, where talks are being held from 12 to 16 January. RCSS/SSA-S representatives said that while Lt.-Gen. Yawd Serk is in Switzerland, a negotiating team from the organization will still remain at the UPC. The UPC was described by National League for Democracy (NLD) chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi as an acknowledgement of the completion of the NCA [Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement]. The RCSS/SSA-S is one of Burmas more than 20 ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), and one of eight EAOs to sign the NCA. Though 700 representatives from the government, parliament, military, political parties and ethnic armed groups attended the UPC it was boycotted by many EAOs who did not sign the NCA, including another major Shan EAO, the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army-North (SSPP/SSA-N), who were invited to attend the NCA as observers. Representatives from several non-Shan ethnic groups in Shan State, including the Wa and Ta'ang, at the UPC called for various areas within Shan State to be allowed to secede from Shan State. Khuensai Jaiyen said that this makes studies of federalism particularly urgent and he hopes that the study trip to Switzerland will benefit both Shan State and Burma. By STAFF / Shan Herald Agency for News (S.H.A.N) Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI It looks like you have reached this page in error ... The content you are looking for has either moved, or if you typed in the address there might have been a mistake. If you believe there has been a technical error please let us know. Most Popular Destinations Kwa Nokeng Oil, Botswanas leading wholly citizen-owned petroleum distribution company, is offering interested Batswana and small business operators, an opportunity to sell petrol, paraffin and diesel. We are aligning ourselves with governing policies with regards to the diversification of fuel importation from countries like South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, Kwa Nokeng Oil Corporate and Public Relations Manager Phasi Masalila Moremi told BG Business in an interview at their offices in Phakalane. Moremi said the company will be working around the clock this year to open filling stations throughout the country as a way of reaching out to more Batswana to have access to their products and services. She said their range of lubricants is a world class leader and that they supply these products to the retail, tourism, mining, agricultural and Government sectors of Botswana. Kwa Nokeng supplies 500ppm and 50ppm Diesel which is tested and tried Like our countrys democracy and cannot be faulted, said Moremi. They are leaders in supplying the commercial sector with the new 50ppm Diesel. This product has a low sulphur content that contains exclusive ingredients that control deposits, help maintain fuel injector cleanliness and enable optimum engine performance. We are also very proud of the fact that we are one of the few companies that successfully and continuously supply our customers with petrol (95ULP), which is the highest octane fuel available in this market, Moremi said, adding they are arguably Botswanas largest citizen owned distributor of Tower Illuminating Paraffin. Kwa Nokeng started their operations in the village of Machaneng, Botswana, in 1968 under the avid entrepreneur, CPJ van Vuuren. From 1968 to 2005 Kwa Nokengs core business and focus was retail operations. The groups current managing director, Clinton van Vuuren, steered the companys attention towards commercial fuels and oil. The first commercial fuel depot was erected in 2006, streaming one million litres of fuel per annum. Today Kwa Nokeng has five commercial fuel depots, streaming in excess of 90 million litres of fuel annually. The company employs 250 Batswana and intends to create more employment opportunities through supplying small businesses to retail their products. Kwa Nokeng aspires to meet Botswanas energy needs. We are striving to improve our processes to reduce pollution and waste, conserve energy and natural resources. We endeavour always to reduce the potential for environmental impacts to the ecology and people of Botswana, said Moremi. The company currently operates commercial depots in Gaborone, Francistown, Maun, Martins Drift and Pandamatenga. Its customers include among others De Wet Botswana, Komatsu, A.P.R Energy, Botswana Meat Commission, Water Utilities Corporation, Botswana Power Corporation, Botswana Railways, Truck Hire, Rhino Plant Hire, Lulu Bricks, Unitrans and BH Botswana. Carlos Brito, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) Chief Executive, jetted into the country on Tuesday night to begin a road show and charm offensive ahead of the global brewers listing on the JSE on Friday. The worlds largest brewers Johannesburg listing is part of a broader strategy to acquire SABMiller, the second-largest beer maker, for which it made a 44 per share takeover offer. It pledged to retain a domestic listing for the combined entity. Among the stakeholders Brito would meet were government executives and regulators, sources close to the company said last night. The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which owns about 3.1 percent of SABMiller stock, is one of the larger investors Brito will meet. The manager of the pensions of state employees was critical to AB InBevs success in bidding for SABMiller, which has since recommended that its investors accept the estimated R1.4-trillion offer. We are pleased with the listing. It gives us an alternative to hold a bigger, more geographically diverse asset, PIC CE Daniel Matjila said on Tuesday. The PIC, however, tabled preconditions before accepting AB InBevs advances. It demanded that the combined entity retain a listing on the JSE, and for AB InBev to continue with SABMillers black economic empowerment and supply chain programmes. For us, those are the bigger and more important things to be done, Matjila said. Other fund managers are also salivating at the prospect of being able to acquire AB InBev stock directly. Citadel & Cannon Asset Managers chief strategist, Adrian Saville, said: The listing is important for a number of reasons including the fact that its a unique asset that allows the JSE to retain its stature as Africas financial centre. To some, Duma Boko is a saviour who, like the Biblical Moses, is destined to deliver the people of Botswana to Canaan or, better still, to transform Botswana into the land of milk and honey. To others, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader is an unmitigated charlatan. He shot to prominence in political circles in 2010 when he became president of the BNF. Many will remember however that, back in the 90s, he used his column in The Monitor newspaper to discuss political issues. He also used the column to castigate High Court judges whom he accused of being too conservative in their determination of cases. His other gripe with the judges and magistrates was that their judgements were written in bad English grammar! Neither did academics at the University of Botswana (UB) escape his rabid attacks for, according to him, failing to live up to expectations by not researching, writing and publishing. This is despite the fact that there is no evidence that Boko, who is a former law lecturer at UB, has himself published anything. On the basis of his newspaper articles, an impression was formed about him that he was rather too quarrelsome and confrontational for someone aspiring to one day be Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces. His rather hostile attitude towards the media especially when his party experienced instability and there was uncertainty in the UDC raised suspicions that, should he become president, he might, at best, want to only work with a pliant media or, at worst, one which allows itself to be used as an obedient propaganda machine for the establishment. Bokos ascendency to the leadership of the Botswana National Front (BNF) was anything but easy. His detractors challenged his presidency in court alleging then, and they still maintain to this very day, that when the BNF split in 2000, he became a founding member of the resultant splinter party, the National Democratic Front (NDF). If proven, this would, according to the BNF constitution, disqualify him from a leadership position in the party for the duration of three years after rejoining it. He prevailed over his detractors in court and went on to become president of the party in July 2010 at the party congress in Mochudi. Things came to a head when the BNF, under Boko became part of the opposition cooperation talks which included the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP), Botswana Congress Party (BCP) and the newly formed Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). The BMD had been formed by disgruntled members of the BDP who included Members of Parliament (MPs). They had left the party, not for any ideological differences but because they had issues with the party leader, Ian Khama who they accused of authoritarianism. Opposed to the formation of an umbrella organisation to which the BNF, BPP and BMD would then affiliate, Bokos detractors argued that, because their party is a mass organisation, the BPP and BMD should instead affiliate to it. The concerned members, consisting mainly of leftists in the party, were also worried that BNFs ideology would be compromised were it to become part of the UDC. Bokos opponents in the party were openly opposed to any alliance with the BMD whose credentials as an opposition party they doubted. The UDC leaders public announcement that he had never voted became fodder for his detractors both from within the BNF itself and the Botswana Congress Party (BCP). Their verdict was that he is so irresponsible that he does not deserve anybodys consideration at the election. The near rebellion resulting from opposition by BNF members for their party to go into an alliance with the other opposition parties resulted in the suspensions, expulsions and resignations of BNF stalwarts such as Akanyang Magama, Isaac Mabiletsa, Lemogang Ntime, Gabriel Kanjabanga, Kagiso Ntime, Kentse Rammidi, among others. When some accused him of purging the party, others gave him credit for being bold. In the midst of uncertainty in the party, he made the decision that the BNF would join the UDC. In the process, he risked his position for the greater good, said political observer, Anthony Morima in an interview. He is impressed by Bokos ability to have, despite the controversy at the time, managed to marshal many in the direction of the UDC. While some celebrated the departure of the rebels as good riddance and in the interest of peace in the BNF, there are those who maintain that the peace could have been achieved in a more amicable way. The end should not always justify the means. There is no doubt that he prevailed over his opponents. The problem though is that it is not clear whether he ever tried to sit down with them and win them over diplomatically, said Morima who added that the jury was still out on whether Boko is a consensus builder or not. His view is that, one of the attributes of a good leader is the ability to build relationships and even keep those who bitterly disagree with him. By getting rid of his opponents either through expulsions or resignations, the BNF, according to Morima, lost not only the numbers but a lot of talent and experience. The danger, according to him, is that, opponents who are not won over may regroup and come back when their target is at its weakest. Morima conceded though that one of the attributes of a good leader is to be able to fight his opponents even within his party and beat them. In his view, Boko has shown that he is no pushover. He has shown that he is a strategist, he said. Meanwhile, the wrangles in the BNF took a toll on the party and the UDC leading to poor performance by the alliance. The three-party coalition was exposed in two by-elections in Francistown when it came last. Thinking that the BNF was now a liability, some in the BMD leadership wanted their party to withdraw from the alliance to allow the BNF and its president to sort out their problems. Refusing to bow to pressure, boastful Boko remained as straight as an arrow even once arrogantly describing the voices of dissent against his leadership as the shrills of a thousand mosquitoes, or words to that effect. Some would say that Boko survived the onslaught from his critics including being called Boko Haram by the radical anti-cooperation lobby in the BCP because he believed that it was the ultimate prize for the so-called peoples project. His self-assurance grew, to the chagrin of his internal opponents, after a special congress which endorsed the opposition cooperation talks. Boko would go on to make his critics eat humble pie when the UDC did very well in the general election in 2014 at the expense of both the BDP and BCP. UDC performance also confirms that the man is a strategist. He managed to marshal a lot of resources including buses and helicopters in an unprecedented way in the last general election, enthused Morima. Boko silenced President Khama and the then BDP secretary general, Mpho Balopi when they claimed he had met the President seeking membership of the BDP. He challenged them to produce the audio clips which thing they failed to do. To many however, it remains unclear whether failure by the BDP to air the clips as they had threatened to do, is proof that the whole thing was a fabrication in the first place or whether the contents would have damaged both Boko and the BDP leaders in equal measure. After the election, many of his detractors, especially in the BCP predicted that, it was just a matter of time before the coalition was bogged down in fights for positions such as the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) thereby heralding the demise of the collective. The predictions were informed by the fact that, of the 17 UDC-held constituencies, 10 belonged to the BMD while the BNF held the remaining seven. The UDC leader confounded his critics when, ironically, instability developed in the BCP emanating from disagreement within the party on whether the BCP should join the UDC or not. To his credit, while the ordinary members thought the best way forward was to recruit disgruntled members of the beleaguered BCP into the UDC, Boko extended an olive branch to the BCP by appealing to its angry members not to join the UDC as that would cause bad blood between the two parties which situation would jeopardise the envisaged cooperation talks between them. Despite defeating his opponents in the BNF and in the Gaborone Bonnington North, observers believe that Boko still has a lot to do to be able to be acceptable to people of all ages. There is no doubt that he is intelligent and that the youth associate with him. If he wants the elder voters to feel at ease in his presence, he needs to reduce his obsession with the English language even when he could have reached a wider audience through the medium of Setswana. His general demeanour including dress code must change to befit that of a President-in-waiting, said Morima who regretted that Boko has not been consistent in showing leadership. For instance, the death of Motswaledi and the investigations undertaken by the UDC was a decisive moment for him to demonstrate his statesmanship. Failure for the report to be released will make him go down in history as having failed to convince one of UDCs affiliates, the BMD, to be transparent. It is up to him to show that the UDC is more accountable than the BDP, added Morima. The political commentator also pointed out that it would have been in Bokos own interest to reconcile the BMD and Pilane. Morima also fails to understand why Boko did not reconcile BOFEPUSU and BOPEU. He should have taken Tebogo Sebego of the BFAs example. When Township Rollers factional wars were raging, he brought them together in an attempt to bring peace. There is no evidence that Boko ever tried to reconcile BOFEPUSU and BOPEU, opined Morima who is happy however that Boko has recently been holding consultative meetings with unions and the media. BNF members who doubt Bokos credentials say that he is not known to have belonged to any party structures in his youth. They are also not convinced that he understands the ideological orientation of the party he leads especially when contrasting him to his predecessors, namely, Kenneth Koma and Otsweletse Moupo. Many accuse him of being too aloof. The problem is that he, unlike his predecessors, is not accessible. You cannot for instance just pick the phone and talk to him. Koma was never too busy to respond to calls, lamented Robert Maposa-a BNF veteran based in Francistown- who added that, before he became BNF president, Boko did not attend BNF conferences regularly. Coming short of calling Boko intolerant, Maposa pointed out that the BNF central committee does not have people of Bokos calibre because he (Boko) de-campaigned them in the run-up to the last party congress. Another BNF veteran who preferred to be referred to as, Odirile Junior is confident that Boko is presidential material. I have known him for a long time and know him to be very intelligent and has been in the party for a long time, Boko is also the product of BNF study groups, said Junior. Asked about Bokos alleged aloofness and arrogance, Junior said, He has to act like a president-in-waiting and avoid over-mingling with people, he added. Morima sees things differently. Boko should become an ordinary person, he said. His biggest challenge is to achieve what he failed to do in the run up to the 2014 general election: ensure that, this time around, the BCP comes on board and becomes part of the opposition front ahead of the 2019 general election. South Africa has honoured Professor Emeritus Tan Sri Dato Sri Dr Limkokwing for his excellent and commendable contribution in the fight against apartheid and the development of education internationally with special focus on Southern Africa. Limkokwing is the founder and President of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Worldwide.The accolade came to the fore in December, when President Jacob Zuma bestowed the National Orders on local citizens and eminent foreign nationals who have contributed immensely towards the advancement of democracy. He also considered those who excelled in various endeavours as well as those who have made a significant impact on improving the lives of South Africans in various ways. Tan Sri Limkokwing was awarded the supreme Companion of OR Tambo award in silver. Some of the recipients of this honour include Gareth Evans of the United Kingdom, Russian Ambassador Vladimir Kazimirov, Gay McDougall of the U.S and Russian Ambassador Andrey Urnov. The Publicity Secretary of Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Dithapelo Keorapetse and Youth League leader, Tumiso Rakgare have apologised for their actions. In a joint statement released on Wednesday both leaders said it was never their intention to bring the party into disrepute. In the statement released after a story on The Weekend Post by Rakgare, Keorapetse said,Rakgares personal views may have drastic implications on the mandate given to the BCP leaders by the majority of its members in Kanye at a regional consultation on opposition cooperation. Rakgare should have reasonably foreseen this possibility. We regret his error. Rakgare argued at the time that he was speaking on his personal capacity. According to the joint statement, it was agreed that it was wrong for BCPYL President to have granted an interview voicing his personal opinion over matters that were still being discussed by the Party Executive Committee. The timing and its circumstances prevailing at the time of the interview and even today, makes it inappropriate for the BCPYL President who sits both in the Party Executive Committee and Central Committee to have given an interview of such nature to the press, states the release. They also said the response to the interview referred to by Keorapetse is Perceived to be a personal attack on the person of the BCPYL President and appears to be emotive. According to both leaders, the issue has been discussed between themselves and the party leadership and has been amicably resolved. The modern world has advanced at a lightning pace over the past 30 years, largely due to the innovations driven by the worlds developed economies. The process of evolution is a marvel and modernisation has progressed to what it is today as the story of innovation and evolution continues to unfold. Gone are the days when man sent messages by travelling several kilometres on foot, bicycle, ox-back, or when he would climb a tree to announce a community meeting, or send a letter that took no less than three weeks from one end of the country to the other. The medium of information technology with its associated array of platforms such as cellphones, Internet, Twitter and Facebook amongst others, have drastically altered the communication landscape. In 1978 Botswana government appointed a task team comprising the late Cuthbert Moshe Lekaukau, Tsietso Mmono, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe and Kenneth Matambo to recommend ways of improving telecommunications in Botswana which were at the time run by a government department of Posts and Telecommunications. Their recommendation was to separate telecommunications from posts in order to run it independently. Government approved this recommendation and BTC was born in 1980, as a body corporate through an Act of Parliament (BTC Act) to provide, develop, operate and manage Botswanas national and international telecommunications services. Kedikilwe remembers that after this approval, Cable and Wireless PLC-a United Kingdom (UK) based company was identified as partners to assist government. This was the only logical plan at the time because as a developing country, Botswana had no technical knowhow to start a telecommunications company. On the 1st of April 1980, the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) was formed under the management of Cable and Wireless. Lekaukau was appointed one of the first members of the Board. BTC, which last year posted a turnover of P1.4 billion enjoyed an uninterrupted monopoly of the telecommunications industry until 1996 when parliament made an amendment to the Telecommunications Act. This move repealed the monopoly of BTC and introduced other service providers in the telecommunications arena. In came Orange Botswana and Mascom; two companies which gave BTCL competition through the provision of mobile phone services, which the company was not providing at the time. It will, years later, form BeMobile which is now directly competing with the two named companies in the non-fixed telecommunications sector. A Privatisation Policy was born in 2000, through which the government intended to implement a reform programme to improve the efficiency, productivity and competiveness of the public sector. Following governments decision to privatise BTC in 2008, the BTC (Transition) Act was passed by parliament to assist the privatisation process. How BTC evolved over the years Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe At the time of BTC formation, Dr Kedikilwe was the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Works, Transport and Communications under which BTC fell. The Minister at the time was the late James Jimmy Haskins. Sharing the memories of the 1970s with Botswana Guardian, Dr Kedikilwe said that those were some of the painful experiences as the forms of communication were very poor and primitive. One would ride on a bicycle to travel from one ministry to another to deliver a message. Also for one to book a call, it would take four to five days. Even to communicate with other countries was just a huge nightmare. Ultimately Cable and Wireless from UK was engaged and things began to slightly improve. Those were the times before we could even think of digital migration. But I must say telecommunications is an important industry in any economy. It is a good thing to privatise. The most critical thing is how this will be implemented, its benefits and further realising its intended purpose, he said. Sir Ketumile Masire Former President, Sir Ketumile Masire emphasised on lack of income distribution and lack of investment amongst the major problems that the country has. This privatisation is a welcome development. It has always been only cattle that traditionally Batswana invested in. There must be a creation of other avenues where money can be saved to give returns. The culture of saving should also be encouraged, said Masire. Buying BTCL shares will give citizens a sense of ownership and help distribute income to other sectors of the economy, he added. Prof. Emmanuel Botlhale University of Botswana Economist, Professor Emmanuel Botlhale says that although this privatisation has only materialised now after years of talking, the economy is currently not doing well and therefore it is good to privatise state-owned enterprises. BTCLs balance sheet is positive. They are selling a saleable cow. They have a very good corporate strategy. I still believe they will keep doing better going forward, shared Prof. Botlhale. Although he reckons the share price is below market price, he believes it is still a way to enhance affordability and citizen economic empowerment. More Batswana will be able to participate in purchase of BTCL shares, he said. A look into the future Owning shares in BTCL will provide an opportunity for citizens of Botswana to share the companys growth and profitability; raise equity capital for the company; and further raise the company profile and investor awareness of BTCL locally. BTCLs privatisation is consistent with the Privatisation Master Plan of 2005. This project should engender more hope among Batswana that privatisation can become a vehicle for economic diversification especially since in this case the government is a major shareholder and also the underwriter. It has been observed in some instances, where for instance a private shareholder becomes the major shareholder in a privatised entity and fails to meet the obligations of the deal. The privatised entity then faces operational challenges and eventually collapses. For example, when the government of Kenya sold Telkom Kenya to the French in December 2007, the main objective was to stop the perpetual pumping of taxpayers money into what had evolved into an inefficient monolith. Telkom was privatised because it did not have the resources to invest in new technology. France Telecom was believed to have the solid capital resources to invest in the company and get it to compete with nimbler, modern players. But six years down the line, none of the objectives for which Telkom Kenya was sold has been met. However, Telkom Kenya, despite its financial problems, is still a strategic commercial enterprise for the country. It owns and runs the largest fixed line telephone infrastructure in the country. Kenyas telecommunications market has undergone considerable changes since the landing of four fibre-optic international submarine cables in recent years. On the other hand Botswana BTCLs strategy is centred on leveraging its fixed, mobile and convergent products and services potential. The strategy is intended to leverage BTCLs unique market position as the only fixed and mobile network operator in Botswana. Key BTCL growth areas in the short term are mobile and broadband (fixed and mobile), with converged offers providing the major opportunity in the mid-term. BTCL will make significant investments in growing its mobile and broadband business. The intention is to fully create a new dynamic organisation from the opportunities in these fields and the inherent confidence within BTCL generated by the accelerating change programme. Who is eligible? Any citizen of Botswana Corporate entities registered or operating in Botswana which are wholly owned by citizens. Unincorporated associations, partnerships and investment funds either managed directly or by institutional investors registered in Botswana and are wholly citizen owned. Trusts whose ultimate beneficiaries are all Batswana citizens. Local pension funds managed by institutional investors registered in Botswana. Entities operating in Botswana, wholly citizen owned. BTCL employees have a 5 percent share reserved for them from which they will buy under the Employee Share Option Scheme (ESOP). Internally a programme has been made for them to take advances, salaries and gratuities to be able to purchase the shares. KOCHI (PTI): Admiral R K Dhowan, the Chief of Naval Staff, on Saturday reviewed the progress of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) 'Vikrant' which is under construction at Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL). Dhowan who arrived here on Saturday, was received by Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command at the naval air station INS Garuda on his arrival. "The Admiral, accompanied by the FOC-in-C South visited the CSL in the afternoon where he had a walk around of the ship to have a first hand appreciation of the progress of work onboard and was briefed on the various milestone activities of construction," a Navy release said here. At the shipyard, he also held discussions with Madhu S Nair, Chairman and Managing Director, CSL and other senior officials of Navy and CSL which included Vice Admiral G S Pabby, Controller of Warship Production and Acquisition. 'Vikrant' is the first aircraft carrier to be indigenously built in the country, the keel of which was laid in February 2009. The ship was launched in August 2013 with the completion of the hull construction and is expected to be delivered by 2018 end. The Indian Navy currently operates two aircraft carrier, INS Viraat (procured from UK) and INS Vikramaditya (procured from Russia) out of which INS Viraat is likely to be decommissioned in the near future. A file photo. NEW DELHI (PTI): Making history, India's Light Combat Aircraft Tejas on Sunday touched the foreign soil at Sakhir Airbase, Bahrain where it will take part in International Airshow from January 21 to explore export potential. "History has been created when Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, indigenously designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), touched the foreign soil at Sakhir Airbase, Bahrain. "For the first time LCA Tejas flew in foreign airspace to participate in the Bahrain International Airshow-2016 during 21 to 23 January 2016," the ministry said in an statement. In addition to Tejas, DRDO is also showcasing other indigenously developed defence systems to display the nation s prowess in the area of advanced defence technologies with the aim of exploring the potential for export of defence systems and equipment, it added. Besides the fighter and naval version of Tejas, India will also showcase state-of-the-art airborne platforms and associated sensors and communication systems designed and developed by DRDO. During the Bahrain International Airshow, being held at Sakhir Airbase, Bahrain, DRDO along with some of its production partners is displaying India's strength in advanced defence technology areas, with the aim of exploring the potential of exporting these advanced systems to friendly countries in the region, an official statement said. The show will witness flying demonstration of the 'Tejas', the 'Four plus' generation and highly cost effective fighter aircraft, it added. The Indian Air Force plans to acquire 120 Tejas aircraft, with 100 of them having major modifications to its strike, radar, and mid air refuelling capabilities. Though the DRDO has developed a naval version of the Tejas, the Navy is seeking a much stronger engine besides other changes. It would be interesting to see which countries will evince interest in the light combat aircraft since Pakistan has already put out its aircraft JF 17, built in collaboration with China, in the open market. Team Sarang of the Indian Air Force (IAF) will be showcasing the nation's prowess by flying ALH Dhruv helicopter, designed and developed by HAL during the Airshow. The other indoor exhibits (scale down models) of DRDO for the Bahrain International Airshow include, anti tank guided missile Nag, Akash surface to air missile system, compact hull mounted sonar, air borne early warning and control system among others. Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. GLENBORO The village of Glenboro lost one of its iconic and historic structures to fire Saturday evening. A large, two-and-a-half storey white brick building, located on Warwick Avenue near Lyall Street in the heart of the community, was consumed by a blaze that started at about 6:45 p.m. Flames illuminated a plume of smoke and steam that dwarfed the village of about 700 and could be seen from tens of kilometres away. Tom Bateman/Brandon Sun A firefighter heads toward a blaze that tore through a two-and-a-half storey brick building in Glenboro on Saturday evening. Glenboro Fire Department chief Steve Bjornson estimated between 30 and 40 firefighters from four departments were dispatched to fight the fire. Three additional fire departments came to the aid of the Glenboro-South Cyprus Fire Department, which has 15 volunteers on staff. Between 30 and 40 firefighters from the Wawanesa and District, Cyprus River and Belmont fire departments ultimately responded to the mutual aid request, Glenboro fire Chief Steve Bjornson told the Sun. He said the home was occupied but no one was home at the time. There are no reports of injuries. With wind chill values dipping below 30 C, Bjornson said it was a challenge to keep the hose lines from freezing. You have to keep the water running in all the hose lines. If you shut them off it wont take long for them to freeze off. The big thing is keeping a water supply for the pumper trucks we dont have hydrants in town so we have to haul it all in, he said. The building is on the south end of a small block that includes the Glenboro Health Services Centre, the Glenboro Personal Care Home and metres north of the fire Glen Haven Manor, a 10-suite seniors housing facility. On Sunday morning, only a brick carcass remained on site. Inside, the rubble was still burning, said Georgina Greenlay, who lives across Warwick from the house. Tom Bateman/Brandon Sun Firefighters prepare to battle a blaze that tore through a two-and-a-half storey brick building in Glenboro on Saturday evening. Officials said the cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Bjornson said that conditions at the time, with wind blowing smoke and ash southeast toward Glenboro School and away from the health centres, were ideal for the firefight. The wind direction was favourable. With the type of building being brick a lot of heat is contained within the brick. Weve got fire hoses on all sides, putting water into the building to cool it down as much as we can, he said. The biggest concern when the roof was going, was where the sparks were going to end up. (The firefighers) were thankful there was a bit of snow on the roofs so they didnt have any problems, Glenboro-South Cypress Mayor Earl Malyon said. As a precautionary measure, Malyon said the residents of Glen Haven were moved to the personal care home. He thanked the firefighters and healthcare workers for their work through the night. More than two hours after firefighters had first arrived, the smoke from the fire had largely turned to steam and Bjornson said there wouldnt be much to salvage from the home. We just let it burn out actually, theres nothing to save now, he said at about 9 p.m. Some of the firefighters worked at the scene all night. Thus far, Bjornson said its too early to pin down a cause. Tom Bateman/Brandon Sun A massive blaze tears through a two-and-a-half-storey brick building in Glenboro on Saturday evening. Glenboro fire Chief Steve Bjornson estimated between 30 and 40 firefighters from four departments were dispatched to fight the blaze. The cause remains under investigation. It started in the basement, thats about all we know at this point, Bjornson said. What will be even more difficult to quantify will be the loss of the building to the community. Beneath the Long Grass, a history of the area published by the Glenboro and Area History Book Committee, states the building was built by J. W. Cochraine. Malyon said Cochraine was one of the pioneers of the district, an entrepreneur at the time. In 1947, the building was sold to the R.M. of South Cypress and converted to become the Glenboro Memorial Hospital until 1955. Four years later, the building was reopened as a 16-bed senior citizens home. After that, it was retrofitted and sold as a private home. What happened was the codes provided by government for a nursing home it just couldnt fit the criteria anymore, so they had to turn it back and put it up for sale, Malyon said, adding that the building was not designated as a heritage site. Its an old building, its hard to put a price on this, Bjornson said. Google A June 2009 image of the Glenboro home that was destroyed by fire on Saturday. Glenboro is located about 80 k.m. southeast of Brandon on Highway 2. tbateman@brandonsun.com Twitter: @tombatemann Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. The first two iterations of the long-awaited second daily WestJet Encore flight serving Brandon Municipal Airport were plagued by delays over the weekend. The Bombardier Q400, WestJets workhorse turboprop airplane, touched down about 15 minutes before midnight Friday and spent its first night on the tarmac at YBR. The next morning, the new outbound flight, scheduled for 6 a.m., remained grounded for nearly four hours. The delay was due to a problem with the de-icing equipment, confirmed WestJet spokesperson Lauren Stewart. Tom Bateman/Brandon Sun The tail of a WestJet Bombardier Q400 pokes over the main terminal at the Brandon Municipal Airport late Friday night. The turboprop had just made the inaugural flight under an expanded schedule that sees a late night WestJet flight from Calgary to the Wheat City. Of course with the weather right now its necessary to de-ice but everything else was on time yesterday, she said. But in spite of the rough start, Carla Richardson, director of transportation services for the City of Brandon, said shes been hearing rave reviews about the new flight. For passengers, there are now two inbound flights from Calgary, scheduled for 12:45 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. daily, and two outbound options, with a 6 a.m. departure being added to the previous 1:20 p.m. flight, which has been in place since June 2013. People are thrilled to be able to go out so early and make connections in Calgary, Richardson said. She took advantage of the early-morning Sunday flight to get to a vacation in Mexico by 1:30 p.m. that day. Tanya and Trevor McGill were returning home from a trip to Las Vegas on the first inbound flight on Friday night. For the first time, they were able to leave Vegas and end up in their own beds within a day. Normally we would have to stay overnight somewhere or fly to Winnipeg, said Trevor. They agreed the new times make Brandon Municipal a lot more attractive against Winnipegs Richardson International Airport a two hour drive away from the Wheat City. Its the same story from Brandon resident Rob Farquhar. He was waiting to pick up his parents who were making the trip from Arizona to visit their son for four days. He agreed that the new options make getting to and from a host of West Coast and southern destinations more realistic. I think that it just makes things a lot easier, starting out from here and connecting through Calgary, he said. Its pretty convenient. Tanya McGill estimated the plane, a 78-seat turboprop, was about half full for the inaugural flight. I remember saying, I hope this isnt an indicator of how things will go, she said. Those with businesses tied to air traffic hope the same, especially because the new late-night and early-morning options hold special value. Rahul Nair manages the Enterprise car rental office at the airport. Unlike the existing mid-afternoon flight, Nair said the new timing better suits business travellers who coincidentally are more likely to rent a vehicle while in Brandon. It is late, he admitted on Friday night, as the clock rolled over to early Saturday morning. I never expected Brandon would ever have two flights. Now were getting connected throughout Canada. Its a step to getting connected to the east as well, Nair said. The potential for another new flight taking Brandonites to central Canada is popular fodder. Certainly what were hearing is the desire is there, were hearing from lots of people, Richardson said. Imagine how many people from around Manitoba will come into Brandon, Nair added. Farquhar and the McGills echoed similar sentiments. Even with the second flight out of Calgary, I was like, Oh, I wish Toronto would have been first, Tanya said. When asked at the end of December, WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer told The Brandon Sun theres nothing to share at this point, so Brandonites will have to wait and see. tbateman@brandonsun.com, with files from Jillian Austin Twitter: @tombatemann Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. VIRDEN The Virden Legion was the scene of a historic event Saturday as five area veterans were officially awarded Frances highest honour for their sacrifices in Normandy during the Second World War. More than 70-years after D-Day, the French National Order of the Legion of Honour has been awarded to nearly 1,200 Canadian veterans who took part in one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The Honorary Consul of France in Winnipeg, Bruno Burnichon, was on hand Saturday, to officially present Les Downing, Geoffrey Casson, Elmer Earl, Elmer Cole and Jack Houston with their medals. Eva Wasney/Brandon Sun Bruno Burnichon, the Honorary Consul of France in Winnipeg, addresses the audience during a ceremony at the Virden Legion on Saturday to honour recipients of the French Legion of Honour. Area veterans Elmer Cole (seated from left), Jack Houston, Elmer Earl, Les Downing and Geoffrey Casson received the medal for their efforts in Normandy, France, during the Second World War. It is to recognize and say a major thank you to the Canadians that have suffered so much trying to liberate France and bring peace to the country, Burnichon said. The Legion of Honour was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 to commend French and international soldiers and civilians for their service to France. It is similar to the Victoria Cross in Canada. During the ceremony, the veterans from Brandon, Virden and Kenton were escorted to the front of the legion hall where Burnichon pinned the five-armed cross onto each of their navy blazers. The event drew a crowd of more than 50 and included friends and family members, as well as two Mounties in red serge and a dozen members of the XII Manitoba Dragoons Cadet Corps. The men, who are all in their 90s, spoke with the media about their wartime experiences after the celebration wrapped up. A sixth veteran, John Carl Roseveare, who was presented with his medal in 2014, also joined in the conversation. All of the men served in the army and many spoke about the pain of losing comrades. We were so closely knit. We were like brothers and they gave all their tomorrows. It hurts, Houston said. Downing says he continues to be bothered by memories of the soldiers he knew who were killed. (This soldier) I remember us loading to go overseas and his wife was there with their two little girls and their dad they didnt want to see him go and he got killed and never came home, Downing said. While Earl didnt share a particular memory many of the vets agreed when he said he was just glad to get home. Back on Canadian soil after the war, all of the men ended up becoming farmers. Cole came back with tuberculosis and was relegated to a job with the Department of National Defence and then worked in an auto garage before finally buying his own farm. Colin Corneau/Brandon Sun Mae Earl speaks to her husband Elmer Earl during a ceremony at the Virden Legion on Saturday. Earl, who lives in Brandon, joined four other Second World War veterans in receiving the French Legion of Honour medal and becoming Knights of the National Order the highest award France gives to civilians and members of the military. There was a farm come up in (Saskatchewan), 360 acres and 40 head of cattle, we went farming and never looked back, Cole said. When asked what message the vets would give to todays youth, Houston offered up a request. Please do not forget us boys, he said. There was an awful lot of young Canadians between the ages of 18 to 21, that lost their lives to go and fight for their country so that we may be free as we are today. According to the Embassy of France in Ottawa, 37 Manitoba veterans have received the Legion of Honour. Burnichon has presented the medals to a number of veterans already, but he says there is an urgency to honour the remaining Manitoba vets as the French government doesnt award the medal posthumously. To award the highest distinction of the country to these Canadians is the best that we can imagine, it should have been done before, Burnichon said. ewasney@brandonsun.com Twitter: @evawasney Opinion Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 18/01/2016 (2466 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. Monday, Jan. 17, 1916: Brandons deadliest fire. The fire at the Syndicate Block, Seventh and Rosser, killed four employees of the department store Doig, Rankin & Robertson. The story of the fire was made more dramatic because it was during the Great War. And because the fire happened just days after Brandons deadliest disaster. In 1916, the world was at war. And the war was not just overseas, but here at home. Thousands of soldiers were training east of Brandon at Camp Hughes. The newly constructed three-storey Gordon-McKay building at Seventh and Pacific was serving as a barracks for soldiers of the 79th Battalion. Soldiers were at the armoury at 11th and Victoria. And they were across the street at the Winter Fair buildings, guarding hundreds of imprisoned enemy aliens. The Syndicate Block fire was in the shadow of the train crash the Wednesday before that killed 19 workers. The dead from the crash were taken to the citys three funeral homes. A few were taken to a new firm, George Brockie & Co. Most were taken to two older companies. One was Campbell & Campbell. The other was Macpherson & Bedford, which was located in the Syndicate Block. On the day of the fire, Irene Matthews was one of the employees working at Doig, Rankin & Robertson. She was head of the dressmaking department, catering to the needs of Brandon and area women. After shoppers selected the fabric and the pattern they wanted, their outfits were made at the store. Matthews and her crew of dressmakers worked on the third floor. Miss Matthews is a dress suit maker of the first order, the store stated in a 1913 Brandon Daily Sun advertisement, announcing her arrival from Toronto. Miss Matthews is an artist in her profession. Each year, the store sent Matthews to New York City to bring the latest fashions back to Brandon. Miss Matthews has spent the last month in New York, the store said in one ad, and returns with a fund of new ideas pertaining to her art, which will be appreciated by the ladies of Brandon. Matthews, the store said, is one of the recognized leading modistes in Canada. Matthews lived in a house at 510 10th St. The house was right beside the Winter Fair buildings, then being used to intern the enemy aliens. Matthews survived the fire and was later praised for helping others to escape. Matthews had to leap to safety from the third floor. She was seriously hurt when she landed and spent several weeks in hospital recovering. Dressmaker Dorothy Hearn was the last person to get out of the burning building. Hearn, 18, lived with her widowed mother in the next block at 231 Seventh St. Seeing the injuries of those who had jumped before her, Hearn first hung down and then dropped. Her fall was cushioned by a firefighter and snow on the ground. The four killed in the fire were all in their 20s and worked on the third floor. Three were dressmakers: Sadie Eggertson, Jane Marsh and Caroline McCort. The fourth was the head of the home furnishings department, Clarence Walker. The fire destroyed the Doig, Rankin & Robertson store, which was at the east end of the Syndicate Block. There was less damage to the two businesses at the west end of the building: mens and boys clothing store H. W. Ball & Co. and furniture store and funeral home Macpherson & Bedford. During the fire, soldiers from the nearby 79th Battalion helped to whisk goods to safety from H.W. Ball. For their efforts, the soldiers were given mitts and tuques. After the fire, Doig, Rankin & Robertson carried on. The business set up in a temporary location; competitors offered their help. H.W. Ball and Macpherson & Bedford held fire sales. A large part of our stock was saved without any damage by water or smoke, H.W. Ball informed customers in an ad. The store proclaimed that theirs would be: The greatest sale a fire ever started! The day after the fire, the Sun reported that the ruins of the Syndicate Block presented a weirdly picturesque sight. The Sun described the view: ice hanging like the edges of a great glacier and the sun rays glittering like countless diamonds. Girders, iron supports and parts of the interior which had withstood the flames were twisted and covered with ice, standing like giant polar bears looking down on the tragic scene. David McConkey is an active citizen. Contact him and read previous columns at davidmcconkey.com. Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy says she is considering legal action against US prosecutors. The 37-year-old from Cavan was wrongly charged with the murder of a one-year-old baby who was in her care in 2013. A man who was due to be sentenced for being a passenger in a stolen car jumped out of the dock and tried to throw a glass of water at Judge Patrick McCartan. Leon Murphy (aged 20) was before Judge McCartan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court when he took issue over a comment the judge made about his mother. Murphy of Snowdrop Walk, Darndale, Dublin pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be carried in a stolen car on the Malahide Road on May 18, 2015. He has 89 previous convictions, 40 of which were for road traffic offences. The evidence had been heard and Judge McCartan was enquiring as to Murphy's prospects for the future when he was advised by Peter Jackson BL, defending, that the man's mother, a reformed heroin addict, wished to help her son. The woman was pointed out to the judge who then commented that he had seen her in the court earlier in the day and she had seemed all over the place. He asked Mr Jackson to confirm that the woman had dealt with her addiction. Murphy became irate and started to shout abuse at the judge. His mother said, from the body of the court, that the judge was implying that she had been on drugs when she came into court earlier. She said she hadn't been and said she had letters from a counsellor to prove that she has addressed her addiction. Murphy again became irate before his mother shouted up at the judge: You're after upsetting the child. He is after taking from what you said that I was on drugs. Murphy then jumped up out of the dock and grabbed a glass of water that had been sitting on a bench in front of the judge. He went to throw the glass before prison officers, a court garda and the judge's tip staff jumped in and prevented him from throwing it. He was escorted out of court by prison officers and guards who were struggling to restrain him, while he continued to threaten and shout abuse at Judge McCartan. You made a great job of that didn't you? Ms Murphy shouted up at the judge. She continued to shout and say that she wanted the judge to make it clear to her son that she had not been on drugs. Judge McCartan adjourned the case back to another court for sentence before a different judge. He said it wouldn't be fair on Murphy for him to continue with the case because of his attitude shown towards him. He later addressed prison officers and said because everything happened so quickly he didn't actually see who had come to his aid. All I saw was a glass coming in my direction. Thank you very much for the speed at which you came to my assistance. If it wasn't you, please convey my appreciation to your colleagues, Judge McCartan said before he apologised to the court for any part I may have played in what had happened. Earlier, Garda Amanda King told Joseph Barnes BL, prosecuting, gardai were alerted to a car in the River Meade area of St Margaret's driving around with no lights on. Some of the occupants had also been spotted acting suspiciously knocking on residents' doors. She and her colleague saw the car and indicated to the driver to pull over but he took off at speed. This led to a chase during which the driver drove with no lights on unlit country roads at high speeds. The driver later had no choice but to turn on his lights because he couldn't see where he was going. He drove around the back of Dublin Airport before eventually turning into Swords. Gda King said at one point the passengers were hanging out of the car and seemed to be recording the chase on their mobile phones. The driver ultimately drove to Malahide where he lost control of the car and crashed into the walls of Malahide Castle. All five passengers fled the scene but were chased by Gda King and her colleague. Four were arrested and prosecuted. The driver, a juvenile, was sentenced to six months, a second passenger received an 18 months sentence and another man is due to stand trial next July. Gda King said the vehicle, which had been stolen during a burglary in Raheny, earlier that day, was written off. Mr Jackson told the court that Murphy's mother was a reformed heroin addict who now wanted to help her son. He had been brought up by his grandparents after his father died when he was four year old. Judge McCartan said he had noticed the woman coming into court and asked counsel to confirm that she was no longer using drugs. She seemed all over the place to me, the judge said. Murphy cursed and told the judge to just get on with it. When Judge McCartan said he was trying to do the best for him and see if a probation report would help him, the man replied. I don't want probation to be honest. I don't give a rats. Judge McCartan said he could see Murphy was a big hard man from his swagger into court. Murphy's mother then spoke from the body of the court and insisted she was not on any drugs when she appeared in court earlier. I can make good of him, Ms Murphy said before the judge said her son didn't seem to be interested. He noted that Murphy was very easily upset before he said he was trying to get the straight facts to see if there was anything useful that can be done. Oxfam says that just 62 people own the equivalent wealth of half of the wealth in the world. It has found that the wealth of the poorer half of the world's population has dropped by 41% since 2010. Publicans say there is a clear consumer demand for pubs to remain open on Good Friday. The Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners Federation of Ireland are calling on the Government to end the traditional Good Friday ban on alcohol sales. Update: 11.45am The security alert has been lifted, according to Gardai. Staff returning to the Apple facility in Hollyhill have confirmed that Apple have told them they can come back to work. The evacuation is over. Gardai began a full search and risk assessment which concluded at around 11.30am. The Army Bomb Disposal Team was not required and the security risk was stood down. Staff returned to work just before midday and they will be debriefed on the morning's events. The threat did not affect Apple's third Cork facility which is located on the Model Farm Road. No viable device found at #Apple Lavitt's Quay. @gardainfo finished the security sweep Fiona Corcoran (@fi0na_c0rc0ran) January 18, 2016 Apple staff returning to work at the Lavitt's Quay building. Pic via Kelly O'Brien. Update: 11.15am Staff driving away from the Apple Hollyhill site are being warned on the way out that they will have to park outside the centre on return. Apple workers on the street due to at security alert at Lavitt's Quay in Cork. Pic Des Barry Apple staff evacuated after suspected bomb scare at three locations in #Cork pic.twitter.com/SOFePmv5al Kelly O'Brien (@Kellingtondawg) January 18, 2016 A threat was made via the Garda website at around 8am this morning and staff were evacuated from the sites at Lapps Quay and Hollyhill at around 10am. Media presence gathering at Apple Holyhill after security alert at Apple branches in Cork.More @redfmnews at 12 pic.twitter.com/ypHsmuQ680 Fiona O'Donovan (@Fiona_ODonovan) January 18, 2016 Apple workers on the street due to at security alert at Lavitt's Quay in Cork. Pic Des Barry Earlier: Four thousand workers at Apple in Cork have been evacuated this morning following a security alert. Staff at Apple, Lavitt's Quay among 4,000 staff at the company's three #Cork plants evacuated over security threat pic.twitter.com/vZ1nIVhYM7 Fiona Corcoran (@fi0na_c0rc0ran) January 18, 2016 Gardai are conducting a search of both premises. Apple staff say they haven't been told the reason for the evacuation, though they are aware of news reports that it's due to a bomb scare. Joe Leogue (@JoeLeogue) January 18, 2016 Apple staff who were leaving the centre in Holyhill said they have not been told how long it will be until they can come back. Years of work building up the independence of a young woman with Down Syndrome were instantly destroyed when she was raped by Faisal Ellahi, a court has heard today. At a sentencing hearing today, the victim's mother said that the family and support services had brought the woman, who is aged in her 20s, to the stage where she had a job, could travel on her own and could run errands for her mother. All that work was wiped out by such depravity, she told the Central Criminal Court as her daughter watched via video-link from a room elsewhere in the Criminal Courts of Justice. The victim became upset as her mother read out a statement on her behalf outlining how they had to discuss giving her anti-HIV treatment following the attack. A visibly moved Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the mother afterwards that it was very difficult to immediately respond to such a victim impact statement. He told her he would address it when he finalised sentence on 34-year-old Ellahi. Mr Justice Hunt adjourned matters until next Monday to hear further mitigation on behalf of Ellahi and said he would finalise his sentence a week or 10 days later. He told Ellahi's counsel that any prospect of a partially suspended sentence would be contingent on him agreeing to be deported to his native Pakistan on his release. Ellahi was convicted last December of raping and sexually assaulting the woman after luring her back to his apartment when she became separated from her mother near their Dublin home. In her victim impact statement, the woman's mother said that following the rape her daughter began sleeping in her bed and would have night terrors. She also began suffering from seizures. The symptoms abated after a while but returned in the run up to the trial, the mother said. He has robbed our family of the last two and a half years and (the victim) of the future she might have had. I feel a great sadness for her and a huge sense of loss. The mother also read out a statement prepared by the victim which said: I feel so scared at all times since he did that to me. I feel confused, angry and shocked. Sometimes I get flashbacks. I can't go out on my own anymore because I am too scared. Ellahi, who is originally from Haripur in Pakistan, pleaded not guilty last year to rape, sexual assault and having sex with a mentally impaired person at his Dublin home on June 12, 2013. The jury was not required to deliberate on the third count if it convicted of rape. The court heard he continued to deny the charges and maintained his position that he did not know the woman had Down Syndrome. He has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction and gardai are unaware of any convictions in his native country. During a lengthy sentence hearing today, the DPP outlined how it built a case against Faisal Ellahi which enabled a jury to unanimously convict him of the rape of a woman with Down Syndrome. Ellahi was convicted last December of raping the woman after luring her back to her house when she became separated from her mother. The prosecution, led by Caroline Biggs SC, needed to prove first that Ellahi had sex with the woman. It then had to show that she suffered from a mental impairment to the degree that she lacked the ability to live an independent life or the ability to protect herself from serious exploitation. It also had to prove Ellahi knew the woman had Down Syndrome on the day in question since it was a valid defence under the law to claim ignorance of a person's mental capacity. Inspector Sean Campbell told the court that the woman arrived home after the rape screaming for her mother and shouting let me in, let me in. Her mother described her as white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf. The woman was later taken on a tour of the area by gardai and was able to point out Ellahi's building on two occasions. DNA swabs taken from her matched Ellahi's DNA to a certainty of a billion to one and fibres from the victim's clothes were also found on his bedsheets. Ellahi initially denied bringing anyone back to his house on June 12, 2013. However he later admitted to bringing her back and attempting to have sex with her. He said it was consensual fun. Ms Biggs outlined how several experts had assessed the victim following the rape and found that she had Down Syndrome and also had a mild intellectual disability. Her mental age was assessed as being between 7 and 11 years old and she had a romanticised view of sexual matters as well as limited knowledge of issues such as pregnancy or STDs. The next step for the prosecution was to show that Ellahi knew the victim was mentally impaired. Ellahi claimed in his interviews that he had never heard of Down Syndrome and that people with mental impairments in Pakistan were kept in homes or in hospitals. The head of Down Syndrome Ireland and former head of Down Syndrome International, Pat Clarke, gave evidence that Down Syndrome affected all races equally and that its symptoms were the same around the world. He said he had recently returned from a conference in India which was attended by a Pakistani delegation including several adults with the condition. He said they appeared exactly like an Irish person with Down Syndrome, displaying characteristics such as distinctive facial features and head shape. A Down Syndrome person would be an obvious clinical entity in Pakistan, Ms Biggs submitted. In mitigation, Ellahi's defence counsel Padraig Dwyer SC submitted that his client has an IQ of 73 although he conceded that the IQ tests were not as thorough as they could have been. He submitted that Ellahi had attended an English college which was later shut down because of allegations of widespread visa fraud. Insp Campbell said he could not confirm this. Counsel said his client came from a rural area of Pakistan and since coming to Ireland had worked as a shelf packer and as a security guard. He submitted that he had never taken social welfare out of principle, even when unemployed. Mr Dwyer also submitted that Ellahi had propositioned 16 other women in the area including one just minutes after the rape. He said there was no pattern to the type of women he approached and that none of these incidents resulted in complaints being made to gardai. Tens of thousands of Muslim women unable to speak English are to be given the chance to learn the language in a new British Government drive to build community integration and counter extremism. Launching a 20 million language fund, David Cameron called for an end to the passive tolerance of separate communities which left many Muslim women facing discrimination and social isolation. Writing in The Times, the Prime Minister said he would not avoid telling the hard truths required to confront the minority of Muslim men whose backward attitudes led them to exert damaging control over women in their families. All too often, because of what I would call passive tolerance, people subscribe to the flawed idea of separate development, he wrote. It is time to change our approach. We will never truly build One Nation unless we are more assertive about our liberal values, more clear about the expectations we place on those who come to live here and build our country together and more creative and generous in the work we do to break down barriers. The Government estimates that there are 190,000 Muslim women in England who speak little or no English. The new English language scheme will be aimed at reaching the most isolated women and will be targeted to specific communities based on the ongoing review into segregation being carried out by Louise Casey, the head of the Governments Troubled Families unit. Classes will be held in homes, schools and community centres with travel and childcare costs provided to encourage the maximum participation. Mr Cameron said that all public services including, nurseries, schools, health visitors and job centres needed to play a party in tacking prejudice and bigotry and building integration. He said that in Britain, men were not frightened of womens success of but celebrated it proudly. This is Britain. In this country, women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love. Its our values that make this country what it is, and its only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure, he said. At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasised that the Government could not build a more integrated society on its own and that it was up to migrants to improve their English language skills if they wanted extend their stay in the UK or apply for citizenship. Britain has a claim to be the most successful multi-faith, multi-racial democracy on the planet. We got here because we fought and won those long struggles for liberty, equality and mutual tolerance, he said. But the job of building a more cohesive country is never complete. With English language and womens empowerment as our next frontier, I believe we can bring Britain together and build the stronger society that is within reach. The latest move comes amid continued concern about the numbers of Britons attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State. Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond disclosed last week that 600 Britons had been caught trying to reach Syria to fight with IS or other jihadist groups in the countrys bloody civil war since 2012. The number comes on top of the estimated 800 Britons who have succeeded in entering Syria since the start of the conflict of whom around half thought to have since returned to the UK. Mr Hammond, who was on a visit Turkey, highlighted how improved co-operation between the British and Turkish authorities meant they were intercepting growing numbers some as they left the UK and others as they arrived in Istanbul a key staging point on the route to Syria. Mr Cameron is likely to stress the need for continued co-operation in talks with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Fighters from the so-called 'Islamic State' group have captured new areas near the eastern Syrian city of Deir el-Zour, according to opposition activists. The militants captured areas just north of the city today, including an army base and an arms depot in the village of Ayash, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. North Korea has launched an estimated one million propaganda leaflets by balloon into the South amid increased tension between the rivals following the Pyongyangs recent nuclear test, Seoul said. A Cold War-style stand-off flared after the Norths claim on January 6 that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials. Seouls defence ministry said the Norths military had been sending the balloons on a near-daily basis and spokesman Kim Min-seok said the leaflets had reached Seoul as well as areas close to the border. Such leafleting by the North is rare, as the two Koreas officially stopped psychological warfare as part of tension-reduction measures in 2004. South Korean activists have still occasionally sent propaganda balloons towards the North, triggering angry responses from Pyongyang. South Korean officials believe their broadcasts will sting in the rigidly-controlled, communist country by demoralising front-line troops and residents. There are doubts in Seoul that the North Korean leaflets will have any impact on the public in the more affluent South. Many foreign governments and analysts remain highly sceptical about the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground is likely to push the country closer towards a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is not thought to have. The North previously conducted atomic bomb tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. South Korea, the US and other countries are pushing hard to have North Korea punished over the bomb test. Soon after the test, diplomats at the United Nations Security Council pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions on the North. But it is unclear whether China, the Norths last major ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the security council, would co-operate on any tough sanctions that could force a change in the North. The two Koreas share the worlds most heavily-fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea. A Belgian man who had a direct relationship to the Paris attackers has been arrested in Morocco, according to the countrys interior ministry. The ministry said in a statement that the man, who is of Moroccan descent, was arrested near Casablanca today after travelling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. A breast surgeon suspended over complaints regarding operations he carried out has been charged with 21 counts of wounding with intent to cause harm. Ian Paterson appeared at Birmingham Magistrates Court today charged with unlawfully and maliciously wounding with the intention to do grievous bodily harm, contrary to the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, the Crown Prosecution Service said. Prison officers are falling ill after inhaling legal highs used by inmates. Union bosses reported that staff are being taken to hospital suffering from the effects of breathing in the fumes of new psychoactive substances (NPS) such as Spice and Black Mamba, which mimic the effects of cannabis. In one incident last week, seven officers reported suffering ill effects, according to the Prison Officers Association (POA). Steve Gillan, general secretary of the union, said they were searching a cell when they came across a large quantity of NPS. They all then complained of nausea. They were seen by the healthcare department and signed off duty, he said. Anonymous accounts from officers laid bare the impact of NPSs. One described noticing a sweet smell and smoky atmosphere before starting to feel unwell, saying his heart was racing and his head felt like it would pop. The officer could not remember his journey home. Another officer experienced a crushing chest pain and dizziness followed by what felt like a severe hangover. The prisons watchdog has warned that NPSs are the most serious threat to the safety and security of jails. Last month, it emerged that the rampant use of the drugs behind bars is placing local ambulance services under strain as paramedics are increasingly called out to tend to criminals who have used them. The substances have been linked to rising levels of violence and 19 deaths behind bars. Mr Gillan said: This is causing that sort of concern for prisoners and we are extremely concerned about the effects they have on officers as well. A Prisons Service spokeswoman said: Governors use sniffer dogs, cell searches and mandatory drugs tests to find drugs in prison and punish those responsible. We have also passed laws so that people who smuggle packages over prison walls, including drugs, face up to two years in prison. However, its clear we need to do more. The Justice Secretary has asked the Ministry of Justice to look at how we can ensure prisons have the right tools in place to tackle this problem. Prison officers "falling ill after inhaling legal highs used by inmates":https://t.co/iLZXniCdrG By @haydsmith pic.twitter.com/rCZbr7CQRZ PA Media (@PA) January 18, 2016 The POA is also launching a judicial review in an attempt to speed up a blanket ban on smoking in prisons. In September, the Government announced that smoking will be prohibited in all Welsh prisons and four in England to reduce health risks in a move seen as the first step towards all jails becoming smoke-free. The POA is calling for a clear timetable that will ban smoking totally in every prison establishment. A Prisons Service spokeswoman said: We have long been committed to a smoke-free prison estate. Implementation will be phased over a long period in order to make these changes safely. Prisoners will have access to e-cigarettes and other support to stop smoking, she said. The spokeswoman added: Our careful approach will ensure prison officers and inmates are no longer exposed to second-hand smoke, while not compromising the safety and security of our prisons. The new UN refugee agency chief has urged countries to find a fairer formula for sharing the burden of Syrias crisis including taking in thousands of refugees from overwhelmed host nations. Filippo Grandi, who assumed his post earlier this month, heads an agency grappling with mounting challenges as Syrias five-year-old civil war drags on. Humanitarian aid lags more and more behind growing global needs, including those caused by the Syrian conflict. More than four million Syrians have fled their homeland, the bulk living in increasingly difficult conditions in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, while hundreds of thousands have flooded into Europe. Mr Grandi visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan after meeting with King Abdullah II in the capital Amman. His agency, UNHCR, hopes to raise money for refugees at a London pledging conference in February, followed by an international gathering in March in Geneva where countries would commit to taking in more refugees. I think we need to be much more ambitious about resettling refugees, Mr Grandi said. We are talking about large numbers ... in the tens of thousands. What is needed is a better sharing of responsibilities, internationally, for a crisis that cannot only concern the countries neighbouring Syria. Hundreds of thousands of refugees entered Europe in 2015, often with the help of smugglers who ferried them across the Mediterranean in dangerous voyages. Mr Grandi said it was time to create legal ways for some refugees to leave overburdened host countries. He and his Jordanian hosts also discussed a potentially contentious issue the fate of some 17,000 refugees who have amassed on the Syrian-Jordanian border, with numbers rising rapidly in recent months. They are stranded in a remote desert area, with Jordan only admitting several dozen each day after stringent security checks. UNHCR has warned that the refugees face deteriorating conditions, including lack of adequate shelter. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said on Sunday that Jordan believes Islamic State supporters are among the refugees, many of whom fled areas of Syria currently under IS control. Mr Momani said Jordans security is a priority, suggesting a change in the current admissions policy is unlikely. He said aid workers are given access to the area and that Jordan will fly the refugees to any country willing to accept them. NEW DELHI: India has raised the price at which it will buy new season wheat from local farmers in 2023 by 110 rupees... LONDON: New steps from Group of Seven countries to cap Russian oil sales at an enforced low price will not be... PARIS: Qatar, the controversial host of the football World Cup, is a key US ally in the Middle East that is rich in... KYIV: Several explosions were heard Monday morning in Kyiv, exactly a week after Russian missile strikes on the... NEW DELHI: India is awaiting World Health Organization evidence of a link between an Indian cough syrup and the... The conventional wisdom is that Mander's lack of public profile makes him unelectable as leader. As education and training shadow minister, he has not shone against the ALP's Ashgrove giant killer, Kate Jones. The contenders will be the current deputy, John-Paul Langbroek, and probably Tim Nicholls, Ian Walker, Scott Emerson, and Mander. Fiona Simpson, strangely excluded from the Newman ministry in 2012, has insufficient support to make it as leader. Shadow Minister for Education and Training Tim Mander has struggled to get traction against Minister Kate Jones, but remains a formidable contender for the LNP leadership. Credit:Bradley Kanaris This February (or March) there will be another LNP leadership ballot following Springborg's poor approval ratings in the polls. Tim Mander came within two votes of beating Lawrence Springborg in the post-Newman leadership contest in February last year. The vote was 23/20. Who in the LNP can boast more hours on TV than Tim Mander? However, Mander is probably the only candidate among the constellation of urban Liberals listed above with the credentials to appeal in regional Queensland, particularly in the provincial cities such as Cairns, Townsville, Bundaberg where the LNP lost the last election. Why? First, Mander is a former high priest of provincial Queensland's most popular folk religion rugby league. Twenty years of being a rugby league ref, hated, as Mander says, by 50 per cent of the crowd every game, gives him "name recognition", which is important as electoral contests become more presidential. Which of his party room opponents can claim as many hours on TV? Secondly, Mander's evangelical Christianity also appeals in regional Queensland. Often unrecognised by the urban political commentariat, there remains in Queensland outside the great south-east an ingrained and residual piety that crosses denominational boundaries. It includes everyone from Roman Catholics, with their 19th-century Irish Catholic and 20th-century Italian roots, to contemporary Pentecostals. This underlying rural religiosity was a key part of Joh Bjelke-Petersen's political appeal, and we saw a glimpse of it in the support for Kevin Rudd in Queensland provincial seats in 2007. It is ebbing away with the passing of time; it is not easily tracked by opinion polls, but it still exists. Thirdly, Mander's roots are in Labor: "my family was as Labor as they come," he announced in his first speech to Parliament. This works to his advantage in that he knows the values and aspirations that drive the constituency of his political opponents. Educated in state schools, he joined the LNP only two years before his election, and he is not contaminated by membership of the old boy network. These smiles tell you all you should know. To a child born with albinism, something as simple as seeing the blackboard in your school can become a make-or-break situation. Sebastian Godwin is learning to read after receiving an iPad from Brisbane. Credit:Tanzanian students eyesight impr Albinism is a hereditary problem which causes varying degrees of blindness. In Tanzania, albinism also leads to the risk of being maimed or killed by witch doctors because of superstitions in parts of East Africa. The $1.9 million estate of a Cairns businessman who died in 2013 left some of his money to charities, but confusion over beneficiaries has led to Supreme Court action to sort out the mess. Lance Corporal Henry (Harry) Fitzgerald left gifts in his will to a variety of North Queensland charities but failed to name several of them correctly. A Cairns businessman died two years ago leaving an estate valued at $1.9 million. Credit:Louie Douvis Mr Fitzgerald, who passed away at the age of 95 after a short illness, left gifts in his estate to the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard, The Freemasons, The Anglican Church, The Salvation Army and The Uniting Church for the purposes of Blue Care operating in Cairns. He also used the name he knew his goddaughter by, rather than her legal married name. Wellington: Sixty people have been rescued after being forced to leap into the sea when their tour boat spectacularly caught fire off Whakatane in New Zealand. Just three people were taken to hospital, suffering smoke inhalation and injuries from their leap into the water, after the dramatic rescue scenes on Monday afternoon. The three, a 47-year-old South Australian woman, and two Ohope locals, a 36-year-old man and 23-year-old woman, were in Whakatane Hospital with minor injuries on Monday evening and may be released soon. The fire aboard the 23m vessel took hold about 3.45pm on Monday about 1 kilometre off the Whakatane Harbour entrance on the North Island. Those experiencing poor mental health are usually in a vulnerable and sensitive state. The perpetuation of quick fixes may encourage individuals to think they can "snap out of it" and delay seeking clinical care. From here, it can be a slippery slope to feelings of shame, failure and worthlessness at not being "cured" by such simplistic advice. Decades of research has shown very clearly that mental illness and suicide are extremely complex. Attempting to identify a single cause oversimplifies the nature of mental illness and is a very dangerous path to take. The increasing public sentiment and media reports that logging off social media will solve mental health problems are not only completely unfounded but could actually be damaging. From a research perspective, the internet and social media have been around long enough for us to examine some of the impacts they have had on the community. Let me say upfront that there is almost no quality scientific evidence showing a direct causal link between social media, suicide and mental illness. The general consensus among both researchers and clinicians globally is that online interactions can actually have a positive impact on those experiencing a mental health problem. The negative aspects of social media are well recognised; the positive perhaps less so. Credit:Louie Douvis Why is this the case? The internet enables quick and anonymous access to quality information. Social media enables broad dissemination of that information. Reputable mental health organisations such as Black Dog Institute and Beyondblue have large Facebook and Twitter followings and they use these to regularly share helpful and relevant advice. Other organisations, including headspace and SANE, provide online forums where people can obtain more tailored support from clinically qualified moderators. These have been instrumental in increasing emotional support for those who are experiencing a mental illness or caring for another. The internet is also being used very effectively to provide clinical care. We know that the stigma of mental illness stops people from seeing their GP or psychologist. Australians can now access a range of evidence-based online treatment programs. In most cases, they can be accessed any time, from any device and for free. Even the federal government has endorsed this treatment avenue by funding internet interventions for mental health. Furthermore, the recent mental health reform package includes a centralised online diagnosis and treatment portal. Embracing internet technology will significantly improve our struggling mental health care system. Online interactions can be just as meaningful as meeting people in person. In some instances, online interactions are even better. As part of our research at the Black Dog Institute, we examined the number of blogs and online forums those with mental illness could visit which provide invaluable comfort and practical and emotional support. Contrary to what some believe, social media can help people connect with others facing similar challenges. We also believe it can help those who feel suicidal to stay connected with carers, clinicians and services. There have always been three contenders for this crucial defence contract the French (DCNS) and Germans (TKMS) have also put in bids. There's been, however, a particularly dramatic change in the nature of behind-the-scenes lobbying effort since Tony Abbott was toppled as prime minister. I was treated with respect and asked for my views, as if they really mattered both The Canberra Times' editor and my children could learn a great deal from Japanese diplomacy. Ambassador Sumio Kusaka even laughed at my jokes, which is surely above and beyond the call of duty. And that's why, when I drove home, happy and replete, a couple of hours later, I went bathed in the warm glow of self-confidence that I am, after all, a witty, fun and engaging person. You can look forward to a terrifically enjoyable occasion if you're ever fortunate enough to be invited to lunch at the Japanese embassy in Yarralumla. The ambassador's chef, Sadanori Noda, will treat you to an eight-course fusion feast, drawing his inspiration from Japanese cuisine interpreted (perfectly and delectably) with Australian ingredients. This is a rare treat, although it proved to be just the base from which to build a wonderful lunch. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull must weigh up political matters, as well as technical ones, in deciding who to award the submarine contract. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Instead of simply engaging with politicians and the design team for the bid, the Japanese have begun interacting with journalists as part of an effort to "sell" the project. Perhaps more surprisingly, some Americans have also added their voice to the lobbying effort on behalf of Tokyo. Although nothing has been said officially, there is little doubt Washington is keen to see Canberra drawn into even tighter alliance linkages. Buying a Japanese submarine would be the icing on the cake. What has changed is the dynamic at the top. Malcolm Turnbull is an unknown quantity in the national security space. Abbott kept him off the National Security Committee of cabinet. There is no way of proving Abbott gave Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a nod and a wink to confirm we would buy Japanese. However, the increased lobbying effort since he was toppled suggests an informal understanding had been reached. Late in 2015, while he was still defence minister, I put it to Kevin Andrews directly that the competition had been rigged so Japan would win. He looked pained as he explained to me that the navy was undertaking a thorough, rigorous and exhaustive examination of the three options, which would then be presented to the National Security Committee of cabinet for a decision. This is or was exactly the nub of the issue. Based on the publicly available information from the contenders, it appears that none of the proposals are duds and all of the submarines have their strengths. They're all different and, at some point, a political decision is required. Do you aim to strengthen the alliance, regardless of how our main trading partner (and the new dominant power), China, might feel; or do you risk going with either of the European designs and cross your fingers that the technical challenges can be overcome. A British backpacker missing in the Brisbane River had been drinking with three other tourists before they decided to jump off the William Jolly Bridge for a "bit of a fun", police say. Authorities were still hoping to find the 30-year-old man alive as they searched the river on Monday morning, more than 12 hours after he was last seen at 10.30pm. The incident sparked a warning from Brisbane regional duty officer Inspector Sean Cryer for locals and tourists to avoid the dangerous but relatively common practice. He said police logs recorded bridge-jumping incidents on the William Jolly about once a month. A British backpacker feared drowned after he was last seen leaping from a Brisbane bridge on Sunday night had been away from home for more than a year and had just started a new job in the city. The 30-year-old, who Fairfax Media has declined to name while police continue to try to make contact with family members, had been drinking with three other travellers at a nearby backpackers when they decided to jump from the William Jolly Bridge "for a bit of fun". The newly employed business development manager went first, about 10.30pm, taking a "running jump" from three or four metres away from the railing, the friends he was drinking with told police. They told police he resurfaced once from the 12-metre drop, rolled on his side, and sank below the water again. Police officers who shot dead a man following a siege in Brisbane acted professionally and in accordance with official procedures, a coroner has found. New Zealand man Shaun Kumeroa was killed in September 2014 when special emergency response team (SERT) officers opened fire on him at an Inala carport. Shaun Kumeroa was shot dead in his Brisbane driveway. Credit:Facebook Mr Kumeroa had just left the car he'd been holed up in for almost four hours and aimed an authentic-looking replica pistol at the heavily-armed officers. Delivering findings from Mr Kumeroa's inquest, Queensland Coroner Terry Ryan said he accepted the evidence of the SERT officers involved. The Port of Melbourne is in the grip of three days of strikes, as dock workers shut down Australia's largest stevedoring business for the first time since the 1998 waterfront dispute. Strikes on Monday at Patrick Stevedores terminals in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle follow separate strikes on Sunday by tugboat engineers. Consecutive strikes have hit Melbourne's busy container port. Credit:The Age The tugboat strikes, resuming in Melbourne on Tuesday, have been blocking the access of carriers at Australian ports and have caused alarm at potentially severe flow-on effects. Concerns are rising that the latest strikes at Patrick Stevedores will cause further disruption to the national supply chain. Reporter Adam Carey has just arrived in Crib Point. He's filing from the scene. On the road into town a sign says Welcome to Crib Point - but at the first turn towards the bay, a police car with flashing sirens has blocked the road, ensuring nobody gets any closer to the fire zone. Black-grey smoke can be seen rising out of the mangroves, right on the water line - it fills the air with an acrid smell. Behind police lines, near the local CFA station, locals stand on their nature strips craning their necks towards the direction of the fire, which cannot be seen. There is an air of communal curiosity, more than panic. A group of four teenage boys ride past on BMX bikes, heading towards the final police roadblock for a closer look. Local Esther Vaughan, a night shift worker, says she was woken from her sleep by sirens. She walked to a viewing spot and watched the fire bombers suck water out of the sea before dropping it on the blaze. The neighbourhood where the fire burns is an upmarket one, Ms Vaughan says, with expensive houses lining the Esplanade. Behind the police road block, Christine Goninon is leaving home for the night, her cat Patch is sitting on her lap in the driver's seat of her car. She has left everything else behind. "I'm getting out of here," she says. "I've told the firies that if the house catches fire, let it burn." Ms Goninon is being cautious, heading to a friend's place further away from the fire while others stay home. But she has lived here 30 years and seen bad fires before and says it is possible it could reach this street. "I wouldn't be surprised," she says. "There are still people down there drinking away and thinking they'll be safe, but I don't think they've been through a fire here before." Western Australian ports will be affected as tugboat engineers across some of Australia's major ports continue strike action. Ports in NSW, QLD, SA, Victoria as well as WA will be affected by a 24-hour strike on Tuesday as a dispute between the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers and tug and salvage company Svitzer continues. Tugboat engineers launched strikes at several ports across the country. Credit:Jessica Hromas The industrial action, which started last Monday, was launched by the engineers after Svitzer tried to bring them under the same enterprise agreement as deckhands and tugboat skippers. This would sideline engineer-specific issues and reduce qualification requirements for engineers, says the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers. "We reject those pessimists. America is stronger than ever, its economy has rebounded from the Great Recession. Its military is the mightiest in the world. Its entrepreneurs and engineers have literally imagined the modern digital world." Mr Turnbull lays a wreath at the tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington War Cemetery in Virginia. Credit:Nathan Edwards He said the deep friendship between Australia and the US was not only built upon shared combat but shared values. But he said it was almost inevitable that China would return to its pre-19th century position as the dominant global economy. To avoid what he called the "Thucydides Trap" the inevitable conflict born from the unease at the rise of a new power, China's rise must be welcomed by the world, but China must also work to reassure its neighbours that its intentions are good. "You know as well as we do that justice is to be found only as between equals in power. As for the rest, the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must," said the Prime Minister, quoting from Book 1 of Thucydides' history, a passage he said that had often been referred to by China's President, Xi Jinping. He said regional peace and prosperity were intrinsically linked and dependent on co-operation between the US and China. At times during the speech Mr Turnbull closely echoed positions held by Barack Obama. As the President has, he urged observers not to exaggerate the power of the Islamic State, which he said was marked by "crazed delusions", but said the destruction of the self-styled caliphate was crucial to counter the terrorists group's "narrative of inevitable victory." Voicing a view also held by the White House he said boots on the ground were necessary to destroy IS, but they needed to be the "right boots on the right ground". "The recent retaking of Ramadi is a good example," he said. "Led by the Iraqis themselves, assisted by the coalition's respective air and special forces, it was not just a blow to ISIL, but an example of the right combination. "An enduring victory must be won and owned by the people of Iraq and Syria." He said unless Sunni populations in Iraq and Syria could be reconciled in an inclusive order a stable peace could not be achieved. "The enmities are so deep, the wrongs so shocking, that every option should be on the table - from an institutionalised power-sharing to some form of partition," said the Prime Minister. "This is a time for creative pragmatism and a recognition that difficult compromises will be required, particularly to avoid the sectarian aspect of this struggle spreading more widely across the region." With what appeared to be an eye turned to China Mr Turnbull said that online freedom was vital for democracy, human dignity and economic progress. "Australia, the US and others must work together internationally to promote norms of behaviour that are consistent with a free, open and secure internet," he said. "They include that states should not knowingly conduct or support cyber-enabled intellectual property theft for commercial advantage." Earlier in the day Mr Turnbull received a 19-gun salute and honor guard as he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery before meeting Defence chiefs at the Pentagon. President Barack Obama has declared a state of emergency in response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where thousands of residents have been exposed to toxic amounts of lead. The president's action on Saturday authorises the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to "co-ordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency" in Genesee County. FEMA can provide up to $5 million in federal aid to help provide water, filters and other items for up to 90 days to residents whose water has been contaminated since the city switched water supplies in a cost-cutting move in 2014. The declaration was requested on Thursday by Governor Rick Snyder, a Republican, who had also sought a major disaster declaration and asked for nearly $96 million to be expedited for relief efforts. A disaster declaration would have freed up more federal aid but Flint's problem did not qualify because it was a man-made disaster. Budapest: Countries usually celebrate when their filmmakers are nominated for an Oscar. Not so in Hungary after Son of Saul, directed by Laszlo Nemes, had been nominated for an Academy award. In fact, some Hungarians responded with anti-Semitic abuse to the news that an acclaimed movie set during the Holocaust could win this year's award for best foreign film. Geza Rohrig in a scene from "Son of Saul". Credit:Sony Pictures Classics/AP Son of Saul won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival last northern summer and took a Golden Globe this month for its searing portrayal of a Hungarian-Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz trying to give a dignified burial to the body of a boy he takes for his son. It made an international star of Hungarian actor Geza Rohrig, who plays the lead role of Saul Auslander, a member of the Sonderkommando, a group of prisoners whose job was to incinerate the dead. London: American intelligence agencies are to conduct a major investigation into how the Kremlin is infiltrating political parties in Europe. James Clapper, the US head of national intelligence, has been instructed by Congress to conduct a major review of clandestine Russian funding of European parties over the past decade. The review reflects mounting concerns in Washington over Moscow's determination to exploit European disunity to undermine NATO, block US missile defence programmes and revoke punitive economic sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea. The US move came as senior British government officials revealed growing fears that "a new Cold War" was now unfolding in Europe, with Russian meddling taking on a breadth, range and depth far greater than previously thought. Latest News Australian Mortgage Awards 2022 broker winners reflect on big night Best of the best celebrate achievements Household Capital enters strategic partnership with Genworth The insurer now has a 22% share of the firm Free mentoring programs devalue the mentor and don't guarantee the full scope of training for a mentee, an ex-broker and the founder of an MFAA and FBAA approved mentoring program has argued.Karen Hambleton-OGrady, principal mentor and founder of fee-for-service mentoring and professional development company, Simply Mentoring, told Australian Broker that free mentoring programs lack the structured approach that fee-for-service programs offer.Hambleton-OGradys comments come after the chief executive of Outsource Financial, Tanya Sale, told Australian Broker in a video interview that fee-for-service mentoring programs are delivering no outcomes for the cost new brokers have to pay.However, according to Hambleton-OGrady, free mentoring programs are not viable in the modern mortgage broking industry.Once upon a time somebody would take you into their business and they would mentor you but mostly it was because the people that would come into your business would have some lending experience working at a particular lender and the mentoring they needed was small, she told Australian Broker.Whereas now we are attracting people who have never worked in a bank or maybe have never even walked into a bank given the technology today. They are genuinely interested in the sale of mortgages. We are attracting sales people to the industry, because we are in sales and not finance, so those people need a full mentoring package.A busy broker cannot spend the time with someone who has very little knowledge base. It needs to be a structured approach.Free mentoring actually ends up devaluing the mentor, says Hambleton-OGrady.I think [free mentoring] devalues the broker who is delivering it. Everyone should have a value on their time and if you dont have a value on your time then all you will end up with is time-takers. People will be taking your time and not be giving anything back to you.Hambleton-OGrady also argues that free mentoring programs delivered by brokers who are not a part of a structured mentoring program can also devalue the mentee.If [a mentee] joins a brand or a group whose speciality is one particular type of lending residential, construction, commercial, etc and [they] are being trained by them, then [they] are only going to be trained in one area, Hambleton-OGrady told Australian Broker.[They] are not going to get that full scope of training. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams Now he needs a bath and a lawyer. A man drove his car into the fetid waters of the Gowanus Canal on Monday morning allegedly in a desperate bid to flee the scene of a crash, in which he hit a woman and possibly an infant girl, police said. The driver was heading down Court Street when he allegedly smashed his car into a Camry parked near Degraw Street at around 11:10 am, injuring a womans foot as she attempted to place the 1-year-old girl in the car, according to an officer at the scene who only identified himself as a police chief. The motorist did not stick around and own up to the havoc, the officer claimed instead, he took a sharp left on Degraw, put his foot to the floor, and fled directly into Brooklyn Nautical Purgatory, The 36-year-old man sent his car barreling through the guardrail that separates Degraw Street from the Canal, and his vehicle plunged up to its windows in the canals gonorrhea-corrupted waters, the officer said. The motorist was lucky on a few counts, according to the chief, who said if it wasnt for the railing and the fact that the Gowanus was at low tide, there might not have been anyone left to arrest. If it wasnt for the guardrails, he probably would have went further and been completely submerged, he said. The 36-year-old man was able to pull himself out of the car through a window, and clamor up onto his vehicles roof, when a group of teamsters working on the television series The Americans, which was filming nearby, appeared to lend a hand and haul him out of the canal, according to a truck driver with the production. The driver went on to say that the suspect was given a checkup inside an ambulance, before cops slapped him in cuffs and led him into a squad car. It is unclear if the woman who was injured received medical care, but the police boss said the young girl was taken to Lutheran Hospital as a precautionary measure, even though, at a glance, the child didnt appear to be suffering any injuries. with Jason Speakman Payton Muth stars on the field now, but plans to be on the sidelines later latest news October 3, 2022 Dee Gambit Hundreds if not thousands of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ... Padres stun Phillies as big brother gets best of little brother The San Diego Padres stunned the Philadelphia Phillies in NLCS Game 2, scoring eight unanswered runs in a victory that evened up the playoff series. Energy giant EDF looks set to make a final decision next week on whether to start the construction of Hinkley Point C near Burnham-On-Sea amid new concerns from anti-nuclear campaigners. French newspaper Le Figaro says EDF may make the final decision about the proposed construction of Hinkley C at its Board of Directors meeting on 27th January. But campaign group Stop Hinkley has raised a number of new concerns about the develeopment this week. Spokesperson Roy Pumfrey said: Ill believe it when I see it. This is the ninth time EDF has said a final investment decision is imminent. Just last October the chairman of EDF, Jean-Bernard Levy, said work would be starting before the end of 2015. It would be completely reckless of the Board to give the go-ahead to this 25 billion project when the company is in such a parlous state. The company has already announced that it is considering selling assets worth more than 6 billion Euros (4.5 billion), including a stake in its eight British nuclear plants, of which Hinkley Point B is one, to fund Hinkley Point C. But it could only sell a 29% share if it wants to retain a controlling 51% stake, so this would only raise around 2.6 billion Euros. He added: The company also needs 55 billion euros to upgrade its ageing nuclear plants in France. EDF has also agreed to buy between 51 and 75% of the struggling French reactor builder Areva NP which is valued at 2.7 billion euros. So it will have to find at least 1.4 billion euros for that. EDF is also to be considering disposing of its 49.99% stake in five American reactors. But this sale would be complicated. At least two of the reactors are at risk of closure due to economic pressures, and EDFs partner, Exelon, is unlikely to be willing to take on more liability. He continued: Another possibility is that EDF will sell 50% of its holding in the French power transmission business RTE. It cannot sell more than half because 50% is allocated to its decommissioning fund, which is segregated. There is, of course, a risk in selling half because if it turns out to be worth less than EDF has claimed it is worth for the decommissioning fund, EDF would have to top up the decommissioning fund by the shortfall. Is it really sensible for EDF to commit to building two EPRs at Hinkley Point C when the Company is in such a precarious position and there are still no EPRs operating anywhere in the world it has just been announced that even the Chinese EPRs are about four years late. As part of Tata Motors elaborate plans to engage with its customers, the Indian auto major organised a rally to celebrate the spirit of Zest. In all, 154 Zests, the compact sedan from Tata Motors stable, participated in the rally held in Pune. In addition to highlighting the advantages of the car, the company and participants managed to create a new Asian record for being part of the largest convoy of a single branded vehicle. In the rally held on January 17, the participants covered a distance of 21.19km driving in formations of three. The starting point of the rally was at Pan Card Club, Baner. The rally was the latest in the series of events organised by Tata Motors to connect and listen to its customers, showcase its products and help change public perceptions with regards to its cars. Earlier, a Zest mileage run was organised across 19 cities of India with 665 vehicles participating. Source : BS Motoring In a bid to save lives of road accident victims, the Tamil Nadu government plans an innovative initiative, operating motorcycle ambulances to reach victims within the golden hour. The health departments trauma care initiative will see paramedics head to the accident site on bikes carrying essential medicines. According to an official, these bike ambulances would be able to navigate through traffic snarls and reach the victim at the earliest. Traditional ambulances take a long time to provide aid to victims as they find it difficult to manoeuvre through city traffic. But the bike-borne paramedics are expected to reach the victims, especially in congested areas. The first phase of the initiative will be launched in Chennai next month, according to the department. Source : BS Motoring Administering sugary syrup to Uttar Pradesh sugar mills, the Akhilesh Yadav government today decided not to hike the state sugarcane price for the current 2015-16 crushing season. With State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 280 per quintal for common variety of sugarcane, this would be the fourth year running when the same price would be effective in UP, the country largest and second largest cane and sugar producer respectively. The last time, when SAP was hiked in UP was in 2012-13, when it was increased by 17% to Rs 280 per quintal for common variety, which forms the bulk of the cash crop. For the subsequent crushing seasons 2013-14, 2014-15 and current 2015-16 seasons, the SAP has been retained. The state cabinet meeting headed by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav decided to retain the SAP for the current year. The announcement of SAP has been delayed by over two months. The farmers had been demanding cane price of Rs 350 per quintal owing to increase in farm input costs. However, private mills, which form nearly 80 percent of the functional units in UP, had reiterated their paying capacity was much less due to low domestic sugar prices and weak demand. Meanwhile, UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) secretary Deepak Guptara has welcomed the state government step of not increasing SAP "in view the depressed market conditions and the losses suffered by industry during the last five crushing seasons," even as the Association "looks forward to a long term solution." SAP is the floor price to be paid by sugar mills for procuring cane from farmers. While, the Centre had announced the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for cane in February 2015 itself for the 2015-16 crushing season, the state government had been dragging its feet on the issue. FRP is the statutory price to be paid by sugar mills across the country, while some states like UP announce SAP to further remunerate farmers, although this has been challenged in the Supreme Court as arbitrary. UP accounts for nearly a fourth of India's annual sugar production, however, the sector has been passing through difficult times in recent years due to issue pertaining to cane price, cane arrears, falling sugar price etc. However, the sugar prices have been firming over the last few weeks and the prices are expected to further go up in coming months. Sugarcane arrears to the tune of over Rs 900 crore for the previous 2014-15 crushing season is still pending on mills and Allahabad High Court is hearing a case in this regard. For the current season, the sugar mills have so far paid nearly Rs 1,600 crore to farmers against total dues of about Rs 2,600 crore. Thus, arrears for the current season have also piled up to Rs 1,000 crore so far. This season, 116 mills are participating in crushing operations, including 92, 23 and one belonging to private, cooperative and state sectors respectively. So far, the state mills had produced over 2.70 million tonnes (MT) of the sweetener after crushing almost 27 MT of cane. The sugar recovery stands at a health 10.09 percent. Meanwhile, UP cane commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh told Business Standard that the sugarcane crop yield this season had been better, which would to some extent insulate the farmers against the rising input costs and the retention of SAP at last year's level. "The state government would now ensure that the mills make timely payment to farmers to prevent distress sale by especially small farmers," he added. He maintained some such as Modi, Mawana and Simbhaoli groups and a handful of individual sugar mills were habitual offenders in delaying farmers' payments. "We are studying the matter and ascertaining reasons for such delays and if some structural issues are to be blamed. Soon, we would take a call in this regard." The sugar sector is not only economically vital, it is a political hot potato, since about five million farmers households are directly associated with cane farming. UP sugar sector is estimated at over Rs 30,000 crore spanning sugar and byproducts including molasses, ethanol, press mud etc. Besides, sugarcane is used to produce jaggery (gur) and khandsari (unpolished sugar) in the unorganised market. Ahead of the commercial launch of Reliance Jio (RJio) services in April, the Ambani brothers on Monday inked the spectrum trading and sharing agreements for 800-850 MHz spectrum, which will give RJio an edge over the competition. The deal assumes importance as it will give RJio a pan-India 4G network on 800-850 MHz frequency along with 2,300 MHz it already owns. The lower frequency offers better indoor coverage and provides seamless voice services through Voice over LTE (VoLTE). RJio has already soft-launched its 4G services. ALL IN THE FAMILY RCom to trade 800-850 MHz spectrum in 9 circles, including Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP (E) and UP (W), with RJio The trading deal, estimated to be Rs 4,500 cr, will be used to pay liberalisation fee of Rs 5,384 cr to the DoT RCom and RJio to share spectrum in 17 circles Deal critical for RJio as it is preparing to launch pan-India 4G service in April 800-850 MHz good for indoor coverage; lower frequency is better for data services In an official announcement, Anil Ambanis Reliance Communications (RCom) said it has signed the spectrum trading agreement with Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Jio Infocomm for 800 MHz licenses in nine circles, which is expected to add Rs 4,000-4,500 crore to RComs kitty. RCom will use entire proceeds from spectrum trading to pay the liberalisation fees of about Rs 5,384 crore to the department of telecommunications (DoT) during this week, according to sources. Both the firms also agreed to spectrum sharing in 800-MHz band across 17 circles. As part of the strategic collaboration, a reciprocal intra-circle roaming (ICR) arrangement will also be signed. RJio holds 2,300 MHz in all circles, 1,800 MHz in 18 circles and 850 MHz in 10 circles. This will ensure seamless 4G services for the subscribers of RJio once it is launched. RJio is filling all the gaps in its network before the full-fledged rollout, said a senior analyst. This is second such deal in this segment after Idea Cellular announced trading of spectrum with Videocon in two circles for Rs 3,310 crore. Last year, the government had approved spectrum sharing and trading between the telecom operators. In spectrum sharing, operators have to give spectrum usage charges to the government. Post sharing, spectrum usage charges (SUC) rate for the licensees will increase by 0.5 per cent of aggregate gross revenue. The spectrum arrangements between Jio and Rcom will result in network synergies, enhanced network capacity and will optimise spectrum utilisation and capex efficiencies. Both operators anticipate considerable savings in operating costs and future investment in networks, RCom said. The RCom subscribers will be able to access RJios LTE network under the reciprocal sharing and ICR agreements. However, the arrangements are subject to liberalisation of RCom spectrum in the 800-MHz band and obtaining the requisite approvals. These agreements further strengthen the comprehensive framework of business co-operation between RJio and RCom, following the nationwide long-term indefeasible rights of use agreements for inter-and intra-city optical fibre networks, and for sharing of telecom tower infrastructure, the firm added. Besides, RCom and another telecom player Sistema Shyam Teleservices (it offers services under MTS brand) have agreed for a merger, which will give the company access to MTS liberalised 800 MHz spectrum in eight circles and un-liberalised spectrum in one circle. RCom is also in talks with Aircel for a possible merger of wireless business. Aircel has second generation (2G) spectrum for 19 circles excluding Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai; 3G spectrum for 13 circles, and 4G spectrum for eight circles. RCom had applied for liberalising its 800-MHz spectrum in 20 circles a few months back. The company, however, is yet to receive any notice for the remaining four circles, where market determined price is not available. In these four circles Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu DoT has sought telecom regulator Trais views on the subject. To liberalise administratively allotted spectrum, telcos need to pay market determined price for the remaining period of the licence. RCom was sitting on Rs 39,800 crore debt at the end of September quarter last year, which it plans to bring down to Rs 20,000 crore after selling off its tower-related infrastructure. Over 250,000 jewellers from major cities came together for a peaceful candle march protesting government policy that mandates quoting Permanent Account Number (PAN) for every transaction of Rs 200,000. Effective January 1, government cut the threshold for PAN quotation to Rs 200,000 from Rs 500,000 which, according to jewellers, reduced their sales at least by a quarter as consumers deferred purchase of medium- and high-end jewellery weighing over 60-70 grams. "Jewellers felt the need for a peaceful protest through lighting candles in their nearby towns to attract government's attention on the issue. We also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and drew his attention to the problems faced by the industry with this regulation. In fact, the Finance Minister justified the step to curb black money from gold jewellery trade. Since, the government has taken many steps in the past to smoothen trade and improved transparency, we are confident that this issue would also be sorted out with an increase in PAN threshold," said G V Shreedhar, Chairman, All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), the organiser of the protest. Trade sources believe that jewellery sector employs around 20 million karigars directly and indirectly. With this PAN quotation requirement, their livelihood has come at stake as activities at jewellers' level have declined tremendously resulting into their retrenchment. "Therefore, the government must raise the PAN threshold limit to Rs 10,00,000 similar to that of real estate sector," demanded Kumar Jain, Director, Umedmal Tilokchand Zaveri, a city based bullion dealer and jewellery retailer. MindTree, Bengaluru-based mid-sized IT company, is going in for a new leadership team. Subroto Bagchi, co-founder, is stepping down as executive chairman, and incumbent chief executive and co-founder Krishnakumar Natarajan has been elevated as chairman. The company has also elevated co-founder and chief financial officer Rostow Ravanan as chief executive. However, Bagchi would continue to be on the board of the company. The new roles would be effective April 1. This is the second major leadership rejig at MindTree, founded by 10 former Wipro employees after founder Ashok Soota exited the company in a bitter boardroom in 2011. Soota later founded another IT services firm Happiest Minds. Another co-founder S Janakiraman quit in 2014 to build a cloud computing start-up. It also announced acquisition of US-based salesforce consulting company Magnet 360 for an undisclosed sum. Mindtree has been active in acquiring having specialisation in digital services, which is rapidly growing to become a major source of revenues for IT . Net profit up 7% MindTree on Monday said its third quarter net profit grew 7.2 per cent to Rs 150.9 crore and revenues 33.2 per cent to Rs 1,214.5 crore, compared with the same quarter last year, as it won more clients in the digital and managed services verticals. We saw good revenue growth in Q3 as we continue to strike the right chord with our clients. This broad-based result reflects the ongoing momentum of our key focus areas such as digital and managed services. Those initiatives combined with our recent acquisitions and deal wins are creating a clear path to further our growth trajectory, Natarajan, CEO and managing director, Mindtree, said in a statement. The board announced an interim dividend of Rs 4 per share on a face value of Rs 10. MindTree also announced a bonus issue to its shareholders. The company's stock closed Rs 69.4 or 4.51 per cent lower at Rs 1,469.6 on Monday ahead of the results announcement. Mumbaikars should continue to get power without interruption for at least a decade more, with the installation of additional transmission lines by the two bulk suppliers, Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure. Of the present daily demand of 3,300 Mw (growing at three to four per cent yearly), 2,200 Mw is met by these two private companies; the rest is brought from outside the city. The peak demand was 3,600 Mw during 2014-15. Rhere are 600,000 consumers with Tata and another three million with R-Infra. Another 900,000 get it through the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation. The recent completion of Tata's Padghe-Vikhroli transmission line and additional lines between Kalwa and Salsette enabled flow of an additional 500 Mw. R-Infra has asked the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) to amend its transmission license to enable an interconnection on its existing line from its Dahanu unit (in neighbouring Thane district). This would enable another 1,000 Mw from outside the state to the city; Reliance expects the needed work on the project to take two years. Ashok Pendse, consumer representative at MERC, told this newspaper: ''The amount of power that can be generated in Mumbai is limited due to pollution control norms. The increase in demand will have to be met from outside the city. What is necessary is increase in transmission capacity, mainly by Tata and R-Infra.'' R-Infra's petition says the interconnection would also improve the existing transmission system, by reducing the load on the Aarey-Borivli line, beside other positive effects. It has also urged it be granted the amended transmission licence for 25 years. Tata Power says it has done planning till the 2026 need to cater to Mumbais load growth. In line with this, it has started work on installation of a 400 Kv station at Vikhroli and 400 Kv transmission lines from Kharghar/Nagothane to Vikhroli. The company says it has invested nearly Rs 1,000 crore in the past three to four years. Online grocery store bigbasket today launched its Uttar Pradesh operations with Lucknow at its first port of call. The company has set up a warehouse measuring 28,000 sq ft in Lucknow to service the city customers, who can book their grocery items through web or its mobile phone app. "By the end of March 2016, we would be launching our operations in Kanpur as well. Later, we would expand to other major cities in UP including Agra and Varanasi," bigbasket co-founder (new initiatives) Abhinay Choudhari told Business Standard here. "UP is a high growth market for us and we are excited to launch our services in the state," he added. bigbasket offers 15,000 products in the grocery and household segment. The company is looking at getting 1,000 orders per day in Lucknow over the next couple of months. It has rolled out half-dozen vans and some two-wheelers in Lucknow to deliver goods at the doorsteps of customers. It services nearly 10,000 orders per day in Bangalore through its fleet of over 100 vans, he informed. The company currently operates in 12 cities and claims to offer competitive prices vis-a-vis traditional retail to gain customer base. bigbasket was founded in December 2011 in Bangalore. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan is its brand ambassador. Spanish sanitaryware major Roca is expecting its Indian business to grow by 15 per cent this year, after facing challenge in 2015, when the market growth was flat. The company is also planning to launch at least five to six electronic toilets under the Parryware brand in the country, a senior management official said. The company, which invested around Rs 50 crore including capex last year, is expected to invest another Rs 40 crore this year in its plastic manufacturing facilities. "Last year the growth was flat owing to various reasons including the poor offtake in the real estate market. This year, we are expecting a 15 per cent growth, as the market is expected to see revival. Some booster in the budget and the implementation of GST are expected to help the market," said Pau Abello Pellicer, managing director, Roca Bathroom Products Pvt Ltd. The compay has posted around Rs 800 crore turnover last year. Last year it invested in its ceramics facility in Madhya Pradesh, doubling the capacity from 1.2 million pieces per annum to 2.4 million pieces. It has also invested into its faucet manufacturing factory. At present, it has seven manufacturing facilities in India, with capacity to manufacture 6.5 million pieces of ceramics, 1.9 million faucets and 1.5 million cisterns and seat covers each, every year. The company will be investing another Rs 40 crore this year to modernise the equipment and also the expand capacity in its plastics facilities (cisterns and seat covers), to 1.7 million pieces each. The facility in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, will also see a slight increase in number of employees with this, he added. Roca, which has been selling an electronic toilet product i-klin under the Parryware brand in India, is planning to launch around four to five electronic toilet products under the brand. This would include automatic seat covers and seats which could change temperature. It may be noted that the company has positioned the Parryware brand, which originated in the Chennai-based Murugappa Group firm EID Parry, as a mass brand. It would import the electronic toilets from its overseas facility and is expecting a limited number of pieces to be sold initially, he added. It would also launch an experience showroom of Parryware in Gurgaon on February, 2016, to showcase the products and the new introductions under the brand, said Pellicer. At present, the company has 1000 dealers and 9,000 sub dealers for Parryware and 180 dealers for Roca accross the country. It is also planning to add another 20 dealers for Roca in the tier II, III cities, he added. Tata Motors, Indias biggest automotive company, has appointed Guenter Butschek as chief executive and managing director of all its operations in the country and international markets. Butschek, formerly with Airbus, the worlds second largest aircraft manufacturer, will succeed Karl Slym at Tata Motors, who passed away in January 2014. Butschek was chief operating officer at Airbus before he quit in December 2014, spending 30 months in that position. Butschek is expected to join Tata Motors on February 15, the company stated. A two-year search culminated in the appointment of Butschek for a new chief executive at Tata Motors, whose domestic passenger vehicle business is battling for survival. A corporate steering committee headed by chairman Cyrus Mistry was formed less than a month after Slyms death to oversee strategy execution. Mistry said, Tata Motors is going through an exciting yet challenging phase and Butscheks appointment comes at an opportune moment. He brings with him rich global experience of growing organisations and developing new markets. I am confident that Butscheks ability to lead high performing teams will enable our company to achieve sustainable, profitable growth. Butschek is the third foreigner (preceded by Carl-Peter Foster and Karl Slym) to head operations at Tata Motors, even as 90 per cent of the companys consolidated revenues comes from outside the country. British brands Jaguar and Land Rover are the prime margin driver for the company, even as its domestic business faces stiff competition from Maruti Suzuki Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra, to name a few. Prior to Airbus, Butschek worked at Daimler AG for around 25 years in international automotive management, leading functions such as production, industrialisation and procurement. The last role he held in Daimler was of president and chief executive of Beijing Benz Automotive Co, a joint venture between Daimler AG and Beijing Automotive Industrial Holding in Beijing, China. Butschek, who has a diploma in business administration and economics from the University of Cooperative Education in Stuttgart, Germany, joins Tata Motors at a time when the company is trying to reinvent itself, plugging several product gaps through new launches and revamping dealer and service network. Tata Motors is gearing up to launch a new hatchback, Zica, next month, which it hopes will bring the much-needed volumes, especially after the lukewarm response to its two predecessors, Zest and Bolt. While the domestic passenger vehicle sector grew by nine per cent during the April-December 2015 period at 2.06 million units, Tata Motors posted a two per cent fall in sales at 112,000 units during the same period, according to data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Its poor performance saw it slip two ranks having now settled at the fifth spot after Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Mahindra & Mahindra and Honda, in that order. On Monday, Tata Motors also announced the buy back of unsecured non-convertible debentures aggregating Rs 450 crore as part of its debt restructuring programme. Tata Steel UK, subsidiary of Tata Steel, announced on Monday it would cut 1,050 jobs to save on costs and improve its competitiveness. The plan would lead to a loss of 750 jobs at its Port Talbot-based Strip Products UK business, 200 jobs in support functions and a further 100 jobs at steel mills in Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool, said Tata Steel in a notification to the exchanges. The proposed changes come after continued falls in the European steel price in the wake of a flood of cheaper import, particularly from China, said the company. The situation in the industry across the globe had led to it cutting 1,200 jobs in October last year, mainly at its Scunthorpe unit. A full consultation process with employee representatives will begin immediately, said the country's largest steel producer. Tata Steel has made an investment of ?1.5 billion at its UK operations. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry. And, while we welcome progress on UK energy costs, the government must take urgent action to increase the competitiveness of the UK for (this) steel sector. This includes lowering business rates and supporting energy efficiency and anti-dumping cases, so we can compete fairly," Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations was quoted as saying. Tata Steel had become the world's fifth largest steel producing company after it acquired Corus in 2007 for a hefty $12.1 billion, its annual capacity rising to 25 million tonnes. The entity was bought in the boom period, at a 34 per cent premium to Tata Steel's original bid. Tata Steel UK, subsidiary of Tata Steel, announced on Monday it would cut 1,050 jobs to save on costs and improve its competitiveness. The plan would lead to a loss of 750 jobs at its Port Talbot-based Strip Products UK business, 200 jobs in support functions and a further 100 jobs at steel mills in Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool, said Tata Steel in a notification to the exchanges. The proposed changes come after continued falls in the European steel price in the wake of a flood of cheaper import, particularly from China, said the company. The situation in the industry across the globe had led to it cutting 1,200 jobs in October last year, mainly at its Scunthorpe unit. A full consultation process with employee representatives will begin immediately, said the country's largest steel producer. Tata Steel has made an investment of 1.5 billion at its UK operations. We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry. And, while we welcome progress on UK energy costs, the government must take urgent action to increase the competitiveness of the UK for (this) steel sector. This includes lowering business rates and supporting energy efficiency and anti-dumping cases, so we can compete fairly, Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steels European operations was quoted as saying. Tata Steel had become the world's fifth largest steel producing company after it acquired Corus in 2007 for a hefty $12.1 billion, its annual capacity rising to 25 million tonnes. The entity was bought in the boom period, at a 34 per cent premium to Tata Steels original bid. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Chennai regional provident fund commissioner along with six others on bribery charges. The agency has taken into custody the head officer Durga Prasad, two enforcement officers and four others in a case involving Rs14.5 lakh bribe. The arrested accused were produced before a special CBI court that has remanded them to a seven days custody ending on February 1. All the accused have been booked under Sections 7, 12, 13 (2), 13 (1) (b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Since 1958, when Tibetan-inhabited areas erupted in armed revolt against Chinese rule, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has propagated the convenient myth that unrest in Tibet is the handiwork of a small number of troublemakers, orchestrated by the Dalai clique in India. Now, the indefinite extension of a vast Chinese surveillance programme across all 5,000 villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) makes it plain that the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) regards every Tibetan as suspect. The intrusive surveillance grid is detailed in a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, China: No End to Tibet Surveillance Program, released on Monday. Imposed in 2011 for a three-year period, the surveillance is set to become permanent. The report describes an Orwellian campaign intended to guard against any recurrence of the mass protests that engulfed TAR in 2008, after originating in the Tibetan-inhabited areas in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. The 2008 protests, which embarrassed China in the year of the Beijing Olympics, marked the 50th anniversary of the 1958 Tibetan uprising in Amdo and Kham regions parts of the Tibetan plateau, now merged into Chinese provinces. The surveillance programme, which consumed a quarter of the regional governments budget, involved 21,000 communist cadres fanning out in groups of four or more to live in each of Tibets 5,000 villages. The report says their role was initially described as improving conditions in the villages, but the CCP chief in TAR admitted in 2011 that their primary requirement was to turn each village into a fortress in the struggle against separatism. In typically paternalistic CCP rhetoric, the surveillance campaign was entitled Benefit the Masses. Its official slogan was: all villages become fortresses, and everyone is a watchman. The party cadres have been re-educating the Tibetan villagers with programmes like Feeling the Partys Kindness. According to the report, the intrusive surveillance of Tibetans included questioning them about their political and religious views, subjecting thousands to political indoctrination, establishing partisan security units to monitor behaviour, and collecting information that could lead to detention or other punishment. Official reports describe the teams pressuring villagers to publicly show support for the ruling Communist Party and to oppose the Dalai Lama. The Chinese governments decision to extend its Tibet surveillance program indefinitely is nothing less than a continuous human rights violation, said Sophie Richardson, China director of HRW. The new normal is one of permanent surveillance of Tibetans. The village-based cadre teams incorporate CCP officials, government officers and security officials from the Peoples Armed Police. Each team includes at least one Tibetan as translator. A teams tour of duty in a particular village is about one year. Before 2011, there were no qualified party officials permanently stationed below township level. Intensive security measures were used in trouble spots, especially places and monasteries with a political record of opposition to CCP rule. However, the entire population was not earlier targeted at this level, says India-based Tibet analyst, Matthew Akester. Despite written objections from Union water resources and Ganga rejuvenation minister Uma Bharati, the Union environment ministry has done a volte face and conditionally allowed five new dams on tributaries of the Ganga in the Uttarakhand hills. In doing so, the environment ministry cited a 1916 agreement between the then British rulers, six kings, members of the Hindu Sabha and Madan Mohan Malviya, and an expert body report, which is still under consideration of an inter-ministerial group of power, water resources and environment ministries. The environment ministry has also taken a policy decision on how much minimum water should be enough to flow in the Ganga basin, which Bharati has opposed saying it is against the common position that was arrived at within the government. In a letter to environment minister Prakash Javadekar, Bharati had said the affidavit permitting the five dams and setting a policy benchmark for how much water should be allowed as minimum flow in the river and its tributaries should not be filed before the Supreme Court as it was against the decisions taken jointly in the Union government. The letter was sent on January 5 but the environment ministry went ahead and filed the affidavit on January 6. Business Standard reviewed both the letter and the affidavit of the environment ministry, beside other documents. Earlier, the environment ministry had informed the Supreme Court it would not permit any new dams to be built on tributaries of Ganga in the hill state without a comprehensive and cumulative impact assessment of the planned bumper-to-bumper dams in the hills. It had said so noting the dams in the hill state had contributed to the disaster of 2013 when the Kedarnath valley got flooded, killing hundreds and impacted thousands. The five dams that have now got a conditional nod from the environment ministry through the U-turn in the affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court are 300 Mw Alaknanda project, 24.3-Mw Bhyunder Ganga project, 4-Mw Khirao Ganga project, 171-Mw Lata Tapovan project, and 195-Mw Kotlibhel 1A project. The government has recommended considerable design modifications on the Alaknanda and Kotlibhel 1A projects. The environment ministry did not respond to queries and reminders sent by Business Standard. Bharati in her letter to Javadekar said, I request you not to file the aforesaid affidavit and take prayer to the Honble Court for extension of time so as to enable the aforesaid inter-ministerial committee to give its report, which can form the basis of considered policy decision of the government in the issue of six hydro-electric projects. She said the environment ministry affidavit was self-contradictory. At one place, it says, Entire flow of the river in these three major streams and that of the river Ganga after Devprayag cannot be stopped at any location. This, she said, was according to the common understanding reached between us. But, then, she points out that in another part, the ministry has told the court, Having respect to the spirit of the 1916 agreement, free unfettered and uninterrupted flow of natural course of water up to the level of 1,000 cusecs in the river has to be maintained while designing any structure across these three main streams (Alaknanda, Bhagirathi and Mandakini tributaries), to ensure there are no dry stretches downstream of such structures and there is a continuous flow of natural stream. This submission was partly corrected in a supplementary affidavit filed later to reflect the 1916 agreement correctly. In the correction, the ministry has said a minimum flow of 1,000 cusecs shall be maintained, one of the things Bharati had taken objection to. Bharati reiterated in her letter, Our common understanding was that apart from aforesaid three major streams in which flow cannot be fettered under any condition, in case of other tributaries of Ganga, projects can be taken up only after ensuring free, unfettered and uninterrupted flow of minimum 1,000 cusecs, This is nowhere reflected in the draft affidavit. She added that the submissions in the affidavit were being submitted as the policy decision of the government. However, the group of three ministers including you, me and honble minister of state of power representing ministries having stake in the matter in our meeting held on 18-11-2015 decided to form inter-ministerial committee under chairmanship of secretary water resources to give report for policy decision of the government in the matter. She goes on to say, The chairman of the committee has sought extension of time in view of the complexity of matter and also for consideration of inclusion of representative from state of Uttarakhand in view of request of honble chief minister. I am surprised to note that there is no mention of this development in the draft affidavit though in previous hearing held on 24-11-2015 the extension of time was sought from honble court precisely on this ground. Since the aforesaid committee is yet to give its report, I am unable to understand how the policy decision of the government as stated in the draft affidavit was arrived, she concluded. The environment ministrys affidavit is based on an expert body report that it had earlier set up and the 1916 agreement. But here too, there is a big contradiction in the ministrys affidavit even from the expert body report and the 1916 agreement. The ministry said 1,000 cusecs flow would be maintained in the three tributary stretches and Ganga. But the expert body noted that that the 1916 agreement requires 1,000 cusecs water to be supplied only at the ghats of Haridwar and not upstream in the entire river stretches. The expert body report states, As per the document, maintain of 1,000 cusec of water has been recommended for Har ki Pauri (the main ghat) at Haridwar. Business Standard reviewed the 1916 agreement to also confirm this independently. The environment ministry affidavit remains quite about the continuous water flows required in the entire stretches of these tributaries and the rivers upstream of Haridwar in technical jargon this is referred to as environmental flows and is considered essential to maintain the ecological systems that are dependent on the river waters. This continuous environmental flow in the Ganga basin was to be decided by the inter-ministerial group that Bharti refers to in her letter. The policy decision to ensure the flow of water in Ganga basin has also not been cleared by the National Ganga River Basin Authority, which had previously taken such policy decisions ever-since Ganga was declared a national river. The authority has an apex policy-making council headed by the Prime Minister and all concerned ministries and states on board. The path to clearance The trigger for all this was the Uttarakhand tragedy in June 2013. Reacting to it, in August 2013 the Supreme Court put a ban on all new hydropower projects in Uttarakhand till the government decided if the existing ones had played a role in the 2013 disaster or not. The then UPA government set up an expert body committee under environmentalist Ravi Chopra with government and non-government officials on board. The committee concluded in April 2014 that the dams had played a critical role in the disaster, it recommended a ban on hydropower projects above 2000-2,500 m above sea levels and permitted only 1 of the 24 proposed dams with major modifications. The NDA government accepted the report and said as much in its affidavit to the apex court in December 2014. But when six project developers intervened and asked for relief the court asked the government to come back on their views on the six. The government set up yet another committee specifically to look at these six. The new committee concluded that these would be dangerous for the fragile ecology of the hill state, especially after the changed geography post-disaster. The government first kept the report under wraps while the Attorney General orally informed the court that the six projects could get the go-ahead. After the report got published in the media it was finally submitted to the court. The apex court asked that the expert body panel to make a final recommendation on the 6 projects as a cluster. Instead of reverting back to the original Ravi Chopra expert body, the environment ministry set up yet another panel as the expert body, this time headed by B P Das, who had previously served as member for several years on the statutory environmental clearance committee for hydropower dams. The panel was given specific terms of reference for the 6 projects, besides other tasks. It was told to finalise conditions under which the projects can be given a go-ahead. It was also told to consider environmental flow stipulations on the approved principle of unfettered flow of minimum 1,000 cusecs in all seasons. While it was told the larger cumulative impact assessment should be done in six months the report on the 6 projects should be finalised in just 3 months. The Das committee concluded in its 68 page report that five of the six projects could be cleared with conditions on their design. While doing so it noted that the 1916 pact that the government had put in its terms of reference to consider pertained only to maintaining waters at Haridwar. When the expert body headed by Das submitted its report the environment ministry told the court that it needed to consult others as it was an inter-ministerial issue. It sought time from the courts to do so. This is when the inter-ministerial group was set up that Bharti refers to in her letter pointing out that the environment ministry has submitted the report without awaiting its results and taken drastic policy decisions. Union Labor minister Bandaru Dattetreya has been named along with three others over the suicide of a research scholar at Hyderabad University. Charges related to abetment to suicide and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act have been filed amid protests in Hyderabad and Delhi by student unions. TRS MP K. Kavitha on Monday said the pressure by two union ministers on University of Hyderabad vice chancellor led to suspension of five Dalit research scholars and one of them committed suicide. Terming the suicide of Rohith Vemula as "unfortunate', she said union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattetreya should not have intervened into the campus politics. "He wrote to (union minister for human resources development) Smriti Irani in support of ABVP students and this brought pressure on the university vice chancellor and he suspended five students of Ambedkar Students Union," she said. Meanwhile Daattetreya has denied any role in the fight between the students. "I had received a representation from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leaders that they were beaten up by anti- and anti-social elements. I forwarded the same to the ministry. I don't know what action was taken on this," Dattatreya told reporters. Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, said for many days the suspended students had been staging protest in the open but neither the central ministers nor the university authorities came to their rescue. 25-year-old Rohith Vemula, who belonged to Guntur district of Amravati, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff between two student groups in August last year. The five researchers were supported by 10 other students' outfits on the campus including ASA, Students Federation of India, Dalit Students Union and Students Association among others. On Sunday, the students from each of the outfits had started relay hunger strike asking the university administration to take back the students all of whom hailed from backward socio-economic backgrounds. The students protested against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya. The students demanded the revoking of the suspension of the five Dalit research scholars. They also demanded Dattatreya's apology for interfering in University matters and branding the students of University of Hyderabad as casteists, anti-nationals and extremists. The lifting of sanctions on Iran, which came late Saturday, followed confirmation from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran had fulfilled its obligations under an agreement last summer to limit its nuclear programme. The IAEA report triggered Implementation Day, which will give Iran access to billions of petrodollars frozen in foreign banks and remove the constraints that have capped the country's crude exports at just 1 million b/d over the past four years. Iran on Sunday activated plans to lift oil production by 500,000 barrels a day (b/d). India is one of the only six countries which was allowed to buy crude from Iran. Business Standard breaks down the implications of a sanctions-free oil producing Iran. SANCTIONS LIFTED The European Council lifted its nuclear-related sanctions January 16. Sanctions lifted by the US include a ban on commodities trade for non-US citizens, who will now be permitted to trade with Iranian government institutions and sell goods and services. Companies from outside the US will be able to start doing business with Iran immediately, without sanction from the US. Sanctions will no longer apply to non-US persons providing underwriting services, insurance, or re-insurance for the Iranian energy sector, including vessels for the transport of crude oil, gas, oil and petrochemical products to or from Iran. The insurance ban had made it hard for many of Iran's remaining crude customers in Asia to arrange transport of their oil purchases. Companies will no longer be sanctioned for investments in Iran's oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors, or buying and transporting Iranian crude, oil products and petrochemicals. The sale of refined products and petrochemicals to Iran will also no longer come under US sanctions, nor will transactions with Iran's energy sector. SOME US SANCTIONS REMAIN A number of older US sanctions against Iran remain in force, including those imposed for Iran's alleged support of terrorism and human rights violations, which experts say might be tricky for companies to navigate. Still in force is a US trade embargo preventing US entities from conducting business with Iran and which bans the import of Iranian oil into the US. It also effectively prohibits any US dollar transactions with Iran since those typically transit through US banks. Restrictions on exports of US upstream and downstream technology to Iran, unless granted a license by the Obama administration, will also remain in force However, the US Treasury Department has said it will permit foreign subsidiaries of US companies to operate in Iran, provided there is no involvement of US citizens, technology or financing. IRAN'S OIL PLANS Iran's oil ministry activated its planned 500,000 b/d oil output increase Sunday, issuing an order to its state-owned companies to increase production and placing the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company on standby. If achieved, this volume would take Iranian output to around 3.39 million b/d and exports to 1.5 million b/d. Top Iranian officials including Mehdi Assali, oil ministry head of OPEC affairs, and Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy oil minister for international and commercial affairs, said Iran plans to regain its lost market share but in a manner that would have the least impact on oil prices. Iran has based its next budget for March 2016-March 2017 on an oil price of $40/b and exports of 2.25 million b/d, Gholamreza Kateb, a government spokesman said Sunday. Iran hopes to attract top international oil companies to its upstream sector to help it develop its vast reserves of oil (estimated at 157 billion barrels) and gas (about 1,200 Tcf). It has designed a new upstream contract model that it will present in London in February. Iran is currently pumping less than 3 million b/d. A Platts survey estimated that the country produced 2.89 million b/d in December. The International Energy Agency has said it expects Iran to be able to achieve crude output of 3.6 million b/d -- similar to the 2011 level within six months of the lifting of sanctions. IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON SUPPLY The immediate impact on exports is expected to come from Iran's considerable floating storage. According to latest data from cFlow, Platts trade flow software, between 47 million and 49 million barrels of Iranian crude oil and condensate is stored on a combination of vessel classes on ships of the state-owned National Iranian Tanker Co. and other ship operators. Market sources have estimated 65% of this volume to be condensate and expect some of this to trickle into the spot market in Asia. They have, however, said that Iranian condensate has limited outlets in Asia due to its high sulfur content. KEY BUYERS Only six oil importers are currently allowed to buy crude from Iran -- China, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan -- down from around 20 before sanctions were tightened in mid-2012. Zamaninia said Sunday that China, which imported an average 539,509 b/d of Iranian crude over the first 11 months of 2015, would remain Iran's top buyer. All Asian buyers have said they will be interested in Iranian oil as long as the pricing is competitive. The EU had imported nearly 600,000 b/d of Iranian crude and condensate before the tightening of sanctions in 2012. Most of this volume went to Spain, Italy and Greece. Spanish and Italian refiners have said they are interested in resuming Iranian crude imports once sanctions are lifted. Increased supply from Iran could affect demand for West African, Russian, Caspian, North Sea and Iraqi crudes, among others, which have replaced Iranian volumes. (Source: Platts) Implementation remains the major challenge for Indias economy and if it can deliver on its promises, the country will be the place to be, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said. When asked to nominate the three things that most need to change to make a difference to the Indian economy Rajan said, Implementation, implementation, and implementation. The gap in India has always been between the promise and the execution, he said. ALSO READ: Raghuram Rajan urges Oz firms to invest in Indian market If anybody was to look towards a big source of demand in future it would be hard for them to miss India, he said, adding, If our implementation matches our promise I have no doubt that in the next five or 10 years this will be the place to be so good to get in early. Rajan told Australias Sydney Morning Herald that he believes the implementation gap which had plagued India in the past is narrowing. The central bank head said, I would argue that because of the common language different accents but common language I think there could be a lot going on there. Rajan praised the role of Australias Productivity Commission in developing economic policy. Clearly there is a lot to learn about how you have used the intellectual inputs, the economic inputs, from that kind of organisation, he said. There are so many places two large economies can learn from each other, he added. When asked about Australian companies, like ANZ and Telstra, which have made promising investments in India in recent decades only to retreat at great cost, Rajan said, Im not sure its anybodys fault there have been periods of strong growth and there have been periods where people have thrown in the towel and said it is impossible doing business. Rajan said India needed to improve its infrastructure, human capital (knowledge base of the population), regulations and access to finance. When asked if he was to consider a leadership role at the International Monetary Fund in future, Rajan said I havent even thought about that. The problems here (in India) and the immediacy of dealing with them is so much more interesting at this point. Merchandise exports fell for the 13th consecutive month in December, the longest decline surpassing the nine-month contraction in the global financial crisis of 2008-09, as prices of oil and other commodities faced a global slump. The decline was, however, much less than 24 per cent witnessed in November, giving comfort on the industrial growth front. Exports fell to $22.29 billion against $26.15 billion in December 2014, according to data released by the commerce ministry on Monday. The last recorded growth in exports was a year ago, when it rose 7.3 per cent year-on-year. Non-oil, non-gold imports fell only two per cent in December, against 20 per cent in the previous month, indicating that industrial production would recover from contraction. The index of industrial production contracted 3.2 per cent in November, for the first time in 13 months, against a five-year high of 9.8 per cent in October. Non-oil, non-gold imports declined 8.5 per cent in October. ALSO READ: Export worries: Peers outperform India Richa Gupta, senior director, Deloitte India, said, Non-oil ex-gold imports picked up pace sequentially, giving credence to the fact that at least urban demand was on the upswing. Cumulative exports in the months leading up to December in the current financial year was $196 billion, 18 per cent less than $239 billion, the corresponding figure for the same period a year ago. This means, exports need to be $100 billion in the next three months to be at $300 billion in 2015-16.If exports fall in the current financial year, it would be a contraction for the second year on the trot. The government, under pressure from industry and experts over the sustained fall, maintained that the decline was in tandem with other major world economies. Export sectors, including jute manufacturing, floor covering, have shown an impressive growth of 135 per cent, followed by spices at 34 per cent, handicrafts (exclusive handmade carpet) at 27 per cent, tea at 25 per cent, and fruits and vegetables at 24 per cent. Imports, too, declined 3.88 per cent to $33.96 billion in December 2015 compared to the year-ago period, when it was $35 billion. During April-December 2015, Indias cumulative imports were $295 billion. This is a 15.87 per cent drop from $351 billion, the cumulative figure for the same period last year.However, gold imports, have jumped by 179 per cent to $3.8 billion up from $1.36 billion in December 2014. Consequently, trade deficit rose to $11.7 billion in December compared to $9.8 billion in the previous month. Cumulatively, the deficit was down to $99.2 billion for the first nine months of FY16 against $111.7 billion in the year-ago period. The government plans to use the expanded template of the revised crop insurance scheme to make its other insurance offer, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), tech-driven. The universal health cover programme is under review to reduce its premium requirement and wider coverage. Because of its high loss ratio, public sector insurance companies have been unable to procure reinsurance coverage. The performance of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, which the government has described as 'a path-breaking scheme for farmers' welfare', is expected to provide guidance on how high-tech content can make a difference. The promise of technology in measuring losses more accurately is the reason why the government has decided to lower the risk of lowering the premium to two per cent of the total value of the crop to be paid by farmers for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops. This is also why the government has decided to push for its universal adoption by bringing all commercial and horticultural crops under the cover. The balance premium without any cap will be borne by the states and the Centre. The technological input is expected to keep the tab under control, an officer from the insurance regulator, Insurance Regulatory Authority of India, said. "The companies have been given a larger (national) canvas to draw on," said K N Rao, chief risk officer of International Reinsurance and Insurance Consultancy & Broking Services, Mumbai. But, they need to assure genuine farmers that the level of documentation will be minimal. The larger canvas will also make possible the schemes a larger premium earnings for the insurance companies. Reinsurance companies had so far shied away from crop insurance because of adverse claim ratio just as they have for RSBY. The lack of reinsurance cover has, in turn, limited the ability of insurance companies to sell crop insurance to farmers. The crop insurance scheme and RSBY are part of four insurance covers conceptualised by the government instead of the insurance regulator. The individual contracts are to be decided upon by the states and the public or private sector insurance following an open tender. The other two are the Prime Minister's Jeevan Jyoti Yojana and Jeevan Suraksha Yojana. Since the total premiums are sizable, companies have bid aggressively for them but made up by cutting down on claims. At the heart of the government's offer of crop insurance to farmers is a simple product to compensate for their losses when the crops fail. The assessment of the price of the crop will be determined at national or at state levels instead of being computed manually at the district offices. For instance, one of the problems in the existing crop insurance schemes is that companies need a declaration from farmers that they intend to sow a particular crop and show evidence that they have a stake in the farm - either as tenant or as owners. But, the process of certifying those documents from district offices makes smaller farmers avoid taking out the insurance. Frauds are not uncommon in this sector. According to Rao, this can be cut down by taking digital photos of the farmers with the land he has sown on the mobiles. Jeetu Nayyer, chief of Amicus Brokers and a former officer of one of the government-run general insurance companies, said the crop insurance cover is near universal coverage. "It needs the government to push the product through non-banking channels. Since there is a fear of high loss, insurance companies restrict it to only those farmers who take out a loan from the banks." A release issued after the meeting of the Cabinet to decide on crop insurance also acknowledged the critical role technology will need to play to make the scheme work. "The use of technology will be encouraged to a great extent. Smart phones will be used to capture and upload data of crop cutting to reduce the delays in claim payment to farmers. Remote sensing will be used to reduce the number of crop cutting experiments." Rajeev Chaudhary, chief risk officer at government-owned Agricultural Insurance Company of India, said while he did not expect satellite imaging to do away with crop-cutting to establish losses, larger use of digital data will do away with the role of patwaris and junior district-level officials to use their discretion to figure out the extent of cropping and to measure the extent of the loss. Eleven general insurance companies, including Agricultural Insurance Company of India, are expected to bid for the market which generated a premium of about Rs 5,000 crore in FY15. The market could double in a year, said both Chaudhary and Rao. The official at the insurance regulator cited above said states must insist on high technology content when they negotiate the premium rates with these companies. Otherwise, the insurance companies will try to minimise their liability by limiting their losses as has happened with the weather insurance cover, which has been a non-starter. The official added they would encourage the states to make the loss assessments at the village level. "When companies deal with the insured, often the small farmers are unable to negotiate. This makes for a lot of rejection of claims." With the road now clear for direct banking relations between Iran and India after the lifting of global sanctions on the former, finance costs are expected to decline for bilateral trade, business and retail transactions. Public sector bank executives said it will take a while to establish a direct presence there. In the near term, Indian banks will assess the capacity of branches in America to handle dollar-denominated transactions with Iran. A senior State Bank of India (SBI) executive said Iran-linked transactions had hitherto involved much time and processing, raising the cost for the parties involved. Dollar transactions should cut this but would need trained personnel and technology at US branches. "We will seek the status on capacity to handle volumes for India-Iran transactions," he said. Indian banks had correspondent banking relations with Iranian counterparts before sanctions were imposed and these would have to be renegotiated before resuming the relationship, another SBI executive said. Kolkata-based UCO Bank said it could lose a substantial amount of interest-free deposits from the end of sanctions, impacting its margins. In early 2012, after the US imposed sanctions on Iran, the bank started a new rupee trade mechanism, through which 45 per cent of the imports from Iran of Indian oil companies were settled in rupees, the only bank to do so. Under the mechanism, a few Iranian banks had opened rupee accounts with UCO Bank. The payments towards import of crude oil were paid by the Indian companies to these accounts. And, payments towards export of goods from India were also paid from these accounts. After the mechanism became operational for oil, all trade with Iran was routed through UCO Bank. So far, it has not been told by the government or the Reserve Bank of India to stop the rupee trade mechanism. As of now, the bank has a pool of interest-free deposits of around Rs 12,000 crore from Iranian accounts, six per cent of its total deposits. In fact, deposits from Iranian accounts had been falling over the past six months, when the US announced the move towards lifting of sanctions. At the peak, Iranian deposits at UCO Bank were Rs 23,000 crore. TiE Silicon Valley, an investors' association dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship, would support the Odisha government in formulating a dedicated start-up policy for the state. A 13-member TiE Silicon Valley team, led by president Venktesh Shukla, on a two-day visit to the state, on Monday held discussions with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. " TiE Silicon valley will help the state government in formulating a start-up policy. We are hopeful that the start-up policy will be implemented in next two-three months, creating an environment for new start-ups to come up", said Aditya Prasad Padhee, chief secretary, after a meeting with the delegation at the state secretariat. "I am happy to note that Ipicol (Industrial Promotion and Investment Corporation of Odisha Limited ) & TiE Silicon Valley @tiesv have a one-of-its-kind agreement to foster the growth of start-ups in the state. Met delegation from Tie Silicon Valley. Hope fruitful partnership leads Odisha into top-3 start-up states in India," Patnaik tweeted. Odisha government is planning to set-up incubators to assist start-ups; my vision is to see Odisha among top-three start-up destinations in next two years, Patnaik added. A three-member steering committee has been formed. With members from TiE Silicon Valley, this committee would regularly interact with the state to finalise the start policy, said Dabasis Patnaik, vice-president, TiE Bhubnaeswar. It may be noted that TiE Bhubaneswar has already suggested a draft policy to the state government. The draft policy aims to develop a robust ecosystem in five cities of Odisha by 2020. The objective also includes attracting Rs 1,000 crore in investments into the incubation and start-up ecosystem. It suggests that Rs 250 crore be provided for youth entrepreneurship activities for the next five years or earmark one per cent of the annual state budget. The draft policy also targets establishing at least 20 technology business incubators and accelerators in different sectors in the state to encourage at least 1,000 technology product start-ups, developing 0.5 million square feet (sq ft) of incubation space, facilitating venture capital funding of a minimum of Rs 1,000 crore, setting up of a facilitation centre in each district and a single-window clearance facility, among other things. The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), Southern Regioin, under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, is conducting a pilot study on fuel conservation by providing training to the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) drivers, with financial support from the World Bank. Speaking to the reporters in the sidelines of launch of Oil & Gas Conservation Fortnight, lead by Indian Oil, A Jankiram, chief regional co-ordinator, southern region, PCRA, the effort has been initiated as the only project in the country, in the MTC bus depot at T Nagar, Chennai. As per the plans, the depot, which has 100 bus and 200 bus drivers, has been selected and training to be given to around 12 drivers in the pilot phase, who have been identified by the Corporation to be trained for fuel conservation. The PCRA has started the programme and will be training the drivers with the module available with it. It is expected that this would help to save 10-15 per cent of the fuel (volume) used by these buses. The World Bank is providing around Rs 2 lakh for the pilot. Jankiram said that while such studies might have been conducted in other parts of the country earlier, at present, this is the only such project in the country. The lifting of sanctions on Iran at a time when the global crude oil prices have nosedived to historic lows may not be all good for Indian companies. It would become easier for oil refiners to source crude oil from there though increasing quantities from the country could take time and might not be feasible in the short run. Further fall in crude oil prices due to Iranian crude coming into the market could, however, add to the woes of India's oil and gas producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Oil India and Cairn India. Besides, the quality of crude would be a crucial issue. According to Platts, an estimated 65 per cent of 47-49 million barrels of Iranian oil volumes stored on ships is condensate with high sulphur content. The sanctions were lifted late Saturday, following confirmation from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran had fulfilled its obligations under an agreement last summer to limit its nuclear programme. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report triggered Implementation Day, which will give Iran access to billions of petrodollars frozen in foreign banks and remove the constraints that have capped the country's crude exports at just one million barrels a day (b/d) over the past four years, said Platts in a report. A senior executive from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest fuel retailer, said: "Half a million barrel of additional crude in the market means prices will remain depressed at least for some time." The benefits will take a long time to materialise. Iran crude volumes of imports have been replaced by oil from other geographies over the years as India diversified its basket. India's import of crude oil from Iran has dropped from 21 million tonne (mt) in 2008-09 to 10 mt last financial year. The share of Iranian crude in India's total crude oil imports has also slumped from more than 16 per cent to less than five per cent during this eight-year period. A decline in crude oil price is positive for the current account deficit as India imports about 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement. According to rating agency Icra, every one dollar decline in international crude oil price reduces the import bill by about Rs 6,500 crore and the gross under-recoveries by Rs 800-900 crore. The road for refiners, however, would not be all clear. The Iranian crude was attractive for the India refiners, owing to sops that Iran offered such as concessional pricing and three-month credit period as against one-month credit period, which is the norm in the industry. "These sops significantly buttressed the gross refining margins of Indian refineries and aided their liquidity," said Icra. Whether the sops would continue remains to be seen, however with Indias huge oil requirements and the Iranian leaderships emphasis on increasing production and market share, it is expected that Indian refiners would continue to enjoy favourable terms, said ICRA. According to Sarosh Zaiwalla, founder and senior partner at London-based Zaiwalla & Co, India could have a problem if Iran insists on past dues to be paid in dollars. The earlier payment involved the two countries adjusting rupee payment for oil purchases against Indias exports to Iran. Zaiwalla said the imposition of extensive sanctions and trade restrictions on Iran have crippled its economy in the past few years, particularly in the financial and energy sectors. Since the JCPOA was agreed in July last year, we have seen dozens of multinational companies extending their efforts in Iran, all of which have been jockeying for pole position in an effort to become an exclusive trade partner with Iran. He said Irans reengagement with international markets has been supported by new legislation designed to attract more foreign investment into the country, removing previous restrictions on the percentage of foreign shareholding in Iran and even opening up the possibility of registering an Iranian company with 100 per cent foreign capital. Lifting of sanctions is particularly important development for the energy sector, in which Iran is hoping to attract $30 billion foreign investment to help realise its ambitions to increase oil production, said Zaiwalla. Iran is, however, subject to a snapback re-imposition of the terminated sanctions in the event of significant non-performance of its JCPOA commitments. Additionally, the majority of US sanctions preventing US persons from conducting transactions in Iran remain in place and businesses must ensure they comply with all applicable sanctions to prevent problems, he said. Prospects for oil block, fertilisers improve One of the first upstream projects languishing due to imposition of sanctions on Iran is the Farzad-B block in the Farsi field, estimated to have 12.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas reserves. ONGC Videsh Ltd had discovered the Farzad-B gas field in 2008 and in 2010 submitted a revised master development plan for producing 60 per cent of the 21.68 trillion cubic feet of in-place gas reserves. Geopolitics, however, came in the way of its development with a result that the block was not only surrendered by Indian companies, but Iran put it up for fresh bidding in 2014. A consortium comprising Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, India Oil Corporation and Oil India signed an agreement with the National Iranian Oil Company in 2002. After investing $90 million in the exploration phase, the consortium quit the contract, which insiders say was because of India's fear of displeasing the US. Getting back the project could, now, prove difficult for the Indian companies. Besides oil, the lifting of sanctions could see revival of projects for setting up fertiliser production plants in Iran, with the latter providing gas under long-term contracts. DECODING LIFTING OF SANCTIONS ON IRAN The lifting of sanctions on Iran, which came late Saturday, followed confirmation from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran had fulfilled its obligations under an agreement last summer, to limit its nuclear programme. Prior to lifting of sanctions, Iran's crude export was capped at just one million barrels a day (b/d) over the past four years. IRAN'S OIL PLANS Iran's oil ministry activated its planned 500,000 b/d oil output increase on Sunday. If achieved, this volume would take Iranian output to around 3.39 million b/d and exports to 1.5 million b/d oil output increase on Sunday. If achieved, this volume would take Iranian output to around and exports to Iran has based its next budget for 2016-2017 on an oil price of $40/b and exports of 2.25 million b/d , Gholamreza Kateb, a govt spokesman said on Sunday and exports of , Gholamreza Kateb, a govt spokesman said on Sunday Iran hopes to attract top international oil companies to its upstream sector (estimated at 157 billion barrels) and gas (1,200 Tcf*). It has designed a new upstream contract model and will present it in London in February Iran is currently pumping less than 3 million b/d . A Platts survey estimated that the country produced 2.89 million b/d in December . A Platts survey estimated that the country produced in December The International Energy Agency has said it expects Iran to be able to achieve crude output of 3.6 million b/d , similar to the 2011 level, within six months of lifting the sanctions , similar to the 2011 level, within six months of lifting the sanctions The immediate impact on exports is expected to come from Iran's considerable floating storage. According to latest data from cFlow, Platts trade flow software, between 47 million and 49 million barrels of Iranian crude oil and condensate is stored on ships of the state-owned National Iranian Tanker and other ship operators and of Iranian crude oil and condensate is stored on ships of the state-owned National Iranian Tanker and other ship operators Market sources have estimated 65% of this volume to be condensate and expect some of this to trickle into the spot market in Asia. They, however, said Iranian condensate has limited outlets in Asia KEY BUYERS China, India, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and Taiwan were the only six buyers of Iranian crude - down from around 20, before sanctions were tightened in mid-2012 China, which imported an average 539,509 b/d of Iranian crude over the first 11 months of 2015, would remain Iran's top buyer of Iranian crude over the first 11 months of 2015, would remain Iran's top buyer The European Union had imported nearly 600,000 b/d of Iranian crude and condensate before the tightening of sanctions in 2012. Most of this volume went to Spain, Italy and Greece. Spanish and Italian refiners have said they are interested in resuming Iranian crude imports once sanctions are lifted of Iranian crude and condensate before the tightening of sanctions in 2012. Most of this volume went to Spain, Italy and Greece. Spanish and Italian refiners have said they are interested in resuming Iranian crude imports once sanctions are lifted Increased supply from Iran could affect demand for West African, Russian, Caspian, North Sea and Iraqi crudes, among others, which have replaced Iranian volumes * Tcf = Trillion cubic feetSource : Platts Former Delhi high court judge R V Easwar, chair of the committee to simplify income tax laws, hopes the government will incorporate his panel's recommendations in the coming Budget as these require immediate attention. He tells Dilasha Seth the second report, expected only after the Budget, will focus on issues such as the general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) and double taxation treaties, among others. Edited excerpts: You have made some concrete recommendations to revise the tax deducted at source (TDS) thresholds and rates. What impact do you think that will have on a economy that is struggling to witness higher growth? We did not think in terms of the economy but our recommendations are from the perspective of enhancing the ease of doing business and reducing tax litigation. We have essentially targeted pensioners and savings accounts invested in banks through the TDS recommendations. These rates and thresholds were fixed long before and need to be changed to benefit small savers and pensioners. You have not touched the tax slabs at all... We could not have looked at the tax slabs as we did not have a mandate for that. By our terms of reference, we had to suggest measures without substantially impacting the tax base or revenue collections. We are essentially looking at providing transparency and predictability in the tax regime, beside cutting tax litigation. Is this is the only report from the committee before the Budget? This is a small beginning. Only 5-10 per cent of the work has been done so far. Our work will be spread over the next seven to eight months. But, yes, the next report will be out only after the Budget. Do you expect the government to incorporate these in the coming Budget as these are the issues requiring immediate attention? It is up to the government to incorporate these recommendations during the Budget and we hope they do. CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes) has also in the past few months issued administrative circulars, hiking monetary limits for appeals to cut litigation. So, we are basically working in tandem. You have said you will look at more complex issues in your next report. What will be those areas? The Income Tax Act has 298 sections, and each section is a complex one with several related aspects to each. We could not have dealt with Section 90 - double taxation, GAAR, and tax treaties in this report; we will do that in the second round. The International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based global road safety body working for Sustainable Road Mobility world-wide, has appealed to members of parliament (MPs) and Legislative members in India to join hands and help reducing fatal road accidents in the country by removing accident black spots in their respective constituencies. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has identified 726 black spots on national highways and has announced rectifying them with Rs 11,000 crore fund allocated by the Ministry. These black spots are identified accident prone area of the road and where several incidents have taken place. The complexity of road safety, more so in a vast country like India, when localised will produce better and faster results. One such localisation can be implemented through the local area peoples representatives the MPs and MLAs. As per the current provisions, the Development Funds under MPLAD can be used for construction of footpaths, pedestrian ways, signages, education, road engineering etc.said K K Kapila, Chairman, International Road Federation. The MPs/MLAs, in a show of responsibility towards their area, as a part of the development work, need to encourage and focus on road safety. In association with the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) As and related local authorities, relevant programmes, such as removal of black spots, construction of footpaths, pedestrian ways, road safety awareness education, traffic obedience and enforcement must be adopted and funded. This would successfully sensitise the general masses to appreciate the importance of adopting safe road practices, he added. India accounts for more than 10% of the total fatal road accidents world wide as the data on road accidents shows that, during the year 2014, about 1.41 lakh people lost their lives in total of 4.5 lakh road accidents and about 4.8 lakh got injured. The fatalities rate had recorded a jump of 3% in comparison to 2013. India being a signatory to the UN General Assembly, which recognized the clear impact of road accidents on global health, adopted 2011-2020 as the UN Decade of Action for road fatalities and accordingly has set a target to reduce them by 50% by 2020. said Kapila. Paytm, the digital wallet and e-commerce company, is looking at a summer launch this year. 'Project Pokhran', as the company calls its payments bank project internally, is in full swing to hire professionals and set up offices for the new business. EY (earlier Ernst & Young) and McKinsey & Co are advising Paytm for the banking foray. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of One97 Communication that runs Paytm, is one of the 11 to get permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last year to open payments bank. It is learnt that the RBI is fine-tuning its own systems for the new stream of business before the companies can take off. Paytm, which had wanted to roll out its bank by April 2016, may now launch a few months later than that once the RBI gives its go-ahead, a source said. A few other companies are also believed to be ready for launch but will wait at least till summer. Sharma refused to comment on the timing of the launch. He had earlier said that an investment of Rs 1,200 crore was planned by his group for a three-year period for the bank. LOWDOWN Project Pokhran', as Paytm calls its payments bank project, is in full swing to hire professionals and set up offices for the new business EY (earlier Ernst & Young) and McKinsey & Co are advising Paytm for the banking foray Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of One97 Communication that runs Paytm, is one of the 11 to get permission from the central bank last year to open payments bank Even as Paytm was toying with the idea of setting up its banking headquarters either in Mumbai or Bengaluru, it has now decided to stay put in Noida (NCR), next to New Delhi. Currently, the company has three offices in Noida spread over more than half a million sft. It also has offices across Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata. Paytm may announce the name of the head of the banking business in February and the probable candidate is from the consulting world, Sharma told Business Standard. Before announcing the name, Paytm has to seek RBI permission. Among the senior executives who've already joined Paytm for the banking business include Kshitij Sanghi, who was earlier employed with McKinsey. Sanghi will look at the technology side as a vice president. A former BCG employee, Narendra Singh, has been hired as deputy general manager for a role in project management. Also, Varun Khullar, who worked for ITC earlier, has joined as vice president to look at partnerships. Vikas Purohit, formerly with Amazon, is also a vice president and is looking at branch and business correspondent network. Paytm plans to set up around 20 signature branches for the payments bank. In addition, there will be 200 smaller store-like branches and at least 1,000 agents. In August 2015, RBI allowed 11 business houses and entities to start a payments bank. The others are Reliance Industries, Aditya Birla Group, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, the department of posts, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, Tech Mahindra, National Securities Depository, Fino PayTech and Dilip Shangvi, chairman of Sun Pharmaceutical. The entities, which got permission from the RBI, must have an initial capital of Rs 100 crore each and will have to start operations within 18 months, the central bank had said in August 2015. Staying on drive to clean up lenders books, Reserve Bank of India today discussed with and companies use of Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme (SDRs) and Joint Lenders Forum (JLF) to manage stressed assets and steps to plug gaps. Besides Governor Raghuram Rajan, Deputy Governors R. Gandhi and S.S. Mundra and senior RBI officials held a meeting with senior executives of major banks, NBFCs and Asset Reconstruction Companies (ARCs) to discuss the current challenges in management of stressed assets in the banks books and the implementation of the various measures taken by the Bank in this regard. The meeting reviewed the working of the Joint Lenders' Forum (JLF) Mechanism, Flexible Restructuring of Long Term Project Loans, Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme and regulations on sale of assets by to Asset Reconstruction Companies, RBI said in a statement. The thrust of discussion was on how tool were being used and the improvements needed to sharpen their efficacy and ease of use. Bankers and industry professionals made suggestions, which RBI said it would examine to tone up working. Several suggestions were made by the participants on the way forward which will be examined. RBI wants to clean up their books by March 2017. In effect, it means banking regulator wants banks to recognize weak assets and make provisions for them. It may put pressure on bank bottom-line in the short-term. According to Financial Stability Report (FSB) released in December 2015, the Gross non-performing advances (GNPAs) of scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) as percentage of gross advances increased to 5.1 per cent in September 2015 from 4.6 per cent in March 2015. The restructured standard advances as percentage of gross advances declined to 6.2 per cent from 6.4 per cent, while the stressed advances ratio rose to 11.3 per cent from 11.1 per cent during the same period, according to FSB. Rating agency India Rating in its report on SDRs said Strategic Debt Restructuring (SDR) Scheme is likely to provide only a temporary breather to stressed companies. The improvement in their debt protection measures, if any, will be minimal because their debt to market capital very high. PM inaugurates Sikkim Organic Festival 2016; addresses Plenary Session of National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers Welfare . The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today inaugurated the Sikkim Organic Festival 2016, and addressed the Plenary Session of the National Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, at Gangtok in Sikkim. . . Five presentations on reports of different groups of State Agriculture Ministers, Agriculture Production Commissioners and Agriculture Secretaries were made to the Prime Minister. . . The Prime Minister digitally launched the logo of Sikkim Organic." He launched three new Orchid species developed in Sikkim. . . The Prime Minister handed over to the Chief Minister of Sikkim, Shri Pawan Chamling, two commendations for its journey towards total organic farming. He also handed over commendations for two districts of Sikkim for achieving 100 percent coverage of soil health cards. . . In his address, the Prime Minister paid homage to former Governor of Sikkim, Shri Rama Rao. . . He praised Sikkim Chief Minister Shri Pawan Chamling for his vision of welfare for farmers and tribes. He credited this vision for the development that the State is witnessing. He said the welfare and development issues raised by the Chief Minister would be looked into by the Union Government. . . The Prime Minister said he is in Sikkim as the guest of the farmers of the State. He said the deliberations during the Conference had set the tone for a new holistic vision for the country's agriculture. He said all States could pick up the relevant parts from the presentations, which he said, should be remembered as Sikkim Declaration." . . The Prime Minister described Sikkim as an example of resolve despite difficulties and struggle, towards organic agriculture. He sad today the whole world had recognised this effort of the farmers of Sikkim. He said the winds of this organic effort would now spread across the country. . . The Prime Minister recalled the recent CoP-21 meeting in Paris, where the idea of back to basics" had been raised forcefully. He said Sikkim has already achieved that feat of living in harmony with nature, and is therefore a model of development which also protects nature. . . The Prime Minister complimented Sikkim for Gangtok being rated as the 10th cleanest city in a survey conducted by the Government of India. . . The Prime Minister exhorted States to identify a district, or even a block, to convert to a 100 percent organic area. This he said, would catalyse the process in other parts of the State. . . Referring to the recently announced crop insurance scheme, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the Prime Minister said the scheme had instilled confidence among farmers, and efforts should be made to increase coverage of insurance. . . The Prime Minister said farmers have to be motivated for schemes such as soil health card. He said a network of soil laboratories should come up across the country, and even school labs could be used during summer holiday months for this purpose. . . The Prime Minister said there was need for special products such as Kisan Mobile Phone, which catered to the special needs and requirements of farmers. He said perhaps Start-ups could take a lead in this direction. . . He reiterated his suggestion for a small amount of fruit juice to be mixed with aerated drinks. He said organic exports would receive a huge boost with the building of an airport in Sikkim. He said the vision behind rural roads was also to connect agricultural produce with markets. He said tree plantation and animal husbandry should also become an integral part of farming activities. . . The Prime Minister suggested that a digital online platform of progressive farmers should be developed in each State. . . Republic Day 2016 - Fly Past- An IAF Appeal . . In view of the flypast at heights varying from 60 to 500 metres and the associated flight safety concerns posed by birds, the IAF appeals to all citizens of Delhi and its neighbourhood to keep their areas clean and avoid throwing eatables, garbage, dead animals or carcasses in the open in all the days leading upto 26 January. . . Responsible citizens are also requested to alert the nearest Air Force Unit or Police Station and report instances of carcasses found in the open. The vulnerable areas that come in the route include Palam, Najafgarh drains, Tihar Jail, War Cemetery and areas adjoining Rashtrapati Bhavan. . . Birds pose a serious threat to aircraft flying at low levels. Eatables thrown out in the open attract birds, to ensure a safe fly past, the Indian Air Force requests the citizens of Delhi, and its neighbourhood not to throw eatables and garbage in the open. Also, if they find any carcass out in the open they are requested to report to the nearest Air Force Unit / police station to arrange for its disposal. . . RCD/MKR Shri Piyush Goyal urged Agricultural Pump Manufacturers to scale up Production Capacity with Special focus on Quality Maintenance and Competitive Pricing . . Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy said that the center-point of any responsible government is the welfare and the future of the farmers. Shri Goyal said this while delivering valedictory address at the Ist National workshop on Agriculture Demand Side Management (AgDSM) being organized by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) here today. . . In his interaction with the Agricultural Pumps manufacturers and other stakeholders at the workshop , the Minister urged them to scale up production capacity with special focus on quality maintenance and competitive pricing. Shri Goyal stated that India will require 3 Crore energy efficient pumps in the next 3 and half years and so Agriculture Demand Side Management projects can be helpful in providing start-ups and employment opportunities to the people of the country. Congratulating EESL on launching the initiative, Shri Goyal said that there is no doubt that this programme will be a success story for EESL in creating an energy efficient ecosystem for farmers. . . Shri Piyush Goyal felicitated farmers of AgDSM projects in India and also released the tool kit for comprehensive implementation of AgDSM projects across the country on the occasion. The workshop aims to promote the implementation of AgDSM projects in the country for better energy efficiency. Principal Secretaries of various states, subject experts, representatives of distribution companies, Bankers, Pump manufacturers and several other policy makers attended the workshop. . . BACKGROUND . . The agriculture sector in India predominantly uses inefficient irrigation pump sets and therefore can provide significant savings by promoting BEE star rated and higher efficiency pump sets. Such Demand Side Management (DSM) interventions could lead to energy savings of 30 to 35 percent. Replacing an estimated 20.27 million pump sets used in agriculture sector with energy efficient pump sets would result in annual energy savings of 46 Billion kWh. This will also lead to GHG emission reduction of 45 m tonnes of CO2 annually. . . Keeping these facts in mind, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has taken up a initiative of accelerating the implementation of AgDSM scheme in India. EESL successfully completed its first project for 590 number of pump sets in Byadi and Nippani circles under the Hubli Electricity Supply Company Limited (HESCOM), Karnataka. Further, the company has replaced 1337 number of pumps sets in Mandya District in Karnataka. At present, EESL is implementing an AgDSM project for 2496 number of pump sets in Rajanagaram Mandal in East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh. . . AgDSM project aims at providing free of cost BEE Star rated Energy Efficient Pump Sets to the farmers along with an electrical control panel. The new pump sets are provided with free repair and maintenance. . . RM/PS Twenty Five Brave Hearts Bag National Bravery Awards -2015 . . Twenty five children 3 girls and 22 boys have been selected for the National Bravery Awards 2015. Two of the Awards have been given posthumously. . . The coveted Bharat Award has been conferred on 15 year old Late Master Gaurav Kawduji Sahastrabuddhe of Maharashtra, who sacrificed his life in an attempt to save four of his friends. . . The prestigious Geeta Chopra Award has been conferred on 8 year old Km. Shivampet Ruchitha of Telangana who displayed exemplary valour in saving two precious lives when a train hit her school bus. . . The Sanjay Chopra Award has been given to 16 year old Master Arjun Singh of Uttarakhand who displayed outstanding bravery in fighting a tiger to save his mother. . . Master Ramdinthara (15 years) of Mizoram, Master Rakeshbhai Shanabhai Patel (13 years) of Gujarat and Master Aromal S.M. (12 years) of Kerala have been given the Bapu Gaidhani Awards. Master Ramdinthara saved two persons from electrocution. Master Rakeshbhai saved a boy who accidentally fell into a deep well. Master Aromal saved two ladies from drowning. . . The other recipients are Master Kashish Dhanani (Gujarat), Master Maurice Yengkhom and Master Chongtham Kuber Meitei (both from Manipur), Km. Angelica Tynsong (Meghalaya), Master Sai Krishna Akhil Kilambi (Telangana), Km. Joena Chakraborty and Master Sarwanand Saha (both from Chhattisgarh), Master Dishant Mehndiratta (Haryana), Master Beedhovan, Master Nithin Philip Mathew, Master Abhijith K.V., Master Anandu Dileep and Master Muhammad Shamnad (all from Kerala), Master Mohit Mahendra Dalvi, Master Nilesh Revaram Bhil, Master Vaibhav Ramesh Ghangare (all from Maharashtra), Master Abinash Mishra (Odisha), Master Bhimsen alias Sonu and Late Master Shivansh Singh (both from Uttar Pradesh). . . The selection was made by a high powered committee comprising representatives of various Ministries/Departments, non-governmental organisations as well as Office Bearers of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). . . The children will receive their Awards from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 January, 2016 prior to Republic Day and thereafter will participate in the parade. . . The President Pranab Mukherjee and several other dignitaries will host receptions in their honour. Several States too organize functions to honour them at the State level. . . The National Bravery Award Scheme was initiated by the ICCW to give due recognition to the children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery and meritorious service and to inspire other children to emulate their example. . . It was in 1957 that two children a boy and a girl were first rewarded for their presence of mind and courage. Since then ICCW decided to confer national awards on children every year. . . In 1987-88 ICCW instituted the Bharat Award for an exceptionally outstanding, meritorious and gallant deed. The other special awards include the Geeta Chopra and Sanjay Chopra awards (instituted by ICCW in 1978) and the Bapu Gaidhani Awards (instituted in 1988-89). . . The awardees receive a medal, certificate and cash. . . Eligible awardees will be granted financial assistance until they complete their schooling. Some State Governments also provide financial assistance to them. In addition, ICCW provides financial assistance under its Indira Gandhi Scholarship Scheme to those undertaking professional courses such as engineering and medicine. For the others, this assistance is provided till they complete their graduation. The Government of India has reserved some seats for the awardees in medical and engineering colleges and polytechnics. . . Since the inception of the scheme in 1957, the ICCW has given awards to 920 brave children - 656 boys and 264 girls. . . NAMPI/Ranjan Welfare Board for Transgenders at National and State level suggested at National Consultations for transgenders . . A Pre-Legislative Consultation meeting on Rights of Transgender Persons Bill was held under the Chairmanship of Minister, Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot here today with representatives from concerned Ministries, legal experts and representatives of transgender community. Shri Vijay Sampla, Honble MOS for SJ&E was also present in the consultation meeting. . . The various issues relating to stigma and discrimination of transgender persons including children in the community, families, in schools, colleges and at work place etc., were discussed. Other issues that were deliberated upon were establishment of a Welfare Board for Transgender Persons at National and State level for effective implementation of the provisions of Bill and to act as a grievance redressal mechanism. The difficulties in getting certificates or getting the same modified by transgender persons were also highlighted. Members also felt that various legislations pertaining to violence and abuse should also be extended to the transgender persons which would go a long way in securing justice for this vulnerable community. The issues relating to health also need to be detailed and elaborated. . . Addressing the consultation, Minister assured that the various suggestions given by the stakeholders for the welfare of transgender persons will be duly considered and implemented through the State Governments. The Central Government will try to create a conducive environment for the community at various levels so that they can be brought into the main stream of the society. . . The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Ministries of Social Justice & Empowerment, Home Affairs, Human Resource Development, Women & Child Development, Registrar General of India, External Affairs, Housing and Poverty Alleviation, Law & Justice, Information & Broadcasting and Rural Development. Representatives from the Lawyers Collective, Center for Legal Aid and Rights, Jamia Millia University, Dept. of Adult Education (Delhi University) and representatives of the transgender community from different parts of the country also participated in the discussion. . . With the Chinese headwinds taking a big toll on markets globally, India's 'bright spot' status would be put to the test at the annual pow-wow of the elite of the world beginning tomorrow in this Swiss ski resort town. More than 2,500 top leaders, including over 50 heads of state or government and CEOs of about 1,000 top MNCs, would discuss steps for "improving the state of the world" over the next five days during more than 300 sessions at the 46th WEF Annual Meeting in this snow-laden Alpine town. From India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would be accompanied by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and other senior government functionaries, while India Inc would be represented by more than 100 business leaders, including top CEOs like Mukesh Ambani, Cyrus Mistry, Chanda Kochhar, Anand Mahindra, Azim Premji, Rahul Bajaj and Uday Kotak. Jaitley would participate in a session on 'India and the World' alongside renowned economist Nouriel Roubini (known as Dr Doom) among others, where the theme would be how can India be a global resource for innovation, growth and talent. The Finance Minister would also discuss 'Asias Era of Infrastructure' in another session, while he would also be on the panel at the last official session of the summit on Saturday to discuss 'The Global Economic Outlook' along with IMF chief Christine Lagarde and British Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne. On the other hand, Rajan would discuss 'The Growth Illusion' with top financial sector leaders in a session - the only one so far on the official WEF (World Economic Forum) agenda for him. Among Indian business leaders, ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar would discuss 'Regions in Transformation: South Asia' along with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, ADB President Takehiko Nakao and Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh. The global leaders attending the elite annual event would include UK's David Cameron, Canada's Justin Trudeau, Alexis Tsipras of Greece, Mauricio Macri of Argentina, Joe Biden of the US and Johann Schneider-Ammann from the host Switzerland. The issues that are expected to dominate the discussions include rout in Chinese markets and the resultant impact on the global . The discussions would also focus on the resilience of Indian economy, which the government and business leaders from the country, as also institutions like IMF and World Bank, have been projecting as the only 'bright spot' in an otherwise gloomy world . The theme is 'Mastering fourth Industrial revolution' for this year's annual meeting of the Geneva-based non profit group that has been organising this Summit in Davos for more than four decades every January. The official agenda has issues like acute challenges of geo-economics, global security, public health, education, gender parity and climate change. The key issues to be discussed also include the "new normal" global growth and falling commodity prices. A medieval heroine from a Malayalam novel and a multinational suitor may make for a modern-day corporate fable someday, but HUL's purchase of Indulekha hair oil could turn out to be quite a case study in branding too. The country's largest FMCG company, in 2006, sold its coconut hair oil brand Nihar to Marico even though coconut oil was and still is the largest component of hair oil consumption in India, which in turn accounts for over 60 per cent of India's hair care market. HUL also seemed to be losing interest in its ayurvedic brand, Lever Ayush that it had launched in 2002. But then just as one thought that the multinational was keen to steer away from the herbal-naturals-ayurvedic personal care category, it snapped up Indulekha from the Kerala-based Mosons group for Rs 330 crore. Recently HUL has also resurrected its ayurvedic line of products under the Ayush umbrella as an e-commerce property. What changed HUL's mind? Is it because the hair oil market has been growing at 7.7 per cent, from 2006-07 to 2014-15, according to Nielsen? Or is it an attempt to counter the rise of homegrown brands such as Patanjali? Was it drawn by the promise of the market or forced to react to the threat of a rival brand? Many multinational FMCG companies have reacted to the growing threat posed by companies such as Patanjali by reviving their herbal brands. But HUL is clear that it was drawn to Indulekha because of the huge potential presented by the brand in the South. Sanjiv Mehta, CEO and managing director of HUL, said: "Indulekha brings to HUL a premium brand with strong credentials around ayurveda that will complement our existing portfolio and strengthen our presence in the hair care category. We are excited by the strong equity that the brand enjoys among consumers and see an opportunity in leveraging its 'naturals' and therapeutic positioning." HUL has bought over the trademarks 'Indulekha' and 'Vayodha' (intellectual property, design and knowhow) from the Mosons group. Playing its natural game According to its spokesperson, HUL has always had a strong play in the value-added segment of hair oils through its brands Clinic Plus and Dove in addition to Lever Ayush. Indulekha strengthens HUL's hand as it complements the existing portfolio very well. Besides, given that coconut-based hair oils comprise 43 per cent of the total hair oil market, it would have been shortsighted to stay away from the category. According to the spokesperson, premium brands built on 'naturals' have a unique ability to transcend category barriers and exist across multiple businesses within personal care. The acquisition is in line with HUL's strategic intent to strengthen its leadership position in the category, he says. Phillip Capital India Research believes the strategy to pursue an inorganic route for growth in the category is a strong positive. The acquisition will help HUL enter and develop the fast growing ayurvedic hair oil category it said. However, as a relatively small brand in the company's large portfolio, the deal will not significantly add to sales or earnings in the medium term, said the research firm. HUL will start manufacturing the Indulekha brand of oils from 2017-18. As per the agreement, 10 per cent of the sales revenue would go to the Mosons Group for five years over and above the amount that the company has paid for the brand. Edelweiss Financial Securities said the deal (4.1x FY15 sales) appeared to be reasonable compared to 5.5x paid by Emami for Kesh King. Also the firm was hopeful that HUL's retail presence and substantive cash reserves (Rs 2,800 crore free cash flow) would help the Indulekha brand gain scale and visibility. Position, package, market Indulekha has, over the years, successfully been extended to three states in the South apart from Kerala, its home ground. "The brand clearly has a potential for scale-up. We will leverage the brand optimally in line with our personal care strategy," said a spokesperson from HUL. To start with, the multinational will focus on Indulekha Bringha Oil, the flagship brand and push it harder in the states that it is already present. The full product portfolio of the Indulekha and Vayodha brands is present across the hair care category (hair oils and shampoos), skin care (face-pack, face-cream, skin-cream) and skin cleansing (soaps) products and will be introduced gradually, once the company gauges customer response. The brand had a turnover of Rs 100 crore for the year ending March 2015 of which Indulekha Bringha Oil accounted for around 70 per cent of the total amount. Indulekha, according to the company, is available in about one lakh outlets. It sells at a considerable premium to other hair oil brands - the price for a 100ml bottle is Rs 432 (Rs 132 for Kesh King, Rs 33 for Parachute coconut oil). The Mosons group has also been innovative with its packaging and initiatives and in 2014 it introduced the 'selfie bottle' which enabled application of oil directly to the scalp. The patented comb-shaped cap has increased sales by nearly 30 per cent the company says. Today, the size of the ayurvedic hair oil market in India is estimated to be around Rs 8,500 crore, of which the share of the South is pegged at Rs 2,500 crore. Apart from Indulekha, the other major players in this segment include Marico, Dabur, Emami, P&G and Bajaj. The brand has however taken a beating in recent years as large players with deep distribution networks have managed to leverage the growing demand for natural-herbal personal care products. Under the HUL umbrella, Indulekha hopes to script a new story for itself. With global commodity prices declining in the first half of FY16, realisations from basmati rice exports from India have plunged. The average export price of basmati slipped from $1,352 per tonne in April-November 2014 to $897 in the same period in 2015. Now that sanctions against Iran have been lifted, direct exports to Iran will resume, helping improve realisations. Till now, exports were routed through Dubai, at lower rates. Export volumes surged 23 per cent during April-November 2015 over the year-ago period, indicating demand was good at lower price. According to sources in Agri and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority, the turmoil in West Asian countries and a sharp decline in crude oil prices have put the exporters in a tight spot as the purchasing power of the traders in the importing countries has been hit. The government cannot do much to bail out the exporters as commodity prices have plummeted globally. Iran's resumption of imports on 15 December 2015 may provide some cushion to exporters. Due to sanctions imposed on Iran, basmati exports to that country remained suspended from October 2014 to December 2015. Iran has been a major importer of Indian basmati and contributes 25 per cent to the exports kitty. The revival of exports to Iran after lifting of sanctions has brought a sentimental shift among exporters. "We expect an annual demand of 1 million to 1.2 million from Iran, as the traders over there have been running low stocks. This may also trigger a revival in price but it is too premature to quantify the price revision", said Salil Bhatia, of D D International, a top basmati exporter from India. Iran is an important market for Pusa 1121 variety and reopening basmati trade with it has already catalysed the demand. The basmati prices have touched a low and our prices in international market are close to those of South American rice." Despite higher volumes, low realisations have forced most exporters to look at the domestic market. Amritsar based Amar Singh Chawal Wala, a leading rice exporter having an average annual basmati exports of 80,000 metric ton is projecting a fall in exports this year. Arvinder Pal Singh, the Director of the company said that they registered a 10 per cent growth in volume last year but falling crude prices and eventual fall in commodity prices may make export unviable. The companies sells under 'Lal Quila' brand rice and gearing up to consolidate its presence in domestic market. The experts say that higher sowing under basmati paddy in the last two kharif seasons created a glut in the market and falling export price may discourage basmati sowing in kharif 2016 equating demand and supply and bring price correction. Basmati acreage was 2.1 million hectare in kharif 2014, up 35 per cent over kharif 2013. It went up to 2.2 million hectare in kharif 2015. Higher acreage also contributed to dwindling prices. Although, the prices crashed at the farm gate level this year, plunging from an average Rs 4,000 a quintal in kharif 2014 to Rs 2,200-2,500 in kharif 2015, this could not provide any safeguard to exporters. Farmers have evidently been the most effected and in some cases have not even been able to recover cost. Exporters, who incur 20-30 per cent of the carrying cost and about 14-15 per cent of finance costs, are in a catch-22 situation, added Singh. Big brands such as L T Overseas have a legroom to supply at prevailing prices and Ashwani Arora, the Director of the company is sanguine over the revival of prices. A Karnal-based exporter, and promoter of Maharani Brand of rice, Ankit Setia conceded that there have been challenges on export front but it's a part of business cycle. Setia is also aggressively expanding its domestic footprint and targets a national presence in a few months. Indian equity indices ended lower for the third straight session amid rising concerns over world economic growth coupled with the relentless fall in international crude oil prices. Besides, the data released by the government showed that Indias merchandise exports shrunk for the 13th straight month in December thus further accentuated the woes. The S&P BSE Sensex ended down 267 points at 24,188 and the Nifty50 ended down 87 points to quote at 7,351. According to Shreyash Devalkar, Fund Manager Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, There seem to be no signs of a respite with the selling pressure keeping benchmark indices in the red. After opening the day on a negative note, benchmark indices extended their fall to close near the days low with losses of over 1%. He further said, Investors continue to be worried about the state of the global economic recovery and negative macro-economic data only served to further stoke these fears. A 14.7% fall in exports in the month of December, 2015 coupled with a widening of the trade deficit by 27.1% during the same period put already spooked investors in a cautious mood. All sectoral indices on the NSE traded in the red with energy and media stocks leading the pack of losers. Indias exports fell in December due to tepid global demand and decline in international commodity prices. Exports fell to $22.29 billion against $26.15 billion a year ago in December 2014. The national trade deficit has narrowed to $99 billion cumulatively for months leading up to December in the current financial year. Brent crude prices fell on Monday to as low to $27.67/barrel early in the day, its lowest since 2003 after international sanctions against Iran were lifted over the weekend, thus allowing Tehran to enter the oil market and flood the already flooded oil market with more oil. KEY STOCKS The fall in the is today attributed mainly to the oil and gas shares followed by rate sensitive stocks. The decline in the oil prices in the international has put pressure on the energy stocks. RIL, ONGC, Cairn (India) all cracked between 2-8% each. Even the OMCs could not escape the heat. HPCL, BPCL, IOC slipped between 2-4% each. From the banking and financial pack, HDFC twins, ICICI bank, Axis Bank, SBI dropped between 0.5-1.5% each as they continue to feel the pressure on global slowdown. Wipro gained 0.5% after the Q3 IT services revenues came marginally below the street estimates. Dollar revenues witnessed a flat sequential growth at $1,838 million. On the other hand, its peers TCS and Infosys are trading higher by 0.5% each A decline in the steel prices has pushed Tata Steel to cut 1,050 jobs in Britian. However, the stock gained nearly 2%. Among other shares, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio on Monday announced agreements for trading and sharing of scarce airwaves, or radio frequency spectrum, in the 800 MHz band, covering virtually the entire country. However, owing to the weakness in the markets, Reliance Communications ended 3% lower. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian ended lower as volatility in Chinese economy and decline in global crude prices put pressure on Asia. Nikkei 225 ended 1.1% down while Hang Seng finished 1.5% lower. However, Shanghai Composite recovered and finished 0.4% higher. The European markets opened in green, however, soon slipped in the negative terrain on global cues. All the major European indices are down between 0.2-1% each. Promoters of 517 companies have pledged nearly 46.35 per cent of their shares, the highest since the 2008 global financial crisis. Promoters pledge shares to raise capital for the company, to finance projects of group companies, growth or even for personal reasons such as buying property. Shares are generally pledged with non-banking financial companies, which extend loans up to 50 per cent of the value of the shares. Pranav Haldea, managing director of Prime Database, said, Given the fall in equity markets, this points to a high level of financial distress. High pledge levels are typically not considered a good sign by investors, as a downturn in the market price can lead to invocation and change in management. There were 79 companies in which more than 90 per cent of the promoters shareholding was pledged. Another 208 companies had more than 50 per cent of the promoters holding pledged. In terms of value of the pledged shares, companies like Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone, Cairn India, Tata Consultancy Services, JSW Steel and Essar Oil topped the list. The value of shares pledged by these companies is around Rs 40,000 crore. Deven Choksey, managing director of KRChoksey Investment Managers, said, "I do not see the rise in pledged shares as a risk. In a growing economy, it is going to happen and it will only rise from here on. Fundamentally, it is a requirement from the bankers' side in the form of collateral and helps companies raise funds at a cheaper rate." Pledging can become an issue if it involves more than 50 per cent of the promoter holding or more than 20 per cent of the company's equity capital. A correction in stock prices can trigger margin calls, which could lead to more shares being pledged. If the share price falls below a threshold and the promoter does not have more shares to offer, the lender might invoke the pledge, leading to a further fall in the stock price. Lenders have on occasion invoked pledged shares and sold them in the market because promoters were unable to pay up on time. The maximum amount of pledged shares during the quarter were held by the Kotak Group followed by IndusInd Bank. The value of pledged shares with the Kotak Group was Rs 2,188 crore. The government of Uttar Pradesh announced on Monday that there would be no increase in the price sugar mills would have to pay for cane for the ongoing crushing season. The announcement had been delayed by two months. The floor price for cane is set by the state government and its State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 280 a quintal for the common variety would continue for a fourth year. The SAP was previously raised in 2012-13, by 17 per cent. UP is the country's largest producer of sugarcane (and the second biggest producer of sugar, reversing places both ways with Maharashtra). The government's cane commissioner, Ajay Kumar Singh, told this newspaper the crop yield this season was better and this would, to some extent, compensate farmers from rising input costs. The government would now ensure mills make timely payment to farmers, to prevent distress sales, especially by small farmers, he said. Some companies such as the Modi, Mawana and Simbhaoli groups, he said, and a handful of individual mills were habitual offenders in delaying farmer payments. We are studying the matter and ascertaining reasons for such delays, and if some structural issues are to be blamed. Soon, we would take a call in this regard. Farmer bodies had been demanding a cane price of Rs 350 a qtl, citing a rise in input costs. However, private mills, nearly 80 per cent of the functional units in UP, had reiterated their paying capacity was much less, due to low domestic sugar prices and weak demand. The central government had announced its recommended Fair and Remunerative Price for cane in February 2015 itself for the 2015-16 crushing season. The UP government had been unable to decide. UP accounts for nearly a fourth of Indias annual sugar production. The sector has been passing through difficult times in recent years, on issues pertaining to the cane price, payment arrears, falling sugar prices, etc. However, sugar prices have been firming up over recent weeks and expected to further go up in the coming months. Cane payment arrears of Rs 900 crore for the 2014-15 crushing season are still pending and the Allahabad High Court is hearing a case in this regard. In the current season, mills have so far paid nearly Rs 1,600 crore to farmers against total dues of Rs 2,600 crore. This season, 116 mills are participating in crushing operations, of which 92 are private ones. Of the rest, 23 are in the cooperaitves sector; one is state-run. So far, mills in UP have produced about 2.7 million tonnes of sugar, after crushing almost 27 mt of cane. Sugar recovery is 10.09 per cent. About five million farmer households in UP are directly associated with cane farming. The UP sugar sector is estimated at Rs 30,000 crore, spanning sugar and its byproducts such as molasses, ethanol, press mud, etc. Beside, cane is used to produce jaggery (gur) and khandsari (unpolished sugar) in the unorganised market. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has vowed to bring the culprits behind Sunday's attack to justice after a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a gathering of tribal elders in Jalalabad. According to the Dawn, at least 14 people were killed at a prominent politician's home in Jalalabad. Ghani said that when terrorists lose the ability to fight face-to-face with our security forces, then they target public places and kill innocent people. He said that the government will fight those who shed the blood of innocent people. The attack comes a day before the four-nation meeting scheduled to be held on reconciliation talks between the Afghan Government and the Taliban. Angelina Jolie recently made a rare red carpet appearance to promote her upcoming flick 'Kung Fu Panda 3' and stunned her fans with her slander frame. The 40-year-old actress donned a loose-fitting, short-sleeved black dress for the movie's premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Jolie turned up solo to support the animated film, for which she voiced the character Tigress, reports New.com.au. However, it was the 'Maleficent' star's slander frame that grabbed eyeballs, with various media agencies describing her as "painfully thin," "scary skinny" and "almost skeletal." Jolie said that she barely did anything to prepare for the premiere, adding, "I just pulled myself together, just cleaned the dirt off my feet." She also revealed that some of her children with husband Brad Pitt recorded animal noises for 'Kung Fu Panda. The Congress Party on Monday branded the BJP-led NDA Government as 'anti-Dalit' amid the ongoing uproar over the suicide by a Dalit scholar from the University of Hyderabad and demanded immediate removal of the varsity's Vice-Chancellor. "We have seen the oppression of Dalits in various states like Haryana and Rajasthan. The Congress has expressed its concern over the systematic oppression of Dalits and backward classes in India. The anti-Dalit mindset of the government was revealed in the last Union Budget where Rs. 19,000 crore outlay was cut in the SC sub plan," Congress leader RPN Singh told the media here. "The Vice Chancellor and the people involved need to be immediately removed. Also the minister, who has an FIR filed against him in this case, needs to be removed from the cabinet," Singh said. Accusing the Centre of being controlled by the Rashtriya Sawayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never condemned or apologised for Mohan Bhagwat's remarks against reservation for the backward classes. As per reports, the Cyberabad Police on Monday charged Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya with abetting the suicide of a Dalit scholar, who hanged himself at a University of Hyderabad (UoH) hostel yesterday. Meanwhile, the Delhi Police detained several students, who were protesting outside the Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry in the capital to vent their ire over suicide of the Dalit scholar. To bring the situation under control, the police personnel deployed on duty also used water cannons to control the agitating students. One of the five dalit scholars, expelled from the University of Hyderabad 12 days ago, hanged himself to death last night. Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep on Monday said that Abdul Sami- the arrested Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) terrorist, has been sent to police remand till February 1. "Abdul Sami has been arrested from Nuh and he was produced in the court. He has been given police remand till February 1. He was in constant touch with Abdur Rehman from 2001," Deep told the media here. "He had gone to Dubai in January 2014 for training, then he went to Karachi. After Karachi, he went to Mansehra where he was trained in intensive arms. He returned on January 2015. His further task was for Abdur Rehman, but before that only, they were arrested and their module was destroyed," he added. Abdul Sami, who hails from Jharkhand's Jamshedpur city, was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police earlier today. Earlier this year, a suspected member of Al-Qaida was arrested by Delhi Police in Bengaluru. The Special Cell had in December last year arrested three AQIS operatives Zafar Masood and Abdul Rehman and Mohammad Asif, who is suspected to be the training and recruitment chief of AQIS. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other senior officials on Sunday, promised to increase the Australian troops in the country to maintain Afghan peace and security. Array The two leaders discussed issues of mutual interests, Australian cooperation with Afghanistan, bilateral ties, war on terrorism, the peace process, human rights and the rights of the women in the country, reports Tolo News. Array The President also called on the Australian leader to provide Afghan air force with technical support so that it can maintain its technical equipment. The Australian Prime Minister directed the Commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan to take into consideration the demand of Afghan Government in this respect. Array He pledged to increase the number of Australian troops in Afghanistan to 270 to help the Afghan police and army forces maintain security in the capital Kabul. Array Ghani thanked the Australian leader for his country's cooperation to Afghanistan in various fields and paid homage to 41 Australian soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan in their counterinsurgency mission. The Australian Prime Minister also invited Ghani to visit his country and the invitation was swiftly accepted by the Afghan president. Demanding apology from Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for his 'absurd and completely idiotic allegations', the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders should refrain from using such words. "I think it's an absurd and a completely idiotic allegation. Manish Sisodia should really mind his words and instead of blaming everybody, he should not call it an 'assassination attempt'," BJP leader Shazia Ilmi told ANI. "You don't expect such things said by such a mature person. We condemn the whole incident but to link everything with the BJP and Narendra Modi ji is a bit too much. I think Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia not only owe an apology, but they should be asked to refrain from using such kind of words," she added. Sisodia had yesterday alleged that the ink attack on the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. "The whole incident was scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. The BJP can even get the Chief Minister murdered," he said. "The incident shows that the Delhi Police are ready for a deadly attack on Kejriwal. Police are not even concerned about the safety of the Chief Minister and the people of the city," he added. "It is a very serious and dangerous incident. The Delhi Police were acting mere spectators at the event, where the whole Delhi cabinet was sitting. It is very astonishing that there was not even a single policeman when the woman rushed to the stage and threw ink at Kejriwal. Not even a single policeman was checking people and was looking after the security of the place," Sisodia said, while adressing reporters after the incident. Taking on B.S. Bassi-led Delhi Police, Sisodia said, "The Delhi Police keep on shouting that there is high alert in the city. Where is the high alert? Who will take the responsibility if a person comes and throws acid at the Delhi Chief Minister and his cabinet?" "This incident only shows that the Delhi Police are ready for a deadly attack on Kejriwal. Police are not even concerned about the safety of the Chief Minister and the people of the city. The whole incident is scripted by the BJP with the help of the Delhi Police. They can even get the Chief Minister murdered. The whole incident was scripted by the Saffron Party with the help of the Delhi Police," he said. A woman, who identified herself as Bhavna, Punjab in-charge of the Aam Aadmi Sena, threw ink at the Delhi Chief Minister in protest over an alleged CNG scam. However, she was released last night on a personal bail bond and will appear before the Rohini court today. "The Odd-Even formula was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I have proofs. That is why I wanted to meet the Chief Minister and Gopal Raiji (Transport Minister), but they didn't agree to meet me," said the attacker. She further stated that in the scam, CNG stickers were issued on bike numbers. "I will go to the court at 10 o'clock today. I will submit all papers before the court. Investigation should be done in the matter," she added. The woman also blamed the party volunteers of manhandling her after the attack and thanked the Delhi Police for bringing her into safety. She was, however, seen being dragged out of the venue by the policemen. The incident took place when Kejriwal was expressing his gratitude to the people of Delhi for making the Odd-Even formula a success. The woman rushed close to the dais and threw ink at Kejriwal. She was immediately apprehended by the police. However, the Chief Minister told the cops to leave her. "Leave her; she is talking about some scam. Please take that paper from her she is mentioning some CNG scam," he said. The event was organised by the AAP Government to thank the people of Delhi for making the odd-even experiment, which ended on January 15, a success. The Investigation Agency (NIA) has been granted permission to conduct the lie detection test on Gurdaspur Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh, who has been questioned in connection to the Pathankot attack. Array Allegedly kidnapped and released by terrorists before the Pathankot terror attack, Singh was questioned for the fifth consecutive day last week at the NIA headquarters in Delhi. Singh had claimed that he, along with his cook and a friend, were abducted by terrorists on his way back from Panj Pir shrine. Array Singh, along with his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal, were allegedly kidnapped by terrorists on December 31. Array The terrorists entered the Pathankot air base late night on January 1 and carried out a terror strike in which seven security personnel including a Lt Colonel of NSG were killed. Seven security personnel died in the attack of the IAF base in Pathankot, located 250 km from Chandigarh, by terrorists suspected from Pakistan. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said that the entire Indian leadership remains steadfast in its commitment to the Palestinian cause. Array "India's solidarity with the Palestinian people and its principled support to the Palestinian cause is rooted in our own freedom struggle. Over the years our approach to Palestine has crystallized into a policy with three core dimensions: solidarity with the Palestinian people, support to the Palestinian cause; and support to Palestine's nation building and capacity building efforts. The entire Indian political leadership remains steadfastly committed to these policies," Sushma said while inaugurating the India-Palestine Digital Learning and Innovation Centre at the Al-Quds University here. Array "I thank the President of the Al-Quds University for his generous words for India and for me. We value your kind words as a sign of friendship and regard of the people of Palestine for India. I am very happy to inaugurate the India-Palestine Digital Learning and Innovation Centre today. This is yet another example of India's commitment to help its brothers and sisters in Palestine," she added. Array Sushma also thanked the Al Quds University for establishing this Centre of Excellence, saying that they were playing an important role in fostering India-Palestine relations through initiatives like this. Array "I am also very happy to note the University will soon host an Indian Studies Chair and that it has institutionalised academic and research cooperation with the prestigious Jamia Millia Islamia University of India," she said. Array "The University's efforts in strengthening India-Palestine partnership in the field of IT are also commendable. India's strengths in IT and IT-enabled services could immensely benefit the Palestinian economy and society. We are ready to assist Palestine in IT, as well as other sectors, as much as we can," she added. Array She asserted that on the lines of the centre in the university, they are committed to build another Centre for Excellence in ICT and Innovation in Gaza city. Array The External Affairs Minister also said that India is also developing a Techno-Park in Ramallah. "Over the years our approach to Palestine has crystallized into a policy with three core dimensions: solidarity with the Palestinian people, support to the Palestinian cause; and support to Palestine's nation building and capacity building efforts. The entire Indian political leadership remains steadfastly committed to these policies," she said. Array "We have also started to put in motion the framework suggested by our President for the future of our partnership during his visit. Accordingly, we are working for closer political interaction and deeper economic engagement with Palestine. We are also looking at ways and means to further increase academic collaboration between India and Palestine," she added. Array She stressed that it is important to intensify the cultural contacts and people-to-people exchanges which are the bedrock of India's relation with Palestine. Array "Over the years hundreds of Palestinian students have studied in the best of Indian institutions. We must harness their experience in furthering our friendship," she said. Array Swaraj during her visit, held talks with her Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki and later in the day she called on President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Minister also laid a wreath at the mausoleum of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. After her engagements in Palestine, Swaraj proceeded to Israel where she will meet the top Israeli leadership today. She will be meeting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top ministers of Israeli government. A new study has found that fires burning in Africa and Asia are the main cause for the high levels of ozone in the tropical Pacific region. University of Maryland researchers have shown that fires burning in tropical Africa and South East Asia caused pockets of high ozone and low water in the lower atmosphere above Guam,a remote island in the Pacific Ocean 1,700 miles east of Taiwan. Lead author Daniel Anderson has expressed his astonishment to find high concentrations of ozone and chemicals that they know are only emitted by fires in the air around Guam. Array Researchers have found that the polluted air that reached Guam never entered the stratosphere and instead simply dried out during its descent within the lower atmosphere. UMD Professor Ross Salawitch said based on the results of this study, global climate models might need to be reassessed to include and correctly represent the impacts of biomass burning, deforestation and reforestation. The study is published in the Journal Nature Communications. A French army contingent on Monday carried out a rehearsal parade ahead of India's 67th Republic Day in New Delhi . India celebrates Republic Day on January 26 every year to commemorate the day when the country's constitution was adopted and it was declared as sovereign republic in 1950. The soldiers of French army marched to the drum beats at Rajpath in a perfectly synchronised manner. For the first time an army contingent of a foreign country will take part in the Republic Day parade known for showcasing India's defence prowess. Soldiers of Maratha light infantry regiment of the Indian army had marched shoulder to shoulder with French army back in 2009 at Champs Elysees. Earlier this month, the French army contingent participated in a joint military exercise with India. Adding to the French flavour for India, France's President Francois Hollande will be the guest of honour at this year's Republic Day celebrations. This will be the fifth time that a French leader will be the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations. India is also in the process of negotiating a deal to buy 36 Rafale jets from France. Every year military weapons, battle tanks and missiles are displayed at the majestic Republic Day parade, which stretches from the president's palace to India Gate, a memorial dedicated to unknown soldiers. One of the five dalit scholars who were expelled from the University of Hyderabad hostel 12 days ago hanged himself to death on Monday. 25-year-old Rohith Vemula, who belonged to Guntur district of Amravati, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff between two student groups in August last year. The five researchers were supported by 10 other students' outfits on campus including ASA, Students Federation of India, Dalit Students Union and Students Association among others. On Sunday, the students from each of the outfits had started relay hunger strike asking the university administration to take back the students all of whom hailed from backward socio-economic backgrounds. The students protested against Union Cabinet Minister of State for Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya, and HRD minister Smiriti Irani. The students demanded the revoking of the suspension of the five Dalit research scholars and also demanded the apology of Dattatreya for interfering in University matters and branding students of University of Hyderabad as casteists, anti-nationals and extremists. The woman, who threw ink at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a public meeting at the Chhatrasal Stadium here on Sunday, was released last night on a personal bail bond. She will appear before the Rohini court today. The woman accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government of being involved in a CNG scam. "The Odd-Even formula was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I have proofs. That is why I wanted to meet the Chief Minister and Gopal Raiji (Transport Minister), but they didn't agree to meet me," said the attacker. She further stated that in the scam, CNG stickers were issued on bike numbers. "I will go to the court at 10 o'clock today. I will submit all papers before the court. Investigation should be done in the matter," she added. The woman also blamed the party volunteers of manhandling her after the attack and thanked the Delhi Police for bringing her into safety. She was, however, seen being dragged out of the venue by the policemen. The incident took place when Kejriwal was expressing his gratitude to the people of Delhi for making the Odd-Even formula a success. The woman rushed close to the dais and threw ink at Kejriwal. She was immediately apprehended by the police. However, the Chief Minister told the cops to leave her. "Leave her; she is talking about some scam. Please take that paper from her she is mentioning some CNG scam," he said. The event was organised by the AAP Government to thank the people of Delhi for making the odd-even experiment, which ended on January 15, a success. A Delhi Court on Monday issued transit remand for Sambia Sohrab's friend Shahnawaz Khan alias 'Sanu', who is the key witness in the Kolkata hit and run case. Shahnawaz, who was arrested by the Special Task Force from Delhi last night, will now be taken to Kolkata. He is the key witness in the hit-and-run case that led to the death of IAF officer Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during a rehearsal of Republic Day parade in Kolkata. The state police on Saturday night arrested the main accused Sambia Sohrab who was behind the wheels of the car. The development comes shortly after Kolkata Police confirmed that Sohrab, son of former RJD MLA Mohammed Sohrab, was driving the car. Sohrab was sent to a14-day police custody after he was booked under Sections 302 (Murder) of the Indian Penal Code. Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd. (MIBL) has been appraised and rated at Maturity Level 3 of the People Capability Maturity Model for becoming the first insurance broking company globally to achieve this international benchmark. MIBL joins the league of top companies practicing People-CMM such as Accenture, Computer Sciences Corporation, Wipro, CMC, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services, L and T Infotech amongst others. P-CMM is an organizational transformation model from the CMMI Institute, USA. The CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University is dedicated to elevating organizational performance through best-in-class solutions to real-world challenges. The institute is the home of the capability maturity model integration (CMMI) for development, services, and acquisition. Ramesh Iyer, Managing Director, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. and President - Financial Services Sector and Member of Group Executive Board of the Mahindra Group, said, "We are truly delighted that MIBL has become the first insurance broker globally to achieve this international benchmark. It is a reflection of the organization's steadfast commitment to the development of its people, its focus on adding value to its customers, and driving positive change in the lives of people." "We are extremely honoured to have achieved People-CMM Maturity Level 3 for Human Capital Development. Our focus on best practices has been driven by our desire and commitment to deliver a best-in-class service experience to our valued customers. Our customers deserve the best and we have endeavored to develop our people capabilities to match and exceed customer expectations. This achievement reinforces MIBL's continued commitment to develop and enhance skills and capabilities of our team," added Dr Jaideep Devare, Managing Director, MIBL. Rajesh Naik, the lead appraiser from QAI India said, "MIBL has a robust framework for employee growth, supported by a collaborative culture, a competency framework, internal job posting, educational assistance, and focus on internal promotions." "MIBL is also the world's first company in the insurance sector to have achieved Maturity Level 3 of the People CMM. Powered by a strong and flexible people management system, I am sure MIBL has the potential to become one of the best organizations in the world," added Naik. "MIBL's appraisal at Level 3 of the PCMM Model is an endorsement of the significant emphasis we place on developing our existing competencies and creating a globally competitive learning and development culture," said Vinay Deshpande- Chief People Officer, Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Sector. Maldives former President Mohamed Nasheed's lawyers have confirmed that he would not travel abroad over the declaration that compels a family member of Nasheed to take liability for him while he is abroad. Government expressed disappointment over the deadlock on refusal by Nasheed to seek medical treatment from UK as requested by himself,reported Haveeru Online. The deadlock came after the government ordered a declaration be signed by the family before allowing jailed former President Nasheed to seek medical treatment abroad. Nasheed's lawyer pointed out that the constitution does not allow authorities to hold a person criminally responsible for an offence committed by another. Lawyers added that they were still trying to negotiate with the government to resolve the issue and expressed hope that the ex-president would be sent to the UK for the surgery. Matthew Perry's decision of not joining a 'Friends' reunion did not catch more attention than his recent TV appearance did. The 45-year-old actor, who had battled drug and alcohol addiction in the past, was recently seen on the Graham Norton chat show. His face and slurred speech concerned his fans, News.com.au reports. Expressing their shock at 'The Odd Couple' star's appearance, one of the Twitter user's wrote, "Something strange with Matthew's face and the way he's talking." Another user, Fay Capstick, wrote, "Is it me or does Matthew Perry look/sound like he's suffered a stroke?." Perry, who will be in London for his west end play 'The End of Longing', will not be joining his former cast mates Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox for 'Friends' reunion. The Mumbai Police on Monday said it is verifying facts on the physical assault case involving Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, adding the investigation in the matter is on. "We are verifying all the facts. There are allegations and we have started the investigation. Nawazuddin has come to the police station, so we will consider his statement and verify. The issue is about parking in the society," Additional Commissioner of Police Arun Chouhan told the media here. A police complaint has been filed against Siddiqui and others for allegedly physically assaulting a woman during an argument over parking issue. An FIR in this regard has been filed at the Versova Police Station in Mumbai. "Nawaz has purchased flat an year ago. He has replaced a wall and had modified it in a parking. I had served several notices to him to vacate society's compound space. He refused to accept the notice that I sent yesterday. Instead two bouncers were brought to oppose anyone attempting to park vehicle in the compound," complainant's mother said. "When my daughter started clicking pictures, Nawazuddin physically assaulted her and verbally abused her," she added. The Human Rights Commission is organising a two-day Seminar on 'Global Thinking on Human Rights. A Dialogue' in collaboration with the University of Gauhati, Assam at the Fanidhar Dutt Auditorium of the University from 21st to 22nd January, 2016. S.C. Sinha, Member, NHRC will inaugurate the seminar as the Chief Guest. Prof. Arun Kamal, noted Poet and Historian, Patna will deliver the Keynote Address. Dr. Mridul Hazarika, Vice-Chancellor, University of Gauhati will preside over the Seminar. S.N. Mohanty, Secretary General, NHRC will also address the gathering. The seminar is a part of a series of seminars being organised by the NHRC in collaboration with different institutions in different places of the country to build awareness about the importance of protection and promotion of human rights and related issues. The seminar has been divided into four academic sessions apart from the inaugural and concluding sessions. The subjects for discussion in the four academic sessions include, 'Present Global Thinking with regard to Human Rights', 'Media, Society and Human Rights: Present Global Scenario', 'Global Thinking, Police and Human Rights' and 'Social Multiplicity of North-East and Human Rights'. Several prominent speakers would include, among others, Prof. D.P. Verma, Dean, Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Rahul Dev, senior journalist and writer, Delhi, Dr. Subhash Sharma, IAS, litterateur and writer, Delhi and Prof. Apurba Kumar Barua, University of Gauhati. Dr. Justice Aftab H. Saikia, Chairperson, Assam State Human Rights Commission will be addressing the concluding session of the seminar on the 22nd January, 2016. Dr. Ranjit Singh, JS and Dr. Sanjay Dubey, Director, NHRC will also address the gathering among other NHRC officers. Ola, India's leading mobile app for personal transportation, has announced the appointment of Raghuvesh Sarup as its Chief Marketing Officer. Raghuvesh brings over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales and brand management across some of the world's most respected brands like Microsoft, Nokia, Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut) and Procter & Gamble. He joins the company in February and will be part of Ola's core leadership team, focusing on building Ola as every Indian's most preferred mobility brand. ALSO READ: Ola expands into corporate biz ahead of Uber in country Raghuvesh joins Ola from Microsoft, where he was most recently Marketing Director after relocating to India from global stints in Finland in the headquarters of Nokia. His experience across brand management, marketing and managing P&L for large brands makes him a distinguished marketing leader. Having worked with large consumer as well as those with cutting edge technology products and services, Raghuvesh brings a strong understanding of driving marketing strategy across offline and online media alike. At Ola, he will lead marketing across the brand and P&L for all categories. Speaking about his new role, Raghuvesh said Ola is already a household name in India, serving the mobility needs of millions. "Ola's mission of building mobility for a billion Indians is very inspiring and I consider it a privilege to be building this brand and its core categories further in the time to come. I am really excited to be part of this amazing journey," he added. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Ola, said: "We are thrilled to welcome Raghuvesh onboard, to lead Marketing and Categories at Ola. He has worked with globally respected businesses and brings valuable experience that will help Ola resonate as the choice of mobility, for a billion people." "I look forward to working with Raghuvesh as we continue to build Ola as the preferred mobility brand for every Indian!" added Aggarwal. Afghanistan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani is expected to open the second four-nations meeting on Monday morning between the representatives from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and U.S where they are expected to draw up the roadmap for peace talks with the Taliban. Array The quadrilateral meeting will focus on the peace talks between the Afghan Government and Taliban, reports Tolo News. Array The Meshrano Jirga (Upper House of Parliament) called on President Ashraf Ghani to raise all the 'complicated' problems of Afghanistan at the session in order to pave the way for peace in the country. Array Earlier in the first meeting, representatives from all four countries agreed to safeguard the sovereignty of the government of Afghanistan. An international festival that promotes religious tourism and commemorates the enlightenment of Lord Buddha began in Bihar on Sunday. The annual 'Bodh Mahotsava' or the Lord Buddha's festival at religious site of Bodh Gaya in Gaya district was inaugurated by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, along with other state officials. Devotees and Buddhist monks lit candles, sang hymns and worshipped the Lord Buddha at the Mahabodhi Temple. Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment at the Mahabodhi Temple. Monks from Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan and Cambodia have also been invited to participate in the spiritual event, which is jointly organised by the tourism department and Bihar government. Historians say Lord Buddha had meditated without food for six years at Dungeshwari hill at Bodh Gaya prior to attaining enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Around 11 kilometer northeast of the Mahabodhi Temple, the Dungeshwari caves are known as Prag Bodhi or pre-enlightenment hill in Buddhism. Buddhist scriptures describe Bodh Gaya as the "Navel of the Earth", where pilgrims and tourists from Sri Lanka, China, Japan and the entire of southeastern Asia throng to this holiest of Buddhist shrines every year. Scores of Buddhist monks, lamas and devotees carried out an enlightenment march in Gaya before the Lord Buddha's festival began. During the three-day festival that will conclude on January 19, artists from India and other countries would enthrall the audience with their dance and music performances. Bihar has been celebrating Bodh Mahotsava on a large scale since 1998.The festival also helps in providing a boost to the tourism in the state, as efforts are made to present the cultural festival at par with international events. A newly formed tribal party Tipra State Party (TSP) agitated here demanding for separate tribal state. Hundreds of TSP supporters under the banner of Tipra Land Movement brought out a procession from Vivekananda Stadium in Agartala in demand of the separate 'Tipra Land'. The supporters expressed that the separate tribal state is necessary for the existence of the tribal people, who at present are at the threat of extinction. "The main aim of the Tipra State Party is demand for formation of separate state taking the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council and as per the Article 2 and 3 of the Indian Constitution. This is because we may have got the ADC under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution but it has filed in fulfilling the desire of the local tribes," said Chitta Ranjan Debbarma, President TSP. "Due to the division of Indian, a big number of the tribal population was later born in Bangladesh, and which has turned the local tribals into minority and facing the threat of extinction. They can become majority only if under the Article 2 and 3 of the Constitution they are self controlled," he added. The protesters viewed that the existence of identity of some 12 lakh tribal of the state is at stake. According to the protestors, during the rule of the Maharaja the ratio of tribal was 95 percent but at present the government ratio is 31 percent while the non-government calculation based on the practical ground is much less. The fast deduction in the ratio of the tribal section of the population is at the threat of existence and so we are demanding for separate tribal state like that of Telengana and hope that in the coming future the central government is going to fulfill their demand which is very much constitutional. Later a five member's team submitted a memorandum of demand to Governor Tathagata Roy. Twenty five children - 3 girls and 22 boys - have been selected for the Bravery Awards 2015. Two of the Awards have been given posthumously. The coveted Bharat Award has been conferred on 15 year old Late Master Gaurav Kawduji Sahastrabuddhe of Maharashtra, who sacrificed his life in an attempt to save four of his friends. The prestigious Geeta Chopra Award has been conferred on eight year old Km. Shivampet Ruchitha of Telangana who displayed exemplary valour in saving two precious lives when a train hit her school bus. The Sanjay Chopra Award has been given to 16 year old Master Arjun Singh of Uttarakhand who displayed outstanding bravery in fighting a tiger to save his mother. Master Ramdinthara (15 years) of Mizoram, Master Rakeshbhai Shanabhai Patel (13 years) of Gujarat and Master Aromal S.M. (12 years) of Kerala have been given the Bapu Gaidhani Awards. Master Ramdinthara saved two persons from electrocution. Master Rakeshbhai saved a boy who accidentally fell into a deep well. Master Aromal saved two ladies from drowning. The other recipients are Master Kashish Dhanani (Gujarat), Master Maurice Yengkhom and Master Chongtham Kuber Meitei (both from Manipur), Km. Angelica Tynsong (Meghalaya), Master Sai Krishna Akhil Kilambi (Telangana), Km. Joena Chakraborty and Master Sarwanand Saha (both from Chhattisgarh), Master Dishant Mehndiratta (Haryana), Master Beedhovan, Master Nithin Philip Mathew, Master Abhijith K.V., Master Anandu Dileep and Master Muhammad Shamnad (all from Kerala), Master Mohit Mahendra Dalvi, Master Nilesh Revaram Bhil, Master Vaibhav Ramesh Ghangare (all from Maharashtra), Master Abinash Mishra (Odisha), Master Bhimsen alias Sonu and Late Master Shivansh Singh (both from Uttar Pradesh). Array The selection was made by a high powered committee comprising representatives of various Ministries/Departments, non-governmental organisations as well as Office Bearers of Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW). The children will receive their Awards from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 24 January, 2016 prior to Republic Day and thereafter will participate in the parade. The President Pranab Mukherjee and several other dignitaries will host receptions in their honour. Several States too organize functions to honour them at the State level. The Bravery Award Scheme was initiated by the ICCW to give due recognition to the children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery and meritorious service and to inspire other children to emulate their example. It was in 1957 that two children - a boy and a girl - were first rewarded for their presence of mind and courage. Since then ICCW decided to confer awards on children every year. In 1987-88 ICCW instituted the Bharat Award for an exceptionally outstanding, meritorious and gallant deed. The other special awards include the Geeta Chopra and Sanjay Chopra awards (instituted by ICCW in 1978) and the Bapu Gaidhani Awards (instituted in 1988-89). Array The awardees receive a medal, certificate and cash. Eligible awardees will be granted financial assistance until they complete their schooling. Some State Governments also provide financial assistance to them. In addition, ICCW provides financial assistance under its Indira Gandhi Scholarship Scheme to those undertaking professional courses such as engineering and medicine. For the others, this assistance is provided till they complete their graduation. The Government of India has reserved some seats for the awardees in medical and engineering colleges and polytechnics. Since the inception of the scheme in 1957, the ICCW has given awards to 920 brave children - 656 boys and 264 girls. Reducing litigation with the taxpayers has been a key focus area for the Income Tax Department. Several initiatives have been taken by the Central Board of Direct Taxes in the last three months up to December 2015 to significantly reduce disputes and provide relief to taxpayers facing long standing litigation. The significant steps taken by CBDT include issue of a Circular revising the monetary limits for filing of appeals by the Department with the objective of reducing litigation as a part of its initiatives to reduce grievances of the taxpayers. CBDT has also directed Principal Chief Commissioners to constitute a collegium of Chief Commissioners of Income Tax to consider withdrawal of appeals filed by the Department in cases involving tax effect above the revised monetary limit from the High Courts in cases where, no question of law is involved, the issue is considered settled by the Department, or the appeal is no longer relevant in view of subsequent amendment. Besides this, the CBDT has issued a number of Circulars for withdrawing or not pressing of appeals on settled issues relating to the subjects listed below: Non applicability of Rule 9A of the Income-tax Rules 1962 in case of abandoned feature films. Measurement of the distance for the purpose of section 2(14)(iii)(b) of the Income-tax Act for the period prior to assessment year 2014-15. Interest from non-statutory liquidity ratio (non-SLR) securities. Allowability of employer's contribution to funds for welfare of employees in terms of section 43(b) of the Income-tax Act. TDS under section 194Aof the Act on interest on fixed deposit made on the directions of the courts. Recording of satisfaction note under section 158BD/153C of the Income-tax Act. Non levy of penalty u/s 271(1) (c) wherein additions/disallowances were made under normal provisions of Income-tax Act 1961 but tax was levied under MAT provisions under section 115JB/115JC, for cases prior to A. Y. 2016-17. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Cochin Port Trust and CONCOR have entered into a MoU for the running of weekly container train service from Irugur ICD, Coimbatore to ICTT Vallarpadam, Cochin Port. The inaugural trip of weekly container train service from Irugur ICD, Coimbatore to ICTT Vallarpadam,Cochin Port will be flagged off on 16 January 2016 at 4 pm at Irugur ICD by Sri. G. Senthilvel, Deputy Chairman, Cochin Port Trust. The train from Irugur will start on all Saturdays and the return from Cochin on all Thursdays. The trains are scheduled to connect the direct shipping services to Far East, China, Europe and Middle East. CONCOR will provide storage space at very attractive terms and conditions to shipping lines who desire to stack the empty containers at Coimbatore. This MOU between CONCOR and Cochin Port will result in great advantage for the EXIM community in-an- around Coimbatore. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Crompton Greaves rose 0.31% to Rs 176.30 at 15:20 IST on BSE after the company said that its smart grid solutions will support the expansion of Dominican Republic's transmission network. The announcement was made by the company during market hours today, 18 January 2016. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 256.70 points or 1.09% at 24,187.51. On BSE, so far 1.88 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 2.19 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 178.05 and a low of Rs 169.30 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 203.50 on 5 January 2016. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 152.85 on 8 September 2015. Crompton Greaves said that it has won a contract to equip seven transmission substations of Dominican Republic Transmission Utility ETED with ZIV substation automation and telecommunication systems. The timing for delivery is March 2016, followed by project commissioning by June 2016. The project is part of the expansion of the electricity transmission system in the southern region of the Dominican Republic where the largest wind farm in the country is located. On consolidated basis, Crompton Greaves' net profit fell 25.1% to Rs 52.14 crore on 6.2% decline in net sales to Rs 3216.13 crore in Q2 September 2015 over Q2 September 2014. Crompton Greaves is a global pioneering leader in the management and application of electrical energy. The company provides electrical products, systems and services for utilities, power generation, industries, and consumers. Powered by Capital Market - Live News The Commercial tax department of Bihar has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for sharing of foreign exchange realization data. Smt. Sujata Chaturvedi, Commissioner cum Principal Secretary, Commercial Taxes Department represented Government of Bihar while Shri D. K. Singh, Additional DGFT represented DGFT. The foreign exchange realization data is an important economic indicator as it quantifies transaction level export earnings. This is also known as eBRC (Electronic Bank Realization Certificate) data. BRC can be used by state government departments for ensuring refund of VAT to eligible exporters. e-BRC project enables banks to upload Foreign Exchange realisation information relating to merchandise goods exports on to the DGFT server under a secured protocol. So far 100 banks operating in India, including foreign banks and cooperative banks have uploaded more than 1.5 Crore e-BRCs on to the DGFT server. The eBRC project created an integrated platform for receipt, processing and subsequent use of all Bank Realization related information by exporters, banks, central and state government departments. Earlier, the banks issued physical copy of BRC to exporters and no data mining or analysis was possible. The process for BRC issuance and subsequent utilization were largely manual and department centric. The exporters suffered most as they had to run to banks and government departments for claiming benefits. So far, Commercial Tax Departments of 13 states have signed MoU with DGFT for receiving e-BRC data for VAT refund purposes. These are: (i) Maharashtra, (ii) Delhi, (iii) Andhra Pradesh,(iv) Odisha, (v) Chhattisgarh, (vi) Haryana, (vii) Tamil Nadu, (viii) Karnataka, (ix) Gujarat, (x) Uttar Pradesh, (xi) Madhya Pradesh, (xii) Kerala, (xiii) Goa. In addition, Ministry of Finance, Enforcement Directorate and Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) have also signed MoU with DGFT for receiving e-BRC data. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Kotak Mahindra Bank fell 0.64% to Rs 671.65 at 14:25 IST on BSE after net profit rose 36.63% to Rs 634.72 crore on 61.77% rise in total income to Rs 4843.86 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014. The result was announced during market hours today, 18 January 2016. The results are not comparable due to merger of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank which took effect from 1 April 2015. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 58.59 points or 0.24% at 24,396.45 On BSE, so far 1.37 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 1.23 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 686.40 and a low of Rs 665.10 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 744.45 on 21 July 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 594.10 on 7 September 2015. The stock had outperformed the market over the past one month till 15 January 2016, falling 1.1% compared with Sensex's 3.42% fall. The scrip had also outperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 3.44% as against Sensex's 9.46% fall. The large-cap private bank has equity capital of Rs 916.25 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5. On absolute basis, Kotak Mahindra Bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 2690.34 crore as on 31 December 2015, compared with Rs 2655.38 crore as on 30 September 2015 and Rs 1219.86 crore as on 31 December 2014. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 2.3% as on 31 December 2015 as against 2.35% as on 30 September 2015 and 1.87% as on 31 December 2014. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 0.96% as on 31 December 2015 as against 1.05% as on 30 September 2015 and 0.97% as on 31 December 2014. The bank's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) as per Basel III norms stood at 15.21% as on 31 December 2015, compared with 15.54% as on 30 September 2015 and 15.96% as on 31 December 2014. On a consolidated basis, Kotak Mahindra Bank's net profit rose 31.89% to Rs 945.16 crore on 30.56% rise in total income to Rs 6950.41 crore in Q3 December 2015 over Q3 December 2014. Kotak Mahindra Bank said that the integration process of ING Vysya Bank with the bank is broadly on schedule and based on the current progress, the bank expects complete integration by April/May 2016. Kotak Mahindra Bank said that merger benefits in terms of revenue synergies as well as cost efficiencies have started showing traction. Some of the areas where the bank is seeing revenue synergies flowing are savings accounts growth, insurance cross sell, growth in credit cards, trinity accounts (incl. brokerage accounts) etc. Also, cost benefits are seen in employee and operating costs and in areas like utilisation of ING Vysya Bank's currency chests, space rationalization and rental savings, etc. Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the leading private sector banks in India. As on 31 December 2015, the bank has a network of 1,298 full-fledged branches and 1,987 ATMs. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Any depreciation in rupee on account of China-led turmoil in the global financial markets should only be welcome sign for India, or else Indian exports will suffer more at the hands of China and other emerging countries witnessing correction in their currencies, an ASSOCHAM Paper has pointed out. "India should allow its currency to slide while the RBI should use ample foreign exchange reserves to defend the currency only if there is a rout situation. However, there is a distinct possibility that rupee could actually strengthen over the medium term, the paper said. It said India must also ensure that Indian exports need to get back their competitiveness even in the midst of global slowdown. The major challenge is coming from China in various forms with sizeable influence on the currency valuation. Yuan devaluation, third in the last five months, will negatively impact Indian firms which have export exposure to China in sectors such as tyres, pharmaceuticals, steel and organic chemicals textiles due to a volatile change in terms of trade, the paper said. "The impact of this devaluation will depend on the time horizon.... However, the short-term impact can be negative in some sectors which also include capital goods among others," the ASSOCHAM paper on 'Implications of Devaluation of Chinese Yuan' noted . The devaluation will make Indian exports expensive to the neighbouring country, affecting the competitiveness. The biggest concern is the steadily deteriorating balance on the merchandise trade account with China," the chamber President Mr Sunil Kanoria said. In a damage control for its markets and to keep its exports competitive, the Chinese central bank has devalued the Yuan for the third time in the last five months, sending global investors into a tizzy. The latest round of devaluation can make India's trade imbalance with China even worse. In any case, the deterioration has been rather steady and secular in the last few years with exports to China dropping. With a sharp reduction in prices of primary commodities which India ships out, the export value is bound to decline in a disproportionate manner to imports since the inward shipments comprise capital, telecom and manufactured goods. In 2014-15, the trade imbalance at USD 48.5 increased by over a third from USD 36.2 billion (in the previous year). This large trade deficit is essentially a reflection of India's inability to penetrate the Chinese markets, a problem that seems to have aggravated over the past three years". In 2011-12, India's exports to China were valued at USD 18 billion, but in 2014-15, the value of exports dropped to below USD 12 billion. "Going forward, the situation does not look good; rather it has deteriorated with the Chinese demand for primary goods declining and crash in prices", the ASSOCHAM said. He said while it is true that India is not as badly affected by the global headwinds, "we cannot remain insulated and the wisdom lies in cushioning ourselves with generating more traction in the domestic economy while seeking to make Indian exports competitive ". Even in a third country market, the currency devaluation in China can make things difficult for Indian goods since the rupee depreciation has not been sharp enough to give competitive edge to the country's exporters. The fact that China and India compete for several export items such as textiles, leather goods, light engineering , gems and jewellery etc is an additional challenge faced by the Indian exporters. Besides, there is also a concern that a weaker Yuan will help China dump goods into the Indian market". Powered by Capital Market - Live News Wockhardt dropped 3.61% to Rs 1,241.90 at 11:40 IST on BSE after the company announced that the USFDA has made nine observations after inspection at the company's manufacturing unit at Shendra in Aurangabad. The announcement was made by the company after market hours on Friday, 15 January 2016. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 51.62 points or 0.21% at 24,403.42. More than usual volumes were traded on the counter. On BSE, so far 4.93 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 1.62 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 1,285 and a low of Rs 1,146.40 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,000 on 8 April 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 1,021.50 on 15 January 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 15 January 2016, sliding 17.99% compared with Sensex's 3.42% fall. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 18.01% as against Sensex's 9.46% fall. The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 55.25 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5. Wockhardt said it would send appropriate reply to the inspecting authority, the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in due course. The company added that the Shendra manufacturing unit is a new facility and presently there is no supply of products from this unit to US markets. Shares of Wockhardt had slumped 14.98% to Rs 1,288.40 on Friday, 15 January 2016, triggered by the reports that the company has received Form 483 from the US drug regulator for its Shendra plant in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Separately, Wockhardt in its clarification issued after market hours on Friday, 15 January 2016 with regard to media news item titled Wockhardt recalls 62,555 bottles of antibiotics in US said that the latest media reports of recall of antibiotics in US forms part of the earlier event. Wockhardt had informed the same to the stock exchanges on 28 April 2015 that it had decided to recall, as part of remedial measures the remaining batches in the US market that were manufactured prior to USFDA import alerts even though there was no evidence of risk to patient safety from these products. On consolidated basis, Wockhardt's net profit rose 2863.9% to Rs 107.59 crore on 29.9% growth in net sales to Rs 1231.65 crore in Q2 September 2015 over Q2 September 2014. Wockhardt is a research based and technology intensive global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. Powered by Capital Market - Live News Three girls and 22 boys are to be presented on Sunday with National Bravery Awards which are a much anticipated feature of the Republic Day celebrations every year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will honour the 25 children, including as many as six from Kerala, with the awards for the year 2015 for their acts of valour, it was announced here on Monday. Shivampet Ruchitha from Telangana's Medak district, who is all of eight, is one such child who saved two children's lives as her school bus stopped on a railway track before it got hit by a speeding train. The Bharat Award will be conferred posthumously on 15-year-old Gaurav Kawduji Sahastrabuddhe from Maharashtra, who sacrificed his life in an attempt to save four of his friends. The Sanjay Chopra Award will be presented to 16-year-old Arjun Singh, who fought a tiger in Uttarakhand to save his mother. All awardees will receive a medal and financial assistance in their education. They will also participate in and be felicitated in the Republic Day parade. The awards scheme, initiated by the Indian Council for Child Welfare, aims to recognise those children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery. The Iraqi security forces killed 35 Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Sunday in clashes in the provinces of Anbar and Salahudin, security sources told Xinhua news agency. In Anbar province, the security forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters fought fierce battles with IS terrorists and managed to extend their grip in Sajjariyah and Juwiba districts in the eastern part of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad. The battle, which were covered by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft, left at least 25 terrorists killed and six of their vehicles destroyed, while four security members were also killed and some nine others wounded during the day, the source said. The security forces captured downtown Ramadi from the IS on December 28, raising the Iraqi flag on the government complex there, but small parts of the city has not yet been fully secured due to a large numbers of bombs planted by the IS. For months the troops have been fighting to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS terrorists who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. The Afghanistan government here on Monday urged the Taliban to join peace process to resolve all issues through negotiations, as the second round of the four-nation talks kicked off. The talks are aimed at a roadmap for bringing Taliban to negotiating table with the Afghan government and find political solution to lingering crisis in the militancy-plagued country. "On behalf of the government and the people of Afghanistan, I am inviting the Taliban to join the peace process and let us solve all differences through negotiations," Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani said in his opening remarks at the meeting in which Pakistan, China and the US also participated. The first round of the four-nation talks was held in Islamabad last week. Taliban members who reject the talks and push for war would be isolated, Rabbani warned in his address. Rabbani also said Afghans are hopeful that participation and involvement of the two major powers, the US and China, could take the talks into result-oriented one and eventually led to lasting peace in their war-torn country. Peace in Afghanistan would benefit Pakistan and the whole region, the Afghan top diplomat said. Actress Aishwarya Rajesh, most popular for her work in last year's National Award winning and critically acclaimed film "Kaaka Muttai", is looking forward to a busy year as she has nine Tamil films, which are at different stages of production. "While four of my films 'Idam Porul Yaeval', 'Kutrame Thandanai', 'Hello Naan Pei Pesuren', 'Aarathu Sinam' and 'Deepavali Thuppakki' are getting ready for release, the rest are at different stages of production. It's going to be a busy year for me," Aishwarya told IANS. Having recently completed shooting for horror film "Mo", she will soon join the sets of filmmaker Seenu Ramaswamy's "Dharmadurai" with Vijay Sethupathi. "This is the second time I'll be working with Vijay and director Seenu sir. I play one of the leads. It's a role sans make-up and I'm really excited about this project. I play a girl from Theni, and I can't wait to join the sets," she said. Aishwarya is also excited about "Hello Naan Pei Pesuren". She has clarified that she doesn't play the ghost, but has a very interesting character. "It's the script that appealed to me the most. It's a role similar to what Simran did in 'Pithamagan'," she said. A trained dancer, Aishwarya says she will showcase her dancing prowess in a special 'kuthu' song in the film. "It's an exciting song featuring different styles of kuthu (dance). All those who've watched the rushes of the song couldn't believe that I could pull off anything like that," she said. Up next are "Aarathu Sinam" and "Manithan". "In 'Aarathu Sinam', I play a wife and mother. It's a very homely character; quite contrary to what I've done so far. In 'Manithan', I essay a very important role," said Aishwarya, who will soon start working on a yet-untitled Tamil project that will be entirely shot in Singapore. The film features veteran actor Nasser's son Luthfudeen Baasha in the lead. For Aishwarya, life after the highly successful "Kaaka Muttai" has been very rewarding. "Since I played a mother of two slum kids in the film, I feared I might end up getting only such roles. But I'm glad I'm getting to do a variety of characters," she signed off. Even as the authorities cried at the top of their voices that no child had died anywhere after being administered polio drops during Sunday's anti-polio campaign in the Valley, hundreds of weeping and wailing parents stormed hospitals because the rumour mill said dozens had died after being "administered expired polio drops in south Kashmir". The authorities will definitely have to do some hard explaining to justify why they acted late to counter the rumour mill, but there is no denying the fact that the power of the grapevine in Kashmir has always been "earthshaking". Residents of cities, towns and villages where children had been administered polio drops were rushing in cars, load carriers, three-wheelers and motorcycles - and even on foot - in the extreme cold to seek medical attention to reverse the effects of the so-called expired vaccine. Pediatricians, hospital superintendents and paramedics pleaded with angry parents outside hospitals that their children were fine and no child had died anywhere after being administered polio drops. People simply refused to relent because the rumour mill was agog that dozens of children had died after being administered the vaccine. It was only around midnight that the situation was brought under control not because the people believed the authorities, but because children had started catching cold in the sub-zero winter temperatures. Police has now arrested one person who allegedly spread the rumour through social media about the "deaths of dozens of children in south Kashmir". The arrested person has been booked under the relevant provisions of the IT act and other crime prevention laws, but the fact that just one person could set the Valley on fire has a historical background. People in the landlocked Valley have always believed rumours more willingly than the official word. "There have been historical reasons for the power of the grapevine in Kashmir. You see, in 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh was attending an investiture at the palace without knowing that the tribals had invaded Kashmir. "The grapevine at Zainakadal in Srinagar city said in the morning the tribals had captured the Mohra power station near Uri town. The Maharaja's administration came to know of this only when the lights inside the palace suddenly went off in the evening," said Ghulam Nabi, 76, a resident of Ganderbal district. He also said the death of National Conference founder and the then chief minister, Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah on September 8, 1982 first came to Kashmiris as a 'rumour' till the authorities confirmed it only in the evening. More recently, when official health bulletins said the now deceased chief minister, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, had been "showing signs of recovery and responding to the treatment of a team of expert doctors at AIIMS in New Delhi", the rumour mill said he had been deteriorating. Ironically, the doctors at the hospital had not confirmed Sayeed's death when people in the Valley said the chief minister had passed away in the morning of January 7. Despite giant strides in information technology, Sunday's panic and desperation in Kashmir proved not much had changed here. The world might have become a global village thanks to the internet, television channels, radio stations and mobile phones, but the power of the grapevine in Kashmir remains unparalleled. Of course, there has been one difference, the spin doctors of the grapevine have learnt the art of using modern technology to spread wild rumours using the same gadgetry that should have thrown them out of business. (Sheikh Qayoom can be contacted at sheikh.abdul@ians.in) Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have agreed to beef up security and construct at least 10 new border outposts (BOPs) on the India-Bangladesh border to check militancy, crime and trafficking, a BSF official said on Monday. Officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) and BGB met for five days at the BSF's Tripura frontier headquarters at Shalbagan, 15 km north of here, and discussed matters related to the international border. The five-member BGB delegation was led by Colonel Sajjad Hossain while the BSF team comprised Deputy Inspector General of Panisagar sector D.K. Sharma and Teliamura Sector DIG Rajeev Sinha and senior officers. "The BGB officials informed us on the construction of new BOPs facing Tripura and Mizoram," BSF's Tripura frontier Deputy Inspector General and chief spokesman D.S. Bhati told IANS. He said the BGB will also further tighten security along Tripura and Mizoram frontiers. "The proposed BOPs in the mountainous Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) will help contain terrorism in the north-eastern states since most camps of Indian insurgent groups, including Tripura militants, are located in south-east Bangladesh's CHT," Bhati said. "Both sides agreed to increase vigil along the border to foil attempt by militants and other anti-national elements to disrupt internal peace. Besides, emphasis was also given to curb trans-border smuggling," the BSF officer said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina discussed the border issues, including curbing of border crimes and terror activities, during Modi's visit to Dhaka on June 6-7 last year. Four north-eastern states of Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) share an 1,880-km border with Bangladesh. Ahead of Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli's maiden India visit, China has apparently expressed concern over it, diplomatic sources here said. Earlier, there was expectation that Oli would embark on a maiden visit to China before India due to unrest in southern Nepal's Tarai region and blockage of essential commodities' supply from India. In a meeting between Chinese Vice Minister for international relations Chen Fengxian and Nepalese minister Agni Sapkota in Beijing on Sunday, Chen inquired about Oli's upcoming India visit and how it was going. Mentioning about his meeting with Chen, Sapkota said: "During my meeting with Chinese vice minister, he asked me about the upcoming visit of Prime Minister K.P. Oli to India." Chen also asked when the visit was taking place, he added. "In response, I told the Chinese vice minister that we are holding talks with the Indian side in respect to the visit," Sapkota said on Monday here upon his return from China. This concern was especially raised from Chinese side after speculation was rife in Kathmandu that Oli may break the tradition of visiting India first than China. Nepalese prime ministers upon assuming office usually have started their foreign trips from India and later visited other countries. Diplomatic sources said Chinese side will also raise the same kind of concern over Prime Minister Oli's maiden visit to India with Nepal's Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel who is currently in Beijing. Though the dates of Oli's visit to India are yet to be announced, officials said he would visit China only after India. Chinese officials were almost sure that breaking the age-old tradition, Prime Minister Oli, a career Leftist leader who became the prime minister with the support of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), would visit China first and not India. But in a turn of events, Oli favoured a visit to India first to ease the protest in Tarai and a political deal between ruling parties and agitating Madhesi Morcha. This has paved the way for his India visit first. The Chinese side was doing necessary preparation to sign several understandings and agreements like bilateral investment promotion and protection act, trade and transit treaty, free trade agreement, agreement on super voltage cross-border transmission line, and promotion of tourism and many others. The Chinese side also hinted there could be high-level visit from China in 2016 at the level of the president and premier and inquired about the condition of roads in Nepal and availability of hotels. In connection of Oli's upcoming China visit, Indian Ambassador Ranjit Rae held a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa on Monday. For more than four months, the plains of the Nepal Terai have been simmering with Morcha-led protests against the country's new Constitution that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on September 20. Chinese authorities have indefinitely extended an intensive surveillance programme in villages across the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), the Human Rights Watch said on Monday. There are indications that the "village-based cadre teams" scheme, which is unprecedented in China, will become permanent, it added. The extension of the surveillance programme, which was deployed in 2011, is seen as Chinese authorities' intention to suppress any signs of dissent or criticism among Tibetans, including questioning them about their political and religious views, it said. "The Chinese government's decision to extend its Tibet surveillance programme indefinitely is nothing less than a continuous human rights violation," said a statement issued by Human Rights Watch quoting China director Sophie Richardson. "China's surveillance scheme openly and massively infringes upon the basic rights of Tibetans protected under Chinese and international law," she added, urging China's central and regional authorities to end the repressive aspects of this scheme immediately. In 2011, the Chinese central government, in an effort to prevent a recurrence of the protests that spread across the Tibetan plateau in 2008, launched an Orwellian campaign known as "Benefit the Masses." The campaign involved sending some 21,000 Communist Party cadres from townships and urban areas to live in teams of four or more in each of the 5,000 villages in the TAR. The scheme, which cost more than 25 percent of the regional government's budget, was supposed to last for three years. The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday said that the ink attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was a part of a "conspiracy to murder him". "It (ink attack) was part of a conspiracy to attack and hurt Kejriwal. The conspiracy to murder him cannot be ruled out," AAP leader Ashutosh told a press conference here. He also slammed Delhi Police for allegedly failing to provide enough security to Kejriwal. A young woman, Bhawna Arora, threw ink at Kejriwal on Sunday at a public function held to mark the success of odd-even traffic restriction scheme. A Delhi court on Monday remanded her in one-day police custody. Ashutosh said that Kejriwal was attacked several times in the past and Delhi Police could not get away by saying that "they were caught unawares". The AAP leader said that even during Kejriwal's visit to Muktsar in Punjab, security provided by Delhi Police was "almost negligible". "When he (Kejrwal) was returning by train, there was no Delhi Police personnel with him," Ashutosh added. A court here on Monday reserved order on the plea of AAP legislator Bhavna Gaur seeking discharge in a case in which she has been accused of misrepresenting facts about her academic background. Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma fixed January 30 to deliver its order on the plea of Gaur who represents Palam constituency in the Delhi assembly. The court was hearing a complaint filed by lawyer Samarendra Nath Verma against the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA. Verma complained that Gaur had furnished different information about her educational qualifications in two affidavits she filed with the election commission in 2013 and 2015. According to the complaint, Gaur in 2013 claimed to have passed the Class 12 exam, but in her 2015 affidavit she described herself as a Delhi University graduate who also earned a B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) degree from Maharshi Dayanand University in Haryana's Rohtak. The complainant sought action against Gaur for offences under the Representation of the People Act. Defence counsel Madan Lal on Monday said that Gaur understood the meaning of 'oblique' as 'or' and therefore in her first election declaration she submitted her highest school education as "12th passed". Gaur had not submitted any false statement in any the two affidavits filed with the election commission, pleaded the defence counsel. Counsel Madan Lal told the court that in the first affidavit which she filed in the 2013 assembly election, she understood the meaning of highest educational qualification as the highest school qualification because 'oblique' was put after that and therefore she submitted her highest educational qualification as '12th CBSE in 1998'. "However, in the subsequent election she submitted certificates of her complete educational qualification and also furnished information in column 11 as BA, B.Ed. which was her highest educational qualification," counsel Madan Lal told the court. Opposing the defence counsel's plea, the complainant's counsel told the court that arguments of the accused were intended to obfuscate the proceedings. A court here on Monday allowed a National Investigation Agency (NIA) plea for a lie detector test on Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh in connection with the attack at the air force base in Pathankot. Court sources said that during in-camera proceedings, district judge Amar Nath directed the NIA to conduct the polygraph test on Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh within three days. The NIA earlier told the court that Singh's statements on his alleged abduction were inconsistent and the lie detector test was required to ascertain the truth. The NIA had questioned Singh as he was suspected of helping the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base on January 2. The police officer had claimed that he along with his friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal was abducted by four or five heavily-armed terrorists near Kolia village in Punjab prior to the attack on the airbase. Seven security personnel were killed in the attack. All six terrorists suspected to have crossed over from Pakistan also were shot dead by the security forces in the counter-offensive. It wasn't anything like the fiery Republican debate, but Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton went into the attack against rival Bernie Sanders, who is fast catching up with her in the polls. Totally embracing President Barack Obama, the former secretary of state attacked the self-styled Democratic socialist Sanders on guns and healthcare as accused him of hostility towards her 2008 rival turned boss. Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina for the NBC News-YouTube Democratic presidential candidates' debate Sunday, Clinton, Sanders and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley displayed their sharp differences on issues ranging from health care to guns to Obama's record. Meeting two weeks before the first nominating contests in Iowa on Feb 1, Clinton slammed Sanders for voting "with the gun lobby numerous times," and accused the Vermont senator of siding with gun manufacturers and gun rights backers in Congress. But Sanders hit back hard, arguing that he had a D-minus voting rating from the National Rifle Association and rejected her list of charges. "I think that Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous," he said. The Democratic clash took place just a block from the Charleston, South Carolina, church where a self-proclaimed white supremacist went on a shooting rampage last year that left nine African-Americans dead. Defending Obama's signature healthcare law, Clinton said that Sanders' proposed Medicare-for-all plan -- released just an hour before the debate -- would upend the health care law and incite a new struggle over health care with Republicans. Sanders angrily rejected Clinton's claims that his plans would result in the gutting of Obamacare, saying that he wanted to build on the achievements of the current president, not overturn them. "No one is tearing this up. We are going to go forward," Sanders said, his voice rising in anger. "That is nonsense." A new NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll on Sunday showed Clinton leading Sanders 59 percent to 34 percent, with O'Malley, at 2 percent. But recent polls show him running neck and neck in Iowa and 14 points ahead in New Hampshire. Reminding the audience that when the campaign started, "she was 50 points ahead of me," Sanders said: "Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very very close." "We are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend, Donald Trump," he said referring to the brash Republican frontrunner. Tying herself to the Obama legacy, Clinton praised him for pulling America out of the worst recession since the Great Depression and accused Sanders of calling the President "weak" and "disappointing." "I am going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the finance industry and getting results," Clinton said. Sanders hit back by insisting that Obama was his friend, and took a swipe at Clinton over the lucrative months she spent on the speaking circuit after she left the State Department. "I don't take money from big banks, I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs," Sanders charged. Clinton said she would turn to her husband Bill Clinton "for advice and, in particular, how we're going to get the economy working again for everybody." Sanders, in turn, defended his criticism of the former president's indiscretions saying: "I was asked a question." Sanders, who had described Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky as "totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable," reiterated he is running against Hillary and not Bill Clinton even as he again called the former president's behavior "deplorable." (Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in) A case was lodged on Monday against a legislator belonging to Bihar's ruling party JD-U for allegedly misbehaving with a couple in a running train, a railway police official said here. Inderpal Singh Bedi and his wife complained in their FIR, registered at Patna railway station, that JD-U legislator Sarfaraj Alam, his bodyguard and another aide misbehaved with them aboard the Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express, the official said. Alam and his two men allegedly passed vulgar comments about Bedi and his wife who boarded the train at Delhi, he said. The MLA has denied the charge. Patna rail superintendent of police P N Mishra said that investigation had begun into the case and the police would take action against the legislator if the charges were found to be true. Alam is JD-U legislator from Jokihat assembly constituency in Araria district of Bihar. He is the son of controversial former union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin. At least five security personnel were killed and two injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Pakistan's Balochistan province on Monday. Unidentified militants targeted a vehicle of security personnel in Margut area of Quetta city through a remote-controlled bomb, Dawn online quoted a security personnel as saying. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Balochistan, Pakistan's largest but least developed province, has for over a decade remained in the grip of violence, which has claimed thousands of lives. India attaches the highest importance to its relations with Israel and always offers a safe and secure home to the Jewish people, said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. "India attaches the highest importance to full development of wide-ranging ties with Israel," she said on Monday as she met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the second day of her visit to Israel. "Our bilateral cooperation has developed well in a number of areas over the past two decades. But the potential of our relationship is much more," Sushma Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as external affairs minister, said. Stating that she was looking forward to her meetings with the Israeli leadership, she said she hoped to "discuss the entire spectrum of our bilateral relationship". "I also hope to get an assessment of the situation in the region and explore areas where we can cooperate in addressing common challenges," she said. Welcoming the Indian minister, Netanyahu, who is also Israel's foreign minister, said that India and Israel were intensifying cooperation in a number of fields. "In the fields of science and technology, cyber, defence and agriculture, we want to do more," he said. He said that Sushma Swaraj's visit has provided a special opportunity for the foreign ministries of both the countries to discuss various challenges and opportunities. He said that though India and Israel shared very old civilisations. "The future belongs to those who innovate. Israel and India are at the cutting edge of so many areas of innovation," the Israeli prime minister said. "By working together we can do a lot more for our peoples and for the world," he said, adding that Israel admired and viewed India as a great friend. Sushma Swaraj, who is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry, then held delegation level talks with Netanyahu. Following this, she called on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. "All in a morning's work. After meeting PM @netanyahu, EAM calls on @PresidentRuvi of Israel at the President's House," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Sushma Swaraj also held delegation-level talks with Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz and Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon. Ahead of the Indian minister's visit, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said at a media briefing in New Delhi that Israel and India would collaborate in the areas of agriculture and water management. Stating that Israel had faced the problem of water scarcity, he said that his country would collaborate with the Indian private sector on this and was in close contact with India's water resources and Ganga rejuvenation ministry. He also said defence cooperation was "the central pillar of our relationship". He said Israeli defence manufacturing companies were "open and flexible" to the idea of 'Make in India'. Carmon said India-Israel defence ties have gone way beyond a buyer and seller relationship and now it was about joint research and development. On Monday, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and former Israeli foreign minister and chair of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group Tzipi Livni also called on Sushma Swaraj. Later in the evening, addressing a community event, the visiting Indian minister said that India has always offered the Jewish people a safe and secure home. "India has always offered the Jewish people a safe and secure home for many centuries," Sushma Swaraj said while addressing the Indian community and the Friends of India. She congratulated the Indian caregivers for performing commendable service away from their homes. There are at least 80,000 Jews of Indian origin in Israel, most of whom are now Israeli passport holders, according to Indian embassy figures. There are at least 10,000 Indian citizens in Israel, of whom at least 8,000 are care-givers while the others are diamond traders, IT professionals, students and unskilled workers. The visiting Indian minister started the day by paying homage at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located near Jerusalem. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year, the first ever by an Indian head of state. On Sunday, Sushma Swaraj went to Ramallah on the first leg of her West Asian visit and held bilateral discussions with her Palestinian counterpart Riyad Al Maliki and called on President Mahmoud Abbas. Unidentified gunmen kidnapped three Americans in Baghdad, an Iraqi news agency reported on Sunday. The three Americans, who worked as military trainers, were at the house of a translator in the southern district of Doura, Baghdad, when a group of gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed the house and took them away, Xinhua quoted NINA as saying. The translator who invited the three Americans to his house was also abducted, the agency said. Earlier, the pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya reported that three Americans were kidnapped in Baghdad, without giving further details, but mentioned that the US State Department said they are aware of the report and are working with the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover them. The Braj area in Uttar Pradesh, the land of Lord Krishna and his consort Radha, is all set to change its profile with a number of development projects at various stages of implementation, according to BJP leader and MP from Mathura Hema Malini. The film actress-turned politician said here on Sunday that her persuasive efforts had got the Mathura district a special fund of Rs.100 crore allocated from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Projects in progress included a Krishna theme park, a food court, a food processing unit, and a container depot, Hema Malini said. Also being provided were some skill development programmes, a Radha Rani Express train to Vrindavan, better facilities for the widows in Vrindavan, schemes for empowering women and safety of girls, and a heritage development plan, she said. Mathura was now firmly on the tourist map of India, the MP said. She said facilities were being provided in her adopted village Rawal, which is considered to be the birth place of Radha. Film-set expert from Mumbai Mohan Shetty and eminent architect Uday Kapre had already visited the site of the proposed Krishna theme park which would attract tourists and promote hotel business, she said. Hema Malini also said that the goods and service (GST) tax was absolutely necessary for uniformity in business activities all over India. Leading Japanese financial institution Mizuho Bank Limited on Monday signed an MoU with the Haryana government to promote industrial and infrastructure development, generate employment opportunities and attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Haryana. The MoU was signed by Mizuho Bank managing executive officer Tatsufumi Sakai and the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation's managing director Sudhir Rajpal in the presence of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Tokyo, a government spokesman said in Chandigarh. Khattar arrived in Tokyo on Monday to seek investment for Haryana. "Mizuho is a global financial institution with a strong Japanese client base. Mizuho is having business relationship with 70 percent of listed Japanese companies including more than 250 'Fortune 1000' companies," the Haryana government spokesman said. The HSIIDC and Mizuho have agreed to cooperate and to exchange information, based on the current amicable relationship existing between both parties, to encourage investments from Japan so as to promote industrial and infrastructure development in Haryana, generate employment opportunities and attract FDI. In another meeting, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Monday said that it has decided to consider a soft loan of over Rs.1,000 crore for Haryana Investment Promotion Programme. "This was disclosed by Hideaki Domichi, senior vice president of JICA, while interacting with the delegation led by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in Tokyo today (Monday)," the spokesman said. Khattar sought the assistance of JICA in giving big boost to dairy development in Haryana and building of Gurgaon-Manesar-Bawal Mass Rapid Transport System for which JICA has committed long term funding of $2.5 billion. More than 300 members of various students' bodies on Monday staged a protest outside Shastri Bhavan here, demanding the resignation of the Hyderabad University vice-chancellor over the suicide of a Dalit scholar. Shastri Bhavan houses the human resource development ministry among others. The students, many from Left leaning organisations, raised slogans against Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), like "Smriti Irani sharam karo" (Shame on you, Smriti Irani) and "Hindutvawadi faansiwad murdabad" (Down with Hindu fascism). The protesters gathered outside Shastri Bhavan at about 3 p.m. and displayed placards on the suicide of 26-year-old Ph.D scholar Rohith Vemula, allegedly due to harassment by certain students aligned with right wing groups and the consequent suspension by the University of Hyderabad in connection with the beating up of an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) worker. Minutes after the protest, Delhi Police deployed heavy security in the area and imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), banning any gathering of five or more people. Police used water cannons and detained several students as they broke the barricades. The protesters, carrying pictures of B.R. Ambedkar and raising anti-government slogans, clashed with police. Vemula, a student of Hyderabad University, hanged himself in his friend's hostel room on Monday after he, along with four Dalit research scholars, was barred from the university hostel after their suspension. Vemula hailed from Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. The research scholars were expelled from their hostel in December 2015 following a clash with leaders of the ABVP, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. They were evicted from their rooms and forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus. "In one way they (five suspended students) were socially boycotted in an official manner. This was very shameful that the University of Hyderabad boycotted its own students," said Apurvanand, Delhi University Hindi professor who took part in the protest. He also said the university should own up its moral responsibility in the wake of the scholar's suicide and the vice chancellor should submit his resignation. More than 100 students were detained at Parliament Street police station at around 4.30 p.m. Jatin Narwal, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), New Delhi, told IANS: "The clashes took place after the situation aggravated. Additional DCP Deepak Guari sustained foot injury during the protest. Five more of our police personnel sustained minor injuries during the scuffle." The DCP blamed the agitating students for the incident. Meanwhile, the central ministry constituted a two-member committee to probe the suicide. The panel will submit its report in two days. Irani, while expressing sympathy with the student's family, declined to comment on the incident. She merely said the ministry had no administrative control over the central universities. Students from the Krantikari Yuva Sangthan (KYS), Students Federation of India (SFI), All India Students Association (AISA), Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) participated in the protest. India has always offered the Jewish people a safe and secure home, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said while commending the Indian community in Israel for their services as caregivers. "India has always offered the Jewish people a safe and secure home for many centuries," Sushma Swaraj said on Monday while addressing the Indian community and the Friends of India here on the second day of her visit to Israel. Addressing the community reception, she congratulated the Indian caregivers for performing commendable service away from their homes. There are at least 80,000 Jews of Indian origin in Israel, most of whom are now Israeli passport holders, according to Indian embassy figures. There are at least 10,000 Indian citizens in Israel, of whom at least 8,000 are caregivers while others are diamond traders, IT professionals, students and unskilled workers. Sushma Swaraj also conveyed her good wishes to Indians serving in the UN Disengagement Observer Force. The minister, who on Monday held delegation-level bilateral talks and met the Israeli leadership, including President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "Our cooperation is expanding in new areas like homeland security, innovation, education and science and technology." She concluded her address with the belief that the India-Israel partnership would be strengthened in future. With the lifting of nuclear sanctions on Iran, the prospects for India as a consumer of oil, prices of which are in free fall towards levels of less than $20 a barrel, look rosy in the near term, says an expert. "From a supply point of view, cheaper oil is good for emerging markets like India and such low prices might sustain for a longer period. It makes for lower trade deficits, helps lower fiscal deficit," Anand James, commodities expert with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS. "However, from the price point of view, low prices discourage investment in oil exploration and capital expenditure in the sector and in spin-offs, which has a depressive effect and the slowdown thereby gets exaggerated, as seen in case of investments in US oil," he added. The Indian basket of crude oils closed trade on the last trading day on Friday at a 11-year low of $26.40 a barrel, according to official data. The oil marketer cut the price of petrol and diesel by under a rupee each on the same day. The Indian basket, comprising 73 percent sour-grade Dubai and Oman crudes and balance in sweet-grade Brent, had touched a previous monthly low of $26.27 in September 2004. India can resume its unrestricted import of oil from Iran, which is expected to increase its export of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day by 500,000 soon, followed by a further 500,000 bpd thereafter, thus adding to the supply glut that has resulted in global prices plunging in a year from levels of $120-$130 a barrel to below $30. Marking a 13-year low, the price of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) basket of twelve crudes stood at $24.74 a barrel on Friday, compared to $25 on the previous day, the organisation's secretariat said. The prospect of Iran doubling its crude oil exports has provoked the continuing fall in oil prices with UK Brent crude closing trade on Friday below $29 a barrel. Bariatric surgeon Pradeep Chowbey has been honoured by the Japanese Society of Endoscopic Surgeons for his contribution in the field of minimal access in the arena. Chowbey, who is also a Padma Shri recipient, is considered a pioneer in the field of bariatric surgery and has performed over 70,000 surgeries between 1992 and 2015. "It is a proud moment to receive the recognition for my work from a widely respected association. These memberships and awards further strengthen my resolve to continue to do revolutionary work in the field of laparoscopic and bariatric surgery," said Chowbey. Chowbey was one of the first Indian surgeons to recognise the increasing prevalence of obesity in India and looks at bariatric surgery as the only solution to it, if other options such as lifestyle changes, healthy eating and other medical interventions do not yield results. According to statistics, India currently has 41 million obese people. Jordan claimed that members and supporters of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) militant group were among the Syrians stranded along the Jordan-Syria border. Jordan officially closed its border with Syria last year, Xinhua reported. "Those stranded at the borders came from areas in the north of Syria which are controlled by IS," Jordan's Minister of State Mohammad Momani said on Sunday. However, it receives Syrian refugees daily through several areas from those borders. Momani said there were around 16,000 Syrian asylum seekers located in no-man's land, in the north eastern part of Jordan, along the border with Syria. Jordan has acquired intelligence that among the asylum seekers were IS militant group members and supporters, he added. "Jordan will regulate this issue with security measures in mind," said the minister, a few days after Jordan decided not to allow Syrian asylum seekers into the country. "Jordan's borders are open to refugees and around 50-100 enter Jordan daily, with a focus on children and the elderly," said the minister. Jordan then allowed the establishment of a refugee camp in no-man's land serviced by relief agencies. He added that Jordan provides services to those refugees as well. According to official figures, there are currently around 1.5 million Syrians refugees in Jordan. A judge, who was an accused in the cash-for bail scam involving former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on Monday died under suspicious circumstances here, police said. D. Prabhakar Rao was found dead at his residence in east Maredpally in Secunderabad. Family members said he died of cardiac arrest. Police have registered a case under suspicious circumstances and were investigating if it is suicide or a natural death. The body was shifted to government-run Gandhi Hospital for autopsy. Prabhakar Rao was arrested in the sensational case in 2012 and was later released on bail. He had reportedly told his friends that he was falsely implicated in the case. Prabhakar Rao was Family Court-cum-3rd Additional district and sessions judge of Srikakulam when he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in July 2012. He was one of the three serving judges to be arrested in the case. It was First Additional Special Judge for CBI cases T. Patattabhirama Rao who had granted bail to mining baron Janardhan Reddy in illegal mining case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had exposed an alleged deal of Rs.10 crore for granting bail to Janardhan Reddy. Prabhakar Rao, who had earlier worked as Secretary (Legal) in Andhra Pradesh State Election Commission, had allegedly contacted Pattabhirama Rao for facilitating bail to the former Karnataka minister. DMK president M Karunanidhi on Monday appeared before a local court here in connection with the defamation case filed by the Tamil Nadu government. The case was adjourned for March 10 after Karunanidhi's presence was recorded. Speaking to reporters later Karunanidhi said the government files defamation cases against everybody who says or writes anything about it. "What was defaming is not known to them (to the government) nor to us. Only the government should say what it is that it found defaming," he said. ALSO READ: DMK chief Karunanidhi extends hand of friendship to Congress for TN polls The government had filed a defamation case against Karunanidhi for issuing an article published by a Tamil weekly as a statement. Karunanidhi decided to appear in person in the court. He told reporters that justice will always win and people should unite together. Sambia Sohrab was driving the car which mowed down an air force officer supervising the Republic Day parade rehearsal last week, his friend and co-accused Shanu alias Shahnawaz claimed on Monday after he was brought to the city following his arrest in Delhi. "Sambia, Sambia," Shanu replied to media persons' posers at the NSC Bose International Airport here. However, he did not reply when asked whether he had surrendered to police on his own. Stepping up its probe, a Kolkata Police team arrested Shanu from Delhi on Sunday night in connection with the sensational hit-and-run case in which the IAF corporal Abhimanyu Gaud was knocked down on the Indira Gandhi Sarani on January 13. Shanu is the second person to be arrested in the case after prime accused Sambia was held in the West Bengal capital on Saturday. Shanu was nabbed by a special police team on Sunday night from a relative's house in New Delhi. On Monday, he was produced in a Delhi court which granted the Kolkata Police a two-day transit remand. Said to be accompanying Sambia on the night before the accident, Shanu through his counsel asserted full cooperation with police. "We dont know as of now on what charges he has been arrested. But he will fully cooperate with the investigation," said his counsel Danish. Hyderabad-based CVR group said on Monday that its subsidiary Krishnapatnam Power Corporation has signed an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government to build 2,780 MW capacity of thermal power projects entailing an estimated investment of Rs.16,680 crore. The project, consisting of three 660 MW units and one 800 MW unit, is located in the coastal region of the state, close to Krishnapatnam Port near the district headquarters here. It is expected to create direct and indirect employment for approximately 1,500 people, the company said in a statement here. "With the commissioning of these projects, we expect the huge demand of the state to be dealt actively, apart from creating immense job opportunities," Krishnapatnam Power Corp director Chinta Sasidhar said in the statement. "The recent agreement has tremendously fortified our commitment and contribution towards the macro scheme of 'Infrastructure Mission' of Andhra Pradesh which envisions the creation of world class infrastructure for excellent connectivity and augmenting power generation capacity," he added. Krishnapatnam Power Corp is a special purpose vehicle implementing the coal-fired thermal power project promoted by Navayuga Power Corp, a part of the Navayuga Group. Last week, Krishnapatnam Port Company, also promoted by the CVR group, announced it has signed an agreement with Petrogas Pvt. Ltd. and the Andhra Pradesh government to set up a liquefied nartural gas (LNG) regasification terminal. Petrogas will invest Rs.3,000 crore at Krishnapatnam to set-up the LNG regasification terminal and allied industries, the company said. Chinese technology major Lenovo on Monday launched its ThinkServer brand in India aimed at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. The launch of ThinkServer TS140, an entry-level tower server, and ThinkServer RD450-an entry level 2U rack server, is the first addition from the ThinkServer portfolio to the EBG server range for Lenovo in India, post their acquisition of IBM's x86 business in 2014, a company statement said. "We are extremely happy to be launching the first ThinkServer in India - a small step as we move towards becoming a market-leader in enterprise solutions by 2020," said Siddhesh Naik, director of enterprise business group at Lenovo, at the launch. "With ThinkServer TS140 and RD450 we aim to take the legendary Think engineering to new age Indian small businesses who are looking to build their first DIY server compute cluster, or a software defined storage cluster, or even managed service providers looking for a whisper-quiet machine," Naik added. ThinkServer TS140 is engineered to enable 24x7 running time. Additionally, the advanced thermal design also reduces overall system noise to super-quiet levels of close to 26 decibels. The model also supports enterprise grade hard disk drives that have 3x higher MTBFs and can handle up to 10 times the workload as compared to entry-level servers that come with consumer-grade hard drives. The ThinkServer RD450 strikes the perfect balance between high reliability, powerful software solutions and versatile storage capacity. The model comes with next generation mainstream CPUs up to 105W offering 267 percent more memory capacity, improved systems management capabilities and range of Platinum/Titanium PSUs. Users can benefit from increased performance, faster IO for business applications and highly efficient flexible design aimed at reducing power consumption and cost, the company said. Revamping of hospitals in Manipur's border districts of Chandel, Churachandpur and Ukhrul in northeastern India are not just helping locals but also benefiting poor Myanmarese settled along neglected border areas. Okram Ibomcha, the director of health department, Manipur, is working towards revamping the border hospitals and overseeing the presence of doctors and paramedics in these remote areas where there are virtually no accommodation and basic amenities. Three junior doctors are posted at the Public Health Centre (PHC) at Parbung in Churachandpur district. As IANS visited this neglected border village, there was just one doctor. He said that since the healthy mountain tribals hardly require hospitalisation, each of the doctors stay there on a 15-day rotation basis. At the village, the presence of nurses and other staff was also small. There were just two indoor patients. Kwatha, a border village, can boast of one public health centre (PHC) where one woman delivered a healthy baby in candlelight some days ago. Other PHCs in Ukhrul district have also started functioning normally. In the recent past, the tribals there used to get medical help from the military hospitals of the Assam Rifles. In the absence of a hospital at Poi in Ukhrul district, the villagers get help from a small hospital of the Assam Rifles there. From time to time, the Assam Rifles has been issuing press releases on medical camps in these interior areas and saving snake bite victims. K. Rajo, director of Family Welfare Department, Manipur, said: "We are planning to cover 3.50 lakh children on Sunday's polio campaign. We have issued motorbikes to the paramedics for travelling in the remote areas where there is no jeepable road." He said it is clear that many children from across the border will come to the transit points like bus stands, market places, clubs where these bikers shall be rushing. Ibomcha, however, has ensured round the clock service to the people in these border districts by seeing to it that the doctors and paramedics are present there. As there are no proper quarters, most of the doctors and nurses are staying in unoccupied rooms of the hospital complex. Besides, absence of water, power and other basic amenities is common problem. Nandakumar, who had to deliver a baby in candle light and torch light, said: "If basic amenities are provided we could render meaningful service." In the absence of clean water, mountain stream water has to be used and it is risky. Besides, the doctors said the serious patients have to be rushed to major hospitals in the district headquarters or Imphal. As there is no ambulance facility or bus service the family members of the patients have to hitch a ride in the trucks or if lucky, a station wagon. Though Moreh, the border town in Chandel district where there is legalised border trade, has a major hospital, people did not feel benefited as expected. There were reports that the doctors and staff used to stay at their homes in and around Imphal, leaving the pharmacists and some nurses to hold the fort in their absence. That is why Win Oo, a displaced MBBS doctor from Myanmar, opened his four-bedded clinic in the Moreh market to treat the Myanmarese villagers. He was one of the pro-democracy activists who fled to Manipur along with hundreds of others shortly after the upheaval on August 8, 1988. A security officer posted at Moreh told IANS that police no longer arrest Myanmarese nationals who come to the border hospitals for treatment. In the past, some of them were arrested and sent to jail. Apart from the Look East policy the Myanmarese government allows Indian tourists and traders to go up to Tamu, five km from the international gate for shopping. These Indians do not have to produce any travel documents except to pay Rs.10 each as "immigration fee". But then all of them have to return to Manipur by evening and in the past those who overstayed were detained. (Iboyaima Laithangbam can be contacted on imphalreport@gmail.com) Since the government has done away with the minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), a debate has set in for and against the minority character and reservations. Recently, at a conference at Delhi's Constitution Club, one heard several so-called Muslim leaders very generously voicing their lip-service concerning the minority character of AMU. It reminded one of the saying that way to hell is paved with good intentions. The fact remains, and history has proved this, that the minority character and reservations on communal lines are not in the interest of national unity and integrity as it starts a chain reaction of demands amongst religious groups, within and without. The ostrich mentality of reservations or minority status of some universities will not help Muslims. But it will open up a Pandora's box. They either have to perform or perish on their own. Those vying for the minority status of AMU and Jamia Millia Islamia should remember what India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, a Congressman and not a lesser lover of minorities, had stated while speaking on democratisation during an important session of the Constituent Assembly on May 26, 1949: "If you seek to give safeguards to a minority, you isolate it... Maybe, you protect it to a slight extent but at what cost -- at the cost of isolating and keeping it away from the main current." Dr. Zakir Hussain founded Jamia Millia Islamia in 1920. He could have made it a minority institution if he had wanted to. But he did not want the institution to be linked with any one community. It would be worth examining what the other founding fathers say about minority character and reservations. While a vote was sought for the charter of providing political safeguards to the minorities according to articles 292 and 294 of the 1949 draft constitution, five leaders (all Muslims) out of seven, namely Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Hifzur Rehman, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Hussainbhoy Laljee and Tajammul Hussain had voted against it. Interestingly, Sardar Patel strongly supported the charter. K.R. Malkani, a former RSS think tank member, wrote in his treatise on Indian Muslims, The Politics Of Ayodhya And Hindu-Muslim Relations, that according to the United Nations, the group that's identified as a minority is one that by religion, language, ethnicity or culture constitutes less than 10 percent of the population of a state. As per this statute, the Muslims were a minority decades ago but now they are not, he wrote. Malkani also states that nowhere in the 52-odd Muslim countries or, for that matter, anywhere in the world where Muslims are a majority, do non-Muslims have the privileges, protection and rights that India offers to the minorities. As a matter of fact, Maulana Azad did not like the majority-minority syndrome and hence called Muslims as the second majority. Be it Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Muslim Dalits or other so-called minorities, reservations are a menace for the entire system. On the otherwise secular and composite fabric of India, reservations are a thorn in its neck. Rather than extending the begging bowl for quotas, Muslims must tell the government to open more schools and a system for general uplift in their areas rather than police stations. Instead of fighting over smaller slices of a small pie of national income, what is needed is the expansion of the national pie which would help everyone to get their rightful and bigger share. The oppressed and the marginalised people need expansion of opportunities rather than favours from the state. Words such as reservation, minority, majority should be deleted from the Indian Constitution in the context of quotas based on caste or religion. Umpteen reservations including the minorities, SC/ST, Kashmiri migrants and army personnel have already skewed the scales of merit. The problem with this kind of lop-sided minority character and reservations is that the real beneficiaries may be the economically well-off "backward community" members who generation after generation reap the benefits at the expense of the real needy from the general sections who, actually, are becoming the "minority" as has been seen in the case of the 22.5 percent quotas in the institutions of higher education like the IIMs and IITs etc. The government needs to put a stop to such abuses. So many reserved places lie unfilled and the ineligible poor general category suffers. The minorities should have an honourable place by having to stop looking at charity in the form of quota and accept the challenge of a competitive life. So far as the Muslim community is concerned, the reservations' process will be wrought with imperfections as the community is divided into umpteen castes and sub-castes, a system that has percolated in them through their Hindu neighbourhoods. Instead, financial aid should be granted on the basis of performance. If Muslims compete, participate and become go-getters, India will prosper. Battered by the populist rhetoric and provocative militancy of its myopic, ill-educated clerics, the nation's cultured and high potential minority stands at cross roads. Afflicted by utter educational backwardness, administrative apathy and political expediency, the Muslim community in India is caught in the asphyxiating tweezers-grip, owing to their opportunistic leaders, both inside the Parliament and outside, who are crying hoarse and indulging in pernicious vote-bank manipulation and who, finally, leave the poor Muslims to the mercy of God. These so-called Muslim representatives have outrightly ruined their followers emotionally, economically, socially and educationally. Such leaders are not seriously interested in dealing with the main problems of the community. Muslim leaders and petty politicians are becoming richer day by day, while the people they represent, are going down the poverty line. It is time that we Indians give up this ghettoized minority-majority mindset. Voices of reason demand that educational standards and qualifications should be uniform, whatever the language, religion or region. (Firoz Bakht Ahmed, grand nephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, is an educator and a social activist. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at firozbakhtahmed08@gmail.com) Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts his two-day visit to Sikkim and Assam on Monday, an official statement said. The prime minister will attend a conference of state agricultural ministers on sustainable development, organic farming and eco-tourism in Gangtok and lay the foundation stone of a new building for Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Guwahati. According to statement, Modi will arrive in Gangtok on Monday afternoon and then visit an orchid display and seasonal flowers exhibition. "The Prime Minister will attend the state agricultural ministers conference on sustainable development, organic farming and eco-tourism in Gangtok." Modi will also interact with organic farmers in Gangtok on Tuesday before leaving for Assam, the statement said. Modi on Tuesday will lay the foundation stone for a new building for IIIT Guwahati, the largest city of Assam, and address the students of IIT, NIT and central universities of the northeastern states. An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Monday acquitted former president Pervez Musharraf in a case pertaining to the alleged murder of former Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The lawyer representing Bugti family told media that he will challenge the judgment in the higher court. The anti-terror court rejected the request by Jamil Akbar Bugti, eldest son of the late Nawab Akbar Bugti, to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of his father. In a separate application, Bugti requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil Bugti earlier named Gen. Musharraf, former chief minister the late Jam Mohammad Yousuf, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao and former home minister Mir Mohammad Shoaib Nausherwani in the FIR registered at the Dera Bugti police station. Former president Pervez Musharraf was indicted in the case in January 2015. He was staying with his daughter in Karachi where he travelled for tests at a navy-run hospital in April last year and the indictment took place in his absence. Musharraf was also on bail in other major cases linked to his time in power, including the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, anti-terror army action at Lal Masjid and the judges' detention. Baloch leader Akbar Bugti was killed in an operation in Balochistan's rugged mountains of Taratani in Kohlu district on August 26, 2006. Bugti had led an armed campaign to press for provincial autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan's natural resources. The death of the Baloch chieftain had sparked angry protests in parts of the country. Nasscom on Monday said it has partnered with the Telangana government and other entities to create a "startup warehouse" here that will provide an affordable co-working space to the young entrepreneurs. T-Hub Nasscom Startup Warehouse would take care of young entrepreneurs' concerns of building right product in the market and give them a platform to emerge as stronger players, said Nasscom chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy in a statement. T-Hub is a public private partnership (PPP) between Telangana government and Indian School of Business (ISB), International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) and National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) along with other private sector leaders. Aiming to create a micro ecosystem where startups and entrepreneurs can work together and share experiences, 'NASSCOM 10,000 Startups' is setting up 'warehouses' across Indian states. The first startup warehouse was set up in Bengaluru in 2013, followed Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, and Gurgaon. "Nasscom 10,000 startup programme is now looking to launch this facility in other emerging cities in partnership with their respective governments," said the Nasscom statement. Bengaluru warehouse has recently been expanded from 10,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft in keeping up with the response the warehouse elicited from budding entrepreneurs. According to Nasscom report 'Start-up India - Momentous Rise of the Indian Start-up Ecosystem', Hyderabad is one of the emerging cities. T-Hub in collaboration with ISB, NALSAR and IIIT-H announced a $100 million venture capital fund, the statement said. Telangana IT and Panchayat Raj Minister T. Rama Rao also attended the inauguration. Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Monday filed a cross-FIR against five people following a woman's complaint that he pushed her and behaved inappropriately during a dispute over parking space, the National Award winner's manager said. A complaint was registered at the Versova police station on Sunday against Nawazuddin by a woman named Heena Sheikh, who resides in the same housing society as the actor. But his manager has refuted the allegations. "We have now filed a cross-FIR against five people who barged into our office yesterday (on Sunday). A woman has the authority to file the complaint first; so Heena took advantage of that. All the allegations against Nawzuddin are false allegations," the actor's representative told IANS. In her complaint, Heena, 24, daughter of Soni Dandekar, the chairman of Zohra Aghadi Nagar housing society at Yari Road, claimed she was manhandled by Nawazuddin's bodyguards. Rubbishing this, the actor's manager said: "In fact, the parking slot was in such a bad condition that Nawazuddinn got almost half the compound repaired and has been maintaining it. We have many industry people visiting our office and the parking slot was just before our office, so we are maintaining it also for hygienic reasons." Salwinder Singh, the former Gurdaspur SP who is being probed for any possible link with the Pathankot airbase attackers, has been "cooperating well" with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), official sources told IANS on Monday. According to the sources, the investigators have so far found nothing "incriminating" that could link Salwinder with the Pathankot terror strike. Questions are being raised why the terrorists let Salwinder off and not harmed him. There were also suspicions about his involvement with a drug smuggling cartel. However, the NIA is not specifically investigating the drug angle since that would be outside its purview. If any facts connected to the smuggling come to light, the matter would be handed over to the appropriate agency for probing, the sources said. A source in the ministry of home affairs told IANS on condition of anonymity that Salwinder had told investigators that the terrorists let him go because he was a Sikh.""This is not unbelievable as the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan has been trying to stoke the Khalistan movement in the north Indian state of Punjab. The ISI may have specifically briefed the terrorists not to harm any Sikh," the source said. Meanwhile, the investigators also got permission from a Delhi court on Monday to conduct a lie detector test on Singh. The test, the source added, was being done to be doubly sure of the facts that Salwinder had mentioned in his interrogation. Six Pakistani terrorists -- believed to be from the outlawed Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit -- sneaked into Punjab from across the border and took the Punjab Police officer hostage before taking away his vehicle. Later, they raided the IAF base at Pathankot, killing seven security personnel. Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday said neither he nor the BJP had anything to do with the suspension of five Dalit research scholars of the University of Hyderabad, one of whom committed suicide. The minister of state for labour, however, defended his action in writing a letter to the Human Resource Development Ministry about the activities of 'anti-national' and 'anti-social' elements on the campus. Dattatreya and university vice chancellor Appa Rao Podile were booked on the charge of abetment to suicide after a Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula hanged himself in a hostel on the varsity campus on Sunday. "I had received a representation from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leaders that they were beaten up by anti-national and anti-social elements. I forwarded the same to the ministry. I don't know what action was taken on this," Dattatreya told reporters here. The ABVP is the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The minister refused to comment on the case registered against him and three others on abetment to suicide charge and under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Rohith Vemula and four other students were protesting for the last 15 days over their suspension and expulsion from the hostel. The Ambedkar Students Union (ASU), to which the five students belonged, blamed Dattetreya, Appa Rao and ABVP leaders Sushil Kumar and Vishnu in the case, following which they were booked on a complaint by a student. The ASU alleged that the university had been turned into a hub of right wing groups since the BJP came to power at the Centre. The row between the students groups broke out in August last year when ASU took out a rally to condemn the ABVP's attack on the screening of a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots at Delhi University. ABVP leaders took objection to the protest. Later, Sushil Kumar lodged a complaint that ASU activists assaulted him. The accused students however denied the allegation. At least one person was killed and 22 injured as a quake hit Maluku province in Indonesia, spokesman of the national disaster agency said on Monday. The quake that hit on Sunday and measured 5.4 on the Richter Scale also left over 200 houses damaged, Xinhua reported. Three of the injured were in serious condition and the rest sustained minor injuries in Buru district, Xinhua quoted spokesman of the National Disaster Management Agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho as saying. As many as 68 houses completely destroyed and one mosque was also damaged in the district, he said. The 5.4 magnitude quake had its epicentre 66 km southeast of Buru Selatan and a depth of 10 km. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the army chief, General Raheel Sharif, on Monday embarked a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between them. This will be the first visit of a head of state or government to Iran after the lifting of US-imposed sanctions. People in Pakistan and abroad await the outcome of the initiative taken by Nawaz Sharif to bring the two rivals to the negotiating table in the wake of Iran behading a Saudi cleric, Dawn online reported. In announcing the January 18-19 visit to exchange views on regional and international issues, a Pakistani foregn office statement did not mention whether Nawaz Sharif would fly directly from Riyadh to Tehran or make separate visits to the two countries. The statement said Pakistan was deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity particularly during these challenging times," the statement said. Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the statement said. With Gen.Raheel Sharif in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the report said. Nawaz Sharif will travel to Saudi Arabia before visiting to Iran to play the role of a mediator to ease diplomatic tensions between Tehran and Riyadh, IRNA news agency reported on Monday. The execution earlier this month of a Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after protesters set ablaze its embassy in Iran. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday embarked a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between them. People in Pakistan and abroad await the outcome of the initiative taken by Nawaz Sharif to bring the two rivals to the negotiating table, Dawn online reported. Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran on January 18-19 to exchange views on regional and international issues, a foreign office statement said on Sunday. The statement did not mention if Nawaz Sharif would fly directly from Riyadh to Tehran or make separate visits to the two countries. With Raheel Sharif in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The foreign office in its statement said Pakistan was deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity particularly during these challenging times," the statement said. Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the statement said. The execution earlier this month of a Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after its embassy in Iran was set ablaze by protesters. The Patna High Court on Monday denied bail to independent legislator Anant Singh in a kidnapping case, a government lawyer said. Anant Singh, who quit the ruling Janata Dal-United and contested the assembly polls as an independent from his traditional Mokamah assembly constituency in Patna district and won, is currently lodged in the Beur Central Jail here. Singh was arrested in June 2015 in connection with a kidnapping case. He and his bodyguard are named as accused in the kidnapping of builder Raju Singh. The lower court earlier dismissed his bail petition. Old criminal cases were also opened against Anant Singh, who is locally known as "Chhote Sarkar" for his muscle and money power. The Delhi government on Monday alleged in the Supreme Court that the consumers in the capital were paying higher electricity tariff, as the balance sheets of the distribution companies (Discoms) were inflated. The Arvind Kejriwal government also urged the apex court to step in and permit the official auditor to continue to examine their (discoms) accounts, as it challenged the Delhi High Court's order of October 30 last year that had quashed its decision for such an audit. The high court decision has also been challenged by the Comptroller and Auditor General, besides an umbrella of some resident welfare associations. The three discoms are: Tata Power Delhi Distribution, BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna. Senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan, appearing for Delhi government, told the apex court that the discoms inflated their balance sheets and valuation of their assets which have resulted in the fixation of higher tariff. "Fudging of figures is enough justification for conducting a CAG audit," he told the apex court bench of Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre. "Audits are necessary for public faith", he said. The court decided to hear the matter on March 2. Issuing notice to the discoms, the court asked senior counsel P. Chidambram, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the power distribution companies, to file their responses to the relevant pleas before the next hearing. Senior counsel Paras Kuhad, appearing for CAG, told the court that under the constitution, the official auditor carries the mandate to examine the accounts of the companies where transactions involve the government or wherever government receivable are involved. The protests over suicide of a Dalit research scholar rocked University of Hyderabad while police booked central minister Bandaru Dattatreya and three others for abetment of suicide and also for violations of the SC/ST act. A day after Rohith Vemula hanged himself in a university hostel room, protests broke out on the campus of the central university and echoed in the national capital, where students tried to lay siege to the office of Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani. Police used water canons and arrested several students as they broke the barricades. The protestors, carrying pictures of B.R. Ambedkar and raising anti-government slogans, clashed with police. The central ministry constituted a two-member committee to probe the suicide. The panel will submit report in two days. Irani, while expressing sympathy with the student's family, declined to comment on the incident. She merely said the ministry had no administrative control over the central universities. The varsity campus in Hyderabad remained tense since morning when police used force to take possession of Rohith's body, which the students had locked in a room and were insisting should be visited by Vice Chancellor Appa Rao. Policemen in riot gear used batons to disperse the slogan-shouting students and arrested eight of them before shifting the body to Osmania Hospital for autopsy. The 28-year-old, a second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department, was found hanging in his friend's room in the hostel on Sunday. He was one of the five students expelled from the hostel and barred from all facilities except their classrooms following a clash with leaders of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The students belonging to Ambedkar Students Union (ASU) had been staging protest on the campus for last 15 days against this "discrimination" and "social boycott". Hailing from a poor family in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Rohith in his six-page suicide note said no one was responsible for his suicide. "I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write," he wrote. His mother Radhika along with students and leaders of various Dalit groups staged a sit-in on the campus, demanding that the vice chancellor come to them and explain why her son was suspended. A Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups blamed growing influence of right-wing groups on the campus for the incident. A JAC leader said nine Dalit students have committed suicide during last five years. They held central minister Bandaru Dattetreya, the vice chancellor, ABVP leader Sushil Kumar and Vishnu responsible for the suicide. A case for abetment of suicide and for violation of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was booked against the four in Gachibowli police station on a complaint by a student. A police officer told IANS that they will take further action after investigation. Dattetreya, who is union labour minister, had written to Irani, demanding action against "anti-national" and "anti-social" elements on the campus, which led to the suspension of the students. While defending his action, the minister said he or the Bharatiya Janata Party had nothing to do with suspensions or suicide. Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MP K. Kavitha alleged that the pressure by two union ministers on the vice chancellor led to suspension of five Dalit research scholars. She said Dattetreya should not have intervened into the campus politics. The Congress demanded that Dattatreya be removed from the cabinet. "The minister, against whom an FIR was filed, should immediately be removed from the cabinet. The vice chancellor and others involved in this crime should also be removed from their respective posts," Congress spokesperson R.P.N. Singh said in New Delhi. The row between the students groups broke out in August last year when ASU took out a rally to condemn the ABVP's attack on the screening of a documentary on the Muzaffarnagar riots at Delhi University. ABVP leaders took objection to the protest. Later, Sushil Kumar lodged a complaint that ASU activists assaulted him. The accused students however denied the allegation. India attaches the highest importance to its relations with Israel, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said as she met Israel's top leadership, including President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. "India attaches the highest importance to full development of wide-ranging ties with Israel," she said as she met Netanyahu who is also Israel's foreign minister. "Our bilateral cooperation has developed well in a number of areas over the past two decades. But the potential of our relationship is much more," Sushma Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as external affairs minister, said. Stating that she was looking forward to her meetings with the Israeli leadership, she said she hoped to "discuss the entire spectrum of our bilateral relationship". "I also hope to get an assessment of the situation in the region and explore areas where we can cooperate in addressing common challenges," she said. Welcoming the Indian minister, Netanyahu said that India and Israel were intensifying cooperation in a number of fields. "In the fields of science and technology, cyber, defence and agriculture, we want to do more," he said. He said that Sushma Swaraj's visit has provided a special opportunity for the foreign ministries of both the countries to discuss various challenges and opportunities. He said that though India and Israel shared very old civilisations, "we want to seize the future". "The future belongs to those who innovate. Israel and India are at the cutting edge of so many areas of innovation," the Israeli prime minister said. "By working together we can do a lot more for our peoples and for the world," he said, adding that Israel admired and viewed India as a great friend. Sushma Swaraj, who is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry, then held delegation level talks with Netanyahu. Following this, she called on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. "All in a morning's work. After meeting PM @netanyahu, EAM calls on @PresidentRuvi of Israel at the President's House," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Sushma Swaraj also held delegation level talks with Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz and Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon. Ahead of the Indian minister's visit, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said at a media briefing in New Delhi that Israel and India would collaborate in the areas of agriculture and water management. Stating that Israel had faced the problem of water scarcity, he said that his country would collaborate with the Indian private sector on this and was in close contact with India's water resources and Ganga rejuvenation ministry. He also said defence cooperation was "the central pillar of our relationship". He said Israeli defence manufacturing companies were "open and flexible" to the idea of 'Make in India'. Carmon said India-Israel defence ties have gone way beyond a buyer and seller relationship and now it was about joint research and development. On Monday, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and former Israeli foreign minister and chair of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group Tzipi Livni also called on Sushma Swaraj. The visiting Indian minister started the day by paying homage at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located near Jerusalem. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year, the first ever by an Indian head of state. On Sunday, Sushma Swaraj went to Ramallah on the first leg of her West Asian visit and held bilateral discussions with her Palestinian counterpart Riyad Al Maliki and called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Rusian embassy here on Monday condemned the deportation of a Russian citizen, Father Seraphim, by the immigration authorities of the Chennai International Airport. "Unacceptable is the fact that Russian diplomats were denied for seven hours contact with the priest at the airport," the embassy said in a statement. "He was also denied basic assistance, including food, despite the requests from the embassy and the consulate general of the Russian Federation in Chennai. Such disrespect, shown to a priest from a friendly country, goes against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation characteristic of Russian-Indian relationship," it added. At least 25 people were killed and many others wounded when a Saudi-led air strike targeted a police headquarters overnight in Yemen's capital Sanaa, authorities said on Monday. A hospital official said 25 policemen were confirmed dead, while the others, including civilians, were receiving treatment. "About 30 people, including policemen and residents who live in houses near the police facility, have been transferred to hospitals," a security official at the scene told Xinhua. "More than a dozen of policemen were still under the rubble and rescue teams have been trying to save possible survivors," he said. The Saudi-led coalition started its air strikes on Houthis rebels and their allied forces in March 2015, amid efforts to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's rule and force the Houthis to retreat from cities they have seized since September 2014. --Indo-Aisan News Service ahm/vt The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would examine whether the decision of Arunachal Pradesh Governor J.P.Rajkhowa advancing the assembly session to December 16 to take-up the resolution for the removal of Speaker Nabam Rebia was valid or not. "If the preponment of the session by the governor is bad, then everything flowing thereafter would be bad. Then we will consider only that," said a constitution bench comprising Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Justice N.V.Ramana. It said this as senior counsel Kapil Sibal told the court that the resolution by the 11 Bharatiya Janata Party legislators and two independents was sent to governor and not the secretariat of the state assembly as provided under the rules of the business. However, one of the respondents represented by senior counsel Shekhar Naphade had reservation over the bench's decision to limit its examination of the issues to the validity of the governor's decision to advance the session to December 16 instead of waiting till scheduled date of January 14. Contending that governor could not have acted on a resolution by the opposition BJP MLAs and two independents, Sibal said that the governor could only convene the session of the assembly on the advice of the government which had happened when January 14 was fixed as the date. Governor Rajkhowa by his December 9, 2015, message had advanced the date of the convening of the assembly session saying that the first item to be considered would be the motion of no confidence against the speaker. Besides this, governor in his message had said that until the session was prorogued, no presiding officer would alter the party composition of the house. The court in a poser asked Sibal whether Speaker Rebia, as a matter of "constitutional propriety" should not have desisted from exercising his powers in disqualifying 14 rebel legislators knowing well that resolution expressing no-confidence in him has been moved. At this, telling the court that interpretation of the constitution has to be to facilitate the functioning of democracy and not to pit one constitutional authority against the other, Sibal said: "Supposing there is a clear cut case of violation of the tenth schedule (of the constitution), should he (speaker) not act." The tenth schedule provides for the disqualification of lawmakers on grounds of defection. The apex court is hearing three petitions questioning, besides other things, the role of the Governor Rajkhowa in the power play in the ongoing political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh involving Congress' rebel lawmakers Aand BJP MLAs on one side and the supporters of Chief Minister Nabam Tuki on the other. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz on Monday, the second day of her visit to Israel. "Building India - Israel collaborations. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets with senior Minister Yuval Steinitz over lunch," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup. Ahead of the Indian minister's visit, Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said on Wednesday that Israel and India would collaborate in the areas of agriculture and water management. Stating that Israel had faced the problem of water scarcity, he said that his country would collaborate with the Indian private sector on this and was in close contact with India's water resources and Ganga rejuvenation ministry. Ahead of the meeting with Steinitz, Sushma Swaraj made a courtesy call on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Earlier on Monday, Sushma Swaraj called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that India attached highest importance to its bilateral relationship with Israel. She also paid homage at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located near Jerusalem. Sushma Swaraj, who arrived here on Saturday, went to Ramallah, the administrative capital of Palestine, on Sunday and held bilateral discussions with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki and also called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Indian minister is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry during her visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon on Monday, the second day of her visit to Israel. "Taking India Israel ties further. EAM @SushmaSwaraj meets with Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon in Jerusalem," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Ahead of Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel, Israeli Ambassador to India David Carmon told the media in New Delhi that defence cooperation was "the central pillar of our relationship". He said Israeli defence manufacturing companies were "open and flexible" to the idea of 'Make in India'. He also said transfer of technology was possible too. Carmon said India-Israel defence ties have gone way beyond buyer and seller relationship and now it was about joint research and development. Prior to her meeting with Ya'alon, Sushma Swaraj held a meeting with Israeli Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Yuval Steinitz. Earlier on Monday, the Indian minister called on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She told Netanyahu that India attached highest importance to its ties with Israel. Sushma Swaraj is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry during her two-day visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday, the second day of her visit to Israel. "All in a morning's work. After meeting PM @netanyahu, EAM calls on @PresidentRuvi of Israel at the President's House," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Earlier on Monday, Sushma Swaraj called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and said that India attached highest importance to its bilateral relationship with Israel. She also paid homage at Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, located near Jerusalem. Sushma Swaraj, who arrived here on Saturday, went to Ramallah, the administrative capital of Palestine, on Sunday and held bilateral discussions with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki and also called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Indian minister is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry during her visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. India attaches highest importance to its ties with Israel, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said as she met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, the second day of her visit to Israel. "India attaches the highest importance to full development of bilateral ties with Israel," she said. "Our bilateral cooperation has developed well in a number of areas over the past two decades." Stating that she was looking forward to her meetings with the Israeli leadership, Sushma Swaraj said she hoped to "discuss the entire spectrum of our bilateral relationship". "I also hope to get an assessment of the situation in the region," she said. Welcoming the Indian minister, Netanyahu said that India and Israel could do a lot more together in areas like cyber, defence and agriculture. He said that Sushma Swaraj's visit has provided a special opportunity for the foreign ministries of both the countries to discuss various challenges and opportunities. "Israel and India are at the cutting edge of so many areas. The future belongs to those who innovate," the Israeli prime minister said. "By working together we can do a lot more for our future and the world," he said, adding that Israel took India as a great friend. Sushma Swaraj, who arrived here on Saturday, went to Ramallah, the administrative capital of Palestine, on Sunday where she held bilateral discussions with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki and also called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Indian minister is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials of the ministry on her visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. United States' policies are responsible for instability in south Asia, said Sartaj Aziz, foreign affairs advisor here on Monday, urging the Obama administration to analyse its role - and that of its allies - in the region. Aziz said: "Pakistan's answer to instability is the strengthening democracy in the country. "The US created 'holy warriors' in our tribal areas during the 'Afghan Jihad' and then left them as soon as the war was over, a factor which contributed to decades of instability in Pakistan and the region," Aziz asserted. Talking about external threats to the country's stability, Dawn quoted Aziz as saying that since 2013, Pakistan has been pursuing a policy of non-interference and is not taking part in other nations' wars. He said, "We have decided that we are not going to indulge in fighting other countries' wars now, and this policy is being pursued vigorously by the government." In his last State of the Union address, US President Obama warned: "Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world - in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of central America, Africa and Asia." Obama also identified a link between militancy and instability and warned that some unstable regions might become safe havens for terrorists. Is Pakistan actually cracking down on the perpetrators of the January 2 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot? We can only guess what that country's policymakers really intend, but here is what is known: Islamabad has constituted a multi-agency "joint investigation team" to probe the attack, including military intelligence and ISI officers. It has rounded up some mid-ranking members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the radical Islamist group that New Delhi believes is behind the attack. A central minister in Islamabad has said JeM chief, Masood Azhar, is in "protective custody" since he cannot be arrested without hard evidence of wrongdoing. Meanwhile, other branches of the Pakistan government have denied that Mr Azhar is in custody. Almost everyone in India who can spell P-a-k-i-s-t-a-n has already pointed out that previous "crackdowns" on India-focused jihadis were mere theatre. It is also well known that this subterfuge comes easily to both Pakistan's policymaking elements - the elected government in Islamabad; and the all-powerful army headquarters in Rawalpindi. But it is still worth carefully considering the question, is anything different this time? The Indian government apparently thinks so, going by the substance and tone of recent statements from New Delhi's foreign policy and security establishment. The woeful history of Indo-Pakistan engagement is replete with instances where talks have been cancelled or postponed. But never has a scheduled meeting been postponed with such cordiality, especially on the heels of a terror attack. In a phone call the day before they were to meet, both foreign secretaries amicably agreed on a token postponement. Talks will resume in what India's foreign ministry spokesman termed "the very near future". Underlining the bonhomie in thick pencil, the spokesperson declared that the postponement was arranged in "a mutually acceptable manner". This foreign ministry cordiality was in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's approach, who blamed the Pathankot attack on "enemies of humanity who can't see India progress". His counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, responded in kind, with his foreign ministry offering to join hands with India "to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism afflicting our region." Given these atmospherics, it is worth wondering whether some rarified layer of the Indian government has an assurance from Pakistan's top power brokers that action will be taken against the JeM, but gradually and without fanfare? We simply do not know, and will not know until later. Even so, with the government continuing the dialogue with only a token display of pique at the Pathankot attack, it seems as if Messrs Modi and Doval know something that we do not. On the other hand, Mr Modi may have no explicit assurances from Islamabad and Rawalpindi about restraining India-directed jihad, but believes something is fundamentally changing in Pakistan; and that a tipping point has been reached. Given Pakistan's long record of duplicity, India's government is vulnerable to charges of naivety and gullibility. But here is the catch: when (and if) Pakistan starts putting the squeeze on such groups, this cannot be accompanied by a public promise to New Delhi. Whatever Islamabad says would be in private. Indian public anger restrains New Delhi from talking peace with Islamabad after a terrorist attack, unless Pakistan appears to be acting against those responsible. At the same time, Pakistani self-esteem prevents its government from acting against extremists under Indian pressure, even if there were consensus in that country that this was essential. For that reason, were Mr Modi to believe that Islamabad and Rawalpindi are willing to defang groups like the JeM now, and perhaps later the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), he would have to give Pakistan time and space to shield it from allegations of acting under Indian pressure. Expecting the Pakistani security megacorp to backtrack from 68 years of sub-conventional military options against India is, admittedly, a long shot. Even so, our strategy should not assume an unchanging world. Like many others, Pakistan is concerned over the changing face of political Islam, with Frankenstein's monsters like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Islamic State challenging the Pakistan Army. Numerous Indian experts on Pakistan (and every Indian believes she is one) had confidently predicted that Rawalpindi would never crack down on the TTP, or launch a military offensive in North Waziristan. But the ideological swings and shifting allegiances of international jihad, forced Pakistan to confront one set of its own monsters. True, Pakistan has so far cracked down only on the bad terrorists, the rebellious TTP. For now, the good terrorists - including the JeM and LeT - remain loyal to Rawalpindi and offer no provocation that justifies winding them up. But this is not a constant. In 2003 the JeM - a perfect Pakistan Army poodle for years - turned on its master, staging at least three assassination bids on General Pervez Musharraf. Rawalpindi knows well how growing ideological and operational linkages between the good and the bad terrorists have the potential to subvert the army's control over the former. It is bad strategy for India to assume an unchanging world, even if the prospects of change are tenuous. Instead of waiting for change to happen within Pakistan, New Delhi should adopt a pro-active strategy - catalysing, facilitating and making room for that change. This does not imply looking at Pakistan through rose-tinted glasses, or condoning terrorist strikes by so-called "non-state actors" in the hope that Islamabad will take them down. What this strategy does involve is strengthening our intelligence and security networks so that terrorists are denied operational success of the kind they obtained in Pathankot; developing retaliatory capability for pin-point strikes on jihadi targets inside Pakistan; diplomatically managing the potential for escalation; and, meanwhile, keeping a tight lid on political rhetoric and name-calling, so that Rawalpindi and Islamabad can crack down on jihadi groups without appearing to be acting at India's behest. For this, Mr Modi must be convinced that Pakistan is moving, even if cautiously, towards restraining and eventually shutting down the factories of jihad. It may well turn out that Pakistan's internal incoherence and weakness prevents it from doing what it badly needs to in its own interest. Yet, in deliberately creating the space for such a turnaround in Pakistan, New Delhi would actually have a plan instead of what has passed for strategy over the last one-and-a-half decades - shrill name-calling, public demands for action that will always remain unmet; and repeated cancellations of talks before starting the sorry circle yet again. A former Congress minister has publicly advocated dealing with Pakistan by "building a high wall all along the border." There is an Indian security plan to cover gaps in the border fence with "laser walls." The fact, as our planners probably know, is that physical barriers cannot keep India and Pakistan apart. The two countries will have to accommodate each other, discovering common interest to bridge the chasms that divide them. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an exciting and bold initiative. Launched on the first day of the COP21 climate negotiations in Paris, it set the stage for India's proactive and forward-looking leadership on climate change and the transition to a less carbon-intensive growth trajectory. It demonstrated that India was not shy of playing to its strengths. Although other countries have more solar power deployed currently, India will be one of the largest markets and its domestic policy (to build 100 gigawatts) has sent signals to developers and financiers. What is big in India can be bigger at a global level. The main aims of ISA include reducing financial risk across a larger global market, encouraging cooperation on technology, building capacity, and increasing energy access. Announcing an international platform, jointly with France but on the foundations of its domestic policies, helped India garner the support of 120 countries, a diplomatic feat indeed. Yesterday, in Abu Dhabi, the ISA Steering Committee held its second meeting (within two months of launch), a sign that there is both interest in and momentum behind ISA. However, ISA is one among many multilateral and plurilateral initiatives, which have been launched in recent years. These include the International Renewable Energy Agency, Renewable Energy Policy Network, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, Global Green Growth Institute, and so on. As the newest inter-governmental institution in the world, it is imperative that ISA carves a niche for itself and demonstrates genuine value to its members. Here is a roadmap for immediate next steps. First, select a director general (DG) with a secretariat: A dynamic DG can draw attention to the alliance, build relationships with member states and other international institutions, interact with the media regularly, and develop a strategic plan. The appointment of a DG will take time and will require consensus among member states. But a good choice would make the difference between leadership that can articulate and execute a vision and one that fails to grasp ISA's potential. Second, create a core ISA coordination group: Since its launch, the ministries of new and renewable energy, external affairs and other agencies have been discussing informally and working together to keep the ISA wheels moving. However, since the world is looking at how this evolves, a dedicated inter-ministerial group will be needed to distribute the workload, allocate funds, maintain contact with member states, and prepare related documents. Third, issue a white paper on ISA governance: ISA is an inclusive multilateral institution but there is as yet lack of clarity on its governance structure. How will decisions be taken? Will contributions impact voting rights? How will the needs of advanced and emerging economies and those of smaller member states be balanced? A paper outlining alternative governance models would draw in ideas from member states and other stakeholders and inform deliberations in subsequent meetings. Fourth, launch an ISA website, which should feature the ISA declaration, list of members and observers, minutes of meetings, proposed activities, a meeting calendar, governance structure, and, eventually, outcomes of ISA activities. Fifth, issue monthly ISA briefings: Until a dedicated DG and secretariat are in place, regular press briefings and monthly updates to all ISA member countries would build support. The more ISA is in the news, the more its activities and potential will get attention. Sixth, assess all proposals through a "value-add" lens: A number of ideas are beginning to come forward on what other institutions (private, public and inter-governmental) could do to shape ISA's agenda, such as mobilising investments or deploying projects in member countries. It is important that ISA activities do not overlap unnecessarily with those of other organisations. A "value-add" perspective - and measuring each initiative against stated aims - would help ISA specify its unique proposition for the benefit of members and investors. Seventh, kick-start bold initiatives: It would be useful to launch one or two bold initiatives, which could capture the imagination of ISA members. An "Energy Storage Prize" (to promote cross-country research and development collaborations) and a "Solar Rooftop Financing Initiative" (a financing challenge common to many countries) could trigger interest from innovators, project developers, bankers and other investors. Eighth, establish formal links with private sector platforms: many other renewable energy-focused organisations do not have strong links to the private sector. ISA can distinguish itself by giving private sector consortia observer or associate member status, encouraging them to design and implement ISA programmes, and build relationships for targeted investments. Ninth, announce an ISA summit and expo: An annual or biennial summit and expo would draw further interest. Just as International Renewable Energy Agency organises its General Assembly around the time of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, the ISA summit could be held alongside RE-INVEST in New Delhi. Tenth, build an ISA headquarters in New Delhi: ISA will need its recognisable location, branding and identity. On 25 January, Prime Minister Modi and President Hollande of France will jointly lay the foundation stone of the ISA building. The headquarters' design should convey ISA's vision, its open and inclusive governance, its emphasis on practical solutions and scale, and its purpose of delivering clean energy access to millions. The end of the US sanctions regime against Iran presents opportunities that are India's to lose. Easier crude oil imports are the most obvious of them, freeing both countries from a creative if convoluted rupee payment structure during the sanctions era. Roughly $6.5 billion in payments from India are pending from this system, and the prospect of paying for crude oil in dollars from now on could be a double-edged sword. But on the whole, India, the world's fourth largest oil importer, can look forward to the prospect of cheaper crude oil with the world's fifth largest producer returning to the world market. Beyond this, however, lie the prospects of an overseas market that could well help Indian businesses counter sluggish domestic demand - from auto-components, machine tools, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals and capital goods equipment to commodities such as rice and tea, for both of which India was once a monopoly supplier. Bilateral trade between India and Iran is just $14 billion, with oil tilting the balance of trade in Iran's favour, indicating the scope for growth. Indian business is well placed to cash in on this, given the pro-active role that current and past governments played in keeping relations with Iran on an even keel when sanctions were destabilising that country. In July last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took time out to meet President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of a global summit in Ufa, Russia. In December, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hosted the Iranian minister for economic affairs and finance for a review of the two major Indo-Iranian bilateral projects - the development of the Farzad-B field, in which ONGC Videsh had invested an estimated $100 million in exploring and discovering oil and gas, and the development of the Chabahar port and free trade zone, for which India hopes to pre-empt Chinese overtures by rushing through a $150-million line of credit. The big question is how efficiently India is able to follow up with concrete action on the ground. The Iranian government has already demonstrated some impatience at India's predilection for foot-dragging - a problem also visible in relations with Afghanistan and Myanmar. Then, Teheran has indicated that it may auction the rights to develop Farzad B to American and European oil and gas companies. Euro depreciation aids that continent's companies in bidding for large construction and engineering contracts in Iran to counter their own prolonged recession. There are reports that Iran is eyeing possible renegotiation on an order it signed with India for rail tracks because of price competition from Europe. Historic ties clearly only go so far. The Indian establishment urgently needs to re-establish its reputation by delivering on promises swiftly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Gangtok, Sikkim, on Monday, to attend a conference of agriculture ministers that focussed on sustainable development, organic farming and ecotourism. The prime minister also attended a flower show and unveiled three new orchid varieties developed in Sikkim. The PM tweeted that he named two of the varieties Cymbidium Sardar and Lycaste Deendayal, after first home minister of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder Deendayal Upadhyaya. Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling named the third Cymbidium Namo. Namo is an abbreviation for Narendra Modi. As the plane made its descent into Chennai, I was thinking about a conversation I'd had with a writer with roots in that city, which I quote with her permission. She was planning to spend some time at the The Hindu's Lit For Life festival this weekend listening to writers and then to visit Jaipur later this week for the Jaipur Literature Festival. She was looking forward to both festivals with keen anticipation. But, she asked, was she deluded - were all of us deluded? Did the busy-ness of Indian publishing, the 70-90 literary festivals said to be held each year, the ambition and the talent of this next generation of writers mean much in the face of the corrosive rot we saw all around us? We both talked about The Hoot's comprehensive report on free speech in India in 2015, and what the findings meant: the killings of journalists and writers (10), the attacks (30), the number of people charged with sedition (35), hate speech cases (13). The numbers in the brackets are not abstractions: each figure represents a grieving or fearful family, or stands for the emotional drain and financial expense of years in court, or speaks of the barrages of bullying and hatred unleashed against anyone perceived to be less than loyal to the state, its various representatives, or the ruling right-wing. The rot is not restricted to any one political party or any part of India: for instance, the cut-outs of J Jayalalithaa on Chennai's roads were a useful reminder that of the 48 defamation suits logged by The Hoot in 2015, 11 were filed by the Tamil Nadu government. It is not just difficult to be a writer, or a practitioner of the performing arts, in India any more - the jaws of the offence laws threaten to snap shut on ordinary citizens, while anyone who speaks their mind on "sensitive" subjects is likely to be intimidated into silence by thin-skinned pseudo-patriots. The year just past was one of the grimmest for free speech in India. While journalists from regional-language newspapers were the most vulnerable targets, a combination of bad laws, state interference and majoritarian bullying meant that, from students to newspapers in Nagaland to cartoonists and comedians, everyone is now a potential target. The only categories of Indians who are safe from persecution are godmen, politicians and Internet trolls. And the only category of Indian writers who think that the present crisis is a media creation are - what a coincidence! - all Hindu male upper-caste writers, completely oblivious to the layers of privilege that swaddle their comfortable lives in a cocoon of safety. Was it possible, my friend said, that literary festivals were little more than tiny, lonely islands, cut off from the churning in the subcontinent? I didn't disagree entirely. But, the day before Lit For Life started, what I was thinking of was not the writers but the audiences, the strange phenomenon of crowds swelling by the year, coming out not just for celebrity writers but for the poets and the translators, for the Colm Toibins, the Bamas and the Jhumpa Lahiris. Am I romanticising this too much? Perhaps, but this slow swell of old and new readers, growing by the year at every successful litfest, is real. They buy books by the hundreds; many sit through a full day's worth of panels, and I wonder whether this speaks of a hunger for another kind of development, a growth that reaches beyond multi-storeyed buildings, malls and fast cars. The Chennai book festival offered the usual variety of a well-organised litfest. It served as the public square where the city could honour the heroes who had worked tirelessly through the recent floods, and compare the disastrous and thoughtless version of development that had brought the floods down so hard on both Chennai and Srinagar. There were a few dud panels, sessions that meandered or turned into a bonfire of vanities. But these were outnumbered by the panels that reminded booklovers why you love reading - a session on Gopal Gandhi's light-filled translation of the Tirukkural, Colm Toibin's quiet exaltation of the beguiling virtues of boredom, panels on sensuality and erotic fiction that explained why it is so important to write, as well as read, for pleasure. Somewhere in the melee of politics and selfies, I was caught between two sets of people - a group of students clustered around the bookstore, a group of authors at the foot of the stairs - both discussing the books they had loved reading the most. The groups were disparate, not aware that the same conversation was happening in the two separate circles of readers, that a person in each circle was saying, "But you have to read this" at exactly the same moment, that they suffered, joyously, from the same fever. And I thought that it is so important, especially in times when writing - and living freely - is under siege, to be reminded not just of the figures in the brackets and what they represent. It is easy to forget how basic the freedoms now under siege are to our lives: the freedom to talk about everything you please, from wars and history to sex and caste, in the manner that you choose, to criticise the state or corporate groups or people in power when they are at fault, the freedom to read what you want, and to be whom you want to be. Perhaps the best literary festivals in India pull off that twin feat: they keep the grim, growing numbers in mind, the authors silenced and exiled, journalists killed, citizens arrested, but they also remind us of what we are fighting for, and how ordinary, how precious, how necessary, it is. Like the proverbial frogs in a pot of slow-boiling water, we have become inured to the rightward, sectarian turn in the national conversation, as if it is entirely natural that the voice of the nation since May 2014 has finally been granted the freedom to speak its mind on cow protection, Muslim fertility, Ayodhya revivalism and the like, in terms that range from casual bigotry to outright communalism. A rightward turn in discourse (and policy) is not surprising, had that turn been largely limited to the economic sphere. That shift could be explained by the assumption that the mandate of 2014, was, amongst other things, a corrective to the welfarist impulses of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). (That the economic behaviour of both parties when in government defies neat characterisation of Leftist Congress and Neoliberal Bharatiya Janata Party is best debated elsewhere). But what remains entirely unexplained - or at least not analysed enough - are the grounds for a concurrent spike in Hindu grievance. Characteristically, the kind of heightened majoritarian anger we have been witnessing since May 2014 requires a propulsive moment of what the Right defines as secular double standards. For instance, the Congress government's capitulation to Muslim orthodoxy in the Shah Bano case was widely cited as amongst the key triggers for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. A decade later, the perceived demonising of Narendra Modi in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots by a secular cabal made of journalists, NGOs and the like became yet another powerful node of right-wing anger. In both cases, the secular "crime" provided sufficient grist to Hindutvawaadis to dramatically, and successfully, shift the national conversation and indeed political dynamics towards the right. The UPA was not short of foibles around which public anger could be mobilised: corruption, a general sense of drift, a weakened executive held captive to dynastic whims. But these are non-sectarian failings. Where during UPA I and II were examples of outrageous minority pandering, the mega-secular hypocrisies that would explain the intensity of the prevailing sense of Hindu anger? To put it bluntly: there weren't. Which is perhaps why the current nodes of Hindu grievance are cleverly framed in more diffuse terms, leaping from one communal red herring to the next: this minute love jihad, that minute ghar wapsi, then on to cow protection. Even more than in the past, it has an air of forced agency, of retrofitting reasons to legitimise - and keep alive - an inchoate sense of a majority being wronged. Some would argue that the reasons for the rise in the communal hum are not that inchoate; it is simply coterminous with the advent of Mr Modi, specifically the more divisive aspects of his legacy. The counter-argument, that he is chastened, has always been disingenuous, an assumption based more on the drop in number of communal no-balls bowled from his formidable armoury, rather than an active conveying to his support base that he finds it distasteful to be associated with an earlier, more divisive persona. Standard-bearers of contentious legacies seeking reinvention may on occasion have to spell things out. I recall the experience of L K Advani, who I trailed on the Maharashtra leg of his Bharat Uday Yatra in 2004, as he traversed the country in a bus emblazoned with inclusive symbols - for instance, the image of the freedom fighter Ashfaqullah Khan. The knots of party workers at roadside stops would inevitably greet him with Ayodhya-era chants like "Hinduon ki vaani, Advani" (Advani, the voice of Hindus). On each occasion, he would chide them: You must say Desh ki vaani (voice of the nation). Mr Modi, as we know, has so far chosen what is described as a strategic silence, at least on such matters. What exactly the strategic gains are, when news reports of his party colleagues reviving the promise of a Ram temple at Ayodhya by the year-end shares the same page as tax breaks for Start-Up India, is anyone's guess. The writer anchors the ground reportage show Truth vs Hype on NDTV 24X7 Max Group President Rahul Khosla and founder and Chairman Emeritus Analjit Singh were addressing a press conference to announce the conclusion of Max Group's three-way demerger. When asked if he still had an appetite for investment in the telecom sector, Singh, who also serves as non-executive chairman of Vodafone India, said, "I still serve as the chairman of Vodafone India. Sunil (Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel) is a dear friend. But some businesses require very very deep pockets, so you have to be mindful where we go." Khosla backed him up: "We will serve as a great support to the people who will eventually lose out in the telecom battle. We can provide them good health care at our hospitals, senior citizen living premises and so on." S P Udayakumar, who heads the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) that has been opposing the Kudankulam Nuclear plant, on Monday announced the launch of a new political party 'Pachai Tamizhagam (Green Tamil Nadu)' that will also contest the upcoming Assembly elections . In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Udayakumar contested the Kanyakumari seat as the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) candidate but later exited the party, alleging alleged that AAP did not meet any of his demands or fulfil any of its promises. He also alleged that AAP's focus has only been on Delhi. Udayakumar was earlier a professor at Monmouth University in New Jersey, United States. According to reports, in 2001 he floated the Green Party of India, inspired by the principles of American environmentalist Ralph Nader, for whom he had worked in the American presidential election in 2000. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy shaping a grand alliance of its own in Assam, but hopes to meet more success in its efforts in the days to come. Late on Sunday night, the BJP sealed electoral alliance for the upcoming state polls with the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF). BJP sources say they are unsure if the party will succeed in its efforts to stitch an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). Ram Madhav, general secretary entrusted with the BJPs Assam affairs until the state polls in April, tweeted late Sunday night that BJP-BPF alliance was sealed after a meeting between BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary, Union youth affairs minister and BJPs face for Assam polls Sarbananda Sonowal, and BJP president Amit Shah. But, the party state unit leaderships meeting with AGP ended inconclusively. The alliance with the BPF will help BJP in 16 seats the former has sway in, in four districts of lower Assam, particularly in the Kokrajhar district. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address a public meeting of tribal communities in Korkrajhar and a youth rally in Khanapara, Guwahati. This will be the official launch of the BJPs election campaign in Assam. It is expected that the PM will announce an economic package for the Bodo areas. The BPF had won 12 seats in the 126-seat Assembly in the 2011 state polls. The BJP is also in talks with the United Peoples Front. It is an umbrella outfit of tribal communities. But, BJP feels the need for an equally important ally in the Brahmaputra valley. The AGP submitted a list of 42 seats that it wishes to contest in the Assembly polls. The BJP believes 42 to be an unreasonably high number given that the AGP is no longer as influential a party. The BJP had won seven of the 14 Assam seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Of the five state polls due by April, Assam is the only state where the BJP stands a chance of forming a government. But, much would depend on how effectively we sew up an alliance of like-minded parties, a BJP leader, privy to the alliance talks, said. BJP state leader Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma started their political careers in the All Assam Students Union and AGP. An adventure turned into a tragedy for two climbers as they fell and died while attempting to scale a mountain in the Highlands of Scotland, an official has said. According to rescue workers, the climbers, both in their 20s, are feared to have plunged "several hundred feet" while attempting to scale Glen Coe. It is also apprehended that the deceased, who are yet to be identified, may have got caught in an avalanche while scaling the mountain. Police were informed about the incident at 4.25 pm (local time) on Saturday. Subsequently, the Coastguard and Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team initiated an operation to trace the bodies, which were found at about 6.55pm (local time) on Saturday. Andy Nelson, leader of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team , said they were first alerted after two other climbers came across the bodies. The 16 members of the rescue team took an hour to climb 2300 feet to reach the deceased. "They were lying on the surface. Both of them were well equipped and the hill was coated with snow down to sea level," said Nelson. "The route they were on is commonly climbed but not one of the most popular in the area. It took a little time for us to reach them because the people who had found them had gone without giving an exact position," he said. Nelson also said that, "It is only conjecture but it is possible they got caught up in an avalanche at the top of their climb. Four young British Muslims plotted Islamic State-inspired terror attacks including drive-by shootings on the streets of London to kill a police officer, a soldier or civilians, a court was told today. Tarik Hassane, a 22-year-old medical student and the ringleader of Suhaib Majeed, 21, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26,had obtained a gun and silencer and were looking to buy a scooter which would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, the Old Bailey court in London was told today. Hassane also conducted "hostile reconnaissance" online of Shepherd's Bush police station in west London and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks at White City in east London, jurors were told. Prosecutor Brian Altman opened the case, saying, "With their arrests, the police successfully disrupted a plot to kill a police officer, a soldier or possibly even a civilian, in one or more terrorist attacks, which, if the plot had been allowed to run its course would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, according to the warped ideology of the defendants." "The plot was undoubtedly influenced by the happenings in Syria and Iraq and the rise of Isil, which in late June 2014 was renamed Islamic State, when the organisation pronounced itself to be a worldwide Caliphate," he said. The four deny conspiracy to murder, preparing terrorist acts and a series of related charges between July and October 2014. A fifth man, Ayman Aziz, was in contact with Hassane and occasionally in London but is believed to be abroad, the court was told. The trial is ongoing and expected to last a few weeks. Four worshippers were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Cameroon today, a security source said, five days after a similar attack left 12 people dead. Today's blast hit the village of Nguetchewe in Cameroon's Far North region, in an area near the border with Nigeria regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists. "The toll of this attack is four dead and two injured," the source, who was at the scene of the attack, told AFP. A source close to regional authorities confirmed that a deadly attack had taken place in Nguetchewe, but was unable to provide details. The security source said the attack took place around 6:00 am local time just as morning prayers were ending. "The suicide bomber, a young boy, arrived in the village by foot," the source said, adding that a witness had noticed his behaviour seemed suspicious and had tried to intercept him. "The bomber ran towards the mosque, where he set off the explosives he was carrying with him." Cameroonian troops are at the scene of the attack, the source said. It is the second deadly blast to hit the Far North in less than a week, following a bombing at a mosque in Kolofata district during morning prayers last Wednesday. In November 2013, French priest Georges Vandenbeusch was kidnapped from Nguetchewe, with the Boko Haram Islamist group claiming responsibility. He was freed after around 50 days in captivity. Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said Friday that nearly 1,200 people have been killed in the Far North since 2013, when Boko Haram began attacking Cameroonian territory bordering its northeast Nigerian stronghold. Cameroon boosted its military presence along the Nigerian border in 2013, under increasing pressure from the jihadists on the other side of the border. Boko Haram, which has waged a six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has been using the Far North as a base for supplying weapons, vehicles and equipment. Along with Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Benin, Cameroon is part of a regional military force fighting the jihadists, who have killed at least 17,000 people and made more than 2.6 million others homeless. Four British men inspired by a call by the Islamic State group to kill "disbelievers" plotted drive-by shootings to murder police officers, soldiers or civilians on the streets of London, a prosecutor said today. The men, aged between 21 and 26, are accused of acquiring a pistol, a silencer and ammunition as part of plans thwarted by their arrest in late 2014. The four went on trial today charged with conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts. They deny the charges. Prosecutor Brian Altman told jurors at London's Central Criminal Court that the defendants' arrest "successfully disrupted a plot to kill a police officer, a soldier or possibly even a civilian, in one or more terrorist attacks." He said the men plotted "one or more assassinations either involving a drive-by shooting or a shooting on foot and then a speedy escape by moped." He said they were encouraged by Islamic State group spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami's call, circulated on YouTube, to kill disbelievers in the West. One of the accused, Nathan Cuffy, is alleged to have supplied a gun and ammunition, and the men discussed plans to buy a moped that would not to be traceable to them. Cuffy, Nyall Hamlett and Suhaib Majeed were arrested in September 2014. A gun, bullets and a silencer were thrown out of Majeed's bedroom window when police came to detain him. The fourth defendant, alleged ringleader Tarik Hassane, was studying medicine in Sudan and returned to Britain after the arrests to carry on as a "lone wolf terrorist," Altman said. Prosecutors say he conducted "hostile reconnaissance" by searching for a police station and army barracks in West London on Google Street View before his arrest in October 2014. The trial is due to last two to three months. Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife lodged a counter FIR against five fellow residents of a housing society here for allegedly rioting and threatening her after he was booked on the charge of assaulting and misbehaving with a woman over a parking row in the complex. Police said today the complaint by Siddiqui's wife Aaliya was lodged last night with Versova police against five persons of the housing society in suburban Andheri including the complainant, hours after she named the actor in an FIR alleging assault. "It's a cross complaint as yesterday afternoon a woman had lodged a case against the actor who stays in the same society. We have registered the FIR," a police official said. The statements of the actor, his wife, and the five persons named in the second FIR were recorded today, the official said. Siddiqui rejected the assault allegations against him as false. "Police did not summon me. But being a responsible person and citizen I came with my lawyer and recorded my statement. I briefed about the actual incident and told police that the complaint was false," he said. Police have booked the five persons under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 452 (house-trespass) etc. Of IPC. The official said no arrests have been made so far in connection with both the cases. Versova police had last night registered an FIR against Siddiqui under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) after the woman filed complaint against the actor accusing him of assaulting her over the parking place row. The woman had claimed that the actor had slapped her during the heated exchange. Siddiqui's lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui said that the actor was considering filing a defamation suit against the complainant. "The actor may file a defamation suit against the complainant after the police files report in the case," he said. In a related development, a statement issued by Siddiqui's PR agency claimed that the woman who had filed FIR against the actor yesterday was not from the society. The actor was informed by the housing society not to park his four-wheeler at the place as it is reserved for parking two-wheelers, police said. "The complainant is not from society, neither in relation of the chairperson. It is completely a false allegation to defame the personality. In fact, five people had barged into our office and demanded to meet Siddiqui for some notice to be issued," the statement said. "When Mrs. Siddiqui asked them to hand over the notice, they denied saying they want to meet Nawaz and one of the five persons including the complainant, a lady aged 55 years, a guy aged 35-40 yrs and an aged man 65 yrs, pushed Mrs. Siddiqui. This is all because of old societal issues," it added. The Taliban have demanded a hefty new "protection tax" from Afghan mobile phone companies, industry and militant sources said, as the resurgent group tightens its stranglehold on a rare successful business in a slumping war economy. At a secret meeting last month near the Pakistani city of Quetta, the Taliban's central leadership formally demanded the tax from representatives of four cellular companies in exchange for not damaging their sites or harming their employees. The edict was motivated by an Afghan government announcement in October that it had amassed a windfall of 78 million Afghani ($1.14 million) within days of imposing an additional 10% tax on operators, according to two telecom company officials who attended the meeting and a third industry executive privy to the information. "They want us to pay the same amount paid to the government," one of the officials who was at the gathering said. "We told them that this will kill our business, but they said: 'This is the only way to guarantee your people are not harmed and your sites are not burned'," he added. A source in the Quetta Shura -- the Taliban's Pakistan-based leadership council -- confirmed the meeting, saying the group was waiting for a formal response from the companies. "We told them, 'It is our right to tax you if you want us to protect your (transmission) towers around Afghanistan'," he said. "'You will have to pay'." The Islamists have long targeted Afghanistan's private telecom firms, kidnapping engineers, destroying transmission masts and forcing regular coverage blackouts in volatile areas to avoid detection of their fighters. Local-level Taliban commanders have been known to extort from businesses operating in their areas, notably the telecom firms and logistics companies supplying NATO bases and Western-funded construction projects. But this appears to be the first time the central leadership has formally demanded a levy from business enterprises, underscoring how they increasingly operate like a shadow government. It also highlights the dangers of doing business in conflict-torn Afghanistan -- particularly for the telecom industry, fast becoming a battleground in the Taliban's war against the US-backed Afghan government. The companies said to be at the meeting -- Abu-Dhabi based Etisalat, South Africa's MTN and homegrown firms Roshan and Afghan Wireless Communication Company -- officially declined to comment when contacted. Afghanistan will hold its delayed parliamentary elections on October 15, the top polling official said today, after last June's deadline to choose a new assembly was missed because of political disputes. Parliament's five-year term expired in June but polls were postponed amid concerns over whether the vote could be fair and transparent after a disputed presidential election in 2014. President Ashraf Ghani last year extended the assembly's mandate until elections were feasible, prompting many to question the legality of his decision. "Today we announce the date for the parliamentary and district council polls on October 15," election commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani told reporters. "The parliamentary election and district council polls will be held on time if the government provides the necessary budget, security for candidates, electoral workers and polling centres." Nuristani urged the international community to provide funding and support for the election, which will likely be held against the backdrop of a worsening security situation in Afghanistan. "We have learnt good lessons from the challenges and problems of the last elections. We are committed to holding (fair and transparent) elections," Nuristani said. Both Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, claimed to have won the fraud-tainted 2014 presidential election, tipping Afghanistan into a crisis that threatened to trigger nationwide unrest. It took months for both candidates to agree on a US-brokered deal to form a "National Unity Government". Nuristani's announcement comes as Kabul hosts a second round of four-country talks aimed at reviving peace negotiations with the Taliban, even as the insurgents wage an unprecedented winter campaign of violence. NATO-led US troops formally ended their combat mission in 2014, leaving Afghan troops and police to battle an emboldened nationwide Taliban offensive. In view of water scarcity in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court today restrained the state government from releasing water from Gangapur dam in Nashik and nearby reservoirs during Mahavir Jain festival at a twin-pinnacled peak in Nashik district from February 11 to 16. The direction was given by a bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka on a petition filed by H M Desarda, a professor from Pune, who apprehended that the government may release water from the dams during the forthcoming religious festival just as it had done during the Kumbh festival last year. The high court also directed the Principal Secretary of the state's Irrigation department to file an affidavit setting out outer time period when the rules of Maharashtra Irrigation Act would be framed. Mangi-Tungi is a prominent twin-pinnacled peak located near Tahrabad about 125 km from Nashik. Mangi at 4,343 ft height above sea level is the western pinnacle while Tungi, standing 4,366 ft high, is on the eastern side. The bench said that though Maharashtra Irrigation Act had been passed the rules had not been framed so far. In the absence of the rules, it would be difficult to implement the Act, the Judges said. The court also directed Maharashtra government to declare its water policy during the next hearing of the petition on February 29. The matter would be placed high on board on that day in view of its importance, the Judges noted. In September last year, the high court had directed the state not to release water from Gangapur dam for the 'shahi snan' during the Kumbh Mela even though many parts of the state are facing drought. Professor Desarda had challenged the state's decision to release one TMC (thousand million cubic) water for every 'shahi snaan' during the Kumbh Mela even though many parts of Maharashtra are facing a drought. The bench had then ruled that the state government would have to take prior permission from the court if it wanted to use the dam water for Kumbh Mela. The court had criticised the state government for releasing two TMC water for September 13 shahi snaan. "The government has a policy which categorises its priority list....Supply of water for drinking purposes comes first and supply of water for such shahi snaan purposes comes in the last category," the court had said. Fair trade regulator CCI today approved AIA group's 23 per cent additional stake purchase in its life insurance joint venture with the Tata group. AIA, which holds 26 per cent stake in Tata AIA Life Insurance Company, will raise it to 49 per cent with the acquisition. However, while announcing the deal in December last year, the company did not disclose the financial details. In a tweet, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said it "approves acquisition of additional 23 per cent shares in Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Ltd by AIA International Ltd". Tata AIA Life Insurance, which started operations in 2001, offers a wide array of life insurance solutions that cover protection, savings and wealth creation needs. Many overseas partners have proposed to raise stakes in their Indian joint ventures after Parliament enacted a law allowing increase in foreign direct investment in private insurance companies to 49 per cent last year. The prominent names include Nippon in Reliance Life Insurance, AXA in Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Bupa in Max BUPA health insurance and Sunlife Financial Inc in Birla Sunlife. He further added that "eTravos is fully configurable for industry's needs, facilitate quick bookings, cancellations and report viewing. It has adopted the traditional B2B Travel Agent's Deposit Balance model. The system is quite intuitive and has been simple even for youngand inexperienced entrepreneurs." "Our focus in www.Hozbe.Com [http://www.Hozbe.Com ] and www.ETravos.Com [http://www.ETravos.Com ] has been on creating a simplified booking experience at affordable cost," he concluded. Mr. K. Altaf Hussain, Chief Executive Officer of Corporate Comm India(CCI), The publisher of The Hotel Times.In said that The Hotel Times.In is indeed privileged to partnered with i2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. For positioning, branding and promoting www.Hozbe.Com [http://www.Hozbe.Com ] and www.ETravos.Com [http://www.ETravos.Com ] and allied booking engines. Mr. Altaf further added that i2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd., a new generation travel centric software solution provider in a short span of time has made its respectable place in the industry. While elaborating the features of www.Hozbe.Com [http://www.Hozbe.Com ], Mr. Altaf stated that it has great look and feel, mobile and desktop friendly, insights into conversion and more, sell packages and add-ons, highlight and sell hot deals, simple 3 step booking process, offer promo and loyalty codes, multi language and currency, offer upgrades subject to availability, take payment on website or on arrival, trip itinerary, book multiple hotels and customise to groups needs. Where as www.ETravos.Com [http://www.Etravos.Com ] has unique features such as bus bookings, cab bookings, domestic flight bookings, International flight bookings, hotel bookings, holiday packages, recharges, bills payments, eCommerce (3rd Party) and coupons (3rd Party). Increasingly online booking demand being generated in hospitality and travel industry, Mr. Altaf said that Hozbe and eTravos booking engines will be able to make a difference in the present day market dynamics. While expressing his happiness for The Hotel Times.In being associated with i2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. For providing quality simplified travel and hotel booking engine at the affordable cost to the customers with an assured booking experience. About i2Space Web Technologies Private Limited: I2Space Web Technologies Private Limited is an ISO 9001:2008 Certified leading software solution provider specializing in travel and hospitality domain solutions. The company is established in 2010, headquartered in Hyderabad. During the period of 2010 to 2014, i2Space successfully executed more than 50 custom travel and hospitality portals, by consuming the partners API. Majority of the executions were in the domestic market apart from a few global executions in North America, Australia, Europe and Africa. Based on the domain and technology experience gained during this period with i2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. Evolved a product named eTravos - a multi-tenant cloud SaaS that can empower clients to start a travel and hospitality portal with their custom design within 15 minutes. I2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. Have executed more than 150 cloud sites Although travel and hospitality is i2space Web Technologies forte diversified in eCommerce, manufacturing and Finance domain. In these domains we've closely worked with a few of the US, Australia and Middle-east based clients who are leading service providers in core technologies. I2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. Started with Microsoft Technologies and the team of developers are passionate and smart enough to adapt to the cutting-edge technologies for the solutions provided. Gradually, i2space Web Technologies Pvt Ltd. Also built in-house competency and executed a few projects for SAP, Java, Oracle, Responsive Design, Open Source technologies and Mobile Development. Malaysian budget airline AirAsia today said it will offer 20 per cent discount on base fares to private sector lender ICICI Bank's debit and credit card holders, under an exclusive tie-up, for a limited period. The offer will be valid for travel on AirAsia Berhad, AirAsia India and Thai AirAsia flights, the airline said in a release. The debit and credit card holders of the ICICI Bank can avail an exclusive 20 per cent discount on base fare on tickets booked between the period of January 18 to January 31, 2016 The travel period for this promotional offer stands between February 1 and April 10, 2016, AirAsia said. For travel within India, the offer is available on its flight from Bengaluru to airports such as such Goa, Kochi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, it said. Besides, guests can also fly to Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok from Bengaluru by AirAsia's Group network, AirAsia Berhad, Thai AirAsia, AirAsia X and travel further to new and unique international destinations, such as Hong Kong, Macau, Bali, Melbourne, the release added. "AirAsia continues with its assurance to make air travel affordable and accessible to everyone by kick starting the New Year with this latest promotion. We look forward to both our fliers and ICICI Bank customers to make the most of this association and avail low fares to plan their immediate trips within the next 3 months," AirAsia India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mittu Chandilya said. An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killing at least 20 people and wounding about 15, security officials said today. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Police vehicles parked in the facility's courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. Security forces sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The airstrike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials, who had no further details. Reporters were barred from approaching the facility, they said, speaking today on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognized government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed yesterday just outside Sanaa in an "apparent" airstrike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. The fighting in Yemen has, since last March, killed more than 5,800 people. An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killing at least 26 people and wounding about 15, Security officials said today. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Security forces swiftly sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The officials initially announced that 20 people were killed, but later said that six bodies were unearthed from under the debris. Police vehicles parked in the facility's courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. The Targeted building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The airstrike happened shortly before midnight last night, according to the officials, who had no further details. Reporters were barred from approaching the facility, they said, speaking Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognized government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed Sunday just outside Sanaa in an "apparent" airstrike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. The fighting in Yemen has, since last March, killed more than 5,800 people. An Over Ground Worker (OGW) of Al-Badar militant outfit was arrested along with a pistol in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, police said today. Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Pohrupeth village, was arrested by a police checking squad at Sagipora crossing in Handwara area, 80 kms from here, last evening, a police official said. He said a Chinese pistol with seven rounds was recovered from the possession of the OGW at the time of his arrest. A case has been registered against the arrested person and further investigations are on in this regard, the official added. Model Alexa Chung has reportedly introduced her boyfriend Alexander Skarsgard to her parents at Christmas. The 32-year-old beauty has been romancing the 39-year-old actor for almost a year and proved things are growing increasingly more serious between them by taking him back to the UK to celebrate the festive season with her loved ones, reported Grazia magazine. "Alexa's relationship with Alex is going great. That's why she was happy for him to meet her family - she would only ever introduce someone she was serious about to them. Alex seemed to get on well with Alexa's dad Philip," a source said. After Christmas, the couple then flew to Miami to celebrate the new year with friends including Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw. Andhra Pradesh is likely to sign an agreement with the Power Ministry this week to join the Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY), a central scheme for revival of debt-stressed power distribution companies (discoms). "This week, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed," K Ranganatham, Energy Advisor, Andhra Pradesh, told PTI. "The Andhra Pradesh government has directed Director Finance, APTransco, to sign an MoU with the Power Ministry," he said. Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier this month was hopeful that all states will join UDAY after Jharkhand became the first state to sign an MoU to avail of benefits of the scheme. Jharkhand had on January 5 signed the agreement with the Power Ministry to join UDAY for financial turnaround of JBVNL, which is seen to offer the state a net benefit of approximately Rs 5,300 crore. As many as 15 states have agreed to join the scheme covering 90 per cent of total power distribution companies' debt (Rs 4.37 lakh crore). Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was today acquitted by an anti- terrorism court in the murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The court in Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti's son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgement of the court, the Dawn reported. "They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free," Rajput said. "We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it," Rajput told reporters outside court. Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and for the murder. Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Two co-accused - Musharraf's then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan - were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost. He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year. A high-level delegation led by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu would participate in World Economic Forum's 46th annual meeting to be held from January 20 to 23 in Davos, Switzerland. Building on 'Brand AP', the Chief Minister would project Andhra Pradesh as the best investment destination before the heads of the countries and CEOs, while explaining the state's achievements in agriculture, water resources, technology and health, according to an official release. For the WEF event on 'Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution', Naidu has been invited as a special guest and he would be attending the session along with ministers of other countries and CEOs, it said. Naidu would also hold bilateral meetings with industrialists, businessmen and experts from various fields, the release said. He would hold meetings with delegates from Nestle, Johnson Controls, Trina Solar, Siemens, McKinsey, Lockheed Martin - Airbus, ACCIONA Energy, Spain, JETRO, UBER, Hanwha Q Cells, Philips, Antwerp Port Authority, Swiss Re, Roland Berger, Hewlett Packard Enterprise - PES Foundation, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Marriott International, Medtronic, Salesforce and Intercontinental Hotels. The delegation from Andhra Pradesh includes Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Advisor (Communications) Parakala Prabhakar, Principal Secretary (Finance) P V Ramesh, Secretary to Chief Minister Sai Prasad, Secretary (Energy) Ajay Jain, Secretary (Industries) S S Rawat, CEO (Economic Development Board) Jasthi Krishna Kishore and Director of Industries Kartikeya Misra. The Supreme Court, which is examining constitutional schemes on developments relating to the month-long impasse over the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh, was today told that the Governor could not have acted on a resolution by opposition BJP MLAs and two independents to advance the assembly session. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Nabam Rebia, who was allegedly removed from the post of Speaker by rebel Congress and BJP MLAs, submitted that the Governor could only convene the assembly session on the aid and advice of the government as had happened when January 14 was first fixed as the date for convening the session. As the senior advocate was making submission, a five- judge Constitution bench headed by Justice J S Khehar, asked him whether Speaker Rebia, as a matter of "constitutional propriety" should not have desisted from exercising his powers in disqualifying 14 rebel MLAs, knowing well that a resolution expressing no-confidence in him has been moved. Sibal responded to the bench, also comprising Justices Dipak Misra, Madan B Lokur, P C Ghose and N V Ramana, that interpretation of the Constitution has to be to facilitate the functioning of democracy and not to pit one constitutional authority against the other. The Supreme Court had on January 15 started examining the matter amid continuing impasse over Nabam Tuki-led Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh. The high-voltage hearing began with Sibal's submissions, listing out legal questions, including the Governor's power to convene Assembly session without the aid and advice of the government. Rebia was purportedly removed as the Speaker by rebel Congress and BJP MLAs in an assembly session held at a community hall in Itanagar on December 16. It has also been alleged that the Governor had advanced the assembly sitting from January 14 to December 16 without the aid and advice of Chief Minister and his council of ministers. There have been simultaneous developments in the political crisis in Arunachal Pradesh as the High Court on January 13 vacated its interim stay on calling the assembly and gave a free hand to the Governor to summon it, giving hope to the rebel Congress and BJP MLAs to oust the Congress government. Congress party, which has 47 MLAs seats in the 60-member assembly, suffered a jolt when 21 of its lawmakers rebelled. Eleven BJP MLAs backed the rebels in the bid to upstage the government. Later, 14 rebel Congress MLAs were disqualified. Hours after the Union Cabinet had yesterday decided to recommend revocation of President's Rule in Arunachal Pradesh, the apex court had ordered maintenance of status quo in the crisis-ridden state till it examined judicial and assembly records on disqualification of the 14 rebel Congress MLAs by former Speaker Nabam Rebia. The interim order had came after senior lawyers F S Nariman and Kapil Sibal, appearing for Arunachal Congress leaders, had sought maintenance of status quo till their plea seeking to restrain Governor J P Rajkhowa from swearing in a new government in Arunachal Pradesh was decided. The bench had directed the Secretary General of Arunachal Pradesh Assembly and the Gauhati High Court Registry to furnish records, pertaining to the proceedings conducted by Speaker Nabam Rebia under Xth Schedule of the Constitution pertaining to disqualification of the MLAs, by today. The bench, while noting that some part of the records was also in the safe custody of the Gauhati High Court, had directed the Registrar General of the High Court to ensure that the sealed record pertaining to the disqualification of the 14 MLAs, was produced in this court. Nariman and Sibal had also mentioned before the bench, which is hearing a batch of pleas on constitutional powers of the Governors, that Union Cabinet had recommended revocation of President's Rule in the state. Both senior lawyers had urged the bench to consider their plea for interim relief yesterday, apprehending swearing-in of a new Chief Minister by today. Nariman had said the Governor had on January 26 dismissed the Chief Minister and his council of ministers even when the assembly was in suspended animation. "Governor cannot pass any such order during subsistence of proclamation," he had said, adding that even the Gauhati High Court should not have stayed the disqualification of the 14 MLAs as Chief Whip of the party was not impleaded in the case. The bench had then said that the interim order of the High Court came on the ground that these 14 MLAs were not served notice. "If you have some evidence that they (rebel MLAs) were served notice before being disqualified by the Speaker, then its altogether a different matter," the bench said. Nariman had denied having any such record with him and said that an ad-interim order passed by the High Court cannot be passed in the limited powers of judicial review. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for some rebel Congress MLAs, had opposed the plea and contended that this petition was not maintainable. He had said the hearing was deferred on December 14 to 15, 2015 after the Speaker was informed that notices have been not served. The bench then said it wanted to see the original records of proceedings which happened on December 14 and 15 and posted the matter for further hearing on tomorrow. Bangladesh has started the process to extradite to India Daud Merchant, a detained top aide of fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said today. "We are sending several foreign inmates back to their countries on completion of their prison terms...Daud Merchant is one of them," Kamal told a briefing at his office. Merchant, also known as Abdur Rauf, was convicted of killing music baron Gulshan Kumar in 1997. He was handed down life imprisonment for the murder of Kumar. He said that the Home Ministry is in touch with the concerned embassies or high commissions to convey "our decision" and asked them to take required steps on their part for the repatriations. Bangladesh police in May 2009 arrested Merchant from central Brahmanbaria district on a tip off after he fled India while he was on parole to visit his family in Mumbai. He was later convicted for intruding and illegally staying in Bangladesh and was released in December 2014. Soon after his release he was re-arrested after police had said he was needed to be interrogated to find out his possible links to Islamist militants. The minister's comments came amid media reports that India would hand over Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed, who is now in Indian custody after his mysterious disappearance last year. Kamal, however, declined to link the proposed extradition with Ahmed's repatriation saying "it is not like an exchange programme". Merchant, a sharp shooter, was arrested by Kolkata police in 2001 but he went into hiding while on parole for 15 days and fled to Bangladesh. Bangladesh police earlier said he also managed to obtain a passport identifying himself as Sheikh Abdur Rahman of South Mourail area of Brahmanbaria district. In a record drug bust, Bangladesh has seized 2.8 million methamphetamine tablets from Myanmar with a street value of around USD 10.5 million and arrested three persons as the country struggles to tackle the problem of drug abuse. Contraband yaba tablets often referred to as 'horse drug' were seized in near simultaneous security clampdowns in the capital and northeastern port city of Chittagong. Elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) called it the country's biggest-ever drug and arrested three suspected drug peddlers. "One of the three is Ali Ahmed, who, we believe he is a top drug smuggler...This is the biggest seizure of yaba tablets in Bangladesh," RAB spokesman Major Maksudul Alam told newsmen. Director general of Customs Intelligence Moinul Khan, told PTI that the estimated value of the seized volume of the tablets could be as high as Taka 84 crore or USD 10.5 million. Yaba, which in Thai language means "crazy medicine" is administered to horses when pulling carts up steep hills and for other strenuous work while experts said it was made of methamphetamine and caffeine. In recent years Bangladesh became a destination of Yaba, mainly smuggled from Myanmar, as it became popular sex stimulating drug among young people. Doctors say in the long-term it causes decline of cognitive functions. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and police identified Bangladesh's southeastern borders with Teknaf was the main route for yaga smuggling which in recent years also sparked tensions on the frontiers with two paramilitary border forces mobilising extra troops there. "Now the smugglers visibly prefer sea routes in view of intensified vigil on the Bangladesh-Myanmar frontier," a BGB official said. The seizure comes just months after Chittagong customs officials seized a shipment of cocaine mixed in sunflower oil weighing more than 60 kilogrammes. Bangladesh has seized 2.8 million methamphetamine tablets worth an estimated USD 10.5 million in the country's biggest ever seizure of the drug, as it struggles to stem its surging popularity, officers said today. Police confiscated the drugs in night-long raids on Sunday at a railway station in Dhaka and at an anchorage in the port city of Chittagong, elite Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Major Rumman Mahmud said. "This is the biggest seizure of yaba tablets in Bangladesh. We've arrested three traffickers including a ring leader in connection with the seizure," Mahmud told AFP of their investigation, adding that the drugs were made in neighbouring Myanmar. Yaba, a Thai word for "crazy medicine", is made of methamphetamine and caffeine and has become a popular drug among young people in the nation of 160 million. Police in the southern town of Teknaf, which borders Myanmar, and the Bangladesh Navy have in recent months seized hundreds of thousands of the stimulant from traffickers attempting the journey by land and sea. "The Myanmar-Teknaf border was the main trafficking route when the drug cartel introduced yaba in Bangladesh. But now they are mostly using sea routes after many of their consignments were seized on land," Teknaf police chief Ataur Rahman Khan said. "It seems Bangladesh has become a big target of the international drug cartels," Khan told AFP. The seizure comes just months after Chittagong customs officials seized a shipment of cocaine mixed in sunflower oil weighing more than 60 kilogrammes (132 pounds) and worth $14 million. A Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) official said Bangladesh was struggling to shut down trafficking from Myanmar, in part because of a river running along their long border which is difficult to patrol. "Yaba pills can be produced in small bathroom-sized labs. We shared our intelligence with Myanmar about the location of some labs. But they didn't take necessary steps," he also told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind today exhorted universities to adopt nearby villages and ensure their all round development. In his inaugural speech at a one-day conference of Vice Chancellors here, the Governor urged the Universities to display their social utility by adopting nearby villages and ensure there development in the field of education, cleanness, electrification, skill development, computerisation and welfare programmes. By developing university premises as clean the educational institution could present a role model in the society, Kovind said. The Bihar Governor asked universities to prepare academic calender for transparent and punctual examination, registration and other activities. He stressed on computerisation of admission, publication of results and certificate in universities. The Governor also emphasised on developing website of universities and make available facilities of "E-library" and "E-learning". The Bihar Governor also urged to give a serious thought on changing western attire during convocation for wearing traditional dress. Education minister Ashok Choudhary highlighted the state government working on facilitating free wi-fi in colleges and student credit card as part of efforts to improve quality of higher education. University Grant Commission (UGC) Chairman Ved Prakash emphasised on popularisation of vocational studies in universities. He said the public and private sectors together could bring a revolution in higher education. BJP today mocked Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the NDA government's start-up initiative, saying the Congress Vice President himself was a start-up but was unable to find an exit route and also questioned his silence on the 'jungle raaj' in Bihar and Malda violence. The party also raked up Congress leader and former Law Minister Hansraj Bhardwaj's claim that he was "pressurised" by the then UPA government to get a favourable decision from the Supreme Court on the imposition of the President's rule in Bihar, saying it underlined the party's desire to keep all the institutions "in its pocket" and sought Rahul's response. BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra targeted Gandhi over his "negative" politics, saying he tried to create an atmosphere against the Modi government's ambitious start-up initiative by linking it with the issue of intolerance. "It's (start-up) a campaign for nation-building but he wanted to topple it before it had begun. The way he tried to create an atmosphere even before it had begun shows his negativity and intolerance. He himself is a start-up who had an easy entry but is not finding an exit route," Patra said at a press conference. Gandhi had said in Mumbai on January 16, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'start-up India' mission in the national capital, that start-ups and intolerance cannot go together. Accusing the Congress leader of being "selective" in his remarks on 'intolerance', Patra questioned his "silence" on Malda violence and death of an IAF official during the Republic Day rehearsal in West Bengal when a car allegedly being driven by a ruling TMC leader's son run him over. "What happened in Malda is a matter of national security. Rahul Gandhi does not see any intolerance in these issues. In Bihar, the reality of jungle raaj is before us as engineers, doctors and jewellers were being killed for ransom. He does not say anything," the BJP spokesperson said. Referring to controversial claims of Bhardwaj, Patra said the veteran Congress leader had spoken on an issue of extreme importance. "Can we imagine the level of interference Congress wanted? This is the nature, character of Congress. It has always conspired to make the three organs of democracy (legislative, executive and judiciary) committed (to it)," he said, citing Sanjaya Baru's book to allege that important files were vetted by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her "kitchen cabinet" National Advisory Council interfered in law-making. "It is a big charge in our political history. Because the allegation comes from the horse's mouth? Why are you silent? Congress should be tolerant to its own people and reply to the people of India," he said, alleging that the opposition party had gone for "judge-shopping" in the National Herald case. BJP leader Vinay Katiyar was today taken into custody while trying to enter Fatehpur where communal clashes had taken place during a 'shobha yatra' on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. On the direction of the Fatehpur administration, Katiyar was taken into custody when he was trying to enter the neighbouring district, Kanpur SSP Shalabh Mathur told PTI. "He was taken to circuit house here and will be soon sent to Lucknow," Mathur said. Soon after Katiyar was detained, BJP workers gathered at the spot and raised slogans against the police and district administration. Alleging the Fatehpur administration of harassing members of majority community following the clashes, Katiyar asked, "Why no security arrangements were made for the annual yatra which is being taken out for the last 38 years on the occasion of Makar Sankranti". The BJP leader said that he was going to Fatehpur to collect details of the alleged harassment but police took him into custody here on the directives of the Fatehpur administration. Katiyar demanded an impartial probe in the matter. Tension gripped Fatehpur on January 14 when brickbats were hurled by members of two communities during the annual 'shobha yatra' in Kazipura Kasauli locality under Kasba Jehanabad police station area. Trouble erupted when the shobha yatra deviated from it's traditional route and a section of people from another community objected as the procession also displayed a model of proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya. Incidentally, VHP leader Pravin Togadia and Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti were in the town to attend a 'Hindu Sangam' programme at Ram Talaiya temple, also in Jehanabad. Togadia said that clashes took place before his speech and district administration is responsible for it. Even as it "condemned" the ink throwing act on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, BJP today said that the attempt of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia to accuse BJP and police for the incident is "more condemnable". "We do not approve of such incidents but on the other hand, the swiftness with which Deputy CM Manish Sisodia started blaming the BJP and police is more condemnable and raises suspicion whether the act was staged by the AAP itself," Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay said. Upadhyay said BJP has never supported such anarchic politics but AAP and Congress have given political promotion to people committing such acts. "It was the AAP which encouraged anarchism in politics by promoting Jarnail Singh, a Khalistani supporter, to become an MLA, after he had thrown a shoe at the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. "Similarly Congress had also indulged in a low grade politics by promoting Bhola Pandey of Uttar Pradesh, who had hijacked a plane three decades ago, to the post of MLA," he said. A woman, identified as Bhavna Arora and who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, threw ink at Kejriwal at a public rally alleging that she has ample proof that the AAP-led Delhi government is directly involved in the CNG scam. She was later detained by police and a Delhi court today sent her to one day police custody. "The allegations levelled by Bhavna Arora against AAP government over the sale of more than one lakh CNG stickers to non-CNG cars in Delhi exposes double standards of the government," Upadhyay said. "AAP has emerged as the most corrupt party than Congress," Upadhyay tweeted. The ongoing economic blockade at key points of the Indo-Nepal border has brought "chill" in our bilateral ties, Nepal's Environment Minister Vishwendra Paswan today said, even as he pitched for economic cooperation between the two countries, including in energy and environment sectors. "We historically have had friendly ties and our relationship with India is very important...But, this ongoing issue at the border has brought chill in our ties, I must admit," Paswan told reporters at the Press Club of India here. The Madhesi agitation in the Himalayan nation has caused disruption in cross-border traffic, which has badly impacted transportation of essential commodities, especially fuel. While India has maintained that Indian truck drivers are not going to Nepal side, as they fear for their lives, Nepal has alleged that India has imposed an economic blockade on the country following the announcement of its new Constitution. Paswan, who is also the minister of Science and Technology, is currently on a visit to India, and after Lucknow and New Delhi, will visit Patna, as per his itinerary. "We(India-Nepal) have a 'roti-beti ka rishta' (intimate and syncretic ties) and India is like our elder brother, and I take this opportunity to invite Indian firms to invest in Nepal and work in synergy in areas like energy and environment sector and build a 'maitripoorn' (friendly) climate," he said. "There are so many areas in which we both can cooperate, from solar energy to eco-friendly transportation like electric cars, etc," he said. Paswan, the Dalit face of Nepal's 601-member Constituent Assembly, praised India's role in rescue and rehabilitation work in the wake of April 2015 earthquake, but alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stressing the need for consensus in constitution making, during his second visit to Nepal "did not augur well for the bilateral ties". Nepal's agitating Madhesi Front and the three major parties have formed a task force to find a common ground and narrow their differences over the new Constitution in a bid to end the political crisis and the shortage of essential goods due to prolonged protests. "Our Constitution has been written six times and I bat for including reservation in it for the underprivileged and for secular country and a republican democracy...But there's more to this agitation than meets the eye," he said. "Notwithstanding the issues, our friendship with India must continue," he said, adding, "we appeal to India to extend help to us in our post-quake rehabilitation efforts." The Nepali Minister said that tomorrow morning he would also ride a bicycle around the city, from the Nepalese Embassy here to pay tribute to the great Indian leaders, by garlanding their statues. Gujarat medium-pacer Jasprit Bumrah was today named as replacement for injured Mohammad Shami in the Twenty20 series against Australia starting January 26. The 22-year-old youngster has been in wicket-taking mould for Gujarat, bagging 14 scalps in nine Syed Mushtaq Ali games. Meanwhile, Shami, who came back from a long injury layoff, was ruled out of the Australia tour with a hamstring strain even before the start of the three-match series. "The All-India Senior Selection Committee has named Jasprit Bumrah in the India T20I team as the replacement for Mohammed Shami, who has been ruled out due to injury. The Indian team is scheduled to play three Twenty20 matches starting January 26, 2016," BCCI wrote in a media release. Bumrah will leave for Australia on January 22 along with other T20I team members - Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya, the release added. Having already lost the ODI series to the hosts after three losses, India will look to bounce back in the T20s, which will act as a tune-up event for the World T20 starting March 8. In the wake of a weekend attack that left up to 32 dead, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital today as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with Mali in the fight against jihadi elements in the West African region. "Please go ahead and search my bag. We want to be protected and there is no way to refuse this," said Fati Doussa, who visited a bank to get some cash. Metal detectors have been placed at banks. "We know it is just going to be different from now on," said Ousmane Sawadogo, a cell-phone seller some 200 metres (218 yards) from the Splendid Hotel. The attack, which began Friday night, was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadist attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012. At the site, forensic experts and investigators from France and Burkina Faso, dressed in white, filled the brown dusty street today, gathering evidence in secured areas near the Cappuccino Cafe and Splendid Hotel. Military forces ended the siege Saturday. Officials said forces killed three attackers in the Splendid Hotel, and another in a neighbouring hotel. But a Burkina Faso gendarme official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the press, said they are investigating the person killed at the nearby hotel to determine if it was an attacker. Burkina Faso's security minister, Simon Compaore, yesterday said 32 people were dead, including three jihadists. The toll had earlier been 28 killed in addition to four jihadists. Two former Olympic officials, Jean-Noel Rey from Switzerland and Jean-Pascal Kinda from Burkina Faso, were killed, Swiss and Burkina Faso authorities said. It was not clear if they had been together during the attack or if their presence was a coincidence. Kinda, 73, was a former Olympic Committee president who had gone to the Cappuccino Cafe to pick up a paper, said his friend and a local magistrate Mathias Tankoano. Rey was co-President of the Swiss bidding committee for the 2006 Olympics, Swiss media reports said. He was in Burkina Faso for a charity project to open the canteen of a school, the reports said. The toll also includes a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the Cappuccino Cafe, along with her 9-year-old son, according to Ukrainian and Italian officials, and six Canadians, according to Canada officials. The six were travelling together as part of a humanitarian mission, and four them were from the same family. In order to check telecom network quality and improvement in call drop problem, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today himself conducted drive tests in Indore. Prasad, along with BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava, moved in the city for about an hour with laptop and other equipment to check the network quality. "The exercise is designed to convey a message to the entire Department that I can do it personally to see it for myself the condition. Even the CMD was there with me, for about an hour, I moved in the main city ... The whole idea is to ensure greater connectivity, professionalism and monitoring. Naturally when the Minister and the CMD are doing, it sends a message down below," Prasad told PTI. The Minister said in the main city, the network quality was remarkably good. Asked if such kind of drive tests will also be conducted in Delhi, Mumbai and other metro cities, the Minister said, "I have already told CMD of MTNL and other chief general managers in respective BSNL areas that you must also visit the entire field and personally see how the network is working." Shrivastava said BSNL will put up 200 more mobile towers in Indore city and its outskirts to improve call quality. "The network in the main city was good but in the outskirts, a need was felt to put up more towers, so we will be adding 200 towers," Shrivastava said. Prasad had earlier said that call drops are coming down and operators are putting up more tower sites. The Minister last month said a total of 29,000 new telecom towers were installed by private telecom operators across the country after government took strong exception to the problem of call drops. Operators have also said that they have taken steps to rein in call drops. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had also conducted drive tests in seven cities from December 21 to January 8 and is likely to publish the results soon. The cities where tests were conducted include Delhi, Mumbai, Surat, Kolkata, Pune, Bhubaneswar and Indore. Drive tests are conducted to assess coverage and quality of service of mobile networks. Delhi High Court today told the Sanskriti School here that it cannot keep its admission process pending "indefinitely" on the ground that its plea against quashing of 60 per cent quota for wards of group-A government officials was pending in the Supreme Court. "You have to comply with the circulars of Department of Education (DoE). You can't keep it pending indefinitely," Justice Manmohan told the lawyer appearing for the school. However, the court did not issue any directions on those lines and adjourned the matter to January 20, as the school's special leave petition against high court's November 6, 2015, order scrapping its 60 per cent quota is listed for hearing in the apex court tomorrow. Justice Manmohan asked the school's lawyer to inform the apex court about this petition as well. Meanwhile, Delhi government's additional standing counsel Gautam Narayan told the court there cannot be any such quota and "it has to go". Narayan also said the school cannot have its way and refuse to put up the nursery admission criteria for academic session 2016-17 on their website. He said the school should comply with DoE's circulars of December 8, 2015 and December 22, 2015 which mandate that the admission process should commence from January 1 and fix the last date for application as January 22. The January 6 order asks schools "to develop and adopt criteria for admissions to the 75 per cent open seats to entry level classes for session 2016-17 which shall be well defined, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent". "However, Respondent no.4 (Sanskriti) in sheer defiance of the circulars has not uploaded the admission criteria and points for admissions of open seats at entry level classes for the academic session 2016-17," a petition filed by a toddler's father, advocate Dheeraj Singh, has said. The petition has sought directions to the government and DoE to ensure that the school puts up the admission criteria before the last date of application. It has also sought that DoE should take over the management of the school if it does not comply with the circulars and order. The high court had on November 6 last year quashed the 60 per cent quota in Sanskriti School, saying it was akin to the erstwhile segregation of white and black students in the US and violated the constitutional provisions of equality and right to education. It had also said that by providing such a reservation, the school created an "arbitrary separation" between the children of Group-A officers and all other students. The decision was challenged by the school in a special leave petition before the apex court. On January 7, the central government had told the apex court that wards of group B and C government employees can also be provided admission under the 60 per cent quota. The apex court has listed the matter on January 19 for passing an interim order after the government and Sanskriti sought that the school be allowed to carry out admission process under the earlier system. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today expressed an openness to restoring diplomatic ties with Iran, four years after Canada shuttered its embassy in Tehran. Such a move would be a reversal of the foreign policy set by the previous Tory administration, which had vowed to keep its sanctions regime against Iran after a preliminary deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program in 2013. Trudeau said Iran had made "significant movement towards respecting expectations" regarding the dismantling of parts of its nuclear program that the West feared could have led to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. "That is something positive and I expect there will be (diplomatic) links now between Canada and Iran," he said. "We will certainly be discussing that further at a cabinet meeting in the coming weeks," he added. Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in September 2012. At the time, then foreign affairs minister John Baird did not cite a specific incident for the breakdown in relations but issued a strongly worded attack on the Islamic republic's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, its "incitement to genocide" against Israel, and its leaders' failure to account for their nuclear program. Ties were strained by Tehran's jailing of Iranian-born Canadians. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and authorities have denied Canadian detainees consular protection. In July, Iran and global powers reached a deal in Vienna that saw sanctions lifted this weekend. On Sunday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Ottawa would decide "in a timely fashion" whether to also lift sanctions in order to allow Canadian companies to join US and EU firms rushing to do business in Iran. Nepal's first billionaire has constructed 1,700 transitional homes, out of the 10,000 promised for the survivors of the two major earthquakes that rocked the country in April and May last year. Chaudhary Group Foundation (CG Foundation) recently handed over 133 transitional homes to the people in Hattitar and Gaikhura villages of Ramechhap district in central Nepal. Binod Chaudhary, chairman of the diversified Chaudhary Group said: "We want to protect the quake victims from the severe cold during the winter. For this purpose we have prioritised constructing CG transitional homes. We are eager to handover transitional homes to additional quake victims at the earliest". CG Foundation had constructed 70 homes in Hattitar and 63 in Gaikhur. "We have reached some of the most impoverished areas of the affected districts and built transitional shelters," Chaudhary said, whose ancestors migrated to Nepal from India some two centuries ago. On May last year, Chaudhary has announced to build 10,000 transitional shelters to the earthquake affected people in 14 districts hit by the earthquakes. Over 9,000 people have been killed in the two major earthquakes that shook Nepal on April 25 and May 12. Expressing concern over a planned visit by a former American official to Taiwan for talks with the new government on the island, China today asked the US to be cautious on the Taiwan issue and not medddle in China's internal affairs. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press briefing that China has already expressed concern over the planned Taiwan visit by US former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who is to meet with senior officials of Taiwan. Hong reiterated that Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory and Taiwan affairs are China's internal affairs. Tsai Ing-wen, leader of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)won the elections in Taiwan on Saturday, becoming the first woman president of Taiwan. She was strong critic of pro-China Kuomintang (KMT) or Nationalist Party which lost the polls. Hongasked the US to firmly abide by the one-China policy and the principles in the three Sino-US joint communiques, and live up to its commitment to opposing "Taiwan independence". "We urge the US side to do more things that are conducive to the stable development of China-US relations and peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, not vice versa," Hong said. Both China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the civil war. But Yaiwan has never declared independence and China still consider it as part of its territory awaiting reunification. Meanwhile, China's state-run Global Times today warned Tsai against pursuing a pro-independence path saying that formal split from the mainland would be a "dead end". Zhou Zhihuai, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in the daily that if Tsai "parts ways with the mainland, she will go down a dead end. An editorial in English-language China Daily newspaper said that the Kuomintang lost the election due to issues such as rising unemployment and inequality, rather than its Beijing-friendly approach. Tsai's policy towards the mainland "remains ambiguous". "She has a responsibility to keep the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations on track," it said. China has detained a mentally unstable Indian national who strayed into the country through Myanmar border and efforts are on to identify the man currently undergoing treatment in a hospital. Chandra Mohan, 42, hailing from Khooja village near Guna in Madhya Pradesh who was reported to be mentally unsound was detained by the police after he strayed into China. He was reportedly recovering at a hospital in China's Kunming city in Yunnan province. After receiving communication from police officials, the Indian Consulate in Guangzhou contacted the local police and tried to establish his identity. Relatives of Mohan has identified him and his identification papers are on the way, officials at the Consulate told PTI today. The Consulate has arranged few Indians based in Kunming city to meet him to get the details about how Mohan strayed into China. Once the identity papers are received he was expected to be repatriated as Chinese police expressed their willingness to release him because he was found to be mentally unsound, they said. For the first time, China today launched an online system to check the "authenticity" of top Tibetan Buddhist monks, amid growing incidents of fraud involving religious leaders. The first list of 870 verified Tibetan monks, also known as 'living buddhas', was published on the official website of the State Administration for Religious Affairs. It is the first time information on the country's religious leaders is accessible via the Internet. "As a living buddha, I feel genuinely happy about it," said the 7th Drukhang living buddha Drukhang Thubten Khedrup, vice president of the Buddhist Association of China (BAC) at the launch ceremony. The online database follows a government white paper in September last year, reiterating that Beijing "has undeniable endorsement right on the reincarnation system" of living buddhas. Originated in the 13rd century AD, reincarnation of living buddhas is a unique inheritance system in Tibetan Buddhism. Since 2010, the BAC began to issue certificates to living buddhas. The system was put in place to counter fake living buddhas who have been found cheating believers for money and undermining the reputation of living buddhas and Tibetan Buddhism, state-run Xinhua agency reported. One of the most renowned cases involved Wu Darong, who pretended to be a living buddha and was worshipped by the famous Chinese artist Zhang Tielin. Wu was later exposed as a fake living buddha, the report said. The BAC said the system, which can be used both on computers and mobile phones, publishes detailed, accurate information on living buddhas, including photos, names, religion names, monastic titles, date of birth, religious sects, numbers of living buddha certificates and resident monasteries. The association is continuing its verification of other living buddhas in hopes of creating a complete database. China's state-run media today warned Taiwanese President-elect Tsai Ing-wen against pursuing a pro-independence path and that a formal split from the mainland would be a "dead end". Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a landslide victory on Saturday as voters turned their backs on closer China ties. The DPP has traditionally backed independence for the island, but Tsai has moderated its rhetoric, promising to maintain the "status quo". But Zhou Zhihuai, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in the Chinese-language edition of the Global Times that if Tsai "parts ways with the mainland, she will go down a dead end". Beijing "will not hold unrealistic delusions" about her, Zhou added, saying that whether cross-Strait relations take "the road of peace or antagonism, it's up to Tsai Ing-wen to make the choice". Although Taiwan is self-ruling after it split with China following a civil war in 1949, it has never declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification. Taiwanese support for Tsai and the DPP surged after voters became increasingly uneasy about a rapprochement with China under outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang. Tsai wasted no time in warning China that "suppression" would harm cross-strait ties in her first comments to media following her win, adding that "our democratic system, national identity and space must be respected". An editorial in Monday's English-language China Daily newspaper insisted that the Kuomintang lost the election due to issues such as rising unemployment and inequality, rather than its Beijing-friendly approach. But it added that Tsai's policy towards the mainland "remains ambiguous". "She has a responsibility to keep the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations on track," it said. Wenzhou, one of the richest Chinese cities, has launched the India China Economic and Cultural Centre (ICECC) to promote investments in India. Over 120 leading entrepreneurs from Wenzhou who are looking at investing in India attended the ceremony held by the municipal government. A total of 10 MoU's were signed between leading companies from Wenzhou and their Indian counterparts to promote trade, investments and cultural cooperation with India in 2016, Indian Consulate General in Shanghai Prakash Gupta said. It was also decided that under the aegis of the ICECC, which will be exclusively channelising all Wenzhou's activities towards India, an 'India Culture Week' would be organised in mid June 2016 in Wenzhou, during which an Indian food festival, a film festival will be held, Gupta said in a statement. The core strengths of Wenzhou's small and medium industry include textile machinery, electronic goods, switches and electrical products, which also have a huge potential in India. Several Wenzhou manufacturers are also planning to set up manufacturing units in India in 2016. President of Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce (ZFIC) Nan Cunhui who heads the Wenzhou-based Chint Group plans to invest USD 1.6 billion in India. Similarly, another leading group from Wenzhou, the Aokang Group, which is into leather, real estate development and textile machinery is also looking at investing in India, its President Wang said. Yalong Group, one of China's leading group for technical training equipments, signed an MoU with a Rajasthan-based institution for supplying technical training equipment to further improve the skill set of youth in Jaipur. Wenzhou located in the south east of Zhejiang province is one of China's richest cities famous for its legendary entrepreneurial spirit, with its entrepreneurs spread globally having invested in nearly 131 countries. Congress today accused Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of "cold shouldering" its request seeking stay for the party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at state guest house here during his recent visit to the city, a charge denied by the CM. "The BJP has now started to indulge in the lowest level of politics. We had written a letter to Devendra Fadnavis to allow Rahul Gandhi ji, who was on a two-day visit to Mumbai, to reside in Sahyadri State Guest House. But, despite our requests, there was no response from either the CM or his office," Mumbai unit Congress president Sanjay Nirupam told reporters today. He said the incident was "very unfortunate and a serious lapse". "I condemn the CM's behaviour. While the Prime Minister talks of digital India, the CM has failed to even reply to an email," Nirupam said. However, Fadnavis told PTI that a suite was in fact kept reserved for Gandhi at the guest house but the latter failed to turn up. "The Protocol department had booked a suite for Rahul Gandhi for January 14 and the concerned people had been apprised about it. We had made arrangements for his (Rahul's) security contingent as well. But, he failed to turn up at the Sahyadri Guest House," Fadnavis said. Nirupam also alleged that the BJP turned Gandhi's "apolitical" discussion with students of a Mumbai college into "political" one with the BJP workers "chanting" slogans in Modi's name. "We condemn the incident of BJP workers shouting slogans glorifying Modi. This programme was apolitical. The CM should take this issue very seriously and ensure that in future, his party plays politics that has a certain standard," the Congress leader said. Dismissing the Congress' allegation, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said the opposition party was trying to deflect attention of their "high command" from the incident "wherein thieves it had gathered at their rally stole valuables of their own leaders". "The Congress had gathered thieves in their rally who stole away valuables of their own leaders. In order to shift focus away from this incident, they are levelling baseless allegations," Bhandari said. He said the allegations are devoid of truth. "If they wanted the State Guest House, they are aware of the process. They could have booked it well in advance. They are trying to hide their own faces from their party high command by leveling allegations on us," he added. During his two-day visit to city on January 15-16, Gandhi participated in a padyatra where he addressed party workers and separately interacted with college students. A special court today issued notices to former Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia and various other accused for their reply on a plea filed by a businessman seeking joint trial in three separate coal scam cases pending against him. Businessman Manoj Kumar Jayaswal is accused in three cases pertaining to alleged irregularities in allocation of coal blocks to AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd, JLD Yavatmal Energy Pvt Ltd and JAS Infrastructure and Power Ltd, which is now known as Jas Infrastructure Capital Pvt Ltd (JICPL). He has sought joint trial in these three cases saying the FIRs were "closely knitted" and the alleged offences pertained to same transaction. During the hearing on his plea, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, who appeared for Jayaswal, told the court that all these three cases were at the stage of arguments on framing of charges and if these matters are heard separately, it would be a time- taking process. "The investigating officer in these cases are same. The stage is same, the allegations are same and even the judge hearing these matters is same," Aggarwal told Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar. However, the court told the counsel, "I cannot pass any order without hearing all the parties." "As there are a number of other accused persons in the above mentioned three cases and some of whom are not even common in all the aforesaid three cases, so before proceeding to hear on the present application, I deem it appropriate to issue notice to the accused persons who have been arrayed as accused in all the three cases," the judge said. "Accordingly notice be issued to all the accused persons of the three cases....For January 28, 2016," the court said, adding, "Let reply, if any, be filed by the other accused persons on January 28, 2016 i.E. The date when the other two cases are already listed." In the AMR Iron and Steel Pvt Ltd case, Bagrodia, Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda, his son Devendra Darda are accused along with others. The Dardas are also accused with Jayaswal in JLD Yavatmal's case while ex-Coal Secretary H C Gupta is facing prosecution in all these three cases. During the hearing, Jayaswal's lawyer told the court that three firms AMR, JICPL and JLD, and Dardas have no objection to his plea seeking joint trial in these cases. The court also heard another plea filed by AMR, in which the firm has sought summoning of two public servants, Ashish Gupta and V S Rana, as additional accused in its case. It, however, said that it would be appropriate to decide the plea after disposal of Jayaswal's application. Gupta was posted as a director in the Prime Minister's Office during 2006 and 2009 while Rana was a Deputy Secretary in the Home Ministry last year. In his plea seeking joint trial, Jayaswal has said that his defence in these three cases was same and if these matters are not tried jointly, then it would prejudice him. "The applicant (Jayaswal) very respectfully submits before this court that all the aforesaid cases/FIRs are closely knitted and related to each other and in all the cases the applicant has been arrayed as one of the accused," it said. The AMR's case pertains to the alleged irregularities in allocation of Bander coal block in Maharashtra to the firm while JLD's case relates to allocation of Fatehpur (East) coal block in Chhattisgarh. JAS firm was allotted Mahuagarhi coal block in Jharkhand. All the accused in these three cases were earlier granted bail by the court and these matters are fixed for commencement of arguments on framing of charges. Former Union Minister of State for Coal Dilip Ray became the first minister of the erstwhile NDA government to be summoned as an accused in a coal scam case, with a special court today directing him and five others to appear before it on February 26. Besides Ray, who was the Minister of State for Coal in 1999 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the court summoned two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam as accused. It also summoned Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL), its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Ltd (CML) as accused in the case. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih in Jharkhand to CTL in 1999. While summoning Ray and the other accused, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar noted that the then public servants had prima facie abused their official positions and "there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy to facilitate misappropriation of the important nationalised natural resources of the country i.E. Coal by M/s CTL and M/s CML." In its order, the court also noted that the accused public servants had "in fact actively connived with the private parties involved so as to facilitate misappropriation of the nationalised natural resources of the country by them." Banerjee was the then Additional Secretary in MoC while Gautam was Advisor (Projects) in the ministry at that time. The accused have been summoned for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. "I am of the considered opinion that prima facie there is sufficient incriminating evidence on record warranting summoning of all the six accused persons, namely M/s CTL, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, M/s CML, Dilip Ray, the then Minister of State for Coal, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam for the offence under section 120-B IPC and for the offences under section 120-B/420/409 IPC and 13(1)(c) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act," the judge said. The court, which took cognisance of CBI's charge sheet filed in the case, directed all the accused to appear before it on February 26. In its charge sheet, CBI has said that name of former BJP Rajya Sabha member P K Agarwalla was not being recommended for prosecution as he has since expired. The court, in its order, noted that Ray, Banerjee, who was the then chairman of screening committee and Gautam, the then member secretary of that committee, were having a dominion upon the important nationalised natural resources but they prima facie facilitated its misappropriation. "It is thus prima facie clear that the decision made by the screening committee and the subsequent relaxation of guidelines by Minister of State for Coal Dilip Ray was made without keeping public interest in mind and with manifest disregard to the consequences that such an act would surely undermine the public interest. "They ought to be mindful of the fact that such a decision on their part would result in misappropriation of the important nationalised natural resources i.E. Coal of the country by M/s CTL and M/s CML and other private persons involved and that too to the detriment of claim of other companies," the court said. "They thus prima facie committed the offence of criminal misconduct by a public servant," it said. The court observed it was prima facie clear that there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy to facilitate misappropriation of coal by M/s CTL and M/s CML. "Undoubtedly, evidence qua offence of criminal conspiracy is hard to come up but the same is to be ascertained from the overall facts and circumstances of a given case. "Thus if the entire process of allocation of impugned coal block as discussed above is seen and analysed, the same speak volumes about the active collusion between the public servants involved in the process and the private parties in whose favour the coal block stood allotted," the court said. In its charge sheet, CBI has said that CTL had applied in May 1998 to the MoC for allotment of Brahmadiha coal block and it was stated in the application that extracted coal shall be used by the firm for washery and power generation. It said when the application came up for consideration, views of Coal India Ltd were sought, which in turn sought a report about the viability of coal block regarding various aspects from the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL). (Reopens LGD38) CBI alleged that on the basis of CMPDIL's report of August 1998, the CIL conveyed to MoC that as the coal block was an abandoned mine area and was full of water, it could be dangerous to adjoining properties of Central Coal Fields (CCL) where coal mining activities were being undertaken through underground mining method. The report also said that mining coal from the block would be against safety norms and also against the mining statutes, the agency said. CBI alleged that when the report came to Gautam, he wrote to CIL seeking further clarification but CIL reiterated its earlier stand and also highlighted that the block was not in the list of identified captive coal blocks to be allocated. On the basis of CIL's comment, Gautam proposed that it would not be possible to allot the coal mine to CTL, it said. The agency said the file was sent to Ray's office on April 23, 1999 and on May 12, 1999, CTL submitted a fresh representation to Ray stating that their application may be considered expeditiously. It claimed that on May 13, 1999 the file came to the then Coal Secretary from Ray's office with an endorsement that in light of representation received from CTL, the case may be re-examined. CBI alleged that when the file again reached Gautam's desk, he made a note in which he "made a complete u-turn from his observations" given in the earlier note. It alleged that on the basis of Gautam's note, the file came to Banerjee who approved it, after which the 14th screening committee recommended CTL for allocation of the coal block subject to relaxation of guidelines by MoC. On the basis of the approval accorded by Ray, a letter of allotment of Brahmadiha coal block in favour of CTL was issued on September 1, 1999 by the MoC. CBI has alleged in its charge sheet that despite strong objection raised by CIL and CMPDIL regarding allotment of the block, the screening committee and Ray proceeded ahead to allot the block to CTL. It alleged that after allocation of the block, CTL started extracting coal illegally even without grant of any mine opening permission by the concerned authorities. It said that as per a family settlement, all the shares of CTL stood transferred in favour of Mahender Kumar Agarwalla and his family members while the block so allocated stood transferred in favour of another firm CML of P K Agarwalla. CBI also alleged that CML was also involved in illegal extraction of coal from the block without signing of a mining lease or obtaining mine opening permission. Dilip Ray, who was Union Minister of State for Coal during the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in 1999, has been summoned as an accused along with five others in connection with a coal block allocation case by a Special Court here. Ray is the first minister of the NDA government who has been summoned as an accused in a coal scam case. Besides Ray, the court has also summoned Pradip Kumar Banerjee, who was the then Additional Secretary in Ministry of Coal (MoC), Nitya Nand Gautam, who was the then advisor (projects) in MOC, Castron Technologies Ltd, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining as accused in the case. The case pertains to the alleged irregularities in allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih in Jharkhand to Castron Technologies Ltd in 1999. Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar summoned these four persons and the two firms for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 409 (Criminal breach of trust) of IPC and under the relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. The court has directed them to appear before it on February 26. The court summoned these accused after taking cognizance of CBI's charge sheet filed against them in the case. In its order, the court said there were "prima facie" enough evidence to summon them as accused in the case. "The public servants, in fact, actively connived with private parties involved so as to facilitate misappropriation of nationalised natural resources of the country by them," the judge said in its order. Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar today accused some MLAs of raising the issue of reclassification of coconut tree in the Assembly only to "blackmail". "Some people raise the issue on the floor of the House to blackmail others. They raise the issue so that they can extort money. These are the same people who are raking up certain issues on emotional level," Parsekar said, speaking before a gathering of BJP workers here. The BJP-led state government's decision to reclassify coconut as a palm and not a tree has started a controversy, as it is being alleged that it would make it easier -- in terms of obtaining permissions -- to cut down the tree. Justifying the amendment to 'Goa, Daman, Diu Preservation of Tree Act, 1983', Parrikar said, "No Goan will slaughter coconut trees even if given a blanket permission. I have seen people protecting coconut trees even at the cost of their homes. They would avoid cutting the coconut tree even if it is an obstacle in the construction of home." But the trees which become economically unviable need to be felled so that they can be replaced with a better variety of coconut tree, he said. Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D'Souza said some legislators from the real estate industry were creating the controversy and branding themselves as environment lovers. "We have four to five legislators who are in the real estate industry. We need to see how much environmental degradation they have done through their projects," he said. Cold wave is sweeping across Rajasthan with Sikar being recorded as the coldest place at 5 degrees Celsius even as a beggar died in capital city here. Pilani recorded a night temperature of 5.3 degrees while Tonk shivered at a 5.5 degrees and Churu, which was the coldest place yesterday recorded a temperature of 6.2 degrees along with Sriganganagar. The unidentified man, aged around 50 was found unconscious by a passerby outside Gokhale Hostel, near New Gate here, yesterday. He was rushed to SMS Hospital's Emergency where doctors declared him brought dead, police said. The deceased was not living at night shelter homes set up by the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC), they added. The night temperature in Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Ajmer was 7, 8.2, 8.6 and 10 degrees respectively, the MeT department said here today. Further fog continued to engulf parts of northern region delaying 18 trains under north western railways. New Delhi-Ajmer, Ahmadabad-Agra, Ahmadabad-New Delhi are among the 18 trains which are running late due to the fog, an NWR spokesperson informed. Appealing the Congress to shed its "ego", Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the opposition should facilitate passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the national interest. "National interest should be above the political ego. I appeal to Congress that it should give up the ego so that GST bill gets cleared in the Parliament," he said here. After losing the general elections, Congress was putting up impractical conditions on GST and some of these conditions, if accepted, would infringe on the states' rights, he said. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had said in Mumbai two days ago that if the NDA government accepted its three conditions, the GST bill can be passed quickly. Prasad, however, said the Congress had not yet come to terms with its defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, or it perhaps believed it would never come to power again. The senior BJP leader said that one should wait for the Supreme Court's decision on Ram temple at Ayodhya, but a large section of the society is of the view that the issue should be sorted out through consensus. On the call drop issue, Prasad pointed out that the private telecom companies set up 25,000 towers in the last three months following the government's tough stand. The state-run BSNL had put up many towers to improve its network in the last two years. On NDA government's stand on the net neutrality, Prasad said there were different views on it world-over, and before taking a policy decision the government was waiting for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's report. Alleging that the law and order situation in Bihar was worrisome, Prasad said the Nitish Kumar government should crack down on criminals and a message that this government was finding itself overwhelmed by the criminals should not go out. (Reopens CAL8) After 25,000 samples during last 30 years, the World Health Organisation report stated that radiation due to mobile tower was not harmful for health, he clarified. The mobile consumer base world over was 705 crore which included 102 crore in India itself, he said wondering if it was so, why no complaint ever came from nations like Japan, Germany, UK, European nations, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Such reports are unfortunate, he reiterated. About the postal department, the Minister said 60 new ATMs would be installed in post offices and 2,600 micro-ATMs in Jharkhand. Prasad said the government has a plan to provide Electronic Sector Design Manufacturing training to 15,000 SC/ST youths. CPI(M) today demanded action against Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad Central University under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act after a Dalit student allegedly committed suicide at a varsity hostel room. "The CPI(M)demands the VC be booked under the act immediately. "The Central government must conduct a thorough enquiry into this incident in this prestigious Central University that was established by law by the Parliament of India," the party said in a statement. CPI(M) said that V Rohit (the deceased) and four other Dalit students were on indefinite hunger strike protesting the VC's decision to rusticate them from varsity hostel following their altercation with an ABVP leader. The party claimed the VC had rusticated the students allegedly "under pressure". "Under these circumstances, the Politburo condemns the VC's motivated decision that led to this suicide and demands action against him," it said. According to local police, Rohit (aged around 26) was found hanging in the hostel room located on varsity campus yesterday. He was among five research scholars who were suspended by the University in August last year for allegedly attacking an ABVP leader. The suspension was revoked later. (REOPENS DES044) Meanwhile, another Left outfit, CPI(ML), too demanded action against all those responsible for "victimisation" of Rohit including Union Ministers Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani for allegedly "pressurising" the vice chancellor to suspend the student. Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch, a Left mass organisation, sought similar action and accused the Government of making a "deliberate" attempt to prevent Dalit students from advancing through education. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor were today named in an FIR over the alleged suicide of a dalit student, triggering massive protests and demands for their removal from their posts. The issue also took a political turn with allegations that the extreme action was a result of discrimination against dalit students at the behest of Dattatreya, who had written a letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani, seeking action against their "anti-national acts". The dead student, Rohit Vemula, was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. They were also kept out of the hostel. Facing protests outside her office and residence in the Delhi, Irani reacted saying she would not make any political statement but await the report of a fact-finding committee. She said the government neither intervenes in the functioning of the university nor does it have any administrative control over it. She shared the grief of the family of the dead student. The Vice Chancellor said he would quit if the "majority" of the students, faculty and administrative want it. He said the action against the dalit students had happened much before he had come into the picture and he was working with the faculty to "reduce" the punishment. "We have registered cases against them based on a complaint from some students. FIR was registered under IPC section 306 (abetment of suicide) and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. (Union Minister) Bandaru Dattatreya, Vice Chancellor Appa Rao, MLC Ramachandra Rao, and students Susheel Kumar and Rama Krishna have been named in the FIR," Gachibowli Inspector J Ramesh Kumar told PTI. The body of Rohit, found hanging in the university's hostel room in the campus yesterday, was sent for post mortem amid protests by students today. The agitating students demanded immediate removal of Dattareya from the Union Cabinet. "Dattatreya should be removed from the Cabinet. Ramachandra Rao should be removed from the MLC post. Vice Chancellor should be sacked," said D Prashant, one of the five suspended students. The students alleged that Dattatreya was instrumental in suspension of the students from the university. However, dismissing the allegations against him over the alleged suicide, Dattatreya said he has nothing to do with the issue. "Anti-social, anti-national activities were going on in the university. ABVP activists were beaten up. At that time ABVP gave a representation. I forwarded the representation to the Ministry (of HRD). I don't know what action they did. BJP or I have nothing to do with the incident...," Dattatreya said. Tension prevailed in the campus this morning when the police tried to move Rohit's body to hospital for postmortem. Around 70 students were detained after scores of them engaged in violent protest outside the HRD Ministry to vent their ire over the alleged suicide of a Dalit research scholar of Hyderabad Central University. Students under the banner of Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA) and Students Federation of India (SFI) and Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) marched to Shastri Bhawan to seek HRD minister Smriti Irani's intervention in the issue. The protest turned violent as students tried to jump over barricades and attacked security personnel causing injuries prompting the police to use water cannons and detain students. "The protest turned violent and several police officials including an Additional DCP and SHO of Connaught Place police station were injured," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said. According to police officials, around 70 students have been detained so far. The dead student, Rohit Vemula, was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. They were also kept out of the hostel. The suspension was revoked later. Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor were named in an FIR over the death of the scholar, which triggered massive protests and demands for their removal from their posts. The issue also took a political turn with allegations that the extreme action was a result of discrimination against Dalit students at the behest of Dattatreya, who had written a letter to Irani, seeking action against their "anti-national acts". The HRD ministry has constituted a two member fact finding team to look into the the incident. The Delhi Police today sought a court's permission seeking recall of an investigating officer and another policeman, who were prosecution witnesses in a case in which a 52-year-old Danish woman was allegedly gang- raped by nine persons here two years ago. Special Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava filed an application in the court submitting that prosecution seeks to recall Inspector Raj Kumar, who was then Station House Officer of Paharganj Police Station and the investigation officer in the case, and Sub-Inspector Anand. On the prosecution's plea, Additional Sessions Judge Kaveri Baweja sought a reply from the counsel for the six adult accused. Three other accused are juveniles against whom inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board is in progress. Advocate Dinesh Sharma said he would file a written reply to the application and sought time, after which the court posted the matter for tomorrow. The court had on January 13 reserved for January 21 its judgement in the case after hearing the final arguments from the prosecution and the counsel for accused. According to the prosecution, the nine accused, all vagabonds, had allegedly robbed and gang-raped the Danish tourist at knife-point on the night of January 14, 2014, after leading her to a secluded spot close to the Divisional Railway Officers' Club near New Delhi Railway Station. All the nine accused were arrested. The six adult accused - Mahendra alias Ganja (26), Mohd Raja (22), Raju (23), Arjun (21), Raju Chakka (22) and Shyam Lal (55) - are in judicial custody and facing trial. The accused are facing charges of alleged gangrape, kidnapping, wrongful confinement, dacoity with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt, criminal intimidation and receiving stolen property under the IPC. During recording of their testimonies, the six adult accused have claimed innocence and alleged that the police had falsely implicated them in the case. Summoned by a Delhi court as an accused in the multi-crore coal scam, Odisha's BJP MLA and former Union Coal Minister Dilip Ray today said he sees a "conspiracy" behind the enire episode. He is the first minister of the NDA government of 1999 to have been summoned as an accused in a coal scam case. "I have absolutely no role except referring an application of a former MP from Bihar to the screening committee of the coal ministry to re-examine allotment of a coal block," he told reporters. Ray said the coal block mentioned does not operate at all. "I suspect a conspiracy behind the entire episode," Ray said. Claiming that he is innocent, he said "I see a conspiracy because there is no basis of the allegation against me. Let me repeat that I have not recommended the committee to re-consider, rather suggested to re-examine. I will reply my stand to the court." Stating that all the union ministers used to give remarks on applications in the manner in which he did in the past, he said "I have not written re-consider, but refereed former MP's application to the screening committee headed by an additional secretary of the ministry, to re-examine the matter." Ray, who was union minister of state for coal during the NDA regime in 1999, was earlier in the day summoned as an accused along with others in connection with a coal block allocation case by a special court in Delhi. Asked whether he was questioned by CBI earlier, Ray said "The CBI people had talked to me on the matter about one-and-half-a-year or two years ago. I never expected such a summon in the coal matter." Besides Ray, the court has also summoned Pradip Kumar Banerjee, then additional secretary in the ministry of coal, Nitya Nand Gautam, then advisor (projects) in the ministry, Castron Technologies Ltd, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining as accused in the case. The case pertains to the alleged irregularities in allocation of Brahmadiha coal block at Giridih in Jharkhand to Castron Technologies Ltd in 1999. Special CBI court summoned the persons and the two firms for the alleged offences under IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of IPC and under the relevant provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act. The court has directed them to appear before it on February 26. The court summoned the accused after taking cognizance of CBI's charge sheet. District administration here has issued advisory for the peopleand shopkeepers for taking precautions against the spread of jaundice in the capital town. Shimla Deputy Commissioner Dinesh Malhotra has urged the restaurants, hotels and Dhabas to serve only boiled water to customers and said that necessary steps are being taken to control jaundice epidemic and instructions for the prevention of disease have been issued under Epidemic Disease Act. Malhotra ordered "sealing" of all the natural springs in and around the town to stop people from consuming contaminated water and said that fresh water would be supplied free of costfrom Water ATMs in Vikas Nagar areas, worst hit by jaundice. Meanwhile, former state BJP president and local MLA from Shimla, Suresh Bharadwaj, has lashed out at the government for its abject failure to check spread of jaundice. He said that the reported statement of the Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh that "there is no rocket solution" to control the disease was "ridiculous and reflects his insensitiveness". The state BJP spokesman, Ganesh Dutt, has also criticised the government and Shimla Municipal Corporation for not taking effective steps to check jaundice. A Regional Commissioner of Employees Provident Fund Organisation and six others were today arrested by CBI in Chennai in an alleged bribery case involving a major educational organisation. CBI sources said Regional Commissioner E S Durga Prasad, two Enforcement officers Elumalai and Manikandan, alleged conduit Sudalai Muthu, his manager Suryanarayana, alleged bribe giver Sengottian, a friend of Prasad, Raja were arrested in connection with the case in which Saveetha Group of Institutions has also been named. No immediate reaction was available from the group. The sources said Durga Prasad has allegedly demanded Rs 25 lakh as illegal gratification for favouring the educational group, running a number of colleges and a university in Tamil Nadu, in a matter of subterfuge of wages worth rupees several crore for the purpose of deduction of provident of its employees. Early this morning, Prasad had allegedly received the bribe money from Muthu after it was passed on to him by Sengottian. Prasad was taken into custody when he was going somewhere in a Scorpio SUV driven by his friend Rajan. It is alleged that Muthu, through whom the bribe was given to Prasad, had taken a cut of Rs 50,000 from the first installment of Rs 15 lakh of the promised bribe amount and handed over remaining Rs 14.5 lakh to Prasad. Rs 14.5 lakh allegedly taken by Prasad and Rs 40,000 of the Rs 50,000 taken by Muthu has been recovered by the team, the sources said. During their questioning, some of the accused have said the remaining Rs 10 lakh of the bribe has been received by Enforcement Officers-Elumalai and Manikandan--who were handling the case and have been arrested, sources said. "Searches were conducted at the residence & office chamber of Regional Commissioner and also 18 other places including the premises of the conduit which led to recovery of several incriminating documents and property documents. The searches are still continuing," a CBI spokesperson said. Two knife attacks inside Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including the fatal stabbing of a woman in her home, boosted tensions today after months of violence and raised fears of an escalation. As a manhunt was under way for the assailant in yesterday's fatal stabbing, another knife attack today on a street in another West Bank settlement wounded a 30-year-old pregnant woman. The 17-year-old Palestinian assailant was shot by security personnel and taken to hospital in severe condition after the attack in Tekoa, south of Jerusalem. While the attacks were part of a months-long wave of violence, the stabbings have usually occurred in public areas such as checkpoints, at junctions and entrances to Jerusalem's Old City rather than inside Jewish settlements. The new attacks triggered fears that the unrest was worsening and Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians. Palestinians who work in settlements in the south of the occupied West Bank were not allowed in today, the army said, in an order that affected several thousand labourers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled further security measures, pledging to "strengthen the communities" in response to the deadly stabbing in the Otniel settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. "Whoever tries to harm us, we will bring him to justice," Netanyahu said. "In the end he will be found and he will pay the full price." The woman killed was identified as Dafna Meir, a 38-year-old nurse and mother of six. At least some of her children, aged four to 17, were home at the time, but were not hurt. The attacker remained at large today. Michal Froman, who was stabbed today, was five months pregnant and her injuries were not considered life-threatening. She is the daughter-in-law of the late Rabbi Menahem Froman, a Jewish settler and peace activist who was one of the few Israelis to have talked with Hamas, the Islamist group which calls for Israel's destruction. EU foreign ministers today agreed a statement on the stalled Middle East peace process and Israeli settlements after resolving differences over wording which some felt was too critical of Israel. "We unanimously approved (the statement), it is a good and common basis for our common position and our engagement in the region," EU external affairs head Federica Mogherini said after a meeting of bloc foreign ministers in Brussels. The statement expressed the EU's deep concern at continuing violence, holding both sides to account for their actions. "The EU firmly condemns the terror attacks and violence from all sides and in any circumstances, including the death of children," it said. "The EU is convinced that only the reestablishment of a political horizon and the resumption of dialogue can stop the violence." The 28-nation bloc restated its commitment to a two-state solution and said it would closely monitor developments on the ground which undermine that outcome. The statement had been expected to be passed without discussion but differences emerged over the weekend, notably on the consequences of an EU decision to label products from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as "Made in Israel." French state secretary for European Affairs Harlem Desir, standing in for his foreign minister Laurent Fabius, said some countries, including Greece, wanted to see changes to the text, thinking it too critical of Israel. One EU diplomatic source said: "The text has been watered down slightly but the language remains very close to what it was (previously)." "Greece had some problems and they got most of what they wanted; they felt there was too much emphasis on violence by (Jewish) settlers," the source said. In today's statement, foreign ministers reiterated that the settlements were "illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state solution impossible." "The EU and its member States are committed to ensure continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products," it said. Ministers also agreed that the EU would ensure that all agreements with Israel should "unequivocally and explicitly" state that they did not apply to the occupied territories. Contracting for the 13th month in a row, India's merchandise exports contracted 14.75 per cent in December to USD 22.2 billion due to a steep fall in shipment of petroleum products and engineering goods amid tepid global demand. Imports shrank 3.88 per cent to USD 33.96 billion in December on yearly basis. Gold imports shot up however pushing up the trade deficit to a 4-month high of USD 11.66 billion, as against USD 9.17 billion recorded in December 2014. The overall trade gap in August last year was USD 12.47 billion. Gold imports rose to USD 3.80 billion last month, as against USD 1.36 billion in December 2014. In December 2015, shipments of petroleum products shrank 47.69 per cent to USD 2.36 billion, year-on-year, while that of iron ore declined by 69.54 per cent to 21.24 million. Last month also witnessed a decline in exports of engineering products -- down 15.68 per cent at USD 5.82 billion. Gems and jewelery exports dipped by 7.75 per cent. As for the current fiscal, 2015-16, the cumulative exports during the April-December period declined by 18.06 per cent to USD 196.6 billion, as against USD 239.9 billion in the first 9 months of 2014-15. As per the data released by the Commerce Ministry, imports too dipped by 15.87 per cent to USD 295.8 billion, leaving a trade deficit of USD 99.2 billion. The trade gap was USD 111.68 billion in April-December 2014-15. Reacting on the data, exports body FIEO said significant decline in global commodities and crude oil prices are impacting the export figures. "Global demand also does not seem to be picking up. With only countries like US showing little signs of improvement, this does not augur well for the country's export sector in the long-run," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) President S C Ralhan said in a statement. Ralhan said the government needs to take steps for the removal of inverted duty structure anomalies. It also needs to exempt exports from service tax as well as create Export Development Fund with a corpus of 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of total export value to contain dip in exports, he said. The Commerce Ministry trade data further showed that oil imports during December 2015 dipped by 33.19 per cent, year-on-year, to USD 6.65 billion. However, non-oil imports grew by 7.63 per cent to USD 27.3 billion. During April-December 2015-16, oil imports have declined 41.6 per cent to USD 68 billion and non-oil imports too dipped by 3.11 per cent to USD 227.7 billion. Several sectors which recorded negative export growth in December include rice, cashew, oil meals, oil seeds, marine products, leather goods, and cotton yarn and fabrics. An FIR was today lodged with the GRP here against JD(U) MLA Sarfaraz Alam for allegedly abusing a couple on board Guwahati-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. Superintendent of Police, Railways, P N Mishra told PTI that the FIR has been lodged on the basis of a complaint received by RPF from a passenger named Indrapal Singh Bedi against the MLA for allegedly forcibly evicting him from his seat and abusing him and his wife when they protested. Mishra said Bedi in his written complaint to RPF had stated that the incident happened an hour before the train reached Patna last night. The RPF team which received the complaint onboard returned to Patna this morning and an FIR was registered with GRP Patna this morning, the SP said. The passenger further alleged that the MLA was with his bodyguard and in an inebriated condition when he misbehaved with him and his wife. The incidents involving MLAs of ruling party provided fresh ammunition to opposition BJP to attack Nitish Kumar government. Doctors attending the five-day congress of the Federation of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians Associations of India (FOGSI) have resolved to give a fresh impetus to government public health programmes relating to women. The meet which ended yesterday also decided to promote medical tourism in the region of SAARC countries. FOGSI also resolved to provide scholarships and train doctors from Bangladesh and Nepal, Dr Jaideep Malhotra, Secretary Organising Committee said here. "Parents desirous of test tube babies from Pakistan and other neighbouring countries will be facilitated to avail of medical infrastructure in India," he observed. It gave a call for a major fillip to women-oriented health policies, to speed up development and securing a safe future for coming generations. During the event, agreements with Japan and South Korean organisations were signed for sharing techniques and diagnostic tools to prevent cervical cancer. Besides, an American institution, 'March of Freedom' committed 20 lakh dollars for a campaign to prevent pre-mature deaths in the wombs, and to support research by Indian doctors in this field, Malhotra said. According to an estimate the number of pre-mature babies born world-wide is around 15 million. "Over 12,000 medical professionals and people from medical sector participated in the Congress, which held 30 panel discussions and 18 workshops during the five-day meet. More than a thousand research papers were presented," he added. Problems relating to high risk pregnancy segment were also discussed by doctors. FOGSI also offered to help promote government health policies under the PPP model, with 32,000 members of its federation, across India. As part of it, young doctors would be encouraged to set up base in the vast rural hinterland to serve the people and prevent female infanticide. According to Dr Alka Kriplani, President-Elect FOGSIA, a model code would be worked out for test tube baby centres. World powers will remain "very vigilant" to ensure Tehran commits to a nuclear deal that has seen the West lift sanctions on Iran, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said today. The entry into force on Saturday of the July 14 deal between Iran and world powers "is a good thing... But we should be extremely strict in monitoring its implementation," he said. "We will be very vigilant," he told reporters on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed late Saturday that Tehran had complied with its obligations under the accord, leading the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear programme that had crippled its economy for a decade. These obligations included Iran dramatically downscaling its nuclear programme, including slashing by two-thirds the number of its uranium centrifuges and reducing its stockpile of uranium. Fabius said he hoped "the state of mind that allowed for this deal will have positive consequences on Iran's general attitude in the region". Peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva on January 25 to resolve Syria's deadly conflict would provide the "first opportunity" to test Tehran's intentions, he said. Iran -- alongside Russia -- is a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, which has been locked in deadly fighting with opponents since an uprising erupted in 2011. Fabius is to visit Tehran's regional rival Saudi Arabia tomorrow, just days before Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is expected in Paris. Saudi Arabia severed its diplomatic ties with Iran earlier this month after protesters attacked its missions in the Shiite-dominated Islamic republic. The protests erupted in response to the execution in the Sunni-ruled kingdom of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Asked if France could play a mediator role between Riyadh and Tehran, Fabius said: "Mediation is not the right word, but we are talking to both sides." Fabius said he would meet Saudi King Salman tomorrow ahead of a meeting on economic cooperation between France and Saudi Arabia in March. More hike in the import duty on gold would be "counter-productive" and may lead to increase in smuggling activity, a senior Commerce Ministry official said today. "There is already a high duty (on gold imports) now so doing higher and higher import duties can in fact become counter-productive, more smuggling avenues etc and that is why we do not want to try and take further aggressive measures from our end," Additional Secretary in the Commerce Ministry Arvind Mehta said. He was replying to a question whether the government is considering increase in the gold import duty on account of huge jump in the imports in December 2015. After recording decline, gold imports more than doubled to USD 3.80 billion in December, driven by dip in global prices. On increase in imports, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the Finance Ministry would take a view on putting any kind of "control" measures on the imports. She said the Commerce Ministry has not send any kind of recommendations to its finance counterpart. "Whatever (gold) is coming, it is going into manufacturing" and products are getting exported or sold in the domestic market, she added. She said the gold imports duty is an "issue which the Finance Ministry will take a call and as far as Department of Commerce is concerned, we have not made any recommendations". She added the country's overall trade deficit is comfortable and "there is not too much pressure due to the gold imports at this point of time". Trade deficit during April-December this fiscal narrows to USD 99.2 billion as against USD 111.6 billion in the same period previous year. Further, Mehta said that the ministry is watching the situation as the Finance Ministry has done some amount of gold monetisation. "What we are hoping is that at some stage some of those mechanisms kick in and the demand for gold goes down...," Mehta said. In fact the gems and jewelery sector is demanding cut in the gold import duty as the sector's exports is declining. It dipped by 7.75 per cent to USD 2.46 billion in December. There is a 10 per cent duty on gold imports. Authorities in Germany have arrested a 26-year-old Algerian man on suspicion of committing a sexual assault in Cologne during New Year's celebrations. Cologne prosecutors today said the unidentified asylum-seeker was arrested at a refugee home in the nearby town of Kerpen over the weekend. The man is the first person to be held on sexual offence related charges, after a string of assaults in Cologne that sparked a debate about integration in Germany. Prosecutor's office spokesman Ulrich Bremer told The Associated Press that 497 women have come forward alleging sexual assault, including three rapes, during New Year's. The suspect in custody is accused of groping a woman and robbing her cellphone. A total of 21 people have been charged with non-sexual offences. The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to apprise it of the current status of welfare schemes like MGNREGA, National Food Security and mid-day meal in 12 drought-hit states across the country. A bench of Justices M B Lokur and R K Agrawal also asked the authorities to specify the criteria for declaration of the drought and sought information about rainfall in these states. It also asked the affected states to provide the requisite information on the welfare schemes to the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare which, in turn, would collate the data and file them before it on January 22, the next date of hearing. The bench was hearing a PIL which alleged that parts of states like Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana and Chattisgarh have been hit by drought and the authorities were not providing adequate relief. During the brief hearing, the bench asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, to give information about implementation of schemes under MGNREGA, Food Security Act and the mid-day meal schemes as to whether those affected were being provided the minimum required employment and food or not. The Solicitor General said that affected states have been provided financial aid from the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) and the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). Funds to the tune of over Rs 1,500 crore, Rs 1,276 crore, Rs 2,032 crore, Rs 3,044 crores have been made available to Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharshtra respectively, he said, adding that for 2015-20, a total fund of Rs 61,291 crore has been earmarked to provide relief to the states which may be hit by disasters. The PIL, filed by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan run by persons like psephologist Yogendra Yadav, has sought implementation of the National Food Security Act which guarantees 5 kg of food grain per person per month. It has also sought a direction to the authorities that affected families be also given pulses and edible oils. The plea has further said that school-going children be also given milk and eggs under the mid-day meal scheme. Earlier, the apex court had asked the Centre and the affected states to file their response on actions taken by them for drought relief and management. Prior to this, the court had issued notice on December 16 on the PIL. Besides the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the court had sought responses from various states. The plea has also sought adequate and timely compensation for crop loss and input subsidy for the next crop to the farmers affected by drought and subsidised cattle fodder for animals. The PIL, filed through Prashant Bhushan, alleged that the Centre and states "have been highly negligent in performing their obligations, causing enormous damage to the lives of the people due to their inaction, which is in contravention of the rights guaranteed under Articles 21 and 14 of the Constitution of India". Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Swaraj Abhiyan, had said, "Unfortunately, most states have not yet implemented this. Except Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, the states have stuck to the previous Public Distribution System schemes that fall short of the NFSA obligations". "Research shows that the APL/BPL distinction used by most of the states is useless and that the implementation of NFSA has had positive outcomes for these two states," he had said. The petition submitted that the drought has led to severe decline in farm employment available to the rural poor. With increased activities of ISIS supporters online, the government has taken the threat of the dreaded terror group seriously and asked states to remain alert against the possibility of 'lone wolf attack' in the country. The threat of ISIS was discussed threadbare at a meeting of top officials of central intelligence and investigative agencies and police of 13 states on Saturday which was chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh. "ISIS threat is real. As per our input, the days leading to the Republic Day is crucial. We have instructed everyone to be alert against the possibility of 'lone wolf attack' anywhere in the country," a senior government official said. A 'lone wolf' terrorist is one who indulges in violence in support of some group, movement or ideology but works alone, outside of any command structure and without material assistance from any group. Mohammad Sirazudin, an executive of the Indian Oil Corporation, who was arrested in Jaipur in December 2015 for allegedly spreading ISIS activities online and trying to recruit Indian youths in the Middle-East terrorist group, was allegedly on the verge of turning into a 'lone wolf'. The Saturday meeting reviewed the steps taken to check the growing influence of ISIS among youngsters through social media and other sources. The Home Minister was also briefed about the counter- radicalisation steps, including involvement of community elders, family members and religious preachers. The officials stressed the need for more engagement with members of the minority communities and take them into confidence in government outreach programmes. The meeting also resolved to take a calibrated policy jointly by the central and state governments to deal with the threat of ISIS in the country. (REOPENS DEL 62) According to Indian intelligence agencies, a total of 23 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of which six were reportedly killed in different incidents. Among the 23 include, two absconding members of the banned Indian Mujahideen who had gone from their hideouts in Pakistan. The dead were identified as Athif Vaseem Mohammad (Adilabad, Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Bangalore, Karnataka), Maulana Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Bhatkal, Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki (Thane, Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Bangalore, Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid alias Bada Sajid (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh). Around 150 Indians are under surveillance for their alleged online links with ISIS. As many as 30 other Indians, who were radicalised by ISIS elements, were prevented from travelling to the conflict zone in the Middle-East. Among those who are currently fighting for ISIS include two youths from Kalyan in the outskirts of Mumbai, an Australia-based Kashmiri, one youth from Telangana, one from Karnataka, one Oman-based Indian and another Singapore-based Indian. On September 15, 2015, the UAE deported four Indians suspected to have links with ISIS. The UAE had also sent back in September last year a 37-year-old woman, Afsha Jabeen alias Nicky Joseph, who was allegedly involving in recruiting youths for ISIS. In January 2015, Salman Mohiuddin of Hyderabad was arrested when he was preparing to board a flight to Dubai on way to Syria via Turkey. There have been reports that some elements, who support the ISIS, have posted messages in regional languages, including Hindi and Tamil. Government has no clue yet about the identity of four Indian youths held in Syria for allegedly planning to join dreaded terror group ISIS but suspects that they might have been based in some Gulf countries from where they travelled to Damascus. Government officials said they were totally off guard when Syrian Deputy Prime minister Walid Al Moaulem, who was on a three-day visit to India last week, disclosed that the four Indian youths were taken into custody for allegedly planning to join ISIS. "We have no idea who the youths are, from where they originally hail from. We suspect they might have gone from some Gulf countries. We are still verifying their antecedents," an official said. During the delegation level meeting, when the Indian officials asked the Syrian Deputy Prime Minister to give details of the four youths, he is said to have said that he was not police and did not know the details. Moaulem had said: "Four Indians were taken into Syrian custody in Damascus. The four young Indians were planning to join the ISIS and had entered Syria from Jordan". According to Indian intelligence agencies, a total of 23 Indians have so far joined the ISIS of which six were reportedly killed in different incidents. Among the 23 include, two absconding members of the banned Indian Mujahideen who had gone from their hideouts in Pakistan. The dead were identified as Athif Vaseem Mohammad (Adilabad, Telangana), Mohammad Umar Subhan (Bangalore, Karnataka), Maulana Abdul Kadir Sultan Armar (Bhatkal, Karnataka), Saheem Farooque Tanki (Thane, Maharashtra), Faiz Masood (Bangalore, Karnataka) and Mohammad Sajid alias Bada Sajid (Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh). As many as 30 other Indians, who were radicalised by ISIS elements, were prevented from travelling to the conflict zone in the Middle-East. Among those who are currently fighting for ISIS include two youths from Kalyan in the outskirts of Mumbai, an Australia-based Kashmiri, one youth from Telangana, one from Karnataka, one Oman-based Indian and another Singapore-based Indian. On September 15, 2015, the UAE deported four Indians suspected to have links with ISIS. The UAE had also sent back in September last year a 37-year-old woman, Afsha Jabeen alias Nicky Joseph, who was allegedly involving in recruiting youths for ISIS. (REOPENS DEL 57) In January 2015, Salman Mohiuddin of Hyderabad was arrested when he was preparing to board a flight to Dubai on way to Syria via Turkey. In December last year, Mohd Sirazudin, an executive of the Indian Oil Corporation was arrested in Jaipur for allegedly spreading ISIS activities online and trying to recruit Indian youths in the Middle-East terrorist group. A senior IRS officer of the Income Tax department has been sacked by the government for allegedly being on "continuous leave" in an unauthorised manner for over five years. The case pertains to 1982-batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Ritu Kakkar who was last posted as a Commissioner of Income Tax in Kolkata in 2004, an order she never complied to and remained on "unauthorised absence from duty for a continuous period exceeding five years." According to the termination from service notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Kakkar's "continuous absence" has been treated as "deemed resignation from the IRS with immediate effect." "The officer will not be entitled for any retirement benefits," the order issued by the CBDT on January 14 against the Delhi-based officer said. The notification said Kakkar was granted a study leave of two years between 2002-2004 and after her return when she "failed to comply with her posting order" to Kolkata, action was initiated by the government and a notice was issued to her in 2007. It said the said notice could not reach its "logical end" because the officer did not respond to it. "Kakkar subsequently tendered a notice dated June 21, 2007 for Voluntary Retirement Scheme which was, however, not been found as per relevant rule of VRS as Ms Kakkar had only 19 years and 5 months qualifying service till the date of proceeding on study leave. "Since, leave is not a matter of right, leave applied for by Ms Kakkar for conversion of study leave into regular leave could not be considered," it said. The order cited DoPT rules governing these issues and cited Rule 12 (2) of CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 which states that a government servant who remains absent from duty for a continuous period exceeding five years other than on foreign service, with or without leave, shall be deemed to have resigned from the government service provided that a reasonable opportunity to explain the reasons for such absence be given to that government servant before provisions of sub-rule (2) are invoked. It added that the said officer was contacted over phone by the office of the cadre controlling Chief Commissioner of Income Tax in Kolkata last year to obtain her side of the story and she informed them that she had "decided to put in her papers and filed VRS." "This can be treated as opportunity provided to her," it said in the notification declaring her termination from government service and the IRS. Gunmen today shot dead a judge in Aden, in the latest attack in the violence-plagued city of southern Yemen serving as the government's temporary base, police said. The unidentified assailants on a motorbike opened fire at Abdulhadi Mohammed near his house in the Mansura district, killing the judge, a police official said, adding they managed to flee. There has been a growing number of attacks and assassinations in Aden, the government's temporary capital, by jihadists targeting members of the security forces and government officials. Al-Qaeda and the rival Islamic State group both have a presence in the city, where jihadists occupy government buildings and are seen patrolling several districts and intimidating civilians. Aden was rocked by months of fighting last year between pro-government forces and Shiite Huthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa in September 2014 before expanding southwards. Loyalists backed by a Saudi-led coalition have regained control of Aden and four other southern provinces since July, but the rebels still hold Sanaa and have besieged the third city of Taez for months. Construction company GVR Infra Projects has obtained clearance from capital markets regulator Sebi to raise at least Rs 400 crore through an initial share sale programme. The firm, which had filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with Sebi on September 30, received clearance from the regulator on January 15, as per the latest update. GVR Infra initial public offering (IPO) comprises fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 400 crore and an offer for sale, whereby IDFC Private Equity Fund would offload 43.22 lakh scrips, as per the draft papers. The proceeds of the fresh issue would be utilised towards working capital requirements, reduction of outstanding amount under short-term borrowings and for general corporate purposes. The shares of the company are proposed to be listed on both NSE and BSE. Edelweiss Financial Services, Ambit Corporate Finance, SBI Capital Markets and IDFC Securities are the bankers to the issue. Chennai-based GVR Infra Projects was originally incorporated as GVR Construction in 2001. Japan-based Hayashi Electric today announced its foray into country's regular and premium electric fan market and plans to sell around 5 lakh units over the next three years. The company is also planning to set up its own manufacturing unit here by the end of this year, which would act as a hub to meet the domestic demand and as well as the exports. Hayashi Electric has launched 12 models of regular fan priced from Rs 1,200 onwards and 15 models of super-premium luxury fans priced around Rs 1.5 lakh. "Our focus is to sell around half a million fans in next three year. From 2018, our volume should be around 5 lakh, in which 60 per cent should be from the premium segment and rest 40 per cent from economical range. Our main target is the premium segment," Hayashi Electric, COO India, South East Asia and Middle East, Ashish Narang told PTI. The company is targeting a combined portfolio of 50 models in the coming months. He added that the company is also planning to launch in India its lighting products in 2017. "We feel that the Indian market has the potential and that's why we are here. India should be one of the biggest markets for us," he added. Hayashi Electric would also launch exclusive brand outlets in leading metros and tier-II places. "This year we would have four brand outlets at Bengaluru, Pune, Chandigarh and Gurgaon. In 2017, we would have 10 cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Noida," he said adding the company has selected the areas which has good potentials. Hayashi is aiming its range of regular fans to be retailed through at least by 1,000 outlets by the end of this year, which would be expanded gradually. On local manufacturing, Narang said: "We are in talks with some state governments including Telangana, Gujarat and Goa. It would be 100 per cent FDI. We want to create a hub to cater the domestic market and exports. By this year end, we plan to have our own factory here and start the production." However, he declined to share the exact amount which the company would invest here. At present, it would import from its China and Taiwan plants. For branding and marketing, Hayashi Electric has earmarked a budget of 6 to 8 per cent of its annual global turnover. Besides, Hayashi Electric would also follow its global imitative of 'Go Green' in India and would plant a tree for every fan sold here in the domestic market. Hayashi, which has been in business for last 15 years, had a turnover of USD 60 million (approx) in 2014. It sells its products in 14 countries. The Bombay High Court today said it would wait for Supreme Court's ruling on entry of women in Sabarimala temple of Kerala before deciding on a similar plea in case of Haji Ali Durgah here. A bench of Justices V M Kanade and Reveti Mohite-Dere was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the decision of Haji Ali Trust to ban the entry of women in the sanctum sanctorum of the historic Durgah. The judges said both the matters were similar involving entry of women in the religious shrines, and hence they would like to see what view would Supreme Court take on the issue before they give a ruling on the interim relief sought by the petitioner in the Bombay High Court. The petition had sought interim relief by way of allowing women to enter the sanctum sanctorum at Haji Ali Durgah until the matter is finally decided by the court. The HC also asked Advocate General Srihari Aney to submit arguments on the next occasion in this case involving a 'sensitive' issue, while posting the matter on February 3. In the Supreme Court, a petition has sought entry for all women and girls in the Sabarimala temple which, as a practice, does not allow girls after attaining puberty to enter the premises. The temple, however, allows only those women to enter who have reached the menopause stage. The apex court had on January 11 questioned the age-old tradition of banning entry of women of menstrual age group in the Kerala temple, saying this cannot be done under the Constitution. "The temple cannot prohibit entry (women), except on the basis of religion. Unless you have a constitutional right, you cannot prohibit entry. Anyway, we will examine it on February 8," the Supreme Court had observed last week. A SC bench also observed that Sabarimala was a public temple and everyone needed to have "the right to access". At best, there can be religious restrictions and not a general restriction, the apex court had observed. In the HC, a petition has raised a similar issue -- that of ban imposed on entry of women in sanctum sanctorum of Haji Ali Durgah. It prohibits women irrespective of their age. The trustees of Haji Ali Dargah had told the HC earlier that entry of women in close proximity to the grave of a male Muslim saint is considered as a grievous sin in Islam. The HC had then asked the trustees to reconsider their decision, following which the Trust met and reconsidered their decision while taking the same view of banning entry of women in the Durgah. The Haji Ali Trust argued that the bar on entry is meant to protect women from "uncomfortable situations" and is restricted only to the sanctum sanctorum. The petitioners, however, claimed that gender justice is inherent in Quran and the norm at the Dargah contravenes the Hadiths, which say that women are not prohibited from visiting tombs. The restriction emanates from "a very conservative and extremist Salafi ideology" and in future "there may be an order banning the entry of women in the Durgah complex and banning the non-Muslims wholly," the petition argued. Raju Moray, the petitioners' lawyer, contended that at other Durgahs or shrines women are not banned. Women can enter the sanctum sanctorum at the historic Makhdoom Shah Durgah in suburban Mahim, he noted. Venture capital firms invested USD 4.6 billion through 574 deals in healthcare IT companies globally in 2015, registering a marginal decline over last year, a report by Mercom Capital Group said today. In 2014, VC funding, including private equity and corporate venture capital, stood at USD 4.7 billion by way of 670 deals. "After an incredible run from 2010-2014, VC funding into Health IT companies levelled off last year," Mercom Capital Group CEO and Co-founder Raj Prabhu said. "We are beginning to see a slowdown in early stage deals, a sign the sector is beginning to mature. We are also seeing funding trends shift from practice-focused to consumer-focused technologies and products," he said further. Globally, practice-centric companies raised more than USD 1.5 billion in 171 deals in 2015, down from USD 2.4 billion in 234 deals last year. Consumer-centric companies grossed about USD 3.1 billion in 403 deals, up from USD 2.3 billion in 436 deals last year, while mobile health companies raised the most funding with more than USD 1.1 billion. The top VC funding rounds in 2015 include Chinese company Guahao raising USD 394 million, NantHealth's USD 200 million, ZocDoc's USD 130 million, Virgin Pulse's USD 92 million and Practo's USD 90 million. In the last quarter (October-December), 17 Indian Healthcare IT companies received VC funding, the highest ever in a single quarter, the report said adding that there were also two M&A transactions involving Indian companies. Vacancies in high courts continue to mount with the collegium which made a comeback three months ago yet to recommend fresh names for the posts, including that of chief justices to eight of them. According to the latest data complied by the Law Ministry, out of the approved strength of 1,044 judges in the 24 high courts, there are 443 vacancies. In other words, the high courts are functioning with 601 judges as on January one. The Allahabad High Court faces the maximum vacancies of 86 judges, followed by 38 in the Madras High Court. The approved strength of the Madras High Court has been increased from 60 to 75 with effect from December 21, 2015. The high courts of Bombay and Punjab and Haryana have 35 vacancies each. The High Court of Tripura has no vacancy, while the Meghalaya High Court is one judge short of its approved strength of four. The Sikkim High Court with an approved strength of three is also short of one judge. With an approved strength of 31 judges, the Supreme Court has five vacancies. There was no system in place between April 13 and October 16 last year on appointments to the Supreme Court and the high courts. The Judicial Appointments Commission Act and an accompanying Constitutional Amendment Act were notified on April 13, but were declared as unconstitutional by the apex court on October 16. When the NJAC Act was in force, the proposed panel had failed to function as the then Chief Justice of India Justice H L Dattu had refused to be a part of it. No judge could be elevated as chief justice of a high court, transferred to another high court or elevated to the Supreme Court as there was no system in place for the purpose. After the NJAC Act was scrapped by the apex court, it decided to review the functioning of the collegium system amid complaints that it was opaque. Though the collegium system, which the new law had sought to overturn, is back, the apex court collegium has indicated that no new fresh appointments will be recommended till the new memorandum of procedure, a document to guide appointment of judges, is finalised. Government is finalising the MoP which will be approved by the SC collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India. There are two MoPs -- one for appoint the Chief Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court, and the other for Chief Justices and other judges of the high courts. As the collegium is not recommending fresh names, the high courts of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Karnataka, Bombay, Gauhati, Gujarat, Patna, Punjab and Haryana and Rajasthan are functioning with Acting Chief Justices. Seeking to overcome the shortage of judges in high courts, government had sought approval from the Supreme Court to extend the terms of judges from three to six months when the validity of the NJAC Act was being heard in the apex court. The collegium is continuing with the practice by recommending extension of service of additional judges. In this month alone, 29 additional judges from four high courts have been granted extension. Usually, additional judges are appointed for two years and later elevated as permanent judges. In a landmark judgment on October 16 last, the apex court had struck down as unconstitutional the NJAC Act that was brought in to replace the over two-decade-old collegium system of judges appointing judges in the higher judiciary. The judgment, that enabled the collegium system to continue, also declared as unconstitutional the 99th amendment to the Constitution which allowed the NJAC to come into being. Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi today faced the ire of members of a Parliamentary panel for leaving its deliberations midway with two TMC MPs even walking out of the committee's meeting, resulting in its postponement. Following this, chairman of the panel and Congress MP from Rajya Sabha P Bhattacharya called Mehrishi again and advised him not to do so in future. However, the meeting, which was called to discuss the Chennai floods, had to be postponed by then as most of the members were agitated and few had already left. Going public about the controversy, Derek O' Brien from Trinamool Congress, who walked out of the meeting in a huff, tweeted," Home Sec didn't come for 2 Parliam panel meetings. Today came for 30 mins. "Imp issues like floods, Del Police, sensitive incidents were to be discussed. Action taken reports not submitted. Nothing done. Members object. My colleague and I walk out. What's going on?". Today's meeting was earlier supposed to discuss the Pathankot terror attack but citing ongoing investigations by the NIA, the Home Ministry had sought some more time from the committee to share details on the attack. Hence, the panel changed the agenda and was to hear the Home Secretary on the recent disaster in Chennai caused by torrential rains and consequent flooding. Mehrishi gave a presentation on the Chennai flash floods in the meeting. After that a representative of Tamil Nadu government also made presentation and the relief and rehabilitation measures taken thereafter. The Home Secretary, had, however, left the meeting by then. Noticing it, members including D Raja (CPI) raised objection to the Home Secretary's absence. Raja is learnt to have asked the Chairman where the Home Secretary is and whom will the members ask questions when he is not present, sources said. O' Brien, who had earlier also opposed the Home Secretary's absence from some meetings, voiced his anger saying it is happening every time and walked out of the meeting. Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) and Mallikarjun Kharge, who is Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, also took objections to the Home Secretary's absence. "When we are discussing this, he left. What is this approach," Kharge is learnt to have said. Sources said sensing the mood, Bhattacharya called the Home Secretary again. However, as the members were agitated, he postponed the meeting. Bhattacharya, who met Mehrishi later, is learnt to have advised the Home Secretary not to absent himself from panel meetings or leave it midway. Sources said another meeting of the panel will be held soon. (Reopens DEL 53) In the 31-member panel, the BJP has 13 members, Congress 4, BJD 2, Trinamool Congress 2, AIADMK 3, CPI-M, CPI, SP, TRS, TDP, Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiv Sena one each. NDA members have majority in the panel. In November also, O'Brien had raised objection to the absence of Mehrishi from the panel's meeting here to discuss communal harmony and social fabric. "16 MPs from Parliament Home Affairs Committee turn up to hear Union home secretary's views on communal harmony/social fabric. Guess what?..Home secretary doesn't even turn up at meeting, citing other engagements. Gives few hours notice...This is not funny," O'Brien had tweeted after the meeting then. At its May 8 meeting to discuss disaster management also, some MPs had walked out objecting why the then Home Secretary L C Goyal did not participate in the deliberations. The meeting was held in the aftermath of the devastating Nepal earthquake. The contentious Decision Review System is in focus again following a few umpiring howlers in the ongoing ODI series between India and Australia, with BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur today stating that they will "discuss" on its conditional use once the team is back. India were hurt during the first ODI when George Bailey clearly nicked one off Barinder Sran to Mahendra Singh Dhoni off the first ball and was ruled not out. Australia were 21 for two then and Bailey scored a century to win the match. In the third match also, Bailey was adjudged not out due to lack of DRS. The BCCI secretary said that they may give it a shot if the ball tracking technology to determine leg before decision is taken out of the equation. When Thakur was asked about it at an ICC promotional event here, he said: "I maintain that DRS in its current form is not foolproof. But if we leave aside the leg before part, we can deliberate on the conditional usage of technology. Once the players are back from Australia we will discuss the issue with them." In fact Thakur's viewpoint is in sync with BCCI president Shashank Manohar's views on board's official Facebook page where he also spoke about using DRS without leg before using Ball Tracker. "Actually telling truth, BCCI was never against DRS, right from my earlier tenure. Only issue was with lbw being decided by DRS. For everything else, we accepted but ICC told us that either we accept it in full or not. We are not even willing to accept it for lbw," Manohar has said then. While Test captain Virat Kohli is not averse to discussions on usage of the technology, it has been a strict 'no-no' for limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. "We need to push the umpires to make the right decisions. You have to see how many 50-50 decisions don't go in our favour. It always happens, then you have to take it. But I am still not convinced about DRS," Dhoni had said after India's defeat in the first match Down Under. The University Grants Commission has issued a public notice saying the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) is "not entitled" to award any undergraduate or post-graduate degree including BBA, BCA or MBA. In the notice posted on its website, the UGC said "that IIPM is neither entitled to award any UG or PG degree, including BBA/BCA/MBA degree nor it is recognised by UGC." The notice by the higher education regulator also said that IIPM is not a university within the meaning of section 2(f) of the UGC Act and does not have the right of granting or conferring degrees as specified under section 22(3) of the Act. It also added that the Delhi High Court in an order had also refrained IIPM from offering any degree programme. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor today batted for a legal framework to address the issues related to immigration and refugees. Expressing disappointment over the merger of Ministry of External Affairs with Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), the former Minister of State (MoS) for MEA emphasised on giving more attention to the issues related to NRIs and migrants by an MOS rank official. "Largest refugee migration was when 10 million Bangladeshis came to India in 1971. We also have a large numbers of migrants from Nepal and Bangladesh. "We have been very hospitable and very open, but it's rather very bizarre that a democracy, which even has a seat on UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Executive Committee, has failed to write itself a refugee law and put a legal frame work to it. "I have proposed one in private members bill in the last session. I have also been in correspondence with the Minister of External Affairs (Sushma Swaraj) on Foreign Immigration as many of us feel this is massively over due. An immigration Policy must be codified into a law. At the moment our laws and policies are in grave danger of being out of date," Tharoor said. "I have also written very very concretely that the Standing Committee on Parliament on Foreign Affairs should be consulted before the government springs any Bill on the nation," Tharoor added. He was speaking at a panel discussion after a launch of book 'The Politics of Migration: Indian Emigration in a Globalised World'. India has a one of the largest diaspora living in different parts of the world and in 2014-15 alone they contributed sent around USD 70 billion through remittance. Speaking on the issue MoS in the MEA, Gen (retd) V K Singh said the Indian diaspora has not only assimilated themselves in the country they are living in, but have also contributed in different fields, including politics, of that nation. Asserting that diaspora is an asset but India should not "overtly leverage" on this, he noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was maintaining a "fine edge" in approaching the Indians living abroad. "Today we have Mr Modi essentially asking the citizens of that country receiving him, to come and listen to him as a voice from their homeland. And he is actually walking a very fine edge there between what is appropriate and what is not so appropriate for a visiting overseas leader," the Thiruvanathapuram MP said. Pointing out the role of "affluent and successful" Indian diaspora in helping India, Tharoor said they were of great influence, especially during the Indo-US nuclear deal and when sanctions were imposed on India post-Pokhran nuclear tests and Kargil wars. "Should Indian foreign policy start leveraging on this. The answer is yes and no. Yes, but not overtly. The more overtly foreign citizens (of Indian origin) are made to look like sort of Indian power, the lesser their clout becomes. It's better for us to encourage and quietly give them material, but don't officially, publicly ever declare that." Tharoor said now that MEA and MOIA have been merged, he has spoken to V K Singh and asked for special attention on NRIs' issue. "You may be aware that the Government of Kerala has officially opposed the merger of MEA and MOIA. "I told General V K Singh that there should be full time attention to the NRIs and migrants because the issue was a stepchild of the ministry. The merger means it will be further neglected. But this is rather a large and important set of issues and he has shown me that he is that MoS," the Congress leader said. Pointing out the role of Indian diaspora in Canada, Nadir Patel, Canadian High Commissioner to India, said as many as 19 MPs are of Indian origin. "Of these, 17 are from Punjab origin. Interestingly, Punjab does not have more MPs in Parliament (Punjab has 13 Lok Sabha seats) and we have four Cabinet ministers of Indian origin," Patel said. Sanjay Baru, Director of International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), noted that Indian immigration should not be considered as brain drain but "brain gain", a term which he claimed was coined by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rebecca Tavares, Country Representative, UN Office for Women in India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives said Indian diaspora abroad is a "strategic asset" and India should leverage on it. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today said India attaches the highest importance to its ties with Israel as she called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the entire spectrum of the relationship. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as the External Affairs Minister, said she was looking forward to her discussions with the top Israeli leadership. "India attaches the highest importance to the full development of bilateral ties with Israel. Our bilateral cooperation has grown in a number of areas over the past two decades but the potential of our relations are much more," she told media along with Netanyahu before their meeting. "I hope to discuss the entire spectrum of our bilateral relationship," Swaraj said, adding that she hopes to get an assessment of the situation in the region and identify areas where the two countries can cooperate. In his welcoming remarks, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that there has been a great flowering of relationship and friendship between the two countries in the recent years. "I take special pleasure in welcoming you here and sending my regards to my good friend and colleague Prime Minister Modi. The expression of this growing relationship has been in the visit of the (Indian) President, the first ever by an Indian Head of State," he said. He said the two countries are intensifying their contacts and cooperation in fields such as science and technology, cyber, defence and agriculture. "India and Israel are at the cutting edge of so many innovations and by working together we can do a lot more for our people and the world," he said, adding that Israel admires India and view it as a great friend. Netanyahu, who has met Modi twice in the past year and a half, has said that "sky is the limit" that can be achieved between the two sides with "limitless" potential. The Israeli Prime Minister has in the past said that his Indian counterpart has told him that New Delhi needs Tel Aviv to achieve major developmental projects outlined by him. Swaraj would also meet President Reuven Rivlin, Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Minister of Infrastructure Yuval Shteinitz and deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotovely. She will be also meeting the Indian community in Israel. There are four groups of Indian Jewish communities in Israel with a strength of approximately 80,000. Swaraj's visit comes barely three months after the historic visit of President Pranab Mukherjee, the first by an Indian Head of State to Israel, and aims at encasing on the goodwill generated by that visit. Chief negotiators of India and EU today took stock of "outstanding issues", including duty cut on automobiles and movement of professionals, that have held up talks on the proposed free trade agreement (FTA). Describing the meeting as "extremely positive", Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said the European Union side has suggested holding a secretary level meeting. After that meeting, India would take a decision "on how we would like to proceed. So we will take a call when that meeting is scheduled... We are keen to go ahead and work towards a balanced agreement," she told reporters. The purpose of the meeting was to assess where both sides stand and how India and the EU should go forward with the proposed pact, officially dubbed as Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement. Between 2007 and 2013, about 16 rounds of negotiations have happened. But after that, no negotiations have been held. Since the talks stopped, she said, India has moved ahead on many issues such as permitting 49 per cent FDI in insurance, 100 per cent FDI in telecom and easing of foreign investments norms in the banking sector. EU had demanded these steps in the proposed agreement. "So these have been the changes between 2013 and now. In addition to that, we have now a model Bilateral Investment Treaty approved by the Cabinet and that forms the basis on which investment discussions can also go on," she said. The secretary said, at the meeting, both the sides flagged the outstanding issues including the duty cut demand of the EU on automobiles, wines and spirits. "Today there was a discussion on most of the outstanding issues. Our intention is to work towards a balanced agreement. The EU flagged their outstanding issues and would now take stock and decide how to proceed on this," Teaotia said. The Indian side raised the issue of data security status, Mode-IV ceilings (movement of professionals), seamless intra- corporate movement and real market access in terms of sanitary and phyto-sanitary (norms related with plants and animals); and technical barriers to trade measures adopted in EU. "So there is a work to be done yet. The negotiations will proceed once a decision is taken on whether there is enough ground to move ahead. We are very positive," she added. The talks were expected in August last year, but they were deferred by India, expressing disappointment and concern over the EU banning sale of around 700 pharma products, clinically tested by GVK Biosciences. On this issue, Teaotia said: "There has been a progress ... As we speak, our delegation is already in Brussels and there is a meeting (going on) between the regulators to discuss the GVK matter". In May 2013, India and the 28-nation bloc failed to bridge substantial gaps on crucial issues, including data security status for the IT sector. The negotiations for the proposed Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement have witnessed many hurdles with both sides having major differences on crucial issues. The issues include easy movement of professionals and data security status demand from India. Besides demanding significant duty cuts in automobiles, EU wants tax reduction in wines and spirits and dairy products and a strong intellectual property regime. The free trade pact is aimed at reducing or significantly eliminating tariffs on goods, facilitating trade in services and boosting investments between the two sides. The two-way commerce in goods between India and the EU was USD 98.5 billion in 2014-15. Contending that India and Israel face challenges of terrorism, the two countries today agreed to intensify coordination to deal with the menace as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met top Israeli leadership and discussed a wide-range of bilateral and regional issues. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as the External Affairs Minister, called on President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders. "It was emphasised that the region around India and around Israel are both in turmoil. That there were special circumstances posed by terrorism that required coordination between the countries, especially between India and Israel," an official here said, sharing details of the meetings. "It was agreed that the exchange of information (between the two countries) will continue in the future," he added. Swaraj said she hopes get an assessment of the situation in the region and identify areas where the two sides can cooperate. She said, "India attaches the highest importance to the full development of bilateral ties with Israel. Our bilateral cooperation has grown in a number of areas over the past two decades but the potential of our relations are much more." Netanyahu, who also heads the Foreign Ministry, said that there has been a great flowering of relationship and friendship between the two countries in the recent years. "I take special pleasure in welcoming you here and sending my regards to my good friend and colleague Prime Minister Modi. The expression of this growing relationship has been in the visit of the (Indian) President, the first ever by an Indian Head of State," he told Swaraj. He said the two countries are intensifying their contacts and cooperation in fields such as science and technology, cyber, defence and agriculture. "India and Israel are at the cutting edge of so many innovations and by working together we can do a lot more for our people and the world," he said, adding that Israel admires India and view it as a great friend. Emphasising on the importance attached to India by Israel, he said his country is putting "special effort towards building a special relationship with a special country". President Rivlin pushed for a boost in bilateral economic ties during his meeting with Swaraj and said the two partners should quickly finalise the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Bathroom solutions firm Roca would begin shipping products from India to its global subsidiaries, starting this year, in a move that could make the country its future hub, a top company official said today. The Spanish company currently ships about one per cent of products manufactured in India to the US and Central Europe. "In 2016, we will start exporting to Group (subsidiaries worldwide) significantly. India could be future hub (for Roca)," Roca Bathroom Products Managing Director Pau Abello Pellicer said. Elaborating, he told PTI that the company, in the last two years, had allotted Rs 100 crore towards capital expenditure and working capital. "This year we are planning to invest Rs 40 crore," he said. "We were exporting about less than one per cent to the United States, Central Europe. This year we will be exporting to the Group (subsidiaries) worldwide," he said. Roca currently has seven manufacturing facilities in India that produce ceramics, faucets and plastics. "We will focus on exports to Malaysia, Australia, Europe, Russia, Middle East and Taiwan," he said. On the group financials, he said the firm had registered Rs 800 crore sales in 2015 and expects about 15 per cent growth in 2016. "Last year, it was a difficult year. In Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, sales were flat. In Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, it was worse." About 70 per cent of sales for Roca was contributed from retail segments while the remaining was through residential units. "We expect a 15 per cent growth this year. We are quite confident that the economy will rebound in 2016 and the 15 per cent growth what we have targeted is quite conservative." Pellicer said currently 80 per cent of sales for the firm in India was from Parryware business while remaining was from Roca brand. The firm sells premium brands Armani Roca, Swiss brand Laufen, Johnsoon Suisse and Johnson Pedder in India. On the sales in tier II and III cities, he said the company witnessed increase in demand for its products. "Compared to metros, tier II and III are doing better. Presently, about seven per cent of sales was from tier II and III cities. We expect it will go to 25 per cent," he said, adding that the company also plans to create 150 new jobs. "The total headcount is about 3,500. In 2016, we expect to add 150 in production. In our three factories in Tamil Nadu alone, we have 1,000 employees", he said. To a query, he said Roca as a group registered revenue of about Rs 12,000 crore, of which India contributed seven per cent. A day after the ink attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi today met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and is believed to have briefed him about the incident. "Any such allegations are misconceived and unfounded. I want to make it clear that necessary arrangements were made at the venue and there was no lapse in security," Bassi told reporters after the meeting today. He said the woman, who threw ink at CM Kejriwal, has been arrested under relevant provisions of the law, and investigation is underway in the matter. When asked about Kejriwal's security, Bassi did not share details and maintained that adequate security for the CM has always been in place and it shall continue to be so. 26-year-old Bhavna Arora, who claimed to be the in-charge of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, threw ink at Kejriwal at a public rally held to celebrate the "success" of the odd-even scheme yesterday. The incident triggered angry reactions from the AAP government, which alleged a BJP conspiracy behind the attack and assailed the police for the major security lapse. Arora, a resident of Rama Vihar in outer Delhi's Rohini sub-city, was arrested after seeking permission from a duty magistrate in view of the protocol to arrest a woman post sunset. She was produced before a court today which sent her to a one-day police custody. A Delhi court today sent a woman, accused of throwing ink at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a rally here following the completion of government's odd-even experiment, to one-day police custody. Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar remanded Bhavna Arora to police custody till tomorrow after the investigating agency said that her custodial interrogation was required to unearth the truth behind the incident. In closed-door proceedings, the police told the court that 26-year-old Arora's custody was required to investigate whether there were other persons involved in the matter who conspired with her. According to court sources, police said the real motive behind the act was needed to be ascertained and it was required to find out whether the woman was involved in some other cases as well. The advocate appearing for Arora, however, opposed the police's custody plea and sought bail for the accused. The counsel claimed that the offence committed by Arora was not serious and being a woman, she should be released. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal pauses after a member of Aam Aadmi Sena tried to splatter Kejriwal with ink while protesting against the CNG scam at Chhatrasal Stadium. Photo: PTI Arora had thrown ink on Kejriwal when he was addressing a 'thanksgiving' rally at Chhatrasal Stadium here yesterday following the "success" of his government's odd-even experiment, prompting angry reaction from AAP government which termed the incident as a part of "BJP conspiracy". The woman, who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, a splinter group of Delhi's ruling AAP, was later whisked away by police and questioned at the Model Town police station. The woman has claimed that she has "proof in the form of a CD" that "these people have committed CNG scam". The woman, a resident of Rama Vihar in outer Delhi's Rohini sub-city, was booked for alleged offences under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC. Delhi Police is examining a CD that was being waved by Bhavna Arora, the woman who threw ink at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in which she claimed there was material that "indicts" the city government. "We are merely inspecting the CD. If we find any content which might be related to any irregularity, the CD shall be forwarded to the concerned department for investigation," Joint Commissioner of Police (North) Sanjay Singh said. Arora (26), who claims to be the in-charge of Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, continues to be questioned at Model Town police station in northwest Delhi, said an official privy to the investigation. From her interrogation so far, it has emerged that she was not assigned to do what she has done by anyone and had come there on her own. She claims to be a social activist and it is still unclear how she earns a livelihood, said the official. Arora, who is unmarried, is a resident of Rama Vihar area in outer Delhi's Rohini sub-city. The police have also recovered some papers which she had thrown near the dais at the venue, before she was whisked by the police. Arora was arrested in the wee hours today after the police received permission from a magistrate to do so. She soon acquired bail by signing a personal bond and appeared at a court in the morning, which sent her to one day police custody. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Gopal Rai today claimed that the Delhi government has nothing to do with the documents which she threw at the Chief Minister and that they allegedly refer to the Centre. Rai said that the documents belong to Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) which comes under Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Earlier in the day, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and is believed to have briefed him about the incident. After the meeting, he told reporters that "necessary arrangements were made at the venue and there was no lapse in security". When asked about Kejriwal's security, Bassi however did not share details and maintained that adequate security for the Chief Minister has always been in place and it shall continue to be so. Akshay Kumar's upcoming "Airlift" shares the same genre as "Argo" but the superstar says it is an insult to his film when people compare it to the Oscar-winning Hollywood movie as the story is inspired by a real incident. The 48-year-old actor says while the Ben Affleck-starrer chronicled the evacuation of six Americans at the time of Iran hostage crisis, "Airlift" is the story of 1,70,000 Indians who were rescued from Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war. "Saying that our film is copied from 'Argo' is an insult. How can it be a copy when it is a true story? It is not a copy. It is something which you should be proud of. It is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind," Akshay told reporters here. Director Raja Krishna Menon says other than the common theme of evacuation, there is no similarity between his film and the 2012 Hollywood movie. "The only faint link is that some people were saved in a covert operation. Everything else is different. It is only a similar genre. Our film is about the single greatest achievement of independent India. 'Argo' is not in that space," Menon said. The actor says he was not aware of the 1990 incident and only came to know about it when the director gave him the script of "Airlift". "At that time there was only one article about the evacuation. The government did it silently. It is not a matter of joke. When I met those people, they started crying at the mention of it. I was deeply inspired by the story. It shows the greatness of our country." In the film, Akshay plays a businessman Ranjit Katyal, who negotiates with the government to evacuate 1,70,000 Indians stranded in Kuwait and fly them to India. "Airlift" also stars Nimrat Kaur and Purab Kohli. In recent times, Akshay has successfully juggled between commercial potboilers like "Singh is Bliing" and thrillers with patriotic themes like "Baby" and "Holiday". The actor says he loves to keep challenging himself with different roles. "I keep on challenging myself all the time. I want to be in my comfort zone and then try some roles which are challenging for me. 'Singh is Bliing' and 'Housefull 3' are in my comfort zone but this one is not, 'Baby' was not. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has suggested Australian firms to invest in the "lucrative Indian market" stating that India's contribution to global growth would get "bigger and bigger from here". Rajan was talking on a wide range of issues when he asked Australian investors to tap the Indian market now. "If anybody was to look towards a big source of demand in future it would be hard for them to miss India," Rajan said. "If our implementation matches our promise I have no doubt that in the next five or 10 years this will be the place to be so good to get in early". The central bank head said, "I would argue that because of the common language - different accents but common language - I think there could be a lot going on there". Rajan praised the role of Australia's Productivity Commission in developing economic policy. "Clearly there is a lot to learn about how you have used the intellectual inputs, the economic inputs, from that kind of organisation," he said in an interview with Fairfax media. "There are so many places two large economies can learn from each other," he added. When asked about Australian companies, like ANZ and Telstra, which have made promising investments in India in recent decades only to retreat at great cost, Rajan said "I'm not sure it's anybody's fault there have been periods of strong growth and there have been periods where people have thrown in the towel and said it is impossible doing business". Rajan said India needed to improve its infrastructure, human capital (knowledge base of the population), regulations and access to finance. "The gap in India has always been between the promise and the execution," he said. "I think we are in the process of reducing that gap but we've got to keep at it," he added. When asked if he was to consider a leadership role at the IMF in future, Rajan said "I haven't even thought about that. The problems here and the immediacy of dealing with them is so much more interesting at this point". Iran today denounced "illegitimate" new sanctions by the United States on its ballistic missile programme, days after Tehran's historic nuclear deal with world powers was confirmed. "Iran's missile programme has never been designed to be capable of carrying nuclear weapons," foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said, according to the ISNA news agency. He added that Tehran saw fresh economic sanctions as "illegitimate". ALSO READ: All you need to know about lifting of sanctions against Iran The United States announced new penalties on Sunday related to Iran's ballistic missile programme after the lifting of punishing measures aimed at its atomic activities as the deal with world powers was confirmed in Vienna. Five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury announced. "As previously announced, the Islamic republic of Iran responds with determination to such propaganda by accelerating its legal ballistic missile programme and boosting defence capabilities," Ansari said. Iran's long-sidelined reformist movement today demanded a review after only one percent of its parliamentary election candidates were approved, prompting allegations turnout would suffer. The vast rejection of candidates -- monitors said about 60 percent of more than 12,000 would-be MPs were barred -- could damage the credibility and legitimacy of the February 26 ballot, analysts said. Those seeking to become lawmakers in Iran must first be screened by the Guardian Council, a conservative-dominated committee of clerics and jurists, before running. The vetting procedure has been contentious for months, as the poll is an opportunity for reformists and moderate politicians to make gains against a currently dominant conservative camp in parliament. On hearing of the rejections, reformists asked President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric, to intervene and seek changes. Rouhani is hoping his allies can capitalise in the elections after Saturday's implementation of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers lifted longstanding sanctions. Ali Motahari, an outspoken conservative lawmaker, was among incumbents rejected this time round, media reported. "Out of more than 12,000 registered candidates, 4,700 -- or about 40 percent -- were approved," Siamak Rah-Peyk, a spokesman for the Central Elections Supervising Committee was quoted as saying by state television. Hossein Marashi, an official from the reformist camp, was quoted by the Shargh daily as saying that "out of over 3,000 reformist candidates across the country, only 30 have been approved -- only one percent." "In Tehran, only four reformist candidates were approved," he said of the capital, where 30 lawmakers will be elected to the 290-seat parliament. "We are supposed to present a list of 30 candidates. How are we supposed to do that with just four names?" Marashi added. Islamic State militants launched a fresh offensive today, taking advantage of a sandstorm that sharply reduced visibility in eastern Syria and capturing new areas from government forces near the city of Deir el-Zour, opposition activists said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants captured areas just north of the city, including an army base known as the "Saiqa Camp" and parts of arms depots in the village of Ayash. Opposition activist Omar Abu Leila reported that IS fighters had in fact captured the entire Ayash village, which is just north of another town that IS captured over the weekend. The Observatory and Abu Leila, who is from Deir el-Zour but currently lives in Europe, said the sandstorm reduced visibility in Deir el-Zour, giving advantage to IS fighters who pressed their offensive without fear of being hit from the air by Syria's air force, grounded by the bad weather. Over the weekend, IS captured several areas in Deir el-Zour province, killing scores of troops and civilians and capturing hundreds in this province bordering Iraq, according to activists and state media. The extremist group appears to be trying to reverse a string of defeats in Syria and Iraq over the past months. IS controls most of Deir el-Zour province and much of the capital with the same name, while the government controls several districts in the northern part of the city and the adjacent military airport. Most of the casualties in the latest fighting occurred in the area of Baghaliyeh near the city. Syria's government said Sunday that IS killed 300 people in an "appalling massacre" over the weekend in the city of Deir el-Zour. The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Baghaliyeh was the scene of a "bloody massacre committed by the Daesh terrorist organization," referring to IS under its Arabic acronym. The Observatory's chief Rami Abdurrahman said areas under the control of the government in Deir el-Zour city are home to some 200,000 people who have been under siege for months. He added that Monday's fighting left dozens of troops dead or wounded. Israel's Justice Ministry says former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signed a plea bargain in which he will plead guilty to obstruction of justice for pressuring a confidant not to testify in multiple legal cases against him. The Justice Ministry today said Olmert will be sentenced to six months imprisonment, which he will serve concurrent to a separate 18-month prison sentence he received for a bribery scandal. The plea deal will not add additional prison time to the earlier sentence. Olmert is set to report to prison on February 15. He will be the first Israeli leader to go to prison, after Israel's Supreme Court upheld the bribery conviction against him last month. The Justice Ministry says Olmert is appealing the convictions in other legal cases against him. Asserting that economic relationship is the key to developing Indo-Israel ties, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today asked the Jewish state to look beyond trade for building "long-term stakes" in the Indian economy. Swaraj, in her address at an Indian community reception here, said India and Israel are expanding cooperation to new areas such as homeland security, innovation, education and science and technology. Expressing optimism for the future in the growth of bilateral ties, Swaraj said, "to quote your (Israeli) Prime Minister 'sky is the limit' for ties between India and Israel." "We should work towards a new vision of our important partnership, which should reflect our close friendship and harness fully the potential of our two knowledge economies," Swaraj said. Swaraj, who is here on her first visit to the West Asia region, earlier in the day held talks with the top Israeli leadership and discussed a wide-range of bilateral and regional issues. "The economic relationship is the key to developing our bilateral ties. We should move from a trade-based relationship to one that is based on investment, manufacturing and services," Swaraj said in her address. "As you know 'Make in India' is a priority of our government. Our flagship schemes of 'Clean Ganga', 'Smart Cities' or 'Digital India' are all areas of Israeli expertise. We encourage you to look beyond trade to build long term stakes in the Indian economy through investment and joint development of products and services," she said. The Minister said she had "very good" meetings with n President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders today. "All of them expressed to me the importance they attach to Israel's relations with India, as a friend and partner. I wish to assure you that these feelings are reciprocated by the Government and people of India. We attach high priority to India's relations with Israel," she said. Swaraj noted that the bilateral interactions at the political level are also increasing. In this context, she highlighted President Pranab Mukherjee's visit here last year. "This first ever visit by the President of India gave a substantial boost to our bilateral relationship. Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of the full establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries," she said. "I am very happy to be here in Israel. I served as the Chairman of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group for three years during which I also had the pleasure of visiting Israel. I am a personal advocate of strong ties between India and Israel; so I am very happy to see that our relations are progressing so well in all fields of our engagement," she said. Swaraj highlighted that India has always offered the Jewish people a safe and secure home for many centuries. Advocating closer exchanges between the peoples of the two countries, Swaraj said, "We need many more exchanges between our civil societies, parliamentarians, opinion makers and women. Our students should collaborate in scientific research. Our entrepreneurs should build start-ups together." Swaraj also lauded the Indian Jewish community and the friends of India gathered at the reception as she congratulated the Indian caregivers who "are performing very commendable service far away from their homes and families". "I also convey my good wishes to the Indian men serving in the UN Disengagement Observer Force. India has always been an important actor in the United Nations and we will continue our role," she said. Swaraj said India and Israel had walked a "long distance" together in the short time since the full establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992. "We have developed close cooperation in critical areas such as agriculture and defence. Indian farmers and soldiers know Israel well because of its innovative technologies. We should also create conditions that stimulate the flow of knowledge in both directions," she said. Noting that India and Israel are among the "most vibrant democracies in the world", Swaraj said yet they do not know enough about how each other's societies work. Praising the Indian diaspora, Swaraj said, "India is very proud of its large diaspora. Wherever Indians go they have become model citizens in their adopted countries." "They are hardworking, sincere and community-minded. They are the most preferred expatriate community in the Gulf region. The Indian Jewish community in Israel is no different and it always pleases me to see how well they have done here," she said. "We would like to see more and more Indian Jews becoming active catalysts in building ties between India and Israel," she said. "We have always viewed Israel as an important regional country and share the belief that our partnership will be strengthened further in future," she concluded. Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith has raised the question of whether or not people of colour should boycott the Oscars after this year's nominations once again failed to recognise non-white actors and directors. When the nominations were announced the hashtag #Oscarssowhite immediately began trending with the Academy being accused of ignoring non-white performers in the major categories, reported Fox . "At the Oscars... People of colour are always welcomed to give out awards... Even entertain," Pinkett-Smith tweeted. "But we are rarely recognised for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of colour refrain from participating all together? People can only treat us in the way in which we allow. With much respect in the midst of deep disappointment." Other names to controversially miss out on a best actor nomination include Idris Elba who starred in "Beasts of No Nation" and Michael B Jordan for "Creed". Jordan's "Creed" co-star Sylvester Stallone received a best supporting actor nod, which fuelled some people's belief that non-white actors were purposefully overlooked. Jailed Maldivian opposition leader and former President Mohamed Nasheed left the country today for urgent medical treatment in Britain after a delay caused by a legal dispute with the government, his party said. Nasheed was originally due to leave on Sunday in line with a deal brokered by diplomats from neighbouring India and Sri Lanka as well as former colonial power Britain. But the former leader refused a government request to leave a relative behind to act as a guarantor liable to prosecution if he failed to return to serve the rest of his 13-year sentence, leading to a tense back and forth over conditions. One of his lawyers, Jared Genser, said Nasheed had spoken with the US Secretary of State by telephone at Male airport shortly before he boarded a Sri Lankan airlines flight to Colombo before transiting to Britain. "Nasheed on a call with US Secretary of State John Kerry," Genser said in a tweet containing a photo of Nasheed. It was not clear what they discussed, but Kerry had previously criticised the administration of strongman President Abdulla Yameen during a visit to neighbouring Sri Lanka last year. Kerry described democracy as "under threat in the Maldives" at the time, saying Nasheed was imprisoned without due process. Nasheed was convicted on terrorism charges in 2015 relating to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012, when he was still in power. Lawyers for Nasheed have hit out at the government for delaying treatment on his spinal cord, but his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has agreed to an amended condition of providing a relative to communicate Nasheed's whereabouts while abroad. "President Nasheed told members of his family that he wasn't prepared to put their freedom in jeopardy in order to secure his own," the MDP said in a statement. The Maldivian government in a statement insisted that all legal formalities had been followed before Nasheed was allowed to leave. "It is standard procedure for any prisoner who applies to travel abroad, for medical treatment, to sign a guarantee," Maldivian Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said in a statement. "I am glad all relevant legal documentation is completed. Janata Dal (U) today criticized the stand of the Attorney General that Algarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia are not minority institutions while Congress voiced its reservation of the move. Government, however, said that the rights of minority institutions will be protected. Attorney General (AG) Mukul Rohatgi had told the Supreme Court last week that in the opinion of the government, AMU is not a minority institution. He said as the executive government at the Centre, it can't be seen as setting up a minority institution in a secular state. Later, in an opinion tendered to the HRD Ministry, he had said that the Jamia Millia Islamia was set up by a central Act and hence it cannot be termed as a minority institution. Slamming the move, JD (U) General Secretary K C Tyagi alleged it was an attempt to polarise Uttar Pradesh ahead of assembly elections in the state next year. Congress spokesperson R P N Singh voiced his party's reservation on the move and said "status quo should be maintained as far as the current status of these institutions is concerned." He said Congress is against changing the minority status of the two institutions. Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, while skirting the issue of AMU and JMI, said the rights of minority institutions in the country would be protected and their interests will not be hurt. He said that since the issue of AMU's minority status is already in the apex court, it would be better if the debate on the issue takes place in the courtroom. (Reopen DEL60) "It is a clear attempt to polarise voters of UP as elections are due there. We are with AMU and JMI in their fight to retain their minority status...AMU came into being before India became a Republic. How can the governmernt today say it is not a minoriuty institution," Tyagi told The husband of a ruling Janata Dal(U) MLA, who was arrested for allegedly threatening a witness in a case of murder, escaped from the lock-up when she visited the police station here, Purnea Senior Superintendent of Police Nishant Kumar Tiwari said today. The incident took place last night at Maranga police station where Awdesh Mandal, the husband of JD(U) MLA Bima Bharti, was in the lock-up, he said. The Nitish Kumar government today once again came under attack of the opposition over two incidents involving its MLAs. Eyewitnesses said the escape took place when the legislator, along with Purnea MP Santosh Kushwaha, was in the police station and hundreds of supporters of Mandal surrounded the police station to help him flee. Asked to comment on the presence of MLA and MP at the time of the escape, the SSP said it would be probed. Sub Divisional Police Officer of Banmakhi, Kundan Kumar, would probe the escape, the SSP said. Criticising the state government in connection with the incident, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi asked whether the "attack on a police station by supporters of husband of a JD(U) MLA was not a case of free run to criminals". Former chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi assailed Kumar over the incident and said his "claim of tightening law and order is dishonesty. Over 10,000 jewellers today hit the roads across the country to protest the government's decision to make quoting of PAN mandatory for transactions worth Rs 2 lakh and above. They threatened to go on a strike if this rule, which the jewellers claimed has adversely affected their sales and put many out of business, is not scrapped. The rule came into effect from January 1. "Candle light marches were held in over 200 cities across the country by jewellers. We will continue to protest in some form or other, like silent march or candle light march, for a week or 10 days against the government's decision to make PAN card a must for transactions worth Rs 2 lakh," All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) Director Ashok Minawala told PTI here. More than 10,000 jewellers took part in the protest march, he said. If, Minawala said, the government does not respond positively to their demand, the jewellers across the country will go on a strike in 10-15 days. GJF representatives, Minawala said, met Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and submitted a representation on the issue. "We hope the government is committed and believes in improving ease of doing business and removing hurdles. We believe the Government will take steps for the betterment of the jewellery industry as a whole. We are expecting positive response from the Government," he added. GJF has urged the Government to raise the PAN card threshold for consumers purchasing jewellery to Rs 10 lakh and above, which will be a big respite for the industry, he said. He claimed already 20-30 per cent of jewellers are out of business after the implementation of the PAN card rule. A former judge, who was an accused in a cash-for-bail case allegedly involving former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, was found dead under suspicious circumstances at his residence here, police said today. "D Prabhakar Rao was found dead by his son and wife yesterday morning," T Laxmi Narayana, inspector of police Tukaramget said. "Rao was alone at home on Saturday night. When his family members returned home next morning, they found him lying motionless on a sofa," he added. Police received the information about his death and registered a case under suspicious death and sent the body for post mortem, Narayana said. In July 2012, ACB had arrested Prabhakar Rao, a Family Court-cum-3rd Additional district and sessions judge of Srikakulam, along with another serving judge, K Lakshminarasimha Rao. They were released on bail later. Both the judges were suspended by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the cash-for-bail scam. The duo had allegedly struck a deal for Rs 10 crore to get Gali Janardhan Reddy bail in a case filed against the former Karnataka minister by CBI. The case was brought to light by CBI in May 2012 after the Additional Special Judge for CBI court Pattabhirama Rao granted bail to Janardhan Reddy. Prabhakar Rao had allegedly contacted Pattabhirama Rao for facilitating bail to the former Karnataka minister. Delhi Police have arrested a 32-year-old man from Haryana's Mewat district, suspected to be a key operative of al Qaeda who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan, making it the fifth arrest in its ongoing operation against the terror outfit. "The accused, Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said today. Sami, a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, said a senior police official. Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS) and sent for training. While Sami has been arrested, the other two -- identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, said the official. He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns. Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan. During interrogation, it had earlier emerged that Yusuf was also in touch with Mohammed Asif, who is believed to be one of the founding members and the head (amir) of AQIS's motivation, recruitment and training wing and Abdul Rahman, the official said. Asif's was the first arrest in the operation. He was nabbed from Seelampur in northeast Delhi, followed by the arrests of Rahman and alleged financier of the module, Zafar Masood, arrested from mohalla Deepa Sarai in UP's Sambhal district in December 2015. On January 6, the Special Cell had arrested Maulana Anzar Shah, a cleric from Bangalore, for alleged links with AQIS. He was allegedly asked provide logistical support whenever the need arose, police said. They were all booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A Kashmiri Pandit organisation has decided to observe 2016 as the year of 'Reminiscence of Culture' and announced that Bollywood actor Rahul Bhat will be the ambassador for the initiative. "Celebrations will be held on September 19 while 2016 would be observed as the year of cultural reminiscence," President of Pir Panchal Organisation and head of Radio Sharda, Ramesh Hangloo, told reporters here today. "The task has been given to Pir Panchal and Vemadh organisations and actor Rahul Bhat will be its international ambassador," he said. Flanked by Rahul Bhat and theatre person Rohit Bhat, Hangloo said, "We will take up two of the major demands of Kashmiri Pandits with the Government of India: that Sharda shrine in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is declared as heritage site under UNESCO so that people from across the world may visit it." Further, he said that a cave in Budgam district where Abhinavgupt, "one of the great scholars of Kashmir", lived in the last phase of his life should be declared a national monument. "Abhinavgupt was one of the great scholars of Kashmir. He has excelled in spreading the knowledge of Kashmir. "Abhinavgupt stayed in the last phase of his life in a cave in Budgam and this cave in Budgam district should be declared a national monument," Hangloo said. Representatives of four countries gathered amid tight security in the Afghan capital Kabul today for a second round of talks aimed at bringing an end to Afghanistan's 15-year war with the Taliban by charting a roadmap to peace. Senior officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States would meet for one day, a week after a first round of discussions in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said Shekib Mostaghni, the Afghan Foreign Ministry's spokesman. Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani opened the meeting at the Presidential Palace in the center of the capital calling on the Taliban to "accept the government's call for peace through dialogue." "There isn't a single Afghan family that hasn't been affected by the daily acts of brutal and deadly terrorism carried out across our cities, towns, and villages," Rabbani said in the televised speech. "I take this opportunity and call on all Taliban groups to accept our call for peace through dialogue, and to come to the table for talks so that we can resolve all differences politically and ensure the rightful and just desire of the Afghan people for lasting peace," he said. The meeting which does not include Taliban representatives is part of a three-step process, said Abdul Hakim Mujahid of Kabul's High Peace Council, set up by former President Hamid Karzai to bring about an end to the war. Mujahid also served in the Taliban's 1996-2001 administration. "The first step is to formulate a roadmap, the second is to invite the armed opposition to the negotiating table and the last step is the implementation of the peace plan," Mujahid told The Associated Press. Analysts have said it will be months before even the second stage bringing the Taliban into direct dialogue with Kabul is reached. Meanwhile, the insurgents are stepping up their war against Kabul, as Afghan forces fight largely without the support of international troops after the U.S. And NATO combat mission drawdown at the end of 2014. This is seen as an attempt to boost legitimacy on the battlefield so the Taliban can enter any peace talks from a position of strength. Independent analyst Haroun Mir said the talks also aimed to build trust between Afghanistan and Pakistan as "President Ghani has said first peace with Pakistan and then the Taliban." After spending much of the first year of his presidency attempting to mend fences with Pakistan and cajole Islamabad into ending its alleged support for the Taliban in cities close to the Afghan border, Ghani sent bilateral relations into a chill after a series of deadly attacks in Kabul that he blamed on Pakistani-sponsored insurgent groups. Pakistan has denied accusations that it supports the Taliban on its soil. In a welcome response to Delhi government's appeal for non-endorsement of pan masala, actor Sunny Leone has informed that she will not sign any future contracts for endorsement of such products. According to Health Department officials, Sunny Leone's husband Daniel Weber contacted the Delhi government to inform them that the actor will "cooperate" in the interest of public health. "I received a call from Daniel Weber and he has promised that in future she will not sign any contract for such kind of advertisements. "But regarding the present contact they are not sure as they will talk to the company and then inform. I expect that the rest of the Bollywood stars will also come forward and cooperate in public health interest," said S K Arora, Additional Director (Health). The Delhi government has written to Bollywood actors Ajay Devgan, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Govinda, Arbaaz Khan along with Sunny Leone, urging them not to endorse pan masala products as they contain areca nuts, a potential cancer causing agent. The Delhi government has also asked the actors to join its anti-tobacco campaign to save the lives of lakhs of people who die due to oral cancer every year. "You are the role model for youngsters, they watch you and your lifestyle and habits and try to adopt it. These advertisements attract the vulnerable population, especially, children and females very strategically and are directly and indirectly responsible for the increasing trends of tobacco use among youngsters and females in India. "I humbly request you to not participate in pan masala or any other similar advertisements which are harming our society especially the younger generations. Rather, I request you to join us in anti-tobacco campaign to save lakhs of preventable deaths," Arora had said in the letter. According to experts, areca nuts, the main ingredient in pan masala, is in the league of caffeine, tobacco and alcohol when it comes to addictive properties and also leads to a high number of cases of submucous fibrosis, which can easily turn cancerous. Congress today came down hard on moves suggesting lifting the 55-year-old ban on the deadly Khesari dal telling the Narendra Modi dispensation that it was playing with health of crores of unsuspecting Indians. "By introducing Keshari Dal, the government is playing with health of crores of unsuspecting Indians, rather than working on its promise of ushering in a Protein Revolution", party spokesman RPN Singh told reporters. Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, he said, when Modiji spoke of bringing about a Yellow Revolution, Protein and Dalhan Kranti, he was thinking about paralysing the lower limbs of people of India. Khesari dal was banned in 1961 for what scientists and medical experts had then said could cause lathyrism a condition which could lead to paralysis of the lower body and even cause numbness in the limbs and spine. "Have all concerns associated with the Khesari Dal being addressed or is that a consultation with and assurance by Nitin Gadkari, as reported in the media, has led the government to experiment and play with the health of people of thjis country?" he asked. Singh also utilised the occasion to target the Centre and Uttar Pradesh government over the plight of sugarcane growers in the state. He said the decision of the UP Government not to raise the prices of sugarcane for the third year in a row has come as a bolt from the blue for the hapless cane grower. He said that sugar mills owe more than Rs 3,000 crore arrears to cane growers. He latched on to a tweet made by Modi just two months before becoming the Prime Minister to target him over his "big promises" to the farmer during the poll campaign. "UP is blessed with many rivers but farmers are troubled. Lives of sugarcane farmers, who themselves sweeten lives of other, are bitter. Why?", Modi had asked in a tweet in March 2014. Lincoln Pharmaceuticals shares received severe drubbing today, falling by 20 per cent, after the firm said its highest selling Chloramphenicol Sodium Succinate injection has been banned in Tanzania and the company's registration has also been cancelled there. Following this, shares of the company plunged 19.96 per cent to settle at Rs 179.20 on BSE - its lowest trading permissible limit for the day. At NSE, shares of the company tumbled 20 per cent to close at Rs 179.25. Chloramphenicol Sodium Succinate Injection is an antibiotic used to treat serious bacterial infections. "Lincoln Pharmaceuticals Ltd is exporting medicines to many African countries... One of the highest selling product is Chloramphenicol Sodium Succinate injection. "Tanzania drug Authority (TFDA) has banned import of this product and company's registration has been cancelled," the company said in a regulatory filing. It further said: "In this circumstance a huge quantity dispatched to Tanzania has (been) kept on hold there and the authority has issued a notice to destroy the product." However, the Ahmedabad-based firm did not specify the reason why its product has been banned in the African nation. The 89th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All India Marathi literary convention) which concluded at Pimpri near here today demanded that the government must ensure "fearless and promising atmosphere" for the freedom of speech in the country. Valedictory function saw the convention condemning the murders of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar, CPM leader Govind Pansare and Kannada writer M M Kalburgi. A resolution passed during the function said the central and the state governments should ensure "fearless and promising atmosphere" so that freedom of speech is not attacked. President of this year's convention Dr Sripal Sabnis sought immediate measures to stop farmer suicides in Maharashtra. The customary resolution on the border dispute between Maharashtra and Karnataka was proposed by Shiv Sena leader Nilam Gorhe who sought justice for Marathi-speaking people living in Belgam, Bidar, Nipani and other border towns in Karnataka. The convention demanded that the state government send a proposal to Central government seeking 'classical language' status for Marathi. Education Minister Vinod Tawde said the state government was committed to perusing this demand. Sabnis, in his closing address, said the border issue with Karnataka should be settled out of the court. "There is a BJP-led government in the state (Maharashtra) and at the Centre. The government can declare the disputed area as a union territory," he said. Meanwhile, outside the convention venue, the police detained some 30 youths who staged a protest over alleged suicide of Rohit Vemula, a Dalit PhD student at the Hyderabad Central University. London's most venerable taxi school that has trained thousands of black-cab drivers for over 30 years has won a reprieve, thanks to an agreement with the London Taxi Company (LTC). Knowledge Point was expected to go out of business at the end of last year when its premises in Islington were being redeveloped to make way for luxury flats. "We were 10 days away from closing completely, we couldn't afford the rent in central London, so their offer before Christmas was well received," Malcolm Linskey, founder of the taxi school, was quoted as saying by The Guardian. He said the company considered moving to Leytonstone, in east London, but it was too far away from the city centre. All London black-cab drivers have to complete "the knowledge", an encyclopaedic accumulation of detail about the British capital's streets. It can take up to four years to learn the 25,000 roads within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross, usually on a motor scooter in all weathers. The trainees spend hundreds of hours drawing lines on laminated maps of the city, working out the most direct routes from one destination to another. The school, which opened in 1983, has seen 9,000 black cab drivers graduate to London's roads. Given Knowledge Point's crucial role in teaching cabbies, LTC, the maker of the famous black cab, has thrown the school a lifeline. From today, Knowledge Point classes will be held at LTC's Brewery road dealership, a few yards from its former location. "We are extremely pleased to be able to help keep Knowledge Point open," said Peter Johansen, chief executive of LTC. "The knowledge is a proud tradition among London black- cab drivers, and still as relevant today as ever before. This intensive training sets them apart from minicab drivers, making them indispensable to London and the UK, and provides highly skilled professional jobs for 25,000 taxi drivers in London." LTC, which has a manufacturing plant in Coventry and London, needed to be rescued in 2013, when it was acquired by Geely, the Chinese carmaker that held a 20 per cent stake in the firm before it collapsed. LTC ran into problems after having to recall 500 TX4 black cabs over a steering box fault amid mounting losses at the group. Pop diva Madonna angered fans in Kentucky after showing up three hours late for her Rebel Heart concert. Many concertgoers voiced their displeasure on Twitter after the "Like A Prayer" star hit the stage in Louisville, accusing the 57-year-old of being late and possibly drunk during her show. "Madonna is drunk and yelling at the Yum Center managers from stage," a fan wrote, while another added, "This concert experience has been one of the weirdest in my life. I'm pretty sure Madonna is hammered drunk on stage." Another attendee also wrote, "Madonna was, like, drunk tonight... Haha will show her speech, soo funny, she couldn't remember lyrics, choreography and said she feels drunk," while one fan added, "the worst show I've ever been to. It's a blatant act of disrespect for Madonna to be over 2.5 hours later (sic) to her show." Madonna has not commented on the reports directly, but she has posted a picture of herself from the show, laying down on the stage, with the cryptic caption: "Working on my stand up laying down (picture of wine glasses) good practice!!! Thanks Louisville! the tears of a clown soon to follow the (heart) #rebelheartour". BJP is likely to field former Congress MLA Narayan Tripathi, who joined the state's ruling party during 2014 Lok Sabha polls, for coming Maihar assembly by-election. The bypoll is scheduled to take place on February 13. "Although official announcement will be made by the party's election committee soon, we all are of the opinion that Tripathi should be BJP's candidate from Maihar as he has joined the party after resigning as a Congress legislator for strengthening BJP during last Lok Sabha elections," state BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan told reporters. Replying to a query on why those who had defected from other parties would be given ticket instead of hardcore party workers, Chouhan said that "in order to spread its wings, BJP has to encompass all those who are capable in its fold." The by-poll in Maihar will be held on February 13 while the counting of votes will take place on February 16. Replying to Congress' allegations that whenever BJP comes to power in the state, there is a spurt in incidents of communal violence, he said "it is a Congress' ploy to defame BJP." The state unit chief also highlighted party's recent victory in Ujjain Dugdh Sahakari Sangh (cooperative dairy federation) elections, which it has won from Congress after 35 years. Meanwhile, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) announced former MLA Ram Lakhan Singh Patel as the party's candidate for the Maihar by-poll. "The announcement to field Patel from Maihar was made by BSP President, Mayawati," a party release said. Samajwadi Party (SP) named Ram Niwas Urmalia as its nominee for the byelection, a party source said. Although Congress is yet to make an announcement to this effect, it is likely to field Manish Patel. He had quit BSP to join Congress. As BSP candidate, Patel had bagged over 40,000 votes in 2013 Maihar assembly polls but lost to Congress' Narayan Tripathi. BJP had lured Tripathi into its fold just ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha poll. The by-poll was necessitated as Tripathi had resigned from his seat to join BJP. The Maldives government today said it was "disappointed" that jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed would not travel to Britain for surgery after he rejected a demand for a relative to guarantee his return. The government had said Nasheed, whose conviction last year on terror-related charges has been widely criticised, could travel to Britain for 30 days to receive urgent spinal cord surgery. He was due to leave late yesterday under a deal brokered by diplomats from India, Sri Lanka and Britain, but his lawyer accused the government of introducing the "illegal" last-minute condition. "The government reneged on the agreed deal at the last minute, demanding a close family member of Nasheed remain in Male, effectively as a hostage, until he returns from the UK," Hassan Latheef told AFP. "If Nasheed does anything that will breach the terms of the agreement by the government, the family member could then be criminally prosecuted," Latheef said. "This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous." The foreign ministry said the law required any prisoner requesting treatment abroad to sign a document committing to return which must be co-signed by a guarantor. In a tweet, it said the government was "disappointed by the refusal of former president Nasheed to travel to UK for surgery, as requested by himself". Home Minister Umar Naseer told reporters Nasheed would only be allowed to travel if he provided a guarantor for his return to serve the remainder of his 13-year jail sentence. "This is not holding someone hostage," Naseer said. "It is appointing a guardian until the inmate returns to (the) Maldives." Nasheed, 48, became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2008 and served for four years before he was toppled in what he called a coup backed by the military and police. Last year he was sentenced to 13 years in jail on terrorism charges relating to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012, when he was still in power. The United Nations has said his trial was seriously flawed and he should be released and compensated for wrongful detention. But hardline President Abdulla Yameen has refused to accept the UN ruling and is resisting international pressure to release Nasheed. The country's prisons chief Mohamed Husham announced at the weekend that Nasheed had been granted 30 days' leave from prison to receive surgery for a spinal cord problem that requires specialist treatment. The government initially said Nasheed could have the procedure on the tiny archipelago, but then agreed to allow him to travel to Britain for treatment. Growing salinity in water is all set to destroy much of the mangrove vegetation in the Sunderbans in next few decades which would lead to a rise in human-animal conflict, according to a survey. The rising salinity and vanishing mangrove plant species such as Sundari would badly hit the Royal Bengal tiger and its main source of food - the deer, the report 'Impact of Sea Level Rise on Mangrove Vegetation of Sunderban Tiger Reserve' by former principal chief conservator of forest Atanu Raha said. The study was conducted in collaboration with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad. The data for last 15 years has also been analysed in the study. "The most important outcome of the survey is faster degradation of mangrove vegetation in the northern/central zones of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (STR) and faster degradation of mangrove density in the western zone of the reserve," Raha told PTI. The study also brought out the fact that most of the dense mangrove forest will degrade into less dense, open mangrove forest by the turn of 2050, he said adding it also predicts an enhanced human-wildlife/ tiger-human conflict threatening the long term conservation of the highly endangered Bengal tiger population in the world's largest delta. The study also indicates a real-time threat to the tiger reserve due to global warming and calls for more pro-active action towards conservation of the Bengal tiger and its ecosystem in Indian Sundarbans. According to Raha trees like Sundari, Byne, Keora, will vanish from the Sunderbans in the years to come due to rise in salinity affecting the deer population as it feeds on the leaves of these trees. The report stated that the increase in salinity and loss of land would also result in depletion of species like Sonneratia apetala, adversely affecting the spotted deer population. "The fall in deer population will lead to shortage of food for the big cats, which would then stray into surrounding villages in search of food," he said. The tigers would frequently stray into the island-villages in search of easy food like domestic cattle, the report said. The impact of salinity on mangroves has been proved conclusively by the lowering mangrove biomass and replacement of low salinity tolerant mangrove species with high salinity tolerant mangrove species. These species are not the preferred food of herbivores. Raha said the threat to mangrove forests will also pose a threat for Kolkata during cyclones and storms. "The presence of Sunderbans has traditionally acted as a shield for Kolkata from cyclones that originate in the Bay of Bengal. So if mangroves are under threat, Kolkata too is under threat during cyclones," he said. The Sunderbans mangrove ecosystem in the deltaic complex of Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers is shared between India and Bangladesh and is the world's largest coastal wetland. The total inhabited area in the Sunderbans has a population of more than 4 million (2011 census) and the rest comprising 48 islands are reserved forest. The mangrove Sunderbans region is about 9630 sq km comprising 102 islands and the survey was carried out in 54 of them to explore the impact of global warming and sea level rise on the Sundarbans estuary. A Sri Lankan-born man went on trial in Germany today charged with membership of the rebel group the Tamil Tigers which Germany considers a terrorist organisation. The 53-year-old German national, identified only as Yogendran G by the court, is accused of having raised funds from 2007-2009 for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in and around the northern city of Hamburg. The LTTE committed a string of attacks against civilian targets and national infrastructure during the country's decades-long civil war that killed more than 100,000 people and ended in 2009 when government forces crushed the rebels. Prosecutors in the Hamburg court said the man raised more than 81,000 euros (USD 88,000) for combat and terrorist activities including suicide attacks by the LTTE in its campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the South Asian country. The accused, who said he had been a German citizen since 2007, did not speak in his defence on the opening day of the trial, which was scheduled to run until March 7. Israeli security forces today hunted for a Palestinian suspect accused of breaking into a family's home and stabbing an Israeli woman to death in the occupied West Bank. Another stabbing occurred today in a separate West Bank settlement, wounding a 30-year-old woman. The Palestinian assailant was shot by security personnel and taken to hospital after the attack in Tekoa south of Jerusalem, with conflicting reports on his condition. While yesterday's killing was part of a months-long wave of violence, it was the first inside a Jewish settlement home, provoking fears that the attacks were worsening and that Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled further security measures today, pledging to "strengthen the communities" after the deadly stabbing in the Otniel settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. "Whoever tries to harm us, we will bring him to justice," Netanyahu said. "In the end he will be found and he will pay the full price." Israel's military confirmed it was searching for the suspect but declined to provide further details. It also said Palestinians who work in settlements in the Hebron area were not allowed in today. The woman killed was identified as Dafna Meir, a 38-year-old nurse and mother of six. At least some of her children, aged four to 17, were home at the time, but were not hurt. She was being buried in Jerusalem today. Her death brought the toll in the recent violence to 24 Israelis and 155 Palestinians killed since October 1. Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli forces during protests and clashes. Israel's government has come under heavy pressure over the spate of attacks, and yesterday's killing was likely to further raise tensions. Some analysts say the attacks have been in part driven by frustration with the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the fractured Palestinian leadership. Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media has been a main cause of the violence. Congress today burnt an effigy of Mayor Sovan Chatterjee in protest against alleged granting of trade license to ponzi scheme company Rose Valley Group by Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). At least 33 persons, including two women, were arrested following a scuffle with police during the demonstration in front of KMC headquarter here, a Kolkata Police official said here. Congress councillor Prakash Upadhyay, who led the demonstration against the granting of license to Rose Valley Group, was also arrested. Reacting to the protests, Chatterjee said these were "baseless allegations." Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) and is currently in judicial remand. Upadhyay had earlier alleged that the Mayor granted trade licenses to chitfund company Saradha Group. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has deferred a discussion on the recent terror attack on the Pathankot air base after it was told that probe into the incident was at a crucial stage and can't be deliberated at this stage. The decision came after the Home Ministry sought more time to brief the members of the Parliament attached to the Ministry about the January 2 terrorist attack. "The Union Home Secretary (Rajiv Mehrishi) has informed that the Home Ministry is not in a position to brief the Standing Committee on the terror attack on Pathankot air base. Hence we have discussed today about the recent floods in Chennai," CPI leader D Raja told PTI. The Pathankot incident may be taken up for discussion by the Standing Committee in its next meeting expected to be held on January 27. Seven security personnel were killed and several others were injured when six militants, suspected to be of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, stormed the Pathankot air base on January 2. In the gun fight, which lasted for three days, all six terrorists were also killed. Leaflets outlining the benefits of remaining in the EU will appear in millions of letter boxes in England this week as a possible agreement on the reforms demanded by Britain begins to take shape. Some 10 million brochures will be sent around England -- the part of Britain where opposition to the European Union is at its highest -- by Britain Stronger in Europe, the campaign group leading the movement to stay in. Among the mostly economic arguments made in the leaflets are the jobs created by EU membership, greater consumer choice, lower prices as well as the investment coming from other European countries. "UK businesses can create more jobs in Europe than out on their own," Karren Brady, a businesswoman and a board member of the campaign group, is quoted as saying in the leaflet. The EU "also provides access to global markets through free trade agreements with more than 50 countries around the world," she said. Hugh Orde, a former senior British police officer, also talks about security advantages of staying in the EU saying: "The threats we face today are global in nature -- whether it is ISIS (the Islamic State group), cyber-crime, a more assertive Russia or even climate change." Prime Minister David Cameron has outlined a series of demands to reform Britain's relationship with the EU and has said he will campaign in favour of staying in if he is successful, in a referendum to be held by the end of 2017. Most experts expect the vote to be held later this year and the campaigns for and against have heated up in recent days. London and Brussels say they are optimistic about the possibility of a deal with Britain at the EU summit in February. According to a poll this weekend that excluded undecided voters, 53 per cent of Britons are in favour of leaving the EU. Around 60 percent of would-be candidates for Iran's parliamentary vote in February including many reformists have been rejected by the authorities, official media reported today. "Out of more than 12,000 registered candidates, 4,700 -- or about 40 percent -- were approved," Siamak Rah-Peyk, a spokesman for the Central Elections Supervising Committee was quoted as saying by state television. The committee is dependent on the Guardian Council, a panel of conservative clerics and jurists, to vet registered candidates and oversee the elections. Reformist parties have protested against the rejections. "Out of over 3,000 reformist candidates across the country, only 30 have been approved -- only one percent," Hossein Marashi, an official from the reformist camp, was quoted as saying in the Shaugh daily. "In Tehran, only four reformist candidates were approved," he said. The capital has 30 representatives in Iran's 290-member parliament. "We are supposed to present a list of 30 candidates," Marashi said. "How are we supposed to do that with just four names?" The Reformists' High Council for Elections on Monday called for the Guardian Council to revise its decision and asked President Hassan Rouhani to intervene. "We are concerned that such a trend of extensive rejections of reformist and pro-government candidates might lead to people's reduced participation in the elections," it said in a statement, according to the official IRNA agency. "We expect the Guardian Council to ... Revise the disqualifications and we ask the president -- in charge of implementing the constitution -- to interact with decision makers and act to fix the current problem." Rouhani said Sunday that he would "use his powers as president" to try to change the opinion of the Guardian Council. The ISNA agency Monday quoted Elham Aminzadeh, the vice president for legal affairs, as saying Rouhani would "negotiate" with the Guardian Council "to defend the rights of the rejected (candidates) in case mistakes were made". The International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based road safety body, has urged MPs and MLAs to use their funds for reducing accident black spots in their constituencies. "The MPs/MLAs, in a show of responsibility towards their area, as a part of the development work, need to encourage and focus on road safety.... As per the current provisions, the development funds under MPLAD can be used for construction of footpaths, pedestrian ways," IRF said in a statement. It said Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) could work in this regard in association with local bodies for removal of accident-prone spots. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has identified 726 black spots on National Highways and has announced a Rs 11,000 crore fund to rectify these accident prone areas. "India accounts for more than 10 per cent of the total fatal road accidents world wide. The data on road accidents shows that during 2014 about 1.41 lakh people lost their lives in 4.5 lakh road accidents and about 4.8 lakh got injured," IRF Chairman KK Kapila said. The fatality rate had recorded a 3 per cent jump in comparison to 2013. India being a signatory to the UN General Assembly, which recognised the clear impact of road accidents on global health, adopted 2011-2020 as the UN Decade of Action for road fatalities and accordingly has set a target to reduce them by 50 per cent by 2020, Kapila said. Pakistan's former dictator General Pervez Musharraf was today acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the 2006 murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, the first major relief to the ex-military ruler entangled in several high-profile cases. Bugti led a tribal campaign to win political autonomy for resource-rich Balochistan, Pakistan's biggest province. He was killed in a military operation on the orders of then president and army chief Musharraf in the restive province in 2006. Musharraf ordered the military crackdown in Balochistan in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the southwestern province. 72-year-old Musharraf, who also faces treason charges, was charged with the murder in January last year on the grounds he ordered Bugti's killing. The court in Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti's eldest son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, the Dawn reported. "They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free," Rajput said. "We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it," Rajput told reporters outside court. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti's killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Balochistan nationalists have accused Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, of exploiting their natural resources. Two co-accused - Musharraf's then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan - were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. He came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost. He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year. Musharraf has also been charged in connection with the 2007 assassination of prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the killing of a radical cleric in Islamabad in a military crackdown. A Bangladeshi-origin Muslim man has been brutally assaulted in the US by teenagers who shouted "ISIS, ISIS" and started beating him in front of his 9-year-old niece in an apparent hate crime. Mujibur Rahman, who was wearing traditional Muslim attire when he was attacked in front of his horrified niece in the Bronx, New York, was walking her home from Bronx school. Two people believed to be teenagers attacked him on Friday, Rahman told NY1 channel. "They said ISIS, ISIS and they started to hit me," Rahman was quoted as saying. Those terrifying moments left him bruised and battered, his eye still swollen from the beating he endured. His niece, physically unhurt, is now afraid to go outside. "She (my niece) could not sleep at night," the victim said. "She said she didn't want to go back to school anymore. Really in fear." The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating and trying to find those responsible. "This particular man never hurt anyone. He has no connection to ISIS and for him to be attacked this way is something that we have to stop. We cannot tolerate it, no matter what our faiths and our beliefs are," Bronx Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda was quoted as saying. In recent months, Muslims across the country have been on edge and fearful they will be blamed for the violent terrorist attacks staged by supporters of ISIS, also known as the Islamic State militant group. Rahman said he is recovering but hoped the people who hurt him are quickly brought to justice. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said that need of the hour is to run sugar co-operative factories with a spirit of co-operative movement. "If the co-operative sector is uprooted, monopoly of the private sector will be created, resulting in losses for farmers," Fadnavis said after after inaugurating the 'crushing season' of the Vasantdada Patil co-operative sugar factory at Vithewadi in the district. "The need of the hour is to run co-operative sugar factories with feelings of co-operative movement," he said. "If both the co-operative and private sectors works simultaneously, competition in good quality of production will increase and farmers and members (of sugar factories) will benefit from the situation," he said. According to the Chief Minister, last year his government had provided financial assistance of Rs 2,000 crore to sugar factories. "But this year, sugar is getting good prices. If sugar factories will runs positively, members and farmers will get benefit," he said. State Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan, Minister of State for Co-operation Dada Bhuse and other BJP MPs and MLAs were present on the occasion. A new app that uses an algorithm could help doctors to better identify women at risk of giving birth prematurely, scientists say. QUiPP, developed by researchers at King's College London, was tested in two studies of high-risk women being monitored at ante-natal clinics. The app uses an algorithm which combines the gestation of previous pregnancies and the length of the cervix with levels of foetal fibronectin to classify a woman's risk. The first study focused on women deemed to be at high risk of preterm birth, usually because of a previous early pregnancy, despite not showing any symptoms. The second study predicted the likelihood of early delivery in a group of women showing symptoms of early labour which often does not progress to real labour. In the first study, researchers collected data from 1,249 women at high risk for pre-term birth attending pre-term surveillance clinics. The model was developed on the first 624 consecutive women and validated on the subsequent 625. The estimated probability of delivery before 30, 34 or 37 weeks' gestation and within two or four weeks of testing for foetal fibronectin was calculated for each patient and analysed as a predictive test for the actual occurrence of each event. In the second study, data from 382 high-risk women was collected. The model was developed on the first 190 women and validated on the remaining 192. In both studies, the app was found to perform well as a predictive tool, and far better than each component (previous pregnancy, cervical length or foetal fibronectin) taken alone. Worldwide 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 weeks) each year and over a million of these die of prematurity-related complications, researchers said. A number of factors are used to determine if a woman is at risk of giving birth prematurely, including a history of preterm births or late miscarriages. Two further factors which doctors can consider are the length of cervix and levels of a biomarker found in vaginal fluid known as foetal fibronectin, which are typically tested from 23 weeks. The researchers have further developed the foetal fibronectin test to be accurately used from the first half of pregnancy. "Despite advances in prenatal care the rate of preterm birth has never been higher in recent years, including in the US and UK, so doctors need reliable ways of predicting whether a woman is at risk of giving birth early," said Andrew Shennan from King's College. "It can be difficult to accurately assess a woman's risk, given that many women who show symptoms of preterm labour do not go on to deliver early," he added. The findings were published in the journal Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology. Clashes have erupted in a small Dutch town during violent protests against the planned opening of a centre for asylum seekers, Dutch media and officials said. In a repeat of scenes seen in several Dutch towns and villages since late last year amid growing tensions over record numbers of migrants, police intervened to disperse about 1,000 people who rallied in central Heesch yesterday. It was not immediately clear from police how many people had been arrested and whether anyone was injured. The riot came only hours after populist far-right politician Geert Wilders called for Islamic male refugees to be kept locked up in asylum centres, saying such a move was needed to protect Dutch women after the New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne, Germany. A Facebook page "Protest AZC Heesch" - which had over 3,000 likes - had called for supporters to join a rally outside the town hall in Heesch. "AZC" is Dutch shorthand for an asylum seekers centre. Town officials aimed to hold a public meeting to discuss plans to house some 500 refugees in the town over the next ten years. But the atmosphere turned nasty, and the meeting was abandoned as dozens of protesters tried to storm the town hall, the Dutch agency ANP said. A group of protesters threw fireworks and eggs at the building which was evacuated, sources told ANP. A message posted on the town's website from the mayor, Marieke Moorman, said the town "had given police extra powers" after a "demonstration ran out of control." Police restored calm later in the evening. In December, Dutch police fired warning shots to disperse a demonstration in the town of Geldermalsen against a planned refugee centre for some 1,500 migrants. There have been several other outbreaks of violence as Dutch officials have sought to explain the country's migrant policy. Europe is grappling with its biggest influx of refugees since World War II with more than 1.1 million people having arrived on its shores, most fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and poverty in Africa. But the crisis has polarised opinion in the Netherlands, which by mid-November had already taken in a record 54,000 asylum seekers. The National Green Tribunal today directed Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam and Agra Municipal Corporation to inform it about the total sewage discharge and the quantity of untreated waste being released into Yamuna. The green panel also took note of the fact that many colonies in Agra lacked sewer connection and directed Agra Development Authority to identify such areas. A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar took note of construction and debris dumped by the builders lying in front of various colonies and ordered them to remove the waste immediately. It also directed Agra Development Authority (ADA) to supervise the entire cleaning of construction and debris. "The Jal Nigam and Municipal Corporation, Agra shall file compliance report showing total sewage discharge from the city and how much of it is being treated and the amount which is being put into the river untreated. The Jal Nigam, ADA shall also identify the area, having no sewage connection," the bench said. The Tribunal has now posted the matter for next hearing on February 23. In September last year, the Tribunal had issued showcause notice to 10 residential colonies of Agra for discharging untreated sewage and asked them to explain why a fine of Rs 1.41 crore be not imposed on them for polluting Yamuna. Earlier, the Tribunal had imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Agra Municipal Corporation for dumping waste on the floodplains of river Yamuna in the city, noting that the civic body has failed to perform its duty and protect the environment. NHRC will organise a two-day seminar in Gauhati University from January 21 in an effort to promote the importance of human rights protection in the country. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has collaborated with the university in Assam to conduct the seminar 'Global Thinking on Human Rights: A Dialogue'. Professor Arun Kamal, noted poet and historian, Patna will deliver the keynote address at the programme. Dr Mridul Hazarika, vice-chancellor of the Gauhati University, will preside over the seminar. Dr Justice Aftab H Saikia, Chairperson of Assam State Human Rights Commission, will be addressing the concluding session of the seminar on January 22. "The seminar is a part of a series of seminars being organised by the NHRC in collaboration with different institutions in different places of the country to build awareness about the importance of protection and promotion of human rights and related issues," NHRC said in a statement. The seminar has been divided into four academic sessions apart from the inaugural and concluding sessions. The subjects for discussion in the four academic sessions include, 'Present Global Thinking with regard to Human Rights', 'Media, Society and Human Rights: Present Global Scenario', 'Global Thinking, Police and Human Rights' and 'Social Multiplicity of North-East and Human Rights'. The Niger government and UN staff have moved 99 schools to "safer zones" out of harm's way from Boko Haram jihadists who attack from neighbouring Nigeria, the United Nations said today. The programme was launched in November and has enabled nearly 6,000 pupils -- a total of 2,784 boys and 3,129 girls -- to resume their lessons, according to the monthly bulletin of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Niamey. A dozen classrooms have also been built in camps for people displaced because of the threat from the Boko Haram group, which has killed at least 17,000 people since 2009, mainly in Nigeria, and makes frequent cross-border attacks. The plan to get more children back in school continues to be hampered however by persistent insecurity and the ongoing displacement of residents, OCHA said. Early in November, Niger officials and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced that 166 schools for more than 12,600 pupils had been closed because of deadly Boko Haram raids in the southeastern Diffa region, near the border with Nigeria. The aim was to "take charge of these pupils" in the most exposed areas and "shelter them from Boko Haram aggression", Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said at the time. Most schools that have closed and been deserted by teachers are close to Lake Chad and the Komadougou Yobe river that form the border between Niger and Nigeria, in territory that is hard to control. Some schools closed after the very first attacks on Niger soil by the Islamist movement in February 2015. Other schools followed suit after subsequent cross-border raids, a local municipal official told AFP. Boko Haram has in the past year stepped up attacks in Niger, Cameroon and Chad as the countries' armies joined Nigeria in the fight against the extremist group, which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate. Overall, more than 2,000 schools have been closed across Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger because of the threat from the jihadists, according to UNICEF. Nigerian separatists said police killed eight people during renewed violent protests today demanding an independent Biafran state in southeastern Nigeria and the release of a detained leader. Police deny the allegation from leaders of a cause that sparked a civil war in the 1960s in which a million people died. Police shot protesters in southeastern Aba city, after protests erupted in cities in six southern states, Uchenna Madu, leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the State of Biafra, said. But Abia state police spokesman Ezekiel Onyeke said no one was killed and police fired only tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters after some lobbed petrol bombs at security forces. It was not possible to verify the contradictory claims. Onyeke said police arrested 26 people for possessing weapons including machetes, axes and clubs. Fourteen other protesters and two police officers have been killed and about 200 people detained across the country since the demonstrations started three months ago, according to the separatists and police. They began after intelligence agents detained the director of banned Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on October 17. He was initially accused of criminal conspiracy and hate speech but the charges were escalated to terrorism and financing terrorism. A Federal High Court ordered Kanu's unconditional release on December 17 but President Muhammadu Buhari said two weeks ago that his government would not release Kanu. Today's protests come six days after the anniversary of the surrender in 1970 of the breakaway state of Biafra following a 32-month-old civil war in which the casualties were mostly Biafrans who starved to death because the military blocked supply routes. Buhari, a former military dictator in the 1980s, was a brigade major who commanded troops in Biafra during the war in which soldiers were accused of mass atrocities. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today inaugurated new office of SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) here and urged the financial regulatory body to control running of ponzi schemes and promote entrepreneurship in the state. Kumar inaugurated the new office of SEBI here in presence of SBI Chairman U K Sinha and state Finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui. CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange Ashish Chauhan was also present on the occasion. In his address, the Bihar CM said youths of the state have tremendous talent and there was plenty of money with people but in the absence of proper awareness about investment, citizens of the state did not have a knack for financial investment. Expressing anxiety over unauthorised investment institutions luring hapless citizens to spend money in their ponzi schemes and ultimately losing their hard-earned money, Kumar urged SEBI to control operation of such illegal financial institutions. He also urged the financial body to create awareness about rightful investment of their money among people and help young entrepreneurs by providing them easy finance to start new ventures. The CM said he knew big ticket investment was not coming to Bihar but there was tremendous scope of starting a new venture in medium and small sectors. Kumar praised SEBI chief U K Sinha, a Bihar cadre IAS officer and who is also his Patna University mate and extended him an invitation to work in the state as financial advisor in case his tenure in the SEBI was not extended by the Centre next month. State Finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui exhorted SEBI to play a more active role in Bihar to create an environment of investment in profitable ventures. Sinha lauded turnaround of Bihar in past over once decade reflected by the fact that its GDP is in double digit and stressed that to give a pace to the growth financial sector needs to be mobilised to stir up private entrepreneurs in the state. He said SEBI through resource persons would make people of Bihar aware about rightful investment of their savings. The Uttarakhand government today refuted the allegation that beach camps are operational on the stretch from Kaudiyala to Rishikesh on river Ganga but admitted before the National Green Tribunal that loud music was played to celebrate the new year. "As per the collective information collected... It is respectfully submitted that as on today no beach camps are operational in reserved forest, forest area, civil land, naap land/private land on river bed from Kaudiyala to Rishikesh," an affidavit filed by the Uttarakhand government said. Taking strong exception to "flagrant violation" of its order banning camping activities in Uttarakhand, the tribunal had directed the Uttarakhand government to file an affidavit as to whether any camps were operating within 100 metres from the middle of Ganga or its tributaries. Regarding a newspaper report which had claimed that beach camping tents were put on New Year's eve, the state government informed the bench that some private resort owners at Mohan Chatti in Havel Ghati played loud music without permission of the district magistrate and they have been already issued notices. The state government also told the bench that Department of Forests and Environment of Uttarakhand government has constituted a committee to finalise the regulatory regime with regard to camping activities along Ganga. "The committee has so far held three meetings and is working on finalising the regulatory regime, carrying capacity study and comprehensive management plan. Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun is conducting the carrying capacity study for finalising the regulatory regime and comprehensive management plan," the affidavit said. The NGT had taken cognisance of a newspaper report which had claimed that some resorts have have put up beach camping tents in Havel valley in Yamkeshwar block of Pauri district on the banks of the tributary of Ganga, Havel river, for New Year eve celebrations. On December 10 last year, the tribunal had banned camping activities in the entire belt of Kaudiyala to Rishikesh till the regulatory regime comes into force but permitted the adventure sport rafting with immediate effect. The panel had constituted a committee of officials from various departments of central and Uttarakhand government to prepare a regulatory regime which should be submitted to the tribunal within three weeks. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today asserted that her government would not forcibly acquire land for industry as there was enough land in the land bank and industrial parks in the state for setting up of industries. Land would not be forcibly acquired as the West Bengal government has one lakh acres of land in its land bank and 5000 acres at industrial parks for setting up of industries, Banerjee said here after she officially unveiled the Bengal Birbhum Coalfields Ltd (BBCL), the special purpose vehicle created to develop India's largest coal mining project in Deocha-Pachami in Birbhum District. Criticising the opposition for not appreciating the investments taking place in the state, Banerjee said, "You need eye to see good things." Former Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had taken pot shots at Banerjee at a left rally in Singur last week and ridiculed her industrialisation claims. The Chief Minister also vowed to promote local clubs and organise festivals "to keep our rich heritage of culture" alive. The CPI(M) had Congress had alleged with no major industries coming in Bengal, the Chief Minister was only organising festivals and giving financial help to local clubs as populist politics. Banerjee, also inaugurated several local projects at the function at Kenduli. She also announced a Baul Academy here and offered Rs 2.5 crore toward the same. Banerjee expressed wish that the heritage Joydeb Mela at Kenduli in Birbhum district should be promoted as it symbolises unity. US Secretary of State John Kerry said today there was no direct link between the release of Americans detained in Iran and the lifting of punishing sanctions against Tehran. In two days of fast-moving diplomacy at the weekend, five Americans were freed by Iran on Saturday and on Sunday the US and Iranian presidents hailed the implementation of Tehran's nuclear deal, which saw Washington and the European Union lift sanctions. Kerry told CNN that the timing was coincidental and that the Americans would have been released even if the sanctions had remained in place. "It happened to come together at that moment, I think that everybody saw that that would be propitious, but it was not directly linked," he said. "I had hoped it (their release) would have happened a couple months ago actually and then it hit a snag and we continued to negotiate." Four of the American prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, were freed in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting. A fifth American was also released in a separate process. Kerry also confirmed a report by The Washington Post that the flight out of Iran of Rezaian and two of the other Americans was delayed because of a mix-up over the fate of Rezaian's wife Yeganeh. "It did hit a snag because word somehow had not been communicated with the respect to the manifest on the plane that Jason Rezaian's wife would be coming with him," Kerry said. However, the Iranian government quickly understood that "the terms of the agreement included her," said Kerry. "We went through a period of time while they were located and ultimately reunited with Jason, and now all is well that ends well. CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat today said there was no possibility of her party forging an alliance with Congress in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections. "Whatever is being said about an electoral alliance with Congress in West Bengal is speculation and there is no truth in it. There is no chance of going with Congress in Bengal," Karat told reporters here. She, however, said the CPI(M) politburo would take a final call on the issue of alliance in five states going to polls at an appropriate time. Virtually kicking off the party's poll campaign in West Bengal, senior CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had on Saturday last sent out a message to Congress and other Left parties to join hands with Left Front to oust the ruling Trinamool Congress. Karat, who reached here in the morning to attend a seminar on Jharia Mines Fire Displaced, also criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party for "mishandling" the recent Malda flare-up. Banerjee, BJP and RSS are destroying the communal harmony established by CPI(M) in Bengal for political gains, she alleged. The CPI(M) leader held the BJP government responsible for the impasse on the GST Bill in Parliament. "It is the responsibility of the government to run Parliament keeping opposition in confidence," she said. She also demanded that the Prime Minister should clear his stand on the Ram temple issue being raised by "several BJP leaders". "The PM's silence on the issue confirms his tacit support to them," she alleged. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano was due to hold talks in Tehran today on ensuring Iran's continued compliance with a nuclear deal the US and Iranian presidents hailed as a historic breakthrough. The UN's atomic watchdog said Amano would meet with President Hassan Rouhani and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, to discuss monitoring and verifying Iran's commitments under the agreement. "A lot of work has gone into getting us here, and implementation of this agreement will require a similar effort," Amano said in a statement after the deal. The IAEA confirmed late Saturday that Tehran had complied with its obligations under last summer's accord, leading the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear programme that crippled its economy for a decade. Rouhani, a moderate whose 2013 election victory helped launch a huge diplomatic effort toward the deal struck on July 14 in Vienna, said the implementation was a crucial moment for his country. "We Iranians have reached out to the world... Have opened a new chapter in the relations of Iran with the world," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. In Washington, President Barack Obama said the breakthrough was vindication of his contentious policy of engagement. "We achieved this through diplomacy without resorting to another war in the Middle East," he said in an address to the nation. But Obama also noted that "profound differences" with Tehran remained over its "destabilising activities". In a sign of those differences, Washington announced it had decided to target the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme with new measures. Five Iranian nationals and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury announced. The White House had threatened to impose the measures last month but withdrew them after Rouhani hit out at both their timing and intent. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement. Asked before the new sanctions were announced how Iran would react to fresh measures against it, Rouhani on Sunday had said: "Any action will be met by a reaction." The new sanctions came after four Iranian-Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, were released in a prisoner swap with the United States. The exchange involved Rezaian, Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, former US Marine Amir Hekmati and a fourth man, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. World oil prices rebounded today from new 12-year depths struck after the West lifted sanctions on Iran, paving the way for higher crude exports from the Islamic Republic. Brent crude tumbled below USD 28 a barrel in Asia trading hours to reach a fresh 2003 low point on fears about a worsening global supply glut. But the market then found support, rebounding above USD 29 on bargain-hunting and as OPEC said it expects a "rebalancing process" to begin in 2016. Half a million barrels of Iranian crude is set to be added to already saturated markets after US and European leaders ended a crippling embargo put in place over Tehran's nuclear programme. The led to further selling of black gold, whose prices have slumped by about three quarters in value since mid-2014 owing to the supply glut, record output levels, weak demand growth and a slowing global economy led by China. But the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said today that it expects a "rebalancing process" as the sharp fall in oil price causes production from non-cartel competitors such as the United States to fall after seven years of "phenomenal" growth. If the prediction is accurate, it would make a victory of sorts for OPEC's strategy of keep the oil flowing despite crude sliding from above USD 100 in 2014 -- to defend its market share. Brent today tumbled to as low as USD 27.67 a barrel -- a level last seen in November 2003. New York prices also hit a low of more than 12 years at USD 28.36. "The drop was due to the Western sanctions on Iran being lifted," said Phillip Futures analyst Daniel Ang. "This means we will be seeing a bigger oil glut with Iranian crude exports coming back to the market." Ang added that prices had rebounded on bargain-buying. Iran today ordered as planned an increase of 500,000 barrels per day in its oil production. Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney, said that while Iranian oil could come in quickly, suppliers still needed to find buyers. "Iran has quite a large storage of oil at the moment," Spooner told AFP. "They are in a position to sell that if they choose to do so and increase supply quite quickly... (but) they've got to get the buyers and that's one of the key questions," he said. Banking group ANZ said Iran is likely to offer discounts to entice buyers, leading to "further downward pressure on prices in the near-term". Around midday in London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in March was up 30 cents at $29.24 a barrel compared with Friday's close. Praising the speed at which the China-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was launched, Pakistan has said that it hopes its projects will be among the first batch of schemes to be cleared by the multilateral development bank. The management of the long-awaited AIIB is now working "very seriously" on devising the first projects, and "I hope projects in Pakistan will be among them," Finance Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar told state-run China Daily. The speed at which the new bank has gone from a proposal to a reality has been impressive, he said. "All the participants have contributed their best. Initially there was some skepticism, even criticism. But now that is all over," he said. Pakistan is among the 57 countries, who joined the Beijing based bank as founding members. Dar was here to attend the inaugural ceremony of the bank. Stating that the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, to be laid through Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), will be accelerated this year, Dar however skipped any references to the AIIB financing the corridor as the bank's rules prohibits funding projects in the territory claimed by another country. Mutual consent is required in such cases. India has objected to the corridor project as it goes through the PoK region. The corridor is expected to be funded by the USD 40 billion Silk Road fund set up by China. Dar said the corridor will benefit the entire region. "It will create greater connectivity between Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, and it will reduce the travel time and travel costs by half," he said. With authorised capital ofUSD 100 billion and subscribed capital of USD 50 billion, AIIB will invest in sectors including energy, transportation, urban construction and logistics as well as education and healthcare. China is the largest shareholder with 26.06 per cent voting shares. India is the second largest shareholder with 7.5 per cent followed by Russia 5.93 per cent and Germany with 4.5 per cent. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif along with powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif today left for Riyadh on the first leg of a regional trip to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and arch rival Iran. Sharif's visit comes at a time when relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been fraught since Riyadh executed a prominent Shia cleric earlier this month following which Iranian protesters attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate prompting the Saudis to sever ties. Iran then snapped all commercial ties with Saudi Arabia and stopped pilgrims from travelling to Mecca. The Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement that Sharif is leading a high-level delegation during the trip to exchange views on regional and international issues. Officials said that he is accompanied by army chief General Raheel Sharif, advisor on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, national security adviser Nasir Janjua, and special assistant on foreign affairs Tariq Fatemi among others. After meeting Saudi King Salman today, Premier Sharif will travel to Tehran tomorrow and meet President Hassan Rouhani. "Pakistan enjoys cordial and brotherly relations with both countries, which are characterised by strong bonds of affinity, mutual respect and solidarity, and draw strength from shared historical, cultural and Islamic values," FO said. The Foreign Office said Pakistan is deeply concerned at the escalating tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The Prime Minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity, particularly during these challenging times," it said. Pakistan has close ties with Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia but last year resisted calls by the Saudis to join a war in Yemen against the Houthi rebels allegedly supported by Shia-dominated Iran. Pakistan is also not willing to contribute troops for the 34-nation Saudi military alliance to fight terrorism. Radio Pakistan reported that leading politicians and analysts have welcomed the prime minister's visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran, terming it as a timely move to ease tensions between the two Muslim countries. Soon after his re-election as PML(N) chief, Sharif said the agenda of his party was development of the country and his party will win 2018 election on the basis of performance. "Forget about Pakistan, the A Palestinian stabbed a woman in a West Bank settlement today and was shot by security personnel, the Israeli army and medics said, in the second such incident over the last 24 hours. The 30-year-old woman stabbed in the Tekoa settlement south of Jerusalem was reported to have moderate wounds. There were conflicting reports on the attacker's condition, with Israeli medics saying he had been taken to hospital and Palestinian officials reporting him dead. The incident follows an attack yesterday that saw a Palestinian stab an Israeli woman to death inside her home in another West Bank settlement. The audacious attack on the frontline Pathankot air base was carried out by "non-state actors" and Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar, suspected to be its mastermind, should not be roaming free in Pakistan, former President Pervez Musharraf has said. The former Pakistani military ruler also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lahore outreach, saying he was not sincere in engaging with Islamabad and that there was no substance in his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif as it was just "optics". 72-year-old Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, said he was confident that Pakistan Army and spy agency ISI had nothing to do with the Pathankot attack, asserting that the country's military establishment was "100 per cent" for peace between the two neighbours. "Pathankot was carried out by non-state actors," Musharraf told CNN-IBN. In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists, believed to be belonging to JeM, attacked the Pathankot air base on January 2 killing seven security personnel. Six terrorists were also killed in the incident. India has blamed JeM for the Pathankot attack and has been seeking action against the terror outfit and its chief Masood Azhar. India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks, scheduled for January 15 in Islamabad, were deferred to near future by both the countries mutually in the wake of the attack. "Masood Azhar should not be roaming free after trying to assassinate me," a release by the channel quoted Musharraf as saying. JeM is blammed for two attempts to assassinate Musharaf in 2003. On the peace initiative, Musharraf said under Modi and Sharif, substance was missing in Indo-Pak engagements. "Optics is fine but diplomacy is about substance," he said, adding "behind Modi-Nawaz meeting and greeting, there's no substance". Modi sprang a surprise by making an unscheduled visit to Lahore on his way back from Kabul on December 25 to greet Sharif on his birthday. Both the leaders had talks during which they decided to open ways for peace for the "larger good" of the people of the two countries. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today blamed the erstwhile Congress government in Goa for "messing up" with the issue of choice of medium of instruction (MOI) for schools in the state. He also underlined that mother-tongue will remain as the medium of instruction for students. The former state chief minister also asked the BJP workers to not attend any meetings where the state government is criticised over the MOI policy. "The entire MOI issue was messed up by the previous Congress-led state government which went on giving permissions (to open) English medium private schools and also allowed these 135 schools to change their MOI," Parrikar said while addressing a gathering of the party workers here. The government recently decided to continue giving grants to the 135 English medium schools. The move has caused a lot of heartburn among various sections. In an apparent reference to the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), backed by BJP before 2012 Assembly polls but which has now turned into the critic over the MOI policy issue, Parrikar said the BJP workers should disassociate themselves from forums that slam the government. "I know sometimes workers do not know which meeting to attend and which not to. But they should realise that certain issues are being politicised," he added. Parrikar, under whose tenure as CM the MOI policy was announced, said, "No worker should be part of the meeting that criticises the government over its policy". BBSM has been attacking government on MOI, alleging that the government has done a U-turn on the issue. However, Parrikar said, "We reiterate our stand that mother-tongue will be the medium of instruction. Our stand will not change. But if I discontinue grants to 135 schools, we will have teachers from those schools who will be in surplus". He said the government has decided against giving grants to new English medium schools. Asserting that daring and carefully planned escape of Subhas Chandra Bose serves as an inspiration to the youth of country, President Pranab Mukherjee today asked youths to adopt Netaji's message of faith, unity and sacrifice. Mukherjee said in his message to Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata, which observed the 75th anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 'Mahanishkraman' (The Great Escape) on Saturday. "On this historic occasion, I pay tribute to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and urge the youth of India to adopt the slogan of Itmad (Faith), Ittefaq (Unity) and Kurbani (Sacrifice) which Netaji gave to the soldiers and civilian personnel of the Azad Hind Fauj," the President said. In his message, the President narrated the historical escape of Netaji on January 16-17, 1941 to Moscow. "This Mahanishkraman marked the departure of Subhas and advent of Netaji in the pages of history. The daring and carefully planned escape serves as an inspiration to the youth of our country," Mukherjee said. He recalled his visit as External Affairs Minister to Augsburg in Germany in 1995 where he met Netaji's wife Emilie who was staying with her daughter Anita. Leaving his wife and two-month old daughter behind in Europe, Netaji embarked on his perilous 90-day submarine voyage to Asia in order to lead the Azad Hind Fauj in its glorious battle for freedom. "It was an example of great sacrifice for a public cause - the cause of Indian independence to which Netaji had dedicated his life," he said. The pulse polio campaign is going on smoothly in Jharkhand with Ranchi registering 87 per cent of the target on the second day today even as the strike by nurses entered the fourth day today. "The campaign is going on without any hindrance in all the 24 districts on the second day. Ranchi and Ramgarh have achieved 87 per cent of the target," Health Services Director-in-chief Praveen Chandra told PTI here. Anganwadi Sevikas, Sahayas and NGOs are among those involved in the campaign, he said. The striking NHRM/ANM/GNM Anubandhit (contractual) Sangh general secretary, Juhi Minz, said its members from Ranchi district staged a sit-in near the Raj Bhavan here during the day. "We have about 5,500 nurses (as members) and all are on strike across the state. We will continue the indefinite strike till our demands are met," she said. Prominent among their demands are regularization of employment, Minz said. The health department had on January 16 said their strike was 'illegal' as they had already held a strike in December on the same demands. NIA will subject to a lie-detector tomorrow a senior Punjab police officer Salwinder Singh in connection with its probe into Pathankot terror strike. After the special NIA court today allowed it to conduct the polygraph (lie- detector) test on Singh, the officials of the central terror investigation agency briefed CFSL experts CFSL about the possible questions that he can be asked. Singh, currently posted as Assistant Commandant of 75th Punjab Armed Police, had claimed he was kidnapped by suspected JeM terrorists hours before they attacked the Pathankot Indian Airforce Station in the wee hours of January 2. He was travelling with his jeweller friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal when the alleged abduction took place. The terrorists had slit Verma's throat, almost killing him, and set Singh and Gopal free before fleeing in the police officer's vehicle towards the IAF base. Some alleged inconsistencies in Singh's statements has prompted the agency to subject him to polygraph test. Meanwhile, NIA has failed to have a clear view of the faces of the six terrorists involved in the attack. The agency, which chalked out the possible route taken by the terrorists to travel to IAF base, had sought help from the public to share footages, if any, from CCTV cameras installed in their premises. However, except for a brief coverage at a toll post, the NIA has drawn a blank, sources said, adding even that footage was of little help in carrying forward the probe. Seven security personnel were killed during the three-day terror siege, while six perpetrators were also claimed to have been felled. Kathryn Harkup, author and chemist, says popular crime fiction writer Agatha Christie was obsessed with poisons in her stories since she "didn't know very much about ballistics." "Because that's what Agatha knew, she freely admitted that she didn't know very much about ballistics. So if she starts writing about ballistics she would not be that much convincing," says Harkup who has penned a book on Agatha Christie. In the 66 detective novels that Agatha penned in her prolific career, she poisoned more than 300 characters with 30 killer compounds that she used in a staggering array of creative methods. The British author Christie, says Harkup, was equally good in her background research. "She was very clever in background research and she wrote about something in which she was comfortable with," says the author who was here to participate in the just concluded Crime Writers Festival. Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other murder method - with the poison itself being a central part of the novel - and her choice of deadly substances was far from random; the chemical and physiological characteristics of each poison provide vital clues to discovery of the murderer. Known as the "Queen of Crime Fiction," Christie's novels were very popular and some of them acted as inspiration for real life murderers. "There was a guy in France who got his inspiration from Christie. Usually in her novels the killer gets caught and he also got caught," Harkup says. However she admits that the best-selling crime fiction author can't be held responsible for gruesome crimes. "Christie is also credited for saving lives. Knowledge is a good thing to have. But you can't hold the knowledge responsible for what an individual does with that." Harkup, a Christie fan points out that a work of art cannot act as an inspiration for serial killers and most readers know 'where to draw the line. "If media is an inspiration for murder then there would be chaos. We can't watch 'Tom and Jerry' and start bashing each other. Most people recognise that this is fiction and where to draw the line," says Harkup who has completed a doctorate on her favourite chemicals, phosphines. Harkup, who reads Indian books regularly, says that she was surprised by Christie's popularity in India. "It's been so nice to hear that Agatha Christie is so much popular in India. I knew she was popular but I had no idea that she was that much popular. I think she is so much more popular here than in the UK," she says. Harkup says that despite being a chemist, she wrote her book in such a way that the general readers can understand it. "My job is to make things simpler for readers. I know scientists can make things look difficult. I try to make it sensible for so many people reading the book. Logical steps, use of analogy, I try to use examples so anyone can relate to it." She says people now a days like crime fiction as they are "fascinated with darker side of life." "I think there is human fascination with the darker side of life, because all of horrible things are happening in fiction and not in real life. It is the general obsession with all these things like rape and murder and knowing that 'you are safe' and is happening to someone else and not to you," she adds. She opines that Crime Writers' Festival must return next year. "Crime writing is the only genre of literature fest in India, I would encourage it, because there are so many Indian authors who write crime fiction. Adding to that, she says Anuja Chauhan is her favourite author. "I really enjoyed her book and also got to meet her at the Kolkata Literature Festival. Anuja Chauhan had some fantasy elements which were not obvious to me. Anuja Chauhan's humour, the banter between the characters in 'Hinglish' in 'Those Pricey Thakur Girls.'" Harkup wrote "A is for Arsenic: the poisons of Agatha Christie" where she analysed 14 poisons, in alphabetical order used by Christie in her fiction. The book has been published as part of the 125th anniversary celebration of Christie's birth. Ahead of Republic Day, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the security situation in the capital with the Delhi Police chief and other senior officials of intelligence and security agencies. The country's top leadership including President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers, senior civil and defence officials will be among those attending the main function at the majestic Rajpath where French President Francois Hollande will be the chief guest. Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi and other officials gave a detailed presentation to Singh about the ground-to-air security cover to be put in place in the capital, official sources said. The city has already been put on a high alert after the Pathankot terror attack as there were intelligence inputs which suggested that at least two terrorists had entered Delhi. "Highest possible security cover will be put in place in Delhi in the run up to Republic Day," a source said. Days before the attack on Pathankot air base, central security agencies had reported that a group of 8 to 10 terrorists had crossed border from Pakistan. A similar report from Punjab government had said that at least 15 terrorists from Pakistan had breached the border. The sources said there may be a few terrorists who were waiting for an opportunity to strike. All steps are being taken to ensure foolproof security during the visit of Hollande, especially as Paris saw one of the worst terrorist attacks on November 13, when 130 people were killed by seven gunmen, they said. Apart from deployment of forces on the ground, government will also ensure security in air by deploying anti-aircraft guns and declaring no-fly zone in many areas of Delhi. A total of 10,000 paramilitary personnel, in addition to 80,000 strong Delhi Police, will be on the job in the capital to ensure greater security cover. The deployment of additional paramilitary forces in the national capital comes a week after the terrorist attack on Pathankot IAF base in which seven security personnel were killed. Top officials of central intelligence and investigative agencies and police of 13 states, including Delhi, held a meeting with the Home Minister on Saturday and discussed steps to check the growing influence of ISIS among youngsters through social media and other sources. Crimes against women can be tackled by adopting ethical values propounded in epic 'Ramayana', BJP MP and former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh today claimed. The IPS officer-turned-politician was addressing a gathering at Sanyas Ashram in suburban Vile Parle, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary. "Ways to curb cases of crimes against women have been propounded in the 'Ramayana' and it (menace) can be tackled by adopting ethical values that the epic teaches," he said. President of Sanyas Ashram Swami Vishveshwaranand was also present on the occasion. Keeping an eye on the State Assembly elections scheduled next year, independent regional forces in Goa have decided to come together and announce the formation of a new political outfit on January 26. Three Independent legislators--Vijai Sardessai, Rohan Khaunte and Naresh Sawal--have already vowed support for the party, which is likely to be named as 'Goa Forward'. "We are looking to take Goa forward. So the name of the party will also be on the similar lines. For last eight months, meetings are being held with like minded people cutting across all the communities to put together this political outfit," said Prabhakar Timblo, former State Election Commissioner, who is one of the faces of the party. Timblo said Goa is developing but people in the state are not happy as national parties ruling the coastal state have failed to fulfil the "regional interests". The forces working on the formation of this party are buoyed with the outcome of Bihar elections, which they say, was completely inclined towards regional players. "If you look at Bihar elections results, they were completely towards regional parties. In Delhi too AAP won, it was a regional party. AAP calls itself to be national party but it is in fact a regional party," Timblo said. He said that the Congress which was supposed to be principle opposition party has gone into "sleep mode". Meanwhile, the three independent legislators who have given their moral support to the party have clarified that they will not join the outfit as they are not allowed to so under Tenth Schedule of Indian Constitution. "We are not joining the party but we are supporting it whole heartedly. If you look at BJP they are on the verge of making Goa lose its identity," said Rohan Khaunte, the legislator representing Porvorim constituency. Khaunte had declared his support to BJP led government post 2012 assembly polls but had later withdrew it. "Regional party is the only option where there will be no high command," he said. The recent decision of the state government to declassify coconut tree as a tree and instead categorise it as a 'palm' is one of the issues that the regional outfit has clearly mentioned it would go ahead with. "In 1967, Goa had a opinion poll which decided to save the identity of the state. But whether the benefits of Goa being a separate identity is going to the 'sons of soil' is a big questionmark. There is a feeling that Goan identity is getting diluted," said Vijai Sardessai, an independent legislator from Fatorda constituency. "We manage to get ourself liberated from colonization by Portuguese but we have now become a colony of Delhi and it is affecting Goa," he said. The new regional party, he said, would maintain equi-distance from BJP and Congress both. Showing a sharp rise in income inequality in India and other countries, a new survey today said the wealth of 62 richest persons globally now equals that of the poorest half of the world's population. Besides, there are just nine women among the world's 62 richest persons, whose total wealth has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to USD 1.76 trillion since 2010. The study, titled 'An Economy for the 1 per cent' and conducted by rights group Oxfam, also showed that the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 41 per cent. This has occurred despite the global population increasing by around 400 million people during that period. Released here ahead of the five-day World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting beginning tomorrow, the survey showed that the number of people whose wealth is equal to that of the poorest half of the world's population stood at 388 in 2010. Since then, it has been continuously declining and stood at 177 in the year 2011, 159 in 2012, 92 in 2013 and 80 in 2014. Talking about the income inequality in various countries, the study cited that India's top IT firm CEO makes 416 times the salary of a typical employee there, while that of the largest cigarette manufacturer gets 439 times the median staff salary. It also said that 46 per cent of billionaires in India have made their fortunes from sectors that depend upon market power, influence or preferential access to licensing. At the same time, the report praised regulatory efforts in India mandating greater disclosures in this regard. "Lawmakers in India passed a disclosure mandate in 2013 which requires CEO pay ratios to be made public, an important step towards informing the public about the level of inequality within companies," it said. The report also highlighted that patient groups, other civil society organisations and the government in India have challenged the influence of big global pharma players, prioritising access to medicines for citizens. Oxfam called for urgent action to tackle the extreme inequality saying it "threatens to undermine the progress made in tackling poverty during the last quarter of a century". It also called for an end to the era of tax havens which has seen the increasing use of offshore centers by rich individuals and companies to avoid paying taxes. Globally, it is estimated that a total of USD 7.6 trillion of individuals' wealth sits offshore. If tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra USD 190 billion would be available to governments every year. Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, who was WEF Annual Meeting's Co-Chair last year and is also attending the 2016 summit, said it is "unacceptable that the poorest half of the world's population owns no more than a few dozen super-rich people who could fit onto one bus". As per the study, 9 out of 10 WEF corporate partners have a presence in at least one tax haven and it is estimated that tax dodging by multinational corporations costs developing countries at least USD 100 billion every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014. The findings of the survey are expected to be widely discussed at the WEF meetings being attended by over 2,500 leaders from across the world including over 100 from India. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will travel to Italy and France next week after his visit scheduled in November was cancelled following the deadly Paris attacks, state television reported. Rouhani's visit to Italy and then France, his first European tour since Iran secured a historic nuclear deal with world powers, will now be held between January 25 and 27. He had been due to visit France on November 16-17 but the trip was postponed after jihadist attacks in Paris just three days before killed 130 people. Rouhani condemned the Paris attacks as "crimes against humanity". On his trip, he will meet the Italian and French presidents, Sergio Mattarella and Francois Hollande, and also possibly Pope Francis in what would be his first visit to Vatican, the report said. The tour is an opportunity for rapprochement and renewed trade ties in the wake of July's landmark nuclear deal following years of strain between Tehran and the West. It comes even at a better time for Iran than the previous cancelled visit, as the United States and the European Union lifted crippling sanctions following the entry into force of the nuclear deal on Saturday. Gerard Larcher, head of the French Senate, who visited Tehran on December 19, said he hoped the visit would be "the starting point of stronger relations" between Paris and Tehran. The president will also meet top industry owners and business leaders. Unidentified criminals looted Rs 20 lakh from a cash van of a State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Bihar's West Champaran district today, police said. SHO, Dhanha police station, Rajesh Ranjan said incident occured near Samsherwa village when five armed criminals boarding a Bolero Jeep intercepted the van and looted Rs 20 lakh cash after injurying the security guard. He said staff of SBI Madhuvani Branch under Dhanha police station were returning after collecting Rs 20 lakh cash from SBI Pandrauna Branch of Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh. After getting information Superintendent of Police, Anand Kumar along with SHO Rajesh Ranjan rushed to the spot. Abhay Kumar, the injured security guard has been admitted to a government hospital where his condition said to be out of danger, the SHO said. A Russian priest was deported by immigration authorities on Sunday after he arrived at Chennai International Airport, Russian embassy claimed today and said such "disrespect" went against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation. "The Embassy of the Russian Federation condemns the deportation of a Russian citizen, Father Seraphim, by the immigration authorities of the Chennai International Airport," a statement posted on embassy website said. It claimed Russian diplomats were denied contact with the priest at the airport for seven hours, which was "unacceptable" and that he (the Father) was also denied basic assistance, including food, despite the requests from the Embassy and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Chennai. "Such disrespect, shown to a priest from a friendly country, goes against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation characteristic of Russian-Indian relationship," the statement added. However, airport sources said the individual, identified as Anuireikravhenko, with Passport no 7Z7405543 had arrived from Abu Dhabi on Etihad airlines flight HY283 at 9.30 AM yesterday. "He was quizzed for three hours by immigration authorities and deported at 10 PM after being told that there were restrictions on his entry in the country," they said. He was sent back on an Etihad flight, the sources said. Meanwhile, Russian Agency Tass quoted a Russian diplomat as saying that the incident "is a violation of the current Russia-Indian consular agreements and we will raise this issue with the Indian authorities." The agency also quoted a source in the Russian embassy as saying that "the Indian side says during his previous stay in India he had a visitor visa (at the invitation of the Russian embassy) and now he has arrived with a tourist visa.". Supreme Court today asked Delhi Police to provide security to a lawyer who has allegedly received threat calls after his NGO filed a PIL seeking entry of women of menstrual age group in the historic Sabarimala temple in Kerala, saying such attempts should be "crippled in the beginning" itself. "Access to justice cannot be dented by any authority or any person. It can only be controlled by a court of law within the parameters of law. Individual whim or fancy or perception has no room," a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said, directing the city police chief to ensure that no harm is caused to him. It took note of the application of Naushad Ahmed Khan, the President of Indian Young Lawyers' Association (IYLA) which has filed the PIL on Sabarimala issue, that he has been receiving threat calls for moving the court. Dealing with the contents of the plea, the bench said if the allegations are true, then they "would definitely have the strength to create a dent in the fundamental concept of Rule of Law which is sacrosanct in a democratic body polity". "Regard being had to the gravity of the matter, we issue notice to the Commissioner of Police of New Delhi and require him to file the response as regards the steps have been taken on the basis of the said first information report (FIR). "We are absolutely conscious that the FIR has been lodged at a particular police station but we would like the Commissioner of Police to file the response. We direct the Commissioner of Police to see that the attempts of this nature are crippled in the beginning," the bench, also comprising Justices P C Ghose and N V Ramana, said. The court also said once a PIL is filed and entertained, it cannot be allowed to be withdrawn. "Hearing in a court of law is not dependent, especially in a PIL by any person. Once the PIL is entertained by this court taking the lis into consideration, even if the President of the Association desires to withdraw the same, this court may decline to grant that permission. That apart, as we find, there are other petitioners," it said. The IYLA, in its plea, has sought entry for all women and girls in the Sabarimala temple which, as a practice, does not allow girls after attaining puberty to enter the premises. The temple, however, allows only those women to enter who have reached the menopause stage. The apex court on January 11 had questioned the age-old tradition of banning entry of women of menstrual age group in the Kerala temple, saying this cannot be done under the Constitution. It had asked the Kerala government whether it was sure that women have not entered the temple premises in the last 1,500 years. The bench had also observed that it was a public temple and everyone needed to have "the right to access". At best, there can be religious restrictions and not a general restriction, the apex court had said. Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the Travancore Devaswom Board, had said women, who have not attained menopause, cannot preserve the purity during the 41-day religious journey to the temple, located on a hilltop. Congress today demanded immediate sacking of Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in the wake of an FIR filed against him in a case related to the alleged suicide of a Dalit researcher doing his PHD in the Hyderabad Central Univeristy. It also wanted that the University Vice Chancellor be removed and HRD Minister Smriti Irani should go there to ensure a probe. "Now an FIR has been registered against the Union Minister and the letter written by him prima facie amounts to abetment of suicide, Congress demands that Dattatreya resigns with immediate effect, failing which the Prime Minister should sack him", party spokesman R P N Singh told reporters. He alleged that the suicide by the Dalit research scholar amid circumstances "deliberately orchestrated by Dattatreya, Union HRD Ministry and their cohorts of ABVP" is another manifestation of the "anti-Dalit agenda and mindset" of the government and its "controller"-RSS. Singh also read out a letter written by the scholar Rohit Vemula to the Vice Chancellor in which he made sarcastic comments on the scholar's attitude on issues concerning Dalit students saying "Donald Trump will be a Liliput" before him. Alleging that the mindset of BJP was anti-Dalit, he recalled that only recently another Union Minister V K Singh had allegedly compared Dalit children to dogs. Besides, he said that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP Chief Amit Shah has till this day "condemned" RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's statement calling for a review of the reservation for Schdeuled Castes and backward classes. The body of the dalit research scholar was found hanging in the varsity's hostel room, which sparked massive protests at the home and outside. (REOPEN DEL51) Meanwhile, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Chairman P L Punia said a report has been asked from the state office at the earliest. "We have asked for a report from the state office to intervene. May be due to Pongal festival, we have not received the report yet. Today again, we demanded to provide the report at the earliest," he said. Punia said he will be leaving for Hyderabad today and will demand action against the culprits. "I will go to Hyderabad to talk to everyone and will try to find who's at fault. We will demand action against the culprits," he said. Punia claimed the college authorities enquired about Dalit scholars and rusticated them from college. "From many days they were sitting on dharna and yesterday one of them committed suicide," he said. BJP General Secretary P Murlidhar Rao, however, rejected the Congress charges, saying that it was "not correct" to politicise the incident and blame BJP for it. "Linking Dalit aspect to Hyderabad student's death is objectionable, an orchestrated campaign to malign BJP," he claimed. Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said that it was "unfortunate" that a student committed suicide at the University of Hyderabad and dragging BJP ministers into a student's personal issue is "low level of political opportunism". "We don't see any connection between the suicide and suspension in this case. It is clearly evident from his suicide note. Bandaru Dattatreya and Smriti Irani have nothing to do with this case. Dragging them into a personal issue of a student is purely low level political opportunism," he said. Saudi Arabia said today it had arrested a suspect for attempting to firebomb a government building in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east during unrest over a Shiite cleric's execution. The ministry of interior said the suspect had been arrested for "attempting to set fire to a government building in Qatif using Molotov cocktails" on January 9. Others were also involved, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency. It added that the suspect, who was not named, also confessed to shooting at security officers and torching a bus in the country's east on January 5. Police earlier reported the burning of a bus in Qatif but said there were no injuries. A week of unrest shook Awamiya, a town in the Qatif district, after the January 2 execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Nimr was a driving force behind protests that began in 2011 among the kingdom's minority Shiite community. Those protests later developed into a call for equality in the Sunni-dominated kingdom, where Shiites complain of marginalisation. Nimr and three other Shiites were among 47 people convicted of terrorism and put to death, provoking anger among Shiites and concern in Western nations. Shiites protested in several Muslim countries and attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in the kingdom's regional rival Iran. Saudi Arabia and some of its allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran in reaction, triggering a diplomatic crisis and raising sectarian tensions in the region. Diplomats said the mass execution sent a clear message that the kingdom will not tolerate extremism. Among the 47 put to death were Sunnis convicted of involvement in Al-Qaeda attacks that killed Saudis and foreigners in the kingdom about 12 years ago. Saudi Arabia today suspended the import of poultry, eggs and dairy products from seven French regions over a bird flu outbreak. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority said the regions include France's southwestern Dordogne, where the highly virulent H5N1 strain of the virus was identified in November. The director of the French Aviculture Confederation, Christian Marinov, played down the significance of a move which does not cover Brittany or Vendee, the only regions to export and to date free from bird flu. "It's of no consequence as exports are from Brittany and Vendee" via the Doux group, which handles "100%" of exports from France to non-EU states, Marinov said. Several countries including Japan and China had already banned French poultry imports as a result of the outbreak. "This temporary ban is to continue until the health status of the livestock is stable," SFDA said. It added that poultry, eggs and dairy products that have been treated thermally or in another way to eliminate the virus are exempt from the suspension. According to Business France, the French export promotion agency, France was the second-biggest exporter of poultry products to Saudi Arabia in 2013 and volume had risen 64% since 2009. The World Health Organization says the H5N1 virus does not infect humans easily but when it does it is fatal in about 60% of cases. Capital markets regulator Sebi today opened its local office in Patna, Bihar as part of its efforts to reach out to investors and intermediaries across the country. "For promoting a balanced pan India securities market and in order to bring physical proximity of Sebi offices to the investors and intermediaries, Sebi has decided to open local offices in various parts of the country," the regulator said in a statement. The Patna office is under the administrative control and jurisdiction of Sebi's eastern regional office at Kolkata, it added. Sebi said the functions of the Patna office include facilitating the redressal of investor grievances against the listed companies and securities market intermediaries, as also spread investor education and financial literacy. The local office was inaugurated by state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in the presence of Sebi Chairman U K Sinha and state Finance Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui. North Korea has scattered nearly one million propaganda leaflets in South Korea over the past week, Seoul said today, in an escalating propaganda battle triggered by Pyongyang's latest nuclear test. The leaflets, floated across the border by helium balloons, are an apparent response to South Korea's decision to blast a mix of K-pop and propaganda messages into North Korea using giant banks of speakers on the heavily militarised border. North Korea has retaliated with its own loudspeaker broadcasts along with the leaflets attacking South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The tit-for-tat exchanges are the result of the North's fourth nuclear test carried out -- to near universal condemnation -- on January 6. The defence ministry said the North's leaflets were being air-dropped on a near daily basis and estimated the number that had been scattered at close to one million. Most have been recovered near the border in Gyeonggi province, though some have made it as far as Seoul. A ministry official told AFP that the North was using helium balloons with timers that cause them to explode and scatter the leaflet packages. "It can be a blunt propaganda tool. Last week an unopened package of nearly 10,000 leaflets slammed into a car, imploding the roof." Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the Seoul-based University for North Korean Studies, said the leafleting was largely a reactive gesture. "They couldn't just sit idle while South Korea launches a psychological warfare front," Yang said. As well as the loudspeakers, Seoul is considering installing giant electronic signboards on the border to display messages and videos. South Korea halted official leaflet drops following an inter-Korean agreement reached in 2004, but civic groups have kept up balloon launches into the North for years -- much to Pyongyang's annoyance. A serial killer who murdered six persons, including a village leader, in three days in China's Hunan province has been arrested. The police found the suspect, surnamed Nie, murdered a village leader on Friday as he attempted to rape a woman, who was also injured, official media reports said. The 27-year-old then allegedly killed the son, daughter, nephew and niece of local villager Kuang Runhua in Hengshan County on Saturday afternoon. All four victims were teenagers, with the youngest just 13-years-old. Nie, is also suspected of killing another villager, 31-year-old Yu, while he was on the run yesterday, according to Hunan's provincial Department of Public Security. Nie was caught yesterday near a county elementary school after a manhunt involving more than 300 police officers. Two unidentified assailants today fired shots at a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Shakha but there were no casualties as the ground was vacant, at new Kidwai Nagar Park, police said. The incident took place today when two motorcycle-borne persons fired shots at the Shakha ahead of the assembly sangh swayamsevaks, they said. The eyewitnesses said that sound of two gun shots were heard. Police said that the unidentified miscreants were wearing monkey caps and hence could not be identified. DCP Narinder Bhargva said that the police party rushed to the spot after receiving the information. No one was injured in the firing as assembly of sangh swayamsevaks was yet to start, the DCP said. It may be recalled that terrorists attacked RSS Shakha at Dresi ground here in May 1991 in which five volunteers were gunned down and 15 others were badly injured. The Kerala Tourism will honour Soorya Krishnamoorthy - Cultural Ambassador to Kerala Tourism, with the Special Achievement Award for his efforts to promote the state through art and culture. The award will be presented during the Nishangandhi Cultural Festival commencing from January 20. "Soorya Krishnamoorthy's cultural creative excellence has been widely used by the Tourism Department - during the Tourism Week Celebrations, the Nishagandhi Festival, the Malabar Mahotsavam, at festivals outside Kerala, the International Film Festival of Kerala and the International Theatre Festival of Kerala," Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar said. "His contribution to Kerala Tourism is immense and his works in the field of art and culture are highly notable," the minister said in a relase. "Soorya Krishnamoorthy has played a major role in the inflow of tourists - especially the culturally interested and art lovers to India, especially Kerala," said Tourism Director P I Sheik Pareeth. A special train carrying 1,000 devotees was today flagged off for Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib in Nanded of Maharashtra, from here. The devotees are being sent on pilgrimage by Punjab government under its 'Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra' programme. "The Punjab government has been working relentlessly to preserve and promote the precious heritage of the state. It is our duty to transfer Punjab's rich cultural legacy to the future generations," Former Speaker of Punjab Assembly, Nirmal Singh Kahlon said after flagging off the special train today. "Furthermore, the cultural heritage will also boost tourism in the state and will be critical in building sustainable visitor economy," Kahlon said. 'Mukh Mantri Tirath Yatra Yojana' is yet another attempt of the Punjab government to preserve and promote majestic culture and royal heritage of Punjab, he added. Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner Abhinav Trikha on the occasion informed that apart from the trains to the famous Sikh pilgrimage, trains to Varanasi and Ajmer Sharif will also start. "11 Tirth yatra trains are proposed to run in January and February under this scheme. Trains to Katra for Vaishno Devi shrine and Chennai for San Thome Basilica built over tomb of St Thomas are also in the offing," he said. Free bus transportation to Salasar in Rajasthan and Chintpurni in Himachal Pradesh would also be provided to pilgrims under this scheme. Under the plan, about 1,000 persons from each of the 117 constituencies have been selected for the pilgrimages. An amount of approximately Rs 187 crore has been earmarked for the scheme. Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar on Monday hailed sweeping reforms announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for budding entrepreneurs, saying it will "turbocharge" the startup ecosystem in the country. The Startup India would encourage more bright young minds to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, he said. Vijayakumar welcomed the initiatives including a three-year tax holiday, self-certification scheme with respect to nine labour and environmental laws; and changes to insolvency norms that will allow easy exit for . "Self-certification for compliance will reduce regulatory burden on startups allowing them to stay up, and the ease of shutting down will encourage risk taking," he said here. Public Private Partnership (PPP) incubators, such as Startup Village, will get a huge boost with the additional funding announced, Vijayakumar noted. Taking a cue from the successful PPP blueprint of Startup Village, the Centre has decided to convert 35 existing incubators to PPP model and start another 35 with private sector managing the incubators. Kerala has gained three new incubators at IIM-Kozhikode, NIT-Kozhikode and IISER, Thiruvanathapuram. He said the states that are quickest in creating supporting policies and their execution, will benefit the most from the Startup India programme. Vijayakumar was among those invited to the day-long discussion on startup entrepreneurship and launch of the Startup India action plan in New Delhi. He was chosen to moderate a session on topic "How digitisation will change India's future". On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a slew of incentives to boost startup businesses, offering them a tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime for three years, capital gains tax exemption and Rs 10,000 crore corpus to fund them. The Kerala High Court today observed that the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau is not vigilant, while hearing a petition on the bar bribery case. "The vigilance is not vigilant", Justice B Kemal Pasha said in passing remarks apparently referring to the state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau which is probing the bar bribery charges against some state ministers. The observations were made while considering a a petition to quash a defamation case filed by Kerala Excise Minister K Babu against Bar Hotel Owners Association President Biju Ramesh. Babu has filed a defamation case against Biju Ramesh before Chief Judicial Magistrate court, Ernakulam, alleging that the bar hotel owner was making defamatory statements against him on the bar issue. Counsel for Babu contended that why Biju Ramesh is not making a private complaint against the Minister after giving a statement under Section 164 of CrPC. This prompted the High Court to ask whether or not the government is duty-bound to conduct an inquiry on coming to know about bribery allegations against a minister. "All citizens have right to know the truth", the court said and directed producing the statement given by Biju Ramesh before the magistrate. In his statement, the hotelier had accused Babu of taking bribe. Further hearing of the case is scheduled on February 1. Meanwhile, in a separate case in the High Court relating to the bar bribery scam, the state vigilance department, in an affidavit, opposed a plea seeking a CBI probe into the bar bribery case. It said the matter is pending before the Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram, on the respective complaints by individual parties. It noted that another person filed a complaint before the Lok Ayukta regarding the matter, which as per law is entitled to issue directions including the prosecution in the event of prima facie material to "justify corruption, nepotism or other mal-administration." "Therefore, in the light of the fact that matters are pending before lower forums, the parties to this litigation can very well approach and ventilate their grievance on the basis of alternative remedy before the Lokayukta and also on the basis of doctrine of abstention by the higher forums", the affidavit said and prayed that the writ petitions seeking a CBI probe into the case be dismissed. World stock markets mostly fell today on the back of another dizzying plunge in oil prices and stubborn fears over China and the global economy. Equities extended losses in most of Asia and Europe, with energy firms taking a hit from a fresh collapse in the cost of crude oil. The Milan stock exchange also dived on swirling speculation over the health of several Italian banks, as did the Lisbon share market. Wall Street was closed today, a US holiday. Global oil prices slumped beneath USD 28 per barrel today after the lifting of sanctions against key producer Iran under its nuclear deal with world powers. Investors also remain on edge over China's economic slowdown -- and its impact on the faltering world economy. "European markets are doing their best to shrug off yet another negative session in Asia, as investors attempt to gauge whether or not the market has reached a good buying point," said Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor. "China, global growth and the oil market continue to cause concern and the market remains highly nervous, but at some point momentum may turn as active investors attempt to catch the bottom." Iran today ordered as planned an increase in its oil production of 500,000 barrels per day. "While the lifting of sanctions in Iran was well flagged, the prospect of additional supply from Iran has seen oil prices slide further," added O'Keeffe. "With oil supply remaining in huge excess to demand, it is difficult to see what will cause the market to reach equilibrium so that prices can stabilise." While the decision to free Tehran of the strict embargoes had been well telegraphed, the hammered Middle East equities yesterday, which were already under pressure from slumping oil. The United States and the European Union lifted the sanctions at the weekend after the UN's atomic watchdog confirmed Iran had complied with its obligations under the deal to curb its nuclear programme. Brent oil nosedived as low as USD 27.67 in earlier Asian trading hours, touching a new 12-year low before rebounding back above USD 29, but then slipped back again to USD 28.74 in the European afternoon. Pharma company Strides Shasun today got competition watchdog CCI's approval to acquire seven brands from consumer healthcare firm Johnson and Johnson. Through the deal, Strides will buy Johnson and Johnson's seven brands in dermatology, anti-emetic and pain management segments. The brands Strides will acquire include Otogesic ear drops, Ethnorub ointment and Stugil tablets. In a tweet, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said, "... Approves acquisition of certain brands of Johnson and Johnson by Strides Shasun Limited." However, Strides did not give financial details. The company has been in an acquisition mode to expand its market presence. In a separate transaction, the company, in October last year, had also acquired a majority stake in domestic branded business of Medispan. Furthermore, it had acquired Sun Pharmaceutical's two business divisions in India for Rs 165 crore. These divisions deal in products for the central nervous system. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has a packed schedule in Israel on Monday with back-to-back meetings with top leadership, an indication of burgeoning bilateral ties and a visit seen as a build up to the much awaited trip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the region. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as the External Affairs Minister, would be meeting President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Minister of Infrastructure Yuval Shteinitz and deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotovely. She will be also meeting the Indian community in Israel. There are four groups of Indian Jewish communities in Israel with a strength of approximately 80,000. Netanyahu, who has met Modi twice in the past year and a half, has said that "sky is the limit" that can be achieved between the two sides with "limitless" potential. Describing Modi as "his friend", the Israeli Prime Minister has in the past said that his Indian counterpart has told him that New Delhi needs Tel Aviv to achieve major developmental projects outlined by him. Swaraj's visit comes barely three months after the historic visit of President Pranab Mukherjee, the first by an Indian Head of State to Israel, and aims at encasing on the goodwill generated by that visit. Yesterday, she crossed over to West Bank from Israel and held talks with the top Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. She met her Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki and reaffirmed India's consistent support for the Palestinian cause, emphasising that there has been "absolutely no change in its policy in this regard". Swaraj later called on President Mahmoud Abbas. She also paid a floral tribute at Mahatma Gandhi's bust and paid homage to iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum. The United Nations today said it was waiting for regional powers spearheading the Syria peace process to agree on who will take part in talks starting in just one week's time and raised the possibility of a delay. The peace talks, the first between the Syrian government and the opposition since 2012, are scheduled to open in Geneva on January 25, but invitations have yet to be sent to the delegations. The 17 countries pushing for a peace deal, including the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, have been struggling to agree on the list of opposition leaders who will have a seat at the negotiating table. "At this stage, the UN will proceed with issuing invitations when the countries spearheading the Syrian Support Group process come to an understanding on who among the opposition should be invited," said UN spokesman Farhan Haq. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "urges those countries to redouble efforts to reach that agreement," he said. The Geneva talks are to pave the way to a new constitution and elections in 18 months to end Syria's nearly five-year war, which has killed more than 260,000 people and triggered a mass refugee exodus to Europe. The UN spokesman said there were "concerns about arrangements" that had yet to be resolved for the talks to go ahead and added, "If there is any kind of slippage, we will let you know." A council diplomat separately said "it's going to be difficult" to reach agreement on the list of participants. Saudi Arabia last month hosted a meeting of armed factions and opposition groups to agree on a common platform in negotiations with the Damascus regime, but Russia has said that effort did not include all players. A key ally of the Syrian regime, Moscow wants the moderate opposition that is closer to President Bashar al-Assad to take part. "If some well-known opposition leaders are not invited, it's going to make the delegation less inclusive than it should be," said Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin. The UN's Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, told the UN Security Council during a closed-door briefing that "additional work needs to be done" before he can send out invitations, Churkin told reporters. But he added that January 25 remained the target and that it was "important to stick to that date". Two key associations of Tamil cinema industry today said they will seek Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's intervention for the release of seven life convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. Addressing a press conference here, a directors' body and the Artistes' Association said they will take out a rally before submitting a petition to Jayalalithaa. "We will place a request before the Chief Minister that she should use all powers (available to the state government) and allow those seven (convicts) in the society," Artistes' Association President M Nasser said. Speaking on behalf of the Directors' Union, R K Selvamani said the objective of awarding prison term to a person is to reform and claimed that the convicts -- including Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan -- had been jailed for 20 years. The film professionals said the rally day and venue would be finalised after getting the Chief Minister's appointment to submit the memorandum. Other professional bodies of Tamil cinema such as the Producers' Council would also participate in the rally, they said. The announcement comes close on the heels of some of the directors including Selvamani, Vikraman and Amir meeting the convicts in the high-security Vellore prison recently. They had then said the seven could be released by the Tamil Nadu government under Article 161 of the Constitution, which allows the state government to grant pardon and commute sentences in certain cases. Grappling for survival, Tata Steel today announced it will cut 1,050 more jobs in the UK, including the country's biggest steel plant, as part of the Indian steel giant's broader cost-reduction plan for its business amid "unfair" steel imports from China. Today's "cost-saving" proposal comes over and above the October lay-off of 1,200 roles employed by Britain's biggest steelmaker, that also appealed to the EU to take urgent action to check the imports in the country for a level-playing field. This would mean the loss of 750 jobs at its Welsh Port Talbot-based Strip Products UK business which currently employs 4,000 workers and is the biggest steel plant in Britain in terms of workforce and output. There will also be 200 job cuts in support functions at the unit and a further 100 jobs across its steel mills at Trostre in Wales, and Corby and Hartlepool in England. The proposed changes follow continued falls in the European steel price caused by a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China, the company said. Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said: "I know this will be unsettling for all those affected, but these tough actions are critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry. "And while we welcome progress on UK energy costs, the government must take urgent action to increase the competitiveness of the UK for its vital steel sector. This includes lowering business rates and supporting energy efficiency and anti-dumping cases so we can compete fairly. "Tata Steel has been a hugely supportive investor, and has invested 1.5 billion pounds in its UK operations. We now need all stakeholders to do their utmost to meet the unprecedented challenges the steel sector is facing." A full consultation process with employee representatives will begin immediately. "It is yet another chapter of the UK's ongoing steel crisis and the lack of a proper government response," Community steel union said in a statement. Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesperson at Downing Street said this marked a "worrying time for the workforce". Stuart Wilkie, director of Strip Products UK, said: "We have to accelerate the changes we announced last August, by lowering our costs at the same time as focusing on manufacturing higher-value products. "These are urgent steps needed to give this business a chance of survival. We will work closely with affected employees and their trade union representatives. Retaining the right skills for the future will be critical, but we will look to minimise employee hardship and redeploy employees where possible. (Reopens FGN16) Tata Steel said its regeneration arm UK Steel Enterprise will look at how it can provide more support to the local communities affected by today's announcement and help stimulate new job creation in those areas. Over the last four decades, the company has helped to regenerate local economies, including South Wales, with 88 million pounds of support and created more than 75,000 new jobs across the UK, the company said. Tata Steel had announced 1,200 job cuts at its Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire plants in October last year. It said in December that it was in talks with investment fund Greybull Capital to sell some of its European assets, involving its long products division. Thirty Sabarimala pilgrims were today injured, four of them seriously, when a bus from Karnataka overturned on the NH-7 near Kakancherry in Malappuram district, police said. The accident occurred around 9.00 am when the driver of the bus, carrying more than 50 pilgrims belonging to Bannerghatta near Bengaluru, lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a curve, police said. They were returning from the hill shrine after darshan. The injured have been admitted to Kozhikode Medical College hospital, they said. NCP president Sharad Pawar today said it was too early to draw inferences on the BJP-led government's performance at the Centre. "One should not draw inferences on the government which has been elected for five years, in just one year," Pawar said. "After all, the situation in the country depends on what the economy says," he told reporters at Kolhapur in western Maharashtra. "The economy during Manmohan Singh regime was on the upswing. Production was on the rise and so were exports," Pawar, who was agriculture minister during the UPA regime, said. "Now exports have declined and the manufacturing sector and prices have also been impacted," the NCP chief claimed. "This is not a good sign. But I don't want to say that this situation will remain so permanently. We will have to watch for one or two years more," he added. (Reopens BOM2) Pawar said there is restlessness among a section of the BJP over the individual-centric discourse centred around "me and my word" theme. He was referring to the BJP poll campaign focused on Fadnavis, who is telling voters to trust his words. "Many BJP veterans say stalwarts like Vajpayee and Advani were never self-centred like the current lot," the Rajya Sabha MP said. Pawar said there is considerable resentment among the rural masses over the lacklustre performance of the Fadnavis Government. Criticising demonetisation, the former Agriculture Minister said the exercise adversely affected the economy and caused hardship to the common man. Noteban has robbed daily workers of their livelihoods in sectors like powerloom. In Malegaon (a powerloom town in Nashik district), many workers have gone back to their native places due to lack of jobs and financial hardship arising out of the currency recall exercise, he said. As per the Rural Employment Department figures, there has been a 60 per cent rise in MNERGA works between November and January. This indicates people who lost their jobs post- noteban have taken up MNERGA works, he said. Pawar, quoting a report, said there has been a 35 per cent job loss in micro and small-scale industries and 50 per cent revenue dip in the manufacturing sector due to the Centre's move to withdraw high-value old currency notes. The engine of Shiv-Ganga express train from New Delhi to Maruadih today decoupled leaving the bogies behind between Jangiganj and Atraula railway stations on Allahabad-Varanasi section here. Due to this unscheduled halt half-a-dozen of trains had to be stopped, an official said. The incident took place at 9.10 AM when the engine detached from the rest of the rakes leaving bogies behind, Station Master of Gyanpur Ashok Kumar Verma said. Later, another engine was arranged and the train left for the destination at 10.34 AM. A major accident was averted since the speed of the train was slow, added Verma. Noted lyricist Javed Akhtar today appealed for encouraging translation of good books from other languages to foster better understanding of a particular society. "We should encourage translation of good books from other languages, as through translations one can understand the culture, the society and the way of living of a particular society," Akhtar said in his address as a chief guest at the valedictory function of the 89th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held at Pimpri near here. Akhtar, who turned 71 today, said though the country made spectacular development in all sectors post independence, the fields of art, literature and culture were left behind. "In the journey of our development, we had left some luggage on the platform and that luggage was arts, literature, and culture. However, I am happy to see that the youths are now getting attracted to these aspects and that is why unprecedented participation has been witnessed at such literary meets," he said. Quoting noted Marathi writer, P L Deshpande, he said, "He (Deshpande) used to say that to earn the livelihood, one should have a skill, but also learn some art as it will tell you how to live life". On the occasion, organisers brought out a postal stamp with Akhtar's image on it, which was handed over to him by Education Minister Vinod Tawde. When contacted, organisers said the stamp was brought out under the 'My Stamp' scheme of Department of Posts. Donald Trump declared himself a defender of besieged Christians in a campaign speech to more than 11,000 people today, as the Republican presidential frontrunner openly courted the support of evangelicals two weeks away from first voting. News that Trump, known more for womanising, an extravagant lifestyle and bombastic rhetoric than piety, was to speak at the private Liberty University in Virginia had triggered threats of student protests. But the 69-year-old billionaire and real-estate tycoon found a receptive audience at the university, an evangelical bastion and a rite of passage for conservative presidential candidates from Ronald Reagan in the 1980s to Ted Cruz, Trump's main Republican rival. Trump, who has courted a string of controversies and urged a ban on Muslims entering the United States, and Cruz are locked in a tight race in Iowa, which on February 1 becomes the first state to vote for party nominees. "We've done great with the evangelicals. The evangelicals have been amazing," he told the crowd, to cheers, on what was a US holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King. "We're going to protect Christianity. If you look what's going on throughout the world -- you look at Syria, where if you're Christian, they're chopping off heads. "You look at the different places, and Christianity, it's under siege. "I'm a Protestant, I'm very proud of it, Presbyterian to be exact, but I'm proud of it, very, very proud." In recent weeks Trump has stressed his own faith as he steps up efforts to reach out to this critical Republican voter group. Turkish prosecutors today launched an investigation into the head of Turkey's main opposition party after he called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "tinpot dictator". Kemal Kilicdaroglu was speaking out against the detention of Turkish academics last week over a petition condemning the military crackdown in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, just days after Erdogan threatened the signatories. "Academics who express their opinion are being detained, one by one, because of a tinpot dictator," Kilicdaroglu told a congress of his Republican People's Party (CHP) at the weekend. "How dare you (Erdogan) send police to these peoples' doors and have them detained." "Tell us, tinpot dictator, what do honour and pride mean to you? Either you maintain your impartiality and get respect or I will remind you every day what honour and pride mean." The chief prosecutor's office in Ankara launched the probe against Kilicdaroglu on charges of "openly insulting the president," the official Anatolia new agency reported The crime is punishable by up to four years in prison. Erdogan has separately filed a civil lawsuit against Kilicdaroglu, seeking 100,000 Turkish Liras (USD 33,300) in compensation for "slander" from the CHP leader, the private NTV channel said. Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag today slammed Kilicdaroglu over the dictator jibe, writing on Twitter: "I pity Mr Kilicdaroglu for not being able to criticise our dear president without insulting him." "Only those who lack intelligence, knowledge, and morality can insult others like that under the disguise of freedom of expression." Erdogan had in June last year filed a lawsuit against Kilicdaroglu for "slander" for claiming the president's vast palace in Ankara had gold-plated toilet seats. Concerns have mounted in recent months over freedom of expression in Turkey, in particular over the spiralling numbers of Turks being taken to court on charges of insulting Erdogan, accused by his opponents of increasing authoritarianism. Prosecutors on Thursday began a vast investigation into over 1,200 academics for engaging in "terrorist propaganda" by signing a petition urging Ankara to halt "its deliberate massacres" in the Kurdish-majority region. On Friday Turkish police detained at least 18 of them, sparking fresh international concern at restrictions on freedom of expression in Turkey. Two men, suspected to have links with terror group al-Qaeda have been arrested from Haryana's Mewat district in a joint operation by Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau, Mewat Police today said. The suspected terrorists have been identified as Mohamad Qasim and Abdul Sami, residents of Jamshedpur district in Jharkhand, the latter believed to be a key operative of the banned terror outfit, who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan. Qasim and Sami had reached Punhana sub-town in Muslim- dominated Mewat district two days ago and were residing in a mosque situated on Punhana Hodal Road, Punhan Police said. Following a tip-off yesterday night, a team of Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau reached the place and some youth were rounded up for questioning, a local senior police official said. "During interrogation, the sleuths found Qasim and Sami hesitant while revealing their identities and their objective of visiting Punhana, after which the were arrested", DSP Punhana Ratandeep Bali said. A senior official of Delhi Police, however, clearly stated that "only one person has been arrested by them." "Besides Sami, no other person has been arrested or detained by the Delhi Police," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep, said today. "Sami was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Deep said. Sami was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, a senior Delhi Police official said. Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS) and sent for training. While Sami has been arrested, the other two -- identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, the official added. He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns. Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan. Two men, suspected to have links with terror group al-Qaeda have been nabbed from Haryana's Mewat district in a joint operation by Delhi Police and a central intelligence agency, Mewat Police today said. The suspected terrorists have been identified as Mohamad Qasim and Abdul Sami, residents of Jamshedpur district in Jharkhand, the latter believed to be a key operative of the banned terror outfit, who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan. Qasim and Sami had reached Punhana sub-town in Muslim-dominated Mewat district two days ago and were residing in a mosque situated on Punhana Hodal Road, Punhana Police said. Following a tip-off yesterday night, a team of Delhi Police and a central intelligence agency reached the place and some youth were rounded up for questioning, a local senior police official said. "During interrogation, the sleuths found Qasim and Sami hesitant while revealing their identities and their objective of visiting Punhana, after which they were arrested", DSP Punhana Ratandeep Bali said. A senior official of Delhi Police, however, clearly stated that "only one person has been arrested by them." "Besides Sami, no other person has been arrested or detained by the Delhi Police," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep, said today. "Sami was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Deep said. Sami was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, a senior Delhi Police official said. Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al-Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent (AQIS) and sent for training. While Sami has been arrested, the other two -- identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, the official added. He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns. Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan. Donald Trump doesn't have many fans in Britain's Parliament. But a debate among lawmakers on calls to ban Trump from the country revealed little appetite to close Britain's doors to the provocative Republican US presidential contender. During a three-hour debate Monday, legislators from Britain's main parties stood to call Trump an attention-seeker, a demagogue and a fool. Many, though, argued that he should not be stifled or banned. "While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be the one to silence his voice," said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Parliament took up the topic after half a million people signed a petition calling for Trump to be excluded over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of extremist violence. Trump has also claimed that some areas of Britain are so radicalized that police fear for their lives. Under British law, any petition supported by 100,000 people who must each provide and confirm an email address is considered for parliamentary debate. Monday's debate was intended to air the subject rather than take a vote. Labour Party legislator Paul Flynn, who opened the session, said Trump had already received "far too much attention." "The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood" and boost his popularity among supporters, Flynn said. But another Labour lawmaker, Tulip Siddiq, supported a ban. "This is a man who is extremely high-profile, ... A man who is interviewing for the most important job in the world," she said. "His words are not comical, his words are not funny. His words are poisonous. The new chief of the UN refugee agency today said the world should find a fairer formula for sharing the burden of Syria's crisis, including taking in tens of thousands of refugees from overwhelmed regional host nations. Filippo Grandi, who assumed his post earlier this month, heads an agency grappling with mounting challenges as Syria's five-year-old civil war drags on. Humanitarian aid lags more and more behind growing global needs, including those caused by the Syrian conflict. More than four million Syrians have fled their homeland, the bulk living in increasingly difficult conditions in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, while hundreds of thousands have flooded into Europe. Grandi came to Jordan after a stop in Turkey. Later this week, he is due in Lebanon. He visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan after meeting with King Abdullah II in the capital, Amman. His agency, UNHCR, hopes to raise money for refugees at a London pledging conference in February, followed by an gathering in March in Geneva where countries would commit to taking in more refugees. "I think we need to be much more ambitious" about resettling refugees, Grandi said. "We are talking about large numbers ... In the tens of thousands." "What is needed is a better sharing of responsibilities, internationally, for a crisis that cannot only concern the countries neighbouring Syria," he said. Hundreds of thousands of refugees entered Europe in 2015, often with the help of smugglers who ferried them across the Mediterranean in dangerous voyages. Grandi said it was time to create legal ways for some refugees to leave overburdened host countries. Grandi and his Jordanian hosts also discussed a potentially contentious issue the fate of some 17,000 refugees who have amassed on the Syrian-Jordanian border, with numbers rising rapidly in recent months. They are stranded in a remote desert area, with Jordan only admitting several dozen each day after stringent security checks. UNHCR has warned that the refugees face deteriorating conditions, including lack of adequate shelter. Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani yesterday said that Jordan believes Islamic State supporters are among the refugees, many of whom fled areas of Syria currently under IS control. Momani said Jordan's security is a priority, suggesting a change in the current admissions policy is unlikely. He said aid workers are given access to the area and that Jordan will fly the refugees to any country willing to accept them. Come third day of Tamil month 'Thai' every year, it rains bananas at a nearby village temple as devotees offer the fruit in large quantity to the presiding deity and then throw them on the gathering outside. Continuing the nearly 200-year-old tradition, residents of Sevugampatti village, about 30 km from here, yesterday celebrated the 'Soorai Viduthal' (throwing) festival. Hundreds of bunches of bananas were thrown from the roof top of the Solamalai Sri Azhagar temple, as part of the festival. Each of the devotees carried about 20 dozens of bananas while the more affluent brought them in large quantity in autorikshaws and vans and reached the temple in a procession. The bananas were then offered to the deity and after the rituals taken to the roof top from where the donors threw them on the crowd waiting outside the temple. The fruits were grabbed by the residents while the donors made sure to distribute them to those who were not lucky enough to catch them. Mani, a resident of the village, said the festival was being held for more than 200 years and hundreds of people from surrounding villages witness it annually. "This is called Soorai Viduthal. The festival is being celebrated on the third day of Thai as a mark of thanks giving to the God for a bountiful harvest and praying for the well being of the people," he said. He added that the local residents are barred from taking home even a single banana. The Uttar Pradesh government today kept the state advisory price (SAP) of sugarcane for the 2015-2016 crushing season unchanged at Rs 280 per quintal. The decision was announced by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav after a meeting of the state cabinet here. Yadav said his government will ensure sugar mills operate timely and make regular payment to cane growers. The cane price, which has been a political issue in UP, has remained the same for last three years. Though the decision was welcomed by the sugar industry, opposition parties did not leave any chance to criticise the government. They accused the ruling Samajwadi government of cheating cane farmers in the state, the country's second-largest sugar producer. "The party, which claims to be farmer friendly, has cheated them by not hiking the cane price," said BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak, adding that the ruling Samajwadi Party government should have fixed the price at least Rs 350 per quintal. "SP in its election manifesto had said that price of agriculture produce would be fixed according to the cost of production," Pathak recalled. He further said that an increase in the SAP would have definitely motivated tillers to continue with cane farming. Meanwhile, the UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) welcomed the government's decision. "UPSMA welcomes the government's step of not increasing the SAP for cane purchase during sugar season 2015-16 keeping in view the depressed market conditions and losses suffered by the industry during last five seasons," its secretary Deepak Guptara said. Out of country's total sugarcane area of 49.44 lakh hectares, Uttar Pradesh accounts for over 21.25 lakh hectares (about 43 per cent). However, as per official records, the state's sugarcane productivity as well as sugar production is less than the national average. Sugar production in the state is estimated to be at last year's level at 7.2 million tonnes in 2015-16. (Reopens NRG 14) It is for the fourth consecutive crushing season that the state advisory price (SAP) of sugarcane has been kept unchanged. With the Opposition parties getting active in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh in run up to the 2017 Assembly polls, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav today said his government would make necessary efforts to address the issues the area confronts. After a Cabinet meeting today, Yadav said Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan recently visited the region to take stock of the developmental scheme and he himself would visit Bundelkhand. "We have taken a decision on the works to be carried out under MNREGA... In coming times, I'll also visit Bundelkhand. My government will help the region in every possible way," he said. The statement comes at a time when Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit Bundelkhand on January 22. "As far as Bundelkhand is concerned, you must remember that the SP and its government were the first to take care of the region," he claimed. Bundelkhand comprises parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The Bahujan Samaj Party government, under Mayawati, had in 2011, proposed creation of separate Bundelkhand state comprising seven districts of UP -- Banda, Hamirpur, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Mahoba, Chitrakoot and Jalaun -- and some districts of Madhya Pradesh. BJP had performed well in these districts in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and ruling Samajwadi Party is focusing on the area to grab as many Assembly seats as possible. The US ambassador to Israel says Washington is "concerned and perplexed" over Israel's strategy of building West Bank settlements. Daniel Shapiro says that Israel's stated support for the establishment of a Palestinian state becomes increasingly difficult with its expansion of settlements. Shapiro says building settlements raises questions about Israel's intentions. He says that as Israel's closest friend, it is the United States' role to point that out. He spoke today at the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, a top Israeli think tank. The international community considers the settlements, built on lands Israel captured in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians, illegal or illegitimate. Shapiro also noted that Israel had legalized some West Bank outposts despite pledges to the United States not to do so. US and Iraqi authorities were searching today for three Americans who were kidnapped in Baghdad, the latest group of foreign nationals abducted in recent months. Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, and Iraqis have suffered the most from kidnappers seeking ransoms or to settle scores. The Islamic State group, which overran large areas in 2014, has abducted thousands of people and carried out a slew of executions, while Shiite paramilitary forces opposed to the jihadists have also carried out kidnappings and killings. Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned the rise in "cases of foreigners being kidnapped in Iraq," saying it would harm the country's relations with other states. "The kidnapping of the American citizens yesterday, and before them the Qatari hunters, whose fate is still unknown, without a doubt indicates the increasing work of organised gangs in Iraq," Juburi said in a statement. US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the day before that: "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq." "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," Kirby added, without providing details about their number or the circumstances of their disappearance. An Iraqi police colonel said on condition of anonymity that three Americans and an Iraqi translator were kidnapped in southern Baghdad. The colonel said today that the search was at this point mainly an intelligence effort. The officer earlier said that according to information he had received, the kidnappers were militiamen wearing military uniforms. "We don't know what their work is," the colonel said of the kidnapped Americans. Iraq turned to paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large parts of the country in 2014. These groups, which fall under an umbrella organisation known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation units, have played a key role in the fight against the jihadists. But they have also been accused of abuses including summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of property. The US is leading a coalition of countries that have bombed thousands of IS targets in Iraq and Syria and which are providing training to Baghdad's forces. The US created "holy warriors" in Pakistan's tribal areas during the "Afghan jihad" and then left them as soon as the war was over which contributed to decades of instability in the country and the region, Prime Minister's Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said today. During a discussion on an adjournment motion in the Senate, moved by Senator Mushahid Hussain, about US President Barack Obama's recent remarks that instability will continue for decades in Pakistan, Aziz said, "Pakistan's answer to instability is the strengthening democracy in the country." "The US created 'holy warriors' in our tribal areas during the 'Afghan Jihad' and then left them as soon as the war was over, a factor which contributed to decades of instability in Pakistan and the region," Aziz was quoted as saying by Dawn . Talking about "external threats" to the country's stability, Aziz said that since 2013, Pakistan has been pursuing a policy of non-interference and is not taking part in other nations' wars. "We have decided that we are not going to indulge in fighting other countries' wars now, and this policy is being pursued vigorously by the government," he said. "Pakistan has also taken a strong stance against terrorism. Operation Zarb-i-Azb in tribal areas and the operation against criminals in Karachi have helped improve the internal security situation of the country," he added. In his last State of the Union Address last week, Obama had warned, "Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the world -- in the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of Central America, Africa and Asia." Obama had also identified a link between militancy and instability and warned that some unstable regions might become safe havens for terrorists. Aziz had rejected Obama's assertion the next day. The US military has released its first official account of Iran's seizure and subsequent release of 10 US sailors in the Persian Gulf who strayed into Iranian waters last week in small boats. The account US Central Command offered today adds some detail to what was already known about the incident, but it leaves unanswered such key questions as why the boat crews deviated from their planned route and entered Iranian territorial waters. The report says the sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. They had been traveling from Kuwait to Bahrain. It says a post-recovery inventory of the boats accounted for all weapons, ammunition and communications gear, except for two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. India's vegetable oil imports rose 24 per cent last month to 14.18 lakh tonnes on sharp jump in shipments of RBD palmolein, owing to low global prices. Imports of vegetable oils (comprising edible and non- edible oils) stood at 11.39 lakh tonnes in December 2014, the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) of India said in a statement. Edible oils import rose to 14.07 lakh tonnes in December last year from 11.23 lakh tonnes in December 2014. However, imports of non-edible oils fell to 11,467 tonnes from 17,996 tonnes in the year-ago period. "It is a well known fact that globally the prices of edible oil are historically low since 2008, and has affected the domestic players," SEA said in a statement. Overall import of vegetable oils during first two months of the current oil year 2015-16 (November to October) went up 18 per cent to 27,56,047 tonnes as compared to 23,29,520 tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year. During November-December 2015, import of refined oil (RBD palmolein) jumped to 4,61,192 tonnes from 1,03,136 tonnes in the same period of previous oil year. The country's vegetable oil imports touched a record 14.61 million tonnes in 2014-15 oil year ended October. SEA said that the current stock of edible oils as on January 1, 2016 is the record highest. Stock at various ports is estimated at 11.10 lakh tonnes and about 14 lakh tonnes in pipelines, taking the total to 25.10 lakh tonnes, which is higher than 24.3 lakh tonnes in December 2015 and 20.7 lakh tonnes in January 2015. India's monthly requirement is about 16 lakh tonnes and currently, the holding stock of over 25.10 lakh tonnes is equal to 47 days requirements, SEA said. "In last one year, CIF Indian port prices of edible oils moved downward in line with fall in international prices. RBD palmolein price is down by $112 per tonne (-16%), crude palm oil by $119 (-18%), crude soyabean oil by $86 (-10%) and sunflower oil by $7 (-1%). In last one year rupee has depreciated by 6 per cent," SEA said. In order to curb imports and protect domestic oilseeds farmers and processing mills, the government had in September last year raised import duty on crude edible oils to 12.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent, while the duty on refined edible oils was increased to 20 per cent from 15 per cent. India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia and a small quantity of crude soft oils, including soyabean oil from Latin America. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia. Online budget hotels aggregator Vista Rooms is looking to add around 1,300 hotels and 65 new cities in its network to expand the company's presence in the country during the year. The company, at present has 700 hotels in around 85 cities across India. "We are planning to add 1,300 hotels in 2016 and 65 new cities to our existing network in 2016. This will take our room strength to 10,000 rooms from the present around 2,500 rooms," Vista Rooms Co-Founder Amit Damani told PTI. Apart from strengthening presence in metros and big cities the company will focus on the new tier-II and tier-III cities, he added. When asked about the locations the company is looking at for the expansion, Damani said: "Destinations in north, northeast and east are the focus areas for us as we already have a strong presence in south, central and western parts of the country." The company is also looking at raising next round of funding for expansion plans. "We are looking to raise around USD 10 million in the next round of funding. We are looking for strategic investors focused on the travel and hospitality space and also at Venture Capital funds for this," Damani said. The company has already had a series A round of funding, he added. Elaborating on the benefits to the hotels on tie ups with Vista Rooms, Damani said: "We work closely with partner hotels in creating operational efficiency and improving customer service apart from marketing the properties." Launched in April, Vista Rooms was co-founded by Amit Damani, Ankita Sheth and Pranav Maheshwari is also considering to double number of its employees from 75 during the year as it enters new cities. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Monday named three gunmen behind a deadly attack on a luxury Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe. Burkinabe troops fanned out across the capital, Ouagadougou, with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat. "We're not going to just sit on our hands. We will react and respond," he said, speaking on behalf of the 15 regional nations. "The question is whose turn is it next," Boni Yayi added. "The terrorists who think they can take our youngsters away from us are wrong." Friday's attack by Islamist gunmen on a four-star Ouagadougou hotel and nearby cafe left at least 29 people dead, around half of them foreigners. The first such incident in the country, it came weeks after Islamists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, where 20 people died. At the crime scene, an 18-strong team of French investigators, including forensic experts, joined local police in white coats combing for clues at the Splendid hotel and Capuccino cafe stormed by the gunmen. At least 14 or 15 foreigners, including a nine-year-old, and seven or eight Burkinabes were among the dead, according to differing tolls given by the government and the public prosecutor. Seven bodies have not yet been identified. The French foreign ministry said 30 people had been killed and 20 identified. In a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE, AQIM said the Splendid Hotel was "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent." It published photos of the three young gunmen dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons, identifying them as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari. The number of international tourists rose by 4.4 per cent worldwide in 2015 to hit a record 1.18 billion despite concerns over terrorism, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation said today. Tourism arrivals were up by 5.0 per cent in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas but fell by 8.0 per cent in North Africa where nations like Tunisia were hit by terrorist attacks, it said in a statement. The Madrid-based body had earlier predicted international tourism arrivals would increase by 3.0-4.0 percent in 2015, after expanding by 4.7 percent in the previous year. Global tourism figures were hard hit by the global financial crisis, declining 4.0 percent in 2009 as an outbreak of swine flu also contributed to cash-strapped people staying at home but have risen in each year since. Tunisia's tourism industry, which had been recovering after the Arab Spring unrest, was badly shaken in March by an attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis, followed by one in June in the resort of Sousse, that killed a total of 59 tourists. This attack and others came as North African countries still struggle to regain the trust of holidaymakers scared off by the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region in 2011. The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday ruled against the European Union in a dispute that has been raging since 2009 between the bloc and China over import duties on nuts and bolts. The world trade body's fourth and final verdict against the EU in the dispute opens the way for China to request compensation. China had first brought the case to the WTO in July 2009 after the EU imposed hefty tariffs on imports of some Chinese steel and iron fasteners. Arguing that dumping was taking place, the EU had in January that year levied tariffs ranging from 26.5% to 85% on Chinese screws, nuts, bolts and washers. The Chinese ministry of commerce said in a statement Monday that the measures had since then had "negative effect on exports from China (of) around $1.0 billion" (918 million euros) and had resulted in some 100,000 people losing their jobs with thousands of fastener producers across the country. "It has resulted in huge economic losses to the Chinese industry," the statement said. The WTO has repeatedly found that the EU measures violate global trade rules. In 2010, a WTO panel ruled that Brussels acted inconsistently in its anti-dumping calculations, and the decision was upheld on appeal in 2011. But the case did not end there. China did not agree with the EU's claim in October 2012 that it had adjusted its measures to comply with the WTO ruling. That panel ruled last August in China's favour, finding that the EU had failed to make amends, and on Monday a WTO appeals body rejected an EU appeal of that ruling. The WTO among other things faulted Brussels for imposing anti-dumping duties on all Chinese firms, instead of imposing differentiated duties depending on each company's practice. The Chinese commerce ministry statement hailed the ruling, insisting it showed that "discriminative practice and anti-dumping measures taken by certain trade partners against the Chinese products and exporters lack multilateral legal basis under the WTO trade laws". India's Yuki Bhambri crashed out of the Australian Open men's singles event after losing in straight sets to world number six Tomas Berdych in the opening round here today. Berdych kicked off his 50th consecutive Grand Slam in style, demolishing Yuki 7-5 6-1 6-2 in one hour and 45 minutes. Yuki started off well but his game deteriorated as the match progressed in fiercely hot conditions at the Margaret Court Arena. The Indian youngster proved no match for the sixth seed Berdych, who only dropped his service once in the opening set. Inexperience was writ large on Yuki's game as Berdych broke the Indian's serve six times. Last year's semifinalist Berdych dropped his opening service game as Yuki was able to stick with his fancied opponent early on. However, in the end, Yuki failed to match the big-hitting Czech who dominated proceedings from 5-5. A double-fault that handed Berdych the first set in effect spelt the end for Yuki, who quickly fell apart as the Czech took complete control of the match, dictating the Indian's serve with searching returns and firing down 13 aces against his opponent's two. Berdych, who is in the same quarter of the draw as Roger Federer, hammered 35 winners and will next face Bosnia's Mirza Basic. As for world no.95 Yuki, who appeared in the main draw of a singles event at the Grand Slam for the first time, it was the end of yet another frustrating first round campaign as last year too he lost his opener here in straight sets to Andy Murray. By Pete Sweeney and Samuel Shen SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's yuan rose on Monday as the central bank announced a fresh move to deter offshore speculation in the currency, while stocks rebounded modestly from near levels last seen at the depths of last year's summer crash. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it would start implementing a reserve requirement ratio (RRR) on offshore banks' domestic deposits, in a move that seemed intended to soak up additional liquidity. "The market sees that this is a gesture by the PBOC to warn speculators that are betting on a fast depreciation of its currency," said Zhou Hao, senior emerging markets economist for Asia at Commerzbank AG in Singapore. A turbulent start to 2016, with currency and stock markets tumbling, has stoked concerns that Beijing's policymakers are in danger of fumbling as China heads towards its slowest growth in 25 years. Beijing will release GDP data for 2015 on Tuesday. Global markets have also tumbled in January, with Asian shares sliding on Monday to their lowest levels since 2011 following weak U.S. economic data and sharp falls in oil prices. Ever-contrary, China's notoriously volatile stock markets opened sharply lower on Monday but reversed course to buck the global trend, with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index and the CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen both edging up 0.4 percent. After recent jitters about the health of the world's second-biggest economy, investors took some comfort from data that showed a continuing recovery in the housing market. But sentiment remained fragile, with analysts expecting further turbulence ahead. Chinese equities had tumbled on Friday, with the Shanghai index closing lower than at any time since December 2014, leaving most investors who put their faith in Beijing's measures to end last summer's crash nursing losses. "After experiencing the crashes last year, the sentiment is quite vulnerable and pessimistic now," said Xiao Shijun, an analyst at Guodu Securities in Beijing. SQUEEZING SPECULATION China's currency has fallen around 5 percent since August, and while most analysts expect further weakening the authorities have been loath to allow it to depreciate too fast. Monday's move by the PBOC was seen by some as being - at this stage - more of a symbolic warning to banks, aimed at discouraging them from being too active in yuan dealings as part of its broader campaign to deter those betting offshore that the currency will fall. Setting an RRR - requiring banks to hold a certain level of currency in reserves - could tighten liquidity leaving less yuan for banks to lend and so making it more expensive for speculators to bet against it. On Friday, the yuan had weakened sharply offshore, opening up a gap of more than 1 percent with the steady onshore market. China's central bank tightly manages the onshore market by setting a daily target for the yuan, which is allowed to trade within a 2-percentage point band either side. The spot market opened at 6.5800 per dollar on Monday and was changing hands at 6.5790 by mid-afternoon, 0.08 percent firmer than the previous close. The central bank had set a firmer tone by raising the mid-point to 6.5590. The offshore yuan was trading at 6.5855 per dollar, around 0.1 percent softer than the onshore spot rate. A senior dealer in Shanghai suggested that the RRR move "will help drain yuan liquidity offshore, and will dampen banks' interest in conducting offshore yuan business". Confusion over China's foreign exchange policy and its commitment to reforms has sparked mayhem in financial markets in recent weeks, as the PBOC allowed the yuan to fall sharply in early January and then moved aggressively to try to steady it. China's major share indexes have lost 16-18 percent so far in 2016, taking them back to around the levels plumbed in August, when the market slumped more than 40 percent in a summer crash. Xiao Gang, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), pledged over the weekend to strengthen oversight of the market. "The abnormal stock market volatility has revealed an immature market, inexperienced investors, an imperfect trading system, and inappropriate supervision mechanisms," Xiao said at an annual meeting. His remarks were published on the CSRC website. (Reporting by Pete Sweeney, Samuel Shen and Shanghai and Beijing newsrooms; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Neil Fullick) By Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several Iranian-Americans held in U.S. prisons after being charged or convicted for sanctions violations have been released, their lawyers told on Sunday, as part of a deal between Iran and the United States that also won the release of four Americans imprisoned in Iran. The United States said on Saturday that it had granted clemency to seven Iranians being held in U.S. jails or awaiting trial, mostly on sanctions-related charges. Six of the men are Iranian-American dual citizens. Bahram Mechanic and Khosrow Afghahi were released from a Houston jail early on Sunday, Mechanic's lawyer Joel Androphy said. "Releasing Khosrow Afghahi is the correct result," said Afghahi's attorney, David Gerger, in an emailed statement. "He is a good man, and we are happy to put this ordeal behind him." Tooraj Faridi, also granted a pardon in connection with the case against Mechanic and Afghahi, was already out on bail. Arash Ghahreman, convicted in 2015 of trying to export US-built marine navigation equipment to Iran, was also released, his attorney Ellis Johnston said on Sunday. A lawyer for Ali Saboonchi, convicted in 2014 for export violations, said his client had also been released as of Sunday. "Ali is thrilled and grateful for his release and return to his family," said his attorney Lucius Outlaw, a federal public attorney, in an emailed statement. "Ali's release shows that he poses no danger to the American people." Nader Modanlo, sentenced to eight years in prison in 2013 for helping Iran launch its first satellite into orbit, was released from a Virginia prison Sunday morning, his attorney Kelly Kramer confirmed via text message. Kramer was not immediately available for further comment. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Joel Schectman; Editing by Dominic Evans) will soon send an official team to Iran to explore setting up a smelter complex worth about $2 billion, said NALCO Chairman Tapan Kumar Chand, as world powers lift sanctions on Iran that had made negotiations difficult. National Aluminium Company NALCO Chand said that the ending of sanctions on Iran in return for the country's curbs on its nuclear programme could help the company finally move ahead with its long-held goal to set up a smelter there to make use of cheap gas resources. "It's a major bottleneck which has been cleared," Chand said. "As far as Iran is concerned they have already informed us that they are ready to receive the team." ALSO READ: India looks to raise oil imports from Iran as sanctions lifted Cash-rich NALCO will also visit Oman and Qatar in the next two months to work out the best place to set up a 500,000-tonnes-per-year smelter and an associated power plant in the Middle East. Balvinder Kumar, the secretary of the mines ministry that controls NALCO, said the company's interest was at a preliminary stage though it should invest aggressively to expand wherever possible. SHARE BUYBACK NALCO is trying to push back on a finance ministry request to buy back 25 percent of its shares from the government, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's asset sales plan which looks set to fall well short of its goal this fiscal year. The company has agreed to repurchase 10 percent but says it also needs money for expansion - including the Middle East project - and to diversify into sectors such as nuclear energy. NALCO is a rare Indian aluminium company managing to make money despite a sharp drop in the metal's prices and rising imports from China that have badly hurt private competitors such as Vedanta Ltd and Hindalco . One factor is its easy access to raw materials such as bauxite, an aluminium ore. As a result, NALCO enjoys total liquid reserves of about 120 billion rupees ($1.77 billion), around half of that in cash, Kumar said. The finance ministry, which has managed to raise less then a fifth of the roughly $10 billion it had projected in divestments for 2015-2016, now wants NALCO to shell out about 32.5 billion rupees ($481 million) to buy back shares out of the 89 percent holding the government has in the company. "We're working on the 10 percent but a call on the rest will be taken by the board," Chairman Chand said, adding the buyback demand comes amid the fall in aluminium prices, eroding profitability and the need to have funds to grow. ($1 = 67.6850 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Jatindra Dash and Krishna N. Das; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Mark Potter) By Ahmad Ghaddar LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Monday, recovering from a 2003 low as the market braced for additional Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against the country over the weekend. The United States and European Union on Saturday revoked sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was at $29.28 by 1158 GMT, up 33 cents from Friday's close. U.S. crude was up 23 cents at $29.65 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. But oil prices recovered later in the session, with analysts suggesting the return or Iranian exports has already been priced in. "We were watching Asia when it opened, in terms of how markets digested (the news) over the weekend, and it did suggest to a fair degree that it (the lifting of sanctions) has been priced in," said Miswin Mahesh, of Barclays Capital. In a further sign of he pain low prices is inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organisation would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the price of oil is likely to settle between $25 and $40 in a year's time. "Major producers are currently delivering 2-2.5 million bpd more than demand, so the question is how long they can continue to overproduce at that level." he said at the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong on Monday. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market, and traders are betting that oil prices will drop again. The lifting of sanctions will unlock more than $100 billion in Iranian frozen funds, permitting Iran to finance imports. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani plans to visit Italy and France next week on his first European trip since sanctions were lifted, a diplomatic source said on Monday. "The legs of Iran's economy are now free of the chains of sanctions and it's time to build and grow," Rouhani tweeted on Sunday. Iran's transport minister said that Tehran plans to purchase 114 aircraft from Airbus. (Additional reporting by Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by David Goodman) By Nia Williams (Reuters) - Oil prices slumped to a 2003 low below $28 per barrel on Monday as the market anticipated a rise in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran over the weekend. Responding to Tehran's compliance with a nuclear deal, the United States and major powers revoked international sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was down 29 cents at $28.64 by 1850 GMT. U.S. crude was down 48 cents at $28.94 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. Trading volumes were thin with U.S. markets closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. "You can't say this was unexpected but the Iran is an additional factor that's working against oil prices," said TD Securities analyst Bart Melek, who also pointed to global oversupply and concerns about demand from China. He said oil could fall further if Chinese economic data released overnight, including GDP and retail sales data, points to more weakness in the economy. "If we get nasty economic numbers from China there's potential for another swoosh lower," Melek said. Analysts expect Iran will realistically be able to export an extra 500,000 bpd in the short term from storage, but there are doubts whether the state of Iran's oil infrastructure will allow further boosts anytime soon. SEB Markets assumes Iranian oil output will rise by 400,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd in 2016, while Tehran has said it will add 1 million bpd to its existing output by the year-end. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market. In a sign of the pain low prices are inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organisation would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. (Additional reporting by Ahmad Ghadder in London, Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by David Goodman, Dale Hudson and Frances Kerry) By Sumeet Chatterjee and Maytaal Angel MUMBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - Tata Steel Ltd said on Monday it would axe 1,050 jobs in Britain, a further blow for the beleaguered steel industry as it reels from falling European steel prices driven by a flood of cheap imports, mainly from China. The plan involves shedding 750 jobs at Tata's Port Talbot-based strip products business in Wales, 200 jobs in support functions and 100 jobs at steel mills around the country, the company said in a statement. The announcement from Britain's biggest steelmaker comes amid decade-low steel prices as the industry struggles to cope with a record amount of Chinese imports. Some 4,000 jobs were lost in October alone, equivalent to about a fifth of Britain's steel workforce. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions," said Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations. "Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry," he said. "We now need all stakeholders to do their utmost to meet the unprecedented challenges the steel sector is facing." British steelmakers pay some of the highest energy costs and green taxes in the world and business rates up to 10 times higher than their EU counterparts. The Port Talbot operation, which employs some 4,000 people, is expected to report annual losses above 60 million ($86 million) by the end of March 2016, an industry source told . A separate source said the company had not yet approached restructuring advisors. Tata Steel took a non-cash charge in the quarter to end-September totalling 87 billion Indian rupees ($1.3 billion), mostly due to losses at its British business. "We have been dealing for some time with a toxic cocktail of conditions ... a strong and rapid response in the UK and in Brussels is required," said Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, an industry body. "(Port Talbot) is a site of critical importance to our national industrial infrastructure. The government's review of business rates could significantly reduce the multi-million-pound bill the plant has to pay," he added. British Business Minister Anna Soubry said: "The government has taken clear action to help the industry, through cutting energy costs, taking action on imports, government procurement and EU emissions regulations." But the future of Britain's steel sector is still not secure, said a government report published in December. Tata Steel, a unit of India's diversified Tata conglomerate, has slashed costs and cut thousands of jobs since buying Anglo-Dutch producer Corus in 2007. ($1 = 0.6990 pounds) ($1 = 67.6578 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Katharine Houreld) The plan involves shedding 750 jobs at Tata's Port Talbot-based strip products business in Wales, 200 jobs in support functions and 100 jobs at steel mills around the country, the company said in a statement. The announcement comes as European Union steel prices hit their lowest since 2004. Some 4,000 British steel jobs were lost in October 2015 alone, equivalent to about a fifth of the sector's workforce. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports," said Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations. "Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry," he said. In November, the European Commission failed to agree on measures to protect the steel industry, such as cutting the time it takes to impose anti-dumping duties. The Commission is also considering granting China "market economy status", which will make it harder for Europe to impose the duties. China makes nearly half the world's 1.6 billion tonnes of steel, and exported over 100 million tonnes of the alloy last year, more than four times the 2014 shipments from the European Union's largest producer, Germany. But China has also fallen victim to global over-supply and slumping demand, with its major steel firms losing 53.1 billion yuan ($8.07 billion) from January to November last year. British union GMB called for a protest in Brussels on Feb 15 to get the Commission to deal with the Chinese steel 'dumping', while the Unite union said the Britain's failure to act had left the industry "on the verge of 'wipe out'". A spokeswoman for British prime minister David Cameron said: "We have taken action to help the steel industry ... The challenge is that this is a broader, global crisis facing the steel industry." The UK government has tried to tackle high energy costs, green taxes and government procurement policy. It has also supported anti-dumping action in steel at the EU level, and pledged action on business rates. But a government report published last month said the future of Britain's steel sector is still not secure. Britain is at the centre of Europe's steel crisis as its mills pay some of the world's highest energy costs and green taxes, while business rates are up to 10 times higher than EU counterparts. The opposition Labour party's Stephen Kinnock, a member of parliament for Aberavon, told the BBC: "The crisis has been brewing for many years and unfortunately we have a government that's been sitting on its hands." The Port Talbot site employs some 4,000 people and is expected to report annual losses above 60 million ($86 million) by the end of March 2016, an industry source told . A separate source said Tata Steel had not yet approached restructuring advisors. "Today's announcement is a hammer blow for the whole community of Port Talbot, and will have severe repercussions for the local economy," said the UK's Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). It is estimated that for every direct steel sector job lost, three or four jobs are cut in sectors that depend on steelmaking. Tata Steel took a non-cash charge in the quarter to end-September totalling 87 billion Indian rupees ($1.3 billion), mostly due to losses at its British business. The company, a unit of India's Tata conglomerate, has slashed costs and cut thousands of jobs since buying Anglo-Dutch producer Corus in 2007. ($1 = 0.6990 pounds) ($1 = 67.6578 Indian rupees) (Additional reporting by the UK bureau and Sandrine Bradley in London.; Editing by Katharine Houreld and Veronica Brown) By Joel Schectman WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program in a move delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's release of U.S. prisoners, sources familiar with the matter said. The U.S. Treasury Department said it had blacklisted the UAE-based Mabrooka Trading, and its owner Hossein Pournaghshband for helping Iran's produce carbon fiber for the program. Financial institutions and companies are barred from dealing with those on the U.S. blacklist. U.S. official and congressional sources said President Barack Obama's administration had held back from taking action for more than two weeks during the tense negotiations that ultimately freed five Americans under a prisoner swap. Iran conducted a precision-guided ballistic missile test capable of delivering a nuclear warhead violating a United Nations ban last October. U.S. President Barack Obama said the test was a violation of Iran's "international obligations." "As a result, the United States is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran's ballistic missile program. And we are going to remain vigilant about it. We're not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners," Obama said in a televised statement on Sunday morning from the White House. The announcement of the new sanctions came hours after three Americans detained by Iran - including the Washington Post's Jason Rezaian -- boarded a Swiss plane departing Tehran. At the same time, the U.S. State Department announced it had agreed to release $400 million and $1.3 billion in interest for funds that had been frozen by the United State. The settlement, reached through arbitration at the Hague Claims Tribunal, related to funds once earmarked for Iran to buy U.S. military equipment before Iran's revolution in 1979. But the sanctions announced today almost scuttled the prisoner deal weeks earlier, people involved said. The action had originally been planned for Dec. 30, as Secretary of State John Kerry was negotiating the prisoner trade that secured the release of five Americans from Iran this weekend. But the day before the sanctions were to be imposed, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned Kerry that if Washington went ahead, the deal could be endangered, according to a U.S. official and congressional sources. Obama administration officials decided to delay the sanctions announcement until after the deal was completed, the sources said. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, a senior administration official said the United States "did not want to complicate what was a very sensitive and delicate effort to bring Americans home" by imposing the sanctions. Treasury Secretary Adam Szubin said today's sanctions show authorities will continue to punish Iran if it steps out of what is allowed by the nuclear deal. The prisoner exchange, which also dropped charges or obtained early release for at least nine Iranians, came as the U.S. lifted many sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear deal. For example, Most non-American companies will now be able to do business with Iran's energy sector. (Reporting by Joel Schectman; additional reporting by Julia Edwards, David Lawder, Lesley Wroughton, Patricia Zengerle and Matt Spetalnick; editing by Richard Balmforth) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration would like to test whether there can be additional cooperation with Iran on other world issues and sees talks over the war in Syria as the main forum for that, a U.S. official said on Sunday. "We believe that a test of whether Iran wants to engage constructively on regional issues is whether or not they can understand, over time, that the Syrian civil war is not going to be resolved so long as Bashar al-Assad is in power," the official told reporters on a conference call. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also defended the prisoner swap between the United States and Iran against Republican criticism. "If people want to say that they were for leaving these Americans in prison, they should say so. But the fact of the matter is, this was our opportunity to bring them home," he said. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Julia Edwards, and Jeff Mason; Editing by Alan Crosby) Davy Stockbrokers has today reported that the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has cleared the proposed merger between Paddy Power and Betfair, which means that the deal can now proceed. The companies have announced that the merger will be completed on February 2nd with new Paddy Power Betfair shares commencing trading on that date. The further near-term benefit is that the new company will likely qualify for FTSE 100 inclusion at an earlier date than previously anticipated with the next review set for the beginning of March. Source: www.businessworld.ie About us Dublin has been ranked as the 22nd most reputable city in the world based on Trust, Esteem, Admiration and Good Feeling according the City RepTrak 2015 survey released today. The study ranked the reputations of 100 high-profile cities based on levels of trust, esteem, admiration and good feeling. It took place through an online questionnaire among 19,000 members of the general public in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK and US. Perceptions regarding 13 attributes are grouped into three dimensions: Advanced Economy, Effective Government and Appealing Environment. Cities with strong reputations are perceived positively in all three dimensions. The study took place in February and March 2015. Dublin has risen five places from last years rankings, ranked ahead of cities such as New York (31st), Brussels (27th), Toronto (26th), Berlin (25th), San Francisco (24th) and Amsterdam (23rd), though behind Barcelona (6th), Edinburgh (7th), London (11th) and Paris (16th). Dublins highest score (76.52 out of 100) was for the attribute Beautiful City and it's lowest score (64.10 out of 100) was for the attribute Is Run by Well-Respected Leaders. According to the studys findings of supportive behaviour, the percentage of people willing to support Dublin by visiting is at 78%, followed by willingness to buy its products/services at 70%, work at 69%, live at 68% and invest at 64%. Managing Director at the Reputations Agency, Niamh Boyle said, "A strong city reputation is vital for business and economic growth. Dublin has a critical role in driving and shaping the national economy, accounting for half of all jobs in Ireland, more than half of the national tax intake, and half of all goods and services produced in Ireland. "This study shows that us tha tthe growth in the reputation of a city strongly correlates with an increase in the support shown towards that city, such as the propensity to visit the city, live or work in the city or decide to invest in the city. "We need to understand the perceptions of Dublin as reported upon in this study, in order to identify its competitive strengths and points of difference and then develop the citys unique brand and reputation strategy." Source: www.businessworld.ie About us Pure Telecom were today celebrating after it was announced that they have experienced their most successful year in business since they started in 2002. Over the past 12 months, the Irish telecoms provider has gained 10,000 new residential and business customers bringing in additional revenues of 5 million. They are currently filling an additional 30 roles in customer care, sales and technical support following a 2 million investment made last year. This will see the company grow to 80 in total by 2017. It has begun the hiring process in Munster with 15 field sales agent roles and has also added new staff to its head office in Dublin. Furthermore, the company recently signed a deal worth more than 200,000 with leading private hospital Blackrock Clinic. Benefits highlighted by the Clinic since working with Pure include cost savings of more than 75,000 and faster broadband speeds. The company is determined to bolster its growth by targeting an additional 15,000 new residential and business customers during the year. This will see revenues surge by an estimated 7.5 million, making the company a 20 million-plus business. Director and co-founder at Pure Telecom, Paul Connell commented, "Its been a massive and record-breaking year for us. Our focus has always been on providing a personal service and great deals to our customers, and this is why were growing. "Our unique access also sets us apart. We can reach more of the country with best possible speeds and services because we partner with the likes of open eir, BT, Verizon, Colt, Strencom and Magnet. We almost act like a telecoms broker, which means we can hand-pick the very best deals for every customer. "We want to strike while the iron is hot and bolster the growth weve seen last year in 2016. Our 2 million investment to grow the team across the country will help us achieve this ambitious target. The key is great service and value for money, and we were delighted last year, that our broadband solution was chosen by Switcher.ie as Irelands best value broadband." Source: www.businessworld.ie The national agency responsible for funding and supporting training networks, Skillnets, has announced details of a new training fund worth nearly half a million euro (450,000), aimed at assisting private sector businesses to grow, by addressing their current and future skills needs. A group of businesses from the same region, or specialising in the same sector, can collectively apply to develop a Skillnets training network, and draw down funding support for the development and delivery of training. Businesses can be of any size, from a sole trader to multi-national, and the fund will also be open to existing industry federations, industry bodies or enterprise groups. Skillnets operates under a joint investment model whereby participating training networks can apply to receive up to 50% of the cost of training from Skillnets, and the remainder of costs are funded in cash contributions from participating businesses in the training network. The first closing date for the new funding call is 15th March, with a second closing date in November 2016. The initiative already supports 63 training networks in a wide range of sectors from manufacturing to information technology and food / beverage and mixed sectoral training networks across many regions. Chairman of Skillnets, Brendan Mc Ginty commented, "It is a progressive time for Irish enterprise, with an increase in the number of people in employment, as businesses look to expand. Having the appropriate skills, including addressing future skill needs to deal with this expansion, is vital for sustainable development. "The success of our open call for Skillnets training networks last year, which resulted in the establishment of 11 new training networks, indicates the growing demand among businesses for relevant and innovative solutions to address skills shortages in the workplace." Source: www.businessworld.ie Four out of ten young people believe machines will be able to do their jobs within a decade, an international survey published on Monday has found. Nearly half of young workers surveyed in Western countries said their education did not prepare them to do their jobs. The skills gap is especially pronounced in Europe, according to a poll of 9,000 16- to 25-year-olds in nine of the world's biggest nations commissioned by Indian business and software services firm Infosys. Almost 80 percent globally said they had to learn new skills not taught them in school and that rapid technology change - the threat of being overtaken by robots or smart systems - required constant learning of fresh skills to compensate. The study surveyed around 1,000 young people each in Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, France, Germany, India and the United States, as well as South Africa, where a smaller sample of 700 was polled. Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka said technologies have evolved far faster than what was thought possible even 10 years ago, while the educational system remains wedded to practices initially designed for agrarian societies 300 years ago. "We must transition away from our past; shift the focus from learning what we already know to an education focused on exploring what hasn't happened yet," he said in response to the findings. Globally, while almost two-thirds of those queried said they felt positive about their job prospects, those in developing markets Brazil, China, India and South Africa were far more optimistic than their peers in developed markets. While in India, 60 percent said they think they have the skills needed for their careers, just a quarter were similarly optimistic in France, the poll found. The survey also showed that the level of confidence which young people had in their technical skills correlated with their beliefs in their future career prospects. The survey was conducted by London-based ICM Unlimited. It was released ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which is focused on what it describes as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution," the broad social and economic shifts taking place due to disruptive digital technologies. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie About us The European Union on Saturday began the process of lifting economic and financial sanctions on Iran, implementing a landmark 2015 deal between world powers and Tehran, and paving the way for EU business to return to the country of 80 million. EU diplomats said the formal ifting of sanctions should be rapid following automatically from an International Atomic Energy Agency report saying Tehran had scaled down its nuclear programme as agreed. The EU introduced the sanctions on Iran in 2012, accusing the Islamic republic of seeking to develop a nuclear bomb. Tehran denied that, saying the programme had civilian goals. After years of escalating confrontation, six world powers and Iran last year clinched a deal envisaging sanctions relief in exchange for the scaling down of Tehran's nuclear activities. The lifting of the sanctions will mean European citizens and companies are again allowed to trade in oil, gas and petrochemicals with Iran, as well as to supply it with equipment for these sectors and deal with the state atomic energy body. They will also be free to deal with the Iranian transport and financial sectors, including banks, which will be able to switch back into the SWIFT transactions system, a key to rekindling foreign trade. The EU will remove some 300 entries from its Iranian blacklist, or about two-thirds of the list compiled over Tehran's nuclear programme, a Western official said. "For the EU, it would mean practically all the main Iranian banks, including the central bank, which is potentially a huge benefit for Iran," the official also said. A total of some 550 entries will disappear from the lists of the EU, the United States and the United Nations, which are also lifting their restrictions, the person added. SOME RESTRICTIONS STAY But some restrictions will remain, including an embargo on arms and ballistic missiles, and certain goods will still require pre-authorisation before EU firms can export them to Iran. Other restrictions that the bloc imposed on Iran over human rights violations will stay in place since they were not part of the deal over Iran's nuclear programme. The reopening of the Iranian market, with some 80 million people, could provide major, if not risk-free business opportunities. The Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the initial impact would be most significant for trading companies, rather than banking majors. "This is not a business and trade agreement with Iran to encourage investment there," the person said. "But we are convinced that it should produce results." "The financial sector may be the most difficult at the very beginning... but it doesn't mean nothing can happen... The business community is very simple in that respect - when you start seeing your competitors going somewhere, you start asking yourself 'Why should I be the last in line?'" "But we have to be realistic, we should not expect that on the first day everything will be smooth." (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie About us OPEC forecast on Monday that oil supply from non-member countries will post a larger-than-expected decline this year due to the collapse in prices, boosting the need for crude from the producer group. Supply outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would decline by 660,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2016, led by the United States, OPEC said in a report. Last month, OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. "The analysis indicates that 2016 will be a supply-driven market. It will also be the year when the rebalancing process starts," OPEC said. "Non-OPEC marginal barrel production in the next six months will be sensitive to sustained low oil prices." A drop in non-OPEC supply would reduce a supply glut which has prompted oil prices to collapse to below $28 a barrel, the lowest since 2003. OPEC's 2014 strategy shift to defend market share and not prices helped deepen the decline. The price drop has started to slow the development of relatively expensive supply sources such as U.S. shale oil and forced companies to delay or cancel billions of dollars worth of projects, putting some future supplies at risk. U.S. output will average 13.50 million bpd this year, the report said, down 380,000 bpd from 2015 and the largest drop outside OPEC. Output is also vulnerable in places such as the North Sea, Latin America and Canada, OPEC said. But OPEC's report makes no mention of the supply impact of the lifting of Western sanctions on member-country Iran, which on Monday said it was increasing output by 500,000 bpd - which would fill most of the hole left by non-OPEC members. The United Arab Emirates' energy minister, in the first comment by a Gulf OPEC member about Iran since most sanctions were lifted on Tehran, said anyone increasing output during the current oversupply would worsen the situation. For now, OPEC said it pumped less oil in December, reducing the excess in the market. Production including returning OPEC member Indonesia fell by 210,000 bpd to 32.18 million bpd in December, the report said, citing secondary sources. The report points to a 530,000-bpd supply surplus this year if the group keeps pumping at December's rate, down from 860,000 bpd implied in last month's report. OPEC left its 2016 global oil demand growth forecast little changed, predicting global demand would rise by 1.26 million bpd, marking a slowdown from 1.54 million bpd in 2015. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie Politicians and business leaders gathering in the Swiss Alps this week face an increasingly divided world, with the poor falling further behind the super-rich and political fissures in the United States, Europe and the Middle East running deeper than at any time in decades. Just 62 people, 53 of them men, own as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire world population and the richest 1 percent own more than the other 99 percent put together, anti-poverty charity Oxfam said on Monday. Significantly, the wealth gap is widening faster than anyone anticipated, with the 1 percent overtaking the rest one year earlier than Oxfam had predicted only a year ago. Rising inequality and a widening trust gap between people and their political leaders are big challenges for the global elite as they converge on Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, which runs from Jan. 20 to 23. But the divisions go far beyond those that exist between the haves and have-nots. In the Middle East, the divide between Shi'ites and Sunnis has reached crisis point, with Iran and Saudi Arabia jostling openly for influence in a region reeling from war and the barbarism of Islamic extremists. The conflicts there have spilled over into Europe, causing deep ideological rifts over how to handle the worst refugee crisis since World War Two and - with Britain threatening to leave the European Union - raising doubts about the future of Europe's six-decade push towards ever closer integration. The shock emergence of Donald Trump as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has exposed a gaping political divide in the United States, stirring anxiety among Washington's allies at a time of global turmoil. Among the key figures in Davos, will be U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be on hand, as will Britain's David Cameron and Mario Draghi at a time when a new transatlantic monetary policy divide is opening up between his loosening European Central Bank and a tightening U.S. Federal Reserve. Celebrities will also be out in force, including film stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Kevin Spacey. Edelman's annual "Trust Barometer" survey shows a record gap this year in trust between the informed publics and mass populations in many countries, driven by income inequality and divergent expectations of the future. The gap is the largest in the United States, followed by the UK, France and India. "The consequence of this is populism - exemplified by Trump and Le Pen," Richard Edelman, president and CEO of Edelman, told Reuters, referring to French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, whose National Front has surged ahead of traditional parties in opinion polls. The next wave of technological innovation, dubbed the fourth industrial revolution and a focus of the Davos meeting, threatens further social upheaval as many traditional jobs are lost to robots. The Oxfam report suggests that global inequality has reached levels not seen in over a century. Last year, the organization has calculated, 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.5 billion people, or the bottom half of humanity. The wealth of those 62 people has risen 44 percent, or more than half a trillion dollars, over the past five years, while the wealth of the bottom half has fallen by over a trillion. "Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate," the report says. It points to a "global spider's web" of tax havens that ensures wealth stays out of reach of ordinary citizens and governments, citing a recent estimate that $7.6 trillion of individual wealth - more than the combined economies of Germany and the UK - is currently held offshore. "It's a major wake-up call," said Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, which represents 50 million workers in 140 countries in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors. "Inequality is one of the biggest threats to economic well-being and it needs to be addressed." U.S. President Barack Obama touched on the issue in his recent State of the Union address, noting that technological change was reshaping the planet. "It's change that can broaden opportunity, or widen inequality. And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate," he said. "Companies in a global economy can locate anywhere, and face tougher competition...As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities. And more and more wealth and income is concentrated at the very top." (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie About us Dozens of large shareholders in Volkswagen plan to sue the carmaker in a German court, seeking compensation for the plunge in its shares due to its emissions test cheating scandal. Law firm Nieding + Barth said on Monday it would lodge a case with a regional court in Brunswick this week, seeking hundreds of millions of euros in damages on behalf of 66 institutional investors from the United States and Britain. "On top of that, we collected several thousands of private investors. Therefore we think we are the biggest platform for suits against Volkswagen in Germany," said Klaus Nieding of Nieding + Barth. Volkswagen's (VW) shares have lost almost a third of their value, or about 22 billion euros ($24 billion), since it admitted in September to misleading U.S. regulators about emissions with the help of on-board engine control software. The law firm plans to use so-called capital market model claims, a German legal procedure which - for lack of U.S. style class-action lawsuits - uses court rulings won by individual investors as templates to set damages for others that are equally affected. VW, which declined to comment, is facing a legal onslaught on several fronts. U.S. owners of vehicles with higher-than-stated emissions are expected to seek billions of dollars in damages, while the U.S. Justice Department has sued VW for up to $46 billion under the Clean Air Act. Nieding + Barth said it would argue that VW had been aware of its violation of diesel emissions rules before its first statement on the matter in September and should have informed the public earlier. Germany's Bafin watchdog said on Monday its probe of whether VW breached disclosure rules was so complex it would likely take several more months. Bentham Europe, a litigation finance group backed by U.S. hedge fund Elliott Management and Australian-listed IMF Bentham, said in November it was in contact with VW's top 200 investors about launching a damages claim in Germany as soon as February. German lawyer Andreas Tilp in October filed a lawsuit on behalf of retail investors. The Financial Times first reported the planned litigation in Germany. (Reuters) Source: www.businessworld.ie As the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project gathers momentum, concern is mounting over the security situation in the restive Baluchistan province. The Pakistani government has promised to beef up security for the project, but will this work? Its strategy to deal with Baluch nationalism, which has focused on military operations, has contributed to the emergence of an array of armed militias Baluch nationalist, Islamist and sectarian. Can the economic corridor thrive or even survive in the midst of this bubbling cauldron? BACKGROUND: Pakistan has handed over 2,281 acres of tax-exempt land adjacent to Gwadar port to China on a 43-year lease. This is part of the ambitious US $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which envisages linking Chinas trading hub of Kashgar to the Arabian Sea via a network of roads, railways, oil and gas pipelines and fiber optic cables. The project also involves setting up power generation projects and special economic zones (SEZs) en route. The operator of Gwadar port, the China Overseas Port Holding Company, will develop an SEZ on the leased land. The CPEC project has begun to inch forward. However, problems loom. The security situation in Pakistans Baluchistan province is volatile. This is of concern to Pakistan and China as Baluchistan holds the key to the projects success. It is in Baluchistan that Gwadar port, which is the heart of the CPEC project and the gateway to the corridor, is located and it is through this insurgency-wracked province that much of the western route of the Gwadar-Kashgar corridor runs. In a bid to alleviate apprehensions over the fragile security situation in Baluchistan, Pakistani has promised to deploy a 10,000-strong special force to beef up security for CPECs infrastructure and workforce. It will also step up military operations against armed groups operating in the province. Will this work? An examination of Pakistans handling of the Baluch conflict since it first erupted in 1947 indicates that the use of military force has been the core of its strategy towards Baluch nationalism. It used coercion to get all of Baluchistans princely states to accede to it. The army was sent there to crush the resistance. While this put a lid on the insurgency, the conflict has persisted, escalating in 1947-48, 1958-59, 1960-69 and 1973-77. The present escalatory phase, which began in 2004, is the most violent. In recent years, the militarys operations in Baluchistan have reportedly weakened the Baluch militant groups. However, the tactics it used to achieve this has not only deepened Baluch anger but empowered a variety of other militant groups. This will have implications for the CPEC project. IMPLICATIONS: Baluch alienation from the Pakistani state stems from three issues: Pakistans failure to fulfill its pledge of meaningful autonomy to Baluchistan, its use of force against the Baluch people and the lack of development in the province. The province became part of Pakistan on the condition that it would be given maximum autonomy. However, successive federal governments tightened their grip on the province and decisions of importance to Baluch have been made in Islamabad, the political capital of Pakistan, or in Rawalpindi, where the military headquarters is located. Baluchistans elected representatives are rarely consulted. This was the case, for instance, in 1998 when nuclear tests were carried out in Baluchistans Chagai district. Adding to the problem is Baluch anger with Islamabads colonial exploitation of Baluchistan i.e. its extraction of the provinces rich resources to benefit the rest of Pakistan rather than the local population. In fact, Baluchistans gas fields hold three-fourths of Pakistans estimated 25.1 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves. Whereas commercial exploitation of the Sui gas reserves began in 1954 and its fruits were first enjoyed by Punjab province, Pakistans politically most powerful and richest province, it took over 30 years for the gas to reach Quetta, Baluchistans capital. Baluch nationalists point out that while draining out Baluchistans resources, Islamabad has ignored its development. Not only is Baluchistan the worst off among Pakistans provinces, but also the few infrastructure projects initiated in recent decades tended to benefit outsiders i.e. non-Baluch rather than locals. Baluch nationalism would not have turned as militant as it did had the Pakistani state prioritized dialogue to resolve issues. It did not, instead choosing repression as the core element of its Baluchistan policy, deployed tens of thousands of troops in the province, aerially bombed the province, and assassinated rebel leaders. Critics point out that this military-centric approach fueled Baluch nationalism and pushed moderates to turn militant in their demands and actions. What is more, Pakistans tactics to weaken the nationalists by luring them with lucrative deals and pitting them against each other, as well as setting up and encouraging rival militias has complicated the conflict scenario. It has used the Islam card to turn Baluch youth against the nationalists and set up pro-government Islamic militias to fight them. Thus the volatile situation in Baluchistan today is the outcome of multiple conflicts involving Baluch nationalist groups, Afghan and Pakistan Taliban fighters and their various splinters, Islamists, sectarian outfits, and drug mafias. In the words of a Pakistani political commentator, Baluchistan is a cauldron of ethnic, sectarian, secessionist and militant violence, threatening to boil over at any time. The Islamization of the nationalist confrontation in Baluchistan by the Pakistani state may even have laid the foundation for the entry of the terrorist organization calling itself the Islamic State. Can the CPEC project survive in this environment? Besides Chinese personnel, the CPEC project will attract a large number of workers from outside Baluchistan. A change in Baluchistans ethnic demography, already a sore point with nationalists, is likely. Baluch militants attacked outsiders living and working in Baluchistan. The influx of foreigners in the wake of the CPEC project will provide them ample opportunity for such attacks. Abductions for ransom by the array of armed outfits operating in this province can be expected to soar. CONCLUSIONS: Pakistans political and military leaderships claim success in dealing with the unrest and insurgency in Baluchistan, but this accomplishment is at best ephemeral and temporary. They may have weakened the Baluch nationalist militancy by dividing them but in the process, Pakistan has created new problems for itself in Baluchistan. Its Islamization of the nationalist Baluch struggle has let loose dangerous forces that have set the stage for a more volatile phase ahead. In the circumstances, the CPEC projects future seems uncertain. AUTHORS BIO: Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is an independent researcher / journalist based in India. She writes on South Asian political and security issues. Her articles have appeared in Asia Times Online, The Diplomat, China Brief, Himal, etc. She can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Image Attribution: www.mining.com, accessed on Jan 15, 2016 Call for EUtoo Athens: 24-28 February 2016 Published on January 18, 2016 Story by Laura Perret Translation by: Joseph Pearson en fr es de it pl This year, cafebabel is going to 7 different European cities for our new feature report "EUtoo". Following on from Budapest, Madrid, Krakow and London, we will be heading to the seductive city of Athens from the 24th to 28th of February. Selected journalists will be accompanied by Joseph, our English editor, and welcomed to the city by our local correspondents. So what is "EU too"? In brief For our next feature report, EU too, cafebabel is going to meet the disenchanted youth of Europe. Who are these young people, contesting European consensus and leaving it behind in favour of alternative ideas? Why do they feel badly represented ? What is it that they want to change? What are they hoping for in the future ? In order to answer these questions, we will meet and interview them in their own cities and neighbourhoods. Your role The objective will be to listen to the voices of these young people to include them in the European debate. We are expecting a youth-friendly and off-the-wall tone, as well as an original and innovative style. Spend time with the locals, describe what you see, feel and learn from them. Tell your story in a creative and personal way, backed up with facts, statistics and verifiable sources! Wanted! We are looking for 2 print journalists, 1 photographer and 1 filmmaker who will come together to form this great team. If you are under 35 years old and you live in a European country, send us your CV with 3 article proposals (of three lines each), as well as suggestions of potential interviewees! If you're applying for the photographer or videomaker positons, please send a link to your portfolio as well. Your article proposals need to be linked to one of our four reporting categories: politics, culture, society, or lifestyle. So be creative and do some research before applying. We look forward to hearing your ideas! Send your CV and proposals to the following email: eu-too@cafebabel.com DEADLINE : 31st January 2016. "EU too" in practice Logistics Once selected, you will have to book your own flights or trains to Athens: a sum of up to 280 euros is reimbursed by cafebabel (you must keep your receipts) once you have returned from the trip and we have received your receipts. Other travel and food expenses will be reimbursed up to 200 euros (for more information contact our project officer Laura). The team will stay in a hostel that will be booked by cafebabel. Editorial Our English editor, Joseph, will be leading the trip to Athens. He will supervise you whilst deciding on the angle for your article and making preparations for interviews at least two weeks before the trip is due to begin. You will also benefit from the help of our local correspondents in Athens. However, you must prepare your own subject and bring your own ideas to the table. Get information about the city, find people that you would like to interview, show your creativity and motivation! The deadline for the submission of written pieces is strictly one week after the end of the trip. It will then be edited, translated and published in the six languages of cafebabel over the following month. Any questions ? Contact us! This project is co-funded by the European Commission. Story by Laura Perret Translated from Partez en reportage a Athenes du 24 au 28 fevrier ! Evictions in Madrid: Fighting for a roof over your head Published on January 18, 2016 en it de pl fr es More and more people in Madrid are being forced to abandon their homes for financial reasons. Thanks to ruthless banks and forced evictions, people are looking for solutions to the housing problem and not all of these are legal. "I wake up in the middle of the night and think to myself: this isnt my house" says Pilar Molina. Pilar in her 50s and wearing threadbare dungarees is an okupa. According to Spanish law shes a criminal, but to her friends shes a brave example. Last February she forced open the door of an abandoned apartment in Vallecas, Madrid, and made it her home. She now lives there with her 14-year-old son. She doesnt pay rent but has both gas and electricity. She often takes part in whats known as recuperaciones illegally occupying (or squatting in) empty homes. "Living outside the law doesnt bother me," she explains, "I dont feel like a criminal." Pilar decided to occupy the house when she lost her own home after not having paid the rent for 14 months. "I was 2,000 euros in debt with an estate agent who owned the apartment. Ive not worked for several years due to health problems... I managed to get by with savings for a while but I couldnt do it any longer." She left the key with a member of staff at the agency and left before they could catch her. "People do this because they have to," she continues, "Its either that or sleep on the streets. People insult me because of what Im doing. Theres a neighbour who yells at me when she sees me, saying that I should be ashamed of living off her back." Whats worse is the uncertainty that comes from living in an unstable place: "I know that at any moment they can kick me out, but Ive got no other option." Cause or effect? Pilar isnt the only squatter in the Vallecas district a vast working-class suburb in the southeast of Madrid. People are frequently evicted here just as they are in the other southern barrios. In Vallecas however, more people are "fighting back". In Calle del Monte Perdido, a block of nine apartments was taken over by squatters in mid-October. Fernando known as Nene tells us what happened: "We met up at 6pm there were more than 100 of us. We removed the doors with chainsaws and lock picks and went inside. The police arrived but this time there were too many of us. Normally, if you're outnumbered, they beat you with batons and drag you outside. Obviously they could still clear us all out at any moment... Weve got a WhatsApp group as protection, which helps us gather as much help as we can." These operations are coordinated by the Vallecas branch of PAH (Plataforma de afectatdos por la hipoteca) a platform created to help people who have lost their mortgaged homes. PAH now focuses on all housing related problems. "More and more families are ending up on the streets," explains Jacinto Uranga from PAH's central branch, "We do everything possible to stop this: from providing legal aid and stopgaps to hold off an eviction to physically protecting houses from being evacuated." PAH also organises protests at banks. Its the banks that take over ownership of properties from people whove fallen behind on payments. "In the last few decades, many people in Spain took out a loan or a mortgage," Jacinto continues, "Due to the financial crisis and unemployment, they stopped paying their instalments and the banks took their homes." "The tragedy is that, due to the housing bubble, the apartments cost a lot more back then than what theyre valued at now. Losing your house doesnt write off such debt therefore meaning those who find themselves in debt cant get a new loan. As a result, families either have to stay with relatives or become squatters. There are no exact figures for Madrid but according to an Amnesty International report, almost 100,000 mortgage injunctions have been registered across Spain since the start of the financial crisis. The other side of the problem consists of empty apartments, because banks are struggling to find buyers. There are 3.44 million empty homes across Spain (30% of the European total) according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). Hoy por ti, manana por mi At crowded PAH gatherings, things soon become heated. The most urgent cases are discussed first those that have time restrictions. "Hoy por ti, manana por mi" (You today, me tomorrow) is the groups motto, and solidarity the rule of law. Amongst them is Asuncion, who for 4 years has refused to leave her home due to health reasons. Miguel suggests that squatters show the authorities a false rental contract: a little scam which would give them a few extra weeks. Theres also Carmen, holding her 2-year-old daughter in her arms and a forced eviction notice in one hand. Antonio didnt want to leave the house he'd lived in for 30 years, but when he saw his wife in tears outside the front door, he gave in. Not even renters are safe. 60% of evictions involve houses that are sold by public bodies to so-called "debt funds". IVIMA (which is dependent on the regional government) and EMVS (which belongs to the district of Madrid) sold 2,935 and 1,860 apartments in 2013 respectively, in order to increase their budgets. As Enrique Villalobos, President of FRAVM (The Federation of Neighbourhood Associations) explains, these funds either directly or indirectly increase rental prices, and tenants end up unable to afford the rent: "Public bodies have relinquished the social objectives they once had. When the system incites injustice, you need to change it. Were asking 'social housing' organisations that rental prices not exceed more than 30% of a familys income. Were also asking them to change the laws surrounding mortgages and to re-allocate unused property." Theres scepticism surrounding the new mayor Manuela Carmena and her moves to combat the issue. Enrique explains: "Shes working hard on negotiating with the banks and finding an alternative solution, but she cant do much [...] She made a mistake promising to stop evictions in her election campaign." People arent giving up hope. "Were dealing with a social tragedy," the FRAVM President continues, "Of course there are still cases of mafia-style takeovers by criminal organisations that make people pay in order to break down doors, but most of the people squatting are there because theyre desperate." If, as Enrique claims, every home is "an asset which should be used and not exchanged", then such expropriation sounds less criminal as do the okupas. Theyre the unfortunate victims of the fight against a city of people without homes, and homes without people. --- This feature report is a part of our EUtoo 'on the ground' project in Madrid, seeking to give a voice to disenchanted youth. It is funded by the European Commission. Story by Vincenzo Genovese Translated from Vallecas: la lotta per un tetto My daughter and I birded our way through three counties Saturday morning. As we drove away from the coast, fog began to take the place of clouds. Shortly after, light rain started to fall. We left Farm-to-Market Road 624 at Bluntzer, and continued northwest on Farm-to-Market Road 3088. We saw a few American kestrels on the utility wires, and an occasional buteo perched near the top of a distant tree or pole. On Farm-to-Market Road 70, we reminisced about a field trip to the Knolle Jersey Farms when Madalyn was a Bluebird and I was her troop's leader. The Jersey calves with their big dark eyes really made an impression on the girls. We loitered for quite some time at the Sandia Cemetery, where a noisy flock of brown-headed cowbirds covered one of the large live oak trees. A tree in the corner was filled with a half dozen male northern cardinals accompanied by one female cardinal and one male pyrrhuloxia. The cardinals went back and forth from the ground to the tree, and soon were joined by a flock of about the same number of green jays. The jays flew from a tree across the road, announcing themselves with their unmistakable harsh calls. A loggerhead shrike alternated between perches along the livestock fence that separated the cemetery from adjacent fields. Eastern meadowlarks, golden-fronted woodpeckers and northern mockingbirds were plentiful. Nearby wetlands were being used by many ducks and a flock of about 20 sandhill cranes. A small flock of black-bellied whistling ducks flew over, and both black and turkey vultures soared past. We drove through Sandia and decided to take a look at another landmark from the past, the old Campfire Girls' camp, Shawondasee. Now the property of the city of Corpus Christi, it lies behind the locked gates of the Wesley Seale dam. With our binoculars, we located the main lodge from a vantage point on the nearest road. An osprey was fishing in the lake nearby, and my daughter remembered riding Shetland ponies near the dam. We took note of the city of Corpus Christi Wildlife Sanctuary and planned to return soon. As we headed back to Sandia, we saw a belted kingfisher at the bridge over the Nueces River. In a brushy field, a northern harrier hovered over its desired prey, flashing its distinctive white rump patch. By the time we started home, the north wind had blown the clouds away and the sky was winter blue. A turn through Hazel Bazemore gave us one more species, an eastern phoebe sallying out from an ebony tree near the entrance gates. 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Fully furn, located at a private residence, all bills pd. $795/mo. $250 dep. Bkgrd check. No smoking. 779-7238 Spacious, Remodeled Town Home 2/2.5, living rm, kit & din, w/d conn., close to schools, good neighborhood. (361)549-4335 1226 HARBOR LIGHTS BEAUTIFUL 3/2/2 $1500/mo 3742 N. SAXET 3/2/2+ rear gar apt $1400/mo 361.888.8045 Launched globally in May 2011, the unit has a mandate to drive change by addressing clients thorniest brand and marketing problems with an unbiased and future-focused mindset, according to its website. Jerry Smith has been appointed chairman of OgilvyRed Asia Pacific, a role he will maintain alongside his position as president and CEO for OgilvyOne Worldwide in the region. Lucy McCabe, currently vice president of consulting services for OgilvyOne in Singapore, will lead the team as president for Asia Pacific. Asked why the official launch of the consulting arm in the region takes place almost five years after its initial formation, Smith told Campaign Asia-Pacific the company has been "incubating" OgilvyRed in Asia for the past two years. "We are now at a point where the market is looking for more proactive advice on brand and customer, something the management consultants have not been able to sufficiently answer," he said. "As such we have formalised the offer in order that we can create focus and investment as it augments our existing advisory planning services." McCabe said in a release that given technology change, CMOs know that they need to drive transformation and innovation, and they have big ambitions, but there is a very real gap in organisational ability to design and orchestrate that change. Our clients are facing bigger challenges and asking tougher questions than ever before, she added. This is where we step into help them design, quantify, and execute with a measurable ROI. The consulting arm launches in the region across 10 countries: Singapore Hong Kong Australia China India Indonesia Philippines Japan Malaysia Taiwan According to O&M, the consulting arm is operational in all 37 offices across 18 countries in Asia Pacific. However the 10 markets stated will have talent on the ground. If clients in other markets need the unit's services, likely a regional team would be engaged via the local management team, the spokesperson said, adding that Ogilvy would invest in other markets when warranted. OgilvyRed comprises six specialist practices, each led by an expert in their field: brand strategy, customer strategy, ecommerce, influencer strategy, data and marketing analytics, and marketing technology. Paul Heath, chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, said in a release that brands clearly need specialist advice when it comes to emerging areas such as e-commerce and technology. This typically doesnt come from a traditional agency approach with a communications brief, he added. With OgilvyRED sitting at the heart of the O&M Group, it gives us a unique ability to bring together strategy and execution capabilities unlike other consulting firms in the market. Client: Tiger Beer Agency: The Secret Little Agency (TSLA) Campaign name: #SayItWithTiger Markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, UK, US, China and Australia Campaign scope: Social, Digital, OOH channels Campaign duration: Two months Details: The campaign features a dedicated microsite and greeting generator for people around the world to send or reply with their own festive greetings. Less than a week old, the campaign already features celebrities such Liam Hemsworth, Diego Costa, Emily Ratajkowski and Chris Bosh, doing their very best version of an authentic Chinese New Year greeting on the SayItWithTiger site. It is supported across digital, social and retail channels, and features a key visual developed in collaboration with artist James Jean (USA), typographer Rizon Paerin (BEL) and the creative practice at TSLA led by chief creative officer, Hanyi Lee. TSLA Shanghai is leading social and influencer management to give the campaign maximum amplification on WeChat and Weibo. According to the agency, the campaign has received more a total of more than 1 million likes and shares since its launch five days ago with greetings flowing in from Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China, Malaysia and Australia. Happy Chinese New Year! I made a special greeting for you all. Now its your turn to #sayitwithtiger at http://sayitwithtiger.com/norman A video posted by norman reedus (@bigbaldhead) on Jan 13, 2016 at 4:36pm PST Quotes: Mie-Leng Wong, global director, Tiger Beer at Heineken Asia Pacific Breweries: Chinese New Year is one of the most important festivals in Asia, and greetings play a very big part in these celebrations. As Asia's premium beer brand, we want to take a bold stand to champion Chinese New Year in Asia and beyond, by rallying the rest of the world in this one shared greeting. Hanyi Lee, chief creative officer, TSLA: #SayItWithTiger was founded on authentic social media behaviour, and is driven by a desire to relook the ways of expression during the festivities. Opening up this exchange of greetings on an international stage is a warm invitation for other cultures into ours. Campaign Asia-Pacifics view: We believe this is a very noble effort by TSLA to get Chinese New Year to feature more strongly in the global psyche. As noted by TSLA chief Nicholas Ye in a call with Campaign Asia-Pacific, while Christmas is a major annual event for brands to make their mark globally in their marketing efforts, the same isnt quite true for Chinese New Yearyet. This is certainly bound to change given the approximately 50 million ethnic Chinese living outside of China and growing. We hope that Chinese New Year becomes the new advertising Superbowl for Asia, said Ye. All in all, a strong effort by the agency in its first major work for the Tiger brand since winning the account last year. CREDITS: Creative & technology team - Led by Hanyi Lee Strategy team - Led by Eunice Tan Integration team - Led by Nicholas Ye | BY Lynchy | Jalna has launched an integrated national brand campaign via Sydney agency Cain & Able for its range of pot set yoghurts. The campaign, Dont Mess with Mother Nature, demonstrates the fact that its yoghurts are pure unlike many mass produced yoghurts. Jalna is challenging consumers to think about the yoghurt they consume. The campaign has a TV execution backed up by Outdoor, POS, online and social media. Consumers are looking for products with clean labels that are free from artificial ingredients. They also want to know about provenance. The challenge was to do this in a contemporary and impactful way. The new campaign has achieved all objectives. Its creative, compelling and uses a contemporary approach to present a genuinely wholesome Australian food brand that has stood the test of time, says Kristy Vandenberghe, Brand Manager, Jalna Dairy Foods. Cain & Able Creative: Grant Booker Executive Producer: Amanda Cain Blockhead VFX Director: Nigel Mortimer Producer: James Eivers Rumble Music: Johnny Green Sound Design: Tone Planning: Christine Blackburn Jalna Marketing Director: Costa Tsaconis | BY Ricki Green | Carat Sydney has converted a major new business win to start the New Year on a positive note and drive its growth agenda, announcing today that it has been successfully appointed as the media agency for Greenstone Financial Services following a competitive pitch. Greenstone specialises in personal insurance products in the term life, funeral, income protection and pet insurance markets. Its proprietary brands include Real Insurance, Australian Seniors Insurance Agency, Guardian Insurance and Prime Pet Insurance, as well as popular online comparison service, Choosi. Says Aimee Brunello, lead acquisition and advertising manager, Greenstone: Throughout the pitch process, Carat demonstrated a thorough understanding of our business challenges and how they could support us in delivering growth for the future. The combination of their direct response capabilities and investment expertise made them the right choice in partner for Greenstone. | BY Ricki Green | AdFest has announced that Valerie Cheng, currently chief creative officer at J. Walter Thompson Singapore and soon-to-be Facebook creative executive, will lead the Interactive Lotus and Mobile Lotus jury at AdFest 2016. Says Cheng, who recently announced she is joining Facebook in late February as head of Creative Shop, Southeast Asia: Being invited to be Jury President is an honour. Especially for a category such as Interactive and Mobile where the skys the limit with technology, Im excited to see what creative minds are capable of. And through the lens of this years theme Creative Intelligence, Im ready for more meaningful magic that not only showcases this regions progress but also celebrates our Asian sensibilities. Cheng devoted the first 10 years of her career to becoming a digital specialist but has since evolved to do more brand building, creating integrated creative solutions for major brands such a Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, Singapore Airlines, HSBC, Burger King, VISA, Singapore Tourism Board, Changi Airport, Central Provident Fund, Shell and many others. Over the years, she has made her mark at Cannes, One Show, London International, Effies, Golden Drum, AdFest and the Webbys. Under her leadership, J. Walter Thompson Singapore picked up the Best of Show award at Creative Circle Awards in 2012. That same night, they were also awarded Digital Agency of the Year and the Grand Prix for Digital/Mobile. Says Jimmy Lam, president, AdFest: We are delighted that Valerie has agreed to oversee this years Interactive and Mobile Lotus jury. Not only are her credentials as a digital native incredibly impressive, but she also understands the value of truly integrated thinking. She brings so much experience to the table as one of our Jury Presidents at AdFest this year. Cheng was awarded Singapores first Digital Creative Director of the Year award at the 2011 Advertising Hall of Fame event a title she defended again in 2012. The Institute of Advertising, Singapore (IAS) also voted her one Singapores Most Influential Creative Directors in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. In 2010, she was made the first female chairperson in the history of the Creative Circle Awards Singapore. She chaired the Creative Circle Awards again in 2015. [Your Business Name] Contact Info Phone: Fax: Email: Web: CAPITOLHILLCUBANS.COM Business Overview Geographic Area Line of Business Brands We Carry Products and Services Discounts Offered Additional Information Business Hours Timezone We Accept Modified On Feb 03, 2016 02:55 PM By Sumit Update: Maruti has finally revealed its much awaited Vitara Brezza compact SUV at the Auto Expo 2016. The car is a sub-4 meter SUV and is brought to diminish the growing popularity of Ford EcoSport and Mahindra TUV300 in the segment. Check out the complete Expo coverage of Brezza right here: Maruti Vitara Brezza Unveiled at the 2016 Indian Auto Expo Indias largest automaker has featured its to-be-launched vehicle, Vitara Brezza, on its official website. Though the company has not yet posted images of the car on its the website, it recently released a teaser image of its compact SUV and is expected to showcase it in the upcoming Auto Expo 2016. Maruti unveiled the official sketch of the car, which shows that Brezza will feature a floating roofline, rising beltline, upright hood, rounded rectangular wheel arches, high ground clearance, short overhangs, angular taillamps and Bi-Xenon projectors. The Interiors are most likely to be borrowed from S-Cross. Elaborating on Brezzas aesthetics, the cars designer said, Balanced proportion supported by square wheel arches, short overhangs, high ground clearance and upright hood gives the vehicle a confident stance. The raising belt and rocker lines, and the roofline that slopes down gently towards the rear give the vehicle a dynamic posture. He further added, The body surfaces are natural and sculpted tastefully to create the right interplay of highlight and shadow. Instantly recognizable floating roof over the wraparound greenhouse adds to the visual drama, and makes the Brezza standout in the crowd. Vitara is likely to be powered by Marutis 1.2L and 1.4L engine on petrol side, while the 1.4-liter DDiS mill is expected to be employed on the diesel. The car is most likely to be sold through Marutis dealerships and not through Nexa. Watch Showcase Video of Maruti Vitara Brezza Also Read: Vitara Brezza is the Official Name of Maruti Suzuki's New Compact SUV Modified On Mar 09, 2018 12:03 PM By Raunak The highlight of the pavilion will be the Vitara Brezza compact SUV, 1.0-liter Boosterjet turbocharged petrol engine and Suzuki Ignis micro SUV! Update: Maruti has revealed the Brezza at the auto Expo. Although the car has not been launched, we expect it to hit the Indian roads by the third quarter of 2016. The company has said that it is transforming. This time, pavilion will be built around the theme Transformotion', which according to Maruti is Transformation through Motion. It is Maruti Suzuki 2.0 now! 2.0 because, the company is all set to release new technologies and products to stir various segments, along with existing products and Nexa Experience. The company will showcase two new SUVs/crossovers which are Vitara Brezza and Ignis along with Baleno RS featuring 1.0-liter Boosterjet engine. Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza This is Maruti Suzukis first ever compact SUV and it had its world premier today, at Delhi Auto Expo 2016. It is a sub-4m offering, squaring straight against Ford EcoSport and Mahindra TUV3OO. Maruti Suzuki has not yet revealed anything, except that it will have 16-inch alloy wheels and Bi-Xenon projectors with LED daytime running lights. Expect similarities amongst features with the recently launched Baleno. Mechanically, it has borrowed engines from Maruti's current line-up namely - 1.2l VTVT petrol and 1.3-liter DDiS200 diesel. There is a possibility that Maruti may offer 1.0l Boosterjet in Brezza, considering that Ford offers EcoSport with a 1.0l EcoBoost. Concept Ignis The next product in the micro SUV segment debuted by the Mahindra KUV100 will be the Maruti Suzuki Ignis. It made its world premiere at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. The automaker will showcase the Concept Ignis, which is indeed the production version of the im4 concept from the 2015 Geneva Motor Show. It is expected to be launched later this year and will be priced similarly to that of Mahindra KUV100. Mechanically, it is likely to share engines with Swift/ Baleno, in India. Baleno RS Maruti will also showcase a sportier version of Baleno, which will be christened as Baleno RS. It will be powered by Suzukis new 1.0-liter Boosterjet turbocharged petrol engine. It is expected to be launched sometime next and will compete with VW Polo GT TSi and Abarth Punto. Recommended: Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)has released a notification on the recruitment happening. They are calling for the posts of Assistant Directors (Cost), Assistant Architect, Deputy Architects and Assistant Architects. To know more about eligibility, how to apply, selection procedure and important dates scroll down. Name of the post and Number of posts vacant at UPSC Assistant Directors (Cost)- 24 Posts Assistant Architect- 1 Post Deputy Architects- 13 Posts Assistant Architects- 22 Posts Who is Eligible for UPSC Various Jobs Qualification: Candidates interested to apply for the above post must be qualified as per the organisations requirement. Qualification becomes mandatory to test the skills and their perseverance in doing a certain job. Candidates need to be Graduate in the relevant field like inn this case, chartered accountant or architecture. To know more about the required qualification in detail log on to this organisations website. Age Limit: Assistant Directors (Cost)- 35 years Assistant Architect- 30 years Deputy Architects- 35 years Assistant Architects- 30 years How Candidates are Selected for UPSC Various Jobs Candidates interested in the above job must be aware of the selection process of this organisation. Candidates will be asked to give written exam which will be followed by an interview. These two factors determines the selection of the candidate How to Apply for UPSC Various Jobs ? Candidates who are interested to apply for the above mentioned jobs must see that they are eligible for this job. Once they find themselves eligible they can apply for this job online. Download the application from the official website and fill it according to instructions given. Do not forget to send the applications along with other necessary documents. This application should reach before the last submission date given below. What are the Important Dates Associated with UPSC Various Jobs Last Date of Online Application: 04 February 2016. Last Date for Printing of Completely Submitted Online Application: 05 February 2016. Also Read: UPSC Invites Application for 35 Various Posts 2016 Welcome to SwanseaOnline - your home for the best news, sports and what's on coverage of the city. Never miss a Swansea story with our daily newsletter Sign up to comment on our stories here Follow us on Facebook and Twitter | Swansea City news | Ospreys news | InYourArea In a move thats bound to draw some attention, Nissan said it is expanding the No Charge to Charge promotion in the U.S., providing two years of no-cost public charging with the purchase or lease of a new Nissan Leaf . The promotion will launch in 25 U.S. markets, which together make up more than 80 percent of Leaf sales. Users will be given the new EZ-ChargeSM card that will provide them with access to the leading EV charging networks. New Leaf owners will receive an EZ-Charge card that will allow them to use chargers from ChargePoint, Blink Network from Car Charging Group, AeroVironment and NRG eVgo. Public charging is an important way to provide added range confidence to EV buyers and persuade more shoppers to join the more than 110,000 LEAF drivers around the world, said Fred Diaz, senior vice president, Nissan Sales & Marketing, Aftersales. No Charge to Charge will launch using the EZ-Charge card on July 1, 2014, in 10 of the top markets for Nissan Leaf sales, including San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Phoenix, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston and Washington, DC. The new promotion and EZ-Charge card will be provided retroactively to buyers in these markets who purchased their LEAF on or after April 1, 2014. After the rollout in the first 10 markets, Nissan plans to introduce the promotion to at least 15 additional markets during the following year. By Dan Mihalascu PHOTO GALLERY While Europe has received the sixth-generation Ford Mustang, the American automaker opted not to offer the high-performance Shelby GT350 and GT350R variants across the other side of the Atlantic. Thankfully, Germany tuning and importing company GeigerCars has come to the rescue and announced that it will be importing the GT350 to Europe from 82,900 euros. While that price tag is significantly more than the $47,795 starting price of the GT350 in the U.S., its only about 10,000 euro more than a BMW M4 and dont forget, its 5.2-liter naturally-aspirated flat-plane crank V8 engine, both has much more power and character than the M4s twin-turbo six-cylinder. It isnt yet known if GeigerCars will have to perform any modifications to make the GT350 compliant in Europe or if the range-topping GT350R will also be offered. Whatever the case, muscle car enthusiasts across the pond (were looking at your Richard Hammond), should be excited to get their hands on the GT350. Beyond its engine delivering 526 hp at 7,500 rpm and 420 lb-ft at 4,750 rpm all while revving to 8,250 rpm, the Shelby GT350 utilises a six-speed Tremec manual transmission sending power to the rear wheels via a Torsen limited-slip differential. PHOTO GALLERY French government technical experts will meet with Renault execs to discuss the reason why three of the brands models have higher than the legal limit NOx emissions while Ford and Mercedes are also under investigation, according to a French newspaper. The French officials found out that the Captur, Espace and an unnamed Renault utility model are emitting much higher NOx emissions than the legal limit, according to the Les Echos newspaper. The same report says that the Ford C-Max and the Mercedes S-Class tested were found to have much higher emissions than the legal limits, although not as much as the Renault models in question. Government officials are particularly concerned about the Renault Captur because its one of the newest models which meet the strictest Euro 6 standard in their investigation, with the Espace and the other unnamed model to be Euro 5-compliant. A source told the newspaper that the Renault Captur might have a technical problem in its emissions control system that could lead to a recall. The Mercedes S-Class tested had delivered inconsistent results while the Ford C-Max had emissions five times above the limit. Both models were Euro 6-compliant. The officials plan is to examine 100 models, with 22 already tested according to the same report. All three companies mentioned above have been asked to explain why their models have failed the test. Renaults headquarters were raided last week from government officials. PHOTO GALLERY If you are wondering what JCW stands for, its John Cooper Works performance-tuned versions of the Minis. The British small-car maker, now owned by BMW, will showcase the John Cooper Works edition of the Mini Convertible at the New York Show to be held in March last week. The Mini Convertible JCW gets the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the Cooper S but is tuned to deliver 228bhp of power as against the standard 189bhp. The power figures are about 20bhp more than the outgoing JCW Mini Convertible. With 320Nm of torque available, the more than 1.3-tonne car is propelled to 100kmph in 6.6 seconds with the manual gearbox transmitting power to the front wheels. It also gets a six-speed automatic option which helps shave 0.1 seconds off the 0-100 sprint. Not only does it get more power, the JCW Mini looks meaner too. With a slightly bigger grille, a large bonnet scoop and lightweight alloy wheels, it looks aggressive. The JCW gets LED headlamps and tail lights along with the revered JCW badging. You will also have the option to buy it in the Rebel Green hue available exclusively with the Works Mini. While Mini has been in India for a few years now, we havent had a taste of the JCWs yet. And from the looks of it, getting this one to grace the Indian soil certainly seems like a daydream. Photo: Contributed Joey Restaurants has just been named a top employer for young Canadians. With a location in Kelowna, the Joey Group was given the title of a 'Top Employer for Young People in Canada for 2016.' This designation was based on the company's attraction and retention of younger workers, decided through an extensive review by Canada's Top 100 Employers. According to Joey Restaurants, they were awarded the designation due to the company's availability of co-op or work-study programs, mentorship and training opportunities, appreciation and recognition for those who complete courses and professional designation as well as its career management programs. Joey also partners with Royal Roads University to deliver professional and graduate certificate programs to its managers. Programs and courses that are paid for by the company. We are so honoured to be recognized for our development and apprenticeship programs, says Andrew Martin, vice-president of human resources. It is important to us to not just create job opportunities, but actual career paths where our individuals can grow with Joey, develop their skills, get an education and receive certification all while still earning a wage. The chain restaurant company believes these programs are vital at a time where there is a constant demand for more staff in the hospitality and tourism industries. A survey by the Central Okanagan Economic Development Commission highlighted a shortage of labour in our regions tourism sector. According to the report, 74 per cent of businesses in the Central Okanagans tourism industry face challenges retaining and recruiting quality employees, and this area is not alone. A 2012 report by the Canadian Tourism Research Institute and the Conference Board of Canada predicted a severe skills shortage in Ontario, with the most significant shortages in the food and beverage services sector. And recent government statistics say B.C. alone expects 13,600 job openings for cooks from now until 2022. A part of the magic we have here at Joey is our partnerships with local post-secondary institutions in every community we operate in, says Martin. We work closely with their culinary and business management programs so we are setting young people up for success. Whether they complete school knowing they want a career in hospitality or realize it at the prep station we ensure they receive the education and certification to be successful. Joey has also partnered with culinary schools and education programs in each of the regions they operate in offering scholarships and bursaries to provide ongoing support for student careers. Enrolled apprentices attend culinary school for a period of six weeks where they learn the necessary skills to work in the industry, and then another six weeks in the restaurant applying the techniques that they learned. In Kelowna, Joey works with Okanagan College to ensure the students graduating have career opportunities once they complete their education. Photo: CTV A cauliflower crisis is forcing some restaurants to jack up the price of the previously ignored vegetable. Once considered boring, the lowly cauliflower has been springing up on menus in innovative ways, but the soaring price of the cabbage relative is forcing restaurants with signature cauliflower dishes to rethink their menus and hike prices. The sliding loonie and a drought in California have driven prices for the snowy white vegetable toward double digits a head. At least one restaurant chain famous for its take on cauliflower is passing on some of the extra costs to its customers. In Vancouver, diners frequent Nuba restaurants just to taste Najib's Special, said founder Victor Bouzide. The dish, named after his father, is a crispy cauliflower concoction based on his grandmother's recipe. Since the new year, Bouzide's raised the price by about a dollar. A plate now costs $13, while the appetizer runs customers $9.75. The restaurant now pays more than double what it used to for a case of the cruciferous vegetable. Still, Bouzide can't fathom discontinuing the dish.. Toronto's Fat Pasha drew accolades for its whole roasted cauliflower head when it opened in 2014. About a month ago, the offering disappeared from the menu. The dish cost $18, chef Kevin Gilmour said, but with the cost of the main ingredient, the restaurant would have to charge up to $40 for it now. That just wasn't viable, said Gilmour, who replaced it with a local, more price-consistent option: acorn squash. Squash may be the next go-to ingredient for chefs looking for a new heir to cauliflower's popularity since many other vegetables, not just cauliflower, are steadily increasing in price. Celery, cucumber, tomatoes are all slowly taking themselves out of the running. If it's not a root vegetable or it's not a squash, Gilmour said, then chances are it's gone up significantly. - with files from CTV Photo: CTV A Calgary teenager suffered a life altering injury while tobogganing. Now, his family hopes their experience will result in the introduction of safety measures that may prevent others from suffering a similar freak accident.' Alex, whose surname is being withheld at his familys request, said he had planned to stay home on the night of Dec. 21, but friends convinced him to change his plans. We decided to go tobogganing, said the 15 year old. We walked to the hill. We got there at around 8 oclock. A couple runs into the night, I went down the hill and my toboggan turned. Alex says he wasnt thinking of the pole at the bottom of the hill until he struck it headfirst. Tests conducted in hospital confirmed that three of the vertebrae in his back had been broken. Alex was paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors believe he will likely never walk again. Its tough to know that everything youve done before you cant do now, said Alex. You have to come to terms with things like this because, if you dont, its gonna eat you up. Stella and John, Alexs parents, say its been difficult to see their son suffer, but they have no regrets about the events of Dec. 21 and theyll continue to offer Alex every opportunity to be successful in life. We firmly believe that you cant live life in a bubble, said Stella. Its unfortunate that it was our son but we also worry about the next kids. The family would like signs posted at the hill either warning of sledding dangers or directing people to safer areas. Ward 12 councillor Shane Keating says its unlikely the City would implement a method for marking hazards at individual hills or posting signs as the City could find itself liable for scenarios across Calgary. Keating suggests Calgarians visit the City of Calgarys list of registered toboggan hills that have been deemed safe. - with files from CTV Photo: The Canadian Press Anyone playing a Barack Obama drinking game during the latest Democratic presidential debate could easily have wound up splattered on an emergency-room gurney by the final commercial break. The president's name came up 29 times Sunday occasionally mentioned by the moderators, but usually by the candidates, and frequently in reverential tones. The Democrats seeking to succeed Obama were smothering themselves in his record not running away from it. An explanation for that could be condensed into two words: South Carolina. The state that hosted Sunday's debate could prove pivotal in deciding the Democratic nominee; black voters will play a decisive role there; and Obama's approval level is not only high among liberals but even higher among African-Americans at about 90 per cent. Sen. Bernie Sanders took exception when one of his rivals pointed out that he'd once floated the idea of launching a primary challenge against the president in 2012 and had called him weak on progressive issues. "He and I are friends," Sanders replied, pointing out that they'd campaigned for each other. The socialist senator also praised the president for his reluctance to deploy ground troops to the Middle East. "We've worked together on many issues. We have some differences of opinion." Hillary Clinton had been drawing attention to Sanders' past critiques of the president. She and Obama may have been bitter rivals in 2008. But the electoral math today suggests she needs the voters who helped Obama beat her in that year's South Carolina primary. Clinton is in danger of losing one and possibly both of the first two nomination states polls say she's behind in New Hampshire, and running neck-and-neck in Iowa. The race then moves from those earlier, whiter states to the south, where the Democratic electorate includes more minorities. Clinton still had a huge lead in South Carolina 40 percentage points in the latest polls. And a rival strategist predicted Sunday that her southern firewall could prove impenetrable in the primaries. Republican organizer Karl Rove said the more left-wing Sanders could struggle as the campaign shifts from the north, away from his base of young white college kids. "(In) South Carolina or Nevada, you get a lot more African-Americans, a lot more Latinos, and a lot fewer liberal wackos," Rove told a Fox panel Sunday. A Gallup poll last summer illustrated the two-part advantage Clinton held among African-American voters as the race got underway last summer: her popularity, and familiarity. Clinton had an 80 per cent favorability rating among black respondents. Sanders was liked, among the few who knew him. But only 33 per cent of African-American respondents knew who he was entering the race, compared with 92 per cent who knew Clinton. Sanders said he can overcome that name-recognition challenge. "When the African-American community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda, and with our views on the economy, and criminal justice, just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African American community, so will the Latino community," Sanders said Sunday. "We have the momentum, we're on a path to a victory." Sunday's debate was hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, on the eve of the annual Martin Luther King holiday. The most heated exchange involving Obama came when Sanders criticized Clinton for taking more than $600,000 in speaking fees from investment bank Goldman Sachs. That prompted Clinton to reply that he'd criticized Obama for doing the same. Clinton promised to preserve Obama's health reform, and criticized Sanders' plan to raise taxes to fund a single-payer health plan. Clinton called it one of the great achievements by Obama, the Democratic party, and the country. She said she was proud to work with Obama on the Iran nuclear agreement when she was secretary of state; applauded the Obama administration for working with software companies on intelligence-gathering; and she passed on the moderators' invitation to criticize him for threatening to use force against Syria's dictator and then backing down. The also-ran on stage, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, didn't get much speaking time. In an early chance to address the crowd, O'Malley praised the president. In his opening remarks, he credited Obama with preventing a second Great Depression. He also saluted the president for making the U.S. more energy independent, before expressing his view that the country could entirely phase out fossil fuels by 2050. Photo: Castanet Staff - File Photo Some tense moments for residents at an apartment building in the 3000 block of Gordon Drive early this morning. The Kelowna Fire Department received a 911 call at about 4 a.m. with a report of smoke on the third floor. The caller was advised to pull the fire alarm and evacuate the building. Upon arrival, crews discovered a first-floor sauna had been burning into the wall causing the smoke. The fire was extinguished and crews completed a search for fire extensions. No one was injured during the fire. Emergency Social Services was called to care for one house pet. Seventeen fire personnel were on scene along with with three engines, one rescue vehicle, a command vehicle and a safety vehicle. The Kelowna Fire Department reminds the public that when fire alarms are sounding residents should evacuate the premises. Photo: Google Maps RCMP are reporting a fatal collision on Highway 5, south of McLure about 20 minutes from Barriere. Police, ambulance services and fire crews were dispatched to a serious two vehicle collision around 1p.m. On Sunday, say RCMP. Investigators say a southbound Chevrolet Lumina lost control on wet, slushy, winter roads and crossed into the path of a northbound commercial tractor trailer unit. The lone occupant of the car was deceased at the scene, say police. The victim is said to be in his 40s and from the Clearwater area. His identity has not been released. A collision re-constructionist attended the scene and is assisting the Central Interior Traffic Services Unit and the BC Coroners Service with the investigation. Once again the RCMP remind motorists to slow down on winter roads. Walking along Lakeshore yesterday I got my first opportunity to see the upgrades that have been put in place in the vicinity of Lakeshore and Dehart. The new light standards are definitely attractive, however, without replacing the existing lighting on the telephone poles by removing the poles and placing the wires underground, I fail to see the reasoning for spending so much money for lighting that is already in place. The upgrades seem to be peace-mill with work done on wider sidewalks and new light standards from Richter St. to Lexington Dr. Then nothing (not even sidewalks for a good part of Lakeshore between Lexington and Dehart). I feel the money spent on the double duty light standards would have been better spent providing sidewalks between Lexington and Dehart Rd. Walking along Lakeshore without sidewalks from Lexington to Old Meadows Rd is quite often a scary proposition. Harry Hollier Photo: CTV In the wake of a weekend attack that killed at least 29 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighbouring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. "Please go ahead and search my bag. We want to be protected and there is no way to refuse this," said Fati Doussa, to security guards as he visited a bank to get some cash. Metal detectors have been placed at banks. "We know it is just going to be different from now on," said Ousmane Sawadogo, a cell-phone seller some 200 metres (218 yards) from the Splendid Hotel which was attacked Friday night. The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighbouring Mali since 2012. At the site Monday, forensic experts and investigators from France and Burkina Faso, dressed in white, filled the brown dusty street, gathering evidence in secured areas near the hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe. Military forces ended the siege Saturday. Burkina Faso's security minister, Simon Compaore, said Sunday 32 people were dead, including three jihadis. French Ambassador Gilles Thibault said Monday that about 30 people were dead in addition to the three attackers who were killed by French forces. Thirty others were still hospitalized, and about 180 had been freed by French and Burkina Faso forces during and after the siege, he said. "We were awaiting an attack like this one," he said. "It's impossible to say if these types of operations will be limited to just this one." Officials Saturday said forces killed three attackers in the Splendid Hotel and another in a neighbouring hotel. Military spokesman Capt. Guy Herve Ye on Monday said, however, that they have clearly identified three attackers and are investigating what they thought was a fourth. He said that many witnesses said that there were women among the attackers, though he says that is probably because the attackers had long dreadlocks. Two former Olympic officials, Jean-Noel Rey from Switzerland and Jean-Pascal Kinda from Burkina Faso, were killed, Swiss and Burkina Faso authorities said. It was not clear if they had been together during the attack or if their presence was a coincidence. Kinda, 73, was a former Olympic Committee president who had gone to the Cappuccino Cafe to pick up a paper, said his friend and a local magistrate Mathias Tankoano. Rey was co-president of the Swiss bidding committee for the 2006 Olympics, Swiss media reports said. He was in Burkina Faso for a charity project to open the canteen of a school, the reports said. The toll also includes a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the Cappuccino Cafe, along with her 9-year-old son, according to Ukrainian and Italian officials, and six Canadians, according to Canada officials. The six were travelling together as part of a humanitarian mission, and four them were from the same family. The list of those killed include eight citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb put out a formal statement Sunday naming three of the attackers as men, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors extremist sites. It said it was a "drop in the sea of global jihad." The group on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack saying al-Mourabitoun fighters carried out the siege. Al-Mourabitoun joined AQIM last year and they claimed their first joint attack was the Nov. 20 seizure of the Radisson Blu in Mali that killed 20 people. Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi visited Ouagadougou Monday to show support and the backing of the Economic Community of West African States. "What could have led to such hatred? It is unimaginable. I am so dejected. We must prepare ourselves for an adequate response," he said near the site of the attack. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said regional forces must combine to fight extremism. "We need to combine our intelligence and military to better fight terrorism, notably at our borders. This does not only concern West Africa. We are in an asymmetric war. We need to train our armed forces for this type of combat," Kabore said Monday. "From now on we are going to take all measures to prevent such things from happening again." Burkina Faso and Mali's prime ministers met Sunday and agreed to share intelligence, strengthen transnational co-operation and have join patrols along shared borders, they said. 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Output fell by 0.2 per cent YoY to 931,000t. Full-year figures show domestic cement deliveries down by 3.5 per cent to 9.978Mt while total sales were down by three per cent to 10.332Mt. Per capita consumption fell 4.3 per cent YoY in 2015 to 352kg. Production slipped by 2.5 per cent to 10.41Mt. To help meet domestic market requirements, some 515,000t of cement and 766,000t of clinker was imported. Meanwhile, the countrys cement producers exported 363,000t of cement and 352,000t of clinker. 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Barbara Michelle Pemberton, 47, was taken into custody on Friday. Authorities said the car and heater were left running with the child inside. Ms. Pemberton, who was watching the child for her son, said she did not want to wake him up. She was visiting inside with friends. When she finally checked on the child, he was not breathing. The temperature in the car went above 100 degrees. The child, Shadoe Braxton Pate, was pronounced dead after being taken to Hutcheson Hospital. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation brought the charges. By investing in the Chinese venture capital fund GRC SinoGreen Fund III (GRC III), Evonik has expanded its venture capital activities into Asia. The parties have agreed to not disclose the amount of the investment. As a result, the company is now represented in the most important venture capital regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. GRC invests in private, green technology companies with unique strengths and substantial growth potential in Greater China. Target sectors include energy and resource efficiency, cleaner transportation, sustainability, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. GRC III has offices in Beijing and Taipei. In recent years, Asia has evolved into the worlds third-most important venture capital region. China accounts for around two-thirds of these activities. By investing in GRC III, we are opening the door to the fast growing start-up community in Greater China, explained Bernhard Mohr, head of Venture Capital at Evonik. With GRC we have found a strong partner with a proven track record and with immediate relevance to our own business activities. Aside from Evonik, the investor base of GRC III includes the World Bank subsidiary International Finance Corporation, the development bank Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and Shell Technology Ventures, the venture capital arm of Shell. Investments in funds are an important element of Evoniks venture capital activities. Previously, Evonik had invested in the European and North American venture capital funds Pangaea Ventures Fund III, Emerald Cleantech Fund III, and High-Tech Grunderfonds II. As part of its venture capital activities, Evonik plans to invest a total of 100 million in promising start-ups with innovative technologies and in leading specialized venture capital funds. The regional focus is on Europe, the US, and Asia. Evonik currently has holdings in eight start-ups and four funds. Now you see it, now you dont: In books and movies, wizards use magic spells to easily change things from a solid to see-through state. However, in reality, materials with properties called phase transition can pull off a similar trick, changing from clear to cloudy depending on the temperature or an applied electric field. Recently, a multi-institutional international team of researchers with the participation of physicists from the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany) developed a way to engineer the transition point for the phase-transition material vanadium dioxide to occur at specific temperatures. The research, published today in Nano Letters, could lead to new types of tunable materials for optics and thermal regulation. Essentially, any optical component would be better if it were tunable, says Mikhail Kats, a University of Wisonsin-Madison (USA) assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and senior author of the paper. Rather than relying on mechanical components to focus an object such as a camera lens or telescope eyepiece, a tunable material changes its innate optical properties on demand. Scientists have known for more than 50 years that substances like vanadium dioxide can transition between opaque and transparent. However, these materials typically switch under only one particular set of conditions, limiting their applicability. In most phase-transition materials, the change occurs at conditions that are far from room temperature, and thus are difficult to incorporate into useful devices, says Kats. The researchers not only changed vanadium dioxides intrinsic shift point from 68 degrees Celsius to below room temperature, they also successfully tuned the transition for that material to any temperature. This finding is going to open new frontiers in photonic devices, says Shriram Ramanathan, a professor of materials engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA), who also contributed to the research. Use in smart walls possible Because optical and physical properties arise from the same underlying physical principles, vanadium dioxides thermal and electrical conductivities also shift with the transition. These types of materials could be used, for example, in homes as smart walls or windows that respond to the environment. Objects designed to emit light efficiently at high temperatures but not at low temperatures could be used as purely passive temperature regulators that do not require external circuitry or power sources, Kats says. Previously, researchers attempting to change the transition temperatures of vanadium dioxide always introduced impurities as they created it. However, this method uniformly alters the materials entire surface so instead, the German-American team of researchers bombarded specific regions of the vanadium dioxide with energetic ions. Ion irradiation creates defects in materials, usually an unintended side effect. However, collaborator Carsten Ronning of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, explains, the researchers advance now capitalizes on those defects. The beauty in our approach is that we take advantage of the unwanted defects, he says. Directing the ion-beam at specific regions of a surface allowed the researchers to make nanoscale modifications to the material. We can precisely control the transition temperature everywhere on the sample, with roughly 20-nanometre precision, Ronning states. We have been able to use this method to create highly effective meta-surface areas which have multiple phase transitions at the same time. This technique enabled the researchers to design and create a novel optical polariser that changes selectivity based on temperature. Perovskites, substances that perfectly absorb light, are the future of solar energy. The opportunity for their rapid dissemination has just increased thanks to a cheap and environmentally safe method of production of these materials, developed by chemists from Warsaw, Poland. Rather than in solutions at a high temperature, perovskites can now be synthesized by solid-state mechanochemical processes: by grinding powders. We associate the milling of chemicals less often with progress than with old-fashioned pharmacies and their inherent attributes: the pestle and mortar. It's time to change this! Recent research findings show that by the use of mechanical force, effective chemical transformations take place in solid state. Mechanochemical reactions have been under investigation for many years by the teams of Prof. Janusz Lewinski from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) and the Faculty of Chemistry of Warsaw University of Technology. In their latest publication, the Warsaw researchers describe a surprisingly simple and effective method of obtaining perovskites - futuristic photovoltaic materials with a spatially complex crystal structure. "With the aid of mechanochemistry we are able to synthesize a variety of hybrid inorganic-organic functional materials with a potentially great significance for the energy sector. Our youngest 'offspring' are high quality perovskites. These compounds can be used to produce thin light-sensitive layers for high efficiency solar cells," says Prof. Lewinski. Perovskites are a large group of materials, characterized by a defined spatial crystalline structure. In nature, the perovskite naturally occurring as a mineral is calcium titanium(IV) oxide CaTiO 3 . Here the calcium atoms are arranged in the corners of the cube, in the middle of each wall there is an oxygen atom and at the centre of the cube lies a titanium atom. In other types of perovskite the same crystalline structure can be constructed of various organic and inorganic compounds, which means titanium can be replaced by, for example, lead, tin or germanium. As a result, the properties of the perovskite can be adjusted so as to best fit the specific application, for example, in photovoltaics or catalysis, but also in the construction of superconducting electromagnets, high voltage transformers, magnetic refrigerators, magnetic field sensors, or RAM memories. At first glance, the method of production of perovskites using mechanical force, developed at the IPC PAS, looks a little like magic. "Two powders are poured into the ball mill: a white one, methylammonium iodide CH 3 NH 3 I, and a yellow one, lead iodide PbI2. After several minutes of milling no trace is left of the substrates. Inside the mill there is only a homogeneous black powder: the perovskite CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 ," explains doctoral student Anna Maria Cieslak (IPC PAS). "Hour after hour of waiting for the reaction product? Solvents? High temperatures? In our method, all this turns out to be unnecessary! We produce chemical compounds by reactions occurring only in solids at room temperature," stresses Dr. Daniel Prochowicz (IPC PAS). The mechanochemically manufactured perovskites were sent to the team of Prof. Michael Graetzel from the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne in Switzerland, where they were used to build a new laboratory solar cell. The performance of the cell containing the perovskite with a mechanochemical pedigree proved to be more than 10% greater than a cell's performance with the same construction, but containing an analogous perovskite obtained by the traditional method, involving solvents. "The mechanochemical method of synthesis of perovskites is the most environmentally friendly method of producing this class of materials. Simple, efficient and fast, it is ideal for industrial applications. With full responsibility we can state: perovskites are the materials of the future, and mechanochemistry is the future of perovskites," concludes Prof. Lewinski. Tracking the path of chemotherapy drugs in real time and at a cellular level could revolutionize cancer care and help doctors sort out why two patients might respond differently to the same treatment. Researchers at The Ohio State University have found a way to light up a common cancer drug so they can see where the chemo goes and how long it takes to get there. They've devised an organic technique for creating this scientific guiding star and in doing so have opened up a new frontier in their field. Previous efforts have been limited by dyes that faded quickly and by toxic elements, particularly metals. A study highlighted two novel accomplishments. First, the researchers created a luminescent molecule, called a peptide and made up of two amino acids. Then they hitched that light to the cancer medication so that it revealed the chemo's arrival within cells. "This is very important for personalized medicine. We really want to see what's going on when we give chemo drugs and this work paves the way for the exciting endeavor," said Dr. Mingjun Zhang, the biomedical engineering professor who led the study. Biomedical engineers strive to find techniques that behave naturally within the body and leave without doing harm. This research holds promise for doing just that because the peptide is one that should easily coexist with human cells and leave as harmlessly as it entered. "You can combine your drug with this luminescent vehicle," Zhang said of the tiny fluorescent particle devised in his lab. "Composed of natural amino acids, the nanoparticle is inherently biocompatible. Our biological machines can easily take care of it." This work was done in petri dishes in Zhang's lab and work in animals is currently underway. In the body or tissue of an animal or person, scientists would watch the fluorescent signal with an optical detection system, he said. Zhang and his colleagues sandwiched their peptide to a common chemotherapy drug so that its light was hidden until the two elements peeled apart upon entering the cells. Zhang was particularly delighted to see that the blue peptide, which can be seen under ultraviolet light, maintained its luminescence for extended periods of time. Previous work to track drugs using organic dyes has been hampered by their tendency to fade with time. "You can label it and you can attach it to a drug and see where the drug goes and when it is released," Zhang said. And it could be that the biomedical advance can give patients and their doctors information on how well and how quickly a medication is working for them. "Maybe for some people a drug is taking effect in a few minutes and for somebody else it's hours and for somebody else it never takes effect," Zhang said. The research team used doxorubicin, a widely used chemotherapy drug, for their lab work, but the discovery could apply to different types of treatments. Better understanding of the complex interplay of cells and drugs is critical to development of treatments that are finely tuned for individual patients. The Ohio State work builds on research that earned a trio of scientists the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Their work on green fluorescent protein found in jelly fish led to the discovery that scientists could illuminate cellular-level activity that had previously been cloaked in mystery. The University of Chicago's business school will give eight full tuition scholarships annually to professionals in the nonprofit and government fields, reflecting a growing investment among business schools in the social sectors. The Civic Scholars Program, announced last week, is for Chicago Booth's Weekend MBA Program. The students, known as Neubauer Civic Scholars because the program is funded in part by a $4 million gift from the Neubauer Family Foundation, will continue working full time while they attend. Advertisement The scholars will be subject to the same curriculum requirements as all students but will also attend new courses designed for the program that allow them to work in small teams on research and consulting projects for social sector and government organizations, including their own. Ideal candidates will have six to 10 years of professional experience. Booth said in a news release that the program "will bring important voices to the classroom and community by providing broader perspectives on issues such as understanding the role of business in society, the implications of expanding public-private partnerships, and the opportunities for business leaders to engage productively with government and nonprofit organizations." Advertisement The move reflects a broader trend among business schools to invest in the social good, from UC Berkeley's Institute for Business and Social Impact to the University of Vermont's sustainable entrepreneurship MBA, said Dan LeClair, chief operating officer at the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, an accrediting body for business schools. That's happening in part because good management is essential to any organization, but also because there is a growing recognition that business schools can have a bigger impact by engaging across sectors and redefining their purpose to be for the social good, LeClair said. "Business schools have been known as a place to increase your salary and further your career," he said. "But more and more people are realizing it's the place you go to make a difference in society." aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com Twitter @alexiaer Workers from nine U.S. airports are planning to block bridges, march through terminals and protest at airline headquarters during a day of civil disobedience on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The workers - a mix of cleaners, baggage handlers, fuelers and wheelchair attendants - will risk arrest at airports and other locations to bring attention to their campaign for better wages, the Service Employees International Union said. Advertisement The actions are the latest in the airport workers' campaign for a $15-per-hour minimum wage, a benefits package and job protections. They're also protesting threats against their efforts to unionize. In Washington, Reagan National Airport workers and supporters -- as many as 200 -- are planning to block traffic from Independence Avenue SW, near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial at the Mall, in what could potentially cause significant gridlock to a major downtown thoroughfare. The protesters will march from the memorial along Independence Avenue, culminating with the takeover of Kutz Bridge over the Tidal Basin. Advertisement Actions are also being organized in Boston; New York City; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Miami; Chicago; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle. "These men and women are calling for real change at all these airports in the hopeful and visionary spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King," said Jaime Contreras, head of 32BJ Service Employees International Union for the Washington area. "We are protesting what we already know is a gross injustice and humiliating working conditions." In the past few months, airport workers have held protests, rallies and prayers, bringing attention to hourly wages that are as low as $6.75, which they say force many of those who keep the airports running into working two or three jobs to sustain their families. Besides low salaries, some workers allege discrimination, harassment and hostile work environments. They work for companies that are contracted by the airlines. Monday's actions could create disruptions at airports and other locations in the nine major cities. In New York, workers will march across the 94th Street bridge to La Guardia Airport and rally at the airport entrance. At Newark and Boston, protesters will march into the terminals and pass all ticketing agents, risking arrest inside the terminal. In Portland, workers will march through the airport and do a banner drop from skybridges at the Alaska Airlines terminal. They will rally in front of United Airlines in headquarters downtown Chicago and will protest outside the headquarters of airline contractor Eulen in Miami. In the District of Columbia, the event will be backed by supporters - from members of the clergy to public officials -- D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) among them. Their goal is to call on the federal government to take steps to protect the workers and put pressure on airports, airlines and the contractors that hire the workers. "On Dr. King's birthday on Monday, I want to carry on the King legacy by standing with airport workers, from baggage handlers to cabin cleaners, fuelers to security officers, whose jobs have been contracted out to companies paying shamefully low wages," Norton said in a statement, noting that King was killed in Memphis where "he had gone to stand with sanitation workers who faced inhumane conditions at work and poverty wages." Low-wage airport workers, Service Employees International Union members and activists block Franklin Street in front of Willis Tower in Chicago on Jan. 18, 2016. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) Chicago's 24-below-zero wind chills did not halt a protest outside Willis Tower on Monday morning to advocate for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for airport workers. Organized by the Service Employees International Union Local 1, the protest by about three dozen people outside United Airlines' headquarters was among nine civil disobedience actions in cities across the U.S. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Advertisement The SEIU, which is also behind the Fight for $15 campaign for fast-food workers, is pushing for higher pay, benefits and job protections for airport janitors, cabin cleaners, wheelchair agents, security officers and baggage handlers. The SEIU does not represent any United employees. O'Hare baggage handler Raquel Brito, 20, stood before a bank of microphones and through chattering teeth told of the challenge of paying bills and putting food on the table. Advertisement "We are tired of struggling to get by," said Brito, who makes $11 an hour and works in the United terminal as a contractor for Prospect Airport Services. She was previously a wheelchair assistant, which paid $6.75 an hour plus any tips passengers gave. Brito said her aunt and grandmother also work at O'Hare, cleaning the airplane cabins and airport terminals. Brito, who lives with family in Portage Park, said she injured her back several months ago while pushing a passenger and, because she doesn't get any health benefits, had to pay most of her health care costs herself. Brito still spends $250 monthly for physical therapy for her injury, including transportation expenses, union spokesperson Izabela Miltko said. Representatives of United Continental Holdings and Prospect Airport Services were not immediately available for comment. Brito was among about 14 airport workers and supporters who lined up, arms hooked, in the middle of Franklin Street between Jackson Boulevard and Quincy Street for about three minutes in the cold before police started arresting them and leading them away. Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, was scheduled to attend the protest but notified organizers Monday morning that he was sick, Miltko said. Other acts of civil disobedience were planned inside airport terminals, along bridges and in front of airport contractor headquarters in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami, Washington, D.C., Portland, Ore., and Newark, N.J. They follow national strikes and rallies at airports nationwide just before Thanksgiving. In Chicago, the protest was meant to be on behalf of 5,000 workers at Midway and O'Hare airports, Miltko said. The decision to hold it outside Willis Tower was to pressure United Airlines to "stand for good jobs and good wages," said Sarah Saheb, organizing coordinator at SEIU. "United Airlines can and should set the example," Saheb said. "They have the resources to pay their workers well." Advertisement aelejalderuiz@tribpub.com Twitter @alexiaer Though Spike Lee was given an honorary Academy Award at the Governors Awards in November, the "Chi-Raq" director said Monday he will not attend the Oscars next month because of the lack of diversity among nominees. "We cannot support it and (I) mean no disrespect to my friends, host Chris Rock and producer Reggie Hudlin, president (Cheryl Boone) Isaacs and the Academy," Lee posted on Instagram. "But, how is it possible for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the acting category are white? And let's not even get into the other branches. Forty white actors in two years and no flava at all. We can't act?! WTF!!" Advertisement The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite trended on social media last week after it was announced that all 20 contenders for acting awards are white. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith also announced Monday she will boycott the Oscars, which are scheduled to air at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 on ABC. "Chi-Raq," a satirical look at South Side gun violence, was released in some theaters last month and earned no Oscar nominations, though some of the movie's songs made it on the shortlist. Lee is set to be in Chicago on Thursday to promote the movie, which is slated to be released Feb. 4 on Amazon Prime. She is originally from Milwaukee and came here to work and study after graduating from the University of Rochester in New York. She received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago and worked as an executive for firms in the utilities, energy and shipping worlds. Following her WOOGMS encounter, she began to seek out and research other honorary signs, making maps to mark their locations. "It all started just as a hobby," she says. But she soon realized that there wasn't one place to find a lot of information on the street signs, and that some of the information she did find was wrong. She began building her own database of every honorary street sign. Tracy Morgan's plan to star in an FX comedy series is back on track now that writer-actor Jordan Peele and John Carcieri have signed on to write a pilot for the former "30 Rock" star. Morgan's life was up-ended 18 months ago by a car crash that came two months after he signed a straight-to-series pact with FX Networks. Advertisement The new project will see Morgan playing a career criminal who struggles to reintegrate into society after serving a 15-year prison sentence. Peele, a Second City alumnus, and Carcieri will write the pilot and exec produce with Eric Tannenbaum and Joel Zadak, an alum of Peele's Comedy Central sketch series "Key and Peele." Advertisement "What an unbeatable combination - Tracy Morgan and Jordan Peele - two exceptional comics joining forces with a great team of writers and producers to create and produce this pilot for FX Networks," said Nick Grad, president of original programming for FX Networks and FX Prods. "We've been committed to Tracy from the start and are thrilled that Jordan, John, Eric and Joel are joining him in developing this new project." Morgan's deal with the cabler in 2014 called for him to work with the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" gang -- Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney -- on an unspecified concept for a comedy to air on FXX. It's unclear whether the new pilot will be bound for FXX or the mothership FX. Morgan suffered brain injuries and broken bones after his SUV was rear-ended on the New Jersey turnpike in June 2014. The crash killed another passenger in the car, Morgan's longtime friend and fellow comedian James McNair. The severity of his injuries forced the former "30 Rock" star to endure a long recuperation period. He began a slow return to the public eye last summer with emotional appearances on the Primetime Emmy Awards telecast and a hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live," his alma mater. Morgan at present is headlining a national comedy tour dubbed "Picking Up the Pieces" that is set to run through May. He also just wrapped work on the Weinstein Co.'s biopic "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said?," in which he plays comedian Redd Foxx opposite Mike Epps in the title role. Peele is coming off a five-season run on the much-praised sketch comedy "Key and Peele." He was in the ensemble of the 2014 edition of FX's "Fargo," and he's recently had recurring roles on CBS' "Life in Pieces," and Netflix's "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp," among other projects. Carcieri's credits include HBO's "Eastbound & Down" and "Vice Principles." Variety Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 15 We're not sure how "kooky musical pastiches on ice skates" became a lucrative genre of show business, but kids seem to love 'em. This year's touring edition celebrates 100 years of Disney -- and we're not sure about that either, because the company wasn't founded until 1923. Nevertheless, expect to see Mickey and Minnie introducing all your favorite characters, including a parade of princesses from Snow White to Elsa. There's even a pre-show dance-along. 7 p.m. Wednesday, repeating through Jan. 24 at Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont. (Runs Jan. 27-Feb.7 at United Center.) $20-$90. www.disneyonice.com (Feld Entertainment) Melanie Walchli, 20, seen smoking during a downtown walk on Jan. 14, 2016, says she supports the idea of raising the minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21, a proposal Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently presented to the City Council. (Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune) Teens and young adults are likely to stop smoking or never start if they have to ask those 21 and older to buy cigarettes for them. That's the premise of research that supports a new plan put forth by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last week to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco. Advertisement Experts say the approach is gaining traction around the country after a recent study estimated such laws would discourage smoking at an age when many people first get addicted. Chicago would join a list of more than 100 cities nationwide, including Evanston, to raise the legal age for buying tobacco from 18 to 21. Emanuel introduced the legislation in the Chicago City Council on Wednesday. The bill bundles the age provision with tax hikes on cigars, roll-your-own cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Advertisement "Older smokers have a higher quit rate than younger smokers. Older smokers are more likely to get treatment," said Carol Southard, a tobacco treatment specialist at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Northwestern Medicine. "The literature has been so consistent that if we can (stop) the kid from starting in the first place, or at least get the kid to stop before they're 21, we've done something significant." Most states long ago set the legal tobacco age at 18, but a March 2015 study from the Institute of Medicine in Washington, D.C., sparked a new look at the issue. That study concluded that raising the minimum age to 21 would help delay when young adults and adolescents start using tobacco. Almost 90 percent of adult daily smokers say they began smoking before they were 19, according to the study. Researchers said 21 as a minimum age would be particularly effective because young people who are unable to buy tobacco are most likely to get the products from friends and peers. It is less likely a 21-year-old would be in the same social circles as high school or middle school students, and thus able to provide cigarettes, according to the report. The researchers' model predicts that if all states immediately raised the minimum age to 21, there would be a 12 percent decrease in tobacco use among today's teenagers by the time they become adults. Young adult smokers who were stopping for a puff at DePaul University on Friday offered mixed responses to the idea. A 19-year-old said the change might make her kick the habit she picked up when she started college last fall. The woman declined to give her name because her parents don't know that she smokes. "I wouldn't go out of my way to get people (21 and over) to buy them for me," she said Friday. Advertisement Robert Davis, 19, said he would welcome the restriction on his peers. Davis, a nonsmoker, said he thinks it would cut down the number of classmates and friends that smoke and, as a result, cut down on how many times he's forced to walk through a cloud of smoke to get to class. Adrian Phua, 23, another DePaul student, wondered whether he would have taken up smoking as a teenager had there been such an age restriction where he grew up in Malaysia. "I wish I would've never started," he said. But others, like Joseph Saye, 22, said younger smokers will be able to find ways around the law. Saye, a smoker since he was 19, said he doubts an older age requirement would have much effect. George Georgiev, 26, agreed, saying younger smokers would get cigarettes as easily as they can get alcohol before their 21st birthday. "Has the drinking age being 21 stopped people from drinking? No. They might have to use more resources to get around (age laws), but it hasn't stopped it," he said. "People will always find a way." But Lila Johnson, program manager for tobacco prevention and education at the Hawaii Department of Health, said the new study helped to convince officials there to establish a legal age of 21 for buying tobacco. Hawaii's law, the only one of its kind in the country, became effective this month. Advertisement "The scientific basis landed right in our lap," Johnson said. "We don't see the negative side effects because it's going to protect young people, it's going to protect our vulnerable populations. We hope to be able to show the difference that it makes." Emanuel's proposal also describes a goal of keeping tobacco out of the reach of young adults. "Adolescents are more vulnerable than older adults to nicotine addiction, which can harm brain development, and 4 out of 5 adult smokers start before age 21," the ordinance states. "Raising the legal age would put tobacco products on par with alcohol and protect young adults from developing a dangerous lifelong habit." Emanuel also announced his intention to raise tobacco product taxes, set minimum quantities of tobacco that can be sold and set minimum prices. The ordinance calls for a 15-cent tax per little cigar in packages of no fewer than 20, raising the fees by $3. Standard-size cigars would carry a tax of 90 cents apiece in packs of at least four. Cigars costing more than $3 each still could be sold individually. Roll-your-own tobacco would be taxed at $6.60 per ounce, bumping the cost of a small pouch from $7.25 to $11.54. Smokeless tobacco would have a $1.80-per-ounce tax, increasing the price on a standard can from $4.19 to $6.35. Advertisement The minimum price for a pack of cigarettes or little cigars and a small package of smoking tobacco would be $11.50. Standard-size cigars would cost no less than $1.74 each and smokeless tobacco would cost no less than $4 per ounce. The 21-and-over law also would apply to electronic cigarettes, a mayoral spokeswoman said, but the tax increase would not. Emanuel already raised e-cigarette taxes for 2016. Ald. Proco "Joe" Moreno, 1st, Will Burns, 4th, and Ameya Pawar, 47th, co-sponsored the legislation. "The use of smokeless tobacco and other tobacco products continues to soar because they are more inexpensive than cigarettes, but that doesn't mean that they are any safer for Chicagoans to use," Moreno said in a statement. Moreno previously floated the idea of taxing smokeless tobacco in September. Should City Council members approve new pricing and age restrictions, it would be the latest in a series of moves targeting tobacco use. Chicago consistently has ramped up tobacco taxes. The city leads the nation in federal, county, state and city taxes on cigarettes, which now total $7.17 per pack. The city added electronic cigarettes to its indoor smoking ban in 2014. In the same year, the Chicago Park District expanded its ban on smoking to include public parks and harbors. Advertisement Jidong Huang, senior research scientist at the Institute for Health Research and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said an age requirement is just one component needed for effective tobacco control policy. "If you want to reduce smoking of young adults, you want to limit the domains when and where they can smoke, and where they can purchase tobacco," Huang said. "It's a basket of tools and those tools work best when they're working together." Southard of Northwestern Medicine agreed, saying a minimum-age law is good but resources also should be devoted toward helping current smokers quit. "This is the most difficult addiction of all to control," Southard said. "What has impacted behavior most is cessation intervention." The growing push to raise the tobacco purchasing age evokes a similar effort to raise the drinking age nearly 40 years ago. Drinking alcohol long was seen as a rite of passage so much so that several states lowered the legal drinking age to 18 in the 1960s and 1970s, according to the National Institutes of Health. Advertisement But fatal alcohol-related traffic crashes spiked after that. The NIH said that alcohol affected 60 percent of all deadly crashes by the mid-1970s. Two-thirds of fatal accidents for people between the ages of 16 and 20 involved alcohol during that time. President Ronald Reagan signed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act in 1984, which pledged to withhold federal highway funding from states that had not raised the legal drinking age to 21. Drunken-driving deaths have been cut in half since the early '80s, according to the NIH. The Food and Drug Administration gained vast regulatory power over tobacco products in 2009, including control over how they are marketed. But in contrast to the drinking age mandate, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act expressly forbids the FDA from implementing a national minimum age for buying tobacco older than 18. Such authority remains at state and local levels. However, public opinion seems to be warming to an older cigarette purchasing age. More than 100 cities including New York, Cleveland and Evanston have enacted 21-and-up tobacco laws since 2005, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Forty-five states, including Illinois, set the minimum age at 18. State law is 19 in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah, according to the CDC. Hawaii is the only state to impose 21-and-up. New Jersey legislators recently passed a 21-and-up bill, but it is not yet clear whether Gov. Chris Christie will endorse or veto it. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > A CDC article from July concluded that 75 percent of adults including 70 percent of smokers favored raising the minimum age to 21. Advertisement Johnson said Hawaii officials recognize they are not at the end of the road in terms of eradicating smoking, even though fewer and fewer people smoke in the state. "As our numbers have gone down, we've seen the decrease in cardiac disease and lung cancer," Johnson said. "Yes, you want people to stop smoking, but it doesn't count until you get to those other outcomes. You want people to be healthier." The Chicago proposal next will be reviewed by the council's finance committee. Chicago Tribune's Kate Thayer contributed. cdrhodes@tribpub.com Twitter @rhodes_dawn Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Topspin It's Monday, Jan. 18, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Advertisement Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart thinks the reputation Mayor Rahm Emanuel has cultivated for being a micromanager who gets things done will make it tougher for the mayor to build the public trust necessary to cool the anger many Chicagoans are directing toward him for the Laquan McDonald shooting by police and its aftermath. In an interview that will air at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, on WLS-AM's "Connected to Chicago" program, Dart said Emanuel needs to convince residents he's being transparent and honest with them to move past the questions about what he knew about the October 2014 shooting and when he knew it. Advertisement "I think a lot of that is because of the fact the public feels this is something he had talked about getting control over, and he had control over all these different aspects of the office, and that ultimately you're the one that's held responsible," Dart said. Dart said he doesn't know whether Emanuel saw the shooting video before his April 2015 re-election, but that it's a hard argument for the mayor to make. "I do think one of the things that complicates it is that Rahm has always talked about his ability to work issues and to be able to take crises and things like that," Dart said. "And basically sending the message that he's very much in control. Which, that's fine when you're addressing issues and stuff, but then the other side of that is that then when you're trying to maybe completely, truly, absolutely honestly say, 'I didn't know about something,' then it's hard for people to jump into that. Because it's like, 'Well, you're saying you're in control of this and you micromanage and all this stuff, but now you're saying you didn't know anything about that.' And that's where it gets to be difficult." "As a general rule, if you're releasing things good or bad, then you build a certain level of trust up," he said. "But when you circle the wagons all the time, when you're not talking and you're very scripted ... When you get that, you create an environment where people are very skeptical, because it's like what isn't controlled then? You control all this, but then you're saying this is not controlled." Dart also said during the interview with WLS reporter Bill Cameron that he doesn't know whether a code of silence exists in the Chicago Police Department. Two Cook County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene shortly after Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke fatally shot McDonald, but neither filed a report about the incident. Dart's office said it didn't know the deputies were there until last month when the Tribune brought it to their attention. Dart said he was "disappointed" that the Independent Police Review Authority did not contact the deputies to talk to them about what happened. The FBI reached out to one of the deputies last summer while looking into the case, but Dart's office told the Tribune that federal investigators did not say why they wanted to talk to the deputy. (John Byrne) What's on tap *Mayor Rahm Emanuel has no public events scheduled. Advertisement *Gov. Bruce Rauner is scheduled to attend Operation PUSH's MLK breakfast and a service event at Kelly High School. He's not scheduled to take reporters' questions. *35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is supposed to join O'Hare baggage handlers, security officers and other airline workers for a 9 a.m. rally, protest and "civil disobedience" outside of United Airlines' headquarters at Willis Tower. Workers want a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. It's part of a national push. From the notebook *Summers backs Zopp: City Treasurer Kurt Summers has weighed in on the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate, throwing his support behind Andrea Zopp's bid. Summers was appointed treasurer by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in late 2014 before winning election months later and is widely seen as a possible candidate for Chicago mayor at some point. Endorsing Zopp, the former head of the Chicago Urban League, could be a way for Summers to try to appeal to African-American voters in the city in the event he makes a mayoral bid. There's less upside in endorsing a pair of suburban candidates. Zopp is running against U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth and state Sen. Napoleon Harris for the Democratic nomination, while Kirk faces Oswego businessman James Marter in the GOP primary. The primary elections take place March 15, with the winners facing off in the November general election. (John Byrne) Advertisement *Birthday shoutout: Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez turned 56 on Saturday. *A different kind of help for CPS: Illinois Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno said state lawmakers should consider legislation to allow the Chicago Public Schools to file for bankruptcy or seek state financial oversight assistance. In an interview Sunday on WGN-AM 720, Radogno said many public officials already consider CPS to be bankrupt given its need to rely on borrowing to stay afloat. And she noted state law allows the creation of financial oversight authority to run the finances of public school systems that are in money trouble. *Chicago retailers think Emanuel setting bad precedent: Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the recent move by City Hall to seek $6 million for education-related expenses through a broadened tobacco tax has a hidden problem. Karr said the measure backed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel would mandate a minimum floor price for retailers to sell tobacco items purchased in the city, from little cigars and smokeless tobacco to cigarettes. Karr said a lawsuit against the city is being explored but questioned how the city could set a minimum price for goods purchased by the public with no discounting or coupons allowed. He questioned whether it was a way to allow the city to create backdoor tax increases merely by raising the minimum price, rather than the tobacco tax. *The Sunday Spin: In addition to Radogno and Karr, WGN radio's "The Sunday Spin" featured Martin J. Luby, an associate professor at DePaul and a member of the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, who said last weeks state bond offering carries a $53 million penalty for taxpayers because of the states bad financial picture. Listen to the whole show In addition to Radogno and Karr, WGN radio's "The Sunday Spin" featured Martin J. Luby, an associate professor at DePaul and a member of the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs, who said last weeks state bond offering carries a $53 million penalty for taxpayers because of the states bad financial picture. Listen to the whole show here What we're writing *Emanuel MLK prayer breakfast becomes political spectacle. *Rauner one step closer to state worker union strike. *CPS debt downgraded again. *Friends say red-light camera figure always paid with wads of cash. Advertisement *State's school funding plan spurs concerns over cuts, special education. *Chicago police shooting documents show Chatman's last words. *Nearly two dozen Chicago cops summoned before Laquan McDonald grand jury. What we're reading *The great Phil Kadner's last column. *America's fastest marathoner retiring, cites low-T levels. Follow the money *The Illinois Sunshine project lists the top campaign fund earners for the past month. Advertisement *Track campaign contribution reports in real time with this Tribune Twitter account: https://twitter.com/ILCampaignCash Beyond Chicago *Presidential race, Republican side: As Trump, Cruz spar, GOP looks for other option. *Presidential race, Democratic side: Repeat of 2008 for Clinton? The last time Democrats met on a debate stage, it was a Saturday before Christmas, and Hillary Clinton was sitting comfortably atop the field. Now, as Democrats get ready to debate for a fourth time, in South Carolina on Sunday - in the middle of a three-day holiday weekend - there are signs Clinton's lead is evaporating. A Quinnipiac University poll out Tuesday shows her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., ahead in Iowa by five points. A Selzer & Company poll showed Clinton up just two - down from wider previous leads. Advertisement It's all raising questions among Democratic elite whether Clinton's once-seemingly inevitable nomination will slip away from her like it did in 2008. It's notable that Clinton still has a tactical advantage since the national debate has shifted away from economic issues and zeroed in on national security and terrorism - especially with news Saturday that Iran freed four Americans, including The Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, in a deal that provided clemency for seven Iranians charged or imprisoned in the U.S. for sanctions violations. A December Washington Post-ABC News poll showed more than 3 in 5 voters trust her more than her opponents to handle issues related to terrorism and national security. But her main opponent has found ways to chip away at that, too. Advertisement As the Democratic primary gets more muddied than most would have predicted, here are the eight top issues for Sunday's Democratic debate. 1. The U.S.-Iran prisoner deal World leaders were converging in Vienna on Saturday to prepare to lift sanctions against Iran as part of a historic nuclear deal, when news broke that four Americans imprisoned in Iran would be freed. The four include a Christian pastor, a former Marine and Rezaian, who had been in captivity in Iran for 18 months and was most recently held in the country's notorious Evin Prison. In exchange, the U.S. released the seven Iranians imprisoned or charged related to violating sanctions against Iran. A U.S. official in Vienna told The Post that no Iranians charged with crimes related to terrorism were freed. Upon news of the exchange, most Republican presidential candidates immediately criticized the Obama administration. Some, like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said the deal sets a bad precedent for future relations. Others, like Ben Carson, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., praised parts or all of the prisoner release while still offering harsh words for the nuclear deal Obama and five other nations signed with Iran in 2015. Democratic presidential candidates appeared to have a different take on the news. In a statement Saturday, Sanders said the exchange shows "diplomacy can work." Late Saturday, Clinton issued a statement welcoming the release, but adding, "We shouldn't thank Iran for the prisoners or for following through on its obligations. These prisoners were held unjustly by a regime that continues to threaten the peace and security of the Middle East." All three Democratic candidates will have a chance to offer more thoughts on the complicated U.S.-Iran relationship - and its latest development - on Sunday night. Advertisement 2. Sanders's general election viability Sanders's momentum is raising the possibility among the Democratic elite in Washington that the socialist who wants to give all Americans Medicare, provide tuition-free public college, break up the big banks and tax the heck out of Wall Street actually has a shot at winning the nomination. The Washington Post's Paul Kane notes that many of Sanders' proposals go beyond the Democratic Party's official agenda and are far to the left of the nation as a whole. But Sanders' success so far could be offered up as proof that the socialist's ideas are being embraced by a growing populist - and even socialist - wing of the party. (A new Seltzer & Co. Iowa poll found that more Iowa Democratic voters identify as "socialist" than "capitalist.") Clinton and the Democratic establishment are trying to make the case that Sanders is too far left to be the party's standard-bearer in November. But Kane reports they're trying to tread carefully so as not to alienate Sanders's growing voter base. The question Sanders must answer is whether he's got a broad enough umbrella to be the party's nominee. Even though Sanders is giving Clinton a run for her money in Iowa and practically has home-state advantage in the next contest, New Hampshire, he has struggled to connect with blacks and Hispanics, who are big in the third and fourth early-voting states, South Carolina and Nevada. Will his standard pitch that the billionaire class is taking over America be enough? So far it's worked out pretty well for him. Advertisement 3. Benghazi and the "13 Hours" movie It's back. Director Michael Bay's movie about the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, came out in theaters on Friday. The movie is based on a book written in collaboration by surviving members of the CIA's security team, and already there's no shortage of controversy about what it portrays. In an interview with The Post's Adam Goldman and Greg Miller, the former CIA officer in charge of Benghazi that night disputes the movie's storyline, saying one of the most pivotal moments in the film - a CIA order to "stand down" rather than rush off to rescue U.S. diplomats a mile away - never happened. Whether fact or fiction, the action-packed drama actually avoids politicizing the incident, writes Post reviewer Michael O'Sullivan. But Clinton, who was secretary of state during the time and whose response afterward has consistently been called into questions by conservatives, is being done no favors by having a re-telling of that deadly night brought to life for Americans less than three weeks for the first votes in the race are cast. Even if you don't think Clinton did anything wrong with regard to Benghazi, it's clearly not helpful to have it front-and-center again. 4. National security This is Clinton's strong suit, and it's a topic she's dominated in the past three debates. As she balances how to come across as hawkish as possible with a base that is increasingly worried about terrorism but also wary of military intervention in the Middle East, Clinton has not recommended undoing or changing in a major way any of President Obama's efforts to prevent the flow of would-be fighters to the Islamic State. Advertisement Sanders has struggled to match Clinton's intensity on national security and terrorism, preferring to talk about his bread-and-butter issue of economic inequality. But that doesn't mean Clinton is immune to attacks from her challengers. Sanders tried to get a leg up in December's ABC debate by questioning Clinton's decision to support regime change in the Middle East while she was secretary of state. 5. Islamic State and terrorism When Democrats gathered for their November debate, they were one day removed from the Paris attacks. The candidates got the chance to offer their solutions for how to counter the rising threat of the Islamic State and, most notably, Clinton not-so-subtly rebuked Obama's comments that the Islamic State had been "contained." When they debated again in December, the Islamic State-linked mass shooting at a holiday office party in San Bernardino, Calif., was still part of the national conversation. Each time, Clinton has tried to pivot to general election mode, going out of her way to criticize GOP candidates' prescriptions for rising fears of terrorism. She has had harsh words for Sen. Ted Cruz's, R-Texas, suggestion to "carpet bomb" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and Trump's proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigrants from the country. Advertisement "Bluster and bigotry are not credentials" to be commander in chief, she said in a speech Tuesday at the University of Minnesota. But the GOP's tough talk makes political sense in light of Obama's approval ratings on terrorism and the Islamic State, which are at at record lows, according to Washington Post-ABC News poll taken after the Paris attacks. Clinton is doing her best to draw a contrast with her former boss, but in a plan she outlined in November, she offered few major changes on what to do militarily in Iraq and Syria. 6. Gun control Polls consistently show that as many as 90 percent of Americans support at least expanding background checks, but a majority of Americans are doubtful that changing gun laws will help prevent gun violence. In other words, it's complicated. Clinton has staked out a position on gun control to the left of her 2008 presidential campaign; she recently called for a renewal of the federal ban on so-called assault weapons. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has one of the strictest gun control platforms in the race: He wants to ban assault weapons and require that every person who buys a gun acquire a license and get fingerprinted. Advertisement Addressing gun control proved to be a struggle for Sanders in the first debate, as Clinton attacked him for a voting record she said looks more like and NRA supporter. (Sanders says he was representing his rural, Vermont community, which remains very pro-gun rights.) He specifically came under fire for voting for a 2005 law that gives gun manufacturers legal immunity from damages their guns might cause. On Saturday night, Sanders said he would be open to a bill introduced in the Senate to reverse some key parts of the law. "As I have said for many months now, we need to look at the underlying law and tighten it up," Sanders said in a statement. But how much the candidates can do on gun safety is an open question. Congress has failed to pass any gun control reforms. A proposal to ban terrorism suspects on a secretive no-fly list from being able to buy guns - and one to expand background checks - failed in the Senate one day after the San Bernardino shooting. 7. Climate change and energy Democratic presidential candidates agree the government needs to step in to help stop climate change and invest in more clean energy, and all three candidates cheered a historic, 196-country agreement reached in Paris to try to limit the Earth's warming by 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The litmus test among environmentalists has long been whether or not candidates would approve the fourth stage of the Keystone pipeline to ship Canadian oil to Nebraska, a politically touchy point for Clinton who recently said she opposes the pipeline but not before wavering for months. Obama took that test off the table in November when he announced he wouldn't approve the pipeline. Advertisement Clinton has now shifted her focus to trying to invest in coal communities hit by a shift to clean energy: Before Democrats' November debate, she unveiled a $30 billion infrastructure and tax-break plan to do just that. Sanders and O'Malley regularly talk about how climate change is one of America's most pressing problems as well. 8. Clinton's ties to Wall Street On Sunday, The Boston Globe published a story saying that while a U.S. senator from New York, Clinton rarely signed onto bills related to the financial services industry - regardless of whether banks in her district and those donating to her campaign supported or opposed the legislation. Sanders immediately pivoted off that story to criticize his opponent as too weak on Wall Street. Breaking up the big banks, taxing Wall Street and adding more regulations to the financial world forms the nucleus of Sanders's populist campaign. "Cutting it out is not good enough," Sanders said Sunday on CBS's "Face The Nation," making a reference to when Clinton in 2007 told big banks to "cut it out." Clinton, meanwhile, is trying to distance herself from Wall Street - saying Sunday she took more contributions from teachers than bankers. Bill O'Reilly, the host of Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor," is threatening to flee the country if Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont the self-described democratic socialist who is running for the Democratic Party nomination is elected president. As quoted in the Huffington Post, O'Reilly said: Advertisement "If Bernie Sanders gets elected president, I'm fleeing I'm going to Ireland. And they already know it. I shouldn't say it publicly because that will get Sanders more votes," he said. "But I'm not going to pay 90 percent of my income to that guy. I'm sorry. I'm not doing it." O'Reilly is proud of his Irish ancestry (as a recent emigrant from Ireland and current U.S. citizen, I heartily approve of these sentiments). But he probably doesn't know very much about what Ireland is like these days. From the perspective of its Western European neighbors, Ireland is a small, market-friendly, right-of-center country. But from the perspective of American conservatism, Ireland looks like a hellhole of socialism. Advertisement Can O'Reilly easily flee to Ireland? It may be tougher than he thinks. It would seem that O'Reilly's nearest Irish ancestor was his great-grandfather. This means that he misses the cutoff for automatic Irish citizenship by one generation. If you have one Irish grandparent, you qualify for Irish citizenship but unless O'Reilly's grandparent or parent formally applied, he's out of luck. He does have a second possibility though paying to become a citizen. Ireland, like many other countries, provides citizenship to individuals who are willing to invest or donate a large sum of money to the benefit of the Irish economy. Ireland is not a conservative paradise: Look at the taxes What would O'Reilly get in return for his money? First off, a tax system that is not all that different from the U.S. tax system for top earners, and arguably a little less favorable. The effective top Irish income tax rate is a little over half of income. In the rather unlikely event that Sanders was elected president in a landslide of socialist enthusiasm, turning the Senate and the House socialist, and introducing punitive taxes to impoverish rich Fox News opinionators, O'Reilly would still be in trouble. Even if he lived in Ireland, he would have difficulty avoiding U.S. taxes unless he renounced his U.S. citizenship. The United States continues to regard U.S. expatriates as taxpayers, no matter where they reside. Ireland and the United States have a double taxation treaty, to prevent people being taxed twice for the same income this might provide some loopholes for royalties and the like, but probably not enough to make an enormous difference. O'Reilly would likely find himself paying to support Sanders's socialist American utopia from overseas. Ireland has serious gun control Bill O'Reilly has strong views on his right to own guns to defend himself under the Second Amendment. "I have a right to protect myself, because there are crazed animals like the guy in Oregon. There are people like that who will come after innocent people for no reason. And you are going to deny me protection? If I live out in a rural Oregon where the nearest cop is 40 miles away? I can't have a gun to protect my family?" Advertisement The Irish attitude to guns is going to be a serious culture shock. First, he'll be far worse off than he would be in rural Oregon. While there will surely be cops closer than 40 miles away, those cops will almost certainly be unarmed. In Ireland, police only carry arms under special circumstances. Most Irish police officers don't even have firearms training. Furthermore, gun ownership is highly restricted in Ireland. People have to apply for a license to own a gun, and are likely to be refused under many circumstances. Furthermore, there are heavy restrictions on kinds of guns that they are allowed to own roughly speaking, guns for sport and hunting (sports pistols; shotguns; some kinds of rifles) are okay, but handguns of the kind that O'Reilly could use for "self-defense" are not, let alone automatic weapons. Gun rights are not a topic of political debate in Ireland Ireland's most conservative party, which is now the majority party in the government, has just introduced new restrictions, without any significant public opposition. Ireland has socialized medicine O'Reilly denounces Obamacare as "socialism" because it uses taxpayers' money to subsidize the poor. The Irish health-care system does the same thing, on a much larger scale, with a hospital system that is directly run by the government. In Ireland, hospital doctors are government employees (although many senior doctors earn substantial incomes on the side from private practice). Everyone in Ireland is entitled to free basic health care in hospitals, and low income people get medical cards entitling them to free doctors' visits and many other services. This system is far from perfect, which means that many middle-class and upper-middle-class people supplement it with private health insurance (so that, for example, they do not have to wait long times for some surgical procedures). Even so, it's socialized medicine on a scale which would be politically unthinkable in America. Ireland also has welfare benefits for the unemployed that are not notably generous by European standards, but are wildly permissive in comparison to their U.S. equivalents. Just hours before the third Democratic presidential primary debate, candidate Bernie Sanders released details about his proposed single-payer health-care plan. Advertisement There are other ways in which Ireland is more congenial to conservatives like O'Reilly. Most obviously, abortion is far more heavily curtailed in Ireland than the United States (although the conservative party leading government has promised to liberalize Ireland's abortion laws this year). Even though Ireland is a conservative country by West European standards, it's far, far to the left of U.S. conservative preferences on many key issues. If O'Reilly really thinks that Ireland is a good alternative to a Sanders-led America, it's probably because he's unfamiliar with what Ireland is really like as a country. If a putative Sanders administration were somehow able successfully to introduce Irish-style health care, an Irish-style welfare state and Irish-style gun control, it would be viewed by conservatives as a socialist revolution. Washington Post Henry Farrell is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. Guilty or innocent? Viewers addicted to the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer" are fiercely debating the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey. In separate trials, the two were convicted of the 2005 rape and murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach. These were no ordinary murder convictions they came just a few years after Avery was exonerated by DNA evidence, with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project (I served as his attorney at that time), after doing 18 years for a sexual assault and attempted murder that he did not commit. Advertisement The film centers on concerns that both men might have been wrongly convicted in this go-round. One cannot know at this point whether Avery and Dassey are indeed innocent victims of police misconduct and prosecutorial overreaching. No documentary could address all the nuances of the evidence needed to make those judgments in this case. But "Making a Murderer" is about more than Avery and Dassey's guilt or innocence, because the injustices the series suggest are hardly unique. The enduring takeaway ought to be the recognition that the criminal justice system, as a human system, is inevitably flawed. It does sometimes send innocent people to prison. And while most police, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges are good, honest people who do their best to achieve justice, they do sometimes fail and even, on occasion, cross the line into misconduct in their zeal to secure what they perceive to be a just outcome. Advertisement Wrongful conviction doesn't only mean an innocent person ends up in prison. It also means a guilty person goes free. When the system fails, there is no justice for victims and their loved ones. We have known for decades that the system is prone to error. Since the advent of forensic DNA testing in the late 1980s, at least 337 people, who each have spent an average of 14 years in prison, have been proved innocent by DNA evidence. According to the National Registry of Exonerations hosted by the University of Michigan Law School, exonerations based on all types of evidence, not just DNA, amount to at least 1,728 people who have been exonerated of serious crimes since 1989. The number is continually growing. By presenting these issues in human terms, "Making a Murderer" has done a service by forcing us to look beyond the numbers to remind us that each such case is a real human tragedy that affects real people with real lives. It reminds us that eyewitnesses sometimes make mistakes, that forensic science is not always all that scientific, and that, contrary to what a prosecutor in the Dassey trial disingenuously told the jury, innocent people do indeed sometimes confess. (Indeed, more than a quarter of the DNA exoneration cases involved false confessions.) And it has reminded us that, regardless of whether the system gets it right or wrong, it is a system deeply affected by class and, as we know well from other cases, racial biases. Dean Strang, a defense attorney for Avery who is now an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, summed it up best in Episode 9: "Most of what ails our criminal justice system lie[s] in unwarranted certitude on the part of police officers and prosecutors and defense lawyers and judges and jurors that they are getting it right, that they simply are right. Just a tragic lack of humility of everyone who participates in our criminal justice system." Humility that's a pretty good prescription for fixing what ails our system. The humility to recognize that sometimes we are wrong, even when we are most certain. The humility to recognize we are all affected by cognitive biases that can mislead us. The humility to recognize that the system and the evidence it relies upon are flawed and can be improved. And the humility to recognize that when we occasionally get it wrong, we must do something about it. Millions of people are talking about this documentary now, but discussion is not enough. We need to take a hard look at our criminal justice system a much harder look than a 10-episode documentary allows. We can and must, for example, change the way police collect eyewitness identification evidence as many departments are beginning to do to eliminate suggestion by law enforcement and comply with science-based best practices. We must mandate that all law-enforcement agencies record interrogations and that police change interrogation practices so they are less coercive, suggestive and presumptive of guilt. We must ensure that the forensic disciplines we rely on are based on science and that forensic analysts are shielded from biasing information and allegiances that can taint their analyses. We must ensure that the use of incentivized witnesses is regulated and that promises of leniency in exchange for testimony are disclosed to the defense. We must ensure that we provide adequate financial support for prosecutors and defense lawyers alike, so that prosecutors can adequately screen cases and that competent defense lawyers can present vigorous defenses. We must expand criminal discovery - the process by which the parties share evidence before trial to avoid trial by ambush, and then we must hold state officials accountable when they conceal evidence pointing to a defendant's innocence. We must make the system more responsive to post-conviction claims of injustice and less bound by blind obedience to finality. We can and must do all of this and more. Only then will we have learned the real lessons of "Making a Murderer." Advertisement Washington Post Keith A. Findley is co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. At its Jan. 12 meeting, the Bolingbrook village board approved special use permits for an unmanned compressed natural gas station and a dual-purpose 125-foot T-Mobile tower, as well as agreed to join Will County in a lawsuit over a "junkyard." At its Jan. 12 meeting, the Bolingbrook village board approved special use permits for an unmanned compressed natural gas station and a dual-purpose 125-foot T-Mobile tower, as well as agreed to join Will County in a lawsuit over a "junkyard." Advertisement GAIN Clean Fuel and Endpoint Solutions now have the go-ahead to construct and operate an unmanned compressed natural gas fueling station at 550 Stevenson Drive. The main customers will be semi truck fleets that have contracted with GAIN. The station will have three pumps, will operate 24 hours a day and will be monitored remotely from a company office in Wisconsin. The board also gave a green light for construction of a 125-foot high telecommunication monopole right behind Humphrey Middle School. T-Mobile wants to put up a tower in the vicinity of the school to improve cell and data coverage in the area, and the school can utilize the pole as well. The school district and T-Mobile are going to work together to use one pole, said Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar. Advertisement The applicant, National Wireless Ventures, said the height of the tower "eliminates the number of towers that need to be erected in the community for other cellular providers," according to documents submitted to the village. And the ongoing tussle between the village and a local property owner continues. Property owner Henry James has said he uses his property, south of Interstate 55 and west of Veteran's Parkway, to store his antique cars. Village officials, meanwhile, call the property a "junkyard." In November, James was denied a zoning variance and building permit to build a pole barn for storage on the property. Claar said James is now going to sue in Will County Court to get approval. The village board passed a motion that will, according to Claar, "allow us to join in court against this junkyard." Located off a frontage road, Claar said the property is surrounded by Bolingbrook, but can't be annexed. Jamel Pankey is sworn in as a Bolingbrook police officer at the village trustee meeting on Jan. 12. (Sarah Marchmont / for the Chicago Tribune) Also at the meeting, Jamel Pankey, 30, was sworn in as a Bolingbrook police officer and presented with his badge. He was born in Chicago and graduated from Elmhurst College with a degree in sociology. Among other employment, he is a former personal banker with Chase and most recently worked as a correctional officer with the Cook County Sheriff's Police, according to the Bolingbrook police department. Lastly, the boardin agreement with the plan commission last monthapproved special use permits for a nail salon to be opened at 257 S. Weber Road and for Checker's, at 439 N. Bolingbrook Drive, to operate their new restaurant 24/7. Sarah Marchmont is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Advertisement triblocaltips@tribune.com Twitter: @TribLocal The Oak Lawn Village Board approved a three-year contract extension with Norcomm, the Elmhurst-based company that runs the 911 center based in the Village Hall, but it wasn't without some opposition. Village Trustee Bob Streit, 3rd District, spoke out against the contract during the Jan. 12 board meeting. But his opposition was not enough to prevent the deal from being approved in a 5-1 vote. Advertisement "Two years ago, I opposed outsourcing of the 911 center. Now, after evaluations and hundreds of complaints, I still believe this is the worst decision the village has ever made," Streit said. "I remember when Oak Lawn was looked on as a leader." The original deal, signed two years ago, included a clause that allowed a three-year extension if both parties agreed. Advertisement The agreement resulted in 20 dispatchers losing their jobs, and having to re-apply to Norcomm for their positions. Under the agreement, Oak Lawn paid Norcomm $1.99 million for the first year of service. That increases to $2 million for the second year. Years three through five will cost the village $2.1 million, $2.2 million and $2.3 million, respectively. If there are any insurance-related cost increases related to the contract over the five years, the village is responsible. Streit said, "When you dial 911, you expect to talk with a dispatcher who knows the community and does not have to ask you repeatedly for an address, and does not have to tell you the address is not in Oak Lawn." Any such delay in emergency service, he said, can "end up with catastrophic results." Streit referred to a six-minute delay for emergency vehicles to arrive at the scene of a vehicle crash at 95th Street and Oak Park Avenue in October 2014 that claimed the lives of two nuns and an elderly man. "A six-minute delay is not acceptable. The quality has declined, and I'm not OK with that. That's why I oppose extension of this contract," Streit said. Trustee Bud Stalker, 5th District, said he has reviewed Norcomm's service records and called it, "a professional organization that asks the necessary questions and gets to the place they have to be." Village Manager Larry Deetjen recalled, "When the decision was made, it was not an easy decision," but one that has improved the village's emergency call center and saved the village "more than $1.5 million." Advertisement Streit countered, "It's common to ask four times for an address, and that's a lot of time." But, that's the policy, according to Diane Tousignant, director of emergency communications for Oak Lawn. "We follow a standard. When you call 911, we are required to verify an address and the city. We always verify, and make sure we're going to the right locations. Some of the issues I've heard have been that we're asking too many questions. While we continue to ask questions, they are medical-, police- or fire-related," she said. Streit said he's heard from residents who are "frustrated" in dealing with the 911 center. "People get frustrated when they're asked about the address several times. You're arguing with the dispatcher. That happens repeatedly. Usually, it's a medical emergency and you're saying, 'What's the address?' and 'It's not in Oak Lawn." That makes people frustrated," Streit said. Mayor Sandra Bury said she was "disturbed by the numerous slanderous comments." Advertisement Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > In other action Tuesday, the board approved a plan for a laser-tag business at 5520 111th St., The owner, Justin Cerniuk, plans to have a haunted house there during the Halloween season, too. He has operated a haunted house the past two years in the former Beatty Lumber building near the train station. The board also, by a 5-1 vote, approved a special use permit and parking variance for the new Holistic Healing and Wellness Center, 9501 New England Ave. Trustee Tim Desmond, 1st District, expressed some concern over the lack of parking, but owner Kimberly Davis said there should be enough on nearby streets, if needed. The board approved a site plan for the Raising Cane's restaurant, which will be built at 11006 Cicero, on the empty lot just east of Mariano's. And the board approved a site lease agreement with T-Mobile Central LLC for a telecommunications tower at 6451 93rd St. Deetjen briefly discussed the need for the village to work with the Illinois Tollway regarding improvements needed at the interchange with 95th Street. "It's a long-term vision for a construction project spanning from 2019 through 2025, to completely change the interchange at 95th Street," Deetjen said, adding, "It's an entrance to Oak Lawn, no different than 127th Street and Cicero Avenue." Advertisement smetsch@tribpub.com An unexpected offer may solve one of the biggest obstacles facing Will County's 911 dispatch centers as they struggle to comply with a new law requiring consolidation. Will County Executive Larry Walsh, D-Elwood, and County Board Speaker Jim Moustis, R-Frankfort Township, have offered to build a third regional dispatch center, estimated to cost $5 million, when the county constructs its new sheriff's facility later this year at Route 52 and Laraway Road. Advertisement Per a new state law adopted last summer, all counties must have a plan in place by July to reduce the number of dispatch centers by 50 percent, leaving at least two centers, and implement that plan by July 2017. While local 911 officials debated how to consolidate six centers into three, county officials planned to break ground this year on a new building to house the sheriff's department. Advertisement Walsh said in a statement that he hopes this will avoid "endless debates" over where the new facility will be located and keep construction costs lower. "By building a new, modern dispatch center on the county's Laraway Road campus, we can improve public safety, become more efficient and realize long-term savings for Will County taxpayers," Moustis said. "This is one project that requires us to come together and work with each other in order to better serve our residents." The sheriff's department signed on to the offer, which was announced last week at the county's Emergency Telephone System Board (ETSB) workshop meeting. The sheriff's department operates its dispatch service from the Lincolnway Communications Center, located in Frankfort Township's administration building, and the village of Romeoville, which has its own center. Officials also expressed hope that the Eastern Will County Communications Center (EASTCOM), now located in the Crete police station, would come onboard, but ETSB administrator Steve Figved said officials there wanted the consolidated center to be farther east. As proposed, the three regional centers would include the new sheriff's department, the city of Joliet and the Western Will County Communications Center (WESCOM), a relatively new facility in Plainfield, Figved said. All entities, including the Will County Board, have yet to formally approve the plan, which calls for building an additional 15,000 square feet onto the new sheriff's building, plus another 5,000 square feet for ETSB administrative offices, which rents space in Joliet. "The positive response we have received thus far from our proposal demonstrates how the various levels of government working together can achieve great things," Walsh said in the statement. "We are completing the details of this reorganization and are confident that we will be moving forward soon with a final plan." The dispatch centers and the ETSB would have long-term lease agreements with the county to rent and maintain the site, Figved said. Advertisement Walsh said the county would not seek repayment for the construction costs. "This was quite a surprise. We are very pleased," said Figved, adding that the centers could not afford to build a new facility on their own. The law allows counties to seek a waiver if consolidation would pose a threat to public safety, or be technologically or economically infeasible. Will County's offer would eliminate any economic obstacle. In a joint letter to the ETSB board, Walsh and Moustis said they did not support the waiver process as a way to fight consolidation and decided to build the new regional center to ensure that all Will County residents "enjoy a strong public safety system." Figved said they may seek a time extension, since the new facility might not be fully operational by July 2017. Advertisement The local agencies will run the new dispatch center, not the county government, county officials said. Officials hope the ETSB offices can save money on rent and pass that savings along to its dispatch centers. The ETSB pays $160,000 annually for its rented space on Division Street in Joliet, said Nick Palmer, Walsh's chief of staff, who called the county's offer "a huge step forward." Figved said he will soon meet with architects for the new sheriff's facility, and have them visit the WESCOM center because they would like a similar facility. The ETSB also will have working groups to discuss governance, finances, design, operations and labor. Currently, each dispatch center has its own governing board, comprising representatives of municipalities and agencies it serves, while employees are represented by three different unions. The ETSB will meet with all stakeholders at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at the Local 597 Pipefitters Training Center, 10850 W. 187th Street, Mokena. Advertisement While he hopes the rent will be less than what they are paying now, Figved said, "The whole project makes good sense. It's a good plan." The new legislation requires consolidation to save money and improve response time, but consolidation "should not have been forced," he said. Over the years the county has reduced the number of centers from 18 to 6. Figved said he does not like the law, which is an "unfunded mandate," but "accepts it." Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday > "It benefits smaller agencies. It is not the right law for us. It has been a tremendous burden for us," he said, noting that the individual centers still have to pay operations and maintenance costs. "All we are changing is where they operate." To create a consolidation plan by July and have 12 months to implement it is "ludicrous," he said. "You just do not pick up a 911 center and move it." Advertisement While he is grateful for the county's help, Figved said he's concerned state legislators could change the laws again over the next 18 months. Further complicating the matter is the state's lack of timely payments to the 911 centers. The state is six months behind in payments for the dispatch centers, Figved said. Will County should get $330,000 per month. The state legislature agreed in December to release the funds for May, June and July. "The state is not giving us money, but forcing us to consolidate. It's unrealistic," Figved said. "It helps to have the county helping us." slafferty@tribpub.com Heidi Moore, a parent and volunteer from Norridge, places a sack lunch near the bedding covering a homeless person on Lower Wacker Drive Jan. 12. Moore was among supporters of the Ridgewood High School Mentoring Mission community outreach, which for the past five years has helped the homeless and needy. (Karie Angell Luc / Pioneer Press) For five years, students, businesses and community members from Norridge and Harwood Heights have assisted the needy through an annual winter project organized by the Ridgewood Mentoring Mission of Ridgewood High School. They visit locations such as Bronzeville or Wacker Drive to serve the homeless, meeting the people they're serving along the way. Advertisement "It's a wonderful way for young people to see that 'They're just like me,'" said Maj. Brian Davis of Norridge and of the Salvation Army Norridge Citadel. Davis, a Ridgewood Mentoring Mission mentor, rode in a Salvation Army van Jan. 12 with the group of students, volunteers and parents. Advertisement They stopped curbside to offer smiles and donated items like sundries, blankets, sack meals and scarves. "Students and mentors positively impact people's lives with something as simple as a sandwich," said Ridgewood spokeswoman Carol Valentino-Barry. "It's a gift." This month over three days, more than 1,000 sandwich meals were made by an estimated 188 freshmen in the Ridgewood Mentoring Mission. "It feels good to help somebody who really needs help," said Richard Montesdeoca, 14, of Norridge. "It gets us involved instead of being on the outside of it all," said Joely Liacone, 15. "It's a beautiful thing," said Tom Benigno of Norridge, an adult volunteer. Upper-class mentors lend support; seniors can earn school credit via a leadership course. The morning of Jan. 12, Harwood Heights Mayor Arlene Jezierny helped the students make sandwiches. Advertisement "This is a wonderful lesson in life for the students of Ridgewood High School to give more than receive," Jezierny said. Each table of volunteers produced more than 40 sack suppers. Paper bags were decorated with New Year's messages. Each bagged meal included a sandwich, fruit, pretzels, cookies, condiments, a napkin and a sandwich. The Norridge-Harwood Heights Rotary Club and Rocco Vino's restaurant in Harwood Heights provided the deli meat and cheese. Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. State Rep. Charlie Brown, Lt. Gov. Sue Ellsperman and Dr. Cheryl Pruitt listen to the invocation at the 47th Annual Ecumenical Service at Gary West Side. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune) State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, used a Martin Luther King Jr. Day tribute Monday sponsored by Northwest Indiana religious leaders to urge people to support measures meant to include gay people among those whose civil rights are protected by Indiana state law. Brown was one of several government officials who spoke during the 47th annual service sponsored by the Northwest Indiana Ecumenical Committee in honor of King, the slain civil rights leader. Advertisement During an address in the auditorium of the West Side Leadership Academy, Brown said civil rights was one of three issues that would be a priority for the Indiana General Assembly this year the others being education and improved infrastructure. For civil rights, the focus will be on gay people, as Brown said some religious leaders are determined to use their beliefs to justify discrimination. Advertisement Pastor Hollis Mann gives the invocation during the 47th Annual Ecumenical Service at Gary West Side. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune) Brown said such an attitude is wrong, particularly for African-Americans. "We should really be in line to oppose this kind of discrimination," he said. "It wasn't that long ago that we were the brunt of such discrimination, and we know how wrong it is." Brown and Indiana Lt. Gov. Sue Ellsperman also talked of how they hope the ideals of King in achieving a society of racial equality could be spread to young people to help improve the city of Gary in the future. Praising both Brown and Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, Ellsperman said to the teenagers in attendance, "We need you to be the Karen Freeman-Wilsons and the Charlie Browns of the future." The Wirt-Emerson Middle School choir performs during the 47th Annual Ecumenical Service at Gary West Side. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune) "We need to have more people of color taking part in public office to carry the legacy forward," she said. Brown said he wishes more people would vocally defend the reputation of Gary, which he says is a place, along with Lake County, that is misunderstood by the rest of Indiana. "Gary is great, it's a wonderful city," Brown said. "We need other folks to talk up your community." Gary Schools Superintendent Cheryl Pruitt said the ideals of King are something that deserve to be paid tribute to constantly, not just during a two-hour-long program once a year. Advertisement "I hope we use the rest of this day all day to advance the movement led by Dr. King," she said. Gloria Griffin recognizes members of the audience during the 47th Annual Ecumenical Service at Gary West Side. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune) U.S.Rep. Peter Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said he believes the desires of King ought to be a priority for all people. "All of us together should work toward this," he said. Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune. A special section of the Skokie Public Library is designated for materials that can be checked out for this year's Viva! Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township. This year's event focuses on the Latino and Hispanic cultures and includes months of diverse programming. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press) After changing it up a bit in 2015, Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township returns to a more traditional form this year, but with a big twist. A Latino twist. Advertisement The popular program, which examines one culture through myriad events over six weeks (and more this year), usually shines its spotlight on one distinct place in the world. But this time, the Coming Together organizers chose a broader canvas from which to work so they could encompass the fuller Latino and Hispanic cultures. Advertisement Coming Together officially opens Jan. 31 and has programs running well into May this year. "It's more than our normal six weeks," said Susan Van Dusen, one of the founders of Coming Together. "We seem to be getting bigger and bigger each year. Every year we say we're gong to have fewer activities and then there's so much excitement that we have more." As the organizers tell it, Coming Together grew out of a series of lunches among five women all community leaders in different ways. They wanted to expand upon Skokie's annual Festival of Cultures weekend, which celebrates the village's strong ethnically diverse population. From the beginning, organizers said, the program was conceived around literature; each year focuses on books exploring a given culture and serves as a springboard for dozens of events at multiple venues. So successful was the program that Coming Together officially expanded its name a few years ago to include Niles Township since other communities wanted to join in. This year, Viva! Coming Together as the program is called will offer up a Latin stew of author visits, book discussions, movie showings, hands-on activities such as cooking and drumming, educational seminars, a book exchange, field trips including one to the National Museum of Mexican Arts in Pilsen and more. It all begins at 2 p.m. Jan. 31 with a cultural program in the Niles West High School auditorium preceded by refreshments and an art display. Niles West is one of more than 20 venues that will host events in Skokie, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood, Niles, Evanston and Chicago. A free booklet of events is available at many Skokie venues including the Skokie Public Library. A schedule and more information are also available at www.comingtogether.in. Advertisement "Coming Together exemplifies the spirit of the village of Skokie and Niles Township," Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said at a press conference last week. "We are all communities that work together, live together, and we're all neighbors together." Each year, the Coming Together organizers work with community leaders from a different culture to produce the multi-faceted program. Lincolnwood's Rutledge Hall School teacher Mari Maldonado will serve as this year's chair of the opening ceremony. "I consider myself so fortunate to work in a community that is so ethnically diverse," she said. "The Coming Together program is a wonderful asset for our community because it recognizes how important it is for us and our children to learn about each other's cultures and backgrounds." Interim Niles Township High School District 219 Superintendent Anne Roloff said the event provides students with the opportunity to explore cultures through literature. Each of the two schools, she noted, will host author events and focus on books among those highlighted for the program. According to Susan Van Dusen, thousands of people have attended Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township since the program's inception, the majority of whom have not been of the same background in focus. Advertisement From businesses to individuals, Coming Together has grown through contributions of time and money, she said. Many organizations use "outreach funds" from their budgets to contribute to the cost each year, she said. Last year, the program deviated from its usual approach by focusing on race in general and aligning with a major exhibition on the subject at the Illinois Holocaust Museum. That program could not have been timelier given that there were so many controversial stories in the news surrounding race. This year, some programming and at least one of the books will touch on immigration, which is also a timely and thorny topic today. But Susan Van Dusen said that the enduring success of Coming Together is due to something larger and well represented by the commitment of the diverse cultures in this area. During last week's press conference, representatives of each culture previously recognized by the program were in attendance to support the 2016 installment. "Yesterday, we were just practicing for the opening night," said Usha Kamaria, one of the Coming Together founders. Kamaria also represented India seven years ago during the program's inaugural year when her country was the focus. "We had people from so many different communities (at last week's practice) that for awhile, I totally forgot I was Indian," she said. "It was just such a wonderful experience being with 50 or 60 people from all different countries." Advertisement misaacs@pioneerlocal.com Twitter: @SKReview_Mike With the scope and penalties of Chinas social credit system being further clarified in 2021, legal and regulatory compliance has become more important than... The below is a sample of Cascade Asia Advisors monthly report on light manufacturing across emerging Asia, available for purchase through the Asia Briefing bookstore. The report is a 4-5 page executive-ready assessment and outlook designed to help companies anticipate labor risks and dynamics across key manufacturing countries in Asia. Countries of coverage include Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. With the approach of Chinese New Year on February 8, factories may experience a growing number of labor disputes, particularly relating to the payment of wages and year-end bonuses, and stricter labor inspections from local governments. Factories in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) regions will face possible labor shortages, even temporary shutdown due to workers returning home for the Chinese New Year (CNY), beginning in early January and lasting until late February/early March. These regions may also experience higher wage costs before and after CNY, as factories are expected to provide incentives and wages attractive enough to retain workers. The central government is mulling a new law that would regulate the activities of domestic and foreign non-government organizations (NGOs). This comes amidst the arrests of several high profile labor activists in December in Guangdong for disrupting public order and is likely the governments response to the dramatic uptick in the number of protests and strikes in the province over the past five years. Such incidents are up 720% in Guangdong from 32 in 2011 to 262 in 20151. The drive to regulate NGOs is likely part of a package of security-related bills (e.g. the antiterrorism law) currently working their way through the National Assembly. A move to subdue worker rights groups at a time when discontent is at an all-time high and when all signs point to ever increasing competitive pressures from lower cost manufacturing centers in Southeast Asia may reduce the frequency of protests but, in our view, may ratchet up the intensity of incidents that do occur. Guangdong: Authorities raided the offices of five labor rights organizations in the province last month, most in Panyu district. Each of the organizations are active across the PRD region. In many respects Guangdong is the frontlines of protests as well as crackdowns. It is conceivable that labor groups in the province will delay a full response to the recent arrests of three prominent labor activists in an effort to harness the zeal of the historically high level of post-CNY protests. Zhejiang: Workers from the recently closed Tim Yu Shoe Company made a presence at local government offices to discuss wage issues which may provoke additional inspections pertaining to non-payment and late payment of wages under the provincial governments campaign of securing on-time and full payment for migrant workers before CNY. Fujian: Nothing to report On the Horizon January to early February Increased inspections in Zhejiang focused on timeliness of wage payments Increased inspections in Zhejiang focused on timeliness of wage payments February 8 Chinese New Year Chinese New Year January to late February Workers will return to their home towns for the Chinese New Year About Us Cascade Asia Advisors is a boutique advisory firm focused on Southeast Asia. They help businesses anticipate risk and make better decisions using forward-looking, localized intelligence. For information about developments mentioned in this report, please contact them at info@cascadeasia.com. Asia Briefing Ltd. is a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. Dezan Shira is a specialist foreign direct investment practice, providing corporate establishment, business advisory, tax advisory and compliance, accounting, payroll, due diligence and financial review services to multinationals investing in China, Hong Kong, India, Vietnam, Singapore and the rest of ASEAN. For further information, please email china@dezshira.com or visit www.dezshira.com. Stay up to date with the latest business and investment trends in Asia by subscribing to our complimentary update service featuring news, commentary and regulatory insight. Manufacturing Hubs Across Emerging Asia In this issue of Asia Briefing Magazine, we explore several of the regions most competitive and promising manufacturing locales including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Exploring a wide variety of factors such as key industries, investment regulations, and labor, shipping, and operational costs, we delineate the cost competitiveness and ease of investment in each while highlighting Indonesia, Vietnam and Indias exceptional potential as the manufacturing leaders of the future. The Asia Sourcing Guide 2015 In this issue of Asia Briefing, we explain how and why the Asian sourcing market is changing, compare wage overheads, and look at where certain types of products are being manufactured and exported. We discuss the impact of ASEANs Free Trade Agreements with China and India, and highlight the options available for establishing a sourcing model in three locations: Vietnam, China, and India. Finally, we examines the differences in quality control in each of these markets. Human Resources and Payroll in China 2015 This edition of Human Resources and Payroll in China, updated for 2015, provides a firm understanding of Chinas laws and regulations related to human resources and payroll management essential information for foreign investors looking to establish or already running a foreign-invested entity in China, local managers, and HR professionals needing to explain complex points of Chinas labor policies. A screenshot from CNTV shows the Hong Kong bookseller Gui Minhai. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com] A Hong Kong bookseller reported as "missing" by some foreign media, turned himself in to police on the Chinese mainland in October, after fleeing the country more than 10 years ago while on probation for a drink-driving offense. Gui Minhai, who vanished from his apartment in Thailand in October, voluntarily returned to China to answer a conviction from 2004 for killing a student. "I am returning to surrender by personal choice, it has nothing to do with anyone," Gui said in a China Central Television broadcast. "This is a personal responsibility that I ought to bear." Gui was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, suspended for two years, after killing a female student in Ningbo while driving drunk. He fled in August 2006. "Turning myself in is a voluntary choice of my own, and has nothing to do with anybody else," said Gui, a Swedish national and owner of Causeway Bay Books in Hong Kong. "This is my responsibility. I don't want anyone or any institution to be involved or get in the way of my returning, nor do I want any malicious hype." Earlier this month, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had raised Gui's case with the Chinese ambassador to Stockholm. "Although I hold Swedish citizenship, deep down I still think of myself as a Chinese. My roots are in China. "I hope the Swedish authorities will respect my personal choices, my rights and my privacy, and allow me to deal with my own issues," he said. Police said Gui was linked to other crimes and is cooperating with investigators in an ongoing probe, without giving any further details. "I am taking my legal responsibilities and willing to accept any punishment," he said. Gui, 51, was convicted of drink driving in 2004 and sentenced to 2 years in prison with a 2-year reprieve after he hit and killed a college student on the night of December 8, 2003. Gui fled the country three months later and remained a fugitive until October last year. "I was afraid of going to prison ... I knew there was no future for me in the country, so I thought I'd better go," Gui said. In the following years, he lived with an increasing "sense of guilt and insecurity," he said. "I was tortured, psychologically. I had nightmares and suffered from hypertension and heart diseases. It was unbearable." The death of his father last June was the final straw, he said. "I couldn't even go to my father's funeral," he said. "My mother is also over 80 years old and I miss her. So I had been thinking about going back to my country and turning myself in." "I didn't have the courage to do it earlier. Now I think is the time," he said, adding he wished to extend his apologies to the relatives of his victim. The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran from Jan. 19 to Jan. 23. This visit comes at a crucial time. The Chinese president has not visited Saudi Arabia since 2009 or Iran since 2002. This comes at a time when sectarian tensions have reached a peak in the Middle East, with the flames of war spanning from Syria to Yemen. Iran and Saudi Arabia have engaged in the most vicious proxy wars since the 1960s and destabilized an entire region, with tensions reaching a fever pitch since the killing of Nimr al Nimr and the embassy closures. It is in this volatile time that the Chinese president's visit to the region can be described as a Chinese assertion into the region as an honest power broker. Visitors experience Xiaomi products during its launching ceremony in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates on Jan. 13, 2016. The world's fourth largest producer of cell phones, China's Xiaomi, launched Wednesday a wide range of its products, in partnership with Dubai-based Task FZCO firm. Xiaomi plans to acquire a sizable market share in the rapidly expanding smartphone market in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). [Xinhua/Tian Wei] Middle Eastern great power politics have officially been dictated by Europe, the U.S. and Russia, although China has lately been involved more efficiently. China hosted both the Syrian opposition and the government, and has planned military bases and security cooperation with the Middle East, North Africa and Djibouti. China also oversaw massive evacuations from North Africa and has sent her warships to patrol in dangerous waters with anti-piracy missions off the Somalian coast. With the Chinese demand for oil increasing, and Chinese interests spread all over the Middle East, it was only a matter of time before China would begin to look for stronger security and cooperation in the region. That's exactly what was pointed out in the first ever Arab policy paper published by China. It highlights Chinese-Arab history in broad strokes. From the maritime silk roads over two thousand years back to modern times, China-Arab relations were underscored in this paper. The paper states, as it marks the China Arab states cooperation forum, that "China and Arab countries have followed the world trend of peace, development and cooperation, respected each other, treated each other as equals, and committed themselves to deepening traditional friendship and bilateral relations. Cooperation in the political, economic, scientific, technological, cultural, educational, military, health, sports, news and other fields has achieved fruitful results and enabled the establishment of a friendly and cooperative relationship oriented toward the 21st century." Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation. Flash World tourism destinations are expected to see nearly 6 million visits by Chinese tourists, possibly the highest number on record, during the coming Spring Festival holiday that begins on Feb 7. Ctrip, a leading online travel service, released its tourism outlook for Spring Festival on Thursday. The report said more than 60 percent of Chinese tourists will spend Spring Festival overseas. The farthest destination is the Antarctic. Spring Festival is one of the peak seasons for the Chinese outbound tourism industry. Despite being a traditional season for family reunions, many have chosen to spend the holiday traveling. According to the China National Tourism Administration, Chinese tourists paid more than 120 million visits overseas in 2015, with 5.18 million of those paid to foreign countries and regions during Spring Festival, an increase of 10 percent year-on-year. The reasons behind the rise are loosened visa requirements for Chinese, better flight connections and preferential policies to facilitate overseas consumption. "Those overseas destinations that have simplified the visa application process for Chinese have seen more bookings, including the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam," said Yan Xin, a publicity officer at Ctrip. "In the seven days of the holiday, Chinese tourists will visit more than 100 countries and regions, with the farthest being the Antarctic." According to Ctrip, eight of the 10 most popular overseas destinations are in Asia, including Thailand, Japan and South Korea. Zhang Ying, 28 from Wuxi, Jiangsu province, said she would visit Thailand with her family during Spring Festival because of the holiday spirit there. "Some of the Asian countries share a similar Spring Festival culture with China, and that's what I don't want to miss during my holiday," said Zhang. "It is exciting to experience a different Spring Festival in another Asian country." Top 10 overseas destinations for Chinese travelers 1. Thailand 2. Japan 3. South Korea 4. Taiwan 5. Singapore 6. Hong Kong 7. United States 8. Indonesia 9. Malaysia 10. Australia You are here: Home Flash A Palestinian stabbed an Israeli woman to death in her home in a West Bank Jewish settlement Sunday before fleeing the scene, said Israeli officials. A military spokesperson declared that a comprehensive blockade has been imposed as large numbers of police forces are on a manhunt for the killer. The spokesperson said the attacker broke into the woman's home in the settlement of Otniel south of Hebron and then stabbed her to death. An Israeli emergency medical services' spokesman confirmed that the victim was 38. The incident is the latest in a four-month deluge of violence in the West Bank, Israel, and the Gaza Strip. Some 23 Israelis and a U.S. citizen have been killed in stabbing, shooting and vehicular attacks committed by independent Palestinians, while about 150 Palestinians have also been shot dead by Israeli security forces or vigilante citizens, over half after attacking or attempting to attack Israelis and the rest in clashes with Israeli security forces during protests. Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups claim excessive force was used against Palestinian assailants, even after they were neutralized on site. Israeli leaders accuse Palestinian leaders for instigating violence, amid discord at the al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, holy to both Jews and Muslims. Palestinians distinctively claim the violence is connected to the 1967 Mideast War, when Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories. Palestinians claim the occupied lands were denominated to become part of the Palestinian state, according to the two-state solution. You are here: Home Flash At least two people were injured after militants fired two rockets towards Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday night, sources said. The rockets struck near Italian Embassy, injuring two security guards, a security source told Xinhua anonymously. The rockets landed in Shashdarak, a locality which also homes to several diplomatic offices and several residential apartment buildings, he said. The attack occurred at around 09:40 p.m. local time also caused fire on the building as several fire engines and ambulances were seen there. Unofficial sources said the stricken building belongs to Italian Embassy. No group has claimed responsibility yet for the attack, but the Taliban insurgent group routinely claims responsibility for such attacks. It came as a four-nation meeting on peace in Afghanistan is scheduled to be held in Kabul on Monday. The first meeting of Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) of Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and the United States on peace and reconciliation process was held in Pakistani capital of Islamabad on Jan. 11. The Guardian We, the undersigned lawyers and jurists, write to express our deep concern about the scores of lawyers detained or intimidated in China . The crackdown began on the night of 9 July 2015 with the detention of lawyer Wang Yu , her husband and their 16-year-old child in Beijing. Since then, hundreds of lawyers, law firm staff and family members have been subject to intimidation, interrogation, detention as criminal suspects, and forced disappearance. Twelve lawyers and legal assistants remain under criminal detention or arrest. Most of those under arrest are suspected of subversion of state power or inciting subversion of state power. None of them have so far been allowed access to counsel, friends or family, and they are effectively disappeared. In some cases there is good reason to fear that they were put under pressure to dismiss their previously appointed lawyers. Some are not known to be suspected of any crime at all; and in the additional case of lawyer Li Heping, the Chinese government has so far declined to admit that he is being held at all. The crackdown began on the night of 9 July 2015 with the detention of lawyer Wang Yu, her husband and their 16-year-old child in Beijing human rights lawyer Wang Yu talks during an interview with Reuters in Beijing on 1 March 2014. Photograph: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters We fear that without legal representation of their own free choice or other legal protections, the persons above are at high risk of torture or other cruel and inhuman treatment. Our concern is heightened by the findings of the UN Committee Against Torture, which stated on 9 December 2015 that it remains seriously concerned over consistent reports indicating that the practice of torture and ill-treatment is still deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system, which overly relies on confessions as the basis for convictions. Moreover, the state-controlled Chinese media have in a series of broadcasts denounced a number of detained suspects as members of a crime syndicate engaging in rights-defence-style troublemaking, and paraded some of those detained confessing to wrongdoing before they have even been publicly indicted. In order to vindicate its claim to be a responsible stakeholder in the international community and to be a respected global superpower, it is imperative that Chinahonour its international commitments. Therefore, we respectfully urge President Xi Jinping to: Ensure the release of the detained or arrested lawyers and others held with them without legal basis Ensure access to counsel for all those detained, arrested or otherwise held as a criminal suspect Confirm the whereabouts of those forcibly disappeared Ensure that the rights of those detained, including their right to adequate medical treatment, are safeguarded Ensure that those detained and their colleagues will be protected from any future control measures such as: tracking and following, violent attacks, soft detention, being travelled, being asked to have chats, criminal, administrative, judicial detention, forced disappearance, torture and psychiatric incarceration. Dominique Attias Vice-president of the Paris bar, France Robert Badinter Former French minister of justice and former president of the French Constitutional Council Michel Benichou President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe Gill H Boehringer Coordinator of the International Association of Peoples Lawyers; former dean of the Macquarie University Law School, Australia Kirsty Brimelow QC Chair of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales Elizabeth Evatt Commissioner, International Commission of Jurists, Australia; former president, Australian Law Reform Commission; former member, UN Human Rights Committee Tony Fisher Partner, Fisher Jones Greenwood LLP, UK Patrick Henry President of the Belgium Bar Association, Belgium Helena Kennedy QC Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers; chair of Justice (British branch of International Commission of Jurists) Asma Jahangir Jurist; president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan; founding member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Michael Mansfield QC Barrister; professor of law at City University, London Andrea Mascherin President of the Italian National Bar Council, Italy Manfred Nowak Lawyer; former special rapporteur on torture, Austria Christophe Pettiti General secretary of the Paris Bar Human Rights Institute Stuart Russell Former administrative judge, Canada Clive Stafford Smith Human rights lawyer William Schabas Professor of international law and director of Doctoral Institute, Middlesex University David J Scheffer Former US ambassador at large for war crimes issues; professor and director, Center for International Human Rights, Pritzker School of Law, Northwestern University Ulrich Schellenberg President of the German Bar Association (Deutscher Anwaltverein) Jean-Jacques Uettwiller President of the International Association of Lawyers China Aid Media Team Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985 Email: [email protected] For more information, click here The delayed Colombo Port City project, a plan to create a South Asian financial hub, has been given the green light, the Sri Lankan ambassador to China confirmed on Friday. Karunasena Kodituwakku, Sri Lankan ambassador to China The $1.4 billion urban complex project will cover 233 hectares adjoining the Port of Colombo. The deal was signed between the Sri Lankan government and the China Communications Construction Co in November 2013. "We feel Colombo is ideal for a South Asian financial hub," Ambassador Karunasena Kodituwakku said in an interview with China Daily. The location of the project will help connect businesses from India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Singapore and the Middle East, he said. The Colombo Port City is one of China's key projects along the 21st Maritime Silk Road. "The most important South Asian port" under the initiative "will be a port in Colombo or another port in Sri Lanka", said the ambassador. Colombo Port City will become "a high-end urban complex in South Asia concentrating industries, including finance, tourism, logistics and information technology", and the whole project will create more than 80,000 jobs, according to the Chinese Embassy to Sri Lanka. However, the Sri Lankan government suspended the project in early 2015 after Maithripala Sirisena became president. A greater environmental impact assessment to allay public concern was needed, which was "not the fault of the Chinese company", Kodituwakku said. The construction project's "incremental environmental impacts" were assessed as "minimal/negligible at the reclamation site and the coastal zone to the North and South of the site," said an environmental impact report released in December by the Sri Lankan Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department. "The project will create employment. It will create tax income and indirect opportunities for other services. ... Everybody will benefit," the ambassador said. Starting his working life as a local newspaper reporter, founder Zhu Mingyue in the mid-2000s was fascinated by the ever-expanding reach of the Internet and e-commerce. [Photo / China Daily] Zhu's story is typical of many startups: excited by a "great" idea, but soon affiliated by a lack of experience, fierce competition and shortages of money. In the early years, Zhubajie's business grew, but the revenue only covered daily operating costs. The money didn't match Zhu's vision. Many of Zhu's competitors faced the same problem: Websites only got commissions from online transactions. Not only that but the transactions were small, and only a relative handful of service buyers trusted e-commerce enough to seek bids online. Early entrepreneurs' enthusiasm quickly faded and many websites closed or turned to more lucrative businesses. Some websites hung on, backed by a few venture capitalists who were bullish on the potential of the business. But according to Zhu, many competing websites were too eager to make money quickly. They burned through their funding, spending heavily on marketing and product innovation in hopes of expanding their market share swiftly. But most other websites in the sector didn't achieve their goals. Their cash dried up, and they died. "Their practices were in tune with the 'rules of the Internet', but they didn't take into account of the users," Zhu said. What are the "rules of the Internet"? According to Zhu, the Internet industry demands quick returns. The industry also requires automation and standardization: This means that when buyers order or vendors bid, they have to deal with a standard interface, instead of people. Unlike users in the West, Chinese users are terribly uncomfortable dealing with computers. "You might not believe this, but it is true. Three or four years ago, half of our daily phone calls came from buyers who didn't know how to operate through the website. "But these operations were quite easy and straightforward. If we hadn't set up a call center, these deals would surely have been lost," Zhu said. Zhu and his team also paid a lot of attention to overcoming the "trust gap". They developed an online payment system that ensures buyers remit the money to Zhubajie before it's transferred to successful bidders. They established a rating system for vendors: the more deals they get, the higher their scores. Those scores are now a critical reference when buyers make decisions. Also, initially, vendors had to compete against all other bidders for every deal. Now, they can have one-on-one project arrangements with longtime customers. Zhang Yong, a veteran vendor on Zhubajie, said he earns more under this new arrangement. The website itself gets less. Work offers on the website have boomed. Zhang's design business has developed to the point where he's hired about 10 people. His monthly income now reaches 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Zhubajie's perseverance has attracted investors. In 2011, it received a $10 million investment from International Data Group Corp, a United States-based technology, media, research and events management firm. IDG is also engaged in venture capital investment. Zhubajie plans to make an initial public offering within two or three years. Looking to the future, Zhu said he believed that online goods trade has nearly peaked, while service trade will surge and make up half of the e-commerce market. "For a platform website like Zhubajie, it must be a 'slow business' and seemingly stupid methods should be applied. You can't assume your customers are too clever; neither can you assume they're too stupid. "You should treat them with integrity" and the business will grow, he said. "That brings economies of scale." China's venture capital deals hit $34 billion by the start of December 2015, more than double the total for all of 2014. [Photo/China Daily] Kungfu Bear had its day. Wang Run founded the startup in Beijing just over a year ago to let people order inexpensive massages through a smartphone app. As venture capital money flooded into China, the company raised cash to draw customers and acquire rivals. Its valuation topped $15 million. Now the good times are over for Kungfu Bear and many of China's once-hot startups. After pouring more than $30 billion into the country in 2015, venture firms switched off the easy money, concerned there's too much competition. A shakeout is beginning, particularly among app makers offering generic services like car washes and massages. Co-founder Meng Junxian said they had to cut the company's valuation to raise more cash and fight off rumors of bankruptcy. "In this climate, if you can stay alive, that's the best," said Meng, a 29-year-old former coder for Baidu. in an interview in mid-November. "Right now, that's the reality of the market." China venture investments surged to historic highs earlier last year, partly inspired by the fortunes investors made in the record initial public offering of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. China VC deals hit $34 billion through Dec 2, 2015 more than double the total for all of 2014, according to the London consultancy Preqin Ltd. In the current shakeout, startups hit the hardest are those in the online-to-offline, or O2O, business, where consumers use an app or website to order grocery deliveries, laundry, in-home manicures or car rides. Dozens of apps often started in a single niche, and many would use venture cash for subsidies to pull in customers and suppliers. In Beijing this year, it became common to get free rides as Uber Technologies Inc. and local rivals battled for market share. The freebies are disappearing now. Venture firms are holding back on writing checks and many startups struggle once they can no longer subsidize services. "Companies are paying for their past sins," said Kai-Fu Lee, founder of China's Innovation Works, which invests in startups. Kungfu Bear got its start in the heady days of 2014. After working at search giant Baidu, Wang joined a newsletter called 36kr.com. He and Meng then participated in a startup accelerator program backed by Microsoft Corp. Wang got the idea for a massage app after spending hours hunched over his desk tapping code. He figured he wasn't the only one with a sore back and that there was a market for white-collar workers whose desk-bound days left them aching, according to an interview with the People's Daily newspaper. Kungfu Bear landed angel funding from China Renaissance K2 Ventures and started operations in October 2014. Kungfu Bear recruited masseurs by offering them cash incentives. Users could book a massage in their home for as little as $16 and then rank their masseuse. The service offered a convenient alternative to China's ubiquitous fluorescent-lit storefronts offering traditional massages and was cheaper than going to a spa yet still wholesome. In March, it expanded to Shanghai and landed at least $1 million from Vertex Venture Holdings. In May, the South China Morning Post newspaper listed it among the five most popular on-demand services apps in China. By June, it started snapping up regional rivals, including one in western China. Competitors sprouted up, including one called NANA Panda (whose name is even more similar in Chinese characters). A glowing profile in the People's Daily, the Communist Party's flagship paper, called Wang "the industry leader." The turning point came in July, when China's stock markets lost $5 trillion after gloomy economic news hammered investor confidence. That raised concerns among VCs that they couldn't take startups public and prompted publicly traded companies, which had been putting money into startups, to pull back their investing. "We had too many unprofessional investors," said Chuan Thor, managing director of Highland Capital Partners, a Boston-based venture firm that invests in the United States and China. Since then, raising money for startups is increasingly difficult, said Arvid Wong, founder of an online personal assistant called Laiye that raised $4 million in seed funding. "Startups find it very hard to raise B and C rounds," he said. "The lucky few that still can, have to swallow valuation levels often less than half of what they expected just a couple of months ago." For Kungfu Bear, that meant three investors pulled out in August after signing deals, leaving the firm short of money, Meng said in the original interview. The trouble was reported in Chinese media. In September, masseurs began picketing and claimed unpaid wages. To attract new investors, the pair had to offer equity at a discount to what earlier investors paid, Meng said. Startups dread those so-called down rounds because they can hurt morale and sap momentum. China acquisitions have surged 80 percent last year to $515.6 billion, with domestic deals in the Internet industry quadrupling to $67.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Packaged frozen beef steak products at a supermarket in Nantong, Jiangsu province.[Photo/China Daily] Last year, during the Nov 11 online shopping festival, Ma Long's e-store that sells imported Australian steak, netted a record 13.14 million yuan ($1.99 million) equivalent to beef from 5,000 cows. But Ma is not overly proud of the record, and has set higher targets for this year as China's tariffs on imports from Australia will drop gradually, thanks to the bilateral free trade agreement that took effect in mid December. "The tariff rate on our steak is about 8.5 percent and it will be gradually reduced to zero in the coming ten years. We expect a bright future as China's customers are increasingly picky," he said. His company imports a dozen containers of beef from Australia every month and tariff accounts for a significant portion of the company's cost. Australian steak is not the only imported good that will be more accessible to Chinese online shoppers. Under the FTA, Chinese tariffs on 95 percent of Australian exports have been lifted. A similar FTA with South Korea will see China remove tariffs on 91 percent of South Korean products in the coming 20 years. With the drop in tariffs, imported Australian and South Korean goods will get cheaper in China, and sales will likely rise, said analysts. "South Korean cosmetic products and Australian dairy products are expected to see major boost in sales as they have already built up reputation among Chinese consumers through cross-border e-commerce," said Lu Zhenwang, an independent Internet expert and the chief executive officer of the Shanghai-based Wanqing Consultancy. Statistics from Yonhap News Agency showed that China imported $371 million worth of cosmetics products from South Korea between January and July in 2015, a surge of 250 percent year-on-year. South Korean products accounted for 22.1 percent of China's cosmetics market. Lu said South Korean cosmetic products and Australian dairy products are held in high esteem by Chinese consumers. He foresees South Korea cosmetic brands and Australian milk and wines making further inroads into the China market via online channels. "E-commerce is effective with relatively low cost for new brands to test waters in a foreign country." In the wake of the FTAs, some e-commerce players have already made their moves. JD.com Inc has launched an online Korean Mall in March and followed it up with an Australian Mall in June, in an effort to lure more South Korean and Australian brands to sell directly to China. Jumei.com, an online shopping site with focus on cosmetics, has invested in a South Korean cosmetic brand called 'It's Skin'. The move is expected to help Jumei.com secure enough supply of the cosmetic products at low cost. According to a December 2015 report by Juhuasuan, the group-buying site of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, Chinese cross-border online shoppers bought the most from South Korea in 2015. Australia ranked eighth in the top 10 markets. Wang Xiaoxing, an analyst with the Beijing-based Internet consultancy Analysys International, said there will be fierce competition among Chinese e-commerce players as they fight to get as many South Korean and Australian brands as possible to sell online. "Competition is likely to drive prices down. That is good news for shoppers. But in the future, the competition will shift to user experience and the quality of services, such as delivery time and shipping cost. People always expect faster delivery, lower prices," he said. Cars for Chongqing Changan Automobile Co on display in Yichang, Hubei province. Beijing's environment authority fined the company after several of its models failed to meet municipal emissions standards.[Photo/China Daily] Automaker is first Chinese brand penalized for emissions violations Environment authorities throughout China will likely clamp down on emissions violators in the auto industry after two models from a major Chinese carmaker failed to meet emissions standards in Beijing, said industry experts. The capital's environment authority fined Chongqing Changan Automobile Co after several of the carmaker's Raeton sedans and CS75 SUVs failed to meet the city's emissions standards. The CS75's onboard diagnostics system, which monitors emissions in real-time, also did not function properly. Changan, which has a joint venture with Ford, is the first Chinese brand to be punished for car emissions violations. According to the authority's notice on Jan 6, it will have their "illegal gains of 12.60 million yuan ($1.91 million) confiscated" and will be required to "pay 3.78 million yuan as a fine". Both models were produced at the automaker's plant in Beijing, where the China National V Emissions Standard is in place, and passed tests before they hit the local market. Both made it onto a list of recommended models issued by the Beijing government that could replace autos that do not meet the city's emissions standards. The automaker apologized for the problems in a statement on Jan 13, stating that the faulty cars were the result of technical accidents. Its president, Zhu Huarong, said 2,186 cars were affected and 90 percent of them had been fixed by Jan 14. Changan ranked first with its sales of a million Chinese-brand cars last year. Its CS75 was one of the most popular SUVs in the Chinese market, with monthly sales reaching 15,583 units. Zhang Zhiyong, an independent auto analyst in Beijing, said Changan's punishment could set a precedent and that authorities in other cities will follow suit to strengthen their emissions examinations. "They will definitely do so. The conventional way is giving a checkup before cars hit the market but now it seems there are loopholes. Besides, improved checkups might bring in more income." Dong Yang, executive vice-president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, has long urged Chinese automakers to learn from Volkswagen's emissions scandal. "Are there problems similar to Volkswagen's in China? I think there are. Chinese automakers are technologically backward compared to Western ones, our supervision is not as strict as overseas and our consumers are relatively more ignorant and tolerant," Dong recently wrote on his blog. "So those in the auto industry should remember that we are in a pillar industry, what we produce is closely related to people's lives and we must be careful, careful, careful." But Zhang is not comparing Changan's problems with Volkswagen's scandal. "They are totally different. There is not intentional purpose in Changan's faulty cars and that marks a difference." Zhang expects that the Changan incident will serve as a warning to other automakers because "such failures will cost money and more importantly corporate reputation". A Qualcomm sign is pictured in front of one of its many buildings in San Diego, California November 5, 2014. [Photo/Agencies] Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc delivered a boost to the high-tech sector in Guizhou province on Sunday by pledging a major investment. The United States company said it is building a 1.85 billion yuan ($280 million) joint venture in the less-developed southwestern province to produce server chips for the domestic market. Named the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co, the joint venture will be 55 percent owned by the Guizhou provincial government's investment arm and 45 percent by a Qualcomm subsidiary. Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm, said the venture will focus on the design, development and sales of "advanced server chipset technology" in China. The venture will be based at a technology park near Guiyang, the provincial capital. As part of the deal, Qualcomm will also license its proprietary server chip technology and provide research and development processes to the venture, Aberle said at a news conference in Beijing. Sun Zhigang, the acting governor of Guizhou, said the collaboration is a major step for China's semiconductor industry and will also assist Guizhou to set up a world-class chipmaking plant. The collaboration will also help the province to build up its high-tech industries such as cloud computing and chipmaking, providing key ways for it to grow its economy in the coming decade. "The partnership is a win-win deal for both Guizhou and Qualcomm," Sun said. Xu Shaoshi, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, said the partnership sets an example for cross-border technological innovation, the key to economic growth. "China is open to foreign investment. We welcome more overseas investment flowing into China, especially in the western part of the country," Xu said. Wu Lianfeng, vice-president and chief analyst at research firm International Data Corp China, said more overseas technology companies are expected to set up joint ventures in China to gain access to highly profitable government procurement deals. A robot, claimed by its developer to connect users to doctors for online medical diagnosis and prescriptions, has made its debut in Shanghai. Roby Mini, the first of its kind in the country, is a health and safety monitor for the elderly which can connect a user to a hospital doctor through its video function after receiving a voice order. "It will be as easy as giving the robot an instruction like 'call a doctor', and the system will get in one of the 5,000 doctors that work with our telemedicine system right away," Hong Gang, co-founder and technical director of robotics company Shanghai PT Info told China Daily. "Our voice interaction system can even recognize dialects as some seniors don't speak good Mandarin. The camera on the robot is of high definition, which will allow doctors to see the patients and the part of their body that needs to be checked clearly," he said. The robot can help people avoid long queues in many hospitals in big cities especially when they suffer from a common disease, Hong said. Shanghai PT Info previously signed a memorandum of cooperation with Shanghai Doudouxing Information Technology Co Ltd, the only licensed Internet platform of medical prescription in the country. "Most doctors on our platform are working doctors at hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, which means users from all over the country can enjoy the service of first-class doctors in the country," said Yu Hongjun, CEO of Shanghai Doudouxing. Roby Mini is 40 centimeters tall and has a large round screen for a head. It costs around 5,000 yuan ($760). A growing number of Internet thieves are stealing money from smartphone users, especially male ones, through mobile viruses, according to a report issued on Monday. Published by the Tencent Research Institute, the report said that out of 16.7 million new phone viruses it detected last year, about 326,000 were viruses that can lead to the theft of key personal information on payment accounts. Despite the relatively small proportion of the payment-related mobile viruses, 25.05 million phone users became victims of them last year, according to the report titled Internet Black Industry Research. Mao Shengbin, deputy secretary-general of the institute, said the new trend in viruses comes amid the increased use of mobile payments in China. People are using smartphones not only to pay for online purchases, but also for bills, cab fares and even groceries at convenience stores. Many people havent got into the habit of being cautious when using their smartphones because the mobile payments market has just started to take off, Mao said. He added that not every company in Chinas mobile payments industry has high standards of Internet security, leaving loopholes for the viruses. Male phone users appear to be more vulnerable than females when facing such risks. The report said about 71 percent of those who experienced payment viruses last year were male. Li Hong, senior director of the mobile payments and financial risk control unit at Internet giant Tencent Holdings, said, It could be that women are more cautious than men when they receive questionable texts or quick response codes. Sixty-five percent of those who had such viruses are aged between 19 and 35 the main users of the mobile Internet in China. The top five cities with the heaviest financial losses resulting from the payment viruses last year were Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, and Shanghai. The institute said it is possible to steal money from accounts online if key information is obtained such as the name, ID card number, bank card number and mobile phone number linked with a bank card. Min Xiaoding, 56, who lives in Xian, Shaanxi province, has long harbored doubts about mobile payments. He said he is afraid to link his debit card to his WeChat account because of the risk of his personal details being leaked. But when everyone around you starts to shop online and buy wealth management products via smartphones it is so difficult not to join in because mobile phones are ruling peoples lives in China, he said. Now that the Democratic Progressive Party leader Tsai Ing-wen has won Taiwan's "presidential" election, she should waste no time to prove that she is sincere in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits. She should work to make people in Taiwan feel safe, instead of creating anxieties with her ambiguous mainland policy. Tsai has played the card of "maintaining the status quo" during her election campaigns. But she has never made it clear how she would approach the 1992 Consensus. As the cornerstone of cross-Straits relations, the consensus insists there is only one China, of which both the mainland and Taiwan are a part, though the meaning of "one China" is open to interpretation by both sides. For a Taiwan leader, whether to accept the consensus or not decides which direction he or she would lead the island in: peace and stability, or conflicts and tension. The issue bears no ambiguity. Thanks to the consensus, cross-Straits relations have developed smoothly over the past eight years. A slew of agreements have been signed to boost trade and tourism, bringing benefits to people on both sides. The two sides' top leaders met last November, for the first time since 1949. All this has not come by easily, and should not be taken for granted. It requires efforts from both sides to make sure the momentum will not be interrupted by a leadership change, or derailed by any political missteps and misjudgment. After all, peaceful development of cross-Straits relations conforms to the interests of both Taiwan and the mainland. Tsai has reportedly expressed wishes that both sides could work together for peace across the Taiwan Straits. If she means what she says, and accepts the 1992 Consensus, prospects for cross-Straits relations will remain promising. The mainland has kept the door to dialogue open with the DPP so long as it accepts that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to one China. The mainland has also taken a flexible approach when handling relations with the DPP. The channel of communication remains unblocked. Many differences remain between the mainland and Taiwan, not only in lifestyle and social system, but also in how and when the two sides should be reunited. But under no circumstance should the differences be used as excuses to seek Taiwan independence, which means war, as the mainland's Anti-Secession Law suggests. The bottom line shall never be tested. Any attempt to steer the island closer to independence will be a fool's errand. Tourists visit Cengcuoan, a fishing village that has become a tourist spot in Xiamen, Fujian province. Provided to China Daily Restoration of the ecological system in Fujian province needs to be further strengthened in 2016 while maintaining a high GDP growth rate, officials at the provincial People's Congress said on Friday. The provincial GDP is forecast to grow by 8.5 percent this year, two percentage points higher than the national average, according to a government report. "There are definite improvements in the environment in the last year, but further efforts are needed in less-developed rural areas, especially in small watershed management," said Yu Weiguo, Fujian governor. Yu emphasized that the government needs to maintain a good balance between economic development and the environment. The water quality of 12 major rivers in Fujian has remained good in the past year, officials said. Around 90 percent of rivers are within levels I to III, according to the report. Rivers are graded from I to V, with I being the best and V the worst. Cooperation between experts from Taiwan and the government in Xiamen has set an example for villages as they prepare to help manage small watersheds in their areas. Jian Poyan, an agricultural expert from Taiwan who graduated from the University of Hawaii in the United States, has worked to make rural areas in Xiamen healthier and more sustainable and livable places. "We found that the soil is suitable for planting lavender, which requires well-drained, slightly alkaline soil," Jian said. "The plant gradually improves the water quality and provides a habitat for fish and other aquatic life." He said villages should make changes to land use by planting organic vegetables and aquatic plants that are helpful in improving soil quality. After a one-year trial using 3.35 hectares of land in Chushan village, revenue generated from each hectare of land reached 2.25 million yuan ($341,770) a year, triple that of 2014. "The focus is not just bringing a specific new plant here but to create a habitat. We want to tell the local residents that only when the ecology is restored can they make long-term profits," Jian said. Wang Yanfei contributed to this story. A worker checks progress at the rolling mill of the Shijiazhuang Iron and Steel Co. The company will be relocated to Jingxing county, 70 kilometers away from downtown Shijiazhuang. Provided to China Daily Move is expected to help improve cities' air quality greatly A steel plant has been ordered to move out of Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, within the next two years to cut pollution in one of the nation's 10 most-polluted cities. It is one of at least four such plants ordered to move from downtown areas in the nation's premier steelmaking province. The Shijiazhuang Iron and Steel Co has also been told to reduce its production to help lessen China's overcapacity problem, and modernize its operations to become cleaner and more efficient, officials said. The company, a subsidiary of China's largest steelmaker, Hebei Iron and Steel Group, must finish the move from the Chang'an district of Shijiazhuang to Jingxing county by the end of 2017, according to a government announcement. The new location is about 70 kilometers from its old site near the center of Shijiazhuang. "The plant's relocation will decrease the smoke and dust in the city's air and thereby help improve downtown's air quality greatly," a government official surnamed Guo said. The company, founded in 1957, has been emitting sulfur dioxide, smoke, dust and nitrogen oxide for nearly 60 years. The steelmaking capacity of the plant is 2.6 million tons a year, making up 5.2 percent of the group' production capability, according to the company's official website. When the relocation is complete, its capacity will be reduced to 2 million tons. "Relocation is not just transferring of capacity and pollution. Companies like mine are required to upgrade their production process and greatly reduce pollutants after the relocation," said Wang Liping, chairman of Shijiazhuang Iron and Steel. "It's like a process of purification." The relocation will cut the company's emissions of sulfur dioxide by 73 percent, and that of smoke and dust by 23 percent, Wang said. Other plants to be moved are those of Bohai Steel Group in Tangshan and Jinan Steel Group and Taihang Steel Group in Handan. They will be moved from city centers to coastal zones or special industrial zones far from downtowns by 2017. For the three companies, a total of 16.2 million tons of steel capacity will be moved. Preparations for plant relocations started in 2014, right after the State Council designated Hebei as a key province in the structural readjustment of the iron and steel industry. Hebei is the nation's top iron and steelmaking province, accounting for about a quarter of the nation's total steel production. In 2014, as the province launched a restructuring program, steel production there reached 185 million tons. It has ranked first in the country for 14 straight years, according to Zhang Qingwei, governor of the province. Relocation of steel plants is one of the major aspects of the program. By 2017, the province is expected to cut its steelmaking capacity by 60 million tons, in accordance with goals set in 2014. By the end of last year, the province had cut its steelmaking capacity by 41.1 million tons, according to the province's government work report released last week. A railway construction worker was elected vice-president of the country's national trade union, as the union sought to further extend its reach to similar workers. Ju Xiaolin, 53, was elected as vice-president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions on Sunday during a national conference of the union's executive members, the federation said. It was the first time the union had ever elected a migrant worker as a vice-president. The move came as the union sought to further extend its reach to migrant workers and beef up efforts to protect their interests amid the country's urbanization push. Li Jianguo, president of the trade unions, said during the conference that the organization will continue to increase the number of migrant workers registered with the unions and improve the quality of service provided to them. Ju is among the country's best-known labor figures. He took part in the construction of more than 10 electrical railway systems, according to the company's website. Improvements he made to work methods helped the company save about 6 million yuan ($911,400), it said. Ju was awarded the National May 1 Labor Medal in recognition of his contributions. He was also a delegate to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Increasing outreach to migrant workers has topped the agenda of the federation in recent years. Wang Xiaofeng, a spokesman for the federation, said in October that the unions have launched a special campaign to attract migrant workers to unions in five sectors, including express delivery and construction programs. "The migrant workers are very flexible in their employment ... and they generally have a very low recognition level about trade unions", which makes registration work difficult, he said. Of the country's 274 million migrant workers, only 110 million had joined trade unions by the end of 2014, according to a report by Worker's Daily on Thursday. Major Chinese airlines were among the first businesses to join the efforts to slow the trade in laboratory animals. Many have acknowledged the turning tide of global public opinion against the use of primates in experiments and now refuse to transport them. In March 2014, China Southern Airlines banned the shipment of live primates for laboratory experiments, although it had previously transported animals, mainly monkeys, to facilities in the United States and European Union. The move followed a decision by China Eastern Airlines, which stopped transporting lab-use primates in early 2013. Worldwide, animal welfare groups, such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have put pressure on airlines via campaigns calling on them to cease carrying primates for use in experiments. In 2012, FedEx and UPS, the world's largest carriers of air freight, announced that they would no longer transport mammals for laboratory use. Yue Bingfei, deputy director of the experimental animal division of the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, said moving the animals from one side of the world to the other and ensuring they arrive at laboratories in good condition is a complicated procedure, involving varied logistics and a number of other factors. According to Animal Research in China, an online journal, the increasingly strict rules and management related to the breeding and testing of animals in Western countries have resulted in many foreign research institutions outsourcing animal-based research to China. From the late 1980s, companies wishing to export lab animals from China had to obtain approval from the State Scientific and Technological Commission, but that responsibility was handed over to provincial science and technology administrations in 2013. Companies must now provide documents, such as breeding permits, quality testing reports and purchasers' contracts, before approval is granted. China is a major supplier of the more than 100,000 monkeys required for laboratory use across the globe every year, and areas such as the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Guangdong province are home to the country's largest breeding centers for monkeys used in laboratory experiments. Animal breeders grow profits from research In 2014, the revenue of Beijing Prima Biotech, one of North China's biggest breeding centers for primates used in laboratory tests, reached 14.8 million yuan ($2.2 million), a rise of nearly 30 percent year-on-year. In August, the company was listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotationsa securities' trading venue that's often known as the New Third Boardmaking it the first Chinese company specializing in the breeding of laboratory animals to list on the board. The company raises 4,000 monkeys every year, including rhesus monkeys and long-tailed macaques. It also sells about 200 beagles a year. The animals, which are all pure breeds, are mostly sold to hospitals, universities, institutes, and biological and pharmaceutical companies. The rhesus monkeys are mostly used in research into the nervous system, diseases that afflict the elderly, organ transplants and eye conditions. Long-tailed macaques are usually used in research into infectious diseases, drugs and poisons, and the study of reproductive system, while beagles are used in work to study organ transplants, brain surgery and cardiac diseases. A courier rides his tricycle to deliver packages in Beijing on Nov 6, despite wind and snow in the Chinese capital. Yan Xiaoqing / China Daily Delivery workers look forward to improved pay and more leisure time in the Year of the Monkey Couriers Li Junfeng and Zhou Kang have a lot of hopes and resolutions for the upcoming Lunar New Year. Their aspirations reveal much about life at the sharp end of a booming express delivery industry that is increasingly essential to the Chinese economy. The smooth operation of the e-commerce sector that Chinese leaders see as a new growth driver depends on keeping the likes of Li and Zhou happy and willing to stick with their tough jobs. Both experienced couriers coping with ever-heavier workloads on their Beijing beats, their wish list includes better pay, more-affordable housing and a little understanding from customers. They are looking for higher salaries in the Year of the Monkey, and Li has made a resolution to make it back to his hometown in Hubei province for the holidays and eventually to return there for good. Li is 41. In this business full of 20-somethings, he is called "Old Li." "I've worked in the delivery sector for more than five years, and the last two years have been for Amazon," he said, squatting to count documents and parcels on a cold winter day. Li delivers anywhere from 70 to more than 100 items every day, starting at 7 am and working until 8 pm. He covers several residential communities scattered across 10 square km. Zhou, also in his forties, says he is accustomed to the work, but still struggles during very busy periods such as new year. He will deliver more than 300 items every day from Feb 7 to 13. Unlike many migrant workers, Zhou's wife and children are with him in Beijing. "My wife keeps a grocery store near where we live, so we can eat at home. But housing in Beijing is too expensive, and eventually we will go back to our hometown," he said. Li also worries about pressure on his earnings. He used to be on a base salary of around 1,000 yuan ($154) per month, plus a piece rate, but Amazon only pays the piece rate now. He gets 2 yuan per parcel delivered, earning 5,000 yuan on average each month. Online retailer JD.com pays more, but it only employs men under 35, he said. This year, he is going to be more careful about locking up his delivery tricycle. He had one stolen last year, along with all its contents, in the few minutes it took him to walk up a flight of stairs to make a delivery. "I had to pay the company 12,000 yuan in compensation," Li said. Although the insurance company covered the loss eventually, he has learnt his lesson. "Since then, I have always remembered to lock up before delivering parcels." Zhou worries more about picky customers. "One woman was not at home and I told her I could come back later, but she made me put the box outside her door, then filed a complaint when the goods went missing," he said. He insists on delivering face to face now. Couriers have been more susceptible to complaints and punishment since December, when the State Post Bureau imposed fines of up to 50,000 yuan for mishandling deliveries. Li's biggest wish for the new year is to go home and rest. "I haven't been back to Hubei for years because I haven't been able to get a train ticket during the holiday travel rush," he said. "Even if I had managed to get one, I would only have had a few days at home before needing to come back for work. It was better for me to save the money." Zhou's number one wish is a pay rise. "The courier business is very competitive, and the market winner will be the one that provides excellent customer service while also retaining experienced couriers," he said. This year, Zhou might "try his luck" at getting better-paid work in East China's Zhejiang province, home to the moneyed online retailer Alibaba. In 2014, Chinese courier companies delivered 14 billion packages, and 15.6 billion during the first 10 months of last year, a rise of 46 percent year on year, according to latest figures. Wearing a thin red robe and a woman's wig, Dong Dajun (Right) tries to attract the attention of pedestrians walking through an underground passage near a Beijing hospital on Jan 13, 2015. [Photo/Beijing Times] Wearing a thin red robe and a woman's wig, Dong Dajun braves the freezing temperatures as he tries to attract the attention of pedestrians walking through an underground passage near a Beijing hospital, urging them to buy his flowers. An accountant from Linyi, Shandong province, Dong is struggling to earn a few yuan more 600 kilometers away from home as his critically ill 5-year-old son is being treated for lymphoma in an intensive care unit at Beijing Children's Hospital. "No one responded me and bought flowers in the beginning, when I dressed normally," he said. "Then I was reminded that whenever I dressed in my wife's clothes, my son would laugh happily. Besides, more people may notice me when I dress in women's clothes." In the week since Dong began selling flowers, he has earned about 200 yuan ($30). "It is not big sum of money," he said. "But at least I can buy some toys for my son to bring him some happiness." The boy, nicknamed Hui Hui, doesn't know he has cancer. He thinks he just has a serious flu infection, Dong said. Doctors at a hospital in Linyi suspected cancer when Dong and wife, Zhao Xiaoxue, first sought treatment for their son in September. They urged the couple to take him to Beijing. "The cancer is found in many parts of his body, such his chest and kidneys," Dong said. "The doctor said it is impossible to remove all the tumors in his body, and chemotherapy is the better solution." In Beijing, they visited several hospitals, and eventually chose the children's hospital for the surgery to remove tumors from Hui Hui's neck, he said. The boy has finished two rounds of chemotherapy and is undergoing a third round now. Eight more are needed, he said. "Although he is getting almost back to normal after treatment, the doctor told me his life is still at risk and fragile," Dong said. And the boy's medical costs keep climbing. The first chemotherapy cost 140,000 yuan, for which Hui Hu's rural basic medical insurance reimbursed more than 40,000 yuan, he said. NANNING - Police in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, which borders Vietnam, have captured two Vietnamese drug dealers and are hunting for another two accomplices. Local police arrested the two as they collected drug money and seized 3.45 kg of heroin in Ningming County on Jan. 12. One suspect confessed to spending 1.6 billion Vietnamese Dong (about 71,000 U.S. dollars) on 10 bars of heroin in Vietnam and smuggled them to China for trade. The Chinese police have launched a manhunt for the other two Vietnamese accomplices who helped raise the money for the drugs. China's Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Monday refuted a Reuters' report that Xiao Gang, chairman of CSRC, has offered to resign, and the commission said it has asked Reuters to make a correction. In a Reuters' report on Monday, the news service quoted unidentified sources as saying that the 57-year-old chairman tendered his resignation last week after his brainchild - a circuit breaker' mechanism to limit stock market losses - was blamed for exacerbating a sharp sell-off. Xiao delivered a lengthy speech at the authority's annual work meeting on Saturday in which he said the market rout since the summer had exposed many loopholes and deficiencies. In his speech, the chairman vowed that the regulator would learn from its past mistakes. The commission has come under growing criticism from investors for its handling of the stock market turmoil. China's A-share market plummeted at the start of the year after rebounding from a 34 percent loss in the summer. The benchmark index tumbled 18 percent in less than two weeks, closing in on the technical measure of a bear market (20 percent). Dedrug-Jamyangxerabpaldan (right), the reincarnated soul boy of the 5th living Buddha Dedrug-Jampalgalsanggyatso, who passed away in March 2000, disperses his blessings on a recent day in Draipung Temple by touching people's heads. The temple is in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet autonomous region. The 7-year-old boy became the incarnated successor of the 5th living Buddha following a 10-year search. [Photo provided to China Daily] An online database of legitimate Living Buddhas was launched at a ceremony in Beijing on Monday to help followers of Tibetan Buddhism distinguish between real ones and fakes. The database has been set up amid concerns about fake Living Buddhas defrauding followers. Launched by the Buddhist Association of China at the Guangji Temple in the capital, it will include the names, dates of birth, sect of the religion, the numbers on Living Buddhas certificates and photographs of each Living Buddha. The database has initially disclosed information on the 870 Living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism. Information about more Living Buddhas will be made public once their status has been certified, the association said. It is the first time that China has made such information public. The database will be available on the websites of the association, the State Administration of Religious Affairs and the news portal Tibet.cn. It is available in both Chinese and Tibetan. The database was launched after an incident involving Baima Aose, whose original name was Wu Darong, during which he held what was purportedly a Living Buddha enthronement ceremony for Chinese actor Zhang Tielin. He later issued an apology and resigned from all posts after a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Sichuan province refused to certify him as a Living Buddha. The 7th Drukhang Living Buddha Drukhang Thubten Khedrup, vice-president of the association, said at the launch ceremony that the database will help to prevent similar cases and assist in protecting the interests of both followers and Living Buddhas. It will also help society to better learn about Tibetan Buddhism and Living Buddhas, he said. Venerable Master Xuecheng, the associations president, said it is considering expanding the database soon to cover information about all 72,000 Buddhist monks in Chinese Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism holds that the soul of a Living Buddha is reincarnated in a child on death. The reincarnation procedure is strict and lengthy, and a candidate must obtain government approval before the enthronement ceremony. Of the 5.36 million copies of Xi's The Governance of China, 400,000 were sold overseas[Photo by Peng Yining/Asianewsphoto] Chinese publishers are seeking a hat-trickhoping their books this year will replicate the extraordinary success of two Chinese works in international markets last year. One of them was by President Xi Jinping and the other by science fiction writer Liu Cixin. Of the 5.36 million copies of Xi's The Governance of China, 400,000 were sold overseas, while Liu's The Three-Body Problem won him the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novel last year, making him the first Asian writer to claim the prize. Liu Yuhong, director of the Promotion Center at Foreign Language Press, which published The Governance of China, said that among the works it plans to publish this year is one that looks at the power of Xi's language, and another about the president and the Chinese Dream. Huo Xingchen, director of international cooperation at Central Compilation & Translation Press, said overseas readers are particularly keen on learning about new policies announced and promoted by Xi. The company is publishing extracts of Xi's essays, giving English-language speakers the chance to read his views on the importance of tackling corruption and advancing the rule of law. At the New Delhi World Book Fair on Jan 10, Li Yan, from China Publishing Group Corp, said the company had launched a cloud computing service aimed at promoting the translation of Chinese into other languages. China was guest of honor at the New Delhi fair. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio poses as he arrives for the British premiere of "The Revenant", in London, Britain January 14, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] Oscar nominees Leonardo DiCaprio and director Alejandro Inarritu met by screaming crowds, while walking the red carpet for the Italian premier of The Revenant. The warm welcome in Rome came the day after the film claimed 12 Oscar nominations, including best picture, best director and best actor. Crowds of fans expressed their excitement to get a closer look at the Hollywood superstar. "It's the fifth time Leonardo is nominated for the Oscar. So I would like to give him this fake Oscarbut I think he really deserves it." The veteran actor DiCaprio portrays the frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass in the film, who is chased by a bear, and left for dead in the brutal cold by his hunting team in 1820s. Aimed to reproduce the wounded man's quest for survival as real as possible, the director took his cast and crew to the Canadian Rockies, shooting under brutal weather conditions, using only natural light. Also, the Oscar nominations set up Alejandro Inarritu for a possible back-to-back win following his sweep of best picture, director and screenplay for Birdman last year. Related: The Revenant leads Oscar nomination with 12 nods China has developed the manufacturing techniques for a key part to be used on its super-heavy rocket that will fulfill the nation's manned missions to the moon. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, working with other Chinese institutes, has developed a super-large interstage ring to be used to connect stages of the rocket, tentatively called the Long March 9. The development was announced in a news release by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the country's major space contractor. The release said an interstage ring is a key component in a multistage rocket, and that those used on China's current rockets were made in sections before being assembled. In contrast, the ring on the Long March 9 will be made through a casting method that produces it in one piece. The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology has begun preliminary research on the Long March 9. The work has been approved by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, which is in charge of the nation's space programs. According to sources at the academy, it plans to take up to five years to design and develop a liquid oxygen/kerosene engine with 460 metric tons of thrust and a oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine with 220 tons of thrust. The rocket will have a launch weight of 3,000 tons and is scheduled to make its maiden flight around 2030, the sources said, adding that it will play a key role in helping to land astronauts on the moon. The Long March 9's technical specifications have still to be disclosed. But Li Tongyu, head of aerospace products at the academy, said its diameter and height will be much greater than those of the Long March 5, which is undergoing final tests and will make its first flight soon. The Long March 9's thrust will also be much stronger, Li said. "Our current launch vehicles, including the Long March 5, will be able to undertake the country's space activities planned for the next 10 years, but they will not have the capacity to carry out the nation's long-term space programs," according to Li. Li Jinghong, deputy chief designer of the Long March 3A at the academy, cited technical estimates stating that the Long March 5 will require four launches before fulfilling a manned mission to the moon, while the Long March 9 will need only one. The senior engineer also said that the Long March 9 will not be used solely for lunar missions, hinting that it will be required for other deep-space exploration projects. Tian Yulong, secretary-general of the China National Space Administration, said it has started preliminary research on a Mars exploration program. zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir attends an interview with Reuters, in Riyadh January 4, 2016.[Photo/Agencies] President Xi Jinping will embark on a tour of the Middle East on Tuesday during which he will visit Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. His first foreign visit to the region, also his first diplomatic tour of 2016, comes at a crucial time for not only Cairo but also the whole of the Middle East. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of China-Egypt diplomatic relations; in fact, Egypt was the first country in the Arab world to establish diplomatic ties with China. But Egypt, along with many other Middle East countries, is now desperately seeking lasting peace and development to tackle the economic difficulties and social unrest the "Arab Spring" left behind. And this is precisely where China comes into the picture, because it has both the will and capability to contribute to peace and development in the Middle East. As a traditional major player in the region and home to the Arab League headquarters, Egypt can still lend fresh momentum to China-Middle East cooperation like it did six decades ago. But unlike the bilateral interactions in the 1950s and 1960s, which mainly revolved around mutual political support, Xi's visit is aimed at helping more local people, especially those in violence-prone areas, to enjoy the dividends of economic development. Saudi Arabia and Iran, two major oil suppliers of China and key elements of its Belt and Road Initiative, also have enough reasons to be on Xi's Middle East tour itinerary. Despite the Teheran-Riyadh row over the execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr on terrorism charges by Saudi authorities, the two major Middle East players remain important for China and the rest of the world. That is why China will not side with any Middle East country in regional conflicts or abandon its stance of having good relations with all regional countries while maintaining equidistance from them. After all, a peaceful and stable Middle East is in the interest of all relevant parties. Beijing is expected to strike a delicate balance between Riyadh and Teheran. Sectarian tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, contrary to speculations, are unlikely to hamper Xi's visits to the two countries, because China's relationships with them are mostly bilateral, not multilateral, and are focused on neutral economic exchanges. Of course, the Chinese president is expected to promote the Belt and Road Initiative's projects during his visit to the Middle East and consolidate the energy-based cooperation between China and the region. Besides, Beijing has to respond positively to the recent visits of Arab leaders seeking closer political and economic cooperation with China. Xi is expected to convey that positive response. Western powers' motives were exposed after instigating the "Arab Spring", they washed their hands of the consequences. In contrast, China has always insisted that outside forces have no right to interfere in a country's internal affairs and that the fate of a country should be decided by its people. In this context, Xi is expected to make clear China's stance on some outstanding Middle East issues while welcoming efforts to tap into the economic potentials of China-Middle East relations. Trade and investment cooperation will play a central role in China-Middle East relations, with a number of bilateral agreements and memorandums in infrastructure and transportation projects likely to be signed during Xi's visit. As for the fight against terrorism, the Middle East is facing severe challenges, especially from the Islamic State. And the fact that China has similar concerns calls for China and Middle East players to coordinate their actions so as to deal a deadly blow to terrorism in all its forms across the world. The author is an associate researcher on Middle East Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Qin Xiaohui (R) plays with the other children in his village on July 5, 2012. Qin Xiaohui, then 6, lives in Banlie Village of Bansheng Township in Dahua Yao Autonomous County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. [Xinhua] A journalist, Zhou Xiaoyun, recently sued the Bijie municipal and Guizhou provincial governments because they failed to publicize how they had used 177 million yuan ($26.9 million) in funds specially allocated to help left-behind children. The local officials responsible should be held accountable for any misuse of funds, says Beijing Youth Daily: Five children died of carbon monoxide while trying to make fire to keep themselves warm in a garbage can in Bijie in the winter of 2012. The public anger at the tragedy prompted the local government to promise to spend 60 million yuan each year to help left-behind children whose parents work far away from home. Yet another four left-behind children committed suicide last June by drinking pesticide because of their extreme poverty. Zhou requested the local government to disclose how the money, which should have amounted to 177 million yuan by now, had been used. When the government said such information did not exist, Zhou took the Bijie and provincial government to court to find out. Everybody knows the need to help the most vulnerable in society. That's why the public needs detailed information about the 177 million yuan the Bijie government said it was spending in helping left-behind children - we want to know whether local bureaucrats have performed their duty. However, the local government's unwillingness to say how it has spent the money has raised doubts about its sincerity and speculation about possible corruption. Worse, the local government might never have honored its promise to help the left-behind children. The Bijie officials need to pay the price for any misdeeds or their failure to honor their promise in any way. The two major tragedies have already reminded people of how miserable left-behind children can be and local officials cannot afford to hide their heads in the sand any longer. Magdy Amir, the Egyptian ambassador to Beijing, says China and Egypt need to develop their relations in all fields. [Provided to China Daily] Being a Canadian Egyptian residing in China for more than 12 years, I received the news of the upcoming visit of President Xi Jinping to Egypt with great enthusiasm and optimism. Both countries, with their glorious histories, hold a very special place in my heart. Egypt will always be my birth nation where I spent my childhood and China is the country I chose to be my home away from home. Egyptians have always admired and felt connections to their Chinese counterparts. It is a fact that China has been consistent in supporting Arab causes during modern history. Consequently, Arabs in general and Egyptians in particular feel gratitude toward the Chinese people. Having a strong and mutually satisfying relationship between the two nations makes perfect sense. Both countries can benefit tremendously from collaborative endeavors and projects. On one hand Egypt, with its flagging economy due to the latest terrorist attacks and the plane crash in Sinai, is in urgent need of a boost to its confidence to assure tourists that it is safe to visit and enjoy its historical and tourist sights. A visit by the president of China may persuade other leaders to follow his lead and bring their investors to launch lucrative projects in Egypt. Seeing that Egypt is safe to be visited by a powerful leader may convince others to rid themselves of any fear or apprehension to spend their vacations in Egypt. That would give a boost to the tourism industry which has been stagnant for some time. Hotels and tourist attractions are suffering from the lack of visitors. Chinese tourists can fill the gap that was created by the absence of travelers from Western Europe and North America. Egypt is reasonably cheap compared to other tourist destinations. In addition, Egyptians are famous for being friendly and helpful especially to Chinese guests. The visit may result in the signing of many projects that will help resuscitate the Egyptian economy. Egyptian industry can benefit from advances in the Chinese technology field. From discussions with my family and friends who still live in Egypt, it was clear that most Egyptians hold great hopes for the visit. They believe that China possesses the capacity to help develop the economy and subsequently, ease the burden of the hardships they face on a daily basis. On the other hand, China can gain momentum by having influence in the Arab world by cementing its relationship with the most powerful and populous Arab country, Egypt. There are many areas of investment that need the participation of China and Chinese businesspeople to reach its potential of complete development. It is the responsibility of the Egyptian government to exert every possible effort to take advantage of this opportunity and create an accommodating environment for the visit to bear fruit. The Chinese government indicated its willingness to work with the Egyptian government in multi-infrastructure projects that will help create job opportunities for many Egyptians. I hope that the visit will be the beginning of collaboration in all areas that will benefit the Egyptian and Chinese people.' Holding an honorary professorship from China, Sava Hassan is a Canadian Egyptian author, poet and educator. He had published three books and wrote numerous articles in various topics in Canada, USA and China. He, also, won several writing awards including four from China. Currently, he is residing in China with his Chinese wife. The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website. A visitor watches a South Korean plastic surgery promotional film at an international travel expo in Beijing.[Photo provided to China Daily] More outbound Chinese are melding medical care with traditional tourism, Yang Feiyue reports. Chen is sick. That he knew. What he didn't know was what to do about it. So the 72-year-old Beijinger, who prefers to give only his surname, visited two top Beijing hospitals. He got two different responses about treatingor not treatingthe chronic lymphatic leukemia he was diagnosed with in October 2013. So, he traveled to Japan the next February. He needed a definite diagnosis. And wanted to enjoy himself a bit. "One (Chinese hospital) told me to wait since there were no symptoms. Another gave me pills." The Japanese hospital also told him to wait until he was symptomatic. The doctor extensively explained the disease's developmentsomething he appreciated since he'd only had brief sessions with Chinese doctors. "The (Japanese) doctor was patient and reasonable," he says. The process lasted over an hour. It only cost about $85 for everything, including bone-marrow tests. Chen and his wife also shopped in Tokyo's Ginza district, which he says helped take his mind off his anxieties about his illness. Chinese visitors at Stonehenge, a prehistoric site in Wiltshire, England. Britain has drawn an increasing number of tourists from China in the recent years.[Photo by Zhang Guilan/China Daily] Britain's new two-year visitor visas for Chinese nationals was launched on Jan 11, the British Home Office announced Wednesday. The new visa will cost 85 pounds (800 yuan, or $122), the same as the six-month visitor visa did, and will enable successful applicants to make multiple trips to Britain. "The launch of this new visa enhances our excellent visa service by offering better value for money and more flexible travel for Chinese visitors, while ensuring that the UK border is protected," Government Immigration Minister James Brokenshire says. "The number of Chinese visitors to the UK is rising year on year and this visa will allow Chinese visitors to further take advantage of the opportunities the UK has to offer for both tourism and business purposes." The Home Office says the launch follows Prime Minister David Cameron's announcement of the pilot, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Britain in October. WASHINGTON -- The United States announced on Sunday new sanctions relating to Iran's ballistic missile program, a day after the Obama administration lifted sanctions on Iran's nuclear program. Six Iranian nationals and 11 companies were added to an American blacklist, the US Treasury Department said in a statement. "This action is consistent with the US government's commitment to continue targeting those who assist in Iran's efforts to procure items for its ballistic missile program," said the statement. Adam Szubin, acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said "We have consistently made clear that the United States will vigorously press sanctions against Iranian activities outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- including those related to Iran's support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile program." US President Barack Obama said in a speech on Sunday that the US will impose new sanctions if Tehran continues missile program implementation. On Saturday, Obama signed an executive order to lift sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear program, the White House said. "Iran's implementation of the nuclear-related measures ..., as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency, marks a fundamental shift in circumstances with respect to Iran's nuclear program," Obama said in the executive order issued by the White House. Obama's decision came after the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran's compliance of the historic nuclear deal, known as JCPOA, reached last summer. Microsoft founder Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, arrives to attend a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 25, 2015. [Photo/Agencies] LONDON - The wealthiest 62 people now own as much as half the world's population, some 3.5 billion people, as the super-rich have grown richer and the poor poorer, an international charity said on Monday. The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 percent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion fell 41 percent, Oxfam said in a report released ahead of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Almost half the super-rich individuals are from the United States, 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries including China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia. "World leaders' concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action - the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend is accelerating," Oxfam International's executive director, Winnie Byanima, said in a statement accompanying the report. "We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top," Byanima added. About $7.6 trillion of individuals' wealth sits in offshore tax havens, and if tax were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year, Gabriel Zucman, assistant professor at University of California, Berkeley, has estimated. As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year, Oxfam said, referring to Zucman's work. This is enough money to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million children's lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school, Oxfam said in its report. "Multinational companies and wealthy elites are playing by different rules to everyone else, refusing to pay the taxes that society needs to function. The fact that 188 of 201 leading companies have a presence in at least one tax haven shows it is time to act," Byanima said. Ensuring governments collect the taxes they are owed by companies and rich individuals will be vital if world leaders are to meet their goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set in September, Oxfam said. China is willing to deepen cooperation with the US and other countries in the performing arts. "The performing arts industry in China is now entering the best stage of development, " said Lv Yuzhong, deputy director of the Ministry of Cultural and Art at a promotion seminar titled China on Stage: What China has to offer for the American Performing Arts Market held jointly by the Department for External Cultural Relations, the Chinese Consulate General in New York and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, on Sunday in New York. "China now is one of the biggest performing arts markets in the world. In 2015, the box-office revenue of performing arts in China reached 16.17 billion yuan ($2.54 billion), which marks a 9.03 percent increase compared to the previous year," said Pan Yan, general secretary of the China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA). "But the number is not significant compared to the size of the country and its population," Pan added. "That also means there should be a lot of room for improvement." Li Liyan, cultural counselor at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, said that the US performing arts industry is well developed compared with China. China and the US should strive for extensive cooperation and make joint development in personnel exchanges, production cooperation, marketing and promotion, Li said. A Chinese performing arts delegation attended the 59th members conference of the APAP in New York City (Jan 15- 19), which is organized by the CAPA and the Public Service Platform for Exporting Chinese Performing Arts Productions. The delegation consists of more than 50 managers and directors of 10 national troupes and seven provincial troupes and ensembles, including the China National Peking Opera Company, China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater, the China National Symphony Orchestra, the China National Opera House, and other booking agents, venues and presenters form across China. During the APAP, the Chinese delegation not only exhibits its productions in booths, but also invites American performing arts alliances, booking companies, presenters and other professionals in the performing arts industry to attend a special promotion seminar for Chinese performing arts production and to discuss building a marketing channel for international cooperation. Twenty-two Chinese performing arts presentations joined a production called China on Stage. Pan said that the integration of Chinese performing arts resources aims to establish a platform for purchase and sale for performing arts production and present to the world Chinas rich performing arts resources and its rapidly developing market. The APAP is a major international promotion seminar, and is held each January in New York. This year it attracted more than 3,000 booking agents, venues, presenters, troupes and ensembles from over 30 countries across the world. xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com Mourners light candles and place flowers at the site where Chinese student Jiang Yue was shot and killed in an apparent road rage incident on Jan 16 in Temple, Arizona. A memorial was held Monday afternoon at the location where more than 200 people, including the victim's fellow students, members of the Chinese community and local residents, gathered to mourn her death. [Photo courtesy of Kristine Liu/chinadaily.com.cn] A 19-year-old Chinese student was shot to death by a US woman after a collision between their cars at a busy intersection in Arizona on Saturday afternoon. The suspect, identified as 32-year-old Holly Davis, was arrested and booked on three charges including a first-degree murder, according to AP. Jiang Yue was confirmed to be a student at Arizona State University, said Jerry Gonzalez, spokesman of the University. The tragedy happened at around 3 pm on Saturday when Davis reportedly got off her car and fired several shots into Jiang's car after their cars collided near Broadway Road and McClintock Drive, according to local police. Besides hurting Jiang and her passenger, those shots made Jiang lose control of her car, which then struck another vehicle carrying a family, including a pregnant woman and three children. Mourners light candles and place flowers at the site where Chinese student Jiang Yue was shot and killed in an apparent road rage incident on Jan 16 in Temple, Arizona. A memorial was held Monday afternoon at the location where more than 200 people, including the victim's fellow students, members of the Chinese community and local residents, gathered to mourn her death. [Photo courtesy of Kristine Liu/chinadaily.com.cn] Jiang and her passenger, and also the family were taken to a local hospital later. Jiang was announced dead, while the others with minor injuries were kept in hospital for monitoring. The suspect fled from the scene but was later caught. According to local police report, the suspect admitted she was using Oxycodone drug. "We just want to say that fellow students are being encouraged to talk with counselors, and that our thoughts and prayers are with the student's family," Gonzalez said in a statement. A Chinese exchange student at Arizona State University was killed in an apparent road rage incident in Tempe, Arizona. The student, Yue Jiang, 19, died after being shot and her car subsequently crashed, police said. Holly Davis, 32, of Mesa, Arizona, has been charged with first-degree murder, Tempe Police Lieutenant Michael Poole said. Davis' vehicle was involved in a collision at an intersection on Jan 16. Davis allegedly got out of her car at a red light and fired several shots into the other vehicle, hitting Jiang several times, police said. ABC15 reported that Davis walked to the driver side of Jiang's vehicle and shot through the window. Jiang's male passenger and friend walked out of the Mercedes to assess the damage when he saw Davis with the gun, ABC15 reported. The suspect was identified after witnesses took down her license plate. Pooley says Jiang lost control of her vehicle, crashing into another car carrying a family of five. The family did not suffer serious injuries. Davis fled the scene but was later located. She was arrested on suspicion of first-degree premeditated murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, disorderly contact with a deadly weapon and prohibited possession. "Regarding yesterday's incident where ASU student Yue Jiang was killed, we just want to say that fellow students are being encouraged to talk with counselors, and that our thoughts and prayers are with the student's family," Jerry Gonzalez, an Arizona State spokesman, said in a statement. Five other people, three children, a pregnant woman and the male passenger in Jiangs car also were treated for injuries from the collision resulting from the shooting, according to azcentral.com. The incident started when two vehicles, one driven by Davis, the other by Jiang, collided near Broadway Road and McClintock Drive at about 3:40 pm, police said. After being hit, Jiang lost control of her car, which then struck a third vehicle carrying a family of five, including the pregnant woman and three children, Tempe police spokeswoman Officer Naomi Galbraith said. Police said Davis also pointed her gun at Jiang's passenger. Davis fled south on McClintock in a silver Volkswagen Passat, police said. According to police reports, she hid her car and her gun before returning to her apartment, where she took a shower and washed her clothes, azcentral.com reported. Davis had a previous conviction for resisting a lawful stop and fleeing in Missouri, according to arrest reports, and served three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. A woman holding an umbrella walks on a street covered with snow, in front of the Bank of Japan building in Tokyo, Japan January 18, 2016.[Photo/Agencies] TOKYO -- Some 26 people were injured after heavy snow hit eastern and northern Japan early Monday with parts of expressway being closed, flights cancelled and Shinkansen bullet train services suspended. A total of 26 people were injured due to the icy road in the snow-affected area, according to Japan's public broadcaster NHK. Japan's weather agency said the snow was caused by a rapidly developing low pressure system, forecasting that up to 80 cm of snow would fall in the Tohoku region and 60 cm in Hokkaido, Hokuriku and Tokai areas over the 24 hours through 6 a.m. Tuesday. Early commuters were trapped as traffic system was disrupted by the heavy snow. Shinkansen bullet train services and other trains operating in and around the Tokyo metropolitan area were delayed and some sections of expressway were closed. Local airliners said over 100 domestic flights were cancelled, mostly from and to Tokyo's Haneda airport. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the United States not to interfere in China's domestic affairs, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a news conference on Monday. Hong's comment came amid reports that William Burns, former US deputy secretary of state, met political leaders of Taiwan, including Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ing-wen, in the island on Monday. Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and Taiwan affairs are "totally China's domestic affairs", Hong reiterated. He requested the US "to be discreet in word and deed" and "not to interfere in any form with China's domestic affairs". He also urged the US to observe its promise to stick to the One-China Policy and the three joint communiques it signed with China, and to oppose "Taiwan independence". China hopes the US will "do more things that help stable development of the China-US relationship and peaceful development of the cross-Straits relationship, instead of the opposite," he added. President Xi Jinping left Beijing Tuesday morning to visit Middle East. He will elaborate on China's policies to boost peace and development in the Middle East during his first overseas trip of the year, which starts on Tuesday. This was disclosed at a media briefing in Beijing on Monday by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming, who also said Xi will outline China's measures for pragmatic cooperation. Observers have voiced high hopes for the president's schedule, which is aimed at reinvigorating the conflict-plagued region, including his speech on Middle East policy and possible outcomes regarding China's Belt and Road Initiative. During his state visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, Xi will also visit the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo and deliver a speech there, Zhang said. The trip, which covers the three major players in the region, was announced last week. This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt and of China-Arab ties. A joint statement on setting up a China-Saudi Arabia comprehensive strategic partnership will be issued during Xi's visit to the kingdom, Zhang said. Zhang also said major international and regional issues will be discussed during the visits to the three countries. Wu Sike, a former Chinese special envoy for Middle East affairs, said doubts had been raised over Xi's visit to the region, and his trip will show that China's policies toward the area "have been tested by time and the evolving situation". Wu said Xi's initiatives on co-building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road proposed in 2013 have received proactive responses from the region, including from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. Nourhan al-Sheikh, a professor of political sciences at Cairo University, told Xinhua News Agency, "Arab-Chinese ties are stable and far from any tensions, disagreements or contradictions in political positions." In a signed article published on Monday in the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh, Xi said that it is hoped that Saudi Arabia will become "an important participant, builder and beneficiary of the Belt and Road". Li Shaoxian, a senior expert in Middle East studies at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, said that Iran has been one of the "most honest supporters" of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the country is witnessing sanctions being lifted by the international community. "As it undertakes rebuilding, it expects international participation in its domestic economic development," Li said. Related: China reveals Xi's Mideast schedule A general view of the Arab foreign minister's meeting at the Arab League in Cairo, Egypt, January 10, 2016. [Photo/Agencies] Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming told a Monday press briefing in Beijing that President Xi Jinping will visit the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo and deliver a speech there during his three-country visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran from Tuesday to Saturday. Xi will elaborate on China's policies that boost peace and development in the Middle East as well as China's initiatives and measures on pragmatic cooperation, Zhang said. The trip will mark China's first major diplomatic action of the new year, Zhang said. This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Egypt and China-Arab ties, Zhang said. Zhang noted that all the three countries "have great influence" in the Middle East. Exchanges of views will be made during the visit on major international and regional issues, Zhang said. The official said the presidential visit "has a compact schedule and is rich in content". Possible outcomes of the visit may involve aspects such as energy, infrastructure construction, trade and investment facilitation, and cutting edge technologies, Zhang said. BEIJING - President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran will highlight China's constructive role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said on Monday. "President Xi will exchange views with leaders of the three countries on major international and regional issues to jointly advance peace and stability in the region and the world," Zhang said at a press briefing about Xi's visit from Jan 19 to 24. During his visit to Saudi Arabia, Xi will hold talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to discuss lifting bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Xi will hold separate meetings with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Abdul Latif Bin Rushid Al Zayani and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani. The two sides will exchange views on promoting China's cooperation with the GCC and Islamic nations. During the visit to Egypt, Zhang said, Xi will speak at the headquarters of the League of Arab States (LAS), making clear China's policy and propositions on promoting peace and development in the Middle East. He will also put forward suggestions on deepening pragmatic cooperation between China and Middle East nations. During his visit to Iran, Xi will hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, according to Zhang. China-Iran relations are facing important opportunities as interactions between Iran and the international community have grown markedly since the sealing of a comprehensive deal on the Iranian nuclear issue in 2015. The Chinese side will work with Iran to turn Xi's visit into a milestone in the development of bilateral ties. "The Chinese side has maintained thorough communication with countries in the Middle East through various channels in a bid to ease regional tensions," Zhang said. He said China has called for the international community to support all parties on hot issues in the Middle East to resolve disputes and differences through inclusive dialogue. China has sent a total of 15,000 peace-keeping personnel to the Middle East over the past years. And China has dispatched 21 fleets to carry out escort missions in the Aden Gulf, where pirates have created problems. "China will work with the international community to actively push for resolution of hot issues in the Middle East and make its due contribution to realizing peace and development in the region on the earliest possible date," Zhang said. Zhang said China is ready to provide assistance for relevant Middle East countries through friendly cooperation. Xi's visit will bear rich fruit in cooperation between China and the three countries. The results will cover energy, infrastructure, trade and investment facilitation, nuclear energy, space and satellite, and new energy. "China calls for the international community to assist economic and social development in the Middle East so as to consolidate the basis for lasting peace," Zhang said. TEHRAN - The upcoming visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Iran is "very important" for both countries, as it may lead to a leap in the mutual ties after years of restraint due to Western pressures, an Iranian economic expert told Xinhua on Saturday. "It is a very important visit in my opinion, because it will help China to remain Iran's still biggest trade partner," Dr. Saeed Leylaz said. After the removal of Western sanctions against Iran, European businessmen would rush to the country, which may cause a decrease in the volume of trade between Iran and China, Leylaz said. "However, China will be Iran's biggest trade partner even with the presence of the Western enterprisers," and Xi's visit in the wake of the sanction removal is highly important for both sides, he said. According to China's Foreign Ministry, Xi will pay a state visit to Iran from Jan. 22 to 23 at the invitation of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani. The visit will be days after the International Atomic Energy Agency announced Saturday that Iran has completed the necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an international deal on Tehran's nuclear program reached in July, 2015. After the UN nuclear watchdog's announcement, the European Union and the United States lifted their economic sanctions against Iran. International business has showed their eagerness to invest in Iran after the nuclear deal is implemented and sanctions removed. A number of Western officials and business delegations have visited Iran for post-sanction cooperation. Lifting the sanctions would unfreeze a huge amount of assets, around tens of billions of U.S. dollars, and allow Iranian oil to be sold internationally. Tehran would be able to get access to the international financial system after being isolated for years. As it opens an opportunity for the Western countries, so it holds true for China, Leylaz said. In the competitive climate of post-sanction era in Iran, "I suggest Chinese solution to Iran's economy," he said, meaning to "concentrate on China, after the lift of sanctions, to have better quality goods and cheaper at the same time." Besides, China's investments in Iran, alongside credit lines offer, would help China well compete in the Iranian market, Leylaz said. "It will bring huge expansion of ties between Iran and China from economic point of view." BEIJING -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran is set to highlight China's constructive role in promoting peace and development in the Middle East. PEACE AND STABILITY President Xi's tightly scheduled visit includes meetings with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Iranian President Hassan Rowhani and a speech at the headquarters of the League of Arab States (LAS) in Cairo. In the speech, Xi will make clear China's policies and proposals for promoting peace and development in the region. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming said at a briefing on Monday that in these meetings, Xi and Middle East leaders will hold an extensive exchange of views on major regional and international issues to advance peace and stability in the region and the world. During his visit to Riyadh, Xi will also hold separate meetings with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Abdul Latif Bin Rashid Al Zayani and Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Iyad Ameen Madani. China has always held a just and balanced stance on promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, Zhang said. China has maintained thorough communication with Middle East countries to help ease tensions in the region. He said through Xi's visit, China will continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East. "Xi's visit will help outline the new, active role that China wants to play in the Middle East," said Bai Lianlei, assistant researcher with the China Institute of International Studies. Bai said China is one of only a few countries in the world that simultaneously maintain sound relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel. He said Xi's Middle East trip at this juncture reflects the ever greater priority that China attaches to the region in its foreign policy. The trip will help recast China's role in the Middle East and set an orientation for the future growth of China-Middle East relations. FIGHTING TERRORISM The three countries that Xi will visit during his first Middle East trip are all greatly influential in the region. According to Vice Foreign Minister Zhang, China has always adopted a just and balanced stance on hot issues in the region. He emphasized China's consistent stance on terrorism and said Xi will exchange views with the leaders of the three countries on regional and international issues. Zhang said both China and the Middle East are victims of terrorism and important participants in international counter-terrorism cooperation. "We are ready to jointly address the challenge of terrorism," the vice foreign minister said. In the past few years, China has stepped up its efforts to mediate touchy issues in the Middle East and played a unique role in resolving the Iranian nuclear issue, the South Sudan issue and the Yemen crisis. "Xi's visit to the three countries shows that China has accumulated diplomatic resources and political wisdom (in addressing these issues)," Bai Lianlei said. China insists that promoting development is fundamental to realizing peace and stability in the region. China has firmly supported all countries in the region to explore their development paths according to their own national conditions. China is opposed to double standards on anti-terrorism and in connecting terrorism with specific religious and ethnic issues. China now has more than 1,700 peace-keeping personnel in the Middle East, accounting for more than half the number the country has sent abroad for global peace-keeping missions. SEIZING OPPORTUNITY Xi's visit will help plan pragmatic cooperation with the three countries and bring results. According to Vice Foreign Minister Zhang, cooperative projects are likely to emerge in energy, infrastructure, trade and investment, nuclear energy, space and satellites, new energy, science, technology, education and people-to-people cooperation. Financial cooperation will also become an important point of cooperation between China and the three countries, Zhang said. Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia will help lift bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. He and King Salman will jointly witness the signing of a series of cooperative documents and plan for the growth of bilateral ties for the next decade. "The Belt and Road Initiative that President Xi put forward has received an enthusiastic response from Middle East countries," Vice Foreign Minister Zhang said. Zhang said China-Iran relations are facing major opportunities for growth as Iran greatly improves its interactions with the international community. He said the two countries will sign a series of cooperative documents during Xi's milestone visit to Tehran. "China will continue to support Chinese companies to participate in projects in ... Iran's energy sector," Zhang said, emphasizing that such commercial cooperation has always been transparent, normal and open. During Xi's visit to Egypt, the two countries will develop a comprehensive plan for further cooperation. Xi will attend the signing ceremony of a number of cooperative documents and the unveiling of the second phase of the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone. It will be a milestone visit as the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties in Cairo. In his speech at the League of Arab States headquarters, Xi will put forward fresh proposals on deepening pragmatic cooperation between China and Middle East nations. Over the past decade, China's trade with the Middle East has grown from $20 billion dollars to $230 billion dollars. The figure is expected to top $500 billion dollars by 2020. The visit will reinforce the time-honored friendship and deepen mutual trust, pragmatic cooperation and cultural exchanges in a bid to realize common development, Bai Lianlei said. CULTURAL EXCHANGES People-to-people exchanges will be another focus of Xi's trip. He will deliver an important speech to Middle Eastern and Arab nations at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo. He will also present awards to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to China-Arab friendship. Xi will attend a ceremony marking the beginning of the China-Egypt cultural exchange year. During his trips to Saudi Arabia and Iran, the countries will reach agreements on strengthening people-to-people exchanges. China has always advocated equal exchanges among different cultures and respect for diversity. Li Guofu, head of the Middle East Department of the China Institute of International Studies, said China and Middle East countries experienced similar suffering during the colonial era and have common hopes for development. He said the countries now need to enhance mutual understanding in order to tap into the huge potential for cooperation. TEHRAN - Chinese President Xi Jinping is about to visit Iran later this week, and that will be an extraordinary event for the relationship of the two nations, said Pang Sen, Chinese ambassador to Iran. Days before Xi's visit, Pang told Xinhua in an interview that the trip will, in his words, leave "an indelible mark" in the history of bilateral high-level exchanges between Beijing and Tehran. Over the past two year, China and Iran have seen a series of high-level exchanges, and that have strengthened their mutual trust and understanding. Meanwhile, the two countries' bilateral economic and trade exchanges and cooperation have been continuously expanding. In 2014, two-way trade reached $50 billion dollars. Speaking of the "Belt and Road" initiative, the envoy said Iran has been very active in working with China on this front, adding that bilateral ties can be even more prosperous under the initiative. The belt and road initiative is proposed by the Chinese government in 2013, and is put forward to better integrate China into the global economy. Iran was an ancient civilization along the ancient Silk Road, and is now China's key partner to promote the initiative, Pang said, adding that a number of key joint projects have been progressing steadily. According to Pang, the two heads of states, during the visit, are expected to exchange views on bilateral relations, as well as major global and regional issues. The two nations are also going to sign a number of agreements and memorandums in a variety of areas, ranging from industrial capacity cooperation, investment, oil and gas to cultural exchanges, information sharing and Customs, he said. China is the world's largest developing country while Iran is a regional power, he said, noting that the two nations have neither unfinished problems inherited from the past nor conflicting interests at the moment. He believes that the friendly cooperation between the two nations will not only conforms to the fundamental interests of the two peoples, but is also going to help promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region. As the Chinese president is about to visit Iran, he will bring with him good wishes from the Chinese people, as well as their high expectations for a bright future of bilateral ties (Photo : Getty Images) The trade in beef between China and Hungary was made possible after both nations signed an agreement in October last year in the spirit of the Belt and Road initiative. Advertisement China has officially started importing beef from Hungary after the first ever shipment of 12-tonne frozen beef arrived at a Shanghai port this past week. The beef, valued at $70, 600, is expected to reach the market before the Chinese Lunar Year (Feb. 8), according to a joint press release by the Shanghai Customs and Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau on a joint press release. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The trade in beef between China and Hungary was made possible after both nations signed an agreement in October last year in the spirit of the Belt and Road initiative. The agreement permits the entry of imported beef from Hungary. Due to mad cow disease linked to farms in Europe, China barred beef coming from the European Union in 2001. Chinese authorities conducted thorough inspection of Hungary's cattle and beef production, and food safety management processes before the deal for the importation of beef from the European country was signed. Hungary not only ships beef to China, but also milk. Observers say the shipment of these products is continuously rising. Chinese beef and mutton consumers are also rising, increasing the demand on the market. According to Shanghai Customs, last year, the city imported about 170,000 tons of beef worth 5.5 billion yuan. China imports Hungarian frozen beef, while Hungary also buys pork from China. Hungary was ranked as the 22nd country based on the amount of imported China's meat and the 15th country with access to China's pork market during the year 2015, according to the Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection Quarantine (AQSIQ). Advertisement Tagsfirst ever shipped 12-tonne frozen beefHungary, MOU, Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, European Union, Chinese beef and mutton (Photo : Getty Images) Baidu is looking to artificial intelligence and big data to boost its revenue. Advertisement China's number one search engine giant Baidu has come under scrutiny from the country's technology regulator following complaints that the company is resorting to many unethical practices like pornography, fake advertisements and leak of personal information. One of Baidu's top executives was grilled for many hours on Friday by officials from the State Internet Information Office. Officials from the technology regulator later noted that Baidu would face severe legal penalties for its unethical business practices. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement While indulging in pornography and fake advertisements are damaging to Baidu's Image, at the heart of the latest controversy is that Baidu had replaced volunteer moderators with a private hospital on one of its popular health forums. This health forum is part of Baidu's official website Tieba.com. Chinese citizens have accused this private hospital of offering substandard medical advice to netizens. Baidu has also been accused of overlooking the health of netizens to boost its profit. In wake of all these accusations and complaints, Baidu made an official statement on its Weibo account saying "We've heard a broad range of criticism and advice from media and netizens, as well as the voices of Tieba users. This incident has exposed a dereliction of duty in the management of our Tieba commercialization." With regard to the accusation of offering substandard medical advice, Baidu categorically stated that it would soon partner with a non-profit organization to improve the quality of the medical information on Tieba.com. This is actually not the first time that Baidu has been accused of unethical business practices. In the past, the internet search giant has faced acquisitions of modifying its search results to favor certain companies. These latest accusations, however, can prove to be more damaging. After years of recording impressive profits, Baidu has been struggling to increase its profit and revenue for past couple of quarters. Its last quarterly results in July, 2015 was in fact highly disappointing. Advertisement TagsBaidu scandal, Baidu China (Photo : Reuters) China has warned Taiwan not to pursue independence following the recent election of the pro-democracy Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) candidate Tsai lng-wen. Advertisement Following the landslide victory of Taiwan's pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the polls this past weekend, China has made it clear to the winning candidates -- starting from President-elect Tsai lng-wen -- that Taiwan should abandon its 'hallucinations' of striving for independence and that any moves to pursue such an end would be 'poisonous.' Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The Chinese Cabinet's body tasked to handle Taiwan affairs has reaffirmed the One-China policy and its opposition to a Taiwan independence in the aftermath of the election of the pro-independence candidate Tsai as the first female president of Taiwan. In a statement issued after Tsai's victory, the cabinet body said that although it respects the winners of the recent Taiwan elections, this does not in any way signal a change in the status quo of Taiwan independence. The statement added that China would continue to work on maintaining peace and stability between the two sides. The statement was issued following the presidential victory of Tsai, with her party members also gaining majority in the national legislature. The election outcome, analysts said, is an outright rejection of the pro-Beijing Kuomintang Party, who have led the self-governing island for eight years. China's official Xinhua news agency has also warned Taiwan about any moves towards independence. "If there is no peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's new authority will find the sufferings of the people it wishes to resolve on the economy, livelihood and its youth will be as useless as looking for fish in a tree," it said. Tsai, for her part, said that she, too, will maintain the status quo with China, although she has refused to acknowledge the principle that China and Taiwan are parts of a single nation to be unified eventually. Tsai said her victory reflected Taiwan's desire for democracy and the people's will to have a government that is ' steadfast in protecting this nation's sovereignty.' She said both China and Taiwan must find ways to interact with each other peacefully, while maintaining that China must respect Taiwan's international space. Tsai's DPP won 68 seats in the 113-member national legislature, which used to be dominated by the Nationalists. The rest of the seats were won by independents and smaller parties. Political observers say Tsai's win will further complicate China-Taiwan relationship. China has been vocal about its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan had earlier threatened that it will use force should Taiwan pursue independence. Advertisement TagsTaiwan President-elect Tsai lng-wen, Taiwan, Taiwan Strait (Photo : YouTube Screenshot) Chinese researchers have made some progress in finding out the mode of transmission of the Ebola virus. Advertisement Chinese scientists have made some progress in discovering a breakthrough against the deadly Ebola virus following the outbreak in West Africa in March 2014. In a research published on Thursday, Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, scientists claim to have uncovered a new way the virus invades the human cells, thus offering a new pharmacological development. They found that the virus tends to stay in the semen of men for up to nine months. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement According to Gao Fu, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and also researcher at the Institute of Microbiology, there is no existing clinically approved drug in the market against Ebola yet. And since no one knows when the next Ebola outbreak will be, there is a need for in-depth research to determine its true mode of transmission and infection. In addition, the drugs currently used against the virus only relieves the disease's symptoms including fever, diarrhea and headache. Although clinical trials are still ongoing, just one vaccine has been developed. According to co-author Qi Jianxun, discovering the methods that the virus enters its host would pave the way to drug development. This process of attempting to inhibit virused from getting inside the cell on a molecular level, has been proven effective. For instance, the development of Tamiflu against influenza virus like H1N1 and H7N9. "Our team started to study the Ebola virus in 2011. ... There are chances that we can develop a drug ahead of other teams in the world," co-authors Wang Han and Song Jian said. Advertisement TagsEbola Virus, Cell journal, Research (Photo : Getty Image) A 2-year-old infant died because of complications in Hunan province, but to leave a legacy behind, her parents donated her organ to a 9-year-old girl suffering from chronic kidney failure. Advertisement Out of a tragedy comes new life. A 2-day-old baby born in Hunan Province has become China's youngest organ donor after the infant's kidneys was successfully transplanted to a dying girl suffering from chronic renal failure. The newborn baby's parents decided to donate her kidneys after she died of anoxic encephalopathy, neonatal asphyxia and lung infection. The parents said they wanted to let their baby stay in the world - even though in a different way. Like Us on Facebook Advertisement The infant's small kidneys, measuring less than 4 centimeters long, were successfully transplanted by surgeons from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University. The recipient of the kidney, a 9-year old girl idenitified as Huang Jing, who has been suffering from kidney failure since she was a toddler, expressed happiness and excitement about the prospect of going to school. The operation was spearheaded by Dr. Peng Longkai, the director of the organ transplant department of the hospital. Dr. Peng said that the operation was complex as it involved dealing with tiny blood vessels. However, he is positive that in the next three months, the kidney will grow in Huang's body. Technically speaking, kidneys reach their optimum function at 37 weeks inside the womb, making them transplantable from that time. In China, organ donors are scarce. According to the national kidney transplant registry, in 2011, of over a million people were in need of a kidney and only 5,253 patients received one. This means hopeful recipients only have a 0.5% chance every year. Kidneys remain to be the most in-demand organ in the country, accounting for two-thirds of the 1.5 million patients in need of organs. Advertisement Tagsorgan donor, organ transplant, kidney transplant, Second Xiangya Hospital Human-animal hybrid research continues despite federal funding ban 18 January, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , | NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) Despite a ban on federal funding for "Chimera" research or the mixing of human genes with those of other members of the animal kingdom several research centers and universities in the U.S. are moving forward with the process, MIT Technology Review has reported. Scientists involved in the research claim they are looking for ways to create and harvest human organs from other animals, such as sheep and goats, by inserting human DNA ("pluripotent cells") in animal embryos. Critics see the potential for disaster the creation of a beast like the mythical Chimera, made up of a lion, a goat and a serpent (or dragon). Scientists suggest nothing of the sort could occur since the amount of human biological material inserted into the animal is so small, but the National Institutes of Health believes the research could, in fact, alter an animal's "cognitive state." That is why the NIH like the Greek hero Bellephoron is trying to kill Chimera. In September, the agency posted an announcement that it would not fund Chimera research, taking a conservative approach to the potential ethical problems the hybrids could create. My view is that the contribution of human cells is going to be minimal, maybe 3 percent, maybe 5 percent. But what if they contributed to 100 percent of the brain? What if the embryo that develops is mostly human? It's something that we don't expect, but no one has done this experiment, so we can't rule it out. "The NIH action was triggered after it learned that scientists had begun such experiments with support from other funding sources, including from California's state stem-cell agency. The human-animal mixtures are being created by injecting human stem cells into days-old animal embryos, then gestating these in female livestock," the journal reports. While none of the embryos were allowed to come to term, the journal estimates that at least 20 Chimeras have been produced, creating what one commentator called "an early proof-of-principle step towards growing human organs inside animal tissue." In presentations in November at the NIH's campus in Maryland, researcher Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte illustrated progress in the practice by showing data on pig embryos containing human biological material. Belmonte is employed by the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, which focuses on cures for disease. He is researching how to use "pluripotent cells," which can become any type of human tissue, to return adult cells back to the embryonic state in the hopes of curing congenital defects. Another presentation from the University of Minnesota featured photos of a two-month-old pig fetus where the practice had been successful and a congenital eye condition reversed. Daniel Garry, a cardiologist at the university, told MIT Technology Review that researchers currently have the ability to "create an animal without a heart." "We have engineered pigs that lack skeletal muscles and blood vessels," Garry said. The animals are, of course, not viable organisms without their key components, but according to the principle of the research, scientists believe they could insert human cells into the embryo such as one without a heart and let the human cells take over. In that case, a human heart would grow inside of a swine and that heart could later be transplanted into a human. The idea has earned Garry and the university a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Army (presumably to see if replacement hearts can be grown for injured soldiers). Still, many are still concerned that the introduction of human DNA could render the animals "too human" simply to dispose of in the research process. That is why Pablo Ross, a veterinarian and developmental biologist at the University of California-Davis does not want fully developed hybrid animals in the program. "My view is that the contribution of human cells is going to be minimal, maybe 3 percent, maybe 5 percent. But what if they contributed to 100 percent of the brain? What if the embryo that develops is mostly human? It's something that we don't expect, but no one has done this experiment, so we can't rule it out," Ross said. The development of higher level thinking in the animals could happen, if the findings of a 2014 study are correct. Scientists have already created mice with a brain comprised of both mouse and human brain cells. According to the research, the mice with human brain cells were significantly smarter than the control mice. It is findings like these that lead scientists to believe the research should continue, even if the federal spigot is turned off. They are also working to reverse the federal ban. In November, researchers at Stanford University penned a letter to the NIH asking it to allow funding for Chimera research and lift its "shadow of negativity" over the research. "The current NIH restriction serves as a significant impediment to major scientific progress in the fields of stem cell and developmental biology and regenerative medicine and should be lifted as soon as possible," the letter said. It also claimed current research does not evidence the kind of human-animal monster many fear. Even without federal funding, research continues in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom (Chimera research is legal there if the embryos are destroyed within 14 days). One funding mechanism is the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which refers to itself as the state's "stem cell agency." The CIRM was created by the state to allow for independent stem cell research even when political winds do not blow in its favor. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to launch a fresh investigation to know the whereabouts of the 219 girls kidnapped from Chibok school by Boko Haram in 2014. Parents of the kidnapped girls marched to the presidential complex to protest for government action and meet with the president. "I assure you that I go to bed and wake up every day with the Chibok girls on my mind," Buhari said in the statement after meeting with the parents. "Securing the Chibok girls is my responsibility. The service chiefs and heads of our security agencies will tell you that in spite of the dire financial straints that we found the country in, I continue to do my best to support their efforts in that regard." In April 2014, the militants attacked a girls' school and captured the 270 girls, but about 50 girls managed to escape as they were loading the girls in the waiting vehicles. About 17,000 people have died by Boko Haram perpetrated violence since 2009, and millions were displaced from their homes. A campaign with the slogan, "Bring Back Our Girls," was started to gather national and international support to build up government and military resources to rescue the girls. The chief of defense staff General Gabriel Olonisakin who was present with the president during the meeting with parents said that the military can raid the hideouts where the girls are held captive but he said that they have to be cautious with intelligence so that they don't "do anything to jeopardize the lives of the girls." The president also said that they will investigate how the kidnappings happened, and what actions government took or failed to take to rescue the girls. "The investigation will seek to, among other things, unravel the remote and immediate circumstances leading to the kidnap of the girls by Boko Haram terrorists as well the other events, actions and inactions that followed the incident," the statement from the president said. Oby Ezekwesili, former education minister, who also leads the Bring Back Our Girls campaign said that the president informed them that they have not been able to collect "reliable intelligence that would enable them to rescue the girls as immediately as we are demanding". After becoming president, Buhari made significant changes in the military and stepped up military efforts against the militants, and last month announced that the terrorists were "technically" defeated, even though there have been continued attacks from the group. Buhari said that the government is open to negotiate with Boko Haram for the release of the girls, as they were reportedly demanding imprisoned members in exchange for the girls, but the administration was not able to single out members to talk as the leadership in the militant group seems to be falling apart. Iranian American Pastor Saeed Abedini was released from an Iranian prison after being held for over three years, and is now undergoing medical examination in Germany at a US military camp, according to media reports. Pastor Abedini is a convert from Islam to Christianity and had refused to recant his Christian faith, and was imprisoned on charges of undermining national security through private religious gatherings in house churches since the early 2000s. Since his imprisonment, millions of people signed an online petition to secure release of the Pastor. "This has been an answer to prayer," said the pastor's wife Naghmeh Abedini of his release. "This is a critical time for me and my family. We look forward to Saeed's return and want to thank the millions of people who have stood with us in prayer during this most difficult time." Naghmeh further described the reaction when she broke the news to her children that their father was finally coming home. "They were just excited. They couldn't believe it," she said. His detention in the Iranian prison shed limelight on the state of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, and around the world. Evangelical activists had been rallying international and political support for his release, and tried to make it a part of nuclear deal with Iran. As the deal was signed, the Obama administration loosened some $100 billion of economic sanctions against Iran, and seven US prisoners were released in exchange for four Americans held in the Iranian prisons. President Obama welcomed the homecoming of the Americans from the Iranian jails, and said that this was a consequence of years of negotiations to release the prisoners. "Several Americans unjustly detained by Iran are finally coming home," he stated. "In some cases these Americans faced years of continued detention. And I've met with some of their families. I've seen their anguish, how they ache for their sons and husbands." "I gave these families my word - I made a vow - that we would do everything in our power to win the release of their loved ones. And we have been tireless," the president said, adding that the families "finally got the news that they were waiting for." In the 2012 superhero film The Avengers, a serpent-like, mechanical behemoth is closing in on our ragtag team of heroes. Tired and overmatched, their only hope lies hidden within the mild-mannered frame of scientist Dr. Bruce Banner, who morphs into the big, green and powerful creature known as the Hulk when rattled by conditions of great stress or anger. Seconds before Banner gives himself over to the rage that transforms him into his alter ego, a no-nonsense Captain America volunteers, Dr. Banner, I think now might be a good time for you to get angry. Banner responds with a roguish smile, Thats my secret, Cap. Im always angry. Im always angry. I identified with that line and repeated it many times in the weeks after I saw the movie, much to my wifes chagrin. What resonated with me was that sense of living with a concealed, low-temperature rage; of wanting to avoid difficult people or awkward situations but being dragged into them wholesale nonetheless; of knowing certain conversations with certain folks would invariably lead to unpleasant debates about politics, religion orheaven forbidrace, but being sucked in anyway; of being looked upon as the harmless black guy my white friends could talk to about virtually anything related to race and know they wouldnt be unfairly judged. Of course, these are all good things in their own waysometimes its beneficial to be dragged into uncomfortable situations or forced into interacting with people with whom we wouldnt ordinarily connect; sometimes a fierce debate on a taboo subject such as politics or religion can help both parties see a different side to an issue; sometimes being a persons ... 1 Read as Single Page Page 1 of 3 Image: Teresa Robinson/Flickr Many leaders mistake mission and vison, but theyre not the same. Martin Luther King Jr. had a visiona dreamto end segregation. His mission involved various methods like marches, speeches, and boycotts to help make that vision a reality. The mission is the work to be done in order to reach the vision. Does your church or ministry have a clear vision of where its headed and a mission to see that vision become reality? I hear many women in ministry sum up their purpose with a simple I have a heart for the people. But passion isnt enough. We need a clear vision for what we want to accomplish, and we need a plan to get there. We like to say our vision as Christians is to see everyone find their way back to God, but the statistics tell a different story. A survey conducted by the Center for Church Effectiveness found that the average evangelical church leads 1.7 people to Jesus a year. That is an astounding number. Aubrey Malphurs, author of Advanced Strategic Planning, describes the North American church as follows: a ship without a compass, drifting aimlessly on the ocean. The church may have a clear vision, but we dont have a clear plan for making it reality. Whats Your Vision? Many pastors say the vision for their church is the greatest source of tension. A proper vision inspires and ignites people to action. Is your vision to see the people in your community discipled daily? Is your vision to help the community immigrants learn to read? Maybe your vision is to help single mothers attend college, or get all the homeless people in your community into housing. We cant look at another church or ministry and simply copy their vision. Every leader, community, and ministry is different. Instead, spend time in prayer and planning with God to determine where hed like to take your church or ministry. The people in Nehemiahs day had no vision. Jerusalem lay in ruins. But along came Nehemiah, a motivated, godly leader who had a vision to rebuild the wall. When Nehemiah heard the wall was down with its gates burned with fire, he wept, and mourned for many days (Nehemiah 1:4). Have you spent time mourning how your church or ministry has fallen short? Seek direction from God for the next phase of your ministry. I heard a pastor once say that a ministry with significance cant be produced in our head. Rather it has to be birthed through prayer. When we spend time in prayer and fasting, seeking Gods will, he will lead us into a clear vision. Catholics Petition US Bishops to Condemn, Ban Heretical Publication Contact: Michael Hichborn, The Lepanto Institute , 540-847-5501, LepantoInstitute@gmail.com WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2016 / "The National Catholic Reporter has a long history of dissenting from Catholic teaching, but what it has done recently makes it an enemy of the Church," said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute. The petition lists several positions taken by the National Catholic Reporter which are in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching, including support for women's ordination, contraception and same-sex "marriage." "Catholics are confused enough about the truths of the Faith, but for the USCCB to give the National Catholic Reporter a modicum of respectability is nothing short of scandalous." said Michael Voris, Sr. Executive Producer of ChurchMilitant. "Outfits led by faithful Catholics who fully support Catholic teaching are blocked, mocked and attacked by the same heirarchs maintaining an open door to flagrant promoters of heresy. This double standard is galling, self-centered and the source of great harm." According to Canon 831 of the Code of Canon Law, "the Christian faithful are not to write anything for newspapers, magazines, or periodicals which are accustomed to attack openly the Catholic religion or good morals." "The National Catholic Reporter has already been officially condemned by its own bishop twice," said Hichborn. "Because it has only ramped up its assault on the Catholic faith since then, it's time NCR is formally condemned and banned by all bishops in every diocese." The Lepanto Institute and ChurchMilitant are asking Catholics to sign the petition here: WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- The Lepanto Institute and ChurchMilitant.com have launched an open letter petition to the Catholic bishops of the United States, asking them to formally condemn the National Catholic Reporter and deny it any access to members of the clergy and official Catholic events."The National Catholic Reporter has a long history of dissenting from Catholic teaching, but what it has done recently makes it an enemy of the Church," said Michael Hichborn, president of the Lepanto Institute.The petition lists several positions taken by the National Catholic Reporter which are in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching, including support for women's ordination, contraception and same-sex "marriage.""Catholics are confused enough about the truths of the Faith, but for the USCCB to give the National Catholic Reporter a modicum of respectability is nothing short of scandalous." said Michael Voris, Sr. Executive Producer of ChurchMilitant. "Outfits led by faithful Catholics who fully support Catholic teaching are blocked, mocked and attacked by the same heirarchs maintaining an open door to flagrant promoters of heresy. This double standard is galling, self-centered and the source of great harm."According to Canon 831 of the Code of Canon Law, "the Christian faithful are not to write anything for newspapers, magazines, or periodicals which are accustomed to attack openly the Catholic religion or good morals.""The National Catholic Reporter has already been officially condemned by its own bishop twice," said Hichborn. "Because it has only ramped up its assault on the Catholic faith since then, it's time NCR is formally condemned and banned by all bishops in every diocese."The Lepanto Institute and ChurchMilitant are asking Catholics to sign the petition here: www.lepantoinstitute.org/usccb-petition Share Tweet UNC excavation crew in Galilee region of Israel uncover first known depictions of biblical heroines An excavation team in Israel has discovered the first known depiction of two biblical heroines from the Old Testament. World to reach 8 billion people in November, India to unseat China as most populous in 2023: UN By Nov. 15, the worlds population is projected to reach 8 billion, and by 2023, India is projected to surpass China as the worlds most populous country, according to a new report from the United Nations. Single, non-religious young adults are most unhappy Americans post-COVID-19: report Young adults under 35 who are single and non-religious report the highest levels of unhappiness since the COVID-19 pandemic began and since 1972, when the General Social Survey began measuring levels of happiness among Americans, a new analysis from the Institute of Family Studies suggests. 15-year old Danish girl arrested, charged for inciting terror on social media, keeping explosives at home Police have apprehended a 15-year old Danish girl who recently converted to Islam, for keeping explosives at her home and inciting terror on social networking sites, reports said. The girl whose name is being withheld was arrested last Jan. 13 at her home in a village of Kundbt on the island of Zealand, Denmark's TV2 reported, according to WND. "A bomb squad was sent to the home, and an object removed via the basement,'' Danish tabloid BT reported, citing a witness. On Thursday, Jan. 14, the girl appeared in court and was charged under Denmark's terror laws with "possession of explosives, detonation of explosives and sanctioning or encouraging terror," IBT reported. The court appearance was reportedly held behind ''double-locked doors,'' meaning all information is withheld from the media and the public. According to investigators, the girl's Facebook page indicated that she was part of the Danish group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which promotes the establishment of a pan-global caliphate governed under Sharia law. Reacting to reports, Frank Jensen, Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), told TV2 that the incident was "unusual.'' "This is about a girl as young as 15. On top of that, there are the explosives. It is quite unusual,'' he said, RT reported. He noted that the group, which the girl appears to have supported, has been into numerous controversies in Denmark. Last year, the group called for Muslims to boycott elections, saying they are incompatible with Islam. In January 2015, the group hit out a local policy to deradicalise Muslim youths, claiming it is "sad Western culture'' which needs to change. In 2006, a spokesman for the Danish group was arrested after distributing anti-Semitic leaflets in Copenhagen which described suicide bombings in Israel as "legitimate'' acts of martyrdom, according to WND. Denmark is among several European countries that have stepped up security after the Nov. 13, 2015 Paris attacks. At least 130 people were killed and more than 300 injured when the Islamic State jihadist group launched the attacks in the French capital. 2 Virginia men charged with attempt to provide support to ISIS; suspect arrested at airport about to board flight to Syria Two Virginia men were charged by the U.S. government Saturday with attempting to support the Islamic State (ISIS) after one of them was arrested at the airport before boarding his flight en route to Syria. The U.S. Justice Department identified the suspects as Joseph Hassan Farrokh, 28, and Mahmoud Amin Mohamed Elhassan, 25, both of Woodbridge, Virginia. Farrokh was arrested Friday at Richmond International Airport in Virginia as he was attempting to board his flight to Chicago, where he intended to take his flight to Amman, Jordan, with the goal of entering Syria to join ISIS. Elhassan was also arrested Friday in Woodbridge after he returned from driving Farrokh to Richmond. Farrokh, a U.S. citizen originally from Pennsylvania, is facing a charge of providing material support to ISIS while Elhassan, a legal permanent U.S. resident originally from Sudan, with aiding Farrokh's attempt. Court documents showed that since November last year, Farrokh has been planning to leave the United States and join ISIS in Syria, meeting several times with confidential human sources to work details of how and when he could travel to Syria. He bought an airline ticket on Dec. 21 for a flight from Richmond to Jordan. From there, he planned to travel to Syria and join the terrorist group. Elhassan introduced Farrokh to a person who the former believed maintained connections to individuals engaged in jihad overseas. He knew of Farrokh's plans to travel to Syria and join ISIS and told others that Farrokh lied to his family, saying he was going to Saudi Arabia to study. He picked up Farrokh on Friday morning and drove him to Richmond, about one mile from the airport. Farrokh then took a cab to the airport, checked in for his flight, cleared security and was arrested. Elhassan returned to Woodbridge and voluntarily agreed to be questioned by FBI agents but made false statements, according to court documents. The two will appear before a court on Jan. 19 in Alexandria, Virginia. If they are found guilty, Farrokh and Elhassan each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Archbishop of Armagh defends Primates' action against the US Episcopal Church The head of the Anglican Church of Ireland has defended the decision by the Primates of the worldwide Anglican Communion to take action against the US Episcopal Church over homosexuality. Archbishop of Armagh Dr Richard Clarke, who was among the Primates from 38 provinces who met in Canterbury last week, insisted the Americans had been neither humiliated nor sanctioned. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said last week that the decision to remove some of the Anglican Communion rights of The Episcopal Church should be regarded as "consequences" rather than sanctions for approving same-sex marriage and consecrating openly gay bishops. Dr Clarke, speaking on Radio Ulster's Sunday Sequence, said: "Those who wanted to push as they're entitled to do an agenda about gay marriage, wanted to say say 'look the Americans have been sanctioned, they're being humiliated'. The reality is they haven't. "The first decision the primates made was we wanted to stay together, we wanted to walk together, while leaving enough breathing space, or faith space, so that hopefully we can grow together." He said he was "always open" to changing his own mind on the issue of same sex marriage. "My own view is that I believe in equality absolutely and completely and I don't believe that God is homophobic. "It's a difficult one to call. I would hope that we'll work at ways in which we might find some form of pastoral accommodation that would be true to the scriptures and to our understanding that every human person is made in the image and likeness of God and is equally loved by him and must be equally loved by us." In their concluding statement, the Primates said The Episcopal Church should "no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity". Bishop Angaelos: The Church's silence has contributed to the decline of Christianity in the Middle East The Church's silence on refugees has been a contributing factor to the decline of Christianity in the Middle East, the General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK said today. His Grace Bishop Angaelos addressed a conference hosted by the World Council of Churches and the UN to speak of practical ways leaders can respond to the refugee crisis. He joined a number of other church leaders to highlight the mass exodus of Christians from their homeland in the Middle East. "Where there was once a 25 per cent Christian population in the Middle East it is now around 5 per cent, and tragically 4 per cent of those 5 per cent are in Egypt," he said. "Our silence as Churches, nations, and as a world community, has been a contributing factor to this," said Angaelos in an impassioned plea. "We have lowered the threshold of human dignity; if people are not dying then it has become acceptable... yet it is up to us to defend those whose God-given rights and freedoms are violated." He called on the Church, as "the largest NGO in the world", to work "in collaboration" in responding to this situation. Christians are not registering as refugees in UNHCR camps and a result "become doubly disadvantaged: persecuted for their religion, Christian or otherwise, and then also by not having equal access to international schemes", Angaelos said, reiterating a point he has made a number of times in the past. "We need a unified and unifying approach, to work collaboratively and to understand that we have a role and responsibility to act. "This is an ideal opportunity for us to prove that we can effectively and collaboratively respond to this situation, and make a real difference." He concluded by saying, "the message of this gathering to those suffering can be summarised in the words of Revelation 1:9: 'We share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance.'" Brain-deforming Zika virus carried by mosquitoes reaches Hawaii, infects baby Is the world on the verge of an epidemic due to a spreading virus carried by mosquitoes that can deform the human brain? The state of Hawaii became the latest area to report a case of the untreatable Zika virus, after health officials recently confirmed that a baby born with brain damage at a hospital in Oahu, Hawaii was infected with the disease. The baby is the first incident of the Zika virus infection in Hawaii, and the second in the United States. An unidentified woman from Texas who traveled to Latin America, where the virus is quite prevalent, was likewise confirmed to have been infected. Health authorities said the baby got the Zika virus from her mother who had lived until May 2015 in Brazil, where thousands of babies were monitored for brain deformities or damage due to the dangerous virus. Doctors believe the woman was infected during her early pregnancy, causing the virus to attack the embryo, damaging its developing brain. The Zika virus, transmitted when a carrier mosquito bites a human being, is believed to be the cause of microcephaly in young children, or the development of an unusually small skull. Other symptoms of the Zika virus infection include mild fever, joint pain and skin rash. At present, there are no medicines, vaccines or treatments yet for this infection. Hawaii health officials nevertheless assured that there is no risk yet of transmission or an outbreak of the Zika virus in the state. Aside from U.S. and Brazil, cases of the Zika virus have also been reported in Yap Island in Micronesia, in Tahiti and other parts of French Polynesia. Just recently, American health officials issued a travel warning, particularly for pregnant women in the US, against going to 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where Zika cases have been recorded. Burkina Faso: Elderly missionary couple 'kidnapped by Islamic extremists' Suspected Islamic extremists have kidnapped an elderly missionary couple in northern Burkina Faso. Ken and Jocelyn Elliott, who are Australian and in their 80s, were abducted on the same day as al-Qaeda launched a deadly attack on a hotel in the country's capital, Ouagadougou. It is unclear if the attacks were related. Although the couple's whereabouts are unknown and no reason has been given for the kidnapping, a militant group in nearby Mali told Australian media the al-Qaeda-linked Emirate of the Sahara group was holding the couple. Dr Elliott and his wife Jocelyn have lived in Djibo, near the Malian border, since the 1970s and have built up a 120-bed hospital where Elliott is the only surgeon. "Our ultimate aim is to show the love of God and the goodness and power of Him through medicine," said Elliott on a previous occasion. Locals in Djibo have started a social media campaign calling for their release. The "Djibo supports Dr Ken Elliott" Facebook page has several thousand likes with many messages of support being posted from around the world. Elliott's hospital is the only one for hundreds of kilometres and the Facebook page pleads for his return, saying his "numerous patients are waiting for him". "Elliott is all for us and we need him like a baby needs his mother," said resident Moussa Dicko, quoted on the page. "Elliott is a Burkinabe and a humane person," said Francois Ramde. "He represents the best of humanity." "Let the name of God not be used in connection with this ignoble act because it was God who sent Elliott to us and will bring him back," said Roots Hassane. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, a BBC West Africa correspondent, Thomas Fessy, said the "kidnapping bears the signs of an operation mounted by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)". The same group claimed responsibility for the attacks in Ouagadougou last Friday where 28 people were killed and a further 56 injured. Experts suggest the Elliots may have been taken across the border into Mali, and diplomats are expecting a ransom request to be made. Call for Ofsted chief to resign over Sunday school 'inspections' A senior Conservative MP has called for ministers to sack the chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw after he said church and religious groups which involve children will need to be registered under new rules The Government, whose consultation on the plans closed last week, has consistently maintained that Sunday schools and one-off gatherings will not be caught by the proposals intended to prevent the radicalisation of children in unregulated educational settings. The stated aim has been that places where children aged up to 18 receive more than six hours a week of instruction will have to register and face Ofsted inspections in future. Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, told an LBC phone-in that the Government is concerned about the radicalisation of children in unregistered schools and wants Sunday schools, madrassas and after-school clubs to be registered. He said: "That won't take a lot of time and we will not be inspecting every one of them but we will know that they exist. And if there are concerns, if whistle-blowers do tell us there's an issue, then we will go in and inspect." Asked by LBC's Nick Ferrari why Sunday schools would be "lumped into one potential problem area", Sir Michael said: "We've got to deal with this in an even-handed way". He explained: "All we're saying is that if church groups or religious groups want to run out-of-school classes then they need to register so that the country and the Department of Education know they exist and that they're being run properly". Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has contradicted Sir Michael. In a letter received by The Christian Institute she said:"We are not proposing to regulate institutions teaching children for a short period every week, such as Sunday schools or the Scouts. Nor will the proposed system apply to one off residential activities, such as a week long Summer camp." Four Conservative MPs have criticised the plans. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Sir Gerald Howarth, Fiona Bruce, David Burrowes and Gary Streeter said they will have a "seriously detrimental effect" on the freedom of religious organisations. A meeting between Conservative MPs and Sir Michael Morgan is due this week as well as a Parliamentary debate on Wednesday. The plans were announced by the Prime Minister last year. He said he wanted to take action against the minority of places where children had their "heads filled with poison and their hearts filled with hate". Sir Gerald Howarth, Conservative defence minister in Mr Cameron's last government, called on Sir Michael resign. He told The Daily Telegraph: "He has flatly contradicted ministers who have assured us that there is no intention of investigating Sunday schools, and he has used as justificaiton the very criticism that we have made that he wants to be even handed. "You cannot be even handed about people who present no threat to this country at all and people who present a very real and present threat. "It will be Sir Michael and his officials who will decide whether to engage in regulation of Sunday schools which is absurd. "Unless Sir Michael publicly renounces an intention to investigate Sunday schools, the minsters must sack him - he must go. "We cannot have an Ofsted inspector behaving in this high handed and draconian fashion." Canadian pastor's hard labour sentence in North Korea 'outrageously unjust', says defector and friend Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim's life sentence to hard labour in North Korea is "outrageously unjust", according to a friend who knew him while he worked in the totalitarian state. The friend, a defector from North Korea, told Daily NK that the harsh sentence passed on the pastor, born in South Korea, was egregrious, especially given how much voluntary work he had done for the people of North Korea. North Korea's highest court last month sentenced Pastor Lim to hard labor for life for subversion. He had been held by the country since last February and appeared on North Korean state media confessing to crimes against the state. The source, who requested anonymity, said he knew the pastor in Canada and would go on trips with him, attend his sermons and support his work. "He really helped people like me who are from North Korea a lot. In some ways, I would say a lot of people from the North managed to get permanent residency in Canada thanks to his help. He provided a lot of financial help but also supported us so we would be able to settle down quickly in Canada. Defectors who were able to get permanent residency thanks to Pastor Lim now have stable lives in Canada." He said Pastor Lim had lived in the same apartment for 25 years and had an old Korean car. "In North America, if you have a church with over 3,000 members in the congregation, it's considered a huge church. I don't know how this will sound, but had he wanted to, he would have been able to live a comfortable life in Canada, but he didn't choose to live that way at all." Pastor Lim visited North Korea regularly. "He would go to the North two to three times a month. All combined, I think he has visited more than 100 times," the source added. His activities there included building a bread factory in the Rajin-Sonbong area and a service to help North Korea's homeless children who often beg for food. He also built a noodle factory and sent aid from Canada. People were shocked when Lim was detained, the source said. "He went there not for any political reasons but because he wanted to help the North Korean people." They feared the worst when he did not return home. "North Korea easily can hold someone captive or kill them if they think that person doesn't suit their taste. That had become reality." Children dead and church damaged in rocket attacks and bombings in Syria A leading evangelical Christian church in Aleppo, Syria, has become the latest casualty of the terror advance of Islamic State. The Armenian Evangelical Emmanuel Church in Aleppo suffered a heavy rocket attack yesterday, just hours after the end of the morning service. Fortunately the service was over so there were no deaths or injuries but the church will need extensive repairs before it can be used again. The Rev Haroutioun Selimian, head of the Armenian evangelical community of Syria, was among those who visited the church to assess the damage. The attack was reported by the Lebanese weekly Kantsasar. In another attack, at least 40 people died including eight children in attacks by warplanes in the city of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported yesterday. It is unknown whether the planes were Russian or from the Syrian government's own forces. Christian sites in Jerusalem desecrated by hate graffiti Police in Israel are investigating an "assault on religious harmony" after anti-Christian graffiti was sprayed on the walls of the Catholic Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition in Jerusalem and the Greek Orthodox seminary next door. The graffiti, in Hebrew, bears similarities to previous anti-Christian attacks by Jewish extremists. The Abbey is believed to be on the site where Mary, Mother of Jesus, ended her days on earth. The phrases sprayed onto the walls in red and black ink included "kill the pagans", "death to heathen Christians, enemies of Israel", "Christians to Hell" and "the revenge of the people of Israel is yet to come." There were also pictures of a blood-stained sword and a Star of David. Police said the graffiti was discovered during a patrol and an investigation has been opened. The Benedictine abbey is on the slopes of Old Zion just outside the Old City of Jerusalem. In a previous attack on the abbey in 2014, furniture and wooden crosses were set on fire. Two Israelis, including a minor, were recently charged over this incident and an earlier arson attack on a church on the Sea of Galilee. Wadia Abu Nasser, of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops in the Holy Land, said: "Despite promises by the government, these incidents continue to happen. If we were to actually count all of these incidents, they'd be in the hundreds." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his cabinet meeting yesterday: "This is an action deserving of every condemnation, there is no place for actions like these. Israel is a place where Christians and all other religions enjoy freedom of worship, and the only place in the Middle East where the Christian population is growing. The police are working on finding those responsible." Church leader and democracy advocate could face life in prison after arrest in China A Christian church elder has been formally arrested after being imprisoned in Tianjin in China on suspicion of "subversion of state power". The "crime" carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Hu Shigen, aged 60, a church leader with a history of campaigning for democracy and the rights of workers, had already spent nearly six months in detention when he was arrested last week. He is among 11 who have recently been arrested formally after being detained in a crackdown last July. At least 300 human rights lawyers, activists, their associates and family members were detained, questioned or simply disappeared, according to religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). Hu has been barred from any contact with his family. His lawyer, Li Boguang, has also been prevented from seeing him. Hu was released from an earlier sentence in 2008. He was arrested in 1992 and later convicted of leading a counterrevolutionary organisation and "engaging with counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement". His sentence of 20 years in prison was eventually reduced. Hu, who leads the unregistered Yahebo church in Beijing, is being held with two other members of this church, Liu Yongping and Gou Hongguo, who were arrested with him. Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of CSW, said, "It is unacceptable that Hu Shigen has been held in detention for six months without any contact with the outside world or access to legal counsel, while his family were not informed of his whereabouts for half a year. "The charge of subversion which he now faces is commonly levelled at activists who peacefully seek to defend the rights of others. Very often, suspects have restricted access to legal representation and family visits. We call on the Chinese authorities to act in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to respect the inherent dignity of all those detained in the crackdown, to uphold their right to communicate with counsel of their own choosing, and to release immediately those who are detained arbitrarily or who have been forcibly disappeared." Cuba: 'Unprecedented' crackdown on churches as religious persecution spikes An "unprecedented" crackdown on churches is ongoing in Cuba according to a report released today by religious freedom charity Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW). There was a tenfold increase in the number of religious freedom violations in Cuba last year, according to the charity, with 2,300 separate incidents recorded in 2015 alone, compared to 220 in 2014. This spike was fuelled by government aggression, the report said, with 2,000 Assemblies of God churches declared illegal and over 100 demolished. The report also said that the Cuban government's relationship with religious authorities has become "consistently antagonistic", and described "brutal and public tactics" employed to restrict freedom of religion and belief. "Week after week, state security agents physically and violently dragged scores of women away from Sunday morning services," the report reads. "Most were arbitrarily detained until after the conclusion of religious services. "The government continued to employ a strategy of frequent, temporary arbitrary detention to target those it views as political dissidents. "This tactic is also applied to religious leaders who are viewed as problematic, for whatever reason, by the authorities... for the first time in four years a church leader was sentenced to and served six months in prison for holding unauthorised religious services." After visits from both Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama, the previously isolated island is becoming increasingly open. Analysis by CSW suggests the Cuban government is trying eliminate potential social upheaval by cracking down on any groups calling for social and political change. Mervyn Thomas, CSW's chief executive, insisted the charity did not use the word "unprecendeted" lightly. "It is clear that despite promises of reform, the government is determined to maintain a tight grip on civil society, including churches," he said in a statement. "We commend the courage of religious groups who have spoken out publicly to denounce these violations and to call for the right to freedom of religion or belief to be upheld. "We urge the international community to stand with them and to hold Cuba to account for these human rights violations." Dentist sued by former employees for 'damages' caused by her playing Christian music in her own Michigan clinic A dentist from Michigan is now being sued by four of her former employees for playing Christian music in her clinic and holding prayer meetings with her staff members even though they did not want to. According to The Washington Post, the former employees of Tina Marshall filed a lawsuit against her back in August 2015 in Oakland County. Jury trial will begin this summer. In their complaint, the plaintiffs "are seeking damages for loss of past and future income and employment benefits, outrage, humiliation, embarrassment, mental anxiety, emotional distress, and loss of professional reputation." Nancy Kordus, one of the complaining former employees, told Clarkston News that they were "all on edge" because they were trying to treat the patients well and perform their duties, "but she kept forcing the music and her beliefs on us." Even when some patients complained about the music and Kordus turned it off, Marshall reprimanded her for being "disobedient," saying the music was being played to "ward off demons." The other employees include Kimberly Hinson, Tammy Kulis, and Sara Bambard. All of them are suing Marshall for violating Michigan's Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits any form of discrimination concerning "religion, race, colour, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status" in employment, education, housing, and many others. Marshall's lawyer Keith Jablonski, on the other hand, said his client is "being attacked in this lawsuit for her Christian beliefs, based solely on her desire to play religious music and radio stations in the dental office of the business that she owns." "We believe that when the facts, and not baseless allegations, are presented to a jury, we will establish that this group of former disgruntled employees are simply looking to profit off of their own prejudices towards Dr. Marshall and her Christian faith," he said. "Dr. Marshall flatly denies engaging in any discriminatory employment practices." Donald Trump says he has a 'very great' relationship with God, warns Christianity is 'under siege' Donald Trump has warned that Christianity is "under siege". In a speech today to evangelical Christians at Liberty University in Virginia, he quoted the Bible and pledged to protect the religion. "2 Corinthians 3:17. Now the Lord is the Spirit... is that the one you like?" he said to his audience of thousands. He continued: "We're going to protect Christianity. We don't have to be politically correct about it. They're chopping off heads in Syria. Christianity is under siege. I'm Protestant, Presbyterian, and I'm proud of it. Other religions frankly are banding together, we need to band together." He said he had broken the record for crowds at the venue. On the day that the US was celebrating Martin Luther King Jr, Trump dedicated his speech to the civil rights activist. He said: "If I'm president, you're gonna see 'Merry Christmas' again!" The crowd chanted back: "We're making Christmas great again!" Jerry Falwell Jr, the Chancellor of Liberty University and son of televangelist Jerry Falwell who founded Liberty, praised Trump as someone who lives a life of loving and helping others. He said that once when Trump's car broke down and a couple stopped to help him, he thanked them by paying off their mortgage. Mr Fallwell said: "By their fruits shall you know them. Donald Trump's life has born fruit in jobs and generosity. He cannot be bought. He is not a puppet on a string like other candidates." Earlier, in an interview with CNN, the Republican frontrunner said his wild days when his marriages and exploits would generate hundreds of words in newspaper gossip columns are firmly in the past. He said he now enjoys a "very great relationship with God" and "a very great relationship" with the evangelical Christian voters who are crucial to campaigners in Iowa. He said: "I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think. I'm talking about over the last number of years, I'm leading a very good life. I try to lead a good life and I have." He said he believed this was the reason he was doing so well in Iowa, where Ted Cruz and Trump are leading in the polls. Trump, an opponent of same-sex marriage, married his third wife, Melania, 11 years ago. He said: "I've had actually I have a great marriage, I have a great wife now. My two wives were very good. And I don't blame them, but I was working, maybe like you, 22 hours a day. I blame myself because my business was so powerful for me. I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing." He has said in the past that the Bible is his favorite book and once referred to Holy Communion as "my little wine and my little cracker." MPs in Parliament are today debating a petition calling for Trump to be banned from entering Britain in the light of his remarks that Muslims should be banned from entering the US. German evangelical Church votes for same-sex marriage A leading evangelical Church in West Germany which has 2.6 million members has voted to allow same-sex marriage. The Rheinische Evangelische Kirche voted overwhelmingly to allow future gay marriage and to legitimise as marriages the blessing ceremonies that have already taken place. Priests who oppose the move will be allowed to refuse, and couples will be offered an alternative pastor. The Rhineland Church, which has more than 700 parishes and is the second largest church group in Germany, made the change at its synod last week. Cologne, known as a centre of gay nightlife in Germany, is at the heart of the church's territory. Like many in the West, the Church is declining and is believed to have lost up to one million members since 1975. Conservatives have criticised the decision. Wolfgang Sickinger, of the Evangelischen Sammlung im Rheinland, told Idea news agency that the Church had ignored clear Biblical teaching, as if it "knows better", and the teaching could now be regarded as invalid. North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Emancipation, Barbara Steffens of the Green Party, told queer.de: "I'm very happy about this decision, because it is inspired by what should be at the heart of marriage. Loving devotion, which all humans can experience, no matter their sexual orientation." The Church was the second main grouping to adopt the new policy in Germany. The Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg is expected to follow suit in April. ISIS shows extent of its reach with Jakarta terrorist attacks, Indonesian general says The recent bomb and gun attack in Indonesia's capital, which was reportedly financed by an Indonesian member of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria, tells how far and massive the reach of the terror group has become, Indonesian police said. At least five men attacked a Starbucks cafe and a traffic police booth with handmade bombs, guns and suicide belts on Thursday last week, killing two civiliansa Canadian and an Indonesianand wounding 20 others in the first major attack in the country since 2009, according to reports. The militants were also killed, either by their suicide vests or by police gunfire. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter late Thursday. "Thursday's attack was funded by ISIS through Bahrun Naim, an Indonesia who spent one year in jail for illegal possession of weapons in 2011, and is now in Syria fighting for the ISIS," Gen. Badrodin Haiti, national police chief said, as quoted by the Associated Press. He said one of the five attackers is known as Sunakim, who in 2010 was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for his involvement in military-style training in Aceh, but was freed early. Haiti warned that the ISIS link in Indonesia, if proven, would post major challenge to Indonesia's security forces. The country had been known to be an ISIS sympathiser but with no active cells capable of planning and carrying out a plot until Thursday's terrorist attack, AP said. Maj. Gen. Anton Charliyan, national police spokesman, said police found an ISIS flag in the home of one of the attackers after raids were conducted in Java, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. Four arrests were made. He later clarified that the three men who were arrested at dawn in their homes in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta are no longer suspected of being linked to the attack. On Friday evening, he said police searched the home of another of the dead bombers whom they identified as Muhammad Ali. A suspected militant was also killed in a gunbattle in central Sulawesi, the alleged hideout of Indonesia's most wanted Islamic radical, Abu Wardah Santoso, who leads the East Indonesia Mujahidin network. While not linked to Thursday's assault, the group has reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, AP said. ISIS has seized large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq since 2013. It aims to create an Islamic caliphate, which apparently has attracted some 30,000 foreign fighters from around the world, including a few hundred Indonesians and Malaysians. Experts say the supporters of the terror group in Indonesia are drawn from the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which was responsible for several attacks in the past. Meanwhile in a show of sympathy and solidarity for the victims of Thursday's attack, about 200 young people earlier gathered in front of the Starbucks, carrying posters that read "We are not afraid,'' Fox News reported. A large LCD screen atop the building containing the Starbucks also displayed messages saying, "(hash)prayforjakarta" and "Indonesia Unite," it added. Oxfam and inequality: The profound unfairness of the gospel Oxfam have today released their annual report, which says the 62 richest people now have as much wealth as the poorest half of the world's population. The figures, timed to coincide with the gathering of the super-rich at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, reveal that the top one per cent of people own more wealth than the other 99 per cent combined. Interestingly, the report focuses much more on inequality than poverty. It attacks unequal wealth distribution and in particular calls for the end of tax havens. However a number of think tanks have criticised the use of statistics as "misleading". "By Oxfam's measure, the poorest people in the world are recent Harvard graduates with student debt piles," said Ben Southwood, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute. "The bottom 2bn don't have zero wealth, but rather about $500bn of negative wealth." "The poorest person in the world is richer than the next 30 per cent put together," he added. "Having negative wealth may actually be a sign of prosperity, since only people with prospects can secure a loan." Similarly Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said the figures were "bogus". "The methodology of adding up assets and subtracting debts and then making a global 'net wealth' distribution implies that many of the poorest in the world are those in advanced countries with high debts," he said. "Whilst we might have sympathy for the Harvard law graduate's plight, it is unclear that worrying about her should be the focus of a development organisation." But beyond the economics, what does the gospel say about unfairness and inequality? Jesus was unequivocal in his condemnation of poverty. In fact, in the Kingdom the poor are more than equal to everyone, they are "blessed" (Luke 6:20). Those living in poverty aren't just treated equally to everyone else in Jesus' teaching they are special. Jesus frequently talks about the "least of these" (Matthew 25:40) and famously teaches "so the last will be first, and the first will be last" (Matthew 20:16). So Christians must fight firmly against poverty in all its guises if they are to even begin following Christ's teaching. But, as I said earlier Oxfam's report places its focus on inequality, rather than poverty. And surprisingly, the gospel is actually remarkably unfair. The parable of the workers immediately springs to mind. Jesus teaches this as an example of what "the kingdom of heaven is like". A landowner hires workers for his vineyard. But those who only worked half the day, and even those who only worked for an hour, receive the same pay as those who toiled for the whole day. They "began to grumble at the landowner" but he answered them, "don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?" (Matthew 20:11,15). Doesn't this seem remarkably unfair? When criticised for this unjust method of distribution, Jesus defended the landowner's (God's) right to give more generously to some than others. So I'm not so sure Jesus would sign up to Oxfam's campaign. But and there is a very significant "but" here Jesus had very, very strong words to say about those who had wealth and influence. If he was unequivocal in being on the side of the poor, he was even more unequivocal in the responsibility he said is borne by the rich. "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows," he says in Luke 12. "But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." He reserves his harshest words for those who have "been given much", so I think Jesus cares a huge amount about people being poor. And I think he also cares a huge amount about rich people using their influence well. But I don't think he preached against people being wealthy. Perhaps the gospel has something interesting to come back at the Oxfam report. It is much more about people's attitude to wealth and its uses than wealth itself. It is much more about poverty than inequality. I am unconvinced by the argument that Jesus preached against the rich. I don't think he did. He preached against those who prioritised wealth over God, and those who didn't use their wealth to help the poor. But I don't think he would have joined Oxfam's rich-bashing campaign. Rather, he would have urged them to use it well for the good of others. Pope Francis visits Rome's Great Synagogue, condemns religious violence Pope Francis made his first visit as pontiff to a synagogue on Sunday, where, in a reference to Islamist attacks, he condemned violence in the name of religion. Amid chanting of psalms in Hebrew and speeches underscoring the remarkable advances in Catholic-Jewish relations in the past 50 years, Francis became the third pontiff to visit Rome's main synagogue, after popes John Paul and Benedict. The temple is just across the Tiber River from the Vatican, and is rich with symbolism of the past persecution of Jews, who for nearly 300 years until the mid-19th century were forced to live in the adjoining quarter still known as The Ghetto and make compulsory payments to the popes. Security was exceptionally tight in the area, with even journalists going through three separate checks in the space of less than 100 metres. Anti-terror police patrolled both sides of the riverbank, which was closed to the public. "The violence of man against man is in contradiction with any religion worthy of this name, in particular the three great monotheistic religions [Judaism, Christianity and Islam]," he said in what appeared to be a reference to attacks by Islamist militants. "Conflicts, wars, violence and injustices open deep wounds in humanity that call on us to strengthen or commitment to peace and justice," he said. "Neither violence nor death will ever have the last word before God." The Jewish leaders who addressed him were more specific in their condemnation of Islamist violence. "Faith does not generate hatred. Faith does not shed blood. Faith calls for dialogue," Ruth Dureghello, president of Rome's Jewish community, said in her address to the pope. "Fantastic visions" "Our hope is that this message will reach the many Muslim people who share with us the responsibility to improve the world in which we live. We can make it together," she said. Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, condemned violence "justified by fanatic visions inspired by religion". Yahya Pallavicini, an Italian Islamic leader involved in inter-faith dialogue, attended the ceremony and the pope warmly greeted him. A handful of Italian survivors of the Nazi death camps sat in the front row and Francis appeared moved when they were mentioned, rising with the congregation in a standing ovation. "Their tears should never be forgotten," Francis said. "The Shoah teaches us that we need the maximum vigilance in order to intervene quickly in defence of human dignity and peace," Francis said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust. The revolution in Catholic-Jewish relations began 50 years ago with when a document by the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council repudiated the concept of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and called for inter-religious dialogue. Under the late Pope John Paul, the first pontiff to visit a synagogue, the Vatican established diplomatic relations with Israel. On Sunday Francis called for the "rediscovery of the Jewish roots of Christianity" and repeated an appeal for Catholic to "say 'no' to every form of anti-Semitism". "Jews and Christians must, therefore, feel like brothers united by the same God and by a rich common spiritual heritage," he said. Terror attacks spur Burkina Faso and Mali to join forces to fight al Qaeda militants Burkina Faso and Mali have agreed to work together to counter the growing threat of Islamic militants in West Africa by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols following two deadly and well-coordinated attacks in the region. Their prime ministers met on Sunday, two days after al Qaeda militants seized the Splendid Hotel in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou, opened fire on a restaurant and attacked another hotel nearby, killing at least 28 people from at least seven countries, and wounding 50 other people. The assault, claimed by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), follows a similar raid in November on a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako, which killed 20 people, including citizens of Russia, China and the United States. In a statement on the Burkina Faso assault that was reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, AQIM said: "This blessed operation is but a drop in the sea of global jihad." The militant group identified three attackers and called the targeted hotel and surrounding areas "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent". The exact details of the cooperation between Burkina Faso and Mali were not immediately clear, but the patrols and intelligence sharing mark an intent by the two countries to prevent the spread of militancy as AQIM and others expand operations in the region beyond their usual reach. For years, Islamic militants have used northern Mali as a base, but over the past year they have staged a number of attacks in other parts of the country. Burkina Faso's authorities are now concerned that its long desert border with Mali could become a transit point for militants. "There is a very strong political will on the part of the two states to combine our efforts to fight terrorism," said Burkina Faso's prime minister, Paul Kaba Thieba. Thieba and his Malian counterpart Modibo Keita visited the outside of the Splendid Hotel on Sunday, where bullet holes and a charred exterior offered reminders of Friday evening's attack. Tight security was in place around the hotel. Inside, Burkinabe and French security officials were conducting an investigation. Security forces in Burkina Faso retook the 146-room hotel on Saturday after firefights with militants, at least three of whom were killed. Survivors said the militants targeted white victims at the hotel and at the restaurant, both of which were popular among westerners. According to provisional figures from the Burkinabe government, among the dead were eight Burkinabes, four Canadians, three Ukrainians, two Portuguese, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch citizen. Seven bodies are yet to be identified, and the list is subject to change. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday said six Canadians had been killed. A nine-year-old Italian boy and his mother were killed in the assault on Cappuccino, the restaurant attacked opposite the Splendid Hotel, Italy's foreign ministry said on Sunday. The boy, Michel Santomenna, and his mother were the son and wife of the restaurant owner, Gaetano Santomenna. She was not Italian and has not yet been named. "Italy will continue to work to ensure that the international community remains united and intensifies its efforts to fight the terrorist threat, which once again showed its most inhuman and cruel face by targeting innocent civilians," it said. Tributes paid to 'triumphant life' of missionary murdered in Burkina Faso attacks Tributes from around the world have poured in for the "triumphant life" of Christian missionary Mike Riddering, murdered in the Burkina Faso terror attacks this weekend. The missionary organisation Sheltering Wings, which supoorted the Les Ailes de Refuge orphanage where Riddering and his wife Amy worked, said he had travelled the 70 miles to Ouagadougou, the capital, to collect a team of missionaries from the US. The visitors he was meeting were planning to work short-term at the orphanage, where 400 children are looked after. Sheltering Wings said Riddering, from Florida, and Pastor Valentin, an associate from Burkina Faso, went to Ouagadougou on January 15. They arrived early at Cappuccino Cafe, across from the Splendid Hotel. Both places were attacked by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Amy Boyle-Riddering received a call during the attack from Pastor Valentin urgently requesting prayer. Before he could complete his call, however, the phone went dead. Pastor Valentin was separated from Riddering during the attack and hid in the Cappuccino Cafe. Several hours later, Amy was told that the pastor had been rescued but there was no news of her husband. Another Sheltering Wings missionary, Philip Matheny, who arrived in Burkina Faso on January 14, began searching for Riddering and found his body in a morgue on January 16. Besides his wife, Riddering leaves four children: Haley aged 23, Delaney aged 19, Biba aged 15 and Moise aged 4. A fund has been set up to assist the family. They had moved to Burkina Faso five years ago. In a moving memorial, Amy wrote on Facebook: "Heaven has gained a warrior! I know God has a purpose in all things but sometimes it is a complete mystery to me. My best friend, partner in crime and love of my life. The best husband ever. An amazing father to his children and a papa to everyone. My heart is so heavy and I am having trouble believing he is gone. Mike was an example in the way he lived and loved. God be glorified! Mike Riddering I will love you always! You left quite a legacy here. I can only imagine the adventures you are having now." Sheltering Wings described Riddering as having had a "triumphant life". "Tragically and unexpectedly, Mike's life was cut short," the organisation added in a statement posted to its website. "We grieve with Amy and her family, and all who knew Mike." Riddering, aged 45, was one of 28 people killed in the Friday night attack. US State Department spokesman John Kirby said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time, as they are with all those affected by this brutality." Pastor Brian Burkholder of Riddering's Hollywood Community Church in Florida told his congregation: "He was a boat builder that God took to the deserts of Africa. I've never met anybody who didn't like Mike Riddering. We've lost a missionary, we've lost a hero this weekend. I feel that Mike lost his life doing the work of Jesus, doing what he thought God had called him to do, and we will greatly miss him." His brother Jeff Riddering told 7News: "He really felt that he'd heard the Lord say, 'Go dig wells in Africa'. He said, 'Well, Lord, I might not be good enough to do anything else, but I can dig wells.' When he got there, not only did he dig wells; he did everything else." Besides the orphanage, Riddering adopted two children and started a women's crisis center. The missionaries he was meeting were diverted to Niger and have subsquently returned to the US. The Burkina Faso government has declared three days of national mourning. Wrongfully convicted man who found Jesus in prison gets hired as Kansas church pastor A man who was wrongly convicted of murder and spent 24 years in a Missouri prison has embraced God and is now serving as an associate pastor in Kansas. The 22,000-member Church of Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, hired Darryl Burton after he completed seminary last December, according to the Christian Post. Burton grew up as a Baptist but stopped going to church when he was a teen as he became disillusioned with religion. His grandmother told him, "One of these days, boy, you are going to need Jesus. I hope you remember to call on Him." He remembered those words when he was serving his sentence after he was convicted in 1985 for murder for the 1984 shooting of Donald Ball at a gas station in St. Louis. Burton said it took over 15 years in prison before he opened his heart to God. "For the first 15 years or so I was just trying to do everything in my own abilities. Of course, I was really angry and upset and really frustrated about my situation and being wrongfully imprisoned," he said. "I said, 'Well, I have tried everything but God, what do I have to lose.' I just challenged Jesus 'If you're real, show me. If you help me, I will serve you and tell the world about you.'" He was found guilty based on the accounts of two prosecution witnesses who lied in their testimonies. Burton then wrote 700 letters to lawmakers, attorneys and activities who were known to helping wrongly convicted prisoners. It was New Jersey-based Centurion Ministries, which takes cases of the wrongly convicted, who helped him in his eight-year legal battle that resulted in his conviction being reversed by a judge in 2008 as his trial was deemed constitutionally flawed. Despite being in prison for more than two decades, Burton said he never blamed God. "I think God used the situation the same way with Joseph when Joseph was thrown in the prison and treated by his brothers in a way that was not right. I never blamed God," he said. Following his release from prison in 2008, he said it took him years before he realised that he was called to become a pastor. "I tried to live without God before in my young life and now when I hear people talk about God, I am going to pay attention now. I said, 'Let me learn what pastors do' and I enrolled in seminary. I said, 'I am called to ministry and I better just obey God because not obeying God can really be costly,'" he said. He started taking classes at St. Paul School of Theology in 2012 and graduated last December. He was then offered to be an associate pastor at the Church of Resurrection. "Of course, I wanted to tell the world about God but only God could write up a script like this," Burton said. His interest is prison ministry and re-entry ministries for the exonerated and youth. "My role is just to be a humble servant and do whatever I am asked and whatever I am allowed to do," Burton said. A 25-year-old man was stabbed to death and his alleged attacker is custody after they argued Sunday night at an apartment complex in north Harris County. The incident happened about 7 p.m. at the Villas at Pine Lake apartments in the 5300 block of North Sam Houston Parkway East, said Sgt. Ben Beall, a homicide investigator with the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Two people were burned when fire swept through a home Monday morning in south Houston. The one-alarm blaze broke out about 11 a.m. at a two-story house in the 2200 block of Ewing near Almeda not far from Hermann Park, according to the Houston Fire Department. Officials said two people were burned and were rushed to Memorial Hermann-The Texas Medical Center. Their conditions were not released but officials said they were conscious and alert. When firefighters arrived they found heavy smoke billowing from the home. They discovered the two people inside the residence and pulled them to safety. Firefighters gained an upper hand on the blaze in about fifteen minutes. Flames, smoke and water damaged the home. Investigators are trying to determine what sparked the blaze. GALVESTON, Texas (AP) A 51-year-old Houston-area man is headed to prison with a nine-year term after being convicted of drunken driving for the ninth time. A jury last week also found John Davis Campbell, of Webster, guilty of possession of a controlled substance after police who pulled him over found meth in his vehicle. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Saying he has no faith in any political party, evangelist Franklin Graham, son of famed Southern Baptist evangelist Billy Graham, has launched a 50-state prayer tour to energize the evangelical vote in the coming presidential primary elections. Iowa and New Hampshire were among early stops on Graham's tour, with a prayer rally scheduled for early February. A Texas stop has not yet been scheduled. As contenders for the Republican nomination stress their religiosity, Graham in December raised conservative eyebrows when he broke ranks with the GOP, in part because of its failure to defund Planned Parenthood. "I have no hope in the Democratic Party," Graham said at his Iowa stop. "Listen to me: I have zero hope in the Republican Party. I have no hope in the Tea Party or any other party. My only hope is in almighty God and his son Jesus Christ." TAKE A LOOK: These are the top Christian leaders in America Religious News Service reported that Graham, who is president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told some 2,600 people in Des Moines that "our moral walls and gates are down." Michael Bitzer, a Catwaba College political science professor, told the Charlotte, N.C., Observer that -- despite his stated neutrality -- his backing of candidates who take Bible-based stands is a defacto endorsement of the GOP. In 2012, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association bought full-page newspaper ads featuring a photo of Billy Graham and urging support for candidates who support "sanctity of life" and the "biblical definition of marriage." HOT BUTTON ISSUE: Religious leaders debate open carry Almost 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in that election. Some Republicans attributed Romney's loss to President Obama as being due to Romney's Mormon beliefs, which the Southern Baptist Convention views as a non-Christian cult. Shortly before Christmas, the younger Graham said he was dropping his support of the Republican Party because, in part, of continued funding of Planned Parenthood, a group he likened to the Nazis in a Facebook post. According to the Houston Zoo, 2015 was a very good year for attendance. On Monday morning the zoo released a statement saying that they had a record year for attendance in 2015, welcoming 2.46 million people into its gates. MILWAUKEE (WISN-TV) The odds of having identical triplets are almost as high as winning the Powerball, but a Milwaukee couple beat the odds. "My wife and I kind of always wanted a big family. Three at one time is asking for a little too much," Carlos Forty said. >> RELATED GALLERY: Most popular baby names of 2015 Forty, an Iraq war veteran now has three brand-new, identical daughters, Emelia, Camile and Natalia. They were born three days before Christmas. "Find out that we're having triplets. Doesn't run in either one of our families. No type of drugs or anything just super natural," Forty said. Supernatural is what mom and dad will have to be to get a good night's sleep. The oldest of the triplets is still here in the hospital at West Allis Medical Center. But they hope the oldest triplet will be coming home next week. They already had two boys, so with five kids, come a lot of needs starting with a bigger car. "Insurance might go up, diapers, formula, wipes," Forty said. They've beaten the odds with identical triplets so Forty decided to play Powerball. "Hopefully the odds are in my favor when I go tonight and buy a ticket. We shall see," he said. Mom is a little camera-shy, but she was standing by at the family's apartment Wednesday night and looking forward to having all five children home. A GoFundMe page has been set up to assist the parents. Story originally published on WISN-TV. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN -- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday called for the state's policy against investing public funds in Iranian stocks to be expanded, during a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel as part of a trip abroad to encourage foreign trade and investment in the Lone Star State, Abbott told Netanyahu that he will seek the passage of a new law during the next legislative session to prohibit all state agencies and local governments from investing in Iran, and require existing investments to be divested. Under a state law enacted in 2013, only state retirement and pension funds are prohibited from making Iranian investments, officials said. How much do other governmental entities in Texas hold in Iran-linked investments? Those numbers were not immediately available on Monday, although World Bank estimates indicated just over $1 billion investments from North American interests in 2008 -- with much of that in indirect energy and petrochemical investments. "As governor, I am a steadfast supporter and friend to the State of Israel- and the State of Texas' policies will reflect that,"Abbott said in a statement. "That is why today I am announcing action to ensure Texas maintains its Iran divestiture policy despite the federal government's deal. Further, I am calling for new legislation that will strengthen Texas existing divestiture laws and ensure Texas taxpayer funds do not enrich Iran." Although federal law allows for local governments to impose such sanctions, current Texas law does not require local governments to divest investments in Iran. Texas will update its laws to align local governments with the state's strong interest in crippling Iran. Abbott said. The governor's move comes after President Obama last weekend eased sanctions against Iran as part of a controversial nuclear deal that will free billions of dollars to the Tehran regime. Abbott, who in September sent a letter to Texas' congressional delegation opposing the Iran nuclear deal, said he also wants to close loopholes in Texas' Iran divestment law that currently allow some governmental entities to keep Iranian investments. Abbott's overseas trip, his third in the past year to meet with foreign leaders and business executives, will conclude on Friday with a visit to an the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. THE LEAD: Money talks We got our first look at campaign finance reports over the weekend, and heres a roundup of what you may have missed about the most interesting state races, per our friends at Quorum Report. -- HD-8: Rep. Byron Cook has $669,883 to challenger Thomas McNutt's $148,832. -- SD-26 Dem primary: Jose Menendez has $290,000 cash on hand. Trey Martinez Fischer reported $414,000 cash on hand. -- SD-1 Republican primary: Bryan Hughes' cash on hand amounts to $508,584, while David Simpson has $57,661. -- SD-24s crowded GOP primary: Susan King had $853,893 cash on hand. Dawn Buckingham had about $731,000 in the bank. Jon Cobb stands at $592,000 cash on hand, while Reed Williams reported more than $533,000. Good Monday morning, yall, and happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. He would have been 87 years young today. Send your reflections, tips and scoops to bobby.cervantes@chron.com or tweet me @bobbycervantes. -- MUST READ: Primaries see heated arms race of ad buys, by the San Antonio Express-News David Rauf. It's all part of an early crush of spending on TV air time in the Lone Star state - nearly $6 million to date - ahead of the earlier-than-usual March 1 primary elections, when Texas will be the biggest prize for presidential candidates among the eight southern states voting that day. A number of state and congressional races will also be up for grabs - and many of those candidates have pounced on the opportunity to buy TV time in advance of presidential campaigns and their well-funded super PACs swooping in to snap up large chunks of air time. The strategy amounts to an early gambit for some campaigns lacking a big-bucks budget, but experts say it's the smartest move given the intense competition for TV time that is coming to Texas. -- Investigators eye Paxtons role in land deal, by the Houston Chronicles Lauren McGaughy. Two additional special prosecutors have been appointed to look into the case, said Paxton attorney Bill Mateja, who added he believes his client will be found innocent of any misconduct. At the center of the probe is a parcel of undeveloped land off Eldorado Parkway in McKinney bought by a company called Eldorado-Collin in 2004. Paxton, then a state representative, and college friend Greg Willis, who later would become a judge and now serves as Collin County district attorney, were limited partners in the company. -- Will Ted Cruzs prominent backers narrow his appeal? by the Houston Chronicles Kevin Diaz. As Cruzs chances of winning the GOP nomination rise, so too do the questions about his electability fueled by concerns about whether his political identity is being irretrievably shaped by a cast of old-school religious and social traditionalists who could narrow his appeal in a general election. Some of those high-profile allies come with histories of controversial pronouncements that could become fodder for Democratic attacks in the fall. -- House Speaker Paul Ryan will be on a fundraising swing through Texas this week and has a stop Tuesday with a luncheon at the Fort Worth City Club. The event highlights the Wisconsin Republicans new high-profile role and is hosted by U.S. GOP Reps. Kay Granger of Fort Worth, Michael Burgess of Lewisville and Roger Williams of Austin, per the Star-Telegrams Maria Recio and Anna Tinsely. -- Gov. Abbott did an in-depth Q&A with the Morning News on the Texas Plan for a convention of states. Read the governors interview with Michael Lindenberger HERE. >> Mackowiak: Abbotts big idea taps into deep anger with Washington. >> Smith: What would Texas be like under Abbotts disunion constitution? -- WHAT REALLY MATTERS: Two Marines from Texas are among the 12 missing after two helicopters crashed off Hawaii. Here's what we know about them: Maj. Shawn M. Campbell, 41, of College Station, attended high school in suburban Houston and then graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in microbiology. In a family statement, (his mother) said her son accepted a commission following his graduation and became a career Marine. She told the Houston Chronicle that Campbell served three tours in Middle East, the last in Iraq. Cpl. Matthew R. Drown, 23, of Spring, joined the Marines shortly after graduating from a suburban Houston high school in 2011. His family issued a statement asking for privacy to "deal with the very difficult situation," adding that they have to remain hopeful of his rescue for his sake and others on the downed aircraft. SPEED READ Texas Take: The two-man race theory in the GOP race, Houston Chronicle Davey Joe: Ted Cruz faces a real battle for Texas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Tilove: Does Trump represent NY values? Is Cruz a natural-born Texan? Austin American-Statesman Fikac: Rick Perry gets some lobbying advice, San Antonio Express-News Rick Perrys legal fees climb to $2.5 million, San Antonio Express-News Special election for Turners House term set for May 7, Houston Chronicle Texas education chief Morath to focus on teachers, Texas Tribune Abbott appoints key ally to head DIR board of directors, Quorum Report Despite progress, Texas leads in uninsured Hispanic kids, Texas Observer Texas Lottery was in hot pursuit of DraftKings, records show, The Dallas Morning News Cruz makes unforced error with anti-New York spiel, San Antonio Express-News UT closes on 100 acres in Houston, plans to buy 200 more, Houston Chronicle The next big thing in Mexican energy reform: Pemex, San Antonio Express-News Monsanto announces $140M Lubbock investment, Amarillo Globe-News Deputys killer sentenced to death, San Antonio Express-News Feds: UT official scammed employer, The Dallas Morning News East Texas mans 15-year standoff ends, tax fight remains, Associated Press QUOTE TO NOTE JFK would be a Republican today. He stood for religious liberty, and he would be tarred and feathered by the modern Democratic Party. -- Ted Cruz campaigning in NH on Sunday RACE TO 2016 -- The final Democratic presidential debate before voting begins quickly turned personal Sunday as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton traded barbs on gun control and health care. Clinton slammed Sanders for voting with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times, and reeled off a list of occasions when she said the Vermont senator sided with gun manufacturers and gun rights backers in Congress. But Sanders hit back hard, arguing that he had a D-minus voting rating from the National Rifle Association and rejected her list of charges, per CNNs Stephen Collinson. -- What last nights Dem debate means for the race now: In the final televised face-off before the voting for the Democratic presidential nomination kicks off in Iowa, Bernie Sanders rode a powerful wave of growing confidence, rising poll numbers, and accumulated debate experience to his best performance yet. Facing off against Hillary Clinton, and placed directly in the spotlight more than ever, Sanders improvement manifested itself all night, winning him more good moments overall than both Clinton and Martin OMalley. After this event, Sanders will likely head into the homestretch fired up, from Bloombergs Mark Halperin. -- Supporters of Ted Cruz are trying to use Donald Trumps words against him. Cruzs Keep the Promise super PACs have released a new 60-second ad that features Donald Trump spouting kind words about the senator from Texas during a 2014 Republican fundraising dinner in Florida, reports the Morning News Gromer Jeffers. The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. Osmo Vanska Conducts 'Future Classics' Concert Series of New Emerging Composers January 29 Osmo Vanska will conduct the Minnesota Orchestra in the eighth annual Future Classics Concert Series. The concert will feature seven of the top emerging composers of today. The concert will take place Friday January 29th at 8 PM at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Tickets range from $20 to $40 dollars and the show will be hosted by former Portland, Oregon alum Fred Child. All seven composers will be present to introduce their work. Kevin Smith, Minnesota Orchestra president and CEO, said this about the concert in the group's press release, "The Institute offers emerging composers an abundance of opportunities with a major Orchestra and it offers our audiences a chance to hear the newest music being created in the classical world today," The top seven composers left have studied, the press release tells us, in some of the top schools in the nation. The seven, according to the press release, describe their music this way, "Kirsten Broberg's Celestial Dawning, the final work in a cycle inspired by nature, is an energy-filled piece depicting the formative moments of a planet in the solar system. Matthew Browne's Barnstorming Season is a polystylistic work inspired by the dangerous and exciting maneuvers in air shows of the 1920s. Joshua Cerdenia, a native of the Philippines, presents Mayagon, an emotional piece based on the tale of a beautiful maiden in Filipino mythology. Emily Cooley describes her Scroll of the Air as "a meditation on creativity and flight" which is at some moments industrial and at others serene. Nick DiBerardino's Asphodel reflects on Homer's The Odyssey and ponders notions of the afterlife. Michael Gilbertson's Sinfonia After Vivaldi, of which movements III and IV are performed at this concert, was inspired by motives and themes from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. In Anthony Vine's Transmission, the musicians traverse the extremes of their instruments and play along with electronic sounds in a work." It is an exciting chance to see tomorrow's potential geniuses up close and early in their ascent up the ladder of prestige. Conducter Vanska expanded the program to include a week long look at the composers of tomorrow. Now, in its tenth year, the program has been an unbridled success and given a voice to the future. 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. TagsOsmo Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vanska Future Composers of Tomorrow, Future Composers of Tomorrow Concert January 29, Osmo Vanska Conducter AKRON, Ohio -- A suspected crack-cocaine dealer is accused of shooting a 47-year-old man to death during a drug deal. Darien Mingo, 22, is charged with murder. He is scheduled for a court appearance Tuesday. He has been held in the Summit County Jail on $400,000 since his arrest after the Dec. 19 fatal shooting of Erick Hunt Sr., 47. Mingo was originally charged with tampering with evidence. Prosecutors charged him Saturday in Hunt's death. Hunt was killed about 11 p.m. at an apartment in the 100 block of West Long Street where he went with a friend to buy crack from Mingo, according to court records. Mingo let the duo inside the apartment. An argument broke out over drugs and several gunshots were fired, according to court records. A neighbor called 911 and reported hearing three gunshots. The caller also said that he saw two people run from the home, get in separate cars and drive away. Hunt ran outside toward his car and collapsed in the middle of the street, Summit County Medical Examiner's records say. He was taken to Akron General Medical Center, where he died. Hunt was shot six times in the chest, pelvis and shoulder. Mingo turned himself in after the shooting. He told witnesses at the scene that Hunt tried to rob him, court records say. Mingo told police that he shot Hunt out of self-defense. He also admitted to police that he left the scene with the gun and that he fired several shots during the incident, according to court records. He refused to tell investigators where he put the gun, according to police. Couryard Marriott Akron A rendering of the final Courtyard Marriott Hotel in downtown Akron. (Marriott International) AKRON, Ohio -- The opening date for downtown Akron's new Courtyard Marriott Hotel has been pushed back again. According to the company's website, the city's first new downtown hotel in several decades will open in March, not Februrary. The new 110-room hotel was originally scheduled to open last fall next to developer Joel Testa's Northside Lofts complex off of North Howard Street. Downtown developer Tony Troppe, meanwhile, is planning to build a 65-room boutique hotel in the United Building by next year. Cuyahoga Falls, Akron mayors working on plan for Chapel Hill Mall: Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Walters has been in conversations with Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan over the future of Chapel Hill Mall, the Falls News Press reports. The mall is losing three key stores this winter: Old Navy, Express and Aeropostale. Macy's will close its anchor store there this spring along with 35 other stores nationwide. Old driver's license turns into bureaucratic nightmare for 99-year-old Fairlawn woman: It took Olga Middendorf's family seven weeks to complete a title transfer at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Middendorf had stopped driving and decided not to renew her drivers license at age 96, the Beacon Journal reports. But Middendorf's local bank refused to notarize the signature she needed to complete the transfer because her driver's license had expired, even though she held a safety deposit box there for over 40 years. It ended up being a 1950s Social Security card tucked away in Middendorf's Fairlawn home that broke a long tangled chain of bureaucratic tape. Better Block coming to Cuyahoga Falls' forlorn pedestrian mall: Cuyahoga Falls' pedestrian mall is set to receive the same treatment from the Dallas-based Better Block Foundation that turned North Hill into a happening place last May. Better Block is working with two Cuyahoga Falls natives, Samantha Coldwell and Getta Cornici, to bring a similar event to the largely vacant pedestrian mall in August, the Beacon Journal reports. The city is studying a plan that would remove the pedestrian mall and reopen the northern part of Main Street to regular traffic. Hudson courting Ashtabula circuit board maker: The City of Hudson is considering using a $1 million job creation grant to attract Dimension Engineering to relocate three jobs to the city from Ashtabula and hire 14 new people, the Hub Times reports. Under the job creation grant, Dimension would receive a 50-percent rebate on employees' income taxes for its first seven years in Hudson. The company anticipates expanding the Hudson office to 60 employees within three years, the newspaper reports. AKRON, Ohio -- An Akron man is in custody after he shot a 16-year-old in the back and then drove him to the hospital. Ahamed Rasoul Abdul-Karim, 23, is charged with felonious assault and receiving stolen property. He is being held in the Summit County Jail until his Tuesday court appearance. Abdul-Karim was driving about 11 p.m. Saturday in the 600 block of Arbutus Court in a van perviously reported stolen in Elyria. He fired several gunshots from the van and struck the boy in the back. Abdul-Karim then drove the boy to Akron Children's Hospital. The boy underwent surgery and is in stable condition, according to police. Abdul-Karim took part in a 2010 robbery where a group robbed four people smoking outside the Ronald McDonald House in the 200 block of Locust Street. A man in Abdul-Karim's group pointed a handgun at a woman and stole her cellphone. Abdul-Karim later pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to two years on probation. J. Bowers Construction Two men are accused of causing $1 million damage to J. Bowers Construction in Akron. (Adam Ferrise, cleveland.com) AKRON, Ohio -- A second man is accused of stealing construction equipment and using it to cause more than $1.25 million in damage to two businesses in the Ellet neighborhood. Ryan Benton, 44, of Akron, faces three counts of felony theft, three counts of breaking and entering and one count each of vandalism and safe cracking. He was arrested about 11:45 a.m. Monday in the 1800 block of West Market Street. Benton's co-defendant in the case, David Cogar III, 47, of McMinnville, Tennessee, was charged on Thursday. He is not in police custody. Cogar faces identical charges. The duo is charged in a crime spree that began in the early morning of Nov. 21. The stole a pickup from Gary's Car Kare in the 3000 block of Mogadore Road, according to court records. They drove the truck to Osbourne Stone in the 1200 block of Darrow Road where they stole two sets of keys for two front loaders and two torches, investigators said. The drove one of the front loaders and used it to damage the railroad tracks outside Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company, court records say. They drove the second front loader to J. Bowers Construction in the 3000 block of Mogadore Road and crashed it through the side of the building, according to police reports. They loaded a safe into the front loader and drove it to a spot behind the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics building in the 2400 block of Gilchrist Road. They opened it with one of the stolen torches, according to court records. Police reports did not say what was in safe. Akron police found the stolen pickup with the stolen torches at the dead end of Die Gem Way in Springfield Township. The spree caused an estimated $1 million damage to J. Bowers Construction and $250,000 to Osbourne's, according to court records. Cogar's criminal history includes 11 convictions for breaking and entering since 1987. Benton and Cogar were each convicted in a 1993 case with several others that charged the group with committing multiple break-ins. Benton also was convicted of breaking and entering in 2004. His other criminal convictions are for grand theft, drug possession and escape. AKRON, Ohio -- A Stow man pleaded guilty to lying about shooting himself in the leg in order to avoid being prosecuted for owning a weapon despite being a felon. Joshua Jira, 30, pleaded guilty Thursday to possessing a weapon as a felon, aggravated drug possession and making false alarms in the May 25 incident. Summit County Common Pleas Judge Tammy O'Brien will sentence Jira Feb. 18 following a full background check. Jira drove himself to Sagamore Hills Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the right thigh. Stow police interviewed him after he was treated and released. Jira told police he was shot during an attempted carjacking about 10:30 p.m. at the Speedway gas station in the 1000 block of Graham Road. He said a man pointed a handgun at him and that he struck the man's hand causing the gun to fire. Stow police investigated and found Jira lied about the fight and that he actually shot himself in the leg. Jira lied to cover up the fact that he's barred from possessing a gun because of his felony record, according to court records. Police also found illegally obtained Adderall inside his car. He had no prescription for the drug, court records say. Jira has criminal convictions in 2006 for attempted possessing cocaine in Hudson and for drunken driving in Medina in 2007. Museum clock and watch exhibit turns back the hands of time Would you support a nationwide six-hour work day? Tell us in today's business poll. (Lonnie Timmons III/Plain Dealer file photo) CLEVELAND, Ohio --Most employees would argue that they work more than eight hours a day, thanks to cellphones and other technology that keep us connected until all hours. But, according to a report on NBC, eight-hour days came about in the 1900s, as workers fought for better working conditions. In fact, the Ford Motor Co. advanced the idea in 1914, when it scaled back from a 48-hour to a 40-hour workweek after founder Henry Ford believed that too many hours were bad for workers' productivity. The formation of unions helped strengthen the effort. Last year, a city in Sweden, tested the impact of a six-hour work day. Would you support a nationwide six-hour work day? Tell us in the adjacent poll. Check out our other polls. Orange Village Hall.JPG Council is looking for someone who wants to fill the council seat vacated by Ken Alfred at the end of 2015. The successful candidate will fill the term lasting through Nov. 2017. (Cleveland.com/file) ORANGE VILLAGE, Ohio - Village officials are looking for someone to fill the council seat vacated by Ken Alfred at the end of 2015. Council is accepting letters of interest and resumes from qualified residents who want to fill Alfred's term, lasting until the election in November of 2017. Alfred told council in September he would not fulfill his term after his wife took a job with a financial services firm in New York City. The couple had lived in Orange since 1990. Ironically, Alfred was elected in 2013 to fulfill the unexpired term of Mark Parks, who left to become the county's fiscal director. Parks, also, was also appointed to fulfill an unexpired term in 2008. To qualify for the position, the applicant must be a registered voter and a resident of Orange Village two continuous years before the appointment. According to the job posting on the village's website, "ideal candidates should work well within a group environment, have a passion for continually improving the Village, have the ability to fairly evaluate and work on a variety of Village responsibilities, and make decisions that are in the best interest of our community and its' residents." Interested individuals should submit a resume and letter of interest to the Clerk of Council, Orange Village, 4600 Lander Road, Orange Village, Ohio 44022 or email to applications@orangevillage.com. Resumes and letters must be received by 4 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29. Submissions received after that date and time will not be accepted. Interviews will be held Feb. 9. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- By early spring, the city will welcome one its latest new hotels, Holiday Inn Cleveland Clinic - and with it a restaurant, Moce Cafe & Bar (pronounced "MOH-chay"). Donna Chriszt, executive chef for Table 45 Restaurant at the InterContinental Cleveland Hotel and Conference Center, says she will assume responsibility as food and beverage manager for the property at 8650 Euclid Ave. The hotel is on the location previously occupied by the Transfiguration Episcopal Church, adjacent to the old Cleveland Playhouse Building. The hotel and restaurant are expected to open as early as mid-April. Chriszt describes Moce as "a quick-service, fast-casual restaurant with a menu built on casual cuisine and modern comfort food." The dining and lounge area will include a full-service bar. Keeping with that kind of casual motif, Chriszt says patrons will place their orders at a service counter, and a food-runner will bring their food to the table. Moce's menu will primarily consist of pizzas, sandwiches and burgers, as well as a few classic pasta dishes. Grab-and-go options are likely, along with a barrista running a full coffee bar. A full bar menu (late-night meal options are under consideration) and room service will be provided. "The essential idea will be to grab a space, maybe a table or just a chair, and be comfortable - spread out your newspaper and eat, or get together with friends after work," Chriszt says. "A relaxing atmosphere; that's the idea," she adds. Holiday Inn is part of the same group that operates InterContinental and other hotel brands. Holiday Inn Cleveland Clinic will house 276 guest rooms, while the neighboring InterContinental Suites offers 162 private rooms. The InterContinental Hotel and Conference Center, at 9001 Carnegie Ave., is the largest of the three properties with 295 rooms. (The organization is currently considering candidates to take over the top spot at Table 45. David Schoeffler is food and beverage director for the three properties.) That carries a kind of liability, of course. Too often, hotel restaurants are half-hearted affairs, a required service for guests too weary or otherwise unwilling to leave the premises. In Cleveland there are notable exceptions, of course. Urban Farmer, attached to the Westin Cleveland Hotel, operated by Denver-based Sage Restaurant Group, has a hearty reputation as a top-shelf steakhouse. Adega Restaurant, in the swank Metropolitan at The 9, has earned praise from critics. Muse at the Ritz-Carlton Cleveland and Sans Souci at Renaissance Cleveland Hotel share long-standing reputations for quality and a measure of creativity. Still, how does a chain known for mid-priced accommodations and mainstream tastes compete in a market where more and more independent chef-run restaurants are the predominant draw for diners? Chriszt says she intends to play a winning hand. She has spent years working in or running several popular Northeast Ohio restaurants. In the mid-1990s she served as executive chef at Marlin Kaplan's flagship, Marlin, in downtown Cleveland. She moved on to Jeso, on Cleveland's Clifton Boulevard corridor, soon opening a second location in Eton Chagrin. She opened, and soon closed, Oz in Tremont. Work in event catering, food shops, and eventually Signature of Solon, a private club, all followed. Her time at Table 45 - operated by the Cleveland Clinic in a partnership with star chef-restaurateur Zack Bruell - has honed her style and skill as a manager. Residents of the hotel will be the primary clientele, she says. But Chriszt also recognizes that discerning Cleveland Clinic staffers and those who live and work in nearby University Circle will be drawn to the new restaurant. And will compare it critically with other competitors. "A lot of things happen on the local culinary scene that are chef-driven," Chriszt says. "There's a lot of thought being put into every menu we'll have there. "Creating everything in house, with no body dictating what we're doing from some distant central office, are essential," she adds. "It's all about guest satisfaction. As a chef, I take that feedback and follow up on it. It's really about 'how do you get people coming back to your restaurant, and how do you set yourself apart? It's giving people the experience that makes them come back." CLEVELAND, Ohio - It's school report card time! And not just for your kids. The Ohio Department of Education released its first set of report card marks Thursday, and some districts are not pleased. (Confused? So are lots of parents. Plain Dealer reporter Patrick O'Donnell explains the new system.) In case you need a dose of happy after scrolling through all those numbers, check out these adorable photos of the baby bontebok born Christmas Day at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. (I know, we had never heard of a bontebok either.) While you're off on this cold Monday, here's what you might have missed last week in the communities. Akron: By the end of the year, developer Tony Troppe wants to have a 65-room jazz-themed boutique hotel operating inside the United Building at the corner of Main and Market streets, the apex of downtown Akron, John Harper reports. Beachwood: Merle Gorden's day planner for 2013 includes hundreds of redactions, thick black lines where scheduled events and notes had been written, Mary Kilpatrick reports. A group of citizens questioned the deletions and pushed to find out why the omissions - on a public document, about a public official - remain clandestine. And for more than a year, the city gave multiple explanations. Cleveland Heights: MetroHealth is poised to open 24-hour emergency departments in Cleveland Heights and Parma, by the end of February, Brenda Cain reports. MetroHealth announced last fall it would lease space in medical centers run by HealthSpan to expand its emergency care. Northfield Center Township: The house explosion that led to the discovery of the bodies of two young girls and their parents is being investigated as a murder-suicide, Adam Ferrise reports. Parma: Parma is considering hiring a Philadelphia-based firm to review the city's finances and operations and assist with the 2016 budget, Maura Zurick reports. The city - which for years rejected requests for a performance audit - is in the process of contracting with Public Financial Management. Richmond Heights: A fired Richmond Heights school principal has settled a federal reverse racial discrimination lawsuit against the school district, forcing the district to overturn the termination, Sara Dorn reports. Timothy Pingle resigned after the October settlement, which closes a tumultuous chapter at the tiny school district that was rife with budget issues, leadership changes, infrastructure problems and racial tensions. Westlake: Three-term school board member Carol Winter is the new Westlake school board president, Chanda Neely reports. Mayor Dennis Clough swore in Winter and new Vice President Barbara Leszynski, a second-term member and retired teacher, on Monday. The district is taking applications for a new superintendent, and interviews will begin Feb. 1. 12523153_1109232602442602_494181422465974276_n.jpg The driver of this SUV was unharmed when her car slid off the road and into a retention basin Monday in Mentor. (Mentor Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 1845) MENTOR, Ohio -- A woman was unharmed when her SUV slid off a road and into a retention basin Monday in Mentor. The SUV slid off the road shortly before noon at the intersection of Tyler Boulevard and Spinach Street, the Mentor Fire Department said. The front end of the SUV sank in the basin. The driver was able to climb out and did not need to be taken to a hospital. A tow truck was called to the scene to pull the SUV out of the retention basin. Slick roads have been causing problems for drivers Monday in communities east of Cleveland. The National Weather Service has issued a lake effect snow warning until noon Tuesday in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties. Up to a foot of snow could fall in some areas. Eastern Cuyahoga County could see four to six inches. Tamir Rice protests continue Activists plan to march in downtown Cleveland on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and Tamir Rice. (Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Activists are set to march in downtown Cleveland to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and Tamir Rice. The event is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Monday at the Justice Center. Cleveland.com will broadcast from the event on Periscope. (Follow @BlackwellTweets on Twitter and Periscope for live video.) Activists plan to step off from the Justice Center and head to the Amistad Chapel United Church of Christ at 700 Prospect Avenue. A rally is set for 3 p.m. at the chapel. Local clergy, including members of United Pastors in Mission, are scheduled to speak, according to the event's Facebook page. A grand jury in December declined to indict two Cleveland police officers involved in the November 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir. The shooting and the grand jury's decision have sparked numerous protests that have remained peaceful. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police are asking the public to help locate a 13-year-old girl who ran away from her East Side home. Imani Wright was last seen about 4:45 p.m. Sunday at her home on Grovewood Avenue near East 167th Street in the North Shore Collinwood neighborhood. Police said the girl left the home against her mother's wishes. Wright has a green winter coat and a cream-colored Hello Kitty hat. She was last seen in blue jogging pants, according to police. Investigators believe Wright may be in the area of East 200th Street where Cleveland meets Euclid. Anyone with information about Wright is asked to call police at 216-621-1234. Screen Shot 2016-01-18 at 1.11.23 PM.png An Ohio Department of Transportation traffic map shows delays on Interstate 90 westbound where officials closed the road Monday afternoon. The road reopened just before 2 p.m. (Ohio Department of Transportation) PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- Officials have reopened Interstate 90 between Vrooman Road and Ohio 44 after clearing several crashes. The highway reopened just before 2 p.m. on Monday. It had been closed for approximately one hour. The Lake County Sheriff's Office did not release any additional details on the crashes. Drivers are still being encouraged to seek alternate routes because traffic is slow in the area. The road has been reopened between interstate 90 and route 44. Traffic moving slow so alternate route recommended Lake County Sheriff (@lakeohsheriff) January 18, 2016 An Ohio Department of Transportation map of current traffic conditions is available here. There is a lake effect snow warning in effect until noon Tuesday in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties. Up to a foot of snow could fall in some areas of those counties. The National Weather Service also issued a lake effect snow warning until 9 a.m. Tuesday in Cuyahoga County. kentstatesign.jpg Kent State University and its professors have reached a contract agreement. (Kent State University) KENT, Ohio - Kent State University professors and administrators have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract. An impasse over salary and medical benefits, which led faculty members in November to authorize their leaders to call a strike if negotiations failed, have been resolved by a "fact-finder," a neutral third party who reviewed the issues. "I am pleased to announce that AAUP-KSU and the administration have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract," Jennifer Larson, president of the Kent State's American Association of University Professors chapter, said in an email to faculty. "Tentative agreement was reached after AAUP-KSU Exec and Council voted unanimously on Friday Jan. 15 to accept the report by fact-finder Greg Van Pelt. We then received word that the administration had also opted to accept the report. Today the recommendations in Mr. Van Pelt's report were incorporated into a tentative agreement." Faculty will meet on Wednesday and vote electronically on the contract from Wednesday through Friday, Larson wrote. "Kent State University and the American Association of University Professors-KSU have reached tentative agreement on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement for tenured and tenure-track faculty," the university said in a statement. "The parties will present the tentative agreement for approval to their respective constituents this week. Details of the tentative contract will be released after ratification." The current three-year contract expired Aug. 23. On Sept. 2, the university and the AAUP, which had agreed to non-economic items, declared an impasse on salaries and medical benefits. They requested federal mediation. The mediation, which began Oct. 13, did not resolve the impasse. The parties selected Van Pelt, who proposed a non-binding contract settlement. The AAUP had proposed a salary package commensurate with those in past contracts given that the university is in good financial health and can afford it, the association said. At issue in the discussion of medical benefits was a provision by Kent State that would require working spouses or domestic partners who are eligible for healthcare coverage through their employers to enroll in that coverage as primary coverage. The AAUP said seven of Ohio's 13 public universities have no spousal coordination of benefits. Northeast Ohio snow Saturday.jpg The National Weather Service has issued a lake effect snow warning until 9 a.m. Tuesday in Cuyahoga County. (Laura Johnston, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio - The National Weather Service has issued a lake effect snow warning in Cuyahoga County. The warning, which is in effect until 9 a.m. Tuesday, primarily concerns the northeastern part of the county near the border of Lake County. Communities in that area have already received six inches of snow and could receive an additional six inches overnight, the warning says. Snow-covered roads, combined with blowing snow, will create hazardous driving conditions. Drivers should be prepared for rapid changes in road conditions and visibility. Lake effect snow will be heavy at times as arctic air spreads across the lower Great Lakes. Winds could reach speeds up to 25 mph, the warning says. Light snow accumulation is possible in southeast Cuyahoga County. Little to no accumulation is expected in the western half of the county. There is also a lake effect snow warning in effect until noon Tuesday in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties. Up to a foot of snow could fall in some areas of those counties. major.jpg The family of 3-year-old Major Howard said their home was targeted by gunfire Monday afternoon, reports say. Howard was killed in a drive-by shooting in September. (Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com) CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland police are investigating after shots were fired toward the home of 3-year-old Major Howard's family. No injuries were reported in the incident that happened about 2:40 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of East 131st Street, Cleveland police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said. Neighbors said the house that was targeted belonged to the grandparents of Major Howard. One Cleveland police car was on scene at 4 p.m. monitoring the home. Investigators found two shell casings and took them into evidence, Ciaccia said. Fifth District police plan to pay special attention to the home and the neighborhood. Major was killed in a Sept. 15 drive-by shooting that police have linked to a gang rivalry. Major and another woman were shot while they sat in a parked car on East 113th Street near Union Avenue. The woman survived, but Major died after he was taken to the hospital. Police last week arrested Aaron Dunnings, one of the suspected shooters. Authorities are still searching for Donnell Lindsey who investigators say was also involved in the shooting. Here's a video from September from a neighbor who tried to save Major. Colleges reviewing policies after fatal shooting by officer This July 19, 2015 file photo from a body camera shows University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing standing next to Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop that ended with Tensing fatally shooting DuBose. The university announced on Monday that it reached a $5.3 million settlement with DuBose's family. (AP photo) CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The University of Cincinnati said it will pay $4,850,000 and provide $500,000 in free education for the children of a 43-year-old man shot to death by a campus police officer. The university announced on Monday that it settled a civil suit with the family of Samuel DuBose, who was killed during a traffic stop on July 19. "I want to again express on behalf of the University of Cincinnati community our deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss of the life of Samuel DuBose," university president Santa J. Ono said in a news release. "This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities." Officer Ray Tensing killed DuBose after he pulled him over for a missing license plate. A struggle ensued when DuBose refused to give Tensing his driver's license and tried to drive away. Tensing has said he was dragged by DuBose's car and forced to shoot. The officer told a radio dispatcher that the car almost ran him over. A Hamilton County grand jury indicted Tensing on charges of murder and voluntary manslaughter on July 29. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $1 million bond. DuBose's family and university officials have met regularly since his death to "address areas of concern and work cooperatively toward rebuilding trust between the UCPD and the local black community," the release says. In addition to the sum of money and the promise to give DuBose's 12 children an education, which is worth about $500,000, the university agreed to establish a memorial for DuBose on campus. Ono will also formally apologize to the family, the release says. Further, the university said it will invite the DuBose family to attend Community Advisory Committee meetings to discuss police reform and review the results of an external investigation into campus police. The settlement was mediated in two days by Washington, D.C. attorney Billy Martin. "The example here demonstrates to communities hurting all over the country that positive results can be achieved through this type of cooperation," Martin said in the release. The agreement must be approved by the Hamilton County Probate Court. A vast and lively chorus of classical options Harpsichordist Michael Sponseller, left, seen here with fellow members of Les Delices, performed a recital with harpsichordist Jacob Street Sunday at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. (courtesy of Les Delices) By MARK SATOLA SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio -- The intricate web of sound that can be achieved when two harpsichords combine was on display Sunday afternoon at Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights, when harpsichordists Michael Sponseller and Jacob Street performed a program fancifully titled "The Imaginary Orchestra." Given under the auspices of the Baroque ensemble Les Delices, the concert by Sponseller (a mainstay of the group) and Street (an Oberlin grad who leads his own early music band in Norwalk, Connecticut) offered a menu of music by Lully, Marin Marais, Rameau, Armand-Louis Couperin and Pancrace Royer. A prominent feature of French Baroque opera is an abundance of instrumental music. Sponseller and Street mined this rich vein for their presentation, making their own ingenious arrangements of dance tunes and interludes, as well as vocal selections, in the process demonstrating the startling originality of these remarkable composers, who too often linger in the shadows of their more ubiquitous European counterparts. (Bach and Vivaldi, we're looking at you). Jean-Baptiste Lully and Marain Marais shared the first of five sequences making up the brief concert, with Lully's piquant and rhythmic music contrasting with the more deeply felt Air and Sarabande from his opera "Alcide." Sponseller and Street breathed as one as they brought finely nuanced rubato and deep feeling to these pieces. One can hardly present a consideration of Jean-Philippe Rameau without acknowledging his supremacy as a composer for the keyboard as well as the opera stage, and Sponseller and Street devoted two sequences to him, "Rameau at the Keyboard" and "Rameau the Visionary," the latter exploring his important operatic works. In truth, Rameau was just as visionary in his many keyboard pieces, as demonstrated in the surprisingly modern-sounding character vignettes. Sponseller and Street took full advantage of the music's ingenuity and generous humor, playing with verve and a nice sense of timing with musical punchlines. In the suite from Rameau's operas, the music was even more forward-looking, with tone-clusters employed in the Tambourin from "Platee" and an eye-opening arrangement of "Trio des Parques," a descent-into-hell scene from "Hippolyte et Aricie" that disturbed Rameau's conemporaries and was just as delightfully shuddersome for the 21st-century audience. The "discovery" of the concert was a Symphony for Two Harpsichords in D major written in 1773 by Armand-Louis Couperin, who inhabited a musical world more inclined toward the classicism of early Haydn and the Mannheim school, though with a pronounced French accent derived from Gossec and Gluck. While following a simple tripartite plan in keeping with the early classical symphony, and expressing itself through distinctly symphonic rhetoric, the music was nevertheless indelibly of the keyboard. Sponseller and Street brought Couperin's inventive counterpoint to vivid life in such a way that whetted the appetite for more from this neglected fellow, whose impressive lineage has unjustly assigned him to a lesser position in the lineup of 18th-century French masters. A suspect was in custody early Monday morning after a police officer was fatally shot in Danville, Ohio, according to news reports. The male suspect was captured in Danville just before 2 a.m., 10tv.com reports. A woman also is in custody but police have not said why she is being held, WSYX Channel 6 reports. The State Highway Patrol issued an alert early Monday morning after a Danville officer and his cruiser vanished, 10tv.com reports. The officer's hat was found with blood on it. The police officer was later found wounded outside the Danville Municipal Building. Jim Gilbert, the chief deputy at the Franklin County Sheriff's Office, said on Twitter that the Danville officer had died. Prayers for Ohio's first fallen officer for 2016 a Danville PD Officer was shot/killed this evening in Knox County. pic.twitter.com/s0gW5nKYqS Chief Jim Gilbert (@CHIEFGILBERT1) January 18, 2016 The State Patrol confirmed the officer had died early this morning, WTTE Channel 28 reports. Danville is located about 100 miles southwest of Cleveland, about 60 miles northeast of Columbus. It has a population of just over 1,000 people. ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The Humane Society of Huron Valley is seeking charges against the owners of a poodle named Brownie, who died after she ate a sock and was emaciated. In June, Ann Arbor residents turned the emaciated, 22-pound, chocolate-colored standard poodle to the humane society weeks after she ate a sock and could no longer eat. The owners claimed they could not afford a visit to the veterinarian and had not sought treatment for 3-year-old Brownie, according to the humane society. Surgery to remove the sock was unsuccessful because the dog was too frail and her organs were perforated. Necropsy results indicate "significant and extended starvation," according to the Humane Society. Cruelty investigators with the Humane Society of Huron Valley are seeking charges of neglect and failure to provide veterinary care. "When Brownie came to us, her bones were protruding from her skin. She had zero fat on her shivering little body," said Michele Baxter, the human society's cruelty and rescue manager. "Brownie was so uncomfortable, she couldn't even sit on a blanket." Tanya Hilgendorf, the Humane Society of Huron Valley's president and chief executive officer, said they hope the case will remind the public of the importance of seeking medical treatment for their pets. While people can't predict when they might fall on hard times, pet owners need to understand the commitment they are making, she said. Lindsay Knake is a cops and courts reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com. Officers Shooting A Unified Police officer works a search of the neighborhood Sunday after an officer-involved shooting in Holladay, Utah. Officer Douglas Barney was killed after he was shot by a suspect who was later killed by police. (Scott Sommerdorf, Salt Lake Tribune via AP) A Utah police officer responding to a hit-and-run crash was shot and killed Sunday morning after locating a male suspect, according to news reports. Another police officer was wounded before the suspect was killed by police in a shootout, Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder tells the Associated Press. Unified officer Doug Barney, 45, is the first police officer to be killed in the line of duty in 2016, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page. "Today a husband and father left his wife and three children, put on a badge, and promised to return home soon. On behalf of Utah residents from across the state, our hearts are broken for the family of officer Doug Barney who gave the ultimate sacrifice today while in the line of duty," Utah Gov. Gary Herbert said Sunday, reports KSL.com. Reports say Barney was helping in the search for Cory Lee Henderson, 31, and a woman who were in a BMW involved in a crash with another vehicle Sunday morning in Holladay, Utah. Barney and the woman got out of the BMW and left the scene, while the occupants in the other vehicle were seriously injured. Barney located Henderson not far from the scene. Police say Henderson fired a single shot at Barney, striking him in the head. Other officers reportedly Barney, but he later died at a local hospital. "They were trying to keep the officer alert who had been shot. They were talking to him by name, and they were just saying, 'Keep breathing, stay with us, keep breathing, stay with me Doug,'" a witness tells KSL.com. Other officers located Henderson minutes later and a shootout erupted, Winder said. Unified police officer Jon Richey, 50, was struck three times, including once in the torso, before Henderson was killed by other officers. Henderson's mother, Peggy Holladay, and brother, Jaiden Snyder, 18 reportedly arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting and began assaulting officers, with Snyder accused of punching one in the face, then head-butting another after he was Tased. Snyder was jailed, while Holladay was cited and released. Henderson had a criminal record with several outstanding federal and local warrants, and he was being sought by a gangs task force, according to the AP. Richey, a 30-year police veteran, underwent surgery Sunday and was in serious condition but is said to be improving, KSL.com reports. The female suspect remains at-large, reports say. Barney was an 18-year police veteran and the father of three. It's Trump vs. Cruz Donald Trump and Ted Cruz spar at last week's Republican presidential debate in North Charleston, S.C. Trump, the real estate mogul, and Cruz, the Texas senator, are on a collision course. (Rainier Ehrhardt, The Associated Press) CLEVELAND, Ohio - With precisely two weeks until the first votes of 2016 are cast, the state of the Republican presidential race remains as unpredictable as ever. The uncertainty - there remain four or five plausible nominees - fuels fears of a prolonged delegate chase that ends with a contested convention in Cleveland. Meanwhile, insiders worry that a ticket topped by an ideologue such as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz will jeopardize the party's chances to win up and down the November ballot. Here's where things stand at the moment: 1. The Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1 are a toss-up between Trump and Cruz. And they are unloading on each other in a way that could tarnish both in the eyes of voters. Cruz is hitting Trump for "New York values." Trump is questioning Cruz's Canada roots. 2. The New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9 is Trump's to lose, with four candidates who appeal more to the party elite locked in a close fight for second place. 3. It's not certain that any of those four - Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio and John Kasich - would emerge strong enough to mount a credible threat to Trump or Cruz. Christie and Rubio, in particular, are firing away at each other. 4. Recent polls show the race for the Democratic nomination has tightened between presumed front-runner Hillary Clinton and the insurgent Bernie Sanders. Where Clinton was once seen as inevitable, she's now quite vulnerable - if not in the primary, then for sure in the general election. But not if Republicans nominate someone unelectable. My Republican presidential power-rankings this month reflect all of this uncertainty. It was tough picking between No. 1 and No. 2 and even tougher from Nos. 3-6. (Sure, the field has shrunk, but it's not like Lindsey Graham or George Pataki ever had a shot.) As always, take these rankings for what they are: one political reporter's best guess at who will accept the nomination when the GOP gathers in Cleveland this summer. This month's list counts down from No. 8. The slideshow begins here. Medical Marijuana Ohio senators plan to travel across the state to learn more about medical marijuana. (Jim Mone/Associated Press) COLUMBUS, Ohio -- State senators plan to announce Tuesday morning they will travel the state to learn more about how Ohio could legalize marijuana for medical use. Leading the Senate's effort are Sens. Kenny Yuko and Dave Burke. Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, introduced a medical marijuana bill seven years ago when he was in the Ohio House. Burke, a Marysville Republican and a pharmacist, said the issue is "uncomfortable" for him, but the legislature needs to take a thoughtful look at the issue. Yuko and Burke agreed Issue 3, last year's failed recreational marijuana measure, was profit-driven and their effort will not consider recreational marijuana use. Twenty-three states have comprehensive medical marijuana programs where people with certain medical conditions can legally purchase and consume marijuana. Another 17 states have legalized marijuana high in cannabidiol (CBD) a compound found in marijuana that does not produce a "high" and is low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Such marijuana has been used to treat severe seizure disorders. Tuesday's announcement follows the formation of a House-sponsored medical marijuana task force whose membership raised more than a few eyebrows. The panel is stacked with groups that opposed the failed recreational legalization measure, Issue 3, such as the Ohio State Medical Association and Ohio Chamber of Commerce. And the two pro-marijuana members selected for the task force were not longtime Ohio medical marijuana advocates but leaders from ResponsibleOhio, the political action committee behind Issue 3. ResponsibleOhio's proposed constitutional amendment and campaign divided marijuana advocates, many of whom had been working on a medical-only constitutional amendment with the Ohio Rights Group. Ohio Rights Group president Mary Jane Borden said the task force is missing a medical cannabis voice. "They're policy people," Borden said. "They're not patients, they're not medical people. The task force needs someone with greater knowledge." A spokesman for House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger said the speaker and Rep. Kirk Schuring, a Canton Republican, chose the panel members. Spokesman Brad Miller said Rosenberger and other House Republicans reached out to ResponsibleOhio after November's election and asked if they would be interested in a task force. "In the long term, having those people on the task force is helpful to offer various opinions," Miller said. Miller said patients and patient advocates will be able to help the task force by testifying at its weekly public hearings at the Statehouse. The hearings will be held at 3 p.m. Jan. 28, Feb. 4 and 11 and at 7 p.m. Feb. 18, Feb. 25 and March 10. bernie-sanders.JPG While Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is leading rival Hillary Clinton in recent Iowa and New Hampshire polls, a lot of things have to happen for him to win his party's nomination. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) COLUMBUS, Ohio--Bernie Sanders has surged in recent days, with polls showing he has a good shot of winning both the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries next month. But the likelihood that the U.S. senator from Vermont will win the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton, while possible, is still unlikely, according to several political experts and analysts interviewed by cleveland.com. For Sanders to become the Democratic nominee, they say, six things need to happen: Mobile readers: We've divided this story into separate sections. You can hit "back" to return to this list. A strong showing in Iowa and New Hampshire A tarnished Hillary Clinton Support from minorities Democratic superdelegates Turning enthusiasm into votes: A "black swan" election 1) A strong showing in Iowa and New Hampshire: Sanders first has to prove he's viable by either winning or finishing a very close second in next month's Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. If he does that, it will cause a frenzy of much-needed coverage from the media, which are tired of Donald Trump and eager for a competitive Democratic primary, said James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University. "Sanders is such a long shot that he needs spectacular media attention," Morone said. Sanders will need the favorable publicity because he'll face a round of much tougher contests in the following days -- starting with Nevada and South Carolina, where recent polls show Clinton with leads of 23 percentage points and 40 percentage points, respectively. 2) A tarnished Hillary Clinton: Several political analysts said it won't be enough for Sanders to attract undecided voters - to win, he will need large numbers of Clinton voters to defect to his side. For that to happen, Clinton would have to suffer some sort of new, major scandal or commit a fatal misstep, said Nathan Gonzales, editor of The Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report, a non-partisan political newsletter. "In order for Sanders to win, it would have to be a combination of Clinton tanking and Sanders rising," he said. If Sanders wins, it will be at least in part because many Democrats - particularly younger voters - believe he is more genuine and trustworthy than Clinton, said Baldwin Wallace University political scientist Thomas Sutton. "It's not about any particular decision or policies," Sutton said. "It's a character issue." 3) Support from minorities: Sanders has struggled to gain support among black and Latino voters. A recent NBC News/SurveyMonkey nationwide poll showed Clinton leading Sanders among African Americans (63 percent to 20 percent) and among Hispanics (54 percent to 33 percent). The crowds that have turned out to Sanders campaign events have been overwhelmingly white. He was also shouted down and forced off a stage by Black Lives Matter activists last August in Seattle. Clinton, meanwhile, has a strong base of support from black voters, possibly because of lingering popularity for her husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, or because, as a group, they tend to back establishment candidates. While New Hampshire and Iowa had the second- and third-highest share of white liberal voters, respectively, of any state during the 2008 Democratic primary, more than 70 percent of the states holding contests through March 1 have Democratic electorates that were at least 20 percent non-white as of 2008, according to a University of Virginia study. In three of those states - Alabama, Georgia, and Texas - a majority of Democratic primary voters in 2008 were racial minorities. Sanders has been working to win black voters' support, tailoring messages to them about economic inequality and social justice. Last week, he launched a tour of historically black colleges and universities. "When the African-American community becomes familiar with my Congressional record and with our agenda, and with our views on the economy, and criminal justice -- just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African-American community, so will the Latino community," Sanders said during Sunday's Democratic debate. 4) Democratic superdelegates: About 30 percent of the 2,382 votes needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination are held by so-called "superdelegates" - more than 700 party leaders and officeholders who are not elected and can support any candidate they want. A November survey found that 359 superdelegates planned to vote for Clinton, while just 8 said they are backing Sanders. Of course, the superdelegates could shift their support to Sanders by the time the convention is held in late July. But as most superdelegates are old-school party stalwarts, they won't be swayed by emotional arguments, said Morone. To win them over, he said, Sanders will need to keep winning state primaries to convince them he's the best Democratic candidate to run in November. 5) Turning enthusiasm into votes: That means building a get-out-the-vote operation in states across the country, not just Iowa and New Hampshire, said Jim Thurber, a political scientist at American University. In particular, Thurber said, Sanders has won support among young voters and some labor groups. Sanders will also get help from outside groups, including MoveOn.org, a liberal grassroots organization with 8 million members nationwide that is helping his campaign to organize in Iowa and New Hampshire. Ben Wikler, MoveOn.org's Washington, D.C. director, said Sanders' campaign against economic inequality has struck a chord with millions of Americans. Such a message, he said, "can get people to turn out and vote and volunteer and get engaged and donate again and again who might not otherwise do so." So far, that's happened. Sanders raised $73 million last year from a record 2.3 million donations. Clinton raised a total of $112 million in 2015. But Adam Seth Levine, a political science professor at Cornell University, said Sanders is starting to shift his rhetoric from economic inequality (asking why a select few are so rich) to economic insecurity (questioning why so many aren't better off). Such a shift will likely backfire on Sanders, Levine said. His research has found that when candidates convince people they are threatened economically, their supporters become fearful and donate less money and time to the candidate's campaign. While Clinton has also campaigned on issues like health-care costs and escalating college costs, she is at less risk because she attracts far more wealthy donors who don't feel scared to open their checkbook, Levine said. 6) A "black swan" election: Conventional wisdom holds that Sanders, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, is too liberal to be electable, said Ken Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. But there are signs that this might not be a conventional election year. Americans are becoming increasingly frustrated with government, Mayer said, and are looking at political outsiders such as Sanders and Trump on the Republican side. "There is a widespread sentiment out there that the system is broken, and someone like Sanders is better positioned to tap into that," Mayer said. Elections that have surprising and unforeseen outcomes are known as "black swans," said Morone. While Morone said he doesn't believe such an election will happen this year, he noted that "no one saw Trump coming." If there is a "black swan" election in 2016, he said, it will be because of voters' discontent over economic inequality, concerns about another economic recession, and strong feelings about immigration policy. And if both Trump and Sanders are nominated, Morone added, "political scientists will have to throw out their playbooks." COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Pinned at the top of Mecole Hardman's Twitter feed was a list of schools he was considering, and before this weekend, that list didn't include Ohio State. But the five-star athlete of Elberton (Ga.) Elbert County took an official visit to Ohio State over the weekend, and now that list has been updated. The Buckeyes are alive in the hunt for Hardman, who is rated the No. 1 athlete in the 2016 recruiting class in the 247Sports composite rankings. The other schools Hardman that are still on the 5-foot-10, 169-pound prospects list are Florida, Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, Michigan and Georgia. Though Ohio State seemingly has the momentum in Hardman's recruitment now, he's scheduled to officially visit Alabama this weekend. Hardman plays wide receiver and cornerback, but he's considered an offensive player in college. Ohio State got a commitment on Monday from four-star wide receiver Binjimen Victor of Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Coconut Creek, but the Buckeyes would still find room for an athlete like Hardman. John-Kasich-GOP-2016-Debate Ohio Gov. John Kasich, seen here during last week's GOP presidential debate, told an interviewer Sunday that his campaign is "the little engine that can" and predicted that if he finishes strong in New Hampshire he'll win the GOP presidential nomination. (Associated Press) Today's John Kasich news: Ohio Gov. John Kasich expressed optimism about his GOP presidential nomination chances over the weekend, describing his campaign as "the little engine that can." In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," Kasich said New Hampshire voters share a sense of optimism and work ethic that will lead to success in that state's first-in-the-nation primary on Feb. 9. "We're like the little engine that can so keep an eye on us and if we come out of New Hampshire as a story, I'm just going to tell you . . . I believe I'll be the nominee." Doing well in New Hampshire could serve as a momentum boost in Southern and Midwestern states where he has already started organizing his campaign efforts, he said. See the full interview at CBS News. Kasich of late has been polling better in New Hampshire and over the weekend he picked up endorsements from three more New Hampshire newspapers -- The Nashua Telegraph, Foster's Daily Democrat and Portsmouth Herald. The Nashua paper called Kasich a "pragmatic problem-solver" with executive experience. The other two newspapers note Kasich "is not the flashiest candidate in the field," but say he's best qualified because of his effective leadership as a congressman and governor. Read more at Cincinnati.com. Ted Cruz Ted Cruz, running for the Republican presidential nomination, kicked off a 5-day New Hampshire tour Sunday. (Matt Rourke, Associated Press) Today's Ted Cruz news: He's still got New Yorkers mad at him (and seems to be doubling down). He's still got Donald Trump troubles. But now that last week's debate is over and he's visited much of Iowa, Ted Cruz is shifting his attention to New Hampshire. He started a 5-day tour there Sunday. From the Associated Press: Cruz is trying to bring religious and social conservatives together with pro-gun libertarians for a stronger-than-expected finish in New Hampshire's primary Feb. 9. His 17-stop tour attracted hundreds of people at the kickoff event Sunday night in Milford, known as "the granite town in the Granite State" for its proliferation of quarries. Cruz tried to position himself as the most sincere conservative in the race, building on his recent attacks against Trump as only a recent convert to the GOP. "Everyone says they're a conservative," Cruz said. "Don't listen to what I say, or they say. Ignore what any of us say on the campaign trail. Look to our actions." Cruz cast himself as the most willing to fight with both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. Cruz received a standing ovation and occasional shouts of "Amen!": Associated Press via Las Vegas Sun. From CNN, dateline Milford, NH: Before Cruz even opened the door to a particularly raucous crowd in a pasta restaurant off the main town square, his top surrogate, former House Speaker Bill O'Brien, used the phrase behind Cruz's line of attack: "New York values." And the very first question from the audience invited the Texas senator to again offer a faux-apology to Trump for the loaded criticism of the city -- in which he happily obliged. "Our friends in the media, it seems like they lit their hair on fire. They were very confused: 'Well, what are these New York values of which you speak?'" Cruz said. "In the rest of America, people know exactly what that means": CNN. Whatever it means, Cruz said on "Fox News Sunday," it all actually started with Trump. Trump was being interviewed by the late Tim Russert on NBC in in 1999, and Russert asked about Trump's support of abortion and gays in the military. Trump told Russert in response, "I've lived in New York City in Manhattan all my life, OK? So, you know, my views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa." On Fox, Cruz likened his rival to Democrats who similarly defended New York. "I would point out it's a view echoed by far left liberal Democratic politicians like Andrew Cuomo, Bill de Blasio, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump has supported those candidates and supported their positions on a lot of issues," he said. Trump meantime on Sunday called Cruz a "very strident" person and "a nasty guy": CBS News. And other New Yorkers this weekend joined in. New Yorkers including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Republican congressman Peter King"stood by Trump's response to Cruz that recalled the values of the first responders who worked at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack," Newsday reports. "And they called Cruz's remarks offensive to all Americans": Newsday. Cruz, a Texas U.S. senator, appears to have escaped for now what could have been a bigger public controversy involving campaign loans from 2012. He failed to disclose them at the time, as required by law, to the Federal Election Commission. The New York Times broke the story, first on a loan from New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs. Cruz's wife is on leave from Goldman's Houston office during the presidential race. There was a second undisclosed loan, as the New York Times subsequently reported, from Citibank. Cruz says his failure to disclose both loans, which totaled as much as $1 million, was inadvertent. Cruz's relationships with the banks --the terms, the collateral -- suggested to many in the media that Cruz would likely come under fire during last week's Republican debate. It was all the buzz in the pre-debate hours. But Cruz was asked only one question about the matter during the debate, in which he criticized the New York Times and said he merely had made a paperwork mistake. Most of Cruz's competitors have meantime been silent. Not Trump. In an interview Sunday with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Trump said of Cruz, "He's a total hypocrite. How about his fundraising and how about when he does his personal financial disclosure form, and he doesn't put on that he's borrowing money from Goldman Sachs? And then today it comes out that he's also borrowing money from CitiBank and he doesn't list it. "You know why? He wants to look like Robin Hood that he's the one protecting the people from the banks while he's actually borrowing money and personally guaranteeing it and not disclosing it, which is illegal": ABC News. Meantime in New Hampshire, where Cruz will spend the week, Time writes: "New Hampshire is not an obvious venue for Cruz, who has made his faith a central pillar of his campaign and launched his campaign at Liberty University. Voters are prickly and have seldom favored those who wear religion on their sleeve. While evangelicals in Iowa have tremendous sway in picking a caucus winner, New Hampshire is consistently ranked among the most secular in the country. "Cruz is not curbing his faith when he heads north, however. That in-your-face authenticity might be powering his support. He quoted Scripture three separate times during his event at the Pasta Loft and consistently praised 'Judeo-Christian values' over those dogged 'New York values' he associates with Trump": Time. police line do not cross.jpg Police arrested four teenagers who they say were involved in a pair of fights near Cleveland Heights High School. (File photo) UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Police arrested four teenagers, including one who reportedly had a gun, after a fight at Cleveland Heights High School, reports show. The arrests stemmed from a Friday afternoon brawl among about 20 teenagers, according to University Heights police reports. University Heights Lt. Dale Orians said he was driving to the school about 1:45 p.m. to meet with the security director about a previous fight when he saw 15-20 teens fighting. The students had early dismissal that day. The brawl was sparked by a disagreement over money, Orians said. One boy said another boy ripped him off when he tried to buy a cellphone from him. It took nearly 20 officers from the University Heights Police Department, the South Euclid Police Department and the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department to break up the scuffle. Nobody was seriously hurt. Police arrested a 14-year-old University Heights boy, a 14-year-old Shaker Heights boy and a 16-year-old Cleveland Heights girl. They were turned over to their parents. The confrontation spilled over to Whole Foods at the corner of Cedar and Warrensville Center Roads, Orians said. The 16-year-old girl was with her parents in the store parking lot when she confronted one of the boys who was also involved in the fight, police said. The boy drew a pistol on the family and then ran away. Police found a 14-year-old University Heights boy hiding in the basement of the University Heights Library at the intersection of Cedar and Fenwick Roads a short time later. Police arrested him after witnesses identified him as the boy who drew the pistol. Police didn't find a gun, and the boy was turned over to his parents. All four teens will face charges in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court, Orians said. High school classes are being held at Wiley Middle School while the old high school building in Cleveland Heights undergoes a $78.8 million renovation. The Australian government said it ordered the sale of another eight residential properties bought in breach of foreign ownership laws, in a response to concerns that offshore buyers were driving up house prices. Australian capital city homes are considered among the most overpriced in the world, and the Federal Government announced penalties for foreigners who breach existing rules that restrict them to buying new homes only. Treasurer Scott Morrison said on Monday the forced sale of eight properties takes to 27 the total number of homes the government has declared were bought illegally by foreigners, mostly Chinese nationals. Since the foreign ownership crackdown began last year, the government said it had investigated more than 1,300 property sales and had another 800 under investigation. Oil prices were sharply lower in early Asian trade, extending a brutal sell-off fueled by fears of a glut from Iran, after international sanctions against the country were lifted at the weekend. U.S. WTI light sweet crude oil prices were recently trading 0.45 percent lower at $29.25 a barrel, after falling 3.6 percent to hit the session's low of $28.36 barrel, while European Brent crude was last 0.48 percent lower $28.82 a barrel after falling 4.4 percent to $27.67 a barrel. Both grades were moving in the range of prices not seen since late 2003 after falling about 6 percent on Friday in the U.S. session. Iran, which is an OPEC member, is ready to increase its crude oil exports by half a million barrels a day, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing statements from the country's deputy oil minister. This has caused the market to panic, despite the fact that oil investors had anticipated the return of Iran to oil markets and that development of the oil industry in the country was likely to be a slow process, said American Enterprise Institute's resident fellow, Matthew McInnis. Police walk past missing person notices of Gui Minhai (L), one of five missing booksellers from the Mighty Current publishing house and Yau Wentian (R), a Hong Kong publisher who was last year jailed for 10 years while preparing to release a book critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Anthony Wallave | AFP | Getty Images A Swedish bookseller whose mysterious disappearance has sparked fears he may have been taken by Chinese agents said he had voluntarily turned himself into the authorities for a drink-driving accident that resulted in a death 11 years ago. Gui Minhai, who vanished from his apartment in Thailand last October, voluntarily returned to China to answer a conviction from 2004 for killing a student, state media said on Sunday. "I am returning to surrender by personal choice, it has nothing to do with anyone," Gui, looking distraught, said in a China Central Television broadcast. "This is a personal responsibility that I ought to bear." Gui, a naturalized Swedish citizen, is one of five members to have gone missing from of a Hong Kong bookstore that specialises in selling gossipy political books on China's Communist Party leaders. watch now The disappearances and China's silence have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. In recent years, state media has publicised a string of what is presented as confessions made by high-profile suspects. Critics say these accounts deprive the accused of the right to a fair trial. Earlier this month, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said it had raised Gui's case with the Chinese ambassador to Stockholm. It was not possible to contact Gui and it remains unclear whether he has a lawyer. Daughter believes Gui abducted Gui's daughter, Angela, who is based in Britain, said she could not confirm what was being reported but that she still believed her father had been abducted and his detention was related to his work. Gui Minhai cautioned in the report "any individual or organization" against intervening or "engaging in malicious speculation." His confession was broadcast Sunday night on China Central Television. The official Xinhua News Agency published a separate report. Gui, who holds a Swedish passport, "surrendered to public security organs" in October, Xinhua said, without providing details about his surrender or transport from Thailand. watch now watch now Markets are pricing in an economic collapse in emerging markets and that's a buying opportunity, Templeton Global Macro's influential chief investment officer Michael Hasenstab told CNBC. "This is one of those once-in-a-decade periods where there's mass panic-selling," Hasenstab told Squawkbox. "We have blown through the lows of the Global Financial Crisis, we've blown through the lows of the Asian Financial Crisis [and] the Tequila Crisis. And it's true things are slowing. The global economy is slowing. But it's not this collapse." Emerging markets assets have tumbled since the start of the year, with China entering a "bear within a bear" territory.The Shanghai Composite is down more than 20 percent from its December high, as well as trading down more than 40 percent from its 52-week high set in June of last year. "I have never seen people more pessimistic on an asset class than emerging markets," Hasenstab said. Emerging markets have certainly been unloved: about $74 billion flowed out of global emerging market equity funds in 2015, up from $25 billion in outflows in 2014, according to data from JPMorgan. Asian emerging markets bore the brunt of the exit; $39 billion flowed out of Asia ex-Japan equity funds last year, the data showed. As of last week's close, the MSCI Emerging Markets Asia index was trading at 10.8 times 2016 earnings, while emerging Europe is trading at 6.2 times, according to data from Credit Suisse. More broadly, the MSCI Emerging Markets index is at 10.4 times 2016 earnings, the data show. "The market is pricing in a complete implosion and the reality is it should just price in a slowdown. So there's good value out there if you have the patience and the staying power to hold to your convictions," Hasenstab said. "But you're paid to wait, with valuations cheap and in some cases yields very high. If you just sit there and wait for a year, you're actually getting a nice return." The MSCI Emerging Markets Free index, a free-float-adjusted index tracking global emerging markets, has a trailing dividend yield of 3.0 percent, above its five-year average of 2.7 percent, according to Credit Suisse data. Templeton Global has scooped up shares in select countries, Hasenstab said, but he noted that not all emerging markets were created equal. The U.K. is enduring Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year, as the weather worsens and Britons get back into the year-long daily grind after the Christmas and New Year break. The term Blue Monday was first coined in 2005 as part of advertising campaign for Sky Travel. It was suggested that the third Monday of January is the most depressing due to a number of factors, including debt built up over Christmas, bad weather and how many days it had been since the holidays. While the concept of Blue Monday has come under criticism from some psychologists, some experts have come up with solutions for feeling down. Martin Barraud | Getty Images For instance, Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Management at Cass Business School in London, argues that laughter can be the best medicine for back-to-work blues. "Laughter is a natural, everyday response, even to grim situations, and humor is one way that people deal with tensions at work," she said in a press release. "All businesses face contradictions and competing objectives. These are often frustrating for the employees involved and cause costly delays in business processes. Managers who pay more attention to humour a simple everyday response to conflict can better understand these pressure points, and relieve them." watch now watch now watch now watch now watch now After a decisive win over the weekend in both presidential and parliamentary elections in Taiwan, independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party is quick to stress on how it is keen to maintain the status quo with China. The reality, however, will be far more complex after eight years of cordial China-Taiwan relations under the Nationalist Party (KMT), analysts say. "China will spike tensions with Taiwan mostly because I believe that the Chinese strategy will be to do so and to put Taipei--and by extension DC--on the defensive and in so doing, hopefully extract concessions," said Rupert Hammond-Chambers, MD Bower Group Asia and former president of the U.S. Taiwan Business Council. DPP's presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen won 56 percent of the vote on Saturday--ahead of the KMT's Eric Chu who got 31 percent of the vote and People First Party's candidate James Soong, who received just under 13 percent of the votes. DPP also won 68 out of 113 seats in parliament, the first time it has gained a majority in the house. China-Taiwan relations have been strained since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 when the Nationalist Party (KMT) retreated to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War. No armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed to mark the end of the conflict and the mainland views Taiwan as a renegade province that may be reclaimed by force, if necessary. A former top negotiator, newly-elected Tsai has been softening her pro-independence position and has been consistent in sending the message that the status quo should be maintained. Despite her moderating stance on independence, Tsai's win is tricky for Beijing as she has not committed to what is known as the "1992 Consensus", a tacit understanding reached that year at a meeting between semi-official representatives that acknowledges that there is only one Chinaalthough the mainland and Taiwan can have their own interpretation of what that stands for. The mainland's state-controlled media was hard-hitting, with the Global Times warning Taiwan to not harbor any "hallucinations" of independence in an unsigned editorial with the title "Taiwanese choose Tsai, not independence". The newspaper also warned Tsai that Taiwan would meet "a dead end" if she revisits the "dangerous path" of former DPP president Chen Shui-bian, whom Beijing views as a pro-independence troublemaker. The Chinese social media was equally dismissive. "No matter if you are blue or green, you will ultimately be red," wrote Chang Anjun, referring to the party colors of the KMT, the DPP and the CCP, respectively. "Why do they put up such a big show for electing a provincial leader? It's indeed quite different under 'one country, two systems'" wrote another user, referring to Beijing's system of ruling over Hong Kong and Macau, former colonies of the U.K. and Portugal. A supporter stands next to campaign flags of Tsai Ing-wen, presidential candidate for Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), during a rally in southern Kaohsiung on January 9, 2016. Sam Yeh | AFP | Getty Images The spotlight on geopolitical tensions however is overshadowing what is the real challenge for Taiwan and its peoplethe economy, which is facing headwinds from a slowdown in its largest trading partner China and changes in the employment landscape. "The referendum in this election was not about China. It was primarily about where Taiwan is going from here. Taiwan is in an economic crisis; it needs to restructure; there are are no jobs and China is one of the factors but only one of the many (factors) ," said Syaru Shirley Lin, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Potentially as a nod to the slowdown at home, Taiwan has been jostling to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a large free trade pact led by the U.S. "The TPP membership would force through Taiwan a significant, broad and deep period of reform for the economy and position it to compete most importantly with its primarily competitors in the region Secondly, the axis to the TPP also would afford Taiwan a new era of relations with its Asia Pacific trading partners and allow the Taiwanese economy to maintain a degree of competitiveness," said Bower Group's Hammond-Chambers. The world's second-largest economy cannot be expected to grow at its current breakneck speed, the founder of the World Economic Forum told CNBC as fears over the global reliance on the Chinese economy sent markets on course for their worst-ever start to the year. As the business and political leaders gather at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, amid a fresh storm of market uncertainty, WEF founder Klaus Schwab points out the difficulty for China to maintain the pace. "For China to grow seven percent is the equivalent of adding an economy the size of Switzerland or Indonesia every year," he told CNBC Monday. World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab FABRICE COFFRINI | AFP | Getty Images He said Beijing is not alone in making mis-steps in the quest for growth and stability. "We are in new territory and I think traditional economic concepts do not work anymore. So we have to test what is necessary in this new global disruptive situation." Schwab however maintained that China was still a reason to be positive. "I see a lot of entrepreneurial forces coming up in China. Look at Alibaba. I feel China will use the fourth Industrial revolution in order to boost its economy," he said. watch now Rise of ISIS and Donald Trump Representatives from several Middle Eastern countries will be are attending the summit. Schwab expressed hope that the leaders could come together to address the threat of the so-called Islamic State in a neutral setting. "People today are scared of the stability of the world. What we must try to do is instill trust in to governments and leaderships," he told CNBC. And he admitted to some concern on language against Muslims from Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump. "What we are seeing in the world is a king of increased egoism; it is a polarisation of views. "When you can't cope with change, you feel overwhelmed and you look for a simple solution", he said. watch now Schwab said Trump and other politicians were guilty of playing on people's fears but he would welcome him at WEF. "Everybody is welcome, provided he is ready to listen. Davos is a place of dialog; we are not just a platform of unilateral speeches." World Economic Theme The theme of the year's forum is the arrival of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" and to accompany the subject, Schwab has published a book in time for the Swiss conclave. The book argues that the next industrial transformation is among us and builds upon the arrival of computer technology in the 1960's. Artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing and blockchain are just some of the technologies held up as driving the sea change. watch now Getty Images Betting that markets will be "volatile" is like betting the weather will be partly cloudy. It's a smart-sounding strategy that doesn't mean much. Listen to market strategists and a word that comes up a lot these days is "volatility." Outlook for 2016? "More volatility ahead." Buy these stock market dips? "Yes, but there could be more volatility." This isn't new. It's been going on for years. And it's rarely useful information for investors. That's partly because the term "volatility" could describe anything from stock prices rapidly fluctuating--which, by their very nature, they do--to a specific move higher in the market's best-known volatility gauge, the VIX. Most use the term volatility in a broad enough way to suggest either, or both, of the above. That not only leaves them plenty of wiggle room for whatever actually takes place in the market, it also sounds like wise, prudent advice. The trouble is, it doesn't actually help investors that much in determining whether to invest in a given security, or index, at a given price. watch now And when specifically recommending that investors buy or sell the VIX, the advice is rarely much better. That's because the VIX itself largely tracks the stock market. It often trades at a lower level when the market is "boring," or gradually drifting up (reminiscent of the old Wall Street saying to "never short a dull tape"). It tends to spike when there are panicky market sell-offs, which by their nature almost no one ever sees coming. So timing the VIX itself is as difficult as timing the market. Consider recent history: after the VIX spiked in late 2011, amid the U.S. credit-rating downgrade and European debt turmoil, "Just about everybody on Wall Street" thought volatility was "here to stay." By the following June, bets that the VIX was going higher reached record levels, with at least one observer warning they were reaching "bubble levels." Instead of spiking, volatility swooned, ultimately falling to decade-low levels in the summer of 2014. What about holding the VIX as a hedge against panicky market sell-offs? Unfortunately, as Robert Whaley has observed, the most popular of these exchange-traded products "are not suitable for buy-and-hold investors because they are virtually guaranteed to lose money over time." Since first coming to market in 2009, "they have chalked up aggregate losses in the billions of dollars," he said. Volkswagen stock-holders may be about to see some light at the end of the tunnel. One analyst believes the stock is ready to accelerate as VW attempts to put its diesel scandal behind it. "I think it is the biggest stock for the year. It is the biggest turnaround story for autos and I think the stock can double", Arndt Ellinghorst, Head of Global Automotive Research at Evercore ISI Group told CNBC on Monday. He says VW's reputation is holding up well against the diesel scandal. "The VW brand is behaving relatively well. If you take out some of the cars that they couldn't sell because of the CO2 cheat in Europe or the diesels in the U.S, it tells you that the brand still has very strong substance." SYRACUSE, N.Y. Avalon Document Services, which is based in Syracuse, has opened an office in Tampa, Florida. The office will provide litigation-support services to law firms and corporations in the Southeastern U.S., the company said in a recent news release. Avalon plans to add 10 to 15 employees at the new office this year, the company said. The new office will provide forensic collections and analysis, data processing, hosted review, project management, and will add traditional paper (scanning and copying) services to the operation by the end of the years first quarter. We have experienced tremendous growth in the past several years and are always looking for more growth opportunities. We were lucky enough to identify a market with a need and extremely talented people that fit our corporate culture and were looking for the opportunity to join a fast growing company, JP Midgley, CEO of Avalon, said in the news release. Avalon is headquartered at 901 N. State St. in Syracuse and has additional offices in Utica; Rochester; Buffalo; Cleveland and Akron, Ohio; and now Tampa. Its suite of services include business printing and copying, document imaging and scanning, large-format and contractor services, litigation-support services, e-discovery, and facilities management, according to its website. Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. 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 Visit these 9 enduring favorites over Homecoming weekend Here are just nine of Columbia's true cultural and culinary institutions, all worth visiting this weekend. Best of Business 2022: Learn Who Won Our 15th Annual Reader Poll Local professionals chose their favorite business and professional services, products, healthcare, dining and more. Find out who their top picks are. DHL will operate in Memphis from this larger facility at 3560 Air Center Cove, next to Memphis International Airport SHARE By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal FedEx competitor DHL is moving into a new, larger center next to Memphis International Airport to serve Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, the international shipping company announced Monday. The German company's existing and forecast shipping growth from Mid-South companies trading internationally and through e-commerce drove the $2.5 million investment in Memphis, according to a DHL statement. DHL moved from an 11,000-square-foot facility to the 30,000-square foot facility at 3560 Air Center Cove. The site can process more than 2,500 shipments hourly, the company said. The DHL center operates as the local center for pick-up, delivery and sorting operations of international shipments. Memphis is a top metro area for exports, and as a leading international shipping provider, we are keeping pace with the tremendous growth from the areas global businesses, John Fox, DHL general manager for the Southeast U.S., said in a prepared statement. This new facility will not only support customer shipment growth, but will also allow for earlier delivery times and later drop-off times for international importers and exporters. The "state-of-the-art'' facility will handle a variety of shipments, including international small parcels as well as palletized and container freight. It features a large customer counter, expanded parking lot, and several dozen pick-up and delivery vehicles fueled by propane autogas. Earlier this month, FedEx won the European Commission's approval to acquire Netherlands-based TNT to establish the second-largest package shipping company in Europe. The $4.8 billion acquisition will rank FedEx, in Europe, behind DHL and ahead of UPS. Jesse Turner Jr., president of Tri-State Bank, stands in front of the bank's head office in Downtown Memphis. Tri-State has sold its headquarters building to Belz Investco and First Tennessee Bank has acquired 88,000 shares of Tri-State preferred stock. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal The small Tri-State Bank and large First Tennessee Bank may not be peer institutions, but still they compete to attract depositors and make loans. Which makes First Tennessee's $1.5 million investment in Tri-State unusual. The two banks themselves call First Tennessee's recent purchase of 88,000 shares of Tri-State preferred stock an "unprecedented transaction'' in a release announcing the deal. The impact on Tri-State's financials will be doubled. The U.S. Treasury's Community Development Financial Institution Fund will match the $1.5 million investment. The Community Development Financial Institution Fund is designed to help financial institutions like Tri-State address the lasting effects of institutional discrimination by supporting economically disadvantaged communities, the statement says. The stock purchases do not affect the ownership of Tri-State, a black-owned bank which was founded in 1946 "to support the banking needs of Memphis' large African American community at the height of debilitating discrimination, segregation and Jim Crow laws,'' states a Tri-State release on the deal. The CDFI Fund plays an important role in generating economic growth and opportunity in some of our nations most distressed communities, said Keith Turbett, Community Reinvestment Act officer for First Tennessee Bank. David Popwell, First Tennessee president, said, "This is part of First Tennessees overall strategy to invest in organizations that benefit low-to-moderate income communities to improve Memphis overall. The transaction follows another recent infusion of cash into Tri-State. A few weeks ago, the real estate firm Belz Investco paid $2.75 million for Tri-State's headquarters property, prime real estate at the corner of Beale and South Main. Belz also purchased bank stock and established deposits in Tri-State, totalling about $250,000. The bank has 18 months to establish a new headquarters somewhere else. Tri-State Bank president Jesse Turner Jr. described 2015 one of the most dynamic, exciting, and progressive years in the banks history. We appreciate this testament of confidence in the present and future of Tri-State Bank of Memphis from another iconic Memphis-based corporation, Turner said about First Tennessee in the release. First Tennessee has been a great banking business partner over the years. About $5 million in new capital will enable the bank to pursue "new growth opportunities.'' Tri-State's total assets were $120 million as of Sept. 30, and had total deposits of $106 million. In comparison, First Tennessee bank has $18.8 billion in deposits and $25.4 billion in total assets. The larger bank has been making money recently and the smaller bank has not. According to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation website, Tri-State had lost $163,000 in net income through the first three quarters of 2015, and its return on assets were negative 0.18 percent. First Tennessee had a net income of $68 million and net return on assets of 0.36 percent for the same time period. Turner, the Tri-State president, said earlier this month that Tri-State had experienced "some downs'' like other financial institutions following the Great Recession. "I think some of those (downs) have been a little more protracted given the community we serve: the low-, moderate-income community.'' But, he added, "Our capital is good.'' SHARE Photo by Justin Fox Burks The key to using grits for a tamale pie topping is to season them well with garlic, salt and pepper. For added kick, try combining a sharp cheddar with a little spicy pepper jack. By Jennifer Chandler Let me introduce you to tamale pie. If there's one recipe to get you through these chilly weeks of winter, this is it. Tamale Pie is one of my favorite things to order from my friend Bradford William's prepared foods shop Curbside Casserole. She was kind enough to share her recipe with me. In her shop, she prepares it with house-smoked pulled pork, but for everyday convenience, I make it with ground beef. Many recipes for tamale pie call for topping the spicy meat with cornbread batter. The cornbread version is good, but Bradford's idea to top this dish with cheesy grits makes this dish over the top! The grits are a cinch to prepare if you use instant grits. The key is to season them well with garlic, salt and pepper. And don't forget the cheese. I prefer sharp cheddar. For an added kick, combine a little spicy pepper jack with the cheddar. To make my prep time more efficient, I cook the grits at the same time I am cooking the meat filling. As I mentioned, Bradford uses pulled pork in her tamale pie. You could always smoke your own, or save time and pick up some from your favorite barbecue shop. We like ground beef because it's convenient and economical. For a variation to my recipe below, try making your tamale pie with one pound of pulled pork, ground turkey, or cooked shredded chicken. For a vegetarian version, substitute 2 cans (15-ounce) black beans. Jennifer Chandler is the author of "Simply Salads" (Thomas Nelson, $24.99), "Simply Suppers: Easy Comfort Food Your Whole Family Will Love" (Thomas Nelson, $24.99), "Simply Grilling" (Thomas Nelson, $24.99), and "The Southern Pantry Cookbook" (Thomas Nelson, $26.99). She lives in East Memphis with her husband and two daughters. For more recipes and dinnertime solutions, visit cookwithjennifer.com. A technician walks through solar panels. SHARE By Tom Charlier of The Commercial Appeal A recent court ruling has dimmed the prospects that a major solar-energy farm capable of generating enough electricity for thousands of homes will be built outside Covington, Tennessee, about 35 miles north of Memphis. The Jan. 5 ruling by Chancellor William C. Cole in Tipton County Chancery Court upheld a decision by the Covington Regional Board of Zoning Appeals that the facility planned by Town Creek Solar LLC does not comply with the current zoning of the site on the city's eastern border. The board, affirming an opinion by a city planner, held that the forestry-agriculture-residential zoning of the land allows only for solar-power devices for personal or individual use, meaning the power generated would be consumed in the on-site home or business. Town Creek's project constituted a "nongovernmental electric power generating facility" not allowed by the zoning, it said. In his ruling, Cole said the BZA's interpretation of the local zoning code was supported by the evidence. It was not "arbitrary, capricious, illegal" or an abuse of discretion, he wrote. Town Creek has 30 days to appeal the ruling. Tom Tuffey, a co-owner of Community Energy Solar, the Pennsylvania-based firm behind the Town Creek proposal, said last week that he had no comment on Cole's ruling. Community Energy Solar, which has built some three dozen solar projects across the nation, had a contract to sell power from the Town Creek farm to the Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides wholesale electricity to a seven-state region. Solar power projects have proliferated in recent years, driven in part by a 60-70 percent drop in the price of photovoltaic panels and the continuing 30 percent federal investment tax credit. A total of 469 acres had been leased for The Town Creek project, which, as originally described by the company, would have generated 23 megawatts, enough power for 4,000-5,000 homes. The firm later scaled back the size of the farm. The facility would have employed rows of photovoltaic panels that tracked the sun throughout the day, generating power and feeding it onto high-voltage lines leading to a nearby substation. But many residents opposed the proposal, saying they're worried about declining property values, and about heat and glare and chemicals leaching from the panels. However, Rachel Gangaware, an attorney for the city, said the decisions by the BZA and city planners were based strictly on the zoning ordinances. "As far as the city was concerned, the public's strong dislike (of the project) really had no bearing on these decisions," she said. SHARE By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal A postal worker has been released from the hospital after having acid thrown in her face while on the job. Memphis police said the woman, whose name was not available Sunday, was approached by a male subject at Fortner and Socoro Cove in Raleigh some time before 2:30 p.m. Friday, when he threw acid on her. The woman drove herself to Methodist North Hospital for treatment of chemical burns. She was later transported to the Regional Medical Center in non-critical condition before being released. Police said Sunday they still do not have a motive for the attack. SHARE By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal A second person has died after a shooting in Marshall County, Mississippi, Coroner James Richard Anderson said Monday. Jamon D. Moton, 34, was taken to Regional Medical Center in Memphis after a motorist found him and Will A. Phillips, 31, shot late Friday on Moore Road northwest of Holly Springs. Both victims were shot in the head, and Phillips was dead at the scene. Moton was from Holly Springs and Corinth, and Phillips was from a rural area between Red Banks and Holly Springs. They were discovered on opposite sides of the road, and a passerby on Saturday morning found the black Dodge Charger they had been traveling in burned about three miles from the bodies. Sheriff Kenny Dickerson said deputies were looking for one or more people who were believed to be in the car with the victims. Anyone with information can call the Marshall County Sheriffs Department at 662-252-1311. The Associated Press contributed to this story. January 18, 2016 - Traffic flows west on Poplar Ave. Monday afternoon as road work continues in East Memphis. Commissioner Heidi Shafer, chairwoman of the legislative affairs committee, said commissioners intend to ask the state for help to rework the Poplar corridor, making it more walkable and bikeable, and widening the bridge over Interstate 240. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal) By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal The Shelby County Commission will discuss on Wednesday the legislative agenda it intends to send to state lawmakers, the first time the commission and the mayor's administration will head to Nashville without a mutual list of objectives. The commission's wish list is heavy on road requests. Commissioner Heidi Shafer, chairwoman of the legislative affairs committee, said commissioners intend to ask the state for help to rework the Poplar corridor, making it more walkable and bikeable, and widening the bridge over Interstate 240. "Since a huge percentage of our taxes come from a half-mile north and a half-mile south of Poplar, it is the miracle street," Shafer said. "That's the engine that produces the money that helps us do projects elsewhere in county." The plan would be similar to the work done on Poplar in Germantown east of Kirby, but would extend westward to Highland, she said. "It would honestly take the city, county and state in order to do what we want to do," she said. "That's why I'm saying this is not a quick effort." The commission is also expected to support legislation already being discussed that would require fees from the owners of hybrid and electric vehicles, money they would have otherwise paid in gas taxes, said commission chairman Terry Roland, past chairman of the legislative affairs committee. Those funds would also be intended for infrastructure improvements, Roland said. And the commission will ask for funding to complete Tennessee 385 near Millington, and Interstate 240 at Thomas Street in Frayser, he said. "That will be a big boon for Shelby County and especially for the city of Memphis because that finishes the outer circle and it will actually open up a portion of land that was hard to get to in Downtown," Roland said. "What we've tried to do with our agenda is take issues that help all of Shelby County." Commissioners were made aware of county Mayor Mark Luttrell's joint agenda with former Memphis mayor A C Wharton, which was submitted to Gov. Bill Haslam in October . "Ideally, when dealing with the legislative agenda you want to try to get it into the governor for his consideration before he builds his budget," Luttrell said. The separate agendas follow months of animosity between the commission and the administration. The branches of government have been at odds over a failed one-cent property tax reduction, the mayor's refusal to act on a commission resolution to hire its own special counsel and a recent resolution that was not reviewed by the chairman or released publicly, but was sent by the mayor to be reviewed by the state attorney general. The 12-point city-county agenda includes funding for entrepreneur programs, improvements to Lamar Avenue, enhanced sentences for repeat drug trafficking, burglary and domestic violence offenders, more funding for specialty courts like the county's drug and mental health courts and expanded health care coverage for Tennesseans. "There are some issues that are uniquely theirs (the County Commission's) and they have every right to build a legislative agenda around that," Luttrell said. "I'm not sensing that there's any divisiveness here. We collaborate on certain things and we go separate ways on separate things." And, while working together may have presented a united Shelby County, there is no opposition to the mayors' agenda, Roland said. "I'm going to help no matter what and I'm sure Commissioner Shafer is going help no matter what, but there does need to be a partnership," he said. The Tennessee Legislature opened its 2016 session last Tuesday. President Barack Obama SHARE By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal WASHINGTON Republicans in the U.S. House have voted 62 times to repeal President Barack Obama's signature health-care reforms. Two weeks ago, they managed to send a repeal bill to the president's desk. Obama, as expected, promptly vetoed it. What Republicans have yet to do: Settle on a plan for replacing the health-care system they want to dismantle. "I think it's time," said U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, a Johnson City, Tennessee, Republican who argues it's important for the GOP to take its vision of health-care reform to the American people. Roe, a physician, has been knee deep in the health-care debate for so long that he says he knows the minutiae of health-care policy as well as he knows the Pledge of Allegiance. Roe has been working, as co-chairman of the House Doctors Caucus, to come up with the Republican alternative to Obamacare, which has been the law of the land for going on six years. The Republicans' repeal-and-replace campaign seemed to be making progress two years ago when Roe helped write and introduced health-care legislation that supporters contended would return decision-making power to patients and their doctor. It went nowhere. Last June, Roe filed the bill for a second time. Again, nothing happened. Not even a congressional hearing. The GOP has been unable to move its own health-care prescription through Congress for a number of reasons, Roe said. For starters, the Eric Cantor saga. When he was the House majority leader, the Virginia Republican pushed for passage of a health-reform bill to replace Obamacare. But Cantor lost his bid for re-election in the GOP primary in the summer of 2014. His astounding, no-one-saw-it-coming defeat was a blow to establishment Republicans and left many of them skittish about taking on health-care reform in a volatile election year. "Some of the political people were afraid that, if you put this (bill) up, then the Democrats will have something to shoot at," Roe said. Another problem: Many Congress members don't have even the most basic understanding of what is involved in reforming the Obama reforms. "This is a very complex bill," Roe said. "I've had several members come up and say, 'Phil, I want to work with you on this.' When I spoke to them for a little while, I realized they really didn't even have the fundamental knowledge of what this bill really did." Educating lawmakers on the fine points of health policy is going to take some time, Roe said. Regardless, he's ready to get moving. Roe's bill, called the American Health Care Reform Act, would repeal Obamacare and replace it with a system that eliminates billions in taxes and thousands of pages of regulations and mandates that critics contend are driving up health-care costs. It also would allow Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, expand health-savings accounts, bolster state-based high-risk health insurance pools, change medical malpractice laws to limit trial lawyer fees and damages, and prohibit federal funding of abortions. Roe said he expects the bill to be merged with a similar proposal by U.S. Rep. Tom Price, a Georgia Republican who's also a doctor. The legislation could be ready to go before the appropriate committees by early March, he said. "I'm ready to show the American people and debate the pros and cons of this bill," Roe said. "There's no perfect bill out there. But what we've got now sure isn't perfect." Michael Collins is The Commercial Appeal's Washington correspondent. His weekly Tennessee in D.C. column highlights Volunteer State lawmakers, causes and connections. Contact him at 202-408-2711 or michael.collins@jmg.com. SHARE By Tom Charlier of The Commercial Appeal Despite a series of tort-reform measures approved by lawmakers in recent years, Tennessee physicians say they need further protection in the form of an amendment to the state constitution against the threat of large awards in medical malpractice lawsuits. The Tennessee Medical Association is asking legislators this year to start the process of amending the constitution to add language stipulating that the General Assembly can set caps on noneconomic damages in litigation. It's a process that would take three years, with both chambers needing to pass a resolution by simple majorities this year and two-thirds majorities next year before voters are asked to approve it in 2018. Although the exact language wasn't available last week, the resolution would state that an individual's right to trial by jury is not abridged if there are limits placed on noneconomic damages. Noneconomic damages generally refer to pain and suffering and mental anguish, for which a 2011 law capped awards at $750,000 per occurrence, or at $1 million in cases with catastrophic injuries or losses. The change would not apply to economic damages, such as medical costs and lost wages. The proposed resolution comes in response to a recent preliminary ruling by a judge in Chattanooga judge that Tennessee's cap is unconstitutional. The cap has not been tested before the state Supreme Court, however. Maintaining the cap is vital to attracting and maintaining good doctors, TMA representatives say, especially since other states have imposed damage limits and other reforms. "We want the best and brightest physicians," said Yarnell Beatty, general counsel for the TMA. "If there's a bad liability climate in Tennessee, they won't come." The cap was one of a series of reforms approved by state lawmakers over the past eight or so years. Other measures include a requirement that plaintiffs notify caregivers before filing suit, thereby increasing the chances for a settlement, and a law stating that plaintiffs must certify that a medical expert has reviewed the case and found it to have merit. The reforms have helped reduce the number of cases filed against physicians by 40 percent, Beatty said. Another effect of the changes has been a levelling-off, or, in some specialties, a decrease, in malpractice insurance premiums, physicians say. "At least they're stabilizing to a reasonable degree," said Dr. Keith Anderson, a cardiologist with Sutherland Cardiology in Germantown. But attorneys and some public-interest groups oppose damage caps, saying they infringe on the right of trial by jury. "It's a violation of the Tennessee constitution and the U.S. Constitution," said Memphis attorney Duncan Ragsdale, who has extensive experience litigating malpractice cases. Asked about the proposal to amend the constitution to preserve the cap, he said, "I can't imagine that the voters of the state of Tennessee would agree to that." Ragsdale and other attorneys say malpractice suits, and noneconomic damage awards, not only protect individual rights but induce doctors and other providers to improve their quality of care. "I've sued the same doctor twice, in two different cases, and they paid off twice," Ragsdale said. Without the malpractice suits, "he was going to do what he wanted to do. He didn't care." Other opponents of damage caps say that even without them plaintiffs face foreboding challenges in pursuing malpractice suits, which are especially costly and difficult to litigate. They also point to a landmark 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine estimating that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year from avoidable medical errors. January 18, 2016 - The front of the Martin Luther King Jr. parade makes its way down Second Street towards the National Civil Rights Museum. Hundreds of people braved the cold to be part of the parade that ended at the National Civil Rights Museum. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) SHARE January 18, 2016 - A small portion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I've Been to the Mountaintop," streams above the crowd attending the annual Be The Dream event at the Mason Temple church. Memphis mayor Jim Strickland and his predecessor A C Wharton spoke as well as U.S. Representative Steve Cohen. (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) January 18, 2016 - Steven Bradley, left, and Dr. Andre Johnson lay in the grass outside of the National Civil Rights Museum while protesting with Black Lives Matter. "Black lives matter and we just need to reiterate that time and time again," Johnson said. "As a person of faith and pastor I think this is the movement of our time." (Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal) By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal Just as it did nearly 48 years ago, the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. bellowed through the historic Mason Temple church Monday morning. But instead of standing at the pulpit, his face was projected onto screens hanging from the church ceiling. Both whites and blacks stood on the stage and sat together in the audience at the South Memphis church where King delivered his "Mountaintop" speech the night before he was killed on April 4, 1968. . It was a difference Memphis resident Elaine Torry noticed immediately from her spot at the back of the church. "I saw past history and I see future history," Torry said, noting how significant it was to her to see people of both races on stage shaking hands. Memphis celebrated King's legacy on the holiday honoring his birthday with commemorative services, volunteering and visits to the National Civil Rights Museum. Several hundred people braved bitter temperatures barely above 20 degrees at the annual Be The Dream event at Mason Temple, where Memphis mayor Jim Strickland and his predecessor A C Wharton spoke. .@MayorACWharton speaking now. Paused a moment before he started to let the video of King's speech sink in. pic.twitter.com/tWD3kCpyuB Jennifer Pignolet (@JenPignolet) January 18, 2016 Wharton reminded the crowd of Memphis' responsibility to honor King, and told the story of his spontaneous apology to King's son in 2003, a move he acknowledged had caused "some controversy." Wharton said King's son had come to Memphis without warning, and Wharton, then Shelby County mayor, had been invited to meet him. He said "no key to the city, no proclamation, no naming of a park" would be a sufficient gesture. To the world, Martin Luther King was a civil rights icon, but to his son, he was a father. "The least we can do is apologize for taking your daddy away from you," Wharton said he told Martin Luther King III. "Memphis has a responsibility to make sure we do everything we can to atone, to make atonement, for taking that boy's daddy away from him," he said. Strickland's speech paid special attention to a group known as the Memphis 13, the 13 first-graders who were chosen to integrate Memphis schools in 1961. Strickland said he is grateful the city recently installed historical markers at the four schools those students attended. "To the Memphis 13, thank you for your courage and for your grace," Strickland said. "Truly you are an inspiration for all of us here and all in Memphis." Each member of the group was honored, along with a more informal recognition of Romanita W. Morris, whose son, Harry Williams, was one of the students. "He wasn't afraid," she said. "They explained things to him, what was going on, and I talked to him and he said, 'Mama don't worry about it, I can take care of myself.'" Also honored with the Be The Dream Legacy Award were Mike Cody, King's attorney; University of Memphis professor and Africa in April festival founder David Acey; and Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel. Just a few blocks away was perhaps the day's largest celebration, at the National Civil Rights Museum. The line to get into the museum, housed at the former Lorraine Motel where King's life ended, extended past the building and far into the parking lot. A parade that ended at the museum also included Black Lives Matter demonstrations and activists protesting immigration raids in Shelby County. Jackson, Tennessee resident Tamesha Murphy and her husband made the trip to Memphis with three children "just to be a part of the celebration." "I've been here a couple of times, but they don't get really the in-depth history that we want them to have in school," Murphy said. She said she and her husband brought the children "to be able to come and show them that history." > The Commercial Appeal files The motor hotel addition to the Chisca Plaza Hotel (left), announced on Jan. 17, 1959, will require tearing out of two stores which extend from the hotel to the corner of Main and Pontotoc. The entire Chisca block is owned by J. Bayard Snowden and Robert Galloway Snowden, his son. SHARE Jan. 18 25 years ago: 1991 WASHINGTON The Senate passed 98-0 a resolution Thursday night praising President Bush and American troops for their endeavors in the Persian Gulf. "The Congress commends and supports the efforts and the leadership of the President as commander-in-chief in the Persian Gulf hostilities," it said. Lawmakers said the symbolic resolution would send a message to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "When Americans go to war, we go together That is the message of this resolution," Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said. 50 years ago: 1966 City and county officials expressed hope yesterday that a monument will be erected here to honor Elvis Presley. The City Beautiful Commission has proposed a fountain near the Mid-South Coliseum to honor the Memphis entertainer. The Commission will present its plan to the Coliseum board tomorrow. Joe Pipkin, board chairman, said he would reserve comment until the proposal comes before the board. "I think Elvis Presley has brought a great deal of good publicity to Memphis," Mr. Pipkin said. "But the fountain idea is new to me, We would have to discuss it with the architect to see if it would conform" (to the Coliseum design). 75 years ago: 1941 The new Maid of Cotton is Miss Alice Erle Beasley, of LaGrange, Tenn. Her selection was announced last night at the Peabody by John Robert Powers, of model fame. Ruthe Minor, Ole Miss beauty from Macon, and Gloria Mott, daughter of a Cotton Carnival founder, were named alternates. 100 years ago: 1916 W.G. Turner, general manager of the Memphis Terminal Corp., has been elected a vice president of the National Juvenile Protective Association. 125 years ago: 1891 At last the air ship is a fact and it works. The buoyancy chamber of aluminum is 24 feet long and six and a half feet in diameter. The air ship with propellers, rudders, etc., is 30 feet long. The ship will be taken from Mount Carmel, Ill., to Chicago on an express train and there it will fly around the Exposition Grounds, carrying two passengers. Work continues on a right-of-way section on Interstate 69 in Marshall County south of Goodman Road by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. MDOT is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. SHARE By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal The Mississippi Department of Transportation announced last week that it was making plans to celebrate the department's centennial this year, including soliciting photos and videos that illustrate expansion of the state's transportation system during the past 100 years. (See story here.) A conversation about the topic with Horn Lake Mayor Allen Latimer, a lifelong DeSoto resident, led to some reminiscing on his part about how the county's road network has grown. And Latimer's reminiscing led to some of my own. As a youth growing up in the Oakhaven community of Shelby County, just east of Memphis International Airport, I'd often travel with friends to Olive Branch to buy fireworks each July Fourth. Sometimes on those trips, we'd venture west on Goodman from Olive Branch but would soon turn back because there was nothing to see. Leave Olive Branch, and it seemed like an endless journey before reaching Southaven and any other trace of civilization. Today, I also try to avoid that westward trek on Goodman from Olive Branch, but not because there's nothing to see. I now avoid it, like many people, because there's too much traffic and development enough so that it's hard to know where Olive Branch ends and Southaven begins. What a difference 40-odd years makes. Goodman Road sure has changed; good thing I still look the same. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it. Changing of the guard Southaven's changing of the guard in its top public safety posts becomes official Tuesday evening when Steve Pirtle and Roger Thornton are sworn in as police chief and fire chief, respectively. A swearing-in for the two, each of whom currently serves as deputy chief, is on the agenda for Tuesday's Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting, beginning at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Pirtle replaces longtime Chief Tom Long, who is ending a 38-year career in law enforcement (26 as Southaven's chief) to attend to family needs. Thornton replaces Ron White, who is also ending a long tenure with Mississippi's third-largest city. White has been with the fire department since Southaven's incorporation in 1980. Long said last week he's definitely felt more relaxed in the waning days of his tenure, but mostly has enjoyed taking time to reflect in recent weeks. "It's been a rewarding 38 years," Long said. "There's a part of me that will miss it." Eagle eyes Arkabutla Lake hosted its annual January bird-watching ritual Jan. 9, when eight volunteers assisted five rangers in counting eagles as part of the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey. The Corps of Engineers-operated facility is among sites nationwide that participate in the event each year to monitor the status of bald eagle wintering habits in the contiguous U.S. Across the country, several hundred volunteers assist in tracking eagles along standard, nonoverlapping routes. At Arkabutla, volunteers and rangers observed from five locations. The result? One mature eagle was sited in a tree off the Bayou Point boat ramp. Regardless of numbers, officials say it's an important event that helps track eagle populations as well as draw attention to Arkabutla, which attracts about 855,000 visitors annually. The lake traffic brings about $14 million annually into the local economy and provides about 250 jobs. MLK Freedom Dinner Finally this week, since Monday is MLK Day, we'll note that the Jan. 11 MLK Freedom Dinner held at the Holiday Inn-Southaven by Le Dujour attracted about 100 participants who heard Edward L. Stanton III, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, talk about human trafficking, which Stanton called "modern-day slavery." Vachenzia M. McKinney, president of the Le Dujour group, called the event a success in terms of raising awareness about a serious issue that strikes at the heart of what MLK Day stands for. Crossing the Line is compiled by Ron Maxey, suburban team editor for The Commercial Appeal. You also can find it on commercialappeal.com and our mobile apps. To suggest DeSoto stories, you can contact Ron at ronald.maxey@commercialappeal.com, 901-333-2019 and follow him on Twitter @rmaxey1. SHARE By Donna Murch Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a historical figure every schoolchild knows, one of the few from American history sculpted into a monument on the Mall. Yet much of his activism is misunderstood, even by some who seek to honor him. In the midst of protests by young African-Americans in cities and on campuses across the country, King's life and legacy remain profoundly relevant. On this holiday that bears his name, here are five myths about the civil rights icon. 1) King believed in a color-blind society. Since his death, King has emerged as a triumphalist figure, used to reassure us that the United States has transcended its history of racial strife. Of all the minister's powerful oratory, these words from his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 are some of the most cited: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." But while this quote is wildly popular, its interpretation varies radically. Conservatives, including Ronald Reagan, have enlisted it to rationalize opposition to diversity programs. In 1990, African-American pundit Shelby Steele titled his anti-affirmative-action memoir "The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America." But King knew that the economy wasn't color-blind, and he believed that the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts would not eliminate racial disparity. After 1965, King fought against crisis levels of black unemployment in the Watts area of Los Angeles, for open housing in Chicago and in support of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis. At the end of his life, he became particularly disheartened by the racial barriers to housing and jobs in the urban North and West. King's speech to Memphis sanitation workers a month before his 1968 assassination, on the economic disparities between blacks and whites, is a better measure of his mature thought. His words could have been written in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis: "Now you know when there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the black community, they call it a social problem. When there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the white community, they call it a depression." King explicitly linked racism to economics in ways that remain sharply relevant. In his view, only direct intervention by a strong federal government could counteract the historical disparities wrought by the overlapping forces of race and class, forces that were unlikely to disappear. 2) King's dream was to end racism in the South. In a 1993 survey, more than two-thirds of respondents said "there had been significant progress toward Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality." Many biographical sketches of the minister focus on the epic Southern civil rights battles and on the transcendent imagery of his "I Have a Dream" speech. One hourlong documentary airing on CNN devoted 53 minutes to his life prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Largely left out: his work between 1964 and 1968, including the Poor People's Campaign and anti-war activism. King had not one dream, but many. He placed the fight for African-American equality within the larger struggle for international decolonization. After 17 African countries won independence in 1960 alone, King observed in the "Letter From a Birmingham Jail": "We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter." In 1967, at the Riverside Church in Manhattan, he made an impassioned plea against America's aggressive anti-communist foreign policy, which had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. King denounced the United States as the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." While a sanitized image of King as a Southern civil rights crusader has been enshrined in popular memory, his dream of ending American militarism has proved more difficult to accept. 3) King was the natural antagonist of Malcolm X. King and Malcolm X are often cast as opposing poles, with the former supporting nonviolent civil disobedience in the South and the latter encouraging angry, armed rebellion in the North. But the icons actually have more in common than one might think. Both men's political visions profoundly changed during their lives. Early in his career, King focused on more limited programs of desegregation but later believed a "radical revolution of values" in American society was needed. (One journalist said the year before he died that he "sounded like a nonviolent Malcolm X.") Malcolm X had a revolution of his own, breaking with the Nation of Islam in 1964 and offering support to King's campaign in Selma in 1965. And both men held a deep opposition to the war in Vietnam. King saw it as "a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit" and called for a global revolution against "poverty, racism and militarism." King's stance resulted in great personal and political cost. Nearly all of the major newspapers denounced him, and President Lyndon B. Johnson raged against his speech. Never again would he be welcome at the White House. Like Malcolm X, who faced popular outrage for saying "the chickens came home to roost" after the John F. Kennedy assassination, King also bore the pain of national censure and disgrace. 4) King is irrelevant to Black Lives Matter protesters. The denatured iconography of King has an unfortunate consequence: Many young people see him and the civil rights generation he personifies as irrelevant to their struggles against police violence and mass incarceration. Ferguson, Missouri, activist Tef Poe expressed this most clearly when he asserted that the new protests "ain't your grandparents' civil rights movement." Poe's comments reflected how younger protesters have pushed against the politics of respectability associated with King, the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ferguson protesters like Poe, along with Black Lives Matter activists, set their resistance apart from what they see as an older, more anemic politics of conciliation. BLM founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi have also critiqued the limitations of hierarchical male leadership models. Despite these differences, a deeper river of struggle connects civil rights and black power activism to the movement for black lives today. As seen in the Montgomery bus boycott, Bull Connor's Birmingham and the Selma beatings, local authorities tried to stop political organizing through police and vigilante violence, mass jailings and brutality behind bars. Ferguson protesters, who faced down tanks, tear gas and assorted forms of military-grade hardware, tasted what many activists suffered throughout the 1950s and 1960s. As these examples show, the fight to end the criminalization of black protest, and of black people more broadly, lies at the heart of African-American freedom struggles then and now. In his eulogy for Jimmie Lee Jackson, King denounced the misuse of police powers, which he saw as a direct expression of white supremacy. He understood Jackson's shooting by a white officer to be symbolic of race-based killings throughout the country. "A state trooper pointed the gun, but he did not act alone," King said. "He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff who practices lawlessness in the name of law. He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician, from governors on down, who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism." 5) Without King, the civil rights movement wouldn't have happened. One of the most controversial aspects of Ava DuVernay's film "Selma" is its rendering of King as the catalytic agent for the Voting Rights Act, at the expense of LBJ. Equally striking, though, is how it reflects the larger cultural tendency to represent the civil rights movement as an example of "great man" history, in which King eclipses other leaders and potential rivals such as Malcolm X and James Forman from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who comes off as an erratic hothead. Hidden even further from view by King hagiography is the work of female civil rights activists, including Ella Baker, Daisy Bates, Joanne Grant, Fannie Lou Hamer and Septima Clark, who helped build the human infrastructure of the movement. Along with many working-class and poor black people whose names we will never know, these women helped launch local campaigns that garnered national publicity and attention. In the words of civil rights scholar Charles Payne, "Men led, but women organized." King himself was deeply conflicted about his role as the face of the civil rights movement. In the last speech of his life, he warned his audience, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land." With these words, King recognized the importance of collective struggle and placed his trust in the hands of present and future generations. Donna Murch is a professor of history at Rutgers University. She wrote this for The Washington Post. SHARE By Kathleen Parker CHARLESTON, S.C. By broad consensus, the winner of Thursday night's GOP debate was Donald Trump, followed by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, with most of the postgame commentary focused on "the fight" between Cruz and Trump. Oh, how we love a good fight. But the real fight was revealed a couple of nights earlier when South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley gave the Republican Party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address. She pulled no punches and brought the fight to her own party. Nice and pretty-like. Rather than exclusively critiquing Obama's presidency as many expected, Haley turned her sights on the angry tenor of GOP politics and our dysfunctional government, for which she said Republicans are partly responsible. "There is more than enough blame to go around," she said. "We as Republicans need to own that truth. ... We need to accept that we've played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it." Whoo-hoo. Sorry, but sometimes it takes a girl. Noting that we live in anxious times, she nonetheless urged her fellow Republicans to resist the "siren call of the angriest voices." Gosh, wonder who she meant? To a certain kind of Republican, this was pure heresy. But it was also brave, necessary and true especially if the GOP is to survive or ever hope to reclaim the White House. Haley's gentle outcry neatly exposed the battle lines. On one side are those who deploy anger, bias, nativism and fear. On the other are those who want to reshape the GOP into a party that's based on ideals of inclusiveness and respect for others (like, maybe, a first-generation Indian-American daughter of Sikh immigrants), exercises caution through reformed immigration policies without demonizing swaths of people, and recognizes that winning hearts and minds begins with civility and communication. "Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That's just not true," Haley said. "Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference." Haley confirmed on NBC's "Today Show" the following morning that she was, indeed, referring to Trump, who shouldn't take it personally. During the debate Thursday, Trump said he is happy to wear the mantle of anger because he IS angry, and he assured the audience that he and Haley, who was beaming in the crowd, are good friends. That's nice. But what's clear is that Haley, who is widely considered a likely vice presidential candidate, had decided that she didn't need a Trump alliance and was choosing the "establishment lane" of the party, or, as some prefer, the "rational lane." In other words, she signaled her support for Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Jeb Bush. But which is it? What does Haley know that we don't know? As unlikely as it seems at this juncture that any of these but Rubio has a reasonable shot at the nomination, we might assume she's banking on Rubio. This would be a dream ticket for Republicans. A bilingual Cuban (check Hispanic vote), a woman (check), both first-generation Americans, coverage in two crucial states, South Carolina and Florida, and perhaps most important, a younger generation of leadership without the baggage of the establishment. They would completely collapse the smallish Republican tent of older, white males and build a rainbow-hued edifice of diversity in which race and religion are not the first questions on anyone's mind. Haley, whom I've known for several years, is a polished politician, make no mistake. She doesn't accidentally do anything, such as fumble the most important speech of her career. I also know from previous conversations that she has been changed by her time in office, altered by her experiences dealing with the horrific murders of nine African-Americans in a Charleston church and by her subsequent decision to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds. The latter was a calculated political risk and her speech a gamble that truth wins in the end. This truth includes the lesson of South Carolina after the shootings, when the state's people embraced one another in love and dedication to a shared, higher purpose of unity, forgiveness and racial reconciliation. Haley's point: If we can do this as a state, we can do this as a nation. It's a worthy goal and a battle worthy of its opponents. Contact Kathleen Parker at kathleenparker@washpost.com. Select Commodity All Ajwan Alasande Gram Almond(Badam) Alsandikai Amaranthus Ambada Seed Amla(Nelli Kai) Amphophalus Antawala Anthorium Apple Apricot(Jardalu/Khumani) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arecanut(Betelnut/Supari) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar (Tur/Red Gram)(Whole) Arhar Dal(Tur Dal) Ashgourd Astera Avare Dal Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Bajra(Pearl Millet/Cumbu) Balekai Bamboo Banana Banana - Green Barley (Jau) Bay leaf (Tejpatta) Beans Beaten Rice Beetroot Bengal Gram Dal (Chana Dal) Bengal Gram(Gram)(Whole) Ber(Zizyphus/Borehannu) Betal Leaves Bhindi(Ladies Finger) Bitter gourd Black Gram (Urd Beans)(Whole) Black Gram Dal (Urd Dal) Black pepper BOP Bottle gourd Bran Brinjal Broken Rice Broomstick(Flower Broom) Bull Bunch Beans Cabbage Calf Capsicum Cardamoms Carnation Carrot Cashewnuts Castor Seed Cauliflower Chapparad Avare Chennangi Dal Cherry Chikoos(Sapota) Chili Red Chilly Capsicum Chow Chow Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum(Loose) Cinamon(Dalchini) Cloves Cluster beans Cock Cocoa Coconut Coconut Oil Coconut Seed Coffee Colacasia Copra Coriander(Leaves) Corriander seed Cotton Cotton Seed Cow Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea (Lobia/Karamani) Cowpea(Veg) Cucumbar(Kheera) Cummin Seed(Jeera) Custard Apple (Sharifa) Dalda Dhaincha Drumstick Dry Chillies Dry Fodder Dry Grapes Duck Duster Beans Egg Elephant Yam (Suran) Field Pea Firewood Fish Foxtail Millet(Navane) French Beans (Frasbean) Galgal(Lemon) Garlic Ghee Gingelly Oil Ginger(Dry) Ginger(Green) Gladiolus Cut Flower Goat Gram Raw(Chholia) Gramflour Grapes Green Avare (W) Green Chilli Green Fodder Green Gram (Moong)(Whole) Green Gram Dal (Moong Dal) Green Peas Ground Nut Oil Ground Nut Seed Groundnut Groundnut (Split) Groundnut pods (raw) Guar Guar Seed(Cluster Beans Seed) Guava Gur(Jaggery) He Buffalo Hen Hippe Seed Honge seed Hybrid Cumbu Indian Beans (Seam) Indian Colza(Sarson) Isabgul (Psyllium) Jack Fruit Jaffri Jamun(Narale Hannu) Jarbara Jasmine Jowar(Sorghum) Jute Kabuli Chana(Chickpeas-White) Kacholam Kakada Kankambra Karamani Karbuja(Musk Melon) Kartali (Kantola) Khoya Kinnow Knool Khol Kodo Millet(Varagu) Kulthi(Horse Gram) Lak(Teora) Leafy Vegetable Lemon Lentil (Masur)(Whole) Lilly Lime Linseed Lint Litchi Little gourd (Kundru) Long Melon(Kakri) Lotus Lotus Sticks Lukad Mahedi Mahua Mahua Seed(Hippe seed) Maida Atta Maize Mango Mango (Raw-Ripe) Marasebu Marget Marigold(Calcutta) Marigold(loose) Mashrooms Masur Dal Mataki Methi Seeds Methi(Leaves) Millets Mint(Pudina) Moath Dal Mousambi(Sweet Lime) Mustard Mustard Oil Myrobolan(Harad) Neem Seed Niger Seed (Ramtil) Nutmeg Onion Onion Green Orange Orchid Ox Paddy(Dhan)(Basmati) Paddy(Dhan)(Common) Papaya Papaya (Raw) Patti Calcutta Peach Pear(Marasebu) Peas cod Peas Wet Peas(Dry) Pegeon Pea (Arhar Fali) Pepper garbled Pepper ungarbled Persimon(Japani Fal) Pigs Pineapple Plum Pointed gourd (Parval) Pomegranate Potato Pumpkin Raddish Ragi (Finger Millet) Raibel Rajgir Ram Rat Tail Radish (Mogari) Raya Resinwood Rice Ridge gourd(Tori) Ridgeguard(Tori) Rose(Local) Rose(Loose) Rose(Loose)) Round gourd Rubber Sabu Dan Sabu Dana Safflower Sajje Same/Savi Season Leaves Seemebadnekai Seetafal Seetapal Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) Sesamum(Sesame,Gingelly,Til) She Buffalo She Goat Sheep Snake gourd Snakeguard Soanf Soapnut(Antawala/Retha) Soji Soyabean Spinach Sponge gourd Squash(Chappal Kadoo) Sugar Sugarcane Sunflower Sunhemp Suram Surat Beans (Papadi) Suva (Dill Seed) Suvarna Gadde Sweet Potato Sweet Pumpkin T.V. Cumbu T.V. Cumbu Tamarind Fruit Tamarind Seed Tapioca Taramira Tender Coconut Thinai (Italian Millet) Thogrikai Thondekai Tinda Tobacco Tomato Toria Tube Rose(Double) Tube Rose(Loose) Tube Rose(Single) Turmeric Turmeric (raw) Turnip Walnut Water Melon Wheat Wheat Atta White Peas White Pumpkin Wood Yam Yam (Ratalu) Select State Select Market BT has one of its main contact centres in a tower block in Swansea city centre its the highest office building for miles around, just a short stroll to the sea front. From its upper-floor windows you can see across Swansea Bay to the lights and smoke from the giant steel works in neighbouring Port Talbot. Today weve heard that BT is creating 100 jobs in that Swansea office. We also learned that, sadly, Tata is culling 750 jobs at its steel plant across the bay. If ever there was a situation that demonstrated the benefits of better co-ordination around old-economy job losses and digital economy job creation, its exemplified in that South Wales microcosm. I have no idea how much steelworkers earn compared to BT call centre workers, but its certain there will be no local demand for unemployed people with steelwork skills. Surely its not that difficult to put some of those redundant Port Talbot staff in touch with BT tomorrow? With some training and new skills, 100 people could move from a declining industry to a growing one. This is a scenario that will be replicated across the country over the coming years. We also heard today from the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos that its research suggests seven million jobs could be lost as a result of technological developments in major economies in the next five years, part of what WEF calls the fourth industrial revolution. Meanwhile, the European Commission tells us that Europe needs to find a further 900,000 skilled IT workers by 2020. Its getting a bit boring writing about this see here and here, for recent examples but surely it is not that difficult to achieve some form of co-ordination to take people losing their jobs in one industry and retrain them with skills needed in the technology sector? You would like to think the government might do so but theres no evidence the current UK government has any inclination for such an initiative. You would hope at least that local authorities could team up in their regions to make something happen but most are focused elsewhere and struggling under austerity cuts. It would be nice to think that big business might take an interest they stand to benefit, after all. But nothing happens. We talk endlessly about skill shortages in IT when the truth is we have a training shortage both in training new entrants from other industries, and in training existing people in IT with the new digital skills that are most in demand today. Almost every time I write something about IT skills shortages I hear in response from an out-of-work IT expert complaining that they cant find a job often its because their skills are different from those being recruited by IT employers today. They could do with help in retraining too. Wouldnt it be great if someone picked up the phone at the BT office in Swansea it is a call centre after all, there are plenty of telephones there and put in a local call to HR at Tata steelworks about those jobs. Wouldnt it be even better if there was somewhere every redundant worker could go to be retrained in digital economy skills and help them find a job with a future? Worldwide IT spending fell nearly 6% last year -- the largest one-year decrease research firm Gartner says it has ever seen. The global forecast for 2016 is for an improving, but relatively flat, $3.54 trillion. That would be a 0.6% increase. Gartner blames a strong U.S. dollar for the global decline, because it effectively increased the price of exports by as much as 20%. Political and economic instability in countries such as Russia and Brazil also contributed to the spending problems. By comparison, the U.S. saw an increase in IT spending. In the U.S., IT spending increased 3.1% to $1.14 trillion. The U.S. forecast this year is for a 1.2% increase. Globally, "we're just in this anemic growth period," John-David Lovelock, a research vice president at Gartner. The countries who saw the most problems with IT spending include Russia, Japan and Brazil. The economic issues also changed how firms bought IT products and services, said Lovelock. Instead of buying a product license for $1 million, for instance, users are switching to SaaS products for $100,000 a year. Cloud services have also replaced physical servers, he said. Globally, there were declines in every area of IT spending, including software, devices and services. The only area to post growth was data center systems spending, largely thanks to cloud. The IT area expected to see the largest gains this year is software; it is expected to rise 5.3% to $326 billion globally. CRM is the hot area, as users seek to integrate social media with the business needs. DO YOU have a Boulevard Aristide-Briand near you? Or do you send your child to school in a Jules-Ferry or a lycee Emile Combes? If so, you are already familiar with key names in the construction of the French Republic. Between them, these three politicians were responsible for free state schooling, obligatory education for girls and the rock of state neutrality towards religion on which la Republique is built: the principle of laicite. The term is very much in the news, with a new laicite charter being introduced into schools this autumn alongside classes in morale laique. Presenting the charter, Minister for Education Vincent Peillon explained: Everyone is free to have his own opinions but no one has the right to contest teaching content or miss a class in the name of religious precepts. Public debate over the Muslim community in France pops up in the news regularly and is nearly always related in one way or another to perceived challenges to this element of the Constitution. Peillons remarks refer also to repeated evangelist pressure to alter class content, in particular regarding the theory of evolution. A recent example was the proposal to swap two Christian holidays with Jewish and Muslim ones: confusing whether France was secular or multi-religious. Left and Right politicians often unite to initiate laws to protect laicite. Once the source of conflict with the Catholic Right over private education funding, the principle, an important element in the integration process, regularly generates ill feeling these days among extremist sectors of the Muslim community. That is why, a century after the original 1905 law, several new laws have been passed to protect it. First, a few explanations. Laicite does not translate well. Secularity is close but confusing. Laicite is not easy to define either. It has evolved over two centuries and is evolving still. The concept was born of the Revolution, which guaranteed freedom of conscience to all and first separated State and Church. Napoleon backtracked, signing a concordat with the Vatican in 1801 that was to poison Church-State relations during the 19th century and put laicite on the back burner for much of it. (For historical reasons, this concordat still applies in Alsace and Moselle.) Having been suppressed by the Vichy regime (along with liberte, egalite, fraternite without which laicite could not function), the principle was cast in the constitution of the Fourth Republic in 1946 the State is indivisible, laic, democratic and social and remains firmly in that of todays Fifth. To understand the concept is to go a long way towards understanding the French. Maybe it could be defined as their permanent search for a delicate balance between sharing what they all hold in common, the Republic, and catering for diversity. It is the principle that protects both personal and collective liberty and, as such, is the responsibility of both State and citizen. The indivisibility of the State is the States refusal to recognise any religious or ethnic community. France is one. There are two major dates in the history of laicite: 1881 and 1905. In 1881-82, Minister of Education Jules Ferry decreed school to be publique, gratuite et laique state-run, free and non-clerical. Teaching in French to a national programme provided children, whatever their linguistic background or beliefs, with the theoretical possibility of equal opportunity. It created a framework in which adults could bring no pressure to bear on pupils to adhere to any philosophy, religion or political idea. That remains the basis of the French educational system today. The 1905 law, engineered by Emile Combes and Aristide Briand, enforced the neutrality of the State and State institutions through the separation of the Churches and the State. Since that date, the State recognises no religion and therefore cannot directly fund any either. If the same law grants the individual total liberty and privacy regarding beliefs, there is one condition: they must not disturb public order. Given the repeated trauma that religion has caused in Frances recent history from the Wars of Religion to the expulsion of the Huguenots and the Dreyfus affair this means no proselytising and nothing that could be remotely interpreted as such. It also explains why, in France, religious belief is far more than a private matter. Things spiritual belong to the realm of intimacy. It is extremely unusual to see anyone wearing any conspicuous religious symbol in public. To do so is perceived as a deliberate act, a message to others. It is unthinkable to ask someone what their religion is and most people will be frankly embarrassed by anyone saying what theirs is. When Nicolas Sarkozy publicly announced he had appointed Frances first Muslim prefect, he sent shockwaves throughout the land. Knowing this helps in understanding intense French reaction to young girls wearing veils. It is seen not only as an unacceptable way of bringing religion into the public sphere, but also a form of peer pressure on other girls to do the same. Which takes us back to Jules Ferry and neutrality in the classroom. This insistence on the privacy of beliefs was of course also reinforced after World War II by the fate of Frances Jews under the Vichy regime, and the obligation to publicly show their religion by wearing the yellow star. As a result of the trauma of State responsibility in their deportation and extermination, no statistics may be made regarding peoples religious beliefs, ethnic origin or colour. All citizens are not only equal, but remain neutral in the eyes of the State. The mosque debate The 1905 law was finally well accepted by both Catholic and Protestant churches in France, who benefited financially when the State handed existing buildings and their costly maintenance over to local authorities. But the State cannot fund new religious buildings. Hence the mosque-building debate and recent legislation allowing local authorities to contribute. For with generous donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim foundations abroad pouring in, the inherent risk of encouraging fundamentalist movements to develop in France is obvious. Under the Nicolas Sarkozy government, the training of imams in France to Republican principles was considered. But the State cannot finance religious education either. The impasse has been paradoxically circumvented by the Catholic University offering courses, and Algerian imams due to work in France being trained in French and laicite at the government-funded Institut Francais in Algiers. Conspicuous symbols and full-face veils After a number of potentially inflammatory cases in which some schools were confronted with Muslim girls wearing Islamic headscarves, legislation was passed in 2004 banning the wearing of any conspicuous religious symbol or sign in state schools. Never specifically aimed at the Muslim community (kippas, large crosses and Sikh turbans fall under the same category), the new law, despite fears it would be perceived as discriminatory and arouse further reaction, had the almost immediate effect of calming the situation, though some veiled Muslim girls and turbaned Sikhs found their way to private schools. But this legislated solely for public schools, not privately run establishments. In March of this year, Fatima Afif, an employee dismissed in 2008 from the privately run Baby Loup creche in the Yvelines for refusing to remove her headscarf, won on appeal for wrongful dismissal on the grounds of religious discrimination. New legislation is now under consideration to cover pre-school structures and religious symbols in the workplace, none of which are currently covered by law. When, in late July, a police officer in the town of Trappes stopped a fully veiled young women for an ID check in the middle of Ramadan, he did not know he was unleashing days of rioting. But Cassandra, 22, was not infringing any law on laicite. This time it was the one against dissimulating the face in the public sphere, put into effect by the Sarkozy government in 2011. Introduced ostensibly as anti-terrorism legislation, many felt its real purpose was more anti-veil. In fact, the number of women in France wearing the niqab is extremely small, and the number of women fined likewise. Laicite with an adjective The latest solution of Frances politicians to calm the debate has been to add adjectives. Sarkozy invented laicite positive, in which the government took into account the existence of religious groups in France. He created a representative Muslim council, through which to address the Muslim community in France. Representative of only a portion of Frances Muslims, many of whom are non-practising, it has created more problems than it has solved. The Hollande government has coined laicite apaisee, a low-profile approach in which negotiation would replace legislation as the best way of winning over those who regard the principle with suspicion. True laicistes believe the principle cannot survive any moderating tags. It must exist alone. Universities oppose campus headscarf ban proposal In early August, Le Monde published a report signed by members of the Haut Comite de lIntegration (HCI), a body no longer briefed to deal with laicite since the creation of a separate mission last April. It called for a Muslim headscarf ban in universities. Government replies were swift but hardly in unison. Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls stated evasively that the subject needed to be considered, while Genevieve Fioraso, Minister for Higher Education, warned that we should avoid problems where there are none. For Gerard Blanchard, president of La Rochelle University, and vice-president of the national CPU, Conference des Presidents dUniversite, laicite is not an issue on his campus or anywhere in France. We have 14% foreign students in La Rochelle, mostly from South East Asia, and we only ask women students to take off their veils in science laboratories, for safety reasons. That has never posed a problem. The University Presidents Conference has issued a public statement against any specific university ban. For Blanchard, the over-mediatised debate that burst upon us mid-summer is without foundation. He is adamant that he has never had a complaint from a teacher. An environmentalist, he is far more concerned by pressure that could be brought on teachers to introduce non-scientific versions of the origins of the universe into the syllabus. No university teacher should ever have to submit to any pressure on the content of his teaching. Jean-Loup Salzmann, president of the CPU, and president of Paris XIII, in the heart of Seine- Saint-Denis, one of the most multi-cultural universities in France, firmly believes in laicite, but sees no need for new laws on the campus. His main concern is elsewhere. He is angered by the incongruity of the State promoting laicite on the one hand, while financing the Catholic universities on the other. Expressing a personal opinion, he said: The main issue for these young Muslim women, who have enough problems coping with family pressure, is to achieve independence and emancipation through their studies, whether they wear a veil or not. An anti-veil law would achieve the opposite of what we want. Many of these women would then not have access to university at all. How the principle of laicite is applied today NICOLAS Cadene, chairman of the Observatoire de la Laicite, a watchdog committee created last April by President Francois Hollande to report on how the principle of laicite is applied in France today, spoke to Connexion. Can you define this difficult concept for our readers? Laicite is a principle which allows us all to live together. It is not a ban on religion or religious practices. On the contrary, it guarantees believers and non-believers alike the freedom to express themselves, to practise or not to practise a religion as they choose, on condition that public order is not disturbed. The State adopts an attitude of total impartiality towards citizens, who are all equal in the eyes of the State. Do the current religious bank holidays not favour one religious group? Christian festivals have, for the majority, become traditional holidays with little religious significance. Still, the State does not want to be seen as favouring one religion over another. In 1905, there was no Muslim population. But I dont think this poses a real problem. Employees can use their RTT (recuperation of unpaid overtime in the form of days off) as they wish. The Stasi Commission (set up by President Jacques Chirac in 2003) went a long way towards identifying issues in the workplace. We shall build on that. The conspicuous religious symbols ban was seen as directed only at women. Is that not a form of discrimination? If people set out to present themselves in a way which is obviously a proselytising or a provocative attitude, that is not acceptable. It is not so much what people wear or their physical appearance, as the reason behind the choice. This is one of the subjects we shall be working on. Islam has no clerical hierarchy. Isnt the laicite legislation trying to apply to individuals a law aimed at an institution? Doesnt the 1905 law need to be adapted? Not at all. The principle enables us all to live together. But, of course, we must avoid situations in which one group feels stigmatised by the law. That is one of our major subjects of reflexion. But there is no question of adapting the principle to new circumstances. It is one of bringing people to understand that laicite is not a ban on religious practice but a system of personal freedom and helping them to adapt to the principle. There has been talk in the press over banning the Islamic headscarf at university. [The full-face veil is already banned anywhere in public]. The State has a duty to protect minors from any form of ideological persuasion, hence the headscarf ban in schools. University is a world of adults. But the Republic has a duty to protect its citizens against the dangers of extremism. Some people attribute to laicite powers it simply does not have. There is an urgent need for strong political action, at state and local level, in order to resolve the many problems the threat of extremism has brought to certain sectors of society. The Observatoire has published its first report, a history and background to the concept. What else has it achieved? We helped draw up two important documents: the laicite charter and the syllabus for non-religious morality for schools. Both take effect this year. In addition, our report has pinpointed situations needing close attention in public administrations and local authorities (non-Metropolitan France included), as well as in the private sector. How do you see your work developing? We need a better definition of laicite that reiterates the States position of neutrality and is more clearly understood by all, in France and at an international level. We are drawing up guidelines for the application of laicite and religious practice in the workplace, and in the wake of the Baby Loup issue [see main article], for pre-school structures. We must show people how to react to situations. Overreaction is one of the major problems we face, when so much could be achieved by negotiation and taking things calmly. THE MAYOR of Chartres is refusing to bury one of the Bataclan attackers. Mayor Jean-Pierre Gorges said he will make no effort to bury the body of Ismael Mostefai until he has received proof that he lived in the commune. The body of Mostefai, one of three gunman who attacked the Bataclan concert venue in Paris killing 89 people, has been in a Paris mortuary since his death on November 13. A municipality has limited grounds to refuse to bury someone. The law prevents such refusal in the case where the person died in the commune or has a family grave there. Mostefai was born in the Essonne in 1985 but moved to Chartres with his family when he was a teenager. He registered the birth of his second child in the town on August 19, 2013, just before heading off to Syria, according to newspaper Echo Republicain. However, the mayor said Mostefai certainly stayed here, but he had no proper address, he was squatting at someones. Im waiting for proof of where he lived until 2015, he said and added that he would make no effort if a demand for burial was made. The Echo Republicain said that the most likely resting place for the attacker would be Paris, where he died, or Algeria, the birthplace of his father and wife. Photo:Flickr/Peter Dutton One side-effect of the build-up towards the EU referendum, presumed to be due sometime this year, has been a marked decrease in new announcements from Government ministers. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, of course: an endless stream of announcements often indicates that a Government has lost strategic focus and is trying to win the 24-hour news cycle. Yet David Cameron clearly wants the press talking about more than just the European Union, and has started making a big announcement on Mondays. Last week, it was his new mental health programme. This week, its tackling extremism and isolation in Muslim communities. In a comment piece for The Times () this morning, the Prime Minister has set out his plans to better integrate Muslim women into British life. He writes: Last week, I chaired a meeting of a group of brilliant Muslim women role models. And while I heard great examples of so many women who are flourishing in our country, some painted an alarming picture of forced gender segregation, discrimination and social isolation from mainstream British life. He then criticises the passive mindset that has led to this problem being neglected, and outlines why solving it is important. In short: it holds women back from achieving their potential and contributing to our economy and society; exposes them to horrific practises like female genital mutilation and forced marriages; opens a rift between minority communities and mainstream British society; and makes young people from those communities more vulnerable to extremist influence. Moving on, the Prime Minister sets out his clear and positive agenda for making progress: we will review the role of religious councils, including Sharia councils. Were teaching British values in our schools because I want every young boy and girl growing up here to feel proud of our country and properly connected to it. And well end the forced gender segregation, as we issue clear guidance to local authorities to stamp out this practice. We must also make more progress on English language. The English language measures are particularly eye-opening, because Cameron proposes not only to toughen the language requirements for immigration to the UK, but claims that failing to improve fluency once on British soil will now affect your ability to remain in the UK. Thats a bold claim, but given the Governments record with bold claims on migration its a little hard to take at face value. Concentrating on enforcing the new entrance requirements seems a better use of resources. After all, as this piece by Jonathan Portes explains, the children of migrants with poor English are perfectly capable of performing well at school and getting on in British society, and will invariably have better English than their first-generation parents. Which is not to say that improving the English of those already here isnt important: the raw percentage of Britons with little or no English may be relatively small, the negative effects can be compounded by their tendency to be concentrated into the same neighbourhoods. Cameron also cites new statistics which purport to show that 22 per cent of British Muslim women some 190,000 people speak little or no English. The fact that 1,500 British citizens have tried to flee this country to join ISIS in Syria also highlights why the Governments continued focus on anti-extremism is so important. The Prime Minister rightly acknowledges in his article that the problems he describes are not endemic to Muslim communities, and recognises that there is a difference between extremism and religious conservatism. Yet the question remains of how much Cameron can actually do: many of the things he objects to are simply the private, non-criminal habits of conservative religious households. Tackling practises such as chaperoning head-on would be very tricky, and changing the underlying attitudes will take a long time. Louise Casey, the civil servant who led the inspection into the Rotherham abuse scandal, has been tasked by the Government to publish a report on integration and extremism. We shall have a more detailed picture of the Prime Ministers strategy when she does. The OPEC + production cut will hit motorists in the wallet The national average price of gasoline has been moving higher over the last couple of weeks and is about to go even higher. This week the group of major oil-producing nations, known as OPEC + because it includes non-OPEC members like Russia, announced member nations will cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day by the end of October. The cuts come at a time that the world is already experiencing tight supplies. As a result of OPEC's production cut, I estimate U.S. g... Daimler AG, parent company of Mercedes Benz, is putting its diesel emissions cheating allegations behind it with a $1.5 billion settlement with the U.S. government and the state of California. Two federal agencies and the California attorney generals office charged the German automaker with using a defeat device to make it appear that its diesel engines were in compliance with emissions standards when they were not. Another German carmaker, Volkswagen, was the first to face these charges when it was revealed the car employed software that reduced emissions only when the vehicle was being tested. As it turned out, the engines could not meet emissions requirements and deliver the promised fuel economy. In early 2017, Volkswagen agreed to pay $4.3 billion in penalties to the U.S. government and spent billions more buying back affected vehicles from consumers. According to the Daimler settlement, the company sold close to 250,000 diesel-powered vehicles in the United States with engines that failed to comply with state and federal laws. Officials say the settlement, which includes civil penalties, will also require the automaker to modify vehicles so that they meet emissions requirements. Payment to California The agreement will pay around $700 million to settle numerous lawsuits filed by consumers. It will also compensate the state of California with a $300 million payment that includes $17.5 million to the California Department of Justice for future environmental enforcement, monitoring, and investigation. Longterm, if you cheat, you're going to get caught, said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Daimler is finding that out today. But theyre not the first nor likely the last to try. In a statement issued to news outlets, Daimler said it disputes allegations that it cheated and said the settlement does not reflect any admission of guilt on its part. It said the settlement resolves the civil proceedings without making any determination that Daimler vehicles used cheat devices. By resolving these proceedings, Daimler avoids lengthy court actions with respective legal and financial risks, the company said in its statement. Close An ancient species of humans called the "hobbit" may have lived on an island ages ago. Scientists from the University of Wollongong are able to place them correctly in the evolutionary human timeline, according to Fox News. The early humans, also called the homo floresiensis species of early humans, had a 3-foot stature and grapefruit sized brain, and existed till just 18,000 years ago. This race was existing on Sulawesi, an Indonesian island. "There might have been a totally different human species living on Sulawesi before modern humans arrived with boats around 50,000 years ago," said Gerrit van den Bergh, lead author of the study. "Evolving under isolation on an island under hundreds of thousands of years in isolation, the outcome may have resulted in a distinct human species, different from Homo erectus or Homo floresiensis." Earlier, some fossils were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores. The historical and evolutionary relevance of the fossils on Sulawesi was examined in the latest research. The team hopes to find some evidence even in the surrounding islands, such as Borneo and the Philippines. "Now, we can start trying to find fossil evidence of the makers of these ancient tools," van den Bergh added. The study was published in the Jan.14,2016 issue of the journal Nature. See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare Supreme Courts Verdict On Archagas Case: A Trickery To Legitimize Brahminical Hegemony And Untouchability By APSC-IITM 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org The Supreme Courts verdict on a case moved by the brahmin priests of Madurai meenakshi amman temple against 2006 Tamilnadu governments GO states that Any person who is a Hindu and possessing the requisite qualification and training can be appointed as a archaka (priest) in Hindu temples has been delivered with deceitful statements to shield brahminical tyranny and untouchability. In 2006, after the issuance of government order by the DMK government, priest training school had been started in Tamilnadu. In this school, totally 206 students belonging to various castes including Brahmin, caste hindus and untouchables have got training and obtained deeksha (eligibility condition to perform pooja to the idols). However, brahmin archakas from madurai got stay order in Supreme Court against the appointment of trained students by stating that the training school for priests itself is unconstitutional and appointment as archakas is against hindu religion, custom and traditions and it is against the rights provided by articles 25 and 26 of Indian constitution. On behalf of trained archaka students, Peoples right protection centre (PRPC) and Peoples Art Literary and Association from Tamilnadu (PALA) have attempted to unite all trained students under a union to fight against this brahminical hegemony and intervened in Supreme Court hearings. After a long-drawn-out trail for so many years, this verdict has been given now. Bottom line of this whole verdict is that 1000 years of brahminical tyranny and untouchability are legalized and will be maintained in this country under constitutional frame work. Earlier (before 1000 ago) Nanthanar was lynched and he was told that you are an untouchable and you should not enter in to the temple. For him, the verdict had been executed on the same day. Strikingly, not only for Nanthanar but also for god like Madurai Veeran who belongs to sakkiliyar (scheduled caste); there is no place inside the temple, where his sanctum sanctorum is placed outside the premises of Madurai meenakshi amman temple. This situation is not even been changed a bit now. Only difference is that apart from singleday judgment to Nanthanar, eight years has been stretched for these trained priest students. This verdict also given a chance to Brahmin archakas to expel these eligible trained students through court, where the students right to become priests has been denied simply based on their birth! That too, without telling this directly, the verdict is beating about the bush in a dishonest way! The case moved by the brahmin archakas to apex court is to nullify the 2006 GO. However, the verdict didnt say to scrap down the GO directly. The verdict also neither said to stay the appointment of those 206 students in agama based temples. But it contents that those 206 students can be appointed, at the same time the appointment should be within the view of agamas, customs and traditions and they cannot be ruled out. i.e. elephant can be closed in a pot but at the same time pot should not be broken is message of the verdict! Suppose to appoint a few of these students either in Mylapore kapalishwara temple or in Triplicane parthasarathy temple or in Madurai meenakshi amman temple, brahmin archakas working in these temples can challenge such appointments in civil suit as per the verdict and they can expel archaka students by proving that archaka appointment is against agama principles. i.e. if a student gets an appointment in any one of the temples, brahmin archakas can get stay order in the court on the very next day of the appointment. It is the reality that even if students go to the court, they cannot get the justice throughout their lifetime. Thats why this verdict is highly deceitful! On the contrary, a few whom aligning on the agenda of all castes to become priests is welcoming the verdict since Supreme court didnt scrap down the GO directly brought by the DMK government. They put forth an argument that brahmin archakas cannot able to prove the appointment of students is against the agama principle, as none of the agamas texts particularly mentioned about the condition of only brahmin or their sub-caste person to be a priest in any particular temple. It is true that none of the agamas texts mentioned only brahmins to be appointed as archakas. However, it is not the new truth known today! This truth was even known in the past in 1971 Seshammals verdict! However, the tactics of brahmin archakas are such that wherever they want to coin agama principles, they have used words like tradition and custom in conjunction with agama principles. With the help of such words, they procure to buy any amount of fraudulent argument to stall their so called rights in courts. In this way, they rejoice with political and legal protection (frame work) for brahminism and untouchability so far! Of course, we can fight against the state apparatus and Brahmin archakas in order to appoint trained archaka students as priests, by citing that nothing is there in agama text to prohibit non-brahmin student to be appointed as priests. However such protest will only help in expose the state, constitutional law and courts that protect the caste system whereas it would not help to install the right of equality for all! By principle, either religious right or religious institutions right, it should not intervene or dominate the right of equality of a citizen. However, our constitution allows religions to dominate over individual rights. This is the reason when untouchability is looked as a punishable offence on social aspect; our constitution rather recognizes it as a religious right of brahaminism through article 25! Therefore either to install our right of equality or to uproot brahminism and untouchability, working within the boundaries of agama and tradition or using such entities will only be a another dimension of surrendering our protest to the religious hegemony! For example, at this place, it is highly fruitful to think of Periyars reply given to Gandhis argument where Gandhi contented that by placing and proving untouchability is against hindu-religious principles, untouchability can be destroyed. (But the soul of hindu religion is untouchability only!) The agenda of all castes to be priests put forth by Periyar was only to abolish caste-untouchability (Ilayaperumal committee looked the agenda of all castes to be priests as a part to abolish untouchability). But on the contrary, we should not shrink Periyars agenda as a tactic to somehow to get archakas appointment. Nobody can deny that ours is a tradition that safeguards caste and untouchability. In this regard, the question rose by this case is very central; shall we recognize brahminical hegemony or caste or untouchability as a religious right based on tradition or custom? Supreme court verdict says that it can be recognized. The argument putforth by PRPC, cited article 17 that whichever a custom or tradition that pronounces a non-brahmin as an untouchable by touching an idol is an untouchable crime. But the Supreme Court refuted the argument and gave a peculiar statement in its verdict as follows: the judgment taken note of the particular class or caste to which the Archakas of a temple must belong as prescribed by the Agamas. All that it does and says is that some of the Agamas do incorporate a fundamental religious belief of the necessity of performance of the Poojas by Archakas belonging to a particular and distinct sect/group/denomination, failing which, there will be defilement of deity requiring purification ceremonies. Surely, if the Agamas in question do not proscribe any group of citizens from being appointed as Archakas on the basis of caste or class the sanctity of Article 17 or any other provision of Part III of the Constitution or even the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955 will not be violated. i.e. Since particular sect eligible for performing pooja is not defined in particular in agama principles, one cannot consider/termed it as untouchability. This is how the judgment particularly (!!!) conveyed and recognized brahminical hegemony and untouchability with deceitful English in an exquisiteness manner! By hiding this truth, to say, this verdict didnt scrap the GO brought by the DMK government and therefore it is a victory would not be appropriate. Rather, the fact is that this verdict scrapped the GO in reality! The verdict said that the appointment of archakas in Tamilnadu should follow agama principles, tradition and custom and at the same time it should conform to constitutional mandates and principle. The bench further said that it cannot pass an order acceptable to over all, whereas it contents that the validity of archakas can be challenged and such matters will have to be dealt with on a case-to-case basis since it would involve a determination of the contours of a claimed custom. 1971 Seshammal verdict disposed the writ petition of Sivacharyas by ruling that one cannot claim hereditary right in appointment of archakas. When this verdict was celebrated at that time, Periyar exposed the verdict as operation success, patient dead, where he revealed that Brahmin archakas only succeeded in that case, though they appeared to be lost. After Seshammal verdict, the mere change happened now in the external reality is that 206 trained priest students are prepared and ready to be appointed. But by without rejecting the GO, the present verdict once again made an appearance that brahmin archakas are lost. But this is an illusion. In fact, this verdict is one step all and above the seshammals verdict, where it has been delivered in a tactical deceitful language. Therefore, exposing this verdict is the only primary duty of those who are in a line to annihilate caste and uproot brahminism from this country. Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle , An independent student body recognized by IITM) Revamping Srinagar Airport By Mohammad Ashraf 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org Will Srinagar ever have a truly International Airport? Yes, only if NAMO takes the initiative in his typically unconventional style! It has been pointed out several times that the Airport at Srinagar erroneously called the International Airport is a practical joke being played on Kashmiris by the Indian Government. One flight to Dubai was started with great fanfare and then within six months it was taken off. It is a fact that the real high end international tourism to Kashmir can never grow without an international air connection. In the best of the times, the number of international tourists visiting Kashmir has never been more than 5% because of the add on fare from Delhi. According to news reports,for a change, the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India itself has pointed out that Kashmir may lose its Tourism soon unless Srinagar Airport is revamped, expanded and opened to International flights. A report prepared by the Union Tourism Ministrytitled 20 years of Perspective and Sustainable Tourism in JK states that there is need for expansion of Srinagar airport, state airline service (19 routes), helicopter taxi service and developing the Srinagar Airport as an international hub of air traffic in order to connect and attract tourists from gulf countries.The report projects 2.5 crore tourists and 34 lakh jobs in Kashmir. One would not like to agree with such fantastic figures as it would mean over-running Kashmir thereby destroying the delicate environment which in the first place is the main attraction! We have to go for sustainable tourism. The numbers which can be sustained without causing any damage to ecology and environment. However, it is also essential to aim for high-end tourism rather than go for mass budgeted tourism. Tourism is an economic activity and not a charity! The bottlenecks in declaring Srinagar Airport as an International Airport and starting direct international flights are many. The Airport at the moment is totally under the control of the Indian Airforce. First restriction is that no foreign pilots are allowed to fly in the J & K airspace by the Defence Authorities. Only Indian pilots can use the airspace. Secondly, most of the flights coming from the west would have to use the Pakistani airspace. However, Pakistan does not allow any aircraft landing or taking off from Srinagar to use its airspace. They have to take a long detour which makes such flights uneconomical. However, the greatest bottle neck is the National Security phobia. A single unsuccessful militant attack on the outer security gate some years back converted the place into the worlds most guarded Airport with the maximum security hassles. In no airport in the entire world passengers and their baggage is screened more than a kilometer before the entry to the terminal building. This aspect too has been highlighted in the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism report. No doubt the US airports have now most notorious body searches and security drills but Srinagar tops all these. If the security people are so jittery about the possibility of militants sneaking in, they should install vehicle and whole body scanner at the first security gate. This will enable the genuine passengers to cross at a faster speed without any hassles. Regarding starting of International flights, there are two choices. The first is to start charter flights of Air India (Indian aircraft being flown by Indian pilots) from Russia, Central Asian destinations like Tashkent and Tajikistan on western side and Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong on Eastern side. Incidentally, the South East Asian tourists have continued to visit Kashmir in the worst years of turmoil without any fear. Russians used to send hundreds of Charters to Goa in winter and to Turkey in summer. The closure of Turkey to Russians could give them an alternative destination of Kashmir in summer. In fact, prior to the turmoil of nineties, a large number of Russian groups had started visiting Kashmir. On the outgoing side there are many possibilities of charters to Jeddah for Umra and to Coolab in the Khatlan province of Tajikistan to pay reverence at the shrine of Shah-i-Hamadan.The Gulf flights suggested in the Government of India, Ministry of Tourism report could be via Delhi on the line of Jaipur and Amritsar flights. These flights originate from Jaipur and Amritsar but go to Gulf after an hours stopover at Delhi. The report could be implemented provided someone takes a bold initiative. The only person capable of doing so is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has made a name in taking unconventional and dramatic initiatives. If the recent Nawaz Sharif-Modi meet is to sustain then in spite of Pathankot a number of steps for opening up the closed barriers like the starting of international flights to Srinagar need to be taken without any reservations.Let us hope NAMO will do it again! Mohammad Ashraf, I.A.S. (Retired), Former Director General Tourism, Jammu & Kashmir The Continuing Threat Against Eritrea Under The Pretext Of Human Rights By John Graversgaard 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org US imperialism and its servants don`t accept opposition to its global empire. They seem to prefer failed states like Iraq and Syria than independent minded nations like Eritrea, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador to name some being targeted. How come that Eritrea has been targeted as a big human rights issue? Demonizing Eritrea has become an obsession in the ruling circles of the west and especially among people that have never been to Eritrea. Human rights is precious, but is being misused as an ideological weapon to crush and isolate nations not subservient to the designs of Washington. The establishment of a Special Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in Eritrea(COI) must be seen in this light. See www.ohchr.org/co/Eritrea. Eritrea as a nation has always been threatened with destruction and Eritrea is located in a world where self-reliance is not allowed, but only puppetry. The anti-colonial struggles in Africa and the retreat of the old imperialisms of Great Britain and France gave the peoples of Africa hope for freedom from apartheid and exploitation. But Eritrea was not allowed freedom, and in the cold war period, the feudal emperor of Ethiopia was given Eritrea as a gift for his subservience to the United States. What followed was a war for liberation for 30 years against a feudal brutal regime supported first by US and then by the Soviets. Eritrea was liberated in 1991 by EPLP after a struggle that historian Basil Davidson has paralleled to the Vietnamese anti-imperialist war. The history and experiences of this struggle against the superpowers has given the Eritrean fighters the most advanced knowledge about imperialism and its neo-colonial strategies. The leaders of liberated Eritrea has seen how the imperial powers prefers African leaders that are corrupted traitors to their peoples filling their own pockets and stealing from the people. The human rights issue The defence of human rights is a noble issue, also supported by the Government of Eritrea. But there are double standards and human rights issues can be instrumentalized by the big powers. When the colonized peoples of the south were fighting for freedom and liberation, human rights was not an issue for the big powers and UN. When Eritrea was fighting alone against Ethiopia and the super powers, human rights for the Eritrean people was not an issue. When Eritrea was attacked and occupied by Ethiopia in the 1998-2000 war human rights was not an issue. UN has since 1963 been able to establish commissions of inquiry (CoI) and fact-finding missions to gather and compile information on violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law( see www.unchr.org ). Also called The Special Procedure. The Human Rights Council has used this in relation to Eritrea and has designated a Special Rapporteur: Sheila Keetharuth. They have according to the procedures to uphold independence, efficiency, competence and integrity through probity, impartiality, honesty and good faith. And here everything goes wrong in the Eritrea case, as the report is a not following normal criteria for documentation and use of evidence. No use of expert commissions and expert consultations as recommended by OHCHR, just one-sided presentations. It is being made and used as an effort to destabilize Eritrea in order to create unrest, foreign intervention or coup d`etat: -Eritrean refugees is one-sided presented as political refugees, with COI overlooking the fact that US, Europe and UN have placed a premium on being Eritrean. -COI overlooks that many factors fuel migration. -the COI never visited Eritrea. -the COI never interviewed the international organizations that have a presence in Eritrea, like UNDP, UNICEF, OCHA, UNPPA, WHO, UNAIDS, FAO that have a lot of expert knowledge of Eritrea. -interview data was obtained by asylum-seeking migrants without consideration of the fact that they have to maintain stories of persecution to gain asylum. -no interviews with the international diaspora that have deep connections to their relatives in Eritrea and often visit Eritrea. -using information from Ethiopian officials from a government that has not lifted its declaration of war against Eritrea. -the special rapporteur Sheila Keetharuth cannot be deemed impartial, as she is a former official of Amnesty International, an organization working for regime change in Eritrea with open and secret relations to a CIA organization like National Endowment for Democracy(NED). Sanctions and war as a human rights issue The attack war by Ethiopia on Eritrea in 1998-2000 brought a lot of suffering to the peoples of both Eritrea and Ethiopia. Ethiopia was looting and plundering in Eritrea and brutally thousands with Eritrean background were ethnically cleansed from Ethiopia where they were born and raised. No mention of this can be found in the COI report. War is the worst attack on human rights but in the eyes of COI, Eritrea is on the culprit alone. Ethiopia as the United States puppet state in the region still continue to occupy Eritrea territory in contradiction to the UN directed agreements, but is not punished for this. The lack of peace means that Eritrea has to be on military alert and reluctant to demobilize its forces. This is a big burden on a small country and the fruits of peace have been stolen from the people of Eritrea. This attack on the human rights of the Eritrean people to live in peace is not an issue for COI. In 2009 sanctions against Eritrea was decided after false allegations that Eritrea supported Al Shabaab in Somalia. This has since been refuted also by UN officials but still sanctions continue. The continued violation of Eritrea`s sovereign rights and the attack on Eritreas nation building aspirations is sabotage of the promising development achievements of the country. Something that has gained international recognition but COI turns the blind eye to this. The enemies of Eritrea do not want to see Eritrea succeed as a country and Ethiopia is campaigning and lying about Eritrea systematically with the help of PR multinationals. But Eritrea will not surrender its sovereign rights nor will it abandon its independent political stance under any name including under the pretence of human rights. A climate of occupation of Eritrean territory and threats to Eritrean independence is simply not conducive for its citizens to exercise their fundamental human rights, but these issues are totally outside the mind of a Special Rapporteur only seeking confrontation. Eritrea on Human Rights Eritrea is not passive on the human rights issue and contribute with Universal Periodic Reviews, reporting to the UN Human Rights Council. The last national report of Eritrea was submitted 8. nov. 2013 in accordance with paragraph 5 of the annex to Human Rights, Council resolution 16/21. A report reflecting the fact human rights are not only political rights but also social and economic rights and where Eritrea points to the political agenda hehind the continuing demonization. The government of Eritrea has been pursuing the following key priorities: (a) Safeguarding the sovereign rights, territorial integrity, and political independence of the State and people of Eritrea from flagrant violation, aggression, occupation, unwarranted sanctions, and belligerent stances of hostile powers; (b) Effecting social justice by ascertaining universal or wide access to food security, health, education, infrastructural facilities as well as the reduction of rural/urban disparity and the construction of roads, dams, building of schools and health centers and hospitals throughout the country within the framework of balanced and even development; (c) Human resource development: As the centerpiece to development, human capital has been and remains a matter of high priority to the Government of Eritrea. In this connection, the GOE has long embarked on various programmes that bolster human dignity, human security and human development. Access to free education up to the tertiary level; the provision of health services at highly subsidized cost, regular budgetary allocations for the upkeep of disadvantaged segments and groups of society; and various activities that preserve the cultural heritage, customs and traditions of the society are all geared towards; and (d) Environmental Protection: A number of environmental protection laws have been enacted. Among other things, the Government has put in place guidelines for environmental assessment and protection against pollution in the mining sector in accordance with international standards(UPR) Crimes against humanity In July 2015, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council extended the mandate of the Commission for one year to investigate systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights in Eritrea with a view to ensuring full accountability, including where these violations may amount to crimes against humanity. The nations behind this decision should be ashamed as they include nations with a clear war criminal record from the wars in the Middle East. The ultimate crime against humanity in the case of Eritrea is the strategy of undermining and destroying the efforts of Eritrea to build a society committed to peace and social security. And this is crucial: In a region where war, ethnic conflicts, terrorism, trafficking, corruption, landgrapping are symptoms of an Africa that has not liberated itself from the destructive external neo-colonial forces. Eritrea is a threat of a good example against the neoliberal domination of Africa and is being punished by an UN apparatus, that NEVER NEVER has done anything to help Eritrea to become an independent nation. Peace and lifting of the sanctions is the solution to improve human rights in Eritrea and The Horn of Africa John Graversgaard, is a long time activist defending Eritrea. He is a member of The Eritrean Support Group of Denmark. Shout King Held All Americans Responsible For Atrocity Wars For Lucrative Predatory Investments By Jay Janson 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org What the world and most every Americans under the age of fifty, do not know (for it having been criminally suppressed in all US media for nearly a half-century), is that exactly one year before being assassinated, Rev. King condemned the US war in Vietnam and all previous "atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945 meant to maintain unjust predatory investments" and held all Americans, including himself, responsible for these atrocity wars for "not being willing to give up the pleasures and privileges that come from the immense profits from those predatory investment the wars and violence had been protecting. For having seen it televised to the point of saturation, the first thing that comes to mind about Rev. Martin Luther King for most people around the world and in the US, are his opening words before a massive civil rights demonstration in the US capitol Washington DC, "I have a dream!" Also somewhat well known is that King was shot to death five years later. What the world and most every Americans under the age of fifty, do not know (for it having been criminally suppressed in all US media for nearly a half-century), is that exactly one year before being assassinated, Rev. King condemned the US war in Vietnam and all previous "atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945 meant to maintain unjust predatory investments" and held all Americans, including himself, responsible for these atrocity wars for "not being willing to give up the pleasures and privileges that come from the immense profits from those predatory investment the wars and violence had been protecting. In Europe, on April 8th, 1967, as your author descended stairs to the Hotel lobby, his eye rebounded as it caught a glimpse of the news stand, for the headlines in bold large print on all the newspapers from around the world: "KING CONDEMNS US WARS," "KING CONDEMNS US WARS FOR PROFIT," " KING CALL US GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN WORLD." US media from New York Times to tabloids, from TV News Networks to radio and magazines vilified King as a traitor to his country and a disgrace to his race, removing himself as a leader by his shameful sermon at Riverside Church in New York City. Elected officials and politicians ranted about him being worst than just unpatriotic. Fifty years ago, with powerful media and popular government spokespersons denouncing King as a traitor without ever referring to the truthful history and current genocidal situation in Vietnam, the average American got the message that agreeing with King's truthful statements would be social and political suicide. In America's Baptist churches, both ministers and congregations, were at first reticent to speak, then slowly carefully let it be known they could not go along with King. Some of King's fellow civil rights leaders within the national coalition King led, felt the need to be vocal in dissent from King saying involving themselves with the war in Vietnam would sidetrack the civil rights movement. Though King's prominence as an American leader was diminished, his plans for a second nationwide march on Washington being planned with the theme connecting poverty to the war in Vietnam was going forward in strength when King received the bullet to his brain that stopped that march on poverty and the war. One imagines that those investors of trillions of dollars in the Vietnam war breathed a sign of relief, having feared King could stop their wars as he stopped segregation. In the weeks after King's assassination, the African American poor in most major and some minor cities rioted with much loss of life and great destruction. To get the image of King off and out of the streets so to speak, the image of King was 'promoted' upstairs to most great American hero, the only American hero to have a three day official national holiday celebrating his birth. And perhaps that mollified many in the nation's African American communities and made them less likely to notice the complete tight media black out of any mere mention of King's condemnations of US wars. In his world shaking New York sermon 'Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence' Martin Luther King held all Americans, including himself, "responsible for atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945, all meant to maintain lucrative unjust predatory investments." Though King throughout his sermon spoke to his fellow Americans, dismissing his government as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world," we have, in all these intervening years since his assassination, become used to seeing those few protesting US wars pointing a finger at their own government and away from themselves. King gave his audience a succinct history of US crimes in Vietnam beginning in 1945 that would today awaken understanding of the history of all previous and subsequent US crimes against humanity in small defenseless nations. Kings warning to humanity of a continuing illegal and genocidal use of the nation's armed forces, secret services and media has been blacked out of Western media and all sources of information for nearly a half century. What would happen today if people read and heard the video on the Internet rarely clicked on to baring Luther King's horrific descriptions of merciless abominable mass murder of a peaceful innocent Buddish population of mostly rice farmers, for example: "They languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers." What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones? We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops." We have cooperated in the crushing in the crushing Buddhist Church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men." Those who are old enough to have heard King's anguished plea for the lives of non-white brothers and sisters and their children in Vietnam and other poor countries, have maintained a silence that King called betrayal. "A time comes when silence is betrayal." And that time has come for us." But since even King's own family and his closest colleagues and friends have maintained a betraying silence as they pursued political careers during wars so profitable for the Industrial Military Financial Complex that engendered them. In retrospect, it was not to be expected that anyone would raise his voice, seeing what happened to King. For nearly five decades, even America's thousand African American celebrities, somehow, either out of fear or lack of interest, have cooperated by their silence with America's total blackout of Martin Luther King's anguished cry, "Silence is betrayal!" and have remained silent, indifferently silent, while non-white men, women and children by the millions have perished 'in harms way' of Americans, including Black Americans, in uniform. (Why the rest of the world has produced no vocal King follower is a topic for another article, but the snow job of Rockefeller ushering a person of color as the latest Commander-in-Chief of the White Colonial Power ruled planet is of no small importance.) There are exceptions to the above mentioned. Hon. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, is unrelenting in referring to King's words and speaks eloquently to the subject of American genocide. Perhaps waiting in the wings for less dangerous weather is Obama's ex-family minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright of "God damn America for her crimes against humanity!" TV sound bite fame during Obama's 2008 election campaign. Your author believes that the half-century of continual destruction of US 'humanitarian' bombings, 'humanitarian' invasions and 'humanitarian' occupations that have gone on since King's outcry was silenced, might have created enough unease for folks to be ready to see the difference between truth and lies, should King's Beyond Vietnam be given rebirth. Amazingly brazen titles of recent articles of a conservative former Under-secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan and former editor of the Wall Street Journal, writer Paul Craig Roberts, strike this author as portending public disillusionment: 'The Proof Is In: The US Government Is The Most Complete Criminal Organization In Human History'; 'US Government Drives Toward War With Russia'; 'The War On Terror Is The Hoax Foundation Of The Police/Spy State'; 'Americans Stand Naked Before Injustice'; 'The Fate of Children in the Amerian Police State'; 'The Rule of Law no Longer Exists in Western Civilization;' 'This is America Today' - a gutless, cowardly population that accepts mass murder of women and children and destruction of countries without protest.' Another conservative, Ron Paul, during 2012 debates for Republican candidate for President was heard on prime time new programs repeating over and over again for two weeks saying, 'All the bombings, invasions, occupations beginning with those of Korea were illegal and unconstitutional and a horrible taking of lives.' Will it happen in 2016, during the weekend holiday in the United States dedicated to Martin Luther King's birth date that of the dozens of nations presently under attack, whether by US NATO UN military or economic warfare, one will field a celebrity status leader reading to the public from King's long suppressed sermon Beyond Vietnam - a Time to Break Silence? If a crack in the ice is opened up, the crack will spread until a river of life saving truth is navigable. This would be to the protection of everyone on Earth, for as Indian writer Arundhati Roy writes in Capitalism a Ghost Story, "the multinationals own the Indian government, which budgets officially the starving to death of millions of children annually." King had cried out, There will be no progress on social issues, as long as the poor abroad are killed using the enormous human and financial resources that make any such progress impossible. If it became widely known, that Americas hero condemned his government as, the US government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, it would disable credibility of war criminal media and their ability to justify humanitarian genocide after humanitarian genocide, and end the civil rights movement being a war supporting movement. It will be a hell of lot harder for media to denounce Rev. King after praising him as a great American for a half-century. It will be an opportunity for Martin Luther King's words to help Russia, Syria, Venezuela and all nations under US attack by quoting suppressed 'Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence. King identified the genocidal danger the US represents, for all humanity to be aware of for its own protection, and not to be fooled by its war investors owned media. Eventually the world will understand that King was assassinated to protect the $trillions invested in these wars that will continue as long their profitability continues and the world public is disinterested in making them unprofitable for the compensations, reparations and indemnities that will eventually be awarded tens of millions of victims and survivors of unlawful death, injury, deformed birth, destruction and theft of natural resources. The changing world balance of economic power Eastward and Southward now underway will bring this justice about, but better sooner than wait. The complete text of Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence can be read, or Kings voice heard, at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm or by simply googling Beyond Vietnam American Rhetoric. And after listening or reading King's Beyond Vietnam, one might scroll down the Ramsey Clark co-founded educational and stimulus website Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign containing the pertinent laws and a country by country history of us crimes in 19 nations. http://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com can be viewed by googling name. Finally, those interested may check out: War-Promoting Media's Snow Job and King's Condemning US Wars for Predatory Investments which contains links to OpEdNews Author jay janson's forty articles on King's last year on Earth. http://www.opednews.com/articles/War-Promoting-Media-s-Snow-by-Jay-Janson-Dr-Martin-Luther-King_KingWarCondemnationBlackOut-140122-788.html Jay Janson is an archival research peoples historian activist, musician and writer; has lived and worked on all continents in 67 countries; articles on media published in China, Italy, UK, India, Sweden and the US; now resides in NYC; First effort was a series of articles on deadly cultural pollution endangering seven areas of life emanating from Western corporate owned commercial media published in Hong Kong's Window Magazine 1993; Howard Zinn lent his name to various projects of his; Global Research; Information Clearing House; Counter Currents, Kerala, India; Minority Perspective, UK; Einartysken, Sweden: Saker Vineyard, Germany; Dissident Voice; Ta Kung Pao; Uruknet; Voice of Detroit; Mathaba; Ethiopian Review; Palestine Chronicle; India Times; MalaysiaSun; China Daily; South China Morning Post; Come Home America; CubaNews; TurkishNews; HistoryNews Network; Vermont Citizen News have published his articles; 300 of which are available at: click http://www.opednews.com/author/author1723.html ; Weekly column, South China Morning Post, 1986-87; reviews for Ta Kung Bao; article China Daily, 1989. Is coordinator of the Howard Zinn co-founded King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign: (King Condemned US Wars) http://kingcondemneduswars.blogspot.com/ and website historian of the Ramsey Clark co-founded Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign http://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com/ featuring a country by country history of US crimes and laws pertaining. Who Will Speak For The Human Rights Defenders? By Pushkar Raj 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org The Bombay high court judgment cancelling Prof. Sai Babas bail and initiating contempt proceedings against the writer Arundhati Roy is a major blow to the human rights defenders in the country. Dr. Sai Baba was arrested by the police in 2014 for allegedly indulging in maoist activities. He was charged under various sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and later denied bail. In an article in a magazine Arundhati Roy had questioned the manner of arrest of the professor and grounds on which he was denied bail. She had criticized the courts in the country for following different set of rules while granting bail depending on persons ideology and proximity with the government of the day. Dr. Sai Baba organized and participated in the meetings in the capital that highlighted the misery of the indigenous population who face displacement and crisis of survival in light of the governments big project centric development agenda. Arundhati Roy stressed that Dr. Sai Baba is primarily a human rights defender who should be treated humanely in light of his 90 per cent disability and the jurisprudence principle of presumption of innocence till proven guilty. Ideally the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should have come out in support of activists like Dr. Sai Baba. However, its record for defending the HRDs, despite having a dedicated cell for this purpose, has been dismal for various reasons. Therefore, the burden of speaking on the behalf of people like Dr. Sai Baba has fallen on the shoulders of the civil society in the country. However, the civil society organizations too require support of the writers, artists and intellectuals to lend weight to their voice, especially when the present government, erroneously, treats the rights based human rights activities in the country as an anathema to its development and ideological agenda. As a writer, one would assume, Arundhati Roy may feel that branding people naxalites and then treating them inhumanely before their guilt is proven is an outrageous practice in a constitutional democracy. In the outlook article which is the subject of interference in administration of justice charge against her, the writer puts her perspective with her own set of arguments. These arguments may be right or wrong. The judgment of the court castigates the writers right to hold that perspective or opinion which is a disturbing trend. It is a matter of concern that the contempt proceedings against Arundhati Roy, might serve as a warning to the writers and thinkers of the country to stay away from the public issues. Already, a section of the government has vilified a large number of writers because they dared to voice against encouraging and growing intolerance in the Indian society. Any kind of threatening message coming from any branch of the government on thought and its expression is an erosion of our constitutional values and detrimental to the interest of our society. The writer, as Chinua Achebe, doyen of African literature, argued, creates the values of a society. When we silence the writer, we create a value vacuum in the society, i.e., a breeding ground for the mob driven justice and fascism. The Bombay high court judgment is regrettable that it has come from an institution- the judiciary- that the writers and HRDs of the country look up for protection of their life and civil liberties. Several of courts landmark judgments preserved and expanded the rights of the individual rather than shrinking them. In that light, the Bombay high court bench judgment is an exception. The present case is sure to go to the Supreme Court. One hopes that it will be reviewed and nullified in the interest of civil liberties and constitutional values of the country. Pushkar Raj is an independent writer based in Melbourne (Australia). Earlier, he taught political science in Delhi University and was the National General Secretary of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India. Need To Cleanse The Education From The Dronacharayas By Vidya Bhushan Rawat 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org Hyderabad University cant escape from the blame of killing the young Dalit scholar. We want to ask this question why should students at this level be 'expelled'. The problem with these so-called institutions is that they want to 'discipline' students like primary class students. At the higher level you have to allow them to think and take part in political activities. India's Universities once upon a time were the place which created student leaders who were much broader in thought and actively involved in social action. Today, in the name of having a 'central university' we see that students are supposed to attend classes like primary students. With no independent thinking being allowed, what do we want ? How many PhDs are really coming which can be called path breaking. We dont want our students to comment on critical issues. Even after the death of Rohit Vemula, we are hearing that he 'supported' Yaqub Memon. I am quite amazed with this argument. So what? All those who talks of justice supported him. There are people who who fought his case. All we were saying that he should get enough chance to defend himself. It is ridiculous to suggest that we cant speak differently on an issue we feel close to our heart. The UGC and MHRD must respond. They cant kill our students in the name of 'excellence'. First clean the crap and the dirty caste minds inside our institutions otherwise we are heading for a chaotic year. Students are still fighting for their right for non-net fellowship issue and #occupyUGCcampaigning is still stronger, such incidents shows how caste capitalists minds are working together to implement their vicious agenda on the institutions. India's academic institutions are under brahmanical threat. This government has unleashed a brahmanical war on India's indigenous people. If it really want to show us that it care for all its citizens particularly those who come from non aryan segments, it must stand up, order an independent inquiry into the Hyderabad University incident and readmit the students to the hostel. You have no right to destroy the career of the students at this stage. It is time strict instructions be send to university administration everywhere and any unilateral action must be condemned. This is not the first incident of its kind. We have seen academic institutions trying to mould students in a particular kind of thoughts and Dalit Aadivasi Muslim students are considered to be dissenters as they will resist any attempt to put them brahmanical mainstream as an attachment. Its a war of ideologies where RSS and Hindutva ideologies are getting state protection inside our institutions. Mythologies are being claimed as history. It is not unusual that while the government want to worship Ambedkar in 125th year by making politically correct statements using Ambedkar's differences against other contemporary leaders but shamefully the same government has snatched scholarship from students and disturbingly the Ambedkar Foundation which is in charge of propagating Ambedkar's books in Hindi, English and various Indian languages did not have enough books at its stall at the World Book Fair. Till a few years back, Dr Ambedkar's original work was found in the cheapest price by the government. We always reccomend people to read the original volumes so that they are not misinterpreted by every one. It is time for all of to seriously think of whether and where we have failed. Those who want to glorify this helplessness need to understand the human psychology. While we may shout slogan, fight and may be the university might take the students back under pressure but the Dronacharyas with their caste minds will remain there. They will try to do do everything but there are definitely good teachers too. We need to broadened our agenda and associate with those who could be our associates and who cant be. In educational institutions and elsewhere there are prejudices but there are a few of them who stand in solidarity with students and guide them. It is time we have this capacity. Secondly, for students it is there career which is important. Rohti committed suicide perhaps thinking a solution was not in sight. Those of us and there are so many in power positions, in academics, in bureaucracy, in media and in responsible power positions, who can talk and negotiate with the university authorities. If the students have done anything wrong they can be guided. Colleges and Universities or any government institution can not be allowed to believe in retribution. Students are there to study and we need to promote that idea. University campuses must give student time to think of not just their future but also their interaction with politics and society must be encouraged. We should not allow situation to come to this level when a student commit suicide. It is time to seriously think whether those who claiming to work for people failed. It is not important to raise an issue but also whether we can help with our influence, connections. Students are sitting on Dharana and many could speak to the VC and find out as what is the problems. Many others could have gone to the court or meet the Ministers. Why does it need a suicide to wake us up ? It is sad moment. I hope this will wake us up as this is neither the first incident nor will be the last as situation inside our campuses are bad. It need much more than sloganeering. We need to fight against brahmanisation of eduction but at the same point of time should ask our student to fight and change. Please do not take your life. This helplessness pains us, agonise us. We hope those in Hyderabad or working with students, in their campuses must form groups and I am sure there are many teachers and other like minded people who could form as a guiding force, who can talk to the administration. An insensitive institution can not create sensitive students. We hope the government will wake up. The suicide of Rohit Vemula is a warning to India's brahmanical establishment to mend its ways. We hope the government in 125th year of Dr Ambedkar's birth centenary will act in good faith otherwise things might go out of control. We stand in solidarity with all those who call for an overhaul of our educational system. Stand up against the casteist Dronacharyas sitting in our academic world. Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: vbrawat@gmail.com The Sucicide Of Dalit Scholar Rohith Vemula: A Caste Instigated Political Murder By Samar 18 January, 2016 Countercurrents.org I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write. Rohith Vemula, a young Dalit research scholar and student activist of the University of Hyderabad, would certainly not have wanted to die. No one with dreams does, after all. Yet, he died yesterday, on 17th January 2016. He killed himself after leaving the protest venue he was living at for 15 days, after getting expelled from his hostel. He sneaked out on some pretext and hanged himself. Did he really kill himself though? Go through the suicide note and it becomes apparent that he did not. He was in fact killed by the phantom limb of caste on which the pretentious democratic credentials of the republic are superimposed. He was forced into killing himself for standing against and injustices against his people, the ex-untouchables. Rohith was forced to kill himself because he did not stop at that cardinal sin of fighting for his own people. He dared to speak for all the marginalized ones, be it the minorities, the workers or women as a leading activist of the Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). There is nothing new in suicides, actually cold blooded murders, of bright Dalit students in premier educational institutions of the country. Many such incidents have been documented in the recent past showing how continuous harassment from the so called upper caste faculties and students pushed Dalit students into taking the extreme step. A documentary named Death of Merit had counted 18 such cases in 4 years up to 2011 and led to a fierce discussion on the issue. The suicides include that of Jaspreet Singh of Government Medical College, Chandigarh who was an extraordinary student and never failed even once. That was till he reached the final year of his graduation in medicine. The head of the department failed him then and threatened to do so over and over again. Unable to cope up with this torture, Jaspreet committed suicide blaming the head of department for his death. Yet, the police refused to lodge the First Information Report against the perpetrator. The trauma of losing him followed by this grave injustice was so severe for his sister, a student of Bachelor of Computer Application, that she also committed suicide, The outrage over the suicides led to the intervention of the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC) which made a three-member team of senior professors re-evaluate his answer sheet. The team found that he had in fact passed the examination. It was only after NCSC's intervention that the police filed the FIR under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Not all the Dalit students killed by the system were fortunate enough to get even this much; a semblance of justice of something being done against their murderers. Despite the clear pattern of caste based discriminations leading to such suicides, there is something markedly different in Rohiths case. He, unlike most of the other young Dalits murdered for their caste, was not killed behind the walls of educational institutions away from the public gaze. His case was not about bad grades, or getting deliberately failed by the rogue faculties. Neither was his case about years and years of such endless torture finally culminating in a suicide and the world getting to know of that only after the final act. Rohiths suicide-murder was not one of them. It unfolded under full public gaze, on television, in social media, a gaze that apparently failed to save him. Further, most of the other victims of suicide-murders had no support system inside the institutions they were harassed in, Rohith had. He had his friends, colleagues and common students supporting him in droves. He was expelled from the hostel and hundreds of those not expelled came to sleep out in open with him in solidarity. He, with his activist friends, led a procession in his campus and thousands marched in their own across the country. Yet, he was forced to kill himself and that is what makes this suicide-murder different, and a dangerous marker of the times to come by. Recapping the incidents that led to Rohiths suicide-murder may shed some light on the times to come by for the marginalised of the republic. His troubles started when ASA organised a protest march in August 2015 at the campus against the attack on the Montage Film Society in Delhi University by Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). They were attacked for screening a documentary movie Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai that exposed the roles of Hindutva outfits in Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013. Local ABVP unit did not, of course, like the protests and its leader Susheel Kumar posted a comment on Facebook calling ASA members goons. He later submitted a written apology. Next morning, Susheel Kumar alleged that about 30 students belonging to the ASA had beaten him up and he had to be hospitalized. The Universitys Proctorial Board conducted an enquiry into the allegations with a medical examination which found no proof of injuries claimed by Susheel Kumar. The Board observed the following- The board could not get any hard evidence of beating of Mr. Susheel kumar either from Mr Krishna Chaitanya or from the reports submitted by Dr. Anupama. Dr. Anupamas reports also could not link or suggest that the surgery of the Susheel Kumar is the direct result of the beating. Based on these findings, the Board, reportedly, decided to end the matter with a warning to both the groups. The final report of the Board, however, inexplicably blamed ASA activists for causing injuries to Susheel Kumar and ordered the suspension of five students, including Rohith. ASA organized a protest following the suspension and held an open discussion with the then vice chancellor Prof. RP Sharma over the discrepancies in the findings and the punishment. Realising the injustice done to ASA students, Prof. Sharma revoked the suspension, subject to constitution of a new committee to enquire into the incident afresh. Things started changing course soon afterwards. The new vice-chancellor Prof. P Apparao who took over from Prof. Sharma constituted no committee for a fresh enquiry and kept the suspended students in the dark until the Executive Council decided to suspend the students and expel them from their hostels. Self-evidently, Union Minister Bandaru Datttreyas intervention with the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) seems to have played an important role in the change in the university administrations instance. Mr. Datttreya, as it later came to be known, had intervened with the MHRD and urged it to discipline casteist, extremist and anti-national elements like ASA. His primary reason for accusing ASA to be all this was simple- it had held protests against the execution (of Yakub Memon). Yes, he chose a reason which would turn many of the celebrated lawyers of the country including Anand Grover, Prashant Bhushan, Indira Jaisingh, Yug Choudhary, Nitya Ramakrishnan, Vrinda Grover and others into anti-nationals for opposing the same and seeking (and getting) an unprecedented 5 AM hearing by a Supreme Court bench to stop the execution. What could have made a Union Minister intervene with the MHRD in such a small case, likes of which keep taking in campuses across the country? Was it Rohiths, and ASAs, attempt to link the struggles of all the marginalized communities into one that had irked him? Perhaps it was, as Dalits standing up for Muslims, a vulnerable minority, would puncture the politico-ideological narrative that has propelled the present regime to power. This makes the suicide-murder of Rohith markedly different from those preceding it and must send a shiver down the spine of any conscientious citizen of the country. The operational blame of past suicide-murders of the Dalit students lied, primarily, with identifiable rogue casteist elements; rogue because practicing casteism was never that easy despite it being deeply entrenched in the system. Harassment of Dalit students in prior cases could often be traced back to the individual perpetrators. It never was brazen enough to allow an incumbent union minister proactively trying to silence the voices for social justice by terming them anti-national and what not for raising issues as a united whole and not from the scattered locations of being a Dalit, a minority, tribal and so on. This is also why Rohiths suicide cannot be seen as an act of desperation. Neither was his struggle an individual one, for grades for instance, nor there was a reason for him to go desperate suddenly. His suicide note makes it clear too. His letter is not a suicide note in fact, it is an indictment of the republic that had been failing its vulnerable citizens for long and has started to shed even the pretence of justice of late. To quote from his suicide note again- The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living. It is this reduction of human beings into mere categories that he fought against all his life. It is this reductionism, perhaps, he tried to challenge with one last act of supreme sacrifice. His body, as a body of a Dalit, had always been a site of struggle between forces wanting to dehumanize and own it and those wanting to put an end to this dehumanization. He turned it into a site of marking the necessity of all liberation struggles joining hands against increasingly vitiating attacks of the old order with new power. This is our turn to not let his sacrifice go in vain. This is our turn to ensure that a functioning and accessible mechanism is put in place to support those fighting against systemic discrimination based on caste, gender, religion or any such regressive identity. It is high time to ensure that perpetrators do not get away with their crimes- be it witch hunt of activists or torture of individual students. We need to begin with ensuring that all those responsible for this suicide murder, including VC Appa Rao and Union Minister Bandaru Datttreya, are booked under both -the provisions of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Preventions of Atrocities) Act and for abetment of suicide-murder of Rohith Vemula. Samar is Programme Coordinator - Right to Food Programme Asian Legal Resource Centre / Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong SHARE NAMI Dubois County family support group: 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday at Memorial Hospital in Jasper. Bereavement support group: Meeting 5:30-7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month in the large group meeting room, second floor of Central Library, 200 SE MLK Blvd. Men's bereavement support group: Meeting 9-10:30 a.m. the second Monday of each month in Room 204 at Deaconess VNA Plus, 610 E. Walnut St. Support group for bipolar/manic-depressive disorder: Meeting 7 p.m. the first and third Wednesday of each month, Kempf Bipolar Wellness Center, third floor of St. Mary's Rehabilitation Institute, 3700 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-4934. Survivors of suicide support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the first and third Monday of each month, Methodist Temple, 2109 Lincoln Ave. Information: Mental Health America at 812-426-2640. Pulmonary fibrosis support group: Meeting 3 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, Room 1420, Deaconess Hospital, 600 Mary St. Information: 812-450-6000 or deaconess.com/calendar. COPD/asthma support group: Meeting 3 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month, Room 1420, Deaconess Hospital, 600 Mary St. Information: 812-450-6000 or deaconess.com/calendar. Mending Hearts pregnancy loss support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month, Gift Conference Room, off the lobby of St. Mary's Hospital for Women & Children, 3700 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-4204. Men's cancer support group: Meeting 5:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, St. Mary's Epworth Crossing Community Conference Room, 100 St. Mary's Epworth Crossing, Newburgh. Information: 812-485-5725. Stroke support group: Meeting 10 a.m. the fourth Wednesday of each month, St. Mary's Community Education Room at Washington Square Mall, 5011 Washington Ave. Information: 812-485-5607. ALS support group: Meeting 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month, Meeting Room E, Deaconess Gateway Hospital. The support group is for patients, caregivers and survivors who have lost someone to ALS. Women's cancer support group: Meeting 5:30 p.m. the second and fourth Monday of each month, St. Mary's Epworth Crossing Community Conference Room. Information: 812-485-5725. Compiled by Leah Ward, leah.ward@courierpress.com photos by DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Sherlock gets a high-pressure blow-dry from groomer Carrla Rasco Bickel (left) as Barry Bickel (not pictured) bathes Watson in their mobile grooming salon Wednesday afternoon. SHARE Basset hounds Sherlock and Watson are led to Mans Best Friend Mobile Dog Grooming Salon for their regular baths, teeth brushing, nail trims and ear cleanings. Sadie is greeted by Carrla Rasco Bickel with a marshmallow treat upon her arrival. By Denny Simmons of the Courier and Press NEWBURGH Carrla Rasco Bickel and her husband, Barry Bickel, decided 30 years of doing the same old thing was enough. In 2010, they decided to make a change. That's when Carrla headed to Lexington, Kentucky, for dog grooming school to learn the art of the dog cut. Upon graduation the Cynthiana couple decided to start a business. But not any business a mobile dog grooming business. "I didn't want to work in a salon. It's like working in an office and I did that for 30 years," Carrla said. So after they made the investment in their rolling salon, Barry became Carrla's driver, mechanic, dog holder and dog bather. Carrla handles the toenails, ears, teeth and fur. This is their sixth year in business and the couple have learned much and built a strong clientele. Man's Best Friend Mobile Dog Grooming Salon has no openings for the upcoming year, but it wasn't always so. "We only took five days off the whole first year," Barry said. Some days started at 9 a.m. and didn't end until 10 p.m. And then it was time to do the laundry for the next day. "Really long days in a tin can yuck," Carrla said with disdain. "We do all right, don't we?" "Yep," Barry agreed. "We're our own bosses. We set our own pace." "There's nothing better than getting up and this is what you get to deal with every day," Carrla added. "Yeah. Dogs are a lot nicer to deal with than people," Barry added. "When we first started, we did cats." After Carrla got a bite that later became infected, "we decided no more cats." One other drawback for some might be the large amount of flying hair. "It looks like a snow globe in here when we do a double-coated dog. It'll just fill the place," Barry said. "If you can't stand the hair, you'd better get another job." SHARE By Max Roll of the Courier and Press A 62-year-old man was seriously injured Sunday when he crashed a car into an embankment while intoxicated on Big Cynthiana Road near Schmitt Road around 8 p.m., authorities said. According to the Vanderburgh County Sheriffs Office, Randall C. Spencer, of Cynthiana, Indiana, had a blood alcohol level nearly three times the states legal limit of 0.08 percent when a Pontiac Bonneville he was driving left the roadway, entered an embankment, rolled over and struck a tree. Spencer was trapped inside. Members of the Scott Township Fire Department removed Spencer from his car. Spencer suffered serious internal injuries and was taken to Deaconess Hospital, according to the sheriffs office. Deputies reported Spencer appearing intoxicated. According to the sheriffs office, Spencer was able to tell them that he had been drinking excessively. An open alcoholic beverage was found near Spencers vehicle. The crash remains under investigation. photos by DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS King Fest 2016 marchers wave to passing motorists along Walnut Street on Sunday afternoon as they make their way from Civic Center to Memorial Baptist Church. The group set a brisk pace and made excellent time in the frigid temperatures. SHARE Darnell McRath, 14, braves temperatures in the low teens to carry the King Fest 2016 banner Sunday afternoon. Close to 50 marchers took part in the event, which celebrated the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and culminated with a service and fellowship. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS D4J (Dance for Jesus) members complete their performance at King Fest 2016 at Memorial Baptist Church Sunday evening. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Lariah Davis, 4, waits for the King Fest 2016 service celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to begin Sunday afternoon. DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS The Memorial Baptist Church members sing the Negro National Anthem at the start of King Fest 2016 Sunday evening. By Bradie Gray Most children have been taught the key points in the life and death of Martin Luther King Jr. They know he was the leader of the modern American Civil Rights movement. They know he was an advocate of peaceful protest. They know that he was born Jan. 15, 1929, and they know that because of this birthday, they will spend Monday away from school. Erika Baker wanted Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be more than just a break from the schoolbooks for her four children. "I remember when I was a little kid, before we got out of school for this holiday; my mom would drop me off at school and go march," said Baker, an Evansville resident and five-year member of Memorial Baptist Church. Baker realized that in all the years since her children started school, they had nothing to do to celebrate the holiday while they were dismissed from class. So, she organized the first King Fest, a march Sunday evening from the Civic Center, 1 NW Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., to Memorial Baptist Church, 645 Canal St., followed by a ceremonial tribute to King with prayer, singing, dancing and poetry. "It was just a day out of school," she said. "I don't want my kids to grow up thinking this is just a day to sleep, because it's not. It's so much more than that." Baker had never organized an event for her church before, but after rallying volunteers, a committee and speakers, her efforts were met with praise from the entire church community. "I wanted to do something with my church community so the kids could be off tomorrow but still sit here and learn tonight," she said. The Rev. Anthony Brooks Sr., pastor of Seventh Street Baptist Church in Henderson, Kentucky, and King Fest's keynote speaker jumped on board for the cause. "If we're going to value (King's) life, value the things he preached and value his death, then we have to make known to our children and our children's children why he died, what he did before his death and how valuable those things are to their well-being today," Brooks said. Brooks, who marched twice with King, spoke to the crowd about his experiences breaking down racial barriers, his time as the first black principal of Stanley Hall High School and first black teacher of West Terrace School and reiterated King's vision through his own words. "I learned a lot of things from King," Brooks said. "One of those things was how to appreciate people, because within King's movement was not just black folk. People died who were not black folk. It was a democratic demonstration of what America ought to be like involving all people to make this democracy work." Bakers involvement of her entire church to make the evening a success did not go unnoticed, as she was asked to organize the event again next year. "This event will be back," she said. "My pastor already told me that I have to do this again next year." SHARE By Len Wells, special to the Courier & Press Two juveniles were arrested in connection with an early Sunday armed robbery at Caseys General Store in Grayville, Ill. One of the suspects was armed with a compound hunting bow, police said. Investigators said the suspects took less than $200 and fled on foot. As Grayville police were investigating the incident, Mount Carmel, Ill. police reported stopping a vehicle with two individuals matching the description of those involved in the robbery. A compound bow was found in the back seat of the vehicle. Edwards County States Attorney Michael Valentine says both suspects are 17-year-olds from Mt. Carmel and have been lodged in the Franklin County juvenile detention center in Benton, Ill. Formal charges in the case are expected to be filed on Tuesday. Both suspects will make their first appearance in Edwards County Circuit Court in Albion on Tuesday. No one was injured during the robbery. SHARE Justin DuVall By Bobby Shipman Justin DuVall of Saint Meinrad Archabbey announced his resignation last week after more than 11 years as archabbot. DuVall is the sixth archabbot and ninth abbot to lead the 162-year-old monastic community in St. Meinrad, Indiana. His resignation takes effect June 2. DuVall led the final 18 months of the archabbey's largest campaign, which raised almost $43 million for renovations, endowment and operating expenses. Father Julian Peters worked as DuVall's secretary from 2004 to 2007, but has known DuVall since 1982. "(DuVall) is a man of care and deliberation. He is thoughtful. He ponders things," Peters said. "He is a man of calm judgment and those were all things that he was recognized for by the community when he was elected." DuVall declined to speak to the Courier & Press. DuVall is quoted in a Saint Meinrad news release as saying the archabbey's community is flourishing. "We are also able to continue our service to the church through the good work of those monks who serve in parishes, schools and chaplaincies," he says in the release. "The community is well-positioned for change and the need to move forward." Essentially, the archabbot is the president and CEO of St. Meinrad Archabbey, Inc. which includes the seminary, theology school and its press and casket companies. Peters described the archabbot as "quite the introvert," with a mild manner. "He is highly respected as a friend of the monks and as a brother of the community," Peters said During his tenure as archabbot, DuVall oversaw projects such as the new Guest House and Retreat Center and the renovation of St. Gregory Hall, St. Bede Hall, Newman Hall and the St. Martin Center. A native of Toledo, Ohio, DuVall became a Benedictine monk in 1974 and was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1978. He worked as assistant librarian in the Saint Meinrad Archabbey Library until 1993. In his time in St. Meinrad, DuVall served as prior (second in leadership) of the monastery, associate dean of Saint Meinrad School of Theology and was eventually named provost and vice rector of the school until his election as archabbot in 2004. While working as DuVall's secretary, Peters said the archabbot suggested he take a sabbatical after eight years in the assistant position, something not usually granted to monks in his role. Peters said actions like that were typical of DuVall. St. Meinrad was elevated from abbey to archabbey in 1954 during its centennial, and is one of only two archabbeys in the U.S. "We were the two first houses of Benedictine men in the U.S.," he said. "Many of the other monasteries of men have come to the U.S. because of us." Even though it is custom for St. Meinrad archabbots and abbots to serve an indefinite term, Peters said in the 1960s it became possible for them to resign or retire. "(DuVall) believes that after 11 years in office he has done what he was elected to do," Peters said. After DuVall steps down, he will take a "well-earned" sabbatical, Peters said. At that time a new archabbot will be elected by the monks. Whether or not DuVall remains at the archabbey hasn't been decided. "Certainly, it's a time of transition for all of us, but it's the beginning of a new chapter in our history," Peters said. SHARE Carolyn Gallagher Evansville In Sunday's Viewpoint, "What's good about Evansville?", there were a few good things I found omitted. Under Social Services, SWIRCA & More was not included. It has been an agency for the aged since 1973, and has progressed to being a resource agency for the disabled too. The Activity Center has an average attendance of more than 1,000 aa month participating in the Healthy Aging Activity Center and Wellness Center. The Case Management Department has assisted 6,000 individuals in the last year. Also, in the same edition on the first page of the Life section was a story on CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), should certainly be added to the list of social services. Continuing down to the category of Medical Facilities, St. Mary's Medical Center touts the only certified Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Center in the area and the Children's Psychiatric Center on Morgan Avenue. A note of clarification, Deaconess has The Heart Hospital and St. Mary's Medical Center has Ohio Valley Heart Care. In the bullet point, it was listed as St. Mary's Medical Center and Heart Hospital. The Evansville Christian Life Center could be included under Social Services and Religion as it's walls contain pregnancy and child caring education classes, clothing for infants to adults of both sexes for 0.25 cents a piece, a food pantry, and many other services along with Christian values to feed the soul. A supporter of The Evansville Christian Life Center is Crossroads Christian Church. Crossroads boasts far-reaching roots in community service including support/mentoring/tutoring at Glenwood Leadership Academy, a Westside Crossroads support and resource center for school age and adults, Outreach Ministries, supports Tri-State Food Pantry and buses in children and teens from Evansville and Newburgh on Wednesdays for activities, tutoring and a meal. Lastly, under festivals, the BrewFest, a major fundraiser for SWIRCA & More, is showcased in the historical setting of Bosse Field and is the only BrewFest in the area to offer beer, wine and culinary samplings. The BrewFest was recently awarded a grant by the Indiana Office of Tourism Development. I realize it is near impossible to include all the good things about Evansville. As someone who was born and raised here, I find it near perfect. SHARE By ELIZABETH DEPOMPEI, News and Tribune NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) Every Tuesday, 9-year-old Savannah Landgraf knows exactly what she'll share with her classmates when it's time for weekly "celebrations." Each student writes down what most excited them about their week and puts it in a pot to be pulled out and announced. Savannah's celebrations aren't big trips or new gifts or even the latest video she uploaded to YouTube. Instead, she celebrates My Club. "I like hanging out with my people," Savannah explained. "And Suzanna is really fun, she's my mentor. And I like to play and meet new people and to discover new things that I don't know about God." Apart from their enthusiasm for their weekly meetings at St. John United Presbyterian Church, Savannah's My Club "peeps," all have something in common: They all have one or both parents who are either incarcerated or who have been incarcerated in the past. The youth group is just one of the mentoring programs offered by New Albany-based Christian Formation Ministries, and it's also the newest program. The ministry's founders, the Rev. Richard Johnson and his wife, Rev. Dawn Johnson, have been working in prison ministry and mentoring adults for roughly 20 years. For the first 10 years, the couple and their children traveled North America in a trailer, visiting inmates in prison where they would preach and extend a helping hand. They stopped in 38 different states and three Canadian provinces. Then after nearly a decade, the couple decided to settle back down in Southern Indiana. "We felt led to take all the things that we had learned traveling around all these different prisons and residential re-entry programs for people coming out of prison and start to build it here," Richard Johnson said. "So that's what we did. We came home, we bought a house in Jeffersonville and started Christian Formation Ministries as a brand new organization." They started out by building ministry teams that would visit Floyd and Clark County jails every Sunday to teach life skills, something the ministry still does. Johnson also started visiting the Indiana Department of Correction's Henryville prison where he still visits once or twice a week. If recently released offenders want to continue what they started with Johnson and other ministry mentors while incarcerated, they can meet with them every Monday at St. John United Presbyterian Church. That's exactly what Savannah's mom, Wendy Landgraf did. Landgraf spent seven months in the Floyd County jail for shoplifting nearly four years ago. Every Sunday, she and other female inmates met with Christian Formation Ministries mentors. That's where she met her mentor, Gina. "She prayed with me and she just showed me the way to go," Landgraf said. "She said when you get out of jail call this number and you can continue coming down to the program, and that's what I did." Landgraf has been a part of the ministry's Successful Re-Entry Program, or SURE, ever since. She said through faith-based mentoring, she learned that her urge to shoplift was a coping mechanism. Once she was able to get to the root of the problem, that urge went away. Unlike so many others, Landgraf has been able to stay out of jail ever since. She said she continues going to meetings to be with the "family I love so much." FAMILY OF MENTORS About six months ago, the ministry extended that family by starting My Club for children of inmates or recently-released offenders. Johnson said the idea to mentor children has been on his mind since he founded Christian Formation Ministries. It was his daughter, the Rev. Suzanna Jacobson, who inspired the ministry to finally put ideas into motion. "It started for me personally probably a few years ago," Jacobson remembered. "I was watching a children's program and it had a special about what happens when a parent goes to jail. ... It kind of shocked me that there's this thing that's happening in our communities that's so big that a national children's program has to put together a special program for it. "And I thought, this is something we can fix." Jacobson sees My Club as a way to break a cycle that so often hits children of inmates. Those children, her father said, are much more likely than other children to end up in the criminal justice system. He explained that mentoring adults is about "triage," while mentoring their children is a matter of prevention. And if mentors can reach the children, the positive effects of that can branch out to the rest of the family, he said. According to a 2011/2012 National Survey of Children's Health conducted by the Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health, Indiana ranked second in most children who has at least one parent who has been incarcerated. The survey showed that more than 11 percent of Indiana children were in the same situation as the My Club kids are today. My Club kids and SURE program adults typically meet in separate rooms for about an hour every Monday. For the kids, the room looks like a club headquarters, from the drawings pinned on the walls to the big couches the kids sink into. Sometimes special guests will come and teach the kids something new. Learning from guests speakers is one of 11-year-old Ally Landgraf's favorite parts. "There was this one person that came from the Philippines and they talked, they just showed you knew things and stuff," Ally said. "And then there was the art people and they taught us new things about art. They talked about like colors and drawing and stuff, and see that castle over there? I drew that." Ally talked about her love for the club as another girl played with her hair, interrupting her thoughts and sending giggles throughout the room. Without knowing, someone looking in might think My Club is like any other after-school program. Jacobson said that on the first day of My Club, she intentionally avoided telling the kids why they were there. She didn't want to label them or make them feel different. But when Jacobson started sharing her own family's story of prison ministry, the kids' hands shot up and they suddenly wanted to tell their own stories. Soon, they all realized they had something in common: their parent or parents had spent time away from home and in jail. That might be one of the reasons the kids trust each other and trust the club. "It's just, it's somewhere I can go to share my feelings, and like, I can just share out," Ally said. Landgraf said her time in jail was hard on her daughters. They knew where she was and they knew it was bad, she said. Landgraf doesn't talk about her time in jail much anymore, instead focusing on the future. One day, she may even be able to help another mother or father who finds themselves in jail. "Just to give back because they did it for me and I'd like to be able to do that for someone else," she said. Jacobson said My Club hopes to turn kids into future mentors, too. Ally and Savannah aren't sure if they want be mentors, but they might already be. They just don't know it. "I help people get happy," Savannah said. "I cheer them up sometimes." LiveTiles, an Australian start-up offering user experience solutions for Microsoft technologies, appointed Owen Brandt as its new vice president for the Asia Pacific region on 11 January. The newly created role is a part of LiveTiles' growth strategy following its ASX listing in September. "Role focus would be to lead relationships with key customers and LiveTiles partners in APAC, including Microsoft and Rhipe, Brandt told CRN. Like many, I have been closely following LiveTiles progress over the past 12 to 18 months and have been really impressed with the level of innovation." Brandt was previously the alliance director for Sitecore, where he was responsible for Asia-Pacific partner strategy. This included strategic alliances with Microsoft, Accenture, Avanade, Deloitte Digital, Oakton and Ogilvy. LiveTiles chief executive Karl Redenbach said: Owen is an individual whose reputation precedes him and we are excited to have him. I am certain our customer and partner networks across APAC will enjoy the benefit of Owens experience over the coming months, just as I know our broader business will. LiveTiles is a global technology company with offices in New York and Melbourne that offers modern user experience-focused technology solutions to the enterprise, education and SMB markets. It was spun out of Australian Microsoft partner nSynergy when the Sharepoint reseller was acquired by Rhipe, formerly NewLease. The ISV's solutions include LiveTiles Design for SharePoint and Office 365, LiveTiles Build, LiveTiles Push Notifications App and LiveTiles Mosaic for Office 365 Education. Dick Smith administrators have told creditors they may have to wait up to six months to hear whether theyre debt will be returned. During the first creditors meeting this morning, administrator Joe Hayes of Mcgrath Nicol said that due to the size and complexity of Dick Smith, it would not be able to meet the scheduled date for the second creditors meeting in February. In companies of this nature where complex sales transactions need to be consummated, its actually reasonably routine to request lengthy extensions, said Hayes. Its important that the environment remains stable and an administration is a stable environment for the company whereby we have time to unravel our investigation and equally for the receivers should they achieve a going concern sale have the time to make that transaction take place. The administrators partially broke down Dick Smiths $390 million debt during the meeting. An estimated $220 million in unsecured debt is owed to 200 trade creditors, and another $15 million to employees in wage entitlements, annual leave and long service leave. Secured creditors are also owed $130 million, which is made up by NAB and HBSC banks. Hayes added that the company has received 45 expressions of interest for an acquisition, but it was too early to conclude whether there be a return to secured creditors. I think what we can say about returns is that a strong offers will be needed for the business to compensate its creditors, said Hayes. Former Dick Smith chief executive Nick Abboud announced his resignation on Tuesday, with interim chief Don Grover stepping in. Receivers Ferrier Hodgson said Grover would be working with them in order to restructure the business and secure a return to creditors. A Perth business that paid a $50,000 settlement for alleged software piracy has hit back at the vendor lobby groups largely incorrect depiction of events. BSA The Software Alliance a group representing giant multinational software vendors such as Microsoft, Autodesk and Oracle announced in December that gas safety firm Gastech had agreed to pay a penalty for licensing violations and to cease further copyright infringements. A tip-off from a former employee had triggered the piracy enquiry against the northern Perth business. BSA claimed that Gastech initially denied the allegations then reformatted the hard drives of its computers when a licensing audit was demanded a claim Gastech vehemently denies. BSA argued the alleged hard drive reformatting meant Gastech was unable to refute the evidence provided by the informant and agreed to settle the case for a payment of $50,000 and an undertaking that copyright would no longer be infringed. BSA then handed a financial reward to the informant, an amount that can be up to $5,000. Gastech refutes BSAs depiction However, Gastechs solicitor, Glenn Scott of Arns & Associates, refuted BSAs description of events. The information provided to you by BSA is incorrect on a number of fronts, he told CRN. Scott said Gastech received a licence audit request in February from Siemens for its Solid Edge CAD software. With Siemens blessing, all versions of Solid Edge were then deleted in a good faith attempt to resolve the inquiry and the matter was considered closed. The solicitor told CRN that Solid Edge had been used by a sole employee, who protested Gastech's decision to shift to Dassault Systemes SolidWorks. According to Scott, that staff member was terminated in May. Then in September, BSA threatened to commence legal proceedings against Gastech for piracy for a range of software on the basis of a tip-off from the same ex-employee, Scott told CRN. Settlement To avoid a costly court case, Gastech settled with the BSA for $50,000 an amount understood to be substantially less than the vendor group's original claim. Our client did not, and did not need to, purchase any further software to ensure compliance, said Scott. Gastech is especially aggrieved at BSAs announcement that it had destroyed evidence by wiping computer hard drives. That simply did not happen," said the solicitor. "Siemens were informed that an audit would be conducted and that any software found would be deleted. They did not object to that course of action. The destruction of evidence is a serious allegation that may amount to criminal conduct and the inclusion of that suggestion would be defamatory against those allegedly involved. Gastech is currently considering what actions it will take against the former employee for maliciously causing of harm to our client by making false statements to BSAs lawyers and accepting reward money from BSA. CRN has reached out to BSA for further comment. Publicising anti-piracy work BSA publicised the Gastech incident as well as the case of modular construction business Offsite to demonstrate the anti-piracy work that it had been doing in 2015. Its story of Offsites settlement was similar, with allegations that the construction company had deleted the hard drives of its computers. In the subsequent legal discussions, Offsite disputed the extent of piracy to which the informant claimed and the matter was settled for a $30,000 payment plus an agreement for future compliance. CRN contacted Offsite's director but had not received a response at the time of writing. Western Australia was named as the leading state for settlements with the BSA in 2015. In a comparatively quiet year for piracy settlements, the state racked up more than $100,000 of penalties compared to previous leader Victoria, which was stung for $825,000 in 2014. Melbourne-based IT solution provider Peak Insight won the Cisco Collaboration Perfect Pitch 2015 competition after principal consultant Sam Deckert wowed the judges with his presentation. He beat 337 entrants and won a US$5000 all-expenses paid trip to Cisco Live in Las Vegas in July. This competition required Cisco partners to demonstrate their ability to understand their clients line-of-business challenges in a 10-minute presentation. Deckert told CRN that his pitch was based on his personal experience, having demonstrated a clients chief executive the significant business value of going with a Cisco collaboration. He articulated how productivity increases and property-related cost reductions could be achieved by tailoring Cisco collaboration workspace experiences within business units such as sales, finance and human resources. Deckert said: This was my first pitch competition, with any vendor. Fortunately my career path positioned me well, having had a range of client facing technical, pre-sales and technology consulting roles with great professional services organisations. This experience has enabled me to merge business and technology conversations one of the evaluation criteria Cisco were looking for in the competition. Founded in 2013, Peak Insight specialises in collaboration, mobility, security and supporting technologies that provide a range of specialised professional services to medium to large organisations. Cisco is an American multinational technology company headquartered in San Jose California that designs, manufactures and sells networking equipment. Acronis ANZ general manager Lincoln Goldsmith has parted ways with the company after nearly two years. Goldsmith will join Cisco Meraki in an Asia-Pacific regional channel role, with the official title to be announced on Monday. An Acronis spokesperson told CRN: We regret Lincoln's departure, we are very proud to have played an important part in his professional career. Goldsmith joined Acronis in April 2014 as a sales director for mobility, and was promoted to general manager seven months later. Its not the first time Goldsmith has worked in an Asia-Pacific channel role. Before joining Acronis, he was director of channel sales for ANZ and APJ for storage vendor Virident Systems from September 2013 to April 2014. He was also CommVault Asia-Pacifics director of channel from April 2012 to July 2013. Acronis is on the lookout for a new general manager to head up the local channel. Until a replacement is found, Acronis vice president and GM of sales for Asia-Pacific Steve Goh will run the ANZ operations. Goh joined Acronis in October 2015 after more than 22 years in the IT industry, including six years at Hewlett-Packard, four years at EMC, and nine years at Microsoft. His most recent position prior to Acronis was senior director for Microsoft Asia Pacifics OEM division, a role he had held since 2012. Acronis is an international data protection, disaster recovery and secure access solutions vendor. It lists Data#3, Insight, Chill IT and Computers Now among its Australian partners. Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Every hero needs a good nemesis and David Bowie said his was Croydon. "It represented everything I didn't want in my life, everything I wanted to get away from," he said in 1999. "I think it's the most derogatory thing I can say about somebody or something: 'God, it's so f****** Croydon'!" But, whether he was willing to admit it or not, our borough had a real impact on his life and music. Bowie, who died last Sunday after a battle with cancer, was briefly a student at Croydon School of Art, which is now part of Croydon College, but arguably Croydon's greatest impact on him came from Cane Hill asylum. Bowie's elder half-brother Terry Burns was a patient at Cane Hill and died after committing suicide at Coulsdon South station in 1985. Burns made a big impression on the young Bowie introducing him to Tibetan Buddhism, jazz and beat poetry during his upbringing in Beckenham. By the late 1960s, Terry had been diagnosed with schizophrenia following an incident where he described the pavement erupting into flames after a Cream concert he went to with Bowie and was admitted to the asylum. In 1970/71, after Bowie's commercial breakthrough with Space Oddity, Burns regularly stayed with his half-brother, while Bowie would also visit him in Cane Hill. At the time Bowie was working on his third album, The Man Who Sold the World. During that period, Bowie's songwriting reached new heights, penning songs like the album's titular track, and many that would later feature on Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. The impact of Terry and Cane Hill on The Man Who Sold the World was so pronounced that initial artwork (pictured below) featured a sketch of the front of the asylum, alongside a gun-toting cowboy. It was replaced at the last minute with an androgynous photograph of Bowie wearing a dress, but the original idea was used for the American release of the album. Bowie later admitted that his brother, Cane Hill and the "shadow" of mental illness had a large influence on the record. Speaking in the 1990s, he said: "I think this shadow is on quite a lot of the material in a way. "Knowing about the fragility of mental stability in my family ..., I think I was going through an awful lot of concern about exactly what my mental condition was and where it may lead." "I felt that I was the lucky one because I was an artist and it would never happen to me. As long as I could put these psychological excesses into music and into my work, I could always be throwing it off." And put those "psychological excesses" into The Man Who Sold the World, Bowie did. The album is heavy on themes of schizophrenia, paranoia and delusion. One song in particular, All the Madmen, is thought to deal with Terry's time at Cane Hill. Its first verse is: "Day after day, they send my friends away, to mansions cold and grey, to the far side of town." As Bowie's star rose, from eccentric androgynous rock and roller to worldwide pop icon, Terry's mental health would deteriorate until he was permanently incarcerated at the asylum. He attempted suicide in 1982, throwing himself from a window at Cane Hill. Bowie visited him at Mayday Hospital shortly afterwards. Three years later, on January 16, 1985, Terry, by now 47, left the grounds at Cane Hill and laid down on the tracks at Coulsdon South station before being hit by a train. He had attempted suicide at the station weeks earlier. Bowie took the decision not to go to Terry's funeral, leading to tabloid accusations the star had neglected his elder half-brother. Eight years later, Bowie revisited the topic of his half-brother's suicide in Jump They Say. At the time Bowie said of his brother: "I invented this hero-worship to discharge my guilt and failure, and to set myself free from my own hang-ups." But was Bowie really hung-up on Croydon? He qualified his distaste with: "I haven't been back in a few years, but I guess things take on a certain beauty if there's distance". BRIDGEPORT A city man is in critical condition after being shot outside his home Sunday morning. Police spokesman Michael Giannotti said Jovanni Reyes, 22, of Voight Street, was leaving his home around 11 a.m. when he was shot multiple times by someone in a passing car. Reyes was taken to St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport, where he was in critical condition Sunday evening. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Connecticuts governor warned Monday that if lawmakers want to keep the next General Electric from fleeing the state, they need to stop hamstringing him from making long-term fixes to the budget, public sector pensions and transportation. Dannel P. Malloy said Republicans and fellow Democrats need put an end to partisan sniping over GEs defection to Massachusetts and come together to make the state a more competitive place to do business. What we know is that Connecticut needs to be in a state of change, Malloy told Hearst Connecticut Media in an exclusive interview. This is not a time for anyone to fingerpoint. Maligned for his economic policies, which critics say drove GE away, Malloy pushed back against the narrative that his administration has balked at the kind of wholesale changes that companies want to see from the state. The problem, he said, is getting the Legislature to buy into key initiatives, such as a $100 billion transportation improvement program and repairing one of the most insolvent public pension systems in the nation. There have been enough warnings about waking up, Malloy said. What we need to get is everybody pulling in the same direction, rather than simply waking up. Its a commitment to getting the fiscal house in order. The blunt approach by Malloy likely foreshadows his upcoming State of the State address, which he will deliver to a joint session of the General Assembly Feb. 3 in Hartford. It will be the first time that lawmakers will gather since GE announced last week that it is moving its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston. Both Republicans and Democrats appreciated Malloys message of bipartisanship, but they cast doubts about his ability to find harmony in an election year for the Legislature. House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said the loss of GE is a stinging indictment of the policies of Democrats, who control the governors office and both legislative chambers. Does the state have to fall into Long Island Sound for them to say, Aha, maybe something is wrong here? Klarides said. The top Democrats in the House and Senate accused Republicans Monday of politicizing GEs decision to leave one that the company revealed last week that it had been contemplating for three years. When it comes to the issue specifically of GE, theres no question that we need to stop the recriminations and, I told you sos, but getting into a posture where we are constantly evaluating our competitive position as a state, said House Speaker Brendan Sharkey, D-Hamden. Both Sharkey and Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, have downplayed the role that taxes played in GEs decision, which they have said was precipitated by $145 million in incentives from Massachusetts and a desire to be in an urban setting with nearby Harvard and M.I.T. I dont think it was a major determinant at all, given the overall tax climate in Massachusetts and Boston being very similar to ours, Looney said. Boston is unique. It was not Massachusetts that stole GE. It was Boston. Republicans characterized their Democratic counterparts as delusional and unwilling to make the tough changes that Malloy has been advocating for as governor. The governors got to get those guys in line first, said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven. Democrats contend that Republicans walked out of deficit-mitigation negotiations at the end of 2015 and have obstructed major economic development projects under Malloy, including the $1 billion Jackson Laboratory bio-science initiative. They have really not been supportive of things to help Connecticut compete, Looney said. Republicans say they walked out because Democrats refused to consider reining in state employee overtime, pension and health care costs. Malloy, who earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Boston College, said lawmakers must recognize that the competition for business isnt just a domestic one. Clearly, the political leaders, Democrats and Republicans, need to learn the lessons of what a long-term reinvention strategy needs to look like, Malloy said. neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEWTOWN In light of the nationwide scrutiny of police behavior, Newtowns new top cop wants to strengthen the relationship between officers and the community. Chief James Viadero, who was sworn in earlier this month, said this can be done through the progressive police practices he intends to bring to the department. Community policing is not a program, its a philosophy, he said. Its about making agencies more transparent, working with the community. Viadero said he will set the example himself by attending public events, meeting with residents and business owners and making himself available to the public. The new chief replaces Michael Kehoe, who retired after 37 years with the department. Before taking the Newtown job, was chief of the Middlebury Police Department, a small police agency in New Haven County, and earlier as a captain at the Bridgeport Police Department, where he worked for 29 years. The chief teaches criminal justice at Sacred Heart University, where he said he could commit to only one class this semester. Viadero has lived in Newtown for 23 years, serving as one of its police commissioners for five, and helped in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings on Dec. 14, 2012. Although he plans to increase interactions between the public and the department, Viadero said, the agency already has an exemplary relationship with the community. I cant be more pleased with the officers here and the people who work in this agency, he said. They are very professional, they do a great job, they are engaging. On Jan. 7, his first day on the job, Viadero addressed the force during a morning line-up to introduce himself and announce he would meet with each officer individually in the next few days. I want to see what their perspective of this agency is, what they perceive as problems, where they want to see this agency going forward, Viadero said. I want to get to know everyone first. Im not going to come into the agency to make changes just for the sake of making changes. I want to do things that are going to make the operations here more effective and efficient. His first full week in the department was anything but quiet. On Wednesday, police had a two-hour standoff with a suicidal man across the street from Newtown High School. The New Hampshire man, who was also threatening to harm others, was forcibly pulled from his car and subdued. One day before that incident, cops arrested a man minutes after his burglary attempt was broadcast live on the victims cellphone thanks to a motion-sensor security camera. As you can imagine, its been very hectic, Viadero said. But its going well. Everyone here has been very welcoming. Its been a very good experience. The change in leadership comes months after two members of the Newtown police were arrested for selling drugs. A federal grand jury indicted Sgt. Steven Santucci, civilian dispatcher Jason Chickos, and nine other Connecticut men on charges including distributing steroids and prescription drugs. Santucci and Chickos would sometimes deal drugs from inside the police station. Both have since resigned and pleaded guilty. noliveira@newstimes.com, 203-731-3411, @olivnelson This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Stamford police department / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Stamford police department / Contributed photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3 STAMFORD As shoplifters go, New York resident Robert Lee may be the opposite of Frank Abagnale, the subject of the 2002 movie Catch Me if You Can, which showcased the New Rochelle residents daring abilities to escape capture while posing as a doctor, airline pilot and prosecutor. As far as Lee is concerned, you can apparently catch this lifelong thief as many times as you can and hell still be walking the streets. Friday morning, a guy in a blue cherry picker was aloft, removing the decorations from the towering pine at the entrance to the GE headquarters in Fairfield at the junction of Jefferson Street, Sport Hill Road and the Merritt Parkway. The stuff was going to get packed away for good this time. Every year, the GE tree is a replica of the national Christmas Tree, which stands in Washington on The Ellipse, near the White House. This year, the tree was particularly stunning. It presumably was the last year such remarkable finery would be festooned over the branches of this particular tree. This year, according to the website, thenationaltree.org, is the 53rd year that GE provided the lights for The National Tree. The colors were gold and silvery white, colors traditionally used for milestone celebrations, according to the site. In this case, the milestone would be the centennial of the National Park Service. And there was a milestone in Connecticut, too: GE announced last week its leaving. No matter what face anyone politicians and non-politicians tries to put on this development, it is a very sad thing. All around. I live in Fairfield. Nice town. And will remain so. I presume. But theres this nagging thing in my stomach. Is the value of my house starting to deflate? Is the brand of Fairfield and the state of Connecticut losing a little luster? You bet. Whatever intangible benefit the mere presence of GE lent to a small town like Fairfield, pop. 61,000, will soon be gone. Do you think your iPhone would be telling you the weather in Cupertino, Calif., pop. 58,000, if it wasnt home base for Apple? Far more importantly, what does GEs departure signal for the economy of the state of Connecticut. Wherever youve turned the last few days, its been like bumping into people at a wake. It seems the only people who have not been put into a serious funk by the news are Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, whose You win some, you lose some may be the epitaph carved on his political tombstone. Plus, I reckon now Ill never get the answer to a question thats bugged me for years: Why is an unmanned Fairfield Police patrol car parked and moved regularly just outside the entrance to GE, a corporate facility that no doubt has one of the most sophisticated security systems in the world. Always seemed like putting a scarecrow out in front of Fort Knox. Bring us the head of James Nardozzi Strange goings on in Bridgeport, particularly in the Police Department. A few days ago, Mayor Joe Ganim defunded the $123,420 position of deputy chief that had been occupied by James Nardozzi. To say Nardozzi was not a popular guy with the police union is an understatement. He was, after all, brought in three years ago by former Mayor Bill Finch to put a rein on police overtime, which was raging out of control. The police union, with no use for Finch, Gaudett and Nardozzi, backed Ganim in last years mayoral campaign. They gave him an issue, public safety, on which Ganim jumped. And, for a guy coming back from a prison term, they gave him credibility. Ganim may not be able to deliver the scalp of Police Chief Joseph Gaudett. Finch, just before turning out the lights on his eight-year mayoral run, reappointed Gaudett to a five-year term as chief. But the union wanted a scalp. The strange thing is that, according to some, Wilbur Chapman, the former chief Ganim has brought back as a paid adviser, was impressed by Nardozzi. Nardozzi, though, unprotected by a contract, was a scalp Ganim could deliver. Cut it in half Also stay tuned for an attempt by one of Bridgeports leading zoning law firms to push for a major change in a zoning ordinance. And that would be a move to cut in half the 1,500-foot rule governing the location of liquor stores in the city. As it stands, a liquor store cannot be within 1,500 feet of certain institutions, including schools, houses of worship and other liquor stores. But a liquor store on Brooklawn Avenue, operated by an associate of Bridgeports Democratic Town Committee chairman Mario Testa, has been established within 1,500 feet of a number of those qualifying impediments. The matter has been brought to court by the operator of another liquor store. And the word now is that supporters of the new store are going to push for a reduction in the footage requirement. Should this go through, therell be a chicken in every pot and a package store on every corner. Michael J. Daly is editor of the editorial page of the Connecticut Post. Email: mdaly@ctpost.com. Injustice anywhere I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial outside agitator idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider. Samuel Pofcher promised to do something crazy if enough people pledged a dollar or more to his smart wallet Kickstarter project. He would have the words THANK YOU FOREVER tattooed across his belly. A month later, his campaign surpassed its $35,000 goal. But the 22-year-old never got the tattoo. And his 315 backers never got their wallets either. Related: Finders Keepers: You'll Never Lose This GPS-Enabled Smart Wallet In fact, the Bluetooth wallet -- designed to help users easily locate their iPhones -- doesnt yet exist. Either through incompetence, poor planning or something more insidious, no one who ordered one of these wallets 16 months ago has ever received one. And what happened to the crowdfunding cash raised remains unclear. Empty promises, empty wallets Pofcher and his co-founder on the project, fellow Boston-area aspiring entrepreneur Stephen Lamarre, 26, both said the campaigns failure to deliver is rooted in a bitter falling out. Pofcher claims Lamarre -- who originally thought up the concept for the product -- was power hungry, demanding a greedy equity stake in StreetSmart, the Pelham, N.H.-based startup theyd built around the wallet. Lamarre, for his part, claims he only asked for 5 percent more than his original 50 percent stake in the venture. The former friends, who no longer speak to each other, said the funds raised on Kickstarter were quickly exhausted on smart wallet prototype designs and materials, and on marketing and PR. Related: Why the Wallet Is the Perfect Product for Crowdfunding So they double-dipped, like many crowdfunders do, launching the same smart wallet on Indiegogo as they had on Kickstarter. There, StreetSmart checked off another relatively lukewarm crowdfunding victory, ponying up from 100 backers just shy of $12,000, raising their total crowdfunding kitty to $48,237. This time, Lamarre celebrated StreetSmarts second crowdfunding win without Pofcher. Hed called it quits two weeks into the Indiegogo run. Pofchers departure left Lamarre on the hook for a fledgling enterprise that still needed the basics to launch -- a functional app, Bluetooth integration, a manufacturer, a leather pattern supplier and a lot more, much of it out of his scope of expertise. Months went by and progress stalled. Lamarre brought on help to replace Pofcher. For one reason or another -- none very clear -- none of the replacements panned out. Again, Lamarre was left to push forward on his own and Kickstarter and Indiegogo backers were left to wonder what happened to their money and their wallet orders. Related: Kickstarter Hires Journalist to Investigate Campaign That Failed to Deliver to Backers Mike Waluska is one of those backers. The 27-year-old Memphis resident and solutions engineer pledged $75 for a StreetWise wallet on Indiegogo 12 months ago. Since last August, he has emailed five refund requests to Lamarre. So far, all of his emails have gone unanswered. He said its enough to turn him off of crowdfunding forever. This was my first and certainly last contribution to crowdfunding, Waluska said. Its not right, but I dont expect to ever see my $75 or the wallet. I think these guys are scammers and they need to be exposed -- and stopped -- before they do this again. Left empty-handed for months, many of Lamarre and Pofchers other backers grew only more furious. An increasing chorus of spurned backers have taken to calling Lamarre and Pofcher crooks, thieves and lying con artists, accusing them of pocketing their money for personal gain. Pofcher said theyre flat-out wrong. He claims he never spent a single penny from the Kickstarter campaign for personal reasons. Sadly enough, I walked away with nothing, absolutely nothing, he said. Related: The Inventors of This Travel Jacket Set Out to Raise $20,000 With Crowdfunding and Ended Up Raising More Than $10 Million. Here's What Happened Next. For his part, Lamarre said the same goes for him. The money raised on Kickstarter was used strictly for the smart wallet venture, he contends. Nothing more. Ditto for the Indiegogo funds. Yet neither he nor Pofcher are able to produce proof of where the crowd funds were spent. At one point, Lamarre offered to provide us with an itemized list of how it was spent. He never did. A troubling track record The smart wallet saga hasnt been enough to stop Lamarre from jumping into crowdfunding again. Six months ago, he launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for a nutritional supplement dispenser under the brand FitNatic, which he co-founded. Related: Nearly 1 in 10 Kickstarter Projects Fails to Deliver Rewards But before it was complete, the campaign for the $500 Keurig-like supplement machine came to a grinding halt. Lamarre postponed the effort after his fellow FitNatic co-founders, Aldo Beqiraj, 25, and Jesse Caruso, 25 -- whom also heavily consulted on both of StreetSmarts crowdfunding bids -- butted heads over the direction of the company. In an email to Entrepreneur, Lamarre accused Beqiraj of stealing money from him. But, the day after he made that claim, he asked to recant it. "I improperly considered what Aldo has done to me and my companies as stealing, he said. Aldo had ignorantly used money to develop an app and work with an overseas company to produce the smart wallet. That was never finished, thus causing everyone on the StreetSmart team to have to start merely from scratch. Aldo's track record of what he does to companies is quite evident in his past dealings and outcomes. He took me and my company for a costly test drive, then parted ways, as he has done with every other thing [Company/Campaign] he did not want to follow through with." Related: How Much Does a Person Typically Donate to a Kickstarter Campaign? Here's Your Answer. Beqiraj refutes Lamarres original claim, maintaining he stole nothing. He also said hes pretty sure the money from the smart wallets Kickstarter campaign was used to pay for a PR company so the second campaign, the Indiegogo campaign, would do better. As it turns out, FitNatic Nourish was one of six other crowdfunding efforts that Beqiraj and Caruso were involved with (without Lamarre or Pofcher) that also never delivered. In separate interviews, they blamed the failed campaigns theyve had their hands in on a litany of similarly complicated founder disagreements and dramas. They also claim the approximately $294,000 in backer money the various unfulfilled campaigns between them garnered was never used for personal purposes. Beqiraj and Caruso maintain that they are not fraudsters and, despite their differences with them, said Pofcher and Lamarre arent either. Theyve all just had really bad luck with crowdfunding, Beqiraj said. A wallet after all? Determined to succeed, Lamarre said hes ignoring the haters and forging ahead with making the smart wallet in spite of all the setbacks. He promises that hes still working to fulfill backers pre-orders from both crowdfunding efforts. Everything has a learning curve and some would rather quit than learn, he said. I am learning and pushing forward while everyone else has quit. I am actively working toward our deadline of mid-February for a completed product, ready to be shipped to our backers. Related: Kickstarter Boldly Locks Its Mission Into Its Legal Framework In an effort to show that hes making good on his commitments to backers, Lamarre provided us with the phone number of Michael Taveniku, CEO of a Nashua, N.H.-based streaming data firm called XCube Communication Inc. Taveniku said that Lamarre paid him approximately $7,000 about a year ago to design the wallets internal electronic components. Lamarre told us the money he paid to Taveniku was from StreetSmarts crowdfunding efforts. I truly believe [Stephen] will come through on these wallets and provide them to backers, Taveniku said. Unfortunately he delegated the work to people who were supposed to do the job and they didnt do it, and now hes making it right. Of course, its in Tavenikus best interests that Lamarre makes it right and comes through. After all, he plans to take 10 percent ownership of Lamarres company once the wallets get off the ground. Taveniku, currently working pro bono for Lamarre, hopes to complete the wallets internal electronic designs in the next couple of weeks. He said Lamarre will purchase the hardware for the electronics components elsewhere. Related: Will Equity Crowdfunding Laws Be the Death of Kickstarter? Another company Lamarre is working with is Allen Manufacturing, Inc. in Lewiston, Maine. David Allen, the owner and president, confirmed that he is building a prototype of the leather portion of the wallet. Lamarre said he expects to receive that prototype by mid- to late-February -- the same time frame he put forth for delivery of the completed wallet to backers. The blame game Even if the wallets are somehow ready to ship out soon -- leather, electrical components, software and companion iPhone app and all -- it seems many of the projects backers would prefer their money back instead. Lamarre said he refunded some of the people who specifically requested refunds. He would not, however, specify how many refunds he claims to have issued. I dont have the exact number off the top of my head. Indeed, a handful of Kickstarter backers said, via comments, that they were refunded -- one as recently as 11 days ago. Meanwhile, others said they have yet to see a cent, and claim to be taking action. A smart wallet Kickstarter backer who goes by the name of Miles Smith says he notified the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about Pofcher and Lamarres failure to deliver. Related: Take a Step Back. Set a Realistic Goal for Your Crowdfunding Campaign. Sam Pofcher and these scammers have stolen nearly $50,000 from backers across both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, he wrote on Nov. 10 in the comments section on Kickstarter. Do not let them get away with it! If they get away with it, then other scammers will see how easy it is. Make Sam and the Street Smart Brand pay for their crimes. The FTC neither confirmed nor denied the existence of Smiths alleged case. The agency, which last June took unprecedented legal action against a Kickstarter creator who spent crowdfunds mostly on himself, also declined to comment on crowdfunding campaign creators responsibilities to backers under the law in general. Whether a project falls apart due to creator ineptitude or fraud, crowdfunding platforms Indiegogo and Kickstarter arent on the hook. They may suspend projects and project creators who abuse their systems, but ultimately its not their job to vet creators. Related: Why Motormood Cancelled Its Kickstarter Campaign Days Before Reaching Its $130,000 Goal In its Terms of Use, Indiegogo states that it is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between campaign owners and contributors. In the event of any dispute, however, such as a campaign creators failure to comply with its terms or failure to deliver a perk, it will provide campaign creators contact information to backers so they can resolve their dispute on their own accord. Indiegogo would not comment on the StreetSmart campaign. Neither would Kickstarter, which recently hired a journalist to investigate a $3.6 million nano drone campaign that failed to deliver. A recent study revealed that 1 in 10 projects on Kickstarter fail to deliver their promised rewards. In most cases, the reason isnt fraud -- its that project creators simply fail to prepare for a successful campaign, said Sally Outlaw, co-founder and CEO of Peerbackers.com, a crowdfunding consulting firm. They don't have a good post-campaign fulfillment plan in place -- addressing, manufacturing, packaging, shipping, inventory storage and even backer communications, etc. For backers, that means the onus is on them. Bottom line, Outlaw says, don't contribute more to a project than you can afford to lose. Related: This 'Smart Wallet' Found Success on Kickstarter and Indiegogo. So Why Didn't It Deliver? Less Than a Third of Crowdfunding Campaigns Reach Their Goals This New Crowdfunding Platform Lets Fans Invest in Music Artists' Success Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved In a world where everything is just a ping away, it takes a special effort to put a well thought-out and personalized note in someones hand. As one of the founders of Bond, a service that combines modern technology with the tradition of handwritten thank you notes, entrepreneur Sonny Caberwal would certainly know and understand how far a quick note can really go. Being nice to your customers isnt just the nice or right thing to do, he says. Its also good for business. Theres just something about someone actually taking the time to personally write and mail something that carries more weight that an email or text would, says Lizzie Post, an author and spokesperson for the Emily Post Institute, an organization that provides advice on etiquette. For that reason, theres been more of an emphasis on the gesture. Related: 8 Tips for Penning a Thank-You Note That Will Be Treasured Its literally about taking the time to share your gratitude with someone, she says. Bond's business model depends on making these acts of gratitude simple. Think of someone youd like to send a thank you to, go to bond.co or use its mobile service, write out the message, pick out some stationary and a handwriting style (or use your own), submit the note with the name and address of the person you want to send it to and when it should be delivered and you're done. The goal of the venture, he says, is to help people connect in a meaningful way by creating a unique experience for both the sender and receiver. Using a special machine, which was developed in house, special arms made to hold a paintbrush, pen or marker create your letter. The paper stays pristine because of the use of static electricity, according to Caberwal. With about 200 machines now in operation on site in Manhattan, Bond produces its own stationary as well. The envelope is sealed with wax and is sent on its way. Image Credit: Bond At $3.50 a note or about $2 or $2.50 for businesses with larger orders, Bonds services are quick, easy and accessible. Another invitation-only service, Bond Black, offers concierge service to clients through a mobile app, able to send notes in their own handwriting on custom stationery for $1,200 a year. The majority of clientele are from people in business, ranging from CEOs of large Fortune 500 companies, real-estate brokers or startups founders. Bond has had a successful year and is growing in popularity. With an effort to raise about $3 million, the company had about $500,000 a month in sales by the end of the year as revenue increased about 30 to 50 percent per month, according to Caberwal. He says he expects the company to continue to grow as it expands services online and for mobile within the coming year. Post says something such as Bond seems like a great idea. However, the etiquette expert isnt sure the convenience could or should completely replace the effort to personally write and mail a thank you yourself. Image Credit: Bond Related: Why Saying 'Thank You' Is More Important Than Giving Employees a Raise I think that people in the day and age where technology is everywhere and everything is instantaneous, it puts even more value in this, she says. Emails and texts are all wonderful, theyre helpful and fast, but nothing can replace that handwritten thank you note that you know someone took the time to write. Still, writing a great thank you note doesnt always have to be a big production featuring hours of effort and intense background music -- sorry, Jimmy Fallon. In Caberwals experience, some of the best thank yous are simply the ones that let a person know theyre valued and appreciated. They may include a message or gift showing you remember him and her and a specific topic you discussed -- like a love for a certain whiskey or James Bond. Caberwal says these acts of gratitude are regularly performed by top people in business. I think its probably a big reason why theyre so successful, he says. With a host of experiences under his belt -- having graduated from Georgetown, practicing law, starting the online fashion company Exclusively.com in India with is wife, and even a short stint as a model -- Caberwal certainly understands the value of a simple thank you. Entrepreneurship is hard, and it's because no one believes in you at the offset. Its always an uphill battle making something out of nothing, Caberwal says. The best way is to find something you really believe in no matter the outcome. Related: Make Your Thank You' Matter Learn the Power Thank You' Related: 5 Keys to Turning Your Side Hustle Into a Successful Business Learn to Write, for God's Sake 5 Fears I Overcame to Become an Entrepreneur Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved STORY LINK Renewed Losses Forecast for Oil, Attendant Gains for GBP NOK and GBP CAD Predicted Norwegian Krone and Canadian Dollar Under Pressure from Low Oil Prices Iran Sanctions Officially Lifted; Adding Further Headwinds for Oil Prices GBP to NOK and GBP to CAD Exchange Rates Predicted to Rally as Oil Slides Like this piece? Please share with your friends and colleagues: Fridays session brought a renewed slump in global oil prices which saw the price of a barrel of Brent Crude drop to just above the $29 level at one point.The fall-out saw investors move en masse out of the oil-driven Norwegian Krone (currency : NOK) and the Canadian Dollar (currency : CAD).However, holders of NOK and CAD denominated assets did not have to wait long before the next bout of bad news arrived.The global currency markets shut down when New York closes every Friday and re-open for business 48 hours later. However, the weekend market close often yields significant news and this weekend was no exception; economic sanctions against erstwhile pariah state Iran, which have been in place for four decades, were officially lifted on Saturday following confirmation from official inspectors that the Tehran administration had taken the necessary steps to curb its nuclear programme.The upshot will see Iran release 500,000 barrels of Black Gold per year onto the international markets, (the Persian state was banned from selling oil during its long stint in the wilderness).Analysts forecast that this increase in global supply will help send the price of a barrel of Brent down from the $29 level which it stood at when the markets closed on Friday and early indications suggest that these assumptions could well be correct.Equities markets in the Gulf States are open for business as usual every Sunday and yesterdays trading session saw heavy losses for the stock indices of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai.These energy-heavy exchanges lost 7.4%, 7.0% and 4.6% respectively, leading analysts to forecast similar losses for oil and the shares of oil companies when trading gets underway in London and the eurolands bourses today.Standard Chartereds prediction last week that oil will tumble to as low as $9 per barrel now appears a distinct possibility and a move towards this level will see gains of an equal magnitude for the GBP NOK and GBP CAD exchange rates. 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: Canadian Dollar Forecasts Norwegian Krone Forecasts Pound Canadian D Forecasts Double murder trial day 4: A star witness for the prosecution backed out in the courtroom State Board of Education lays down law on race, gender teachings School boards will have to follow new requirements for notifying parents about policies involving access to bathrooms and locker rooms. As countless people clamour for a recipe they think might bag them a mate, others are starting to wonder: do we need to worry if our partner leaves the house with cookware? by Samantha Selinger-Morris Lord Bramall (pictured in 2007) is probably Britains most illustrious living soldier. But the paedophile witch-hunt to which he has been subjected for the past year has tested even his proven resilience Lord Bramall is probably Britains most illustrious living soldier. Now 92, he is a veteran of the D-Day landings, won the Military Cross, served with distinction in the Middle East and Malaya, and was Chief of General Staff in the Falklands. But the atrocious paedophile witch-hunt to which he has been subjected for the past year has tested even his proven resilience and courage. Last February, 20 police officers burst into his home in a Hampshire village, spent ten hours raking through private possessions and documents breaking off only for lunch at the local pub and traumatised his Alzheimers-stricken, 93-year-old wife. She died four months later. The trigger for this absurdly heavy-handed assault was a series of grotesque, rambling allegations from a man identified only as Nick. He claimed Lord Bramall along with other establishment figures including Tory grandees Ted Heath and Leon Brittan and the heads of MI5 and MI6 was involved in a VIP paedophile ring responsible for rape, torture and murder of young boys in the 1970s and 80s. Cursory checks should have exposed the accusations as the stuff of fantasy. There was no corroborating evidence, no bodies and no victim ever identified. Yet Scotland Yard driven on by Labour deputy leader Tom Watson in what had all the hallmarks of a political vendetta described the allegations as credible and true and proceeded to drag Lord Bramalls reputation through the mud. They have finally abandoned the probe, but not before causing enormous anguish to a great public servant. Even now they wont admit the claims were false, saying only that there is insufficient evidence for charges. And they have not had the decency to apologise for blighting the twilight years of Lord Bramalls life. As the Jimmy Savile scandal so shockingly demonstrated, the police ignored accusations of sexual abuse for decades, especially where celebrities were involved. Doesnt this case show how wildly they have allowed the pendulum to swing the other way? Of course they must investigate reports of historic abuse and some have led to high-profile convictions, such as Rolf Harris and TV presenter Stuart Hall. But dont the accused also have the right to be considered innocent until proved guilty? Lord Bramall was a victim of police overreaction and prejudice and deserves not only a full apology but a public exoneration. By indulging false accusers and allowing innocent people to be hounded, the police risk creating a climate of cynicism and disbelief around all historic sex abuse allegations. If that happens, genuine victims will once again find it much harder to be believed. The same old politics So Jeremy Corbyn would keep our Trident submarines but scrap their nuclear weapons. Jeremy Corbyn has suggested the UK could keep its Trident submarines but scrap their nuclear weapons He would strike a deal with Argentina over the Falklands even though they have been British for nearly 200 years and the islanders have no wish to change. And yes, hed also like to see a return to the secondary picketing that brought British industry to its knees in the 1970s. Is this what Mr Corbyn means by new politics? It sounds very much like old Left-wing Labour rubbish. The term mansplaining has developed on social media to describe the annoying habit we chaps have of explaining important matters to women in patronising and condescending fashion. (For my gentle lady readers, this means we talk down to you about complicated stuff like economics, film plots and, of course, feminism). Ive noticed a new strain: Englandsplaining. This (usually) takes the form of a certain stripe of English Tory setting out in detail why Scots are wrong to say they think something and why in fact they really think the opposite. Ive noticed a new strain: Englandsplaining. This (usually) takes the form of a certain stripe of English Tory setting out in detail why Scots are wrong to say they think something and why in fact they really think the opposite A classic of the genre was provided recently by Bernard Jenkin, the MP for Harwich and North Essex, on the issue of whether the UK leaving the EU might lead to the unintended consequence of Scottish independence. Consider: as a UK-wide poll yesterday gave Leave a six-point lead, a second survey found a majority of Scots would support independence in the event of Brexit There used to be a jokey rule in Westminster circles that if you were struggling to come to a view on any given issue, you should find out Bernard Jenkins position and go the other way. The truth is that Mr Jenkin is a clever, thoughtful and pleasant man. But still, he doesnt half talk nonsense sometimes. In an article earlier this month, he sought to allay concern that Brexit would result in the top bit of the UK toddling off to do its own thing. The most important thing to understand is that the idea of another referendum in Scotland is extremely unpopular, he wrote. The 2014 referendum saw bitter division in workplaces, families, villages and communities across Scotland. The idea of opening up another Scottish political civil war is unappealing to most Scottish voters. Condescending He pointed out that the SNP lost the 2014 referendum for two main reasons which will loom even bigger in any second referendum: Scotland does not have its own currency, and its Government relies on a massive subsidy from England. The structural fiscal deficit is now much worse following the collapse of the oil price. Not only that but the problem facing the Nationalist leadership is that most of the SNPs 100,000 new members comprise the new Corbynista-type, anti-English radicals. They think one more heave will rid them of the English, but Salmond and Sturgeon have wiser heads on their shoulders. SNP threats of another referendum are not real threats but attempts to placate the anti-English rage in their own party. 'If the SNP is stupid enough to force a second Scottish independence referendum on the back of Brexit, as a Scottish businessman close to the 2014 Better Together campaign recently told me, it would make an SNP independence referendum victory all the more impossible. And privately they know that. I dont know who Mr Jenkins Scottish businessman is though I could take a stab at a few names but I doubt the fellow spends much time in Bute House. Further, Im half-tempted to believe that parts of the article were drafted by SNP spin doctors: massive subsidy from England, anti-English radicals and anti-English rage all come from the unreconstructed, pre-Holyrood playbook that helped ruin the Tory partys reputation in Scotland and poison the idea of the Union. In short, Bernard, shoosh. Its not that everything Mr Jenkin says is wrong. It is true, of course, that few Scots want another independence referendum any time soon. It is also true that the collapse of the oil price is hammering the economy and has been a catastrophe for Aberdeen and the many companies that depend upon it. Scotlands onshore GDP grew at only 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2015, compared with 0.4 per cent for the UK as a whole. This doesnt include offshore North Sea activity, which would make the gap even wider. But at the risk of Scotsplaining, the problem with Mr Jenkin and his fellow Brexiteers is that they are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. They presume as did the Better Together campaign that the future of the Union will be decided solely on base financial calculation: will I be better or worse off under independence? Im sure that was and will continue to be true for some voters but for many others the thought process was and is less binary. Including me: my No vote was based on a cats cradle of arguments but heavily weighted towards my belief that the UK has a continuing and important role to play on the global stage and in its major institutions. It is certainly true that we are not what we once were but nor are we nothing. Scotlands onshore GDP grew at only 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2015, compared with 0.4 per cent for the UK as a whole. This doesnt include offshore North Sea activity, which would make the gap even wider In an era of Islamist terror and caliphate-building, as economic power shifts towards Asia and as Vladimir Putin continues to throw his bodybuilder shapes, there are perhaps no good decisions to be made but they must still be made. Western solidarity remains central to both our military and economic security. A classic of the genre was provided recently by Bernard Jenkin (pictured), the MP for Harwich and North Essex, on the issue of whether the UK leaving the EU might lead to the unintended consequence of Scottish independence So my No was never about wrapping myself in a Union flag, whatever the Britnat jibes of the cybernats, but about trying to behave responsibly and morally in a way that I thought took account of and cared about the requirements of the wider world. How does this relate to the EU referendum? Well, I find it hard to believe Britains current status and influence would in any way be maintained, far less enhanced, by leaving. Rather, it would be a step towards becoming the kind of diminished, self-obsessed country I argued against in 2014. Further, its sobering to consider how many of those arguing for Brexit acknowledge they would continue to do so even if it meant Scotland would depart the UK people who regard this as a price worth paying to escape the clutches of the EU. I have friends at the more moderate end of the Leave campaign willing to accept such an outcome, and it seems unlikely this position softens as one heads towards the movements extremities. I can only assume they do not share my core view of what Britain should be: an engaged, realistic global power that works in concert with its geographical and ideological neighbours. A nation that understands it owes its prominence to its unique history and that uses the levers still available to it to bring its experience and wisdom to bear. A country that has the maturity to work from within supra-national institutions, putting in the hard yards that deliver the frustratingly slow change that inevitably comes with inter-dependency. Diminished I take it personally. I didnt batter out tens of thousands of words in 2014 arguing against one set of theory-driven constitutional extremists only to accept defeat at the hands of another, especially one that gives the impression it is driven by many of the same motives, deploys similar arguments and uses the same grotesque language yesterday, one Brexiteer even referred to pro-EU Tories as Quislings. The Outers display a Salmond-esque one bound and were free obsession that overrides any desire to maintain national unity. If the rest of us want to be part of it, fine; if we dont, we can get stuffed. Further, its sobering to consider how many of those arguing for Brexit acknowledge they would continue to do so even if it meant Scotland would depart the UK people who regard this as a price worth paying to escape the clutches of the EU Im afraid Brexit would have consequences that dont neatly fit Bernard Jenkins logical narrative. If Scots are taken out of the EU against their will, due to an English majority, the decisions taken by voters north of the Border are unlikely to be based purely on hard economics. The Scottish national debate has moved towards matters of accountability, control and relevance, and this would speak directly to them. Consider: as a UK-wide poll yesterday gave Leave a six-point lead, a second survey found a majority of Scots would support independence in the event of Brexit. We may, in effect, be about to hold an accidental English referendum on Scottish independence. They are entitled to vote as they wish, of course, but then so are we all. Lets be aware of the messages our choices send. Prepare to be scared. As the campaign to persuade the British people to vote to remain in the EU gathers pace, it has become clear that its principal weapon will be fear: to make us feel we might be running terrible, yet un-nameable, risks in striking our own path outside the ambit of the institutions of Brussels. There was a time when this strategy could rest on a purely economic argument: that millions of British jobs might be at risk from us leaving the EU. But this is no longer a sure-fire campaigning strategy for the in crowd. The same people had argued more than a decade ago that British jobs would be lost unless we dumped our own currency and joined the euro. The suggestion that it is the EU which has kept Britain safe from its enemies is one which Mr Cameron must find hard to make with a straight face, writes Dominic Lawson Now it is obvious that the decision to remain aloof from the single most important EU project has probably preserved millions of British jobs. And last week, the dynastic chief executive of Toyota, Akio Toyoda, told the Financial Times that a British exit from the EU as a whole would not make any difference to his firms determination to keep its car-manufacturing plants in the UK. So, instead, the fear-based argument is assuming a new form. We are to be told that the very security of the British people will be at risk if we were to vote to leave. A fortnight ago, David Cameron who will lead the remain campaign, come what may said leaving the EU is not just a matter of jobs and trade but of the safety and security of our nation. Challenge The suggestion that it is the EU which has kept Britain safe from its enemies is one which Mr Cameron must find hard to make with a straight face. After all, when absurdly the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the EU, he didnt even bother to join the other EU heads of government in Stockholm to collect the award. He said then that Nato was the main thing which had kept us safe. Right first time, Prime Minister. In fact, the ambition of the EU to become a super-state, with its own army backing its own strategic objectives, is a challenge to Nato, not an attempt to strengthen the U.S.-led Western Alliance. It is the military aspect at the heart of the issue of security which concerns 77-year-old former Labour Foreign Secretary, Dr David Owen (pictured) This point is made with great authority in a short book by the 77-year-old former Labour Foreign Secretary, Dr David Owen, to be published this week. Owen, along with his fellow ex-cabinet ministers Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams, founded the Social Democratic Party in 1981 as a break-away from Labour in part because they were bitterly opposed to the partys then policy of leaving the EU. Yet in his new book (The UKs In-Out Referendum: EU Foreign And Defence Policy Reform), Dr Owen declares: If the only option in the forthcoming UK referendum becomes a minimalist renegotiation in effect, window dressing and a disguised status quo there is a real chance that the British people will, and in my view should, vote to leave the EU to pretend that this country is too weak politically, economically and militarily to vote to leave the EU is absurd and deserves to be laughed out of court. But it is the military aspect at the heart of the issue of security which concerns Dr Owen most. He observes that British strategic interests are not the same as those of a number of other European countries, which are bound together in the Schengen open border zone, and yet there is an ineluctable drive towards removing national vetoes on EU foreign and defence policy. This, of course, was prefigured in the Lisbon Treaty of 2007. Nato has long been dominated by the vast U.S. military machine. The advocates of the EU as a single political and economic entity had always resented this: their countries miserly contributions to its budget reflect that fact. Yet there is not the slightest suggestion that they are actually prepared to put the resources into a European army which would even begin to match up to their claims for influence. As the then Polish foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, said in 2012: Europes military capacity is preposterously low in relation to what Europe wants to do. That was made painfully clear during the Anglo-French military action against Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 one which President Obama had warned he would not back with U.S. force of arms. After barely a fortnight of Anglo-French air sorties, we had run out of bombs and, humiliatingly, had to beg the U.S. to supply us. This is not an argument for better-funded aggressive military campaigns. But turn things around: if, God forbid, we were engaged in a defensive military conflict against an aggressor, who would you want as our closest ally and partner the U.S. or the EU? Thus, when the new Polish foreign minister said his country might accept Camerons demand for a four-year ban on in-work benefits for migrants to the UK from the EU, but only in return for more protection for Poland against Putins rapidly growing army, did he ask for a deployment of the vaunted EU Rapid Reaction Force? No, he did not. He called for Nato. Status As David Owen points out, if EU leaders pursue the idea of a pan-European army, even planning a deployment against the interests of the U.S., this is a certain recipe for the U.S. to withdraw more forces from Europe, in the process turning Nato into a mere talking shop and effectively withdrawing any U.S. responsibilities for common defence. Now, that really does scare me. As this debate about our relationship with the EU gets noisier, bear one or two other facts in mind. Our status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council has nothing whatever to do with our being a member of the EU. It pre-dated that and would post-date it. Above all, in the increasingly cyber-based nature of modern military strategy, Britains security is most vitally maintained and enhanced by our membership of Five Eyes the intelligence-gathering co-operation comprising the U.S., the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Again, that has zero to do with our membership of the EU. Truly, as Owen says, the idea that our military security would be weakened by leaving the EU deserves to be laughed out of court. If I were Lord Bramall's lawyer... A week before Christmas, I joined what had been planned as a celebratory lunch for Lord Bramall. The next day, the D-Day landing veteran and former head of the Armed Forces was to reach the age of 92. Yet Britains greatest living soldier chief of the General Staff during the Falklands War was in no mood for celebration. There seemed no end in sight to the polices investigation into his alleged role as a child rapist and torturer in the 1970s. Alleged, that is, by a man we know only as Nick, who had included (among others) the late PM Sir Edward Heath and the equally deceased former boss of the Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Maurice Oldfield, as his supposed abusers 40 or so years ago. Honour: Lord Bramall, as a lieutenant, receiving his MC from Field Marshall Montgomery in 1945 Oldfield was the model for John Le Carres fictional spy chief Smiley, yet there was infinitely more truth in le Carres fiction than in Nicks so-called facts. But the head of this police investigation, Kenny McDonald, scandalously told the BBC that Nicks claims were credible and true. Now, McDonald has been relieved of his role and the police have belatedly abandoned their investigation of Bramall. When I saw Dwin Bramall last month, he said my only aim now is to get the police to admit they made a mistake. They have done no such thing, only putting out that there was insufficient evidence to continue the investigation. Insufficient? There is no evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, apart from the fact that a deluded individual made an accusation. The police had nothing even worth sending to the Crown Prosecution Service. At least Lord Bramall has lived to see the matter dropped unlike his wife, who was traumatised as 20 police swooped on their home, almost as she lay dying. First, some bad news: most people will already have given up their New Years resolutions and fallen back into their old ways by now. If thats not you, give yourself a smug pat on the back. For the rest of us, if the prospect of another 11 months in the same tedious set of daily routines fills you with dread, you need a new book based on the classic comedy, Groundhog Day. The 1993 film about a TV weatherman (played by Bill Murray) stuck in one endlessly repeating day has become a modern phenomenon, with many doctors admitting to prescribing the DVD rather than pills to their depressed patients. Scroll down for video Most people have already given up their new year's resolutions. If a year filled with the same boring routines fills you with dread, try these techniques that promise to break out of life's negative cycle Theres something about the way Murrays character Phil Connors battles with the tedium of living the same 24 hours over and over again, finally escaping through kindness, selflessness and learning to live each moment to the full, which many people find deeply inspiring. Now an exciting new book by Paul Hannam, a British personal development expert and former Oxford University lecturer, claims to harness the power of what the author calls the Groundhog Day Condition to guide people out of the work-sleep-work rut and change their lives for the better. Hannam says so many of us wake up to the same old pattern, day after day, living in a continuous state of fretting. Here, he explains how you can break out of your Groundhog Day rut once and for all. CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY Most of us take life for granted. We live in rigidly structured routines, working endlessly towards some ever-changing future goal (perhaps a weekend place in the Cotswolds, an Audi, a three-week summer holiday, a cosy retirement . . .) But does this really make us happy? Most of us end up secretly dissatisfied and envious of our friends holidays, houses, cars and lifestyles, which makes it very hard to be content. So try an experiment: make happiness your top priority and commit to choosing happiness over wealth, power, status, approval, control and security. Ditch those grand plans and make small, incremental changes instead, with one aim: to improve the quality of your life, one minute at a time. So instead of setting goals for next year or even for next week, consider setting a goal for the next minute, and make that goal to be happy right now. If you can find a way to be just as happy in heavy traffic on a damp Monday morning as you are with your friends in the pub on a Friday evening, you will open the door to enjoying every moment of your life. Paul Hannam recommends techniques such as writing lists of simple pleasures and stopping worrying BIN YOUR BUCKET LIST To be happy now and for the rest of your life, you need to remove the classic blocks. You know the ones: I will be happy when I get that pay rise. . . when Ive got a washboard stomach . . . when Ive climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. The best way is to write a list of simple pleasures that make you happy and cost little or nothing: a deep bubble bath; a tight hug; crawling under a fluffy duvet at the end of a long day; completing a difficult crossword; the smell of fresh coffee or woodsmoke; a great book; watering the plants on a summers evening This simple exercise illustrates that a perfect life could already be well within your grasp. It shows that perhaps you dont need more possessions, money or power as much as you need a little more awareness. Why worry about earning the money to pay for exotic holidays when, for no cost at all, you can boost the quality of your non-holiday moments right here, right now? So ditch that bucket list and shift your focus from seeking new experiences to improving the quality of your life. Theres so much pleasure and enjoyment right in front of you - perhaps you dont need to be anywhere else. WHAT ARE YOUR CORE VALUES? It can be life-changing to stop thinking about what you want and start thinking about what you stand for, so take a moment to consider - whats really important to you? Think about the values you can commit to and are prepared to uphold in terms of your lifestyle, career and actions. What do you really stand for? What do you hold dear, and to what extent do you live by your values? Which do you consider to be non-negotiable? Circle the values on the right that resonate most and make you properly happy. You dont have to try to be saintly here. Just choose one or two that work for you, and that you can apply to future decisions and behaviours. Choosing Love, for instance, might help you think twice about a job that takes you away from family and home; choose Simplicity and you might consider downsizing and buying a smaller home (or car). Having a set of coherent values to follow will give you strength and a clear direction, as well as adding purpose to your actions. Advertisement MAKE EVERY DAY AMAZING Theres absolutely no need to move to Mustique, win the lottery, become a celebrity or acquire a Chloe handbag if you can learn to turn up the volume on an ordinary day at home. Spend a few minutes answering these questions and consider carefully what you write: 1. What would you do today if you had only a few months to live? 2. How would you live if you committed to being happy above everything else? 3. How would you spend your time if you shifted your focus from wanting more to appreciating what you already have? 4. What would you do today if you wanted it to be a perfect day? 5. What would somebody else, with the same resources, do differently if they were living your life today? Now analyse your answers. Is there a yawning chasm between your normal day and the perfect day of your dreams? His book uses the classic film Groundhog Day to address the tedium of life's problems Yes, we all have to earn a living, the kids have to go to school and compromises inevitably have to be made, but just stop a moment and consider - is there one small change you can make today (and every day) that will take you a step closer to your perfect day? This isnt about booking a table at a Michelin-starred restaurant or putting a moratorium on the ironing - its about feeling happy and engaged, to love and be loved, to savour each second and notice each exceptional detail of your precious life. SMELL THE COFFEE So many of us are stuck on autopilot, rushing around endlessly between tasks but hankering after quality time - those ring-fenced minutes you spend with the family, on holiday or in front of the TV. But quality time is not determined by the people you are with, the job you hold or an idyllic holiday destination, and you really dont have to wait for perfect conditions. It can be found now, through mindfulness. Studies have shown mindfulness promotes physical and mental wellbeing, lowers stress and blood pressure, reduces anxiety and depression and even gives the immune system a boost. It helps you think more clearly, too. But above all, mindfulness allows you to be more engaged with the present moment, freeing you to choose your thoughts and feelings, giving you space to let go of the fears and troubles that are keeping you in a Groundhog-Day rut. Try this exercise: shut your eyes and focus on your breathing, counting to five as you breathe in, holding your breath for five and five again as you breathe out. Notice any thoughts and let them go. Do this for 30 seconds. Then a minute. Then two minutes. Simple mindfulness exercises like this allow you to step out of the stream of relentless thinking and endless multi-tasking for just a few minutes. You can do it anywhere and any time - no need to be at a spa or meditation retreat. You really can bring a relaxed holiday mood into your life by merely walking and talking more slowly Practise mindfulness breathing exercises, or just work on remembering to slow down and live in the moment. Take your time to savour everything you do. You really can bring a relaxed holiday mood into your life by merely walking and talking more slowly, properly listening to a friend or your children, watching a sunset and being attentive to the small pleasures its so easy to ignore or overlook. WAKE UP HAPPY No matter whats happening in your life, every morning you face a choice: to be happy or grumpy; to focus on the opportunities or the difficulties; to set out to learn and grow or stagnate and fester. The direction you take when your alarm goes off will affect your mood for the rest of the day. You can create a terrible day, a mundane day, a good day or a great day. It is up to you. The events and encounters that take place may remain the same, but you can change the way you experience them. At the end of each day, think about what you learned. What worked and what didnt? What will you do differently tomorrow? STOP BEING A GRUMP Its not easy if youre stuck in grouch mode, its pouring with rain, the bills are coming in and your wi-fi is down, but even the most pessimistic can find something to be thankful for, and studies show its very good to be grateful. Scientists at the University of California are building on research that shows that people who practise gratitude regularly: Have stronger immune systems and lower blood pressure Have generally higher levels of positive emotions Have more joy and optimism Tend to display more compassion Feel less lonely and isolated. Try keeping a gratitude journal, writing down three specific things to be grateful for every day. How much did you enjoy that first sip of coffee? Did a friend send a sweet text, or did a funny online video made you smile? Every time you jot down something good, you build appreciation, shift your attention to what you have and away from what you dont have. Counting your blessings like this is the best way to remind yourself that you are probably already pretty content. Advertisement Her frank and hilarious post on the realities of 'parent sex' went viral earlier this month. 'It's been almost a month since you [last] banged and [you] are starting to feel like flatmates so you and your partner decide to share that precious three and a half minutes in between changing nappies and making food, Hall wrote on her blog, The Not So Secret Life Of Us. However, this time the 32-year-old artist and blogger from Perth has gone a step further tackling the issues of post-natal depression and being a so-called good mother in a post which, in less than 24 hours of writing, has attracted some 185,000 likes and 80,000 shares. Brutally honest: Blogger Constance Hall has written a candid post about coping as a mother of young children Hard to cope: The mum of two says 'being a good mum does NOT mean spending eternity cleaning your house' Mrs Hall said that post natal depression is a rude little c***. You are still coping, do not confuse depression for not coping, youve taken action, you look like a coping queen to me. She then went on to salute the various types of woman who she says shouldnt be criticised for how they are and behave as mothers. To the woman at the park, looking at her phone, ignoring her children, I salute you. For not giving in to the public perception that you should be switched on, 24 hours a day. For giving no f***s about what constable mothers group thinks. To the woman with piles of dishes and washing who walks straight out the door for a coffee at her friends, I salute you. Being a good mum or wife or human does NOT mean spending eternity cleaning your house. If you leave them for long enough your friends will start doing them. Trust me. VIRAL BLOGGER CONSTANCE HALL WRITES ON POST-NATAL DEPRESSION To the woman at the park, looking at her phone, ignoring her children, I salute you. For not giving into the public perception that you should be switched on, 24 hours a day. For giving no f**** about what "constable mother's group" thinks. To the woman with piles of dishes and washing who walks straight out the door for a coffee at her friends, I salute you. Being a good mum or wife or human does NOT mean spending eternity cleaning your house. If you leave them for long enough your friends will start doing them. Trust me. To the woman at the doctors surgery, waiting patiently to request some antidepressants, I salute you. Post natal depression is a rude little c***. You are still coping, do not confuse depression for not coping, you've taken action, you look like a coping queen to me. Too often strength and weakness are confused, strength is asking for help. You are so strong. So many women are going through the exact same thing, they just don't talk about it. To the woman who didn't lose all of that baby weight, I salute you. A brand new 24 hour job that doesn't pay and won't end for around 20 years is NOT a good time to give up cake. Eat the cake, eat the whole f*****g cake and f*** off anyone who dares to say anything. Your post baby body is not all the sudden free for public commentary. Lots of love, A fellow mum, who's [sic] days are full of mammoth fails and micro victories, yet who's heart still manages to repeatedly explode for the mini army of Love all day. Con Advertisement Perfectionist myth: Constance Hall wrote to her thousans of fans 'do not confuse depression for not coping' This new post struck another chord with Halls tired, overworked, stressed-out mums. As a mother of eight, I cant tell you how refreshing it is to read your words and think hey Im not a failure, one reader wrote. After reading this I think your website should be called Constance Joy! In tears reading this as Im sitting in the kitchen with two dish drainers and dishwasher full of dishes, another agreed. Resonating with her fans: Some 185,000 people have liked the post and 80,000 have shared it online Thousands of comments: 'As a mother of eight, I cant tell you how refreshing your words are,' someone wrote Success and fame: Hall's blog has become very popular since the viral 'parent sex' post earlier this month Halls blog has enjoyed a massive boost since the viral parent sex post, and this new addition will undoubtedly light up social media and attract even more followers and readers today. Im so over excited and temporarily up myself I cant cope, she wrote in a follow-up post to parent sex earlier this month. All these new followers!!! And so many shares on my last post Brutally honest, blunt and tell-it-all, Halls writing style inevitably has its detractors. But judging from the continuous stream of comments, there are plenty of mums who agree. You might not expect a lecture from an expert in tidying to be particularly engaging, but I am riveted. My petite mentor beams: 'The cosmetics will be your biggest challenge. You will put them all into one place, you will clean the storage, then you will work out which spark joy. And throw away the rest. Every single one!' We survey my nine crates of make-up, not including two trunks of body products, a tub of hair wares, a great sack of nail varnish, and hundreds upon hundreds of perfume bottles. Solemnly, my guru adds: 'But, be careful not to hurt your back.' At this, both of us collapse into giggles, envisaging me being crushed by the great heap of beauty products taking over my one-bedroom flat. Scroll down for video Sorted: With tidying guru Marie Kondo's help, Hannah Betts, an organised magpie, gets to grips with her scarf mountain - she owns 73, but quickly whittles them down to five by holding them to find out which spark joy Readers, allow me a little showing off here, for my tidiness teacher is none other than Marie Kondo, the world's most celebrated decluttering guru, and my tiny rented basement is the location for her first-ever British organising mission. Marie Kondo has such cult status that when I tell people she's coming, they express a jealousy that I have never before encountered in 18 years of journalism. No actor, musician or celebrity has even come close. Think: cleaning Beatlemania. For this quiet, unassuming 31-year-old from Tokyo has taken the world by storm with her 'KonMari' home sprucing method (a title based on her nickname). Her first book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying, was a bestseller on five continents, selling five million copies, and gaining her a place on TIME Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In it, she encouraged readers to put everything they own in a pile, clasp each and every object, then keep only those that 'spark joy', booting out everything else after thanking it for its service. In return, she promised that perfect, once-and-for-all tidying would lead to perfect, once-and-for-all happiness, in which true love and career fulfilment would follow - a sort of domestic mindfulness meets self-help. Her new book, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide To The Art Of Tidying, expands upon her manifesto with elaborate, origami-like folding rituals. Such personal 'tidying festivals' can take months, while participants weep, rage and gnash their teeth over what to chuck out. And yet the KonMari movement has bred an army of zealous acolytes, who refer to themselves as 'Konverts'. Fans span the generations, from Hollywood actresses such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Kate Hudson to young Brit YouTube star Zoella. Marie Kondo, left, wrote best selling book,The The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying which was a bestseller on five continents, selling five million copies, and gaining her a place on TIME Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Hannah Betts, right, desperately needs her help with decluttering her flat In the past few weeks, every woman I know appears to have posted a picture of a heap of random junk online, next to a boast that she had 'KonMaried' her home. 'Next stop, I KonMari my husband,' wrote one. 'Thank him for his service and send him packing.' Detoxing your home has become as fashionable as detoxing your body. All over the globe, you'll meet KonMari evangelists who are living the dream in a state of minimalist, or, minimal-ish, purity. Apart from me. For, in me, Marie Kondo may have met her match. I loved the book - right up until its author started talking about throwing away books, and there Ms Kondo and I parted ways. For, as Marie is a minimalist, so I am a maximalist - and a diehard one at that. My style of living might be described as 'excess all areas'. Merely regarding my 'small collection' of 1,200 books (my 'real collection' being at my father's house), I have ten shelves in my living room, two in the hall, seven in the bedroom (each row doubled up), books piled on every surface, and books stacked on windowsills in a way that is beginning to block out the light. With Marie's help, Hannah sorts through her wardrobe until it only contains clothes that spark joy Reading is my 'thing', in the way that Marie's thing is binning. The problem is that I also have a number of other 'things'. Specifically, there are my hundreds of perfume bottles, and those nine crates of cosmetics (including two of lipstick, even though I don't wear lipstick). I own four vast boxes of jewellery, 29 bras, 66 pairs of knickers, 43 bags and 73 scarves. Damn it, I even possess 19 capes - capes being that well-known wardrobe essential. There are 19 bottles of alcohol and several packets of cigarettes in my flat, which strikes many as odd, given that I no longer drink and have never smoked. Well, a girl needs something to give her (imaginary) guests. I own four vast boxes of jewellery, 29 bras, 66 pairs of knickers, 43 bags and 73 scarves. Damn it, I even possess 19 capes - capes being that well-known wardrobe essential I have 13 candles on the go, a penchant for antique crockery, and a fixation with collecting random bits of rock. Mortifyingly, the phrase onlookers have used is bric-a-brac - which is just one step away from 'jumble sale'. Amazon is my addiction, or, as my boyfriend charmingly describes it, 'the source of a tidal wave of incoming sewage'. But, then, he says this as a man forced to live out of a small hatbox when staying in my apartment, as there's so little room for his possessions. Marie believes that people need what she calls a personal power spot: part of their home that is filled with the items they crave. My whole flat is my personal power spot, leaving no room for anyone else. Don't get me wrong: I adore throwing things away, and secretly, madly, already indulge in Marie's practice of thanking existing objects, planting a kiss upon the most beloved. My chaos is extremely ordered. And I truly love my stuff, as Marie insists upon. It's just that I have a lot of love to give. So, not only will I be Marie's first Brit, I also represent her ultimate challenge: an organised magpie. When Marie walks in, she is such a perfect, pretty little thing that I want to pick her up and spin her round. She has written that she can immediately judge a home, and I wait to hear mine condemned. Yet, despite my great glut of stuff, the verdict is resoundingly positive. 'The flat has a good vibe,' she tells me. 'You love all the things that surround you, and I can feel that. Although, there are quite a few things (here, she looks around uneasily, as if about to be flattened), it doesn't weigh you down. In terms of tidying, your skill is quite advanced.' Hannah owns hundreds and hundreds of perfume bottles - Marie warns her not to injure herself lifting them I am ecstatic. My guru continues: 'It's about finding an equilibrium between you and your things; personal joy, balance.' Marie lives in Tokyo with her husband, who is now also her manager, and their six-month-old baby. Her obsession started young. Aged five, she lived for her mother's lifestyle magazines. By 16, she was so obsessed that she had a breakdown. 'I'd come home from school, desperate to throw things away, and just collapse. But it was a turning point. It made me realise that the key wasn't disposing of things, but finding what you want to remain with you.' Inspired, we set about our task. Alas, I am not wearing a fancy dress outfit (Marie encourages her clients to do this, so they start to use all their stored clothes): my only costume is a Virgin Mary rig-out complete with halo, and I imagine this might be a bit weird. The KonMari method starts with clothes, before proceeding to books, papers, 'komono' (miscellaneous wares such as gadgets and make-up), and sentimental items. Given that we have hours rather than weeks, we dispense with Marie's usual order and move fast. I ask if we can start with scarves - the thin end of a mighty clothing wedge. We pile all 73 of them onto the bed. I ask Marie how many she owns. Answer: five. Now I love my scarves, but the sheer enormity of seeing them all together feels shameful, exposing, like showing someone my knickers. I am clearly a binge buyer. At this point, I would have given up and crammed them all back, but Marie asks me to touch each one and see which spark joy. I find I can sort the sheep from the goats extremely quickly and come up with a top five. 'You are very sensitive to how you feel,' praises Marie. This quiet, unassuming 31-year-old from Tokyo has taken the world by storm with her 'KonMari' method Next, we have a go at the wardrobe proper, quickly eliminating practical but depressing clothes, unwalkable-in shoes, and an overload of clutch bags. The result is incredible. 'It looks like a wardrobe in a film,' I sigh. Lesson: less really is more when it means you can get at it. I decide I am ready to 'fess up to my hundreds of perfume bottles, despite worrying that it might give poor Marie another breakdown. Again, reducing my collection to five isn't the Sophie's Choice situation I imagined, but a bit of a cinch. I put the change down to Marie's serene presence. 'Let's do some folding!' I cry. Garments folded upright, rather than in messy heaps, is key to the KonMari method. Marie makes it look easy, but for an oaf such as myself, folding proves challenging. Still, the result is utterly lovely, rendering one's sweaters into small, cat-like bundles. I'd expected teary exchanges and, possibly, a fist fight. Instead, I feel cleansed, calmed and committed to embarking upon the process for real - even if it does take me the next ten years Something deep and housewifely stirs within me when I behold the sweater drawer she puts together for me. Yes, I will do this for my 45 pairs of stockings and 79 pairs of socks if it's the last thing I do. My miniscule kitchen is a source of misery, with not a single drawer. Yet, Marie pronounces it 'kawaii',or cute, rhapsodising: 'Your lovely silver spoons! You have a beautiful lifestyle. Your shelves are tidy and you categorise well.' My heart swells with pride. That said, we are able to dispense with clutter by way of surplus wooden spoons, potato peelers, vast jars of flour and the like. My bathroom shelves are horrendous: how many half-opened facemasks does one woman need? By now, I can really see the strength of this 'putting everything into one place' business - if only because I am far too lazy to put everything back onto my clean shelves. I quickly amass a great bin bag of rubbish. I still need to tackle the books and make-up, but my KonMari taster has been 400,000 times easier and more liberating than I had anticipated. I'd expected teary exchanges and, possibly, a fist fight. Instead, I feel cleansed, calmed and committed to embarking upon the process for real - even if it does take me the next ten years. It may not bring me career advancement, but, in terms of love, my boyfriend may be more likely to hang around if I can lay on a (KonMarie-d) drawer. I'll never have a minimalist existence, but I relished the fact that Marie and I are clearly both obsessive-compulsive in different ways. She found joy in my poky, over-crammed abode, and I found joy in her. On Sunday, 50 women attended a 'Free the Nipple' picnic in Brisbane, to 'enjoy a cool breeze and challenge the patriarchy all at once'. While it initially attracted widespread interest, with hundreds saying they planned to attend, the event attracted negative feedback from critics who said event organisers were 'hyproctrical' and 'counter-productive' for excluding men from the party. Writer Corrine Barraclough says that 'whipping off your bra' is hardly going to challenge a social system in which men hold primary power - but it might encourage them to lurk in the bushes with their mobile phones. The flame of feminism is burning bright. There are inspirational women walking this earth today who are changing the face of gender equality, fighting to force serious issues into the spotlight for political discussion and battling tirelessly to level the playing field between the two teams. These are the ones carrying the torch which lights up a path of progress. Then there are women who think it's helpful to take their tops off and flash their norks in a park in Brisbane. Free the nipple: On Sunday, around 50 women showed up to bear their breasts at a 'free the nipple' picnic in Orleigh Park, Brisbane 'Being a feminist doesn't mean we have to fight every battle... and it certainly doesn't mean we have to all take off our bras and walk around with our norks al fresco,' writes Corrine Barraclough 'We have to be more sensible, savvy and skilful in the battles we choose to fight' says Ms Barraclough Not one, not two, but around 50 women woke up on Sunday and thought, 'Do you know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to head to Orleigh Park in Brisbane's West End and I'm going to go topless. That will show them. That will show the world that women should be able to go topless, not just men.' Will it though? Are you sure about that? No seriously, are you 100 per cent certain that showing you can cut glass without power tools is going to spark a revolution within society? Or will it make people of both sexes roll their eyes and say, 'Oh. Dear. Lord. Chuck. Them. A. Vest.' Where were their girlfriends when they needed them to confiscate tins of face paint as they sat at kitchen benches outlining hearts and stars on their chests to say, 'Why don't we go to the movies instead?' The 'free the nipple' picnic (yes, I know. Let's hope it doesn't become a thing) was held to 'challenge patriarchy'. Really? Whipping off your bra, sorry, boob prison, is going to challenge a social system where males hold primary power? I'd say it's more likely to encourage men to lurk in bushes with their mobile phones. Oh, and do bear in mind that you might also get some media attention which will ensure your photos end up being splashed all over the country so your brother, boss and grandma will have had a good gander at your twins. That will make Monday morning conference fun. Ladies, gentlemen (and twins), we have to be more sensible, savvy and skilful in the battles we choose to fight and how we strategise our feminist agenda. We can't overreact to absolutely everything and scream 'sexist'. We shouldn't reignite a war of the sexes - and we definitely don't need to twinkle our t*ts while we eat picnics in the park. Gender equality does not mean that the two sexes are indistinguishable. We are fighting for men and women to be given equal opportunities but that's doesn't mean that women should walk around topless any more than we can demand that we pee standing up. At the Golden Globes last week Kate Winslet used the mic to give recognition to an 'incredible year for women in film' as she was honoured for her role in Steve Jobs. But she didn't flash her globes. 'Reigniting a war of the sexes': The event was held at Orleigh Park in Brisbane's West End on Sunday afternoon Feminist or foolish? Fighting for equal opportunities 'doesn't mean that women should walk around topless any more than we can demand that we pee standing up,' writes Barraclough Worldwide campaign: More than 1,000 people expressed interest in the Free The Nipple event Feminism doesn't mean we have to be offended by everything, and it certainly doesn't mean we have to all take off our bras and walk around with our norks al fresco. Emma Watson made an important tribute to the wonderful Alan Rickman, making the strong statement that men can be feminists too. They can and let's hope more become so. When I think about feminists, front of mind is Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood President, speaking out for women's health services Stateside. I think about Malala Yousafzai's memoir 'I am Malala' and Maya Angelou whose rich writing and purposeful public speaking gives us goose bumps as she inspires women and African Americans to overcome gender and race discrimination. I think about Angelina Jolie who bravely changed the face of breast cancer awareness by sharing her double-mastectomy and fights tirelessly as a UN diplomat. 'An embarrasment': The event sparked debate on Facebook, with many criticising the organisers And I think about the incredible Oprah Winfrey who has built an empire on uplifting others. 'I never did consider myself a feminist,' she says. 'But I don't think you can be a woman in this world and not be.' What she means by that is: as a woman do you want to accept the glass ceiling and be paid less than men? No. Do you want to be treated as an equal? Yes. Should women have opportunities to learn, to succeed and to lead? Then yes, press 'F' to confirm you are indeed a feminist. To be clear before you confirm your selection; Feminism is about empowering women, celebrating their success on an equal level to any man's. Being a feminist doesn't mean we have to fight every battle. It doesn't mean we have to be offended by everything, and it certainly doesn't mean we have to all take off our bras and walk around with our norks al fresco. A bunch of girls getting their boobs out in a park is just embarrassing. Lucy Kelly, 46, from Surrey, needs her right hip replaced after years of running which has destroyed the Having a hip replacement is something that happens to old ladies after a fall - not healthy women in their 40s and 50s. But recent news suggests thats no longer the case. Earlier this month, ballerina-turned-Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell, 46, revealed she has already had her hip resurfaced and will soon need a full replacement, after decades of ballet have taken their toll. In 2013, 66,000 replacements were carried out - and the number is increasing. But while most are given to people aged 60 to 80, operations on younger patients are becoming more common, according to leading orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Tim Waters of Spire Bushey Hospital. Tasmin McCulloch, 42, from Essex, was told by a surgeon two years ago that she has the hips of a 70-year-old The reason is twofold. First, medical technology means todays replacement joints - made from a combination of stainless steel, titanium, plastic and ceramic - are smaller and last much longer than first-generation models of the Sixties, so can be offered at a younger age. Technology is advancing all the time and replacement joints could soon last a lifetime. People see joint replacement as a last resort, says Mr Waters. In the past wed put them off for as long as possible because they only lasted up to ten years and second and third replacements (called revisions) were tricky. But thats no longer the case. The technology used when revising them is getting better all the time. Theres no reason not to have one in middle age. The second reason is were pushing our bodies to the limit and wearing our joints out far sooner. More of us are living longer, were more active for longer and were fatter than we should be, explains Mr Simon Moyes, a consultant orthopedic surgeon. This extra weight bearing puts strain on the joints, particularly knees and hips. As a result Im seeing more orthopedic problems. More people are asking for joint replacements in their 50s and 40s and more hospitals are prepared to offer them. But it seems, were on a hiding to nothing - because exercising to slim can also damage joints. Mr Moyes says hes seeing increasing numbers of people suffering overuse injuries as a result of workouts. These are much more than just weekend warriors, theyre putting their bodies through tough training regimes - classes, weights, triathlons and more - as a lifestyle choice, he says. Most of the population arent active enough, so being really fit is obviously a good thing. But overuse injuries can be a side-effect. Lucy Kelly, 46, from Surrey, was initially diagnosed with just wear and tear of the hip joints, caused by running Lucy Kelly, 46, is one such patient. When she complained of hip pain and stiffness, doctors diagnosed wear and tear, caused by her passion for running. Now a hip replacement is on the cards. I was sporty at school but exercise took a back seat when I had my four children - Oscar, 19, Harvey, 17, and twin daughters, Niamh and Mia, 15, says the beautician from Caterham in Surrey. By the time my girls were settled at school I was 36, a size 12 to 14 and out of shape. So I threw myself into exercise. At first I did Step aerobics and Body Pump classes. Then I took up running. After six months I was doing 10 km on the treadmill in about 40 minutes, which is fast. I ran four or five times a week. It never occurred to me I might be overdoing it. About 18 months ago, after eight years of running, Lucy started to get pains in her right hip. When I walked it would jar, she says. It felt like bone was rubbing against bone. If Id been sitting for a while, Id find I was too stiff to stand up. It soon became so bad Id bend down to load the washing machine then not be able to straighten up again. Darcey Bussell, 46, revealed she has already had her hip resurfaced and will soon need a full replacement An osteopath thought Lucy may have torn some cartilage in her hip and advised her to see her GP. My GP did blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis, which came back clear. But he could see my mobility was reduced so referred me to an orthopaedic consultant, who ordered X-rays and an MRI scan. When the scans came back there was no sign of a tear or other acute injury. What they did show was a worrying level of wear. There was significant loss of cartilage on both hips, particularly my right one. Lucys consultant diagnosed osteoarthritis (OA), a degenerative condition affecting the cartilage around the joints. She said it was likely to have been caused by running and told her to stop straight away. By doing her best to stay fit, Lucy had actually been damaging her body. According to Arthritis Research UK, one third of British people over the age of 45 have sought treatment for osteoarthritis, with women more commonly affected than men. Sometimes I just get stuck, as if my hips have forgotten how to move. I was once in the park with our dog and I thought I wouldnt be able to get home. I worry about getting stranded on my own somewhere one day Just under a quarter of those affected have OA in the hip. Its a condition that can be genetic, but it is also a result of wear and tear, through sport or being overweight. I rely heavily on paracetamol, which I take most days, and always feel stiff after Ive been sitting for a while. I have to do a funny straight-legged walk to get going again, says Lucy. Sometimes I just get stuck, as if my hips have forgotten how to move. I was once in the park with our dog and I thought I wouldnt be able to get home. I worry about getting stranded on my own somewhere one day. I hate feeling so physically compromised at such a young age. Lucy was referred to a surgeon at Epsom Hospital, Mr Stafford, who told her she would need her right hip replaced. It was a shock to learn Id worn the joint out so much I actually needed a new one, she says. Id expected some physio exercises, not a major operation. In the meantime, he suggested steroid injections to delay surgery by relieving the pain and improving mobility in Lucys right hip. These are given under a general anaesthetic, right into the hip joint. The trouble is doctors cant tell how long the effects will last - everyone responds differently, she says. I was told it might work for two years, or two weeks. And due to the fact they require a general anaesthetic, you cant keep having them indefinitely. Ive just had my first injection and I have to go back to the surgeon in two months time to assess its effects. I have to fill out a pain diary so he can gauge if the steroids are working. At the moment its too soon to tell. Im hoping I get a couple of years relief, at least. I accept Ill need a hip replacement while Im still in my 40s, but its far from ideal due to my work and family commitments. Id need at least six weeks off work. Tasmin lives with hip pain for years before she could persuade her GP to refer her for hip X-rays. The damage was so extensive that the doctor performing them was shocked at the amount there was for someone her age Like Lucy, Tasmin McCulloch, 42, is set to become a 40-something with new hips. Two years ago the dressmaker from Essex was told by a surgeon she had the hips of a 70-year-old and a replacement was inevitable. I had no idea the damage was that bad, she says. I came out of the consultation and burst into tears. Tasmins problems started when she attended aerobics classes, aged 18. I was in a class, doing star jumps, and something suddenly went in my right hip, she remembers. I collapsed on the floor. I couldnt bear weight and was in a lot of pain. The pain eased off but it was an intermittent problem from then on. Gradually I gave up the tap dancing, badminton and judo Id enjoyed since childhood, as the hip pain and stiffness took hold. Lucy was told that she would need her right hip replaced, which she found shocking as she is just 46 Aged 29 I had my son Ewan, now 12, and three years later my daughter, Alina, who is nine. The problem got worse after childbirth. Osteoarthritis runs in my family, so I was sure thats what it was, she says. But when Tasmin suggested this to doctors, she was dismissed as far too young. Without a diagnosis, she just tried to endure the pain. By 2009 Tasmin was desperate and begged her GP to send her for X-rays. Sure enough, they showed considerable cartilage damage to my right hip and some to my left. The doctor finally agreed it was OA and was shocked at how much damage there was for someone of my age. Two years ago, in increasing pain, Tasmin was referred to a hip surgeon in Colchester. He recommended a replacement on the right side and warned me not to leave it too long. I have spoken to people whove had joint replacements and not looked back, she says. So Ive asked for a referral back to the hip surgeon. Its a big decision, but last week I was contemplating calling an ambulance as the pain was so intense I couldnt move. So I think its probably time. Ive asked for a referral back to the hip surgeon. Its a big decision, but last week I was contemplating calling an ambulance as the pain was so intense I couldnt move. So I think its probably time Sandy Hamilton-Power, 53, would almost certainly agree. Sandy, who runs a law firm in Chichester with husband Ben, had her right hip replaced in February 2010 and the left last October, and has never felt fitter. She only discovered she had a problem after surgery for an unrelated condition seven years ago. The day after surgery I couldnt get out of bed. The pain in my right hip was intense and I couldnt bear any weight on that side. Doctors realised I had a congenital hip disorder that had been significantly worsened by the position the medical team had placed me in for the operation. It turned out Id been born with normal-shaped hip sockets but the ball part of both joints was shaped like a rugby ball so didnt fit properly. Over the years this had worn away at the socket. It was a shock because Id never suffered hip pain before then. But looking back Id had limited movement. I loved ballet as a child but could never do certain wide-legged moves, including the splits. Over the next two years both Sandys hip joints deteriorated and her right hip caused her constant pain. So despite only being in her 40s, she agreed to a full hip replacement. I suppose it was a shock to find myself a candidate for that sort of surgery at such a young age, says Sandy. But by that time I just wanted my life back. She found a private specialist and had her right hip replaced in February 2010. I had the operation in the afternoon and by the morning I was attempting a few steps with the aid of a Zimmer frame. I was allowed home after four nights, once I could get in and out of bed by myself, and I was able to do some work after six weeks. Sandy was told to wait until her left hip started hurting before having the second replacement. About nine months ago it started to get tighter and tighter and by last summer the pain in my groin was too much to bear, she says. There didnt seem any point delaying the next operation. The left hip was replaced three months ago and this time my rehab has been quicker. Open pores, oily skin and spots are usually problems associated with teenagers - yet even women in their 50s frequently complain about an uneven complexion. This is because as we age, we lose collagen - the building block of skin - which means more wrinkles and bigger, more visible pores. As a result, blemishes and blackheads can become a problem again. Dr Anjali Mahto, a consultant dermatologist at Cadogan Cosmetics, explains: Pores are the openings in our skin that release oil to moisturise and protect it. If they become enlarged or open, skin can appear irregular and dull. Open pores, oily skin and spots are usually problems associated with teenagers - yet everyone can struggle According to dermatologist Dr Howard Murad, pore size is, unfortunately, primarily determined by genes. However, there are ways we can minimise their appearance . . . DEEP CLEANSE AND STEAM Sally Penford, of the International Dermal Institute, recommends double cleansing the face in the morning and evening. Wash, rinse and repeat. Choose an acid-balanced cleanser and ensure there is no residue left on the skin, which can clog pores. Focus on the nose area, as this is where congestion is most common. Lucy Ayles, spa director at Champneys, says: Steaming treatments are also effective as they draw impurities out of the skin. The moisture from the steam softens the surface layer of skin, which helps to remove bacteria and dead skin cells. GET OIL UNDER CONTROL To minimise the appearance of open pores, use oil-absorbing products, such as clay-based cleansers and products with salicylic acid. Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant (41.75, dermalogica.co.uk) is a scrub you can use every day. Oil-controlling moisturisers and serums can also help skin maintain a matte appearance. Try Clarins Truly Matte Pore Minimizing Serum (27, clarins.co.uk). Using a mask regularly can help to unblock pores, too. Benefits new POREfessional Instant Wipeout (24.50 for eight masks, benefit cosmetics.co.uk) includes mushroom extract to remove impurities. Or if you have sensitive skin, try Quick Fix Facials Calming Clay Mask (4.99, Boots). CORE PORE PRODUCTS If excess oil is a problem, Institut Esthederm Pure System Pore Refiner Concentrate (35.50, beautybay.com) will help to regulate sebum production. I also love Japanese skincare brand DHCs collection of pore-minimising products. It includes Pore Cleansing Oil (25), Face Wash (20), Pore Essence (28), Pore Lotion (28) and Pore Milk (28, all dhcuk.co.uk). Sun protection is vital in minimising pores. Marie Schmidt, of Clarins UK, recommends using it daily, underneath make-up. She says: UV rays weaken the collagen that supports pores and keeps them tight, so sun damage can make them appear larger. Finally, this week, Witch Mattifying Pore Minimiser (4.99) is launched at Superdrug. It features witch hazel as a natural antibacterial and targets oily areas. UNSUNG HERO I love 10-Day Tamer Pre-Shower Treatment by John Frieda (12.99, Boots) - this could revolutionise the battle against frizzy hair. Its a one-application treatment, yet keeps hair smooth for up to ten days or five washes. Simply apply to dry hair, leave for ten minutes, then wash as normal. It left my hair so much more manageable and brought out the natural curl, without frizz. I didnt need to straighten my hair, so it looked thicker. BARGAIN BUY This fun new make-up bag is just what we need to brighten up a dreary January. It is the latest product in YouTube sensation Zoellas beauty line, which is guaranteed to be a hit with fans of all ages. The These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things bag is a steal at 8 (feelunique.com and Superdrug). ELSA'S PICK For a fresh-faced flush, apply a couple of drops of liquid blusher just under cheekbones and blend to avoid streaking. My current favourite is the new YSL Fusion Ink Blush (pictured, 35, yslbeauty.co.uk). For a budget option, try Bourjois Aqua Blush 12hr (8.99, Boots). TREATS TO MAKE YOUR MONDAY MARVELLOUS Put a spring in your step during the winter months by creating your own home spa. I love Champneys products - everything feels luxurious. The Detox range uses seaweed and mineral sea salt to cleanse, tone and repair skin. My favourites include the Detox Hip and Thigh Firming Mud (12, Boots), which improves cellulite, and Detox In A Box (30, Boots), which features four products, including an in-shower scrub and a firming body butter. Our nails need extra attention at this time of the year, so it pays to use a special treatment product now to help prepare them for spring. Leave them polish-free for two weeks and apply Orly Cutique (10, graftonsbeauty.co.uk) every day to see a difference. It helps to remove stains, soften cuticles and also leaves nails looking whiter, giving a healthier overall appearance. Advertisement On Monday morning, Miss Universe Australia, Monika Radulovic, met with Triple M's The Grill Team to talk about the controversial 2015 pageant and her time in Las Vegas. In late December, the renowned event made headlines after, Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, was mistakenly crowned as the winner - the disheartened contestant later handing the crown over to the correct winner Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach. 'It still makes me cringe,' Ms Radulovic, who placed fourth, said. Scroll down for video The truth revealed: On Monday morning, Miss Universe Australia, Monika Radulovic, met with Triple M's The Grill Team to talk about the controversial 2015 pageant and her time in Las Vegas Controversy: In late December, the renowned event made headlines after, Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, was mistakenly crowned as the winner - the disheartened contestant later handing the crown over to the correct winner Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach Never forget: 'It still makes me cringe,' Ms Radulovic (second from left), who placed fourth, said But the 26-year-old appeared to have little sympathy for the pair and admitted her relationship with the top three (Miss Colombia, Miss Philippines and Miss USA) wasn't great. 'They were okay,' Ms Radulovic said. 'I tried to be friends with everyone and I wanted to have a good time - those three were the only ones that weren't that nice to the other girls.' 'They were okay': The 26-year-old said the top three (pictured) 'were the only ones that weren't that nice to the other girls' Locked up: Ms Radulovic said the contestants were 'locked inside planet Hollywood hotel' and couldn't leave their rooms without a supervisor 'But I think that is because they were under a lot of pressure from their countries.' Ms Radulovic said she got along with all the other contestants really well and named Miss Bahamas and Miss Jamaica as two of her favourites. The brunette beauty also revealed that while her experience was 'amazing', her time in Las Vegas wasn't a party like many had imagined. 'We were pretty much locked inside planet Hollywood hotel we couldnt leave the room without our supervisor,' she said. A busy 2016: In the four weeks since competing in the pageant, Ms Radulovic has been busy planning her year as Miss Universe Australia and taking part in countless interviews Excited: Ms Radulovic says she is 'open to any opportunity that comes my way' 'I had to wait every morning for breakfast to be taken downstairs... it was a little bit like the army...a bit campy.' 'But amazing.' In the four weeks since competing in the pageant, Ms Radulovic has been busy planning her year as Miss Universe Australia and says she is 'open to any opportunity that comes my way'. Loving the screen: 'I've just done two weeks with Sunrise weekend weather and that was incredible,' Ms Radulovic said, suggesting more television work is on the horizon 'I've just done two weeks with Sunrise weekend weather and that was incredible,' Ms Radulovic said, suggesting more television work is on the horizon. Ms Radulovic also touched on the recent controversial TV moment she shared with her colleague, Hamish McLachlan, who hugged her on air. 'Hamish is great we are colleagues...none of us had an idea anything was controversial,' she said. 'He didnt do anything wrong.' Travellers daring to approach the ticket barriers without their Oyster cards in their hands are often cited as one of London commuters' biggest bugbears. So perhaps it's no surprise that a new advertising campaign from Match.com has backfired spectacularly, after the dating site created a series of posters of a single man whose biggest flaw is never having his travelcard ready in time. After the dating website installed posters of 'Mark' and 'Charlotte' in December with the tagline #LoveYourImperfections, it wasn't long before cynical Londoners took note and the backlash began. Scroll down A new advertising campaign from Match.com has backfired spectacularly, after they presented commuters with posters of a fictional character called Mark whose biggest flaw is never having his travelcard ready Far from finding him endearing, people are taking to Twitter to blast 'Mark', claiming that he is a 'selfish p****' who will 'die alone'. Sophie Gadd posted a photo of the poster that was snapped on the London Underground with the caption: 'No Mark, you're a selfish p****,' while Delilah Simpson added: 'No wonder he's single.' Ian Stanton wrote: 'Mark is going to be single for a very looooong time #match.com.' Cynical Londoners are blasting Mark for holding up the ticket queues. Sophie Gadd called him a 'selfish pr***' Ian Stanton claimed Mark would be single for 'a very looooong time' while SILV3R branded him 'annoying' After seeing the poster, Delilah Samson wrote on 17 January: 'No wonder he's single. Pr***' Evan Edinger agreed, tweeting: 'Mark can p*** off' and Sarah agreed, saying: 'Mark, you had one f****** job, now you're holding up the entire queue, don't go on Match.com Mark, no one will ever love you.' Helen O'Hara compared Mark to his counterpart, 'Charlotte', saying: 'Look, Charlotte may be a sweet simpleton but Mark is A MONSTER.' Nick Bain added: 'There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for you being single and needing Match.com Mark,' while SILV3R wrote: 'Mark is an annoying tw**.' Evan Edinger was one of dozens of Londoners who took to Twitter to blast fictional character 'Mark' Helen O'Hara proclaimed Mark's counterpart, Charlotte, 'sweet' while she said that Mark was a 'monster' Gareth McLean said that Mark's annoying habit amounted to 'grounds for being taken out and shot' Gareth McLean wrote: 'It's no an imperfection. It's grounds for being taken out and shot,' while Alexander Hamilton mused: 'Mark is going to die alone.' But it wasn't all negative. One tweeter, Hussein Kesvani, sprang to his defence, writing: 'Je suis Match.com Mark' with a made-up monologue that read: 'Hi I'm Mark. I've been reading your posts and I know what you said about me. Nick Bain wrote: 'There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for you being single and needing Match.com Mark' while Alexander Hamilton added to the chorus of critcism 'Yes, I admit it. I never had my travelcard ready on the tube. That is my confession. I estimate that it takes me no more than 20 seconds to find my card. 20 seconds! Is that really such a life changing amount of time? Do I really "deserve to die alone"?' A spokesperson for Match.com said: 'While Mark is an actor, his imperfection is clumsiness and in this case, it leads to him forget to have his travel card ready to swipe through the tube barriers something that were sure many Londoners can relate to. 'Our adverts are intended to spark debate and were glad to see that Marks one has done just that.' A restaurant on the hunt for a new chef listed 'plenty of attractive floor staff to flirt with' as one of the perks of the job in an advert. The Laundrette in Chorlton, Manchester, has since had to edit the original job description on Gumtree following a backlash on social media from people who argued it encouraged sexual harassment in the workplace. The ad read: 'The Laundrette Chorlton requires a young at heart experienced hard working chef de partie to join a team of great chefs. 'We provide a great working atmosphere in a very busy restaurant. Meals are provided along with plenty of attractive floor staff to flirt with'. The Laundrette in Chorlton, Manchester, faced a backlash on social media after posting an advert for a chef that read: 'The Laundrette Chorlton requires a young at heart experienced hard working chef de partie to join a team of great chefs. We provide a great working atmosphere in a very busy restaurant. Meals are provided along with plenty of attractive floor staff to flirt with' It goes on to add how the right candidate must have experience in a fresh food kitchen, as well as a good sense of humour. A screenshot and link to the advert for the Beech Road eatery was posted on Facebook with some people branding it 'disgusting' and 'degrading' to the staff. It also took criticism for grammar and punctuation. Johanna Pilgrim commented: 'I'm offended by the thought they are attracting a 'chef' not because he might want to cook great food but because of the so called 'perks' also as a punter (a while back) I stood at the bar for ages waiting for the staff to stop flirting with each other and actually serve me ! get a grip Laundrette (and learn to spell !?! ).' The Laundrette in Chorlton, Manchester, has since had to edit the original job description on Gumtree following a backlash on social media from people who argued it encouraged sexual harassment in the workplace A screenshot and link to the advert for the Beech Road eatery was posted on Facebook with some people branding it 'disgusting' One user, Russel Forward, wrote: 'Poor taste maybe, though I suspect it's designed to filter out those interested who don't have the type of sense of humour they are looking for' Johanna Pilgrim commented: 'I'm offended by the thought they are attracting a 'chef' not because he might want to cook great food but because of the so called 'perks' also as a punter (a while back) I stood at the bar for ages waiting for the staff to stop flirting with each other and actually serve me ! get a grip Laundrette (and learn to spell !?! )' Spencer Davies said: 'What does their ad say? 'Skills not important. Intellect a disadvantage. Ability to be ogled by bearded chef, essential'.' Yet others defended the advert, saying it was a bit of a laugh that showed the sense of humour they were looking for in a chef. Russel Forward commented: 'Poor taste maybe, though I suspect it's designed to filter out those interested who don't have the type of sense of humour they are looking for.' Several other Facebook users said people were overreacting about the whole thing. The Laundrette has now removed the sentence about the attractive staff from its job advert. Taking to Twitter in response to the backlash, the restaurant wrote: 'Good chefs are very very hard to find .. Thought I would try something different. Sorry it offended anyone.' According to its website, the restaurant opened in August 2013 on the former site of the Soap Opera laundrette. It is rated number eight out of 40 restaurants in the area on website Trip Advisor for its cocktails and food menu which includes pizzas, burgers and other favourites. MailOnline has contacted The Laundrette and is awaiting a response. shortly after the death of the family's nanny, Sandra Rivett While Lord Lucan will be remembered as one of societys most notorious figures, his son and heir, George Bingham, made his own history today as he married Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard in London. Anne-Sofie, popularly known as Fie, stunned in a cream satin dress by Timothy Everest MBE, which was split at the waist to reveal an underlayer. Laurent Derame and Andre Suard-Ryan of Gielly Green, George Street London were responsible for bride's hair and make-up. Lord Lucan's son George Bingham, 48, married Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard, 37, popularly known as Fie, in London on Monday The happy couple posed for photographs with their bridal party - two bridesmaids and two page boys - and linked arms as they made their way to a waiting car. The wedding comes soon after the couple released their official engagement picture in November last year. Taken at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, her hand on his shoulder, the photo showed off Anne-Sofies engagement ring, an antique fine Ceylon sapphire set in 16 diamonds. It looks remarkably similar to the one worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, which previously belonged to Princess Diana. The happy couple posed for photographs with their bridal party - two bridesmaids and two page boys Anne-Sofie, the daughter of a Danish multi-millionaire, stunned in a cream satin dress, which was split at the waist to reveal an underlayer The wedding comes soon after the couple released their official engagement picture in November The couple were in high spirits and linked arms as they made their way to a waiting car Anne-Sofie also wore matching sapphire earrings, an engagement gift from Bingham, who worked as a merchant banker and is now a freelance consultant and researcher, in the loving snap. Bingham's mother, Lady Lucan, told the Daily Mail's Sebastian Shakespeare last year that it was extremely unlikely she would be attending the nuptials. She has barely been on speaking terms with her son for the past 33 years, after she claims he abandoned her to live with his aunt and uncle as a teenager. Bingham, was educated at Eton and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, denies the claims saying he was 14 at the time and had no alternative as under the direction of his guardian law, the Official Solicitor, he and his two sisters had to move. It was revealed earlier this month that a bid by Bingham to gain a death certificate for his father will wait until a High Court hearing next year, according to The Argus. Bingham applied for the certificate under the Presumption of Death Act, so he can inherit the title as 8th Earl. Anne-Sofie wore a silver necklace and her hair in a low chignon as she posed with her bridal party outside the church on Monday If Bingham is granted a death certificate for his father, he will become the 8th Earl of Lucan, and his wife, Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard, the daughter of a wealthy Danish industrialist, the new Lady Lucan Lord Lucan vanished on November 7, 1974, shortly after the death of the family's nanny, Sandra Rivett. She was discovered in the basement of the family's Belgravia home after being bludgeoned to death with a lead pipe, with Lord Lucan the prime suspect. There have been numerous supposed sightings of the murder suspect from around the globe including reports that he fled to start a new life in West Africa, which have never been verified. His son, Mr Bingham, who was seven when his father vanished, has insisted he is not convinced his father killed his nanny and instead believes he committed suicide. Earlier this month, he launched the legal proceedings to obtain the death certificate with a discrete public notice in a local newspaper. According to the notice, objectors had 21 days to halt the process a legal measure set in place in case the presumed deceased turns up. It comes after the new Presumption of Death Act came into force in 2013 after a campaign for reforms by relatives of missing people. The charity Missing People spearheaded the campaign to help relatives of those suspected of being death obtain a death certificate. If granted he will become the 8th Earl of Lucan, and his wife, Anne-Sofie Foghsgaard, the daughter of a wealthy Danish industrialist, the new Lady Lucan. Lucan had previously been declared dead by the High Court in 1999 for a probate settelement, but this did not prove his death for all purposes. Lord Lucan, left, vanished on November 7, 1974, shortly after the death of the family's nanny, Sandra Rivett. At the time of his disappearance, Lucan and his first wife Veronica Duncan, right, Mr Binghams mother, were in a custody battle at the time of his disappearance At the same time, Mr Bingham applied to inherit his father's title, but it was denied by Lord Irvine, the Lord Chancellor at the time. At the time of his disappearance in 1974, Lucan and his first wife Veronica Duncan, Mr Binghams mother, were in a custody battle at the time of his disappearance. Their marriage had broken down and Lucan had moved out of the family home. It has been suspected that Lucan killed his nanny when he mistook her for his wife on the night of the murder. Lady Lucan was herself badly injured in the attack and when she was able to make a statement afterwards, she named her husband as the man who attacked her and killed their nanny. Mr Bingham, pictured as a toddler with his parents, was seven when his father vanished and insisted he is not convinced his father killed his nanny and instead believes he committed suicide The police named Lucan as the prime suspect, but were unable to locate him, instead only finding a blood-stained car he was seen driving, abandoned at Newhaven, east Sussex. There has been no formal sighting of Lord Lucan aged 39 at the time since the early hours of November 8, when he visited the home of a friend in Sussex. His fate remains unknown, although rumours have placed him everywhere from the bottom of the English Channel to a sunlit bar in Botswana. The children continued to live with their mother following the earls disappearance, but custody was transferred to their uncle Bill Shand Kydd and aunt Christina in 1982 after Lady Lucan suffered a mental breakdown. A woman who suffered serious brain damage after being hit by a car has defied medics to become a model. Sara Najm, 21, from Long Eaton Derbyshire was walking again within a year, and her supportive mother Pam Singh, 48, encouraged her to pursue a career in modelling to boost her confidence. She has since been snapped up by a London agency, starred in numerous glossy shoots for Asian modelling firm TMP Agency and featured on the front page of the internationally-renowned Maleficent magazine. Scroll down for video Sara Najm, 21, from Long Eaton Derbyshire lost her confidence after the accident, but her mother persuaded her to do a modelling shoot. She's now signed with an agency and is taking part in beauty pageants and fashion campaigns (pictured) Sara spent four months in a coma and lost part of her memory after she was hit by a car while crossing the road. Doctors told her she would never be able to walk again Sara was 17 when she was hit by a car as she crossed the road, and doctors at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham did not expect her to survive. Her brain injury was so severe that she temporarily lost part of her memory. But after neurological rehabilitation at the Royal Derby Hospital's Kings Lodge she learned to eat, sit and walk again - and within a year she not only walking, but rock climbing. However, she says the biggest challenges as she recovered were emotional, as she suffered cruel taunts from bullies at the college she attended. 'After the accident it was really tough, but it was emotionally tough rather than physically,' Sara explained. Sara was 17 when she was hit by a car as she crossed the road, and doctors at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham did not expect her to survive After neurological rehabilitation at the Royal Derby Hospital's Kings Lodge Sara learned to eat, sit and walk again. Within a year she not only back on her feet, but she was well enough to go rock climbing 'I struggled to walk, but the real problems were mental. People at college called me "spastic" and "disabled". I had to study from home because it was too difficult emotionally.' Luckily she had her mother on hand to support her, and she persuaded Sara to do a modelling shoot in Birmingham in May 2014. 'My mum had always told me I was still beautiful after the accident, but I never believed her,' Sara recalled. 'I lost my confidence, but I didn't want to be beaten by the bullies so I looked online and found an agency that did shoots in Birmingham.' Sara was taunted by bullies when she returned to college after her stint in hospital, but her mother Pam persuaded her to do a modelling shoot to boost her confience Sara has since been snapped up by a London agency, starred in numerous glossy shoots for Asian modelling firm TMP Agency and featured on the front page of internationally-renowned Maleficent Magazine Sara was stunned when, as a result, she was snapped up by a top London agency. 'We both cried with happiness and I've never looked back since - it gave me something to live for,' Sara explained. Last October Sara came runner-up in the Miss United British beauty pageant, and she now hopes to go one better at Miss Elegant North in Lanarkshire next month. Winners will receive a 12-month modelling contract with agency Models For Charity. 'It's been a long journey and now I'm back on my feet and want to prove everyone wrong and make something of myself,' Sara said. Sara pictured the day before her accident (left) and now (right) says that winning a modelling contract gave her something to live for. She's determined to prove everyone wrong and make something of herself Sara hopes to inspire other young people not to give up on their ambitions. Last October she came runner-up in the Miss United British beauty pageant, and she hopes to go one better at Miss Elegant North in Lanarkshire next month 'I would like to inspire people and encourage them not to give up on life even when times get tough - you should never give up on pursuing your ambitions. 'I never wanted anyone to feel sorry for me and if anyone is going through the same situation they should not get depressed - they should get up and do something about it.' Her mother Pam, a property developer, added: 'It took her two years to build herself up again and she's an inspiration to everyone. 'She has proven all the doctors wrong and she has always been keen to get back on her feet. 'She is a real tough cookie. A few times the doctors said she might not make it, but she came through. 'I'm so proud of her. The way she's got through all of this and now inspires others is just amazing. of herself wearing her heart monitor and wires A teenager who drank up to five energy drinks a day has shared a shocking image of herself to warn others how dangerous they can be. Dion Parratt, 18, says her former addiction has left her with a serious heart condition. As a result, she must wear a heart monitor linked to an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine 24/7 so doctors can closely monitor her condition. She also blames two miscarriages on consuming the sugary, caffeinated beverages since she was 11. Dion Parratt, 18, has shared pictures of the 'wires and box' she is forced to wear. She claims consuming four-five energy drinks a day has left her with a severe heart problem and caused two miscarriages In a Facebook post which has been shared more than 5,500 times, Ms Parratt called for energy drinks to be banned. She said: Before you drink cheap energy drinks think again about what youre doing to your body' Miss Parratt's Facebook post has been shared more than 5,500 times since it was uploaded last Thursday. In the comments, she reveals she consumed up to five of the drinks a day In a post on Facebook, Miss Parratt said: This is what happens when you spend your childhood drinking energy drinks. Im now stuck with wires and a massive box attached to me for 24 hours. Before you drink cheap energy drinks think again about what youre doing to your body. And anyone who is a parent, dont let your kids drink them, they should be banned. Below, the post, which has been shared more than 5,500 times since it was uploaded last Thursday, she says she drank up to five of the drinks a day. Ms Parratt, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, says she now suffers from dangerously low blood pressure and a severe heart problem. This means her pulse drops suddenly, causing her to pass out, the Mirror reports. Im now stuck with wires and a massive box attached to me for 24 hours. Before you drink cheap energy drinks think again about what youre doing to your body Dion Parratt, 18 She claims doctors said this was caused by drinking too many energy drinks. Dr Graham Jackson, honorary consultant cardiologist at St Thomas Hospital, told MailOnline the caffeine in energy drinks is a stimulant, causing the heart to beat faster. While energy drinks have long been linked with heart palpitations, it is unlikely they would cause the pulse to slow and the person to pass out, he said. He explained that she is wearing a heart monitor box, with wires connected to an ECG machine, which sends reports about the heartbeat back to doctors. He said: 'She probably had an underlying heart problem that was discovered when she went to the doctor about heart palpitations. 'Now they are monitoring her for what is causing her pulse to stop. They are probably trying to find out what the underlying problem is.' He added that drinking two cans of energy drink a day is 'dangerous' as this could equate to around 800mg of caffeine. 'Up to 400mg is the safe level. Any more than that and you might get heart palpitations. 'You could get caffeine withdrawal symptoms when you stop - feeling shaky, feeling awful.' Ms Parratt says she now suffers from dangerously low blood pressure and a severe heart problem Miss Parratt began drinking the beverages, which contain stimulants caffeine and taurine, in her first year of secondary school. She barely ate in a bid to lose weight, and drank multiple cans a day to give her energy Miss Parratt said: It wasn't until I lost the second baby that they found a problem with my heart. Honestly, go get checked you don't wanna die young' He added that most young people who stopped drinking caffeine once they discovered problems would recover. Miss Parratt began drinking the beverages, which contain stimulants caffeine and taurine, in her first year of secondary school. She barely ate in a bid to lose weight, and drank multiple cans a day to give her energy. But after having two miscarriages, she claims doctors realised she had a heart problem. ARE ENERGY DRINKS TO BLAME? Dr Graham Jackson, honorary consultant cardiologist at St Thomas Hospital told MailOnline the caffeine in energy drinks is a stimulant, causing the heart to beat faster. While energy drinks have long been linked with heart palpitations, it is unlikely they would cause the pulse to slow and the person to pass out, he said. He explained that she is wearing a heart monitor box, with wires connected to an ECG machine, which sends reports about the heartbeat back to doctors. He said: 'She probably had an underlying heart problem that was discovered when she went to the doctor about heart palpitations. 'Now they are monitoring her for what is causing her pulse to stop. They are probably trying to find out what the underlying problem is.' He added that drinking two cans of energy drink a day is 'dangerous' as this could equate to around 800mg of caffeine. 'Up to 400mg is the safe level. Any more than that and you might get heart palpitations. 'You could get caffeine withdrawal symptoms when you stop - feeling shaky, feeling awful.' He added that most young people who stopped drinking caffeine once they discovered problems would recover. Advertisement It wasn't until I lost the second baby that they found a problem with my heart. Honestly, go get checked you don't wanna die young, she said. Her mother, Debby Frost, praised her daughters bravery and urged others to stop drinking energy drinks. Its really not nice watching your 18-year-old daughter go through this. Passing out when her heart rate drops so low, and then having this machine strapped to her.. Heartbreaking. If you only stop one of the people that have read and shared this post from drinking these killer drinks, that's one less person/family that have to go through what you are.. One proud mum here. A number of deaths have been linked to the drinks, causing campaigners to call for the industry to be regulated. These include 19-year-old Joshua Merrick, from Manchester, who had been drinking high-caffeine drink Animal to boost his workouts, and 16-year-old Lanna Hammam of Peoria, Arizona, who had a cardiac arrest following drinking energy drinks but no water. And a slew of studies have linked the drinks to cardiac problems. Spanish researchers warned consuming just one energy drink a day could trigger erratic heartbeats and heart attacks in healthy teenagers. In November, US researchers again warned just one large can of energy drink a day may raise the risk of heart problems in young adults. Just one can raised stress levels, increased blood pressure and the heart's ability to contract, and increases arousal and alertness in the brain. These changes could predispose otherwise healthy, young adults to heart problems, the researchers warned. And the dangers are even greater in people with underlying heart problems, they added. A spokesman for the British Soft Drinks Association, who represent energy drink manufacturers, said: 'The recent EFSA opinion confirms the safety of energy drinks and their ingredients and therefore does not provide any scientific justification to treat energy drinks any differently to the main contributors to daily caffeine intake including tea and coffee. Living in the city can harm a womans fertility, scientists revealed. The high levels of air pollution and traffic fumes associated with heavily populated areas increases a womans risk of infertility, according to a new study from Boston University. Furthermore, city dwellers are far more likely to have fertility problems than those who live in the country because country air is cleaner. Dr Sajal Gupta of Cleveland Clinic, who wasnt involved in the study, told Reuters: Couples suffering from infertility need to exercise caution especially if they are residing in areas with high ambient particulate matter. Relocating to areas with low contamination of particulate matter is an alternative to prevent adverse impact on fertility. However, researchers cautioned, the increased risk was only slight. Areas with high levels of air pollution and traffic fumes are linked to infertility, scientists revealed. Women who live within 199 meters of a major road are 11 per cent more likely to be infertile, according to a study The study followed more than 36,000 women from 1993 to 2003. Scientists analyzed air pollution and traffic exhaust near their homes to see if there is a link between the air they breathed and their ability to conceive. During the study period, there were nearly 2,500 reported cases of infertility. Women who lived within 199 meters or about a tenth of a mile of a major roadway were 11 per cent more likely to experience fertility issues, the study found. Lead study author Dr Shruthi Mahalingaiah said: The risks are slight. However, Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, a researcher at the Center for Research in Environmental Epidemiology and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, said even the slight increased risk can present a global health problem. Dr Nieuwenhuijsen said: For an individual woman, the results may not be that important because the risk of infertility only increases slightly, but for society as a whole it is important because so many women are exposed to pollution. The study examined data on particulate matter which is a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets that include dust, dirt, soot and smoke found near the participants homes. The scientists also assessed how close their homes were to major roads. The team of researchers focused on primary infertility which is when a woman tries to conceive for at least a year without success. Scientists suggested the link between air quality and fertility problems could pose a 'global health problems' and that city-dwelling couples experiencing infertility may want to consider relocating They also looked at secondary infertility which occurs when a couple struggles to conceive again after having at least one prior pregnancy. Those who lived close to major roads were five per cent more likely to report primary infertility. And, those same women were also 21 per cent more likely to report secondary fertility than women who lived further away. The link between air quality and fertility problems was found even in areas with less polluted air. But, the association became stronger as the pollution levels increased. However, the scientists didnt know the exact dates when conception efforts started or infertility was diagnosed, which could provide a limitation to the studys finding. Dr Mahlingaiah added that while the study is one of the first of its kind to follow women over such a long period of time, more research is needed before any medical recommendations are made. Yet, Dr Christopher Somers of the University of Regina, who wasnt involved in the study, said: Air pollution is worse near major roads with high traffic volumes, so avoid living in these areas if you can. If this is not an option, pay attention to air quality advisories and adjust outdoor activities accordingly. Dementia patients face Russian roulette in hospital because of shocking care standards, a report warns today. Some patients are manhandled or even handcuffed to beds. Others are branded criminals just for knocking over medical gear. And many are ignored for hours on wards denied food, fluid and pain relief. Many dementia patients are not being given the help they need to eat their hospital meals, a charity found The failings are exposed in a report by the Alzheimers Society. Its boss Jeremy Hughes said: In the worst cases, hospital care for people with dementia is like Russian roulette. People with dementia and their carers have no way of knowing whats going to happen when they are admitted. Good dementia care should never be a throw of the dice yet people are forced to gamble with their health every time they are admitted to hospital. The charity carried out detailed surveys of 574 relatives and carers and submitted freedom of information requests to health trusts. Nine in ten of those interviewed said hospitals were frightening for loved ones. Six in ten said staff did not treat patients with dignity. The report also revealed that: At least two dementia patients a day suffer falls in hospital; Confused patients are manhandled by staff including security guards; Dementia patients stay in hospital up to seven times longer than others because they fail to recover; Hundreds are discharged from hospital wards at night. One woman said she had arrived to find her elderly father handcuffed to the bed. Staff told her he had knocked over some equipment and could be charged for criminal damage. I was appalled, she said. My father is a sick man but they were treating him like a criminal. It was ridiculous. Around a quarter of patients in hospital have dementia. The report said care was so poor that many are sent home in a worse state than when they arrived. Patients with Alzheimer's (pictured) and dementia face a lottery when it comes to hospital care, The Alzheimer's Society said today while launching their campaign 'Fix Dementia Care' CANCER DRUGS OFFER DEMENTIA HOPE Drugs revolutionising the war on cancer could also help with the battle against Alzheimers. Research suggests the checkpoint inhibitors might prove a powerful weapon against the memory-robbing disease. In tests, the drugs cleared toxic proteins from the brain and reversed memory loss. Just two doses produced dramatic results. The fact they have already been deemed safe in treating cancer will speed up their first tests on dementia patients. We are extremely excited about our study, said the Israeli researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science. We believe it is a game-changer both conceptually and therapeutically. Existing drugs are of limited benefit and the search for better treatments has been littered with disappointment. The fresh hope centres around drugs that tackle cancer by firing up the immune system to fight it. They include Keytruda, which targets skin cancer and is already available on the NHS. In tests on mice genetically modified to develop the disease, the drugs fired up the production of healing immune cells. They were just as good as healthy animals at a maze-like game, the journal Nature Medicine reports. Scientists said they were still a few years away from knowing whether it held promise for dementia sufferers. Advertisement One 80-year-old woman was admitted to A&E only to be laughed at by other patients because she was confused and shouting. The patient, Joyce, was in agony having broken her pelvis but was left for hours in a wheelchair in a corridor. Hospital staff refused to give her a drink claiming they lacked the right fluids and kept brushing past and knocking the wheelchair. Figures obtained through freedom of information responses show dementia patients suffered 702 falls in 2014/15. However only 40 per cent of the 160 hospital trusts bothered to reply. The Alzheimers Society's boss Jeremy Hughes said: In the worst cases, hospital care for people with dementia is like Russian roulette' Hospitals sent home 4,926 patients with dementia between 11pm and 6am. This is likely to include patients who were sent home earlier but whose discharge was not immediately logged. The total might also cover patients moved between wards and deaths, which some trusts record as discharges. The Freedom of Information Act, which has exposed numerous public sector scandals as well as wasteful spending, is under threat from the Government. Ministers, who have ordered a review, claim it costs too much to administer. Mr Hughes said poor hospital care could have devastating, life-changing consequences. He added: Starving because you cant communicate to hospital staff that you are hungry, or falling and breaking a hip because youre confused and no ones around to help, can affect whether you stand any chance of returning to your own home or not. You can be pushed around from one part of hospital to the other with nobody really being aware of the needs you have. Caroline Abrahams, of the charity Age UK, said: Discharging anyone with dementia from hospital in the middle of the night is totally inappropriate and in some cases is likely to verge on being cruel and inhumane. The Mail has repeatedly called for improvements to the care of patients with the devastating illness in a Dignity for the Elderly campaign. A Department of Health spokesman said last night: People with dementia and their carers deserve the very best support. Improving hospital care for those with dementia is a key component of the Prime Ministers Challenge on Dementia 2020. Professor Alistair Burns, NHS Englands national clinical director for dementia, said: There have in fact been major advances in recognising and assessing symptoms of possible dementia in patients admitted to hospital, with more than four fifths of trusts meeting a challenging 90 per cent target. MakeMyTrip chairman and Group CEO Deep Kalra MakeMyTrip is being probed for alleged service tax evasion of Rs 75 crore. The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) has registered a case against the online travel services provider for allegedly not depositing service tax which it had collected from customers, official sources said. Following the probe, one of the companys senior executives was arrested by DGCEI officials and released on bail last week, sources further said. A company spokesperson said that service tax cases are an industry issue and it will be contest the case with the appropriate authorities. At MakeMyTrip, we strongly believe in an ethical, transparent and compliant corporate culture and abide by all laws and regulations of the country. The service tax case in question is potentially an industry issue that can impact all online travel agents (OTAs). We have a strong case as advised by our tax advisers and therefore will be contesting the matter with the appropriate authorities. We are extending our full cooperation to the authorities in the investigation. Further, the company official who was detained by the authorities has already been released, the spokesperson said. Service tax is charged at the rate of 14.5 per cent (including 0.5 per cent of Swachh Bharat Cess). The DGCEI investigation has found that the company was collecting two types of taxes - service tax on 60 per cent of the rate MakeMyTrip negotiated with hotels towards the renting of rooms, and service tax on 10 per cent of the gross value of customer vouchers. The second category of service tax was being mentioned as MMT (Make My Trip) Tax by the firm, the sources said. The DGCEI also found that MakeMyTrip was depositing the so-called MMT Tax and not the one collected from customers towards renting of hotel rooms, sources addded. MakeMyTrip has collected service tax to the tune of Rs 83 crore (approximately) from October 2010 to September 2015 from customers for taxable service of renting of hotel rooms, out of which Rs 67 crore has not been deposited, sources added. The estimated alleged evasion of service tax by MakeMyTrip is about Rs 75 crore. The firm has so far deposited Rs 15 crore towards its anticipated service tax liability and has promised to deposit Rs 10 crore during the hearing of the bail application of its executive, sources said. Meanwhile, the DGCEI has conducted a detailed background check of some of the 30,000 hotels which have agreements with MakeMyTrip. So far, the verification conducted in respect of 490 hotels has found that 212 of them are not even registered with service tax authorities, they said. While the city debated the success of the odd-even scheme in bringing the pollution level down, Delhi Secretariat got its own reality check. Out of 659 people who underwent lung function test at the Secretariat, 320 were found to have impaired lungs. This means 48.5 per cent of the babus and other people visiting Delhi Secretariat have weak lungs. This is more than the number at any other office in the national Capital, where the lung function test was conducted. Data shows that one in every three Delhiites has problems in breathing The test was done by Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) experts from January 1-15, the period during which the oddeven formula was implemented in the city. Most of those tested at the Delhi Secretariat were government officials, Dr Suneela Garg, project head from MAMC, told Mail Today. Officials working at the Delhi Secretariat come from various parts of the city. They have been staying in Delhi for over five years, added Dr Garg. Experts will now plan well-defined preventive measures for residents of Delhi, which includes officials at the Secretariat. After the survey, we can organise an overall awareness programme at the Delhi Secretariat, Dr Garg said. The tests were carried out by specialists stationed at ten locations - Rajiv Chowk Metro station, ITO, Nehru Place, Jama Masjid, Vikas Marg, ISBT, Anand Vihar, Kashmere Gate, Kamla Nagar market near KMC gate, Delhi Haat and Shadipur Depot. The Delhi government's odd-even scheme ended on January 15 As many as 3,019 people were tested, of whom 1,037 were found to have unhealthy lungs. Data shows that one in every three Delhiites has problems in breathing. Residents from east Delhi were found to have the weakest lungs. Out of 228 people tested in the region, 110 were found to have impaired lung function. People from Gokulpuri in east Delhi, where there are only residential colonies, had the weakest lungs. We will plan a focused intervention in these areas, said Dr Garg. As per the criteria, scoring 90 per cent on the spirometry test is ideal, 80 per cent is considered normal. But, if the score goes below 70 per cent, the lung function of a person is said to be impaired and he or she could be referred to a nearby hospital for consultation with a pulmonologist. Spirometry measures the amount (volume) or speed (flow) of air that can be inhaled and exhaled. For this test, one has to breathe into a mouthpiece attached to the device. Teams stationed at different locations comprised two doctors, two nurses, as many volunteers and a technician. Recently, a multi-agency study revealed the impact of poor air quality on growth of foetus in pregnant women. The study was conducted by Sir Gangaram Ram hospital in association with the Public Health Foundation of India, Indian Meteorological Department and London School of Hygiene to explore the association of air pollution with a neonates birth weight and gestational age. The study found that poor air quality has severe adverse effect on the growth and development of foetus in the mothers womb. Love putting up your best photos on Facebook? Beware! Your pictures may be among several thousands that are being morphed and misused to promote online sex chats and pornographic content. A group of ethical hackers have now started a crackdown on explicit social media pages in India, revealed cyber security experts. They have reportedly brought down several Facebook profiles and pages engaged in copying pictures of girls from their Facebook albums and misusing them by morphing the images. Hackers found out that the followers of these pages with explicit content are equipped with cameras and smartphones. Not only do they steal pictures of girls on Facebook, they are also taking photographs of girls at public places and sending them to the administrators of these pages. A group of ethical hackers have now started a crackdown on explicit social media pages in India Cyber experts said pictures of attractive women are being used to entice users into sex chats Experts believe more than 40 per cent of female users on Facebook are victims of such crimes in India. This is the biggest online threat we face today. Criminals are copying and saving pictures of female users on social media. They are using pictures of attractive women to entice users to connect on sex chats. There are several such active pages, but cops are barely doing anything to take them down, said cyber crime expert Kislay Choudhary, who has worked with Delhi and Noida Police in several cases. Earlier, such crimes were committed as an act of revenge, after a break-up for example, but criminals are now using pictures of girls to lure users to paid sex websites or extort money from them. A team of 15 white-hat hackers of Kerala Cyber Warriors claims to have hacked at least 70 Facebook profiles and several other pages which are running such sex chats. From December 28, 2015, we have hacked over 70 profiles and dozens of pages. Our aim is to delete the objectionable pictures and posts which are tarnishing the image of innocent girls, a member of the hackers group told Mail Today. The team started the crackdown following the arrest of 11 people, including a model and her husband, by the Kerala Police for running an online sex racket. Kerala Police sources said the racket was busted during an investigation into a complaint on a paedophile page on Facebook called Kochu Sundarikal. Hackers are conducting cyber patrolling to hunt for such profiles and are trying to get complete access to block them. If the content is objectionable, it can be removed by reporting abuse, but most of the time this content is uploaded in such a way that it does not violate the community guidelines of Facebook. So, through social engineering, we get control over these profiles and pages and block them, a hacker who is part of the team explained. The sites blocked by hackers have thousands of likes and can be accessed anywhere across the country. Hackers claim that these criminals are faking their identity to create such pages, but they (the hackers) are exposing their phone numbers, address and even their IP addresses, to shame them. We exposed details of the criminals real identity along with their fake profile on our page. Taking legal action is not in our hands, but our work is to expose them. During our investigation, we also found that some are taking pictures of unsuspecting girls at bus stops, cafes and other public places, the hacker said. Even police are flooded with several such complaints, but the action they take is limited they just block the content. The number of these complaints is increasing by the day. We contact Facebook time and again to give us the details of such users, but the reply from them is not prompt. So, we mostly report abuse on the content which is further examined by the service provider following which they remove the content, a senior Delhi Police officer said. The officer admitted that this is not a foolproof solution as the criminals can easily create a similar profile again. 'Misusing pictures is a thriving business' By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi Last year, a foreign national contacted cyber security experts in India, complaining that an Indian youth was demanding $100 (Rs 6,779 approx) per month to stop morphed pictures of her being uploaded on social media websites. Investigators tracked him to Kurukshetra and found nearly 1,800 photographs on his mobile phone that he used to blackmail his targets. The man was eventually let free as the victim did not lodge an official complaint. During interrogation, the accused revealed that he used a free mobile application to morph the pictures and then used it as a tool to extort money from the victims. According to experts, such crimes have become a way to earn easy bucks. Earlier such crimes were done by jilted lovers to take revenge but now criminals have made it a business. They first copy pictures of female Facebook users, morph it using basic tools available on Internet and then contact their target and threaten them to make these pictures public. Fearing social stigma, many girls fall prey to their extortion, cyber crime expert Kislay Choudhary said. Cyber crime experts claim that there are many people who are selling pictures of Indian girls to international criminals who are further using it on international porn sites and sex chat network. Pictures of many Indian girls can be found on porn or sex websites but these girls are not part of the business. Their pictures are being misused. Shockingly, pictures of Indian girls are in huge demand in Chinese porn industry, Choudhary said. There are many websites and web tools available for professional editing. But basic morphing can be easily done on free mobile app available on play store, said a senior police officer. Delhi has seen a steady rise in complaints related to such cases, but there have been a few breakthroughs. A day after Rahul Gandhi said the Congress would pass the contentious GST Bill in 15 minutes if its demands were met, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu blamed the opposition party for setting conditions. It is not fair to set conditions for the passage of the GST Bill. If the said clauses were so crucial, the UPA could have brought these in the original Bill when it was in power, said Naidu. One condition (cap on taxes) put forth by Congress and reiterated by Rahul Gandhi in an event in Mumbai was not liked by anybodyThe government has agreed. The issue is about this cap which the Congress has not proposed and it had not proposed it when it brought the Bill and is suddenly now making it a condition. That is not fair on its (Congress) part, said Naidu. Parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu blamed the Congress for setting conditions He also held discussions with Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan on the possibilities of advancing the Budget session so that the GST Bill is passed. Naidu recently met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi regarding the passage of the GST Bill. She had said that she would discuss the issue with her party and get back to the government. The issue is set to be a major bone of contention between the BJP and the Congress during the budget session. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said he expected the Bill to be passed in the budget session. Naidu said he would discuss the budget session dates with PM Modi. Mehbooba Mufti will take the final call on the formation of the government in J&K After a four-hour-long meeting chaired by party president Mehbooba Mufti at her residence on Sunday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) authorised her to take any decision about the alliance with the BJP. Also, on the expected lines, Mehbooba will take the final call on the formation of the government. This meeting wholeheartedly and unanimously supported Ms Mehbooba Mufti as its leader and expressed full confidence in her leadership qualities. The party authorised the president to take any decisions needed to carry forward Mufti Mohammad Sayeeds mission and implementing his political and developmental vision, the PDP chief spokesman Mehboob Beg said in a statement released after the meeting. PDP leader Naeem Akhtar said there was no condition on the part of the PDP, but he didnt give any timeline on the government formation with the BJP. Indicating that the PDP would seek assurances given by the BJP on the Agenda of Alliance to be implemented before taking any decision on the government formation, party spokesperson Beg said the meeting reiterated that the PDP would work, with fresh resolve, towards accomplishing the vision of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to create a space of dignity, opportunity and prosperity for the people of Jammu & Kashmir in the paradigm of friendship and cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan. Without spelling out that the party would seek assurances on external and internal dimension of the Kashmir issue, Beg went on to describe the belief of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to carry the point across. It was firm belief of Mufti Sahab that the resolution of the problems of J&K is possible only in the paradigm of cordial ties between India and Pakistan with J&K becoming a hub of this cooperative relationship. He tirelessly worked towards realising this objective and used to repeatedly reiterate the inevitability of maintaining peace along the borders and expanding the scope and sphere of the cross-LoC movement of people and trade to free the people of the state from the mentality of siege, Beg said. He said it was only because of Mufti Sayeeds sustained efforts that a significant movement forward was seen on cross-LoC confidence building measures, both in 2002 and 2015. The meeting welcomed the new initiative taken by the PM to improve relationships with Pakistan which is an important objective of the agenda of alliance and Mufti Sahabs political legacy, he added. He said the meeting observed that both in 2002 and 2015, the PDPs power sharing arrangement either with the Congress or with the BJP took time and effort to materialise as Mufti Sayeed wanted to ensure adequate safeguards for the states interests. He raised the bar for all political stake holders, be it about accords, alliance or collation politics by devising common minimum programme in 2002 and agenda of alliance in 2015 which, unlike in the past, were aimed at safeguarding the state interests, Beg added. Omar corrects his father Apparently embarrassed by National Conference president Dr. Farooq Abdullah's statement about his party potentially supporting the BJP if it comes up with an offer, NC working president Omar Abdullah said on Sunday: Dr. Farooq Abdullah was responding to a hypothetical question based on a hypothetical situation and he never said the NC will support the BJP. He only said that if any such request or proposal is received from the BJP, it will be taken up by the Party's Working Committee. No such proposal has been received, which makes Dr. Sahab's remarks a pure reiteration of the organisational procedure to deal with such issues and nothing more, Omar said in a statement. It must also be remembered that the Working Committee of the Party, in its recent meeting in Srinagar, had endorsed the decision taken by NC a year ago to stay away from the BJP and we expect no change in that decision, Omar said. Disparate incidents last week - the explosion in the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad, the bombing in Quetta targeting polio workers, the terror strike in Jakarta, and the harassment of a Muslim couple by a gang of vigilantes in Bhopal - can all be knit together to reveal the pattern of emerging dangers. The attack on the Pakistani consulate is an indication of how much the ground has slipped from under Islamabads feet in the country it had hoped would provide it with strategic depth against India. Blowback Just the week before, an ISI-organised attack had targeted the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the name of Afzal Guru. The damaged Pakistan consulate in Jalalabad, Afghanistan Indeed, there have been several ISI-directed attacks on Indian diplomatic facilities in the country, usually executed by Pakistani proxies of the Haqqani network. But Pakistan itself becoming the target is a sign of the new times. Islamabad is being made to realise that just as arming religious zealots to prosecute its policy aims in India and Afghanistan led to a blowback in the form of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, similarly, its policy of attacking Indian facilities is being copied by elements inimical to its role in Afghanistan. Pakistan has to understand that its continued duplicity on the issue of using religious proxies for its proxy wars could well lead to the rise and consolidation of Islamic State (ISIS) elements in the AfPak region. US President Barack Obama warned about the possibility of instability in Pakistan lasting decades, which could enhance the sanctuaries and training facilities of jihadis. Many will pay the price, but perhaps the biggest price will be paid by Pakistanis themselves, as is evidenced by the Quetta attack which sought to prevent the dissemination of the polio vaccine. In the past 35 years, the high tide of violent religious extremism has overwhelmed a large part of the world. Two major countries with large Muslim populations had been relatively immune - India and Indonesia. Now both are being buffeted, but for different reasons. Deterioration In Indonesia, it is a case of attrition. Islamists have been active for decades, and there have been horrific terror attacks through the 2000s. However, complacency and lack of effective political leadership has led to an overall deterioration resulting in last Thursdays incident. The incident near Bhopal where a Muslim couple travelling in a train were attacked by a gang of vigilantes who alleged they were carrying beef are yet another sign of the emerging danger that confronts India. It is no longer intolerance but an insistent effort to marginalise and humiliate the Muslim community. No community in whatever a majority cannot coerce a minority into obeying its diktat. The vigilantes of the Gau Raksha Samiti may be outliers, but they are very much the product of a movement led by the RSS which seeks to Hinduise India by establishing their twisted version of Hindu norms across society. Destabilising the largely peaceable Muslim population of India could lead to the development of something that has been absent so far- a large-scale domestic Islamist militancy. Radicalism We are at a point of inflexion where it comes to the threat of Islamist radicalism. Countries that were relatively immune like India and Indonesia could be under threat. And countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which sought to export their problems to their neighbours, could well go under. In the last decade all of us - India, Indonesia and Pakistan - have sought to counter radicalism in our own way. Pakistan has been a late entrant, but you should not doubt the scale of its effort that has led to thousands of its security personnel being killed. Since the threat seems to have metastasised, there is need for unified action against it. PM Modi is right, the international community needs to urgently conclude the international convention against terrorism. In the past two decades efforts to work one out have stalled on the issue of differing definitions of terrorism. This is the moment when Indonesians, Indians and Pakistanis can understand that those who target civilians, as in Mumbai in 2008, Bali in 2003, and Peshawar in 2014 are the same kind of people, regardless of what they call themselves. Pakistan, of all countries, needs to realise that cracking down on the Jaish-e-Mohammed is not about kowtowing to India, but about the future of Pakistan. Regardless of India, Pakistan will have to end that distinction between good and bad jihadis, because it is all too easy to contaminate the former with the latter. Likewise India needs to see that every step that Pakistan takes is not a victory for India, but a victory for both - New Delhi and Islamabad. Prime minister Narendra Modis dream of developing villages has been given a fresh push under the governments Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna (SAGY). Under the second phase of the scheme, the villages have to be made 100 per cent self-dependent on the crucial parameters like electricity, water, roads, and education. Moreover, the rural development ministry has also found a solution for its fund crunch by roping in the private, voluntary and cooperative sectors for the development projects. The PM wants 2,200 villages to be developed under the scheme by 2019 About 2,200 villages have to be developed in the first three phases of SAGY by 2019. The deadline for MPs to nominate a model village under the scheme for phase II is set to end on January 31. A senior rural development ministry official said parliamentarians have raised complaints about scarcity of funds to carry out the development schemes. They have also raised the issue in Parliament and have also written letters to the ministry. Thereafter, the ministry wrote a letter for provision of funds from corporate, voluntary and private sectors, added the official. The official said there is no separate fund for this scheme by the government. MPs have to carry out the work on various existing schemes of Centre and state governments. On an average, most of the parliamentarians have complained about lack of funds to the tune of Rs 2 crore in one gram panchayat, added the official. A letter dated December 22, 2015 clearly said gram panchayats should tap the resources of the corporate or private sectors for the development works. Each gram panchayat should proactively tap the resources and the strengths of the private, voluntary and cooperative sectors which could help in making available relevant technologies for local adoptions and making investments for local economic development, either independently or to supplement government efforts, said the letter, which was written to principal secretaries by SAGY director Dr Kushal Pathak. The rural development ministry is also planning a CSR conclave for ensuring successful involvement of these sectors in the SAGY projects. Nodal officers have been directed to submit presentation on projects requiring technical or financial assistance from corporate and other sectors, so that it can be brought before the interested parties. They also have been told to come out with Village development plans with complete details about the projects which have to be started in a particular village, said a senior officer of the ministry. The official said that ministry has written letters to the MPs for the second phase of SAGY in which it has been said that the target for each MP is to develop three model villages by March 2019. The basic idea is to develop villages as island of excellence and focus is to develop it on economic model. Like if main activity in a particular village is production of milk then work should be on strengthening the system so that more and more people could get employment in milk business or to flourish that business in that village, added the official. Dera Sacha Sauda leader Gurmeet Ram Rahim, whose followers had recently accused stand-up comedian Kiku Sharda and eight others of hurting religious sentiments, is now facing similar charges himself. The All India Hindu Student Federation, in a complaint to Mohali Police, has accused him of hurting religious sentiments by dressing up as Lord Vishnu. The group has alleged that he insulted Lord Vishnu and hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus by dressing up as Lord Vishu. Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim has been accused of insulting Hindus with his costume choice In a recent video, the self-styled godman can be seen descending from the sky as Lord Vishnu, a gimmick that left federation activists fuming. While police are yet to register an FIR in Zirakpur, student leaders have threatened to move the court if action is not taken against Gurmeet Ram Rahim. The All India Hindu Student Federation has objected to the self-styled guru dressing up as Lord Vishnu We will not tolerate Gurmeet Ram Rahim insulting our gods and gurus. He first insulted Guru Gobind Singh ji and is now seen as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in one of the videos. What is this? He got TV actor Kiku Sharda arrested just for mimicking him after which the police arrested the actor immediately. We gave a complaint to the Zirakpur police station, which is hesitating to register a case against him. We will move the court if the case is not registered immediately, Nishant Sharma, president of the All India Hindu Student Federation, told Mail Today. Police officials confirmed they had received a complaint but refused to appear on camera. Sources say the government may not be keen to take action against the baba due to the upcoming elections in the state as the self-styled godman has a strong support base in Doaba region of Punjab. We have received the complaint but the jurisdiction lies where the video was shot. The complaint should be registered where the video was shot, said Deep Inder Singh, SHO, Zirakpur (Mohali). This is the second such case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who is already facing a blasphemy case registered in 2007. He is also accused of dressing up like tenth Sikh guru Gobind Singh - an allegation that the self-styled godman has denied. On February 5, 2015, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on February had issued notices to Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Punjab government while hearing a petition seeking cancellation of a 2014 Bhatinda court order acquitting the self-styled godman of blasphemy charges. The court, while issuing a notice to the Dera chief, had asked why the 2014 order may not be cancelled. 21-year-old Gurwinder was one of those killed when a boat capsized near Panama With as many as 25 young men from Punjab dead in the Panama boat tragedy, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to send a team immediately to expose the human-trafficking racket which is responsible for the mishap. Badal today had a telephonic conversation with the Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who assured that the government would reach out to the victims families immediately. He told her that Punjab government is already sending senior officials from State to US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy, a Punjab government spokesperson said. Badal has directed the Director General of Police and SSP Kapurthala to take action against the travel agents involved. Kapurthala Police has registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Immigration Act against the travel agents. Around 25 youths were feared dead after the boat in which they were travelling capsized near Panama on January 10. The incident took place at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama. The men were reportedly headed to the US illegally. The news about the tragedy reached their parents on January 12 and 13. Bachan Singhs 21-year-old son Gurwinder is one of the 25 who perished. Bachan Singh said one of the survivors, Sonu of Bhogpur (Jalandhar), informed him about the incident. Gurwinder was unemployed and Bachchan had paid Rs 10 lakh to the travel agent Harbhajan Singh, a retired cop, to send his son to the US. Harbhajan Singh had asked for Rs 27 lakhs to send his son to US. Later settled for Rs 24 lakhs out of which Rs 10 lakhs were paid as advance on October 15 at Kulwinder Singh Multani's petrol pump. My son had left for US three days after they got the payment. They took him to Maldives first, then along with others, he was sent to Brazil. My son had called home on December 22 last year, Bachan Singh said. Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor have supposedly broken up over unresolved differences, according to reports that surfaced some days ago. When news broke that Katrina and Ranbir had allegedly split and Ranbir had moved out of their Carter Road, Mumbai penthouse, Katrina was in Delhi addressing the media about her upcoming film Fitoor. When she was asked about the reported break-up, a glare from Katrina was what it took to silence the people in attendance. Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor, pictured in happier times, are said to have split over 'unresolved differences' Fitoor director Abhishek Kapoor had to intervene and divert the topic of discussion during that January 15 presser. Later that evening, when Katrina was asked the same by a reporter from NDTV, the Phantom actor's response was: It is better to not speak about (my) personal life. Kaif went on to say: Many times, you want to come out and speak your heart openly and just want to say exactly what you feel at the moment. But from my personal experience, it is better to not speak much about your personal life and speak about your profession. Try and let your work speak for itself because at the end of the day, that's what you want your identity to be, and you want your respect to come from your work. That's what should be out there. Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif had been dating for several years before their reported split a few days ago. At Christmas 2015, the usually camera-shy couple shed all inhibitions and posed for the lenses. They were at Shashi Kapoor's Christmas brunch, where the rest of the Kapoor clan, apart from Ranbirs mother Neetu, was present. The moment Neetu's absence was noticed, wagging tongues left no stone unturned in lending the Neetu-doesn't-like- Katrina angle to events. Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur have been in Delhi to promote Airlift Twinkle Khanna has firmly established her credentials as Bollywoods Mrs Funnybones, and it seems her sense of humour is now rubbing off on superstar hubby Akshay Kumar. The actor has uploaded a funny video on his Twitter handle spoofing the odd-even number traffic scheme initiated by Arvind Kejriwals AAP government in Delhi. While Akshay uploaded the video after the scheme officially ended on Friday, it was perfectly timed to work as promotion for his new film, Airlift. The spoof title, Odd-Even RuleLift, is based on the official trailer of the film. Heres a hilarious take on Delhis odd-even scheme, just had to share. Have a look, wrote @akshaykumar as caption for his tweeted video. The two-minute and nine second video is voiced by Akshay and created using scenes lifted from the original trailer clip of Airlift. The short film hilariously narrates the plight of an aam aadmi stuck in the odd-even fiasco and how, in a bid to selflessly guarantee free rides of Ola and Uber for other aam aadmis like him, ends up with his girlfriend walking out on him. The video, though, is not anti-AAP. It actually celebrates the Dilliwaalas grit to survive any situation and also notes how the odd-even scheme has brought down pollution in the city. Airlift is slated to release on January 22, and is based on a true incident that happened during the Iraq-Kuwait war of 1990. Akshay plays a rich Indian tycoon who selflessly worked to rescue thousands of Indians stranded in Kuwait as Iraq attacked that nation. The incident is said to be the biggest civil evacuation of Indians in any country ever. Scroll down for video... A scene from the original Airlift trailer. The film is slated to release on January 22 Airlift is directed by debutant filmmaker Raja Menon and also stars Nimrat Kaur, who returns to Bollywood action for the first time since her much-feted role in The Lunchbox. The 2012 film, which also starred Irrfan Khan, tasted international box-office success and also won awards all over the world. Despite being partially shot in Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, the makers have managed to keep the budget of Airlift within a 35-crore ceiling. Part of the film has also been shot in Rajasthan. Akshay and his co-star Purab Kohli took basic lessons in Arabic language for their roles. Fresh woes: VW now faces legal action from UK investment firms following the emissions scadal Some of Britains biggest investment firms are taking legal action against Volkswagen over its engine emissions scandal. They are part of an international group of shareholders who are seeking compensation over lost profits. The legal action is linked to a plunge in shares at the German car giant in the wake of revelations it cheated test results over the level of pollution being emitted from engines in its cars and trucks. Klaus Nieding at Frankfurt-based law firm Nieding + Barth told the Mail that UK funds were among 66 institutional investors that would file a collective law suit in the next few days. He said the funds had requested he did not reveal their names. Volkswagen admitted 11million of its cars were fitted with so-called defeat device software designed to trick official tests into believing a car is emitting fewer pollutants than it really is. Tata Steels boss has launched a scathing attack on the Government while announcing a further 1,050 job cuts at plants across the country. Karl Koehler, chief executive of the firms European operation, accused ministers of failing to act quickly enough to save Britains steel industry and branded business rates and energy taxes unfair. The industry has been devastated by a flood of cheap imported steel which has mainly come from China. Lower growth in China has left it with an excess of steel and it has been exporting this to Europe. Row: Tata ceo Karl Koehler accused ministers of failing to act quickly enough to save Britains steel industry and branded business rates and energy taxes as being unfair Steel prices are at a ten-year low due to the record amount of Chinese exports and the crisis has been compounded by UK firms paying some of the highest energy costs and green taxes in the world. Koehler said: While we welcome progress on UK energy costs, the Government must take urgent action to increase the competitiveness of the UK for its vital steel sector. This includes lowering business rates and supporting energy efficiency so we can compete fairly. It is also thought Tata Steel is at a disadvantage because the Government only recommends UK steel be used for its major building projects rather than requiring it. Some foreign rivals benefit from being the preferred supplier in their home countries. Harish Patel, national officer at the Unite union, said: Guidance from the Government on the procurement of British steel for infrastructure projects is all well and good, but it needs to be urgently turned into orders and cast iron guarantees that if its built for Britain it uses British steel. Business rates are also a problem being up to ten times higher than what steel makers in Germany and other European countries have to pay. There is also a regulatory issue. If it can be proven that China has dumped steel in the UK a form of predatory pricing in where they would have sold low-cost steel in this country just to get rid of it then legal moves could be taken to stop this as it would drive out competition from the UK. If this case was established then the EU can take steps to block the practice. However, such a case could take up to a year to conclude. In America, by contrast, authorities can take just over a month to process similar cases. Koehler said: We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry. Yesterday, Indian-owned Tata confirmed 750 jobs would go at its Port Talbot plant in South Wales along with 200 in support functions. A further 100 jobs are at risk at steel mills in Trostre in West Wales, as well as Corby and Hartlepool in England. The setback comes just months after Tata announced plans to cut 1,200 jobs, with 900 lost at Scunthorpe and 270 in Scotland. The rest were being laid off at other UK sites. Devalued: Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks have launched a reduced price share offer The Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks could sell for well below expectations due to stock market turmoil, it emerged yesterday. National Australia Bank, which owns the UK offshoots, valued them at between 1.54billion and 2.07billion, meaning they could be off-loaded for well below the 2billion or more originally mooted. NAB, which bought the business in 1987, said it planned to quit the 177-year-old British bank in 2014 after facing a consumer backlash over methods used to sell loan insurance. It plans to sell 25 per cent of the operation in an initial public offering and spin off the rest to its shareholders. The shares are slated to be listed on the London stock exchange on February 2 after final pricing on the same day. The indicative pricing range was quite wide at 175-235p per share. Bell Potter analyst TS Lim said NAB may have to settle for even less, given declines in share markets. What theyve put out is aspirational, he said. It could fall below, mainly because of market dynamics, but we wont find out until everything has been locked and loaded. The Australian lender also said it may could axe the flotation altogether or launch a smaller offer, in which case it would keep a stake. Redcar, Scunthorpe and now it is Port Talbot. The shadows over Britains steel industry grow longer with each passing day and no one appears willing to take responsibility for a disaster for UK manufacturing, jobs and our economic security. The sale of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus to Tata in 2006 for 6.2billion, at the peak of the Blair-Brown boom, barely raised an eyebrow and no one questioned Tatas ownership credentials. Indeed, at a meeting of Browns Business Council at the Treasury (which I attended) the boss of the Indian company Ratan Tata was the star turn extolling the virtues of Britains open economy. The shine is now well and truly off the ball. In the midst of the financial crisis, when Labour was still grappling with the banks, Tata saw an opportunity to shakedown a weary government and sought an 800million bailout for Jaguar Land Rover. Industry in crisis: Security guards take down a protest banner that has been displayed outside the main gates of the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot, Wales after plans to cut 1,050 jobs were announced Trade secretary Peter Mandelson negotiated such a tough deal that Tata declined the UK government loans and raised the money from the EU and a consortium of banks instead. In the present crisis Tata is blaming everyone but itself for the imbroglio which will see 1,050 jobs axed across the country, from South Wales to Hartlepool. Clearly conditions in the European steel industry are extraordinarily difficult. The slowdown in Chinas economy and the move from manufacturing to more diversified model has left the Peoples Republic with surplus capacity and it is dumping cheap steel on overseas markets. Britain is vulnerable because of its relatively strong exchange rate vis-a-vis the euro, the high cost of energy in Britain relative to competitors and the nations strict adherence to carbon reduction targets. Green taxes hurt steel twice, both through the carbon levy and the climate change surcharges that pump up our energy costs. It is not much use the Government sitting on the side lines, wringing its hands and saying it will provide assistance to displaced workers. If you live in Redcar or Port Talbot, where the numbers of steel jobs have already come down from 20,000 in the 1960s to around 4,000 now, the choices for skilled steel workers are not exactly abundant. So what should the Tories do? The Government should not be afraid to challenge China, our new best trading friend (because of its investment in Hinckley and potentially HS2). It could, for instance, speed up anti-dumping actions through the EU. Contrast Europes sclerotic approach with that in the US where anti-dumping orders can be put in place in 45 days. As Trade Commissioner in 2006, Mandelson was robust and lost no time in imposing anti-dumping tariffs on China and Vietnam over imports of cheap shoe uppers than were killing European footwear manufacturers. In addition the Government could offer the steel owners a reprieve on business rates and temporarily provide relief from carbon taxes. It could direct the British Business Bank, which generally helps smaller businesses, to take a direct stake in the steel industry or offer loan guarantees. In terms of the future of British manufacturing and our economic security the case for preserving our steel capacity is overwhelming. New nuclear, HS2, the Northern Powerhouse, the trans-Pennine link, Crossrail 2, the Thames Tideway (or super-sewer) and the new tower blocks going up in the City of London all demand high quality steel of the kind in which Britain specialises. Our European partners insist on using native steel content. We should do the same. A spokesman for Tata said, 'Tata did not seek an 800 million bailout loan from the British government after the 2008 financial crisis impacted Jaguar Land Rover. Tata asked for loan guarantees to access loans available from the European Investment Bank and to support the thousands of jobs at risk, while itself investing more than 1 billion at that time. As a result, Jaguar Land Rover survived to create more than 20,000 jobs under Tata.' Going sour As Shell limbers up for this months shareholder vote on its 36billion deal with BG Group, it is showing grim determination to shed high cost projects. In its latest move Shell revealed that it is to pull out of a $10billion project with Abu Dhabi National Oil to develop the Bab sour gas field. Sour gas is complex to extract and process because of the high concentration of hydrogen sulphide. The project had been seen by Shell as a stepping stone to being the lead developer on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) largest onshore oilfield. Killing expensive projects is sensible in the current climate with Iran returning to the global market. But it may do nothing to persuade Shell investors of the wisdom of the BG offer in current highly volatile conditions. Fast track Is there any end to Jeff Bezoss ambition? Last year Amazons founder made five major purchases, ranging from an Israeli cloud computing firm to a footwear site. A year earlier he bought the Washington Post. His latest ambition is a fresh food service. A short cut could be online grocery and logistics pioneer Ocado which has seen its the market value plunge to 1.46billion. Chief executive Tim Steiner has so far failed to deliver the big international client he has been promising to add to his Morrisons and Waitrose contracts. Oil companies, banks and miners top the list of companies most loathed by NGOs and charities in Britain last year, a new study suggests. Shell came out as the least popular firm in Britain - and the world - among non-governmental organisations in 2015, NGO tracker Sigwatch suggests. BP and Rio Tinto took second and third place, while the 'dieselgate' scandal triggered Volkswagen to join the dismal rankings for the first time. Unpopular: In a list dominated by oil companies, banks and miners, Shell came out as the least popular firm in Britain - and the world - among non-governmental organizations in 2015, Sigwatch suggests German-based analysts Sigwatch monitor the issues and work of 6,500 non-government bodies from Greenpeace to Oxfam to Which? and local organisations campaigning in their own countries Shell attracted scorn from NGOs last year for its Arctic drilling plans. In a surprise announcement last September, Shell announced it had stopped Arctic oil and gas exploration off the coast of Alaska after 'disappointing' results from a key well in the Chukchi Sea. Volkswagen emerged as the fourth 'most criticised' company among NGOs in the UK last year as details surfaced of how the company fitted software devices designed to cheat emissions tests. In the banking sector, Standard Chartered, Barclays and HSBC took sixth, eighth and ninth place in the least popular rankings among NGOs in the UK last year. The banks drew criticism over issues including 'climate policy and carbon investments', Sigwatch said. MOST PRAISED FIRMS IN UK 1. Marks & Spencer 2. Unilever 3. Nestle 4. Associated British Foods 5. Tesco 6. IKEA 7. Sainsbury's 8. Coca-Cola 9. John Lewis Partnership 10. Barclays Bank MOST CRITICISED FIRMS IN UK 1. Shell 2. BP 3. Rio Tinto 4. VW 5. BHP Billiton 6. Standard Chartered Bank 7. Barclays 8. Nestle 9. HSBC 10. Glencore Interestingly as well as appearing at number seven in the most criticised list, Barclays also appears at ten in the most praised list. Tesco, Morrisons and Asda-owner Walmart also feature in the top 20 list of the least popular firms among NGOs last year. Online giant Amazon is the twentieth least popular firms among NGOs, the research adds. A spokesperson for Shell said: 'As one of the worlds best known brands, and given that our now-ended Alaska exploration project divided opinion, its hardly surprising that NGOs have targeted Shell in order to gain publicity for themselves. 'We will continue to engage with a wide range of constructive NGOs and other global partners to meet the challenge of ensuring a high-energy, low carbon, responsible energy future for our planet.' At the other end of the spectrum, UK-based Marks & Spencer topped the list of the most praised company in 2015, the findings suggest. Marks & Spencer didn't just generate praise in the UK. Globally, the company came out second in the list of the most praised companies last year, falling just behind Nestle. The reason for this is that companies like Marks & Spencer 'are used to responding quickly to consumer concerns and NGOs are being taken equally seriously', Sigwatch suggests. However, Marks & Spencer's recent Christmas sales results paint a less rosy picture. The retailer suffered a 5.8 per cent drop in quarterly sales of general merchandise in the run up to Christmas and its chief executive Marc Bolland is stepping down from the top job in April. Not liked by NGOs: BP and Rio Tinto took second and third place, while the 'Dieselgate' scandal triggered Volswagen to join the dismal rankings for the first time, Sigwatch said Attracting scorn: Most criticised companies in the UK in 2015, according to NGOs and findings by Sigwatch Seventy per cent of thousands of NGO campaigns reviewed by Sigwatch focused on large companies last year. Medium-sized companies were 'virtually ignored' and small businesses were only targeted by NGOs 'when they were accused of behaving badly', Sigwatch says. Companies eager to please NGOs - which include bodies like Which?, Green Peace and Amnesty International - should focus more on 'non-core' or supply-chain issues such as 'environmental impacts or sourcing of raw materials', the report suggests. Robert Blood, managing director of Sigwatch, told This is Money: 'NGOs exist to criticise, and they use criticism to agitate for change. 'However the clever NGOs have learnt that a judicious mix of criticism and praise - much like the classic carrot-and-stick approach - can be more effective than just criticism. Scandal: Last year, VW found itself embroiled in the 'dieselgate' scandal, admitting that it had fitted millions of its cars with emission test cheat devices Targeted sectors: Criticism-praise ratios among NGOs for companies across the world by sector, Sigwatch suggests 'The criticism embarrasses the company to consider changing a policy, and the praise is used to reward the company for making the change AND to shame its rivals to do the same. 'Leading companies will often experience successive waves of criticism and praise as NGOs attempt to racket up change on the issue in question or press on new issues, playing companies off each other. 'This is why major firms sometimes figure in both the most criticised and the most praised rankings, especially rankings for the same sector.' Praise: Embattled retailer Marks & Spencer came out as the second most praised firm in the UK by NGOs in 2015, Sigwatch suggests Shamed: BT boss John Petter receives the Money Mail Wooden Spoon award BT has vowed to take on 1,000 staff in Britain to help it sort out a customer service headache that resulted in it winning Money Mails 2015 Wooden Spoon Award. The telecoms firm confirmed plans to employ the staff to help it meet a target of answering more than 80 per cent of calls to its consumer arm from within the UK by the end of this year. BT will beef up its numbers between now and April 2017, including 100 more customer service advisers at its Swansea site and the rest spread across the UK at the groups other call centres. It is the second time in three years that BT has won the Wooden Spoon Award and took this years trophy with almost one in three of all votes cast. Complaints ranged from call-centre staff being unable to answer basic requests or call back when asked, to customers not being able to book engineers. In addition to the 1,000 extra advisers, BT (down 3.9p to 459.4p) has pledged to provide more staff training, invest 80million more in customer service and take on 1,000 more engineers. Customers soon will be able to book two-hour appointment slots for engineer visits instead of just requesting a morning or afternoon booking. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to cyber hacking, a law firm specialising in data protection has warned. While big names such as TalkTalk have seen their hacking scandals hit the headlines, small businesses could actually suffer more than their more established counterparts. With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that three-quarters of SMEs surveyed say they are concerned about a cyber attack. Harder hit: Many small business rely on the trust they have built up with their roster of clients Cyber-security lawyers Moore Blatch argue that the damage to reputation and loss of trust that could result from a cyber attack are more important to the success of an SME than a larger business. They tend to have more of a personal relationship with their customers, and a smaller contacts book, which can be hit harder by the aftermath of data hacking. Recent research carried out by the firm among 30 SMEs indicated 76 per cent were concerned about cyber-security, while 17 per cent had actually experienced a cyber-attack. Respondents were heads of department across a range of sectors who filled in the survey in November and December last year. More than one in five reported at least one incident of someone in their company being disciplined or dismissed for breach its social media policy, while more than half said they either limited or banned personal access to social media during work hours. New legislation means compensation can be sought by injured parties for emotional distress caused by the loss of data, even if the hacking didn't result in a financial loss. Paul Whitaker, a partner at Moore Blatch, said: 'The most commonly discussed financial cost relating to a cyber attack and loss of data is the potential fine from the Information Office Commissioner. 'But, while this should not be ignored, the real financial issues for many SMEs lie elsewhere, as the loss of the client's relationship and details about products and services lost could cause far greater emotional stress. 'Therefore, if an SME is hacked or loses client data, the claim for emotional distress could be far higher.' Rosa's Thai Cafe boss: 'I am worried about the financial issues of one of my colleagues not being careful' Small business savvy: Rosa's Thai Cafe takes steps to protect customer data Alex Moore, 46, is the managing director of Rosa's Thai Cafe, a chain of seven restaurants in central London. He is responsible for 130 staff and says recent events on the news have made him more conscious of the threat of cyber hacking. Moore says: 'Before my life as a restaurateur, I worked at a digital marketing company so I like all things tech. Looking at what is going on in the news with with data breaches and phishing attacks makes me realise the limited data we take could really harm our business if something goes wrong.' Alex Moore: Restauranteur with a tech background Moore sees his responsibilities falling into two areas - payment protection and data protection. 'Around 80 per cent of our payments are on card and when we take card numbers we have to make sure other people are not writing them down. So I am worried about the financial issues of one of my colleagues not being careful.' Card readers at Rosa's have PCI DSS, the data standard for card readers, which checks that fraudsters haven't logged in to the IP network. Businesses who use the computer program are also sent questionnaires on best practice around taking payments so they don't forget to be vigilant. The restaurateur adds: 'Because I have a bit of tech knowledge I look at the way data is shared and only give access to people who need it, and we also look at what people who are leaving have access to. 'We have a dropbox where some things are also stored in the cloud, so I can retrieve it from their laptop as well.' Aside from staff best practice, there is also the issue of keeping customer information safe. Moore says: 'It's also the data from reservations, deliveries and newsletters - imagine if someone stole the file of all the people who have complained, they could do something nasty with that. So you have to make sure all data is kept secure.' He adds: 'Little things like that you can put in place to make sure we do not damage our reputation and customers, or even ending up getting prosecuted. It's a balance of compliance and getting on with your business.' Raj Samani is chief technical officer of software company Intel Security, covering the EMEA region. He says that small firms are right to be vigilant. 'Over the past few months, we have seen a significant rise in the number of cyber attacks on large-scale corporations. 'However, small business owners would be wrong to assume that this means they are safe from cyber criminals. Even the smallest companies often hold a wealth of customer data that can prove very profitable to criminally-minded hackers. 'Moreover, smaller firms can often provide direct access to larger companies. Failing to implement adequate security measures can leave the door open to hackers and larger-scale attacks.' Small businesses are being stung to the tune of 4billion a year by Britain's biggest banks thanks to effective fees for overseas payments that are far higher than quoted charges, according to research. As much as 96 per cent of the true costs of making international transfers are concealed from the customer in skewed exchange rates, says currency firm Money Mover. It said that the average transaction cost charged by Britain's six biggest banks on a transfer of 75,000 was 1,822 - or 2.43 per cent. But total costs vary wildly, creating a lottery for small and medium-sized enterprises. The research estimated that the total cost of using the most expensive of six big banks, Barclays, to transfer 75,000 into euros came to 2,775.82 (or 3.7 per cent) - although the bank rejected the findings as inaccurate and misleading. Fees lottery: The study suggests the vast majority of the revenue (96 per cent) for a bank comes from the margin they add to the exchange rate they receive from the money markets known as the 'spread'. The total cost at Barclays was more than double the 1,187.15 they would have been charged by Santander, which came out in this report as the cheapest of the big six banks for international payments. Yet both amounts significantly dwarf the advertised fixed fees for both services, which are just 5 to 25 for Barclays and 12 for Santander. So with the fixed fees accounting for some a tiny proportion of the overall cost to the SME, where are banks levying their charges? The study suggests the vast majority of the revenue (96 per cent) for a bank comes from the margin they add to the exchange rate they receive from the money markets known as the spread. Money Mover, which offers a rival service to the banks, says this charge is 'hidden in the exchange rate, therefore the SME will never see it - even though it makes up the majority of the amount that the bank charges'. WHAT THE BANKS CHARGE ON EXCHANGING 75,000 TO EUROS GBP to EUR GBP amount EUR amount Bank Rate Mid-Market rate FX Spread Cost Fixed Fees Total spread (including fixed fees) Total cost of transaction Barclays 75,000 98,917.50 1.3189 1.3675 3.68% 15 3.71% 2,775.82 Lloyds 75,000 99,097.50 1.3213 1.3571 2.71% 15 2.73% 2,047.09 NatWest 75,000 101,864.62 1.3582 1.3906 2.38% 12 2.40% 1,799.76 HSBC 75,000 98,845.88 1.3179 1.3482 2.29% 4 2.30% 1,723.44 RBS 75,000 100,664.78 1.3422 1.367 1.85% 12 1.86% 1,395.75 Santander 75,000 101,288.51 1.3505 1.3714 1.55% 25 1.58% 1,187.15 Source: Accourt research for Money Mover, research conducted between September 23 and October 26 2015. At the time the data was compiled, the total cost at Lloyds was second most expensive at 2.73 per cent or 2,047.09, and RBS was second cheapest after Santander at 1.86 per cent or 1,395.75. Of the average 1,822 cost, Money Mover found '1,807 is based on the spread which is hidden from the customer'. Overall, SMEs will pay between 1.12 per cent and 3.68 per cent of the transfer amount due to spread, the company found. The table from the Money Mover report shows how the bank's stack up for transaction costs. Number crunching: This is a table published by Barclays giving a breakdown of its International Tariff fees, effective of 26 October 2015 Money Mover boss Hamish Anderson told This is Money all the figures published in the report were the result of desk-based research, interviews with the banks and analysis of their customers' internet banking platforms. This allowed the comparison of what had been charged for previous transactions compared to historic exchange rates published as mid-market rates. The research highlighted banks' lack of transparency about costs. The report stated: 'Some banks do not even guarantee an exchange rate until the transfer has been made; this means that if the customer gives an order to the bank to do a transfer of 10,000 in a weeks time the FX rate might be unknown until the transfer is executed on that date. This makes the comparison and decision making process for SMEs extremely challenging.' Anderson said: 'When it comes to international payments, its clear that the UKs major banks are overcharging and underserving their SME customers. 'WHY WE USE MONEY MOVER' Adrian Watson is the financial director of Money Mover customer Azuri Technologies. The company provides pay-as-you-go solar cell technology to sub-Saharan Africa and earns its revenue in US dollars but incurs its overheads in sterling. It makes transactions worth around 100,000 once a month between sterling and dollar accounts. He used to make the transactions through two accounts with Barclays, which he says was 'hugely expensive', costing 2 to 3 per cent per time. Now he pays 0.75 per cent with Money Mover. 'We're still at a loss-making stage of our company so every penny counts,' says Watson. 'The UKs banks are collectively failing to give SMEs the knowledge, transparency and visibility which they need to make an intelligent and informed decision. This lack of transparency is not only unfair and uncompetitive, its also costing the UKs SMEs precious cash in unnecessary fees.' This is Money contacted the banks for their reaction to the research and the criticism levelled at them. Several said the figures published in the report were at odds with their own records. Barclays went as far as to say it didn't recognise any of the figures. A spokesperson said: 'We wholeheartedly disagree with the figures used in this survey - they are not an accurate reflection of the rates offered under a comparison scenario and we would challenge the robustness of the methodology.' While Barclays didn't provide us with a like-for-like alternative set of figures to those included in the Money Mover table above, a spokesperson said that an SME customer needing to buy 75,000 worth of euros at 10am on Friday January 15 would have been offered a rate of 1.2961 versus a mid-market rate of 1.31196.. They would pay 5 if they transacted via online business banking (which is outlined in the table of fees on its International Tariff as of October 26 above) and end up with 97,207.50. By comparison, if the same customer had used the Money Mover service at the same time, its chief executive told us the rate they would have been quoted was 1.3097. They would have been charged an 'all-inclusive fee of 0.75 per cent (standard on transaction of between 10,000 and 100,000) and ended up with 98,227.75, which is just over 1,020 more than they would have got from Barclays. Santander and HSBC declined to comment on the research and Lloyds has yet to issue a statement but RBS told This is Money: 'We question the accuracy of this report, and the figures used for both the NatWest and RBS examples.' The bank's statement continued: 'We make sure that we provide all our customers with a number of different options when making international transfers, enabling them to make the most appropriate decision based on their individual circumstances.' Barclays also insisted that transparency isn't an issue for its customers. Its spokesperson added: 'Our customers are presented with an exchange rate and price quote before they accept and proceed with a transaction. We work hard to offer simple, fair and competitive pricing for our clients and review charges to make sure they reflect the changing ways our clients decide to transact with us.' But Money Mover's Anderson insisted that the banks' lack of transparency was indeed a key issue for his customers who come to the company as an alternative to some banking foreign exchange services. He gave the example of a Cambridge-based IT firm with EU government contracts which previously had a euro account with Barclays before switching to Money Mover's services. Anderson said that the company was unaware that it was being charged 2.79 per cent every time it transferred money between its euro and sterling accounts with the bank. Humphrey Percy, chairman of SGM Foreign Exchange, said that he has some sympathy with the bank reaction to the Money Mover report because of the difficulty in making cost comparisons. 'Unless each bank was asked to give its rates for exactly the same transaction for the same customer and the same time then it's not really a fair comparison,' he said. 'Sometimes the rates charged by the banks will be much less than the figures included in the Money Mover research but the converse it also true. At certain times they will be much greater.' However, he added that he recognised and broadly agreed with the approach Money Mover's research had taken to calculating the costs of exchange and exposing a lack of transparency. Taavet Hinrikus, chief executive and co-founder of online money transfer service TransferWise, told This is Money: 'Theres a complete lack of transparency in the industry and that means that all customers whether individuals or small businesses are suffering. 'Banks often hide additional charges by putting a mark-up on the exchange rate or even by not being open about the fee itself. For example, the bank may advertise a fee of between 4 and 25 but then you see that youre missing a whole lot more once the money has been transferred. 'Our advice would be to shop around, always check the real exchange rate for the day on Reuters as a point of comparison, and to look at alternative providers to your bank. A 75,00 transaction into euros with TransferWise would cost just 0.5 per cent of the transaction amount and would be sent at the real inter-bank exchange rate, so a cost of around 375 in this case. Whats more, this fee is always completely transparent. You know before you hit send exactly how much the transaction will cost you.' The company is campaigning for an end to hidden forex charges. Hinrikus said: 'The Government made an election pledge to stop misleading pricing in foreign exchange, and wed like to see them deliver on this promise this year.' International trade is worth more than 700 billion to UK SMEs, according to management consultants McKinsey&Co. A bush dentist has removed two rotten teeth from a man using only a pair of pliers, a wooden bat and some cardboard. The spine-tingling footage uploaded to YouTube on Saturday was filmed in Coober Pedy, South Australia, which is known as the the opal capital of the world. The cameraman, Thomas Bell from the Czech Republic was visiting his partner's father- a retired opal farmer- in January 2015, when he met a man only identifiable as Greg who complained of tooth pain. Scroll down for video Two of Greg's rotten teeth were removed by a bush dentist using only a pair of pliers, a wooden bat and some cardboard in Coober Pedy, South Australia 'Greg had little income and little work. As a joke we offered to pull his teeth out for him. He accepted and that was that,' Mr Bell said. 'My partners father played the part of the dentist, and I the cameraman.' The video shows the surprisingly calm Greg attaching a pair of pliers to a rotten tooth, before biting down on a piece of cardboard, preventing him from chipping his remaining teeth. Greg doesn't flinch as he clamps down on a piece of cardboard (pictured) while the bush dentist uses a wooden bat (pictured) to knock the pliers (pictured) upwards, extracting the rotten tooth Greg doesn't flinch as the dentist uses a wooden bat to knock the pliers upwards, extracting the rotten tooth. The teeth popped from their sockets with ease Mr Bell said. The dentist exclaims, Bobs your uncle signifying a job well done as he hands the tooth back to Greg. Showing no signs of pain Greg thanks the dentist and says to the camera, Hey were tough in the bush. Bob's your uncle- The bush dentist hands back Greg's tooth (pictured) after extracting it with a pair of pliers (pictured) The spine-tingling footage (pictured) was filmed in Coober Pedy, known as the opal capital of the world in Southern Australia Using the same primitive technique the bush dentist knocks out another rotten tooth, although this time it takes two whacks of the wooden bat against the pliers. After the short session the Aussie bushman gets up from his chair, which is now dripping with blood and says, Thank you. F***ing dentists. Greg had no pain relief or any other outback anaesthetics such as alcohol said Mr Bell. 'Greg grinned through the pain. A true Aussie with a true Aussie smile.' Greg's teeth popped from their sockets with ease Mr Bell said A sixth form college in a deprived part of east London has outdone some of the countrys top public schools by winning eight offers of places at Oxford and Cambridge. Every one of the pupils bound for Oxbridge at the London Academy of Excellence in Stratford is from an immigrant background, with several having unemployed parents or living in council homes. Meanwhile, only a single pupil at 30,000-a-year Scottish public school Gordonstoun, attended by Prince Charles, has received an Oxbridge offer this year according to reports. Bright futures: Seven of the pupils bound for Oxbridge. Clockwise from left, Sarah Temesgen, Zahra Seyyad, Supti Akhtar, Nuzhaat Ghani, Abed Akond, Nobel Basser and Reiss Akhtar Just five from Sherborne public school in Dorset have been accepted, along with a mere three at Bedales in Hampshire both of which charge boarders around 33,000 a year. The London Academy of Excellence nicknamed the Eton of the East End is a selective free school for pupils aged 16 to 18, which opened three years ago. It is a few minutes from the Olympic Park built for the 2012 games, and receives as many as 2,500 applicants for 200 places. But it seems middle-class pupils from further afield are not taking over as is the case with some top state schools as around half the intake is made up of locals from the London Borough of Newham, one of the most deprived areas in England. Four-fifths of the pupils are from families in which no one has attended university, while a quarter are on free school meals. HOW THEY DID IT: Three of the pupils revealed how they overcame adversity to gain Oxbridge offers: Zahra Seyyad, 17, French and Spanish at Trinity College, Cambridge: The daughter of Pakistani parents who came to Britain just three years ago via Italy, Zahra was initially taught at home. There was no school place for me when we came to England, she said. I wanted to start my GCSE study so I drew up a programme of work and taught myself. Passed ten GCSEs. Reiss Akhtar, 17, English at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge: Reisss mother is a dinner lady, while his father is unemployed. He lives in a three-bed council house in East Ham, Newham, sharing a room with his older sister. He studied GCSEs at Kingsford Community School in nearby Beckton, where three pupils have reportedly been stabbed to death. Supti Akhtar, 17, History at Oxford: Suptis father drives a taxi after dropping out of university in Bangladesh to get a job. Her mother left school young. She said: I am the only Muslim girl I know who is thinking of leaving her family but I think it will be good to broaden my cultural circle. Advertisement Some 70 per cent are from ethnic minorities. Applicants must have at least five GCSE A grades, while the focus is on traditional A-level subjects rather than modern options seen as less rigorous. Teenagers are expected to wear suits to lessons and remain in school until 5pm. Headmaster John Weeks said high aspirations were a key factor behind the eight Oxbridge offers this year which are conditional on the pupils achieving their expected A-level results. Mr Weeks, previously deputy head at the independent Brighton College, said: Their parents have worked really hard in often difficult and low-paid jobs. 'They have seen what their parents have had to go through and they are very highly motivated. He claims the schools secret is expert teachers who love their subject and sixth-formers with the mindset to succeed. It is partnered with six fee-paying schools across south-east England Eton, Brighton College, Highgate School, Caterham School, Forest School and University College School. One member of teaching staff has been struck off every other school day for the last two years. Typical causes for being sacked include forming relationships with pupils, taking drugs and alcohol onto school premises, and failing to protect vulnerable students. Head teachers and other senior staff are among those reprimanded by National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) since the start of 2014. Struck off: Some 194 have been suspended from the profession, for reasons including voyeurism, assault and fraud (file photo) Of the 230 investigations which advanced to NCTL panel stage for a decision during that time, some 194 were banned from the profession - roughly one case every two days for each of the 190 days in a school year, analysis of Government figures shows. Among the 196, some 46 related to them either being convicted of an offence or receiving a caution for crimes ranging from battery and fraud to voyeurism and motoring convictions. The majority of investigations (159) featured allegations against the staff member relating to sexual activity, inappropriate relationships or general inappropriate behaviour. Fraud, falsifying documents and financial irregularities featured in 41 cases, dating back to the start of last year. Allegations involving alcohol (20), exam malpractice (17) and safeguarding issues (11) also featured. The majority (148) of investigations involved male staff, this is despite females making up 80% of the full-time equivalent number of employees working in schools, according to the latest government figures. Banned: Of the 230 investigations which advanced to NCTL panel stage for a decision during that time, some 194 were banned from the profession - roughly one case every two days for each of the 190 days in a school year, analysis of Government figures shows (file photo) There were just 80 complaints against women, although the names, age and sex of staff members brought before the panel was withheld on a handful of occasions. Staff in the 30s were more likely to be investigated than any other age group, accounting for more than one-in-four panel decision (28%). Those in their 40s (26%) and 50s (25%) were more likely to be investigated than those in their 20s (11%), 60s (9%) and 70s (1%), analysis of the NCTL figures showed. Of those investigated, more than 100 were struck off completely with no scope for a return to education. National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said: 'Every case of teacher misconduct of course needs to be treated seriously and investigated effectively for the safety of pupils. Skewed statistics: The majority (148) of investigations involved male staff, this is despite females making up 80% of the full-time equivalent number of employees working in schools, according to the latest government figures (file photo) 'It has to be remembered however that out of the hundreds of thousands of teachers overall the number of cases of such serious misconduct within the profession are relatively low.' Government figures from 2011 show the majority of allegations brought against school staff are false and never reach any disciplinary procedure or prosecution. Ms Blower added: 'The process for investigating and considering allegations is often drawn out, and far too frequently teachers are suspended for long periods on flimsy and unsubstantiated evidence. 'What is important is that any allegations are investigated thoroughly and quickly, according to fair and transparent processes, so that teachers and parents can have faith in the systems for dealing with misconduct.' Result: Government figures from 2011 show the majority of allegations brought against school staff are false and never reach any disciplinary procedure or prosecution (file photo) Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'According to the latest data 454,900 teachers are employed in state schools in England. The number banned therefore represents 0.04% of the workforce. 'Schools in England adhere to the highest professional standards and school leaders and governors act decisively and promptly in cases of misconduct in the recognition that one single case is one too many.' A Department for Education spokesman said: 'Nothing is more important than keeping our children safe, and where there is evidence that children are at risk we will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action. Middle class savers could lose up to a third of their pension pots if proposed changes to tax relief go ahead. Chancellor George Osborne is trying to save billions by cutting the amount of tax relief the Government offers. But analysts have warned potential changes would hit middle income workers hardest, and could see them miss out on tens of thousands of pounds. Critics say Osborne's plan could have 'disastrous effect' on encouraging people to save for retirement Critics have labelled the plans a stealth tax, which could have a disastrous effect on whether people can afford retirement. A 40-year-old earning around 50,000 a year stands to miss out on up to 175,000 by the age of 65 if Mr Osborne scraps the tax relief perk altogether. Other options being considered would see the same worker losing out on between 44,000 and 110,000 by the time they retire, according to pension provider Fidelity. Currently, workers earning 42,385 or more higher rate income tax payers receive a tax-free boost of 2 from the Government for every 3 they save into a pension. It means they typically get around 42 per cent more back than they invested when they retire, once income tax paid on withdrawing pensions is taken into account. But proposed changes could see tax relief cut dramatically or scrapped altogether. In the worst cases, savers could lose money. It is expected the Chancellor will choose to make the system fairer by changing the tax relief rates of 20 per cent for basic rate taxpayers and 40 per cent for higher-rate tax payers to a flat level of either 33, 25 or 20 per cent. Currently higher rate taxpayers only have to invest 60 to get 100 in their pension pot. But if tax relief is dropped to 33 per cent, they will receive just 90 for the same investment. This falls to 80 if it is cut to 25 per cent, and 75 if slashed to 20 per cent. The Chancellor may even approve another proposal under consideration to drop tax relief altogether and treat pensions like ISAs by allowing them to be withdrawn tax-free. But this would mean most people would not make any money from saving into a pension so fewer workers would be encouraged to put money away for retirement. Alan Higham, of PensionsChamp.com, said the changes could have a disastrous effect on encouraging people to save. It is a big stealth tax which will raise a lot of money from people who wont always realise what is being done to them, he said. People dont look at their pensions in the same way they do their bank accounts ... It means they are so easy [for the Government] to raid by reductions. Richard Parkin of Fidelity said: Its tempting to think of higher-rate taxpayers as super wealthy but higher rate tax starts for those earning around 43,000. Changes to higher rate tax-relief will ...have a big impact on many people whove worked hard to get on. Its likely to mean that therell be less money going into pensions for these people which means theyll have to save more or look forward to a less comfortable retirement. A New Hampshire school board official has been banned from school property after discussing how he would carry out a mass shooting during a budget meeting. Jorge Mesa-Tejada, a member of the Hampstead School Advisory Budget Committee, said he would hide in the woods behind the school and wait until recess before massacring students. Tejada, a former Marine, was debating constructing new classrooms at Hampstead School, and addressing fears that exterior buildings left children vulnerable in the event of a shooting. Jorge Mesa-Tejada, a member of the Hampstead School Advisory Budget Committee, has been condemned after he described how he would carry out a mass shooting during a budget meeting He said: 'The issue of safety for students going from the portables to the main building was emphasized based on today's situation - that we may have snipers anywhere shooting people. 'Well, that is true, it could happen, but based on my Marine Corps training, if I wanted to really do harm, I would not do it when they went from the portables to the main building. 'I would wait until recess, I would hide in the woods behind them and I would have a field day. This is an absurd situation, it makes no sense.' At that point nervous laughter can be heard throughout the room, and another man cautions him, adding 'no more, no more'. Tejada can then be heard mumbling some further remarks before discussing the budget again. Following his extraordinary outburst, Tejada was condemned by Superintendent Earl Metzler and school board Chairman Jason Cipriano. During a discussion about how portable cabins could leave students exposed during a mass shooting attack, Tejada said he would hide in woods behind the school and open fire at recess instead In a letter, seen by WMUR9, they wrote: 'We take seriously these offensive and disgusting statements made by Mr. Mesa-Tejada and wholeheartedly denounce his behavior and blatant display of disregard for our children and their safety.' Speaking separately to CW39, Mr Cipriano added: 'I couldn't even begin to explain how someone goes from a discussion about a bond article and talking about the construction at the school to detailing how he would commit a mass shooting.' Mr Metzler added: 'Disturbing, disgusting, outraged, some emotions that come to mind, both as a parent of children in the school district and as a superintendent.' Britain's top policeman Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is facing calls to personally apologise to Lord Bramall (pictured) for his ten-month child sex abuse hell Britain's top policeman was last night facing a barrage of calls to personally apologise to war hero Lord Bramall for his ten-month child sex abuse hell. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was accused of running a 'Stasi'-style police force after Scotland Yard's bungled investigation into the D-Day veteran ended in fiasco. The row over the Metropolitan Police's treatment of the 92-year-old Field Marshal a former head of the Army exploded after police revealed late on Friday that there was 'insufficient' evidence to charge him. But Met Commissioner Sir Bernard set to be awarded a contract extension by the Home Secretary has no plans to express any regret for the pursuit of the soldier. As demands for a full apology to Lord Bramall increased: There were calls for abuse fantasists to be prosecuted for wasting police time; Sources said the shambolic 2 million VIP child sex abuse and murder inquiry, Operation Midland, is likely to be wound up before Easter; Broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, held on police bail for 12 months over similarly false claims, likened the Met to the 'KGB'. Prime Minister David Cameron said it would be wrong for him to demand the Met apologised over any specific case but he said Lord Bramall was a 'wonderful man', adding authorities who make a mistake should be 'big enough to give people some comfort'. Gambaccini said last night: 'The Metropolitan Police must apologise to the nation's most decorated war hero. It is unspeakable that a British police force should torment an innocent man for 12 months in a case that is 100 per cent fraud, as happened with me and has happened again with Lord Bramall, without apologising. 'The British police now enter an innocent man's home in force, regardless of the time of day or night, seize his possessions and publicise his name in the hope that more people will accuse him. 'When they fail, as they must and as they have in almost all such cases, they never admit error, they never apologise, and they never use the word 'innocent'. 'The Metropolitan Police of Bernard Hogan-Howe stand squarely in the lineage of the KGB and the Stasi. It is unfit for purpose in a just society. It faces only two conceivable futures root-and-branch reform or disestablishment. The Commissioner himself faces only two possible futures resignation or the sack.' Under fire: Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe (left) has been accused of running a 'Stasi'-style police force. He has also been called on to make a personal apology to Lord Bramall by Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfield (right) Lord Bramall (right) with the Queen at a parade marking the 50th anniversary of VJ Day in 1995 Anthony Stansfeld, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley who served under Lord Bramall in the Army said: 'The very least Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe should now do is put his best uniform on, get into his new Range Rover, and drive down to Lord Bramall's house and make a personal apology.' Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who has been accused of murder and serial abuse by 'Nick' allegations he fiercely denies said: 'I think Sir Bernard should get down on his hands and knees and apologise to Lord Bramall.' Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Mr Cameron said: 'He is a wonderful man with a great record of serving our country and I think what happened to him would have been very distressing.' INQUIRY COST TAXPAYERS 2M The ill-fated Operation Midland inquiry has cost taxpayers more than 2million. Launched in November 2014, the inquiry is estimated to cost 1.8million a year in staffing costs alone. This does not include the cost of travel, equipment and expert advice, and it is not clear if it includes the overtime bill. In a typically opaque Freedom of Information response last November, the Met said the operation 'costs approximately 1.8million per year', adding: 'This is staffing costs only.' The force said this was the cost of a 'murder investigation team', but declined to say how many officers and staff were involved. Other requests under the Act, which many chief constables have been lobbying to weaken further, were declined. Like other forces, the Met is under considerable financial pressure, leading its commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, to warn that further cuts could endanger London. It has already had to close stations and slim down neighbourhood policing teams because of the squeeze. Advertisement But he added: 'I think it is very difficult for a prime minister to get involved in these arguments because the police and the prosecuting services must be free to follow the evidence where it leads and go after people, no matter how high and mighty they are. 'But if they feel they get it wrong, I hope they can feel big enough to give people some comfort afterwards.' London Mayor Boris Johnson called for an apology in his Daily Telegraph column today. He said: 'It is pretty clear that Field Marshal Lord Bramall is owed a full and heartfelt apology.' Mr Johnson acknowledged the 'extreme difficulty' police faced when it came to investigating such cases, saying it was Lord Bramall's prominence as an establishment figure that meant they felt the need to show 'a scrupulous refusal to be intimidated'. He wrote: 'The police have a duty to follow the evidence - wherever it takes them. Imagine if it turned out that they had gone soft on the Field Marshal, just because he was so well connected. 'You can't blame the police, in the current climate, for taking no chances, though I can imagine that such evidence may be treated with even more circumspection. In this case they were plainly barking up the wrong tree. 'I hope a way will be found of making amends, because being a British war hero didn't help Bramall against these allegations; on the contrary, there was a sense in which his status simply made things worse. 'He deserves to put the last year behind him and accept the continued thanks of his country.' It was at 8.27pm on Friday that Scotland Yard made a dramatic climbdown on the Bramall case, following months of growing fears that the case against him built on the evidence of a man known by the pseudonym 'Nick' was groundless. 'Nick', now regarded by a number of detectives as a Walter Mitty fantasist, had alleged that Lord Bramall, Britain's most decorated living soldier, abused him at a military base more than 30 years ago. 'Nick' has also made separate allegations of triple murder against an Establishment paedophile gang. Despite Nick's claims not being corroborated, 20 officers raided the war hero's home at breakfast time last March and spent ten hours rifling through his possessions as his terminally ill wife was 'shunted' from room to room. Lord Bramall was later interviewed under caution over the allegations. Yesterday Lord Bramall told the Mail: 'It's not for me to say whether there should be an independent inquiry. I think questions should be asked of the police. I get fed up of independent inquiries, they cost a lot of money and go on for years and no one takes much notice of them.' Of the letter from the police on Friday, informing him he would not be charged, he said: 'The clearance was a very grudging acceptance there was no case against me.' In the letter, the officer in charge of the inquiry, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, could not bring himself to make it clear there was no evidence and, cruelly, left the door open for a fresh investigation. Last night Mr Rodhouse said: 'I've got nothing to say.' Thirteen months after Scotland Yard declared it believed Nick's allegations to be 'credible and true', no reliable evidence has been found to support his lurid claims. The force has publicly retreated from its claim that 'Nick' was telling the truth. Lord Bramall in 2000 (left) and as a lieutenant, recieving his MC from Field Marshall Montgomery in 1945 (right) Put VIP abuse fantasists in dock: Police urged to act against false accusers whose claims blighted lives of innocent Barrage of outrage: Lord Bramall (pictured) said 'Nick' the man responsible for vile claims against him should now face justice himself Scotland Yard was under mounting pressure last night to put historic VIP child abuse 'fantasists' in the dock. The force was told to urgently examine whether some of the leading voices behind the 'scandal' were guilty of breaking the law. Senior officers also faced calls to consider whether they could be guilty of perverting the course of justice or wasting police time. The barrage of outrage was led by Lord Bramall, who said 'Nick' the man responsible for vile claims against him should now face justice himself. All charges against the war hero and former Army chief were dropped last Friday as police said there was insufficient evidence to proceed. His demand for justice was backed by figures from across the political spectrum, who said investigators should examine the claims of several 'victims' and Exaro, the controversial online news agency which gave them a platform. Last night the D-Day hero was also weighing up whether to sue Scotland Yard over the flawed year-long child-sex inquiry. The 92-year-old, a veteran of the Normandy landings, endured the indignity of his home being raided at dawn on March 4 last year by 20 police officers on the basis of a single complaint by a witness known only as 'Nick'. At the time, Avril, his wife of 66 years, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. She died last summer without knowing her war veteran husband had been cleared. Lord Bramall said he had been 'through hell' since being confronted with claims that he had raped and molested 'Nick' between 1976 and 1984 at a military base in the West Country. Speaking to a Sunday newspaper, Lord Bramall described the strain of being embroiled in a 'sinister witch-hunt' following 'bizarre and grotesque' allegations that he tortured and sexually abused young boys. 'I think he (his accuser) should be [prosecuted],' he said. 'My lawyer says the complainant ought to be prosecuted for wasting police time but it is not for me to say what the police should do. 'It was all based on wild statements by 'Nick' which were so bizarre and outrageous and grotesque, any normal policeman would have realised they were complete fantasy. For a 91-year-old man with a dying wife, it hasn't been easy for me and for the family. NICK'S OUTRAGEOUS ALLEGATIONS Operation Midland began after a man known only as 'Nick' made allegations in 2014 that he was abused by a VIP paedophile gang linked to Westminster. Here the Mail assesses his most outrageous claims: LORD BRAMALL ACCUSED OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM: 'Nick' claimed Lord Bramall raped and molested him at a military base between 1976 and 1984. OUTCOME: Scotland Yard grudgingly admits there is 'insufficient evidence'. In reality there was no evidence. TORY MP KILLED A YOUNG BOY CLAIM: 'Nick' told police that then Tory MP Harvey Proctor throttled a 12-year-old boy to death in front of him during a sex orgy at Dolphin Square, a luxury apartment complex near Parliament which was popular with Establishment figures. Later, Mr Proctor allegedly raped and threatened to castrate 'Nick' with a penknife, but was stopped by former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. OUTCOME: Police raided Mr Proctor's home last year but no victim has ever been identified or a body found. The case is ongoing. Accused: A man known as 'Nick' told police that the Tory MP Harvey Proctor (left) throttled a boy to death in front of him during a sex orgy. Former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath (right) was accused of raping 'Nick' EDWARD HEATH ABUSED 'NICK' CLAIM: The former Prime Minister is accused of raping 'Nick'. Wiltshire police are probing historical abuse allegations made against Sir Edward and appealed for witnesses outside the late PM's Salisbury home. OUTCOME: Inquiries ongoing. MINISTER SAW A SECOND BOY MURDERED CLAIM: 'Nick' said a second boy was killed by two unknown men in the presence of an unnamed Tory minister during an orgy. OUTCOME: No victim identified and no witness has come forward. FLOWN TO PARIS AND ABUSED CLAIM: 'Nick' said he was flown to Paris and sexually abused in France by members of the Saudi royal family. OUTCOME: Police officers have fruitlessly taken him to several airfields in the hope he might identify where he was allegedly smuggled out of the country. LORD BRITTAN ACCUSED CLAIM: 'Nick' told police that then Home Secretary Leon Brittan raped and molested him. A separate allegation that he raped a 19-year-old woman known as 'Jane' in 1967 was made in November 2012. OUTCOME: Police have found no credible evidence to substantiate 'Nick' but inquiries continue even though Lord Brittan is dead. Police also found 'no evidence' to support Jane's claims and that case is closed. BOY RUN OVER BY PAEDOPHILES CLAIM: 'Nick' claimed a boy aged ten or 11 was deliberately run down and killed by a car in Kingston, South-West London, in broad daylight between May and July 1979. OUTCOME: Police have been unable to find any evidence to support the claim. BBC1's Panorama programme established that it could not possibly have taken place. ABUSED BY HIS STEPFATHER CLAIM: In 2012, 'Nick' made an allegation of historic child sexual abuse against his stepfather. He did not refer to VIP paedophiles or murders. He later said his stepfather introduced him to the Westminster VIP abuse ring. OUTCOME: Because his stepfather died in 1995, the claims were not investigated. Advertisement 'My wife had Alzheimer's and when the police came she was downstairs. She kept on saying what are all these people doing and I couldn't explain it. She was very distressed. Given my distinguished career, to have 20 policemen come through your house for ten hours, it was a bit rough.' Lord Bramall said: 'The police say they didn't leak it but they kept on talking about it. When they searched the house they had 20 police for ten hours in the middle of the village and the police had lunch in the pub five minutes away. If that is not making sure the public knows about it, I don't know what is.' He added: 'The police have rather grudgingly said they are not pursuing the case. Well, we all knew that they couldn't, because there was nothing to pursue. I was hoping for rather more than that. But I'm going see my lawyer on Monday and talk about whether we'll go back to the police and say: 'Can't you do a bit better than that?' The Met responded to the criticism by saying it fears future victims could be put off by media scrutiny and their needs must come first. The raids were first publicised by Exaro, an obscure website with close links to the increasingly discredited 'Nick'. 'Nick' is a serial fantasist yet has remained anonymous, but a war hero's name, Lord Bramall, has been made public Tory grandee David Mellor Last night, former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, 69, who remains under investigation based on his claims, said 'abuse fantasists' should be charged with criminal offences. He said: 'If 'Nick' is not mentally ill and I assume the Metropolitan Police has examined this issue then he should stand trial for perverting the course of justice and wasting police time. 'At the very least, he should be investigated for these offences. The Met's continued investigation of me reeks of vengeance in the light of my public statement on the case last August.' BBC Radio 2 DJ Paul Gambaccini, who spent 12 months on police bail over false sex allegations before being cleared, agreed. He said: 'In the dozens of false accusations made against famous people during the witch-hunt, no one has been charged with wasting police time, squandering millions of pounds of taxpayer money, or tormenting innocent individuals. 'This is because, by law, the British police and Crown Prosecution Service cosset and protect their false accusers, without whom they could not conduct a witch-hunt. False accusers should be prosecuted or, if appropriate, offered medical assistance.' Tory grandee David Mellor said the allegations by 'Nick' were an 'insult to our intelligence'. He added: 'Nick' is a serial fantasist yet has remained anonymous, but a war hero's name, Lord Bramall, has been made public. 'Nick' should be exposed and prosecuted for wasting police time.' Tory MP Colonel Bob Stewart added: 'Why can't they bring charges against the man making these claims? When you make an accusation against someone like Edwin Bramall and it doesn't stand up, you should face the consequences.' Clinton's emails were addressed to Diane Reynolds, an alias that Chelsea Clinton used The emails also revealed Chelsea's response to her mother's message But the Obama Administration later described it as a spontaneous protest Hillary Clinton told her daughter that that two officers had been killed, and attributed the attack to an Al-Qaeda group Hillary Clinton sent an email to her daughter Chelsea the night of the Benghazi attacks in which she claimed an 'Al-Qaeda-like group' carried out the assault, it has been revealed. In the emails, she told Chelsea, under the alias Diane Reynolds, that two officers had been killed, and attributed the attack to an Al-Qaeda group rather than a spontaneous protest at the Obama Administration later described it. 'Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Qaeda-like group: The Ambassador, whom I handpicked and a young communications officer on temporary duty w a wife and two young children. Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow,' she wrote in the email. Emails from the night of the Benghazi attacks were addressed to Diane Reynolds, an alias that Chelsea Clinton used Clinton told her daughter that that two officers had been killed, and attributed the attack to an Al-Qaeda group, rather than a spontaneous protest at the Obama Administration later described it. The emails also revealed Chelsea's response to her mother's message, according to NBC News. 'I am so sorry about the State Department officer killed in Libya and the ongoing precariousness in Egypt and Libya,' Chelsea wrote to her mother. She added: 'Such anathema to us as Americans - and a painful reminder or how long it took modernism to take root in the US, after the Enlightenment, the 14th, 15th, 16th 19th amendments, removal of censorship norms and laws, etc. 'Heading to bed to read. A strange day here. Another bright blue beautiful chilly September 11th.' On Sunday, Hillary Clinton said that the FBI has not contacted her regarding its probe of whether she held classified information on her private email server. Asked on CNN's State of the Union whether she had been interviewed by the FBI yet, the former secretary of state replied, 'No', and did not elaborate. The September 11, 2014, email from Cinton to her daughter was mentioned by Rep Jim Jordan during her Benghazi hearing Federal investigators are looking into the security of Clinton's email setup amid concerns from the intelligence community's inspector general that classified information may have passed through the system. Clinton provided the server to the FBI in August. Clinton has said she didn't send or receive information that was classified at the time via her personal email account. Last week, Bill Clinton brought up his wife's 11-hour Benghazi hearing for the first time, using the testimony as an example of how well she can keep her 'cool.' 'I doubt that there is another figure in American public life who could have stood there for 11 hours, answered every question, never lost her cool and kept on going,' he said. An ironic admission Dozens of Muslims are outraged after a Wisconsin power plant threatened to fire them if they took two five minute breaks daily in order to pray. The policy change affects 53 workers. Ten of those employees have indicated they wish to stay in their current positions under the new policy but the rest have either chosen to leave or are planning to. The Brillion-based company changed the rule on Thursday. Until then, Muslim employees were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray. But Ariens is now asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks. A company representative told WBAY-TV the 'manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production.' Unemployed: Many Muslims are now out of a job after Ariens Company changed its prayer policy. Until then, Muslim employees were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray Impossibility: 'If someone tells you, "You pray on your break," and the break time is not the prayer time? It will be impossible to pray,' said Green Bay Masjid Imam Hasan Abdi (pictured) Praying for their rights: A law written by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission says that the company does not have the right to tamper with employees' beliefs. Pictured here are some of the employees praying On Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Ariens to allow Muslim workers to pray at work using the previous policy until the dispute is resolved. A spokesperson for the Brillion-based equipment manufacturer said the following in a statement: 'We are asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms. Our manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production.' It is not in the Muslim tradition, however, to pray during meal times. 'If someone tells you, "You pray on your break," and the break time is not the prayer time? It will be impossible to pray,' said Green Bay Masjid Imam Hasan Abdi. Ibrahim Mehemmed said he was handed an unemployment slip when he prayed during his usual time. 'We pray by the time. So they say, "If you dont pray at the break time," they give us this [unemployment] paper to just leave.' Worker Adan Hurr was shocked by the company's radical change in policy. Unemployment paper: Ibrahim Mehemmed (pictured) said he was handed an unemployment slip when he prayed during his usual time. 'We pray by the time. So they say, "If you dont pray at the break time," they give us this [unemployment] paper to just leave' The exit slip: Pictured here is an unemployment slip handed to Muslim workers who said they would not abide by the company's policy 'I have been 35 years in America and Ive never heard of a company that is not allowing its employees to pray five minutes. It is absolutely discrimination on its face,' said Adan Hurr. 'Allow me to pray so that I can go back to work and do what I love to do, which is working for Ariens. But we are not allowed to do that. Yesterday what happened was just a travesty,' he said. A spokesperson for the company said that they met with Somalian employees in order to suit their needs. The company 'put a considerable amount of effort into finding a solution that allows for employees of Muslim faith to pray during work hours.' 'We met with members of our Somalian employee group to better understand their needs and consulted with local representatives of Muslim faith,' a spokesperson wrote. A law written by the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission says that the company does not have the right to tamper with employees' beliefs. 'An employer does not have to accommodate an employees religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer [such as] decreased efficiency.' Police said 32-year-old Holly Davis has been booked on three charges including first-degree murder A suspect has been arrested in connection to a deadly Arizona road rage shooting that left a Chinese exchange student dead and led to a chain-reaction crash that injured five others. Tempe police Lt. Michael Pooley said on Sunday that 32-year-old Holly Davis has been booked on three charges including first-degree murder. According to police, Davis' vehicle was involved in a collision at a busy intersection around 2.40pm on Saturday. She allegedly got out of her car and fired several shots into another vehicle, hitting the driver, student Yue Jiang several times. Pooley said the 19-year-old tried driving off but after being shot she lost control, crashing her vehicle into another car carrying a family of five, including a pregnant woman and three children. Davis is said to have also pointed her gun at the passenger in Jiang's car, who sustained minor injuries in the subsequent crash, according to The Arizona Republic. Jiang, an Arizona State University student, was taken to a hospital where she died. The family of five did not suffer serious injuries. Davis fled the scene in a silver Volkswagen Passat but was later taken into custody. She had reportedly hid her car and weapon before returning to her Mesa apartment where she showered and washed her clothes, The Arizona Republic reported. According to police, Davis' vehicle was involved in a collision at a busy intersection around 2.40pm on Saturday (scenes from the incident pictured) Two cars pictured above following Saturday's incident. Davis allegedly got out of her car and fired several shots into another vehicle, hitting the driver, student Yue Jiang several times Davis has also been booked on charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, disorderly contact with a deadly weapon and prohibited possession According to the police report, when police found Davis, she denied involvement and admitted to using Oxycodone, a controlled substance that can treat pain. She has since been booked on charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, disorderly contact with a deadly weapon and prohibited possession, according to The Arizona Republic. Pooley said the 19-year-old tried driving off but after being shot she lost control, crashing her vehicle into another car carrying a family of five, including a pregnant woman and three children Onlookers and fire trucks are pictured at the scene. Jiang, an Arizona State University student, was taken to a hospital where she died. The family of five did not suffer serious injuries Cars above are being removed from the scene. Davis fled the scene in a silver Volkswagen Passat but was later taken into custody Arrests reports indicate that Davis had previously been convicted for resisting a lawful stop and fleeing in Missouri, and was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison. Arizona State University spokesman Jerry Gonzalez confirmed in statement that Jiang was a student at the school and said their thoughts and prayers are with her family. 'Regarding yesterday's incident where ASU student Yue Jiang was killed, we just want to say that fellow students are being encouraged to talk with counselors, and that our thoughts and prayers are with the student's family,' Gonzalez said. Officers and police tape are pictured where the incident took place in Tempe. According to the police report, when police found Davis, she denied involvement and admitted to using Oxycodone A distressing video shared on Facebook shows the moment an Australian police officer repeatedly pushes a woman by her throat, causing her to stumble backwards. Loanna King, 17, was at the Boondall home, north of Brisbane, on Saturday night in when police officers allegedly entered the 'wrong' house on reports there was a domestic violence dispute. 'About five police men busted through our door and grabbed my brother who they said was being arrested for domestic violence, but my mother kept yelling to check his record because it's clean and he is only 16,' Ms King told Daily Mail Australia. Scroll down for video 'Police brutality': A woman tells one of the officers that the man they are arresting is her son before a officer shouts 'get back' and strikes her neck 'In the video you can see them arresting my brother, but they also came into my room and tackled me to the ground and arrested me too. 'They dragged me out of the house and onto the street - I still have the scars on my legs from this,' said Ms King. The 50 second video shows Ms King's 16-year-old brother being pushed up against the wall in the house while he is being handcuffed. While Mother Natasha King tells one of the officers that he is her son before the officer shouts 'get back' and pushes her shoulder. The woman stands in the same position and screams 'that's my son' when the same officer shoves her by the throat with considerable force. Ms King said the entire family were handcuffed and put in police vehicles, while her two-year-old brother was left by himself in the home. The 50 second video shows a man being pushed up against the wall in the house while he is being handcuffed After being detained in police vehicles for twenty minutes, they were issued with court dates for obstructing police and released on to the street. 'I feel very disgusted and disgraced that police do this kind of job I'm very hurt and in so much pain. I just cant believe thats what the government is paying these cops to do,' said Ms King. The video was originally shared by National Indigenous Television journalist Danny Teece-Johnson, It has been viewed more than 256,000 time and shared by 6,500 people. Hundreds of shocked social media users commented on the alleged 'police brutality' in the video. 'This is how deaths in custody start. We need to have a national discussion on how police engage with our mob. Is this an example of violence against women?' asked Danny Tee Jay Johnson. 'That is my son': The video has been viewed more than 256,000 times and shared by 6,500 people. Hundreds of shocked social media users commented on the alleged 'police brutality' in the video 'This is a disgusting display of violence against women, and a clear show of police bullying, how can Australia say it is against domestic violence when the police behave like this? This lady had every right to stand up, how many cops and their size against a boy and a small woman? sickening', wrote Lizzy Bette Callachor Another woman highlighted the reason why she thinks 'Aborginal woman do not trust police'. 'We have been man handled, physically and sexually abused by police since colonisation. I know not all Police Officers are like this dude, I even have good friends that are Police Officers in Brisbane. However, the good ones are few (and) far between. 'There is most certainly a police culture that is a 'do as I command or I'll lock your ass up'... Example of that here with the sister and her family!' Wrote Marlene Longbottom. Queensland police have been sent the video for comment. Noah Israel Chamberlin was reported missing on Thursday after he disappeared during a walk in the woods with his grandmother and sister Police have called for volunteers to search through the night for a missing Tennessee boy last seen walking in the woods with his grandmother and sister. On Sunday, Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver made a plea to the public for more volunteers to help search for two-year-old Noah Israel Chamberlin who has been missing since Thursday and could be in danger. As of late Sunday afternoon, Weaver said search crews had not found any sign of the boy, according to The Jackson Sun. 'We have searched a lot of area today,' Weaver said during a press conference. 'We've covered it very thoroughly. 'We're still searching and we're going to continue to search through the night.' Due to the frigid temperatures, with lows expected to be in the teens, Weaver said they would be using smaller search parties tonight. He added that he is confident the search and rescue mission will lead to bringing Noah home safe. 'We have total faith that we're going to find Noah and we're going to bring him home safe,' he told WSMV. Early Sunday morning, the Chester County Sheriff's office had called for a law-enforcement-only search but in the evening asked for civilian volunteers to help with the search through the night. Scroll down for video On Sunday, Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver (pictured on Sunday) asked for more volunteers to help search through the night for the two-year-old boy last seen in the woods behind his grandparents' Pinson, Tennessee home Search crews looking to locate Noah from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other agencies are pictured above on Sunday morning. As of late Sunday afternoon, Weaver said search crews had not found any sign of the boy Madison County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tom Mapes said that authorities were not expanding the search area which covers about 60 acres. He previously described the woods surrounding the grandparents' home as being filled with creeks and rough terrain. 'Been cold, wet, muddy, lots of hills, lot of hard terrain, lot of swamps, lot of bottoms,' David Terry, one of the volunteers said of the search for Noah. Noah was reported missing at 1.19pm on Thursday after he disappeared while on a walk in the woods behind his grandparents' Pinson home, law enforcement officials said. His grandmother had taken him and his four-year-old sister on a nature hike when she said she lost sight of him. Authorities said the trio had sat down to talk while in the woods and when the grandmother turned around, he was gone. 'They sat down to talk and she was paying attention to the granddaughter, and when she turned around he was gone,' Mapes said. 'She immediately went to look for him.' Since Thursday, search crews have canvassed the woods surrounding the grandparents' Pinson home. Authorities said his disappearance is not considered suspicious Hundreds of volunteers along with law enforcement from several state and local agencies have joined the search for Noah Authorities said last week that his disappearance was not considered suspicious. Since Thursday, hundreds of volunteers along with law enforcement from several state and local agencies have canvassed the woods surrounding the home in search of the boy. Some volunteers have traveled from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and Mississippi have joined in the search for Noah. On Saturday night, a candlelight vigil was held for the boy as Pinson residents remain hopeful the boy will be found. Mapes said on Sunday that an Amber alert has not been issued because the investigation is not a search for an abducted child but remains as one for a missing child, and asked for people to 'pray hard.' This morning, volunteers and churchgoers gathered at Pinson Baptist Church and prayed for the missing boy. 'Something like this happens which is tragic and you hate it, and yet in the middle of it you see people really do care,' pastor of the church, Rev. John Gaters said. 'They really, honestly care about this child, they care about this family. I'm amazed.' According to an endangered missing child alert for Noah, he is described as a white male with blonde hair and blue eyes who stands two feet tall and weighs 25 pounds. Noah was last seen wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt and blue jeans. El Chapo's lawyers are fighting the drug baron's extradition to America on murder and drug charges on the grounds that he won't get a fair hearing because of Donald Trump. Attorneys for the former kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel are using Trump's comments about Mexican immigrants being 'rapists and murderers' as evidence that any trial in the U.S. will be biased. Mexican and U.S. officials want to have El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman Loera, tried and imprisoned in America because of his track record of escaping from Mexican prisons. Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, billionaire head of the Sinaloa Cartel, is currently being held in Mexico as authorities try to extradite him to face trial and jail in America Mexican officials agreed to have El Chapo extradited after he broke out of the country's top security prison twice, though the move could still take months as his lawyers bitterly oppose the move Guzman, who made billions of dollars smuggling drugs from the east of Mexico into America, was first captured by authorities in 1993 when he was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. However, he was free again in 2001 after bribing prison guards with a reported $2.5million to turn a blind eye as he was wheeled out of jail in a laundry basket. As part of their appeals, Guzman's attorneys argue that he will be unable to get a fair trial in the U.S. because of anti-Mexican sentiment It took authorities 13 years to relocate Guzman, who narrowly avoided capture several times, before he was locked away again in 2014. Despite repeated warnings by U.S. authorities that Mexico did not have the means to hold Guzman he was again thrown into their most secure prison, and freed himself for a second time in 2015. This time his audacious escape used a mile-long tunnel dug underneath his cell complete with oxygen pipes, lighting and a motorbike mounted on rails to help him get away. Guzman was recaptured by Mexican marines after a fierce firefight last week and is now facing life behind bars on drug trafficking and murder. This time Mexican authorities have agreed to have the cartel boss extradited, a move which his lawyers are bitterly resisting. According to legal experts, the appeals process available to El Chapo means that the move could take a year or more to pull off. In the meantime he is being held in the same Altiplano jail he escaped from less than 12 months ago, although officials say they are regularly changing his cell in order to complicate escape efforts. Trump used the issue of Mexican immigration across America's southern border to launch his presidential campaign, which has seen him rise from outside candidate to longstanding frontrunner. In his first speech, Trump said: 'When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. As evidence of nationwide bias, El Chapo's lawyers have submitted comments made by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump that Mexican immigrants are 'rapists and murderers' While Trump has made comments against Mexican immigrants in general, he has also singled out El Chapo for criticism, and even had to call in the FBI after apparently receiving a threat back 'They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. And some, I assume, are good people.' Since then, the outspoken billionaire has called out El Chapo by name in several tweets, including one in which he accused the cartel boss of using the border 'like a vacuum cleaner'. He said El Chapo, along with other cartels, were 'sucking drugs and death right into the U.S.' Trump was even forced to call the FBI to investigate after a Twtter account purporting to be run by Guzman responded with a threat. The tweet, originally in Spanish, read: 'Keep f***ing around and I'm going to make you eat your f***ing words.' El Chapo, who has escaped custody in Mexico twice, was recaptured last week after a meeting with actor Sean Penn inadvertantly led investigators to his secret hideout Guzman is being held in the same Altiplano jail he escaped from less than 12 months ago, though this time authorities say they are moving him from cell to cell to make attempts to free him harder El Chapo was recaptured after six months on the run during which he met with actor Sean Penn who interviewed him for Rolling Stone magazine. While Penn has consistently denied having anything to do with Guzman's arrest, Mexican officials said that the meeting - in October last year - helped lead them to the crime baron. The meeting, allegedly set up because El Chapo was looking for actors to play him in a film about his life, was brokered by actress Kate del Castillo. El Chapo and Castillo exchanged hundreds of fiery texts in September last year to organize a meeting with the actor as they planned to make a Narcos-style movie about his life. Half the money the European Union spends on aid is wasted, stolen or held up by incompetence, a report has warned. The study by MEPs responsible for auditing EU spending found that 11.5billion of the 23billion doled out by Brussels each year fails to achieve its stated aims. Ingeborg Graessle, chairman of the European Parliaments committee on budget control, said the EU was effectively throwing money down the toilet. Ingeborg Graessle, chairman of the European Parliaments (headquarters pictured) committee on budget control which carried out the study, said the EU was effectively throwing money down the toilet The senior German MEP called for a wide-ranging review of the way Brussels spends aid money. She told the Sunday Times: Hundreds of thousands of people flee to Europe from countries where we are spending billions without any apparent effect. Year after year, funds are committed to obscure projects in what is effectively throwing money down the toilet. We need an urgent revision of spending, independent scrutiny and a clear procedure to actually measure what we are achieving. Miss Graessle said more than 900 aid projects worth 11.5billion are either significantly delayed or will fail to achieve their objectives. She warned that her findings may be the tip of the iceberg, as some embassies are suspected of sugar-coating reports to make the projects appear more successful. The European Parliaments committee on budget control is due to report this week on the EUs 23billion aid budget. Year after year, funds are committed to obscure projects in what is effectively throwing money down the toilet - Ingeborg Graessle, MEP Britains share of EU spending is 11.8 per cent, which equates to about 2.7billion. The report will say: Every second euro spent does not achieve what it pays for. The study will raise fresh UK concerns about the size of the aid budget and its use. The report is expected to warn that vast sums are wasted because of poor management, corruption in recipient countries and theft. Several of the failed projects highlighted are in countries that are now a source of mass migration to the EU, such as Morocco where aid projects cost the EU 508million, Jordan where the EU contributes 248million and Lebanon, where 198million is spent. The EU is the biggest development aid donor in the world, but has faced criticism over its failure to properly measure the outcomes of the vast expenditure. In 2012 the then international development minister Alan Duncan said: We share the peoples anger on this. We are forced to give money to the European Union. We ask them to focus aid on poverty but they dont, and we have no choice in the matter. This weeks report is expected to highlight a number of failed projects bankrolled by the EU. Barrage of outrage: Lord Bramall (pictured) said Nick the man responsible for vile claims against him should now face justice himself Scotland Yard was under mounting pressure last night to put historic VIP child abuse fantasists in the dock. The force was told to urgently examine whether some of the leading voices behind the scandal were guilty of breaking the law. Senior officers also faced calls to consider whether they could be guilty of perverting the course of justice or wasting police time. The barrage of outrage was led by Lord Bramall, who said Nick the man responsible for vile claims against him should now face justice himself. All charges against the war hero and former Army chief were dropped last Friday as police said there was insufficient evidence to proceed. His demand for justice was backed by figures from across the political spectrum, who said investigators should examine the claims of several victims and Exaro, the controversial online news agency which gave them a platform. Last night the D-Day hero was also weighing up whether to sue Scotland Yard over the flawed year-long child-sex inquiry. The 92-year-old, a veteran of the Normandy landings, endured the indignity of his home being raided at dawn on March 4 last year by 20 police officers on the basis of a single complaint by a witness known only as Nick. At the time, Avril, his wife of 66 years, was suffering from Alzheimers disease. She died last summer without knowing her war veteran husband had been cleared. Lord Bramall said he had been through hell since being confronted with claims that he had raped and molested Nick between 1976 and 1984 at a military base in the West Country. Speaking to a Sunday newspaper, Lord Bramall described the strain of being embroiled in a sinister witch-hunt following bizarre and grotesque allegations that he tortured and sexually abused young boys. I think he (his accuser) should be [prosecuted], he said. My lawyer says the complainant ought to be prosecuted for wasting police time but it is not for me to say what the police should do. It was all based on wild statements by Nick which were so bizarre and outrageous and grotesque, any normal policeman would have realised they were complete fantasy. For a 91-year-old man with a dying wife, it hasnt been easy for me and for the family. My wife had Alzheimers and when the police came she was downstairs. She kept on saying what are all these people doing and I couldnt explain it. She was very distressed. Given my distinguished career, to have 20 policemen come through your house for ten hours, it was a bit rough. Lord Bramall said: The police say they didnt leak it but they kept on talking about it. When they searched the house they had 20 police for ten hours in the middle of the village and the police had lunch in the pub five minutes away. If that is not making sure the public knows about it, I dont know what is. NICK'S OUTRAGEOUS ALLEGATIONS Operation Midland began after a man known only as Nick made allegations in 2014 that he was abused by a VIP paedophile gang linked to Westminster. Here the Mail assesses his most outrageous claims: LORD BRAMALL ACCUSED OF RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIM: Nick claimed Lord Bramall raped and molested him at a military base between 1976 and 1984. OUTCOME: Scotland Yard grudgingly admits there is insufficient evidence. In reality there was no evidence. TORY MP KILLED A YOUNG BOY CLAIM: Nick told police that then Tory MP Harvey Proctor throttled a 12-year-old boy to death in front of him during a sex orgy at Dolphin Square, a luxury apartment complex near Parliament which was popular with Establishment figures. Later, Mr Proctor allegedly raped and threatened to castrate Nick with a penknife, but was stopped by former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath. OUTCOME: Police raided Mr Proctors home last year but no victim has ever been identified or a body found. The case is ongoing. Accused: A man known as 'Nick' told police that the Tory MP Harvey Proctor (left) throttled a boy to death in front of him during a sex orgy. Former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath (right) was accused of raping 'Nick' EDWARD HEATH ABUSED NICK CLAIM: The former Prime Minister is accused of raping Nick. Wiltshire police are probing historical abuse allegations made against Sir Edward and appealed for witnesses outside the late PMs Salisbury home. OUTCOME: Inquiries ongoing. MINISTER SAW A SECOND BOY MURDERED CLAIM: Nick said a second boy was killed by two unknown men in the presence of an unnamed Tory minister during an orgy. OUTCOME: No victim identified and no witness has come forward. FLOWN TO PARIS AND ABUSED CLAIM: Nick said he was flown to Paris and sexually abused in France by members of the Saudi royal family. OUTCOME: Police officers have fruitlessly taken him to several airfields in the hope he might identify where he was allegedly smuggled out of the country. LORD BRITTAN ACCUSED CLAIM: Nick told police that then Home Secretary Leon Brittan raped and molested him. A separate allegation that he raped a 19-year-old woman known as Jane in 1967 was made in November 2012. OUTCOME: Police have found no credible evidence to substantiate Nick but inquiries continue even though Lord Brittan is dead. Police also found no evidence to support Janes claims and that case is closed. BOY RUN OVER BY PAEDOPHILES CLAIM: Nick claimed a boy aged ten or 11 was deliberately run down and killed by a car in Kingston, South-West London, in broad daylight between May and July 1979. OUTCOME: Police have been unable to find any evidence to support the claim. BBC1s Panorama programme established that it could not possibly have taken place. ABUSED BY HIS STEPFATHER CLAIM: In 2012, Nick made an allegation of historic child sexual abuse against his stepfather. He did not refer to VIP paedophiles or murders. He later said his stepfather introduced him to the Westminster VIP abuse ring. OUTCOME: Because his stepfather died in 1995, the claims were not investigated. Advertisement He added: The police have rather grudgingly said they are not pursuing the case. Well, we all knew that they couldnt, because there was nothing to pursue. I was hoping for rather more than that. But Im going see my lawyer on Monday and talk about whether well go back to the police and say: Cant you do a bit better than that? The Met responded to the criticism by saying it fears future victims could be put off by media scrutiny and their needs must come first. The raids were first publicised by Exaro, an obscure website with close links to the increasingly discredited Nick. Last night, former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, 69, who remains under investigation based on his claims, said abuse fantasists should be charged with criminal offences. He said: If Nick is not mentally ill and I assume the Metropolitan Police has examined this issue then he should stand trial for perverting the course of justice and wasting police time. 'Nick' is a serial fantasist yet has remained anonymous, but a war heros name, Lord Bramall, has been made public Tory grandee David Mellor At the very least, he should be investigated for these offences. The Mets continued investigation of me reeks of vengeance in the light of my public statement on the case last August. BBC Radio 2 DJ Paul Gambaccini, who spent 12 months on police bail over false sex allegations before being cleared, agreed. He said: In the dozens of false accusations made against famous people during the witch-hunt, no one has been charged with wasting police time, squandering millions of pounds of taxpayer money, or tormenting innocent individuals. This is because, by law, the British police and Crown Prosecution Service cosset and protect their false accusers, without whom they could not conduct a witch-hunt. False accusers should be prosecuted or, if appropriate, offered medical assistance. Tory grandee David Mellor said the allegations by Nick were an insult to our intelligence. He added: Nick is a serial fantasist yet has remained anonymous, but a war heros name, Lord Bramall, has been made public. Nick should be exposed and prosecuted for wasting police time. Tory MP Colonel Bob Stewart added: Why cant they bring charges against the man making these claims? When you make an accusation against someone like Edwin Bramall and it doesnt stand up, you should face the consequences. Ten million patients are struggling to see their GP because surgery opening hours are too restrictive, official figures reveal. The worst-rated practice in a nationwide patient survey does not open until 10am, shuts again for a three-and-a-half-hour lunch and closes one afternoon a week. GP surgeries are causing increasing resentment among the public, who are finding it ever more difficult to secure an appointment. Ten million patients are struggling to see their GP because surgery opening hours are too restrictive (stock image of a doctor and patient) Analysis of the Governments survey of patients shows ten million people now have to wait at least a week to see a family doctor. This number has trebled since 2012 and is further evidence of the emerging crisis facing GP services across the country. Surgeries are haemorrhaging doctors, who are either retiring early, moving overseas or quitting because they are demoralised. However, the Government is pushing for surgeries to make services available seven days a week. The Department of Healths GP Patient Survey a snapshot of 854,000 adults shows 18 per cent say their practice opening hours are inconvenient. This is equivalent to 10.2million nationally, up from 8.5million in 2012. Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: We know many surgeries are struggling to cope with demand due to a lack of funding, and a shortage of staff. 'There must be further investment. Heidi Alexander, Labours health spokesman, said: In the past three years, millions more patients have become unhappy with opening hours. Patients are finding it harder to access the NHS five days a week, let alone seven. At some surgeries more than half of patients believe hours are too restrictive. They include the Lozells Medical Practice in Birmingham, which does not open until 10am and closes for three and a half hours for lunch. The surgery is one of many across the country to demand patients queue up outside in the morning if they want to be seen earlier. One dismayed patient wrote on the NHS Choices website: You never get appointments because the doctors always on holiday and so is the nurse. Total utter disgrace. The surgery declined to comment. Last month the chief inspector of GPs admitted he was ashamed of his profession for providing inadequate care. Professor Steve Field singled out doctors who took afternoons off or left patients in the hands of locums. However, he was roundly criticised by GPs, including their union, the British Medical Association, who have demanded his resignation. Dr Arvind Madan, director of primary care for NHS England, said: The survey shows patients appreciate the fantastic job GPs are doing in challenging times. 'The findings also reinforce the case for investing in and strengthening primary care. Dr Maureen Baker, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: GPs are working harder than ever to meet the increasing demand. Many practices are already offering extended opening hours but, for the majority, with current resources, seven-day opening remains an aspiration. An investigation by the Mail last year revealed how GPs are taking early retirement because it is not profitable to carry on working. The Government has imposed a 1.25million limit to pension pots, and many GPs reach this by their mid-fifties. The Texas senator said: 'Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage' memes, but it is also threatening to tear the GOP apart The quip led to countless tweets in support of Trump and With just two weeks to go before voters head to the polls in Iowa to choose their nominations for President, the argument over 'New York Values' could well be one that tears the GOP apart. Texas Senator Ted Cruz commented during Thursday nights Republican debate that Donald Trump 'embodies New York values', an attempted slight on the businessman who is known to hold 'socially liberal' views on topics such as abortion and gay marriage. Although Cruz's comment made for riveting viewing last week, his continued attack on Trump is threatening to split the party apart as other GOP candidates such as Senator Marco Rubio attempt the ride the momentum against the Texas Senator. Trump and Cruz sparred over what Cruz disparaged as 'New York values,' which Trump said was 'very insulting' to the people of his city and state, who had to endure 9/11 Cruz came ready with the message that the Manhattan real estate mogul wasn't a true conservative 'The fact of the matter is, that Ted has shown a propensity throughout his career in the U.S. Senate to take one position in front of one audience and then change his position in front of another,' Rubio told NBC News in a Sunday interview. 'So he raises money in New York and then criticizes New York values.' During and ABC News interview on Sunday, Trump ramped up his attack on his GOP rival, saying Cruz, saying he is a 'nasty' guy that nobody likes. Trump told ABC's Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday: 'Look, the truth is, he's a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, "Come on Ted. Let's go, okay." But he's a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. 'Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. He's a very he's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy.' Trump also said Cruz (pictured together in September) was a 'hypocrite' for not disclosing financial information, including loans he took out from New York banks He added: 'He's a total hypocrite. How about his fundraising and how about when he does his personal financial disclosure form, and he doesn't put on that he's borrowing money from Goldman Sachs? And then today it comes out that he's also borrowing money from CitiBank and he doesn't list it. 'You know why? He wants to look like Robin Hood that he's the one protecting the people from the banks while he's actually borrowing money and personally guaranteeing it and not disclosing it, which is illegal.' On Fox News Sunday, Cruz chastised Trump over denying that a more liberal viewpoint pervades in the city. "That formulation didn't come from me. It came from Donald Trump. Donald Trump, when he was being interviewed by Tim Russert, when he was explaining his views a number of years ago," Cruz said, referring to a 1999 interview with NBC News. 'It's amusing seeing the media lead in New York and D.C. run around with their hair on fire wondering what on earth are New York values,' Cruz continued. 'I'll tell you the rest of the country, people know exactly what that is. In South Carolina, when I was there, the people certainly understood it.' Donald Trump has ramped up his attack on GOP rival Ted Cruz, saying he is a 'nasty' guy that nobody likes. The billionaire mogul told p told ABC 's Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos: 'I don't think Ted Cruz has a great chance, to be honest with you Texas Sen. Ted Cruz continues to attack Donald Trump, suggesting that he's secretly more liberal than he puts on, pointing to the fact that the New York billionaire was formerly pro-choice Cruz pointed to the sit-down Trump did with the late Russert in which the billionaire claimed to be 'very pro-choice,' explaining to the news man that while he hated abortion, he was for it being legal because of his 'New York background.' Trump also said he supported gays in the military and didn't come out for or against gay marriage. 'He explained that his views were that he was very pro-choice, he supported partial-birth abortion, he was open to gay marriage and his explanation for all of that, was I'm a New Yorker,' Cruz pointed out to Wallace. Cruz likened his rival to Democrats who similarly defended New York. "I would point out it's a view echoed by far left liberal Democratic politicians like Andrew Cuomo, Bill de Blasio, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump has supported those candidates and supported their positions on a lot of issues," he said. During Thursday's GOP debate, Cruz caused outrage when he said: 'Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage.' He added that New Yorkers are focused 'around money and the media'. 'Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan,' he joked. The businessman slammed Cruz on social media. He used pictures of the aftermath of 9/11 and the devastation it caused Trump praised the people of New York. His comments have been commended by political opponents, including Hillary Clinton Showing little sign of backtracking, Cruz only served to reiterate his comments to Fox News, saying: 'The rest of the country understands exactly what New York values are.' Trump, the billionaire New Yorker leading the Republican race, slapped him down with a rousing reminder of New York's resilience after 9/11, earning swift praise from some of his harshest Democrat detractors. 'New York is a great place, it's got great people, it's got loving people, wonderful people,' he said. 'When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely. 'We rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers.' Twitter responded with humor and wit as users came down hard on Cruz's putdown of 'New York values' One Twitter user listed some of the iconic things that make the city unique Nothing sums up 'New York values' like Pizza Rat who became something of a folk hero in the city On Thursday night, Cruz did not have a response to Trump's comeback, but Twitter certainly did. 'Going to a bodega at 11pm for a wrap becaue you forgot to eat #NewYorkValue' tweeted Kevin O'Keefe, highlighting the city's 24-hour culture. '#Cruz made a YUGE mistake insulting New York', wrote another Twitter user, poking fun at the Big Apple's distinctive accent. Others openly showed their approval of Trump in his defense of the nation's biggest city as he spoke of the response by its residents on 9/11. '#Trump showed a positive side to his political instinct with his 9/11 based defense of 'New York values' against culture war', wrote Howard Fineman. New Yorkers think nothing of shelling out five bucks if they forget their umbrella Many Twitter followers highlighted the best things about the New York for which the city is renowned A crackdown on the sick pay culture which costs Britain billions of pounds a year is being ordered by Iain Duncan Smith. The Work and Pensions Secretary is particularly keen to slash the numbers off work with anxiety and depression. In what is expected to be the biggest welfare reform of this Parliament, he will call for the shake-up of the 'fundamentally flawed' Employment and Support Allowance. Currently the 2.3million claimants on ESA are either assessed as being fit to work or signed off altogether. A crackdown on the sick pay culture which costs Britain billions of pounds a year is being ordered by Iain Duncan Smith But under a policy document to be unveiled within weeks, they will instead be tested for what they are able to do not what they cannot. They will then be found work for around ten hours a week, or whatever is possible, to get them back into the workplace reducing the 14.2billion sickness benefits bill in the process. Those who repeatedly refuse could have their support cut. The move is expected to put ministers on a collision course with disability campaigners, who claim the sick are already put under too much pressure to return to work. But Mr Duncan Smith argues his plans are about helping the disabled and delivering 'social justice'. 'The sickness benefit culture in this country is in dire need of reform,' he said. 'Getting people into work is more than just earning a salary and certainly more than balancing the public purse. For culturally and socially, work is the spine that runs through a stable society. I want those who remain trapped and isolated on welfare to move from dependence to independence.' Official figures reveal that while the number of claimants on unemployment benefits is down by almost 700,000 since 2010, the overall number on sickness benefits fell by just 88,000 during the same period. Under the new test Mr Duncan Smith is particularly keen to target those signed off work with conditions related to their mental health. Almost half of ESA claimants have a mental or behavioural disorder as their primary condition, often 'depression or anxiety', according to officials. To qualify for ESA worth up to 102.15 a week claimants must undergo a 'work capability assessment' to establish if they are able to return to employment immediately. Those who are not are divided into two groups the severely disabled who will never be able to work, and those who are judged to be capable of work with the right support. But Mr Duncan Smith said the test is too 'binary', adding: 'It is a system that decides that you are either capable of work or you are not. 'Two absolutes equating to one perverse incentive a person has to be incapable of all work or available for all work. 'In the world beyond ESA, things are rarely that simplistic. Someone may be able to do some work for some hours, days or weeks, but not what they were doing previously.' The new test will focus on establishing what an individual might be able to do, although inevitably some claimants will still be judged unable to work at all. Those deemed capable of some types of work will then be required to look for employment, or risk losing some of their benefits. Firms will also be encouraged to do more to prevent staff taking long-term sick leave, and to help them back into work after illness. GPs will be called on to refer the long-term sick to back-to-work programmes. ESA was introduced in the final years of the last Labour government. Ministers thought it would be a short-term benefit, and forecast that the number claiming it would drop by a million after a decade. Last week it emerged that a new drive is to be launched to help those with severe addictions, such as drink and drug problems, into work after it was revealed that they are costing taxpayers up to 10billion a year. Under the Universal Support scheme, job centres will identify the addictions which are stopping some claimants finding work. A young woman is starring in her very own version of 'The Apprentice' thanks to her great entrepreneurial skills that have seen her launch her own business with 20 employees - that even includes her mother and aunt. Twenty-two-year-old Akanksha Taneja not only manages the staff, but she also owns the Oporto restaurant in Penrith in western Sydney, and its only one step in her grand plan. From the moment Ms Taneja arrived in Australia from her home country of India in 2008, she was a woman on a mission. Twenty two-year-old Akanksha Taneja owns the Oporto restaurant in Penrith in Western Sydney 'I started off walking on customer service here and it all went from there. When the old owner approached me to say he was selling the business and asked if I was interested, I jumped at the chance,' Ms Taneja told Daily Mail Australia. 'I always wanted to run my own business and it made sense to do it in a business that I'd worked in and knew about. 'My Dad was also very supportive and had run his own demolition business in India. So running a business was in my blood. That's when I decided to buy it. 'It was a big step and I always seemed to have a huge "things to do" list. There was so many things that had to be done and it was a big challenge. But I had the support of my family, which was very important. It became easier over time.' At just 16 years of age she began working at Oporto Penrith. By the time she was 20 she was promoted to store manager. The customer always comes first for Ms Taneja (third right) and her staff Ms Taneja started working at the Penrith restaurant when she was 16 years old Then after graduating from Western Sydney University, and spending six months working as an accountant at Novotel Hotel, she was given the offer of buying into the Oporto franchise business. She now believes its her destiny to run a business. And the one thing she has leaned above all else is that the adage 'the customer always comes first' is true. 'Customers do have a lot of expectations when it comes a to food store and we have to meet those expectations,' Ms Taneja said. 'But the Oporto company are very supportive and want to give the customers what they want. It's definitely the biggest challenge but also the most rewarding,' A head for business obviously runs in the family too as her uncle also recently opened an Oporto in Liverpool and Ms Taneja has bigger plans in mind too. Her uncle also recently opened an Oporto in Liverpool (stock image) Ms Taneja (fourth left) hopes to go on to own more Oporto restaurants 'I am hoping to branch out. It's a great company and it would be great to expand. I'll be looking for more opportunities definitely,' Ms Taneja said. 'It may seem strange to some people that I'd want to own my own business already but everyone have their own choices to make, and direction they want to go in. 'My friends all are doing different things. My friend for example wanted to be a doctor. So she trained to be one and his now fully qualified. 'I just feel lucky that I've been given the chance to do this and I enjoy it 100 per cent.' Oporto is well known for its grilled chicken and burger meals. Australian-owned, with more than 140 restaurants, it was founded in Bondi in 1986 and has become a hugely recognisable fixture in Sydney. Oporto is well known for its grilled chicken and burger meals (stock image) For more on the Democratic debate visit www.dailymail.co.uk/DemDebate 'It is not breaking my word,' he said tonight. 'It's one thing to say, "I am raising taxes." It's another thing to say that we are doing away with private health insurance premiums' Plan may defy Sanders' own pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class to pay for a 'Medicare for all' program Clinton again said that Sanders wants to 'tear up' Obamacare; that's not true, he said, claiming his plan would layer on top of the current system the $13.8 trillion plan just hours ahead of the Democratic Party's final primary debate before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses Bernie Sanders rejected a charge tonight from Hillary Clinton that he'd 'tear up' Obamacare and replace it with his sweeping health care proposal, released just hours ahead of their party's final primary debate before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses. 'Were not gonna tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it,' the U.S. senator said. 'But we care going to move on top of that to a Medicare-for-all system.' He called her campaign's claims 'nonsense' and said the $13.8 trillion plan, paid for with taxes on high income earners, would 'finally provide in this country healthcare for every man, woman and child as a right.' But Clinton, who tried and failed in the 1990s to pass her own universal health care plan as first lady, told him, 'to start over again with a whole new debate is something that I think would set us back.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO FEEL THE BERN (AND HAVE TAXPAYERS PAY FOR THE TREATMENT!): Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist senator running for president, unveiled a sweeping health care overhaul proposal on Sunday that drew howls from Hillary Clinton 'Were not gonna tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it,' the Vermont senator said at tonight's debate. 'But we care going to move on top of that to a Medicare-for-all system' EAGER PROGRESSIVES: The Sanders single-payer plan will appeal to the Democratic Party's far left wing Sanders has pledged in recent days that his plan would be more exhaustive than President Barack Obama's signature insurance overhaul law and he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-class Americans in order to balance its books. But Sunday afternoon he conceded in an interview that he might 'if we can guarantee healthcare to all people comprehensive healthcare, no deductibles, and if we can cut peoples healthcare bill substantially.' And at the debate he acknowledged that 'yes, some middle class families would be paying slightly more in taxes,' though he insisted it would be worth it to do away with premiums. 'It's a pretty good deal,' he said. Sanders' plan demands a 2.2 per cent 'premium' from individual Americans, including those in the middle class. Employers would pay an extra 6.2 percent payroll tax, eliminating a 'loophole' that had left health care expenses untaxed for decades. That expense could ultimately come out of workers' paychecks in the form of limits on future salary raises, say many economists. It could also slow hiring Marginal income tax rates would also balloon to 37 per cent for Americans making between $250,000 and $500,000 per year. Higher earners would see 52 per cent of their earnings above $10 million going to Uncle Sam. The current top rate is 39.6 per cent. The tax-hike revelations prompted accusations that Sanders was 'breaking his word' on Sunday night. 'I'm the only candidate standing here tonight who has said, "I will not raise taxes on the middle class," said Hillary Clinton. Sanders said he was 'disappointed' by the line of attack from the Clinton and her campaign. 'No, it is not breaking my word,' he told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell. 'It's one thing to say, "I am raising taxes." It's another thing to say that we are doing away with private health insurance premiums.' NOT SO FAST: Sanders insists he's not raising taxes the costs would come back to consumers in other ways and that he's aiming to expand, not dismantle, Medicare The Clinton campaign has said Sanders' plan could cost a whopping $15 trillion over ten years. Sanders isn't disputing the magnitude of the expense, but estimates it at $13.8 trillion in the first decade. Clinton said in a statement less than an hour before debate time that 'Senator Sanders has been changing a lot of positions in the last 24 hours because when his plans and record come under scrutiny, their very real flaws get exposed.' 'After digging in his heels for weeks, he backpedaled on his vote to give sweeping immunity to gun manufacturers and dealers. And after weeks of denying the legitimacy of the questions Hillary Clinton raised about flaws in the health care legislation hes introduced 9 times over 20 years, he proposed a new plan two hours before the debate.' Republicans will fall somewhere on the spectrum between dumbfounded and outraged. A GOP strategist who works for one of the front-runners in Iowa told DailyMail.com that 'this is f***ing insanity.' 'Can you imagine doubling down on Obamacare? How unpopular does he want to be?' he asked. 'Bernie may have just won the New Hampshire primary, but he's made himself unelectable in a national election.' Clinton, however, has accused him of the exact opposite. She said last week that she was against 'ripping up Obamacare and starting over.' The ex-senator stood by her assessment of her former colleague's plan tonight. 'We finally have a path to universal health care. We've accomplished so much already,' she said. 'I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it, and I don't want to see us start over again with a contentious debate. 'I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it.' She said later that to 'tear it up and start over again, pushing our country back into that kind of contentious debate, I think is the wrong direction.' Sanders interrupted her to say that 'is absolutely inaccurate.' 'No one is tearing this up, we're gonna go forward,' he stated. Campaigning for her mother in New Hampshire several days ago, Chelsea Clinton said Sanders would 'dismantle' that government program and several others, including Medicare itself. Not true, the Sanders camp charged, saying he would expand, not eliminate, the Medicare program. 'What her her campaign was saying...that is nonsense,' he said at tonight's debate. Sanders' proposal is what eager progressives call a 'single-payer' plan, where all medical care in America is billed to the government instead of being paid for and managed through private sources including insurance companies. Switching to single-payer, they argue, would allow the feds to essentially buy services in bulk, driving down prices. 'By moving to an integrated system, the government will finally have the ability to stand up to drug companies and negotiate fair prices for the American people collectively,' Sanders wrote in his plan. 'It will also ensure the federal government can track access to various providers and make smart investments to avoid provider shortages and ensure communities can access the providers they need.' Americans are 'getting ripped off' by the drug companies, he said tonight. Supporters of Clinton and Sanders faced off at dueling rallies outside the debate hall earlier this afternoon. The candidates engaged in a war of words of their own later in the evening DEFENSE: Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's labor secretary, preemptively defended Sanders on Sunday, saying his medical care plan is not as 'radical' as it will be made out to be 'Tell me why we are are spending almost three times more than the British, who guarantee health care to all of their people, 50 percent more than the French, more than the Canadians,' he said. Conservative opponents point to similar plans in place in Canada and the United Kingdom, where care has been rationed and doctors have left the profession in droves as shrinking payments threaten their own bottom lines. In the United States the Affordable Care Act 'Obamacare' added about 17 million Americans to the insurance rolls but left more than 29 million uninsured. And many who now pay insurance premiums rather than face increasingly onerous fines have found themselves in 'bronze'-level policies with deductibles high enough to make the plans difficult to justify except in catastrophic circumstances. Robert Reich, a hard-left academic who served as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton, wrote Sunday on Facebook that 'Bernies plan isn't nearly as radical as it will be portrayed.' 'It builds on the strengths of Medicare,' Reich continued. 'Like Medicare, it's universal separating health insurance from employment, and enabling people to choose a health care provider without worrying about whether that provider is in-network.' 'All theyd need do is go to the doctor and show their insurance card. No more copays, no more deductibles and no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges.' British national pride has dampened down over the last 10 years and is likely to continue to decline, in part due to cheap air travel and meeting international students at university, a study claims. Researchers found younger people, who are more likely to have attended university and travelled abroad frequently, feel less pride in being British than older generations. The study also found that Britons as a whole are much less likely than other nations to express pride, which was put down to being reticent about overt flag-waving patriotism. Well travelled: British national pride has dampened down over the last 10 years and is likely to continue to decline, in part due to cheap air travel and meeting international students at university (file photo) The findings emerge from a study of data from the British Social Attitudes survey. Researchers examined responses to questions about patriotism in 2003 and 2013 to see whether views had changed over time. They found overall levels of pride remained the same, at 82 per cent. But when that figure was broken down, they found the extent of pride had dropped. In 2003, 43 per cent said they were very proud of their nationality, while 39 per cent said they were only somewhat proud. But in 2013, only 35 per cent said they were very proud with and 47 per cent saying they were somewhat proud. The study also found the older people were, the stronger their feelings about Britain appeared to be. Patriotic: In 2003, 43 per cent said they were very proud of their nationality, while 39 per cent said they were only somewhat proud. But in 2013, only 35 per cent said they were very proud with and 47 per cent saying they were somewhat proud (file photo) For example, 66 per cent of those aged 75 and older said they were very proud of being British, compared with just 20 per cent of those aged 18 to 29. In addition, 85 per cent of those aged 75 or older agreed that they would rather be a citizen of Britain than any other country, compared to just 45 per cent of 18 to 29 year-olds. If this trend continues then we would expect to see pride in British identity continuing to decline at a gentle but significant level The reports author, Ian Simpson, claimed one of the reasons could be that older generations sense of Britishness links back to memories of the war or post-war years, when national pride might have been boosted by the shared experience of adversity. Mr Simpson: Younger peoples views of the world are shaped by different experiences, including the wider availability of budget travel and, perhaps as a result, a greater exposure to other countries and cultures from a younger age. He said younger generations understanding of what it means to express national pride may also have been influenced by the British National Party, which may for some have more negative connotations than the nationalism of the post-war years. History: The reports author, Ian Simpson, claimed one of the reasons could be that older generations sense of Britishness links back to memories of the war or post-war years, when national pride might have been boosted by the shared experience of adversity (file photo) Equally, it is possible that peoples sense of national pride simply increases as they get older. However, if it were simply the case that feelings about being British grow stronger with age, we would have expected that the level of pride in and attachment to Britain would have either stayed the same or even increased over time, given that overall the profile of the British population is getting older, he said. These findings do suggest that part of the reason for declining pride over time is that older generations with higher levels of pride are being replaced by younger cohorts who are less inclined to feel very proud to be British. Younger peoples views of the world are shaped by different experiences, including the wider availability of budget travel and, perhaps as a result, a greater exposure to other countries and cultures from a younger age 'If this trend continues then we would expect to see pride in British identity continuing to decline at a gentle but significant level. The study, commissioned by Tetley Tea, also found that women were slightly prouder of being British than men in both 2003 and 2013. But as a whole, Britons were less likely to express pride than other nations. Of 32 other countries included in the 2013 International Social Survey Programme, 12 were less proud than Britain and 20 expressed more pride in their countries. People in Germany were least likely to say they were very proud of their nationality, while people in the Philippines were most proud. The study also noted a link between university education and lower levels of patriotic feeling. Prof John Curtice, a leading expert on public opinion, told the Telegraph said: I think there are two things about younger people today: the first is that more of them than in any previous generation are exposed to a university education. National pride: People in Germany were least likely to say they were very proud of their nationality, while people in the Philippines were most proud (file photo) Universities themselves are quite international - they constantly have that international perspective in many respects and also just encourage people to be a little bit critical about the world. The second thing obviously is that todays younger generation expect to be able to go to Barcelona or Berlin or Warsaw, and most have experience of doing that. They are living in a world in which information and communication is global: once upon a time, you might have had a pen pal in Spain; now you can talk to them on Skype, if you can get over the language barrier - it creates a more cosmopolitan perspective. The British Social Attitudes is described as the most authoritative source of trend data on the views of the British public. It has been carried out annually since 1983. Interviews are carried out face-to-face with respondents aged 18. It takes place in the summer and autumn each year. Police say a body found in a car submerged in the Passaic River is that of a missing woman from Passaic, New Jersey. Devorah Stubin was last seen Thursday night when she was stopped by a police officer after she became lost in Maywood. The 22-year-old Stubin, who suffered from a seizure disorder, had left her home earlier that night to pick up her brother at a site on the Garden State Parkway. Scroll down for video Police say a body found in a car submerged in the Passaic River is that of 22-year-old Devorah Stubin, who is seen left and right in these photographs Her car was found Saturday night, a few hours after a business owner in Wallington called police to report damage to a fence along the river by his property Responding officers noticed vehicle debris, prompting a dive team to further investigate Her car was found Saturday night, a few hours after a business owner in Wallington called police to report damage to a fence along the river by his property. Responding officers noticed vehicle debris, prompting a dive team to further investigate. Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino told WCBS-TV: 'We sent divers into the water. 'They were able to grab the license plate and, sadly, it was determined that it's the license plate of the young lady.' A cause of death has not been disclosed. Stubin's funeral took place Sunday at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton. Mourners are seen outside Penina Nussbaum has said: 'I'm in utter shock. She was such an incredible, sweet genuine person' NBC New York reported that Stubin experienced what are known complex partial seizures. According to the TV station, Orthodox Jewish volunteers looked for Stubin during Shabbot. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. Stubin's funeral took place Sunday at the Jewish Memorial Chapel in Clifton, WABC-TV reported. Family spokesman Moshe Zahler told the TV station: 'It's very difficult for the family, as you can imagine. 'The family is very grateful to all of those that have helped. All of the searchers.' The cause of the crash remains under investigation Penina Nussbaum told WABC: 'I'm in utter shock. She was such an incredible, sweet genuine person. 'Everyone knew her. You couldn't say a single thing wrong about her. Another bleak poll for Comrade Corbyn yesterday showed 67 per cent of voters regard the Labour Party as hopelessly split Another bleak poll for Comrade Corbyn yesterday showed 67 per cent of voters regard the Labour Party as hopelessly split. In two speeches at the weekend, Corbyn insisted they were moving on from the disagreements which saw four shadow ministers resign in ten days. In the first shadow cabinet meeting of the year, shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Corbyn's right-hand man, said they had to 'draw a line' under recent conflicts. But it's a difficult line to draw, not least because of the conduct of McDonnell. A new quote has come to light which shows why. Addressing the Prison Officers Association conference in 2011, the then obscure backbencher McDonnell thanked chairman Colin Moses for his unstinting support. 'He's been a fundamental support for our trade union group in Parliament. Always there when we needed him, always there whenever we've gone on delegations, intimidating ministers of whatever political party, [he's] been there.' In other words, McDonnell intimidated Labour ministers, too. At an Occupy Democracy rally in October 2014, he attacked the last Labour government for making welfare cuts and said: 'The fight for me as a Labour MP is within the Labour Party, to fight them . . . we've got to eyeball these b******s because they're supposed to represent us, not c**p on us in the way that they are at the moment.' McDonnell recently said the new leadership would discipline party members who abused MPs. The abuse he said he had suffered 'had been appalling and shouldn't be in politics'. Labour ministers he's abused would agree with that. .............................................................................................................................................................. Comedienne Tracey Ullman's daughter Mabel, who worked for Harriet Harman, appears in her mother's new BBC1 series in an episode with a sketch about a feminist MP who walks around the Commons topless to advance the wimmin's cause. Where can Ullman possibly have got that idea from? .............................................................................................................................................................. Stand up for Jezza Jeremy Hardy, the Left-wing comedian banned from voting in Labour's leadership election because of his vocal support for the Greens, has been welcomed with open arms to the Trotskyite-friendly fold. He will headline Stand Up For Labour, a night of comedy in North London next month 'to show support for Jeremy Corbyn's campaign to transform the way politics is conducted'. Performers will include record producer Brian Eno, and the unofficial Labour leader Ken Livingstone. It promises to be a laugh a minute. Jeremy Hardy will headline Stand Up For Labour, a night of comedy in North London next month 'to show support for Jeremy Corbyn's campaign to transform the way politics is conducted'. At the Treasury Select Committee the Tory MP Stephen Phillips savaged 'Dame Disaster' Lin Homer, soon-to-retire head of HMRC, for letting HSBC 'off scot free' over claims its Swiss arm helped rich customers avoid tax. He said: 'There's one rule for the rich and one rule for the poor on tax dodging.' Phillips, MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, knows all about the rich. As a QC he earned 370,000 in the year to October. .............................................................................................................................................................. As the floods clean-up continues in North-West England, more evidence has emerged of the poor performance of the Environment Agency. Tory MP John Redwood, after tabling questions, has discovered that the agency, responsible for 22,600 miles of river, dredged only 120 miles, or 0.5 per cent of the total last year. It spent 45 million on cleaning, weeding and dredging rivers and banks, out of its budget of more than 1 billion says Redwood. Another reason chairman Sir Philip Dilley had to go. .............................................................................................................................................................. Quote of the week: Chris Grayling, Leader of the Commons, said: 'I am someone who believes that simply staying in the EU with our current terms of membership unchanged would be disastrous for Britain.' The backbenches loom for him in the next reshuffle unless, of course, the Leave movement is victorious. .............................................................................................................................................................. Sadiq Khan, Labour's London mayoral candidate, writes in an article in The Spectator that Corbyn 'doesn't represent all Labour thinking'. So why was he one of the MPs who put Corbyn on the leadership ballot paper? .............................................................................................................................................................. Sweet justice for minister Tory justice minister Shailesh Vara, speaking at an Operation Black Vote reception at the Commons last week to mark the record number of 41 black and ethnic MPs, revealed some of the difficulties he faced climbing the political ladder. 'At a Conservative Party conference reception in the 1990s one gentleman asked me for a drink. He thought I was a member of staff.' Four young Syrian refugees living in 'The Jungle' should be reunited with their families in Britain and escape the 'living hell' of the Calais refugee camp, a court has heard. The four young men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are facing 'intolerable' conditions and should not stay in the sprawling camp another day, lawyers have argued. The men - two teenagers and a 17-year-old and his mentally-ill 26-year-old brother - all have siblings legally living in Britain and so under EU law would eventually have their cases considered by the Home Office. Precedence: Four young Syrian refugees currently living in 'The Jungle' in Calais are asking the courts if they could move to Britain while they wait for their refugee status to be approved Traumatic: The court heard that all the men have been traumatised, that several of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and that squalid conditions at the camp are aggravating these health problems But in a case that could hold important legal implications for many other refugees wanting to cross the channel from Calais, they have applied for the British Government to immediately take up their asylum cases, bypassing the French authorities. This would allow them to live in Britain while their claims are being considered. The Home Office has turned down their applications, but lawyers are appealing against the decision, claiming it breaches their rights to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in central London heard the four young refugees, who fled war-torn Syria last September and arrived at the camp in October, were deeply 'traumatised' by their experience. Michael Fordham QC, representing the applicants, reeled off a list of UN officials, charities and British MPs who have spoken out about the 'intolerable situation' at the camp. Quoting from a report by a doctor who assessed the refugees, Mr Fordham said: 'Conditions in the camp means that further traumas are added to the ones they have already experienced. Legality: Under EU law known as Dublin III, refugees who are unaccompanied minors and have family who are legally living in the UK should have their asylum claims processed by Britain and be given leave to live in Britain while this is undertaken Toxic: Mr Fordham said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the camp amounted to 'an undignified and intolerable situation' 'It would not be possible to find conditions more unsuitable to minors than the Calais camp.' Laura Griffiths, a charity volunteer working in The Jungle, described it as a 'toxic waste camp' that amounted to 'living hell'. Mr Fordham told the hearing: 'What do these children need? They need to be reunited with their siblings.' The court heard that all the men have been traumatised, that several of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and that squalid conditions at the camp are aggravating these health problems. Mr Fordham said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the camp amounted to 'an undignified and intolerable situation'. Further, the United Nations special representative on migration Peter Sutherland branded the camp 'a stain on Europe' and 'living hell'. The French authorities would usually take the lead in the cases because the refugees are on their soil. Tragedy: An Afghan teenager (not pictured) has already been reportedly been found dead after trying to escape Jungle with tragic consequences However, under EU law known as Dublin III, refugees who are unaccompanied minors and have family who are legally living in the UK should have their asylum claims processed by Britain and be given leave to live in Britain while this is undertaken. But it is suggested the Dublin mechanism isn't working in France and refugees are facing lengthy delays in their cases being handed over to Britain. Solicitors for the four young men said there have been no successful cases of Dublin III having worked for under-age refugees in France with family in Britain. The result is that refugees continue to live in limbo in the camp and some decide to risk their lives and try to get over the border illegally, it is claimed. An Afghan teenager was reportedly found dead in the back of a lorry in recent weeks while travelling from Dunkirk to Britain, where his sister lives. The teenager, said to be called Masud, had a legitimate claim for entry to the UK because of his sister. Delays: It is suggested the Dublin mechanism isn't working in France and refugees are facing lengthy delays in their cases being handed over to Britain However, reportedly fed up with the squalor of the camp and delays to his case being processed, he attempted the crossing illegally with tragic consequences. Mr Fordham said that if the judges rule in favour of the four young men then it could open the door to other applications from refugees at the camp hoping to come to Britain. He said: 'It will apply to others, certainly I would say any unaccompanied minor in this camp with a sibling in the UK. And I don't shrink from that.' He added: 'Suppose you have only been there a week, my argument is the same. This is intolerable for a day.' David Manknell, representing the Home Office, said the four young men had chosen not to apply for asylum or refugee status in France, and would get support from the state if they did. He said: 'There is no evidence that there is wide-scale failing in the reception conditions for asylum seekers in France.' Immigrants accused of sex attacks in Germany on New Years Eve could be free to move to Britain within just a few years, anti-EU campaigners warned last night. Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings said ministers would be powerless to stop at the border any migrants accused of attacking women in Cologne once they have an EU passport. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said migrants given the right to stay in Germany could become EU citizens within three years. Scroll down for video Vote Leave campaigners say ministers would be powerless to stop at the UK border any migrants accused of attacking women in Cologne on New Year's Eve once they have an EU passport (pictured: Crowds of people in Cologne on New Year's Eve) The comments are an attempt to take on arguments by David Cameron and pro-EU campaigners that a vote to leave the European Union in the forthcoming referendum could undermine Britains security. The Prime Minister has said the issue of quitting membership of the EU is not just a matter of jobs and trade but of the safety and security of our nation. But Eurosceptics say EU law actually makes it more difficult for Britain to stop criminals and terrorists coming to this country. They argue that it means that even though Britain has not thrown open its doors to hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past 18 months, it could still suffer the consequences of decisions made in Berlin and elsewhere. On New Years Eve a number of German cities saw a wave of sex attacks and mob violence. In Cologne, more than 500 women have claimed they were sexually assaulted by mobs of young men, with the majority of suspects of North African origin. There have also been complaints of assaults by migrants in Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. Mr Cummings said voting to leave the EU was the safer choice. Protestors from the PEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) march during a rally in Leipzig on January 11 He added: EU law means once Cologne sex abusers get citizenship they can fly to the UK theres nothing we can do. He said that as well as the importance of economic arguments for leaving the EU, security is also fundamental. BUILD FENCE 'USING PETROL TAX' Drivers should be hit with higher fuel taxes to pay for the huge migrant influx into Europe, Germanys finance minister has said. Wolfgang Schaeuble called for a new EU-wide petrol duty specifically to pay for new border control measures. Why shouldnt we deal with this at a European level? he told German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. We need to secure Schengen borders... and reduce the influx of migrants. We will need more money for that. If the EU budget is insufficient, lets agree to set up, for instance, a tax of a certain amount on each litre of petrol. This way we would have the means for a European response to the refugee issue. The money from the proposed tax which could raise billions of euros would be used to pay for huge fences around Europes borders. It could potentially deal a devastating blow to the Schengen area of free movement, which is already struggling under pressure from immigration. Last night it was unclear if Britain which is not part of Schengen would be affected by the proposal were it to be imposed. Advertisement People need to understand the consequences of preserving supremacy of EU law for our security, he said. A spokesman for Vote Leave added: The Government and the establishment more widely want to claim that the EU makes us more secure, when it is quite clear that the opposite is true. Outside of the EU we can take back control and avoid being exposed to the risks we are seeing on a daily basis on the continent. But a senior source at pro-EU campaign group Britain Stronger In Europe said: This is pretty desperate scaremongering from the Out campaigns. They are distorting facts as they ramp up their project fear because they know their argument is falling apart. Mr Farage told the Daily Mail last night that Mr Cummings was completely right. He added: Within three years every one of those people in Cologne will have an EU passport and be able to come to Britain. The first job of the British Government should be to protect its people. Mr Farage also said he expected most Eurosceptic Tory Cabinet ministers would put their careers before their conscience and back the Prime Ministers efforts for Britain to stay in the EU. In recent days, hopes that several senior figures would lead the Out campaign have faded, with names including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove reported to be no longer in play. However, it was given a boost by a Survation poll for The Mail on Sunday showing it has a six-point lead over those who want to stay in. More than 7,000 NHS staff who took early retirement have been rehired while claiming their full pensions. NHS figures show that 7,143 workers under 60 have quit the health service, taken their pensions and returned to work. Many have also been handed tax-free lump sums before accepting their new jobs. Critics accused the Government of lining the pockets of workers who have no intention of retiring at a time when the NHS faces one of its biggest ever financial crises. NHS figures show that 7,143 workers under 60 have quit the health service, taken their pensions and returned to work (stock picture) The figures were provided by the NHS in response to a Freedom of Information request. They show that 7,876 staff returned to work for NHS England, with just a tiny fraction of them - 733 - having their pensions cut or suspended. Labours shadow health minister Justin Madders MP said: These figures are further evidence of the chaos and waste caused by David Camerons NHS reorganisation. The figures are published after the Daily Mail Investigations Unit last year revealed that a number of NHS bosses had been allowed to retire for 24 hours, draw a pension, and then carrying on working as before. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has since pledged to ban the practice. Peter Herring, the 185,000-a-year chief executive of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, is one of those who retired to claim a 252,000 tax-free lump sum. Under the rules, to get the money early he had to retire for 24 hours, then work for no more than 16 hours a week for the following month. But the trust did not publicise that its chief executive had retired or that he was not working full-time for that period. And he was still paid his full salary while he limited his hours for a month. Sue James, chief executive of Derby Hospitals, used the same rule to take a 155,000 lump sum and start her pension. The loophole came to light in a footnote in the report of Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which said: Susan James retired on 30th March 2014 and was in receipt on [sic] NHS pension as at the 31st March 2014, she was subsequently re-employed by the Trust on the 1st April 2014. Jonathan Isaby, of the Taxpayers Alliance, said: When necessary savings have to be made across the NHS, taxpayers will ask why executives are able to retire and claim a big lump sum, only to walk straight back into a highly-paid job. It was revealed that a number of NHS bosses had been allowed to retire for 24 hours, a practice which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) has since pledged to ban Angus Hanton, co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank, said the Government must take tough action to stop NHS workers double dipping. He said: The current public sector pension liability is almost 1.7trillion. Young private sector workers may well start to question why they should have to shoulder the burden of these pensions. The new figures are revealed after it emerged last week that the NHS has paid more than 90million in redundancy to staff it later rehired, as part of a merry-go-round of waste. Recipients include Karen Straughair, who pocketed more than 605,000 when NHS South of Tyne and Wear, where she was chief executive, was wound up. Her husband Chris Reed, chief executive of NHS North of Tyne, was paid more than 345,000 when his organisation was abolished. Within three months, both had board-level jobs at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. A Department of Health spokesman said: It is completely unacceptable for hospital leaders to retire only to be rehired on a higher salary, whilst benefiting from a generous NHS pension pot. Last year, the Health Secretary wrote to the NHS to put an end to this practice. Plea: The father of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence (pictured) has urged the head of Scotland Yard to block the retirement of a senior officer embroiled in an alleged plot to spy on his family The father of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has urged the head of Scotland Yard to block the retirement of a senior officer embroiled in an alleged plot to spy on his family. Commander Richard Walton plans to quit the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday, in a move that would allow him to avoid answering a misconduct case. The 110,000-a-year officer, currently head of the forces counter-terrorism unit, is accused of secretly conspiring with two undercover officers tasked with gathering intelligence on the Lawrence family in the late 1990s. Last week, the Independent Police Complaints Commission concluded that Mr Walton had a case to answer over the misconduct allegations and recommended that he face disciplinary proceedings. But he plans to leave the force this week, which would mean he could no longer be subjected to such a process. On retirement, he can walk away with a lump-sum pension payout of about 300,000, plus an index-linked annual income of 55,000. The news angered the father of Stephen, who was stabbed to death by a racist gang in South London in 1993. Speaking from his home in Jamaica yesterday, Neville Lawrence said Met boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe must stop Commander Walton from taking the easy way out. The 73-year-old added: It should not be too late for Sir Bernard to use his powers to make him stay in the police, so that his case can go through the proper disciplinary procedure. He shouldnt be allowed to dodge his way out he should be made to face the music. The Met should have closed this loophole long ago. This inquiry [into spying on his family] has been going on for a long time now, so action should have been taken to ensure those involved are made to answer for what they are alleged to have done. I would urge Sir Bernard to stop Commander Walton taking the easy way out. How can he just be allowed to retire quietly, with his big pension, when he is facing such serious accusations? It is alleged that Mr Walton was involved in a secret plot by a disgraced undercover unit to gather intelligence on the Lawrence family in the lead-up to publication of the damning Macpherson Inquiry report into Stephens murder. Retiring: Commander Richard Walton (pictured) plans to quit the Metropolitan Police on Wednesday, in a move that would allow him to avoid answering a misconduct case which dates back to the 1990s The units reports included the fact that the teenagers parents had separated. The recommendation for disciplinary proceedings against Mr Walton came from the IPCC following a 19-month investigation. Scotland Yard says it can do nothing about the officers retirement plans as he has not been suspended over the claims. Mr Walton, 50, has declined to comment. David Cameron has ordered action after becoming very concerned at the hounding of British troops who fought in the Middle East Foreigners will be banned from claiming legal aid to sue soldiers in UK courts under a crackdown on ambulance- chasing law firms. David Cameron has ordered action after becoming very concerned at the hounding of British troops who fought in the Middle East. Yet the proposals will not affect the Iraq Historic Allegations Team inquiry because the 57million probe has already been funded by Government. On top of this, cases that have already been given legal aid are expected to continue, and others could be brought before the changes are made. Taxpayers money is being used by solicitors to launch more than 1,100 compensation claims on behalf of alleged victims of mistreatment by British troops. But now Downing Street wants to introduce a residence test to restrict overseas nationals from receiving public money for civil claims until they have lived in Britain for at least a year. The Government is determined to act amid mounting consternation that lawyers have been trawling for clients by knocking on doors in Iraq to bring cases against the Ministry of Defence. A source said Mr Cameron wanted the laws to be in place by the summer, as there are fears the controversy is damaging morale and recruitment in the Armed Forces. Currently there are no nationality or residence restrictions on legal aid funding, which leaves Britain with an annual bill of around 2billion. The proposals would also bar illegal immigrants from using public cash to wage endless appeals against deportation. The latest move follows a public outcry over war crime allegations made against British soldiers in the wake of the Al-Sweady public inquiry, which reported in December 2014. The five-year probe, which cost 31million, exonerated British troops of claims they went on a torture and killing spree after a 2004 battle in southern Iraq. The most serious allegations were wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies, speculation and ingrained hostility, the inquiry found. Two law firms Leigh Day and Public Interest Lawyers, which is led by Birmingham-based Phil Shiner were heavily criticised over their role in the Al-Sweady Inquiry. They have been paid an estimated 6million for representing overseas clients and deportation-dodgers in the past five years. However Leigh Day now faces being struck off after it emerged the firm shredded a key document which could have stopped the investigation. Foreigners will be banned from claiming legal aid to sue soldiers in UK courts under a crackdown on ambulance- chasing law firms (stock image) Meanwhile some British soldiers are facing multiple probes over incidents during the Iraq War dating back more than a decade. These include a military investigation and court martial; the Iraq Historic Allegations Team, which looks at cases brought by PIL or Leigh Day; Iraq Fatalities Investigations, whose functions are similar to those of a coroners inquest; the International Criminal Court in the Hague; and civil claims in the High Court from bereaved families. Up to 280 soldiers who served in Iraq have been sent letters by investigators asking them about their role in incidents years ago. It is feared that dozens of war veterans could face murder charges. Public Interest Lawyers, led by Phil Shiner (pictured), was heavily criticised over its role in the Al-Sweady Inquiry, which exonerated British troops of claims they went on a torture and killing spree after a 2004 battle in southern Iraq The scandal of legal aid for foreign nationals was also highlighted by the Daily Mail two years ago, when an Ethiopian farmer was able to use taxpayers money to sue the British Government for sending aid to his homeland. The 33-year-old who was granted anonymity successfully argued foreign aid helped the regime inflict brutal treatment on thousands of farmers driven from their land. In July 2014, human rights judges sparked anger by throwing out plans to introduce a residence test. To the fury of ministers, the High Court said such a measure would be unlawful and discriminatory and pandered to prejudice. In a highly unusual move, Lord Justice Moses shot down the laws before they had even come into force. Banning foreigners from accessing legal aid breached their rights to a fair trial and not to face discrimination, he said. But in November last year the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling, saying that a residence test was lawful. Legal charity Public Law Project is considering whether to appeal to the Supreme Court. A new Government strategy will toughen up English tests on new arrivals David Cameron today backed the right of schools and courts to ban people from wearing the veil in some circumstances, while insisting a nationwide ban would not be the right thing to do. The Prime Minister said generally people should be 'free to wear what they like' and within limits live their lives as they choose. But as he unveiled new policies for tackling extremism and segregation within migrant communities - primarily today based around English classes - Mr Cameron said he would support 'sensitive' policies requiring people to show their face. David Cameron, pictured today attending an English language class at the Shantona Women's Centre, said people who come to Britain to marry could be told to leave if they fail to make progress in learning English Mr Cameron visited the Makkah Mosque in Leeds to talk to community groups about his new policies on the English language Mr Cameron's remarks, in a BBC interview earlier today, were followed by criticism that he risked 'stigmatising' Muslim women with his 'clumsy' policy announcements. Asked about the veil today, Mr Cameron said: 'I think in our country people should be free to wear what they like, within limits live how they like, and all the rest of it. 'What does matter is if, for instance, a school has a uniform policy, sensitively put in place and all the rest of it, and people want to flout that uniform policy, often for reasons that aren't connected to religion, you should always come down on the side of the school.' Mr Cameron added: 'When you are coming into contact with an institution or you're in court, or if you need to be able to see someone's face at the border, then I will always back the authority and institution that have put in place proper and sensible rules. 'Going for the more sort of French approach of banning an item of clothing, I don't think that's the way we do things in this country and I don't think that would help.' France eventually banned full face veils in 2010 following many years of discussion. The Prime Minister unveiled a series of new policies today which include a threat of deportation to people who arrive in Britain to marry if they fail to make progress in learning English. The policy applies to all migrants arriving on a spousal visa but the Prime Minister was told he risked stigmatising the Muslim community with his 'simplistic' approach. Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said Mr Cameron had to take 'more care' while former Tory Party chairwoman Baroness Warsi questioned why Muslims were targeted - pointing out this was neither a nationality or a language. Mr Cameron defended his proposals in a major radio interview, insisting the point of the plans was to eliminate segregation in Britain. A fund worth 20million is also being created for targeted English lessons for isolated women in communities. David Cameron said he did not back an outright ban on the veil in Britain (file image) He visited the Shantona Women's Centre and the Makkah Mosque, both in Leeds, to meet community groups and promote his plans. But Mr Burnham said: 'In his desire to grab easy headlines, David Cameron risks doing more harm than good. His clumsy and simplistic approach to challenging extremism is unfairly stigmatising a whole community. 'There is a real danger that it could end up driving further radicalisation, rather than tackling it. 'The Prime Minister is right to talk about empowering women but his emphasis should be on women of all faiths and none. His commitment to English classes is welcome but people will ask why his Government has spent the last few years cutting funding from these vital courses. 'Tackling extremism is the greatest challenge of our age. We are willing to work with the Government to get it right. But it is a deep-rooted and complex problem and requires a more sophisticated approach than we have seen to date and a stronger sense of partnership with the Muslim community. 'David Cameron must proceed with more care and thought than he is currently showing and Labour will continue to challenge him to get the balance and tone right.' Baroness Warsi questioned why English lessons were being presented in a counter extremism strategy, insisting this was less important than language skills are to getting a job and helping with homework. She tweeted: 'Why should it just be Muslim women who have the opportunity to learn English? Why not anyone who lives in the UK and can't speak English.' Mr Cameron visited the Makkah Masjid Mosque to meet community groups and outline his new policies on tackling segregation inside British communities The Tory peer added: 'Mum's English isn't great yet she inspired her girls to become a lawyer, teacher, accountant, pharmacist, cabinet minister.' Mr Cameron today said people who arrive in Britain to marry should improve their English within two and a half years or face being asked to leave - even if they have children while they are here. The Prime Minister said tests will be introduced to check progress on migrants who arrive in Britain on a spousal visa and failure will mean there are no guarantees an individual will be allowed to stay. Mr Cameron said the new push on language skills was part of a wider strategy to prevent extremism in isolated communities - insisting 'segregation needs to go'. Some 20million will be available specifically to help women who are isolated in communities which have not integrated properly in Britain. Former Tory party chairwoman Baroness Warsi questioned the presentation of policies to encourage migrants to Britain to learn English Baroness Warsi said there was no reason for the policy to just be targeted at Muslim women when anyone in the UK who did not speak English would benefit She added her own mum had spoken little English but still raised successful children in Britain In a BBC Radio 4 Today interview, Mr Cameron said: 'This is about building a more integrated, cohesive, one nation country where there is genuine opportunity for people. 'Of course, if you don't speak the language your opportunities are very much reduced.' Mr Cameron said the message to new arrivals to Britain was 'learning English is essential'. On the new tests, Mr Cameron said: 'It is not just Muslim women. 'It is when people come under a spousal visa because they are marrying someone who is already here then after two and a half years they should be improving their English and we will be testing that.' The new policy will be implemented in October and will apply to recent arrivals. The Prime Minister said: 'I'm not blaming the people who can't speak English - some of these people have come to our country from quite patriarchal societies where perhaps the menfolk haven't wanted them to learn English, haven't wanted them to integrate. 'What we've found in some of the work we've done looking around our country - school governors meetings where the men sit in the meeting and the women have to sit outside. 'Women who aren't allowed to leave their home without a male relative - this is happening in our country and it's not acceptable. 'We should be proud of our values, our liberalism, our tolerance, our idea we want to build a genuine opportunity democracy. 'I think in many ways we are one of the most successful multi-ethnic, multi-faith democracies anywhere in the world. 'But where there is segregation, it's holding people back, it's not in tune with British values and it needs to go.' Mr Cameron, pictured leaving the BBC today, outlined his new policies today in a radio interview before travelling to Leeds Asked what would happen if people who arrive and have children fail the test, Mr Cameron added: 'They can't guarantee they will be able to stay because under our rules... half way through the five year spousal settlement programme, two and a half years, there will be another opportunity to make sure your English is improving.' Mr Cameron insisted he was not saying there was a 'causal' connection between English skills and extremism. But he added: 'That would be a ridiculous thing to say. But if you're not able to speak English, not able to integrate, then you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is. 'Therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message from Daesh. 'It's not a causal connection but if we're going to help young people to be resilient against the appalling messages of Daesh.' Mr Cameron has also called on Muslim mothers to become more powerful moderating forces in their communities to help stop young men, including their sons, turning to terrorism. A significant minority of women from the Muslim community do not speak English, leaving them isolated from the rest of society, say officials. In an article published in The Times today, Mr Cameron criticises the 'passive tolerance' of discrimination against women within the Muslim community. He will also announce a review of the role of religious courts including sharia courts to confront men who exert 'damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters'. The Tory leader says it is time to be 'more assertive about our liberal values, more clear about the expectations we place on those who come to live here and build our country together and more creative and generous in the work we do to break down barriers'. Writing in The Times, he adds: 'This is Britain. In this country women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love. DAVID CAMERON DEFENDS UK ROLE IN SAUDI ARABIA David Cameron today defended the relationship between Britain and Saudi Arabia when asked if the Kingdom was helping to drive extremism. The Prime Minister said the Saudis recognised a need to ensure it was not funding educational programmes around the world which did not drive extremism. He said: 'If at the same time money from states is funding educational programmes that can incubate a sense one religion is right and another is wrong, or anti-Semitic materials or what have you, we need to look very closely at that and that's exactly what we are doing. 'I think Saudi Arabia and other countries know that is an area that they need to look at.' Mr Cameron said the links with Saudi were crucial to British security and defended the role Britain was playing in Yemen. He said: 'They are opponents of Daesh and extremist terrorism that is causing such damage in our world. 'When it comes to Yemen, we support the legitimate government of Yemen and work with others in order to try and help that country have the stability it needs. 'In terms of our arms sales, I think we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and I will always make sure they are properly operated.' He added: 'We are trying to do everything we can to make sure the work done by Saudi Arabia (in Yemen) is properly targeted. 'It's right we should do that.' Advertisement 'It's our values that make this country what it is, and it's only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure.' Mr Cameron has argued privately that one reason young Muslim men can turn to fanaticism is their mothers do not have a stronger role in their communities and are unable to argue against the influence of extremists. Without English, he will say, Muslim women are limited in their ability to find work and otherwise interact with society. Official figures suggest around 700 people from the UK have travelled to join Islamic State or other jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq although some experts believe the true total could be three times higher. The vast majority are young men. Ministers are also considering plans to make it harder for migrants to remain in Britain with only limited English. In the Tory manifesto, Mr Cameron promised that anyone who arrives in the UK on a family visa with basic English will be required to become more fluent over time by having to sit tougher language tests when applying for a visa extension. In his New Year message, the PM pledged to end the appeasement of Islamist extremism, and demanded that everyone in Britain show 'loyalty' to the country and its values. In a stark warning, he said 2016 will be a 'test of our mettle' in the battle against radicals with a 'seething hatred' of this country and the West. And he said anyone who walks the streets of Britain must subscribe to its values, including freedom and tolerance. Last year the PM commissioned a major review on integration in communities cut off from the rest of society. The study, by the former head of the Government's troubled families unit, is expected to deliver some 'hard truths' to the Muslim community and suggest ways to 'boost opportunity and integration'. Ministers are also expected to publish a counter-extremism Bill next month to set out new powers for combating radicalism. Mr Cameron has warned of the dangers posed by people in Britain who 'quietly condone' the extremist ideology of Islamic State, without explicitly supporting violence. In a major speech on extremism in July last year, Mr Cameron warned that young Muslims may be turning to terrorism because they grow up in insular communities and have no 'allegiance' to the UK. While delivering a speech to promote Hillary Clinton's campaign in Iowa, former president Bill Clinton's hand appears to tremble. The 69-year-old is seen having a hand tremor during a rally as he speaks to a crowd of 5,000 people at Lincoln School in Des Moines on Saturday night. Clinton has previously spoken about a 'little tremor' he dealt with in his hand and said at the time that it was a condition you 'sometimes get with aging,' according to The American Mirror. While delivering a speech to promote Hillary Clinton's campaign in Iowa, former president Bill Clinton's hand appears to tremble In video during his appearance on Saturday, Clinton's left hand is seen appearing to wobble as he makes a point about a time when his wife Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was accused of 'playing the 9/11 card.' 'When New York was devastated by 9/11, she [Hillary Clinton] asked President Bush to commit $20billion,' Bill Clinton said on Saturday. 'A lot of people in his party didn't want to do it, he said I'll do it and they worked together until they got every last penny, and we needed it. 'I noticed she was criticized in one of those debates, you may remember this, for mentioning it saying, "Oh, she's playing the 9/11 card." She wasn't. 'She was making a point that the people who were devastated on 9/11 were people to her, not categories.' Clinton has previously spoken about a 'little tremor' he dealt with in his hand and said at the time that it was a condition you 'sometimes get with aging In 2013, Bill Clinton spoke to The Huffington Post and said that he had a condition that 'you sometimes get with aging.' 'You may have noticed it, my hand has a little tremor when I'm tired and a lot of people do when they're older,' he said at the time. In the interview, he went on to explain that the first time it happened he went to get checked out to make sure he did not have Parkinson's, a progressive disorder of the nervous system affecting movements in the body. After learning from his doctor that he did not have the disorder, he said he 'didn't care how much it shook after that.' In Iowa on Saturday, Clinton was joined by his daughter Chelsea (ictured) as the family tries to cover as much ground as possible in the race against Bernie Sanders, whose ratings have soared, and as the primaries loom During the rally, Bill Clinton urged voters to hand Hillary the nomination. He insisted: 'She can't be president if you don't nominate. And if you do nominate her, I don't think they can stop her from becoming president' In Iowa on Saturday, Clinton was joined by his daughter Chelsea as the family tries to cover as much ground as possible in the race against Bernie Sanders, whose ratings have soared, and as the primaries loom. During the rally, the former president urged voters to hand Hillary the nomination. 'She can't be president if you don't nominate. And if you do nominate her, I don't think they can stop her from becoming president,' he insisted. In a dig at Bernie Sanders, the former president emphasized Hillary's more centrist position and claimed she would be able to negotiate effectively with Republicans. Polls this week show Sanders, a Vermont senator, in the lead in neighboring New Hampshire, and showing strong gains in first-to-vote Iowa. A British man is fighting extradition to Malta on charges of involuntary homicide after his girlfriend and friend died during a scuba dive. An inquest into the deaths of Larissa Hooley, 48, and Nigel Haines, 59, returned verdicts of accidental death after they died just off the island of Gozo, near Malta. Both suffered immersion pulmonary oedema, which causes a leakage of fluid from the bloodstream into the lungs preventing oxygen from being absorbed. In a shocking twist, Miss Hooleys partner Stephen Martin was arrested at his home in Littlehampton, West Sussex, in July by police acting on a European arrest warrant. In a shocking twist, Miss Hooleys partner Stephen Martin (pictured) was arrested at his home in Littlehampton, West Sussex, in July by police acting on a European arrest warrant An inquest into the deaths of Larissa Hooley (pictured), 48, and Nigel Haines, 59, returned verdicts of accidental death after they died during just off the island of Gozo, near Malta Maltese prosecutors are seeking to hold Mr Martin, an IT manager from London, because he was the diver with the most experience on the expedition. He will go to the High Court in London on Wednesday to appeal against a European extradition warrant ordering his removal to face trial. He told the Guardian: The Maltese charges would be laughable were it not so tragic. They say the dive profile was unorthodox. Of course it was, it was a rescue. It was awful. They also say I should have given first aid underwater and that I didnt take notice of the weather conditions. The tragedy took place on June 7 2014 when the divers entered waters known as the Blue Hole. All were members of the Brighton branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC). They were swimming along a submerged cliff 10 to 15 metres below the surface when Miss Hooley veered off and plummeted leaving a jagged line of bubbles. During the frantic attempts to save Miss Hooley, Mr Haines slipped back into the water and he also died The incident happened just off the island of Gozo, near Malta (file photo) Her friends managed to bring her to the surface after she sank to a depth of 35 metres but she had turned blue and unresponsive. During the frantic attempts to save Miss Hooley, Mr Haines slipped back into the water and he also died. Mr Martin cooperated with Maltese officials inquiries and then left the island. Maltese officials held a magisterial inquiry which found that he had been negligent because of the unorthodox dive profile, had not checked the weather conditions and that he had failed to keep a close watch on Miss Hooley. A 34-year-old man who was bashed and left for dead after trying to stop a gang of young men from setting a homeless man on fire has spoken out about his brutal beating. Daniel Dan Dan Warrington, a chef and DJ in Melbourne, was delivering food to the homeless on Wednesday, January 6, just after 11pm when he came across a group of three men kicking a homeless man and pouring liquid on him whilst trying to set him on fire. Mr Warrington told Daily Mail Australia that he tried to intervene, and was set upon by the men, and four more who came from the shadows. Daniel Warrington, 34, (pictured) was attacked and left-for-dead in a busy Melbourne Street on January 6 He is expecting a child with his fiance, Brooke Bilston (pictured) in June and was scared he wouldn't live long enough to meet them The men grabbed me and I started getting clubbed over the head with empty bottles of alcohol, Mr Warrington recalls. One hit me from the front, and another one hit me from behind, that is when I dropped to my knees, and they started hitting me over the head with a skateboard. Mr Warrington said he then fell to the ground, moments away from unconsciousness, and fearing death. I remember the first two stomps to the head, doctors have told me my injuries suggest there were more. One of my kitchen hands saw the men stomping on my head when they came around the corner with a second round of food. He remembers being hit across the head, from front and behind, with empty alcohol bottles The DJ has been overwhelmed at the amount of support he has received since the incident. By the time I had made it out of surgery (on Friday) my mum, dad and uncle were waiting for me, he said. It is the first time I have seen my mum and dad in the same room in more than ten years, and it was because they were worried about what had happened to me. They all managed to find the money to come from Queensland, and at the moment we have about ten people staying in our tiny two bedroom flat, wanting to be with me as I recover. The chef come DJ broke down when he thought about his mum seeing him for the first time. He says he then dropped to his knees and was repetedly hit across the head with a skateboard, before his attackers stomped on his head I can barely look at myself, but when I saw the look on my mums face when she first saw me, her child who she thought she might have to bury, that was heartbreaking. I would like the men who did this to have a think about how their loved ones, how their mums would feel if they were faced with the possibility of having to bury their child, he cried. Mr Warrington is expecting his first child in June and said he was afraid he wouldnt be able to meet his son or daughter. Mr Warrington says he would intervene again if he could go back to the incident He was disgusted by the act of trying to set a man on fire, and is overwhelmed by the love and support of his friends and family since I am so grateful to have my loving partner, Brooke Bilston, by my side. I am so grateful to be alive, I really thought I was going to die. He has said it is hard to look in the mirror and Im not my handsome self but he would definitely still intervene if he could have his time over again, even if he knew there were seven attackers in total. I would absolutely step in again, I think that anyone with any humanity or kindness in their heart would do the same thing. I pray to God that if anyone ever saw a homeless man being set on fire they would step in. I have never seen someone try to light another person on fire, the gesture itself is inhuman. Mr Warrington needed a full facial reconstruction after the incident, and has been left with 33 screws holding his skull, and the new plates that have been inserted together. He hopes that anyone else would have stepped in on the initial brutal attack I have been told I had bleeding and swelling of the brain, two broken eye sockets, facial disfiguration and swelling and bruising, I havent been told what the long-term side-effects might be yet, but at the moment I cant smell anything, and my eye-sight is quite blurry. I am a chef so I am really worried about my smell. He is on medication for the pain and says at times it is so bad he can barely string a sentence together. At other times he says my whole head is numb, but at the same time there is an excruciating thumping pain. Mr Warrington has been in contact with police since the attack, and was relieved to be informed that seven men had been arrested for a number of armed robbery and assault offences which occurred that night on Swanston Street. I really pleased and proud of the efforts of the Victorian Police. They came to hospital to check on me, and let me know when they had taken people into custody. They should be leading example to the other states. Victoria Police have issued a statement in relation to the incident, and the alleged offenders. Police have arrested seven people following a series of alleged robberies and assaults which took place in the Melbourne CBD Swanston Street, the statement read. Its alleged the group threatened a 15-year-old boy and 20-year-old man stealing their phones in separate incidents between 10.30pm-11pm on 6 January. The men arrested were aged between 14 and 22. Police arrested a 19-year-old St Albans man, a 17-year-old Meadow Heights boy, a 17-year-old Maidstone boy, a 14-year-old Carlton boy, an 18-year-old Deer Park boy, a 15-year-old Kings Park boy and a 22-year-old Footscray West man. Mr Warrington says he is 'proud of the Victorian Police' who investigated the assault and spent time by his hospital bed 'All arrested have been charged with assault and armed robbery offences. Mr Warrington has said that he did not have a view on street violence, one-way-or-another, before the attack, but he now knows first-hand that it has to stop. Street violence has become more regular, as people in society become more vicious, and possible offenders have to remember that one punch can kill, and they should walk away and live another day, he has said. The victim has said he is not ready to continue chasing his DJ career, but instead he wants to release a clothing line to say no to street violence and raise awareness for the issue. Mr Warringtons friends have rallied behind him, starting a fundraising page to help pay for medical and rehabilitation costs and left hundreds of messages of support. The DJ says he is not his 'handsome self' and hates looking in the mirror at his reconstructed face He is a larger than life character with a heart of gold, his friend Josh Boorman, who helped put together the support site has said. When I spoke with him he sounded pretty fragile, this is a guy I would have considered a strong person. I think his physical injuries speak for themselves, but the emotional and mental pain will last a lot longer. Dan has moved from the Gold Coast, to Perth and then to Melbourne, and has made a lot of friends everywhere he has been. There are a lot of people who love him out there, and it is heartbreaking to see this has happened to him. His friends have rallied behind him and are raising funds to help him with medical bills Mr Warrington said that the street was quite busy when he went out to deliver the food, and although he did not know the homeless man he saw being bashed personally he was a regular recipient of the free meals from the chefs kitchen. He does not know if he will need any follow-up operations, he is currently resting at home after being discharged from the Royal Melbourne Hospital over the weekend. He has lived in Melbourne for 11 months, and has been speaking with the homeless people in the area since then. 'We (he and his fiance Brooke) believe in helping people because it is the right thing to do. 'That is why I have been bringing them the left-over stews since I became the manager and executive chef at the restaurant.' The chef come DJ was feeding the homeless when he says he came across a man being kicked Sunday's Democratic Party presidential primary debate was promised as a long-awaited bare knuckle brawl between Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and it didn't disappoint. While both White House hopefuls and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley have near-identical economic positions, squabbles have broken out between the Clinton and Sanders camps over gun control and the future of Obamacare. Hours before the debate, the last one before the upcoming Iowa Caucuses, Sanders released a health care proposal that generated instant controversy because of tax-increase proposals buried in it despite his earlier pledge not to tax middle-class Americans to pay for it. Clinton twisted the knife Sunday night, saying she would 'build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it' by putting private insurance 'on a more stable platform that doesn't take too much money out of the pockets of hard-working Americans.' Debate night: Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met Sunday night in Charleston, S.C. Had it up to here! Clinton hammered Sanders for proposing new tax increases to pay for a reboot of Obamacare based on Medicare Break up the banks: Sanders leveraged his longtime complaints about investment banks and hit Clinton for taking speaking fees from Goldman Sachs Sanders described health care 'for every man, woman and child as a right.' But he insisted he wouldn't 'tear up' Obamacare, as Clinton claimed he would. 'Were not gonna tear up the Affordable Care Act. I helped write it,' the Vermont senator said. 'But we care going to move on top of that to a Medicare-for-all system.' The $13.8 trillion plan, paid for with taxes on high income earners, fulfilled the senator's promise that as president, he'd make health insurance a 'right' for all Americans. Clinton, who tried and failed in the 1990s to pass her own universal health care plan as first lady, declared at the debate, 'to start over again with a whole new debate is something that I think would set us back.' O'Malley didn't address Obamacare, still struggling to generate basic name recognition across the country. 'My name is Martin O'Malley,' he began his opening statement, although his campaign is nearly eight months old. In polling released by NBC News just hours before debate time, Clinton led Sanders by 25 percentage points nationally. But a recent New York Times/CBS News poll put that margin at just 7 points. Low country smackdown: The Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C. was the site of Sunday's debate Crunch time: Today's debate was the last time the candidates will appear together before the primaries begin And in Iowa, the crucial first caucus state, Clinton is up just 4 points in an average maintained by Real Clear Politics. Sanders actually has overtaken Clinton in New Hampshire, the second state to pick Democratic National Convention delegates, by more than 6 points on average. Clinton continued hammering Sanders, a senator from a rural hunting state, for past Senate votes that she said were out of step with progressives. 'He has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby, numerous times,' she claimed, including 'what we call the Charleston loophole.' That was a reference to a gun-control legal provision that allowed a crazed gunman to acquire a gun and kill nine people last summer. The church where the massacre occurred, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, is less than a block from Sunday's debate site, the Gaillard Center. Sanders, a practicing Jew, attended worship services there Sunday morning. Sanders, she boomed, 'voted to let guns go onto Amtrak, guns go into national parks.' Sanders cracked a broad smile at that claim. President Obama signed a law in 2010, while Clinton was part of the administration, which allowed private firearms into parks. Sanders boasted of his 'D-minus' rating from the National Rifle Association, and insisted that the Charleston shooting 'should not be a political issue.' O'Malley called both of his opponents 'inconsistent when it comes to this issue,' saying he was the only politician on stage with a record of implementing new gun control measures. One of those laws was a citywide ban on so-called 'assault rifles' in Baltimore when he was mayor. 'I've never met a self-respecting deer hunter that needed an AR-15 to down a deer,' O'Malley said. Who are you? Martin O'Malley is a former governor of Maryland who's running for president but is polling in the low single digits Timing: With the Iowa Caucuses looming on February 1, Sunday night was the last major showdown for the three Democratic candidates before Americans start voting Answering a question about their agenda for the first 100 days of their hoped-for presidencies, Clinton pledged to take action on jobs, renewable energy, gender pay equity and 'mean-spiritedness' in politics. Sanders said health care, tax increases for wealthy Americans and a push to 'raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour' would be at the top of his list. O'Malley said he would push for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform, a '100 per cent clean electric grid by 2050,' and 'a new agenda for America's cities.' Later, the candidates weighed in on racism in America, with Sanders blasting the U.S. justice system for putting 'more people in jail than any other country on earth including China, disproportionately African-American and Latino.' Clinton lamented that 'one out of three African-American men may well end up in prison' and urged her audience to consider 'what we would do if it were one out of three white men. Moderator Lester Holt referred to instances in which police officers have, seemingly unnecessarily, killed young black men. 'It plays straight to the fears of many African-American men that their lives are cheap. Is that perception, or in your view is it reality?' Holt asked Clinton. 'Sadly, it's reality,' she said. 'It has been heartbreaking and incredibly outraging to see the constant stories of young men who have been killed by police officers.There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.' Sanders, by contrast, focused on sentencing reform over crimes such as marijuana possession. Clinton and Saunders sparred several times during the debate over issues such as campaign financing, gun control and universal healthcare All Smiles: Party unity took over following the hardscrabble debate as Clinton and Sanders grinned at each other Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase 'in all due respect.' Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival. Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton 'in all due respect, you're missing the main point.' Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, cast Sanders' criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, 'I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street' and getting results. 'The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people,' Clinton said. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. AFTER-PARTY: Hillary CLinton took husband Bill along to a 'debate watch' party in Charleston where her supporters had been cheering her on all evening Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. 'My relationship with him it's interesting,' Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. 'It's one, I think, of respect.' But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who 'will take as much as he possibly can.' Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? 'It'll start at the kitchen table we'll see where it goes from there,' she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: 'You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice.' Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He called the former president's behavior 'deplorable' but said he wants to focus on issues 'not Bill Clinton's personal life.' Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said the focus should be on issues. A member of one of New Zealand's most prominent outlaw motorcycle gangs hasn't let a court ordered home detention order stop him from taking his children to a playground. Stephen Daly, a prominent member of the Head Hunters MC and on electronic bail for his alleged connection to armed kidnappings, said he didn't want to let his kids down. 'It gets to you telling your babies you can't take them to the park because I'm on the bracelet, so I did something about it. I no longer have that problem. Bark goes in tomorrow and we done, school playground at home boom!' Stephen Daly, a prominent member of the Head Hunters MC and on electronic bail for his alleged connection to armed kidnappings, said he didn't want to let his kids down Mr Daly found the playground on an online auction site with a $1 reserve but won it with a final bid of around $2000 Mr Daly, from Whangarei, told Stuff.co.nz that he found the playground on an online auction site with a $1 reserve but won it with a final bid of around $2000. 'We had no instructions or anything, just photos off TradeMe. We'd grab one pole, look through all the photos at where the gaps were - we jigsaw puzzled it for about two weeks. Our builder was bloody awesome.' He said he wants to slowly build his home into a paradise for his 7 and 8-year-old children and has already built them a swimming pool. 'There's a park right near us, but trying to explain why you can't take them... ' The original post of the playground on Mr Daly's Facebook page garnered more than 550 comments, most of which congratulated him on being 'father of the year'. 'That's just the best thing I have ever seen someone do, to not only defeat what has been taken from you, but to show how much your love is to have quality time with the Tamariki (children),' wrote one woman. New playground: 'There's a park right near us, but trying to explain why you can't take them' 'Steve you are amazing! Who does that for their kids? You blow my mind,' wrote another woman. 'That's so f*****g cool cuzzy, I hate to admit it but no one does it better than you,' posted Mr Daly's friend. Mr Daly's Facebook page is littered with photo's of his previous lifestyle, including vintage muscle cars, new Harley Davidson motorcycles, game fishing and giant gold chains. New Zealand Police allege Mr Daly was involve in the abduction of two men in the North Island in February last year. One of the men was also robbed of $10,000. Mr Daly and eight other Head Hunter members have pleaded not guilty to the charges and will stand trial in court later this year. Bernie Sanders called Hillary Clinton's attack on his gun record 'disingenuous,' while Clinton continued to cast Sanders as a friend of the National Rifle Association during the opening minutes of tonight's Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina. 'He voted to let guns go onto Amtrak, guns go into national parks, he voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives,' Clinton said, ticking off several other pieces of legislation where Sanders vote had lined up with the gun lobby. The Vermont senator wasn't having it. 'Well, I think Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous,' Sanders said. 'I have a D-minus voting record from the NRA.' Scroll down for video In the opening minutes of tonight's debate, Bernie Sanders called rival Hillary Clinton 'disingenuous' for attacking him on gun issues Hillary Clinton ticked off a number of bills that Bernie Sanders voted against, putting his positions in line with the NRA. Sanders tried to explain some of the nuance in his positions Martin O'Malley (left), Hillary Clinton (center) and Bernie Sanders (right) faced off in Charleston, South Carolina Sunday night and got into it over gun control, as the Southern city lost nine of its own in a horrific church shooting over the summer Sanders was asked to explain why he decided to change positions on a gun bill that's going through Congress. Last night, Sanders had stepped a foot closer to Clinton on guns by announcing that he was supportive of legislation that would repeal a 2005 law that gave gun makers legal immunity. 'There is no other industry in American that was given the total pass that the gun makers and dealers were and that needs to be reversed,' Clinton said during the course of the debate. On the Sunday shows, she called Sanders move 'flip-flopping' on three different programs, but praised him for having a 'change of heart.' On tonight's debate stage, Clinton delivered a similar line like a back-handed compliment. 'Now I am pleased that Sen. Sanders has reversed his position on immunity and I look forward to him joining those members of congress who have already introduced legislation,' Clinton said. Sanders explained that he supported the original bill because it included things like require child safety protection on firearms and prohibit ammunition 'that would have killed cops' who were wearing armor. The Vermont senator also explained that he didn't want small, rural gun stores to be put out of business because of lawsuits, which was why he was supportive of a legal immunity measure. 'What we also said was that a small mom and pop gun shop who sells a gun legally to somebody should not be held liable if somebody does something terrible with their gun,' Sanders said. Clinton said that that vote was the one 'the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years.' The former secretary of state also mentioned another measure that she's been trying to pressure Sanders on. 'He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole,' Clinton noted. The Charleston loophole, which allowed killer Dylann Roof to buy the gun he used to kill nine people with at the Emanuel AME Church, allows for a gun sale to go through if the federal government fails to return a background check in three days time. 'Let's not forget what this is about. 90 people a day die from gun violence in our country. That's 33,000 people a year,' Clinton said. 'One of the most horrific examples, not a block from here, where we had nine people murdered,' she added. Sanders also brought up the Charleston slayings when talking about his stance on gun control. 'We have seen in this city a horrendous tragedy of a crazed person praying with people and then coming out and shooting nine people this should not be a political issue,' he said. 'What we should be doing is working together and, by the way, as a senator from a rural state that has virtually no gun control, I believe that I am in an excellent position to bring people together to fight for sensible gun safety legislation,' Sanders added. The Vermont senator said he was for instant background checks, which is something his campaign has been pointing to when Clinton charges that he voted for the Charleston loophole. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who's polling in the single digits in the three-way race dominated by Clinton and Sanders, shook his head at his rivals. I've listened to Secretary Clinton and Sen. Sanders go back and forth on which of them has the most inconsistent record on gun safety legislation,' O'Malley began. Speaking less than a block away from the church where nine African-Americans were murdered last summer, the three Democratic presidential candidates on Sunday night tangled over racism and police violence in America. Moderator Lester Holt kicked off the clash by referring to the shooting last June as well as other instances in which young black men have been killed by police seemingly unnecessarily. 'It plays straight to the fears of many African-American men that their lives are cheap. Is that perception, or in your view is it reality?' Holt asked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 'Sadly, it's reality,' Clinton said.'It has been heartbreaking and incredibly outraging to see the constant stories of young men who have been killed by police officers.There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.' Scroll down for videos The three Democratic presidential contenders faced off Sunday night in Charleston, South Carolina Specifically, she called for retraining police, cracking down on racial profiling and revealing disparities in the criminal justice system. 'One out of three African-American men may well end up going to prison. That's the statistic,' she said. 'I want people here to think what we would be doing if it was one out of three white men - and very often, the black men are arrested , convicted and incarcerated for offenses that do not lead to the same results for white men.' 'We have a very serious problem that we can no longer ignore.' Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said he agreed the criminal justice system is broken but also called for sentencing reform over crimes such as possession of marijuana.. 'Who in America is satisfied that we have more people in jail than any other country including China, disproportionately African-American and Latino? Who is satisfied that 51 percent of young African-American men are either unemployed or under-employed?' Sanders asked. But Holt pointed to Clinton's strong support from African-American voters and prominent organizations such as the Congressional Black Caucus. 'How can you be the nominee if you don't have that support?' Holt asked. Sanders fired back that he was once down by 50 points to Clinton in the polls. 'In terms of polling, we are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend Donald Trump,' Sanders said. 'When the African-American community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda, just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African-American community. We have the momentum.' Holt added that the phrase 'black lives matter' surpassed the term 'civil rights movement' among South Carolinans last year, and asked former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor Martin O'Malley if his 'zero tolerance' crime policies contributed to the racial disparities. O'Malley noted that when he ran for mayor in Baltimore in 1999, the city was burying more than 300 young African-Americans per year. He said he presided over the implementation of a civilian review board and improved reporting procedures for police misconduct among other changes. 'We weren't able to make our city immune to setbacks like the Freddie Gray unrest and tragic death showed, but we were able to save a lot of lives,' he said. ' 'Racism has no place in Australia,' said Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has been accused of calling someone a 'bloody w*g' at a parliamentary senate committee hearing - although he insists he said something else. Representatives from animal protection institute Voiceless, including legal counsel Emmanuel Giuffre, fronted the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation committee last September. After they finished giving their testimony, Mr Heffernan, the chair of the committee, was seen tilting his body towards the committee secretary and audio allegedly records him saying 'bloody w*g'. What did he say? Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan was accused of calling someone a 'bloody w*g' in an offhand remark at a parliamentary senate committee hearing last year - but he denies making the remark Voiceless legal counsel Emmanuel Giuffre fronted the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport committee The Voiceless party stood up and left the session just prior to when Mr Heffernan was alleged to have made the remark Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon said in a statement: 'Racism has no place in Australia and this includes Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan's 'bloody w*g' comment.' 'Our politicians should be publicly criticised for their insulting comments. Racism and sexism should have no part in public discourse and public life'. 'Earlier this month a Liberal government Minister (Peter Dutton) called a woman journalist a f***ing witch and now we hear of a Liberal MP using racist language.' Voiceless spokeswoman Elise Burgess said if the Senator had said anything derogatory towards their representatives or panel members, 'clearly there is a lack of respect at the highest level'. The organisation were appearing in front of the panel lobbying for a bill that would set up an independent federal Animal Welfare Office. Ms Burgess said it wasn't the first time the Senators on the committee had 'behaved in a hostile and aggressive manner' to Voiceless representatives. She accused the committee of failing to take animal welfare seriously and said: 'Frankly we would expect better conduct from elected officials.' Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who was on the panel, said in response to the video: 'Racism has no place in Australia and this includes Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan's 'bloody w*g' comment' Mr Giuffre told a university lecture last week: 'It was quite clear what he said, he said "ah that bloody w*g again"' It's understood Mr Giuffre was unaware of any remark at the hearing until a relative watched the parliamentary video and pointed it out. Mr Giuffre told a university lecture last week: 'It was quite clear what he said, he said "ah that bloody w*g again"'. In an interview, Mr Heffernan denied saying 'bloody w*g', insisting he had said something else and claiming a language expert agreed. 'I didn't say it,' he said. 'Everyone knows I use much more explicit language than that, everyone knows that.' He said 'w*g' - 'an old fashioned word' - was not in his vernacular before adding that he was well known for his use of the F-word and 'country language'. A spokeswoman for Mr Heffernan said there was 'no way you can come to that conclusion' that he had said 'w*g'. No record of the remark was recorded in the transcript of the parliamentary Hansard. David Bowie has scored his first ever US No.1 album with Blackstar - exactly one week after his death from cancer was announced to the stunned world. The iconic British artist, whose recording career stretches back to the 1960s, released many influential albums, but Blackstar is the first time he has hit the top of the Billboard 200 Chart. Recorded in the 18 months since Bowie was diagnosed with cancer, the record was released on January 8, which was the artist's 69th birthday. Blackstar has been described as a 'parting gift' to fans. Bowie passed away just two days after its release, sparking huge speculation as to the content of the album's lyrics. Best-seller: The No. 1 spot on Billboard's 200 chart has been nabbed by the David Bowie album Blackstar, it was revealed Sunday Blackstar was released on January 8, which was also Bowie's 69th birthday. The iconic musician had cancer for 18 months and died on January 10 Billboard, which revealed Sunday that Blackstar nabbed the Billboard 200's top spot, reported '181,000 equivalent album units' of the album were bought. Best of Bowie took the No. 4 slot (94,000 units), with the No. 21 slot snatched up by The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Billboard reported. According to the news outlet, 25 by Adele and Purpose by Justin Bieber were booted to the second and third spots, respectively. The website noted that his penultimate album The Next Day's first-week sales in 2013 were 85,000 units. '181,000 equivalent album units' of Blackstar were bought, according to Billboard. David Bowie is seen with his wife Iman in June 2010 Blackstar has also shot to No. 1 on the British album chart. Ten of the 40 top-selling albums announced Friday are by Bowie. Blackstar, whose lyrics ponder life and mortality, sold almost 150,000 copies in all formats, giving Bowie his 10th No. 1 album and knocking Adele's 25 off the top spot. Also in the top 40 on the British album chart are Bowie compilation Nothing Has Changed, in fifth spot; The Best Of 1969/1974 at 11; Hunky Dory at 14; The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars at 17; and Best of Bowie at 18. Hillary Clinton gave more specifics on the role Bill Clinton would play if she were to become president, while rival Bernie Sanders explained why he called the former president's transgressions disgraceful and unacceptable. 'I'm going to use him as a good will emissary to go around the country to find the best ideas,' Clinton suggested of her husband during tonight's Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina. Sanders, who has promised to run an issue-oriented campaign, again knocked the former president's sexual behavior in the White House. 'Yes, his behavior was deplorable,' Sanders said. He then explained how he ended up on the record talking about Bill Clinton's sex life. Scroll down for video Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both spoke about Bill Clinton. The former secretary of state outlined her husband's role, while Sanders condemned his past sexual behavior Hillary and Bill Clinton made a stop at a watch party for her supporters in Charleston after the debate Sunday Clinton said that if she's elected president, she will use her husband 'as a good will emissary to go around the country to find the best ideas' 'I was asked a question,' Sanders said. 'One of the things, Andrea, that question annoys me,' he continued, pausing briefly to reference debate moderator, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who had asked Sanders if he regretted talking publicly about Bill Clinton's sexual past. 'I cannot walk down the street Secretary Clinton knows this without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton,' Sanders explained. 'Want to get me on the front pages of the paper? I make some vicious attack.' Sanders said he's avoided making personal attacks and instead segued to talk about the issues, but was directly asked the question about Bill Clinton's behavior. When Mitchell said Sanders could have answered it differently, Sanders suggested he didn't have a choice. 'Well, then if I don't answer it's another front page story,' Sanders said. He then shared his thoughts on Bill. 'Yes. And I mean this seriously, you know this, we've been through this, yes, his behavior was deplorable,' Sanders said. Bill Clinton campaigned in New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton last week and in Iowa this weekend. Bernie Sanders called the former president's behavior in the '90s 'deplorable' 'Have I ever once said a word about that issue? No, I have not,' Sanders continued. 'I'm going to debate Secretary Clinton and Governor O'Malley on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clinton's personal behavior,' the Vermont senator added. Sanders comments came directly after Hillary Clinton cheerfully described the kind of role her husband would play. 'It will start at the kitchen table,' Hillary Clinton said, answering whether the former president would have a titled job beyond first man or have a kitchen table-type job. 'We'll see where it goes from there,' Hillary Clinton said. The Democratic frontrunner said she would definitely tap into her husband's brain on economic issues. 'You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas, I'm going to ask for his advice,' Hillary Clinton said. His case has enraptured a nation, with legions of fans pouring over every last detail while trying to work out whether he is innocent or guilty. But it seems that Steven Avery, the subject of hit Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, hasn't seen the series himself after a request to watch it in prison was denied. While Avery hasn't seen the first series, directors Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi were already floating the possibility of series two at a press event in Pasadena on Sunday. Scroll down for video Steven Avery (pictured during his murder trial) has not watched Making a Murderer, the series that documents his conflict with law enforcement, according to the directors At an event in California last night, Laura Ricciardi (left) and Moira Demos (right) said they have spoken with Avery since the series aired, and will be following developments for a possible follow-up Speaking as part of Netflix's Television Critics Association press tour, Demos and Ricciardi revealed that they have had several phone conversations with Avery from jail since the series came out. While talking, the pair said they have had to be mindful that recordings of the conversations could form part of a follow-up documentary, Decider reports. Demos said: 'This story is ongoing. These cases are open. We are ready to follow these if there are significant developments.' Filmed over ten years, Making a Murderer tells the real-life story of Steven Avery, a small-town Wisconsin junkyard worker and his conflict with the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Department. Beginning in 1985 when Avery was wrongfully convicted of the rape and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen, the series documents his 18-year struggle to win back his freedom. After his release, Avery becomes a poster-boy case for police injustice, launches a $36million lawsuit against officials, and even has a law passed in his name. However, in 2005 as he prepares to take the department who convicted him to court, he is accused of murdering photographer Teresa Halbach. In his defense, Avery argues that he is being set up again as revenge for exposing the police department's wrongdoings, and hires two expert lawyers to plead his case. Avery, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Teresa Halbach, reportedly asked to be allowed to watch the series behind bars, but was denied permission The series, which has become a cult phenomenon since its release in December, tracks Avery's struggle against law enforcement after he was wrongly imprisoned for rape, then accused of murder Despite fairly compelling evidence of further police failings in the murder probe , and conflicts of interest among investigators, Avery is sentenced to life in jail - where he remains to this day. Since the series aired, thousands of people signed petitions to Barack Obama asking him to pardon Avery, a request the President denied, saying the case was a federal issue. Meanwhile fans have poured over the evidence presented in the documentary to make their own mind up about Avery's guilt or innocence. While some have come out to defend him, others have accused Demos and Ricciardi of bias in their filming - of omitting certain facts from the trial, or misrepresenting interviewees. Addressing those concerns earlier today, Demos said: 'I think what were seeing now is history repeating itself. Its now on a national scale where the media is demonizing this man. 'We showed Steven Avery, warts and all. Just because someone is coming forward now with a narrative, doesnt mean their interpretation of something is accurate or true.' Demos, Ricciardi and other involved in the series - such as Avery's lawyers Dean Strang and Jerome Buting - have insisted that the real message of the documentary is not about Avery. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump drew less than one-half as much interest from debating democrats Sunday night, compared with their last on-stage contest in December. But he was still the only GOP contender who drew any fire by name as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley tussled in Charleston, South Carolina. Clinton, the presumptive favorite to win the Democratic nomination, left Trump out of her rhetoric. But Sanders and O'Malley launched broadsides as his positions on Islamic terrorism and global warming. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS GLOBAL WARMING WARRIOR: Vermont's Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders took a climate-change shot at Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday during the Democrats' debate in Charleston, South Carolina 'IT'S A HOAX': Trump had claimed in late December that the climate change movement was a 'hoax' and a 'money-making industry' SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT: The South Carolina debate brought bitter rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders within spitting distance of each other, and included Martin O'Malley as a feisty third wheel 'The debate is over. Climate change is real. It is already causing major problems,' Sanders said in the second half of Sunday night's contest. 'And if we do not act boldly and decisively, a bad situation will become worse.' 'It is beyond my comprehension,' he added moments later, 'how we can elect as President of the United States somebody like Trump who believes that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.' That line brought laughter from a partisan audience gathered downtown at the Gaillard Center. Trump indeed said during a December 30 rally in Hilton Head, South Carolina that the modern climate change movement is 'a hoax. I mean, it's a money-making industry, okay? It's a hoax, a lot of it.' He insisted that 'we don't have to destroy our economy' in order to protect the natural environment. Trump never said during that appearance that China invented the purported hoax, but did point a finger at Beijing for failing to abide by the same rules the United States agreed to follow in a recently inked multinational climate change deal. 'They're buying all of our coal. We can't use coal anymore, essentially. They're buying our coal, and they're using it,' he said. In 2012 The Donald tweeted in a moment he later called a 'joke,' that '[t]he concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.' O'Malley, a former Maryland governor, said Sunday night that he objected to Trump's call for a temporary ban on non-citizen Muslims entering the United States until the federal government can determine 'what is going on' in the wake of a deadly Islamist attack in San Bernardino, California. DRUNK IN LOVE WITH HILLARY: A Clinton supporter advertised her support from Beyonce during a rally outside Sunday night's debate site He spoke of a 'political front' in the war against the ISIS terror army. 'If Donald Trump wants to start a registry, in our country, of people by faith,' O'Malley boomed, 'he can start with me!' 'And I will sign up as one who is totally opposed to his fascist appeals that wants to vilify American Muslims. That can do more damage to our democracy than anything.' Sanders had already drawn the billionaire's blood, saying earlier that all three Democrats on stage had 'denounced Trump's attempt to divide this country, the anti-Latino rhetoric, the racist rhetoric, the anti-Muslim rhetoric.' The focus on Trump to the exclusion of all the other Republicans may indicate that Democrats fear the real estate tycoon more than the establishment candidates who want to unseat him at the top of the GOP pyramid. ROUNDING UP CATHOLICS? Martin O'Malley (left) said that if Donald Trump (right) wants to segregate Americans by religion meaning Muslims 'he can start with me!' IT'S GO TIME: The lawn of Charleston's Gaillard Center became a forest of yard signs Sunday night Sanders made a point of emphasizing his poll numbers in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup with The Donald when he made his case that the Democratic Party should nominate him instead of Clinton. 'In terms of polling, we are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend Donald Trump,' Sanders said. In the December 19 Democratic debate there were no fewer than nine separate mentions of Trump's name including a controversial claim from Clinton that her league-leading Republican counterpart 'is becoming ISIS' best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.' That contention was never backed up, although propaganda videos introduced later featured both Trump and Clinton. O'Malley said that night that the United States 'must never surrender our American values to racists, must never surrender them to the fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths.' At Sunday night's Democratic debate, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton described her relationship with Vladimir Putin as 'um...interesting'. NBC moderator Lester Holt had asked Clinton how she would improve diplomatic ties between the United States and Russia when she described her relationship with the country's president. 'Well, my relationship with him, it's um, it's interesting,' she said, before elaborating. The crowd erupted into laughter after the 'interesting' comment and listeners took to social media to make jokes about the relationship between Putin and Clinton. NBC moderator Lester Holt had asked Clinton how she would improve diplomatic ties between the United States and Russia when she laughed and said her relationship with Vladimir Putin was 'interesting' Putin, pictured with Clinton at the APEC summit in Russia in 2012, accused then-Secretary of State Clinton of inciting protests over the elections when she questioned the validity of those held 'It's one, I think, of respect. We've had some very tough dealings with one another,' she added. 'And I know that he's someone that you have to continuously stand up to because, like many bullies, he is somebody who will take as much as he possibly can unless you do. 'And we need to get the Europeans to be more willing to stand up, I was pleased they put sanctions on after Crimea and eastern Ukraine and the downing of the airliner, but we've got to be more united in preventing Putin from taking a more aggressive stance in Europe and the Middle East. ' When asked if Clinton would consider another 'reset' agreement, like the one in 2009, Clinton said it would 'depend on what I got for it'. 'Well, it would depend on what I got for it and I can tell you what we got in the first term, we got a new start treaty to reduce nuclear weapons between the United States and Russia,' she said. 'We got permission to resupply our troops in Afghanistan by traveling across Russia. Clinton called Putin a 'bully' during Sunday's debate and described him as 'someone that you have to continuously stand up to' We got Russia to sign on to our sanctions against Iran and other very important commitments. So look, in diplomacy, you are always trying to see how you can figure out the interest of the other to see if there isn't some way you can advance your security and your values.' Clinton said that when Putin returned in 2011, he 'came back with a mission'. In 2011, Putin accused then-Secretary of State Clinton of inciting protests over the elections when she questioned the validity of those held, according to Mashable. 'And I began speaking out as soon as that happened because there were some fraudulent elections held, and Russians poured out into the streets to demand their freedom, and he cracked down,' she said. 'And in fact, accused me of fomenting it. So we now know that he has a mixed record to say the least and we have to figure out how to deal with him,' she added. Glamorous: Princess Anne in Kiev in 1973 Though her enduring work ethic outshines her extended family she completed 544 public engagements at home and abroad last year Princess Anne remains a largely overlooked member of our royal tribe. But now a cheeky reappraisal from an unlikely quarter threatens to bring her back into the limelight. As the Mail revealed this week, an enterprising member of the royal staff has written a saucy screenplay called Anne: The Frisky Princess, which dwells on her younger days. To those who know her only for her stern countenance, cottage-loaf hairdo and denial of all things fashionable, it may come as a surprise to learn that underneath the formidable exterior beats a passionate heart. Bouncing about in the back of a horsebox, avoiding photographers while secretly meeting a married lover, even engendering the suspicion that one of her offspring was not her husbands the staid Princess Royal was not always so starchy as she appears. The storyline would start with Gerald Ward, an Eton-educated ex-cavalry officer who later became Prince Harrys godfather. They were an item in Annes late teens after she left Benenden school and began her public duties. Ward, a landowner and pillar of the establishment, went on to marry twice. Then came Richard Meade, a dashing horseman who after Cambridge and the Royal Hussars went on to win three Olympic gold medals for eventing. His son, James Meade, is Prince Williams closest friend. All very appropriate, all very sensible. But then through a chance meeting at Royal Lodge, Windsor, the 19-year-old Anne came to know Andrew Parker Bowles, a young captain in the Royal Horse Guards destined for greater things having served as ADC to the Governor-General in New Zealand. Until then, Annes love-life had been varied, but now it became considerably more sophisticated. It helped that Andrew was a little over ten years older and handsome. It helped, too, that his father Derek Parker Bowles was the Queen Mothers closest male friend, and that he was an outstanding horseman who rode in the Grand National. Most of all, it helped that APB, as he was known, was vastly experienced in the ways of love. At the time they met, he was sort of engaged to a certain ex-deb called Camilla Shand, but that did not prevent him enjoying the charms of other women including Lady Caroline Percy, daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, and Lady Amabel Lindsay, daughter of the Earl of Hardwicke. Hed already been engaged to Sue Morley, the daughter of a brigadier. But these three were merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of his skirt-chasing. Anne had most recently been having an affair with Brian Alexander, younger son of war hero Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis. But though theyd been together the best part of a year, he wasnt made of the right stuff for Anne. A dear, lovely man, but too wet, observed her acidic aunt, Princess Margaret. Though her enduring work ethic outshines her extended family she completed 544 public engagements at home and abroad last year Princess Anne remains a largely overlooked member of our royal tribe. Pictured is Princess Anne and Andrew Parker-Bowles in 1971 And so the affair began despite the age gap, despite APBs past. A friend recalled: Andrew could never resist a challenge, and theres nothing so aphrodisiac as the unattainable. Women had no hesitation in falling for him he seemed to compel them into loving him. It fizzled out when Andrew was posted to Germany, but Anne was never to forget APB a man once described by one grateful partner as the greatest lover in London. Parker Bowles would go on to marry Camilla in 1973, but despite their relationship already having survived seven bumpy years, he led her a merry dance all the way to the altar. Many believe that it was revenge which fuelled Camillas very determined attempts to get Prince Charles into bed that if Andrew was going to have the Queens daughter as his lover, she would have Her Majestys son. She did not have to try very hard. But just as Charles and Camilla could not then marry he was too young, shed had too many lovers neither could Andrew and Anne. Parker Bowles was a Roman Catholic, and in those days that alone was sufficient to scupper a royal romance. Parker Bowles would go on to marry Camilla in 1973, but despite their relationship already having survived seven bumpy years, he led her a merry dance all the way to the altar. Pictured is Princess Anne and Mark Phillips in 1973 So Andrew went back to Camilla, and Charles went on to marry Diana. On July 15, 1973, the love of Annes life tied the knot with his girlfriend of seven years, Camilla Shand. Within four months, Anne had stalked up the aisle to a waiting Captain Mark Phillips. Marriage on the rebound? It seems entirely possible. One friend at the time remarked: She was in pieces over Andrews marriage to Camilla. But shes made of stern stuff she sought out and found a Photofit of Andrew, and married him. Phillips, said the snobs, was a pale imitation of APB a cavalryman but from a less fashionable regiment, public-school-educated but less aristocratic, good looking but less handsome, and altogether less sexy. Princess Anne and Mark Phillips at the Badminton Horse Trials in the 1970s Nonetheless, he was a magnificent horseman Olympic gold standard and stimulated Anne to the extent that when they attended showjumping events together, their horsebox could often be seen bouncing from side to side. The marriage lasted 19 years, but the wheels had fallen off long before. Temperamental differences could be said to have driven a wedge between them. But there was something else. Zara Phillips, their second child Peter was the first was born nearly eight years into the marriage in 1981, but there was speculation at the time that she was not the daughter of the Captain. Anne was often attended to at public engagements by a handsome personal bodyguard, Sergeant Peter Cross of the Royal Protection Squad. That there was an affair is beyond doubt Anne was seen by a Buckingham Palace official kissing the policeman, who was quietly removed by Scotland Yard. Upset at having been fired for something which was not entirely his fault, Cross went to a red-top newspaper and spilled the beans. Anne would call him when he was off-duty, he confessed, and ask if he would like to spend a day in the country. Sometimes they would meet at a cottage on her Gloucestershire estate, sometimes at an anonymous house in Surrey. When Anne went into hospital in May 1981 to give birth to Zara, she called Cross to let him know her movements. And it was Cross who said he received the first telephone call from the Princess once shed given birth: Ive had my baby its a girl. Were both fine. Buckingham Palace, deeply disgruntled at his revelations appearing in print, put it about that Cross was a vain man who indulged in several extramarital affairs. They did not, however, say he was a liar. Before too long, Anne was involved with a royal equerry, Timothy Laurence. He was unmarried, but somehow, letters he wrote to Anne pledging his undying love got into the hands of a tabloid newspaper. Anne squashed any chance of the incident turning into a scandal by announcing, in her usual crisply decisive way, that she and Laurence would marry, which they did in December 1992, eight months after her divorce from Mark Phillips. That might have been the end of the royal romancing, but for the fact that rumours of Annes infatuation for Andrew Parker Bowles continued to bob to the surface. Andrew and Camilla had divorced in the wake of the Camillagate tapes, which exposed his wifes affair with Prince Charles, and he went on to marry old flame Rosemary Pitman. Andrew Parker-Bowles chatting with Princess Anne as they stroll through the Crowds at Royal Ascot Commander Tim Laurence (left) and Britain's Princess Anne are seen in their car after their wedding at Crathie Church in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on December 12, 1992 But after Rosemarys death from cancer in 2010, the Princess and APB were spotted chatting animatedly at Royal Ascot. They were rumoured to be once again spending time in each others company, although doubters pooh-poohed speculation by some friends and family that they might reignite their relationship. Although chinks had appeared in Annes marriage to Laurence, these days it seems as strong as ever it was. A woman's body believed to be that of missing mother of two Karen Chetcuti has been found by police in scrubland. Officers located the body off Choppers Creek Road in Myrtleford, 274 km northeast of Melbourne at 1.35pm on Monday and while it is still yet to be identified, police believe it is the Whorouly woman who has been missing since Tuesday. This comes as Ms Chetcuti's neighbour Michael Cardamone was arrested after he disappeared following his claims he was the last person to see her. Scroll down for video A woman's body believed to be that of missing mother of two Karen Chetcuti (pictured) has been found by police in scrubland Ms Chetcuti was last seen on Tuesday evening, when she was captured on CCTV at a supermarket and attended a pub near her home. Michael Cardomone also says he saw her later that night Detectives arrive at the home of Michael Cardamone, who claimed to be the last person to see Ms Chetcuti But Mr Cardamone could not be located by police, who wanted to question him about the missing woman Detectives had attended his property on Saturday, but it and nearby paddocks were also searched on Friday Ms Chetcuti's burnt out car, where it was found near Myrtleford, VIC, about 20km from her homeD The scene where Ms Chetcuti's car was found burnt out, near Myrtleford, 20km from Whorouly An SES search party looking for missing woman Karen Chetcuti near Whorouly The search for the missing mother of two entered its fourth day on Sunday Homicide Squad detectives, the Missing Persons Squad, sniffer dogs and local SES members were searching bushland near where her car was found The woman's body was found just off a track adjoining Croppers Creek Road near the Lake Buffalo weir wall, and it is understood the remains were not covered, The Herald Sun reported. It is understood Michael Cardamone was located and arrested in Ringwood, a suburb of Melbourne, on Sunday morning. He was believed to have been apprehended following a pursuit through the city when he was seen in a car about 5am on Sunday. In a bizarre twist to the story, Mr Cardamone had told a relative he was abducted on Saturday in Whorouly, where he and Ms Chetcuti live, and forced into a car boot, the Herald Sun reported. Detectives attempted to locate and question him in the rural town the same day. Police suspected the vehicle he was found driving was the same one he claimed to have been abducted in. Victoria police told Daily Mail Australia he was speaking to investigators on Sunday afternoon. Earlier the same day, a crime scene was set up at Mr Cardamone's house. Searchers looking for Ms Chetcuti inspected wells on her property, and divers began scouring a river near her house just before noon, The Age reported. Mr Cardamone has denied any part in Ms Chetcuti's disappearance. State Emergency Service crews searched his property and surrounding paddocks on Friday. Police fear Ms Chetcuti may be a victim of foul play. They continued the search for her on Saturday morning Ms Chetcuti, 49, is a mother to two teenagers and a manager at the City of Wanagaratta Police released this image of Ms Chetcuti car, as it appeared before it was burnt out Whorouly residents said they had heard from detectives there were at present three suspects in the case, the Herald Sun reported. The search for the woman, a manager at nearby Wangaratta's city council, entered its fourth day on Sunday. The last confirmed sighting of her was when she left the Whorouly Hotel about 7.20pm on Tuesday. A concerned friend reported her missing on Wednesday after she did not turn up for work, and her car was found burnt out 20km away from Whorouly on Halls Road, Myrtleford on Thursday morning. 'That's totally alarming to us - the vehicle being burnt in that fashion,' Detective Sergeant Sol Solomon told 3AW on Friday. '(She) didn't turn up for work on Wednesday, which is highly out of character for her. 'She's well known as being highly punctual, highly thought of and very efficient in her life.' When police went to her house, the lights had been left on and her bag and purse had been left at home - but not her mobile phone. Homicide detectives suspect she was the victim of foul play. Det Sgt Solomon said what was found at Ms Chetcuti's home - lights on, her purse and handbag left behind, but no mobile phone to be found - was 'a situation that appeared out of order' On the evening she was reported as last being seen, she went to the Whorouly Hotel Ms Chetcuti left the hotel about 7.30pm on Tuesday evening. Her neighbour Michael Cardomone, claims he saw her later that evening, about 9pm 'I strongly suspect that there is someone, or some others involved,' Detective Sergeant Sol Solomon told reporters on Friday. 'I really hope she's still alive, she could be still alive, but the longer it goes, the more grave the situation becomes,' he said. CCTV footage of Ms Chetcuti at a supermarket at 5pm on Tuesday shows her wearing a cream or yellow tank top and a dark skirt. Ms Chetcuti is 175cm tall, of a medium build, with dark brown shoulder-length hair. Her two children, aged 14 and 15, are staying with their father, who is separated from their mother. Police have been providing support to the family. Det Sgt Solomon said there was no suggestion the father was involved in the disappearance. Homicide Squad detectives, the Missing Persons Squad, sniffer dogs and local SES members were involved in the search and on Sunday, were focusing on Whorouly and Myrtleford. Police are appealing for anyone who saw Karen or her red 2004 Citroen Sara, registration XWC 149, any time after 7.20pm on Tuesday. They also want to speak to anyone who saw any suspicious activity in the area. Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia Saturday's search was focusing on Whorouly, Ms Chetcuti's home town A missing publisher who produced books critical of Beijing wept as he was paraded on Chinese television - after an apparent 'confession' over a fatal drink drive crash. Gui Minhai, a Swedish national, is one of five missing booksellers from a Hong Kong-based publisher known for its criticism of the Chinese government. Their disappearance has sparked alarm in the southern Chinese city which is guaranteed a range of freedoms not seen on the mainland. Gui failed to return from a holiday in Thailand in October. In his confession on state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday he said he had returned to China to 'take legal responsibilities' for killing a college student in a car accident 11 years ago. Scroll down for video Gui Minhai, a missing publisher who produced books critical of Beijing, wept as he was paraded on Chinese television - after an apparent 'confession' over a fatal drink drive crash The disappearance of the five men has sparked alarm in the southern Chinese city which is guaranteed a range of freedoms not seen on the mainland Weeping Gui said he had fled the mainland after he was convicted of the crime, despite only receiving a two-year suspended sentence. But Amnesty International's East Asia director Nicholas Bequelin said the broadcast raised more questions than answers. 'From the legal standpoint the video is worthless,' he said. 'Where is he? Under what authority is he detained? What are the circumstances under which he gave this interview? We cannot exclude the possibility that he made the statement under duress,' he said. The other missing employees include the publishing company's general manager Lui Bo, staff member Cheung Jiping, and bookstore manager Lam Wing-kei, all of whom disappeared in southern China in October. The latest to vanish was Lee Bo, 65, last seen in Hong Kong on December 30. Gui, a Swedish national, is one of five missing booksellers from a Hong Kong-based publisher known for its criticism of the Chinese government Their disappearance has sparked alarm in Hong Kong which is guaranteed a range of freedoms not seen on the mainland. Supporters of the five men are pictured protesting in Hong Kong The disappearances have fuelled growing unease in Hong Kong over the erosion of freedoms in the city, which was handed back to China from Britain in 1997 but was guaranteed it would remain largely autonomous for a further 50 years. Of the five booksellers who have gone missing, the latest to have disappeared, Lee Bo, sparked the biggest backlash as he was the only one of the five to have disappeared from Hong Kong. That raised fears that Chinese security authorities were working in Hong Kong's territory, against the city's laws. Lee Cheuk-yan, a pro-democracy politician in Hong Kong, said of the Gui confession that China was 'trying to hide the fact that they are detaining him for the bookstore'. 'The traffic accident has nothing to do with it and there was nothing in the video that says how he ended up in China,' he said, describing the broadcast as a 'smoke screen'. All five men worked for the Mighty Current publishing house which operates a bookstore in the commercial heart of Hong Kong. Police walk past posters of Gui Minhai (left), one of five missing booksellers and Yau Wentian (right), a publisher jailed for 10 years while preparing to release a book critical of Chinese President Xi Jinping, in Hong Kong Protesters call for the release of booksellers missing from Hong Kong's Mighty Current publishing house - known for books critical of Beijing CCTV's website ran a news report in 2005, in which a man named Gui Minhai was said to have fled overseas in 2004 after he was given a two-year suspended sentence for killing a 23-year-old college student in the eastern city of Ningbo. While the report could relate to the missing bookseller, there are nevertheless discrepancies. CCTV says Gui was 46 in 2005, but on Sunday state news agency Xinhua gave his current age as 51. After Sunday's confession, a Hong Kong news website also ran a letter said to be written by Lee Bo in which he said Gui had a 'complex history'. 'He killed a person in a drink-driving crash and irresponsibly fled overseas,' read the letter, published on the Headline Daily website. Advertisement Pope Francis condemned killing in God's name as he mingled with the Jewish community at a synagogue in Rome. The Roman Catholic leader stressed the importance of interfaith friendships following a spate of attacks in Europe, Africa and the Middle East by Islamic extremists. Referring to Chrisitanity, Judaism and Islam, he said: 'Violence of man against man is in contradiction to every religion that merits the name, in particular the three monotheistic religions. 'Every human being, as a creature of God, is our brother regardless of his origins or religious belief.' Catholic leader Pope Francis and Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni shake hands during the visit at the Rome's synagogue yesterday Pope Francis became the third pontiff to visit Rome's main synagogue, where he met members of the Italian capital's Jewish community The Roman Catholic leader stressed the importance of interfaith friendships following a spate of attacks in Europe, Africa and the Middle East by Islamic extremists During the visit at the Great Synagogue marked by tight security and historic continuity, Francis also rejected all forms of anti-Semitism and called for 'maximum vigilance' and early intervention to prevent another Holocaust. Francis joined a standing ovation when Holocaust survivors, some wearing striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms, were singled out for applause at the start of the ceremony. And he sparked an ovation of his own when he paused in his remarks to acknowledge the survivors in the synagogue's front row. The Argentine has repeatedly condemned violence in the name of religion, as Christians and religious minorities have often been the target of terrorist attacks. His sentiments were shared by members of the Jewish community, who sought to hold up the visit as a sign of interfaith friendship in the face of Muslim extremism. 'Today, the sad novelty is that after two centuries of disasters produced by nationalism and ideologies, violence has come back and it is fed and justified by fanatic visions inspired by religion,' Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the Pope. 'A meeting of peace between different religious communities, as the one that is taking place today here in Rome, is a very strong sign against the invasion and abuse of religious violence.' During the visit marked by tight security and historic continuity, Francis also rejected all forms of anti-Semitism and called for 'maximum vigilance' and early intervention to prevent another Holocaust Francis joined a standing ovation when Holocaust survivors, some wearing striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms, were singled out for applause at the start of the ceremony The Pope's sentiments were shared by members of the Jewish community, who sought to hold up the visit as a sign of interfaith friendship in the face of Muslim extremism The visit continued the tradition of papal trips to the synagogue which began with St John Paul II in 1986 and was followed by Benedict XVI six years ago. Pictured is a Jewish man filming the historic day on his iPhone Pope Francis made his first visit to the Rome's synagogue, greeting the Jewish community in their house of worship as his two predecessors did in a show interfaith friendship at a time of religiously-inspired violence around the globe The visit continued the tradition of papal trips to the synagogue which began with St John Paul II in 1986 and was followed by Benedict XVI six years ago. It also highlighted the 50th anniversary of the revolution in Christian-Jewish relations sparked by the Second Vatican Council. The meetings, which went on between 1962 and 1965, brought the church into the modern era. Among other things, the council document Nostra Aetate rejected the centuries-old charge that Jews as a whole were responsible for the death of Jesus. Francis said the declaration amounted to a 'yes' to the rediscovery of the of the Jewish roots of Christianity and a 'no' to every form of anti-Semitism and a condemnation of every insult, discrimination and persecution that is derived from it'. He said several times that Jews were the 'elder brothers' of Christians, repeating the words first uttered by John Paul during his historic visit to the synagogue 30 years ago. But he added that Christians also had 'elder sisters' in the Jewish faith. The Pope began his visit by laying a wreath at a plaque outside the synagogue marking where Roman Jews were rounded up by the Nazis in 1943 and at another marking the killing of a two-year-old boy in an attack by Palestinians on the synagogue in 1982. He met with members of the boy's family and survivors of the attack before entering the synagogue to rounds of warm applause, which continued during his speech, interrupting him several times. Francis, an Argentinian Jesuit, has a long-standing friendship with the Jewish community in Argentina from his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires The Vatican has long maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives, but Francis made no mention of former the church leader The Pope began his visit by laying a wreath at a plaque outside the synagogue marking where Roman Jews were rounded up by the Nazis in 1943 and at another marking the killing of a two-year-old boy in an attack by Palestinians on the synagogue in 1982 Pope Francis embraces chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni as he arrives at Rome's Great Synagogue in Italy He said several times that Jews were the 'elder brothers' of Christians, repeating the words first uttered by John Paul during his historic visit to the synagogue 30 years ago. But he added that Christians also had 'elder sisters' in the Jewish faith Francis, an Argentinian Jesuit, has a long-standing friendship with the Jewish community in Argentina from his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires. At the same time, recent Vatican developments have angered some in the Jewish community, including the Vatican's recent treaty negotiated with the 'state of Palestine'. These issues were not mentioned yesterday, though Jewish leaders made clear they would like for the Pope and the Vatican as a whole to acknowledge the special link Jews have with the land of Israel. Francis recalled that during the Holocaust, six million Jews were 'victims of the most inhuman barbarism, perpetrated in the name of an ideology that wanted to replace God with man'. 'The Shoah teaches us that we must have maximum vigilance, to be able to intervene quickly in defence of human dignity and peace.' The comments were notable because Benedict's 2010 visit was marked by his defence of Pope Pius XII, the Second World War-era pope accused by many Jews of having failed to do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. Iran has denounces the 'illegitimate' new U.S. curbs on the Islamic Republic's ballistic missile programme, vowing to continue developing its conventional military deterrent. The United States imposed sanctions on 11 companies and several Iranian nationals yesterday for supplying Iran's ballistic missile programme. The move was delayed by over two weeks so as not to endanger this weekend's successful release of U.S. prisoners. Scroll down for video: President Obama is crediting his 'smart' diplomacy for recent breakthroughs in the U.S. relationship with Iran John Kerry (left) and Javad Zarif (right) have played a key role in the successful prisoner release The new measures also came after the lifting of far more comprehensive nuclear sanctions. 'The Islamic Republic will respond to these aggravating and propagandistic measures by pursuing its legal missile programme stronger than before and developing its defensive capabilities,' a foreign ministry statement said. Iran conducted a ballistic missile test in October, which the United Nations called a breach of a resolution prohibiting the Islamic Republic from developing missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads. Iran insists the missile was designed to carry a conventional payload. Foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said Washington's sales of weaponry to allies in the Middle East, worth tens of billions of dollars each year, was used to commit 'war crimes against Palestinian, Lebanese and most recently Yemeni citizens'. 'The U.S. sanctions against Iran's ballistic missile programme ... have no legal or moral legitimacy,' he said. The new sanctions come less than 24 hours after three U.S citizens were released from captivity in Iran, in a diplomatic breakthrough hailed by Barack Obama. Obama said a 'smart, patient and disciplined approached to the world' has seen results that, he claims, will block Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear bomb. He spoke from the White House yesterday, one day after the United Nations certified that Iran had curbed its nuclear program as promised. In a possible dig at his Republican critics, Obama told reporters the financial settlement is a success as it is 'much less' than the 'billions' Iran sought Following the brief stop in Switzerland, the three traveled on to the US Air Base in Ramstein, Germany. Pictured is a medical bus escorted by police leaving the base after half an hour after the plane landed Safe and sound: Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to counter ISIL, tweeted this picture of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian landing safely in Geneva 'This is a good day,' Obama said in a statement from the White House. 'When Americans are freed and returned to their families, that's something we can all celebrate.' The editors of The Washington Post say Rezaian is in 'good spirits' following his release by Iran after 18 months in the country's notorious Evin prison. Rezaian, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in California, was detained in Iran on July 22, 2014. He was arrested at the same time as his wife Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian who at that time was a journalist for The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper. She was released on bail a few months later. The Post said he was subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse before finally being convicted of espionage in what it called a sham trial. The Post's editors said the reporter had become a hostage to the nuclear talks, being detained at the behest of hardline opponents of President Hassan Rouhani within Iran's regime. In an internal memo to Post staff, Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said they had spoken briefly by telephone with Rezaian, who was being evaluated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. They said Rezaian expressed appreciation for the unwavering support from his colleagues while noting that his social isolation during captivity was particularly difficult. The president spoke at the close of an extraordinary weekend of diplomacy that saw the back-to-back release of the five Americans and the lifting of billions in international sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear accord. And America finally reached a deal to settle a longstanding claim at the Hague, releasing to Tehran $100 billion in funds, mainly oil sales, which had been frozen since 1981. In a possible dig at his Republican critics, Obama told reporters the financial settlement is a success as it is 'much less' than the 'billions' Iran sought. People walk off a plane carrying three Iranian-Americans, who left Tehran under a prisoner swap, in Geneva The released prisoners will board a plane to America later on Sunday His words come amid a storm of criticism from Republicans at the end of a busy deal-making weekend with the Middle Eastern country. Aspiring presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed the financial settlement and prisoner swap. He tweeted: 'In Iran deal we get 4 prisoners. They get $150 billion, 7 most wanted and many off watch list. This will create great incentive for others!' Meanwhile Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said that America had essentially paid a ransom for the five U.S. citizens released this weekend by handing over seven Iranian detainees in exchange. And Ted Cruz applauded the release of American prisoners but said the deal 'serves as a piece of propaganda for Iran and the Obama administration'. He added: 'We've got to shake our heads at how this happened... there is a false moral equivalence in a deal like this.' Obama did not take any questions in his press conference but dismissed the condemnations by saying it has been 'a good day' in America's history with Iran. The funds finally settled in America's financial dispute with Iran were part of a trust fund once used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States but which was tied up for decades in litigation at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. The settlement announcement was made after Tehran released five American detainees in a prisoner swap as a nuclear deal was implemented. Underscoring the strain that continues to exist between the U.S. and Iran, the Obama administration also announced new penalties Sunday on 11 individuals and entities involved in Tehran's ballistic missile program. 'We will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously,' Obama said. 'We are going to remain vigilant about it.' For Obama, the diplomatic breakthroughs are a validation of his early promises to deal directly with nations such as Iran. The U.S. and Iran broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 hostage-taking of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists about his negotiations with Iran upon his arrival from Vienna at Joint Base Andrews in Washington on Sunday 'America can do and has done big things when we work together,' Obama said. 'We can lead this world and make it safer and more secure.' The nuclear talks have brought a sense of normalcy to relations with the U.S. and Iran, with top officials from each country in somewhat regular communication. But Obama emphasized that the U.S. continues to have deep concerns about Iran's destabilizing actions in the Middle East and its threats to Israel. Obama spoke shortly after the Americans began their journey home. A charter plane left Tehran for Switzerland with the Americans all four who had been detained, according to Iran state television, or only three, the U.S. said as part of a prisoner swap. Within hours of their release, the U.S. imposed sanctions against those involved in Iran's ballistic missile program as a result of Tehran's firing of a medium-range ballistic missile. U.N. experts said in a report in December that the missile test in October violated sanctions banning Iran from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons. A U.S. Treasury official said Iran's ballistic missile program poses 'a significant threat to regional and global security.' The ex-wife of a Saudi billionaire 'bombarded' the Foreign Office with letters demanding his diplomatic immunity be lifted so she could pursue him for his 4billion fortune in court, it is alleged. Christina Estrada, a former Pirelli calendar girl, wrote to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to clear the way for a financial claim in the UK divorce courts following the breakdown of her marriage to Sheikh Walid Juffali. Mr Juffali was appointed a permanent representative to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) by the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia in April 2014. Christina Estrada, a former Pirelli calendar girl, wrote to the Foreign Office to clear the way for a financial claim in the UK divorce courts following the breakdown of her marriage to Sheikh Walid Juffali (pictured together) The question has arisen as to whether his status as an accredited diplomat shields the 60-year-old from being taken before a UK court in a dispute over how much of his estimated 4billion fortune his former wife should receive after 13 years of marriage and the birth of a daughter, now aged 13. Mr Justice Hayden is being asked to decide the question in a four-day hearing at the High Court family division in London. The UK Government earlier made an extraordinary intervention in the case by formally asking St Lucia to withdraw the tycoon's immunity. The judge was told 53-year-old Ms Estrada is also challenging whether Mr Juffali has a continuing right to diplomatic privileges in any event. Her legal team is arguing that it appears to be 'a flag of convenience' and the tycoon has never attended a meeting of the IMO since his appointment. Martin Pointer QC, appearing for Mr Juffali, queried the ex-wife's stance. He asked: 'If it be the case that the wife says the husband is not an accredited diplomat, why has she, through her solicitors, bombarded the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) with letters trying to persuade them to request Saint Lucia to waive my client's immunity?' Mr Pointer said in due course the FCO submitted to her pressure and wrote a letter inviting Saint Lucia to waive Mr Juffali's immunity. The letter, penned by the FCO director of protocol, was sent to Saint Lucia's acting high commissioner in London on December 23 and requested a response by January 8. Last Friday, the Saint Lucia government told the FCO that it intends to 'uphold the principle of diplomatic immunity' by allowing Mr Juffali to invoke his diplomatic immunity in court. The government has issued a statement saying: 'The government of Saint Lucia has been assured by the FCO that Dr Juffali has not abused the privileges and immunities afforded to him, nor is the decision of the government of Saint Lucia to uphold the principle of diplomatic immunity an abuse of these privileges or immunities in any way. 'While the government of Saint Lucia fully respects the decision of the FCO to make such a request, it is not satisfied, based on its own examination of the facts, that a compelling case has been made out to grant a waiver of the diplomatic immunity of Dr Juffali.' Once diplomatic immunity had been secured, Mr Juffali divorced Ms Estrada (pictured left at an event and right today at the High Court) in the traditional Muslim way by saying 'I divorce you' three times The statement added that Saint Lucia had maintained its position 'that the parties should be allowed to settle their matrimonial dispute through negotiations and failing that, the courts should decide if immunity can be waived in this matter'. The move could leave Ms Estrada, 53, without any legally binding settlement following her divorce from Mr Juffali. A mutual friend of Mr Juffali and Ms Estrada said previously: 'The last three years have been incredibly distressing for Christina. She never wanted things to get to this stage, not least to protect her daughter and safeguard family relations. 'She's only ever wanted a reasonable and legally binding settlement - nothing like the numbers that are being talked about. It represents a modest fraction of Walid's wealth. 'It has shocked many of us who know them both well that Walid has gone to such vast lengths to avoid looking after the mother of his child and wife of 13 years. 'Christina is acutely aware that she is more fortunate than many women who find themselves in a similar position, and feels it's important that she not only stands up for herself but for the rights of other deserted wives.' The couple separated when Ms Estrada discovered her husband had secretly married again under Islamic law - which permits him to have up to four wives - around the time of her 50th birthday party in 2012. Ms Estrada confronted him after a TV report was broadcast in Lebanon announcing Mr Juffali's wedding to Beirut beauty Loujain Adada, then 24, a former MTV presenter. However, within months of divorce proceedings starting in London, Mr Juffali travelled to St Lucia for the first time. Within weeks he had been appointed as the island's permanent representative to the International Maritime Organisation - despite having no known qualifications in shipping or maritime law, nor any previous connection to St Lucia. The appointment was never publicly announced by the St Lucia Labour Party and Mr Juffali has so far attended no meetings in the 21 months since his appointment. The position grants him diplomatic immunity, and, once secured, he quickly divorced Ms Estrada in the traditional Muslim way by saying 'I divorce you' three times. Mr Juffali, chairman of one of Saudi Arabia's biggest conglomerates, denies the position was sought in order to avoid a settlement in the UK courts, and says the appointment was made in accordance with standard diplomatic procedures. But the move has prompted outrage from politicians and leading human rights lawyers, who have accused St Lucia and Mr Juffali of making 'a mockery of British justice'. Saudi tycoon Sheikh Walid Juffali owns this 15million country estate in Egham, Surrey, which boasts its own maze and tennis courts. The estate is next to Windsor Great Park and is just four miles from Windsor Castle Friendly Governments usually waive the immunity of diplomats subject to legal proceedings in Britain, and opposition politicians in St Lucia have called upon their Government to act and remove Mr Juffali from his post. Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said the row risked making 'a mockery of diplomatic privileges'. The saga follows a string of recent incidents in which wealthy diplomats have claimed immunity from the UK courts. Earlier this week the former Prime Minister of Qatar claimed he cannot be sued in London's High Court following allegations he used his influence to expropriate land from British citizen Fawaz Al-Attiya. Mr al-Attiya also alleges he was falsely imprisoned and subjected to conditions amounting to torture. Last year Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond released a list of serious offences alleged to have been committed by people entitled to diplomatic immunity in 2014. Of the 14 offences reported, one was the possession of a firearm by a Saudi. Most of the offences carried out were driving-related. Six people were found to be driving without insurance while five were found to be driving under the influence of alcohol. Geoffrey Robertson QC, an international law expert, insisted last night that immunity should only be exercised to protect diplomats working in dangerous environments, and warned of a trend of cases where individuals are using the privilege to avoid the justice process. He said: 'Diplomatic immunity puts officials above the law, and serves to protect ambassadors in hostile countries from being framed or honey-trapped. 'But where credible allegations are made of crimes, or in cases where diplomats are sued in connection with divorce or non-payment of money they owe, then the immunity should be withdrawn by the state that appointed them. 'This is an abuse which international law cannot tolerate as it could be used to protect wealthy criminals, or those who have seriously wronged other people.' Spokesmen for the Foreign Office and the St Lucia Labour Party declined to comment last night. Representatives for Ms Estrada and Mr Juffali also declined to comment. Healthcare and gun violence were both major talking points in the debate Bernie Sanders criticised Hillary Clinton for taking $600,000 worth of speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in their most aggressive candidacy debate yet. Sanders twice questioned her commitment to policing Wall Street's excesses while Clinton, who leads the race to be come the Democrat party's presidential candidate, blasted him for wanting to raise taxes. At times, the two front runners shouted over each other at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina, in their final debate before the Iowa caucuses. Scroll down for videos Bernie Sanders (right) criticised Hillary Clinton (left) for taking $600,000 worth of speaking fees from Goldman Sachs in their final debate before the Iowa caucuses Sanders (right) twice questioned her commitment to policing Wall Street's excesses while Clinton (left), who blasted him for wanting to raise taxes Some of the crowd booed Sanders, who twice brought up Clinton's receipt of lucrative speaking fees since leaving her post as secretary of state in early 2013. They also butted heads over health care, taxes and gun violence - which have all emerged as central points in the race. Just hours before the debate, Sanders announced a proposal that would create a 'Medicare for all' health system funded by higher taxes on Middle Class families and the wealthy. His voice rising at times, Sanders made a rousing case for the expansion of the government, universal health care, free college tuition and paid leave for workers with families. He said: 'A little bit more in taxes, do away with private health insurance premiums...It's a pretty good deal.' But Clinton warned that even reopening the medical debate debate put President Barack Obama's healthcare law at risk. Some of the crowd booed Sanders (pictured), who twice brought up Clinton's receipt of lucrative speaking fees since leaving her post as secretary of state in early 2013 Clinton (left) and Sanders (right) butted heads over health care, taxes and gun violence - which have all emerged as central points in the race She blasted Sanders' so called 'single payer plan' and accused him of making things up as he went along. She said: 'When we're talking about health care, the details really matter.' I'm the only candidate standing here tonight who has said I will not raise taxes on the middle class Hillary Clinton Clinton claimed her policies were superior and the American people would know exactly how her plans would be implemented and paid for. She said: 'I'm the only candidate standing here tonight who has said I will not raise taxes on the middle class. 'I want to raise incomes, not taxes, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that the wealthy pay for debt free tuition, for child care, for paid family leave.' Clinton made an all-purpose case for her leadership and her ability win the White House, saying: 'We need a president who can do all aspects of the job.' She questioned Sanders on why he reversed his position on a 2005 bill that granted gun manufacturers immunity from lawsuits. She went on to list a series of provision that suggested Sanders stood in line with the National Rifle Association. Clinton (left) claimed her policies were superior and the American people would know exactly how her plans would be implemented and paid for At times, the two leading Democratic presidential candidates shouted over each other at the Gaillard Center (pictured) in Charleston, South Carolina Sanders claimed she was being 'very disingenuous' and pointed to his lifetime rating of 'D-minus' from the National Rifle Association. Throughout the night, Clinton embraced Obama's legacy, assuming that the president's popularity could help her with primary voters. She repeatedly defended the Affordable Care Act and said Sanders' approach would reopen a debate that might come back to haunt Democrats. She said: 'I do not to want see the Republicans repeal it, and I don't to want see us start over again with a contentious debate.' Clinton's case for tougher gun control also aimed to put her on the same side as Obama, who recently signed executive orders aimed at addressing a series of recent mass shootings. The exchanges were a far cry from the first debate of their campaign, when Sanders famously refused to attack Clinton for her use of a private email account and server at the State Department. Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, the third candidate in the debate, barely qualified to appear on the debate stage and, at times, struggled to get a word in over Sanders (right) and Clinton The exchanges last night were a far cry from the first debate of their campaign, when Sanders famously refused to attack Clinton for her use of a private email account and server at the State Department Meanwhile Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, the third candidate in the debate, barely qualified to appear on the debate stage and, at times, struggled to get a word in as Sanders and Clinton jousted on the issues. As the debate's moderator headed into the first commercial break, O'Malley asked, 'Just ten seconds?' to no avail. Donald Trump is a 'dangerous fool' who 'fuels the flames of terrorism' with 'poisonous' views on Muslims but he should not be banned from Britain in case he becomes a martyr, MPs said today. More than 570,000 people are calling for the billionaire to be barred from the UK after he said Britain has a 'massive Muslim problem' and police 'fear for their lives' in 'radicalised' areas. Today British Members of Parliament debated whether to turn away the tycoon, who also wants to stop Muslims entering America, but only the Home Secretary can put him on a banned list. Labour's Jack Dromey said: 'Donald Trump is free to be a fool but he is not free to be a dangerous fool in Britain' because his views on Muslims 'fuel the flames of terrorism'. But Newport West MP Paul Flynn, who led the debate, spoke for the majority of MPs at the event when he said banning Mr Trump would only 'give him the role of martyrdom'. Today Mr Trump called the campaign to make him one of only 80 people banned from Britain 'an absurd waste of time' and blasted 'self-serving' MPs for failing to focus on the UK's real problems. Fighting back: Donald Trump, pictured in Virginia today, said the decision by MPs to debate whether he should be banned from Britain is 'absurd' and a 'waste of precious time' Argument: Newport MP Paul Flynn believes that Mr Trump shouldn't be banned because of the publicity he would get but Labour's Jack Dromey, right, believes the tycoon should never be allowed to come to the UK Agreement: Tory MP Andrew Percy said that the debate was an 'utterly ridiculous waste of taxpayers' money' while fellow Conservative Adam Holloway said the petition made Britain look 'totalitarian' Agreeing with him Andrew Percy, the Tory MP for Brigg and Goole, said the 'pointless' debate was 'utterly ridiculous' and was 'wasting taxpayers' money'. Fellow Tory Adam Holloway said the petition made Britain look 'totalitarian' and as a result: 'We should apologise to the people of the United States'. During the debate the majority of MPs said a ban would be wrong and said Mr Trump's offensive language about Muslims was all about getting publicity. Paul Flynn said when Britain turned away far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders in 2009 'his Islamophobia was multiplied 100-fold by the ban' and said the same would happen with Mr Trump. He added: 'Mr Trump would be able to say: 'Here are these foreigners interfering, telling us what to do'. But Labour Birmingham MP Jack Dromey has said Mr Trump preaches hate that appeals to fascists and terrorists. He said: 'ISIS needs Donald Trump and Donald Trump needs ISIS. On the attack: Bradford West MP Naz Shah said because she is a Muslim Mr Trump would want to ban her from the United States but she also opposes any ban 'ISIS needs to be able to say 'Muslims you are under attack' and Donald Trump needs to be able to say 'you are under attack by Muslims'. Tory Tom Tugendhat said Mr Trump is 'crazy' but must not be banned while Lincolnshire Tory Victoria Atkins said the billionaire is a 'wazzock' - a British term for a stupid person - but should be free to visit. Only Home Secretary Theresa May has the power to ban him as a 'hate preacher' but the Government is unlikely to do so. Mr Trump today said the 'vast majority of British people' do not agree that he should be turned away at the border. Labour's Tulip Siddiq said the petition showed the British public was not apathetic when they hit on an issue they care about such as the 'poisonous, corrosive' Mr Trump 'He is interviewing for the most important job in the world. His words are not comical, his words are not funny. His words are poisonous.' She added: 'He should not be given a visa to come and visit our multicultural country that we are so proud of.' Tory Paul Scully urged MPs to focus on ways Britain could tackle community cohesion 'rather than worrying about the ego of one man'. He added: 'I have heard of a number of cases where people have been excluded for incitement, for hatred. I have never heard of one for stupidity and I'm not sure we should be starting now.' Tory Sir Edward Leigh said: 'I'm not sure he's going to be terribly worried about this debate. I oppose this ban I just think it gives Donald Trump publicity.' Philip Davies, another Conservative, said: 'Lots of my constituents would agree with Donald Trump, whether I like that or not. 'Do you think they should be expelled from the country or not?' MPs used the debate to invite Mr Trump to his constituency to meet British Muslims. Labour's Naz Shah who beat George Galloway in Bradford West said Mr Trump would 'want to ban me from America' but also opposed a ban because 'hatred breeds hate'. Ms Shah said: 'Donald Trump is no more than a demagogue. 'I should know because the people of Bradford West helped me to get rid of one at the last election.' Ms Shah said Mr Trump would ban her from the US and then quoted a verse from the Koran. She added: 'If someone does bad, you should do good in return.' Packed: MPs speak at today's Westminster Hall debate on whether Donald Trump should be banned from the UK Tory Tom Tugendhat said Britain should not be intervening on an American election and said it was for their electorate to decide on Trump while Tory Victoria Atkins said the tycoon was a 'wazzock' Outrage: More than 570,000 people have signed the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK, the most ever recorded on the government website DUP MP for Belfast East Gavin Robinson called him a 'buffoon' said: 'Bring him here, let us have the opportunity to challenge him, and let him go home with his tail between his legs.'+ Mr Robinson blasted the SNP for their past support for Mr Trump insisting they did not need a 'crystal ball' to spy trouble before they made him an 'ambassador' in Scotland. Tory Tom Tugendhat said Britain should not be intervening on an American election. He said: 'It's for the American people to judge him, it's for the American people to hold him to account.' LABOUR CAN'T SUPPORT BANNING TRUMP WHEN THEIR LEADERSHIP BACKED THE IRA, MP CLAIMS Labour MPs should not call for Donald Trump to be banned from the UK when Jeremy Corbyn has given 'succour to terrorists' in the UK, an MP said today. Democratic Unionist Gavin Robinson criticised the Labour leader and shadow chancellor John McDonnell for having 'supported the IRA murdering citizens' in Northern Ireland and on the mainland for 30 years. The MP for Belfast East said he wanted to set out clearly the difference between 'ridiculous xenophobe' Mr Trump for erring in political ideology and Mr Corbyn, who he claimed supported terrorists. Mr Robinson also criticised Mr Corbyn for noting governments in the Middle East were already 'in touch' with so-called Islamic State, also known as Daesh, which he compared to the 'back channel' that existed between the British government and the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Mr Robinson said: 'I want to see Donald Trump come to this country. I want him to get a sense of the fury and the frustration with his xenophobic remarks. He added: 'I think it's important that I do reflect today that we have a leader of the Opposition who is indicating it'd be appropriate to open back channels with Daesh. 'And yet we have members of the same party today saying we should exclude someone who politically has erred but who is not a terrorist. 'That's the same leader of the Opposition and shadow chancellor within this Parliament today who gave succour to terrorists in our United Kingdom over the last 30 years, who supported the IRA murdering citizens in Northern Ireland and murdering our countrymen within this country'. Advertisement Tory Victoria Atkins said: 'We should have enough confidence in our values to allow him to say whatever he wants. 'Our British values are stronger than some here today appear to feel.' She told MPs her Lincolnshire constituents would brand Mr Trump a 'wazzock' for his views. She added: 'If Donald Trump poses any questions for us as a country the answer is not to ban him. It is to rebut his arguments. 'The answer is to challenge him in robust democratic argument that he is wrong about the contribution of American and British Muslims.' SNP Gavin Newlands said Mr Trump should be brought to the UK to be argued against. He said: 'Trump's rhetoric is not dissimilar to that spouted by Nick Griffin and the BNP look where he is now.' - a reference to the BNP being unregistered as a political party this month. Tory Kwasi Kwarteng said: 'The answer to his ban is not to ban him. He's banning Muslims in his own mind he's saying Muslims are a danger to the US. 'We are saying the same thing. 'The implied logic is exactly the same the circumstances are different but the logical force is exactly the same.' Mr Kwarteng said it would be 'insane' for Britain to end up in a situation where it had banned the President of the United States. But he warned the idea was no more unlikely than the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader had been last summer. Speaking for the Labour front bench, Keir Starmer said: 'We are united in condemning the remarks of Donald Trump.' But he added: '(His comments) are not funny. They are repugnant. They are offensive, shocking and disturbing. 'I don't think that in and of itself is enough to impose a ban on the basis on what he has said so far.' Turning to the court interpretation of freedom of speech, Sir Keir, the former head of the CPS, added: 'You don't need protection for speech people treat with indifference. 'It's only relevant when you get into the realm of shocking, offensive or disturbing speech. That's the whole point of the protection of the freedom of speech.' Closing the debate Home Office minister James Brokenshire refused to say if the department was considering banning Mr Trump. He said Theresa May had banned fascists, jihadis and hate preachers who posed a risk the UK -more than any other Home Secretary. He said: She will continue to use exclusion powers against who seek to do us harm. The Government has a long standing policy of not routinely commenting on those who are being considered for exclusion for sound legal reasons. But he added: The US remains our most important bilateral partner. It is in the UKs interest that we engage with all presidential candidates Democrat and Republican even though we may disagree profoundly on important issues. Where there are clear differences of opinion with our American partners, the most effective way to deal with that is a frank and open exchange of views, taking on those arguments. Todays debate has provided a platform to do just that. Anger: Muslim MPs Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and Tulip Siddiq were among the the few MPs at the debate who said Mr Trump should be banned Question: Philip Davies, another Conservative, said: 'Lots of my constituents would agree with Donald Trump - do you think they should be expelled from the country?' Argument: Mr Kwarteng said it would be 'insane' for Britain to ban a possible President of the United States while SNP MP Gavin Newlands, right, said Mr Trump should be confronted not turned away WILL TRUMP JOIN LOVE COACH, FRENCH COMIC AND FAR-RIGHT MP BANNED FROM THE UK? Pick-up coach Julien Blanc November 2014: 'Pick up coach' Julien Blanc joined a short list of people banned from the UK in recent years. He runs a company that claims to teach men to seduce women and make them 'beg' for sex but was stopped from flying in to the UK for a 'bootcamp'. Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala February 2014: French celebrity Dieudonne M'bala M'bala was banned last year. The 'comedian', with convictions for inciting racial hatred, was at the centre of a Premier League anti-Semitism row. He said he would come to London to support then West Bromwich Albion striker Nicolas Anelka, who did a 'quenelle' salute. But the Home Office decided he was not allowed into the country, adding him to Britain's banned list. American blogger Pamela Geller 2013: Conservative American bloggers Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were banned. They are the founders of the anti-Muslim group Stop Islamization of America and they run the website Jihad Watch. Both were planning on speaking at an English Defence League march in Woolwich, where Lee Rigby was murdered. Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders 2009: Far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders was turned back at Heathrow as he tried to defy a ban on entering Britain. He was barred from the UK because he was likely to incite hatred and his visit a threat to 'community harmony and therefore public security'. He was seized by border guards after his aircraft touched down, and questioned for more than an hour before flying back to the Netherlands. American 'shock jock' radio presenter Michael Savage 2009: Controversial American 'shock jock' radio presenter Michael Savage was barred from entering the UK. Savage said: 'You know, when I see a woman walking around with a burqa, I see a Nazi.' He has called the Koran 'a book of hate' and added that some Muslims, at least, 'need deportation'. The Right-wing radio presenter's hardline views on Islam, rape and autism have also caused outrage in the US. Advertisement Ahead of today's Westminster Hall debate, sparked by Britain's most popular ever petition, Mr Trump said: 'It is absurd that valuable parliamentary time is being wasted debating a matter raised as part of the American Presidential election. 'For the UK to consider banning someone who made a statement in America, about American borders during a US election campaign is ridiculous. 'Westminster is creating a dangerous precedent on this issue and is sending a terrible message to the world. 'The individuals who instigated this ban have a self-serving personal agenda and do not represent the views or interests of the vast majority of British people'. The American Republican presidential hopeful again threatened to pull 700million of funding out of two of his Scottish golf courses, when his cash has 'never been more needed'. Speaking on his behalf Sarah Malone, executive vice president of Trump International Golf Links in Scotland, said: 'Any attempt at a ban of this kind would force Mr Trump to abandon his plans for a further 700 million investment. With the collapse of the oil price, the investment in Aberdeen has never been more important and Mr Trump is likely to spend more than he initially planned when the economy recovers.' The Republican frontrunner was branded 'obnoxious, repellent and dangerous' after claims over radicalisation in Britain in December. He also called for a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States' after the San Bernardino shooting in California carried out by married extremists. His words sparked an online petition to ban the US presidential hopeful, which became the most popular in British history and has given MPs the chance to debate it today. But the tycoon remains defiant, accusing Britons of 'trying hard to disguise their massive Muslim problem' and said his critics are just 'pandering to political correctness'. In a series of outbursts, the billionaire tycoon also said 'UK politicians should be thanking me' and has threatened to withdraw 700million of investment in Scotland if he is banned from Britain. Former SNP leader Alex Salmond said last night: 'He wants to ban all Muslims from the United States. I want to ban all Donald Trumps from Scotland'. Prime Minister David Cameron has also previously spoken against a ban while Cabinet minister Chris Grayling warned giving Mr Trump the 'oxygen of publicity' helps rather than hinders him. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also not in favour of a ban, adding he wanted to take Mr Trump to a mosque. The Islington North MP told BBC One's Andrew Marr show on Sunday: 'I think Donald Trump has some weird and frankly off-the-wall views. 'I was asked about this some while ago and I decided to invite Donald Trump on his visit to Britain to come with me to my constituency because he has problems with Mexicans and he has problems with Muslims. As you know, my wife is Mexican and my constituency is very, very multi-cultural so what I was going to do was go down to the mosque with him and let him talk to people there.' Mr Corbyn added: 'I don't think you should ban people coming to Britain on that basis. I think he should come here, have a lesson in going to all our cities.' Anger: British politicians have called for the Republican to be banned from Britain over his comments and his idea to ban Muslims entering America Message: Mr Trump turned on his critics and said that they were not being dishonest and says 'everyone is wise to what is happening' The Society of Black Lawyers (SBL) has submitted a formal request to the Home Secretary to ban Mr Trump from entering the UK on the grounds of his 'unacceptable behaviours'. It believes that officials should use the Immigration Act 1971 to claim that Mr Trump's presence is 'not being conducive to the public good' and to stop him from coming to the UK. They say Mr Trump's presence and views are unwanted and may threaten race relations. A SBL spokesman said: 'Refusal of entry would inform Mr Trump that the UK does not subscribe to the racist stereotyping of people of colour and generalisation of people based on their religious views, nor do we assume a particular religion parallels terrorism.' Investor says axing Charney from leadership was 'shortsighted mistake' that former CEO is reinstated But the takeover would be on the wants to buy Los Angeles-based firm for about $300million An investor group wants to buy American Apparel for around $300 Investor gmillion and bring back the clothing chain's founder and former CEO Dov Charney who was sacked for alleged sexual misconduct Troubled retailer American Apparel has been offered $300million to save it from bankruptcy but only if the company reinstates the disgraced CEO who was sacked for alleged sexual misconduct. The chain's founder, Dov Charney, was fired in 2014 following allegations that he had violated the company's sexual harassment policy. The Los Angeles-based company, which has not been profitable since 2009, filed for bankruptcy in October, joining a list other teen-focused retailers including Wet Seal and Body Central Corp that have struggled with changing tastes. It has received a $300million takeover bid from a group of investors, including Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners, who are backing his return. Chad Hagan, from the Hagan Capital Group, told Bloomberg last week: 'Dov's creativity, entrepreneurialism and dedication are the cornerstone of American Apparel. 'Removing him from the company's board and leadership was a shortsighted mistake and we are seeing the results of this error unfold in the declining performance of the company today.' Hagan said they are confident that American Apparel will accept their 'superior business model that centres on long term value, ethical management and preserving American manufacturing jobs'. Hagan Capital Group and Silver Creek Capital Partners said their proposal included $90 million of new equity and a $40 million term loan. The American Apparel board has rejected the bid, but is open to a revised offer from the funds, a source told Reuters news agency after it was first reported by Bloomberg. Charney founded American Apparel in 1989, but was fired in December following allegations that he had violated the company's sexual harassment policy and misusing company funds. The Los Angeles-based company, which has not been profitable since 2009, filed for bankruptcy in October, joining a list other teen-focused retailers including Wet Seal that have struggled with changing tastes It also claimed Mr Charney had repeatedly engaged in conduct which had led to former employees making claims of harassment, discrimination and assault. Charney has denied the claims, saying the accusations that led to his firing 'are completely false' and that his termination was 'ridiculous'. 'I've never engaged in any activities that could be characterised as sexual harassment,' he told ABC News last year. He admits that he slept with employees but claims that everything was consensual. 'All those accusations against me are crap,' he said. 'There's allegations... we resolved them. None of it - none of these allegations - were ever proven.' British astronaut Piers Sellers, 60, (pictured in 2006) has revealed that he has terminal cancer in an emotional article about his diagnosis A British astronaut has revealed that he has terminal cancer in an emotional article about his diagnosis. Piers Sellers, 60, who flew on three space shuttle missions between 2002 and 2010, said he had recently been told by doctors that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The NASA climate scientist, originally from Crowborough, East Sussex, did not reveal how long he had left to live, but said he planned to continue with his work, despite his lifespan being 'steeply foreshortened'. In the emotional piece for the New York Times, Sellers - who became a naturalised US citizen in 1991 so he could become an astronaut - said he had been hopeful that he would live to see the discovery of a solution to climate change. But he added that he had 'no complaints' about his life in the poignant article, notably thanks to his work with NASA. 'Im very grateful for the experiences Ive had on this planet,' he wrote. 'As an astronaut I spacewalked 220 miles above the Earth. Floating alongside the International Space Station, I watched hurricanes cartwheel across oceans, the Amazon snake its way to the sea through a brilliant green carpet of forest, and gigantic nighttime thunderstorms flash and flare for hundreds of miles along the Equator. From this Gods-eye-view, I saw how fragile and infinitely precious the Earth is. Im hopeful for its future.' Dr Sellers - a hero of astronaut Tim Peake - grew up in Britain, but moved to the US in 1982 to work with NASA in Maryland as a research meteorologist. He first applied to become an astronaut two years later, but found he was unable to progress because he was not a US citizen. He first flew into space, under an American flag, aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2002 when he carried out three spacewalks as part of the assembly of the International Space Station. The NASA climate scientist, originally from Crowborough, East Sussex, did not reveal how long he had left to live, but said he planned to continue with his work, despite his lifespan being 'steeply foreshortened' Dr Sellers, who was awarded an OBE for his services to science in the 2011 New Year's honours list, returned to space in 2006, when he had his crewmates on Discovery tested improved safety measures brought in following the Columbia disaster in 2003. His final trip into space was in May 2010, when - again on Atlantis - helped deliver a module to the space station. During his career he spent 41 hours and 10 minutes on spacewalks, the most of any UK-born astronaut, and now works as NASAs deputy director of Sciences and Exploration at the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, as well as being the acting director of its Earth Sciences Division. As part of his role, Dr Sellers oversees scientists researching climate and weather, including the effects and causes of climate change. Dr Sellers said that after he was given the diagnosis, he had told his family and friends and thrown a 'large Limited Edition holiday party, complete with butlers'. Dr Sellers (left) and Michael Fossum take part in a spacewalk at the International Space Station in 2006 Over the course of his career, Dr Sellers (centre, bottom) took part in six spacewalks But he said that when he sat down to draw up a bucket list he realised that he wanted to 'spend more time with the people I know and love, and get back to my office as quickly as possible.' The University of Leeds and Edinburgh graduate also spoke about his views on climate change, warning that if the global temperature was to rise by more than 2 degrees Celcius sea levels would rise and there would be an increase in natural disasters, with the world's poorest communities suffering the most. He said there was a need for new technology and cleaner energy, including a 'major switch to nuclear, solar and other renewable power', but added that although the world's population must be 'braced for change', there was still hope for the future of the planet. Dr Sellers (top left) with his fellow Discovery crew members Stephanie Wilson, Mark Kelly and Lisa Nowak (bottom row, left to right), and Mile Fossum (top right) 'New technologies have a way of bettering our lives in ways we cannot anticipate,' he said. 'There is no convincing, demonstrated reason to believe that our evolving future will be worse than our present, assuming careful management of the challenges and risks. History is replete with examples of us humans getting out of tight spots. The winners tended to be realistic, pragmatic and flexible; the losers were often in denial of the threat.' Dr Sellers's announcement of his cancer diagnosis was met with support, including from a fellow retired astronaut, Scott Parazynski. Dr Parazynski, who flew on five space shuttle missions, wrote on Twitter: 'Powerful views from my brave friend & respected colleague Piers Sellers on cancer & #climatechange'. Another NASA astronaut, Douglas Wheelock, wrote: 'Poignant words of hope from friend, Piers Sellers. Life, love, and our fragile planet.' And television presenter Carol Vorderman added: 'One of my dearest friends "British" NASA astronaut Piers Sellers writing spacewalks (6),climate change and cancer.' Comes after four other Americans were released during prisoner swap Barack Obama used his speech to pledge to 'never forget' Levinson President Obama took time in his speech at the White House to remember and fight for the release of ex-FBI Bob Levinson, who is still thought to be imprisoned in Iran. 'Even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about Bob,' President Barack Obama said as Iran released five American hostages as part of the historic deal. Mr Levinson went missing on the Iranian island of Kish in March 2007 while collecting information on government corruption for the CIA. Relatives of former FBI agent and CIA contractor Robert Levinson, 67, say they are 'angered' and 'outraged' that no mention of his release was made during the prisoner swap earlier today Mr Levinson went missing on the Iranian island of Kish in 2007 while gathering intelligence on government corruption - while it is suspected that Iran was involved, officials have consistently denied this The last indication that Mr Levinson is alive came between November 2010 and April 2011 when a video and these haunting images were sent to his family, though their source could not be traced Levinson was reportedly investigating cigarette counterfeiting in the region when he was arrested. While Iranian officials have never confirmed that they captured Mr Levinson, his family believe he is being held prisoner somewhere in the country. Earlier yesterday four American citizens - Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedin, and a fourth man, believed to be Nosratollah Khosrawi, were released from Iranian custody. Writing on a group, relatives of Mr Levinson said: 'We are happy for the other families. But once again, Bob Levinson has been left behind. We are devastated. 'We need your help. Our father, Bob Levinson, was left behind. This is not acceptable. Please reach out to everyone you know and let's flood them with our anger and outrage.' Using the hashtag 'WhatAboutBob', relatives have been pushing their campaign to get answers about Mr Levinson's whereabouts and his place in the Iranian negotiations. Officials told the Washington Post that they are still working with Iranian authorities to determine the whereabouts of Mr Levinson. Four Americans were released from Iranian custody today as part of a prisoner swap coming off the back of the Iran nuclear treaty, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian Former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and pastor Saeed Abedini, who were being held in Iran accused of conspiring with a hostile country and subverting national security, were also freed today Siamak Namazi, a businessman detained in Tehran last year, was also reported to be among those released in the prisoner swap, though relatives say they have not heard from him One officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: 'Discussions with the Iranians have focused on trying to discern his whereabouts and bring him home.' 'We weren't able to do that in that time frame and we have agreed with the Iranians that we will continue to use the channels that [now] exist for that purpose.' A second official said that agreement over the other prisoners provides 'an opportunity to focus specifically on identifying [Levinson's] whereabouts. They added: 'We recognize that his family has endured the hardship of his disappearance for over eight years now, and we will not cease our efforts.' Levinson started his career in the DEA before joining the FBI's New York field office in 1978, investigating Mafia crime in the city and becoming known as an expert on the city's five families. From there, he transferred to the Miami office where he tracked Russian mobsters and gained a reputation for developing high-quality sources. Mr Levinson began his career in the DEA before moving to the FBI's New York office, where he became an expert in the city's mafia families In 1998 Levinson retired from the FBI and began a private investigation agency, which led to him becoming a contractor for the CIA. While he was only supposed to be producing academic reports for the agency, in reality he operated more like a spy, hopping around the globe and being reimbursed for travel, despite this being against agency guidelines. In 2007 he was gathering information on government corruption on Kish Island, where he met with Dawud Salahuddin, a dissident wanted for the murder of an Iranian diplomat and dissident killed in his home. According to the Washington Post, Levinson spoke with Salahuddin for several hours on March 8. The following day he checked out of his hotel, and has not been seen in the flesh since. The last proof of life came between November 2010 and April 2011, when his wife and family were sent haunting video and images of him dressed in a Guantanamo-style orange jumpsuit. In both, Levinson appears gaunt with wild hair and a long, straggly grey beard. In the video footage he reveals he is being held by a 'group', while Arabic wedding music plays in the background. In the images, he is pictured holding a series of signs with taunting phrases written across them including 'I am here in Guantanamo do you know where it is?' and simply 'help me'. While U.S. investigators tried to trace the origin of the images and film, whoever sent them covered their tracks perfectly. This raised suspicions that a government agency, such as Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, was behind Mr Levinson's disappearance, rather than a terrorist group. Indeed, diplomatic cables released as part of the Wikileaks disclosures reveal that U.S. authorities came to the same conclusions. U.S. operatives in Afghanistan managed to trace the cellphone used to send the photographs, officials said. But the owner had nothing to do with the photos, and the trail went cold. It was that way, too, with the hostage video the family received. It was sent from a cyber cafe in Pakistan in November 2010. John Kerry today withdrew nuclear-related U.S. sanction on Iran after the International Nuclear Energy Agency announced it had complied with international regulations Kerry hailed the moment as making 'the entire world' a safer place, and said the deal had paved the way for the successful prisoner swap which saw the four Americans traded for eight Iranians There has been no sign of Mr Levinson since those images were released. Last year, when the Iran nuclear deal was first announced, Mr Levinson's son Daniel criticized the Obama administration for 'squandered its best opportunity for leverage in ensuring my father's safe return home.' Today the fruits of that deal were seen for the first time, as the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Iran had significantly reduced its nuclear program in line with demands. As a result, both America and the European Union agreed to lift nuclear-related sanctions on Iran today, as part of the treaty. Speaking after sanctions were dropped, Kerry said: 'Iran has undertaken significant steps that many, and I do mean many, people doubted would ever come to pass. 'And that should be recognized, even though the full measure of this achievement can only be realized by assuring continued full compliance in the coming years. 'Today marks the moment that the Iran nuclear agreement transitions from an ambitious set of promises on paper to measurable action in progress. 'Today, as a result of the actions taken since last July, the United States, our friends and allies in the Middle East, and the entire world are safer because the threat of the nuclear weapon has been reduced.' After working in New York, Mr Levinson transferred to Miami to work on the Russian mob, before leaving and starting his own private investigation agency, taking contract work for the CIA In March 2007, Mr Levinson was on the island of Kish to meet with a fugitive he believed might have information on corruption. Records show he checked into and out of his hotel before vanishing At the same time, Iran agreed to release the four U.S. hostages in return for seven Iranians who were being held in America following arrests or convictions on charges relating to the sanctions. Iranian state media named the men as Nader Modanlo, Bahram Mechanic, Khosrow Afghahi, Arash Ghahraman, Tooraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Saboonchi. All of the men are joint U.S.-Iranian citizens with the exception of Golestaneh who studied in Vermont but never gained citizenship. Golestaneh was serving a jail sentence after admitting trying to steal millions of dollars of U.S. company software for the Iranian government. Modanlo, Ghahreman and Saboonchi were all serving sentences for illegally supplying Iran with technology in violation of the U.S. trade bans. Mechanic, Faridi and Afghahi, all of whom were arrested as part of the same alleged conspiracy, were also accused of violating the trade bans but were awaiting trial before being released. State media also claimed that 14 Iranians were taken off an Interpol wanted list. A school has banned pupils from wearing jackets (file photo) A school has banned pupils from wearing coats despite the freezing temperatures which have hit the UK. Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Hove, Brighton, left pupils and parents furious with the decision, as the mercury dropped to -1C earlier today. The school said it has a strict uniform policy due to its 'high standards and expectations' and that wearing coat inside could be a security risk, as it would not be clear the person went to the school otherwise. One boy in Year 10, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'My school has created a massive problem after the Ofsted inspection and have told all students that coats aren't to be worn inside of school. 'Fair enough not wearing them in class, but for us not to be able to wear them at breaks or going from lesson to lesson is bonkers. 'My school isn't listening. The head teacher said wearing the coat inside was a security issue. 'Also it would be OK if there were lockers or hangers in the school, but we're made to put it in our bags or carry it around.' Newman was subject to an Ofsted inspection this month, the details of which will be published in the next couple of weeks. But headteacher Dr James Kilmartin would not be drawn on whether the uniform crackdown was as a result of the education watchdog's visit. He said: 'Here at Cardinal Newman Catholic School we have a strict uniform policy which is in line with our high standards and expectations. 'We do not allow any non-uniform items including overcoats, excessive jewellery etc to be worn in any of the school buildings between 8.40am and 3pm. 'Our uniform policy here at Cardinal Newman Catholic School is well established and we are simply reminding students of the policy as they come back to start a new term. 'The sanction for non-compliance of school uniform is a break time detention. Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Hove, Brighton, left pupils and parents furious with the decision, as the mercury dropped to -1C earlier today 'However, the vast majority of our students readily comply with this policy and demonstrate pride in attending Cardinal Newman Catholic School and wearing the uniform. 'We are always keen to work with our parents and carers and respond to any specific concerns. in her own home by a Palestinian Advertisement A pregnant Israeli woman was stabbed and seriously wounded by a Palestinian man in the West Bank on Monday, Israeli officials say. The attacker entered the settlement in Tekoa, Gush Etzion and stabbed the 30-year-old woman, before he was shot by Israeli security. The woman suffered injuries to her upper body, and was taken to hospital for further treatment, said Eli Bin, the head of Israel's rescue service MDA. Attack: The pregnant 30-year-old was attacked in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Tekoa, and suffered injuries to her upper body, while the assailant, a Palestinian man, was shot Injured: The attacker lies on the floor and is treated by Israeli medics after being shot Hospital: He was then carried away on a stretcher. His wounds are not believed to be life-threatening There were conflicting reports on the attacker's condition, with Israeli medics saying he had been taken to hospital and Palestinian officials reporting him dead. The incident follows an attack on Sunday that saw a 38-year-old Israeli woman stabbed to death by a Palestinian who broke into her home in another West Bank settlement. Dafna Meir, a mother-of-six, was stabbed to death, with the assailant fleeing. At least some of her children, aged four to 17, were home at the time, but were not hurt. Grief: The husband and children of Dafna Meir, 38, walk to her funeral in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Otniel after she was stabbed to death in her home on Sunday Violence: It is the first time an Israeli had been attacked inside their home since the latest wave of violence Today her husband and four of her children sobbed and were comforted by relatives as they laid her to rest. The killing was the latest in a months-long wave of violence - but it was the first inside a Jewish settlement home, provoking fears that the attacks were worsening and that Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians. Israel's military confirmed it was searching for the suspect following the stabbing in the Otniel settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, but declined to provide further details. These attacks are the latest in a four month-long wave of violence that shows no sign of abating. Palestinian attacks have killed 25 Israelis and an American student. At least 146 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, of whom 101 are said by Israel to have been attackers. The rest have been in clashes with Israeli troops. Israel's government has come under heavy pressure over the spate of attacks, and Sunday's killing was likely to further raise tensions. Some analysts say the attacks have been in part driven by frustration with the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and their own fractured Palestinian leadership. Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and news media has been a main cause of the violence. Israeli soldiers control an access to the Palestinian village of Karma, south-west of the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, following the murder of Dafna Meir in the nearby Otniel Israeli settlement Greg Cundill holds the tin of sardines and the sponge that he discovered in the box of his new phone An O2 customer has blasted the service provider after a package that was supposed to contain his brand new mobile phone arrived only for him to find the handset had been replaced by a sponge and a tin of sardines. Greg Cundill was expecting to receive a shiny Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge after upgrading his contract, but was left baffled when the he opened the box to see a packet of oily pilchards. The 23-year-old aircraft engineer is still without a mobile four days later - and criticised the phone company for leaving them in the dark about a replacement. O2 said it was investigating the mishap alongside UK Mail, the courier firm it used to deliver the item to Honiton, Devon, on Thursday. Greg, who lives with his 23-year-old girlfriend Stacey Easter, said: 'I didn't know what to say when I pulled out what I did. 'I don't even like sardines. I suppose I've got no excuse not to do the washing up now I have a sponge though. 'Stacey's mum signed for it at the door and obviously I was excited about getting a new phone. I checked the security seal and everything looked ok. 'The packaging was as you would expect and it didn't appear to have been tampered with. 'When I opened it I just thought: "What the hell?" and fell about laughing. The sponge came out first and I thought it might just be for padding. 'I could feel more weight though and then came the sardines. Everyone just fell about laughing.' UK Mail said it was up to O2 to establish how the 125g tin of fish in tomato sauce ended up in the Samsung box. A UK Mail spokesman said: 'The depot have advised that this will be an issue for O2, not for us, as the outside of the packaging was not tampered with.' Greg paid 30 for a contract upgrade, 20 to pay off his previous contract, and 6 postage, all through O2's website. The inside of the box as it appeared to Greg Cundill after he had opened it. Also pictured is the seal on the box, which seems to show signs of being tampered with Greg said: 'It's a bit mad how I've been sent some sardines and paid 56 for the privilege. 'It was pretty hilarious at first and everyone found it funny but it's a bit concerning that such an expensive phone can just go missing. 'All that came in the box was a SIM card but that's no use without a phone.. Someone's going to be in trouble somewhere along the line.' Greg Cundell, pictured with his girlfriend Stacey Easter, was expecting to receive a shiny Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge after upgrading the contract Beautician Stacey, whose 49-year-old mum Sue Easter signed for the delivery, said: 'We're both getting very annoyed now. 'Greg spoke to O2 but he's still no closer to getting a new phone. They haven't been very helpful at all. 'Greg's not happy because he's totally without a phone now and it's not his fault,' An O2 spokesman said: 'We're investigating how this could have happened with the courier.' At least two homes have been destroyed as firefighters battle an out-of-control blaze on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula but the threat of the fire has been contained. The Country Fire Authority has issued a downgraded watch and act warning for people in Crib Point, HMAS Cerberus and Stony Point, south-east of Melbourne, on Monday afternoon. Nine News reported residents had leapt into a nearby creek in a desperate attempt to save their own lives when the ferocious flames engulfed their home in the midst of the devastating bushfire. Among the two homes lost, two sheds and a garage have also been destroyed and around seven others had been impacted, with up to 20 properties at risk from the fire ripping through. Scroll down for video Victoria Bushfires: Two homes lost in Crib Point as firefighters continue to battle blaze on Monday 'It's still going but we have managed to control the spread of the fire,' a State Control Centre spokesman told AAP on Monday. 'Around 20 homes are at risk from the fire.' Crib Point residents have been told that staying close to shelter is their safest option in case conditions change again. A woman was found safe and well after she reportedly took refuge in a creek at Crib Point as the fire threatened. About 130 firefighters, backed by 26 trucks, three water-bombing helicopters and two fixed-wing fire-spotting planes, have been battling the blaze to prevent any further lost property. A home can be seen being completely engulfed by a raging inferno as firefighters continue to battle the fire About 130 firefighters, backed by 26 trucks and three water-bombing helicopters, have been battling the blaze About 130 firefighters, backed by 26 trucks have been battling to stop the raging inferno from spreading The fire is burning inside a foreshore reserve. The CFA has described the bushfire as small. It's not yet clear how many hectares have been burnt, the spokesman said. The origin of the fire is also not known. Meanwhile, total fire bans have been issued for almost all of Victoria on Tuesday, with heat tipped to exceed 40 degrees in some areas with strong northerly winds ahead of a gusty cool change. Fire bans cover the Mallee, Wimmera, South West, Central, North Central and Northern Country districts, where fire danger is listed as severe. The bans extend to the North East and South and West Gippsland districts, where the fire danger rating for Tuesday is very high. Only the East Gippsland district is unaffected but fire danger there is also very high. Residents have been told that staying close to shelter is their safest option in case conditions change again Two homes have been destroyed as firefighters battle out-of-control blaze on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula Up to 20 properties are at risk from the fire as firefighters continue to battle the out-of-control blaze on Monday Footage has emerged of the ferocious flames engulfing a property in the midst of the devastating bushfire The Bureau of Meteorology says Tuesday is expected to be hot with cloud increasing from the west, though milder near the west and central coasts. Northwesterly winds will become fresh and gusty inland ahead of a southerly change in the south extending to mountain areas and the northwest later in the afternoon and evening. Isolated late showers are expected only in the southwest. 'Temperatures will be in the high 30s in many areas and it will be hot and windy across the state,' a State Control Centre spokeswoman told AAP. 'A southwesterly change will enter the southwest of the state in the afternoon and extend east through the evening.' While Melbourne is expecting a top of 32C on Tuesday, maximums in the high 30s or more are expected in many centres away from the coast. The hottest weather will be in the north, with tops of 40C and 41C in many centres in the Wimmera, Mallee and Northern Country. Among the two homes lost, two sheds and a garage have also been destroyed, with up to 20 properties at risk About 130 firefighters, backed by 26 trucks have been battling to stop the raging inferno from spreading Residents have been told that staying close to shelter is their safest option in case conditions change again Footage has emerged of the ferocious flames engulfing a property in the midst of the devastating bushfire The devastating Wye River-Jamiesons Track bushfire, which destroyed 116 houses in Wye River and Separation Creek on Christmas Day and burned more than 2500 hectares, remains out of control deep in rugged forest country. Incident controller Gregg Paterson said the weather will prove a challenge for firefighters. 'We'll have some fluky winds and they will be unpredictable,' Mr Paterson told AAP. 'There is some unburnt stuff well within our control lines and as it heats up and the sun gets on it that's starting to burn, so our advice for Wye River and Separation Creek is that they will start seeing some smoke tomorrow.' Ground crews will be pulled out of the seat of the fire on Tuesday. Around 120 firefighters will protect the flanks at Wye River, Separation Creek and Kennett River as the winds pick up. Advertisement French authorities have finally begun the demolition of the notorious Jungle camp in Calais, where several thousand migrants and refugees live. Riot police entered the camp early on Monday morning, to assist in the clearing up of a part of the camp where French authorities are set to bulldoze a 330ft 'buffer zone' between the camp and the adjacent motorway, which leads to the ferry port. Last week, the local government in Calais announced that a third of the camp, an area home to some 1,500 of the camp's 6,000 residents, was to be destroyed, and those living in the area moved to purpose-built housing. The jungle burns: Fires burn in an Afghan section of the Calais 'Jungle' which has been cleared ahead of a planned eviction on Monday morning, where bulldozers will clear about a third of the notorious camp Left behind: French authorities are to bulldoze a 100-metre (330ft) 'buffer zone' between the Jungle camp and the adjacent motorway, which leads to the ferry port in Calais Big guns: French riot police prepare to enter the Calais 'Jungle' to evict up to one third of the camp on Monday morning However, as the new 20million camp could only process some 50 people per day, both refugees and volunteers have been worried that hundreds of Jungle residents would be left without shelter. Over the weekend, desperate residents have been carrying their wooden shacks to safety after being warned that bulldozers would arrive first thing on Monday morning. Mohammed Adam, a doctor from Sudan, who lives in the part of the Jungle camp to be destroyed, said: 'We asked them to give us enough time to prepare a new area and move the houses in a safe way. We have no time.' Men gathered in groups to lift up with wooden huts and carry them along the road despite the ice-cold wind lashing the camp. They were then loaded on the back of trailers to be driven away to safety. Meanwhile other refugees were pictured gathering up all their possessions including mattresses and cooking equipment in bags and backpacks ready for the move. The migrants have been offered places in new refitted shipping containers, equipped with heating and sockets for electricity. Last week, authorities announced that an area home to some 1,500 of the camp's 6,000 residents, was to be destroyed, and those living in the area moved to purpose-built housing Changes: Aerial view of the Jungle camp shows the new 20million container housing (pictured top right), which will house some 1,500 people who have been living in the part of the camp which is now set to be demolished But only a few dozen can move each day and very few want to go to the new container camp, fearing they could be permanently trapped there and unable to continue their desperate attempts to get across the Channel to Britain. They are wary of the new camp, particularly the hand-print scanners used to come and go - fearing that giving this data will stop them applying for asylum in Britain if they ever manage to smuggle themselves across the Channel. The new camp, built by French authorities at a cost of 20million, consists of metal transport containers which have been converted into heated homes, complete with power sockets, heated towel rails, toilets and washing facilities. Charities complained that they had not been given enough time to move more than 1,500 people, including 300 women and 60 children, into the new container housing. Desperate migrants have been seen carrying their makeshift wooden shacks to safety after being warned their camp in Calais was going to be demolished As rumours swirled that bulldozers might show up in the middle of the night, migrants were desperately trying to move their shacks Authorities are hoping to move migrants away from the motorway and the surrounding houses for security purposes Between 50 and 150 migrants are said to be arriving in Calais every day as increasing numbers make their way to Europe across the Mediterranean Migrants use all their strength to push their makeshift wooden shack on to the back of a trailer to be taken elsewhere in Calais THE JUNGLE CAMP IN CALAIS 2002: The Jungle is born after the Sangatte reception centre near the port is closed. 2009: It is estimated that the Jungle has some 800 inhabitants. 2014: By September this year, it is estimated to have increased to 1,300. July 2015: Jungle residents up to around 3,000 in the wake of the migrant crisis. November 2015: The influx continues, and it is reported that some 6,000 now live in the Jungle in Calais. January 11: Calais authorities opens a new 20m camp for 1,500 Jungle residents January 13: Residents refuse to move into the new camp, and starts protesting January 15: Authorities give a Monday deadline, and residents rush to move out January 18: Demolition of one third of the camp finally begins Advertisement 'We are doing our utmost to ensure the safe movement of the refugees,' charity HelpRefugees UK said in a statement last week. 'A particular concern is the large number of women and children. 'The refugees are not rejecting the new container camp. The new container camp can only accept a maximum of 55 new people per day and this is far below the numbers required. 'In the interim, refugees face what shelter they have being destroyed.' The new facilities are located in the heart of the Jungle camp, which has ballooned in recent months and has evolved into a slum with shops, mosques and a church between the tarps and tents. Up to 6,000 people were reportedly staying there in the months leading up to Christmas, though the number has decreased recently. Authorities are cautious not to allow housing to attract more migrants, and the goal is to reduce the Calais migrant population to 2,000, with between 50 and 150 migrants said to be arriving in the area Calais every day. Many living in the camp have fled conflicts in Syria, Libya and sub-Saharan Africa, while others have arrived by land, often travelling from places like Afghanistan via the Balkans. In July 2015, in response to the criticism about the conditions by the UN and other aid groups, France vowed to spend 500,000 (360,000) improving the camp, which lies close to the English Channel. But news of the investment provoked a furious response earlier this year from France's former employment minister Xavier Bertrand, who blamed Britain's 'black jobs market' for attracting thousands of migrants to Calais. Tents and other belongings have been left strewn across the ground as migrants attempt to clear the camp before it is bulldozed Many living in the camp have fled conflicts in Syria, Libya and sub-Saharan Africa, while others have arrived by land, often travelling from places like Afghanistan via the Balkans A woman stands next to her belongings waiting for them to be moved after being told to leave part of the 'Jungle' camp in Calais Florida has kicked off a bizarre month-long competition which tasks ordinary people with catching and killing as many Burmese pythons as possible. The annual 'Python Challenge' was started in 2013 to reduce the number of pythons which do not belong in the Everglades and 'pose a threat to native wildlife', said the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who organize the event. More than 600 have signed up to hunt down and hack the heads of the huge constrictors that can grow to 23ft long and weigh up to 200lb. Scroll down for video More than 600 people are taking part in this year's 'Python Challenge' in Florida which tasks them with catching as many snakes as possible Organisers say that by catching and killing the snakes, participants are helping conserve Florida's Everglades A cash prize of up to $5,000 will be awarded to the team that catches the most snakes and another $3,500 to the best individual hunter. Researchers have predicted that there are at least 30,000 pythons in Florida's everglades, with some suggesting as many as 300,000 occupy southern Florida. Some animal rights groups have blasted the event for the unethical way the snakes are killed. While they are not opposed to the hunt itself, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said: 'Pythons who have had their heads hacked off remain alive and will writhe in agony for hours if their brains are not immediately destroyed. 'PETA is calling on Florida officials to stop authorizing snake decapitation and make it clear that this egregiously inhumane killing method is unacceptable.' It has suggested the hunters use bolt guns and fire arms to 'instantly kill the animals'. It has also condemned the 'bounty like' system to reward the killing of snakes. A cash prize of up to $5,000 will be awarded to the team that catches the most snakes and another $3,500 to the best individual hunter While they do not oppose the hunt itself, animal rights group PETA has condemned the way the snakes are killed by decapitation More than 600 have signed up to hunt down and hack the heads of the huge constrictors that can grow to 23ft long and weigh up to 200lb The 'Python Challenge' was started in 2013 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to reduce the number of pythons which do not belong in the Everglades and 'pose a threat to native wildlife' Researchers have predicted that there are at least 30,000 pythons in Florida's everglades, with some suggesting as many as 300,000 occupy southern Florida The Burmese python, a native of south east Asia, is 'wreaking havoc on one of America's most beautiful, treasured and naturally bountiful ecosystems,' U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Director Marcia McNutt said in a 2012 report. It added: 'Right now, the only hope to halt further python invasion into new areas is swift, decisive and deliberate human action.' But the reptiles are notoriously difficult to find in the Everglades. In the first Python Challenge three years ago, around 1,600 hunters caught just 68, CNN reported. The python, which was once allowed to be kept as a pet, is believed to have been introduced into Florida's ecosystem in 1992 when they escaped from a breeding facility during Hurricane Andrew. The 'invasive' animals have been blamed for the near 'complete disappearance of raccoons, rabbits and opossums' since, the USGS has said. On its website, the Python Challenge organisers state: 'The Florida Everglades is an extraordinary ecosystem, unlike any other in the world! In the first Python Challenge three years ago (pictured), around 1,600 hunters caught just 68 Justin Matthews steadies himself on a cypress tree, peering ahead to see if it's worth venturing futher into Big Cypress National Preserve as he hunts for snakes during the 2013 Python Challenge The python, which was once allowed to be kept as a pet, is believed to have been introduced into Florida's ecosystem in 1992 when they escaped from a breeding facility during Hurricane Andrew 'However, some reptiles do not belong there and pose a threat to native wildlife. To address this, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is teaming up with the Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida to bring back the Python Challenge in January 2016. 'This exciting conservation effort will help protect the rare Everglades ecosystem and the animals that live there from these invasive, nonnative snakes.' Quaffing champagne in first class, this is the head of HM Revenue and Customs nicknamed Dame Disaster jetting off to America as her department floundered. Lin Homer, who will stand down two years early in April with a pension worth 2.2million, raised a glass of bubbly in a picture captioned: 'Cheers from the 1st class cabin'. The civil servant, 58, flew off on a dream holiday with husband Ian, 57, days after she apologised for HMRC's failure to answer more than a quarter of all calls from taxpayers. After flying first class across the Atlantic in July the couple enjoyed a visit to NASA's mission control and a relaxing stay in the mountains. High life: Dame Lin Homer is pictured here in a photo entitled 'Cheers from the 1st class cabin' days after she announced HMRC's call centre was in crisis Dream break: Mrs Homer pictured with husband Ian at NASA's mission control in the United States during their summer holidays Days before her summer holiday she announced that 18million of the 60million annual calls to the HMRC helpline were never answered by staff. Dame Lin was forced to set aside an extra 45million to improve customer service because so many calls were never picked up or were met with a busy tone. Time off: Dame Lin relaxes with a book overlooking some stunning mountains She said at the time: 'Despite our best efforts, our call performance hasn't been up to scratch and we apologise to all those customers who have struggled to get through to us'. But instead of staying in the UK, photographs from her husband Ian's Facebook account reveal they still went to America for a summer break. Last week Dame Lin claimed HMRC's call centre performance is getting 'better' ahead of the key tax return deadline on January 31, even though one in five calls are still not answered after six minutes. A HMRC spokesman said: 'HMRC has acknowledged that our phone handling in the first three months of the year wasnt good enough, which is why Lin Homer ordered the recruitment of 3,000 extra customer service staff and a full recovery plan. 'Like all employees, Lin Homer takes her contractual leave at times compatible with her duties. When she takes leave, she appoints a deputy to lead the Department in her absence, but remains in contact with her office to deal with any important issues that arise. During the summer, the longest holiday that Lin Homer took was a week in late July, when customer service recovery was already fully underway.' Dame Lin is to step down two years early and departs with a 2.2million pension pot despite criticism of her performance in a series of roles. Labour MP John Mann, a member of the Commons Treasury committee, said: Lin Homer was an unmitigated disaster whose departure was long overdue. The fact she is taking away a 2 million pension just adds insult to injury its a reward for failure. Mrs Homer was controversially made a dame in the New Years Honours, and was immediately dubbed Dame Disaster. Her 35-year career in the public sector has been dogged by a string of scandals and failures. In 2005, as chief executive of Birmingham City Council, she was caught up in a postal votes scandal, which a judge said would have disgraced a banana republic. Election judge Richard Mawrey said Mrs Homer, acting as the citys returning officer, had thrown the rule book out of the window. She went on to become the 200,000-a-year boss of the immigration system, at the time it was branded not fit for purpose by the then Home Secretary John Reid. During her time in charge it emerged that 1,000 foreign criminals had been mistakenly released, and 450,000 asylum case files were discovered dumped in boxes at the Home Office. She later became head of the now defunct UK Border Agency, where she was criticised by MPs for a catastrophic leadership failure. Despite the criticism, she was rewarded with a new post as head of HMRC. At the time of her appointment, in 2012, the Home Affairs Committee said it was astounded that she was being promoted to become the chief executive at Revenue & Customs adding: The status quo, in which catastrophic leadership failure is no obstacle to promotion, is totally unacceptable. Ms Homer (pictured with George Osborne) has said that leaving this year 'seemed to be the right time to move on' - but soem have called her time in charge of HMRC a disaster As head of HMRC, she was forced to defend the department after it secured only one prosecution from a list of 6,800 UK-related secret Swiss bank accounts provided in 2010 by French authorities. She has also faced criticism over the departments dismal customer service. Last year it emerged the taxman failed to answer 18million phone calls from the public more than a quarter of those it received. Despite her record, Chancellor George Osborne issued a glowing tribute to Dame Lin, saying she had made a real contribution to public service modernisation and transformation. Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood described her as a dedicated, professional and courageous colleague. Dame Lin said it had been a privilege to have been with HMRC during a period when the improved performance of the department has been increasingly recognised. But Dame Margaret Hodge, former chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said she had a rather mixed record. Dame Margaret said: Last year, the ability of HMRC just to answer the phone and give a service to its customers was abysmal. They were answering half of the calls made and people were hanging on for a quarter of an hour before anybody picked up the phone. If you look at the tax gap between what HMRC should collect and what they do collect, that hasnt shifted. Actually, it went up to about 34 billion. And if you look at morale among staff, the Government does a survey across all departments every year and HMRC comes pretty much bottom of that poll. HMRC sources suggested Dame Lin had first informed senior colleagues of her decision to quit last summer. David Cameron, pictured today leaving the BBC studios following a radio interview, repeated a claim people are more likely to die if they have a stroke at the weekend David Cameron today repeated a controversial statistic claiming stroke victims are 20 per cent more likely to die at the weekend. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has frequently deployed the figure as a key piece of evidence during the long running dispute with junior doctors, claiming it indicates the need to create a 'seven day NHS'. But senior stroke specialists have slammed the figure as 'out of date', adding the 'misrepresentation' of statistics is 'inappropriate'. Shadow health minister Luciana Berger today said Mr Cameron had 'trotted out' the statistic while trying to make his case. In a BBC interview today, Mr Cameron repeated calls for an end to the strike, which is due to continue with further industrial action by junior doctors scheduled for next Tuesday. The Prime Minister said: 'What's all this about? It's about trying to build a more seven day NHS. 'I don't want to blind you with statistics but if you have a stroke at the weekend you are 20 per cent more likely to die. 'So it is important to try and build a more seven day NHS and this junior doctors contract helps with that. 'But let me communicate directly with junior doctors: under these plans, 75 per cent would get a pay rise, no one working legal hours would see their pay cut, we're not reducing the junior doctors pay bill overall and we are still happy to talk - we think these strikes are unnecessary and damaging.' Picked up on the use of the stroke statistic, Mr Cameron said: 'Every single doctor's organisation, including the BMA, has said there is a problem with the NHS at the weekend. 'The doctor's know it, the patient organisations know it, the service managers know it and so that's what this is all about, trying to overcome that problem because thee are issues with people having less good outcomes if they present at the weekend. 'That's not to blame junior doctors, it's often because there isn't the right balance of consultants and junior doctors or we are not using all the equipment of the NHS properly at the weekend.' Mr Cameron said he could not rule out imposition of a new contract on junior doctors - insisting he could not give the BMA a 'veto'. Scores of senior stroke doctors protested the use of the figure by Mr Hunt in a letter to The Sunday Times. The group, led by Professor Martin Brown, Consultant Neurologist at University College Hospital, said: 'When Jeremy Hunt criticises the junior doctors' strike by stating that 'you are 20% more likely to die from a stroke at the weekend' he uses data from 2004-12 that is out of date as it precedes rapid improvements in stroke care. Shadow health minister Luciana Berger highlighted Mr Cameron's use of the controversial statistic following the radio interview The group of senior doctors sent a letter to The Sunday Times to protest Government use of the statistic that people are 20 per cent more likely to die if they have a stroke at the weekend 'These include new acute stroke units that reduce mortality and disability by 25%. Only 5.1% of patients he refers to were cared for on these acute stroke units, compared with 82% in the 2015 national data. 'Recent audits of stroke outcomes in London show that there is no longer any excess of hospital deaths in patients with stroke admitted at the weekend. 'There is always room for improvement in weekend provision of healthcare. However, this is not about a lack of junior doctors at weekends but the healthcare system as a whole, and the problems won't be solved by spreading existing resources ever thinner across the week. 'Misrepresentation of statistics on stroke care to justify the junior doctor contract proposals is inappropriate. 'Previous statements about the quality of weekend services at hospitals, highly publicised in the press, led patients to defer seeking medical help and come to harm. 'Timely presentation to hospital is particularly critical in stroke, as it improves outcomes and reduces mortality, and the minister needs to reassure the public about the level of weekend stroke services.' Junior doctors went on strike earlier this month protesting a new contract was not safe for patients and was not a fair deal The strike action saw picket lines outside hospitals, pictured left outside Kings College Hospital, around the country as health service managers worked to maintain emergency services. Junior doctors, pictured right protesting in Brixton, are due to walk out again on January 26 if the dispute is not resolved Professor David Curtis, an academic who has produced more than 100 reports on medical statistics, also said the figure of 20 per cent more likely to die was misleading. In a blog post, he said: 'At weekends, 88 per 100,000 people have a stroke and get admitted to hospital, of whom 12.9% die within 7 days, which is 11.4 people. 'On weekdays, it's 111 per 100,000 people having a stroke and coming in, of whom 11.1% die within 7 days, which is 12.3. So out of 100,000 people, every weekend day 11.4 get a stroke which will kill them in 7 days compared with 12.3 for every week-day.' Talks to resolve the dispute are due to begin at the Acas conciliation service this week. Too tight: Ellie Young 14 (left) and sister Mollie Young 12 were told their attire was inappropriate for school A furious mother has slammed her daughter's school after the youngster was sent home because her trousers were deemed too tight by teachers. Staff at Barnsley Academy, South Yorkshire, have been lining up pupils and measuring their trouser width with a ruler if they look inappropriate. The school introduced a strict uniform policy just after Christmas and it has ruffled the feathers of parents and pupils alike. On its website Barnsley Academy states trousers must be a minimum of 10cm wide and says 'smart, tailored, plain, black school trousers of waist height to ankle length are to be worn.' Jane Ogden, 36, the mother of Ellie, 14 and Mollie Young, 12, who both attend the school, is one of the parents less than impressed with the no nonsense approach. Her daughter Ellie was excluded between Monday and Wednesday last week for her trousers being too tight, even though, she claims, they were 13cm wide. Ellie was not alone when she was given her marching orders - 19 other girls were also excluded on the same day. Mrs Ogden, who shelled out 72 on trousers for her seven children at the start of the academic year, said staff were going too far. She said: 'The school said that it was an ongoing problem and that they needed to show the children how to be respectful. 'I pride myself in my children giving me respect but I think we should respect them as well. She claimed that the school also had a major crackdown on other areas of the uniform and had banned makeup, piercings and nail varnish. Mrs Ogden, said: 'The school tells the girls that they can't wear make-up but the teachers are plastered in it. 'They tell the students that they can't wear short skirts but the teachers wear skirts that come just under their bums. 'It's just one rule for one and another for another. 'You should be able to walk around naked and no one should bat an eyelid. What's more important, school trousers or an education?' Along with Ellie (left) Barnsley Academy sent home 19 other girls after staff deemed their trousers too tight To stop her daughter being excluded or put in isolation again, Mrs Ogden has since bought a new pair of trousers for Ellie, which are 14.5cm in width. The school has deemed these trousers suitable. Mrs Ogden, said: 'Ellie is in year 10, so it's a vital GCSE year and now she has to catch up with work.' A notice about the uniform changes posted on the school's website, reads: 'There is an increasing number of students wearing tight fitting trousers. 'Tight fitting trousers are unacceptable and are not allowed in the academy.' A spokesman for Bradford Academy, pictured, said all students must 'adhere' to the strict uniform policy The school is even using funding to pay for new trousers for some pupils, saying that it 'did not want to cause financial difficulties for parents.' However, the goodwill gesture has enraged some, who claim that it is a waste of money. A spokesperson for the school, said: 'The academy has a strict uniform policy which parents and students are fully aware of and which is being properly enforced. 'All students are expected to adhere to the policy. School rules: Barnsley Academy's uniform regulations state that trousers must be at least 10cm in width 'The academy is rapidly making good progress across the board and part of this is a renewed focus on attendance, uniform, standards and behaviour, which is proving popular with the majority of parents and students and leading to stronger educational outcomes.' The uniform dispute at Barnsley Academy comes just days after after a school in Hove shocked pupils by banning them from wearing overcoats - despite plummeting temperatures. Students at Cardinal Newman Catholic School were warned they would be thrown in detention if they were caught wearing a jacket. Headteacher Dr James Kilmartin said: 'Here at Cardinal Newman Catholic School we have a strict uniform policy which is in line with our high standards and expectations. 'We do not allow any non-uniform items including overcoats, excessive jewellery etc to be worn in any of the school buildings between 8.40am and 3pm. 'Our uniform policy here at Cardinal Newman Catholic School is well established and we are simply reminding students of the policy as they come back to start a new term. Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Hove, Brighton, left pupils and parents furious with its overcoat rule 'The sanction for non-compliance of school uniform is a break time detention.' Pupils believe the move could be in line with a recent Ofsted inspection and have complained the new ruling is unfair. One boy in year 10, who wished to remaining anonymous, said: 'Fair enough not wearing them in class, but for us not to be able to wear them at breaks or going from lesson to lesson is bonkers. 'My school isn't listening. The head teacher said wearing the coat inside was a security issue.' Al-Qaeda has now claimed responsibility for the attack in which four terrorists shot up a cafe and popular hotel Advertisement Wearing military clothing and carrying machine guns, these are the men al-Qaeda claim went on the rampage slaughtering guests at a hotel in Burkina Faso. A picture of the three gunmen was released along with a statement by the terror group which claimed responsibility for 'conquest Burkina Faso' over the weekend. Al-Qaeda identified the men as Al-Battar Al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Ahmad al-Buqali and Fulani - with each given a nom de guerre. It comes as survivors described how jihadis targeted Westerners at the Splendid Hotel by executing those who looked to be European as they lay injured after being gunned down. At least one American and six Canadians, as well as French, Dutch and Swiss nationals are among the 29 people from 18 different countries killed during the 15-hour terror attack by militants. Among those killed was a nine-year-old boy. Scroll down for video Wearing military clothing and carrying machine guns, these are the men Al-Qaeda claim went on the rampage killing guests at a hotel in Burkina Faso A view shows vehicles on fire outside Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso during a siege by Islamist gunmen on Saturday Response: French special forces take position in the surroundings of the Splendid hotel following an attack by al-Qaeda gunmen A Burkina Faso soldier, armed with an assault rifle, patrols the area outside the hotel a day after the deadly terrorist attack The scene of the shooting shows multiple cars had been destroyed and the side of the hotel blackened by explosions The Splendid Hotel, located in the country's capital, was targeted because it is popular with tourists, it is believed In a ranting statement released on an encrypted messaging app, the terrorists described how the hotel was targeted because it was where organised 'war against Islam and the plundering of the wealth of Africa' would take place. It adds that al-Qaeda aimed to avenge the 'oppressed Muslim populations' in Central African Republic, Mali and the rest of the world. Burkinabe special forces, assisted by 30 French special forces, broke the lengthy siege on Saturday night by storming the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou. Three of the gunmen were killed after a firefight before the hotel was re-captured by special forces. One survivor, a Slovenian anthropologist, said: 'We heard shots, grenades, detonations. It was echoing and extremely loud. It went on for a long time. 'They kept coming back and forth into Cappuccino [Cafe]. You'd think it was over, then they'd come back and shoot more people. They would come back and see if the white people were moving and then they would shoot them again.' Another witness, Yannick Sawadogo, said: 'It was horrible... there was blood everywhere. They were firing at people at close range. They were walking around people and firing at people who were not dead.' And Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital said a European woman being treated at the hospital told him the attackers appeared to target white people. Yesterday it emerged that a 67-year-old Dutch national was among those killed, with the country's foreign minister Bert Koenders calling it 'painful and bitter that somebody who wanted to contribute to the development of the country has fallen victim to such a deed'. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also said four members of a Ukrainian family were among those killed. The the woman and her husband owned the cafe where at least 10 people, including their 9-year-old child, died before the attackers set the building ablaze and moved on to the nearby hotel. French first responders tend to the wounds of one injured soldiers during the attack on the Splendid Hotel and Cafe Cappucino Malian Prime Minister Modibo Keita (left) and Burkina Faso's Prime Minister Paul Kaba Thieba (centre) leave the site of the attack during a visit yesterday. On the right is Burkina Faso's foreign Minister Alpha Barry A soldier armed with an assault rifle stands guard outside the hotel, which was filled with hundreds of guests at the time of the attack Investigators gather at the scene of the Al-Qaeda attack which lasted for 15 hours and saw 29 people killed The unprecedented strike in the former French colony ended in a shootout between special forces and the terrorists Two soldiers, armed with automatic weapons, stand guard at the scene of the attack for which Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility Police officers chat with bystanders at the police cordon, while a Splendid Hotel van can be seen in the background A guest leaves the hotel after having retrieved their luggage a day after the shocking attack saw 29 people killed Burkina Faso is beginning three days of national mourning. In a message broadcast to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced that security forces will be stepping up security checks at entrances to the capital, Ouagadougou, and other major towns, as well as along the country's borders. American missionary Mike Riddering, who worked with the domestic violence organization Sheltering Wings, is among the 29 dead. He was identified by his wife, his brother, Jeff Riddering, told NBC News. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that six Canadians also died in the attack, according to the National Post. On behalf of all Canadians, we offer our deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of all those killed and a speedy recovery to all those injured. We are deeply saddened by these senseless acts of violence on innocent civilians, he said in a statement. French newspaper Le Monde has reported that at least two of the victims are French. American missionary Mike Riddering, who works for the domestic violence organization Sheltering Wings, is among the 29 people killed in the terror attack in Burkina Faso Riddering's wife, Amy Boyle Riddering (right), confirmed on Facebook that her husband had been killed in Friday night's attack The charred remnants of several vehicles parked close to where the fighting took place inside the Splendid hotel Security forces - led by the approximately 40 Burkinabe soldiers with the help of 30 French troops (pictured) and an American soldier helped storm the hotel and kill the three gunmen Military investigators search through the debris of the Cappucino Cafe, where ten people were shot and killed by terrorists One of the 33 wounded foreigners is thought to be talented French Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui Riddering's wife, Amy Boyle Riddering kept an active account on Facebook of what she knew during the attacks. She was also in Burkina Faso but was not with Riddering at the time of the shooting. In one post she said that her husband was in the cafe next door to the hotel, Cafe Cappucino, when the jihadists attacked. After she heard news of her husband's death, she wrote a tribute to him on her page. 'Heaven has gained a warrior! I know God has a purpose in all things but sometimes it is a complete mystery to me. My best friend, partner in crime and love of my life. The best husband ever,' she wrote. 'An amazing father to his children and a papa to everyone. 'My heart is so heavy and I am having trouble believing he is gone. Mike was an example in the way he lived and loved. God be glorified! 'I will love you always! You left quite a legacy here. I can only imagine the adventures you are having now.' As many as 33 of the 156 survivors were also wounded during the attack, the Burkinabe Interior Ministry confirmed. Ten of the victims in the terror attack were gunned down at the Cappuccino Cafe, situated next door to the hotel. The attack has been claimed by al-Mourabitoun, an al-Qaeda affiliated group based in the Sahel region of northern Mali. The Burkinabe President Roch Marc Christian Kabore confirmed that a fourth gunman at the Yibi Hotel has been killed. He labelled the attacks 'cowardly and vile' and claimed that two of the four attackers are thought to have been female. Initial reports said the masked militants set off suspected car bombs outside the hotel at 7.30pm on Saturday before they stormed the hotel taking at least 100 people hostage. The blackened outside of the Splendid Hotel in the Burkinabe capital city of Ouagadougou, known locally as Ouaga At least one member of US special forces were involved in the storming of the hotel alongside French and Burkinabe special forces 29 people from 18 different countries were killed in the terror attack at the hotel in the Burkinabe capital Several traumatised hostages from the hotel are help out of a military vehicle after surviving the terrifying ordeal Armed with machine guns and protected by a bulletproof shield, members of the Burkinabe special forces advance towards the building One survivor said diners at first mistook the gunfire and explosions for firecrackers before two gunmen, dressed all in black and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, burst in firing indiscriminately. A US defense official said France, the former colonial power of Burkina Faso, had requested US intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance support in the city, and at least one US military member was giving 'advice and assistance' to French forces at the hotel. Injured witnesses said the attackers claimed to be from ISIS, but a local Al Qaeda affiliated group called al-Mourabitoun, has reportedly claimed the attack on the capital in West Africa, according to SITE Intelligence Group. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement released on an encrypted messaging app. The group said it targeted the Splendid Hotel because it is popular with foreigners, saying the attack was sent as a message 'written by the heroes of Islam with their blood and body parts', according to The New York Times. The statement was addressed to a foreign audience as 'the Cross-worshipers, the occupiers of our lands, the looters of our wealth and the abusers of our security'. It claimed the attack was intended 'to punish the Cross-worshipers for their crimes against our people in Central Africa, Mali and other lands of the Muslims, and to avenge our Prophet, God's peace and blessings be upon him'. Of those wounded is French national Leila Alaoui, who is undergoing surgery, according to New York Times contributor Aida Alami. French special forces were on hand to provide both strategic support and additional firepower for breaking the 15-hour siege Burkina Faso's soldiers stand by for further orders as the hostages remained trapped inside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou Witnesses said the terrorists shot people who had not died and started a fire in the hotel Robert Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital said one patient told him the attackers appeared to target white people One hotel survivor contemplates the ordeal he has just been through after being rescued from the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou 'It was horrible, people were sleeping and there was blood everywhere. They were firing at people at close range,' Yannick Sawadogo, one of those who escaped, told AFP. 'We heard them speaking and they were walking around people and firing at people who were not dead. And when they came out they started a fire.' In a message posted in Arabic on the militants' 'Muslim Africa' Telegram account, AQIM said fighters 'broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the clashes are continuing with the enemies of the religion.' The same AQIM affiliate, Al-Mourabitoun, was responsible for the attack on the Radisson Hotel in Mali's capital last November, which left 27 people dead, including a number of foreign nationals. The hotel is sometimes used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist militants across West Africa's vast, arid Sahel region. Russia's Honorary Council in Burkina Faso, Anna Rachina-Kulibali, said foreigners were among the dead, 'possibly including Europeans'. 'I utterly condemn the appalling attack in Ouagadougou last night and offer my deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have been killed and injured,' said the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond. Mr Hammond said that the United Kingdom stands with President Kabore and the people of Burkina Faso in the fight against terrorism. Soldiers help to escort one badly hurt man out of the Splendid hotel, where 126 hostages are thought to have been rescued A badly injured man is carried by several Burkinabe soldiers after being rescued from the deadly siege at the hotel Mokhtar Belmokhtar, nicknamed Mr Marlboro for his expertises in financing terrorism through smuggling cigarettes, is believed to be the leader of the al-Qaeda linked al-Mourabitoun. Numerous claims have made that he has been killed in the past couple of years al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) posted a statement on social media, claiming responsibility for the deadly attack in Burkina Faso Burkina Faso has largely been spared the violence wracked by Islamic extremist groups in northern neighbour Mali A senior official with the national gendarmes said suspected Islamist fighters held a number of hostages, who have since been freed. FOREIGN OFFICE WARNS BRITONS ABOUT TRAVEL IN BURKINA FASO Britons have been warned not to travel to an area of Burkina Faso after a deadly attack by suspected Islamic terrorists on a hotel that is popular with Westerners. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned against travelling north of the town of Boulsa, as it is near to the border with Mali. The FCO advice states: 'You should avoid the area and follow the instructions of local security authorities.' Advertisement The four-star hotel is reportedly used by UN agency staff and is near a cafe called Cappucino, said to be popular with expats, although U.N. spokesman in Ouagadougou, Emile Kabore, told CNN he did not believe any U.N. staffers were staying at the hotel. A witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers. 'But we know that the gunmen won't get out of the hotel alive,' he said. 'Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong.' The French Embassy in Burkina Faso released a statement on its website calling incident a 'terrorist attack' and urged its citizens to return home and to avoid the hotel, the Cafe Capuccino and Kwame N'Krumah Avenue. The US Embassy in Ouagadougou tweeted: 'We are closely following the situation downtown.' Jihadists have attacked hotels before in neighboring Mali, including a devastating attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in November that left 20 people dead. The attack would be the first in Burkina's capital by Islamists in a country that is diverse in religious terms and has a population that is around 60 per cent Muslim, according to government figures. A general view shows fire beneath Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. al-Mourabitoun claimed responsibility for the attack A fourth gunman was gunned down after special forces stormed a second hotel, the Yibi hotel, close to the Splendid Hotel Gunfire: The masked men fired into the air to disperse the crowd and a police officer was shot trying to reach the Splendid hotel Ablaze: Several cars were on on fire outside the hotel and the cafe after two loud explosions were reported on early Friday evening Response: A U.S. defense official said that France had requested U.S. intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance support in the city and at least one U.S. military member in Burkina Faso gave 'advice and assistance' to French forces at the hotel Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta, has no previous recent history of terror attacks and the capital, affectionately known by locals as Ouaga, is well known for its relaxed lifestyle and fun nightlife. It comes as a setback to efforts by African governments, France and the United States to prevent attacks that have destabilized the region. The security of Burkina Faso now presents a significant challenge for the country's new President Roch Marc Kabore, who was elected in November 2015 as Burkina Faso's first new leader in decades. The French embassy in December warned its citizens against traveling to a national park in eastern Burkina Faso after reports that Malian jihadists were threatening to kidnap foreigners. An Islamist militant group Al-Mourabitoun said in May, 2015, it was holding a Romanian man kidnapped from a mine in northern Burkina Faso the previous month. Around 50 unidentified gunmen attacked a Burkina Faso gendarmerie brigade near the country's western border with Mali in October 2015, killing three in an attack the then government blamed on the leaders of a failed coup one month before. Burkina Faso has endured bouts of political turmoil since October 2014 when veteran President Blaise Compaore was overthrown in a popular protest, but has been largely spared violence by Islamist militants who have staged attacks in neighboring Mali. Two militants killed 20 people from nations including Russia, China and the United States at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital on November 20, 2015, before being killed by the security forces. Three Islamist groups including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed that attack, the most prominent by militants who are based in the north of the country and have staged a series of attacks over the last year. Elite force: Security forces surrounded the hotel before the assault to rescue 126 hostages trapped inside the building The hotel is also reportedly used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist militants Injured: 33 people have been injured as pictures were posted to Twitter as the attack went on through the night Injured: 33 people have been injured as pictures were posted to Twitter as the attack went on through the night A police officer was found dead in Ohio shortly after a woman called 911 to report her ex-boyfriend was armed and 'looking to kill a cop', authorities said. Officer Thomas Cottrell was found dead on the ground behind the Danville Municipal Building around 20 minutes after the call on Sunday night. Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said the ex-girlfriend of Herschel Ray Jones called authorities at 11.20pm to warn that police officers in Danville were in danger. Scroll down for video Officer Thomas Cottrell (pictured) was found dead on the ground behind the Danville Municipal Building on Sunday night. Herschel Ray Jones (right) is in custody She told them Jones, of Mount Vernon, was armed and looking to kill an officer. Dispatchers tried to make contact with Cottrell after receiving the tip, but were unable to reach him. The Knox County Sheriff's Office then searched the village and found Cottrell's body with his service weapon and police cruiser missing.. Officials did not immediately say how the officer died but Chief Jim Gilbert, the chief deputy of the Franklin County Sheriff's office in Ohio, said he had been shot. He tweeted early on Monday: 'Prayers for Ohio's first fallen officer for 2016 a Danville PD Officer was shot/killed this evening in Knox County. ' Jones was taken into custody around 1.30am after a short chase on foot after he was seen running from a home in Danville. A woman called authorities at around 11.20pm on Sunday and said police officers in Danville were in danger The 32-year-old has a lengthy criminal history and tried to claim he was legally insane, according to court records. Knox County court records show Jones has multiple convictions for breaking and entering, burglary, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon dating back to 2001. In a 2011 case, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity before changing his plea to guilty. Ohio prison records show Jones served nearly four years for the 2011 convictions on charges of receiving stolen property and possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs. He was released in April last year. She told them her ex-boyfriend, Herschel Ray Jones, was armed and looking to kill an officer. Dispatchers tried to make contact with Cottrell, but were unsuccessful Cottrell (pictured left in the bottom row) was one of only six officers in the Danville Police Department Meanwhile, the president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police paid tribute to Cottrell and called his killing an assassination. 'We ask all Ohioans to pray for peace and healing for Officer Cottrell's family, friends and co-workers,' Jay McDonald said. 'His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence.' Cottrell was one of only six officers in the Danville Police Department. Racists who hurled bacon sandwiches at one of Britain's largest mosques and abused elderly worshippers as they tried to pray were being hunted by police today. An unidentified gang had gathered outside the Bristol Jamia Mosque during prayer time in Sunday afternoon, throwing sandwiches at its doors. They were also said to have hung up bacon outside the mosque in the Totterdown area of the city, as well as displaying a flag reading 'No Mosques', despite the attempts of people living nearby who tried to get them to move on. Scroll down for video Racists who hurled bacon sandwiches at the Bristol Jamia Mosque (pictured) and abused elderly worshippers as they tried to pray were being hunted by police today Police, who were called to the scene at around 12.50pm, said two men and one woman were involved in the incident, which is being treated as a hate crime. A 34 year-old man was arrested and remains in custody. Video footage of the attack has surfaced online and shows two men fixing a St George's cross flag to the railings outside the mosque with 'No Mosques' written in big letters across the middle of it. The video captures a passerby asking the group: 'Why are you putting that sign up there?' One of the men responds: 'We don't want no more mosques here.' The recording then shows the steps leading to the mosque's main prayer hall which are littered with two bacon sandwiches. More chattering can be heard before the trio climb into a dark green car and drive away. The men in the video are both white. One is dressed in a green jacket and dark trousers while the other wears a grey hoody and white shorts. The woman recording the video, which was uploaded to the Hope not Hate YouTube channel this morning, is wearing black shoes, black jeans and carrying a brown bag. Police, who were called to the scene at around 12.50pm, said two men and one woman were involved in the incident at the mosque (pictured), which is being treated as a hate crime Rabia Zaheer, who witnessed the attack, said: 'Pig meat was hung outside at prayer time and they hung their flag up. 'The worst thing is they decided to hang around and hurl abuse at the elderly men trying to pray. 'The locals did try to intervene and shout the scum down. Police are involved and the CCTV is being checked. 'Typical - they attack on a day when it's mostly elderly men at the mosque and no young ones. 'I've lived here all my life and nothing like this has ever happened before.' This morning, sympathy cards and flowers were left outside the main entrance, where the bacon had been just hours before, while community leaders denounced the 'cowardly' attack. Bristol mayor George Ferguson wrote on Twitter: 'I'm disgusted by cowardly attack on members of Jamia #Mosque today & stand with you to show #Bristol does not tolerate such vile behaviour.' Labour candidate for mayor Marvin Rees tweeted: 'Full #SolidarityWithIslam after attack at Jamia Mosque in Totterdown this afternoon. Racism has no place in our city.' Abdul Raoof Malik, chair of Easton Jamia Mosque and a member of the Council of Bristol Mosques, said he was 'very saddened' to hear of the incident. Community leaders, including Bristol mayor George Ferguson have condemned the attack on the mosque Labour candidate for mayor Marvin Rees tweeted: 'Full #SolidarityWithIslam after attack at Jamia Mosque in Totterdown this afternoon. Racism has no place in our city' 'This type of incident is very rare in our wonderful city and we do not feel that this is anything more than a group of opportunists who found a spot to take a photo which indeed reflects their character and offensive cause. 'This is an isolated incident and we hope the local neighbourhood will help the police in their enquires, which I'm sure are happening right now.' He added: 'We are proud of the unity in our great city and we will not let a few individuals fuel any hatred towards us or allow any individual or group break the bridges it has taken years to make between us.' Police Chief Inspector Kevan Rowlands said: 'Behaviour of this kind is totally unacceptable. 'Our communities have the right to live and worship peacefully without fear of being targeted for their race or religion. 'We take all hate crime incidents extremely seriously and we are working closely with the mosque to ensure the offenders are held to account for their abhorrent actions.' The Government was today accused of 'sitting on its hands' as Britain's steel industry entered a 'death spiral' after another 1,000 jobs were axed. Tata Steel will cut 750 jobs at the UK's largest steel works in Port Talbot, South Wales as well as 200 in support functions and 100 at four other mills. Since August 5,000 steel workers have been made redundant - one in six jobs in the industry - as it struggles to cope with rising energy costs and a glut of cheap Chinese imports. Freefall: Tata has axed 1,000 jobs at its steel plant in Port Talbot, pictured today, and four more sites as part of 5,000 job cuts since the summer Protests: Security guards take down a protest banner that has been displayed outside the main gates of the Tata steelworks today Four months ago Tata announced it was cutting 3,400 jobs in England and Scotland - including 2,200 at Redcar, 900 in Scunthorpe and 270 more at two Scottish plants. Downing Street said today the Government was doing it all can to help the steel industry and is considering backing a 400m rescue of Tata's plant in Scunthorpe. But Labour claim 'laissez-faire' ministers have taken no decisive action. Defence: David Cameron, pictured leaving the BBC today, says the Government is doing all it can to protect the steel industry in the face of a worldwide crisis Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said: 'Labour has long called for David Cameron's Government to take immediate action to help the steel industry, but they've sat on their hands while the industry has descended further into crisis. 'Vital reform of EU trade defence instruments, for example, has been blocked by a number of countries, principally led by this Tory Government. 'Only by taking immediate and decisive action, not least by fully engaging at an EU level, can the Government make sure our steel industry survives so that it can benefit from planned infrastructure spending. If this doesn't happen urgently, the Tories' laissez-faire attitude to our steel industry could lead the downturn into a death spiral'. In the Commons, Ms Eagle said the Government had been 'asleep at the wheel' during the steel crisis. She said: 'At this time of crisis for the UK's steel industry all we seem to get from this Government is warm words but very little concrete action,' she said. 'In the three months since the Government convened the emergency steel summit last year only one of the five asks raised with them has actually been delivered. 'Who would think that steel is the foundation of many of the UK's most important manufacturing sectors including aerospace, defence, automotive and construction and the existential threats facing it show no sign of abating. 'Yet the Government has been asleep at the wheel.' But Ms Soubry told the House that the Government has delivered much of the help it has been asked for. 'The steel industry including the unions made five asks of us,' she said. 'Five asks. Energy costs: Delivered. Industrial emissions: Delivered. Procurement: Delivered. Dumping: delivered. 'In July we for the first time voted to protect our steel industry. 'Such was the surprise of other people sitting round the table the officials from the EU went back to the United Kingdom delegation to check they had heard correctly because never before had we voted to protect our steel industry as we did in July.' The steel industry has been dealt another huge blow after Tata confirmed that more than 1,000 jobs are to be axed. Most of the jobs will go at the huge plant in Port Talbot, south Wales, where 750 posts will be cut. But other factories will also be hit, with 200 in support functions and 100 at steel mills, affecting Llanwern, Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool. Prime Minister David Cameron has said the announcement of more job losses in the steel industry was 'sad news', insisting the Government was taking action. The Community union, which represents many steel workers, has accused the Government of not having a proper response to the crisis. But Mr Cameron said: 'This is obviously very sad news about the job losses in Port Talbot and elsewhere. 'We'll work very closely with the company and with the local communities to do everything we can to get people the training and assistance they need, and will continue to do everything we can to help the steel industry. Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle, pictured at the opposition despatch box today, said the government had been asleep at the wheel But Steel Minister Anna Soubry, pictured today updating MPs on the latest job losses, said the Government was doing all it could and had responded to what the industry had asked for 'There is, obviously, this worldwide glut and over-production of steel. It's affecting countries right around the world. 'But the steel industry has asked us for action on energy prices - we've taken that. 'They've asked us for action on procuring more British steel - we've taken action on that. 'They want us to take action within the European Union and we've done that as well. 'But we'll continue to work with them and I want to have a strong British steel industry at the heart of our important manufacturing base.' Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said: 'I know this news will be unsettling for all those affected, but these tough actions are critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future'. Tata's latest cuts amount to a quarter of its staff from the Port Talbot plant, and follow 2,120 redundancies made by the firm since August at its operations in Llanwern, Stocksbridge, Scunthorpe and in Scotland. In October 2,200 steelworkers were left jobless by SSI closing its plant in Redcar, and Caparo cut 452 staff in the same month. Thousands of jobs in the steel sector have been lost since autumn 2015 as a crisis in the global industry hit Britain hard Disaster: Around 115 jobs will be cut from the partially-closed Llanwern Plant, pictured, near Newport, South Wales But the Government was accused of 'fast talking but slow delivery' by unions, which said the latest news was devastating for local communities. Unions have called for a strategy to save the steel industry from complete ruin. TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: 'With the manufacturing sector now in recession, the last thing Britain needs is further damage to the steel industry. Steel is a foundation industry on which other sectors depend. Britain desperately needs a real industrial strategy. 'Cheap Chinese steel imports are wrecking the steel industry. The Government must take measures to prevent China from dumping cheap steel on the world market. The Community union said it will 'vigorously' challenge the company's proposals. Alan Coombs, a Port Talbot steelworker and president of Community, said: 'Today's news is a tragic reminder of the UK's ongoing steel crisis. Here in Port Talbot we make some of the world's best steel, but cheap Chinese imports and high energy costs are crippling our industry. 'Port Talbot is a town built on steel - my father and grandfathers worked here - but we risk losing these jobs forever without more action from Government to create a level playing field on which we can compete. 'Thousands of other families here in Port Talbot rely on the steelworks, it is a source of pride and employment for our town, we simply cannot afford to lose it.' Many contractors and service firms rely on the Port Talbot plant, so direct job cuts will have a knock-on effect across the region. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, centre, visited a Tata Steel plant in Motherwell, Scotland, last October after the company announced plans to axe the site and make 225 redundancies Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has had a close call after a rocket hit a compound right next to a palace he had visited hours earlier. Mr Turnbull was at the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday to meet with Afghanistan President Dr Ashraf Ghani, just a few hours before the rocket landed in the nearby Italian embassy. Two guards were injured, but the embassy did not sustain major damage, Reuters reported. Scroll down for video Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has had a close call after a rocket hit a compound right next to the presidential palace in Kabul (he is pictured here being welcomed to the palace) where he had visited hours earlier Mr Turnbull was at the presidential palace in Kabul on Sunday to meet with Afghanistan President Dr Ashraf Ghani (pictured right) Mr Turnbull was safely en route to Washington when a rocket hit the diplomatic compound. The rocket attack came a day before Afghan and international officials were to meet to flesh out a plan for possible peace negotiations with the Taliban. Mr Turnbull also spoke with a number of the 250 Australian defence personnel involved in Afghanistan during his visit including military trainers and force protection officers. The prime minister also received top-level briefings about the NATO-led train, advise and assist mission Resolute Support, involving Australian defence personnel, which replaced the previous International Security Assistance Force mission. He told Australian troops at Qargha, the Afghan national army officer academy, that Afghanistan's leadership enormously appreciated their work. Australian Ambassador to Afghanistan Matt Anderson (third left), Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (centre) and Chief of the Defence Force Air Marshal Mark Binskin (third right) participate in a meeting with the Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani (centre foreground) at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan Mr Tunbull's visit to the palace was part of his day-long trip to Afghanistan - but when the rocket hit, he was safety on his way to Washington to see Barack Obama Mr Turnbull spoke with a number of the 250 Australian defence personnel involved in Afghanistan during his visit including military trainers and force protection officers He joined troops for a barbecue dinner at the Australian Defence Force recreation area in Kabul 'You are making a real difference to the evolution of Afghanistan to a point where it can stand on its own two feet and maintain its own security,' Mr Turnbull said. The work was not only important for Afghanistan's future but in the global security effort. The Afghan president has accepted an invitation to visit Australia this year. Mr Turnbull is due to arrive in Washington on Monday morning (US time) for talks with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter and will meet President Barack Obama on Tuesday at the White House. The threat of Islamic State extremism and global security is expected to dominate his agenda while in the US. Mr Turnbull also posed for an official photograph in front of the NATO International Security Assistance Force memorial with Resolute Support US Army Commander General John Campbell He told Australian troops at Qargha, the Afghan national army officer academy, that Afghanistan's leadership enormously appreciated their work Sixty people were forced to jump overboard into waters off New Zealand after the motor on a ferry exploded causing the boat to burst into flames and sink. Some of the 53 passengers and seven crew members were plucked from the water near Whakatane, in New Zealand's North Island after they leapt off the ferry which had been returning from the White Island volcano just before 4pm on Monday. Others were piled into rescue boats as thick smoke billowed from the 23-metre boat called 'PeeJay', which set alight after the motor exploded, the New Zealand Herald reported. Scroll down for video People stand on the shoreline as a tourist boat carrying 60 people burns out at sea off the coast of Whakatane, New Zealand Four people were hospitalised - one with smoke inhalation - after police vessels and nearby boats rushed to rescue the crew and passengers, which included one Australian. Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said the boat was about one kilometre from shore when authorities were first notified of the incident, and they called on nearby boats to assist. She said the PeeJay crew then sent a mayday to advise that they had to abandon the ship to avoid the flames and smoke. Perks said four other private vessels and the New Zealand Coastguard were able to get to the scene quickly and rescue everybody. The PeeJay was not able to be saved and later sank. A helicopter, the Coastguard and nearby boats rushed to the scene to save passengers who had jumped overboard hick smoke billowed from the 23-metre boat called 'PeeJay', which had set alight after the motor exploded The boat was about one kilometre from shore when authorities were first notified of the incident, and they called on nearby boats to assist. White Island, 50 kilometres off the North Island coast, is volcanically active and popular with tourists. White Island Tours, which operated the tourist boat, was not immediately available for comment. Whakatane resident Roger White told The Associated Press it was raining at the time of the incident but he could see some of what unfolded from his home. He said he saw some light smoke coming from the front of the vessel which then got heavier. After about 10 minutes he said the cabin burst into flames and fire quickly engulfed the ship. The thick smoke could be seen from kilometres away after the boat burst into flames Mr White said it appeared some evacuated onto two small dinghies while he could see the figures of others still on board as the flames grew larger Mr White said it appeared some evacuated onto two small dinghies while he could see the figures of others still on board as the flames grew larger. He said it was hard to make out but believes those people must have then leaped into the water. The three U.S. nationals kidnapped in the Iraqi city of Baghdad last weekend were taken from a 'suspicious apartment', a security official said, using language implying the location was a brothel. Another official told the Washington Post the abducted Americans are in fact Iraqi airport contractors - one woman and two men - who only recently obtained U.S. citizenship. The woman was identified as Iraqi-American Russel Furat, according to the Wall Street Journal, quoting an Iraqi military official. The two men were identified as Iraqi-American Wael al-Mahdawy and Egyptian-American Amro Mohammed. Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, and Iraqis have suffered the most from kidnappers seeking ransoms or to settle scores. Three Americans have reportedly been kidnapped by militants in the Baghdad neighborhood of Dora (pictured in 2015). The State Department says they are aware the trio are missing The U.S. embassy in Iraq has confirmed the kidnappings in a statement that said they were 'working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans'. According to the news station Al-Arabiya, sources in the Iraqi capital city told reporters that the trio were abducted in the southern neighborhood of Dora on Sunday. Multiple Iraqi sources confirmed to the Washington Post that the Americans had been in a brothel. However, locals are said to use the word brothel to describe anywhere that accepts Westerners. They were believed to have been with an interpreter, who has also been captured, reports suggest. Their identities and the reason they are in Iraq is not known. John Kirby of the State Department said in a statement: 'We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq. 'The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority. We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals.' He added that he could not offer anymore information because of privacy concerns. Multiple reports say they are contractors. The Islamic State group, which overran large areas in 2014, has abducted thousands of people and carried out a slew of executions, while Shiite paramilitary forces opposed to the jihadists have also carried out kidnappings and killings. Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned the rise in 'cases of foreigners being kidnapped in Iraq,' saying it would harm the country's relations with other states. 'The kidnapping of the American citizens yesterday, and before them the Qatari hunters, whose fate is still unknown, without a doubt indicates the increasing work of organised gangs in Iraq,' Juburi said in a statement. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. The kidnappings come at a time of increased instability in the Iraqi capital after ISIS claimed responsibility for a bomb attack last Monday which killed 18 at a shopping center (pictured) It also comes a day after four American citizens were freed from Iran in a prisoner swap. Last Monday, at least 18 people were killed and 40 others were injured when insurgents attacked a shopping mall in Baghdad. Dora was one of the battlegrounds during the Iraq War. In 2007 it was deemed a hotbed of sectarian violence, especially by Islamic anti-Christians. By 2010 Dora had become a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood with Assyrians being reduced to small enclaves. Attacks in recent years have forced more and more families to leave the area. There has been increasing tensions in Iraq, especially from Shia Muslims, after Saudi Arabia executed top Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The mystery of what happened to Rudyard Kipling's son who vanished during a First World War battle has been solved more than a century later. John Kipling - remembered in his father's poem My Boy Jack - went missing after he led his troops into action during the Battle of Loos in September 1915. His body was not found until after the end of the war - but even then, it was not known for sure that it was really him rather than one of his comrades. Grief: Rudyard Kipling, left, mourned the death of his son John, right, after he vanished during a battle Burial: This map pinpoints the location where Jack was thought to have been killed, where he was actually killed and where he was laid to rest Now researchers say they are confident that his grave can be identified after all, claiming they have proven that he is buried in a military cemetery near the battlefield in northern France. Jack was the only son of Rudyard Kipling, author of great works including If and The Jungle Book, and was educated at Wellington College until he was 16. He left school shortly before the start of the First World War, and was keen to join the Army having previously served in the Officer Training Corps. The teenager applied for an officer's commission when war broke out, but was turned down because his eyesight was too bad. After an intervention from Field Marshal Lord Roberts, a friend of his father's, Jack landed a position with the Irish Guards. Grave: This is the final resting place of John Kipling, in St Mary's Cemetery in northern France BELOVED AUTHOR WHO NEVER GOT OVER SON'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH Rudyard Kipling's novels, poems and children's books made him one of the most beloved authors of the Victorian and Edwardian era. He is best known for works such as the inspirational poem If, as well as The Jungle Book which chronicles the adventures of Mowgli, a boy raised by animals in the jungles of India. Kipling had three children, of whom the only boy was John - and the poet always struggled to cope with his death at the Battle of Loos aged just 18. As well as the poem My Boy Jack, widely thought to be a reference to his son, Kipling wrote the line: 'If any question why we died / Tell them, because our fathers lied.' Critics have speculated that Kipling was wracked with guilt over his role in helping his son join the army, and he spent years trying to find out exactly what had happened to him. However, the death of his son did nothing to change Kipling's fiercely patriotic and imperialist views. Advertisement He arrived in France on his 18th birthday, August 17, 1915, and just six weeks later he was commanding a platoon at the Battle of Loos. Jack, who had recently been promoted to lieutenant, was known to be wounded but subsequently disappeared, and was still listed as missing by the end of the war three years later. Weeks after his death, Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem about him which begins with the line: 'Have you news of my boy Jack?' In 1919, the body of an unidentified Irish Guards lieutenant was found on the battlefield, and was buried in an anonymous grave at St Mary's Cemetery. More than two decades ago, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission announced that the grave was in fact Jack's, and erected a headstone to him. Critics immediately denied that it could be his, saying that the body was found three miles away from where Jack was last seen and claiming that he was still a second lieutenant on the day of the battle. But researchers Graham Parker and Joanna Legg have now discovered new evidence which suggests that the identification was correct and that Jack's body is indeed buried in the cemetery. Adaptation: 2007 TV drama My Boy Jack, starrring Daniel Radcliffe, told the story of Kipling and his son Writing in Stand To!, the journal of the Western Front Association, the pair reveal that the three-mile distance between Jack's disappearance and the body's discovery is nothing more than a mapping error. In fact, the body was found close to where he was known to be fighting and was seen by witnesses shortly before his death. Mr Parker and Ms Legg also prove that Jack's promotion to lieutenant had come through before the battle, so he was wearing a lieutenant's uniform when he died. The authors conclude: 'On the balance of probabilities, the Irish Guards lieutenant found on September 23, 1919 must be Lieutenant John Kipling.' Rudyard Kipling's poem about his son is often thought of as one of the most moving pieces of verse to have come out of the First World War. The poem gave its name to a 1997 play and 2007 television film exploring Kipling's relationship with his son. The screen adaptation starred Daniel Radcliffe as Jack. The 'blaster' gun used by Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back has emerged for sale for $300,000 (208,000) after it was gifted to a British fan of Star Wars. The DL-44 Blaster was used by Mark Hamill's character in the cult 1980 movie and is in original filming condition. It is the same model used by Han Solo, Harrison Ford's character, in the first Star Wars film and was custom-made by making a cast of it. The Star Wars fan, known only as Daniel, wrote to Jim'll Fix It asking for presenter Jimmy Savile to arrange it for him to have a picnic with Luke Skywalker. Mark Hamill, pictured here as Luke Skywalker with R2-D2, used the DL-44 Blaster in the non-shooting scenes of The Empire Strikes Back. The prop, which is 12 inches long, is made from grey, silver and brown-colored fiberglass and was used by Hamill for all the non-firing scenes. In The Empire Strikes Back - the fifth instalment of the Star Wars series - Luke holds the weapon aloft as he cautiously makes his way through the corridors of Cloud City which has been taken over by Darth Vader. The actual design of the blaster was based on the German Mauser C96 pistol. Hamill gave the prop to an eight-year-old British boy named only as Daniel when he appeared on BBC's Jim'll Fix It show in 1979 having a picnic with 'Luke Skywalker'. The prop, which is 12 inches long, is made from grey, silver and brown-colored fiberglass. It is in filming condition, including one glued section, and still has its original flash suppressor and scope. The blaster will become Hollywood's most expensive screen weapon if it sells for its $300,000 estimate. It is now owned by a private collector but is in very good condition and still has its original flash suppressor and scope. It does have some wear from filming, including one glued section. The film prop is for sale at auctioneers Nate D. Sanders in Los Angeles and is expected to sell for $300,000. Sam Heller, from the auctioneers, said: "This is a very rare and desirable piece of Star Wars history. "The recently released Star Wars flick, The Force Awakens, is on pace to become the highest-grossing film of all-time. "And Luke Skywalker is one of the most beloved cinematic characters of all-time. "Collectors will cherish Skywalker's Blaster Gun, which was used in the Rebel Alliance's battle against the evil Galactic Empire." Daniel appeared on Jim'll Fix It in 1979. A similar gun used by Harrison Ford as Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi sold for $200,000 (140,000) in 2013. The Empire Strikes Back became the most critically acclaimed chapter in the Star Wars saga and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. It was the highest-grossing film of 1980 and has earned more than $538million worldwide to date. The online auction will end on January 28. The blaster will become Hollywood's most expensive screen weapon if it sells for its estimate. That record is currently held by the pistol used by Harrison Ford's character Rick Deckard in the 1982 film Blade Runner, which sold for $207,000 in 2009. It would also become the best selling Star Wars weapon if it beats the $240,000 made by Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from the original 1977 Star Wars film, which sold in 2008. A former soldier with PTSD who held his friend at knifepoint for two hours because he thought the SAS were in the attic and he was surrounded by snipers has been spared jail. Peter Battison, 29, had been at a party thrown by his friend Jordan Reid in Brecon, Powys, when he suffered a 'moment of madness' brought on by post-traumatic stress disorder. Battison admitted false imprisonment when he appeared before Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, but was spared an immediate prison sentence after a judge took pity on the Afghanistan veteran, who has since left the Army and now lives in Gibraltar. Former soldier Peter Battison, 29, held his friend at knifepoint for two hours because he thought the SAS were in the attic and he was surrounded by snipers after a 'moment of madness' brought on by PTSD Battison (pictured) admitted false imprisonment when he appeared before Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court, but was spared an immediate prison sentence after a judge took pity on the Afghanistan veteran, who has since left the Army and now lives in Gibraltar The court heard that Battison, who was stationed at army barracks in Brecon at the time, became convinced that snipers were outside the house and bundled Mr Reid into a shower cubicle, telling him he was keeping him there for his own safety. He then kept his 'frightened' friend in the shower with a towel and a bath mat over his head for two hours. 'Battison told Mr Reid there were snipers outside and he could hear the SAS in the attic,' David Pugh, prosecuting, told the court. Battison, a private in the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, had been officially diagnosed with PTSD after seeing his friends blown up in Afghanistan's Helmand Province 'He was looking for electronic bugs and checked Mr Reid for wires. 'Battison said he was locking him inside for his own safety. 'He put him in the shower cubicle saying: 'Sorry but I have to keep you in here.' 'He placed a towel, then a bathmat over his head and held him there for two hours.' Police were called to the property and Battison gave himself up. He told officers: 'I may have taken something sorry. I thought the SAS were after me, I heard them in the ceiling.' The court heard Battison had been drinking and taking recreational drugs at the two-day party while stationed at the nearby barracks. Battison, a private in the Royal Gibraltar Regiment, had been officially diagnosed with PTSD after seeing his friends blown up in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. The court heard that Battison (pictured), who was stationed at army barracks in Brecon at the time, became convinced that snipers were outside the house John Ryan, mitigating, said: 'Post traumatic stress disorder set in after he served in Afghanistan where he was shot at and saw his friends killed. 'He was a good soldier who suffered a moment of madness making him delusional and paranoid.' Judge Daniel Williams took pity on the soldier after hearing he had served his country with distinction, and agreed to suspend his eight-month prison sentence. Judge Williams told him: 'You experienced events which are beyond the comprehension of those who have not endured them. 'Your behaviour that night was erratic. 'You believed snipers and the SAS were around you and you were seeking to stop Mr Reid from coming to harm. 'I am satisfied that what lies behind this event are your experiences serving your country with distinction.' Battison was also banned from contacting Mr Reid who described his ordeal as 'extremely frightening'. This is the adorable moment a dim dog drops his stick in front of a sculpture on a beach hoping to play a game of fetch. The silly springer spaniel is filmed trying to get the Antony Gormley 'Another Place' iron statue on Crosby Beach, near Liverpool, to throw a stick for him. Despite the lack of movement, the 13-year-old dog, named 'DJ', attempts to convince the artwork to engage with him every time he visits the beach, according to his owner. DJ the springer spaniel, pictured, tried to get one of Antony Gormley's Another Place cast-iron statues to play fetch with him on a beach in Merseyside The 13-year-old dog is facing a long wait for the cast-iron statue to ever play the game with him The animal even remonstrates further by picking up the stick and running a few yards away before returning to the inanimate object buried in the sand. Its owner Shona McKay, of Kirkby, who filmed the hilarious footage, described DJ as 'the dumbest dog ever'. She said she takes DJ to the beach on most weekends and he regularly tries to convince the artwork to play with him. The statue is one of 100 cast-iron sculptures spread along two miles of the Merseyside beach, with some placed more than half-a-mile out to sea. They are all made from casts of Gormley's own body and were due to be moved to New York until Sefton Council agreed to make the beach their permanent home in 2007. Advertisement Most people don't know that the borough of Manhattan isn't just one island. It also encompasses Roosevelt Island - a smaller island sandwiched between Manhattan and the borough of Queens in the East River. While the two-mile-long island is used mainly as a site for high-rise apartment buildings and hospitals, it started out as a colonial farm and once housed some of New York's most corrupt prisons and insane asylums. Before Dutch settlement, the island was called Minnehanonck by the local Indians which translated means 'It's nice to be on the island'. The island was first purchased for the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1637, by then-governor Wouter Van Twiller and was renamed Varken Eylandt - meaning Hog's Island. Roosevelt Island was used as land for New York City's prisons, insane asylums and smallpox hospitals before it was turned into a home for 14,000 city residents with the building of several high-rise apartment buildings. Pictured above from Manhattan While the two-mile-long island is used mainly as a site for high-rise apartment buildings and hospitals, it started out as a colonial farm and once housed some of New York's most corrupt prisons and insane asylums Above, a view of the former smallpox hospital that was located on the island. The hospital was designed by James Renwick - the same man who designed St Patrick's Cathedral and the Smithsonian Institute Patients sleeping on beds in a large tent on what was then known as Welfare Island in the mid-1890s. The city's prison was later relocated to Riker's Island, where it remains to this day Two men carrying a patient from the ferry to the pier on Welfare Island, New York, New York, mid 1890s The island transferred to English ownership in 1668 by British Captain John Manning, who used it as a farm. His stepdaughter Mary Manningham Blackwell inherited the island when he died, and that's how it got it's next name - Blackwell's Island. The farmhouse that one of her descendants, James Blackwell, built between 1796 and 1804 still stands on the island. The city reacquired the island in 1828, and that's when the island was turned from a working farm into land for the city's prisons, lunatic asylums and smallpox hospitals. Two buildings on the island remain from that era and have been landmarked: the Renwick Ruins, which was the city's smallpox hospital, and The Octogon, the controversial insane asylum once visited by Charles Dickens. When Dickens visited the asylum in 1843, he wrote that 'Everything had a lounging, listless, madhouse air, which was very painful'. Poorly constructed barn or outbuilding on the grounds of Welfare Island, with a doghouse visible in 1896. The island was originally used as farmland by Dutch and English settlers Grounds and a building on Welfare Island, New York, New York, 1896. For most of its history, the island has been called Blackwell's Island after the original family that farmed on the narrow island A view of Welfare Island's prison recreation yard, showing a race riot. The island's prison was notoriously corrupt and run by different gangs 'The moping idiot, cowering down with long disheveled hair; the gibbering maniac, with his hideous laugh and pointed finger; the vacant eye, the fierce wild face, the gloomy picking of the hands and lips, and munching of the nails. There they were all, without disguise, in naked ugliness and horror,' Dickens wrote. Investigative journalist Nellie Bly once got herself committed to the asylum for a story, which revealed the staff's horrible treatment of patients and effectively changed the way mental health was administered in the country. 'The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat-trap,' Bly wrote in her 1887 expose 'Ten Days in a Mad-House'. 'It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.' Only The Octagon's front entrance remains today, and has been turned into a lobby for a high-rise apartment building. Charity houses and hospitals were also located on the island after it was purchased by the city in the early 1800s When prisoners were sent to Blackwell's Island, they worked in the quarry breaking up rocks Above, a view of the House of Refuge that was once located on the island Buildings on the island were also used for medical quarantine. Tens of thousands died on the island during the smallpox outbreak Some faces behind bars at Blackwell's Island Penitentiary. Gangs were given wide controls of the prison, due to corrupt workers Above, a print of the workhouse on Welfare Island, where prisoners were put to work in jobs like breaking rocks Women are pictured inside a cell on Blackwell's Island in this print released by the New York Public Library Meanwhile, the Renwick Ruins have been left crumbling on the southernmost tip of the island. Designed by James Renwick, who also built St Patrick's Cathedral and the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, the building was used as New York City's smallpox hospital during the outbreak of the 19th century. Tens of thousands died at the 100-bed hospital during the height of the outbreak, and some believe the crumbling building is haunted. The island was also once home to Blackwell's Island Penitentiary, before the city's prison was moved to Riker's Island. Those sent to Blackwell's would work breaking rocks on the island's quarry. Blackwell's Island was briefly renamed Welfare Island in 1921, but got it's current name - Roosevelt's Island - in 1971. Last year, a memorial to the island's namesake - Franklin Delano Roosevelt - was unveiled. Today, Roosevelt's Island is home to 14,000 people - many of them workers at the United Nations which is just a short tram or Subway trip across the river. In the 1840s, Charles Dickens visited the island to see the patients at the insane asylum. The front entrance of the asylum remains on the island as the lobby to a high-rise apartment building Today, Roosevelt's Island is home to 14,000 people - many of them workers at the United Nations which is just a short tram or Subway trip across the river. The Renwick Ruin on Manhattan's Roosevelt Island in New York fell into disrepair after being in use for a century. The hospital was constructed between 1854 and 1856 to be a small pox hospital and for many years it was New York's only such institution The military has given its first official account of Iran's seizure and subsequent release of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf. Iranian soldiers held the nine American men and one woman at gunpoint and had a 'verbal exchange' before they were released, according to the account released by U.S. Central Command on Monday. The only items found missing from their recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones, the account said. Though it is the most comprehensive official timeline since the incident on Tuesday, key questions remain unanswered, such as why the sailors had deviated from their planned route to enter Iranian territorial waters. Navy officials have so far been vague on the topic, saying they 'misnavigated'. The account also omits any details about the verbal exchange between the sailors and Iranians. And there is no word on whether charges will be brought against the sailor who apologized for the incident on Iranian TV - a move which violates U.S. military protocol. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Iranian soldiers held the nine American men and one woman (pictured) at gunpoint and had a 'verbal exchange' before they were released, according to the account released by U.S. Central Command on Monday The only items missing from their recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones, the account said US Central Command officials insist more details will emerge once a more in-depth investigation has been completed. The investigation will focus on the U.S. sailors' treatment while in custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel, the command said. It comes as John Kerry said he was 'furious' about footage of the American sailors on their knees which was screened on Iranian television. Speaking to Fox News on Monday, the Secretary of State said 'I was furious about it, and I immediately contacted my counterpart. And we indicated our disgust.' He added: 'It was very, very unfortunate, inappropriate. And as a former sailor, and member of the military, I was infuriated by it and I expressed that very directly to my counterpart.' Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week while visiting Central Command headquarters in Florida that the boat crews had 'misnavigated.' He did not say how that mistake happened or provide other substantial details about an episode that posed a potential complication to efforts by Washington and Tehran to establish better relations. The boat seizure happened just hours before President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address and just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal with the West. The implementation triggered the end of crippling international sanctions on Iran and a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange. The timeline released Monday said the U.S. sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. It said a post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition and communications gear was accounted for, minus two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. The sailors were traveling in small armed vessels known as riverine command boats, headed from Kuwait to Bahrain, which is the location of the Navy's 5th Fleet. 'The planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain,' the account said. The boats were seized by Iran and escorted at gunpoint to Farsi Island, which is in the middle of the Gulf and home to an Iranian military facility. Iran captured these two Riverine patrol boats yesterday afternoon near Farsi Island after accusing them of trying to spy on their operations, though the U.S. maintains a technical fault was to blame John Kerry, who had a hurried series of telephone conversations with Iranian officials after the boats were captured, also insisted today that he did not apologize - and was backed up by Joe Biden Along the approximately 50-mile journey they were to have refueled by linking up with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Monomoy, in international waters. The timeline said that approximately 10 minutes after the scheduled refueling, Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain received a report that the boats were being questioned by Iranians. The account does not explain who sent this report or whether it included other details. About 19 minutes later, the naval headquarters 'was advised of degraded communications with' the two boats, the account added. After an additional 26 minutes, the naval headquarters was notified of a total loss of communications with the boats. It does not explain who advised the headquarters of this problem or its apparent cause. A large-scale search-and-rescue mission was undertaken at that point, but it is not clear whether the Americans had by this time already been taken ashore on Farsi Island. Aircraft from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which was operating 45 miles southeast of Farsi Island, participated in the search, along with Air Force planes and vessels of the U.S. Coast Guard, the British Royal Navy and other U.S. Navy vessels. Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain attempted to contact Iranian military units operating near Farsi Island by using marine radio to broadcast information about the search-and-rescue operation. Separately, the U.S. notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone. Some hours later, about four hours after the U.S. first heard that the sailors were being questioned by Iranians, the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio received word from the Iranians that the sailors were in Iranian custody. The Iranians described the 10 as 'safe and healthy,' according to the U.S. account. According to the Navy Code of Conduct, prisoners are required to give their name, rank, service number and date of birth, but should 'evade answering further questions to the utmost of [their] ability' In the hours after the seizure of the Americans became public on Jan. 12, there were conflicting reports about what caused the sailors to stray off their intended course. Monday's official account did not explain the reason. It said only that the crews 'deviated' from their planned course. It made no reference to the navigation error cited by Carter last week. 'At some point one (of the two boats) had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine which caused the crews to stop . and begin troubleshooting,' the account said. Because the boats were traveling together, the other boat also stopped. At this point they were in Iranian territorial waters, 'although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location,' it added. While the boats were stopped and the crew was trying to assess the mechanical problem, Iranian boats approached. First to arrive were two small Iranian craft with armed personnel aboard. Soon after, they were joined by two more Iranian military vessels. A verbal exchange ensued between the Iranians and Americans, but there was no gunfire. Armed Iranian military personnel then boarded the U.S. boats while other Iranian personnel aboard other armed vessels monitored the situation. At gunpoint the U.S. boats and their crews were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island, where the Americans went ashore and were detained, the account said. The sailors were released the following morning aboard their boats. Tensing was charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty They will be paid $4.85 million in damages, plus provide tuition for Dubose's 12 children, worth a combined $500,0000 University announced Monday it had reached a settlement with his family Samuel DuBose, 43, an unarmed black man, was fatally shot by University of The family of a man shot and killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer who pulled him over for not having a front license plate has reached a $5.3 million settlement with the school. The deal announced Monday gives the family of Samuel DuBose $4.85 million and promises free undergraduate tuition for his 12 children. The agreement also provides for a memorial commemorating DuBose and an apology from the university. 'I want to again express on behalf of the University of Cincinnati community our deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss of the life of Samuel DuBose,' University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono said in a statement. Reached a settlement: Terina Allen, sister of Samuel DuBose, sits with family members as she reacts in the courtroom following the arraignment of police officer Ray Tensing. On Monday the family reached a settlement with the University of Cincinnati for a total $5.3 million A grand jury indicted Tensing (mugshot left) on a charge of murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of Samuel DuBose, 43 (right), in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is still awaiting trial 'This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities.' DuBose, 43, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car on July 19 after Officer Ray Tensing stopped him near campus over the missing a license plate, which is required by Ohio law. Tensing was charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty. Tensing said that after he stopped the car, Dubose refused to provide a driver's license and get out of the car. A struggle ensued as DuBose tried to drive away, and Tensing said he fired because he feared being dragged under the car, his attorney said. Phillip Kidd and David Lindenschmidt (pictured approaching DuBose's car during the second body camera footage) testified in front of a Hamilton County grand jury, which decided not to press charges The confrontation started when Tensing pulled DuBose over for not having a front licence plate. They are seen talking to each other through the driver's side window It was announced Monday January 18, 2016, that the family of Samuel DuBose will receive $5.3 million under a settlement with the University of Cincinnati after the unarmed black man was shot by Ray Tensing (pictured) As part of the settlement, the family will receive a payment of $4,850,000. Additionally, the undergraduate education of the 12 children is valued at about $500,000. However Mark O'Mara, the attorney representing the Dubose family, said the family is not happy with the settlement. 'It's difficult, so very personal to the families. Every one of these families that I've been involved with and, more importantly, every one that I've known about and talked to in other cases that I've been witness the past couple years every one of them it could be $50 million, they're not, nor should they be, happy with it,' O'Mara told Cincinnati.com. 'They've lost somebody through a tragedy that was completely avoidable. Now, they're part of this special group of people that have their black family members killed be cops.' A trial date for Tensing not yet been scheduled. The university settlement also provides for the DuBose family to participate in meetings with a Community Advisory Committee, which is soliciting community input on police reform and will review the results of an external audit of the university's police force. A father is in custody after threatening to harm his children - prompting a lockdown of a residence hall at Penn State University where they live. Authorities at the university said they responded to a call on Sunday evening from state police who said the man made the threat in an argument with his family. The father, who officials said was known to be in the Harrisburg area, made a threat to harm his children - who are students at the University Park campus and live in Hamilton Hall. Scroll down for video A 'known actor' is in custody after threatening to harm his children which led to a lockdown of a residence hall at Penn State University (pictured, file photo) where they live Penn State Police asked students in the 550-student dorm to stay in their rooms and lock their doors for four hours as they monitored doors and patrolled the area. On the universitys official Twitter account, a warning to students said the suspect was a known actor. The school sent out regular updates via text message and on Twitter until the suspect was located in the Harrisburg area and taken into custody by state police. NBC Philadelphia reported the lockdown ended shortly after 9pm. In a news release, Penn State officials said they had the suspect, who has not been named, in custody. They said an arrest warrant was issued by state police after there was a verbal threat of violence given to two students in Hamilton Hall. In a tweet from the universitys official Twitter account, the suspect was said to be a known actor Penn State Police asked students in Hamilton Hall to stay in their rooms and lock their doors for four hours as they monitored the situation. Pictured, the West Halls cpmplex which includes Hamilton Hall Mike Lowery, interim director of Penn State Police and Public Safety, said: We take the safety of our students seriously and make it a practice to act quickly on threats of this nature. This was an unfortunate situation and we appreciate the cooperation of out student body and everyone who assisted with this incident. Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton remained a hot search tops for Google during Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate but some of the questions people were asking won't please her campaign. The top trending questions on Hillary, according to Google Trends, was: 'Will Hillary Clinton get prosecuted?' Number 3 was: 'What did Hillary Clinton do that is illegal?' WHAT, ME WORRY? Hillary Clinton is still a topic on everyone's minds, but for all the wrong reasons, according to a Google Trends analysis JURY OF HER PEERS: Americans most want to know whether Clinton will be prosecuted criminally LOYAL OPPOSITION: Anti-Clinton protesters gathered Sunday night near the Democratic debate site in Charleston, South Carolina Questions asked about Clinton's two on-stage rivals told a different story. More than anything else, Google users wanted to know 'Why is Bernie Sanders so popular?' indicating his polling surge as debates reveal more of Clinton's weaknesses. And about the also-ran former Maryland governor who has played the role of Greek Chorus in the debates so far, the most burning question was 'Why is Martin O'Malley running for President?' Google senior marketing manager Daniel Sieberg went on the air during the debate broadcast to analyze the results, linking the tough questions about Clinton to scandals linked with an ongoing terror probe. 'With Hillary Clinton we see things like, "Will Hillary Clinton get prosecuted?" questions around the Benghazi hearings,' Sieberg said. MOVING UP IN THE WORLD: Bernie Sanders is catching so much fire that Google users want to know why he's 'so popular' UNDER HER SKIN: Sanders' attacks have drawn Clinton into the open where she has hammered him as a policy flip-flopper and a coddler of the gun lobby Google reported that searches about Sanders dominated the night almost uniformly from start to finish. Overall, he was the most-searched Democratic candidate Sunday night in 38 out of 50 U.S. states. Clinton was tops in just 12 states, all in the northern Great Plains and in the deep South. O'Malley was the favorite nowhere. Clinton's chief obstacle to being nominated for the presidency has been her own political history, intertwined as it is with her husband Bill Clinton's. In the 1990s, Hillary was seen as a foil for the then-U.S. president in the media, an enforcer guarding his authority in the White House, and an accumulator of power in Washington. As a U.S. senator she attracted accusations of carpetbagging since she moved to New York just days before a deadline so she could make a bid to represent a state where she had never lived. And as secretary of state, she presided over an agency whose security lapses in Benghazi, Libya contributed to the first job-related death of an American ambassador since 1979. HOW THE REPUBLICANS STACKED UP ON THURSDAY NIGHT Google Trends ran the same sort of test Thursday night as Republican White House hopefuls debated less than 10 miles from Sunday's Democratic site. Here are the two most burning questions on Americans' minds about each of the GOP candidates: Jeb Bush How many children does Jeb Bush have? Where was Jeb Bush born? Ben Carson What kind of cancer did Ben Carson have? How many children does Ben Carson have? Chris Christie Is Chris Christie still running for President? Where did Chris Christie go to college? Ted Cruz How long did Ted Cruz's mother live in Canada? Why was Cruz born in Canada? Carly Fiorina Will Carly Fiorina be President? Is Carly Fiorina Catholic? Mike Huckabee Is Huckabee Republican? Where does Mike Huckabee live? John Kasich Where did John Kasich grow up? How do you pronounce Kasich? Marco Rubio Is Marco Rubio squandering his most precious asset? How tall is Marco Rubio? Rick Santorum Is Rick Santorum a Republican? What does Rick Santorum do? Donald Trump How does Donald Trump lose? Where was Donald Trump born? Advertisement She was also accused of participating in a cover-up of that Libyan jihadi attack by claiming weeks before President Barack Obama's election that it wasn't terrorism but a mod scene inspired by an anti-Islam YouTube video. More recently, an FBI investigation is continuing to examine her exclusive use of a private email address to conduct government work while she ran the State Department. A court-ordered dump of emails she later turned over to State not including the tens of thousands she admitted deleting has found more than 1,200 messages later deemed 'classified' by intelligence authorities. Clinton remains dogged by scandal, with 59 per cent of Americans in a Quinnipiac University Poll released December 22 saying she's not 'honest and trustworthy.' 'I'M MARTIN O'MALLEY': The little-known former governor was still building name-recognition on Sunday WHY, OH WHY? Google users are still wondering what O'Malley is doing in the presidential race said he landed on his side in the water A British backpacker who is feared dead after leaping from a bridge and plummeting into a murky river in a 'drunken stunt' briefly resurfaced as friends cheered him on before he disappeared and was not seen again. The 30-year-old, known as Dale, from Britain was drinking with a group of backpackers at Big Bird Hostel in Brisbane when he suggested they jump from the William Jolly Bridge at about 10pm on Sunday. His friend Han Welvaarts, from the Netherlands, who filmed the jump said Dale - who agreed to jump with three other people - was 'pretty excited' and hastily threw himself from the bridge as about 15 other backpackers watched on. 'It lasted a few seconds before he came up then everyone was cheering,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'When we looked at the water again Dale was gone.' Scroll down for video A group of backpackers at Big Bird Hostel in Brisbane were drinking together when a 30-year-old from Britain, known to his friends as Dale(pictured), proposed to jump from the William Jolly Bridge He said the 'friendly, happy and outgoing' British national had fallen on his side but it was too dark to see if he had signalled for help when he surfaced. 'I wish I looked better at what he did but I thought everything was fine when he came up.' Queensland police said the 30-year-old business manager took a running jump three or four metres from the edge of the bridge and launched into the Brisbane River, a known hotspot for aggressive bull sharks, around 10.30pm. Mr Welvaarts had his mobile phone out and was filming the group as the group clambered on to the bridge, but said he could not watch the footage and handed it over to police. A major land and water search was scaled down on Monday night but efforts will continue on Tuesday morning Police have confirmed that one of the men filmed the British national(pictured) as he leapt into the water Queensland police said the 30-year-old business manager took a running jump three or four metres from the edge of the bridge and launched into the Brisbane River Mr Welvaarts had his mobile phone out and was filming the group as the clambered on to the bridge, but said he could not watch the footage and handed it over to police Police helicopters, water police, and officers on bike and foot (pictured) are searching for the 30-year-old British national 'I filmed the event but deleted the video a few hours later because I never wanted to see that again,' he said on Monday night. Police said the footage has been seized and will be reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation into the missing man's whereabouts. Police said the group were intoxicated at the time, describing the event as a 'drunken stunt', but Mr Welvaarts, who refused to jump, said most of the group were not extremely intoxicated when they made their way to the bridge. 'We had some beers and I have no doubts it had an influence on the jump but it's definitely not like everybody was super wasted.' Mr Welvaarts said he contacted an ambulance as soon as the group realised the man, who he had grown close to after spending around two weeks together, had not resurfaced. Jan Runhaar said that he and his friends told the 30-year-old business manager, who had moved to Brisbane in late 2015, not to jump in the moments before he went missing. 'We were like no, no, no don't jump then he was running and jumping over the bridge and landed on his side,' he told Seven News. Jan Runhaar said that he and his friends told the 30-year-old not to jump in the moments before he went missing The search and rescue operation includes police helicopters, water police, and officers on bike and foot who have scoured the area Three friends who were with the 30-year-old man at the time notified emergency services when he vanished, who responded with a major overnight search Police will investigate the cause of the incident in due time, a Queensland Police spokeswoman had earlier told Daily Mail Australia. Their focus is currently on the search and rescue while the man remains missing Police are still searching for the 30-year-old British national in the Brisbane River on Monday afternoon He said he saw Dale surface for around a second, with his hands outreached, before the British national slipped under the surface and vanished. It is believed the missing man, a keen iron man competitor and scuba diver, had volunteered to jump first for a bit of fun and to cool down. The parents of the 30-year-old man were contacted on Monday morning Queensland time, around 11pm Sunday in London. They were quite upset, obviously, Regional Duty Officer Inspector Sean Cryer told media on Monday morning. The man also has family in Brisbane, with police door-knocking to locate them. Authorities will not release the 30-year-old man's name until those relatives have been informed of his disappearance. Inspector Cryer said the man, who was recently travelling in New Zealand, had been staying at the hostel where the group had been drinking prior to the incident on Sunday. Its a very sad event, obviously, Inspector Cryer said. 'It's tragic, it's really unfortunate 'Theyve come here to have a good time.' While Inspector Cryer said jumping into the river off a bridge is a silly thing to do, he said people had most likely been jumping off that bridge ever since they built it. A major land and water search overnight found no trace of the man and is continuing on Monday While Inspector Cryer said jumping into the river off a bridge is a silly thing to do, he said people had most likely been jumping off that bridge ever since they built it'. 'Sometimes they live and sometimes they die,' Inspector Cryer said. 'People jump off bridges all over the world and its a silly thing to do but young men sometimes engage in high risk activity.' Police have warned against such activity, advising that it is a criminal offence. The search and rescue operation includes police helicopters, water police, and officers on bike and foot who have scoured the area. Infrared on a police helicopter found no sign of the man. The 30-year-old foreign national was believed to have been with a group of friends at the time he jumped off in a 'drunken stunt' Both sides of the river will be searched by water police and officers on foot will conduct a land search A spokesperson for the British High Commission in Canberra also confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that consular staff are in contact with the mans family. We can confirm that local authorities in Brisbane, Australia, are searching for a British National reported missing on 17th January. Consular staff are in contact with the family in the UK and are offering support at this difficult time, the spokesperson said. Earlier on Monday, a Queensland Police spokesman said the incident appears to have been a drunken stunt, unfortunately. 'The man had been out drinking with a group in the hours before this incident.' Queensland Police are urging anybody with information which may assist them to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Daughter Ivanka Trump loaned her voice to her 'incredible father's' campaign, recording a new radio ad that will be played on the airwaves in Iowa and New Hampshire. 'Hello, I'm Ivanka Trump, when I was a young girl my father, Donald Trump, always told me that I could do anything that I set my mind to if I coupled vision with determination and hard work he meant it,' the eldest Trump daughter said in the ad's opening lines. In the spot, she portrays her father as a traditionalist, a job creator, a savvy businessman and a good parent. In the press release for the ad, she touts his vision, strength and competence. Scroll down for video Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump kisses his daughter Ivanka Trump, right, during a campaign stop at Concord High School, Monday Ivanka has recorded a radio ad for her father's campaign. In the press release for the ad, she touts his vision, strength and competence. They are pictured today at a campaign stop in Concord Trump supporters Jim and Terry Barber cheer during the campaign stop at Concord High School, Monday, where The Donald appeared with Ivanka Trump waves to the crowd as he leaves the campaign rally in Concord, New Hampshire, today where he appeared with Ivanka Ivanka Trump 'talk[ed] about her father as only a daughter can,' the campaign noted in the spot's release. 'I consider myself fortunate to have learned from the best, both as an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a parent,' the pregnant Ivanka Trump said in the minute-long spot. Ivanka Trump reminds listeners that her father had the kids learn the business from a young age and work hard for it. She notes that he's created 'tens of thousands' of jobs and inspired those that work for him 'to achieve great things.' In the new advert Ivanka notes that her father has created 'tens of thousands' of jobs and inspired those that work for him 'to achieve great things' Ivanka Trump, surrounded by brothers Donald Trump Jr. (far left) and Eric (left), along with step-mom Melania (right) in this photo from last week, cut a new radio advertisement for her father that will air in Iowa and New Hampshire In the spot, Ivanka Trump (right) portrays her dad as a traditionalist who made his kids work hard to take over the business Ivanka Trump called her father 'the best' and said she's seen him make 'deals that seemed impossible to get done' 'I've watched my dad make deals that seemed impossible to get done,' she said. 'As president my father will keep his word,' she continued. 'He'll never quit fighting for this country and its future and he will make America great again,' the potential future first daughter said, sharing The Donald's well-known slogan. The advertisement is targeting voters from the first two states holding contests. The Iowa caucuses will take place Feb. 1. Trump is now in a highly competitive race in the Hawkeye state, with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz biting at his heels. In New Hampshire, Trump as more breathing room, with an average lead of 17.6 percent over the rest of the crowded GOP primary pack, according to Real Clear Politics. Ivanka Trump (left) and step-mom Melania Trump (center) attended last Thursday's Fox Business Network Republican debate. There, Donald Trump said he'd give his company to his kids if he got elected In announcing the Ivanka Trump spot, Donald Trump endorsed his daughter right back. 'My family has been so supportive of me and my candidacy and I am so proud of Ivanka,' the candidate said. 'She is a terrific person, a devoted mother and an exceptional entrepreneur.' 'Ivanka is doing a fantastic job running my company, alongside her brothers, and is building many of biggest jobs,' Trump continued. 'It is so important to have the support of all my children and I'm really proud of this ad,' the billionaire added. Ivanka, along with Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric, joined their dad last week in North Charleston, South Carolina, as he participated in yet another Republican debate, the sixth. The businessman said he'd totally give over the company to his kids if he wins the White House. 'If I become president, I couldn't care less about my company,' Trump said. 'It's peanuts.' 'I have Ivanka, and Eric and Don sitting here,' he continued. 'Run the company kids! Have a good time. I'm going to do it for America.' But he was also arrested - and all four men now deny terrorism offences A gang of British extremists plotted to kill soldiers, police officers and even civilians on the streets of London in a series of Islamic State-inspired drive-by shootings on a moped, a court heard today. The young men from London had allegedly got their hands on a gun and ammunition and were discussing buying an untraceable scooter before three of them were arrested in September 2014. Ringleader Tarik Hassane then returned to the capital from abroad to carry on as a 'lone wolf terrorist' without his friends - who called themselves the Turnup Terror Squad, the Old Bailey heard. Trial: (From left) Tarik Hassane, 22, Suhaib Majeed, 21, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, who are seen in the dock in this court sketch at the Old Bailey, deny conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts Using Google Streetview he allegedly identified Shepherd's Bush police station and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army Barracks at White City as possible targets before he too was picked up. Nyall Hamlett, 25, Nathan Cuffy, 26, Suhaib Majeed, 21, and Hassane, 22, all from West London, deny conspiracy to murder and preparation of terrorist acts. Some of them are also variously charged with firearms offences. Prosecutor Brian Altman QC told their trial that it was no martyrdom mission - they had an escape plan which suggested more than one killing was planned. He said: 'The evidence points to this being a plot to kill, a plot to execute a policeman or a soldier or as I say even an ordinary member of the public, in one or more assassinations either involving a drive-by shooting or a shooting on foot and then a speedy escape by moped.' Alleged ringleader Tarik Hassane (pictured, left), the 'lone wolf terrorist' is alleged to have been part of terror gang. Suhaib Majeed (right) allegedly discussed radicalising his own sister The court heard some of the gang communicated using a messenger app called Telegram, which allows users to communicate in groups. Mr Altman said: 'It too allows users to exchange messages, pictures, media and documents with others. It advertises itself, "Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is cloud-based and heavily encrypted".' The app also allows users to name their apps and the jury heard Hassane and Majeed were part of one group called the 'Turnup Terror Squad' ('TTS'), but the name of the group would change from time to time. Mr Altman said: 'One such name change we will see in the timeline was 'Dawla FM [95.6] @ 12' but analysis of the devices shows there were slight variations on that name. 'The word Dawla in Arabic means 'State', but it has a particular sense when used here by the defendants and their associates. 'Here by Dawla they mean Islamic State as in 'Dawlat al Islam'. Other name changes shown include 'SOA' (soldiers of Allah) or 'Soldiers of Allah SoA'.' Tarik Hassane also joked his online conversations were enough to get him 'Guantanamo for life', the court heard. Hassane, pictured during his school days, allegedly urged other group members to pledge allegiance to ISIS Hassane made the remark to pals on Telegram. 'Telegram got nuff info to get us sent to Guantanamo for life,' said Hassane, in a reference to the US detention camp in Cuba. Hassane is also said to have encouraged like-minded members of the Telegram group to pledge their allegiance to IS. His pal Suhaib Majeed allegedly discussed radicalising his own sister in jihad during a conversation about a man interested in marrying her. Medical student Hassane, who was in his second year studying medicine at university in Khartoum, Sudan, was known to friends as 'The Surgeon' or 'Tarik Surgeon'. The court heard he had attended Westminster City School between 2005 and 2013 with Iraq-born Majeed, who went on to study Physics at King's College. On July 10, 2014, Hassane allegedly posted a message saying 'Make dua that Tarik gets a free fat strap'. This was cited by the prosecution as an example of mixed Arabic and street slang taken to mean 'pray that he gets a free cool gun'. Police later discovered pictures on Majeed's iPhone of Hassane apparently posing with a gun - and in one image he also held a book on Osama bin Laden, the court heard. A firearms expert was unable to say whether the gun was real or fake. The court heard some of the gang, pictured in this court sketch at the Old Bailey, communicated using a messenger app called Telegram London location: Hassane allegedly identified Shepherd's Bush police station (pictured) as a possible target On July 7, 2014, Hassane pledged his allegiance to Islamic State in an Arabic oath, which said: 'In the name of Allah, the most powerful, peace and blessings upon he who was sent the sword, as mercy to the worlds, I ask Allah and you testify, and Allah is the best of witnesses - That I, poor servant of Allah, Tariq Hassan (sic), swear allegiance to the Amir [leader] of the faithful, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Abdullah Ibrahim Ibn Awad al-Quraishi al-Husseini, Caliph of the Muslims, he owes me to listen and obey him through thick and thin as much as I can, following the path of Allah and his messenger (peace be upon him). Allah is my witness.' The Parachute Regiment Territorial Army Barracks at White City in West London was also allegedly identified as a possible target Mr Altman said 'this was not some youthful flight of fancy,' adding: 'Rooted in this pledge he set himself and others on an inexorable path, had it succeeded, to a terrorist killing or killings on the streets of London in the name of IS and in the cause of Allah.' The defendants were allegedly influenced by events in Syria and Iraq and the rise of Islamic State of Levant which in June of that year had renamed itself Islamic State and pronounced itself a caliphate. Hassane had pledged his allegiance to ISIS and the plot received 'important direct and authoritative encouragement' in September 2014 in the form of a speech on YouTube from the ISIS official spokesman, the Old Bailey heard. In it, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami issued a fatwa to kill disbelievers in the West. Cuffy, Majeed and Hamlett were arrested in September 2014 before Hassane returned to Britain from Sudan where he was studying medicine. They had already acquired a self-loading pistol, a magazine with ammunition and a silencer and Hassane and Majeed had discussed buying a 2,000 moped, as well as finding a garage to store their equipment, Mr Altman said. In the days before his arrest on October 7, Hassane had carried out 'hostile reconnaissance' by searching Google Streetview for targets, jurors heard. Mr Altman said: 'What his Google search shows is the type of targets he and his co-conspirators had been considering. 'But Hassane was now, in the absence of the others, quite clearly intending to progress the plan as a lone wolf terrorist to further IS's terror reach into the capital city of this country.' The evidence points to this being a plot to kill, a plot to execute a policeman or a soldier or as I say even an ordinary member of the public Prosecutor Brian Altman QC Hassane led the plot from abroad and issued his instructions to his close friend Majeed, the court heard. Majeed, a physics student at King's College London, was also an 'essential cog' in the machine, setting up secret communications, the prosecutor said. Hamlett, who worked for a cleaning company, was the alleged 'middleman' between Cuffy and the other conspirators, passing on a weapon to Majeed. When police arrived at Majeed's home, the gun, silencer and bullets were thrown out of his bedroom window, jurors heard. The Money Shop worker Cuffy allegedly supplied the weapon, ammunition and silencer. When his home was searched, police found a stash of four guns and a variety of ammunition in his bedroom. The doctor who has been dubbed 'Sweden's Fritzl' after kidnapping a woman and keeping her as a sex slave in a bunker has appeared in court in Stockholm. Martin Trenneborg, 38, and his victim, who is in her 30s, had met in her Stockholm flat in September last year for a second date, when he gave her strawberries laced with Rohypnol. Trenneborg had meticulously planned out the kidnapping, including buying a mask to disguise his victim as an elderly lady during the 350 mile journey from Stockholm to his home. Martin Trenneborg, 38, who has been dubbed the 'Swedish Fritzl', admits to drugging, kidnapping and keeping the woman prisoner in a home-made bunker for nearly a week in September last year, but denies rape Police found the mask along with a second prosthetic of a bearded man when they raided the remote farmhouse outside Kristianstad, southern Sweden, after his arrest in September last year. He had purchased the masks in order to disguise himself and his victim during the journey to the farmhouse, where he had spent five years building a bunker to keep her prisoner 'for several years'. This comes the day after disturbing details of Trenneborg's past emerged from a blog he kept in the late 1990s, where he lists his likes and dislikes, including his favourite actors. In addition to Christopher Walken and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he expresses admiration for Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi, famous for particularly rough scenes involving anal sex. Planned out: Police found two rubber masks in Trenneborg's bedroom, which he reportedly intended to use as disguises during their journey from Stockholm to Kristianstad Disturbing findings: The two masks were found in the doctor's bedroom in his home in Kristianstad Plan: Martin Trenneborg had reportedly started building his 'bunker' in 2010, spending some eight hours per day working on finishing it in the summer of 2015 Investigators gather evidence at Trenneborg's home, a large property in Axeltorp, a village outside Kristianstad, some 345 miles south of Stockholm He also writes that he hates 'communism, mosquitos and getting up in the morning', with 'blowing stuff up' placed at the top of his list of 'stuff I like'. The pair were meeting up for a second date in the woman's flat in central Stockholm on September 12, but instead the doctor drugged, raped and kidnapped her, Swedish media reports. The doctor is accused of giving the woman chocolate-dipped strawberries, marking which of the berries he had laced with Rohypnol by drawing on the stem leaves. He then raped the woman while she was passed out in her home, before transporting her in a wheelchair to his car, Aftonbladet reports. He drove from Stockholm to his home, a large property in Axeltorp, a village outside Kristianstad, some 345 miles south of Stockholm, during which time he also injected her with a soporific to keep her sedated. Prosecutors say he had brought two rubber masks of an old woman and a man with a beard to use as disguises during the car journey, which police later found in his bedroom. Kidnapper:The 38-year-old doctor drugged the woman, who is in her 30s, using strawberries laced with Rohypnol in her flat in Stockholm , and drove nearly 350miles to his home in southern Sweden Evidence: Police found traces of flunitrazepam - Rohypnol - on the juice and champagne bottles and the glass in the woman's flat Patient: The kitchen in the bunker, which the man had spent five years building on his rural property Hidden: The bunker also has a small covered courtyard so the person held captive could go outside without being seen by the neighbours Project: The bunker even has a functioning toilet, and police believe the doctor had planned to keep at least one person there for 'several years' Locked up: The man used two enforced doors to prevent the women from escaping the bunker Prison: Police images taken inside the bunker indicates that it was still a work in progress Upon arrival at the property he locked the woman in the prison-like bunker where he repeatedly raped her during six days in captivity. The man is believed to have built the 60 square meter bunker himself, with the purpose of keeping at least one person captive over a long period of time, starting five years ago. The concrete-enforced walls are 12.5 inches thick and the bunker has a bedroom, functioning toilet and a fully fitted kitchen, Swedish police reports. The bunker even has a small, covered courtyard, where the person living in the bunker would be able to go outside without being seen by neighbours. He also withdrew blood and took vaginal samples from the woman which he tested at a lab in his place of work, later confessing that he did this to ensure she did not have any STDs. The layout of the bunker in the man's property, which had concrete enforced walls, a kitchen, toilet and bed Plastic bag seized by police during a raid of the doctor's home, which includes used condoms and syringes Evil: The doctor drugged the woman using chocolate-dipped strawberries, marking which of the berries he had laced with Rohypnol by drawing on the stem leaves He is also believed to have forced the woman to take contraceptive pills so he could have unprotected sex with her. According to a police report seen by Swedish media, the woman was bound or cuffed for a majority of her time in captivity, including when the doctor raped her. After a few days the doctor drove back to the woman's home in Stockholm to bring her some personal possessions, only to discover that she had been reported missing and police had broken into her flat. The doctor is believed to have panicked, and brought the woman to Stockholm where they visited a police station together on September 18. Prosecutors say the doctor forced the woman to tell police a fake story that she was safe and well, in order to call off the search, but officers grew suspicious and took her to one side. The woman then told police the full story of her horrific ordeal, after which the man was arrested. The doctor is also believed to have forced the woman to take contraceptive pills (seen being held up in the picture) so he could have unprotected sex with her This gun was used to threaten the woman as the pair went to a police station in Stockholm where she was first made to tell officers she was safe and well, but after police grew suspicious, she was taken aside Meticulous: After he drugged and raped in her home in Stockholm, the 38-year-old doctor used a wheelchair (pictured) to get the sedated woman into his car 'We believe his intention has been to keep the woman locked up for several years,' chief prosecutor Peter Claeson said in a statement. 'We also suspect him of planning this for years. Among other things, he has built the bunker to bring one or more victims.' Friends of the doctor who have spoken to Swedish media have expressed their shock and surprise at the news. 'In the beginning, when this got out, you kind of thought that "maybe it's not so serious, maybe it's blown out of proportion", but now that he's been charged its become clear how f***ing sick this is. It's like a film,' a 'close friend' of the doctor told Kristianstadsbladet. The friend describes the 38-year-old as socially awkward but helpful and polite, but adds that he is 'almost too sharp, intellectually, for his own good'. Icy weather froze up six trucks, two fire hydrants, and a water tower A mother and her three children were killed in a house fire in Boone County, Iowa, as freezing temperatures froze up firefighters' equipment. Amber Sorenson, 27, was found huddled in a bedroom with Riley, nine, Autumn, six, and four-year-old Brayden on Sunday morning after desperate failed attempts to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters arrived on the scene in Boxholm at around 2am but experienced numerous setbacks, including frozen fire hydrants, frozen pumps, and short water supply. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Amber Sorenson, 27, (second right) was found dead huddled in a bedroom with (left to right) Brayden, four, Autumn, six, and Riley, nine, after house fire. Their father, Amber's husband John (left), was away for work Firefighters struggled to battle the blaze in the freezing climes which froze up six trucks and two hydrants Nine fire departments were called to help in an attempt to tackle the fire The firefighters ran out of water and had to travel to the other side of town to get more Hotspots of the fire continued burning well into Sunday afternoon, officials said By the time they made it into the house, the four victims were dead. 'They had used a towel, wedged under the door to keep the smoke from coming into the room,' fire chief Dave Huffman told WHOTV. The blaze continued long into Sunday afternoon. Mrs Sorenson's husband, and father to the three children, John Sorenson was working out of town at the time of the fire. He is a jail worker and a volunteer firefighter. 'We had a tough time, there were nine fire departments,' Huffman told the news station. 'We froze up six trucks, two fire hydrants, and drained a water tower. [We] hauled water from three miles south of town at the Xenia Rural Tower and froze it up. 'Then [we] ended up going six miles away and hauling water from there.' Amber had wedged a towel under the door in an apparent bid to block the fumes, firefighters said The two sisters and their brother (pictured) grew up in Boxholm in Iowa's Boone County The community is devastated by the loss. A local historian said it was the most deaths seen in a fire A GoFundMe page has been set up to support John (right) in the wake of the tragedy An investigation is under way to determine how the fire started. Speaking to the Des Moines Register, local historian David Peterson said this is one of the most devastating house fires in Boxholm's recent history. 'In my lifetime, this is the most deaths we've had [at once],' Peterson said. 'I don't know how they're going to cope.' A Belgian man accused of being linked to the ISIS terrorists who massacred 130 people in Paris has been arrested in Morocco. Government bosses say the man, who is of Moroccan origin, was arrested in the town of Al-Muhammadiyah near the city of Casablanca. Morocco's interior minister gave only the militant's initial in Arabic and said he fought in Syria with al-Nusra front before joining ISIS. The suspect spent time in Syria getting military training and building relationships with IS field commanders, 'including the mastermind' of the Paris attacks, and others who threatened attacks in France and Belgium, the ministry said in a statement. A Belgian man accused of being linked to the ISIS terrorists who massacred 130 people in Paris has been arrested in Morocco. A woman is pictured being led to safety during the attacks The ministry said in a statement that the man was arrested on January 15 after travelling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. They did not identify the suspect or explain his suspected relationship to the attackers, but his initials could be translated to J.A. or G.A. The statement said the man had travelled to Syria along with one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up in the northern Paris district of Saint-Denis near the Stade de France national stadium. 'He went to Syria with one of the suicide bombers of Saint Denis,' the statement added. During his stay in Syria he took military training and made connections with ISIS commanders, including 'the mastermind of the terrorist attacks in the French capital,' the statement said. Government bosses say the man, who is of Moroccan origin, was arrested in the town of Al-Muhammadiyah near the city of Casablanca. French special forces are pictured helping people to safety in Paris in November Morocco has been holding Abdelhamid Abaaoud's brother Yassine since October and has issued an arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam (pictured), who is suspected of taking part in the attacks and is on the run Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant who authorities said was the ringleader of the Paris attacks, was killed with other suspects days after when police raided a house in the Saint Denis suburb Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant who authorities said was the ringleader of the Paris attacks, was killed with other suspects days after when police raided a house in the Saint Denis suburb. Terrorists struck Paris on November 13, killing 130 in a wave of deadly assaults which included suicide bomb attacks at the Stade de France, mass shootings at restaurants and bars and a gun massacre inside the Bataclan theatre during a rock concert. Investigations showed that during his stay in Syria he had built solid ties with ISIS leaders including the ringleader of the Paris attacks. The suspect was trained to handle different weapons and guerrilla tactics but left Syria through Turkey, Germany, Belgium then Netherlands from where he came to Morocco. Morocco provided the tip-off that enabled French police to locate Abaaoud'. It has been holding Abaaoud's brother Yassine since October and has issued an arrest warrant for Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks and is on the run. Sending nuclear submarines to sea without Trident missiles is an 'extraordinary contortion' from the 'champagne socialist salons of Islington', it was claimed today. Defence Minister Philip Dunne mocked the suggestion by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as Emily Thornberry made her debut as shadow defence secretary. He followed Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, teasing that Mr Corbyn's foreign policy - outlined in a BBC interview yesterday - would never become British defence policy. Mr Dunne said: 'We have seen... the most extraordinary contortion emerging from the champagne socialist salons of Islington. Defence Minister Philip Dunne said the suggestion Labour would back unarmed Trident submarines was an 'extraordinary contortion' The idea that spending tens of billions of pounds to build but not arm a strategic deterrent betrays the new kind of politics from the Labour leadership. 'A lurch back to the discredited unilateralism of the 1970s, a breathtaking lack of understanding of how to keep this country safe and the consequent threats both to national security and to tens of thousands of jobs across the UK.' The Labour leader made a series of interventions on nuclear weapons, the Falkland Islands and ISIS yesterday. And Mr Fallon wasted no time in using the remarks to mock Emily Thornberry, controversially appointed as his Labour shadow earlier this month, on her first appearance in her new post. Ms Thornberry had earlier fired the first barb suggesting Mr Fallon had the best job in Westminster, shortly followed by her own - quipping she hoped the pair would change roles soon. The Defence Secretary was aided in his attacks by two Labour backbenchers - including Kevan Jones, who walked out of the shadow defence team following Ms Thornberry's appointment. After starting the session regretting the departure of 'moderate, mainstream' MPs from the Labour front bench, Mr Fallon launched his stinging attack. He said: 'A defence policy of nuclear submarines with no nuclear weapons, that thinks Daesh have strong points and wants to end the Falkland Islanders right to self determination maybe Labour defence policy but it will never be British defence policy.' Mr Fallon's remark was followed by a question from Mr Jones, who highlighted 'ill informed' comments made by Mr Corbyn yesterday. Ms Thornberry prompted the exchanges as she rose to the despatch box for the first time in her new role. She said: 'You have the honour of perhaps the best job in Westminster - mine is the second best. 'Hopefully we will change jobs fairly soon. Emily Thornberry, handed the defence brief at Mr Corbyn's reshuffle earlier this month, said she would look forward to taking Mr Fallon's job when Labour wins 'You can be assured there will be difficult questions asked and we will hope to work with the Government where we can for the safety and security of people in Britain.' In an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, Mr Corbyn suggested Britain's nuclear submarines could sail without Trident missiles. He said the idea - which could square trades union concerns about job losses were a renewal of the nuclear deterrent not to go ahead with Mr Corbyn's belief such weapons should be scrapped - would be one considered by a defence policy review convened by Ms Thornberry. Mr Corbyn said: 'They don't have to have nuclear warheads on them.' Mr Corbyn added: 'If we use a nuclear weapon, anybody uses a nuclear weapon, it is catastrophic for the whole globe - everyone knows it is catastrophic. 'I don't believe David Cameron would use it either.' Mr Corbyn, pictured during his interview yesterday, made a series of remarks on the BBC Andrew Marr show which dominated today's defence exchanges in the Commons Turning to the Falkland Islands, Mr Corbyn said it was 'ridiculous' Britain remained in dispute over the South Atlantic territories. He said it was time to reach a 'reasonable accommodation' with Argentina to ensure there was no repeat of conflict. The Labour leader said: 'I think there has to be a discussion about how you can bring about some reasonable accommodation with Argentina. 'It seems to me ridiculous that in the 21st Century we would be getting into some enormous conflict with Argentina about some islands just off it. 'Yes, of course the islanders have an enormous say in it but let's bring about some sensible dialogue. 'It happened before and I'm sure it can happen again.' On the immediate threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Mr Corbyn backed the opening of diplomatic back channels to the group, which controls huge swathes of territory. He sparked controversy with a remark referring to the 'strong points' of the group. He said: 'The British government maintained a channel to the IRA all through the Troubles. I don't condemn them for that, I don't condemn them for keeping a back channel to the Taliban. 'There has to be a route through somewhere. A lot of the commanders in Isil (another name for ISIS) - particularly in Iraq, but also in Syria - are actually former officers in the Iraqi army. 'Dialogue is perhaps the wrong word to use, but there has to be some understanding of where their strong points are, where their weak points are, and how we can challenge their ideology. A Colombian woman kept her two daughters chained up in her basement for years where they were so hungry that they tried to eat bricks. An anonymous call alerted the authorities that the women were being held captive at a house in the town of Pacora in the north-western department of Caldas. When police arrived, they found the door locked and the victims' mother away on holiday. The only person left to care for the two women was their 90-year-old grandfather, who was instructed not to open the door to anyone. Captive: A Colombian woman kept her two daughters chained up in her basement for years where they were so hungry that they tried to eat bricks. The two daughters are pictured after their rescue Officers found two bedraggled women, aged 32 and 34, who suffer from mental and cognitive disabilities and do not know how to talk. The authorities were first notified by an anonymous caller, who reported the constant moans and wails coming from the basement. Images show the moment the women are freed by social workers from the room they were locked inside with chains and a padlock. Jazmin Gomez Agudelo, representative of Caldas Department authorities, said: 'The house was uninhabitable, almost fallen apart. Rescue: When police arrived (pictured), they found the door locked and the victims' mother away on holiday 'They were living in a room where they also carried out their physiological needs like animals. 'The most shocking vision was when we first walked in and saw one woman with a brick in her mouth. 'These women often ate bricks and pieces of wood, as well as their own excrement.' The two women were also kept tied up and plates were found next to their bed, from when a neighbour would sometimes bring them food. Chris Christie has confessed that, much like the rest of the world, he has a huge crush on Adele. The New Jersey governor made the big reveal during a town hall in Sioux City, Iowa, when asked about his favorite type of music. 'If I can only have one, it would be Bruce,' Christie told the crowd. 'But I will tell you just as an aside that recently I have kind of like, kind of fallen in love with Adele.' Scroll down for video 'As I was driving around Iowa, I have been known with members of my staff to be singing a little 'Hello,' Chris Christie said at a town hall in Sioux City on Sunday night about his new fascination with Adele The Republican presidential candidate continued to explain his love for the British chanteuse, and even how he had cleared it with his wife, Mary Pat Christie. 'I've got a little bit of a crush on Adele so, my wife's OK with it, so we're all right,' he said, Yahoo reported. Christie said Adele's songs had become his go-to on during all the traveling he is doing while campaigning. 'As I was driving around Iowa, I have been known with members of my staff to be singing a little 'Hello,' Christie said. 'But I can guarantee this: You don't want to be in the car for that. You really don't want to be in the car for that. My staff is only in the car because I'm paying them to be there.' 'Number one': Christie has made no secret of his love for Bruce Springsteen in the past. The singer is seen here in concert in Pittsburgh on Saturday night 'I've got a little bit of a crush on Adele so, my wife's OK with it': Christie and his wife Mary Pat are seen at the Iowa State Fair in August 2015 Christie also said that he enjoys the type of person Adele is when she is not singing. The London lass has become known for her down-to-earth persona just as much as her songs. 'She's got this amazing voice right, this incredible voice,' Christie said. 'But then when you actually listen to her speak, she's normal. 'She's not one of these like prissy kind of like, 'Oh, look at me.' 'I don't want to give examples because I'll offend somebody.' However it wasn't long before talk switched back to politics, and Christie took another swipe at President Obama Monday, saying he is living in his 'own world'. The comments were in response to new developments with Iran. 'This president lives in his own world,' Mr. Christie said on Fox News. 'He lives in a fantasy land if he believe that's the product of strong American diplomacy, that he pays ransom, again, to terrorists, to the largest state sponsor of terrorism. Two experienced mountaineers have been killed after apparently getting caught in an avalanche while they were climbing in the Scottish Highlands. Simon Davidson, 34, and his friend Joe Smith, 23, were climbing together as a pair in Glencoe when it is believed that an avalanche struck them. Glencoe mountain rescue team, which led the recovery operation, said the men were roped together when they were found dead on Saturday afternoon. Mr Davidson, from Edinburgh, and Mr Smith, originally from Lancashire but living in Kinlochleven, were highly experienced and were carrying adequate equipment. Killed: Mountaineers Simon Davidson, left, and Joe Smith, right, died when they were apparently caught up in an avalanche The weather in the area was described as 'a typical winter day - snowing with wind on top' and the Scottish Avalanche Information Service labelled the risk in Glencoe on Saturday as 'considerable', a warning that remains in place. Andy Nelson, leader of the Glencoe mountain rescue team, said: 'The guys were roped together, so it is possible they were still on the climb but they have clearly fallen some distance. 'My information is that they have been killed instantly by the fall. They had all the relevant equipment and there is nothing to suggest that they were ill-equipped or inexperienced.' Mr Nelson urged climbers to check forecasts and warnings before heading out. He added: 'Stay as part of a group and climb as at least a pair, take all the relevant equipment for whatever you are planning to do and take some form of communication as well, just in case there is an accident.' Climbing: The pair were ascending a Glencoe peak at the time that disaster struck The deaths are thought to be the first on Scottish mountains this year but there have been a number of incidents where rescuers have criticised those who take to the hills ill-prepared. Mr Davidson had worked as a mountain guide, taking groups up peaks such as Ben Nevis, and in a outdoor supplies shop in the Highlands. Heather Morning, mountain safety adviser with the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, said today: 'I knew Simon personally and he had been a winter climber for many years. It is always very sad when something like this happens - but it is a very rare occurrence in technical winter climbing in Scotland. 'There are only one or less such fatalities on average every year. One of the attractions of winter climbing in Scotland is that it is very hostile, challenging and in a beautiful environment. But there are risks involved. Freezing: Scotland and the rest of the UK have been hit by snow and cold weather in recent days 'You can mitigate against those risks, but sometimes people are unlucky - just like in a road accident.' Mr Smith was also highly experienced - he worked for Glen Coe Mountain Rescue and was qualified to lead groups on expeditions. Tim Hamlet, a mountaineer who knew both men, said they were experienced climbers and their deaths had shocked the climbing community. He said: 'Simon was an absolute legend. He was an incredible guy with a real passion for the outdoors. I also knew Joe. It is the nature of climbing that everyone knows everyone else.' A number of Danish nightclubs have started demanding that guests can make themselves understood in English, German or the native tongue to be allowed entry. The language requirements have reportedly been put in place in several establishments across Denmark in the wake of reports of 'foreign men in groups' harassing female guests. This comes just days after Denmark was criticised by the UN over a proposal to confiscate valuables from asylum seekers in order to finance accommodation and benefits. Speak up, ye who enter here: Buddy Holly, a night club in Snderborg, near the German border, applies a language policy for all guests, which its owner defends it as a safety measure A number of Danish bars and clubs demand that guests speak either Danish, English or German to be allowed in, according to TV2 Nyheter. Some have told the channel that the stricter entry policies and increased security have become necessary after 'foreign men subjected female guests to sexual harassment'. Buddy Holly, a night club in Snderborg, near the German border, popular with local students, applies a language policy for all guests, and the owner defends it as a safety measure. 'We have some rules so that our guests can have a pleasant experience and feel safe,' owner Tom Holden told TV2, adding that it has been the club's policy for years. Danish TV claims that a number of female revellers have been subjected to sexual harassment by 'groups of foreign men', in clubs and bars in Snderborg, Thisted och Haderslev, south Denmark. Harsh measures: Security staff check IDs at Kastrups train station outside Copenhagen, Denmark, where parliament now propose to confiscate valuables from asylum seekers to finance their upkeep Glenn Hollender, from the Sonderborg club, Den Flyvende Hollnder, told TV Syd last week: 'A large number of the male guests who come from the local asylum centre have a very hard time respecting the opposite sex. 'In my eyes, it is harassment when one or more men continue to touch a young woman after she has said "stop".' However, Danish Amnesty has criticised the 'language requirements', calling it discriminatory, and claiming that they are targeting asylum seekers trying to integrate in the country. Denmark has previously come under fire after a controversial proposal to confiscate valuables and cash of refugees and migrants in order to finance their upkeep while they are seeking asylum. The plans sparked international outrage, especially in the US, where the Washington Post noted that confiscating jewellery from refugees had 'a particularly bitter connotation in Europe' where the Nazis seized gold and valuables from Jews and others during the Second World War. Several organisations, including the UN High Commission for Refugees, also censured the Nordic country for the proposal, as well as for others that will delay family reunification and make acquiring refugee and residence status more difficult. Europe's human rights and democracy body said on Friday it was 'deeply concerned' at the proposed changes to Danish immigration laws. For 15 years the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march to the state capitol in South Carolina was combined with a call - to remove the Confederate flag that waved on Statehouse grounds. That wish was finally answered in July, when a racially-motivated shooting in a black church took nine lives in Charleston and led Gov. Nikki Haley to sign legislation for its official removal. The absence of the Civil War banner makes today's celebration in the state a little more special after organizers spent more than a decade rallying for its removal at King Day at the Dome. South Carolina's annual King Day at the Dome celebration in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is extra special this year after the removal of the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds Gov. Nikki Haley signed legislation for the flag's official removal (sen here during an MLK Day rally in 2008) in July following the massacre of nine African Americans in a Charleston church But although the flag is gone, state NAACP organizers said their work honoring King is far from over. They announced that the theme for this year's rally is 'education equity',with speakers calling for South Carolina to spend more money to help students in poorer, more rural school districts, which frequently have a majority of black students. And this year's event will also include appearances by all three main Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. The rally in Columbia is one of many planned nationwide recalling the legacy of King, who was assassinated in 1968. In the nation's capital, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama planned to take part in a community service program in King's honor. For 15 years organizers of the event (pictured today) have rallied for Civil War banner's removal Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during Monday's King Day at the Dome event Fellow Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders (pictured) and Martin O'Malley also attended Attorney General Loretta Lynch was to be the keynote speaker at a National Action Network King Day Awards program and FBI Director James Comey planned to lead a government wreath-laying service at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington. Elsewhere, the King Center in Atlanta was set to celebrate the holiday with a remembrance ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church. That commemoration caps more than a week of events meant to celebrate the slain civil rights icon's legacy under the theme: 'Remember! Celebrate! Act! King's Legacy of Freedom for Our World.' 'What most people around the world want, whatever nation they live in, is the freedom to participate in government, the freedom to prosper in life and the freedom to peacefully coexist,' said King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King. The theme of freedom is especially meaningful this year, she said, because it is the 50th anniversary of her father's trip to Chicago to highlight the need for open and fair housing. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in January 1966 had announced plans for the Chicago Freedom Movement. The Confederate flag continues to wave in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where this child joins dozens of participants during 'The Dream Walk' commemorating the civil rights leader on Sunday Participants make their way up the final stretch to the summit commemorating King's life by climbing to the top of Stone Mountain, which is referenced in his famous 1963 'I Have a Dream' speech In a nod to that legacy, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro was set to speak at Monday's service. King's legacy will also be celebrated in New York at the state Capitol complex. A free program at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center on Monday was to feature musical and theatrical tributes. And in Minneapolis, activists with the group Black Lives Matter planned to march onto a Mississippi River bridge that connects Minneapolis and St. Paul during a Martin Luther King Day rally. Meanwhile in Arkansas, the governor is hoping it will be the last year the state celebrates King on the same day as Civil War Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee. Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama for years have observed a joint holiday for King and Lee, whose birthdays are just four days apart. Arkansas in the 1940s set up a day in mid-January to honor Lee and created a holiday for King in 1983. Two years after that, it combined the two for a joint day marked on the third Monday in January. 'They need to be distinguished and separate,' Governor Asa Hutchinson told a news conference this month about the remembrances. Hutchinson wants lawmakers to pass legislation that gives King a day of his own when they meet for a regular session in the Republican-dominated statehouse 'It's important that that day be distinguished and separate,' he said. 'And focused on the civil rights struggle and what he personally did in that effort.' Civic leaders, activists, artists and others are celebrating, marching and paying homage Monday to Martin Luther King Jr., marking the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader In the nation's capital, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama planned to take part in a community service program in King's honor (pictured during his March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom) A hospital doctor worked shifts on the wards and even passed an RAF fitness test despite claiming disability benefits because she 'couldn't walk'. Dishonest Sandra Turnbull, 44, was photographed being winched out of an RAF Sea King helicopter as part of her combat training to become a military medic. But at the same time she was claiming Disability Living Allowance in cash towards a specially-adapted car, telling officials she was struck down with pain if she tried to walk. She has now admitted three benefit fraud charges after being overpaid 22,279 and was sentenced to a 12-month community order today. Doctor Sandra Turnbull (pictured left and, right, outside court today) has admitted three benefit fraud charges after wrongly pocketing 22,279 in handouts Her barrister, Richard Herrmann, said with her guilty pleas she had effectively lost everything and expected to be struck off. Newcastle Crown Court heard the 44-year-old was working 12 hour shifts as a doctor, had enrolled in the territorial army and was volunteering for intensive training with the RAF. Her ex-husband told investigators she had enjoyed scuba diving, a walking holiday exploring Rome and was a keen cyclist during the period of her claim. The doctor, who had a genuine hip complaint and underwent a replacement last year, joined an Army Reserve unit, the 201 Northern Field Hospital, in June 2006, despite claiming DLA, the court heard. She had claimed to be unable to walk without experiencing severe discomfort and continued making the declarations in renewal forms in 2008, 2010 and 2013. Following her enrolment with the field hospital, she went on a three-day placement with the RAF and was taken aboard a Sea King helicopter as a 'trainee casualty' which involved being winched on and off, Vince Ward, prosecuting, told the court. She wanted to become an army medic but her fraud was uncovered and she now faces being struck off. She is pictured above being winched out of an RAF Sea King helicopter as part of her combat training to become a military medic during the same period that she was claiming disability living allowance benefits off the state She was assessed to be employable in full combat duties in any area of the world, the court was told. In January 2007 she went on a full day's training exercise in the wilds of the Coquet Valley in Northumberland, to prepare for a combat test the following weekend involving a two-hour six-mile march with rifle and 15kg rucksack, which she failed. These are not offences of oversight or mistake, but plain old-fashioned dishonesty Recorder Richard Wright QC Mr Ward said she was a qualified doctor who worked at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, Newcastle General Hospital and for County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust. Her 12-hour shifts involved standing for long periods and walking 'considerable distances' around the hospitals, he said. Department for Work and Pensions investigators carried out surveillance and she was observed walking at a normal pace, and did not appear to be in pain. Her ex-husband provided a statement saying she was active and 'unimpeded by symptoms', Mr Ward said. Turnbull, of Newcastle, has been suspended by the General Medical Council as a result of her conviction for benefit fraud. The 44-year-old had claimed to be unable to walk without experiencing severe discomfort and continued making the declarations for benefits in renewal forms in 2008, 2010 and 2013. However, during this time she was photographed being winched out of an RAF Sea King helicopter (pictured) as part of her combat training The court heard she was initially given the state handouts in cash but later opted to receive her payments in the form of car. Recorder Richard Wright QC told her: 'These are not offences of oversight or mistake, but plain old-fashioned dishonesty.' He added: 'You are an educated and intelligent woman who has got secure and well-paid employment.' Turnbull (picturied on an exercise with the RAF) joked about taking part in the activities online while falsely claiming thousands of pounds in handouts The judge said: 'The reality is, you have said you were unable to walk for any time or distance, whereas you were flying about in helicopters with the RAF, passed for being fit for combat duties and in the Territorial Army.' Judge Wright accepted her pain levels fluctuated, that she was a carer and was of good character, but he told her: 'You stole money that should have been spent on people who really needed it.' He added: 'If everything I have read about you is right, you have been and continue to be an excellent doctor, an excellent carer and someone who has discharged their responsibilities in their professional life to the highest standard and is very well-regarded. The judge said he accepted the medic did have a painful hip condition, which led to her having a full replacement, but was not in the bad condition she claimed to be. He said despite her dishonesty, Turnbull was an intelligent woman with an impressive professional background of helping others. On screengrabs from her Facebook page sent to the media by the DWP, the medic and a friend joke about the photos of her in the helicopter. Her friend wrote: 'That's never you LOL.' She replied: 'Course it's me doofus, been doing it since 2004 lol and great north air ambo.' Her friend joked: 'You look like ya s****** it lol x' Turnbull replied 'Why no, the winch man was taking the p*** that he was going to swing me! Look in my albums at RAF and GNAAS... You'll laugh.' The directors of the highly popular Making a Murderer series have defended their controversial documentary, claiming the pieces of evidence they left out weren't significant. Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos' ten-part documentary tells the story of Steven Avery, who is currently serving time for murdering photographer Teresa Halbach. Making a Murderer came to the limelight when a petition signed by over 275,000 viewers called for the release of the Avery after claims that he was framed for the murder. Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos' ten-part documentary tells the story of Steven Avery, who is currently serving time for murdering photographer Teresa Halbach The directors said that they were expecting to receive some criticism for the documentary due to its controversial nature but insisted it was not one-sided. The documentary begins in 2003 when Avery was released from prison after serving 18 years for a rape. Avery was released after DNA evidence proved his innocence and he later tried to claim significant damages from Manitowoc county authorities. Several years later he tried suing for damages before he was jailed for the murder of Teresa Halbach despite Brendan Dassey, 16, admitting to being an accessory to the crime. Ricciardi said that the documentary was not designed to 'convict or exonerate anyone.' 'This is a documentary we're documentary filmmakers. We're not prosecutors, we're not defense attorneys, we do not set out to convict or exonerate anyone,' she claimed. 'What we're seeing now is actually history repeating itself. It's now on a national scale with the media demonizing this man in order to prove his guilt,' she said. 'We set out to examine the criminal justice system and how it's functioning today. It would have been impossible for us to include every piece of evidence submitted to the court.' Ricciardi said that the documentary was not designed to 'convict or exonerate anyone' The directors said that they were expecting to receive some criticism for the documentary due to its controversial nature but insisted it was not one-sided Ricciardi explained that they felt there was 'no other way' to do the documentary without leaving out some evidence. 'We were not putting on a trial, but a film. Of what was omitted, the question is: was it really significant? The secret is no,' she said. Ricciardi also described how their subject choice was motivated by their decision to find someone who 'had been wrongly imprisoned and could find himself back in the system.' 'We absolutely have a point of view. When we set out to make this series, we chose Stephen Avery to be our main subject.' 'The reason we chose him was his unique status as an American who had been failed by the system in 1985, and had been repeatedly failed for another 18 years.' Demos said: 'It's interesting that people would expect news reports to contain the truth. I mean if you see the news about this series, I would challenge people to do some research about what's being presented as truth, and see whether the documentary or the news report has more veracity.' Ricciardi revealed the documentary should not be viewed as a biography of Stephen Avery and that viewers are left to come to their own conclusions. With the primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire right around the corner, Chelsea Clinton took some time off from her mother's campaign trail to enjoy a luxury vacation with her growing family in Turks and Caicos. The 35-year-old expectant mother was photographed last week frolicking in the surf on the island of Providenciales with husband Marc Mezvinsky and their young daughter, Charlotte. Chelsea took to the beach in a black one-piece swimsuit, holding her toddler tightly in her arms in front of her growing baby bump. Scroll down for video Life's a beach: Chelsea Clinton, her husband Marc Mezvinsky and their young daughter, Charlotte, were photographed on January 13 frolicking on the beach during a family vacation in Turks and Caicos Lap of luxury: Clinton and Mezvinsky, who are expecting their second child together, were staying at the ultra-luxurious Amanyara hotel, rated one of the most expensive resorts in the world How the other half travels: Rooms at the secluded island compound start at $1,500 per night for the cheapest villa category in low season, and go all the way up to $34,000 for the most luxurious six-bedroom villa Paradise found: The Amanyara Resort looks out over the pristine reefs of Northwest Point Marine National Park Fit for royalty: The hotel complex features 40 timber shingled pavilions and several luxury villas serviced by private cook and housekeepers The former first daughter and her husband of five years were staying at the ultra-luxurious Amanyara hotel, rated one of the most expensive resorts in the world, according to the travel blog The Luxury Travel Expert. Rooms at the secluded, sprawling island compound start at $1,500 per night for the cheapest villa category in low season, and go all the way up to $34,000 for the most luxurious six-bedroom villa with direct beach access in high season. According to its website, the Amanyara Resort, which is owned by the Aman hotel group, looks out over the pristine reefs of Northwest Point Marine National Park, promising its guests some of the world's best wall and reef diving. The hotel complex, which sits on a white sand beach and is surrounded by crystal-clear blue water, features 40 timber shingled pavilions and several luxury villas serviced by private cook and housekeepers. A well-rested Chelsea was back in campaign mode this weekend, joining her father, former President Bill Clinton, in Iowa on Saturday. Chelsea, who announced in December that she and husband Marc were expecting their second child, told the audience at Lincoln High School in Des Moines that she was going to sit on stage because she's pregnant. Back on the trail: Clinton was back in campaign mode this weekend, joining her father, former President Bill Clinton, in Iowa on Saturday Mother-to-be: The younger Clinton, who announced her second pregnancy in December, told the audience at Lincoln High School in Des Moines that she was going to sit on stage because she's pregnant In her speech promoting Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the White House, Chelsea lauded her mother as a role stellar model In her speech promoting Hillary Clinton's candidacy for the White House, Chelsea spoke of her mother in glowing terms, telling a crowd of 5,000: 'I can't imagine a better role model for me as a woman, as a Democrat, as a progressive and as a working mom.' Chelsea made three campaign stops in New Hampshire early last week before she reached Iowa, where her mother's chief rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, has been gaining ground in the polls. The woman who exposed Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, leading to his impeachment by the House in 1998, went public with a radio interview on Sunday harshly critical of both Clintons during his eight-year presidency. Linda Tripp, the one-time confidante of Lewinsky who secretly taped her phone conversations and turned them over to a federal prosecutor, said the former president had affairs with 'thousands' of women - and that the former first lady knew about them. Tripp also said she went public about the Lewinsky-Clinton affair to save her life, as she was worried at the time that she was in danger. Tripp made the comments in an interview with investigative radio reporter Aaron Klein on Sunday. In the interview, she also said the president had an ongoing affair with another staffer at the same as Lewinsky. Scroll down for videos Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, shown here in New York City in October, had a brief affair with President Bill Clinton in the 1990s that eventually led to Clinton's impeachment by the House Linda Tripp, shown here in an undated photo, slammed the Clinton family in a radio interview on Sunday The former first lady not only knew about her husband's misbehavior, 'She made it her personal mission to disseminate information and destroy the women with whom he dallied,' Tripp said. Tripp said Clinton is inappropriately presenting herself as 'a champion of womens rights worldwide in a global fashion, and yet all of the women she has destroyed over the years to ensure her political viability continues is sickening to me.' Under questioning by Klein, Tripp said she turned tapes of her conversations with Lewinsky over to independent counsel Kenneth Starr because Lewinsky was threatening Clinton with exposing the affair, putting her and Tripp's lives in danger. 'I say today and I will continue to say that I believe Monica Lewinsky is alive today because of choices I made and action I took,' Tripp told Klein. 'That may sound melodramatic to your listeners. I can only say that from my perspective I believe that she and I at the time were in danger, because nothing stands in the way of these people achieving their political ends.' 'Had it not become public when it did... We may well have met with an accident. Its a situation where unless you lived it as I did you would have no real framework of reference for this sort of situation.' Tripp had a non-partisan job in the Clinton administration for about a year and a half after he took office. Her desk was initially just outside the Oval Office and then later was next to the first lady's second floor office. Besides Lewinsky, Tripp said Clinton carried on a separate affair during his presidency - a claim she has made before in depositions in the Lewinsky case, but has never discussed publicly. She would not reveal the woman's identity. Tripp didn't contain her criticism of the Clinton to sexual misbehavior - she went on to slam the president and first lady for a variety of scandals during the administration. She told Klein she had experienced 'years of alarm at what I had seen in the Clinton White House, particularly Hillary and the different scandals, whether it was Filegate, Travelgate, Whitewater, Vince Foster.' Chelsea and Bill Clinton have hit the road to campaign for Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic front-runner for the presidency. Here they ar shown in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday Clinton at Sunday night's Democratic debate in South Carolina 'All of the scandals that had come before and were so completely obliterated in the minds eye of the American people because of the way all of them were essentially discounted. 'So I watched a lying president and a lying first lady present falsehoods to the American people,' she said. So my dismay predated the January 1998 period when the Monica Lewinsky scandal surfaced. To me it was very important that the American people see what I was seeing. My years with the Clintons were so disturbing on so many levels.' Tripp said while Lewinsky 'fancied herself in love,'the president 'fancied himself entitled.' The intern eventually told Clinton that Tripp also knew of the affair, which Tripp said put both of them in danger. 'It was nothing more than a servicing agreement. She romanticized that there was an affair. And when it didnt pan out the way she had hoped it would... She essentially lost her mind and started acting in erratic and frightening ways... She never realized the implications of threatening a president or her behavior. And I did.' Tripp went on to say that 'everyone knew within the West Wing, particularly those who spent years with [the president], of the thousands of women... This was a pattern of behavior that has gone on for years. And the abuse of women for years.' 'So it was common knowledge, lets put it this way, within the West Wing that he had this problem. It was further common knowledge that Hillary was aware of it.' The former first lady has steadfastly refused to discuss her husband's past on the campaign trail so far, and the former president himself has likewise declined to answer questions about his part, which have been raised most notably by Republican front-runner Donald Trump. This is the moment a middle-aged 'domestic abuser' soaked his nail bar in flammable liquid and torched it in an attempt to kill his 22-year-old wife and young son 'in a minute of madness'. Ducbac Vuong, 52, then claimed to be the hero after suffering 47 per cent burns to his legs, chest and hands as he put the blaze out. He was initially given a 50/50 chance of survival. The father-of-one's wife and his five-month-old son needed months of treatment on their burns after the trail of acetone liquid he'd laid blocked off the exit from the shop and the family's upstairs flat. Caught on camera: This is the moment Ducbac Vuong, 52, soaked his nail bar in flammable liquid and torched it in an attempt to kill his wife, 22, and young son in what police say may have been 'a minute of madness' Tackling the blaze: Vuong then claimed to be the hero after suffering 47 per cent burns to his legs, chest and hands as he put the fire out. He spent four months in hospital and was initially given a 50/50 chance of survival Officer's body-worn cameras caught Vuong's partner Tram, also known as Naomi, say in their native Vietnamese after the blaze on March 4 last year: 'You can kill me, how can you kill our little one?' Footage shows Vuong, known to friends as Sammi, set light to Hollywood Nails in Hailsham, East Sussex, before trying to extinguish flames. He later spent four months in hospital recovering. He now faces jail after being found guilty of two counts of attempted murder following a trial at Lewes Crown Court today. Detective Sergeant Dave Tye said: 'Vuong has claimed to be the hero in suffering burns while putting the fire out but it was clear to us that he had set fire to the nail bar in an attempt to kill those inside at the time. 'This may have been a minute of madness as he quickly put the flames out, however he, his wife and child had all suffered injuries by that time and his actions could have killed them all. The wife and five-month-old son of the father-of-one (left, after the blaze) needed months of treatment on their burns after the trail of acetone he laid blocked off the exit from the shop and the family's upstairs flat (right) These pictures show the aftermath of the blaze at Hollywood Nails in Hailsham, East Sussex. Vuong now faces jail after being found guilty of two counts of attempted murder following a trial at Lewes Crown Court today 'The injuries they have all suffered are life-long and will require on-going treatment. 'They are all lucky to be alive. This is a very sad case for all involved. We carried out a thorough investigation and are pleased a jury has found Vuong guilty of these offences.' He added: 'We believe Naomi has been subjected to domestic abuse at the hands of Vuong and we are determined to bring anyone who commits these offences to justice.' Errol Willis has been given a court order banning him from touching any car within London's M25 A prolific thief has been banned from touching any car within London's M25 motorway. Errol Willis, 52, was handed the unusual Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) meaning he cannot lay his hands on any vehicle in the capital without express permission from the owner. Willis, from Newham, east London, is due to be released from prison on Thursday and the order - which runs until January 2020 - has been imposed to try and prevent him returning to crime. The ban was granted on January 5 at Stratford Magistrates' Court due to his criminal record. PC Den Kemp, an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer in Newham, said: 'Willis' behaviour caused his victims distress and when he broke into their vehicles and stole their property his behaviour was totally unacceptable. 'We will robustly pursue those who blight the lives of our residents through their anti-social behaviour. 'This Criminal Behaviour Order is now in place to prevent Willis causing further harassment, alarm and distress.' Willis, who is currently in jail for stealing from a vehicle in October in Newham, faces five years imprisonment if he breaks the order. He pleaded guilty to interfering with a vehicle in Manor Park in July 28 last year and was given a community order and rehabilitation activity requirement from the court Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump stepped on his own messaging at an evangelical Christian college on Monday, citing the name of a New Testament book in a way that some will claim betrays his lack of familiarity with the subject. Appearing at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, Trump peppered his speech with quips and quotes designed to frame his candidacy as supportive of conservative Christians including a Bible verse that prominently features the word 'Liberty.' 'Two Corinthians, right?' Trump asked the crowd, bungling what Bible-studying Christians would read as 'Second Corinthians.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO THE DONALD DOES THE BIBLE: Trump pronounced the '2' in '2 Corinthians' as 'two' instead of 'second,' perhaps betraying his lack of familiarity with the routine of Bible study POUNCE: Marco Rubio's faith-based communications guru found the episode grating but fretted that 'it won't matter' in a year where Trump has weathered larger controversies NEW BOY BAND? Liberty University students (L-R) Austin Miller, James Ford, Jeremy Boyd, Josiah O'Boyle and Cody Hildebrand wore home made t-shirts spelling 'TRUMP' to a weekly convocation ceremony at the non-profit, private Christian college 'Two Corinthians [chapter] three, [verse] seventeen. Thats the whole ballgame,' he announced: 'Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' Most modern translations of scripture render that last word as 'freedom,' but Trump was at Liberty University. He took his translation from the more ancient King James Bible. The pair of Corinthians books are the 'first' and 'second' letters St. Paul wrote to the early Christian community in Corinth, Greece, during the years after Jesus' crucifixion. Rival Republican campaigns pounced. Brian Phillips, who runs rapid-response communications for Trump's principal challenger, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, tweeted quizzically within seconds: 'What is "Two Corinthians"?' Eric Teetsel, who is in charge of communicating with faith-based groups on behalf of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio another Trump rival was more pointed. '"Two" Corinthians... It won't matter. Nothing seems to matter,' Teetsel wrote on Twitter. If it matters, the Liberty students didn't let on. A few corrected Trump from the audience, where they sat for their weekly required 'convocation' exercises. (Trump's attendance figures set a new record.) Others laughed nervously. But moments later, Trump had them back on side. He had already pledged to be the kind of U.S. president who would govern with an eye toward defending religious liberty. 'We're going to protect Christianity,' he said, promising not to be 'politically correct.' 'We have to unify,' Trump said moments after his goof. 'We have to band together.' HILARITY: Journalists and commentators ripped into Trump for his New Testament goof At one point, an exultant Trump boomed his approval of 'such nice religious people' applauding him. 'I love it!' he gushed. BIG STAGE: Trump's speech set a new attendance record at Liberty, and was streamed to a larger audience online And he treated the students and faculty and an uncountable global audience watching on numerous video livestreams to his stock comparison of the Good Book to his own first best-seller. 'Who has read "The Art of the Deal" in this room?' Trump asked, drawing a smattering of applause. 'Everybody!' he joked, earning appreciative laughter. "The Bible blows them away. Theres nothing like it, the Bible. ... The Bible is the best.' University president Jerry Falwell Jr, whose 'moral majority' crusading father founded the school, heaped praise on Trump in a lengthy introduction, describing him as a charitable businessman who 'has stunned the political world by building an unlikely coalition that crosses all demographic boundaries of age, sex, race, religion and social classes, and all party lines.' 'Donald Trump is a breath of fresh air in a nation where the political establishment from both parties has betrayed their constituencies time and time again with broken promises and a continuation of the status quo,' said Falwell. Describing Liberty as a college on secure enough financial footing to be able to refuse donations that come with objectionable strings attached, he said Trump 'is the only candidate in this national election that can make that same claim.' 'He cannot be bought. He is not a puppet on a string like many other candidates who have wealthy donors as their puppet-masters. And that is a key reason why so many new voters are attracted to him.' EVERYONE'S A COMEDIAN: A Trump supporter showed off an 'Apprentice'-themed shirt before Monday's rally THE JOKES WRITE THEMSELVES: Trump may have a hard time living down the mispronunciation of a Biblical book that's a staple of protestant church services Toward the end of his speech, Trump referred to a pair of hobby-horse issues that are guaranteed crowd pleasers on the political right. 'Common Core, very bad,' Trump said, referring to the national education standards program. 'Second amendment, very good,' he added, making sure not to say 'Two Amendment.' The Donald's Biblical gaffe immediately recalled a moment in 2004 when Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, then the Democrats' presidential front-runner, erred in saying that the book of Job was his favorite in the New Testament. Job, as regular Sunday-schoolers know, is a book in the Hebrew Old Testament. Trump's misstep, while not as serious, drew howls on Twitter from journalists and other political insiders, including one who tweeted that '#TwoCorinthians sounds like it could be a great sitcom.' 'So.. Two Corinthians walk into a bar,' quipped another. 'Trump cites two Corinthians, says he made a solid real estate deal with both of them,' joked a third. Ben Carson Retired physician Age on Election Day: 65 Religion: Seventh-day Adventist Base: Evangelicals Resume: Famous pediatric neurosurgeon, youngest person to head a major Johns Hopkins Hospital division. Founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which awards scholarships to children of good character. Education: B.A. Yale University. M.D. University of Michigan Medical School. Family: Married to Candy Carson (1975), with three adult sons. The Carsons live in Maryland with Ben's elderly mother Sonya, who was a seminal influence on his life and development. Claim to fame: Carson spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, railing against political correctness and condemned Obamacare with President Obama sitting just a few feet away. Achilles heel: Carson is inflexibly conservative, opposing gay marriage and once saying gay attachments formed in prison provided evidence that sexual orientation is a choice. Ted Cruz Texas senator Age on Election Day: 45 Religion: Southern Baptist Base: Tea partiers Resume:U.S. senator. Former Texas solicitor general. Former U.S. Supreme Court clerk. Former associate deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush. Education: B.A. Princeton University. J.D. Harvard Law School. Family: Married to Heidi Nelson Cruz (2001), with two young daughters. His father is a preacher and he has two half-sisters. Claim to fame: Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours in September 2013 to protest the inclusion of funding for Obamacare in a federal budget bill. (The bill moved forward as written.) He has called for the complete repeal of the medical insurance overhaul law, and also for a dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service. Cruz is also outspoken about border security. Achilles heel: Cruz's father Rafael, a Texas preacher, is a tea party firebrand who has said gay marriage is a government conspiracy and called President Barack Obama a Marxist who should 'go back to Kenya.' Cruz himself also has a reputation as a take-no-prisoners Christian evangelical, which might play well in South Carolina but won't win him points in the other early primary states and could cost him momentum if he should be the GOP's presidential nominee. Jim Gilmore Former Virginia governor Age on Election Day: 67 Religion: United Methodist Base: Conservatives Resume: Former governor and attorney general of Virginia. Former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Former U.S. Army intelligence agent. President and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation. Board member of the National Rifle Association Education: B.A. University of Virginia. Family: Married to Roxane Gatling Gilmore (1977), with two adult children. Mrs. GIlmore is a survivor of Hodgkin's lymphoma Claim to fame: Gilmore presided over Virginia when the 9/11 terrorists struck in 1991, guiding the state through a difficult economic downturn after one of the hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon. He is nest known in Virginia for eliminating most of a much-maligned personal property tax on automobiles, working with a Democratic-controlled state legislature to get it passed and enacted. Achilles heel: Gilmore is the only GOP or Democratic candidate for president who has been the chairman of his political party, giving him a rap as an 'establishment' candidate. A social-conservative crusader, he is loathed by the left for championing the state law that established 24-hour waiting periods for abortions. Gilmore also has a reputation as an indecisive campaigner, having dropped out of the 2008 presidential race in July 2007. John Kasich Ohio governor Age on Election Day: 64 Religion: Anglican Base: Centrists Resume: Governor of Ohio. Former chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee. Former Ohio congressman. Former Ohio state senator. Education: B.A. The Ohio State University. Family: Married to Karen Waldbillig (1997). Divorced from Mary Lee Griffith (1975-1980). Claim to fame: Kasich was Ohio youngest-ever member of the state legislature at age 25. He's known for a compassionate and working-class sensibility that appeals to both ends of the political spectrum. In the 1990s when Newt Gingrich led a Republican revolution that took over Congress, Kasich became the chairman of the House Budget Committee a position for a wonk's wonk who understands the nuanced intricacies of how government runs. Achilles heel: Some of Kasich's political positions rankle conservatives, including his choice to expand Ohio's Medicare system under the Obamacare law, and his support for the much-derided 'Common Core' education standards program. Marco Rubio Florida senator Age on Election Day: 45 Religion: Catholic Base: Conservatives Resume: US senator, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, former city commissioner of West Miami Education: B.A. University of Florida. J.D. University of Miami School of Law. Family: Married to Jeanette Dousdebes (1998), with two sons and two daughters. Jeanette is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who posed for the squads first swimsuit calendar. Claim to fame: Rubio's personal story as the son of Cuban emigres is a powerful narrative, and helped him win his Senate seat in 2010 against a well-funded governor whom he initially trailed by 20 points. Achilles heel: Rubio was part of a bipartisan 'gang of eight' senators who crafted an Obama-approved immigration reform bill in 2013 which never became law a move that angered conservative Republicans. And he was criticized in 2011 for publicly telling a version of his parents' flight from Cuba that turned out to appear embellished. Donald Trump Real estate developer Age on Election Day: 70 Religion: Presbyterian Base: Conservatives Resume: Chairman of The Trump Organization. Fixture on the Forbes 400 list of the world's richest people. Star of 'Celebrity Apprentice.' Education: B.Sci. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Family: Married to Melania Trump (2005). Divorced from Ivana Zelnickova (1977-92) and Marla Maples(199399). Five grown children. Trump's father Fred Trump amassed a $400 million fortune developing real estate. Claim to fame: Trump's niche in the 2016 campaign stems from his celebrity as a reality-show host and his enormous wealth more than $10 billion, according to Trump. Because he can self-fund an entire presidential campaign, he is seen as less beholden to donors than other candidates. He has grabbed the attention of reporters and commentators by unapologetically staking out controversial positions and refusing to budge in the face of criticism. A British man whose girlfriend and friend died during a dive in Malta will not be extradited to face charges of 'involuntary homicide'. Father-of-three Stephen Martin was charged following the deaths of his partner Larissa Hooley, 48, and friend Nigel Haines, 59, despite a UK inquest ruling last year that the pair had died in a diving accident. The 56-year-old, from Rustington, West Sussex, was due to appeal at the High Court in London on Wednesday against a request to extradite him to the Mediterranean isle. But his lawyers were told that all charges have now been dropped following a visit to the island's attorney-general by officials from the British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) last week. Stephen Martin (pictured) whose girlfriend and friend died during a dive in Malta will not be extradited to face charges of 'involuntary homicide' The father-of-three, pictured right with his partner Larissa Hooley, 48, was arrested in July after the deaths Mr Martin, an advanced diver and open water instructor with BSAC, told how his 'utter nightmare' was now over while his supporters said the decision was a victory for 'common sense'. He said: 'I am overwhelmed. 'This has been an utter nightmare for me, and I am just so relieved it is over. I feel I can finally start grieving for Larissa and Nigel. I just can't keep back the tears.' The IT manager was charged last July with two counts of involuntary homicide, which is similar to manslaughter in the UK, and could have faced up to 10 years in prison if he had been convicted. The tragedy took place on June 7 2014 when the divers entered waters known as the Blue Hole. All were members of the Brighton branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC). They were swimming along a submerged cliff 10 to 15 metres below the surface when Miss Hooley veered off and plummeted leaving a jagged line of bubbles. Her friends managed to bring her to the surface after she sank to a depth of 35 metres but she had turned blue and unresponsive. An inquest into the deaths of Miss Hooley (pictured), 48, and Nigel Haines, 59, returned verdicts of accidental death after they died during just off the island of Gozo, near Malta During the frantic attempts to save Miss Hooley, Mr Haines slipped back into the water and he also died During the frantic attempts to save Miss Hooley, Mr Haines slipped back into the water and he also died. Inquests into the deaths found both suffered immersion pulmonary oedema, which causes a leakage of fluid from the bloodstream into the lungs preventing oxygen from being absorbed. Mr Martin cooperated with Maltese officials' inquiries and then left the island. Maltese officials held a magisterial inquiry which found that he had been negligent because of the 'unorthodox dive profile', had not checked the weather conditions and that he had failed to keep a close watch on Miss Hooley. Mr Martin praised the support of BSAC, the UK's governing body for scuba and snorkelling, after its lead members visited Malta's attorney-general last week calling for the charges to be dropped. BSAC chief executive Mary Tetley said: 'The decision today brings to an end the horrendous ordeal which Stephen has suffered since he was charged, and we are both delighted and relieved for him. 'We remain dismayed that these charges were ever brought in the first place as a UK coroner had already ruled the deaths a tragic accident. The tragedy took place on June 7 in 2014 just off the island of Gozo, near Malta (stock image) 'Never in BSAC's 63-year history have criminal charges like this have been brought against BSAC divers relating to a diving fatality or accident. 'It is a victory for common sense that these charges have now been dropped, allowing Stephen to move on with his life, and grieve in peace.' Meanwhile, Mr Martin's UK solicitor, Edward Elwyn Jones, of Hodge Jones and Allen Solicitors, described the charges he faced as 'bizarre'. Mr Martin has been on bail in the UK since he was held on a European Arrest Warrant in July last year, subjected to a daily curfew from midnight to 7am and told to report to police three times a week. As I write this column, members of the UK Parliament are debating whether or not to ban Donald Trump from entering Britain. Theyve allocated three hours of time to do this. Time that could have been spent debating terrorism, famine, nuclear weapons, the Middle East refugee crisis or the Syrian War. But no, instead British law-makers have concluded their own time is best served seriously considering a proposal to ban a man who may end up being the next President of the United States. Members of the UK Parliament (pictured) spent Monday afternoon debating whether or not to ban Donald Trump from entering Britain. They could have spent the time debating terrorism, famine, nuclear weapons, the Middle East refugee crisis or the Syrian War. But instead British law-makers have concluded their own time is best served considering a proposal to ban a man who may end up being the next President The reason theyre doing it is, of course, is because Trump recently called for a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. in the wake of an horrific mass shooting by two Islamic terrorists. Like many, I didnt agree with what Trump said and indeed, I wrote him an open letter at the time saying it was dangerously wrong and bigoted. But to ban a foreign politician for expressing an opinion is utterly absurd. Particularly a foreign politician who stands an increasingly good chance of becoming leader of the worlds biggest superpower and Britains supposedly closest, most powerful ally. Can you imagine a situation where President Trump, if he is elected, is actually banned? It would make Britain the laughing stock of the world, and confirm to Americans that were just as pathetically petty and small pond in our thinking as youve always suspected. It would also cause serious, probably irreparable damage to Britains relationship with the United States. The sheer hypocrisy in all this Ban Trump nonsense is breathtaking. Britain throws down the red carpet and blares out the royal bugles all the time for leaders of countries with heinous human rights records. Can you imagine a situation where President Trump, if he is elected, is actually banned? It would make Britain the laughing stock of the world, and confirm to Americans that were just as pathetically petty and small pond in our thinking as youve always suspected King Salman of Saudia Arabia can allow 50 people to be beheaded last month and nobody in the corridors of British officialdom batted a public eyelid. Yet he is treated like some kind of deity when he arrives in Britain in his fleet of gold-plated jets. Russian President Vladimir Putin commits and spouts all manner of despicable, murderous, bigoted things and Britain welcomes him with State dinners at Buckingham Palace and handshakes outside Downing Street. As for Chinese President Xi Jinping, there is barely enough room in my expansive sick bucket to cope with my involuntary spewing at all the sycophantic grovelling that goes on when he swings into my home country. Its always been like this. I remember standing with Tony Blair inside his No10 office in 1997 as Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness were leaving after the first historic visit to Downing Street by Irish Republicans in 75 years. King Salman (left) of Saudia Arabia can allow 50 people to be beheaded last month, yet he is treated like some kind of deity when he arrives in Britain in his fleet of gold-plated jets. Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) commits and spouts all manner of despicable, murderous, bigoted things and Britain welcomes him with State dinners at Buckingham Palace and handshakes outside Downing Street As for Chinese President Xi Jinping, (pictured) there is barely enough room in my expansive sick bucket to cope with my involuntary spewing at all the sycophantic grovelling that goes on when he swings into my home country Should I wear rubber gloves, Prime Minister? I asked as he proffered his hand. You think those two are bad, you should have seen some of the African leaders I had in last week he replied. I dont remember any parliamentary debates to have any of them banned. But one wrong word from Donald Trump, and all hell breaks loose. This ghastly monster must be stopped! I know how Trumps feeling better than most because I faced a similar attempt in the U.S. to have me deported for my views on guns. More than 150,000 Americans signed an official White House petition demanding that I be booted out of the country for having the audacity to suggest better gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre. (In fact, to my chagrin, there was also a rival petition which started up in the UK insisting I be banned from going home. So yes, Donald, my fellow Brits have tried to ban me too) What was interesting, and relevant, about the U.S. petition was how the White House handled it. Obliged to respond to any petition that gathered over 25,000 signatures, President Obama instructed his then press secretary Jay Carney to announce that I would not be deported. Why? This is what Carney said: Lets not let arguments over the Constitutions Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First. President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms. However the Constitution also enshrines the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press fundamental principles that are essential to our democracy. 'Americans may disagree on matters of public policy and express those disagreements vigorously, but no one should be punished by the government simply because he or she expressed a view on the Second Amendment or any other matter of public concern. I know how Trumps feeling because I faced a similar attempt in the U.S. to have me deported for my views on guns. More than 150,000 Americans signed an official White House petition demanding that I be booted out of the country for having the audacity to suggest better gun laws in the wake of Sandy Hook So I was saved because the President concluded I was perfectly entitled to air my opinion about a matter of public concern. How is this relevant to Trump? Well, lets go back to why he said what he said and when he said it. His call to ban Muslims came in the immediate aftermath of the deadly terror attack in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14 people and wounded 22 more. For a country still feeling the very deep scars of 9/11, this was another hammer blow to national security and confidence. It confirmed many Americans worst fears that there are radicalised Islamic terrorists living in their midst preparing to commit atrocities. Trump, as is his style, didnt mince his words. His suggestion was brutally simplistic and to many including me brutally offensive. But it didnt mean he hates all Muslims. Nor did it mean he wants all Muslims banned forever from America. He specifically said he wanted a short-term bar on Muslim visitors being allowed into the U.S. until the current immigration policy is re-examined, believing the rules are too lax and making it too easy for potential Islamic terrorists to slip into the country. He may or may not be right about that, I have no idea. But theres a distinction in what he actually said and how its been interpreted. Theres also a matter of perspective. Right now, there are believed to be hundreds of British Muslims whove left UK shores to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. None of them has been banned from returning. Yet the UK Parliament appears more concerned with keeping out a billionaire real estate tycoon with a propensity for saying outrageous things but no track record, so as far as Im aware, of murdering people. Ive been a fierce critic of the Second Amendment, believing it to be a deeply politicised clause in the Constitution which has cost vast numbers of innocent lives. But Im an equally fierce supporter of the First Amendment and wish we had something like it in Britain. If we did, then Donald Trump would be free to express his opinion on an issue of public concern however unpalatable. Just as I was free America to attack the pro-gun lobby in America who dont want to do anything about school shootings. Todays Parliamentary debate is an affront to proper democracy, a stupendous waste of time, and it shames Britain. 'I'm really shocked,' Fenn said of the man's Randall Bilyeu, 54, pictured with his dog Leo, went missing while looking for a hidden treasure Santa Fe police are searching for a man who went missing after going on a treasure hunt inspired by a book by real-life Indiana Jones author Forrest Fenn. Randall Bilyeu, 54, was last heard from on January 4 when he told a friend he was going to look for the treasure, which consists of a chest filled with gem stones and gold that is rumored to be hidden in the Rocky Mountains near Santa Fe. Bilyeu told the friend that he had purchased a raft and was going to be traveling along the Rio Grande, according to a missing person's report filed by the Santa Fe police department. Bilyeu's daughter Carissa Nieves confirmed to Daily Mail Online that her father was on a hunt for the treasure. In an email, Nieves described her father as a 'fun, adventurous, caring and passionate man' who also has another daughter and two grandchildren. In an interview with Daily Mail Online, the instigator of the treasure hunt said he is horrified by the man's disappearance. 'I don't know what to say, I'm really shocked,' Fenn said. 'It's terrible. But we are still optimistic that he will be found. Although it's getting cold at night.' Fenn, who is a former art dealer, said he would not recommend anyone to go on a treasure hunt in the winter. 'I've said many times, don't look for my treasure in the winter time. The Rocky Mountains are pretty much covered in snow and ice. I suggest everyone stay home by the fire until spring.' According to officials involved in the search, Bilyeu's raft was found on a bank of the Rio Grande on Friday along with the man's dog and some rafting equipment. The dog is safe and will be returned to the family, Bilyeu's daughter said. Bilyeu's car had previously been found at nearby Buckman Road. 'The area where the raft was found is a river valley with a high wall, surrounded by high, steep canyons, thick brush and sand bars,' New Mexico state police resource officer Bob Rogers told Daily Mail Online. 'It's rough terrain and it makes it hard to search.' According to Rogers, the search has been suspended 'pending clues.' 'We've exhausted our resources in the area and have found nothing in the search,' Rogers said. Scroll down for video Forrest Fenn said this picture shows the gold-filled treasure he hid somewhere in the Rocky Mountains Art dealer turned author Forrest Fenn, who hid a treasure in the Rocky Mountains (left) and the cover of his memoir, The Thrill of the Chase A map and a poem from Forrest Fenn's book The Thrill of the Chase which contains clues to a hidden treasure Bilyeu's family told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the man is 'obsessed' with looking for treasure. 'He had told us on Christmas that he knows the spot,' Bilyeu's ex-wife Linda said. 'While he was caring for his mom and dad, he had extra time, and he would go on small treasure hunts. And then it just escalated from there,' she said. 'His dad passed and then his mom went into a home and then went to live with his sister, so then he had more and more time. It just became an obsession.' The Rio Grande, which rises in Colorado, runs south to the Gulf of Mexico and forms part of the border between the United States and Mexico A stretch of the Rio Grande near where Randall Bilyeu is thought to have disappeared while on a treasure hunt Buckman Road, where Randall Bilyeu's car was found. Bilyeu disappeared while looking for a hidden treasure Forrest Fenn's memoir The Thrill of the Chase was published in 2010. The book contains clues Fenn says lead to the location of his hidden treasure, which is believed to be worth up to $3 million, although Fenn said he has never appraised its value. The hidden chest contains '265 gold coins, mostly American eagles and double eagles, hundreds of gold nuggets, two as large as chicken eggs, valuable pre-historic gold artifacts, ancient Chinese carved jade figures, and lots more,' according to Fenn. Fenn said he is in touch with Linda Bilyeu and that he's doing anything he can to help find the man. Asked if Bilyeu was on the right track when he got lost, the author said he didn't want to comment. To future treasure hunters, Fenn had two pieces of advice. If ISIS militants ever come knocking on the door of Marco Rubio's West Miami home, the Republican presidential candidate says he'll be ready for them. The senator from Florida went on CBS' Face the Nation Sunday, revealing that he purchased a handgun on Christmas Eve to protect his family from terrorists. I think many Americans around the country feel the same way. Im a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us, he told moderator John Dickerson. Packing heat: Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio revealed in an interview on CBS' Face the Nation that he bought himself a new handgun on Christmas Eve to protect his family from ISIS militants Locked and loaded: Rubio was gifted a rifle by employees at Sturm, Ruger & Co in New Hampshire on Friday Rubio, who has an A rating from the NRA, called the Ruger rifle a 'nice addition' to his home arsenal Speaking to employees at Ruger, Rubio said he was convinced if President Obama could take away everyone's firearms, he would In fact, if ISIS were to visit us or our communities at any moment, the last line of defense between ISIS and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them or from a criminal or anyone else who seeks to do us harm. Millions of Americans feel that way. In his final State of the Union address to the nation last week, President Obama downplayed the threat of ISIS, describing the group as masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks that do not threaten our national existence. Over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands,' the president said. Rubio, who according to the latest poll numbers is trailing frontrunner Donald Trump with 11.8 per cent nationally, has made Second Amendment rights a centerpiece of his campaign in recent weeks. 'The Second Amendment is not a suggestion,' Rubio said during last weeks heated Republican presidential debate in South Carolina. 'It is a right.' During a campaign stop in New Hampshire on Friday, Rubio visited a gun shop and later held a rally at the Newport headquarters of the firearms manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co, where he was presented with a rifle, reported ABC News. 'My wife and I, we're gun owners,' he told Ruger employees. 'This our first rifle in our home. It will be a nice addition.' Rubio, pictured campaigning at Dordt College, Iowa, Saturday, purchased his first gun, a .357 Magnum, in 2010 while running for the Senate Playing catch-up: According to the latest poll numbers, Rubio is trailing frontrunner Donald Trump with 11.8 per cent nationally Rubio blasted President Barack Obama's recent executive order strengthening gun control laws, saying he was making it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms for the purpose of self-defense. I am convinced if this president could confiscate every gun, he would, Rubio said. The Tampa Bay Times has reported that Rubio, who holds an A rating from the National Rifle Association, purchased his first gun, a .357 Magnum, in 2010 while running for the US Senate. An Argentinian tourist 'forgot' his wife at a petrol station and drove 60 miles before realising she was missing, according to media reports in Brazil. The couple was returning to Argentina after a holiday in Bombinhas, in Brazil's state of Santa Caterina. The husband, only identified as Walter, stopped at a station in Passo Fundo to refuel the car and go to the toilet. Walter's 40-year-old wife, Ines, who had been sleeping in the back of the car, went into the shop to buy some cookies. When she returned to the parking lot, her family was gone. The couple was returning to Argentina after a holiday in Bombinhas, in Brazil's state of Santa Caterina The husband, only identified as Walter, drove 60 miles before realising he had left his wife at the station Her husband had apparently driven off after filling up the car. The couple's 14-year-old son, who was playing on his mobile phone in the front seat, also did not see that the mother was missing. The woman started crying nonstop and approached the petrol station's manager Edgar Francisco Marques to seek for help. 'She was panicking. She said her husband had left her at the station,' he said. 'I thought it was joke and that the man had just gone for a walk and would return soon.' 'But then I realised she was not joking. We had to calm her down and give her water. She would not stop moaning.' With the help of the employees at the petrol station, the distressed woman, who had no documents and no money, tried to call her husband but could not connect due to a lack of coverage. At that point, the employees contacted local police who took her to a police station. When the absent-minded husband eventually returned two hours later, the upset woman started punching and kicking his car. The disgraced financier's friendship with Prince Andrew forced the Duke to quit his role as the British Governments global trade envoy in 2011 It is a decade since investigators first investigated Epstein for allegedly hiring underage girls as assistants to give him sexual massages the ladies as a group of friends who mostly work as models and are social scene regulars He was only back in New York a few days following a vacation, but Jeffrey Epstein certainly did not lack company during his brief return to the city. A steady stream of gorgeous women were spotted coming and going from the convicted sex offender's palatial home on the Upper East Side at the weekend, with The Daily Mail Online obtaining exclusive images showing the bevy of beauties. The elusive 62-year-old appeared healthy and relaxed when he emerged from the home on Friday, dressed down in a red hoodie and sweat pants, making a move for a waiting black SUV. Epstein again flew out of New York on Saturday afternoon on his private jet, accompanied by an attractive brunette. However he was earlier kept busy by numerous visitors, who happened to be a troupe of Manhattan 'it' girls. On vacation: Jeffrey Epstein leaves his New York Mansion with an attractive unidentified brunette girl before flying out of New York together on his private jet. Dressed down: Epstein appeared relaxed and casual as he got into a waiting SUV outside his apartment on the Upper East Side 'It' girls: Susan 'Sue' Hamblin was one of the first spotted at the home. The petite blonde studies at Parsons School of Design The attractive blonde in a grey wool outfit who was also pictured with Epstein a few years ago, sources say Hamblin was seen smiling as she left the property with a friend (left). She is seen here in a Facebook picture (right) Jennifer Kalin was seen arriving at the sprawling pad alone to visit Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend The leggy brunette rugged up against the winter chill in a fur-lined black coat as she left the house Admirer: This young woman, who has not been named, later boarded a private jet with Epstein after visiting the billionaire at his home The unidentified girl was at Epstein's house both Friday and Saturday but was wearing the same clothes for the two days The stunning brunette was later seen loading a puppy in a travel bag into the car before heading off the to the airport with Epstein Epstein and the woman then headed for Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where they boarded a private plane with Epstein's long-time pilot, Larry Visosk The women photographed at the house are a group of friends that mostly work as models, all of which are social scene regulars. All of the ladies also appear to be in their early twenties. Susan 'Sue' Hamblin, a petite blonde that studies at Parsons School of Design, was one of the first spotted at the home. Wearing a long grey cardigan and toting and over-sized bag, Hamblin smiled as the left Epstein's property. Soon after a leggy brunette identified as Jennifer Kalin was seen arriving at the sprawling pad. According to Kalin's Facebook page, the Minnesota native studied at the French Culinary Institute in Paris before moving to New York. The pair's friend, model Svetlana Pozhidaeva, was also spotted leaving the house, while eating a whole avocado. The brown-haired, blue eyed beauty - who often goes by 'Lana' - is represented by MC2 Model Management in New York, and Elite Model Management in Milan. According to a social media account, Pozhidaeva obtained a politics degree in Moscow before moving to the US. None of the women were available for comment when The Daily Mail Online reached out to them on Monday to enquire about their relationship with Epstein. Hungry: Russian-born model Svetlana Pozhidaeva was seen eating an avocado as the left the home of Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend The brown-haired, blue eyed beauty - who often goes by 'Lana' - is represented by MC2 Model Management in New York and Elite Model Management in Milan Social butterflies: Jennifer Kalin and Svetlana Pozhidaeva attend the 2014 New York Academy Of Art's Tribeca Ball at New York Academy of Art on April 7, 2014, in New York City A fourth woman, who was not identified, was later seen getting in a car with the billionaire bound for the airport. The attractive brunette wore a white puffer jacket and black tights, and loaded a dog in a travel bag into the car as well. Epstein and the woman then headed for Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where they boarded a private plane with Epstein's long-time pilot, Larry Visosk. It is unclear where the plane was headed. Jennifer Kalin, who is believed to be a chef, was seen arriving at the sprawling pad alone to visit Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend The leggy brunette rugged up against the winter chill in a fur-lined black coat as she buzzed into the house An unidentified woman is seen arriving at the Manhattan mansion of Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend It has been a decade since investigators first looked into a tip that assistants to Epstein were procuring underage girls to give him sexual massages. Detectives sifted through the trash outside his Palm Beach home. As the inquiry unfolded they spoke with dozens of girls, some of whom were 15 or younger. Many of the allegations resurfaced earlier this year when Virginia Roberts, now 31, who bears a striking resemblance to the blonde seen embracing Epstein on Wednesday claimed to have been Epsteins sex slave. Roberts went on to allege that in 2001 when she was an underage teenager she had sex with Epsteins one-time friend Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. The allegations were vehemently denied by the Duke and were removed from court records following a federal judges ruling in April. Court papers lodged in Florida had accused Prince Andrew of having sex with Miss Roberts when she was 17. She claimed that under the orders of Epstein she was forced to have sex with the prince three times in 2001 - in London, New York and on Epsteins Caribbean island. Jeffrey Epstein leaves his New York Mansion with an attractive unidentified brunette girl before flying out of New York together on his private jet on Saturday Epstein's longtime pilot, Larry Visoski, was at the controls as the plane left Teterboro airport in New Jersey Her accusations were part of submissions made by lawyers acting for Miss Roberts who wanted to join an existing civil lawsuit launched by two other women. US District Judge Kenneth Marra refused Miss Roberts permission to join the lawsuit and said in his written judgment that the sex abuse details had no bearing on the lawsuits goal of reopening the Epstein non-prosecution agreement. It is not the first time Prince Andrews friendship with the billionaire sex offender has drawn scandal and opprobrium. In 2011 pictures of Prince Andrew walking in Central Park with Epstein, shortly after his release from jail, saw the Duke forced to quit his role as the British Governments global trade envoy. As for Epstein he has been dogged by the scandal of sexual abuse ever since he struck an infamous plea bargain which saw him sentenced to just eighteen months in prison for a misdemeanor - soliciting an underage girl for prostitution. Just last July a judge released a cache of court documents from Epsteins 2008 plea deal that showed prosecutors suspected the financier of abusing up to 40 underage girls but failed to charge him and instead offered him a secret plea bargain. Speaking in an interview with the New York Times Alan Dershowitz, the attorney who lead Epsteins aggressive defense team whose tactic was to destroy the girls credibility - admitted that he had initially had doubts when Epstein first asked him to take the case. He said: I said, Look, you know Jeffery, were acquaintances, maybe thats not such a great idea. He said, No, no, no, I really need you to do this. Late last year, Epstein was seen hugging a blonde woman out the front of his house. The woman has since been identified as social pages regular Julia Stepanova, who also goes by Julia S. Cuomo It is a decade since investigators first looked into a tip that women working as assistants to Epstein were procuring underage girls to give him sexual massages Julia S. Cuomo is pictured in New York leaving the home of Jeffrey Epstein in December 2015 Party girl: The stunning blonde is seen in a photo here from Facebook taken at an event in New York Cuomo (left) and Svetlana Pozhidaeva (right) are seen here with another model friend in a Facebook photo And, on reflection, Dershowitz realized the case was right in my wheel house. Dershowitz had been vacationing with Epstein at his Palm Beach house with his wife and grandchildren in December, just a few months before that 2005 phone call. His friendship with Epstein began in the mid-1990s on Marthas Vineyard and Dershowitz was soon drawn into the rarified world of the former college dropout who once worked for Bear Stearns and would say only that he managed investments for billionaires. He recalled that social circle as consisting of scientists, socialites and celebrities. Epstein donated $30million to research at Harvard and President Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey flew aboard his private jet to Africa to discuss AIDS policy. Deshowitz flew in the private jet too and admitted that Epstein was often surrounded by young women but none of them, he said, struck him as underage. I never got involved in his social life, he claimed. Friendly visit: An unidentified man arrives with his own security detail at Jeffrey Epstein's New York Mansion The man, who appeared to be escorted by a private security guard (white shirt) was one of many visitors to the home of Jeffrey Epstein at the weekend A male with a wedding band on his finger and his own security detail entered the Mansion on Friday (pictured) After taking the case, Dershowitz gathered information from the girls posting on social media, which he claimed showed they were drug users or had lied to Epstein about their age. He put together a defense team including Roy Black, a prominent trial lawyer, and Kenneth W Starr who famously led the investigation into Clintons involvement with Monica Lewinsky. After meeting with the team a local prosecutor recommended that Epstein be charged only with a misdemeanor. It was a decision that so infuriated the chief of Palm Beach police that he wrote a letter to the Justice Department. It was to no avail. Zafke was sentenced to three years in jail because of his S.S. membership Indictment says prisoners were gassed while Zafke was on duty An elderly man who served as an S.S. medic at the Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz - and who was on duty when teenage diarist Anne Frank was sent there - will stand trial on charges of complicity in mass murder next month. Proceedings against Hubert Zafke will begin on February 29 in Neubrandenburg near Berlin. Zafke, 95, was examined by psychiatric doctors last year appointed by a court in Rostock and judged mentally sound enough to answer for his role in the murders of 3,681 people. Zafke served at the premier Nazi extermination facility in Nazi occupied Poland as a medic and claims he took no part in the estimated 1.2 million murders of Jews and others that took place there. Scroll down for video Hubert Zafke served as S.S. medic at Auschwitz Nazi extermination camp and was on duty when Jewish diarist Anne Frank arrived Zafke was sentenced by a Polish court because of his S.S. membership to three years in jail, returning to Neubrandenburg in Germany after serving his time The indictment says that prisoners in the medical block at Auschwitz-Birkenau - the part of the camp where the gas chambers were located - were murdered while Zafke was on duty. According to the indictment Zafke is accused of knowing that he worked in an extermination camp and that he was 'supportive of the running of this extermination camp.' They added; 'Given his awareness, the accused lent support to the organisation of the camp and was thereby both involved in and advanced the extermination with these cruel and insidious killings of at least 3,681 people.' In 1948 he was sentenced by a Polish court because of his S.S. membership to three years in jail, returning to Neubrandenburg in Germany after serving his time. Zafka was present when Anne Frank came in on a train from Holland's Westerbork concentration camp on September 5 1944 carrying 498 men, 442 women and 79 children. In all, say prosecutors, work rosters found bearing his name show he was present when 14 trains bringing prisoners arrived at the complex that was part death camp, part slave labour facility. Anne, whose memoir of a life in hiding from the Nazis became the single most poignant piece of Holocaust literature, was later transferred to the Belsen concentration camp in Germany where she died early in 1945. Although classed as a medic, such personnel at Auschwitz were not concerned with the health of inmates, but often poured in the Zyklon-B pesticide crystals into the gas chamber to murder them. Anne Frank came in on a train from Holland's Westerbork concentration camp on September 5 1944 carrying 498 men, 442 women and 79 children Anne, whose memoir of a life in hiding from the Nazis became the single most poignant piece of Holocaust literature, was later transferred to the Belsen concentration camp in Germany The indictment shows that Zafke, who now lives in the tiny village of Gnevkow north of Berlin, joined the Hitler Youth when he was a teenager in his hometown of Schoenau, which now lies in Poland. The son of a farmer, he attended high school and an agricultural college intending to follow in his father's footsteps. In 1933, aged 13, he joined the Hitler Youth and six years later was in the S.S. He received his grounding in concentration camp training at Dachau, the first of the Nazi camps where 36,000 people were murdered during its 12 years of operation. As a junior squad leader - a rank usually given to men singled out as future officer material - Zafke transferred to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944. He is charged with being accomplice to the murders of the 3,681 victims between August 14 and September 14, 1944. Prosecutors said: 'He is not charged with any single specific murder but as a functionary in the Nazi murder machine which he enabled.' Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army on January 27 1945, now World Holocaust Day, but Zafke had already gone west and fell into British hands. The indictment says that prisoners in the medical block at Auschwitz-Birkenau (pictured) - the part of the camp where the gas chambers were located - were murdered while Zafke was on duty. He was later transferred back to Poland where he was given his jail sentence in 1948 for his membership in the S.S. and service at Auschwitz. He returned to Germany, married and fathered four sons in Gnevekow. He made a career out of manufacturing and selling agricultural products including pesticides like Zyklon B. Gnevkow lay in former East Germany. When the wall fell and archives in Poland, East Germany and former Soviet Russia became accessible, he came on to the radar of Nazi hunters. The verdict against John Demnjanjuk, a former guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland, in 2011 paved the way for Zafke's prosecution. Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years in jail for his part in the murders of 28,000 Dutch Jews. It was the first time that there did not have to be specific eyewitness evidence against an individual: the mere fact he was present in the camp was enough for a guilty verdict. Zafke does not deny his service at Auschwitz but claims: 'I heard nothing, saw nothing, killed no-one.' Last year Oskar Groening, 94, was sentenced i Germany to four years behind bars for his role in the murders of 300,000 people while he served as a guard at Auschwitz. An off-duty Florida Homeland security agent shot a man who allegedly tried to rob the officer with a large knife on the front door step of his home on Sunday. Special Agent Donald Wells of the Department of Homeland Security had met the man earlier that day as he struggled to move a new washing machine into his Springfield home, police said. The robbery suspect, reportedly a neighbor, saw Wells and offered to help him transport the machine around 2pm that afternoon. The two men agreed on a price and Wells paid him after they carried it upstairs his second-story home, according Assistant Chief Scott Dingee of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Off-duty Homeland security agent Donald Wells shot a man who allegedly tried to rob him with a large knife on the front doorstep (pictured is an officer investigating the scene) of his Springfield, Florida home on Sunday Wells shot the man on his doorstep (pictured) once in the upper torso, critically injuring him Dingee said the man then returned to Wells' home that night around 10.30pm and told the agent he had lost his cell phone there earlier that day. Wells left the man at the front door and went inside his house to look for the phone. The officer then returned to the front door to tell the man he could not find his phone. That's when the man pulled out a large knife and attempted to rob Wells, according to police. Wells grabbed his gun and shot the man once in the upper torso area, leaving him in critical condition. The man was taken to hospital for treatment. Police said they have not yet confirmed the man's identity. They plan to charge him with armed robbery. Authorities do not believe the man knew Wells was a law enforcement officer. Police in California have arrested an 18-year-old woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death and then allegedly admitting to the killing on Facebook. The Hemet Police Department announced Nakasia James' arrest on Sunday, nearly a week after the slaying of 21-year-old Dorian Powell in nearby San Bernardino. It is believed the pair had been involved in a domestic dispute, which had turned violent, before Powell's death. Scroll down for video Busted: Nakasia James, left, who is suspected of stabbing her boyfriend Dorian Powell, right, to death before before allegedly confessing to the crime on Facebook, was arrested Sunday The post, which has now been deleted, was uploaded on an account with the same name as James. It said that she was fighting with her ex before he hit her in the face and she grabbed a knife. According to a press release, investigators acting on a tip found James hiding out in an apartment in the 400 block of North Hamilton Avenue in Hemet, located about 40 miles southeast of San Bernardino, shortly before 5pm Sunday. The 18-year-old murder suspect was taken into custody without incident and then turned over to the san Bernardino police. The San Bernardino County Sun reported that James was booked Sunday evening into West Valley Detention Center on $1million bail. According to the Los Angeles Times, Dorian Powell was found dead after police received a 911 call on the morning of January 11 that a man had been stabbed by his girlfriend in the 2000 block of North Central Avenue. When officers arrived on the scene at 2.35am, they discovered the victim's lifeless body, but Ms James was nowhere to be found. It later emerged that James may have posted a confession on Facebook where she claimed to have grabbed a knife and stabbed her boyfriend. The post, which has since been deleted, was first published on KTLA, and was uploaded on an account with the same name as James. It said that she was fighting with her ex before he hit her in the face and she grabbed a knife. Rocky relationship: It is believed Powell and James (pictured) had been involved in a domestic dispute, which had turned violent, before the man's death James, pictured left showing off her gun-shaped purse, was discovered Sunday in an apartment in Hemet, California, about 40 miles southeast of the crime scene where police found Powell's body Locked up: James was booked Sunday evening into West Valley Detention Center on $1million bail The post said: 'I gt the knife and and stabbed him ddnt think I would hurt him BT he died and I'm on the run.' (sic) The status update also appeared to express her regret for the incident saying: 'God knows I didn't mean to stabb him I was mad AF he socked me in my eyes and just picked sumthin up. (sic) 'Btsorryy lord hopefully u forgive me! And sorry Dorian Powell rip.' (sic) San Bernadino Police refused to comment on the Facebook post but said in an earlier statement: 'Nakasia is aware that she is being sought in connection with this homicide. A video has emerged of an Afghan migrant threatening to kill people and 'eat humans' in a barrage of vile rhetoric unleashed towards an elderly Swedish bus passenger. The 23-year-old man, who claims to have been living in the country for ten years, accuses the Swedish people of everything from paedophilia to being responsible for the war in Afghanistan. It was filmed by a fellow passenger and captures the man vowing to kill ten people if he's forced to leave Sweden having 'wasted' a decade of his life there since moving as a 13-year-old. He also accuses foreign soldiers of killing children in his home country and speaks about the return of the Taliban now that coalition forces have left. Anger: The 23-year-old, who claims to have been in Sweden for ten years, launches a torrent of abuse against an elderly passenger during which he speaks of wanting revenge for the war in Afghanistan The pensioner, who can be heard on camera saying he is 73 years old, stays admirably calm during the young man's torrent of abuse, and tells the man several time that 'it's enough now'. In the video, the Afghan man rants: 'It's important to take the lives of others', accusing western countries of taking 'our lives in Afghanistan' and 'all of Africa'. In response, his elderly fellow passenger says: 'Sweden has not been much in Afghanistan'. But the angry man continues: 'Who is it that collaborate with Americans? 'Who collaborates with the European Union? Who? It's you,' he says jabbing his finger at the elderly man. 'If you are against that then leave NATO. Why are you in NATO?,' he shouts, despite the fact that Sweden is not, and never has been, a member of NATO. Abuse: The 23-year-old man (right) even falsely accuses his unsuspecting pensioner rival (left) of being a paedophile who will 'rape his sisters' after the two rowed about the former's deportation in a heated exchange Tirade of bile: An Afghan migrant was caught on camera threatening to kill people (pictured) and 'eat humans' after becoming embroiled in a furious rant with an elderly man on a bus in Sweden The heated exchange was filmed by a fellow passenger and captures the migrant saying he has 'vengeance' The Afghan man is asked why he came to Sweden if he despises the country, to which he replies that he is only critical of Europeans. When he's reminded that Sweden is in Europe, he sidesteps the remark and instead claims that his adopted home is hated by the Balkan countries. He then makes a series of unsavoury remarks linked to the death of Jewish people before comparing that with a claim that 'we have lost several million people'. After telling the pensioner, 72, that he has lost his uncle, the furious migrant goes on to bemoan not being able to smoke 'Black Afghan', a potent form of cannabis, when alcohol is legal in Sweden. He adds: 'I've grown tired. I am 23 years old and I have vengeance here [pointing to his heart], do you get it? 'It means that I can eat humans right now.' When asked why he does not go and fight in his home country, the man directs a vicious, tirade of bile at the pensioner, branding him a paedophile amongst a series of other unsubstantiated claims. He says: 'It's because my sisters are small and should not be raped by people like you.' Fed up: The heated exchange begins when the Afghan man speaks of his frustration at having to fill out paperwork believed to be linked to him being a migrant when he visits a Swedish hospital for treatment Angry: The Afghan man rants: 'It's important to take the lives of others', accusing western countries of taking 'our lives in Afghanistan' and 'all of Africa'. He then goes on to talk about feeling revenge (pictured) The wrongly-accused man replies: 'I never raped anyone,' to which the Afghan man hits back by saying: 'Such disgusting paedophiles like you.' The elderly man again replies: 'I am not such, you see', before his accuser backtracks by admitting: 'Not you, but generally. Paedophiles.' He adds: 'Do you know why I feel that way? For I have never slept in my country in peace and quiet. 'I came from Afghanistan when I was 13 years old. I have been with the Taliban in the Mujahideen War. 'You have eaten good food with butter and stuff. While I have eaten bread and water and I'm stronger than your two metres-tall people. 'Your two metres-tall people I can kill in a second.' He then goes on to accuse old people of being racists, saying they 'win the lottery' and are 'millionaires', before the video cuts off. It comes as first person arrested in connection with Cologne sex assaults A migrant allegedly sexually assaulted a 25-year-old victim and told her that 'German women are just there for sex' after approaching her as she walked home from a railway station. The man, who is said to have recently arrived in Dortmund, told the woman he assumed German women are 'just for sex' after offering money to sleep with her when he followed her in the street. According to police reports, the refugee was allegedly part of a group of men who approached the young woman and hurled 'filthy' insults at her as she walked home from Dortmund Hauptbahnhof railway station in the early hours of yesterday. The fresh claims came as the first person was arrested in connection with the wave of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve. Scroll down for video A migrant allegedly sexually assaulted a 25-year-old victim and told her that 'German women are just there for sex' after approaching her as she walked near Dortmund Hauptbahnhof train station (above) in the early hours The migrant who approached the young woman in the latest incident apparently began following her before offering her money in exchange for sexual intercourse. She declined, and he is then said to have told her he had only just arrived in the city and assumed 'German women are there for sex' before sexually assaulting her through her blouse and trousers. According to the Daily Express, she managed to run off and alerted the police who are now appealing for witnesses to the incident in a bid to trace the suspect. It comes as it emerged that the first person to be arrested in connection with the string of sexual assaults in Cologne over New Year had been detained at a refugee home in the town of Kerpen. The 26-year-old man, from Algeria, was held on suspicion of sexual assault and stealing a mobile phone at the weekend, according to prosecutor Ulrich Bremer. Two other Algerian asylum seekers, aged 22 and 24, were also arrested - both for robbery - in Kerpen and the western city of Aachen respectively, both for robbery, Mr Bremer added. Police apparently searched their possessions and found two mobile phones one of which had been stolen during an alleged sexual assault, and another which was the result of pick-pocketing. The first person to be arrested in connection with the string of sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year's Eve has been detained at a refugee home in the town of Kerpen. Pictured: Crowds outside Cologne train station Earlier, it was revealed that three teenagers all of North African origin had been arrested in connection to the alleged assault of two transgender women in Dortmund. Named as Yasmine and Elisa, the two victims said that they were verbally abused and threatened with stones by the men near the city's main train station last Monday. Elisa, 37, and Jasmin, 50, said that the men spoke to them in Arabic and said they needed to stone 'such people' under Shaira Law, according to Breitbart. 'Within seconds we were tossed aroundand they took stones from a gravel bed on the corner and threw them at us,' said one of the alleged victims. A passing police officer is said to have witnessed the incident and arrested the two men. There is growing concern in Cologne and Dortmund about Germany's ability to integrate migrants following the string of sexual assaults during New Year's celebrations. The number of people accused of committing crimes in Cologne at New Year now stands at 21, of whom eight are in detention. Residents near Cologne's main train station - where hundreds of women were groped and robbed by a throng of mostly Arab and North African men during New Year's Eve - have held protests (above) against the assaults Almost three weeks after the incident a total of 838 people have filed criminal complaints, including 497 women alleging sexual assault. Some of the victims have jointly filed a single complaint, so that the number of alleged crimes stands at 766, of which 381 are sexual offences, including three rapes. The scale and nature of the crimes in Cologne, coupled with police descriptions of the perpetrators as being part of a large crowd of drunken men of 'Arab or North African' origin, has fanned the debate about Germany's approach to migration. Almost 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrived in the country last year, many of them from countries where women face greater discrimination than in Germany. While the incidents were seized on by those in Germany who had already argued for stricter immigration rules, left-wing parties have also voiced concern. Her death is made even harder as the family lost their son Father Jack Swaney says he's 'a mess' after the loss of his The devastated father of an ABC journalist murdered while on vacation in Belize broke down in tears as he admitted he was a 'mess' after losing a second child. Anne Swaney's body was discovered floating in Mopan River wearing only a bra on Friday after she disappeared while doing yoga the previous day. Her heartbroken dad Jack Swaney said the family were still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their adventurous daughter. Scroll down for video Police in Belize say they are questioning a fisherman after the body of Anne Swaney, 39, an ABC executive was found in a river in the town of Benque Viejo on Friday Anne Swaney's heartbroken father Jack broke down in tears as he said the family were still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their adventurous daughter 'Anne Elizabeth had a very short life, she had a very full life and it hasn't sunk in, what we've lost,' he told Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV. Ms Swaney, the executive producer of online operations for ABC, had been holidaying at the Nabatunich cottages in the city of Benque Viejo which is close to the border with Guatemala. According to Police Superintendent Daniel Arzu, Swaney was last seen going to do yoga on Thursday morning beside the river close to her resort as the rest of the group went on a horse riding excursion. The tour guide had raised the alarm after the group returned to discovered her yoga mat and other belonging but no sign of Ms Swaney. Ms Swaney had been staying at a popular local resort before heading out to do yoga close to the Mopan River (pictured) on Thursday morning, shortly before she was reported missing A tour guide reported Ms Swaney missing after discovering her yoga mat (pictured) and other items abandoned by the side of the river, and police discovered her body in the water the following day Search crews and police dogs were able to track down her body to another part of the river the following morning. A Guatemalan fisherman who was close to the scene has since been taken into custody for questioning. He has not been charged. A report from investigators says that an examination of her body at the scene showed visible bruises around her neck and lacerations on her head. According to officers: 'A post mortem autopsy was performed and revealed the cause of death to be asphyxia due to compression of the neck area, throttling and blunt force traumatic injuries to the head and neck.' Authorities say they found no evidence of sexual abuse in the autopsy. Mr Swaney admitted that he could not be strong after hearing about his daughter's death, particularity after losing his son previously. 'I'm a mess,' he said. 'Thursday morning, I woke up and I had a daughter. At 8:30, I didn't have a daughter. While officers initially believed Ms Swaney had been sexually assaulted, investigators say a post mortem revealed no signs of this, though it did confirm she died from strangulation 'The day before, I'd gone to look by the cemetery and I'd visited my son and now the next day it's go to the cemetery and see my son and see my daughter, and that's not fair.' The grieving dad said Anne, 39, had always been passionate about travel and horseback riding, and hadn't been afraid to travel solo to the South American nation. She'd previously visited the same resort last year. Ms Swaney is believed to have arrived in Belize on Saturday for a holiday, and had been staying at the Nabatunich cottages in Benque Viejo But he said she had already checked in with him to make sure he knew she was safe. 'As long as I heard her voice, I didn't care where she was once I heard her voice,' he told WLS-TV. John H. Idler, president of ABC7 where Ms Swaney had worked since 1999, paid tribute to his lost colleague. 'She was a trailblazer in the digital news space and was one of our first website employees,' he said. 'Anne helped us evolve our business and our newsroom, but most importantly, she was a kind person who was always had a smile and a positive attitude.' A State Department official said in a statement: 'We offer our sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones on their loss. Our consular staff is providing all possible consular assistance.' The Nabitunich cottages are a collection of small stone buildings available to rent for tourists on a working farm in the small town of Benque Viejo. Earning rave reviews on Tripadvisor, where it's lowest score is four stars, Nabitunich advertises itself online as a family owned retreat combined with an organic farm. Michelle Obama may be heading for a truce with school nutrition directors after two years of disputes over her healthy eating pet project. A bipartisan Senate bill released on Monday suggests a revised set of meal standards to give schools more flexibility in what they serve the nation's schoolchildren. It eases requirements on whole grains and delays an upcoming deadline to cut sodium levels on the lunch line, which sent school directors into a tailspin. The bill is far less dramatic than plans initially proposed by a faction of Republicans, who wanted to allow schools to opt out of the rules entirely. The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to vote on the measure on Wednesday. First lady Michelle Obama (pictured at Leckie Elementary School in Washington, DC, on Monday) is heading for a truce with school directors as a bill outlines plans to ease the whole wheat requirements she first laid out Michelle, who spent Martin Luther King day at the school with her husband, has been battling with schools over her healthy eating pet project for about two years. The new bill would also delay a deadline to cut sodium levels The First Lady is pictured participating in the community service project at Leckie Elementary school. Senate bill would scale back whole wheat requirements Obama wanted The School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition directors and companies that sell food to schools, said it is supportive of the legislation written by Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and the committee's top Democrat, Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. 'In the absence of increased funding, this agreement eases operational challenges and provides school meal programs critical flexibility to help them plan healthy school meals that appeal to students,' the association's president, Jean Ronnei, said. The White House has yet to weigh in, but committee aides said the administration was involved as they wrote the bill and is expected to be supportive. The aides declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the legislation. The bill is far less dramatic than plans initially proposed by a faction of Republicans, who wanted to allow schools to opt out of the rules entirely The five-year Senate legislation would scale back the whole grain standards to require that 80 percent of grains on the lunch line must be whole grain rich, or more than half whole grain. Currently, all grains are required to be whole grain rich, though some schools are now allowed to get waivers from that requirement. Schools had said the whole grain rules were too tough in some cases, as whole grain pasta is harder to cook and some kids don't like it as much. Southern schools had problems finding tasty whole grain biscuits and grits; schools in the Southwest said their students rejected whole grain tortillas. The new rule will allow schools to serve some of the refined grain items at least once a week. Obama has lunch with school children at Parklawn elementary school in Alexandria, Va, in 2012 The legislation would delay stricter standards on sodium that are scheduled for the 2017 school year. They would now be delayed two years, and a study would measure the benefits of those reductions. Some schools had said they will have to take popular items off their menus if the 2017 levels go into effect. The legislation would also require the government to figure out how to reduce waste of fruits and vegetables, which children are now required to take on the lunch line. Some just throw them away. The bill requires the Agriculture Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to come up with solutions like sharing tables where children can leave food they don't want. Some local health authorities have discouraged that approach. The legislation would also put more resources into summer feeding programs and attempt to expand the ways in which those foods are served. Students tweeted their anger as schools apparently struggled to adapt their menus to Obama's guidelines Southern schools had problems finding tasty whole grain biscuits and grits; schools in the Southwest said their students rejected whole grain tortillas The rules phased in since 2012 set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on foods in the lunch line and beyond. Schools have long been required to follow government nutrition rules if they accept federal reimbursements for free and reduced-price meals for low-income students, but the new standards are stricter. The compromise seemed impossible just a year and a half ago, when the association aggressively lobbied against the administration's standards and backed the GOP effort to allow schools to opt out of them. The first lady held a rare event at the White House, calling out the School Nutrition Association by name. She said she would fight 'until the bitter end' to keep the rules intact. Chris Christie did not take too kindly to Sen. Marco Rubio telling a New Hampshire audience that the New Jersey governor 'supported' President Obama's Supreme Court pick, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. 'This is a first term senator who still is learning where the men's room is in the Senate let alone figuring out how to lead a country,' Christie said today on Fox News. On Friday, Rubio had pointed to a statement that Christie sent out in 2009, in which Christie said Sotomayor was 'qualified' for the job, asking senators to put politics aside and give the nominee an up or down vote. Scroll down for video Chris Christie mocked Marco Rubio for being a one term senator suggesting he 'is still learning where the men's room is.' Christie attacked after Rubio suggested that the New Jersey governor 'supported' President Obama's Supreme Court pick Justice Sonia Sotomayor Marco Rubio appeared in New Hampshire on Friday - a state he hopes to come in second place in after Donald Trump - and tried connecting Christie's record with that of President Obama Today, Christie reminded the Fox audience that his statement also said Sotomayor was 'not my kind of judge.' He then fussed at Rubio for not understanding nuance, saying it was typical of a U.S. senator. 'They talk and talk and obfuscate and make sure that people don't understand the full context of things because they never have to be accountable for anything,' Christie said. 'That's the difference between senators and governors,' Christie added. While Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are battling it out for first place in Iowa, according to recent polls, there's a handful of establishment GOP candidates who are vying for second and third place in New Hampshire, the second contest of the year. With Trump on top, Rubio, Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are hoping that New Hampshire is their ticket to ride. Christie is especially counting on this state, as his campaign was suffering from low poll numbers following the hype of Christie taking on Obama in 2012 he didn't and then the potentially career-killing bridge-gate scandal that soured voters on his name. In early December, New Hampshire voters started giving Christie a second look and the New Jersey governor started gaining ground in the polls. His numbers began to climb from single digits to double. Chris Christie said he sent out a statement about Sonia Sotomayor in 2009 because 'elections have consequences' and one of them is the president getting to select who's on the Supreme Court Today, his Real Clear Politics polling average in New Hampshire stands at 9.2 percent, while Rubio's is at 12.8 percent. This has caused the two establishment candidates to go at it. Rubio has said that Christie donated to Planned Parenthood as a way to dredge up the governor's former pro-choice record. Christie denied the charge, which was reported in a biography of the governor. With his Sotomayor comments, Rubio is attempting to make Christie look too liberal for the Republican base voters who come out and cast ballots in the primaries. On the flip side, Christie is pointing to Rubio's record suggesting it reeks of inexperience. 'I agree with what Senator Rubio said himself,' Christie said during the Fox segment. 'He said just two weeks ago senators and congressmen can't solve America's problems. I couldn't agree with him more.' But Christie will continue to have to answer questions about looking too cozy with Obama, as the two joined political forces in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. As to why Christie left a paper trail aligning himself with an Obama Supreme Court pick, Christie explained that 'elections have consequences.' 'Once she showed in the hearings that she had the basic qualifications to be on the Court the president's choices deserve respect,' Christie said. 'Whether that is President Bush, whether it is President Obama or whether it is President Christie in 2017.' She salutes Martin's mother, Sybrina, for embracing the national spotlight to advocate on behalf of families of gun violence victims Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton on Monday used a Martin Luther King Day event to invoke the memory of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen shot and killed in 2012 in a case that highlighted national concern over the violent deaths of young African-Americans. Clinton spoke in the shadow of the South Carolina Statehouse on the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring King - and the first in which the Confederate flag no longer flies over the Statehouse dome. Clinton used Martin's memory as a segueway into praising his mother, Sybrina, who has become an advocate for families of gun violence. The former secretary of state noted that young African-American men are more likely to die from gun violence than from the next nine leading causes of death combined. Scroll down for videos Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton in Columbia, S.C. on Monday The former secretary of state used the Martin Luther King holiday to rail against gun violence that kills ever-increasing numbers of African-Americans. She also referred to the nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston who were killed by a young white man, Dylann Roof, who purchased a handgun despite having a criminal record. Roof had studied the 2012 shooting of Martin. 'When black people are killed worshipping at Mother Emanuel with a gun bought through a legal loophole this isnt just a public safety issue. Its a civil rights issue,' Clinton said. It lives on, it lives on, in the activists affiliated with Black Lives Matter, and Say Her Name, and everyone who stands up and says at a time when far too many black people are dying after encounters with police, and when 1 out of 3 black men may well end up going to prison in their lifetimes.' 'Criminal justice reform isnt just a law enforcement issue. Its a civil rights issue.' As she did during Sunday night's Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, Clinton also mentioned a neighborhood in Flint, Mich., where predominantly African-American children were discovered recently to have been drinking and bathing in lead-poisoned water for more than a year. 'Making sure all Americans have clean air and water isnt just a health issue. Its a civil rights issue,' she said. 'We would be outraged if this happened to white kids, and we should be outraged that its happening right now to black kids.' The three Democrats also clashed over racism and gun violence during Sunday night's presidential debate, also in South Carolina. Sunday's debate took place less than a block away from the church where nine African-Americans were murdered last summer in Charleston. NBC debate moderator Lester Holt referred to those shootings as well as other instances in which young black men have been killed by police seemingly unnecessarily. 'It plays straight to the fears of many African-American men that their lives are cheap. Is that perception, or in your view is it reality?' Holt asked former Clinton. 'Sadly, it's reality,' Clinton said.'It has been heartbreaking and incredibly outraging to see the constant stories of young men who have been killed by police officers.There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.' Specifically, she called for retraining police, cracking down on racial profiling and revealing disparities in the criminal justice system. Clinton's closest rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, said he agreed the criminal justice system is broken but also called for sentencing reform over crimes such as possession of marijuana.. 'Who in America is satisfied that we have more people in jail than any other country including China, disproportionately African-American and Latino? Who is satisfied that 51 percent of young African-American men are either unemployed or under-employed?' Sanders asked. The third Democratic candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, said he ran for mayor in Baltimore in 1999 at a time when the city was burying more than 300 young African-Americans per year. O'Malley said he presided over the implementation of a civilian review board and improved reporting procedures for police misconduct among other changes. 'We weren't able to make our city immune to setbacks like the Freddie Gray unrest and tragic death showed, but we were able to save a lot of lives,' he said. ' Monday's rally came on the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader At Monday's event, Clinton went on to salute 'the quiet heroes' who speak out against injustice in all of its forms, including poverty, religious intolerance and various forms of social phobias. Then she told the story of meeting Sybrina Fulton, Martin's mother. 'Not long ago, I went to Chicago to meet with a group of mothers who belong to a club no one ever wants to join. One by one, each held up a picture of a beloved child killed by gun violence or by the police,' Clinton said. 'Theyre not looking for sympathy. They just want to spare other families from what theyve endured. And they're turning their grief into a powerful call of action for the nation.' Fulton was one of the women in that group, Clinton said, and was still wrestling with the national spotlight after her child's death. 'Shes a pretty private person, and she really didnt want to be a spokesperson for victims of gun violence and their families. She struggled with that for a long time,' Clinton said. 'But after a lot of prayers, she decided she had to act. She said, I have to do my part. I have to do something to remember my son. I have to do something to try to make a difference in this world. If you want change, it starts with you. 'So on this Martin Luther King Day, as we remember this giant from history, let us also think of Sybrina Fulton, and everyone who gets up every morning, and takes a very deep breath, and gets to work trying to make a difference in our country and this world.' 'This holiday is theirs and yours.' Martin was shot and killed in 2012 by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter in 2013. Steven Averys former fiancee is convinced he is guilty of Teresa Halbach's murder because she says he once tied her to the bed for sex. Jodi Stachowski says Avery once restrained her to a bedpost with ropes and wanted to videotape their sexual encounter - but she adamantly refused to go through with it. Because of this incident, she told TMZ she believes Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey's account of Halbach's rape and murder. Dassey told investigators that he saw the victim tied to Avery's bed and sexually assaulted her before cutting her throat on his uncle's orders. He later said the confession was coerced. Scroll down for video Jodi Stachowski (pictured) says Steven Avery once restrained her to a bedpost with ropes and wanted to videotape their sexual encounter Steven Avery (pictured left in 2007) was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of photographer Teresa Halbach (right) But Stachowski, who was in jail at the time of Halbach's murder, was portrayed as Avery's devoted girlfriend in Netflix's Making A Murderer and repeatedly states that she believes he had nothing to do with it. But now, she has said the truth needs to come out about 'what a monster he is'. Stachowski also says that despite being sentenced to life in prison without parole, Avery has continued to threaten her through letters. She gave TMZ a letter, from August last year, in which Avery appears to threaten to report her to the police for drink-driving unless she pays him. And in an interview with Nancy Grace last week, she claimed Avery had repeatedly physically abused her and insisted that she was never in love with him. I ate two boxes of rat poison just so I could go to the hospital and get away from him and ask them to get the police to help me, she told HLNs Natisha Lance. Lance reported that multiple police reports corroborate the claim that there was a long history of abuse. Stachowski also said she was not aware if the documentarys filmmakers knew what her relationship with Avery was like. But she said Avery always directed her to behave in a way that made him look good when the cameras were rolling. Her problems with alcohol abuse and repeated arrests are seen on the documentary until her relationship with Avery ends. Because of this incident, Stachowski (pictured in Making A Murderer) she believes Avery's nephew Brendan Dassey's account of Halbach's rape and murder Stachowski, who was in prison at the time of Halbach's murder, claims that she was never in love with Avery Last year, when Making A Murderers creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos asked her for one last interview, she said she declined and even asked to not be featured in the 10-part series at all. After the series phenomenal success which sparked a number of petitions demanding Averys release - she said she realized she needed to speak out because it is full of a bunch of lies. After his relationship with Stachowski ended, Avery started a relationship with Sandra Greenman while behind bars. The 73-year-old first contacted him by sending him a letter after watching his 2007 murder trial. She said she had been convinced of his innocence said she would rush home from her job as a phlebotomist testing blood at a local hospital to watch the six-week televised trial with her husband, Wallace. She first went to meet him at her husbands suggestion, who she says was also convinced of Averys innocence. Wallace Greenman passed away in April 2008 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 88. A year later, Avery asked Sandy to marry him after they realized their feelings had developed beyond a friendship. Stachowski says she was physically abused by Avery. Pictured, Stachowski's last known residence, outside Appleton, Wisconsin Avery (pictured in his 1985 mugshot) initially served 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit But Greenman recently revealed to Daily Mail Online that she had broken off their engagement because Avery refused to adopt her Christian faith - but she is continuing with her fight to prove his innocence. Making A Murderer has captivated viewers around the world since it began streaming on Netflix on December 18 last year. It details the prosecution of Avery after Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer, is murdered in 2005. Her last known whereabouts was at the Avery familys auto salvage yard in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, where she had gone to photograph a minivan for Auto Trader magazine. Avery had initially served 18 years in prison for a rape he did not commit. He was exonerated of the 1985 conviction in September 2003 after DNA evidence proved he was innocent. Shortly before he was arrested for Halbachs murder, he had filed a $36million federal lawsuit against the county, its former sheriff and district attorney for the wrongful conviction. The case was settled for $400,000 after Avery was charged with first-degree intentional homicide for the murder of Halbach. Sandy Greenman and Steve Avery in a picture she keeps at her home of the two in her back yard. In fact, the two have never met outside of prison but she had the image created to show them as they would be Greenman says she believes in Avery's innocence and hopes that she will see him achieve his freedom Averys defense attorneys Dean Strang and Jerry Buting argued that Manitow County officers, who were in the middle of being deposed in the lawsuit, were also involved in the gathering of evidence in the Halbach case and may have planted evidence to frame him. But Averys nephew Brendan Dassey, who was 16 at the time, then confessed to sexually assaulting Halbach and cutting her throat on his uncles orders - but later said the confession had been coerced by investigators. Avery, 53, and Dassey, now 26, were both convicted in March 2007 and remain in prison. Avery was sentenced to life in prison without parole but Dassey, who is also serving a life sentence, has a chance for early release in 2048. The documentary on Avery questioned the handling of his case and the motivation of Manitowoc County law enforcement officials. Avery (left, in December 2015) and his nephew, Brendan Dassey (seen right in 2007) remain in prison It suggests authorities planted evidence against the men, a claim that has been rejected by Robert Hermann, the current sheriff of Manitowoc County. Both men continue to protest their innocence but despite the Netflix series casting doubt on their convictions, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has ruled out any chance of a pardon. Meanwhile, authorities involved in the case insist the series is biased and omits crucial facts that led to Avery and Dassey being found guilty of Halbachs murder in 2007. Ken Kratz, the former Calumet County district attorney who prosecuted Avery, is one of the series critics, saying Netflix should not have billed the series as a documentary. He said evidence that was excluded from the series included that Avery had called Halbachs workplace to specifically ask for her the day she disappeared, that he had called her three times that day and that he once greeted her wearing only a trial. The brother of Parramatta shooter Farhad Jabar is being monitored by Australian security agencies after he and his family travelled back to Iraq. Farshad Jabar, 22, left Australia just days after he buried his brother, 15, in the Islamic section at Rookwood Cemetery, in Sydney's west. Mr Jabar was interviewed by police after Farhad shot dead accountant Curtis Cheng outside police headquarters in Parramatta in October last year, but had been on the radar of federal and state agencies before the shooting took place, The Daily Telegraph reported. Scroll down for video The brother of Farhad Jabar, 15, who shot dead Curtis Cheng outside police headquarters in Sydney, is reportedly being monitored by intelligence agencies 'He [Farshad] was on the periphery of some individuals that were being monitored but not considered a real threat,' a source within an intelligence agency told the newspaper. Mr Jabar was not charged by police but spoke to them on a number of occasions about his alleged connections with extremists and Farhad's communications with the group. It was during these interviews he told police he would be taking his wife and daughter back to Iraq to escape the media furore over the shooting. Daily Mail Australia has contacted NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police for comment on the matter. Curtis Cheng (left) was shot and killed outside Parramatta Police on October 2 last year Last week three men - including Raban Alou (pictured) - arrested in connection to the murder of Mr Cheng were charged with being members of a terrorist group This revelation comes just a week after three men arrested in connection to the murder of Mr Cheng were charged with being members of a terrorist group. Last Wednesday police arrested the men - Raban Alou, Mustafa Dirani, and Talal Alameddine - who are being held at Goulburn jail, and they could face 10 years in jail if found guilty. Alou, 18, from Guildford has been charged with directing a criminal group and being a member of a terrorist organisation. He is already facing a charge of aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring the commission of a terrorist act. Alameddine, 23, from Merrylands and Dirani, 22, from Marsfield were also charged on Wednesday with being members of a terrorist organisation. Talal Alameddine, 23, was also arrested and charged by NSW Police on Wednesday The third man charged with being a member of a terrorist group is 22-year-old Mustafa Dirani Both men are already facing charges of knowingly participating in a criminal group as well as firearm offences in connection with Mr Cheng's murder. Alameddine is charged with supplying a pistol, while Dirani is charged with participating in the supply of a pistol. Mr Cheng, 58, was gunned down outside Parramatta Police Station on October 2 by 15-year-old schoolboy Farhad Jabar, who was later fatally shot by police. Dirani is scheduled to face Parramatta Local Court on Thursday, while Alou will appear in Central Local Court on February 3. Alameddine will appear at Parramatta Local Court on February 4. Alou, 18, is already facing a charge of aiding, abetting, counselling and procuring the commission of a terrorist act A doctor accused of causing the death of a young teacher shortly after she had given birth almost killed another new mother months earlier, a court heard. Dr Nadeem Azeez, 53, allegedly described the 'critical incident' in which the unnamed woman had to be urgently resuscitated to save her life as a 'good learning experience'. But despite the anaesthetists' 'basic' errors in the case, he was allowed to continue working and seven months later Frances Cappuccini, 30, would die in strikingly similar circumstances. Dr Nadeem Azeez, 53 (left), who is accused of causing the death of young teacher Frances Cappuccini (pictured right) shortly after she had given birth almost killed another new mother months earlier, a court heard A court heard today how references to the previous incident had been mysteriously deleted from the serious incident review (SIR) into Mrs Cappuccini's death. Dr Azeez, who received his basic medical qualifications in Pakistan and has since fled the country, allegedly failed along with consultant Dr Errol Cornish to ensure Mrs Cappuccini was breathing properly after emergency surgery. The mother-of-two from West Malling, Kent, affectionately known as Mrs Coffee by her pupils, died from a cardiac arrest following the birth by Caesarean of her son in October 2012. Dr Cornish, 68, who is originally from South Africa, is standing trial accused of gross negligence manslaughter. Dr Azeez would have faced the same charge had he not fled the country. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust, which employed the pair, is standing trial accused of corporate manslaughter. It is the first time an NHS trust has been charged with the offence since its introduction in 2008. The trust allegedly failed to properly check the qualifications held by both doctors who the prosecution claim did not meet requirements for their roles. Today, Inner London Crown Court heard how another new mother almost died at the same hospital after being cared for by Dr Azeez in March 2012. 'Unexpected death': Frances Cappuccini, 30, known affectionately as Mrs Coffee, died hours after giving birth Mrs Cappuccini left behind her husband Tom (pictured) and their two sons Giacomo, two, and Luca, five John Price, prosecuting, described how, like Mrs Cappuccini, the new mother had to undergo a surgical procedure to remove residual placenta. Dr Azeez was the anaesthetist. Less than an hour later, the woman's blood pressure fell and she had to be resuscitated. Following the 'critical incident', senior anaesthetist Dr Cheron Bailey was asked to investigate the case. The court heard how the investigation found Dr Azeez had failed to ensure adequate fluid resuscitation after the operation. Dr Errol Cornish, 68, who is originally from South Africa (pictured arriving at an earlier court hearing), is standing trial over gross negligence manslaughter He had also failed to give the patient antibiotics during the surgery and did not keep proper notes prior to the procedure. Dr Bailey said 'poor fluid resuscitation' was probably the cause of the incident, in which the patient could have died. She added: 'Dr Azeez noted that it was a very busy day on the labour ward and that it was a very useful reflection for him and a 'good learning experience'.' When asked if the 'drop in blood pressure might have been caused by the failure to fluid resuscitate', Dr Bailey replied: 'Yes'. She confirmed that the failings were in 'straightforward and basic' anaesthetic care. Dr Bailey investigated Dr Azeez after Mrs Cappuccini's death, the court was told. In her report she said: 'Dr Azeez needs supervised practise and further review (previous documented poor fluid resuscitation leading to critical incident.)' But the jury heard how that report was edited to remove the reference to the previous incident before being sent to hospital bosses and the coroner. The Trust's risk manager Karen Carter-Woods told the court she could not explain why it had been removed. Dr Cornish, of Holmbury Park in Bromley, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has pleaded not guilty to a charge of corporate manslaughter. The trial continues. The Frances Cording-Cappuccini Prize has been set up to fund research into reducing childbirth-related mortality. For Sadhus, the holy men, the festival is particularly important and may help them to escape effects of karma travel to the site to pray and bathe in the river during the auspicious dates to cleanse their sins Advertisement Out of the thousands of Hindus gathered at the banks of northern India's Triveni Sangam, just outside of the city of Allahabad, one man stood out. The Sadhu, or holy man, swung his ten-foot-long dreads through the air like heavy chains as he stood knee-deep in the cold river water wearing nothing but a pair of saffron briefs. His dramatic display is part of the holy dip of Magh Mela, a lengthy festival with more than 1,000 years of history that celebrates the beginning of the universe and the holy site. Extreme bathing: A Sadhu (pictured), or holy man, swings his long dreads as he bathes in the river at Triveni Sangam in northern India Swoosh! The man's dramatic stance is part of his holy dip for Magh Mela, an annual festival that celebrates the beginning of the universe Religion: Thousands of Hindus will have gathered at the site for the festival with the holy men (pictured above) taking pride of place The festival takes place each year in the month of Magh, as dictated by the Hindu astrological calendar. This year, the festival began on January 15 and will continue until March 7. The length of the festival fluctuates between 40 to 50 days, centred around six different auspicious dates as divined by the priests according to the cycle of the moon. On those auspicious dates, the Hindu devotees will bathe in the river in droves at sun rise to cleanse themselves of their sins. For some Hindus, it's not only a way to get rid of sin but it will also help them escape karma and be reunited with their supreme soul. The location is important. Triveni Sangam is the confluence point of three holy rivers - the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical, and invisible, river of Saraswati. Cleanse: Hindus believe that bathing at sun rise in the holy river during the festival will help them cleanse their sins and escape karma Annual gathering: The festival takes place each year in the month of Magh, as dictated by the Hindu astrological calendar. This year, the festival began on January 15 and will continue until March 7 Lengthy celebration: The length of the festival fluctuates between 40 to 50 days, centred around six different auspicious dates as divined by the priests according to the cycle of the moon Decoration: As well as prayers and bathing, the holy men will cover themselves in ash as well as decorative paint during the festival According to legends, Saraswati flows under ground and emerges to join the other two rivers at Triveni Sangam. Triveni Sangam is also said to be one of the places where nectar of the gods dripped from a pitcher on to the earth as the demons fought the gods, making it a very holy site. The ashes of several national leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, were scattered at this point. Pilgrims who come for the festival would camp along its banks each night, with some staying for the full duration. For the Sadhus, who already live a life of relative poverty and celibacy, the festival is of particular importance. During this time, they will take only one meal each day and spend much of their time praying. Some will bathe daily and paint their body with ash. Every 12 years, Magh Mela at Allahabad is celebrated as an even bigger festival - Kumbh Mela. And once every 144 years, there is a Maha Kumbh Mela. The bigger festival attracts millions of bathers as they are considered more important dates. In 2013, the last Maha Kumbh Mela, an estimated 100 million Hindus attended the festival. Holy: Triveni Sangam is also said to be one of the places where nectar of the gods dripped from a pitcher on to the earth as the demons fought the gods, making it a very holy site A festival of equals: Both men and women attend the festival. Pilgrims who come for the festival would camp along its banks each night, with some staying for the full duration Trevithick spent 40 days in Evin Prison after arriving in Tehran in September for a four-month language program Matthew Trevithick, 30, arrived in Boston Sunday evening after being released independently from main prisoner swap 'I want people to know that physically I'm feeling good,' said Rezaian Rezaian met with Washington Post editors on Monday for the first time since his release after nearly 18 months in prison Hekmati passed on a message through a congressman thanking Obama for 'making my freedom and reunion with my family possible' Three of the five released US citizens reached Germany on Sunday Former US Marine Amir Hekmati was reunited with his family in Germany on Monday, just days after he was freed from an Iranian penitentiary as part of a prisoner exchange. Hekmati, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived late Sunday at the US military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to be evaluated and treated after their captivity. Hekmatis sister, Sarah, told reporters she was looking forward to seeing her brother again after a four-and-a-half-year absence when she landed in Frankfurt, Germany, with her husband before the couple headed to the hospital. Rep. Dan Kildee, of Michigan, posted photos of his meeting with Hekmati on Twitter, as well as a message from Hekmati thanking President Barack Obama for making my freedom and reunion with my family possible. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Reunited: In a Monday photo provided by the Hekmati family, the family and US Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, Michigan, meet with former Iran prisoner Amir Hekmati, second from right, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. From the left: brother-in-law Dr. Ramy Kurdi, sister Sarah Hekmati, Kildee, Amir Hekmati and sister Leila Hekmati Words of gratitude: Rep. Kildee posted photos of his meeting with Hekmati on Twitter, as well as a message from Hekmati thanking President Obama for making my freedom and reunion with my family possible Beaming: In this photo provided by The Washington Post, from left, Jason Rezaian, his wife Yeganeh Salehi, his mother Mary Rezaian, and brother Ali Rezaian pose for a photo at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Monday Hekmati, who was imprisoned in Iran in August 2011 and was originally sentenced to death for espionage, was allowed to leave Tehran after the US government has agreed to release seven Iranian prisoners. The prisoner swap also involved Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who was freed Saturday after almost 18 months of incarceration in the notorious Evin Prison, and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini. Rezaian met with Washington Post editors on Monday for the first time since his release, the Post reported. I want people to know that physically I'm feeling good, said Rezaian, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans provided to him on board the plane that flew the released prisoners to freedom. I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time. Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said Rezaian looked good during their two-hour meeting in a conference room at the Landstuhl medical center near the Ramstein Air Base, according to the Post. A fourth American prisoner, 30-year-old Matthew Trevithick, also left Tehran this weekend after being released independently of the high-profile prisoner swap. The Boston Globe reported that family greeted Trevithick early Sunday evening when he landed at Boston's Logan Airport aboard a commercial Turkish Airlines flight. Trevithick was freed by Iranian officials on Saturday, the same day as four other Americans, among them Reizaian, who were released as part of a separately negotiated prisoner exchange. Homecoming: Matthew Trevithick walks with his mother, Amelia Newcomb (L), as he arrives at Logan International Airport after being released by Iran following 40 days in Evin Prison Diplomacy at work: Trevithick, who was studying in Iran, was released after reported intervention by US Secretary of State John Kerry Trevithick (far right), the co-founder of a humanitarian crisis research center, had traveled to Iran in September for a four-month language program at an institute associated with Tehran University Trevithick, a native of the Boston suburb of Hingham, had traveled to Iran in September for a four-month language program at an institute associated with Tehran University. It is unknown why he was held in the notorious Evin Prison for more than a month. Trevithick, a Boston University graduate with a degree in international relations, is the co-founder of SREO, a humanitarian crisis research center. His family previously said they were profoundly grateful for his release. 'Its been difficult,' said Scott Armstrong, Trevithicks stepfather. 'Weve had a lot of support from friends and family members. We appreciate all the help the US government has done on this. Theyve been great all along.' Amelia Newcomb, Matthew's mother, said prior to her son's return to the US Sunday that she last spoke to him two weeks ago from prison. 'Hes looking forward to home and having some serious hamburgers and things like that,' she recounted. The Globe reported, citing a State Department official, that Secretary of State John Kerry was personally involved in securing Trevithick's release. Barack Obama hailed the Americans' release as a major diplomatic breakthrough. Obama said a 'smart, patient and disciplined approach to the world' has seen results that, he claims, will block Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear bomb. He spoke from the White House on Sunday, one day after the United Nations certified that Iran had curbed its nuclear program as promised. Minutes earlier, three of the five US citizens released from Iran touched down in Geneva, Switzerland. They subsequently headed on to Ramstein Air base in Germany before heading home. Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, tweeted a picture of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, one of the freed prisoners. Safe and sound: Brett McGurk, the Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to counter ISIL, tweeted this picture of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian landing safely in Geneva Following the brief stop in Switzerland, the three traveled on to the US Air Base in Ramstein, Germany. Pictured is a medical bus escorted by police leaving the base after half an hour after the plane landed President Obama is crediting his 'smart' diplomacy for recent breakthroughs in the U.S. relationship with Iran In a possible dig at his Republican critics, Obama told reporters the financial settlement is a success as it is 'much less' than the 'billions' Iran sought 'This is a good day,' Obama said in a statement from the White House. 'When Americans are freed and returned to their families, that's something we can all celebrate.' The editors of The Washington Post say Rezaian is in 'good spirits' and doing 'a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago' following his release by Iran after 18 months in the country's notorious Evin prison. Rezaian, 39, a dual US-Iranian citizen born in California, was detained in Iran on July 22, 2014. He was arrested at the same time as his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, an Iranian who at that time was a journalist for The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper. She was released on bail a few months later. The Post said he was subjected to physical mistreatment and psychological abuse before finally being convicted of espionage in what it called a sham trial. The Post's editors said the reporter had become a hostage to the nuclear talks, being detained at the behest of hardline opponents of President Hassan Rouhani within Iran's regime. In an internal memo to Post staff, Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said they had spoken briefly by telephone with Rezaian, who was being evaluated at a U.S. military hospital in Germany. They said Rezaian expressed appreciation for the unwavering support from his colleagues while noting that his social isolation during captivity was particularly difficult. The Post also said Rezaian reported feeling better than he did several months ago and that his mind was sharp. 'He found escape in the fiction he was allowed to read, and today he was avidly reading whatever he wanted,' the Post memo said. 'Jason expressed hope that he can see us both in person tomorrow, and he looks forward to seeing everyone at The Post very soon,' the newspaper said, quoting Rezaian as saying: "I hear there's going to be a big party."' President Obama spoke at the close of an extraordinary weekend of diplomacy that saw the back-to-back release of the five Americans and the lifting of billions of dollars in international sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear accord. And America finally reached a deal to settle a longstanding claim at the Hague, releasing to Tehran $400million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3billion in interest. In a possible dig at his Republican critics, Obama told reporters the financial settlement is a success as it is 'much less' than the 'billions' Iran sought. People walk off a plane carrying three Iranian-Americans, who left Tehran under a prisoner swap, in Geneva The released prisoners will board a plane to America later on Sunday His words come amid a storm of criticism from Republicans at the end of a busy deal-making weekend with the Middle Eastern country. Aspiring presidential candidate Donald Trump slammed the financial settlement and prisoner swap. He tweeted: 'In Iran deal we get 4 prisoners. They get $150 billion, 7 most wanted and many off watch list. This will create great incentive for others!' Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said that America had essentially paid a ransom for the five U.S. citizens released this weekend by handing over seven Iranian detainees in exchange. And White House hopeful Ted Cruz applauded the release of American prisoners but said the deal 'serves as a piece of propaganda for Iran and the Obama administration'. He added: 'We've got to shake our heads at how this happened... there is a false moral equivalence in a deal like this.' Obama did not take any questions in his press conference but dismissed the condemnations by saying it has been 'a good day' in America's history with Iran. The funds finally settled in America's financial dispute with Iran were part of a trust fund once used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States but which was tied up for decades in litigation at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal. The settlement announcement was made after Tehran released five American detainees in a prisoner swap as a nuclear deal was implemented. Underscoring the strain that continues to exist between the US and Iran, the Obama administration also announced new penalties Sunday on 11 individuals and entities involved in Tehran's ballistic missile program. 'We will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously,' Obama said. 'We are going to remain vigilant about it.' For Obama, the diplomatic breakthroughs are a validation of his early promises to deal directly with nations such as Iran. The U.S. and Iran broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 hostage-taking of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to journalists about his negotiations with Iran upon his arrival from Vienna at Joint Base Andrews in Washington on Sunday 'America can do and has done big things when we work together,' Obama said. 'We can lead this world and make it safer and more secure.' The nuclear talks have brought a sense of normalcy to relations with the U.S. and Iran, with top officials from each country in somewhat regular communication. But Obama emphasized that the U.S. continues to have deep concerns about Iran's destabilizing actions in the Middle East and its threats to Israel. Obama spoke shortly after the Americans began their journey home. A charter plane left Tehran for Switzerland with the Americans all four who had been detained, according to Iran state television, or only three, the U.S. said as part of a prisoner swap. Within hours of their release, the U.S. imposed sanctions against those involved in Iran's ballistic missile program as a result of Tehran's firing of a medium-range ballistic missile. U.N. experts said in a report in December that the missile test in October violated sanctions banning Iran from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons. A U.S. Treasury official said Iran's ballistic missile program poses 'a significant threat to regional and global security.' Having begun life as a three-person project, it had millions of users and was worth more than 150 million at its peak. And today as Friends Reunited - the social networking site that aimed to reunite old school friends announced its closure - MailOnline can reveal those people who really cashed-in on its wealth. The company was sold to ITV for a staggering 175 million in 2005 but its downfall came when it failed to keep up with the rapidly changing online world. Steve Pankhurst, who created the site with his wife Julie and friend Jason Porter after being inspired by the success of US website classmates.com, announced it was time to 'put Friends Reunited to bed'. Michael Murphy with his wife Dolores at Rushmore Hill House, Knockholt, Kent, which they put on the market for 4.5million in 2014. he was appointed as chief executive of Friends Reunited in 2003 Rushmore Hill House outside Sevenoaks is on sale for 4.5million and the estate comes with a two-bedroom cottage and a gymnasium The couple - who from a bedroom of the family's semi-detached home in north London - nurtured the idea and watched it grow into one of the biggest websites in the country with one in five of the population forking out 5 to become a member. In 2003 Michael Murphy MBE, was appointed as chief executive officer and developed the full potential of the site. Mr Murphys turnaround of Friends Reunited was dramatic. The website, so beloved by sentimentalists in search of their teenage sweethearts, took off in a big way following its launch in 2000. However, it then stalled and was put up for sale by Mr and Mrs Pankhurst, for 18 million in 2002. In an interview with MailOnline in 2014, Murphy said: I could see it was a fantastic brand, for which users felt immense loyalty. But I also believed only a fraction of the brands potential had been monetised. He was right. In just over two years from taking over, he transformed the company, launching four new services and doubling the number of employees. The swimming pool and sauna is in addition to a master bedroom suite and four further double bedrooms Turnover increased from 7 million to 12 million. Then, as suddenly as he arrived, he was gone, selling the company to ITV. Mr Murphy brought that same eye for an improvement project to bear on his home country estate in Knockholt, just outside Sevenoaks, in Kent. He spent 5.5 million on Rushmore Hill House, which came with a farm, several other buildings and 120 acres of land. The home, which was put up for sale in 2014, boasted a swimming pool and sauna which was used by his wife Dolores to throw spa days for her friends. HISTORY OF FRIENDS REUNITED 1999 - Julie and Steve Pankhurst team up with Jason Porter after being inspired by attempts to find old classmates from school. 2000 - The Friends Reunited site is officially launched 2003 - Michael Murphy appointed as Chief Executive Officer 2005 - The site boasts more than 15 million users and in December is sold to ITV for 175 million ($250 million). 2009 - ITV sells the site to DC Thompson for 25 million ($31 million). 2014 - Steve Pankhurst and Jason Porter are asked to come back on board to help revitalise the site. 2016 - Mr Pankhurst announces Friends Reunited is to be 'put to bed'. Advertisement Upstairs there was a stunning white master bedroom suite and four further double bedrooms. Altogether, Mr Murphy has spent over 500,000 re-decorating and renovating the house before it was put on the market for 4,495,000. According to his LinkedIn page, Mr Murphy now heads up SPV in London - a Venture Capital fund that invests in early stage technology businesses using the London Business School alumni network. Today - writing in his blog Mr Pankhurst announced the company's closure. He said: 'I knew it was near impossible to reboot something that was old and in decline. 'I had hoped that after putting it back to near its original form, that it would plateau off, which it did, and be self sufficient in terms of covering its cost. 'But over the year, it became clear that most of the actual users coming to the site were using it purely as a message board. 'And I also realised, that of the 10m+ users registered, a lot had done so over a decade ago and hence their contact details were out of date. 'So even if you were coming to the site to find someone and wanted to contact them, how frustrating it must be to see them listed there and try to contact and then get no response.' He added that 'most importantly' the site was not covering its costs and so would not continue indefinitely. The social networking site Friends Reunited (pictured) is to close after it saw its users dwindle. The site, which was launched in 2000, has struggled to keep up with other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter He said: 'Therefore, whilst it's sad, I believe it's time to move on and put Friends Reunited to bed. And I feel like I am the right person to do it.' Mr Pankhurst, who sold Friends Reunited to ITV in 2005 for 175 million ($250 million) had agreed to take on an attempt to revitalise the flagging site from its current owners DC Thompson. DC Thompson bought it from ITV for 25 million ($31 million) in 2009. Mr Pankhurst and Mr Porter agreed to take over running Friends Reunited two years ago after being approached by DC Thompson. The pair said the code was a 'bit of a mess' when they got it back. In an interview with the Telegraph in 2005 Mr Pankhurst admitted he had 'no idea' what he was going to do with the money. Friends Reunited was set up in 2000 by Jason Porter (left), Steve Pankhurst (right) and Julie Pankhurst (middle). Mr Pankhurst said he was now looking to start a new project called Liife Friends Reunited (old logo pictured) once attracted more than 23 million users and was a popular way for people to get in touch with old friends and class mates. It also attracted its share of controversy as people rekindled old relationships and had affairs with former class mates Today he said that he now hoped to concentrate on a new project called Liife a website for recording pictures and memories without sharing them with the rest of the world. Instead users will be able to share them with a select group of people. He said: 'One of my biggest gripes with Facebook are the times people tag or share photos of you and everyone sees them. And I too don't want to see everyone else's group party shots. 'Liife will be a great way to store the life of a child through pictures and memories. I also wnt to go back and plot the life of my late father through talking to my mum. An outspoken ex-radio host and her cancer-ridden daughter have been strangled to death in two separate homes less than a mile away from each other. Velia Taneff, 86, who worked for WLTH, and her 63-year-old daughter, Lana Taneff, were found dead inside the neighboring properties in Gary, Indiana, on Sunday night. Police have serial criminal James A. Lohnes, 44, in custody after he was found driving a 2003 Cadillac in Ohio that had been stolen from the driveway. Scroll down for video Former WLTH radio host Velia Taneff, 86 and her 63-year-old daughter, Lana Taneff, were found strangled to death inside neighboring properties in Gary, Indiana, on Sunday night He is accused of possessing the vehicle but has not been charged in their deaths. One of Velia's tenants, Gabriel Henderson, was at home when the pair were killed. He told the Chicago Tribune she would call him every day to ask about what work needed to be done on the property. He was worried when he hadn't heard from her that day. Then he noticed the police cars show up outside. Velia, a lifelong Democrat and political activist, was described by her colleagues as a 'media force'. She was found dead in the apartment months after she had evicted the tenants. Theodore McClendon told the Tribune: 'She was hardcore and uncompromising, and had strong convictions on how the country was run. 'And I can't tell you how many times I would tell her that maybe she should think about selling the properties and buying a condo, something with a secured area. But we'd go back and forth because she would say, 'I wouldn't get what this place is worth.' She was feisty, independent and outspoken, but she brought such diversity. It was good mix,' Suggs said. 'And Lana, through all her suffering, remained the sweetest person and never once complained about anything.' Lana was legally blind had had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Vena was still active in the community, but scaled back in 2013 so she could look after her ailing daughter. She was a precinct committeewoman for Griffith-Calumet Township for more than 50 years. Velia had also recently been publishing video blogs. In one of the clips, she shared news of her daughter's health win fans. Velia, a lifelong Democrat and political activist (pictured during an interview with CBS 2 in 2014), was described by her colleagues as a 'media force By Dan Newling Last updated at 20:54 05 April 2007 This is Jethro Field, the six-year-old found stabbed to death in his father's home. The little boy was on a trip to the fair with three other youngsters when the picture was taken by family friend Isabel Turner, 39. Scroll down for more... "Jethro was such a lovely, smiley little boy," she said yesterday. "I simply can't understand why anyone would want to hurt him." The youngster died after his throat was cut while he was visiting his father Dafydd Field, 52, at his 350,000 semi in the heart of Surrey's stockbroker belt. Some time after the killing on Wednesday morning, Mr Field drove 250 miles to a remote part of Wales from where he phoned the police. Officers scrambled a helicopter to trace Mr Field, who eventually surrendered at a police station in the town of Tywyn in Gwynedd, North-West Wales. Family friends have revealed that Mr Field and Jethro's mother Stevie, a 46-year-old care assistant, had recently divorced. Jethro moved away with his mother but regularly returned to visit his father at the former family home in the village of Farncombe, near Godalming. According to friends, Mr Field - described as a "difficult man" - had experienced particular problems dealing with the break-up. Neighbours claimed, however, that Mr Field, a former civil servant who became a house-husband and part-time student, was devoted to his son. One said: "We used to call him Superdad because he was always ferrying the children around in his car. "He seemed to have a lot of time to spare to look after the children." Both Mr Field and his ex-wife had been married before. Mr Field has a 17-year-old daughter, Rhiannon, from his first marriage. Mrs Field's two children from her first marriage, her son, 19, and her daughter, 16, were comforting their mother yesterday. A family source said: "Jethro was a lovely little boy and his two step siblings were both very close to him. Stevie is absolutely devastated." In Farncombe, neighbours laid cards and floral tributes to Jethro outside his father's house. One card, from the three children pictured with Jethro at the fairground, read: "Jethro, thank you for being our best friend. We will miss you and we will never forget you. All our love." Surrey Police confirmed that a 52-year-old man was being questioned in connection with the incident. Advertisement Animal lovers from all over the world now have the chance to name a pair of four-month-old twin pandas which have been selected as the Animal Goodwill Ambassadors by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China announced the launch of the naming campaign on January 17 in the centre, which encourages people to help give names to its star cubs through a video-sharing contest, reports the People's Daily Online. The baby pandas were appointed by the UNDP in October last year as 'Pambassadors' in a bid to raise awareness of the preservation of the endangered animal. Cute: The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China has announced a launch campaign to name these twin pandas Contest: To enter, candidates are asked to upload a name for the twins - along with a video of themselves with pandas in selected zoos Adorable: These two panda cubs were selected as the Animal Goodwill Ambassadors by the United Nations Development Programme The naming contest will kick off next Sunday, and run until June 5. To enter, candidates are asked to upload a name for the twins - along with a video of themselves with pandas in selected zoos. These tiny cubs are the first ever Animal Goodwill Ambassadors. According the UNDP, the campaign includes over 20 zoos from 13 countries that will assist in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a list of 17 goals that include 'an end to poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity.' Participants are also encouraged to explain their understanding of the SDG in the video. The videos are to be uploaded to their campaign website sdgpanda.org, which operates in five languages - Chinese, Japanese, English, French and Korean. The 20 participating zoos include Zoo Atlanta in USA, Toronto Zoo in Canada and Adelaide Zoo in Australia, to name just a few. Winners will be given the chance to visit the Chengdu Research Base in China and interact with the Panda Ambassadors, or 'Pambassadors' as they are currently being named on the website. The twin cubs are both female and were born on September 16 to a 14-year-old panda named Qin He. When the contest closes and their names are chosen, a ceremony will be held and the twins will reportedly sign a contract with the UNDP with their paws. Playful: The competition to name these panda ambassadors was launched to raise awareness of the preservation of the endangered animal The cutest ambassadors: One of the panda twins almost fell off a wooden panel while playing in the Chengdu Panda Research Base Global: The 20 participating zoos in the contest include Zoo Atlanta in USA, Toronto Zoo in Canada and Adelaide Zoo in Australia Hard work: The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province was founded in 1987, with only six starving pandas Yesterday's event to announce the launch of the competition brought together more than 30 government leaders. In a UNDP China press release about the campaign, Agi Veres, Country Director of UNDP China, highlighted the important message Pandas convey: 'The Pandas are strong unofficial ambassadors for the environment, beloved globally, with the ability to bring international media attention to such issues, UNDP China has decided to designate our panda twins to become UNDP's first ever Animal Goodwill Ambassadors. 'I am confident the panda twins will be compelling advocates in focusing attention on issues related to the SDGs. I also believe they will help UNDP send a powerful message that will reach the hearts and minds of people throughout the world,' she said. Zhang Zhihe, the director of Chengdu Research Base emphasized the important relationship between the Panda Base and UNDP China and the significance of promoting the SDGs: 'The Chengdu Panda Base are honored to work together with UNDP China to engage individual's world-wide about the importance of the SDGs and find names for the UNDP Animal Goodwill Ambassadors. 'The Panda Base has been working tirelessly to support Panda conservation across China and now hopes to further support the UN in their mandate to promote sustainable development.' The Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan Province was founded in 1987, and started with only six sick and starving pandas. Since then, 214 cubs have been bred there with 143 births. The base now holds the world's largest artificially bred population of giant pandas, currently 152. HOW TO NAME A 'PAMBASSADOR' Record a video which contains you and a panda, selfies are also allowed. If there is no panda in the zoo for now, it could just contain yourself and a panda poster from the campaign. Talk to the camera. Give your name, country, panda name suggestion, and why you love pandas. Also include that you support the 17 sustainable development global goals and why. All videos must be limited 10 seconds. Post and share your video to Weibo, Facebook or any other social networking sites. Visit the official website sdgpanda.org and click 'UNDP Panda Ambassador,' copy your URL into the specified participating area. Advertisement Success: 214 cubs have been bred at the centre, with 143 births, it now holds the world's largest amount artificially bred of pandas When it comes to over-spending and maybe going slightly over-the-top with development, China is a country that doesnt hold back. An aerial video taken of the Pentagonal Mart a giant shopping centre in the Pudong District of the city of Shanghai on January 16, shows one of these instances. According to the Peoples Daily Online, the massive pentagon-shaped complex was constructed in 2009, costing 150 million to develop, but it has been vacant ever since. Colossal: This huge pentagon shaped shopping centre in Shanghai was abandoned soon after it was complete The Pentagon: The shopping centre in Shanghai resembles the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense The building resembles the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. Shanghai's 'Pentagon' covers an area of around 5.3 million square feet, almost as big as the Pentagon in the US which stretches over 6 million square feet, or the size of around 70 football pitches. The shopping complex has reportedly been left behind because of its location and its confusing inner structures. Haunting: Inside the complex it is almost completely deserted, it was reportedly left because of it location Empty: Considering its size of 5.3 million square feet, only a few shops remain open with little groceries Deserted: Only a few cars can be seen in the car park of this huge abandoned shopping centre in Shanghai Though it is mostly empty, there is a tiny area inside the colossal building that is in use, the pictures show a grocery store inside, but not much else. Barely any people are seen around the complex, built close to the new Shanghai Disneyland which is planned to open June 16, 2016. Aerial footage taken from a drone, shows the scale of the building that includes huge empty shops, dozens of deserted buildings and apartment blocks. It also appears to have an open area in the centre, which is not in operation. Nothing is as pure as the driven snow, or so the adage goes. But it turns out that even the freshest of snowfalls may be harbouring dangerous pollutants. Scientists in Canada have found that the white stuff can act as a sponge for pollutants from vehicle exhausts. Researchers in Canada found snow absorbs the pollutants from exhaust fumes and suggest this has the potential to impact on human health. Studies have shown that the tiny airborne particles found in exhaust fumes can aggravating asthma and increase the risk of cancer (stock image of traffic in snow pictured) They explain that the snow is absorbing the pollutants and that this has the potential to impact on human health. Studies have suggested that tiny particles found in exhaust fumes have an impact not only on the environment but on health, aggravating respiratory conditions such as asthma and increasing incidence of cancer. Figures from the European Environment Agency show that 90 per cent of European living in cities are exposed to harmful levels of damaging pollutants in the air. And the World Health Organization has shown that one in eight deaths around the world in 2012 were linked to air pollution. Using a snow chamber, researchers at McGill University demonstrated the impact of snow on these airborne pollutants using an artificial snow chamber, into which they added diluted exhaust fumes. But when the snow melts, it may be increasing people's exposure to harmful pollutants Researchers at McGill University demonstrated the impact of snow on these airborne pollutants using an artificial snow chamber, into which they added diluted exhaust fumes. POLLUTION IS SNOW JOKE Researchers in Canada demonstrated the impact of snow on these airborne pollutants using an artificial snow chamber, into which they added diluted exhaust fumes. In just one hour, they found that the level of pollutants in the snow more than doubled. It is unclear whether the snow acts as a temporary sink, or if it lasts longer. When the snow melts, it may be boosting people's exposure to harmful pollutants. Advertisement They note that the presence of the snow changed the distribution of the aerosols of organic carbon, such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and other particulates produced when petrol and diesel are burned. In just one hour, they found that the level of pollutants in the snow more than doubled. It is unclear whether the snow acts as a temporary sink, or if it lasts longer. But when the snow melts, it may be boosting people's exposure to harmful pollutants. Professor Ariya told MailOnline: 'In the present study, we aimed to evaluate whether the existence of snow and cold temperature alters the concentration and distribution of particulate and semi-volatile organic matter, upon exposure to exhaust. 'This is particularly important for urban centres that receive snow and ice every year.' Speaking to Chemistry World, Thorsten Bartels-Rausch, a chemist at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, explained: 'This research shows what should be done to a broader audience than just the cryosphere community. The findings could have a particularly significance when snow falls in industrial areas with high levels of air pollution, such as Beijing or London. Pictured is Beijing's poor quality air 'Long-term projects would show how exhaust gases and aerosols are taken up, to see how this changes with temperature or with the age and type of snow.' The findings could have a particularly significance when snow falls in industrial areas with high levels of air pollution, such as Beijing or London. UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT Professor Parisa Ariya, who led the study, told MailOnline: 'We demonstrated that during the experimental time, snowpack does remove certain air pollutants emitted with car exhaust. 'Other studies, including studies by our group, previously showed that snowpack accumulates air pollutants over a longer period of them, and they are immobilized when the snow melts contaminating soil and entering groundwater.' She added: 'As the snowpack warms up and melts, the emission of certain pollutants into the atmosphere can occur...emission of pollutants from the snowpack into the atmosphere is therefore a phenomenon of potentially high importance in the environmental and public health context, and needs to be investigated.' Advertisement At the end of 2015 China issued a number of smog alerts as air quality plummeted. At its worst, breathing the air in Beijing for just one day is the equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes, according to one report. The European Commission has launched legal action against the UK for its poor air quality. Britain has failed to meet limits set by the European Union for air quality, and London is unlikely to meet the standards until 2025. In London's West End, the air quality became so bad at times in 2014 that it was estimated to be the most polluted street in the world. The World Health Organization has issued a warning about plummeting air quality levels. Ahead of a report on air pollution to be released next month, Dr Maria Neira, head of public health at the WHO, said: 'We have a public health emergency in many countries from pollution. Its dramatic, one of the biggest problems we are facing globally, with horrible future costs to society.' According to the Guardian, Dr Neira warned: 'Air pollution leads to chronic diseases which require hospital space. Before, we knew that pollution was responsible for diseases like pneumonia and asthma. 'Now we know that it leads to bloodstream, heart and cardiovascular diseases, too even dementia. We are storing up problems. These are chronic diseases that require hospital beds. 'The cost will be enormous.' At risk: Nature experts are warning that unless help arrives soon the last colonies of seahorses in Britain will starve and die as their food vanishes (file image) Britain's seahorses could die out as their habitat is being destroyed by pollution and trawling, experts warn. Scientists from Cardiff and Swansea universities conducted a study of seagrass, a main food source for the two types of seahorse living in UK waters the spiny and the short snouted seahorses. They found seagrass meadows to be in a 'perilous state', with only two of the 11 sites considered healthy. Nature experts are warning that unless help arrives soon the last colonies will starve and die as their food vanishes. The fragile plants which the five-inch-long seahorses need to survive are being wiped out by pollution and human disturbances such as speedboats and trawling. Surveys of eleven sites in England, Wales and Ireland found high nitrogen levels in water were affecting the health of seagrass meadows at all but two areas. In the 11 areas studied, even where conditions were good, seagrass faced damage from mooring or anchoring boats, said researchers Benjamin Jones and Richard Unsworth of Cardiff and Swansea universities. Dr Unsworth said seagrasses were like the 'canaries of the sea' in that their condition can be used as an indicator of the health of coastal waters. 'All the sites in our study were found to be at risk from either pollution, boating, or both, even those in relatively remote locations,' he said. 'We've historically lost at least 50 per cent of these habitats in the British Isles, losing more should not be an option.' The worst performing sites were three areas monitored in Wales and one site in England, according to the research published in the journal, Royal Society Open Science. Dr Lyndsey Dodds, head of marine policy at WWF-UK, said seagrass is one of our most valuable ecosystems, helping to sustain the marine food chain. Help needed: The fragile seagrasses which the five-inch-long seahorses need to survive are being wiped out by pollution and human disturbances such as speedboats and trawling (file image) 'It's vital that the status of our seagrass improves to deliver benefits for people and nature,' she said. 'WWF is calling on the UK Government to ensure seagrass is properly protected in effective Marine Protected Areas, where disturbance and pollution are minimised.' Families can help the campaign to save the seahorses and their vital food from the comfort of the sofa with a new conservation initiative. The citizen-based science project, the Community Seagrass Initiative (CSI), has been set up so volunteers can help analyse thousands of underwater photographs of seagrass via their computer. The idea of the tool 'Zooniverse' is to allow people to get involved with CSI's research, without getting their feet wet. Trying to get the attention of youngsters listening to loud music or playing computer games with their headphones on is a source of endless frustration for parents. But a technological development could soon bring an end to having to resort to shouting for your offsprings attention. The breakthrough will allow mums and dads to interrupt the virtual world of youngsters playing games on their tablets or listening to a thumping beat. Saying a trigger word, like a name, will automatically lower the volume so the parents voice can be heard without the need to scream. Parents will no longer face the frustration of trying to get the attention of youngsters listening to loud music with their headphones on (stock picture) The system will end the routine shouting matches that have been triggered by the rise of tech, tablets and headphones. It will help parents frustrated at not being able to talk to a youngster sitting in the back of a car or even in the same room. The same technology will also allow the headphones worn by pedestrians and cyclists to be silenced by other trigger sounds. A car horn, the bell on a cycle or a barking dog could perform the same silencing function, so improving safety. Pedestrians wearing headphones and their eyes focussed on a smartphone are a danger to other people in the street, particularly when stepping into the road. Similarly, cyclists can be in danger if they cannot hear what is going on around them. Ireland has introduced a series of new fixed penalty offences including riding a pedal cycle without reasonable consideration. Ministers there have suggested that cyclists who puts themselves or other road users at risk by wearing headphones might be fined. Similar measures have been introduced in California, where cyclists are only allowed to wear a headphone in one ear. The headphones are made by Harman, one of the biggest producers of music speakers in the world. It has modified its existing noise-cancelling headphones by fitting them with tiny microphones. These can be programmed to detect trigger noises which are recorded onto a smartphone by the user and then uploaded to the headphones using a dedicated app. When the trigger noise is heard the headphones will automatically turn down the music volume. A prototype of the technology was demonstrated at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on a modified version of the companys AKG N60 headphones. These normally cost around 200 before the new technology is added, which will no doubt push up the price further when they go on the market in the next 12 months. Smartphone manufacturers are taking steps to make their products less damaging to sleep after a damning study showed the devices can stop people dropping off. As it gets darker in the evening, the body starts to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. The research, published in Frontiers in Public Health, revealed wavelengths of light at the blue-green end of the spectrum, such as that emitted by mobile phones, can stop melatonin being produced which makes it harder for users to go to sleep. Dropping off: Smartphone manufacturers are taking steps to make their products less damaging to sleep after a damning study showed the devices can stop people dropping off (file image) Other studies have shown that being exposed to this light at night is making people take longer to fall asleep, have less deep sleep and be more tired the next morning. Since the study was published in October last year, Apple has announced its new iOS update will include a Night Shift mode that may even help you get a good nights sleep. Shut eye: Light emitted by mobile phones, can stop melatonin being produced which makes it harder for users to go to sleep (file image) It will use the time and where the user is in the world to alter the colour of the display to remove blue light in the evenings. Meanwhile Amazon is introducing its Blue Shade to its Fire tablet range after admitting that devices could affect customers sleep. Some apps, such as f.lux are already available on Android. The app allows devices to be switched to a sleep-safe mode which makes the screen take on a red-orange hue. Professor Paul Gringras, who was part of the research, has welcomed the response. He said: Id like to think were part of the tipping point. This will have a small impact, but on an unbelievably huge number of people, by baking it into the devices it will become part of the way they are used. Its an incredibly welcome move, its fantastic, although its late it is to be applauded and it will become a natural way for people to use tablets. Prof Gringras, who works at the Evelina Childrens Hospital, in London, has previously criticised manufacturers for ignoring the problem. He told the BBC news website: I think the industry has deliberately avoided passing any comment or even acknowledging the evidence and research until very recently. They are the characters we love to hate and are often more memorable than the heroes they are pitted against, but villains form films and books may also play an important social role. A new study has examined the flawed characteristics of 'baddies' such as Darth Vader from Star Wars and the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz in light of Darwin's theory of evolution. It concludes their 'selfish, exploitative, and sadistic' behaviour can help to set readers and viewers' moral compasses. A new study has examined the flawed characteristics of 'baddies' (such as Darth Vader, illustrated) in light of Darwin's theory of evolution, to conclude the 'selfish, exploitative, and sadistic' villains help set readers and viewers' moral compasses By recognising 'evil' characteristics in the fictional villains, we are more able to spot the same traits in real life, which can rip apart communities and ultimately, threaten the survival of a group. Jens Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, a graduate student from the University of Aarhus, Denmark, examined a variety of 'super-villains' including the witch in the Wizard of Oz and terrifying characters such as Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. While at first glance they might have little in common, Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen told Science Nordic: 'A common feature is that all bad guys are incredibly antisocial and try to control all resources with no regard for anyone but themselves.' Outlining his theory in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, he said that villains are 'selfish, exploitative, and sadistic. They contravene the prosocial ethos of society.' Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen explained these fictional villain help to boost the strength of cooperation in groups and so can be examined in the light of Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin's theory holds that humans are more successful when organised into groups It has long been drummed into societies that poor cooperation is bad for a group and that individuals should put a community's needs before their own. Speculating about the emergence of morals, Darwin wrote: 'As man advances in civilisation, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him.' Many scientists think that humans' ability to form increasingly large groups has led to our success and dominance on Earth. Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen wrote that individuals will always want to control people or resources at the expense of others, but our ability to recognise how we are stronger as a group, is probably why humans have arguably come further than any other species. 'If the group-cohesion is undermined by some anti-social individualists and schemers, then the group will quickly breakdown. Therefore it's important that we can recognise them [villains]' he said. Kjeldgaard-Christiansen argued that evil characters help us suppress villainous desires and spot them in others who may threaten a group's existence. To fulfill this role, he says fictional villains tend not act cooperatively or altruistically towards heroes and their groups. Instead, they should be 'hyper-individualistic bullies'. By recognising 'evil' characteristics in the fictional villains, such as Anton Chigurh from 'No Country for Old Men' (pictured) we are more able to spot the same traits in real life, which threaten to rip apart communities and ultimately, the survival of a group THE VILLAINOUS BEHAVIOUR THAT SETS OUR MORAL COMPASS Kjeldgaard-Christiansen said villains should 'threaten the social order and induce righteous indignation in protagonists [lead characters', incentivising them and their peers to band together, fight back, and finally affirm their prosocial values. Pazuzu the demon from The Exorcist is a good example, because he 'seeks to possess innocent people simply to make their lives, and the lives of those dear to them, miserable.' Villains typically 'flaunt their moral corruption', which again gets a reaction from an audience and reminds them how they should act. Effective fictional baddies should 'engage others as objects to be used as means to ends that represent the autotelic aspirations of psychopaths,' Kjeldgaard-Christiansen writes. He said Anton Chigurh from 'No Country for Old Men' is a good example, because no-one will stand in his way of money. Villains with foreign accents and disgusting features also set themselves apart from a 'good' and righteous group. Leatherface from 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' wears a revolting mask made of human skin and this 'foul exterior becomes the manifestation of a foul essence.' Advertisement 'They should threaten the social order and induce righteous indignation in protagonists [lead characters', incentivising them and their peers to band together, fight back, and finally affirm their prosocial values.' He gave the example of Pazuzu the demon from The Exorcist, because he 'seeks to possess innocent people simply to make their lives, and the lives of those dear to them, miserable.' Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen said that villains also typically 'flaunt their moral corruption' in literature and films to provoke a response from the reader or viewer. 'Antagonists should engage others as objects to be used as means to ends that represent the autotelic aspirations of psychopaths, such as dominance and hedonic gratification,' he wrote. Anton Chigurh from 'No Country for Old Men' is a good example, according to the paper. Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen said: 'In his pursuit of the movie's "McGuffin", a satchel full of money, Chigurh has only concern for his personal gain. He disposes of interfering elements, animate or not, with clinical efficiency.' He added villains are typically outsiders, with a foreign accent for example, Hans Gruber from the movie Die Hard. 'Also noteworthy is Hollywood's profligate use of British English accents for its villains, such as Shere Khan in The Jungle Book, Count Dooku in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sithand the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,' he wrote. He also said that it is also helpful for villains to be disgusting or provoke revulsion in lead characters and the audience. In this case, Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre fits the bill. The study says it is also helpful for villains to be disgusting or provoke revulsion in lead characters and the audience. Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (pictured) fits the bill 'The face of the iconic psychopath, mostly concealed behind one of his three bizarre masks made of human skin, is clearly disfigured,' he wrote. 'His brutish roars and apish gait warn the viewer that something is very wrong with this iconic recluse. Leatherface's foul exterior becomes the manifestation of a foul essence.' Mr Kjeldgaard-Christiansen believes less extreme versions of the characteristics of villains represent some darker traits buried inside us, which we suppress because we recognise they are bad for society. It has become a popular past time in some of the stranger corners of the internet - searching for rocks that look like animals in photographs sent back by Nasa's Mars rovers. The latest creature to join this red planet zoo is one that looks like a silver back gorilla. Beside it, eagle eyed enthusiasts say there is another rock that looks much like a camel. Scroll down for video A rock on the surface of Mars has a striking resemblance to a silver back gorilla. Youtube user Mister Enigma has said the 'creature' appears to be standing next to a camel or a cub of some kind Others have said the two rocks look more like a mother bear and its cub. The animal-shaped rocks were highlighted in images captured by Nasas Curiosity Rover in a YouTube video by someone calling himself Mister Enigma. In some other recent videos posted by this mysterious animal and UFO enthusiast are those that claim to have spotted an octopus like creature on Mars and an Egyptian statue built by Martians. His latest video highlights two dark looking rocks and then adds some colour to them to make the features stand out. The rock is thought to be in a similar pose to an adult male gorilla (pictured), but it is Some have said the rock looks like a bear (pictured), perhaps standing alongside its cub. It is the latest in a long string of claims on the internet of sightings of 'animals' on the red planet Mr Enigma said: 'When we zoom in we can see what looks like a gorilla or bear-type creature or maybe even a statue of a creature. 'But what is even more odd is that right next to it on the left we see what looks like a smaller creature like a baby or cub." 'I know it sounds crazy, but just look at them. Nothing else in the picture looks at all similar.' Previously conspiracy theorists have found everything from 'crabs' and 'lizards' to 'bears' and 'rabbits', by combing images of the red planet taken by rovers such as Curiosity. Of course, however, the majority of experts believe they are simply interestingly-shaped rocks and it is a clever trick of the mind that makes us think we're seeing creatures. Conspiracy theorists have found everything from 'crabs' and 'lizards' to 'bears' and 'rabbits', by combing images of the red planet taken by rovers such as Curiosity. In October, UFO hunters spotted a baby bear on Mars (pictured) and claimed that it must be alive, based on its 'hair' and shadows seen around its body In October last year, UFO hunters spotted a baby bear on Mars and claimed that it was alive, based on its 'hair' and shadows seen around its body. It was pinpointed by YouTube user Paranormal Crucible among photos of Gale Crater taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover, who alerted the website UFO Sightings Daily. Site editor Scott C Waring, who is based in Taiwan, said: 'There is a reason Nasa puts photos into black and white. To hide the living creatures and plants that are an obvious colour. Site editor Scott C Waring, who is based in Taiwan, said: 'There is a reason Nasa puts photos into black and white. To hide the living creatures and plants that are an obvious colour'. The 'bear' is circled The Martian 'bear' was pinpointed by YouTube user Paranormal Crucible among photos of Gale Crater taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover, who alerted the website UFO Sightings Dail. A stock image is shown ALIEN ANIMALS AND THE UN Mr Waring is so worried about the great Martian 'animal' cover-up that he has alerted the United Nations. He said he would send the 'bear' image to Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the UN. He wrote: 'I often alert them about these amazing discoveries, but as of yet have gotten only one answer, which was him asking me to send it to the @UN account and not his @SecGen account, then another general at the UN followed me that same day...apparently worried I was off my rocker.' He asked readers of the site to help him open the UN's eyes to the 'truth'. Advertisement 'This creature has real hair as seen from the shadows around its body. 'That means it's not a statue, but a living creature.' Paranormal Crucible called his find a 'possible hybrid rodent' rather than a bear and exaggerated certain features including a tail in his video. He wrote: 'The anomaly which was photographed near gale crater appears to show a small mammal type creature possibly a hybrid species of gundi or prairie dog.' One month earlier, a blogger claimed to have seen a lizard meandering around Mars. The claim, posted again on UFO Sightings Daily, caused some excitable conspiracy theorists to fear Nasa could be planting life on the planet for scientific testing. 'With water existing on Mars in small amounts, it's possible to find such desert animals wandering around...although very rare mind you,' Mr Waring wrote on his site. One month earlier, a blogger claimed to have seen a lizard meandering around Mars (pictured). The claim, posted again on UFO Sightings Daily, caused some excitable conspiracy theorists to fear Nasa could be planting life on the planet for scientific testing 'Then again, is Nasa placing animals from tiny cyogenic chambers inside the rover onto the surface of Mars to conduct tests?' he asked. In November 2013, a 'fossilised Martian lizard' caused considerable excitement. The mysterious object was first spotted by UFO Sightings Daily which uncovered the photograph in Nasa's archives. It would be easy to miss, but the keen eye of Scott Waring, who owns the site, was able to spot the 'iguana' rock in photos taken by the Mars Curiosity rover. In August, alien hunters shared an image on 'Journey to the Surface of the Mars' Facebook page of a mysterious Martian 'facehugger crab,' which they noted bears some resemblance from the monster in 'Alien'. In November 2013, another 'fossilised Martian lizard' caused considerable excitement. Scott Waring spotted a rock in the shape of an iguana (left and stock image right) among photos taken by the Mars Curiosity rover The 'crab' can be seen in an image taken by the Mars rover Curiosity, which shows a formation that looks like a cave mouth on the red planet. A year previously, alien hunters spotted a 'frog' on Mars. The dubious discovery was made by Jason Hunter who shared a video showing the amphibian-shaped rock on YouTube. However UFO Sightings Daily, said it was probably not alive, 'unless it can sit there overnight while the winds erased its footprints.' Waring wrote that there is a small possibility the frog may have been keeping still, but it's more likely it's 'an ancient sculpture that has been pitted by the wind and sand.' A year previously, alien hunters spotted a 'frog' on Mars (pictured above). The dubious discovery was made by Jason Hunter who shared a video showing the amphibian-shaped rock on YouTube In August, alien hunters shared an image on 'Journey to the Surface of the Mars' Facebook page of a mysterious Martian 'facehugger crab,' which they noted looks like the monster in 'Alien' (screenshot) The 'crab' (pictured above) can be seen in an image taken by the Mars rover Curiosity, which shows a formation that looks like a cave mouth on the red planet WHY DO PEOPLE SEE ANIMALS? While these 'animals' may be living on Mars according to UFO hunters, scientists explained their presence with the mind trick, pareidolia. This is a psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus and is a form of apophenia - when people see patterns or connections in random, unconnected data. Human eyes can spot faces within their environment and it helps them recognise friends in a crowd, work out how fast a car is travelling, and see patterns. Scientists claim we also tend to use this ability to 'enrich our imagination' and recognise meaningful shapes, even when they're not there. 'It's usually some sort of animal, but occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts,' explained Seth Shostak, director of the Centre for Seti Research. 'Maybe they think there are cars on Mars.' 'Recognising a crab in a landscape filled with rocks is no more surprising - nor more significant - than seeing a winking face in a semi-colon followed by a parenthesis.' Advertisement Other small animals have also been spotted, including a rat, eagle and rabbit. Photographed in 2014, Nasa admitted that its Opportunity rover had snapped an object that resembled a rabbit. Jeff Johnson, a scientist from the US Geological Survey was alerted to a small 'fuzzy-looking object' measuring about two inches long (4-5cm). After pondering the strange image, his team concluded the 'bunny ears' had been part of the rover or its lander, while the rest of the 'rabbit' was actually a piece of airbag material. When he tried to image the 'ears' they had vanished, moving 15ft (4.5 metres) from the lander and was ordered to 'track the bunny'. He said: 'It looks as if the object has been blown under the north-facing egress ramp.' Alien hunters disagreed with Nasa's seemingly plausible explanation and took to UFO Sightings to share their theories. Waring said: 'Of course Nasa tries to downplay the fact this is alien life, although it is seen moving and then disappears. 'Of course they make an excuse and say it's part of the rover landing gear, uh...like we were born yesterday.' He suggested the space agency hides such 'signs of life' to help the US get ahead in the race for alien technology. Elsewhere, among a photograph showing craggy rocks, eagle-eyes hunters spied a bird resembling a penguin or eagle. Photographed in 2014, Nasa admitted its Opportunity rover had snapped an object that resembled a rabbit. Jeff Johnson, a scientist from the US Geological Survey was alerted to a small object measuring 2-inches (4-5cm) After pondering the strange image, his team concluded the 'bunny ears' (shown left) had been part of the rover or its lander (right) while the rest of the 'rabbit' was actually a piece of airbag material (right) Similarly, a 'Martian rat' was spotted in an image taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover. It appears to show a rodent crouching between two rocks and Waring suggested Nasa may have flown it to Mars in secret as part of an experiment to test whether life could survive on the red planet. 'Why would they not tell us about it?' he wrote. 'Because the squirrel would be expected to die eventually and that would get Peta [People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals] to fight against them in a court of law.' The Martian 'rat' was such a big hit it even had its own Twitter account, @RealMarsRat. Only last month, a 'mouse' was spotted scurrying along a ridge of 96 mile-long (154km) Gale Crater. It was spotted by amateur astronomer Joe White, 45, who noticed a chunk of rock in Nasa's footage that looks bizarrely like a small rodent on the surface of the planet. Elsewhere, among a photograph showing craggy rocks, eagle-eyes hunters spied a bird resembling a penguin or eagle. The 'bird' is shown highlighted in this circle Mr White, a space video journalist from Bristol, said: 'It is what looks like a very large rodent in Gale Crater sitting on a ridge, plain as day 'It may be an optical illusion but it has big ears, nose and eyes visible. 'It resembles a very large mouse or gerbil, and would be about two or three feet long.' Mr White runs the YouTube channel ArtAlienTV and trawls through Nasa's images to find unusual shapes. The 'mouse' image was taken using the 6ft-high (1.8 metre) right-hand side mast cam on the Curiosity rover on 27 October. While all these 'animals' may be living on Mars according to UFO hunters, scientists have explained their presence is a trick of the mind called pareidolia. Seth Shostak, director of the Centre for Seti Research said it's the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus. A 'Martian rat' was spotted in an image taken by Nasa's Curiosity rover. It appears to show a rodent crouching between two rocks and Waring suggested Nasa may have flown it to Mars in secret as part of an experiment to test whether life could survive on the red plane Only last month, a 'mouse' (pictured) was spotted scurrying along a ridge of 96 mile-long (154km) Gale Crater. It was spotted by amateur astronomer Joe White, 45, who noticed a chunk of rock in Nasa's footage that looks bizarrely like a small rodent on the surface of the planet It is a form of apophenia, which is when people see patterns or connections in random, unconnected data. Human eyes can spot faces within their environment and it helps them recognise friends in a crowd, work out how fast a car is travelling, and see patterns. Scientists claim we also tend to use this ability to 'enrich our imagination' and recognise meaningful shapes, even when they're not there. 'Those that send [images] to me are generally quite excited, as they claim that these frequently resemble something you wouldn't expect to find on the rusty, dusty surface of the red planet,' said Shostak. 'It's usually some sort of animal, but occasionally even weirder objects such as automobile parts. Maybe they think there are cars on Mars.' Leonard da Vinci was responsible for painting one of the most enigmatic and captivating pieces of art in the world with the Mona Lisa. But now experts in London have uncovered a new mystery from among the renaissance artist's work after finding a sketch of a man he later tried to erase in one of his journals from around 1508. While there are no clues about the muscly figure's identity, one art historian has suggested it may be a quick sketch of Michelangelo's statue of David, in Florence, Italy. Experts in London have uncovered a mysterious sketch of a man (shown above) erased in a journal by the legendary renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci in around 1508 The two artists are thought to have been rivals and the idea conjures up an image of da Vinci, an older established artist, rubbing out a sketch in jealousy of his younger competitor. Experts at the British Library in London used multispectral imaging to reveal the figure, drawn in ink on one of the pages of a folio of a notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. The non-invasive and non-destructive technology is used to reveal faint details in drawings and maps, for example by 'blasting' them with different light frequencies. Christina Duffy, an imaging scientist at the British Library Centre for Conservation, told MailOnline: 'We thought there might be something hidden' on the page in an area of discolouration. The smudge measures around 2.3 x 1.2 inches (6 x 3cm) and is thought to have been made by the artist when erasing his ink drawing of the man. Experts at the British Library in London used multispectral imaging to reveal the figure, drawn in ink on one of the pages of a notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. The image on the left shows the page as it appears to the naked eye, and the one on the right, under UV light, with the erased drawing revealed The journal page was placed underneath a monochrome sensor camera and exposed to light of various wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to near infrared, according to a blog post. The human eye can only detect light within the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, but the process reveals 'invisible' or faded details using other wavelengths - in this case, UV light. Multiple images were taken of the folio at different wavelengths, and filters placed underneath the camera's lens were also used in combination with the lights to capture images of fluorescence. Dr Duffy said this produced vivid images highlighting the figure that had originally been on the page of the notebook, known as folio 137v. She said: 'The images raise fascinating questions about why the figure was drawn here, and why great efforts were made to erase it.' Da Vinci expert and emeritus professor of history of art at Oxford Martin Kemp believes the sketch may be part of a series of 'fugitive images' occasionally unearthed on da Vinci's work. He told The Sunday Times the sketch bears some resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of David and it suggests the established painter was jealous of his younger rival. The sketch was placed underneath a monochrome sensor camera and exposed to light of various wavelengths ranging from the ultraviolet to near infrared. This view of the folio pages was photographed in natural light, as we see it. IT shows a smudge, musical instruments and some mirror writing The smudge measures around 2.3 x 1.2 inches (6 x 3cm) and is thought to have been made by the artist when erasing his drawing of the man. You can see the drawing through it thanks to multi spectral imaging process MYSTERY OF MONA LISA'S SMILE SOLVED The Mona Lisa's smile isnt the only enigmatic smile created by Leonardo da Vinci. Researchers examining an earlier painting by the Renaissance master claim to have unravelled the painter's secret to creating an 'uncatchable smile'. The study reveals how La Bella Principessa, painted by da Vinci before he completed the Mona Lisa in the late 15th Century, uses a clever trick to lure in the viewer. The study reveals how La Bella Principessa (pictured right), painted by da Vinci before he completed the Mona Lisa (left) in the late 15th Century, uses a clever trick to lure in the viewer When viewed directly, the slant of the mouth is distinctly downwards, according to the research by scientists at Sheffield Hallam University and Sunderland University. As the viewer's eye wanders elsewhere to examine other features, however, the mouth appears to take an upward turn, creating a smile that can only be seen indirectly, much like the Mona Lisa's. The technique is called sfumato, and can be seen in both the Mona Lisa and La Bella Principessa. And while other artists have attempted to use the same technique, none have done so as expertly as da Vinci, the researchers claim. 'As the smile disappears as soon as the viewer tries to 'catch it', we have named this visual illusion the 'uncatchable smile,' researchers Alessandro Soranzo and Michelle Newberry of Sheffield Hallam University wrote in a paper published in the journal Vision Research. Advertisement Da Vinci is said to have criticised Michelangelo's skills and Michelangelo reportedly described la Vinci's sketches as 'no better than my housemaid's'. Professor Kemp said of the hidden sketch: 'It looks like David, but a more muscular one than the statue. 'Da Vinci might simply have done this drawing as a reminder and then erased it, because he did not want people to think that he was full of adulation for Michelangelo.' The notebook, known as Codex Arundel 263 after its English collector Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, is thought to date to around 1508 and includes scribbling's and sketches about astronomy, optics, architecture and the flight of birds, among others. The volume was not originally bound, but was put together after the polymath's death, but shows the artist's thought process and constant flow of ideas. On the page scanned, there is an example of da Vinci's famous left-handed mirror writing, in beautiful cursive. Da Vinci expertMartin Kemp believes the sketch may be part of a series of 'fugitive images' occasionally unearthed on da Vinci's work. He said the sketch bears some resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of David (pictured) and it suggests the established painter was jealous of his younger rival There also seem to be sketches of 'strange musical instruments,' Dr Duffy said. The page and others are on permanent display in the British Library Treasures Gallery. Multispectral imaging has already been used to reveal lost text in the 'Burnt Magna Carta' and played a role in revealing another image beneath the Mona Lisa. The unknown woman appears to be looking to one side and has a far slimmer and more feminine face than the woman in the final portrait. Dr Duffy said : 'Every day brings new discoveries to light - quite literally! - and the prospect of unlocking more secrets from the British Library's vast and varied collections is thrilling.' 'I would say there are probably plenty [of fugitive images in Codex Arundel] she added. 'Any stain and eraser mark could hide one we find them across so many of the collection.' She said the rest of the folio will likely be scanned to look for more fugitive images in the future now that one has been found. Egyptian and foreign experts are using space particles to help them unravel the secrets of the pyramids. The group said on Sunday that it is now ready to begin studying cosmic particles collected inside Egypt's Bent Pyramid. They hope these particles will provide clues on how the 4,600-year-old structure was built. Scroll down for video Egyptian and foreign experts are hoping space particles will help them unravel the secrets of the pyramids. The group said it is ready to begin studying cosmic particles collected inside Egypt's Bent Pyramid (pictured) Mehdi Tayoubi, president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, said that plates installed inside the pyramid last month collected data on radiographic particles known as 'muons'. Muons rain down from the Earth's atmosphere. The particles pass through empty spaces but can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces. By studying particle accumulations, scientists may learn more about the construction of the pyramid, built by the Pharaoh Snefru. 'For the construction of the pyramids, there is no single theory that is 100 per cent proven or checked; They are all theories and hypotheses,' said Hany Helal, the institute's vice president. 'What we are trying to do with the new technology, we would like to either confirm or change or upgrade or modify the hypotheses that we have on how the pyramids were constructed,' he said. The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, just outside Cairo, is distinguished by the bent slope of its sides. They hope these particles will provide clues on how the 4,600-year-old structure was built. Pictured is the Bent Pyramid which is distinguished by the bent slope of its sides WHAT TECHNOLOGY ARE THEY USING TO PEER INSIDE PYRAMIDS? Infrared thermography - Infrared detects infrared energy emitted from object, converts it to temperature, and displays an image of its temperature distribution to reveal objects that may be hidden. 3D scans with lasers - Lasers bounce narrow pulses of light off the interiors of a structure to map it in detail. Once the scanning is complete, the data can be combined into a highly detailed 3-D model. Cosmic-ray detectors - This detects muons that are created when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere. Muons pass harmlessly through people and buildings. Muons traveling through rock or other dense material will slow and eventually stop. The idea is to catch the muons after theyve passed through an pyramid and measure their energies and trajectories. Researchers can then compile a 3D image that reveals hidden chambers, Advertisement It is believed to have been ancient Egypt's first attempt to build a smooth-sided pyramid. The Scan Pyramids project, which announced in November thermal anomalies in the 4,500 year-old Khufu Pyramid in Giza, is coupling thermal technology with muons analysis to try to unlock secrets to the construction of several ancient Egyptian pyramids. Tayoubi said the group plans to start preparations for muons testing in a month in Khufu, the largest of the three Giza pyramids, which is known internationally as Cheops. 'Even if we find one square meter void somewhere, it will bring new questions and hypotheses and maybe it will help solve the definitive questions,' said Tayoubi. The team will also be using infrared 3D scans and lasers to study the two pyramids in Giza and the two in Dashur. The same technology, they say, could also help find a possible hidden tomb in Tutankhamun's burial chamber that may be belong to Queen Nefertiti. Many previous missions have attempted to unravel the mysteries of the pyramids, but scientists have yet to come up with a concrete theory explaining how the structures were built. Khufu's pyramid, also known as the Great pyramid of Giza the tallest of all the pyramids was built by the son of Snefru, founder of the fourth dynasty (2,575-2,465 BC), and the Khafre's pyramid or Chephren was built by the son of Khufu. A screen displays live footage from a thermal camera ahead of a press conference in front of the Khufu pyramid in Giza, Egypt Architects and scientists from Egypt, France, Canada and Japan will also use infrared technology and detectors to map two pyramids at Giza and the two Dahshur pyramids, south of Cairo. The Great Pyramid of Giza is pictured from the left and Chephren Pyramid on the right The two pyramids at Dahshur were built by Snefru. 'The idea is to find the solution to the mystery of the pyramids,' said Mehdi Tayoubi, founder of Paris-based HIP Institute that is participating in the project. 'A similar attempt was made 30 years ago, but this is the first project at a global level using cutting-edge technology to look inside the pyramids,' he said. Project 'Scan Pyramids' is expected to last until the end of this year. Damati said the 'infra-red and muon' technologies that would be used to search the four pyramids could also be useful to look for a possible hidden chamber in King Tutankhamun's tomb, which may be the burial place of Queen Nefertiti. Archaeologists have never discovered the mummy of the legendary beauty, but renowned British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves said in a recent study that her tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of Kings at Luxor, southern Egypt. Reeves, who was in Luxor in September to probe his theory, believes one door of Tutankhamun's tomb could conceal the burial place of Nefertiti. Many previous missions have attempted to unravel the mysteries of the pyramids, but scientists have yet to come up with a concrete theory explaining how the structures were built. Pictured is the red Pyramid in Dahshur, Egypt The project will begin south of Cairo with the scanning of the so-called Bent Pyramid at Dashour, followed by the nearby Red Pyramid. Later, the two largest pyramids on the Giza plateau will also be scanned. The structures are over 4,500 years old Scans of the north wall of King Tutankhamun's burial chamber have revealed features beneath the intricately decorated plaster (left) a researcher believes may be a hidden door, possibly to the burial chamber of Nefertiti. He claims faults in the rock (highlighted right) are characteristic of a door being cut and bricked up THE GHOST DOORS After analysing high-resolution scans of the walls of Tutankhamun's grave complex in the Valley of the Kings, Dr Nicholas Reeves spotted what appeared to be a secret entrance. He uncovered the 'ghosts' of two portals that tomb builders blocked up, one of which is believed to be a storage room. The other, on the north side of Tutankhamun's tomb, contains 'the undisturbed burial of the tomb's original owner - Nefertiti', Dr Reeves argued. Advertisement Egypt has already approved using radars to search the boy king's tomb, which was found by British Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922. Last year, Egypt's antiquities minister Mamdouh El-Damaty said scratching and markings on the northern and western walls are strikingly similar to those found by Howard Carter on the entrance of King Tut's tomb. El-Damaty was visiting Luxor with British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves. Dr Reeves recently suggested that Tutankhamun, who died at the age of 19, may have been rushed into an outer chamber of what was originally the tomb of Queen Nefertiti. He said high-resolution images of what is known as King Tut's tomb 'revealed several very interesting features which look not at all natural. They feature like very straight lines which are 90 degrees to the ground, positioned so as to correspond with other features within the tomb.' These features are difficult to capture with the naked eye, he said. Reeves said the plastered walls could conceal two unexplored doorways, one of which perhaps leads to Nefertiti's tomb. He also argues that the design of the tomb suggests it was built for a queen, rather than a king. 'I agree with him that there's probably something behind the walls,' el-Damaty said. Dr Nicholas Reeves claims to have found evidence for the bricked up entrances to two additional chambers to Tutankhamun's tomb. These include the burial chamber for Queen Nefertiti, who Dr Reeves claims was the boy-kings co-regent and may even have been his mother, and new hidden storage room, as shown above Dr Reeves claims he made the discovery after analysing high-resolution radar scans of the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb complex, which was uncovered in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings But he said if anyone is buried there it is likely Kia, believed by some Egyptologists to be King Tut's mother. Nefertiti, who was famed for her beauty and was the subject of a famous 3,300 year-old bust, was the primary wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who introduced an early form of monotheism. Akhenaten was succeeded by a pharaoh referred to as Smenkhare and then Tut, who is widely believed to have been Akhenaten's son. Reeves argues that Smenkhare is actually Nefertiti. 'Nefertiti disappears... according to the latest inscriptions just being found,' said Reeves, explaining his theory inside King Tut's tomb. 'I think that Nefertiti didn't disappear, she simply changed her name.' After Nefertiti died, Tut was responsible for burying her, and then when he died someone decided to extend the tomb, Reeves suggested. 'I think since Nefertiti had been buried a decade before, they remembered that tomb was there and they thought, well, perhaps we can extend it,' he said. Dr Reeves describes how he uncovered the 'ghosts' of two portals that tomb builders blocked up (shown in yellow on the right). One, he says, is a storage room, and the other the tomb of Nefertiti (bust pictured left) WERE KING TUTANKHAMUN'S PARENTS ALSO COUSINS? The complex family arrangements of Tutankhamun has been one of the great mysteries surrounding the young king. While his father was known to have been Pharaoh Akhenaten, the identity of his mother has been far more elusive. DNA testing has shown that Queen Tiye, whose mummy is pictured above, was the grandmother of the Egyptian Boy King Tutankhamun In 2010 DNA testing confirmed a mummy found in the tomb of Amenhotep II was Queen Tiye, the chief wife of Amenhotep III, mother of Pharaoh Akhenanten, and Tutankhamun's grandmother. A third mummy, thought to be one of Pharaoh Akhenaten wives, was found to be a likely candidate as Tutankhamun's mother, but DNA evidence showed it was Akhenaten's sister. Later analysis in 2013 suggested Nefertiti, Akhenaten's chief wife, was Tutankhamun's mother. However, the work by Marc Gabolde, a French archaeologist, has suggested Nefertiti was also Akhenaten's cousin. This incestuous parentage may also help to explain some of the malformations that scientists have discovered afflicted Tutankhamun. He suffered a deformed foot, a slightly cleft palate and mild curvature of the spine. However, his claims have been disputed by other Egyptologists, including Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. His team's research suggests that Tut's mother was, like Akhenaten, the daughter of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye. Hawass added that there is 'no evidence' in archaeology or philology to indicate that Nefertiti was the daughter of Amenhotep III. Advertisement The tomb of King Tut is displayed in a glass case at the Valley of the Kings in Luxo. British Egyptologist's theory that a queen may be buried in the walls of the 3,300 year-old pharaonic mausoleum In 2010 geneticists used DNA tests to examine the parentage of Tutankhamun and suggested it might be the mummy above, known as the Younger Lady, who was the boy-king's mother. Other experts have claimed, however, that Nefertiti was a cousin of King Tut's father and may have been the boy's mother A HISTORY OF QUEEN NEFERTITI AND WHY HASN'T HER TOMB BEEN FOUND? Neferneferuaten Nefertiti - or Queen Nefertiti - was the wife and 'chief consort' of King Akhenaten, an Eyptian Pharoah during 14th century BC, one of the wealthiest era in Ancient Egypt (bust pictured) By Harry Mount She was the most beautiful queen ancient Egypt ever laid eyes on. She was the stepmother, and perhaps even the mother, of Tutankhamun, the boy-pharaoh of Egypt. Still, today, the 3,300-year-old sculpture of her face, in the Neues Museum in Berlin, has the power to bewitch, with her almond eyes, high cheekbones and chiselled jaw. Even her name, Nefertiti, is enchanting. Her full name, Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, means 'Beautiful are the Beauties of Aten, the Beautiful One has come'. Her power and charms in 14th-century BC Egypt were so great that she collected a hatful of nicknames, too from Lady Of All Women, to Great Of Praises, to Sweet Of Love. Despite her epic beauty, she remained a model of fidelity to her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The same could not be said of Akhenaten, who had his wicked way with a series of royal escorts, including, some say, his own daughters. Nefertiti was Egypt's most influential, and most beautiful, queen, who ruled at the height of the country's power, in the years of the late 18th Dynasty. Yes, Cleopatra is more famous, but she ruled Egypt in its declining years, in the first century BC. After her death, Egypt became just another province of the Roman Empire. Nefertiti lived during the richest period in ancient Egypt's history from around 1370BC to 1330BC, a time when Greece, let alone Rome, was centuries away from the peaks of its magnificent civilisation. As well as marrying a pharaoh, she was probably born the daughter of another pharaoh, as well as possibly ruling alongside Tutankhamun. There is even a suggestion that she ruled Egypt alone after her husband's death. So from cradle to grave she ruled the roost. Thus her other nicknames: Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Lady of The Two Lands. Nefertiti and Akhenaten had six daughters, although it is thought that Tutankhamun was not her son. DNA analysis has indicated that Akhenaten fathered Tutankhamun with one of his own sisters the first indication of his penchant for regal incest. He is thought to have fathered another pharaoh with yet another wife, who is named in various inscriptions. The list of consorts didn't end there. Among his other conquests are two noblewomen. On top of that, it is even suggested that he slept with one of his six daughters. The jury is out on that one, although he probably did install one of them in the ceremonial if not necessarily sexual role of Great Royal Wife. Despite all her husband's rumoured lovers, Nefertiti's name lives on as his loveliest, and most important, wife. Again and again, her beauty and power were depicted in temple images. Sometimes like Prince Philip with the Queen she is shown walking behind her husband. But she's also often shown on her own, in positions of pharaoh-like power. In one limestone sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, she is seen hitting a female enemy over the head on her royal barge. She is power and beauty combined Margaret Thatcher meets Princess Diana. In another sculpture, now in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, her slim, lissom body is depicted in all its glory, leaving little to the imagination. Still, today, the bright red of her lips and the kohl-black edges of those almond eyes smoulder across the passage of a hundred generations. Together, Akhenaten and Nefertiti blazed a trail across Egypt, building spectacular temples. In Karnak, the pharaoh erected one temple, the Mansion of the Benben, to his beloved, stunning wife. But it wasn't enough just to build temples. The royal couple's devotion to the god Aten representing the disc of the sun was so great that they created a whole new capital in his honour at Amarna, a city on the banks of the Nile. They built the new city from scratch, putting up two temples to Aten and a pair of royal palaces. It was like the Queen and Prince Philip deciding to up sticks from Windsor Castle tomorrow and building a new royal palace in the middle of Cumbria. Here, too, in Amarna, images of the lovely Nefertiti abound, sporting her distinctive, tall crown. She and her pharaoh are also shown receiving great piles of jewels and gold from their subject people. They ruled over a civilisation of astonishing sophistication. Among the discoveries are the Amarna Letters, more than 350 tablets excavated in the late 19th century, with 99 of them now in the British Museum. They tell the tale of a great nation with a highly developed diplomatic service. There are also rare chunks of poetry, parables and similes in the Amarna Letters. One striking line reads: 'For the lack of a cultivator, my field is like a woman without a husband.' Nefertiti is thought to have lost her own cultivator her husband around 1336BC; it is then she may have reigned over Egypt alone. Her own death is shrouded in mystery. She is reckoned to have died about six years after her husband, possibly from the plague that struck Egypt at that time. In 1331BC, Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun and moved the Egyptian capital to Thebes, where he died in 1323BC. Today, Thebes is Luxor, home to the Valley of the Kings, burial place of Tutankhamun and, just possibly, Queen Nefertiti. So did she go back to Thebes with him or did he take her body there? Or was she buried in the old capital of Amarna, where that marvellous bust of her was discovered in 1912? For 3,300 years, the answer has been lost beneath the swirling sands of Egypt. If Dr Reeves is allowed to look behind the walls of Tutankhamun's tomb, we might uncover the fate of the most beautiful, betrayed wife in ancient history. Advertisement If Dr Reeves' theory is correct, it may resolve a number of oddities about Tutankhamun's burial chamber that have long baffled researchers. For instance, the treasures found within seem to have been placed there in a rush, and are largely second-hand. 'The implications are extraordinary,' he wrote. 'If digital appearance translates into physical reality, it seems we are now faced not merely with the prospect of a new, Tutankhamun-era store room to the west [but] that of Nefertiti herself, celebrated consort, co-regent, and eventual successor of Pharaoh Akhenaten.' Joyce Tyldesley, senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, told The Times that Dr Reeves's hypothesis may prove correct. The radar scan (left), shows what lies behind the paint on the section of the wall of Tutankhamen's tomb (right). The door is believed to be somewhere between points 4, 5 and 6. Nefertiti, whose name means 'the beautiful one has come,' was the queen of Egypt and wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten during the 14th century B.C Tutankhamen's tomb was first discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. Archaeologists are shown above removing part of a wooden couch, covered with gold leaf and a hippopotamus head, from the tomb at the time 'It would not be surprising if the tomb had been intended to have additional rooms, although how far the builders got with these rooms it is difficult to say on current evidence,' she said. 'I would be very surprised if this tomb was built to house the original, or first, burial of Nefertiti. 'It seems to me that it is highly likely that she died during her husband's reign and so would have been buried at Amarna, the city purpose-built by Akhenaten in Middle Egypt. 'But I would have expected her to be buried somewhere in the Western Valley, rather than in the centre of the Valley of the Kings.' Many Egyptologists believe there were probably one or two co-pharaohs between Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. Some, including Reeves, believe at least one of them may have been Nefertiti, who may have even ruled Egypt by herself even for just a few months. Finding her tomb could provide further insight into a period still largely obscured, despite intense worldwide interest in ancient Egypt. Famed for her exquisite beauty, the grave of Nefertiti or the 'Lady of the Two Lands' has been lost for centuries since her sudden death in 1340 BC. The gold burial mask of Tutankhamun, shown above, is one of the greatest treasures found inside the boy king's richly furnished tomb. Since its discovery, the story of the young ruler has entranced archaeologists A series of bizarre readings from a star called KIC 8462852 is still baffling scientists. Some have speculated it may be an alien 'Dyson sphere' megastructure that is causing a dramatic dip in the star's light. More recently, Nasa scientists said that it could be a swarm of comets causing the strange signals. Now, researchers have dismissed this theory as 'implausible' following a study of the star's history over the last 100 years. Scroll down for video A series of bizarre readings from a star called KIC 8462852 is still baffling scientists. Some have speculated it may be an alien 'dyson sphere' megastructure that is causing a dramatic dip in the star's light. More recently, Nasa scientists said that it could be a swarm of comets causing the strange signals WHAT IS A DYSON SPHERE? A proposed method for harnessing the power of an entire star is known as a Dyson sphere. First proposed by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960, this would be a swarm of satellites that surrounds a star. They could be an enclosed shell, or spacecraft spread out to gather its energy - known as a Dyson swarm. If such structures do exist, they would emit huge amounts of noticeable infrared radiation back on Earth. But as of yet, such a structure has not been detected. Source: All About Space magazine Advertisement 'Either one of our refutations has some hidden loophole, or some theorist needs to come up with some other proposal,' astronomer Bradley Schaefer from Louisiana State University told the New Scientist. The Kepler mission monitored the star for four years, looking at two unusual incidents, in 2011 and 2013, when the star's light dimmed in dramatic, never-before-seen ways. When a planet orbits a star, the star's brightness usually reduces by around one per cent. But KIC 8462852 has had a reduction of around to 22 per cent, which suggests something huge may be moving past it. In some cases, the flux dropped down to below the 20 per cent level and lasted anywhere between five and 80 days at a time. 'We'd never seen anything like this star,' said Yale University researcher Tabetha Boyajian, who first spotted the signals. 'It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out.' Scientists have been speculating on what could be causing such irregular dips since the paper was published. A study using data from Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope in November suggested it may be a swarm of comets. Researchers said if a planetary impact, or a collision among asteroids, were behind the mystery of KIC 8462852, then there should be an excess of infrared light around the star. Dusty, ground-up bits of rock would be at the right temperature to glow at infrared wavelengths. Astronomers have been looking for answers about what is causing the bizarre light fluctuations around the star KIC 8462852 (pictured) for weeks. Some have suggested it is an alien megastructure such as a Dyson sphere. The strange structure was spotted by researchers from Yale RULING OUT AN ALIEN STRUCTURE In order to explore the idea that such a structure could have been built by intelligent alien life, the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, Seti, trained its Allen Telescope Array on the star for more than two weeks. Experts looked for two types of radio signal: narrow-band signals generated as a 'hailing signal' for alien societies wanting to announce their presence, and broad-band signals. These signals would be produced by 'beamed propulsion'. Seti said that if large scale alien engineering projects really are underway, the array would pick up signals made by intense microwave beams that could be used to power spacecraft. Scientists analysing the data found no clear evidence for either type of signal. They believe this rules out the presence of omnidirectional transmitters - large antenna - of approximately 100 times today's total terrestrial energy usage in the case of the narrow-band signals, and ten million times that usage for broad band emissions. So the presence of a Dyson sphere is unlikely. Seti scientists note that any society able to build such a megastructure would have access to energy at a level approaching 1027 watts, so that massive transmitters would be detected even if only a tiny percentage of this energy were used for signalling. Advertisement 'Spitzer has observed all of the hundreds of thousands of stars where Kepler hunted for planets, in the hope of finding infrared emission from circumstellar dust,' said Michael Werner, the Spitzer project scientist. But Spitzer did not find any significant excess of infrared light from warm dust. That made theories of rocky smashups very unlikely, and favored the idea that cold comets are responsible. Nasa said at the time it's possible that a family of comets is traveling on a very long, eccentric orbit around the star. At the head of the pack would be a very large comet, which would have blocked the star's light in 2011, as noted by Kepler. Later, in 2013, the rest of the comet family, a band of varied fragments lagging behind, would have passed in front of the star and again blocked its light. By the time Spitzer observed the star in 2015, those comets would be farther away, having continued on their long journey around the star. In their own study, Schaefer and his team looked at data for the star's history for the past 100 years. They noticed that the star dimmed gradually by about 20 per cent between 1890 and 1989. 'The basic effect is small and not obvious,' he told New Scientist. Schaefer said that for the star to dim by about 20 per cent over the course of an entire century, it would require some 648,000 comets to pass in front of it. Each of the comets would have to be around 125 miles (200km) wide, he said, and that's implausible. As a planet passes in front of a star's light it causes the light to dim, and Kepler can capture these fluctuations. Typically this light dims in a relatively symmetrical pattern due to the nature of the orbits (examples pictured) However, during Kepler's study into KIC 8462852 the researchers noticed it went through 'irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips in flux.' (pictured). Using data from a 2013 study, space blogger Jim Galasyn proposes that the dips in 'flux' - or brightness - are caused by the star having a lopsided disc, with two planets passing it 'The comet-family idea was reasonably put forth as the best of the proposals, even while acknowledging that they all were a poor lot,' said Schaefer. 'But now we have a refutation of the idea, and indeed, of all published ideas.' Another theory that has got traction is that the dips are caused by an alien megastructure, similar to the Dyson sphere first proposed by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960. This theory suggests that a swarm of satellites or solar panels surrounding a star, known as a Dyson swarm, could harness the power of the star and this swam could be could be an enclosed shell, or spacecraft. Other possible structures include artificial space habitats, or a planet-sized occulting object intended to provide a long-lasting signal to other galactic inhabitants. Scientists analysing the data found no clear evidence for either type of signal between the frequencies of one and 10 GHz. The oblate spheroidal shape of some stars cause them to be larger and darker at the equator, and lighter at the poles. As planets pass across the different regions during an orbit, the amount of flux dips in differing ways. This graphic shows five examples of different trajectories (top) and their respective flux readings (bottom) IS AN OBLATE DISC TO BLAME FOR THE STRANGE DIPS IN FLUX? KIC 8462852, located 1,480 light-years away, was monitored by the Kepler Space Telescope for more than four years, beginning in 2009. As a planet passes in front of a star's light it causes the light to dim, and Kepler can capture these fluctuations. Typically this light dims in a symmetrical pattern. However, during Kepler's study into KIC 8462852 the researchers noticed it went through 'irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips.' Some stars don't have uniformly bright discs and spin so fast they have an oblate spheroidal shape (illustrated) with brighter poles and a darker equator In some cases, the flux dropped down to below the 20% level and lasted between 5 and 80 days at a time. Some stars don't have uniformly bright discs and spin at such a high rate that they have an spheroidal shape. This causes them to have a larger radius at the equator than at the poles. The poles, with their smaller radius, have a higher surface gravity meaning they are hotter and brighter - or 'gravity brightened.' Meanwhile, the equator is cooler and darker, which is known being 'gravity darkened.' Mr Galasyn suggests that the dips and increases in flux of KIC 8462852 are caused as planets move across these brighter and darker areas. Two of the dips, on day 1520 and 1570 of Kepler's mission, are shown having a similar shape but a different magnitude. Despite their differences, both curves follow the shape of a planet travelling across a brightened pole, as suggested by the paper. Mr Glasnyn claims that the two dips could be caused by two planets moving in front of the star. If the first planet is large it could block out around 20% of the star's disc, while a smaller planet could occlude just 8% of it. The second dip may be shorter because the smaller planet is moving faster and orbiting closer to the star. Advertisement They believe this rules out the presence of omnidirectional transmitters - large antenna - of approximately 100 times today's total terrestrial energy usage in the case of the narrow-band signals, and ten million times that usage for broad band emissions. So the presence of a Dyson sphere is unlikely. Seti scientists note that any society able to build such a megastructure would have access to energy at a level approaching 1027 watts, so that massive transmitters would be detected even if only a tiny percentage of this energy were used for signalling. Institute astronomer Seth Shostak said: 'The history of astronomy tells us that every time we thought we had found a phenomenon due to the activities of extraterrestrials, we were wrong. 'But although it's quite likely that this star's strange behaviour is due to nature, not aliens, it's only prudent to check such things out.' Their observations will continue, but so far no evidence of deliberately produced radio signals has been found in the direction of KIC 8462852. While the scientists have all but ruled out an intelligent alien society and comets, the truth behind KIC 8462852 continues to elude them. Seti blieves that there is no Dyson Sphere (stock illustration). They note that any society able to build such a megastructure would have access to energy at a level approaching 1027 watts, so that massive transmitters would be detected even if only a tiny percentage of this energy were used for signalling Advertisement The little plane banked steeply, and pulled into a tight turn, giving us our first view of the tiny coral cay we were about to land upon. All that lay below us was a short, stony strip of grass with nothing but the blue Coral Sea beyond. Our landing, though, was surprisingly gentle, and we were welcomed by Andreas Supper, the manager of Lady Elliot Island eco resort, a coral island, lying almost 50 miles off Australia's Queensland coast at the southernmost end of the Great Barrier Reef. 'You've definitely got a treat in store,' said Andreas. 'The water's clear for seeing the coral, and we've had manta ray coming close in to the shore.' Lots to sea: Snorkelling off Lady Elliot Island, a coral island, lying almost 50 miles off Australia's Queensland coast at the southernmost end of the Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the largest single structure on Earth made by living organisms: it runs for 1,400 miles, varies in width from 40 to 150 miles and covers an area of 133,000 square miles bigger than the UK, Switzerland and Holland combined. The reef supports an amazing diversity of marine life. But there are some serious concerns about pollution threatening its long-term future. We were shown to our comfortably furnished rooms with polished wood floors and balconies. Mine looked directly out over the lagoon and beyond to the Coral Sea. A familiarisation tour of the little cay by one of the activities team explained how, in the early 19th Century, sea cucumbers were harvested there, before being dried, smoked and exported to Asia, where they were considered a delicacy. After the stocks were depleted, Lady Elliot became a guano mine and, for ten years, Chinese and Malay workers removed thousands of tons of guano (bird poo to you and me) from the surface of the island. It was then used in fertiliser and gunpowder. All vegetation was removed by the miners with the exception of eight pisonia trees, which they kept to sleep under. The trees, thought to be about 400 years old, now stand in the centre of the resort. Other older features include the impressive, though now obsolete, wooden-framed and castiron-clad lighthouse. The island became a small scale tourist destination 50 years ago, after aviator Don Adams began a scheme of revegetation. In the Eighties a low-key resort was allowed by the Australian government and this has grown into the present eco resort. It generates between 70 and 80 per cent of its energy from solar panels, and follows strict policies to avoid negative impacts on the reef. Making new friends: There is plenty to see on reef dives, including turtles who happily pass just a few yards away from humans Looking forward to my snorkelling trip on the reef the next day, I sat at the western edge of the cay waiting for the sun to set. As it sank closer to the horizon, little puffy clouds turned orange at their edges. A few hundred yards out, a humpback whale swam by, its body emerging briefly from the water as it exhaled from its blowhole. Further out, humpbacks were breaching. Next morning we boarded our glassbottomed boat at the water's edge. Access to the sea was through a gap in the island's surrounding coral reef, created by a 19th Century lighthouse keeper who threw a stick of dynamite into the water, to create a pool to swim in. The boat had hinged platforms on each side which our marine guides lowered for us to climb out on to. From there we plunged into the water and found, as Andreas had said, that the sea was crystal clear. A leatherback turtle passed by a few yards away, and shoals of coloured fish darted around and away from us. And then the reef appeared below. Branching staghorn corals stretched out their hard tentacles towards us, while plate coral, in beautiful greens and browns, lay round as far as you could see. Green and blue fish flashed in between the stony structures. We'd been warned not to touch any of the coral, mainly to prevent us damaging it, but also because its rough surfaces contain bacteria that infect cuts and grazes. Hard coral is a soft-bodied polyp which secretes a solid outer limestone skeleton that attaches to rock. It's not able to make its own food, as plants do. Instead it has tiny tentacles to capture it, and that's what makes it an animal rather than a plant. 'You've more chance of being killed by a vending machine falling on you, than by a shark,' shark expert Maggie had told us. I'd restrained myself from pointing out there aren't any vending machines in the Coral Sea, whereas it does contain a few sharks. So, I remained unreassured as I joined a group of snorkellers the next day. My fellow swimmers who'd decided to head for a wreck offshore turned out to be considerably fitter than me, and they soon left me behind, and alone, in the water. I felt a little breathless and uneasy, and I had a sense I was being watched. I dived down a little beneath the waves, and then I saw them. Not sharks, but two huge black and white manta rays, circling close to the surface with their wings undulating gracefully. It was as if they knew I'd been left behind by the group, and were checking I was OK. Colourful: The reef is teeming with life boasting fish of all sides and colours and Malcolm was struck how there's plenty of opportunity to save it yet, given the will to do so Majestic: Reef manta rays can be seen in the area and are known for their curiosity and intelligence. There are even examples of them helping people they think are in trouble in the water I felt privileged to be so close to beautiful, gentle creatures in their natural habitat. But remembering Andreas's instructions not to snorkel without a 'buddy', I decided to head back to the beach. Missing the gap in the reef, and by this stage lacking the strength to fight the strong waves near the shore, I was dragged across some coral and I emerged with bleeding shins. 'Nah, you're gonna die,' said staff member Alana when I asked if I'd need the iodine kept for snorkellers grazed by coral. As I dabbed my shins with swabs, I mentioned the manta rays and Alana said they're known for their curiosity and intelligence. There are even examples of them helping people they think are in trouble in the water. It had only been three days, but it had been quite a stay. Wandering through the lagoon on my final morning while the tide was out, I saw a blue clam, a charcoal damsel fish protecting the algae on the coral, and a small epaulette shark hiding in between the stony outcrops. At the water's edge one of the staff threw food to diamond scale mullet, and a colourful Picasso triggerfish joined the frenzy. The reef was teeming with life and it struck me there's plenty of opportunity to save it yet, given the will to do so. While its long-term future may be uncertain, the best thing is to go and see it, and contribute whatever we can to its survival. Booking flights is a costly business - but by using a few technical tricks, wily travellers are managing to make serious savings on the cost of plane tickets. If you are going on a holiday that includes taking on internal flights within a foreign country, it can be more cost effective to book your ticket through the home website of an airline within that country. By pretending to come from that country, dramatic savings can be made on tickets that often have extra costs instantly added for tourists. But by using some clever tricks, tourists can also get cut prices online when buying plane tickets Erica Ho, a travel expert and Editor of the website Map Happy, decided to investigate after realising that internal flights always appeared to be cheaper if she left booking until she was in the country she was visiting. She discovered that the point of sale - the time and place where an item was purchased - affected how much the person paid. By going to a site like ITA Google to search for her flights instead of SkyScanner or Kayak, which automatically assumes she was buying in her home country, Erica could change the location of the point of sale and the currency she wanted to buy the ticket in. So, when she was buying a ticket from Cartagena to Bogota in Colombia, if she looked for the ticket with her point of sale as New York and currency as US dollars, the price of a round trip was $137 (89). In the left picture, the red arrow shows how the ATI Google website automatically assumes Erica Ho is buying her ticket in New York, but she then changes the location to Colombia and switches the currency to Colombian pesos, right But if she changed her point of sale to 'Cartagena' and the currency to Colombian peso, the cost is 269,340 Colombian pesos, which is the equivalent of $89 (57.06), even though they were offering identical seats on the airlines. In order to buy these tickets, Erica then has to head to that website - Avianca - directly. The computer naturally attempted to register her as American, but by clicking in the top right hand corner of the website, she was able to choose her location as Colombia instead. By doing this, the airline continues to register the customer as a local instead of a tourist. On the Avianca website, Erica then asks to choose her location as Colombia instead of the United States Erica then searched for the flight again on the website and was offered the same flight for 136,000 Colombian pesos, which was equivalent to $72.14 (50.55). Erica aid: 'It was a bit more than what I was told but still less than Kayaks price. In total, I managed to get a flight about $43.86 (30.73) cheaper than what any U.S. site quoted me. 'Though most of the time it works out that I get some sort of discount - which can range from a few dollars to over a hundred dollars - by leveraging foreign currencies against each other, it doesnt always work all the time.' Advertisement Jacob Tremblay stole the show at the tender age of just nine at the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday. The Canadian rising star had the audience in awe with the sweetest acceptance speech of the night while picking up Best Young Actor for his role in the drama Room. After praising his fellow nominees with a poise far beyond his years, he revealed he was going to put his new award in pride of place in his bedroom - right next to his treasured Millennium Falcon. 'This is super cool,' Jacob said as he held onto his award and stepped onto a box so he could speak into the microphone. 'It's the best day of my life.' Scroll down for video Little star: Jacob Tremblay stole the show at the tender age of just nine at the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday with his touching acceptance speech for Best Young Actor Wonder kid: Former child star Fred Savage presented Jacob with his award, which the nine-year-old said he would keep on a shelf next to his Millennium Falcon Rising star: The youngster stood on a box and then on tiptoes but still couldn't quite reach the microphone. In the end, James just held the mic at an angle for the young actor Aw! Tracee Ellis Ross, Yael Grobglas and Gina Rodriguez were among the celebrities in the audience at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica went crazy for Jacob's sweet speech 'I first want to say thank you to all the critics who voted for me,' the nine-year-old said. 'It must be a super hard vote because of all of the other great actors in this category.' He also thanked the cast and crew, noting: 'I think that us working together made this movie come true and this award doesn't just go to me for that, it goes to all of you guys as well.' He concluded by saying: 'I just want to thank my parents. I love them very much.' In Room, Jacob plays a boy who lives with his mom in one room and only knows about the world outside through the tales his mother tells him. The mother is played by Brie Larson who also won big - picking up the Best Actress Critics' Choice Award for her performance in the acclaimed drama. Larson wasn't able to attend the awards show due to other commitments, leaving Jacob to steal the limelight from everyone. Winner: Jacob, who's from Vancouver, B.C., stars as a little boy who lives with his mom in a one-room detached building and has never been outside of it, learning about the world outside through the stories his mother tells him Brie Larson, who plays his mom in Room, was named Best Actress for her performance in the movie 'It's the best day of my life,' said nine-year-old Canadian Jacob Tremblay who was honored for his performance in Room Spotlight won the first - and last - big movie awards of the night as the star-studded cast picked up the Best Ensemble prize and the film took home Best Picture. The movie about how reporters at the Boston Globe exposed the Catholic Church's cover-up of pedophile priests also won for Best Original Screenplay. Actress Rachel McAdams accepted the award on behalf of the cast, saying it was 'a little overwhelming to be up here to speak on behalf of our enormous and incredibly talented cast.' 'I think we would all agree that the true star ensemble is the real life heroes of Spotlight,' she added. May the force be with you! Little Jacob posed backstage with host T. J. Miller before accepting his prize Spotlight, co-written and directed by Tom MCCarthy and starring Rachel McAdams, pictured, was named Best Picture and the film also won for Best Original screenplay and Best Ensemble Cast The Canadian actress collected the Best Ensemble Award at Critics Choice on behalf of the whole cast McAdams suggested that the true star ensemble were the real-life reporters working at the Boston Globe who uncovered the priest abuse scandal Spotlight won Best Ensemble for its star-studded cast that includes Rachel McAdams, Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and John Slattery Producer Steve Golin accepted the Best Picture Award for Spotlight as his co-producers and McAdams applauded He sparked a Twitter storm by forgetting to thank his black director and co-star at the Golden Globe Awards last week. And as he was handed the Best Supporting Actor gong at the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday, Sylvester Stallone made sure not to repeat the mistake. 'I just want to say thank you to my director Ryan Coogler - he made it all special. I am truly amazed. I did not expect this tonight,' gushed Stallone, as the audience gave him a standing ovation. He added: 'Michael B. Jordan, you're a great talent and you're here for a really long, long time.' In line for Oscar? Sylvester Stallone won Best Supporting Actor for Creed at Critics' Choice in LA, one week after picking up the same award at the Golden Globes Stallone told the audience he really didn't expect to win and he was 'truly appreciative' of the honor Creed marks the seventh time that Stallone has played Rocky Balboa on the big screen and it's 40 years since he debuted the character in the original Rocky, that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1977 The veteran star was in his element as the audience rose to their feet to salute him Going into Sunday night's awards show, Mad Max: Fury Road was the clear leader with a total of 13 nominations. It went home with nine awards including Best Director for George Miller and a slew of technical awards. Stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy won Best Actress and Best Actor in an Action Movie respectively. Miller was not on hand to pick up the award but several of his cast were including Zoe Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Mad Max: Fury Road helmer George Miller was not on hand to collect his Best Director Award but some of his female cast were. Pictured from l-r are Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, Riley Keough, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zoe Kravitz The actresses were dwarfed by the scale of the stage inside the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport Kravitz accepted the award on Miller's behalf and described Mad Max: Fury Road as 'groundbreaking and f***ing awesome' 'It was not only crowd pleasing but groundbreaking and was f***ing awseome,' said Kravitz. Reading from a note on behalf of the director, Huntington-Whitely said: 'This film was truly inspired bywomen.' The English model and actress, who's engaged to Jason Statham, also thanked the movie's stars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy on behalf of Miller. The English model flashed some sideboob and a noticeable tan line as she went bra-less in her plunging black dress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley read out a thank you note from Miller Mad Max: Fury Road had a total of 13 nominations and went home with nine awards. In addition to Best Director, it won for Best Action Movie and stars Charlize Theron, left, and Tom Hardy, right, were named Best Actress and Best Actor in an Action Movie Top acting nods went to Brie Larson, named Best Actress for Room, and to Leonardo DiCaprio who was named Best Actor for The Revenant. Neither Larson nor DiCaprio were at the ceremony but DiCaprio appeared in a video thanking the critics for the honor. 'This is an absolutely incredible honor. Your recognition for this film means so much to us,' the actor said. 'This was an experience none of us will ever forget.' Leonardo DiCaprio, who is in Europe promoting The Revenant, appeared via video on the big screens inside the hangar to thank the critics for naming him Best Actor DiCaprio is hoping to win his first Oscar for his portrayal of an early 19th century frontiersman trying to survive against the odds after being left for dead in the wilderness by his traveling companions Alicia Vikander was the Critics' Choice for Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl Vikander stars with Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne in the tale of a pioneering transgender artist Alicia Vikander won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Danish Girl. And a few minutes later she was back on stage to accept the Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie Award for Ex Machina. The Alex Garland-directed film, in which Vikander stars as an A.I. femme fatale, beat out fellow nominees Jurassic World, The Martian, It Follows and Mad Max: Fury Road. The Swedish star appeared quite overcome with emotion at being honored for her performance She was presented with her award by Justin Theroux and Liv Tyler Ex Machina, in which Vikander also starred, was named Best Sci-Fi/Horror Film Amy Schumer gave a public shoutout to new boyfriend Ben Hanisch as she took the stage to be honored with the MVP Award. 'Hi Ben,' the comedienne and Trainwreck star said halfway through her acceptance speech as she gave her furniture designer beau a little wave. Schumer joked about being a 'plus plus size actress' during her speech that thanked all the managers she'd fired along the way in order to make more money. She ended her remarks with a call for everyone to join together to end gun violence. Amy Schumer brought along her new boyfriend Ben Hanisch to the awards show where she was honored as MVP The loved-up couple indulged their passion for selfies during the telecast After collecting her MVP Award from her Trainwreck director Judd Apatow, Schumer joked about being a plus plus size actress in Hollywood Schumer wrote, produced and starred in Trainwreck, her first feature film, that she persuaded Apatow to direct and he called her 'hysterical, bold and outrageous.... and the nicest person I know' The Inside Amy Schumer star was welcomed to the stage by her Trainwreck director Judd Apatow who ticked off all of her achievements during the past year. 'She's hysterical, bold and outrageous,' Apatow said. 'She's the perfect comedienne for this moment.' There was more drama for Schumer when she was named Best actress in a Comedy for Trainwreck. She lost her shoe as she made her way to the stage and carried it in one hand until giving it to Tracee Ellis Ross to hold onto. She celebrated her win by planting a big smacker on her boyfriend's lips. It must be love! The first thing Schumer did after her name was read out as winner of Best Actress in a Comedy for Trainwreck was to plant a big wet one on boyfriend Ben's lips Oops! The comedienne lost her shoe as she made her way to the stage for the second time The star handed the stiletto over to actress Tracee Ellis Ross for safe keeping The Big Short won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy. Christian Bale was named Best Actor in a Comedy for his role in the film directed by Adam McKay. The movie also stars Brad Pitt, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. Christian Bale won top comedy acting honors for The Big Short The Welsh actor thanked his wife and his kids during his acceptance speech When The Big Short was named Best Comedy, director Adam McKay celebrated by grabbing Bale and kissing him Kissing was in as the actor also planted a smacker on The Big Short screenwriter Charles Randolph Bale plays a character who foresees the credit and housing bubble that plunged America into recession Christian Slater repeated his Golden Globes success of a week ago by collecting the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Mr. Robot. Series star Rami Malek won Best Actor and the show was also named Best TV Drama. Mr. Robot stars Christian Slater and Rami Malek both won acting awards as the show was also named Best TV Drama. Slater, left, picked up the gong for his supporting role while Malek, right, won for his leading role in the USA series Malek was super-excited at his win and didn't hold back when it came to showing it The co-stars seemed thrilled with each other's success as they celebrated together Jeffrey Tambor was named Best Actor in a Comedy Series for Transparent, that streamed on Amazon, while Rachel Bloom was honored with Best Actress in a Comedy Series for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Constance Zimmer took home the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for UnREAL. Carrie Coon won Best Actress for the HBO drama series the Leftovers. Jeffrey Tambor's win for Transparent was really popular with the audience The veteran star plays a middle-aged dad who comes out to his wife and kids as transgender in the Amazon streaming series Tambor, who's worked steadily in Hollywood since the late 1970s, also has an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Transparent Rachel Bloom won for her comedic performance in TV's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Constance Zimmer got emotional as she thanked the critics for her best supporting win for the Lifetime drama UnREAL Carrie Coon accepted her Best Actress in a Drama Series Award for The Leftovers from John Stamos and Josh Peck Coon stars in the HBO drama with Justin Theroux Mayin Bialik was named Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for The Big Bang Theory. 'My dad died nine and a half months ago and he was my harshest critics and he never lived to see me win anything so this is for you,' she said in accepting the award. Andre Braugher was named Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Brooklyn Nine-Nine.' Fargo was named Best Limited Series and won a Best Actress award for Kirsten Dunst. 'I literally didnt prepare anything. Ive never won anything,' said Mayin Bialik after being named Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Bialik dedicated her award to her father who passed away in early 2015 Kirsten Dunst reacted with delight when her name was read out as the winner of Best Actress in a limited TV Series for Fargo The former Spider-Man star was thrilled to receive the award Dunst also celebrated Fargo's win for Best Movie Made For Television or Limited Series; she's seen with co-star Jean Smart, far left, and other cast and crew including executive producer Noah Hawley who accepted the award Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams introduced a special tribute to Industrial Light and Magic The head of ILM was joined on stage by a special guest as he was presented with the Genius Award Host T.J. Miller opened the telecast at the Barker Hangar in the Santa Monica Airport by pointing out it's the first time that the Broadcast Films Critics Association has honored both film and television at the same ceremony. He promised the audience he was not going 'to Gervais them,' in a dig at British comic Ricky who hosted the Golden Globes a week ago and managed to upset some with his jokes about Caitlyn Jenner and Mel Gibson. 'Tonight it's not just an honor to be nominated; it's an honor to be here. Think about that if you lose, as most of you will," said Miller. 'You made it to Hollywood. You won.' Funny opening: Comedian T.J. Miller hosted the awards show that's broadcast live It's the first year that the Broadcast Film Critics Association has combined their film and television awards into one ceremony and took over the huge airport hangar in Santa Monica for the event See more of the latest news and red carpet pictures from the 2016 Critics' Choice Awards 2016 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS: WINNERS IN FILM BEST PICTURE Spotlight BEST ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant BEST ACTRESS Brie Larson - Room BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sylvester Stallone - Creed BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRES Jacob Tremblay -Room BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE Spotlight BEST DIRECTOR George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE Tom Hardy - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE Charlize Theron - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST COMEDY The Big Short BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY Christian Bale - The Big Short BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY Amy Schumer - Trainwreck GENIUS AWARD Industrial Light & Magic BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Amy BEST ACTION MOVIE Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE Ex Machina BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Son of Saul BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Inside Out BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy - Spotlight BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Charles Randolph and Adam McKay - The Big Short BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY The Revenant - Emmanuel Lubezki BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Colin Gibson BEST EDITING Mad Max: Fury Road - Margaret Sixel BEST COSTUME DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Jenny Beavan BEST HAIR & MAKEUP Mad Max: Fury Road BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SONG Furious 7 - See You Again BEST SCORE The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone Advertisement 2016 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS: WINNERS IN TELEVISION BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent Amazon BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Rami Malek, Mr. Robot USA BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Idris Elba, Luther - BBC America BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend The CW BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Carrie Coon, The Leftovers HBO BEST ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Kirsten Dunst, Fargo FX BEST COMEDY SERIES Master Of None Netflix BEST DRAMA SERIES Mr. Robot USA BEST GUEST ACTOR/ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Timothy Olyphant, The Grinder Fox BEST GUEST ACTOR/ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Margo Martindale, The Good Wife - CBS BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Fargo FX MOST BINGEWORTHY FAN-VOTED AWARD Friends MVP AWARD Amy Schumer BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Fox BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Christian Slater, Mr. Robot USA BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Jesse Plemons, Fargo FX BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory CBS BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Constance Zimmer, UnREAL Lifetime BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Jean Smart, Fargo FX BEST ANIMATION SERIES BoJack Horseman Netflix BEST REALITY SHOW COMPETITION The Voice NBC BEST REALITY SHOW HOST James Lipton, Inside The Actors Studio Bravo BEST STRUCTURED REALITY SHOW Shark Tank - ABC BEST TALK SHOW Last Week Tonight With John Oliver HBO BEST UNSTRUCTURED REALITY SHOW Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown CNN Advertisement Glam squad: Actresses Abbey Lee, Zoe Kravitz, Courtney Eaton, Riley Keough, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley posed for a portrait during the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards Talented trio: Kirsten Dunst, Rachel Bloom and Jacob Tremblay posed backstage with their awards after the ceremony She's been charged with bringing the feminist icon Wonder Woman to the big screen for the first time in the character's 75 year history. And Gal Gadot was pictured hard at work on the set of the eagerly-anticipated superhero flick dressed as the Amazonian pin-up's alter-ego Diana Prince in London on Sunday. The Israeli beauty, 30, looked to be portraying the character caught between identities. She dressed head to toe in a vintage outfit circa the First World War while clutching Wonder Woman's sword and shield. Scroll down for video Girl power: Gal Gadot, 30, was pictured hard at work on the set of the eagerly-anticipated superhero flick Wonder Woman dressed as the Amazonian pin-up's alter-ego Diana Prince in London on Sunday Meanwhile, Hollywood heartthrob Chris Pine, 35, could be seen looking dapper in a navy fedora, beige mac and grey suit. The actor is taking on the role of Steve Trevor, a USAF pilot and Wonder Woman's love interest, and appeared to be aiding his co-star with the handling of her weapon. During the shoot, Gal looked pensive as she stood staring into the distance with her mouth slightly agape. Sword off! Hollywood heartthrob Chris Pine, 35, could be seen looking dapper in a navy fedora, beige mac and grey suit A bygone era: Pine is taking on the role of Steve Trevor, a U.S. military intelligence officer in the US Army Air Corps and Wonder Woman's love interest In character: Gal wore a pair of cute, fine-rimmed specs and a navy hat with her brunette tresses tied up in a neat bun The star wore a pair of cute, fine-rimmed specs and a navy hat with her brunette tresses tied up in a neat bun. Her grey woollen coat was fastened up to her penultimate button and was tied tightly around her middle by a thick brown leather belt with a golden buckle. The period set was swarming with extras in early 20th century garments in a bid to accurately portray the period. Stepping back in time: A horse and carriage, classic cars and a two-tier tram occupied the road in a tree-lined square in the capital If only they knew: Gal's disguised appearance kept the superpowers that lay beneath well hidden Practice makes perfect: Despite her impressive weaponry, she appeared rather meek, brandishing the sword in an unassertive manner A horse and carriage, classic cars and a two-tier tram occupied the road in a tree-lined square in the capital. Gal's disguised appearance kept the superpowers that lay beneath well hidden. Despite her impressive weaponry, she came across as rather meek, brandishing the sword in an unassertive manner. Back in November, Chris and Gal were spotted filming on the banks of the Thames in Tilbury, Essex. The set was packed with 150 extras, many of which were wearing military uniforms. It appears as though the soldiers were filmed arriving back to the UK after fighting overseas, with signage claiming: 'French money exchanged here for officers and soldiers in uniform'. Created in 1941, Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess gifted with a wide range of superhuman powers and battle skills. As is typical in the comic book world, the character is a force for good and has faced a vast array of super-villains. Wonder Woman isn't due to hit the big screen until 2017, but fans have already had their appetites whetted by the character's appearance in the trailer for Superman vs Batman, which will be released later this year. Wrapped up: Gal's grey woollen coat was fastened up to her penultimate button and was tied tightly around her middle by a thick brown leather belt with a golden buckle In the thick of it: She dressed head to toe in a vintage outfit circa the First World War while clutching Wonder Woman's sword and shield Don't mess with her: Despite her delicate frame, Gal's eye-catching arsenal ensured she was well protected Other cast members in the highly-secretive blockbuster include Robin Wright, Harry Potter's David Thewlis, Danny Huston, Trainspotting star Ewan Bremner as well as indie-darling Lena Anaya and Office star Lucy Davis. The film is being directed by Monster's Patty Jenkins and she will be the first woman to direct a comic book super hero film. Getting Wonder Woman to the big screen has been a long battle. Since 1996 there have been many attempts to immortalise the character in film with Sandra Bullock even linked to the role, and another film was proposed in 2005 with Colbie Smulders mentioned before Christina Hendricks was thrown in the mix. There are usually grumbles that Britains Eurovision entrants do not pass muster. But there will be no excuses this time around as for the first time in six years the BBC are hosting a televised show to allow the public to pick the song and act. Eurovision: You Decide will show six shortlisted acts take to the stage in a bid to impress viewers at home and a professional panel. The acts will compete for the honour of representing the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2016, to be held in Sweden. The Great British Bake Off co-presenter Mel Giedroyc, 47, will host the 90-minute programme, broadcast live at the end of February. The Great British Bake Off co-presenter Mel Giedroyc said she was 'honoured' to host the Eurovision programme An expert panel will be there on the night to offer their thoughts on how the songs could be made to look and sound on stage in Stockholm, when Eurovision takes place on May 14. Members of OGAE, the largest independent Eurovision fan club in the world with around 1,000 members in the UK, was drafted in to help draw up the shortlist. In addition, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors ran a song-writing competition amongst its members Miss Giedroyc said: I am a huge fan of the Eurovish and am honoured to be hosting this fantastic event. 'Its very exciting that the Great British public will get the chance to choose who will be sent to Sweden and I know its going to be an amazing night. This year also heralds the arrival of Eurovision on BBC Four, which will broadcast both semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 live from Stockholm on May 10 and 12. She's one of the world's most beautiful actresses, and Salma Hayek lived up to her reputation by squeezing her trademark curves into a little black dress while visiting her homeland, Mexico, this weekend. The brunette beauty, 49, looked exquisite in her short sleeved black number as she waved at crowds from a balcony in Mexico City. The beaming beauty was snapped out and about on Sunday after arriving in Mexico for the premiere of her animation film El Profeta. Scroll down for video Ladylike: Salma Hayek looked classy in her get-up as she showed off her curves in a timeless little black dress while out and about in Mexico City on Sunday Salma looked classy in her get-up as she showed off her trademark curves in a timeless little black dress. The Hollywood siren oozed glam in the short-sleeved number that fell just above her knees. The stylish star wore a pair of black tights to complete the look as she stepped out in Mexico. Ever the trend-stetter, the brunette beauty's locks were styled big and bouncy after a curly blow-dry, and she kept her mane glossy, neatly trimmed and softly curled under to frame her face. Figure-hugging form: Salma oozed glam in her posh frock with delicate white detailing at the front in Mexico Salma accessorized with a black clutch bag and silver jewelry including a bling-tastic knotted chain bracelet. She looked every inch the movie star by completing her polished look with a pair of sunglasses. The From Dusk Till Dawn and Wild Wild West star let her natural beauty shine through by opting for a natural look, going for a peach lipstick and her lips were lined with soft brown pencil to perfect her pout. All eyes on her: Salma enjoyed herself as she waved at fans waiting for her below while in her homeland Her cheeks were flush, with a touch of blush and a highlighter to accentuate her stunning cheekbones. It's been a busy week for Salma, who was back in her homeland of Mexico illustrating she is a showstopper when it comes to walking a red carpet. The brunette looked stunning in a black and white frock which had a bold print design of flowers at the photo call for The Prophet in Mexico City on Saturday. Truly radiant: The 49-year-old wore subtle make-up which included a rose coloured lip and smoky eyeshadow as she stepped out on Saturday a the photocall for El Profeta The Prophet has been something of a labour of love for Salma - and has been successful in the locations it has so far been shown around the world. She revealed her own daughter, Valentina Paloma, seven, was the voice of the little girl, Almitra in the French version of the film. Appearing on Good Morning America in August she spoke about the animated feature which uses the poetry of famous Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran. She said making it brought her closer to her grandfather and his memories. Salma also revealed she wanted to help give inspiration and motivation to younger people who wanted to be creative with the movie: 'The words are timeless but now the words have images. So even for little ones, who might not understand every word they are getting poetry and the meaning of this amazing concepts through the images.' Petal power! Salma dazzled in a curve-hugging black and white floral print dress at a photo call for her film The Prophet in Mexico City, Mexico on Saturday She has the kind of figure bikinis were made for - and a lifestyle that allows her to wear them. But all that beach time has left Rosie Huntington-Whiteley with some rather noticeable tan lines, which were on show as she attended the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday. In a backless black dress, the model's white bits could easily be seen as she joined fiance Jason Statham on the red carpet. Scroll down for video Bikini babe: But Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's unsightly tan lines ruined the lines of her backless black dress as she attended the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday Putting her best foot forward: The model put on a very leggy display in her gown as she cosied up to her leading man who was also wearing Saint Laurent Despite this the 28-year-old was a complete showstopper, turning heads in a jaw-dropping black dress that left little to the imagination while still being incredibly elegant. The leggy British model covered her slender, willowy curves in the floor-length backless gown, complete with a split almost to her hip on the skirt, allowing her to show off her enviable long legs. She also showed off a hint of her cleavage thanks to the asymmetric cut of the plunging neckline, while more glamour was added with a long, floor sweeping train. Rosie kept the rest of her ensemble simple, holding a studded YSL clutch and adding even more height to her lofty frame with a pair of barely-there strappy silver heels. See more of the latest red carpet pictures from the 2016 Critics' Choice Awards Wow-worthy: The 28-year-old British model looked insanely gorgeous in a black dress with an asymmetric plunging neckline and racy thigh-high split Jaw-dropping: Rosie showed off just the right amount of skin, the amazing black gown almost completely backless with dainty straps holding it up Stunner: She looked incredible from every angle as she waltzed down the blue carpet Golden girl: She showed off her flawless skin as she posed for snaps ahead of the prestigious awards She showed off her tan lines even more while accepting the Best Director Award on behalf of George Miller, who directed her in Mad Max: Fury Road, during the awards ceremony. The stunner, who went bra-less in the plunging number, also showed off some side boob in the daring ensemble. The Marks & Spencer model and designer swept her blonde locks cleanly away from her gorgeous face in a slicked-back chignon, and she finished her dazzling look with a smoky eye and deep brown lipstick. Gorgeous: The power couple appeared perfectly poised as they made their debut on the night A big smile: Rosie appeared to be delighted as she beamed with her man - and it's little wonder as she has much to celebrate They've got the look: Her ravishing beauty was clearly hugely appreciated by her actor beau, 48, who kept his arm around her and stared deeply into her eyes as they posed on the red carpet together All eyes on her: She captivated the crowds in her glamorous get-up She also proudly showed off her incredible diamond engagement ring, reportedly worth $350,000. Her ravishing beauty was clearly hugely appreciated by her actor beau, 48, who kept his arm around her and stared deeply into her eyes as they posed on the red carpet together. He himself looked dapper as ever in a sharp black suit, as he took some time alone to pose for the cameras. Golden: She showed off her prominent tan lines even more while accepting the Best Director Award on behalf of George Miller, who directed her in Mad Max: Fury Road, during the awards ceremony Glow: The British model's noticeable tan lines became center stage while she read a thank you note from Miller Blushing bride-to-bed: She flashed her long, model leg as she stepped on the red carpet, showing off her silver sandals and YSL clutch as she walked... as well as her '$350,000 engagement ring' Good-looking fella: Jason, 48, looked as suave as ever in his black sharp suit Strut: The M&S model is clearly still basking in the glow of her very recent engagement to her boyfriend of five years In love: The couple stayed close while posing on the carpet before the start of the Critics' Choice Awards What a crowd: Rosie also joined, from left, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Zoe Kravitz, Courtney Eaton, and Riley Keogh in the press room with the award for Mad Max: Fury Road Say cheese! The girls all posed for a portrait during the 21st Annual Critics' Choice Awards at Barker Hangar Rosie and Jason - who have been an item for five years - revealed their engagement news a week beforehand, as they walked the red carpet at the Golden Globes the previous Sunday evening. The star had knowingly flashed her huge engagement ring while at the prestigious event - this time wowing in a golden gown - and a spokesperson for the star later confirmed their happy news to MailOnline. However, the details of their proposal are not yet known, but the couple had just returned from an idyllic holiday together in Thailand. Meanwhile, joining the Brit contingent on the red carpet at the Critics' Choice Awards on Sunday was stunning actress Dame Helen Mirren. Veteran vixen: Helen Mirren made for a sensational addition to the starry red carpet, donning a chic black and white floral and almost sheer dress Swish! She showed off the flamboyant design of her lovely frock as she sashayed and swung the full skirt around The 70-year-old looked sensational in a low-cut floral dress in a black and white sheer fabric with a flattering gathered waist. She made the most of her gorgeous gown as she swished its long hem around in the air while posing up a storm outside the venue, Santa Monica's Barker Hangar. Also cutting a mighty fine figure was Brit beauty Kate Beckinsale, who was a glittering goddess in an eye-catching silver gown. Silver siren: Kate Beckinsale was another Brit star in attendance, the beauty going for a glittering look in a sparkly silver gown with a sheer panel at the front Amazing from all angles! The 42-year-old star's gown was a curve-clinging feast for the eyes, all dreamy silver fabric and a delicate pattern The brunette beauty, 42, showed off her slim and shapely figure in the full-length gown, which glittered under the late evening sunlight in the Californian city. Complete with a halter-style neckline and a sheer panel over the front to reveal a hint of her ample cleavage, the lightly patterned art deco-effect frock clung tightly to her tight, toned curves. She wore her locks swept up into a classic up-do - a huge twisted bun at the back - with her long fringe parted over her perfectly made-up face. A long way from Downton! Joanne Froggatt made her presence known in a glittering blue column gown Effortless: The Downton Abbey star continued her run of fantastic style as she worked it on the red carpet Kate - who is believed to have 'secretly separated' from husband Len Wiseman at the end of last year - turned up the heat as she cut a solo figure while making her way into the star-studded ceremony. Meanwhile, Downton Abbey favourite Joanne Froggatt continued in a glittering blue strapless column gown, giving her a serene mermaid look about her. The 35-year-old - who is best known for playing lady's maid Anna Bates on the period drama - showed off the back of the lovely dress with panache, revealing its ruffled back. She wore her bright blonde locks in a seriously chic 'do, tied into an elegantly curly low ponytail and with her fringe elevated into a flattering retro quiff. Other famous Brits in California for the annual awards ceremony included Homeland hunk Damian Lewis, who attended with his gorgeous wife Helen McCrory, and actor-turned-chat show host James Corden. Damian, 44, looked dapper in a fitted black overcoat worn on top of a suave suit, while Helen, 47, wowed in a floor length semi-sheer green dress with black detailing and a pair of strappy heels. Dapper Damian: Homeland star Damian Lewis looked suave in a black suit worn under a mid-length buttoned-up coat Packing on the PDA: Damian and his wife Helen McCrory put on a loving display as they posed for the cameras Feeling green: Helen wowed in a semi-sheer billowing gown and a pair of strappy heels Hamming it up! James Corden larked around outside the venue with actress Gina Rodriguez and musician Reggie Watts 2016 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS: WINNERS IN TELEVISION BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Jeffrey Tambor - Transparent Amazon BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Rami Malek, Mr. Robot USA BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Idris Elba, Luther - BBC America BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend The CW BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Carrie Coon, The Leftovers HBO BEST ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Kirsten Dunst, Fargo FX BEST COMEDY SERIES Master Of None Netflix BEST DRAMA SERIES Mr. Robot USA BEST GUEST ACTOR/ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Timothy Olyphant, The Grinder Fox BEST GUEST ACTOR/ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Margo Martindale, The Good Wife - CBS BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Fargo FX MOST BINGEWORTHY FAN-VOTED AWARD Friends MVP AWARD Amy Schumer BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine Fox BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES Christian Slater, Mr. Robot USA BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Jesse Plemons, Fargo FX BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory CBS BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES Constance Zimmer, UnREAL Lifetime BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES Jean Smart, Fargo FX BEST ANIMATION SERIES BoJack Horseman Netflix BEST REALITY SHOW COMPETITION The Voice NBC BEST REALITY SHOW HOST James Lipton, Inside The Actors Studio Bravo BEST STRUCTURED REALITY SHOW Shark Tank - ABC BEST TALK SHOW Last Week Tonight With John Oliver HBO BEST UNSTRUCTURED REALITY SHOW Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown CNN Advertisement She never fails to pull out all the stops when it comes to making an appeaerance on the red carpet. And Sunday evening was no exception, as Dame Helen Mirren set the style bar high in an elegant and chic floral-print gown on the red carpet at the 21st Critics' Choice Awards, in Los Angeles. Beaming as she arrived at the city's historic Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, the 70-year-old actress cut a youthful figure in the low-cut black and white dress. Scroll down for video Flawless fashion-sense: Dame Helen Mirren set the style bar high in an elegant and chic floral-print gown on the red carpet at the 21st Critics' Choice Awards, in Los Angeles Opting for a mix of timeless elegance and modern trends, the Trumbo star donned a trailing floor-length ball gown. The fitted garment featured a semi-sheer layered effect, which was embellished in sections with black lace, which served to highlight her trim figure at the nipped-in waistline. Featuring a low-cut neckline, which was accentuated by more frilled black lace detail, Helen subtly drew attention to her decolletage. See more of the latest red carpet pictures from the 2016 Critics' Choice Awards A real act to follow: Beaming as she arrived at the city's historic Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, the 70-year-old actress cut a youthful figure in the low-cut black and white dress Not wishing to draw attention away from her floral frock, the Oscar-winning star kept her look largely uncluttered - accessorising minimally with a pair of diamond-hooped earrings and a simple necklace. However, the former Prime Suspect star made a slight exception to the rule with her fluffy white clutch. Wearing her hair in a sweeping side-parting bob, the London-born star framed her youthful visage perfectly. Hitting all the right notes: The fitted garment featured a semi-sheer layered effect, which was embellished in sections with black lace, which served to highlight her trim figure at the nipped-in waistline Opting for a pale and natural palette of make-up, the famed stage and screen star highlighted her striking and radiant features with a hint of mascara and a slick of berry lipstick. And if the star was worried about her chances in the Best Supporting Actress category at the event - for her role in Trumbo - she didn't show it, as she playfully flicked her dress around as she made her way into the event. The movie tells the story of Hollywood film producer Dalton Trumbo (Cranston) who was jailed and blacklisted from the industry, along with other artists, for their political beliefs. Dame Helen plays actress and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in the critically-acclaimed, Oscar-nominated film. An award-winning role? And if the star was worried about her chances in the Best Supporting Actress category - for her role in Trumbo (picture) - she didn't show it, as she confidently made her way into the event 2016 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS: WINNERS IN FILM BEST PICTURE Spotlight BEST ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant BEST ACTRESS Brie Larson - Room BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sylvester Stallone - Creed BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRES Jacob Tremblay -Room BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE Spotlight BEST DIRECTOR George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE Tom Hardy - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE Charlize Theron - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST COMEDY The Big Short BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY Christian Bale - The Big Short BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY Amy Schumer - Trainwreck GENIUS AWARD Industrial Light & Magic BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Amy BEST ACTION MOVIE Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE Ex Machina BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Son of Saul BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Inside Out BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy - Spotlight BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Charles Randolph and Adam McKay - The Big Short BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY The Revenant - Emmanuel Lubezki BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Colin Gibson BEST EDITING Mad Max: Fury Road - Margaret Sixel BEST COSTUME DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Jenny Beavan BEST HAIR & MAKEUP Mad Max: Fury Road BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SONG Furious 7 - See You Again BEST SCORE The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone Advertisement David Bowie was always a madcap drama queen, even as a boy in the two-up-two-down suburban house in which he grew up in Bromley in the Fifties. His was one of the first in the street to get a telephone, and neighbours were more than once disturbed by bell-clanging ambulances dashing up to the door. Hed dialled 999: Come quickly. Im dying. One memorable winters night he even managed to get two fire engines along on a false alarm. Paranoid schizophrenia runs in my family, on my mothers side, Bowie told his first wife Angie on the very first day they met. Sometimes when Im drunk or stoned, I can almost feel it in me' (pictured: Bowie in 1973) If there was a hint of self-delusional madness as well as devilment in this attention-seeking, then that was Bowie all over. Through all his years of superstardom, putting on then throwing off identities be it Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Soulman, Disco King or The Thin White Duke insanity never seemed more than a layer of make-up away. It was what he himself worried about more than anything. Paranoid schizophrenia runs in my family, on my mothers side, he told his first wife Angie on the very first day they met. Sometimes when Im drunk or stoned, I can almost feel it in me. To a biographer, he confessed: Theres a lot of madness in my family, real f***ing madness. It worries me because I dont know whether its in my genes and if Ill end up that way too. On occasions, this nuttiness as he called it totally incapacitated him, as on the night of one of the biggest concerts of his life, in 1973. As thousands of fans waited in Hammersmith Odeon in West London, he fled from his dressing room and into a rubbish-strewn alley behind the theatre. See more of the latest on David Bowie as it emerges he was driven to the brink of insanity For his loud, fractious, moody mother Peggy (pictured with Bowie in 1947) her son barely a civil word He was waif-like, weighing little more than eight stone, and his hands were stained nicotine-brown from the cigarettes he chain-smoked, 60 to 80 a day. In check shirt and jeans, his dishevelled (though normally glamorously coiffeured) head slumped in his hands, he looked like just another down-and-out. There was just a lone spectator for this sorry sight, a 13-year-old East London schoolgirl named Julie Paull, who had travelled there hoping to catch a glimpse of the painted idol that was Ziggy Stardust. Could this sad heap of humanity really be him? He beckoned her towards him and fixed her with a tormented glare from his unmistakably weird eyes one blue, the other grey, resulting from a punch-up years before over a girl and began to ramble on that he couldnt go on stage, that his life was a total mess and he was finished. Every one of his troubles poured out in a torrent as, in the grip of paranoia, he sobbed his heart out. His marriage was in ruins because he couldnt keep his hands off other women (and men). His manager was ripping him off financially. His body and mind were wrecked by cocaine and amphetamines. But his greatest fear, he said, was that he was actually losing his mind and slipping into insanity. As she listened in horror, Julie was witnessing David Bowies first mental and physical disintegration. He was like a man on a cliff edge, she recalled. He didnt fall off, not this time. Ever the showman, he managed to haul himself back from the brink. Roadies were out frantically looking for him as he pulled himself together and headed back into the theatre. Wheres David? a cry went up from his now desperate manager as the minutes ticked away to the start of the show. You tell me, muttered the confused superstar bleakly, unsure who he really was and what his life was all about. Years later there was a similarly bereft situation when his friend John Lennon found him sobbing into a handkerchief and simply repeating: Why? Why? Why? Yet that night in Hammersmith, dressed in a multi-coloured cat suit and red platform boots, then in black satin trousers with a diamond earring the size of a chandelier, he gave one of his greatest performances. David Bowie is pictured with his half brother Terry Burns. They shared a bedroom, and Terry introduced his kid brother to Buddhism, Beat poetry and jazz and took him to London clubs to get his first taste of rock n roll At the end, he dramatically announced he was killing off the character of Ziggy, to the shock of his audience (not to mention his band, who knew nothing of his decision and had in effect just been sacked). He explained that he felt he was being taken over by his alter ego and it scared him. He had to phase out Ziggy before Ziggy phased out David. That decision was presented as psychological necessity to save his sanity. But it was also a shrewd commercial move. Re-inventing himself brought in new punters to the cult of Bowie and kept the cash pouring in. He had no intention of being pensioned off and forgotten, the fate of so many in the music industry once they were past their sell-by-date. Soon he replaced Ziggy with a new persona, Aladdin Sane a lad insane. That was how, in his bleakest moments of depression, as in that alley at the back of the Odeon, Bowie saw himself. A mad man. There was another explanation. It could have been the drugs he stuffed up his nose in industrial quantities that were freaking him out, which was the view of one of his musicians. It was the cocaine, he said. All that dope he took gave him a high at night and a low in the morning. Thats when the paranoia came out. But did he take the drugs because of the madness or was it the drugs that sent him mad? Bowie believed the madness came first, rooted in his family and upbringing. He spoke kindly of his father, John Jones, describing him as a compassionate man who had a lot of love in him but couldnt express it. Killing off Ziggy and re-inventing himself brought in new punters to the cult of Bowie and kept cash pouring in He was saddened that I cant remember him ever touching me. But for his loud, fractious, moody mother Peggy, Bowie had barely a civil word, largely, it would seem, because she rarely had one for him. A compliment from her was very hard to come by, he recalled. I would get my paints out and all she could say was: I hope youre not going to make a mess. He found her distant, and the atmosphere at home distinctly cold. An aunt said there was not a lot of love around in the Jones household. To the end of her life, Bowie and his mother were often daggers drawn, arguing over anything and everything, except for the long periods when they did not speak at all. He blamed her for his sense of isolation, for being cut off from my feelings since I was maybe four years old. What he saw as her rejection of him caused a deep-seated insecurity that dogged him for much of his life. It may have been the root of his generally predatory sexual attitude to women and his refusal to engage with them emotionally. When asked by Michael Parkinson on television about his relationship with his mother, he quoted poet Philip Larkins famous line, They f*** you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. To the end of her life, Bowie and his mother were often daggers drawn, arguing over anything and everything - it may have been the root of his predatory attitude to women and his refusal to engage with them emotionally But what he does not seem to have recognised and dealt with more sympathetically was that his mother was struggling with her sanity, too. It ran in the family. One of her sisters was in an asylum because of depression and schizophrenia, a second was also schizophrenic and a thirds brain had been lobotomised to cure her nerves. Bowies own odd behaviour was also increasingly a cause of anxiety for his family. By his early teens he slept no more than four hours a night while in his bedroom he was scribbling down his thoughts and sending them to world leaders five letters a week to U.S. President Eisenhower at one stage. He also had a tendency to burst into tears for no particular reason and was convinced he was being persecuted by teachers and pupils at school because he was left-handed. And then there was Terry. His half-brother was the fruit of an affair the sexually adventurous Peggy had before she met John. He was ten years older, good-looking, well-read and musical, and David worshipped him. They shared a bedroom, and Terry introduced his teenage kid brother to Buddhism, Beat poetry and jazz and took him to London clubs to get his first taste of rock n roll. But Terry was also a manic depressive and schizophrenic. Biographer Paul Trynka described how one day David watched as Terry collapsed in the street in a psychotic fit, jabbering that the ground was opening up and fire pouring out. His description was so graphic, David almost believed it was real. His condition deteriorated until, just as Bowie was beginning his rise to fame with the 1969 hit Space Oddity, Terry was going into a mental institution. Bowie stood back, terrified of being tainted by the same condition. Although he had dabbled it was when he turned to cocaine in 1973 that his drug use got the better of him He wrote about madness in his songs, but after that had little contact with Terry. He felt guilty but simply couldnt handle the situation, to the point, as some of his family saw it, of neglecting his brother when he could have helped more. For Terry there was no cure. In 1985, he slipped out of the mental home, walked to a railway line and lay down with his head on a rail waiting for an express train. Bowie did not even go the funeral, for which he was hounded in the newspapers. But perhaps he didnt see the point in such ceremonies. After all, it has been reported that his own body has been quietly cremated without a formal funeral. But if succumbing to insanity was Bowies greatest fear, there were many times in his career when his bizarre behaviour came alarmingly close to that nuttiness he dreaded. At one stage, he was convinced he was being stalked by Martians greenies and that he was an extra-terrestrial, one of what he called the Light People, whose historic ranks included Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix. As biographer Christopher Sandford wrote, unidentified flying objects were a lifelong fixation, and to try to make contact, he stood on the roof at home pointing a wire coat hanger at the skies. A passer-by inquired, Do you get BBC2? and even Bowie had to admit he felt a pillock. As he became an international superstar and his horizons broadened, so did his screwball obsessions. In Los Angeles, he dabbled with neo-paganism and the occult, drinking his own urine, and sitting cross-legged on the floor surrounded by black candles. He planned a new religion based on the worship of pain and claimed witches were plotting to have him inseminate them so they could give birth to the son of Satan. Indeed, they were lurking outside as he spoke though this turned out just to be two fans. In extreme paranoid moments, he was convinced one of his staff was a CIA agent, another in the Mafia and a third a vampire. David Bowie with his wife Angie (pictured) in 1974. The couple ended up divorcing in 1980 He thought the Manson gang of hippy killers was out to get him and placed knives within easy reach to fight them off. He drew symbols on the window blinds to ward off evil spirits. Increasingly it was the drugs talking. In his early career, friends remember it was coffee that was his preferred stimulant, plus cigarettes and the occasional amphetamine pill. But now it was the late Sixties and Seventies, and drugs were a fact of life in the rock and pop music business and easily available. He moved on to marijuana incredible amounts, according to one girlfriend and LSD. There was so much dope and pills in his record studio that it resembled the Scotland Yard narcotics lab, one observer reckoned. But it was when he turned to cocaine in 1973 that his drug use got the better of him. Cocaine is a cruel drug. It makes people behave like absolute bastards, said fellow musician Keith Christmas, and he was spot-on. Paranoia is one of its major side-effects, especially on someone prone to feeling persecuted. What was also worrying was Bowies addictive nature. Sex was a compulsion for him, so too was going on stage and showing off, putting on a performance. Cocaine would be the same. Apparently he took a few toots at first to calm himself down, over-anxious about his finances and what his management team was up to. But it quickly took hold and all too soon he was snorting hundreds of dollars worth at a time. There were other reasons for his use of the white powder. It was an image thing, according to one of his entourage, something he incorporated into what a rock star should be. The drug also enabled him to work the crazy hours required to make records, play concerts and the other artistic endeavours he conceived in his fertile imagination. He could keep going for 24 hours without sleeping. He claimed it also stirred his creativity. He told an interviewer that in cocaine: Id found a soul-mate which helped perpetuate the creative moment. But his soul-mate was a devil in disguise. Keith Christmas remembered Bowie dropping a bag of cocaine on a hotel floor and getting down on all fours to sniff it up. As biographer Christopher Sandford wrote, when performing, Bowie got so wired another musician said he resembled a tiger in a cage as he prowled from one side of the stage to the other. He was thin, he twitched, his nose streamed, his eyes glittered, his lips stuck to his gums, he hallucinated, he scarcely slept or ate all signs of serious addiction. During the height of his cocaine addiction he was thin, he twitched, his nose streamed, his eyes glittered, his lips stuck to his gums, he hallucinated, he scarcely slept or ate Friends in the business such as Elton John thought he was going to die. On tour with Bowie in 1974, music journalist Mick Farren saw piles of the s**t everywhere. This was about as excessive as it got in a period of excess. Bowie himself admitted being totally out of my gourd at this time. My drug intake was absolutely phenomenal, he told the BBC years later. I was addicted. The paranoia exploded ever-more crazily. In one interview he babbled away, insisting that aliens were controlling his television set. It didnt help that some around him thought the drug enhanced his appeal. In her biography of Bowie, Wendy Leigh wrote how his friend and occasional lover Cherry Vanilla declared: I loved him when he was on cocaine. He was really interesting. He would tell stories about magic and fantasy, and come out with conspiracy stories and crazy theories. In reality, he was dangerously off his head. It had to stop, especially after recording a particular album in 1975 in what has been described as a blizzard of cocaine. Bowie was so strung out he couldnt even remember making it. What he did soon realise was that the friends he spent most of his time with were drug dealers. It was a wake-up call and just in time. He got out of Los Angeles and returned to Europe. There, he didnt totally kick cocaine, but his worst excesses were over. He knew hed almost gone over the edge of sanity. He would recall the cocaine period of his life as a blur, topped off with chronic anxiety, bordering on paranoia. I was undergoing serious mental problems and had too many grams [of drugs] in my system. They may only have been running errands, but model sisters Jessica and Ashley Hart still managed to look effortlessly striking in a casual look over the weekend. The Sydney-born lingerie models showed off their figures in clinging yoga pants and crop-tops during a trip to Bondi Markets on Sunday. Jessica, 29, opted for a matching blue and white ensemble, offering a glimpse of her rock-hard abs in the her sporty top. Scroll down for video Model citizens: Sydney-born lingerie models Jessica, 29, (left) and Ashley Hart, 26, (right) looked effortlessly chic during a trip to Bondi Markets on Sunday The former Victoria's Secret model also wore a large pair of glasses and black trainers, tying a light blue sweater around her waist Jessica, who is dating Greek billionaire Stavros Niarchos III, finished off her relaxed look with a brown leather rucksack and scruffy ponytail. Meanwhile 26-year-old Ashley displayed her runway-ready body in a pair of brightly coloured leggings. Having a ball! The pair burst into a fit of the giggles at one point during their outing in Sydney's Bondi Sibling quarrel? The pair stopped in the middle of the street to chat while clutching their haul in their arms Happy faces: The pair were quickly seen beaming again as they chatted while walking along the pavement She also showed off her sun-kissed curves in a tight-fitting black crop top that flaunted her washboard abs. Super-toned Ashley finished off her look with a pair of orange and purple Nike trainers and wore her icy blonde locks tied into a messy bun. The typically busy pair clearly appeared to enjoy their down-time, smiling and laughing as they walked through the streets of Bondi to check out local landmarks. Catching up: The sisters spend much of their time apart due to modelling commitments which see them travel the world In shape: Both sisters opted for crop-tops to display their taut abs and toned arms, with Ashley weighing herself down with shopping bags Working it: The pair returned to Australia before Christmas to spend the holiday together and with friends Ashley toted a bundle of fresh flowers in one hand and carried her phone in the other as they made their way around. The beauty flashed her engagement ring and wedding band during the outing which comes nine months after her secret wedding to Buck Palmer. The couple eloped in Los Angeles, admitting to the Herald Sun in May: 'We did this really spontaneous, just-the-two-of-us wedding which was beautiful. I am Mrs Palmer' Distinctive: Jessica, a former Victoria's Secret model, flashed her iconic gap-toothed grin during the outing Where to next? Jessica stopped in the street to chat to Ashley who displayed her pert derriere in some colourful leggings 'We went totally boho, it was totally us and was perfect,' says Ashley, before adding that she wore 'a vintage, long flowy dress and we wore Akubras.' Buck proposed to Ashley in the south of France in July last year, after she'd spent four months away from her man on a yoga teacher training course in India. In recent weeks Jessica has been travelling around Australia, exploring the country's landmarks and getting back to her roots. Earlier this month she visited the famous Kata Tjuta rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, posing in tiny denim hot-pants. Who's laughing now? The Australian model sisters chuckle as they carry their shopping home Peachy: Blonde Ashley displayed her pert bottom in a pair of multi-coloured leggings and matching Nike shoes Her travels perhaps inspired a recent Instagram post in which the globetrotting model, who moved to the States early in her career, claimed she was still proud to call Australia home. Jessica wrote: 'It wasn't until I moved to New York I felt the freedom to be myself, be different and not try so hard to be like everyone else. I'm Australian and proud of it! 'Unfortunately I had to leave my country, friends and family from a young age to make a dent in my industry or to even get noticed by the rest of my country (strange that). 'But it's a sacrifice I would make 10 times over to be where I am today.' It was a battle of the bare-faced selfies for the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Instagram over the weekend. Lisa Rinna, 52, posted a make-up free selfie from her pillow on Sunday, just a day after her co-star Yolanda Foster did the same thing. The brunette reality television she captioned her snap: 'Me. Sunday.' Coincidence? Lisa Rinna, 52, appeared to be imitating cast-mate Yolanda Foster on Sunday when she posted a make-up free selfie from her pillow On Saturday, the 52-year-old blonde mother of Gigi Hadid showed how looked when she woke up when she Instagrammed a picture. The newly single star captioned the shot: 'Just because some ppl are done with your journey, doesn't mean your journey is done........ #AnotherWastedSaturday #LifeFromTheSideLines #Spoonie #LymeDiseaseAwereness #DeterminedToFindACure #AffordableForAll PS: Bad Selfie Day.' Lisa's followers were quick to spot the similarity. Woke up like this: However, on Saturday, the 52-year-old blonde mother of Gigi Hadid shared a pillow-picture first Emilessa wrote: 'Is this a dig a Yolanda?', while another wrote: 'Lisa, I really like you but this is just mean.' The added attention prompted Lisa to innocently respond: 'Why am I being compared to anyone just curious?' Last month Lisa questioned Yolanda's battle with Lyme Disease during an episode of RHOBH. I feel that Yolandas posts on Instagram can be confusing, because one minute shes in a hospital bed with needles in her arm and the next shes on a yacht looking like shes having a great time, said Lisa. Sincere flattery? Lisa's followers were quick to spot the similarity, disbelieving it was a co-incidence The actress then read a description of Munchausen syndrome where people feign illness to gain attention or sympathy. Responding in a blog post after the show, Yolanda said several friends had reacted angrily, but she rose above it, claiming 'I am not enraged or affected anymore by what I have learned to see as human nature and the weak side of it'. 'I do wonder though why these adult women sit around drinking wine in the afternoon debating another persons health issues?' she asked. 'As much as I wished they cared enough to learn and ask questions, I must blame it on and assume it's "ignorance".' On Tuesday Andy Cohen quizzed Lisa Vanderpump about Rinna's accusation that the former model was 'faking' her disease. Frenemy: Last month Lisa questioned Yolanda's battle with Lyme Disease during an episode of RHOBH (pictured here in matching outfits in 2014) Vanderpump admitted that Rinna had been listening to gossip, but denied that they'd doubted her authenticity. Yolanda has has just filed for divorce from her husband David Foster and it seemed she could have been referring to her split and now impending divorce from 66-year-old David in her post on Saturday. The couple announced their split at the beginning of December, bringing an end to their four-year marriage. Tough times: The reality star has battled with the debilitating condition Lyme Disease through a large portion of her married life with David Foster According to TMZ, Yolanda cited 'irreconcilable differences' in the paperwork on Tuesday. The website reported that she is seeking spousal support, despite being worth an estimated $45 million to his $30 million. There will be no custody battles, since the couple had no children together. Yolanda is mother to Gigi, Bella and Anwar Hadid from her first marriage to Jordanian-American real estate developer Mohamed Hadid. David meanwhile - including Yolanda's three - had a total of 11 children and step-children throughout his four marriages. Love lost: Viewers saw David made a cruel jibe against Yolanda in the latest episode of real Housewives of Beverly Hills The reality star has battled with the debilitating condition Lyme Disease through a large portion of the couple's married life. Viewers saw David made a cruel jibe against Yolanda in the latest episode of real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The program, which aired on Tuesday, saw her recovering from breast surgery, which she had undergone to remove her implants. David was seen on the phone to Lisa Vanderpump, joking rather cruelly: Lets just say this Ken [Lisas husband] has better t*ts than her nowbigger, he said to Lisa as Yolanda lay in her hospital bed next to him. Arwen and Legolas were reunited for the first time in 13 years on Sunday night when Liv Tyler and former co-star Orlando Bloom attended the star-studded Critics' Choice Awards. Spotting the pregnant actress from across the room, the handsome British actor - who famously shared the screen with Liv in Lord Of The Rings - approached his old friend for a cuddle. Orlando, 39, - with an open mouth and wide eyes - couldn't have looked more excited to see The Leftovers star, 38, and her new burgeoning bump. Scroll down for video Reunited: Liv Tyler (left) was reunited with former Lord Of The Rings co-star Orlando Bloom (right) at Sunday night's Critics Choice Awards The pair worked together on the book-to-film trilogy for three years, until it came to an end with Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King in 2003. And they seemed delighted to be face-to-face to again this weekend as they joined a host of stars celebrating the best of cinematic talent. Displaying their old bond, Orlando grabbed the star by the shoulders and pulled her in for a hug as she touched the side of his face with an affectionate caress. Delighted: The chance meeting seemed to have delighted both actors and they went in for a hug Throwback: Orlando played Legolas in the famous book-to-film trilogy Screen star: He famously starred alongside Liv, as Arwen, for three years while they filmed the three parts Coincidentally, they were both wearing navy and made the perfect match as they turned back to the camera to capture the cute moment with a picture. She had something of an elfin nature about her awards ensemble and swept her hair to one side with some sparkling hair pieces. Pregnant Liv - who is expecting her third child - was positively glowing and proudly displaying her bump in an elegant backless dress that hung off her frame. Old friends: They turned to share the cute moment with the cameras, both wearing matching navy Old flames? It was reported back in late 2013 that the pair turned their platonic relationship into something more following his split with wife Miranda Kerr While neither of the pair were up for an award that night; the choice run-in seemed to have made their evening. Their characters were far from intimate on screen though it was reported back in 2013 that the two actors shared a tryst following his separation from wife Miranda Kerr. Back in December that year, it was claimed they 'took an otherwise platonic relationship to the next level.' Embrace: They shared a brief catch up inside the event, wrapping arms around each other affectionately No gongs for us: While they weren't nominated, the chance meeting at the awards bash seemed to make their evenings Expecting: Liv is currently expecting her second child with with her partner Dave Gardner 2016 CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS: WINNERS IN FILM BEST PICTURE Spotlight BEST ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant BEST ACTRESS Brie Larson - Room BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sylvester Stallone - Creed BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRES Jacob Tremblay -Room BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE Spotlight BEST DIRECTOR George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE Tom Hardy - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE Charlize Theron - Mad Max: Fury Road BEST COMEDY The Big Short BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY Christian Bale - The Big Short BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY Amy Schumer - Trainwreck GENIUS AWARD Industrial Light & Magic BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Amy BEST ACTION MOVIE Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE Ex Machina BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Son of Saul BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Inside Out BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy - Spotlight BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Charles Randolph and Adam McKay - The Big Short BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY The Revenant - Emmanuel Lubezki BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Colin Gibson BEST EDITING Mad Max: Fury Road - Margaret Sixel BEST COSTUME DESIGN Mad Max: Fury Road - Jenny Beavan BEST HAIR & MAKEUP Mad Max: Fury Road BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Mad Max: Fury Road BEST SONG Furious 7 - See You Again BEST SCORE The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone Advertisement Sources claimed to have seen them 'playfully tickling, gazing into each others eyes and holding hands' during a night at New York's Broadways Cort Theatre in November. Liv is currently expecting her second child with partner Dave Gardner, who was seemingly at home looking after their 11-month-old son Sailor and her 12-year-old boy Milo, from her marriage to Royston Langdon. Meanwhile, Orlando is still said to be single following his five-year marriage but was most recently thought to be pursuing pop singer Katy Perry. So young: Orlando and Liv, seen here at The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie premiere in 2001 with co-star Elijah Wood, hit it off straight away A clip featuring late stars David Bowie and Alan Rickman in an episode of The Simpsons has resurfaced and has been posted online as a tribute. The British musician died of cancer on Sunday, aged 69, while the Hollywood actor passed away at the same age on Thursday, also from cancer. The footage comes from a 2013 Valentine-themed episode, entitled Love Is A Many-Splintered Thing, which sees Bart trying to impress a lady by watching Love, Indubitably, a parody of classic movie Love Actually. Coincidence: A clip featuring late stars David Bowie and Alan Rickman in an episode of The Simpsons has resurfaced and has been posted online as a tribute Since the tragic news of the deaths of both Bowie and Rickman last week, the 60-second snippet has since received a euphoric outpour from beloved fans. In the scenes Rickman can be seen dressed as Professor Snape, while Bowies hit song All The Young Dudes can be heard in the background. Love is more powerful than all my magic, declares the Harry Potter star. British icons: The musician (L) died of cancer on Sunday, aged 69, while the Hollywood actor (R) passed away at the same age on Thursday, also from cancer Valentine-themed: The footage comes from a 2013 episode, entitled Love Is A Many-Splintered Thing, which sees Bart trying to impress a lady by watching Love, Indubitably, a parody of classic movie Love Actually Love is more powerful than all my magic': In the scenes Rickman can be seen dressed as Professor Snape, while Bowies hit song All The Young Dudes can be heard in the background It also features Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, while Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, and Shakespeare all make appearances. The Simpsons executive producers Al Jean and Matt Selman posted tributes to Bowie on Twitter, by sharing sketch mock-ups of the star. .@TheSimpsons tribute to a genius, said Al, while Matt wrote: This is as close as we ever got to having David Bowie on The Simpsons. A Simpsons special: It also features Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, while Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, and Shakespeare all make appearances Popular: Since the tragic news of the deaths of both Bowie and Rickman last week, the 60-second snippet has since received a euphoric outpour from beloved fans News of Bowie's death after an 18-month fight against cancer was confirmed on Monday, two days after the release of his final album, Blackstar. Described as a 'parting gift' to fans, the haunting record was released on January 8, which was the artist's 69th birthday. Meanwhile, Rickman - known for his role in the Harry Potter franchise and as the villainous Hans Gruber in Die Hard - passed away surrounded by relatives and friends on Thursday. Honoured: The Simpsons executive producers Al Jean and Matt Selman also posted tributes to Bowie on Twitter, by sharing sketch mock-ups of the star First there was the blow that Matthew Perry would not be part of the long-awaited special Friends episode. And now David Schwimmer has denied any existence of a so-called 'reunion' for Ross Gellar and pals Chandler Bing, Rachel Green, Phoebe Bouffay, Monica Gellar and Joey Tribbiani. Correcting one reporter who asked about the exciting event, which was revealed last week, the 49-year-old explained that the actors are planning an NBC tribute, which will also include the stars of Frasier and Cheers. Scroll down for video No reunion: David Schwimmer has denied that his Friends character Ross Gellar will reunite with pals Chandler Bing, Rachel Green, Phoebe Bouffay, Monica Gellar and Joey Tribbiani for a special episode He said: 'There's no Friends reunion. It's a tribute to Jimmy Burrows who we love and I'm just thrilled to be a part of it. 'As many of us that can be there will be there and the casts of so many shows are going to try to be thereFrasier, Cheers, Will and Grace, it goes on. Taxi. 'This man is an incredible director who helped define situation comedy in this country in the last 40 years so I love him and I'm excited to be there.' Burrows served as a director for the Nineties sitcom throughout its 10-year run, with other TV projects also including 3rd Rock from the Sun, Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory during his expansive career. Not happening: (Clockwise from L) Matt Le Blanc as Joey, Lisa Kudrow as Pheobe, David Schwimmer as Ross, Matthew Perry as Chandler, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel, and Courteney Cox Arquette as Monica are not getting back together Paying tribute: David revealed other actors including that of Cheers and Fraiser will unite to pay tribute to NBC director James Burrows, pictured in LA in February 2014, and his work in television Following the news that Chandler actor Matthew would not be taking part in the tribute, which will reunite stars Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox, David did express his deep disappointment. 'I wish I could say it was going to be a reunion. [It's a] 5/6 reunion,' David told E! News this week, adding: 'Sure I'm sad, but I'm happy for him, he's doing a play in London and it's thrilling. I did one there and it was fantastic.' Just last Wednesday, fans of the sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004 were reacting with great excitement when a network executive suggested that Perry along with his co-stars would be back together. The TV event would have marked the first time that the famous six-piece had been reunited on television for 12 years. 'It's not the reunion everyone is hoping for': Matthew Perry will introduce the Friends special from London 'The other five are going to be on this special': Perry will be absent from the tribute for Jim Burrows but Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox will be in attendance But Matthew broke the news during filming for The Graham Norton show in the British capital late last week, confirming that it would be a documentary and not an episode. He said: 'It's not the reunion everyone is hoping for, they are celebrating Jim Burrows who was a director of Friends. 'The other five [Friends] are going to be on this special and I am going to introduce them from London. I'm doing the play here so I can't be there.' Perry is due to make his West End debut in his own play The End Of Longing on February 2 at the Playhouse Theatre. 'I can't be there': NBC execs had hinted on Wednesday that the six stars might reunite for the televised tribute to their former sitcom director however Perry will be in London performing in the West End 'I knew it would be a success': Matthew admitted he had no idea Friends would become such a phenomenon Good company: Matthew joins Miriam Margolyes, Gemma Arterton and Jack Savoretti on The Graham Norton Show on BBC One, 15th January at 10.35pm A gathering of sorts: Five out of the six Friends will be appearing together in LA for the special tribute to Burrows which is set to air on February 21 Iconic: The sitcom ran from 1994 to 2004 on NBC and was a huge ratings winner, turning its previously unknown cast into A-list stars While talking to Norton, Matthew admitted that although he was confident Friends would not flop, he had no idea it would become such a phenomenon. The 46-year-old asserted: 'I knew it would be a success and that we had something special, but I didnt know the giant hit it would become.' However it seems not everyone got the memo about Perry's unavailability for the NBC special which is set to air on February 21. As keen Le Blanc retweeted the news of a Friends reunion, writing 'Should be a fun time!', and his tweet was later retweeted on Kudrow's official Twitter feed. Beloved: Fans watched as the characters evolved over the course of a decade on television Didn't get the memo: LeBlanc and Kudrow both seemingly endorsed the notion of a Friends reunion. After LeBlanc tweeted 'Should be a good time!' Then Kudrow retweeted it Excitement in the air: LeBlanc and Kudrow were clearly looking forward to the reunion The fan favourite show lasted a decade and chronicled the lives of a group of tight-knit friends living in New York City. But over the years, the stars have made no secret of why they are no longer interested in revisiting their characters or even reconnecting. Cox recounted the obstacles she was often up against when trying to reunite her co-stars just for dinner during an interview on The Late Show With David Letterman in 2014. 'Let me tell you something,' she said. 'There's six friends and I've been trying to put together a cast dinner for 10 years. It doesn't happen!' 'I can get the girls to come, maybe Matthew Perry. Matt LeBlanc canceled last time right at the last minute. Schwimmer lives here [in New York City], so it's just not gonna happen.' Co-stars: Jennifer Aniston, pictured in Los Angeles in August, starred as Rachel, while David Schwimmer, pictured in New York in December, portrayed Ross Not so fast: Courteney Cox, who starred as Monica on the sitcom, has described the the obstacles she encountered when trying to reconnect with her former co-stars. She's pictured in Los Angeles in November Kudrow has cited her age as the primary reason she isn't interested in reprising her Friends role. 'I'm too old,' she told HuffPost Live in 2013. 'I wouldn't even have an interest in seeing what those people are doing 10 years later as parents that have to be responsible. It would be so different that it wouldn't be Friends anymore.' LeBlanc also believes the magic of Friends would be lost now that the characters are older. 'Friends was about a finite period of time in your life, like after college and before your life really gets started. That's sort of where you're away from home and you're away from college, and your friends are your family,' he said onThe Meredith Viera Show. 'Once that's over, nobody wants to see Joey at his prostate exam,' he joked. Shes a modern fashion icon, who often favours black when it comes to her style choices. And on Monday, Victoria Beckham rocked yet another praise-worthy look as she arrived at Londons grand Claridge's Hotel for a breakfast meeting. The former Spice Girls star, 41, cut a typically polished figure in a striking ensemble, which consisted of a long black coat, a plain blouse and flared satin-like trousers. Scroll down for video Style star: Victoria Beckham rocked yet another praise-worthy look as she arrived at Londons grand Claridge's Hotel for a breakfast meeting on Monday Keeping her look understated, yet, perfectly stylish, the mother-of-four rounded off the proceedings with an obligatory pair of sunglasses, a small clutch and chic heels. She wore her glossy brunette tresses loose in tousled waves, while her pretty facial features were immaculate as ever with flawlessly applied makeup. Meanwhile, Victoria's sighting comes soon after she ruled out any involvement in a future Spice Girls reunion. See more of the latest Victoria Beckham pictures as she looks chic in all-black Trademark look: The former Spice Girls star, 41, cut a typically polished figure in a striking ensemble All wrapped up: The popular fashion desinger dressed her slender frame in a long black coat, a plain blouse and flared satin-like trousers Standing tall: Keeping her look understated, yet, perfectly stylish, the mother-of-four rounded off the proceedings with an obligatory pair of sunglasses The fashion designer told TMZ that she will not be joining her former bandmates on stage if plans of a 2016 world tour is put in place as she wants to focus on her family and thriving fashion career. A spokesperson for the star said Victoria has been very respectful about the fabulous time they had together in the past, however her focus is now very much her family and fashion business. The girl group - also consisting of Emma Bunton, Mel B, Mel C and Geri Horner nee Halliwell - released their debut single in 1996 and will celebrate two decades in the spotlight this year. Preened to perfection: She wore her glossy brunette tresses loose in tousled waves, while her pretty facial features were immaculate as ever with flawlessly applied makeup Classic: The perennially well-dressed star teamed her looked with chic stilettos Coming through: Victoria carefully made her way along the streets, surrounded by her entourage Out and about: The British star appeared to be in relaxed and content spirits during her outing in the morning After going their separate ways in 2000, Victoria tried to carve a solo career before making it huge in the world of fashion. Last month, Mel B - aka Scary Spice - appeared confident that the five women would be joining forces on stage once again for a final farewell. She was quizzed about the possibility of a reunion on Alan Carr's New Year's Specstacular, and the crowd cheered with delight at Mel's positive reaction to the rumours. 'I think Im the one putting all the rumours out there', she joked. 'To be serious, it is out twentieth anniversary this year and it would be rude not to celebrate so hopefully something will be happening pretty soon.' Meanwhile... Victoria's sighting comes soon after she ruled out any involvement in a future Spice Girls reunion McLean arrested at his Camden home where he lives with his wife Patrisha American Pie singer and folk legend Don McLean has been arrested for domestic violence assault. Police were called to the 70-year-old rock star's mansion in the sleepy suburb of Camden, Maine, at 2am on Monday. The singer-songwriter was released from Knox County jail later that day after posting a $10,000 bail. Scroll down for video The mug shot: Don McLean has been arrested for domestic violence assault. Police were called to the 70-year-old rock star's mansion in the sleepy suburb of Camden, Maine, at 2 am on Monday, according to TMZ The singer, whose last performance was at the Maine Lobster Festival in August, lives in Camden with his wife Patrisha McLean with whom he has two children, Jackie and Wyatt. It's not the first time that the 1970s icon has had a brush with the law. In 2013, McLean was fined $400 for driving his Chrysler too fast through a Maine school zone. McLean's attorney argued the school zone warning lights requiring a 15 mph limit were not flashing; police said they were on. His biggest hit to date remains the 1971 Number 1. American Pie about the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959 The Day the Music Died. The man and his guitar: The 1970s icon lives in Camden with his wife Patrisha McLean They have two children, Jackie and Wyatt A legend: The New York native's other hit songs include Vincent, And I Love You So and Castles In The Air; here he is seen in 1973 He has awards: The star, seen here in May in London, is in the Grammy Hall Of Fame and Songwriters Hall Of Fame McLean's original manuscript and notes to 'American Pie' sold at auction for $1.2 million in April. Madonna covered his song American Pie in the year 2000 to go along with her film The Next Best Thing in which she starred with Rupert Everett. Her cover is much shorter than the original (it contains only the beginning of the first verse and all of the second and sixth verses) and was recorded as a dance-pop song. It was co-produced by Madonna and William Orbit. The New York native's other hit songs include Vincent, And I Love You So and Castles In The Air. They were the underdog couple that won The Block: Fans vs. Faves. But Chantelle Ford and Steve O'Donnell called it quits on their relationship last year, 14 months after winning $736,000 on the reality series. Now Chantelle seems to have found romance once again, with The Daily Telegraph reporting that the attractive fashion designer and interior stylist has been dating Sydney paparazzo Guillaume Gros. Scroll down for video Moving on: Chantelle Ford has found romance again seven months after splitting with Steve O'Donnell According to the newspaper, the unlikely couple met when Guillaume was taking the beauty's photo on Bondi Beach over the holidays. But the publication claims Guillaume downplayed rumours of a romance - insisting he has just returned from a long break in Europe. It comes after the one-time Channel Nine star informed her fans of her split with longtime love Steve last year via Facebook. 'We interrupt your Sunday night to let you know that we are no longer a couple,' the twosome wrote on their joint page, which has since been changed to a Chantelle-only page. See more of the latest news and updates on The Block's Chantelle Ford 'We've had an incredible 3.5+ years together and remain the best of mates, but both agree that we are better off as friends.' 'Theres no drama, no scandal, were just two people with an enormous amount of respect for each other who, together, made this difficult decision.' In the seven months since their split, the hunky bachelor has dropped 5kg and put on a ton of muscle, and while he's surely gaining female attention, it's not really at the front of his mind. 'We are better off as friends:' Chantelle and Steve called it quits last year after 3.5 years together 'If it happens...' he began, then paused: 'All my focus is on developing myself and my lifestyle and putting my efforts behind that,' he said. While most people following a break up would be sobbing into a tub of ice-cream, Steve has used his newly single life to completely transform his physical being, committing to a training schedule of high intensity interval training five to six times a week. 'It's quite funny, a lot of people have asked me how it feels to be in shape, it feels quite normal now,' he told the Daily Mail Australia, having just returned from the gym. Jada Pinkett has revealed she will not be attending the Oscars, or watching it on television, in response to the lack of nominations for people of color. The star posted a video on Monday - Martin Luther King Day in the U.S, voicing her thoughts on the lack of diversity in this years nominations at the Academy Awards. Delivering a powerful speech, she said: 'I can't help ask the question: is it time that people of color, recognise how much power and influence we have amassed that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere.' Scroll down for video Boycott: Jada Pinkett has revealed she will not be attending the Oscars, or watching it on television, in response to the lack of nominations for people of color The 44-year-old star went on: 'I ask the question have we now come to a new time and place, where we recognise that we can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgement or respect of any group. 'That maybe it is time that we recognise of we love, respect and acknowledge ourselves in the way we are asking others to do, then that that is the place of true power. I'm simply asking the question.' Airing her thoughts on the Academy's neglect to nominate any people of color in the top categories she said: 'Here is what I believe, the Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose and now, I think that it is our responsibility now, to make the change. The 44-year-old star said: 'I ask the question have we now come to a new time and place, where we recognise that we can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgement or respect of any group' She added: 'Maybe it is time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities and to our programs, and we make programs for ourselves' No bad feeling; Jada added she had nothing but love for the Academy Jada, whose husband Will Smith has received other award nominations for his role in Concussion, then inferred the only way to overcome the situation was for people of color to do things themselves. She said: 'Maybe it is time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities and to our programs, and we make programs for ourselves and that acknowledge us in ways that see us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good, as the so called main stream ones. 'Here is what I do know - begging for acknowledgment, or even asking diminishes dignity, and diminishes power, and we are a dignified people and we are powerful and lets not forget it.' 'Let's let the Academy do that with all grace and love and let's do us differently. I have got nothing but love.' Not happy: Jada had already taken to Twitter on Saturday saying she was not happy with the lack of diversity with the nominations - she is seen here she is seen at the Golden Globe Awards on January 10 Big words: The 44-year-old star hinted that perhaps some people should boycott the Oscars Sending a message to Chris Rock, who is presenting this year, and has already branded the ceremony the 'white BET awards' she added: 'Hey Chris I will not be at the Academy Awards and I will not be watching. 'But I cannot think of a better man to do the job in hand this year than you my friend. Good luck and to the rest of you, nothing but love, always.' Jada had already made her feelings clear on Saturday, in a series of tweets, saying: 'At the Oscars . . . people of color are always welcomed to give out awards . . . even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments.' Her other half: 'At the Oscars . . . people of color are always welcomed to give out awards . . . even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments,' said the Gotham star; Will has been nominated twice before at the Academy Awards The Gotham star added: 'Should people of color refrain from participating all together?' Will was nominated for an Oscar twice: in 2001 for Ali (he lost to Denzel Washington for Training Day) and in 2006 for The Pursuit Of Happyness (he lost to Forest Whitaker for The Last King Of Scotland). Jada has not been nominated for an Academy Award. Her circle: Pinkett with Will and Empire actress Taraji P. Henson, who won Sunday at the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel The announcement of the nominees was followed by immediate backlash on Twitter, including the use of the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Many believed the stars of Straight Outta Compton should have been given a nod, as well as Will for Concussion. Jada is not the only black actor to say they are boycotting this year's ceremony - Spike Lee, who has been nominated for a lifetime achievement award, has also said he will not be attending. No he didn't: On the same day, Chris Rock called the Oscars - which he is being paid to host - the 'white BET Awards' The Academy Awards will air on ABC on February 28 at 7 p.m. EST. The Set It Off actress added, 'People can only treat us in the way in which we allow. With much respect in the midst of deep disappointment, J.' For the second year in a row, there were no black performers nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor or Best Supporting Actress. This year's Oscars host, Chris Rock, also referenced the lack of diversity on Twitter. He posted a 15-second promo clip on Friday with the caption, 'The #Oscars. The White BET Awards.' This should be fun: The Academy Awards will air on ABC on February 28 at 7 p.m. EST His striking good looks and Irish charm have made him a favourite with film fans across the world. And Jonathan Rhys Meyers appeared to be back to his best when he stepped out in Malibu, California, on Friday, following a very public drinking relapse last May. The actor, 38, displayed plenty of chest as he wore his navy denim shirt open to reveal the tip of his chest inking, while his rolled up sleeves revealed further tattoos. Scroll down for video Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 38, appeared to be back to his best when he stepped out in Malibu, California, on Friday, following a very public drinking relapse last May Jonathan matched the garment with a comfy pair of black jogging bottoms and heavy duty burgundy boots with contrasting lace colours. The Tudors star looked confident in the unusual ensemble, walking with his left hand tucked in pocket. Clean shaven, except for a sprinkling of stubble on his chin, the star's dark hair was messily coiffed in a stylish fashion. Rock star: The actor displayed plenty of chest as he wore his navy denim shirt open to reveal the tip of his chest inking, while his rolled up sleeves revealed further tattoos Back to his best: Jonathan matched the garment with a comfy pair of black jogging bottoms and heavy duty burgundy boots with contrasting lace colours There was no sign of Jonathan's fiancee Mara Lane, but the pair were spotted together on Thursday as they headed out to run errands in Beverly Hills. The pair, who met in spring 2014 and were engaged just seven months later, covered up in colour co-ordinated ensembles for the low-key outing. In May 2015, shocking images emerged of Meyers looking dishevelled as he drank vodka straight from the bottle. Following the relapse, The Tudors star, who has battled alcohol issues for over a decade, apologised to his fans in a statement released via his fiancee's Instagram account. Undercover: There was no sign of Jonathan's fiancee Mara Lane, but the pair were spotted together on Thursday as they headed out to run errands in Beverly Hills Alongside an image of the couple he wrote: 'Mara and I are thankful for your support and kindness during this time. 'I apologizes [sic] for having a minor relapse and hope that people don't think too badly of me.' Meyers continued: 'I stopped drinking immediately and it is no reflection on Damascus Cover (a film he starred in last year) as I was not meant to attend Cannes this year and I apologize to fans and colleagues.' 'I am on the mend and thank well wishers and sorry for my disheveled appearance as I was on my way home from a friends and had not changed'. Relapse: In May 2015, shocking images emerged of Meyers looking dishevelled as he drank vodka straight from the bottle He added: 'I feel I made a mistake and feel quite embarrassed but this was just a blip in my recovery otherwise I'm living a healthy life.' The actor has had a well-publicised battle with alcohol since first shooting to fame in 2002 as the love interest of Parminder Nagra's character in the hit British movie Bend it Like Beckham. Jonathan is believed to have had six stints in rehab over the past few years, including programmes at the Promises facility in Malibu, California in 2005 and 2007. Meanwhile in November 2011, the star was ordered by a French court to pay a restitution of 1,000 and was given a judgment of a suspended sentence for public intoxication 24 months earlier. The star's latest project, the historical Irish drama The Rising, is set hit screens in March. Jonathan plays the part of teacher and activist Padraig Pearse in the film which tells the story of the 1916 Easter Rising; the catalyst for part of Ireland being liberated from British rule. She has spoken at length about her money issues and the highs and lows since starring on the Biggest Loser. And now after being besieged with slurs from online trolls after appealing for funds to help raise money for her son's sick kitten, Ajay Rochester has launched a defence of her actions. Taking to Facebook on Tuesday, the 46-year-old fired off: 'If you want to continue to kick me until I end up like Charlotte Dawson, who took her life after relentless bullying in the media and by trolls then you can kiss my fat a**. Scroll down for video Hitting back: Former Biggest Loser host Ajay Rochester asked fans to lend some cash to help fund her son Kai's sick kitten's medical expenses, prompting criticism from online trolls. She tells them to stop 'bullying' her Defiant: The single mother hit back at online haters 'You CANNOT and WILL NOT destroy me!' she said defiantly. Over the weekend, the mother-of-one asked fans to lend some cash to help fund her son Kai's sick kitten's medical expenses launching a Go Fund Me page. The move sparked a barrage of comments from angry newspaper readers calling her 'a scrounger' and urging her to get pet insurance. Charity page: The fundraising target on Ajay's Go Fund Me page is displayed as $800, of which $330 had already been raised by 18 donors in 24 hours Continuing her defence, Ajay wrote on Facebook: 'I didnt [earn millions doing Biggest Loser]... 'I had a cr***y literary agent when I signed on and she had NO idea about television and did a ridiculous deal.' She went on: 'They signed me to $40,000 a year with a $10,000 increase over four years. There. Not millions. Ive never earned millions. 'Im a single mom who does her level best to survive. I receive no child support, no pension and my son receives no disability pension or whatever it is people think he might get.' Loved one: The garrulous blonde host explained her teenage son Kai is very close to the kitten Nacho Ajay's son Kai, who has Asperger's, launched a fundraising target on Ajay's Go Fund Me page is displayed as $800, of which $330 had already been raised by 18 donors in 24 hours. She urged her fans in her post for funds: 'I'm asking for help for Kai. In the last year Kai lost his grandpa, his uncle and his best friend. 'I got him a kitten to help with the healing and they have become best friends. 'Sadly, Nacho became sick a few days ago and I just don't have the funds to get the medical help he needs. Kai has made a GofundMe and is asking people for help. If you could spare a couple of dollars he would be truly thankful (as would I),' she said. This isn't the first time Ajay has reached out to the public in a plea for financial assistance. Serious condition: On Sunday morning Ajay informed fans that Nacho had been hospitalised Two years ago, she was said to be struggling to pay the costly legal fees needed to represent Kai, who allegedly faced being sent to juvenile detention if found guilty of committing felony arson at his high school. Adamant the charges have been blown out of proportion, the single mother sold copies of her Curvy Girl Calendar and offered a variety of personal services to use towards 'keeping my kid out of juvey [juvenile detention] fund'. Ajay is well known to Australians for her role as The Biggest Loser host from 2006 to 2009. Bad news: The media personality updated fans on Sunday morning, informing them Nacho's condition had worsened Since then she has relocated to the US, and recently announced she had signed to American network Myx TV for an upcoming show. 'Great news! I just got a TV show! For cable network myxtv,' she posted alongside an image of herself holding a champagne bottle last month. She went on to add: 'Films in February! #Hollywood #2016 #readyformycloseup.' Myx TV is the only English-language multicultural Asian American entertainment network in the United States. Hugh Jackman was in the company of royalty on Monday as he enjoyed the first day of the 26th edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Switzerland. The Australian star joined Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco and Taiwanese actress Guei Lun-Mei to marvel at an extravagant watch by Montblanc in the companys booth at the event in Geneva. Hugh, 47, cut a suave figure in a classic navy suit which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and a plum tie. Scroll down for video Take a closer look: Hugh Jackman was in the company of royalty on Monday as he enjoyed the first day of the 26th edition of the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Switzerland Royal beauty Charlotte looked stylish in simple grey dress while she styled her brunette locks into light curls and completed her look with pink lipstick. Screen star Guei opted for a striking white ensemble and sported her short crop in a sleek straight style worn away from her face. The SIHH is a private trade fair, reserved exclusively for professionals in Fine Watchmaking, who are invited by the exhibiting brands. Special guests: The Australian star joined Charlotte Casiraghi of Monaco and Taiwanese actress Guei Lun-Mei to marvel at an extravagant watch by Montblanc in the companys booth at the event in Geneva The group were given the chance to examine the new time pieces alongside Montblancs executive VP Marketing, Jens Henning Koch. Hughs attendance came just days after he had a chance encounter with his X-Men co-star James McAvoy in Budapest on Saturday. The pair ran into each other in a hotel and Instagram fan Hugh couldnt help but share a selfie of the incidental reunion with his followers. Invite only: The group were given the chance to examine the new time pieces alongside Montblancs executive VP Marketing, Jens Henning Koch 'The one and only young Prof Charles Xavier': Hughs attendance came just days after he had a chance encounter with his X-Men co-star James McAvoy in Budapest on Saturday The 47-year-old wrote: 'Walking through the lobby in Budapest and who do I bump into .... The one and only young Prof Charles Xavier. The stars grinned widely for the camera, while James, who stars as a young Professor Charles Xavier in the franchise, gave a thumbs up. Hugh, who played the monstrously muscular character of Wolverine, donned a black biker jacket with a sheerling collar, while the Scottish actor wore a simple black t-shirt. The actor has been enjoying some time out after finishing up his energetic Broadway To Oz shows which saw him tour Australia last year. Journalist killed in Yemen capital bombing A freelance Yemeni journalist was killed Sunday in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition on rebel-held Sanaa, a witness and his employer said. Almigdad Mojalli was hit by shrapnel as a missile slammed into the capital's southern Jaref suburb while he was covering air strikes, said his colleague, photojournalist Bahir Hameed. "Planes were hovering above when we were struck," Hameed said. Smoke billows early in the morning on September 12, 2015, following an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition targeting an arms depot in the Yemeni capital Sanaa Mohammed Huwais (AFP/File) According to his Twitter account, Mojalli reported for Voice Of America and the IRIN humanitarian news agency. IRIN said it was "shocked by this terrible loss". "With great sadness, we received news from the family of Almigdad Mojalli, our regular contributor in Yemen, that he was killed today," said a post on its official Twitter account. "Almigdad was an excellent journalist, committed to neutrally & objectively telling the suffering of the Yemeni people in a brutal civil war. "We are... still in the process of gathering information about the circumstances of his death." At least five journalists were killed in Yemen last year, according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Katie Ledecky smashes own 800m freestyle world record Katie Ledecky crushed her own women's 800m freestyle world record, clocking a stunning 8min 6.68sec to win at the Pro Swim meeting in Austin, Texas. The 18-year-old American on Sunday obliterated the previous record of 8:07.39 that she set at the 2015 World Championships last August in Kazan, Russia. "It was exciting," said Ledecky, who beat the water in triumph when she saw her time. "It's always exciting when you can get pushed along by a crowd like this in Austin." Katie Ledecky competes in the women's 800m freestyle final at the Pro Swim meeting in Austin on January 17, 2016 Ronald Martinez (Getty/AFP) She upstaged superstar Michael Phelps, who blazed to victory in the 200m individual medley to notch his first win over rival Ryan Lochte in the event since the 2012 London Olympics. Phelps, whose 18 Olympic gold medals include three in the 200m individual medley, powered through the final 25 meters of the closing freestyle leg to win in 1:58.00sec. Lochte, the current world record-holder in the event, held a narrow lead at every turn but settled for second in 1:58.43. "Ryan and I have had a lot of great swims with one another," Phelps said. "Joking around with him beforehand, I kind of knew we were going to try to battle it out. I knew it would come down to the touch." Phelps finished the three-day meet with two victories -- including his 100m butterfly win on Friday -- and a fourth place finish in the 200m freestyle. "We have a couple more meets before (Olympic) trials. Hopefully I'll be better than this," said Phelps, adding that the lower-key meetings are a chance to assess not only his speed but also technical details such as turns as he continues a comeback aimed at adding to his Olympic legacy in Rio. Ledecky, who was the youngest member of the US Olympic delegation in London four years ago, is on course to build her Games legacy as well. She now owns the eight fastest performances ever in the 800m free and nine of the top 10. She also holds the world record in the 400m free and the non-Olympic women's event of 1500m free. In Rio, Ledecky could line up in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles -- and perhaps even the 100m free, in which she finished second in Austin this week. "I was feeling good going into it," said Ledecky, who romped home with Becca Mann a distant second in 8:24.49. "Whenever I get going like that, I get into a good rhythm with my freestyle. My stroke just feels good the whole weekend once I have one or two really good freestyle swims." In other finals on the last night of the meet, Hungary's "Iron Lady" Katinka Hosszu pulled off a tough double, winning the 200m medley in 2:10.69 shortly after triumphing in 100m backstroke in 59.91. Singapore's Quah Zheng Wen won the men's 200m fly in 1:58.07, coming from fifth at the halfway mark to triumph. Michael Phelps swims in the men's 200m individual medley during the Arena Pro Swim Series, in Austin, Texas, on January 17, 2016 Ronald Martinez (Getty/AFP) Clinton counters Sanders 'revolution' with her experience Democratic presidential candidates clashed in their final debate before first votes are cast in Iowa, with Hillary Clinton saying she's ready to take on the "world's hardest job" as she sparred with her surging rival Bernie Sanders. The pair, along with former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, met in Charleston, South Carolina, late Sunday aware that their performance could be the best opportunity to reshape the Democratic nomination race ahead of the Iowa caucases, which will be held two weeks from Monday. Clinton is ahead in national opinion polls among Democrats, but Sanders has surged in recent weeks and threatens her narrow lead in Iowa. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders participate in the NBC News -YouTube Democratic Candidates Debate on January 17, 2016 in Charleston, South Carolina Timothy A Clary (AFP) Clinton wrangled with the leftist Vermont senator, sometimes intensely, over plans for universal health care, guns, battling Islamic State jihadists and reining in Wall Street. She emphasized her vast experience as former secretary of state, senator and point-woman for her husband ex-president Bill Clinton's efforts to reform health care in the 1990s. "I understand that this is the hardest job in the world. I'm prepared and ready to take it on," she said. She also insisted that she was best qualified to "bring our country together" during politically polarizing times. Sanders shook up the issue of health care when just hours before the debate started he unveiled a universal health care proposal he says can save American families thousands of dollars each year by no longer paying insurance premiums. But the plan would require a 6.2 percent health care payroll tax on businesses, while slapping taxpayers with a 2.2 percent "premium" based on income. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, claims his plan would save $6 trillion over 10 years compared with the current system. Clinton criticized his plan claiming it would shred President Barack Obam Affordable Care Act, which has helped 19 million new people get health insurance. "To tear it up and start over again... I think is the wrong direction," Clinton said at the debate broadcast by NBC News. Perhaps her sharpest attack against Sanders was her claim that he is weak on gun control. "He has voted with the NRA (National Rifle Association), with the gun lobby numerous times," including against legislation mandating background checks for gun sales. she declared. And Clinton wryly congratulated Sanders for flip-flopping on a proposal she has advanced to end gun makers' immunity from lawsuits. In 2005 Sanders voted for legislation that gave gun manufacturers legal immunity. "This should not be a political issue," Sanders said, noting the tragedy that befell Charleston when a "crazed person" shot nine African Americans in a church last year. "What we should be doing is working together." - A 'rigged' economy - O'Malley has made little headway with voters despite considerable debate stage time. He squeezed into the conversation Sunday, indicting the Clinton political juggernaut by stressing that it was time for voters to "let go of the past and move forward." However, it is Sanders and his "political revolution" that has jostled team Clinton. Sanders accused the former first lady of cozying up to billionaires, and claimed that she would not be tough enough on Wall Street banks. "We have an economy that's rigged," Sanders said. "I don't take money from big banks. I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs," he said, noting that Clinton has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars for addressing the bank. Establishment Democrats are wary of a repeat of 2008, when Clinton was ahead in the polls but lost in Iowa to then less-known senator Barack Obama, who eventually won the nomination and the White House. Clinton is again the presumptive favorite. But last year's scandal about her private email use while she was secretary of state has battered her favorability ratings, which are below Sanders's. She however received a hearty round of applause when she grew animated in her final remarks and said she was "outraged" by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which has sickened scores of residents. The tap water in Flint is tainted with lead and pollutants, the result of cost-cutting measures imposed by the state's Republican governor. Filmmaker Michael Moore, a Flint native, thanked Clinton profusely on Twitter, noting that she was the only candidate in the debate to mention the Flint crisis. -- Republican reaction -- The Republican National Committee blasted the Democrats for failing to focus enough on foreign issues. "At a time when concerns over terrorism are at their highest point in years, all three candidates omitted any mention of national security or foreign policy from their top three priorities," read the RNC statement. "Democrats doubled down on the extreme and failed policies of the current administration." Republican frontrunner Donald Trump had no immediate reaction, but in a sign of how personal the race has become, his rival Ted Cruz posted a short video of old interviews in which Trump praised Clinton. "As the #DemDebate begins, Republicans have to wonder which team @realDonaldTrump would play for," read the Twitter message, which included the video link. Bernie Sanders, who has drawn nearly even with Hillary Clinton in Iowa according to polls, sent shockwaves just two hours before the debate when he unveiled his "Medicare for All" proposal Timothy A. Clary (AFP) Democratic presidential candidate, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, despite stage time with the other candidates, has made no substantial headway in polls and is seen by many as an also-ran Timothy A. Clary (AFP) Democratic presidential candidates, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley (L), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C), and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (R) arrive on stage for the debate on January 17, 2016 in Charleston, South Carolina Timothy A. Clary (AFP) China state media warn Taiwan president-elect against 'hypocrisy' China's state-run media on Monday warned Taiwanese president-elect Tsai Ing-wen against pursuing a pro-independence path and that a formal split from the mainland would be a "dead end". Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a landslide victory on Saturday as voters turned their backs on closer China ties. The DPP has traditionally backed independence for the island, but Tsai has moderated its rhetoric, promising to maintain the "status quo". Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a landslide victory on Saturday as voters turned their backs on closer China ties Sam Yeh (AFP/File) But Zhou Zhihuai, head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote in the Chinese-language edition of the Global Times that if Tsai "parts ways with the mainland, she will go down a dead end". Beijing "will not hold unrealistic delusions" about her, Zhou added, saying that whether cross-Strait relations take "the road of peace or antagonism, it's up to Tsai Ing-wen to make the choice". Although Taiwan is self-ruling after it split with China following a civil war in 1949, it has never declared independence and Beijing still sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification. Taiwanese support for Tsai and the DPP surged after voters became increasingly uneasy about a rapprochement with China under outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang. Tsai wasted no time in warning China that "suppression" would harm cross-Strait ties, in her first comments to international media following her win, adding that "our democratic system, national identity and international space must be respected". In the English-language edition of Global Times, columnist Zhang Hua -- from the same institution as Zhou -- accused Tsai of a "hypocritical cover-up for her pro-independence advocacy". An editorial in Monday's English-language China Daily newspaper insisted that the Kuomintang lost the election due to issues such as rising unemployment and inequality, rather than its Beijing-friendly approach. But it added that Tsai's policy towards the mainland "remains ambiguous". "She has a responsibility to keep the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations on track," it said. China's foreign ministry reaffirmed the mainland's vision of territorial integrity Monday. "Regardless of the changes of Taiwan in the political sphere, China will remain committed to the 'one China' principle and oppose Taiwanese independence," said ministry spokesman Hong Lei. Hong urged the US -- which has sent former deputy secretary of state William Burns to meet with Taiwanese officials in the wake of the election -- to "watch its words and actions" and "refrain from interfering in China's domestic affairs". According to Tang Yonghong, a professor at the Taiwan Research Institute of Xiamen University, Beijing will wait to take its cues from Tsai, once her position becomes clearer in practice. Beijing "has no interest at the moment in showing either a firm or a moderate position, as it is waiting for the DPP's stance on its 'one China' policy," he told AFP. Tsai Ing-wen (C) has warned China that "suppression" would harm cross-Strait ties PHILIPPE LOPEZ (AFP/File) Pakistan court acquits Musharraf of rebel leader's killing A Pakistani court Monday acquitted former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the 2006 killing of a Baloch rebel leader, one of three legal cases he faced after returning from exile, lawyers said. The decision Monday was the first significant ruling in the cases, which include the murder of former leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 and treason, since Musharraf was indicted in 2015 for the killing of nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti. A spokesman for Musharraf told AFP he was happy with the ruling, which "will restore the people's confidence in the judiciary". Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been acquitted of the killing of separatist leader Nawab Akbar Bugti Asif Hassan (AFP/File) The former ruler also hopes to be acquitted in the other cases, which the spokesman said Musharraf described as "false and politically motivated". Bugti was killed in a military operation in 2006, sparking deadly nationwide protests and inflaming a separatist insurgency in resource-rich but impoverished Balochistan province. "The court has dismissed all the charges against former ruler Pervez Musharraf and all those named in the case," Aftab Sherpao, a former interior minister also named in the case, told media in the southwestern city of Quetta. The anti-terror court's ruling was confirmed by lawyers on both sides. "It's an injustice and a joke," Suhail Rajput, lawyer for the Bugti family, told media and vowed to appeal. Musharraf seized power in a bloodless coup in 1999. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, he resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. He returned to Pakistan in 2013 on an ill-fated mission to run in the general election, but was barred from taking part and has since faced a barrage of legal cases. They include treason for imposing emergency rule in 2007, and the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in a gun and suicide attack that same year. Musharraf has been under house arrest in Karachi while the cases have ground through Pakistan's notoriously slow legal system, moving from adjournment to adjournment with little clear progress apart from the granting of bail. Analysts have previously said they believe the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lacks the will to offend Pakistan's powerful military by pushing for Musharraf's prosecution. Sharif was also prime minister in 1999, when he was deposed by Musharraf. Pakistani analyst Imtiaz Alam said the Bugti investigation and prosecution had been "poor". "The administration was under pressure not to find any hard evidence against the powerful players," he told AFP, without specifying who was applying the pressure. Government efforts to persuade militants to lay down their arms in Balochistan has seen the insurgency begin to slow in recent months, and security analyst Talat Masood said there would not be significant fall-out from the decision. "It's a win-win situation both for the government and Musharraf," he told AFP. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf (C) is escorted by soldiers as he salutes on his arrival at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad Aamir Qureshi (AFP/File) Five Bangladesh militants jailed for 2005 blasts A Bangladesh court Monday sentenced five Islamist militants to 10 years in prison for carrying out explosions in 2005 as part of a deadly nationwide bombing campaign that shook the nation. A court in the southeastern district of Rangamati convicted the five members of banned group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) over two explosions in the area, police Inspector Mominul Islam said. "Six JMB militants were charged with the bombings. One was acquitted and five others were sentenced to ten years in jail," Islam said. An anti-terrorist demonstration in Dhaka in September 2005 saw hundreds of activists demand security to all citizens and immediate punishment to the criminals who caused the bomb blasts in the country on 17 August that year Farjana K. Godhuly (AFP/File) The twin blasts were part of synchronised bombings carried out on August 17, 2005 across all Bangladesh cities and almost all districts that left two people dead. Those blasts and subsequent bombings later that year, that killed 28 people, shook the mainly moderate Muslim nation of 160 million people whose government had earlier denied the presence of any militant groups. Hundreds of suspected militants were later arrested and JMB's top leaders executed in 2007. In recent months, police have blamed a regrouped JMB for an upsurge in deadly violence, including the murder of two foreigners last year and deadly attacks on minority Shiite and Sufi Muslims and Christians. The government has rejected the Islamic State's claims of responsibility for some of those attacks, saying IS has no presence in Bangladesh. Sunni-majority Bangladesh has been plagued by unrest in the last three years, and experts say a long-running political crisis has radicalised opponents of the government. DR Congo to prosecute militia leader Katanga, convicted by ICC The Democratic Republic of Congo said it plans to prosecute notorious militia leader Germain Katanga, who had been scheduled to leave prison in Kinshasa on Monday after completing a sentence handed down by the International Criminal Court. "He will not leave" prison, Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba told AFP in an interview Monday. He said Katanga was implicated "in other cases just as serious" as the one he was convicted for by the ICC in 2014 -- that of arming an ethnic militia which in 2003 carried out a brutal village massacre, killing some 200 people. Germain Katanga, pictured during his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in May 2014 One of the other cases concerns his alleged role in the killing of nine UN peacekeepers in the violence-torn Ituri region in the country's northeast in 2005, Thambwe Mwamba said. Another, which is in the hands of military prosecutors, involves "contacts" that Katanga "continues to have with other officers who are being prosecuted". The minister declined to give further details on this second case in order not to violate the confidentiality of the investigation. He said Katanga would get a "fair" trial and have "access to all the lawyers that he wants to defend himself". Katanga, 37, was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year by the ICC in The Hague for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over the 2003 attack on the village of Bogoro, including murder and pillage. Nicknamed Simba ("lion" in Swahili) due to his ferocity, he was convicted of supplying weapons to his militia in the attack in which some 200 people were shot and hacked to death with machetes, but acquitted of enforcing sexual slavery and using child soldiers. In November, the ICC cut Katanga's sentence after he voiced regret and for good behaviour, and he had been scheduled to complete his prison term on Monday. Last month Katanga and former warlord Thomas Lubanga, sentenced to 14 years by the ICC for recruiting and enlisting child soldiers, were transferred to a prison in Kinshasa to serve out their sentences. Lubanga's request for early release was turned down by the ICC as "unjustified". "For us it's a relief that Germain Katanga will be prosecuted over the other accusations against him," Junior Safari, head of the Ituri-based Congolese Association for the Protection of Human Rights, told AFP. But he deplored the "lack of compensation or reparations for all the crimes committed" in the region. - Apologies to victims - Human Rights Watch had called on Kinshasa to convict Katanga on further charges upon his return home, urging a "fair and speedy trial". Arrested in 2005 and then transferred to The Hague in 2007, Katanga was only the second person to be sentenced by the tribunal since it began work in 2003 as the world's first permanent court to try war crimes and crimes against humanity. He would have been the first to be released from jail after serving out an ICC sentence. A former member of the armed fighters of the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri (FRPI), he has offered his apologies to the victims, insisting he had turned his back on the militias which still wreak havoc in parts of the DR Congo. DR Congo was torn by two wars between 1996 and 2003, and its eastern provinces remain ravaged by conflicts between ethnic groups and local warlords and over control of mineral resources. Many atrocities such as rape, killing and enslavement have been been committed, with almost all going unpunished. But since 2014, Congolese authorities have taken steps to end the impunity that many of those responsible have enjoyed and which has been condemned by the United Nations and human rights groups. President Joseph Kabila has named a special representative to tackle crimes of sexual violence and recruiting child soldiers. Several senior officers, some of them former rebels integrated into the army, have been convicted of war crimes by Congolese courts. The gold-rich Ituri region where the Bogoro massacre occurred has been riven by violence since 1999, when clashes broke out that killed at least 60,000 people, according to rights groups. Palestinian stabs woman in West Bank settlement, shot: officials A Palestinian stabbed a woman in a West Bank settlement Monday and was shot by security personnel, the Israeli army and medics said, in the second such incident over the last 24 hours. The 30-year-old woman stabbed in the Tekoa settlement south of Jerusalem was reported to have moderate wounds. There were conflicting reports on the attacker's condition, with Israeli medics saying he had been taken to hospital and Palestinian officials reporting him dead. The incident follows an attack on Sunday that saw a Palestinian stab an Israeli woman to death inside her home in another West Bank settlement. Four dead in suicide attack at Cameroon mosque Four worshippers were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Cameroon on Monday, a security source said, five days after a similar attack left 12 people dead. Monday's blast hit the village of Nguetchewe in Cameroon's FaNorth region, in an area near the border with Nigeria regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists. "The toll of this attack is four dead and two injured," the source, who was at the scene of the attack, told AFP. Cameroon security forces look on while a victim of a twin suicide attack lies on the ground in the extreme north village of Kolofata on September 13, 2015 - (AFP/File) A source close to regional authorities confirmed that a deadly attack had taken place in Nguetchewe, but was unable to provide details. The security source said the attack took place around 6:00 am (0500 GMT) just as morning prayers were ending. "The suicide bomber, a young boy, arrived in the village by foot," the source said, adding that a witness had noticed his behaviour seemed suspicious and had tried to intercept him. "The bomber ran towards the mosque, where he set off the explosives he was carrying with him." Cameroonian troops are at the scene of the attack, the source said. It is the second deadly blast to hit the Far North in less than a week, following a bombing at a mosque in Kolofata district during morning prayers last Wednesday. In November 2013, French priest Georges Vandenbeusch was kidnapped from Nguetchewe, with the Boko Haram Islamist group claiming responsibility. He was freed after around 50 days in captivity. Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said Friday that nearly 1,200 people have been killed in the Far North since 2013, when Boko Haram began attacking Cameroonian territory bordering its northeast Nigerian stronghold. Cameroon boosted its military presence along the Nigerian border in 2013, under increasing pressure from the jihadists on the other side of the border. Boko Haram, which has waged a six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has been using the Far North as a base for supplying weapons, vehicles and equipment. Escalation feared after Israeli settlements stabbings Two knife attacks inside Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including the fatal stabbing of a woman in her home, boosted tensions Monday after months of violence and raised fears of an escalation. As a manhunt was under way for the assailant in Sunday's fatal stabbing, a new knife attack Monday on a street in another West Bank settlement wounded a 30-year-old pregnant woman. The 17-year-old Palestinian assailant was shot by security personnel and taken to hospital in severe condition after the attack in Tekoa, south of Jerusalem. An injured Palestinian suspected attacker is treated by Israeli medic soldiers after he was shot following a stabbing attack on January 18, 2016 in the Tekoa settlement, south of Jerusalem Menahem Kahana (AFP) While the attacks were part of a months-long wave of violence, the stabbings have usually occurred in public areas such as checkpoints, at junctions and entrances to Jerusalem's Old City rather than inside Jewish settlements. The new attacks triggered fears that the unrest was worsening and Israel would impose a harsh security crackdown on Palestinians. Palestinians who work in settlements in the south of the occupied West Bank were not allowed in on Monday, the army said, in an order that affected several thousand labourers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled further security measures, pledging to "strengthen the communities" in response to the deadly stabbing in the Otniel settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. "Whoever tries to harm us, we will bring him to justice," Netanyahu said. "In the end he will be found and he will pay the full price." The woman killed was identified as Dafna Meir, a 38-year-old nurse and mother of six. At least some of her children, aged four to 17, were home at the time, but none was hurt. The attacker remained at large on Monday. - Five months pregnant - Michal Froman, who was stabbed on Monday, was five months pregnant. Her injuries were not considered life-threatening. She is the daughter-in-law of the late Rabbi Menahem Froman, a Jewish settler and peace activist who was one of the few Israelis to have talked with Hamas, the Islamist group which calls for Israel's destruction. Meir's funeral in Jerusalem on Monday was attended by hundreds of mourners, including Israeli politicians and Jewish settlers carrying rifles. Her husband sat in the front row sobbing with two of their children in his lap. "One hour before everything happened, we were still discussing what nail polish I should wear," their 17-year-old daughter Renana said at the funeral. "Now you won't escort me to my wedding." Located near Otniel, the Palestinian village of Karma was sealed off Monday as the army guarded entrances. "Yesterday ... the village was raided and they arrested all the young men, and people were detained until 3:00 in the morning," Talab Mahmud Abu Sheikha, head of the local village council, told AFP. Meir's death brought the toll in the spate of violence to 24 Israelis and 155 Palestinians killed since October 1. Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli forces during protests and clashes. Israel's government had already come under heavy pressure over the spate of attacks and Sunday's killing provoked fresh outrage. Many of the Palestinian attackers have been young people, including teenagers. A number of them have attempted attacks with kitchen knives in what some analysts have described as virtual suicide missions. - Near-constant tension - The Israeli army said it would ban Palestinian workers from entering Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, citing "security reasons". US ambassador Dan Shapiro on Monday condemned the stabbings as "barbaric acts of terrorism," but also questioned Israel's policies concerning settlements in the West Bank. The European Union agreed a statement on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process after resolving differences over wording which some felt was too critical of Israel. "The EU firmly condemns the terror attacks and violence from all sides and in any circumstances, including the death of children," it said. Some 400,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory in near-constant tension with 2.5 million Palestinians. The settlements are seen as major stumbling blocks toward peace efforts since they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state. "We are concerned and perplexed by Israel's strategy on settlements," Shapiro told a security conference in Tel Aviv. "This government and previous Israeli governments have repeatedly expressed support for a negotiated settlement that would involve mutual recognition and separation. "Yet separation will become more and more difficult" if Israel continues to expand settlements, he said. Some analysts say the attacks have been in part driven by frustration with the complete lack of progress in peace efforts, Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the fractured Palestinian leadership. Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and news media has been a main cause of the violence. Israeli military policemen stand guard on January 18, 2016 at the main entrance of the Otniel Jewish settlement near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank following a stabbing attack Hazem Bader (AFP) Israeli soldiers control an access to the Palestinian village of Karma on January 18, 2016 as they closed the area following a stabbing attack in the nearby Otniel Israeli settlement Hazem Bader (AFP) Natan, the husband of Dafna Meir, and her son speak during her funeral ceremony in the Jewish settlement of Otniel near the flashpoint city of Hebron in the southern West Bank on January 18, 2016 Menahem Kahana (AFP) Palestinian Red Crescent did not refuse to treat Israelis: ICRC The International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday an internal probe found staff from its Palestinian affiliate did not refuse to treat Jewish victims, following allegations two men died after not receiving care. In November an Israeli Jewish woman claimed that medics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society declined to treat her husband and her son after they were attacked near a settlement in the southern West Bank. Both men died after being shot on November 13. Israeli security forces stand guard as members of the Palestinian Red Crescent leave after giving medical aid to a Palestinian woman who attempted to stab Israeli soldiers Hazem Bader (AFP/File) The story was widely reported in the Israeli media, leading to accusations that the Palestinian Red Crescent had failed to remain neutral. Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to publicly condemn the organisation. If accurate, a refusal to treat a patient would have represented a "grave breach of our fundamental principles," the ICRC said in a statement. Rabbi Ya'akov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanyel were shot dead in their car near the settlement of Otniel, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. After an investigation into the circumstances, the ICRC concluded the team had been unable to offer any help as the men were already dead. "A two-person emergency medical team of the PRCS, responding to an emergency call, was the first team to arrive on the scene," country head Jacques de Maio said in a statement. "None of the survivors required emergency medical assistance and tragically there was nothing more the PRCS team could do for those who had been shot and killed." Tata Steel to cut 1,050 more jobs in Britain Indian steel giant Tata Steel said Monday it will cut 1,050 more jobs in Britain following thousands of cuts in the industry announced last year, blaming China for plunging steel prices. Tata Steel is planning to cut 750 jobs at its Port Talbot site in Wales and 300 more at other plants around the country. "The proposed changes follow continued falls in the European steel price caused by a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China," the company said. The Tata Steel plant in Scunthorpe, northeast England pictured on October 17, 2015 Lindsey Parnaby (AFP/File) Tata Steel has 4,000 people at Port Talbot, which also employs 3,000 contractors and temporary workers. Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said the cuts were "unsettling... but critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions" and called on the European Union to tackle cheap imports. "We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports," he said. "Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry." Britain's steel sector is in crisis and there have been thousands of layoffs in recent months, with companies blaming high energy costs along with cheap Chinese imports. Steel union Community said the news was "yet another chapter of the UK's ongoing steel crisis and the lack of a proper government response." "The dumping of cheap Chinese steel is one of the biggest causes of this crisis, yet the UK government remains a cheerleader for China and their bid for 'market economy status', which would decimate what is left of our steel industry. This cannot be allowed to happen," said general secretary Roy Rickhuss. Tata Steel in October announced 1,200 job cuts in Britain. It also said in December that it was in talks with investment fund Greybull Capital to sell some of its European assets, employing a total of 4,700 people. India's Tata Motors gets first full-time CEO in two years India's largest car maker Tata Motors on Monday appointed its first permanent chief executive since its previous head fell to his death from a hotel in Bangkok two years ago. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Tata Motors, the owner of luxury British brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), said former Airbus CEO Guenter Butschek would take over as chief executive and managing director from February 15. Cyrus Mistry, chairman of the sprawling tea-to-software Tata Group, has been acting CEO since former chief Karl Slym apparently committed suicide in the Thai capital in January 2014. Tata Motors is India's largest car maker Sajjad Hussain (AFP/File) "I am confident that Mr Butschek's ability to lead high performing teams will enable our company to achieve sustainable, profitable growth," Mistry wrote in the statement. Butschek will be tasked with turning around the domestic operations of Tata Motors. The Mumbai-based firm's profits have become hugely reliant on revenues from JLR, which it bought for $2.3 billion from Ford in 2008. North Korea must be held accountable for abductions: UN envoy A UN special envoy on human rights in North Korea said Monday the country should be held to account for state-sponsored abductions, slamming the disappearances as a "crime against humanity". The condemnation from Marzuki Darusman, who spoke during a meeting with members of Japanese families whose children and siblings were kidnapped by North Koreans, is the latest rebuke against Pyongyang over widespread rights abuses. "This is not just a tragedy, but it is a crime against humanity," he told reporters. Marzuki Darusman, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, speaks at during a meeting with families of Japanese abducted by North Korea in Tokyo on January 18, 2016 Toru Yamanaka (AFP) He called on North Korea to "acknowledge that abductions have been undertaken by the state with complicity and knowledge at the highest level of leadership." The special envoy will report his findings and recommendations to the UN Human Rights Council in March, before the end of his tenure in July. Darusman was involved in a 2014 report from the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea that detailed what it described as horrific abuses in the isolated nation. After the report was issued, the UN Security Council agreed to formally take up the human rights situation there. North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had dispatched agents to kidnap 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s who were tasked with training its spies in Japanese language and customs. Five of the abductees were allowed to return to Japan but Pyongyang has insisted, without producing solid evidence, the eight others are dead. Around 500 South Koreans were also kidnapped by North Korea in the years following the 1950-53 Korean War. Suspicions persist in Japan that many more of its citizens have been abducted than officially recognised. The lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, along with Pyongyang's pariah status internationally over its nuclear and missile programme, have hampered progress on the issue. "My beloved child was taken away and many years have passed," Sakie Yokota, whose 13-year old daughter Megumi was abducted in 1977, told Darusman. "It's been 38 years but I haven't been able to meet or speak with her. There is no information as to how she has been doing." North Korea has said Megumi was one of the deceased, insisting she committed suicide, though her parents and other supporters say Pyongyang cannot be believed. Japan and North Korea struck a deal in 2014 in which the secretive state said it would investigate the abduction of Japanese citizens, though Tokyo has voiced frustration at the lack of progress. Shigeo Iizuka, leader of a group of families of Japanese abducted by North Korea, (R) speaks to Marzuki Darusman Toshifumi Kitamura (AFP) Kidnapped Americans taken to Baghdad flat for 'women and alcohol' Three American nationals missing in Iraq were kidnapped from a "suspicious apartment" in Baghdad, a spokesman for the security command responsible for the capital said on Monday. "Three people carrying American nationality were kidnapped while they were in Dura... inside a suspicious apartment," the spokesman said in a statement. "Security forces have begun searching for them," the spokesman said. Iraqi security forces are battling to regain control of Anbar province from Islamic State militants which overran large areas of the country in 2014 Moadh Al-Dulaimi (AFP) A police colonel said on condition of anonymity that an Iraqi translator took the Americans for "drinking and women" at an apartment in the Dura area. Militiamen "attacked the place", the colonel said, and "they were kidnapped from inside the apartment, not from the street." The colonel and Iraq's parliament speaker have said the kidnappings took place on Sunday, but other reports indicated the Americans were abducted at an earlier date. The abducted Americans were apparently taken to another area, the colonel said, as Dura was searched and they were not found. Brothels and alcohol shops have been repeatedly targeted by powerful Shiite militia groups that are playing a major role in combating the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large parts of Iraq last year. Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted. More than $6.5 bn stolen in Nigeria in seven years: minister Nigerian state governors, ministers, business leaders, public officials and bankers allegedly stole $6.7 billion in public funds in seven years, information minister Lai Mohammed said on Monday. Mohammed told reporters in the capital, Abuja, that some 1.34 trillion naira ($6.72 billion, 6.15 billion euros) was allegedly stolen between 2006 and 2013 by just 55 people. "The situation is dire and the time to act is now," he added. Some 1.34 trillion naira ($6.72 billion, 6.15 billion euros) was allegedly stolen from Nigerian state coffers between 2006 and 2013 Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File) Giving a breakdown of the alleged theft, Mohammed claimed: - 15 former state governors stole 146.84 billion naira - 11 businessmen took 653 billion naira - Eight people in the banking industry stole 524 billion naira - 12 former state and federal public servants made off with more than 14 billion naira - Five former lawmakers pilfered 8.35 billion naira - four former ministers took seven billion naira. The period covered starts toward the end of the second term in office for Nigeria's first civilian president after military rule, Olusegun Obasanjo. He was replaced in 2007 by Umaru Musa Yar'Adua. Goodluck Jonathan took over in 2010 when Yar'Adua died in office. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in May last year, vowing to crack down on endemic corruption in Africa's most populous nation. He accused Jonathan's administration of leaving the treasury "virtually empty" and vowed to recover what he said were "mind-boggling" sums stolen from the public purse. Former national security advisor Sambo Dasuki and a string of high-profile figures are currently facing corruption charges over allegedly bogus arms deals to the tune of $2 billion. Last Friday, the investigation was widened to military top brass who served under Jonathan. Mohammed said tackling corruption was central to Buhari's administration but added that it involved everyone. "This is Nigeria's war," he said. Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Buhari of conducting a witch-hunt against its members. Obasanjo, Yar'Adua and Jonathan were all PDP presidents. Pakistan PM voices 'deep concern' in Saudi over Iran tensions Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday expressed "deep concern" to Saudi King Salman over escalating tensions between the Sunni kingdom and predominantly Shiite Iran. Sharif visited Riyadh in an effort to ease those tensions and is to head on Tuesday to Saudi's rival Iran where he is expected to meet President Hassan Rouhani. "The prime minister expressed our deep concern on the recent escalation of tensions" between Riyadh and Tehran, Islamabad's foreign ministry spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (right) welcomes Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ahead of their meeting in the capital Riyadh, on January 18, 2016 "He also called for an early resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Ummah (the Islamic nation), particularly during these challenging times." Saudi Arabia and a number of its Arab allies cut diplomatic ties with Iran in early January, sending already tense relations between the rival nations to a new low. Riyadh reacted after protesters burned Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran after the kingdom on January 2 executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. He was among 47 people put to death in a single day for "terrorism". Most of those executed were Sunnis. According to the Saudi Press Agency, Salman "welcomed the prime minister of Pakistan and his delegation" to his palace. The report gave no details of their discussions, which SPA earlier said were to touch on regional as well as bilateral issues. "The purpose of the visit is to mediate and to end the standoff between the two countries," a Pakistani government official told AFP, requesting anonymity, before the prime minister arrived. Sharif landed in Riyadh two days after a historic international deal lifted sanctions on Iran in return for a scaling back of its nuclear capabilities. Riyadh fears the agreement will only further embolden Iran, which it accuses of regional interference. SPA said the prime minister was accompanied by Pakistan's powerful army chief, General Raheel Sharif. Pakistan is a majority Sunni country but 20 percent of the population is Shiite. The country's parliament last year refused to send forces to help a Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen. But during Monday's meeting, Pakistan "assured the kingdom of its support" for a separate Saudi coalition of 34 nations to combat "terrorism" in the Islamic world, the Pakistani statement said. "It was agreed that both countries would work together to defeat our common enemy - terrorism and extremism." Diplomats have said it remained unclear how the 34-nation coalition will work in practice. Pakistan has deep military connections with Saudi Arabia and it has long benefited from the oil-rich kingdom's largesse. Sharif himself has close personal ties with the Saudi royal family who sheltered him during years in exile. Jailed Maldives ex-president leaves for surgery in UK Jailed Maldivian opposition leader and former president Mohamed Nasheed left the country Monday for urgent medical treatment in Britain after a delay caused by a legal dispute with the government, his party said. Nasheed was originally due to leave on Sunday in line with a deal brokered by diplomats from neighbouring India and Sri Lanka as well as former colonial power Britain. But the former leader refused a government request to leave a relative behind to act as a guarantor liable to prosecution if he failed to return to serve the rest of his 13-year sentence, leading to a tense back and forth over conditions. Lawyers for Mohamed Nasheed, pictured on November 10, 2013, have hit out at the Maldivian government for delaying treatment on his spinal cord Ishara S. Kodikara (AFP/File) One of his international lawyers, Jared Genser, said Nasheed had spoken with the US Secretary of State by telephone at Male international airport shortly before he boarded a Sri Lankan airlines flight to Colombo before transiting to Britain. "Nasheed on a call with US Secretary of State John Kerry," Genser said in a tweet containing a photo of Nasheed. It was not clear what they discussed, but Kerry had previously criticised the administration of strongman President Abdulla Yameen during a visit to neighbouring Sri Lanka last year. Kerry described democracy as "under threat in the Maldives" at the time, saying Nasheed was imprisoned without due process. Nasheed was convicted on terrorism charges in 2015 relating to the arrest of an allegedly corrupt judge in 2012, when he was still in power. Lawyers for Nasheed have hit out at the government for delaying treatment on his spinal cord, but his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has agreed to an amended condition of providing a relative to communicate Nasheed's whereabouts while abroad. "President Nasheed told members of his family that he wasn't prepared to put their freedom in jeopardy in order to secure his own," the MDP said in a statement. The Maldivian government in a statement insisted that all legal formalities had been followed before Nasheed was allowed to leave. "It is standard procedure for any prisoner who applies to travel abroad, for medical treatment, to sign a guarantee," Maldivian Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon said in a statement. "I am glad all relevant legal documentation is completed." Nasheed's lawyer Hassan Latheef said the government had reneged on an internationally-brokered deal at the last minute on Sunday by demanding what he termed a "hostage" until the former leader returned from Britain. "This kind of blackmail is illegal, unheard of in international affairs, and totally outrageous," Latheef told AFP. - Climb down - But with diplomatic pressure mounting on Yameen's administration, the government backed down as Sri Lankan diplomats close to the negotiations said they moved to end the deadlock. Nasheed, 48, became the first democratically elected president of the Maldives in 2008 and served for four years before he was toppled in what he called a coup backed by the military and police. The United Nations has said his trial was seriously flawed and he should be released and compensated for wrongful detention. But hardline President Yameen has refused to accept the UN ruling and is resisting international pressure to release Nasheed. The announcement of the concession came as Britain's Deputy Foreign Minister Hugo Swire visited the Maldives for talks with Yameen as well as the opposition and rights groups. Swire tweeted that he "talked through concerns and opportunities" with the president, but full details of their discussions were not disclosed. Swire left Male on Monday when Nasheed was still locked up in a cell at the Maafushi prison on an island near the capital. He was brought from there to the airport later Monday to board a flight out of the archipelago. President Yameen is a half-brother of former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled for 30 years until his defeat by Nasheed in the country's first multi-party elections in 2008. No link between Iran freeing hostages and sanctions lifting: Kerry US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday there was no direct link between the release of Americans detained in Iran and the lifting of punishing sanctions against Tehran. In two days of fast-moving diplomacy at the weekend, five Americans were freed by Iran on Saturday and on Sunday the US and Iranian presidents hailed the implementation of Tehran's nuclear deal, which saw Washington and the European Union lift sanctions. Kerry told CNN that the timing was coincidental and that the Americans would have been released even if the sanctions had remained in place. US Secretary of State John Kerry answers questions during a press conference in Vienna, on January 16, 2016 Kevin Lamarque (Pool/AFP) "It happened to come together at that moment, I think that everybody saw that that would be propitious, but it was not directly linked," he said. "I had hoped it (their release) would have happened a couple months ago actually and then it hit a snag and we continued to negotiate." Four of the American prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, were freed in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting. A fifth American was also released in a separate process. Kerry also confirmed a report by The Washington Post that the flight out of Iran of Rezaian and two of the other Americans was delayed because of a mix-up over the fate of Rezaian's wife Yeganeh. "It did hit a snag because word somehow had not been communicated with the respect to the manifest on the plane that Jason Rezaian's wife would be coming with him," Kerry said. However, the Iranian government quickly understood that "the terms of the agreement included her," said Kerry. W. Africa to 'fight back' as Burkina hotel gunmen named Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) Monday named three gunmen behind a deadly attack on a top Burkina Faso hotel that has highlighted the growing reach of jihadist groups in west Africa, as French police joined in the probe. Burkinabe troops fanned out across the capital, Ouagadougou, with security stepped up at key sites as visiting Benin President Thomas Boni Yayi pledged that west African nations would fight back against a mounting terrorist threat. The toll from the weekend attack rose to 30 late Monday with the death of French-Moroccan photographer Leila Alaoui, Morocco's MAP news agency reported. A police officer stands guard during a visit by Burkina Faso's and Benin's presidents to the Splendid hotel and the Capuccino cafe on January 18, 2016 in Ouagadougou Issouf Sanogo (AFP) She was severely wounded when jihadist gunmen stormed the Splendid hotel and the nearby Cappuccino cafe she was visiting on Friday evening. Alaoui, who has had several international exhibitions of her work, was on assignment in Burkina for Amnesty International. A source close to the investigation said 20 people were arrested on Sunday and Monday in connection with the attack, which killed more than a dozen foreigners. Some of those arrested were later released. Boni Yayi, speaking on behalf of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States, said: "We're not going to just sit on our hands. We will react and respond". He spoke as details emerged about a delayed, ill-equipped response from Burkina Faso's security forces, which have been weakened by recent political turmoil. Twenty five of the victims have now been identified, public prosecutor Maiza Sereme told AFP, confirming that six Canadians and eight locals were among the victims. Internal Security Minister Simon Compaore earlier said the foreign dead also included three Ukrainians, two French nationals, two Portuguese, two Swiss and a Dutch person. The US State department has said an American also died. - Search for clues - French President Francois Hollande spoke by phone on Monday with his Burkinabe counterpart Roch Marc Christian Kabore, pledging "any assistance needed... for a proper investigation of these heinous acts". The first such incident in Burkina Faso, it came weeks after jihadists claimed an assault on a top hotel in Bamako, capital of neighbouring Mali, that killed 20 people. At the Ouagadougou crime scene, an 18-strong team of French investigators, including forensic experts, joined local police combing for clues at the hotel and cafe. In a statement carried by US-based monitoring group SITE, AQIM said the Splendid Hotel was "one of the most dangerous dens of global espionage in the west of the African continent". It published photos of the three young gunmen dressed in military fatigues and wielding weapons, identifying them as Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari. The operation was claimed by AQIM in the early hours of Saturday morning while the attack was still ongoing. In their earlier statement, AQIM said the gunmen were from the Al-Murabitoun group of Algerian extremist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. Authorities in Burkina Faso have said the bodies of three assailants had been identified, but several witnesses said they saw more than three attackers and a manhunt was under way for accomplices. - 'Equipment issues' - Until recently, Burkina Faso had largely escaped the tide of Islamist violence spreading in the restive Sahel region and the hotel assault will heighten fears that jihadist groups are casting their net wider in west Africa. Witnesses said security forces waited hours before taking action against the attackers, with the first on the scene poorly equipped. "Our men were raring to go. We were trained for this," said a gendarme military police source. "We had equipment issues. No night vision goggles, no bulletproof shields, no door breaching tools." The elite presidential guard unit, which had a well-equipped and trained anti-terror squad, was disbanded after a coup attempt it staged in September. Additionally, the authorities jailed the unit's commander, General Gilbert Diendere, who led the intelligence services. Previously the spying operation had provided intelligence to various countries, including France, during attacks and kidnappings across the region. The attack began around 7:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Friday when the attackers stormed the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the heart of Ouagadougou. The hotel and surrounding area became a battleground as local troops, backed by French forces based in the city under a regional counter-terrorism initiative, launched an attempt to retake the hotel around 2:00 am. In a reminder of the fragile security situation, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped on Friday in Burkina Faso's northern Baraboule region, near the border with Niger and Mali. Profile of Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his Al-Murabitoun group of jihadists, with map of north Africa detailing the main attacks attributed to them Jonathan Jacobsen (AFP) Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore (L) and Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi visit the Splendid hotel and the Cappuccino cafe on January 18, 2016 in Ouagadougou Issouf Sanogo (AFP) American home after 40-day Iran prison ordeal: report An American student released by Iran after 40 days in prison has returned home to Massachusetts for an emotional reunion with his family, The Boston Globe reported Monday. Matthew Trevithick was freed Saturday along with four Americans of Iranian descent, but left the country separately the same day via a commercial flight from Tehran, the report said. The Globe said he arrived Sunday at Boston's Logan Airport and strode quickly to his mother, putting his arm around her shoulder before guiding her out the door. An American student released by Iran after 40 days in prison arrived Sunday at Boston's Logan Airport and strode quickly to his mother, putting his arm around her shoulder before guiding her out the door Maddie Meyer (Getty/AFP/File) Trevithick, 30, was studying Farsi at an institute in Tehran associated with Tehran University when he was picked up by Iranian authorities in early December, CBS reported. His detention was not publicly acknowledged until his release, negotiated by US Secretary of State John Kerry. His family had notified the State Department after they failed to hear from him in early December. They received a phone call from him about half way through his imprisonment, which was made in the presence of a prison monitor, his mother Amelia Newcomb told the Globe. The next time he called was after his release on Saturday. "We're very excited. We were happy to hear Matt's voice today. We are thrilled he is out of Iran," Newcomb told CBS Boston before his arrival. Three other Americans, including Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian, left the country Sunday on a flight to Geneva and were undergoing medical examinations at a US military hospital in Germany. A fourth Iranian-American detainee, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran. Fund Arab communities to counter extremism: Israeli president Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on Monday for the government to push through new funding for Israeli Arab communities to help counter the influence of Islamic State group extremism. Warning Israelis that the "Islamic State is already here," Rivlin told a conference in Tel Aviv that more support was needed for Arab communities. A number of Arab Israeli citizens have travelled to fight with IS in neighbouring Syria. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (R), seen with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Jerusalem on January 18, 2016, called on the government to push funding for Israeli Arab communities through as quickly as possible Dan Balilty (AFP) The Israeli government in December agreed in principle to increase financing for Arab-Israeli communities, but the funding has not been finalised. Rivlin, whose position as president is largely symbolic, said that while radicalism was not unique to Israel, "I am concerned that the more the state avoids taking responsibility, the more the state distances itself, the faster the jihadi Salafists will rush in to fill the vacuum." Recalling a meeting with a teacher in an Arab community, Rivlin said he was told many Arab Israelis feel like second-class citizens in the country. Arab Israelis say they are discriminated against and face marginalisation in Israeli society. "If the children are growing up without a dream, without hope and without aspirations, with the feeling that their blood, their lives, are of a lesser value in the state of Israel, then we must think how we can offer them a dream, hope, and faith," he said. Rivlin called on the government to push the funding through as quickly as possible. "The recent resolution by the government on a system-wide plan for the economic integration of the Arab population is a step in the right direction," he said. "The plan has many detractors among the Jewish population, and it is clear why. But it is the correct and essential step, for it is a decision that represents a systemic change of direction." Rivlin has often been at odds with the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, though both come from the rightwing Likud party. Arab Israelis, the descendants of Palestinians who remained on their land after the creation of Israel in 1948 and who are citizens of the Jewish state, make up about 18 percent of its population. Israeli security forces estimate around 50 of them have travelled to Syria to fight alongside IS. A shooting spree in Tel Aviv by an Arab Israeli this month that killed three people led to speculation that the gunman may have been inspired by IS, but his motive remains unclear. Canada signals openness to restoring Iran diplomatic ties Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday expressed an openness to restoring diplomatic ties with Iran, four years after Canada shuttered its embassy in Tehran. Such a move would be a reversal of the foreign policy set by the previous Tory administration, which had vowed to keep its sanctions regime against Iran after a preliminary deal on the Islamic republic's nuclear program in 2013. Trudeau said Iran had made "significant movement towards respecting international expectations" regarding the dismantling of parts of its nuclear program that the West feared could have led to the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seen in Ottawa on December 3, 2015, says Iran has made progress in the dismantling of parts of its nuclear program Sean Kilpatrick (Pool/AFP/File) "That is something positive and I expect there will be (diplomatic) links now between Canada and Iran," he said. "We will certainly be discussing that further at a cabinet meeting in the coming weeks," he added. Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in September 2012. At the time, then foreign affairs minister John Baird did not cite a specific incident for the breakdown in relations but issued a strongly worded attack on the Islamic republic's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, its "incitement to genocide" against Israel, and its leaders' failure to account for their nuclear program. Ties were strained by Tehran's jailing of Iranian-born Canadians. Iran does not recognize dual nationality and authorities have denied Canadian detainees consular protection. In July, Iran and global powers reached a deal in Vienna that saw sanctions lifted this weekend. On Sunday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Ottawa would decide "in a timely fashion" whether to also lift sanctions in order to allow Canadian companies to join US and EU firms rushing to do business in Iran. US ambassador sees separate justice for Israelis, Palestinians US ambassador Dan Shapiro on Monday charged that Israel seems to apply separate "standards" of justice for Israelis and Palestinians, drawing a rebuke from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Too much (Jewish) vigilantism goes unchecked, and at times there seems to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law, one for Israelis, and another for Palestinians," Shapiro said in a speech at the annual meeting of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. The ambassador welcomed the indictment in early January of two Israelis over a firebombing in the occupied West Bank last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler. US ambassador Dan Shapiro, pictured on July 8, 2011, welcomed the indictment in early January of two Israelis over a firebombing in the occupied West Bank last year that killed a Palestinian couple and their toddler Brendan Smialowski (Getty/AFP/File) The indictments were "an important demonstration of Israel's commitment to prosecute acts of terrorism, regardless of their source, but too many attacks on Palestinians lack a vigorous investigation or response by Israeli authorities," he said. Hewitt faces final curtain in Melbourne Veteran baseliner Lleyton Hewitt will begin his final tournament at the Australian Open on Tuesday as Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal also enter the men's draw. Simona Halep and Garbine Muguruza, the world number two and three, and two-time winner Victoria Azarenka highlight the women's competition on what is forecast to be another hot day in Melbourne. Hewitt, the former world number one and a two-time Grand Slam champion, will fancy his chances against the inexperienced Jack Duckworth, whom he captains in Australia's Davis Cup team. Lleyton Hewitt, seen in Melbourne on January 16, 2016, will fancy his chances against the inexperienced Jack Duckworth Paul Crock (AFP/File) It is just the second time that Hewitt, who is playing a record 20th consecutive Australian Open and reached the final in 2005, will have faced a fellow countryman at his home Grand Slam. "To tell you the truth, I don't know how it feels," he told reporters in Melbourne, when asked what it was like to be one defeat from the end of his career. "A tad strange feeling, but I'm trying to soak it up as much as possible. I guess it's different in the fact that if you do go out then, yes, it is the end. "But you've got to try to block that out as much as possible. You could go through all the same emotions again two days later, as well. That's going to be the tough part to deal with." Murray, a four-time finalist who is yet to lift the trophy, will get his campaign underway against giant German teenager Alexander Zverev, who is just 18 but stands 6ft 6in (1.98m) tall. The opening assignment for Wawrinka is Russia's Dmitry Tursunov as the Swiss number two looks for his second Australian Open title and third Grand Slam victory overall. Nadal could face early trouble against fellow Spaniard Verdasco, whom he overcame in a five hours, 14 minutes epic semi-final before winning his only Australian Open title in 2009. "Very tough first round. Not a lucky first round, I think, for me. For him either," said the 14-time Grand Slam winner. Temperatures are forecast to be slightly lower than a sweltering day one, when the mercury rose to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit). The first day's action was also overshadowed by a BBC and BuzzFeed report which alleged widespread match-fixing in the sport. Stylish Nigeria down Niger, Tunisia draw Guinea Second half substitute Chisom Chikatara inspired Nigeria to a crushing 4-1 win over Niger in their African Nations Championships opening match at Kigali's Nyamirambo stadium on Monday. The Abia Warriors star grabbed a hat-trick late in the second half to give Nigeria bragging rights over their West African neighbours. After a barren first half, Nigeria turned on the heat when winger Osas Okoro put them ahead a minute into the second half. Nigeria crushed Niger 4-1 in their African Nations Championships opening match Jewel Samad (AFP/File) Okoro had a role in the second when his long ball deep in the Niger area found Chikatara, who controlled the ball on his chest before firing home his first after 74th minutes. Zakaria Adebayor pulled one back for Niger in the 81st minute. Earlier, debutants Guinea twice came from behind to earn a deserved 2-2 draw with Tunisia, in a match two opposing strikers each grabbed a brace. Tunisia drew the first blood through Ahmed Akaichi in the 33rd minute when the Etoile du Sahel dangerman flicked home a right cross from Hamza Mathlouthi. Seven minutes later Alseny Camara Agogo punished a sloppy Tunisia defence, tapping home a Ibrahim Bangoura's low cross from the left flank. Tunisia reclaimed their lead in the 51 minute when Akaichi scored his second on the counter attack, but Agogo came back to level after 83 minutes to cap an evenly contested encounter. French prosecutors won't seek charges in deadly 2004 plane crash French prosecutors announced Monday they will not seek charges in the deadly 2004 crash of a Paris-bound airliner in Egypt, citing overwhelming evidence of human error. The Boeing 737 carrying mainly French tourists plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from the resort Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people on board the low-cost Flash Airlines flight. In a press statement prosecutors pointed to "numerous failures" including "rapid analysis resulting in bad decisions" in the January 3, 2004 crash. Large pieces of wreckage from a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plane that crashed and killed all 148 people on board the low-cost flight are lifted out of the Red Sea on January 27, 2004 Amro Maraghi (AFP/File) The evidence "does not allow for any other hypothesis than one attributable to the errors of the flight team," prosecutors said, adding the probe is now closed because the pilots died in the crash. Victims' families were outraged by the prosecutors' decision over the probe into the crash that killed 134 French people. "All the mistakes are on the pilots, who are no longer here. How handy!" said Claude Fouchard, president of the association of victims' families. "However there are people out there who were at fault," he told AFP, singling out Flash Airlines "which flew lousy planes with inept, extremely tired crews." The airline was liquidated over 10 years ago, but its former president is still alive, said Jean-Pierre Bellecave, a lawyer for the families. He noted the president could have at least been questioned in case. "My clients are now asking: 'After all these years, who will take revenge for us.'" Experts investigating the crash pointed out in a 2009 report that the pilots aboard were inadequately trained and suffering from fatigue due to their intense working hours in the two weeks leading up to the accident. Flash airlines did not even have the necessary flight manuals, the experts found. France's aviation authority, the BEA, also blamed the pilot, a former military member, who suffered from "spatial disorientation." The families hired their own experts who concluded in a June 2007 report that assigned blame to numerous players in the tragedy, including France's air traffic civil aviation authority DGAC for not grounding the airline's planes. The Latest: Updates from the Democratic presidential debate CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) Here are the latest developments from the Democratic presidential candidates' final debate before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses. All times local. 10:54 p.m. Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. speak during a break at the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) The Democratic presidential debate has concluded. ___ 10:51 p.m. Bernie Sanders has used his last minute of the Democratic debate to call for campaign finance reform, one of his favorite subjects on the campaign trail. He says little can be done to change the economy or jumpstart his "political revolution" as long as wealthy Americans can contribute unlimited sums of money in elections. Sanders has made his call to reverse the Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgate of money in politics a central piece of his campaign., He says he plans to start a revolution to "say proudly and clearly that the government belongs to all of us." ___ 10:50 p.m. Hillary Clinton says that "every single American should be outraged" by the water crisis in Flint. Clinton says Sunday night that she sent a "top campaign aide" to Flint, which is dealing with lead contamination of the city's tap water. She criticized Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, saying he has "acted as though he didn't really care." Clinton argues that "if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would have been action." President Barack Obama has signed an emergency declaration that clears the way for federal aid in Flint. The water became contaminated after Flint switched from the Detroit water system to the Flint River as a cost-cutting move. The corrosive water lacked adequate treatment and caused lead to leach from old pipes. Bernie Sanders followed Clinton's remarks by noting that he has called for Snyder's resignation. ___ 10:49 p.m. Martin O'Malley says at the Democratic presidential debate that the campaign overlooks several critical issues. The former Maryland governor notes that he and his fellow candidates haven't talked much about immigration laws in Sunday's debate. He called attention to Puerto Rico's debt crisis and its effect on citizens there. He says there's not enough attention paid to the proliferation of drug traffickers across both American continents. O'Malley says the U.S. political process is capable of solving such problems. "There is no challenge that is too great for us to overcome," he says, if Americans " join forces together." ___ 10:31 p.m. Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley both say Americans' privacy rights shouldn't be violated as the government collects information about potential terrorist threats. Sanders says public policy has not yet caught up with the explosion of data collection through the Internet and apps. He says the government should work together with Silicon Valley to ensure "lone wolves," or terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State group, aren't using the Internet for their benefit. Hillary Clinton is praising President Barack Obama for meeting with Silicon Valley executives, but says Muslim Americans can offer the first line of defense against "lone wolf" attacks. She and the other candidates are slamming GOP front runner Donald Trump's calls to ban Muslims from entering the United States. ___ 10:26 p.m. Hillary Clinton describes her relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin as one of "respect." But she also calls him a "bully" with "a mixed record" and promises she would "stand up to him" if she's elected president of the United States. Clinton notes that she spoke out against Putin's aggressiveness before she ended her tenure as secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term. She also says she has no regrets for offering Russia a "reset button" when she began her tenure at state. Republican presidential hopefuls use that widely circulated quote from Clinton as a punch line to frame her as weak on foreign policy. Clinton argues that establishing a more positive relationship with Russia led to a number of positive developments: an agreement to reduce nuclear arms; the establishment of troop supply lines through Russia to reach U.S. troops in Afghanistan; and getting Russia to agree to sanctions against Iran. Diplomacy, Clinton says, means figuring out how to strike deals to "advance your security and your values." With Putin, that means, "we have to figure out how to deal with him." ___ 10:24 p.m. Hillary Clinton says President Barack Obama's efforts to get chemical weapons out of Syria had a "very positive outcome." Asked Sunday if Obama should have stuck by his statements that chemical weapons would constitute a "red line," Clinton says that as commander in chief "you have to be constantly evaluating the decisions you have to make." She also said the situation was complicated and noted the "great turmoil currently in the region." Bernie Sanders called the situation in Syria an "incredible quagmire." He said the first priority in the region should be the "destruction of ISIS," followed by "getting rid of" Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. ___ 10:18 p.m. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says on Syria, he'd do everything he can to avoid "perpetual warfare" in the Middle East. He's casting the conflict as a "quagmire." And he says having Americans involved would be an "unmitigated disaster." ___ 10:15 p.m. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders say the United States should re-open its embassy in Tehran, although both say the nuclear deal with Iran and recent prisoner release mark significant steps in the countries' relationship. Clinton says, "we had one good day over 36 years, and I think we need more good days" before rapidly normalizing relations with the nation. Sanders, meanwhile, says that while he does not believe the embassy should be reopened at this time, the goal should be to "warm relations" with Iran, which he called a "very powerful and important country in this world." Both praise the nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration but say the United States must keep a careful eye on Iran to make sure it continues to comply with the deal. ___ 10:06 p.m. Democratic presidential candidates want voters to know them as the science party. That's as opposed to the Republican presidential field that includes several candidates who dismiss the scientific consensus that human activity has made the earth warmer over time. Martin O'Malley says the three candidates "actually believe in science." He says Democrats should commit to "a 100 percent clean electricity grid by 2050," leaning on solar and other sources instead of fossil fuels to power the nation. Bernie Sanders mocks Republicans as "a major party ... that is so owned by the fossil fuel industry and their campaign contributions that they dont' even have the courage, the decency to listen to the scientists." Sanders says younger Americans "instinctively" recognize the imperative to change consumer behavior, and he agrees with O'Malley's call to remake the energy industry. He pitches the transition as an economic opportunity. "We need to be bold and decisive," he says. "We can create millions of jobs." ___ 10:04 p.m. Bernie Sanders is defending his single payer health care plan, saying that it would save families more money than it costs them in higher taxes. Though his plan would increase taxes on all Americans by 2.2 percent, middle-class families would save $5,000 in health insurance costs, he says. He adds: "There are huge savings in what your family is spending." Hillary Clinton has attacked Sanders for proposing a plan that she says would raise taxes and reignite a divisive political issue. ___ 10:01 p.m. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are facing off over how they would pay for their policy proposals. Sanders said Sunday night that he has explained exactly how he would pay for an "ambitious agenda." For example, he says he'll pay for his plan to provide tuition-free public university with a tax on "Wall Street speculation." Clinton says she too has explained how she will pay for her plans. She says she is the only candidate to pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. "I want to raise incomes, not taxes," she says. Sanders says his proposal for a single-payer health care system may raise taxes on middle class families, but will end the need for costly private health insurance premiums. So he says in the end "it's a pretty good deal." ___ 10:00 p.m. Martin O'Malley is jumping into the debate over Wall Street regulation between his two Democratic rivals by alleging Hillary Clinton is being untruthful about the strength of her plans to reign in Wall Street excesses. He jumped in quickly to say "that's not true," when Clinton said her plan for financial regulation has been called the toughest and most comprehensive. O'Malley says he would put "cops back on the beat of Wall Street." Sanders, likewise, says it's wrong that none of the executives of the largest banks faced jail time after the financial collapse. ___ 9:58 p.m. Bernie Sanders is pointing to Hillary Clinton's campaign contributions and speaking fees from Wall Street as evidence that she won't be able to impose stricter regulations on the financial sector. He says, "I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs." Clinton is shooting right back, alleging Sanders' comments amount to an attack on President Barack Obama's record on financial regulation. She also says there's "no daylight" between her and Sanders on the basic premise that big banks need to be reigned in. Wall Street regulation is a major point of contention between the two campaigns, with Sanders recently releasing an ad outlining "two visions" within the Democratic party over Wall Street regulation. Clinton's response tying herself to Obama is part of her effort to craft herself as the natural heir to his presidency. ___ 9:45 p.m. Hillary Clinton says she plans to keep pursuing all votes, including from young people who turn out in droves for Bernie Sanders. Democratic debate moderator Lester Holt cites polling that suggests the 74-year-old Sanders leads the 68-year-old Clinton by about a 2-to-1 margin among "young voters," though he did not offer details. Clinton cited several points in her platform as reasons she should appeal to young people, such as tuition-free community college, overhauling the student loan system and restoring voting rights laws struck down by the Supreme Court. But she stresses that her pitch ultimately is aimed at voters of all ages. "Turning over the White House to Republicans," she says, would "be bad for" everyone. __ 9:42 p.m. Bernie Sanders is embracing his identity as a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist," saying the Democratic party needs "major reform." Democrats need to expand their outreach to traditionally red states like South Carolina and lessen their dependency on Super PACs, he says. He adds: "We need to expand what the input is into the Democratic party." ___ 9:39 p.m. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both say they can work to find common ground in Washington though they have different takes on how to get things done. Asked about how to bridge political divisions, Clinton says Sunday night that she has a long history of working across the aisle. Among her examples was working with Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, to increase health care access for veterans. Clinton says she will "go anywhere to meet with anyone at any time to find common ground." Sanders says he also has a history of working with Republicans - citing collaboration with Republican Sen. John McCain, of Arizona - but he also argues that a key issue in Washington is that Congress is "owned by big money" and is not pursuing the policies the public wants. ___ 9:31 p.m. A heated Bernie Sanders says the debate over health care reform should be about who has "the guts to stand up to" private insurance and pharmaceutical companies. He says the reason the United States doesn't guarantee health care as a right is partly because of a "corrupt" campaign finance system. Sanders and Hillary Clinton are engaged in a fiery back-and-forth over how to further reform health care. Sanders is advocating for a "Medicare for all" plan, while Clinton says she would build on the Affordable Care Act. Clinton says she has experience taking on the health insurance industry, noting with a smile that they've spent "many, many millions of dollars" attacking her - but says the candidates must be realistic when it comes to health care reform. She says even with Democrats in charge, Congress has failed to pass a bill allowing people to choose to participate in Medicare. ___ 9:30 p.m. Bernie Sanders is defending his proposal for universal health care as being in the true traditions of the Democratic Party and presidents like Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Hillary Clinton says the Vermont senator's idea would "tear up" the Affordable Care Act and give Republicans a fresh opportunity to undo one of President Barack Obama's "greatest achievements." "With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back," Clinton says. Sanders is blasting Clinton's attacks as misrepresenting the fact that he "has fought for universal health care for my entire life." He says his plan doesn't scrap the Affordable Care Act's vision of expanded coverage, but builds on it by "getting private insurance out" of health care markets. He notes that even with Obama's law, which still hinges on private insurance, about 29 million Americans remain without health care coverage. This issue, he says, "is whether or not we have the guts to stand up to the private insurance companies and all their money." ___ 9:25 p.m. Sen. Bernie Sanders says in the Democratic presidential debate the U.S. Justice Department should investigate "whenever anybody in this country is killed while in police custody." He responded to a question from a voter who questioned the fairness of prosecutors being responsible for investigating allegations of police brutality in their local jurisdictions. Sanders also used the question to repeat several points that he has worked into his standard campaign pitch in recent months. He praised police officers for doing a "difficult job" but added, that any officer who "breaks the law," they should face consequences. He also says the U.S. "should de-militarize" local police forces "so they don't look like occupying armies." And he calls for local agencies to use "community policing," placing officers in local neighborhoods so they get to know citizens, and to diversify their forces to "look like the communities ___ 9:21 p.m. Bernie Sanders is taking on criticism that he's not as electable as Hillary Clinton or as popular as her among black voters. He says, "we have the momentum, we're on a path to victory." Sanders says he's confident black voters will increasingly back his candidacy when they learn more about his positions. He's pointing to his support in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he's neck and neck with Clinton, that voters who have had a chance to learn about him are strongly backing his campaign. Although Sanders and Clinton are close in the early voting states, the former secretary of state continues to out-perform Sanders in national polls and has wider support among African American voters. Sanders is also taking on the argument that he's not as "electable" as Clinton, telling views he performs better in matchups against Republican front-runner Donald Trump than Clinton does. ___ 9:20 p.m. Martin O'Malley is defending his record in Baltimore and Maryland on criminal justice. Asked about his crime policies in light of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore police custody, O'Malley says Sunday night that "we weren't able to make our city immune from setbacks" but, "we were able to save a lot of lives." O'Malley said he repealed the possession of marijuana as a crime and repealed the death penalty in the state. He said incarceration rates and violent crime rates dropped under his watch. ___ 9:16 p.m. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are reiterating their push to reform the criminal justice system, with Clinton saying it's riddled with "systemic racism" and Sanders deriding it as "broken." ___ 9:15 p.m. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are clashing early on guns in a Democratic presidential debate blocks from where nine people were killed by a white gunman at a historic black church in June. Sanders says Clinton's assertion that he's a tool of the gun lobby is "disingenuous" and notes that he has a lifetime rating of a D- from the National Rifle Association. He says he's always supported bans on military style assault weapons, though Clinton counters that he voted several times against the Brady Bill that eventually became law under her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton has hammered Sanders for weeks for voting effectively to shield gun manufacturers from legal liability in gun deaths. Sanders says the bill was unfair to independent gun retailers, whom he has said don't deserve to be sued. He says he would support legislation that would target manufacturers specifically. Sanders also argues that as a "senator from a rural state that has virtually no gun control" he's in an "excellent position to bring people together on the politically sensitive issue." ___ 9:08 p.m. Martin O'Malley says investing in cities will be a top priority in his first days in office. Asked about his priorities for his first 100 days in office, the former Maryland governor says Sunday that he would focus on efforts to boost wages, promote clean energy and enhance cities. The former mayor of Baltimore says: "We have not had a new agenda for America's cities since Jimmy Carter." ___ 9:07 p.m. Bernie Sanders says three of the major issues he'd pursue as president are raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, rebuilding crumbling roads and bridges and making health care available to everyone. He says he'd focus his first 100 days in office on "bringing America together to end the decline of the middle class." Sanders is centering his campaign on making wealthy Americans pay what he calls their "fair share." He says his campaign is about "thinking big." ___ 9:06 p.m. Martin O'Malley is trying to make his mark early in a Democratic presidential debate expected to be dominated by Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The former Maryland governor was the only one of the three candidates to mention President Barack Obama and the Republican presidential field during opening statements. He praised the president, who remains extremely popular among the Democratic base, and managed to tweak Clinton in the same note. "We need new leadership," O'Malley said. "We need to come together and build upon the good things that President Obama have done." The GOP field, O'Malley said, has been defined by "anger." ___ 9:04 p.m. Bernie Sanders is sticking to his message of economic reform in his opening statement at Sunday night's Democratic debate. There was no mention in his opening statement of the health care plan that he released in the hours just before the debate started. The Vermont senator noted that Monday is Martin Luther King Day and said that it was important to "continue his vision." Sanders said the economy was "rigged" and that ordinary people were working longer hours for lower wages. He repeated his call for a "political revolution" to change the country. ___ 9:02 p.m. Hillary Clinton is opening her remarks at the debate by casting herself as the most qualified for the White House. In her opening remarks on Sunday night, Clinton said Americans need a president "who can do all aspects of the job." She adds: "I understand this is the hardest job in the world." Clinton says she's "prepared" and "ready" for the presidency. The remark is a subtle dig at Sanders, who's focused his campaign heavily on economic issues, even after terrorist attacks in Paris and California raised national security concerns. ___ 9:01 p.m. The Democratic presidential debate is underway, with three candidates set to clash over health care, gun policy and more in a forum just a few blocks from the "Mother Emanuel" church where nine parishioners were murdered last year. Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gestures towards Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton during the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) Hannibal Buress calls it a 'weird surprise' that his Bill Cosby 'rapist' joke precipitated the star's fall from grace. 'I was doing a joke in my show and that shouldn't influence public opinion. I don't know if it should go that far,' Buress said Sunday. 'It's weird to me that a joke did that.' Buress said he didn't perform the joke with the idea it would have repercussions for Cosby. He stopped short of expressing regret. Joker: Comedian Hannibal Buress saw his profile rise significantly in 2014 when his standup routine about Bill Cosby helped accelerate mainstream media coverage of sexual assault allegations by dozens of women No joke: A judge will soon decide whether to uphold or throw out charges against Cosby Speaking earlier to a TV critics' group, Buress said he's moved beyond Cosby as a punchline and doesn't see his career as defined by it. 'I've been working for a while and I continue to work,' Buress said, citing his voice-over performances for films including the upcoming 'The Angry Birds Movie' and ongoing stand-up appearances. A comedy special for Netflix will be released February 5. 'That's just one joke that ... people took and really ran with it,' he said. In October 2014, Buress called Cosby a rapist during a Philadelphia stand-up performance. It was captured on video and posted online, gaining wide exposure and renewing scrutiny of decades-old allegations of sexual assault lodged by a number of women. The chorus of accusers grew, eclipsing Cosby's public image as a charming, family friendly comedian and an African-American groundbreaker with his role in the 1960s in 'I Spy' and his 1984-92 NBC TV sitcom 'The Cosby Show.' Smirking: Buress called Cosby a rapist in a routine that slammed the veteran entertainer for criticizing aspects of black culture even as he faced allegations that he raped and drugged women over the years Cosby had previously come under fire from some in the African-American community for critical remarks about the conduct of poor blacks. Buress declined Sunday to discuss what prompted making Cosby a comedic target. Cosby repeatedly has denied the sexual-misconduct claims, with his attorneys noting he had never been charged. That changed on December 31, when he was arrested on felony assault charges in suburban Philadelphia stemming from a 2004 encounter with a former Temple University employee. The decision represented an about-face by the district attorney's office, which under a previous leader declined to charge Cosby in 2005 when Andrea Constand first told police that the comic put his hands down her pants. Charged: Last month, Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault in connection with a 2004 incident at his suburban Philadelphia mansion Responding last month to the charges, Cosby's attorney Monique Pressley accused the new prosecutor of 'playing political football' with Cosby's life. Buress, who appeared on the panel with John Mulaney and Patton Oswalt, drew support from his fellow comedians. 'Many, many people knew him as an excellent standup before that,' Mulaney said. Seoul: North Korea has sent 1 million propaganda leaflets SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea has launched an estimated 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased tension between the rivals following the North's recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said Monday. A Cold War-style standoff flared since the North's claim on Jan. 6 that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials. Seoul's Defense Ministry said Monday the North's military has been sending the balloons on a near-daily basis. Spokesman Kim Min-seok said the leaflets have reached Seoul in addition to areas close to the border. In this Jan. 11, 2016 photo, members of South Korean conservative group look at the image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and North Korean flags during a rally denouncing North Korea, in Paju, South Korea. North Korea has launched an estimated 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased animosities between the rivals following the Norths recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. The letters read "North Korea Nuclear Test." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) Such leafleting by the North is rare, as the two Koreas officially stopped psychological warfare as part of tension-reduction measures in 2004. South Korean activists have still occasionally sent propaganda balloons toward the North, triggering angry responses from the North. South Korean officials believe their broadcasts will sting in the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country by demoralizing frontline troops and residents. There are doubts in Seoul that the North Korean leaflets will have any impact on the public in more affluent South Korea. Many foreign governments and analysts remain highly skeptical about the H-bomb claim, but whatever the North detonated underground will likely push the country closer toward a fully functional nuclear arsenal, which it still is not thought to have. The North previously conducted atomic bomb tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. South Korea, the U.S. and other countries are pushing hard to get North Korea punished over the bomb test. Soon after the test, diplomats at a U.N. Security Council pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions on the North. But it's unclear whether China, the North's last major ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, would cooperate on any tough sanctions that could force a change in the North. The two Koreas share the world's most heavily fortified border since their war in the early 1950s ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are deployed in South Korea as deterrence against North Korea. In this Jan. 7, 2016 photo, visitors use binoculars to see North Korean territory from the unification observatory in Paju, north of Seoul, South Korea. North Korea has launched an estimated 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased animosities between the rivals following the Norths recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) ISIS militants who torture thousands in the name of Islam hide their victims from senior Muslim clerics who disapprove of their barbaric behaviour, it is claimed. Mohammed Saad, a Syrian activist who was imprisoned and tortured by the terrorist group, said extremists beat him regularly while holding him in jail but would hide him when clerics visited. He was hung by his arms and beaten regularly until an imam visited, when he would suddenly find himself locked away in a bathroom. He said the cleric had told the fighters running the prison that they shouldn't torture prisoners and that anyone held without charge must be released within 30 days. Once the coast was clear, the prisoners would be returned to their torment. Mohammed Saad (pictured), a Syrian activist who was imprisoned and tortured by ISIS, said extremists beat him regularly while holding him in jail but would hide him when disapproving senior Muslim clerics visited Speaking in Turkey, where he fled the radical organisation in October, he added: 'It's a criminal gang pretending to be a state. 'All this talk about applying Shariah and Islamic values is just propaganda, Daesh is about torture and killing,' he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. Abu Manaf, a 44-year-old from Deir el-Zour, said some clerics challenged the group's enforcers over their wanton use of strict Shariah punishments like beheadings, stoning to death, flogging and cutting off limbs. More moderate clerics in ISIS argued that such punishments can only be implemented under specific conditions. They also complained about the jihadis' custom of displaying bodies of the beheaded in public as an example to others, violating Islamic tenets requiring the swift burial of the dead. 'Many of those moderate clerics disappear, are killed or jailed for crimes they did not commit,' said Abu Manaf, who left Deir el-Zour in November, then stayed in the group's de facto capital, Raqqa, for three weeks before he reached Turkey. Saad's account of his imprisonment in his home city of Deir el-Zour reflected the tensions between the fighters and some clerics. He was arrested because of his media activism, reporting on the anti-Assad opposition. ISIS suspected him of belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is fighting the extremists. The day the cleric came to inspect the prison - set up in a former police station - he heard the cleric asking the guards if the prisoners were getting enough food and water, and whether they were being beaten. On another occasion, a cleric and a judge visited and spoke to the prisoners in their cells. Saad said they told him to write on a piece of paper his name, why he'd been jailed and whether he had been tortured or made to confess under duress. He wrote that he had not been beaten, because he knew the guards would punish him if he said he had been. Syrian refugee Nayef says that justice under ISIS 'has been erratic'. He said: 'Gradually, things got worse' Demonstrators chant pro-ISIS slogans as they carry the group's flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, Iraq. Those who have fled the group's clutches have revealed more about their torture After five months in custody, Saad said he secured his release by agreeing to do media work for ISIS. For three months, he helped put together videos and other propaganda before escaping to Turkey. Syrians who have recently escaped ISIS' rule say public disillusionment is growing as the so-called state has failed to live up to its promises to install a utopian 'Islamic' rule of justice, equality and good governance. Instead, the group has come to resemble the dictatorial rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad that many Syrians had sought to shed, with a reliance on informers who have silenced a fearful populace. Rather than equality, society has seen the rise of a new elite class - the jihadi fighters - who enjoy special perks and favour in the courts, looking down on 'the commoners' and even ignoring the rulings of their own clerics. Despite the atrocities that made it notorious, ISIS had raised hopes among some fellow Sunnis when it overran their territories across parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a 'caliphate' in summer 2014. It presented itself as a contrast to Assad's rule, bringing justice through its extreme interpretation of Shariah and providing services to residents, including loans to farmers, water and electricity, and alms to the poor. Its propaganda machine promoting the dream of an Islamic caliphate helped attract jihadis from around the world. In Istanbul and several Turkish cities near the Syrian border, Associated Press spoke to more than a dozen Syrians who fled IS-controlled territory in recent months. Hossam (pictured above), a native of Aleppo, Syria, who lived in the ISIS-held state of Raqqa for six months before fleeing to Turkey, said ISIS members receive perks that sharply divide them from everyone else Most spoke on condition they be identified only by their first names or by the nicknames they use in their political activism for fear of ISIS reprisals against themselves or family. 'Daesh justice has been erratic,' said Nayef, who hails from ISIS-held eastern Syrian town of al-Shadadi and escaped to Turkey in November with his family, largely because of Russian airstrikes. 'They started off good and then, gradually, things got worse.' The group has recruited informers in the towns and cities it controls to look out for any sign of opposition. 'Like under the (Assad) regime, we were also afraid to talk against Daesh to anyone we don't fully trust,' said Fatimah, a 33-year-old whose hometown of Palmyra was taken over by ISIS early last year. She fled to Turkey in November with her husband and five children to escape Russian and Syrian airstrikes. ISIS has also become less able to provide public services, in large part because military reversals appear to have put strains on its finances. U.S. and Russian airstrikes have heavily hit its oil infrastructure a major source of funds. Over the past year, the group has lost 30 per cent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, according to the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition. Many of those interviewed said there are lengthier cut-offs of water and electricity in their towns and cities and prices for oil and gas have risen. Abu Salem, an activist from the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, said public acceptance of ISIS rule is eroding. 'It has made an enemy of almost everyone,' he said in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on the Syrian border. One sign of the distance between the claims and realities is a 12-page manifesto by ISIS detailing its judicial system. The document, a copy of which was obtained by AP, heavily emphasises justice and tolerance. A member of ISIS' vice police, known as 'Hisba', reads a verdict handed down by an Islamic court in Raqqa, Syria, sentencing many they accused of adultery to lashing. A Hisba member 'must be gentle and pleasant toward those he orders or reprimands, according to an ISIS document obtained by media in the region For example, it sets out the duties of the Hisba, the 'religious police' who ensure people adhere to the group's dress codes, strict separation of genders and other rules. A Hisba member 'must be gentle and pleasant toward those he orders or reprimands,' it says. 'He must be flexible and good mannered so that his influence is greater and the response (he gets) is stronger.' Yet, the escaped Syrians all complained of the brutal extremes that the Hisba resorts to. One woman who lived in Raqqa said that if a woman is considered to have violated the dress codes, the militants flog her husband, since he is seen as responsible for her. When her neighbour put out the garbage without being properly covered, she said, the woman's husband was whipped. Hossam, who owned a women's clothes shop in Raqqa, said ISIS members receive perks that sharply set them apart from everyone else. In many cases, young men join the group to escape poverty or protect themselves from ISIS excesses, he and others said. He insisted that his last name not be printed, fearing for his safety. 'Those who join Daesh receive a step up in the social ladder,' he told the AP in Istanbul. 'Daesh men drive luxury cars and eat at the best restaurants and whoever has a friend or a relative with Daesh has a better life.' One perk that ISIS members avail themselves of is the chance to marry local women. Several of the Syrians interviewed said families with daughters often came under pressure to marry them off to fighters, which has led many to smuggle daughters to Turkey. Khatar, a 26-year-old who spoke in Lesbos, Greece, making her way to Western Europe, said she has two younger sisters back in Raqqa, and jihadis 'have been knocking on our doors at least once a month to ask for their hands in marriage.' Her father lies to them and tells them he doesn't have unmarried daughters, 'but they keep coming back.' But some take the opportunity to marry an ISIS member because the benefits lift the whole family out of the 'al-awam' class. PICTURED: Rescuing Borneo's threatened orangutans SUNGAI MANGKUTUB, Indonesia (AP) In a dense strip of peat swamp jungle along the banks of Mangkutub River in the heart of Borneo, a conservationist aims his tranquilizer rifle at an orangutan high in a tree and fires two darts. The giant, red-haired primate slides down the tree on its own and soon loses consciousness on the jungle floor. A team of ten rescuers from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation huddle around the adult male and perform a brief medical examination checking temperature, teeth to determine rough age, taking a blood sample and inserting a chip under its skin before preparing to transport the orangutan to a release site about 80 kilometers away, where they believe it will have more space to roam and be less threatened by forest fires. In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists from Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation carry a tranquilized orangutan as they conduct a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The orangutans, which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, were forced to live in the over-populated peatland forest along the river, raising fears that they would run out of food soon. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Forest fires, often set illegally to clear land, have been an annual problem in Indonesia since the mid-1990s, but last year's was the worst in nearly 20 years, when blazes spread across 2.1 million hectares (8,063 square miles). They killed 21 people, damaged crops and caused respiratory problems for more than half a million. The fires also encroached on the habitat of orangutans in central Borneo, forcing them to move closer to river banks, in some places along a strip of forest as narrow as 30 meters (yards) near the Mangkutab River. The population of the big apes got so crowded that experts worried they would starve and get into conflicts with people living nearby. "Recent forest fires have made it difficult for orangutans to find food and this is very dangerous for them," said Ahmad Sayoko, coordinator of rescue and release mission. Most rescued orangutans were found in bad condition, apparently starving and some with cataracts. One had multiple air rifle pellets in its head and leg, a sign of conflict with humans. Southeast Asia's Sumatra and Borneo islands are the orangutans' last homes on Earth, and environmentalists warn that the estimated 60,000 animals remaining could disappear from the wild within the next decade if steps aren't taken to protect them. Wild orangutans are also threatened by poaching and illegal logging. "We have to rescue and relocate them as soon as possible or they could lose their lives," said Kissar Odom, who works for the foundation. During the team's first operation in November, they rescued and relocated 39 orangutans, he said. On this, the team's second operation, rescuers have spotted an orangutan nearly every ten minutes as they ride along in the boat, a sign that the area along the river has a higher population density than is healthy. Team members carried the large tranquilized orangutan through a dense swamp and put it in a cage, which was then loaded on a waiting boat to be taken to the release site. They hope to rescue two or three of the great apes each day, said Sayoko. "We are determined to continue this operation until the last orangutan along Mangkutub River is safely relocated," he said. In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, Tony Setiono, a conservationist from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, center, fires his tranquilizer rifle at an orangutan high in the trees as they conduct a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of conservationists were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation approach a tranquilized orangutan as they conduct a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of foresters, veterinarians and technicians were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation examine a tranquilized orangutan during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of conservationists were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation examine the teeth of a tranquilized orangutan to determine its age during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of conservationists were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 6, 2016, photo, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation carry a tranquilized orangutan to a waiting boat as they conduct a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The orangutans, which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, were forced to live in the over-populated peatland forest along the river, raising fears that they would run out of food soon. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation examine a tranquilized orangutan as they conduct a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of conservationists were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 7, 2016, photo, conservationists of Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation hold a baby orangutan rescued along with its mother during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Last year's forest fires drove orangutans closer to the river bank, where they had to live in an over-populated swath of forest as thin as 30 meters wide along the river. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, Tony Setiono, a conservationist from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, prepares a tranquilizer gun prior to a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team consisting of foresters, veterinarians and technicians were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 7, 2016, photo, a wild orangutan is spotted in a tree during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Last year's forest fires drove orangutans closer to the river bank, where they had to live in an over-populated swath of forest as thin as 30 meters wide along the river. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, Lissar Odom, left, and Ahmat Sayoko, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, scan the forest canopy for orangutans during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The orangutans, which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, were forced to live in the over-populated peatland forest along the river, raising fears that they would run out of food soon. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 6, 2016, photo, a conservationist of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation carries a tranquilizer gun as he moves through the swamp during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The orangutans, which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, were forced to live in the over-populated peatland forest along the river, raising fears that they would run out of food soon. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 5, 2016, photo, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation examine a tranquilized orangutan during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The orangutans, which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year, were forced to live in the over-populated peatland forest along the river, raising fears that they would run out of food soon. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 6, 2016, photo, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation sit on a boat as they search for orangutans during a rescue and release operation in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mangkutub, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of foresters, veterinarians and technicians were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 6, 2016, photo, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation transport a young orangutan to a release site during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mantangai, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of foresters, veterinarians and technicians were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In this Jan. 6, 2016, photo, conservationists from the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation transport a young orangutan to a release site during a rescue and release operation for orangutans trapped in a swath of jungle in Sungai Mantangai, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. A team of foresters, veterinarians and technicians were deployed to rescue orangutans which lost their habitat to the forest fires last year and relocate them to a new location. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) In tight race, Democrats debate passion versus practicality CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) With just two weeks to go before the first votes of the 2016 race for president, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their most contentious debate match-up to date, underscoring their tightening primary race as the Iowa caucuses draw near. The pair tangled repeatedly Sunday night over who's tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to shape the future of health care in America. Their heated rhetoric highlighted the central question fueling the increasingly competitive primary race: Will the Sanders passion beat out the Clinton practicality? Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, answers a question as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton gestures, during the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) While Clinton remains the national front-runner, grassroots enthusiasm for Sanders' outsider candidacy and his unapologetically liberal message has imperiled her lead in Iowa and expanded his advantage in New Hampshire. "What this is really about is not the rational way to go forward," Sanders said as he responded to Clinton's argument that his health care plans would reignite a divisive political battle. "It's whether we have the guts to stand up to the private insurance companies." Clinton derided as impractical Sanders' ambitious aim to replace the country's existing employer-based system of health care insurance with one in which the government becomes a "single payer," providing coverage to all. Instead, she urged a less-sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care law by working to further reduce out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. "We have the Affordable Care Act," she said. "That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of our country." In doing so, she again cast herself as the natural successor to Obama and accused Sanders, until recently an independent, of being an unfaithful ally of the administration. It's a strategy aimed at locking down Democratic primary voters, particularly minorities, who make up a huge swath of the party's base and remain devoted to Obama. But it's a riskier approach in a general election, where as her party's nominee, Clinton would have to woo voters who question whether they feel more economically secure after Obama's eight years in office. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger Obama's hard-won victories, insisting: "No one is tearing this up. We're going to go forward." Clinton also rapped Sanders for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association while in Congress, welcoming his weekend reversal to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertions were "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. The debate over gun control took on a special importance given the event was just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Clinton has made the issue a central theme of her campaign, citing it as one of the major differences between the candidates. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted from the nation's financial firms. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she said. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. "My relationship with him it's interesting," Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. "It's one, I think, of respect." But she added it was critical for the next president to stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who "will take as much as he possibly can." Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? "It'll start at the kitchen table we'll see where it goes from there," she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He once called the former president's behavior "deplorable" but said Sunday night that he wants to focus on issues "not Bill Clinton's personal life." Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said he preferred to concentrate on policy matters. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation, hoping to boost his poll numbers out of single digits. But it was tough for O'Malley to stand out. When the conversation shifted to fiscal responsibility, O'Malley said his time in Maryland made him the only person on stage to balance a budget. Sanders an ex-mayor of Burlington, Vermont quickly interjected, "I was mayor for 8 years, I did that as well." ___ Nancy Benac reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report ___ Follow Lisa Lerer and Nancy Benac on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/llerer and http://twitter.com/nbenac Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, center, answers a question as presidential candidates, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, right and former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley listen, during the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. NBC moderators Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell are at right. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. confer during a break at the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley answers questions in the spin room following the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. speak during a break at the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton gestures towards Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, during the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton speaks at the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) Senate to consider stricter screening for Syrian refugees WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate will consider rigorous new screening procedures for Syrian and Iraqi refugees seeking to enter the United States as national security looms large for voters in an election year. Propelled by the Islamic State group's attacks in Paris, the GOP-backed legislation raced through the House last November with 289 votes. That veto-proof margin included 47 Democrats despite the Obama administration's opposition to the measure. The legislation will have a much harder time making it through the Senate in the week ahead. FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2016 file photo, Syrian refugees inside the border wait to be approved to get into Jordan, in the Hadalat reception area, near the northeastern Jordanian border with Syria, and Iraq, near the town of Ruwaished, Jordan. The Senate will consider new rigorous screening procedures for Syrian and Iraqi refugees seeking to enter the United States as national security looms large for voters in an election year. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File) Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., needs at least six Democrats to join all 54 Republicans to approve a motion clearing the bill for final passage in the 100-member chamber. The Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, said last year that was not going to happen. Even if it did, President Barack Obama has pledged to veto the bill if it gets to him. The upshot may be more of the same on Capitol Hill: A war of words, with Republicans blasting Obama for failing to do what they see as necessary to secure the United States and Democrats accusing the GOP of fearmongering to score points with voters. Some of the key points to know about the Syrian-Iraqi refugee legislation: __ WHAT THE HOUSE BILL DOES The Islamic State group controls territory in Syria and Iraq. As a result of the extremists' harsh, uncompromising rule, people in those areas have tried to flee and make it to the United States. The House-passed American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act is rooted in concerns the current process of screening refugee is inadequate and could allow a terrorist to be admitted into the United States. The legislation would order FBI background checks for Syrian and Iraqi refugees and require that the FBI, Homeland Security Department and the director of National Intelligence certify that each refugee is not a security threat. The bill's requirements would effectively suspend admissions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Republicans pointed to the arrest this month of two Iraqi refugees with suspected links to terrorism as one more example of the flawed vetting system. Over the past few months, voters' concerns about terrorism have surged and their confidence in the government's ability to defeat IS and other extremist groups has plummeted, according to a national survey conducted in December by the Pew Research Center. "I think there's a sense we need to do everything we can to demonstrate we take seriously the responsibility to protect the country," Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the GOP leadership, said last week at a party retreat in Baltimore. ___ A PROMISE TO VETO The White House said Obama would veto the House bill. The legislation "would provide no meaningful additional security for the American people," it said in a Nov. 18 statement. Refugees of all nationalities, including Syrians and Iraqis, already face a demanding screening process, and the legislation "would unacceptably hamper our efforts to assist some of the most vulnerable people in the world," the statement said. The White House said more than 2,100 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the United States since 2001 and not one has been arrested or deported on terrorism-related grounds. ___ 'DON'T WORRY, IT WON'T GET PASSED' After the House passed the bill Nov. 19, Reid predicted it would die in the Senate. "Don't worry, it won't get passed," he told reporters. A final decision on how the Democrats will proceed is expected on Wednesday at their weekly caucus meeting. Without support from Democrats, the math doesn't work for McConnell. He needs a half-dozen Democrats to pass a motion to proceed and eventually allow a vote on the legislation. Thirteen more Democrats would be needed to reach a veto-proof tally. Despite Reid's optimism, the House vote demonstrated that opposing the legislation can be dicey for Democrats facing tight 2016 elections. Before the House vote, White House aides went to the Capitol to win over Democrats. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., told them, in a forceful exchange, that voting "no" could hurt Democrats at the polls. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said other steps should include addressing illegal immigration more broadly and barring the sale of guns to people on federal terrorism watch lists a move the Senate recently rejected. ___ AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report. ___ Online: Summary of House bill: http://tinyurl.com/h349uw6 White House veto threat: http://tinyurl.com/ogoqn62 __ Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter at http://twitter.com/rplardner Bomb kills 5 paramilitary soldiers in southwestern Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) A bomb blast targeted Pakistani paramilitary troops on Monday, killing five soldiers and wounding three in the southwestern city of Quetta, officials said. The bombing occurred on the city's outskirts, said a local police official, Bangul Khan, adding that early indications were that the blast came from a bomb planted near the patrol and detonated by remote control. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Quetta is the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, where a low-level insurgency has long been waged by Baloch separatist groups demanding a greater share of the region's natural resources or outright independence. Al-Qaida, the Taliban and other Sunni militant groups are also active in the region. UK to offer language classes to female Muslim immigrants LONDON (AP) Britain's leader says Muslim women must improve their English to better integrate into British society, arguing that improved national cohesion is the best antidote to extremism. Prime Minster David Cameron on Monday pledged to fund English language classes for Muslim women immigrants, and warned some could be deported if they fail to reach certain standards. The 20-million-pound ($28.5 million) fund will help tens of thousands of women facing social isolation and discrimination and emphasize that Britain has expectations for those who want to live in the country, Cameron said. "I think it's quite right to say to people who come to our country that there are many rights that you have here it's a fantastic country to live in but there are also obligations that we should put on people who come to our country, and chief amongst them should be obligations to learn English because then you can integrate, you can take advantage of the opportunities here and you can help us to build the strong country that we want," Cameron said. FILE- In this October 13, 2006 file photo, a photographers' flashgun casts a shadow as two Muslim women leave Little Harwood Community Centre in Blackburn, England. Britains prime minister told the BBC on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 that Muslim women must improve their English skills to better integrate into British society, and suggested some migrants could be deported if they fail to better speak the language. (AP Photo/Jon Super, File) Britain already requires prospective spouses to demonstrate English language skills to roughly that of a child starting primary school. Under Cameron's plan, spouses would have to improve that ability to a higher standard after five years or face deportation. But the British leader faced an immediate backlash from critics including some within his own party who challenged his decision to link language abilities to extremism. Sayeeda Warsi, a one-time member of Cameron's cabinet, said that while the money was welcome, the proposal had been announced badly. "This lazy and misguided linking, and what I saw once again as stereotyping of British Muslim communities, I felt took away from what was a positive announcement," Warsi told the BBC. "My parents came to this country with very little English my mum's English still isn't great, even though she has been to English language classes." She said the government should be telling women that it will give them an opportunity to learn, rather than warning they could be sent back to their native countries. "I think to threaten women and say to them that 'unless you are of X standard we will send you back, even if you have children in the U.K. who are British and your spouse is British' is, for me, a very unusual way of empowering and emboldening women," she said. The program aimed at women is meant to end what Cameron called the "passive tolerance" of discriminatory practices and to challenge the "backward attitudes" of a minority of men. He said some 190,000 Muslim women in England speak little or no English. Though Cameron acknowledged that problems of forced gender segregation and social isolation are not unique to Muslim communities, he did not mention other groups. Britain is not the only European country that requires prospective spouses to demonstrate language proficiency, though programs differ. Germany adopted regulations for prospective immigrants in 2007 with tough tests that favor those who can afford classes. Austria and the Netherlands also have similar tests. Cameron suggested the proposal reflects the challenge the country's leaders face in trying to defuse the appeal that the Islamic State group holds for many young Britons. Some 800 British citizens have managed to enter Syria in the last four years while another 600 have been caught trying to get there. Parents who are unable to speak English have less of a chance of preventing radicalization of their children, Cameron argued. Some of the young people who have traveled to Syria are native-born Brits whose parents were immigrants, but the ranks of jihadis also include converts and others and Muslim groups protested that they were being singled out. "Mosques and Muslim civil society would be eager to play their part by hosting English language classes, as many mosques do," said Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. "But the Prime Minister's aim to have English more widely spoken and for better integration falls at the first hurdle if he is to link it to security and single out Muslim women to illustrate his point." ___ Kurdish militant attack kills 3 Turkish policemen ISTANBUL (AP) Turkey's state-run news agency says Kurdish militants have killed three policemen and wounded four others in an attack in the southeastern province of Sirnak. The Anadolu Agency says the three officers succumbed to their wounds Monday after being hit by a roadside bomb in Sirnak's Idil district, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Fighting between Turkey's security forces and the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, resumed in July, shattering a fragile peace process. Turkey has launched numerous airstrikes against PKK positions in northern Iraq and imposed extended curfews in flashpoint neighborhoods and towns in its mainly Kurdish southeast. Pakistan's ex-President Musharraf acquitted in murder case QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) A court acquitted former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf Monday in a murder case involving the killing of a separatist leader, Akbar Bugti, who had died in a 2006 military operation in Baluchistan province, lawyers said. An anti-terrorism court announced the verdict in the southwestern city of Quetta, Baluchistan's provincial capital. The court accepted the defense's argument that Musharraf had nothing to do with the killing, said his lawyer Akhtar Shah. He added that he had been pleading his client's innocence ever since the case was registered in 2009. FILE - In this Saturday, April 20, 2013 file photo, Pakistan's former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf arrives at an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad, Pakistan. A court on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 has acquitted Musharraf from murder case involving the killing of a nationalist leader, Akbar Bugti, who had died in a military operation. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed, File) Musharraf's government in mid-2000s launched a crackdown on separatist insurgents in Baluchistan province and Bugti was killed in a raid in 2006. Separatists in the province want complete autonomy from Islamabad and have been fighting for a greater share of revenue from their region's natural resources. The case against Musharraf was brought by Bugti's son, Jamil Bugti. Bugti's lawyer Sohail Rajput said he will appeal the verdict in a higher court. He alleged favoritism extended to the former military dictator due to his powerful background. The 70-year-old Musharraf took power in a 1999 coup and then stepped down in 2008. He later left the country, but returned to Pakistan in March 2013, hoping for a political comeback. Instead, he got embroiled in court cases, including one involving treason charges, which are connected to his decision in 2007 to declare a state of emergency and detain senior judges, including the chief justice. Burkina Faso capital security tightens after jihadi attack OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) In the wake of a weekend attack that killed at least 29 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. "Please go ahead and search my bag. We want to be protected and there is no way to refuse this," said Fati Doussa, to security guards as he visited a bank to get some cash. Metal detectors have been placed at banks. A soldier stands guard outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18 , 2016. In the wake of a weekend attack that killed up to 32 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) "We know it is just going to be different from now on," said Ousmane Sawadogo, a cell-phone seller some 200 meters (218 yards) from the Splendid Hotel which was attacked Friday night. The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012. At the site Monday, forensic experts and investigators from France and Burkina Faso, dressed in white, filled the brown dusty street, gathering evidence in secured areas near the hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe. Military forces ended the siege Saturday. Burkina Faso's security minister, Simon Compaore, said Sunday 32 people were dead, including three jihadis. French Ambassador Gilles Thibault said Monday that about 30 people were dead in addition to the three attackers who were killed by French forces. Thirty others were still hospitalized, and about 180 had been freed by French and Burkina Faso forces during and after the siege, he said. "We were awaiting an attack like this one," he said. "It's impossible to say if these types of operations will be limited to just this one." Officials Saturday said forces killed three attackers in the Splendid Hotel and another in a neighboring hotel. Military spokesman Capt. Guy Herve Ye on Monday said, however, that they have clearly identified three attackers and are investigating what they thought was a fourth. He said that many witnesses said that there were women among the attackers, though he says that is probably because the attackers had long dreadlocks. Two former Olympic officials, Jean-Noel Rey from Switzerland and Jean-Pascal Kinda from Burkina Faso, were killed, Swiss and Burkina Faso authorities said. It was not clear if they had been together during the attack or if their presence was a coincidence. Kinda, 73, was a former Olympic Committee president who had gone to the Cappuccino Cafe to pick up a paper, said his friend and a local magistrate Mathias Tankoano. Rey was co-president of the Swiss bidding committee for the 2006 Olympics, Swiss media reports said. He was in Burkina Faso for a charity project to open the canteen of a school, the reports said. The toll also includes a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the Cappuccino Cafe, along with her 9-year-old son, according to Ukrainian and Italian officials, and six Canadians, according to Canada officials. The six were traveling together as part of a humanitarian mission, and four them were from the same family. The list of those killed include eight citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb put out a formal statement Sunday naming three of the attackers as men, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors extremist sites. It said it was a "drop in the sea of global jihad." The group on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack saying al-Mourabitoun fighters carried out the siege. Al-Mourabitoun joined AQIM last year and they claimed their first joint attack was the Nov. 20 seizure of the Radisson Blu in Mali that killed 20 people. Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi visited Ouagadougou Monday to show support and the backing of the Economic Community of West African States. "What could have led to such hatred? It is unimaginable. I am so dejected. We must prepare ourselves for an adequate response," he said near the site of the attack. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said regional forces must combine to fight extremism. "We need to combine our intelligence and military to better fight terrorism, notably at our borders. This does not only concern West Africa. We are in an asymmetric war. We need to train our armed forces for this type of combat," Kabore said Monday. "From now on we are going to take all measures to prevent such things from happening again." Burkina Faso and Mali's prime ministers met Sunday and agreed to share intelligence, strengthen transnational cooperation and have join patrols along shared borders, they said. ___ Associated Press writer Ludivine Laniepce contributed to this report. A soldier stands guard outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18 , 2016. In the wake of a weekend attack that killed up to 32 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) A soldier stands guard outside the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18 , 2016. In the wake of a weekend attack that killed up to 32 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) Burnt cars outside the Cappuccino cafe that was attacked Saturday by suspected militants in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. In the wake of a weekend attack that killed up to 32 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) A security officer explains how hotel Splendid was attacked to Burkina Faso President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, centre left, and Benin President, Thomas Boni Yayi, right, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Security was beefed up across Burkina Fasos capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened in the capital, where extremists staged an overnight attack on a cafe and hotel popular with foreigners that killed at least 28 people. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) Burkina Faso President, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, visits the Splendid Hotel that was attacked in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants carried out an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) A soldier stands guard in an APC outside the Splendid Hotel that was attacked in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Burkina Faso began three days of national mourning Sunday and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants carried out an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners over the weekend. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba) Burkina Faso troops provide security in the area Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, after militants led an attack on a hotel and a cafe popular with foreigners over the weekend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In the wake of the attack that left over 30 dead, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with Mali in the fight against jihadi elements in the West African region. (AP Photo/Theo Renaut) Debris outside the Cappuccino cafe Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, after militants led an attack on a hotel and a cafe popular with foreigners over the weekend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In the wake of the attack that left over 30 dead, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with Mali in the fight against jihadi elements in the West African region. (AP Photo/Theo Renaut) Debris outside the Splendid Hotel Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, after militants led an attack on an hotel and cafe popular with foreigners over the weekend in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In the wake of the attack that left over 30 dead, security was beefed up across Burkina Faso's capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with Mali in the fight against jihadi elements in the West African region. (AP Photo/Theo Renaut) Germany: 1st suspect held over Cologne sex assaults BERLIN (AP) A 26-year-old Algerian man has become the first person arrested in connection with a string of sexual assault during New Year's celebrations in Cologne that sparked a debate about Germany's ability to integrate migrants. Prosecutors said Monday that the unidentified asylum-seeker was arrested at a refugee home in the nearby town of Kerpen over the weekend. He is accused of groping a woman and robbing her cellphone, prosecutor's office spokesman Ulrich Bremer told The Associated Press. Two other Algerian asylum-seekers, aged 22 and 24, were also arrested in Kerpen and the western city of Aachen, respectively, over the weekend, both for robbery, Bremer said. The number of people accused of committing crimes in Cologne at New Year's now stands at 21, of whom eight are in detention, he said. Police patrol in the main train station in Cologne, Germany, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Authorities in Germany have arrested a 26-year-old Algerian man on suspicion of committing a sexual assault in Cologne during New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) Almost three weeks after the incident, 838 people have filed criminal complaints, including 497 women alleging sexual assault. Some of the victims have jointly filed a single complaint, so that the number of alleged crimes stands at 766, of which 381 are sexual offenses, including three rapes. The scale and nature of the crimes in Cologne, coupled with police descriptions of the perpetrators as being part of a large crowd of drunken men of "Arab or North African" origin, has fanned the debate about Germany's approach to migration. Almost 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrived in the country last year, many of them from countries where women face greater discrimination than in Germany. While the incidents were seized on by those in Germany who had already argued for stricter immigration rules, left-wing parties have also voiced concern. The opposition Green Party said Monday that senior members passed a resolution calling for better integration measures to counter the message about "the superiority of men and the inequality of women" that many of the alleged perpetrators would have grown up with. It warned, however, that some of those now voicing outrage about the attacks in Cologne were doing so to incite racism rather than out of concern for women. Berlin police issued a statement Monday denying reports widely shared on social media that a 13-year-old girl had been kidnapped and raped by an alleged migrant in the German capital last week. Police patrol in front of the main train station in Cologne, Germany, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. A first suspect of the New Years Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne was arrested over the weekend. Authorities in Germany have arrested a 26-year-old Algerian man on suspicion of committing a sexual assault in Cologne during New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) Police patrol in front of the main train station and the cathedral in Cologne, Germany, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Authorities in Germany have arrested a 26-year-old Algerian man on suspicion of committing a sexual assault in Cologne during New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) In Oklahoma, now the country's earthquake capital, people are talking nervously about the big one as man-made quakes get stronger, more frequent and closer to major population centers. Next door in Kansas, they're feeling on firmer ground though no one is ready yet to declare victory. A year ago, the states had a common problem - earthquakes caused by the disposal of wastewater from oil and gas exploration. They chose different solutions. Kansas, following early scientific studies, decided to restrict how much and how fast the wastewater could be pumped back underground. Oklahoma instead initially concentrated on the depth of the wastewater injections. Developments since then haven't been reassuring in Oklahoma, where a quake knocked out power in parts of an Oklahoma City suburb several weeks ago and where fears are growing that the worst is yet to come. On Friday, about 200 unhappy residents packed a forum at the state capitol convened by critics of the state's response. A governor's task force is studying the problem but officials have so far avoided taking tougher measures. Shaky: In this December 29, 2015 photo, remains of a collapsed chimney rest on the ground outside a home in Edmond, Oklahoma. Oklahoma is now the country's earthquake capital The quakes, which have been mostly small to medium sized, have caused limited damage, and no one foresees anything like the massive damage and deaths in the famous quakes in California, seismologists say. Still, 'It's a trend that's unsettling,' said Cornell University geophysicist Katie Keranen, referring to the increasing number of quakes. Frequent small quakes can be a harbinger of bigger ones. 'You have the ingredients you need to have a larger earthquake.' In Oklahoma, earthquakes of magnitude 2.7 and stronger increased by about 10 percent between the last half of 2014 and the last half of 2015, according to a data analysis by The Associated Press. Experts say 2.7 is a threshold at which monitors are reliable. In Kansas, earthquakes of that magnitude went down by 60 percent in the same period. According to earthquake experts, the pattern fits recent peer-reviewed studies that suggest injecting high volumes of wastewater could aggravate natural faults. In Oklahoma's six most earthquake-prone counties, the volume of wastewater disposal increased more than threefold from 2012 to 2014. The past few weeks have been especially nerve-wracking. Eighty-eight quakes of 2.7 or stronger occurred this January as of Monday at noon central time, more than in all of 2012. The recent quakes have generally been more powerful, too, with eight of magnitude 4 or higher. 'What concerns me is what is happening to our homes through all these earthquakes,' said Mary Beth McFadden of Fairview, a town about 100 miles northwest of Oklahoma City that has had six quakes of magnitude 4 since the start of the year. 'It's your home being put in that position that you have no control over.' Last week, the state told companies to reduce wastewater injections at 27 nearby disposal wells. For decades, drilling companies have disposed of oilfield wastewater the subterranean saltwater that comes to the surface with oil and gas, and liquid drilling chemicals by pumping it back underground. But in recent years, improved technology has allowed for injecting more wastewater faster so more oil and gas can be produced. Around here, above the Arbuckle geologic formation of limestone, water under pressure can set off a fault if there's enough tension, according to interviews with 10 earthquake experts. 'It's a combination of putting fluid in fast enough and deep enough,' said Stanford University geophysicist William Ellsworth. 'The higher rate wells are the ones where there are more hazards associated.' In 2014, scientists who looked at one swarm of earthquakes found the four highest rate wells were causing most of the pressure changes and problems. Then in June 2015, two different teams published studies pointing directly at volume and rate of injections as the main problem in such quakes. In March 2015, Kansas regulators ordered a dramatic reduction in injection volumes in the most vulnerable area. That same month, Oklahoma regulators directed the operators of 347 wells to check the depth of their injections, then three months later issued a broader order to avoid the Arbuckle's 'basement.' But by the end of November, the state had asked for volume cutbacks in fewer than 90 of the about 1,000 wells in a key area. Oklahoma Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner said research suggested the biggest danger was in the crystalline basement below the porous underground Arbuckle formation. He said it was not proper to compare Oklahoma to Kansas, which has fewer wells and less wastewater. Oklahoma's energy and environment secretary, Michael Teague, said Oklahoma's approach which now includes some volume reductions is working in some areas but not others. 'I like what we've been doing so far, but clearly we need to do more,' Teague said. But oil and gas operators in Oklahoma, where the industry is a major economic and political force, acknowledge their resistance to cutting back on their injections of wastewater. 'A lot of people say we just need the earth to stop shaking, and I understand that, but the fact of the matter is that without the ability to dispose of wastewater, we cannot produce oil and gas in the state of Oklahoma, and this is our lifeblood,' said Kim Hatfield, president of Oklahoma City-based Crawley Petroleum and a member of Gov. Mary Fallin's task force studying the earthquake problem. In Kansas, quakes have decreased from an average of nearly 11 earthquakes a month to about three. 'Things are much better than they were; we haven't had a 4.0 in quite a while,' said Kansas Geological Survey chief Rex Buchanan. 'I don't think anybody is going to declare victory yet.' Experts say the change over such a short time period could be a blip. But considering that southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma are identical in geology, what's happening in the two states is 'a very interesting experiment,' said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Nicholas van der Elst. The most recent temblors, including the one that caused power outages and some damage in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond on Dec. 29, has exhausted some residents' patience for a solution. 2nd Indiana man faces trial in deadly house explosion INDIANAPOLIS (AP) The half brother of a man serving two life sentences in a deadly 2012 Indianapolis house explosion that devastated a subdivision is facing a weekslong trial for his alleged role in the blast, which prosecutors say was a scheme to collect a big insurance payout. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the trial of Bob Leonard, who faces two counts of murder as well as arson and conspiracy charges. Prosecutors allege Leonard, 57, took part in a plot involving four others to collect $300,000 in insurance by filling up the house of his half brother's then-girlfriend with natural gas. A microwave apparently set to start on a timer sparked the Nov. 10, 2012, blast that killed neighbors Jennifer and John "Dion" Longworth and destroyed or damaged more than 80 homes. Leonard's half brother, Mark Leonard, was convicted in July of murder, arson and conspiracy charges and sentenced to two life sentences plus 75 years without parole. Authorities said he was the mastermind behind destroying the home of Monserrate Shirley and enlisted her, Bob Leonard and two other men. FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2012 file aerial photo, the homes that were leveled and the numerous neighboring homes that were damaged from a massive explosion that sparked a huge fire and killed two people are shown in Indianapolis. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016, in the trial of Bob Leonard, who faces two counts of murder as well as arson and conspiracy charges. (Matt Kryger/The Indianapolis Star via AP) NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT Shirley pleaded guilty last year to two conspiracy charges. Her cooperation led to charges against two alleged co-conspirators, Glenn Hults and Gary Thompson, who face a joint June trial. Shirley testified against Mark Leonard during his trial and is expected to do so against Bob Leonard, said Denise Robinson, a deputy Marion County prosecutor who will try the case, which was moved to northeast Indiana's Allen County due to pretrial publicity. Bob Leonard's attorneys did not respond to requests from The Associated Press for comment. His trial is expected to last about five weeks, include some 2,000 pieces of evidence and about 160 prosecution witnesses, Robinson said. Robinson said she cannot characterize Bob Leonard's precise alleged role until the trial starts, but noted it will differ from his half brother's by relying more heavily on conspiracy law because Bob Leonard wasn't the scheme's alleged mastermind. "In this case you're dealing with someone we've alleged was brought into the situation, or hired into the situation, as opposed to someone who had the direct planning and the direct motive himself," Robinson said. Shirley testified that Mark Leonard told her that his half brother had agreed to help destroy her home for $10,000. "He'll do anything I ask," Shirley said her then-boyfriend said of Bob Leonard. Court documents filed with Shirley's plea agreement indicate Bob Leonard may have helped remove a gas fireplace valve and a gas line regulator and may have set a microwave timer to ignite the explosion. Authorities allege there were two unsuccessful attempts to destroy Shirley's home before the third attempt succeeded. Polish president calls for beefed-up NATO presence BRUSSELS (AP) Polish President Andrzej Duda called on NATO Monday to make its presence "as permanent as possible" in Poland to safeguard his country and region from an aggressive Russia. "The point is that NATO troops are deployed and are visible," Duda said while visiting alliance headquarters in Brussels. Poland is the host nation for NATO's next summit in July. Duda made clear his hope that that meeting will decide on a long-term stationing of NATO troops in his country. Polish President Andrzej Duda addresses the media at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) Pressed by reporters to give details on what commitments he is seeking, Duda didn't cite numbers, but said the minimum size of the NATO force should be large enough to "ensure the security of the eastern flank" of the alliance. "Today everything suggests that we need a significant presence of infrastructure and of troops there, on the ground, in Central and Eastern Europe. We need a good system of support for these forces and a system of defense in case of any act of aggression," Duda said. NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg made no commitment, but indicated Poland will not be disappointed. "NATO now has a persistent military presence in the region of which Poland is a part," Stoltenberg said. "And I trust that after the Warsaw summit we will see more NATO in Poland than ever before." Some allies have been reluctant to commit to a significant and permanent NATO presence in Eastern and Central Europe because of a 1997 agreement with Russia. But Duda said the Warsaw summit's main goal should be reinforcing the security of his and other former Soviet bloc countries now in NATO, as well as southern European countries threatened by a spillover of Islamic extremism from the Middle East and North Africa. "We need such strengthening of security today," Duda said. "NATO must be adequately prepared for the rising challenges to security." ___ Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed to this story. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, welcomes Polish President Andrzej Duda upon his arrival at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) As Iowa looms, GOP wonders: does Trump have fans, or voters? WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) It's the No. 1 question headed into the primary season: Does Donald Trump merely have fans, or does the national front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have voters who will mobilize come caucus day? The definitive answer won't arrive until first-to-vote Iowa heads to the polls on Feb. 1, but interviews with dozens of voters, political operatives, party leaders and campaign volunteers in the past week paint a mixed picture of Trump's efforts to make sure they do. Even some of the billionaire real-estate mogul's most ardent backers wonder whether the political novice has the kind of ground game needed to ensure supporters especially those new to taking part in a caucus can navigate a process that isn't as easy as casting a ballot. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks with supporters before meeting with volunteers at the local Pizza Ranch restaurant, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, in Waukee, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) But many believe that even if Trump is falling short when it comes to building a get-out-the-vote effort, his supporters are so enthusiastic that it won't much matter. "I have a feeling we're going to actually do better than the polls are saying because there's a movement," Trump told supporters in suburban Des Moines last week, dismissing suggestions the thousands who pack his rallies won't make it out on caucus night. "I don't know, maybe they won't," he added. "But it seems crazy because some of those people were waiting on line for seven hours in the cold." Questions about Trump's turnout effort are magnified by his place alongside Texas Sen. Ted Cruz atop preference polls in Iowa. Republican leaders in the state largely agree that Cruz, popular with the state's politically savvy evangelical Christians and social conservatives, has the most powerful get-out-the-vote operation among the GOP candidates for president complete with an army of out-of-state volunteers housed in dormitories. Those same observers were mixed when describing what Trump has put together. "Normally, I at least know the country chairs and I see some organization," said Gwen Ecklund, chair of the Republican Party in Crawford County, who said Trump staffers weren't doing as much as other campaigns. "Quite frankly, I haven't seen quiet as much of his organization at a country level as the other candidates," said Warren County GOP chair Rick Halvorsen, who couldn't recall having seen Trump representatives at the party's monthly meetings. Don Kass, of the Plymouth County GOP, said he'd been fielding calls from other campaign officials inquiring about speaking arrangements on caucus night, but has yet to hear from Trump's team. Dozens of people interviewed by The Associated Press in recent weeks at Trump rallies across the state say that while his team is active online, they have had relatively little personal contact from the campaign. Many said they had yet to receive a phone call or a campaign mailing. None reported a knock on the door. And on a recent Friday evening, Trump's main campaign office in suburban Des Moines was shuttered by 7 p.m. Three miles up the road, Cruz's headquarters hummed with the sounds of more than 30 volunteers placing calls at tables festively decorated with potted poinsettias. "That's a precarious model," Paul Tewes, who organized then-Sen. Barack Obama's successful 2008 campaign in Iowa, said of a campaign that relies on emails and phone calls alone. The issue, Tewes explained, is that Iowa doesn't make its presidential choice with a primary. Ballots aren't cast at polling stations open from dawn to dusk. Instead, a caucus requires voters to show up at a designated place at a designated hour, at night in winter, to listen to speeches and eventually express support for their favored candidate in a Byzantine voting process. "It's a much higher hurdle than voting in a (traditional) election," Tewes said. Successful campaigns need to be in constant contact with voters his aim was once every two weeks to get them invested enough in a campaign to make it to caucus night, he said. Yet Trump's campaign has, so far, defied all those who doubt it. His team in Iowa is led by Chuck Laudner, a highly respected political operative who ran 2012 caucus winner Rick Santorum's Iowa operation. They have diligently built a voter database using the information entered when fans sign up online to attend his events, where Trump staffers canvass the crowd seeking commitments and answering questions. Tana Goertz, Donald Trump's peppy Iowa campaign co-chair, boils down the caucus process to a few easy steps. The last one? "If you can write T-R-U-M-P, you've just done it!" she told a crowd outside Des Moines this week. "I believe that the Trump campaign is one of the best staffed organizations in the state," said Jamie Johnson, a GOP strategist who also worked for Santorum in 2012 and was senior director of Rick Perry's campaign before the former Texas governor dropped out of the race. "Anyone that thinks Donald Trump is just winging it in Iowa is dead wrong." But they're not eager to show off. Trump's campaign repeatedly turned down requests from AP to tag along with volunteers or speak with Iowa staffers. Some volunteers said they had been barred from talking to the media by the campaign. Laudner declined to discuss the campaign's efforts at length, but said at a pre-Christmas rally, "We have counties where we have more committed caucus goers than total turnout four years ago." Trump's team appears acutely aware of the pitfalls of setting the bar too high, even as the candidate brags about how well he's doing in the polls and all his team is doing. "One of the great misconceptions is that we don't have that much ground game. Because they don't know," Trump told AP in a December interview, boasting of "amazing people" including "hundreds and hundreds" of volunteers in the state. Said Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, "The expectation for Ted Cruz to win Iowa right now is exceptionally high... People have underestimated Donald Trump from the day we announced." Trump's campaign is holding unadvertised caucus training sessions, including one last week at a Pizza Ranch restaurant in outside Des Moines, which drew about a dozen people for a two-hour long presentation on how to use the campaign's "Ground Game 2" smartphone app. Larry Weigel, an accountant who attended the session, said he'd already called 60 people and lined up commitments from seven of the 25 people he was aiming to get to caucus for Trump. "You feel it," he said of the campaign's momentum. Many of Trump's rally-goers say they are longtime caucus voters who are well-acquainted with the process. And others who've never felt compelled to caucus say they will this year, and they don't need any a phone call or door knock to remind them. "Our country's in dire straits right now," said Bruce Gjetley, 59, adding that while the caucus process sounds like "messy business," he is planning to participate for the first time in his life. "We've been through eight years of hell and we can't do it anymore." For Gjetley and his wife Kim, of Toledo, Iowa, Trump has become more than just a politician. "I hang onto every word he says," says Kim, 58, a retired nurse, who walks her pit bull everyday wearing her Trump hat and gleefully described receiving an Ivanka Trump perfume and lotion set for Christmas, along with Christmas and New Year's cards from Trump himself. Kim said that she's offered to volunteer for the campaign, including opening a small office in her town though she hasn't heard back on her offer. "I want to be able to help whether it's call people or hand out yard signs. Anything," she said. Still, others aren't quite sure. Derrell Peters drove about 50 miles from Eldora to Cedar Falls last week to see Trump in person, stood in line outside of a college gymnasium in the cold more than three hours before Trump took the stage, and even attended a caucus training session organized by his local Republican Party. But despite the time he's already invested, he said he was having second thoughts about caucusing. "I thought, if this is what it is, I really ain't too sure about it," said Peters, 65. "I might stay home." ___ Associated Press writer Catherine Lucey contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jill Colvin on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/colvinj Several election offices attacked in Haiti as runoff nears PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Stone-throwing demonstrators on Monday smashed car windows and set at least two vehicles ablaze in Haiti's capital, hours after several electoral offices were attacked in northern towns as the country prepares for a Jan. 24 presidential and legislative runoff. Roughly 2,000 protesters took to the streets in downtown Port-au-Prince calling for new elections and the immediate removal of outgoing President Michel Martelly, among other grievances. Roads were blocked with flaming tire barricades and more than a dozen motorists had their cars pelted with rocks. A truck and an SUV were torched by young men near a police station. Police dispersed opposition protesters and cleared most roadblocks by late afternoon. Officers scattered some demonstrators with tear gas in the downtown slum of Bel Air, one of many impoverished areas where young people who've never held any kind of steady job are easy pickings for political actors looking for protesters for hire. A protester hacks a gas station pump with a machete during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) High school science teacher Elisme Nerius walked his 9-year-old son home from school near a barricaded intersection where black smoke was still billowing from burning tires. "My hope is that when my boy is old enough to vote this country can finally hold decent and calm elections," Nerius said. In northern Haiti, Police Inspector Michel Henri said three electoral offices were set on fire late Sunday in towns around the city of Cap-Haitien and at least two others were damaged by hurled rocks. Henri said the three offices that were set ablaze "weren't totally destroyed" because locals managed to douse the flames. Gerardo de Icaza, electoral observation director at the Organization of American States, tweeted Monday that the OAS mission "deplores and strongly condemns" the violence targeting offices of Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council. The OAS called on Haitian political actors to reject violence and "act peacefully." Last month, several government buildings were burned and one demonstrator was killed in scattered violent protests sparked by the release of final legislative election results. Campaigning for Haiti's presidential runoff kicked off earlier this month, but only government-backed candidate Jovenel Moise has been campaigning. Opposition presidential candidate Jude Celestin is boycotting the scheduled Jan. 24 vote and said his party will not send any monitors to polling stations. "We are moving toward a selection, not an election," Celestin told The Associated Press on Saturday. Celestin leads an opposition alliance alleging widespread electoral fraud in favor of Moise, Martelly's chosen successor. The United Nations, the United States and the OAS have said they support holding the final round this month so a transfer of power to a new leader can take place by a Feb. 7 constitutional deadline. The first round of voting was held on Oct. 25. Electoral council officials have said that Celestin's name and photo will still appear on ballots because he never officially withdrew from the race, while the candidate asserts they have no right to do so without his authorization. Haitian rights groups who have sent numerous monitors to observe the previous two rounds of balloting in August and October said Monday they will not send any monitors to voting stations on Jan. 24 because they don't believe it will be a legitimately democratic vote. Augustin Jean Eden, who makes his living driving a brightly painted minibus known as a tap-tap, said he was worried that political gamesmanship would prevent any compromise. "If they hold the elections on Sunday Port-au-Prince will be a disaster. Who would come out and vote?" he said as he watched a truck smolder. __ David McFadden on Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmcfadd A protester runs past a burning car during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, runoff elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Protesters force dump truck to dump its cargo of dirt onto the street to create a barricade during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Protesters run past a burning car during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Firefighters hose down vehicle that was lit on fire during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) National police officers stand at the ready near a truck set alight during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A protester hacks a gas station pump with a machete during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) Protesters set tires alight during a street protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A woman and a child walk past a burning barricade during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A protester runs past a burning car during a protest against President Michel Martelly's government to demand the cancellation of the Jan. 24, elections, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Disputed election results have brought paralyzing street protests and many broad accusations of electoral fraud from civil society and opposition groups. (AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) A New York man is about to go on trial in vehicular homicide case that tests the limits of criminal consequences. He wasn't behind the wheel when a police officer was struck and killed he was leaning against the guardrail. Prosecutors say James Ryan was charged because his drunken driving on the Long Island Expressway set in motion a series of events that ended in the officer's death. Nassau County Police Officer Joseph Olivieri was struck and killed after arriving to investigate a pair of accidents Ryan allegedly caused in October 2012. Facing prison time: New York prosecutors say James Ryan's drunken driving set off a sequence of crashes that resulted in the death of a police officer, who was killed by another driver maneuvering through the crash The crashes have already been the subject of vigorous court battles, including an appeals court decision supporting the 16-count indictment. But Ryan's attorney believes prosecutors have overreached. 'I think the district attorney's office has been blinded by the allegations of alcohol use,' said defense attorney Marc Gann. 'There's nobody else to criminally blame so they blame Ryan. ... It's extremely unusual for a person not driving to be charged with a vehicular death.' Killed: Nassau County Police Officer James Olivieri was hit by an SUV at a Long Island crash scene Ryan, a 28-year-old part-time student, could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of aggravated vehicular homicide, manslaughter, driving while intoxicated and other charges. A spokesman for county prosecutors declined comment, citing the upcoming trial. 'This factual situation is certainly rare and relatively unique,' said Joseph McCormack, an adjunct law professor at St. John's University who serves as the New York state traffic safety resource prosecutor. McCormack said prosecutors are employing the legal principle of 'causation/foreseeability,' in which suspects are charged in events that are foreseeable results of their actions. In one such case from 1994, a New York City man was convicted of murder in the death of an officer who was had been chasing after him in a robbery investigation and fatally fell through a skylight. More recently, in 2013, Nassau prosecutors convicted a man of vehicular manslaughter for the death of a motorcyclist who crashed into his wrecked car after he crashed while driving intoxicated. According to prosecutors, Ryan's Toyota first clipped a BMW on the expressway, stopped farther down the road in the high-occupancy lane and then was hit by another car. A few minutes later, an SUV driver apparently did not see Ryan's vehicle, which had been turned sideways from the earlier crashes, and smashed into Ryan's car before hitting Olivieri. Prosecutors say Ryan had been drinking in a Manhattan bar and at the time of the accidents had a blood-alcohol level of 0.13, above the state's 0.08 threshold of drunkenness. A state judge initially dismissed the charges, finding Olivieri's death was 'solely attributable' to the SUV driver, who was never charged. Scene: The fatal accident on the Long Island Expressway in North Hills, N.Y., occurred in October 2012 and left an officer dead. A New York man now faces an aggravated vehicular homicide and manslaughter trial A state appeals court later reinstated the charges, saying it was 'reasonably foreseeable that the defendant's conduct would cause collisions and that the police would respond and be required to be in the roadway, where they would be exposed to the potentially lethal danger presented by fast-moving traffic.' It also noted Ryan's actions 'need not be the sole cause of death and, indeed, the defendant need not have committed the fatal act to be liable.' Leonard R. Stamm, a Maryland attorney and dean of the National College for DUI Defense, did not agree with that ruling. 'It appears that the appellate court took a much broader view,' Stamm said in an email. Nigerian separatists claim police kill 8 in Biafra protest WARRI, Nigeria (AP) Nigerian separatists said police killed eight people during renewed violent protests Monday demanding an independent Biafran state in southeastern Nigeria and the release of a detained leader. Police deny the allegation from leaders of a cause that sparked a civil war in the 1960s in which a million people died. Police shot protesters in southeastern Aba city, after protests erupted in cities in six southern states, Uchenna Madu, leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the State of Biafra, told The Associated Press. But Abia state police spokesman Ezekiel Onyeke said no one was killed and police fired only tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters after some lobbed petrol bombs at security forces. It was not possible to verify the contradictory claims. Onyeke said police arrested 26 people for possessing weapons including machetes, axes and clubs. Fourteen other protesters and two police officers have been killed and about 200 people detained across the country since the demonstrations started three months ago, according to the separatists and police. They began after intelligence agents detained the director of banned Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on Oct. 17. He was initially accused of criminal conspiracy and hate speech but the charges were escalated to terrorism and financing terrorism. A Federal High Court ordered Kanu's unconditional release on Dec. 17 but President Muhammadu Buhari said two weeks ago that his government would not release Kanu. Family, university reach $5.3M deal in traffic stop death The sister of a man fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer who pulled him over for lacking a front license plate said she hopes a $5.3 million settlement will help prevent another family from losing a loved one. The settlement with the university, which was announced Monday, gives the family of Samuel DuBose $4.85 million and promises free undergraduate tuition for his 12 children. It also provides for a memorial commemorating DuBose, an apology from the university and the family's involvement in a community advisory committee on police reform. DuBose's sister, Terina Allen, said the monetary aspects of the settlement are secondary to overhauling the university police department. FILE - In a Thursday, July 30, 2015 file photo, Terina Allen, sister of Samuel DuBose, sits with family members as she reacts in the courtroom following the arraignment of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing at Hamilton County Courthouse for the shooting death of motorist DuBose, in Cincinnati. It was announced Monday, Jan. 18, 2016, that the family of Samuel DuBose will receive $5.3 million under a settlement with the University of Cincinnati. Tensing, who was indicted and fired from his job, shot and killed Dubose on July 19 and later pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and involuntary manslaughter. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File) "Ultimately, Sam's death will serve a reminder of just how final it is to pull a gun. And hopefully officers will think twice about pulling a gun," said Allen, who spoke on behalf of the family. "I hope people will obey police officers' orders, but in the end they can't be judge, jury and executioner." DuBose, 43, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car on July 19 after Officer Ray Tensing stopped him near campus for missing a front license plate, which is required by Ohio law. Tensing was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. University President Santa Ono said he wanted to express the university community's "deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss" of DuBose's life. "This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities," he said in a statement. Tensing said that after he stopped the car, DuBose refused to provide a driver's license and get out. A struggle ensued as DuBose tried to drive away, and Tensing said he fired because he feared being dragged under the car, said his attorney, Stewart Matthews. A hearing to set a trial date has been scheduled for Feb. 11, Matthews said. He declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement other than to characterize it as "negative." He said the settlement will be an issue once it comes time to question potential jurors. "Their knowledge of the settlement is one aspect that could affect their ability to be fair and impartial, and you try to find that out," he said. The shooting occurred during heightened scrutiny across the United States of police treatment of blacks, after a string of police-inflicted deaths including in Ferguson, Missouri, and Chicago sparked sometimes-violent protests over the past year and a half. DuBose, who was unarmed, was black, and Tensing is white. Civil rights attorney Mark O'Mara, representing DuBose's family, said the incident can be a springboard to improving relations between police and the community. "We have to have a discourse on how do we make our cops better cops," O'Mara said. "And the flipside to that coin is, we have to figure out how to better interact with cops." Allen said the family is glad the university "acknowledged responsibility that they know they did something wrong." She said the existence of footage from Tensing's body camera was the only thing to rebut claims by the police that DuBose was aggressive during the car stop. "Video didn't stop him from shooting his head off," she said, "but the video camera did serve as vindication that my brother was not a violent person." AP EXPLAINS: What Congress can do about Puerto Rico's debt WASHINGTON (AP) Puerto Rico's $72 billion public debt crisis has forced congressional leaders to pay attention to a U.S. territory that's usually on the sidelines of American politics. The island has been mired in economic stagnation for nearly a decade. The governor now says Puerto Rico's debt is unpayable and needs restructuring. The White House and Democrats in Congress say the United States needs to change the law to allow the territory to declare bankruptcy. Republicans say they want to fix the symptoms of the problem first. FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2015 file photo, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Javier Garcia Padilla speaks at the National Press Club in Washington. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla says that if Congress doesn't act soon, Puerto Rico is headed toward a "humanitarian crisis under the United States flag." (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz) Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla says that if Congress doesn't act soon, Puerto Rico is headed toward a "humanitarian crisis under the United States flag." A rundown on what's wrong in Puerto Rico, and what Congress is considering doing about it: ___ MOUNTAINS OF DEBT Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Friday that he will travel to Puerto Rico on Wednesday for meetings with government officials. He urged Congress to pass legislation soon, saying the territory is "in the midst of an economic collapse." Puerto Rico's economic decline has been coming for years. Coffee and sugar once fueled its economy, and as agriculture diminished, Puerto Rico got an economic boost from federal tax incentives that lured manufacturers, especially pharmaceutical companies, from the U.S. mainland. When Congress phased out those incentives a decade ago, Puerto Rico's economy suffered. The territory's financial problems grew worse as a result of setbacks in the wider U.S. economy, and government spending in Puerto Rico continued unchecked as borrowing covered increasing deficits. Many people moved to the mainland U.S., reducing the island's tax base. In just 15 years, Puerto Rico's debt tripled. ___ NO BANKRUPTCY Like all U.S. states and territories, Puerto Rico cannot declare bankruptcy under federal law. Mainland municipalities and their utilities can; municipalities and utilities in Puerto Rico cannot. The island's public utilities are heavily indebted, and Garcia's administration is pushing Congress to allow them to declare bankruptcy. Garcia signed a debt-restructuring law, but a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional after two major U.S. companies representing bondholders sued. The Supreme Court is preparing to hear an appeal on the issue this year. Puerto Rico recently defaulted on $37 million in interest on bonds and faces its first lawsuit over diverting money to meet other bond payments. ___ WHAT CAN WASHINGTON DO? The White House says a federal bailout is not under consideration. But the administration has proposed creating a territorial bankruptcy process that would allow Puerto Rico's government to restructure its debt and impose new oversight on finances, among other measures. Garcia, who has said he won't run for re-election, spent much of December in Washington lobbying Congress to include debt restructuring in a massive year-end spending bill. He blamed his creditors for lobbying against it. The governor met with Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who later said the House will work with Puerto Rico to come up with "a responsible solution" by the end of March for the territory's debt problems. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hasn't made any similar promises. In a Jan. 12 letter, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada asked him to form a congressional task force to deal with the issue. ___ CONGRESSIONAL DIVIDE It is unclear whether Congress will be able to meet Ryan's March deadline. Democrats say allowing the island debt restructuring won't cost U.S. taxpayers and is the right thing to do. Republicans have so far objected, saying they first want to address the root causes of the crisis and see more data on the island's finances. They have asked for audited financial statements that the territory has not yet provided. Republicans are pushing for a federal financial control board that would help Puerto Rico get its finances in order, possibly similar to a board that helped guide the District of Columbia through a fiscal crisis two decades ago. ___ BACK ON THE ISLAND Almost 10 percent of Puerto Rico's population has left in the last decade and hundreds of businesses have closed. If the island isn't able to restructure its debt, officials have said they will have to start laying off police officers, firefighters, medical professionals and other public employees. Garcia has said that could lead to a humanitarian crisis. Officials are hoping that lawmakers will be able to find a solution. "This is the battleground," Garcia said when he was on Capitol Hill in December. "It's not over until it's over." ___ Associated Press writer Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick Pope to visit prison in once-infernal Mexico border city CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) The cold, dust-blown prison yard where inmates are welding a new steel bell tower for the Feb. 17 visit of Pope Francis is a microcosm of the changes that have brought hope to the once-infernal border city of Ciudad Juarez, both inside and outside the walls. Some see the pontiff's visit as a capstone on the city's transformation from one of the most violent places on earth; others hope Francis will draw attention to the problems that remain in the bustling metropolis. The Pope will be making an unusual visit to Prison No. 3, which used to be a center and symbol of gang power. Warring gangs once wielded total control, shooting and knifing each other, selling drugs and locking themselves inside cellblocks to which only they had the keys. They alone enforced discipline, and marked the wings of the 3,000-inmate facility with gang-related murals. Inmates work on the construction of a prison chapel inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. On Feb. 17, Pope Francis will visit this prison and meet with inmates. Some see Pope Francis visit to Ciudad Juarez as the capstone in the citys transformation from one of the most violent places on earth; others hope the Pope will draw attention to the problems that remain in the bustling border metropolis. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) "This was the biggest drug den in Ciudad Juarez," Chihuahua state prison director Jorge Bissuet Galarza said. Other lockups weren't much better: In 2010, the worst year of violence, 216 inmates were killed in the state. "You couldn't enter a single prison ... without asking permission from the inmates. They were the ones who controlled things," said Bissuet Galarza. He said officials finally wrested back control, and today the prison is calm enough that Francis will be able to enter and speak to prisoners, 250 relatives and 100 religious workers even as masked guards with shotguns patrol the yard. Inmate Juan Salazar recalled how after he arrived in 2011 to serve a seven-year sentence for auto theft, a fight between rival gangs killed 17 inmates in one day. "It's quieter now, you feel safer," Salazar said as a he helped weld beams in the prison chapel. Juarez as a whole is still struggling to come to terms with its thousands of dead. Most fell in the drug wars, while others especially poor female factory workers simply vanished, only to turn up dead long afterward. City officials point to a reformed police force and less corruption. But many residents think the turf war between Juarez's main cartel-backed gangs ended with a deal or simply burned itself out. "It has calmed down. The ones that had to be killed were killed," said Joel Garcia, who makes a living selling candy outside the prison and safeguarding purses, keys and other belongings that visitors can't bring inside. "The authorities want to take credit. But it was (the gangs) themselves that made a pact." In 2010, Juarez was widely considered the murder capital of the world with a homicide rate of about 230 per 100,000 inhabitants. In the first 11 months of 2015, it was about one-tenth that level, around 21 per 100,000. Shuttered restaurants have re-opened, and street shootouts are rare. Tourists drawn by the slumping Mexican peso have begun crossing the border again to dine and shop. Billboards with Francis's image have sprouted with slogans like "Juarez is love. We are ready." "This is what we need: to talk about Juarez now, not the Juarez of before," said Pedro Martinez, the engineer tasked with erecting a stage about 50 yards (meters) from the border where Francis will celebrate Mass for about a quarter-million people, with thousands more expected to watch from the other side of the Rio Grande. "This is why the Pope's visit is so important." Martinez said it has been years since he's had to execute the traffic maneuver Juarez residents know all too well the quick U-turn, sometimes jumping a median strip, to avoid a gun battle uip the road. The stage is going up on a dusty lot with mounds of gravel. Martinez has already cleared a path over an expressway so Francis will be able to approach the river and El Paso, Texas. On the U.S. side, backhoes are furiously cleaning mud and silt out of the river. Juarez's proximity to the U.S. has brought jobs through hundreds of foreign-owned "maquiladora" assembly plants that ship clothes, electronics and other goods north. But many of those pay very little, and some residents link the low wages to the broader societal ills. At a ragtag protest camp consisting of a couple of tents and an old RV outside an Eaton Industries plant, demonstrators said they earn just $45 a week with scant vacation. "If you really want to eliminate violence, you have to provide decent-paid jobs," said Antonia Hinojosa, a mother of two. With the worst of the bloodshed behind it, Juarez has settled back into the more common but stubborn problems that afflict other border cities deep social inequality, and waves of migrants heading north or being deported from the United States. Monserrat Munoz, a construction worker deported several weeks ago, said crossing the border has become increasingly dangerous. Interviewed at a shelter in Juarez, he hopes the pope delivers a pro-migrant message. "I hope that message gets through to the governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, where migrants are most being abused," Munoz said. The Rev. Javier Calvillo Salazar, who runs the shelter, said the pope's visit promises to be a golden moment, but Juarez's root problems must still be addressed. "All the women who were widowed, all the children who were orphaned, the young people who were traumatized, the people who ... witnessed a kidnapping or executions," the priest said. "All that can't be changed or swept from your mind or your heart in five years." Inmates work on the construction of the bell tower of a prison chapel inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. On Feb. 17, Pope Francis will visit this prison and meet with inmates. Some see Pope Francis visit to Ciudad Juarez as the capstone in the citys transformation from one of the most violent places on earth; others hope the Pope will draw attention to the problems that remain in the bustling border metropolis. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) An inmate carries bricks as he works on the construction of a prison chapel inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. On Feb. 17, Pope Francis will be making an unusual visit to a prison that was once a center and symbol of gang power. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) A faded pink cross with a message saying "Not One More" stands on the grounds of a memorial park erected on the spot where eight women were found murdered and dumped in a cotton field in 2001, in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. This city, which at one point was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world is now preparing for a visit from Pope Francis next month. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Late afternoon light falls on a giant billboard with an image of Pope Francis and a message saying "Juarez is Love, We Are Ready" in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. Once considered one of the most violent cities in the world, has greatly improved and the violence mostly subsided, Ciudad Juarez has settled back in to the more common, but more stubborn problems facing Mexico's booming border cities: deep social inequality, poor wages and waves of migrants, either arriving from Central America or deported from the United States. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) An inmate studies at the library inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. Masked guards with 12-gauge shotguns patrol the yard but the prison is relatively calm, so much so that on Feb. 17, Pope Francis will be able to enter and speak to more than 2 thousand person inside the prison. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) An inmate studies at the library inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. In a prison where inmates from warring gangs once wielded total control, shooting it out and knifing each other inside prison walls, selling drugs and locking themselves inside prison blocks to which only they had the keys, the atmosphere has calmed.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Inmates work on the construction of a chapel inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. On Feb. 17, Pope Francis will visit the prison and the chapel. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Faded pink crosses stand on the grounds of a memorial park erected on the spot where eight women were found murdered and dumped in a cotton field in 2001 in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. The city, as a whole is still struggling to come to terms with its thousands of dead, most fallen in drug wars, others, especially poor female factory workers who seemingly vanished, only to turn up dead long afterward. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Monserrat Munoz, who was recently deported from the U.S., speaks to the Associated Press at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. Munoz was deported from the U.S. after walking days through the desert several weeks ago, says the situation is so tough for migrants nowadays that "there is a better chance of dying than of making it through." Now staying at a church-run migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Munoz said he hopes the Pope pronounces a pro-migrant message on the banks of the Rio Grande, adding "I hope that message get through to the governors of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, where migrants are most being abused." (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Dozens of migrant detention center bracelets hang from the arm of the statue of Saint Judas Thaddaeus inside a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. People recently deported from the U.S. seek refuge in this shelter and leave behind their detention center bracelets and Department of Homeland Security baggage check tags next to this Saint but also next to a cross and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Dozens of migrant detention center bracelets hang from a cross inside a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. People recently deported from the U.S. seek refuge in this shelter and leave behind their detention center bracelets and Department of Homeland Security baggage check tags hanging on religious figures. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Two workers take a break on the banks of the Rio Grande, next to the site where Pope Francis will give Mass on Feb. 17 in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. On the other side, in U.S. soil, a backhoe works at cleaning mud and silt out of the Rio Bravo. On this site, Pope Francis is expected to say Mass for about a quarter-million people, with thousands more expected to watch from the other side of the Rio Grande. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Rosaries and migrant detention center bracelets hang from a Saint Judas Thaddaeus statue inside a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. People recently deported from the U.S. seek refuge in this shelter and leave behind their detention center bracelets and Department of Homeland Security baggage check tags next to this Saint but also next to a cross and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Antonia Hinojosa speaks to the Associated Press outside of her protest camp in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. Hinojosa, a mother of two, who is one of about a dozen workers in a protest encampment outside the gates of an Eaton Industries plant on the outskirts of Juarez, is demanding better wages and more vacation time. Freed of the worst of the violence, Ciudad Juarez has settled back in to the more common, but more stubborn problems facing Mexicos booming border cities: deep social inequality and waves of migrants coming north from Central America or deported south from the United States. But, Hinojosa warns, If you really want to eliminate violence, you have to provide decent-paid jobs. The violence is going to continue as long as there are low-paid jobs". (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) An inmate lays a concrete floor leading to a a prison chapel inside the state prison in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. In a prison where inmates from warring gangs once wielded total control, shooting it out and knifing each other inside prison walls, selling drugs and locking themselves inside prison blocks to which only they had the keys, the atmosphere has calmed. Today, masked guards with 12-gauge shotguns patrol the yard but the prison is relatively calm, so much so that on Feb. 17, Pope Francis will be able to enter and speak to more than 2 thousand persons inside the prison. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Photos of missing women are pasted in window inside a memorial park erected on the spot where eight women were found murdered and dumped in a cotton field in 2001 in Ciudad Juarez, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. This city, which at one point was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world is now preparing for a visit from Pope Francis next month. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) Argentina's Nisman remembered 1 year after his death BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) Jewish rights groups organized acts in several Argentine cities on Monday to mark the first anniversary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death. The events included marches in Buenos Aires, Cordoba, Parana and San Luis. Vice-President Gabriela Michetti and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich attended the act in Buenos Aires, along with city officials. People hold candles during the one-year anniversary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Jewish rights groups have organized acts in several Argentine cities. Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment on Jan. 18, 2015 with a bullet to his head hours before he was to detail to Congress his accusations that former President Cristina Fernandez and top administration officials orchestrated a secret deal with Iran to shield officials allegedly responsible for the the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Organizers read a letter written by Nisman's daughters Iara and Kala, who met new President Mauricio Macri at his private residence over the weekend. Nisman's daughters did not attend the Buenos Aires event, but his mother, Sara Garfunkel, was present, along with hundreds of people who chanted: "We want justice." The prosecutor was found dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment on Jan. 18, 2015 with a bullet to his head. At the time he was investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. Authorities have not determined Nisman committed suicide or was killed, as some have asserted. No one has been convicted in the case. Shortly before his death, Nisman had presented a claim against then-president Cristina Fernandez for an alleged cover up in the attack on the Jewish community center. She denied the charges. Macri has now since ordered the declassification of files related to Nisman's death. The Macri government's foreign and security ministries on Dec. 18 reiterated Argentina's interest in retaining international arrest orders enforced by Interpol for three Iranians accused of involvement in the bombing. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich told reporters during the Buenos Aires event that Argentine law allows it to try the men in absentia. Ricardo Saenz, a fellow prosecutor of Nisman, said during the ceremony that retaining the international arrest orders was "essential" to solving the crime. ___ This story corrects name of vice president to Gabriela instead of Graciela in paragraph 3. Women hold a candles during the one-year anniversary of prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Jewish rights groups have organized acts in several Argentine cities. Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment on Jan. 18, 2015 with a bullet to his head hours before he was to detail to Congress his accusations that former President Cristina Fernandez and top administration officials orchestrated a secret deal with Iran to shield officials allegedly responsible for the the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Cameron under fire over English language skills warning for Muslim women David Cameron has been accused of a "lazy and misguided" approach after warning that Muslim women who fail to improve their English language skills could be deported as part of a drive to build community integration and counter extremism. The Prime Minister warned that not speaking the language adequately could make people "more susceptible" to the recruitment messages of groups like the self-styled Islamic State (IS) - though there was no "causal link". Mr Cameron faced a backlash from Muslim groups and former Cabinet minister Baroness Warsi for linking the issue of English language skills to extremism. Prime Minister David Cameron talks to Imam Qari Asim and Shabana Muneer during a visit to the Makkah Masjid Mosque in Leeds The Prime Minister sa id it was not acceptable that women in parts of the UK were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative and faced sex-segregated school governors meetings. A 20 million language fund is being set up to help end what he called the "passive tolerance" of separate communities which left many Muslim women facing discrimination and social isolation. Mr Cameron visited a mosque and a project for Bangladeshi women in Leeds to highlight his new proposals. Speaking during the visit, the PM said: "The evidence is that there are some 40,000 women in our country who really don't speak any English at all and, perhaps altogether, some 190,000 with very poor English. "I think it's quite right to say to people who come to our country that there are many rights that you have here - it's a fantastic country to live in - but there are also obligations that we should put on people who come to our country, and chief amongst them should be obligations to learn English because then you can integrate, you can take advantage of the opportunities here and you can help us to build the strong country that we want." Asked about the threat of deportation, Mr Cameron said: "What we've said is that if people come here on a spousal visa, to be a husband or a wife, we've now said they have to learn English in order to get that visa. "But after two-and-a-half years, halfway through the programme of getting settlement, they should be improving their English, and if they don't do that then they can't be guaranteed to be able to go to the full stage and retain their visa." Women arriving in the UK under a spousal visa are currently expected to have English skills at the internationally-recognised A1 beginner level - roughly equivalent to a native-born child starting primary school. Under the PM's proposal, the women would be expected to have reached the A2 - elementary - level after two-and-a-half years, and B1 - intermediate - after five years. Lady Warsi, the former Tory chairman who was the first female Muslim Cabinet minister, welcomed the new money for language teaching, claiming it had been a mistake to cut funding for English tuition while she was in government. But she condemned the way the measure had been announced: " This lazy and misguided linking, and what I saw once again as stereotyping of British Muslim communities, I felt took away from what was a positive announcement." She told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "My parents came to this country with very little English - my mum's English still isn't great, even though she has been to English language classes. "They didn't necessarily identify with a Western culture but they absolutely had the right values to bring up five girls, make sure that they were educated and made a contribution to British society. "So I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatise communities." She added: "What we should be saying to women is, 'we will give you every opportunity to learn, we will encourage you, support you, that it is a requirement for you to obtain British citizenship'. "But I think to threaten women and say to them that 'unless you are of X standard we will send you back, even if you have children in the UK who are British and your spouse is British' is, for me, a very unusual way of empowering and emboldening women." Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "David Cameron and his Conservative Government are once again using British Muslims as a political football to score cheap points to appear tough. "There are three million Muslims in this country and the Prime Minister chooses to focus on a very small minority of extremists when clearly the majority of British Muslims reject extremism. "The Ramadhan Foundation has been clear for many years that we face an increased risk from terrorism and an ideology of hatred. "The best way to confront it is to build support within Muslims and support the work done across the country, and not lashing out and denigrating Muslims. "The irony of the Prime Minister calling for more resources to help migrants learn English when his Government cut the funding for English classes in 2011 has not been lost on many people." Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The Prime Minister is absolutely right in wanting English to be taught more widely. "Mosques and Muslim civil society would be eager to play their part by hosting English language classes, as many mosques do. "But the Prime Minister's aim to have English more widely spoken and for better integration falls at the first hurdle if he is to link it to security and single out Muslim women to illustrate his point." Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said: "In his desire to grab easy headlines, David Cameron risks doing more harm than good. "His clumsy and simplistic approach to challenging extremism is unfairly stigmatising a whole community. There is a real danger that it could end up driving further radicalisation, rather than tackling it." Downing Street confirmed that the 20 million funding relates to language lessons in England only. Muslim women in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be liable to deportation if they fail to improve their language skills, but will not benefit from the new financial support for courses unless the devolved administrations decide to follow Mr Cameron's lead. 'Charge local councils for jail costs to cut prison numbers' The cost of jailing petty criminals should be charged to their home town to help cut the growing prison population, a report has recommended. Cash held by Whitehall to cover custody costs should be devolved and the money spent on improving services, such as drug and alcohol dependency programmes, to help prevent repeat offending, the Institute for Public Policy Research said. Local authorities should then be billed for the full cost of a prison bed to deter them from putting low-level offenders in jail, according to the think tank. The UK's prison population is nearly 90,000 Jonathan Clifton, associate director for Public Services at IPPR, said: "Our court system is clogged-up, our prisons are overflowing and we have the highest re-offending rate in Western Europe. Reform is desperately needed to reduce offending. "We need to free up cash that is frozen in the prison system, and give it to local areas to invest in tackling the social problems that drive re-offending such as lack of qualifications, mental health problems and homelessness." An "extraordinary" amount of money is spent on prison places for low-level criminals in England and Wales despite the jail terms often failing to rehabilitate offenders, cut crime or protect victims, the Prisons and Prevention: Giving local areas the power to reduce offending report found. But councils do not have the cash or incentives to focus on bolstering local services that could help reduce the nearly 90,000 strong prison population, it said. Handing over custody funding totalling around 400m to local authorities then charging them for every local offender sentenced to less than 24 months would act as an incentive to improve crime prevention, the report said. It also recommends increased use of non-custodial sentences, such as community supervision, unpaid work, curfews, banning orders and restorative justice programmes. The IPPR points to the success of youth justice schemes i n the United States where funding was devolved and bills for prison costs introduced. I n Ohio, the number of young people incarcerated fell from more than 2,600 in 1992 when the programme was introduced, to less than 510 in 2013, it said. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "Our prison system needs reform. Almost half of prisoners commit another crime within 12 months of release. "We want prisons to be places of hard work and rigorous education. It's only through better rehabilitation that we will reduce re-offending, cut crime and improve public safety. Big freeze bites as weekend snow clears Freezing temperatures will continue to grip the UK as the snowy cover of the weekend begins to clear. Clear skies and dry weather will ensure that the east of the country will continue feeling the winter bite even after most of the snow has melted. Despite the departure of the snow, forecasters say ice in the North could make travelling more difficult than usual. Louise Chorlton is chased by her dog Chester as she sledges and enjoys the remaining snow in the Brecon Beacons National Park The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for ice in north-west and north-east England, Yorkshire and large sections of southern Scotland. It also issued snow warnings for the Strathclyde and the central, Tayside and Fife area. In England, there is a small chance of snowfall around Birmingham and Leicester, as well as Lincolnshire and Humberside, a spokesman added. Temperatures were expected to hover around zero in the North, Yorkshire and the Midlands overnight and into Monday. The capital will hover a few degrees above freezing, but it and the rest of the South East is unlikely to get much above five degrees over the next day. In the West, however, sleet and rain showers will keep temperatures markedly higher than the other half of the country. In Wales, Northern Ireland and the South West, temperatures overnight could reach up to 7C. It follows a white winter weekend which saw large swathes of the country covered in snow. Six arrested in Rochdale child sexploitation probe Six men have been charged as part of an ongoing investigation to tackle child sexual exploitation in Rochdale. The charges relate to offences said to have been committed between 2004 and 2008 against three alleged victims who were aged between 14 and 16 at the time. Joshim Miah, 31, of Yorkshire Street, Rochdale, is accused of rape and trafficking a person within the UK for sexual exploitation. Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the case is another launched by Operation Doublet Mohammed Sadeer, 27, of Brimrod Lane, Rochdale, Naheem Akram, 39, of Manley Road, Rochdale, and a man, who police say cannot be named for legal reasons, are all also charged with rape. Ittefaq Yousaf, 25, of Stanley Street, Rochdale, has been charged with sexual assault and causing/inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity, while Arfan Iqbal, 25, of Park Road, Rochdale, is charged with attempted rape. All defendants are due to appear at Bury Magistrates' Court on Thursday January 21. Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said: "This case is another that has been launched by Operation Doublet, an investigation into Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) that arose following the 2011 investigation into CSE in Rochdale. "To date, 83 people have been arrested, 15 have been interviewed under caution and prosecutions have been launched against 25 people. "These types of investigations remain incredibly complex and challenging but at the heart of our considerations is the welfare of the victims and we have a team of experienced and dedicated officers supporting them through the process. "The sexual exploitation of children and young people is the absolute priority for Greater Manchester Police and its partners. "Since 2010 we have moved considerable resources into child protection and the investigation of sexual exploitation and the continuance of Operation Doublet is a symbol of our steadfast resolve to investigate these offences, no matter the timeframe and to ensure that, where there is a case to answer, it is brought before the courts. South East train services disrupted ahead of rail bosses grilling Train services in the South East have suffered more disruption, hours before rail bosses face a grilling from MPs. Some p assengers using Southern abandoned their journeys, while others reported being up to two hours late. The operator said services between Brighton and T hree Bridges were expected to be delayed until 1pm due to signalling problems at Balcombe in West Sussex. Some passengers using Southern abandoned their journeys Gatwick Express trains were also subject to 45-minute delays and short-notice cancellations because of the same issue. Figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show the number of Southern services cancelled has risen from one in 40 in 2010/11 to one in 20 in 2014/15. Representatives from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - the company responsible for the Southern franchise - and Network Rail are being questioned at Parliament. Rail Minister Claire Perry and s everal MPs whose constituencies are served by the operators will attend the private meeting, including Labour's Chuka Umunna and Conservatives Maria Caulfield and Huw Merriman. They have voiced criticism over ongoing problems, including delayed services, engineering work and not enough carriages or train drivers. A GTR spokesman said: " We know the train service has not been good enough and apologise to passengers. We are looking forward to meeting with the minister, listening to the MPs and explaining what we are doing together to improve the service." Mr Umunna, MP for Streatham, told the Press Association: " They have been providing utterly appalling services for many months." He added: "Usually what we have is Southern Rail and Network Rail seeking to blame each other when both are at fault. "Southern Rail, by their own admission, don't have enough decent trains and did not recruit enough drivers. "Network Rail continually mismanage engineering works which are often delayed and overrun." Many passengers disrupted by Monday's problems took to social media to express their anger. Jane Perry posted on Twitter: "N otices of refunds no help to people around me seriously worried about losing their jobs. Not good enough." Adam Young said he had decided to " abandon ship and return home", while Arjo Ghosh joked: "W e're only running two hours late!" In December, Network Rail agreed to set up a 4.1 million reparation fund instead of paying a 2 million fine over the chaos at London Bridge station, which the ORR said would directly benefit GTR services - Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express. GTR is also working on a remedial plan with the Department of Transport which would see financial sanctions imposed "in extreme cases". Southeastern handed out coffee vouchers to passengers arriving at London's Victoria station and a pologised for recent disruptions. Calais Jungle refugees 'should be reunited with their families in Britain' Four young Syrian refugees living in "The Jungle" should be reunited with their families in Britain and escape the "living hell" of the Calais refugee camp, a court has heard. The four young men, who cannot be named for legal reasons, are facing "intolerable" conditions and should not stay in the sprawling camp another day, lawyers have argued. The men - two teenagers and a 17 year-old and his mentally-ill 26-year-old brother - all have siblings legally living in Britain and so under EU law would eventually have their cases considered by the Home Office. The Jungle refugee camp in Calais, France But in a case that could hold important legal implications for many other refugees wanting to cross the channel from Calais, they have applied for the British Government to immediately take up their asylum cases, bypassing the French authorities. This would allow them to live in Britain while their claims are considered. The Home Office has turned down their applications, but lawyers are appealing against the decision, claiming it breaches their rights to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The four young refugees, who fled war-torn Syria last September and arrived at the camp in October, are said to be deeply "traumatised" by their experiences, the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal in central London heard. Michael Fordham QC, representing the applicants, reeled off a list of UN officials, charities and British MPs who have spoken out about the "intolerable situation" at the camp. Quoting from a report by a doctor who assessed the refugees, Mr Fordham said: "Conditions in the camp means that further traumas are added to the ones they have already experienced. "It would not be possible to find conditions more unsuitable to minors than the Calais camp." Laura Griffiths, a charity volunteer working in The Jungle, described it as a "toxic waste camp" that amounted to "living hell". Mr Fordham told the hearing: "What do these children need? They need to be reunited with their siblings." The court heard that all the men have been traumatised, that several of them suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and that squalid conditions at the camp are aggravating these health problems. Mr Fordham said the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the camp amounted to "an undignified and intolerable situation". T he United Nations special representative on migration Peter Sutherland branded the camp "a stain on Europe" and "living hell", the court heard. The French authorities would usually take the lead in the cases because the refugees are on their soil. However, under EU law known as Dublin III, refugees who are unaccompanied minors and have family who are legally living in the UK should have their asylum claims processed by Britain and be given leave to live in Britain while this is undertaken. But it is suggested the Dublin mechanism isn't working in France and refugees are facing lengthy delays in their cases being handed over to Britain. Solicitors for the four young men said there have been no successful cases of Dublin III having worked for under-age refugees in France with family in Britain. The result is that refugees continue to live in limbo in the camp and some decide to risk their lives and try to get over the border illegally, it is claimed. An Afghan teenager was reportedly found dead in the back of a lorry travelling from Dunkirk to Britain, where his sister lives, in recent weeks. The teenager, said to be called Masud, had a legitimate claim for entry to the UK because of his sister, but reportedly fed up with the squalor of the camp and delays to his case being processed, he attempted the crossing illegally with tragic consequences. Mr Fordham said that if the judges rule in favour of the four young men then it could open the door to other applications from refugees at the camp hoping to come to Britain. He said: "It will apply to others, certainly I would say any unaccompanied minor in this camp with a sibling in the UK. And I don't shrink from that." He added: "Suppose you have only been there a week, my argument is the same. This is intolerable for a day." David Manknell, representing the Home Office, said the four young men had chosen not to apply for asylum or refugee status in France, and would get support from the state if they did. He said: "There is no evidence that there is wide-scale failing in the reception conditions for asylum seekers in France." Swiss air force passenger jet lands at Geneva airport GENEVA, Jan 17 (Reuters) - A Swiss airforce Dassault Falcon passenger jet landed at Geneva airport on Sunday evening and taxied to stop close to a U.S. Air Force Boeing that arrived on Saturday evening, a Reuters witness said. U.S. condemns attacks in Burkina Faso -White House WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The White House on Sunday said the United States "condemns in the strongest terms" the recent attacks in Burkina Faso, and mourns for those killed, including American citizen Michael Riddering. "Acts of terrorism will not stop efforts by brave Americans and others from around the world who travel far and wide to support governments, civil society groups, and others working to strengthen democracy, improve healthcare, and increase economic opportunities for all," said White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price. Australian PM announces Afghanistan troop increase on Kabul visit By Matt Siegel SYDNEY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Monday a small increase in the Australian troop commitment to the NATO-led force supporting the Afghan central government during a surprise visit to Kabul. Australia, which lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan during its more than 12-year involvement in the conflict following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, will commit 20 more personnel to the mission, bringing its total to 270. Turnbull, speaking at the Australian Embassy in Kabul, defended the decision despite rejecting a request last week from U.S. President Barack Obama to commit more Australian forces to the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. "The truth is that in 2016, nowhere is a long way from anywhere. The world is so connected, more than it has ever been before. It is absolutely critical that we recognise that security is a global issue," Turnbull said. Turnbull, who deposed Tony Abbott as leader in a party coup last year, has been a less vocal critic of the danger posed by Islamist militants than his predecessor, who continues to advocate a more forceful foreign policy. Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to hold talks on Monday aimed at laying the ground for a negotiated end to almost 15 years of war between U.S.-supported government forces and Taliban insurgents. Taliban forces have stepped up their campaign in the past year to topple the Kabul government, which has struggled since most foreign troops left at the end of 2014. High-profile suicide attacks and Taliban territorial gains in Helmand province have underlined how far Afghanistan remains from peace. The Taliban, which now control or contest more territory than at any time since they were ousted from power, will not attend the talks. Turnbull is set to visit Washington on Monday and Tuesday for a meeting with Obama, where national security in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions are set to be agenda-topping items. Taiwan, US exchange diplomatic visits after election despite China warnings By J.R. Wu and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A senior member of Taiwan's independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will visit the United States after the party's landslide election win at the weekend, underscoring the importance of ties with its major ally and source of arms. The visit by DPP secretary general Joseph Wu, who leaves for Washington on Monday, comes after an increasingly assertive China warned Taiwan in the wake of the election to abandon its "hallucination" about independence. Tsai Ing-wen's DPP won convincingly in presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday that could usher in a new round of instability with China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. China has never renounced the use of force to take back what it deems a renegade province, particularly if it makes moves toward independence. The Global Times, an influential tabloid published by the ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily in China, said in an editorial on Monday Tsai should consider the opinions of China's 1.3 billion people as well as Taiwan's own people when it came to relations across the Taiwan Strait. "Trying to use chips like 'Taiwan public opinion' to guide cross-Strait relations is not only unrealistic, it is also dangerous. Tsai Ing-wen should not instil this illusion into Taiwan society," the editorial said. "The mainland has patience when it comes to the Taiwan issue, but it also has principles and a bottom line," it said. A rapid exchange of Taiwanese and U.S. diplomats after the election highlights the importance Taipei places on its ties with Washington, which has congratulated Tsai on her victory. Wu is the DPP's senior national security official and will deliver a keynote speech discussing the aftermath of the vote at a think tank in Washington on Tuesday, although the DPP described his trip as "routine" and gave no other details. Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Ray Burghardt met DPP officials on Monday. The AIT is the de facto U.S. embassy in Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Burns and Burghardt would "convey the United States' support for Taiwan's continued prosperity and growth, as well as our longstanding interest in cross-Strait peace and stability", according to a statement by the AIT. Missing Hong Kong bookseller in China to answer 2004 conviction -state media By Matthew Miller and Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Swedish bookseller whose mysterious disappearance sparked fears he may have been abducted by Chinese agents said he had voluntarily turned himself in to the authorities over a fatal drink-driving offence more than a decade ago. Gui Minhai, who disappeared from his apartment in Thailand in October, returned to China to answer a 2004 conviction for killing a student in a hit-and-run, state media said on Sunday. "I am returning to surrender by personal choice, it has nothing to do with anyone," Gui, looking distraught, said in a China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast. "This is a personal responsibility that I ought to bear." Gui, a naturalized Swedish citizen, is one of five members to have gone missing from a Hong Kong bookstore that specialises in gossipy political books on China's Communist Party leaders. The disappearances, and China's silence, have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using shadowy tactics that erode the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997. In recent years, state media have publicised a string of what are presented as confessions made by high-profile suspects. Critics say these accounts deprive the accused of the right to a fair trial. It was not possible to contact Gui and it remains unclear whether he has a lawyer. Sweden continues "to seek clarifications from the Chinese authorities" on Gui's case, said Gabriella Augustsson, head of public diplomacy for the Swedish embassy in Beijing. "RIDICULOUS", SAYS DAUGHTER In a telephone interview from Britain, where she is studying, Gui's daughter Angela, 21, said her father's televised confession appeared "ridiculous" and contrived. "I've not heard of this supposed (hit-and-run) accident," she said, adding she did not believe her father would have returned to China on his own without telling her. "It comes across as quite ridiculous to me, really. I don't believe it ... that he returned on his own," she said, noting she had a friendly relationship with her father. Hours after the TV broadcast, she said she received a message from her father's Skype account saying: "Hi Angela, I'm ok. Please don't worry about me. I have returned to China on my own to sort some personal problems. If anybody asks about me, please keep quiet." She said this didn't sound like something her father would say, and was not the way he would normally communicate with her. Angela Gui, who was born and raised in Sweden, said she had spoken to her father a few days before he went missing in October, and they had agreed to speak again soon - but that never happened. She told Reuters earlier that she still believed her father had been abducted and his detention was related to his work. "There's got to be a reason it happened now and that the others were taken as well," she said. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei declined to elaborate on the case at a daily news briefing. "As for the relevant case, the media reports are already quite detailed," he said. In the broadcast, Gui warned "any individual or organization" against intervening or "engaging in malicious speculation". China's official Xinhua News Agency later reported that Gui "surrendered to public security organs" in October. It gave no details about his surrender or transport from Thailand. Gui fled China in 2006 after he was given a suspended 2-year jail term for killing a female student in the coastal city of Ningbo while driving drunk, the report said. His 2-year probation was revoked, and he is now suspected of other crimes, it added. The five missing booksellers include Lee Bo, a British passport holder who disappeared from Hong Kong at the end of last month. Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said on Monday the government was taking the case seriously and would continue to investigate the circumstances of those missing. In a statement late on Monday, the Hong Kong government said it received a notice from authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong acknowledging that Lee is in mainland China. Hong Kong authorities said they were requesting a meeting with Lee. In a note dated Jan. 3 and purportedly hand-written and signed by Lee, he said he had travelled to China in order to assist with an unspecified "investigation". Hungary, Factors to watch, Jan 18 BUDAPEST, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Following is a list of events in Hungary and the region, as well as news stories and press reports which may influence financial markets. (For any queries: Budapest editorial +36 1 327 4745) WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HUNGARY (ALL TIMES GMT) BUDAPEST - no events of note. IN THE REGION POLAND/BRUSSELS - Polish President Duda visits Brussels amid growing strain in ties between Warsaw and the EU. CZECH -PPI IN THE NEWS REUTERS Hungary's OTP in talks to buy AXA Bank's local mortgages -sources BUDAPEST, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Central Europe's largest independent lender, Hungary's OTP Bank OTPB.BU, is in talks to acquire the local retail mortgage portfolio of AXA Bank Europe SA, which has posted steep losses, financial sector sources told Reuters. UPDATE 3-Poland sees zloty turbulence at start of week after S&P downgrade WARSAW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Poland shrugged off the impact of a downgrade by Standard & Poor's (S&P) on Saturday, saying the rating agency's decision was mistake, but its ministers admitted they expected short-term turbulence for the zloty when markets open on Monday. CEE MARKETS-Zloty hits 3 1/2-year low ahead of debt rating reviews BUDAPEST/WARSAW, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The zloty fell to its weakest levels against the euro since mid-2012 on Friday, on concerns rating agencies may warn the new Polish government over its planned increase in spending. Lego to double production in Hungary to avoid brick shortage COPENHAGEN, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Danish toymaker Lego said on Friday it would invest more than a hundred million euros in its factory in Hungary to double the size of its facilities there and avoid shortages that have plagued the Christmas period in recent years. ANALYSIS-Once shunned, Hungary could become investors' darling Hungary could become the favoured destination for investors' cash in Central and Eastern Europe this year on the back of an expected return to investment grade debt rating and concerns about main rival Poland's new right-wing government. ANALYSIS-Fears of illiberal Central Europe axis may be overblown MEDIA-Vimpelcom ready to settle U.S. allegations in Uzbekistan case - Vedomosti MOSCOW, Jan 18 (Reuters) - -- Telecoms company Vimpelcom is ready to settle a corruption case, that started in the United States; the case is related to the firm's operation in Uzbekistan, reports Russian business daily Vedomosti, citing sources close to Vimpelcom -- Vimpelcom has agreed to pay around $600 million in settlement - Source -- Another source adds that the payment "substantially" lower than the $900 million reserved for possible fines -- Source link: (http://bit.ly/1Wm4RaJ) Romania - Factors to watch on Jan 18 BUCHAREST, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Monday. DEBT TENDER The finance ministry aims to sell 800 million lei ($192.28 million) worth of Jan. 2017 treasury bills. WEATHER Heavy snowfall and strong winds closed Romania's Black Sea ports including the main port of Constanta, and shut dozens of roads while snowstorms and torrential rains cut electricity to hundreds of towns in Bulgaria, authorities said on Sunday. GDP DATA Romania's economy ROGDP=ECI expanded 3.6 percent on the year in the third quarter, data from the National Statistics Board showed on Friday, matching an earlier estimate. CEE MARKETS The zloty fell to its weakest levels against the euro since mid-2012 on Friday, on concerns rating agencies may warn the new Polish government over its planned increase in spending. CARS New car registrations in Romania rose 15.7 percent last year to 81,162 vehicles, local news agency Mediafax said quoting data from the European carmakers' association. For the long-term Romanian diary, click on For emerging markets economic events, click on For an index of all diaries, click on Iran's Rouhani to visit Italy, France next week, first Europe trip after sanctions lifted ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Italy and France next week on his first trip to Europe since the lifting of sanctions against his country, a diplomatic source said on Monday. The source said Rouhani would be in Italy on Jan. 25-26 and leave for Paris on Jan. 27. On his first day in Italy he will meet the country's president, prime minister and business leaders. He is scheduled to meet Pope Francis on the second day, the source said. PRESS DIGEST - Bulgaria - Jan 18 SOFIA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. -- Heavy snowfall has cut off power lines and left over 700 villages and towns across the Balkan country without electricity and some without water. (Trud, Standart, Telegraph, Sega, Monitor) SEGA - Bulgaria has granted permission to NATO to deploy and use unmanned aircraft as part of NATO's programme Alliance Ground Surveillance. Food aid, baobab on the menu as Zimbabwe struggles with drought By Andrew Mambondiyani MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Jan 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - E lliot Nzarayebani, a farmer in Zimunya, a small community near Mutare city, expects to have to rely on food handouts due to the drought ravaging his maize. "Crops are wilting right in front of our eyes. The situation is desperate," said the 45-year-old father of four. The maize planted in November in this part of eastern Zimbabwe is wilting fast, while some crops planted in late December never even germinated. "We are not expecting much help from our government because it's broke," said Nzarayebani. "We hope NGOs will chip in with food aid for us to survive through the year." There is fear and anxiety among Zimbabwe's farmers as the country faces yet another damaging drought. This time around, experts attribute it to the El Nino weather phenomenon that has delayed the onset of the rains in several southern African countries. Zimbabwe is still smarting from a drought that hit farmers in the 2014/15 season, wiping out half the country's maize crop, the main staple food. This year the drought is predicted to be worse, and farmers' organisations are reporting that maize crops in some parts of the country are already a write-off. Even though El Nino has been in the news in recent months, many people in remote rural areas are unaware of it and have been caught off-guard. "Who's El Nino?" Nzarayebani asked blankly. El Nino occurs when the surface waters of the Pacific Ocean warm, altering rainfall patterns worldwide. Zimbabwe has a 70 percent chance of experiencing drought under El Nino conditions, experts say. Droughts have become recurrent in Zimbabwe since a devastating dry spell in 1991/92 that killed over 1 million cattle, according to the country's agriculture ministry. A drought in 1997/98 also hit livestock and crops badly, leading to food shortages that triggered riots. NO HARVEST EXPECTED This year the hardest-hit provinces include Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South, Midlands and Mashonaland West. In some areas, temperatures soared as high as 43 degrees Celsius (109.4F) between September and January. In Mutasa district, Manicaland province, most of the early planted maize crop was wilting in January. "We are no longer expecting any harvest," said one farmer from the district, Claris Mutasa. In parts of Manicaland, some families have already resorted to eating baobab fruits. "We go for up to four days without a proper meal," said Joseph Mtisi from Gudyanga in Chimanimani district. "People here are surviving on porridge made from baobab fruits, but the fruits are running out too." Mtisi is one of many trying to earn a living by selling baobab fruit and mats made from baobab bark to motorists along the Mutare-Masvingo highway in Manicaland. Bulawayo South legislator Eddie Cross told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the situation is set to become "critical". The agricultural expert and economist said 2.7 million tonnes of maize will be required for national consumption from January 2016 to June 2017. The national grain reserve, the Grain Marketing Board, has 150,000 tonnes in stock, while the private sector has 119,000 tonnes, and has committed to import 90,000 tonnes. Maize production in the 2015/16 season is now estimated at 200,000 tonnes, Cross said. That translates into an expected supply shortfall of over 2 million tonnes, or 120,000 tonnes a month, he added. The total cost of imports through to June 2017 is estimated at around $870 million. "It will put a severe burden on our foreign exchange earnings," Cross said. GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE? Incomes in Zimbabwe are low and declining, and ordinary people will find it difficult to pay for maize meal at prices 70 percent higher than last year, he added. However, Zimbabwe's Agriculture Minister Joseph Made was quoted in local media as saying the government would allocate $260 million to import between 500,000 and 700,000 tonnes of maize. "It is the government's responsibility to be the main supplier of food," Made was quoted as saying in the state-owned newspaper, The Herald. The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee expects that 1.49 million people will be food insecure from January through March, up from 0.56 million last year, according to a U.N. update. Zimbabwe imported maize from Malawi, Zambia and South Africa in 2015, but with these countries also experiencing drought, the government is now planning to import the staple from Brazil. Walter Chidhakwa, Zimbabwe's minister for mining, told a meeting of the ruling party Zanu PF in January that the government would identify a basket of minerals - likely to include diamonds and gold - over the next six months that could be sold to establish a chest of funds to import food. But not everyone agrees that the government will be able to come to the rescue of small-scale farmers like Nzarayebani. Afghanistan to hold delayed parliamentary elections in October KABUL, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Afghanistan will hold postponed parliamentary elections in October, the top election official said on Monday, after last June's deadline to choose a new assembly was missed because of political squabbling. Parliament's five-year term expired last June, but elections were postponed because of security fears and disagreements on how to ensure a fair vote after a bitterly disputed presidential election in 2014. President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree last year extending parliament's mandate until a vote could be held, a decision criticised by Afghans, who questioned whether the extension was legal. If the elections go ahead as planned, they are likely to be held against a backdrop of sharply worsening security, with the Taliban trying to build on their campaign last year that included the brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz. The elections will be held on Oct. 15, Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, the head of the election commission, told a press conference in Kabul. Nuristani said the elections would only be held on time if the government provided the necessary budget and security for candidates, election personnel and ballot boxes. Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah both claimed victory in the last presidential vote marred by accusations of fraud. It took months for them to agree to a U.S.-brokered deal to form a unity government. Ghani and Abdullah agreed on electoral reform as a condition for any future elections but little progress has been made since rivals in the unity government have long disagreed over who should lead the reform commission. PRESS DIGEST - Portugal - Jan 18 LISBON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Following are some of the main stories in Portuguese newspapers on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * Troika coming to Lisbon with list of 18 demands (Diario de Noticias) * Social Democratic Party joins campaign of frontrunner Marcelo Rebelo da Sousa one week before presidential election (Diario de Noticias) * Socialist government's first budget faces test in Brussels (Publico) Burkina strike boldest yet as Islamist insurgency pushes south By Emma Farge DAKAR, Jan 17 (Reuters) - In a 2013 speech claiming victory over jihadists in Mali who had seized the north a year earlier, French President Francois Hollande said that if it had not been for his nation's military intervention, "today we would have terrorists here in Bamako". Two years on, a rhetorical flourish meant to evoke a fearful but unthinkable scenario has come true as jihadists seeking new hide-outs and bigger targets have spread south from Saharan bases into formerly stable capital cities. Since November, al Qaeda fighters have twice stormed hotels in the Malian and Burkina capitals, killing dozens of Westerners in mirror image attacks distinguished chiefly by greater sophistication. Assailants in Ouagadougou planted explosives to slow rescuers and sent an apparently live audio message from the scene entitled: "Message Signed with Blood and Body Parts". The remote deserts and savannahs of French-speaking West and Central Africa, once a playground for hikers, motorists and lion hunters, have been effectively out of bounds for Westerners for years due to kidnapping risks. But plush hotels in big cities were thought to be safe havens. Often they lodge the very people who are trying to fix the problems of the Sahel - a fragile, poverty-racked region on the fringes of the Sahara where governments are struggling to provide opportunities for a booming youth population. Burkina's Splendid Hotel is popular with French troops while Mali's Radisson Blu was hosting a team trying to implement a flagging U.N.-brokered peace deal in Mali when it was attacked. But despite billions of Western dollars spent on aid, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism, the red no-go zones on French consular maps have bled southwards from a stronghold in north Mali and into Burkina Faso. Analysts warn that weak border control and a failure to address some of the root causes that allow such groups to recruit and thrive mean that more strikes should be expected. "There's no reason to think Burkina Faso should be the last country hit," said Cynthia Ohayon, West Africa analyst at International Crisis Group by phone from Ouagadougu. "If you strike the capital, you are seen to be striking harder and the threat is there for other cities like Dakar and Abidjan," she said, referring to Senegal and Ivory Coast. RISK OF REGIONAL ENGULFMENT France says its 3,500-strong Barkhane Force which superseded the 2013 Serval operation in Mali and has a broader regional mandate has made progress, conducting 150 operations last year. But Ohayon says France may actually have contributed to the spread of jihadists by driving them out of their former heartland in Mali's desert north and into Burkina, which is seeking to recover from instability following the ousting of long-ruling leader Blaise Compaore in 2014. In a sign of their expanding reach, France has warned of kidnap threats in a popular national park straddling Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger which is more than 600 kilometres east of the Malian border. Two Australians were also kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso on Saturday just a week after a Swiss citizen was seized in Mali's northern city of Timbuktu. Security sources say the rise in Western abductions after a period of relative calm may represent a bid by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to replenish coffers with ransom money. The also say jihadists are profiting from a growing regional ivory trade. Mali has called for a rapid intervention force to fight militants and Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop warned this week that the region could be "engulfed due to connections or even a link-up between terrorist groups in the Sahel," referring to Islamic State in Libya to the north and Boko Haram to the east. Tie-ups are already happening on a limited scale. AQIM has said in recent videos as part of an expanded media campaign that it has joined forces with al Mourabitoun, led by Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar. "BABY-FACED" JIHADISTS Thomas Miles, an independent scholar and Sahel expert, says there is little sign that recruitment in remote areas has ended since the French operation of 2013, although it may have slowed. "The real arm that AQIM has stockpiled over recent years is not the bullets and the weapons but these baby-faced young men who are virtually raised in these cells and are willing to die," said Miles, who is writing a book on the region. Witnesses described one of the Ouagadougou attackers as a young, black African and both Bamako gunmen were also young. They have not been formally identified. The Malian army complains that a failure to implement a peace deal between the government and secular armed groups signed six months ago has made it harder to fight jihadists since they cannot distinguish between fighters. The lack of progress has also facilitated the formation of new local jihadist groups such as Mali's Massina Liberation Front in a country where many are desperate and 60 percent of under 35s are unemployed. Other groups could be forming elsewhere in the Sahel. End of Europe? Berlin, Brussels' shock tactic on migrants By Alastair Macdonald and Noah Barkin BRUSSELS/BERLIN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Is this how "Europe" ends? The Germans, founders and funders of the postwar union, shut their borders to refugees in a bid for political survival by the chancellor who let in a million migrants. And then -- why not? -- they decide to revive the Deutschmark while they're at it. That is not the fantasy of diehard Eurosceptics but a real fear articulated at the highest levels in Berlin and Brussels. Chancellor Angela Merkel, her ratings hit by crimes blamed on asylum seekers at New Year parties in Cologne, and EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker both said as much last week. Juncker echoed Merkel in warning that the central economic achievements of the common market and the euro are at risk from incoherent, nationalistic reactions to migration and other crises. He renewed warnings that Europe is on its "last chance", even if he still hoped it was not "at the beginning of the end". Merkel, facing trouble among her conservative supporters as much as from opponents, called Europe "vulnerable" and the fate of the euro "directly linked" to resolving the migration crisis -- highlighting the risk of at the very least serious economic turbulence if not a formal dismantling of EU institutions. Some see that as mere scare tactics aimed at fellow Europeans by leaders with too much to lose from an EU collapse -- Greeks and Italians have been seen to be dragging their feet over controlling the bloc's Mediterranean frontier and eastern Europeans who benefit from German subsidies and manufacturing supply chain jobs have led hostility to demands that they help take in refugees. Germans are also getting little help from EU co-founder France, whose leaders fear a rising anti-immigrant National Front, or the bloc's third power, Britain, consumed with its own debate on whether to just quit the European club altogether. So, empty threat or no, with efforts to engage Turkey's help showing little sign yet of preventing migrants reaching Greek beaches, German and EU officials are warning that without a sharp drop in arrivals or a change of heart in other EU states to relieve Berlin of the lonely task of housing refugees, Germany could shut its doors, sparking wider crisis this spring. GERMAN WARNINGS With Merkel's conservative allies in the southern frontier state of Bavaria demanding she halt the mainly Muslim asylum seekers ahead of tricky regional elections in March, her veteran finance minister delivered one of his trademark veiled threats to EU counterparts of what that could mean for them. "Many think this is a German problem," Wolfgang Schaeuble said in meetings with fellow EU finance ministers in Brussels. "But if Germany does what everyone expects, then we'll see that it's not a German problem -- but a European one." Senior Merkel allies are working hard to stifle the kind of parliamentary party rebellion that threatened to derail bailouts which kept Greece in the euro zone last year. But pressure is mounting for national measures, such as border fences, which as a child of East Germany Merkel has said she cannot countenance. "If you build a fence, it's the end of Europe as we know it," one senior conservative said. "We need to be patient." A senior German official noted that time is running out, however. "The chancellor has been asking her party for more time," he said. "But ... that narrative ... is losing the persuasiveness it may have had in October or November. If you add in the debate about Cologne, she faces an increasingly difficult situation." He noted that arrivals had not fallen sharply over the winter months as had been expected. "You can only imagine what happens when the weather improves," he said. SCHENGEN FEARS Merkel and Juncker explicitly linked new national frontier controls across Europe's passport-free Schengen zone to a collapse of the single market at the core of the bloc, and of the euro. Both would ravage jobs and the economy. "Without Schengen ... the euro has no point," Juncker told a New Year news conference on Friday. Historic national resentments were re-emerging, he added, accusing his generation of EU leaders of squandering the legacy of the union's founders, survivors of World War Two. Merkel has not suggested -- yet -- that Berlin could follow neighbours like Austria and Denmark in further tightening border checks to deny entry to irregular migrants. But she has made clear how Europe might suffer. "No one can pretend that you can have a common currency without being able to cross borders relatively easily," she said at a business event last week. In private, German officials are more explicit. "We have until March, the summer maybe, for a European solution," said a second German official. "Then Schengen goes down the drain." A senior EU official was equally blunt: "There is a big risk that Germany closes. From that, no Schengen ... There is a risk that the February summit could start a countdown to the end." The next summit of EU leaders one month from now follows meetings last year that were marked by agreement on a migration strategy as well as rows over failures to implement it. Of the 160,000 asylum seekers EU leaders agreed in September to distribute among member states, fewer than 300 have been moved. Berlin and Brussels continue to press for more distribution across Europe. But few place much hope in that -- one senior German official calls it "flogging a dead horse". TURKISH KEY EU leaders' hope is for help from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a man many of them see as an embryonic dictator. Berlin is pressing for more EU cash for Ankara, beyond an agreed 3 billion euros, which Italy is blocking. Some Germans suggest simply using German funds to stem the flow from Turkey. EU officials say it is too early to panic. Arrivals have fallen this month. U.N. data show them running in January at half the 3,500 daily rate of December. Progress includes a move to let some of the 2.1 million Syrian refugees in Turkey take jobs. The EU will fund more schools for refugee children. Yet EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who travels to Berlin on Monday, told the European Parliament last week: "The situation is getting worse." British rights activist faces defamation trial in Thailand By Aukkarapon Niyomyat and Patpicha Tanakasempipat BANGKOK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Thai court on Monday charged a British human rights activist with defaming a Thai fruit company, a case which could see him jailed for up to seven years if found guilty. Natural Fruit, Thailand's biggest producer of canned pineapples, accused Andy Hall of defamation and computer crimes over a report published in 2013 that he helped author for Finnwatch, a Finland-based watchdog group. The report, "Cheap Has a High Price", alleged ill-treatment of migrant workers at a factory owned by the firm. Natural Fruit denied the allegations. The indictment means Hall will face a second trial over the report after a previous lawsuit was thrown out by a Thai court on a technicality in 2014. Natural Fruit filed four lawsuits against him, and is appealing the dismissal of the first. Rights activists have criticised Thailand's defamation and computer crimes legislation, which they say politicians and corporations have used to muzzle critics. Hall on Wednesday denied the charges against him. "I only collected raw data and took no part in analysing the data. Finnwatch officials were responsible for that," said Hall after the indictment. "They also put the report on the website, not me." The case will begin in mid-May and is expected to conclude in late July. Hall is on bail and has had his passport confiscated. He said on Monday he had been given permission to leave Thailand at the end of January for a week. In the two other pending cases, Natural Fruit has demanded 400 million baht ($11 million) in compensation for damages. Indonesia at risk of bigger Islamic State-linked attacks: police chief By Kanupriya Kapoor and Aubrey Belford JAKARTA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Indonesia is bracing for the return of experienced Islamic State fighters from the Middle East who would be capable of carrying out attacks far more deadly than the assault on Jakarta last week, the country's police chief said on Monday. Thursday's attack in the heart of Jakarta was a hastily executed "Plan B" by Islamist militants, after police raids had disrupted preparations for other strikes against Christmas and New Year events, Police General Badrodin Haiti told Reuters in an interview. Eight people, including four militants, were killed in the assault on the capital's main Thamrin Road that involved pistols and home-made bombs. The attack, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia to be attributed to Syria-based Islamic State, could have been far deadlier, but the militants lacked training and powerful weapons, Haiti said. "I believe this was a Plan B. Their main target was Christmas and New Year. They chose Thamrin (after that plan was disrupted) because they were hoping for a big impact despite their small size, because this is a crowded centre," he said. "The perpetrators had the opportunity to take more victims (during the attack), but because their capabilities were limited, we were able to take them out of action." There are fears that much deadlier attacks could follow, with the return of experienced frontline fighters with Islamic State currently in Syria and Iraq, Haiti said. Authorities say about 500 Indonesians have travelled to the Middle East to join the extremist group. About 100 are believed to have returned, although experts say only about 15 have combat experience. "Those on the frontlines are better trained, because they're facing their enemies (in) the field. If they come back, then it will be dangerous because they can carry out acts of violence and terror," Haiti said. "There is the possibility (of a bigger attack) if they can train people in preparing explosives," he said. The majority of those believed to be involved in Thursday's attack, include two of the four militants who carried it out, were part of an attempt to establish a training camp in the forests of the northern province of Aceh that was thwarted by police in 2010, Haiti said. In the wake of the latest attack, police would redouble efforts to monitor radical networks in Indonesia, he said. "We want these networks to be mapped fully, because they can collaborate with each other. There are about nine distinct terror groups in Indonesia. So our hope is that this incident can reveal their collaborations," he said. "We have found communications between people in Syria and here and we should be able to tell who is responding to those communications and can become a future threat." The last major attack in the world's most populous Muslim nation before last week was the twin bombing of luxury hotels in Jakarta in 2009. As climate change threatens CentAm coffee, a cocoa boom is born By Luc Cohen and Ivan Castro NEW YORK / JINOTEGA, NICARAGUA, Jan. 18 (Reuters) - Brimming with shade trees and bounded by the Tuma river, the lower climes of Roger Castellon's farm in Nicaragua's mountainous Jinotega department were long ideal for growing coffee. But with temperatures on the rise, the veteran coffee farmer is shifting his lower-lying land to a crop that, although new for him, enjoys a rich legacy in the region: Cocoa. "Coffee is no longer viable due to climate change," said Castellon, who calls his 420-hectare (1,038-acre)farm Los Nogales. Soaring temperatures in Central America, linked to climate change, are forcing many farmers like Castellon to replace coffee trees with cocoa - a crop once so essential to the region's economy it was used as currency. Farmers across the region, known for high-quality arabica beans, are still recovering from a coffee leaf rust disease known as roya, which devastated crops over the past four years. Now, lower-altitude areas are becoming unsuitable for growing coffee as temperatures heat up. Cocoa thrives in the warmer weather. Castellon maintains coffee plants on the higher portions of his farm, at about 1,200 meters (3,937 feet). But two years ago he replaced coffee with cocoa on 84 hectares (208 acres) of land at about 700 meters (2,297 feet) in altitude, protected by the shade of fig and banana trees. He expects to produce his first cocoa crop this April and said planting the cocoa trees cost about a third of what it would have cost to renew coffee plants. The quiet shift across the region shows up in export data: This crop year, coffee bean exports from six countries in the region excluding Honduras will fall for the third straight year, to 8.14 million 60-kg (132-pound) bags - the lowest level since the 1973/1974 cycle, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Cocoa production and exports have steadily risen. In Nicaragua, cocoa exports totaled 3,839 tons (8.5 million pounds) in 2015, up more than 80 percent from 2014, and in El Salvador, a coalition is working to expand cocoa acreage hundredfold. Even in Honduras, which has seen a successful recovery from roya, the government is requiring growers to substitute 8 percent of coffee land to cocoa. To be sure, some new cocoa acreage has come from abandonment of other crops, and high-altitude coffee production is strong in many parts of the region. Central America also will not supplant West Africa as the leading supplier of the main ingredient in chocolate anytime soon. But high cocoa prices are providing an incentive to farmers to switch. The region's cocoa rebirth could ease concerns about supply stability amid growing emerging market demand, weather scares and the potential for civil strife in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which produce 60 percent of world output. COPING WITH COCOA In Nicaragua, the ideal coffee zone is between 700 and 1,700 meters (2,297-5,577 feet) above sea level, but rising temperatures and lower rainfall will shift the range to 1,000 to 1,700 meters (3,281-5,577 feet) by 2050, according to a 2012 study by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Temperatures have increased between 0.5 and 3 degrees Celsius (0.9-5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in the region in the past century, and temperatures in coffee zones are expected to rise another 2.1 degrees Celsius (3.8 Fahrenheit) by 2050. Roya has long plagued coffee production, but scientists say warmer weather will cause more harm because the disease thrives in high temperatures. "Coffee is not for this region anymore - the yields are no good, and it's more investment," said Roberto Mairena, 51, who eight years ago planted 8.4 hectares (21 acres) of cocoa on his 300-500-meter (984-1650 feet) San Miguel farm in La Dalia, in the mountainous Nicaraguan department of Matagalpa. The devastating impacts of roya forced many affected farmers to reconsider the wisdom of re-investing in coffee. Many decided on cocoa, calculating that rising temperatures would only make coffee in those areas more vulnerable. "Leaf rust was an effect of climate change," said Ryan Bathrick, the Nicaragua country director for TechnoServe, a U.S. nonprofit organization that helps coffee and cocoa producers with farming techniques and business practices. "There's a lot of optimism around cacao." In El Salvador, a coalition including USAID and Catholic Relief Services hopes to help plant cocoa on 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) by 2019, up from 100 hectares (247 acres) when the project began in September 2014. The group is specifically targeting roya-ravaged coffee growers. The coalition's efforts helped Andres Menjivar, who planted cocoa trees on one-third of his farm's 8.4 hectares (21 acres)this August, after roya wiped out coffee production on his La Libertad, El Salvador farm four years ago. "Studying history, we always learned about how cocoa was part of the way of life in Central America, but it gradually lost out to other crops," said Menjivar, who expects to cultivate his first cocoa crop in 2018 and is considering planting more. CHASING THE PREMIUM Current price levels are also sending a signal to producers to transition to cocoa. Coffee futures fell 24 percent in 2015 to around $1.20 a lb, while cocoa futures have risen for four consecutive years to trade around $3,000 a tonne, or $1.36 a lb. Growing consumer demand for higher-quality products in both markets is also driving the shift, and coffee premiums tend to increase with altitude. "The lower-altitude coffee does not have the quality level that is now being demanded by the market, so the income these farmers are getting is lower," said Gilberto Amaya of Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador. But those altitudes are suitable for higher-quality criollo cocoa, which is sought after by craft chocolate makers. Efforts in the region are focused on promoting quality rather than volume, so while Hershey and Nestle may not be using the beans any time soon, Central America may soon supplement the Dominican Republic and Madagascar as a source of beans for the burgeoning craft chocolate industry. Health officials are racing to combat a new type of bird flu never before seen in the country that has the capability to infect humans. The latest virus, H7N8, was detected at a turkey farm in Indiana on Friday. It comes just a year after a devastating bird flu outbreak wiped out 48 million chickens and turkeys in the U.S., dealing a blow to the poultry industry which suffered billions of dollars in losses. And tests show this new form of bird flu is similar to strains that have infected humans in the past. Health officials are racing to curb the outbreak of a new strain of bird flu detected in Indiana a year after the devastating outbreak in the Upper Midwest. Pictured: turkeys on a farm in New Jersey this winter The federal government sprang into action on Friday after the virus was confirmed in Indiana on Thursday night, employing emergency plans drawn up in the wake of last year's outbreak. Within hours of H7N8 being detected, CDC officials were on the farm to kill infected turkeys. However, it was 29 hours before all were dead. They also alerted other states to the danger and put workers who might have been exposed to the virus under surveillance Last year, no cases were reported in humans. Strains similar to the new virus, known as H7N8, have on rare occasions made people ill and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state officials aim to reduce the risk of human infection. It was the poultry industry that suffered the most. Egg supplies shrank and prices surged to record highs. 'We are hopeful that as we respond very quickly to this virus that we can get it contained and hopefully not see an extensive outbreak like we did last year,' said T.J. Myers, an associate deputy administrator for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Even if the response is fast, the government's ability to contain the disease is far from certain. Officials have never dealt with this strain before, and wild birds are thought to spread the disease to farms through feces dropped from the air, making infections difficult to prevent. U.S. officials have taken to heart lessons from last year's outbreak, when USDA workers could not always kill infected flocks fast enough to contain the virus. Workers are now trying to cull sick flocks within 24 hours of diagnoses, following a goal the agency set in the autumn. Most turkeys at the infected farm were killed within a day, but it was 29 hours before all were dead, said Denise Derrer, spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. No human infections associated with the new strain have ever been reported, according to the USDA. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF BIRD FLU AND HOW THEY AFFECT PEOPLE There are three prominent subtypes to Influenza A (avian flu): H5, H7, and H9. H5, which is currently circulating Asia and the Middle East, is the most likely to cause severe pneumonia and/or death in humans. Last year's outbreak of bird flu in the Upper Midwest was H5N2, falling into this category. However, no cases were detected in humans. The true casualties were birds - 48 million chickens and turkeys were killed. H7, which was detected in Indiana on Friday, is typically rare among humans. Previously any cases of human infection would barely exceed conjunctivitis and strained breathing. However, in 2013 health officials confirmed H7N9 had infected humans in China, in some cases causing death. H7N8 was the strain detected in Indiana on Friday. H9 is the least common in humans. It has been detected in wild birds in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Human cases of H9 have never exceeded mild upper respiratory tract infections. Source: CDC Advertisement The virus is especially deadly to poultry. Still, people who interacted with infected turkeys were quickly placed under a new monitoring plan developed in response to last year's outbreak, Michael Jhung, a medical officer at the CDC, told Reuters. The agency also plans to conduct lab tests and animal studies of the virus. Similar H7 viruses - which share the same surface proteins - have caused problems in people ranging from mild, flu-like symptoms to serious respiratory illness, Jhung said. 'We know very little about this particular virus because we haven't seen it, but we want to take as many precautions as we can to prevent any human infections,' he said. There is always uncertainty around any new strain of influenza because the virus acquires mutations passing from host to host. The Indiana flock appears to have become infected when a less dangerous form of the virus in the area mutated, said John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinarian. Limited genetic data from preliminary diagnostic tests last week showed this H7N8 virus originated from North America, while last year's strains had roots in Europe and Asia, government officials said. North American viruses have typically posed less of a threat to humans than viruses from the Asian Avian H5N1 lineage, said Carol Cardona, an avian flu expert at the University of Minnesota. Viruses in the H5N1 lineage 'are super bad guys,' Cardona said. Still, outbreaks of North American viruses in Pennsylvania in 1983 and British Columbia in 2000 were 'devastating and difficult' for poultry, she added. The new strain found in the United States, like these previous viruses, is considered highly pathogenic, meaning it is especially deadly to poultry. In Indiana, the USDA quickly deployed personnel and equipment to assist the state with culling birds and testing nearby flocks, said Bret Marsh, Indiana's state veterinarian. Marsh alerted other states about the new virus outbreak on an emergency conference call in the early hours on Friday. 'We realize that if it's indeed of wild bird origin, they know no boundaries so we want to make sure that everyone is properly informed,' Marsh told reporters. Bird flu cost the U.S. poultry industry an estimated $3.3 billion in 2015 as farmers had to destroy infected flocks and halt production for months. Importers also cut back on trade in the $5.7 billion poultry and egg export market, and some have already limited shipments because of this new outbreak. U.S. negotiators have worked with trading partners in the past year to focus restrictions on infected counties or states, instead of blocking shipments from the entire country, said Toby Moore, spokesman for the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council. That could minimize the economic burden of outbreaks. Farmers also have strengthened cleaning and security practices in a bid to keep out the virus, with many requiring workers to change their shoes before entering barns and barring delivery trucks from getting too close to poultry houses. China's securities regulator denies report on chairman's planned resignation HONG KONG, Jan 18 (Reuters) - China's securities regulator said on Monday that a report on its chairman offering to resign is inaccurate. Saudi Arabia alarmed, in private, at Iran's sanctions relief By Angus McDowall RIYADH, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Saudi officials have said little in public, but they fear the end of sanctions on Iran could boost what they see as its subversive activities in the Middle East while also enriching a diverse economy that the oil-dependent kingdom views as a major competitor for regional influence. Saudi-Iranian political rivalry has aggravated tumult across the Middle East for years, but has escalated in recent months as Riyadh's new rulers have taken a harder line and as the nuclear deal has relieved pressure on Tehran. Iran's international rehabilitation also opens the prospect of economic rivalry, with Saudi Arabia facing not only a fellow oil producer in an era of oversupply and low prices, but also a more self-reliant and multi-skilled economy. Even without public pronouncements, Riyadh's private consternation could be discerned in the pages of semi-official media and comments by influential clerics. The main cartoon in al-Watan daily simply showed a pencil broken mid-way through writing the word "peace", while an opinion piece underneath it asked "Will Iran change after the nuclear deal enters implementation?" Its answer: probably not. Saudi Arabia, a conservative Sunni Muslim monarchy, sees revolutionary Iran as the paramount threat to the Middle East's stability, because of its support for Shi'ite militias that Riyadh says have inflamed sectarian violence and undermined Arab governments. For the Al Saud dynasty, the nuclear deal was a double blow, freeing Iran from sanctions it believed helped check those regional activities and raising the spectre of a rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh's most powerful ally, the United States. Under King Salman, Saudi Arabia has launched a war in Yemen to stop an ally of Tehran gaining power, mobilised Muslim states to freeze Tehran out of regional and Islamic influence, and has boosted support to rebels fighting Iranian allies in Syria. Iran's pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, who has publicly reached out to Riyadh repeatedly since his election in 2013, on Sunday rebuked the Al Saud for their own regional stance and called on them to "take the path that will benefit the region". Such comments, which mirror accusations Riyadh makes about Iran, infuriate Saudi officials who regard Rouhani as a smooth-talking cipher for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and see no point engaging with him instead of his harder line superior. They disdain the campaign by U.S. President Barack Obama to bring Iran in from the cold, believing him pusillanimous in the face of what they see as Iranian aggression and guileless in accommodating Iran's moderates when Khamenei pulls the strings. TUMBLING STOCKS Between the full-page adverts Saudi companies had run in Monday's newspapers to congratulate King Salman on the Islamic calendar anniversary of his becoming monarch, the opinion columns and cartoons despaired at Iran's comeback. The role of Western powers, particularly Riyadh's oldest ally the United States, in facilitating Tehran's relief from pariah status and their hopes of cashing in on Iran's newly opened economy did not go unremarked. The al-Jazirah daily's cartoonist showed an incarnation of American capitalism in striped trousers and top hat carrying a bottle marked "sanctions", from which emerged a genie in the guise of a Shi'ite militia fighter, his turban marked "Iran". When Salman visited Washington in September, the main focus of talks was the push by his powerful son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to win investment from American firms, an apparent riposte to Iran's overtures to Western companies. Sunday's news that sanctions would indeed be lifted raised fears of a slide in oil prices below their existing low level of under $30 a barrel as Iran immediately ordered an increase in output, while Saudi stocks fell by 5 percent. There could be no more pronounced contrast with the mood in Iran, freed from years of increasingly tough sanctions which have eroded its currency and allowed Saudi Arabia to eclipse its economy. In 2000, Iran's gross domestic product was larger than Saudi Arabia's, according to International Monetary Fund data; now, the $650 billion Saudi economy is much bigger than Iran at $400 billion. That trend may now start reversing, altering how far each country can afford to mount political and military adventures overseas, and the extent to which they can use trade relations to build alliances with foreign powers. Saudi Arabia's economy is slowing sharply because of low oil prices, which the entry of new Iranian crude into the market will intensify. Iran is looking forward to a trade and investment boom as sanctions are lifted; it has big non-oil sectors such as agriculture and car manufacturing that the Saudis lack. WIDER ALARM The volatile nature of Saudi-Iranian relations, aggravated already this month by a diplomatic row following Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite cleric, is causing alarm among world powers who fear things will get worse. This week a procession of top officials from around the world will visit Riyadh, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. While they all have other business to discuss, the question of Saudi Arabia's handling of its rivalry with Iran, and the wider risks it entails, are likely to be addressed, with both Xi and Sharif planning also to visit Tehran. What they all fear is that if competition between the Middle East's foremost powers cannot be contained, it will complicate efforts to end wars and political struggles across the region or even break out into new fighting elsewhere. Such concerns are only compounded by the sectarian lines along which the rivalry has become drawn, and the likelihood that hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran will translate into religious competition that fuels militancy across the world. A letter signed by 140 Saudi clerics, including prominent names, calling on the government to beware what they termed Iran's "record of criminality and treachery" and to support regional Sunnis cannot have assuaged international alarm. Neither can the Tweet by Sheikh Saud al-Shuraim, imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, using a derogatory term often employed by Arab Sunnis to describe Iranians and Shi'ites, after the sanctions were lifted. "There is no surprise in the alliance of the Safavids with the Jews and Christians against the Muslims, history witnessed this. But there is surprise at minds delaying their understanding of this truth until this moment," he wrote. Lebanon's Geagea to back rival Aoun for presidency-reports BEIRUT, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea will back his arch rival Michel Aoun for the presidency on Monday, local media reported, an apparent break with his Saudi-backed allies that aligns him with a civil war era enemy supported by Hezbollah. Media cited Melhem Riachy, a media official in Geagea's Lebanese Forces Party, as saying Geagea would state his support for Aoun's candidacy during a news conference expected later on Monday. The move boosts Aoun's chances of filling the presidency that has been vacant for 20 months, but does not guarantee him the post. Beyond his existing allies, among them the Iran-backed Hezbollah, Aoun still needs the backing of other groups to secure the necessary parliamentary backing. Poland wants NATO summit to okay more troops for eastern Europe By Gabriela Baczynska and Wiktor Szary BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Poland wants NATO to agree to deploy 'substantial' numbers of forces and equipment in central and eastern Europe to ensure the region's security in the face of a more aggressive Russia, President Andrzej Duda said on Monday. A former Moscow satellite, Warsaw will host a NATO summit in July when it is expected to press for an increased presence of NATO forces on its soil and in former communist-ruled Europe. Russia has threatened to retaliate against any such moves and some NATO members, including Germany, are sceptical of the idea for fear of antagonising Moscow. But Russia's annexation of Crimea in March, 2014, support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine and a Russian military build-up have provided Poland and other eastern NATO members with new arguments with which to press their case. Duda, speaking at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, said he wanted the July summit to take practical decisions to boost security in the region. "Today, everything points to the need to have substantial presence of both infrastructure and military units on the ground in central European countries, as well as a well worked-out system for these units and defence should there be any act of aggression," Duda said. "That means increasing presence in central-eastern Europe, both in terms of infrastructure and in terms of troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This is to be agreed ... what shape this presence would take," Duda said. "I would want it to be permanent to the greatest extent possible," he said, adding that would require drafting precise contingency plans in the event of attack and more joint military drills. Some governments have asked NATO to establish a permanent troop presence in former Warsaw Pact countries, but the alliance has instead offered to beef up exercises and rotate forces in and out of the region. NATO chief Stoltenberg appeared to express sympathy for Poland's view. "NATO now has a persistent military presence in the region, of which Poland is part. And I trust that after the Warsaw summit we would see more NATO in Poland than ever before," he said. Al Qaeda names fighters behind attack on Burkina capital OUAGADOUGOU, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on Monday identified three fighters it says were responsible for attacks in Burkina Faso's capital Ouagadougou over the weekend that killed 29 people. Gunmen from the Islamist militant group stormed the Splendid Hotel and a neighbouring cafe on Friday night, singling out white people for slaughter. Eight Burkinabes, six Canadians, three Ukrainians and two French were killed, among others. In a statement, AQIM named the three attackers as al-Battar al-Ansari, Abu Muhammad al-Buqali al-Ansari and Ahmed al-Fulani al-Ansari, according to SITE Intelligence group. Al-Ansari is a nom de guerre that usually designates somebody from northern Mali, although it might just indicate where the brigade is based or originates from. The statement included a picture of the three apparently adolescent "heroes" in beige fatigues carrying Kalashnikovs. Two were black and another, smiling faintly, was light-skinned, suggesting he might be from an Arab or Tuareg group. The streets of Ouagadougou were unusually quiet on Monday in a country unaccustomed to the frequent jihadist attacks that have plagued its Western neighbour Mali. AQIM also claimed a similar attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako in November that killed 20 people. Burkina Faso's new government, named just days ago following a year-long transition period punctuated by unrest, has declared three days of national mourning. In another sign that a regional Islamist insurgency is intensifying, an elderly Australian doctor and his wife were abducted at the weekend by unknown assailants in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border. Thousands of people on Facebook have joined a campaign for their release. It is not clear if the abduction is linked to the Ouagadougou attacks. Leaders from Burkina and Mali have agreed to work more closely to fight jihadists by sharing intelligence and conducting joint security patrols. Spain police raid offices of public water company, arrest 13 MADRID, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Spanish police said they had raided the offices of state-run water contract company Acuamed in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Murcia and arrested 13 people on Monday as part of an investigation into irregular concessions. The arrests are the latest in a string of corruption scandals over the way public and private contracts were awarded during Spain's boom years before the country entered a deep recession triggered by its 2008 property crash. The public backlash against such irregularities has taken its toll on Spanish politicians, with the traditional parties on the right and left in Spain ceding votes in an inconclusive Dec. 20 general election to newer forces campaigning hard against corruption. Acuamed, which comes under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, had fraudulently allocated building projects and falsified certifications in order to fatten payments to contractors, police said in a statement. The director and head of engineering of Acuamed, which is tasked with contracting, constructing, purchasing and operating public water works for Mediterranean river basins, were among those taken into custody, a police spokesman said earlier. The police statement added that 35 people would be placed under investigation over the next few days. Acuamed said in a statement it would hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday morning with the "only objective" of agreeing to fire director Arcadio Mateo. Geagea reshapes Lebanese politics, backs rival Aoun By Tom Perry BEIRUT, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Lebanese Christian politician Samir Geagea backed his rival Michel Aoun for the presidency on Monday, reshaping Lebanese politics in an apparent break with his Saudi-backed allies that aligns him with a civil war era enemy supported by Hezbollah. The surprise announcement edges 80-year-old Aoun closer to the presidency, vacant for 20 months, and marks a rare show of unity in a Christian community riven by divisions for decades. But he must still secure wider backing to secure the position reserved for a Maronite Christian in Lebanon's sectarian political system. Geagea and Aoun, who fought each other in the 1975-90 civil war, have been on opposite sides of Lebanon's political divide since Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2005. Aoun is part of the March 8 alliance dominated by the Iranian-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah. Geagea is part of the March 14 alliance led by Sunni politician Saad al-Hariri, who is in turn backed by Saudi Arabia. Sitting with Aoun at a news conference, Geagea said the move was intended to rescue Lebanon from political crisis. The government barely functions, paralysed by rivalries exacerbated by regional conflict. Geagea said the step "carried hope of getting out of the situation we are in, to a situation that is more secure, more stable - a normal life". Lebanon was on the verge of the abyss, requiring "an unusual rescue operation, regardless of the price", said Geagea, who himself covets the presidency. The rapprochement may kill off a proposal by Hariri that nominated another Maronite, Suleiman Franjieh, for the presidency in a power-sharing proposal that would have made him prime minister. Both Geagea and Aoun opposed that initiative which was backed by both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Geagea had been the official presidential candidate of the March 14 alliance until Hariri tabled Franjieh - part of March 8 - as an alternative. Though Franjieh has close ties to Hezbollah, the group has stuck by Aoun. Geagea called on his March 14 allies to back Aoun after reading a joint declaration that called for a new parliamentary election law and an "independent foreign policy" while declaring Israel an enemy - an important consideration for Hezbollah. Aoun said the "black page" of the past was over and "must be burnt". "We must leave the past in order to build a future," he said in the conference at Geagea's home in Maarab in mountains overlooking the Christian town of Jounieh. "MARCH 14" TO BREAK UP ? The Lebanese parliament elects the president, and a two-thirds quorum is required for the vote to go ahead. Even with Geagea's backing, Aoun and his existing allies do not have enough sway to secure his election. More importantly, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a powerful Shi'ite politician who heads the Amal Movement and is also part of March 8, has said he will not call parliament to elect a president unless all the main sectarian parties attend. That means Aoun must win Sunni backing in addition to the strong Shi'ite support he enjoys from Hezbollah. An MP in Hariri's Future Movement, Mohamed Kabara, signalled discord over the declaration, saying "partnership is not about arm twisting, or imposition". Nabil Boumonsef, a commentator in the an-Nahar newspaper said it marked a big change in the Christian and Lebanese political landscapes. "The biggest result will be the break up of March 14 as a result of this landscape," he said. The March 14 alliance was forged in 2005 from groups opposed to Syrian influence over Lebanon, and enjoyed great support from the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush, in addition to Hariri's backers in Saudi Arabia. Tensions between March 8 and March 14, particularly over the question of Hezbollah's arsenal, spilled into a brief civil war in 2008. Hezbollah has since deployed fighters to Syria where it is battling alongside President Bashar al-Assad's government. The Aoun-Geagea struggle in the civil war was known as "the war of elimination". Aoun's Lebanese army loyalists and Geagea's militiamen fought fierce battles in the Christian enclave in early 1990, months before Syrian-led forces drove Aoun into exile, ending the country's civil war. Both were forced out of public life in the period of Syrian dominance that followed the civil war. Aoun lived in exile in France, and Geagea was imprisoned, the only Lebanese civil war leader to pay a judicial price for his actions in the conflict. Macedonian PM backs April election, opposition says to boycott By Kole Casule SKOPJE, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski moved ahead on Monday with plans to hold an early parliamentary election on April 24 under a European Union-brokered deal to end a year of political crisis, but the opposition said it would boycott the vote. Last year the EU mediated an agreement to hold an election in late April, two years ahead of schedule, to help end a bitter political standoff over allegations against Gruevski's conservative government of illegal phone-tapping and widespread abuse of office. Gruevski last week tendered his resignation and parliament was expected to convene on Monday to ratify it, clearing the way for an April 24 election. However, the main opposition party, the Social Democrats, says not all conditions have been met for a free and fair election in the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic and has called for the vote to be postponed or it will boycott. "Our state is moving forward decisively to end this political crisis and move bravely towards the future," Gruevski told reporters after meeting his coalition partners. "This begins with the April 24 election." Almost a decade in power, Gruevski's government was rocked last year by allegations of illegal surveillance, meddling in the media and judiciary, rigging elections and appointing party faithful to public sector jobs. The accusations stemmed from a slew of phone-taps released by Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev, who said the government had conducted the surveillance. Gruevski denied this and dismissed the accusations as a plot to bring him down. The Social Democrats said Gruevski had not kept his side of the bargain in the EU-brokered deal, citing his failure to enact media reforms to reduce government influence or conduct a thorough review of the electoral roll. "(We) cannot accept elections without free media and a cleared voter list and will not take part in such elections," the Social Democrats said in a statement. Israel says Islamic State could attack it and Jordan after Syria setbacks By Dan Williams TEL AVIV, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Islamic State's battleground setbacks in Syria have increased the chance of an attack by the insurgents or their allies on Israel and Jordan, Israel's military chief said on Monday. While focused on shoring up its Syrian and Iraqi fiefdoms, Islamic State has in recent months stepped up attacks abroad and issued public threats to include Israel among its targets. Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, chief of Israel's armed forces, said that with Russia intervening last year to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the insurgents' advance had been largely arrested. An exception to this, Eizenkot said, was in the southern Syrian border nexus with Israel and Jordan. "The successes against ISIS raise the probability, in my eyes, that we will see them turning their guns both against us and against the Jordanians," he told a conference hosted by Tel Aviv University's Institute for International Security Studies. Islamic State itself does not have a strong presence on Syria's south-west border region, but one of several Islamist forces in the area, the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade, is believed by its opponents to be linked to the ultra-hardline militant group. It has fought rival insurgent forces from Syria's al Qaeda offshoot, the Nusra Front, and Ahrar al-Sham for control of territory next to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and close to northern Jordan. "In their strategic logic, there is a certain logic in connecting Israel with Jordan," Eizenkot said, and in the border area "they are not experiencing what the organisation and other global jihadi groups are experiencing inside Syria". A voice recording release on social media three weeks ago and attributed to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi warned that Israel was a target. Jordan, one of two Arab countries to have signed peace treaties with Israel, has largely weathered the upheaval in much of the Middle East over the past five years, though it has absorbed major refugee influxes from Syria and Iraq, another neighbour wracked by Islamic State insurgents. Jordan has low-key military backing from the United States and Israel, cooperation that the parties rarely discuss publicly. Israel has formally kept out of the almost five-year-old Syrian civil war, though it has launched occasional bombing raids to thwart suspected transfers of advanced arms by Assad's government to allied Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. Hezbollah, which fought Israel's technologically superior military to standstill in the 2006 Lebanon war, remained a major threat and stood to receive boosted support from its Iranian patron thanks to the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran, Eizenkot said. But he also described Hezbollah as cautious to open a new front with Israel, noting that while the Shi'ite militia had gained combat experience reinforcing Syrian government forces against Sunni Islamist-led rebels, it had also suffered losses. Some 1,300 Hezbollah guerrillas had been killed and almost another 5,000 wounded in Syria, out of a regular fighting force of 20,000 and a reservist force of 20,000-25,000, Eizenkot said. Germany seeks to limit migration from North Africa By Caroline Copley and Michael Nienaber BERLIN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Germany wants to limit migration from North Africa by declaring Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia 'safe countries', officials from the ruling coalition said on Monday, cutting their citizens' chance of being granted asylum to virtually zero. The initiative follows outrage over sexual attacks on women in Cologne on New Year's Eve blamed predominantly on North African migrants that sharpened a national debate about the open-door refugee policy adopted by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Europe's most populous country and largest economy has borne the brunt of the continent's biggest refugee influx since World War Two. Some 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in the country in 2015, most fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Merkel's conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), agreed on Monday that Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia - troubled by unrest rather than full-blown conflict - should be designated safe countries. The step is intended to reduce the number of arrivals from these countries and make deportations easier, CDU general Peter Tauber said after a meeting of senior party members. Earlier on Monday, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Berlin wanted to discuss with other European Union states designating Morocco and Algeria as safe countries. On Sunday, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Berlin could cut development aid to countries that are not willing to take back citizens whose asylum applications were rejected. Asked about Germany's policy towards Algeria and Morocco, Gabriel told ARD television: "There cannot be a situation where you take the development aid but do not accept your own citizens when they can't get asylum here because they have no reason to flee their country." INTEGRATION To help integrate refugees and defuse social tensions that have escalated since the Cologne attacks, Gabriel called on Monday for an extra 5 billion euros ($5.45 billion) a year in public spending on police, education and daycare. "We can only manage the double task of integration, namely accommodating the new arrivals and also preserving the cohesion of our society, if we have a strong state capable of acting," he said after a meeting of his senior Social Democrats (SPD), the coalition partner in Merkel's government. He said Germany needed 9,000 more police, 25,000 new teachers and 15,000 daycare workers, while funds for public housing should be doubled. His proposal is expected to be approved at federal and state level in coming months. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble wants to avoid the government taking on new debt in 2016, but he has admitted this may be difficult due to the ballooning refugee costs. Part of those costs will be covered with the surplus from last year's budget, which was a bigger-than-expected 12.1 billion euros. Mexico calls actress at center of 'El Chapo' interview to testify MEXICO CITY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who helped Hollywood star Sean Penn conduct an interview with drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been called to give testimony about the kingpin, an official said on Monday. Del Castillo will be questioned by authorities next week, according to the official at the attorney general's office. The longtime head of the Sinaloa cartel, Guzman was caught on Jan. 8 in the northwestern city of Los Mochis, Sinaloa, six months after his brazen escape from prison through a mile-long tunnel. Rolling Stone magazine published an article the following day by Penn, based on a secret meeting with Guzman while the Mexican was on the run. Last week, a government spokesman said Mexico is not directly investigating del Castillo or fellow actor Penn for meeting with Guzman, but it would look into the circumstances of their meeting. Del Castillo's publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Details of flirtatious phone messaging chats between Guzman and del Castillo have gripped Mexico, and an official said last week the druglord's "obsession" with her led him to lower his guard and be caught. Last week, del Castillo took to Twitter to thank her supporters and wrote: "Not surprisingly many have chosen to make up items they think will make good stories and that aren't truthful." She pledged to give her story in due course. Attorney General Arely Gomez has said that the meeting between Penn and Guzman, which del Castillo also attended, was "essential" to finding Guzman. Maldives minister rejects Amal Clooney's criticism as "stories" By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon on Monday rejected international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney's criticism that democracy was "dead" in the Indian Ocean island. Clooney, the international lawyer acting for jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed, last week used a high-profile interview with U.S. news channel NBC News to condemn President Abdulla Yameen's administration in the Maldives. Nasheed, who was the Maldives' first democratically elected president, is serving a 13-year sentence on terrorism charges for the alleged abduction of a judge after a rapid trial last March in a case which drew international criticism. Clooney, in an interview with NBC, had said her client's case showed that democracy is "dead in the Maldives". Defending the Maldives, popular for its pristine beaches, scuba diving and high-end tourism, Foreign Minister Maumoon told Reuters that Clooney had "spun a compelling tale" but it was not true. "My appeal to the rest of the world is to have a good understanding and not be persuaded purely by charm-filled Amal Clooney when she goes and gives some of these stories," she said. Maumoon's comments came as Nasheed was permitted by the Maldives government to leave Male and fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he is likely to stay for some time before leaving for surgery in Britain, party sources told Reuters. There had been some confusion over whether the government would grant him permission to travel or not, as Nasheed refused to nominate a guarantor, someone who could face criminal prosecution if Nasheed does not return to Maldives. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. His conviction was condemned by United Nations, the United States and human rights groups as being politically motivated. Albanian court jails 10 big cannabis growers in crackdown on lawlessness TIRANA, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Tirana court jailed 10 cannabis growers on Monday for shooting at police to try to stop a 2014 raid that ultimately quelled an outlaw region of Albania and helped the Balkan state clinch the status of candidate for European Union membership. Built on a high mountain slope near the border with Greece, the village of Lazarat had been beyond state control since repelling a police assault in the late 1990s, evolving into a centre of almost industrial-scale cannabis cultivation. Gate Mahmutaj, a ringleader of the Lazarat growers whose 102 metre (111.5 yards) cannabis storehouse turned into a barricade against police assaults, was given 18 years in jail. The other gang members received prison terms of between two and 17 years. The sentences are expected, however, to be reduced by one third because all defendants pleaded no contest to the evidence against them. Mahmutaj was convicted of creating a criminal group, resisting police, cultivating cannabis and possessing weapons, but acquitted of shooting with intent to kill. There were no casualties in the four-day standoff with police in June 2014. Police told Reuters at the time they were targeted with an anti-tank shell although it did not explode. They destroyed 71 tonnes of cannabis, 133,567 cannabis plants, five kg (11 pounds) of heroin, four tonnes of cannabis seed and 17 liters of cannabis oil after the raid last June. About 500 weapons, some heavy, and a quarter of a million bullets were also seized. Albania earned EU praise and candidate status last year after cracking down on widespread cannabis cultivation, but organised crime and corruption remain serious problems. EU loses WTO case, China could seek trade sanctions By Tom Miles GENEVA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - China could demand trade sanctions against the European Union after winning an appeal on Monday in a dispute at the World Trade Organization over EU tariffs imposed on Chinese imports of screws, nuts and bolts made of iron or steel. China has never before asked the WTO to impose trade sanctions since it joined the organisation in 2001, but the end of the seven-year battle leaves the way open to a claim for compensation. "The measures have negative effect on exports from China around $1 billion and more than 100,000 jobs from thousands of fastener producers in China," China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. "It has resulted in huge economic losses to the Chinese industry, which has expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to the measures." The EU must now comply with the ruling and remove its illegal tariffs or China would take "further steps", the statement said. The value of China's exports of the products to the EU peaked at over $1 billion in 2008, but averaged about $200 million after the EU imposed punitive tariffs on the Chinese exports in 2009, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the International Trade Centre, a UN-WTO joint venture. Under WTO rules, countries are allowed to punish "dumping" - or exports priced at an unfairly cheap level - to stop one country deliberately undermining its foreign rivals by artificially undercutting their prices. But the use of anti-dumping tariffs is subject to strict rules and, in this case, China complained that the EU had not applied the rules correctly. WTO arbitrators agreed. The EU appealed and lost, and said it had reduced the tariffs. But China complained that the EU had not done enough to comply with the ruling, and again it won. The EU's final appeal appears to have backfired, with the WTO judges reversing points that previously went in the EU's favour and toughening the ruling against it. An EU trade official declined to comment. A key part of the EU argument was the use of an Indian proxy for Chinese prices, since China is not considered to be a "market economy" under WTO rules and therefore its prices do not need to be taken at face value. But China says that it will have the right to "market economy status" from December 2016, 15 years after it joined the WTO, which will force the EU to take Chinese export prices at face value, or risk more WTO disputes from China. Though Beijing says the designation should be automatic, a debate is brewing in the EU over whether to grant it. Fu Donghui, managing partner at Allbright Law Offices, told reporters at a briefing by Chinese business chambers in Beijing that the ruling announced Monday would be a boon for China's position. "Actually, this is a decision that overturns the EU's substitute country system. I think it will be a major boost for Chinese market economy status at the end of the year," Fu said. Interests trump values as Europe wrestles with crises By Paul Taylor BRUSSELS, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Europe is torn between upholding its values and pursuing its interests in the multiple crises over refugees, challenges to the rule of law, relations with Russia and Turkey, and Britain's membership that are shaking the European Union. Political and economic interests are mostly prevailing over the EU's declared values and governance standards, but it is not clear that the outcomes are any more effective. To critics including human rights campaigners, Europe is too willing to betray its principles. To supporters, it is "growing up" and acting less naively. "Politics is the art of the possible, but this is very different from the conception of Europe promoted for the last half century," said Michael Leigh, senior adviser at the German Marshall Fund think-tank on transatlantic relations and a former senior European Commission official. After more than a million migrants flooded into Europe last year, EU governments are divided on whether the bloc should give priority to its commitment to give asylum to refugees, or whether the main aim should be to toughen border controls and pay other countries to keep potential asylum-seekers at bay. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under fire at home and in Europe for having taken the moral high ground by welcoming hundreds of thousands of refugees. The sullen reluctance of most of the EU - not just central European states but core partners like France - to take in quotas of refugees to which they agreed months ago is driven by fear of a domestic political backlash. Brussels faced another of those values-versus-interests dilemmas last week when the executive European Commission had to decide whether to launch disciplinary action over Polish laws shackling the constitutional court and the state media. The EU was widely criticised for failing to act to uphold its values of democracy and the rule of law when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban launched a similar crackdown in 2010 on the judiciary, the media and civil society organisations. The Commission did take a first step on Poland but stressed it wanted to resolve the issue in dialogue with Warsaw and there was no likelihood of moving to sanctions such as suspending the country's EU voting rights or access to funds. Within the EU executive, officials are reluctant to appear to be lecturing a democratically elected Polish government as it goes about implementing campaign promises. After big demonstrations in Warsaw in defence of liberal values, many in Brussels are pinning their hopes on the self-correcting strength of Polish democracy. Others are looking for someone else to take the lead such as the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, a pan-European constitutional watchdog. REASONS FOR EXPEDIENCY Major EU members Germany and Britain have mostly kept quiet about Poland on pragmatic grounds. Berlin wants to preserve as cooperative a relationship as possible with the more nationalist government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party. London needs Polish goodwill as it renegotiates sensitive aspects of its own EU membership. Eager to curb the access of EU migrants - mostly Poles - to in-work welfare benefits to deter further mass immigration to Britain, it is the last country likely to criticise Warsaw over civil rights. Indeed, Europe's willingness to seek a formula to permit Britain to deny fellow EU citizens who enter its labour market the same benefits as its own nationals highlights a willingness to compromise on core values for the sake of expediency - in this case to try to ensure Britons vote to remain in the EU in a forthcoming referendum. While the European Parliament, which sees itself as Europe's conscience on human rights, is likely to criticise Poland in a special debate this week which itself is a form of political punishment, other EU bodies are cautious. "With the migration crisis and ... with Europe's current fragility, it would be a big mistake to lose Poland," a senior European Commission official said. Similar mixed feelings guided the EU's schizophrenic response to Russia's 2014 seizure and annexation of Crimea and moves to destabilise eastern Ukraine. While the bloc did agree under German leadership to impose sectoral sanctions that have pushed the Russian economy into recession and restricted its access to capital, there are charges of double standards when it comes to energy. EU regulatory pressure forced Russia to cancel a South Stream gas pipeline it had planned to build to supply southern European countries bypassing Ukraine. But Germany is resisting pressure to desist from building a second sub-Baltic Nord Stream pipeline directly from Russia, also bypassing Kiev. Italy, Bulgaria and others that lost out on South Stream accuse Berlin of hypocrisy, while Poland and Baltic states say doubling Nord Stream would negate EU support for Ukraine. Germany is trying to sidestep the arguments about values and pointing to Moscow's historic role as a reliable supplier. With Turkey, the EU is drawing a veil over its criticism of deteriorating civil liberties, media freedom and judicial independence in a candidate country for the sake of its vital interest in stemming the refugee flow to Europe. The European Commission delayed a critical report on Turkish compliance with EU standards until after parliamentary elections in November to avoid upsetting President Tayyip Erdogan. EU officials acknowledge they have muted criticism of Ankara because they are desperate for Turkish help on the refugees. Across north Africa, the EU is downplaying the human rights and good governance elements of its policy towards neighbours such as Egypt, Morocco and Algeria - a stumbling block to dealing with authoritarian rulers - due to Europe's need for security cooperation against Islamist militants. Macedonia moves for April election that opposition says will boycott By Kole Casule SKOPJE, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Macedonia's parliament voted on Monday to dissolve itself as of Feb. 24, clearing the way to an early parliamentary election two months later that the opposition says it will boycott. The ruling VMRO-DPMNE moved ahead with plans to hold the poll on April 24, in line with a deal brokered by the European Union mid-last year to end a bitter standoff over allegations against the conservative government of illegal phone-tapping and widespread abuse of office. But the Social Democrats, the biggest opposition party, said they would not take part, effectively prolonging a political crisis that erupted in January 2015 when party leader Zoran Zaev began releasing a slew of damaging wire-taps. Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski last week tendered his resignation and lawmakers on Monday verified it and voted to dissolve parliament effective Feb. 24. Gruevski said his party would move ahead with an election on April 24, confident of victory despite the wire-tap scandal. VMRO-DPMNE secretary general Emil Dimitriev, an ally of Gruevski, was voted in as caretaker prime minister until the election. "Our state is moving forward decisively to end this political crisis and move bravely towards the future," Gruevski told reporters after meeting his coalition partners. "This begins with the April 24 election." After almost a decade in power, Gruevski's government was rocked last year by allegations of illegal surveillance, meddling in the media and judiciary, rigging elections and appointing party faithful to public sector jobs. Social Democrat leader Zaev said the government had conducted the surveillance. Gruevski denied this and dismissed the accusations as a plot to bring him down. NATIONALISM Analysts say Gruevski's determination for the election to go ahead as planned indicates he is confident his VMRO-DPMNE party will win again. His critics accuse Gruevski of presiding over an increasingly authoritarian government that has stoked nationalism among Macedonians in the absence of any progress towards membership of the EU or NATO, a process held hostage to a long-running dispute with neighbouring Greece over Macedonia's name. The government has dismissed the criticism. The Social Democrats said the EU-brokered deal was incomplete, citing the government's failure to enact media reforms to reduce its influence over news coverage and order a thorough review of the electoral roll. "(We) cannot accept elections without free media and a cleared voter list and will not take part in such elections," the party said in a statement. EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn, who brokered the original deal, said in a statement that he "would have preferred a consensual solution by all parties." He urged all sides to make sure the election is fair. Jail to jihad: Indonesian prisons a breeding ground for militancy By Randy Fabi and Kanupriya Kapoor JAKARTA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Afif was an inmate in a high-security Indonesian jail when he transformed from aspiring radical Islamist to soldier for Islamic State, ready to sacrifice his life for a group based thousands of miles away in the Middle East. His journey ended with his death last week on a busy intersection in central Jakarta, after the gun and suicide bomb attack he launched with three other militants that brought Islamic State's brand of violence to Southeast Asia for the first time. Afif's graduation from jailbird to jihadi shines a light on a prison system where staff shortages, overcrowding and corruption have allowed extremists to mingle and emerge as determined killers in the name of Islam. Security officials say Afif, also known as Sunakim, was sentenced to seven years in prison for taking part in a militant training camp in the province of Aceh, where Islam is generally practised in a stricter form than other parts of Indonesia. Once behind bars, he refused to follow deradicalisation programmes, the officials added. Akbar Hadi, spokesman for the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, declined to comment on whether Afif's activities were monitored after he was released last August. Police said he planned the Jakarta siege with the three other attackers, one of whom was also a former convict. Four civilians died in the attack along with the militants. A report by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) last year said that 26 prisons across Indonesia housed about 270 "convicted terrorists", but Islamic State supporters accounted for only a small minority of them. National Police Chief Badrodin Haiti told Reuters that at least five jailed militants were believed to have been in communication with the plotters in the lead-up to the attack. COURIERS, CELL PHONES While inside Jakarta's Cipinang prison, Afif was one of some 20 convicts heavily influenced by fellow convict and firebrand Islamist cleric Aman Abdurrahman, experts said. From behind bars, Abdurrahman heads an umbrella organisation formed last year through an alliance of splinter groups that support Islamic State. "They shared the same cells, they prayed together, they cooked together," said Taufik Andrie, Jakarta-based executive director of the Institute for International Peacebuilding. Abdurrahman regularly spread "takfiri" doctrine, a belief among Sunni militants who justify their violence by branding others as infidels, through his sermons and lectures. Abdurrahman was moved to a maximum security prison in Nusakambangan in Central Java in 2013, but continued to communicate with Afif and a growing group of around 200 followers using couriers and cell phones. A lawyer for Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, another high-profile radical inmate at Nusakambangan, told Reuters it is easy to convey messages to the outside world from inside prison. "Any kind of visitor is allowed and even if they don't exchange any cell phones, there is still an exchange of information and the visitor can interpret that," said Achmad Michdan. SOCIAL MEDIA A KEY TOOL Experts say radical inmates like Abdurrahman still get away with disseminating sermons by email, Facebook, and hard copies. Despite being behind bars, Abdurrahman was able to make an online pledge of allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. "Those with more radical thinking can also hold religious sermons on a regular basis and it is very easy to convey radical ideas to others," said Farihin, a former militant who participated in a government deradicalisation programme during his time in a prison in Palu on the island of Sulawesi. Indonesia's counter-terrorism chief, Saud Usman Nasution, told Reuters in November that prison officials were unable to halt this type of communication because of overcrowding. "We are aware that there is a problem with convicts being allowed to communicate using the Internet and cell phones. There is definitely room for improvement," said Ministry of Law and Human Rights spokesman Hadi, adding that inmates cannot be forced to join deradicalisation programmes. Experts say access to social media and messaging apps like Telegram is a large part of the problem. Police believe the alleged mastermind of the Jakarta attack, an Indonesian fighting with Islamic State in Syria called Bahrun Naim, used social media to communicate his radical ideas to followers in Indonesia. He may also have transferred thousands of dollars to accounts here, police said. North Korea nuclear test paves way for rare party congress By James Pearson and Ju-min Park SEOUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's recent nuclear weapon test was designed to boost his domestic legitimacy ahead of a rare ruling party conference in May that could formalise market-based economic experiments in the isolated country, analysts say. The Workers' Party Congress, once a regular event, was last held in 1980. Although violent, the years since Kim took power following his father's death in late 2011 have moved the country towards increased stability and a return to a more "formal" way of running the country, said Michael Madden, an expert on the North Korean leadership. "What some observers and analysts identify as instability is really more a matter of Kim Jong Un trying to reset a very entrenched system". "And that can take a few years, as we've seen," Madden said. While analysts have for years been wrong in predicting major reforms - or collapse - in North Korea, the fact that the event is taking place for just the seventh time after a decades-long hiatus is a further indication that Kim is transforming the North Korea his father Kim Jong Il ruled through back-channel dealings into a more "normal" state where formal process is ingrained. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, provoking condemnation from its neighbours and the United States, although experts doubt Pyongyang's claim that it exploded a hydrogen bomb. At the congress, Pyongyang is likely to announce policies on matters ranging from economics and politics to defence and relations with rival South Korea. It may even announce measures lifting restrictions on the thriving informal economy, said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute. "It's possible Kim Jong Un may free up the market economy at some point during the congress," said Cheong. Under Kim Jong Un, the unofficial economy has grown against a tumultuous political backdrop of high-level purges, including that of Jang Song Thaek, the young leader's uncle by marriage who was accused of factionalism and executed in December 2013. When the last party congress took place over four days in 1980 at Pyongyang's February 8th House of Culture, a monolithic concrete pillar-fronted building since renamed the April 25th House of Culture, it was open to foreign delegations from countries friendly to North Korea. It was then that Kim Jong Il was controversially anointed successor to his father, Kim Il Sung, creating the communist world's first hereditary dynasty when its founder died in 1994. In signs the younger Kim is moving towards a more traditionally bureaucratic state, he has moved several high-profile officials between the ruling party and military, creating more inter-dependence between two bodies which used to face off against each other, according to analysts. DISMANTLING 'SOPRANO STATE'? A more formal North Korean state might also eventually be more transparent. "Under Kim Jong Il, these guys would get their fiefdom then the leader gets to regulate it when he needs to," said Madden. "It's not unlike the mafia, or the Sopranos, where Tony has to make a ruling", he said referring to a long-running television programme about a New Jersey mafia chief. Kim Jong Il was heavily reliant on North Korea's military to ensure regime survival and pushed a "military-first" policy which prioritised spending on North Korea's bloated and poorly-equipped army and nuclear programme. But Kim Jong Un, believed to be 33, has been normalising the role of the Workers' Party and is "restoring a party-centred system," said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. Kim Jong Un's regime has pushed a new policy, "byungjin", which stresses the simultaneous development of nuclear weapons and improving the economy. Kim can now use the nuclear test to boost his legitimacy ahead of the congress, and declare a new political era under his rule, analysts said. "North Korea needed a good result to celebrate at the congress and that was the hydrogen bomb test," said Lee Cheol-woo, a member of South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee, citing a briefing by the South's intelligence agency. Denmark tells UN it has trained radar on Syria COPENHAGEN, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Denmark told the United Nations it was "taking necessary and proportionate measures" against Islamic State in Syria, which the foreign ministry later said involved training radar located in Iraq on the neighbouring country. Denmark had previously contributed seven F-16 fighter jets which carried out bombing missions in Iraq against Islamist militants. It pulled those jets out in September for rest and maintenance and expects them to return in the spring of 2016. "Denmark had a radar contribution - this can look, of course, into Syria. This was the contribution while we wait for the planes," a foreign ministry spokesman said. The letter to the UN was dated Jan. 11 but made public on Monday. "The Kingdom of Denmark ... is taking necessary and proportionate measures against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da'esh) in Syria," it said. Following attacks in Paris that killed 130 people and were claimed by Islamic State, with some perpetrators having fought in Syria during its 5-year civil war, Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen said: "We must get the Danish F-16 fighter planes back as fast as possible. The government wishes that they return with a broader mandate, to make it possible to fight ISIL, wherever they may be whether on one or the other side of the border to Syria." In the background of the controversy over premature termination of my visiting faculty contract in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), the vice-chancellor of BHU, Prof GC Tripathi, has asked me through the director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-BHU, Prof Rajeev Sangal, why I'm raising the issue at the level of the university when the matter pertains to only the IIT. He has asked me why I am making personal allegations against him and why a judicial enquiry should not be set up in this matter. I wish to state that even though Prof Tripathi, who was made the chairman of the board of governors (BoG) at the IIT-BHU by the human resources development ministry, bypassing the panel of five members recommended by the BoG, brought up my issue under "any other matter" on the agenda, not as vice-chancellor of the BHU but as chairman of the BoG. The irregularities going on in the BHU in terms of regular appointments of unqualified people associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) as facutly members and admission of undeserving students associated with the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are so serious (my termination is only one outrageous decision in the series), that I am afraid, by the time Prof Tripathi leaves the BHU or the NDA government departs from Delhi, irreparable damage would have been caused to BHU. The academic quality of the BHU and other academic institutions - the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) being just one other example - is being seriously compromised under the NDA regime. By acting against me based on a single complaint by Avinash Pandey, a second year MA student of the Department of Political Science, who is associated with RSS as well, and not that of any IIT student(s) who attended one of my classes, the vice-chancellor has made it a university-level issue. Avinash Pandey has alleged that "There is no requirement of taking attendance, classes and examination in the Development Studies course run by Dr Sandeep Pandey and students get A grade without any examination." In response, I have to say that I have conducted all my classes, which may be verified. I had taken permission from the director, IIT-BHU for getting the requirement of attendance and examination waived. I have used one-to-one interactive non-competitive method of evaluation not for the first time at the IIT-BHU but earlier at IIT-Gandhinagar and IIT-Kanpur as well. I was invited to the Salizburg Global Seminar, "Untapped Talent: Can better testing and data accelerate creativity in learning and societies?" Salzburg, Austria from December 12 to 17, 2015, which was sponsored by the Educational Testing Service, Princeton, the Inter-American Development Bank, Washington DC, National Science Foundation of the US, and Royal Society of Arts, London, to make a presentation on my evaluation method, only days before the decision was taken in the BHU to terminate my contract. The students who complete all their assigned work only get A grades in my class, the rest get lower grades, which may also be verified from my grading three times when I have taught the Development Studies course. Since it was the vice-chancellor who had brought up my issue in the BoG, he is guilty of tarnishing my image by claiming that I am a Naxalite and involved in anti-national activities, now making it difficult for me to teach anywhere else in the country. Oblivious of my academic performance, he has decided to proceed against me completely on non-academic considerations. It is interesting that he is troubled by the allegations that he has not conducted a class at the Allahabad University for many years, nor has any publication to his name, making his appointment to the prestigious position of vice-chancellor questionable. The only difference is that he is accusing me of false non-academic things and I am raising questions about his academic capability. The people who are speaking in my favour too are demanding an enquiry into the serious charges levelled against me. The BoG has taken a decision against me based on rumours floated and sustained by the Sangh Parivar for past many years without getting any enquiry conducted and giving me a chance to clarify my position. The principle of natural justice requires that charges be proved before a punitive action is taken. Here the vice-chancellor and his RSS accomplice Prof Dhananjay Pandey, dean of faculty affairs at the IIT-BHU, who rejected my application for reimbursement of visa fee for attending the Salzburg Global Seminar, have forced the punishment based on hearsay. The only concrete charge is of posting on the BHU website, the Nirbhaya documentary, banned by the government, falling under cyber-crime. It is not a serious charge as the film was never screened publicly. It was there on YouTube for anybody to watch. The subject of the film is violence against women. The alacrity shown by the university authorities in preventing the screening of this film was missing when enquiry was conducted against a professor of Management Studies after a complaint was filed against him by a female student of the same department accusing him of sexual misconduct last year. The professor's suspension is likely to be revoked as the university complaints committee has not found him guilty even though the female student has filed an FIR and the professor is facing a judicial trial. Most Bangladeshis would welcome the Supreme Courts confirmation of death sentence awarded to Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ameer of Bangladeshs largest Islamic fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for leading the Al Badr Bahini to carry out the massacre of innocent civilians and other crimes in collusion with Pakistan army during the liberation war in 1971. Those of us who took part in the war and witnessed the gruesome tragedy would also welcome it. On November 21, 2015, two other collaborators - Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammed Mojaheed, JI General Secretary - were executed after the Supreme Court rejected their appeal against a Chittagong special court that sentenced them to death for acts of genocide and murder in Chittagong in 1971. It had not been an easy task for her to prosecute the collaborators of Pakistan army, particularly after Major General Ziaur Rahman seized power after the founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who started their prosecution, was assassinated on August 15, 1975. Zia not only stalled the prosecution of collaborators, but also lifted restrictions on collaborators like Nizami to return to Bangladesh in 1975. Though fundamentalist parties like JI commanded less than ten percent votes, they wielded a strong influence over sections of conservative Muslims. Zias intention was to muster their support for the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to counter the huge popularity the Awami League (AL) enjoyed. It was an anachronism that for political gains, Zia, who led his Bengal Regiment battalion to join the fight for freedom against Pakistan army, chose to ignore the crime of collaborators who carried out systematic genocide of two to three million innocent civilians and raped an estimated 2,00,000 women, mostly Hindus. We had seen at first hand the traumatic effects of the massacres when we marched into Dhaka. I still remember the chilling sight of a grinning human skeleton hung at the entrance of the Al Badr interrogation centre in Mohammedpur, a posh suburb of Dhaka, when we went there after the battle to collect evidence of war crimes. We also met many families of intellectuals killed by the militia. A doctor from Tangail recounted his brush with death at the hands of the militia and the Pakistan army when he and over 60 other intelligentsia of the town were lined up and shot dead. Luckily, others who fell dead upon the doctor saved him from the bullets! Scores of young Hindu women came in palkis and met us in Coxs Bazar (in the Southeast tip of Bangladesh) when I stayed on to carry out counter insurgency operations in Chittagong. They tearfully recounted the atrocities they were subjected to, including rape, at the hands of lumpen militia elements during the war. Begum Khaleda Zia, who came to power after Zias assassination, accommodated fundamentalist parties including the JI in the BNPs ruling coalition and legitimised the role of collaborators like Nizami in mainstream politics. He used the opportunity to emerge as an influential member of the coalition cabinet from 2001 to 2006. It was not surprising that during this phase, fundamentalist extremism was unofficially encouraged and the JMB extremists grew bolder and bigger. Initially, the Khaleda government chose to ignore their violent activities. However, when the JMB elements attacked NGOs, the government bowed to public pressure and banned the organisation in 2005. The government action was apparently half-hearted thanks to fundamentalist elements within the coalition like Nizami. The JMB sent a strong message against the ban when it exploded 500 bombs in 300 locations across the country. Though JMB leaders have been prosecuted and executed and the organisation suppressed, there are indications the sleeper cells of JMB are still active in Bangladesh and would stage a comeback. Similarly, the case of an extremist grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004 killing 21 people was investigated and seriously taken up for prosecution only when Hasina came to power. Fifty two people are facing prosecution for their involvement in the attack. They include Khaledas son and senior BNP vice chairman Tarique Rahman now in exile, former state minister for home Babar, former political secretary to Khaleda Zia Haris Chowdhury and JI secretary general Mojaheed. They are believed to have conspired with a leader of Harkat Ul Jihad Al Islami Bangladesh (HUJIB) - the Bangladesh affiliate of the notorious Pakistani terrorist outfit (HUJI) - to carry out the attack. Of special interest to India is the role of Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Bangladesh during Khaledas rule. It became active in Bangladesh arming Indian insurgent groups like the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) that had taken refuge there. At that time Bangladeshs intelligence agencies like the Directorate General of Federal Security Intelligence (DGFSI) and National Security Intelligence (NSI) also helped the ISI in these efforts indicating official approval of the action. This came to light when ten trucks carrying a huge cache of arms and ammunition enough to arm a brigade of troops were found at the Chittagong port in April 2004. The arms cache destined for delivery to ULFA included 4,930 assorted firearms, 840 rocket launchers, 300 rockets, 27,020, 2,000 grenade launchers and 11.4 million bullets! However, serious investigation of the case and prosecution of the culprits was taken up only when Sheikh Hasina came to power. A Chittagong special court convicted 14 persons including Nizami (a minister in 2004), Lutfozzaman Babar of BNP (state minister for home in 2004); the then director of the DGFI and the director of NSI were sentenced to death for their role in this case. Fortunately, both India and Bangladesh are now actively sharing information on terrorists operating on both sides of the border and coordinating their actions. This was evidenced by the return of ULFA leader Paresh Barua (also sentenced to death in the arms smuggling case) to India which augurs well to end insurgency in Northeast. It is in Indias own national security interest that it should extend all possible aid to prime minister Sheikh Hasina to help her succeed in her relentless efforts to eliminate the patrons of jihadi extremism embedded in the body politics of Bangladesh. Recently, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has unearthed an extensive support network of the JMB in West Bengal while probing the October 2, 2014 accidental blast in Burdwan district. The fact that they could infiltrate and establish their foothold across the border in India speaks poorly of states role in tightening its set up to fight jihadi extremism. The NIA has now slapped charges against 28 persons, including a key member of JMB Nurul Hoque alias Naeem for waging war against Bangladesh. The Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) sees research scholar Rohith Vemulas suicide on campus at university of Hyderabad as a Dalit versus non-Dalit issue. In August 2015, after Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) representative, Susheel Kumar posted a remark that called ASA members goons on his Facebook wall, we never imagined wed lose one of our brightest minds less than six months later. Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar who committed suicide on Sunday has left the student community on campus shocked and it is a huge loss for the ASA. An apology was demanded from Susheel Kumar, which he obliged to. However, he alleged that he was intimidated by about 30 ASA members and beaten up too. But the medical examination confirmed no such claim. When the issue was brought before the university administration, both parties were issued a strong warning. Following this, a month later, five dalit students including Rohith were suspended for a semester. After student protests, the then Vice Chancellor (V-C), professor R P Sharma revoked the suspension and announced that a fresh inquiry will be made into the matter. Eventually, in December last year, the five students were expelled from their hostels with their rooms locked with restrictions on all campus facilities except their classrooms and the library. The expulsion was initiated by the current V-C, professor Apparo Podile, without any fresh inquiry. They were sleeping out in the open and protesting for the last 14 days. Rohith had a wheezing trouble and yet he didnt have a choice but to sleep out in the cold. Rohith, we are told always called his mother back in Guntur a couple of times a day. Since she didnt hear from him all of yesterday, she happened to call one of his friends to find out if all was well. That is when we realised that he wasnt to be seen anywhere yesterday. He was found hanging from the fan on Sunday in one of the research scholar rooms on campus. Ironically, it was a banner that we use for welcoming SC/ST and dalit fresher students at the beginning of the academic year, that was seen around his neck, through the window of the room. It is sad and disheartening how a rationally thinking and intellectually driven student like Rohith ended his life. He was not cowardly, nor overtly emotional. He was one of the most balanced ones among us. He enjoyed talking to the other students and shared his views with them about practically anything. Over the last couple of days, we saw him quiet down a bit. He was around on Saturday. We attended a meeting together. On Sunday, he was gone. It is only clear that the expelled students were subjected to exploitation, discrimination and a form of humiliation. We feel that the V-C, professor Apparao Podile eventually initiated the expulsion of the these five dalit students under pressure from external influences including BJP MLC, Ramchandra Rao and minister for labour, Bandaru Dattatreya, who had reportedly described the university as a den of "casteist, extremist and anti-national politics" in a letter to the ministry of HRD. It is disappointing that the V-C didnt come forward to address our issues while we were protesting, nor did he come to see Rohiths dead body. Some of Rohiths close friends say: "Although he held a post graduate degree in science, he was deeply interested in the social sciences and so many of us used to approach him for questions relating from sociology to political science. He was very well read and articulate. In the last 14 days that we were out protesting, he managed to read at least ten books." - Kiran Kumar Goud, MPhil student, political science department. "He was a very sorted person. His Facebook posts also were intellectual rather than casual." Uma Maheshwar Rao, PhD scholar, political science department "It wasnt depression that led him to suicide; rather I would call it his protest. Rohith Vemula was fighting for self-respect. It was a clear dalit versus non-dalit issue, with the expulsion initiated without any proper inquiry. We were discriminated against at every level. When we were expelled, he once asked me, 'if a man is reduced to a mere identity (dalit in this case) what is the value of a man?' As far as this issue is concerned, I would say it was political pressure that claimed an innocent life. If the systems that exist in the university would have functioned democratically, perhaps the issue wouldnt have gone this far." - Prashant Dontha, PhD scholar, economics department, and one of the five expelled students RICHMOND As lawmakers returned to the General Assembly on Monday, they were greeted by a truck circling Capitol Square with a banner attacking Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe's and Attorney General Mark Herring's positions on gun rights. "As ISIS threatens, McAuliffe and Herring disarm us," the sign on the truck said, referring to the militant Islamic State group. The truck was part of what's become an annual tradition at the state Capitol: hundreds of advocates on both sides of the gun debate using Martin Luther King Jr. Day to bend lawmakers' ears and rally for their respective positions. This year was marked by a greater sense of urgency on both sides, thanks in part to a high-profile shooting of a two journalists on live TV in the Roanoke area last summer and new policies implemented by McAuliffe and Herring after that shooting. Both sides are likely to see little gain out of the 2016 legislative session. Republicans control both chambers of the General Assembly while McAuliffe wields a veto pen and has promised to use it on gun-related legislation he opposes. But gun issues will likely continue to be a key part of the political debate in future campaigns. Gun groups on both sides and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control group, in particular spent heavily trying to influence a handful of key state Senate campaigns. The morning belonged to gun rights advocates, who held a rally where much ire was directed at Herring. The attorney general angered Republicans and some gun owners in December when he moved to invalidate concealed handgun permits held by residents of 25 states, saying their concealed handgun laws don't meet Virginia's standards. Audience members yelled out "communist" and "anti-American" when Herring's name was mentioned. Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, who is running to win the Republican nomination for attorney general, said lawmakers were going to spend the 2016 legislative session focused on reversing Herring's actions. "We're going to spend the next 55 days trying to undo what he has done," Bell said. Bell said Republicans are hopeful that legislation aimed at undoing the move Herring made on reciprocity agreements can withstand a McAuliffe veto. Some Democratic lawmakers have signaled opposition to Herring's move. In the afternoon, Herring, McAuliffe and gun control advocates made the case for new gun control legislation, like universal background checks on potential gun buyers. They were joined by Andy and Barbara Parker, whose daughter Alison was shot to death on live TV while she was reporting a story near Roanoke. McAuliffe, who issued an executive order banning the open carry of guns in some state-owned buildings, said he's undeterred by the slim margin of success proposed gun control legislation appears to have. "Maybe we don't, but I'm going to keep trying," McAuliffe said. The woman was so surprised to have been standing almost 35 inches away from Trump that her waters broke and she gave birth on Donald Trumps $8,000 Italian leather shoes. One bystander was not shocked by the incident, but was astounded when the baby seemed to have brown skin and started crying out Allah Akbar when it shot out of the womans slush shoot at high speed. The birth seemed fine, sure Don got his shoes soaked with blood and afterbirth, but the most shocking thing was this baby was the devils child. It started shouting snackbars and it even had a turban on its head. Then, this horrible brown skinned thang tried to strangle Donalds foot waging Jeehad on his ass. At that moment, security came and put that lil critter in a cage and took the woman away. I dont know who was more shocked, Donald, the woman, or the crowd? Abe Johnson, from Milwaukee told Fox news 5. After the incident Trump said: You see what I was talking about? A white woman just gave birth to a Muslim. When Im president, that shit aint gonna happen. Now I gotta get a new pair o shoes! US Secretary John Kerry talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif after the International Atomic Energy Agency verified that Iran has met all conditions under the nuclear deal, in Vienna. (Photo: AP) Tehran: Irans Foreign Ministry says the country will continue to enhance its missile capabilities in defiance of the destructive fresh US sanctions over the Islamic Republics missile program. Irans Foreign Ministry issued a statement, read out by Hossein Jaberi Ansari during his weekly press briefing on Monday. In reaction to the recent move by the United States to announce new sanctions against Iran for its ballistic missile program, he said, Tehran will firmly respond to such propaganda measures. We will respond to such propaganda stunts and disruptive measures by more robustly pursuing our lawful missile program. "Six paramilitary soldiers have embraced martyrdom and one is injured after their vehicle passed over an IED (improvised explosive device)," a local security official said. (Photo: Google Maps) Quetta: At least six paramilitary soldiers were killed Monday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said. A separatist militant group said it planted the bomb in the Marget area, around 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of the provincial capital Quetta. "Six paramilitary soldiers have embraced martyrdom and one is injured after their vehicle passed over an IED (improvised explosive device)," a local security official said. A spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps confirmed the incident. "One of the two injured who was in critical condition died at hospital, taking the death toll to six," said spokesman Manzoor Ahmed. Thousands of paramilitary troops are deployed in troubled areas of the country to carry out security checks and help police in maintaining law and order. The Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack. "We detonated a remote-controlled bomb and then ambushed the security forces personnel," said group spokesman Meerak Baloch. "This is part of our war against security forces." Baloch separatists demanding greater autonomy have been waging an insurgency for years, and the province is also riven by sectarian strife and Islamist violence. Last Saturday, the US lifted sanctions against Iran for its controversial nuclear activities after the International Atomic Energy Agency certified that Tehran had complied with the hard-negotiated agreement of July last year aimed at degrading its capacity to acquire a nuclear weapon. This opens up possibilities of new opportunities for normalisation of relations between the West and a major West Asia power after a lapse of three decades, although differences remain in their ideological outlook and their respective approaches to leading questions such as the crisis in Syria and the Israel-Palestinian issue. It also means all countries may now engage in normal trade and financial relations with Iran, and this includes India. In our era, the lifting of sanctions that began over the weekend is a signal international development. No other country possessing nuclear weapons or on its way to do so has abandoned its weapons strategy, after nerve-wracking negotiations, in order to shake off crippling sanctions and emerge from global isolation. Under the successful negotiations, Tehran will be unable to contemplate a weapons programme for the next 10 to 15 years. The European Union has also lifted its sanctions and the UN will formally most certainly do the same, following the announcement of the IAEA, which is a part of the UN system, and Americas lead. India is almost an immediate neighbour of Iran, and New Delhi and Tehran, which share cultural affinities and ancient memories, have looked to build strong and durable ties over many years. In the more recent period, their collaboration has extended to India building Irans Chabahar port, which gives the relationship an incipient strategic feel. In the regional context, this straightaway influences the Afghan theatre. The building of India-Iran relations was severely cramped on account of the US-led sanctions that had cut Iran off from international financial and trading activity. Iran will now doubtless be looking to fearlessly foraying into developing ties of economy and business with the major powers. The EU and China will be investing much in exploring possibilities. The Iranians will also be travelling. It is surprising that India has not so far made its own announcements for a re-invigorated partnership with Iran in anticipation of Implementation Day. A Delhi police sub-inspector shot a married woman before killing himself with his service revolver in south-west Delhis Dwarka area on Sunday morning. The duo was having an illicit relationship, source said. Vijendra Bishnoi, 30, allegedly had an extramarital affair with Nikita Chauhan, 27, a freelance journalist who was living in Dwarka and had been living separately, said a senior police officer. The sub-inspector was posted with Ranhola Police Station and was on leave from last two weeks. On Saturday, he took his official revolver with him after resuming duty and asked Chauhan to meet him at a park at Dwarka Sector 4. According to police, when they met, they allegedly had a heated argument after which Bishnoi gunned down the woman and soon after he shot himself. At the time of the incident, Bishnoi who was carrying his service revolver shot Nikita thrice. Few seconds later, he shot himself twice, a senior police officer said. Passers-by called up police and both were rushed to a hospital, where the woman was declared brought dead and Bishnoi was reported to be in a critical condition. He was then moved to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) where he later succumbed to his injuries. A PCR call was made and when the police team reached the spot, the duo was rushed to AIIMS trauma Centre, the police officer added. Bishnoi joined the force in 2001, and was promoted to the rank of sub-inspector in 2008. He was an accused in a domestic violence case, registered on the basis of a complaint filed by his wife in Haryana, the official said. According to sources, he was involved in a relationship with Nikita for three years. Relatives have been informed about the incident and their bodies will be handed over to them after the post-mortem examination. Vijendra Bishnoi and Nikita Chauhan met when the former was posted with Uttam Nagar Police Station and the latter was working as a news stringer for a media organisation. A native of Jhajjhar in Haryana, Bishnoi had joined Delhi Police in 2001. In 2008, he was promoted to the rank of sub-inspector, and subsequently transferred to Ranhola Police Station in west Delhi. However, by then he and Nikita had come close to each other, and were thinking about getting married. Marital discord When Bishnois wife came to know about his affair, their domestic life went into turmoil, resulting in domestic violence. Finally, his wife left his house in Delhi and started living in Haryana with her child-ren. She also filed a domestic violence case in Haryana against him, and an enquiry was ordered against the Delhi Police sub-inspector, said sources. Earlier Bishnoi and his wife and their two children were staying with him. For the past one year they have been staying in their native village in Jhajjhar, Haryana, said an officer investigating the case. According to sources, Nikita was a freelance journalist and had lodged a complaint of rape against Bishnoi but withdrew the same later. The initial investigation suggests that she had allegedly extorted money from him for not lodging an official complaint and was asking the policeman to marry her. Citing this as the main reason of tension between the two, sources said Nikita was further asking for more money from Bishnoi which irked him. According to police, the incident took place around 9.45 am when Bishnoi asked the woman to come to the park. When they were having a discussion, Bishnoi all of a sudden pulled out his service revolver and fired three bullets which hit the woman on her chest and abdomen, said an police officer. After hearing the gun shots, some bystanders rushed towards them. Bishnoi pointed the gun at himself and fired two rounds. One bullet hit his abdomen and the other his chest. The Delhi governments VAT department plans to approach the Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry to get access to vehicle registration list of all states to punish owners of trucks used to bring goods into the Capital without disclosure to the department. VAT Commissioner S S Yadav said: We hope to step up our electronic surveillance units at border points and proceed against all truck owners who bring in goods likely to be involved in VAT evasion. The department so far has managed to proceed against only those trucks which are registered with Delhis transport department. We have taken the list of vehicles from the transport department but in the coming days we also want to prosecute those trucks which are registered in other states. For this we will seek help from the Transport Ministry, said a senior official. Following Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwals direction to boost electronic surveillance against VAT evaders, the department developed an automatic truck registration number reading system in which a camera and radio sensor read the number plate and checks the departments records to see if the buyer of the goods loaded in the vehicle has given advance information to the department. All Delhi-based buyers are required to fill Delhi Sugam-II form to give advance information on goods being brought into the city, said an official. Trucks carrying undeclared goods are impounded by our employees posted on border posts and VAT and penalty is imposed on the owners of the goods, he said. The automatic number reading system has so far been installed at two border entry points Ghazipur old and Ghazipur new and facility is in the process of being expanded to all major truck entry points. We soon plan to install similar smart number plate reading system on city entry points on the Jaipur highway, Bhadurgarh highway and the Sonepat highway, said the official. The new truck checking initiative to increase VAT collection is being supplemented by the government by launching an new app on Monday to encourage public to help the department track VAT evaders. Buyers by collecting bills at the time of purchase and sending a bill copy to the department on WhatsApp will help trace VAT evaders. The copy of the bill would be accepted through WhatsApp and the winners would get cash prize ranging up to 10 times of the bill amount, said a senior VAT official. The bills sent on WhatsApp by luck draw participants would be used by our team to find out if it is reflected in that particular outlets online VAT payment system. If not reflected in the system, then action will be taken against the outlet. If it is reflected in the system, then the exercise will serve as a random check and maintain pressure on shopkeepers so that they do not attempt to evade VAT, said Yadav. Out of the total tax revenue of Rs 34,661 crore in 2015-16, the VAT department was tasked to collect Rs 24,000 crore 69 percent of the total revenue collections. However, till now the department has only manage to collect Rs 15,000 crore and meeting the target will be a challenge for VAT officials. Delhi government on Sunday urged Delhiites to gear up for no exemption odd-even car curbs in future. The Arvind Kejriwals cabinet is mulling over reintroduction of the odd-even formula in February, according to a government insider. The 15-day pilot project for rationing of road space ended on January 15. Future of the odd-even plan will be decided in a Kejriwal-headed assessment meeting on Monday. The entire Delhi cabinet and enforcement agencies will participate in the 3 pm meeting. The odd-even policy will be implemented without exemptions, Transport Minister Gopal Rai said, while addressing a government-organised odd-even thanksgiving event at Chhatrasal Stadium. The drastic car curbs had a host of exemptions, including female drivers, two-wheelers and taxis. Rai promised time-bound facelift for public transport in Delhi which he described as inadequate. He said the government will add 1,000 buses to Delhi Transport Corporation fleet after July. During the road rationing experiment, the Corporation had added contract carriages to its fleet to meet the shortfall buses. He said the Arvind Kejriwal government will also introduce passenger information system and common mobility card to make travelling in buses more convenient. The government also plans to appoint bus marshals on all DTC buses by the end of 2016. Subsidy to e-rickshaws will be increased to Rs 30,000 from Rs 15,000, Gopal Rai said, claiming that the move will expedite the registration of battery-operated rickshaws, which he said is important for providing the last-mile connectivity. Cars are major reason for congestion in the city, Rai said, claiming that the odd-even trail made the roads congestion-free. We will make cyclists heroes. As you know, first time in Delhi Secretariat, a Chief Minister came riding a bicycle, Rai added. Earlier, the AAP government had announced subsidising cycles using odd-even challan collection. Violators coughed up Rs 2,000 as fine, as per the odd-even rule. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday blamed the BJP and the Centre-controlled Delhi Police for alleged laxity that led to an ink attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a public function. In a hurriedly-called press conference, Sisodia said the ink attack showed a larger conspiracy scripted by the BJP's central government to physically harm the Chief Minister. "This is not the first time that such an attack on Kejriwal has taken place. Every time the attacker is detained and let off later, without exposing the larger conspiracy behind it," Sisodia said. It was a conspiracy to attack Kejriwal...the attacker could have also carried acid or a bomb, said Sisodia, questioning the police intention behind letting the ink thrower freely give interviews to media persons after the incident. A woman in mid-20s threw ink on Kejriwal in the afternoon during a public function to thank public for the success of the odd-even road rationing formula. The woman who claimed to be a Punjab worker of the Aam Aadmi Sena was detained by police while she claimed she had a CD as proof to expose corruption by these people. BJP president Satish Upadhyay, however, said the incident was stage managed by the AAP to gain public sympathy. Sisodia said the AAP was against VIP security culture but expected the BJP-controlled police to have a bare minimum arrangement to prevent such a dangerous attack on CM. The AAP is determined to fight for truth. Our security is in Gods hands, he said, adding that the BJP cannot digest the success of the odd-even scheme and may go to any length to attack the Chief Minister and his cabinet ministers. Sisodia alleged the incident showed that the BJP is trying to get the CM attacked by not ordering adequate security arrangement at Kejriwals public functions. Even today there was no police checking at the Chattrasal Stadium where the odd-even thanks giving function was held, he said. Police sources denied any laxity in security arrangements at the function but added that the function was announced at a short notice without taking the security set up into confidence. A statement issued by the ruling AAP said the incident is not just a major security breach , but it points towards involvement of Delhi Police officials in the conspiracy. At a time when the Delhi Police claims to be on a high alert after Fidayeen attack in Pathankot, it is unimaginable that in this state of alertness, an ordinary woman easily breached the secuirty cordon of the Delhi Police and attacked Kejriwal without connivance of Delhi Police officials, it said. Its not the first such attack. Incidents in the past have shown involvement of BJP leaders. In one such case, the assailant was found staying at a BJP MPs residence in Delhi. People know that Delhi Police comes under BJP led Centre and has been acting as political weapon of the BJP. This attack was not possible without direct involvement of Delhi Police officials, it said. The AAP threw five questions at the Union Home Ministry and Police and asked: Will the Ministry of Home Affairs now carry out a probe and fix accountability of those responsible of this security lapse and people involved in the conspiracy will be brought to book? RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has suggested Australian firms to invest in the lucrative Indian market stating that India's contribution to global growth would get "bigger and bigger from here". Rajan was talking on a wide range of issues when he asked Australian investors to tap the Indian market now. "If anybody was to look towards a big source of demand in future it would be hard for them to miss India," he said adding "If our implementation matches our promise I have no doubt that in the next five or 10 years this will be the place to be so good to get in early". The central bank head said "I would argue that because of the common language different accents but common language I think there could be a lot going on there". Rajan praised the role of Australia's Productivity Commission in developing economic policy. "Clearly there is a lot to learn about how you have used the intellectual inputs, the economic inputs, from that kind of organisation," he said in an interview with Fairfax media. "There are so many places two large economies can learn from each other," he added. When asked about Australian companies, like ANZ and Telstra, which have made promising investments in India in recent decades only to retreat at great cost, Rajan said "I'm not sure it's anybody's fault there have been periods of strong growth and there have been periods where people have thrown in the towel and said it is impossible doing business". Rajan said India needed to improve its infrastructure, human capital (knowledge base of the population), regulations and access to finance. "The gap in India has always been between the promise and the execution," he said. "I think we are in the process of reducing that gap but we've got to keep at it," he added. When asked if he was to consider a leadership role at the IMF in future, Rajan said "I haven't even thought about that. The problems here and the immediacy of dealing with them is so much more interesting at this point". A protest by ex-servicemen outside Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's residence on the OROP issue was called off after a late-night meeting with Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, the veterans said on Monday. Sinha met the veterans around 12.30 a.m. on Monday for around 45 minutes after instructions from the Prime Minister's Office. Sinha told the ex-servicemen that a meeting will be held on Wednesday to resolve the issues related to the OROP scheme. "The MoS called the finance minister in our presence, but he did not take the call. He however assured us that he would call up the finance minister again," said Col. Anil Kaul (retd), a spokesperson for the Indian Ex-Servicemen's Movement. A few hundred veterans had shifted the protest venue for One Rank One Pay (OROP) from the Jantar Mantar to Jaitley's residence at 2, Krishna Menon Marg, on Sunday morning and continued with their protest through the day. After the assurance from the minitster, the protesters returned to Jantar Mantar, where the OROP protest has been on since June 14, 2015. The ex-servicemen are unhappy with the OROP scheme announced by the central government on September 5, 2015, whereby 2013 would be taken as the base year to calculate pensions whereas the date of implementation will be July 1, 2014. As per the scheme, the pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective with effect from July 1, 2014. Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners on the basis of the average of minimum and maximum pension of personnel retiring in 2013 in the same rank and with the same length of service. Pension for those drawing above the average shall be protected. A review would be held every five years. The veterans have rejected the scheme dubbing it 'one rank five pension' scheme. In December, the government appointed a one-member judicial committee headed by L. Narasimha Reddy, a retired chief justice of the Patna High Court. The ex-servicemen are not happy with this either. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has a packed schedule in Israel today with back-to-back meetings with top leadership, an indication of burgeoning bilateral ties and a visit seen as a build up to the much awaited trip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the region. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to West Asia as the External Affairs Minister, would be meeting President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon, Minister of Infrastructure Yuval Shteinitz and deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotovely. She will be also meeting the Indian community in Israel. There are four groups of Indian Jewish communities in Israel with a strength of approximately 80,000. Netanyahu, who has met Modi twice in the past year and a half, has said that "sky is the limit" that can be achieved between the two sides with "limitless" potential. Describing Modi as "his friend", the Israeli Prime Minister has in the past said that his Indian counterpart has told him that New Delhi needs Tel Aviv to achieve major developmental projects outlined by him. Swaraj's visit comes barely three months after the historic visit of President Pranab Mukherjee, the first by an Indian Head of State to Israel, and aims at encasing on the goodwill generated by that visit. Yesterday, she crossed over to West Bank from Israel and held talks with the top Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. She met her Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki and reaffirmed India's consistent support for the Palestinian cause, emphasising that there has been "absolutely no change in its policy in this regard". Swaraj later called on President Mahmoud Abbas. She also paid a floral tribute at Mahatma Gandhi's bust and paid homage to iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum. Akshay Kumar's upcoming "Airlift" shares the same genre as "Argo" but the superstar says it is an insult to his film when people compare it to the Oscar-winning Hollywood movie as the story is inspired by a real incident. The 48-year-old actor says while the Ben Affleck-starrer chronicled the evacuation of six Americans at the time of Iran hostage crisis, "Airlift" is the story of 1,70,000 Indians who were rescued from Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait war. "Saying that our film is copied from 'Argo' is an insult. How can it be a copy when it is a true story? It is not a copy. It is something which you should be proud of. It is the story of the biggest ever human evacuation in the history of mankind," Akshay told reporters here. Director Raja Krishna Menon says other than the common theme of evacuation, there is no similarity between his film and the 2012 Hollywood movie. "The only faint link is that some people were saved in a covert operation. Everything else is different. It is only a similar genre. Our film is about the single greatest achievement of independent India. 'Argo' is not in that space," Menon said. The actor says he was not aware of the 1990 incident and only came to know about it when the director gave him the script of "Airlift". "At that time there was only one article about the evacuation. The government did it silently. It is not a matter of joke. When I met those people, they started crying at the mention of it. I was deeply inspired by the story. It shows the greatness of our country." In the film, Akshay plays a businessman Ranjit Katyal, who negotiates with the government to evacuate 1,70,000 Indians stranded in Kuwait and fly them to India. "Airlift" also stars Nimrat Kaur and Purab Kohli. In recent times, Akshay has successfully juggled between commercial potboilers like "Singh is Bliing" and thrillers with patriotic themes like "Baby" and "Holiday". The actor says he loves to keep challenging himself with different roles. "I keep on challenging myself all the time. I want to be in my comfort zone and then try some roles which are challenging for me. 'Singh is Bliing' and 'Housefull 3' are in my comfort zone but this one is not, 'Baby' was not." The UK government today warned that migrants on spousal visas who fail to speak English may face deportation, as it announced a new 20 million pound fund to improve the language skills among migrant Muslim women. Writing in 'The Times' newspaper, Prime Minister David Cameron warned that migrants who failed to improve their fluency in English after two years may face deportation. New rules will mean that from October this year, migrants coming to the UK on a five-year spousal visa with poor or no English skills will have to take a test after two and a half years to show they are making efforts to improve their English. "We will now say if you don't improve your fluency, that could affect your ability to stay in the UK. This will help make it clear to those men who stop their partners from integrating that there are consequences," Cameron wrote in a commentary. Arguing that community cohesion is the best antidote to extremism, Cameron pledged to fund English language classes for female migrants. "We will also fund a dramatic improvement in the way we provide English language services for women. With a new 20 million pounds programme, we will make sure every woman from isolated communities with no English at all has access to classes, whether through community groups or further education colleges," he writes. Cameron also flagged up the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities as the heart of the language barrier in the country. He writes: "We must also make more progress on English language. It is at the heart of solving this. Consider this: new figures show that some 190,000 British Muslim women or 22 per cent speak little or no English despite many having lived here for decades. "40,000 of these women speak no English at all. So it is no surprise that 60 per cent of women of a Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage are economically inactive." The Prime Minister said that English classes will be held in homes, schools and community centres with travel and childcare costs provided to encourage the maximum participation. "This is Britain. In this country, women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love. It's our values that make this country what it is, and it's only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure," Cameron writes. Segregation, the Prime Minister says, is allowing "appalling practices" such as female genital mutilation and forced marriage to exist, and increasing vulnerability to recruitment by so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terror group. He also announced a review of the role of Britain's religious councils, including Sharia courts, in an effort to confront men who exert "damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters". "At the moment, someone can move here with very basic English and there's no requirement to improve it over time. We will change that," Cameron wrote in the commentary. Details of the new English language tests will be unveiled over the next few months. Alongside the conventionally cuddly toy kangaroos, koalas and wombats that have long been sold in the Taronga Zoo gift shop in Sydney, Australia, a newcomer stands out: a fuzzy plush shark. Its bait for young visitors, of course, but its also a symbol of efforts to explore the softer side of these widely feared animals. In 2015, the zoo unveiled an exhibit featuring a small group of Port Jackson sharks, a joint project with Macquarie University, where researchers are studying the social behaviour of sharks to help battle the misconception that sharks are largely solitary creatures. The secondary goal of the project is to elevate sharks social standing among humans a concern that is particularly relevant in Australia, where shark attacks are often the subject of sensational headlines and there are frequent calls for culling, despite the fact that fatal attacks happen only once a year on average in the country. More people die from falling off cliffs while taking selfies than from shark attacks, said Culum Brown, an assistant professor at the Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution of Fishes Laboratory at Macquarie, citing an apparently well-documented global statistic. Not a solitary animal The project began four years ago after one of Culums students proposed investigating whether sharks engage in the same kind of social behaviours as humans like gathering together for the pure pleasure of company, for instance. While some species of sharks, like hammerheads, are known to form large schools, there has been little research that looks at why: Is it a social thing, or are the sharks simply attracted to a particular resource? The general feeling is that sharks are robots that theyre anti-social and they go around munching and killing things, Culum said. Nobody knows about the social lives of sharks because its notoriously hard to track them. Culum assembled a team of students and volunteers and spent three months at Jervis Bay, on the New South Wales coast, 90 miles south of Sydney, searching the waters for research subjects. Port Jackson sharks seemed to fit the bill at about 5 feet long, they are big enough to spot in the water and they are plentiful. They are probably the most common shark in Australian waters and are relatively friendly, Culum said. If you grab them, they tend to be passive. They tagged and released the sharks, using a combination of tracking tools. Passive integrated transponder (PIT), tags, slightly larger than a grain of rice, hold electronics that allow them to act as lifelong bar codes that can be detected and read without the animal having to be recaptured. The tags were inserted into each shark via a small incision on the animals underside. An acoustic tag attached to the fin of each shark sends out a ping each time it comes within about a third of a mile of an underwater receiver, or within about 30 feet of another tagged shark. Each ping is time-stamped, meaning it is possible to detect when a particular shark was at a particular location, and whether it came into contact with any other tagged sharks. During the initial tagging process, Culums team tagged 250 sharks in Jervis Bay with both PIT and acoustic tags. Last year, 38 more were tagged. From the data analysed so far, Culum found that the Port Jackson sharks tagged four years ago consistently returned to some locations. At first, it was thought they were coming together to breed but Culum later discovered the sharks were of mixed ages and sexes, leading to another theory: sharks liked to dine together. To rule out the possibility that the animals were attracted to the location itself rather than one another, Culum needed an artificial environment in which to observe them up close. So he reached out to a former student, Jo Day, who had studied social interactions in bottlenose dolphins and now worked as a research and conservation coordinator at Taronga Zoo. While Jo was enthusiastic about the possibility of creating a shark habitat there, zoo officials took some convincing the zoo hadnt had a shark exhibit for 25 years. Eradicating the fear In September 2015, Culum brought in 10 sharks, which immediately took to their new home a pool 60 feet long, 10 feet deep and 23 feet wide, embellished with a waterfall and rock shelters at the bottom to replicate the kinds of spots where Port Jackson sharks gather in the wild. While the data has yet to be formally analysed, early observations back the hypothesis that the sharks like being around one another. Instead of being spread out around the pool, they are always together, Culum said. Weve seen this in the wild, too, but here, theres no reason theyd be attracted to anything in the shelter, because its all artificial. In addition to the PIT and acoustic tags, the sharks in the pool had accelerometers attached to their dorsal fins, to measure their movement patterns in three dimensions. Three cameras were set up around the underwater viewing area, recording where the sharks swam and what they did. This allows the researchers to match the signature produced by each sharks accelerometer to a particular behaviour: swimming, resting, eating or mating. Once a kind of template is established, it will be possible for Culum and his team to determine not just where the sharks go once they are released back in the wild, but also what they are doing. These high-tech trappings helped make the shark experiment a hit for the zoo. We always overhear kids saying things like, Lets go see the sharks! Jo said. One keeper talk on the exhibit drew a crowd of around 100 people. Its one of the most popular exhibits at the zoo. The response also pleases Culum. The fear of sharks is an irrational one, he said. Its hard to get over an irrational fear. But were trying to teach people that sharks arent mindless killing machines, that sharks are interesting and do interesting things. Most sharks are under threat from us, not the other way around. For eight-year-old Shivampet Ruchitha, who will be given prestigious Geeta Chopra award for saving two lives when a train hit her school bus, not being able to rescue her sister in the mishap is the biggest regret. Ruchitha, who hails from Telangana, is the youngest of the 25 bravehearts who will receive the National Bravery Awards from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 24 for their extraordinary courageous feats. The incident took place on July 24, 2014 at Masaipet in the district resulting in the death of 16 students, in addition to the driver and conductor. "The driver stopped the bus on a railway track at a crossing. On noticing the approaching train, I alerted him but the vehicle did not start. As the train sped towards us, I pushed two of my friends out of the window. "I called out to my younger sister who was sitting in the first row but I could not save her and others as the train had hit the bus by then," she told PTI. Ruchitha's younger brother, who was also on the bus had suffered injuries in the accident. "I jumped off the bus onto the road. When the ambulance arrived, I gave my father's contact number to the medical staff. My brother and other children were in a critical condition then. "It feels good to have the limelight and get an award from the Prime Minister. But I wish I was able to save my sister, too, as we all miss her," she added. The little girl, a student of standard IV, wants to be a lawyer. She will receive Rs 40,000 cash, a medal and a citation and also participate in the Republic Day parade. Two more girls will be given the award this year: Angelica Tynsong (13) of Meghalaya for saving her sibling when her house was gutted in fire and Chhatisgarh's Joena Chakraborty (10) for taking on a miscreant who was snatching her father's cell phone. The National Bravery Award Scheme was initiated by the Indian Council for Child Welfare to give due recognition to the children who distinguish themselves by performing outstanding deeds of bravery and meritorious service. Since the inception of the scheme, the ICCW has awarded 920 children -- 656 boys and 264 girls. Her notes are like drizzles in a draught. Right from composers like Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, Russia has always had a rich tradition of music to be proud of; be it the structured, harmonic Western classical, fun-loving folk tunes or bucolic songs from the variety of ethnic groups scattered in the grads. Adding to the largesse of famous soloists that Russian conservatories and schools were able to churn out is Maria Cherednikova, who can easily be classified as one of the top contemporary violinists. The violinist, composer and music educator was recently in the City and unravelled evergreen classics of Bach and Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Grieg in an hour-long concert. Presented by Harmony School of Music, Maria also collaborated with voice artiste and the director of Harmony School of Music Sandra Oberoi, jazz pianist Marcus Daniel, violinist Kezevi Neihu and the childrens'string ensemble of Harmony, which she described as a fun and entertaining experience. Her second time here, Maria joyfully let the music and noise of the City overwhelm her, the diversity and vast expanse of the space delight her. It is such a big City,she says, in a kind, gentle tone. Hopping from one place to another is crazy. I love the variety of food and tasted some authentic South Indian food like idli and sambar, which is quite different from the Russian roulade. Im happy that Im here for a longer time so that I can explore the City more. When I first came to New Delhi, I thought that the rest of India would be like Delhi too but how wrong I was! She has travelled earlier to Nagaland to perform at the Kohima Hornbill Festival and Shillong, which is considered as the seat for western classical in India. The art scene in India inspires her as she recalls, I find the audience very educated here. I went to Chennai once and heard a traditional, Carnatic concert for the first time. It was a wonderful experience. I thought that Indian music was always free style and depended on improvisation but I was surprised to see that the raga had a structure to it too. I think there is a lot of space here to co-exist which is encouraging. I also notice that here, people enjoy a live performance more while in Russia, people mainly listen to music on the radio. Coming from Volgodonsk, the Rostov region, Maria picked up her first violin when she was eight and attended music college later in 2002. She has been playing music professionally ever since. She says, I never thought I would take up music as a career but I had a teacher who got me interested in Western classical. It wasnt easy music to study but she changed everything. And now, its not just Western classical that she aces but the potpourri of projects that she is involved in, such as the recording with the English bands. For her, music is more than just bread and butter. Its life as well. Music stayed with me when Russia went through terrible times, especially during the Ukraine separation. I feel that its important to do music as it always opens up ones mind and inclines them to think differently. It connects people around the world and is the best way of sharing creativity. Hit by rising imports and falling prices, besides challenges to cut costs, Tata Steel has decided to axe 1,050 jobs in UK. Tata Steel UK, an indirect subsidiary of Tata Steel, has announced cost-saving proposals to improve the competitiveness of its UK business. The plans would lead to the loss of 1,050 jobs 750 jobs at its Port Talbot-based Strip Products UK business, 200 jobs in support functions and a further 100 jobs at steel mills in Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool, the company said. The proposed changes follow continued falls in the European steel price caused by a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China. A full consultation process with employee representatives will begin immediately, the company added. These tough actions are critical in the face of extremely difficult market conditions, which are expected to continue for the foreseeable future, Tata Steel European operations chief executive Karl Koehler said. We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry, Koehler added. We have to accelerate the changes we announced last August, by lowering our costs at the same time as focusing on manufacturing higher-value products. These are urgent steps needed to give this business a chance of survival. We will work closely with affected employees and their trade union representatives. Retaining the right skills for the future will be critical, but we will look to minimise employee hardship and redeploy employees where possible, director of Strip Products UK, Stuart Wilkie said. Skies seem to be beckoning more Indians these days. Indian domestic airlines have registered a 20.34 per cent growth in number of fliers they carried last year when compared with 2014. According to statistics released by Directorate General of Civil Aviation, there was an increase of 137.08 lakh fliers in 2015 compared with the previous year. Indian domestic carriers flew 810.91 lakh passengers last year compared with 673.83 lakh in 2014. In December alone, there was an increase of 19.71 per cent -- 77.09 lakh fliers last month as against 64.90 lakh same period in 2014. In December, the passenger load factor increased compared with previous month, primarily due to the ongoing tourist season. Aviation sector watchers attribute the rise in numbers to lower airfare compared with previous years owing to cut in air turbine fuel (ATF), competition among carriers, adding new schedules to existing destinations as well as opening up of some regional routes. The report also showed that IndiGo remained the market leader, ferrying 297.43 lakh and garnering 36.7 per cent of the market share. Rival airline Jet Airways along with its subsidiary cornered a market share of 22.5 per cent carrying 182.23 lakh passengers last year. The national carrier Air India had a market share of 16.4 per cent carrying 133.35 lakh passengers. SpiceJet, which returned from the verge of closing down in 2014, managed to stay float with 11.6 per cent market share. It flew 94.25 lakh passengers as it increased its services over a period of time. Market share Vistara, the new airline to first hit the skies last year, managed 1.3 per cent market share carrying 10.66 lakh passengers. Other new entrants Air Pegasus and Trujet, both regional airlines, had a market share of 0.1 per cent each, flying 1.17 lakh and 1.14 lakh respectively. Air Pegasus started operations in May while Trujet started flying in August. Vijayawada-based Air Costa, which hopes to expand its operation across India this year, also had 0.9 per cent market share flying around 7.30 lakh people mainly in south India. Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR)Minister H K Patil, who has been entrusted with the responsibility of handling the Belagavi boundary dispute, has come down heavily on Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for reportedly stating that certain areas of Karnataka would made part of Maharashtra. Referring to Fadnavis statement during the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan in Pimpri, Pune, recently, Patil said that on Monday the Maharashtra chief minister had said that the Belagavi, Karwar and Nippani in Karnataka would be made part of a united Maharashtra. Addressing mediapersons here in Bengaluru, the minister said the provocative and irresponsible statement made by Fadnavis was an attempt to create disharmony in both the states. He said that not only were the Mahajan Commission recommendations in favour of Karnataka, the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan held in Belagavi in 1929, too, had arrived at a consensus that the district belonged to Karnataka. Staking claim Despite this, Maharashtra had moved the Supreme Court, staking claim to parts of North Karnataka. After 43 years, Maharashtra raised the matter before the court, and now it is doing the same before the people. The chief minister, who holds a responsible position, should not be provoking people in this manner, he said. He said that the intention of the Maharashtra Chief Ministers statement might have been be to gain political mileage and earn brownie points. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should take suo motu cognisance of the statement and advise the concerned to be act and speak in a more responsible manner. Paryaya Pejawar mutt seer Sri Vishwesha Theertha Swami said that society should imbibe democratic values and there is no jewel more precious than harmony among various religions. He was speaking at the formal durbar ceremony after ascending the Paryaya Sarvajna Peeta to run the administration of Sri Krishna temple and conduct Sri Krishna Pooja for next two years period. The seer said that the approach towards harmony is infused in the atmosphere of the Mutt, which traces its root towards the great Saint Madhwacharya. He said as similar to the popular punch line of the democracy, of the people, by the people and for the people, all life should be, by the Lord, for the Lord and of the Lord. The temple and the mutts should be pedestals of egalitarianism. The seer said selflessness, aided with down-to-earth approach, would lead humans towards salvation. Selfishness is the core for all evils in the society. He said, I should also remember my Guru Sri Vishwamanya Theertha Swamiji and spiritual guru under whom I was educated on Vedic teachings Sri Vidyamanya Theertha Swamiji on this unique occasion. The newly crowned 85-year-old Paryaya seer said that the self-proclaimed intellectuals who criticise Madhwacharya should substantiate their allegations. Madhwacharya was a great saint who hailed from Tulunadu region in Karnataka. The present Paryaya is just a reflection of his preaching, which stresses on humanity aided harmony, the pontiff added. Lauding his junior Sri Vishwaprasanna Theertha seer for his generosity, the senior pontiff said that sacrifice for the sake of ones Guru is something that is being followed for ages in the spiritual legacy inherited by the country. He said the junior seer stands as the embodiment of the sacrifice and spirituality that is immersed in the layers of soil. The seer, who spoke on the plans for his new term, said that he would set up a residential school at Pajaka Kshetra, the birthplace of Madhwacharya. The school would be open to students from across the country and although initially a small number of classes will be offered, the school would be developed phase by phase, he added. Asserting that Lord Krishna is known for his love for greenery, the seer said the Pejawar mutt would take up initiatives to promote greenery in its vicinity. Devotees will be given saplings if they were interested. The devotee should take care of the sapling. In the process, many number of trees will be grown and the environment will be blushing with green everywhere, he explained. A Duschata Nivarana Hundi to help people rid themselves of addictions is another ambitious project of the Mutt. Interested people should write their names and their desire to quit the addictions on slips of paper. The people who register themselves through the Hundi will be constantly monitored, he added. Creating history Former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said that the fifth Paryaya of the Pejawar Mutt seer would remain special to him and to the entire nation, as it is creating history in the legacy of the Sri Krishna Mutt. The senior BJP leader added he shares a special relationship with the Pejawar seer. The temple town also has a special bonding with him and his party. The town gave a representation to the party when the latter had no existence in South India, as the party came to power in Udupi Municipality, he said. The BJP leader said India which is bestowed with the preaching of great saints and intellectuals like Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is a lamppost to all other nations. We Indians should accept the preaching of the great saints for the betterment of the society and world as a whole. Unethical approach will only lead to decline. Walking on the path of morality will add strength to the personality, the veteran politician added. Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilisers H N Ananth Kumar said that the event is a centenary celebration. The Pejawar seer is a social saint. In the past seven decades, he worked for the betterment of the society, said the minister. Lauding the green initiative taken up by the new Paryaya seer, Ananth Kumar said that there should be trees equal to the number of population in State. Youths should be inspired by the initiative taken up by the seer he was the first seer to embrace Dalits to bring them to the mainstream of the society, said the minister. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said the occasion is a great pleasure and happiness to attend the historic event. He added that Pejawar seer is a genius in all walks of life. All political leaders are his followers, irrespective of the party differences. The seer is instrumental in eliminating the discrimination of society as he led the movement against untouchability. He follows what he preaches. He is also part of education revolution, the chief minister added. Union Minister for Water Resource Uma Bharathi said the Pejawar seer is energetic and full of life. His ideology is take minimum from the world and give maximum to the world. He had advised me to practise politics with the sense if detachment. A Sanyasin can be a better politician as she belongs to the nation and the universe. The seer participated and inspired the Rama Janna Bhoomi movement, she added. She said the country is secular in the true sense of secularism. Asserting that Hinduism gives more freedom than any other religion, the politician said that the religion offers the freedom to pray in mosque and church unlike other religions. She said, I respect the Bible and the Quran and consider them as sacred texts. I am a Hindu and I feel Mecca and Vatican City as sacred places. I expect similar approaches from the people of other religions towards my Geetha, Kashi and Mathura. She added that she needed the Pejawar seers blessings to clean River Ganga which is the 10th most polluted rivers in the world. A tiles contractor was grievously injured when two of his workers fired at him from a country-made pistol and stabbed him multiple times on Monday. Financial dispute is suspected to be the motive for the attack. Binod, 30, from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, was shot in the chest, head and back by two of his workers, Mukesh and Manish. Binod had gone to Mukeshs house at Shanthi Layout, 6th Cross, Ramamurthy Nagar, just a stones throw away from his own home, around 1.30 pm. Manish was also present there. Binod wanted to discuss some work-related issues as well as money matters with the duo. But as soon as he entered the house, Mukesh bolted the door from inside. The duo then attacked him with a knife and opened four rounds of fire. Three bullets hit Binod while the fourth one missed the target and hit the floor. Presuming him dead, Mukesh and Manish escaped, said N Satheesh Kumar, DCP (East). A heavily bleeding Binod managed to walk out of the house and reach the road. Local residents rushed to his rescue and took him to hospital in an auto-rickshaw. He was later shifted to Manipal Hospitals, Kumar added. Mohar Singh, a relative of Binod, told Deccan Herald that he had seen Binod having tea with Mukesh and Manish at a bakery a while before the attack. He suspected financial dispute to be the motive. Binod came down to Bengaluru about 10 years ago and lives with wife and three children. He would get contract to lay tiles in homes and office establishments. He had employed some people to lay tiles and would often contract Mukesh and Manish. The police, after questioning some workers, concluded that it was Manish who brought the weapon. Mukesh had gone to his hometown of Gwalior three months ago and returned just a few weeks ago. He brought Manish along. A police officer said they were trying to trace the source of the pistol and suspected that it was bought in Bihar or Uttar Pradesh. We dont know why they brought the weapon here. Binod is unable to talk. A clearer picture will emerge once he recovers and starts talking, the officer added. In an incident that appears straight from an action film, a cab driver who, along with five of his friends, kidnapped a caterer for ransom was hacked to death by the abductees associates early on Monday. Another abductor was critically injured in the attack. The events unfolded like a fast-paced action thriller, said the police. Arun Kumar, 27, a cab driver from Gangenahalli, north Bengaluru, and his four friends attended a party hosted by another friend, Varun. They consumed liquor and around 11.30 pm went to a bakery located on 3rd cross in Gangenahalli to buy cigarettes. The gang discussed ways to make a quick buck and weighed kidnapping someone for ransom. Kumar suggested they target Ravi B, a caterer from Gangenahalli, and another man named Sandeep. He personally knew both of them. Everyone liked the idea, according to the police. Kumar called up both Ravi and Sandeep and invited them over. The two men arrived, without suspecting anything. The gang pounced on them, bundled them into a car and drove off to Chikkajala on the northern outskirts of Bengaluru. They demanded a ransom of Rs one lakh from Ravi. He agreed but asked them to take him to his house so that he can arrange for the money. Kumar, Varun and another friend Darshan, 28, went with him in a car. Three other members of the gang stayed back, holding Sandeep captive. On the way home, Ravi managed to send SOS messages to some of his friends and that he would reach home shortly. His friends acted quickly and when Kumars gang reached Gangenahalli, 20 men waylaid them. They besieged the car from all sides and attacked Kumars gang with lethal weapons. Kumar, Varun and Darshan bolted out of the car and ran helter-skelter. The group chased them and attacked Kumar and Darshan. They also damaged the car by stoning it. Local residents rushed to the spot after hearing the commotion, saw Arun and Darshan lying in a pool of blood and rushed them to a hospital. Arun died of grievous injuries while Darshan is critical. Meanwhile, Sandeep managed to escape from the captivity of the three abductors who later escaped. Family members of Arun and Ravi have lodged separate complaints at the RT Nagar police station. Police said they had formed a team to trace the four absconding abductors. Four employees of a private firm were arrested on Monday for attempting to attack a doctor at the KC General Hospital. The suspects are Sunil (23), Nitin (24), Rajesh (22) and Amith (24). According to the police, all the four had consumed liquor late on Sunday night and were causing a nuisance. The Yeshwantpur police, who were on night patrol, detained them and brought them to KC General Hospital for an examination to check if they were drunk, said the police. Soon after they entered the hospital, they broke the windowpane of the hospital and attempted to attack Dr Sanjeev Kumar who was on night duty. The policemen alerted the jurisdictional Malleswaram police who rushed there and arrested the four.Dr Kumar, casualty medical officer who was on duty when the incident took place, said that the men misbehaved with him. They were brought to the hospital at 1.30 am. They were all inebriated. They tried to manhandle the staff who came to examine them. Even the police could not control them, he added. It was a matter of chance that the assaulter missed the target and hit the table instead, breaking the glass on top of it, he said. The sale of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs is yet to gain pace in Bengaluru, almost four weeks after the State government started supplying them at low prices. The sales are better in Mysuru. As on January 13, 2016, a total of 4.91 lakh LED bulbs have been sold in Karnataka; 3.31 lakh in areas under the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd (CESC) and just 1.6 lakh in areas under Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), said an official in the Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL), a joint venture of public sector undertakings of the Union Ministry of Power. The EESL conducted a study on the feasibility of selling LED bulbs in Bengaluru, Kalaburgi and Mysuru six months ago. The scheme aims to popularise LED bulbs which are known for energy efficiency. The sales started on December 14, 2015, in CESC which comprises the districts of Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Hassan and Kodagu. The consumer base under CESC is 80 lakh. The sales opened on December 24, 2015, in Bescom which covers the districts of Bengaluru Urban and Rural, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Tumakuru, Chitradurga and Davangere. The total consumer base (distribution potential) in Bescom areas is three crores; 65 lakhs in Bengaluru city alone. Sales in other districts The sales will shortly open in districts under Hubli Electricity Supply Company (Hescom), Mangalore Electricity Supply Company (Mescom) and Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company (Gescom). The distribution potential is 90 lakhs in Hescom and 75 lakhs in Gescom. The total distribution potential in Karnataka is 6.41 crores. Under the scheme, domestic consumers of up to 2kW capacity are allotted five bulbs in Bescom, CESC and Mescom areas. Those of above 2kW capacity can get up to 10 bulbs. In Hescom and Gescom areas, consumers of up to 1kW capacity get five bulbs and above 1kW capacity 10 bulbs. N Mohan, Manager (Technical), EESL, said that around 70 per cent of domestic consumers had a sanctioned load of less than 2kW. According to him, people in Bengaluru have many misgivings about buying LED bulbs at such low prices. They ask too many questions. For example, they enquire about warranty, quality, duration and brightness of the bulbs. But once they make the first purchase, they often come back to buy more. Nonetheless, there are few bulk buyers in Bengaluru, he added. There are 33 vendors in Bengaluru and 43 in Mysuru. Sumana R, a resident of Malleswaram, said, The bulbs are being sold in unsealed covers. I dont want to buy such a product, what if it bursts or does not light up. Sumanth K, a consumer from Jayanagar, wondered what was the difference between the bulbs available in open market and those sold by the government, except the price. Residents also complain that LED bulbs under the scheme are not easily available across Bengaluru as few centres sell them. After the delayed onset of winter, Bengaluru is now likely to receive rain in the next couple of days. This will bring a further drop in temperature. There was a slight cloud cover on Monday and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) is expecting rain in the next couple of days over the City and south interior Karnataka. IMD-Bengaluru director in-charge Geeta Agnihotri said that there was an upper air cyclonic circulation over south west Bay of Bengal off the Sri Lanka coast, and it now lies over south west Bay of Bengal, off the Tamil Nadu coast. Under the influence of this system, the City will experience rainfall in the next couple of days. Rainfall in the month of January is not an unusual phenomenon. It is not routine either. Bengaluru has recorded 1-2 cm rainfall in the last decade. The onset of winter was not only delayed this year, it has not been that cold either. Temperatures have been hovering around a maximum of 27 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 16, she said. On January 1, 2010, HAL airport received 18.2 mm rainfall and on January 1, 2015, Bengaluru City recorded 7.6 mm rainfall. The highest rainfall recorded in the last 10 years in winter, in 24 hours, was on January 16, 1908 of 65.8 mm. Geeta pointed out that this rainfall is not pre-monsoon showers and is winter rain. This rainfall will be of short duration and will have no impact on the onset of summer (likely by end of February or first week of March) and the pre-monsoon showers. This rainfall is likely to bring down the temperature. The City on Monday recorded a maximum temperature of 28.4 degree Celsius and a minimum of 16.2 degree Celsius. The maximum and minimum temperatures at HAL airport were 27.4 and 14.9 degree Celsius. Later in the night it drizzled in some parts of the City. Suicide of Rohith Vemula, the Dalit research scholar at Hyderabad Central University, has evoked angry responses from the political parties and rights organisations. They demanded a thorough inquiry into the incident and action against those who played any role in abetting the suicide. Victimising students for political activity on directions from central ministers; is this not a mockery of Constitution day, asked Yechury in a tweet: Is this how this govt thinks it should mark 125 years of Dr Ambedkar ? Deeply anguished. The suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula is nothing short of institutional murder, said CPIML-Liberation leader Kavita Krishnan. In a statement on Tuesday, the CPM demanded that the central government should conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident. The party accused Minister of State Bandaru Dattatreya of pressurising the Vice-Chancellor to suspend Dalit student from the hostel. But the party has not mentioned the name of Dattatreya and referred to him as Minister of the Union Cabinet belonging to Hyderabad. The party also demanded that the vice-chancellor should be booked under the SC Prevention of Atrocities Act. CPIML has demanded that action should be taken against the ABVP leader who made a fabricated complaint, the university authorities, the Union labour minister and the Union HRD minister be punished. The party alleged that two Union ministers branded Dalit scholar-activists as anti-nationals be sacked. Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani on Monday dispatched a two-member team to the University of Hyderabad to investigate the suicide case of a Dalit research scholar in the campus even as the incident sparked furore across the country. The minister, however, refused to comment on Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreyas letter to her in which he complained about the varsity becoming den of anti-national activity, seeking her intervention. She also refrained from making any comment on the suspension of five Dalit students by the vice-chancellor as both Dattatrya and Appa Rao along with two others were booked by the police for abetting Rohith Vemulas suicide. In a time of grief like this, I express my condolences to the family who lost their son, she told a news agency. We have sent a two-member team from the ministry who will apprise us of the situation in the university. Everyone knows that in central universities, the administrative control belongs only to the varsity. The government has no role to play, she added. While over 500 students of Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University staged an protest outside the Shastri Bhavan, which Houses HRD Ministry, blaming Irani for Vemulas suicide, students protest were held at universities and college campuses including IIT-Bombay to express their solidarity with University of Hyderabads agitating students. Shame on you, Smriti Irani and Down with Hindu fascism. Down with Smriti Irani, the students shouted outside Shashtri Bhavan. As the agitating students refused to leave, police used water canons to disperse them. These students were agitating under the banner of Krantikari Yuva Sangthan (KYS). Can Sikhs be called minority community in Punjab? The Supreme Court on Monday decided to examine if a religious community should be granted minority status even in a state where they are both numerically strong and suffered no domination by others. A five-judge Constitution bench presided by Chief Justice T S Thakur agreed to have a re-look at the circumstances in which a state government declared a community as a religious or linguistic minority. Hearing a petition by Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) against a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment of December 2007, the court wondered if Sikhs, who are majority in Punjab be declared as minority. The court also hinted that the economic status of a community is also be taken into consideration while determining such a status. Can Muslims, who are in majority in Kashmir, still be treated as minority? Can Sikhs be minority in Punjab? Can Christians be minority in Meghalaya, the bench asked. Noting that the issue is serious one, the court appointed senior advocate T R Andhyarujina as amicus curiae and asked Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi to assist it the matter. The High Court had in 2007 quashed notifications issued by the state government granting minority status to SGPC-run educational institutions, affecting grant of 50 per cent reservation of seats for Sikhs students in its institutions. Moscow on Monday condemned the deportation of a senior clergy of Russian Orthodox Church from Chennai International Airport on Sunday. Moscow conveyed to New Delhi its displeasure over the manner in which Father Superior Seraphim was denied food and other basic assistance when he was waiting for hours at the Chennai International Airport before being deported. It also alleged that Indian authorities did not allow Russian diplomats to meet Father Seraphim at the airport in Chennai. Such disrespect, shown to a priest from a friendly country, goes against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation characteristic of Russian-Indian relationship, Embassy of Russian Federation in New Delhi stated in a press release issued on Monday. Hegumen Seraphim visited India on visitor visa several times in the past. The immigration authorities at the Chennai International Airport, however, deported him on Sunday, hours after he arrived from Pakistan. The Embassy of Russian Federation had invited him to offer spiritual support to officials of the countrys diplomatic missions in India. He was to take part in a special prayer by officials of Consulate General of Russian Federation in Chennai on Monday. His itinerary also included visits through India to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Nepal to give spiritual support to officials and family members of diplomatic missions of Russia. But the visitor visa issued to him by the Embassy of India in Moscow allowed him entry to the country only twice. Since he was visiting extensively, his visa turned invalid after his second entry to India. So before coming from Pakistan to enter India for the third time, he applied for a visa on Internet a new system introduced by Indian Government to grant visa to tourists. Within 24 hours of arresting the main accused in the Red Road hit-and-run case Taushif Sohrab alias Sambia, the police arrested the prime witness, 24-year-old Shahnawaz Khan alias Sanu, in Delhi late on Sunday. A key witness to the January 13 hit-and-run incident on Red Road that claimed the life of Air Force officer Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud, Sanu was absconded after the incident, in which his close friend Sambia is the prime accused. Khan was produced at court in Delhi on Monday, which remanded him to two days of transit remand. The Special Investigation Team of Kolkata Police apprehended Sanu from Delhi on late Sunday night. The Delhi court handed over Sanu to sub-inspector Sumit Bhattacharya of Kolkata Police, his escort on the trip back to Kolkata. Sanu will be extensively questioned and is likely to be made prime witness in the case, sources said. Incidentally, Sanus brother and sister-law lodged a missing person complaint for him on January 15 when he did not return home since January 12 afternoon except making two calls, the second of which was to inform his brother about the accident. Sanu went absconding after he was called for questioning on January 13 evening, when he told the police he was trailing Sambias Audi in another car, driven by mutual friend, Johnny, but they turned around after noticing the barricades. Sambia, who was produced at a court in Kolkata on Sunday, has been remanded to police custody for 14 days. The younger son of former RJD MLA Mohammad Sohrab, he has been booked under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code for murder. Elections to zilla and taluk panchayats in the state will be held in two phases on February 13 and 20. Counting of votes would be on February 23. The elections were announced by the State Election Commission soon after Karnataka High Court dismissed a batch of petitions questioning the legality of the reservation of local bodies. The model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect and the state government has been barred from announcing new policy initiatives. The model code of conduct would not be applicable to urban areas. However, it would be applicable to rural areas and the 53 municipal bodies which were recently upgraded as urban local bodies. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, State Election Commissioner (SEC) P N Srinivasachary said that the Kalaburagi High Court bench has stayed the elections in Vijayapura, Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir and Raichur districts. Barring these five districts, elections would be held in the rest. However, in the barred districts, elections to taluk panchayats would be held, he added. The Commissioner said the Kalaburagi bench may hear the petitions pertaining to the barred districts in a couple of days. In case the petitions are dismissed, then elections in these five districts would be held along with other ZPs. Elections to Soraba taluk panchayat, is yet to complete its term, would not be held now. For the Phase I polls, nomination papers would be accepted from February 25 and for the Phase II, from February 1. Srinivasachary said that electronic voting machines would be used. EVMs for ZP polls would be marked with pink paper for easy identification, while those to be used for the TP polls would be marked with white paper. For the first time in local body elections, None of the Above (NOTA) option may be exercised by the voters. The campaign expenditure ceiling for ZP contestants is Rs one lakh, and for TP nominees Rs 50,000. Replying to questions, the Commissioner said by-elections to three Legislative Assembly seats are also on February 13 but this would not hamper the ZP/TP poll schedule. Hebbal, Bidar and Deodurga assembly constituencies are facing by-polls. While Hebbal falls under Bengaluru city limits, the ZP/TP elections in Deodurga and Bidar are on February 20. The Gachibowli police on Monday filed an FIR against senior BJP leader and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya for abetting suicide of a 26-year-old Dalit research scholar Vemula Rohith in the University of Hyderabad. The police also booked vice-chancellor Prof Apparao, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader Sushil Kumar and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader Vishnu. Rohiths suicide evoked widespread protests by students across the country. The Ambedkar Students Association (ASA) filed a complaint alleging that five dalit students, including Rohith, were expelled from the varsity hostel only after Dattatreya wrote to the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry demanding their suspension. The association claimed that varsity officials had cleared the five students of all charges following an inquiry, but the decision was reversed following the intervention of BJP leaders. The students pinned the blame on Dattatreyas letter to HRD Minister Smriti Irani, which sought action against the five students, while describing the university as a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. Dattatreya has refuted the allegations and said that he simply forwarded a memorandum submitted by ABVP leaders to the HRD minister, after they were attacked by a section of students on campus. My letter has no connection with the suicide case. I have written a letter because some anti-social elements were attacking ABVP members. I would not like to comment on the case against me, said Dattatreya. Tension prevailed on the campus on Monday with students refusing to handover Rohits body to the police for post-mortem. The police used mild force to disperse the agitating students and shifted the body to the Osmania Hospital later for post-mortem. Rohits mother Radhika sat on a dharna on the campus along with several students and Dalit organisation leaders, demanding the vice-chancellor to explain the reason for suspending her son. Several political leaders made a beeline to the varsity campus and registered their protest. Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, who masterminded the Pathankot attack, is not under arrest or detention of Pakistani authorities, contrary to reports, Indian security officials have said. However, three of his junior functionaries are in custody but not for Pathankot attacks. Indian officials have received intelligence inputs that no case has been registered against Azhar in the Pathankot attack though Pakistan has announced the formation of the Special Investigation Team. Pakistan has also demanded that its investigators be allowed inside Pathankot airbase for probe into the case. Indian officials are saying this could not be allowed at this point as Pakistan has to show that they have done something. Under what law we can allow them? Have they filed an FIR? The answer is no. Has their court acted? The answer is no, a senior official said. Sources said they believe that initial reports of Azhar being detained for the Pathankot incident were part of a propaganda unleashed by some Pakistani agencies. They pointed out that Azhar himself had taken to social media to deny that he was under arrest. Pakistan has also not officially informed New Delhi about whether they have arrested Azhar. It has also not told India whether they have registered any case. Indian officials said Pakistan has to name the individuals whom they have claimed to have detained. New Delhi has made it public that the terrorists had spoken to their handlers in Pakistan and it has evidence. Indian investigators has also claimed that Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf Asghar were among the masterminds behind the strike. According to them, the conspiracy was hatched in Lahore. India has already handed over several evidences to Pakistan regarding the involvement of people in that country, including Azhar, through "proper channel". Sources said voice data has also been shared with Pakistan. Ahmedabad crime branch police on Monday filed a 2700 page chargesheet against Patel quota stir spearhead Hardik Patel and his three associates in a sedition case. They also declared two of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) conveners associates Alpesh Kathiriya and Amrish Patel as absconders in the case. Police charged Hardik, Chirag Patel, Dinesh Bhamaniya and Ketan Patel under sections 121 A and 124 A of IPC for sedition and waging war against duly elected government. The chargesheet contains 42 call detail records of telephonic conversation between Hardik, his associates and his supporters, statements of 503 witnesses and the reports of the forensic science laboratory certifying the veracity of the calls made by the accused. Hardik and 14 other PAAS leaders have been in custody since October 18 last year on various charges, even as the state government has spoken of its intent to withdraw cases against the agitators and ease their bail process. The chargesheet also comes at a time when it is widely rumoured that Hardik is finally ready for a dialogue with the state government on a host of issues including patel reservation. A week ago, Hardik told outside Surat court that he would continue the stir once he was out of jail. Surat police filed a 370-page report charging Hardik under IPC sections 124(A) - sedition, 115 (abetment of offence) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence). Update, 6:46 p.m., 26 January 2015: Early Monday evening, Broad Front Party lawmaker Edgardo Araya filed a motion in the Legislative Assemblys Environmental Commission to call Costa Ricas Chief Public Prosecutor Jorge Chavarria to testify before the commission regarding the omissions by the Prosecutors Office in the Jairo Mora case, according to a post on Arayas Facebook. No more impunity, Araya stated. Original story continues here: By Lindsay Fendt 26 January 2015 LIMON After three months of trial marked by continuous delays and setbacks, a Limon court on Monday morning acquitted seven men of the murder of 26-year-old sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora on the night of May 31, 2013, citing reasonable doubt, discarded evidence and an ineffective investigation. Defendants surnamed Arauz, Salmon (brother of defendant Donald Salmon) and Loaiza will walk free, absolved of all crimes, while Hector Cash, Ernesto Centeno, Jose Bryan Delgado and Donald Salmon will serve prison sentences for a prior rape and robbery on the same beach. All seven defendants were acquitted of the kidnapping, robbery, sexual assault and murder that took place on the night of May 31, 2013, when Mora was killed. That night, a band of masked men captured Mora, who worked at a nearby wildlife refuge, along with four foreign volunteers from Moin Beach near Limon, on Costa Ricas northern Caribbean coast. The group had gone to the beach to collect leatherback sea turtle eggs to rebury them safely away from the poachers that frequented Moin. As the group was returning to the sanctuary, they encountered a log blocking the road, and when Mora exited the car to remove it, he was ambushed by a group of masked men. The men took the four women to an abandoned house, while Mora was taken to the beach, beaten and dragged naked behind a car. He died of asphyxiation in the sand. Following the verdict, Jairo Moras parents, Rafael Mora and Fernanda Sandoval, were too visibly upset to comment to a Tico Times reporter. The prosecution alleged that the seven defendants were members of a known poaching gang and murdered Mora because of his role protecting turtles on the beach. Judges cited the legal principle of in dubio pro reo, which means the court must rule in favor of defendants when reasonable doubt exists. In her explanation of the verdict, Judge Yolanda Alvaredo said the mishandling of evidence by investigators, prosecutors and preliminary courts contributed to this doubt. She also cited an incomplete investigation that was unable to determine with exactitude the identities of the perpetrators. Lamentably the management of evidence broke the chain of proof in this case, Alvaredo said.[more] By Lyndsey Layton 16 January 2015 (Washington Post) For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation. The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches. The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nations public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers. Weve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but its here sooner rather than later, said Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University, noting that the poverty rate has been increasing even as the economy has improved. A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school. The shift to a majority-poor student population means that in public schools, a growing number of children start kindergarten already trailing their more privileged peers and rarely, if ever, catch up. They are less likely to have support at home, are less frequently exposed to enriching activities outside of school, and are more likely to drop out and never attend college. It also means that education policy, funding decisions and classroom instruction must adapt to the needy children who arrive at school each day. When they first come in my door in the morning, the first thing I do is an inventory of immediate needs: Did you eat? Are you clean? A big part of my job is making them feel safe, said Sonya Romero-Smith, a veteran teacher at Lew Wallace Elementary School in Albuquerque. Fourteen of her 18 kindergartners are eligible for free lunches. [more] By Jethro Mullen and Steve Almasy 15 March 2015 (CNN) The fury of Tropical Cyclone Pam, one of the most powerful storms ever to make landfall, has moved on, but the misery it left behind in the islands of Vanuatu is just starting to become apparent. Aid workers described scenes of extensive devastation in the capital Port Vila and expressed fears of even more destruction farther afield. The storm flattened homes, scattered trees across roads and inflicted damage on key buildings that are meant to serve as safe havens, like the hospital, schools and churches. Its becoming increasingly clear that we are now dealing with worse than the worst case scenario in Vanuatu, said Helen Szoke, executive director in Australia for the aid group Oxfam. This is likely to be one of the worst disasters ever seen in the Pacific. At least 90% of housing in Port Vila has been badly damaged, parts of the hospital are flooded and the state mortuary took a hit, Oxfam said. At least six people have been confirmed dead. But communications with many of the 80-plus islands in the archipelago are down, so the fear is that the toll will climb as more information emerges. The confirmed deaths, reported by the National Disaster Management Office, are just from Port Vila. For most of a 24-hour period between Friday and Saturday, the cyclone pummeled the South Pacific nation, where some 260,000 people live, many in flimsy homes built of thatch. It is unclear how many thousands of people have been displaced by the massive storm that bore the might of a Category 5 hurricane when it made landfall. Relief workers are raising concerns about a lack of clean water and sanitation for the many people left homeless. Aid has started to trickle in. The Australian government said a first contingent of officials and supplies arrived in Port Vila around noon Sunday and more flights were expected to follow. In Port Vila, theres a lot of activity now people are starting to emerge, said Tom Perry of the aid group CARE International. You can see trees that are strewn across roads being chopped down. The evacuation centers are beginning to be set up. Perry, who arrived on one of the first Australian military flights into Port Vila, told CNN the damage there was very significant with trees that looked like snapped toothpicks. Its like a bomb has gone through, said journalist Michael McLennan, who lives in Port Vila. Its really quite apocalyptic. Most buildings in the capital were destroyed or damaged, he told CNN on Sunday morning. Many roads were blocked by fallen trees or power lines. [] When youve got a Category 5 cyclone that essentially just sat here for 24 hours where do you go when you have a storm that powerful? Perry of CARE International said. Its very terrifying to think about what people have been through. [more] New York (Financial Times) Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves dropped to their lowest level in at least two decades last year, pointing to tighter world supplies as energy demand increases in the future. Preliminary figures suggest the volume of oil and gas found last year, excluding shale and other reserves onshore in North America, was the lowest since at least 1995, according to previously unpublished data from IHS, the research company. Depending on later revisions, 2014 may turn out to have been the worst year for finding oil and gas since 1952. The slowdown in discoveries has been particularly pronounced for oil, suggesting that production from shales in the US and elsewhere, and from Opec, will play an increasingly important role in meeting growing global demand in the next decade. New finds of oil and gas are likely to have been about 16bn barrels of oil equivalent in 2014, IHS estimates, making it the fourth consecutive year of falling volumes. That is the longest sustained decline since 1950. Because new oilfields generally take many years to develop, recent discoveries make no immediate difference to the crude market, but give an indication of supply potential in the 2020s. Peter Jackson of IHS said: The number of discoveries and the size of the discoveries has been declining at quite an alarming rate you look at supply in 2020-25, it might make the outlook more challenging. So far there has not been a single new giant field one with reserves of more than 500m barrels of oil equivalent reported to have been found last year, although subsequent revisions may change that. [more] 19 March 2015 (IUCN) The first-ever assessment of all European wild bee species shows that 9.2% are threatened with extinction, while 5.2% are considered likely to be threatened in the near future. A total of 56.7% of the species are classified as Data Deficient, as lack of experts, data and funding has made it impossible to evaluate their extinction risk. The assessment was published today as part of The IUCN European Red List of Bees and the Status and Trends of European Pollinators (STEP) project, both funded by the European Commission. It provides for the first time information on all 1,965 wild bee species in Europe, including their status, distribution, population trends and threats. This assessment is the best understanding we have had so far on wild bees in Europe, says Jean-Christophe Vie, Deputy Director, IUCN Global Species Programme. However, our knowledge about them is incomplete as we are faced with an alarming lack of expertise and resources. Bees play an essential role in the pollination of our crops. We must urgently invest in further research in order to provide the best possible recommendations on how to reverse their decline. The report shows that 7.7% of the species have declining populations, 12.6% are stable and 0.7% are increasing. Population trends for the remaining 79% of bee species are unknown. Changing agricultural practices and increased farming intensification have led to large-scale losses and degradation of bee habitats one of the main threats to their survival. For instance, intensive silage production at the expense of hay-cropping causes losses of herb-rich grasslands and season-long flowering, which constitute important sources of forage for pollinators. The widespread use of insecticides also harms wild bees and herbicides reduce the availability of flowers on which they depend. The use of fertilisers promotes rank grassland, which is low in flowering plants and legume species the preferred food resources for many bee species. Intensive agriculture and farming practices have caused a sharp decline in the surface area of dry steppes, which house the Vulnerable Andrena transitoria bee a formerly common eastern Mediterranean species that spreads from Sicily to Ukraine and into Central Asia. Ploughing, mowing or grazing of flowering plants, as well as the use of insecticides have led to a 30% population decline of the species over the last decade, and its extinction in certain countries. Climate change is another important driver of extinction risk for most species of bees, and particularly bumblebees. Heavy rainfalls, droughts, heat waves and increased temperatures can alter the habitats that individual species are adapted to and are expected to dramatically reduce the area of its habitat, leading to population decline. A total of 25.8% of Europes bumblebee species are threatened with extinction, according to the assessment. Urban development and the increased frequency of fires also threaten the survival of wild bee species in Europe, according to the experts. The report also includes an assessment of the Western Honeybee (Apis mellifera) the most well-known pollinator. The Western Honeybee has a native distribution through much of Europe but it is uncertain whether it currently occurs as a truly wild, rather than domesticated species. As the Red List only covers wild not domesticated species, it has been assessed as Data Deficient. Further research is needed to distinguish between wild and non-wild colonies, and to better understand the impacts of malnutrition, pesticides and pathogens on honeybee colonies, according to IUCN. Public and scientific attention tends to focus on Western Honeybee as the key pollinator, but we must not forget that most of our wild flowers and crops are pollinated by a whole range of different bee species, says Simon Potts, STEP project Coordinator. We need far-reaching actions to help boost both wild and domesticated pollinator populations. Achieving this will bring huge benefits to wildlife, the countryside and food production. Our quality of life and our future depends on the many services that nature provides for free, says Karmenu Vella, EU Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Commissioner. Pollination is one of these services, so it is very worrying to learn that some of our top pollinators are at risk! If we dont address the reasons behind this decline in wild bees, and act urgently to stop it, we could pay a very heavy price indeed. The authors of the report call for greater attention to bees in the management of protected areas and in agricultural policies in Europe. They also emphasize the need for stronger support for bee taxonomists and survey programmes at national and European levels, in order to ensure long-term monitoring of the status of bees and effective conservation actions. Bees are essential for both wild ecosystems and agriculture. They provide crop pollination estimated to be worth 153 billion globally and 22 billion in Europe every year. Pollinators support crops accounting for 35% of global agricultural production volumes. Of the main crops grown for human consumption in Europe, 84% require insect pollination to enhance product quality and yields (e.g., many types of fruit, vegetables and nuts). Pollination is delivered by a range of insects, including wild and domesticated honeybees, bumblebees, many other wild bee species and other insects. The European Red List of Bees comes at a time when progress in implementing Europes strategy to halt biodiversity loss is under review. The results of this assessment stress the need for the full implementation of EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy in order to meet the biodiversity target of halting the loss of biodiversity and the degradation of ecosystem services in the EU by 2020, and restoring them in so far as feasible. For more information or to set up interviews please contact: Ewa Magiera, IUCN Media Relations t +41 22 999 0346 +41 22 999 0346 m +41 76 505 33 78 +41 76 505 33 78 , ewa.magiera@iucn.org Angelika Pullen, IUCN European Union Representative Office, t +32 473 947 966 +32 473 947 966 , angelika.pullen@iucn.org Enrico Brivio, European Commission, t +32 229 56172 +32 229 56172 , enrico.brivio@ec.europa.eu By James Sullivan 10 March 2015 (Science Recorder) According to a new paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change, its about to get a whole lot hotter thats the projected trend after looking at the weather over 40-year periods. While the fact that next century may bring us temperatures over the two degree Celsius mark (thats 33.5 degrees Fahrenheit) sounds alarming enough, imagine a milennium of record temperatures, that could bring about the detriment of human survival. According to the latest research, the Arctic, along with North America and Europe will be among the first regions on Earth whose climates will significantly reshape with wet areas becoming much wetter and dry areas desiccating further. Therefore, it is imperative that policy makers and researchers begin planning for adaptations to this new environment. Essentially the world is entering a new regime where what is normal is going to continue to change and its changing at a rate than natural processes might not be able to keep up with, said Steven Smith, a researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Although an analysis of the past millennium shows a fluctuation of temperatures at 0.2F each decade both moving up and down, the last four decades show something rather alarming. Not only have temperatures climbed consistently each decade since 1975, the warming is encroaching on an average of 0.4F per decade. Its a rate thats only barely within historical trends. By 2020, researchers expect these warming rates to accelerate beyond the historical bounds of the last 1,000 years continuing to rise. If nations do not work to control greenhouse gas emissions, this rate is expected to spike up to 0.7F per decade, a high that is expected to remain until at least 2100. These historic levels of warming are expected to begin in the northern hemisphere, which is already seeing a significant decrease in ice levels. Temperatures in the Arctic are expected to rise 1.1F per decade by the year 2040, while the warming rates in North America and Europe will be somewhat lower, the rates of warming will be equally unprecedented. With those high rates of change, theres not going to be anything close to equilibrium, said Smith. [more] By Marilyn Malara 25 April 2015 BOSTON (UPI) A new study confirms that long-term exposure to air pollution even at low levels can lead to brain damage that precedes other neurological disorders associated with old age. Investigator Elissa Wilker of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, along with colleagues, published their findings in the journal Stroke . The team tested the effects of long-term exposure to PM2.5, or fine particles found in the air like dust, dirt, soot, smoke, and liquid that measure less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Between 1995 and 2005, they used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to analyze the brain health of more than 900 healthy adults over the age of 60 living around Boston and New York. They found that a PM2.5 increase of 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air, a common level in metropolitan regions, was linked to a 0.32 percent reduction in total brain volume and a 46 percent increased risk of covert brain infarcts, a type of so-called silent stroke, which often presents no outward symptoms but increases the risk of future strokes. These covert brain infarcts occur deep within the brain and are linked to poor cognitive function and dementia, Wilker says. [ more ] Prolonged exposure to air pollution linked to brain damage, new study finds DALLAS, April 23, 2015 Long-term exposure to fine particle air pollution may cause subtle structural changes in the brain that could precede cognitive impairment and hidden brain damage, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. Fine particle air pollution smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5) may be the most common and hazardous type of air pollution. It comes from burning wood or coal, car exhaust and other sources. Long-term exposure to air pollution showed harmful effects on the brain in this study, even at low levels, particularly with older people and even those who are relatively healthy, said Elissa H. Wilker, Sc.D., study lead author and researcher in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. Researchers analyzed 943 adults in the Framingham Offspring Study, who were relatively healthy and free of dementia and stroke. The participants lived in the greater Boston area and throughout New England and New York regions where air pollution levels are low compared to other parts of the nation and the world. During 1995-2005, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine the effect of long-term exposure to air pollution on markers of brain structure. They found a 2 microgram per cubic meter of air (g/m3) increase in PM2.5, a range commonly observed across a metropolitan region, was associated with a 0.32 percent smaller total cerebral brain volume and a 46 percent higher risk of covert brain infarcts, a type of silent stroke. The magnitude of association that we observed for brain volume was similar to approximately one year of brain aging, Wilker said. Fundamental changes in the structure of the cerebral brain volume and smaller brain size are markers of age-associated brain atrophy. We found that people who live in areas where there are higher levels of air pollution had smaller total cerebral brain volume and were more likely to have evidence of covert brain infarcts, said Wilker, who is also an instructor of medicine in the Harvard Medical School. The small infarcts, typically located in deep regions of the brain, have been associated with neurological abnormalities, poorer cognitive function, dementia, and are thought to reflect small vessel disease, she said. Fine particulate matter affects more people than any other pollutant, with chronic exposure causing the most deaths from serious disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). PM2.5 may trigger disease because the particles penetrate into the alveoli of the lungs. Fine particulate matter can also contribute to the narrowing of arteries that supply blood to the brain. These findings are consistent with prior studies that have shown an association between long-term pollution exposure and living close to major roads and first-time stroke and poorer cognitive function in older adults. To educate the public about daily air quality levels, including ozone and particulate matter levels, the EPA provides daily updates at www.epa.gov/airnow and in many newspapers across the country. Co-authors are Sarah Preis, Sc.D.; Alexa Beiser, Ph.D.; Philip Wolf, M.D.; Rhoda Au, Ph.D.; Itai Kloog, Ph.D.; Wenyuan Li, M.S.; Joel Schwartz, Ph.D.; Petros Koutrakis, Ph.D., Charles DiCarli, M.D.; Sudha Seshadri, M.D.; and Murray Mittleman, M.D. The National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency funded the study. [cf. More displaced people and refugees now than at any other time in recorded history The global north must be prepared that the entire global south is on the move] By Joe Weisenthal 18 January 2016 (Bloomberg News) As the crash in commodities prices spreads economic woe across the developing world, Europe could face a wave of migration that will eclipse todays refugee crisis, says Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the World Economic Forum. Look how many countries in Africa, for example, depend on the income from oil exports, Schwab said in an interview ahead of the WEFs 46th annual meeting, in the Swiss resort of Davos. Now imagine 1 billion inhabitants, imagine they all move north. Whereas much of the discussion about commodities has focused on the economic and market impact, Schwab said hes concerned that it will also spur a substantial social breakdown. That fits into what Schwab, the founder of the WEF, calls the time of unexpected consequences we now live in. In the modern era, its harder for policy makers to know the impact of their actions, which has led to erosion of trust in decision makers. First, we have to look at the root causes of this, Schwab said. The normal citizen today is overwhelmed by the complexity and rapidity of whats happening, not only in the political world but also the technological field. That sense of dislocation has fueled the rise of radical political leaders who tap into a rich vein of anger and xenophobia. For reason to prevail, Schwab said, we have to re-establish a sense that we all are in the same boat. [more] Akshay Kumar: Saying That Airlift Is Copied From Argo Is An Insult India already has 100 crore mobile users, which increases by 20-35 lakh every month. India will have 500 million Internet users by the end of the year, said Telecom Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad. In a function at the Indore Management Association, Prasad said that the number of people using the Internet in India has gone up to 40 crore and is expected to go up to 50 crore in the next five to eight months. He also said that the governments estimates suggest that 70 per cent of these new users will be accessing the Internet from their mobile phones. This is in line with various other reports that have suggested massive growth in the number of Internet users in the country. According to Prasad, out of a population of about 125 crore people, 100 crore are already using mobile phones and 20-35 lakh mobile users are added to that every month. Likening the Narendra Modi government to the Vajpayee government, Prasad said that while the latter was known for building National Highways, Modi will be known for building Information Highways in the country. Further, the Telecom Minister also said that the government has been working on an optical fibre network to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in India. Connecting them would allow e-business, e-health and other projects to be started, he added. The Narendra Modi government has so far been focused on building the countrys tech ecosystem, encouraging companies from China etc. to start businesses in India. While Make In India and Digital India remain the buzzwords for the governments future plans, theres no denying that India has become an important market for companies everywhere. Our population, followed by lessers barriers to entry, as compared to China, have made India a favourable market. In addition, the fact that both the US and Chinese markets have been reaching saturation also help India come to the fore. Ceres Power Holdings has signed a new joint development agreement with Japans Honda to develop solid oxide fuel cell stacks using its metal-supported steel cell technology for a range of potential power equipment applications. The joint development will also include a third party who will consider future mass production scale-up of the steel cell technology based on Ceres manufacturing processes. Ceres, a developer of next-generation fuel cell technology, said the two-year agreement will allow the parties to build on the successful joint development agreement announced in 2014. Chief executive Phil Caldwell said: This latest agreement with Honda represents a huge endorsement of our steel cell technology, in the world's most advanced fuel cell market. We are demonstrating that we can successfully deliver on our strategy of embedding our steel cell technology into a variety of different power products and markets with the world's leading companies. At 1003 GMT, Ceres shares were up 10.2% to 4.75p. Chinese authorities moved to tighten liquidity in the offshore yuan market on Monday, in what observers said amounted to a short-term move towards increased capital controls to deter speculation against its currency. The Peoples Bank of China said it would normalise its reserve requirements for offshore financial institutions onshore deposits as of 25 January. Reacting to the decision, the so-called offshore yuan appreciated by 0.46% versus the US dollar in Hong Kong trading to reach 6.5833, following a rise of 1.05% in the week before. Reserve requirements for offshore lenders would be the same as the 17.5% applied to onshore banks, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. This is another tool to manage liquidity in the offshore market and aims at draining liquidity currently to increase the cost of selling the CNH forward, analysts at Danske Bank explained in a research note sent to clients. China wants to signal very clearly that it is not aiming for a devaluation of its currency. We thus expect that the PBoC will try to keep the CNY stable in the short term using the above-mentioned weapons." That saw the one-month Hong Kong interbank offered rate or HIBOR jump 251 basis points to 11.84%. On 12 January it reached an all-time high of 15.74%. In parallel, on Monday the PBoC set the daily reference rate or fixing for the yuan 0.07% higher. The onshore yuan strengthened by 0.09% from its close on Friday to 6.5780. Analysts said the move by the central bank could tie-up 220bn-280bn yuan in funds. One week HIBOR gained 370 basis points to 11.9% on Monday, with some analysts citing further intervention from Chinese authorities in the offshore market. One reason the PBOC is rushing towards convertibility, despite the risks, is that it feels that it must seize the chance while it has Mr Xis blessing. But better to retreat temporarily on one front (in reference to the country's capital controls) than to trigger a global panic, The Economist said in its latest weekly edition. The odds of the US falling into a recession had risen to their highest in four years, according to the results of CNBCs Fed survey, published on Monday. According to the poll, respondents had grown increasingly fearful of such an outcome for a sixth month in row, putting the chances of the American economy falling back into contraction at 28%. However, for the moment, while weakness was evident so far it was not sufficient to bring economic growth tumbling down, CNBC said. Although factory activity was shrinking, exports weak and corporate profits were said to be in a recession the consumer was strong, as were job growth and the service sector. In its report the broadcaster also pointed a finger towards the reduced spread between two and ten year US Treasury note yields, which at 118 basis points was at its lowest since the last recession. Nontheless, the spread only signaled recession when it was at zero so at present it was "softer, but not soft enough to signal recession", CNBC said. 1630:Close Stocks ended lower despite the fact that US markets were closed in observance of a bank holiday, contrary to the pattern typically seen, some traders said. The price action took place against a backdrop of new moves by China to prop up its currency and further selling pressure in the oil patch after the IAEA decided over the weekend to give the green-light for nuclear sanctions on Iran to be lifted. To take note of, US high-grade defaults might rise further as contagion spreads beyond the energy sector to manufacturing and retail, RBS said in a research note sent to clients. FTSE 100 down 24.18 points to 5,779.92. 1600: Shares in RBS are lower with some market commentary referencing worries that another year of losses might put the lenders plans to reinstate dividend payments in jeopardy. 1249: Traders are linking an early spike lower in Lloyds stock to a so-called 'fat finger'. 1240: China's securities regulator has officially denied a Reuters report that said its chairman had resigned. 1110: Oil continues to pare earlier losses. To take note of, market commentary seems to be pointing towards Chinese desire to signal it's not tinkering with the currency. The Economist over the weekend predicted a move by the Asian giant back towards stricter capital controls. Danske Bank had this to say: " While China aims for a stable exchange rate, we continue to believe that market forces will work in favour of a further gradual weakening of the CNY and look for USD/CNY to hit 7.00 in 12M. However, China wants to signal very clearly that it is not aiming for a devaluation of its currency. We thus expect that the PBoC will try to keep the CNY stable in the short term using the above-mentioned weapons." 1020: The China Securities Regulatory Commission's chairman, who introduced the circuit breaker mechanism that was designed to limit stock market losses but led to hugely volatile swings, has tendered his resignation, according to Reuters. Xiao Gang, 57, was blamed for the circuit breaker exacerbating a sharp selloff before it was deactivated on 7 January, just three days after its introduction. 1015: Market observers have been left scratching their heads following a sharp spike lower in Lloyds, and subsequent rebound on high trading volumes, with apparently no fresh news to explain the move. 1000: The pound is nearing its lowest levels since May 2010, just above 1.4227. 0907: Stocks have begun the morning slightly higher despite the sharp losses seen on Wall Street last Friday, although US equities did manage to finish off their intra-day lows. Shares in Old Mutual and Shire are doing best in the early going, with the latter benefiting from an upgrade out of analysts at Credit Suisse. Fresnillo and Randgold are lower, despite a report in the FT saying that the global output of gold has already peaked. The offshore yuan is higher early on after reports that China will increase offshore yuan reserve requirements for banks. Oil futures started lower out of the gate but have pared their initial losses. US markets will remain closed today, with no major data releases schedule either in the Eurozone nor in the UK. Equity indices in the UK are being called to begin the session trading slightly higher on the back of a small rise in the Chinese currency and despite another leg lower in crude futures. The Footsie is seen starting the day about 16 points higher from Friday close of 5,804.10. Acting as a backdrop, analysts are still trying to determine the implications of the past two weeks very poor start to trading in global capital markets in 2016. In such an asset price sensitive global economy a prolonged period of panic will likely hit business and consumer confidence and with the global economy already weak it could tip us into a recession. So to avoid it we need some stability over the next few weeks, said Deutsche Banks Jim Reid in a research note sent to clients on Monday morning. In Asia, the Shanghai Stock Exchanges Composite Index edged higher by 0.44% to 2,913.84. The offshore yuan strengthened +0.5% on Monday morning after news that China will raise offshore yuan reserve requirements for banks. Heading in the other direction, as of 07:38GMT front month Brent crude futures were 2.7% lower to $28.15 per barrel on the ICE after the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had met its commitments regarding curbs on its nuclear programme. On Saturday, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano gave the UK, European Union and US the green light to lift their sanctions on the Central Asian country. US markets were to remain closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr.s birthday. Homebase hived off to Aussies Home Retail Group has agreed to sell its Homebase division to Wesfarmers, one of Australias biggest retailing groups. The FTSE 250 company announced the formal agreement worth 340m after confirming last week it was in talks to make a sale. Shareholders are set to receive around 200m in the deal, which is expected to be completed by the end of March. Amec Foster Wheelers chief executive Samir Brikho is stepping down from his role, the oil and gas engineer announced alongside a very brief trading update. Chief financial officer Ian McHoul has been appointed to the role of interim CEO with immediate effect and will chair the group leadership team while the search for a new chief executive is conducted. Wolseley said chief executive Ian Meakins would retire on 31 August 2016 to be replaced by chief financial officer John Martin. Meakins joined the plumbing and heating and building products distribution business in July 2009. Simon Nicholls will replace Martin as CFO, joining Wolseley from Cobham, a technology company specialising in aerospace, defence and communication. The company said it expected adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to be in line with expectations. Revenue from clay and concrete products in the UK, which represents approximately 80% of Group revenue, was up 9% for the full year compared to 2014. The growth in revenue in 2015 primarily reflects a stronger pricing environment for clay bricks. Despite the release and reduction of brick stocks by some housebuilders and distributors, total UK industry brick demand continued to exceed estimated annual domestic production capacity during the year, Ibstock said in a trading statement. Clay product revenue increased by 13% on the equivalent period in 2014, but concrete product revenues in 2015 were 1.5% lower than 2014, with increased revenue in new build housing related products - including roof tiles - outweighed by lower activity in fencing related products and rail products - where projects have been delayed. Ibstock said revenues from US operations were up 10% for the full year compared with 2014 reflecting a combination of rising volumes and higher average prices which include the benefit from a more favourable product mix. The company started building an additional clay brick factory in Leicestershire, England - which will expand Ibstock's UK clay brick capacity by around 13% - and the installation of a new concrete tile line at the Leighton Buzzard facility, which will broaden the Group's concrete tile product range. Both projects are progressing in line with expectations, with the concrete tile line expected to be operational in the second half of 2016 and the additional brick factory expected to commence commissioning in the second half of 2017, Ibstock said. Price negotiations for 2016 with all our major UK brick customers have now been concluded and are in line with management expectations. More properties have become available for first-time buyers and prices have stopped rising, in what the property website Rightmove says is the first evidence that the chancellors clampdown on buy-to-let is working. Rightmove said there had been a 6.6% jump in fresh-to-the-market two-bed flats over the past year, the most sought-after sector in the first-time buyer market. - Guardian The boss of Nisa has predicted further consolidation in the crowded convenience sector after the retail chain swung back into the black over Christmas. Nick Read, who joined as chief executive in February last year, said that the intense price war in the grocery market and changing shopping behaviours would fuel further dealmaking. - Telegraph The government is poised to come under fresh pressure to help the steel industry with workers braced for further job losses. Tata is expected to announce around 1,000 job cuts at plants including Port Talbot and Llanwern in south Wales. Guardian Uber has hit back at accusations from Boris Johnson that the ride-hailing service is a significant cause of congestion in the capital, setting the stage for a potential showdown between the mayor of London and the San Francisco-based start-up. A long-awaited traffic study of Manhattan ordered last year by Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York has concluded that Uber and its rivals have not added markedly to congestion in the Big Apple. The Times Clydesdale Bank is set to slash its value when it pushes ahead with its flotation in the face of turbulent market conditions today. National Australia Bank, which owns the British lender, had hoped to achieve a price of about 2.2 billion for Clydesdale, which will become the UKs biggest standalone challenger bank. However, investors have said that the price will have to come down by several hundred million pounds. The Times A senior cardinal chosen by Pope Francis to manage the Vaticans finances has launched into a spirited defence of free markets, countering the perception that the Catholic church under the Argentine pontiff has turned against capitalism and business. George Pell, the head of the Holy Sees secretariat for the economy, told a conference hosted by The Global Foundation in Rome on Sunday that no better model is available at the moment than market economies, citing their capacity to rejuvenate after the Great Depression and recent global financial crisis, and their failure to produce the massive alienation predicted by Karl Marx. Financial Times SpaceX announced a successful satellite launch on Sunday but failed an attempted sea-landing of a rocket booster, missing a goal that has repeatedly eluded the grasp of the Los Angeles-based rocket company. Elon Musks SpaceX has been focused on mastering the art of returning booster rockets on Earth after a launch, in the hope this will enable the company to lower costs by re-using these rockets. Financial Times UK, US and German consumers spend the highest amount per person online worldwide, according to research compiled by Internet World Germany. British shoppers spend the most an average of 1,050 each year, followed closely by the US with 1,001. German consumers take the third spot, with online shoppers spending 915 on average per year. [] UK, US and German consumers spend the highest amount per person online worldwide, according to research compiled by Internet World Germany. British shoppers spend the most an average of 1,050 each year, followed closely by the US with 1,001. German consumers take the third spot, with online shoppers spending 915 on average per year. Germany has 45 million online shoppers. Seven out of ten consumers over the age of 14 actively purchase goods via the internet, while the countrys total ecommerce turnover amounted to 41.7bn (31.2bn) in 2015: up from 37.1bn (28bn) the previous year. Internet World Germanys research overview found that the top ten online retailers currently generate more than a third of total ecommerce sales in the country. Amazons latest turnover figure of over 6.5bn (4.9bn) makes it the most popular online shop, while fashion retailers Otto and Zalando recorded sales of almost 2bn (1.5bn) and 872m (659m) respectively. The average ecommerce spend per head spend in Germany is not far off UK and US levels, said Saskia Muller, Head of Internet World Germany. With domestic and international online brands continuing to understand whats important to German consumers and adding value to their services, theres a lot of room for growth in an already mature market. Ecommerce accounts for 15.3% of total retail sales in Germany, excluding food, according to the data gathered. Technology is the top performing sector with 20.9% of total sales. Sport and leisure sees 20.2%, while fashion takes 18.9% of spend. Almost two thirds (63%) of German consumers aged 60 and over purchase products online, compared to 58% of teens aged 14 to 19. The most prolific are 30 to 39 year olds, with 80% identifying as online shoppers. Methodology: Sources for Internet World Germanys research compilation: AGOF digital facts 2015-07, HDE-Prognose, Deals.com, GfK, EHI/Statista. Source: Internet World Germany Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Democrat Nan Whaley pins campaign to unseat Gov. DeWine on abortion Democrat Nan Whaley is pinning her campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on one issue: abortion. Telefonica may buy AT&T's LatAm pay TV assets valued at $10 bn Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica SA is keen on buying AT&T Inc's pay TV assets in Latin America valued at around $10 billion, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. AT&T is yet to decide if it will explore a deal with Telefonica or choose another company, the report said. AT&T had last year acquired the Latin American assets as part of its purchase of DirecTV for $67.1-billion including debt of 18.6 billion. (See: AT&T completes DirecTV acquisition) AT&T's Latin American assets includes satellite and cable television services in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and several other countries. AT&T is the biggest player in Central and South America with more than 17 million pay TV subscribers. DirecTV Latin America holds 93 per cent in Sky Brasil, and 41 per cent in Sky Mexico. It owns PanAmericana, which operates in Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Puerto Rico. Commentators say there may be others who would be interested in AT&T's assets in specific countries, with one potential buyer being Liberty Global Plc, the report added. Telefonica is one of the world's largest telecommunications company in terms of market capitalisation and number of customers. The company operates in 21 countries and has more than 327 million customers with a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America. It posted net profit 52.9 billion last year on revenues of 50.3 billion. However, the Madrid-based company is trying to reduce its massive debt of $54 billion. It recently agreed to sell its UK O2 division to CK Hutchinson Holdings for $15 billion and also plans to spin off or sell its Spanish infrastructure division this year. dpa ElectionsData With dpa ElectionsData you get access to a unique collection of data. Via a programming interface (Rest-API), your developers can access detailed information, candidate profiles and live results for all national elections in the European Union and important international elections, like the US Midterm elections etc. The data pool also includes all heads of state and government as well as about 20,000 elected members of parliament throughout the EU. In addition to their data (name, party, constituency or list position), we collect social media profiles and official websites of individuals and parties. Europe's major crash authority has released a list of the safest vehicles assessed under its program for 2015. Euro NCAP, the European affiliate to the Australian New Car Assessment Program, announced the star pupils this week based on market segment. The top scorers were those with the highest sum of scores in the organisations four areas of assessment. The standout vehicles were the Volvo XC90, Mercedes-Benz GLC, Jaguar XE, Mazda MX-5 and Infiniti Q30, all of which are currently sold in Australia, where ANCAP scores are partly based on NCAP testing if the vehicle cannot be crash tested locally. Beating the new Lexus RX and Audi Q7 to the punch in the large off-road segment, the XC90 achieved a score of 97 per cent for adult occupant safety, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 72 per cent for pedestrian safety and 100 per cent for onboard safety technologies. One size down, in the small off-road segment, the Mercedes-Benz GLC scored 95 per cent for adult protection, 89 per cent for child protection and 82 per cent of pedestrian safety. In safety assist systems, it scored 71 per cent, enough to edge ahead of similarly classed vehicles like the new BMW X1, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson. The winner of the large family car segment was the new Jaguar XE, which finished ahead of the Kia Optima, updated Audi A4 and Skoda Superb. (92 per cent for adult protection, 82 per cent for children and 81 per cent for pedestrians. Safety systems were rated at 82 per cent). In the small family car segment, the Infiniti Q30 finished ahead of rivals including the Opel (Holden) Astra, Renault Megane and Honda HR-V thanks to an 84 per cent adult protection rating, 86 per cent child protection rating, 91 per cent pedestrian rating and an 81 per cent score for safety assist systems. The winner of the supermini class, which included rivals such as the Mini Clubman, Mazda CX-3, Hyundai i20, Mazda2 and Suzuki Vitara, was the Honda Jazz. It managed 93 per cent in adult protection, 85 per cent in child protection, 73 per cent for pedestrians and 71 per cent of safety assist technology. Meanwhile, it was the MX-5 which shone in the Roadster Sport class to finish ahead of the BMW Z4 and Audi TT. The Japanese convertible scored 84 per cent in adult protection, 80 per cent in child protection, 93 per cent for pedestrians and 64 per cent for safety assist technologies. The MX-5 earned the award despite the fact it, along with any other competitor, couldn't manage a 5 star safety rating overall under NCAP's guidelines. Australian enthusiasts have been dealt a major boost with confirmation this week that Ford's upcoming Focus RS hot hatch will be fitted with a 'Drift' function available to other markets. In the wake of Ford's decision to delete a burnout mode on the new Mustang because of anti-hooning laws despite every other market around the world receiving it local stakeholders have confirmed the RS will be fitted with the unique Drift mode, which essentially tweaks elements of the vehicle's all-wheel drive system, engine and stability control system to enable drivers to master lairy oversteer. "The European features that are on that car will be seen in Australia," a Ford Australia spokesman confirmed to Drive, clarifying that the decision to delete the Mustang's burnout mode was a different issue. Ford this week lifted the lid on more details surrounding the Focus RS, specifically how the upcoming vehicle's driving modes will operate. Coinciding with the commencement of regular production at Ford's RS plant in Saarlouis, Germany, the blue oval let former Stig Ben Collins loose on track before releasing the footage this week. In the video, Collins experiments with the RS' four different driving modes - Normal, Sport, Track and Drift - functions activated at the press of a button on the centre console that alters tuning of the all-wheel drive system, dampers, steering, engine, stability control and exhaust. In drift mode, the RS' steering and dampers are left in their most basic settings, but everything else is tweaked for more tyre smoking potential. As you can see in the video, the function appears to unlock a whole new driving dimension. The Focus RS will arrive in Australia mid year with a price tag of $50,990 (plus on-road costs), considerably cheaper than the $59,990 predecessor. Unlike the vehicle before it, which was capped at only 315 examples, Ford Australia says production numbers will not be limited. Developed by a dedicated Ford Performance team including input from rally star Ken Block, the RS will feature all-wheel drive power with torque vectoring technology when it lands in showrooms. Power will come courtesy of a 2.3-litre turbocharged four-cylinder EcoBoost engine producing 257kW and 440Nm (up to 470Nm with a transient overboost function), shared with the EcoBoost Mustang but tailored specifically for the RS. The engine will offer more power than the Mustang thanks to a new twin-scroll turbocharger, a larger intercooler, a less restrictive intake design and bi-modal exhaust system. The work has helped raise the 2.3-litre engine's maximum rev limit to 6800rpm. As before, the Focus RS will continued to be offered solely with a six-speed manual transmission. Keep an eye out for Drive's full review of the Focus RS from Spain in the coming week. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Sydney-Melbourne; its the worlds third busiest flight route by passenger volume so busy in fact that it wouldnt be unusual to see the occasional, jumbo aircraft operate the brief 55 minute journey. Combine these facts with three aviation enthusiasts who have an interest in disruptive innovation and technology and we have revolutionary new service that turns the traditional airline business model completely on its head. Airly, co-founded by Alexander Robinson, Luke Hampshire and Ivan Vysotskiy introduces to Australia an entirely new style of air travel for the frequent flyer. A more painstaking process in practice Most of us would concede that the journey between Australias two largest cities is a more painstaking process in practice than theory suggests. Existing pricing models mean last-minute travellers pay top dollar for their fares before embarking on the [lets be honest] 4-hour trip when airport security, baggage collection and notoriously long city transfers are added to the mix. The Airly co-Founders believe they have found the solution in a concept that allows travellers to pay a set monthly fee of $2550 for unlimited flights between the smaller, hassle-free airports of Bankstown in Sydney and Melbourne Essendon. Alexander said the idea is really credited to Surf Air, the Californian membership-based airline that started membership-based All-You-Can-Fly in 2013. Weve watched them closely, both from an interest and then an entrepreneurial perspective. Airly currently has three 8-seater Beechcraft King Air 350s making their way to Australian shores in preparation for Airlys initial 54-flight-per-week service between Melbourne and Sydney, anticipated to commence in March. All three aircraft utilised by Airly will be subject to leasing arrangements which include complete crew, maintenance and insurance. Commenting on the choice of route, Alexander said that distances and existing infrastructure dont facilitate ground transport and commercial air travel is over capacity. We see a niche opportunity using smaller airports and a differentiated service to deliver something invaluable back to frequent travellers: time, said Alexander. Airly projects that the complete journey time between Sydney and Melbourne will be reduced to 2 hours. Aviation has become increasingly frustrating, commoditised, and inefficient in many areas. Airly is looking to improve this aspect of the industry and deliver efficiencies back to members. A careful balancing act With Airlys target member being the ultra- frequent traveller according to Alexander, theres a careful balancing act to play between ensuring adequate availability of flights and the maintenance of a healthy revenue stream for the business. Alexander says that customer experience, availability of seats, flexibility of travel and frequency of flights is critical to Airlys success. We have members joining now, and when we reach a certain number that balances service availability, member experience and profitable business, we will launch scheduled services, said Alexander. Fast-emerging, ultra-frequent travellers A balancing act it may be with no room for error, but the Airly team have every reason to be optimistic about their new venture as membership-based air travel is already proving increasingly popular across the USA and Europe. After launching in 2013, Californias Surf Air expanded its number of destinations last year after it experienced a 40 per cent increase in its exclusive membership. Other competitors such as Rise and Wheels Up have since entered the US market while Europe saw the launch of Belgiums Take Air in early 2015. So who are these fast-emerging, ultra-frequent travellers proving this business model a success? Alexander said typically managers, CEOs, entrepreneurs, executives, consultants, professionals and creatives. Members may fly regularly at their own expense, or under a corporate membership; were seeing a lot of interest from companies looking for a more efficient means of travel for their frequent travelling employees. Members are primarily attracted to Airly based on the two-hours per round trip time saving they will gain. While recognising that the delivery of excellent operations on their launch routes currently remains top priority, the team have every intention to ride the wave of this growing trend for all-you-can-fly services. According to Alexander, the team have identified as many as 15 routes within Australia that are currently marred by congestion, density, frequency and over-capacity. In the longer term, we see potential markets in New Zealand and Asia, where the same problem exists, said Alexander. Positively disrupting the aviation industry As with other disruptive and innovative companies, the development of Airly has not been without challenges. As an industry, aviation is volatile, has high costs, customers have various options, there are entrenched competitors and there are significant barriers to entry, said Alexander. We are learning from the aviation industry as well as best practices from other industries. Will Airly bring the shake-up to the airline industry that people might be anticipating? Alexander says Airly is a complementary service to the aviation industry by targeting a niche market and delivering a service that large airlines are unable to scale down to offer. We see Airly as positively disrupting the aviation industry, he said. If, by improving the efficiencies of air travel with our market focus, Airly will help the industry improve overall, that is a win for travellers and the industry. ASUS Zenfone Zoom is one of the new smartphone offerings of ASUS for 2016. If you have been following my Social Media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and youve seen my previous post Im sure you already know that I went to Cebu this weekend to see Sinulog up close. Asus Philippines flew me in with some other bloggers from Manila and Davao to be one one of the first to test the new ASUS Zenfone Zoom at one of the colorful, eye-catcching and most-attended festival in the country to welcome 2015, the Sinulog Festival. Before leaving Manila, ASUS sent us a Zenfone Max as well so we can use it to take pictures or videos for our personal travel diary of our first blogging related trip of 2016 as we can #SeeMoreWithFullCharge with this new smartphone (more details later). As we landed in Cebu we were escorted by the ASUS Philippines PR team to take us to home for the weekend and the event venue for the ASUS Zenfone Zoom launch at the Marriott Hotel. Lo and behold, the worlds thinnest 3x optical-zoom smartphone with 3x HOYA lens. The ASUS Zenfone Zoom revolutionizes smartphone photography because of its DSLR-quality photography , so that we can all enjoy and indulge in the experience of taking photos with our smartphone something we Filipinos love to do (including me!) Specs: 64-bit quad-core power, 4GB RAM, 250Mbit/s LTE and Full HD display, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 display, 128GB memory, 3000mah non-removable lithium polymer battery, 13MP rear and 5MP front cam. with 3x Optical Zoom, Macro Photography, 0.03 Laser Auto Focus, Low Light Mode, Optical Zoom for Video and Panoramic Selfie features. Comes in Pure leather back cover, in black, and white (not sure if the orange will be available in the Philippines!) Yep cant help but admire this monster high-end smartphone camera of ASUS! So, to give us the full experience, we explored Cebu Cathedral and the historical Magellans Cross during the festivities. Competing with the crowd (to take better angles) and with each other (as we were group into teams for a fun photography contest) armed with the Max and the Zoom . Viva Pit Senyor, was the parade of the Sto. Nino with the fast movement of the carousel and the people waving their hands, it was amazing that I was able to get a stabilized shot like this using the ASUS Zenfone Zoom (0.03 Laser Auto Focus feature check a fast moving subeckt as the focus of the shot). It was difficult to take a shot because the gates were closed and there were many people around throwing in different colored candles at the Magellans Cross, but the Zoom took a perfect shot with drama using the Low Light Setting , you can also read the text on the cross if you zoom it in. Using the Optical Zoom function of the Video setting . We were challenged to have a foreigner/tourist say with Pit Senyor sa Tanan , we went to find a random tourist during the Sinulog Festival 2016 Grand Carouselle Parade and here is the finish product: Here are some of the shots taken from the festvities! I was so glad to be able to #SeeSinulogUpClose like this close! Thank you ASUS Philippines for the opportunity! Vibrant colors, stabilized shot inspite of most of them being an action shot, super clear details . The three best features of the the ASUS Zenfone Zoom you can bank on. Let these photos speak for itself. Interested to know how much is it? It was revealed to us at the launch: Want it ? Get it! Visit ASUS Global Facebook Page for the availability and other details about the latest Zenfones. Stay gorgeous everyone! In her closing remarks during last nights Democratic candidates presidential debate, Hillary Clinton brought up the poisoning of Flints drinking water, saying shes outraged, that every single American should be outraged, and that Gov. Rick Snyder acted as though he didnt really care. Here are her remarks in full: I spent a lot of time last week being outraged by whats happening in Flint, Michigan, and I think every single American should be outraged. Weve had a city in the United States of America where the population, which is poor in many ways and majority African-American, has been drinking and bathing in lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as though he didnt really care. He had requests for help, and he had basically stonewalled. Ill tell you what, if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there wouldve been action. So, I sent my top campaign aide down there to talk to the mayor of Flint, to see what I could to help and I issued a statement about what we needed to do and then I went on a T.V. show and I said it was outrageous that the governor hadnt acted. And within two hours, he had. Heres the video: Meanwhile, Gov. Snyder and his supporters are spending their time trying to deflect blame. Republican political consultant and PR specialist, John Truscott, the former communications director and press secretary under Republican Gov. John Engler, took a few minutes from his Colorado ski trip to suggest on Facebook that this has gotten blown out of proportion because only a very small number of kids have elevated lead levels and thats no big deal because, there are probably tens of thousands of kids across the country with elevated levels (linking former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earleys laughable op-ed in The Detroit News in which he absolves himself of any responsibility for the poisoning of Flints water): The problem with this, of course, is that blood lead levels only reveal recent exposure since the lead is rapidly absorbed by bones: It is impossible to accurately measure total body lead burden. For instance, measurement of blood lead concentration primarily reflects recent/current lead exposure. X-ray fluorescent imaging provides a semiquantitative tool for measurement of lead content in individual bones. In addition, measurement of urinary lead excretion after EDTA administration provides a rough estimation of lead burden. In other words, the extent of this problem is likely much worse than current blood testing results show because lead entered the drinking water of many Flint homes last summer. Truscott also seems to believe the problem with the Snyder administrations response has been that they didnt handle the media better: Gov. Snyder himself wants everyone to quit worrying about who is to blame for this human-made crisis: Political statements and finger pointing from political candidates only distract from solving the Flint water crisis. Governor Rick Snyder (@onetoughnerd) January 18, 2016 The fact is his administration is fully responsible for this catastrophe. You cant put a single person in charge of an entire city and then take credit only for anything positive that happens while shirking responsibility when things go horribly, horribly wrong. Its worth noting that the reason the Obama administration is only providing $5 million in aid to Flint is because federal regulations prohibit this from being declared a disaster. Human-caused problems are not classified as disasters but as emergencies which limits the federal governments options: President Obama has declared a state of emergency in response to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where thousands of residents have been exposed to toxic amounts of lead. The presidents action on Saturday authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency in Genesee County. FEMA can provide up to $5 million in federal aid to help provide water, filters, and other items for up to 90 days to residents whose water has been contaminated since the city switched water supplies in a cost-cutting move in 2014. The declaration was requested on Thursday by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, who had also sought a major disaster declaration and asked for nearly $96 million to be expedited for relief efforts. A disaster declaration would have freed up more federal aid, but Flints problem did not qualify because it was a man-made disaster. Gov. Snyder is planning to appeal the decision: President Barack Obama declared a federal emergency in Flint on Saturday, but denied Snyders request to designate Flint a disaster zone because the citys water contamination was a man-made calamity. Were planning to appeal, Snyder spokesman Dave Murray said Sunday. We want to exhaust every opportunity to bring potential resources to Flint. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator W. Craig Fugate, in a letter to Snyder, said his request for a major disaster declaration was denied because the water contamination does not meet the legal definition of a major disaster under federal law. The incident was not the result of a natural catastrophe, nor was it created by a fire, flood or explosion, Fugate said. They are 100% correct. This was not caused by a natural catastrophe. It was created by an unnatural catastrophe, the corporatist approach taken by our CEO governor who insists, despite all of the evidence proving it does not work, that our state be run like a business. Be sure to join the protest at the state Capitol tomorrow being held in conjunction with Gov. Snyders State of the State Address. RSVP and learn more at the events Facebook page HERE. Speakers at the event will include: Melissa Mays, Flint resident, founder of Water You Fighting For Nayyirah Shariff, Flint resident, Flint Democracy Defense League Cindy Estrada, Vice President of the UAW Mark Schauer, former MI Congressman and Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Curt Guyette, Investigative Reporter with the ACLU of Michigan Cheryl Weston, RN at McLaren Lapeer and Board Member of the Michigan Nurses Association Check the Facebook page for information on buses running from various communities to Lansing to take people to the rally. In Washtenaw County, the Washtenaw County Democratic Party is working to run a bus to Lansing to take people from our area. Stay tuned for details on that. Most of you dont know that I have literally written thousands of speeches, not for myself, but for many leaders in organized labor, titans of industry, and some serious politicians, some of whom are serving today. These speeches are written within the guidelines of confidential agreements and I have always taken this job very seriously, paying a great deal of attention to the persons natural delivery and passion, or sometimes the lack thereof. As I was writing my column for today, and this is NOT it (well, it is now), it occurred to me that if Governor Rick Snyder sought me out to help with his State of the State Address, it would go something like what I am about to write. Although I left the speech writing business more than a few years ago, I believe I have seen, heard, and explored about as much as I could without spending real time with him. I dont really want to spend some real time with him at this point, but let me give this a go. The Good People of Michigan: I have been honored to serve as your Governor over the last five years where much has transpired over that time. But to truly understand where I came from and where I am going, I am now required to do something I havent felt compelled to do before and, in fact, dont feel completely comfortable doing now. But current situations, and yes the plural is important to what I am about to share, matter. When I decided to run for Governor of Michigan back in 2009, I was counseled by many powerful and well-connected friends in the Republican Party both here in Michigan and beyond. Over the course of my career as a leader in the tech field, and due to the handsome income that I was fortunate to amass over the years, my political influence grew as the checks I wrote to politicians gave me great influence, something that I enjoyed. I enjoyed it to the point that I thought that it might be fun to be a politician myself. So, I set off on finding the best team to get elected governor that money could buy, guilted some in the GOP into giving me money and introducing me to others who could help me get elected, and, most importantly, decided to take some good advice from Dick DeVos who told me that the less I said about myself and the more I talked about the problems in the State of Michigan, the better off I would be. Little did I realize that the mainstream media would require little of me. But they loved slogans like Relentless Positive Action and other silly, nonsensical phrases that sound like action but really mean nothing. I mean really, Relentless Positive Action, how do we even define that, right? I also quickly realized that, because everyone running in the primary was well known, as long as I said nothing and smiled and looked uncomfortable but sincere, I could do a lot to get myself elected. I was aware that I would eventually have to surround myself with people who actually knew something about running a state, which, of course, I did not do. But I knew at the time that there were many people who I could choose from who looked and sounded a whole lot more learned about issues than I did. And I was right about that. I also found out that I could raise money effortlessly once I won as long as I did something for the people who wrote the checks. I didnt feel bad about that because they all do it and by they I mean elected politicians. I then found that even the political leaders in the legislature of my own Party, who didnt like me much, would bring me legislation that allowed me to raise even more money and no one would have to know who wrote the check. Now dont get me wrong; at first, I thought I was being misleading. But it was so easy to sign laws that made things easier for those who write big checks to continue to do so and who was I hurting anyway? Well, here we are in 2016. The past five years have flown by and truth be told I thought maybe I wouldnt really have a chance to get reelected because a lot of voters were plenty upset with me for some good reasons. So I thought I would run again, but do very little to get reelected, control the crowds who showed up, and just see what happened. And you know what? Democrats like to complain but they dont seem to like to vote for some reason. In fact, when I was told that when districts were redrawn by my own Party and, I mean, how much better does it get than that?! getting reelected was easier (even though I did come close to losing) than I ever thought it could be. I share all of this with you because I also read the blogs and know that maybe I didnt do a very good job of hiding in plain sight. I also have to admit that, while my arrogance and money did buy me what I wanted and also bought a lot of rich white guys what they wanted (even in the face of the increased attacks on me), it all seemed OK mostly because I was getting away with it. Plus, I wasnt really doing anything illegal or anything that could be traced directly to me, for that matter. But whos counting, right? Well, someone obviously was and I now realize that just because you can get away with something, even something legal, it doesnt make it right. Before I get into specifics, I trust you have all heard about the massive debt my administration has created for the citizens of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools. When I personally saved the City of Detroit by forcing Public Act 436 on all Michigan citizens, I knew I knew better than the voters who voted down a very similar Public Act 4. But, because we have laws that allow me to ignore the will of the people and all I had to do was something as easy as putting what is called an appropriation in a bill, making it literally impossible for voters to ever question my wisdom ever again, I was on a path to being a real hero. I saved Detroit with an Emergency Manager, tried to do the same thing in Benton Harbor, Allen Park, Highland Park, more school systems, etc. Hey, I tried and, if voters and school teachers had left me alone, things would have worked out OK, for the most part. So yes, I created over $300 million in debt for the Detroit Public Schools. I created the Education Achievement Authority where the people who ran it were too stupid to cover their tracks like I have. And I oversaw a resurgence of the Michigan economy that we all know had to do with former President George W. Bush and President Obama. Yes, they did save the auto industry and manufacturing and, if I am forced to admit it, Governor Granholm did much more to help the people of Michigan than I have done to this point. But this is politics and you take credit for something that looks like you actually did it, even when people outside the mainstream media have you all figured out. Frankly, the mainstream media, which I find amusing, just kissed my ass. Maybe they should not have done that, in hindsight. Now, I could talk about dismantling the progress that was being made with the film industry in Michigan that was providing jobs. It was a great investment but was just too liberal for me and others in my Party. I mean, seriously. Anyway, thats over for good and I put that behind me. Yes, I cut education funding and the math clearly shows that, but, hey, once again, the mainstream media let me get away with it, right? We could talk about so many other policy changes, changes that have mostly taken away democratic rights, voting rights, womens reproductive health rights, and the list goes on and on. I can and have found a way to live with all of that and the idea that electing a Democrat for governor or turning the House into a Democratic majority will somehow reverse all of the changes I have made. Hell, lets be honest, even if you do get a Democrat elected as Governor and turn the House back to the Democrats, by the time you get the Senate back most of you will have retired and moved from Michigan so you wont have to pay the burdensome taxes that I imposed of retirees. Although I played it like health care matters to me, and it kind of does, I knew that the Republicans in the House and Senate would have my back and they would have to take most of the blame for ignoring all of the good that the Affordable Care Act has done. But, once again, whos counting? But now we have the situation in Flint. The water, the denial, the reality of disease, poisoning, infections, rashes, and a list of problems getting so long that trying to cover it up is just not possible any longer. None of this is my fault, of course, and none of this really matters because I was trying to save every taxpayer in Michigan money. No one seems to appreciate that effort, at least not in the way they should. As someone who likes to be liked, this has been very hard on me. Just ask Sue. I go home every day and tell her that people are just too self-centered, have no idea what fair share means, and are jealous of my money and the money of others in the Republican Party. The really amazing fact is this: Just because Flints water made a few people sick, and no one, even the mainstream media, unbelievably, would give me time to make up stuff that took the focus off of my office. I quit! I mean it, I quit. I spoke to Lt. Governor Calley today and told him this job sucks. No one appreciates what you do. No one sees that I have saved taxpayers a lot of money. I know mostly wealthier residents have benefitted but, eventually, that would help all of us. The ridiculous idea that eliminating or reducing the Earned Income Tax Credit was THAT big a deal or that those food stamps, or whatever they are calling them now, helped that many people and were things that I should actually spend time on was, well, it was just unnecessary just because. So, effective immediately, I am quitting this job and letting someone else do it. I was never that comfortable doing it anyway and really wished that I had not run for reelection. But I did, I somehow won, and I dont want the job anymore, OK? Listen, the stuff that I listed is really just the tip of the political mountain that I created and will be held accountable for. But I just dont like Lansing. I cant stand Speaker Cotter and Leader Meekoff so its time for me to move on. I realize you will continue to talk about me and that that perception is what it is. But Id just as soon quit than take responsibility for the people who worked for me who should have known better. I mean, am I really responsible for other peoples mistakes? I think not. If this is politics, you can have it. If Im to blame for all the bad things that have happened like the damned Nerd Fund (which was no big deal) or any of the other sixty to seventy things that put me on the offensive all the time, who needs that? OK, so I am sorry to the people of Flint. But the Detroit Schools and all that other stuff, especially the criticism about democratic rights, etc., is frankly bullshit. Again, all I was trying to do was take care of those who took care of me, learn on the job, save some people some money, and get out alive so that when we elect a Republican as President, I would have a job, some stability, and could maybe a future in politics. But the hell with that now. Ill take the millions of dollars that I was paid over the years and find another way to spend it. Its over as of now. But, like my friend Kwame Kilpatrick, you havent heard the last from me and if you have the idea that some legalese will trap me and put me in harms way, think again. I am Rick Snyder and all I ever wanted to do was help me and some friends and if there is something wrong with that, well, thats your problem. The State of the State is not good right now, but thats mostly because too many people expect too much from me and thats on them. Thanks and goodnight! Oh, if only! I will still be watching and watching closely because there is no way to spin what he knows, when he knew it, and what will he do about it. How much do you want to bet his plan to fix DPS and Flint will be unreasonable, will never make its way through the legislature, and at the end of his term which I really wish were going to be tomorrow well be right back where we were when he began: knowing little about him. Welcome to Pure Michigan. Oh, one last thought. The big line in last years State of the State was about a river of opportunity. Did he know then that river was polluted, poisoned, and could be the river that carries him out of town? One has to wonder. The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Monday pressed to revive a lawsuit against Cisco Systems for violating human rights in China, in a brief filed with a U.S. Court of Appeals. Members of Falun Gong, a religious group persecuted in China, originally filed the lawsuit in 2011, but a federal district court in California dismissed it in 2014. The federal appeals court now is considering a challenge to that dismissal. We applaud the role technology companies play in spreading the benefits of the digital age around the world, the EFF wrote in an amicus brief filed with the appellate court. We believe it is inappropriate to hold technology companies liable for violations of international law under the [Alien Tort Act] based solely on their provision of general-purpose or dual purpose technologies to governments or others who misuse them to commit human rights violations, the brief states. The Alien Tort Act allows noncitizens to file lawsuits in U.S. courts for human rights violations. However, it is also important to ensure that liability is preserved for companies that intentionally build and provide ongoing support for customized technologies that have the clear purpose of facilitating governmental human rights abuses, the brief continues. Ciscos Complicity Plaintiffs have presented allegations and evidence in this case that, if substantiated through discovery, would be sufficient to support such liability for Ciscos customization of the Golden Shield (also known as The Great Firewall), the EFF brief notes. In dismissing the case against Cisco, the federal district court judge said that the Falun Gong victims didnt offer enough support for their claim that Cisco knew the customized features of the Golden Shield, which enabled the identification and apprehension of Falun Gong practitioners, would lead to their torture. The EFF disputes the courts finding. Were saying the district court is wrong, because there are allegations in the complaint that Cisco designed and customized its product with the knowledge it would be used for human rights abuses, said Sophia Cope, an EFF staff attorney. Once Cisco got the contract to work on Golden Shield, they customized features of it to target the Falun Gong specifically, she told TechNewsWorld. We think the facts show that Cisco fully understood, intended and purposely built the Golden Shield to facilitate in the persecution of Falun Gong. Cisco Did No Wrong Throughout the proceedings, Cisco has denied any wrongdoing. We have always maintained that there is no basis for the allegations against Cisco, and there is no merit to the case. We do not customize our products in any way that would facilitate censorship or repression. The case was correctly dismissed by the District Court, the company said in a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by spokesperson Robyn Blum. Cisco isnt the only U.S. high-tech company accused of helping authoritarian states violate human rights in recent times. Blue Coat, for example, allegedly supplied Web-monitoring software used to squash dissent in Syria. As it turned out, two individuals and three companies illegally sold Blue Coat products to Syria. The U.S. Commerce Department last year yanked the export licenses of all of those parties. Chilling Effect It would be unfortunate to go after a technology provider for the use of their equipment, said Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst with IT Harvest. Its like going after a gun manufacturer when their guns are used to harm people. The Cisco cases validity rests on how much the company knew when working with the Chinese on the Golden Shield. To me, it hinges on how complicit was Cisco in helping to design and configure The Great Firewall, Stiennon told TechNewsWorld. No companys management should do evil or allow evil to be done with their products, he said, but this could have a chilling effect on manufacturers selling to less than lily-white countries. Microsoft on Tuesday ended technical support for the older versions of its legacy Internet Explorer browser, placing at risk millions of users who despite extensive warnings have not upgraded to the latest version of Internet Explorer or the free install of Windows 10. The support expiration, which Microsoft originally announced in a 2014 update, means that customers using IE 8, 9 and 10 no longer will receive technical support and security updates. For operating systems currently in support, beginning Jan. 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a Windows OS will be supported, the company said in a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by spokesperson Jennifer Reynolds. This is in line with industry standards and will help ensure our customers have the most modern and secure browser experience possible. Users who fail to upgrade to the latest version of IE or to Edge the Windows 10 browser will be at risk of harmful viruses, spyware and other malicious software that can steal or damage business data, according to Microsoft. Many software vendors no longer support older versions of Internet Explorer, the company also pointed out. For business customers using legacy Web applications that work on older versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft is offering Enterprise Mode, which will enable them to work with IE 11. Microsoft also is offering premium support options for enterprise customers that urgently need to upgrade to IE 11 from older browsers. Legacy Support No Longer Viable Supporting older versions of Internet Explorer is no longer viable for Microsoft from a compatibility standpoint and essentially leaves too many legacy users vulnerable to security attacks. At the same time, the end of legacy support potentially could nudge those same users to upgrade to modern Web browsers and perhaps to buy new computers with fresh installs of Windows 10, the companys latest operating system, which comes with the new Edge browser. Microsoft is doing a couple of things with this forced browser retirement, and putting to bed some longstanding bad practices, said Ian Trump, security lead at LogicNow. Its insane to think its profitable to deal with multiple backwards-compatibility and security issues for IE-only Web applications. In some cases, the gaping security holes that need to be plugged in older browsers cannot be plugged, he told TechNewsWorld. Quantcast last fall just before Microsoft posted a major upgrade to Windows 10 released some significant market share data on the direction consumers were headed with their browser migration. Chrome Still has Edge Google Chrome was the big beneficiary of the Windows 10 release, noted Jackson Newhouse, a software engineer at Quantcast. Microsoft Edge received a temporary share increase to 16 percent of the market from 12 percent, he pointed out. However, Chrome recovered, growing to 70 percent share of the Windows 10 market. That compared with Chrome owning 63 percent of the Windows 7 and Window 8 markets. Windows 10 users numbered more than 200 million, Microsoft reported earlier this month. Included in that count were consumers using XBox One consoles and Windows 10 mobile phones, which would exclude older versions of Internet Explorer, according to Tirias Research analyst Kevin Krewell. Most of the 200 million will be PCs, and all of those PCs have the Edge browser built in, he told TechNewsWorld, but Edge lacks support for many plug-ins that users like to have, limiting its appeal as an IE replacement. Obama administration officials last week met with senior executives from several leading Silicon Valley firms in a summit on how to combat the proliferation of terrorist communications on social media networks. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, represented the DoJ. The meeting was part of a larger strategy the administration announced last week, geared toward cracking down on violent extremism, both from overseas organizations like ISIS and from domestic sources. Todays developments reflect President Obamas commitment to take every possible action to confront and interdict terrorist activities wherever they occur, including online. said National Security Council spokesperson Ned Price. New Task Force As part of that effort, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice announced the launch of the Countering Violent Extremism Task Force, which will integrate and harmonize those efforts in the U.S., according to the NSC. The CVE Task Force is designed to combine various elements from law enforcement, homeland security, and other agencies within the executive branch. Its expected to coordinate its efforts with those of local communities, and to identify potential threats and counter messages put forth by violent extremist groups, according to the DoJ. The effort is designed to discourage violent extremism and undercut terrorist narratives, as well as build relationships and promote trust with various communities across the country, said Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson. Global Engagement Center As part of the overall effort, the State Department announced the establishment of the Global Engagement Center. It will tap international government and nongovernmental agencies to counter messages of hate and violence, shifting away from direct messaging from the U.S. The administration intends to revamp its social outreach strategy, which largely has failed to anticipate sophisticated social media campaigns launched by ISIS and other groups to recruit militants and inspire violent attacks overseas. The State Department named Michael D. Lumpkin as the new director of the Global Engagement Center. Lumpkin had been assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict since 2013, a position confirmed by Senate vote. At this critical stage in the fight against Daesh and in this global effort to counter violent extremism the GEC will lead the effort to synchronize messaging to foreign audiences that will counter the destructive messages of violent extremist groups, Secretary of State John Kerry said. Tech Firms Step Up This meeting confirmed that we are united in our goal to keep terrorists and terror-promoting material off the Internet, a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement provided to TechNewsWorld by company rep Samantha Spielman. We explained our policies and how we enforce them Facebook does not tolerate terrorists or terror propaganda and we work aggressively to remove it as soon as we become aware of it, the Facebook spokesperson continued. This is an ever-evolving landscape, and we will continue to engage regularly with NGOs, industry partners, academics, and government officials on how to keep Facebook, and other Internet services, free of this material. Google and Dropbox also participated in the summit; however, they declined to comment on what was discussed. Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly was scheduled to attend, as were executives of other tech companies, including Twitter. Privacy Concerns Rage The efforts to solicit the cooperation of Silicon Valley executives are fraught with controversy. Some proposed plans to combat terrorism could put technology companies in the position of policing their own customers on the Web, privacy and security experts have warned. Hopefully, government will work with social media companies to develop constructive educational strategies to combat terrorist messages, Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow with the Technology Policy Program at GWUs Mercatus Center, told TechNewsWorld. That would be preferable to attempting censoral efforts that could raise free speech issues and probably wouldnt work in practice anyway. 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Managing the global refugee crisis is not the task of government policy makers alone, says Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maiziere, "Nor is it only the task of the government in the European countries receiving refugees," said de Maiziere on Jan.18. "The extraordinary political, social and humanitarian chllaneges raised by the refugee crisi clearly show that government, civil society, businesses and also churches have a shared responsibility," said the minister. "The refugee crisis asks of us all." He was speaking at a high level conference of the World Council of Churches and the United Nations on the Refugee Crisis at the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, Switzerland. De Maiziere said he was speaking as the interior minister, as a German politician in Europe, as a European, and also as a Protestant Christian. He is a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party. He said the "real number of asylum seekers that Germany received last year was 1.1 million, although the official number under official administrative government procedure was 425,035. A number of speakers said that solving Europe's refugee crisis needs a solution to the five-year long war in Syria and hopes rest with potential talks next week. "The countries of Europe do not have unlimited resources to take on the seemingly unlimited need and despair in many parts of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East," said de Maiziere. "Europe's capacity to take in an integrate refugees and migrants is limited," he cautioned. "Even though we as Christians would like to help every person in need, we know that we cannot offer unlimited charity at least in the form of taking in everyone seeking protection here without sacrificing ourselves and our society." De Maiziere said that due to the growing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers,leaders must take seriously the public's worries and fears. 'MIGRATION CAN LEAD TO CONFLICTS' "Migration also has its dark side: It can lead to conflicts, and having to confront the unfamiliar can feel threatening. "We must be realistic about our society's capacity to help the way we would like. Receiving refugees and asylum seekers and meeting our humanitarian obligations entail great burdens, both on site and for society as a whole," said the interior minister. Speaking the same conference, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, said that European countries and people "must live up to their humanitarian values and standards reflected in commitments to international conventions." "This must be evident in a crisis for so many refugees that are coming to Europe or who are already in Europe," said Tveit, a Norwegian Lutheran. (Photo: Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News) He said there is a need for genuinely new efforts of coordinated collaboration between the countries in Europe and between all sectors of society that can contribute, also churches and religious communities. "Through this conference we want to provide an even better and more realistic understanding of the challenges, and to encourage more commitment, calling for much better coordination and collaboration in the efforts needed to receive and assist them." One of the moderator's U.S. Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, reminded the conference that the refugee crisis is not only a European crisis. "We need to be much more open to receiving refugees in my country, [the United States]," said Bishop Swenson, a vice-moderator of the WCC's main governing body, its central committee. The conference was organized by the WCC in cooperation with UNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund; UNFPA, the U.N. Population Fund; and UNHCR, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. FOUNTAIN VALLEY, California The redesigned 2017 Hyundai Elantra sedan will arrive at Hyundai dealerships this month featuring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto for smartphone users. The popular feature brings the smartphone to the car's instrument panel. The CarPlay home screen features many of the recognizable application tiles from the iPhone. "By launching our best-selling model Elantra, with CarPlay and Android Auto support, we are building on our promise to offer more convenience features for today's modern driver at an affordable price point," said Mike O'Brien, Hyundai Motor America vice president of product and corporate planning, in a statement. CarPlay lets drivers make calls, get directions, listen to music and access messages. "CarPlay takes the things you want to do with your iPhone while driving and puts them right on your car's built-in display," Apple said, calling the feature the "Ultimate CoPilot." Key Elantra competitors include the Ford Focus, Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. Android Auto is available now on the 2015-'16 Hyundai Sonata midsize sedan. Hyundai said it will have additional information soon on the availability of CarPlay and Android Auto on other models. Apple recently rolled out a new website that provides car shoppers with a list of every vehicle that features CarPlay or will in the near future. The vehicles include the 2017 Audi Q7, 2016 Chevrolet Cruze, 2017 Ford Escape, 2016 Hyundai Sonata, 2017 Porsche Macan and 2017 Volvo S90. Edmunds says: Another good reason to put the 2017 Hyundai Elantra high on your shopping list. Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o... Young Australians are the least prepared for the digital revolution, according to a global report released yesterday at the World Economic Forum (WEF).The report titled: Amplifying human potential: education and skills for the fourth industrial revolution was released by leading global IT consultancy Infosys and ties in with the WEFs theme The Fourth Industrial Revolution. More than 9,000 students globally including 1,000 Australians aged 16-25 were surveyed about the STEM skills gap issue. The report showed a great divide between developed and developing economies is emerging globally, with Australia trailing behind both.Ranking last out of 9 countries, the data showed that Australian youth lack confidence in their current and future job skills and prospects.The top three countries in terms of optimism over career skills and prospects were Brazil, South Africa and India.The approaching fourth industrial revolution is predicted to change business models across all industries and will be driven by increasing automation in the labour market, enabled by innovation in artificial intelligence, robotics and smart technologies which young workers need to navigate.Australian youth are amongst the most aware of the need to continuously learn new skills throughout life, ranking second out of nine countries.However, only 16% have a strong interest in developing skills in data science and analytics, 18% have a strong interest in building mobile apps and just 19% have a strong interest in learning how to code, amongst the lowest countries surveyed for each set.Andrew Groth, vice president & regional head, Infosys Australia and New Zealand said even though Australians were among the most highly aware of the increasingly pivotal role technology will play in their lives, they were falling behind in their confidence and drive to learn the necessary skills to remain relevant in the digital economy.This disparity needs to be addressed so we can empower our future leaders to succeed in the workforce of the future. Our educators, business leaders and governments need to come together to action a modernized approach.He said the Federal Governments Innovation Statement did not come a moment too soon, adding Australias STEM skills gap was too large and that we need to start closing it.Matt Garbutt, chief of staff, Business Council of Australia (BCA), said the report was an interesting contribution to the public debate on how the global trends of globalisation, the ageing population and technical disruption are impacting the labour market and the types of skills young people will need to be successful in the workplace.The research shows that young people recognise a job for life is a thing of the past and so they can expect to re-train and re-skill a number of times during their working life, Garbutt said.In this context it is vital young people are equipped with a broad base of skills both technical skills and cognitive skills such as communication and the ability to work in a team - to enable them to be flexible and resilient. A top Sydney private school has come under fire after it was revealed that Year One students were engaging in inappropriate behaviour with one another on school grounds, as well as outside of school.Trinity Grammar School, located in Summer Hill, is now reviewing its procedures and working with angry parents who complained that they had not been notified until eight days after the school had become aware of the students behaviour.However, the schools principal, Milton Cujes, has told parents the delay was due to compliance with a request by the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) not to inform them while the matter was being investigated.Up to nine of the students are said to have involved in the acts which occurred in the boys' toilets and in the playground when they should have been under adult supervision.In an email sent to parents on December 21, Trinity's Master of the Junior School, Mark Dunn, outlined the events that had taken place since the first allegation of inappropriate behaviour was reported to the school on November 18.Dunn's email said that the behaviour concerned a small group of boys with one another, with differing degrees of individual involvement, occurring on a number of occasions both in and outside of school.After notifying FACS, the school then commenced its own investigation, led by a staff member who is an accredited Child Protection Investigator.In a statement over the weekend, the schools Head Master, Milton Cujes, said FACS has advised Trinity that their investigation has been completed. No statement has been made about the status of the Trinity investigation.The students and parents who were either directly or indirectly affected by the incidents have since been offered counselling by the school. 2008-2009 wasnt a good time for Glenunga International High School. Over 50% of our results in the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) were below state average and it showed little signs of improving.Today, enrolments are surging as students vie for a place in what is now one of Adelaides most elite performing schools.The schools principal, Wendy Johnson, told The Educator that Glenungas journey to becoming a high-performing school started with re-visioning its abilities during a time when the school was under-performing and turning that vision into reality through hard work and persistence.In 2008-2009, Glenunga was an underperforming school. More than half of our SACE results were below state average. For a middle-class school, thats a significant under-performance. So since then, weve been on a journey of improvement that has seen better results each year, she explained.The school has three popular programs the IGNITE program, the International Baccalaureate program and the international education program. However, they are just a few of the reasons it has seen a flood of enthusiastic students through its gates.In 2010, the school undertook a process that involved its community of 1,400 students and families to develop a set of values that were not the kind of normal motherhood statements seen around schools.Instead, Johnson and her executive focused on the values that their students wanted to see manifested, and ones that differentiated their schools from others.From that point on, those core values have become a kind of oral tradition thats passed on from the older kids to the younger ones. The second key factor involves academics. We are now regularly listed in the nations top 100 schools, having experienced a 20% lift since 2009 in our students A and B grades, she said.However, the thing were most excited about is that when we started this process, our students were getting Bs and Es, but now weve almost eliminated that not by eliminating the kids, which many schools do, but by supporting them, she said.Glenunga is internationally accredited by the Council of International Schools, which accredits the best schools in the world a process Johnson called very tough.Not only does Glenunga focus on SACE and our International Baccalaureate program but on each of our students having a personalised learning experience, she said.Our teachers have worked on the question of what do our generation of 21Century learners need that is the same or different from what the kids of previous generations needed? Johnson said.These kids need something very different in terms of their learning experience. They need a real sense of partnership with their teachers to personalise their learning and to progress as fast or as slow as they need.However, while having a popular school is something many principals would love, managing the surge in enrolments has become a complex thing to manage, explained Johnson, who is introducing capacity management options.Since 2011, enrolments at the school have spiked by 20% - and theyre still rising. In Term 3, 2014, the school had 1,595 students. In Term 3, 2015, that number jumped to 1,733.As kids rush into a school there is the risk they can change its culture. In terms of our surge in enrolments, one of the challenges is how we will maintain all of the things people coming to our school are coming to get, she said.The issue for us about this is that it hasnt been a surge just at the beginning of the year. Weve had new students coming all the time. Our teachers were putting in so much time to help the new kids catch up that there is barely enough time to assist the next one coming in.That said, Johnson was confident her school has the situation under control and will be able to give all new students access to its world-renowned programs.Our teachers are continuing to work with lots of energy to keep getting the results that weve been getting. The school is passionate about working with its community to ensure the best outcomes for every one of its students, she said. Victoria will need to build more than 200 new schools over the next decade to accommodate a sharp rise in student numbers, a new report shows.The research, commissioned by the Grattan Institute, showed that the states schools are expected to take in 190,000 extra students over the next decade.To cope with this, 7,200 extra classrooms and teachers will be needed, with between 140-220 new government and non-government schools. However, despite this, not a single new state school will open its doors to students when class returns next week.To have no state schools opening this year is disgraceful, Australian Education Union (AEU) Victorian branch president, Meredith Peace, told The Age.Dr Peter Goss from the Grattan Institute said successive state governments had been caught on the hop by Victorias population growth and good, long-term planning was needed.This is not just a temporary situation that will work through the system. It requires permanent solutions, not just ever more portables, Goss said.He added that the states baby boom, which started around 2006, had already impacted on enrolments in Victorian primary schools, and would hit secondary schools from 2018.A spokesman for Education Minister, James Merlino, said the state government had dozens of new schools in the pipeline and was working to address the issues created by the Liberals' chronic under-investment.He blamed the fact that not a single new state school will open in 2016 on the former state government's under-investment in education. Mexico City, Jan 18 (EFE).- The CEO of Mexican state-owned energy company Petroleos Mexicanos said Monday that crude drilling in the country remained a "profitable activity" and that output levels would remain stable despite the drop in global oil prices. Nevertheless, Pemex expects "a difficult year" because of the policies of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Emilio Lozoya, who is accompanying Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on a tour of the Arabian Peninsula, told Radio Formula. "For Pemex, the average development cost for reserves that we've located or explored is below $10 per barrel," Lozoya said, though adding that for "new" oil hopefuls in Mexico that cost rises to as much as $22 or $23 per barrel because they have to "explore and build infrastructure." The United Nations' decision last Saturday to lift sanctions on Iran, which will enable the Persian country's unrestricted re-entry to the global oil market, could put downward pressure on crude prices, the CEO said. In addition, the OPEC countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, "prefer to create a low-price market and drive what they call 'inefficient' or high-price producers out of the market," Lozoya said. These factors put Pemex in a bind in 2016; other companies, including some shale oil and gas producers in the United States, will have "much higher costs" and "it will be hard for them to survive" for more than a year, he said. Lozoya predicted that in two or three years the oil market would rebalance, noting that "demand from China and India keeps growing" while at the same time oil companies' production should fall significantly. "We're hearing that by around the end of 2016 prices will stabilize at a little higher price level," the chief executive said of a market that has seen a more than 20 percent price plunge since the start of the year. Different memorandums of understanding are being signed during the visit to the Arabian Peninsula, which will last until Jan. 21, according to Lozoya, who said that in the case of Pemex those MOUs will focus on pipeline, cogeneration and refinery projects. Veracruz, Mexico, Jan 18 (EFE).- A seventh police officer has been arrested in connection with the forced disappearance of five young people in eastern Mexico, the attorney general of the Gulf state of Veracruz said Monday. Information provided by the latest cop to be taken into custody has given authorities a more "focused" idea of the possible whereabouts of the four young men and a 16-year-old girl who have been missing since Jan. 11, Luis Angel Bravo Contreras told EFE. Witness accounts and footage from security cameras have allowed investigators to establish that the five missing people were detained by police at a gas station in Tierra Blanca, a town in central Veracruz. Tierra Blanca police chief Marcos Conde Hernandez and patrolman Otoniel Cruz Linares were charged over the weekend in connection with the disappearance of the five young people, following the detention of four other officers on Friday. Bravo Contreras said investigators have learned the cops handed over the young people to a criminal organization. The determination of an organized-crime angle has triggered the intervention of the federal AG Office in the investigation, he added. More than 140 state and federal personnel are involved in the search for the missing youths, the Veracruz attorney general said. Relacionados Police chief arrested for disappearance of 5 in Mexican Gulf state Fetterman 'recovering well' from life-threatening stroke, doctor says John Fetterman on Wednesday released an updated medical report that says he is recovering well from his May stroke. Taipei, Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen has been elected Taiwan's first female president. Ms Tsai, 59, leads the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that wants independence from China. In her victory speech, she vowed to preserve the status quo in relations with China, adding Beijing must respect Taiwan's democracy and both sides must ensure there are no provocations. China sees the island as a breakaway province - which it has threatened to take back by force if necessary. In her speech, Ms Tsai hailed a "new era" in Taiwan and pledged to co-operate with other political parties on major issues. The will of the Taiwanese people would be the basis for relations with China, Ms Tsai said. "I also want to emphasise that both sides of the Taiwanese Strait have a responsibility to find mutually acceptable means of interaction that are based on dignity and reciprocity. "We must ensure that no provocations or accidents take place," Ms Tsai said, warning that "any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations". She thanked the US and Japan for their support and vowed Taiwan would contribute to peace and stability in the region. Ms Tsai had a commanding lead in the vote count when Eric Chu of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) admitted defeat. Mr Chu congratulated Tsai Ing-wen and announced he was quitting as KMT head. Taiwan's Premier Mao Chi-kuo also resigned. The election came just months after a historic meeting between the leaders of Taiwan and China. However, the flagging economy as well as Taiwan's relationship with China both played a role in the voters' choice, correspondents say. The KMT has been in power for most of the past 70 years and has overseen improved relations with Beijing - Ms Tsai's is only the second-ever victory for the DPP. The first was by pro-independence advocate Chen Shui-bian; during his time as president between 2000 and 2008 tensions with China escalated. The victory by Tsai Ing-wen marks a defeat for not only the pro-unification ruling party KMT but also China. Despite the past eight years of reduced tensions and much improved relations built by the KMT and China, Taiwanese voters have voted for Ms Tsai from the pro-independence party instead. Basically, they've voted to keep Beijing at a distance. This reflects not only widespread dissatisfaction with President Ma Ying-jeou of the KMT over insufficient measures to improve the lacklustre economy, low wages and widening wealth gap - it also reflects growing worries by Taiwanese people that the island may become too economically dependent on China and that this will make it hard for Taiwan to fend off pressures by Beijing to reunify with it one day. - The message voters have sent Beijing is that, while they want reduced tensions and good relations, they cherish Taiwan's sovereignty, democracy and self-rule even more. - The challenge now is for Ms Tsai to find a way to work with China, the island's biggest export market, trade partner and security threat. - Saturday's polls come after a historic meeting between President Ma and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore in November for talks that were seen as largely symbolic - the first in more than 60 years. China tells Taiwan to abandon independence 'hallucination' Taiwan should abandon its "hallucinations" about pushing for independence, as any moves toward it would be a "poison", Chinese state-run media said after a landslide victory for the island's independence-leaning opposition. Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a convincing victory in both presidential and parliamentary elections on Saturday, in what could usher in a new round of instability with China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own. Tsai pledged to maintain peace with its giant neighbor China, while China's Taiwan Affairs Office warned it would oppose any move toward independence and that Beijing was determined to defend the country's sovereignty. Reacting to Tsai's victory, China's government-controlled media used noticeably less shrill language than that leveled at Chen Shui-bian, the DPP's last president, and noted her pledges for peace and to maintain the "status quo" with China. China's Foreign Ministry, in its reaction to her victory, said Taiwan was an internal matter for China, there is only one China in the world and the island's election neither changes this reality nor international acceptance of it. "There is only one China in the world, the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China and China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will not brook being broken up," the ministry added. "The results of the Taiwan region election does not change this basic fact and the consensus of the international community." The White House said on Saturday it congratulated Tsai and said the United States maintained a "profound interest" in peace between Taiwan and China. Re: LAUSANNE - public schools VS private schools Wonderful and very honest answers - thanks a lot for that! However, it's not solving completely my problems. Let me clarify: - we were living before in NEUCHATEL, my sons made 3 years in a private school and 3 years in a public one. At the time we were leaving Switzerland they were very good with French, as their whole education was in this language before (and bilingual in the private school). I have noticed a big difference between style of teaching in these both schools. - I am not thinking necessarily about British universities, but more about English as International way of communication: many high schools in Europe, Asia, Canada, not mentioning US and Australia, use it. I just think it opens much more doors. It is also possible than WE MIGHT BE SEND in the future by my husband's company somewhere else again - and there is much more schools with English than French. But we also might stay in CH - hm... forever? And pay for private education forever?! Oh, no! ;-) - last 3 years we've been living is Asia, where my boys are doing National Curriculum of England, CAMBRIDGE programme and going to have final exams this year (I hope good notes will be recognized by Swiss system). As far, they are going very well. - I know that it's not me choosing a lycee ;-), but I think if my boys go now to good schools it will help them later "to be CHOSEN" ;-) Living in NE I could easily say which primary schools are good and which (and the same area of living) is better to avoid - which of course doesn't mean that every students from these schools have closed doors in their further education. - my boys in Neuchatel didn't have English at school, only GERMAN - but maybe because they were too young. - anyway, I have to start looking for an accommodation, end at least my younger son, which will be in ecole primare 7Harmos will have to be ACCEPTED in the nearest school (or I'm wrong?). Why not than to choose a good one? And what about the older one? (10Harmos) I'm wondering if it works if I send them for one year to a good, bilingual private school and later continue education in a public school? What do you think about it? - which private school would you than recommend? - still, which public schools would you recommend? - maybe I could/should contact a public institution responsible for education for advice? Kisses from Indonesia :-D Mag. Unemployment insurance for frontalier moving into Geneva I am looking for clarification on specific question regards my validity for Swiss unemployment insurance. (I have previously tried to call some cantonal offices where I am getting passed from pillar to post, looked at some websites etc, and searched this forum) To be clear, I am pretty sure the answer is yes, but am keen to know if somebody can help me with certainty. I have worked in Geneva for 15 months full time. With the exception of the first 5 weeks, I have been living in France as frontalier. I paid all income tax and insurances in Switzerland. Thus I have paid ca. 15 months of Swiss unemployment insurance, where 12 from last 24 is the requirement to qualify - if you live in Switzerland. I am now considering to move to Geneva. My question is, will I be immediately eligible for unemployment benefits (as if I had always lived in CH), or, would the clock effectively reset and I would need to work an extra 12 months before being eligible. The reason I ask is that my industry is in severe trouble so I need to realistically consider the possibility of losing job this year. If I move down to Geneva and then lose job and have no unemployment benefit then I would basically be bankrupt pretty soon. As I said, I am fairly confident that I would be immediately or almost immediately eligible, but if anyone can provide certainty it would be appreciated. Many Thanks. A Re: Parking with a trailer - Geneva I hear you! Driving down from Zurich to Geneva. Need to park the 4WD and trailer empty somewhere for the day whilst I'm busy packing up. Will double park on the street after hours to load up. Sleep, then head out about 5am to take everything to Marseillan in the south of France. Worst case, I drove over the border and find a chamber d'hote in France with a big car park and stay there the night. But I'll still need to park the rig on the day I arrive and am otherwise packing up. The trailer is actually overdue for a service, so one idea I had was to have that done (and keep it parked) whilst I'm packing. But really struggling to find a mechanic who specialises in trailers (somewhere accessible to the city centre given I'll be reliant on public transport to get to and fro). Which seems nuts. Or maybe its just that my French is hampering my google searches. Re: Mergers and Acquisitions 2014 Quote: socialanimal i interviewed a executive coach/headhunter the other day and he was convinced that the swiss economy will stay strong and continue to need international employees, despite the uncertainties in the political scene and now these major changes. At the other hands, industry-captains from Germany and the USA understand Swiss politics nicely well, as the constitutions of the three countries are of the same pattern. A lot is said about centralisation in the USA, but if you look at the presidents since 1960 you can see that JFK and LBJ were congress members but Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and W-Bush were state governors and so much in favour of federalism. Then do not forget, that "Swiss Economy" does not mean "production in Switzerland" . If Hoffroche produces things in Quebec successfully it is a success of the Swiss economy and the profits will be in Basel. Mr Blocher sits in Herrliberg, close to Zurich where his party for decades failed to get a single seat in the city government and so "in Feindesland" and his companies produce a good deal just right accross the border, but his daughter manages the profits and the group of companies Sure, but everything will be more complicated. And this costs money.At the other hands, industry-captains from Germany and the USA understand Swiss politics nicely well, as the constitutions of the three countries are of the same pattern. A lot is said about centralisation in the USA, but if you look at the presidents since 1960 you can see that JFK and LBJ were congress members but Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and W-Bush were state governors and so much in favour of federalism.Then do not forget, that "Swiss Economy" does not mean "production in Switzerland" . If Hoffroche produces things in Quebec successfully it is a success of the Swiss economy and the profits will be in Basel. Mr Blocher sits in Herrliberg, close to Zurich where his party for decades failed to get a single seat in the city government and so "in Feindesland" and his companies produce a good deal just right accross the border, but his daughter manages the profits and the group of companies She was charged with murder for a crime she didn't commit, but an effort to cover her tracks on the crime she did will cause Hope (Kristian Alfonso) to make a shocking confession on Days of Our Lives. Ben Returning To Salem To Kill Abigail? She was considered the prime suspect in Dr. Malcolm's murder, though she knew she was being set up to look like the culprit. She quickly figured out on her own that she was being set up by none other than Stefano DiMera, and that he was the one behind Bo's kidnapping and torture for years. When she went to confront him however, he taunted her and she lost it, shooting him at point blank range and killing him. Rafe (Galen Gering) has since helped her cover up the crime and the two have tried to derail a suspicious Andre (Thaao Penghlis) with a cover story that Stefano decided to flee to Paris unexpectedly, but his son knows better and doesn't believe it. Now, he is investigating to figure out the truth. Kayla Squares Off Against Ava Knowing the consequences could be even more dire for her if Andre uncovers the truth, Hope will make a shocking decision to confess to Malcolm's murder instead, in an effort to cover up the trail that would lead to her true crime. If she is able to convince Roman (Josh Charles) and Justin (Wally Kurth) that she killed Malcolm, the truth that he was hired by Stefano to torture Bo, which eventually lead to his death, will be kept more secretive. And if that piece of information doesn't get out, then she can easily keep the fact that she learned the truth and sought her own justice secret as well. Days of Our Lives airs Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. on NBC. America's unsent distress signal By Charlotte B. Cerminaro As we pass important dates and anniversaries throughout the year, it is normal to find ourselves contemplating past events, previous years, and of course, comparing the current state of affairs to those long past. Since I have no first-hand experience of anything before the 70's and 80's, I have to trust my predecessors and our history texts to access such important information, and even a different way of life, than my own. Not long ago I realized that by just observing or listening to those who had more experience and time on this earth than I (sometimes 40 or 50 years more), there would often be an unexpected pearl of wisdom or surprising bit of history, information that I suspect is very nearly extinct. One such moment presented itself about five years ago. A long-time friend of ours, a man with a very intellectual, studious and political background, started wearing his American flag lapel pin upside-down. When we asked him if he was aware of the position of his lapel pin he said, "Of course!" He then proceeded to ask us if we knew what that actually meant and, since we didn't, explained that the flying of one's flag upside down is an internationally recognized distress signal, a mayday of sorts, without a radio. Curious, I asked what he knew, why he felt so strongly about our country. Although he was retired at that point, his background in intelligence would give him access to more information than the average civilian. In answer to my question he said that we already knew everything there was to know in order to come to the same realization that most of the population knew--it was just a matter of putting it together, believing it. A year later our friend and his wife left the country. I find myself thinking of them often. But I also find myself thinking of an even stranger story---also true---that took place about twenty-six hundred years ago. The setting was the ancient Babylonian empire, near the time of their defeat by the Medo-Persian Empire. The Babylonians believed themselves and their capitol city to be indestructible, not only because the walls surrounding their city were an impregnable fortress but because of their military might. One night, King Belshazzar (the son of the famous king Nebuchadnezzar) was hosting a giant banquet with hundreds of his officials, generals, their wives and all of their servants. After imbibing and eating heavily, the king called for all the sacred golden cups that had been taken from the holy temple in Jerusalem about 50 years before, and started using them for wine goblets for all their guests. They started toasting and worshipping all of their gods and idols with the sacred vessels. Around midnight, at the height of their revelries, a disembodied hand suddenly appeared near a lampstand, hovered for a moment, and then began writing in the plaster on the wall. The king suddenly grew very pale and began trembling. As the hand disappeared he called all his wise men in, asking them what the writing meant. Not one of them could translate it, as it was written in ancient Aramaic. The queen mother, remembering that her husband Nebuchadnezzar used to seek the counsel of a very wise Israelite named Daniel, immediately summoned him. As Daniel read the letters he quickly understood them, and what the message actually meant. He turned to the king and explained that they were in grave danger. An approximate transliteration of the mysterious writing is, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uparshin---and as Daniel translated it, "Your days have been numbered. You have been weighed in the balances and are found wanting. Tonight, your kingdom will be divided among the Medes and Persians." The king was very troubled, but was dubious as to any possible danger. What none of them knew was, that very night the Persian army dammed up the river which flowed under Babylon's massive walls, lowering the water levels, and the entire army crept under the walls, in the dark, and lay siege to the city in a surprise attack. By dawn the Medo-Persians had control of Babylon and King Belshazzar was dead. This very dramatic, but historically accurate documentation of the fall of Babylon and Belshazzar's feast, has unfortunately become the template of a pattern repeated many times now over the last few thousand years. Empires have come and gone, following the same trends time after time. After military conquest comes a disturbing pattern of ignorance, arrogance, self-indulgence and then lazy indifference. Greece, Rome, the British Empire, Hitler's Germany and now, it seems, America. It is all there to be seen, for anyone looking. But just like standing on a sinking ship, if no one sends out a distress signal, nothing can be done to help; no one will even know there is a problem. Worse yet, to send a distress signal means that someone has to first recognize that there is a problem. If the captain of the capsizing vessel will not even accept the reality of impending death, believes himself and his ship to be indestructible, his refusal to send that distress signal will be his own doom and that of his crew as well. Are we to be the next Babylon? Will our country fall, ignominiously, as so many others have? Will we realize, too late, that we are under siege by an enemy that has not allowed itself the luxury of falling asleep on the job? Have we vastly underestimated certain threats, both foreign and domestic, because our willfully ignorant leaders have lulled many of us into the same state? Is it too late for a rescue, and is that why many are leaving? Will this country's leadership be surprised when, one fine day, they read the handwriting on the wall and it says: "You have been weighed in the balances and are found wanting" Charlotte B. Cerminaro is a Juilliard-trained classical musician who, in addition to being a studio and orchestral musician, enjoys writing. 2016 Home Rather than close Gitmo, Mr. President, send El Chapo there! By John W. Lillpop The unexpected convergence of two major news stories provides the world with a great opportunity to start the new year in a way that protects innocent people against the ravages of a drug king pin, while addressing the urgent need to cut the legs out from under a dangerous lame duck politician who imagines that he is king! Specifically, as reported far and wide, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" has been recaptured and sent to the same prison from which he escaped just a few months ago. The world's most wanted drug baron was arrested in a military raid earlier this month that left five suspects dead in Los Mochis, a coastal city in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa. Legitimate concerns about the ability, and willingness, of the corrupt Mexican government to contain El Chapo are being expressed everywhere, including in the US where authorities have requested that the surly Mexican thug be extradited north to answer for crimes committed in the Promised Land. Given the fact that Mexico has actively promoted the illegal invasion of America by 12-30 million Mexican peasants, the request for the head of yet another offending Mexican felon does not seem too onerous. Still, Mexicos politicians are not known for acting in a manner that benefits America, even when doing so would benefit the third-world failed state itself! Meanwhile, as El Chapo plots his next drama-filled, made for TV escape and resumption of Lordship over the worlds most vile drug empire, American interests are being hindered by a daft president who is intent on shutting down the Gitmo detention center which has been used to detain the most dangerous, evil terrorists in the world. Until, that is, Obama started shipping head-cutting jihadists back to the front lines to wage war against heroic American men and women Indeed, Barack Hussein Obama has made it clear that he will do anything to fulfill his election promise to close Gitmo before he leaves office on January 20, 2017. In typical Obama fashion, he considers quitting Gitmo to be an intricate part of his strategy for defeating ISIS! With all due respect to our muddled leader, the sensible thing to do is to recognize that 3rd-world Mexico cannot, or will not, protect the world from El Chapo. He is too wily and smart for Mexican mortals to handle. So instead of carrying water for Islamic extremists, Mr. President, why not do what is best for America and Mexico: Keep Gitmo open indefinitely, and send El Chapo there where he and the Castro brothers can while away the hours cursing America in profanity-laced Spanish! 2016 John Lillpop Home Life under an iron fist By Paul Driessen Activists protesting federal land mismanagement and the imprisonment of Dwight and Steven Hammond recently occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building in Oregon. Some facts, context and perspective may help people understand what's really going on here. At its core, this is about the often callous, iron-fisted hand of the federal government being slammed down on American citizens. Examples abound from the IRS targeting 200 conservative groups, to the seizure of cars and bank accounts of innocent business owners, to heavily armed Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) agents bursting into Gibson Guitar facilities over phony exotic wood violations, to EPA destroying tens of thousands of coal industry jobs to "prevent climate chaos." Making these outrages even more intolerable, those responsible are almost never held accountable, much less liable for damages. Problems like these can become exponentially worse for people in one of the twelve western states where the federal government controls 30% (Montana), 49% (Oregon) or even 85% (Nevada and Alaska) of all the land. These government lands total 640 million acres: 28% of the entire 2.27-billion-acre United States. Though they are often, incorrectly called "public" lands, the "public" has no fundamental right to enter them or utilize their water and other resources. They are federal government reservations, administered and controlled by agencies that increasingly want economic, motorized and many other activities prohibited and eliminated under laws interpreted, implemented and imposed by officials in the FWS, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Park Service and other federal agencies. The feds also exercise effective, often punitive control over millions of acres of state and private lands located next to or in the midst of these government fiefdoms. People living in those areas rely on the federal reserves for forage, water, timber, energy, mineral and other resources that are increasingly made off limits, on the ground that "beneficial uses" might impact wildlife, scenic or environmental values. However, millions of people do have valid, existing, longstanding, protected rights to these lands and their resources, in the form of "appurtenances" conveyed to them by deed or will from the first settler or miner. The forage, water rights, range improvements, easements, rights of ways, mineral rights and other property interests that the first settlers created or were granted to these western lands are constitutionally protected and have been preserved in every federal land law ever enacted by Congress. Those rights cannot be summarily taken away though federal agencies increasingly try to do so. As an 1888 congressional report explained, the original idea for these lands involved use and protection: settlements, harvesting of commercial quality trees, watershed protection, and no land monopolies. Various laws allowed mining, oil drilling, ranching, farming and other activities, to supply food, energy and raw material needs, while early environmentalists wanted certain areas preserved as national parks and wilderness. Of course, modern resource use and extraction methods are far more responsible and environmentally sound than their predecessors, so impacts can be much better limited and repaired. Nevertheless, "wise use" or "multiple use" is under attack, and such uses are now rare or nonexistent across many western and Alaskan government lands. Landowners who remain are barely holding on. Imagine the feds owning half of Ohio or Pennsylvania and gradually, systematically closing off access, taking away water and forage rights, banning economic uses, charging higher fees for remaining rights, forcing landowners into years-long courtroom battles, and refusing to pay up when courts order them to compensate owners for attorney fees and lost income. That's the situation facing rural westerners. The Hammonds got in trouble because they started a "backfire," to burn combustible material, create a "fire break" and protect their home and ranch from a raging fire. They accidentally burned 139 acres of federal land before they put the fire out. Now they are serving five years in prison, even though Senior Federal Judge Michael Hogan felt a year or less was fair and just under the circumstances. They could have been charged under a 1948 law that provides for fines or jail terms up to five years for setting a fire on government lands without permission. But they were not. Instead, the Obama Justice Department charged them under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act as though what they did, in an honest attempt to protect their property, was an act of deliberate terrorism. That law requires a minimum five-year sentence. Judge Hogan's lighter sentence was thus overruled. Why would the DOJ do that? Probably because the feds never forget or forgive. Some years earlier, the Hammonds had removed a barrier the BLM had installed to block access to water they thought was legally theirs. Turns out it was. But they had failed to fully adjudicate their rights to the water an oversight that they then fixed, thus safeguarding their rights. The Hammonds were also the only ranchers who refused to go along with a BLM "cow-free wilderness" plan. The feds were determined to get even. Why would the Hammonds just give up and go back to prison? Because the DOJ wouldn't budge, and they could not afford the huge expense of continuing to battle a vindictive federal behemoth. So now a middle-aged mom and elderly grandmother must run their 6,000-acre ranch, pay $200,000 more in fines, and hope they can avoid bankruptcy, which would result in BLM getting the Hammond ranch. It is absurd, outrageous and infuriating. The Obama DOJ refuses to call Fort Hood, Boston, San Bernardino and other massacres terrorism but it labels a backfire "terrorism." But it gets worse. Harney County, Oregon, where the Hammonds live, is over 6.4 million acres (over 10,000 square miles, ten times the size of Rhode Island), and 72% of it is controlled by the federal government. A 2012 wildfire in the county burned 160,000 acres! A 2015 fire in the county next door burned 800,000 acres! Still worse, the BLM has often lit fires in Harney County and elsewhere (often on private land) that got out of control, burned extensive private property and even killed cattle. No one can recall the feds ever compensating ranchers for their lost livestock, fences or forage. In 2013, the Forest Service started two "prescribed burns" in South Dakota that blew out of control and torched thousands of acres of federal and private land. No federal employee has ever been prosecuted for any of those destructive fires. To top it off, many of these fires are ultimately due to lousy management practices that restrict or prohibit tree cutting, tree thinning and insect control. That leaves vast tinderboxes of dry, rail-thin trees and brush ready to explode in superheated conflagrations that immolate wildlife and incinerate soil nutrients and organisms, ensuring that what's left gets washed away in storms and spring snow melts. So the feds "protect" our treasured national forests from ranchers and miners by letting them go up in smoke. But despite all these outrages, and not content with its already vast landholdings, the feds are trying to gain absolute control over all private lands still left in Harney County, and elsewhere. As Congressman Greg Walden noted in a January 5 speech, they are trying to drive ranchers and even joggers out of the Malheur Refuge. Failing that, President Obama might turn 2.5 million acres into a national monument. The twisted saga is reminiscent of travesties under Stalin, Mao, Castro and other dictators. And it is just one of hundreds, some of which I will profile in future articles. It's no wonder people are frustrated and angry and some support Ammon Bundy and other activists who took over the Malheur headquarters. History will judge whether that peaceful occupation of federal property was wise, helpful or justified. But many in the Obama Administration, news media, academia and general public certainly support or justify the seizure of college administrative offices, Occupy Wall Street encampments, and even Black Lives Matter kill-the-cops rants, Ferguson, Missouri riots, Palestinian attacks on Israelis, and Obama BFF Bill Ayers' criminal activities. John Kerry went so far as to say, with Charlie Hebdo there was "perhaps a rationale [and] you could say, okay, they're really angry because of this and that." So twelve Hebdo staffers murdered by Islamist terrorists is "rational" or excusable, but occupying a federal building is intolerable. We are dealing with a festering, growing, open wound. Congress, the courts and our next president need to heal it, and address the root causes, before things get out of hand. Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death. January 2016 Home In search of a voice for the Polish-Canadian community By Mark Wegierski It can be seen today that there are no opinion journalists in any major Canadian newspapers, and very few comparatively well-known authors of books of English-language literary fiction, genre fiction, or works of social, political, or cultural commentary in Canada, who could be identified as belonging to the Polish-Canadian community (called "Canadian Polonia" by Polish-Canadians). Until a few years ago, a person comparatively well-acquainted with the community could probably think only of Eva Stachniak and Irene Tomaszewski, and perhaps K. G. E. (Chuck) Konkel (author of two, police-procedural-type novels, set in non-Polish locales Hong Kong and Mexico). However, in the last few years, a number of new authors have emerged Andrew J. Borkowski, author of the short story collection, Copernicus Avenue, which won the 2012 Toronto Book Award; Aga Maksimowska, whose book Giant was nominated for the 2013 Toronto Book Award; Jowita Bydlowska, author of Drunk Mom; and Ania Szado, author of Beginning of Was, and Studio St-Ex (about Antoine St. Exupery). Of these new authors, the books of Borkowski and Maksimowska and, to a lesser extent, Szado's first novel, are the only ones that appear to have major Polish and Polish-Canadian content. However, Maksimowska's novel has elements of some current-day "politically-correct" stereotypes about Poles, something that Borkowski, also, does not entirely avoid. The endeavours of professor Tamara Trojanowska in the Polish Language and Literature program at the University of Toronto have usually been felicitous (such as organizing a major international conference on Polish themes at the University of Toronto in February 2006). On the other hand, professor Piotr Wrobel, who currently holds the Chair of Polish History at the University of Toronto, is considered by some to be rather cool to the Polish-Canadian community and its core concerns. Thanks to the isolated but genuinely idealistic efforts of professor Kazimierz Patalas of the Freshwater Institute in Manitoba, and professor Zbigniew Izydorczyk at the University of Winnipeg, there has appeared the book, Providence Watching: Journeys from Wartorn Poland to the Canadian Prairies (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2003). This was an English translation of a work which professor Patalas put together with considerable effort, "Przez boje, przez znoje, przez trud: Kombatanckie losy" (Through battles, privations, and hardship: The fate of Polish soldiers) (Winnipeg: Polish Combatants' Association - Group 13, 1996). Professors Patalas and Izydorczyk doubtless undertook a supreme effort to bring the book forward to appearance in English. It's quite clear that in today's climate, the publishing of a book friendly to the Polish cause, by a recognized Canadian publisher, requires a huge personal effort and well-established professional contacts. In this case, professor Daniel Stone, who teaches Polish and East European history at the University of Winnipeg, wrote a lucid introduction to the book. Another isolated but genuinely idealistic endeavour, was High Park Magazine, edited by Piotr Manycz, of which twenty-five magnificent issues appeared between 1992 and 1998. The quality of the publication was amazing and it had articles in both Polish and English. Had it continued, it could have perhaps become a nucleus for far more lively Polish impressions on the Canadian literary landscape. A third example of an isolated but genuinely idealistic initiative is "Poland in the Rockies." This is a summer seminar in a natural setting, with lectures and informal talks by such luminaries as professor Norman Davies, that offers a sense of community and networking, mainly to young Polish-Canadian and Polish-American university and college students. Such a sense of community is considerably reassuring to young people, who not infrequently have to sharply defend Polishness, in today's North American social and cultural climate. After a hiatus of some years, the seminar was revived in 2014, but I am unable to ascertain through various Internet searches, whether it is happening in 2016. Another helpful initiative is the Quo Vadis conferences. In the main English-language Canadian press and publishers, the presence of articles and books that treat Polish and Polish-Canadian themes and issues in a comparatively sympathetic light, appears to be extremely infrequent. In fact, such themes and issues are rather rarely discussed at all. It might be concluded from this that, insofar as the Polish-Canadian community might wish to have articles in English that represent it effectively to Canadian society, they can probably only appear in Polonia publications. However, most newspapers and magazines of Canadian Polonia have usually been closed to publishing articles in English. It is also highly unfortunate that the annual scholarly journal of the Polish Library in Montreal and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in Canada (PIASC) has suspended publication as of the two-year, 2007-2008 issue. Such articles in English can also speak to persons of Polish descent who have a middling or weaker command of the Polish language, but would appreciate their heritage effectively represented in English. This writer has waited for years (if not decades) for a Canadian Polonia newspaper that would frequently publish articles in English. Indeed, it is probably only through the medium of the English language that a more effective, intermediary, Polish and Canadian identity, which might be able to persist a considerable number of generations, can somehow be worked out, at this very late date. Most newspapers of Canadian Polonia have usually been oriented towards "Poles living in Canada" (that is, immigrants from Poland) as opposed to persons of Polish descent born in Canada. Given the ever-diminishing numbers of new immigrants from Poland, it could be argued that increasing attention must come to be paid to the generations born in Canada. An earlier version of this article has appeared at Quarterly Review (UK). Mark Wegierski is a Toronto-based writer and historical researcher. Home War between Saudi Arabia and Iran could send oil prices to $250 By James Stafford The rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran has quickly ballooned into the worst conflict in decades between the two countries. The back-and-forth escalation quickly turned the simmering tension into an overt struggle for power in the Middle East. First, the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric prompted protestors to set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations and kicked out Iranian diplomatic personnel. Tehran banned Saudi goods from entering Iran. Worst of all, Iran blames Saudi Arabia for an airstrike that landed near its embassy in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's Sunni allies in the Arabian Peninsula largely followed suit by downgrading diplomatic ties with Iran. However, recognizing the dire implications of a major conflict in the region, most of Saudi Arabia's Gulf State allies did not go as far as to entirely sever diplomatic relations, as Saudi Arabia did. Bahrain, the one nation most closely allied with Riyadh, was the only one to take such a step. Many of them are concerned about a descent to further instability. Nations like Kuwait and Qatar have trade links with Iran, plus Shiite populations of their own. Crucially, Qatar also shares a maritime border with Iran as well as access to massive natural gas reserves in the Persian Gulf. These countries are trying to split the difference between the two belligerent nations in the Middle East. "The Saudis are on the phone lobbying countries very hard to break off ties with Iran but most Gulf states are trying to find some common ground," a diplomat from an Arab country told Reuters. "The problem is, common ground between everyone in this region is shrinking." The effect from the brewing conflict on oil is murky, but for now it is not having a bullish impact. In the past, geopolitical tension in the Middle East, especially involving large oil producers, would add a few dollars to the price of oil. This risk premium captured the possibility of a supply disruption into the price of a barrel of crude. However, recent events barely registered in oil trading. That is because the global glut in oil supplies loom larger than any potential for a supply disruption. Oil dropped to nearly $30 per barrel on January 12 and oil speculators are not paying any attention to the tension in the Middle East. Also, the conflict could simply manifest itself in an intensified battle for oil market share. Iran has put forth aggressive goals to ramp up oil production in the near-term. And Saudi Arabia continues to produce well in excess of 10 million barrels per day while discounting its crude in several key markets, particularly in Europe in order to box out Iran. But what if the current "Cold War" between Saudi Arabia and Iran turned hot? Saudi Arabia has a variety of reasons to not back down, not the least of which is the very real sense of being besieged on multiple fronts. An article in The New Statesman by former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John Jenkins, clearly laid out the threats that Saudi Arabia sees around every corner: extremists at home; a growing Iran; toppled allies from the Arab Spring; low oil prices; and a fractured relationship with the United States. The nuclear deal between Iran and the West was confirmation on the feeling in Riyadh that it is becoming increasingly insecure. Already the two rivals have engaged in proxy battles in Yemen and Syria, supporting opposite sides in those wars. A full on direct military confrontation would be something entirely different, however. It would have catastrophic consequences for oil markets, even when taking into account the current supply overhang. Dr. Hossein Askari, a professor at The George Washington University, told Oil & Gas 360 that a war between the two countries could lead to supply disruptions, with predictable impacts on prices. "If there is a war confronting Iran and Saudi Arabia, oil could overnight go to above $250, but decline [back] down to the $100 level," said Askari. "If they attack each other's loading facilities, then we could see oil spike to over $500 and stay around there for some time depending on the extent of the damage." While not impossible, war is speculative at this point. Also, $250 and $500 per barrel are numbers pulled out of thin air, and may seem a bit sensationalist. But despite the glut in global oil production somewhere around 1 mb/d the margin from excess to shortage is thinner than most people think. OPEC is producing flat out and spare capacity is actually remarkably low right now. The EIA estimated that OPEC spare capacity stood at just 1.25 mb/d in the third quarter of 2015, the lowest level since 2008. As a result, even though it remains a remote possibility, direct military confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran could well put oil back into triple-digit territory in short order. James Stafford is the editor of Oilprice.com where this originally appeared. Home The Thousand Year Peace: Chapter Twelve: New World Order Narcissism By Michael Moriarty A modern lesson from the indisputably great Hollywood film that explores the entirely feminine soul of the Confederate South, Gone With The Wind. That the prevailing Liberal and Progressive political philosophy of 3rd Millennium Democrats resembles the benighted and deepening delusions which the Confederate South was slowly but steadily drowning in for over a century, from 1776 to 1865. The heart of Gone With The Wind? Scarlett O'Hara's blind self-obsession. The Literary Empress of Confederate Narcissism However, what is the virtual cyanide for America's imminent suicide? The American Left's addiction to President Barack Hussein Obama's own self-obsession. The Golden Calf of American Marxist Narcissism Yes. Scarlet O'Bama. The American Red/Islamic, Marxist/Muslim Monarch worshipped by "Sanctuary" America. Biblically? Obama as The Golden Calf. "Let us worship our own blindness!" However what has kept the American Republicans, home of the Biblical Right, from demanding the impeachment of this heretic, President Obama? The New World Order. Obama's "fundamental transformation" of America is the key to ending American Sovereignty and to ostensibly handing all governing power over to the United Nations. Here is, of all people and Presidents, George H. W. Bush, announcing the imminent creation of a New World Order to be run by the United Nations. Our own 20th Century Benedict Arnold. Meanwhile, Obama is now demanding that he be made Secretary General of the United Nations?! The Golden Calf demands to be elevated even higher than the Presidency of the United States, somewhere light years above and beyond all the nations of the world?! Emperor Obama. Gaining Napoleon's Throne without firing a shot. Why? America's bipartisan, two-term surrender to him as President. And to the illusively long, long efforts by both political parties in America to create a New World Order. The link to the above entry cited in Facebook is http://usanewsflash.com/putin-russia-is-ready-to-show-proof-that-911-was-an-inside-job/. Finally, this article completes the picture of Republican corruption, lies and treason for over the last 20 years, How so? The last thing the "enlightened despots" of The New World Order the Ivy League, Harvard/Columbia and Yale "Illuminati" graduates which include the Bushes, the Clintons and Barack Hussein Obama the least desirable thing they want is any interruption or disclosure of the depraved depths to which they all will go in order to create The Progressive New World Order. "When we are successful," says President George H. W. Bush, "and we will be" To achieve the vision, not of America's Founding Fathers and their Declaration of Independence, Constitution and its Bill of Rights but that of the Progressively Marxist United Nations! Treason! Pure and deliberately homicidal treason!! Odd that America's best friend may turn out to be one of its traditional enemies, the President of a Neo-Soviet Russia, Vladimir Putin. In any case, nothing sets anything "free" except The Truth! The coming agony of a Second American Civil War will prove to be a divine necessity. Why? To reinstate and re-institute the unique American Truth. To place the United States back upon its original foundations. The human race has no vital future without the liberating formula for individual freedom contained within the American Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. The New World Order Illuminati truly believe that they can somehow erase both the Constitution and its Bill of Rights and "Con" over 300 million Americans into an utter and complete surrender to a New World Order ostensibly run by the United Nations And without any resistance?!?!?! How can they think that?!?! New World Order Narcissism. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home Philadelphia, January 19, 2016 -- In a paper published today in Annals of Internal Medicine, the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued advice for prescribing antibiotics for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in adults. "Inappropriate use of antibiotics for ARTIs is an important factor contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections, which is a public health threat," said ACP President Wayne J. Riley, MD, MPH, MBA, MACP. "Reducing overuse of antibiotics for ARTIs in adults is a clinical priority and a High Value Care way to improve quality of care, lower health care costs, and slow and/or prevent the continued rise in antibiotic resistance." ARTIs, including the common cold, uncomplicated bronchitis, sore throat, and sinus infection, are the most common reason for doctor's office visits. According to unpublished CDC data, an estimated 50 percent of antibiotic prescriptions may be unnecessary or inappropriate in the outpatient setting, which equates to over $3 billion in excess costs. Antibiotics also are responsible for the largest number of medication-related adverse events and the cause of about one in five visits to emergency departments for adverse drug reactions. Physicians should not prescribe antibiotics for patients with the common cold. Physicians should advise patients that symptoms can last up to two weeks and to follow up if symptoms worsen or exceed the expected time of recovery. Physicians should also explain the risks and benefits of symptomatic therapy and that antibiotics are not needed and may have side effects. Symptomatic therapy is recommended for management of common cold symptoms. For patients with uncomplicated bronchitis, physicians should not perform testing or prescribe antibiotics unless pneumonia is suspected. Patients may benefit from symptomatic relief with cough suppressants, expectorants, antihistamines, decongestants, and beta agonists. For patients with sore throat, physicians should recommend analgesic therapy such as aspirin, acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and throat lozenges, which can help reduce pain. Physicians can reassure patients that the usual course of a sore throat is less than one week and that antibiotics are not usually needed because they do little to improve symptoms and may have side effects. Physicians should test patients with symptoms suggestive of group A streptococcal pharyngitis (for example, persistent fevers or other appropriate combination of symptoms) by rapid strep test and/or culture for group A Streptococcus. Physicians should treat patients with antibiotics only if they have confirmed streptococcal pharyngitis. Uncomplicated sinus infection usually resolves without antibiotics, even in patients with a bacterial cause. The majority of patients diagnosed with sinus infection experience more side effects than benefits from antibiotics. Most patients with sinus infection should be managed with supportive care. Analgesics may be offered for pain and antipyretics for fever. Physicians should reserve antibiotic treatment for sinus infection for patients with persistent symptoms for more than 10 days, onset of severe symptoms or signs of high fever (greater than 102.2F) and nasal discharge or facial pain lasting for at least three consecutive days, or onset of worsening symptoms following a typical viral illness that lasted five days which was initially improving (double-sickening). The paper includes evidence-based strategies to help physicians promote appropriate antibiotic prescriptions. Physicians can label bronchitis as a "chest cold" or a "viral upper respiratory infection," and provide patient information sheets about appropriate antibiotic use and alternatives to antibiotics for managing symptoms. Patients and physicians can work together to prevent overuse of antibiotics. A symptomatic "prescription" pad can be used to provide recommendations for management of symptoms and offer the possibility of future antibiotic treatment if the condition fails to improve. ### About the American College of Physicians The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 143,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Residents of high-rise buildings had better survival rates from cardiac arrests if they lived on the first few floors, and survival was negligible for people living above the 16th floor, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) "As the number of high-rise buildings continues to increase and as population density rises in major urban centres, it is important to determine the effect of delays to patient care in high-rise buildings on survival after cardiac arrest," writes Ian Drennan, a paramedic with York Region Paramedic Services and a researcher with Rescu, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, with coauthors. The further a patient with cardiac arrest is from the ground floor, the lower the survival rate. Of 8216 people who had cardiac arrests in private residences and were treated by 911-initiated first responders, 3.8% survived to be discharged from hospital. Of the 5998 (73%) people living below the 3rd floor who had cardiac arrests, 252 (4.2%) survived the arrest, but only 48 (2.6%) of the 1844 people living above the 3rd floor survived. When analysed floor by floor, the researchers found a survival rate of only 0.9% in those living above the 16th floor (2 of 216) and no survivors (0 of 30) in those living above the 25th floor. The researchers note that the use of automated external defibrillators (AED) was very low. The study looked at the interval from arrival of an emergency vehicle to 911-initiated first responders reaching a patient having a cardiac arrest. Other studies, which have also shown poor survival rates, have measured response time between the call to 911 and arrival of an emergency vehicle on scene, but not the time to reach the patient. "The 911 response time, from emergency activation to arrival of first responders on scene, will remain relatively constant, so long as traffic patterns do not change; however, the time from arrival on scene to initial patient contact may increase as more of the population comes to live at or above the third floor," write the authors. "Thus, 911 response time may diminish in importance as a determinant for survival, whereas the time to patient contact may become more important in predicting who lives and who dies after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest." The researchers outline several solutions to improve time to patient contact, such as giving 911-initiated first responders sole access to elevators for emergency service without public interference, similar to the access of firefighters during a fire; emergency alerts to building staff before arrival of the first responders; and better placement of defibrillators to increase bystander use. The authors of a related commentary provide possible solutions to help improve survival rates, including CPR/AED training for residents of high-rise apartments, a national online registry of public-access defibrillators linked to first-responder applications, and using smartphones to activate volunteer first responders for patients with cardiac arrest. "Singapore has a multipronged approach to address high-rise residential out-of-hospital cardiac arrests," writes Associate Professor Marcus Eng Hock Ong, Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, with coauthors. "A large public campaign is currently underway to enrol residents' committees as first responders and to train one million people over the next five years." ### Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan have discovered how to reverse the abnormal axonal development characteristic of CFEOM3, a congenital disease that affects the muscles that control eye movements. Published in Nature Communications, the work shows how creating a specific mutation rescued abnormal axonal growth in the developing mouse brain. During normal development of the nervous system, axons--the output end of neurons--must grow towards specific locations and make precise connections with other neurons. In CFEOM3, the nervous system governing eye movements does not develop properly because of defects in axon guidance that are associated with mutations in the protein 3-tubulin. Chains of tubulin molecules form microtubules that function in intracellular transport and structure, and 3-tubulin is a special type that is most abundant when axons are growing in the developing nervous system. Some of the 3-tubulin mutations in CFEOM3 have been linked to microtubule interactions with kinesins--proteins that use energy to move from one end of a microtubule to the other. "Our original aim was to understand the molecular mechanism underlying kinesin-tubulin interaction in the pathogenic mutants," explains lead author Itsushi Minoura. "Surprisingly, the kinesin mutants that we created effectively rescued kinesin motility and axonal growth, even in live mice." The team began looking at the role of a specific amino acid location on 3-tubulin called R262, because the R262 mutation is the most common mutation in patients with CFEOM3. Using a recently developed baculovirus-insect cell-expression system, they first found that in vitro, this mutation does indeed inhibit the ability of kinesin--specifically the kinesin KIF5B-- to move along microtubules formed from 3-tubulin. In fact, the kinesin would not even bind to the mutant microtubules. The team reasoned that if they knew what part of the kinesin interacted with the microtubule, they could then look for kinesins with mutations at that location, and perhaps find one that was able to move along the R262 mutant microtubules. The crystal structure of the kinesin-microtubule complex indicated that 3-tubulin binds to kinesin KIF5B at location D279. After several experiments, they found what they were looking for: replacing D279 with another amino acid--making a D279R mutant--allowed the kinesin to move along 3-tubulin microtubules with the R262 mutation. Next, researchers tested whether they could use the D279R kinesin mutant to prevent abnormal axon growth in cultures neurons. They transfected the mutant 3-tubulin into dissociated embryonic neurons and as expected, saw significantly reduced axonal growth. They then found that neurons co-transfected with both mutants grew a normal length, and the abnormality was successfully suppressed. After repeating the experiment with a mutant of another kinesin--D325R KIF2A--known to be important to the developing nervous system, researchers tested their theory in an in vivo experiment in the developing mouse brain. To do this, the disease-causing mutant tubulin and each disease-correcting mutant kinesin were transfected together into mouse embryos using in utero electroporation--a process that uses electric pulses to briefly open pores in cell membranes of embryos in uterus, allowing injected DNA to pass through. The team found that the both kinesin mutants suppressed abnormal axonal growth in the developing brain caused by the R262 microtubule mutation. Notes Minoura, "while the rescue experiment is not available for humans, understanding the roles of the many types of tubulin in normal mammalian brain development is an important step towards understanding the pathogenesis of many neurodevelopmental disorders such as lissencephaly and polymicroglia." ### Reference: Minoura I, Takazaki H, Ayukawa R, Saruta C, Hachikubo Y, Uchimura S, Hida T, Kamiguchi H, Shimogori T, Muto E. Reversal of axon guidance defects in CFEOM3 by suppressor mutation in the kinesin-microtubule interface. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/NCOMMS10058 The move by Western powers to ease sanctions on Iran and expected to formally come into effect this weekend has partially opened up the country to international finance, as have US moves to normalize relations with Cuba. However, most lenders are unlikely to capitalize on pent-up demand for banking products amid an expectation of an uptick in trade which beyond oil include plastics, extracted ores, and fruits and nuts and domestic consumption in both countries. In the case of Iran, European countries are paving the way to form economic partnerships. EKF, the Danish export credit agency (ECA), pledged earlier this month to increase its work with Iran once the sanctions are lifted. The agency signed a cooperation agreement with the Iranian Ministry of Finance that will see it offer guarantees on loans and credit insurance once operations commence in the country. Italys Sace has also signed an agreement, while the UKs ECA UK Export Finance stated last year it was assessing the countrys creditworthiness. International banks, however, are unlikely to offer their services. With restrictions still in place, they are reluctant to end up with a multi-million dollar fine. They are also reluctant to speak about their future plans. Robert McKay, Accuity Robert McKay, executive vice-president, product, at Accuity, explains that banks are cautious due to the level of complexity that is involved. The removal of Iranian sanctions relates to companies specifically in the industries of petrochemical exports, auto industry, gold and precious metals, and banking services. Many other companies are still under sanction. McKay explains that there is considerable room for confusion, especially between jurisdictions, adding: The lifting of sanctions are inconsistently applied across the US, the UK and the EU. For example, 86% of the Iranian entities on the UK HM Treasury sanctions list are to be removed. In stark contrast, only 68% of the Iranian entities on the US OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control] sanctions list are removed. Banks will regularly use third-party compliance software to keep on the right side of sanctions. However, McKay cautions that banks should not be completely reliant on such provisions by third-parties given the liability for non-compliance falls on the lenders. He also says that third-party providers are able to update legal and market changes easily, while the decision to facilitate a transaction ultimately falls to the bank itself. Making appropriate decisions upon any screened entity, however, can result in operational complexities," says McKay. "A reviewer of a potential screening match must be able to determine if the stopped transaction, for example, adheres to one of the remaining sanctions that had not be lifted or if there is some false-positive in the matching process. The issue of false-positives also creates the need for direct checking from the bank. One banker tells the story of how "Lebanon", a relatively common town name in the US, appeared in the address of one company, resulting in the latter being flagged repeatedly on the sanction screening list. The bank involved had to manually override the block on the transaction. Individual impact There is considerably greater impact on a bank when individuals are under sanction. Banks do not want to unnecessarily impede the banking transactions of non-sanctioned individuals, which can be especially difficult with common names. To ensure they have ruled against the correct person, McKay says the compliance team needs to rigorously check the information collated through the know-your-customer process. When banks are able to provide their services is also dependent on when the infrastructure becomes available. The return of Swift to Iran will mark a watershed moment for the payments community, and the messaging provider has announced it is prepared to operate again in the country. Certain criteria, however, do need to be met first, including administrative checks, and technical and connectivity measures, before organizations can join the network. Some institutions will continue to be excluded due to remaining sanctions. Enrico Camerinelli, senior analyst at Aite Group, says it will be interesting to see to what extent the Iranian banks choose to adopt Swifts innovations, or if they will stick to the standard messaging systems. Camerinelli adds: I suspect that Iranian banks have had to cope with multiple problems during the embargo period, so they have been forced to run the business with basic home-made functionalities, while keeping a close eye on the latest technology developments. Not to say that they are ahead of other banks, but I expect they will certainly want now to catch up and ensure they have the latest and best of what banking technology offers. The Iranian banks will also need to readjust to working in a banking environment with far stricter international regulations than what they had previously been under. This could leave them waiting longer than expected to freely operating again, even if they are no longer impacted by sanctions. Neal Dawson, head of anti-money laundering and sanctions at KPMG, says: "Over the period when Iranian banks were excluded from Swift and the correspondent banking network there was a marked increase in due diligence standards. Banks will need to do this to work out what they are prepared to do, and who they will work with. It will take time to get this in place." When banks are able to provide their services is also dependent on when the infrastructure becomes available. Clear understanding between the banks and their corporate customers looking to conduct business in newly accessible areas also needs to be reached. Corporates need to have a full understanding of the licensing issues and exporting controls that might still hinder their growth ambitions. The biggest catalyst, perhaps, are the banks corporate clients whose business operations and trading will take them into these previously sanctioned areas, says McKay. The move might primarily come from the markets which can easily conduct transactions in currencies other than US dollars. Says Dawson: "There is a potential for growth outside of the traditional US dollar markets which are still under sanctions. Sterling and euro banks will be looking to move back into the country over time, but it will not happen anytime soon." Take action now: Contact United Methodist officials and urge them to overturn their ban on Discovery Institute. As previously reported, United Methodist Church (UMC) officials have banned Discovery Institute from sponsoring an information table at its upcoming General Conference in May 2016 in Portland, Oregon. The decision appears to have been made solely because Discovery Institute supports intelligent design, the idea that nature displays evidence it was produced by a purposeful process rather than an unguided one. As a matter of religious liberty, I certainly defend the legal right of UMC officials to do what they did. But that doesnt mean their decision was right. The UMC publicly claims that it is dedicated to Open Hearts/Open Minds/Open Doors. Furthermore, the UMC issued an invitation to outside groups to become exhibitors at its General Conference. Banning Discovery Institute from even sponsoring an information table seems to be inconsistent with the denominations own stated goals. Moreover, many United Methodists likely favor intelligent design, and so it is questionable whether denominational officials who are trying to ban Discovery Institute really represent the diverse views of their membership. If you want a blow-by-blow account of what has happened up to this point, you can download the correspondence between Discovery Institute and UMC officials. But here is a summary. In the fall of 2015, Discovery Institute applied to become an exhibitor at the United Methodist Churchs upcoming General Conference, which is to take place in May 2016. Discovery Institute was eventually informed by phone by UMC official Bobby Smith that its application was being rejected because of a resolution passed by the UMC in 2008 opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools. Discovery Institute sought reconsideration of the decision to reject its application to be an exhibitor. The Institute pointed out that it did not advocate pushing intelligent design into public school science classes. Furthermore, the theory of intelligent design as articulated by scholars affiliated with Discovery Institute was not faith-based, although it had positive implications for faith. Mr. Smith eventually replied that an unidentified group of officials had unanimously agreed to uphold the rejection of Discovery Institute as an exhibitor, but he provided no explanation of their rationale for doing so. Discovery Institute asked Mr. Smith for the rationale for continuing to reject Discovery Institute as an exhibitor, a list of exhibitors accepted for the 2016 General Conference, and the name and contact information for Mr. Smiths superior (so Discovery Institute could appeal the rejection). Mr. Smith declined to provide any further information. On January 6, Discovery Institute appealed Mr. Smiths decision to Mr. Moses Kumar, General Secretary and Treasurer, General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), United Methodist Church, and to Bishop Michael Coyner and Bishop Michael McKee, both of whom serve on the board of the General Council on Finance and Administration. The GCFA is the branch of the UMC for which Bobby Smith works. On January 12, Mr. Kumar informed Discovery Institute that the decision to ban the Institute from having an information had been made by the leadership of the Commission on the General Conference, and Discovery Institute would receive an answer from the Chair of that entity by January 15. Discovery Institute then asked for a list of the membership of the Commission on the General Conference, but that information was not provided. On January 14, Ms. Judi Kenaston, Chair of the Commission on the General Conference, reaffirmed the decision to reject Discovery Institutes application to sponsor an information table. Similar to Mr. Smith, she claimed that Discovery Institutes application had been found to be in conflict with the Social Principles of the UMC. However, she did not provide any evidence to substantiate this claim; nor did she respond to the evidence previously provided by Discovery Institute showing that the claim is in error. Ms. Kenaston did raise an entirely new objection, suggesting that Discovery Institute was rejected for violating a policy that conference exhibits are not to provide a platform to survey or test ideas; rather, to provide products / services / resources which are credible and proven to help church ministries. I responded to Ms. Kenaston by noting: We were not planning to survey or test ideas. We are involved in producing books, videos, and educational materials, many of which have been used in churches and Christian schools around the nation and in other countries. Over the past decade, we have sponsored science and faith conferences in many parts of the country that have drawn Christians from a variety of backgrounds, including Methodist. Our information table was going to provide information about these resources. It seems to me that you are applying your vetting standard simply to exclude an idea you apparently dislike, not to fairly apply the standards you espouse. I further reiterated our request to Ms. Kenaston that the UMC disclose the list of approved exhibitors at the General Conference and the list of members of the Commission on the General Conference that made the decision to ban Discovery Institute. On January 18, Discovery Institute went public with the UMC officials attempt to ban the Institute from sponsoring an information table at the UMCs General Conference. Image credit: Matt Apps / Dollar Photo Club. Take action now: Contact United Methodist officials and urge them to overturn their ban on Discovery Institute. The slogan of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. But UMC officials are now under fire for being closed-minded and intolerant after they banned Discovery Institute, from sponsoring an information table at the denominations upcoming General Conference in May. Intelligent design is the idea that life and the universe show evidence of being the result of purposeful design rather than unguided processes. Preventing United Methodist leaders from even hearing about intelligent design isnt open-minded. Its intolerant and exclusionary, said Dr. John West, Vice President of Discovery Institute. Maybe United Methodist officials should change their slogan to Closed Hearts, Closed Minds, Closed Doors. As a private organization, the UMC has the right to exclude us as an exhibitor. But UMC officials embrace of censorship undermines their own professed commitment to open doors and open minds. As a United Methodist, Im disheartened and appalled, said Michael Flannery, a university professor who is also a Discovery Institute Fellow. Methodist officials who are trying to stop discussion before it starts certainly dont speak for me or for many other United Methodists in the pews. Discovery Institute is calling on those who think the United Methodist Church should live up to its slogan of encouraging open minds and open doors to contact Judi Kenaston, the chair of the UMCs Commission on the General Conference, the group that made the decision banning Discovery Institute. Urge Ms. Kenaston and the Commission to live up to their churchs slogan and be truly open-minded, said West. The Institute has set up a web page to make it easy to contact UMC officials. Discovery Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and research organization with supporters around the United States. Its Center for Science & Culture supports the work of scientists and scholars who are researching evidence that nature is the product of purposeful design rather than unguided processes. Image credit: Focus Pocus LTD / Dollar Photo Club. Tourism Australia has announced the name of popular Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth as the global ambassador for its new campaign, which will focus on the countrys world-class aquatic and coastal experiences. Tourism Australia has announced the name of popular Hollywood actor Chris Hemsworth as the global ambassador for its new campaign, which will focus on the countrys world-class aquatic and coastal experiences. Commenting on the announcement, Tourism Australia Managing Director, John OSullivan said, Chris truly embodies the Australian way of life and his love of his home country, with all its natural beauty, makes him an ideal ambassador. From learning how to surf on Phillip Island, fishing with his brothers in the Northern Territory and family beach holidays, Chris has grown up in Australia in and around water and his own personal experiences bring a truly authentic and influential Australian voice to our campaign. Speaking about his association with Tourism Australia, Chris Hemsworth commented, In Australia youre surrounded by the most incredible natural beauty. Being in the water or near to it is a way of life for us. Im really looking forward to launching this new campaign in New York and sharing with the rest of the world just how amazing this country really is. The Hollywood star will launch the country's new campaign, focusing on its beaches and coastal experiences, at the global premiere on Australia Day eve in New York. Chris is passionate about Australia, with a genuine desire to promote the Australian way of life and therefore makes a great global ambassador for telling the world why theres nothing like Australia, added, Lisa Ronson, Chief Marketing Officer, Tourism Australia. Read more news about (ad news, latest advertising news India, internet advertising, ad agencies updates, media advertising India) After falling to its worst level in over 5 years, the Pound Sterling to Dollar exchange rate managed to find some recovery today (GBP-USD) 2016 has been disappointing for the British Pound Sterling so far, with the GBP exchange rate falling to notable lows against peers like the US dollar (USD) and the euro (EUR). This week has opened on an extremely quiet note, with earlier UK economic announcements being the only real sources of movement for Pound Sterling exchange rates. The Pound has been advancing against virtually all of its usual peers today, with the only losses being extremely minor in size. The cause for this uptrend is thought to be the Rightmove House Prices result for January, which has shown a rise from -1.1% to 0.5% on the month and a small slowdown from 7.4% to 6.5% on the year. Here are the latest forex conversion rates for your reference: On Thursday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1 The live inter-bank GBP-GBP spot rate is quoted as 1 today. At time of writing the pound to canadian dollar exchange rate is quoted at 1.557. The pound conversion rate (against euro) is quoted at 1.151 EUR/GBP. FX markets see the pound vs japanese yen exchange rate converting at 169.181. Please note: the FX rates above, updated 20th Oct 2022, will have a commission applied by your typical high street bank. Currency brokers specialise in these type of foreign currency transactions and can save you up to 5% on international payments compared to the banks. Optimistic UK Growth Forecasts Boosts GBP to EUR, USD Exchange Rates Today Additionally, an optimistic forecast from the EY ITEM Club has boosted the Pounds performance today, with expectations being for a 2.6% increase in growth for the UK this year. Tomorrow is likely to bring a greater level of Sterling movement than today, given that the UK December Consumer Price Indexes are considered to be high impact. Projections have largely been mixed for the outcome of the three fields, with a stagnation at 0% predicted for the monthly base result, a fractional rise from 0.1% to 0.2% expected for the annual base outcome and a reprint of 1.2% on the cards for the Core annual printing. US Dollar (USD) Investors Unfazed by Absence of Domestic Data Today Although the previous week saw investors in the US economy panicked by the diving price of crude oil per barrel, this has apparently ceased to have a detrimental impact on the US Dollars value today. In part, the reason for the current appeal of the US Dollar is due to the apparent robustness of the economy when faced with external threats, such as Chinas fractious state of play and the overall slump in commodity costs. According to The Associated Press writers Paul Wiseman and Bernard Condon, in spite of all of the prevailing winds of uncertainty and doubt, the US is nonetheless unlikely to fall into a recession during the current year. US data out tomorrow includes the NAHB Housing Market Index for January, which is projected to remain at 61 points. Pound Sterling (GBP) News: EY Predictions for UK Economy Include Better Export Performance in 2016 Expanding further on EY ITEM Clubs optimistic expectations for the UK economy in the next 11 months, Chief Economist Peter Spencer stated that: While growth in world trade remains disappointing as a result of the slowdown in emerging markets, the UK is relatively well protected. Our traditional trading markets such as the EU and US have performed better lately and should continue to do so. Along with a weaker Pound, this should see exports doing well this year. Moodys Forecasts Chinas Impact on US Economic Movement in 2016, How Will the US Dollar (USD) Hold Up? While the Federal Reserve has been closely monitoring the economic situation in China, Moodys Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi has predicted that: While the US economys exposure to China is relatively small, the multinational companies that trade on the stock market are much more exposed. For many of these companies, the narrative behind their growth and earnings prospects is China. If you throw that narrative out, investors get nervous. Essentially, the risks posed by China are considered to be a greater threat to the individual, rather than the larger entity of the US economy. That being said, the situation could continue having an impact on demand for the US Dollar. UPDATE: GBP/USD Exchange Rate Slides despite Increasing UK CPI The British Pound to US Dollar (GBP/USD) exchange rate jumped to a high of 1.4340 during the European session as the UK's better-than-forecast inflation report bolstered demand for the British currency. The UK's annual core consumer price index advanced from 1.2% to 1.4% unexpectedly and inflation edged up 0.1% on the month in December. However, the GBP/USD exchange rate resumed depreciation as the session progressed after a dovish speech from BoE Governor Mark Carney caused Sterling to dive. HARRISBURG, Pa. The Pennsylvania Auctioneers Bid Calling Contest, held in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Auctioneers Association annual conference, took place at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, Jan. 13. This is a bona fide auction, Nevin Rentzel, PAA emcee for the evening, told the crowd of Farm Show spectators and fellow auctioneers. The competing auctioneers would be selling items to raise money for the Pennsylvania Farm Show Scholarship Foundation while being judged on their auctioneering abilities. Its nerve-wracking leading up to it, said Daniel Reeder, from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Reeder, a licensed auctioneer since 2009, explained. You dont get nervous during the day-to-day auctions, but being on stage with a room full of peers judging your abilities is enough to make even the most confident sweat a little. Reeder never imagined a career in auctioneering, but he married into an auctioneering family and got his start working as a ringman during sales for Hostetter Auctioneers. This was Reeders fifth year competing and although he has never won, he has placed in the top 10 multiple times including a second place finish one year. He placed fifth in this years competition. Judging Rentzel explained contestants are judged on a point system of up to 100 points. They receive points for their introductions and initial command of the sale, their appearance and poise and their voice control including: speed, clarity, rhythm and voice expression. Contestants are also judged on their eye contact, their ability to hold the attention of the audience members and their close of the sale with SOLD. The competition consisted of three rounds. A practice round allows contestants to sell one item without being judged. In the next preliminary round, contestants sold two items and were judged on their ability to effectively sell the item. Judges scores are tallied following the preliminary round and the top 10 auctioneers advance to the final round. Contestants who advanced to the finals had one final attempt to show off their skills by selling two more items each. The results J. Merl Stoltzfus, of Perry County, was named champion auctioneer at the end of the night. John Stauffer, of Lancaster County, was runner-up. Bryan Oberholtzer was named the rookie champion. The rookie competition is for auctioneers who have been licensed for less than two years. More than $1,800 was raised for the scholarship foundation. (updated Jan. 20 to include additional comments from OTA, about its checkoff proposal.) SALEM, Ohio Farmers and food processors who produce organic foods, but are not 100 percent organic, will soon be able to claim the same exemption from commodity checkoffs and marketing orders as those operations that are 100 percent organic. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the new rule Dec. 31, which implements the same expansion called for in the 2014 farm bill. The new rule goes into effect in two months, and will apply to farmers, processors, feeders, handlers, manufacturers, marketers and importers. Eligible parties According to USDA, all organic products certified under the USDAs National Organic program will be eligible for the exemption. However, nonorganic products sold in any conventional markets will continue to be subject to the checkoff tax. The Organic Trade Association, which supports the exemption, estimates it will free up $13.6 million a year for organic stakeholders. A new checkoff Checkoffs typically pay for marketing, research and promotions. The organic industry does not currently have its own checkoff, but OTA has submitted a proposal to create one. The proposal is still under review, according to USDA. The OTA billed the exemption as a step forward, and hopes the savings will eventually be invested in an organic checkoff. These are important gains for organic farmers and the organic industry, and will help the organic sector invest in its future, said Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director of OTA, in a released statement. This is a significant and positive development for organic stakeholders. OTA estimates that an organic checkoff could raise at least $30 million a year for the industry to go mainly into research, and also into information dissemination, promotion and consumer education activities. But a new checkoff remains a divided issue, even within the organic industry. A website called No Organic Checkoff lists the concerns of dozens of organic farmers across the nation, which center on the cost of funding, what it would actually be allowed to promote, accountability and how it would operate. Ohio and Pennsylvania growers are concerned about more bureaucracy, unfair benefits to corporate ag and businesses, and potential damages to small-scale producers. Local response Renee Hunt, program director for the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association which certifies organic producers in 14 states, said the board of OEFFA has not taken a position on the checkoff. She said board members are waiting on the final proposal, and have also submitted their own proposal to the USDA, outlining potential concerns. One of the biggest concerns, Hunt said, is that initial versions of the checkoff would require only producers who sell $250,000 or more to be assessed. This would essentially cut out the small-scale producers, she said, or about 70 percent of organic certificate holders. Smaller-scale producers could voluntarily participate, but would not necessarily have the same status as large-scale producers. Hunt said shes concerned smaller-scale producers would have less voice on the board, and be less able to direct the kind of research and initiatives that benefit their own farming. The OTA, in an email to Farm and Dairy, said its plan would allow voluntary participants to participate in exactly the same way as those mandated, including the ability to sit on all producer board seats including one dedicated solely to small producers. The OTA argues that its checkoff proposal has been designed to ensure equal and fair representation for the smaller producer. Broad industry There is also concern about the size and scope of an organic checkoff, which unlike the beef or pork checkoff, for example, would apply to a broad industry, instead of a single commodity. This could create competition among organic farmers, to direct the funds toward their own commodity. The concept of having a research and promotion program for organics is a great one. Hunt said. But the devil is going to be in the details. Hunt said the exemption from nonorganic checkoffs, however, is a good thing for farmers and processors regardless of whether an organic checkoff gets approved, because theyre no longer required to pay for markets they dont benefit from. Gilders Transport Ltd, of Marlborough Cottage, Gretton Field were at Cheltenham Magistrates court in January to answer to nine offences relating to the handling of animal by products. The court heard that Gilders Transport Ltd, who were registered as a fallen stock collector, picking up carcasses of dead stock from farms and taking them to a rendering plant, had been combining loads of carcases at their yard without the required approval. The company had also on one occasion left carcases uncovered at the companys premises where they were exposed to birds and other wild animals. In 2012, Gloucestershire County Council Trading Standards Service became aware that Gilders were combining loads of dead stock at their premises without the required approval from the Animal Plant and Health Agency (APHA) and subsequently sent a warning letter to the company. The company applied for approval in June 2012 but this was refused by the APHA due to the proximity of their livestock haulage and farming enterprises. They were advised that additional structural measures would be needed to their premises to address the risk of animal by-products becoming accessible to live animals either directly or indirectly, in order to gain the required approval. In January 2014 uncovered carcases were found in the yard at Marlborough Cottage during a routine inspection by Trading Standards. The company said that this was a one off occurrence as a result of a vehicle breaking down. Further investigations showed that the company had regularly combined loads by transferring carcases between vehicles at their premises between 2012 and 2014 contrary to advice from APHA and Trading Standards and, despite being served with a notice by Trading Standards in May 2014 prohibiting this activity, they continued to do so. Counsel acting on behalf of the company said that the method by which carcasses were moved between vehicles, in the companys opinion, made the risk of spreading disease slight. He said that dead stock collection had been a small part of their business and that they had now ceased being involved in this operation. The company pleaded guilty to the offences and were fined a total of 11,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of 4,662. Eddie Coventry, Head of Gloucestershire Trading Standards, said: Animal by-product legislation is there to prevent the spread of disease. It is disappointing that, despite being advised on a number of occasions Gilders Transport Ltd continued to ignore this advice. As such, we had no option but to take court action. Cllr Will Windsor-Clive, cabinet member for fire, planning and infrastructure, said: As a farmer myself, I know only too well the challenges that the farming community has faced over the last couple of decades. BSE and the foot in mouth crisis have had a profound effect on the industry, and this legislation was introduced to help prevent the spread of disease in the event of any future outbreaks. It is important that we hold any operators who breach the legislation to account. Reduced meat consumption might not lower greenhouse gas emissions from one of the worlds biggest beef producing regions, new research has found. The finding may seem incongruous, as intensive agriculture is responsible for such a large proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to research by University of Edinburgh, Scotlands Rural College (SRUC) and Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), reducing beef production in the Brazilian Cerrado could actually increase global greenhouse gas emissions. The findings were published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change. Lead author Rafael Silva, of the University of Edinburghs School of Mathematics, explains: Much of Brazils grassland is in poor condition, leading to low beef productivity and high greenhouse gas emissions from cattle. However, increasing demand for meat provides an incentive for farmers to recover degraded pastures. This would boost the amount of carbon stored in the soil and increase cattle productivity. It would require less land for grazing and reduce deforestation, potentially lowering emissions. While grasslands are not as effective as forests at storing carbon, Brazilian grass mostly Brachiaria genus has a greater capacity to do so than grass found in Europe, due to its long roots. High quality grasslands will cause more carbon to be stored in the soil, which will lead to a decrease in CO2 emissions. Grassland improvement involves chemical and mechanical treatment of the soil, and use of better adapted seeds along with calcium, limestone and nitrogen fertilisers. Most Brazilian grassland soils are acidic, requiring little nitrogen. In the case of the Brazilian Cerrado, reduced meat consumption could remove the incentive for grassland improvement and therefore lead to higher emissions. The researchers worked out that if demand for beef is 30% higher by 2030 compared with current estimates, net emissions would decrease by 10%. Reducing demand by 30% would lead to 9% higher emissions, provided the deforestation rates are not altered by a higher demand. However, if deforestation rates increase along with demand, emissions could increase by as much as 60%. Professor Dominic Moran, of SRUC's Land Economy, Environment and Society Group, says: The message of our research is to beware of unintended consequences. In some production regions, shifting to less meat-dependent diets would help curb climate change, but it is important to understand the nature of different production systems before concluding that reduced consumption will have the same effects in all systems. Producers still losing 18-20 per pig, new estimates show The American Agricultural Editors Association (AAEA) is organizing a Cuba Ag Communicators Learning Mission this fall. This is the first ag mission of this type to a communist country by U.S. ag journalists. AAEAs Professional Improvement Foundation (PIF) will award $2,000 stipends covering half the trip cost to the members who participate in the trip. To apply for a stipend, applicants must be a member of AAEA. Stipend information is now available on the AAEA website (www.ageditors.com) and applications will be accepted until Feb. 29. AAEA is the first ag communications organization in North America to offer this type of mission, expressly designed for ag communicators. The program has been designed for a small group of 10 to 20 participants. Applications will be reviewed by a former international state department media specialist knowledgeable in agriculture and trade relations with foreign countries. The five-day program will include a wide range of visits to farms, farmers cooperatives, processing facilities, a wholesale market and supermarket, as well as meetings with Cuban officials, U.S. State Department diplomats, agricultural economists from the University of Havana and journalists covering Cuba agriculture. We believe its vital that our members see first-hand what re-opening trade relations with Cuba will mean for farmers and other ag organizations and companies here in the U.S., says Kelly Schwalbe, chair of the AAEA foundation. These stipends are open to ag editors, freelancers and other ag communicators who write every day for various audiences from farmers to consumers and many others. AAEA is partnering with an ag tour organization with extensive connections and experience in Cuba. The organization works closely with the U.S. Agriculture Coalition for Cuba, a coalition of government, farm organizations and agribusinesses created to improve ag trade between the U.S. and Cuba. A mission of this magnitude will take many months to organize, adds Schwalbe. We will use the second quarter of this year to get the appropriate documentation approved by the U.S. and Cuban governments. The mission will occur in September or October. The likely timeframe will be a six-day window between Sept. 18 through Sept. 26 or Oct. 2 through Oct. 15. Schwalbe says the goal of PIF is to provide professional improvement opportunities to its members. We learn each day about the global aspects of agriculture through our affiliation with the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists. This is an extension of our ability to connect our members with other countries, says Schwalbe. The total cost of the mission is $4,000. Thus, the foundation stipends will cover half of the cost of the Cuban trip. Visit www.ageditors.com or contact Executive Director Den Gardner at the AAEA office at aaea@gandgcomm.com (phone: 952/758-6502) for more information. AAEA is a professional association for agricultural editors, writers, photographers, designers and other ag communications professionals with more than 470 members in the U.S. and Canada. South View football playing for volunteer coach with cancer John Bell was given 60 days to live in August, but he was determined to rejoin South View football. The volunteer coach accomplished that goal in Week 9. A former official of a Venezuelan state-owned bank was sentenced Friday to time served for taking at least $5 million in bribes from a Wall Street broker-dealer in exchange for trading business. Maria de los Angeles Gonzalez de Hernandez had served 16-1/2 months in jail after her arrest in Miami in 2013. She pleaded guilty in late 2013 to conspiracy to violate the Travel Act and commit money laundering, as well as two substantive counts of the offenses. Gonzalez, 57, had served as a vice president at state-owned Banco de Desarrollo Economico y Social de Venezuela (Bandes) at the banks headquarters in Caracas. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan also ordered Gonzalez to forfeit $5 million. Five officers and employees from New York-based Direct Access Partners had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison for bribing Gonzalez. In March 2015, DAPs former CEO and its managing director were each sentenced to four years in prison. Benito Chinea, 48, and Joseph DeMeneses, 45, pleaded guilty in December 2014 to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Travel Act. Chinea forfeited $3.6 and DeMeneses forfeited nearly $2.7. In December last year, Judge Cote sentenced Jose Alejandro Hurtado, 40, a Miami-based broker at DAP, to three years in prison and ordered him to forfeit nearly $11.9 million. Hurtado admitted being the middleman between Direct Access Partners and Gonzalez. He pleaded guilty in 2013 to conspiracy and substantive violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Travel Act, and money laundering laws. Earlier in December, Tomas Clarke, 46, a former DAP senior vice president based in Miami, was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit nearly $5.8 million. Ernesto Lujan, 52, a former DAP managing partner in charge of its Miami office, was also sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $18.5 million after pleading guilty in 2013. In return for bribes from Direct Access Partners, Gonzalez directed bond trading work to the firm from 2008 to 2012 and approved fraudulent round-trip trades. DAP generated more than $60 million in revenue from the Bandes trading business. The case began in 2010 when the SEC conducted a periodic examination of Direct Access Partners, a registered broker-dealer. The routine review led to discovery of the massive fraud and bribery. During Fridays sentencing hearing, Judge Cote said she was affected by the degree of remorse Gonzalez showed in a statement she read to the court through an interpreter, Reuters said. ____ Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. He can be contacted here. Christian Bale celebrated his Critics' Choice Award win with a "lovely make-out session" with his 'Big Short' director and screenwriter. Christian Bale The 41-year-old actor shared a celebratory kiss with wife Sibi Blazic when he was announced as the winner of Best Actor in a Comedy, and then shared a smooch with filmmaker Adam McKay and writer Charles Randolph as he made his way to the stage. Picking up the prize, he said: "That was just a lovely make-out session with my life and with Adam and with Charles. "We all really got to know each other very well on this film." And when the cast and crew later took to the stage at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, Christian and Adam shared another kiss. The director quipped in his speech: "That's collaborative love between Christian and I. Don't judge it. It's what fuels movies like this." In his own speech, Christian hailed the filmmaker as "absolutely phenomenal, brilliant and funny" and also paid a funny tribute to his wife and their daughter, 10-year-old Emmeline. Christian - who also has a 17-month-old son, Joseph, with Sibi - said: "[Thank you] first of all, my wife. It's so lovely to be able to play dress up for a living, and she holds everything together whilst I get to go play dress up. "My daughter as well, who kicks me in the nuts just like my wife does, keeping me on the straight and narrow." After thanking people who had worked on the movie and his own "team", he closed with a dedication to his "beautiful kids". Filming on Assassin's Creed has ended and we are now going to have to wait patiently until the film hits the big screen. Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed is the latest computer game to be given the big screen treatment and we are going to see Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender take on the central role of Callum Lynch. The movie sees Fassbender reunite with Macbeth filmmaker Justin Kurzel and filming got underway next year, shooting in Spain, Malta, and at Pinewood Studios in London. Azaizia Aymar, Ubisoft's head of content for the Assassin's Creed franchise, took to Twitter to announce that filming on the highly anticipated film had wrapped. It is my honor to announce that #assassinscreedmovie last shot was taken minutes ago! Congratulations guys!!! pic.twitter.com/UxsiUDIQQm Azaizia Aymar (@AymarMtl) January 15, 2016 Assassin's Creed will be the first film for Kurzel since the critical success of Macbeth last year - it is exciting to see the filmmaker and Fassbender working together. The movie also sees the duo reunite with Marion Cotillard. Brendan Gleeson, Jeremy Irons, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Brian Gleeson make up a very exciting cast list and I cannot wait to see what they all deliver with this film. It has been an exciting week for Fassbender as he has picked up an Oscar nomination as well as completing work on this exciting film project. Fassbender picked up his first Best Actor Oscar nomination for his central performance in biopic film Steve Jobs. Assassin's Creed is just one of the movies that we will be seeing Fassbender in this year as he has also completed work on Trespass Against Us, The Light Between Oceans, and X-Men: Apocalypse. Assassin's Creed is released 30th December. by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk find me on and follow me on Britain's Princess Eugenie has enjoyed eight holidays in just 15 months. Princess Eugenie The 25-year-old daughter of Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew recently returned from a jaunt to Burma where she rang in 2016 with pals, according to The Sun. She has also taken trips to New York, Los Angeles and Beijing over the past 15 months. Last year the royal was reportedly banned from taking any more holidays in 2015 after she took 25 holiday days during her first 10 weeks of work at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in London. Eugenie is working as an associate art director at the company and they have warned her that she could not have any more time off until after Christmas. A source told the Mail on Sunday: "Because she is a royal, the company does expect Eugenie to take more time off than most. But it has been made clear to her that the summer is over and it's time to knuckle down. 'She will be working incredibly hard over the coming weeks and she won't be holidaying again until Christmas." While Eugenie has enjoyed a number of getaways, her older sister Beatrice, 27, has taken 18 holidays in the past 18 months. E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc's China arm has registered as an ocean freight forwarder, according to the US Federal Maritime Commission, a move that will give it more control over shipping products from Chinese factories to American shoppers.The registration is the latest indication that Amazon plans to expand its logistics reach to cut costs for its retail business and potentially provide third-party logistics services to other industries, according to an agency report Its new status as a freight forwarder, or "non-vessel operating common carrier," gives Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, a foothold in the $350 billion a year ocean freight business. It will not operate ships but subcontract that work.Amazon is already negotiating a deal to lease 20 jets to start an air-delivery service in the US, the Seattle Times reported last year. The retailer bought truck trailers to add shipping capacity and started a programme last year that uses a fleet of on-demand drivers to deliver packages."It has more and more control over the supply chain of their business and it gives them the ability to squeeze (costs) even further," said Satish Jindel, a logistics consultant and president of SJ Consulting Group.He added the move gives Amazon an even bigger edge against traditional US retailers in negotiating lower prices for goods.The Federal Maritime Commission, a US government agency that regulates the US-international ocean transportation system, said last week a business named Beijing Century Joyo Courier Service Co Ltd, with the trade names Amazon China, Amazon.CN and Amazon Global Logistics China, was registered in its database to provide ocean freight services.Amazon declined to comment on the developments. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India American retail major Walmart is learnt to be exploring ways to tie up with leading Indian e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Grofers and Bigbasket to tap the growing online retail opportunity eight years after it entered the country Walmart India Vice-President and Head, Corporate Affairs, Rajneesh Kumar said several e-commerce players have approached the retail giant to become its members. Those requests are under process, according to media reports. American retail major Walmart is learnt to be exploring ways to tie up with leading Indian e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues# The $486-billion retail chain refers to companies and businesses which buy its products as "members". No foreign multi-brand retail chain has entered into tie ups with e-commerce companies in India till now.With on-line giving intense competition to the traditional retail companies, even big groups like Tatas and Reliance Industries are planning big in e-commerce. This is why despite FDI not being allowed in e-commerce, most big players (with foreign money coming from marquee investors) operate through the marketplace model. While the Indian government has not been explicit on rules for online marketplace, Goldman Sachs has projected that Indian e-commerce will be a $100-billion market by 2020, from a single-digit figure now.According to the reports, e-commerce companies, including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Grofers, did not comment on whether Walmart was talking to them for potential partnership. The news comes at a time when the $90-billion American e-commerce giant, Amazon is giving competition to the Indian start-ups. In a recent interview, Amazon India head Amit Agarwal had told Business Standard investment would never be a hurdle for India operations. Walmart and Amazon compete with each other globally, especially in the US, in the online space.Although Walmart, the world's top retail chain, had signed up a joint venture with Sunil Bharti-led Bharti group in 2007, with the intention to enter the fast-growing front-end retail space, it has remained limited to just business-to-business (B2B) operation in the country, both in brick and mortar, and online. It currently sells to businesses, organisations and educational institutes, but not to individual buyers.Walmart India's revenue was down 32 per cent to Rs 2,992.7 crore in the year ended December 2014, according to figures available with Registrar of Companies. This was mainly due to no new stores opening through 2013 and 2014. The company's loss was at Rs 232 crore in the same period. It is said to be looking at various opportunities to shore up its revenues, including laying greater emphasis, in private label business. According to reports, Walmart expects 25 per cent of its revenue to come from private labels in about two years. In countries such as the US and UK, private label makes up for a significant chunk of its revenue. (SH) Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India Tariq Saud, chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan to remove the tariff rationalisation surcharge (TRS) and adjust the Rs 3 per unit reduction in the industrial tariff, according Pakistani media reports. He urged the government to pass on the impact of falling oil prices to the textile industry to help revive the shut units and attract investment in the textile sector of Pakistan. The present weighted average net of fuel price adjustment tariff for industry is Rs 12 per unit. Saud said that the supply of electricity at tariff less than Rs 9 per unit will be beneficial to the textile industry. Tariq Saud, chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has requested the Prime Minister of Pakistan to remove the tariff rationalisation# He further stressed that the high cost of doing business is affecting the textile industry in Pakistan, especially large parts in Punjab, which are dependent on electricity supply. The rise in tariff has resulted into closure of textile units, drop in exports, and consequent unemployment in the sector. (HO) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India Switzerland based producer of colour and specialty chemicals Archroma has named James Carnahan as global sustainability officer for its Textile Specialties business.Additionally, the company has also released its list of products compliant with the new version 1.1 of its list of Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL). Switzerland based producer of colour and specialty chemicals Archroma has named James Carnahan as global sustainability officer for its Textile# James Carnahan, who joined from the BASF textile chemicals business will be responsible to further intensify the business focus on more sustainable solutions, a press release informed.Carnahan has more than 30 years of experience in textile chemicals in application development and marketing and sales in South Africa, Italy, Germany, China and Singapore.In his last role with BASF, he was responsible for portfolio strategy development and implementation, with focus on developing sustainable solutions to support the textile value chain in this direction.Thomas Winkler, president textile specialties at Archroma said, Everyone at Archroma is committed to continuously challenge the status quo in the deep belief that we can make our industry sustainable.We have been looking for the right sustainability specialist and, when we met James Carnahan, we realised he shared our belief and had been acting upon it during his past tenure, Winkler added.The ZDHC MRSL sets concentration limits for the chemical groups banned under the ZDHC Joint Roadmap, an initiative first launched in 2011 by major apparel and footwear brands.The ZDHC Group updated its MRSL in December 2015 and the updated document now includes leather apparel and footwear applications.The update contains a list of priority chemicals with maximum concentration limit of each substance within commercial chemical formulations.Archroma published its list of ZDHC MRSL-compliant colourants and chemicals for textile and apparel for the first time in July 2014, shortly after the first version of the ZDHC MRSL was released.The list features a full range of colourants and chemicals for colours and functional effects, and process chemicals, covering fibres to finishing.Archroma's ZDHC MRSL-compliant products are also integrated into Archroma's One Way Calculator, the tool used by Archroma as part of its One Way Sustainability Service to support customers.The new list released by Archroma actually required no change from its previous version, as the listed range of colourants and chemicals are already complied with the limits set by the updated version 1.1 of the ZDHC MRSL.We didn't have to remove one single product from our list to comply with the update list of the ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substance List, James Carnahan also said.This is a consequence of Archroma's long commitment to supporting textile producers and brand owners in identifying products that help reducing or eliminating impurities from the wastewater, he also added. (AR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Switzerland-based Bluesign Technologies AG, which provides independent auditing of textile mills, examining manufacturing processes from raw materials and energy inputs to water and air emissions outputs, has announced new chemical suppliers and new textile/fiber/accessories manufacturers and assemblers as system partners.Bluesign is an emerging standard for environmental health and safety in the manufacturing of textiles. Switzerland-based Bluesign Technologies AG, which provides independent auditing of textile mills, examining manufacturing processes from raw materials# Among the three new chemical suppliers, two are from China and one from the US. The Hangzhou Flariant Specialty Co., Ltd., is a key domestic enterprise engaged in the R&D, manufacture and export of high-grade disperse dyes, acid dyes & dyes intermediates, as well as fine chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry. The high-grade disperse dyes, can meet all the requirements of customers for high fastness to washing and light as well as outstanding dyeing property on polyester /spandex and super-fine fibers, Bluesign said on its website.Another Chinese company, Zhejiang Transfar is a producer of auxiliaries, finishing and coating agents for the textile industry. The company aims to become the global biggest and strongest textile system integrator, and devotes itself to improving life quality by enhancing performance of textile. The company promotes and practices "zero discharge" concept to lead the industry transformation and upgrading, to enhance environmental performance, and achieve a win-win development of industry chain!The Chemours Company FC, LLC. of the US, combines leading products, applications expertise, and market-shaping chemistry in three business areas: titanium technologies, fluoroproducts, and chemical solutions. Teflon EcoElite renewably sourced, non-fluorinated repellent is the latest textile offering.Among the new textile/fiber/accessories manufacturers and assemblers is Taihua High-Tech Dyeing & Finishing (Jiaxing) Co., Ltd. (China). Established in 2004, Taihua High-Tech Dyeing & Finishing is mainly engaged in production, research and development of high-grade functional and lining fabric, including dyeing and finishing. Products are sold in domestic market and exported to Europe, America and East Asia.The UK's Pincroft Dyeing & Printing Co Ltd has also been included in the list of new members. Pincroft Dyeing & Printing Co Ltd has over a century of dyeing and finishing history. The company offers a wide product range of woven fabric, cotton and cotton polyester blends, dyed, white, FR, industrial laundry, workwear, uniform and PPE. The China-Africa Cotton Development Limited has shown interest in reviving operations at the Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles (ZCMT) with a plan to process an annual 40,000 tonnes of cotton, according to Zambian media reports. China-Africa Cotton Development Limited is a partnership between the China Africa Development Fund, Qingdao Ruichang Cotton Industrial Company and Qingdao Huifu Textile Company. The China-Africa Cotton as the parent company of China-Africa Cotton Development Limited invests in different parts of Africa producing 40,000 tonnes of cotton per year through the 90,000 smallholder farmers it has engaged. After a meeting with a Chinese delegation that visited Zambia, Patrick Chisanga, director general, Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) said during the Zambia-Qingdao Commercial Dialogue Seminar, that the final negotiations with the Chinese investor for the takeover of ZCMT were in process. The China-Africa Cotton Development Limited has shown interest in reviving operations at the Zambia China Mulungushi Textiles (ZCMT) with a plan to# We are looking at the best models of revamping the textile plant, and we want to lease it to them once negotiations are completed. The operations at the plant are labour intensive and this will result in job creation, said Chisanga. The China-Africa Cotton has invested in many projects in various African countries, including Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and focuses on seed researching, plantation, cotton purchasing and processing, cotton seed oil processing and textile making with 'corporation & farmers' model. The company is a Chinese enterprise which directly conducts contracted planting, cotton purchasing and processing in Africa. (HO) Fibre2fashion News Desk - India Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF), an association representing the Indian technical textile value chain, will organise an event named 'Make in India Textile Industry Strategies for Success' to discuss the strategies which can be deployed for the Make in India vision to be a success in the Indian textile industry, according to media reports. Make in India Textile Industry Strategies for Success will be organised on the 21st of January, 2016 in Coimbatore. Union textiles minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar will be the chief guest at the event. In view of the government's central role in Make in India, textile industry experts will present the various methods to achieve the Make in India vision. ITF will organise an event to discuss the strategies for the Make in India vision to be a success.# Indian textile industry has the potential to reach $141 billion by 2021. It has the potential to grow to the size of $500 billion in the next ten years, with domestic sales of $315 billion and exports of $185 billion, according to the Make in India website. India has a comparative advantage over other countries with respect to skilled manpower, cost of production, abundant raw materials, etc. A number of new initiatives are lined up to make India achieve its full potential, the website says. (MCJ) Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India Texworld USA, which kicks off in January, has lined up exciting new seminar series, which have been developed and organised by Lenzing Innovation, featuring 11 educational sessions led by over 25 industry experts.Key topics of the seminars include, social media strategies and tips; sustainability and design; fibre innovation; future of trade and TPP; spring 2017 colour trends and more, a Messe Frankfurt press release said. Texworld USA, which kicks off in January, has lined up exciting new seminar series, which have been developed and organised by Lenzing Innovation# As always, Lenzing Innovation has done an incredible job of curating a top-notch lineup of panelists and topics for the Texworld USA seminar series, said Dennis Smith, president, Messe Frankfurt North America.With each edition, we are striving to offer attendees a valuable educational experience in addition to a space to do business and connect with resources and with Lenzing's help we are achieving that, Smith added.The topics include; 'Contact - Texworld Trend Forecasting: SS/2017', which offers an overview of trend inspirations throughout art, architecture, design, research, and new technologies.This will have a focus on colour palettes, colour alliances, textures, aspects and much more and will be an inspirational seminar for the upcoming season, Messe Frankfurt added.Another topic will dwell on 'Driving Social Media to Market Your Line', in which attendees will hear experts teach on how to stand out and become the #bestclothinglineever and a #mustfollow.Another topic; 'The Latest on Standards and Sustainability', will see GOTS, OIA and Textile Exchange bring the latest in standards and tools to identify a more sustainable material.Attendees will learn about how to select materials that have a preferred environmental status, can be sourced responsibly and certified to a standard.'Innovation in Today's Fibre Landscape' will see executives from Buhler Quality Yarns, Lenzing Fibers and Eastman discuss their latest developments.On 'Sourcing and Trade for Today and Tomorrow', attendees will learn about what is currently happening with trade and what will happen in the future.Topics covered will include US trade laws, the details of TPP and how it will affect sourcing, the organiser explained.Texworld USA is the largest sourcing event in North America for apparel fabric buyers, research and product development specialists, designers, merchandisers and overseas sourcing professionals.The business platform offers a wide product range covering the entire fabric spectrum and season to season, attendees discover textiles of innovative structures, material mixes and surprising colour palettes. (AR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India HON PM BAINIMARAMA SPEECH AT THE LAUNCHING OF GOUNDAR SHIPPING NEW SHIP Honourable Ministers,Mr. George Goundar, President of Goundar Shipping,Friends and employees of Goundar Shipping,Ladies and Gentlemen,Bula vinaka and a very good evening to you all.Each time we inaugurate a new service or a new piece of national infrastructure, we take another stepa step that breaks barriers, a step that brings Fijians closer together, a step toward greater national prosperity, a step that creates more opportunity for Fijians. That is because a road, an electrical grid, a school or a ship is more than what we see before us, more than its physical form.Every investment we make is an investment in people. And every investment we make weaves and strengthens the fabric of our national life. So a modern, well-equipped school building is not just a building; it is a future of learning and possibilities for the children who will one day lead this country. And a road is more than a ribbon of asphalt; it connects families, it creates community, it gives farms and factories access to markets.In that way, this ship, the Lomaiviti Princess III, is more than just a ship. If it were only a ship, I probably would not be her to launch it. But this ship is part of our national communications network. To be truly united for commerce and connected as a nation, Fiji needs a network of highways, air routes and maritime routes that link Labasa to Lautoka, Rotuma to Suva, and Koro and Kadavu to Taveuni.Sea travel needs to be as modern, comfortable and safe as highway travel, integrated in purpose and function until it forms one seamless web. The Lomaiviti Princess III does that. Last week I was in the North, and I had the pleasure of inaugurating the new highway extension linking Nabouwalu to Dreketi. It is part of a highway that winds through the very heart of Vanua Levu, and it is critical to the economy and social well-being of the island. And the Nabouwalu Jetty is one of its most important points. When this ship docks at the Nabouwalu Jetty, it will effectively extend that highway directly to Viti Levu.Well, we have had ships before, of course, but the new Lomaiviti Princess III is bigger and more comfortable. It will carry more people and more vehicles, and it is worthy of the nation I believe we are capable of becoming.I am a retired Navy man, and I know what it is to be at sea. When I travel our islands to visit with and listen to the Fijian people, I travel by ship. I most certainly do not fly! So I understand what it is to spend many hours over open water, to know that your life depends on the skill, experience and judgment of the captain. I know what it means to have confidence in the professionalism of the crew, and I understand the peace of mind that comes from knowing that the ship is properly maintained and that the company keeps to the highest maritime standards.This ship did admirable service in British Columbia, Canada, before Goundar Shipping bought it and upgraded it for service here in Fiji. Prior to a recent amendment to the ship registration decree in the budget session, ships older than 20 years could not be brought into Fiji. But thanks to this common sense reform, these older vessels can be imported once theyve met stringent safety requirements. This allows older vessels that still carry a lot of value, to be re-fitted to serve our market without sacrificing the safety of our passengers.We now have the flexibility to enlarge our shipping fleet and provide more opportunities to invest in shipping services to our outer islands as opposed to subsidising un-economical inter-island air services. In this way, we improves our services and better spend tax-payer funds without losing vital access to our outer island communities.I also understand as well as anyone that people need basic creature comforts on the 10- to 12-hour voyage between Suva and Savusavu. Its a long voyage, so the attention to keeping passengers comfortable is important: The film room, the cabins, the comfortable lounges, the childrens play areas, all make the voyage shorter and easier to endure. This ship will also service a route to Kadavu, great news for a growing tourism destination that can now look forward to even greater development.This vessel can carry 700 passengers and the vehicle deck where we sit right now has the capacity to load 40 ten wheeler trucks or 150 cars. And it has comfortable seating, cabins and dining facilities, play areas for children, emergency medical care, and accommodations for the disabled. The Fijian people deserve no less.This new vessel is also bringing employment opportunities for 40 people who will become members of the ships crew. This will be a great opportunity to gain experience on the open seas and begin a rewarding career helping us stay more connected as a nation.I am pleased to note that Goundar Shippings stated vision is to continuously improve the island coastal travel experience in Fiji through excellence in service and innovation and that it values safety, environmental responsibility, integrity and service. Those are the values that George Goundar learned from his family and community growing up in Koro. They are the values that make Goundar Shipping an ideal partner for Government, because those are the very values that drive my government and the very values that will propel Fiji into the future.George knows that Goundar Shipping is more than a business. It provides a vital service, and that makes it a business that serves the people, that upholds the national interest, and that keeps the well-being of the Fijian people foremost.Georges own story is one that I believe is symbolic of the new direction that Fiji is taking and the new vision that drives my Governments decisions. He returned to Fiji, after migrating to British Columbia, because he never forgot the country of his youth, his beloved Fiji. He placed his confidence in my Government and in our policies, and the ability of our people to move Fiji forward towards greater stability and prosperity.I am pleased to announce that Goundar Shipping will also invest $10 million over the next three years to bring two more ships and construct a 5,000 ton floating dock. This is a huge investment for our shipping industry and will be the first dock of its kind in Fiji. It will give us space for even larger ships and allow us to build our shipping industry into a modern and efficient operation that will bring greater development and growth to our island economy.Ive gone all over the world re-connecting with our Fijian diaspora because I believe that we are strongest when we stand united as a global community. So I take a lot of pride in Georges decision to return and in Goundar Shippings further investments, because both reflect commitment to our new Fiji.It is for everyones benefit when our Fijian family abroad contributes their resources and expertise to help build up our country and invest in our ability so I will continue to re-build our relationships with Fijians across the globe and encourage them to take advantage of the investment opportunities and incentives that await them back home in Fiji.Today, those efforts have brought us the Lomaiviti Princess III and a promising future for our shipping industry and in the days to come, I look forward to the future infrastructure development and investment opportunities we can bring to the Fijian people.With those few words, I now officially launch Lomaiviti Princess III. CIMB Group laid off 32 employees from its cash equities and investment banking divisions in Hong Kong on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter, as it became the latest investment bank to cut jobs amid intense competition and a worsening climate for capital markets in Asia. The Malaysian bank described the cuts as part of a three-year programme to restore earning growth by squeezing costs and making efficiencies, but not part of a gradual withdrawal from investment banking and equities in North Asia, one source said. The cuts represent 25 per cent of equities staff in Hong Kong. The majority of layoffs were in the equity sales and sales trading department where revenues declined sharply amid intense competition, a source familiar with the situation told FinanceAsia. A number of investment bankers and several equities researchers were also involved, but the equity capital markets team in Hong Kong was unaffected. The group is not spared from the harsh realities of the deteriorating capital markets faced by players with investment banking and equities businesses in Asia, Zafrul Aziz, CIMBs group chief executive, said in an email statement seen by FinanceAsia in response to the job cuts. Lee Chee Khoon, its chief executive for North Asia, is not affected, though a number of senior bankers are understood to have been laid off. A total of 110 bankers are left with CIMBs investment banking and cash equities divisions in Hong Kong. Deteriorating capital markets CIMB has struggled to generate significant revenue from its investment banking and cash equities business since acquiring it from Royal Bank of Scotland in 2012. In 2014, the bank made a pre-tax loss of M$21 million ($4.7 million) from the investment banking division, which includes corporate finance, institutional sales, retail equities, futures trading and research. That was down from a pre-tax profit of M$204 million in 2013, according to the groups 2014 annual report. Cash equities in Hong Kong have grown highly competitive since many Chinese banks and brokerages can provide equities trading support at low cost, industry sources say. They are able to drive sales and trading revenue by executing initial public offerings for their corporate clients. CIMB is in a more difficult position because it lacks the relationships often needed to bring Chinese corporate clients, particularly state-owned companies, to list in Hong Kong. The banks also lacks the research capabilities to drive equities trading in the highly competitive market. Target-18 Last year CIMB introduced initiatives to restore earnings growth after a disappointing 2014, when overall profit dropped for the first time since 2010. The three-year programme, known as Target-18, is aimed at improving regional efficiencies and sharing of resources across borders. By the end of 2017, the bank plans to achieve targets including at least 15% return on equity (ROE), common equity tier 1 ratio of 11% and a cost-to-income ratio of around 50%. To achieve this, it is looking to reduce annual expense in its Asia-Pacific investment banking and equities operations by 30%. This started last year with the closure of the Australia operations and a reduction of 40 people in North Asia equities in February last year. As part of the cost-cutting programme, the bank also offered a scheme to allow voluntary departures for employees in Malaysia and Indonesia. A total of 1,891 employees in Malaysia and 1,708 in Indonesia left the bank through the programme in July last year. Joining the ranks The Malaysian bank is the latest victim of worsening capital markets that have seen a number of international investment banks in Asia cut equities jobs since the beginning of last year. The wave started with Standard Chartereds closure of its loss-making global cash equities, equity research and equity capital markets business in January last year, resulting in 200 job cuts mostly in Asia. The British bank subsequently shut down its equity derivatives and convertible bond businesses in October. A number of senior bankers have departed from Jeffries, including regional chairman Sherry Liu and Asia president Ren Wang, since May last year. The New York-headquartered bank has laid off around 20 people in cash equities late last year as it refocused on more profitable corporate advisory business. Barclays is also cutting jobs in Asia, with plans to reduce its 24-strong India equities business and sell its Asia wealth management unit. CIMBs latest job cuts are not a prelude for withdrawing from North Asia, but are instead measures to brace itself for tough times, the source familiar with the situation told FinanceAsia. The banks North Asia investment banking operations include Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Korea. While such decisions are never easy, it is vital that we remain steadfast and continue to push our cost management agenda, realign our operating efficiencies and reshape our footprint strategically to allow us to focus on the priority areas that we have identified. Aziz said in the statement. Lufax has raised a further $1.22 billion from investors, valuing the Ping An-backed group at $18.5 billion ahead of an initial public offering expected in the second half of the year. The Chinese peer-to-peer lender, founded in September 2011, said on Monday that it raised $924 million from new investors plus an additional $292 million from investors who took part in the previous round of venture capital funding. The news followed an announcement at the weekend by JD.com, Chinas second-largest e-commerce company, that its unit JD Finance raised $1 billion from a series-A funding round. Lufax, which is short for Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange, said Bank of China Group Investment, Guotai Junan Securities Hong Kong, and a unit of China Minsheng Banking Corp, were among the investors it raised fresh funds from. The latest funding round values the firm significantly higher than the $10 billion figure it commanded in March, when it sold Rmb3 billion ($458 million) worth of stocks in a private placement. Investors then included Zheng He Capital Management, private-equity firm CDH Investments, Morgan Stanley, and mainland investment bank China International Capital Corp. The new proceeds will be used to support Lufaxs existing peer-to-peer lending business and to diversify into new areas such as wealth management, Gregory Gibb, chairman and chief executive of Lufax, said in an audio clip recorded at a press conference in Shanghai. For 2016 we see more funding need in Chinas tier-2 and tier-3 cities, while residents in tier-1 cities will continue to seek investment opportunities, Gibb said. Lufax will focus on building online-to-offline business as well as cross-border investments. Gibb said Lufax was open to the possibility of a dual listing in domestic and international markets but that the IPO destination had not yet been finalised. Ping An Group, the country's second-largest insurer by premiums, now owns about 43% of Lufax following the second stake sale, down from 47.49% previously, according to Gibb, a former partner at consulting firm McKinsey. Lufax was quoted in mainland Chinese reports saying that its full-year 2016 revenue is expected to jump to $3.1 billion, up from $706 million in 2015, while its annual loss will narrow to $68 million this year from last years $415 million. The company reportedly said that it expects to make an annual profit of $1.55 billion in 2017. At the end of 2015, Lufax had more than 360 million active users and handled more than Rmb 1.6 trillion worth of transactions on its various platforms. JD Finance Separately, JD.com said Saturday that its financial affiliate had raised $1 billion from its series A round, valuing the company at more than $7 billion. Sequoia Capital China, China Harvest Investments, and China Taiping Insurance led the financing round, JD.com said in a statement. JD Finance has become a leading industry player by leveraging JD.coms e-commerce expertise and advantages in big data and technology to provide financial solutions to Chinese consumers, innovative start-ups and traditional enterprises, Richard Liu, founder and chief executive of JD.com, said in the statement. "By partnering with top financial and start-up service institutions, we will be even better positioned to create Chinas leading financial technology ecosystem. A Beijing-based spokesman for JD.com said the company intends to retain a majority stake in JD Finance in the event it is listed. JD Finance operates in three major business areas, namely supply chain finance, consumer finance, and crowdfunding. It also has an asset management, payment, insurance and securities unit. According to a statement, JD finance has a reward-based crowdfunding platform, which was launched in July 2014 and helped startups raise more than Rmb280 million. China Renaissance, also known as Huaxing in Mandarin Chinese, is a financial advisor to JD Finance, a person familiar with the situation, said. The Beijing-headquartered boutique firm, founded by banking veteran Bao Fan, was also one of the bookrunners behind JD.coms 2014 listing. SINGAPORE, Jan 15, 2016 - (ACN Newswire) - Adyen, the global payments technology company, today announced that it processed $50 billion in transaction volume in 2015, up from $25 billion, and achieved revenue of $350 million, a growth of more than 100 percent over 2014. The results underscore how Adyen is building on its position as the global partner of choice for international ecommerce, and is rapidly expanding its point of sale offering by connecting a new range of customers to its omnichannel payments platform.Over the last year, Adyen has reached two key milestones in the potentially enormous point of sale space:-- A range of top global apparel brands going live with Adyen point of sale payments on Adyen's omnichannel platform at flagship stores across Europe.-- Expansion of the point of sale functionality to the U.S., meaning that U.S. businesses can now accept and manage online, mobile, and point of sale payments with a single EMV-compliant solution. Following this launch, Australia will be the next market to benefit from Adyen's point of sale and omnichannel capabilities in 2016."In a world where commerce is global and shoppers expect the same experience across all touchpoints and geographies, Adyen's ability to process transactions both online and in the physical world on one platform places the company in a completely unique position," said Pieter van der Does, CEO of Adyen.Other growth indicators and milestones include:-- Ten new airline customers, including Cathay Pacific and easyJet, new digital ecommerce customers including SurveyMonkey, Netflix, Eventbrite, and Dropbox, and new retail customers including Burton, Gant, Etam, and Celio.-- The addition of new payment methods including Android Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay (in Australia, the U.K. and Canada), Bancontact/Mr Cash (Belgium), and a range of online banking and convenience store/ATM options across Southeast Asia such as Mandiri Clickpay, Gcash and Maybank2u, to complement its existing support of over 250 payment methods globally.-- The launch of RevenueProtect, its integrated risk management solution, and Adyen MarketPay, the payments solution for marketplaces.-- New offices in Sydney and Shanghai.Adyen has been profitable since 2011, and its rapid growth and enormous potential across both point of sale and online payments globally has attracted investment from across the world. Most recently, it was valued at $2.3 billion following an investment from Iconiq Capital, which followed a $250 million investment round in December 2014 from General Atlantic, Felicis Ventures, Temasek, and Index Ventures.About AdyenAdyen is a technology company that provides businesses with a single solution to accept payments anywhere in the world. The only provider of a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting merchants directly to Visa, MasterCard, and 250 other payment methods globally, Adyen delivers frictionless payments across online, mobile, and in-store. Headquartered in Amsterdam and San Francisco, with offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, Adyen serves more than 4,500 businesses, including 7 of the 10 largest U.S. Internet companies, and 3 of the top 5 global apparel brands. Customers include Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix, Spotify, Dropbox, Evernote, Booking.com, Yelp, Vodafone, Superdry, Mango, Crocs, O'Neill, SoundCloud, KLM and JustFab. www.adyen.comMedia ContactAydenPui-San Wongpuisan.wong@adyen.com+65 6443 4118Ogilvy Public RelationsWeiWei Chuaweiwei.chua@ogilvy.com+65 9833 2654Melissa Tanmelissa.tan@ogilvy.com+65 9797 5067Source: AdyenCopyright 2016 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. BEIJING and NETANYA, Israel, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- China's new high-spec affordable brand will hit the smartphone market with 20% more time to play, chat, navigate and browse. Topwise Communications and Lucidlogix (Lucid) announced today the licensing of PowerXtend, the de-facto standard for mobile battery life extension software for the new Qing Cong smartphone brand. Extending the device daily battery life, PowerXtend supports popular applications such as instant messaging, multimedia browsing, gaming and navigation. Integrated into the Android OS, PowerXtend maximizes the device user-experience by combining increased mobility and a great multimedia experience. The new Qing Cong smartphone brand, the first fruit of recent merger of Topwise Communications and 139shop.com cell phone retail website, targets enthusiastic and demanding young users. Its metal design and high-spec features combine performance, style and functionality. With a longer battery life it provides satisfaction for customers throughout the day. Qing Cong Metal devices are loaded with powerful technologies to provide gaming and interaction experience while providing up to 20% more operating time between charges. With the integration of PowerXtend, Topwise users enjoy improved mobility and more fun throughout the day. "Integrating Lucid's PowerXtend software will enhance and improve the satisfaction of our smartphone customers." said Wensheng Tan, CEO of Qing Cong. "Topwise Communications designed the Qing Cong Metal brand using processors, components and technologies usually found only in devices twice as expensive. We have managed to provide our customers with a high-end, stylish device, at a reasonable price with no compromise over the user experience." Topwise Communications' customers are using applications that are highly demanding on computing power and dynamic display requirements hence more battery consumption. Lucid's PowerXtend software fills the gap between users need for performance throughout the day and hardware power requirements caused by intensive interaction between applications, content, display, and user dynamic activities. It enables up to 20% more usage time for the most demanding applications such as chatting, gaming, browsing and navigating. With over 150 million licensed devices, PowerXtend is today the standard for embedded Android battery life enhancement solutions. "With the new Qing Cong Metal, Topwise Communications enters the "big players" arena and becomes a natural partner for Lucid's market leading solution." said Elad Dubzinski, Lucid's COO. "Topwise's smartphones are designed to satisfy the interaction and gaming enthusiasts where the PowerXtend benefits are most significant" About Topwise Communications Founded in April 2006, Topwise is a Hong Kong based hi-tech group, focused on manufacturing mobile terminals. The company controls the overall manufacturing industry chain from independent R&D, product manufacturing, branding to global marketing. Its main products include mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Topwise's branch companies include: Shenzhen Topwise Communication Co. Ltd., Topwise Time Communication Co. Ltd., Shenzhen Dinglian Time Co.,Ltd., Shenzhen Zhilian Time Technology Development Co. Ltd., Dongguan Qinzhi Optoelectronics Co.,Ltd., Huizhou Kameiou Communication Co.Ltd., Huizhou Topwise Communication Co.,Ltd, Beijing Qingcong Equipment Communication Co., Ltd. With highly qualified, efficient sales and IT service team, Topwise is supplying high quality products to a number of famous brands around the globe. The group employs 4000 people, with over 1000 in the R&D team, and over 90% hold a degree of bachelor or above. Around 30 million smartphone users, 12 million tablet users are enjoying the products from Topwise Group every year. On Nov.2, 2015, Topwise Group had a press conference together with 139shop.com, announcing the buyout of 139.com, and co-launched the new smartphone brand "Qing Cong". About LucidLogix Lucidlogix Technologies (www.lucidlogix.com), provides software core for power saving solutions, satisfying the growing demand for performance and mobility. Benefiting from Lucid's core graphics technologies, Lucid's proprietary algorithms and software solutions dramatically improves mobile performance for Android devices. Lucidlogix is privately held and headquartered in Israel. Check Lucid's product video here: https://youtu.be/mQg7mUmI6Bw WeChat: http://weixin.qq.com/r/5EPXz4LEHt9hrcas9xb2 Email: adina.shorr@lucidlogix.com Phone: +972-9-8649649 SAULT STE. MARIE, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- When Members of Provincial Parliament travel to Sault Ste. Marie on January 21 for pre-budget consultations, they will be met with community protests over austerity cuts and privatization. The Ontario Federation of Labour and the Ontario Common Front will be joining the Ontario Health Coalition in Sault Ste. Marie to protest the deep cuts to Ontario hospitals and social programs. "Here in Sault Ste. Marie, we are seeing the effects of austerity in every community. Hospital cuts, hydro privatization, mounting student debt, precarious jobs and Canada's lowest social program funding are taking their toll in every neighbourhood," said, Ahmad Gaied, Executive Vice-President of the Ontario Federation of Labour. "Ontarians are calling on the Wynne Government to abandon her austerity agenda and lay out a plan for restoring public services, growing our economy, expanding Ontario's revenue base and lifting standards for everyone. The next Ontario budget shouldn't be constrained by government cuts, it should create an Ontario in which everyone prospers." "Nine consecutive years of real-dollar cuts have plunged Ontario to the bottom of the country in hospital funding. Patients are being left on stretchers in hallways, surgeries are being cancelled and vital health services are being privatized, subject to user fees, or moved out of town," said Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. "It is beyond time that these devastating hospital cuts be stopped. The Ontario government must restore our public hospital funding to at least the average of all the other provinces in Canada." Patients, workers, students, seniors and anti-poverty activists will rally outside the Sault Ste. Marie consultations of the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. WHAT: Community protest of Sault Ste. Marie Pre-Budget Consultation WHERE: Delta Sault Ste. Marie Waterfront Hotel, 208 St. Mary's River Dr. WHEN: Noon on Thu. Jan. 21, 2016 SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE: -- Emcee: Folgo DellaVedova, Sault and Area Health Coalition -- Ahmad Gaied, Executive Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Labour -- Joe Krmpotich, First Vice-President, Sault Ste. Marie and District Labour Council -- Margo Dale, Chair, Sault and Area Health Coalition -- Jeff Arbus, Ontario Public Sector Employees Union (OPSEU) -- Patients will share experiences with hospital cuts and privatization Similar protests will take place at every pre-budget consultation in Ontario. For more information, visit: http://ofl.ca/index.php/rallyagainstausterity The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter. Ontario Health Coalition represents more than 400 member organizations and a network of Local Health Coalitions and individual members. For information, visit http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca and follow @OntarioHealthC on Facebook and Twitter. Contacts: Joel Duff OFL Communications Director 416-707-0349 (cell) jduff@ofl.ca ENG/FRENCH CHATHAM, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- AGRIS Co-operative board president Larry Pajot announced at the co-operative's annual meeting today, that through patronage and interest, one million dollars will be returned to its farmer-owners. The combined sales in 2015 for AGRIS Co-operative totaled $205 million. More than $2.1 million has been put into retained earnings to support the co-operative operations. The AGRIS Co-operative board of directors has declared that the patronage of $1 million will be issued as one third cash and two thirds stock. In addition to this patronage, the board announced that over $500,000 had been paid on member interest bearing investments and that a $200,000 special share redemption has been authorized. "As important as the financials are, I think we are more excited about the re-investments in our older infrastructure," says Pajot. "We now have three fertilizer "Hubs" located in Cottam, Thamesville and Dutton with large amounts of storage and blending capability of 200 tonnes per hour which will greatly improve loading times for our owners and customers," added Pajot. In his year-end report, AGRIS Co-operative general manager Jim Campbell commented that stronger earnings has not only provided for a higher patronage return for our owners, but also allowed for an increase in our retained earnings to nearly $18 million. "This healthy balance of retained earnings and owner investment gives your co-operative the financial strength to operate in this highly competitive and rapidly changing market," says Campbell. The election of five directors for the co-operative was held. Re-elected to a three-year term are Jim Anderson from Kent Bridge and Scott McGeachy from Chatham. Newly elected is Neal Huber from Harrow, Allan Parks from Amherstburg and returning to the board is former director Jim Maw from Mooretown. Immediately following the annual meeting, the directors met and elected Larry Pajot as board president, Scott McGeachy as board vice president and Pat Vanheule as secretary for 2016. Co-operative Young Leader participants Anna Papineau and Andrea Lehn who were sponsored by AGRIS Co-operative this past year, made presentations about their experiences while attending the youth leadership program. GROWMARK Ontario region manager, Claude Gauthier recognized the AGRIS board's commitment to training and development. Directors Jim Anderson and John Nooyen were presented with a plaque for completion of the GROWMARK Advanced Director program. Kym Fysh, regional director for GROWMARK, gave an informative presentation on the history of the GROWMARK System and its continued successful growth throughout Ontario and the United States. A lively panel discussion was also held on the emerging social licence affecting farmers with presentations from Dale Cowan, senior agronomist AGRIS Co-operative, Dave Buttenham, chief executive officer of the Ontario Agri-Marketing Association and Gabrielle Ferguson, environmental program specialist form the Ontario Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs. AGRIS Co-operative Ltd. is a 100 per-cent farmer-owned grain marketing and farm-input supply company that serves more than 1,000 farmer owners in 14 locations in Essex, Kent, Elgin, Middlesex and Lambton Counties. It is a leader in precision farming technology, seed, agronomy and petroleum services. The co-operative is a partner of Great Lakes Grain, a grain merchandising company. AGRIS Co-operative is a member-owner of GROWMARK, Inc. and markets products and services under the FS banner. Visit http://www.agris.coop and www.fssystem.com for more information. Contacts: Jim Campbell General Manager AGRIS Co-operative Ltd. 519-380-2371 jimc@agris.coop Terry Stevenson Communications Manager AGRIS Co-operative Ltd. 519-438-1882 terrys@scscoop.com WINDSOR, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- When Members of Provincial Parliament travel to Windsor on January 19 for pre-budget consultations, they will be met with community protests over austerity cuts and privatization. The Ontario Federation of Labour and the Ontario Common Front will be joining the Ontario Health Coalition in Windsor to protest the deep cuts to Ontario hospitals and social programs. "Here in Windsor, we are seeing the effects of austerity in every community. Hospital cuts, hydro privatization, mounting student debt, precarious jobs and Canada's lowest social program funding are taking their toll in every neighbourhood," said Chris Buckley, President of the Ontario Federation of Labour. "Ontarians are calling on the Wynne Government to abandon her austerity agenda and lay out a plan for restoring public services, growing our economy, expanding Ontario's revenue base and lifting standards for everyone. The next Ontario budget shouldn't be constrained by government cuts, it should create an Ontario in which everyone prospers." "Nine consecutive years of real-dollar cuts have plunged Ontario to the bottom of the country in hospital funding. Patients are being left on stretchers in hallways, surgeries are being cancelled and vital health services are being privatized, subject to user fees, or moved out of town," said Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. "It is beyond time that these devastating hospital cuts be stopped. The Ontario government must restore our public hospital funding to at least the average of all the other provinces in Canada." Patients, workers, students, seniors and anti-poverty activists will rally outside the Windsor consultations of the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. WHAT: Community protest of Windsor Pre-Budget Consultation WHERE: Caesar's Windsor, 377 Riverside Dr. E, Windsor WHEN: Noon on Tue. Jan. 19, 2016 SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE: -- Emcee: Ken Lewenza Jr., Windsor Health Coalition -- Chris Buckley, President, Ontario Federation of Labour -- Natalie Mehra, Executive Director, Ontario Health Coalition -- Brian Hogan, President, Windsor and District Labour Council -- Kim DeYong, Chair, Essex County Health Coalition -- Adam Vasey, Director, Pathway to Potential -- Shirley Roebuck, Chair, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton Health Coalitions -- Patients will share experiences with hospital cuts and privatization Similar protests will take place at every pre-budget consultation in Ontario. For more information, visit: http://ofl.ca/index.php/rallyagainstausterity The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter. Ontario Health Coalition represents more than 400 member organizations and a network of Local Health Coalitions and individual members. For information, visit http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca and follow @OntarioHealthC on Facebook and Twitter Contacts: Joel Duff OFL Communications Director 416-707-0349 (cell) jduff@ofl.ca ENG/FRENCH TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Minera Alamos Inc. (TSX VENTURE: MAI) (the "Company" or "Minera Alamos") today announced that it has entered into a binding Letter of Intent (the "Binding LOI") with Argonaut Gold Inc. ("Argonaut") and its wholly owned subsidiary Durango Fern Mines S.A. de C.V. to acquire 100% of the mineral claims known as the La Fortuna Gold Project located in Durango Mexico ("La Fortuna"). "La Fortuna clearly fits our corporate growth objectives to consolidate high margin, late development stage projects with manageable capital requirements", said Chris Frostad, Minera Alamos' CEO. "This project also adds positive new gold exposure in support of our Los Verdes copper project. We look forward to providing further updates regarding our plans in the coming weeks". "In the past ten years our current technical team has been responsible for the successful development of three similar gold projects in Mexico and Central America through to commercial production", said Darren Koningen, President at Minera Alamos. "I am confident that we can rapidly accomplish the same at La Fortuna". Highlights: -- Potential for One of Highest Grade Open Pit Gold Heap Leach Projects in the World: The current La Fortuna near surface resource grade is approximately 2 g/t gold with additional silver credits, presently excluded from the resource calculations; -- Established Resource with Additional Upside Potential: Measured plus Indicated Mineral Resource of 4.8 million tonnes grading 2.0 g/t gold and containing 308,100 gold ounces (see chart below). The identified gold-silver mineralization at the La Fortuna deposit remains open at depth and along strike; -- Regional Exploration Potential: Several other mineralized areas have already been identified and demonstrated via surface sampling to be gold-bearing. These provide immediate drill targets for the definition of additional gold resources; -- Accelerated Path to Production: Minera Alamos will be initiating the permitting process immediately upon closing of the transaction along with the completion of a technical report outlining the path to production. It is expected that a construction decision, if deemed appropriate by management of Minera Alamos, can be made later this year (2016); -- Platform for Further Consolidation: The La Fortuna Gold Project represents the first phase of what Minera Alamos intends to be a growing profile of late stage development opportunities in Mexico and the Americas. Pursuant to the terms of the binding LOI, the Company will pay the vendor USD $750,000 on closing. An additional USD $250,000 will be paid 9 months after the closing and USD $1,000,000 will be paid upon the announcement of a construction decision. The vendor is also entitled to a 2.5% net smelter returns royalty subject to a maximum amount of USD $4,500,000. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. La Fortuna Resources: -------------------------------------------------------- Measured Indicated Category Category Measured & Indicated ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cutoff Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Au Oz. Grade Au g/t (000) g/t (000) g/t (000) g/t (000) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.8 1,322 3.332 2,681 1.731 4,003 2.260 290.8 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0.5 1,538 2.956 3,287 1.533 4,824 1.986 308.1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Notes: 1. Resources are as reported in the NI 43-101 compliant Technical Report titled "La Fortuna Project, Durango, Mexico, Updated Technical Report for Castle Gold" by Toren K. Olson, P.Geo. and dated November 21, 2008. 2. Based on a total of 127 drill holes comprising 19,400 metres, including 121 original holes (18,885 metres) plus 6 twin holes comprising 515 meters 3. Assays normally included silver as well as gold. However, in some cases silver values were not available and as a result of the inconsistency of this sampling resources of silver were not calculated. 4. To the best of knowledge, information and belief of Minera Alamos, there is no new material scientific or technical information that would make the disclosure of the mineral resources set out in the foregoing Technical Report inaccurate or misleading. 5. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that all of any part of the Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves. La Fortuna Project The La Fortuna Gold Project includes the historic La Fortuna mine together with the surrounding concessions, totaling 994 hectares. The property is located in the northwestern corner of the State of Durango, Mexico, about 70 kilometers northeast of the city of Culiacan, Sinaloa. Initial development of La Fortuna followed the 1884 discovery of the gold-bearing oxidized outcrop. Between 1886 and 1892 a 200 TPD gravity mill was built near the site to process the ore which was selectively mined underground. Reportedly, about 200,000 tonnes of material, grading 20 g/t was mined and processed during this period. In 1987 an 80 tonne per day flotation mill was installed in order to process the sulfide ore, operating intermittently until 1990. Reportedly, 20,000 tonnes were mined from underground and processed. Between 1991 and 2008 numerous exploration surveys were performed which included detailed mapping and sampling of the underground workings and the drilling in the immediate La Fortuna Mine area. These programs culminated in the development of a resource block model which produced a Measured and Indicated resource of 4,800,000 tonnes at 2.0 g/t gold (308,000 contained ounces) at a 0.50 g/t gold cut-off grade as set forth above. About Minera Alamos Minera Alamos is a junior exploration and development company. Its flagship project is the Los Verdes open pit copper-molybdenum project in Sonora, Mexico that is currently in development. Mr. Darren Koningen, P. Eng., Minera Alamos Inc.'s President, is the Qualified Person responsible for technical content of this release under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Koningen has supervised the preparation of, and approved the scientific and technical disclosures utilized in this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward looking statements" and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, information with respect to the proposed transaction, timing of the closing of proposed transaction and the Company's consideration of the proposed production plans. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" 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 based on the reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made at the date that such statements are made. 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 the risk factors disclosed elsewhere in the Company's public disclosure. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained herein is presented for the purposes of assisting readers in understanding the Company's plans and objectives and may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company 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 POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Contacts: Minera Alamos Inc. Chris Frostad (416) 306-0990 www.mineraalamos.com VAL-D'OR, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Abitibi Royalties Inc. (TSX VENTURE: RZZ) ("Abitibi Royalties" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Company's net smelter royalties (the "NSR") at the Canadian Malartic Mine near Val-d'Or, Quebec. The information contained in this news release is derived from and based on, without independent verification, disclosure made by Yamana Gold Inc. ("Yamana") during its Investor Day presentation dated January 14, 2016. Odyssey North Zone (3% NSR) Abitibi Royalties holds a 3% NSR on the Odyssey North Zone located inside the Malartic CHL property (the "Property"). Odyssey North is proximate to the Odyssey South Zone and together they comprise the "Odyssey Zones" or "Odyssey" that is east of the main Canadian Malartic Mine open pit. The Canadian Malartic mine and Malartic CHL property are jointly operated by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited ("Agnico Eagle") and Yamana. Yamana's presentation suggests the exploration budget for the Odyssey Zones has been increased from Cdn$3.5 million (25,500 metres of drilling) in 2015 to approximately Cdn$8.5 million (60,000 metres of drilling) in 2016. (USD:CDN exchange ratio: 1.435) Since last reported by Abitibi Royalties on February 23, 2015, Yamana's presentation also notes that the strike length and vertical extent of the Odyssey North Zone have both increased. The strike length of Odyssey North has increased to approximately 1,500 metres from the previously reported 600 metres. The vertical extent of Odyssey North has increased to 850 vertical metres (from 550 metres to 1,400 metres below surface) from the previously reported 600 vertical metres (from 650 metres to 1,250 metres below surface). Abitibi Royalties is encouraged by these developments at Odyssey North. Previously all of Odyssey North was covered by the Company's 3% NSR (as last reported by the Company on February 23, 2015). However, the Company has not received any additional exploration results, including assays or drill hole locations, since then. Although there appeared to be potential to expand Odyssey North's vertical extent and in particular, its strike length on the Property as last reported by the Company, there are no assurances that all or any of the recent expansion at Odyssey North has occurred on Malartic CHL where Abitibi Royalties holds a 3% NSR. Additional information regarding the Odyssey South Zone was contained in Yamana's Investor Day presentation but the Company does not have enough information at this point to determine whether this information is relevant to the Malartic CHL property. Barnat Extension and Sheehan Zone (3% NSR) Further, the Yamana presentation notes that an additional Cdn$1.6 million is being budgeted to examine and quantify the economics at a number of areas around the Canadian Malartic open pit that may represent near mine upside potential. Two of the target areas, eastern portion of the Barnat Extension and the Sheehan Zone, appear to be partially covered by Abitibi Royalties 3% NSR. The Investor Day presentation where information was obtained for this news release, which includes property maps showing the location of Odyssey and the Malartic CHL property, can be found on Yamana's website at www.yamana.com. QUALIFIED PERSON Glenn Mullan, Chairman of Abitibi Royalties, is the Qualified Person (as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) who has reviewed this news release. The information in this news release was obtained from Yamana's Investor Day presentation dated January 14, 2016. The presentation can be found on Yamana's website at www.yamana.com. About Abitibi Royalties Abitibi Royalties holds a 3% NSR on the Odyssey North discovery, Jeffrey Zone and the eastern portion of the Barnat Extension and a 2% NSR on portions of the Gouldie and Charlie zones all at the Canadian Malartic mine near Val-d'Or, Quebec. In addition, the Company is building a portfolio of royalties on early stage properties near producing mines and it holds 100% title to the Luc Bourdon and Bourdon West Prospects in the Ring of Fire, Ontario. The Company owns 3,549,695 shares of Yamana Gold and 444,197 shares of Agnico Eagle Mines. Golden Valley Mines and Rob McEwen hold approximately 51.3% and 8.7% interest in Abitibi Royalties, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. 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 realities may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. 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. Contacts: Abitibi Royalties Inc. Ian J. Ball President and CEO 416-346-4680 ian.ball@abitibiroyalties.com THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- When Members of Provincial Parliament travel to Thunder Bay on January 20 for pre-budget consultations, they will be met with community protests over austerity cuts and privatization. The Ontario Federation of Labour and the Ontario Common Front will be joining the Ontario Health Coalition in Thunder Bay to protest the deep cuts to Ontario hospitals and social programs. "Here in Thunder Bay, we are seeing the effects of austerity in every community. Hospital cuts, hydro privatization, mounting student debt, precarious jobs and Canada's lowest social program funding are taking their toll in every neighbourhood," said, Patty Coates, Secretary-Treasurer of the Ontario Federation of Labour. "Ontarians are calling on the Wynne Government to abandon her austerity agenda and lay out a plan for restoring public services, growing our economy, expanding Ontario's revenue base and lifting standards for everyone. The next Ontario budget shouldn't be constrained by government cuts, it should create an Ontario in which everyone prospers." "Nine consecutive years of real-dollar cuts have plunged Ontario to the bottom of the country in hospital funding. Patients are being left on stretchers in hallways, surgeries are being cancelled and vital health services are being privatized, subject to user fees, or moved out of town," said Natalie Mehra, Executive Director of the Ontario Health Coalition. "It is beyond time that these devastating hospital cuts be stopped. The Ontario government must restore our public hospital funding to at least the average of all the other provinces in Canada." Patients, workers, students, seniors and anti-poverty activists will rally outside the Thunder Bay consultations of the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. WHAT: Community protest of Thunder Bay Pre-Budget Consultation WHERE: Valhalla Inn, 1 Valhalla Inn Rd, Thunder Bay WHEN: Noon on Wed. Jan. 20, 2016 SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE: -- Patty Coates, Secretary-Treasurer, Ontario Federation of Labour -- Jules Tupker, Co-Chair, Thunder Bay Health Coalition -- Carlos Santander-Maturana, President, Thunder Bay and District Labour Council -- Suzanne Pulice, Co-Chair, Thunder Bay Health Coalition -- Andrew Foulds, Thunder Bay City Councillor -- Diane Parker, Patient -- Elving Josephson, Patient -- Patients will share experiences with hospital cuts and privatization Similar protests will take place at every pre-budget consultation in Ontario. For more information, visit: http://ofl.ca/index.php/rallyagainstausterity The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. For information, visit www.OFL.ca and follow @OFLabour on Facebook and Twitter. Ontario Health Coalition represents more than 400 member organizations and a network of Local Health Coalitions and individual members. For information, visit http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca and follow @OntarioHealthC on Facebook and Twitter Contacts: Joel Duff OFL Communications Director 416-707-0349 (cell) jduff@ofl.ca ENG/FRENCH 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. SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Sugar Bowl Bakery, a family owned and operated bakery, is proud to unveil four new flavors of its traditional Madeleines at Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco: Lemon, Pumpkin Spice, Orange and Tuxedo. This new line is just the most recent addition to Sugar Bowl Bakery's anchor line of traditional Madeleines, Petite Palmiers and Brownie Bites. "We debuted our traditional Madeleines in 2003, and they've continuously been a fan favorite," said Andrew Ly, CEO of Sugar Bowl Bakery. "It only made sense to expand the line to include some of our favorite seasonal flavors. Biting into the bright Lemon and Orange Madeleines will take you to beautiful spring and summer days, and the Pumpkin Spice and Tuxedo Madeleines will whisk you to cozy autumn and rich winter. We wanted to make something we'd enjoy with our own families, and you can taste the love." The newest flavor varieties of the Madeleines are in line with Sugar Bowl Bakery's commitment to fresh and wholesome baked goods -- containing no artificial flavors, artificial colors, trans-fat or preservatives. The Lemon Madeleines are made with Meyer lemon zest and lemon oil, and the Orange Madeleines are made with Valencia orange zest and orange oil. Additionally, the Pumpkin Madeleines are made with rich, real pumpkin puree and spices, and the Tuxedo Madeleines are made with the highest quality cocoa powder. "We are dedicated to providing our customers with high quality desserts at affordable prices. We use real butter, sugar, flour, and eggs in addition to fresh purees and zests to naturally flavor all of our treats," said Ly. "We're thrilled to share the new Madeleines with all of our great specialty food colleagues at Fancy Food and can't wait to get them out on shelves and in the hands of our valued customers." The first shipment of flavored Madeleines will hit store shelves in early February. The flavored Madeleines follow the recent launches of Sugar Bowl Bakery's cake-batter-flavored cookie crisps, Batter Crisps and organic versions of its popular mini-desserts. The recent product line additions support Sugar Bowl Bakery's brand pillars of Clean, Innovative and Caring for the community. For more information on the Sugar Bowl Bakery brand, its products or where to find them at a store near you, visit www.sugarbowlbakery.com. About Sugar Bowl Bakery In 1984, five immigrant brothers pooled their savings together to open the first Sugar Bowl Bakery, a small neighborhood coffee shop in San Francisco. Sugar Bowl Bakery has since become a leader in developing quality baked goods and is now one of the largest bakeries that is family/minority owned and operated in Northern California. The award-winning bakery's lines of high-quality baked goods are sold at various supermarket chains and warehouse clubs. Media Contact: Lena Oakley Uproar PR for Sugar Bowl Bakery Email Contact 321-236-0102 x223 The global digital caliper market is expected to reach close to USD 546 million by 2020, growing at a CAGR of nearly 8% between now and 2020. Technavio covers the market outlook and growth prospects of the digital caliper market for 2016-2020. Based on end-user platforms, the market is divided into the following segments: engineering, research laboratories, manufacturing, academia, and others. The research report also segments the global digital caliper market by geography APAC EMEA Americas APAC: Largest digital caliper market Among the three regions, APAC is the largest market for digital caliper, accounting for more than 37% of the overall market in 2015. The largest end-users of digital caliper in this region are the manufacturing and engineering sectors, thus contributing to the growth of the digital caliper market in APAC. With increasing investments in manufacturing and research, the demand for digital calipers is expected to rise, allowing the market to maintain a steady YoY growth rate, reaching over 11% by 2020. Compared to other regions, the growing Asian economy is one of the major reasons for companies to expand or move to APAC. With favorable investment policies, the availability of low-cost labor, and a high potential market, the Asian economy will be the top destination for foreign companies between 2016 and 2020. "With countries such as South Korea and Singapore being part of the top 10 countries in manufacturing and engineering, there will be further rise in demand for digital calipers in the market in APAC over the next five years," says Technavio's lead research analyst Abhay Sinha. Ask for a sample of this report: http://goo.gl/rVnCPy The major vendors of the global digital caliper market are: Fowler High Precision Hexagon Metrology Mitutoyo S-T Industries Starrett Fowler High Precision, S-T Industries, and Starrett are US-based companies, while Hexagon Metrology is a UK-based company, and Mitutoyo is a Japan-based company. The other prominent vendors of the distributed acoustic sensing market are AccuRemote, CAPRI Tools, Central Tools, Draper Tools, ezMachine Tools, Flexbar, Hornady, iGaging, Mahr, and Moore and Wright. EMEA: Second largest market for digital caliper The research study reports that the EMEA is the second-largest contributor to the global digital caliper market, accounting for almost 33% of the overall market share in 2015. A high number of engineering and research facilities coupled with a large number of educational institutions compared to the Americas is promoting the growth of the digital caliper market in this region. However, the digital caliper market in EMEA is expected to experience a much slower growth rate compared to the markets in APAC and the Americas during the forecast period. Western Europe is a saturated market, therefore the growth in this region is likely to witness a decline over the next four years. Technavio's study contributes the growth in the EMEA to the rising number of educational institutions in the Middle East. Technavio's lead research analyst Abhay Sinha says, "Growing investments in research and manufacturing by the East European and the Middle Eastern countries are likely to drive the growth of the digital caliper market in EMEA, allowing the market to reach a year-over-year growth rate of almost 7% by the end of 2020." Key factor influencing the overall digital caliper market: Improved energy efficiency Technavio's report highlights that manufacturers worldwide are focusing on improving the energy efficiency of devices by developing robust and long-lasting energy sources. With advances in technology, digital calipers can use power from an energy source efficiently, and their energy consumption will be minimum. Browse Related Reports: Global GIS Market 2016-2020 Global Laboratory Analytical Instrumentation Market Industry Analysis 2015-2019 Global Scientific Instrument Market 2015-2019 Purchase these three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160118005458/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630-333-9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com Technavio's latest report on the global menstrual cup market 2016-2020 provides an analysis on the most important trends expected to impact the market outlook through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as a factor that has the potential to significantly impact the market and contribute to its growth or decline. Technavio's analysts specializing in research on men's health and women's health have identified and analysed the top three emerging trends in the globalmenstrual cupmarket from 2016-2020. They are as follows: Increasing awareness of available options during menstruation As per Technavio's report, competition in the menstrual cup market is slowly increasing because of many existing vendors that are continually expanding their business in developing countries. Increasing awareness of the different options available in the market among consumers has created a demand for menstrual cups in retail shops and specialties stores. Many awareness programs or campaigns have been conducted by menstrual health management awareness programs in rural and urban educational institutes, women's communities, and housing societies. Abhay Sinha, Technavio's lead research analyst states, "Manufacturers are keeping the price of their products low to make them more affordable in price-sensitive countries. Also, with the emergence of e-commerce, manufacturers today have another platform that give the culturally sensitive customer the privacy to buy products online." In some conservative societies, the acceptance level of internal application sanitary protections, such as tampons and menstrual cups remains limited, thereby instigating companies to increase their product visibility through value proposition. For instance, The Shecup is tested by USP (United States Pharmacopeia) rules and more women are using the Shecup in India. In 2012-13, it was distributed in 60 villages in Jehanabad district in Bihar as a part of a research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation by two American universities. Bluetooth-enabled smart menstrual cups Technavio's latest study reports the emergence of bluetooth-enabled menstrual cup, which has merged technology with comfort and convenience. The cup is equipped to keep a track of the duration of a menstrual cycle, color changes, body temperature, any health issues, as well as the start of menstruation with estimated end dates. "Bluetooth-enabled smart menstrual cups can be synchronized with both Android and iOS-based phones and smart wearable devices. Women with busy lifestyles might find these cups beneficial as these provide pre-alert detailed information that can alert the user about the volume of content in the cup," explains Abhay Sinha, Technavio's lead research analyst. Although this product is still not prevalent in many countries, it is available in a few retail shops in the US and the UK. Technavio's analyst expects the bluetooth-enabled menstrual cup to continue to gain attention in the coming years. Increase in marketing and promotional campaigns The third trending factor, as reported by Technavio's market study, is the increase in marketing and promotional campaigns by companies to generate awareness. Greater awareness about such options has led to a nascent demand for menstrual cups in retail shops and online stores. Blogs, online communities, and social videos are often the chosen medium to create such awareness. As developing countries like China have a high penetration rate for social media, vendors are making increased efforts to develop a unique proposition for the promotion of their products and achieve high market shares. Promoting such products that draw attention to intimate body parts requires a completely different approach for marketing. Technavio's lead research analyst, Abhay Sinha, further adds, "Social media is one of the most successful mediums to increase brand visibility and awareness. This is well-illustrated from the fact that Mooncup, which is currently the market leader in the UK, has increased its customer base and sells the majority of menstrual cups annually through online channels." Browse Related Reports: Global Feminine Hygiene Products Market 2015-2019 Global Sanitary Napkin Market 2016-2020 Global Pantyliner Market 2016-2020 Purchase these three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160118005749/en/ Contacts: Technavio Research Jesse Maida Media Marketing Executive US: +1 630 333 9501 UK: +44 208 123 1770 www.technavio.com Gee Lamba to lead iDashboards' presence in London, United Kingdom iDashboards, a Troy, Mich.-based pioneer in developing visual intelligence (VI) dashboard solutions, welcomes Gee Lamba as the regional manager of the United Kingdom to help further their global expansion. iDashboards Founder and CEO Shadan Malik made the announcement. Lamba brings 11 years of experience in account management and new business development in the technology space to iDashboards. In this role, Lamba is responsible for leading direct sales, creating new partnerships, and strengthening business development in some of the company's main verticals throughout the UK market-including healthcare, finance, logistics, and education. He is also serving as a VI consultant to business executives and offers industry or department specific demonstrations of dashboard technology to decision makers. "Gee's vast knowledge of the technology industry, paired with his extensive leadership and sales skills, makes him a true asset to the iDashboards team," said Malik. "As we continue to expand our UK presence, we needed someone who exemplifies a strong work ethic and who knows the technology industry inside and out, and Gee is the perfect fit. We are excited to welcome him to the team and look forward to continuing our global expansion." Lamba's past endeavors include working for Verizon Digital Media Services as a business development manager. He also was the business development manager for OrderWork Ltd and for Octavia Information Systems Ltd. Lamba attended Barnet College and University of Westminster in London, UK. About iDashboards Headquartered in Troy, Mich., with customers in more than 40 countries worldwide, iDashboards provides easy-to-use, visually-appealing and cost-effective dashboard software for clients in a wide variety of industries-including higher education, healthcare, logistics, finance, manufacturing and more. With customizable and flexible dashboard solutions that easily integrate with key data sources, iDashboards clients can quickly and effectively view and analyze their criticalperformance metrics-ultimately leading to enhanced decision-making capabilities. For more information, visit www.idashboards.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160118005769/en/ Contacts: For iDashboards Brenna Schafer, 248.258.2333 bschafer@identitypr.com SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Flosusm Smith, The Director of Operations for Self Made Marketing Group, is coming off of an unprecedented 2015. With the company already taking over three new markets in 2016, they are on track for another record breaking year. Self Made Marketing Group is an event based, promotional marketing and advertising firm located in San Francisco, California and has been recognized as one of the fastest growing marketing firms on the West coast. The organization quadrupled in size last year and now covers California, Washington, Oregon and Utah. Flosusm explains, "The growth and success we've seen comes from the big thinkers in the organization. We set big goals, we find the path that will lead us to those goals, and we hold ourselves accountable." Just a few weeks into January, Self Made Marketing Group aided in the expansion of three new offices in Salt Lake City, Utah, Silverdale, Washington, and a second office in San Francisco, California -- proving that momentum has not slowed with the turn of the new year. When asked what types of individuals Self Made Marketing Group is looking to hire, Flosusm said, "The candidates that see the most success in this business are the ones that work toward a mutual goal with the organization. Those self-motivated candidates looking for growth, both professionally and personally, are the ones we want to duplicate. Growth and momentum thrive when we focus on educated professionals that are looking for something more." The growth and momentum of this marketing and sales firm landed Self Made Marketing Group in the number one spotlight nationally month after month last year. Recognition began to pour into the organization early in 2015, when Flosusm won a trip to Super Bowl 49 for his outstanding results. Soon after, he was a Manager of the Year nominee at the national meeting in Nassau, Bahamas. At the same meeting, Matt Castillo, another manager in Flosusm's organization, won Consistency Manager of the Year, proving that success runs deep in this West coast organization. Projections for 2016 put Self Made Marketing Group at 30 offices throughout the nation, landing Flosusm in the hot seat for Manager of the Year. He ends with saying; "Last year was the year that put Self Made Marketing Group on the map. This year, we take over." Contact: Self Made Marketing Group HR Department (415) 715-7641 Email Contact www.selfmademarketinginc.com Igloohome, a Philadelphia PA- and Singapore-based provider of smart home automation platform for hosts on Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO etc., secured $1.25m in seed funding. The round was led by Wavemaker Partners with participation from Singtel Innov8, Mesh Ventures, startup accelerator Dreamit and fellow Dreamit alumni and SnipSnap founder Ted Mann. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the commercialization of its product. Led by CEO and co-Founder Anthony Chow, Igloohome provides a mobile app that connects to Iglooaccess and Igloosense solutions to allow hosts to manage virtual keys, monitor check-ins/check-outs, log usage activities, and reduce electricity consumption. Currently available in Australia, Thailand and Singapore, the company plans to roll out in the United States in 2016. A product of Dreamit Inside, Igloohome recently signed a partnership with Airbnb to provide hosts with keyless entry capabilities. FinSMEs 18/01/2016 Morphogen-IX, a Cambridge, UK-based biotech company, raised 1.5m in seed funding. The round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Cambridge Innovation Capital and Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds. The company intends to use the funds to develop a new treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) that directly targets the major pathway implicated in human genetic studies. Morphogen-IX is advancing a new treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) based on 15 years of work by Professor Nick Morrell and his team at the University of Cambridges Department of Medicine at Addenbrookes Hospital which has the potential to provide a disease-modifying approach to this condition. The company has worked closely with British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialization arm of the University of Cambridge, to license the intellectual property arising from Professor Morrells research. FinSMEs 18/01/2016 Neyber, a London, UK-based lending platform for employers to offer loans to employees, raised 6m in funding. Backers included John Spearman. The company, which has raised 8.5m in total to date, is using the funds to expand operations. Co-founded by Martin Ijaha, CEO, Monica Kalia, Chief of Strategy and Business Development, and Ezechi Britton, CTO, Neyber provides employers with a free employee lending platform which integrates with existing payroll structures and host a dedicated customer call centre. The salarydeducted loans, between 500 and 25k, are underwritten by Neyber. The company, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, is currently hiring. FinSMEs 18/01/2016 Mumbai: Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui was on Sunday booked for allegedly assaulting and misbehaving with a woman over a dispute on parking space in their housing society in Mumbai. Acting on a complaint filed by the woman, who resides in the same housing society as Siddiqui, Versova police registered an FIR against the actor under IPC Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), an official said. The Manjhi fame actor could not be immediately reached out for comments. Siddiqui's manager Anup Pandey, however, has denied the charge. "It is a false case. The case has been registered without investigation. It is a society issue which has been going on for a long time. There was an argument but no 'hatha pai' (exchange of physical blows) as claimed in the complaint. We will take the matters up," Pandey claimed. According to the police, a dispute over car parking space has been going on for the past few days in the housing society located at Yari Road in suburban Andheri. On Saturday, the housing society authorities, through a letter, had asked the 41-year-old actor to avoid parking his car at a spot reserved for two-wheelers, police said. An argument broke out between the actor and the complainant on Sunday at around 1.15 pm over the parking issue. During the exchange of words, Siddiqui allegedly slapped the woman, police said, quoting the complaint. PTI Peshawar: Pakistani authorities have lodged an FIR against the new owners of legendary Bollywood actor-director Raj Kapoor's historic family haveli in Peshawar for demolishing the building which is a national heritage site. The Directorate of Archaeology and Museums on Sunday lodged the FIR at Khan Raziq police station against the owners of nearly century-old haveli situated at Dhaki Munawar Shah of the walled city. New owners of the existing building had pulled down its first storey for construction of a commercial plaza on it. The doors and window panes on the second and third floors were also removed last week. On Saturday, the archives department obtained a stay from a local court to save the demolition of the historic haveli. Also, Peshawar Museum in-charge Nawazuddin filed a case against homeowners Israr, Ali Qadir and Hassan Qadir for violating the K-P Antiquities Act 1997 under which buildings that are more than 70 years old cannot be changed without the consent of the government as well as the archaeology department. The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government has declared the houses of Peshawar-born Bollywood actors Kapoor and Dilip Kumar as heritage structures to protect and preserve them. Kapoor's father Prithviraj Kapoor had constructed this house in 1920, where the Mera Naam Joker star and his siblings were born. The Kapoor family later shifted to India after Partition. During the previous Awami National Party government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the house was declared a national heritage structure but no cogent step was taken to preserve it. Meanwhile, a process claiming to secure the building was under way and officials said the owners committed a crime by violating the antiquity law, the paper said. The provincial administration had earlier tried to buy the house from the owners to convert it into a museum but the plan could not come through. Kapoor's actor son Rishi Kapoor took to Twitter to thank the people of Pakistan for resisting the demolition. Thank you for your gesture but that property belongs to the Pakistani Govt.and it is entirely up to them to decide. https://t.co/kP79vcPnkT rishi kapoor (@chintskap) January 16, 2016 PTI New Delhi: Government in the Budget next month will announce a friendly tax regime that will encourage setting up of startups in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. "We have already worked upon an entrepreneur-friendly taxation regime. There are some steps, which can be taken up by notifications, which would be taken forthwith. Others require legislative provisions, which can only come as part of the Finance Bill when Budget is presented in order to create a friendly taxation regime for startups," he said at the Start Up India conference here. Recognising the need to encourage startups, a fund was suggested in the Budget last year, he said. He assured the startups that both the banking system and the government will make the resources available to them. Besides Start Up, the Finance Minister said the government will launch Stand Up India scheme under which, bank branches will lend to entrepreneurs belonging to SC/STs and women. "On Independence Day Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) announced the Stand Up India scheme. The Stand Up India would be separately launched. It is a programme, which envisages women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs belonging to the SC, STs (to get funding from banks). These were the segments which were not throwing up entrepreneurs. "Each bank branch, public sector or private sector, would actually adopt one in the SC/ST category and one in the women category. So they will adopt two such entrepreneurs and fund them to set up establishments," he said. By funding trading or manufacturing establishment of this segment, almost 3,00,000 new entrepreneurs over the next two years will be created, he said. To promote startups, the Finance Minister said the government is easing the process of doing business. "Another very significant difference of what makes it a landmark event is a final break or the ultimate break that you have with the conventional licence raj of India," he said. "We did well to break off from it in 1991 but it was only partial. It was partial because who would be funded there was an invisible role of state, control over land permissions, foreign investment proposal and of course unless the political nods came to venture into newer areas which involved a lot of capital, a lot of energy going into it and an entrepreneur or investors was normally reluctant," he said. Emphasising that the government has limited potential to create jobs, Jaitley said, the private sector has its own challenges. "The private sector own expansion itself is throwing up a challenge because they have over-stressed themselves and their stress in turn gets reflected on our banking system, something which the RBI and the govt working in tandem, and over the next few months are going to add to the bankers ability to improve and be able to lend with a greater amounts," he said. Under these circumstances, the government had to explore new areas and it is among those newer areas that it conceived of the MUDRA scheme. Pradhan Mantri Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana that government conceived of, is intended to target 25 per cent of the bottom part of India's population. "So people get loans from refinance agencies, public and private sector banks and other agencies. Earlier, they were being exploited by lenders at very high rates and now they get at bank rate and I must say the programme has been reasonably successful. In the last 4-5 months, almost 1.73 crore entrepreneurs have been enabled with loans," he said. He expressed hope that the figure would be significantly higher by the end of this financial year. "We are going to roll over that programme year after year and smaller entrepreneurs are being created by that process," he added. On the economy, Arun Jaitley observed that India has its own challenges despite being the fastest growing large economy in the world. "Unquestionably, the world economy has slowed down. Now we can take a limited satisfaction that even in a crisis like situation in the world, we are growing much faster. The world recognises us as probably the fastest growing among the major economies, but then we are not without our own challenges," he said. "We are fully conscious of the adverse situation in which we are. We are struggling to keep respectable growth rate (despite) certain advantages like we have a booming services sector, we have a manufacturing sector slowly growing, we have increased our public spending, we have opened our doors wide enough and foreign investment is coming in a big way, at least in the urban areas we can see an increasing demand," he said. These are the engines that are keeping this growth rate alive, he said. Talking about headwinds to economic growth, the finance minister said, slow agriculture production due to weak monsoon and subdued private investment are a few challenges. "If you look at the direction in which the conventional global economy is moving today, we almost are moving from a crisis situation literally by the day. Nobody really can envisage looking down the tunnel as to what the situation of the world economy, one year or two year from now is going to be. Nobody can seriously predict as to what the emerging challenges down the few months are going to be," he said. "Earlier crisis like situation came once a decade, today it may emerge twice in a day. You may have the impact of Chinese economy and their currency on one part of the world and you may have the oil prices striking you at the other part of the world and you will have a global impact simultaneously of these challenges," he added. PTI New Delhi: Faced with an ambitious infrastructure augmentation road map, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has made a strong pitch for doubling its budget allocation to about Rs 85,000 crore. The ministry is firming up plans to build 30 kms of roads a day, besides other initiatives like greening of highways, setting of automated driving centres and project 'SMILE'. "The ministry has sought about Rs 85,000 crore budgetary allocation for 2016-17, citing the need to fast-track highways projects as per ever-increasing requirements," a source in the Road Transport and Highways Ministry said. The highways sector, one of the focus areas of the Narendra Modi government, saw a 48 per cent increase in outlay at Rs 42,913 crore in the 2015-16 Union Budget. Out of the allocation for the current fiscal, the ministry has already utilised about 80 per cent of the allocated funds and the rest is likely to be used up by March 31, a Road Ministry official told PTI. "The ministry has also pitched for additional cess to states, which this year was Rs 3,600 crore, but is likely to increase to Rs 12,500 crore," the source said, adding that for safe highway initiatives, the ministry has sought a provision of Rs 11,000 crore. Concerned by an alarmingly high 5 lakh annual road accidents in the country, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had last week said the government will spend Rs 11,000 crore over 5 years to fix "black" accident spots. "Road accidents cause an annual loss of Rs 55,000-60,000 crore, which amounts to 3 per cent of GDP. Mostly youth in the age bracket of 22-33 years lose their lives. To deal with such an alarming scenario, 726 black spots have been identified across the country, which will be fixed," Gadkari had said. The Ministry has also sought a budgetary allocation of Rs 500 crore for the automated driving licence project. According to the minister, not just 30 per cent of driving licences in the country are "bogus", but shortage of drivers in India is at 22 per cent. The government is "committed" to addressing all these issues and will set up 3,000 driving, vehicle fitness and pollution certification centres across the country where licences will be issued only after computerised tests. The ministry also wants Rs 250 crore for implementation of cashless insurance for road accident victims, besides Rs 50 crore for research and development. While tabling the Budget for 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, "It is no secret that the major slippage in the last decade has been on the infrastructure front. Our infrastructure does not match our growth ambitions. I have, therefore, increased outlays for... the roads." The increased provisions have been made for the development of national highways, including projects relating to expressways and six-laning of crowded stretches of the Golden Quadrilateral and two-laning of highways works under the National Highways Development Project. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently laid the foundation stone of several key projects, including the Delhi-Meerut Expressway to be built at a cost of Rs 7,566 crore. He also kicked off another three important highway projects worth Rs 10,166 crore to decongest Delhi, including eastern and western peripheral expressways. The government also has plans to build several green expressways, in addition to the existing expressways, including the Delhi-Dehradun stretch. Also, a 1,000-km highway at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore to link Chardham and a 1,000-km highway project to connect the Buddha Circuit in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are in the works. At the same time, the government is working on speeding up the road building pace, which is 18 km a day at present, to 30 km by March. PTI It is euphoria all over about the Prime Minister Narendra Modis Start-up India action plan announced on Saturday and there are reasons to be so. There hasnt been a better package for those individuals who would want to take the plunge into the world of entrepreneurship. The Modi governments offers arent easy to refuse -- a three-year break from paying income tax on profits, exemption from capital gains tax, no inspection for first three years, provision for easier self-certification, patent registration and easier exit policies. All this, besides a Rs 10,000 crore startup fund and Rs 500 crore per year credit guarantee mechanism. Arguably, this is the biggest set of start-up initiatives so far by any government in India and, surely, reasons enough for a fledgling businessman to get goose bumps. But, there are a few questions worth pondering: For one, is the regulatory structure to ensure the definition for start-ups isnt misused put in place? The governments start-up India plan has defined these firms as entities incorporated or registered in India not prior to five years, with annual turnover not exceeding Rs 25 crore in any preceding financial year, working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual propertyprovided that such entity is not formed by splitting up, or reconstruction, of a business already in existence. In the absence of closer monitoring crooks and cronies, who are averse to taxes, could misuse this window by taking start-up avatars afresh through benami-route and seeking three year-tax exemption, inspection provisions. Without a strong regulatory monitoring mechanism, it will be difficult for the government to tackle crooks as the doors are now open to all and rejections without sufficient reasons could send wrong signals to the industry. The question is does the government have the mechanism ready to ensure the provisions arent misused with instituting strong regulatory mechanism. Probably, it calls for a regulatory set-up for start-ups. Second, what about the existing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), once described as the backbone of Indian economy? Theoretically, these firms are no different from start-ups (many of them are still start-ups by size). India has thousands of small SMEs, which are struggling to stay afloat on account of prolonged economic slowdown in the domestic and global markets. The stress in the large corporate sector has had cascading effects on SMEs too since these firms typically get outsourced work from larger companies. Life has become even more difficult for these companies with banks choking funding channels as non-performing assets (NPAs) have piled up from this segment. Dont these SMEs too deserve tax benefits and easier regime to operate as has been now promised to new companies? Third, which will be the authority to see to the actual implementation on disbursal of the proposed Rs 10,000 crore fund? This isnt the first time the government is announcing a corpus for start-ups and there have been questions on their implementation. In the NDA government's interim budget 2014, finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the creation of a Rs 10,000 crore dedicated startup fund, which promised a lifeline to cash-starved small firms by attracting private capital by providing equity, quasi-equity, soft loans and other risk capital for startups. The industry has questioned the implementation of the scheme as it has been poor on the ground. Announcements are one thing but the implementation is the most critical part. Hence, it is key for the Modi-government to ensure the implementation this time. Fourth, the provision for no-inspection for first three years could prove to be a recipe to risk the money invested in these firms. If one goes by the past trend, majority of the start-ups tend to fail. In a report, rating agency Care has pointed out the reasons for this, citing the experience in the US. Historically it has been noticed that almost 90 per cent of all start-ups fail. In terms of money foregone just 1 percent of total start-up funding comes from VCs with balance from self-funding and friends and family. A problem has been extravagance in the form of wild parties and lavish offices. This reduces the chance of success and abusing the trust of investors, the report says. One of the reasons why banks have been avoiding lending to small firms is their high-risk nature. Given that a substantial chunk of funds is designed to flow in (with an initial corpus of Rs 2,500 crore and a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore over four years), where the governments traditional milch-cow, LIC too would be tapped, doesnt inspection-free three years sound too risky? Fifth, start-ups typically do not make profits in initial 4-5 years so the tax exemption on income tax/ capital gains in first three years does not mean much for them. This is something the industry has pointed out. Most of the startups do not start making profits for initial few years so income tax exemption might not help them as much as would be exemption or deferred timeline for various compliances, according to StoreHippo.com Founder Rajiv Kumar. Having said these, there isnt an iota of doubt on how important is to encourage new entrepreneurship in an emerging economy like India, where generation of fresh employment is still a big challenge and birth of new companies could significantly contribute to job creation. According to a NASSCOM report, India has grown to secure the third position in the world in terms of the number of start-ups and there are 4,200 startups expected by the end of 2015 with growth of 40 percent. About 80,000 to 85000 people have got jobs in start-ups. The point is there is a need to tread with caution. The concept of start-up has caught up across the globe with India being a frontrunner in terms of the number that appears to be registered. Zomato, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ola, OYO etc. are all household names today mainly due to successful fructification of new ideas in our daily lives. This is a clear manifestation of the talent pool in the country where young entrepreneurs prefer to start a venture of their own rather than settle for a conventional job. In a way this is a vindication of the educational institutions that are able to instill self confidence in the students which could be management or engineering or even ordinary universities. The government has come out with a laudable scheme that seeks to not just encourage more entrepreneurs to get into the mould of start-ups but also support through administrative reforms as well as finance. The latter is significant because compared to other campaigns which addresses the former this one focuses also on the funding aspect. The major deterrent for anyone in the country starting a venture is the plethora of procedures that have to be complied with to do business, which is reiterated by the relatively low rating we get from the World Bank in this context. This has been eased significantly by diluting the rules to self-declaration on labour and environment, keeping them away from checks and scrutiny for three years and provision of an easy exit route to address the issue of bankruptcy. The financial package includes creating a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore fund as well as a credit guarantee scheme for Rs 500 crore on an annual basis which is iced with tax holidays for three years and low capital gains tax for venture capitalists investing in these enterprises. A favourable patent regime has been promised where the cost of registering the same will also come down with 80% rebate. The package also talks about future listing of these companies which is where the big money lies. All such successful ventures do manage to get a listing on the bourses when the true value of the enterprise is extracted. As far as the government is concerned, it has done everything that is required to provide a field to entrepreneurs. Two major benefits from this scheme would be the generation of employment where more people choose this route. These start-ups have the potential to create even more jobs as is evidenced by the success of several ventures in the country where the staff strength could rise from a couple of hundreds to thousands depending on the line of business. The second is the generation of new ideas, which is required at the grass route level. So far we have always had a top down approach when it comes to growth models which may not be linked strongly to the requirements at the base level. All start up ideas germinate at the micro level and then try and scale up when they work. Therefore, one can expect a flurry of such new ideas in areas like retail, pooling of resources like cars, office space, crowd funding etc. Intuitively one can smell the role to be played by technology to make these ventures happen. This would on its own create strong backward linkages with the backend where mobile handsets, telecom service providers, providers of Internet services, laptops etc. would derive primary benefits in terms of demand. Further, systems for facilitating payment and delivery would have to be tied up the latter if there is retail interface, which in turn will provide a boost to the financial and services sectors. This is the good part of the story. Are there any apprehensions in this storyline? The first is the definition of a start-up which has to be stated clearly as the benefits being provided by the government could be tempting to several aspiring entrepreneurs. Ideally a start-up should be chasing a new idea which may or may not have been tested earlier. There has to be clarity here as it has tax implications for the government too. Second, while start-ups appear to be an enticing idea, the mortality rate has been high across the world. This is due to several reasons which could range from intrinsic nature of the product or service being discussed to scalability. Often these enterprises cannot be scaled up to generate profits and on their own become loss making. While the proposed approach of the government facilitates an exit route, there would be funds involved from the financial sector that will bear the brunt. With the credit guarantee fund in place, the governments budget could get strained in case these numbers mount. While there is no reason to be pessimistic, given that the mortality rate varies between 50-80% within the first 3 years, one should be prepared for the same. Third, while a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore has been built the exact deployment would be a challenge as the organization or fund set up to deploy the same would have to do a due diligence of these new ventures which will require a different approach considering that most of these activities may not have been tested. This could lead to adverse selection of projects which is always a challenge with any such new venture. The Start-up India project is a definitely more focused than the other efforts of the government like Make in India or Digital India or Swach Bharat as it not just lays down ground rules but also provides both a finance channel as well as enabling environment specifically to encourage the same. A question that can be posed in this context however is that if we are willing to give benefits relating to say labour, environment, tax (holiday and capital gains), can we expect the Budget for FY17 to also let the same spirit prevail when it comes to existing industry as there is need a for a big push to investment in manufacturing which has been playing hide and seek so far waiting for the government to pull the trigger on capex? The author is chief economist, CARE Ratings. Views are personal LONDON Oil prices rose on Monday, recovering from a 2003 low as the market braced for additional Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against the country over the weekend. The United States and European Union on Saturday revoked sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was at $29.28 by 1158 GMT, up 33 cents from Friday's close. U.S. crude was up 23 cents at $29.65 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. But oil prices recovered later in the session, with analysts suggesting the return or Iranian exports has already been priced in. "We were watching Asia when it opened, in terms of how markets digested (the news) over the weekend, and it did suggest to a fair degree that it (the lifting of sanctions) has been priced in," said Miswin Mahesh, of Barclays Capital. In a further sign of he pain low prices is inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organisation would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the price of oil is likely to settle between $25 and $40 in a year's time. "Major producers are currently delivering 2-2.5 million bpd more than demand, so the question is how long they can continue to overproduce at that level." he said at the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong on Monday. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market, and traders are betting that oil prices will drop again. The lifting of sanctions will unlock more than $100 billion in Iranian frozen funds, permitting Iran to finance imports. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani plans to visit Italy and France next week on his first European trip since sanctions were lifted, a diplomatic source said on Monday. "The legs of Irans economy are now free of the chains of sanctions and its time to build and grow, Rouhani tweeted on Sunday. Iran's transport minister said that Tehran plans to purchase 114 aircraft from Airbus. (Additional reporting by Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by David Goodman) This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed. Guwahati: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Kokrajhar in Assam on Tuesday, three Bodo organisations on Monday once again put forward their demand for a separate Bodoland state. Modi was scheduled to arrive in Gangtok, Sikkim's capital city, on Monday afternoon to begin his two-day visit to Sikkim and Assam. The All Bodo Students Union (ABSU), the National Democratic Front of Bodoland-Progressive (NDFB-P) militant group that favours negotiations, and Peoples Joint Action Committee for Bodoland Movement (PJACBM) also said that Modi should by 19 January make the government's stand clear on the long-pending demands of the Bodos. "The Bodos have been agitating for many years for a separate state. Over 7,000 people have lost lives during the Bodo movement. Our demand is for a separate state under Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution," ABSU president Promod Boro said on Monday. Modi will land at the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airpiort near Assam's main city Guwahati and head for Kokrajhar to address a public rally on Tuesday. He is also scheduled to address a rally at Khanapara area of Guwahati in the afternoon, followed by a visit to the IIT-Guwahati later in the day. "We have seen the creation of new states of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh in the past. During Congress government's rule, Telangana was created. However, nothing has been done for a separate state for the Bodos," Promod Boro said. NDFB-P general secretary Gobinda Basumatary said Bodo people were awaiting eagerly the prime minister's visit. "A Bodoland state was on the BJP election manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But nothing was done to fulfill the demand even as the party formed the government at the Centre," Basumatary said. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party assured people that all insurgency-related problems in the north-east would be solved within six months if it came to power at the Centre, but nothing had been done so far even after 19 months. "Although the central government held over 40 rounds of discussion with the NDFB-P after a ceasefire agreement in 2005, it failed to find a lasting solution so far to the vexed issue," the NDFB-P leader said. PJACBM convener Jebraram Moshahary said the civil society group hoped Modi would patiently consider the legitimate demand for a separate state. IANS Jaipur: Social activist Aruna Roy on Monday demanded the immediate arrest of BJP MLA Kanwar Lal Meena for allegedly leading a mob that attacked volunteers who were taking part in a road show in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan. Roy, who said she has sought time from chief minister Vasundhara Raje for taking up the matter with her, also expressed anguish at the state government's response over the incident on Saturday. She further charged that the MLA has a "criminal background" as she sought his immediate arrest for the attack on members of the 'jawabdehi (accountability) yatra' without any reason. "There was no reason for the attack. Our members were peacefully conducting a 'nukkad natak' in the Aklera market when suddenly the MLA came with a mob of around 30-50 people and hit them with batons in front of all," claimed Roy. "A few policemen were standing at the spot but they refused to help our members... The MLA has a criminal background and ours is the 25th FIR against him. "How can a man with such a criminal background be given a ticket to become an MLA. This is not for a particular party, but all political parties should think about it," she told reporters here, adding that they have "sought time from the chief minister to take up the issue". Roy said that the aim of the yatra was to "take feedback from people on general issues of governance, like pension and other schemes". "We are meeting people and telling them that what their right is," she said. Meanwhile, police on Monday arrested seven more persons for their alleged involvement in the attack, taking the total number of those rounded up to 11. "The victims gave us a CD with a video of the incident. We are probing the matter and have arrested seven people. Four were arrested on the night of the incident and all of them are in police custody," said SP (Jhalawar), Rajendra Singh. The role of the MLA is being probed and appropriate action will be taken, he added PTI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked whether Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Kashmir can be treated as minority, as it commenced hearing to decide the correctness of a 2007 Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict holding that Sikhs cannot be granted 50 per cent quota in Sikh educational institutions in Punjab. A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, while issuing notice to the Centre, sought the assistance of Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi and appointed senior advocate T R Andhyarujina as amicus curiae in the matter. "Can Muslims, who are in majority in Kashmir, still be treated as minority? Can Sikhs be minority in Punjab? Can Christians be minority in Meghalaya," the bench, also comprising Justices F M I Kalifulla, A K Sikri, S A Bobde and R Banumathi, asked. The bench was informed by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) that the contesting parties were students who may not be interested any more in the outcome of the case having got admission elsewhere. "This is a serious issue on which we need assistance of the Centre," the court said and issued notice to the Minority Affairs Ministry and asked the Attorney General to assist it. The move by the apex court could have a bearing on other communities as well. The question came up before the court in an appeal of the SGPC challenging the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which stripped Sikh educational institutions of their minority status, holding that Sikhs were not a minority community. The High Court had set aside the state government notification, issued on April 13, 2001, that Sikh institutions can reserve 50 per cent seats for members from the community. PTI By Rajat Roy The clinching reason behind the violent eruption in Kaliachak block of West Bengal's Malda district has come to the forefront 15 days after the unrest. It seems increasingly clear now that it was not merely a clash between the BSF and locals, as claimed by the administration. The unrest was triggered by a complex power play of inter-mafia rivalry and intra-party turf war. To understand the context of the violence, one must take a look at Malda's socio-economic milieu. Malda, along with Murshidabad, North and South Dinajpur, are some of the poorest districts in Bengal from where a large number of unskilled and semi-skilled labour migrate every year to other states. With Bangladesh border just 2 kilometres away, the economy in these districts, especially Kaliachak, is mostly driven by cross-border smuggling or trafficking. Even though barbed wire fencing has been erected at most places, high grassland has made it a porous border where people come and go almost freely, resulting in a flourishing trade of smuggled goods including but not limited, to small arms, drugs and fake Indian currency notes (FICN). Politico-criminal nexus In recent times, smuggling has grown exponentially with the mafia culture taking its root in this border area. Manufacturing of small arms has become a veritable cottage industry in remote villages with parts smuggled from across the border. And with proliferation of illegal arms and flow of ill-gotten money, turf war erupted between gangs on a regular basis with killings and kidnappings becoming rampant. Lack of political stability, too, has added to the problem. Malda, for decades, was the fiefdom of local Congress strongman ABA Ghani Khan Chowdhury. After his passing away, and with the rise of Trinamool Congress, the hold of India's grand old party over this district has weakened, resulting in defection of district-level leaders. Many of the gangs, too, who earlier owed allegiance to Congress and/or CPM, increasingly moved towards the ruling party. And as TMC gained in strength, it inevitably became afflicted with factionalism. With the state Assembly elections due in April-May this year, war between rival factions gave the mafia turf war a political overtone. In the last four months of 2015 alone, at least 50 killings have taken place at Kaliachak. Narco-trade and police action Amid this politico-criminal nexus, a recent new dimension was added with the mafia turning its attention to cross-border trade in narcotics. Local farmers were enticed to illegally cultivate poppy. What was initially done in remote areas soon became rampant with huge tracts at Mojampur (5 km from Kaliachak) being brought under poppy cultivation. Following a district administrations meeting held last November which noted an alarming trend in shrinking areas for paddy cultivation, police started regular raids on poppy fields. Farmers, expectedly, turned to the mafia for help. The hitback Mafia leaders conduct smooth business through two ways. One, they instill fear of god among people working under them. Two, they also cultivate the trust of local political leaders for protection. The raid on poppy fields were a red flag. At the heart of January 3 violence lies the fact that the mafia needed to do something to restore the eroding confidence in them. And one way of instilling confidence is to demonstrate that their writ still runs large. It is in this context that we must place the daring attack on Kaliachak police station when irate mob burnt piles of documents but didn't harm female police constables who couldn't flee like their male counterparts and had locked themselves in a room in the thana. An undercurrent of radicalisation The violence that made headlines all across India also exploited the very recent undercurrent of radicalistion in Malda. Malda, which has a heavy Muslim population, has no history of communal violence. Shubhro Moitra, a journalist and resident of Malda for years, has observed that in the last 20 years there has been some visible change in Muslim community. "More and more women are wearing hizab as they come out of their homes. "Jalsa, a religious convention, are now being held on a regular basis where firebrand preachers try to radicalise locals." Thus on January 3 when a Muslim religious organisation arranged a rally to protest against a Hindu Mahasabha leader's derogatory comments against Prophet Muhammad there were no dearth of people who thronged to Kaliachak from even far off places like Sujapur and other areas. What really happened Since the rally ground could at best hold around 10000 people and over a lakh had gathered, NH34 the only major road was choc-full with traffic. The immediate friction arose from a BSF bus carrying the family members trying to wriggle its way past the hundreds of vehicles. It didn't escalate. But crucially, a rumour went around that BSF jawans had fired upon the crowd. Eyewitnesses claim that a number of speakers from the stage tried to pacify the crowd by declaring that no such firing had taken place. Unable to restrain the crowd, the organisers ended the meeting immediately, but by that time a mob had taken control and after torching over 30 vehicles and ransacking shops, it attacked the police station. Despite the violence and arson though, the Kali temple in the police station precincts was untouched and both Muslim and Hindu-owned shops were destroyed. It seems likely that instead of a spontaneous communal violence, what happened in Malda was a calculated attack against the police, seeking to send the message that the mafia, and not the administration, is in control. The writer is senior journalist Panchkula: A freshly-trained contingent of 500 women personnel which will be the first 'mahila' squad to be deployed in high-altitude posts along the India-China border was commissioned into the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in Panchkula on 15 January. The women, in the rank of constable, were inducted in the border-guarding force after 44-weeks of training in battle craft and mountain survival and will now be sent to frontier areas for final acclimatisation before being deployed at ITBP posts along the 3,488-km Sino-India Line of Actual Control (LAC). These 'mahila' contingents are expected to be posted by March this year at about 20 forward locations of the ITBP situated at heights of between 8,000-14,000 feet, including at the 'Mana pass' border post, the last village on the Indian side in Uttarakhand. ITBP Director General Krishna Chaudhary, after reviewing the 'passing out parade' of the new personnel, asked them to exhibit the best skills that they have learnt during training to discharge their duties in some of the most difficult locations in the Himalayan ranges. "You will be further trained in field training and high- altitude acclimatisation before your final deployment. I am sure you will do the country and the force proud," the DG said after taking the salute at the Basic Training Centre (BTC) of the force at Bhanu here. This is the first time that India is deploying women troops right at the front, one which is considered to be the most arduous and tricky given the harsh climatic conditions and extreme mountainous terrain along the India-China border. ITBP, raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression, has also begun creating logistical and residential facilities for its women personnel at these posts and it is expected to be completed by early March. The force plans to have women personnel make up at least 40 per cent of its strength at these forward posts. IANS Kolkata: Kolkata Police on Monday arrested an accused from Delhi in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an IAF officer was killed during Republic Day Rehearsal in Kolkata. Shahnawaz Khan (Sonu) was arrested from Delhi by a team of Kolkata Police, Anti-Rowdy Section at around 2 am and will be produced at Tis Hazari court, in the national capital on Monday for transit remand, Joint CP, Crime, Debashis Boral told PTI. According to Times Now, the court has granted transit custody and Khan will be taken to Kolkata. Sonu was in the car, being driven by Sambia Sohrab, which allegedly mowed down IAF Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the rehearsal of Republic Day parade on 13 January. Sonu was called for questioning on the night of 13 January and allowed to go but since then he was absconding. His relatives lodged a missing diary at Bowbazar and police were looking for him. Sleuths then got to know from sources that he was in Delhi and the KP, Anti-Rowdy Section zeroed on him last midnight. A police source said that ever since he went missing Sonu's mobile tower location first showed he was in Ranchi on Saturday but the mobile was found switched off ever since. However, on Sunday morning police got to know he had used another number to call up a relative in Delhi and sleuths began tracking that number. Based on location of that mobile tower police spotted him and arrested, the source said. Sonu and prime accused Sambia would be questioned together after being brought to Kolkata, he said. Sambia, son of a former RJD MLA, was arrested on the night of 16 January from Park Circus seven-point crossing while he was heading towards his in-laws' house. The 21-year-old IAF Corporal was knocked down and killed after being hit by the brand-new Audi car during the Republic Day rehearsal parade on the Red Road. The car broke three guard rails and barged into the parade rehearsal before fatally hitting the IAF officer. PTI New Delhi: Ahead of Republic Day, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the security situation in the national capital with the Delhi Police chief and other senior officials of intelligence and security agencies. The country's top leadership including President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers, senior civil and defence officials will be among those attending the main function at the majestic Rajpath where French President Francois Hollande will be the chief guest. Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi and other officials gave a detailed presentation to Singh about the ground-to-air security cover to be put in place in the national capital, official sources said. The city has already been put on a high alert after the Pathankot terror attack as there were intelligence inputs which suggested that at least two terrorists had entered Delhi. "Highest possible security cover will put in place in Delhi in the run up to Republic Day," a source said. Days before the attack on Pathankot air base, Central security agencies had reported that a group of eight to 10 terrorists had crossed border from Pakistan. A similar report from Punjab government had said that at least 15 terrorists from Pakistan had breached the border. The sources said there may be a few terrorists who were waiting for an opportunity to strike. All steps are being taken to ensure foolproof security during the visit of Hollande, especially as Paris saw one of the worst terrorist attacks on 13 November, when 130 people were killed by seven gunmen, they said. Apart from deployment of forces on the ground, government will also ensure security in air by deploying anti-aircraft guns and declaring no-fly zone in many areas of Delhi. A total of 10,000 paramilitary personnel, in addition to 80,000 strong Delhi Police, will be on the job in the national capital to ensure greater security cover. The deployment of additional paramilitary forces in the national capital comes a week after the terrorist attack on Pathankot IAF base in which seven security personnel were killed. Top officials of Central intelligence and investigative agencies and police of 13 states, including Delhi, held a meeting with the home minister on Saturday and discussed steps to check the growing influence of IS among youngsters through social media and other sources. PTI New Delhi: A court on Monday allowed a National Investigation Agency (NIA) plea for a lie detector test on Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh in connection with the attack at the air force base in Pathankot. Court sources said that during in-camera proceedings, district judge Amar Nath directed the NIA to conduct the polygraph test on Superintendent of Police Salwinder Singh within three days. The NIA earlier told the court that Singh's statements on his alleged abduction were inconsistent and the lie detector test was required to ascertain the truth. The NIA had questioned Singh as he was suspected of helping the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot air base on 2 January. The police officer had claimed that he along with his friend Rajesh Verma and cook Madan Gopal was abducted by four or five heavily-armed terrorists near Kolia village in Punjab prior to the attack on the airbase. Seven security personnel were killed in the attack. All six terrorists suspected to have crossed over from Pakistan also were shot dead by the security forces in the counter-offensive. IANS The Congress wants Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya sacked from the Cabinet after he was named in an FIR over the suicide of a Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University. The 26-year-old Dalit scholar hanged himself in hostel room 207 on Sunday after his desperate pleas to reverse a varsity decision to expel him and four Dalit students from the hostel and common areas got only deafening silence in response. Vemula was suspended from Hyderabad Central University over a political dispute. The Opposition said Vemula's suicide shows the anti-Dalit mindset of the Union government and the RSS Vemula would have turned 27 on 30 January. Hours before he hanged himself, Vemula told his friends he did not have enough money to give them "even a small treat", reports The Indian Express. Last August, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya had written to the HRD ministry accusing the university of being a mute spectator after a group of Dalit students, including Rohith Vemula, clashed with an ABVP leader. Vemula's friends say the trouble began in the first week of August 2015, when five of them protested against the hanging of Mumbai-blasts accused Yakub Memon and condemned the ABVP attack on the screening of the documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai in Delhi University. Over the last 6 months, Vemula's defenses broke, his stipend stopped, a series of curious flip-flops between the University, Labour ministry and local political groups (ABVP) led to Vemula's complete and crushing isolation from what he loved best - campus life. Why did the Labour minister interfere in the internal affairs of an educational institution is a question that is raging. Vemula made one last call to his mother but a lethal mix of anger and sadness inside finished the young man days before his 27th birthday. Vemula requested for "euthanasia" facility Vemula wrote a stinging letter to the Hyderabad Central University vice-chancellor last month seeking euthanasia facilities for students, reports The Indian Express. First, let me praise your dedicated take on the self-respecting movement of Dalits in campus. When an ABVP president got questioned about his derogatory remarks on Dalits, your kind personal interference into the issue is historic and exemplary, Vemula wrote to V-C Prof P Appa Rao on 18 December, reports The Indian Express. I request your highness to make preparations for the facility euthanasia for students, Vemula wrote in the same letter. Students said that Vemula, hailing from a poor family of agriculture labourers in Guntur district, was supporting his family, including mother and younger brother, with his stipend. He had been unable to send any money home for the past several months. As protests gathered steam at the university and in Delhi, Union HRD minister Smriti Irani sent a two-member committee to Hyderabad to confirm facts about Rohith Vemula's suicide. Criminal case against Dattatreya The Cyberabad Police also booked vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile, BJP legislator Ramachandra Rao and two student leaders of the university under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 200 Rapid Force Action personnel battled student groups protesting the suicide on campus. The police registered a criminal case against Dattatreya and others following separate complaints from the warden of the hostel and a student, Prashanth, who was among those expelled. In his complaint, Prashanth blamed Dattatreya for "forcing" Vemula to end his life. Vemula and his fellow research scholars, all members of a dalit group, Ambedkar Students Association, were expelled in December last year for an alleged brawl with activists from the rival Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad over the July hanging of Yakub Memon in the Mumbai blast case. Now that an FIR has been registered against Union Minister Dattatreya and, the letter written by him prima facie amounts to abetment to suicide, the Congress demands that Dattatreya resign with immediate effect, failing which the Prime Minister should sack him immediately, Congress spokesperson R P N Singh said. He called his mother and abruptly cut the line Vemula's friend Krishna Kumar says that at 4 pm, Sunday, Vemula left the group and said he had to finish "some work." "When he did not return till 6 pm, we started searching for him. By then his mother had also called us, saying that Rohith had called her and sounded very depressed. She said he had abruptly cut the call, and had stopped answering her calls. Then, we found him hanging from the ceiling fan in a friends room (207), which was also the ASA activity room. He used a ASA banner to hang himself. "Anti-Dalit agenda" The unfortunate and tragic suicide by Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula amidst circumstances deliberately orchestrated by Dattatreya, the HRD ministry and their cohorts of the ABVP, is yet again a blatant manifestation of the anti-Dalit agenda and mindset of the government at the Centre and its controller the RSS, the Congress said. Vemula reached out to former UGC chief On December 30, 2015 five research scholars of Hyderabad University, including Vemula, expelled for their political activism, reached out to former UGC chairperson Sukhdeo Thorat, reports The Hindu. The five students handed over a 10-page memorandum, detailing the events leading to their expulsion in mid December 2015. Mr. Thorat, who handed over the memorandum to Social Justice Minister Thavar Chand Gehlot on Monday, said activism, integral to student life, should not have been held against them. The memorandum sought his immediate intervention with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Ministry of Social Justice and the Ministry of Human Resources and Development and mentioned how the five students, who also belong to the Ambedkar Students Association, were restrained from entering the administrative building and other common areas. When I met them, they talked about discrimination as a fact of life in campuses that governments find it difficult to admit. I did not for a moment think one of the students I had met would be forced to take his life, Thorat told The Hindu. Seven years ago, Thorat submitted a report on the circumstances leading to the death of a medical student in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. The administration did not accept the findings. "I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body" The Indian Express reports on the sequence of events that broke down Vemula. From July 2015, the university stopped paying Rohith his monthly stipend of Rs 25,000. Friends said that he was targeted for raising issues under the banner of Ambedkar Students Association (ASA). In August, the university set up an inquiry against Rohith and four other ASA members, two days after they allegedly assaulted ABVP leader N Susheel Kumar. In August, Dattatreya wrote to HRD Minister urging action and claiming that the Hyderabad University has in the recent past, become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. The five students, Vemula included, were suspended in September. On December 17, the decision was upheld. On January 3, after the sanction was confirmed, the five moved out of their hostel rooms to a tent they set up inside the campus and began a relay hunger protest. On Sunday, Rohith Vemula hanged himself. His suicide note read: I feel a growing gap between my soul and my body. And I have become a monster. Letter With Agencies New Delhi: A suspected operative of Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), arrested for allegedly radicalising youth for terror activities, was on Monday remanded to police custody till 1 February by a Delhi court. Abdul Sami, who was arrested on Monday, was produced before the court and Special Cell of Delhi Police sought his custodial interrogation saying he was required to be quizzed to ascertain the identities of his associates. The police said that Sami had to be interrogated for unearthing the entire conspiracy of AQIS and also about its funding. "I have gone through the contents of the application, copy of the FIR and case diary. I am satisfied that custodial interrogation of the accused is necessary. Accordingly, the accused Abdul Sami is remanded to police custody till 1 February," Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh said. Four other accused, Mohammed Asif, Abdul Rahman, Zafar Masood and Syed Anzar Shah were earlier arrested in connection with the case. The police had earlier said that Rahman ran a madrassa in Uttar Pradesh where several students were enrolled and he was allegedly trying to radicalise them for terror activities. It had claimed that Masood was propagating the terror agenda of AQIS among the youth and trying to attract them towards the terror outfit. While Asif (41), was held from Seelampur in north-east Delhi, Rahman (37) was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, police had said. They have been booked under provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. According to special cell, Rahman is suspected to have international links in countries like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Dubai. PTI New Delhi: Terror attacks on India are nothing less than an "organised war", Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said. In an interview to ETV, the defence minister was asked about the attack on Indain Army personnel in Manipur and the subsequent surgical attack on terror camps along the Indo-Myanmar border and the recent attack on Pathankot air base. On the first, the minister said: "We definitely destroyed terrorist camps. But we can't reveal the locations due to strategic reasons." "Definitely we sent the message to terrorists that you can't hit the Indian Army in this manner. You cannot do it in organized manner. It's almost an act of war. It was also not less than 26/11," Parrikar said. At least 18 soldiers were killed and 11 others injured when militants ambushed an army convoy in Manipur's Chandel district on 4 June last year. India soon after launched surgical operations and destroyed at least two terrorists camps, officially maintaining that the camps were along the India-Myanmar border. "Our aim was to engage them in a small area and we were succeed to eliminate them." Talking about the Pathankot attack, Parrikar said: "In the Pathankot incident, we trapped them and killed them." The minister, who had days after the attack said pain must be inflicted on those who hurt India, also clarified on the comment and said it is not a "policy decision". "...about my lines, I want to make it clear that this is not a policy decision of the government. It was my feeling and as a defence minister it was giving me pain. I expressed what a common man of the country feels. Later on I added a line that when and how the operation will take place we will decide. This is a secret operation. I will not discuss more. But will say that someone can not take it for granted," he said. Asked about the reports of arrests being made in Pakistan, and whether he was satisfied with it, the minister said: "I think it is like that they are telling as they have to tell us something that such action will not be continued. But with earlier experience I have my own reservation." On a question if there was a failure on the part of the Army at Pathankot, the minister said: "It will be inquired (into). But the part of success is that they were trapped in a small area." He also dismissed the claim that Pathankot operation was a "failure". "...I don't think it's a complete failure as some people want to project it. There is certain section which trying to convert a victory into defeat. It took 38 hours. After that it was combing operation which confirmed that there was no one else." IANS Women and girl refugees coming into Europe face violence and sexual harassment at every stage of their journey, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report released Monday by the human rights group was based on interviews with 40 women and girls in Germany and Norway last month who had traveled from Turkey to Greece and then across the Balkans. Women and girls traveling alone or accompanied only by children said they felt particularly under threat in Hungary, Croatia and Greece, where they were forced to sleep alongside hundreds of male refugees. Those interviewed included female refugees from Iraq and Syria. The vast majority of the refugees streaming into Europe are men, which leaves women particularly vulnerable, aid workers say. Women at camps reported having to use the same bathroom and shower facilities as men, and some said they did not eat or drink to avoid going to the toilet. The Amnesty International report did not separate out incidents of sexual harassment from general violence. One 22-year-old Iraqi woman told Amnesty International that a uniformed security guard in Germany offered her clothes in exchange for spending time alone with him. Some aid workers say violence is harder to prevent because of an ad hoc system for receiving and registering refugees. "One of the challenges we have been facing is that it is taking a long time for the international community, and by that I mean governments, to wake up to this crisis and to realize that it is not something that they can wish away," said Jenny Becker, protection coordinator with the International Rescue Committee in northern Lesbos in Greece. In October, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Tuesday called on governments to more closely monitor sex trafficking and lend specialized assistance to the 1.5 million refugees expected to enter the European Union this year, warning of a surge in sexual assault against women being smuggled across the Mediterranean Sea from West Africa. The IOM reported that tens of thousands of people continue to pour into Europe each day, but the group expressed particular concern for the fate of women. Roughly 13 percent of refugees traveling toward Europe are women, according to the United Nations. Of those, some 4,200 are estimated to be pregnant and another 1,400 "at risk of sexual violence." Al Jazeera and The Associated Press New Delhi: Should Jamia Millia Islamia University be allowed to retain its 'minority' character, or should it be open to students of all backgrounds irrespective of religion? There's no easy answer. Islamic heritage is etched in the values of Jamia which no government legislation can take away. Yet the minority identity was never a strong part of its founding principle. Dr Zakir Hussain, who later became the President of the country, founded it in 1920 during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movements in response to Mahatma Gandhis call for boycott of all government-sponsored educational institutions. He did not want it to be linked to any one community. The minority character that allows Jamia to set aside 50 percent of seats for Muslim students bestowed on it by a quasi-judicial commission the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) goes against his very objective. Jamia was established at Aligarh but later it was shifted to Delhi first to Karol Bagh and then to Okhla. It was run by a registered society called the Jamia Millia Islamia society. In 1962, it became a deemed university. In 1988, it was elevated to the status of a Central University by an Act of Parliament. As a Central University, it was offering 22.5 percent reservations to SC & ST candidates in educational seats and employment and setting up 27 percent reservation for OBCs was being debated. But the NCMEI order on 22 February 2011 exempted it from the quotas for aspirants from the ST, SC and OBC and it started reserving 50 percent of its seats 30 percent for Muslim applicants plus 10 percent for Muslim female applicants plus 10 percent for Muslim OBCs and ST in every programme for Muslim candidates. Before Jamia was not accorded the minority status there was a diverse student population here. It had grown to be able to attract a larger pool of talent which had added to the stature of the institution. Now, it appears to have impacting Muslim students more in a negative way. The degree from the university does not carry the same respect as earlier. It has affected their seamless integration into the mainstream. Where do Muslim intellectuals stand on the issue? Well, those Firstpost spoke appeared divided in their opinion. Former Jamia Vice Chancellor Mushirul Hasan, who is opposed to minority status for the varsity, said a university should be open to all without any discrimination on the basis of creed and race. "All statues and ordinances which regulate the academic and administrative functioning of Jamia should be in conformity with its parent law that is the Jamia Millia Islamia Act, 1998 which enshrines the secular status of the institution," said the eminent historian. Any genuine struggle, he added, for Muslim empowerment and rights should be to demand and ensure the presence of Muslims in all institutions of higher education rather than creating and limiting their presence in separate educational enclaves. Noted educationist Firoz Bakht Ahmed goes to the extent of saying that Jamias minority character is against national interest. Reservations or minority character given to any institution on communal lines is not in the interest of unity and integrity of the country because it may start a chain reaction among the same religious groups. The ostrich mentality of reservations or minority status of some universities will not help Muslims but open Pandoras box. They have to perform or perish! he said. He reminded the stand of Muslim leaders on the issue of reservation to minorities citing the instance of the voting conducted on providing political safeguards to the minorities according to articles 292 and 294 of the 1949 draft constitution. Of the seven, five leaders, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Maulana Hifzur Rehman, Begum Aizaz Rasul, Hussainbhoy Laljee and Tajammul Hussain, had voted against it. Interestingly, Sardar Patel had vehemently supported the charter, he said. Instead of demanding reservations, he said, Muslims should ask the government to open more schools in their areas than police stations. Instead of fighting over smaller slices of a small pie of the national income, what is needed is the expansion of the national pie which would help everyone to get their rightful and bigger share. The oppressed and the marginalised people need expansion of opportunities rather than favours from the state, he added. In February 2010, Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association had issued a statement raising several issues on the demand for minority status. These questions remain relevant, indeed need to be responded to even more urgently now. The crucial thing to discuss is if minority interests will be served better by granting minority status or by retaining Jamia as its founders visualised that is, a university that will have a stake in the national mainstream. Jamia was envisaged as a space of higher learning and critical thinking against the insularity and isolationism of all kinds. The demand for minority status vitiates that glorious history of Jamia as a secular inclusive space, read the joint note. The teachers body had also cautioned the government not to perpetuate the politics of minorityism while abandoning the cause of minority rights. But there are many who call the governments move anti-minority exposing how hollow is Prime Minister Narendra Modis slogan of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (together with all, development for all). They advise the government to desist from destroying the well-established character of the central institutions dedicated to minorities. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that minority institutions are primarily for the minority which has established it and there can be only sprinkling of outsiders in a minority institution. Thus, as a minority university, under Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India, Jamia can reserve seats for the Muslim minority. Article 15(5) exempts minority institutions from SC/ST/OBC reservation. Being a minority university, Jamia is thus exempt from states reservation policy. There is no injustice in it, says Prof (Dr) Faizan Mustafa, vice chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. He said Section 7 of the Jamia Millia Islamia Act is like Article 29(2). The Supreme Court, he said, in St. Stephens and TMA Pai judgments, had held that this kind of provision only means there cannot be 100% reservation in an aided minority institution. It may be recalled an 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court has also removed 50% upper cap on minority reservation which was put in the St. Stephens case. Thus, a minority institution may reserve more than 50 % seats. After minority reservation seats are to be left for the general candidates. Section 7 on its own does not make JMI as a non-minority institution, he added. Asked does not it promote ghettoized minority, he said the best educational institutions of the country are minority institutions like CMS Vallore and Delhi Universitys St. Stephens college. It wont lead to ghettoization as minority status is a constitutional concept. Minority institutions must excel. This is what framers of the constitutions expected from them, he said . While declaring Jamia a minority university, the three-judge bench of the NCMEI headed by MSA Siddiqui had said, We hold that the Muslim community established this university and managed it all through. It never lost its identity. We declare it as a minority educational institution covered under Article 30 of the Constitution. Asked does not the ground appear to be week to defend, Dr Mustafa replied, Justice Siddiqui has held that minorities can establish universities under Article 30 of the Constitution. In the AMU case, it was held by the apex court in 1967 that term establish means to bring into existence. Subsequently, a six-judge bench of the same court held establish also means to found. Jamia was founded by Muslims. It was also giving degrees. Then it became a deemed university under Section 3 of the UGC Act. The Parliamentary Act therefore did not establish Jamia as it was already there prior to the enactment. What was already in existence was now elevated to the superior status of a central university. A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court presided over by Chief Justice T S Thakur said on 15 January that "...the power to grant minority status to an institute entirely vests with the central government, which may decide it based on relevant material". Asked whether the apex court too weakened the position of Jamia, Dr Mustafa replied, In the AMU case, the Allahabad High Court has held that only courts can decide the minority character of an institution. In my opinion with the order of five-judge bench, AMU has already won its battle as the Supreme Court has accepted that it is government to determine the minority character. The United Progressive Alliance government did accept that AMU is a minority university. Whatever government can do, Parliament is better suited to do as Parliament possesses legal sovereignty in India. In 1981, Parliament through an amendment in the AMU Act acknowledged and recognized the historical fact of AMU's minority character. JMI has got its minority character from National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions which has been given power by the Parliament under NCMEI Act to determine minority character of educational institutions. NCMEI was originally not empowered to take such a decision as the Act initially stated that a minority educational institution meant a college or institution (other than a university) established or maintained by a person or group of persons from among the minorities. Subsequently, Kapil Sibal as HRD Minister in Manmohan Singh Government brought out an amendment in May 2010 to the NCMEI Act, allowing the statutory body to award minority status to universities too. Meanwhile, Shehzad Poonawalla, lawyer and activist, who has petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his attention on this issue, has alleged that the central government is unleashing its communal project upon the university and its students by denying and stealing away the minority character. The Central government has taken a U turn from its earlier stand. The agenda of the Modi government became clear when its Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla of the day of assuming her office itself declared that Muslims are not minorities. Now, the agenda is being extended by stealing away the minority character of Jamia and AMU. This is being done to introduce a Hindutva agenda and deny young Muslims any opportunity to higher education. Properties belonging to Jamia, says Poonawalla, were funded by private contributions from 1920 to 1988. How can the government get its ownership by merely giving it a central university tag? That is not how the law in this regard works. Minority institutions cannot be hijacked like this. The BJP says secular India has no place for minority institutions. It is the secular constitution that grants us the right to form and administer our institutions too. And not just to religious minorities but also to linguistic ones. Only Muslim universities are in the cross hairs of the government in the Centre. The reason is obvious. Its communal politics at play before the UP elections in 2017, he alleged. Adding that the government is not bothered about the constitutional impact of the stand it is taking, he asked, Has Article 30 of the Constitution that grants minorities, linguistic and religious ones, the right to establish and administer their institutions been abolished? Does the doctrine of Estoppel not apply here? London: Thinking styles and social values of migrants shift rapidly over a single generation to become more similar to those of the wider society they have moved into, new research has indicated. "This study should allay fears that migrants will fail to integrate because of unalterable social and cultural differences, said lead study author Alex Mesoudi, associate professor of cultural evolution at the University of Exeter in England. The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, assessed members of the British Bangladeshi community in East London's Tower Hamlets borough, where British Bangladeshis make up 32 percent of the total population. The team wanted to establish whether previously observed cultural differences in psychological characteristics changed over a single generation. They carried out an assessment of 108 first generation migrants -- people who were born and raised in Bangladesh and had moved to Britain after the age of 14. They also assessed 79 second generation migrants -- people born and raised in Britain to two first generation British Bangladeshi migrants. In line with previous research, they found differences in the psychological characteristics of first generation migrants, compared to non-migrants whose parents were born and raised in Britain. One example was that first generation British Bangladeshis tended towards collectivism, meaning they were more family-orientated and community-centred, and motivated by teamwork, much like people from other non-Western societies. Non-migrants living in the same area of East London tended to be less collectivistic, on average. In just one generation, these differences had significantly reduced. On average, second generation British Bangladeshis showed less collectivism than their parents' group. This shift occurred despite them retaining many cultural similarities with their parents. For example, nearly all were Muslim and were fluent Bengali speakers. "Surveys have shown that half of the British public believe you can't be 'truly British' unless you have British ancestry, but our study shows a rapid shift over a single generation towards the same values and thinking styles, even while the second generation British Bangladeshis retained their sense of heritage identity through language and religion, Mesoudi noted. IANS A sessions court on Monday adjourned till 10 March the next hearing in the defamation case filed against DMK chief M Karunanidhi by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Karunanidhi, 92, appeared before the court on Monday and has been granted exemption from personal appearance for the next date. The Tamil Nadu state assembly polls are scheduled in May and political combinations are being discussed as Jayalalithaa exhorts her cadre to "destroy" the Opposition. Jaya swept aside rivals by a huge margin in 2011. "What was defaming is not known to them (to the government) nor to us. Only the government should say what it is that it found defaming," Karunanidhi said while coming out of a swift court appearance. Principal Sessions Judge N Audhinathan had in December 2015 directed Karunanidhi to appear before the court on January 18 in connection with an alleged defamatory article published in DMK party mouthpiece 'Murasoli' in November 2015 about the AIADMK government's four-year rule. Karunanidhi said the defamation case is an attempt to threaten publications that do not support Ms Jayalalithaa's ruling AIADMK. The case was filed in November last year after the DMK mouthpiece Murasoli reproduced an article first published in a popular Tamil magazine "Anantha Vikadan." The chief minister has alleged that the article is defamatory. DMK cadre thronged the court premises with police making tight security arrangements. DMK party lawyers were also present. Karunanidhi, who enjoys 'Z' category security status, was escorted by a posse of security staffers. DMK leaders including Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin, daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, Arcot Veerasami, grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and TR Baalu also marked attendance. The court had also summoned Murasoli's Editor, Printer and Publisher S Selvam to appear on the same day in this regard. The party's legal wing secretary R Girirajan had asked party lawyers to be present in the principal sessions court in good number as a show of strength. Amid speculation that Mr Karunanidhi's 62-year-old son MK Stalin will take on Ms Jayalalithaa this year for the chief minister's post, the party and Mr Stalin have insisted that it will be Mr Karunanidhi who will be chief minister for a sixth term if the party returns to power. The Tamil Nadu line-up There's not much change in the Tamil Nadu star cast, although the combinations may vary. Two dominant parties AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa and DMK led by Karunanidhi and son Stalin, and the rest of them. Peoples Welfare Front (PWF) is a newbie formed by Left parties, GK Vasan has broken off from the Congress and formed his Tamil Maanila Congress, DMDK is led by Vijayakanth, a former film star, most recently in the news for spitting at journalists. Vijayakanth's cadre is mounting the pressure on him to tie up with DMK. PMK, led by Ramadoss, has found a new anti-Jaya fix: How much does the TN govt spend on broadcasting her radio messages to the public? The Congress has done a BJP on Jaya, whipping out a 'corruption booklet' with a list of alleged scams by the Jaya government. The BJP brought out a similar booklet against the Congress on the National Herald case. In one massive blow, Jaya knocked out the Opposition in the most recent Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The Jaya led AIADMK won 203 of 234 seats contested in the last assembly elections in 2011. The partys vote share jumped from 39.91 per cent it polled in 2006 to 51.8 percent. The DMK front saw a five percentage point swing away from it. From 44.75 percent in 2006, its vote share dipped to 39.44 percent. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Jaya wiped out the Opposition with AIADMK winning 37 of 39 seats. Yes, Tamil Nadu votes differently in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, but if you choose to keep it simple, a top Jaya government official says it best: AIADMK will always have that 33-35 percent, DMK will take 20 percent, Congress, DMDK and PMK another 25 percent all put together. As long as Jayalalithaa stays open to allies and the more ways the Opposition vote gets split, Jaya gains. Jaya DA case comes up in SC on 2 Feb For Jayalalithaa, the court rounds are not over yet. The Supreme Court decided to commence final hearing from February 2 on various appeals including the one filed by Karnataka against acquittal of AIADMK Chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and others in the disproportionate assets case. "We will start the hearing from February 2 and will hear the matter on 3 and 4 February as well," a bench comprising justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy said. The bench, meanwhile, asked the counsel for both the parties to file the "issues" highlighting main points to be considered within the next two weeks. Earlier the apex court had agreed to conduct day-to-day hearing on the appeals filed against the Karnataka High Court verdict acquitting Jayalalithaa and three others in the case. On 27 July, the apex court had issued notices on Karnataka government's appeal seeking stay of the high court judgement, to Jayalalithaa, her close aide Sasikala and two of her relatives, VN Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, and asked them to file their replies within eight weeks. The apex court had allowed an intervention application by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in the matter and had asked him to file issues he wished to press before it. The Karnataka HC had on May 11, 2015 ruled that AIADMK supremo's conviction by special court suffered from infirmity and was not sustainable in law, clearing decks for her return as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. Karnataka government, in its plea against the 11 May order, claimed that HC erred in computing disproportionate assets of the AIADMK leader. The Karnataka government also asked whether the high court had "erred in law" by according benefit of doubt to Jayalalithaa in pursuance of a Supreme Court judgement holding that accused can be acquitted if his or her disproportionate assets were to the extent of ten per cent. The state government had also claimed that the high court has erred in overruling preliminary objections raised by it and added that the accused had filed their appeals against conviction without impleading Karnataka as a party. The special court had in 2014 held Jayalalithaa guilty of corruption and sentenced her to four years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore. With Agencies It could well be completely coincidental, but the chain of events leading to the arrest on Saturday night of Sambia Sohrab, the prime accused in the Kolkata hit-and-run case in which an Air Force official was killed, is curious. For almost four days since a speeding Audi Q7 mowed down IAF Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during a Republic Day parade rehearsal in the early hours on Wednesday, Kolkata Police drew a blank. It hadn't exactly been sitting idle, not after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee perhaps mindful of the approaching Assembly elections called for stern action despite the accused being the son of a local TMC leader, but till Friday night police had little else to show except the formation of a 22-member SIT and a lookout notice against the absconding trio of Sambia, brother Ambia and their father, former RJD MLA Mohammad Sohrab. Fruit trader Sohrab, whose 'net worth' was believed to be worth 'Rs 500 crore', was an RJD MLA of Kolkata's Burrabazar area but was inducted into Trinamool by Mukul Roy, the then all-India general secretary, in December 2013. The delay in arrests created considerable consternation among the military and senior officers had expressed dismay at the slow pace of probe even in an era of huge technological advancements. Amid conflicting reports from within Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, on who was driving the car during the time of the incident, opposition parties started cranking up the pressure. On Saturday, a 300-strong contingent of the BJP's women and youth wings marched to Lalbazar, demanding immediate arrest of the culprits behind the hit-and-run case. They were led by Roopa Ganguly, the BJP women's wing chief, who accused the ruling party of "shielding the absconder". "The people behind the accident are yet to be arrested. From the Park street rape to the Red Road incident, we've seen the ruling party give protection to the perpetrators. There's a complete breakdown of law and order," said Roopa, indicating that Sohrab's connection with TMC is linked with the delay in arrest, according to a report in The Telegraph, Calcutta. Within 30 minutes of that march, the Trinmool Congress formally announced that the party had "no links with Mohammad Sohrab". "The owner of the car, reported to be driving it at the time of the incident, has no connection with Trinamool Congress. His father is a minor political activist, elected to the state Assembly with the support of the Left Front in 2006," spokesperson Derek O'Brien clarified in a statement. Once again, within a few hours of the denial, two developments took place in quick succession. One, after speaking in many voices and putting forward a-theory-a-day on who was in the killer SUV and whether or not he had co-passengers, the police dramatically made up its mind and finally named Sambia as the one at the wheel of the rampaging Audi. Two, on Saturday night itself, the 24-year-old Sambia was arrested from the city's Beckbagan area. According to the opposition though, the arrest is a mere "sham" and a desperate attempt by the police to save face after Sambia "surrendered at the advice of his lawyer". Its not an arrest, rather its surrender. The argument that has been advanced by the police administration is simply frivolous and childish. For the last four days, everybody knows that the person who had mowed down our soldier is the son of a TMC leader, who has got patronage of the ruling regime, Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury told ANI. Be that as it may, if there was any delay in arresting the accused, the police showed no such lethargy in producing Sambia in court on Sunday where his bail plea was rejected and he was remanded to police custody for 14 days. In an indication of how seriously they are viewing a case of hit and run, the police charged Sambia under penal code sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 212 (harbouring an offender) and 427 (mischief), seeking to dispel the notion that anybody was being willfully shielded. Police even sprung a surprise in the city court on Sunday, mentioning a second victim: a woman from the army's marching contingent whose arm the Audi had allegedly brushed during its wild run during the Republic Day parade rehearsal on 13 January. And in a recent, quick development, a Special Task Force on Sunday night arrested the accused Sambia's friend Shahnawaz Khan (Sanu) from Delhi. Though belated, the string of actions letting the law run its course, seem to be aimed at denying the opposition an obvious stick to beat the ruling party with just months ahead of the polls. The calculation was that Sohrab, who recorded substantial increase in influence and wealth and reportedly indulged both his sons' fast-car fetish, was not important enough for TMC to spend political capital on, especially in election season. TMC's claim about Sohrab "not having joined the party ever", though, came under fire from both the opposition and media with the local newspapers and channels flashing pictures of the fruit trader's pictures with TMC leaders during their victory march after the Kolkata Municipal Polls in May last year. "It is a matter of record that Mohammad Sohrab joined Trinamool Congress in 2013 with 500 people," CPIM leader Mohammad Salim told Firstpost. "It's no use trying to say 'he isn't one of us'. It won't cut muster," he said. The pyre on which the body of Ranbir Singh, the second maharaja of Jammu and Kashmirs Dogra dynasty, was not yet cold when Oliver St John, the British Rajs Officer on Special Duty, met the late maharajas eldest son, Pratap Singh. Finding the latter nervous and eager to please, Sir Oliver managed to appoint himself as the British Resident in Jammu and Kashmir in the process of communicating the Viceroys recognition of Pratap Singh as the new maharaja. Ranbir Singh had resolutely resisted the appointment of a Resident. But four years after his death, the Resident came to virtually rule the state through the new maharajas younger brother, Amar Singh. Under the cloud of a manufactured scandal, Pratap Singh was forced to appoint Amar Singh to head a Regency Council. The Resident routinely vetted whatever went to the Council for approval. For the next 16 years, Pratap Singh was maharaja only in name. If history is a good teacher, its lesson is that it is better for Mehbooba Mufti, the President of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to make sure she can form a stable, strong and cohesive government in Jammu and Kashmir rather than rush to form an uneasy, unstable one. A coalition that is uncomfortable within would alienate common people, weaken itself, and lose whatever political capital it might have had. That is what happened under the coalition government which her father, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, led during the first seven months after he took office in early February last year. It was only in the last two months in which he was chief minister that the coalition stabilized to the extent that Sayeed was able to show dynamism. It stabilized only because Sayeed made a lone, Herculean effort. Even at that stage, the Centre did not back him financially or politically. Prime Minister Narendra Modis dismissive remark during a public meeting in Srinagar right after Sayeeds speech that he did not need advice from anyone on Kashmir was as impolitic as it was impolite. It was just a tiny public glimpse of what Sayeed, who had been the countrys home minister when Modi was the BJPs national secretary (not yet general secretary) had had to endure. From the beginning, not only did the BJP appear to be against Mufti Sayeeds inclusive moves to reach out to the alienated people of the Valley. Activists of the BJP and its affiliates in the RSS made several moves to weaken the PDP over the states special status, and such contentious issues as the beef ban in the state. A controversy over the state flag cropped up even while Sayeed was on his deathbed. And in the last few days of his life, he repeatedly asked whether the Centre had released funds for post-floods rehabilitation. Each time, he was disappointed. Those funds were finally released a couple of days ago. Now, the PDP wants clarifications, time-frames and deadlines from the BJPs top leadership on the rest of the agenda for governance which was agreed between the two parties exactly a year ago. Agenda for alliance Of course, the BJP has held dearly to issues such as wanting to do away with a state flag. These are its basic political planks. However, to push these issues obliquely through activists after having agreed to maintain the status quo (in the coalitions mutually agreed agenda for alliance) was not just devious. It amounted to a proxy war on the state government, of which the BJP was a part. It harmed the cause of integration, which the BJP purports to uphold. The BJP not only weakened Sayeeds government, it polarized the state communally. Hubris has evidently blinded the BJPs leaders to real-politic and the mechanics of cobbling majorities in a splintered house. Last year, Sharad Pawars googly the public statement that his Nationalist Congress Party was willing to back the BJP foiled the Shiv Senas insistence that it should lead the Maharashtra state government. That success seems to have gone to the BJPs collective head. Numbers game By not reacting with any eagerness to become the chief minister, Mehbooba has given herself, her party, and the BJP a good chance to reassess strategies. A cold, sober look at the numbers in the assembly and sentiments on the ground would show that the cards are stacked in her favour. Two of the four largish parties in the assembly must form a coalition. The National Conference and the Congress have nowhere near the requisite numbers between them. The Congress and the BJP cannot get together for political and numerical reasons. Farooq Abdullah has announced that his party, the National Conference, could possibly join the BJP. The pair could just about manage the numbers, but it would be a daunting challenge politically. The BJP would find it extremely tough to convince its backers in the Jammu and Ladakh regions that its 25 MLAs should allow the NC, with 15 seats, to lead the government. The NC would find it even tougher to live down allowing a BJP chief minister to rule Kashmir. Then, there would be the little problem of a missing elephant in the room: no chief ministerial talent is apparent in either party. On the other hand, now that Mehbooba Mufti has demonstrated that she has none of the uncertainty and eagerness that so hobbled the reigns of not only Pratap Singh but also several of the states recent chief ministers, her position has strengthened considerably. She can choose from several options. One, her party could accept the already proffered support of the Congress plus four individual MLAs (who would be quite easily available). Two, she could wait out an extended period of Governors Rule, during which her party would gain points for standing on principle and resisting the lure of power. Three, she could allow a coalition of the BJP and the NC, which would be unstable and would surely weaken both parties. At the age of 56, she can easily afford to wait till the next elections. Finally, of course, she has the option to return to a coalition with the BJP. It is her most likely choice, though it might take another couple of weeks before she finally takes office. Meanwhile, the states administration is in the very capable hands of Governor NN Vohra. Baghdad, Iraq: US and Iraqi authorities were searching on Monday for three Americans who were kidnapped in Baghdad, the latest group of foreign nationals abducted in recent months. Kidnappers have recently seized Qataris and Turks, but it has been years since Americans were abducted, and Iraqis have suffered the most from kidnappers seeking ransoms or to settle scores. The Islamic State group, which overran large areas in 2014, has abducted thousands of people and carried out a slew of executions, while Shiite paramilitary forces opposed to the jihadists have also carried out kidnappings and killings. Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi condemned the rise in "cases of foreigners being kidnapped in Iraq," saying it would harm the country's relations with other states. "The kidnapping of the American citizens yesterday, and before them the Qatari hunters, whose fate is still unknown, without a doubt indicates the increasing work of organised gangs in Iraq," Juburi said in a statement. US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the day before that: "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq." "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," Kirby added, without providing details about their number or the circumstances of their disappearance. An Iraqi police colonel said on condition of anonymity that three Americans and an Iraqi translator were kidnapped in southern Baghdad. The colonel said on Monday that the search was at this point mainly an intelligence effort. The officer earlier said that according to information he had received, the kidnappers were militiamen wearing military uniforms. "We don't know what their work is," the colonel said of the kidnapped Americans. Iraq turned to paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran large parts of the country in 2014. Qataris and Turks kidnapped These groups, which fall under an umbrella organisation known as the Hashed al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation units, have played a key role in the fight against the jihadists. But they have also been accused of abuses including summary executions, kidnappings and destruction of property. The US is leading a coalition of countries that have bombed thousands of IS targets in Iraq and Syria and which are providing training to Baghdad's forces. Washington has also dispatched special forces to Iraq to carry out raids against the jihadists. Both American forces and Shiite paramilitaries are battling IS, but relations between the two sides have been tense, especially due to fighting between them in the years after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. IS also has ample motive to target Americans, but while it is able to carry out bombings in Baghdad, it does not have a major presence in the city. Dozens of foreign nationals have been kidnapped in two incidents during the past five months, but kidnappers also frequently target Iraqis. Last month, gunmen kidnapped more than two dozen Qataris who had come to southern Iraq to hunt. Their whereabouts are still unknown, as are the identities of their kidnappers. But Shiite militia groups have a major presence in southern Iraq, while IS does not. The kidnapping of the Qataris came a little over three months after gunmen seized 18 Turks in Baghdad. They were later released unharmed. The kidnapping of the Turks was claimed by an organisation that presented itself as a Shiite group called "Furaq al-Mawt", or "Death Squads", in a video claiming the abductions. Iraqi security forces clashed with fighters from the powerful Ketaeb Hezbollah militia during the search for the kidnapped Turks. It has been years since an American was kidnapped in Iraq. Issa T. Salomi, an American of Iraqi origins, went missing in Baghdad in January 2010 and was later freed by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a powerful Shiite group that is now one of the leading forces in the Hashed al-Shaabi. AFP Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh has seized 2.8 million methamphetamine tablets worth an estimated $10.5 million in the country's biggest ever seizure of the drug, as it struggles to stem its surging popularity, officers said Monday. Police confiscated the drugs in night-long raids on Sunday at a railway station in Dhaka and at an anchorage in the port city of Chittagong, elite Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Major Rumman Mahmud said. "This is the biggest seizure of yaba tablets in Bangladesh. We've arrested three traffickers including a ring leader in connection with the seizure," Mahmud told AFP of their investigation, adding that the drugs were made in neighbouring Myanmar. Yaba, a Thai word for "crazy medicine", is made of methamphetamine and caffeine and has become a popular drug among young people in the nation of 160 million. Police in the southern town of Teknaf, which borders Myanmar, and the Bangladesh Navy have in recent months seized hundreds of thousands of the stimulant from traffickers attempting the journey by land and sea. "The Myanmar-Teknaf border was the main trafficking route when the drug cartel introduced yaba in Bangladesh. But now they are mostly using sea routes after many of their consignments were seized on land," Teknaf police chief Ataur Rahman Khan said. "It seems Bangladesh has become a big target of the international drug cartels," Khan told AFP. The seizure comes just months after Chittagong customs officials seized a shipment of cocaine mixed in sunflower oil weighing more than 60 kilogrammes (132 pounds) and worth $14 million. A Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) official said Bangladesh was struggling to shut down trafficking from Myanmar, in part because of a river running along their long border which is difficult to patrol. "Yaba pills can be produced in small bathroom-sized labs. We shared our intelligence with Myanmar about the location of some labs. But they didn't take necessary steps," he also told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. AFP New York: The Horn of Africa nation Eritrea leads the world in imposing censorship on the media, followed closely by North Korea, Syria and Iran, a journalism group said Wednesday. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a report that 10 countries stand out as censors by barring international media, putting "dictatorial controls" on domestic media and imposing other restrictions. Rounding out the 10 worst censors are Equatorial Guinea, Uzbekistan, Burma which also is known as Myanmar, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and Belarus. The report by the committee, a nonprofit organisation based in New York, was released to mark World Press Freedom Day on Thursday. Many of the countries on this year's list also were on the committee's last list, published in 2006. "In the name of stability or development, these regimes suppress independent reporting, amplify propaganda and use technology to control rather than empower their own citizens," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement accompanying the report. "Journalists are seen as a threat and often pay a high price for their reporting," he said. "But because the internet and trade have made information global, domestic censorship affects people everywhere." In making its list, CPJ said its staff evaluated the countries on 15 benchmarks. They include blocking of websites, restrictions on electronic recording, absence of privately owned or independent media, and restrictions on journalists' movements. The report said of Eritrea, which is run with an iron hand by President Isaias Afewerki, that "no foreign reporters are granted access ... and all domestic media are controlled by the government." It said that North Korea, Syria and Iran were 'three nations where vast restrictions on information have enormous implications for geopolitical and nuclear stability." North Korea has tested nuclear weapons, Iran is believed to be working to develop them and Syria reportedly has had nuclear ambitions. North Korea, which topped the 2006 list, "remains an extraordinarily secretive place," the report said. It noted, though, that there have been "some tiny cracks" in its censorship, including the opening of an Associated Press bureau in the capital this year. It said censorship "has intensified significantly in Syria and Iran in response to political unrest." Syria has banned foreign reporters from the country and limited local reporters from moving freely as it uses its military and police to put down a civilian uprising. Iran, meanwhile, has blocked websites and imprisoned journalists to limit publication and broadcast of information, the report said. The report gave these reasons for including the other nations: Equatorial Guinea, where all media are directly or indirectly controlled by the president. Uzbekistan, where "there is no independent press and journalists contributing to foreign outlets are subject to harassment and prosecution." Burma, where reforms "have not extended" to rigid censorship laws. Saudi Arabia, which "has tightened restrictions in response to political unrest." Cuba, where the Communist party controls all domestic media. Belarus, where recent crackdowns have sent "remnants of independent media underground." In 2006, the top-10 censored countries were North Korea, Burma, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Eritrea, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Syria, and Belarus. The Democratic primary field returned to the debate stage on Sunday night for the last matchup before the first round of voting next month, amid tightening poll numbers and an increasingly raucous race. With Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders gaining on longtime front-runner Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, the debate quickly departed from the relatively civil exchanges that defined the last three face-offs. Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, who lags badly in polls, is also participating. As the race has tightened, Clinton has been on the attack. The former secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York has hammered Sanders for past votes to support immunity from lawsuits for gun manufacturers and criticized his call for a national single-payer healthcare system. She had demanded details on how he would pay for it. Sanders fired back with an ad criticizing Democrats who take money from Wall Street, an obvious dig at Clinton, and touted his plan to break up the big banks. An angry Clinton campaign quickly accused Sanders of breaking his pledge not to air negative ads against her. On Sunday night, Clinton rapped Sanders for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman and child as a right." Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. Clinton suggested Sanders' approach was dangerous and pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. "With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back," Clinton said. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger hard-won victories, insisting: "No one is tearing this up; we're going to go forward." Clinton suggested Sanders' health care plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class, saying "I want to raise incomes, not taxes." Sanders insisted taxpayers would come out ahead with lower costs overall. "It's a pretty good deal," he said. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted. "I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs," Sanders said, adding, "I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street." Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she declared. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Clinton worked aggressively to associate herself with Obama, claiming credit for her role in the run-up to the Iran nuclear deal as well as praising the health care law. Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase "in all due respect." Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival. Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton "in all due respect, you're missing the main point." Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, cast Sanders' criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, "I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street" and getting results. "The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people," Clinton said. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. "My relationship with him it's interesting," Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. "It's one, I think, of respect." But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who "will take as much as he possibly can." Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? "It'll start at the kitchen table we'll see where it goes from there," she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He called the former president's behavior "deplorable" but said he wants to focus on issues "not Bill Clinton's personal life." Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said the focus should be on issues. The debate over gun control an ongoing area of conflict between Clinton and Sanders took on special import given the setting: The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. O'Malley tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation. He focused on his record as Maryland's governor and accused both Clinton and Sanders of being inconsistent on gun control The debate perhaps offered OMalley his last chance to improve his standing in the race. He's been stuck in single digits since announcing his campaign last spring. O'Malley said investing in cities will be a top priority in his first days in office. The former Maryland governor said that he would focus on efforts to boost wages, promote clean energy and enhance cities. The former mayor of Baltimore said, "We have not had a new agenda for America's cities since Jimmy Carter." O'Malley defended his record in Baltimore and Maryland on criminal justice. Asked about his crime policies in light of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore police custody, O'Malley said Sunday night that "we weren't able to make our city immune from setbacks" but, "we were able to save a lot of lives." Wire services London: Muslim women who fail to learn English to a high enough standard could face deportation from Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Monday. He also suggested that poor English skills can leave people "more susceptible" to the messages of groups like Islamic State (IS). Cameron's comments came as his centre-right Conservatives launched a 20 million ($28.5 million, 26 million euro) language fund for women in isolated communities as part of a drive to build community integration. Immigration rules already force spouses to speak English before they come to Britain to live with their partners. But Cameron said they would also face further tests after two and a half years in the country to make sure their language skills were improving. "You can't guarantee you will be able to stay if you are not improving your language," he told BBC radio. "People coming to our country, they have responsibilities too." Cameron's government estimates that around 190,000 Muslim women in England -- about 22 percent of the total -- speak little or no English. There are estimated to be around 2.7 million Muslims in England out of a total population of some 53 million. 'Disgraceful stereotyping' Cameron said that a lack of language skills could make Muslims in Britain more vulnerable to the message of extremist groups. "I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not," he told BBC radio. "But if you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message." His comments drew criticism from Muslim groups and opposition parties. Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, which campaigns for better community relations, accused Cameron of "disgraceful stereotyping". "David Cameron and his Conservative government are once again using British Muslims as a political football to score cheap points, to appear tough," he added. Andy Burnham, home affairs spokesman for the main opposition Labour party, accused Cameron of a "clumsy and simplistic approach" which was "unfairly stigmatising a whole community." Ex-Conservative Party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi said her former boss's idea was "lazy and misguided" and a "stereotyping of British Muslim communities" "My parents came to this country with very little English -- my mum's English still isn't great, even though she has been to English language classes," she told BBC Radio 4's World at One. "I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatise communities." Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, backed Cameron's call, but questioned his tactics. "The prime minister's aim to have English more widely spoken and for better integration falls at the first hurdle if he is to link it to security and single out Muslim women to illustrate his point," he said. AFP Islamabad: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday embarked a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between them. People in Pakistan and abroad await the outcome of the initiative taken by Nawaz Sharif to bring the two rivals to the negotiating table, Dawn online reported. Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran on 18-19 January to exchange views on regional and international issues, a foreign office statement said on Sunday. The statement did not mention if Nawaz Sharif would fly directly from Riyadh to Tehran or make separate visits to the two countries. With Raheel Sharif in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The foreign office in its statement said Pakistan was deeply concerned at the recent escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity particularly during these challenging times," the statement said. Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the statement said. The execution earlier this month of a Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after its embassy in Iran was set ablaze by protesters. IANS Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Maulana Masood Azhar has reportedly neither been arrested not placed under house arrest by Pakistan. Even worse for India is this nugget: the three lower ranking JeM members who have been arrested in Pakistan have not been detained in connection with the Pathankot attack, reports The Indian Express. The newspaper reports that "no FIR had yet been lodged against Azhar." There have been media reports from Pakistan claiming a crackdown is under way against Jaish-e-Mohammed and its members. However, as yet, there is no authentic and credible proof to suggest that such action has actually been taken by Pakistan. Till now, no FIR has been registered against Azhar for Pathankot attack, a government official told The Indian Express. The chatter that is surfacing now is that though Pakistan claims it has detained a bunch of JeM people, it has not said under what law or sections they were detained. All India is hanging on to is a Pakistan PMO statement from 13 January which says considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements reportedly linked to the Pathankot incident. Based on initial investigations in Pakistan and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed have been apprehended. The offices of the organisation are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are under way. JeM taunts India, Pakistan Reports of Masood Azhar 'not arrested, not under house arrest' blend with the JeM's online propaganda last week when the notionally banned Pakistan-based jihadist group countered claims that its leader Maulana Masood Azhar has been arrested for his alleged role in the terror strike on the India's Pathankot airbase in the early hours of 1 January 2016. Azhar, chief of JeM, was reportedly in constant touch with the six terrorists who stormed an Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on 1 January and killed seven Indian soldiers. India and Pakistan have agreed to reschedule talks between their foreign secretaries, the Indian foreign ministry said on Thursday, while an investigation into the Pathankot Attack is carried out. Pakistani media has reported that JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, his brother and several individuals belonging to his dreaded outfit have been arrested in connection with the Pathankot terror attack. Pakistan media said JeM offices were sealed after India demanded action on the group linking it to the fate of Foreign Secretary-level talks. Some semblance of officialese on the arrest surfaced early on Thursday, with Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, minister of frontier regions, confirming the kingpin's arrest. "Azhar was taken in protective custody to probe the Pathankot attack," Geo TV quoted Baloch as saying but almost simultaneously, other top officials in Pakistan's foreign ministry continued to deny knowledge of any such arrest, feeding into JeM's online barbs. Disbelievers and hypocrites across the world are celebrating our arrest, a statement in Urdu said, but the arrest never happened, reports The Indian Express. In its online rant, JeM makes its displeasure of the Indo-Pak thaw very clear, calling out Pakistan's government for its "friendship" with Modi, Advani and Vajpayee. Even if they happen, what difference will it make? No difference, except one. Allah willing, there will be more enthusiasm and excitement among people of the faith, and the work of jihad will gather more strength and energy, the statement, posted Thursday on a Facebook page, said. The Indian Express reports that Jaish-e-Mohammed uses this online community to communicate with media and followers. Azhar warns Pakistan govt Even as news of his "arrest" broke on local television channels Wednesday night, JeM chief Azhar wrote a piece under his pen name Saadi, warning the Pakistan government about the "dangerous road" it is taking. "The road that the Pakistan government is taking in its crackdown against the JeM is very dangerous for this country and its steps against mosques, madrasas and jihad are a danger to the unity and integrity of Pakistan," Azhar wrote in the Jaish mouthpiece Al Qalam. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif set up a committee of his top intelligence, army and government officers to investigate India's allegations after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him last week, asking for prompt and decisive action on the basis of specific evidence. "Based on the initial investigations in Pakistan, and the information provided, several individuals belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed, have been apprehended. The offices of the organization are also being traced and sealed. Further investigations are underway," a statement from Sharif's office said. India, Pakistan reschedule talks, no date yet India and Pakistan have agreed to reschedule talks between their foreign secretaries, the Indian foreign ministry said on Thursday, while an investigation into a deadly attack on a military base in Pathankot is carried out. India has demanded action against the Pakistan-based JeM that it suspects of carrying out the attack on the Pathankot air base. Islamabad has held Azhar and other members, sources say. Indian foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said New Delhi welcomed the steps taken by Pakistan against the militant group, which was also blamed for a 2001 parliament attack that nearly led to a war between the nuclear-armed rivals. He said the foreign secretaries of the neighbours spoke on the telephone and decided to defer the talks that had been tentatively scheduled for Friday in Islamabad. The two diplomats agreed to hold the talks aimed at achieving a thaw in ties in the very near future but no date was announced. The Pakistani foreign office said a new date had not yet been decided. "We welcome the statement issued by the government of Pakistan yesterday on the investigations into the Pathankot terrorist attack," Swarup told reporters. "The statement conveys that considerable progress has been made in the investigations being carried out against terrorist elements linked to the Pathankot incident." Seven Indian military personnel were killed in the Jan. 2 attack on the base in the northern state of Punjab, which was followed by a raid on an Indian consulate in Afghanistan that has also been linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad, or the Army of Mohammad. Pakistan, which India has long accused of backing Islamist militants, promised to investigate who was behind the assault on the air base after India handed over evidence that it said implicated Jaish-e-Mohammad. Who is Maulana Masood Azhar? Maulana Masood Azhar was the general secretary of another terror group Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA) in 1994 and was on a 'mission' in Jammu and Kashmir when he was arrested on 11 February the same year. When he was released, the HuA had been included in the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations which had compelled the outfit to rename itself as the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). The Indian Express explains the re-emergence of JeM after years of staying low key. However, Masood Azhar decided to float the new outfit JeM rather than rejoin his old outfit. He was also reported to have received assistance in setting up the JeM from Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the then Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and several Sunni sectarian outfits of Pakistan. JeM, like other terrorist outfits in J&K, claims to using violence to force a withdrawal of Indian security forces from the state. The outfit claims that each of its offices in Pakistan would serve as schools of jihad. In its fight against India, he boasted that the outfit would not only "liberate" Kashmir, but also would take control of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, Amritsar and Delhi. Masood Azhar, the amir (chief) of the outfit was arrested by Pakistani security forces on December 29, 2001, after pressure from India and other foreign countries following the December 13, 2001 attack on Indias Parliament. However, a three-member Review Board of Lahore High Court ordered on December 14, 2002, that Azhar be released. With Agencies With a set of international nuclear sanctions on Iran being lifted, India will be able to resume its unrestricted import of oil from the Persian Gulf nation. State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in New Delhi told IANS that the possibility of freely importing oil from Iran, to be paid for now in US dollars, comes at a time when global prices are expected to plunge further with Iranian oil adding to the supply glut. Iran is expected to increase its export of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day by 500,000 soon, followed by a further 500,000 bpd thereafter. The lifting of sanctions came after US Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement confirming the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran "has fully implemented its required commitments". Meanwhile, on Sunday itself, the United States on Sunday imposed a different set of sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile testing even as President Barack Obama hailed the release of five Americans from Tehran's custody and the implementation of a nuclear deal he hopes will stand among his lasting foreign policy achievements. Obama pledged to counter vigorously Iran's "destabilizing behavior" across the Mideast even while the US engages with the Islamic Republic. After the Americans had been freed, Obama announced economic sanctions against 11 individuals and entities as a result of a ballistic missile launch in October. "We're not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners," Obama said. Meanwhile, on Sunday itself, with a different set of international nuclear sanctions on Iran being lifted, India will be able to resume its unrestricted import of oil from the Persian Gulf nation. On the other hand, with the new sanctions announcement, Obama also sought to counter criticism from Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates that his actions had appeased a nation that has aided the spread of Islamic extremism. "It reflects a pattern we've seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists and making deals and trades that endanger US safety and security," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading Republican presidential contender, said on Fox News Sunday. "Our enemies now know that if you can capture an American, you can get something meaningful in exchange for it," another Republican candidate, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said on NBC's Meet the Press. But Obama said he decided "that a strong confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government." Democratic lawmakers who supported the agreement applauded the sanctions announced Sunday. Five Democratic senators said in a joint letter to Obama that failure to impose the restrictions could encourage Tehran to violate international obligations with impunity. The Obama administration worked for nearly 14 months behind the scenes to negotiate the prisoner trade. Iran also agreed to work to locate American Robert Levinson, who vanished during a trip to Iran in 2007. In a reciprocal move, Obama said that six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the U.S. were being granted clemency. He emphasized that they were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses. "They're civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play," Obama said. Obama said the US and Iran had also resolved a longstanding dispute over money Iran used to buy military equipment from the U.S. before the two countries broke ties. Iran will get more than $400 million, plus $1.3 billion in interest. The White House said its lawyers assessed that the U.S. could have faced a "significantly higher judgment" if the case continued. "There was no benefit to the US is dragging this out," Obama said. Obama used his Sunday morning statement from the White House to speak directly to the Iranian people: "We have a rare chance to pursue a new path a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world." Obama said Iran has a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world in commerce, science and the arts, but "your government's threats and actions to destabilize your region have isolated Iran from much of the world." The Obama administration said it was prepared to test whether additional cooperation with Iran was possible, most notably in resolving the civil war in Syria. White House officials said during a briefing held after the president's address that Iran could play a significant role in resolving the Syrian civil war, but profound differences exist. They said Iran needs to understand the fighting won't be resolved as long as Syrian President Bashar Assad remains in power. The officials said they know Iran is not going to dramatically change its actions in the next year or two. "If Iran does act in a more constructive fashion, it would be a positive development in resolving difficult issues," the White House officials said. "If they don't, we will continue to enforce our sanctions and continue to have very strong differences." With inputs from agencies Baghdad: The Iraqi security forces killed 35 Islamic State (IS) terrorists on Sunday in clashes in the provinces of Anbar and Salahudin. In Anbar province, the security forces and allied Sunni tribal fighters fought fierce battles with IS terrorists and managed to extend their grip in Sajjariyah and Juwiba districts in the eastern part of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad. The battle, which were covered by Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft, left at least 25 terrorists killed and six of their vehicles destroyed, while four security members were also killed and some nine others wounded during the day, the source said. The security forces captured downtown Ramadi from the Islamic State on 28 December, raising the Iraqi flag on the government complex there, but small parts of the city has not yet been fully secured due to a large numbers of bombs planted by the IS. For months the troops have been fighting to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS terrorists who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. IANS Federal prosecutors are seeking a 21-month prison term for a reputed mobster who pleaded guilty in a case alleging that he and his co-defendants sold a potent form of marijuana known as Skywalker in Massachusetts, court records show.The government filed its sentencing request on Wednesday in US District Court in Boston for Louis J. DiNunzio, 29, of Medford. He pleaded guilty in September to a marijuana distribution conspiracy charge.DiNunzio, who prosecutors said belongs to La Cosa Nostra, is the son of Anthony DiNunzio and the nephew of Carmen The Cheese Man DiNunzio, who both allegedly led the New England Mafia before serving prison sentences.Carmine P. Lepore, a lawyer for Louis DiNunzio, declined to comment on Wednesday, except to say that he will ask for a substantially less severe punishment for his client.According to federal prosecutors, Louis DiNunzio and three other men conspired between July 2013 and February 2014 to import large amounts of high-grade marijuana from California to Massachusetts, where it was distributed.Among the shipments was a 23-pound haul of Skywalker, which probably generated a profit of about $20,000 for Louis DiNunzio and a co-defendant, prosecutors wrote in Wednesdays filing.The government also quoted an excerpt from an online forum, in which an enthusiastic user of Skywalker wrote that the drug induces a very energetic high, long lasting with some munchie stirring abilities.In addition, prosecutors said Louis DiNunzio has a prior conviction for running a casino-style gambling table at the Sons of Italy social club in Boston and also worked at his uncles cheese shop in the North End, which the FBI had bugged during its investigation of Carmen DiNunzio.Louis DiNunzio remains free pending sentencing, which is scheduled for Tuesday. He could not be reached for comment.Several people recently wrote letters to the sentencing judge in support of him, including his grandfather, Michael Uva, who described DiNunzio as a good person that made a mistake and wants a better future.DiNunzios mother, Diane Uva-DiNunzio, wrote that her son currently works full time in construction and spent three weeks in custody, mainly in solitary confinement, before he was freed on bail.That time, she said, was an eye-opening experience that was truly life changing for him. . . . I know Louis has learned his lesson.https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/01/13/prosecutors-seeking-month-prison-term-for-son-reputed-mafia-leader/jLi7KnmC2b8UItepShjGCO/story.html Tax dodging by the super-rich is one of the main drivers of global income inequality and must be sharply curtailed, according to a new report from the global nonprofit Oxfam. Citing research by Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman a protege of Thomas Piketty, author of the global bestseller on inequality, Capital Oxfam estimates that wealthy households around the world had as much as $7.6 trillion squirreled away in offshore accounts at the end of 2013. Another recent analysis by the groups Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund projected that the United States would be owed $620 billion in federal taxes if its largest 500 corporations did not engage in offshoring. Theres growing evidence that this is playing a significant factor in the accelerating wealth of the top one percent, said Oxfam U.S. policy director Gawain Kripke. The ability that they have to use maneuvers like parking their money in offshore jurisdictions is exacerbating the growing inequality around the world." Oxfams report, titled An Economy for the One Percent, does not attribute growing inequality solely to tax avoidance. Other drivers include political corruption and the widening compensation gap between employees and executives, according the report. But Oxfam gives tax avoidance the strongest emphasis, and its policy recommendations include a global approach to end the era of tax havens as a top priority. Tax avoidance is pernicious because it often deprives governments of the funds they need to provide basic services, said Kripke. Its starving key programs that help everybody, but especially poor people, get on their feet, said Kripke. This is true in both rich and poor countries, but you see it most acutely where poor countries have no health care system, where large numbers of students are either getting no education or a very poor quality education. Thats where it becomes a moral issue." Some nations have begun to take action. In October, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented a package of disclosure rules and regulations that states could use in their efforts to reduce corporate tax avoidance. It was the product of the BEPS (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Project, an effort between OECD and G20 member countries. The recommended BEPS action plan includes a call for international treaties to block tax avoidance and increased financial reporting standards for corporations. Edward Kleinbard, a law professor at the University of Southern California, said he thinks substantial progress has been made in the last few years. More sunlight will help even more, he said. Corporations "are very aggressive in their interpretation of law, and they negotiate sweetheart deals with countries, and transparency will help with all of that, Kleinbard said. Still, Oxfam believes that far more needs to be done. Kripke said the first order challenge of getting G20 and G7 states to prioritize tax avoidance had been met, but they still had to take substantive measures against it. The second order challenge is how to create black lists and pressure on tax havens to at least be more transparent, said Kripke. If not to shut it down, to make it more difficult or impossible to use strategies that many wealthy people and corporations are using to avoid taxes." Besides cracking down on tax avoidance, the Oxfam report urges more nations to institute living wage rules, promote equal pay for women, and increase spending on social services for the poor. The richest 62 people in the world hold as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the global population, according to the report. Florida's "netroots" and professional "media blogs" are digested in the two columns immediately below. The to the right summarizes hand picked articles, punditry and editorials about Florida politics. The far right column incorporates both permanent links and specialized news digests which are customized as necessary (now featuring news about Rubio's campaign, and the latest on Jeb). Tracy Morgan is set for a return to the small screen, with Deadline reporting that the comedian is set to star in a new pilot for FX Networks, which has been co-written by Jordan Peele (Key & Peele) and John Carcieri (Eastbound & Down). The pilot follows a career criminal (Morgan) who is released from prison after 15 long years, hoping to reintegrate into a society that long ago left him behind. Now a man whose only expertise is making grilled cheese with an iron must navigate a modern world of political correctness, the Internet, and self-driving cars. What an unbeatable combination Tracy Morgan and Jordan Peele two exceptional comics joining forces with a great team of writers and producers to create and produce this pilot for FX Networks, said FXs Nick Grad. Weve been committed to Tracy from the start and are thrilled that Jordan, John [and executive producers Eric Tannenbaum and Joel Zadak] are joining him in developing this new project. https://youtu.be/vDx6g5ua25E?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, killing at least 26 people and wounding about 15, security officials said on Monday. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shia rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Security forces swiftly sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The officials initially announced that 20 people were killed, but later said that six bodies were unearthed from under the debris. Police vehicles parked in the facility's courtyard were destroyed, and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. The targeted building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The airstrike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials, who had no further details. Reporters were barred from approaching the facility, they said, speaking Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognized government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed Sunday just outside Sanaa in an "apparent" airstrike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. The fighting in Yemen has since last March killed more than 5,800 people. The Associated Press The abduction of three Americans from a Baghdad apartment over the weekend is the latest in a series of brazen high-profile kidnappings undermining confidence in the Iraqi government's ability to control state-sanctioned Shia militias that have grown in strength as Iraqi security forces battle the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Witnesses said men in uniform carried out the kidnapping in broad daylight Saturday, 100 yards from a police station. "Gunmen in military uniforms came in five or six SUVs, they entered the building and then left almost immediately," said Mohammad Jabar, 35, who runs a shop down the street from the three-story apartment building where the Americans had been invited by their Iraqi interpreter. "A few hours later, we heard that three foreigners had been kidnapped by these gunmen." The three were abducted in Dora, a mixed neighborhood that is home to Shias and Sunnis. They were then taken to Sadr City, a vast and densely populated Shia district to the east, and there "all communication ceased," an Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. A similar scene unfolded in September, when masked men in military uniforms abducted 18 Turkish workers from a construction site in a Shia neighborhood. A hostage video later showed the men standing before a banner that read "Death squads" and "Oh, Hussein," a Shia religious slogan. The workers were released later that month. In December, gunmen driving SUVs raided a remote camp for falconry hunting in Iraq's overwhelmingly Shia south, kidnapping 26 Qataris, who are still being held. Iraq's Interior Ministry said at the time that the abduction was "to achieve political and media goals," without providing further details. Baghdad authorities said in a statement that the three Americans were kidnapped from a "suspicious apartment" without elaborating and have provided no other details. The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that "several" Americans went missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. officials have declined to provide further details, and have neither identified the Americans nor said what they were doing in Iraq. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Besides Shia militias, the perpetrators of kidnappings in Iraq have included ISIL, as well as criminal gangs demanding ransom payments or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes. The kidnapping of the Americans comes at a time of deteriorating security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. Last week two Iraqi journalists were killed within sight of a police checkpoint in Diyala province north of Baghdad. The scale and sophistication of the recent kidnappings of foreigners suggest those responsible are operating with some degree of impunity, said Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of Inside Iraqi Politics, a political risk assessment newsletter. "You kidnap 26 Qataris out in the desert that's not like four or five yahoos out in the south ... That's a pretty well-run operation. It must be some relatively established group that did it," he said. The only groups operating in Iraq with those capabilities, Rabkin said, are the country's powerful Shia militias. Shia militias have played a key role in battling ISIL, filling a vacuum left by the collapse of the Iraqi security forces in the summer of 2014 and proving to be some of the most effective anti-ISIL forces on the ground in Iraq. The government-allied militias are now officially sanctioned and known as the Popular Mobilization Committees. But many trace their roots to the armed groups that battled U.S. troops after the 2003 invasion and kidnapped and killed Sunnis at the height of Iraq's sectarian bloodletting in 2006 and 2007. Rights groups have accused them of kidnapping and in some cases killing Sunni civilians since they rearmed in 2014, charges denied by militia leaders. Although the militias are fighting on the same side as the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL, many remain staunchly anti-American. When the Pentagon announced an increase in the number of U.S. special forces in Iraq last month, the spokesman for one militia vowed to attack them. "Any such American force will become a primary target for our group. We fought them before and we are ready to resume fighting," said Jafar Hussaini, a spokesman for the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, one of the most powerful Shia militias. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has struggled to balance the power and popularity of Shia militia groups with the government's dependence on the U.S.-led coalition's contributions to the fight against ISIL. Unchecked, continued brazen shows of Shia militia power in the Iraqi capital could further undermine the already weak leader. "I think there's a growing sense that al-Abadi's not in charge, that nobody in Iraq is really in charge anymore or in a position to rein in these militias," Rabkin said. The Associated Press "I want to again express on behalf of the University of Cincinnati community our deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss of the life of Samuel DuBose," University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono said in a statement. "This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities." DuBose, 43, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car on July 19 after Officer Ray Tensing stopped him near campus for missing a license plate, which is required by Ohio law. Tensing was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. Tensing said that after he stopped the car, Dubose refused to provide a driver's license and get out. A struggle ensued as DuBose tried to drive away, and Tensing said he fired because he feared being dragged under the car, said his attorney, Stewart Matthews. Matthews said a hearing to set a trial date has been scheduled for Feb. 11. He declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement other than to characterize it as "negative." He said the settlement will be an issue once it comes time to question potential jurors. "Their knowledge of the settlement is one aspect that could affect their ability to be fair and impartial," he said. Matthews had tried to get the case moved to another county, arguing that Tensing couldn't get a fair trial because of prejudicial comments made by several city officials and by Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters. Deters called the shooting "asinine" and said it was "without question a murder." The university settlement also provides for the DuBose family to participate in meetings with a Community Advisory Committee, which is soliciting community input on police reform and will review the results of an external audit of the university's police force. The shooting occurred during heightened scrutiny across the United States of police treatment of blacks, after a string of police-inflicted deaths from Ferguson, Missouri, to Chicago sparked sometimes-violent protests over the past year and a half. Dubose, who was unarmed, was black, and Tensing is white. "The example here demonstrates to communities hurting all over the country that positive results can be achieved through this type of cooperation," said attorney Billy Martin, who helped mediate the settlement. The Associated Press Vodafone is said to be in talks to acquire broadband service provider YOU Broadband, according to a latest report from the Economic Times. The deal is tipped to be priced at Rs 400 crore, said the report. Both the companies have been in talks for about three months with the deal expected to be sealed soon. TRG Capital-owned You Broadband has around 3,000 kilometers of optic fibre and 6,000 kilometers of last mile cables to homes across 12 cities including Mumbai. The move comes from Vodafone as it tries to expand its high-speed broadband footprint ahead of Reliance Jio Infocomms commercial launch and to take on rivals like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. Reliance Jio Infocomm launched 4G LTE services for its employees last month. This is not the first time Vodafone has urged acquisition talks in regards to a broadband service. Last month, it was reported that Vodafone is looking forward to buy 4G LTE spectrum from Mumbai based ISP provide Tikona Digital Networks, in a bid to expand its high-speed broadband network across the country. Vodafone is following Airtel and expanding its 4G operations in the country. The YOU Broadband acquisition is said to give Vodafone the necessary push to expand its 4G LTE coverage even further. Were slightly over a month away from the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 edge and the S7 edge+. The former two devices have apparently passed certification in Indonesia. The dual SIM variants of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge with model numbers SM-G930FD and SM-G935FD were the ones to get certified. With the launch of the dual SIM variant of the Note5 in India as well, it seems that Samsung is pushing hard to release dual SIM variants of their flagship devices as well. The Galaxy S6 did have a dualSIM variant in some regions as well but the S6 edge didnt have a dual SIM variant due to physical constraints so it is good to see the S7 edge also getting a dualSIM version. We arent sure whether the dual SIM capability means that they will come with a hybrid SIM slot that accepts microSD cards as well but if its like the Note5 then it wont have an option to add microSD cards. Sony was one of the first manufacturers to release Dual SIM flagship phones in India as they introduced only the dual SIM variants of the Z5 and Z5 Premium in India. Samsung might introduce both the single and dual SIM variant in India but at least there will be a choice that customers can make. Source | Via Almost as important as shelter itself is the mobile phone, which gives lost asylum seekers vital information on safe routes and emergency services. It also holds memories and contacts from home. Peter Nicholls / Reuters Up the main street of the Kara Tepe camp, families sit on blankets in front of donated emergency shelters. Many of them are looking at their phones, scanning maps, playing Candy Crush or listening to music, but most are on social media or a chat app, getting in touch with family and friends, or posting the ubiquitous selfie taken just after landing on Lesbos rocky coast. In one of the shelters sits Idris Tobal Hammu, a Kurd from Aleppo. About a dozen children play near him on the floor as he talks with his cousin about their next move. In the back of the shelter his wife combs their oldest daughters hair. Detailing the horrific battle for Aleppo, Hammu, 38, pulls out his light gold-colored iPhone 5 and shows me a picture of his familys olive grove covered in a light dusting of snow. He grows despondent and says it is the only picture he has left. What makes smartphones so important is that they combine pragmatic and emotional tools to help the roughly 1.03 million migrants and refugees that have arrived by land and sea to Europe in 2015 find stability in a confusing, new and potentially dangerous environment. The first time they tried to cross the narrow straight in the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece, their flimsy, overloaded inflatable boat capsized just after leaving shore. All of our phones and documents went into the water, says Hammu, 38. Because we lost our phones, we now have to ask other Syrians for their phones so that we can call home and tell our families that we are OK. Because his phone was tightly packed in plastic wrap to protect it from seawater, he was able to save his. I have my family, my friends everything is on my phone, he says. Dont get me wrong, I am happy to be here, but when I look at the photos on my phone, it makes me feel sad. He looks up and around the shelter at the handful of backpacks representing all of the worldly possessions of his family. Then he refocuses. Google is the most important, because we can find all the information we need to get to Europe, he says, but adds, but right now its not working because I dont have a SIM card. The pictures, songs, videos, books and the other bits and pieces of daily life stored on phones and in social media accounts connect people to a life they have had to flee, giving them comfort similar to what a shoebox of memories a refugee fleeing Europe during WWII would carry. Refugees are fleeing their homes and their native country. Its impossible for any of us to truly appreciate the stress that puts on someone, says Schott. Its a journey filled with uncertainty and stress. Having pictures and songs is a way to help bring back memories of better days, and being able to communicate with family members every so often, even if its a simple I made it to Lesbos and I am OK, takes some of the pressure off the families that are fleeing Syria, he says. If Osie Ibrahim, 19, had not had a phone and SIM card while trying to make the dangerous crossing from Turkey to Greece, she is sure she would have died. Before she crossed into Europe, she had to hide from the police for three days in the forests on Turkeys coast. She and the strangers she was traveling with waited for a boat and life jackets promised by smugglers, who regularly charge about $1,200 per person. But none came. They had no food, no water, no shelter and no blankets. Finally someone was able to send a text message out and get help. So, its really important to have a smartphone, she says in accented but good English that she says she learned from listening to American music. Now Ibrahim is sitting in a shelter at Kara Tepe listening to Rihannas Diamonds while she uses her Samsungs mirrored back to do her eyeliner. With nothing to do in the camp but wait for her number to come up for a spot on the next ferry to the mainland, she passes the time like countless other teenage girls around the world. I love Rihanna and Lady Gaga, she says. I love all Western pop, everyone but Justin Bieber. Her future is unclear. She wants to go to Holland and start a new life there, but she is traveling without family after escaping the war. Her path there will be difficult, dangerous and frightening, but her smartphone gives her some small comfort. Id be bored, worried and I wouldn't know what to do if I didnt have my phone, she says, finishing her eyes. When I check my phone and have messages I feel lie Im still with my family and friends. Its like my safety blanket. We know some visitors come to the website because a domain name leads them to here. If you are interested in buying Prosecutors in France began an expanded probe into the death of a man who died after participating in the first phase of clinical drug trial initiated by Biotrial for Bial pharmaceutical company. Five others who also participated in the said drug test facilitated in Rennes' private laboratory are in serious condition and three of whom are reportedly in brain dead condition. The Prosecutor's Office in Paris told reporters the investigation includes possible manslaughter charges. A neuroscientist connected to Rennes University Hospital as quoted by the news said the painkiller has no antidote. The Portuguese company, Bial, was conducting the efficiency of a painkiller in producing effects similar to cannabis by asking participants to take the drug orally. Reports say the drug experiment was supposedly to mimic how cannabis can ease anxiety issues, mood swings and pain and even address cognitive problems associated with neurodegenerative disorders. "I was overwhelmed by their distress," Marisol Touraine, Health Minister of France, was quoted by BBC News. "Their lives have been brutally turned upside down," she continued, intent in getting "to the bottom." The drug test that took off on January 7 had 90 qualified 28 to 49 years old participants who after taking toxicology tests, manifested "no moderate or serious reactions," news say. The participants were given different doses during varied times, it was reported. The victim, whose identity was not disclosed by Rennes University Hospital, was one of the six men who volunteered for oral drug experiment. After its botched experiment, the company is now recalling all 84 participants. Rennes Hospital said 10 of the 84 participants already had medical exams on Saturday and reported no anomalies and another five will have their medical exams near their homes. Bial has been conducting clinical trials since June last year and so far, 108 healthy individuals who participated in drug experiments manifested "no moderate or serious conditions" after toxicology tests. Automaker stocks had a tough time last week. But shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) were hit harder than most after a lawsuit by two U.S. dealers alleged that FCA has been falsifying its impressive U.S. sales reports. What's this about? Explosive allegations in a new federal lawsuit against FCA Here's what we know: The suit, filed in federal court on Jan. 12 by a pair of FCA dealerships owned by the privately held Napoleon Automotive Group, alleges (among other things) that FCA offered to pay dealers thousands of dollars to report unsold vehicles as sold. Specifically, according to the suit, FCA wanted dealers to report extra sales at the end of the month by listing vehicles still in inventory as having been sold. The dealers would then "back out" the sales, or cancel them, early the next month before the factory warranties on the vehicles were processed in FCA's systems. That's a big deal. If true (and that's a big "if," as we'll see), those maneuvers would have inflated FCA's monthly U.S. sales totals, showing more year-over-year sales growth than actually occurred. Again, if true, that puts a huge dent in the investment case for FCA. Investors have been drawn to FCA, despite its struggles in other arenas of its business, because it has shown consistently outstanding sales growth in the U.S. for several years now. That growth has given investors some reason to believe in CEO Sergio Marchionne's audacious plans for the company, in which he hopes to turn FCA's collection of regional brands into a strongly profitable global portfolio. A credible suggestion that FCA's growth was inflated puts that whole story at risk. That's why investors around the world reacted strongly to the news when it was first reported by trade publication Automotive News late in the evening on Jan. 13. As you can see, the stock dropped over 4% on Jan. 14, and another 2.5% or so the next day as investors continued to consider the news. But again, as of right now, all of these allegations are a big maybe. FCA denied the allegations -- strongly "The lawsuit makes allegations of false sales reporting by FCA US," the company said in a statement released late on Jan. 14. "Notwithstanding numerous requests to provide evidence of this alleged activity, the plaintiffs have refused to substantiate their claims. FCA US carried out an investigation of the facts, and has determined that these allegations are baseless and plaintiffs were notified of this fact before they filed suit. "This lawsuit is nothing more than the product of two disgruntled dealers who have failed to perform their obligations under the dealer agreements they signed with FCA US. They have consistently failed to perform since at least 2012, and have also used the threats of litigation over the last several months in a wrongful attempt to compel FCA US to reserve special treatment for them, including the allocation of additional open points in the US FCA network. "FCA US will continue to resist these pressures, safeguarding the relationship of trust and openness which governs its relationship with its dealers. FCA finds it unfortunate and disappointing that reputable media would be willing to be used in questionable litigation practices without a full understanding of the facts." OK then. So who do we believe here? There's smoke for sure, but it's too early to conclude that there's fire The answer is that we give FCA the benefit of the doubt until we know more. Right now, all we have is allegations. But we give that benefit of the doubt with some caution, because these allegations might have some truth to them. Dealers get in battles with automakers all the time. It's not at all unheard-of for these battles to end up in federal court, and it's not at all unusual for these battles to involve claims of misbehavior. Sometimes, those claims are, shall we say, rather epic. Mostly, investors don't care, because the claims aren't the kind that undermine investment cases. But this is different, because FCA has been on a big sales run in the U.S. -- despite mediocre reviews of its latest products and quality ratings that continue to be at the bottom of the industry barrel. Old Detroit rivals General Motors (GM -1.81%) and Ford (F 0.83%) have made huge strides in quality over the last several years, becoming strongly competitive with the Japanese brands that have long been the benchmarks. But FCA has continued to struggle. Those struggles (apparently) haven't hurt the company in the marketplace. December marked the 69th consecutive month of year-over-year sales gains for FCA in the United States. For all of their product and business improvements, neither GM nor Ford (nor those Japanese rivals) has managed a streak like that. It's remarkable. So remarkable, in fact, that some investors didn't find it all that hard to believe that FCA might have fudged the numbers. But did it? We don't know yet. This lawsuit was just filed. It'll be a while before we see any of the evidence. But I'll be watching it very closely. The United States Supreme Courts decision to review the constitutionality of the University of Texas at Austins affirmative action program has brought renewed debate about the practice. While social science largely supports the proposition that affirmative action is beneficial to African-American and Latino applicants, many Americans feel that policies to remedy racial inequality or to ensure diversity are unnecessary. In 2003, Justice Sandra Day OConnor famously put an expiration date on racism, expressing a hope that 25 years from then, affirmative action would no longer be necessary. What do Americans think? Affirmative action sharply divides Americans, largely along racial lines, even among millennials, the most racially diverse generational cohort. Even among young Democrats, white and nonwhite people have very different attitudes about the fairness and appropriateness of affirmative action policies. Using data from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, a large-scale national survey, we are able to examine preferences about affirmative action among young people, who are most affected by affirmative action in education. The survey asked respondents, Affirmative action programs give preference to racial minorities in employment and admissions in order to correct for past discrimination. Do you support or oppose affirmative action? They were able to choose four options: strongly oppose, somewhat oppose, somewhat support and strongly support. Across the full sample, affirmative action was quite unpopular, with 62 percent saying they either somewhat or strongly opposed it. Among young people (ages 17 to 34), opposition was somewhat less strong, with 54 percent opposed. Notably, while 17 percent of young people strongly support affirmative action (compared with 14 percent of the general population), 28 percent strongly oppose it (versus 37 percent of general population). However, given the stakes in the UT-Austin case, the differences among age groups are less interesting than the deep racial divide among millennials. A full 66 percent of white millennials said they oppose affirmative action, including 36 percent who strongly oppose, and only 9 percent said they strongly support it. Among millennials of color, the reverse was true, with 67 percent supporting affirmative action, 32 percent strongly. Among black millennials, support for affirmative action was overwhelming: 75 percent said they favor affirmative action, with 41 percent saying their support is strong. Among Latino and Asian millennials, support was more muted, with 64 percent of Latinos and 56 percent of Asians in support. Lots of people in Connecticut are pointing fingers. The state will soon be losing significant revenues, not to mention the prestige of being home to one of the worlds largest companies. Who stands to suffer the most? Last week GE announced it was moving its long-time headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut to Boston. The move of nearly 800 employees, when taking incentives into account, will not be a material cost to the company. And according to this report, the companys CEO says Boston and its surrounding communities are a good fit because the area is home to 55 colleges and universities and that Massachusetts spends more on research and development than any other region in the world." GE will release its earnings later this week. Lots of people in Connecticut are pointing fingers. The state will soon be losing significant revenues, not to mention the prestige of being home to one of the worlds largest companies. But the politicians wont be the ones to suffer the most. Theyll still get their paychecks and who knows maybe theyll even be re-elected because anything can happen in politics. So who will really suffer? It will be the small businesses in Fairfield and its surrounding communities. These will be the real estate brokers, pizza shop owners and mechanics. They will be the firms that provided landscaping, maintenance, cleaning, day care, delivery, transportation and other services to the corporate facilities. They will be the local stores and restaurants where GE employees shop and eat. They will be the charitable and community organizations that received local support from the company as well as participation on their boards from GE employees. Some believe that there are as many as 65,000 others employed by Connecticut businesses who will be affected. These will be the people and businesses that will suffer. And theyre suffering for three reasons. Theyre suffering because theyre stuck in a high tax state. And as long as the states taxes remain high, other large companies may also follow suit. Big companies have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to operate as profitably as possible and ensure that investors are receiving the highest returns possible. If taxes in another state (or country!) are more attractive and its possible to move there be it physical or through tax-inversion schemes like Tim Horton and Applied Materials have done profit-minded big company executives will do this. They are being irresponsible if they dont. Unfortunately, most small businesses dont have the ability or resources to move operations like big companies can. So theyre left in the wake of departing giants who provide them with so much of their livelihood. In short, high taxes drive away big companies and lower taxes attract them. And big companies benefit small businesses (more on this below). Theyre suffering because they miscalculated. Trust me - the owners of the maintenance firm, the cleaning service and the shipping business that relied on GE as their main source of revenue over the years have just had a very rough weekend and are going to have a very rough few years trying to replace their lost revenues. And you know what? Their suffering is their own fault. A big company like GE doesnt care about the long term success of these businesses, nor should they. And nothing is ever permanent in this life. The lesson here is to never rely on one customer as the main provider of your companys income. Too many small businesses do this I see it a lot. The smart business owners I know take great pains to diversify. Things change. Big companies move. Smart business owners are always prepared for when things change. Theyre suffering from the recent trend of demonizing big companies. For years weve watched corporate America fall under attack from the very highest levels of government. The 1% are evil. The rich are bad. The financial community are fat cats. Small businesses in Fairfield and its surrounding communities are soon to be suffering because one of the biggest of the big are moving their headquarters. We love to point fingers and place blame but the bottom line is that big companies are made up of people. And those people spend lots of money on services and products provided by smaller firms (like mine). Even after you leave the corporate park, consider all of contractors, restauranteurs, shopkeepers and other service providers in the area that benefit from the incomes generated by GE. If you treat these companies poorly, make them feel unwanted, tax them too much then they will ultimately find a place where the business environment is better. To them its just a financial blip. But not to the smaller businesses that they leave. Boston is a big city and of course welcomes the arrival of GE. But the companys move there wont have a significant impact on the citys small businesses. Unfortunately, the Fairfield businesses left behind will certainly be suffering. UPDATED The pressure on oil prices escalated on Wednesday amid persistently large stockpiles, while Middle East tensions are lowering the odds that OPEC will take action. U.S. crude tumbled 5.6% to $33.97, the lowest settlement price in seven years. Brent crude, the international benchmark, slipped below $35 a barrel for the first time since 2004. Concerns over a global oversupply have sent oil prices reeling for more than a year. West Texas Intermediate crude oil averaged $49 a barrel in 2015, a 53% decline compared to 2014. DTN senior analyst Darin Newsom noted that oil demand in China is expected to grow at a slower clip than previously thought, reflecting similar trends in other regions. At the same time, drilling activity is still going strong. Supply is growing faster than demand, Newsom said. The nations crude stockpile shrunk 5.1 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 1, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, compared to the consensus projection for an increase of 439,000 barrels. However, the surprise drawdown was more than offset by swelling gasoline and distillate inventories. Gasoline inventories grew by 10.6 million barrels last week, well ahead of expectations for a smaller build of 1.8 million barrels. Oil remains 100 million barrels above year-ago levels, and U.S. supplies of crude oil and refined products like gasoline have reached an all-time high. Meanwhile, traders have kept an eye on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), weighing the chances that the oil cartel will change course and slow its crude output. OPEC, which has closed the spigots to lift oil prices in the past, has thus far maintained its rate of production. The strategy led by Saudi Arabia is seen as an effort by OPEC to hold onto its market share. The chances that OPEC members come to an agreement on lowering production appear unlikely now that Saudi Arabia and Iran have gone toe-to-toe. Tensions between the countries heated up after Saudi Arabia executed a Shiite cleric, and other Middle Eastern nations have joined the fray. Newsom believes that OPEC, as a group, has less influence on the oil market. Rather, there is increasing chatter that individual member nations will bump up production, hoping to build more volume to account for weak prices. I dont think it matters what OPEC says because nobody is listening. A number of OPEC countries are struggling with low prices, so they are going to lift production anyway, Newsom said. Its less about what OPEC says than what countries actually do. The sanctions relief process of the Iran nuclear agreement began Saturday with the marking of Implementation Day. Among the developments was the U.S. authorization for foreign units of American companies to strike business deals with Iran. Under the terms of the agreement, the United Nations lifted its sanctions on Iran, and the European Union and the U.S. lifted their nuclear-related measures. President Barack Obama immediately issued an executive order revoking earlier orders that imposed nuclear sanctions on Iran, and the names of hundreds of people and companies removed from U.S. blacklists were released in a single list. The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued its guidance on how to comply with U.S. law in the new landscape. "As a result of Iran verifiably meeting its nuclear commitments, the United States is today lifting nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, as described in the [agreement]," the OFAC statement said. Among the documents issued by OFAC was a general license that authorized an entity outside the U.S. controlled or owned by an American to do business with the Iranian government, or any Iranian. The license also authorized activity to set up such an entity, including work to ensure companies have "automated and globally integrated" systems, such as back-office structures, for handling the business. Experts praised the general license, noting that the section allowing for changes in operating procedures answered key questions for U.S. parent companies about what they could do to avoid compliance pitfalls in their attempt to seek business with Iran. "This puts them on roughly equal footing with their foreign competitors, " said David Mortlock, a partner with the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP. Richard Matheny, a partner at law firm Goodwin & Procter, said he expects "a flurry of activity" by U.S.-owned foreign companies "to see how they can take advantage" of the opportunities the license allows. Another license authorized imports of Iranian-origin food and carpets. OFAC also issued a statement that "establishes a favorable licensing policy" for the sale of aircraft and spare parts to Iran, provided the transactions don't involve someone still under U.S. sanctions. Companies can seek a specific license, on a case-by-case basis, for the sales, so long as they are exclusively for civilian use, the statement said. Despite the new authorizations, it will still be tough for Western, and especially U.S. companies to engage in business with Iran. Risk & Compliance Journal in November laid out the difficulty of avoiding the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, and reported at the end of December about the risks of doing business in Iran even after Implementation Day. The Wall Street Journal reported further this weekend on the ongoing sanctions programs and the problems they'll pose for Western companies. Michael Burton, a partner at law firm Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC, said it will be easy for U.S.-owned foreign companies to get the new authorizations wrong, and to potentially pull their U.S. parents into the transactions in ways that would violate the license. "I wouldn't view it as carte blanche for foreign affiliates, but I would see it as a meaningful opportunity so long as they do it consistent with the license," said Mr. Burton. Write to Samuel Rubenfeld at Samuel.Rubenfeld@wsj.com. Follow him on Twitter at @srubenfeld. Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Monday it will quit a major gas development in the United Arab Emirates amid a broad shake up of the company's strategy and the worst rout in energy prices since the 1980s. The project is the latest casualty of Shell's push to streamline its portfolio and cut costs as it prepares to close its blockbuster acquisition of BG Group PLC against a backdrop of oil prices that slid even further Monday to less than $28 a barrel, a 12-year low. The BG deal is intended to simplify the Anglo-Dutch oil giant's interests, refocusing the company on its natural gas and deep water businesses. According to Shell, the joint venture it entered into with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., or ADNOC, in 2013 to develop Abu Dhabi's Bab sour gas reservoirs no longer fits the company's strategy, "particularly in the economic climate prevailing in the energy industry." "Following a careful and thorough evaluation of technical challenges and costs, Shell has decided to exit the joint development of the Bab sour gas reservoirs with ADNOC in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and to stop further joint work on the project," the company said in a news release. A spokesman for Shell said there would be no write downs associated with the decision, which was still in the planning stages and hadn't received significant investment yet. Shell recorded charges of $7.9 billion in the third quarter after it abandoned a number of big ticket projects, including its ill-fated venture into Arctic waters off Alaska and a costly Canadian oil sands project called Carmon Creek . Shell's move comes as the entire oil industry is working to lower costs during a prolonged period of sharply lower oilprices. The global oil industry delayed or canceled projects worth up to $380 billion in 2015, according to Wood MacKenzie, the energy consultancy. Analysts at Bernstein Research welcomed Shell's decision to ditch the technically challenging project, saying it would lower the company's costs and make it more resilient as the oil market searches for a bottom. "We see this as a win today for shareholders as the list of high-cost, low-return technology focused deferrals/cancellations grows," Bernstein said in a note. Shell remains present in Abu Dhabi as a joint venture partner in the Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations, ADCO, and in Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd, GASCO. The UAE's Oil Minister Suhail al Mazrouei played down the importance of Shell's decision to pull out of the project, describing it as an "aspirational project" not yet included in the UAE's plans for domestic gas supply and acknowledging the commercial difficulties surrounding development projects in the current price environment. "This is something that we think could be a viable option in the future when the prices are right," Mr. Mazrouei said on the sidelines of a conference in Abu Dhabi. "We are not worried about supply of gas. We are planning well, if the company is pulling out I'm not worried," he added. Write to Sarah Kent at sarah.kent@wsj.com and Summer Said at summer.said@wsj.com The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday granted the federal government a qualified extension of time to come up with a law on doctor-assisted suicide in response to the court's earlier decision overturning a ban on the practice. When the high court issued its decision last February, it suspended its application for 12 months to allow Parliament to regulate how and when it would be permitted. The court agreed on Friday to give it four more months but it made certain exemptions to its decision. The chairman of a U.S. House committee that oversees child abuse issues opened an inquiry Friday into whether the federal government is failing to enforce a law meant to protect thousands of babies born dependent on drugs each year. The inquiry, launched by Representative John Kline of Minnesota, comes in response to a Reuters investigation last month that identified 110 examples of children who were exposed to opioids while in the womb and later died preventable deaths after leaving the hospital. No more than nine states comply with a 2003 law that calls on hospitals to alert social workers whenever a baby is born dependent on drugs, the news agency found. Since the law was enacted, the number of newborns diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome has skyrocketed - from 4,991 cases in 2003 to 27,315 in 2013, federal data show. A Reuters analysis found that thousands of drug-dependant newborns are sent home each year without a referral to social service agencies, contrary to the intent of the federal law. Those referrals are intended to help social workers develop a "plan of safe care" for the newborns and mothers. Although most states fail to comply with the provisions, Reuters found none has lost federal funding. In a letter Friday, Kline told Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell that he was "deeply concerned" that the agency may not be enforcing the law. "A Reuters investigation released in December cast serious doubts over whether these basic requirements in federal law are being followed," wrote Kline, a Republican who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee. The letter was co-signed by Todd Rokita, an Indiana Republican, who chairs a subcommittee on early childhood education. "The Reuters investigation reveals the shocking and deadly consequences when these vital federal and state child welfare policies are not properly implemented and enforced," the lawmakers wrote. "Even more troubling, according to the Reuters report, there are some states that have failed to put these policies in place altogether, yet not a single state is being denied ... funds." Kline and Rokita asked Health and Human Services officials to explain the review process for determining whether each state has created a safe-care plan for babies born drug-dependent, and to make clear the consequences for states that do not comply. Agency officials did not immediately respond to the lawmakers' letter. The primary backer of a key provision in the 2003 law, former Representative James Greenwood, said he was "delighted" that Kline and Rokita took "this step to light a fire under" the Department of Health and Human Services. "Precious little lives are at stake," Greenwood said. Last month, top U.S. senators also called for action. Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, asked for an "emergency surge" of funds to help protect the newborns, and Sen. Robert Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, sought oversight hearings. The senior Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said the series "brings to the forefront a problem" that he has urged the Obama Administration to address faster. The Reuters investigation, "Helpless & Hooked," can be found here. (http://reut.rs/1NSc7uC) Kline and Rokita's letter to the Health and Human Services secretary can be found here. (http://1.usa.gov/235146g) When everyone agrees on something, you just might have a problem. That's what a new study to be published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A found, according to a press release. Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia used mathematical probability to test three scenarios. Each time, they found that too much agreement weakened confidence in the result. In one scenario, for instance, 13 witnesses confirm the identity of a criminal suspect. "But getting a large group of unanimous witnesses in these circumstances is unlikely, according to the laws of probability. It's more likely the system itself is unreliable," researcher Derek Abbott says in the release. Other scenarios that were tested included witnesses confirming the identification of an archaeological find and the reliability of a cryptographic system. In each case, there was a tipping point at which too much agreement weakened confidence in the result. "It seems counter-intuitive," Abbott tells Lawyers Weekly. "It seems that [it] defies logic, but it's also saying that perhaps if everybody is in total agreement there's been a collusion or a bias. There is a precedent for the researchers' conclusions: Abbott references an ancient Jewish law under which a person could not be convicted of a capital crime if the guilty verdict was unanimous. "This ancient law indicated that the system may be in error if there was complete agreement among the judiciary," he says in the release. In the case of witnesses identifying a suspect, the rate of misidentification can be 48%"almost like tossing a coin"Abbot tells Lawyers Weekly. "If 20 witnesses are all agreeing, then that can't be right," he says, "because you are already expecting half of them to be wrong. This article originally appeared on Newser: When Everyone Agrees, Something Isn't Right More From Newser The worlds largest ocean liner docked in Brooklyn on Sunday with precious cargo an infant born aboard. A doctor on the famed Queen Mary 2 sprang to action to deliver the baby boy appropriately named Benjamin Brooklyn on Saturday night, before the ship pulled into Red Hook Sunday morning. The ship was near the end of its transatlantic voyage from Southhampton, England, when a German passengers water broke, according to her brother, who was also aboard the 2,620-passenger vessel. She turned to me and said, Its starting! said the man, who declined to give his name and only identified his sister as Johanna. He rushed her to the ships small hospital, where a doctor took charge as the ship neared Brooklyn. The baby was supposed to be due in three weeks, but just couldnt wait, he said. Johanna was rushed to New York Methodist Hospital with the infant after arriving at the Red Hook Cruise Terminal at around 6 a.m. Sunday, the FDNY said. I am doing well, and the baby is incredibly healthy. I am also thankful how good the people of New York were to us, Johanna said. Benjamin is her third child and first boy, she said. His uncle added, [The child] was born in American territory so that makes him an American boy. Click for more from The New York Post. The Republican Party is in real trouble. They proved it to all of us this week. Their primary strategy as it relates to Donald Trump right now is dead wrong. And it will cost them the election and the White House. There has been trouble brewing behind the scenes that has occasionally seeped out. But this week Republicans took a direct hit at Donald Trump, their leading Republican presidential frontrunner in every national poll. Last I heard only animals eat their young--and maybe a few cannibals. Example: Republican Governor Nikki Haley was designated by Paul Ryan and Mitch Mcconnell to rebut President Obamas last state of the union address. Instead of taking the opportunity to identify how this Democratic administration has failed us, she takes a shot at -- and chastises -- Donald Trump. Instead of commenting on how out of sync Democrats are with the American people how Obamas feckless foreign policy has turned us into an international joke repeatedly negotiating with terrorists, creating safety and security problems for Americans, the world has never been a more dangerous place the military never more shackled, the Second Amendment -- never in more danger our children and grandchildren never in more debt. The most dangerous terrorist organization the world has ever known focused on us. And Nikki Haley shoots at Donald Trump. Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. If you don't think she was talking about Donald Trump, she confirmed it the next day. Yes, Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk. What you think? Who anointed you to take a shot at the leading contender for president in your own party? In a nationally televised historic rebuttal. When you could have laid out a strategy of how the very fabric of America has changed under this democratic so-called leadership. How about you turn your unsolicited comments toward the president's incendiary comments against your party? Why don't you tell him to tone down the rhetoric and by the way there was a time when you were one of the angriest voices. You came in-in a tea party wave-angry about what was happening in America. And now you epitomize the very establishment you were going to change So why would the republicans not want the lead candidate to advance? I'll tell you why. Because Donald Trump doesn't do the Washington two-step. Where one hand washes the other. Where you overlook my vulnerabilities and I overlook yours. And then we all get to come back. Those more interested in serving their incumbency than the American people. Why else would Republicans agree to a budget that includes federal funding for sanctuary cities that allow illegals who commit crimes -- felonies, murders to not be arrested or even deported. They all grandstanded about the lawless actions and that they were not going to reward them. But then they danced with the democrats, passed the budget and went home for Christmas. Donald Trump is not beholden or vulnerable to any of them Nikki, you're worried about Donalds voice? Americans are tuning into the debates in historic numbers. I'll tell you who the angriest voices are The angriest voices are the American people. We've been gutted. We're scared. The American dream is not what it used to be, unless youre an illegal immigrant. And by the way, arent you a right to work state? And you tell us to turn it down? To turn down the volume? Maybe you and your establishment friends in the Republican Party ought to turn down your own volume and start listening to us. Start supporting your own party"s frontrunner. The person *Republicans* want! Your strategy is all wrong. Start supporting the frontrunner. There's a reason you elected politicians are all held in such low esteem. Be careful. Be very, very careful . Get in line behind our favorite. After all, in case you've forgotten, you work for us. You, too, can be fired! Its a hybrid of Islamic radicalism that even scares Al Qaeda. The New York Times best-selling author Joel Rosenberg calls it Apocalyptic Islam. PODCAST: Listen to Joel Rosenbergs shocking explanation of Apocalyptic Islam Apocalyptic Islam doesnt want to simply attack us, it wants to annihilate us, Rosenberg told me during an interview broadcast on my podcast. Apocalyptic Muslims like the leaders of Iran and the leaders of the Islamic State believe that we are living in the End Times and that its their mission from Allah to bring about the end of the world as we know it. Rosenberg describes Apocalyptic Islam as a subset of Radical Islam. Were not talking about 1.6 billion Muslims, he said. Were talking about ten percent or less who are radicals. But ten percent of 1.6 billion is still a mighty big number and they want to destroy Christians, Jews anyone else they consider to be an infidel. They want to establish their global Islamic kingdom where everybody has to follow Islam, he said. And that is a substantively, significantly different and much more dangerous form of radical Islam than even Al Qaeda and Hamas and the Taliban. This is not just about attacking us, Rosenberg warned. This is about annihilating us. Even Al Qaeda has denounced the Apocalyptic Muslims as bloodthirsty. When Al Qaeda thinks youre crazy, youre really crazy, he said. And these people are not just crazy theyre demonic. And yet President Obama and his administration are trying to appease the Islamists including the ones currently in charge of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Rosenberg called the nuclear deal foolish, dangerous and insane. Click here to Join Todds American Dispatch a must-read for conservatives! Once you understand Apocalyptic Islam, you understand just how dangerous it is to give Iran not just one path to nuclear weapons, but two, he said. This president doesnt understand the threat of radical Islam. He wont even define that much less Apocalyptic Islam. And he doesnt hold out much hope for the current presidential frontrunners either. This is a very challenging year when you have a president and two frontrunners who just dont understand the most serious foreign policy threat of our time, he said. That is not comforting. Rosenberg has offered counsel to several Republican presidential campaigns including Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Senator Rubio totally gets it, he said. Hes been using that language in the debates and in his speeches. Among the others who get it are Cruz, Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum. What about Donald Trump? Its clear [Trump] doesnt understand this, he said. Its just all bloviating. Its not so much that the world is facing a future threat the threat is already here. These people are crucifying Christians, theyre beheading people" he said. They are creating mayhem and really genocidal conditions in Syria and Iraq and our current president is just using half measure to run some sort of public relations war against them. He doesnt have a plan. To help us understand what could happen Rosenberg has written a new book, The First Hostage. Its a riveting account of Islamic radicals kidnapping an American president. Its a page-turning political thriller. But the scariest part is what happens if Rosenbergs fiction is just prophecy in disguise. A Vaclav Havel for Our Times "Only the idiots, only absolute idiots are incapable of comprehending that for the relatively quick pumping of millions of people across thousands of kilometers a minimum of ten billion dollars of financial backing is needed." "The Hungarian-language video is subtitled. I transcribed the English-language subtitles below." -- PA World| Simply, this is about the following. Seriously summarizing the point in three sentences So that particular non-existent global power whom I have sent messages to, except Im not supposed to look at this camera. Whatever. Fine. Dear Global Power, we know precisely well that you exist, naturally. And that your fundamental goal for everything, is the annihilation of all that is still humane, that has dignity. And you believe that, for now, the European White man still possesses too much of this. And you want to annihilate the European White man. The reason you are starting with the most organized and richest part the German-speaking Europe because you also want to prove that and the Swedes, too, the Scandinavian countries you want to prove that you can do whatever you want. So, according to your desires, you can also blow up, break apart, destroy Europes most organized and richest countries. And in this I completely agree with you all this global scum. This global filth. So, that global mass of trash they are not even sentient beings, but animals, as you said. Global mass of trash. Global filth that has, however, been pumped over here with the aid of gigantic resources. And they are doing everything they can to make this pumping continue unimpeded. Only the idiots, only absolute idiots are incapable of comprehending that for the relatively quick pumping of millions of people across thousands of kilometers a minimum of ten billion dollars of financial backing is needed. A minimum of a few thousand strictly secret agents are required to direct, to control like they have done so. But of course, the respected media naturally, in those cases when a light was occasionally shown on this, although the conspiracy was fundamentally perfect, then they hurried to hide it, as well. And naturally, we need the constant and total collaboration with the global crime webs because without those tens of thousands of human smugglers and such, this couldnt have been organized. And naturally, at the every end, we need the cheap, underhanded, filthy, unrestrained, cynical collaboration of Europes elite. Also that of the British prime minister who visited us here today. He participated just as Sarkozy back then, and Monsieur Hollande, and naturally the German chancellor-woman. They participated just the same in the destruction of Syria, Libya. They created it, and then they proudly announced as well, that they are doing this in the name of Europe, of Western culture, democracy. They destroyed those fundamental conditions that, as they were at least filtered all this. And so, the true culprit of this horror just happened [Cologne] and something whispers to me that this is just foreplay. Just a faint prelude to something. Truly, what will happen, is that they have already dragged Europe into a conflict roughly just as brutal as what WWI and WWII were like. Europe, have a brain! You were dragged into the projects known as WWI and WWII by the same unspeakable global world power. And now you are idly watching, misled, letting it drag you into another identical one a third World War. So kids, lets not kid around. The problem is not solely with this global filth. Thats the end of the process and if we cannot choke the instigation of this process there within the global power structure. Furthermore, unfortunately, by force, we also work with because we fundamentally worked within the EU, although, to Viktor Orbans credit, or I should say his honor, that to all of these things, and back then the bombing of Libya, he was the ONLY European politician who at least voiced his worries and reservations about what the strategic consequences would be. But there were very, very few beside him in the European political sphere who voiced this..... With the 2016 election season upon us, I can no longer sit by and watch Hillary Clinton re-write her tenure as Americas top diplomat. Clintons performance and record as Secretary of State was abysmal. Since she is asking the American people for a promotion, we should judge her record honestly and decide whether or not she deserves to lead our nation at this critical point in history. I have concluded that her record clearly shows she has already failed us. It is for this reason that I am launching an ad campaign in critical states to make the case that Hillary Clinton and many of her Democratic allies have already shown voters that they arent up to the job of leading our nation. Tuesday, we are launching our first ad in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. The sixty and thirty second ads highlight how Hillary Clinton baldly lied to the American people minutes after the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods in Benghazi. In the heat of President Obamas reelection campaign, Hillary and team scrambled to make sure voters didnt view the terrorist attack in Libya as a natural outcome of her weak foreign policy decisions. Hillary Clinton publicly said one thing and privately said another. This duplicity deserves highlighting. It is clear now that if Hillary Clinton, her Democratic associates, and their media allies hadnt turned the Benghazi attacks into a political hit job on Mitt Romney and the Republicans, Americans would have rightly seen a terrorist attack on the anniversary of 9/11 as an obvious extension of weak foreign policy negotiations and a careless national security strategy. Our first ad shows how Clinton blamed a little-watched and poorly produced anti-Muslim YouTube video for the attack. Coming less than two months from the 2012 presidential election, it was an obvious attempt to blame external forces outside her control. The Secretary of State of the United States, along with the president of the United States stone-cold lied to the world with brazen forethought about the murder of four brave Americans in order to prevent a damaging political blow just months before their election. Some might chalk this whole episode up to the fact that all politicians lie. But we must resist this excuse-making as it allows politicians to fool us and play fast and loose with the facts. The mainstream media fell into groupthink and insisted after the attack that it was unfair for conservatives to criticize the administration. Let the facts play out, they said. While politicians have always hedged the truth in various ways throughout our history and political lying is bipartisan, we must hold all politicians to a higher standard. Presidential candidates record of performance is critical. How they did when they were given the publics trust is the best indicator of how they would handle their new job. The plethora of national security failures from Hillary Clinton and her Democrat allies deserve to be told. We must not be afraid to highlight the facts and resist the temptation to excuse those who do not tell the truth. We are therefore committed to showing American voters Hillarys record of performance. We are confident that when voters see the truth, they will reject her candidacy and all those who sit silently by as she denies the facts. We can reverse this insidious trend by not allowing Hillary Clinton or any other politician to get away with lies. We can speak out against untruths in our own political camp and we can call out the news media when they fail to hold leaders accountable on both sides of the aisle. We can talk about institutional and structural reforms all we want, but until we reward integrity we are going to continue wallowing in governance that leaves us frustrated, broke, and more vulnerable to attacks. Authors note: Fox News Contributor Richard Grenell is working with Restoration PAC. Hillary Clinton defended President Obamas decision to back off the red line he set with Syrias Bashar Assad. The president has come under renewed criticism from other former officials including former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for not following through on military action after Assad was accused of using chemical weapons during Syria's bloody civil war. But during Sunday's Democratic primary debate, Clinton said the 2013 decision to instead engage the Russians and help ship out Assads chemical weapons led to a positive outcome. Getting those chemical weapons out was a big, big deal, she said. The former secretary of state said a commander-in-chief needs to constantly reevaluate decisions, and cited the red line as one of them. By contrast, Hagel recently told Foreign Policy that theres no question the presidents decision hurt the credibility of the presidents word when this occurred. During Sundays debate, Clinton also defended the controversial reset with Russia, which was initiated under her tenure as secretary of state. But she said Russias Vladimir Putin is someone the U.S. and others must continually stand up to. If you like Barack Obama, youll love Hillary Clinton. That seems to be the Democratic front-runners pitch as she charges into the final stretch to the Iowa caucuses, embracing the administrations agenda and casting rival Bernie Sanders as a threat to that legacy a strategy on full display at Sundays primary debate. On stage in Charleston, S.C., Clinton accused the Vermont senator of wanting to tear up ObamaCare, which she called one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party and of our country. She accused him of trying to run a primary challenger against Obama in 2011. And she publicly defended the president on controversial calls, including the decision to back off the red line with Syrias Bashar Assad. Sanders, for his part, pushed back on Clintons allegations saying hes not trying to scrap the health care law and reminding voters he ended up supporting Obama in 2012 despite their differences. But the exchanges helped underscore an emerging dynamic in the race. Clinton is deliberately running toward Obama not away from him as she nears the early-voting contests, surely hoping to capture the voters who helped propel him to victory in 2008, particularly in South Carolina and other states she may need as a firewall. Shes appealing to her base and for better or worse, shes with Obama as much as she can be in this election, Adam Goodman, Republican strategist and principal of The Victory Group, told FoxNews.com. At the same time, the strategy is potentially risky; should Clinton win the nomination, Republicans are eager to use her ties with Obama administration against her in a general election. If theres anybody that has any doubt any longer that Hillary Clinton would be a third term of Barack Obama, they should have watched that debate last night, GOP presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told Fox News on Monday. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said after the debate that the Democrats had doubled down on the extreme and failed policies of the current administration, despite the fact Americans are desperately looking for a new direction that will only come with Republican leadership. On policies foreign and domestic, Clinton embraced the administrations work while touting her own involvement. On the heels of the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, Clinton said she was very pleased to be a part of it. She praised Obamas 2013 decision to back off his red line with Assad over chemical weapons use, and instead engage the Russians in an agreement to ship out Assads chemical weapons stockpile. Getting those chemical weapons out was a big, big deal, Clinton said. Clinton also slammed Sanders for his universal health plan to offer Medicare for all, the details of which were released just hours before the debate. Clinton said she wants to improve on ObamaCare, and accused Sanders of moving to unravel the Obama administrations signature domestic policy. To tear it up and start over again I think is the wrong direction. Sanders fired back, calling some of Clintons criticism nonsense. He said he wants to move to Medicare for all in order to provide health care as a right and extend insurance to the millions who still dont have it. His plan calls for an array of tax hikes to pay for it. As for the existing law, he said, Were not going to tear up the Affordable Care Act -- I helped write it. Meanwhile, one of the more animated moments Sunday night came when Clinton pointedly accused Sanders of trying to run a primary challenger against Obama before the 2012 election. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing. He even, in 2011, publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama, she said. A video of Sanders giving her the side eye over this remark became an Internet sensation overnight. Sanders countered that he did support Obama in 2012 despite some differences of opinion. Clinton may have been overstating Sanders 2011 remarks. According to FactCheck.org, the senator did criticize Obama in a 2011 radio interview and openly discussed the possibility of Obama getting a primary challenger but did not appear to be actively recruiting such a candidate at the time. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he was infuriated by Iranian footage showing American sailors on their knees with their hands above their heads after being captured last week. Speaking with Fox News, Kerry said he was not aware of the footage when he spoke last week about the diplomatic efforts that led to the sailors release. At the time, Kerry praised Tehrans cooperation in resolving the incident but later faced criticism from Republicans as the footage emerged. I was furious about it, and I immediately contacted my counterpart. And we indicated our disgust, Kerry said Monday. He added that it was clear the footage did not come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and likely came from the Iranian military. It was very, very unfortunate, inappropriate. And as a former sailor, and member of the military, I was infuriated by it and I expressed that very directly to my counterpart, Kerry said. Footage showed the 10 U.S. sailors as they were being arrested after drifting into Iranian waters. One video showed one of the men apologizing for their actions, though officials insist no official apology was given to the Iranians. Some Republicans pointed to the videos and images to ridicule the administrations response. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., last week accused the administration of pretending as if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred. Days after the incident was resolved, Iran was certified as completing the vital terms of its nuclear deal and in turn was rewarded with billions of dollars worth of sanctions relief from the U.S. and other countries. At the same time, Iran released four Americans in a prisoner exchange for seven Iranians. Kerry on Monday defended the terms of that arrangement, and pushed back on Republican suggestions that Iran got the better end of that deal. Kerry said some of the Iranians released were about to complete their prison sentences anyway. We thought it was appropriate to get our people home. That was critical, Kerry said. Kerry also disputed a report that the administration delayed imposing new sanctions on Iran after Foreign Minister Javad Zarif warned that could derail the prisoner exchange. The Wall Street Journal had reported that Zarif personally warned Kerry, who pressed the White House to hold off on imposing the sanctions. Kerry said there was no such phone conversation with Zarif and asserted that the timing was absolutely a coincidence. The administration did hold off on imposing the new sanctions over Tehrans recent ballistic missile tests, but proceeded with them on Sunday. Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Monday released its first official account of Iran's seizure and subsequent release of the 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf who strayed into Iranian waters last week in small boats. The account U.S. Central Command offered on Monday adds some detail to what was already known about the incident, but it leaves unanswered such key questions as why the boat crews deviated from their planned route and entered Iranian territorial waters. The report said the sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. They had been traveling from Kuwait to Bahrain. It said a post-recovery inventory of the boats accounted for all weapons, ammunition and communications gear, except for two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. The Associated Press contributed to this report. **Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here.** Buzz Cut: Panicky Hillary starts shouting NYT dumps on Heidi Cruz Rubio touts pistol purchase GOP Power Index: Christie fades Driven by destiny PANICKY HILLARY STARTS SHOUTING You can turn the volume back up on your televisions, the Democratic debate is done and the shouting has ended. Apparently believing that commitment and sincerity can be measured in decibels, Hillary Clinton turned up the volume in Sunday nights showdown with rival Bernie Sanders. She also matched her louder volume with sharper attacks on Sanders. But the Vermont socialist came ready to fight, counterpunching and even landing a few blows. Youd have to give him the win, if only narrowly, on the grounds that not only did he dominate the discussion but that she was strangely treating him as the frontrunner. Or maybe it was just that she was trying to fight on Sanders turf. Hes been shouting since before it was cool. Clinton seems to be abandoning the mantra of her campaign Im a fighter for an effort to approximate the anger that candidates on both sides of the aisle have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to ape. But its hard to believe that Clinton is angry, or at least that she is angry about something other than the fact that her party seems to delight in spurning her. Life has been very good to the Clintons over the past 16 years, to say the least. Except for the politics part. Clinton and her crew could assuage themselves after her 2008 primary loss that they were victims of history the sudden ascendance of a gifted, African-American candidate was more of a force of nature than a reflection of her political weakness. But what if she were struggling with a guy who was deeply white and five years older than her? What if the guy this time was not a gifted speechmaker but one who gave shout-y campaign boilerplate in a Brooklyn honk? What if he had been honking around Washington for 25 years and was generally written off as a crank? It has apparently all been enough to rattle Clinton, whose onetime indulgence of Sanders has turned into attacks and who seems to be on the verge of yet another campaign reboot. Tied or trailing Sanders in the first two nominating contests, its hard to say shes wrong. A huge lead in South Carolina and what, last month at least, was a wide advantage in Nevada still suggest that Clinton isnt yet in danger of being toppled a second time and that her strategy of aggressively pursuing black voters and other parts of the Obama coalition is paying off. But would those leads look so stout if Clinton were to lose the first two contests? Certainly not. Just ask South Carolina Democratic powerbroker Rep. Jim Clyburn, who told the NYT, The reality is, if Mrs. Clinton loses Iowa and New Hampshire, that could create new and real problems for her here. As of now, you can still call Clinton the presumptive Democratic nominee, but we are now seeing a scenario in which she might have to waste several damaging months on a fight that will harm her general election chances and distract public attention from the bazooka blasts on the GOP side. WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE America seems to owe an awful lot to high-living French noblemen. And if you like the idea of separation of power between branches of government, then say Joyeux anniversaire to Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu, born on this date in 1689. Montesquieu led something of a dissipated life as a young nobleman at court in Paris, but became increasingly serious about his political writing and philosophizing. A visit to England would open his mind further and give birth to a riot of political thought. But perhaps chief among his insights was the value of divided government. Britannica explains: Dividing political authority into the legislative, executive, and judicial powers, [Montesquieu] asserted that, in the state that most effectively promotes liberty, these three powers must be confided to different individuals or bodies, acting independently Though its accuracy has in more recent times been disputed, in its own century it was admired and held authoritative, even in England; it inspired the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Constitution of the United States. Got a TIP from the RIGHT or the LEFT? Email FoxNewsFirst@FOXNEWS.COM POLL CHECK Real Clear Politics Averages Republican Nomination Trump 34.5 percent; Cruz 19.3 percent; Rubio 11.8 percent; Carson 9.0 percent General Election: Clinton vs. Trump Clinton +2.5 points Generic Congressional Vote: Republicans +0.5 NYT DUMPS ON HEIDI CRUZ The NYT digs deep into the life of Ted Cruzs wife, Heidi, with a focus on an incident 11 years ago in which a police officer found her, head in hands, sitting beside an expressway onramp. The article, which revisits the incident twice and at length, casts her as an unstable woman who has thrown away a promising career to support her husband. It is some really ugly stuff. Trump in free fire zone with Cruz attacks - ABC News: With two weeks left before voters in Iowa cast the very first votes in the 2016 presidential election, Republican front-runner Donald Trump is turning up the heat on his fiercest rival in the Hawkeye State - Sen. Ted Cruz. I don't think Ted Cruz has a great chance, to be honest with you, Trump told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in an interview on This Week Sunday. Look, the truth is, he's a nasty guy. He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying, Come on Ted. Lets go, okay. But hes a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. Hes a very - he's got an edge thats not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy. [In a new digital ad, a pro-Cruz PAC uses Trumps past praise of Cruz as narration for their spot.] Trumps faith - Weekly Standard does a dive into the faith background of Donald Trump and whether or not his lack of an active membership in any faith will give pause to evangelicals with other options this cycle. Cruz begins aggressive campaign schedule in N.H. - Dallas Morning News: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas is trying to beat the odds and pull out victories in both [Iowa and New Hampshire]On Sunday he started a five-day New Hampshire tour packed with 17 events in all 10 of the states counties. RUBIO TOUTS PISTOL PURCHASE Tampa Bay Times: Marco Rubio went shopping for a handgun on Christmas Eve, tying it to the threat of ISIS. I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us, he said Sunday on CBS Face the Nation. In fact, if ISIS were to visit us, or our communities, at any moment, the last line of defense between ISIS and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them, or from a criminal, or anyone else who seeks to do us harm. Millions of Americans feel that way. Rubio first disclosed the gun purchase on Friday while visiting Sturm, Ruger & Co. in New Hampshire. He linked guns and ISIS again while in Iowa on Saturday. Kasich lands endorsement of three N.H. papers - AP: Three New Hampshire newspapers are endorsing Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president as the Republican aspires to a top-tier primary finish there. The Nashua Telegraph, Fosters Daily Democrat and Portsmouth Herald all threw their support behind Kasich in Sunday editions. What if its a two-man race? - What happens if Jeb Bush or Chris Christie can succeed in crippling Marco Rubio and leaves the Republicans with only two choices? One might assume that establishment support would flow to Cruz, a lifelong Republican and sitting senator. Not necessarily, says Molly Ball in a dispatch from the trail: Some Republicans who have moved through the stages of grief from denial to bargaining, if not yet acceptance, have begun to suggest that Trump might be preferable to Cruz. Trump is, if you squint, a sort of moderate Republican; hes a dealmaker; and surely hes craven enough to reverse his most alienating positions and say what people want to hear if he gets to the general election. Cruz, on the other hand, is an ideologue. The scariest prospect of all is that he really means what he says, and might, if elected, take it upon himself to actually upend the establishments cherished status quo. GOP POWER INDEX: CHRISTIE FADES New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has painted himself a straight-talker since he was elected to the governorship in 2009, and has made it a cornerstone of his presidential campaigns Telling It Like It Is slogan. Town hall videos of his early days as governor hit the Internet, and people around the country were drawn to this frank, no nonsense guy. When he took on the teachers unions, and was asked about his own childrens private education, he responded, Its none of your business, which resonated with people tired of hearing exhaustive explanations from politicians. But his straight-talk attitude hasnt quite delivered on is message of late. As Christie tries to find a path from the middle of the pack in New Hampshire to national viability, hes come under increasing scrutiny. And voters are hearing a lot more run-on sentences than they were used to from Christie. In the Fox Business Network Debate last week, Christie claimed that he never supported Justice Sonya Sotomayors appointment to the Supreme Court, but his statement at the time reads: I support her appointment to the Supreme Court and urge the Senate to keep politics out of the process and confirm her nomination. Qualified appointees should be confirmed and deserve bi-partisan support. Its been the same of gun control. Although he has vetoed limits on clip-size and photo IDs for gun owners, Christies record on guns is scattered. National Reviews Jim Geraghty points out that in a 1993 race for New Jersey Senate, Christie issued a statement asserting that we already have too many firearms in our communities. The issue which has energized me to get into this race is the recent attempt by certain Republican legislators to repeal New Jerseys ban on assault weapons. In todays society, no one needs a semi-automatic assault weapon. In November 2015, Christie told Bret Baier in an interview for Special Report that he didnt remember making that statement. 1) Ted Cruz; 2) Marco Rubio; 3) Donald Trump; 4) Jeb Bush; 5) John Kasich [+1]; 6) Chris Christie [-1] On the radar - Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Rand Paul [Watch Fox: Chris Stirewalt joins The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson in the 2 p.m. ET hour with the latest on whos up and whos down in the 2016 Power Index.] What would you say? - Give us your take on the 2016 Power Index. We will share the best and brightest with the whole class. Send your thoughts to FOXNEWSFIRST@FOXNEWS.COM DRIVEN BY DESTINY On a day when we remember the legendary figure of Martin Luther King Jr., NPR shares the reminiscence of Tom Houk, Kings driver and body man at the peak of the Civil Rights movement. Houck headed to Atlanta to join the movement and was surprised at being picked up by Dr. King and his wife Coretta Scott King, with the reverend at the wheel. After lunch that day, she asked Houck if he might drive the children to school the following day: [J]ust like that, Houck began his stint as the Kings' family driver. For nine months, Houck drove Martin Luther King Jr. around Atlanta, though King liked to drive himself often, too. But he was a terrible driver, Houck says. And he turned WAOK radio in Atlanta on full blast. That wasn't the only puzzle presented to Houck. There were also the cigarettes. Dr. King was a chain smoker, all right? But Coretta did not like the cigarettes, Houck says. So when we would come back to the house, first thing Coretta would do, she would check Dr. King's pockets. So he started giving me his cigarettes. In the midst of the struggle, Houck found himself a co-conspirator in Kings vice. And with good reason: Houck idolized the reverend for his virtues. Chris Stirewalt is digital politics editor for Fox News. Want FOX News First in your inbox every day? Sign up here. Theres a reason why every presidential primary candidate spends so much time stumping in New Hampshire, and why every other state wants a piece of the action. As host of the first presidential primary in the nation, New Hampshire helps set the momentum for the rest of the race and has a habit of picking the eventual winner in recent Republican contests. So the Granite State, along with the first caucus state, Iowa, get the most attention though some critics say disproportionately. With only 23 delegates at stake in the 2016 GOP contest, New Hampshire doesnt have the heft of say, California, which will carry upwards of 172 Republican delegates to the nominating convention. Nevertheless, while New Hampshires primary will take place on Feb. 9, the California primary isn't scheduled until June 7, long after a winner is likely to emerge. Other early primary contests include South Carolinas (Feb. 20) followed by Super Tuesday (March 1), which features 14 states from every corner of the country with a combined total of 653 pledged candidates at stake. The number of delegates each state gets is determined by the national party, typically based, but not exclusively, on the number of congressional districts in each state. How the delegates are won is determined at the state party level, which means there are widely varying rules across the country. More on this... What is a caucus and how does it work? Democratic candidates win delegates proportionate to the number of votes they get in that particular state primary. For example, if Hillary Clinton gets 60 percent of the vote in New Hampshire, she gets 60 percent of the pledged delegates there. State Republican parties have more discretion over how they apportion their delegates to winning candidates. Up until March 14 in next years contests, they must adhere to a proportional formula similar to the Democrats. But after that date, states are free to tinker with the system, which may include a winner-take-all formula, or some sort of hybrid. Pledged delegates are committed to voting for the candidate who won them at the nominating convention. These delegates are typically local and state party officials, committee members, and party activists. Each state has super-delegates, as well, and they are not bound to any one candidate. They typically include elected officials and other party VIPs like former members of Congress, governors or ex-presidents. According to Ballotpedia, 15 percent of delegates in the 2016 Democratic convention are expected to be super-delegates. In the past four presidential election cycles, the winner of the GOP primary in New Hampshire went on to be the partys nominee. In 1996, Pat Buchanan won the states contest, but ultimately lost to Bob Dole at the national convention. Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire Democratic primary in 2008, but ultimately lost the nomination to Barack Obama. Will it take the Supreme Court to kill Machete Kills? Producers of the gleefully vulgar and violent exploitation satire are mulling over whether to take up the Machete again after the Fifth U.S, Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Texas could deny them taxpayer incentives because the movie presents Texas or Texans in a negative fashion. Brett Myers, a Dallas attorney who filed paperwork in the latest lawsuit, told Watchdog that representatives for Machete Productions LLC are mulling the option of asking the Supreme Court to consider their plea. A federal court early in 2015 decided the Texas Film Commissions decision to withhold funds from the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program did not violate the First Amendment speech rights of the films producers. Austin attorney Eric Storm, who filed the original lawsuit, told Watchdog his clients did not ask for a specific dollar amount. According to program guidelines, Machete Kills would have been eligible for as much as $2.25 million based on its $10 million budget. This bit of good news for the Film Commission follows a past session in which the Legislature took a figurative machete to a $95 million biennial budget for 2014-15 and hacked it back to $32 million for 2016-17. House conservatives were unsuccessful in passing a bill by state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano, that would have killed a program that has provided almost $200 million to film, television, commercial and video game projects over the past five years. Click here for more from Watchdog.org Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered the convocation address Monday at Virginia's Liberty University, one of the country's most prominent evangelical Christian institutions. The thrice-married billionaire businessman, who sometimes brings a copy of his boyhood bible and a photo from his confirmation to events to bolster his Christian credentials, worked to appeal to the crowd of more than 11,000 students and local residents by quoting from the scripture. "We're going to protect Christianity," he told the audience, before proceeding to quote from what he introduced as "Two Corinthians, 3:17." The comment prompted chuckles from students in the crowd, who were quick to point out that the New Testament book is generally referred to as "Second Corinthians." The visit comes as Trump seeks to bolster support among the evangelical Christians who form a significant voting bloc in Iowa -- first among the early voting states in the primaries -- where Trump is currently running head-to-head against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz launched his campaign at the school. The campus has become a popular stop for presidential contenders, welcoming candidates from both parties, including Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. Trump stuck to his traditional pitch during the campaign speech, but also touted the bible and promised that, as president, people would be saying "'Merry Christmas' again." He also called for Christians to band together, saying that Christianity is "under siege." While Trump is running against several candidates who have deep ties to Christian votes, he was given a rousing introduction by the school's president, Jerry Falwell, Jr., who called Trump a "breath of fresh air" and compared his blunt style, not only to his father's, but to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus Christ. All spoke the truth, no matter how unpopular, Falwel said. Falwell also made the case that presidential candidates should not be judged on their religiosity, noting that his father was criticized for supporting Republican Ronald Reagan, a divorced Hollywood actor over Jimmy Carter, a southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. "My father proudly replied that Jesus pointed out that we are all sinners, every one of us," he said. The timing of Trump's visit prompted protests from a handful of students, angry that the GOP presidential front-runner had been invited to deliver the address on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "It's just very disheartening and disappointing," said Jeff Long, a junior at the school who attended the speech wearing a shirt that read, "Black Lives Matter." "I was disappointed, I was shocked that the school was inviting someone who does not honor the values of Martin Luther King, Jr.," he said of Trump. Trump made only passing reference to the late King in his remarks, noting that the crowd size was testament to the civil rights champion's legacy. "We're dedicating the record to the late, great Dr. King, ok?" he told the crowd of more than 11,000 people. Convocation events, which occur three times a week, are mandatory for residential students at the school. The Obama administration reportedly delayed imposing new sanctions on Iran after the country's foreign minister warned that such a move would derail negotiations for a prisoner exchange that was announced over the weekend. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. officials notified Iran's top diplomat on Dec. 30 that Washington would impose new sanctions on Iranian officials and companies due to to Tehran's recent ballistic missile tests. In response, foreign minister Javad Zarif warned his counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, that sanctions would scupper secret negotiations for the prisoner exchange. The Journal reported that Kerry pressed the White House to hold back on imposing the sanctions, which it did. Some congressional officials briefed on the arrangement believe the negotiations demonstrate the ability of the Iranian regime to put pressure on the Obama administration. "It was clear there was real pressure from outside," one official told the paper. On Sunday, the U.S. announced it had imposed sanctions against 11 individuals and entities involved in Iran's ballistic missile program. In a statement, acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin called the program "a significant threat to regional and global security [that] will continue to be subject to international sanctions." The day before, the four U.S. citizens involved in the exchange were released from Iranian custody. Three of the four were flown to Geneva, Switzerland and transported to Germany, where they will remain for an indefiniate period. The fourth opted not to board the Switzerland-bound flight. A fifth citizen, released in a separate negotiation, arrived back in the U.S. Sunday evening. In exchange for the release of the four American prisoners, the U.S. pardoned or dropped charges against seven Iranians six of whom are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens accused or convicted of violating U.S. sanctions. The U.S. also agreed to drop Interpol "red notices" essentially arrest warrants on 14 Iranian fugitives. The Journal reported that among the seven Iranians granted clemency is a man who pleaded guilty to a cyberattack on a Vermont-based defense contractor. In addition, the U.S. dropped extradition proceedings against the chief executive of Iran's state-owned airline, who is accused of helping smuggle weapons to Syrian government forces during that country's civil war. Kerry also said Sunday that the U.S. and Iran had settled a dispute over $400 million in Iranian money dating back to before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and end of diplomatic ties. The Iranians also get $1.3 billion in interest. At issue was money used by Iran to buy military equipment from the U.S. before the break in ties between the countries. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. Iowas Democratic and Republican caucuses are the most hyped presidential contests in the country but also among the most confusing. They essentially function like traditional party primaries because residents cast ballots, and the candidate with the most ballots wins. However, residents simply dont walk into a polling site to cast their ballot, then exit. Caucus night is more time-consuming because it includes discussing candidates, picking convention delegates and dealing with state party business. And the parties, which run the caucuses, have uniquely different processes amid some similarities. The caucuses have been the first-in-the-nation balloting since the 1970s. Caucus night 2016 is on Feb. 1. And the events will take place in 1,744 precincts across the state -- including churches, libraries and other smaller venues, starting at about 7 p.m. local time. At the Republican caucuses, unlike a GOP primary, candidate supporters are allowed to campaign at Republican caucus sites and make a quick speech before the paper balloting. Iowas Democratic caucus nights also take care of delegate assignments and state-level politics but are more complicated and dramatic. After arriving at a Democratic caucus site, participants essentially divide into groups based on their preferred candidate. Groups that dont have enough members to make their candidate viable are disbanded. And the members then join another candidate group, at the persuasion of others, until groups have sufficient members to make a candidate viable enough to get delegates. The top finishers often continue with their campaigns deep into the election cycle while those who finish at or near the bottomsometimes drop out soon, though thats not always the case. In 2008, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won the Iowa Democratic caucus, held in early January, with a decisive 37 percent of the ballot, and eventually took the White House. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won that years Republican caucus. However, he conceded three months later to eventual nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain, who finished third in the Iowa balloting. Whats new in 2016 is that Republicans have ended the so-called Iowa or Ames Straw Poll, an informal balloting event held roughly six months before the caucuses, following complaints that it was a bad indicator of the most electable candidates. In addition, Iowa Democrats will have two additional ways to participate: satellite caucuses for party members who, for example, might have to work that night or are confined to a nursing home. And active-duty members of the U.S. military or Iowa National Guard serving out of state can participate via a TeleCaucus, according to the Iowa Democratic Party. The prophecy is more than seeing into the future. For the prophecy sees without the element of time. For the prophecy sees things as they were, as they are, and as they always shall be. Nicole Bonk could be forgiven for thinking she was at an aquarium when she approached the swimming pool of a Florida condominium. She looked down and saw a 5-foot blacktip shark floundering in the pool. Bonk, who was visiting friends at the Mariners Cay condo in Hypoluxo, told the Sun Sentinel newspaper that she saw two boys dump the shark in the pool earlier this month, with hooks still in its mouth. Figuring it might die in the pool, she and her husband pulled the shark out of the pool and carried to the Intracoastal Waterway. Related: Tiny shark that glows discovered in the deep ocean Once there, her husband held the shark by the tail to get some of the chlorinated pool water out and then released it. "We tried to revive him but he mostly likely did not live," Bonk told the newspaper. "He was barely moving after the trauma. We did our best to try to save this creature." Bonk reported incident to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which told the newspaper that it was investigating the incident. The commission offices were closed Monday and no one could be reached at the Mariners Cay condo. Related: Can world's biggest shark help humans? The blacktip shark, which reaches up to 6-feet and is named for the black tip on its fins, is common in Florida's coastal waters, bays and estuaries, according to the commission's website. Active and fast moving these sharks often forms large schools during annual migration times when they head southward into deeper coastal waters during winter months. Much like a couple in a noisy city, one species of frog has to do plenty to catch the eye of a prospective mate. Its not the roar or the subway or the honk of the taxis that is the distraction but rumbling streambeds in Brazil that is the problem. To overcome the racket, the Brazilian torrent frogs (Hylodes japi) turns to sophisticated collection of visual and audio cues including inflating vocal sacs, squealing, and even waiving their limbs - to stand out from the crowd. Related: Mini frog, bat with freakish tongue found in Bolivia The males using their toes, feet, hands, legs, arms, vocal sacs, head, and body while females arent as active - only displaying their hands, arms, and body. The brown and reddish brown frogs have as many as 18 movements in their arsenal, as described by Fabio P. de Sa of the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil and his colleagues, including body jerking, truncated walking, head bobbing and the two-armed impulse. And in a display never before been seen in frogs, females use a combination of visual displays including lifting their arms and touching the male, which prompt the male's courtship call. The females also have a series of displays including lifting her arm as a sign she has given the male the green light. Related: Deadly fungus could threaten US salamanders It is always exciting to observe new behaviors in the field. We did not expect that the species had all those behaviors, so we are glad to be communicating our findings, said de Sa, whose team observed the courtship behavior in the 70 male and female torrent frogs in the biological reserve of Serra do Japi for a study that appeared this month in PLOS ONE. Hylodes japi is a small and very secretive frog species. It is easy to hear their calls in the Forest, but not easy to see them, de Sa said told FoxNews.com in an email interview. It was a pleasure when we could get behavioral data -- specially when male and female were interacting during courtship. Related: Kermit the cannibal? Frogs sometimes eat each other The displays, in the cases of the males, varied depending on whether they felt they were competing for a mate or had her all to themselves. Considered incredibly territorial, the frog, for example, would resort to a technique called toe trembling wiggling or twitching a toe- if it felt the presence of an invader or toes posture holding the foot up for a few seconds. The authors acknowledge that multimodal signal as its called has been documented in wolf spiders, fish, squirrels and even birds. And of late, there has been a greater appreciation of the courtship displays of frogs which long had been thought to attract a mate simply with their vocal calls. Other frog species in noisy environments have also shown to have a bag of visual tricks, including Hylodes asper from Brazil, the Micrixalus saxicola from India and the Staurious parvus from Borneo. Related: New jelly-bean-size 'masked' frog discovered in the Andes New records of visual signals are being constantly detected for nocturnal and diurnal frog species; in our discussion we suggest that visual communication in frogs is more widespread than previously expected, de Sa said. In the tropics, we have a higher number of frog species and a higher number of phylogenetic groups of frogs associated to a higher environmental complexity, he said. We suggest that this combination facilitates a higher behavioral complexity as well. These are important points and, in the future, can provide base for the understanding of the evolution of vertebrates' communication. The half brother of a man serving two life sentences in a deadly 2012 Indianapolis house explosion that devastated a subdivision is facing a weekslong trial for his alleged role in that insurance scheme blast. Jury selection is set for Tuesday in Bob Leonard's trial on two murder counts and other charges. Prosecutors allege the 57-year-old took part in a plot to collect $300,000 in insurance that filled the house of his half brother's then-girlfriend with natural gas and blew it up. The November 2012 blast killed two neighbors and destroyed or damaged more than 80 homes. Leonard's half brother, Mark Leonard, was convicted in July of murder, arson and other charges and sentenced to two life sentences. The ex-girlfriend, Monserrate Shirley, pleaded guilty last year to two conspiracy charges. Crews searching for 12 Marines who were in two helicopters that went down off Hawaii earlier this week have recovered debris that is "consistent" with the missing aircraft, a Coast Guard official said Sunday. Capt. James Jenkins, chief of staff for the 14th Coast Guard district in Honolulu, did not specify what had been recovered. KHON reported that the debris was found off the North Shore of the island of Oahu. Rescuers from various agencies have been searching round-the-clock since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday of the crash by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then disappear and a fireball. The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mission. The transport helicopters were part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Known as Super Stallions, they are the U.S. military's largest helicopter, capable of carrying a light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines, according to a Marine Corps website. The wing's commanding general, Brig. Gen. Russell Sanborn, told reporters Sunday he has personal experience with the "emotional roller coaster" families of the 12 Marines are experiencing. His wife went through similar emotions when he was shot down 25 years ago during Operation Desert Storm and was listed as missing in action, he said. The Coast Guard initially reported that the choppers had collided, but Marine Capt. Timothy Irish said Friday that he did not know if the accident was a collision. "We think they collided because both of them went down," Mario Vittone, a retired Coast Guardsman who is an expert on sea survival, said Sunday from Florida. It would have happened very quickly and survival would entail overcoming many factors. "You have to survive the crash, you have to survive the on-rushing of water," he said, adding they would then have to battle dehydration and exposure to the elements. Meanwhile, high surf that has complicated the search for the missing men was expected to subside to 10 to 15 feet on Monday and decrease to 8 to 12 feet along west-facing shores. It's difficult to spot anything in breaking waves, said Vittone, who was a helicopter swimmer and marine accident investigator with the Coast Guard. "It almost like camouflages everything." The crash was off the north shore, but the search area was expanded to include waters off Oahu's west coast on Saturday. "Before we stop, we will notify all of the family members so they will have advance notice that we intend to stop," Capt. James Jenkins, chief of staff for the 14th Coast Guard district in Honolulu, told reporters. In addition to Coast Guard assets, the search effort includes Navy ships and aircraft, an Army helicopter, the National Guard, along with Honolulu's fire, police and ocean safety personnel. Marine Corps members were combing the beach for debris. Some family members were holding out hope that survivors could be found, while asking for privacy as they waited for updates. "My husband and I want everyone to know that this is not about us," Donna McGrew, mother of Maj. Shawn Campbell of College Station, Texas, said in a statement. "This is about the families that are suffering, and about all the sacrifices that our military members and their families make on a daily basis." The missing crew members are: Maj. Shawn M. Campbell, 41, College Station, Texas. Capt. Brian T. Kennedy, 31, Philadelphia. Capt. Kevin T. Roche, 30, St. Louis. Capt. Steven R. Torbert, 29, Florence, Alabama. Sgt. Dillon J. Semolina, 24, Chaska, Minnesota. Sgt. Adam C. Schoeller, 25, Gardners, Pennsylvania. Sgt. Jeffrey A. Sempler, 22, Woodruff, South Carolina. Sgt. William J. Turner, 25, Florala, Alabama. Cpl. Matthew R. Drown, 23, Spring, Texas. Cpl. Thomas J. Jardas, 22, Fort Myers, Florida. Cpl. Christopher J. Orlando, 23, Hingham, Massachusetts. Lance Cpl. Ty L. Hart, 21, Aumsville, Oregon. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from KHON2.com. Fireworks at the Democratic debate last night.. the final Dem debate before the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire primary with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders all tied up in polls of the two early states. They fought over who would be tougher on gun control and Wall Street. Hillary attacked Bernie Sanders plan on healthcare (essentially arguing he would destroy Obamacare to create a new national health plan from scratch). New NBC News/WSJ polling shows Hillary Clinton has expanded her lead nationally. She has 25 points on Bernie Sanders. Lots of campaign events on this holiday. 0800EST -- Dr Ben Carson speaks to the Carolina African American Heritage Foundation "Corporate Community Awards Breakfast". Myrtle Beach, SC. LIVE via LiveU 0800EST -- Sen Rubio holds a town hall meeting. Decorah, IA. LIVE via LiveU 0900EST -- Sen Cruz makes a bus tour stop at Lindy's Diner, Keene, NH. LIVE via LiveU 0930EST -- NJ Gov Christie holds a town hall meeting. Village Inn, Council Bluffs, IA. LIVE via LiveU 1030EST -- Donald Trump addresses the Liberty Univ convocation. Lynchburg, VA. LIVE 1120EST -- Dr Ben Carson speaks to the 5th Annual Tea Party Convention. Springmaid Beach Resort, Myrtle Beach, SC. LIVE via LiveU 1130EST -- Sen Cruz makes a bus tour stop at Camp Morgan Lodge, Washington, NH. LIVE via LiveU 1230EST -- Dr Ben Carson marches in the Myrtle Beach MLK Parade. Myrtle Beach, SC. LIVE via LiveU 1330EST -- Sen Rubio holds a town hall in Ottumwa, IA. ABC Baby Pool. The Washington Post reporters Anne Gearan Philip Rucker write today, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton aggressively prosecuted Sen. Bernie Sanders on issues from gun control to health care and fealty to President Obama at a presidential debate Sunday as she sought to puncture Sanders's insurgent appeal and regain her footing after a difficult stretch. Clinton put Sanders on the defensive through much of the two-hour debate, but a hoarse-voiced Sanders got in numerous digs. He accused Clinton of being too cozy with Wall Street and beholden to the financial industry. He noted that Clinton has accepted millions in campaign donations and hundreds of thousands in speaking fees from the financial sector. Also in the Washington Post, Dan Balz writes, Two weeks before Iowans gather for their caucuses, Hillary Clinton sought to blunt the momentum behind Bernie Sanders's grass-roots insurgency. In response, Sanders raised the volume and the stakes, appealing to Democrats to support his call for a political revolution. On the GOP side, Ed OKeefe and Sean Sullivan write in the Washington Post, Rubio, Christie, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are locked in heated competition to emerge as the alternative to the insurgent GOP front-runners, Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. On the trail and the airwaves, the four-way rivalry has become a twisted web of nasty one-on-one feuds that threatens to do lasting damage to the stability of the party's establishment wing. Political and business leaders (and a lot of rich people) will be in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. Its the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday that honors the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. There will be marches and services in honor of the slain civil rights leader across the country today. Three Americans were kidnapped from a translators house in Baghdad this weekend. Iraqi security forces are going house to house to find them. One American is among the 28 killed in an attack on a luxury hotel in the capital of Burkino Faso. An Al Qaeda branch is thought to be to blame. Three Americans finally released by Iran over the weekend are being medically evaluated now in Germany. One other hostage is already home in Massachusetts. Another has chosen to remain in Iran. In exchange for the Americans, the U.S. released pardoned or dropped charges against seven Iranians serving time for sanctions violations. The United States also unfroze Iranian assets and lifted sanctions as part of the big Iran nuclear deal. Iran has shipped much of its nuclear material to Russia, and has dismantled some equipment and destroyed a reactor. Oil has fallen below $29/barrel.. the lowest in 12 years. Eric Bolling on that scary number for the energy sector. The 32-year-old multi-millionaire who resigned from multiple drug companies after his December arrest on fraud charges gave a rare interview denying his image as a "pharma bro." Speaking to Fox 5, Martin Shkreli said he was innocent of all charges against him, calling the government's case "fictituous." He also said an "ironic" sunglasses photo posted online added to his notoriety. "I'm not a 'pharma bro', right? This is a name that got started when there was a picture I took that was meant to be ironic of me in these sunglasses and listening to a rap song, making sort of a funny hand signal." Shkreli first made headlines as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, when he hiked up the price of a potentially life-saving AIDS drug from $13.50 to $750 per pill. The feds arrested him on unrelated charges late last year. Prosecutors say he improperly took cash from his first drug company, Retrophin, to pay off investors in some of his hedge funds. Also last year, he emerged as the buyer who paid $2 million for a rare copy of an album from the rap group the Wu-Tang Clan. He said all the negative publicity surrounding the drug price hike and his image triggered the arrest. Shkreli accused his critics of "looking for someone to hate and if I fit that mold I almost feel I'm serving some sort of utility for them to feel that hate for me." He's out on bail and continues to live-stream with his followers. Click for more from Fox 5. Dozens of Muslim employees at a Wisconsin manufacturer say they are now out of a job after the company changed its prayer-on-the-job policy. Brillion-based Ariens Company changed the policy Thursday. Until then, Muslim employees were allowed to leave the production line twice a shift to pray two of their five daily required prayers. Workers would pray five minutes at a time, designating their duties to colleagues while they prayed. But Ariens is now asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks. A company representative told WBAY-TV the "manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production." The policy change affects 53 workers. Ten of those employees have indicated they wish to stay in their current positions under the new policy, the company said. Ariens said the company "put a considerable amount of effort into finding a solution that allows for employees of Muslim faith to pray during work hours," including meeting with members of the company's Somali employee group and consulting with local Muslim faith representatives. "We are open to any of the employees returning to work under the new policy or will look for openings in shifts that do not coincide with prayer time," Ariens said in a statement. "We respect their faith, and we respect their decision regardless of their choice to return to work or not." On Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called on Ariens to allow Muslim workers to pray at work using the previous policy until the dispute is resolved. "These types of accommodation disputes can be resolved in a spirit of respect for constitutionally-protected religious rights and for the legitimate needs of both employees and employers," CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said in a news release. Ariens' products include snow blowers and lawn mowers. The sister of a man fatally shot by a University of Cincinnati police officer who pulled him over for lacking a front license plate said she hopes a $5.3 million settlement will help prevent another family from losing a loved one. The settlement with the university, which was announced Monday, gives the family of Samuel DuBose $4.85 million and promises free undergraduate tuition for his 12 children. It also provides for a memorial commemorating DuBose, an apology from the university and the family's involvement in a community advisory committee on police reform. DuBose's sister, Terina Allen, said the monetary aspects of the settlement are secondary to overhauling the university police department. "Ultimately, Sam's death will serve a reminder of just how final it is to pull a gun. And hopefully officers will think twice about pulling a gun," said Allen, who spoke on behalf of the family. "I hope people will obey police officers' orders, but in the end they can't be judge, jury and executioner." DuBose, 43, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car on July 19 after Officer Ray Tensing stopped him near campus for missing a front license plate, which is required by Ohio law. Tensing was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty. University President Santa Ono said he wanted to express the university community's "deepest sadness and regrets at the heartbreaking loss" of DuBose's life. "This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities," he said in a statement. Tensing said that after he stopped the car, DuBose refused to provide a driver's license and get out. A struggle ensued as DuBose tried to drive away, and Tensing said he fired because he feared being dragged under the car, said his attorney, Stewart Matthews. A hearing to set a trial date has been scheduled for Feb. 11, Matthews said. He declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement other than to characterize it as "negative." He said the settlement will be an issue once it comes time to question potential jurors. "Their knowledge of the settlement is one aspect that could affect their ability to be fair and impartial, and you try to find that out," he said. The shooting occurred during heightened scrutiny across the United States of police treatment of blacks, after a string of police-inflicted deaths including in Ferguson, Missouri, and Chicago sparked sometimes-violent protests over the past year and a half. DuBose, who was unarmed, was black, and Tensing is white. Civil rights attorney Mark O'Mara, representing DuBose's family, said the incident can be a springboard to improving relations between police and the community. "We have to have a discourse on how do we make our cops better cops," O'Mara said. "And the flipside to that coin is, we have to figure out how to better interact with cops." Allen said the family is glad the university "acknowledged responsibility that they know they did something wrong." She said the existence of footage from Tensing's body camera was the only thing to rebut claims by the police that DuBose was aggressive during the car stop. "Video didn't stop him from shooting his head off," she said, "but the video camera did serve as vindication that my brother was not a violent person." A Massachusetts student who was held by the Iranian government for 40 days before being released this weekend is back in America. The Boston Globe reported that Matthew Trevithick was greeted by his mother at Boston's Logan International Airport Sunday evening. According to the paper, Trevithick left Iran on a civilian flight Saturday before returning to Boston from Istanbul. Trevithick, 30, was released on the same day that four other Americans -- former Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari -- were freed by Tehran in a separately negotiated prisoner exchange. Trevithick, of Hingham, Mass., had traveled to Iran in September for a Farsi language program at an institute associated with Tehran University. It is unknown why he was held in Evin Prison for more than a month. We actually know very little about that," a State Department official told the Globe when asked about Trevithick's detention and treatment by Iran during his captivity. "There was never any public announcement by the Iranians of his detention and never any public announcement about the charges." The official told the Globe that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a former senator from Massachusetts, had personally pressed the Iranians to release Trevithick. Trevithick is the co-founder of SREO, a humanitarian crisis research center based in Turkey. The Globe reported that he was previously worked at the American University of Iraq and the American University of Afghanistan. He loves the Middle East. He loves understanding the nuance of what goes on there, his father, Paul, told the Globe. He has been traveling the Middle East for years. He has been involved in a dangerous part of the world, so hes not naive about the risks." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from The Boston Globe. The Obama administrations announcement of a temporary freeze on new coal mining on federal land blew through the Powder River Basin like Wyoming's bitter winter wind. The Friday announcement was hardly unexpected, given the administration's so called "war on coal." But with beleaguered big coal poised to dig some of the biggest known deposits in America's top-producing state, hopes ran high - until they were dashed. The administration has chosen to pander to special interest groups and do their bidding, Colin Marshall, president and CEO of Cloud Peak Energy, told FoxNews.com after the announcement. Theres no sugar coating it. This is just another attempt to put another nail in the coffin of the industry. Travis Deti, Wyoming Mining Association The move was seen as just the latest in a line of anti-coal initiatives that have contributed to the crippling of the industry, which has also been hurt by falling oil and natural gas prices. Nowhere will the moratorium have a bigger effect than in the Powder River Basin. Mining companies have long paid huge fees for the right to operate on federal lands, and Cloud Peak and other companies were relishing the opportunity to work two mine sites in the region. The Powder River Basin is a geological treasure trove, with a trillion tons of coal running through the earth in 100-foot high ribbons. Federal authorities, including officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, had been considering whether to allow new leases for more than a year, and last summer held "listening sessions" in the area. Now, Marshall wonders if the feds bothered to hear about a ban's impact on workers, families and the local and state economies. We are disappointed that after a robust set of listening sessions on the coal leasing program last summer in which thousands of people across the West, from working class Americans to governors, very clearly explained how important the coal leasing program is to their well-being, Marshall said. Roughly 40 percent of the coal produced in the United States comes from federal lands. The vast majority of that mining on government land takes place in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. In total, Wyoming produces more than three times as much as the next-closest coal producing state, West Virginia. It's unclear what impact the moratorium will have on many coal companies given the declining domestic demand, coupled with the closure of numerous coal-fired power plants around the country. Mining companies have already stockpiled billions of tons of coal on existing leasesincluding Cloud Peak Energy. We urge Western lawmakers at the state and Congressional level to ensure a timely and legitimate review process by the Department of the Interior, Marshall said. [But] We do not believe this announcement will have any immediate impact on our operations, and we have strong reserves, including the Youngs Creek and Big Metal projects which are not impacted by todays announcement, to continue serving our customers. In a conference call on Friday, Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said that the recent decision is not a pause on coal production but rather a means for the government to have more time to study the benefits of coal and its impact on the environment. Jewell also said that the pause on new leases should not affect the countrys ability to meet production goals. Some in the industry near the Powder River Basin say otherwise. This is not about finding a solution thats best for everybody, Travis Deti, assistant director for the Wyoming Mining Association, told FoxNews.com. "Thats just lip service. This is just another attempt to keep coal in the ground. It was during the public hearings last year that the administration also set out to get feedback on the adequacy of the fees charged companies for coal mined on federal lands. The government collects a 12.5-percent royalty on the sale price of strip-mined coal. The rate was established in 1976. The money is then split between the federal government and the state where the coal was mined. Coal companies also pay a $3 fee annually for each acre of land leased. Government auditors have in the past questioned whether the rate provided an appropriate return to taxpayers. But coal companies say their profit margins are slim compared to what they fork over to the government. Cloud Peak Energy paid $354 million in taxes and royalties to federal, state and local governments in 2014," Marshall said. "For the same year, we paid an additional $69 million for leases for future production. For the same year, our profit was $79 million. Deti said the government is not really looking out for taxpayers so much as it is dealing a death blow to an industry that means everything in places like the Powder River Basin. Theres no sugar coating it," Deti said. "This is just another attempt to put another nail in the coffin of the industry. The Associated Press contributed to this story. A man with a long criminal record who'd reportedly planned to target cops was arrested Monday in the shooting death of an Ohio police officer. Danville Officer Thomas Cottrell was gunned down shortly before midnight behind the Danville Municipal Building, Knox County Sheriff David Shaffer said. His service weapon and cruiser were missing. Cottrell's cruiser was later found approximately half a mile from his body. The suspected gunman, Herschel Ray Jones III, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m. after he briefly ran from officers. Knox County Prosecutor Chip McConville says he expects Jones to face a murder charge, but it's not clear how soon it would be filed. Court records show Jones, 32, has multiple convictions dating back to 2001 for breaking and entering, burglary, receiving stolen property and carrying a concealed weapon. In a 2011 case, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity before changing his plea to guilty. Ohio prison records show he served nearly four years for the 2011 convictions of receiving stolen property and possession of chemicals for manufacture of drugs. He was released last April. Shaffer said authorities received a call at approximately 11:20 p.m. from a woman saying police officers in Danville were in danger, and her ex-boyfriend, Jones, had weapons and was looking to kill an officer. Shaffer said dispatchers tried to make contact with Cottrell, but were unable to do so. That prompted the Knox County Sheriff's Office to search the village. Franklin County Sheriff Chief Deputy Jim Gilbert confirmed the officer's death on social media. Prayers for Ohio's first fallen officer for 2016 a Danville PD Officer was shot/killed this evening in Knox County. pic.twitter.com/s0gW5nKYqS Chief Jim Gilbert (@CHIEFGILBERT1) January 18, 2016 The president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police called Cottrell's killing an assassination. "We ask all Ohioans to pray for peace and healing for Officer Cottrell's family, friends and co-workers," Jay McDonald said in a written statement. "His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence," McDonald said. The village of Danville, which has a population of around 1,000 people, is located 60 miles northeast of Columbus. Calls to numbers listed to Jones or family members in Knox County rang answered or were not in service Monday. An autopsy on Cottrell was expected for Tuesday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The veteran Utah police officer shot and killed Sunday morning while investigating a car crash had just overcome a lengthy battle with cancer. Sgt. Doug Barney had recently received a clean bill of health after fighting bladder cancer for several years, said Unified Police Department spokesperson Lex Bell, who said he was a friend of Barneys. Hes had cancer for a long time and fought hard, Bell told FOX13. There were a couple occasions where he got really, really sick and has always powered through it. Barney, an 18-year veteran of the force and a married father of three, was shot in the head while pursuing two people who had left the scene of a car crash, officials said. The suspected gunman, Cory Lee Henderson, was also shot and wounded in an exchange of gunfire. The woman he was with is still on the run. An officer with Barney was shot three times and had surgery Sunday evening. Its always a tragedy when someone dies young and leaves people behind, Bell said. Tens of thousands of people have protested in Moldova's capital, calling on the government to properly investigate the up to $1.5 billion that disappeared from three banks last year. Protesters yelled "we want the one billion back!" on Sunday, urging the central bank governor, the general prosecutor and others to resign. Non-governmental organizations organized the protest and threatened to stage non-stop demonstrations. The state-owned Savings Bank, the Social Bank and Unibank, where the money disappeared from before November 2014 parliamentary elections, were put under the National Bank of Moldova's administration in December, and the losses were covered by state reserves. The banks will be liquidated by October. An unpublished parliamentary report said some of the money was transferred to Russian banks. The banks are owned by Moldovan and Russian investors. Moldova's president has named an acting prime minister after government lost a no-confidence vote due to corruption allegations. President Nicolae Timofti appointed deputy prime minister Gheorghe Brega as interim premier Friday until a new government is formed. Brega said a new pro-European government should be formed as soon as possible. Parliament now has three months to approve a new government. Lawmakers voted Thursday against the government of Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet, who defended former premier Vlad Filat, who is accused of corruption. Filat was arrested Oct. 15 on charges of taking $260 million in bribes, allegedly linked to a fraud in which up to $1.5 billion went missing from three Moldovan banks ahead of the November 2014 parliamentary election. Strelet and Filat both deny wrongdoing. The second class of the all-female Syriac Christians Brigade proudly took its place earlier this month on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, whose own increasing use of women as suicide bombers offers a sharp contrast between the two sides visions. Known as the Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers in reference to the stretch of traditionally Syriac-inhabited land between the Tigris and Euphrates, the all-volunteer unit consists of Syrian mothers, wives and professionals who pray in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. "I'm a practicing Christian, and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against Daesh (ISIS)," one fighter named Babylonia, who graduated with the first class in December, told AFP. She said her husband, also a soldier in the same war, encouraged her to leave their children behind to fight for their future and "against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up. The women, the first of whom graduated from a training camp in Al-Qahtaniyeh in August, are primarily focused on protecting Christian areas. Patterned after the highly successful female Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the unit has already seen battle, most recently in the fight to retake the northeastern town of Al-Hol after two years of ISIS rule. ISIS will recruit from any social strata, and using female terrorists in general and suicide bombers in particular are only going to increase. Shaul Gabbay, Global Research Institute But while these women are fighting to protect their families and homeland, their female counterparts fighting for ISIS have a much different role in advancing the terrorist groups bleak and barbarous cause in the war that has engulfed much of Iraq and Syria. Sources from Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, an undercover group of activists based inside ISIS Syrian stronghold, told FoxNews.com that the terrorists recently formed an all-female volunteer suicide bombing squad. Wives of ISIS jihadists recruit the citys females to the grim duty with tales of the paradise that awaits them for giving their lives to defend the caliphate. Recruiters ensure their prey that their families will be taken care of after death with a significant sum of money handed over before the mission date to seal the deal. The females go through proper training at a camp with weapons and learn how to do a proper suicide bombing, a member of Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently told FoxNews.com. These are women who choose to do this, women of all ages. Even teenagers. Before being pressed into the task of recruiting for and carrying out suicide attacks, the women of ISIS were typically deployed as the Shariah police, known as the Al-Khansa Brigade. The brigade was comprised exclusively of armed women who patrolled the streets of Raqqa and other towns and villages occupied by ISIS, terrorizing and punishing other females for sharia violations as minor as wearing a niqab that fits too closely, therefore showing the outline of a woman's body. Whether based on need or a twisted take on progressivism, ISIS is working hard to emphasize that its cause transcends social status and gender barriers, said Prof. Shaul Gabbay, executive director of the Denver-based Global Research Institute. The idea that everyone is part of our mission is also part of the terrorizing, that the enemy can be attacked from anywhere at any time by anyone, he said. ISIS will recruit from any social strata, and using female terrorists in general and suicide bombers in particular is only going to increase. While women fighting for freedom in Iraq and Syria is relatively new, ISIS is following a terrorism tradition in tapping females to kill and be killed for radical Islam. The concept of Islamic female jihadists, stabbers, bombers and burka brigades while undergoing something of resurgence is not new. The phenomenon of female jihadists has been growing for many years now, said Kamran Bokhari, senior analyst at Geopolitical Futures and author of Political Islam in the Age of Democratization. Females go through the same technical tradecraft with respect to guns and explosives, and the ideological training is very similar in that they are promised heaven should they carry out their mission. Female jihadists have taken up arms all over the globe, including Israel, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Kenya, Chechnya and even the U.S., in last months deadly attack in San Bernardino, Calif.. But in Iraq and Syria, the so-called burka brigades are meeting their match in Christian and Kurdish women who fight for hope and for their homeland. "I was afraid of the noise of cannons firing, but the fear quickly went away, an 18-year-old member of Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers told AFP. I would love to be on the front line in the fight against the terrorists." In a sign the Islamic State terror group could be pressed for cash, a new report claims its leaders slashed the salaries of all its fighters in half. The "Treasury Ministry" of ISIS blamed "exceptional circumstances," The Jerusalem Post reported. The terror group reportedly did not explain exactly what those circumstances were. However, the announcement came out in December, before the Pentagon revealed that a January airstrike took out an ISIS cash stockpile in Mosul, Iraq. Terror leaders said this would not affect the collection and distribution of Zakat, a religious tax benefitting the poor, the Post adds. Treasury minister Bayt al-Mal reportedly cited the Koran, which prioritizes "jihad of wealth," or spending in beneficial or charitable ways, over "jihad of soul." A group of Americans who disappeared in Baghdad over the weekend were kidnapped from their interpreter's apartment, according to multiple Iraqi sources. A U.S. official tells Fox News all three Americans are male. The State Department and FBI are leading the investigation. A police major general described the apartment as a brothel, The Washington Post reports, adding that it was subject to frequent raids by Iran-backed Shiite militias. However, many people in the region refer to any building that accepts foreigners as a "brothel," and the Iraqi military reportedly denied that was the apartment's use. "We are in very direct contact with the Iraqi authorities... there is a very full effort going to find them as soon as possible," Secretary of State John Kerry told Fox News Monday. An Iraqi intelligence official told the Associated Press that the Americans were invited into the apartment in the neighborhood of Dora. After they were abducted, they were taken to Sadr City, at which point the official said, "all communications and contact stopped." A spokesman for Baghdad's Joint Operations Command told The Washington Post that the three citizens were Iraqis who had acquired U.S. citizenship. A Baghdad police official said they worked as contractors at Baghdad International Airport, but did not say which country employed them. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by ISIS, Shiite militias and criminal gangs often demanding ransom payments or seeking to resolve workplace disputes. Following the ISIS takeover of Iraq's second largest city Mosul and large swaths of territory in the country's north and west, Iraq has witnessed a deterioration in security as government forces were sent to front lines and Shiite militias were empowered to aid in the fight following the collapse of the Iraqi military. Last month a Qatari hunting party was kidnapped in Iraq's south by unidentified gunmen and their whereabouts are still unknown. In September 18 Turkish workers were kidnapped from their construction site in Baghdad's Sadr city by masked men in military uniforms. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi blamed organized crime for the kidnapping. The workers were released later that month. The most recent incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. ISIS claimed a number of attacks in Baghdad and Diyala province last week that killed more than 50 people, including a high profile attack on a mall in the Iraqi capital. Fox News Channel's Conor Powell, Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Click for more from The Washington Post. Russian's president is hosting the ruler of Qatar for talks set to focus on the Syrian crisis. Vladimir Putin welcomed Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani at the start of Monday's talks in the Kremlin by hailing Qatar's role in regional affairs. He voiced hope that they would be able to "search for ways of settlement of the most difficult issues." Al-Thani emphasized a key role Russia could play in stabilizing the region, adding that Qatar wants to find a solution for problems "concerning stability of some of the countries of the region." Neither leader mentioned Syria in their opening remarks, but the Syrian crisis was looming over the talks. Russia has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout the nearly five-year conflict, while Qatar has supported the opposition. Freeing four American prisoners from Iranian prisons required billions of dollars and high-level diplomacy, but liberating captives including an American woman who was pregnant when she was taken in Afghanistan from the shadowy organization that once held Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will likely prove far more daunting. It was more than three years ago when American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, vanished in Afghanistan. The couple, who were backpacking through the region while Coleman was five-months pregnant, next surfaced in a video emailed to Coleman's family in York County, Pennsylvania. The U.S. government believes they, as well as an unnamed American in his 60s, are being held by the infamous Haqqani network. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Relative of Caitlan Coleman, hostage held by Haqqani network We should be putting the fear of God in these terrorists that if you mess with an American citizen, we will get you and we will win, a source with knowledge of back-channel communications aimed at their return told Fox News.com. Are we really doing that? Multiple sources told FoxNews.com that an American man, as first reported by the Daily Beast and whose identity remains undisclosed for safety reasons, is also being secretly held hostage by terrorists around the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. According to one well-placed source, the unnamed U.S. citizen has been in the grasp of the Haqqani network since being grabbed while wandering through Pakistan for odd but not nefarious reasons in late 2014. Equal parts terrorist organization and criminal organization, the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network operates in the lawless Afghan-Pakistani border. It held Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant who left his base in Afghanistan, for five years, until the U.S. won his release with a controversial prisoner swap. Talks to free Coleman, Boyle and the unnamed hostage are proceeding, but little is known about the progress being made, if any is. One government official said there is reason to believe Coleman is alive, and a Coleman relative told FoxNews.com that the family feels almost certain the couple and their baby are still alive. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, a relative of Coleman told FoxNews.com, adding that family members closest to her have frequent contact with several government officials and receive regular updates on what is being done to bring the Westerners home. Several months after their disappearance in 2012, videos featuring the couple were emailed to the Coleman family by an Afghan man claiming to have Taliban ties but no direct involvement in their captivity. It wasnt until June of 2014 that the families publicized the two videos in which a gaunt Coleman was seen pleading to my president, Barack Obama for help. Coleman, who is now 30, references their baby in the tape, but the child is not shown. The decision to draw attention to their plight came following the release of Bergdahl, in the hopes that further awareness might lead to a successful negotiation. Family members also expressed disappointment that Boyle, Coleman and their baby were not freed as part of the deal. There is a possibility that she may have had a second child in captivity since then, said the defense source familiar with the case. So ultimately were looking at three main scenarios one child, two children or none at all. Negotiations and whatever leverage the U.S. may have remain murky. Unlike the Iranian exchange, which involved a governments conviction however dubious of Americans, the hostages held by Haqqani network are in an undisclosed location by dangerous and unpredictable captors. We say we dont talk to terrorists, we dont pay ransoms to support terrorists, said the source familiar with U.S. efforts to free the hostages. Unfortunately, the captor network does not follow diplomatic protocol'. Yet one well-placed source said the Haqqani network is more pragmatic than a typical terrorist organization, and negotiations using third parties and local middle men are possible. That could help the U.S. get around its official policy of not dealing with terrorists. The Arab nation of Qatar took part in the talks that led to Bergdahls release. Last year the Obama administration attempted to improve overall hostage negotiation strategy by revising the current policy approving changes to help streamline the process, declassify information in a faster manner so it can be shared with relatives and ultimately allowing them to pay for information that may help lead to the release of a loved one. A Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell also was established as the single government entity responsible for coordinating the recovery the U.S hostages abroad, located in the FBI headquarters but with professionals from several agencies including the Department of Defense and Department of Justice involved. The changes were prompted by a series of tragedies surrounding American hostages in recent years, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Kayla Mueller, who were all murdered by their ISIS captors. Aid worker Warren Weinstein was inadvertently killed by a CIA drone strike while in the internment of Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Dozens of Americans -- including former U.S. Marine-turned-journalist Austin Tice, who vanished in Syria, and retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007 -- are reportedly being held around the world, although many have not been heard from in months or even years. But whether the Obama administrations new approach will prove effective remains to be seen. The Recovery Cell doesnt work until it works until we see the proof, until these Americans come home, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., told FoxNews.com, adding that he objects to the emphasis on not publicizing hostage cases. U.S. Government officials who would not comment on the unnamed American in captivity, but acknowledged Colemans case insist that the safe recovery of hostages is a top priority. We can assure you we continue to work aggressively to ensure Ms. Coleman and her familys safe return, the official said. These individuals are being held against their will and should be allowed to return to their families. A spokesperson for the Canadian government told FoxNews.com that the countrys first priority is the safety and security of its citizens, but declined further comment on Boyles situation so as not to compromise ongoing efforts or endanger the safety of Canadian citizens. However, Gary Noesner, kidnap management consultant and retired chief of the FBIs Crisis Negotiation Unit, said that the administrations new approach is a positive step toward improving the quality of family support and operational management of the U.S. Government in these difficult cases. Adriatic Road Trip Now Offers Personal Travel, Real Estate, and SEO Services Originally a travel guide focusing on Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro, company now has even more to offer to travelers, businesses, and property owners and buyers, Adriatic Road Trip notes -- Adriatic Road Trip has expanded in scope, adding travel, real estate, and local search engine optimization (SEO) services to its offerings. Originally founded as a blog to complement the travel-guide best-seller sold on Amazon, Adriatic Road Trip has since grown to become a wider-ranging company assisting property owners with real estate services, local businesses with local SEO, and travelers with local guide's insight into places to visit and things to do. With an intimate knowledge of Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro, along with his experience in international real estate and local marketing, founder Toni Krasnic now offers professional services to market properties and assist with real estate transactions, connect tourists with rewarding travel opportunities, and deliver more business to local companies in those countries. "When I first published Adriatic Road Trip, I wanted to introduce readers to the many amazing things to see and do in Croatia and Slovenia, two countries that are very dear to me," Krasnic said, "The enthusiastic reception the book received was truly gratifying, allowing expanded coverage at the Adriatic Road Trip blog to also include Albania and Montenegro. Since then, we have become even more ambitious, now offering travel, real estate, and local SEO services, as well. As more people discover how much these countries have to offer, we expect these services to become even more popular." Born in Slovenia and having lived in Croatia and traveled extensively throughout the region, Krasnic is the multilingual author of Adriatic Road Trip, a 2015 book that met with a warm reception on Amazon. Focusing on Croatia and Slovenia, the book guided readers to lesser-known destinations beyond the largest cities in those two countries, with a uniquely Kindle-oriented focus that made it an especially useful travel companion. The associated blog at AdriaticRoadTrip.com proved to be just as popular, garnering thousands of Facebook likes and regular visitors. With such a high level of interest in the book and the blog, Adriatic Road Trip has since expanded its offerings, becoming a full-service authority on travel, real estate, and local SEO in the region. Adriatic Road Trip now offers expert help with real estate in Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro, with founder Krasnic being a Keller Williams Global Properties Specialist and Certified International Properties Specialist, and maintaining an extensive network of relationships with local agents in those countries. Adriatic Road Trip provides marketing of properties in 19 different languages in more than 100 countries around the world, working with buyers, sellers, owners, and renters to assist them with their real estate needs. Local businesses in these countries likewise benefit from the company's expanded mission, with Adriatic Road Trip now also providing top-quality local SEO in Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro. Effective search engine optimization of this kind makes potential customers far more likely to come across targeted companies as they search through Google and online maps, ultimately producing more business for those who take advantage of the local SEO service. Finally, Adriatic Road Trip now offers an even wider range of assistance with travel in travel in Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro, building directly on the company's original mission. In addition to having added Albania and Montenegro to the list of covered countries, Adriatic Road Trip has developed a wide network of trusted travel-industry partners, allowing it to provide personal, valuable help with everything from accommodations and sightseeing to recreation and the kinds of road trips that gave the company its start. More information about all of these services and opportunities can be found at the Adriatic Road Trip website. About Adriatic Road Trip: With insiders' perspectives on the top destinations in Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, and Montenegro, Adriatic Road Trip informs travelers and connects them with top travel and real estate experts, also providing effective SEO services that help local companies stand out. For more information about us, please visit http://www.adriaticroadtrip.com Contact Info: Name: Toni Krasnic Organization: Adriatic Road Trip Phone: 385 976711277 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/adriatic-road-trip-now-offers-personal-travel-real-estate-and-seo-services/100910 Release ID: 100910 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Appleton, WI Restaurant Prepares for 1st Wine Pairing Dinner of 2016 With holiday frivolities over, one Appleton restaurant kicks off 2016 with creative cuisine pairings and an impressive lineup of Chilean wines. Osorio's Latin Fusion, known for its Latin American culinary flair, hosts its first monthly wine pairing dinner of the year on Wednesday, January 20th. -- Holiday festivities are now a memory, and many restaurant patrons are now returning to more typical dining-out habits. One local restaurant has established a sort of monthly tradition among its customers, and wine enthusiasts in particular. The first wine pairing dinner of 2016 at Osorio's Latin Fusion restaurant in Appleton, Wisconsin is set to commence on Wednesday, January 20th at 7:00 pm and features an inspired menu of Latin influenced cuisine, expertly paired with select Chilean wines. Now in its 4th year of business in the Fox Valley, Osorio's Latin Fusion restaurant has established an impressive local reputation for its innovative approach to the ever more popular concept of fusion cuisine. Executive Chef, Liborio Osorio, familiarly known among the restaurant's many loyal patrons as Chef Libo, explains the philosophy behind the Osorio's signature Latin Fusion concept. "We have a strong background in Latin cuisine, built over many collective years in the hospitality business. We also have great passion for creating inspired dishes and bringing this experience to our customers. Our 'Latin Fusion' concept allows us to explore that passion without the typical boundaries that might be imposed on a concept more strictly defined as 'Mexican' food." That culinary freedom is readily apparent in the menu set for Osorio's upcoming wine pairing dinner, along with the carefully selected Chilean wine list. The menu will feature: 1st Course: Grilled Pear Salad paired with Montes Sauvignon Blanc 2nd Course: Smoked Paprika Tortellini paired with Montes Twin Red Blend 3rd Course: Macadamia Shrimp paired with Montes Cabernet 4th Course: Raspberry Crumb Cake paired with Montes Malbec Founded in 1987, Montes Winery is largely credited with raising the bar on quality standards throughout Chilean wine regions. The very first Cabernet Sauvignon produced by Montes is touted as the first "premium" wine to come from Chile. In 1996, Montes released the first-ever "ultra-premium" - or "super Chilean" - to be exported from Chile, garnering global attention for the country's growing wine industry. Of the decision to feature Montes wines at the upcoming wine pairing dinner, co-owner/general manager, and self-proclaimed wine enthusiast, Kim Finnell, explains with an obvious passion, "Chilean wines are not as well-known as their French, Italian, or Napa Valley counterparts, and that's a shame because there are some extraordinary wines being produced in that part of the world. We want to bring these hidden gems into the spotlight for our wine-loving patrons. That's just one part of the unforgettable dining experience we hope to create with our signature pairing dinners each month; something new, something different, something wonderful and this one promises to deliver all three!" Attendees to the much anticipated wine pairing dinner will have the opportunity not only to taste a variety of Chilean wines, but also to learn a bit about their origin and flavor profiles, as each course is professionally presented. The four course dinner featuring Montes Chilean wines at Osorio's Latin Fusion is $45 per person. Reservations are required and can be obtained by calling the Appleton restaurant directly at 920-955-3766. Community or private table preferences are considered based on seating availability. For more information about Osorio's Latin Fusion, including menus, events, and Appleton catering options, please visit www.osorioslatinfusion.com. **Elyse Hoffman is a freelance journalist and fervent lover of winning wines and creative cuisine. For more information about us, please visit http://osorioslatinfusion.com/ Contact Info: Name: Elyse Hoffman Organization: Osorio's Latin Fusion Source: http://marketersmedia.com/appleton-wi-restaurant-prepares-for-1st-wine-pairing-dinner-of-2016/101428 Release ID: 101428 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) My Disability Matters Launches With Nationwide Survey For Australian Disabled People A blind disability activist and entrepreneur has launched a website in response to controversy over The Mightys mockery of autism, with a survey asking people living with a disability to set their own agenda. Hobart, Tasmania -- January 18, 2016 (FPRC) -- The Washington Post recently drew attention to the growing controversy in Australia over The Mighty, a website supposedly for and by people with a disability, openly mocking Autism with a post about 'meltdown bingo'. In response, those with disabilities as well as well as those who care for them are looking for a new way to be open and honest about their issues without being mocked. Dale Reardon, a blind Australian disability activist and entrepreneur, has launched the website My Disability Matters, with a comprehensive survey for potential users to have their say on the site's agenda, operating procedures and more. The survey is designed to allow individuals to vent frustrations, share perspectives and have their say in how the website can best deliver what they are currently lacking in the online community a supportive, representative space that is defined by people with a disability for people with a disability. The website's design is beautifully presented, and is already rich in features, making it an inviting online space to build a community. The site will include disability news in Australia and coverage of the biggest issues pertaining to people with a disability, including the changing nature of the NDIS in Australia and more. Dale Reardon, the founder of My Disability Matters explained, "What happened at The Mighty is an example of people no longer wanting to internalise the mockery they have lived with for so much of their lives, growing up in a society which by and large does not appreciate the difficulties people with all kinds of disability face every day. This site has been created to offer an alternative, which will offer honest opinion, insightful investigation and real advocacy for disabled people. In order to deliver that, we want consultation with as wide a net of people as possible, which is why we have created the survey to be completed by people with a disability, their families and carers, to set our agenda for the future." About My Disability Matters My Disability Matters aims to become the first one stop shop for disability news and opinion, increasing the representation of people living with a disability through their own words, views and experiences. The website has been launched to cover major issues arising, including changes to the NDIS, and will offer advocacy and agency to people with all forms of disability. For more information please visit: http://mydisabilitymatters.com.au/ Send an email to Dale Reardon of r 61420277457 Recent Press Releases By The Same User ShapeHost Launches New Spring Sale Offering Savings Of Up To 35% On VPS Packages (Tue 8th Mar 16) Paypro Finance Launches their Consumer Financing for Small Business Program (Mon 7th Mar 16) Kuber Ventures Publishes New Infographic To Show Difference Between EIS for Pensions and SIPP (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Pregnancy Exercise Publishes New Guide Into Training For Fitness While Pregnant (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Centex Hosting Launches Newly Redesigned Website To Herald Expansion Into VPS Hosting (Thu 3rd Mar 16) Royal Cliff Receives ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Certification (Wed 2nd Mar 16) China Sourcing Service Reports on Reaching Milestone Sixth Thousandth Manufacturer Partnership China Sourcing Service has confirmed its sixth thousandth manufacturer partnership, enabling them to source products for international buyers on a scale unlike any other sourcing company. -- China is the manufacturing capital of the world, and the Chinese now aim to increase the prestige of their output by creating products not only manufactured but designed in China. This will surely see demand increase, and already retailers and suppliers across the world source huge volumes of their materials from China. China Sourcing Service (CSS) is a business that helps these international suppliers and retailers save an average of 25% on their Chinese purchases. They have just reached a partnership with a milestone six thousandth manufacturer, allowing them to offer the most comprehensive connections of any Chinese sourcing company. Their unique way of working seems them undertake a personalized consultation with every company they work with to establish their needs and requirements for products, including information on the target market and quality standards, before targeting selected suppliers. They will then negotiate the best rates from each of these and go with the best quote, whereupon their in-house quality control staff will ensure the products are delivered to the standard clients expect. The combination of six thousand manufacturers ensures there is no product the company cannot source, and CSS service boasts over 200 active clients in over 60 countries and they even take care of the logistics. The milestone enables them to expand their client roster even more in the coming year. A spokesperson for China Sourcing Service explained, "To reach such a great milestone so early into 2016 gives us great hopes for the year ahead. Six thousand manufacturers enables us to cover every market type, every product type and most all variations of build quality, innovation and price band. As such, we are able to help any business, no matter what size or scale, to source the right products for their needs with ease, while saving them money in the process. We have been able to develop such a comprehensive network because we keep both suppliers and clients happy at all stages of the process." About China Sourcing Service: China Sourcing Service (CSS) is a leading China-based sourcing agent. The company was founded in 2007. CSS offers a comprehensive range of China sourcing solutions across the supply chain in a way that balance total cost, quality control and delivery time, while avoid risks of cross-national trade. The service ranges across OEM sourcing, transactional sourcing, sourcing management and sourcing advisory. For more information about us, please visit http://www.chinasourcingservice.org/ Contact Info: Name: Vincent Zhang Organization: CSS Phone: 86-25-84276719 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/china-sourcing-service-reports-on-reaching-milestone-sixth-thousandth-manufacturer-partnership/101436 Release ID: 101436 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sash Windows Brighton Launches New Website To Promote Their Services Online Sash Windows Brighton has created a new and locally optimized website to promote their services in the Brighton and Hove region, where they repair, restore and replace sash windows. -- Sash windows were the most popular form of window for centuries, and surviving examples remain from as early as the 1670s. Brighton and Hove is a historic seaside region and many of the homes there still utilize sash windows with vertical sliding panels to ventilate the home and let in the fresh sea air. These windows do however require specialist repair and maintenance, and Sash Windows Brighton exists for that very purpose. They have just launched a website enabling them to promote their services locally online to new potential clients. The website (http://sashwindows-brighton.co.uk/) is simply designed to put the credentials and services up front, the company has become a Brighton institution through recommendations and word of mouth. This is evidenced by sections on the website dedicated to council approval and testimonials from private clients. The site also has a comprehensive list of services, maintenance and restoration capabilities. The website has been designed to help people organically find the website by searching for local service providers for sash windows, with integrated search engine optimization features. This will allow new customers to discover them for the first time independently. A spokesperson for Sash Windows Brighton explain, "We have created the website in order to help all the people of the Brighton and Hove area to find the best provider of the service they are looking for. While we as a business have thrived for years solely on personal recommendation, we realised this was creating a disparity between those in the know and those with different networks. Now, everyone will have the opportunity to come to us for the best craftsmanship, offering the best value on the best results. Sash windows are a large part of the character of a home, and we can outfit them with state of the art double glazing so they are both beautiful and efficient. Whatever a customer wants we can guarantee we have successfully done it before." About Sash Windows Brighton: Sash Windows Brighton provide repair, restoration and replacement sash window solutions to hundreds of customers in the Brighton and Hove area. Their reputation is impeccable, and their City and Guilds Master Craftsman Certificate confirms their experience, expertise and excellent standard of delivery of sash window projects, including draught proofing, replacement, restoration and double glazing. They can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Sash-Windows-Brighton-577214412432600/?fref=ts. For more information about us, please visit http://sashwindows-brighton.co.uk/ Contact Info: Name: Mike Hawkesworth Organization: Sash Windows Brighton Phone: 01273 934373 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/sash-windows-brighton-launches-new-website-to-promote-their-services-online/101442 Release ID: 101442 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Vector Digital Systems L.L.C. Announces Next Day Delivery to Emirates in the UAE Next day delivery ensures clients can begin saving money while improving productivity right away, reports VectorDigitals.net -- Although final figures for the year have yet to be issued, Infonetics Research forecast that residential and business VoIP Telephony services combined will reach $74.5 billion by the end of the year. This is due not only to the fact that the providers of these services will be making more money, but also to the notion that the need for this service will only increase. Business and residential users alike are finding this telephony option offers better quality in terms of service while reducing the cost associated with communications. Anyone wishing to learn more about IP Telephony may turn to Vector Digital Systems L.L.C for assistance. "Experts believe traditional telephone devices will soon be a thing in the past, as IP Telephony offers so many benefits. This Voice over IP technology may be customized to meet the needs of the clients and scaled back when necessary or expanded when business picks up. Furthermore, as more companies enter the market, competition increases and users find this only benefits them more," the Vector Digital Systems L.L.C sales department reports. To determine which system best meets a consumer's needs, the goals of the business must be determined. For some, improving service remains the top priority, yet others look to IP telephony to cut costs. Some companies opt for grandstream phones, yet others find they benefit more from the use of an avaya telephone system or a panasonic pbx selection. With many to select from, finding the right products for the needs of the company won't be a difficult task. "Once a system has been selected, the business then needs to decide if they wish to make this transition all at once or over a period of time. Some companies find it best to complete a staged transition, yet others feel this interferes with business operations. Vector Digital Systems L.L.C. works with clients to figure out which works best for their unique situation," the sales department continues. Finally, companies need to determine their training needs, and this is often a matter of which system is selected. Some companies find they need training on all features, while others discover most items included with the new telephony system are self explanatory. The process needs to be monitored as training is conducted, so changes can be made in the future, when needed, as additional handsets are added or new features are brought into the system. "Speak to Vector Digital Systems today to learn more about the process, how to go about selecting a system, the benefits of VoIP technology and more. Our staff members understand the importance of having an IT solutions partner who can help the company achieve its goals and save money. They work with clients on a daily basis to ensure this is the case," the sales department declares. About Vector Digital Systems L.L.C.: Vector Digital Systems L.L.C. provides advanced IT and Telecom services along with expert technical resources to supply businesses with the level of solution support they need when they need it. For more information about us, please visit http://www.vectordigitals.net Contact Info: Name: Sales Department Organization: IT & Telephony Solution provider Phone: +971 4 4504145 Source: http://marketersmedia.com/vector-digital-systems-l-l-c-announces-next-day-delivery-to-emirates-in-the-uae/101466 Release ID: 101466 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Top 3 Best PHP Hosting in 2016 Announced by TheHosting.review The top 3 best PHP hosting providers in the year of 2016 are announced by TheHosting.review, based on the aspects of budget-friendliness of hosting packages, the richness of feature offering, performance and uptime of hosting solution and the quality of support service. -- TheHosting.review is a professional hosting review site that releases a lot of reliable and objective reviews, awards and comparisons for hundreds of web hosts. Today, this website announces the best 3 PHP hosting companies in the year of 2016. They are InMotion Hosting, BlueHost and Arvixe. In order to pick up these award winners among around 30 top-quality candidates, this site has finished a series of reviewing and comparing tasks since the middle of the previous year. o Ask for the free accounts of these web hosts to try their hosting services personally. o Carry out the online tests by leveraging the power of Uptime Robot to check the uptime and page loading speed ensured by them. o Collect the reviews and feedbacks from their real customers to figure out their industry reputation. o Try the technical support to analyze their customer services. o Review their Feature pages and Terms of Services to know what they offer to webmasters. According to the final results, InMotion Hosting is listed as the top provider for PHP hosting service. This web host succeeds in achieving a 100% uptime for the tested site during 6 months of the monitoring period. In addition, as supported by the Max Speed Zone technology of InMotion Hosting, this sample site only requires 230 ms on average for responding each server request. In addition to the fastest speed as compared with the other two winners, the hosting provider also ensures cost-effective hosting plans with rich features and the cheap price, which is starting at $3.49/mo only with this 50% promotional campaign. The second winner is BlueHost. As tested since July, 2015, this web host is also a reliable PHP hosting provider that ensures no downtime for the sample site. In addition, after the personal trying of the technical support, the professional reviewers all come out the positive conclusions for their 24/7 service via the methods of toll-free phone call, live chat, email, ticket system, forum and social media platforms. The last winner is Arvixe. This is the most affordable PHP hosting provider among all the other candidates. By activating the coupon code BWH360, the hosting charge is down to $2.8/mo only. In addition, this web host utilizes the DELL branded web servers and world-class data centers to guarantee the high level of hosting reliability and the peak performance. For more information about us, please visit https://thehosting.review/best-php-hosting/ Contact Info: Name: Eunge Email: founder@eunge.com Organization: Eunge Media and Technology Group Ltd Source: http://marketersmedia.com/top-3-best-php-hosting-in-2016-announced-by-thehosting-review/101426 Release ID: 101426 For more information visit r Recent Press Releases By The Same User Agarwood Essential Oil Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 4.2% During 2016 to 2022"> (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Cyber Weapon Market by Type, Product, Application, Region, Outlook and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Landscaping and Gardening Expert Trevor McClintock Launches New Locally Optimized Website (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Sleep apnea devices Market is Evolving At A CAGR of 7.5% by 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Agriculture Technology Market 2017 Global Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Global VR Helmet Market by Manufacturers, Technology, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 (Fri 2nd Jun 17) Since 2006, Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections has been an independent view of family history resources and developments seen from an Ottawa perspective. East Texas Mazda Dealership to Break Ground on New Facility Velocity Mazda, an East Texas Mazda vehicle dealership, will break ground on a new state-of-the-art Mazda facility this Friday, Jan. 22. View as PDF Print View January 18, 2016 (FPRC) - TYLER, TEXAS www.velocitymazda.com: The City of Tyler is no stranger to economic development, with expansion occurring on all sides of the flourishing metropolitan area. Velocity Mazda, a Tyler Mazda vehicle dealership, is planning to add to the citys growth by opening a brand new Mazda dealership later this year. A groundbreaking ceremony celebrating construction of the new facility will take place at 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 22. The new 15,000 sq ft, 3-acre complex will be the first exclusive Mazda dealership in East Texas. Watson Commercial Construction, Ltd. is overseeing project construction and architectural design services were provided by Kevin Craig. The project is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2016. We welcome the opportunity to partner with Velocity Mazda in further enhancing south Tyler with this attractive new facility, says contractor Brad Watson, president of Watson Commercial Construction, Ltd. The contemporary dealership will be one of the first in the nation to showcase Mazdas nouveau Retail Evolution design. The building will have an open-concept floorplan and glass partitions to evoke a heightened level of business transparency. New Mazda signage will be dressed in premium black, clean white and polished chrome. Interior spaces will harmonize warm, raw-material wood tones with modern metal. The Mazda Retail Evolution design is bold and sophisticated, yet simple and elegant, says David Hart, Gulf Region Operations Manager for Mazda North American Operations. We feel the upscale decor and modern technologies will produce exceptional customer experiences. Velocity Mazda is a family-owned dealership. Owner Camden Jones is a Tyler native and self-declared auto enthusiast who races Mazdas semi-professionally. His business mission is to provide affordable vehicles options and neighborly, hassle-free buying experiences. I have a great love for the East Texas community. I am so proud to bring one of the nations first Mazda Retail Evolution dealerships to this area, says Jones. East Texas Mazda owners will now have a true place to call home. Drivers passing by the new dealership will observe an illuminated, glass-enclosed jewel box used for vehicle displays, the first of its kind in Tyler. The facilitys design includes an expanded showroom and a high-tech customer lounge area, complete with a self-serve coffee bar and complimentary wi-fi access. An adjacent drive-in maintenance center with seven full-service bays will complement the showroom area, offering high-tech diagnostic equipment and advanced laser alignment and balancing machinery to ensure optimal vehicle upkeep. Customers will be able to utilize an interactive learning center featuring touchscreen televisions to customize the perfect Mazda. The added service space will allow our experienced service department to continue providing outstanding service to not just Mazda owners, but to all the makes and models that comprise Tylers vehicle marketplace, says Jones. Velocity Mazdas mantra, A soul for service, a drive for community, encapsulates Jones passion for supporting civic activities in East Texas. The new dealership will have flexible interior spaces that can be adapted to host community-sponsored events, like charity drives and art exhibitions. Our dealerships expansion will create additional jobs, further augmenting growth and economic opportunities in the Tyler area, says Jones. We want to share our evolution with others and provide a place that can be used for community activities. Customers often possess a wary or negative perception about the car buying process, shares Jones. His staff approaches the selling process with a unique angletransparency. We have a genuine interest in pairing our customers with affordable, quality vehicles. By first sympathizing with a customers unique perspective, our knowledgeable sales associates can then alleviate apprehension through education, says Jones. Located about midway between Dallas and Shreveport and home of the annual Texas Rose Festival, Tyler is considered Americas Rose Capital. The Greater Tyler area has experienced significant economic development in recent years, and serves as a regional hub for East Texas in terms of education, manufacturing, health care and retail. Mazda North American Operations is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and oversees the sales, marketing, parts and customer service support of nearly 700 Mazda vehicle dealers throughout the U. S. and in Mexico. Mazdas corporate goals are centered on driving pleasure and outstanding environmental and safety performance. _______ Velocity Mazda is a Mazda vehicle dealership in Tyler, Texas, which serves the Greater Tyler area, Longview and Dallas. Founded in 2014, the dealership sells new Mazdas and a wide array of pre-owned vehicles. The firm also offers auto financing, and vehicle parts and maintenance services. Company owner, Camden Jones, explains that the dealerships overarching mantra, A soul for service, a drive for community, fuels the sales teams mission to provide exceptional, hassle-free buying experiences. For more information about Velocity Mazda, please visit www.VelocityMazda.com. ## Send an email to Erica Bender of r 903-944-7872 Recent Press Releases By The Same User Welcome Message The Appraiser Workshops blog was developed in 2008 to publish news connected with the personal property profession and to promote the Appraiser Workshops. Content includes appraisal ideas and tips, industry news and events, market trends and updates, surveys, educational opportunities and general commentary about personal property appraising. Visit often. Comments, news, suggestions and content contributions are always welcome. SimplyBiz Group has announced a schedule of more than 300 events across the UK over the course of 2016. Last year the Yorkshire-based company held 280 events attended by more than 12,500 delegates but this year looks set to be even bigger. The programme kicks off later this month with five national conferences tackling key investment and fund management issues including research, due diligence and building value in an advisory practice. Rachel Lee, strategic relationships and events director of the SimplyBiz Group, said: New technological and virtual innovations play a great part in the evolution of the financial services sector, however we believe that face-to-face interaction continues to be the mainstay of our industry. Last years feedback, combined with year-on-year growth of attendance figures, demonstrate that our events programme is hugely valued by our membership and for as long as this is the case we will continue to develop and expand our events programme whilst many other service companies and networks pull back from providing this type of service. She added that SimplyBiz has also also broadened the number of webinars it will offer this year as an addition to its events schedule rather than a replacement to its face-to-face meetings. Tuesday, 19th January 2016 Verbatim Conference London Tuesday, 19th January Eastleigh Mortgage Masterclass Wednesday, 20th January 2016 Verbatim Conference - Midlands Wednesday, 20th January Bristol Mortgage Masterclass Thursday, 21st January 2016 Verbatim Conference Bristol Thursday, 21st January Swansea Mortgage Masterclass Thursday, 21st January Financial Advisers and Estate Planning Webinar Tuesday, 26th January Bradford Mortgage Masterclass Wednesday, 27th January 2016 Verbatim Conference Leeds Wednesday, 27th January Durham Mortgage Masterclass Thursday, 28th January 2016 Verbatim Conference Scotland A series of mortgage masterclasses have already begun, with the first round of investment forums and learning and development workshops kicking off shortly. Throughout the year there will also be series of events dedicated to protection, workplace solutions and professional development. Advisers can also attend business evolution and best practice events through the companys not-for-profit division, the New Model Business Academy. All SimplyBiz Groups events are accredited for CPD by Chartered Insurance Institute and Institute of Financial Services. Standard Life Investments is to merge its two UK property funds as it completes a set of closures sparked by its 2014 acquisition of Ignis Asset Management. In a letter to investors, the fund house said it plans to merge the 1.6bn SLI Ignis UK Property Fund with the 1.4bn SLI UK Property fund, having previously merged the two teams in October 2014. It will be renamed the SLI UK Real Estate Fund. Both invest in physical UK commercial property assets and aim to produce a mixture of income and capital growth. The merger is planned for May 2016, and will be preceded by adminstrative changes to the former Ignis fund - chief of which is SLIs plan to shift the portfolio from dual pricing to single pricing, in line with its other funds. SLI said this will happen on March 18. It will also change the Ignis funds custodian and launch new share classes. Costs will be borne by SLI, the fund group said. In its letter to investors, the firm said: We have concluded that a merger of the two funds would represent the best outcome for investors as both funds have very similar objectives, portfolio characteristics and follow similar investment approaches. The SLI Ignis UK Property fund has returned 27.4 per cent over the last three years, and the SLI UK Property fund 29.4 per cent. This compares to a IA Property sector return of 20.7 per cent. The move will leave the SLI Ignis Absolute Return Government Bond fund as the sole portfolio bearing the Ignis name, following the merger of 11 other portfolios last October. Just as the sun finally sets on commission, is there a new beam of light being shone on the very same issue? On the orders of regulators and politicians, commission, in the guise of payments between fund firms and platforms and on qualifying auto-enrolment schemes in pensions, is banned as of April. It is still payable to advisers on off-platform, legacy retail business, but Mifid could ultimately put paid to that, too. Yet we now have comments from Tracey McDermott, acting boss at the FCA, not ruling out a return of commission in some form admittedly in remarks made under close questioning and without enthusiasm. There are essentially two interpretations of what this means. The first is that she just answered a question honestly on the basis of never say never. To do otherwise, I am told by those who move in regulatory circles, would be to prejudge the Financial Advice Market Review. They point to the fact that she also told the MoneyBox programme that there is no intention of reversing the RDR. The second interpretation is that McDermott is running a flag up a pole to see if anyone salutes (and how sharply they do so). So what does it all mean? Well, on those two interpretations, either everything or nothing. But it is possible that this heralds a new bout of the liberalising, libertarian zeal that has already given us pension freedoms and the promise of annuity resales. In a similar vein, the government could decide to bring back commission for targeted or focused advice. Perhaps advisers will only retain the independent label if they dont accept commission, such payments only being allowed in the (theoretically) more controlled arena of restricted advice. Such a system was originally suggested when polarisation was struck down by the FSA and the Treasury around the turn of century. It may provoke a stomach-challenging feeling of deja vu among the older advisers who thought such debates were consigned to the dustbin of history. Regardless, there is certainly still a lobby saying, we need salesmen and saleswomen back, and they need to be incentivised in some way. Now, before anyone goes off to dust down a commission-based business plan, it is important to ask who would benefit. Commission may not always have been at fault, but under the old regime most types of financial business whether fund managers, insurers, banks or advisers sustained some damage to reputation, bottom line or both. It also took life offices a remarkably long time to see the difference between new business and profit and loss. Yet to play devils advocate, you could ask whether there is in fact a justification for a limited return commission, perhaps on retirement advice? It may also become a matter of national importance to spread the investing habit, especially as the defined benefit era draws to a close. Could commission help? Pension tax relief for those on higher incomes looks set to be ditched as part of HM Treasurys overhaul of the pensions system. Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce a move towards a flat-rate government contribution in his March Budget, the Financial Times has revealed. Currently workers enjoy pension tax relief at the same rate as their income tax, but the change would see a shift towards a pension savings incentive of between 25 and 33 per cent for everyone, people close to the Treasury have said. According to the FT article, the changes are unlikely to come into force for at least a year in order to give the industry time to prepare for the reform. Depending on where the flat rate is set, the changes could save the Treasury billions of pounds a year. A review into pensions tax relief was launched last summer, which found that retirement tax relief cost nearly 50bn a year. This consultation is now closed. A HM Treasury spokesman said: We have not decided on whether or how to reform the system and are considering all options, including retaining the current system. We are considering the responses and will respond at the Budget. Keith Churchouse, chartered financial planner at Guildford-based Chapters Financial, said in the shorter term this would be very bad news for higher earners, but if they do introduce a flat rate then it could be a very good thing for pensions. If they are bending it around at 25 or 30 per cent as the flat rate tax relief, then we may well find that the squeezed middle may change their financial planning to increase their pension contribution going forward. We might see more funds flowing into pensions in the longer term, and that has to be a good thing for the vast majority of people in the UK. Mr Churchouse said he would be very surprised if Mr Osborne does not announce changes to pension tax incentives in the Budget. He added: I think we will get a scramble of higher rate taxpayers in the next few months to make sure they do top up their pension while higher rate tax relief is available. katherine.denham@ft.com A layered approach that exploits the weaknesses of thieves can help prevent tractor and quad bike theft on farms, say experts. Rural insurer NFU Mutual said tractor theft claims costs rose more than 13% in the first nine months of 2015 in East Anglia, the Midlands and the South East. Theft of quads also remains high, with claims rising in some regions and falling in others. See also: Tractor thefts rise sharply in central and eastern regions NFU Mutual will stage a machine security exhibit at the Lamma show in Peterborough, where it will present top tips to tackle farm machinery theft. Its agricultural vehicle security specialist, Clive Harris, will be on hand to talk to farmers at the show on Wednesday and Thursday (20 and 21 January). Mr Harris will explain to farmers rural crime trends in their areas and how they can put in place effective security measures to minimise the risk of vehicle and machinery theft. Thieves dont go away. If you improve security in one area they will step back, and seek a way to bypass your security measures or find something else they can steal from farms and sell on, said Mr Harris. We find a layered approach to security, which involves choosing as many measures as possible from a list of five key options, including Cesar security marking and installing an immobiliser, can help reduce thefts. A lot of the time farmers tell us tractor security is too costly, but there are cheaper, effective options coming to the market all the time. Its a case of selecting what is suitable for your machinery and maximising the value for money. Tractor theft cost NFU Mutual 10m in 2010 in claims for farm machinery losses alone, which does not take into account loss of business and higher insurance premium charges. NFU Mutual has provided more than 600,000 to fund police specialist units to co-ordinate activity tackling agricultural vehicle crime. This investment, combined with premium discounts for farmers fitting approved security devices to tractors, has helped reduce tractor theft by more than one-third from to 5.4m in 2014. But Mr Harris warned that advances in technology meant thieves were stealing more older tractors, that can be anything from three to four years old. Older and vintage vehicles are also at risk and are exported to third world markets such as Africa. Protect vehicles by registering them with Cesar To combat theft and aid recovery, the Construction and Agricultural Machinery Security and Registration Scheme (Cesar), uses state-of-the-art Datatag ID technology to increase security of tractors, telehandlers and other machinery vulnerable to theft. For a one-off cost from 149+ VAT, the scheme provides visible and covert markings on farm machinery linked to a secure 24/7 registration database, which is there for life. If your vehicle is stolen and is tagged, the rightful owner can be easily identified. The scheme can also result in a reduction in insurance premiums offered by many mainstream insurance companies. Have the vehicle identification number (VIN) etched on vehicle windows Vehicle identification number etching is an effective countertheft measure which involves etching a vehicles VIN onto windows. If you get a VIN number etched on glass windows, it makes the vehicle more detectable and less appealing to thieves because they have to grind out the numbers, said Mr Harris. Autoglass carry out etching free of charge for NFU Mutual tractor insurance policyholders. They can also etch non-agricultural vehicles such as cars and 4x4s provided the VRN number match the NFU Mutual insurance certificate and vehicle registration certificate (V5C) For more details and to arrange an appointment email NFUM.Etching@autoglass.co.uk Fit good-quality immobiliser devices (preferably Thatcham accredited) Fitting immobiliser devices such as a Thatcham-approved immobiliser (P2) are expensive options, but they can help cut insurance premiums because they prevent machinery from being stolen in the first place. For example, NFU Mutual provides a security discount of 7.5% for vehicles fitted with an approved Thatcham immobiliser. Mr Harris said: Thatcham-approved immobilisers are a good investment and give you peace of mind. If you fit a P3 mechanical immobiliser device on your tractor, if it is targeted, it will only go round in circles. We have had incidents where policyholders have fitted it and their tractor went round making crop circles after thieves tried to steal it. The list of Thatcham-approved immobilisers and tracking devices is available from the Thatcham website Consider Telematics/tracking technology to give the location of vehicles 24/7 Tracking devices should be considered for all and especially for expensive tractors, Mr Harris said. A number of Thatcham P5-approved tracking devices are available, which offer a 15% discount on NFU Mutual premiums. Tracking devices are quite innovative and some are not as expensive as others, added Mr Harris. Other theft prevention tips include: FIVE GENERATIONS Five generations of the Leach family are pictured above. This is Minnie Brown Leachs second five generation line. Pictured are Minnie Brown Leach, A.L. Jamison, Julia Leach McGill, John F.... County OKs tax break for company that will purchase spec building Now we know why there was plenty of buzz around Project Bee. Although Project Bee had been identified several months ago as the codename for the Canadian company Niagara Pharmaceutical,... Open house on public transportation County residents are invited to drive the conversation this week about how future transportation needs can be met in the community. RLS & Associates is hosting open houses Wednesday from... Cancer Association event to go Over the Edge of AC Hotel The Cancer Association of Spartanburg & Cherokee Counties Inc. announces the return of the popular fundraiser, Over the Edge Upstate slated for Thursday, November 3, at AC Hotel Spartanburg,... A team of scientists have obtained or confirmed a date range between .9 and .85 Mya (million years ago) as a time when a species of Old World monkey (Theropithecus) and an early species of human occupied the cave site of Cueva Victoria in southeastern Spain.The location is not far from where many scientists have hypothesized that humans may have crossed over into Europe from North Africa through the Strait of Gibraltar at a time when sea levels were low enough to provide a land bridge between the two continents.Using paleomagnetism, uranium-thorium, and vertebrate biostratigraphy dating techniques, Luis Gibert of the University of Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues from several other institutions conducted testing on fossiliferous breccia samples and other deposit samples from the cave. Their results showed that the fossil evidence for the Theropithecus presence was constrained to a range between .9 and .85 Mya. Similar dates have been obtained through previous studies on the Cueva Negra cave in the same region of Spain, which contained evidence of early human (Homo) fossils associated with what is arguably considered to be the earliest Acheulean-type stone tools in Europe. Story Highlights Satisfaction with security from terrorism down 16 percentage points since 2015 This year's drop follows a 10-point drop from 2014 to 2015 Satisfaction with military strength and preparedness now at 59% WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' satisfaction with the nation's security from terrorism has significantly eroded for the second year in a row, with a majority now saying they are dissatisfied. More than two-thirds, 69%, said in 2014 that they were satisfied with the nation's security from terrorism, but that figure dropped to 59% a year ago and now has fallen to 43%. In recent years, security from terrorism has been one of the issues with which Americans have expressed the greatest satisfaction. From 2012 to 2015, it ranked in the top two of 16 dimensions concerning the state of the nation measured annually in Gallup's Mood of the Nation poll. With the slide this year to 43%, it now has a lower percentage satisfied than four other dimensions: acceptance of gays and lesbians (60%), military strength and preparedness (59%), quality of medical care (53%), and quality of the environment (53%). The prior low point in satisfaction with security from terrorism was 51%, measured in January 2002, four months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Satisfaction remained at the majority level through 2008. Gallup did not ask the question from 2009 through 2011. After the U.S. military killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, asking this question resumed in January 2012, and in that year, it reached a high point in the overall trend at 72%. Declines in satisfaction over the last two years dovetail with the rise of the terrorism-sponsoring Islamic State group, or ISIS. Terrorist attacks linked to ISIS late last year in Paris and San Bernardino, California, weakened Americans' trust in the government's ability to protect its citizens and pushed "terrorism" to the forefront of the nation's most important problems. President Barack Obama, criticized by Republicans for his handling of terrorism, has explicitly attempted to quell Americans' fears -- first in an Oval Office address four days after the San Bernardino shootings, and again in his State of the Union address on Jan. 12. In his State of the Union speech, he outlined steps the U.S. is taking to combat the threat, stating that "priority No. 1 is protecting the American people and going after terrorist networks." Seniors, Midwesterners, Republicans Most Concerned Although satisfaction has dropped over the past two years among every major demographic group, attitudes about terrorism show a strong political split, with only a quarter of Republicans (24%) and conservatives (24%) satisfied, compared with a majority of liberals (56%) and Democrats (51%). The partisan divide has grown significantly wider in the past two years: 66% of Republicans were satisfied in 2014, only 10 percentage points less than Democrats at the time (76%) and a higher percentage than the percentage of Democrats now. Major splits also occur by region and age. Midwesterners (36%) and those aged 55 and older (35%) are among the least satisfied. Westerners (52%) and adults younger than 35 (53%) are the most satisfied. Satisfaction With Military Strength Also Drops Satisfaction with the nation's military strength and preparedness -- another key measure of Americans' confidence in their national security -- has also fallen, from 69% last January to 59% now. Even with the drop, it still ranks second among the dimensions of the state of the nation that Americans are most satisfied with. Among Republicans, 38% say they are satisfied, compared with 64% of independents and 72% of Democrats. Cutbacks in the numbers of Navy warships and Army soldiers have prompted GOP attacks over the past year asserting Obama and Democrats in Congress have allowed military strength to sink to dangerously low levels. Obama responded to the charges in his State of the Union address, calling them "political hot air." Bottom Line With the 2016 presidential campaign about to hit full speed and Islamic State terrorists having successfully executed attacks in the U.S. and abroad in recent months, it is inevitable that national security issues -- including both concerns about the U.S. military's capabilities and about the nation's ability to fend off terrorist attacks -- will be a major part of both parties' campaigns. Those recent attacks have clearly shaken Americans, who are much less satisfied than they were two years ago with the nation's security from terrorism and with the government's ability to prevent attacks. President Obama and Democrats in general have emphasized not overreacting to the Islamic State, including not alienating countries with large Muslim populations by linking ISIS to Islam. Republicans generally have pushed for stronger countermeasures, including tighter restrictions or a total ban on refugees from the Middle East. Americans' views on what the U.S. should do to combat terrorism will heavily influence both the presidential and congressional elections this fall, and the election results could profoundly affect the outcome of the daunting national security challenges now facing this country. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 6-10, 2016, with a random sample of 1,012 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. View survey methodology, complete question responses and trends. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. Story Highlights Satisfaction with income declines to 58% in 2015 from 66% Rural Chinese most likely to see their living standards getting worse WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The satisfaction that Chinese have with their household income took a major hit in 2015, dropping from a high of 66% in 2014 to 58% in 2015 as tumbling stocks, a devaluing yuan and low consumer spending battered the Chinese economy. China's rebound after the global economic crisis was rather short-lived, revealing an underlying vulnerability. As China transitions from manufacturing to a modern service economy, many in the labor force continue to suffer from wage reduction or job loss, particularly unskilled workers who have not been trained in anything except factory work. Not only are Chinese less satisfied with their 2015 household income, they are also less happy with the amount of money they have been able to save. Satisfaction with personal savings dipped to 39% from 44% in 2014, the highest level Gallup has recorded. Despite government efforts to encourage Chinese to spend, saving money for the future continues to be a fundamental priority for most. While it is true that satisfaction with savings has declined in the past year, at 39%, it is still higher than it was before the global financial crisis. Satisfaction with savings has decreased among all age groups except the youngest Chinese, but the most substantial decline is among 35- to 49-year-olds -- those in their prime working and child-rearing years. Satisfaction with the amount of money this group has been able to save has dipped nine percentage points, from 47% in 2014 to 38% in 2015 -- which likely reflects, in part, the expense of raising and educating children in China. Fewer Chinese Believe Their Standard of Living Is Getting Better With Chinese satisfaction over household income and savings sinking, it follows that optimism among Chinese about their standard of living would dip as well. Most Chinese, 76%, still say their living standards are getting better, but that sentiment has declined by five percentage points since 2014. And it is the lowest Gallup has measured since the global economic recession. Declining optimism among rural Chinese is largely driving this change. In 2014, 80% of rural residents said their living standards were getting better, vs. 74% in 2015, while the decline among urban dwellers was two percentage points. Further, when asked about their feelings toward their household income, 38% of rural Chinese say they find it "difficult" or "very difficult" to get by on their present income, compared with 24% of those living in cities. Overall, finding it "difficult" or "very difficult" to get by has increased since 2014 -- up eight points in rural areas and seven points in cities. The disparity between urban and rural attitudes probably reflects the reduced number of opportunities in agriculture and factories in rural China; those who have the skills and/or education to find work in the service sector head to the cities. These data are available in Gallup Analytics. Bottom Line Given China's status as the world's second-largest economy, its slowdown has had a significant effect on financial markets worldwide -- a fresh market sell-off in China reverberated around the globe just last week. However, it is important to remember that the Chinese people are the first to be affected by their slowing economy. That their satisfaction with household income and savings has sunk precipitously since the all-time highs of 2014 suggests many Chinese consumers are feeling more vulnerable than they have in years. That shift may, in turn, further complicate government efforts to encourage greater spending among the world's largest consumer population. Survey Methods Results are based on interviews with 4,265 adults, aged 15 and older, including a national sample conducted face to face in China and an oversample conducted by landline telephone in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou in July 2015. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup's Country Data Set details. Learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works. Story Highlights 60% are satisfied, up from 53% in 2015 For first time, majority of Republicans (54%) say they are satisfied Sixty-seven percent of Democrats are satisfied WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A new high of 60% of Americans say they are satisfied with the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the U.S. -- up from 53% in 2014 and 2015. As recently as 10 years ago, satisfaction was as low as 32%. The latest data, from Gallup's annual Mood of the Nation survey conducted Jan. 6-10, come after a landmark year in achievements for the gay rights movement. Most notably, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated state laws that banned same-sex marriage. Prior to the court's decision last year, 60% of Americans supported gay marriages. Gallup first polled on Americans' satisfaction with acceptance of gays and lesbians in 2001, when about a third reported being satisfied. Over the next eight years, this figure hovered between 32% and 40%. The level of satisfaction climbed in each poll between 2006 and 2014 amid a state-by-state battle for marriage rights. During this time, the federal government also repealed the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the Supreme Court struck down much of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Gallup asks Americans who say they are dissatisfied with the acceptance of gays and lesbians if that dissatisfaction stems from their desire to see more acceptance or less acceptance. Similar percentages currently choose each explanation. Both of these figures have declined over the years as overall satisfaction has climbed, with a much greater decline in the percentage who are dissatisfied and want less acceptance. Majorities of All Party Groups Satisfied With Gay Acceptance in U.S. The latest poll marks the first time that majorities of Americans from within the three major political identifications report being satisfied with acceptance of gays and lesbians in the U.S. Democrats remain the most satisfied (67%), as they have been since 2012. Meanwhile, 59% of independents and 54% of Republicans report being satisfied on the issue. Over the past 15 years, Democrats were least satisfied -- ranging between 27% and 38% in satisfaction -- during the administration of President George W. Bush, a Republican president who called for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage as he campaigned for re-election in 2004. But as Democratic President Barack Obama completed his first term in office in 2012, Democrats' satisfaction climbed to 48% and has gained 19 percentage points in the years since. Satisfaction among the GOP has been a lot tamer, ranging from 32% to 41% from 2001 to 2013. Though Republicans were generally more satisfied than Democrats during the Bush presidency and the least satisfied group during the Obama presidency, the percentage of those who report being satisfied has climbed quite a bit over Obama's second term. Bottom Line The past decade has seen significant progress for the gay rights movement in the U.S., and along with that, a greater acceptance of gays and lesbians in the country more generally. Now a new high of 60% of Americans are satisfied with the acceptance of gays and lesbians in the U.S., nearly doubling the 32% from 10 years ago. But despite being in the minority, there are many Americans who are unhappy with the advancements made in gay rights, and there are judges, religious figures and GOP presidential candidates who seek to undo what gay rights supporters have achieved. Meanwhile, another faction of Americans are dissatisfied because they seek more acceptance for gays and lesbians -- perhaps in response to continued efforts to walk back newly achieved gay rights, hate crimes against LGBT people and other acts of intolerance directed at the community. Still, a stronger majority than ever before is content with the current state of gay acceptance in the U.S. Given the generational differences Gallup has found among supporters of gay rights, it is likely that satisfaction will continue to grow as younger generations supplant older ones. Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 6-10, 2016, with a random sample of 1,012 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is 4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how Gallup Poll Social Series works. I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army: T I P S 1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army News & Notes Over the past several years, Evelyn Miradors face and sunny demeanor greeted visitors needing to handle business with Benton County at the Avery Complex in south Corvallis. Theres a good chance she was the first person to greet customers over the phone as well, when they called about issues having to do with Community Development, Natural Areas and Parks or Public Works. All three departments are headquartered at that location. But those days came to an end on Nov. 30, when Mirador retired after nearly 17 years of service to Benton County. After hanging up the phone headset and greeting her last customer, Mirador is excited to begin a life of leisure that will include more travel and a lot of crafting. After spending eight years at Oregon State University, Mirador joined Benton County in the Community Development Department as a building permits clerk in January 1999. During the recession, due to declining building permits, her position was cut, but she was able to move over to the front desk at Avery, and finished out her career there. Officers & Directors Gov. Kate Brown has appointed a local hospital executive to an advisory group focused workforce development in hard-to-recruit positions. Becky Pape, chief operating officer at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, is serving on the newly-created Oregon Talent Council. The council was established following the passage of HB 2728 in the 2015 legislative session and resides within the Oregon Employment Department. The council defines qualified talent as a combination of education, skills and experience. Its mission is to make Oregonians the first and best choice of Oregon employers, decreasing the unemployment number within the state by reducing the need for out-of-state hiring. The council will provide cohesive and comprehensive data on current and forecasted skill and occupation gaps, develop a statewide talent plan, and give recommendations to guide workforce and education investments. The council also will address talent gaps in Oregons industries with national competition and high growth, and promote coordination with workforce and education partners concerning identified needs. People on the Move Tavis Cowan began treating patients at The Corvallis Clinic Immediate Care Center in early November. Cowan, who grew up in Eastern Oregon and earned an undergraduate degree from Oregon State University, was a family physician at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, and at Walk-In Care Center in Colchester, Vermont, from 2010 to 2015. He also was an assistant professor at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Family Medicine Department, from 2010 to 2015. From 2003 to 2009, Cowan was a family physician at Samaritan Health Services and an urgent care physician at Samaritan Pacific Walk-In Clinic in Toledo and Newport. From 2000 to 2003, he was an U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and family physician. He was deployed to the Persian Gulf in 2003. Cowan is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of North Dakota Minot Center for Family Medicine in 2000, and was chief resident from 1996 to 1997. He earned his medical degree from Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine, Portland, in 1997. Take a Bow The Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence recently presented John Marchel, co-owner of Stover, Evey and Jackson, with the Mary Zelinka Advocate for Social Justice Award. Marchel joined the CARDV Board of Directors in 2002, and has since worked to support domestic and sexual violence survivors. He regularly volunteers his lunch break to keep shelter appliances in working order. On the front door of Stover, Evey and Jackson, patrons see posters promoting upcoming events and awareness projects. Stover, Evey and Jackson is a cell phone drop-off location where community members can donate unwanted phones to be used as 911 phones. The Mary Zelinka Advocate for Social Justice Award is given to individuals who go above and beyond to advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Greg Thompson of Corvallis is one of only six individuals nationwide who was selected for the 2015 National Association of Agricultural Educators Lifetime Achievement Award. He was recognized for his contributions to the profession of agricultural education at the NAAE annual convention held in November in New Orleans. Thompson recently retired from his position as department head of agricultural education at Oregon State University after nearly 20 years of dedication to the program. He has been an educator in Oregon since 1996 and in that time has taught 170 pre-service teachers and mentored 11 doctoral students. One of the ways Thompson contributed to agricultural education in Oregon was by promoting lifelong learning. He prompted his colleagues to participate in the Oregon Vocational Agriculture Teachers Association and NAAE, increasing their involvement in leading the profession of agricultural education and their depth of knowledge in the field through professional development. The Siuslaw National Forest has been selected for the Forest Service Chiefs Honor Award, the highest in the agency. Siuslaw National Forest's headquarters are in Corvallis. The agency received the award for its success in working with partners to provide the American people with a reliable supply of forest products and ecological benefits, while contributing to local economies. Siuslaw staff traveled to Washington, D.C., in November to accept the award for Meeting Americas Needs. Management practices on the forest have evolved over the last several decades, addressing the need to shift the focus from timber production to the recovery of endangered species. Partners in the timber industry and environmental sector work with forest staff to design restoration projects that protect and enhance wildlife habitat and also are viable for timber sales, which generate local jobs and help pay for future forest restoration projects. The Siuslaw now produces approximately 40 million board feet of timber per year, leveraging and reinvesting the proceeds into landscape-scale restoration in a highly collaborative environment, according to a Siuslaw press release. Corvallis SURJ: Showing Up for Racial Justice joins Oregons Rural Organizing Project in condemning the armed occupation in Harney County. This action is a publicity stunt by militia groups from outside Oregon to further their own extremist agenda. The occupation distracts from the the destabilized infrastructure that much of rural Oregon faces. No economic engine has replaced the former jobs based on natural resources. Services such as schools, libraries, police and firefighting, and public transportation have been defunded for years, leaving rural communities without basic services. Militia groups in many parts of Oregon are using the vacuum as an opportunity to recruit new members. They are positioning themselves as alternatives to public services. Why does a racial justice group in Corvallis care about the rise of rural militia? Because the patriot movement is behind the anti-immigrant measures that are proposed for the 2016 Oregon ballot. If they make it onto the ballot, you will be hearing detailed explanations from us about this link. Faith Reidenbach Philomath (Jan. 14) 9STEPANAKERT, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. More than 900 shots were fired from fire arms of different caliber by the adversary in the Line of Contact of the Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing armies during the weekend. As the Press Service of the Defense Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic informed Armenpress, the frontier troops of the Defense Army are in control of the operational - tactical situation and confidently carry out their combat duty. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Syria will remain a peaceful, calm place without war and shoots in the memories of the Derderian family. This is not because the Derderians want to keep only the positive things in their memories, but because they saw no Syria in blood and war. They came to Armenia 3 and a half year ago to stay here only for 4 months. My mother lives in Gyumri. She got sick 3 and a half years ago and we decided to come to Armenia for 4 months to take care of her. We came here unprepared; without any winter clothes and the necessary things. Some time after our arrival war started in Syria and we stayed here, Dsovinar says, adding that they left everything in Syria; home, the shop, money and even their clothes. She said that everything in their house, including the armchair, the table, the cupboard and the furniture, was given to them by their good neighbors in Armenia. Dsovinar confesses that she was in shock in the beginning and could not understand what was going on in Syria. They used to live very well in Syria; she never had to work. Everything changed here in Armenia. They have nobody here, they are alone. However, she is thankful that strangers helped them both in Gyumri and Yerevan, giving food, money and they try to create a second life in the Motherland. Dzovinar tailors in Armenia. What was only a hobby in Aleppo became a way to make a living in Armenia. Dzovinar faces a dilemma now. She says that they have been welcomed in Armenia but she misses Aleppo. Aleppo was different. I doubt I will ever have the life I had in Syria. I pray every day so that the war ends in Syria soon, so that people live in peace. You know, I miss Syria. My memories, good and bad events of my life are connected with Aleppo. Three years have passed, but I cannot imagine my life without Aleppo. If the situation settles, certainly, I would like to return to Aleppo, my home, everything is there, she says. One of her sons is in Yerevan, the other the USA. Dzovinar faces dilemma here too. One of her sons wants to stay in Yerevan, the other invites the parents to the USA. Though she does not know what to do, her husband and she encourage each other with the fact that their sons are safe and sound. In this case, the place of residence is secondary. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Republic of Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian will pay an official visit to Belgium on January 18 to attend the 16th sitting of Armenia-European Union Council to be held in Brussels. Armenpress was informed about it by the Department of Press, Information and Public Relations of Armenia Foreign Ministry. Images of the Microsoft Lumia 650 has been surfacing the internet. This also includes details like lists of retailers, specifications and other rumors surrounding the phone in the past few days. A report appearing on Windows Central suggests that the phone will be announced on February 1. SEE ALSO: Top 10 smartphones with 3GB RAM under Rs. 20,000 The announcement of the Microsoft Lumia 650 will be announced via Microsoft's official blog instead of hosting a smartphone launch event. The blog post will give details about the specifications, pricing and the availability. The Lumia 650 is about to be the first Lumia device in 2016. It is rumored that Microsoft is also working on a high-end surface smartphone which is expected to be a premium device. Photo Credit: Microsoft Lumia 650 rumored specifications The Smartphone is expected to have a 5" HD display with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. The smartphone will also have a Corning Gorilla Glass protection. It will run Windows 10. It is expected to have a 8MP auto focus rear camera with LED flash with a 5MP camera on the front. The smartphone will have a 3.5mm audio jack with FM radio and a front facing speaker. It is rumored to have a 1.1 GHZ quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor. It could also have a 1GB RAM with 8GB of internal memory that is expandable via microSD card. The Dual SIM smartphone will have connectivity options including 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 41, GPS / aGPS. The smartphone will be powered by a 2000mAh battery with wireless charging. The Smartphone is expected to come in colors of matte black and matte white. No rumors on the pricing as of yet. SOURCE Best Mobiles in India Good Listeners: Germany Spied on Finland's International Communications Sputnik News 15:11 17.01.2016 German intelligence was eavesdropping on Finland's international communications as part of a joint operation with the US National Security Agency (NSA). The German intelligence agency BND was eavesdropping on telephone and Internet communications between Finland and at least six other states during the mid-2000s, according to leaked documents cited by the Finnish broadcaster Yle. The documents, obtained by Austrian MP Peter Pilz, contain a list of the 256 international communication lines of 31 European states that were being monitored as part of Operation Eikonal a joint eavesdropping effort between BND and the NSA which was carried out between 2004 and 2008. According to the list, BND was intercepting incoming and outgoing communication traffic between Helsinki and at least six other destinations: Paris, Brussels, Reims, Luxemburg, Shanghai and Budapest. A Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) representative replied that while his agency wasn't surprised by this development, it remains unclear if BND was specifically spying on Finland, Yle adds. 'It focuses on Internet lines that have Finland at one end or the other, but not necessarily the Finnish state,' Supo's inspector general Tuomas Portaankorva said, according to the news agency. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coalition Strikes Hit ISIL in Syria, Iraq From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release SOUTHWEST ASIA, January 17, 2016 U.S. and coalition military forces have continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today. Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports. Strikes in Syria Remotely piloted aircraft conducted 3 strikes in Syria: -- Near Ar Raqqah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Manbij, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. -- Near Mar'a, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit. Strikes in Iraq Rocket artillery, ground attack, attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 26 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government: -- Near Albu Hayat, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL command and control nodes. -- Near Kisik, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL fighting position, and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Mosul, 10 strikes struck seven separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL-used culvert and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, 34 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL weapons caches, three ISIL assembly areas, three ISIL bunkers, and wounded two ISIL fighters. -- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck an ISIL weapons manufacturing facility and an ISIL-used culvert and destroyed an ISIL crude oil heater and denied ISIL access to terrain. -- Near Ramadi, five strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL artillery piece, five ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL vehicles, an ISIL bunker, and an ISIL heavy machine gun, suppressed an ISIL staging area, and cratered an ISIL-used road. -- Near Sultan Abdallah, one strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position. -- Near Tal Afar, one strike struck an ISIL-used bridge. Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Part of Operation Inherent Resolve The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Nigerian forces sprayed Sheikh Zakzaky with six bullets' Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 5:22PM Nigerian army soldiers fired six bullets at Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, seriously injuring the Shia cleric when they raided his residence to arrest him, says a member of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA). Professor Dahiru Yahaya of Bayero University Kano (BUK), who has visited Sheikh Zakzaky, said he was told by the cleric that he was severely wounded after the soldiers fired six bullets at him. The academic made the remarks in an interview with Hausa Radio, the Africa desk of the IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) world service, on Sunday. Zakzaky is the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN). He was injured and arrested during the raid by the army on his home in the northern city of Zaria, Kaduna State, in December. Yahaya said the condition of the cleric has improved. The academic is currently working with a committee set up to follow up on the well-being of Sheikh Zakzaky. The university professor described as 'very bad and repulsive' the treatment of the committee members by army officials upon their inquiry about the sheikh, adding that the police also denied them a meeting with Zakzaky. He said Sheikh Zakzaky is currently detained by the intelligence ministry, adding that the Nigerian government only permitted three members of the committee to visit the cleric. When asked about Zakzaky's opinion on the recent developments in Nigeria, Yahaya said the cleric only sufficed expressing his 'deep regret.' The academic said the conduct of the Nigerian army had been 'truly inhumane.' On December 12 last year, Nigerian soldiers attacked Shia Muslims attending a ceremony at a religious center in Zaria, accusing them of blocking the convoy of the army's chief of staff and attempting to assassinate him. The Shias have categorically denied the allegations. The following day, Nigerian forces also raided Zakzaky's home and arrested him after reportedly killing those attempting to protect him, including one of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)'s senior leaders and its spokesman. The two attacks led to the deaths of hundreds of members of the religious community, including three of Zakzaky's sons. The Shia cleric is said to have been charged with "criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbances." The IMN has called for Zakzaky's unconditional release and for Abuja to respond to the "unjustifiable atrocities committed by the army." On Thursday, IMN said more than 700 of its members are still unaccounted for a month after the deadly attacks in Zaria. The IMN says it will continue the peaceful campaign to secure the release of Sheikh Zakzaky and the other detainees. On December 16, the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said there was credible evidence of mass graves in Nigeria following the deadly attack on Shias. The rights group said the Nigerian military had secretly buried hundreds of bodies in the graves after storming the house of the Shia cleric. Human rights organizations have called for a full investigation into the deadly attacks by Nigerian forces against Shia Muslims. Amnesty senior research adviser Lucy Freeman on Friday described the Nigerian army's human rights violations as "shocking," saying soldiers "going above and beyond and outside of the rule of the law" was not unusual. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni forces fire missile at Saudi-held base in Ma'rib Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 8:4AM The Yemeni army, backed by Popular Committees loyal to the Houthi Ansarullah movement, has targeted a Saudi-held military base in Yemen's central province of Ma'rib with a ballistic missile. The Tochka missile hit the base used by Saudi mercenaries on Saturday, inflicting heavy damage on the facility. In another development, Yemeni snipers killed four Saudi troops in the Taval border crossing in the kingdom's southwestern Jizan region. Following the incident, Saudi warships launched missile attacks on the area. Also on Saturday, the Yemeni army fired a number of rockets and missiles at military bases in Saudi Arabia's southwestern Najran Province, and foiled a Saudi attack on the Jebel Hilan in Ma'rib, Yemen's official Saba Net news agency reported. On Sunday, Saudi warplanes continued their aerial campaign against Yemen, pounding the Rashid industrial complex and a pharmaceutical company in the capital, Sana'a. Saudi fighter jets also targeted Hamzah military base in the central Ibb Province seven times. Yemen's al-Masirah television channel also reported that Saudi fighter jets carried out over 40 air raids on the route connecting the provinces of Ma'rib and al-Jawf. Riyadh began its military aggression against Yemen in late March 2015. The strikes are supposedly meant to undermine the Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. More than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 others injured since the strikes began. The Saudi war has also taken a heavy toll on the impoverished country's facilities and infrastructure. Yemenis have, meanwhile, been carrying out reprisal attacks on the Saudi forces deployed in the country as well as targets inside Saudi Arabia. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Turkish army kills 19 PKK militants in restive southeast Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:44AM The Turkish military says at least 19 members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have been killed during separate military operations in the troubled southeastern part of the country. The Turkish General Staff announced in a statement on Saturday that the PKK militants had died in the provinces of Sirnak and Diyarbakir two days earlier. Twelve PKK militants died during heavy clashes in the town of Cizre, located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara. Turkish military forces also seized three Kalashnikov assault rifles, two pistols, two hand grenades, 16 Molotov cocktails and several other munitions after the fighting. Nearly 15 improvised explosive devices were defused as well. Elsewhere in the Silopi district of Sirnak Province, Turkish soldiers killed five PKK militants. Eight hand grenades were also neutralized in the operation. Two other PKK members died during military operations in Sur district of Diyarbakir Province. Additionally, a 39-year-old police officer, identified as Yalcin Yamaner, was killed during an operation against PKK militants in Turkey's southeastern city of Siirt. Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four policemen sustained gunshot wounds during skirmishes in the city. They were transported to Siirt Public Hospital, where Yamaner later succumbed to his grave injuries. Ankara has been engaged in a large-scale campaign against the PKK in its southeastern border region in the past few months. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the positions of the group in northern Iraq. The operations began in the wake of a deadly July bombing in the southern Turkish town of Suruc. More than 30 people died in the attack, which the Turkish government blamed on Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. After the bombing, the PKK militants, who accuse the government in Ankara of supporting Daesh, engaged in a series of attacks against Turkish police and security forces, in turn prompting the Turkish military operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Bomb attack kill 13, injures 14 in eastern Afghanistan Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:56AM At least 13 people have lost their lives and more than a dozen others sustained injuries when a powerful explosion struck Afghanistan's embattled eastern province of Nangarhar. Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the blast took place in the provincial capital city of Jalalabad, situated 118 kilometers (73 miles) east of the capital, Kabul, at 10:20 a.m. local time (0550 GMT) on Sunday. A bomber reportedly blew himself up as tribal elders had gathered inside the guesthouse of Obaidullah Shinwari, a member of the provincial council. The event was held to celebrate the release of Shinwari's brother, who had been held hostage by the Taliban for nine months before being released five days ago. Shinwarai was reportedly among those wounded. Security forces immediately rushed to the site of the explosion and cordoned off the area, while medical officials transported the victims to a nearby hospital. Khoghyani said the brother, identified as Saminullah Shinwari, was among those injured. The Afghan provincial spokesman further noted that Shinwari's father, Malek Osman who is also a tribal elder, sustained injuries in the attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the act of violence so far. Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, on his Twitter page denied that the militant group was behind the attack. Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity more than 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. Although the 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban, many areas across Afghanistan still face violence and insecurity. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US-led drone strike kills over dozen in eastern Afghanistan Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 5:6AM More than a dozen people have been killed in a drone strike carried out by US-led foreign forces in Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar. The 201st Selab (Flood) Corps of the Afghan National Army announced in a statement that the aerial attack was conducted in the Dih Bala district of the province, which is located 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Saturday. The statement further identified the deceased as seventeen members of Daesh Takfiri militant group. The development came only a day after at least 11 people were killed in a US drone attack in the same Afghan province, which has seen a rise in the presence of Daesh militants over the past months. Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the aerial assault occurred in the Achin district of Nangarhar Province. He added that a Daesh militant commander, identified as Hafiz Saeed, and 10 of his comrades were killed in the airstrike. Khogyani further noted that the son of Mangal Bagh, another key Daesh commander, was among the slain terrorists. On January 2, another five people lost their lives in a US drone strike in the Shaigal district of Afghanistan's northeastern province of Kunar. Provincial governor, Wahidullah Kalimzai, said five members of the Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group were killed in the assault. The CIA spy agency regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border. Washington has also been conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen. The US says the airstrikes target members of al-Qaeda and other militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have in most cases been the victims of the attacks. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is the only country in Caucasus which has relations with Iran which are very stable and based on mutual trust. Expert in Iranian Studies Rudik Yaralyan made such a remark in the interview with Armenpress referring to the lifting of sanctions against Iran. -What changes the lifting of sanctions against Iran in terms of politics and what it particularly changes for Iran? -First of all, it was predictable what will happen after the lifting of sanctions, because we witnessed the attempts of increasing tension in the region by those countries which have traditionally been considered rivals for Iran. We are talking about Saudi Arabia and Turkey. We saw rather jumpy approaches in different issues towards Iran; Shiite-related issue was hit back again. I think in the current year we will witness manifestation of similar conflicts in different countries of Middle East. -Thus, opponent countries of Iran feel threat in terms of politics and therefore show a caution. -Yes, absolutely, as Saudi Arabia first of all considers Iran as an opponent country in the sector of oil. Of course the lifting of sanctions put Iran in a completely other status in geopolitical and regional processes. To this point, if Iran did not have an opportunity to enter global oil market, now the doors are fully opened for Iran. Besides, we notice that West already considers Irans role as important in the regional issues. Turkey also has political concerns over increasing of Iranian role. And Erdogan's visit to Saudi Arabia and the increasing of tension after it should not be considered accidental. These are interconnected. -What can Armenia expect from the current situation? Is it possible for our country to be a bridge in the relations between Iran and the West or between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union? - Armenia is the only country in the South Caucasus, which has relations with Iran which are very stable and based on mutual trust. And, of course, the fact that Iran is gaining new economic opportunities will raise Iran-Armenia relations to some level in terms of economy. Armenia will have an opportunity to participate in all the processes which connect Iran with the world. These are not assumptions; Iran made concrete statements over it. We need to follow these developments in order to stay with the process. Chechen Parliament Head Attacks Liberal Opposition, Media January 17, 2016 by RFE/RL's Russian Service The speaker of the rubber-stamp legislature of Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya has issued a harsh statement accusing opposition figures and media of being 'traitors' under the control of Western security agencies. Magomed Daudov on January 16 issued the statement naming the liberal Ekho Moskvy radio station and the Dozhd Internet television channel as 'headquarters of the fifth column' and attacking 'bought figures of contemporary culture, politics, and journalism' as cynical enemies of Russia. That statement asks 'when will the logical end be brought to the activity of these informational-psychological saboteurs.' Daudov's statement comes days after Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov attracted national attention by calling anyone opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin an 'enemy of the people' and a 'traitor.' Kadyrov's statement prompted independent Krasnoyarsk lawmaker Konstantin Senchenko to write on Facebook that Kadyrov is a 'disgrace' to Russia. Although Senchenko later apologized for his remarks after a suspicious conversation with an unnamed representative of the Chechen people. However, his criticism of Kadyrov prompted a national outpouring of criticism of the Chechen leader, who has been widely accused of human-rights abuses and is believed by many to have overseen the assassinations of political opponents both in Russia and abroad. Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/kadyrov- murder-assassination/27492348.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Arab Coalition Hits Yemen Intelligence Headquarters in 2 Airstrikes Sputnik News 14:13 17.01.2016(updated 14:27 17.01.2016) According to a source in Yemeni security forces, Saudi-led Arab coalition jets have struck Yemen's intelligence headquarters twice 5 miles northwest of the country's capital. SANAA (Sputnik) Saudi-led Arab coalition jets have struck Yemen's intelligence headquarters twice 5 miles northwest of the country's capital, a source in Yemeni security forces told Sputnik on Sunday. 'Coalition aircraft carried out two strikes at the national security agency headquarters in Sarf north of the capital Sanaa,' the source said, adding that large blasts were heard after the airstrikes. The security forces official said a third strike fell on two hills over the presidential palace in downtown Sanaa, while a fourth strike fell on a defensive installation north of the city. The official added that coalition forces sustained casualties when Houthi fighters fired a Tochka-type tactical ballistic missile at a training camp in Marib province. The number of deaths and injuries was unclear, however a number of military equipment was reported to have been damaged. Saudi forces lead the alliance against the armed Shiite opposition group that has taken over key parts of the country since March 2015, aiming to reinstate Yemen's exiled president and his cabinet. Talks between the warring factions in Yemen have been postponed indefinitely this week amid disagreement over interpretations of a UN Security Council resolution setting out a ceasefire and a political process in the war-torn country. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address South Sudan FM Recalls Negotiating Team by Peter Clottey January 17, 2016 South Sudan's unity government is in doubt after former vice president Riek Machar recalled the leadership of his team negotiating with South Sudan President Salva Kiir. Machar has accused Kiir of sabotaging the implementation of the agreement signed last August in Ethiopia by establishing 28 new states in South Sudan. Machar, who is the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in Opposition, has since petitioned heads of state in the region and also called on the international community to put pressure on and prevent the government in Juba from undermining the accord. Both groups are supposed to form a transitional unity government with a total of 30 ministries. The accord gives the South Sudan government 16 ministries, including finance and planning, defense, information, national security, and justice and constitutional affairs. Machar's side got 10 ministries, including petroleum, interior, labor, mining, and land, housing and urban development. Foreign affairs and transport were given to a group of former political detainees not aligned with either the South Sudan government or the rebels. Other political parties in South Sudan got two. But Machar now refuses to allow his officials to be part of the government. His decision to withdraw the negotiating team came after the government refused to scrap President Kiir's recently established 28 new states in South Sudan.Representatives of both sides are deadlocked on negotiations about the states established by the government. Officials say the outcome of negotiations that had been taking place would be incorporated in a new constitution for South Sudan. Botswana's former president Festus Mogae is leading the joint monitoring and evaluation commission that is tasked with supervising the implementation of the agreement. Mogae recently said the formation of the 28 states complicates the implementation of the agreement. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, the secretary of foreign affairs, says the government's refusal to abide by the terms of the original agreement is creating unease and tension. "Dr. Machar has written a letter to [former] president Mogae copied to the regional leaders, the AU, the European Union, the Troika and the U.N. secretary-general saying that we need to implement the agreement as it is. And the agreement is saying 10 states not 28 states," said Gatkuoth. "We are telling the world and the international community to let us implement the agreement as it is. But, President Salva Kiir is saying let us work outside the agreement by accepting the 28 states, and that is actually creating the destabilization." Gatkuoth says the decision to establish 28 new states violates stipulations of the agreement, which he says calls for only 10 new states to be formed. He contends that the transitional government can only be formed after a constitution has been adopted, which he says has yet to be done due to the deadlock in negotiations. But supporters of the South Sudan government say the refusal of former vice president Machar to name his ministers to form a transitional government is delaying the implementation of the agreement. They said the opposition is to blame for the delay in the formation of a unity government. "President Salva has decided not to implement the agreement.Dr. Machar has decided today that he would recall only the leadership of the advanced team. We will meet in Pagak, South Sudan to decide on the next course of action that we need to take," said Secretary Gatkuoth. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address White House Condemns Attacks in Burkina Faso by VOA News January 15, 2016 The White House issued a sharply-worded statement Sunday saying it 'condemns in the strongest terms' attacks in the capital of Burkina Faso that killed at least 29 people and wounded scores more from 18 countries overnight Friday. The statement also warned that 'acts of terrorism will not stop efforts by brave Americans and others from around the world' who work to 'strengthen democracy, improve health care and increase economic opportunities' in the West African nation and elsewhere in the developing world. The statement, which references the death of American missionary Michael Riddering in the massacre, comes as Burkina Faso began observing three days of national mourning following the attack on a luxury hotel and a nearby cafe. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility. Riddering and his wife operated an orphanage and a women's crisis center about 100 kilometers from the capital, Ouagadougou. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, who took office last month, said that 'for the first time in its history, our country has fallen victim to a series of barbaric terrorist attacks.' He said his nation will nevertheless 'emerge victorious.' Gunmen stormed Ouagadougou's Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe Friday night. Burkinabe security forces and their French counterparts responded early Saturday, triggering an hours-long battle to retake the hotel and the cafe popular with foreigners and United Nations staff. Interior Minister Simon Compaore said more than 150 hostages were rescued in the security operation, but a number of them were wounded. Authorities say the fighting lasted 12 hours. Four jihadists, including two women, were reported dead by the time the fighting was over. French President Francois Hollande on Saturday condemned the 'odious and cowardly attack' in the former French colony. A statement from Hollande's office said he 'expressed his full support to President Kabore.' Burkina Faso has endured bouts of political turmoil since October 2014 when President Blaise Compaore was overthrown in a popular uprising. Last September, members of a presidential guard launched a coup that lasted only about a week. The transitional government returned to power until Burkina Faso's November election ushered in new leaders. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Aims for the Moon With New Rockets Sputnik News 17:54 17.01.2016(updated 18:04 17.01.2016) China's space industry revealed that its new rockets would be used for an unmanned moon mission capable of returning soil samples, as well as a delivery vehicle for a new space station. China's space agency will launch two new rockets into space in 2016, as it prepares for a potential moon mission, the country's Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. One of the rockets, Long March-5 which has a payload capacity larger than that of Russia's Proton rocket used for commercial satellite launches, is expected to complete a mission to the Moon in 2017. Long March-5, a smaller variant similar to Russia's Soyuz-FG is expected to be used for a future space station. 'The two carrier rockets' maiden flights will significantly boost our country's ability to enter space and help realize leapfrog development in our space transportation system,' the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation statement said. China expects to launch 20 rockets in 2016, compared to Russia's 29 and the US' 20 in 2015. China has also been developing international cooperation, launching a commercial satellite for Belarus on Saturday. China's 2017 moon mission aims to be an expansion of its 2013 landing on the Moon, for the purpose of bringing back rock samples for the first time. China plans to launch a space station similar in dimensions to Russia's now-defunct Mir by around 2020. A smaller non-modular station called Tiangong-2 is expected to be launched in 2016, Xinhua earlier confirmed. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Joint statement by EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif European External Action Service Bruxelles, 16/01/2016 160115_01 Today, we have reached Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Ever since Adoption Day, we worked hard and showed mutual commitment and collective will to finally bring the JCPOA to implementation. Today, six months after finalisation of the historic deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified that Iran has implemented its nuclear related commitments under the JCPOA. As Iran has fulfilled its commitments, today, multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted in accordance with the JCPOA. The EU and E3+3 countries, consisting of the Peoples Republic of China, the Republic of France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America, and Iran will also cooperate in the field of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, in the framework of the JCPOA. UN sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted. United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed the JCPOA, will from now onwards, together with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), be the sole international legal framework related to Iran's nuclear activities, terminating provisions of resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2007), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), 1835 (2008), 1929 (2010) and 2224 (2015). The EU has confirmed that the legal framework providing for the lifting of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions is effective. The United States today is ceasing the application of its nuclear-related statutory sanctions on Iran, including terminating relevant Executive Orders and licensing of certain activities, as specified in the JCPOA. The EU and the United States have issued relevant guidelines on the details of sanctions which have been lifted thus facilitating international engagement in Irans economic development. As foreseen, we will continue to thoroughly monitor and oversee the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA, exactly as agreed on 14 July 2015, through the Joint Commission, consisting of the E3+3 and Iran, and coordinated by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. On its side, the IAEA is entrusted with the responsibility for the monitoring and verification of the JCPOA as well as of Iran's obligations as a Party to Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement and the provisional application of its Additional Protocol. We would like to use this opportunity to thank the Austrian Government for their hospitality and all those countries that supported the negotiation process and helped to implement some of the commitments under the JCPOA. We also wish to express our appreciation to all those who led these negotiations on behalf of Islamic Republic of Iran and E3/EU+3 since 2003. All sides remain firmly convinced that this historic deal is both strong and fair, and that it meets the requirements of all; its proper implementation will be a key contribution to improved regional and international peace, stability and security. This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues and find practical solutions that are effectively implemented. This is an encouraging and strong message that the international community must keep in mind in our efforts to make the world a safer place. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement from PM Netanyahu's Office Israel Prime Minister's Office 16/01/2016 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office: "Israel will continue to monitor the implementation of the agreement and will warn about any violation. Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not relinquished its aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons and it will continue to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world while violating its international obligations. The major powers and the IAEA must closely monitor activity at Iran's nuclear installations and other sites in order to verify that it is not continuing to develop nuclear weapons in secret. Unless there is an appropriate response to each violation, Iran will understand that it can continue to develop nuclear weapons, undermine regional stability and spread terrorism. Israel will continue to monitor the situation and warn about Iran's negative activity, and will do everything necessary to safeguard its security and defend itself." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN welcomes report on Iran completing required nuclear measures, calling it 'significant milestone' 16 January 2016 Following the release of a report confirming that Iran has completed necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of a plan of action aiming to resolve the nuclear issue, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the achievement of having reached "Implementation Day," highlighting that he is heartened by the lifting of sanctions on Iran. "This is a significant milestone that reflects the good faith effort by all parties to fulfil their agreed commitments," said Mr. Ban in a statement issued by his Spokesperson. The report was submitted to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors and to the United Nations Security Council, after Agency inspectors on the ground verified that Iran has carried out all measures required under what is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between the E3+3 and Iran. In July, Iran and a group of six countries China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and United States reached the JCPOA, entrusting the IAEA with verifying and monitoring Iran's commitments. Under the plan, Iran pledged never under any circumstances to seek, develop or acquire nuclear weapons, and the UN Security Council is to consider ending sanctions imposed for its Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) violations. "The Secretary-General commends the dedication and determination shown on all sides," the statement indicated. "He encourages the parties to continue to implement the JCPOA in the months and years ahead." The UN chief further underlined that this achievement demonstrates that international proliferation concerns are best addressed through dialogue and patient diplomacy. "The Secretary-General hopes the success of this agreement contributes to greater regional and international cooperation for peace, security and stability in the region and beyond," the statement added. Meanwhile, IAEA's Director General, Yukiya Amano, said "Implementation Day" paves the way to begin verifying and monitoring Iran's nuclear-related commitments under the agreement. "Relations between Iran and the IAEA now enter a new phase," he said in a statement. "It is an important day for the international community. I congratulate all those who helped make it a reality, especially the group of countries known as the E3/EU+3, Iran and the IAEA Board." In line with its commitments, Iran will now start to provisionally implement the Additional Protocol to its Safeguards Agreement with the IAEAwhich Mr. Amano said "increases the Agency's ability to monitor nuclear activities in Iran and to verify that they are peaceful." "We have come a long way since the IAEA first started considering the Iran nuclear issue in 2003," he noted. "A lot of work has gone into getting us here, and implementation of this agreement will require a similar effort. For our part, we are ready to get on with the job." Separately, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed reports today of the release of a number of Americans who had been detained in Iran, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, and of a number of Iranians held by the United States following an agreement between the two Governments. In a statement, he commended these recent moves to improve ties. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program lifted ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Sun 17 Jan 2016 - 08:23 TEHRAN (ISNA)- Sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program are lifted following confirmation of Tehran's commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action by the International Atomic Energy Agency. European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the announcement during a joint press conference in Vienna on Saturday. Mogherini read out a statement in English which was subsequently read out by Zarif in Persian. 'As Iran has fulfilled its commitments, today, multilateral and national economic and financial sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program are lifted in accordance,' read the statement. 'All sides remain firmly convinced that this historic deal is both strong and fair, and that it meets the requirements of all.' 'This achievement clearly demonstrates that with political will, perseverance, and through multilateral diplomacy, we can solve the most difficult issues and find practical solutions that are effectively implemented,' it added. 'UN sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme are lifted. United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed the JCPOA, will from now onwards, together with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), be the sole international legal framework related to Iran's nuclear activities, terminating provisions of resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2007), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), 1835 (2008), 1929 (2010) and 2224 (2015).' US Secretary of State John Kerry, also present in Vienna, confirmed the IAEA's report, saying that "The US sanctions-related commitments... are now in effect.' Kerry said the United States would "immediately" remove sanctions imposed on Tehran, "expanding the horizon of opportunity for the Iranian people." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded to the announcement by hailing the Iranian nation in a tweet for the "glorious victory." Earlier on Saturday, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano announced that Iran had taken the "necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)." Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Reza Najafi announced that Amano would be traveling to Iran to meet Rouhani, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi, and other officials on Sunday. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order for the removal of sanctions on Iran, the White House announced. Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany finalized the JCPOA in Vienna, on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, limits are put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of sanctions against the Islamic Republic. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US imposes sanctions on Iran for ballistic missile program Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:16PM The US Department of the Treasury says it has imposed new sanctions on Iran for its ballistic missile program. The Treasury Department made the announcement in a statement issued on Sunday, only a day after sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear energy program were lifted. The statement said five Iranian citizens and a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates and China were added to a US blacklist. The network 'obfuscated the end user of sensitive goods for missile proliferation by using front companies in third countries to deceive foreign suppliers,' the statement said, adding that the five people had 'worked to procure ballistic missile components for Iran.' 'Iran's ballistic missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions," said Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. On October 11, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully test-fired its first guided ballistic missile dubbed Emad. Washington slammed the test, claiming the projectile is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. It vowed to respond with more sanctions. Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the Emad missile was a conventional weapon. The Iranian media have aired footage of an underground missile facility of the IRGC packed with Emad missiles. On Saturday, US President Barack Obama signed an executive order lifting US economic sanctions on Iran. Obama's move came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) verified that Iran has implemented its commitments made in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and announced to remove international economic sanctions against the country. Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany - finalized the text of the JCPOA in Vienna, Austria, on July 14, 2015. Under the agreement, limits are put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related economic and financial bans against the Islamic Republic. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Three Iranian-Americans arrived in Germany to get medical care after leaving Tehran on Sunday in a prisoner swap that followed the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran under a deal U.S. President Barack Obama said cut off Tehran's path to a nuclear bomb. As Armenpress reports, citing Reuters, in a sign of sustained readiness to track Iranian compliance with remaining United Nations curbs, the United States imposed fresh sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Iran's ballistic missile program. The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduce the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979. A Swiss plane took Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post's Tehran bureau chief; Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho; and Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine from Flint, Michigan, as well as some family members, from Tehran to Geneva, Switzerland. Shortly afterward, the three left for a U.S. military base in Germany, arriving there later on Sunday, a U.S. State Department official said. Several Iranian-Americans held in U.S. prisons after being charged or convicted for sanctions violations have also been released, their lawyers told Reuters on Sunday. JCPOA implementation, political victory for Iran: Rouhani Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:59PM Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has hailed the implementation of the nuclear agreement between the country and the P5+1 group of countries, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as a political victory for the Iranians. "Today is the day of the victory of the people of Iran on the political arena," Rouhani said in a televised address on Sunday, adding, "As of today, it is clear that our country has a big power called the power of diplomacy." "Many did not believe in this power," he added. "They did not believe that our politicians and diplomats are able to sit at negotiating table with the most adept negotiators from world powers and conduct negotiations and defend the rights of their nation and their country." Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany finalized the JCPOA in Vienna on July 14, 2015. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini announced the implementation of JCPOA during a joint press conference in the Austrian capital on Saturday. Yukiya Amano, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said on the same day that Iran had taken the "necessary preparatory steps to start the implementation of" JCPOA. "Today is a historic day and an exceptional one in the political and economic history of the people of Iran," said Rouhani. "After 12 years of steadfastness and resistance as well as patience and sacrifice and also martyrdom of a number of nuclear [scientists] and on the back of indefatigable efforts of our nuclear scientists, diplomats, politicians, lawyers as well as the economic officials of the country, today, we are at a turning point," he added. The president noted that the JCPOA implementation proved that 'we can interact with the world in the interest of our nation' without harming others' interests. "The people of Iran proved that constructive interaction is the true and right way," he said. "From today on, Iran's nuclear program will not, under false pretexts, be considered as a threat to peace and security for the world and the region," Rouhani said, adding, "Now the nuclear program is being regarded as a plan for scientific, technological, business, and economic interaction and cooperation." "Iran's nuclear program will be a means of new technology on the path of progress of the nation and stability and regional security." Rouhani also said in the light of the new development, Iran expects its economy to grow by as much as five percent in the next year. The president said, however, that the countryneeds to see an eight-percent economic growth rate. To that end, he added, Iran needs 'cutting-edge technologies' and 'foreign investment.' "Today, it has turned out that the win-win policy is an accurate one. For those, who thought that either you need to cheat others or you will be cheated, it turned out that it is possible to speak to the world, to have dialog with the world and to reach an agreement that could be in the interests of the peoples of the region and the world," said the Iranian chief executive, adding that the nuclear deal can be used as a model to resolve regional issues. Rouhani stressed, "We would not taste the sweet taste of this great victory without the instructions and guidelines of the great Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] and without the protection provided for this people by the religious jurisprudence." Saudi expected to change behavior Rouhani also expressed hope that Saudi Arabia would reconsider its hostile policy vis-a-vis Iran, adding that Riyadh is going down 'a wrong path.' "I hope that the new rulers in Saudi Arabia ... reconsider their behavior in the interest of the region and their own people," he said, adding that the kingdom itself is the source of its problems with Iran. The president, however, added, "Our administration, our people will not accept undiplomatic behavior and if necessary, we will give a firm response to certain behaviors." Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran on January 3 following demonstrations held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the Al Saud family for the killing of top cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. "Saudi Arabia's problem emanates from inside Saudi Arabia," Rouhani said. "Regarding the Mina incident, the reaction of Saudi Arabia and its approaches did not fall within moral and diplomatic norms," saying Riyadh did not offer an apology to the nations, which had lost their people in the disaster. Two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina, near the holy Saudi city of Mecca, during Hajj rituals on September 24, causing a human crush. Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but Iranian officials say about 4,700 people, over 460 of which were Iranians, lost their lives in the tragedy. Riyadh's behavior toward the people of the region "is not the right one," Rouhani also noted, citing the kingdom's continuing massacre of Yemenis in a military aggression it launched against the impoverished nation last March. "Saudi Arabia started on the wrong path on its own. We hope it will not continue treading on that pathI hope that the new rulers in Saudi Arabia have already learnt the lesson and reconsider their behavior in the interest of the region and their own people." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran Nuclear Deal Shows US Diplomacy's Capabilities - Obama Sputnik News 19:18 17.01.2016(updated 20:29 17.01.2016) US President Barack Obama said that the Iran nuclear deal would not resolve all differences between Washington and Tehran, but he called American diplomacy 'strong.' WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The nuclear agreement reached by Iran and world powers in July proved possibilities of US diplomacy, President Barack Obama said Sunday. 'We are seeing what's possible with the strong American diplomacy that includes our diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran,' Obama said in a press conference following Iran's JCPOA implementation day. The US president added that the Iran nuclear deal would not resolve all differences between Washington and Tehran. 'Engaging directly with the Iranian government to sustain basis for the first time in decades has created a unique opportunity, a window, to try to resolve important issues,' Obama said. Barack Obama also stated that Washington intends to further sanction Tehran, if Iran maintains its ballistic missile program implementation. Earlier in the day, the US Treasury Department sanctioned 11 entities and individuals, including six Iranians and one Chinese citizen, over their involvement in procurement on behalf of Iran's ballistic missile program. 'We will continue to enforce these sanctions [for Iran's ballistic program] vigorously,' Obama told reporters. On July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany, signed the so-called JCPOA. The agreement guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. On Saturday, Washington and Tehran reached a prisoner exchange deal. Under the agreement, Iran freed four Iranian-American prisoners, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, for seven Iranian nationals serving their sentence at US jails. There are currently no formal diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran President Hails Nuclear Deal as Victory for 'Power of Diplomacy' Sputnik News 16:35 17.01.2016(updated 16:45 17.01.2016) Hassan Rouhani hailed on Sunday the implementation of a nuclear agreement Tehran negotiated with the six world powers. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed on Sunday the implementation of a nuclear agreement Tehran negotiated with the six world powers last summer as a diplomatic victory for the Islamic republic. 'Today is the day of the victory of the people of Iran on the political arena,' Rouhani said in an address televised on state television. 'As of today, it is clear that our country has a big power called the power of diplomacy.' The United Nation's nuclear watchdog IAEA verified Iran's compliance with the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) late on Saturday. The confirmation led to the immediate lifting of UN and EU sanctions, as well as partial sanctions relief by the United States. 'After 12 years of steadfastness and resistance as well as patience and sacrificewe are at a turning point,' Rouhani said, lauding Tehran's ability to balance national interests and international security in 'interacting with the world.' He argued that the milestone now presented Iran's nuclear program as a 'plan for scientific, technological, business and economic cooperation.' The Iranian leader said 1,000 letters of credit were opened on the first day of the so-called Implementation Day outlined by the JCPOA, reached in July 2015. Up to $100 billion of Iran's foreign assets are expected to be unlocked with the nuclear agreement. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US to Continue Sanctioning Iran for Unlawful Non-JCPOA Activities Sputnik News 07:20 17.01.2016(updated 07:29 17.01.2016) US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that the United States will continue imposing sanctions on Iran for its sanctionable actions outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. WASHINGTON (Sputnik) The United States will continue imposing sanctions on Iran for its sanctionable actions outside of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said in a statement. On Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed Iran's compliance with the agreement on country's nuclear program and implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) came into effect. Soon after that, the regime of sanctions imposed on Tehran by the United States has been substantially weakened. 'As we have said all along, while the JCPOA addresses the nuclear issues, it does not resolve other areas where Iran's behavior remains unacceptable. We will continue to target sanctionable activities outside of the JCPOA including those related to Iran's support for terrorism, regional destabilization, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile development,' Lew said on Saturday. He added that despite lifting a significant part of sanctions, the US embargo broadly remained in place, meaning that US citizens and entities would still be prohibited from direct contacts with the majority of Iranian entities. On July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany, signed the JCPOA. The agreement guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netanyahu: Iran Unlikely to Abandon Nuclear Ambitions After Signing JCPOA Sputnik News 04:59 17.01.2016(updated 05:09 17.01.2016) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tehran has not abandoned its aim to obtain nuclear weapons even after signing an agreement on its nuclear program. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Tehran has not abandoned its aim to obtain nuclear weapons even after signing an agreement on its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday. 'Even after signing the nuclear deal, Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilize the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world while violating its international commitments,' Netanyahu said, as quoted by Israel National News broadcaster. He added that the international community should monitor Tehran's activities to ensure Iran would not develop nuclear weapons. On Saturday, International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Iran's compliance with the agreement on country's nuclear program and implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed by Iran and a group of world powers, came into effect. On July 14, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany, signed the JCPOA. The agreement guarantees the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Obama Credits Diplomacy After Historic Developments With Iran by Mary Alice Salinas January 17, 2016 U.S. President Barack Obama is crediting "strong American diplomacy" for key milestones with Iran in a 24-hour period, including confirmation that Tehran has significantly rolled back its nuclear program, released American prisoners and resolved a three-decade-old financial dispute. The president spoke on Sunday after receiving confirmation that all five Americans released by Iran had departed the country (watch the president's full statement at the following link). "This is a good day," Obama told the nation. After using diplomacy to directly engage with the Iranians "We've seen results," he said. On Saturday, the United States and five other global powers lifted sanctions on Iran after a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog saying Tehran had fulfilled its commitments to cut back its nuclear program. The removal of sanctions gives Iran access to funds ranging from $50 to $100 billion, according to senior administration officials. The U.S. says Iran has removed two-thirds of its centrifuges to enrich uranium, shipped out more than 98 percent of its enriched uranium stockpile and will be subjected to unprecedented inspections and access to its nuclear program. If Iran tries to covertly build a bomb, "we will catch them," said the president. "The region, the United States, and the world will be more secure." Communication channels The long and difficult diplomatic process to negotiate the Iran nuclear deal opened channels of communication for the first time in decades and new opportunities for the two nations to engage on other key matters, said senior administration officials. The diplomatic ties established between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif during the nuclear talks are credited with helping to secure the prompt release of U.S. sailors captured by Iranians in the Persian Gulf last week. The historic engagement also led to the release of five Americans unjustly detained by Iran, said the president. "After the nuclear deal was completed, the discussions between our governments accelerated," said Obama, securing the U.S. detainees release as part of a prisoner swap on Saturday. The former detainees include Jason Rezaian, a journalist for The Washington Post; Saeed Abedini, an Idaho pastor held for more than three years; former Marine sergeant Amir Hekmati of Michigan held for more than four years; Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, and student Matthew Trevithick. In exchange, the U.S. granted clemency to six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian awaiting trial on charges they violated U.S. trade sanctions against Iran. The U.S. and Iran will intensify coordination on the search for Robert Levinson, who has been missing in Iran for more than eight years. After the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and the release of prisoners, Obama said the two countries settled a more than three-decade old claim by the Iranian government against the United States. Senior administration officials say the settlement could save the U.S. billions. The president also spoke directly to the Iranian people, saying "Yours is a great civilization." But for decades Iran has destabilized the region and isolated Iran from much of the world. "Following the nuclear deal, you -- especially young Iranians -- have the opportunity to begin building new ties with the world." New sanctions Also on Sunday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on five individuals and several companies for ties to Tehran's ballistic missile program. 'The nuclear deal was never intended to resolve all of our differences with Iran,' the president said. 'We will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously,' he added of the missile sanctions. Earlier Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic has entered a 'new chapter' in its history in a speech Sunday praising the end of international sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear activities. A senior administration official said Sunday the U.S. continues to have "profound differences" with Iran over its support of terrorists, destabilizing actions in the region, human rights abuses and how to end to the war on Syria. "We do believe we should test whether there could be dialogue with regard to other issues," said the officials. "Frankly the main forum for that will be the Vienna process on Syria." Global powers are holding talks in Vienna about how to end the war and bring about a political transition in Syria. The U.S. and Iran remain deeply divided about whether Bashar al-Assad should play any role in Syria's political future. The U.S. believe the war will not end as long as Assad remains in power. Reaction U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called 'Implementation Day' a 'significant milestone.' But Saturday's news was greeted with skepticism by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most vocal opponent of the deal in the international community. He warned that 'Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons, and continues to act to destabilize the Middle East and spread terror throughout the world.' The end of sanctions was also greeted with scorn in the United States by many of President Barack Obama's Republican opponents, especially the party's 2016 presidential candidates. 'It seems to be an indication of where we are going. That Iran deal is the dumbest deal I think I've ever seen,' said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a recent campaign event. House Speaker Paul Ryan added to the criticism. 'A bipartisan majority in the House voted to reject this deal in the first place, and we will continue to do everything possible to prevent a nuclear Iran,' he said. Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ed Royce welcomed the release of the detained Americans. "All of them should have been unconditionally released a long time ago. Period," he said. But he added that "a disturbing pattern is emerging where the Obama administration is willing to negotiate the release of spies, terrorists and now criminals. I fail to see how this trend will improve the long-term security of the United States and its citizens." Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader said 'While we have no illusions about the Iranian regime, we have once again seen the value of the enhanced diplomatic relationship created through our historic nuclear agreement.' Rouhani dismissed any criticism of the nuclear during his speech to the Iranian parliament. He said everyone is happy 'except Zionists, warmongers fueling discord in the Islamic world, and hardliners in the U.S.' The deal is a triumph for Rouhani, considered a moderate cleric who was elected in 2013 on a pledge to reform his country's economy. But Tehran's hopes of an instant windfall by its return to the global oil markets will likely be tempered due to the massive glut of oil, which dropped to $30 per barrel this week for the first time in a decade. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel Condemns Lifting of Sanctions on Iran by Robert Berger January 17, 2016 Israel's prime minister has condemned the lifting of crippling international sanctions on Iran following the U.N. nuclear agency's certification that Tehran is curbing its nuclear program. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that despite the agreement with the world powers, Iran has not given up its quest for nuclear weapons. Netanyahu told his Cabinet lifting sanctions would provide Iran with more resources to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world. He called on the international community to closely monitor Iran's nuclear facilities and reimpose sanctions if there were any violations. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but its leaders have also threatened to wipe Israel "off the map." Since most of Iran's nuclear infrastructure remains intact, Netanyahu feared the Islamic Republic could secretly build an atomic bomb that could threaten Israel's existence. His skepticism about the nuclear deal is shared by many Israelis, like this man on the street. "We are at the same level of concern as before.I think my biggest concern is that the leadership in the West does not really care that much about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon." Netanyahu, who has threatened to attack Iran's nuclear sites in the past, said Israel would do everything necessary to defend itself. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement by the President on Iran The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 17, 2016 The Cabinet Room 10:48 A.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: This is a good day, because, once again, we're seeing what's possible with strong American diplomacy. As I said in my State of the Union address, ensuring the security of the United States and the safety of our people demands a smart, patient and disciplined approach to the world. That includes our diplomacy with the Islamic Republic of Iran. For decades, our differences with Iran meant that our governments almost never spoke to each other. Ultimately, that did not advance America's interests. Over the years, Iran moved closer and closer to having the ability to build a nuclear weapon. But from Presidents Franklin Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan, the United States has never been afraid to pursue diplomacy with our adversaries. And as President, I decided that a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government. We've seen the results. Under the nuclear deal that we, our allies and partners reached with Iran last year, Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. The region, the United States, and the world will be more secure. As I've said many times, the nuclear deal was never intended to resolve all of our differences with Iran. But still, engaging directly with the Iranian government on a sustained basis, for the first time in decades, has created a unique opportunity -- a window -- to try to resolve important issues. And today, I can report progress on a number of fronts. First, yesterday marked a milestone in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran has now fulfilled key commitments under the nuclear deal. And I want to take a moment to explain why this is so important. Over more than a decade, Iran had moved ahead with its nuclear program, and, before the deal, it had installed nearly 20,000 centrifuges that can enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. Today, Iran has removed two-thirds of those machines. Before the deal, Iran was steadily increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium -- enough for up to 10 nuclear bombs. Today, more than 98 percent of that stockpile has been shipped out of Iran -- meaning Iran now doesn't have enough material for even one bomb. Before, Iran was nearing completion of a new reactor capable of producing plutonium for a bomb. Today, the core of that reactor has been pulled out and filled with concrete so it cannot be used again. Before the deal, the world had relatively little visibility into Iran's nuclear program. Today, international inspectors are on the ground, and Iran is being subjected to the most comprehensive, intrusive inspection regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program. Inspectors will monitor Iran's key nuclear facilities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For decades to come, inspectors will have access to Iran's entire nuclear supply chain. In other words, if Iran tries to cheat -- if they try to build a bomb covertly -- we will catch them. So the bottom line is this. Whereas Iran was steadily expanding its nuclear program, we have now cut off every single path that Iran could have used to build a bomb. Whereas it would have taken Iran two to three months to break out with enough material to rush to a bomb, we've now extended that breakout time to a year -- and with the world's unprecedented inspections and access to Iran's program, we'll know if Iran ever tries to break out. Now that Iran's actions have been verified, it can begin to receive relief from certain nuclear sanctions and gain access to its own money that had been frozen. And perhaps most important of all, we've achieved this historic progress through diplomacy, without resorting to another war in the Middle East. I want to also point out that by working with Iran on this nuclear deal, we were better able to address other issues. When our sailors in the Persian Gulf accidentally strayed into Iranian waters that could have sparked a major international incident. Some folks here in Washington rushed to declare that it was the start of another hostage crisis. Instead, we worked directly with the Iranian government and secured the release of our sailors in less than 24 hours. This brings me to a second major development -- several Americans unjustly detained by Iran are finally coming home. In some cases, these Americans faced years of continued detention. And I've met with some of their families. I've seen their anguish, how they ache for their sons and husbands. I gave these families my word -- I made a vow -- that we would do everything in our power to win the release of their loved ones. And we have been tireless. On the sidelines of the nuclear negotiations, our diplomats at the highest level, including Secretary Kerry, used every meeting to push Iran to release our Americans. I did so myself, in my conversation with President Rouhani. After the nuclear deal was completed, the discussions between our governments accelerated. Yesterday, these families finally got the news that they have been waiting for. Jason Rezaian is coming home. A courageous journalist for The Washington Post, who wrote about the daily lives and hopes of the Iranian people, he's been held for a year and a half. He embodies the brave spirit that gives life to the freedom of the press. Jason has already been reunited with his wife and mom. Pastor Saeed Abedini is coming home. Held for three and half years, his unyielding faith has inspired people around the world in the global fight to uphold freedom of religion. Now, Pastor Abedini will return to his church and community in Idaho. Amir Hekmati is coming home. A former sergeant in the Marine Corps, he's been held for four and a half years. Today, his parents and sisters are giving thanks in Michigan. Two other Americans unjustly detained by Iran have also been released -- Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari and Matthew Trevithick, an Iranian -- who was in Iran as a student. Their cases were largely unknown to the world. But when Americans are freed and reunited with their families, that's something that we can all celebrate. So I want to thank my national security team -- especially Secretary Kerry; Susan Rice, my National Security Advisor; Brett McGurk; Avril Haines; Ben Rhodes -- our whole team worked tirelessly to bring our Americans home, to get this work done. And I want to thank the Swiss government, which represents our interests in Iran, for their critical assistance. And meanwhile, Iran has agreed to deepen our coordination as we work to locate Robert Levinson -- missing from Iran for more than eight years. Even as we rejoice in the safe return of others, we will never forget about Bob. Each and every day, but especially today, our hearts are with the Levinson family, and we will not rest until their family is whole again. In a reciprocal humanitarian gesture, six IranianAmericans and one Iranian serving sentences or awaiting trial in the United States are being granted clemency. These individuals were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses. They're civilians, and their release is a one-time gesture to Iran given the unique opportunity offered by this moment and the larger circumstances at play. And it reflects our willingness to engage with Iran to advance our mutual interests, even as we ensure the national security of the United States. So, nuclear deal implemented. American families reunited. The third piece of this work that we got done this weekend involved the United States and Iran resolving a financial dispute that dated back more than three decades. Since 1981, after our nations severed diplomatic relations, we've worked through a international tribunal to resolve various claims between our countries. The United States and Iran are now settling a longstanding Iranian government claim against the United States government. Iran will be returned its own funds, including appropriate interest, but much less than the amount Iran sought. For the United States, this settlement could save us billions of dollars that could have been pursued by Iran. So there was no benefit to the United States in dragging this out. With the nuclear deal done, prisoners released, the time was right to resolve this dispute as well. Of course, even as we implement the nuclear deal and welcome our Americans home, we recognize that there remain profound differences between the United States and Iran. We remain steadfast in opposing Iran's destabilizing behavior elsewhere, including its threats against Israel and our Gulf partners, and its support for violent proxies in places like Syria and Yemen. We still have sanctions on Iran for its violations of human rights, for its support of terrorism, and for its ballistic missile program. And we will continue to enforce these sanctions, vigorously. Iran's recent missile test, for example, was a violation of its international obligations. And as a result, the United States is imposing sanctions on individuals and companies working to advance Iran's ballistic missile program. And we are going to remain vigilant about it. We're not going to waver in the defense of our security or that of our allies and partners. But I do want to once again speak directly to the Iranian people. Yours is a great civilization, with a vibrant culture that has so much to contribute to the world -- in commerce, and in science and the arts. For decades, your government's threats and actions to destabilize your region have isolated Iran from much of the world. And now our governments are talking with one another. Following the nuclear deal, you -- especially young Iranians -- have the opportunity to begin building new ties with the world. We have a rare chance to pursue a new path -- a different, better future that delivers progress for both our peoples and the wider world. That's the opportunity before the Iranian people. We need to take advantage of that. And to my fellow Americans, today, we're united in welcoming home sons and husbands and brothers who, in lonely prison cells, have endured an absolute nightmare. But they never gave in and they never gave up. At long last, they can stand tall and breathe deep the fresh air of freedom. As a nation, we face real challenges, around the world and here at home. Many of them will not be resolved quickly or easily. But today's progress -- Americans coming home, an Iran that has rolled back its nuclear program and accepted unprecedented monitoring of that program -- these things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and with wisdom; with courage and resolve and patience. America can do -- and has done -- big things when we work together. We can leave this world and make it safer and more secure for our children and our grandchildren for generations to come. I want to thank once again Secretary Kerry; our entire national security team, led by Susan Rice. I'm grateful for all the assistance that we received from our allies and partners. And I am hopeful that this signals the opportunity at least for Iran to work more cooperatively with nations around the world to advance their interests and the interests of people who are looking for peace and security for their families. Thank you so much. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. END 11:03 A.M. EST NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Saudi splurging out to rally support against Iran: Report Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 3:16PM Saudi Arabia pledged the Somali government USD 50 million in aid on the same day Mogadishu declared it had severed ties with Iran, a report says. According to a document from the Saudi embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, to the embassy of Somalia there, the regime in Riyadh pledged USD 20 million in budget support to Mogadishu and USD 30 million for investment in the African country, Reuters reported Sunday. The news agency quoted diplomats as saying that the financial support is 'the latest sign of patronage used by the kingdom to shore up regional support against Iran.' 'The Saudis currently manage to rally countries behind them both on financial grounds and the argument of non-interference,' a diplomat said. Iran has repeatedly denied the Saudi allegations of interference in the affairs of other countries. On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced the execution of prominent cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 other people. Nimr was a critic of Riyadh. After that, protesters gathered outside the Saudi embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and the consulate building in the city of Mashhad. Some people attacked the Saudi diplomatic missions during the protests. Iranian authorities strongly condemned the attacks and some 60 people were detained. Riyadh severed its ties with Tehran on January 3. Somalia was among those countries that declared they were cutting diplomatic relations with Iran. Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and Comoros also have severed ties with Iran. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates recalled ambassadors. The Somali government has not confirmed or denied the pledge, but Mogadishu claims the Saudi support for Somalia, which has been long-running, is not related to the decision to break diplomatic ties with Iran. The Saudi Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria troops seize key militant bastions in Latakia Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 4:31PM The Syrian government troops, backed by volunteer forces, have managed to retake full control of several strategic areas from foreign-backed militants in the northwestern province of Latakia. Syria's official news agency SANA quoted a senior military source on Sunday as saying that the armed forces took full control of al-Kindeisiyeh and al-Sukkariyeh villages and the surrounding hills on the northern countryside of Lattakia. The source added that the Syrian army and allies managed to take back the mountains of al-Khanadiq, al-Kindeisiyeh, Kazbar and al-Sindyan in the same volatile region. Syrian government forces are now defusing the explosive devices and mines left behind by terrorist groups across the region, the source noted. Several terrorists were reportedly killed during the massive military operation, while the rest fled away towards nearby woods adjacent to Rabiaa town near the Turkish border. Takfiri terrorists in Latakia, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, are largely stationed in the northern and northeastern areas of Jabal Akrad and Jabal Turkman. The Syrian army also carried out a series of assaults on several militant hideouts belonging to the so-called Jaish al-Fatah (the Army of Conquest) and al-Nusra Front in Kafr Sijneh village and al-Arbaeen Mountain in the southern countryside of northwestern province of Idlib over the past 24 hours. Nearly two dozen militants and several senior militant commanders, mostly Saudi and Turkish nationals, were killed during the military offensive across the region. Syrian forces have recently been making back-to-back advances with the support of fighters from the Lebanon resistance movement Hezbollah and Russian airstrikes. Iran is also providing military advisory assistance to Syria in the fight against terrorists. Over 250,000 people have been killed in Syria since a foreign-backed militancy erupted in the country in March 2011. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. More than 250 SMEs in Armenia have received assistance in the framework of One Village One Product (OVOP) program implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center of Armenia. The majority of the enterprises are startups, Mr. Akihiro Tsukamoto, leading expert of JICA and Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Centers OVOP program told journalists. The expert added that the program is worth 2 million USD. The Japan International Cooperation Agency implements such economic programs in several dozens of countries. The OVOP program realized in Armenia was estimated as one of the best ones. The program was realized in 12 directions. Japans evaluation group visited Armenia at the end of last year, held a monitoring, as a result of which Armenias program was among the best ones, Akihiro said. He emphasized that there is another program of the kind, the details of which are still being discussed. He added that the program will probably start during 2016. Deputy Executive Director of Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development National Center of Armenia Karen Gevorgyan told journalists that One Village One Product (OVOP) program is the second successful cooperation between the JICA and the SME Development National Center of Armenia. We started cooperation back in 2005 and created certain preconditions to cooperate in another direction as well with our Japanese partners. Regarding todays programs, they mainly relate to the development of the local products and creation of the local brand. I think, it is needless to say how important such programs for Armenia are, especially in the framework of the regional developments, Karen Gevorgyan said. In the framework of the program, production equipment worth 33.1 million AMD has been provided to assist the establishment of olive, cheese, dried fruit, vegetable and plant industrial training centers in Tavush, Syunik and Ararat regions. Daesh kidnaps 400 civilians in Syria's Dayr al-Zawr: Report Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 10:35AM Daesh Takfiri terrorists have kidnapped at least 400 civilians, including women and children, in an assault on Syria's eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr, a monitoring group says. Following its Saturday attack on Dayr al-Zawr, Daesh "abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the al-Baghaliyeh neighborhood it captured, and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city," the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said on Sunday. Rami Abdel Rahman, the SOHR director, added that all of the abductees were Sunni Muslims, including families of pro-government fighters. He added that they were transported to other areas under Daesh control. "There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," he stated. Syria's state news agency SANA said some 300 civilians were killed in the Daesh attack on the city. Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi condemned the "barbaric massacre," saying the responsibility for the crimes lies with the supporters of terrorist groups active the Arab state. Dayr al-Zawr has been effectively under siege by Daesh militants since early 2015, when the militants launched an offensive, capturing the city of Palmyra in Homs Province, then cutting off the remaining supply line to the city. The Daesh siege has led to a severe food crisis in Dayr al-Zawr, where 70 percent of the residents are women and children. The UN said Saturday that some 20 people died of starvation in the besieged Syrian city last year. Some 400,000 people in Syria are under siege as a foreign-backed militancy is wreaking havoc across much of the country. The conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people and left over one million injured. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Militant rocket attacks leave 5 dead, dozens injured in Syria Iran Press TV Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:26AM At least five people have been killed and dozens of others injured in separate rocket attacks by foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants against residential areas in Syria's northwestern provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said four civilians lost their lives and 55 others were injured when several rockets fired by militants struck neighborhoods across Aleppo, situated some 355 kilometers (220 miles) north of the capital, Damascus, on Saturday afternoon. The projectiles also caused substantial damage to several houses at the targeted areas. A medical official at Aleppo's al-Jamia'a Hospital, requesting not to be named, said most of those wounded are women and children, and that four of them are in critical condition. Separately, one civilian was killed and an unspecified number of others injured in a terrorist rocket attack on the town of al-Fu'ah in Idlib Province. On January 6, at least eight civilians lost their lives in mortar attacks by foreign-backed terrorists on Damascus. The Syrian Interior Ministry said 20 more sustained injuries in the assaults on areas near the capital's al-Abed and Baghdad streets earlier this week, Syria's official SANA news agency reported. An unidentified source at Damascus Police Command also said the casualties came after terrorists based in the Eastern Ghouta region fired mortar shells at residential neighborhoods in the Syrian capital, causing material damage to properties. The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people and left over one million injured. The UN says 12.2 million people, including more than 5.6 million children, remain in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria. The violence has also displaced 7.6 million people. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IS Militants Abduct 400 Civilians In Eastern Syria, Monitor Says January 17, 2016 The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has abducted at least 400 people, including women and children, after capturing new territory in eastern Syria, a monitoring group said on January 17. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants had moved the captives from the government-controlled village of al-Baghaliyeh, on the northern edge of Deir al-Zour city, after a major attack on the area on January 16. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said family members of pro-government fighters were among those abducted. 'We fear that the 400 will be executed or enslaved by the organization on the pretext that they are loyal to the regime,' Rahman told the dpa news agency. Syria's state news agency SANA said earlier that at least 300 people had been killed by IS fighters in the attacks in Deir al-Zour. SANA said most of those killed in the January 16 attacks were elderly people, women, and children. Opposition activists said many of the victims were Syrian soldiers and pro-government militiamen and their families. IS militants control most of Deir al-Zour province and its capital city of the same name. Based on reporting by Reuters, dpa, AP, and AFP Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/islamic-state-militants-syria-400-abducted/27492664.html Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Field Commander Refutes Reports of 400 People Kidnapped by Daesh Sputnik News 20:28 17.01.2016 A Syrian field commander said that the reports on kidnappings of civilians from the village near the city of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria are untrue. DAMASCUS (Sputnik) A Syrian field commander on Sunday refuted earlier reports claiming that Islamic State (ISIL) also known as Daesh jihadist group had abducted some 400 people near the city of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, in a comment to Sputnik. Earlier in the day, Al Mayadeen TV channel said that Daesh militants killed 280 people in the village of al-Bughailiyeh near Deir al-Zor. According to other reports, the jihadists kidnapped over 400 civilians, including women and children, from the village following the mass killings. 'The reports on kidnappings of civilians from the village are untrue,' the field commander said. Since 2014, Daesh militants have seized vast areas in Syria, as well as Iraq, and have declared a caliphate under the rule of Sharia law in territories they control. The group has forced thousands of people, mostly religious minorities including Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims, to flee their homes. Since late September, Russia has been conducting an aerial campaign in Syria against the Daesh extremist group, which is outlawed in Russia, following a request from President Bashar Assad. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Suburban Combat: Syrian Army Fights Islamists in Greater Damascus Sputnik News 08:44 17.01.2016(updated 09:35 17.01.2016) Syrian forces, supported by the county's air force, have reportedly destroyed more militants' strongholds in the eastern and western areas of Ghouta in Damascus province. More strongholds of the militant groups have been obliterated by the Syrian Army and the country's air force in eastern and western Ghouta to the east of the capital, according to the Iranian news agency FARS. 'Gathering centers of the militant groups in Jobar in eastern Ghouta were massively attacked by the Syrian troops. Several militants were killed or wounded in the attacks,' FARS quoted the sources as saying on Saturday. The sources added that 'the Syrian fighter jets, for their part, bombed the militant groups bases and gatherings in Jobar,' which also claimed the lives of several militants. Jobar is an inner suburb of Damascus located between the city and a key thoroughfare, Almotahalik Aljanobi Street, which connects with the M5 highway leading north to Homs. Earlier this week, it was reported that the Syrian Army and the country's National Defense Forces (NDF), managed to drive Islamist militants out of more areas in Damascus Province, where the army regained control over several sites during fighting near the Qalamoun Mountains. Army sources said that on Friday night, the army and the NDF 'surprised Daesh terrorists in the Eastern Qalamoun with a powerful assault on the Damascus Train Tracks, the Petrol Pumping Station, the al-Thaniyah Walls, and the village of al-Azzam in rural West Damascus.' Scores of militants were killed and many more wounded in this large-scale attack, according to sources. In another development, the governor of the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor said that Syrian troops had liberated the al-Bagilya settlement, where Daesh militants had earlier killed 280 people. Adding to the Syrian Army's anti-Daesh effort is Russia's air campaign, which was launched on September 30, when more than fifty Russian warplanes, including Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets, commenced precision airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Syria at the behest of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China urged to respect Taiwan's general election results ROC Central News Agency 2016/01/17 01:20:04 Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC,) has called on China to respect the results of Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections that concluded Saturday. The election demonstrates the mature development of Taiwan's democratic development, the MAC said in a press release Saturday, adding that all sectors in Taiwan and China should respect the choices of Taiwanese voters and its democratic system and continue to promote the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations. Cross-strait peace and prosperity conforms to the interest of Taiwan and China and 'both sides have the responsibility' to maintain the status quo, the MAC said in a press release. Over the past eight years, the government's promotion of good interactions between the two sides across the strait has contributed greatly to Taiwan's development on many fronts and gained international recognition, it said. The MAC reiterated that it will continue to maintain and promote harmony and stability across the strait in the future based on the principles of equality and dignity and intensify cross-strait cooperation and exchanges. Meanwhile, the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council said Saturday in response to the outcome of Taiwan's elections that China's policy toward Taiwan will not change because of the election results and that it will continue its adherence to the '1992 Consensus' and its opposition to Taiwan independence. (By Yin Chun-chieh, Scarlett Chai and Evelyn Kao) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tsai Ing-wen seen as more flexible than former DPP president ROC Central News Agency 2016/01/17 19:35:08 Taipei, Jan . 17 (CNA) President-elect Tsai Ing-wen () appears to be more flexible than the first person from her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to win the presidency, Chen Shui-bian (), a former director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said Sunday. When Chen took office in 2000, putting the opposition DPP in power for the first time, Beijing felt it could not accept the DPP leading Taiwan, triggering friction across the Taiwan Strait, said Stephen Young, who was director of AIT's Taipei office from 2006 to 2009. He was in Taiwan as part of an international observer mission that came to observe Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections held Saturday. Compared with Chen, Tsai has appeared to be more flexible, Young said, but he believed the key factor in the future development of cross-strait ties will be China's response to Tsai being the president of Taiwan. If China takes a tougher stance on its Taiwan policy, it could affect cross-strait ties and also the United States' relations with China and Taiwan, Young told local media on the sidelines of a news conference called by the international observer team. A report issued by the mission said Taiwan's sixth presidential election showed it was turning into a mature democracy and also described Tsai's victory in the presidential race as a milestone in the history of Taiwan. The completion of the sixth direct presidential election demonstrated that Taiwan has evolved from an authoritarian regime into a mature democracy characterized by basic freedoms and complete election procedures, the mission said. Tsai will become Taiwan's first female president on May 20, when she takes over from President Ma Ying-jeou (), who will finish his second four-year term. During the transition period, the issue of a new Cabinet will require the cooperation of the Ma administration and the new administration, said Akihisa Nagashima, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan who was part of the observation mission. If the issue is not handled well, it might affect cross-strait relations, he warned. Taiwan's Cabinet will resign en masse Monday afternoon after the DPP won both the presidential and legislative elections, Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun () said Sunday. After resigning, the Cabinet headed by Premier Mao Chi-kuo () will wait for instructions from President Ma Ying-jeou () based on his consultations with the DPP's government-in-waiting, Sun said. The Ma administration has offered to allow the DPP to form a Cabinet before Tsai is sworn in May, but the proposal appears to have been shot down. (By Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address White House congratulates Tsai on election win ROC Central News Agency 2016/01/17 08:20:06 Washington, Jan. 16 (CNA) The White House offered its congratulations to Taiwan's President-elect Tsai Ing-wen on winning the election Saturday and said the United States 'maintain(s) a profound interest in the continuation' of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. 'The United States congratulates Dr. Tsai Ing-wen on her victory in Taiwan's presidential election. We also congratulate the people on Taiwan for once again demonstrating the strength of their robust democratic system,' said Myles Caggins, spokesman of the White House National Security Council. 'We maintain a profound interest in the continuation of cross-Strait peace and stability,' he said in response to CNA's request for comments on the result of Taiwan's presidential and legislative elections. 'We look forward to working with the new president and leaders from both parties to further strengthen the unofficial relationship between the United States and the people of Taiwan,' Caggins said. Earlier in the day, the U.S. State Department issued a similar statement on the election, congratulating both Tsai and the people of Taiwan and adding that Taiwan's democratic system will now undergo another peaceful transition of power. The statement, issued in the name of spokesman John Kirby, also said that the United States thanks President Ma Ying-jeou for his 'efforts to develop a strong partnership with the United States and applauds him for concrete steps he has taken to improve cross-Strait ties in recent years.' 'We hope that President Ma's administration and the incoming administration will work constructively to ensure a smooth transition and continue to promote peace and stability in the region,' it said. The U.S. response came after Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won both Taiwan's presidency and legislature for the first time in a landslide victory. Tsai won the presidential election with 56.12 percent of the vote and her party took 68 out of a total of 113 seats in the Legislative Yuan, becoming the legislature's majority party for the first time in the DPP's 30-year history. China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, is worried that its cordial relations with Taiwan under the Ma administration may be reversed after Tsai comes to office on May 20. Both China and Ma's Kuomintang party have insisted on the concept of there being only one China, with both sides of the Taiwan Strait free to interpret what that China means. They insisted that relations between the two sides be conducted under that principle, a demand that Tsai and her independence-leaning party have rejected. (By Rita Cheng and Jay Chen) Enditem NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Six historic firsts in the 2016 presidential and legislative elections ROC Central News Agency 2016/01/17 01:53:04 Taipei, Jan. 17 (CNA) The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP's) Tsai Ing-wen () was elected the new president of Taiwan on Saturday, completing the third transition of power in Taiwan's democratic history. The following are the six 'firsts' seen in the 2016 presidential and legislative elections. 1. First female president Tsai became the first female president to lead the Republic of China (Taiwan), joining the ranks of female heads of state in Asia, including South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Before Tsai, the woman who achieved the highest government position in Taiwan was Annette Lu (), who served as vice president of Taiwan from 2000 to 2008. 2. DPP's first legislative majority The DPP won an absolute majority in the Legislature for the first time in history by taking 68 of 113 legislative seats. Even though Chen Shui-bian () became the first DPP candidate to win the presidency in 2000, the DPP never held an absolute majority in the legislative body, though it did have the most seats of any party from 2001 to 2004. 3. Voter turnout drops to below 70 percent for first time The voter turnout rate for the presidential election this year was 66.27 percent, including invalid votes, the lowest ever since Taiwan began popular elections of its president in 1996. The previous low was 74.38 percent in 2012. 4. Vice presidential candidates not members of party of presidential running mates In this election, DPP vice presidential candidate Chen Chien-jen () and the Kuomintang's vice presidential candidate were not members of any party, while People First Party James Soong's () running mate, Hsu Hsin-ying (), was the founder of the Minkuotang, a new party that sprouted up in early 2015. 5. Record set for presidential runs James Soong was vying for the presidency for the third time, more than any other candidate in the six direct presidential elections held in Taiwan to date. He made unsuccessful runs in 2000 and 2012, with his bid in 2000 falling short by a mere 2.46 percentage points to the winner Chen Shui-bian of the DPP. 6. First change of candidates in the middle of the campaign The KMT formally nominated Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu () as its presidential candidate on June 17, 2015 after the party's heavyweights opted not to vie for the nomination. However, Hung's candidacy sparked resistance within the party over her pro-unification views, prompting KMT chairman and presidential candidate Eric Chu () to remove her as the party's nominee four months later. Chu was recruited by KMT party members to represent the party in Hung's place. (By Christie Chen and Luke Sabatier) ENDITEM/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Don't Even Think About It! China Reacts Strongly to Taiwan Elections Sputnik News 22:28 17.01.2016(updated 22:32 17.01.2016) Hours after Taiwan put an independence-minded president and party into power, China responded by suggesting there could be repercussions if the island pushes further away from the mainland. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a decisive victory in Taiwan taking the presidency as well as a majority of the legislature. Tsai Ing-wen, who assumed the presidency is the first woman to hold that position. For the last eight years, the island has been under the administration of Ma Ying-jeou who was responsible for increasing Taiwan's political and economic ties to the mainland. However, Tsai and the DPP support a Taiwan more independent from China, which has not gone unnoticed by Beijing. According to China Cheat Sheets, "the change in leadership promises to usher in another era of instability across the Strait of Taiwan that separates the two regions." China reacted strongly to the news that Tsai won saying that the island calling the idea of independence for the island "poison." As China Cheat Sheets reports, "while Tsai has pledged to maintain peace with China saying that she supports a 'status quo,' China's Taiwan Affairs Office warned about any potential moves toward independence and vowed to defend the country's unity." 'If there is no peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's new authority will find the sufferings of the people it wishes to resolve on the economy, livelihood and its youth will be as useless as looking for fish in a tree,' Beijing said through state media. 'We hope Tsai can lead the DPP out of the hallucinations of Taiwan independence, and contribute to the peaceful and common development between Taiwan and the mainland,' it added. Tsai is now tasked with adhering to the wishes of her separatist constituency trying to keep the peace as well as economic ties with China. "I don't envy her," a commentator for a major Taiwanese daily publication told China Cheat Sheets. "I want to see how she can stand the pressure from China on the cross-strait issues." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. National Assembly received second resignation request of Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia Karen Andreasyan. Armenpress reports Head of Public Relations and Media Department of the National Assembly of Armenia Arsen Babayan made a note about this on his Facebook page. I want to remind that the President of the National Assembly informs the MPs during the upcoming session about the early termination of the Defenders responsibilities in accordance with the 3rd part of the 6th article of the law on Human Rights Defender, he informed. Human rights defender of the Republic of Armenia Karen Andreasyan submitted a resignation request on January 12. The Ombudsman thanks all his partners for the joint work and hopes that the human rights protection will remain our countrys and societys priority. There will be no other comments on this occasion, the Facebook post of the Ombudsman red. The responsibilities of the Human Rights Defender are terminated if he repeats his resignation not later than 10 days after submitting a resignation request (this means he must submit a request twice). In case the resignation request is repeated, the President of the National Assembly (NA) informs the deputies about the termination of the responsibilities of the Defender during the coming session. In case of early termination of Defenders powers the elections are passed within a month after the post remains vacant. Blame Game: Erdogan Hunts for Enemies Within and Without as Turkey Suffers Sputnik News 20:37 17.01.2016 The Turkish government insists on blaming the misfortunes that befall the country on foreign and domestic enemies. Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed that the January 12 terrorist attack in Istanbul was masterminded by some 'secret actors' who used Daesh as a 'subcontractor', according to Daily Sabah. The prime minister also accused the Syrian government of cooperating with Daesh militants, and argued that 'certain foreign powers have an obstructing stance against Turkey's airstrikes on Daesh targets,' the newspaper adds. However, it becomes more and more apparent that the actions and policies of President Erdogan are largely to blame for the dire state of affairs in Turkey, according to the Austrian daily Die Presse. Only a year ago the peace process with the Kurds was one of the cornerstones of the Turkish president's agenda, the newspaper points out. However, as it became apparent that Erdogan's party was losing the support of Turkish nationalists who were against any sort of peaceful negotiations with the Kurds, the president quickly shifted his stance and launched a violent crackdown against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). As a result of these actions, the southeastern regions of the country now became the battlefield for a full scale war, Die Presse remarks. The newspaper also suggests that the recent victories won by Kurdish forces against Daesh in Syria also vexed Erdogan considerably, prompting him to provide support to Bashar Assad's enemies regardless of how questionable their background may be. Yet despite these efforts the Syrian leader still remains in power, much to the Turkish president's displeasure. Furthermore, Erdogan's actions drastically worsened Turkey's relations with other influential Middle Eastern powers, such as Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Israel. In addition, the crisis sparked by downing a Russian Su-24 attack aircraft in Syria by Turkish fighter also threatens to undermine Turkey's influence in the region, the newspaper adds. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. As of January 18, 2016 Armenia exported a total of 1313 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables as compared with the 539 tons of the same period last year. The Information and Public relations department of the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture informed Armenpress about the aforementioned. 259 tons of cucumbers were exported ac compared with zero tons of the last years same period, 197 tons of tomatoes - as compared with 2 tons of the same period last year, 294 tons potatoes as compared with 6 tons of the same period last year, 76 tons of greens - as compared with 32 tons of the same period last year. At present, the Republic also exported 184 tons of apples as compared with 3 tons of the same period last year, 135 tons of grapes - as compared with 116 tons of the same period last year. Armenian fresh fruit and vegetables were exported to Russia, Georgia, and Switzerland. To the editor: You knew damned well I was a snake before you took me in. Thats the last line of an Al Green song from the 60s, about a woman who took in a freezing snake, and whose kindness was returned by a fatal bite. I have said for years that political correctness would be the undoing of the country. However, after watching the events of the past few months, I realize that I was wrong. We are going to be undone by a force much older than political correctness, which has plagued us for only 40 years or so. This force has been with us since the beginning plain old stupidity. We live in the information age. When anything of importance happens anywhere in the world, we know about it almost instantly. There is no excuse for ignorance of world events. We know, for instance, of what is going on all over Europe. Europe has a head start on us with refugee immigration. It started peacefully, by all accounts, and remained peaceful for several years. But the situation is far from peaceful now. In addition to terrorist attacks in Paris and other cities, sexual assaults and rapes are becoming everyday events. Cologne, Germany, experienced what some officials described as industrial-strength rape on New Years Eve, with huge groups of refugees terrorizing women wherever they were found. Sweden, which used to boast that its women could safely walk the streets at midnight, has become the rape capital of the West, thanks entirely to Muslim immigration. Amid all the assaults, there is an effort on the part of government to suppress information, to conceal the facts. The police chief of Cologne (since resigned) said that the rapes had nothing to do with Islam, and the mayor advised German women to keep at arms length from crowds of Muslim men. None of the leaders will admit that admitting all those Muslims was a major mistake, but the citizens can see that clearly, and they are saying so, too late. Anyone with half a brain can see it clearly. It shouldnt come as any surprise, given how Islam regards women. Women are treated like property, more like dogs than humans, with men being able to do as they wish. The treatment of women is not the only problem, though. Islam in general is not compatible with Western ways of life. We know what is happening in Europe. We cannot help but know if we are paying attention. Yet when Donald Trump suggested we exercise a little caution in admitting refugees into this country repeating the mistakes of Europe it raised a firestorm from the left. Some people think that we have to repeat the mistakes of Germany and France to prove what good people we are. It makes more sense to me to learn from the mistakes of others. To repeat their mistakes when we can so easily see the consequences makes us stupid people, not good people. I know a lot of people disagree with me on this subject, and that is their right. But if you disagree, I would ask you answer one question: What evidence do you have the refugees will act any differently here than they do all over Europe? ROBERT HUDSON Pelham, North Carolina A search committee still is in the process of recruiting a new executive director for the New College Institute (NCI). Whoever eventually is hired will succeed former state Sen. William Wampler who, after leaving the General Assembly, led the institute from early 2012 until he retired from state service last July. Gracie Agnew, chairman of both the institutes board and the search committee, said the committee now is seriously considering two candidates and is in the process of scheduling second interviews with them. She declined to identify the candidates or say anything about them, such as where they are from or where they currently work. Massachusetts-based executive recruitment firm The Spelman & Johnson Group is helping NCI with the search. The firm collected applications for the executive directors job. It then presented to the committee the applicants it determined were most likely qualified to do the job. Agnew said she could not immediately recall how many applicants the committee has actively considered. She said, though, that several with whom the committee has talked have chosen to no longer pursue the job. State rules limit what committee members can say publicly about the search process, she has said. The committee hopes to have a new director at work at NCI by July, Agnew said. Usually, it takes about a year, she said, for higher education institutions to recruit new chief executives and have them start work. Recruitment processes are extensive and after someone is hired, that person usually has to continue working for his or her current employer for a while after giving notification that he or she plans to leave, she mentioned. Funded by the state and The Harvest Foundation, NCI provides local access to various bachelors and masters degree programs through partnerships with colleges and universities throughout Virginia. It also offers training and professional development programs that are responsive to needs of Southern Virginia businesses and industries. Wampler, who represented the Bristol area in the state Senate from 1988 to 2011, was hired to lead NCI after he chose not to seek re-election. Officials said at the time that as a lawmaker, he was a major supporter of establishing the institute. In late 2014, NCI moved into an ultramodern, new 52,000-square-foot building on the Dana O. Baldwin Block in uptown Martinsville, although it still has a classroom building on the courthouse square a few blocks away. Local officials and business leaders have credited Wamplers influence as helping NCI to raise enough money to cover the new buildings roughly $18.7 million cost. The money included funds raised locally as well as grants from the state and various organizations. Wampler succeeded NCIs first executive director, Barry Dorsey, who led the institute from its establishment in 2006 until he retired in late 2011 Leanna Blevins, the institutes associate director and chief academic officer, is serving as acting executive director. ROANOKE Virginia is strengthening its reviews of companies seeking economic development incentives after a deal in the Lynchburg area unraveled amid scrutiny. An investigation by The Roanoke Times (http://bit.ly/1JavtJI) discovered lax vetting of a Chinese company's rosy pitch that secured $1.4 million from the Governor's Opportunity Fund. The state is now seeking the return of the incentive to Lindenburg Industry LLC. Among the newspaper's findings: State analysts relied on a company website produced in China that contained misleading information. They included the listing of a North Carolina address where the company never was located and materials lifted from an unaffiliated American company. Similar materials were used to brief Gov. Terry McAuliffe before he met in Beijing with a project principal. Officials relied on a site consultant who vouched for the company but hadn't asked basic background questions, such as the company's address in China. Only after the project sputtered did Virginia officials ask for company financial statements. Secretary of Commerce and Trade Maurice Jones said he has ordered reforms to Virginia's vetting procedures as a result of the gaps in the evaluation of Lindenburg. Now, he said, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership will neither take the word again of a site consultant about a business prospect nor fail to do its own homework. Lindenburg's investment in Appomattox County was touted in November 2014 by McAuliffe and local business leaders. The company's investment would mean a 10 percent increase in jobs in the county, and jobs that would substantially top the average paycheck. Lindenburg was to invest $113 million in a vacant furniture factory for its business in industrial ceramics. With that promise in mind, Virginia gave the firm a $1.4 million grant from the Governor's Opportunity Fund. But today, a gate remains closed at the entrance of the furniture plant and the company is lagging on tax payments and other demands. In December, Virginia declared the project dead. Now the state is awaiting repayment of the $1.4 million grant. "We're all ticked," Jeff Taylor, Appomattox County economic development director, said. "There's an element of trust here that's gone." Such incentives, in return for new jobs and corporate investment, are announced about 25 times annually. During the past two fiscal years, the partnership helped launch 383 business projects in which the companies pledged to invest $8 billion and create 33,710 jobs, said Suzanne Clark, spokeswoman for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. "It really is a process that has historically served us well," said Martin Briley, president and CEO of the partnership. Lindenburg officials have said they struggled to get equipment into the United States and arrange top company officers' immigration clearance. Skeptical state and local leaders are considering whether to take legal action. VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan 18, 2016) - Amarillo Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:AGC) ("Amarillo" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the date for the Public Hearing has been set for the 23rd of February, 2016. This is the final stage of the process to obtain the preliminary license (LP) for the new mine. The date was set by the Secretary of Environment, Water Resources, Infrastructure, Cities and Metropolitan Affairs (SECIMA), and has been accepted by the Public Prosecutors office, (Ministerio Publico, "MP"). This Public Hearing is a fundamental part of the licensing process and gives the opportunity for local representatives of the stakeholders to hear about the project on an official basis and ask questions if necessary. Apart from local stakeholders, representatives of Amarillo, SECIMA and the MP will be present. Prior to the Hearing, there will be preparation sessions with both SECIMA and the MP to ensure that the meeting covers all the necessary points related to the community and the project. Assuming no major impediments occur stemming from the Public Hearing, the preliminary environmental license ("LP") would be issued, within a month or two. To date the Company has enjoyed support for our project from the local community, who are well aware of the economic advantages of the mine. It has always focused on employment, training and business opportunities in previous informal meetings. Buddy Doyle President and CEO commented, "The setting of the Public Hearing is the last major hurdle in our permitting process. A successful meeting opens the way to obtain the Preliminary License, ("LP") which the Company now expects during the first half of the second quarter. I would like to thank the efforts of our staff, in particular Luis Carlos, Arao Portugal and Frank Baker. The recent devaluation of the local currency the "Real" (nearly 50% in 2015) is expected to substantially increase the economic viability of the project by decreasing Capex and Opex costs far outweighing the drawback of lower international gold prices, which in contrast is at near record prices in the local currency." The Posse Deposit at Mara Rosa contains 1,174,900 ounces of measured and indicated gold contained in 20.85 MT at 1.75 g/t Au, and 156,400 ounces of gold inferred from 3.63 MT at 1.38 g/t Au (0.5 g/t cut-off grade), (NI 43-101 compliant resource as independently determined by Australian Exploration Field Services Pty. AEFS). The Mara Rosa Gold Project has received a positive economic assessment from a pre-feasibility study (NI 43-101 Coffey Mining,). Brazilian mine permitting is governed and administered by each state, however the states tend to keep the same standards so the process is very similar throughout Brazil. The process has three stages, the preliminary license ("LP,"), the installation license ("LI"), and finally the license to operate ("LO"). The application for an LP is accompanied by an environmental base-line report called the EIA (Estudo de Impacto Ambiental, English translation: Environmental Impact Statement) and an environmental mitigation report, or RIMA (Relatorio de Impacto Ambiental). The granting of the LP is often regarded as the most important license as it outlines all the basic parameters of the project which have to be accepted by all the parties involved. Further parts of the licensing process enter in more detail always following the basic parameters stipulated in the LP. The setting of the LP date is a milestone signifying that SECIMA has accepted our mining plan from an environmental point of view. Once the LP is in hand the Company will focus on the second stage of the permit process, the LI, which will require a bankable feasibility study as well as negotiating agreements with the surface right holders. Construction can commence once the LI is obtained. In parallel to our continuing efforts with the project the DNPM (the Federal Department of Mines) granted an extension to our mineral rights. The rights have been held under a suspended mining license since 1996. About Amarillo Gold Corp. Amarillo Gold Corp. is focused on acquisition, discovery, and definition of gold resources in Brazil. It is the Company's policy to strive to do this in a sustainable, safe way using best practices whilst benefiting our shareholders and the communities we work in. The Company's principal projects are the Mara Rosa Project in the state of Goias, and the Lavras do Sul Project in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The Posse Deposit at Mara Rosa contains 1,174,900 ounces of measured and indicated gold contained in 20.85 MT at 1.75 g/t Au, and 156,400 ounces of gold inferred from 3.63 MT at 1.38 g/t Au (0.5 g/t cut-off grade) (NI 43-101 compliant resource as independently determined by Australian Exploration Field Services Pty. AEFS). The Mara Rosa Gold Project has received a positive economic assessment from a Pre-Feasibility study and Amarillo is proceeding to get the project permitted. The Posse Deposit was successfully mined by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) during the 1990s (mined areas are excluded from the above-stated resource figures), and is located in an area of excellent infrastructure: approximately 35 km NE of Yamana's Chapada open pit Cu-Au operation, some 80 km NE of Yamana's Pilar Au project (in feasibility), 95 km NW of Votorantim's Niquelandia Ni laterite mine, 105 km from NE of Serra Grande's underground Au mine, and 105 km NNW of Anglo American's Ni laterite project at Barro Alto. The Lavras do Sul Project is an advanced exploration stage property (190 sq. km.) comprising of more than 19 prospects centred on historic gold workings, with encouraging gold mineralization discovered and defined by more than 16,000 metres of drilling. The initial resource estimate at the Butia prospect reported 215,000 ounces of gold indicated from 6.4 MT at 1.05 g/t Au, and 308,000 ounces of gold inferred from 12.9 MT at 0.74 g/t Au using a 0.3 g/t cut-off grade in a NI 43-101 compliant resource as independently determined by Atticus Consulting 2010. Lavras do Sul is also located near excellent infrastructure. The Company also has a portfolio of earlier stage projects and all properties under Amarillo's management are located in areas of good infrastructure and mining-friendly communities. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Amarillo Gold Corp. Buddy Doyle, President Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release contains Forward Looking Statements regarding our intentions and plans. Forward looking statements in this news release include the expected timing and issuing of the LP. Various factors may prevent or delay our plans, including but not limited to, the lenders not advancing funds as required, contractor availability and performance, weather, access, mineral prices and success and failure of the exploration and development carried out at various stages of the program. Permission from the Government and community is also required to proceed with future mining production. We may not be able to fulfill our obligations under the proposed gold loan and we may be unable to raise sufficient financing to carry out our plans. Readers should review risk factors applicable to junior mining exploration companies generally to understand the variety of risks that can affect the Company. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Black Hops' first brewing experiment, Eggnog Stout, sold out within two hours. Photo: Supplied One balmy day in 2014, three blokes were sitting in a pub dreaming about brewing their own beers. The next week, they were making their dream a reality, and this month, they launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them open a brewery in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. These three blokes are Michael McGovern, Eddie Oldfield and Dan Norris, the minds behind Black Hops Brewing. Since launching their first home-brewed Eggnog Stout in Brisbane, back in 2014, the blokes became 'gypsy brewers' at various locations across Australia where Michael's home-brewed batch of Eggnog Stout became more popular than anticipated - the first keg sold out in two hours. Now, they are looking to expand further and plan to build their own brewery in Burleigh Heads. Black Hops Brewery launched their crowdfunding campaign last week with a goal of $10,000. They reached this within one day. Dan, Eddie and Michael were not expecting to beat their target in just one day. Photo: Supplied "We're freaking stoked!" says Dan. "Especially to do it in the first day, that was amazing. I spent a lot of the day refreshing the web page!" After having toyed with the crowdfunding idea for some time, Dan, Eddie and Michael, ran into some unexpected costs and decided to launch a campaign with Pozible. One unanticipated expense was a bottling machine they fell in love with. Crowdfunding has helped Black Hops buy a bottling machine. Photo: Supplied "We weren't planning on bottling beer initially, and the extra costs were about $10,000," says Dan. "Once we realised you could sell beer on Pozible, we were keen to give it a try." With their crowdfunding success, they've been able to cover their bottling costs and sell beer directly off the Pozible website. And with the campaign running until February 10, there is still time for fans to support Black Hops Brewing. "The more we can raise the better, because it lets us talk directly with our core audience and get our beer into the hands of new people," Dan explains. "I'm really hopeful we can raise significantly more than our original target now and make some real noise!" Wipro's Q3 Net Profit Lower At Rs 2234.1 Crores; Revenues Miss Estimates Business oi-Sunil Wipro's third quarter consolidated net profit declined marginally to Rs 2,234.1 crore, compared to Rs 2,235.4 crores, reported in the previous quarter. IT services revenue lagged estimates, rising 2.25 percent to Rs 12,314 crore in quarter ended December 2015 compared to Rs 12,042.8 crore in the preceding quarter. T K Kurien, Member of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Wipro, said, "We delivered Revenues in line with our guidance. We saw a pick-up in large deal closures led by Global Infrastructure Services. It is becoming increasingly clear that customers want to simplify operations and optimize their IT spend while investing in Digital to transform their business. We are well-positioned to take advantage of this trend." The company expects Revenues from its IT Services business to be in the range of $ 1,875 million to $1,912 million. The Guidance is based on the following exchange rates: GBP/USD at 1.50, Euro/USD at 1.07, AUD/USD at 0.72, USD/INR at 66.13 and USD/CAD at 1.3. The IT Services segment had a headcount of 170,664 as of December 31, 2015. Wipro added 39 new customers during the quarter. Effective January 1, 2016, The company completed the transaction announced on December 2, 2015 to acquire cellent AG, a leading IT consulting and software services company in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Abidali Z. Neemuchwala, Chief Executive Officer-Designate of Wipro, said: "We are focused on driving market share growth in our core businesses through integrated domain and technology services, while investing for the future in building differentiated Digital capabilities. We will leverage our strong culture of innovation and extremely talented employee pool to build compelling value propositions for our customers." The Wipro stock had closed at Rs 543 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. It is expected to open flat when the markets open for trading this morning. GoodReturns.in SHARE Conduits will carry wind power By Matthew Waller More power lines will be streaking across the broad West Texas sky over the next year. Construction has begun on wire conduits meant to take wind turbine generated electricity across Texas, especially to the bustling I-35 corridor. The lines will gather electricity generated in the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones, which are found in areas such as the wind farms near Sweetwater and near northern Schleicher County. Two major 345 kilovolt lines are in development. The Twin Buttes to Big Hill Line stretches southward, linking the Twin Buttes Substation northwest of San Angelo with the McCamey D Substation in northern Schleicher County. The line, with 10 miles finished, is more than half complete. Construction started in November 2011, and the line is scheduled to start carrying electricity in December, according to an April 2012 quarterly report for the Public Utility Commission. The construction cost for the line is $76 million. The Big Hill to Kendall Line runs southward from the McCamey D Substation to Kendall County through Sutton, Kimball, Kerr and Gillespie counties. The baseline cost for the 140-mile transmission line is $341 million. The project is 93 percent designed, and it is 4 percent constructed, the PUC report states. The document says construction started in January and is planned to be finished by late November 2013. The line, scheduled to be energized in December 2013, was hotly contested by groups that wanted it to follow existing rights of way and use smaller, more expensive monopole towers rather than lattice towers to minimize the visual impact on the Hill Country landscape. About 1,100 people intervened in the transmission line case when it went to the PUC for approval, a record for the LCRA TSC. "They are proceeding apace," Mike Townsend, a board member of the Hill Country-based Clearview Alliance organization that fought to have the line over less intrusive rights of way, said this week. "The towers are being erected. The environment has been cleared. They're proceeding with their plans. I think it has been established. It has gone through the courts. "I don't think there is any further relief." Townsend said some landowners are still concerned about the possibility that the transmission towers might carry more lines in the future and that the lines might be used to transmit power generated by nuclear or coal-fired plants rather than clean energy sources like wind. "Nobody really knows what's going to happen," Townsend said. "Ultimately, get used to these abominations on the skyline." LCRA spokeswoman Clara Tuma said the new power lines could help bring in more energy and will in general relieve congestion in the power distribution system. She said it's possible that more capacity could be added to existing structures, "but it's too early to know if or when that would happen." The two lines, Big Hill to Kendall and Twin Buttes to Big Hill, would be able to transmit about 6,000 megawatts of power, she said. LCRA West Texas projects: 1. Mason to Pittsburgh line and substation (3 and 18 on LCRA original): Rebuild and convert the capacity of the existing transmission line between Fort Mason Substation in Mason and the Pittsburg Substation in Llano. 33.9 miles, 100 percent complete, baseline cost $20,505,000; substation 100 percent complete at a baseline total of $6,486,000. 2. Tippett to North McCamey line, North McCamey autos and substation, Bakersfield substation (LCRA original numbers 4, 12, 19, 21 and 35): Adds a second circuit 138 kV transmission line on the existing North McCamey to West Yates 138 kV transmission line between the existing North McCamey Substation and the new McCamey B Substation south of McCamey; 15-mile line is 100 percent complete at a baseline cost of $7,106,000; the project adds two 345 kV autotransformers and associated equipment at the North McCamey Substation (cost estimate $30,752,000, in design stage), Bakersfield 345 kV substation still in design stage with baseline cost of $6,089,000. 3. Big Hill to Kendall line (LCRA original number 5): Construct a new double circuit 345 kV transmission line between the new McCamey D station in Schleicher County and existing Kendall Substation east of Comfort. Construction of 140-mile line is 4 percent complete, baseline cost $341,128,000. 4. Big Hill compensation and substation (LCRA original numbers 15 and 20): Adds a 345 kV reactor and associated equipment at the new McCamey D Substation in Schleicher County, 15 percent complete, baseline cost $10,589,100; new 345 kV substation located in Schleicher County associated with the new Twin Buttes to McCamey D and new McCamey D to Kendall transmission lines, 79 percent complete, baseline cost $16,632,500. 5. Kendall CTEC line rebuild (LCRA original number 9): Rebuild and upgrade the capacity of the existing transmission line between Kendall CTEC and Kendall substations east of Comfort; 100 percent complete, baseline cost $130,577. 6. Raymond Barker to Verde Creek line rebuild (LCRA original number 10): Rebuild and upgrade the capacity of transmission line circuit between Raymond Barker Substation northwest of Centerpoint and the Verde Creek Substation southwest of Centerpoint; 2-mile project is 100 percent complete, baseline cost of $4,765,251. 7. Raymond Barker substation (LCRA original number 22): Upgrades existing equipment and adds new equipment associated with line terminations on the rebuild Raymond Barker to Verde Creek 138 kV line project at the Raymond Barker and Verde Creek substations near Centerpoint, 100 percent complete, baseline cost $318,574. 8. Kendall auto replace, Big Hill to Kendall substation, Kendall auto addition (LCRA map original 14, 30 and 31): Upgrades existing and adds new equipment at the Kendall substation, located just east of Comfort, in design stage, baseline cost $8,000,000; 9. Big Hill to Twin Buttes (LCRA original number 6): Construct a new double-circuit capable, bundled 345 kV transmission line between the new McCamey D Substation in Schleicher County and the existing Twin Buttes Substation north of San Angelo; 38-mile project is 64 percent complete, baseline cost of $76,155,348. 10. Twin Buttes substation, Twin Buttes to McCamey D substation, Morgan Creek to Twin Buttes terminal upgrade (LCRA original numbers 23, 28 and 33): Upgrades existing and adds new equipment at the Twin Buttes substation north of San Angelo, associated with line terminations on the new Twin Buttes to McCamey D project, 90 percent complete, baseline cost $4,695,000; 11. Divide to Twin Buttes line upgrade (LCRA original number 7): Adds a second circuit 345 kV transmission line between the Divide Substation northeast of Sterling City and Twin Buttes Substation north of San Angelo; 31-mile project is 100 percent complete, baseline cost of $14,379,000. 12. Divide substation and Divide Sandy Bluff related substation (LCRA original number 24 and 27): Upgrades existing equipment and adds new equipment associated with line terminations on the Twin Buttes to Divide Transmission line project at both the Twin Buttes substation north of San Angelo and the Divide substation northeast of Sterling City, 100 percent complete, baseline cost $6,420,000; upgrades existing and adds new equipment at the Divide substation, located northeast of Sterling City, associated with line terminations on the WETT's new Divide to Central D project, in design stage, baseline cost $1,401,000. 13. Twin Buttes to Brown line (LCRA original number 8): Adds a second circuit, bundled 1927 ACSS conductor, 345 kV transmission line circuit on existing structures between the Twin Buttes Substation north of San Angelo, and the new Oncor Brown Substation in Brown County; 88-mile project is 100 percent complete, baseline cost $40,718,000; upgrades existing equipment and adds new equipment associated with line terminations on the Twin Buttes to Brown Transmission line project at the Twin Buttes substation, 100 percent complete, baseline cost $3,079,000. SHARE By Jayna Boyle A prominent businessman with ties to the Concho Valley was kidnapped during a trip in Mexico, the FBI said Tuesday. The FBI said it is working with Mexican law enforcement authorities regarding the Sunday kidnapping of three U.S. citizens: David Mueller, 45, of the Sweetwater area; and Librado Pina Jr., 49; and his son, Librado Pina III, 25, both of Laredo. The three men were visiting an area 30 minutes near Laredo when they were abducted, according to an FBI news release. David Mueller's sister-in-law, the wife of his brother Steve Mueller, told the Abilene Reporter-News the three men had gone on a hunting trip to a Mexican ranch near Monterrey, south of Laredo. It was an annual trip for the group, she said. She declined to give the newspaper her name but confirmed that she was Steve Mueller's wife and she was under instructions from the FBI not to comment on any aspect of the situation. Details of the kidnapping, including whether anyone suffered injuries or the kidnappers demanded a ransom, were not released. The relationship between Mueller and the Pinas was not described in the release, and the FBI had no further comment on the situation. Mueller's family in Roscoe, about 80 miles north of San Angelo, declined to comment on the situation when contacted by the Standard-Times on Tuesday afternoon before the FBI confirmed the kidnapping. Jeff Yarborough of Sweetwater, whose wife is a cousin to the Muellers, said he was told by Steve Mueller that no ransom demands had yet been made. Yarborough told the Reporter-News he had contacted the offices of Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer and was frustrated by their apparent indifference. "The resistance I've met so far is ridiculous," Yarborough said. "They basically told me to go to Homeland Security or something like that." David Mueller is a former employee of Mueller Inc., based in Ballinger. The business began about 75 years ago when the Mueller family opened the Mueller Sheet Metal Co. In 1984, the Burly Corp., a privately held Texas company owned by the Davenport family, acquired Mueller Supply Co. Since that time, Mueller Inc. has undergone expansion to become a leading manufacturer of pre-engineered metal building and residential metal roofing products. Because the kidnapping occurred in Mexico, the FBI has initiated a Foreign Police Cooperation investigation and is providing any and all resources necessary to ensure the safe return of Mueller and the Pinas, according to the news release. The FBI and Mexican authorities are participating in a newly formed Bi-National Kidnapping Task Force and have been pursuing leads on both sides of the border, the release states. The U.S. State Department also has been monitoring the investigation since the FBI was notified Sunday by the Mueller and Pina families. Loretta Fulton of the Abilene Reporter-News contributed to this story. How to help Anyone with information regarding the kidnapping of David Mueller, Librado Pina Jr. and Librado Pina III is encouraged to contact the nearest FBI office, or to call the San Antonio FBI office at (210) 225-6741. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The trial of Russian serviceman Valery Permyakov accused of killing the Avetisyan family is underway in Gyumri. As Armenpress reports, the session is under the proceeding of Shirak District Court of First Instance Judge Harutyun Movsesyan. 13:17 Successor of Avetisyans' family members, attorney Lusine Sahakyan joined the petition of lawyer Artus Sakunts on transferring the trial to Shirak Regional Court of First Instance. She added that Permyakovs rights are also violated in the territory of military base as the latter is in the cage which is contrary to all European standards. Sahakyan also mentioned that by the inconvenience of the conditions in the territory of the military base journalists as well as judges work is distorted taking into account the so-called inconvenience of conference room. 12:45 Trial over Permyakovs case launched 25 minutes late. This time he was brought to the courtroom by Armenian bailiffs and policemen. When Permyakov was brought into the courtroom, Avetisyans relatives tried to attack him but bailiffs and policemen managed to keep them back. At this moment lawyer Artur Sakunts presents the petition on conducting the trial in Shirak Regional Court of First Instance. The six members of the Avetisyan family were shot and killed in Gyumri at around 6 a.m. on January 12, 2015. The only survivor was 6-month old Seryozha Avetisyan, who was transferred to a hospital with injuries caused by a cutting and piercing tool. The childs health condition became worse on January 19. After fighting for his life and undergoing several difficult surgeries for a week, six-month old Seryozha Avetisyan also died on January 19. There was severe renal insufficiency and cardiac insufficiency, and doctors werent able to save his life. Soldier of the 102nd Russian military base stationed in Gyumri, Valery Permyakov is charged with killing the members of the Avetisyan family and causing numerous injuries to little Seryozha. Russian border guards found him when he was trying to cross the Armenian-Turkish border and handed him over to the commanders of the 102nd Russian military base. Permyakov has confessed his guilt. SHARE By Jerry Lackey MILES - Earlier this week, Laurence "Laurie" Lasater, some ranchhands and several cattlemen advisers spent the better part of a day at the Isa Cattle Co. bull facility south of here selecting the top performance-tested Beefmaster bulls for the upcoming annual sale. Lasater said 201 Beefmaster and Charolais bulls were separated into pens by age, weight and size, which determines the sale order. The 47th annual bull sale, starting at 10 a.m. Saturday at Producers Livestock Auction, 1131 N. Bell St., will feature the Beefmaster bloodline founded by Laurie's father, Tom Lasater, in 1931 and Charolais bulls that are direct descendants of the Charolais breed brought to America from France. Standard-Times: How did your family get into ranching? Laurie Lasater: My grandfather, Edward C. Lasater, founded the South Texas town of Falfurrias when establishing his ranch there in 1890. His ranch grew to 350,000 acres, but the family was forced to sell most of the land following his death in 1930 due to the Depression and mounting debt against the property. Among the assets salvaged were the remnants of my grandfather's upgraded Brahman herd and the remains of his 20,000 purebred Hereford cows. Dad withdrew from Princeton in the middle of his sophomore year in 1931 to come home and help hold things together. His mother and uncle sold him the cattle on credit, and by 1940 he had paid for them. The Beefmaster breed is the result of Tom Lasater experimenting with various combinations of three breeds - Hereford, Shorthorn, Brahman. He quickly discovered that the three-way cross was superior to any other combination and converted his entire herd to that cross. Beefmasters were recognized as a breed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1954. On the other side of the family, my maternal great-grandmother, Sallie Reynolds Matthews, was a member of the pioneer ranch legacy families of J. A. Matthews and George Reynolds, who settled Shackelford and Throckmorton counties. My great-uncle was Watt Matthews, managing partner of the Lambshead Ranch near Albany. The Lasaters came to Goliad from Arkansas in 1857, and the Matthews-Reynolds came to West Texas from Georgia in the 1850s. All three families were pioneer ranchers in Texas before the Civil War and participated in the trail drive era. Their descendants remain in the ranching business today. My father, Tom Lasater, and my great uncle, Watt Reynolds Matthews, are in the Texas Heritage Hall of Honor at State Fair Park in Dallas. I was born on Oct. 21, 1941, the eldest of six children of Mary Casey and Thomas Miller Lasater. I had my first horseback ride as a 1-year-old atop the saddle horn on the lap of my father. I have one sister, Sally, and four brothers, Dale, Lane, Brian and Alan. My father, Tom Lasater, purchased the home ranch in Matheson, Colo., in 1948, where he moved the Beefmaster foundation herd. My brother, Dale, manages the ranch for the family now. Laurie married Annette Nixon in 1964. They ranched in Coahuila, Mexico, for 10 years before relocating to San Angelo, where they founded Isa Cattle Co. Inc. The company manages and markets Beefmasters both nationally and internationally. They are the parents of two children, Lorenzo Lasater and Isabel Lasater Hernandez. They have five grandchildren. In 1998, we formed a partnership with Bill Broussard on his Crescent J Charolais herd and moved the top end of the cattle from Florida to Texas. The cattle herd are direct bloodlines of the foundation herd in France. Besides the cattle business, the Lasater family owns and operates the Lasater Whitetail Ranch, seven miles northwest of Eldorado, where they breed whitetail deer. The ranch is owned by Laurie and his brother, Lane Lasater of Boulder, Colo., and managed by Lorenzo Lasater, who is also president of Isa Cattle Co. What keeps you in the business? The cattle business is interesting because there are so many aspects to it. One can be a range manager, wildlife manager, cattle handler, cowboy or a financier. What has evolved in my lifetime in the business is the study of genetics and marketing, which I love. I strive to sell quality cattle to top quality buyers. How have you diversified the operation? The Lasater Whitetail Ranch is taking our family in another direction. We are seeking to develop a superior breed of whitetail deer while offering select whitetail trophy hunts. We also have exotic hunts from a pasture where we run blackbuck, axis, sika, fallow and scimitar. Through a scientific deer-breeding project, we are raising buck deer in pens like we do our Beefmaster bulls and putting the same thought into pedigree and performance. My father preached six essentials when he established the Beefmaster breed. They were disposition, fertility, weight, conformation, hardiness and milk production. Although those essentials are important in the deer breeding business, the main focus is about antlers. What's the family brand? My grandfather registered the L-bar brand in 1893, which I have used in Mexico and Texas since 1964. My great-grandfather, J.A. Matthews, registered the AV brand in 1885, and George and William Reynolds registered the long X in 1882. Lasater Ranch Founded: In 1890 by Edward C. Lasater. Relocated to Matheson, Colo., in 1948 by Tom Lasater. Current owners: Sally Lasater, Brian Lasater, Alan Lasater and Dale Lasater, managing partner. Isa Cattle Co. & Lasater Whitetail Ranch Current owners: Laurence and Lane Lasater families. Location: Tom Green and Schleicher counties. SHARE Many small businesses will need a commercial loan or line of credit from a bank at some point. When times are slow or the company is struggling, banker relations can become strained. When the banker is worried, he may start asking hard questions. Let us look at some ideas on how to deal with this situation and how to make your banker a partner all the time, not just when things are going well. The key to excellent relations with your banker is having excellent communication. To have him on your side, he needs to understand what you are doing and be confident in the future. You must reach a point in your relationship with him that you tell him what is happening before it happens. The better able you are to project, the more confidence he will have. Small business owners should know that the bank's main concern is being repaid. The objective here is to provide genuine, earned confidence and to be up front with your lender. Inform yourself, do what is right and communicate. Because your banker expects you to know your business much better than he does, communicate on an ongoing basis the following elements of your business: What happened during the period? What is going to happen in the next reporting period? What are the main issues facing the business, and what are you doing about them? The assumption here is that you have an ongoing relationship with your banker that you want to improve by building his confidence in you. When appropriate communication is in place, your banker will ask fewer questions. In fact, you will be the one asking as well as answering most of the questions. The first thing you have to do is to report to him on time. Do not make him wait or remind you. In the event you cannot meet a deadline, tell him before you are late and tell him when you will deliver your report. Write a one-page situation assessment describing what he will see in your financial statements. Tell him what is going on that causes the numbers to be what they are. Also tell him what you are doing and what you expect to see in your next report. You might even consider calculating some of the ratios for him that he uses to monitor your business. If you don't know what these are, ask him. If you have a problem you do not know how to handle, seek help and tell him you are doing so. He may even suggest a trusted resource. If there a problems evident in your statement, be up front about what you are planning. Do not minimize the significance of items that you do not yet have under control. Your banker will be pleased to be your partner once you have exhibited that you are in control of your business and know what is going on. "Business Tips" was written by Paul Howard, Certified Senior Business Advisor of Angelo State University's Small Business Development Center. For more information on the topic of this article or the services of the ASUSBDC, contact him at Paul.Howard@angelo.edu. SHARE By Jennifer Rios Prosecutors wasted little time in telling jurors Daniel Uvalle, 18, didnt pull the trigger that killed Alvaro Carrillo Jr. and Tabitha Freeman, but that he handed a loaded shotgun to Johnny Garcia to complete the act. A jury was seated Tuesday morning and heard opening arguments and the first few state witnesses. Uvalle, who was 17 at the time of the 2013 shooting, is charged with capital murder, but because of his age neither the death penalty nor life without parole are punishment options. He has been at the Tom Green County Jail since his arrest Sept. 1, 2013. Police arrested Uvalle in Grape Creek, where they also found a protective vest and handgun. Garcia, 19, was arrested while he was presumably on his way to San Antonio, 51st District Attorney Allison Palmer said. Daniel had no intent for anyone to get hurt, anyone to get killed, defense attorney Fred Brigman said during opening arguments. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Originally the trial was to be held in a smaller courtroom, but the number of friends and family members who wished to view proceedings caused 391st District Judge Tom Gossett to move the trial to a larger courtroom. After some of the crowd were sworn in as witnesses and asked to leave, there were still about 50 spectators. Palmer and Meagan White are prosecuting the case. Palmer expects to call 10 witnesses, three of whom testified Tuesday. In her opening argument, Palmer outlined the events of Sept. 1, 2013: that a group of young people was at an apartment at 1516 Greenwood St., including Carrillo and Freeman, when Uvalle and Garcia showed up. A fistfight broke out, she said, and one of the people at the apartment went and retrieved an unloaded shotgun to scare the two teenagers away, but was unsuccessful. Garcia and Uvalle took the shotgun, left and returned after about 30 minutes, both armed with shotguns. At this point Garcia was wearing a bulletproof vest, Palmer said, and he approached Alvaro while Uvalle was holding people at bay, Palmer said. Alvaros girlfriend, Idalia Limon, stepped between the two, but Alvaro pushed her away. When Garcia couldnt make the gun work, Uvalle handed him a loaded gun and Garcia shot Carrillo and Freeman, who was on the couch behind Carillo. San Angelo police Officer Tony Lopez walked the court through the crime scene with a video recording taken in those early morning hours. When the video led to the living room, where the bodies could be seen, the courtroom broke out in sniffling and quiet crying. There was blood splatter on the walls, floor and both couches. A wood pipe and glass pipe, which could be used for marijuana, were also in the living room, Lopez said. He did not see drugs of any type at the apartment, but said he wasnt there looking for drugs. Elvira Carrillo, Alvaro Carrillos twin sister, described the relationships of Uvalle and Garcia. Johnny Garcia was a family friend, she said, and Alvaro was like a brother to him. She knew of Uvalle. Freemans cousin, Tasha Calder, was also called to testify. She said Freeman was enrolled at Howard College to get her GED and begin general studies. The two extremely close, she said, and she saw Freeman a week before she died. On Aug. 31, 2013, Freeman posted on Calders Facebook page that she loved her and always would because they were family. Michelle Gaitan/Standard-Times Students at Fort Concho Elementary pick up their lunch in the schools cafeteria. Fridays lunch menu consisted of cheeseburgers on whole-grain buns, low sodium Tater Tots or sweet-potato fires, sliced pears, pickles and their choice of white, strawberry or chocolate milk. SHARE By Rashda Khan The in-depth look at the San Angelo Independent School District's participation in the National School Lunch Program involved a lot of research, interviews, and legwork. The story, which started out as a single story, kept growing and growing until there was a side story, a nutritional column, and a food column, which will be published Wednesday. Even then, not all the information made it into the newspaper, so here's some additional tidbits: David Hooks, a fifth-grade teacher at Fort Concho Elementary, eats lunch in the school cafeteria almost daily. While he's definitely noticed the lack of salt, he's lucky that the teachers' lounge has salt and pepper available, and he's developed some strategies. For example, on the Fridays the cafeteria services hot dogs and chili dogs, Hooks takes the chili dogs, tater tots and cucumber slices. He dips the tater tots into the chili, which helps add flavor to the tots. He also dices up the cucumber, adds salt and pepper to them, and puts them on top of his chili dog. "This way the chili doesn't overwhelm the taste of the cucumbers," he said. "I gourmet up my chili dogs like college students gourmet up Ramen noodles." Hooks pays $3.50 for his adult portion. If he's really hungry and adds on an extra entree serving from the a la carte menu, he's charged an additional $1.25 or a total of $4.75 for that meal. "I think all teachers should eat free. Not just here, but at all school districts," he said. "Law enforcement officers (if they are on duty at the campus) eat for free. They are on the front line, but so are we when it comes to schools." The most popular breakfast item served by SAISD Food Services at the elementary schools appears to be Pancake on a Stick. Students and staff are pretty unanimous on this. It is especially good with some syrup, which is also available to the teachers. At Fort Concho, the fifth-graders help take breakfast to the different classrooms. The whole grain rolls, made from scratch at the cafeterias, were also a student favorite. The school lunch story package sparked an interesting conversation on Facebook. A friend shared a video about school lunches in Japan. Kitchen staff made all the food from scratch fried fish with pear sauce, mashed potatoes from potatoes grown and harvested by sixth-graders, five-vegetable soup, bread and milk. The staff measured food portions and put together food carts for each class. Students thanked their teachers for teaching at the end of the class period, then washed hands and suited up for lunch (smocks, hair caps, and face masks). Then children on lunch duty, led by their teacher, headed to the school kitchen. There, they thanked the kitchen workers for preparing their meal and collected their class cart. Back in the class room, students have set out place mats, napkins, cups, spoons and chopsticks, toothbrush. The children and their teacher ate together. San Angeloan Sharon Camfield, a retired teacher, responded to the video. "Whenever I had the opportunity I had my kids get their lunch trays from the cafeteria and bring them back to the classroom to eat,"she wrote. "We discussed things, talked about our hopes and dreams and listened to one another." Another person posted: "I have a similar video I copied a long time ago from the French school system, one a Paris school, one in a small village. They plan them ahead a month, several courses, different cheese each day. All prepared on site. They send a copy to parents so they won't duplicate the day's menu at home. If you don't eat on a given day, they call the parents to see why. Clearly, they believe in good nutrition for their children!" Lake View Chiefs feeling sense of urgency to get in playoff chase The Lake View High School football team hopes to get its first District 2-4A win of the season on the road against Big Spring on Friday night.

Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Readers may send him email at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com.

SHARE Is Bill Clinton's sexual history fair game in the 2016 campaign? Donald Trump certainly thinks so. "Hillary is an enabler," he said in one interview. "She's married to an abuser!" he said in another. "If she's going to play the woman card, it's all fair game," he added. The sad thing is, he's right. Hillary Clinton does play the gender card, relentlessly. She has frequently reminded voters that she would be the first female president and has cast herself as a champion of women's causes. In September, at a college campus in Iowa, she pledged to fight sexual assault, saying: "I want to send a message to all of the survivors. Don't let anyone silence your voice. You have the right to be heard, the right to be believed, and we are with you as you go forward." Then she sent her husband, former President Bill Clinton, onto the campaign trail. Although he's now beloved by millions, everyone knows he's a liability. He was impeached in 1998 after an illicit affair with a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. He was sued for sexual harassment by a former Arkansas state employee, Paula Jones (he settled with no acknowledgment of guilt). And he was accused of rape by a former campaign volunteer, Juanita Broaddrick; the charge was never adjudicated because Broaddrick waited 21 years before making it. Last month, a young woman at a town meeting in New Hampshire confronted Hillary Clinton about those cases. If survivors have the right to be believed, she asked, what about Bill Clinton's accusers? The candidate looked stunned for a moment, then answered: "I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence." Is there a wide enough gap between Hillary Clinton's rhetoric and Bill Clinton's record to make this a legitimate issue in the campaign? Sure. This isn't about Bill Clinton's philandering; voters decided what they thought about that long ago. And it would be grotesque to blame his wife for sins he committed against her. But it's reasonable to ask whether Bill Clinton, a public figure acting as a surrogate for his wife, lived up to her 2016 standards for treating potential survivors of sexual abuse. The answer is: He didn't. Twenty years ago, Bill Clinton and his associates did their best to discredit his accusers. The pithiest, as usual, was James Carville, who said of Paula Jones: "If you drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find." It's reasonable, as well, to ask what role Hillary Clinton played in those cases. But on that count, the evidence is thin. She told a friend, Diane Blair, that Monica Lewinsky was a "loony tune" but that was a private comment that surfaced years later, not a public slam. And at the time, Bill Clinton had falsely assured her that Lewinsky was lying and that there had been no sexual relationship. As far as is known, Hillary Clinton didn't throw herself in the way of her husband's attack dogs. She didn't speak out in defense of his accusers. She didn't resign as first lady. She remained doggedly loyal to her faithless husband often through gritted teeth. Does that make her an "enabler?" Suggesting, in effect, that Hillary Clinton had a duty to desert her husband is a pretty tough standard to demand of any spouse. Now, 20 years later, Clinton is pulling out the usual playbook: Insist that there's nothing here to see. Accuse your critics of partisanship (perfectly true, in this case). Argue that the campaign should focus on current problems, not old ones (also perfectly true). And warn your opponents that they've chosen the wrong strategy. But Trump, whose record as a champion of women exists mostly in his imagination, shows no sign of relenting. And even if a more gentlemanly Republican wins the GOP nomination, conservative activists are certain to keep the questions alive. Because Hillary Clinton is a candidate, every part of her record qualifies as fair game. And if she continues to deploy her husband as a spokesman, his record is fair game, too. Sooner or later, Clinton needs to confront the past, talk about it and then try to move on. Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Contact him at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Michael Gerson is a Washington Post columnist. Contact him at michaelgerson@washpost.com.

SHARE WASHINGTON Now let us praise laundry lists. Every year at State of the Union time, the president and his staff say the speech will not include them. But the laundry won't keep track of itself. The union is varied and expansive, and so are the responsibilities of its chief executive. Enumerating accomplishments and objectives amounts to lists, which Obama had in plenty Tuesday night. The interesting thing is why this particular laundry was chosen. By what principle does the president want personalized medical treatments, paid leave, pre-K for all, the cure for cancer, a transition away from dirty energy, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Obama advanced no ideological claim of what government should do, no technocratic vision of how its performance might be improved. The lists exist because Obama, who sees the "next frontier," chose them. His person unites his agenda not quite in the leadership league, he admits, of Lincoln or Roosevelt, but he has obviously thought hard and long about the comparison. This was the way Obama was introduced to the country eight years ago. His victory in the Iowa caucuses had little to do with an ideological vision or policy agenda (which was, in fact, the utterly predictable liberalism of a backbench senator). That giddy night, he claimed that a "divided" and "disillusioned" country found "a common purpose." His 38 percent in the caucus proved "we are one people." We would "move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that's consumed Washington." "This was the place," Obama said, "where America remembered what it means to hope." Elsewhere he would say: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." Obama would bring balance to the Force. Prospectively, with eight years ahead, this was inspiring. Retrospectively, with seven years behind, the same claim comes across as self-centered and a little sad a world-historic figure picking through the refuse of the years for this shiny accomplishment and that. His solutions to 21st-century problems look suspiciously like 20th-century liberalism. And where has Obama actually left his party and American liberalism? Obama is the first Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to win back-to-back majorities of the national popular vote. But members of his party who venture beyond the 18 acres of the White House will find political ruin. Since taking office, Democrats have lost 13 Senate seats, 69 House seats, 11 governorships, 30 state legislative chambers and more than 900 state legislative seats. In border states that not long ago produced national Democratic leaders such as Arkansas and Tennessee the Democratic collapse is especially pronounced. Few presidents have done better for themselves and worse for their parties. And perhaps most disturbingly for America's liberal party, trust in government to do the right thing is near historical lows. According to a Pew Research Center average, just 19 percent of Americans trust government to do the right thing all or most of the time. The whole of the Democratic agenda, the whole of Hillary Clinton's agenda from gun control to immigration reform to reducing greenhouse gases requires some modicum of trust in the capacity of government to act in the public interest. What is liberalism without public trust in government? A college class. Declining trust in government is part of a larger decline in the trust of institutions generally. But it is fair to say that the launch of "Obamacare," the Veterans Affairs hospital scandal and the IRS political targeting scandal did little to halt the slide. Obama was either complicit in the trend, or helpless against it. The same could be said of political polarization which Obama eventually decided he could not fight, and joined with enthusiasm. Or the rise of an angry, anti-establishment populism. More than 10 years of belief that America is on the "wrong track" has hardened into outrage and cynicism, and left some Americans vulnerable to ideologues and demagogues. These will be remembered as the characteristics of the Obama era not hope, but anger and cynicism. It was a time when many Americans learned to rage. The president and the future nominee of his party now have one advantage. Somehow these trends have produced another cult of personality, on the other political side untethered to ideas, offering only himself as the solution to our problems, turning bitterness and pettiness into a previously undiscovered political art. This might be the strangest turn: a Republican Party that copies and amplifies the worst tendencies of our time. Michael Gerson is a Washington Post columnist. Contact him at michaelgerson@washpost.com. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis has been taken to hospital because of a viral infection, Armenpress reports, a source in the presidents executive office has told TASS. "The president was taken to Gailezers hospital to ensure his speedy recovery from a viral infection. Meanwhile, the president continues to perform his duties while in hospital. However, he will not take part in any public events this week," the source said. Vejonis was due to meet on Monday with speaker of Georgias parliament David Usupashvili. He also planned to attend a number of solemn ceremonies and commemorative events later this week. Last year at this time, Gov. Rick Snyder was boasting about the state's financial accomplishments, toying with a presidential run, and delivering a State of the State address that said his administration would ensure all Michigan residents could be pulled along by Michigan's "river of opportunity."But as Snyder prepares to deliver his sixth State of the State address on Tuesday, his political capital has plummeted, the state is grappling with what could be a billion-dollar mistake with incalculable consequences for human lives, and his river analogy is particularly unfortunate in light of a state-appointed emergency manager's 2014 decision to save money by temporarily drawing Flint's drinking water from the polluted and corrosive Flint River. That move, followed by other state errors, has led to a public health crisis, allegations of a state government cover-up, and Saturday's declaration of a federal emergency in Flint by President Barack Obama.Amid calls for his resignation, stunning vitriol directed at him through social media and protests planned outside his Ann Arbor home today and in front of the Capitol on Tuesday, Snyder will deliver one of the most closely watched State of the State addresses in Michigan history."I can't think of another governor that really had this level of crisis at a State of the State," said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a veteran Lansing public relations and crisis communications consultant and CEO of Truscott Rossman."It's probably the most important speech he will give in his entire public career."Ideally, Snyder would invite to the address some of the heroes who helped expose the lead-contamination crisis, such as pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha of Hurley Children's Hospital and drinking water researcher Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech, Rossman-McKinney said. He should publicly acknowledge them and thank them for forcing action by his administration, she said.Dennis Muchmore, Snyder's outgoing chief of staff, said Friday he expects the governor will confront the lead contamination of Flint's drinking water early and prominently in his address, setting out a comprehensive plan for addressing not only the health-related issues in Flint, but the infrastructure problems there and in other cities around the state.Snyder has publicly apologized for the state's role in the catastrophe. But given the fact complaints about the taste, smell and appearance of Flint's drinking water began shortly after the switch in April 2014 and continued for 18 months, many citizens aren't buying Snyder's claim that he wasn't aware of the seriousness of the health issue until about Oct. 1 of this year."Were they getting their information from Pluto?" asked Mark Grudt, a Livonia resident who works in construction as a remodeler. "We've known there's a problem in Flint for over a year," and "had this been an affluent community, it wouldn't have gotten this far."The fact the contamination happened while Flint was under a state emergency manager also vaults the scandal beyond contaminated water, calling into question broader policies of the Snyder administration. Michigan voters used a referendum to reject a toughened emergency manager law Snyder pushed through the Legislature in 2011, only to see the governor sign a similar -- but referendum-proof -- bill that lawmakers quickly passed in 2012.Matt Friedman, cofounder of the Farmington Hills public relations firm Tanner Friedman, said Snyder -- a former computer company executive and venture capitalist who was a political novice when he took office in 2011 -- should prepare for Tuesday by taking a page from the crisis-management guide for corporate CEOs.Snyder needs to lay out the facts of the crisis, provide reassurance by telling what is being done to help and to assure nothing similar can happen in the future, and express concern for the affected people of Flint, Friedman said.He needs to raise the Flint issue almost immediately, or the audience will be so distracted wondering when he is going to raise it that they won't be able to concentrate on what he is saying, Friedman said.It can't hurt to apologize again, but "if you keep apologizing, then you're not really saying anything," he said.Friedman said the philosophy that keeps CEOs out of devastating scandals is to always put the interests and safety of the customer first. Unfortunately, a culture frequently found in corporations and government is to never say or do anything that will make the boss look bad, he said. That can lead to problems being covered over until they explode out of control, as it appears happened in this case.Snyder should also spend part of the speech talking about other priorities, because "while this is enormously important to people, there are other priorities," Friedman said.The governor has no shortage of other important issues requiring attention, including the dire financial condition of Detroit Public Schools, planned criminal justice reforms, and a reshaped state energy policy. Snyder gave few hints about the contents of his speech when he toured the North American International Auto Show on Tuesday."We've done well economically, but there are people still not participating in that recovery," he told the Free Press.J. Cherie Strachan, a professor of political science and public administration at Central Michigan University who has studied gubernatorial inaugural addresses, said Snyder is likely to either ignore the Flint lead contamination issue or raise it in a way that emphasizes actions he has taken to address it, such as declaring a state of emergency on Jan. 5 and activating the Michigan National Guard to assist with distribution of bottled water and water filters on Tuesday.No matter what Snyder says, the issue is not going away, and a series of disclosures such as a July e-mail from Snyder's chief of staff expressing frustration that the health concerns of Flint residents were being "blown off," have made the scandal worse, Strachan said.Though the human health and infrastructure costs are getting most of the attention, Strachan said the Flint water crisis also tears at the fabric of civil society, destroying citizens' trust in government.Internal records of Snyder's office are exempt from Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, and Common Cause in Michigan called on Snyder Friday to use the State of the State address to announce he will release all state records related to the Flint crisis and ask the Legislature to remove the executive office's exemption from FOIA.A lack of state government transparency is one reason it took Flint residents so long to learn they were being poisoned with lead, said Melanie McElroy, the group's executive director.Rossman-McKinney said Snyder should not only apologize during the speech, but "he needs to address the state bureaucrats who don't care about the people they serve.""If I was advising him, I would say you suspend every single individual in that municipal water division (of the Department of Environmental Quality) and get to the very bottom of what happened," she said. Former New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran ended her 30-day jail sentence Sunday morning, leaving the Santa Fe County jail in a light gray sweatsuit and carrying a large, plastic bag full of personal belongings.She declined to talk to reporters as she walked with two jail staffers to a waiting truck, other than to utter "no" when asked if she wanted to comment on her time behind bars for using campaign donations to feed a gambling addiction. Duran, who reported to jail Dec. 18, had asked a judge to delay her sentence until after the holiday season, but that request was denied.One man helped usher Duran into the back seat of a truck, and another man, who covered his face with his hand, drove the pair out of the jail complex, off N.M. 14 south of Santa Fe.She was released shortly before 9 a.m. and was off the property within about a minute.Duran will remain on a monitored five-year probation. The Adult Probation and Parole Office fitted her with a GPS tracking device to stop her from entering any gambling establishments. After two years, Duran can request to have the device removed, a judge said. But she will remain on probation.Like other inmates at the county jail, Duran, 60, was placed in a standard 6-foot-by-8-foot cell, wore a khaki uniform and was served three meals a day.Kristine Mihelcic, a Santa Fe County spokeswoman, said in an email Thursday that jail officials did not report any misbehavior by Duran during her monthlong stay.Critics ranging from lawmakers to laymen complained that District Judge T. Glenn Ellington, who sentenced Duran late last year, was too lenient with her, given that she had committed the very type of wrongdoing that she had vowed to end when she ran for office.A woman in a car parked in the county jail lot Sunday morning said Duran "should have gotten five years." The woman, who did not want to be identified, said her son had committed a minor infraction and received a nine-month jail sentence, making Duran's stint behind bars look light in comparison.In December, Duran accepted a plea deal in which she agreed to plead guilty to six out of the 65 charges against her. Two were felony charges and the other four were misdemeanors.Ellington could have sentenced her to over seven years behind bars.In addition to her 30-day jail sentence and five-year probation, Duran has to pay a $14,000 fine, pay $13,866 in restitution and publish apologies for her crimes in six newspapers across the state.Ellington also ordered Duran to perform 2,000 hours of community service at charities and to speak at schools and civic organizations across the state about how her lawbreaking led to her downfall and jail time.In her plea bargain with Attorney General Hector Balderas' staff, Duran pleaded guilty to stealing campaign donations and doctoring state campaign reports to cover up her embezzlement. Her crimes started in 2010, according to Balderas' investigators.Duran, a Tularosa resident, had previously served as Otero County clerk and then as a state senator. In 2010, she became the first Republican to head the Secretary of State's Office since 1929.She prided herself on battling public corruption and voter fraud, even as she committed such crimes.Gov. Susana Martinez appointed Brad Winter, a Republican city councilor from Albuquerque, to succeed Duran as secretary of state. Winter, a councilor since 1999 and a longtime public school administrator, has said he will not run for election to the secretary of state's position. But Duran's rival in the 2014 race for secretary of state, Democratic Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, has announced another bid for the office. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday announced a new unit in his office dedicated to combating human trafficking.While trafficking is often associated with people from other countries, the victims of trafficking can and do come from anywhere, including right here in Texas, Paxton said at a press conference. Fortunately, through this new unit and through recent changes to the law, Texas is in a great position to make headway in the fight against trafficking, and we will take the fight to the doorstep of traffickers at every opportunity.The new unit will be led by Kirsta Melton, a prosecutor who has been working on human trafficking cases since 2009, first with the Bexar County district attorney's office and, for the past year, with the attorney general's office.Every life is worth the fight, said Melton. No one is immune to the tragedy where children and adults are forced into modern-day slavery. The fundamental goal of our new unit is to see that Texas becomes and remains a place where human life is not for sale.The new unit will initially include three attorneys just one was dedicated to human trafficking cases before as well as five investigators, a forensic accountant and victims advocate.In June, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that led to the creation of the new unit, which will use existing funds. House Bill 11, a border security bill, included an amendment by State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, that called for a unit to assist local law enforcement at their request in investigating and prosecuting trafficking crimes.The new unit will focus on both labor trafficking and sex trafficking, said state Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston. Last year, Thompson authored House Bill 10, which enhanced penalties for human trafficking.According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, 330 cases of human trafficking were reported in Texas, involving at least 211 adults and 110 children.Texas has the second-highest estimated victim population of any state, and Houston has the highest number of victims of any American city, according to the resource center. December Surprise On the Horizon (TNS) Lewiston industrial roofer IRC installed solar panels on roofs all around New England multimillion-dollar, multi-megawatt projects but never converted its own headquarters to solar.Until last week.Time and price were finally right.Leaders of Saint Dominic Academy in Auburn started contemplating solar power two years ago. In December, they installed a $325,000 system that's expected to almost halve the school's energy bill.And with a pair of awards last month, the Maine Public Utilities Commission spurred more than $100 million worth of investment in two commercial solar projects expected to power thousands of homes within two years.Solar power remains a tiny fraction of the energy market in Maine, but there's no question that business is booming here.Converts cite the environment, the savings, even the pope."Yes, it's less expensive to pull oil out of the ground and light it on fire, there's no question," said Kurt Penney, a business development executive at Industrial Roofing Companies, which includes IRC's Solar Roof Systems. "And yet, that's not really a sustainable future."At his company, solar system costs have dropped 70 percent in six years. The upfront investment is expensive but increasingly within reach."It's an exciting time," he said. "If you look back eight years, (the solar industry) would be hardly recognizable from what it is today. We all feel like eight years from now, it may be the same thing, that this will be de rigueur: You build a house, you're going to figure out which way the sun is shining."To set the solar scene, Maine has 18.6 megawatts of installed solar capacity; 33 states have more, 16 less, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. (Within New England, everyone is ahead of Maine Massachusetts by leaps and bounds. See graphic.)In 2013, 42 Maine companies worked in solar (installers, parts manufacturers, lawyers). That's now up to 50 and those companies employed 400 people in 2015.Put in perspective, solar represents less than 1 percent of the power mix in Maine. There's 70 times more wind here and 200 times more hydropower, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.Solar energy and other renewable energy sources in the U.S. received a boost in 2006 with a 30 percent federal investment tax credit, which was due to expire in 2016. In what Bloomberg News called a surprise move, Congress extended that tax credit in December so it now stretches through 2019 with a three-year step-down after that, leaving people like Penney to believe, with prices falling and the tax break secure, the time for solar is now."It's a whole new conversation; it's a whole new world out there," he said. "Those of us in the solar industry were very concerned (about the expiring tax break) 30 percent off the top is a pretty significant number to start your spreadsheets."In 2013, 23,020 Maine tax returns, or 3 percent of all returns, claimed the tax credit for renewable projects like solar, IRS spokesman Michael Dobzinski said.Why that 30 percent matters so much: Residential systems start around $10,000.Fortunat Mueller, co-founder of ReVision Energy in Portland, the state's largest solar installation company, said his company handled between 600 and 700 projects last year."Company-wide, we installed as much solar in 2015 as we did in 2013 and 2014 combined," said Mueller. "Most of our customers are shooting to capture between 60 to 80 percent of their total electric load with the solar. Sometimes you run out of roof before you can do that, or sometimes you run out of budget."A typical 16-panel residential system costs between $12,000 and $14,000 and will generate 4,000 watts a month, enough to cover two-thirds of the average Maine household's monthly energy use, Mueller said.The savings payback to cover that investment can be 11 years or fewer, depending on the home, according to Mueller.Five years ago, that same system cost $20,000-$25,000.The cost of silicon in the panels has "come down dramatically," Mueller said. "The biggest thing is the maturation of the industry and scale. A lot of (the panels) are also being made in cheaper places around the world than they used to be. They used to all be made in Germany. Now they're all made out in Asia."At IRC, which is the only firm in the state exclusively installing panels on commercial roofs, business has been similarly brisk."In the past seven years, we've more than doubled the number of employees and more than tripled our revenues it's been a good run," said President Mike Davis. "(We're) targeting nearly a 50 percent growth this year over last year in our solar business."The new $75,000 solar array covering its 10,000-square-foot warehouse roof on Ferry Road is expected to pay for itself in five years, after which Davis expects the company's energy bill to be cut in half."The payback reached a point that we were comfortable with making the investment," he said.In the past 18 months, his company has installed 6 megawatts of commercial solar in several projects, much of it in Massachusetts, a solar powerhouse. That state has the sixth-most installed solar in the country, according to the Energy Information Administration, a distinction spurred by a slate of state-specific incentives.There's an argument that Maine's solar market could grow faster if Maine were a little more Massachusetts Gov. Paul LePage doesn't see it that way."It always comes down to the price that you pay for it," said Patrick Woodcock, director of the Governor's Energy Office. "The details are important when you say, 'Are you supportive of hydro?' or, 'Are you supportive of wind?' Well, what is the price the developer wants to sell the power for? The governor's position has been that he's technologically neutral and price-sensitive."When crafting an energy rebate through Efficiency Maine, which draws funding from all electric ratepayers, the goal is to benefit the most people, he said. "I think everyone would agree that we don't want a solar policy that just the affluent benefit from.""Massachusetts has virtually no wind installed; we have more than half of all the wind installed in New England in the state of Maine," Woodcock said. "If they're going to look at renewables, they're not going to put a wind tower up on Beacon Hill in Boston. So I do push back on, 'Is Maine falling behind on installations?' I think a better metric is, 'What is our total renewable portfolio in comparison to these other states?'"In 2014, 60 percent of Maine's net electricity generation came from wind, hydro, biomass or solar, according to the Energy Information Administration. Less than 10 percent of Massachusetts' did.Even with no Maine incentives, with the federal incentive in hand, Maine is poised to take a giant leap on the commercial front.The Maine Public Utilities Commission in late December ordered Central Maine Power and Emera Maine to enter long-term contracts with Dirigo Solar and a Clear Energy-Cianbro Development Corp. partnership, launching both of those commercial solar developments.Clear Energy and Cianbro are teaming up on a 9.8-megawatt project above Belfast that will cover 50 acres with solar panels, according to a spokesman who declined to reveal the size of the investment.It's expected to be online before the end of the year, powering "a couple thousand homes."Meanwhile, the $100 million Dirigo Solar project is massive up to 75 megawatts spread out among solar farms around the state and led in part by a Bates College graduate.The Clear Energy/Cianbro project was awarded under the state's renewable energy pilot program; price was a factor, but so was source.For the much larger Dirigo Solar project, the contract was cost-driven. The sun won the day."They were competing against any kind of project, not necessarily a renewable. Could have been gas, could have been hydro, whatever," said PUC spokesman Harry Lanphear.Maine ratepayers are forecast to save between $3 million and $26 million over the life of that 20-year contract.Dirigo Solar spokesman Ted O'Meara said the project is expected to cover 500 acres around the state in solar panels (more formally known as "photovoltaic arrays"); potential sites have been identified in each county. Details are expected later this year and the entire project is expected to come online by the end of 2017.A new company, Dirigo Solar is headed by Brian Murphy and Nicholas Mazuroski, a Bates College grad. Quadrupling the amount of solar power in the state is the company's first major project.In Auburn, St. Dom's wrapped up the largest solar project so far in the Twin Cities last month: 350 panels on its academic building roof. For the next six years, the panels are officially owned by ReVision Energy, which receives the credit for the tax break and will charge St. Dom's 11 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity in a purchase power agreement, according to Carl Young, the school's director of operations. (St. Dom's has been paying CMP between 10 and 15 cents.)In year seven, St. Dom's will buy the system for $170,000, Young said. He hopes to launch a fundraiser with families adopting a panel for around $400 each.Over the system's 40-year life, "we anticipate that it is going to satisfy about 40 percent of our energy needs with solar," Young said.The school spends on average $48,000 a year on electricity. At current rates, the savings would be $18,000 a year."We feel that as a school, as an academic institution, part of our mission is to teach kids to be responsible with the environment," Young said. "The pope's encyclical said that the Catholic church needs to be responsible for the environment and so this is part of meeting that mission. The third part is operating costs. It reduces the operating costs and reduces our dependency on CMP."Jeff Marks, executive director of the Environmental & Energy Technology Council of Maine, is hosting a forum on Feb. 3 in Hallowell to dive into all things solar, including an upcoming report from the PUC on an increasingly contentious issue called "net metering," the system of mostly smaller, residential solar systems feeding surplus electricity into the grid, banking it and drawing the credit down later.Right now, homeowners receive back one kilowatt-hour for every one they bank. Utilities argue that they're shouldering costs and want to see a change in that one-for-one rate.The forum also will explore smaller commercial projects proposed in places including Gouldsboro and Winslow."I think generally the future for solar in Maine is getting a little brighter," Marks said. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Lifting sanctions from Iran by the USA and the EU creates a new geopolitical reality, where serious opportunities rise for Armenia. The assessment belongs to head of the Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papian. According to him, Armenia will continue to serve as a liaison between the West and Iran, and our country can record serious development. In Papians words, to merely hope that changes will occur is too little, instead, work in that direction must be undertaken not only on official level, but also on business level. As a result of lifting sanctions from Iran, Armenias role will increase as Armenia is the most convenient route for Iran to the West. An unprecedented favorable geopolitical situation has been created for Armenia, which must be taken advantage of, Ara Papian responded Armenpress. In a meeting in Vienna on January 16 the USA and the EU lifted sanctions from Iran. Irans President Hassan Rouhani called it the victory of the Iranian people. (TNS) Thirteen million MacKeeper users; 3.3 million Hello Kitty fans; 191 million U.S. voters.Recently, those peoples names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses, among other personal details, were found on the Internet because of leaky databases.The number of those affected is astounding made especially terrifying by the fact the data are out there, no hacking required.There are tons of these things just sitting out there with no authentication, no password, said Chris Vickery, the security researcher who discovered those leaks. You just punch in the IP address and, boom, its all there.Delving through a list of registered U.S. voters was as easy as placing the numeric URL in a browser.All the gaffes affecting those databases have since been closed.These flaws are systemic, spanning the gamut from databases underlying college research material to social media accounts, Vickery said. All the way down to (data from) sensors from smart parking garages.He lays it out like this:Systems administrators used to set up and maintain servers individually. Today, cloud computing and other fast-moving technologies have become so prevalent that its simpler for Web developers, who might not be focused on security, to do it by themselves.As a result, sensitive information might have been better guarded in the days of clunkier processes.Vickery, who works in information technology support at a law firm in Austin, Texas, said he often finds these nonsecure databases on Shodan, a search engine that catalogs servers and other Internet-connected devices.In December, John Matherly, the founder of Shodan, said that he found hundreds of terabytes of data in similarly misconfigured databases.Matherly specifically identified MongoDB, a type of database that eschews traditional structure.In outdated versions of the software that remain widely used, its basic configuration left open such gaps.MongoDB, Matherly said, is just the best known culprit. Others include Redis, CouchDB, Cassandra and Riak.The only reason this hasnt been in the news more often is that its harder to discover, he added. Its not like firing up a Web browser and visiting a website to see a database.Kelly Stirman, a vice president of strategy at MongoDB, reiterated that the security issues dont lie within the companys open-source software.Rather, the gaffes are the fault of users.We have clearly prescribed security guidelines in our documentation, and we strongly encourage all users to follow them, she said in an e-mail.A spokeswoman described the situation as much like that of a person moving to a new house. Sometimes someone unwisely leaves the door open between trips to the car and back.Thats seemingly what is happening in these cases. Hello, Neighbor Theyre not the CIO, but they often live next door. Theyre the newest residents of the C-suite in government, often filling roles that have only just been defined. //Chief Talent Officer Last year New Zealand added a chief talent officer to its State Services Commission. An announcement about the position said the commission was going through a major reform in order to provide better public services and in line with that thinking also needed to ensure that it had skilled and effective workers. The chief talent officer improves the capability and capacity of senior leaders in the State services, identifies and addresses skills gaps and develops skilled leaders for the future. //Chief Scientific Adviser The United Kingdom released a document in February describing in detail the role of the chief scientific adviser, who guides the prime minister and cabinet on science, technology and engineering to ensure effective systems are in place for managing and using science. In addition, a majority of the UKs departments have a chief scientific adviser, allowing them to work together across government, helping to make sure decisions are informed by science and engineering advice. //Chief Risk Officer Risk management has changed considerably as digital threats become increasingly pervasive. While the role of chief risk officer isnt new, its evolving as the threat landscape changes. For example, Linda Lacewell was appointed as New Yorks first chief risk officer in June. Her tech background includes working as an architect of the states open data portal. While risk management may have focused on compliance in the past, this C role is likely to be more involved in technology and cybersecurity going forward. Washington, D.C.: A Crystal Clear Connection Louisville, Ky.: Two Roles Meld into One Crowdsourcing the CDO In the rush to enact open data policies and dive into innovation projects, governments are seriously considering the value of chief data officers and officials in Long Beach, Calif., are no different. But the city is taking a different approach: crowdsourcing. For cities, chief data officers often oversee the nuances in analytics projects and open data policies, coordinate department data initiatives, and vet potential tech partnerships with the private sector. For citizens, the role is most visible in their advocacy for civic apps and volunteer expertise. Major metropolitan cities often have them; San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia are among this lot. Theyre even at the state and federal levels too. But despite the rise to prominence, theres an unspoken majority of midsize to smaller jurisdictions still evaluating the cost-benefit ratios. In Long Beach, where Mayor Robert Garcia has probed avenues to expand civic tech and open data, CIO Bryan Sastokas said the city has opted to experiment with crowdsourcing. It intends to test whether community members can deliver on three duties of the chief data officer role: identifying high-value data that benefits citizens; supporting the cleaning and formatting of open data; and presenting open data insights to citizens via mobile and Web apps. Im part of a municipality, were not really data wonks here, Sastokas said. But if other people can help, well gladly publish data, well gladly put it in the right area. At more than 470,000 residents, Long Beach is a sizable city; however, it doesnt have the numbers of cities like New York or San Francisco. Nor does it pretend to have the same commercial composition of a tech hotbed like the Silicon Valley. So the question was whether the position, which costs around six figures, would be worth it. In the short term, Sastokas said that answer is no, especially when weighed against the citys current tech initiatives that can spur part of the roles crowdsourcing support. For example, the city hosts innovation events and civic hackathons to engage with the local community. Sastokas said the data officer experiment will be a first for the city and there are no expectations. If results are positive, Long Beach will scale the practice. The crowdsourced data position could also be packaged as a model for smaller and similarly sized cities. I really hope that the community embraces this type of approach, Sastokas said. Were not going to lose anything if they dont, but we have so much to gain if they do. The foreseeable barrier to the citys plans might be crowdsourcing incentives. To cultivate ongoing crowdsourcing, the community will require continued outreach. Likewise, responsiveness to citizen suggestions and requests may need to be heightened. For example, participants contributing input may disengage if feedback isnt heeded quickly, data isnt published or transparency falters. Additionally, speed and efficiency arent likely to compare with a staffed position. Chief data officers also toil in policy work and eliminating red tape, and can assign leads in departments to bolster open data use and publishing. What the crowdsourced data officer may be, though, is a low-stakes option for cities to find services they wouldnt have otherwise. Equally, it could act as a way to test-drive such functions before investing in a full-time position. Sastokas said the civic tech communitys work for the public good may be an initial driver. But he guessed that local entrepreneurship may be a big influencer as well, especially if new city data can stimulate business. Whatever results from the attempt, Sastokas is optimistic about the endeavor and eager to test its merits. If its successful, he said, it will just show the value of a collective and engaged society. Jason Shueh West Virginia: Paying Attention to Privacy Gilbert, Ariz.: Appointing a C-Person for the Digital Realm San Diego: CDO Appointment Sets Wheels in Motion For a while there, trendy C-suite titles were taking on a distinctly religious overtone. Chief Inspiration Officer. Chief Internet Evangelist. Chief Everything Officer. Things have settled down some, but the groundswell of chiefs in the last few years has left its mark, especially in functions related to IT.Chief data/privacy/performance/digital officers appear in government with increasing frequency. Each has some overlap with the CIOs function, so each state and local government has to work out in its own way just which chief will oversee what domain.All this unfolds against a backdrop in which public-sector CIOs are taking on an increasingly strategic role in civic operations. Do the new Cs undermine that growing influence? Depends how you want to play it.Some CIOs will take a very major role in overall technology strategy across government, both in terms of internal systems and systems that are customer facing, said Frank Scavo, president of consulting firm Strativa. Others will focus more on blocking and tackling and infrastructure. Ultimately the CIO needs to think about: What role do you want to play in this organization?For those content to play a supporting role, the new Cs may be a welcome addition. Either way, for the new Cs, challenges and opportunities await.It isnt always easy to see how a new chiefs role might overlap the terrain of the IT head. But in Tony Saudeks case, the connections crystal clear.Technology for us is the great enabler. Its what gets us to the high-definition information, said Saudek, chief performance officer of Washington, D.C. He came to the position after serving as special assistant to the under secretary of benefits at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where he managed the VBA Stat process, aimed at reducing the backlog of veterans benefits.Technology lets us know not just how many pounds the trash collection teams have picked up, but specifically which homes are they getting to, what is their average amount of trash, is it changing as the city demographics have changed? How does rainfall change trash collection? Technology allows us to ask much higher-quality questions.For all this to happen, Saudek relies on his IT colleagues. Rather than compete for the rights to information, he said, My work relies on the flow of information, while the chief technology officer and his staff are the enablers of that. I think of myself as a prime client for the CTO.Changing public expectation may help to account for the C in Saudeks title. The role of performance officer has taken on higher prominence as citizens have called for more transparency and accountability in government.Ironically IT advances have played a large role in fueling the publics expectations when it comes to civic performance. People realize that information often is there for the asking. As a result, Saudeks largest challenge is one he shares with his tech peers.The biggest hurdle we face is in setting expectations, he said. In a world of iPhones and articles on big data, it can be frustrating to people at all levels of government that there should be things that seem so knowable, that we just dont know.People ask: Why hasnt this public land been mowed? Well, is the land actually public? Who has the tax records? Its a performance and IT issue at the same time. Ultimately its an issue of good governance.The CTO and I have to spend a lot of our time setting expectations for the mayor, city administration and other customers, saying we do sympathize, we feel this should be knowable and yet it is going to take weeks or even months to make it knowable, Saudek said.Its clear that the role of the newfangled C sometimes can rub up against the shoulders of a more traditional C-suite resident. Sometimes, in fact, the two can come so close they literally meld into one.Theresa Reno-Weber came on in 2012 as Louisville, Ky.s chief of performance improvement with an aim toward establishing a statistics office. As weve seen, the performance chief relies heavily on IT to deliver data. In Reno-Webers case, that reliance became so pronounced that in August 2014 she got a title change, becoming chief of performance and technology. A strong IT director manages daily technology affairs, but overall IT sits on her plate right alongside performance.The move seemed a natural one, as the effort to expose data became, increasingly, an effort to access data. A lot of the work we were doing would get held up in trying to access the data from legacy systems, she said.Reno-Webers efforts to compile statistics exposed gaping holes in the IT infrastructure. Some of our departments are over a barrel if someone is out on vacation. They literally cannot access their information, she said.The combined position has generated some interesting results. In the past, under a traditional CIO hierarchy, the city ran a work order management system across more than a dozen departments, but IT didnt recognize it as an enterprise system and so did not support it. Reno-Weber said that with her multiple C roles, she is able to catch situations like that before they fall through the cracks. Because I oversee the performance and the strategy of the operation, I get a broader perspective, an ability to connect the dots.Privacy in West Virginia cuts a wide swath, encompassing health records, financial data and educational information. A range of laws define privacy expectations, and every department that reports to the governor has its own privacy officer. Chief Privacy Officer Sallie Milam has been holding all those pieces together since 2003 a long tenure in a position that has only recently emerged elsewhere in government.She came to the job following a stint as executive director of the West Virginia Health Information Network, a logical jumping-off point, with health at the center of so many privacy discussions.Weve been around a long time, Milam said of her 50-person team. Over those years the privacy chief has led development of requirements in response to changing laws. Shes created baseline policies for the executive branch and led training for some 26,000 employees.When it comes to relations with the technology chief, Milam joins many of todays new chiefs in describing a relationship that straddles a delicate line between IT and its close cousins. Take for example incident response. When a potential privacy breach emerges, Milams group and the CTOs security team go in simultaneously. They collaborate through the investigation, each supporting the targeted department in its own way.I see our jobs as pretty discreet, while requiring really good collaboration and coordination, she said.At the same time, theres always room for improvement in any relationship, and Milam said shed be pleased if IT were to take her role a little closer to heart. I would love it if IT folks got into privacy more, if we could be building privacy into the heart of a project rather than trying to bolt it on at the end, she said. We could have those privacy principles built into the design right from the beginning.Sometimes the chain of what constitutes IT can extend in unexpected directions. In Gilbert, Ariz., for example, former TV executive Dana Berchman signed on in 2012 as the citys first chief digital officer. With a population of 239,000 expected to grow by 100,000 in the next five to 10 years, it made sense to put a dedicated C-person in charge of the digital realm.Then a funny thing happened. The city manager looked up and realized there was no depth to Gilberts communications department: just a public information officer and a few AV techs. It was all very reactive, Berchman said. We didnt have branding, we didnt have guidelines, we didnt have social media channels. Our mayor was the only mayor in the area who wasnt on Twitter.Its that last bit that is worth noting: Thanks to the social media explosion, Gilberts digital chief found herself the C version of communications director too. Social media is digital lets give it to the digital person.Melding the roles has sometimes been a challenge, like when Berchman started asking employees to build their LinkedIn profiles. People were confused. They would say, You want us looking for jobs while were at work? No, we want you to network, to build relationships.While Berchman works in close cooperation with the citys IT director, he is more focused on the internal, keeping all of the systems running, she said.Maksim Pecherskiy ran a one-man shop from November 2014 until hiring his first employee in September 2015. It took that long just to figure out how big the mountain was that he was about to climb.My job got created with the open data policy, he said. Mayor Kevin Faulconer and a lot of the members of the council were strong supporters of that policy, which effectively said that the city has a lot of data and we need to open it up to the citizens.His appointment set the wheels in motion, with 40 departments compiling data inventories: What did they have, where was it, and why did it matter? This could have been farmed out to the IT shop it is data, after all but given the depth and breadth of analysis that would be needed, the task required its own level of administration.The inventory was a very human-powered process. IT helped a lot, but it would have been very hard for IT alone to work across all the departments with training processes, with interactions that happen at all the different levels, Pecherskiy said.The human element has always factored into Pecherskiys work. Before taking on his present job he worked as a Code for America fellow in Puerto Rico, crafting a tool to help business owners and residents search and apply for government programs.Pecherskiy works a few doors down from the CIO and also partners closely with the CISO. The data chief said his high-level designation makes it possible to achieve things that otherwise might not happen. The C lets me work across the organization, Pecherskiy said. It lets me call up a department head directly and say, Lets have lunch. I dont think I would be able to do that if I didnt have the C. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The economic crisis in Azerbaijan is explained not only by economic factors. It included some political base, impact of geopolitical developments, as a result of which the social explosion in the neighboring country will be inevitable. As Armenpress reports, the Head of the Modus Vivendi Center Ara Papian considers that the situation will become more complex in Azerbaijan, as after lifting the sanctions from Iran, it will export 500.000 barrel oil daily into the international market. It means that the Azerbaijani oil which is about to end, will no longer interest anyone. Certainly, there is an economic factor in the current developments, but the political factor is also very important. For instance, the relations with Russia have become very tense recently. Those are also the results of the Russian-Turkish tense relations as Moscow understands that Azerbaijan promotes one nation, two states ideology, Papian said. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Armenias first president, leader of Armenian National Congress (ANC) party Levon Ter-Petrosyans disease is serious but treatable. ANC parliamentary faction leader Levon Zurabyan informed about the aforesaid during the interview with journalists on January 18. Relevant doctors also deal with the mentioned issue. I am convinced that everything will be fine, Zurabyan mentioned, as Armenpress reports. Asked if the rumors are true whether cancer is diagnosed for the first president, Zurabyan answered: I cannot talk about the specific diagnosis here. Armenian First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan had a meeting with ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of US to Armenia Richard Mills. During the meeting, the issue of Levon Ter-Petrosyans visit to USA for getting medical treatment was discussed. The ABN AMRO bank has become the 12 th partner in KLMs Corporate BioFuel Program . Corporations participating in the KLM program pay a surcharge that covers the price difference between sustainable biofuel and conventional aviation fuel. KLM uses the surcharge to purchase sustainable biofuel, which is added to the fuel pumped into KLM aircraft at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and elsewhere. Consequently, the participating corporations reduce CO 2 emissions resulting from their business travel, but also contribute to the further development of the biofuel market. The sustainable biofuel for the KLM Corporate BioFuel Program is supplied by SkyNRG, a company founded by KLM in 2010. SkyNRG is structurally advised by an independent Sustainability Board, consisting of the Dutch wing of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-NL), Solidaridad and the Energy Academy Europe. Renault is the best performing brand in Europe in electric vehicles sales, with a market share of 23.6% (25.2% if Twizy is included) and 23,086 units registered in 2015. In other terms, in 2015, one out of 5 electric cars sold in Europe was a Renault Z.E. vehicle. Renaults total sales in Europe for 2015 were 1,613,499 units; EVs thus represented 1.4% of the companys total European sales. The European full-electric vehicle market stands at 97,687 units, up 47.8% compared to 2014. In Europe, the EV market represents a 0.61% market share (+0.16% compared to 2014) of the overall car market. Renault ZOE is the top-selling all-electric passenger car, its market share increased by 2.2 points to 19.2% of market share and 18,453 new registrations in 2015. It performed particularly well in France, where it recorded a 48.1% market share (versus 41.2% in 2014) and 10,670 units sold, thanks to the superbonus incentive set up by the French government in April 2015. More than half of ZOE sales in France benefitted from that incentive. Renault Kangoo Z.E. is the best-selling electric LCV in Europe with 4,325 units sold in 2015, accounting for 42.6% of the full-electric LCV market. Renault has sold the most EVs between 2010the year the first EV was launched in Europe, and 2015, with a record of 62,228 units sold. Since its launch, 16,331 units of Renault Twizy were sold. Renault Z.E. models sold in Europe in 2015: ZOE, a compact hatchback launched in 2013; Kangoo Z.E., the electric version of Renaults LCV launched in 2011; and Twizy, an urban two-seater, not homologated as a car, launched in 2012. WASHINGTON In its first official account of Iran's seizure and subsequent release of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday the only items found missing from their two recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones. But key questions, such as why the sailors had deviated from their planned route to enter Iranian territorial waters, remain unanswered in the account released by U.S. Central Command. It's calling the description a preliminary timeline of the events of Jan. 12-13. "A Navy command investigation initiated Jan. 14 will provide a more complete accounting of events," Central Command said. The investigation will focus on the U.S. sailors' treatment while in custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel, the command said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week while visiting Central Command headquarters in Florida that the boat crews had "misnavigated." He did not say how that mistake happened or provide other substantial details about an episode that posed a potential complication to efforts by Washington and Tehran to establish better relations. The boat seizure happened just hours before President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address and just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal with the West. The implementation triggered the end of crippling international sanctions on Iran and a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange. The timeline released Monday said the U.S. sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. It said a post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition and communications gear was accounted for, minus two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. The sailors were traveling in small armed vessels known as riverine command boats, headed from Kuwait to Bahrain, which is the location of the Navy's 5th Fleet. "The planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain," the account said. The boats were seized by Iran and escorted at gunpoint to Farsi Island, which is in the middle of the Gulf and home to an Iranian military facility. Along the approximately 300-mile journey they were to have refueled by linking up with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Monomoy, in international waters. The timeline said that approximately 10 minutes after the scheduled refueling, Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain received a report that the boats' crew members were being questioned by Iranians. About 19 minutes later, the naval headquarters "was advised of degraded communications with" the two boats, the account added. After an additional 26 minutes, the naval headquarters was notified of a total loss of communications with the boats. A large-scale search-and-rescue mission was undertaken at that point, but it is not clear whether the Americans had by this time already been taken ashore on Farsi Island. Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain attempted to contact Iranian military units operating near Farsi Island by using marine radio to broadcast information about the search-and-rescue operation. Separately, the U.S. notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone. Some hours later, about four hours after the U.S. first heard that the sailors were being questioned by Iranians, the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio received word from the Iranians that the sailors were in Iranian custody. The Iranians described the 10 as "safe and healthy," according to the U.S. account. In the hours after the seizure of the Americans became public on Jan. 12, there were conflicting reports about what caused the sailors to stray off their intended course. Monday's official account did not explain the reason. It said only that the crews "deviated" from their planned course. It made no reference to the navigation error cited by Carter last week. "At some point one (of the two boats) had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine which caused the crews to stop . and begin troubleshooting," the account said. Because the boats were traveling together, the other boat also stopped. At this point they were in Iranian territorial waters, "although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location," it added. While the boats were stopped and the crew was trying to assess the mechanical problem, Iranian boats approached. First to arrive were two small Iranian craft with armed personnel aboard. Soon after, they were joined by two more Iranian military vessels. A verbal exchange ensued between the Iranians and Americans, but there was no gunfire. Armed Iranian military personnel then boarded the U.S. boats while other Iranian personnel aboard other armed vessels monitored the situation. At gunpoint the U.S. boats and their crews were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island, where the Americans went ashore and were detained, the account said. The sailors were released the following morning aboard their boats. GREENSBORO Where does North Carolina rank among its counterparts when it comes to racial progress? Thats the question WalletHub, a financial social network, sought to answer in a recent survey, 2016s States That Have Achieved the Most Racial Progress. The survey looked at several key factors in ranking the 50 states and District of Columbia, including median annual income, home ownership rates and voter turnout to help determine how far each state has come in closing the gap between whites and blacks. WalletHub used those metrics to rank the states in two categories: those that are the most integrated and those that have achieved the most racial progress. Segregation and discrimination, though still prevalent in some areas of the U.S., are no longer as pervasive as they were in the Civil Rights era, WalletHub said on its website. But prominent incidents of police brutality against blacks during the past several years have threatened to reverse decades of social progress. In December 2014, the percentage of Americans identifying race relations as the nations most important problem, 13 percent, was the highest recorded since May 1992, according to Gallup. North Carolina ranked No. 1 for the change over time in the voter-turnout gap between whites and blacks. The N.C. NAACP and other parties are suing the state about a voter ID law the Republican-led legislature passed that they say will make it harder for some people, including minorities, to vote. The law requires voters to show a photo ID beginning with this years elections, among other things. The state ranked seventh in the change in the poverty-rate gap, 11th in the change in the home ownership rate gap, 18th in the change in median annual income, 23rd in the change in gap in the percentage of residents with at least a high school diploma, and 27th in the change in unemployment. The state ranked 16th overall for its level of integration and ninth in terms of racial progress. But do those rankings tell the true story about North Carolina? The Rev. Julie Peeples of Congregational United Church of Christ said North Carolina has gone backward when it comes to racial progress. Peeples, who is outspoken on racial and social issues, said the state had been making progress but has not progressed in the last couple of years. I think were seeing a lot of the gaps increase, Peeples said. I dont know the data, but thats what Im seeing on the ground. Some of those things are definitely getting worse, not better. Peeples points to the state legislature as part of the blame. She said policies that the GOP dominated legislature have enacted or failed to enact such as not expanding Medicaid in the state have contributed to poverty. Many of their actions have, in fact, created more poverty rather than alleviating it, she said. The Rev. Eric Cole of Shalom Community Christian Church said any gaps that do exist can be closed with more intentional community engagement and less detrimental rhetoric. Take the much talked about achievement gap, for example. The pastor and his church operate a summer tutoring program for children who have fallen behind in reading and math, and he regularly tutors students in the Guilford County Schools. Cole said he would like to see more churches, mosques and synagogues adopting schools to help students get the resources they need to be successful, such as school supplies and tutoring. Cole said there are bright students with unlimited potential and gifted teachers in every school across the community. But he said that we dont always see that translated in the test scores that carry so much weight. Its not that the kids in one part of town are any less capable, Cole said. There are just other dynamics with life that go on. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The trial of Russian serviceman Valery Permyakov accused of killing the Avetisyan family continues in Gyumri. As Armenpress reports, the session is under the proceeding of Shirak District Court of First Instance Judge Harutyun Movsesyan. Successors of Avetisyans' family members, introduced a petition on transferring the trial to Shirak Regional Court of First Instance. Attorney Lusine Sahakyan mentioned that Permyakovs rights are also violated in the territory of military base as the latter is in the cage which is contrary to all European standards. Sahakyan also mentioned that by the inconvenience of the conditions in the territory of the military base journalists as well as judges work is distorted taking into account the so-called inconvenience of conference room. Other lawyers also agreed with the petition. Defendant Permyakov mentioned that he sees no difference about the aforementioned. After the break judge Harutyun Movsesyan asked the accused again on transferring the trial from Russian military base in Gyumri to Shirak Regional Court of First Instance. This time Permyakov mentioned that he feels more comfortable and safe in military base. The court rejected the petition on transferring the trial to the Court of First Instance. Lawyer Sakunts presented a new petition asking time for its introduction. The court announced 40-minute break. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate After almost 13 years in business, Grahams Toys will close its doors for good at the end of the month. Shelley Steinberg, store owner and mother of the shops namesake Graham, said closing the store comes after several years of trying to make ends meet on Greenwich Avenue. The rents are not sustainable for small businesses, Steinberg said. The amount of business weve done is respectable but its just not sustainable for this market. Grahams opened when Graham, now 18, was just 5 years old. Afraid of getting a haircut, his parents decided to open a kid-friendly salon that doubled as a toy store with engaging products for children that are a little different than what people might find at a chain toy store. Reminiscent of toy stores in Europe, many families have visited the shop for their childs first haircut. The 2,000-square-foot space at 60 Greenwich Ave. is listed for lease through agents Nick Marona, Jessica Curtis and Stephen Westerberg of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. According to the property listing, the asking rent is $105 per square foot. Steinberg said although she is saddened to see her business close, she is inspired by the response from the Greenwich community to the news of the closing. On Christmas Eve, a customer who had been in the day before that I had told about the closing came in and purchased 70 percent of our inventory and donated all of it to Family Centers, Steinberg said. He said he wanted the children who didnt get to experience our store to have a taste of it. You cannot believe how many lives were changed that day. In addition, Steinberg said The Christopher Noland Salon and Beauty Spa has offered to hire her stylists as the salon expands to include a childrens salon. Steinberg said Grahams will not reopen at a new location for the foreseeable future. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate In an attempt to win back our hearts, Chipotle has plans to feed you on the house. Co-CEO Monty Moran spoke during an interview at the ICR conference, a closely watched investment conference, last Wednesday and said that the restaurant chain has doubled the amount of free food stores can give away to customers, CNBC writes. More than 350 people got sick after eating Chipotle last year, CBS Business writes. The E. coli outbreak in October began in Washington and Oregon before spreading to seven other states. The company has been hard at work trying to reboot itself. Next month Chipotle will close its doors on Feb. 8 to hold meetings following the E.coli outbreak. It's also a way for the company to teach their employees about the changed food safety measures. According to the Associated Press, Chipotle said it's already made changes to improve food safely by taking steps like moving the chopping of tomatoes and lettuce to a central location, and blanching onions to kill germs before they're chopped. Chipotle declined to provide specific dates for their free food giveaway. The exact giveaways will be up to each stores discretion, allowing managers to create their own campaigns, an article by Yahoo noted. Giving away free food isnt new at Chipotle but the practice hasnt been used in a few years. Jack Hartung, Chipotles CFO, said it just kind of drifted to such a low-grade level that it was kind of non-existent," CNBC writes. In their effort to regain customers, Chipotle also plans an extensive marketing campaign that will include direct mail and traditional ads, which begin in mid-February, CBS Business writes. Chipotle hopes the ads will help clear up what happened at Chipotle, Quartz writes. "I have confidence that we're going to recover from this," said co-CEO Steve Ells, during a conference presentation. But some are skeptical about it as Chipotle faces a number of legal problems. Earlier this month, the company said it was served with a federal grand jury subpoena as part of a criminal investigation tied to a norovirus outbreak this summer at one of its restaurants in California that sickened 80 customers and 13 employees, CBS Business writes. While giving away free food clearly wont solve Chipotles problems, it might be a start to getting them off your blacklist. Free burrito bowl anyone? YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Republic of Armenia Ministry of Transport and Communication intends to reconstruct and rebuild Vanadzor-Alaverdi-Georgia border highway connecting the centre of the Republic of Armenia to the Georgian Republic during the current year. As Armenpress reports, the realization of the activities is included in the top priority projects of the Republic of Armenia Government. The main transit route has an overall length of 92 km. It is known that the Asian Development Bank expressed its readiness to secure 50% of the intended sum for reconstruction activities of the route. The interstate route Vanadzor-Alaverdi-Georgia border is a corridor of strategic and vital significance for imports, exports of the Republic of Armenia, as well as for local cargo transportation. It links Armenia with the Black Sea ports of Georgia, CIS, European and other countries. BlackBerry's debut Android smartphone Priv will be launched in India towards the end of this month - January 28 to be precise. The Canadian company has sent out invitations for the launch event that will be held in the Indian capital of New Delhi. There was, however, no word on the price tag the handset will carry in India. Over in the US, it carries a tag of $699, while in Europe it is officially selling for 779. This comes shortly after BlackBerry expanded Priv's availability to France. Just days prior to that, the smartphone landed in some other European markets, including Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Via Blind shootout reveal Spoilers ahead! Voting is now closed, but you can still go to Page 2 and pick your favorites with a mind clear of brand preconceptions and promises. Below the phones behind the letters A, B, C and D are revealed as well as the winners. Apple iPhone 6s Plus LG V10 Microsoft Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 There were a lot of correct guesses in the comments, well done readers! It was the Apple iPhone 6s Plus, which was behind the label 'A', 'B' was the LG V10, 'C' - the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and finally, 'D' - the Samsung Galaxy Note5. #1 and #2 - Best day time photo The LG V10 (B) scored decisive victories in day time photography, taking 60% of the vote on #1 and 75% on #2. The Samsung Galaxy Note5 (D) placed a distant second with 24% and 13% respectively, almost losing out to the Lumia 950 XL (C) in #2. #1 - best day time photo: iPhone 6s Plus LG V10 (winner) Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 #2 - best day time photo: iPhone 6s Plus LG V10 (winner) Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 #3 - Best night time photo The LG V10 (B) adds another prize to its growing collection with an overwhelming 83% of the vote. The other three didn't break 10%. The Galaxy Note5 (D, 9%) and Lumia 950 XL (C, 7%) were again pretty close to each other. #3 - best night time photo: iPhone 6s Plus LG V10 (winner) Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 #4 - Best day time video The LG V10 (B) is closing in on a flawless victory, it was even more dominant with 87% of the vote. The Galaxy Note5 (B, 9%) remained stable, while the Lumia 950 XL lost quite a bit of ground. #4 - best day time video: Apple iPhone 6s Plus LG V10 (winner) Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 #5 - Best night time video In a surprise upturn the Apple iPhone 6s Plus (A) scores the highest in night time video recording with 46% of the vote. It has a narrow lead over the LG V10 (B, 34%), with the Lumia 950 XL (C) taking 13% and the Note5 (D) taking 7%. #5 - best night time video: Apple iPhone 6s Plus (winner) LG V10 Lumia 950 XL Galaxy Note5 We brought back the LG V10 because it performed so well last time, but this time it was even more dominant. Still, our head-to-head article (to be published very soon) focuses on the other three - the Apple iPhone 6s Plus, the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and the Samsung Galaxy Note5. It will be about more than the camera, examining the screen, the battery life and chipset performance. A report from the company's native Taiwan says that HTC is getting ready to spin off its nascent VR business into a new company. According to some unnamed sources in the industry, HTC CEO Cher Wang will soon create a new entity that will only handle VR products such as the upcoming HTC Vive headset. For starters, this new company will be wholly owned by Wang and HTC. The move is meant to separate the hopefully successful VR-related endeavors by HTC from its smartphone division, which hasn't been doing all that well in the past few years. Dealers working on the Taiwan Stock Exchange said investors now have high hopes that "the VR business will help HTC offset the impact resulting from escalating competition in the global smartphone market". HTC shares went up by more than 5% following the news. That said, the company hasn't issued an official statement on the matter, at least not yet. The HTC Vive will be up for pre-order starting on February 29, and it may end up costing around $1,500. It was initially presented at last year's MWC, and it will finally become available in April. It was developed in cooperation with Valve. Source These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. The Galaxy Note5 launch was followed by some peculiar complaints, about the iconic S-Pen. In case you've already forgotten the whole fiasco, we shall give you the quick tour. The S-Pen of the Galaxy Note5 could be inserted backwards in its slot, which may not be something many people will do on purpose, but as it turned out eventually lots of people did. Either by accident, or caught up by the wide media coverage - thousands of people got their S-Pen stuck in the slot backwards. This led Samsung to send some special tools to the service center for safely removing the stuck pens. Unfortunately, those who tried to get it out by themselves, often broke the S-Pen detection mechanism and thus rendered their S-Pen a pointless stick. If you broke your Galaxy Note5, or already own it, we are sorry, but an official Samsung support center is your only solution. But if you are about to buy a Note5 right now, we have some good news. Apparently Samsung has pre-installed a failsafe mechanism, which will allow you to extract the S-Pen safely if inserted backwards. The company has upgraded the mechanism without an official announcement. Previously the company said that this wasn't really an issue and urged customers to read the manual, while denying the device a fix. We are glad to see Samsung has addressed the issue and the new adopters won't be threatened with the possibility of breaking their Note5. As for the earlier buyers - well if your Note5 lasted until now, you are probably safe, but still watch how you insert that S-Pen. Source Last year for the first time ever Google launched two Nexus smartphones at the same time - the LG-made Nexus 5X and the Huawei Nexus 6P. And this manner of going with both a more mainstream size as well as a phablet for the Nexus line might be the new trend - one that Google is said to repeat in 2016. According to a new and unconfirmed rumor out of China, we shall once again see two Nexuses hitting the streets this year. One of them will have a 5-inch screen, while the other will get a 5.5-inch display. If true, this would represent an odd move for the mobile world, where handsets generally get bigger from year to year, not smaller (the Nexus 5X has a 5.2-inch panel, while the 6P has a 5.7" screen). Then again, the original Nexus 6 from Motorola had a 6" display and that was shrinked in its successor, so anything is possible. What might be more shocking is what company is said to be manufacturing both 2016 Nexuses: HTC. The Taiwanese smartphone maker has been in trouble, sales-wise, for many, many months now, and it probably hopes that this move will get it into the spotlight for the right reasons once more. On the other hand, the analyst who is the source of this rumor is of the opinion that the two Nexuses will be too little to help HTC escape all of its problems. The Nexus 9 tablet from 2014 certainly wasn't the success HTC had hoped it would be. Apparently Huawei was also in the running for producing this year's Nexuses, but the Chinese company lost out to HTC in the end. Obviously you should have taken all of this with a huge chunk of salt, because it comes from just one person. If there is any truth to this information, then expect to see it reiterated in the future. Source (in Chinese) | Via YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. David Cameron has provoked a backlash over plans to "help" more Muslim women to speak fluent English - while at the same warning they could be deported if their language skills do not improve. As Armenpress reports, the Prime Minister announced the 20 million fund for language classes to teach the 190,000 Muslim women in England who are thought to speak little or no English "We will now say if you don't improve your fluency, that could affect your ability to stay in the UK," he wrote in the Times. "All too often, because of what I would call 'passive tolerance', people subscribe to the flawed idea of separate development. "It is time to change our approach. We will never truly build One Nation unless we are more assertive about our liberal values, more clear about the expectations we place on those who come to live here and build our country together and more creative and generous in the work we do to break down barriers." Classes will be held in homes, schools and community centers with travel and childcare costs provided to encourage the maximum participation. Mr Cameron said all public services - including, nurseries, schools, health visitors and job centers - are needed to play a party in tacking "prejudice and bigotry" and building integration. Haiti - Environment : TOTAL Haiti launches its 2nd Edition of reforestation contest TOTAL Haiti, launched the 2nd edition of its reforestation contest "Konbit Rebwazman se rasin lespwa !" Since January 14, 2016 until February 29, 2016, you can register online at : www.totalhaiti.com/home_professionnels/concours/inscription-concours.html or by collecting a registration form in a TOTAL station or at Sogexpress, Palmis Mikwofinans, Sogebank, Capital Bank, Brana, contest partners. Recall that in 1920, 60% of Haiti was covered with forests. Today, only 2% still have original forests. This massive deforestation has serious consequences: soil erosion, landslides, loss of wildlife and flora, declining crop yields, etc... To try to stop this phenomenon, many projects exist across the country. Reforestation takes many faces : mornes reforestation projects, planting fruit trees, nurseries offering different types of trees... But these projects often are unknown to the public. TOTAL Haiti's objective is to give visibility to all these projects, all these individual and collective actions. They exist maybe on your next door and if this is not the case, you can get inspiration from an existing project to create your own, seek advice from experts... TOTAL Haiti proposes to reward the best reforestation projects: the first edition in 2015, has collected more than 450 registrations and at the awards ceremony, 14 projects have shared 4 million Gourdes in premium : www.totalhaiti.com/home_professionnels/concours/gagnants/gagnants-2015.html Contest Rules : www.totalhaiti.com/home_professionnels/concours/reglement-concours.html For more informations : www.totalhaiti.com/home_professionnels/concours/FAQ.html Phone : 3800-6262 Email : info@totalhaiti.com See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13139-haiti-environment-total-launches-a-competition-in-favor-of-reforestation.html HL/ HaitiLibre Korean Movie | 2010 Comedy Romantic comedy Melodrama Romance Directed by Chang You-jeong () Written by Lee Kyeong-ee () 112min | Release date in South Korea: 2010/12/08 Links Alternative title : "Looking For Kim Jong Wook", "First Love" Synopsis "Hello, this is the 'First Love Office' where people can request to find their first love." Han Ki-joon, the man with 2:8 ratio parted hair, slim body and inflexible character who always look before he leap, got fired from his company, mainly due to his 0% flexibility. He accidently finds a clever founding item, which is a job which finds people's first loves. He opens 'First Love Office' only with passion toward people's move. "My first love is Kim. Jong. Wook...." Suh Ji-woo, was proposed by her present boyfriend. But even her father, her only parent who leaves everyday with hope of his daughter's marriage, she refuges her boyfriend's proposal. Inside of her they is a person named 'Kim Jong-wook' who she can never forget. She eventually forced to visit Ki-joon's office by his father, and decide to find her first love, who she has barely has a memory left. "Do I have to follow your every step? Even quitting my current job?" "When the information is poor, at least your passion shouldn't be poor." Suh Ji-woo become the first client of 'First Love Office' but all she know about her first love is the name, Kim Jong-wook. To complete his company's first request successfully, Ki-joon does his best to find 'Kim Jong-wook but Ji-woo is getting tired of his precisionism and too much paasion. He eventually planning a trip to find Kim Jong-wook, who lives in many parts of Korea (since there are so many people named as Kim Jong-wook), and he want Ji-woo to accompany him for this trip... Source YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The number of international tourists rose by 4.4% worldwide in 2015, hitting a record 1.18 billion despite concerns over terrorism. Armenpress reports the United Nations World Tourism Organization informed about this on January 18. Tourism arrivals were up by 5.0%in Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas but fell by 8.0 percent in North Africa where nations like Tunisia were hit by terrorist attacks, it said in a statement. Global tourism was hardly hit by the global financial crisis, declining 4.0% in 2009. The outbreak of swine flu also contributed to the decline. Tunisia's tourism industry, which had been recovering after the Arab Spring unrest, was badly shaken in March by an attack on the Bardo museum in Tunis, followed by one in June in the resort of Sousse, that killed a total of 59 tourists. This attack and others came as North African countries still struggle to regain the trust of holidaymakers scared off by the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the region in 2011. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. The Aleppo-based Emmanuel Armenian Evangelical Church has suffered serious damages as a result of shelling. Armenpress reports, citing Arevelk, Chairperson of the Council of Armenian Evangelical Churches of Syria, Rev. Harutyun Selimyan informed about this. The group of believers is the real Church for us, and despite the material damages inflicted on the construction we must continue our mission and will renovate our Church with Christian faith and firm will, Selimyan said. On January 18, terrorist groups dropped missiles in the Azizieh district of Aleppo, causing damages to the Emmanuel Armenian Evangelical Church. Fortunately, there are no victims, but the church has been damaged. The explosion took place hours after the liturgy, thanks to which there were no victims. Immediately after the incident Rev. Harutyun Selimyan visited the scene. Sixty rescued after New Zealand tour boat explosion and fire Some 53 passengers and seven crew were rescued from a charter vessel off New Zealands North Island after the boats engine exploded and caught fire on January 18. The 23-metre PeeJay V had been cruising to White Island volcano, 20 miles off shore in the Bay of Plenty, when the accident happened less than a mile from port. Some jumped into rubber lifeboats while others leapt straight into the water as the flames took hold. Stock image Four people were treated in hospital at Whakatane, but it is understood that none was seriously hurt. The owners of the PeeJay V, Peter and Jenny Tait, thanked the authorities for helping to save all those on board. They also praised their staff and the emergency services for their quick actions. The couple said they were now helping with the investigations into the cause of the blaze. "We're extremely upset this has occurred and we are trying to come to terms with it. But we're extremely proud of our crew and staff for their efforts -- and thankful to the emergency responders who assisted in the rescue operation." Police praised the efforts of local boat owners who answered the call to help rescue the passengers and crew. There was an immediate response, with four large vessels and a Coastguard boat at the scene quickly. They "undoubtedly saved the lives of those on board", the police statement said. Police added that in addition to the boats that went out to help, a helicopter had carried out a sweep of the water to confirm everyone had been rescued. Start a conversation - Many employers miss this opportunity because they assume an employee does not want to discuss this private health issues with them. Whilst an employee cannot be forced to disclose their illness or to discuss it with you many people will be open to such a conversation when it is conducted in a supportive manner. Many employers miss this opportunity because they assume an employee does not want to discuss this private health issues with them. Whilst an employee cannot be forced to disclose their illness or to discuss it with you many people will be open to such a conversation when it is conducted in a supportive manner. Medical certificates- When an employee is suffering from a chronic illness they may require varying periods of leave from work. One option that might be suitable to offer some employees getting an overarching medical certificate from their treating doctor stating what their illness is and how often they might be unwell to attend work so they do not need to get a separate medical certificate for every day of leave. When an employee is suffering from a chronic illness they may require varying periods of leave from work. One option that might be suitable to offer some employees getting an overarching medical certificate from their treating doctor stating what their illness is and how often they might be unwell to attend work so they do not need to get a separate medical certificate for every day of leave. Research the chronic disease - There are a lot of reputable resources publicly available on the internet that you can use to better understand and inform yourself about a chronic disease. - There are a lot of reputable resources publicly available on the internet that you can use to better understand and inform yourself about a chronic disease. Flexible work arrangements, leave or redeployment- When an employee is diagnosed with a chronic illness and is undergoing treatment this can mean they are required to attend multiple medical appointments and may be unfit to attend work post-treatment. Consider whether flexible work arrangements, paid or unpaid leave or redeployment options are available and discuss these with the employee. onic disease can leader to lower productivity and place a huge strain on overall health of employees in a workplace, as one in five Australians suffer from some form of chronic illness.The Australian Institute of Health and Wellness says chronic diseases are the leading cause of illness disability and death in Australia, accounting for 90 % of all deaths in 2011.With the prevalence of chronic illness on the rise in Australia, HR managers need to consider the wellbeing of their employees and implement strategies to better manage employees.HR Business Partner at Employment Innovations Alexia Charalambous speaks to HC Online about best practice strategies to put in place for employees with chronic conditions.Its very important for employers to realise anything that affects someones personal life can also affect their work life, Ms Charalambous says.She says chronic illnesses such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Crohns Disease can contribute to health-related expenses for employers and employees and lead to decreased productivity due to absenteeism.While there is a wealth of information available on workplace strategies to manage chronic illness, Ms Charalambous says the HR manager needs firstly to assess the culture of the organisation.Although programs and initiatives are crucial, workplaces need firstly to set fundamentals in place and a positive company culture is very important to ensuring these initiatives are successful, she says.HR managers can do a cultural assessment of their workplace to ensure a supportive workplace, she says.She says ideally, the office should be a place protecting the safety and well-being of employees while providing them with opportunities for better long-term health.Positive initiatives include having a broader wellness policy in place, supportive team leaders who are educated on holistic approaches to managing chronic disease, and appointing a workplace champion who staff can go to for additional support.HR managers can also look at up-skilling managers and staff on initiatives and obligations approaches to caring for chronic illness, such as graduated return to work process, Ms Charalambous says.She says employers should consider whether employees can fulfil the requirements of their role by working from home on days when they are too unwell to be at work, in a bid to reduce absenteeism.While employees are not required to disclose chronic disease during the recruitment process, having a workplace culture where people feel safe to disclose chronic conditions without fear of discrimination is crucial.Lucienne Gleeson, an Associate with PCC Lawyers , says there are many mechanisms that employers can consider putting in place to be supportive of an employee with a chronic disease which may also keep the employee in their employment. These include:Notable legislation protecting workers with a disability or health condition from workplace discrimination and harassment include the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 1995 and the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The Fair Work Act also provides some additional protections for employees and prospective employees who are subject to adverse action in the workplace because of their physical or mental disability.However, if an employee is simply unable to complete their duties due to their poor health condition, HR may need to consider terminating their employment.If an employees chronic disease creates a situation where they may unfortunately not be able to carry out their role in the longer term an employer may be justified in ending their employment, Ms Gleeson says.However, she says no such decision can be made without sufficient medical information and full consideration of adjustments that could be made so they can carry out the role.This information can be collated from the employees doctor, but often will require an independent medical assessment to be arranged. If there is insufficient information or the requirement of discrimination laws are not complied with, employees could have a cause of action to pursue, she says.Employers need to exercise caution when sending employees to an independent medical assessment and ensure such a direction is lawful and reasonable. For example in TWU Australia v Cement Australia Pty Ltd it [2015] FWC 158 it was held that sending a segment of employees for a Physical Risk Review where various tests and measurements were taken to try to limit the risk of musculoskeletal injury, a chronic disease, was not lawful or reasonable.Generally, if an employee has a chronic disease that could place their own or another employees or persons health and safety at risk then an employer will be justified in sending them for a medical assessment, Ms Gleeson says.Ms Charalambous says many businesses have realized the benefits of health promotion and offer workplace health programs and employee assistance programs to their employees, in a bid to curb the cost of rising health care.Its important to work out whats best for the organization and make an assessment of whats going on with your staff, she says.She says ideally, the office should be a place protecting the safety and well-being of employees while providing them with opportunities for better long-term health. misrepresent that a contract of employment is an independent contractor agreement, or tell a genuine employee that they are an independent contractor; dismiss (or threaten to dismiss) a genuine employee in order to then engage them as an independent contractor; and make a false statement to persuade or influence, or mislead a genuine employee, to enter into a contractor arrangement to perform the same (or similar) work they performed previously. Make sure that the relationships you have with your workers are what you assume them to be - thinking that a relationship is with an independent contractor, when the worker is in fact an employee, can have serious consequences down the track. If in doubt, get advice. Business and principals must take care to ensure that misrepresentations are not made as to the true nature of a worker's engagement, or risk exposure to prosecution and pecuniary penalties for breaches of the Fair Work Act. It is critical to undertake a comprehensive analysis and to implement risk-management processes when engaging workers through non-traditional arrangements, such as contracting and labour hire firms. Businesses can still be liable for back-payment of entitlements and other liabilities if an employment relationship is later found to exist in law. Merely engaging workers through a labour hire arrangement is no guarantee that it is a genuine independent contractor arrangement. The recent High Court decision indicates that this will not necessarily be sufficient to avoid the sham contracting provisions in the Fair Work Act. ent cases have shown that the courts are prepared to come down hard on sham contracting. In this article, Mark Diserio, Kaitlyn Gulle and Kate Oaten from Lander & Rogers, take sham contracting back to basics.Sham contracting is used to describe the deliberate mischaracterisation of an employment relationship (i.e. a relationship between an employer and an employee) as a contractor relationship (i.e. between a principal and independent contractor).The issue for HR professionals is that the worker, who may be receiving a higher hourly rate as a contractor, is not receiving all the entitlements (e.g. annual leave, sick leave, public holidays, superannuation) and job security which they would be entitled to receive if they were an employee of the company.Representing that someone is an independent contractor when they are really an employee, or firing an employee and re-engaging them as an independent contractor to do the same work they did previously, is unlawful - and it is not just the corporate entity or employer who may be in trouble. A person, such as an HR representative or manager, who was involved in the sham contract or has "turned a blind eye", may also face serious penalties.The Fair Work Act seeks to protect genuine employees from sham contracting arrangements by making it unlawful for a person, or a company, to:In December 2015, the High Court of Australia confirmed that the sham contracting provisions extend to "triangular" arrangements, where employees are ostensibly engaged as independent contractors through a third party, such as a labour hire provider. This particular case clarifies that the prohibition on employers from misrepresenting to an employee that they work as an independent contractor under a contract also applies to an arrangement with a third party. This means that employers cannot rely on third party arrangements to avoid liability for misleading representations about the true nature of contracts with their employees.Unfortunately for HR professionals, there is no one single factor that determines whether a worker is an independent contractor or an employee. However, there are a number of factors that are generally considered when making the assessment. The below table sets out some of these key factors and whether they are suggestive of an employment or contractor relationship.No one factor, of itself, will be determinative and some factors are capable of pointing towards both an independent contractor or an employment relationship depending on the particular circumstances - for example, a worker who uses their own mobile phone is unlikely to be considered an independent contractor because of this factor.In a useful reminder that it is the true nature of the working relationship that matters, rather than the description that the parties give it, the December High Court decision specifically referred to the well-known statement that parties "cannot create something which has every feature of a rooster, but call it a duck and insist that everybody else recognise it as a duck".Imagine that Company A runs a flower delivery company and has a written contract with Sam under which she delivers flowers to clients by bicycle. Sam uses her own bicycle for the deliveries, but has to wear Company A's uniform. Sam is free to pick and choose when she works, but Company A tells her when and where to deliver the flowers. Sam, who is very friendly, generates a lot of goodwill for Company A's business. Company A pays Sam $15 per hour plus GST upon receiving an invoice from Sam for the deliveries she has performed that week.Looking at Company A's relationship with Sam by reference to the above table, it is clear that Sam is actually an employee of Company A, not an independent contractor. If this relationship was not identified correctly, Company A could be contravening the sham contracting provisions of the Act and exposed to liability for back-payment of wages, leave entitlements, superannuation, payroll tax and income tax deductions.It is not only the organisation that needs to be concerned - HR professionals and managers can also be found personally liable where they are involved in breaches of the sham contracting provisions of the Fair Work Act.Imagine you are the HR manager for Company A, and receive instructions from the CEO to prepare a written contract for Sam to "get around the employment laws" which expressly confirms that Sam is an independent contractor and not an employee. Your involvement in Sam's contract could expose you to liability for contravening the sham contracting provisions of the Fair Work Act and to civil penalties of $10,800 per contravention.Mark Diserio is a Partner, Kaitlyn Gulle is a Senior Associate and Kate Oaten is a Lawyer in Lander & Rogers Workplace Relations & Safety practice. Mark can be contacted at [email protected] Dear Editor, January is School Board Appreciation Month, and the Avery County Schools want to say thank you to all our board members who do so much for our school system. Avery County is represented by five dedicated board members who devote countless hours to make sure our students are served in the best way possible. Chair John Greene, Vice-Chair Kathey Aldridge, Dr. Bob Clark, Steve Smith and Keith Tutterow are true advocates for the children of Avery County, developing policies and make decisions that help shape the future of our educational system. Our school board oversees more than 2,000 students, 460 employees, and an annual budget of $25,000,000. I am proud to work with our board, and I congratulate them on their excellent leadership and vision for the students of Avery County. I also wanted to make our community aware of the new anonymous tip line, SPK UP NC, that our middle and high school students and staff currently have available to them. The Avery County Schools joins five other districts across North Carolina by becoming a test site for SPK UP NC, a school safety program for students developed by the N.C. Center for Safer Schools that enables them to anonymously report tips about school safety concerns via a mobile app. The tips will be received by school administrators who will respond appropriately based on the type of tip. We want to be sure our students have a voice when it comes to feeling safe at school, and thats why we agreed to be among the first districts in North Carolina to make this mobile application available to our students. This app gives students the ability to remain anonymous while reporting instances of bullying or fighting involving themselves or others, or if theyve seen a weapon at school, with assurances that their tip will be seen and investigated. The SPK UP NC mobile app allows users (who can include students, teachers and parents) to provide tips in categories that include bullying, illegal drug and alcohol use, fighting, weapons and a Report It category for all other types of tips. Additionally, if a student has a suicide or mental health concern, they can engage the bar that reads Suicide Lifeline and then hit the call button. Those calls will go outside the phone app, and be answered by a trained mental health professional who will talk with the student and determine what further action needs to be taken. The SPK UP NC app is available for download from the Android Marketplace and the Apple App Store. From your Android mobile device, follow this link to download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ithinqware.speakup&hl=en. From your Apple mobile device (the SPK UP NC app is compatible with iPhone 3 and up) follow this link to download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speakupapp/id1031639757?mt=8. Tips can also be sent anonymously from the following website: http://speakupapp.tips/home.php, using computers in the school, home or library. The Center for Safer Schools, created in March 2013 as part of the N.C. Department of Public Safety, developed the SPK UP NC app in response to a concern noted by students, teachers, administrators and law enforcement during community forums, of a need for a standardized method for students to report safety issues to school administrators, teachers and school resource officers. The Center for Safer Schools is piloting the application in six school districts to work out any issues in the application, and then will begin to roll it out statewide later this year. Collaboration with the following pilot school districts has been ongoing to develop this product specifically for the students, parents and teachers of North Carolina: Avery County, Johnston County, Lenoir County, Macon County, Winston-Salem/Forsyth and Iredell County. The Avery County schools was the first school system to roll out the application. Here is some additional information on SPK UP NC. Why it exists Over 160,000 school children miss school each day in the United States out of fear of being bullied. Being able to report their fears is paramount in reducing these absences. Over 90 percent of students say they would use an anonymous reporting tool if they had one available. This is also important because over 80 percent of school shooters tell someone before they act. An anonymous reporting tool could help prevent school shootings and other safety concerns on school campuses. In 2013, one of the first activities of the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools (NCCFSS) was to tour the state and hold community forums at several schools. These forums included meeting with students, teachers, administrators and law enforcement in the afternoon followed by an open community forum in the evening. One of the concerns that arose from these meetings was that students needed a truly anonymous, standardized method to report their concerns to school administrators, school resource officers (SROs), and teachers. The NCCFSS heard this call for help and began developing a plan to find and implement an anonymous reporting application for students that could also be available for their parents and teachers. SPK UP NC is a tangible anonymous application for smart phones that has been developed with the needs of North Carolinas school children in mind. Link to SPK UP NC Tip page See It. Tip It. Stop It. Use this link to send an anonymous tip to school administrators and school resource officers. http://speakupapp.tips/home.php?id=116 Link to Apple and Android stores For Android The SPK UP NC app is available for download from the Android Marketplace, making it easier than ever to install to your phone. Follow this link to download: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ithinqware.speakup&hl=en For iPhone For iPhone, the SPK UP NC app is compatible with iPhone 3 and up. Follow this link to get the most recent update: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speakupapp/id1031639757?mt=8 Link to SPK UP NC Web Page http://speakupapp.tips/home.php SPK UP NC Application Overview Feature SPK UP NC App Is it anonymous? Yes! The tip is processed through an out-of-state server that removes device information prior to passing the tip on to the designated school team. Can tips be submitted on mobile devices? Yes! You may use either iPhone or Android by downloading the free application to your device. Is there a quick link to download the App? Yes! For the Android version go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ithinqware.speakup&hl=en And for the iPhone version go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/speakupapp/id1031639757?mt=8 Does SPK UP NC work across mobile phone carriers? YES! Does it cost anything to send a tip? No! Is it easy to use? Yes! After you have downloaded the App to your phone, simply pick your school and the app will always be set-up to report to your schools SPK UP NC team members. Then you simply select the type of activity and write a short description of who, what, when and where this activity is occurring. Is it reliable? Yes! Each school has identified who should be contacted for each of the reporting groups and your report instantly goes to the proper people. Can images be submitted with the tip? Yes! Photo images and videos can be submitted with any tip. Is there a capability for two-way dialog? Yes! You must select this option as the default is for a one-way push of information. Can I tip using a tablet or computer? Yes! Simply go to http://speakupapp.tips/home.php?id=116 and fill out a tip form. We appreciate the support of our community and the shared desire to keep our students safe. Sincerely yours, David Burleson Superintendent Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket By Kaitlan Morehouse Celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at 7 p.m. tonight with a performance of the Junaluska Gospel Choir and the 19th annual Unity Service at Mabel United Methodist Church in Zionville. The service will focus on bringing people together in religious faith and world peace in honor of Kings contributions to the world. Five community members will offer prayers of peace: from the Hindu tradition, Christine and Dinesh Dave; from the Jewish table, Carol Gross; from the Unitarian Church, Ian LeClaire; from the scholars, Historian Diane Terry and from the Bahai, Betty Wells. Choir Director Danny Whittington will lead the Junaluska Gospel Choir of the Boone Mennonite Brethren Church. Coffee and dessert will follow the service. For more information, call Mabel church member Mary Sue Morgan at 828-297-3568. To learn more about the Junaluska Gospel Choir and upcoming events, visit its website at http://boonechurch.com/choir/ or check it out on Facebook. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket Weekly Events at Lost Province Brewing Co. Monday January 18 Family Night-Buy any regularly priced pizza and receive one free kids meal. Wednesday January 20 Off Beer and Wine Specials. 7pm-9pm Trivia Night: Beginning at 7pm, Lost Province will be hosting Trivia Night with John Fortenberry. Compete on your own or on a team! The competition gets started at 7pm so come a little early for a pizza and a pint and get your seat! Thursday January 21 $3.00 Thursday-$3.00 pints on all Lost Province brewed beers (except high gravity) Friday January 22 Tapped at 5pm, we feature something fun and new every Friday. Get it while it lasts; there is only a limited amount! 8pm-Closing Live Music: Mare Wakefield. Every star in the sky will shine for you. In the refrain of Ironwood opener Enjoy the View, Mare Wakefield might just be singing from experience. The girl from Southeast Texas went from playing Oregon coffee shops to headlining major Northwest festivals. A songwriting scholarship brought her to Bostons Berklee College of Music, which boasts alums such as Gillian Welch and Aimee Mann (two of many artists that Mare has been compared to). Currently based in Nashville, Marepronounced Marycontinues her upward trajectory by co-writing with hit songwriters and burning up the highways with her fourth studio album in tow. Saturday January 23 8pm-Closing Live Music: Maureen Renihan Jazz Trio. Maureen Renihan is a Boone based vocalist performing throughout the high country, piedmont and foothill regions of North Carolina. Influenced by great icons such as Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Ella Fitzgerald, Maureen sets a nostalgic tone with her soothing vocals and sincere delivery. With an ever expanding repertoire and theatrical background of over twenty years, Maureen possesses the creativity and versatility to delight audiences of all ages. Accompanied by some of the finest jazz musicians in the region, Maureen Renihan & Friends perform classic jazz standards, familiar show tunes, and jazz interpretations of popular music. Sunday January 24 Lost Province Sunday: Residents of The Lost Province (Watauga, Ashe, Avery and Alleghany) receive 10% off food with verification of residency This Week at BRAHM Jan. 19: Coffee with the Curator, 11 a.m. Exhibition and Collections Director Dianna Loughlin will guide you on this exclusive tour through the museums permanent collection, selections from which have been recently displayed. Dianna is very knowledgeable about the exhibits and the tour is free with your entry to the museum. Theres complimentary coffee and its a really nice way for people to come together, Weinstein said. Youre learning something, but youre also socializing and getting to see the museum from a different angle. The tour will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the museums exhibits, including artwork by North Carolina native Elliott Dangerfield. We have some fabulous pieces by Elliott Dangerfield, who was a North Carolina-born artist who spent a lot of time in Blowing Rock. Theres a large local connection for him, and his work is just really, really beautiful, said Weinstein. The local connection really appeals to people. Before we had these wed always have people asking about the Dangerfield paintings, so I think people will be really excited about it. Jan. 21: Birds of the High Country with Curtis Smalling, 11 a.m. This edition of the monthly Scholars and Scones BRAHM events brings in Curtis Smalling, Audubon NCs director of land bird conservation. In this late breakfast series, we invite local scholars from the community or from colleges and universities to come talk to us about their current research or projects they might be working on, Weinstein said. We try to keep it affordable, so its a $5 suggested donation. We will have complimentary coffee from the Hatchet Coffee Company here in Boone and we will have locally baked breakfast goods. Smalling, a graduate of ASU, will discuss the fascinating practice of local bird watching in North Carolinas High Country. Jan. 24: Mini Matinees: Wonders and Woodwinds, 2 p.m. Made possible by performers from ASUS Hayes School of Music, this childrens program will intertwine fairy tales, fables and classical music. These afternoon programs will introduce kids to the performing arts. Im really excited about them, and we have a large variety, said Weinstein. I remember doing that sort of thing when I was little, and it sort of opened up this whole magical world to me. This months program will be available at just $8 for the whole family for museum members and $10 per family for nonmembers. The setting will be so intimate that kids are sort of learning the etiquette of sitting and watching a performance, but there will also be a Q-and-A so they can learn about what goes into some of these performances I think thats also really valuable, Weinstein said. Its art forms theyre not exposed to every day in the modern world. Mini Matinees are sure to be one of your childrens favorite BRAHM events. See Paths of Glory at the Watauga Library on Jan. 21 January 21st, 2016 Watauga County Public Library Meeting Room The Watauga County Public Librarys movie group invites you to join us for a viewing of Paths of Glory on January 21st from 6:30 pm 8:30 pm. Director Stanley Kubricks 1957 film Paths of Glory shows the futility and irony of trench warfare during WWI as a unit commander in the French army must deal with the mutiny of his men and a glory-seeking general after part of his force falls back under fire in an impossible attack. This film has an MPAA rating of Unrated and an approximate run-time of 88 minutes. For more information please call (828) 264-8784 ext. 2. Snowshoeing at Grandfather Mountain State Park Have you ever wanted to try snowshoeing, or you like snowshoeing but do not have a pair? Well, this is your chance. Join Ranger Sicard for a snowshoe hike that will begin at the Boone Fork Parking Lot (milepost 299.9 on the Blue Ridge Parkway). There will be a limited number of snowshoes available and will be given out on a first come first use basis, so please plan to arrive on time. The hike will begin at 2pm and will last approximately 2-2.5 hours. Please dress accordingly for the weather and bring any snacks, water, and personal items you will need to be out in the weather for the duration of the hike. To make the hike more comfortable, we suggest you wear the sturdiest winter weather shoes you have (boots with firm soles and insulation to keep feet dry and warm). This hike is not appropriate for pets. If there is not enough snow to snowshoe, a program on Winter Weather Hiking will be substituted and will be at the same location(s) as mentioned above. ** This hike will count toward our parks 100-Mile Centennial Challenge ** DATES FOR THE SNOWSHOE HIKES: Jan. 23 2pm Jan. 30 2pm Jan. 31 2pm Feb. 12 2pm Feb. 13 2pm Feb. 26 2pm Feb. 27 2pm START LOCATION: Boone Fork Parking Area (Just north of the 300 Milepost on Blue Ridge Parkway) (GPS: 36.120076,-81.781358) http://goo.gl/dEizYH. If the Parkway is closed, we will meet at the entrance to the Asutsi Trail on Hwy 221 (Located South of Holloway Mtn Road GPS: 36.116397, -81.777301). If you would like more information on the 100-Mile Challenge or if you have questions about the snowshoe hikes, please contact Ranger Sicard at the park office 828-963-9522 or email:[email protected]. Republican Women to Meet Jan. 27 The Watauga County Republican Womens Club (WCRWC) will have its first meeting of the year on Wednesday, January 27th 2016 at the Sagebrush Steakhouse in Boone, NC. The meeting will begin at noon. All interested in furthering the Republican cause in The High Country are welcome to attend and are invited to join. Call 828-295-9020 for more information. The WCRWC meets the last Wednesday of each month. There is no meeting if schools are cancelled due to weather. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket By Jesse Wood The Watauga County Board of Commissioners will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 5:30 p.m. New River Advocates Presentation Deborah Greene and Frank Packard, members of the New River Advocates, a nonprofit that opposes the Town of Boones water intake project along the South Fork of the New River, will give a presentation before the commissioners. The New River Advocates are requesting that the commissioners take the legal action necessary to prevent the town of Boone from seeking final judgment without the approval of the Watauga County Commissioners in violation of N.C.G.S. 153-14.5. See Petition for Action on page 14 of meeting packet. Yearly Reports ADHD, CCC Appalachian District Health Department Director Beth Lovette will present the health departments annual report to the commissioners. Community Care Clinic Director Melissa Selby will also update the board of the clinics work in 2015. View reports here. Support for Bond Proposal Johnny Burleson, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement with Appalachian State University, will present the benefits of the Connect NC Bond Proposal and answer any questions from commissioners. Funding from proposal related to Watauga County include, $70 million for ASUs College of Nursing & Health Sciences building, $1.5 million to improve Grandfather Mountain State Park; $5.6 million for improvements for Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute; $900,000 to improve Elk Knob State Park; and $600,000 to improve Beech Creek Bog State Natural Area. The county has already prepared a draft resolution in support of the bond proposal for Tuesdays meeting that the board will be able to vote on. Citizens will be able to vote on the proposal during the primary on March 15. Forest Plan Revision Report US District Ranger Nicholas Larson will present the Forest Plan Revision to the commissioners. Parts of the revision that may affect Watauga County include: No areas in Watauga County are in the inventory of potential lands suitable for includion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, however these lands may be in the viewshed of Watuaga: Harper Creek currently a designated Wilderness Study Area (WSA) (mostly Avery Co) Harper Creek Extension, Sugar Knob mostly to the south of Harper Creek WSA, its right on the border of Avery/Burke mostly in Burke Lost Cove currently a designated Wilderness Study Area (WSA) (Avery Co) Upper Wilson Creek headwaters of Wilson Creek on Avery/Caldwell line, currently an Inventoried Roadless Area (mostly Avery Co) No areas in Watauga County are included in the evaluation process to identify rivers for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, however these rivers may be in the viewshed of Watauga: Lost Cove Creek, mostly Avery County Harpers Creek, mostly Avery County Gragg Prong Creek, Avery County Johns River, Caldwell County Watauga County Public Hearings Watauga County Planning Director Joe Furman, Planning and Inspections will present recommended changes by the Planning Board to the county wireless communications tower ordinance. The new ordinance is modeled after the North Carolina League of Municipalities version and incorporates federal and state law and court cases. The new ordinance would allow for greater height in some cases to encourage concealed wireless technology and increase collocation. To close out the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Scattered Site Housing Rehabilitation Program, a public hearing is required. Both hearings are requested to be held Tuesday, Feb. 16, at 5:30 p.m. See the agenda and packet info here. Share this: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Pocket YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation Veronika Skvortsova announced that flu epidemic started earlier than usual. Armenpress reports Interfax informs about this. It is early for us. Everything used to take place later in the past, the Minister told the journalists. According to her, this year flu epidemic will start not only from the northern parts of China, which generally happens, but also from Ukraine, where an emergency situation has already been announced. Health Resource Solutions (HRS), a home health agency serving a sizable region in Illinois, recently announced that it has selected healthcare technology specialist Wanda to deploy its digital chronic disease care management platform. As a result, HRS will be able to deliver more efficient and beneficial healthcare services for people suffering from congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). "HRS is excited to start this new relationship with Wanda," said Glenn Steigbigel, CEO of HRS. "After a thorough vendor selection process, we are convinced that Wanda will help deliver the greatest value to our patients. Wanda's capabilities enhance HRS's ability to concentrate on patient-centered goals and improve patient outcomes in the most effective manner. Wandas platform bridges the gap between patients and clinical care teams through a virtual network that makes heavy use of machine learning analytics for continuous risk analysis and decision support. The digital health platform collects information about patients vitals and symptoms and displays it back to them while simultaneously relaying it to the healthcare team so they can respond instantly to any issues. Therefore, patients are able to take some of their care into their own hands while receiving more enhanced care from their providers, who in turn benefit from more time to spend on each patient. HRS has an excellent reputation for efficiently delivering very high levels of patient satisfaction and for helping patients with chronic conditions to remain at home or in lower cost care settings, said Steve Curd, Wandas CEO. Wanda is excited to support the great HRS team by delivering science-based monitoring, analytics, and decision support tools that will help HRS to improve the lives of their patients and simplify the lives of care providers. HRS will deploy Wandas platform in 2016, instantly enabling the company to continue towards its goals of providing the surrounding community with the best home-based healthcare possible. Furthermore, HRS is setting an example for other regions showing how cloud-based analytics, machine learning and other modern technologies can revolutionize patient monitoring and play a large role in supporting a healthier population. Edited by Kyle Piscioniere It was one of the proposals on the table in our negotiations, but we couldn't find a way forward, he says in an interview with Uusi Suomi. Lowering health insurance contributions was one aspect of the proposal tabled by the Government. That served as a basis for our discussions on employers' contributions. The Finnish Confederation of Professionals (STTK), is prepared to lower the contributions of employers, its chairman, Antti Palola, has revealed. Our position is that [the contributions] can be re-evaluated, lowered and possibly re-distributed between employers and employees. Nothing more concrete was achieved before the negotiations fell through, he says. Palola also reveals that the negotiations have yet to re-commence, contrary to reports circulating in the media. Such reports are baseless. We definitely haven't re-started the negotiations as some labour market bosses are currently abroad. No agreement on re-commencing the negotiations has yet been reached. Palola is hopeful that the stakeholders will sit back down at the negotiating table, but reminds that the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) has announced its unwillingness to do so without the Transport Workers' Union (AKT). If the negotiations start over, [employers' contributions] will definitely be among the subjects under consideration, he says. The Confederation of Unions for Professional and Managerial Staff in Finland (Akava) has expressed its concerns over the effects of the proposal to lower employers' contributions on the purchasing power of wage earners. The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), in turn, has voiced its willingness to re-assign some contributions from the shoulders of employers to those of employees. What's sure is that if one organisation opposes and others agree on a particular proposal, the proposal will probably be approved, Palola reminds. He also says he appreciates the concerns of Akava, but pointed out that the proposed cuts in holiday bonuses would have a similar effect on the purchasing power of earners. We'll definitely have to find a compromise somewhere, he says. The Government announced already in August that it is considering lowering the social security contributions of employers. Olli Rehn (Centre), the Minister of Economic Affairs, recently voiced his hope that the labour market confederations would re-commence the negotiations. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Petteri Paalasmaa / Uusi Suomi Source: Uusi Suomi Rents in the country are consequently absurdly high, he says. There is a lack of both new rental housing options and healthy competition between rental housing providers in Finland, argues Ari Pauna, the chief executive officer at the Mortgage Society of Finland (Hypo). Rents continue to creep up, if not soar. The current situation is an indication that something is terribly amiss in the rental market and the housing market in general, Pauna writes on his blog. He believes real estate investors should refrain from pursuing quick profits because whether or not people have access to rental housing should not depend on economic fluctuations. Finland, he writes, has every reason to be concerned about the unrelenting increase in rents and, consequently, the stability of the housing market. The reasons for this are self-evident, according to Pauna. Various calculations show that private households alone have taken out some five billion euros in mortgages for investment properties. If you add the total debts of other lessors to the amount taken out by households, the leverage in the rental housing sector rises to a considerable level, he points out. The debts of two large rental housing communities, Sato and VVO, amount to over five billion euros. If you also consider all other rental housing providers and their debts, the leverage rises to a level that should not be understated, to 2025 billion euros. It is necessary to openly and regularly discuss the debts of lessors as well as those of households. They represent a new ailment and threat in the housing and loan market, he continues. The Finnish market is according to him in need of more competition and rental housing providers operating on a long-term and cost-efficient basis. We have to take control of the situation. Lessors must develop their operations, increase their transparency and adapt to changes in the operational environment similarly to other operators in the property market. Inefficient rental operations should not be supported with tax revenues but all operators should be treated equally, he writes. He also proposes that the self-financing requirements and re-payment schedules of lessors be stiffened. Aleksi Teivainen HT Photo: Petteri Paalasmaa / Uusi Suomi Source: Uusi Suomi St. John dedicates cross honoring slave cemetery The Rt. Rev. Porter Taylor led a service dedicating a cross that commemorates slave cemetery at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12 FLAT ROCK Shortly before he ascended the pulpit of St. John in the Wilderness Church on Sunday afternoon, the Rt. Rev. Porter Taylor had learned a relevant piece of church history. Related Stories Christopher Memminger, the secretary of the treasury for the Confederacy, is buried in the church graveyard. Memmingers name is etched in his gravestone. The plots for slaves and freedmen have markers with no names. Taylor said he was sure that Memminger and those slaves are together now in the New Jerusalem and there Christopher Memminger is saying, Forgive me. Forgive me. The descendants of slaves and the descendants of slave owners had gathered at the historic Episcopal sanctuary to commemorate that part of the 180-year-old churchs history and to dedicate a hand-carved granite cross that now honors the one hundred or so nameless souls buried on a pine straw covered slope on the churchs north lawn. The church and its people inhabit the past, said Taylor, who is the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. And because we inhabit the past, in the present day we have the responsibility to respond to the past, not just so the present will be different but so the future will be different. Bill Mance, right, said, 'This is a good move.'As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we see clearly now what we dimly knew or did not know a century and a half ago. There are two Christian qualities we have to embrace, Taylor said. One is courage. The other is hope. We see things people either did not know or chose not to know but we have to take an honest clear look at it from what we know living in our age and then have the courage to change what we can. We must have the courage to do what God calls on us to do. Parishioners in the mid 1800s denied slaves the dignity of having a name on their graves. Theyre lost to history. Their descendants today cannot visit the cemetery and honor them. We have to be honest about the sinfulness of the past, the bishop said. The slaves may not have a name above ground but your name is in the Book of Life. We know that you are destined to be a citizen of the New Jerusalem. Thats our hope and thats our faith. We not only grieve the sins of the past. We do what we can to rectify them. We do what we can to honor people that were buried without names. At the service of the cross dedication, congregants and guests sang Hes Got the Whole World in His Hands, the traditional American spiritual. Bill Mance, a member of St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Asheville, was one of the guests singing. I read about this and wanted to come and be a part of it, he said. No, he said, he was not a descendant of slaves buried at the Flat Rock church. I lead the Commission to Dismantle Racism, Mance said. This is a good move. It was kind of unmarked before. Everybody knew it was here. Now theyre doing something to recognize it. YEREVAN, JANUARY 18, ARMENPRESS. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a message on Januray 18 felicitated his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on lifting of unfair economic sanctions and said the great achievement had roots in resistance of the Iranian nation in dealing to such tyrannical measures. Armenpress reports, citing IRNA agency, parts of the message read In the name of Syrian Arab nation and Almighty God, I would like to accord my sincere felicitations to President Hassan Rouhani and the Iranian nation on the lifting of unfair economic sanctions. This great achievement should be regarded as an exemplary model of a nation's efforts to attain its goal, Assad said. The Syrian president also thanked Iran for its stand and support for Syria in the fight against terrorists and underlined that the Syrian nation has always defended its legitimate rights. He also conveyed his best wishes for the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian nation and wished them success and prosperity. A man holds a leaflet at the partys ard fheis at Citywest in Dublin. Photo: PA Fianna Fail has been given a boost from two separate opinion polls which have shown small increases in support. Loyal party members have been putting pressure on Micheal Martin to consider a coalition with Fine Gael. But the party leader lashed out at their rivals in his keynote speech at the annual ard fheis, depicting them as a party which favours the rich. The news from the polls cast doubt about a clear-cut election result and again raise the prospect of a grand coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail - an option which has consistently been ruled out by both parties' leaderships. A RedC survey put Fine Gael on 30pc, down two points, while Labour remained unchanged on 9pc. Fianna Fail was up two points to 19pc - the same score as Sinn Fein. Recovery The RedC poll in the Sunday Business Post puts Independents on 15pc - up one point. It reverses a recovery trend for Fine Gael which has gone on since last summer and again raises doubt about hopes for a Labour recovery. The second opinion poll, by the firm Behaviour & Attitudes for the Sunday Times, puts Fine Gael on 31pc and unchanged from the last survey before Christmas. Labour is stuck on 6pc, down two points. Fianna Fail is on 20pc, up one point, while Sinn Fein is on 16pc, down one point. Combined 'Independents and Others' are on 26pc, up two points. At the Fianna Fail ard fheis, English political strategist Professor Tim Bale told delegates the party's recovery could take up to three elections. He said a "good result" in 2016 would mean cutting the 19pc margin between it and Fine Gael in 2011 to single figures and keeping ahead of Sinn Fein. Prof Bale said the party was wise to rule out coalition with Fine Gael and Sinn Fein and advised concentration on policy issues in the campaign. In his keynote speech Mr Martin said that Fine Gael and Labour were "arrogant and out of touch", taking credit for an economic recovery which was masterminded by former Fianna Fail Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. "(Taoiseach) Enda Kenny is a man fond of telling stories about men with pints and the army at ATMs. But the biggest fairytale of all is his claim to have delivered recovery," Mr Martin told the gathering in west Dublin. "This government didn't deliver recovery - it delayed it and made it more unfair." However, senior party members have reportedly told Mr Martin to reconsider coalition with Fine Gael or face a possible leadership challenge. Former Education Minister Mary Hanafin said that Fine Gael should be considered as a likely partner in government, but only if Sinn Fein was the main Opposition party. FF's John McGuinness said that a coalition with Fine Gael may be the party's best option. Loyal stalwarts Timmy Dooley and Darragh O'Brien also said that the party should be open to discussions with Fine Gael if Fianna Fail is the larger party. Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy - who was cleared of murder charges in Boston - has settled into a quiet life in Cork, but has found it difficult to find a job. Ms McCarthy was charged with the murder of one-year-old Rehma Sabir in January 2013. She spent 27 months in a US prison before eventually having all charges against her dropped. In an interview with the Boston Globe newspaper, Ms McCarthy revealed she is planning on taking court action over the case. She also wants the prosecutors - who a judge found withheld exculpatory evidence - brought to account. "They weren't just wrong in my case, they were reckless," Ms McCarthy told the newspaper. "They never lost a minute's sleep. They just moved on to the next case. I want to expose this because I don't want it to happen to anyone else. "If I don't let go, it will consume me," she added. "I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I want to move on." The former nanny is now living in her husband's native Ballincollig, Co Cork, where he is working as a painter. Frenzy Ms McCarthy said that she had "no choice" but to move on from her own native Carlow after the media frenzy around her case and her return. "I have changed. I don't trust people like I used to. You're nearly afraid to get to know people because they'll say, 'Oh, you're the girl from Boston'. It makes me want to cut my hair off and dye it black," she said. She has been unable to find work since she was released from prison following the high-profile collapse of the case against her. "I was a nanny. I'm not going to do that again," she said. "Who's going to want to hire a 37-year-old who's been out of the country for 15 years?" The former nanny said that being labelled a 'baby killer' was particularly dangerous in the Boston prison. "I was terrified," she said. "I wouldn't come out of my cell." She says the cards and letters of support she received from all around the world kept her going. "When I was in prison, I had a loving family that came to see me. I called my husband twice a day. Some of the girls had nobody." Her lawyer, Mindy Thompson, came to visit the family this Christmas in Carlow. All ten siblings were present for the first time in 15 years. A violent Dublin-based crime gang are believed to be behind the brutal butchering of a man whose dismembered body was found in the Grand Canal. Detectives believe the victim - a man in his 20s - was brutally attacked in recent days before being dismembered and disposed of in the water at Ardclough Village, Co Kildare. Gardai have all but ruled out any connection between the discovery and the descriptions of anyone who has been reported missing in recent days. But it's believed that the man was most likely eastern European. The torso was discovered in a suitcase, which had wheels and an extendible handle, in the canal on Saturday afternoon. Violent There were initial concerns that the body may have been that of missing Wicklow father-of-one Barry Corcoran (39), who disappeared under suspicious circumstances last July. But this was ruled out after a preliminary examination by Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis, who said the victim died in recent hours or days. The post-mortem also confirmed that the man had not been shot or stabbed in the torso, but until the rest of his body is found it would be difficult to determine how he was killed. Gardai think the man was likely to have been killed elsewhere. The investigation team in the Kildare division is liaising closely with their colleagues in Dublin, particularly with those in the western and southern parts of the capital. Early evidence would indicate that the murder was the work of a violent crime gang rather than an individual, so gardai are also trying to establish whether there might have been a link between the man's death and murders in recent years. The preliminary examination revealed that the torso was that of a white male, and had been wrapped in plastic sheeting before being placed into the suitcase and dumped into the canal. It's believed that this plastic will contain vital DNA evidence that could have a link to the killer or killers. Superintendent Gerry Wall of Leixlip Garda Station said gardai were appealing for anyone who walked the canal in the region of Ardclough Bridge and the 13th lock to come forward, regardless of if they think they saw something suspicious or not. The area is very popular with pedestrians and cyclists and is known locally as Arthur's Walkway. "The nature of what we've discovered would suggest a violent death and that's all I can say at the present time," he said. "The importance of witness evidence and people coming forward to us, and to assist us in forming the big picture of what may have occurred in this - I can't overemphasise the importance of that witness evidence. "If you walked this canal in the last few days, it's very important that you come forward to us. It's very early, and any avenue of investigation is open." The body remained at the scene where it was found on Saturday night as gardai launched their murder investigation. It was only moved to Naas General Hospital yesterday afternoon after a preliminary examination by Dr Curtis. Analysis Searches by the garda underwater unit and canal bank searches by other garda teams will continue over the coming days in an effort to find the remaining body parts, a murder weapon, or any forensic evidence. Forensic analysis of the body and the suitcase could also yield fingerprint or DNA evidence that could have a link to the killer or killers. Anyone with any information is being urged to call Leixlip Garda Station at 01 666 7800, the Garda Confidential Number on 1800 666111, or any garda station. One of Ireland's most senior Islamic clerics has backed the deportation of refugees who get involved in illegal activity here. Shayk Dr Muhammad Umar al-Qadri issued the call as he warned that "sinister elements" were now trying to stoke dangerous divisions between the Muslim and Christian communities in Ireland. His warning came as the Bishop of Cork & Ross, Dr John Buckley, issued a special plea for compassion and kindness towards refugees as he reminded Irish Christians that St Patrick was a refugee and a slave - and that Irish migrants were once treated harshly in the UK, US and Australia. "We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life around the Mediterranean as desperate migrants attempt to enter the EU. They are in search of a better life," he said. "Some will be coming to this country and they are hoping that Ireland will be a place where they are safe and can begin rebuilding their lives. "It is important that the local church be at the forefront of efforts to welcome them," Dr Buckley said. Warned But Dr al-Qadri, a lifelong campaigner against fundamentalism, warned that migrants who get involved in crime deserve to be punished. "Refugees involved in illegal activity should be deported. They do not appreciate the host society and ruin it for others," he said. Ireland is now preparing to welcome the first groups of Syrian refugees accepted as part of the EU response to the Mediterranean migration crisis. Dr al-Qadri's comments also came as senior Islamic leaders slated as fake a website which hailed a "new golden age of Islam" through encouraging Muslims to migrate to Ireland. The site, hijra2ireland.com, was slated by both Dr al-Qadri and Dr Ali Selim of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland. In another alarming development, a second social media site - which claims to represent an Islamic fundamentalist - has been set up with a Dublin address and contains deeply offensive remarks about Christians and even Pope Francis. Dr Mudaffar al-Tawash, director of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland (IFI), contacted gardai about the 'Hijira' website after their contact details were included - the IFI were totally unaware of both the site and its migration claims. Dr al-Qadri also expressed alarm over recent attacks in Germany and Sweden. He said the onus is now on religious leaders to work hard to promote understanding and positive exchanges between faiths. Dr al-Qadri was today visiting Bandon Grammar School in Cork to speak to students about Islam. From the pulpit to the mountains, sea to troubled sea, arose Americas Moses. From the south to the north, east to unsettled west, ventured Martin Luther King Jr. Tomorrow marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Consequently, America heralds the inspirational civil rights leader. Festivities solemn to celebratory will commence through the Tri-Cities, the region and well beyond to honor the man who led the fight to end segregation and begin the route toward racial equality. God spoke to Dr. King and he delivered it to the people, sort of like Moses, said Rev. Sandra Jones, pastor of Williams Chapel AME Zion in Big Stone Gap. Let my people go! Jones will participate in a candlelight march down Main Street in Wise on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Folks will gather at 5 p.m., march and then listen as Rev. Justin Preston recites Kings famous I Have a Dream speech. I dont read it; I quote it from memory, said Preston, 28, pastor of Robinson Memorial AME Zion Church in Bluff City, Tennessee. It gives me a sense of being able to envision Martin Luther King stand-ing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in front of 600,000 people. King delivered the now-famous speech on Aug. 28, 1963. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, King said during the speech. It gives me peace and hope, Preston said. It gives me fire and passion. And yet 52 years later, theres more to do, said Matthew Whitaker, professor of history and founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. I think he would be profoundly disappointed (today), Whitaker said. Whitaker will speak on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the morning at King University and in the evening at Bristol Public Library. His speech at King, Standing Together in an Age of Divisiveness, in part ad-dresses challenges afoot. Im a prisoner of hope, Whitaker said. Frankly, I dont think we have any other way if we are going to keep up Kings legacy. There is no other option. Ill talk about ways in which we can accomplish that. Hope wrapped its loving arms around Kings I Have a Dream speech like a mother hugs her little chil-dren. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, King said in the speech. I have a dream to-day! Kings words reverberated from the marbled walls of Washingtons monuments and into the hardest of hearts upon the wings of his dream. It was his parting of the Red Sea moment. When I read (Kings I Have a Dream speech), it gives me a sense of peace to channel someone of such magnitude, Preston said. Its like preaching the gospel on Sunday. If the words impact just one person, then Ive done my job. King never walked the streets of Wise. However, Jones will. As shes done for years, the longtime pastor will take to her heels and march during tomorrows candlelight march with a dream in her heart. Im one of the speakers at the service, Jones said. We are doing wise sayings of Dr. King. Mine is, if you want big things, do the little things in a big way. Though King was small in size, history recalls him as a giant among men. He was David versus Goliath, though with neither the stone nor the inclination to throw it. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked place will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, King said in his I Have a Dream speech. Sacrifice, Whitaker said. I would hope that on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, people will discuss sacri-fice in their homes and churches. Struggle as well. I love the quote, there is no progress without struggle. Kings efforts to change minds and hearts underscores the meaning of struggle. Amid church bombings, cross burnings, beatings, police brutality, hangings and so forth he carried on, marched on and spoke all the more fervently. He stood for us when we were sometimes too weak to stand for ourselves, Jones said. A bullet from the gun of James Earl Ray killed King in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Ray took his life, but he could not take his word. Let freedom ring King said in his I Have a Dream speech. Those chimes ring according to steadfast vigilance. We cant wait, Whitaker said. Weve got to do it now. That was one of Kings final messages. Were he able to return, King would witness racial discord of varying degrees. Economic, societal and spiritual divides would probably disturb him. Yet hope and love would doubtlessly guide him as during the days when he marched the Earth. And when upon realization of his dream, Kings exuberance would reach to the heavens from which he drew inspiration. Free at last! Free at last! King famously concluded his I Have a Dream speech. Thank God Al-mighty, we are free at last! Tom Netherland is a freelance writer. He may be reached at features@bristolnews.com. WASHINGTON So you're selling or buying a house in 2016 and you want to make sure your transac-tion goes to closing without glitches. Is there any guide to the potential problems most likely to disrupt deals or delay them? If you know the major pitfall areas, maybe you could take steps in advance to avoid them. Absolutely. New research pinpoints the biggest causes of home real estate delays and contract termina-tions. In an internal survey of 2,643 realty agents conducted last month but covering sales and purchases during the previous three months, the National Association of Realtors found that 32 percent nearly one third of all transactions encountered delays of some sort. That's probably higher than you imagined. The big three: >> Buyer financing setbacks. >> Home inspection issues. >> Appraisals that diverge from the agreed upon contract price. According to the study, of the 32 percent that experienced delays, 46 percent were triggered by "financ-ing issues," which is up from 40 percent during the first half of 2015. Appraisal-related problems caused delays in 21 percent of transactions and home-inspection issues in 14 percent. Of the nearly one of every 16 (6 percent) of deals that turned into total disasters and fell through, home inspection and financing were the primary culprits. Sixteen percent went south because of the appraisal. Here's a quick look at each. Whitney Watson, a loan officer for First Heritage Mortgage in Glen Allen, Virginia, says financing falls apart for myriad reasons, some of them readily preventable. For example, credit scores can change between loan approval and closing enough to render the would-be buyer ineli-gible for the mortgage. Though she warns clients not to incur any additional credit during this period no new car purchases, no new furniture on credit, no new credit activity whatsoever she gets phone calls from buyers with pending home purchase contracts pleading for an okay to lease a new auto or buy furnishings for the new house. Debt-to-income ratios also can change when an underwriter discovers that a buyer failed to disclose on-going payment obligations such as child support and no longer has acceptable debt ratios. Watson's ad-vice: "Tell your loan officer everything at application," and avoid new debt or anything that could affect your qualifying income like changing your employment. Home inspections are another quicksand pit. When an inspector finds defects in the property under con-tract, things can get tricky. Will the seller make the repairs before closing, cut the price or set aside escrowed funds to cover the costs? Are the problems found by the inspector as serious or expensive as the inspector alleges? Diana Dahlberg, broker and owner of 1 Month Realty south of Milwaukee, recounted a situation where an inspector left both the home sellers and buyers in utter shock. While the seller was nursing her new baby and the buyers standing nearby, the inspector warned that there was a serious defect in the home's furnace. He looked straight at the nursing mother and said, "If you don't want to kill your baby, you better get a new furnace right away!" The buyers "were totally freaked" by the inspector's remark and bailed out of the contract, Dahlberg told me last week. Subsequent examination by a different inspector found nothing wrong with the furnace no safety threats to the child or buyers but the sale was dead. Deal-killer inspectors may not be avoidable by sellers, but one way to be ready for them is to get a pre-listing inspection by a reputable professional before you put the house on the market. That allows you as a seller to fix anything important in advance and at the very least have defenses against inspection findings that might be at least partly aimed at lowering the price to the buyers' advantage. The same goes for appraisals. You can hire a top-notch local appraiser to do a pre-listing valuation of your home for a modest fee. Not only will that provide useful information for the listing price, but can be a counterweight when an appraiser with inadequate knowledge of local market conditions comes in with a low-ball number that threatens the whole deal. With the pre-listing valuation in hand, you can appeal to the lender to reassign the work to a second appraiser with local knowledge and experience. All this may delay the deal a little that may be unavoidable but it could also save it. Drawing on recent fieldwork in three drought-affected districts conducted by the authors, this article considers the risks of relying on politically controlled development funds to provide effective drought relief to communities that need it most. Rather than a centrally coordinated national disaster response, the PNG government has decided to provide drought relief through the controversial District Services Improvement Program (DSIP), coordinated by the recently introduced District Development Authorities (DDAs). An effective response needs to account for complex social, political and economic systems in PNG or risk serious implications. A key lesson from the last severe drought in late 1990s was that remote populations were severely affected and did not receive timely assistance. Rural highlands populations reportedly suffered high death rates, which could be attributed to the impacts of the drought. There are a number of factors that influence the extent to which remote populations are affected by drought they can be politically marginalised, have low incomes and often have poor access to basic services and direct communication. In addition, the logistical costs to provide relief or support recovery efforts are higher for the most remote and isolated populations. Communities that have greater access to roads and basic services and a stronger political voice are not immune to the effects of drought, and recent experience shows that their needs may be prioritised over the more vulnerable remote populations. The PNG government has not made any new allocations for drought relief efforts for 2015. Instead, it has allowed DDAs to use K2 million from existing allocations of the DSIP to provide relief. The appeal of such a response, other than cost savings, is that districts represent the lowest level of bureaucracy in most provinces and should best understand the communities impacted by the drought. However, there are significant challenges to DDAs capacities to deliver assistance to those most affected by the drought. The DSIP is a Constituency Development Fund that is controlled by DDAs. DDAs are chaired by the open electorate members of parliament (MPs) and their Boards are often stacked with their political allies to give them more power over the allocation of development projects to their own supporters. District administrators, who are responsible for implementing the decisions of DDAs, are also increasingly becoming political appointees. When Finance Minister James Marape announced that DDAs would be responsible for drought relief efforts he urged his fellow MPs to leave politics aside. Based on recent fieldwork, however, it appears doubtful that respective DDAs can remain politically impartial in their implementation of assistance efforts. Key informant interviews, workshops and community focus groups have been conducted with over 200 participants who are either directly engaged in the management of DDAs or should benefit from them. Our main finding from this fieldwork is that communities that support their local MP have high expectations that they are due to receive DSIP projects based on their political support, whereas other communities that did not support the MP conceded that they fared little chance of receiving projects. This assessment of preferential distribution of services was also made of disaster relief. At one village, which was not politically aligned with the MP, we were presented with a plaintive letter: The PNG Government are very, very slow and poor in their national disaster relief support. Please help us! It was reported that relief supplies had been distributed from the MPs own village rather than the district station. Residents of other villages had to travel to territory where, a few years earlier, there had been a tribal fight. Once there, they were told this is our turn, you will have yours. In the blunt words of a provincial staff member, supply goes to the stronghold. Such concerns are echoed by the chair of PNGs National Committee on Drought and Frost Relief, who has warned that the politicisation of drought assistance is more likely to occur at district and local levels rather than at the national and provincial level. A fundamental problem with the governments response to the drought is that it is likely to have little effect and allocates no new funds. DDAs could have previously funded drought assistance through the DSIP, although it is most likely that these funds have already been allocated for other purposes. In 2013, financial instructions were released that stipulated DSIP funds were to be spent in specific proportions across service delivery sectors. These previously strict guidelines were relaxed in 2014, however, after the Department of Finance issued a circular stating that DSIP spending could be more discretionary. Our research has confirmed that DSIP spending is not prioritised according to national guidelines, but, for the most part, according to the decisions taken by DDA boards. DDA budgets are already overcommitted, a situation that has resulted from the late release of anticipated DSIP funding allocations for 2015. DSIP funding allocations for 2015 were expected to be K15 million per district. Yet, as of November 2015, with two months remaining in the financial year, it was widely reported that districts had only received between K4 and K6 million. The Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Don Polye, has claimed that DSIP funds would have already been budgeted for other infrastructure priorities and that new allocations were needed for drought relief. This view is supported by our observations during fieldwork. Even if DDAs receive their full DSIP allocations, the capacity of districts to effectively deliver assistance is doubtful. Our research revealed that incomplete projects are becoming the norm. In particular, lack of contractor management raises serious issues about the effectiveness of DSIP expenditure. These findings are similar to previous reports from the PNG Auditor-Generals Office, which were highly critical of DSIP and called for it to be abolished. The final report of the Promoting Effective Public Expenditure Project also found many cases of incomplete projects and perceptions of unfair allocations at health clinics and schools. A coordinated and fair response to drought relief is needed, which is likely to challenge newly established DDAs that are already overcommitted and complaining bitterly about the slow release of funds in 2015. While the 2016 PNG National Budget includes the provision of an additional K50 million for drought assistance and disaster relief, the K2 million per district allocated through DSIP totals K176 million. DDAs are able to allocate these funds regardless of the local severity of the droughts impacts, which poses additional difficulties for the coordination of relief initiatives. For instance, as a result of shortage of water and supplies, the Simbu Provincial Hospital in Kundiawa limited available services to emergency cases only. The hospital posted a public notice that it would only operate for two days a week and that should the problem of limited water supply continue it would close completely. It requested financial support from the six MPs in Simbu Province from the DSIP to keep it operational. Coordinating six MPs is not a trivial exercise, and compounding this problem is a serious shortage of basic medicines when they are most needed. The Simbu Hospital CEO was quoted as stating that the Area Medical Store in Mt Hagen and Kundiawa had run out of drugs four months ago, and as a consequence they have directed medical staff to substitute antibiotics and improvise with whatever was available. The politicisation of DSIP spending and the public service through DDAs will make it difficult to ensure drought relief is delivered to communities equally across and within districts. It will mean the most needy will not necessarily be the most aided. There is little reason to think that MPs will be responsive to the greater needs of isolated, drought-affected populations in marginal areas of their districts, where relief is comparatively more expensive. Finally, it can dissipate resources that must be aggregated to keep critical services operational. Our research echoes the views of many that there are serious causes for concern that a bad situation could be made worse by relying on politically controlled development funds to provide much needed drought relief. Colin Wiltshire and Thiago Cintra Oppermann are research fellows with the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the Australian National University EVENTS RALLY TIME: Tazewell, Va., Tazewell County Fairgrounds, Exit 1 from US 19/460, Nuckles Hall. Jan. 23, noon: Tazewell County Democratic Party supporters party rally with live music, positive speeches from supporters of all democratic candidates, food. Republicans, Independents, Libertarians welcome. 276-971-0964 or Facebook. CIVIC GROUPS ABINGDON CIVITAN: Abingdon, Va., Harbor House, first and third Monday, 6 p.m. New members welcome. Roger Edwards, 276-676-2192. ABINGDON TOWN COUNCIL: Abingdon, Va., first Monday, 7:30 p.m., Municipal Building on Main Street. Visit www.abingdon.com. ABINGDON KIWANIS: Abingdon, Va., 200 Clubhouse Drive, Glenrochie Country Club, Tuesdays, noon to 1 p.m. No meeting on fifth Tuesday of month. Visitors welcome. Lee Saunders III, 276-356-8201. ABINGDON ROTARY: Abingdon, Va., 200 Clubhouse Drive, Glenrochie Country Club, Fridays, 12:15 p.m. Bob Ashley, President, 276-608-8660. AMERICAN LEGION HACKLER-WOOD POST 145: Bristol, Tenn., 515 Marion Ave., Veterans from all branches of service, come place your membership with Post 145; youll make new friends and get reacquainted with your fellow veterans, 11 a.m to 11 p.m. daily. Questions, 423-968-9973. BRISTOL EVENING LIONS: Bristol Va. Exit 7, Golden Corral, second and fourth Thursday, 6 p.m. Membership open to men and women, Charles Coulthard, 276-466-5357. Joe Wall, 423-764-8545. BRISTOL HOST LIONS: Bristol, Va., Exit 5, Euclid Avenue Food City, Fridays, noon. New members wel-come. David Hoelscher, president. 423-646-2923. BRISTOL MORNING ROTARY: Bristol, Va., Euclid Ave., Food City, every Tuesday, 7:30 a.m., Club President: John Tulloch, 423-574-1181. BRISTOL SHRINE CLUB: Bristol, Tenn., King Lodge, 35 5th St., third Friday, 7 p.m.; Ron Schoenhardt, president; 423-968-4531. BUFFALO RURITAN: Bluff City, Tenn., Beaver Creek Road and Buffalo Road, Ruritan building, fourth Monday, dinner at 6:30 p.m., meeting follows. Visitors welcome. 423-538-9220. GLADE SPRING CIVIC CLUB: Glade Spring, Va., old Glade School on the hill, second Thursday, 6:45 p.m. social, 7 p.m. meeting. JERICHO SHRINE TEMPLE: Kingsport, Tenn., 1100 Jericho Dr.; second Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.; Elbert (Smiley) Bridwell, potentate, 423-323-1982. KING MASONIC LODGE NO. 461: Bristol, Tenn., 35 5th St., 2nd Monday, 7:30 p.m. WM Jerry W. ODell, 276-494-9448, www.kinglodge.org. KIWANIS CLUB OF BRISTOL, TN/VA: Bristol Public Library (Kegley room upstairs), Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. Treasurer, Richard Ball, rpball@BVU.net; Secretary, Janie Reedy. Visitors welcome. Membership open to men and women. Janie.reedy@ymail.com. KIWANIS CLUB OF ELIZABETHTON: Downtown Elizabethton, Dinos, every Tuesday, noon. President: Jared Tetrick (jaredtetrick@yahoo.com) KIWANIS CLUB OF MARION: Marion, Va., 861 Goolsby St., VFW Post Home 4667, every Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. David Slough, 276-783-3346. MEADOWVIEW CIVIC CLUB: Meadowview, Va., Exit 24, I-81, Community Center on the Square. 2nd Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Pot luck meal before meeting. OPTIMIST CLUB OF BRISTOL: Bristol, Va., Euclid Ave., Food City, Thursdays, noon. Ron McCready, 423-968-7181. ROTARY CLUB OF BRISTOL VA./TN.: Bristol Train Station, Secretary/treasurer, Joyce Crockett. www.rotary7570.org/BRSTLVATN. ROTARY CLUB OF TRI-CITIES AREA TN/VA: Bristol, Tenn., Northeast State Community College, Pierce Building, noon. Mike Parker, 423-575-5534. ROTARY CLUB OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, VA.: Abingdon, Va., Restaurant at Barter Theater, Wednesdays, 7:30 a.m. Visitors welcome. Nancy Dickenson. SHELBY LODGE NO. 162: Bristol, Va., 251 Old Airport Road meets first Monday, 6:30 p.m., food and fellowship; 7:30 p.m. dispatch of business. Robert A. Bruce, WM., 276-466-8591. SOUTH HOLSTON RURITAN: Bristol, Tenn., Meadow Creek Road near South Holston Dam, Club House, fourth Thursday. TWIN CITY CIVITAN: Bristol, Tenn., 3332 Seventh St., Weaver Family Care Center, second and fourth Tuesday, 6 p.m. Stanley Mann, 423-968-2579. Visitors welcome. WASHINGTON COUNTY, VA. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Abingdon, Va., Senior Drive, Virginia Ball-room, third Thursday, doors open at 7 a.m., breakfast at 7:15 a.m. Networking and business breakfast. Free to chamber members. 276-628-8141. WYTHEVILLE RURITAN CLUB: Wytheville, Va., Hedgefield meeting room, first Monday 6 p.m. YORK MASONIC LODGE NO. 12: Abingdon, Va., 14411 Black Hollow Road, every 4th Monday, 7:30 p.m.; Work and instruction each Tuesday, 7 p.m., WM Fred Bowers, 276-466-4466. MEETINGS ABINGDON TOWN COUNCIL: Abingdon, Va., first Monday, 7:30 p.m., Municipal Building on Main Street; visit www.abingdon.com. BRISTOL REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY: Bristol, Va., 809 Edmond St., 3rd Wednesday of each month, 1:30 p.m. at the administrative building. For information, 276-821-6251. BRISTOL REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS AND BRISTOL TENN. TREE CITY USA BOARD: Bristol, Tenn., 325 McDowell St, Slater Center, third Monday, 5 p.m. public welcome. 423-654-4023. MARION DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION ASSOCIATION BOARD: Marion, Va., Municipal Building second Thursday, 5:30 p.m. visitors welcome. To be added to agenda, 276-783-4190. SULLIVAN COUNTY ANTI-DRUG COALITION: Blountville, Tenn., Sullivan County Regional Health Dept., Blountville Bypass. Jan. 14, 10 a.m.: Kim Crowder will discuss responsible use of Medical Assisted Treatment practiced locally for those addicted to prescription painkillers or heroin. New app to involve the community in data collection will be unveiled. Sullivan East HOSA students will present community service project. Substance work groups will meet to plan Coalition strategies. SULLIVAN COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS DISTRICT 911 BOARD: Blountville, Tenn., 1570 Hwy., 394, SCECD 911 building, second Monday, every other month at 10 a.m. Due to conflict in schedules meetings can change at any time. Public welcome. 423-279-7606. TRI-CITIES AIRPORT AUTHORITY: Blountville, Tenn., Tri-Cities Regional Airport. 423-325-6001 HOW TO SUBMIT INFO Submission deadline is Monday noon for the items scheduled during the up-coming week. Email fea-tures@bristolnews.com or fax 276-669-3696. For information, call Jan Patrick, 276-645-2515. During Sunday's debate, Clinton said "every single American should be outraged" by the water crisis, adding that "if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would have been action." Following a speaking engagement at a Martin Luther King Day event in Flint, the Republican governor said her tactic doesn't help solve the problem. "We're going to keep working on putting solutions in place," Snyder told The Detroit News. "And what I would say is politicizing the issue doesn't help matters. Let's focus in on the solution and how to deal with the damage that was done and help the citizens of Flint and make Flint a stronger community." U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, has called for Snyder's resignation. The crisis began in 2014 when a state-appointed emergency manager switched Flint from Detroit water to Flint River water to save money. The corrosive water caused lead to leach from old pipes. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October after elevated lead levels were discovered in children. But officials remain concerned that damaged pipes could continue to leach lead, which can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children as well as kidney ailments in adults. Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint earlier this month. On Saturday, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration. Members of Michigan's National Guard have been called in to assist volunteers in passing out drinking water, testing kits, filters and other supplies to city residents, and the state said extra guard members arrived Monday to bring the total to 70. Nearly 5,000 homes were visited Sunday. The pair tangled repeatedly Sunday night over who's tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to shape the future of health care in America. Their heated rhetoric highlighted the central question fueling the increasingly competitive primary race: Will the Sanders passion beat out the Clinton practicality? While Clinton remains the national front-runner, grassroots enthusiasm for Sanders' outsider candidacy and his unapologetically liberal message has imperiled her lead in Iowa and expanded his advantage in New Hampshire. "What this is really about is not the rational way to go forward," Sanders said as he responded to Clinton's argument that his health care plans would reignite a divisive political battle. "It's whether we have the guts to stand up to the private insurance companies." Clinton derided as impractical Sanders' ambitious aim to replace the country's existing employer-based system of health care insurance with one in which the government becomes a "single payer," providing coverage to all. Instead, she urged a less-sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care law by working to further reduce out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. "We have the Affordable Care Act," she said. "That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of our country." In doing so, she again cast herself as the natural successor to Obama and accused Sanders, until recently an independent, of being an unfaithful ally of the administration. It's a strategy aimed at locking down Democratic primary voters, particularly minorities, who make up a huge swath of the party's base and remain devoted to Obama. But it's a riskier approach in a general election, where as her party's nominee, Clinton would have to woo voters who question whether they feel more economically secure after Obama's eight years in office. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger Obama's hard-won victories, insisting: "No one is tearing this up. We're going to go forward." Clinton also rapped Sanders for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association while in Congress, welcoming his weekend reversal to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertions were "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. The debate over gun control took on a special importance given the event was just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Clinton has made the issue a central theme of her campaign, citing it as one of the major differences between the candidates. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted from the nation's financial firms. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she said. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. "My relationship with him it's interesting," Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. "It's one, I think, of respect." But she added it was critical for the next president to stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who "will take as much as he possibly can." Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? "It'll start at the kitchen table we'll see where it goes from there," she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He once called the former president's behavior "deplorable" but said Sunday night that he wants to focus on issues "not Bill Clinton's personal life." Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said he preferred to concentrate on policy matters. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation, hoping to boost his poll numbers out of single digits. But it was tough for O'Malley to stand out. When the conversation shifted to fiscal responsibility, O'Malley said his time in Maryland made him the only person on stage to balance a budget. Sanders an ex-mayor of Burlington, Vermont quickly interjected, "I was mayor for 8 years, I did that as well." ___ Nancy Benac reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Lederman contributed to this report ___ Follow Lisa Lerer and Nancy Benac on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/llerer and http://twitter.com/nbenac The barring of the press from the Virginia Senate floor is distressing in and of itself, particularly in a state considered the birthplace of freedom of the press. But perhaps more worrisome, and quite insulting to the people he serves, is Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norments arrogant refusal to explain his reason for the new rule. Freedom of the press is inherent in the basic rights of the U.S. Constitution, and necessarily exists because it provides unfettered access for an informed electorate to remain knowledgeable of the activities of its public officers in both what they are doing well and what they are doing wrong. Without a free press, the public lacks both independent oversight and knowledge of government activities. Blocked access to the Senate floor severely limits that oversight, hindering a free press. Norment, R-Williamsburg, might think he owes the press no explanation. He might think similar action by legislative authorities in Missouri adds credence to his decision. He might think that as majority leader he has indisputable authority to run the Senate his way. But he is wrong. Norment is not snubbing the media; he is turning a cold shoulder to the people of Virginia, those who directly elected him to office and those he serves as a leader of the state Senate. Norments actions imply that he wants the people to be less informed; because that is what will happen under this rule. He wants activities on the Senate floor to occur outside public hearing, away from public eyesight, perhaps even without public understanding. And because he is silent on his action, he allows the public to draw a simple conclusion: His action is based on his disputes with the press and a desire to suppress media reports about his own behavior, from criticism of his affair with a lobbyist to questions about government-related side jobs. Norments action and secrecy communicate to the people of Virginia that he believes he, and only he, knows what is best for them. Because make no mistake, with reporters relegated to the gallery (where site lines are blocked and audio is weak), lawmaking becomes much less public and much more covert. And he likely thinks the people, who often dislike the press as much as the politicians dont care. In Missouri, Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard, a Republican, said he initiated a similar move because some reporters "violated their code of ethics" by Tweeting private discussions overheard on the Senate floor. Whether ethics were violated or not, senators in both states must understand that as public servants on the job of lawmaking, their floor discussions are not private. No matter how impromptu, those discussions serve as steps toward or reasons behind passage or denial of bills that control and guide our daily lives. Such discussions belong to the public. They also must understand that the press also works for the people, serving as their eyes and ears. Perhaps these senators have forgotten who they serve. Perhaps, their rulemaking powers have clouded their judgment. Or perhaps, it might be that putting walls between themselves and the people they serve has been the intention of these political leaders all along. If so, they have forgotten where they live, and they no longer deserve to serve. The fact is the government was told the leases were unlawful by the Commission of Inquiry in June 2013. But the prime ministers excuses are old and very lame. Mr ONeill is reported as saying, despite a National Executive Council decision in June 2014 ordering the cancellation, the Department of Lands has been "dragging its feet" and some leaseholders have caused delays by taking legal action. PRIME Minister Peter ONeill is again giving excuses for why unlawful SABL (agriculture and business) leases have not been cancelled. For two and a half years the prime minister has on the one hand been promising action while on the other making excuses for why nothing has been done. In the meantime, logs worth hundreds of millions of kina have been felled and exported from the SABL areas while the government just looks on. When Australia wanted to dump its refugees on Manus Island the PM was able to make it happen within weeks despite the legal and logistical challenges but it seems, when it comes to protecting the interests of his own citizens, the PM is strangely incapable. First Mr ONeill blamed a ministerial committee for failing to follow up on the Commission of Inquiry recommendations. Then he said we had to wait for a new task force to report. Then we were told legislation was needed. Now it is the Department of Lands and legal action. Will the PM ever run out of excuses? He blames the Lands Department but the Secretary was replaced more than three months ago and still there has not been any action. The PM also blames leaseholders for taking legal action. But how many legal cases are there really and which SABL areas are affected? Without any details and so many previous excuses nobody should take the PM seriously. It seems we will not see any action on the leases at least until all the forests have been cleared and even then we wonder if the land will be returned to the customary owners. Halloween is coming! Here's when to trick or treat in your town The Cayuga County Health Department is pleased to report that the Nurse-Family Partnership has worked with and helped over 81 Cayuga County moms and their first-born children. The department reintroduced the program back in June of 2013, and the two nurse home visitors have worked diligently to improve the lives of pregnant first-time moms and their babies. The Nurse-Family Partnership is a voluntary program that provides nurse home visitation services to low-income, first-time mothers. Nurses begin with home visits early in the mothers pregnancy and continue visitation until the childs second birthday. Nurses provide support, education and counseling on health, behavioral and self-sufficiency topics. Since the program started, 10 women and children have graduated from the two-year program. A graduation ceremony was held in October to recognize the commitment of the women and celebrate the mothers they have become. NFP is one of the most rigorously tested programs of its kind. Studies conducted over the last 30 years demonstrate multi-generation outcomes for families and their communities. Benefits of this program have been demonstrated by mothers and children who have participated in the program. Successes of this program have included: Improved prenatal health Fewer subsequent pregnancies Increased maternal employment Improved child school readiness Reduced involvement in crime Less child abuse, neglect and injuries Analyses of the program have shown that communities benefit as well, both socially and financially. The RAND Corporation calls the Nurse-Family Partnership a wise choice that has favorable economic return to communities of up to $5.70 for every public dollar spent on the program. This evidence-based community health program has now expanded to 42 states and serves clients in over 505 counties nationwide. It offers help and support to first-time mothers with the goal of getting them off to a good start in their new role as a parent. If this program sounds familiar, its because Cayuga County Health Department had this program years ago, but the financial structure of the program was different and when funding ended, so did the program. When bringing this program back to the community, it was important for our department to identify funding sources that would be sustainable for years to come. In order to reintroduce this program, the department was awarded a grant from the Allyn Foundation. Without their support, bringing this program back to the community would not have been possible. This start-up funding helped provide us with the financial aid to train three nurses to implement the program. Training seminars took place at the National Service Office located in Denver, Colorado. Here in Cayuga County, we are fortunate to have three home visitation programs: Healthy Families, Early Head Start (both implemented by Cayuga/Seneca Community Action Agency) and the Nurse Family Partnership. Eligibility criteria is different for each program, but all three share a common goal in their desire to support families and promote effective parenting. The early years of a childs life are a critical period for both their physical and emotional development, so investing in the support of young families can reap dividends that span a lifetime. Currently, the Nurse-Family Partnership nurses are serving 36 women, but have the capacity to serve 50. So, if you or someone you know is pregnant, give us a call to see if you are eligible. Local health care providers, other service providers and can make a referral for you. Here at the Cayuga County Health Department, we join with the Nurse-Family Partnership National Service Office in being committed to producing enduring improvements in the health and well-being of low-income, first-time parents and their children by implementing and sustaining this evidence-based public health program. For more information, call the department at (315) 253-1560 or visit cayugcounty.us/health or nursefamilypartnership.org. Game on! IU to resume series with Kentucky starting in 2025-26. Kentucky coach John Calipari confirmed at SEC media day the two schools have agreed in principle to restart their annual regular-season series. This domain has expired. If you owned this domain, contact your domain registration service provider for further assistance. If you need help identifying your provider, visit https://www.tucowsdomains.com/ The lifting of sanctions on Iran is good news for India, provided the spat between Riyadh and Tehran doesnt escalate into a full-blown crisis in the region. But the new regime also brings along challenges for India that any resource-rich country with options would throw at others. To begin with, Tehran holds immense strategic significance for New Delhi. It is Indias gateway to Central Asia. Iran is a strategic counter for India to Pakistan in Afghanistan where India, of late, doesnt have enough friends to count on. The Chabahar port in Iran, being developed with Indian assistance, will provide port access to landlocked Afghanistan that is now totally dependent on Pakistan for sea trade. Various plans associated with developing the port, railway lines, special economic zones have remained either in the pipelines or made sluggish progress for a long time. The stringent sanctions on Iran have often resulted in Indian projects failing to gather necessary steam. This should change now. With Iran sanctions gone, India can resume normal trading ties India-Iran trade is around $15 billion, but Indian export to Iran is less than $5 billion. This imbalance is natural between India and any country it imports oil from. That, however, does not explain why various efforts at boosting Indian exports to Iran havent paid off. Even at the height of sanctions, Iran used to export wheat from the US, whereas Indian wheat didnt pass the muster of the pest test. Its more good news for India as an oil-importing country. Iran has every reason to increase the production, driving down the price of oil further. India has been getting Iran oil on liberal repayment options. If that continues, India would benefit more from falling oil prices. The sanctions had contributed to high shipping costs. With sanctions easing, the shipping charges will come down for goes both sold by and being sent to Iran. US to pay Iran $1.7 bn in debt, interest: John Kerry India has been keen on investing in Irans oil and gas sector. Tehran now has many suitors to select from. That makes Indian efforts more challenging. Farzad B gas field is a case in point. After investing 100 million in the project since 2008, India has already got a hint from that it is looking at more options to auction the project. Many European companies have been waiting on the wings to cash in on the opportunities that Iran would present. That makes the competition uneasy for Indian companies, for whom, Iran remained a market many didnt dare to enter. But then, challenges and opportunities have a unique way of co-existing in international relations. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Two youngsters drowned in the Narmada in Madhya Pradesh while trying to take a selfie, police said on Monday, adding to a growing number of similar incidents in a country which accounted for half of the worlds selfie deaths last year. The two identified as cousins Amit (20) and Kamal (25) drowned in the river on Sunday at Omkareshwar, about 270 km from Bhopal, during a picnic. Police said that Kamal had slipped into the river while trying to take a selfie, a recently coined term used to define people trying to take their own photograph with a mobile phone. Amit jumped into the river to save his cousin but both were swept away by the strong currents of the river. Their bodies were recovered by divers at a distance away from the spot of their drowning, police added. The death of the youngsters came just days after a man and a girl drowned in the Arabian Sea in Mumbai; the man was trying to saving the girl who had slipped into the sea while trying to take a selfie. Following the incident, Mumbai police banned selfies in 16 spots which were identified as dangerous. This was not the first selfie death incident in Madhya Pradesh. On December 6, 2015, an 18-year-old youth, Jayesh, died after being hit by a train while he was trying to take a selfie on the tracks. Earlier, 20-year-old Surya Pratap Singh Rajput the grandson of former MLA Govind Singh Rajput was killed when he accidentally pulled the trigger of a gun while attempting to take a selfie with it. Raising an alarm over the issue, a recent report on such deaths around the world and published in the Washington Post, said that out of at least 27 selfie-related deaths around the world last year, about half occurred in India. A Japanese tourist had also died at the Taj Mahal recently after falling off the steps of the monument while attempting a selfie. Speaking to Hindustan Times on the issue, experts said that selfies have become an attention seeking activity for the youths. The youngsters, specially between the age of 18-22 years, are increasingly trying to find their self-esteem and self-worth in the likes and comments they get on their selfies posted on various social media platforms, said Dr Vaibhav Dubey, psychiatrist at the Peoples Hospital in Bhopal. He added that this craze gradually turns into a mental disorder and in extreme cases, pushes them to their death. Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiquis wife lodged a counter FIR against five fellow residents of a housing society in Mumbai for allegedly rioting and threatening her after he was booked on the charge of assaulting and misbehaving with a woman over a parking row in the complex. Police said on Monday Siddiquis wife Aaliya was lodged the complaint on Sunday night with Versova police against five persons of the housing society in suburban Andheri including the complainant, hours after she named the actor in an FIR alleging assault. Its a cross complaint as yesterday afternoon a woman had lodged a case against the actor who stays in the same society. We have registered the FIR, a police official said. The statements of the actor, his wife, and the five persons named in the second FIR were recorded on Monday, the official said. Siddiqui has rejected the assault allegations against him as false. Police did not summon me. But being a responsible person and citizen I came with my lawyer and recorded my statement. I briefed about the actual incident and told police that the complaint was false, he said. Police have booked the five persons under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 452 (house-trespass) etc. of IPC. The official said no arrests have been made so far in connection with both the cases. Versova police had on Sunday night registered an FIR against Siddiqui under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) after the woman filed complaint against the actor accusing him of assaulting her over the parking place row. Siddiquis lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui said that the actor was considering filing a defamation suit against the complainant. The actor may file a defamation suit against the complainant after the police files report in the case, he said. In a related development, a statement issued by Siddiquis PR agency claimed that the woman who had filed FIR against the actor was not from the society. The complainant is not from society, neither in relation of the chairperson. It is completely a false allegation to defame the personality. In fact, five people had barged into our office and demanded to meet Siddiqui for some notice to be issued, the statement said. When Mrs. Siddiqui asked them to hand over the notice, they denied saying they want to meet Nawaz and one of the five persons including the complainant, a lady aged 55 years, a guy aged 35-40 yrs and an aged man 65 yrs, pushed Mrs. Siddiqui. This is all because of old societal issues, it added. Mumbai police has filed a case against model Kashish Khan and Bhojpuri actor Trisha Khandelwal based on a complaint by Maharashtra Mahila Congress chief Sheetal Mhatre that the two insulted the national anthem during the screening of a film in the city. According to a report in India Today, Mhatre alleged that Khan and Khandelwal refused to stand up while the national anthem was being played before the start of a film at a theatre. The complaint further alleges that when the two models were asked to stand up, they abused and made fun of the anthem. Read: Comedian Kiku Sharda arrested for mimicking Gurmeet Singh, apologises Khan and Khandelwal, however, filed a counter-complaint alleging that it was Mhatre who insulted the anthem by refusing to stand up when it was being played. This is all lie. National anthem started and we were standing. These ten or so people were there and they were shouting. After the anthem, we just turned around to see this lady (Mhatre) and suddenly she started abusing with dirty language and asking kya dekh rahe ho, Trisha told the news channel. Denying the counter-charges, Sheetal said, You can check the CCTV footage and it wasnt just me who asked them to stand up. They started screaming and saying that they have high connections and that no one can force them to respect the national anthem. Read: Family asked to leave cinema hall for disrespecting national anthem Hindustan Times could not independently verify the report. Some of them continue to be underrated gems while others have received cult status over the years. Regardless, they all began their sojourn on the silver screen as small films but went on to get bouquets for their content. Made by names like Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Sudhir Mishra and Kabeer Kaushik, here are 15 underrated gems which will forever end your complain that Bollywood doesnt produce good films. If you havent already, you must watch every single one of them and give them a belated hurrah. 1. Citylights (2014) A beautiful and thought-provoking film, Citylights captures the dark side of the city of dreams, Mumbai. With actors like Rajkummar Rao working under National Award-winning director Hansal Mehta, the emotional turmoil of a couple from a small village in search of a better life in Mumbai is heart wrenching. 2. Tere Bin Laden (2010) Abhishek Sharmas satire on Osama bin Laden, Americas war on terror and post-9/11 world scenario is one of the most hilarious spoofs of recent times. Grab your copy of its DVD now. 3. Phas Gaye Re Obama (2010) Subhash Kapoors comedy of errors is full of smart dialogues. From recession affecting a gangsters business to a broke NRI, this film is a hilarious take on organised crime, crime-politics nexus and the great American dream. 4. Gulaal (2009) Anurag Kashyaps Gulaal may have gained cult status now but the film had to wait for years before it got a theatrical release. Starring Kay Kay Menon, Abhimanyu Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa, Piyush Mishra and Aditya Srivastava, the film explores power equations, perceived injustices and hypocrisy of those in power. It remains one of the best socio-political commentaries on our society. 5. Black and White (2008) The Anil Kapoor-starrer explores the life of an Afghan suicide bomber who meets an idealist teacher while on a mission. The movie traces the intricacies of the fight of good and bad within a person. 7. Dil Dosti Etc (2007) Directed by Manish Tiwary, Dil Dosti Etc featured Shreyas Talpade, Imaad Shah, Nikita Anand, Smriti Mishra and Ishita Sharma in pivotal roles. It exposes the growing stature of anti-social elements in student politics and university unions. 8. Black Friday (2007) Anurag Kashyaps Black Friday, based on the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts was released four years after the film was made -- only after the TADA court finalised its judgement in the case. Based on writer-journalist S Hussain Zaidis book Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, the film chronicles the blasts and their aftermath. 9. Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) This one marked the directorial debut of Dibakar Banerjee. Starring Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, KKG is perhaps one of the best comedies made in recent times. It also won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. 10. Seher (2005) It provided Arshad Warsi a perfect platform to showcase his talent. The movie, directed by Kabeer Kaushik, traces organised crime in Uttar Pradesh and its political backers. 11. Haasil (2003) Tigmanshu Dhulias Haasil is one of the earliest gems the director has gifted to the industry. Irrfan Khans powerful performance and the sensitive narration of the nexus between students and politics got the film a cult following. 12. Hazaaro Khwaahishein Aisi (2003) Helmed by Sudhir Mishra, the film is an apt and sharp commentary on the hypocrisy, filth and struggles in socio-political revolutions. With Naxal movement as the backdrop, it captures some of the most hard-hitting facts of our delicate social fiber. 13. Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990) Tapan Sinhas 1990 film starring Pankaj Kapur and Shabana Azmi highlighted the bureaucratic negligence, reprimand and insult of a doctor and his research. Based on Ramapada Choudhurys story Abhimanyu, the film boasts of excellent actors and a smooth narration. 14. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) The black comedy has gained a cult status among Bollywood fans. Produced by NFDC in 1983, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is arguably the most deftly handled satire in Indian cinema. 15. Khamosh (1985) Not many know that Vidhu Vinod Chopra made one of the most thrilling Hindi suspense movies back in 1985. It stars veteran actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Amol Palekar, Soni Razdan and Pankaj Kapoor. The author tweets @swetakaushal. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Although Louis Berger is under scanner in Goa for the alleged bribery scam, chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar has said that the US firm was not blacklisted in the state. Louis Berger company is not registered as a consultant with PWD, and as such no action is initiated against them towards blacklisting, Parsekar said in a written reply tabled on the floor of the House during recently concluded winter session of the Goa Legislative Assembly. The CMs response was to a query by Independent legislator Rohan Khaunte during the assembly session. Responding to another question, Parsekar said the bribery scam in Goa was that of US $9,76,630. The Crime Branch is investigating this case of alleged payment of bribe by officials of Louis Berger to an Indian minister to win consultancy for a water augmentation and sewerage project funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Goa. The investigating agency has booked former chief minister Digambar Kamat, former Public Works department minister Churchill Alemao, former project director of JICA in Goa Anand Wachasunder, Louis Bergers former India vice-president Satyakam Mohanty, alleged hawala operator Raichand Soni and others in the pay-off scandal. They have been booked under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence and giving false statement) of Indian Penal Code and various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. Parsekar told the House that police were trying to seek custodial interrogation of the 61-year-old Congress leader, under whose tenure the scam took place. The application for cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to Kamat who is the prime conspirator in this case is pending before Supreme Court. The investigation in respect of accused (Kamat) could not be completed as his custodial interrogation is essential to unearth the deep rooted conspiracy. The supplementary report will be submitted before Special Judge, Panjim after conclusion of investigation in respect of the prime conspirator, he said in reply. Last year, a local court had granted anticipatory bail to Kamat who has rejected all charges against him as politically motivated. January is a busy month for IGNITE as we plan for our annual IGNITE the Winter. IGNITE joined forces with Auburn Sparks last Tuesday for a meeting in the new Havana Room, located in the Phoenix Building. Auburn Sparks is a community-driven effort to revitalize the citys downtown core and Owasco River corridor. This revitalization effort is being funded through the New York State Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, which helps communities identify end uses and solutions for the vacant and underutilized sites in their neighborhoods. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive framework for the downtown/Owasco River corridor study area that considers the communitys strong industrial history centered on Route 20 and the Owasco River. City councilors Jimmy Giannettino, Debby McCormick and Dia Carabajal attended the event, and it was nice to see elected officials jump show interest in the development of these BOA sites. If you are interested in learning more about Auburn Sparks and want to be more involved, you can visit the website at auburnsparks.com. This year will be our fifth year for IGNITE the Winter, and we always hope it will be our best. If you arent sure what IGNITE the Winter is and have never attended the event, you may want to mark the calendar for March 4. IGNITE the Winter is a First Friday event held in March on Exchange Street in Downtown Auburn. The festival was introduced in 2012 by IGNITE, Cayuga Countys Young Professionals, as a family-friendly celebration of winter developed to stimulate economic activity in downtown Auburn during the off-season. The event was organized in partnership with the Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District and received community-wide support. IGNITE the Winter features a chili and chowder cook-off (including fish and vegetarian options for those observing Lent), beer and wine sales, live music, a live ice sculpture demonstration, horse-drawn wagon rides and family fun activities for the kids inside the Genesee Mall. Dozens of vendors from Auburn and Cayuga County participate in this event, and it a great chance to fill the downtown district with people interested in celebrating the winter. If you are interested in sponsoring this years IGNITE the Winter, please contact Michelle Milewski at CEDA (315) 252-3500 or email me at jwilcox@savannahbankny.com. So what do you get when you join IGNITE? How hard is it to join? The answer is not hard at all; just visit the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce at 2 State St. and mention that you want to join IGNITE. The cost is $25, but it comes with perks. IGNITE members receive discounts to local businesses and a travel mug as a perk of their IGNITE membership. But the biggest perk of joining IGNITE are the people. IGNITE is a diverse group of individuals with lots of ideas that work together and make a positive impact in the community. If you are interested in getting involved with IGNITE, message us on Facebook or email me at jwilcox@savannahbankny.com. You can also contact IGNITE by email at info@ignite-cny.org or find us on our website, ignite-cny.org. As membership continues to grow, I want to thank all the local businesses and individuals that are responsible for the success of IGNITE. Our next event will be Jan. 26 at Auburn Community Hospital. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by going to Facebook page at facebook.com/ignitecny. Wipro Ltd, Indias third-largest software services exporter, witnessed 2% growth in its net profit for the third quarter of the financial year and said it has met analysts expectations in spite of the Chennai floods and expects to do better in the next quarter. Wipros net income was Rs 2,230 crore ($338 million), an increase of 2% over the same quarter last year and profit for IT services segment was Rs 2,480 crore ($375 million). The company said revenues from its core IT services business rose 9% at Rs 12,310 crore ($1,861 million) and IT services segment revenue in dollar terms grew 1.4% sequentially and 6.3% over the same quarter last year. The companys chief financial officer Jatin Dalal said additional expenses due to Chennai floods during the third quarter impacted operating margins, though it was minimised significantly by strong execution of robust business continuity plans. For the last quarter of this financial year, Wipro has projected revenues from our IT services business to be in the range of $1,875 million to $1,912 million. The company declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 a share/ADS. We delivered revenues in line with our guidance. We saw a pickup in large deal closures led by Global Infrastructure Services. It is becoming increasingly clear that customers want to simplify operations and optimize their IT spend while investing in Digital to transform their business. We are well-positioned to take advantage of this trend, TK Kurien, member of the board and chief executive officer, said. Abidali Z Neemuchwala, chief executive officer-designate, We are focused on driving market share growth in our core businesses through integrated domain and technology services, while investing for the future in building differentiated digital capabilities. We will leverage our strong culture of innovation and extremely talented employee pool to build compelling value propositions for our customers. Neemuchwala will be taking over as the CEO on February 1. Wipro added 39 new customers and 2,268 employees during the quarter taking the total strength of IT services segment to 170,664. Dogs are taking a big bite of Delhi one every six minutes. From January to October in 2015, 77,294 cases of dog bite were received by the Capitals 35 government hospitals, information obtained under RTI has revealed. The figure is expected to be much higher as private hospitals are not required to report these cases to the government. While citys three municipal corporations spend crores of rupees on sterilizing strays every year, they still dont have a record of the dog population. A conservative estimate puts their numbers at around 400,000, sources said. Its shocking that while people are being bitten by dogs and their population is increasing, the authorities have not done anything, RTI activist JS Walia said. Animal right activists and NGOs while questioning the numbers blamed lack of commitment on part of officials for faltering sterlisation programme. Data provided by the governments is based on the vaccination purchased or administered, hence cant be relied upon. Though the need for a better setup and the willingness of the authorities cant be stressed more, animal rights activist Rishi Dev said. Around 33,000 strays were sterilised by three civic bodies last year. The civic bodies rely heavily on six NGOs for the work and pay Rs 770 for every sterilisation. On any given day we receive 20-30 cases of dog bites in our emergency. While a large number of them are children, the number of adults is not less either, said a doctor at the government-run Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. Delhis first and the only attempt at counting strays was in 2009 but it failed to give a clear picture, a civic official said. NGOs see government and civic bodies indifference to public health as the bigger problem, not the high number of dog bites. While at least three zones of municipal corporations have not been carrying out sterlisation at all, they have not been allowing the NGOs to work either, said Geeta Seshamani, chairman Friendicoes Seca (Society for the Eradication of Cruelty to Animals). The animal population has been rising since 2013 because of lack of support to NGOs involved in the sterilisation and lack of awareness had not helped either, she said. The civic bodies, on their part, counted strict rules and dependence on NGOs among reasons for failure. Public awareness is needed and from time to time we carry out educational drives as well. Although we have to abide by the rules of the Supreme Court, and despite incorporating several NGOs, the situation has remained unchanged, a municipal official said. Recently there was a huge uproar over a Kerala high court order for culling of stray dogs. Hearing several petitions, including one against the HC order, SC recently said indiscriminate killing of dogs was not warranted. It also said local authorities would be required to abide by the laws related to stray dogs. The Aam Aadmi Party said on Monday that an ink attack on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was a rehearsal of an assassination attempt on him and the perpetrators may use a gun or bomb the next time. At a press conference, senior AAP leader Ashutosh blamed the police for alleged lapses in security at a function in north Delhi on Sunday, when a woman threw ink at Kejriwal alleging that a CNG scam was afoot in the recently-concluded odd-even scheme in the Capital. We are questioning the lapse in security and whether responsibility will be fixed. Sundays ink attack on Arvind Kejriwal seems like the rehearsal of an assassination attempt, Ashutosh said. He said the party had never asked for extra security for the CM but insisted it was the polices responsibility to ensure his safety. Yesterday it was ink, tomorrow it could be a bomb or a gun, said Dilip Pandey. Ink attack on Kejriwal: Bassi refutes AAPs security lapse allegation The party has already trained its guns at the Centre, saying the BJP was behind the attack as it couldnt digest the success of the odd-even road rationing plan. But the Centre and the Delhi Police have refuted the charges, with a spokesperson confirming enhanced security arrangements were made. Certain allegations have been leveled against Delhi Police by some functionaries of AAP and even by Deputy CM Delhi. These are misconceived and unfounded. Appropriate law and order arrangements were made, said Rajan Bhagat, Delhi Police spokesperson. A senior officer said an assistant commissioner of police from the north west district, four inspectors, the local station house officer along with around 250 constables to sub-inspector rank officials were present at the stadium. Authorities have registered a case against the woman. Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju also criticised the AAP. CNG scam behind odd-even plan, alleges woman who threw ink at Kejriwal Just because of one incident, how can you(AAP) make an allegation that it was orchestrated and instigated by the BJP? This statement is very unbecoming. AAP keeps telling on people to protest in an ugly manner, Rijiju told ANI. As soon as Kejriwal started speaking at the function on Sunday, the woman, identified as Bhavna Arora, started shouting about a CNG scam - an alleged nexus of false CNG stickers distributed to diesel vehicles in the city so that they could flout the odd-even scheme restrictions. Cars running on CNG were exempt during the 15-day trial period. She then threw a set of CDs and some papers on the stage, before hurling ink at Kejriwal. Sources said she claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, an AAP splinter group. Hours after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) termed Sundays ink attack on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as a rehearsal of an assassination attempt, the Delhi Police on Monday said he was being provided a Z-plus category security cover ever since he took oath as the CM in February 2015. More than 50 police personnel, including trained commandos equipped with high-tech weapons,were deployed in Kejriwals security cover, the police claimed. SBK Singh, special commissioner of police (security wing of Delhi Police), said the police had been providing Z+ category security cover to Kejriwal as per the protocols laid down by the government. The Delhi CMs threat perception is reviewed time and again and a security cover is arranged accordingly, Singh told HT. Watch | Bassi refutes AAPs security lapse claim A senior Delhi Police official said that Kejriwals security was increased from Z to Z-plus following intelligence inputs that keep him under serious threats. As a Z+ category protectee, the officer said, Kejriwal gets security cover from commandos armed with sophisticated MP5 guns and modern communication gadgets. As per the protocol, Kejriwals official vehicle is always protected by an escort vehicle and a pilot vehicle whenever he is out on the streets. Each security vehicle has at least three security personnel while three personal security officers (PSOs) remain associated with him round-the-clock, said the officer. Security arrangement is also provided at the official residence of the chief minister, which comprises either one head constable and four constables or two head constables and eight constables, the officer said. On allegations from AAP members that security was not provided by the Delhi Police to Kejriwal during his recent visit to Ludhiana in Punjab, the police officer said that everything was done as per the protocol. According to rules, security cover is provided to the protectee only when he/she is travelling via roads and that too for less than 72 hours. During his Punjab visit, Kejriwal took a flight from the Delhi airport. His security cover ended at the airport after he took the flight. It resumed as soon as he arrived at the Delhi railway station, said the officer. Providing security to Kejriwal in Punjab or during his train journey from Punjab till Delhi borders was the responsibility of the Punjab Police. Blaming us (Delhi Police) for the security lapse is unwarranted, said the officer. Kejriwal had been apprehensive about taking security cover, saying it would hamper his interaction with the public. Police sources said he was given Z category security when he first became Delhis chief minister in 2014, despite his three back-to-back refusals to accept it. The security cover was withdrawn immediately after he resigned from the CMs post, but was reinstated within hours after his party swept the Delhi Assembly elections, winning 67 of the 70 seats. Read: CNG scam behind odd-even plan, alleges woman who threw ink at Kejriwal The CNG scam highlighted by a woman who threw ink at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday pertains to centres that are run by the Centre, Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai said on Monday. I have examined the paper and CD, which the woman had thrown on the stage. The Union government runs 96 centres across the country where vehicles are certified on the basis of cylinder installed in them. This comes under the ministry of commerce and industry. Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) wing of the ministry issue licences to these centres, said Rai. The woman had conducted a sting on how these centres give CNG compliance certificate to two-wheelers and how they are involved in corrupt practices. It has nothing to do with the Delhi government but the woman has highlighted a serious issue. I will write to the central government, requesting them to investigate the matter properly, Rai said. Rejecting suggestions that the sting was connected to the odd-even formula, Rai said the sting was conducted on September 9 and at that time the government had not considered the odd-even formula. We issued CNG stickers during odd-even formula and checked registration certificate of the cars. There was a sting conducted by a news channel and we immediately stopped the distribution. But this case needs to be investigated by the central government. The BJP is levelling false allegations. They must ask the central government to investigate this case, he said. CNG vehicles were exempted from the odd-even rule and had been given special stickers for identification. Police sources said Bhawna Arora, the woman who had thrown ink at the CM, has not divulged much about why she carried out the attack. Throughout her questioning she maintained that she wanted to meet the CM to bring to light the scam she had exposed, and had taken an appointment for the same, but could never meet him as he was always busy. She said that she saw the thanksgiving ceremony as an opportunity to meet the CM, sources said. She said she was angry and frustrated over not being heard. She said that even though Kejriwal claims to be fighting against corruption and a leader of the common man, he did not give time to hear out her concerns. She said she wanted to tell the CM about the CNG scam as she had proof of the same but could not meet him despite several attempts, police said. Police said Arora did not cooperate during questioning and dodged several questions. The police have also rejected charges of being lax in CMs security. Certain allegations have been levelled against Delhi Police by some functionaries of AAP and even by Deputy CM Delhi. These are misconceived and unfounded. Appropriate law and order arrangements were made, said Rajan Bhagat, Delhi Police spokesperson. The second phase of the odd-even scheme in Delhi could be rolled out during school summer vacations in May-June, sources said on Monday, as the government claimed positive feedback from citizens to the radical move to curb pollution. The 15-day first phase of the road rationing scheme which saw vehicles with odd and even last numbers plying on alternate days ended on Friday with the government claiming that the lower number of vehicles on roads brought down pollution by several notches. An assessment of 15 days was done by experts and officials of the departments concerned. Everyone agreed that the scheme helped in reducing congestion. Due to this, the capacity of public transport increased by 1.5 times as buses were able to make more trips. The pollution level has also come down, Delhi transport minister Gopal Rai said. Rai, who was part of a review meeting, said officials and experts were of the view that the scheme should continue. However, the next phase could see the exemption to women withdrawn, though Rai said there was no plan to include motorcycles. Read | Air pollution became worse during odd-even days, claims online portal During the review meet, the timing of the next phase was not decided but two major concerns were raised. The first problem, which we need to address before implementing the second phase, is of parents who go to pick and drop their children from schools. They can still go to drop as the rule starts from 8 am but how will they pick up them is still a matter of concern. The committee has been asked to submit a report on this, Rai added. There were suggestions to exempt parents but the problem was how the transport department would identify them. Another suggestion was to relax the rule between 1 pm and 3 pm but that will defeat its basic purpose. Sources said with this concern in mind, the government may postpone the next phase till the summer vacation. Till the board exams, we are not going to start the second phase. There is no deadline but we will surely implement it again, said a government official. The transport minister said the second concern is that people will start buying second-hand cars. It happened in Mexico and other countries, where people started buying second-hand cars. We dont want this to be repeated in Delhi. The committee has been asked to prepare a report on this, Rai added. Read | Five reasons why Delhi choked on Monday after odd-even fortnight In order to help improve learning levels among students, over three lakh students of Class 9 in Delhi government schools have been given special learning enrichment classes under a programme which also keeps parents updated about the classes. A survey by Delhi government had found that learning levels among Class 9 students were lower than their grade level. Government officials said the programme will help students achieve bridge the gap between actual learning level and their grade. T he survey findings prompted us to start special classes for these students. The aim is to help students achieve learning on par with their grade level. All three lakh students in government schools were given these classes, Atishi Marlena, advisor to education mnister Manish Sisodia, told HT. The students have been divided into two groups based on their learning level and classes are being conducted since second week of December for two hours every day. Students are being taught English, Hindi and Mathematics. Students were provided with specially drafted worksheets based on their level for the three subjects. We have devised a system under which all parents receive a text message containing important question from the content taught to the child on that day, Marlena said. Some of the parents said the classes have helped in improving the learning level of their wards. They said that directorate of education (DOE) had been sending texts to them daily. My daughter has been given worksheets for the three subjects that are being taught. I also get daily messages in which questions related to the topic taught in classroom are shared. It is helping my daughter get better understanding of the subjects, said Rakesh Gautam, whose daughter is a student of a government school in Sarojni Nagar. Read more: Delhi govt tables two bills to revolutionise education SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) declared the results of the CA final examination on Sunday. The exam was held in November 2015, The results of common proficiency test (CA CPT) that was held in December 2015 and January 2016 were also declared on the same day. You can check the region-wise results from the official website icai.org. Click on Declaration of Results of the CA Final Examination November 2015 and CPT December 2015 - (17-01-2016). After this choose your region and click on it. You will be able to see your results. Click here to go directly on the page from where you can choose your region (For eg: Central, Eastern, Northern) The CA examination is held in three stages, where the second and third stages have two rounds each. This time 42,469 students appeared for the examination out of which 2440 or 5.75% candidates were successful. As per sources, 63 students from Lucknow qualified the first group of the examination and 48 students cleared the second group. Some of the successful students of the city are Sadyojat Shridhar Agarwal, Devina Pandey, Shubhendu Trivedi, Karan Jain, Shweta Sharma, Yogesh Agarwal, Aman Agarwal and Siddhant Agarwal. Elated over his success, Siddhant said, CA final is a tough examination that requires conceptual understanding of the subject. The papers are lengthy and tough at the same time. A pass out of Seth MR Jaipuria, Siddhant has been a brilliant academic performer, scoring 95% in class 12 in 2011 and 97% in class 10. His father and sister are also chartered accountants. James John Britto R of Chennai was the country topper, scoring 595 marks out of 800. Read more: 18-year-old Indian boy in UAE becomes worlds youngest CA Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday appeared at the Kamrup district and session court in connection with a Rs 100 crore defamation case filed against him by BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma. For first time in his almost 15 years as chief minister, Gogoi has appeared before the court in a defamation case. I am a law abiding citizen. Responding to the court summon, I appeared in the court today. There is an allegation made against me. We will fight back, Gogoi said. The court has fixed February 8 as the next date of hearing. Sarma had filed the defamation case against Gogoi after the chief minister made allegations against him. Gogoi in December last alleged in press conference that Sarma was accused in both Louis Berger scandal and the Saradha scandal. Advocate Debajit Saikia, legal counsel of Sarma said that all documents were placed before the court relating to the status of Sarma as only a witness in the CBI list on the Saradha case and a document from USAs New Jersey Court that there was no mention of Himanta or any politician from Assam in the FBI complaint petition before that court in the Louis Berger case. After Gogoi appeared in the Court, Sarma tweeted: Today Law has forced Tarun Gogoi appear before the Court. In April , we will force him to appear in the peoples court for his misdeeds. Jan. 18, 1936 Marksmen of Company I came within a single point of winning last night's city rifle tournament match at the State Armory. After the final marks were posted it was found that Auburn Rifle Club shooters and the Company I riflemen were tied at 711. The win however, proved expensive as Jim Stebbins of the Auburn Club was high man of the evening with 241 and so was eliminated from further shooting. Team scores were: Auburn Rifle and Company I, 711 each; Cayuga Rifle, 693; Prison City, 686; Prison Guards, 651; Headquarters, 668; Service Company, 648. Jan. 18, 1961 Certificates of Merit were presented to Douglas G. Clark, president of the Auburn Life Underwriters Association, and past President Daniel D. McCarthy, during a luncheon meeting at The Pioneer. Making the presentations were John E. Kitts and Wallace H. Ruch. Jan. 18, 2006 Two area schools and their indoor track and field athletes are making noise in Section III. Auburn's Rosie Scheibel leads the girls in the 1000 meter race (3:15.89) and Elysia Moore is ranked third in the 1500 meters (5:16.34). Skaneateles is ranked second in the 4x400 relay (4:26.12) and sixth in the 4x800 relay (10:43.27). Among other school rankings, the Lakers' Hannah Waite is ranked fifth in the 3000 meters (11:25.69). For the boys, Auburn's Corey Werner is tied for second place in the pole vault (10-06.00) and Dion Brown is ranked in three different events seventh in the 300 meters (38.32), fourth in the 600 meters (1:29.77) and sixth in the 1000 meters (2:42.02). Skaneateles' Josey Witter is ranked fourth in the high jump (5-10.00) and seventh in the triple jump (39-08.50). Jan. 18, 2011 When the Syracuse-based Vineyard Church opened a satellite campus in Sennett, they signed a five-year lease at the Grant Avenue property. The hope was that they might be able to expand at the end of the lease, said John Elmer, the pastor at Vineyard Church. The hope became a reality sooner than expected. The church is in the midst of expanding into an adjacent, 4,700 square-foot space at the Grant Avenue Plaza. Vineyard Church opened the satellite church in September 2009, with between 35 and 40 people coming on a weekly basis early on, Elmer said on Monday. Lately, they've been bringing in between 115 and 120 people, he said. Elmer said the new space will be the church's sanctuary. The part of the building previously used as the sanctuary will be converted into classroom space that can be used for Sunday school or programs for children. The entire space will be more than twice the size of the current church. The woman, who threw ink at Arvind Kejriwal at a weekend rally to mark the success of the vehicle rationing rule, has alleged a big CNG scam behind the odd-even formula, saying she had proof of the scandal that she will present in court. The odd-even rule was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I had a sting. That is why I wanted to meet CM and Gopal Rai ji (Delhi transport minister), but they didnt agree to meet, Bhavna Arora told ANI on Monday. I will submit all papers and the sting before the court. Investigation should be done in the matter, she said a day after throwing ink at the Delhi CM while he was addressing a gathering called at the Chhatrasal stadium on the positive response to the odd-even rule. The fortnight-long experiment ended on Jan 15. On Sunday, Arora came quite close to the lectern where Kejriwal was speaking, waved some papers towards him, and then threw ink at the chief minister. There were ink stains on Kejriwals cheeks and some others standing close to him were also seen wiping off the liquid. Read | Conspiracy, stage managed: Who said what about ink attack on Kejriwal The 26-year-old woman, who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, was later detained by police and whisked away to Model Town police station for questioning. A case was also registered. Delhi police has sought permission from a duty magistrate to arrest the 26-year-old woman. Soon after the attack, the AAP government charged the BJP and Delhi Police of a conspiracy as an agitated deputy CM Manish Sisodia slammed the Delhi Police, calling the incident a major security lapse and wondered whether it was sitting in readiness to stage an attack on Kejriwal. They may also kill people because they cannot stand the success of the odd-even scheme and AAPs popularity among the masses. Police is a part of the conspiracy, Sisodia said referring to the BJP leadership at the Centre. The two governments have been at loggerheads since long and tensions have risen from time to time owing to issues like control over Delhi Police, or the CBI raids at the Delhi secretariat and the inquiry of the alleged DDCA corruption scam. However, Delhi Police commissioner BS Bassi said these allegations were misconceived and unfounded. The girl who attacked Delhi CM with ink has been arrested and a case has been registered against her. We made adequate arrangements, all necessary security arrangements were made, Bassi told ANI. This was also the second ink attack on Kejriwal after the one during his Lok Sabha elections rally in Varanasi in April 2014, from where he was contesting against PM Narendra Modi. Sisodia said the issue was not about Kejriwals security alone as the consequences, had it been a bomb or acid attack, would have been ghastly. Centre should own responsibility and take action because such incidents have happened in the past as well. People who are staging these incidents, hatching conspiracies from behind the scene, should be acted against, he added. Read | Kejriwal is an idealist, has done nothing wrong after becoming CM: Anna Hazare Firebrand BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Katiyar was arrested on Monday at Jajmau bridge in Kanpur when heading to riot-hit Jahanabad. He was taken to the circuit house amid protests by BJP leaders who demanded his immediate release and said he should be allowed to visit Jahanabad, a town limping back to normalcy. Kanpur police acted on the information of Fatehpur police, which felt his presence in Jahanabad could have repercussions and disturb the peace. We arent denying permission to the local public representatives and leaders in Jahanabad, but police wont allow any outsider there, SP Fatehpur Rajeev Malhotea said. More than 30 people were injured and a woman lost an eye in a communal clash that broke out in the famous Khichdi Mela of Jahanabad town, 35km from Kanpur and in Fatehpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. Police arrested 27 people allegedly involved in the violence. The Border Security Force (BSF) has ordered a court of inquiry (CoI) against two senior officers posted in Punjab to find out possible lapses that had allowed the terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase to sneak into the country from Pakistan. Gurdaspur deputy inspector general (DIG) NK Tiwari and Commandant of the 132nd battalion SS Dabas, whose men were tasked with securing the international border in Punjab, have also been transferred pending inquiry, officials said. The officials said a fact-finding team was also scouring the frontier locations for evidence. The officers have been replaced by DIG A Srinivasan and Commandant IP Bhatia, an official said. The court of inquiry will ascertain the role of the commanders in the backdrop of Pathankot attack and few others in the Jammu area where BSF mans the international border. The officials said while the BSF had found no evidence to say that the international border had been breached or infiltrated, the NIA investigation into these cases will also throw more light apart from the CoI. The BSFs role has come under scrutiny after intelligence reports suggested that the terrorists who perpetrated the January 2 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot had possibly crossed over from Bamiyal area in Gurdaspur district, which has patches of riverine and unfenced border areas. While senior officials led by BSF director general DK Pathak have toured the forward areas after the attack, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said the force had already been asked to give details of areas from where the terrorists could have entered. Former Union minister of state for coal Dilip Ray became the first minister of the erstwhile NDA government to be summoned as an accused in a coal scam case, with a special court on Monday directing him and five others to appear before it on February 26. Besides Ray, who was the Minister of State for Coal in 1999 in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, the court summoned two senior officials of the Ministry of Coal (MoC) at that time, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam as accused. It also summoned Castron Technologies Ltd (CTL), its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla and Castron Mining Ltd (CML) as accused in the case. The case pertains to alleged irregularities in the allocation of Brahmadiha coal block in Giridih in Jharkhand to CTL in 1999. While summoning Ray and the other accused, Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar noted that the then public servants had prima facie abused their official positions and there was a concerted effort by way of a criminal conspiracy to facilitate misappropriation of the important nationalised natural resources of the country i.e. coal by M/s CTL and M/s CML. In its order, the court also noted that the accused public servants had in fact actively connived with the private parties involved so as to facilitate misappropriation of the nationalised natural resources of the country by them. Banerjee was the then Additional Secretary in MoC while Gautam was Advisor (Projects) in the ministry at that time. The accused have been summoned for the alleged offences under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act. I am of the considered opinion that prima facie there is sufficient incriminating evidence on record warranting summoning of all the six accused persons, namely M/s CTL, its director Mahendra Kumar Agarwalla, M/s CML, Dilip Ray, the then Minister of State for Coal, Pradip Kumar Banerjee and Nitya Nand Gautam for the offence under section 120-B IPC and for the offences under section 120-B/420/409 IPC and 13(1)(c) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act, the judge said. The court, which took cognisance of CBIs charge sheet filed in the case, directed all the accused to appear before it on February 26. In its charge sheet, CBI has said that name of former BJP Rajya Sabha member P K Agarwalla was not being recommended for prosecution as he has since expired. The ruling Congress has plastered the state with cartoons ridiculing Prime Minister Narenda Modi ahead of his trip to push BJPs mission of winning the forthcoming assembly election. Aahise sapunor sadagor gagan fola bhashonere pratisruti diboloi tenga aam punor besiboloi? taunts one of the posters bearing a caricature of Modi. These Assamese phrases translate into: The dream merchant is coming to pierce the sky with lofty promises will he sell you sour mangoes again? Another poster asks in rhyme: Development or destruction? The PM tours the world as price-rise reduces the country to ashes. The Congress has also mocked Modis fetish for signature suits, as a banner reads: Your Rs 15 lakh did not come because he purchased his suit-boots. The campaign is aimed at BJPs pretentious love for Assam too, as evident from a poster that says: What have the PM and Delhi-based BJP ministers actually given Assam after 210 visits? The new series, launched after the mid-January Magh or Bhogali Bihu, shows Modi as an agitated but confused leader. These posters are unlike the Congress New Year campaign that were more general and borrowed from popular Bollywood films. The death of a 26-year-old Dalit PhD scholar who committed suicide in a hostel room in Hyderabad Central University (HCU) took a political turn on Monday as student groups and the Opposition demanded immediate action in the case. Rohith Vemula, a second year PhD student, was among five research scholars who were suspended by the central university administration in August last year after being accused of assaulting a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The issue has taken a political turn with allegations that the extreme action against the students was a result of discrimination against Dalits at the behest of Union labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya, who along with and university vice chancellor Appa Rao Podile, has been booked on the charge of abetment to suicide. Earlier in August 2015, Dattatreya had written to Union HRD minister Smriti Irani alleging that university had become a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. He had also alleged that the university administration had turned into a mute spectator to such events. However, Dattatreya, while defending his move to write to the HRD minister, denied any involvement of the BJP or him in the suspension of the Dalit students. I had received a representation from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leaders that they were beaten up by anti-national and anti-social elements. I forwarded the same to the ministry. I dont know what action was taken on this, Dattatreya told reporters on Monday. Read | Dalit scholar suicide: Union minister charged, Hyderabad Univ tense Nonetheless, the Congress seized the opportunity and demanded that the Union minister be removed from the Cabinet. The minister, against whom an FIR was filed, should immediately be removed from the Cabinet. The vice chancellor and others involved in this crime should also be removed from their respective posts, Congress spokesperson RPN Singh said. Meanwhile, student organisations under the banner of Left-affiliated All India Students Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI) and Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) upped the ante by marching to Shastri Bhawan demanding a response from the government and HRD minister Smriti Irani over the action that led to the suicide. The protest turned violent as students tried to jump over barricades and attacked security personnel causing injuries and prompting the police to use water cannons and detain students. Around 70 students were detained after scores of them engaged in violent protest outside the HRD ministry to vent their ire over the incident. The protest turned violent and several police officials including an additional DCP and SHO of Connaught Place police station were injured, DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said. The HRD ministry has constituted a two-member fact finding team to look into the incidents that led to the suicide, but Smriti Irani has said the Centre will not intervene. Everyone knows that in central universities, the administrative control belongs only to the varsity. The government has no role to play, Irani told ANI. Read | Death as a Dalit: What Rohith Vemulas suicide tells about India Bangladesh said on Monday it is preparing to send Abdul Rauf alias Daud Merchant, an associate of mob boss Dawood Ibrahim who was convicted of the murder of music baron Gulshan Kumar, to India. Home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Merchant, who was arrested in 2009 for illegally entering Bangladesh, would be sent to India after he completes his jail term. A process is on to send him back, Khan said in Dhaka. He said the government would send back foreign criminals, including Merchant, to their respective countries. Merchant was convicted by a court in Mumbai in 2002 for the 1997 murder of Gulshan Kumar. He fled India after he was granted furlough by the Bombay high court in 2009. He was arrested in Bangladesh after he entered the country without any valid documents. Merchant was convicted for intruding and illegally staying in Bangladesh and given a five-year prison term. When he completed the sentence, he was arrested again in December 2014 over possible terror links. The home ministers remarks came amid reports that Dhaka would hand over Merchant to India in exchange for opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Ahmed. Ahmed went missing in March last year from Uttara area of Dhaka at a time when he had been sending anti-government statements to the media. Two months later, he was found in Shillong city of northeast India, more than 350 km from the border with Bangladesh. His family said he was picked up by security officials. Ahmed said a group of unknown people abducted him but he had no idea what happened thereafter. Home minister Khan told reporters that it was irrelevant whether Merchant was being extradited in exchange for Ahmed. There are some foreign citizens in Bangladeshi jails. We are talking to the concerned embassies to send them back, he said. In November last year, Bangladesh handed over United Liberation Front of Asom leader Anup Chetia to India almost 18 years after he was arrested in Dhaka. A Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad killed himself on Sunday night, nearly two weeks after he and four other students were suspended by authorities and thrown out of the hostel, triggering charges of casteism. The students were on a protest strike in front of the hostel since the expulsion that followed an argument and scuffle between members of some campus groups and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. That strike has now erupted in violent protests across the campus, with an outpouring of grief and rage across universities and social media. The suspension, the ensuing strike and now, the suicide, has been met with a mixture of apathy and silence. Few outlets reported Rohith Vemulas suicide on a day Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal got ink hurled at him, but the scant coverage still exposed the macabre face of caste that is the daily reality of millions across the country. Most of us think of caste oppression through the lens of the outdated practice of untouchability, violent caste clashes in the distant countryside and in lavish biopics on the silver screen. But caste is alive in our homes and streets, simmering just underneath the surface of our glitzy malls, in our schools and colleges, in our glass-and-steel workplaces and inside our gentrified gated colonies. It is alive in who we marry and fall in love with, in who we talk to and befriend, in who we employ and who we mourn. I presents itself in its most terrifying form in the academia. The erasure of Dalit and Bahujan icons starts right from the primary and middle class textbooks that are replete with references to upper caste leaders and reformers -- think Gandhi, Rammohun Roy, Vidyasagar, Tilak -- but omits anyone else. Lower-caste students are forced to wear colour-coded bands, made to sit on the floor, served mid-day meals separately, and often bear the brunt of teacher insults. In state after state, studies have shown the drop out rate of Dalit children is way higher than their proportion of the population. If somehow, they survive schools, the very system of affirmative action designed to work for the benefit of lower-caste students, works against them. Students availing reservation are marked for humiliation in even elite universities and institutes, and with inadequate academic support and a hostile administration, many quota students fail, and some kill themselves. The caste system has always operated on monopoly of opportunity and knowledge, violently suppressing any attempt to access by lower-caste people over the centuries -- remember the traditional practice of pouring molten lead down the throat of any Dalit person trying to learn Sanskrit. That caste privilege has transformed itself into modern capital today, but the original structure still stands. That is why any conversation around caste in our colleges end up centreing around reservations, and the response is always to frame quota students as less intelligent, less worthy -- carrying on the same project of dehumanising lower-caste lives started a millenia ago. The death of Rohith Vemula has be easily framed as Left vs Right debate, added to the annals of the intolerance debate. But a far-more worthy response would be to start a conversation around the caste discrimination that surrounds us, in the monopolisation of academic spaces, teaching positions and fellowships by upper-caste scholars, in the violence that starts at the anganwadi. Honouring the life of a young student murdered by an oppressive system should mean no less. The author tweets as @dhrubo127. Views expressed are personal. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 32-year-old electrician on Monday was arrested by the special cell of the Delhi police for his alleged links with al Qaedas Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) module that was busted in December 2015. The arrest of Abdul Sami took the total number of suspected AQIS militants arrested in India in the last one month to five. The police said on Monday that Sami allegedly had undergone a year-long training at Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) training camps in Mansehra in Pakistan. The other four suspected AQIS operatives included the terror outfits India chief Mohammad Asif, madrassa teacher Abdur Rehman, fund raiser-cum-recruiter Zafar Masood and former imam of Bengalurus Masjid-e-Noorani, Maulana Syed Anzar Shah. The five arrests have been made from Delhi, Cuttack in Odisha, Bengaluru, Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh and Mewat in Haryana, the police said. This was not the first time the Delhi police had gone after Sami. A joint team of Delhi and Jharkhand police had jointly raided his flat in Jamshedpurs Dhatkidih locality around a fortnight back but he had managed to give them the slip. Samis family members had at the time told the raiding team that he had gone on jamaat (religious tour) but pleaded ignorance of his whereabouts. Sources in the police told HT that investigating agencies were monitoring his movement and were waiting for an opportune moment to nab him. He seemed to have sensed trouble after Delhi police arrested one of his colleagues, Abdul Rahman, from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha earlier this month and hence fled away from Jamshedpur, a source said. Sami is a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and was finally arrested on Monday morning from Nuh in Haryanas Mewat region following a raid conducted by a special cell team under the supervision of ACP Alok Kumar and DCP PS Kushwah. He was brought to Delhi and produced before a city court that sent him to police custody till February 1. Read: Al Qaeda-linked Bengaluru madrasa teacher sent to police custody A senior investigating officer said Sami was working under Abdur Rehman, the cleric who was arrested on December 15, 2015, from his mardassa in Cuttack, immediately after Asifs arrest in Delhis Seelampur. The preliminary interrogation of Sami has revealed that he was associated with Rehman since 2001. Sami had disclosed that he was radicalized by Rehman after he met him at a religious ceremony where Rehman had delivered provocative speeches to motivate Muslims youths towards jihad. Sami was only 16 years old when he was indoctrinated by Rehman, said the officer, adding that Samis name surfaced during Rehmans interrogation. Sami, the officer said, is the second suspected AQIS militant from Jamshedpur who has been indoctrinated by Rehman the other being Abdul Sattar. In 2014, Sami went to Dubai on work Visa and from there he entered Pakistan with the help of Lashkar-e-Toibas sleeper cell agents based in the two countries. He underwent a rigorous training at LeTs training camps where he was trained in handling sophisticated weapons, preparing bombs, and use of internet and computer, the officer said. In January 2015, Sami returned to India through Sharjah and Kathmandu in Nepal and reported about his arrival to Rehman who asked him to remain underground till further instructions. After the formation of AQIS, for which Rehman had been tasked to recruit new faces, he asked Sami to join the terror outfit. Sami has been claiming that he was yet to receive any instructions from Rehman about the outfits terror plans in India. He fled his hometown and was hiding in Nuh after AQIS India module was busted by our teams, said another investigator. The police are interrogating Sami further to ascertain his role in previous terror strikes in the country and the objective behind his training in Pakistan. (With inputs from Ranchi) Read: Suspected al Qaeda terrorist asked to recruit Indian youth: Police DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi on Monday was granted exemption from personal appearance in a defamation case filed by chief minister J Jayalalithaa for his statement criticising her government in statement in Murasoli journal. The 92-year-old former chief minister spent just 30 seconds inside the court room located near the Madras high court. After his appearance, the case was posted for March 10 in which the DMK supremo need not appear in person as his plea for exemption was granted. Later speaking to the media, Karunanidhi said it was the habit of the chief minister to file defamation cases against anyone criticising the government. What is defamatory in that is we do not know. Only the government knows, he said. Anybody writing against the government or talking against the government has defamation cases slapped, he said. The government had filed a case against Karunanidhi in November last year after his statement, containing matter from an article appearing in Ananda Vikatan magazine, was printed in the DMK mouthpiece Murasoli daily. Jayalalithaa had also filed a case against Ananda Vikatan. Justice will prevail, Karunanidhi said in response to a question during the brief interaction with media persons at the court premises. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON AUBURN | The Rev. Brian Whitley urged folks Sunday to respect Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a commemoration, not a vacation. Whitley, pastor of the Souls Healing Ministry, spoke of Kings legacy during a celebration of the civil rights leader. The gathering was the 41st annual Auburn-wide observance for King, a pastor and human rights activist who championed his beliefs until his assassination in April 1968. Dozens took to the Thompson Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Auburn on Sunday for the ceremonies, including Mayor Michael Quill, a representative from U.S. Rep. John Katkos office and Keith Batman, chairman of the Cayuga County Legislature. Quill read a formal proclamation to honor Monday as Martin Luther King Jr. Day throughout the city. Whitleys message extended to all of those gathered during his keynote speech. The pastor said people, like King, died for certain freedoms and the pursuit of happiness. "Its not a day amen we should look at as a day off. It should not be looked at as a day off from school or work, but a day to recognize the efforts and the work done by Dr. King, Whitley said before adding, "Dr. King paved the way." Sundays celebration included performances from the Auburn City-Wide Community Choir and the Peoples A.M.E. Zion Church Choir. Proceeds from the ceremony, which was first started by four area churches, will go toward a college scholarship program for high school seniors. Prior to the keynote address, passages from Kings famous "I have a dream" speech were read by 11-year-old KaeVaughn Martin and 8-year-old Dy'Mere Singleton, both of Auburn. Whitley believethe dream still alive," but said there is still work to be done for Kings vision to be fully realized. "Is there still room for equality? Yes. Does racism still exist? Yes," Whitley said. "All of these things still exist, amen, but if it was not for the faith, the commitment, the strength, the fortitude, the passion of Dr. King, where would we be today?" Friendship between India and Pakistan was the biggest dream of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. We believe that the moment of glory for Mufti Sahib was when our Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Lahore. He (Mufti) was monitoring it from his death bed, PDP leader Naeem Akhtar said, soon after a five-hour meeting in which Mehbooba Mufti, daughter and heir, was authorised to take a final decision on whether to continue their alliance with the BJP. Akhtar perhaps forgot to--or chose not to--mention that Mufti Sayeed had another dream: that of bringing the two diverse regions of Jammu and Kashmir closer. Both are demographically apart and therefore also at sharp political variance with each other. Jammu backs the BJP and the Valley voted in large numbers to keep the BJP out. That the Valley fears the abrogation of Article 370 that gives the sensitive border state a special status is well known. Despite the hard political reality that makes the BJP and the PDP strange bedfellows, the Mufti was clear that joining hands was the only way forward. In the middle of nail-biting negotiations between the two, Sayeed flew out to Mumbai to play a few hands of bridge. There, in the financial capital, he also chose to do a few interviews, one of which was with this paper. He shared his thought process and did not mince his words. Ideologically we are North Pole and South Pole but the state has given us a historic opportunity to unite Jammu with Kashmir and to unite the state with India. It is important to connect the two regions and I believe I can do it. I am saying, delegate the responsibility to me. VP Singh used to tell me that politics is the art of possibility and of managing contradictions. Let me tell you on record, I want to leave a legacy. I see an opportunity to mend the two divide between the two regions of Jammu and Kashmir and I will form a government only with the BJP, or Im out. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah had offered to support the PDP after the fractured mandate in the state but Sayeed was clear. The clarity was there despite his knowing that his daughter Mehbooba, who is singularly responsible for the creation and the electoral success of the PDP, was dead set against an alliance with the right-wing part that not only often spoke of abrogating Article 370 but also against the dilution of the draconian armed forces special powers act that the entire Valley has agitated about. For Mehbooba, the tie-up with the BJP is an anti-thesis of everything the PDP stands for and she knows that it costing the party. Her stronghold of south Kashmir is also the area from where young and educated boys are taking to militancy and she knows, like most in her party do, that this is partly if not entirely a reaction to what is seen as an unholy alliance. The soon-to-be first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir is taking her time in formalising the arrangement but that is the only path she can choose for the alliance is a legacy (to repeat Sayeeds word) she has to take forward. It is literally like his last wish. Mehbooba may, in the future, weigh her political options but this is certainly not the time to pull the plug. Mufti Saeeds death can definitely not be the reason. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Police charged Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya on Monday with abetting the suicide of a Dalit scholar at the University of Hyderabad as the Centre constituted a probe into the incident that triggered an outpouring of grief and rage on social media. The university campus was tense all day as hundreds of students clashed with security personnel over the death of research scholar Rohith Vemula and authorities clamped prohibitory orders. In Delhi, police fired water cannons at several groups demonstrating outside the human resource development ministrys office. Officials at Hyderabads Gachibowli police station said the labour minister was also booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act following allegations that he orchestrated the suspension of Rohith and four other Dalit students from the university hostel. Rohith Vemula allegedly hanged himself in his hostel room. (HT Photo) Police also registered a case for abetment of suicide against University of Hyderabad vice-chancellor Appa Rao and two Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad leaders, Sushil Kumar and Vishnu. We have booked a case on a complaint by a student. We will conduct further investigations, Gachibowli inspector J Ramesh Kumar told HT. Read | Dalit scholars suicide takes political colour, pressure mounts on govt In a controversial letter last year to HRD minister Smriti Irani that purportedly led to the suicide, Dattatreya had called the university a den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics. This could be visualized from the fact that when Yakub Memon was hanged, a dominant students union that is Ambedkar Students Association has held protest against the execution, he had said. An HRD ministry spokesperson said a two-member team had left for Hyderabad and would be meeting the victims family soon. The report of the panel would shape the governments response in the case. Rohith, a second-year research scholar from the science, technology and society studies department, and others were suspended from the hostel last year following allegations that they attacked Sushil Kumar after a screening of the controversial documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai. Earlier this month, the five students were thrown out of the hostel amid allegations they were denied access to campus facilities, except their classrooms and respective workshops, on recommendation by an executive committee of the university. Since then, they were protesting against the undemocratic social boycott, sleeping in a makeshift tent on the campus. They also laid siege to the administrative building in protest. Rohiths mother Radhika sat on a dharna on the campus along with several students and Dalit leaders, saying she wouldnt move until vice-chancellor Appa Rao explained the reasons behind suspending her son. Students demanded compensation and a government job for Rohiths family as well as punishment to the guilty, saying the incident indicated the growing influence of Hindutva forces and saffronisation of the campus. The last rites were performed at Amberpet crematorium in the evening amid tight police security. The 28-year-old hailing from Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh was found hanging at a friends hostel room around 7.30 pm on Sunday. He came from a poor background and held a scholarship under the University Grants Commissions Junior Research Fellowship programme. As news spread of his death, hundreds gathered at the university and social media was flooded with quotes from his suicide note, where he wrote in great detail about his dreams of becoming a writer and scientist. He also alleged that he hadnt received his fellowship money for several months. The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of star dust. In every field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living, he wrote in the note. Read | Death as a Dalit: What Rohith Vemulas suicide tells about India In a twist in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, the Centre has agreed to hand over reins of the investigation into the disappearance of key witness Dilip Patidar to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), sources told HT. The NIA is already probing the blast that killed four people on September 29, 2008, in Maharashtras Malegaon town. The NIA suspects that Patidars disappearance is linked with a key recovery in the Malegaon blast case...Therefore, the NIA requested for transfer of the probe into Patidars disappearance to it, said a senior home ministry official. According to sources, the NIA suspects that Patidar was made to disappear as he was witness to a crucial recovery with regard to Lt Col Prasad Purohit, one of the key accused in the case. The agency sleuths suspect that Patidar may no longer be alive. Patidar was initially picked up the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad, which was originally investigating the blast, on November 10, 2008, from his rented accommodation in Indore. The Indore house had been rented from the brother of one Ramchandra Kalsangra, an alleged Hindu extremist who is wanted in around half a dozen terror cases and is absconding. In its probe, the CBI found that Patidar was taken to Mumbai by the ATS personnel and he remained in their custody for 10 days. The ATS claimed before the CBI that Patidar was allowed to return to Indore on November 21 but he never reached there. He has since been untraceable. Meanwhile, Malegaon blast accused lieutenant colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit on Monday approached the Bombay high court seeking bail in the case. Purohit, who has been in custody since his arrest seven years ago, claimed that he has an indefensible right to bail. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Pakistan will not make public any information on the probe into the Pathankot terror attack until the joint investigation team (JIT) completes its work, Law Minister of Punjab province Rana Sanaullah has said. Sanaullah said that a joint investigation team has been constituted to investigate the January 2 terrorist attack in Pathankot. India has sought action by Pakistan on the evidence provided for apprehending the JeM terrorists suspected to have been involved in the attack. India has linked the fate of the Foreign Secretary-level talks to action by Pakistan. Nothing about the work of joint investigation team would be made public until it finished its job, Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying. Whenever Pakistan embarked on the journey to progress, its enemies started to mislead people and used them to stop development, he added. India and Pakistan were to hold Foreign Secretary-level talks on in Janaury 15 which were rescheduled after the attack. The BJP remains confident it will be able to continue its ruling coalition with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu and Kashmir, picking up signs of a resolution in the latters stand that their agenda of alliance was a sacred document. PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti has been authorised by her party to make a decision on continuing the alliance with the BJP after her father and state chief minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed died on January 7. The state is now under governors rule. On Sunday, the PDP said the agenda of alliance was a sacred document for them, but it wasnt yet clear when a decision on the coalition would come. We treat this as PDPs inclination to continue in the alliance. However, we are still waiting to hear from them, a BJP leader in Delhi told HT. We have already communicated to the PDP that we would like the government to continue for the welfare of all the three regions of the state. Moreover, the BJP leadership remains skeptical about reports that Mehbooba wanted to renegotiate the terms of engagement, possibly laying claim to some key infrastructure portfolios that the BJP held in the previous government. BJP leaders say no formal communication has been made to them to this effect so far. The previous arrangement was reached at after a long process of negotiations and of consultations. Ideally, those terms of engagement should remain the same to provide a stable government, said another BJP leader closely involved with the developments. We will look into all such issues only when they come before us. National Conference patron and PDPs rival Farooq Abdullah has also asked the BJP and the PDP to decide quickly. Abdullah told a news channel that a state like Jammu and Kashmir cant go on like this without a government. If they cant form a government, there should be fresh election, Abdullah had earlier said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A 28-year-old Dalit research scholar of the University of Hyderabad was found hanging at the central universitys hostel room inside the campus on Sunday, police said. Rohith Vemula, a second-year PhD scholar from the science, technology and society studies department, and four others were suspended from the hostel last September following allegations that they attacked a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad after a screening of the controversial documentary Muzaffarnagar Baaki Hai. Vemula, who belonged to Guntur district in Andhra Pradesh, came from a poor background and held a scholarship under the University Grants Commissions Junior Research Fellowship programme. Earlier this month, the five students all members of the Ambedkar Students Union were thrown out of the hostel, denied access to campus facilities, except their classrooms and respective workshops, on the recommendation by an executive committee of the university. The suspension of Rohith was revoked later. Further investigation in the case is on. Students clashed with security personnel and authorities clamped prohibitory orders on Monday amid an outpouring of grief and rage on social media. They had demanded that a case under SC/ST atrocity act should be lodged against Union minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya while alleging that he had written to HRD ministry seeking action against these research scholars. Police have now charged Dattatreya with abetting the suicide of the Dalit scholar. Officials at Gachibowli police station said the labour minister was also booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act for allegedly orchestrating the suspension of Vemula and four other students from the university hostel. Four sisters and their relatives allegedly battered to death a neighbour in an Uttar Pradesh village, with the accused saying the man raped one of the girls. Police said Shahabuddin entered the familys home in a drunken state on Saturday night after which the inhabitants bludgeoned him with bricks and threw the body out on the street. The body has been sent for post-mortem examination and we are waiting for the report to press charges, said SP (city) Samir Saurav. However, the deceaseds brother filed a complaint with police, saying the girls beat Shahabuddin to death while he was returning to his home from a local shop. Authorities detained the eldest sister and called the family to the police station for investigation. Later, one of the sisters lodged a rape complaint against Shahabuddin. According to the complaint filed by the girl, Shahabuddin entered their house on Saturday night when everyone was sleeping and allegedly raped her. She managed to raise an alarm after which her family members thrashed Shahabuddin, which led to his death. The girl underwent a medical examination and police are waiting for the report. Both parties have filed complaints against each other, and we have set up a team to investigate the case, said Saurav. According to sources, the girls knew Shahabuddin who was a frequent visitor at their home. The motive of the murder is still not clear, the SP said. President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday expressed concerns over the declining quality of education and said if the trend is not reversed quickly, the nation will see a situation were people will have degrees but not proficiency. Mukherjee was speaking at a function organised at Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida to announce the name of the first NGO which will be awarded a grant of Rs. 5 crore. The grant will come from a corpus fund of Rs. 100 crore announced by HCL Foundation to support NGOs and individuals involved in social work. The NGO, Going to School, was selected from among the six finalists for the grant. HCL founder Shiv Nadar said the foundation will provide the money within the next five years. Though proliferation has led to a greater access, its negative fallout on standards is alarming. If the declining quality of education, particularly in the area of higher learning, is not reversed quickly, we will land ourselves in a scenario of having a large number of people with degrees but not enough manpower with proficiency, said Mukherjee. Governor of Uttar Pradesh Ram Naik was the chief guest of the occasion, while Uttar Pradesh minister of state for labour and employment Shahid Manzoor was the special guest. The President said private institutions account for about 60% of the students enrolled in higher education. We cannot afford to produce workers and professionals who fail to meet the skill levels required by a growing economic system. Hence, access to learning opportunities and the pursuit of excellence must both receive equal attention, he said. The President expressed happiness that in 2015, two Indian institutions were, for the first time, figured among the top 200 universities in international rankings. He said he was confident that many more will join the two institutes in the coming years. Governor Naik said on the one hand, India has a large percentage of people who do not pursue higher education and on the other hand, a large number of scientists and engineers in the world are Indians. That is one of the greatest challenges before our higher education system. Education is not just to get good employment but also to give employment. Please use the knowledge that you learn here in the service of your country, the governor said. Shiv Nadar, founder and chairman of HCL and Shiv Nadar Foundation, said, We are committed to our mission of nation building and empowering the youth. With our emphasis on multi-disciplinary learning, a student-centric approach and a strong focus on research, we are constantly working to play a key role in raising the benchmarks of Indias higher education system. Two men on a motorcycle fired upon Rashtriya Swayamswak Sangh (RSS) leader Naresh Kumar (38) in the wee hours of Monday at Kidwai Nagars Shaheedi Park in Ludhiana and fled. The RSS leader jumped aside to dodge the bullets and injured his hand a bit in the process. Some of the locals ran after the attackers but failed to catch them. Police commissioner Paramraj Singh Umranangal and deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Narinder Bhargav inspected the scene of crime and deployed heavy force in the city, later. Read: Punjab BJP chief condemns attack A security camera captured the accused in their act of getting away. A case under Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sections 25 (firing of guns in contravention of law) 27 (punishment for using arms) 54 (amendments relating to arms and ammunition) and 59 (fee payable on petition for appeal) of the Arms Act has been registered against the unidentified attackers. A Shakha officiator of radical Hindu organisation RSS, Naresh Kumar has told the police that he was at the park to conduct the Sangh activities when he noticed two men behind the trees at the entrance. They had covered their faces with blankets and woollen caps. I asked them to state their business and when they told me they were out there waiting for someone, I asked them to sit in the park and walked back inside, said the RSS leader, adding: One of them followed me inside and asked me if I was a local. When I said I was, he took out a gun and shot at me. I jumped aside to save myself. The other RSS workers and morning walkers gathered around and raised an alarm, forcing the attackers to flee. Read: Captain condemns attack on RSS leader in Ludhiana Police have recovered a bullet casing from the spot. Police commissioner Umranangal has ruled out that this was a possible terrorist attack. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday expressed grief over the Panama boat tragedy in which 20 Punjabi youths who were heading to the US illegally are feared drowned. Conveying his condolences to the bereaved families, Badal said the state government was at their beck and call. I am deeply anguished to learn about the deaths of these sons of the soil, he added. The CM said he was in constant touch with the Union Ministry of External Affairs. The director general of police (DGP) has also started an inquiry. Meanwhile, deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to send a team to the South American country to expose the human-trafficking racket responsible for the boat tragedy. On Monday, when he spoke to Swaraj over telephone, she assured him that the Union government would reach out to the victims. He told her that the Punjab government was sending its senior officials to the US to trace the survivor. Sukhbir told her that he had reports that 25 youths from Punjab were feared dead in this incident. The boat capsized on January 10 and the parents of the youths on board got to know on January 12 and 13, the deputy CM told the foreign minister. Kapurthala Police have already registered a case against two travel agents. Call for updates A 24-hour control room has been formed at Punjab Civil Secretariat in Chandigarh to keep the families of the victims updated. Any relative of the victims can call at 0172-2740397 and 2740859, or send a fax to 2740936 for information. A Syracuse woman's blood alcohol content level was nearly three times over the legal limit when her vehicle struck another Saturday at a Sennett intersection, according to New York State Police in Auburn. Jillian V. Petrera, 32, was charged with first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and aggravated driving while intoxicated, both felonies. She was also charged with two traffic infractions resulting from Saturday's accident, troopers said. Petrera, of 112 Matterson Ave., was heading northbound on County Line Road at around 3:30 p.m. when she drove through a stop sign at the intersection of Genesee Street Road, according to state police. Troopers said Petrera's vehicle struck another car driven by Auburn man Paul Rigby, 44, who was heading westbound on East Genesee Street Road with two other passengers. Petrera's Chevy Impala allegedly struck the driver's side rear door, causing Rigby's Ford Fusion to roll off the road into a ditch. Nobody was injured in the accident, according to state police. Troopers said responding investigators detected an odor of alcohol coming from Petrera and her vehicle. The Syracuse woman allegedly failed a field sobriety test and registered a .22-percent BAC. The legal limit in New York state is .08 percent. Police also ticketed Petrera for failure to yield at a stop sign and operating a motor vehicle without an inspection certificate. She was charged with felony DWI as a result of previous drunk driving convictions on her record, according to state police. Troopers said Petrera was arraigned Saturday in town of Sennett Court and was remanded to the Cayuga County Jail on $5,000 cash bail. Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday demanded an explanation from chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his deputy CM son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, over the revelations by superintendent of police Salwinder Singh in the custody of National Investigation Agency (NIA). The revelations are too grave. The Badals must come out with an answer, he said, hoping that the NIA will expand the scope of the inquiry to expose the people who helped and patronised the SP. Reacting to the SPs reported disclosure to the NIA that he was paid in diamonds for facilitating cross-border drug smuggling, Amarinder said: The Badals cant wash their hands off it by simply putting the onus on the Centre and the Union Home Ministry. The rot lies within Punjab police as much. He said the SP was an employee of the home department led by Sukhbir, who should own responsibility. The SP has been posted in the same area for a long time. How was he never noticed? Amarinder sought to know. His alleged crime is a direct outcome of the systematic undermining of the police hierarchical system by the Akalis. When police officials are made accountable to jathedars instead of own senior officers, the system is bound to collapse, he said. Read: Court allows Punjab cop Salwinder Singhs lie detector test Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has also condemned the attack on the Ludhiana RSS leader. We may not agree with the ideology of the RSS but that does not mean anybody can target its activists or create a sense of fear, said Amarinder, in a statement calling for peace and harmony, and issued here on Monday. He said that those responsible should be identified and punished, as Punjab cannot afford the repeat of the dark days of 1980s. He also condemned the ink attack on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, which had come at a function in New Delhi on Sunday. It is highly condemnable and unacceptable in a democracy, and no way to settle a difference of opinion, he stated, adding: Whether you hurl a shoe or smear ink on someone, it is a sign of intolerance, which should not be encouraged. There is an eerie silence in this village, about 30 km from Jalandhar city, whose resident Jaswinder Singh Sonu, 28, has reportedly claimed that he survived the Panama boat tragedy in which at least 20 Punjabi youths are feared drowned. Though the families of two Kapurthala youths, who are presumed to be among the victims, claim that an elder from Sonus family told them about the tragedy, there is no confirmation from his family. When the HT team visited Sonus house, his wife Raju Kaur said, My husband has not made any call to us in the past more than 20 days. I dont know who is saying that he witnessed the tragedy. Please leave us alone and dont compel us to share anything with you. We are not even sure if he is dead or alive. We are equally disturbed. Later, when other mediapersons reached Sonus house, it was found locked. As per villagers, Sonu had left for the US about a month ago after attending a relatives marriage here. They said he was working in a local cable network at Bhogpur, near here, and had gone abroad thrice in the past six months for job purposes. A few days before he left for the US, I asked Sonu why he used to come back so soon. He replied that there were visa issues, a village resident said. Kapurthala youth Gurdeep Singhs father Balwinder Singh told HT that an elderly man from Sonus family visited them on Sunday morning, claiming that Gurdeep and Gurwinder Singh were feared dead in a boat tragedy on January 10 along with other youths. Sonu reportedly made this call on January 12. Jalandhar zone inspector general (IG) Arpit Shukla said, We have not received any complaint about missing youths from other parts of the state so far. Information about these youths will be available only after we contact the US agencies through the ministry of external affairs. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON In another embarrassment to the Patiala municipal corporation (MC), the Punjab and Haryana high court has rejected its status report on illegal hoardings and appointed two court observers to check the ground reality and file a report. The team will also visit Rajpura for the purpose and submit a report before the next hearing on January 22. The courts directions came as part of the ongoing hearings in respect to illegal hoardings, advertisements and encroachments under various municipalities in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh. Just last month, the high court had come down heavily on the Patiala MC for failing to clear the citys footpaths of encroachments. According to the court orders dated January 15, the copy of which was made available on Monday, during the hearing, MCs counsel contended that all illegal hoardings and violations pertaining to the Outdoor Advertisement Policy were removed. But the petitioners, a group of NGOs, informed the court that the city was still dotted by illegal hoardings, ostensibly encouraged by MC staff, and the office of the deputy commissioner had also turned a blind eye to the menace. In light of the submissions, the high court directed advocates Harish Mehla and Seema to visit Patiala and Rajpura as court commissioners and submit a status report. Talking to HT, Harish said they would submit the fact-finding report before the high court by Friday. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the court commissioners visit, staff from MCs land branch has been going around the city to remove illegal hoardings. DC orders removal of generators Heading a meeting of the district road safety council, deputy commissioner Varun Roojam on Monday directed the MC to remove the diesel-run generators that had been set up in parking spaces and footpaths in Chhoti Baradari, citys top commercial hub. Roojam said the administration would confiscate the generators if they were not removed immediately. These generators have become a major public nuisance. The biggest casualty is the parking space, which already is a major concern in the city, he added. Several banks and commercial establishments are among the violators, who have already been issued show-cause notices by the MC. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The poaching game in poll-bound Punjab is on. The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are wooing potential turncoats to prevent them from joining the rival camp. After the Congress failed to prevent a few of its leaders from joining Arvind Kejriwals bandwagon, it has been working overtime to prevent the confidants of Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP) founder and former finance minister Manpreet Badal from going the AAP way. A day before Manpreet met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Friday to announce the merger of the two parties, the Congress was anxious to know if Gurpreet Bhatti, Manpreets key strategist, would follow suit or show up at the AAP rally at the Maghi mela. Interestingly, Manpreet was in talks with both the AAP and the Congress with Bhatti being the negotiator. Manpreet decided to go with the Congress, also since he has a direct connect with Rahul, and as of now the AAP in Punjab is more like a house on fire owing to internal wranglings and Manpreet would not have found easy acceptance. Though Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh finally got Manpreet on board after a meeting with Rahul before the Maghi mela and the three decided to make it official on January 15, the worries of the Congress came true on Friday -- the day of the merger -- as Manpreets key team comprising Bhatti, Dr Navjot Singh Dahiya and Raja Gurpreet stayed away. All three have different concerns though. Man with deep pockets Bhatti, who had contested the 2012 elections on a PPP ticket from Khanna but lost to Congress candidate Gurkirat Kotli, has more goodwill owing to his deep pockets and old affiliations with the Akali Dal -- his father was the president of Sirhind municipal committee and his uncle, Didar Singh Bhatti, won on an SAD ticket from Fatehgarh Sahib in 2007 but was denied the ticket in the 2012 elections. Bhatti would like to be in the winning team or at least get a better bargain. The Congress is learnt to be eager to even offer him a Rajya Sabha seat -- three of its seats in Punjab are due to fall vacant, including that of former union minister Manohar Singh Gill, who is not likely to get a re-nomination. When contacted, Bhatti refused to comment which way he intended to go. I have not left the PPP or its ideology. Since the party is now extinct, it is for me to decide which way I go, he said. Riding high on the popularity wave in Punjab, the AAP may not mind fielding Bhatti from assembly seats such as Samrala, Amloh, Khanna or Fatehgarh Sahib -- where his family has a political standing. Their old party, Akali Dal, has also sent him feelers to return to its fold. Weighing the best deal During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Manpreet had met Kejriwal for a tie-up but the two could not seal a deal. The estranged nephew of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal then contested unsuccessfully on the Congress symbol from Bathinda against sister-in-law Harsimrat Badal. Though in the last six months, Manpreet had met Rahul to discuss the possibility of coming together, the former had still not given up on the AAP and it was Bhatti who was in talks with Kejriwals Punjab team, including state affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh and national organisation building head Durgesh Pathak. Capt Amarinder Singh was aware of the situation and did not want the AAP to get its Punjab face in Manpreet. He, too, intensified efforts to woo Manpreet and Bhatti. Though the duos discussions with the AAP, too, had reached final stages, the Delhi AAP leadership was taking time to convince its Punjab leaders to agree on getting a Badal into the party fold. The entire poll rhetoric of the AAP in Punjab is based on Badal-bashing. Some Punjab AAP leaders opposed the idea tooth and nail while many volunteers took to social media to vent their anger. So the party was taking time to decide over Manpreets induction, an AAP leader said. While Bhatti weighs his options, other confidants of Manpreet such as Dr Navjot Dahiya and Raja Gurpreet, too, are trying to gauge if their tickets are assured in the Congress before taking the final plunge. BJP leader and MLA Jalandhar Central, Manoranjan Kalia, on Sunday slammed party colleague and former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Shanta Kumar for praising the Congress-led UPA government. In an article published in a Hindi daily on Saturday, Shanta had said the Companies Act, 2013, passed during the UPA-2 headed by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was historical. The Act mandates companies to spend at least 2% of their profit on social development. In a letter written to Shanta on Sunday, Kalia questioned the timing of the article and asked him why he was annoyed with the party. I fail to understand what has happened to the Shanta Kumar who used to give sermons on discipline to party workers. On July 21 as well, you wrote a letter to BJP national chief Amit Shah, criticising a few moves, and deliberately leaked it on the social media. Today, you have praised the UPA, Kalia wrote in the letter, which he also posted on his Facebook page. You must reply to the public what is the reason of your annoyance with the party. Kalia has also asked the Lok Sabha MP why he had not mentioned the achievements made by the NDA government since it took over from the UPA in 2014. You praised UPA, but you failed to find even a single achievement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley. Dont you like any of the initiative taken by your own government? Kalias letter read. Kalia and Shanta have no love lost. The former has been bitter ever since he was shunted out as the local bodies and industries minister of Punjab when Shanta was BJPs Punjab affairs in-charge in 2011. Later in 2012, when SAD-BJP made a comeback in the state, Kalia was again not made minister despite his seniority. Kalia has always said that Shanta had allegedly joined hands with Punjab BJP chief Kamal Sharma, Kalias rival, to ensure that he never became minister. Kalia has also blamed Shanta for the BJPs loss in the 2012 assembly polls in Himachal. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The case of Tandi Aulakh native Gurdeep Singh and Jaid village resident Gurwinder Singh, who are both feared drowned in the Panama boat tragedy, underlines how gullible Doaba youths fall into the trap of unscrupulous travel agents. Dazzled by dollar dreams, neither the youths nor their families knew to which part of the US they would be sent. Gurdeeps father Balwinder Singh said travel agent Kulwinder Singh Multani was among his best friends. Balwinder and Multani had been involved in financial dealings for the past 15 years. Gurdeeps family, which is using more than 70 acres of land on lease for agriculture, was not interested in sending him abroad. Multani visited me in October last year and told me to send my son to the US. I refused. But when he insisted, citing that he had also sent his own son to the US, I trusted him as a close friend. He promised to send Gurdeep to the US through the proper procedure. Mera muqaddar maada si... main yakin kar leya. Mere naal maari keeti Multani ne (It was my bad luck that I trusted my friend. He cheated me, said Balwinder, with tears in his eyes. The family got the last voice message from Gurdeeps number on January 6. Asin ethon chal peye haan... te 10-12 din lagan geAsin Panama nu chal paye haan Fikar ni karna. (We have left from here and it will take 10-12 days more. We are heading for Panama. Dont worry), said Gurdeep. The family is hoping against hope and has even started an akhand paath in the local gurdwara. After not getting any call from Gurdeep, his father approached Multani, who initially kept giving assurances about making contact with the youth. At last, on January 15, he admitted to have sent the youths through the Panama route. My son was never interested in going there. Only I made him do so, said Balwinder. Gurdeep, 26, has a two-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter. The family of Gurjinder, 21, said Multani and his aide Harbhajan had promised that their Class-12 passout son would be able to earn Rs 1 lakh per month in the US. When HT asked both families to which part of the US the agents had promised to take their sons, they replied that they never asked this question. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The communists have turned down the handshake offer from Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh for the 2017 state elections. The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) have clarified that they are rather planning a strong Left combine to take on the Akali-BJP alliance, the Congress and the Aam Admi Party (AAP) in the polls. In a meeting in Chandigarh on January 23 and 24, the CPIs state executive is likely to adopt a resolution to this effect. In Delhi recently, Amarinder had stated that after getting former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal into its ranks, the Congress was in talks for an alliance with the Left and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The CPI and the CPM central leaderships have both ruled out any such talks. Punjab is not even on our radar, as we have elections in five other states at hand, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury told HT over telephone. Amarinder Singh last met me long ago, when I was not even party general secretary. He had introduced me to some of his guests from Pakistan, Yechury added. The Lefts no truck with the Congress at the national level, particularly in the five states going to the polls this April, has cast its shadow over its strategy for Punjab, where its leadership is also opposed to it. CPI national council member from Punjab, Bhupinder Sambhar, said: We are working in tandem with the CPM, CPM-ML and Pasla group (CPM-Punjab of Mangat Ram Pasla) to plan public meetings in rural Punjab. We dont have to listen to Amarinder, who continues with his autocratic attitude, and especially when the Congress is no different from the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) in its policies favouring neo-liberalism. The CPIs senior national council member and Punjab affairs in-charge Shamim Faizi, who will attend the meeting starting on January 23, confirmed that the party had already resolved for a stronger Left combine in the five poll-bound states, Kerala and West Bengal especially. In Punjab, we are not for any alliance or adjustment with either the Congress or the AAP, as the Congress supports the neo-liberal policies of the BJP, while the AAP has already announced during the last parliamentary elections that they are no socialists, said Faizi. The CPMs 9-member Punjab secretariat will also meet on January 20 to build up a Left democratic alternative in the state. Punjab CPM secretary Charan Singh Virdi, who stated it, even dubbed Amarinders handshake offer totally wrong. Past pacts The CPI last had an alliance with the Congress in Punjab in the 2002 assembly elections, when it got two seats. However, the Congress won over both its legislators Nathu Ram from Malout and Gurjant Singh from Kuttiwal. The erstwhile Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP) of Manpreet Singh Badal, who has moved to the Congress, had an alliance with the CPI and seat-adjustment deal with the CPM in the 2012 state elections, and it drew a blank. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to immediately send a team to US in order to bring justice to the victims of Panama boat tragedy and expose the human trafficking racket. The union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has assured the Badal government of desired action. Punjab government too would be sending senior officials to look into the entire episode. We will send a team to US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy. said deputy CM. Punjab Government is also sending a team to Panama to rush help. Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) January 18, 2016 External Affairs Minister, @SushmaSwaraj to whom I have spoken twice on phone, has assured to rush a team to US to meet the victims of <1/3> Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) January 18, 2016 About 20 youths from Punjab headed to the US illegally are feared drowned in a boat-capsize incident at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama in the first week of this month, as reported by a survivor. Two families from Kapurthala district claim to have received the tragic news over telephone from the survivor, Sonu of Bhogpur (Jalandhar). They have approached the Kapurthala police with a complaint against travel agents Harbhajan Singh of Kapurthalas Bhatnura village and Kulwinder Singh Multani of Bhogpur, and sought help from the Indian government in tracing their sons. PunjabDGP is investigating the human trafficking case to find out how many youths from Punjab were in the ill fated boat tht capsized <3/3> Sukhbir Singh Badal (@officeofssbadal) January 18, 2016 Deputy Punjab CM has directed the director general of police and senior superintendent police, Kapurthala to take action against travel agents involved in human trafficking. Upstate New York, including our own Finger Lakes Region, is suffering under the heavy burden of high taxes, a hostile business environment and the unequal distribution of state funding. Many of my top priorities this legislative session will seek further ways to cut taxes, bring good-paying jobs back to New York and to our region, invest in improvements to our local roads and bridges and protect the safety and well being of all New Yorkers. Taxes in New York are too high, and as a result, New York is losing people, businesses, and good paying jobs to states who have lower taxes and a better economic climate. Although we have taken significant steps to cut taxes and make New York more business friendly, there is still a great deal of work to be done. We all know someone who has lost his or her job as the result of a business closure or the decision by a company to move to a more business friendly state. Families are leaving New York instead of building their futures here - and it is a trend that needs to be reversed. We must continue to promote the food and beverage industry to ignite private sector job development. The creation of the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell is a game changer for Geneva and the Central Finger Lakes Region. The Institute will help to position Cornells New York State Agricultural Experiment Station at the forefront of food safety. Most importantly, the Institute will also help to create new job opportunities for local residents. Improving our roads, bridges and transportation systems is vital for the economic future of our region and will remain a top priority for me. Investments in our infrastructure will help to create jobs, improve our local communities, increase tourism opportunities and grow our economy. We have every right to the same quality of transportation services that people downstate have, and additional state funding is critically important to our efforts to repair our local roads and keep them well maintained and secure. There is nothing more important than the safety and security of our local communities as well as our state and nation. That is why I will continue to focus on three key areas related to security: Brittanys Law, cyber security and public protection and Homeland Security. Brittanys Law represents a major step forward for New York State in our efforts to protect crime victims. By putting measures into place that enable law enforcement to track violent offenders and keep them informed of their whereabouts, Brittanys Law will undoubtedly save lives. Brittanys Law has passed the Senate every year since 2011, but continues to wane in the Assembly. We cannot continue to put innocent New Yorkers at risk and I will continue working on behalf of Brittanys family to enact this legislation into law. Cyber crime and cyber terrorism are currently the fastest growing threats to individuals in the United States. With several recent high profile breaches in both the public and private sectors, those in power must be held accountable and reaffirm their commitment to protecting our personal information. We must alter the course of the cyber security epidemic in our country by treating it for what it really is an imminent threat to our safety and security. New York State continues to be a target for terrorists and Upstate New York is not immune. This has never been more evident than the recent arrest of a Monroe County man linked to ISIS who planned to attack a restaurant in downtown Rochester with knives and a machete. The safety and security of our Finger Lakes residents must remain a top priority. Finally, repealing the SAFE Act remains one of my top priorities. Since the very day the so-called SAFE Act was enacted, I have been an outspoken critic of this law. The SAFE Act violates the freedoms of law-abiding gun owners and it does not provide a real solution to the problem of criminals who illegally obtain and use guns to commit violent crimes in our community. That is why I am leading the fight against the Governors strict gun control law and have introduced legislation that would REPEAL the SAFE Act. We must take decisive action to keep New York State moving in the right direction. By cutting taxes, investing in our food and beverage industries, reducing onerous regulations, and investing in Upstate New Yorks infrastructure, we can build a more favorable environment for businesses to grow and create jobs right here in the Finger Lakes. I will continue to work on behalf of the people in my Senate District and for those all across New York State to ensure a better future and greater opportunities for all. Even as the Punjab Police and the Union ministry of external affairs are yet to get any official confirmation about the Panama boat tragedy, in which at least 22 US-bound Punjabi youths are feared dead, two unregistered travel agents of the Doaba region were arrested on Monday for their role in illegally sending two of these youths abroad. Briefing the media, Arpit Shukla, inspector general (IG) of police, Jalandhar zone-2, said Kulwinder Singh Multani, a petrol station owner from Bhogpur (Jalandhar), and Harbhajan Singh, a retired Haryana police employee from Bhatnura village (Kapurthala), had been arrested. These travel agents were working for others in Jalandhar and New Delhi. We suspect them to be part of a major illegal immigration racket operating from Delhi, he said. The IG added that the police headquarters in Chandigarh were in touch with the Union home ministry and also trying to contact the Panama police to get details of the tragedy. Read: Panama boat tragedy: Sukhbir urges Sushma to send team to US With no specific information available, everyone is banking on the reported phone call made by a survivor, Jaswinder Singh Sonu of Laroi village near Bhogpur. As per the police, Sonus family in Laroi village informed the families of two Kapurthala youths -- Gurwinder Singh from Jaide village and Gurjeet Singh from Tandi Aulakh village -- about getting a phone call from him. Sonu reportedly told his family that on January 10, their boat capsized, adding that Gurwinder and Gurjeet were among those feared drowned. We dialled the number from which a call was received by Sonus family, but it was found switched off, the IG said. The families of the Kapurthala youths told HT that the travel agents took Rs 25 lakh each to send them to the US and asked them to board a plane from Delhi in the last week of December. As per the FIR registered by the Kapurthala police, Gurwinders father Bachan Singh claimed that he got a call from his son from Brazil on December 22 and thereafter they lost contact with him. Gurdeeps father said his son boarded a plane on December 28 and sent a voice message to them on January 7 that he had reached Panama and would make the next call after reaching the US in the next 10-12 days. However, the family did not receive any call or message subsequently. Read: 20 Punjabi youths feared drowned in Panama boat tragedy: Survivor SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON With the assembly elections only a year away, and a tough fight expected as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerges as a strong contender, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) seems to be following a please-all policy by bringing in people of all hues into the party fold. Of late, the party has been involved in a hectic exercise to revamp its different bodies and committees, something which was pending since 2013, when Sukhbir Singh Badal became party president for the second time in a row. On Sunday, SAD announced its fresh bodies and committees and they are of a mammoth composition. The SAD working committee has 155 members, 25 names figure in the advisors list, and 45 people have been inducted as permanent special invitees into the party. The names in all the committees were cleared reportedly by Sukhbir, who is also the states deputy chief minister, himself. SAD spokesman and secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema said the fresh working committee was a mix of Taksali Akalis and young, upcoming leaders. In these committees, every section and area of state has been given due representation, he said. Akali MP from Anandpur Sahib, Prem Singh Chanudmajra, told HT that getting inducted into different committees of SAD was a recognition for a large number of people working for the party in different corners of the states. Moreover, elections are approaching and the party workers and office bearers play a vital role, even if they dont contest, he added. The party had earlier announced its office bearers, district presidents and the political affairs committee (PAC). Cheema said the partys general council will be also be announced in a few days. Again, the general council is going to be a huge formation of 250 members. The newly-constituted SAD working committee has more than 150 members, including former MP Rajmohinder Singh Majitha, father of revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, and three chief parliamentary secretaries Amarpal Singh Bonny Ajnala, Harmeet Singh Sandhu and Avinash Chander. The committee also has 17 sitting MLAs, 6 former ministers and 10 former MLAs. There is no limit for the number of advisors... we actually want to bring in more and more people, but they cant be adjusted in one committee, Cheema told HT, adding that the working committee, the partys lifeline and main decision-making body, had been huge ever since SADs inception. The SAD working committee meets every four months. The 25 advisers, however, have yet to be assigned their roles. The party will also be announcing the office bearers of its overseas units, especially for Canada, UK and some other European countries. The party had announced a body for the US in August last year. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Project (APDRP), a project of the Union government, being implemented in some major cities of Punjab, will be implemented in the Jalandhar Cantonment area in the near future. Officials at the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) informed HT that in December last year, the department had awarded the project to the Shreen Developers Private Limited, a Kolkata-based company. Officials claimed that the company would complete the work in 28 months here. The first meeting on the project was held on December 21 between officials of the PSPCL and the company. Under the APDPRP (Part B), a grid sub-station of 66 KV will be set up in the area and t transformers will be upgraded. Meanwhile, the low tension and high tension wires in the cantonment area will be upgraded and defective power meters replaced with electronic ones. Under the project, the PSPCL will also rectify the problems that lead to power loss. In Jalandhar, the APDPRP (Part B) project is being carried out by Larsen and Toubro Limited. Though the last date of implementing the project was January, 50% of the metering work is still left to be done, officials at the PSPCL informed. Since the department had to procure land for the upcoming substation, we had granted the extension, but the penalty will be imposed for the rest of the work that is still left to be done, said an official at the PSPCL. Under part A of the project, the metering system of the department is upgraded while under part B, the consumer metering and transmission cables are upgraded and repaired . The project has been running in around 47 towns of Punjab for the past two years. Some of them are Amritsar, Ludhiana, Phagwara, and Nakodar. The project is wholly funded the Union government agency called the Power Finance Corporation. Under the APRDP, the PSPCL is in the process of upgrading its own internal system and enhancing its power transmission quality to the consumers. The APDRP is being executed in Jalandhar city at a cost of `176 crore. On the same lines, the department has also set up the meter pillar box system at various parts of the city, making it difficult for the miscreants to steal power and reduce the power leakage due to the fault in the transmission. Gopal Sharma, deputy chief engineer, PSPCL, could not be reached for comments. Punjab BJP president Kamal Sharma has condemned the attack on an RSS leader in Ludhiana as an act of cowardice. In a statement issued in Ludhiana on Monday evening, he demanded adequate security for the organisation and its people. He also lauded the role of Kidwai Nagar RSS shakha karyawahak Naresh Chauhan in dealing with the incident. For nine decades, the RSS is engaged in uniting India, so some forces want to terrorise its volunteers, said Sharma, demanding that those behind the attack be arrested quickly and the RSS offices and activity spots be protected. The Narendra Modi government was on Monday asked to explain to the Supreme Court whether Sikhs could be treated as a minority in Punjab where they constituted 75% of the population. Can Muslims be a minority in Kashmir (J-K)? Can Christians be a minority in Nagaland, Mizoram? a constitution bench of five judges led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur wondered. The court was hearing a Punjab government and the SGPCs demand for a minority status for the community in SGPC-run educational institutions. They are in appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court verdict declining them the relief. Any stand taken by the Centre is likely to open a Pandoras Box in the state ahead of Assembly polls to take place in 2017. It would also affect the status of other minority groups such as Muslims and Christians which are a dominant section in some states. Conscious that Akali Dal is in alliance with the BJP in Punjab, the bench asked senior advocate T.R. Andhyarujina to assist the court. The state government had in a notification issued on April 13, 2001, declared that Sikhs would be treated as a minority for admissions to SGPC-run educational institutions. This permitted them to seats between 50 to 80% of their seats for the community. The HC had stayed this notification on December 7, 2007, holding the community was not in a position where they could be deprived of their rights by another dominant group which may win in the polls. Besides, encouraging this would pose a threat to the country by promoting multi-nationalism, it had said. SC had in February 2015 refused to stay the HC order. Before the constitution bench, the SGPC lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi contended that the HC had erred in considering the strength of the Sikhs in the entire state of Punjab. It should have gone by the electoral strength of the SGPC. He called the HC ruling flawed because it had confused multi-culturalism with multi-nationalism. Linguistic and religious minorities have special rights to set up their own institutions to promote their own culture, Dwivedi argued. Otherwise this will be at the will of the majority, he suggested. Grounds such as equal opportunities cannot be injected to this right, he said. Heated debates over the rising suicides by debt-ridden farmers, and the governments promise to tackle the problem through a string of initiatives, has inspired another section of the farming community to press for their demands. Farm labourers, caught up in debt, want their swelling loans to be waived off too. In Rasoolpur village, around a hundred Dalit families are living under a debt of the cooperative society. Unable to repay, loan of Rs 9,000 each availed 10 years ago have snowballed. Now, each of these farm labourers families owes the cooperative society Rs 20,000 to Rs 70,000. If the loans from banks and zamindars (landlords) are also taken into account, then more than 250 families here are debtridden. And, with most of the farm labourers earning Rs 200 to 250 each day, the loans have only swelled. We have worked forty years in the fields, but the government only listens to the farmers... who cares about us? says a voice in the crowd at a dharamshala in Rasoolpur as a group of farm labourers huddled to work out a strategy. We are bankrupt... the government must help us... we too have contributed to the economy. Most of the farm labourers sought loans in emergencies such as a family members illness or to marry off their daughters. But with their income too low, the repayment never happened. Balwinder Singh, 55, who had borrowed Rs 10,000 from the Society will now have to pay an interest of Rs 25,000. Similarly, Baljit Kaur, 40, a widow, owes Rs 50,000, but is worried who will pay it back: Her sons are studying and she works as a domestic help, earning too little to even run the house. My four girls are yet to be married, she says. The farm labourers and their families are worried that the burden of repaying the debts will pass on to the next generations, hence an urgent need for the government to step in. The government should waive off our debts and arrange permanent employment for farm labourers, says Pendu Mazdoor Union president, Avtar Singh. Avtar has a suggestion too. The government can work on land distribution ... Panchayati land can be allow to the farm labourer class for cultivation to help us earn a decent living. Authorities at Ranchi University have announced a financial penalty of Rs 5,000 and other measures to curb rampant cheating by students, a problem that highlights the rot in Indias higher education system and the pressures young men and women face from their families to acquire a college degree. The decision comes at a time when the varsity has been struggling to tackle tech-savvy students using hi-tech gadgets to cheat during exams. In the past two years, invigilators at the university have caught at least 50 students using Bluetooth devices to cheat, sources said. Students of the institution claim that out of every ten people using such unfair means during exams, only one or two are caught. We will not stop a students promotion if he is caught cheating. However, he will have to clear the paper next year and also pay a fine of Rs 5,000,said M Raziuddin, pro vice-chancellor of Ranchi University. Copying is widespread during school and college exams in many parts of India with hundreds of people being arrested in Bihar last year after videos and photographs showed dozens of men climbing the walls of a test centre and handing answers to students inside. The academic council of the university also decided to start a new department of performing and fine arts in a bid to encourage students with an artistic flair to pursue their dreams, a communique said. This has been a long-pending demand of renowned local artists such as Haren Thakur and Vinod Ranjan. This is a welcome move Jharkhand desperately needed higher education facilities for students who aspire to become artists, said Thakur. Students aspiring to pursue careers in the fields of art leave Jharkhand for higher studies every year and the new department will help stop the exodus, he said. The council also decided to start special executive MBA courses for working professionals from 2016. The three-year programme is expected to cater to the higher education needs of working professionals who either do not want to or cannot afford to take a sabbatical, officials said. The council also approved courses on clinical nutrition and fashion designing at the Ranchi Womens College. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Jharkhand government will set up health centres in villages and hamlets inhabited by tribes whose population is dwindling, officials said. In all 2648 villages and hamlets are inhabited by particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) who number 0.11% of the states 3.29 crore population, health officials said. The Centre renamed primitive tribal groups as PVTGs in 2006. These groups, with zero or negative population growth and very low literacy rate, live on hunting wild animals and gathering forest produce. The proposal has been drawn up by the health department The entire project will be funded by the Jharkhand government, said Ashish Singhmar, state mission director of the National Health Mission (NHM), on Sunday. The financial implications of the project, to be executed next fiscal, are being drawn up. According to a NHM concept note, the project will cover eight PVTGs -- Asur, Birhor, Birajia, Korwa, Sabar, Pahariya (Baiga), Mal Pahariya and Souriya Pahariya. According to the 2011 census, only 5,000 Birhors, 6000 Birajias and 9000 Sabars lived in the state. The Unesco has tagged these tribes as critically endangered based on language. The NHM will identify districts with the highest number of PVTGs and the project is likely to be implemented in Ranchi district first, officials said. Health centres will be set up in their villages, irrespective whether they are on mountains, hills or forests. An auxiliary nurse and midwife (ANM), a sahiya (accredited health worker) and a paramedic will be posted in each village, said Dr Praveen Chandra, director-in-chief of state health services. It is a priority project for the betterment of tribal peoples health in Jharkhand by giving them access to health facilities. According to a 2014 health department report, PVTGs travel at least three to eight kilometers to reach a health centre. For Pahariyas and Asurs living in mountains, health facilities are at least 10 km away from their hamlets, the report said. In Latehar district, 11 Birajia children died of a mystery disease in 2014 and last year more than 10 PVTG children died across the state, health officials said. Mortality from common diseases, maternal and infant mortality and malnutrition are extremely high among PVTGs, more than the state average. These tribes are isolated and health and social welfare programmes hardly reach them, said Sarfaraz, a researcher on Pahariyas in Santhal Parganas. According the census, population of PVTGs in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh is 7.85 lakh, followed by Jharkhand (3.87 lakh), Andhra Pradesh (3.34 lakh), Maharashtra (2.56 lakh), Odisha (68,745) and Bihar (10,873). Real estate laws and many judgments delivered by the Supreme Court have mandated the registration of sale agreement, ie, builder-buyer agreement, but some developers have managed to find loopholes in the legal provisions and exploited homebuyers everywhere in the NCR. Legal experts say that had Section 17 of the Indian Registration Act (which makes registration of documents like sale agreement mandatory) been in practice in real estate, thousands of property buyers would not have become victims of property fraud and malpractice. Registering a sale agreement is a wise move as it is also backed by various acts such as the Indian Contract Act, Specific Relief Act and various apartment acts enforced by many states. The Uttar Pradesh Apartment Act 2010 also requires all sale agreements to be necessarily registered in UP. The downside of not registering a sale agreement was specifically highlighted by the apex court in its judgment in the TG Ashok Kumar vs Govindammal (2010) case. Unscrupulous property owners enter into agreements of sale and take huge earnest money deposits/advance, and then sell the property to others, thereby plunging the original agreement holder and the subsequent purchaser into litigation. Registration of agreements of sale will reduce such litigation. The judgment read: If all agreements of sale are compulsorily registered that will go a long way to discourage generation and circulation of black money in real estate matters, as also undervaluation of documents for purposes of stamp duty. It will also discourage the growth of land mafias and musclemen who dominate the real estate scene in various parts of the country. Several Supreme Court and high court judgments have held that unregistered agreement of sale will not be recognised in a court of law. An important judgment on this issue was delivered by the Allahabad High Court in the Vijay Kumar Sharma vs Devesh Behri Saxena case in 2007. Sharma, the owner of a disputed 465 sq mt plot in Sector 15A, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, had received Rs 7 lakh as earnest amount from Saxena and had signed a sale agreement with him on January 22, 1993. Later, Sharma had refused to honour the agreement, arguing that no completed, final, legal and binding sale agreement had been registered by the parties and the existing agreement could not be received as evidence of the alleged contract. The court, citing legal provisions, had held that the contract for sale of immovable property in Uttar Pradesh had to be a registered document and an unregistered agreement of sell of immovable property was inadmissible as evidence. Despite the legal provisions, however, many buyers complain that even if they want to get their sale-agreement registered, most developers are not interested. In such a situation, legal experts say that the state governments should take strict measures as they also stand to lose out on revenues. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON SKANEATELES | As the Skaneateles Allyn family's four generations continue to scatter across the United States, their commitment to central New York remains. This is demonstrated in the Allyn Foundation's engagement with Onondaga and Cayuga counties and with a new commitment from the family members to add proceeds from the sale of Welch Allyn Inc. to bring the foundations assets to more than $100 million by the end of 2016. Allyn Foundation Executive Director Meg OConnell, who is married to Eric Allyn, has directed the foundation since 1994. She worked for 8 to 10 years in the non-profit arena. The foundation was always well intentioned and a positive area of the company, O'Connell said, but the familys first focus was attending to the business aspect of Welch Allyn. The foundation was much smaller and there wasnt an evolved operating structure in place when OConnell took over. It was established in 1954 with $5,000 donations from father William Noah Allyn and son William G. Allyn with an additional gift of $7,000 from the company. In 2006, William G. Allyn left much of his estate more than $20 million to the Allyn Foundation When Welch Allyn was sold to Hill Rom last year for $2 billion, the proceeds were split among the 75 shareholders, which included Allyn family members. The Allyn family got together last summer to discuss the future of the foundation. Their choices included keeping the foundation the same, dissolving it or continuing to add to it. OConnell explained that some people sunset a foundation, for example the Gates Foundation. This means it will only exist for a set amount of time after Bill and Melinda Gates die. In this case, they dont leave their children to manage it. People really felt the foundation would be a visible sign to the family's commitment to the community, OConnell said. Even though members now live in Colorado, Idaho and Boston, they still want to support the quality of life in CNY. She noted that the Allyn Foundation is a place-based foundation, as opposed to being dedicated to one specific issue. For example, foundations give to medical research such as diabetes and then fund chapters across the country. The Allyn Foundation's tagline is Improving the quality of life in central New York. Its focus is access to education and healthcare, support of human services programs and moving people out of poverty. O'Connell said job creation, childcare systems and even the food bank and food pantries have been on the agenda. Only organizations with the Internal Revenue Service's nonprofit designation can apply. The foundation doesn't give to schools but will fund educational foundations, such as the Auburn Education Foundation and the Skaneateles Education Foundation, when there are specific efforts. People have great ideas and want to start their own not-for-profit, O'Connell said. She will ask, Why would you be the best person to do this, as there can be another group already working on this same issue. Many organizations are thinking of how to keep the lights on and staff doing good work because they are so immersed in their work. O'Connell often works as an adviser to those seeking funds by suggesting partnerships and making introductions connecting people to other resources and other ways to get sustainable funding. That essentially helps build the capacity of an organization by thinking and planning further ahead of the day-to day. With the decision to grow the foundation, the family is staying true to the foundation's definition of being a philanthropic leader to guide its work: "Philanthropy is an engaging, sustained activity aimed at permanent social change," the foundation's website states. "Unlike charitable giving, which entails little more than writing a check in support of a worthy cause, strategic philanthropy involves the donor more actively. It necessitates setting long-term goals, which can be achieved through rational and thoughtful decision-making, along with diligent monitoring and assessment. This requires not only capital, but vision, expertise and a long-term horizon." Recipients of grants have included Todds Fund, the former Friends of Dave Pirro Fund and Booker T. Washington Community Center, which OConnell said is much like a Boys and Girls Club. To apply for funding, contact the foundation with your project or program idea by emailing info@allynfoundation.org or calling (315) 685-5059. There are some projects I know won't fit into the mission, O'Connell said, but if the idea warrants merit, the next step is to fill out a grant application. A Bangladeshi court on Monday sentenced five members of the banned Jamaat-ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB) to 10 years in jail for their involvement in a series of bomb attacks in 2005. The group had launched a campaign in the Muslim-majority country to demand the introduction of Islamic Shariah laws and the violence left about 30 people, including judges, dead and many others wounded. On August 17, 2005, the JMB exploded more than 300 homemade bombs across the country. At the time, a government led by former prime minister Khaleda Zia was in power in coalition with the right wing Jamaat-e-Islami party. Mondays verdict in the hill district of Rangamati came against the backdrop of the Bangladesh governments efforts to suppress a resurgent JMB, blamed for recent attacks on foreigners and minority groups including Shias and Ahmadis. Dozens of JMB activists have been arrested and their dens for bomb-making have been busted. Some five JMB suspects were killed in shootouts with the police. Azizul Haque, the district and sessions judge of Rangamati district, found five men guilty and acquitted a sixth. They were accused of involvement in three blasts in Rangamati town in 2005. The decision was announced in a packed courtroom, said inspector Mominul Islam. China has 870 authentic living Buddhas or reincarnation of holy men in Buddhism, it was revealed on Monday as the Communist Party of China (CPC) launched an online database to separate genuine spiritual leaders from fake ones. Last September, the government had said there were 358 living Buddhas. The new system is being seen as Beijings attempt to involve itself further in Tibetan religious affairs. Tibetans living in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) complain of lack of religious and cultural freedom and more than 130 Tibetans have self-immolated in recent years. But the government projected the move as an effort to prevent people from being cheated by fake religious leaders. The State Administration for Religious Affairs is in charge of compiling the list of living Buddhas. The system was announced last December, and on Monday, officials launched two websites with details of the 870 living Buddhas. The first group of 870 verified living Buddhas was published on Monday. It is the first time information on the countrys religious leaders is accessible via the internet, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The government-run Buddhist Association of China (BAC) has been issuing certificates to the living Buddhas. The new system takes the regulatory process further. ...the system...publishes detailed, accurate information on living Buddhas, including photos, names, religion names, monastic titles, date of birth, religious sects, numbers of living Buddha certificates and resident monasteries, Xinhua reported. As a living Buddha, I feel genuinely happy about it, the 7th Drukhang living Buddha, Drukhang Thubten Khedrup from BAC, was quoted as saying at the launch ceremony. The new system will promote transparency and regulate reincarnation issues involving living Buddhas, he added. The atheist CPC has never been shy of involving itself in religions affairs, be it in Buddhism or Islam. For example, veils for Muslim women were recently banned in parts of Xinjiang in northwest China as part of the CPCs fight against terror. The Living Buddha reincarnation is proceeding well. Through traditional religious rituals and historical conventions like drawing lots from a golden urn, in 1995 TAR sought out and identified the reincarnation of the 10th Panchen Erdeni, and conferred and enthroned the 11th Panchen Erdeni, with the approval of the State Council (Chinas cabinet), said white paper on TAR released last September. Islamic State fighters kidnapped at least 400 civilians during an attack over the weekend on the government-held city of Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria, where more than 130 people have been killed by the terrorist group. The abductions were reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based group that closely tracks developments in areas where the IS is active. The SOHR had earlier reported that IS fighters massacred 135 people after capturing the suburb of al-Baghaliyeh on Saturday. The group quoted several reliable sources as saying that 400 civilians, including families of members of pro-government militias, were kidnapped by the terrorists from al-Baghaliyeh and from the northwest of Deir al-Zor. The kidnapped people were taken to the countryside, including Maadan area near Raqqa, the main stronghold of the IS. It is feared that the organisation (could) execute them as they did in previous incidents, SOHR said in a statement on its website. Among the 135 people killed by the IS fighters were 85 civilians. They included the families of members of the Syrian national army and National Defence Forces, a volunteer reserve force under the army, and some Baathists. The rest were pro-government fighters, SOHR said. The state-run SANA news agency also reported IS fighters had committed a massacre but it put the death toll higher at 300, including women, children, and elderly people. SOHR also said that 42 IS fighters, including several suicide bombers, were also killed in the fighting over the weekend at al-Baghaliyeh. The IS laid siege to Deir al-Zor last year, resulting in severe food shortages in the city. The group has also been accused of mass killings in the past, including the slaughter of some 200 soldiers in Raqqa aprovince. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday acquitted former military ruler Pervez Musharraf of involvement in the alleged murder of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Khan Bugti. The court in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, also acquitted former provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and former federal interior minister Aftab Sherpao, according to reports in the Pakistani media. Bugti was killed during a military operation ordered by Musharraf in 2006. The slain leader had led an armed campaign to press for more autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistans abundant natural resources. The leaders son, Jamil Bugti, had accused Musharraf and several of his aides of involvement in the killing of Akbar Bugti in an FIR filed in Dera Bugti in 2009. After the court announced its decision, Jamil Bugtis lawyer Sohail Rajput said the verdict would be challenge in a higher court. We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it, Rajput told reporters. Aftab Sherpao, who now heads the Qaumi Watan Party chief and is a member of the National Assembly or lower house of parliament, expressed satisfaction at the judgment. The court also rejected a request by Jamil Bugti to order the exhumation of his fathers body to confirm that Akbar Bugti had been buried at Dera Bugti. The verdict will provide some relief to Musharraf, who is facing a raft of civil and criminal cases in several courts in Pakistan. He has been granted bail in four other key cases, including one for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan on Monday stepped up efforts to broker peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief Gen Raheel Sharif embarking on back-to-back visits to Riyadh and Tehran. Nawaz Sharif will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Saudia Arabia on Monday. This will be followed by a meeting with Irans President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Tuesday, a statement from the Prime Ministers House said. Observers said Islamabad fears a proxy war being fought within the country if the two allies of Pakistan are not asked to pull back. Essentially there is very little Pakistan can do to convince either side, said analyst Mosharraf Zaidi. Pakistan has neither carrot nor stick for either side. Zaidi said the Prime Minister agreed to move ahead with the visits because of the insistence of Gen Sharif, who has expressed reservations over the possibility of his troops getting involved in anti-Iran operations if Pakistan joins the Saudi-led coalition against terrorism. A senior Pakistani official said that during a recent high-level meeting, the civil and military leadership was informed that Pakistan could become the stage for a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran if their relations continued to deteriorate. In the past, sectarian conflict in Pakistan has been fuelled by funding from both Saudi Arabia and Iran. We have seen Saudi Arabia pump billions into Pakistan to fund Sunni parties, including militant organisations, said politician Jibran Nasir. He said the Saudi government has deep links with Pakistans security establishment. Iran too has funded sectarian groups in Pakistan and expressed reservations over Islamabads links with Riyadh, observers said. Pakistan defence minister Khwaja Asif recently cancelled a visit to Teheran after the Saudi government expressed its reservations, according to local media reports. Three Iranian-Americans arrived in Germany after leaving Tehran on Sunday in a prisoner swap following the lifting of most international sanctions on Iran under a deal US President Barack Obama said had cut off Tehrans path to a nuclear bomb. In a sign of sustained readiness to track Iranian compliance with remaining United Nations curbs, the United States imposed fresh sanctions on 11 companies and individuals for supplying Irans ballistic missile program. The Obama administration had delayed the step for more than two weeks during tense negotiations to free five American prisoners, according to people familiar with the matter. Iran conducted a precision-guided ballistic missile test last October, violating a UN ban. This is a good day because once again we are seeing whats possible through strong American diplomacy, Obama said at the White House. These things are a reminder of what we can achieve when we lead with strength and with wisdom. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the nuclear deal as a golden page in Irans history and said the agreement could be used as a model to resolve other regional issues. The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduce the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Irans Islamic Revolution in 1979. A Swiss plane took Jason Rezaian, the Washington Posts Tehran bureau chief; Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho; and Amir Hekmati, a former US Marine from Flint, Michigan, as well as some family members, from Tehran to Geneva, Switzerland. Shortly afterward, the three left for a US military base in Germany, arriving there later on Sunday, a US State Department official said. One more Iranian-American released under the same swap, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, was not aboard the aircraft. A fifth prisoner, American student Matthew Trevithick, was released separately on Saturday, a US official said. Several Iranian-Americans held in US prisons after being charged or convicted for sanctions violations have also been released, their lawyers told Reuters on Sunday. In a statement after the release of Rezaian, Washington Post Publisher Frederick Ryan said: We are relieved that this 545-day nightmare for Jason and his family is finally over. Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 and sentenced in November to a prison term. Iranian prosecutors had accused him of espionage, charges the Post had dismissed as absurd. Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of the Idaho pastor, said in a Facebook post on Sunday that Obama called her after her husband was flown out of Iran. I am thankful for our president and all of the hard work by the White House and State Department in making this happen, said Abedini, who has appeared with US Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, a US senator and a harsh critic of the Iran nuclear deal. Months of talks The prisoner deal was the culmination of months of contacts, secret talks and legal maneuvering that came close to falling apart on at least one occasion. Speaking to parliament on Sunday, Rouhani, a pragmatic cleric elected in 2013 on promises to end Irans years of sanctions and isolation, said he looked forward to an economic future less dependent on oil exports. The exports are nevertheless likely to jump now that the United States, European Union and United Nations have scrapped the sanctions in return for Tehran complying with the deal to curb its nuclear ambitions, which Tehran says were peaceful. But Rouhani noted bitter opposition to the lifting of economic curbs from Israel, some members of the US Congress and what he called warmongers in the region - an apparent reference to some of Irans Gulf Arab adversaries, not least Saudi Arabia. Presenting the draft budget for the next Iranian fiscal year, which begins in March, Rouhani told parliament the deal was a turning point for the economy of Iran, a major oil producer virtually shut out of international markets for the past five years. He said later he expected 5 percent economic growth in the next Iranian fiscal year and assured foreign investors of political and economic stability. The nuclear negotiations which succeeded by the guidance of the Supreme Leader and support of our nation, were truly a golden page in Irans history, he said. Tens of billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets will now be unfrozen and global companies that have been barred from doing business there will be able to exploit a market hungry for everything from automobiles to airplane parts. After the prisoners were freed, it was announced that the United States and Iran settled a long-standing claim, releasing to Tehran $400 million in funds frozen since 1981 plus $1.3 billion in interest, the State Department said. The funds were part of a trust fund once used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States, which was tied up for decades in litigation at the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Crowning achievement for Rouhani In Tehran, ordinary Iranians were cautious about what the future holds after the lifting of sanctions. Many have lived under sanctions or wartime austerity for so long that they have no clear expectations about what the future might hold. The United States thaw with Iran is viewed with deep suspicion by US Republicans as well as allies of Washington in the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia. US-Iranian suspicion still remains deeply entrenched. Rouhani said economic ties would not be fully restored. Irans Gulf Arab adversaries were silent on news of the nuclear deals implementation, in what was perhaps a sign of unease at the rapprochement. Israels opposition was evident in a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night, which said that even after signing the nuclear deal, Iran had not yet abandoned its aspirations to acquire nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ruled on Saturday that Iran had fulfilled last years agreement with six world powers to curtail its nuclear program, triggering the end of sanctions. Minutes after the IAEAs ruling, the United States formally lifted banking, steel, shipping and other sanctions on Iran. The EU likewise ended all nuclear-related economic and financial sanctions against the country. Most U.N. sanctions also automatically ended. The end of sanctions means more money and prestige for Shiite Muslim Iran as it becomes deeply embroiled in the sectarian conflicts of the Middle East, notably in the Syrian civil war where its allies are facing Sunni Muslim rebels. It is also a crowning achievement for Rouhani. Britain welcomed the deals implementation, as did France, which said it would watch to ensure the deal was strictly respected. Japan said it planned to lift most of its sanctions against Iran, including a halt to fresh investments in Iranian oil and gas projects, within a few days. The European Commission said it would undertake a first technical assessment mission in February to explore energy ties with Iran. The EU executive is particularly keen to develop Iranian supplies as an alternative to Russia, whose powerful role as supplier of around a third of the EUs oil and gas has divided the bloc. At least 26 people were killed while around 15 others sustained serious injuries when an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition targeted a building used by police in Yemens capital, security officials said on Monday. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as the Houthis, said some 30 more people are believed to be still trapped under the rubble of the badly damaged building in central Sanaa. Security forces swiftly sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The officials initially announced that 20 people were killed, but later said that six bodies were unearthed from under the debris. Police vehicles parked in the facilitys courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. The targeted building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The airstrike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials, who had no further details. Reporters were barred from approaching the facility, they said, speaking Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognised government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed Sunday just outside Sanaa in an apparent airstrike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and Britains Daily Telegraph newspaper, said the statement. The fighting in Yemen has, since last March, killed more than 5,800 people. MARCELLUS | After giving what she termed her two-minute resume speech, incoming Marcellus Central School District Superintendent Michelle Brantner earned a reception and a Mustang sweatshirt during the Jan. 11 school board meeting in which she was appointed to the permanent position. Brantner explained her background, following her geographical path starting with being born and raised in Ilion. She attended SUNY Oswego, graduating with degrees in secondary education and Spanish. Of course, where does everyone go to teach Spanish?" she said. "I moved to the Potsdam area. As you can imagine, teaching Spanish on the Canadian border proved interesting. In between teaching, I lived for two summers in Guatemala. While in the North Country, she earned two master's degrees one in instructional technology and media management from SUNY Potsdam and another in educational administration from St. Lawrence University. She took her first administrative position for three years as the assistant principal at Newark High School. The Lansing Central School District then hired her as its principal. After seven years in Lansing, she became the superintendent of the Moravia Central School District. So, if you know anyone from Ilion, Norwood, Norfolk, Potsdam, Newark, Lansing, Moravia or Guatemala, we might have a connection, Brantner said. During her years in Lansing and Moravia, she met her husband, Bob, who had three children, twin girls Bethany and Afton, and a son, Drew. The twins showed up in Marcellus that night to surprise their stepmother. She had been warning the Marcellus audience that she was a bad speller and could be nostalgic and sentimental when she caught sight of her stepdaughters in the auditorium. This caused her to demonstrate the second trait, becoming overwhelmed with joy. But, she quickly pulled herself together and continued. Taking on a leadership role is a bit like a marriage," Brantner said. "You, in essence, are making a commitment to each other to stick together through thick and thin and to support each other in good times and bad. While it can be challenging, when it works it can be amazing. I'm ready to be accepted into your family and to accept you into mine, she told the audience of teachers, administrators, students and parents. My vow is that my heart will be all in from day one. Although she wont take office until July 1, she said day one started last week when she accepted the position. I will care for each of you, listen to you, lift you up, challenge you, encourage you and find the way to make it possible for you to do your best work as a parent, a community member, board member, bus driver, cleaner, secretary, teacher, administrator and other jobs that I forgot," Brantner said. "I promise to share your joys and sorrows and commit to growing and learning together with each of you. Over the next several months, I look forward to having the opportunity to learn from you. Thank you for welcoming me to the Mustang family. After her introduction, the audience was invited up to the front of the auditorium for a reception with two specialty cakes, punch and coffee. Many teachers were present and spoke enthusiastically about the appointment. Sixth-grade teacher Anita Pawlewicz said she was anticipating and looking forward to this appointment as she and many other teachers were included in the search process at different points. Fourth-grade teacher Joann Loudermilk agreed, adding that she was excited to have someone with new ideas. Marcellus High School seniors Joe Boise and Ross Filtch were in the audience for credit in Terry Hoeys class on government. They collectively felt the event was cool to observe and they enjoyed the cake. Brantner was escorted to the event by interim Superintendent Judith Pastel, who said they had worked together while Pastel was in Skaneateles and Brantner in Moravia. Pastel was enthusiastic about the appointment. I am thrilled that Michelle Brantner is coming here," Pastel said. "I was able to work with her as a colleague dealing with Cayuga County BOCES. She is extremely knowledgeable about curriculum and instruction as well as being a good listener, a good communicator. She is very genuine, so you will really get to know her." The two women will again work together over the next five months on Brantners transition to the Marcellus district. Pastel took over for Craig Tice, who moved to the superintendent position in the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District. Pastel came out of retirement to be the interim superintendent in Skaneateles before taking on the same role in Marcellus. In July, I am going to try and act retired, Pastel said. Activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that ISIS fighters allegedly abducted around 400 civilians, including women and children, as well as family members of pro-regime fighters, during the extremist group's siege on Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor on Saturday, according to The Daily Mail. The human rights group further believes that the kidnappings were executed after the extremist group attacked a number of government-held locations north of the city. Rami Abdulrahamn, head of the Observatory, states that with ISIS' reputation of brutality and barbarity, the lives of the abducted are in grave danger, reports Yahoo! News. "There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," he said. After the abduction, the civilians were allegedly taken to areas that are under the radical group's control. During the siege in the city, about 85 civilians and 50 regime forces were also killed, prompting Syria's state news agency, SANA, to refer to the events as a "massacre," according to The Saudi Gazette. If the reports are indeed true, the fatalities and the abductions would equal one of the highest tolls for a single day in the country's nearly five-year war. For more World News, click here. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. U.S. and Iraqi authorities are searching for three American contractors reported missing on Sunday from a neighborhood in Baghdad, with unconfirmed reports claiming they were kidnapped by gunmen, according to The Washington Post. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. "The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority." A senior security official in Baghdad told CNN that the contractors went missing in Iraq two days ago. "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing two days ago. They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," said the official, according to CNN. After months of relative calm, tensions have escalated in and around the Iraqi capital this week with security said to be deteriorating. Last week, more than 50 people were killed in attacks linked to the Islamic State group in Baghdad and Diyala, including an attack on a popular mall, according to Fox News. "We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans," said U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz. A report from the satellite channel al-Arabuya said the Americans were abducted by "militias" in the area of Dora in the city's south, according to The Washington Post. Both Sunni and Shiite militants are present in Baghdad, with many of the Iran-backed Shiite militias known to operate as powerful forces in Iraq. It's undetermined if this incident with the missing Americans has anything to do with the recent release of four Iranian-American prisoners in Iran, as reported by HNGN. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 2 travel alert on Friday for 14 countries exposed to Zika virus. The alert particularly addresses pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant in light of reports that thousands of Brazilian babies are suffering from microcephaly after their mothers had been exposed to the mosquito-borne virus. Microcephaly is a condition characterized by having an abnormally small head because of the brain not growing as it should. Most babies with this condition experience problems in development, according to Mayo Clinic. Some microcephaly cases lead to death. "Pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women who must travel to one of these areas should talk to their doctor or other healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites during the trip," the CDC Alert Travel said. The 14 countries included in the travel alert are: Brazil, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, French Guiana, Panama, Venezuela, Guatemala, Martinique, Suriname, Paraguay and Haiti. Brazilian authorities have reported more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly from October 2015 to January 2016, some of which have resulted in death. Although the link between microcephaly and Zika virus has not been firmly established and needs further research, the increase of microcephaly cases within a short period is alarming, and experts believe the virus has something to do with it, the CDC said. "That's a pandemic in progress," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. "It isn't as if it's turning around and dying out, it's getting worse and worse as the days go by." The Brazilian government recently announced it will fund a research dedicated to finding a vaccine for Zika virus. In the U.S., Hawaii reported on Friday the first confirmed case of a baby born with microcephaly. "The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb," Hawaii health officials told CNN. "Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii." Another U.S. resident from Harris County in Texas has been confirmed to have contracted the virus after traveling to El Salvador. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Dustin Diamond, best known for playing Screech in the sitcom "Saved by the Bell," began serving his four-month jail sentence at a Wisconsin jail after he stabbed a man during a bar fight in December 2014, according to Fox News. Diamond started his sentence on Friday at the Ozaukee County Jail. The 39-year-old actor was sentenced to four months in prison and 15 months probation after being convicted of charges including carrying a concealed weapon and disorderly conduct in June. He was acquitted of a felony charge, as HNGN previously reported. The actor stabbed a 25-year-old man in the armpit with a pocket knife during an altercation at a Port Washington bar on Christmas Day in 2014. Diamond argued that he was just trying to protect his girlfriend, Amanda Schutz, and was acting in self defence when he pulled out the weapon in an attempt to scare people off and accidentally stabbed the victim, who suffered a non-life threatening injury in the incident. Schutz was convicted of disorderly conduct, according to NBC News. The couple were also ordered by the judge to pay $1,500 as restitution fees to the victim. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. After almost five years of being shut out of international markets, Iran has finally managed to get its economic sanctions lifted. The long and arduous road for the Middle Eastern country came to a point on Saturday, when officials from the EU and the UN nuclear watchdog stating that Iran has completed the necessary steps in a deal to restrict the country's controversial nuclear program, according to The Daily Star. Director General Yukiyo Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency stated that the landmark deal is a historic event, with the lifting of Iran's economic sanctions heralding a new phase for the international community. "Relations between Iran and the IAEA now enter a new phase. It is an important day for the international community. I congratulate all those who helped make it a reality," he said, according to CNN. With the lifting of the economic sanctions, Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), could now export crude oil once more. On Sunday, a day after the announcement, the Middle Eastern country stated that it was ready to increase its exports by 500,000 barrels per day. Iran's announcement, however, seemed to come at a fairly bad time. In a market that is already bent reeling from overproduction and low demand, the influx of even more oil threatens to weigh down the market further. Worried about Iran's return to the oil market, Brent futures went down to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, the lowest level it has reached since 2003, according to Reuters. U.S. crude also took a hit, going down 38 cents at $29.04 a barrel. For more Business News, click here. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A baby was born in Hawaii with microcephaly, a condition in which the baby has a small head due to the head section not developing properly in the mother's womb. The mother of the baby had lived in Brazil for a period in 2015, after she had become pregnant. She was infected with the Zika virus there. Confirming this on Saturday, Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said, "There is no indication at this point that there is any Zika virus circulating in Hawaii. But I think it is important for us to understand that there are going to be imported cases of Zika to the United States, and we won't be surprised if we start to see some local transmission of the virus," according to Al Jazeera America. In Brazil, microcephaly has been linked with Zika virus infections. In 2015, Brazil saw a surge in the number of microcephaly births that were reported from the country's hospitals to nearly 3,500 in just the last four months. This is compared to 147 such births that took place in the whole of 2014. A pattern that Brazilian doctors noticed was that most of the mothers that were giving birth to babies with the microcephaly birth defect were infected with the Zika virus at some point during or before they became pregnant. Hence, Brazilian healthcare experts suspect that there is a link between pregnant mothers being infected with the Zika virus and then such mothers giving birth to babies with the microcephaly birth defect, according to ABC News/Associated Press. This news is very significant, as this is the first time that a case of an American previously infected with the Zika virus has given birth to a child with microcephaly on American soil, according to CNN. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Xiao Gang, the head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the person many investors view as the reason behind a recent crisis that ended up wiping $5 trillion worth of assets from the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, has offered to resign from his post, according to sources, reports Reuters. The sources, who insisted on remaining anonymous, have further stated that the embattled securities regulator had already rendered his resignation last week and that the ruling Communist Party is currently very displeased with the 57-year-old executive. Though the sources have stated that the Chinese government is yet to accept Xiao's resignation, the Chinese government had already denied the reports, stating through the regulators' official WeChat and Weibo accounts on Monday that Xiao does not have any intention to resign, reports Bloomberg Business. Formerly the head of Bank of China, Ltd., Xiao assumed his post as the head of CSRC in March 2013. During his tenure as the head of the organization, the Chinese stock market has experienced both surges and plunges. One of the most recent and most prominent plunge was the result of a "circuit-breaker" strategy that the securities regulator proposed, which enabled trading to stop when the market falls sharply. Globally criticized for driving away investors, the circuit-breaker system was scrapped days later after it went into effect, according to Quartz News. Xiao does admit to the weaknesses in the country's stock market, stating during CSRC's annual meeting that the country's economic problems were due to a number of very prominent factors. "The abnormal stock market volatility has revealed an immature market, inexperienced investors, an imperfect trading system, and inappropriate supervision mechanisms," he said. For more Business News, click here. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The weekend saw an exchange of prisoners and a nuclear deal with Iran, with President Barack Obama saying that both events would not have been possible without "smart, patient" diplomatic efforts by the United States. "This is a good day because now we see what's possible with good American diplomacy. Now our governments are talking to each other. Under the nuclear deal...Iran will not get its hands on a nuclear bomb. The region, the United States and the world will be more secure," Obama said from the White House reports FOX News. Obama was speaking a day after Iran met its obligations under the nuclear deal and released four American prisoners in exchange of seven Iranians being held in the U.S. Jason Rezaian, a Washington Post reporter; Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine; Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor; and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari were the four Americans released. "When Americans are freed, that's something we can all celebrate," Obama said, according to the Bonham Journal. With Iran agreeing to the terms of the nuclear deal, America waived off the economic sanctions that have been in force. At the same time, the Obama administration took to task 11 individuals and entities involved in the Iranian ballistic missile program and announced new penalties on them. "We will continue to enforce these sanctions vigorously. We are going to remain vigilant about it. America can do - and has done - big things when we work together. We can lead this world and make it safer and more secure," Obama said, according to the Associated Press. But not everyone saw the deal and the prisoner exchange as a positive step. "This is a loss for America. It's a win for the president's own delusions, if he thinks this is a win for smart diplomacy," said GOP presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie while campaigning in Iowa, reports Fox News. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Taiwan's president-elect Tsai Ing-wen has been warned that if she choses to "part ways with the mainland, she will go down a dead end," reports ABC. The warning, written in the Chinese-language edition of the Global Times, came from the head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhou Zhihuai. "We hope Tsai can lead the DPP out of the hallucinations of Taiwan independence, and contribute to the peaceful and common development between Taiwan and the mainland," read an editorial in The Global Times, which is published by China's ruling Communist Party's official People's Daily newspaper, reports Reuters. "There is only one China in the world, the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China and China's sovereignty and territorial integrity will not brook being broken up. The results of the Taiwan region election does not change this basic fact and the consensus of the international community," said China's Foreign Ministry in its reaction to Ing-wen's win, reports Reuters. "Our will is as strong as a rock, our attitude unswerving on the principal matter of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity," said the Taiwan Affairs Office, responsible for handling Taiwan affairs in the Chinese Cabinet, reports Al Jazeera. The Taiwan Affairs Office remained opposed to Taiwan independence but sought to work toward maintaining peace and stability in the region. "If there is no peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's new authority will find the sufferings of the people it wishes to resolve on the economy, livelihood and its youth will be as useless as looking for fish in a tree," warned Xinhua, China's official news agency, according to Al Jazeera. Ing-wen has meanwhile promised to be "steadfast in protecting this nation's sovereignty" and has repeatedly refused to accept that Taiwan and China are one nation. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said that he bought a gun on Christmas Eve to protect his family from ISIS. He also acknowledged that it was not the only weapon he owned. "I think many Americans around the country feel the same way. I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us," Rubio said, according to the New York Daily News. "In fact, if ISIS were to visit us, or our communities, at any moment, the last line of defense between ISIS and my family is the ability that I have to protect my family from them, or from a criminal, or anyone else who seeks to do us harm. Millions of Americans feel that way," he continued, according to TPM. Rubio felt that President Barack Obama was underestimating the threat ISIS posed, as Obama had said during his State of the Union address that ISIS "do not threaten our national existence." "I think playing into their hands would be to ignore the reality of what ISIS has become," Rubio said, according to CBS News. "ISIS is not just some group of radicals on the back of pickup trucks. This is a group that's grown in both influence and sophistication. Can we defeat them? Absolutely. But only if we have a real war against them, which is to find them and destroy them. And if you capture any of them alive, send them to Guantanamo and find out everything they know. We've never had a group like ISIS that has an in-depth understanding of foreign immigration practices." Rubio was also critical of Obama's handling of the Iran nuclear deal and the release of Iranian prisoners in exchange of Americans held in Iran. You can read more about that story here at HNGN. "The president has pardoned them in exchange for a release of hostages which had done nothing wrong, and it proves once again that now nations and enemies of America around the world know there's a price for Americans. If you take an American hostage, Barack Obama will cut a deal with you, whether it's Bergdahl, what he did with the Castro brothers, and now what he's done with Iran," Rubio said of the exchange. While reiterating that he was "happy" at the Americans' coming home, "they never should have been held prisoner in the first place," Rubio said, reports CBS News. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SKANEATELES | The Skaneateles Village Police Department's larceny investigation related to vehicle break-ins at the Skaneateles YMCA and Community Center last week has led to an organized gang named the Felony Lane Gang. It also resulted in the arrest of two Pompano Beach, Florida women, who were taken into custody by the Manlius Town Police Department Saturday afternoon, the day following the incident in Skaneateles. According to documents provided by Manlius police, Casey L. Silin, 33, and Angela M. Postell, 43, were both charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Silin was additionally charged with third-degree unlawfully fleeing a police officer, reckless driving, unlicensed operation, failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to comply with a lawful order. The women were arraigned Saturday night in Manlius Village Court and held without bail in the Onondaga County Justice Center. Both women have prior arrests for prostitution, Skaneateles Police Lt. Dan Coon said. One of the victims told police they were hired by three black men. The man in charge of the operation goes by the nickname Kid. After the purses were taken, they all checked into the Super 8 in Auburn using one of the victim's licenses as identification. Coon said his department is working with investigators in Auburn, Manlius and Monroe County on the recovery of property from the 10 purses taken from 10 cars in the community center parking lot sometime between 9:15 and 10:15 a.m. Friday. Coon said the Monroe County Sheriff's Office told him it has investigated this particular gang for two years. This larceny spree mimicked one at the Auburn YMCA the week before that resulted in the cooperation between Auburn and Skaneateles police departments, Coon said. In both cases, vehicles' windows were broken. All 10 purses stolen from the community center were recovered around 3 p.m. Friday in a dumpster on the Cayuga Community College campus. All 10 victims reviewed and identified their returned property at the Skaneateles department. No drivers licenses were recovered, which is unusual, Coon said. All cash is missing from the purses, but most credit cards were recovered. Although checkbooks were found, some were missing a few checks. One of the stolen debit cards was used at the Auburn YMCA Friday, but that transaction was rejected. Coon said investigators got a lucky break when two white females attempted to cash a Skaneateles victim's checks at a Fayetteville bank. The victim, who works in Skaneateles but lives in DeWitt, banks at the Fayetteville bank. When the two women pulled up to the drive-in window in a rented white Ford Escape to cash the check, bank officials recognized it was not their customer and immediately notified Manlius police. A chase ensued before the alleged perpetrators were apprehended by authorities. The two women were taken into custody and arrested. Although people don't normally associate Skaneateles with crime, Coon said residents and visitors should know that the department has had a rise in criminal calls since last summer involving items being taken from unlocked cars. Vehicles broken into when valuables are visible is a new development. We had two brand new Apple laptops taken from unlocked cars on East Genesee Street in the village, Coon said. People have to use more common sense. You cant leave valuables in your car. A new study spearheaded by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that the amount of man-made heat energy put into the Earth's oceans has doubled since the year 1997. Although scientists have long known that the majority of the man-made heat energy - over 90 percent - makes its way into the oceans as opposed to the ground, the new study used ocean data from as far back as the British Challenger research ship in the 1870s and combined it with recent methods, such as underwater monitors and computer modeling, to track the approximate amount of man-made heat absorbed by the ocean over the last 150 years. The results showed that approximately 150 zettajoules of energy were absorbed by the ocean between the years 1865 and 1997, followed by the absorption of an additional 150 over the following 18 years. This amount of energy is equal to dropping a bomb the size of Hiroshima every second for 75 years in a row. "The changes we're talking about, they are really, really big numbers," Paul Durack, coauthor of the study, said in a press release. "They are nonhuman numbers." Although the data isn't exact due to the fact that computer simulations didn't allow for accurate tracking in some decades, the raw data isn't as important as the rate of change - the increase in man-made heat in oceans is cause for concern. "After 2000 in particular the rate of change is really starting to ramp up," Durack said, meaning that the Earth is experiencing an acceleration in the amount of energy being trapped in its climate system. Even more troubling, the more that the ocean warms, the less heat it is able to absorb, meaning more heat in the air and on the surface of the Earth. "These finding have potentially serious consequences for life in the oceans as well as for patterns of ocean circulation, storm tracks and storm intensity," said Jane Lubchenco, the former chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The findings were published in the Jan. 18 issue of Nature Climate Change. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who begins serving a prison sentence in February for corruption, signed a plea deal with the state on Monday, admitting to charges of obstruction of justice in both the Talansky Affair and the Holyland Affair, putting an end to the Shula Zacken controversy once and for all, reports broadcast on local radio indicated. The deal was reportedly reached between Olmert's lawyer, who acted on behalf of his client, and the prosecutor who accused the 70-year-old of obstructing justice to begin with. According to these accusations, Olmert had tried to bribe his former secretary Shula Zacken not to testify against him in the corruption case, offering her money in exchange for her silence, according to AFP. The corruption case, otherwise known as the Holyland Affair, in question stems from charges from 2014 which allege that Olmert, as well as seven other officials and businessmen, had accepted bribes relating to the construction of Jerusalem's massive Holyland residential complex in the 2000s. He was sentenced in March, and sentenced in May to six years in prison, in what officials characterized as the largest case of corruption in Israel's history. However, the Supreme Court later reduced his sentence in December after acquitted him of the primary bribery conviction, only upholding a more minor bribery conviction thus reducing Olmert's original sentence from six years to 18 months, reported The Times Of Israel. Olmert was also sentenced to eight months in prison following a conviction in the Talansky Affair last year. In that case, he was found guilty of accepting envelopes full of cash from American businessman and fundraiser Morris Talansky between 1993 and 2002 in exchange for political favors. In total, the former PM illegally recieved, used and concealed at least $153,950. The plea deal prevents Olmert from serving his sentences back-to-back, reported the Associated Press. Instead he will sent to prison to serve the sentences concurrently, essentially being sentenced to time served, according to the Justice Ministry. Olmert will begin serving that prison sentence on Feb. 15, becoming the first Israeli leader to go to prison. @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. For some luxury hoteliers, the idea of mobile technology in hospitality is fraught. When customer service is understood as face-to-face interaction, the introduction of mobile technology is seen as an ill-suited replacement, an encroach on the time-honored traditions of hospitality. And when construed as such, there is also research that backs up these misgivings. A recent study by the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration shows that using automation - in this case self-serve check-in technology - as a replacement for in-person customer service "can impede development of employee-guest rapport and lead to lower service evaluations." Yet, we would like to offer another definition for customer service, one for which mobile technology is far more compatible. Instead of defining customer service as face to face interaction, we posit it's simply about choice. In this vein, offering guests the choice of mobile technology is just good customer service. Indeed, as the Cornell report's authors concede, guests do actually prefer automated check-in technology when the staff is nearby. The answer then, is not mobile technology as a substitute for your hotel staff, but rather as a most valuable complement - enhancing the ability for your staff to further service their guests. Just as Apple used mobile technology to redefine the notion of customer service in retail (check-out anywhere without waiting in line), and Uber used mobile technology to transform the meaning of customer service in transportation (pre-paid travel at the push of a button), mobile technology can similarly improve the provision of customer service in hospitality. Implementing mobile technology at your hotel doesn't mean changing the fundamentals of hospitality. Instead it lets you continue to deliver exceptional service, but now with more efficiency. As we discuss below, mobile technology helps leverage your staff to provide better customer service in four important ways: through mobility, through automation, by breaking down barriers and by giving control to your guests. 1. Mobility Mobile technology is, just as the name suggests, mobile. When the desktop system was the de facto computing device it made sense to give your staff desktop computers and place them both behind a desk in your hotel lobby. But just as hardware has shifted from fixed to mobile, your staff can shift from fixed in place to mobile as well. Giving your staff tablets and other mobile devices means they're able to provide services to your guests from not just behind a desk, but from anywhere and everywhere on property. So-called "desk extension" software and apps, like ALICE, take advantage of this new paradigm and return the essential element of mobility back to hospitality. In addition to extending the reach of your staff on-site, mobile technology also lets staff and guests interact off-site. Guests can use your hotel's mobile services, like apps and texting, on their own mobile devices to converse with the hotel when they're off-property, as well as both before and after their stay. The result is increased guest satisfaction, loyalty and revenue. 2. Automation Every day, your staff complete many of the same routine tasks: checking people in and out, handover reporting, night audit batch, and room assignments and mini bar tracking, just to name a few. While these tasks are all essential for the day to day operation of the hotel, they take up time your staff could be spending with your guests providing more memorable customer service experiences. By using technology to automate check-in, for example, a front desk staff member is now able to greet the guest the moment they enter the hotel as well as service more immediate requests (including, of course, check-in, if the guest prefers not to do it themselves). Another way to use technology for automation is in the mobile delivery of service, such as the mobile delivery of newspapers. Offering newspaper delivery via mobile devices not only removes the need for staff to hand-deliver the newspaper every morning, but may improve the overall guest experience by providing a wider variety of newspapers and magazines - and in more languages - than traditionally available. Augmentation by automation also extends behind the scenes, where much staff time is spent in dispatching requests between and within departments. When staff submit guest requests into a cross-department, integrated management tool like ALICE, it means requests don't have to be repeated multiple times, followed up on, or lost in the shuffle between shifts. The time your staff saves by not being on the phone or radio-ing between departments is more time your staff can spend interacting with guests and providing the kinds of high-touch guest experiences that cannot be automated. As Matthew Upchurch, CEO of luxury travel company Virtuoso, likes to say, "Automate the predictable, so you can humanize the exceptional." 3. Breaking Down Barriers Technology can augment your staff by helping to break down common barriers to customer service, such as language translation. For hotels, language barriers provide unique challenges to customer service. Even the most multilingual of staff can't hope to meet the 'round the clock needs of each and every guests without a technological assist. David Topolewski, CEO of Qooco points to the impact technology can have on improving customer service in staff language training via mobile learning. He writes, "It is impossible to separate language with service, and a high level of proficiency is needed especially when dealing with tired, jet-lagged and hungry guests Today, smartphones have become so sophisticated and ubiquitous that they offer one of the most efficient means of training for large numbers of employees anywhere, anytime, allowing learning to be conducted during a lunch break, or on the way to work." And mobile training, he adds, "has been proven to provide better results than traditional classroom-based learning." Technology can also provide a valuable stopgap when mobile training isn't an option or doesn't suffice. Translation tools, like ALICE, can provide real-time sentence-based language translation between guests and staff, as well as between the staff themselves, and instantly augment the proficiencies of your staff to elevate the customer service they provide. 4. Giving Control to Guests Increasing mobile device penetration amongst travelers and attendant changes in travel behavior and preferences are well documented. Earlier this year, Marriott VP Matthew Carroll credited the increasingly connected traveler and the corresponding shift in guest expectations for the addition of a mobile request feature to the hotel chain's mobile app. Explained Carroll: "Some 75% of people travel with one or more devices and the percentage is higher for younger travelers. We know today's travelers want a mobile experience built around their changing needs and desire to communicate on their terms." Studies confirm the desire for travelers to retain greater control of their stay through mobile. A 2015 survey from The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University, for example, asked participants how interested they would be in using their mobile devices to do things that may not be currently available via mobile at their hotel. The researchers found guests generally wanted greater automation of a wide variety of procedures and interactions, such as, (in descending order), receiving a notification on their device when their room is ready, requesting hotel amenities, checking in and out of the hotel, and ordering room service. Participants were also interested in looking at more information about their hotels, including upgrading a room before checking in, requesting reservations for on- and off-site restaurants, or having the valet retrieve the car. Offering on-demand services to your guests via mobile doesn't replace the customer service traditionally provided by your staff, but instead satisfies an expanded definition of customer service now grounded by the conveniences of the instant gratification economy. When Fashion's Collective founder Elizabeth Cannon writes about the falling customer service standards of the world's most luxurious fashion brands, she could just as well be commenting on the state of customer service today in hospitality. Says Cannon: "No one in luxury really likes to discuss customer service because the assumption is always that, as a luxury brand, there is an innate high degree of service." She continues, "The problem is not that luxury has neglected service, rather [luxury brands] have neglected the fact convenience is a measure of service and that customers now expect convenience across a multitude of experiences. After all, time is the biggest luxury of all in our modern world. As customers, we seek experiences that make us feel we are using the commodity of time in the ways possible." She concludes, "The expectation of a luxury customer will be that a premium brand will at least meet the new standards, if not exceed them." If customer service is about meeting the needs of your guest, then giving control to your guests via mobile request provides a baseline of customer service that your guests have come to expect from their everyday lives. Your staff's expertise in customer service then becomes a most valuable complement to these mobile tools, by providing guests with the kind of superior customer service experiences guests don't experience in their day-to-day. About ALICE ALICE is the leading all-in-one hospitality operations platform that enables hotel staff to do their most impactful work. Task management, real-time communication, and operational analytics reduce the complexity and chaos of hotel operations providing the transparency and flexibility needed to run efficiently. Founded in 2013, ALICE works with more than 2,500 hotels and tens of thousands of hotel staff across many of the world's leading brands, including Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Graduate Hotels, and Grupo Posadas. ALICE won 7 HotelTechAwards in 2022: winner of Best Concierge Software & Best Housekeeping Software; finalist for its Guest Messaging, Maintenance, and Staff Collaboration Tools; Top 10 People's Choice; and Top 10 Best Places to Work in Hotel Technology for the fifth straight year. https://www.aliceplatform.com/. Michael Frenkel For ALICE ALICE Australian technologies tackle food counterfeiting in regional markets Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but for many food companies that are sourcing their manufactured products in the boarder Asia region, a nasty bi-product has been the illegal copying of product lines. This can undermine the brand and the reputation of its products in those markets and Australia. When thinking of counterfeits, the first things that often comes to mind are handbags, clothes and DVDs bought on holidays in the backstreets of many Asian holiday destinations. However, food counterfeiting has become more sophisticated and now occurs in food products. This is an alarming concern for many Australian companies, especially since many buyers are now purchasing the products online. A recent report from the Chinas Ministry of Commerce showed that in the second half of 2014, nearly 40 per cent of products sold online were counterfeits. Australian food producers are however fighting back with new technologies as their weaponry. Case study 1: Beston Global Foods Beston Global Foods, which was established three years ago and has invested in the growing demand for Australian-sourced fish and dairy foods in Asian countries, has announced the development of a mobile app by which a customer can scan products in order to reveal origin and safety information. Named OZIRIS, it has been designed specifically to combat both counterfeiting as well as food safety risks of consuming a copy product. The app is expected to be available from late January/early February 2016 with the technology also becoming available for other food companies to purchase rights to use on their products too. Beston founder and Chairman, investment banker Dr Robert Sexton, who is also chairman of a $3.1 billion ASX-listed financial product group IOOF, said he believed that its technologies were a worl- first in combining food traceability with anti-counterfeiting. Case study 2: Camperdown Dairy International A second key example of an Australian company taking productive action comes from Camperdown Dairy International, an Australian-based producer of infant formulas which has developed a platform to allow Chinese consumers to quickly check the authenticity and provenance of its products using just their smartphones. Developed with product identification and inspection experts Matthews Australasia and the cloud-based authenticity platform Trust Codes, the system prints each tin of infant milk formula with a unique QR code with human-readable information managed by iDSnet. The printed QR code allows consumers to scan and identify the individual product and report its history; it also displays key information about Camperdown Dairy International, Australian dairy products, and how best to consume the product. EachTrust Code assures concerned consumers that the product is not counterfeit, is not subject to a recall, and is not beyond its shelf life among other safety checks. The Trust Codes platform uses a proprietary algorithm based on scanning history to validate each individual product. We recognised that Chinese consumers want surety that the product they give to their children is real, and is sourced from the country of origin that is stated on the packaging, said General Manager at Camperdown, Gavin Evans. We want them to be able to easily access that information with just their smartphone, and they can do this at the retail store or later at home, Evans continued. The code works with any smartphone. There is no dedicated app to download, which we considered to be a major barrier to adoption, he said. Camperdown says it is one of only eight Australian infant-formula manufacturers approved by the Chinese Government. Since being granted its Chinese infant-formula manufacturing and export licence in July 2015, Camperdown has been focused on increasing its production at its Melbourne-based production-facility to supply the expanding China and the domestic markets. MACAU -- With the start of a new year, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is pleased to announce the designation of Sheraton Macao Hotel, Cotai Central as a Sheraton Grand hotel, welcoming it to the brand's new premier tier of hotels recognized for their enticing destinations, distinguished designs and excellence in service and guest experiences. Joining 17 other Sheraton Grand properties around the world, Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central is recognized for its enviable location in the heart of the vibrant Cotai Strip, among other defining qualities. Starwood's largest hotel globally, Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel features more than 4,000 guestrooms, with luxurious suites newly introduced on the uppermost levels of the hotel. Sheraton Grand is one of many initiatives currently underway for Sheraton 2020, a comprehensive plan designed to solidify Sheraton as a leading global hotel brand of choice, everywhere. Pictured from left to right: Ms. Daniella Tonetto, General Manager of Sales & Marketing, Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central and The St. Regis Macao, Cotai Central Ms. Janet McNab, Managing Director of Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central and The St. Regis Macao, Cotai Central Mr. Kai Petry, General Manager of Operations, Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central Photo by Sheraton Hotels and Resorts "We are very pleased to be elevated to 'Grand' status," said Janet McNab, Managing Director of Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central and The St. Regis Macao, Cotai Central. "This recognition by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts inspires us to continue delivering outstanding service and memorable experiences to each and every one of our guests." In celebration of this recognition, Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel wishes to take this opportunity to reward guests with a special celebratory offer for stays from just HKD 838++. Bookings may be made between now and the end of January for stays through May 31, 2016 at:www.sheratongrandmacao.com/offers Showcasing the Best of the Sheraton Brand Around the World Having launched in August 2015, Sheraton Grand celebrates the brand's best-in-class hotels, each hand-selected based on a specific list of criteria ranging from sophisticated design and sought-after destinations, to unrivaled standards of service and impressive hotel amenities. The brand will continue to announce new Sheraton Grand properties across the globe, with the expectation of having 100 newly-designated Sheraton Grand hotels by early 2017. A Clear Vision Sheraton Grand is just one of many initiatives currently underway for Sheraton 2020, a comprehensive 10-point plan revealed in June 2015 designed to put Sheraton Hotels & Resorts firmly back into the global spotlight. A nod to the plan's clear five-year vision, Sheraton 2020 also includes a new $100 million Sheraton-focused marketing campaign; the launch of a new elevated food and beverage lobby program, Paired; continuous innovation of the Sheraton guest experience; an unwavering commitment to service excellence; the implementation of revenue and profit-driving initiatives to benefit owners and developers; and a goal of opening more than 150 new Sheraton hotels worldwide by 2020. For more information on Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, please visit www.sheratongrandmacao.com, or follow the property on Facebook and Instagram @ sheratongrandmacao. About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with more than 1,300 properties in some 100 countries and approximately 188,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences under the renowned brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, Le Meridien, Sheraton,Tribute Portfolio, Four Points by Sheraton, Aloft, and Element, along with an expanded partnership withDesign Hotels. The company also boasts one of the industrys leading loyalty programs, Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). Visit www.starwoodhotels.com for more information and stay connected @starwoodbuzz on Twitterand Instagram and facebook.com/Starwood. Jennifer Welker Assistant Director, Public Relations - Sheraton Grand Macao Hotel, Cotai Central (853) 8113 2015 Starwood It looks like you've reached a page that doesnt exist (anymore). Please use the navigation or search above to find content on Hospitality Net. Go back to home Lobby of the Cambria hotel & suites NY - Times Square Operated by Concord Hospitality, the 81,000 square-foot, 196-room Cambria hotel & suites NY Times Square is located in the heart of Manhattan's central business district at 30 W 46th St., making it a short walk from many of New York's iconic locations, including Times Square, the Theater District, Central Park and the Empire State Building. Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), Hidrock Properties and Concord Hospitality celebrated the grand opening of the new Cambria hotel & suites NY - Times Square in style last night with a vintage winter wonderland. Guests were treated to music by famed jazz musician Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra, as well as property tours and remarks by Steve Joyce, president and CEO of Choice Hotels, Michael Murphy, senior vice president of upscale brands at Choice Hotels, Mark Laport, president and CEO of Concord Hospitality and Abraham Hidary, CEO of Hidrock Properties. Operated by Concord Hospitality, the 81,000 square-foot, 196-room Cambria hotel & suites NY Times Square is located in the heart of Manhattan's central business district at 30 W 46th St., making it a short walk from many of New York's iconic locations, including Times Square, the Theater District, Central Park and the Empire State Building. "The opening of Cambria hotel & suites Times Square is a testament to the performance and appeal our award-winning brand has with business and leisure travelers alike," said Michael Murphy. "We are fortunate to be able to partner with one of the industry's top developers to grow the Cambria brand's presence in world-class markets like New York City. The sky is the limit, and we expect the Times Square location to quickly emerge as a flagship property for us moving forward." The new Cambria hotel & suites features spacious rooms with modern decor, large bathrooms and free Wifi. A lobby bar offers guests the opportunity to connect with the city, featuring outdoor seating at the front and rear of the property. In addition, the new hotel will feature a state-of-the-art fitness center, along with other fine amenities such as a contemporary bistro, Social Circle, serving a menu of local specialties; liquor, wine, beer and freshly prepared grab-and-go gourmet salads and sandwiches; and a barista bar. "We're thrilled to once again partner with Choice Hotels on the Cambria hotels & suites brand after the successful openings of Cambria Chelsea in New York last summer and Cambria Washington, D.C. in 2014," said Mark Laport. "The Cambria brand has some of the highest guest satisfaction scores in the upscale lodging segment, which is just one of the many reasons why Concord is happy to add another Cambria to our roster of over 90 hotels open in the United States and Canada." Announced in 2012, the new Times Square Cambria hotel & suites is one of three Cambria properties built simultaneously in the New York metro area over the past three years as part of the brand's growth in key urban markets. The Chelsea property in Manhattan, the downtown White Plains property, and the new Times Square Cambria hotel represent a combined investment of $141 million in New York, creating nearly 1,000 jobs and 461 hotel rooms. Nespresso releases new coffee pods Nestles Nespresso has released two new limited-edition coffee pods. The first pod is called Umutima wa Lake Kivu and its beans are sourced from Rwanda. Half of the beans are only lightly roasted to highlight its juicy fruit notes. The other half of the beans are roasted for a longer period to help create texture. Nespresso says this pod works well with milk and can be best enjoyed as a latte, cappuccino or as a macchiato. The second pod is called Tanim de Chiapas and its beans come from Mexico. The beans in this pod are similarly split-roasted with one half slowly roasted to create nutty and bready notes. The other beans undergo a darker roasting to develop a smooth texture. The pod is best enjoyed as a ristretto or espresso but can still be used to make lattes, cappuccinos or other milk-based coffees. The pods will be available from Nespresso stores and online from 20 January 2016 for a limited period, priced at AUD$9.30 for 10 pods. Each pod makes one coffee. The heartfelt on stage tributes continue! Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band belted out a spirited 'Rebel Rebel' in honour of David Bowie at their Pittsburgh gig over the weekend. Bruce recounted David inviting him down to Philadelphia to meet up during the Young American sessions and him, yet to hit commercial pay dirt, travelling there by Greyhound. We're also liking the impromptu version of 'Changes' that Robbie Williams, Rufus Wainwright and Guy Chambers belted out around the piano, and a solo Melissa Etheridge take on 'Heroes', which includes a heartwarming preamble. Aidan Lambert captured the flamboyant essence of 'Let's Dance' on stage in Nagoya, Japan and Grace Potter has done some wondrous things with Labyrinth's 'As The World Falls Down'. In case you missed it early last week, we also have EL VY and Stay Human teaming up for a funky Late Show with Stephen Colbert rendition of 'Let's Dance'. With a spider already named in his honour, it was inevitable that the Star Man would be honoured in space... A new star formation has been registered in honour of David Bowie, just a week after his death at the age of 69. The legendary south London musician died at his New York City home on Sunday, January 10, after an 18-month battle with cancer. During the course of an extraordinarily successful and highly influential career, he sold an estimated 140 million albums. He was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in January 1996. The new constellation consists of seven stars in all, which form a shape that is thought to be similar to the lightning bolt painted on Bowie's face for the cover of his classic 1973 album, Aladdin Sane. The constellation was registered by Belgium's MIRA Public Observatory and the radio station Studio Brussels. In a statement, Philippe Mollet from MIRA Public Observatory said: "Studio Brussels asked us to give Bowie a unique place in the galaxy. Advertisement "Referring to his various albums, we chose seven stars - Sigma Librae, Spica, Alpha Virginis, Zeta Centauri, SAA 204 132, and the Beta Sigma Octantis Trianguli Australis - in the vicinity of Mars. "The constellation is a copy of the iconic Bowie lightning and was recorded at the exact time of his death." This is not the first scientific naming in Bowies honour. The spider Heteropoda davidbowie is called after him. Bowie's final album Blackstar was released on Friday, January 8. It went straight to No.1 in Ireland this week, as well as in the UK, where it has already gone gold, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Germany, The Netherlands and Sweden. Though often overlooked, some of U2s most exciting and challenging music through the years is to be found hidden away on the flip side of their singles. From U23 to Melon bill graham rides the wild horses of the U2 back catalogue and finds that theres quite a few thoroughbreds among their many cover versions and experimental remixes. Rock fogies are always complaining that singles arent what they used to be. Apart from the dance 12-inch, the 45 is a declining form, saved only by indie conservationists and its continuing convenience for the lazier radio stations. The downfall of the single has also meant the death of the double-sided 45, for the Sixties generation, often the best guide to an acts creative stamina. Phil Spector might cunningly place bland and featureless instrumentals on his flipsides to guarantee airplay for the A-side but that was just another early sign of that control-freaks maverick paranoia. Otherwise, 60s buyers knew it was often worth flipping the disc. Penny Lane/ Strawberry Fields was the Beatles sublime bridge between Revolver and Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Flip the Stones You Cant Always Get What You Want and youd discover No Expectations, arguably their best country-blues lament. Or by-pass the Whos Substitute in favour of The Ox, a shuddering instrumental that may be the best example of how Pete Townshend and Keith Moon dynamised each other. Now perhaps only a writer as prolific as Elvis Costello maintains those standards. And once CD replaced vinyl as the dominant carrier and albums became 60 not 40 minutes, there was even less chance of surplus surprises finishing up on the flipside. Instead any extra tracks added to the package usually only interest the Greater Trainspotted Collector. Reheated live performances and superfluous and emotionally sterile remixes arent the stuff of legend. So how do U2 match up to the 60s test? Rather well, actually. Before they started to hit their songwriting stride at The Unforgettable Fire, theres little to enthuse anyone bar the most specialist fan but thereafter, theres definitely an albums worth of material that doesnt deserve to be left mouldering in the flipside attic. Advertisement Of course, these tracks are often less finished but thats often the point since they havent been finessed by the bands perfectionist tendencies. Listeners get the rawer STS version with Paul Barrett, not whats later gilded with Daniel Lanois. These cuts can rarely be called corporate; this is U2 unplugged from the demands of fame; quirks in each members character are far more audible. Besides the quirks, there are also clues to U2s later development. Sometimes you hear the start of ideas with which they only come to terms further down the road. Bonos Elvis fixation emerges earlier; previous pointers to the jagged pop style of Achtung Baby can be detected. They also and here critics and champions of the band inevitably divide document Bonos own highly individual creative process, searching out the emotion of the song before he settles on a finished lyric. Sometimes the last-minute man has only a verse or a chorus and warbles wordlessly. Improvisation or indulgence? Well, some of us like a sneak early preview long before the final production has been decided. Besides, taken together, these U2 B-sides document a noisier and far more informal U2, more rocknroll cinema verite than the luxurious Hollywood final cut. Not surprisingly, theres a few covers of varying merit. Their version of Creedence Clearwater Revivals Fortunate Son will gain more marks for its political sentiments than its straightforward performance but both Bonos bizarre remodelling of Presleys Cant Help Falling In Love With You and their 1989 proto-grunge version of Patti Smiths Barefoot Dancing with a hilarious Edge-perfect imitation of Neil Young, dont deserve to be filed away in obscurity. I wouldnt go so far to claim that these B-sides amount to a secret storehouse of must-hear U2 masterpieces. The quality is uneven and, quite often, its easy to understand why they didnt suit the mood of the album of the time. But they are instructive evidence of why U2 have endured. Both champions and critics of U2 tend, for good or for ill, to seize on their social significance, their business professionalism and their live performances. Somehow U2s versatility and enduring ability to musically re-invent themselves often goes unnoticed. These B-sides are often the playground where U2 first tried out their new costumes. Theres no great need to waste paragraphs on their early surplus material. U2s heavy touring schedule left scant time for fooling around in the studio. Generally their leftovers deserved their demotion to the subs bench. Still for completeness sake . . . Advertisement Of course they did begin with U23, the limited edition and collectors Grail that was their debut 12-inch single on CBS Ireland that included the first versions of Boy tracks, Out Of Control and Stories For Boys. The dynamics may be more meandering and less compressed than Steve Lillywhites production for their debut album but some may find a winning, fresh-faced charm in their first outing. Thereafter, the interest is mostly academic. Touch which backed the lone Martin Hannett production of 11 OClock Tick Tock is a raw sketch, interesting only for the more dryly metallic, nightsilver sound the late Joy Division guru gave them. But the What If question never arose. Hannett and the increasingly Christian U2 could never agree on lifestyle. Things To Make And Do, an instrumental backing their first Steve Lillywhite single, A Day Without Me adds little or nothing to the canon save the realisation that they didnt always find inspiration on their early sound-check jams. More interesting are J. Swallow backing Fire and Treasure (Whatever Happened To Pete The Chop) on the flip of New Years Day. The first is another instrumental vamp, a tamer version of the Virgin Prunes with indecipherable vocals that seem and I claim no infallibility here just to be repeating bumpity, bump. No lessons for Seamus Heaney or Brendan Kennelly in this! As for Treasure . . ., its a rather nifty pop ditty, an obvious stab at the power-pop song that would raise their radio crossover profile but unfinished without any Edge guitar fills. Only one other track from their juvenalia deserves mention, Trash, Trampoline And Party Girl backing Celebration later revived through its live version on Under A Blood Red Sky. With The Unforgettable Fire, U2 ceased being freshmen in the studio and the extra tracks also show their progress. But its also obvious why the two versions of Boomerang on the flip of Pride (In The Name Of Love) and Bass Trap on the 12-inch of The Unforgettable Fire didnt make it to the album since both could be deemed more Eno than U2. Boomerang though it shows their first and very tentative interest in the dance remix format, takes too many leaves from the Talking Heads book. And though Bass Trap is serenely ambient, Edge playing at being Robert Fripp didnt then advance the cause of U2s originality. They wouldnt have wished to have been so obviously seen as apprentices to Enos sorcerer. Advertisement Love Comes Tumbling and Three Sunrises, also on The Unforgettable Fire 12-inch, presumably got ditched for opposite reasons. Both are outside the orbit of the album but both also deserve investigation by any band looking for arcane cover material. Love Comes Tumbling is another comparatively Edge-less pop song with an almost French lilt. Three Sunrises has massed vocal harmonies and oddly jolting syncopation from both Edge and Larry Mullen that could have ended up as some curious hybrid between Duran Duran and The Cure. Then U2 hesitated to bring such ideas to fruition; today, theyd understand how. From The Joshua Tree onwards, theres real meat outside the official menu. A pattern starts to emerge. B-sides become an opportunity for Bono to let off steam, toss ideas around and not be bothered by any demands for impeccable product. Certainly both Luminous Times (Hold On To Love) and Walk To The Water, the two tracks which supported With Or Without You, deserve wider exposure. Both are intense emotional exorcisms. Luminous Times . . . whose spine is a mournful, piano-led drone, must be his most direct, heartfelt and private love song to his wife. The presumably improvised similes accumulate; she is his avalanche, car-crash, thunder, speedway and slipstream. Besides, his final confessions I love you because I understand God has given me your hand; and I love you because I need to, not because I need you add an extra dimension to the emotional oscillation of With Or Without You. As for Walk To The Water, its his first flirtation with rap. Early Dublin schoolday memories are made flesh as they werent on Boy, following some other early flame her hairs coloured gold so she cant be Allie from Summerhill, down the North Strand onto the Clontarf shore. The mood, if not the instrumentation or the vocal style, isnt that far from the memories of first loves and adolescent exploration on Astral Weeks. If these two tracks are special, the five remaining extra cuts from The Joshua Tree-era arent slouches either. I Still Havent Found (What Im Looking For) came with two additions. Spanish Eyes was Texas border rock with unfinished, improvised vocals from Bono about some gypsy love who comes in colours straight from the Arthur Lee/Love songbook. Deep In The Heart begins from a similar Edge guitar pattern but is slowed down, recontextualised and topped off by a Bono vocal line adjacent to New Years Day. The various versions of Where The Streets Have No Name came with three companions. Silver And Gold got its first band version: its tough and caustic but doesnt get under the skin of the song like the later live version on Rattle And Hum. Then there was another oddity, Race Against Time, U2 again toying with rock-dance grooves to wordless and possibly backwards vocals from Bono. Finally The Sweetest Thing was more mock-soul with Bono again in vocal undress, lyrical but pre-lyric, unbothered with studio deadlines, intense with the emotions but economic with the verbals. The Rattle And Hum surplus brought two new songs. Indeed if theyd pitched both Hallelujah (Here She Comes) and A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel alongside that albums other originals and saved all its live tracks for another independent release, who knows if U2 would have suffered the same critical flak? Probably they were riding for a fall but their later development might have been better understood. Advertisement As for the two tracks, Hallelujah (Here She Comes) with its combination of acoustic guitars and gospel-rock could have been written for the Hot House Flowers while A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel is a bad night in Elvis Presleys nightmares. Edges fierce guitar predates Achtung Baby, feuding with the back-up trio of Edna Wright, Maxine and Julia Waters. Jimmy Iovines production is compressed to a claustrophobic extent, Bonos vocals are muffled in a Plastic Ono Band shroud and the obvious model sounds like Phil Spector producing and Jimi Hendrix playing in Graceland. The basic riff may get uprooted in the sonic storm but I wouldnt quibble with the intention . . . There were also two new departures. First U2 began a set of eclectic and often abnormal covers, usually concocted with Paul Barrett in STS. Backing When Love Comes To Town was Patti Smiths Dancing Barefoot. Widely disregarded then, it now merits resurrection if only for some disc-jockey to segue it alongside Pearl Jam, as U2 play grunge in 1989 and Edge peels off an uncannily accurate Neil Young imitation for his solo. If nothing else, this throwaway shows the formulae U2 were rejecting, and why after Rattle And Hum, theyd refuse to be mock-American retro-rockers. A second set of covers with All I Want Is You were even more playfully funny. Their version of the Love Affairs Everlasting Love scuttled through early childhood memories of T.O.T.P. and with Unchained Melody, Bono again reunited Elvis Presley and Phil Spector in the far less reverential backdrop of a Northside karaoke and stag-party. They also now seriously started to examine the dance mix as the U2 3-D Dance Mix, unfortunately released only for promotion, had three Rattle And Hum tracks remixed by Louis Silas Jnr. Pride of place went to When Love Comes To Town, a genuinely successful attempt long before Primal Scream to re-adapt blues-rock for the dancefloor. Bonos vocals gets chopped and squashed, black backing vocals accentuate the gospel tip, Edge gets relegated and Larry and Adam promoted beside B.B. King. But the real coup was inserting audience cheers alongside a Little Richard sermon and gymnastic sax from David Koz in an effort to imagine a new, ecumenical but definitely sanctified and blues-driven coalition between dance and rock communities. From the vantage point of 95, these dances mixes now sound specially significant, the real bridge between Rattle And Hum and Achtung Baby. The remodelled Desire now seems a crucial blueprint, the first signal of their ambition to re-equip primitive Fifties rocknroll rhythms for the Nineties dancefloor. U2 were about to straddle a divide no other rock band dared to cross with conviction. Grunge would be reactionary in its refusal to accept the rhythms revolution of hip-hop. English bands did acknowledge the crisis and look for some Grand Unifying Theory between dance and rock but they lacked the true American RnB grit to carry it off with conviction. God Part II also got the treatment and is less angry, compressed and a more rhythmically open and diverse version than the album original. Even then, the band had started to imagine the change of roles and responsibilities between Edge and the pair of Adam and Larry that is the most significant difference in Achtung Baby. Next when The Fly was released, Bono and Edge slipped out Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle Of Milk, an excerpt from their soundtrack for the RSCs theatrical adaptation of Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange. It starts as classical pastiche with mock-angelic boy sopranos and mock-tubas and concert-hall horns with a typically spangled Edge guitar line before heavy duty hip-hop rhythms lunge in. Was this really the same pair whose previous extra-U2 activity had been writing and recording with the late Roy Orbison? Advertisement At this point, its not easy to retain both narrative and thematic continuity since both covers and new tracks are dotted through the various 12-inch and CD releases of the Achtung Baby era. On the cover front, One tidied up their back-catalogue with a Youth remix of Night And Day, their contribution to the Red Hot + Blue project and a version of Lou Reeds Satellite Of Love to tie in with Zoo T.V. Another set of covers, the Stones Paint It Black and Creedence Clearwater Revivals Fortunate Son fetched up beside the revised and far more convincing single version of Whos Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. Both are straightforward, the only real point of interest being the choice of the anti-Vietnam war Creedence song as a hint that U2 hadnt totally abandoned their political radicalism. But another CD version of . . . Wild Horses contained one essential curio, Bono wrestling with the ghost of Elvis Presley on Cant Help Falling In Love. Just him hammering together some rhythm machines with a keyboard assist from Paul Barrett, at points, this is almost Memphis entering some bizarre acid-jazz deconstruction zone. Bono sings the verse but hes far more fascinated in gnawing at the bone of the chorus. Sometimes he uses his Fat Lady falsetto, sometimes he goes deep but all his jazzy manoeuvres still find him fumbling for the key to escape from that damned room at the Heartbreak Hotel. The originals are equally fascinating. Where Did It All Go Wrong, a companion to Even Better Than The Real Thing was a fun bash in the tunnel where The Ramones get recustomised with some neopsychedelic harmony vocal trickery to skid onto and then off the dancefloor. But its the two versions of Salome and Lady With The Spinning Head where U2 really reveal some studio and songwriting secrets. Both get straight RnR and dance treatments. The first and more traditional release of Salome backing Even Better Than The Real Thing departs from the same station as Thems Baby Please Dont Go before Edge crunches in with some shattering Keith Richard/ Pete Townshend chords and then Adams bass churns up in the mix as if theyre engaged in some private project to sort out how a rejuvenated Faces might sound in the early Nineties. Then they pulled down the house and subjected Salome to a Zooromancer remix on a . . . Wild Horses release. As for Lady With The Spinning Head, its first incarnation appears with One. Larry ladles on that scrap-happy Madchester beat, Edge carts a curdled guitar-keyboard solo across the screen, a few la-la-la vocal harmonies get chucked into the stew and it all sounds like something they (uncomplicatedly?) threw together on their holidays from Achtung Baby. But suspicions that U2 are loitering with most definite intent within the vicinity of Primal Scream anything you can do we can Screamadelica better are confirmed by the second dance version. This is definitely U2 showing their competitive teeth in an old-fashioned cutting contest, hinting they were present at the Creation long before Bobby Gillespie and Alan McGhee. Advertisement Come Zooropa, U2 didnt have the same surplus to distribute after the official album quota. Touring and recording that album took all their energies. Remixes, a reprise of Ive Got You Under My Skin, Bonos duet with Frank Sinatra and stirring live versions of Bullet The Blue Sky and Love Is Blindness were the B-side bait. Bar one exception in the shape of Slow Dancing, Bono and Edge on acoustic guitars showing off the song theyd written for Willie Nelson. By now, I can only marvel at their genre-hopping on a B-side expedition thats taken us through Nelson, a RSC soundtrack and the re-insertion of the blues into dance-rock. No other rock act does such shape-shifting on their Star Trek. Nor do the B-sides exhaust the tracks outside their official album canon. Im excluding all their individual guest appearences and I still havent mentioned either the recent Propaganda fan club release of Melon or their lone live E.P., Wide Awake In America with its fundamental version of Bad. Besides, there are other orphan cameos the cover of Maggies Farm on the Self Aid album, Live For Ireland; Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) on Jimmy Iovines 87 charity album, A Very Special Christmas on A&M; and finally, their Woody Guthrie cover, Jesus Christ on the 88 Sony compilation, A Vision Shared of various luminaries updating the songs of Guthrie and Leadbelly. All these are loose ends and some are definitely looser than others. Take your pick. Would a compilation of U2s dangling bits selective or otherwise be a callous mercenary manoeuvre to fleece their fans or a good shepherds deed to reintegrate these lost sheep into the fold? Depending on whether or not you credit their remixes among the lost and found, theres over 50 tracks in the U2 orphanage. I say at least twenty could fend for themselves. Here be some mistakes but U2 have always been a band whove understood how to prosper by learning from their errors. The balance between scrupulous perfectionism and instinct has been one secret of their evolution. The albums show a U2 thats very rarely out of control. These B-sides are clues and signposts to their other half. This week I sat in the U.S. House Chamber and listened to the last State of the Union from President Barack Obama. What Americans needed to hear was a plan to turn our economy around, tackle an ever mounting federal debt, details of how to increase families take home pay, and a clear strategy on how we will finally defeat the threats posed by ISIS, the Taliban and other organizations of terror in order to keep Americans safe. Unfortunately, we heard none of that. Walking out of the House Chamber, my biggest frustration was the lack of attention to the national security issues perilously facing our country. The primary job of the U.S. Government is to keep Americans safe and secure. The State of the Union was the presidents chance to show he understands the challenges and threats facing our country, yet there was no mention of how we will defeat ISIS. Perhaps, more appalling was that he did not even acknowledge the 10 U.S. Navy sailors who were being detained by Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard at the time of his speech, nor the fact that North Korea was claiming it had tested a weapon of catastrophic proportions earlier in the week or even the acts of terror which recently occurred in places like Paris and California. We heard nothing about these incidents that could have a direct impact on our national security, no details, no explanation, and no plan to keep American families safe, sound, and secure. Simply put, the president continues to lead from behind on our nations national security. The State of the Union was the presidents chance, his moment, to use his most public forum to reassure Americans that our government will meet a hostile and changing world with the same security and leadership we have known for generations. It was the presidents opening, during a prime time delivery, to provide strong reassurance to Americans that we will defeat ISIS, prevent a nuclear Iran, and wont back down to aggressors such as North Korea, China and Russia. It was hard for me to take a State of the Union serious which failed to address the issues at the forefront for millions of American families national security and safety of their loved ones. Worst yet, the president actually congratulated himself for spending billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up solar energy while vilifying as dirty energy the very sources of energy like coal which keep the lights on in Missouri. Regulations put out by this president like his new power plan, coal ash restrictions, ambient air standards, costly new permitting requirements, and a rejection of the job creating keystone pipeline are killing the sources of inexpensive energy which millions of American families and businesses have relied upon for years to warm their homes while keeping their utility bills low. Obamas new power plan alone is projected to triple the cost of the average utility bill for a family in Missouri. Businesses in the 8th district are being forced to shed their workforce, cut back, and lay off hard working Missourians because new government regulations like these are suffocating either their lines of business directly or those they work with higher rent, higher energy bills, escalating utility rates, increasing material costs, expensive environmentally compliant land acquisitions, costly construction permitting and the list goes on. The State of the Union was the presidents opportunity to show he understands the issues American families are facing and highlight a path for moving forward. Unfortunately, we heard another speech filled with the type of rhetoric that shows how truly adamant this president is about cementing his legacy as the most liberal and unconstitutional president in American history. The truth is, and its unfortunate to say, this State of the Union may actually end up being my favorite because it was this presidents last. Jason Smith represents Missouris 8th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. Contact him at 573-335-0101 or visit https://jasonsmith.house.gov As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. NZ government objects to Australias new country of origin food labels New Zealands Ministry of Primary Industries has said it is concerned about the cost it will take for its nations food producers to comply with Australias new proposed country of origin labelling laws. Announced in July 2015, the proposed laws will require food sold in Australia to include a labelling statement identifying where the food comes from. Supporter of the labelling reforms, Australian Federal Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce has however said that New Zealand has nothing to worry about. The labelling changes are currently being considered by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with its members (which includes New Zealand) allowed to provide feedback on the possible changes up until 5 February 2016. The general Australian public have until the 29 January 2016 to submit their opinions to the Country of Origin Labelling Taskforce. New Zealand previously exempted itself from Standard 1.2.11 in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code that required mandatory labelling of country of origin information in Australia. However, the new rules abolish standard 1.2.11. Other criticisms of labelling changes Australias consumer advocacy group CHOICE and the horticulture growers representative body, AUSVEG are each amongst the organisations that welcomed the new labels with reservations when they were announced in July 2015. At the time of the announcement, these groups said that consumers will not really know where ingredients come from, since it will only be optional to list the actual country of origin for many important ingredients that come from outside Australia. Country of Origin Labelling changes overview The amendments to Australian Country of Origin Labelling include the following: The introduction of a new Information Standard, requiring businesses to provide clearer information about the origin of food; Removal of the Food Standards Code country of origin standard (Standard 1.2.11); Changes under the Australian Consumer Law to be better aligned with the new Information Standard; and Changes to the Commerce Regulations country of origin marking provisions similarly to better align with the new Information Standard and the revised Australian Consumer Law. Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 16-01-18 Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW No. 10/16 16-18.01.2016 [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Eide: Referendum could be held this year, but we do not want to put emphasis on time tables [02] Burcu on the negotiations process [03] Merkel expressed hopes over the solution of the Cyprus problem in the next few months [04] Juncker: "The EU is very confident over a Cyprus settlement within the next six months" [05] Davutoglu tours Europe; He will discuss the Cyprus problem with Cameron [06] Serdar Denktas accused the Turkish Cypriot negotiating team of not having "red lines" at the Cyprus talks [07] Talat on the water crisis: "All sides are exerting efforts to reach the best possible solution on the problem" [08] CHP Deputies asked the Turkish Assembly to launch an investigation on the water transfer project [09] Delegation of the "Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Industry" to visit Azerbaijan [10] The "TRNC" is represented in tourism fairs in Stuttgart and Vienna [11] Five persons were diagnosed with swine flu in the occupied area of Cyprus; Statements by the "ministry" [12] Turkey's MFA welcomes implementation of Iran nuclear deal [13] Turkish academics released after detention for "terrorist propaganda"; The EU and foreign Ambassadors condemned the detentions [14] K?l?cdaroglu re-elected as CHP's chairman [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS [01] Eide: Referendum could be held this year, but we do not want to put emphasis on time tables Turkish Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi newspaper (17.01.16) reports that Espen Barth Eide, UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Cyprus, has said that a referendum for the solution of the Cyprus problem could be held this year and added that it would be a pity if this "historic opportunity" was wasted. In statements to the paper's correspondent in New York Ozlem Sahin Sakar, Eide noted that he does not want to create the climate that a solution will be reached very soon, but he wondered: "If Mr Akinci and Mr Anastasiades do not achieve the creation of a united Cyprus, who else could do this?" Responding to a question as to whether progress could be achieved on the property issue in order for a referendum to be held within this year, Eide said: "Yes, this could happen. [?] Of course we want the solution to be reached the soonest, but we do not want to put emphasis on time tables. The important thing is not in which month this will happen, whether it will be in this month on in the other, but to be able to come to this point. The acceleration gained eight months ago is still there, [?] but it will not be there forever. Now there is a historic opportunity from the point of view of the support of the sides to the two leaders and the great interest and support of the international community to the Cyprus problem [?]". Eide explained that he cannot give a date on when a solution could be reached, because when you give a date, this date "starts to control the agenda". "And this is something which we do not want to happen", he added. Replying to a question, the UN diplomat said that he is focused more on the economic aspect of the problem in comparison to his predecessors and explained that his aim is "to secure that the solution will be not only a political success for the Cypriots, but also an economic one". He pointed out that the non-solution has a cost and added that he is certain that many international investors will be interested to come to a united Cyprus. He recalled the cooperation between the businessmen of the two communities and noted that they told him that they lose money because of the division of the island. He expressed the view that the Cypriot identity is culturally very strong on the island in spite of the religious and linguistic differences and therefore the two communities could live on the island together without any problems. Eide said that he feels that the Turkish Cypriots want a solution to the Cyprus problem. "There are many people who want the end of this division on the island", he noted. Asked whether there would be a meeting between the community leaders, the UNSG and the guarantor powers in Davos this week, Eide recalled that the two leaders would meet with the UNSG adding that no meeting with the guarantor powers was planned, because "such a meeting would be held only when the time is right" and "we did not think that the time was right for such a meeting". He added that the Cyprus problem will be one of the issues discussed in Davos by political leaders, academicians, businessmen and NGO leaders. "There is a great interest for this problem and not only by the state, but by the business circles as well", he noted. Asked what the problem will be if the leaders meet with the guarantor powers, Eide replied: "I do not keep anyone from meeting with anyone. Those who want to meet will meet. However, I am not organizing such a meeting. The Davos meeting is a private meeting and not a UN General Assembly meeting [?]". (I/Ts.) [02] Burcu on the negotiations process According to illegal Bayrak television (18.01.16) the so-called presidential spokesman Bar?s Burcu said that the contacts to be held separately by the two leaders at the world's leading economic summit in Davos Switzerland as well as the joint meeting they will be holding with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, will contribute greatly to the efforts aimed at reaching a settlement on the island. Responding to reports in the Greek Cypriot press that the UN had changed the current timetable on the talks and had postponed a possible referendum to after the general elections in "south Cyprus", Burcu said that there was no such timetable or deadlines. Burcu said that these reports were pure fabrication as it was not possible to speak of a referendum date before an agreement had been reached. Burcu however stressed the importance of reaching a settlement as soon as possible, adding that they are working for this. Also, responding to reports that there had been more progress reached in the talks than announced by the two sides, Burcu said that this depended from which angle you looked at the issue. "We are receiving different types of comments. Some claim that we are progressing, while others claim we are trailing behind on substantive issues. We on the other hand are focusing towards achieving results. In any case, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed." On the upcoming visit to Davos, Burcu said that the summit was an important opportunity for both sides considering that the world's leading economic actors would be attending the World Economic Summit. He said that the financing of a settlement could come up during the meetings in Davos. "We can't wait for a donor's conference to start thinking about the financing of a settlement. At least we can bring to the attention of those economic actors the high cost of a settlement and the importance of any support they might be able to lend", he added. Burcu also stressed that there would be no meeting held to discuss the issue of guarantees as reported in the press. "The Treaty of Guarantees will be discussed at the very end of the process with the participation of all three guarantor powers and the two sides on the island. We are still not at that stage?there is still much distance we need to cover on the property and territory issues", added Burcu. [03] Merkel expressed hopes over the solution of the Cyprus problem in the next few months Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (17.01.16) reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated in a weekly Q&A video exchange published on January 16 that Turkey still has a long way to go in its bid to become a full member of the European Union. Responding to a question on whether Turkey should expect to be an EU member state within 10 years, Merkel said: "The negotiations are open-ended for both sides. We have opened a new chapter in this process and new chapters are possible too. There is a long way ahead, but I see the frequent meetings as positive. I am also hoping to see progress in the Cyprus issue in the next few months". She added that it was "not realistic" to give a time frame at the moment. Merkel's remarks came ahead of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's official visit to Germany for a Turkey-Germany High-Level Cooperation Council meeting on January 22. The German Chancellor also said this week's meeting was independent from the January 12 terror attack in Istanbul's historic Sultanahmet neighborhood, which killed 10 German citizens. "We must not let the terrorists change our agenda," Merkel said, stressing that the meeting was scheduled long before the Sultanahmet attack. (?) Meanwhile, the German Chancellor said the Kurdish issue and the issue of press freedom would also be on the agenda of her meeting with Davutoglu and a team of Ministers from both sides. "We were pleased with Turkey's peace negotiations with the Kurds in the past, and we always say that military operations should be proportional. In the meeting we want to discuss what can be done politically. Of course Turkey should take precautions against the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] PKK's terrorist operations, but the Kurds should also be given a reasonable chance," Merkel added. [04] Juncker: "The EU is very confident over a Cyprus settlement within the next six months" Ankara Anatolia news agency (15.01.16) reported that the European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday that he is "very confident" that negotiators will reach a final agreement to reunite Cyprus within the next six months. "I am very confident that in the first six months of this year we will come to a final agreement on the reunification of that island," Juncker, said in a press conference in Brussels. "I certainly hope that will be the case because I very much like the Cypriots," Juncker said adding: "I think they are very, very efficient, intelligent and hardworking and very educated people on both sides of the island. I hope 2016 will be the year that we can finally resolve the Cyprus issue," he added. (?) [05] Davutoglu tours Europe; He will discuss the Cyprus problem with Cameron Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (17.01.16) reported that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has launched yesterday a one-week European tour including London, Davos and Berlin, during which he will meet foreign investors and discuss counter-terrorism measures with European counterparts. According to a written statement by the Prime Ministry office on January 16, Davutoglu will meet his British counterpart David Cameron in London to discuss the Cyprus reunification talks, the situation in Syria and Iraq, and counter-terrorism. Davutoglu will also address the opening of a Turkish investment conference in London, organized by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and also speak at events arranged by Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs and the Foreign Economic Relations Board. He will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, several other Ministers, and a number of senior economy officials. It will be their first meeting with investors abroad since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) won back its parliamentary majority in November. The cabinet announced its revised Medium-Term Economic Program ahead of visits to Turkey from investors on Jan. 11. The meetings in Europe will aim at convincing investors that Ankara will push through reforms including privatizations and labor market liberalization, according to sources. Davutoglu will further attend the Davos Summit on January 20-23 after his meetings in London. Europe's migrant crisis and devastating terror attacks will combine with the plunging oil price and China's economic slowdown to give the elite of the political and business worlds plenty to talk about when they gather in Davos on January 19. At the end of his tour, Davutoglu will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to hold a high-level cooperation council meeting. [06] Serdar Denktas accused the Turkish Cypriot negotiating team of not having "red lines" at the Cyprus talks Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris (18.01.16) reports that Serdar Denktas, leader of the Democratic Party ? National Forces (DP-UG), said that his father, former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktas, was always sitting at the negotiating table with his "red lines" and at the beginning of the Cyprus talks, he always stressed that he would not discuss these "red lines". He claimed that he is sure that his late father won't sleep well in his grave because there are no "red lines" at the negotiating table. Speaking on a Radio Guven programme, Denktas argued that when Rauf Denktas sat at the negotiating table, he did not make any concessions on the political equality, sovereignty and Turkey's guarantees. Commenting on the guarantee issue, Denktas said that he has concerns on this issue, because the negotiations are continuing on the ground that the guarantor system will be discussed. According to Denktas, this means that the Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance will be lifted and there will place another guarantee system. Denktas said that he believes that if Turkey's guarantees are removed, then a new conflict will begin. (DPs) [07] Talat on the water crisis: "All sides are exerting efforts to reach the best possible solution on the problem" Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis newspaper (18.01.16) reports that the chairman of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) Mehmet Ali Talat gave an interview to the paper evaluating the latest developments on the water crisis. Talat stated that the dialogue with Turkish officials as regards the issue which occurred with the administration oo the water transfer from Turkey is continuing and said that all sides are exerting efforts to reach the best possible solution to the problem. He said that what is important in the negotiations is to reach a consensus which will be taking into consideration their sensitivities and not preserving the same stance. "There are a lot of sensitivities. The important thing is to reach a result by taking into consideration these sensitivities", he stated. Talat also said that there is no question about the right of the "Turkish Embassy" to the breakaway regime to make an announcement. "However, you must also have the right to also say something about the statement made", he said. (CS) [08] CHP Deputies asked the Turkish Assembly to launch an investigation on the water transfer project Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (16.01.16) reported that Elif Dogan, Deputy with the Republican People's Party (CHP) in Turkey along with twenty two other Deputies asked from the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to launch an investigation regarding the water transfer project from Turkey to the occupied area of Cyprus. According to a motion presented to the speaker of the Assembly, the Deputies asked for an investigation regarding the 600 million dollars spent for the project's infrastructure. In addition they ask to be informed about who will sell and distribute the water as well as about the disagreement which occurred between Turkey and the "government" in the breakaway regime on the issue, which led the persons living in the occupied areas of Cyprus not to be benefitting from the project despite the amount of money spent. (CS) [09] Delegation of the "Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Industry" to visit Azerbaijan Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes newspaper (16.01.16) reported that a delegation of the "Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Industry" would visit Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, between 17-20 January 2016. Self-styled minister of Trade and Industry Sunat Akun would also participate in the delegation travelling to Baku, writes the paper adding that the aim of the visit is "to introduce to the world industrial and agricultural products of the TRNC" and try to find ways for these products to be sold by Azeri firms. The delegation would hold contacts with the Ministry of Economy and Industry of Azerbaijan, the Turkish Ambassador to Baku and with various Azeri foundations and organizations like the Azerbaijan ?Turkey Industrialists and Businessmen Community during its visit. (CS) [10] The "TRNC" is represented in tourism fairs in Stuttgart and Vienna Turkish Cypriot daily Gunes (18.01.16) reports that the so-called tourism ministry of the breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus is taking part at the CMT Stuttgart tourism fair in Germany, which will continue until January 24. The self-styled minister of tourism Faiz Sucuoglu attended the opening ceremony of the fair and visited the "TRNC kiosk". He also carried out contacts with some tour operators from different countries. On the same issue, Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris (18.01.16) reports that the so-called tourism ministry is also represented in the tourism fair "Ferien Messe 2016" in Vienna, Austria. Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis (17.01.16) published an interview with Sucuoglu on the measures that the "tourism ministry" will take in order to prevent the effects of the terror attacks in Turkey on the tourism in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus. Sucuoglu said that the terror attacks in Turkey affects also the tourism in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus, because there are no direct flights and the tourists should fly through Turkey. Sucuoglu explained that they have already carried out contacts with tourism officials in Turkey. They met and discussed this issue with Tugrul Turkes, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Responsible for Cyprus Affairs. They also visited Turkey's Minister of Tourism and explained to him their difficulties. Sucuoglu, further said that they also met with tourist operators in the "South" (translator's note: the government controlled area of the Republic of Cyprus), in order that tourists who visit the "South" to also visit the "North". He added that their target on tourists in the "South" is the Russian tourists. (DPs) [11] Five persons were diagnosed with swine flu in the occupied area of Cyprus; Statements by the "ministry" Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (18.01.16) under the title: "There are five flu cases but there is no danger", reports that the "undersecretary" of the so-called ministry of health Omer Gur, in a written statement yesterday, announced that the number of patients in the occupied area of Cyprus who were diagnosed with the symptoms of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu has reached to five. He however, called for calm supporting that they have everything under control and that the patients are not in danger. Gur further said that the "ministry" has taken all the necessary measures for avoiding the spreading of the virus and added that the H1N1 does not differ from the other flu cases. He added that the three patients with the virus are being hospitalized at the "Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu state hospital" while the other three at the "hospital" of the illegal Near East university ("YDU"). (AK) [12] Turkey's MFA welcomes implementation of Iran nuclear deal Turkish daily Today's Zaman (17.01.16) reported that the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a written statement on Sunday welcomed the official implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers and called on all parties to work for restoration of security and stability in the region. "Turkey has maintained from the outset that the only way for a resolution regarding Iran's nuclear program is through diplomacy and negotiations", the statement said. Iran emerged from years of economic isolation on Saturday when world powers lifted crippling sanctions after confirming that Tehran had curbed its nuclear program as part of a deal agreed upon last year. The statement said that Ankara now expected thorough and uninterrupted implementation of the deal in full transparency under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "We strongly emphasize that all parties display responsible behavior that does not encourage division for the restoration of security and stability in the region", added the statement. [13] Turkish academics released after detention for "terrorist propaganda"; The EU and foreign Ambassadors condemned the detentions Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (17.01.16) reported that the twenty four academics, who signed a petition calling for an end to military operations in southeast Turkey, were released late on January 15 after being detained for a short period by police in the northwestern provinces of Kocaeli and Bolu. Universities and prosecutor's offices across the country have launched probes into many of the 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals who fall within Turkey's jurisdiction, arguing that the petition went beyond the limits of academic freedoms. In a dawn operation in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on January 15, police raided the houses of academics and detained 21 of them. In Bursa, police detained three academics on the same charges. On January 15, the Anatolian, Istanbul and Bak?rkoy chief public prosecutors also launched investigations into at least 123 academics employed by universities in Istanbul. The Anadolu public prosecutor initiated probes into 82 academics and Bak?rkoy into 41 academics; the Istanbul public prosecutor did not disclose the number of investigations. A number of signatory academics employed by universities outside of Istanbul are also facing charges, with the public prosecutor's offices in Bart?n, Diyarbak?r, Kayseri, Mardin and Samsun also announcing that probes would be launched into academics who have signed the petition. It remains unclear exactly how many academics outside of Istanbul are being investigated by prosecutors. According to reports, some of the academics are being investigated on suspicion of violating the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, according to which it is illegal to "insult the Turkish nation, the state of the Turkish Republic, or the Grand Assembly of Turkey and the state's judicial institutions." The academics are also accused of "terrorist propaganda" and of "inciting hatred and enmity." At least 41 academics are facing, among other punishments, suspension and dismissal from their universities. This figure does not include the group of academics that have been announced as being dismissed by Cukurova University and Gediz University. The investigations and detentions came soon after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed the petition's signatories, stating that human rights violations in the southeast are being committed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and not the Turkish state. Meanwhile, the European Union in a statement on January 16 condemned as "extremely worrying" Turkey's arrest of academics who signed a petition criticizing a military operation in the country's southeast. "The steps taken against the Turkish academics who signed a declaration regarding events in the southeast of Turkey are an extremely worrying development," said the EU spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini in a statement. Also, the British Ambassador to Turkey Richard Moore joined the criticism on Saturday, saying in a statement that he was "very concerned to hear reports of academics being suspended and investigated for expressing their views on conflict in southeast." "Freedom of expression is vital in a democratic society, and especially in education. That includes the right to express views we might think are mistaken, or one-sided," Moore said. Moreover, the US ambassador in Ankara John Bass expressed concern over legal and disciplinary actions against more than 1,000 Turkish academics who signed a petition criticizing the government's policies in the southeast and calling for peace. "We are seeing reports of academics being investigated and subject to penalties for expressing their opinions about the conflict in the southeast. While we may not agree with the opinions expressed by those academics, we are nevertheless concerned about this pressure having a chilling effect on legitimate political discourse across Turkish society regarding the sources and solutions to the ongoing violence," Bass said in a statement. "In democratic societies it is imperative that citizens have the opportunity to express their views, even controversial and unpopular ones." Ambassador Bass said: "Expressions of concern about violence do not equal support for terrorism. Criticism of government does not equal treason. Turkish democracy is strong enough and resilient enough to embrace free expression and uncomfortable ideas." [14] K?l?cdaroglu re-elected as CHP's chairman Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (17.01.16) reported that Kemal K?l?cdaroglu was re-elected as chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for his fourth consecutive term at the party's convention over the weekend, saying he aimed to renew the CHP's management with "more new and young faces." K?l?cdaroglu received the votes of 990 delegates out of 1,238, running alone as his sole contender Izmir Deputy Mustafa Balbay failed to garner the required number of signatures to be a candidate. "We will open a new page in Turkey. We will bring democracy and freedoms. We will fight unemployment. We will be the party of the poor and the disowned. We will defend their rights," K?l?cdaroglu said after his re-election on January 16. The 1,238 party delegates were on January 17 due to elect the 60-seat Party Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the CHP from which K?l?cdaroglu picks his closest aides to the Central Decision-Making Council (MYK). Around 700 party members applied to run for the Party Assembly, as K?l?cdaroglu encouraged more youngsters and women to race for a seat at the assembly. The CHP's convention started on Jan. 15 with a long speech by K?l?cdaroglu full of criticism targeting the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "The point at which Turkey has arrived is not a promising one. We are facing the reality that Turkey is not well-governed. The government is responsible for this pessimistic picture," he said. Among the key pieces of evidence that the government cannot rule properly is the "rise of terrorism," K?l?cdaroglu said, recalling that when the AKP took power in 2002 terrorism was almost at "zero." "They took over in 2002 when there was zero terror but they turned the country into a bloodbath. Who is responsible for this?" Kilicdaoroglu added, saying the way the government had launched talks with the Kurdistan Workers' (PKK) was a "serious mistake." "What is the difference between the photos currently being taken in Turkey's southeast and those coming from Syria or Lebanon?" K?l?cdaroglu said. Underlining his party's willingness to support initiatives to renew Turkey's Constitution along "pro-freedom and democratic" lines, K?l?cdaroglu also vowed that the CHP will not negotiate the first four articles of the current charter, which describe the characteristics of the Turkish state as "democratic, secular, social and rule of law-based." "We'll actively participate in efforts to rid our country of junta-made laws. But we won't allow the country to be remade upon the personal views of any individual," he said, referring to Erdogan's ambition to change the system to a presidential one. "We will not allow a change to the system. You make references to the Ottoman Empire all the time. Don't you know the Ottomans also had a parliamentary system? Why now this change?" K?l?cdaroglu added. Kilicdaroglu also slammed Erdogan over his frequent interventions into political life, despite the fact that the Constitution requires him to remain neutral. "We know how concepts like honor and pride. If one gives one's word of honor, he or she should fulfill this to the death. Because honor and pride are undisputable for us. You tell us, so-called dictator, what do honor and pride mean to you?" he asked. Upon K?l?cdaroglu's harsh words, AKP Deputy Chair Selcuk Ozdag, who had been invited to the convention by the CHP, left the convention center. (?) TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio (AK / AM) Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] Snowfall and huge temperature drop across the country [02] Institutions' technical teams start to arrive in Athens [03] Sale of Finansbank will have significant benefits for National Bank, chairman says [04] Gov't tries to improve aspects of agreement for farmers [01] Snowfall and huge temperature drop across the country Snow has started to fall in most parts of Greece from early Monday causing a series of problems mostly to traffic. In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, snow has fallen in the surrounding mountainous and semi-mountainous areas with the temperatures ranging between 0C-04C. The snowfall is intense in central Greece without problems in the traffic in the cities of Larissa, Lamia and Volos. However, snow chains are necessary for vehicles moving on the regional and mountainous roads across the country. Drivers will face a difficult situation on Athens-Thessaloniki motorway from Aghii Theodori to Larissa. Graders are trying to keep the road network on Mt.Pelion open in order to facilitate the local residents and the skiers to have access to the villages and the ski resort at Hania. Snow is falling an on the island of Lesvos, even in the island's capital Mytilene where a large number of refugees arrive every day. According to information, snow has also started falling on the northeastern Aegean island of Chios. According to latest reports, cars moving on the mountainous areas of Peloponnese must use snow chains including the road leading to Kalavryta ski resort. [02] Institutions' technical teams start to arrive in Athens The technical teams of the institutions have started to gradually arrive in Athens while the date of the arrival of the heads of the institutions remains unknown. The technical teams will start collecting the additional data and details that the institutions request particularly those regarding the government's proposal for the social security system and the fiscal gap not only for 2016 but also for the period 2016-2018. [03] Sale of Finansbank will have significant benefits for National Bank, chairman says National Bank will be the strongest bank in the Greek banking market, based on its capital and liquidity, with the aim to play a leading role in the recovery of the Greek economy and of social cohesion after completion of the sale of its subsidiary in Turkey, Finansbank, Luca Katseli, the bank's chairman said on Monday. Addressing an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting, Katseli said that completion of the deal will offer a significant boost in liquidity to the bank, 3.5 billion euros, which will be distributed to fund Greek enterprises and households while at the same time it will fortify the solvency and capital adequacy of National Bank. The Greek banker said that completion of Finansbank's sale will allow National Bank to repay the biggest part of CoCos, worth 2.0 billion euros, offering benefits of around 150 million euros on an annual basis, repay the expensive Pillar 2 bonds and to gradually decoupled from ELA, offering significant flexibility and higher profitability to the bank (around 100 million euros annually). [04] Gov't tries to improve aspects of agreement for farmers The Greek government is trying to improve and change aspects of an agreement with the country's creditors with the aim to lower tax and social contributions burdens on farmers, Agricultural Development Minister Vaggelis Apostolou said on Monday. In comments made to a television station, Apostolou said that the country will need to drink "the bitter glass of implementing the agreement" and particularly mentioned the need to safeguard around 3.5 billion euros annually from EU agricultural funds. The Greek minister called farmers, who are preparing strike mobilizations, to begin talks with the government. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] Bad weather conditions intercept refugees arrival on Lesvos [01] Bad weather conditions intercept refugees arrival on Lesvos The adverse weather conditions that prevail across the country have, temporarily at least, intercepted the migrants and refugees inflow to Lesvos in the last 24 hours. Only 17 persons have been identified at Moria hotspot while according to authorities 2,854 persons have departed from the island on Sunday. Police said that 364 identified migrants and refugees are still on the island ready to leave as soon as possible. 300 migrants and refugess arrived on Chios island after midnight that have been already identified and are expected to leave the island as soon as a ferry dock at Chios port. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Does Labour Party and trade union things. Reads, plays retro video games and has a book out about the Tories. Tweets too much. Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] President Pavlopoulos stresses need for corrections by the creditors [02] NBG shareholders approve sale of Finansbank, Finans Leasing [01] President Pavlopoulos stresses need for corrections by the creditors ANA-MPA -- President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos in an official luncheon hosted by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Joachim Gauck in Berlin on Monday stressed the importance of Greece's creditors proceeding with the necessary corrections, "especially as regards the sustainability of the public debt and the austerity policy." "The Greek people will meet their commitments in order to remain in the European family," Pavlopoulos underlined and added: "Then it's our partners turn to proceed to the necessary corrections. Especially as regards the sustainability of Greece's public debt and the so far, extremely dubious, austerity policy." "Greece cannot even imagine its future without its European perspective, but the EE cannot either exist without Greece being an integral part of it," Pavlopoulos stressed. Referring to the "unprecedented" crisis that the Greek people are facing, he asked its European partners to take into account the unprecedented crisis that tests the Greek people and to try to establish some mutual understanding despite some initial mistakes, obsessions and misconceptions. Regarding the large number of refugees and undocumented migrants from the Middle East, he said that (Athens) "does its best, with full respect to the importance of human life and free development of each personality to safeguard its borders, which are the EU borders. The migration problem, however, may be tackled only if it is seen as a common, of prime importance, problem of all Member States of the European Union. On the problem of international terrorism, he said "we have to face it, with sheer determination, as a crime against Humanity. That is why the determination to the fight against international terrorism is a matter which concerns the whole civilized humanity and requires the cooperation of all member states." [02] NBG shareholders approve sale of Finansbank, Finans Leasing ANA-MPA -- National Bank of Greece (NBG) shareholders on Monday approved the sale of the bank's subsidiaries in Turkey, Finansbank and Finans Leasing, during an extraordinary general shareholders' meeting. NBG had signed an agreement for the sale of its capital share in Finansbank to Qatar National Bank on December 21, 2015 for 3.5 billion euros. National Bank will be the strongest bank in the Greek banking market, based on its capital and liquidity, with the aim to play a leading role in the recovery of the Greek economy and of social cohesion after completion of the sale of its subsidiary in Turkey, Finansbank, Luca Katseli, the bank's chairman said earlier. Addressing the extraordinary general shareholders' meeting, Katseli said that completion of the deal will offer a significant boost in liquidity to the bank, 3.5 billion euros, which will be distributed to fund Greek enterprises and households while at the same time it will fortify the solvency and capital adequacy of National Bank. The Greek banker said that completion of Finansbank's sale will allow National Bank to repay the biggest part of CoCos, worth 2.0 billion euros, offering benefits of around 150 million euros on an annual basis, repay the expensive Pillar 2 bonds and to gradually decoupled from ELA, offering significant flexibility and higher profitability to the bank (around 100 million euros annually). Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-01-18 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at CONTENTS [01] President Pavlopoulos to Merkel: Greece will fully comply on refugee crisis, adjustment program [02] Greece is expanding partnerships and alliances in E. Mediterranean, Balkans, says FM [03] Bank of Greece to pay 1.2 bln euros dividend to Greek state [04] Deaths from flu rise to 5 in Greece, health center says [01] President Pavlopoulos to Merkel: Greece will fully comply on refugee crisis, adjustment program BERLIN (ANA-MPA/ F. Karaviti) - Greece will fully respect fully its commitments both concerning its economic adjustment program and the refugee crisis, but then the country's partners must keep their promise and discuss debt relief, Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said on Monday after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. "Greece will fully meet its obligations and our partners must also fulfill their own obligations. Following the [program] review, which should be finished as soon as possible to avoid a problem with the seemingly positive growth prospects of the Greek economy, it is necessary to immediately start talks on the Greek debt - not for a haircut, as it is not possible by European law, but other methods, which will lead to relief and have been accepted by our partners," he said. Regarding the refugee crisis, the President described it as an "existential matter" of Europe. "All the peoples of Europe have to fulfill their debt towards genuine refugees without phobias and of course will have to work to end the war in Syria, which is the root of this evil," he noted. Concerning the guarding of EU's external borders, he recognized the need for collaboration with EU countries and Frontex, but ruled out joint Greek and Turkish patrols. Focusing on Turkey, Pavlopoulos said the country needs to live up to its commitment to control the flow of refugees and especially economic migrants who leave from Turkey, "often with the cooperation of the Turkish authorities". He also noted the need to reactivate the readmission agreements. Regarding the threat of terrorism, he said that Europe must be ruthless with terrorists who commit war crimes and must not show any tolerance, but urged people to distinguish between terrorists and refugees. Closing his speech, Pavlopoulos hailed Merkel's role in the refugee crisis. In an official luncheon hosted by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Joachim Gauck earlier in the day, Pavlopoulos stressed the importance of Greece's creditors proceeding with the necessary corrections, "especially as regards the sustainability of the public debt and the austerity policy." "The Greek people will meet their commitments in order to remain in the European family," Pavlopoulos underlined and added: "Then it's our partners turn to proceed to the necessary corrections. Especially as regards the sustainability of Greece's public debt and the so far, extremely dubious, austerity policy." "Greece cannot even imagine its future without its European perspective, but the EE cannot either exist without Greece being an integral part of it," Pavlopoulos stressed. Referring to the "unprecedented" crisis that the Greek people are facing, he asked its European partners to take into account the unprecedented crisis that tests the Greek people and to try to establish some mutual understanding despite some initial mistakes, obsessions and misconceptions. [02] Greece is expanding partnerships and alliances in E. Mediterranean, Balkans, says FM The first trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Cyprus and Jordan took place in Brussels on Monday, on the margins of the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, Foreign minister Nikos Kotzias said, which followed a trilateral meeting on Sunday with Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria to discuss European issues. "We expand our partnerships and alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean and form within the EU a special Balkan cooperation. I think these are two important steps," he told journalists. He also revealed that there is a request from the Palestinian Authority to form a similar tripartite meeting and the Greek side has already agreed, and there is a request from Lebanon which has not been organized yet. The ministers of Greece, Cyprus and Jordan discussed a wide range of issues of international and regional interest, with emphasis on the refugee crisis, the escalation in terrorism, the peace process and the situation in the wider Middle East, as well as developments in the energy sector. They also looked at the prospects for trilateral cooperation in many sectors, including economic and trade cooperation; combating terrorism; security and exchange of information; culture, education and technology; and ways to support Jordan in its relations with the EU. Finally, they discussed the potential for holding a trilateral meeting of the three countries' leaders in the coming time. Kotzias also met later with the Foreign Minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Poposki. During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in the refugee and migration issue, recent developments within FYROM, and the name issue. The minister said that nothing new came out this meeting and that the two sides simply agreed that "we need to continue our cooperation on confidence-building measures and the political dialogue we have opened." Kotzias also referred to two bilateral meetings held with Malta and Slovenia, on the refugee crisis and the proposals they submitted to the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker which they will also address to Greece. Regarding the debate on Syria and Iraq at the EU Council of Foreign Ministers, he said the Greek side stressed the need to end the war and to give money for the refugees in the countries neighboring with Syria so that they do not travel to Europe. [03] Bank of Greece to pay 1.2 bln euros dividend to Greek state Bank of Greece on Monday said that dividend payment to the Greek state will amount 1.2 billion euros for its 2015 earnings which totaled 1.162 billion euros, sharply up from 654.5 million in the previous year. The central bank's board will seek shareholders' approval to a plan to pay a dividend of 0.6720 euros per share. The Bank of Greece said that net revenue from interest, financial transactions and redistribution of monetary income of the Eurosystem totaled 1.76 billion euros last year, from 1.003 billion in 2014, net revenue from fees and commissions grew 22.2 pct to 89.8 million euros, revenue from shares and participations grew 2.6 million euros to 31.6 million euros, while other revenue totaled 12.3 million euros, up 1.7 pct from 2014. The central bank said expenses fell to 326.2 million euros from 333.6 million in 2014, helped by lower spending on the monitoring of the financial system. Provision amounted to 408.5 million euros last year. [04] Deaths from flu rise to 5 in Greece, health center says Another three people died in Greece last weekend from complications caused by the influenza A (H1N1) virus raising the number of fatalities to 5, while 35 remain hospitalized in intensive care units, the country's center for disease control and prevention (KEELPNO) said. "The country is entering a phase of increased flu activity," KEELPNO notes, adding that the epidemic is expected to peak next month, in line with the situation in other European countries. The center also said that the vast majority of patients who are in ICU had not been vaccinated against the virus despite the fact that they belong to high risk groups. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article No two retirement plans look the same, and yet we are bombarded with pictures of people quietly spending their retirement reading paperbacks on rocking chairs. Canadians are living to 81 on average, which means you'll have plenty of time to sit in a rocking chair if thats what you want. But your retirement is just that: YOURS. Weve got some ideas to help you embrace change and make the most for a brighter post-work life. Advertisement What does your retirement look like? Everyone's retirement is unique. Most of us know we want to retire, but were not always sure what retirement looks like. That's why it's smart to sit down and plan your future so you can support your life and financial goals. Some questions to consider: Your current age and the age you would like to retire Your current level of debt (consumer and housing) How long it will take you to pay off that debt Your current savings and your yearly contribution to your savings Your current hobbies, if you plan on continuing them after retirement New hobbies after retirement (travel, golf, courses, second career etc.) Your health and history of family illness Dependents in your retirement years (live-in children or elderly parents) An emergency fund for home repairs, medical expenses, etc. There isn't one magic number, just a number that's right for you. Where's the money coming from? Now that you have an idea of what you want your retirement to look like, it's time to figure out how to fund it. There isn't one magic number, just a number that's right for you. Your plan can be costed out so you have an idea of how much you need to save. Once you have that, you can break down your annual and monthly contribution to a retirement savings plan whether it's an RRSP, a TFSA or both. An advisor can suggest which option is better based on your level of pre- and post-retirement income. Other sources of revenue include your employer's pension plan if available (if you aren't contributing, start now), the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS). Most Canadians are eligible for CPP and OAS and the Government of Canada website provides information on how to apply and how much you may receive. Advertisement If you have additional revenue sources such as dividends, an inheritance, or income from being a landlord, factor all of that into your retirement income. Start now Retirement planning doesnt start once you reach your retirement age. It starts now. One smart move is to start (and stick to) a budget. It's difficult to know how much annual income you'll need in retirement if you don't know how much you spend now. Once you have your annual spending, you can budget your retirement income, an average of 50-70 % of your current income. Budget programs like Mint or even a simple Excel file can help you see how and where you're spending your money. Retirement BAGHDAD (AP) Iraqi security forces fanned out across the Baghdad neighborhood Monday morning where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches. An Iraqi government intelligence official told The Associated Press the Americans were kidnapped from their interpreter's home in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora. The kidnapping occurred, the official said, after the Americans were invited into the home of their interpreter. The individuals were then taken to Sadr city, the official said, "after (the kidnapping) all communications and contact stopped in Sadr city." The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the press. A local policeman in Dora said the individuals were taken from their car on Saturday along a highway in southwest Dora while driving to Baghdad International Airport. The two differing accounts of the events could not immediately be reconciled. The policeman spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the press. The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that "several" Americans have gone missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said, "We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans." Bolz did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that "due to privacy considerations" he had nothing further to add about the missing Americans. "The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority," Kirby said. Col. Steve Warren, the Baghdad based spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group, confirmed that the individuals were civilians. The comments by U.S. officials came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by the Islamic State group, Shiite militias and criminal gangs often demanding ransom payments or seeking to resolve workplace disputes. Following the IS takeover of Iraq's second largest city Mosul and large swaths of territory in the country's north and west, Iraq has witnessed a deterioration in security as government forces were sent to front lines and Shiite militias were empowered to aid in the fight following the collapse of the Iraqi military. Last month a Qatari hunting party was kidnapped in Iraq's south by unidentified gunmen and their whereabouts are still unknown. In September 18 Turkish workers were kidnapped from their construction site in Baghdad's Sadr city by masked men in military uniforms. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi blamed organized crime for the kidnapping. The workers were released later that month. ___ Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed to this report. A Montana woman has sued a trucking company after she says she found part of a human face on a car wash floor. Last week, veterinarian Kimberly Kriege filed suit against CRST Expedited, saying she was severely traumatized after finding the body part in September 2013 and needed intensive counselling, according to Courthouse News. Advertisement The face belonged to 81-year-old Alaska resident Elgie Bedford, who was hit by one of the company's trucks earlier in the day after his car went off the road, the site reports. Kriege is suing for damages related to emotional distress, lost income and negligence, as well as medical expenses. A then-employee of the trucking company, David Welk, was found guilty in October 2014 of leaving the scene of an accident in connection with Bedford's death, according to the Big Timber Pioneer. He later received a six-year deferred sentence. Charges against another woman, who later also ran over Bedford's body, were dropped after she was accused of tampering with evidence and leaving the scene of an accident, according to the Livingston Enterprise. Advertisement Kriege says in the lawsuit that Wryan Young and her father later went to the car wash, where a large portion of Bedford's face was washed onto the floor. Bedford's widow, Carol Bedford, also sued the trucking company, Welk and anyone else who contributed to her husband's wrongful death on Nov. 20, according to the Pioneer. Also on HuffPost He doesn't speak French and calls Boston home, but Kevin O'Leary might have a fair shot at becoming Canada's next Conservative Party leader. According to a new poll, ex-cabinet minister Peter MacKay leads as frontrunner for leader, followed closely behind by the former "Dragon's Den" star. Advertisement The poll, conducted by Mainstreet research for Postmedia, found the two were nearly tied among Conservative voters in a hypothetical leadership race. MacKay was the top choice for 25 per cent of Conservative supporters surveyed, with O'Leary close behind at just over 23 per cent. However, O'Leary polled higher than MacKay in B.C., Alberta, and Prairie provinces. Former Justice Minister Peter MacKay is a top contender for the Conservative Party's next leader, according to a Mainstreet/Postmedia poll. (Photo: AP) Advertisement Other Tory favourites trailed in support, including Jason Kenney at 8 per cent, Lisa Raitt at 4.4 per cent, Maxime Bernier at 4 per cent, and Kellie Leitch at 3 per cent. 'I'm an inclusive person' When O'Leary told reporters last week he was considering a bid for Tory leader, many compared him to another businessman-turned TV reality show star-turned politician south of the border. O'Leary told Global News while he and Donald Trump both "enjoyed some interesting careers" on television, the similarities between him and Republican presidential nomination candidate end there. "I'm half Lebanese, half Irish," he said. "I'm born in Montreal, I'm a proud Canadian. I'm an inclusive person. I love Canada." Kevin O'Leary says he's "very different" from Donald Trump. (Photo: Getty Images) On Saturday, O'Leary also spoke with Evan Solomon about Stephen Harper's recent election defeat. He said while he congratulated the former prime minister on his long tenure and economic stewardship, Harper was a bit out of touch with what it means to be Canadian. Advertisement "Were extremely compassionate, open, inclusive people. Thats the DNA of what being Canadian is," he said. "Regardless of our party and our politics or what province were born in, its exactly that." O'Leary said the mandate of every Canadian leader is "to remember who they are." "If you ever, ever, ever go off that rail, that defined line, that definition of what makes you a Canadian, the weight of everybody elses goodwill and whats in their heart befalls you," he continued. "And thats what unfortunately happened to Mr. Harper." Doesn't speak French, Boston is 'home' When asked if his lack of French skills would hamper a potential leadership bid, O'Leary said "it could be." "But frankly, I'll never be good at speaking French, and I think French-speaking Quebecers know that," he said. The Montreal-born O'Leary said he knows what's in Quebecers' hearts because that's where he's from. Advertisement Kevin O'Leary at an event at Fontainebleau Miami Beach on January 20, 2015. (Photo: Getty Images) However, his businesses are headquartered in Boston, a place he called "home" in 2013. But O'Leary said the fact that he's comfortable in both Canada and the U.S. makes him a good ambassador who understands how both sides of the border work. Predicts leadership opportunities 'in pretty well every party' Still, a Conservative leadership contest is at least 18 months away, which O'Leary called "an eternity in politics." O'Leary told Global News a leadership bid for the Liberal Party may not be out of the question, either. "I think there'll be leadership opportunities in pretty well every party, although I'm pretty sure the NDP won't take my call." The Mainstreet/Postmedia poll also asked NDP and Green supporters about their current leaders. Data shows Elizabeth May's approval to be over 84 per cent, and Tom Mulcair's at 72 per cent. Advertisement And when a question about selecting new party leaders came up, 77 per cent of Green supporters were opposed to a leadership race, while 48 per cent of NDP supporters said the same. A random sample of 4,937 Canadians were surveyed by Mainstreet/Postmedia through a mix of landlines and cell phones. The poll has a margin of error of 1.39 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Party margins of error are: Conservative: +/-2.32%; NDP: +/-3.87%; Greens: +/-6.21%; 19 times out of 20. Also on HuffPost Conservative Leadership Candidates See Gallery Koch brothers-owned refinery wants to be paid for oil it 'buys' Iran about to flood world with even more oil Oil selling for half the price of the barrel it comes in The global oversupply of oil has gotten so severe that the billionaire Koch brothers are offering to buy it at minus-50 cents per barrel. Advertisement In essence, they are asking sellers to pay them to take the crude off their hands. Zero Hedge blog posted this chart from Wichita, Kansas-based Flint Hills Resources, which posts its asking prices for oil. The company is owned by the Koch brothers, known these days for their large financial contributions to conservative causes. Source: Flint Hills Resources via Zero Hedge The chart shows how much the company is willing to pay for different types of crude. For North Dakota sour, a particularly low quality of crude, it will only buy if the seller offers to pay them 50 cents per barrel. According to Bloomberg, Flint Hills was paying $13.50 a barrel for this oil a year ago, and $47.60 in January, 2014, before oil prices began falling. Advertisement For some U.S. producers the business isn't just loss making, it's an exercise in sadomasochistic futility, Zero Hedge quipped. Economists blame the oversupply on years of high oil prices that resulted in heavy investment in new oil fields. The expansion of Canadas oilsands and the development of the U.S.s shale oil fields were two of the largest contributors. Iran's Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh (bottom left), speaks to journalists at the 168th ordinary meeting of OPEC, Vienna, Dec. 4, 2015. Iran is about to add half a million barrels of oil to the global supply. (Getty Images) Iran To Bring Half A Million Barrels To Market The estimates are that the world is producing about two to 2.5 million barrels of oil more than it needs daily. Advertisement Now that number could rise by another half a million barrels daily. International sanctions against Iran were lifted over the weekend, following last years agreement between world powers and the country. Iran plans to start delivering 500,000 barrels daily to the global market, the Wall Street Journal reports. The lifting of Iranian sanctions should add to the selling momentum in oil prices, Norbert Ruecker, commodities research head at , Julius Baer, told the newspaper. The oil market is seemingly facing its final washout while transitioning into a new normal. Oil Barrels Twice As Expensive As A Barrel Of Oil In a sign of just how far oil prices have fallen, mutual fund manager Igor Des posted this picture to Twitter on Sunday. Anyone who has ever driven to Emergency, or visited loved ones in hospital, is familiar with the often exorbitant parking rates found near healthcare facilities. Now, there may be a cure. The Ontario government has just announced a new policy they say will lower expenses for 900,000 patients and visitors, including 135,000 seniors. Advertisement As of today, there's a three-year freeze on Ontario hospital parking rates, and beginning October 1, 2016, any hospital charging more than $10 a day to park will have to provide five-, 10- and 30-day passes that are: - Discounted by 50 per cent off their daily rate, - Transferable between patients and caregivers - Equipped with in-and-out privileges throughout a 24-hour period - Good for one year from the date of purchase. Parking fees should never be a barrier for patients when they go to the hospital," said Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins in a press release. "With todays announcement, we are providing relief from the high cost of parking at some hospitals in Ontario. By making parking more affordable for patients and their loved ones who visit the hospital often, we are helping to reduce the burden of parking fees and putting patients first." The release also says that last fall the ministry consulted with "a number of hospitals and the Ontario Hospital Association in regards to parking fee changes." However, the OHA released a statement today opposing the changes. "For the past ten years, government has actively encouraged hospitals to generate revenue to help fund hospital operations. Revenue generated from parking fees is always used for patient care, towards the purchase of capital equipment and projects, infrastructure, clinical research, and day-to-day operations such as facility maintenance," the statement reads. "The decision to cut revenues could not come at a worse time." Advertisement This new policy, which fulfills a 2014 provincial election promise, will affect an estimated 36 hospitals that charge more than $10 a day. Toronto Western Hospital, for instance, charges $4.50 per half-hour or a $25 daily maximum, while elsewhere in the province, 45 hospitals offer free parking and 54 charge $10 or less per day. The push to reduce or eliminate hospital parking fees is not new, nor is it restricted to Ontario. In 2011, a Canadian Medical Association Journal editorial called for free hospital parking across the country, dubbing them "user fees" and arguing they hurt health care. Some patients (who have often waited several weeks to see a doctor) try to end a consultation abruptly when they realize that they will have to pay for an additional hour for parking, Dr. Rajendra Kale wrote. This is parking-centred health care, which is not compatible with patient-centred health care." In 2013, CBC Marketplace reported that the cost of parking was causing Canadians to miss hospital appointments and increasing their stress. "Parking fees are a penalty for having a disease. It seems like an unfair tax on my patients," cancer specialist Dr. Bob Winston told Marketplace co-host Erica Johnson. "My patients have a lot of stress from the get-go, and with the addition of more stress with regards to the parking is sort of salt in the wound." Advertisement Hospital parking was made free in Scotland in 2008 and there's a current push to do the same in England, specifically to assist patients (and their caregivers and visitors) who must go to the hospital frequently, are gravely ill or are there for an extended stay. ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Well, it now has the complete editorial campaign to go along with it. And people are still upset. The collection, which was described as "primitive" and "wild," featured clothing and accessories inspired by tribal African motifs, but were donned by mostly white models wearing cornrows during the runway show. Advertisement Naturally, people were quick to accuse the luxury brand of cultural appropriation, from the clothes to the models cast to the hairstyle. For this campaign, however, the Italian fashion house, along with National Geographic photographer Steven McCurry, headed to Amboseli National Park in Kenya and recruited local Maasai people to make appearances alongside the top models in the images. 'Photography is always about finding the best solution to a puzzle and creating some wonderful feeling or scenario, making a great story' Steve McCurry @stevemccurryofficial photographer of the #SS16 #campaign A photo posted by Valentino (@maisonvalentino) on Jan 8, 2016 at 1:41pm PST Advertisement Famous for his renowned work at @natgeo the new SS16 advertising campaign was shot by @stevemccurryofficial in Kenya's #Amboseli National Park. #breaking #campaign A photo posted by Valentino (@maisonvalentino) on Jan 8, 2016 at 6:16am PST Being mindful of the backlash the collection received, Valentino creative directors Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri took to Instagram to explain the idea they wanted to execute with the collection and images: "Our emotions about African Culture, the idea of beauty achieved by the interaction of different cultures, the idea of tolerance, this is the message we wanted to deliver," they write. 'Our emotions about African Culture, the idea of beauty achieved by the interaction of different cultures, the idea of tolerance, this is the message we wanted to deliver.' Creative Directors as quoted in today's @WWD on the new #SS16 ad campaign shot by @stevemccurryofficial A photo posted by Valentino (@maisonvalentino) on Jan 8, 2016 at 10:00am PST Alas, many fans were still left unsatisfied, writing in the Instagram comments that Valentino was simply using Kenya as a "prop," and asking why "white models are being used to represent the beauty of African culture." Advertisement And Twitter users felt the same way: It appears that @MaisonValentino chose "neocolonial b.s." as next season's theme. Africa is the new appropriation. https://t.co/Aad7JzKiEw Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) January 16, 2016 Valentino is a mess. How can they use mostly white models in an ad campaign of a collection inspired by Africa and shooted in Kenya?? Wth NJL (@SonshineZM) January 15, 2016 Valentino does a whole campaign based in Africa with desgins inspired by Africa and has one black model? :) pic.twitter.com/OoKYPv2sg0 premium hun (@vindictivebxtch) January 15, 2016 This news comes days after Spanish high-street brand Mango came under fire for cultural appropriation after appointing top model, Kendall Jenner, as the star of their spring 2016 campaign, "Tribal Spirit," which showcases a collection "inspired by the African savanna." *Sigh* Oh, fashion. When will you learn? Follow Huffington Post Canada Style on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter! Also on HuffPost Valentino Spring/Summer 2016 See Gallery David Sacks via Getty Images 50s man sitting on hospital bed By: Lee Anne Davies The world of Alzheimer's disease continues to experience a great deal of changes, ranging from social mores to legislation. Not only are people under the age of 65 living with the disease due to early diagnosis, but a more demanding generation, the baby boomers, are aging into their greater health-risk years. Care for Alzheimer's is increasingly patient-centric. Fortunately, well-informed and caring people are challenging health and social care organizations to reconsider their approaches to behaviours, adult day programs, facility living and much more in order to protect the rights and dignity of those living with Alzheimer's. Advertisement Some of this change is taking place due to the increasing voice of those people who have received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's and who are instrumental in reshaping our approach to this disease. Over the next few years there will be no greater area of change in Canada than in our social conscience and our legal frameworks regarding end of life care and decision-making. You need to be aware of the current challenges and planned changes. British Columbia courts and Alzheimer's Putting your wishes in writing and communicating them to professionals and family is the current gold standard for protecting your wishes. However, it is not without problems, and this is best demonstrated through the Bentley case in British Columbia. This is an extremely complex situation involving an 83-year-old retired nurse, her family and the health authority. A brief overview of this situation indicates that several challenges by Mrs. Bentley's family to the provincial health authority have taken place over the right to stop feeding her, respecting her wishes to not live with extreme mental or physical disability. Regardless of your point of view, this is a disturbing situation because of the difficulty in interpreting Mrs. Bentley's wishes, even though as an informed health care professional she stated her wishes. This demonstrates how woefully unprepared our country is for severe health situations that arise and that you must be vigilant in sharing your thoughts on your end of life wishes with as many people as is possible to help protect your plans. Advertisement The changing Canadian legal landscape With the federal election out of the way and the one-year deadline looming, there will be a greater focus on physician assisted suicide. The Supreme Court ruling set a legalization date of Feb. 6, 2016 (unless an extension is requested) in order to undertake more consultation and analysis. Andre Picard's article in the Globe and Mail provides an update on our country's process discussing many of the challenges surrounding the implementation of assisted suicide legislation, including the rights of physicians versus the rights of patients. Quebec has already passed their Respecting End of Life Care bill (to take effect in December 2015), but it is unclear on how the assessment of a person's competency to choose will be undertaken in Quebec. At this point in time clarity on assessment is an important and missing key piece of information for people with a diagnosis of probable Alzheimer's or related dementias. End of life decision-making cannot ignore money and estates Money adds another dimension to decision making about end of life. Money can be viewed as a motive -- at least in some people's eyes. This means that someone who may be a beneficiary of an estate needs to be clear and transparent about their involvement in any discussions regarding end-of-life decisions. My article in the Financial Post delves into some estate scenarios on personal finances when facing these decisions and the potential for subtle financial elder abuse. You need to be aware of these issues to protect yourself but also to protect others who could be accused of some irregularity after you pass away. How to move forward when there are so many unknowns There is no right answer regarding end of life care. Your personal choices will be interpreted within an increasingly volatile landscape of changing laws and changing interpretations of the laws alongside changes in our society's acceptance of end of life decision-making. Finding others who share in your experience with Alzheimer's may be helpful in creating your own plan. Advertisement This blog by Kate Swaffer in Australia is worth reading. Ms. Swaffer advocates for Alzheimer's care while also managing her own diagnosis. Ultimately, it is up to you and your loved ones to remain informed about the latest news in Canada on end of life. For as long as is possible, your voice needs to be clear and constant in order to help others understand how to best honour your choices. Brought to you by the Alzheimer Society of Ontario. This story was originally published in the Alzheimer Society of Ontario's newsletter as well as on alzlive.com, a website for caregivers of people living with Alzheimer's and dementia. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: There might have been "too much" in the bill, the Virginia Democrat said, but it was better than letting the economy unravel. Donations can be sent to BNC at Max Obuszewski, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212 . Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast [dot] net. Kutay Tanir via Getty Images Flag of Canada Fans of Star Trek: the Next Generation and Star Trek Voyageur are all too familiar with the Borg, an alien race that aimed to assimilate all other species into their collective. Before they moved to assimilate "others" they uttered the words "resistance is futile." No doubt, the producers of Star Trek meant to give assimilation a very negative connotation in popular culture and given the show's significant viewership around the globe the term likely fell out of favour in several parts of the planet. In Canada, the term assimilation is especially unpopular. It's associated with painful events in the country's history. But the country's proponents of forced assimilation often underestimated the inevitability of resistance on the part of their targets. The lessons of our history seem lost on many Canadians as it's surprising to learn how many endorse making "others" like "them." According to a January 2016 Leger Marketing poll one in three Canadians agrees that "religious/cultural groups such as Jews, Muslims and Sikhs should abandon their customs and traditions and become more like the majority." Paradoxically, several Canadians that continue to fear assimilation are amongst those most apt to believe that their own cultural survival depends others assimilating. Advertisement Quebec history books frequently highlight the determination of many of Canada's British colonizers to assimilate French Canadians. In response to uprisings in Lower Canada (now Quebec) in the late 1830s the infamous Lord Durham urged that immigration from Britain be dramatically expanded so as to overwhelm the number of French Canadians with the aim of assimilating them into British culture. What Durham described as the inferiority of French Canadian culture served as justification for the need to assimilate. The Quebec and broader French Canadian historic narrative legitimately refer to efforts to resist assimilation against too many attempts to diminish if not altogether eliminate the French language and culture from the public domain.Thankfully there were enough English Canadian leaders that chose a different path. To be fair, not all did so out of the kindness of their hearts. Rather they looked at the numbers of French Canadians and realized that pursuing their assimilation was futile. Given the country's rather unfortunate experience with assimilation it's surprising to see the level of support it continues to enjoy. Across Canadian history, Aboriginal Peoples were also prime the targets of assimilation at the hands of British and French colonizers. Recent revelations regarding residential schools in Canada offer shocking evidence of how destructive assimilation can be when taken to the extreme. Advertisement Important numbers of aboriginals also ended up being assimilated. Some historians contend that such losses were often the result of internal migration. In their view, assimilation was inevitable and a deliberate choice was made by many people to give up their language and customs to adjust to a new home. In far too many cases however people were not given the choice. Assimilation is still very much a concern for Aboriginal Peoples and Francophone Canadians who insist upon the need for continued vigilance to avert further loss of language and cultures. Thankfully our more recent history is characterized by efforts to correct historic injustices by supporting efforts at language and/or cultural retention. Given the country's rather unfortunate experience with assimilation it's surprising to see the level of support it continues to enjoy. Ironically, while 80 per cent of Canadians agree that the country's youth should preserve their customs and traditions, many of these same people believe that immigrants should give up their customs and traditions. Immigrants and their children have long emerged as a principal target of supporters of assimilation who often use another word to describe what pretty much amounts to the same goal. They remain persuaded that immigrants must choose between being part of mainstream society or maintaining their customs and traditions. When their arguments fail, they like to toss out the tired adage that when in Rome do as the Romans do. From a cultural standpoint, in ethnically diverse societies it's not obvious what it means to be a Roman (today it's even unclear in Italy). Looking back at Canadian history the proponents of assimilation have generally found themselves on its wrong side. The future won't vindicate them. Jack Jedwab is Chair of the National Metropolis Conference on Immigration and Integration. The 18th edition of the conference, entitled "Getting Results: Migration, Opportunities and Good Governance," will be held at the Westin Harbor Front in Toronto between March 3 and March 5, 2016. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: WLDavies via Getty Images Close up of male lions on the prowl through high grass - Masai Mara, Kenya Is the world a better place because activists have worked to pressure hotels and banquet halls to cancel the leases of African Events Canada in Toronto and Saskatoon, simply because they object to what the vendors do, lawfully? The venues have lost money and untold damage has been done to the vendors who have travelled from Africa to be here to promote their businesses. To paint all hunters as poachers is both unfair and untrue. To invoke the shameful killing of Cecil the lion as a justification for wiping out legal hunting operations confuses what made the killing of Cecil so outrageous and wrong in the first place. Most hunters are conservationists who understand the role hunting plays in funding and promoting conservation. But none of this seems to matter. Advertisement While the Saskatoon show has been able to secure a second venue, with a manager who has an intact backbone and is prepared to defend the show's right to exist, the Toronto show was cancelled for a second time, less than 24 hours before opening. due to 'threats' from activists on the venue. It will move forward, in an undisclosed location. Making threats is hardly something a morally superior being would do. Despite the fact that hunting is perfectly legal in Canada and in each of the countries represented at the African Hunting Shows, narrow-minded individuals who appear unable or unwilling to seek to change the opinions of those most likely to engage in lawful safari hunting, have instead sought to make it harder for those hunters to participate in a lawful activity. Apparently Canadians aren't allowed to visit hunting shows anymore because overzealous individuals who don't like hunting, don't want you to go. In fact, activists would like you to know 'the noose is closing around the neck' of this sector. This isn't about whether hunting is good or bad, and at this stage, it can't be. This is about whether Canada is prepared to allow sanctimonious activists to have the absolute right to tell everyone else how to live their lives, and run their businesses, issue by issue as they see fit. Advertisement While we can thank our lucky stars these folks don't get to make all of our decisions for us, whether you are a hunter or not, you should be extremely concerned when anyone can decide what you can and cannot do on your Saturday or Sunday, based on their opinion alone, without any consideration of your own. Real activists respect the rights of their opponents to engage in whatever activity or opinion they disagree with. They use powerful arguments and compelling messages to shift opinion to their side and seek to create a climate where people adopt their views, not by force or by fear, but because they too fundamentally agree. I am all for that, whether we agree or not. Lobby a government, write a petition, try to change the law, or even the system; whatever. But do it right. Economically bullying a third party, depriving them of lawful income and forcing people you disagree with out of a venue they have an absolute right to lease and peacefully assemble in is shameful and not something any democracy-loving Canadian should celebrate or accept. Imagine if anti-capitalists shut down small business trade shows, or prevented area Chambers of Commerce from operating because business owners hurt their feelings on the economy? The most important speech to protect is unpopular and controversial speech. Censoring and shaming your opponents, seeking to take their voice to protect your position goes against the core of every freedom those who seek to shut down their opponents rely on to protect their own actions. Advertisement There is plenty of room to debate and discuss animal rights, the impacts of hunting and to show your opposition to activities that you oppose without seeking to economically destroy your opponents instead of winning the argument. If anti-hunting activists wanted to take time out of their Saturday or Sunday, make some signs and some compelling flyers and stand on public property in front of the venues to express their views about hunting, that would be a reasonable way to wade into the lawful activities of others, without interfering the rights of those who don't share their views. Instead, democracy-loving opponents of hunting who want that opportunity will now face more difficulty as legal hunters are being driven to meeting in secret, because of this growing trend away from civil discourse. Canada is too diverse to be run based on how some people feel about the morality of other people's lawful actions. Tolerance can't be ad hoc. You either are tolerant or you aren't. And we all need to be if there can be civil discourse. Economically destroying people you disagree with, isn't tolerant, democratic or anything to be proud of. Advertisement This Armada that sails against us, carries in its bowels the Inquisition. God forbid it succeeds, for then there will be no more liberty in England, of conscience or of thought. We cannot be defeated ~ Elizabeth - The Golden Age Dan Barnes' post in the Edmonton Journal mentions that three speakers invited at the University of Alberta for Islam Awareness Week have defended themselves against criticism by concerned Canadian citizens. He writes that the "[Muslim Student Association] MSA condemns all forms of hate against groups, including hatred against the LGBTQ+ community." Amongst the invited speakers, Abdullah Hakim Quick mentions in his blog post about giving a wrong impression through his "moral reprimand" to a group of gay Muslims about 20 years ago. Al Andalusi defends himself in his blog post against charges of extremism leveled against him. Jamal Badawi mentions that the reports linking him to the Muslim Brotherhood were a myth. Advertisement However, Quick clearly says in his "reprimand," "the punishment is death, and I am not going to change this religion." How do such clear words give off a "wrong impression?" Is he perhaps stating that such punishments would not be carried out in Canada but in an Islamic state, which we should strive for? In his defense, he writes that he has been "respectful of the rights" of individuals. Yet, in his video, he clearly states how a "brother" referred to a barbeque setting with some gay men as a "filthy disgusting thing" in a "respectful way." How does one refer to other community members as "weird looking" and "filthy" in a "respectful way?" In his defense, he writes that when he made the "supplication for God to purify Islam's third holiest shrine from the filth of the Christians and the Jews" he was simply asking God to heal the spiritual corruption of "some members of religious groups." How does the latter later qualification follow from the former general statement? Al Andalusi writes in his defense that Caliphate is an "integral" "part of Islamic belief" shared by 65 per cent of Muslims in a poll. On his association with the UK based Hizb ut Tahrir, which calls for establishment of an Islamic state, he refers to it as a peaceful group. On homosexuality, he claims about gay men that, "if you believe it's not a sin, that's not part of Islam, they can't be Muslims." He has also waffled on the question on the death punishment for apostasy. Advertisement Badawi's writings clearly allude to Qur'anic verses 5:47-53 to support an Islamic state, claiming that those who refuse to "rule or judge in accordance with what God revealed" are "unbelievers, wrongdoers and rebels." There is no issue of context or misrepresentation of such views, which are clearly available in their videos and their own defensive writings for anyone to read and listen. Islamic grand teacher, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, who is in self-imposed exile due to death threats, has clearly stated that the root cause of Muslim terrorism is religious ideology. He has identified four teachings that constitute such an ideology: 1.The punishment of kufr (disbelief) and irtidad (apostasy) is death and must be implemented 2.Only Muslims have the right to rule, non-Muslims were meant to be subjugated, when Muslims obtain power they will overthrow non-Muslim governments 3.There should be only one Muslim Caliphate 4.Modern nation states are unIslamic and constitute kufr (disbelief) Religious ideologues will not openly call for violence, but will casually ignore human rights violations, such as that of prisoners of conscience like Raif Badawi and Waleed Abu Al Khair in Saudi Arabia. Advertisement Just as the greatest target of groups like ISIS and the Taliban comprise of fellow Muslims who are deemed apostates, the brunt of exclusivist ideologies is directed to fellow Muslims. Religious ideologues would like to proselytize and create enough mass following to achieve their political goals. It is this stealth tactic that causes others to espouse "Islamophobic" sentiments. Supremacism feeds supremacism. The recent sex attacks on women in Cologne, Germany has led to counter attacks on refugees. This cycle of hatred and violence must stop. We can stop this violence by embracing diversity and by recognizing that Islam is not about instituting a supremacist political order but about tazkiyya nafs (perfecting one's ethical character). How can we condemn hate against the LGBT community but socially ostracize LGBT Muslims as outside the folds of Islam? How can we speak of human rights but support salvific exclusivism and Caliphates? Advertisement In essence, the MSA must recognize that if it is an umbrella group of all Muslim students then why are speakers from Shii, Ismaili, Sufi, Zaidi, Bohra, Ahmadi, progressive and Universalist Muslim communities conspicuously missing at Islam Awareness Weeks? Why must all the speakers come from the same exclusivist ideological bent nurtured by petro-dollars? Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: Holly Hildreth via Getty Images A pregnant woman in the early stages of labor rests in a hospital bed with her arms on her stomach. An IV is seen in her left hand. On the subject of doctor-assisted death in Canada, the federal government now finds itself in a somewhat similar position as some proponents: running out of time. Now, with an extra four months granted by the Supreme Court to draft new legislation, government's task ahead is also heavy. Even if the Supreme Court of Canada grants the six-month extension government says it needs to draft new legislation, Ottawa has a minefield to navigate as it consults with the provinces, territories, and Canadians themselves. On the latter front, it's not a consensus voice government will hear. Canadian opinion on the question of whether physicians should be allowed, by law, to help end the lives of people who no longer wish to live is intricately nuanced. While the standard "nutgraf" of reportage on this file tends to simply reflect that the majority of Canadians support doctor-assisted suicide, a dive beneath the surface shows people in this country are divided on the underlying questions government is going to have to sort out: exactly who should be allowed to end their own lives? Under what circumstances? By which means? Advertisement Indeed, the most recent Angus Reid Institute poll once again underscores this complexity: asked about the moral acceptability of (among many other things) doctor-assisted suicide, just over half of Canadians see it as "always or usually acceptable" (55 per cent): But of that group, just one-in-five are of the mind that is it "always" morally okay (22 per cent) while closer to one-third say "usually." This is an important distinction, because government -- although it does not necessarily deal in the realm of morality -- will want to propose legislation the public find's palatable. And what of those specific circumstances? In December 2014, with the issue before the Supreme Court of Canada, the Angus Reid Institute polled Canadians about whether doctor-assisted suicide should be allowed in ten unique scenarios. The graph below illustrates their response: Advertisement Notably, disapproval -- or at least uneasiness -- with physician-assisted suicide was most pronounced in that December 2014 study among Canadians belonging to an evangelical Protestant denomination: fully 63 per cent of Evangelicals who regularly attended church at the time expressed disapproval compared to the 18 per cent recorded among the whole population. Indeed, last week's survey on morality shows those with the hardest-line mindset when it comes to moral right and wrong, the "Traditional Absolutists" also identify strongly with this faith group. Little wonder then, why the former Conservative government under Stephen Harper appeared to be in no hurry to tackle this legislation head-on last year, knowing a key part of its own base (practicing Christians of all stripes expressed a strong preference for the CPC in ARI's pre-election surveys) had major concerns. While it doesn't face the same political pressures Harper did, the Trudeau government must still demonstrate a grasp of how complex the issue is, and how the individual moral codes of Canadians impact their thinking. I sincerely wish anyone working on this file the best of luck, wisdom, and forbearance. Advertisement This article was originally published on angusreid.org Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook ALSO ON HUFFPOST: She stood there, both hands clasping her face, weeping profusely. The tears were tinged with more than sadness: they flowed as a sign of overwhelmed relief and even disbelief. Minutes before, young Anila was telling me about her challenges as a poor orphan living in a slum, how her elder brothers worked menial jobs so the three could survive and she could go to school, but could not afford it any longer. Evidently a bright girl, her lofty aim was to eventually complete her doctoral studies and make a difference, yet at the moment she was unable to pay for college entrance exams, let alone her tuition fees. Touched by the young girl's ability to dream despite the apparent impossibility, I expressed my resolve to support her education, which drew heartfelt sobs as a response. It wasn't the first time I had encountered this type of reaction, and it likely won't be the last. And often it is impossible not to reciprocate their tears out of empathy. Advertisement Image credit: Shujaat Wasty/RSF I recall meeting another orphan, Suhana, who cared for her two young brothers by herself at a displaced population camp. She earned paltry sums working as a housemaid in deplorable conditions. Initially reserved, as if gauging whether I could earn her trust, she finally opened up and tearfully recounted some of her daily struggles, how her makeshift shelter was damaged and caused her to fall twice into open sewage. I made my way to her shelter and found it to be worse than what I had imagined. The single-room hut was hot, decrepit and cramped, and at the moment had a gaping hole as part of the wall had caved in. Even worse, it was located in the outskirts of the camp, leaving Suhana and her brothers completely vulnerable to any intruder. Sure enough, she mentioned that some miscreants had tried to harass her the night before. Advertisement Amid these already concerning circumstances, I glanced over at the meal she had prepared for herself and her brothers: a small bowl of plain boiled rice with a slice of tomato and some withered strands of onion. That's it. I would have found it difficult to eat ,much less have my fill, and yet it was their only meal of the day. As I made arrangements to improve their situation, I was nagged by a weighty thought: that which we privileged beings take for granted is an inconceivable luxury elsewhere. It is an oft-repeated mantra, fleetingly shared on social media networks through powerful photos or provocative memes, but seeing is truly believing. And for an outsider looking into the sobering world of the millions of Anilas and Suhanas around the world, it can be a struggle to put things in perspective, especially after returning to the relatively comfortable confines of our own realities. Image credit: Shujaat Wasty/RSF From a very young age, my parents taught my siblings and I, through instruction and example, that doing even a little can lead to a lot. It was difficult at times to wholly understand why we were to keep aside a portion of our weekly allowance to give to charity (perhaps they could have withheld it at the source and introduced us to income taxation instead). And having my mother effectively force me to spend countless hours volunteering in a local food bank and with elderly patients at a nearby hospital was a damper during summer vacations. Advertisement But what initially felt like a pointless, mind-numbing activity became a valuable exercise in developing understanding and empathy. Packing food and handing over boxes exposed me to shocking poverty subtly hidden in a generally well-to-do Canadian suburb. Yet the experience wasn't as painful as building a rapport with elderly patients at a local hospital, for whom our time together was a refuge from their otherwise loneliness, only to return days later and be informed that they were no more. At those moments of vulnerability, having caring parents to turn to was an invaluable gift. They provided emotional strength and drove my motivation to continue engaging in such causes. Now, having volunteered for close to a decade in different humanitarian contexts, my interactions with the poorest of the poor -- orphans, widows, displaced persons, victims of violence -- have allowed me to appreciate the stories reported in the news, and more so those that fail to make the headlines. The daunting numbers of those in need globally are more than just statistics -- each is a person, an individual with likes and dislikes, with hopes and aspirations for love, happiness and a better life for themselves and their family. It is a matter of human dignity and respect. If we can gain this appreciation sooner as a society and each do our part as individuals to help make a fellow human's life better, we can actively contribute more positivity to our world. Promoting activities that address this early on can be a catalyst to produce engaged, conscientious human beings. At some point, it has to be an integral part of our civic duty and our parental responsibilities. Advertisement If we can breed the sense of regularly taking a step away from our occupations to make life better for another, it would be a significant collective step forward. Neil Armstrong's famous words after landing on the moon, "One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind," hold true for each of us right here on our beautiful planet. Small steps that we incorporate in our lives will inevitably yield giant leaps for all of humanity. It's just a matter of seizing the opportunity to do so. Follow HuffPost Canada Blogs on Facebook MORE ON HUFFPOST: Darrin Klimek via Getty Images 'Group of doctors smiling, portrait' Over the past two years, Ontario has been at a crossroads with its physicians. The physicians maintain that Liberal government has cut health care funding. The Liberals of course, counter that this is simply a dispute about money, and that physicians have simply been asked to take a modest pay cut. As always, it is the patients that suffer whenever there's a dispute of this magnitude between physicians and government. Lost in all of this of course, is some of the legal jargon, that is expounded by both sides, to advance their own agenda. The Liberals maintain that they underwent a one-year bargaining process, that was agreed upon by both sides, and that they are acting within the parameters of that agreement. The physicians of course, privately maintain that the government did not act in good faith, throughout the course of the negotiations, and are using physicians as a scapegoat to balance the budget. In their charter challenge, they claim that because they can't strike, they have no effective means of countering the government. In essence, the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), is claiming that the government is acting like a bully, and is picking on a group that cannot fight back. Advertisement While I obviously should have some bias in this issue, the reality is that I can see why it is difficult for the average member of the public to have sympathy for either side. From a legal point of view, the government is correct. There was an agreed-upon process that the OMA foolishly agreed to in 2012, that upon closer reading, suggests that the government can make unilateral cuts if the negotiation process fails. The fact that the OMA didn't recognize this, speaks more to their ineptness at politics then anything else. However, what is also true, is that the OMA, has not been able to avail itself of any protections enshrined in labour law. This is because, contrary to the perception in the lay press the OMA is not a union. It is a professional association, and has been since it's inception. Now it is true that in the 1990's the Bob Rae New Democratic government gave it the sole bargaining rights for physicians, along with the ability to forcibly collect dues from all physicians (prior to this dues were voluntary). In return, the OMA offered to help "co-manage" the Health Care system. However, because it was not formally recognized as a union, the OMA did not (and still doesn't) have protection against unilateral actions of the government. Advertisement For example, there are certain fundamental rights given to unions, such as binding arbitration, when their members are not legally allowed to strike (eg. Firefighters). By not being unionized, the OMA cannot access those rights, and protect it's members. Whose fault is that? Clearly it is the fault of the leadership of the OMA for not recognizing that at the end of the day politicians of all stripes, will simply focus on their agenda of getting re-elected, no matter what the cost, as opposed to acting in the best interest of the public. If attacking doctors will get votes, the politicians will do that. If cutting a deal with teachers is the price you pay for the teachers supporting them in the last election, politicians will do that too. However, it's not too late for the OMA to learn from it's mistakes. Physicians can, and should, hold a certification vote to enshrine the OMA as a union. The benefits of this to the OMA are many. Currently, if there is to be some sort of job action, the government, is not obliged to respect the OMA's decision. For example, supposing the OMA were to direct it's members to stop attending hospital committee meetings until an agreement was reached. The hospitals can still go to physicians, and say "but we're so close to making a final decision on such and such policy, and your input is so valuable" or "you know we're going to move ahead with this decision whether you help us or not, see you might as well help us as you'll have to live with the consequences". This kind of thing happens all the time. On the other hand, if the OMA was a union, then once it mandated that it's members would not attend committee meetings, it would become difficult, if not impossible under Ontario law to try to work around that decision. Do you think a Principal can go to a teacher in the midst of a job action (say not filling out a report card) and ask them to reconsider, without charges of workplace retaliation being filed by the Teachers Union? Advertisement This would create a situation (unlike current) where physicians could apply pressure on the government to send an impasse to a third party arbitrator who would resolve the dispute. Now of course, the government can always unilaterally impose legislation to rescind any arbitration award, however, one wonders if they would. To do so would risk the wrath of all the other unions, as they would surely recognize that if the government does that to one union, it will do that to another. Far more importantly it provides the general public with a recognition that no matter what the difficulties, there will be a fair process for settling disputes. Governments are legally required to behave in a certain manner with unions. As a result, there will be safeguards in place to ensure that while the OMA and government are working on their disagreements, the health care provided will not suffer. That is clearly not the case now, as witnessed by events in Orillia, Kingston, London and more. For many decades, physicians themselves have resisted unionization. There's never been an article written on why, but my sense is that for whatever reason, they felt unions were "beneath" them somehow as professionals. I've also had more senior physicians express to me concerns about a loss of independence if one were in a union. LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 09: Britain's Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Baroness Warsi arrives at 10 Downing Street on June 9, 2014 in London, England. The Education Secretary Michael Gove and and Home Secretary Theresa May were both called to attend a meeting at 10 Downing Street in London today with British Prime Minister David Cameron. The meeting was to discuss the alleged 'extremist takeovers' of schools in Birmingham, and was held on the same day that Ofsted released a report in to Dan Kitwood via Getty Images David Cameron's decision to link the English language skills of Muslim women to extremism is "lazy and sloppy", according to the former chair of the Conservative Party. Baroness Warsi, who was Britain's first Muslim woman cabinet minister, said on Monday the prime minister had undermined proposals to invest money in language classes by resorting to "stereotypes". Advertisement Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme today: "I'm not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not, that would be a ridiculous thing to say. "But if you're not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you might find therefore, you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message from Daesh." The prime minister announced immigrants would have to demonstrate they were improving their English language skills after being in the country for two-and-a-half years or face being deported. SEE ALSO: David Cameron speaks with women attending an English language class in Leeds Warsi told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme: "I absolutely agree with the governments announcement that its important for more money to be put into English language teaching, because a shared language of course is a must for strong, integrated communities, what raised concerns for me was the way in which a very good announcement would be linked to extremism and terrorism. "And this lazy and misguided linking and what I saw once again was stereotyping of British Muslim communities. I felt took away from what was a positive announcement." The former Tory cabinet minister, who quit the government in 2014 over the UK's "morally indefensible" Middle East policy, said Cameron should not single out Muslims. "To singularly point out that British Muslim women dont speak English and that therefore leads to radicalisation and therefore only they should be taught English is a very odd way of pursuing an integrated approach to community cohesion," she said. Advertisement Celebrity Parents Getty/Jason LaVeris/Gilbert Carrasquillo/D Arnold If you thought keeping track of your familys birthdays, anniversaries and other big events was hard, then spare a thought for these celebrities. Its clear that when it comes to raising a family, a lot of residents of Celebville believe that bigger really is better, with a whole host boasting broods in the high numbers. Advertisement While some stars are keen to share the love by introducing as many children to their families as possible, such as the UKs own Katie Price and Kerry Katona, others have taken the adoption route, giving children from different backgrounds a second chance by welcoming them into their family. And if you think the stars with five or six children have a lot to juggle, wait till you see the host of stars who are now into the double-digits, some of whom are still showing no signs of stopping A labyrinth of subterranean tunnels beneath Londons Clapham South Tube station that offered shelter to local residents during the Blitz is to be opened to the public. The passageways, which were regularly used by 8,000 people during Nazi raids on the capital, have been turned into an exhibition by Transport for London and the London Transport Museum, which will open to the public in March. Advertisement Sitting more than 100 feet below the surface, visitors will scale 180 steps down to the maze. The Clapham South bunker was one of eight air raid shelters built across London, including excavations at Chancery Lane station, Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Street, Stockwell, Clapham North and Clapham Common. Between September 1940 and May 1941, London was attacked with high explosives from the air 71 times. The Luftwaffe also targeted 15 other cities, including Coventry, Hull, Liverpool and Glasgow. Germany eventually moved away from the strategic bombing of the UK, but not before 1 million London homes had been damaged or destroyed, while some 40,000 Britons perished in the raids. After the war, the tunnels were turned into accommodation for immigrants. Prime Minister David Cameron prepares to meet Queen Rania of Jordan (not pictured) outside 10 Downing Street, in Westminster, London. Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire David Cameron clashed with a BBC Radio 4 Today programme presenter this morning over the broadcaster's policy of using the term 'Islamic State' rather than 'Daesh'. The BBC has been under pressure to adopt the term 'Daesh' rather than 'Islamic State', 'Isis' or 'Isil' as some say it helps draw a distinction between Islam as a religion and the militant group. Advertisement In an interview with Sarah Montague, the prime minister announced immigrants would have to demonstrate they were improving their English language skills after being in the country for two-and-a-half years or face being deported. "I'm not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not, that would be a ridiculous thing to say," he said. "But if you're not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you might find therefore, you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message from Daesh." And he criticised the BBC: "Muslim families around the country would have held their heads in despair this morning when, once again, you just called it 'Islamic State', you didn't even say 'so-called Islamic State' it's so important this." Advertisement Montegue told Cameron to "take that up with the upper echelons of the BBC" rather than with her. Cameron said he would do as she suggested. "Well I will," he said. A spokesperson for the BBC told The Huffington Post UK: "The BBC uses the name the group itself uses, using additional descriptions to help make it clear we are referring to the group as they refer to themselves, such as 'so-called Islamic State' or 'Islamic State group'." The BBC has previously rejected a demand by MPs that it use the term 'Daesh'. In December, as he set out the case for RAF airstrikes against Isis in Syria, Cameron said he would use the term 'Daesh' rather than 'Isis' or 'Isil' as he previously had done. Speaking to Today, Cameron said women who come to the UK to join husbands will face tests after two and a half years - with failure meaning "they can't guarantee they will be able to stay" even if they have children. Advertisement "You have to be able to speak a basic level of English now to come into the country as a husband or a wife," he said. "We have made that change already and we are now going to toughen that up so halfway through the five-year spousal settlement programme, there will be another opportunity to make sure your English is improving. You can't guarantee you will be able to stay if you are not improving your language. "It is tough. But in the end it is not enough just to say the government is going to spend more money and it is our responsibility. People coming to our country, they have responsibilities too." He said: "I am not blaming the people who can't speak English. Some of these people have come to our country from quite patriarchal societies where perhaps the menfolk haven't wanted them to learn English, haven't wanted them to integrate. "Where there is segregation, it is holding people back, it is not in tune with British values and it needs to go. We need to be more assertive." Advertisement I am not quite sure how or when to begin this story. Back in the day when all I had was the birds in my garden and the fantastic illustrations of magica... 4 months ago David Cameron: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire David Cameron has been criticised announcing a 20 million fund for women to learn English - despite cutting a 45 million English language programme in the summer. The Prime Minister today signalled that he sees a link between isolation of mothers and Islamist extremism, and suggested Muslim women who fail to improve their English language skills could be deported as not speaking the language adequately could make people "more susceptible". Advertisement Mr Cameron said the new English classes being announced today were not just for Muslim women, but for women in the greatest danger of isolation. But Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron was among some to point to the withdrawal of funding for basic English classes - known as English for Speakers of Other Languages or Esol - announced in July. Govt axed funding 4 ESOL courses making it harder to learn English - not sure David Cameron understands cause & effect of his own policies! Helen Hayes (@helenhayes_) January 18, 2016 Even now, Camerons writing a furious letter to the PM for cutting funding for English as a Second Language classes. https://t.co/ckcDMWWSDe David Schneider (@davidschneider) January 18, 2016 Advertisement The loss of the programme, part of 450 million of savings found by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, was estimated to hit 47 colleges and 16,000 pupils. The Association of Colleges said at the time the cut would prevent them from not only integrating with society, but from getting into employment and off benefits. Funding had already been reduced in 2011. Mr Cameron defended the Governments decision to cut funding for English lessons in the last Parliament. "We had to make difficult decisions. Now what we are doing is targeting the language money much more accurately. "It is just for women, not necessarily just for Muslim women - it is for those in the greatest danger of isolation, he told Radio 4s Today programme. Advertisement Lib Dem Mr Farron said: This announcement is dog-whistle politics at its best, David Cameron cut the budget for English language classes in August last year by 45 million. Now the Prime Minister is dressing up a massive cut as a 20 million funding commitment. Linking women in the Muslim community who struggle with the English language to home grown extremism only serves to isolate the very people Cameron says he is trying to help. Liberal Democrats support English language classes for anyone regardless of race, religion or gender and blocked these plans to cut funding for them in coalition. The Skills Agency confirms withdrawal of English for Speakers of Other Languages funding in July Mr Cameron told Today people growing up in a house where no-one speaks English are less able to talk to the school, less able to communicate with a local GP. Advertisement He added: "I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not. That would be a ridiculous thing to say. "But if you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message." Labours Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham said the Prime Minister was unfairly stigmatising a whole community. Cameron's simplistic, headline-driven approach to extremism risks unfairly stigmatising a whole community, thereby making the problem worse. Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) January 18, 2016 He said: "In his desire to grab easy headlines, David Cameron risks doing more harm than good. His clumsy and simplistic approach to challenging extremism is unfairly stigmatising a whole community. There is a real danger that it could end up driving further radicalisation, rather than tackling it. Advertisement David Cameron has been accused of conflating education with radicalisation after announcing a 20m fund to improve the English skills of Muslim women. While a number of Muslim commentators welcomed moves to empower and educate women, they also warned the government was confusing two different issues when it came to extremism. Advertisement Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, said: "There are three million Muslims in this country and the Prime Minister chooses to focus on a very small minority of extremists when clearly the majority of British Muslims reject extremism. "The Ramadhan Foundation has been clear for many years that we face an increased risk from terrorism and an ideology of hatred. "The best way to confront it is to build support within Muslims and support the work done across the country, and not lashing out and denigrating Muslims." Speaking after David Cameron announced a new 20 million fund to teach women English, a number of Muslims have discussed both the positive and negative implications of his proposals. Advertisement The prime minister signalled that he sees a link between isolation of mothers and Islamist extremism, and suggested Muslim women who fail to improve their English language skills could be deported as not speaking the language adequately could make people "more susceptible". One the one hand, many commented that learning English could open up more opportunities for women and help them to gain confidence. David Cameron has been warned against conflating speaking English and radicalisation Zubeda Limbada, founding director of anti-extremism think tank Connect Justice, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If David Camerons ultimate goal here is to champion disempowered women to learn English to take part in matters affecting their lives and addressing segregation then of course I welcome it, particularly as a woman. I feel that this isnt just a Muslim womans issue, it affects all of us. "The problem with the headline is that hes framing this in the context of extremism, so its not only incorrect when you conflate segregation, gender rights, social mobility within the purview of extremism but theres also no link between the evidence that any of the 700 cases of extremism, of people going to Isis and to Syria could have been stopped if their mothers had spoken English or learnt English. There simply is no evidence. Advertisement "It sometimes feels like the government is lacking practical ideas when it comes to tackling extremism as well." Anjum Anwar, chair of charity Womans Voices, echoed Limbada's views adding that she was concerned about the links being made speaking English and radicalisation. She said: As a teacher I am passionate about funding for education but to conflate it with radicalisation is unacceptable." Cameron speaks with women learning English She added: "What I find absolutely amazing is the fact that the prime minister could even allude to the fact that women who dont speak English may have some influence and cause issues with radicalisation. " Advertisement Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "The Prime Minister is absolutely right in wanting English to be taught more widely. "Mosques and Muslim civil society would be eager to play their part by hosting English language classes, as many mosques do. "But the Prime Minister's aim to have English more widely spoken and for better integration falls at the first hurdle if he is to link it to security and single out Muslim women to illustrate his point." When asked if she felt that Muslims were being demonised over the issues, Anwar added: "Absolutely, and it really irritates me that this can be done so blatantly. Of course there are issues within every community and women must be empowered, in fact as a Muslim woman the first thing that I learned from my own mother was you are the first university of your child, so you must be educated. Educated doesnt just mean having a PhD in English language, it means understanding your communities, understanding how you can contribute and having the language to be able to contribute." Advertisement Fiyaz Mughal, founder and director of Faith Matters, welcomed the offer of support in helping women - particularly older Muslim women - to learn English. He told The Huffington Post UK: "Ensuring that everyone has the ability to speak the language of the country is essential for integration, raising income levels and making people feel confident about themselves and their abilities. "It also helps women and others to be able to understand the potential risks regarding safeguarding to their families, though we also need to acknowledge the fact that gaining employment also has many hurdles for people from Black and Minority ethnic communities and this also needs to be acknowledged. Many Muslims feel that they are unable to get employment because of their names when they apply and this cannot be casually disregarded given the depth of feeling in Muslim communities. David Cameron speaks with women attending an English language class in Leeds "The issue of the inability to speak English mainly affects women over the age of 50 and from those who have migrated from countries like Somalia and from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Learning English will help reduce the reliance of these women on their children and maybe give them more confidence. This is to be welcomed. Advertisement "However, it's primary impact will be this and to overplay that it will help with extremism, is slightly overblown. "Saying that, it helps the overall wellbeing of a person to be able to engage and converse with others in communities and we welcome this support." He continued: "I am not saying there is some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist, of course not. That would be a ridiculous thing to say. "But if you are not able to speak English, not able to integrate, you may find therefore you have challenges understanding what your identity is and therefore you could be more susceptible to the extremist message." Advertisement He added that women who come to the UK to join husbands will face tests after two and a half years - with failure meaning "they can't guarantee they will be able to stay" even if they have children. Labours Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham said the Prime Minister was unfairly stigmatising a whole community. He said: said: "In his desire to grab easy headlines, David Cameron risks doing more harm than good. Cameron talks to Imam Qari Asim (left), and Shabana Muneer, a member of Makkah Masjid Mosque's women's group "His clumsy and simplistic approach to challenging extremism is unfairly stigmatising a whole community. There is a real danger that it could end up driving further radicalisation, rather than tackling it." Advertisement Lady Warsi, the former Tory chairman who was the first female Muslim Cabinet minister, welcomed the new money for language teaching, claiming it had been a mistake to cut funding for English tuition while she was in government, the Press Association reported. But she condemned the way the measure had been announced: "This lazy and misguided linking, and what I saw once again as stereotyping of British Muslim communities, I felt took away from what was a positive announcement." She told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "My parents came to this country with very little English - my mum's English still isn't great, even though she has been to English language classes. "They didn't necessarily identify with a Western culture but they absolutely had the right values to bring up five girls, make sure that they were educated and made a contribution to British society. "So I think it is lazy and sloppy when we start making policies based on stereotypes which do badly stigmatise communities." Advertisement She added: "What we should be saying to women is, 'we will give you every opportunity to learn, we will encourage you, support you, that it is a requirement for you to obtain British citizenship'. The moment a journalist was attacked by three men, one wielding a knife, inside the Calais Jungle has been caught in a distressing video. Dutch reporter Teun Voeten, 54, was victim to what he described as an unprovoked incident inside the camp, whilst filming for an upcoming documentary with his colleague Maaike Engels. The pair chose to post the clip to Facebook and YouTube, which saw angry viewers calling for refugees to move from the camp in France. Advertisement "Apply for asylum in France or in another country where they traveled through or else [go] back home," one comment read. A still image of Teun Voeten being attacked from the video clip But Voeten told The Huffington Post UK he posted the clip to fulfil his aims of being objective. "I show all sides, good or bad, I have no agenda and I have been documenting conflicts for 25 years," he said. "I do not want to push any agenda, left wing or right wing. I was simply documenting what happened and I know that some publications are using it to their own agenda, but I was simply documenting the sides" he told HuffPost UK. Advertisement The Dutch journalist said he had been attacked three times in the camp since September and wasn't clear on the intentions of the ambushers. "I am a journalist, I was attacked - maybe they wanted the camera, maybe it was because they were angry, maybe it was because I was a white guy, I don't know why they attacked, I am just a journalist doing my job," he said. Voeten stressed the complexity of the situation from inside the camp while venting his frustrations about the clip. "We adhere to very high journalistic, moral and epistemological standard and sometimes get annoyed when we are accused of fuelling right wing agendas," he told HuffPost UK. Advertisement The video was captured on 15 January from inside the Calais refugee camp. A number of UK organisations have reported on the footage, including Breitbart and the Daily Express. Breitbart headline Daily Express headline There wont be a Girls Aloud reunion at Kimberley Walshs wedding later this month, as two of her former bandmates havent even been invited. READ MORE: Despite Kimberley making Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Nicola Roberts bridesmaids, both Sarah Harding and Nadine Coyle have reportedly been left off the guest list. Advertisement Neither of the Girls Aloud stars will be jetting off to Barbados later this month, where Kimberley will be walking down the aisle with her long-term partner Justin Scott. Cheryl, Nicola and Kimberley are still firm friends She sees Sarah more as a former colleague than a close friend but she has no problem with her. Former colleague? Ouch. Advertisement Unlike Nadine, she always thought her relationship with the rest of the band was good." Kimberley and Cheryl partied at London's Cuckooo Club over the weekend Its not the first time Sarah has been snubbed by one of her former bandmates. Last year, she was left fuming after Nicola failed to invite her to her 30th birthday bash. I didnt get a f***ing invite to Nicolas birthday! But you know what? I am independent, so whatever, Sarah said at the time. Nicola Roberts arriving at Kimberley's hen do Meanwhile, Kimberley was joined by Cheryl and Nicola (and Cheryl's mum) at her hen party at Londons Cuckoo Club on Saturday night. It marked the second time Cheryl had been spotted out in public since it was revealed she was splitting from her husband of 18 months, Jean-Bernard, last week. Advertisement All three let their hair down at the animal-print themed 'Last Wild Night' hen do, along with Kimberley's eight other bridesmaids. LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 06: Former Shadow Defence Minister Kevan Jones leaves Number 4 Millbank on January 6, 2016 in London, England. Shadow frontbench Ministers resigned today in protest at sackings made by Jeremy Corbyn during his first Cabinet re-shuffle since he was elected Leader of the Labour Party. Hillary Benn remained in his position as Shadow Foreign Secretary but Shadow Culture Minister Michael Dugher was sacked and replaced with Maria Eagle, the former Shadow Defence Secretary. Shadow Europe Minister Pat McFadden was also sacked. (Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images) Chris Ratcliffe via Getty Images Jeremy Corbyn has been attacked as "ill-informed" by a former Labour defence spokesman who quit the frontbench in protest at the the party's approach to national security. On Sunday, the Labour leader floated the idea that Britain could build a new generation of Trident submarines - but not load them with nuclear weapons. Advertisement Thousands of jobs are said to rely the construction of a new fleet of nuclear ballistic submarines. Kevan Jones told MPs today: "It's not just about the number of jobs involved in the successor programme, but the high skilled nature of those jobs. Despite ill-informed comments from my own party at the weekend with regard to these jobs ... you can't tun them on and off like a tap when you need them." The North Durham MP was speaking during questions to the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, in the Commons. Fallon seized on Corbyn's comments. "The only thing that a nuclear submarine without nuclear weapons is likely to deter is anyone who cares about our security from voting Labour," he said. "A defence policy of nuclear submarines with no nuclear weapons, that thinks Daesh has strong points and wants to end the Falkland Islander's right to self determination may be Labour's defence policy, but it will never be Britain defence policy." Advertisement Defence secretary Michael Fallon The defence secretary welcomed Labour's new anti-Trident shadow defence secretary, Emily Thornberry, to her job. But he lamented the departure of the "mainstream, moderate" Maria Eagle and Jones. Eagle, who is pro-Trident, was recently shuffled sideways out of the shadow defence secretary position by Corbyn. And Conservative defence minister Philip Dunne attacked Labour's approach to national security has having been cooked up in the "champagne socialist salons of Islington". Labour MPs including John Woodcock and Angela Smith also used the Commons session to speak out in favour of the renewal of Britain's nuclear deterrent. Advertisement Corbyn is heading for showdown with his MPs Labour's policy on Trident. Several shadow cabinet ministers have hinted they will quit the frontbench if Labour's long-held support for Trident is ditched. The Labour leader, who has said he would never push the nuclear button even if he could, said the new Trident submarines "dont have to have nuclear warheads on them". Students during a protest calling for the abolition of tuition fees and an end to student debt in Westminster, London. Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire The move to axe the grant, which affects around half a million of England's poorest students, was met with anger when it was announced in George Osborne's Summer budget. However the news the proposal would not even be debated in the Commons, and instead would be passed by just 18 MPs in a "third delegated legislation committee" proved even more unpopular. Advertisement Since the vote was passed on Thursday, by the narrow margin of 10 ayes to eight noes in a debate which lasted 90 minutes, public pressure has been mounting on the government to open up the issue for further discussion. The Labour Party has now tabled an opposition day debate, as well as an annulment motion, which will take place on Tuesday at 1.30pm. Angela Eagle, Labour MP for Wallasey and shadow secretary of state for business, innovation, and skills, said: "Targeting those who are working hard and doing the right thing to better their lot in life leaves the Tories claim to back those who want to get on in tatters. "The Tories have shown, yet again, theyre governing from the shadows, trying to force through the sweeping changes in committee hoping no-one would notice." Advertisement Megan Dunn, president of the NUS, said: "This is the debate the Government didnt want us to have. Please contact your MP now - we can still win this fight." A petition to prevent the grants being scrapped has reached more than 117,000 signatures, meaning parliament will have to consider the motion for debate. Nadia Sawalha has opened up about homeschooling her daughters, calling it the "best thing" she's ever done. The Loose Women presenter, who revealed she pulled her daughters Maddie, 13, and Kiki-Bee, eight, out of school one year ago, as they weren't "thriving". "Deciding to home-educate the girls is the best thing Ive ever done," Sawalha told The Mirror. "I never knew it existed. If I had, I would have done it years ago." Advertisement Nadia Sawalha has been homeschooling her daughters for a year The 51-year-old initially sent her daughters to a fee-paying school in London, but now says she and husband Mark Adderley think it was a "big mistake". Sawalha explained her youngest is partially sighted in one eye, so had to wear a patch for her first year, which made her feel anxious and that caused her to fall behind in her studies. The mum-of-two said Maddie began to hate school and would cry about going every day. When she decided to homeschool her, Kiki-Bee asked if she could do the same. Advertisement Sawalha added: "Maddie and Kiki-Bee are really bright, creative and artistic, and they werent right for a prep school, which readies you for an academic life." The mum-of-two admitted homeschooling can be hard, but she much prefers it to having someone else teach her children. "I dont want my children tested every day and left feeling stupid if they havent achieved a particular mark," she explained. "I dont think thats the way to learn. "Now my daughters are loving it. Theyve been out of school for a year and Im not planning to change that." Mum-of-two and Young Adult author Keris Stainton, who homeschools her two sons - Harry, 11, and Joe, seven, fully agrees with Sawalha. Advertisement She told HuffPost UK Parents: "I think it's great. As Nadia says, she didn't know it was an option - I think that's still pretty common. "The more people talking about it - and the more mainstream it becomes - the better." Stainton decided to homeschool her eldest son after he'd been in school for four years, because she felt the curriculum was moving too fast. "He'd be interested in something, wanting to explore it in more depth, and they'd already moved on," she explained. "Originally I took him out for one day a week (I don't think you can do this anymore in most areas) and we both loved it so much that we decided to keep him home full-time. "With our younger son, we never even considered sending him to school and we've never looked back." Advertisement Stainton with her two sons Stainton said she can relate to much of what Sawalha said about the differences between homeschooling and mainstream school. She added: "I totally agree with Nadia on testing - there's much too much focus on testing and too little on the joy of learning. "Also how her children are creative and artistic. I was stunned when my son's teacher told me the things he's good at aren't the kind of things school values: creativity and imagination. I think they're pretty important." Stainton is aware many people have a negative view of homeschooling, but she believes the criticism comes from the fact it's different from the norm. "I often get people saying 'Well school never did me any harm'," she said. "But that's not the point. I'm not anti-school at all, home education just suits our family better. Like Nadia says, it's the best decision we've ever made. Advertisement "I mostly feel really lucky that I get to spend so much time with my boys." Aliona Vilanis skills as a dancer have helped her lift the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball trophy twice, but she has now revealed that she could be about to give up dancing forever. READ MORE: The star announced she her plans to quit the BBC ballroom show last year, following her win with partner Jay McGuiness, but is now considering giving up dancing altogether, to focus on having a family with husband Vincent Kavanagh. Aliona Vilani and Jay McGuiness on 'Loose Women' Speaking on Mondays (18 January) Loose Women alongside Jay, she said: Ive had an amazing seven years, and from a professional point of view you want to leave on a high. On a personal level, Strictly takes up all of your time and I just want to live my life and hopefully start a family. Advertisement Asked if that meant hanging up her dancing shoes for good, Aliona added: Im not sure. I dont know. I might. When you do something so intensely, I cant do it half way. Its been 25 years of my life, that was that. Before she gives it all up, however, she and Jay will be entertaining crowds up and down the nation on the Strictly tour, which kicks off in Birmingham on Friday. Aliona could quit dancing for good Aliona is one of three female professional dancers to quit the show in recent months, as both Kristina Rihanoff and Ola Jordan will not be returning for the next series. Advertisement All three girls have amazing experience at teaching someone who has never danced before and making the most out of it. The five things you need to know on Monday January 18, 2016 1) MIND YOUR LANGUAGE The PMs big announcement today is on Muslim integration, with his Times article setting out a 20m fund for women to learn English and hints at spouse visa renewal being affected by language skills. David Cameron, acting on the advice of Louise Casey, sees a link between isolation of mothers and Islamist extremism, and also wants a review of Sharia courts and an obligation on local authorities to stamp out segregation of women. Advertisement On the Today programme, the PM had a pop at the BBC for using the phrase 'Islamic State'. He said 'I'm not blaming' the women, but it was often the men to blame. He explained half way through spouse visas, there would be "tough" new language tests. He admitted '[language lessons] budgets did come down in the past' due to austerity cuts. When it comes to the EU referendum, the main linga franca seems to be German English. All attention in Whitehall and Westminster is focused on whether the PM can come up with some fattened or skinny rabbits out of the hat at the February summit and it seems Angela Merkel is proving helpful. The FT, following up on the Sun and Times at the weekend, confirms that Merkel told Cameron that he could solve his welfare ban issue by reviewing the definition of a worker in EU law. An earnings threshold (backed by IDS and Theresa May), rather than residency, could help the Germans, French, Austrians, Dutch and Danes all protect their ruling parties from anti-immigration parties. The PM on Today didn't deny he'd asked Michael Gove to look at Boris's plan for a German-style constitutional court. Lord Lawson says even if Cam gets 100% of his demands, it would be 'inconsequential'. He also said yesterday a Cabinet minister would lead the Leave campaign. Did he mean Chris Grayling? Or Theresa May? The Indy says Grayling was on the point of quitting two weeks ago but sought reassurance from David Cameron that he would not be sacked in a revenge reshuffle after the EU referendum. Advertisement There's lots of EU referendum action today, with the In camp sending out millions of leaflets. Vote Leave is warning of the lessons of the Cologne-style sex attacks. Britain Stronger in Europe last week managed to get Nick Soames and Emmeline Pankhurst's family to condemn a Vote Leave video featuring Churchill and Pankhurst. I understand a similar bid by the In campaign to get the Nelson Society to condemn the video for featuring Admiral Nelson fell on deaf ears. 2) CORB-LIMEY Jeremy Corbyns Marr interview certainly yielded several news stories, including his words on legalising secondary strike action, finding a reasonable accommodation with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, and a [diplomatic] route through to ISIS. This wasnt what Alistair Campbell once called the Masochism Strategy, it was just the Labour leader answering a straight question with a candid answer. None of the things he talked about are party policy, but suggest where he wants to go. When Corbyn meets Barack Obama in the spring in London, the US President may wonder what kinda limey he sees before him, not least on nuclear weapons. Corbyns words on Trident sounded like an actual policy development, as he floated the Japan option of keeping Trident subs without nuclear warheads. Labour used to joke about the Coalitions aircraft carriers without aircraft but this is something else. Lots of papers seize on the nuclear line, with the Sun splashing on Off His War Head. Some military experts say the plan would have all the costs of Trident with none of the deterrence benefits, others point out that the plan isnt dissimilar to Sir Nick Harveys cupboard proposal. Labours leader in the Lords Angela Smith was diplomatic on Westminster Hour last night, while making clear she backed Trident. I'd like it to continue. But Jeremy has never wanted it to continue. He's been completely honest and true to his beliefs. Unites Len McCluskey, who on Saturday warned of the devastating impact on jobs of not renewing Trident, said the no-nuke subs idea could be one option to be discussed. But the FT has the most striking quotes: from Unite shopstewards at Rolls Royce and BAe. One warned 10,000 Unite members would quit the union if it ditched its support for Trident. Another pointed out: there is no requirement for more Astutes [conventional weapons subs, unlike Vanguard or their Successor replacements]. That would not be the answer. Advertisement It's Defence Questions in the Commons at 2.30pm. Step forward Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry. 3) LABOUR PAINS Its the PLP tonight and the hot topic is the motion to change standing orders that seeks to remove Corbyns PPS Steve Rotheram from the partys ruling National Executive Committee. Some in the party believe only conference can change the rulebook on this and its just a first step. The leader has yet to decide if hes attending, but John McDonnell is. The Shadow Chancellor could talk about his free New Economics seminars across the UK (reported in the Guardian), featuring some top economists on his team such as Joseph Stiglitz and Ha-Joon Chang. McDonnells popularity among some of Labours grassroots continues, but theres been a bit of a row over his role in Stella Creasys Walthamstow CLP. He was invited to a curry night fundraiser (with the FBUs Matt Wrack) later this month, sparking unease among allies of Creasy as she couldnt attend the event herself (shell be at another Labour event in Scotland). I understand McDonnell has now asked for the curry night to be re-arranged. In her Fabian speech this weekend, Creasy made clear how far she was from the McDonnell vision of Labour. Ken Livingstone aint going away either. In his Times Saturday interview he said: If we win the next election, there will be over 100 new Labour MPs and they will be more like us [him and Corbyn]. The new candidates will transform the scene. Advertisement BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR Watch this Jeremy Corbyn/David Cameron Face-Swap video. Itll do you head in 4) SUGAR PUSH Ive long argued that Simon Stevens is more powerful than most Cabinet ministers and in todays Guardian interview hes proving it. The NHS chief exec has a plan to impose his own sugar tax on sugary drinks and snacks sold in NHS hospitals and other sites by 2020. Cunningly, the tax may be put on the vendors not the buyers. And the expected proceeds of 20m-40m a year will be used to improve the health of NHS staff. Its a nice tee-up for Thursday's backbench debate on childhood obesity which will be led by health committee chair, Sarah Wollaston. Pubic health minister Jane Ellison upset a few Tories with her plain packs cigarettes ban, and her response to the debate be interesting. The PM himself got in a pickle over this recently, but told Marr last week 'this Tory is not a nanny. Will sugar-cube or sugar-spoon labelling rather than tax be the more radical answer? 5) TRUMP TIME At 4.30pm in Westminster Hall, its Trump Time. The Petitions Committee debates two e-petitions on Donald Trump - one saying he should be banned from entering Britain, one saying he should not be banned. Paul Flynn, the Labour MP, will lead the debate but he has said none of the MPs on the committee actually agreed with banning Trump but felt it was important to respect the calls fora debate from more than half a million people who signed the ban petition. Hes told PoliticsHome this morning how much he respects the US as a nation: They have sacrificed the blood of more of their sons and daughters in defence of democracy in more other countries than any other nation on earth. But he adds Trump needs to be taken on an education tour of the UK to show him there are no no-go areas. A Trump election is no joke to many in Labour, particularly on its left pushing to quit Nato. I note that in Ken Livingstones Times interview on Saturday, the former Mayor said of Trump: If someone like him became president, you want western Europe to say bye bye to the Americans. He also added for good measure: I wish Obama was as effective a leader as Putin. Advertisement If youre reading this on the web, sign-up HERE to get the WaughZone delivered to your inbox. The government is continuing to pursue its ambition to increase the number of England's schools that are academies. In August 2015, David Cameron said that he wanted to 'make every school in the country an academy', a sentiment reiterated by George Osborne in his most recent autumn statement. 25% of English schools are now academies, up from 2% less than five years ago. But as the number of academies has grown, so too has the amount of variation in exactly what kind of services schools are required to provide to pupils. This will make it increasingly difficult for the government to respond to calls for things like better mental health provision in our schools. The reason for this is that every time a new academy is set up, or an existing school converts to become an academy, it signs a contractual 'funding agreement' with the secretary of state for education. This sets out certain services that it must provide (for example, on food standards), and leaves open areas where the schools' leaders are able to innovate (for example, on parts of the curriculum, pay and conditions). Advertisement The result is that schools are required to provide very different services depending on what was included in their contract when they signed it. For example, the requirement to provide careers guidance has been inserted and removed from the academy funding agreements at various times over the last few years. So some academies are required to provide it while others are not, depending on when they became an academy or what terms they negotiated with government ministers A new IPPR report argues that this means government has too little ability to set consistent minimum expectations for all schools. Earlier this month, the Children's Commissioner - Anne Longfield - argued in favour of requiring all schools to employ a counsellor in order to help meet the growing crisis in the mental health of children and young people. Similarly, there is currently a petition calling for a requirement that mental health education becomes part of the national curriculum. Both of these ideas could prove to be important steps in helping boost schools' capacity to promote wellbeing among pupils, and intervene early where problems do begin to surface. But it would be extremely difficult to introduce either within the current system of academy funding agreements - because most academies have already signed a contract that doesn't oblige them to offer these things. The government would have to pass legislation to override the existing contracts and require schools to employ a counsellor, or else find another way to impose this condition on schools. Advertisement The effect of this could be that government's push towards full 'academisation' results in increasingly patchy levels of schools-based mental health provision across the country. We already know that while some schools are taking proactive steps to meet pupils' mental health needs, others are far from viewing this issue as a priority. We need to raise the bar across the board, not expand the gap between the best and worst schools. I'm a writer and translator based in Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand. I publish regularly here and at Overland It was former DCLG Minister Sir Eric Pickles who once said "Without English, you can't belong" and it was on that basis that programmes across the country began to build communities using English language teaching. And it was Sir Eric's department that set up the English Language Fund that provided money to fantastic organisations, including faith-based organisations (FBOs), to provide that teaching. So it figures that faith groups should be pleasantly surprised that that the government has recognised the importance of speaking English in tackling extremism. Across the country FBOs have been working hard at developing community cohesion for a number of years and today's announcement will come as another positive sign that this Government is committed. Advertisement Over the past two years, FaithAction have been running the 'Creative English' programme. Its aim was to build confidence and community cohesion and it has seen some amazing success. More than 2400 people from across all faiths and none have met in places of worship and community centres across the country, and the stats show that it's been close to a miracle. Results like '100% of those who completed the course reported improved confidence' show its worth, but my favourite figures are the ones that look at community. Thanks to the tireless volunteering of faith groups, 81% of the learners ended up speaking to their neighbours in English and 78% got involved in a community activity. These figures are exactly what the PM was on about when he spoke on integration this morning! Advertisement These figures didn't come about from sitting people down and pumping them full of grammar, from making the learners feel that they are a part of a community and that they have a role to play. But there is something that needs to be said about the major press's focus on the Muslim community. Yes, during his interview David Cameron pointed out that 190,000 Muslim women lack good English, and yes he spoke about a visit to a group of Muslim women at a community engagement forum. But I'm not sure he was solely talking Muslim women. As I wrote earlier, we've seen people of all faiths and none come through our programme, and a good number were Eastern European. The programme wasn't solely 'let's get Muslims to integrate' - it was 'let's build confidence and community cohesion'. I'm excited to see that Cameron and his team are aware of the value of that feeling of community. The lack of it has been a huge part of what's led many to go down the route of extremism. Could you imagine living in a country where you feel everyone is against you, unable to afford English language classes that can cost up to 1000? Without being an apologist , it'd drive you mad and probably lead to a sense that you don't belong. It's my belief that this is what Cameron was talking about this morning. It's not just a cheap 'Muslims need to crack on and integrate' speech. The very reporting of it as that is just stirring up the usual bile that fills the comments section in the tabloid press, including a sick inducing 'if you don't speak English, you should go home or die' response. I won't dignify it with a link, but you can probably find it yourself in the usual places. Advertisement Faith groups are often working below the surface, serving the country and unrecognised. With the announcement that English language funding will be focused on homes, schools and community facilities I am certain that faith groups will be there to answer the call. I want to urge caution that the focus isn't solely on integration of Muslim women. With a large number of refugees and immigrants to the UK not identifying as Muslim, the focus should remain on the most vulnerable, whatever their faith or country or origin. But I also want to blow a trumpet, wave a flag, shout from a rooftop and make a song and dance about today's news. I want to tell you all that the announcement is welcome, that it's a stride in the right direction, but that most of all that faith groups are ready to step up and deliver this programme. Friday December 12 was a significant day in African development. Nearly 200 countries united to approve the Paris Agreement, which will come into effect in 2020. A truly historic deal, the Paris Agreement commits all signatory countries to limit global temperature well below 2C and pursue efforts to contain it to 1.5C. In addition, the deal requires all parties to peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. I believe that the Paris Agreement represents a positive step forward in Africa's efforts to combat climate change. First, the deal promises developing countries $100 billon per year in climate finance by 2020. This funding will be vital in the continent's efforts to implement adaptation strategies to reduce its unique susceptibility to climate change, and adopt mitigating measures in order to achieve sustainable growth. Furthermore, the Paris Agreement highlights the importance of achieving 'universal access to sustainable energy in developing countries, especially Africa', which will provide strong impetus for greater investment in renewable energy. While this comprehensive, global treaty is encouraging, we must not lose sight of the immense challenges ahead. Although it currently contributes the lowest share of greenhouse gas emissions, Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change, exacerbated by multiple stressors including weak adaptive capacity and widespread poverty. Consequently, we will need to take decisive action to achieve the Paris Agreement's vision. As the leading source of job creation and an engine of growth, I believe that private sector companies are well positioned to help African countries cut greenhouse gas emissions and drive sustainable, low-carbon development. Advertisement As Aknwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, points out, Africa has incredible renewable energy resources. For example, the continent can source an additional 10 terawatts of solar energy, 1,300 gigawatts of wind power, and 15GW of geothermal potential. Private companies have the financial resources and clout to significantly scale up investment in renewable energy and help unlock Africa's potential. Last year, Google announced that it is investing in the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Northern Africa, the continent's largest wind project. Once complete, Lake Turkana will bring 310 megawatts of clean energy onto Kenya's grid- enough to power more than two million households across the country. The project will also reduce Kenya's reliance on fossil fuels and help stabilise the country's energy supply. I want to emphasise that these investments are not gifts. Rather, they are beneficial to all stakeholders: companies are helping to strengthen the infrastructure that they need to operate on the continent. At the same time, African governments get the help they need to cut deploy new technologies transforming energy systems across the world and cut greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Climate Policy Initiative, the private sector devoted $US243 billion to climate-related investments, making it the largest source of climate finance. However, Africa's unique susceptibility to climate change means that it needs even greater levels of funding to scale up adaptation efforts. Accordingly, I would call on for-profit companies to work with multilateral organisations, African governments, and other stakeholders to augment the climate financing made available through the Paris Agreement. Although the current focus is on mitigation, UNECA outlines the exciting opportunities available with regard to adaptation such as debt and equity through direct project lending, and credit lines to local finance institutions. In addition, enhancing the capacity of people and institutions is essential to mobilising extra climate finance. In this way, businesses can contribute their expertise by partnering with researchers and academics to enhance proposals for competitive grants. Advertisement Last, and perhaps most importantly, businesses can help African countries implement the Paris Agreement by reducing their own carbon footprint. For example, TAAG, the Angolan national carrier, is investing heavily in more fuel-efficient technologies. Furthermore, FMCG giant, Unilever, has pledged to become 'carbon positive' in their operations by 2030. To achieve this, the company says that it will source 100% of its total energy across its operations by renewable energy by 2030, and eliminate coal from its energy mix by 2020. In parallel, I would encourage institutional investors to review their portfolios and reduce carbon-intensive assets. This can greatly assist countries to achieve their intended nationally determined contributions. The phenomenon of 'Blue Monday' supposedly occurs on the third Monday of January every year and is said to be the most depressing day of the year. The quiet-down after Christmas, return to work and dark, cold weather can indeed make it a difficult time of year for many people. On Blue Monday (18 January) we can expect to see volumes of coverage in the news media pegged to the date offering tips on stress, anxiety and depression to help us beat what's billed as the worst day of the year for our moods. Awareness days can provide a platform to bring serious issues to the fore, like mental health. It's good to have a focus on mental wellbeing but, as a psychologist, I see Blue Monday as less than ideal. In fact, it should come with its own health warning. Advertisement First of all, there's no such thing as the most depressing day of the year. Blue Monday was created back in 2005 to gain news coverage for a firm selling holidays. It's based on a formula that's since been discredited. But the idea tapped into the post-Christmas zeitgeist and Blue Monday's now solidly ingrained in the annual news calendar with #BlueMonday trending every year on Twitter. Essentially, it's become a topic that brands use to sell products rather than a true forum for discussion on mental wellbeing. It trivialises serious mental health issues by tagging them to one day of the year. It badges the likes of depression as a condition that's about being upset with the cold January weather, Christmas debts and the back to work humdrum that can be solved by a shopping spree, snuggling up with a hot chocolate or contemplating starting a new hobby. Advertisement Depression doesn't come and go in a day. Anyone who's experienced the illness knows there's a vast gulf between the blues of Blue Monday and a serious mental health problem and the notion that there's one dark day in the year suggests that we all need to pick up and get back to normal afterwards. We live in a world in which it's still difficult for people to acknowledge their own mental health problems - never mind discuss them with others. This is largely down to the ongoing issue of stigma. This stigma is what a mental health awareness day should really be tackling. Stigma stops people from admitting to themselves that they have a mental health problem for fear of the consequences of having this type of illness. In turn stigma stops people from seeking out help from health professionals. And, in turn again, stigma stops people from reaching out to family and friends for support. In the end, stigma compounds mental illness and results in a worsening of conditions. When you think of it like this, it's clear to see why this 'awareness day' genuinely does little or nothing for the advancing of the conversation around mental health. The sad thing about the way this day is used by brands is that those brands could put their efforts behind Blue Monday by committing to discussing real mental health issues. Wouldn't it be great to see a main fashion retailer put out a manifesto, committing to ending stigma in the workplace around mental illness rather than sending out ads, tweets and emails telling you to beat the blues by spending money? Advertisement Wouldn't it be encouraging to see the media veer away from top tips and advice and instead using the calendar date as a reason to highlight the issues surrounding mental illness for Brits in 2016? Mental health charities work hard at being part of the Blue Monday conversation, offering insightful comment and advice. However, they are so often drowned out by the sheer volume of chatter coming from the shallow end of the pool. It's interesting to note that the word 'Depression' is googled every two seconds in the UK on Blue Monday. If there's one good thing to come out of this day, perhaps it's that some people will better understand any symptoms they might be experiencing and seek out help. An In/Out referendum on Britain's membership of the EU could take place as early as June, though some members of Cameron's Cabinet have yet to voice which way they sway. Chris Grayling and Theresa Villiers have both associated themselves with the antics of the "out" campaign, but Theresa May, Philip Hammond or Michael Fallon? When asked, they're generally "firmly behind the Prime Minister." Only some of them aren't. At least, not privately. Hammond has previously expressed his concerns with current EU treaty terms, as others have, though when pressed today they're quick to refrain from offering any insight into how they anticipate voting. It's now thought that at least 130 Conservatives now consider themselves Eurosceptics, which, if the Prime Minister wants to keep party unity, is a factor he can't ignore. This is why he will be offering a free vote on Europe: to keep the backbench plotting to a minimum. Conservatives devoted to the endeavours of the "out" campaign have been active on this topic for years. Back in February 2013, I attended a press briefing with two well-known Conservative Eurosceptics, already on board Team Out and keen to spread the word. They've been campaigning ever since. That same week journalists gathered around Andrea Leadsom, who emerged as the voice behind 'Fresh Start', a group of over 100 backbench Conservative MPs already calling for EU treaty changes, stressing that Britain could not accept Europe's "status quo." They had booklets heavier than your average BA thesis ready for us to takeaway - serious stuff. Team Out now have a flock of new recruits following more recent events in Brussels, which has only added to their momentum. But now they face competition. Team In, otherwise known as 'Conservatives for Reform in Europe', led by former minister Nick Herbert, believe that a vote to leave Europe would propel us into the unknown. Get reform first, before threatening our place on the international stage, is their key message. Advertisement Britain's last referendum over Europe was held back in 1975. Having just entered the Commons as Leader of the Opposition, Margaret Thatcher unenthusiastically backed Britain's membership of the EU in a bid to protect party unity and counter the 'Wets', fully aware of the pro-European stance of Ted Heath. Years later, however, her position over Europe partly resulted in her downfall. Her refusal to accept the views of senior colleagues and her skepticism of the Foreign Office led to Geoffrey Howe's historic resignation, and ultimately her dramatic departure from number ten. Over 30 years on from Britain's first referendum the question of Europe is now too big an issue for one side to be excluded. The bureaucracy of Brussels has now expanded to ever more powerful ends, as the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has experienced first hand. Speaking to the Oxford Union last month Varoufakis declared Brussels "a democracy free zone...an authoritarian haven for a combination of irrationality and freedom." Though the Eurozone is formed on economic logic suited to the structure of all its member states, he stressed that this "does not mean that society is going to behave in a way that complies with these rules." Advertisement Problem-solving courts The current Lord Chancellor, Michael Gove has announced that a team has been set up to investigate how to establish problem-solving courts. In 2014, the Howard League published a report called, are problem-solving courts the way forward for justice? (Ward, 2014). This working paper provides a useful overview of the increase in the use of problem-solving courts. According to this approach, there is the belief in a therapeutic approach that involves offenders rather than leaving them out of the criminal justice process. The approach with problem solving courts is that people can be accountable for their actions and play an active role with their rehabilitation. According to this working paper the advantages of problem-solving courts include providing a model that empowers people, has well-being at its core and changes the delivery of justice (Ward, 2014). Michael Gove has apparently been examining how Texas have used a type of problem-solving court to cut prison numbers and send offenders on intensive courses to deal with drug abuse (Lefty, 2016). This alternative approach will be welcomed by many prison reformers, however it is important to consider that there could be a penalty of non-compliance and prisons will not be abolished using this system. Bearing these issues in mind, it is important to publicise the little known facts about drugs and women in prison. International drugs war: Globally there are 60% of women in prison for drug offences. The international drugs war means that many people are dealt with by the criminal justice system rather than being supported by other forms of service relating to their health, social issues and well-being. The treatment of women in prison varies greatly between different jurisdictions and there is clearly a need for alternatives to imprisonment. For example, in Brazil the criminal drug policies have not only been blamed for the increase of women in prison, but also within Brazil research has shown that women become victims of institutional violence (Arguello and Muraro, 2015). Support don't punish is a global advocacy campaign which calls for better drugs policies that prioritizes public health and human rights. This campaign is not for alternative ways of criminalizing drug users, but for nations to focus on health and harm reduction. Advertisement Women who are carers While it will be useful to investigate alternative ways jurisdictions can deal with offenders within the court system there is international recognition that substance misuse intersects with other health issues. While international debates are recognising the possibilities of alternatives to custody, many women in prison are mothers or carers where it could be considered that their drug use damages others. This could have the consequence of women being treated more harshly or imprisonment not being reduced. For example according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, sanctions for drug use are justified where there is damage to others however, where there is no damage to others then this justifies treatment through healthcare and alternatives to imprisonment (UNODC, 2009). Health of substance misusers It is widely recognized that women experience greater stigma and discrimination. The current problem with services that are intended to reduce harm is that they are not tailored to the needs of women. In particular, there are many gaps in knowledge about the impacts of support systems and whether they are integrated with sexual, reproductive or other social support services. While it is known that drug taking can be linked to issues such as alcohol, mental health problems or communicable disease, very little is known about the intersections with issues that will be specific for women such as pregnant women, women who are carers for relatives or women who have been victims of abuse. Prison Research has shown that women in prison who are drugs users have not necessarily been convicted of a drug related crime. This is an important consideration for nations which are looking at alternative forms of justice such as the use of problem-solving courts. Not only should there be research and the implementation of alternative forms of court but the reality is that under this system prisons will continue to exist. This will mean taking into account that prisons will continue to need to do more about the availability of drugs and care for women who have health, social and welfare issues. For example research has discovered that drug use is often used to self-medicate against memories of abuse and if a woman stops misusing drugs without appropriate support then memories could re-appear (NOMS Women and Equalities Group, 2012). In particular a study found that whilst a woman gave up drugs during her pregnancy, she experienced a miscarriage in HMP Holloway and following this experience she returned to drugs again (Wincup, 1997). Advertisement Impact of prisons Despite assessments and the delivery of a range of treatment there are differences between prisons with the support women are likely to receive. For example the prison inspection report at HMP Peterborough (2011) noted that whilst a needs analysis identified pregnant women on drugs, the subsequent drugs strategy did not include how this need was addressed by the prison. The consequences of a model such as the problem-solving courts are not known especially in relation to women who are likely to have complex and intersecting issues that are not related to their offence. The working paper suggested that problem-solving courts could potentially be more costly than the current criminal court approaches. Women involved with the criminal justice system are in a minority and this is reflected by the many gaps in knowledge about women. Not only is more research needed relating to specific issues which affect women but also politicians, policy-makers and academics will need to debate more widely whether models such as the problem-solving court will reduce the numbers of women in prison. Agenda is publishing research today revealing that one in every twenty women in England has experienced extensive physical and sexual abuse, as both an adult and a child. That's 1.2million women in England alone. And our research shows they go onto face very difficult lives: with high levels of mental and physical ill health, problems with drugs and alcohol, and homelessness all common. One in three have attempted suicide. These figures are shocking, but not terribly surprising. Time and timeagain we hear about violence against women and girls. Every day in the papers there is a rape, a story of child sexual exploitation, or the murder of a woman (and sometimes her children) by her partner. This new research brings home the impacts on women and girls who face the most extensive violence: those who grow up experiencing physical and sexual abuse, and face further violence once they are adults. Unsurprisingly, the mental health impacts of this are severe, with higher rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder than soldiers returning from active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Advertisement Many turn to drugs or alcohol to help them cope. They have high rates of homelessness and poverty. Half have a disability which means they need help with everyday activities. Sadly, each experience of abuse these women face makes them more vulnerable to abuse in the future. Girls who run away from abuse at home are a target for perpetrators of child sexual exploitation. Women who become homeless fleeing domestic violence are at further risk on the streets. Perpetrators deliberately target women with mental health problems, addictions, and disabilities, both because they are vulnerable and because they are less likely to be believed if they speak out. To become an adult with experience of extensive lifelong abuse, you have to have been failed by services. We are an alliance of more than 50 charities, and the women our members work with tell distressing stories. They speak of spending time in care, being sectioned during mental health crises, seeking housing from their local authorities, and having children taken into care at birth without anyone ever offering the help that they needed. These women need spaces where they can feel safe and understood, and where there are professionals with the expertise to help them through all of the complex interlinked issues they face. Such specialist services exist, but they are few and far between and often struggle for funding. We need a coherent funding solution which supports these services in the long term. Advertisement These women also need mainstream services to recognise their vulnerabilities and trauma. When a 15 year old girl is too frightened to seek medical attention for her injured baby, we need social services to recognise that both mother and child need support. When a woman presents to her GP with anxiety and depression, we need that doctor to consider whether she has been or is at risk of being abused. Getting this frontline work right will help stop women moving from crisis to crisis, and get them the specialist help they need. Aicha was 20, and her son Issifou was 18 months. Oxfam met them at a training session for mothers on how to test for signs of malnutrition in their children, such as measuring their upper arm. With a measurement of just 113mm, Issifou was very malnourished. "When my child is hungry I offer him what food I have at home. If I have no money, sometimes my neighbours will help me out. I get by on about 1000cfa (1.09) a week." Aisha said. And then: "I really pity myself when I look at rich people. I feel a kind of injustice. Some are rich, many are poor. I think things need to change." Advertisement Aicha's sense of injustice is well founded. Today just 62 people own the same wealth as that of half the global population - three and a half billion people. Those 62 have seen their wealth increase by half a trillion dollars since 2010, whilst the wealth of the poorest 50% has fallen by a trillion in that time. On the one hand, you have people increasing their wealth by as much as half a million dollars a minute; on the other, people are living on 10 cents a day. In fact we are experiencing a crisis of global inequality that is more than just deeply unjust, it is bad for us all. Inequality has been shown to impact on the durability of economic growth and increases the chances of future financial shocks; it undermines social cohesion and equality for women; and it increases political instability. In a surprising echo to Aicha's words, the self-proclaimed zillionaire Nick Hanauer wrote in 2014 that "if we don't do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us". But of course it is those at the bottom who have the most to fear. In September governments committed to a global goal to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, but World Bank analysis shows that this will be impossible to do unless we tackle inequality. In fact, had inequality within countries not grown between 1990 and 2010, an extra 200million people would have escaped poverty. The lesson to learn from the last 30 years is that extreme wealth is not disconnected from poverty - they are two sides of the same coin. Oxfam's report today explains how we have built an economy that increasingly works to suck wealth up, so the rise of the mega-rich necessarily pushes the poor further behind. Economic and policy changes in recent decades - including deregulation, privatisation, financial secrecy and globalisation, especially of finance - have supercharged the age-old ability of the rich and powerful to use their position to further concentrate their wealth. Advertisement Politicians who want to address inequality need to forget any blind faith in trickle-down economics and realise that they need to actively create the economy that their people want. Good places to start include increasing minimum wages towards living wages; transparency on pay ratios; and breaking the link between business and politics that ties wealth and power so closely together. But top of the list has to be putting an end to the era of tax havens. It was recently estimated that about $7.6trillion dollars of global wealth was hidden offshore - depriving governments of $190billion in tax revenues. On top of this we know that corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014. When rich individuals and companies dodge taxes the results are twofold: Governments either have less to spend on schools and hospitals and housing, or they have to make the tax revenues up from the rest of the population who cannot so easily carry their cash off to the Caymans. This puts tax havens at the heart of a secretive global financial system that is directly fuelling inequality and holding back the fight against poverty. Eighteen years ago the OECD's 'Harmful Tax Competition' report proposed that countries should 'consider terminating their tax conventions with listed tax havens'. Unfortunately, OECD member countries that operate in or practice as tax havens, together with other powerful members that are home to the world's largest companies, succeeded in blocking further progress at that time. Here, David Cameron used the UK-hosted 2013 G8 to lead efforts to increase the transparency surrounding company ownership in an effort to counter the network of secret shell companies used to hide money. But so far the reaction to the new requirements from the UK's own crown dependencies and overseas territories - the British Virgin Islands et al - has been to dig in their heels. And the PM has yet to force them to move. Advertisement Last year G20 governments did agree steps to curb tax dodging by multinationals through the so-called BEPS agreement, however these measures will do little for the poorest countries and chose to largely ignore the problems posed by tax havens. The endurance of tax havens is testament to just how valuable they are to global elites: they serve no other purpose than to help the richest get richer. But this makes them the perfect litmus test for the increasing number of political voices calling for action on inequality. We need to do more than talk about the growing gap between rich and poor or the problem of tax dodging. Aicha is right, things need to change. On Wednesday the 2016 Open Doors World Watch List - which stems from a global annual survey measuring the scale and trends of Christian persecution around the world - was launched in Parliament. The list is unique in having access to grass-roots data right down to the village level in a huge number of countries, thanks to long-standing relationships and the practical work that Open Doors has been involved in, even in underground communities, over the last 60 years. The list tracks how the exercise of Christian faith gets squeezed in five areas - private life, family life, community, national and church life, as well as covering violence such as rapes, killings and church burnings. Points are allocated against each metric based on the degree of that type of persecution within a country, and countries are ranked in order of the number of points received. It's thorough, it's independently audited by the International Institute for Religious Freedom - and it's important. Over 100 MPs heard how persecution of Christians is getting worse - in every region in which we work - and it's getting worse fast. The number of 'persecution points' that were required for a country even to get into the Open Doors World Watch List have increased by over 50% in just three years. What that means is that a number of countries have dropped down the list not because persecution there is decreasing, but simply because others are deteriorating faster. Advertisement What it also means is that there are many millions more Christians today than three years ago who are afraid to go to church, or no longer have a church to go to; who have to choose between being true to what they believe or keeping their children safe; who have been brutalised, lost their dignity or their liberty because they share the same faith as many in our own country, but do not share our freedom. And there are many, many more today who are mourning recently lost loved ones. The trend is stark, as are the consequences for real people. In speaking up for the rights of Christians we also speak for the rights of all people from every faith and none to practice what they believe, as enshrined in Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It's well recognised that Freedom of Religion or Belief - the fundamental ability to follow or to change your religion, or even to reject religion altogether - is the 'canary in the coalmine' of human rights. Once these rights are gone from a society, other rights quickly follow. So while much of the report relates to what is happening to Christians around the world, it is not and should not only be the concern of Christians - because what happens next will have a huge impact on the wider society in the countries we are talking about and probably even our own. At the meeting I stressed that we are not asking for special treatment for Christians - in fact it would be unchristian to do so. But we are, absolutely, asking for equal treatment. The 2016 World Watch List does not offer a lot of good news - but there is hope. There is hope because in many parts of the world, despite the pressure and the often terrible cost, the church is not just surviving but growing. There is hope because in countries such as Syria, Christian communities are reaching out, caring for and providing for their Muslim neighbours. And there is hope because in places such as Mandera, Kenya, ordinary Muslims stood strong against anti-Christian attackers, effectively saying, "You kill all of us or none of us." Advertisement We are at a unique time in history - with persecution of Christians more broad-spread than we have seen before. It does not respect national borders and is no longer just a problem for people a long way away. We are in unmapped territory - and we should not expect things to change for the better unless we are part of changing the situation. "The big Western clothing brands are only beginning to wake up to the huge reputation risk of exploited Syrian refugees in the factories they source from in Turkey" said a source in a UK clothing brand to me last week. As we pick up a bargain in the New Year sales on the High Street, we should look at the label and note the country of origin. This year, one of the risks with our latest fashion is that exploited and abused refugees from Syria may be one of the reasons the garments are so cheap. Turkey and the Middle East are regions of rising concern. A burgeoning refugee population from Syria, usually without work permits, is vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. There are increasing reports from clothes factories of child labour, sexual abuse of women workers, and pitiful wages, as desperate and destitute women and children seek any type of income. How much these factories are producing for European high streets is unclear. We, at the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, have begun a programme engaging major western brands sourcing from Turkey to identify how they are working to ensure that Syrian refugees are not exploited and abused in their supply factories. Turkey is home to over 2.2 million refugees, 1 million of working age. Only 4,000 have been granted a work permit since 2011. Turkey has been rightly praised for accepting far more Syrian refugees than the whole of Europe, and spending $8.5 billion on their welfare. But the refugees' impoverishment and enforced-idleness has led to women and children seeking work illegally, with all its heightened vulnerabilities. Advertisement Estimates of the number of Syrian refugees now working illegally vary from 250,000 to 400,000. A recent report indicates that child labour has is prevalent. Children are said to be preferred as they learn new jobs and the Turkish language faster, are more pliant, and they expect even less pay - in 2015, this was often little over half the legal minimum paid to Turkish workers of Lira 1000 or $343, which increased by almost 30% on January 1. Children in the informal sector are said to be working up to 12 hours day for six days a week to put bread on their families' tables. The recent minimum wage increase will drive demand for cheap labour. Many of these reports of child labour and exploitative conditions come from the clothes sector. Yet little is known about how much of this abuse may be in the supply chains of fast fashion entering European high streets. We know that a number of clothing brands are increasingly concerned about this threat to their ethical reputation, and are starting to look into this. "The scale of child labour, exploitative wages, and sexual abuse that is now being reported is sending shock-waves through some of our sector, while others are still asleep" said the UK clothing brand source. The brands also need to avoid making matters worse for refugees when they speak to their suppliers in Turkey - sacking exploited refugees will only worsen their plight. The reputation risk to the fashion industry will surely grow through 2016: a year when the Syrian refugee crisis is unlikely to be resolved, and global value chains are on the agenda of almost every major international gathering including the G7 and G20, the ILO, and the World Bank. The Fair Labour Association, the Ethical Trading Initiative and the International Trade Union Confederation are encouraging the Turkish government to give Syrians the legal right to work. But there is inertia with Turkish unemployment rates stuck at around 10%, and unskilled Turkish workers fear for their jobs and fair wages. Advertisement The government has promised to move on work permits, and the accord between Turkey and the EU reached six weeks ago may spur action on this: the agreement was for Turkey to stem the flow of migrants to the EU by raising Syrians' standard of living, and clamping down on borders, in exchange for $3.2 billion in aid, visa-free access to Europe for Turkish citizens, and reconsideration of Turkey as a new member of the EU. One of craft's undoubted strengths is its sense of place and authenticity - it's the primary reason large brands and marketing agencies have been keen to associate themselves with the word in recent times. Yet by the same token this can also be perceived as a potential weakness. There is always a danger that craft can be seen as being a little inward-looking, parochial even. After all, by its nature it tends to be concerned with provenance and 'being local'. Unlike the design world, for example, it doesn't yet have the network of exhibitions and city-wide festivals that can take its message out to a genuinely global audience. This is beginning to change, however. Last May, for instance, saw the launch of the London Craft Week, while last October I attended the European Craft Summit in Mons that included a major exhibition, European Prize for Applied Arts - showing over 100 of the best makers in Europe - and a fantastic conference that tackled issues around craft and technology including a very thought-provoking presentation by Suffolk-based artist potter Jonathan Keep on the development of his work from traditional ceramist to working with 3D printing. There was also a tour to the magnificent new ceramics museum Keramis on the site of the old earthenware production company Boch La Louviere, and other local museums and film showings. Importantly, too, there was a meeting of the European branch of the World Crafts Council, of which I am honoured to be regional president. The WCC was founded by the US-based patron Aileen Osborn Webb in 1964 as a non-profit membership organisation to promote international interest in craft and encourage dialogue between makers in different nations. Europe has long had a strong voice in the organisation and the first European board was elected in 1978. While the interests of the member countries can be quite different - Slovenia, for example, concentrates on the heritage end of the making spectrum, while Norway looks to extend the boundaries of craft's contemporary possibilities - we all share the same concerns. Questions that buzzed around the meeting will be familiar to regular readers of this column: How do you bring on a new generation of makers? How do you make craft businesses genuinely sustainable? And how do you make sure that people value craft? Advertisement It may well be that the solutions are different for each nation, but hearing other people's experiences is invaluable - there was an extraordinary amount of energy in the room with people keen to push craft to the forefront of mainstream culture and prove its importance in any number of fields. What meetings like this also reinforce for me is the vital role that culture in general, and craft in particular, has to play in bringing people of different nationalities together. Making is a genuinely international language and an important component of 'soft power'. It can also help with integrating people into communities. Last year we joined forces with Counterpoint Arts' Learning Lab, Craftspace, the Embassy of Sweden in London, the British Council and the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, to produce a day-long seminar programme that focused on the role making can play in navigating experiences of migration. Using presentations, case studies, conversations and workshops, the Lab posed a series of questions, including: 'What kind of cultural knowledge and know-how is produced through the transmission of craft skills amongst migrant and refugee women?'. The day was framed by a conversation with the Stockholm-based social enterprise, Livstycket, which gives women who have immigrated to Sweden the chance to learn their new nation's language and culture both through making and other activities, and the Birmingham-based group Shelanu. Supported by Craftspace, Shelanu encourages refugee women to produce high-quality craft objects that have been inspired by their new home. The pieces are then sold. Both schemes aim to combat the potential for these people to become isolated or ghettoised, to challenge preconceptions and support integration into the local community. Advertisement Both Mons and Learning Lab illustrate that craft should never be regarded as mere frippery. Instead, making can be right at the heart of our society, both culturally and economically. And it's why I was delighted that George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, described the arts sector as 'one of the best investments we can make as a nation'. Art and craft can really make a difference. Dave Rowland via Getty Images AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - JANUARY 05: Dick Smith's Manukau Store on January 5, 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand. Dick Smith was taken public by buyout firm Anchorage Capital Partners two years ago. Stock last traded at 35.5 Australian cents on the ASX, after dropping 84 per cent from the A$2.20-a-share Anchorage set for its initial public offering two years ago. The electrical retail chain was founded by the entrepreneur Dick Smith in the 1960s. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images) Business is business and opportunities shouldn't be missed, sure. But can some business come, well, a little too soon? Advertisement Picture: Twitter/@robbiejwood The fall of electronics retailer Dick Smith has been seized as a growth opportunity by Jaycar Electronics, which is encouraging landlords with Dick Smith leases to ring for a "confidential no-obligation discussion" about their premises. If it's at all possible for a black-and-white print ad to ooze a cheshire cat grin, it's this one. And these sentences fit in like mocking dimples: "Dick Smith Electronics may indeed trade out of their current problems and indeed we wish them well," the ad reads. "You probably have nothing to worry about." Advertisement 'You probably have nothing to worry about.' Former marketing director, Dick Smith employee and Jaycar founder, Gary Johnston, took out the ads in the Australian Financial Review after seeing Dick Smith's collapse as an opportunity to grow his thriving Jaycar Electronics retail chain. He said he would be pleased if he picked up half a dozen former Dick Smith premises. "We're already in negotiations with a number of landlords. We're interested in the retail strips and good, free-standing sites, but not the shopping centres," he told the AFR. "The great bulk of our customers are men, who have a deep-seated dislike of shopping centres." Dick Smith was placed into voluntary administration in early January, after a torrid year for the retailer which saw its shares plummet by 80 per cent. The iconic brand, founded in the 1960s by the Australian entrepreneur and aviator Dick Smith, had been one of the leading names in electronics for decades; however, recent years have seen the retailer struggle as competitors branched out their offerings and customers increasingly turned online for their technological needs. Jaycar has 90 stores in Australia and New Zealand and is reportedly worth more than $500 million. Supplied A controversial 'pick up artist' group who promote violent tactics to engage women says it has cancelled a planned Australian speaking tour after a petition garnered more than 60,000 signatures. But advocates fear the announced cancellation is a decoy tactic to allow parts of the speaking tour to go ahead. Advertisement Real Social Dynamics announced it had cancelled its "Jeff Free Tour" events, after the petition calling for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to reject a visa for speaker Jeff Allen was launched over the weekend. In 2014 the Australian government deported RSD speaker Julien Blanc on similar grounds. On behalf of the RSD Team we apologize for canceling all Jeff Free Tour events in Australia. Once again we're sorry for the inconvenience. Real Social Dynamics (@rsdnation) January 16, 2016 The Change.org petition has attracted more than 60,000 supporters, and accuses the group of promoting the abuse of women. "The 'tactics' Julien and his team teach include 'choking' women and calling them 'deadbeat whores' in order to shock them into submitting to his dominance," the petition says. Advertisement "Now Julien Blanc's associate, (Real Social Dynamics) instructor Jeff (Jeffy) Allen has been granted a visa and is back in Australia to teach men this disgusting, vile violence against women." "They call themselves 'pick up artists', but are nothing more than promoters of sexism and violence against women." The petition claims Mr Allen impersonated an intellectually disabled man to trick women into engaging with him. Comedian and anti RSD organiser Kirsty Mac told the Huffington Post she suspects the group is planning a function in Melbourne, despite announcing events had been cancelled. Advertisement "We have several moles," she told The Huffington Post Australia. "The people who have signed up for the course have sent them emails and they have said they haven't cancelled. "Last time they used a lot of decoy tactics -- they had this bus and put it on their website and then we found out the bus wasn't real." Hotel chain Vibe Hotels on Monday afternoon announced RSD had booked events at its venues under a different name, and cancelled any further events at all hotels. @MelTankardReist TFE Hotels in no way supports RSD & has cancelled events at Vibe Hotels. We have a proud culture of supporting women Vibe Hotels (@vibehotels) January 18, 2016 'But what do terrorists do? They incite hatred of particular groups and adherence to ideologies that devalue and degrade... Posted by Australians Against RSD Misogyny #shutdownrsd on Sunday, 17 January 2016 Advertisement Mac said she believes the group has already held two shows in Sydney, and is planning a Melbourne show at a secret venue despite the cancellation announcement. She said more than 100 protesters are ready to mobilise if the event goes ahead. The Australian Greens are calling on the the government to stop sexist dating seminars. Its disgraceful that the government has reportedly already failed to stop one of these events, which promote domestic violence, from going ahead in Australia, Senator Larissa Waters said. While Real Social Dynamics has claimed the events are cancelled, advocates of gender equality have reason to believe the company is using decoy tactics. The only way to make sure that these abhorrent events do not continue is to revoke Jeff Allens visa, just as the former Immigration Minister revoked Julien Blancs visa for promoting the same abhorrent views about women." In 2014 then immigration minister Scott Morrison banned Blanc after a week long campaign against the seminar's that promise to teach men how to "attract and seduce women quickly, easily and consistently." Advertisement ASSOCIATED PRESS An activist holds a poster during a rally condemning Thursday's attack, outside the Starbucks cafe where it took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Indonesians were shaken but refusing to be cowed a day after a deadly attack in a busy district of central Jakarta that has been claimed by the Islamic State group. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) For almost 10 years, the Indonesian government, with a little help from their friends in Australia, has been winning the war on terrorism in their country. But this looks set to change with the possibility of further ISIS inspired terror attacks. The 14th of January 2016 Jakarta attack may be another historical watershed moment for terrorism in Indonesia -- with stark implications for the Asian region. I am not trying to be melodramatic. Put simply, this attack demonstrates that Indonesian terrorist groups are getting more resilient, Indonesian counter-terrorism effectiveness is declining and there has been a change in terror tactics which creates new challenges. Advertisement From December 2000 until December 2005, the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) was demonstrably winning the war on terror in Indonesia, with a number of successful large scale attacks, including two bombing operations in Bali and one on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. By 2006, Australian and Indonesian counter-terrorism efforts were a resounding success. In fact, the level of cooperation was globally unique, given both its success and low-key nature. With improvements in Indonesian investigation, forensics, surveillance and intelligence capabilities, things changed. Indonesian government agencies went on the counter-terrorism offensive, and eventually there were few safe havens for JI. Before long, hundreds of JI members were in jail and Indonesia was winning the war on terror. In December last year, with intelligence from Australia and America, nine suspects from two separate terror cells were arrested. During the raids, a range of bomb components were found, along with maps of Jakarta. And once again it looked like the threat had been disrupted. The raids were successful, but the terror-threat level in Indonesia remained high over the Christmas and New Year period. Intelligence was indicating that there were still plans afoot for local terrorists to hold a 'concert' of their own -- referring to the Paris attacks. But the December 2016 raids and arrests didn't prevent an attack on Jakarta. The failure may be symptomatic of new-found resilience to disruption in Indonesian terrorist cells. Advertisement Last week's attack serves as an indicator that the effectiveness of the Indonesian counter-terrorism intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance framework may be degraded in the face of the current terrorism trends. After all, Indonesian and Australian authorities were aware of an increased terror threat, yet were unable to disrupt the attack. But this is not surprising. Terror tactics are constantly evolving in response to law enforcement and intelligence activities, which makes them harder to detect, investigate and disrupt. The attack itself was an abject failure for the planners. They paid a high price in treasure and blood for precious few victims. A lot of that had to do with the clumsy and incompetent nature of the attack. Unfortunately, we can't take heart in the low number of casualties, because the attack was a strategic success for ISIS. It managed to get the world's attention, and showed all of us that ISIS is in Asia and it's active. For many of the hundreds of convicted JI terrorists who will be released from Indonesian jails soon, the success of this attack will serve as a call to arms. A number of the more senior JI members have used their time in Indonesian prisons to strengthen relationships with other terrorists and recruit new members. Growing up in Manila in the 80's, personal computers were rare and expensive. But not having a computer only increased its appeal for curious 13-year-old me. After my first school computer code compiled, ran, and did what I programmed it to do, I was hooked. Imagine being able to use your knowledge and skills to help people improve their jobs and help society. Advertisement Young man drinking coffee in a cafe. Close-up. When I travel, I try to immerse myself in new cultures as much as I can. I feel you get a better sense of your surroundings, and grow more as a person. Discovering new cultures exposes you to more experiences (good and bad). One way to do that is try the local food. From cocktails to cuisine here is a nod to some of Peru's must try dishes. 1. Causa Rellena Causa Rellena is a Peruvian mashed potato pancake dish, which is layered with fish, chicken or vegetables. Peru has over 4,000 varieties of potatoes, but this dish is made with yellow-golden Peruvian potatoes. The top is decoratively garnished with herbs and a hard-boiled egg. We were served Causa Rellena stuffed with vegetables. It was so good I asked for the recipe to bring home with me! Advertisement 2. Pisco Sour Pisco Sour is an alcoholic drink that is served in Peru. It is made of lime juice, Pisco (clear grape brandy) for the base liquor, syrup, ice, bitters and egg white. The egg white is whipped to give the Pisco Sour its foamy top. This is a drink that tour guides will warn foreign visitors about, because of the raw egg that is incorporated in the drink. This may be a drink you want to avoid, if you have a sensitive stomach. 3. Pizza It's fun to compare foods between countries. The best margarita pizza I have ever had was at La Pizza Carlo located in Cusco. This is an intimate family-run restaurant with four tables inside. The ingredients were deliciously fresh, and the pizza is cooked in a brick oven. The atmosphere itself was very warm and welcoming. The owner was very friendly and immediately welcomed guests inside. Bring cash with you (American or soles), credit cards are not accepted here. Insider tip: try the homemade sangria, you won't regret it! 4. Ceviche Ceviche is raw fish marinated in citrus juices in order to slowly cook the fish. It is usually served with peppers, corn or sweet potatoes. This is a dish that comes highly recommended by anyone who visits Peru. If you would like to make this dish yourself, stop by San Pedro Market in Cusco for fresh seafood, collected off the coast of Peru. 5.Alpaca Alpacas are bred in Peru for their wool and meat, and at one time was considered a delicacy. Now you can find Alpaca meat served at most restaurants in Peru. You will find Alpaca to have a taste and texture similar to pork tenderloin. Don't be afraid to step out of the box on this one, you will be pleasantly surprised. Advertisement 6.Cherimoya I fell in love with this fruit at the San Pedro Market in Cusco. I'm not the only one to fall in love with it, Mark Twain referred to it as "the most delicious fruit known to man". Cherimoya is small, green oval fruit. It's sweet to taste (a blend of banana, strawberry, pineapple flavor). It can be cut up and frozen, or chilled and ate with a spoon. Throughout Peru, Chirmoya can also be found in ice cream and yogurts. 7.Inca Kola Inca Kola is a popular soft drink produced in Peru. Some people compare this yellow-golden drink to cream soda in the United States. Ironically, I discovered this drink at my local grocery store after my trip to Peru. So, if you currently can't make a trip to Peru (you know- because you have so many travels planned), stop by your local grocery store and bring a little bit of Peru to you. 8. Coffee from Urubamba Valley Do you remember the best cup of coffee you've ever had? I do. It was black, rich, freshly ground coffee in the Urubamba Valley, Peru. So far Peru produces my favorite coffee, however I've now made it a priority to try coffee in every country I visit. I love this coffee so much that I bought several kilos of El Condor at the San Pedro Market to bring home with me. 9.Chicha Morada Chicha Morada is a sweet beverage made with Peru's famous purple corn. The purple corn is boiled with pineapple, sugar, cinnamon and cloves. This drink is hard to come by in Peru, you won't come across it in commercial restaurants or bars. Instead, you need to find a bar run by a local, and we have a little hint to help you out with that! If there is a pole with a red flag attached to it outside of a bar, it's a bar run by a local. Stop in and get to know the locals. 10. Cuy "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr. As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy this year, we must do so with an understanding that the current state of African American economics is not one that he envisioned when he spoke to the great possibility of America before his death. It has instead become a very different economic reality for black America that we must all be aware of moving forward. The data that was used to support the Federal Reserve's bleak numbers that the middle white American household is worth 13 times that of the middle black household may have used accounting that actually understates the gap in wealth between white and black families in America. Advertisement Professor Edward Wolff in his report for the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that in performing this calculation the Federal Reserve was including consumer durables that should be excluded when calculating assets. Thus, only assets that can be readily converted to cash (that is, "fungible" ones) are included. As a result, consumer durables such as automobiles, televisions, furniture, household appliances, and the like, are excluded here, since these items are not easily marketed, with the possible exception of vehicles, or their resale value typically far understates the value of their consumption services to the household. Another justification for their exclusion is that this treatment is consistent with the national accounts, where purchase of vehicles is counted as expenditures, not savings. As a result, my estimates of household wealth will differ from those provided by the Federal Reserve Board, which includes the value of vehicles in their standard definition of household wealth. According to Wolff's report the median black family is actually only worth $1,700 when you deduct these durables. In contrast, the median white family is worth $116,800 using the same accounting methods. In accounting for the losses of the Great Recession he wrote: "black households" median net worth actually fell from $6,700 to $1,700, and the ratio relative to white households plunged from 0.06 to 0.01. To give this greater historical context, according to the National Review in South Africa during the atrocities of apartheid the median black family was worth nearly 7 percent of what a white South African family was worth. Whereas today using the data above, the median African American family is worth a mere 1.5 percent of what the median white American family is worth. By way of comparison, black South Africans under apartheid had a median net worth about 6.8 percent that of white South Africans. Repeating: Black Americans are worse off relative to their white countrymen than black South Africans under apartheid were to theirs. As we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we must do so with an understanding that his life's work was not completed with the accomplishment of the Civil Rights Act. Rather it was the opening for us all to move the discussion forward on how to reach racial equality. Tourists from around the world visit northern Thailand to experience the majesty of elephants in their natural environment. For many it is the highlight of their Asian trip and interacting with, bathing, feeding and riding the elephants is a once in a lifetime experience. However, it often comes at a hidden cost with many agencies and tour groups exploiting the elephants, forcing them to work under inhumane conditions that damage their health and psychological well-being. Elephants are extremely intelligent and it is particularly distressing to witness them suffering needlessly. One example of this is the chairs the elephants are forced to wear which could lead to permanent spinal injuries as well as chafing and damaging their skin, causing severe pain. However, the use of chairs maximizes revenue for the owner as more riders can fit on one elephant. This mistreatment is not just limited to the elephants. The 'mahouts' (elephant caretakers) are often stateless Burmese refugees who are rarely paid for the work they do. Mahouts are completely dependent on their employers and face the constant fear of deportation or arrest if they do not adhere to their camp's rules. For an ethical elephant experience, one should choose the organization wisely. The Chai Lai Orchid is an eco resort based in the mountains of Chiang Mai that allows guests to immerse themselves in nature while promoting human rights and rescuing elephants from a nearby camp. This social business offers the unique experience to play freely with the elephants, bathe them, and ride them bareback. Alexa Pham, the owner of Chai Lai, seeks to bring about a positive shift in elephant tourism and hopes to set an example for the humane and ethical treatment of both elephants and mahouts. Chai Lai tours want visitors to connect with elephants in a way that is responsible and respectful of their status as magnificent, wise, and sensitive animals. Advertisement Chai Lai is also part of an anti-trafficking NGO - Daughters Rising - that is working to educate and empower Burmese refugees and ethnic minorities within Thailand as a way to equip them against traffickers. The training program runs six to eight months at The Chai Lai Orchid where the girls learn English, transferrable business skills, and are offered economic independence; all of which gives them the tools they need to be a force for good within their communities as well as a chance to plan for a future they once thought was out of reach. In a beautiful and unique setting, you - the traveler - can have a life-changing vacation that changes a little bit of the world at the same time. If you can't make the trip, but still want to help change the world, please learn more at www.chailaiorchid.com Donations to the cause: www.crowdrise.com/dollarsfordedefriend or http://daughtersrising.org/donate/. Other possibilities that give back: Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary Overview: A homestay experience where visitors help bathe elephants and walk them to release sites as well as gather their food and perform secondary duty with the local community. www.blesele.org/ Beesanctuary Elephant Sanctuary Overview: A retirement home for elderly elephants to live free in their natural environment that hosts a volunteer program. www.bees-elesanctuary.org/ Advertisement Outside of Thailand: Ionian Eco Villagers, Greece. Ionian Eco Villagers works with nonprofit Earth, Sea & Sky to provide a unique holiday experience through conservation, eco-friendly activities, education, and immersion in local culture. www.relaxing-holidays.com Another Martin Luther King holiday is upon us. Some will no doubt partake in mock freedom rides at a special King Holiday rate; some will march in the spirit of Chuck Berry, with "no particular place to go;" others will attend breakfast in King's honor. There is something about the King holiday that creates an arrested development of the spirit, leading us in a direction that is antithetical to the project for which King gave his life. Pacifying ourselves with King quotes, utilizing rote memorization, we opt for the "cheap King" rather than the authentic version. Cheap King, like cheap Jefferson or cheap Lincoln, results from methodology whereby one takes a quote, often times void of any context, to justify the position they already hold. Advertisement Cheap King is a deified straw man, the embodiment of grandiose assumptions and self-serving naivety. It is where we arrogantly serve as the public ventriloquist who selectively puts the words in King's mouth. These words are based not on King but our desire to be seen in lockstep with him in order to fortify the position we hold. How many major corporations will run ads demonstrating how their business philosophy is almost synonymous with King's vaunted "dream"? How many within the "Black Lives Matter" movement have shunned the civil rights era, in part because they view their so-called "leaderless" approach to be superior to the movement that moved the needle of democracy more than any other in the 20th century? I'm not suggesting that the current movement should follow the efforts of the 1950s and '60s, but where I do take issue is how they reached their conclusion. The primary argument in support of the leaderless approach is based on an understanding of not having someone fly in and co-opt the efforts that have been painstakingly put in place by those at the grassroots. Advertisement While a valid critique, it is a post-King phenomenon, something more akin to actions of Jesse Jackson and later Al Sharpton. King never launched any of the seminal civil rights efforts. He was always invited to participate. One need only to read the second paragraph of "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" to know that King was in Birmingham at the invitation of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. King's participation in the effort to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, which cost him his life, was at the behest of longtime friend and former aide the Rev. James Lawson. The same was true for movements in Albany, Selma, Chicago and elsewhere. But I suspect the erroneous understanding of King is based on intoxicating the culture with Cheap King -- the non-abrasive hero who is suitable for framing but offers no other value. Cheap King is held in solitary confinement during the last five minutes of the March on Washington's keynote address originally titled "A Canceled Check" that operates under the pseudonym, "I Have a Dream." Look through the lens of Cheap King at the one who said: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Through those lens, the words become merely fodder for those who see only a milquetoast dreamer. But through the authentic lens of an imperfect prophet, the words are the statement of radical nonconformity. The authentic King is an unwavering prisoner of hope, not someone endowed with syrupy sentimentality. He embraced a tough determination that believed in American democracy far more than those who sought to deny Negroes their basic human rights. Advertisement Too often Cheap King is what we celebrate, forgoing the authentic version. It's easy, nonthreatening and does not require that we leave our comfort zone in order participate. The authentic version praised President Lyndon Johnson for groundbreaking civil rights legislation, but could not remain silent in the wake of Vietnam. This King saw that his efforts to eradicate government-sanctioned racism were incomplete without also addressing abject poverty. Against our collective efforts to mobilize the Cheap King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the authentic one kept evolving, making even his allies uncomfortable in his unwavering pursuit for justice. Last Wednesday, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission held a meeting to vote on a resolution opposing wolf reintroduction in the state, including reintroduction of the most endangered gray wolf in the world, the Mexican gray wolf (also known as the "lobo"). In the two months leading up to the Commission's meeting, nearly 3,000 Defenders of Wildlife supporters from Colorado sent letters to the Commissioners, urging them not to pass the resolution. On the day of the meeting, I was encouraged to see hundreds of Colorado pro-wolf supporters showing their support for the lobo, filling the room at the Commission's Denver office to capacity and spilling outside, hoping to testify and holding signs reading "More Wolves, Less Politics." Unfortunately, the Commission passed this harmful resolution by a vote of 7 to 4, defying the wishes of 70 percent of Colorado voters, who, according to past polling, support wolf reintroduction in our state. And with only 109 lobos in the wild in the U.S. and fewer than 25 in Mexico, the commission failed to make the most of their opportunity to make a productive mark on lobo recovery. Advertisement What's even more disappointing is that this anti-wolf resolution is rooted in old, unfounded fears and prejudices about wolves, and not in the best available science regarding the historic range of the Mexican gray wolf or public opinion. Lobos need Colorado: Let's take a look at the science. The best available science clearly states that lobos cannot recover without Colorado. A recent UCLA study draws a more accurate picture of the Mexican gray wolf's historic range. The UCLA study refutes the claim that lobos never lived north of I-40, and extends their range to parts of California, Nevada, southern Utah and southern Colorado. Additionally, lobo genes have even been found as far north as Nebraska. Our state is critical to the survival of this species. A published, peer-reviewed study from one of the scientists on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Mexican gray wolf recovery team concluded that areas in Colorado contain some of the best habitat for wolves. These areas have sufficient habitat and prey, low human and road densities and are within dispersal distance of the established lobo population in Arizona and New Mexico. Coloradans support Lobos: Coloradans value healthy landscapes and healthy wildlife populations, and that includes the important ecological benefits wolves provide to the environment. We have a deep connection to our wildlife heritage and want to be a part of solution to protect Mexican gray wolves from extinction. Advertisement Lobos can support Colorado: Not only do gray wolves provide widespread ecological benefits in areas where they have be reintroduced, but they also bring substantial benefits to regional economies, and this would likely be the case in Colorado, too. For example, wolf reintroduction to Yellowstone brings an estimated $35 million in additional annual tourist revenue to the region. That figure effectively doubles once the money filters through the local economy. A blanket of snow covers the buildings and trees as the early morning light rises above the mountains in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. World leaders, influential executives, bankers and policy makers attend the 46th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos from Jan. 20 - 23. Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg via Getty Images The consequences of climate change are causing growing concern among global leaders as they intersect with a large number of interconnected global risks. The Global Risks Report 2016, published by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Zurich Insurance Group and other leading institutions, found that while geopolitical risk such as uncontrolled immigration and interstate conflicts were seen as the most likely threat, climate issues were the risk factors most likely to influence other risks and thus had the greatest potential impact. Advertisement Failure of national governance was seen as the highest risk to doing business by executives in 14 countries, half of them in Latin America, four in sub-Saharan Africa, two in Eastern Europe and one in Asia. Geopolitical Risks Those findings are hardly surprising, given that geopolitical tensions are now at their highest level since the end of the Cold War, with growing tension over maritime rights in the south China Sea, an ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine creating security concerns across the old soviet bloc and military intervention in Syria. Elsewhere, there are heightened terrorism fears across Europe in the wake of the Paris attack in November 2015, continuing economic uncertainty across Europe after elections in Spain and the collapse of Portugal's government, and concerns over global growth following a slowdown in the BRIC economies. These tensions create numerous challenges for businesses and society. Companies face cancelled projects, interruptions to production and supply chains, restrictions on various activities and, potentially, politically motivated attacks on their employees and facilities. Heightened nationalism also increases the risk of protectionist measures and asset seizures. Advertisement Geopolitical tensions also divert resources and energy from addressing other issues of mutual concern, including climate change, while politicizing debates around key issues such as market regulation, cyber-crime and mutual security. Climate Change Climate change remains one of the most pressing contributing factors to geopolitical and other risks, but mitigations efforts have largely failed. In 2015, the global concentration of carbon dioxide -- a key driver of climate change -- exceeded 400 parts per million for the first time in recorded history, while global temperatures appear to have risen by 1 degree Celsius from the pre-Industrial era. The changes are already posing grave challenges for businesses and humanity, including an increase in coastal flooding, falling agricultural production, declining biodiversity, eco-system collapse (accompanied by declines in fish stocks, etc.), and higher costs for cooling, irrigation, etc. Those risks also have geopolitical consequences. Many people link the Arab spring uprising in 2011 to rising wheat prices, which resulted in protests in the streets of Libya, while potential disputes over water rights could lead to conflict. Globally, withdrawals of fresh water have increased threefold over the last fifty years and demand is anticipated to rise by a further 40 percent by 2030. Advertisement Collaboration and Cooperation Given the scale and ever increasing complexity and interconnectivity of the challenges posed by climate change, political and other risk factors, it is perhaps understandable that many stakeholders choose to focus instead on the issues that they can manage. In a 2011 survey by the Wharton Business School, for example, more than half of respondents said that the simplest way to manage geopolitical risks was to avoid investing in volatile markets. Interconnectivity, however, makes such calculations impractical. As the growing immigration crisis in the EU demonstrates, such risks no longer recognize national boundaries. That makes it increasing important that all stakeholders in society work together to address pressing global challenges. Businesses need to factor potential environmental risks and their contingencies into their business planning and become more proactive in addressing climate challenges. At Zurich, for example, we are contributing to pressing social and environmental issues with investments of up to USD 2 billion in green bonds to fund projects from hydroelectric power plants to ecological firms; as well as impact investing through private equity to help mitigate environmental risks by supporting a low-carbon economy and encouraging environmentally friendly technologies. Each January we witness the tragic beatific domestication of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The more radical nature of his message is annually watered down ignoring the more uncomfortable aspects of his words and witness. King was a man of peace and non-violence. And this non-violence was not simply a tactic employed by activists during direct actions. It was, as was the case for Gandhi, an all-encompassing ahimsa. Not just a tool, but also way of life. It's easier to hear his words on racism than it is to contemplate his convicting prophetic message on violence, especially in our deeply fearful contemporary culture which is so quick to resort to armed protection to deter the entities that cause us anxiety. King fought for Life and against death -- both the figurative and literal death that people were forced to face because of racism, militarism, and extreme materialism (what he called the triplets of evil). He fought against death, even as death was perpetually whispered to him as a potential deterrent. Throughout his public ministry those fearful of the changes that King and other activists were calling and working for tried to deter them with violence and the possibility of being killed. The murders of Emmitt Till, Medgar Evers, Jimmi Lee Jackson, Viola Liuzzo, the four beautiful little girls in Birmingham, and many others were meant to strike fear into their hearts and steer them away from working for change. Almost nightly death threats came to King's phone wherever he was. But he did not let it stop him from working for change and from working for peace. He refused to be deterred. King was a free man. And that freedom from the fear of death allowed him to dream and to soar in powerful world changing ways. It allowed him to go to the mountaintop and see where we may go as a people. In the wake of Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago, and as I reflect on the enduring strain between the police and people of color my thoughts have often returned to the timeless witness of Dr. King who had more than his fair share of difficult run-ins with the law. In particular I have held not only his message of peace and the beloved community, but also of how he got past the horrific use of death as a deterrent Contemplating the end of death as a deterrent to me sheds light on the contemporary police/people of color dialectic. King's final speech that he delivered before being fatally shot in Memphis is known as his "Mountaintop speech." His final public words are so powerful because of its fearlessness in the face of death. Advertisement Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord But there is one line in that speech that most miss. Contextually, he is speaking about how he and others have faced the brutality of police forces in various cities around the country and responded with a heart changing non-violence. He says: "We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces." He of course is referring to disarming them of their hate and racially discriminatory violence. But what if he meant a literal disarming of their deadly weapons as well. * We as a society have surely advanced to a point where we can question whether or not police officers (who have sworn to keep the peace, to protect, and to serve the citizens under their watch) need to carry lethal force. We surely can at least consider whether societally it is healthy for cops to carry deadly firearms be it for actual use while on duty (which is devastating and tragic every single time it occurs) or as a deadly deterrent. What might policing look like if our officers did not carry lethal weapons? It is telling that this question astonishes. A cop without a gun, we believe, is in fact not a cop. How could they do their job without a firearm? I raise this question not out of anger or from a punitive desire resulting from the high profile police killings of the last couple of years, but rather out of a respect for the police and a desire to bridge the gulf that has developed between community members and those courageous officers who seek to dedicate their lives to being peace keepers (the original intent of having a domestic police force). In an age where moments can be captured by omnipresent hand-held devices, and in a time when information can be shared globally in an instant, images of police officers using excessive force and in too many cases taking lives, have caught the attention and broken the hearts of millions of individuals who now know the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, and Laquan McDonald. Tragedies like these at the hands of racist or careless or PTSD suffering cops is not new, but the greater awareness and outrage over them is. Thus, the conversations about reforming community policing and how officers are trained have begun in earnest. Already many changes are beginning to appear around the country like body cameras, sensitivity training, increased diversity on forces, and community oversight (rather than internal investigations of complaints against police). There is still a long way to go on each of these potential changes, but the fact that we are even exploring reform is positive. I am hopeful. Yet, I think that we can push these conversations about police reform further and do something special in regards to the future of policing in our country, but it will take our leaders in law enforcement, government, and industrial innovation wrestling with and imaging what the future of policing and what our society might look like if our police officers did not carry lethal weapons. Why should we consider the cessation of arming police officers with deadly force? The first answer to this stems from a basic reverence for all human life. Granted as a clergy person I see this from a religious paradigm where all are children of God created in God's own image. Who are we to intentionally take the life of any other human being? And everyone is someone's child or sibling or parent or love. Each death is devastating no matter who that person is or what that person may have done. But beyond spiritual or philosophical reasons I am motivated to consider the cessation of deadly force carried and used by police officers because quite simply far fewer individuals would die at the hands of the police. In 2015 at least 1,202 people were killed by cops with the Washington Post counting 986 of those individuals dying from fatal gun shot wounds. If officers did not carry lethal guns on them that number would automatically plummet extending many lives -- most typically young and poor men. Much of this stems from how officers use their firearms in their efforts to deescalate situations. It is extraordinarily difficult for a police officer to assess the nature of a threat and ones own personal safety in the split second that an officer has at the scene of a potential crime, especially when one's own life is potentially on the line. I hear that. Therefore discerning whether one should use their Taser, their pepper spray or club or something more deadly can't always happen in the very limited decision making time available. Advertisement But the presence of a gun with it being so ultimate makes that an officer's go to "problem solver" allowing them to take control of a situation quickly. The situation with former officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown captures this very clearly. Darren Wilson saw the unarmed Michael Brown as a potential criminal and as a potential threat. To deescalate and take control of the situation he pulled out and discharged his gun. A Taser, pepper spray, perhaps even physical restraint could have stopped Michael. If there was no gun involved or available, Michael would still be alive (he'd be in college now) and Wilson would still be on the force. If Officer Jason Van Dyke did not have access to lethal weapons, Laquan McDonald would still be alive, Van Dyke wouldn't have had to lie, and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel might not be facing the demands for him to step down. Van Dyke and Wilson would have had to figure out another way to deescalate the situation. They might have had to still use force, but the chances of it being a lethal encounter would become greatly minimized. A racist acculturation that allows for an officer like Wilson to see Michael Brown not as one of the young citizens of the community he is to protect, but as a "hulk" or "demon" certainly led to him using deadly dehumanizing force (would he have seen him the same way had Brown been White or a Woman?), but Wilson being racist was only a part of the problem. A racist having access to deadly weaponry is the other part. A decrease in the number of deaths by police would save lives, but it would also save police forces and cities literally millions of dollars spent on settlements with the families of victims. Money that could be spent in others ways -- like developing alternative technologies and innovative ways to stop and deter individuals from disturbing the peace and committing crimes. It is hard to be a police officer. And this is a difficult time to even explore disarming police officers of lethal force when they are being shot at by people who hate cops. While a relatively very few number of police officers are shot and killed every year (48 nationwide in 2014 according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund), one cop killed is too many. But the point of proposing a disarming of lethal force isn't to leave officers more vulnerable. In taking away lethal weapons we can and I pray will replace them with better just as effective non-lethal weapons, which would ultimately make policing safer. Certainly we have advanced as a society enough where we can develop weaponry that serves the purpose of stopping a fleeing criminal or detaining an out of control individual without taking their lives. Future generations will look back on us as being barbaric and imprecise for our weapons and tactics. Futurists and tech innovators law enforcement needs you! Smart guns are a step in the right direction, but non-lethal ones are the destination. Gun manufacturers would profit tremendously if they moved in this direction of developing non-lethal but effective firearms. The ability to defend oneself without killing another would be something that a lot of people who are anxious for their own safety would buy. I am accused from time to time of hating guns. I don't hate guns. I hate that guns (can) kill people. We can build a better weapon. * The oft-missed reality is that most police officers go their whole careers without discharging their guns while on duty. In many places entire forces go years without shooting a weapon while in uniform. The overwhelming majority of officers hope and pray that they won't be in a situation where they will have to take the life of another. Shooting another human being is a life-altering event that is very difficult to get over. It's traumatic to be shot and it's traumatic to shoot another. And so if officers are barely using their guns, why do departments spend so much of their budgets on purchasing guns and firearm training? Should forces in very low crime areas even carry guns on them? Individuals who disagree with me on this issue will say "yes" because of the fact that "the bad guys" knowing that officers have guns deters them from doing crime and/or attacking an officer. The notion that many law enforcement officials see some of the citizens under their watch as bad guys is an important idea to address as officer training is being revamped around the country. How can officers be focused on protecting and serving only the good ones and keep them safe from the bad ones? As a minister I was trained to not only minister to the good members of a flock, but to see everyone, imperfect as we all are, as members to be cared for. But does death as deterrent work in our society? This in many ways is one of the points of the death penalty. I abhor the death penalty and am thankful that national opinion is trending towards abolishing it. Not only is it an anachronistic brutality, but also it exists in a racist and imperfect criminal justice system that sentences people of color to death at rates far worse than their White counterparts who do the same crimes. Some see it as a form of justice after a severe crime has been committed. And others see the executions of criminals as serving as a warning to other would be criminals that "if you do likewise, you too will face death." One may ask however does the death penalty deter crime? If we stopped executing people would crime suddenly spike? Likewise, nations possess nuclear weapons with the intent of deterring others from attacking them. No world leaders want to use their nuclear weapons. The world has seen the clumsy, indiscriminate devastation that nuclear bombs bring. No one wants that again. But in a most uncreative way, many nations hold onto them as a deterrent from war. Like the death penalty and like nuclear weapons, many police forces continue to carry guns as a perpetually present deterrent. There is something very dangerous about operating in a currency of fear. The use of death as a deterrent signals not only a society that does not seriously value every life, but also one that lacks imagination. It brings not a "realistic" view of human nature, but rather, it reinforces an inhumane way of dealing with conflict and perceived threats. How pitiful it is that we must resort to fear as the rope that restrains us from doing bad. We can do better than that as a nation and as a society. That's lazy. Just like the death penalty and nuclear weapons are lazy, inaccurate, and ineffective ways of keeping the peace. We cannot un-invent the gun. But we can improve upon it. What might the future of policing look like with just as effective but non-lethal weapons? I think if those brave public servants who dedicate their professional lives to keeping us safe covenanted to never take the lives of those whom they have sworn to protect, we would live in a much safer more life-affirming world. Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, speaks to reporters at a news conference on May 20, 2015 in New York. Streaming leader Spotify on Wednesday announced an entry into video and original content, hoping to expand its reach beyond music. Spotify, by far the largest company in the booming streaming industry, said it was updating its platform to support videos and would offer news and other non-music content provided by major media companies. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) Spotify's music offering may have appeared to be the long tail, but now it looks like the wrong tail. After two class-action lawsuits for unlicensed songs and copyright infringement were filed against the company by songwriters in as many weeks, Spotify is doing back flips to blame the victim for its admitted failures to lawfully obtain mechanical licenses. But at the end of the day, the decision is governance not guidance, and Spotify's governance is solely in the hands of its corporate directors and officers. Those directors and officers must answer to shareholders for weighing the marginal value of millions of unlicensed songs over the infringement liability (not to mention an even worse press). Free Lunch or Free Will? According to press reports, 10 percent to 25 percent of the songs on Spotify "are not properly licensed and/or not distributing royalty payments." Spotify also claims to have licensed approximately 30 million recordings (of 30 million songs, give or take for covers). Advertisement Based on these assumptions, that means there could be three million to 12 million songs that "are not properly licensed and/or not distributing royalty payments." This is not a few songs that fell through the cracks like new releases, a 1/16th of a song for a sample, the odd songwriter who cannot be found or who is non-responsive. Millions of unlicensed songs doesn't look like an understandable accident, it looks more like an unacceptable policy. And that would be a policy that is exactly what the compulsory mechanical license was designed to prevent. At the end of the day, the policy, i.e., the choice, to go forward without licenses, rests solely with Spotify. The well-financed company could have complied with the compulsory license -- enacted by the U.S. Congress for this exact situation -- but the songwriter class actions will likely seek to prove that Spotify chose not to do so. Whoever Spotify hired to undertake the mechanical process of mechanical licensing, millions of unlicensed songs strongly suggests that someone at Spotify decided to go forward without complying with the law. It appears that the thinking was that the upside value of having "all the world's music" was greater than the downside risk of getting caught. The marginal value of another few million songs was greater than actually complying with the law and paying songwriters. Advertisement This decision is what is called "business risk." Incredible as it may seem, this decision -- this willful decision -- to accept the business risk of using millions of unlicensed songs was apparently driven by a belief that in order to have an effective consumer offering, Spotify had to have tens of millions of tracks available to consumers. It's Not About a Database You'll hear a lot of hand wringing (from many quarters including Spotify) about the lack of a central database that is constantly updated with complete rights information just so digital services can look up who to license from and who to pay. This database has never existed, but you know what does exist? The U.S. Copyright Office online searchable database of copyright registrations. Evidently, Spotify did not bother to look up Lowery's copyrights at the Copyright Office registration system as required by the compulsory license rules. That's behavior that is consistent with having millions of unlicensed songs. If the industry were to go to the trouble and expense of building this unicorn database, it would not have solved Spotify's problem with David Lowery because evidently nobody bothered to do the song research. And this is the most elegant explanation of why Spotify is in the situation they are in -- they don't want to look because they don't want to pay the cost of complying with the law that provides them the great benefit of a compulsory license and they don't want to pay songwriter royalties. If Spotify really wants to pay songwriters, wouldn't they have done at least as much as the Copyright Office does with unknown writers -- publish a list online with all the information that they have (like artist name and song title). Advertisement Enter the Long Tail This policy of using millions of unlicensed songs may well have been informed by the "long tail" theory and thought experiment posited by one Chris Anderson (in case you forgot him). You can read all about it in Anderson's counterintuitive utopian book The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More which was based on a 2004 article in Wired. I'd be very interested to know exactly where this consumer research is that shows the marginal value of an additional 12 million songs is so meaningful to a music service that it trumps the infringement exposure. I frankly have never seen it -- aside from Spotify's reliance on Anderson's version of the long tail. Anderson goes down the wrong rabbit hole by relying on anecdotal observations of "Ben" an anonymized (or perhaps fictional) character (at pp. 3-5). "Ben" is a teenager from an affluent family in Silicon Valley who gets most of his music from "friends" and "Bit Torrent" (recall that Spotify's CEO was a developer of uTorrent, a key piece of the piracy picture acquired by Bit Torrent in 2006). So Anderson starts by analyzing a legal market with comparisons to the black market. That obviously wasn't going anywhere logical. Neither is any market of what the New York Times called "pixel-size niches". Anderson's long-tail thought experiment has been criticized by a number of people such as Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse in the Harvard Business Review and most famously in the music business by Will Page, the former economist for PRS, the UK performing rights organization. Any record company production manager could have chimed in -- and perhaps would have if it wasn't so obvious that it did not really bear much discussion. The corresponding transaction costs of a variety of functions including rendering royalty statements for minuscule unit sales were not worth keeping the title in the catalog. You know, kind of like sending a royalty statement for three streams. Preparing the statement may well cost more than the royalty even if the statement is itself digitally delivered. Not to mention taking the phone call from the angry songwriter who got a statement for $0.19. Advertisement Record companies are no strangers to the long tail -- that's often called classical and instrumental jazz. It is worth noting that record companies have for decades deleted titles that didn't sell enough to justify keeping the title in the company catalog. This is consistent with Professor Elberse's research demonstrating that "the tail increasingly consists of titles that rarely sell and that are produced by smaller-scale players." Professor Elberse assumed that there were no infringement costs associated with those "titles that rarely sell" thus exponentially increasing the cost of the tail, or as this particular tail is known in some circles, the wrong tail. Is the Long Tail the Wrong Tail for Spotify? Then-PRS economist Will Page reached a similar conclusion after analyzing PRS royalty payments in 2008. Those who have had about enough sanctimony from Spotify about how it is God's gift to fighting piracy will find this nugget of interest when wondering how much the marginal value of the last 12 million tracks that don't sell really is worth if they are all unlicensed: Will Page, the former economist for PRS, found in his 2008 study that famously debunked Chris Anderson's absurd "long tail" theory, the "long tail" is pretty meaningless for music services: [PRS] found that only 20% of tracks in our sample were 'active', that is to say they sold at least one copy, and hence, 80% of the tracks sold nothing at all. Moreover, approximately 80% of sales revenue came from around 3% of the active tracks. Factor in the dormant tail and you're looking at a 80/0.38% rule for all the inventory on the digital shelf. Mr. Page joined Spotify in 2012, which was after Spotify's U.S. launch in 2011. If Spotify's policies led to its problems with songwriters, that is certainly not Mr. Page's fault, but Spotify could have just asked him about the cost/benefit analysis before continuing to take the business risk of failing to get compulsory licenses on what apparently is a gargantuan scale. Advertisement Was the marginal value of the long tail worth it for Spotify when compared to statutory damages? Commentators often mock statutory damages, especially for willful infringement, as being over the top. In the case of the compulsory mechanical license, you can look at this another way. The LGBT civil rights movement has evolved admirably over the past few years to become more inclusive, working against institutional bigotry of all kinds, and grappling with the intersectionalities that exist within all of us. Those multiple identities impact not only how we think of ourselves, but more notably, what others think of us. Unfortunately, some of that progress has empowered the more radical amongst us to act in a brazen, autocratic manner. The growing demand on the left for political purity includes the act of blacklisting and de-platforming -- i.e., not allowing people with whom you disagree a platform from which to speak. On the radical left, free expression loses out to demands for protection from insult and offense. The most recent such episode, a stain on the LGBT community, is the willingness by the National LGBTQ Task Force (Task Force) to cave into demands from radical queer activists to ban a Jewish organization from hosting a reception at this week's upcoming Creating Change conference. This is not the type of change for which the Task Force stands, and is a disgraceful act of capitulation. Unfortunately, this spinelessness is not new at these conferences, as in recent years the organizers have allowed trans-exclusionary radical feminist lesbians (TERFs) to organize, a group of queer women of color to take the stage to prevent the Denver mayor from speaking, and just last week a fiasco with the invitation/de-invitation of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to participate in the conference. The Task Force is allowing the loudest voices to quash dissent and inhibit dialogue, the kind of dialogue that is necessary for progress. Placating those radical voices does not benefit the queer people most in need, nor the community as a whole. Advertisement The group at issue today is called A Wider Bridge, on whose board I sit. Here is their statement: CREATING CHANGE CREATES BIAS -- NATIONAL LGBTQ TASK FORCE CANCELS A WIDER BRIDGE ISRAEL RECEPTION at UPCOMING CONFERENCE IN CHICAGO. A WIDER BRIDGE ANNOUNCES EVENT WILL GO ON AT NEW VENUE. After being approved as a part of the program well in advance, the organizers of the Creating Change conference in Chicago caved into extremist anti-Israel demands and canceled the A Wider Bridge-sponsored reception that was to be held on Friday, January 22. The reception plans to feature two leaders of Jerusalem Open House, (JOH) Jerusalem's flagship LGBTQ organization. A Wider Bridge is announcing today that the reception will go on, but at a new location outside of the conference venue. It will be held at the Blackstone Hotel, 636 S. Michigan Ave, at 8:30 PM. on the 22nd. Arthur Slepian, Executive Director of A Wider Bridge, said "A Wider Bridge is one of the leading LGBTQ organizations in the country, an advocate for LGBTQ rights here in North America, in Israel and around the world, and it is both sad and disgraceful that the organizers of Creating Change decided that there is no place for us in this significant gathering of LGBT leaders from around the U.S. and the world. We work to promote honest dialogue and collaboration and to present Israel to our program participants in all of its complexity. Our trips include visits to the West Bank and the opportunity to hear directly from Palestinians. We meet with Israeli Ethiopians, transgender leaders, and LGBTQ leaders from Israel's religious communities. Our programs explore issues involving homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, ultra-nationalism, and many other forms of bigotry -- the very same issues being addressed at the Creating Change conference. The Israeli LGBTQ community has something important to add to the global conversation about LGBTQ rights. We are saddened by what appears to be capitulation to the intimidation of a small number of anti-Israel extremists who want to shut down the voices of those who don't adhere to their rigid and exclusive party line. As LGBTQ people, we are all too familiar with being oppressed through shaming, the closet, and imposed silence, and we see great danger in allowing this kind of censorship and blatant double standard to become the norm in our community." Advertisement Slepian added, "It is especially sad that this action excludes from Creating Change the leaders of one of the most important LGBTQ organizations in the world. Jerusalem Open House (JOH) is an organization that works tirelessly to build LGBTQ community in a city with a very diverse population and a challenging environment. JOH organizes the annual Jerusalem Pride March that was the scene of horrific violence last summer that led to the death of one teenage girl, and JOH has been leading the effort to help the community recover from the trauma of that tragedy. We hope that the leaders of the LGBTQ community, both Jewish and non-Jewish, will come to meet these leaders and stand in solidarity with us at our alternative event." This action was taken after a series of tweets from a queer activist of color whose Twitter handle is @darkmatterpoets, and a blog from uber Jewish trans radical, Dean Spade. First, a sampling of the tweets: @TheTaskForce why is #CC16 inviting an openly Zionist organization to present, with no mention of occupation/pinkwashing/Palestinian rights? DarkMatter (@DarkMatterPoets) January 13, 2016 #CC16 will you cancel the "LGBT life in Israel" event out of respect for Palestinian human rights? This is not "dialog", this is colonialism DarkMatter (@DarkMatterPoets) January 13, 2016 Dean Spade, a radical professor who has repeatedly interfered with efforts to pass hate crimes and anti-discrimination laws because they require engaging with a system he considers fatally corrupt, jumped into the fray. Once again he misrepresents the mission of the organization, calling it an Israeli front organization as if we're puppets, and insults the motivations of the hundreds of queer Jewish members of A Wider Bridge who are committed to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. His talk of Israel as a colonialist enterprise exposes his implicit bias and ignorance of history. His purity test would have the unintended outcome of silencing that group of American Jews most likely to help Israel step back from the brink of fascism, while also driving a wedge through the heart of the progressive community, similar to what Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu managed last year when he split the American Jewish community. Congratulations, Dean -- you and Netanyahu are accomplishing the same objective, just as Hamas and Jewish terrorists conspired to derail the Oslo Peace Accords with the Tel-Aviv suicide bombings and assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. Regardless of Professor Spade's beliefs, however, the onus is on the leadership of the Task Force. For the Task Force to bow to his demands is an act of bigotry against Jewish LGBTQ persons as mean-spirited as any other, and of far greater significance than the multitude of micro-aggressions of which many activists complain daily. Queer Jewish activists are an integral part of the movement, and have been since Stonewall. Acts such as this only serve to re-inspire some of the black-Jewish tension that arose after the 60's. Jews are a minority, too, and are working against racism and sexism in America today as allies with the entire spectrum. To paint this problem as simply black and white, when most Jews around the world are viewed as anything but white, is callous and counter-productive. Poor Mrs. Hughes. Just when it looked like she'd won her Hundred Years War not to have her wedding overshadowed by the Crawley family, she got upstaged anyhow. To be fair, her wedding to Mr. Carson Sunday night on Episode 3 of the final Downton Abbey season was in its own way as much of a feel-good fairytale moment as the wedding between Mary and Matthew back in Season 3. Writer Julian Fellowes does weddings well, because he makes the ceremony incidental. The good stuff comes before and after. The only wedding ceremony on which Downton ever lingered Edith's, which ended with the groom walking out and Edith racing up to her room to cry for a month. Now that was good television. The spotlight moment for Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson Sunday came after the ceremony, when Carson delivered brief and marvelously eloquent praise of his bride. Mrs. Hughes's campaign to make the wedding about them, not the house in which they work, seemed to have been a complete success as Mr. Carson commanded the floor and a roomful of Crawleys listened. His words were still echoing off the walls when suddenly, at the back of the pack, a familiar face materialized out of nowhere. Well, actually, out of Boston. Branson is back. OMG. Advertisement "To the bride and groom," he cried. We did have a little foreshadowing here. Earlier Sunday night, Mary had received an emotional letter from Branson in Boston, saying he found himself dreaming of Downton. And then not 45 minutes later here he was, stepping out of the shadows to lift a glass to Mr. and Mrs. Carson. Since pretty much everyone has come to love Branson -okay, except Evil Thomas - his repatriation was the best unexpected grand entrance at Downton since, well, since Bates came home for Christmas three episodes ago. "I had to go all the way to Boston to figure out that Downton was my home," Branson explained. Of course, this is the same guy who three or four seasons ago could easily have said, "I had to come all the way to Downton to figure out that Ireland was my home." Let's face it, he's a rover. it's not inconceivable that another couple of years down the line, Branson would go missing and Mary would get another letter saying, "I had to go all the way to Downton to realize Leningrad is my home." Especially if he gets back together with Miss Bunting, Advertisement Still, at a time when housemaids are quitting to take better jobs in local shops, the Crawleys were so delighted that someone actually wanted to come to Downtown that they did everything except kill a fatted calf. Miss Bunting? What Miss Bunting? The only thing was, gosh darn it, Branson's entrance sucked up every ounce of oxygen in the room. We half expected Mr. Carson to look at Mrs. Hughes and say, "So, Elsie, did you bring a pack of cards?" And all this after Mrs. Hughes endured more tension with Lady Mary and a most uncomfortable encounter with Cora in the process of simply trying to hold the wedding her way. First she was summoned before all the Crawleys to explain that much as she appreciated their generous offer to host the wedding at Downton, "This day is about us," not "the glorious people in this glorious house." Cora understood. Mary, not so much. After Mrs. Hughes left, Mary curtly asked, "Why did we have to listen to that?" "Because I want you to stop bullying her," said Cora. "You think I'm a bully," Mary shot back. "I think you're a snob." Sometimes two things can be true. A bit later, however, their roles reversed. When Mary got the word that Mrs. Hughes's wedding dress had turned out disappointingly plain, she said she was sure Mama wouldn't mind lending her a nice over-frock to brighten things up. Mrs. Hughes was hesitant. Still, acting on Mary's assurance, she, Anna and Mrs. Patmore went to Cora's room to try it on. Naturally Cora walked in. Naturally Cora had not been told of Mary's offer. Naturally Cora had had a really bad day, listening to grade-school bickering over the hospital. So she scolded Mrs. Hughes in a way that suggested Mrs. Hughes should not expect a significant Christmas bonus this year. Mary, informed of this turn of events, asked Cora why she was rude to Mrs. Hughes. Cora said she walked into her room to find servants trying her clothes on, which was just plain wrong. Mrs. Hughes got that message. She later lamented to Mrs. Patmore that she felt like "a naughty child in need of a smack." Happily, Cora repented. She apologized to Mrs. Hughes and insisted Mrs. Hughes keep her coat, even after Mrs. Hughes observed she might never have another occasion to wear it. Mary also apologized to Carson for trying to bigfoot the wedding, to which Mrs. Hughes remarked, "M'Lady, Mr. Carson would forgive you if you hit him with a brick." True that. Taken together, the wedding and the return of Branson gave second billing to what could ultimately be the most startling story of all. It looks like Edith might have finally found a fellow, one who is neither too old nor too married. He's Herbert Pelham, whom we all know better as Bertie, the seventh marquess of Hexham. Last season he showed interest in Edith at Lord Sinderby's shooting party, and Sunday night he bumped into her on a London street. Small world, London. Like a subdivision of match.com. That's where Cousin Rose bumped into Atticus last year, and before you knew it, they were married and off to a glamorous life in New York. So Bertie asked Edith out for a drink, on which she had to bail when her annoying editor quit, leaving her only nine hours to put out her magazine herself. That not-startling departure also prompted Edith to say "Crikey," apparently marking the first appearance of that term in the series. Bertie offered to forego the drink and help Edith assemble the magazine instead. You gotta love a marquess who can multitask. The two of them and a loyal secretary worked all night and got everything to the printer by 4 a.m. Nothing forges bonds like meeting a deadline together. Edith was doubly happy because this crisis proved she could assemble the magazine without her sexist slob of an editor. She was proud enough to bring copies of the proofs back to Downton, where Lord Grantham beamed and offered copious praise. Mary sat nearby wearing a look that said this situation would be tolerable only if Edith had spelled Virginia Woolf's name with one "o" in a headline on the cover. Anna may also have happy news, because she's pregnant for the fourth time and thanks to some help from Mary's doctor, this time she may not lose it. Mary was much happier about this than about Edith's deadline prowess. Daisy was happy, too, maybe a little too happy, blithely assuming that Mr. Mason will get the farm tenancy the unfortunate Drewes have to give up. Daisy might want to remember there are still six episodes to go. The news was simply annoying for Evil Thomas, who went out on another job interview at a local estate. When he got there, the place seemed curiously bare. The owner said everything was being restored to its former glory, but under further questioning, he admitted he had virtually no staff working on it. In fact, all his talk about restoring the glory days turned out to be the delusion of a disconnected madman. Thomas wished him luck. Larger point there: Since the old estates are all in trouble, perhaps going mad is one option for dealing with it. Two other subplots Sunday just kept getting weirder: the throwdown between Isobel and Violet over the fate of the local hospital, and the stealth war between Violet's staffers, lady's maid Denker and butler Spratt. In the hospital drama, Isobel seemed to be gaining the upper hand, which could mean the local hospital would become part of a larger regional hospital. Violet thinks this would cost the community its voice, putting it at the mercy of "a faceless committee in York." Isobel argued that the regional hospital could offer more resources. Isobel had the support of Cora and Lord Merton, and Sunday it seemed that Dr. Clarkson, who previously had sided with Violet, might have switched to "undecided." However the polls are looking, this whole subplot has already gone on longer than its inherent interest level might suggest, raising the question of whether it is leading to some larger point or it's primarily a vehicle for getting Violet and Isobel into an argument again after they had become so chummy. As for Denker and Spratt, that barbed dance feels almost surreal, as if Fellowes can't resist giving these two oddball characters a plot to play with. They sort of got one Sunday when it turned out Spratt was hiding his ne'er-do-well nephew, a prison escapee, from the local police. Denker figured that out, giving her the upper hand for the moment. But even though harboring a fugitive sounds serious, and it would be if Bates were doing it, in this case it's hard to imagine anything dire will result. Advertisement FILE - In this March 13, 2007 file photo, Steven Avery listens to testimony in the courtroom at the Calumet County Courthouse in Chilton, Wis. The Netflix documentary series aMaking a Murderera tells the story of a Wisconsin man wrongly convicted of sexual assault only to be accused, along with his nephew, of killing a photographer two years after being released. An online petition has collected hundreds of thousands of digital signatures seeking a pardon for the pair of convicted killers-turned-social media sensations based on a Netflix documentary series that cast doubt on the legal process. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File) The producers of Netflix's controversial Steven Avery documentary series Making A Murderer fired back Sunday at critics who say their indictment of the criminal justice system is distorted and paints Avery in too favorable a light. "This is history repeating itself," co-director Laura Ricciardi told TV writers in Pasadena. "The media is demonizing this man to prove his guilt." Advertisement Making a Murderer, which has caused a media storm in the month since its release, traces the story of Avery, a Wisconsin man who served 18 years for a 1985 rape, was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003 and two years later was arrested for and convicted of murder. He is now serving life on that second conviction. Ricciardi said Avery has asked the warden for permission to see their series and it was denied. The documentary series, which Ricciardi and co-director Moira Demos spent close to a decade filming, suggests the justice system made numerous errors, some seemingly intentional, in both the cases against Avery. They also say Avery himself wasn't their focus. "We didn't set out to exonerate or convict anyone," said Ricciardi. "Our focus was on how the criminal justice system works." Advertisement Their conclusion was not reassuring, they say. "It's clear the system has serious problems that need attention," said Demos. "The problem is writ large across our country." To many viewers, Making A Murderer raised at least reasonable doubt about Avery's guilt. Online petitions began calling for a review of his case, which is currently under appeal. This response in turn sparked a backlash, with former prosecutor Jeannine Pirro, HLN's Nancy Grace and other reporters charging the series hadn't told the full story. Grace said Making a Murderer leaves out key evidence against Avery in the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach. She also interviewed Avery's fiance Jodi Stachowski, who says in the documentary that she believes he's innocent, but tells Grace she now thinks he's guilty, Demos said Stachowski's comments in the documentary "are an accurate representation of what she said when we interviewed her, nine years ago." Advertisement Asked about another charge, that Making a Murderer ignored some of the evidence, Ricciardi said it was "impossible to present every bit of evidence," but that the overall representation was fair. "We approached this the way journalists do," he told TV writers in Pasadena. "We talked to the people involved, we went to primary sources, we checked our facts." She said that contrary to recent comments from some of the prosecutors in the case, they were all given "multiple opportunities" to talk about what happened. Demos tackled one other criticism, that the documentary downplayed past accusations of domestic violence against Avery. "How is any of that relevant," she asked, "to his right to a fair trial?" While Demos stressed that "We don't see this as advocacy journalism. . . it's not taking sides," she said she understands why it sparked responses like a free-Avery movement. Advertisement "It's clear people were very affected," she said. "Maybe they saw something like that as a first step. But we're urging people to talk more deeply about how they can get involved. "It's a story with conflicting narratives. We want people to embrace that ambiguity." Making A Murderer included a note that there could be further episodes, depending on future developments. George Mason and James Madison collaborated on the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. George Washington wrote neither the second amendment nor the second commandment. After I recently discovered through a Washington Post op-ed that someone with whom I attended grad school had been shot in her early childhood, along with her mother who was rendered paraplegic for the remaining 20 years of her life, I wrote a post discussing my feelings about the state of gun violence in our country today. Norah Vawter's story reminded me of Lucille Ball's memoir, in which she shares that her childhood had been destroyed by the shot of a gun, as well, and so I discussed that, too. In fact I led with it, because it's a curious bit of trivia that I don't think many people know. Vawter was the victim of intentional violence, whereas in Ball's story the shooting was accidental, by a child against a child. I acknowledged the difference between the two tragedies; I positioned them side by side because they materialized together in my mind as two sides of a heavy coin that's made of violence. Accidental or with malicious intent, lives were tragically interrupted by these incidents. Advertisement Our culture has a few supremely divisive political issues, from "pro-life" vs. "pro-choice" to "pro LGBT civil rights" vs. "protection of traditional marriage." "Gun control" vs. "gun rights" is one of these issues that has collected into this utterly unresolvable good guys vs. bad guys mentality. Another is "God and country" vs. "science and reason." I have difficulty making sense of these oppositions because, to my mind, they are unrealistically black and white. Political spinmasters in many cases determine such oppositions as a means by which to polarize voters to make the harvesting of mass ballots based on ideology more efficient. As a simple example--and this is my opinion based upon my life's experiences and my way of thinking--same-sex marriage simply is not a threat to the integrity of opposite-sex marriage. It just isn't, and I've never heard a sound case that it could be considered as such. You live in your house, I live in mine, and nothing we do in either can injure the sanctity of anyone else's values or religious beliefs. Those who believe otherwise are, in my opinion, taking the bait and being yanked around by someone on the other end of the line. So it goes with the prevention and reduction of preventable violence. In my opinion. Several people contacted me about my previous blog to state opposition--one telling me that both my thoughts and my work are valueless and that I, as a person, am a "waste of time." In response to another who used a slightly less nihilistic approach to communication, I said that I welcome and invite respectful debate. He said that I can't be a part of a respectful debate when I have a "one-sided opinion." I beg to differ. Advertisement An opinion is a perspective, and not all perspectives fall on either side of a party line. I applaud measures to investigate backgrounds of those who own firearms because it's a measure to improve public safety. My motivation for supporting this is the undeniable escalation of mass killings by firearms over recent years. In schools and on college campuses. I don't have children, but this phenomenon weighs very heavily on my heart, and my mind reels every time I see stories about mass shootings: why can't we have reasonable conversation about fixing this? Do people really not regard this as a problem worth addressing? I know we do. But we're programmed to be on one side or the other of the gun control/freedom debate and that squashes any remedy before it can even be conceptualized. I straddle many partisan political divides, including this one. I don't think it has to be all or nothing; but I do admittedly side toward gun control because I haven't become numb to hearing that 20 children were massacred in their school. This is simply not the United States of America that I grew up in; ours is a seriously degraded and dangerous climate, and I can't even imagine how today's children will think of their country when they are my age. I don't understand, and I've never heard any reasonable justification for, the selling of automatic weapons manufactured for the sole purpose of killing human beings en masse. I do invite debate on this because I'm so curious how this makes sense to people, and I don't see how it relates to the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Which brings me to false dichotomies and the title of this post. Someone replied, curiously, to my previous story by writing: "This is in violation of our Second Commandment. Washington wrote that we Americans have the right to have guns to protect our family and friends." [Sic.] To clarify a few points that I think are fairly well supported by the historic record: The second commandment, roughly translated as "you shall have no other gods before me," is more correctly attributed to the God of the Hebrew Bible, not George Washington. The second amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a part of the Bill of Rights--the first 10 Constitutional amendments--and these were written by James Madison and George Mason, not George Washington. George Washington and the God we know from the Bible were most likely not the same individual. God, not only within the Ten Commandments, but throughout the entire texts of the Old and New Testaments, never took a position on guns. Not once. God did, however, place "you shall not kill" at the very top of his list of commands. So if one is inclined to choose between God and country, country at this time is the one that supports killing; God, since the day He appeared to Moses, has been utterly opposed to it. These points may come across as sarcastic, but it seems to me that many Americans honestly conflate their religious scriptures with the United States Constitution and it may therefore be worth mentioning that these are entirely separate bodies of work. A couple of months ago as I was watching The View, I welled up as I watched tears roll down a sincerely shaken-up Candace Cameron Bure's face in the aftermath of a mass shooting. She said that, as "a conservative person," she fully supports second-amendment rights--and yet, as a mother, she couldn't help worrying about her children's safety in their schools. She said there has to be a compromise between the freedom to bear arms and safeguarding the safety of children. Why is that a controversial statement? Setting aside political partisanship or any subject of typical Internet trolling, it just can't be. Even though I don't have children and don't subscribe to any prescribed dogma, political, religious or otherwise, I agree wholeheartedly with Cameron Bure and share her emotional distress. At the same time, I am always thoroughly confused and disturbed when I witness anyone speak against their own interests for the sake of aligning their views with the team. That's folly, not only because it's self-condemning, but because it's just not a real dichotomy. Not all Republican party members resist gun-control measures, from background checks to separating (as we must) handguns and rifles from semiautomatic and automatic weapons. And that religious beliefs in our country are somehow so commonly associated with unconditional support for all guns feels to me like an absolute blasphemy; certainly the founder of Christianity, the religion of most advocates of semi-/automatic weapons who I know, did not promote the use of the machines of war that are semi- and automatic guns. That's not an attack on anyone; it's an observation I can't make sense of. How does a pro-life stance not include preventing deaths by shooting whenever possible? I can't reconcile this paradox. I know that expressing thoughts like these pushes buttons and triggers angry reflexes. But I don't understand why, unless the explanation is cultural indoctrination. Advertisement I am troubled deeply by the prevalence of violence today. That's where all this is coming from; I am pointing out the fallacy of associating unrelated values with an all-or-nothing approach because this pattern of thought and behavior that has become the norm is counter productive. The truth is, we can respect the second amendment and honor the Constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms while also taking reasonable and logical measures to control mass killings--which, in my opinion, begins with recognizing that every life destroyed by a gunshot did not have to be destroyed. From there, we should ask what circumstances led to the tragedy and determine measures to prevent that from happening. Carly Fiorina had it exactly right when she dismissed Donald Trump's insults with a simple "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said." So did every immigrant. And every Muslim. And every African American. And every Asian. And every prisoner of war. And every citizen of the world who watches in disbelief as the Trumpet bays out daily fictions about the state of the nation and his dreams of expelling a community here, a religion there. The fictions being trumpeted by the faux presidential candidate are not complicated. They seldom rise above the level of what a drunk in a bar might emit after a few. They are not much more complicated than the taunts one might hear adolescent boys in a schoolyard toss at each other. They do not require explication. They speak for themselves, and for the shameless huckster who utters them. Trumpbait So why do they matter, if they matter at all? Two reasons. One, the media pretends they do. Trumpbait has driven major networks and television hosts to gorge themselves to death as they swim upstream against the tide of cynical, inflammatory rhetoric, and then spawn useless enterprises like Chris Matthews' documentary, Citizen Trump. Matthews, who seldom asks a question he does not first answer, thought the public needed a better understanding of every false note from the Trumpet, as if the first dose of cacophony wasn't enough. Two, the star billing being given (yet again) to the fictions peddled by manipulative candidates, and promoted by the media is an abandonment of the role of the so-called Fourth Estate. Every minute of airtime given to the playing and replaying of the Trumpet is time denied to other real candidates and real discussion. Advertisement Alexis de Tocqueville, who wrote Discovery of America. Tocqueville, that early observer of American democracy, noted: "There is not a country in the world where man takes possession of the future more confidently, or feels with more pride that his intelligence makes him master of the universe, which he can reshape to his liking." Tocqueville was talking about American society as a whole. But today he could be talking about the likes of Trump. With irony. Trump deserves to be ridiculed. While thousands turn out for his rallies, thousands more loathe his self-promotion, his lies, his ignorance, and his bluster. He is right in wanting to be compared to P.T. Barnum. Except he isn't the clown; he is the ringmaster of what has become a media circus. He has the media elephants behaving exactly as he would wish them too, jumping at his every utterance, while he rakes in the poll numbers that they help build. There is something very disingenuous about media personalities who, as they salivate over the Trump boost to their ratings, ask themselves--and others--to explain his failure to fade. They need only look in the mirror. It is impossible to escape the nightmare of constant Trump footage and what passes for reporting on the GOP presidential race today on most channels. "You may find this footage disturbing." It is late, but not too late for the media to show some judgment in determining the news that is fit to print--or to air. TV hosts make a habit of warning viewers before they run footage that depicts violence or gore: "You may find these images disturbing," they say. Yet we have had months of disturbing images of Trump invading our living rooms. Relentless media coverage has normalized his bigotry, his racism, his misogyny, and his disregard for facts. Every American child who aspires to be President of the United States is being taught that lies and swagger get you crowds of people who do not question what they are being sold, and cameras who dwell lovingly on the trash being told. Advertisement Abroad, anyone watching American TV sees the airtime accorded to the Trump campaign as a sign that the Ugly American is back. Another Tocqueville insight was this: that "the perpetual change at the heart of a democracy tends to reshape the face of language endlessly, just as it reshapes the face of business . . . Democratic nations love change for its own sake. This is apparent in language as much as in politics." So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the churchs silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If todays church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust. ~Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail I remember listening to a series on NPR one time about young adults leaving their religion behind. The thrust of the weeklong series centered on the increasing number among the emerging generations who no longer claim any religious affiliation. Advertisement Some gave traumatic grief as a reason for giving up, and others named a ponderous ecclesiastical hierarchy they no longer found useful, while still others struggled with what felt like the silliness of trying to find consolation in mythology. I got the impression from listening to them that theyve thought more about religion than many of the people I know whove remained in the church. Theyve carved their disbelief out of the cold existential marble of a future scape devoid of religious infrastructure. Interestingly, though, some of what I heard sounded like wistfulness, a desire somehow to have the something they felt like religion offers. Not consolation, necessarily they say. Not so much forgiveness, theyre quick to add. For some it sounded like a desire for community. For another I heard it as a longing for the kind of taken-for-grantedness associated with a meaningful afterlife, which some religion offers. Do you still pray? the interviewer wanted to know. Haltingly, Yes well, sort of. Im not sure you could call it prayer. Another, I try to feel gratitude, which seems to me like prayer. Young man: Im embarrassed to admit it, because it makes me sound like a hypocrite after all the things Ive said this week, but yes, when things get really bad, I still do. Many of them were quick to point out that they werent looking to get back into religion, but there seemed to be something Advertisement I think the church ought to pay attention--not so we can figure out a way to give them what they want in the hopes that all these nones will want what weve got and come back to teach the 2nd grade Sunday School class. I think the church ought to pay attention because, whether they can articulate it with precision or not, much of what the nones are saying is that the kind of stuff often peddled in the name of religion just isnt interesting enough to hold anybodys attention--let alone young people who have precious little extra time and a mountain of student loan debt with which to be preoccupied. The other thing Ive heard the nones saying is that evidence of Jesus and his commitment to a new world is often difficult to find in the lives of the people who appear to claim his blessings with the most enthusiasm. In other words, what nones tend to see when they see the church has less to do with the humble path of faithful service in the pursuit of justice, than with what appears to be the venal and self-aggrandizing building of personal kingdoms by those certain that the Jesus of the Gospels must not have meant what he said literally. I mean, come on. Have you read the Gospels? I am not even lying. Surely, Jesus was just doing a little fancy rhetorical two-stepping when he uttered the first words of his public ministry in Luke: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind (Lk. 4:18-19). Its not like Jesus literally meant that we shouldnt oppose people who think differently from us about God, not like Jesus was actually saying that whoever is not against us is for us (Mk. 9:40). Advertisement He couldnt really mean it when he said, Do not resist the evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also (Mt. 5:39). Jesus didnt intend it literally (and especially not corporately about congregations) when he said that those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it (Mk. 8:35). Yeah, that whole thing about tax collectors and prostitutes going into the kingdom of God ahead of you [religious folks] was just a figure of speech (Mt. 21:31). Seriously, he was just trying to make a point when he proclaimed: Woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets (Lk. 6:24-26). Jesus was just being, you know, metaphorical when he set down the sweeping breadth of his vision of the saving love he was about to unleash through his death: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself (Jn. 12:32). Advertisement Irony: I--and progressives who view the Bible not as the blueprint of a castle meant to house a few select people but as a series of sketches meant, when taken together, to set down a comprehensive vision of an entirely new world in which everybodys welcome--am regularly accused of not taking the Bible seriously, of picking an choosing only the parts I like, of failing to read the literal sense of Scripture. Unfortunately, Christianity--because of so many botched attempts at fitting in, at being relevant, at making sure society doesnt think us metaphysical rubes and hayseeds--has domesticated the faith to such an extent that disbelief takes little effort. We have fostered a situation in which it is appallingly easy, as Terry Eagleton says, to reject faith on the cheap. Faith, in the hands of too many of Jesus loudest and most unremittingly convinced fans, cannot but feel like the spiritual equivalent of polyester underpants--unflattering, out-of-date, and scratchy in the tenderest places.1 Heres the thing: If the nones find disbelief preferable (and Lord knows there are plenty of really good reasons to do so) why not try to give them something interesting in which to disbelieve? My fear is that at the heart of much disbelief sits a reality that I, as a Christian, dont have any stake in believing in either. If the nones are leaving the church (and again, anyone with a little sense and some walking around change admits that there exist arguably compelling grounds for doing so) why not give them a true picture of what is theyre leaving? My fear is that theyre leaving because theyve gotten a taste of a Christianity that many of us have no desire to defend. If the nones ever should venture into a church looking for Jesus, theyre probably first going to have to witness him in the lives of his followers outside the church years, miles before they ever get through the front door. My big fear is that what theyll witness isnt Jesus, but instead someone parading around wearing a symbol of the capital punishment that killed him, winking and talking knowingly about those people, and how this once proud Christian nation is going to hell because of ________ (fill in the blank: the humanists, the gays, the illegals, #BlackLivesMatter, the moochers who carry iPhones but who want us to pay for their healthcare, the gun control sissies, or the liberal socialists and their class warfare).2 Advertisement Fifty years ago this April, Martin Luther King, Jr. sat in a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama and wrote a letter to moderate clergymen in white mainline churches. In it he expressed his disappointment in the churchs inability to be a people formed more by a vision of Jesus than by fear of cultural rejection. Those men of God asked him to lighten up on the integration demands, to let time make the changes for which they were too afraid to stand. But in the process they forfeited something crucial--the ability to speak with integrity on behalf of Jesus, the one who gave his life as the ultimate embrace of the abandoned and the voiceless. Its possible, Ive heard it said somewhere, to lose your life by the very process employed to try to save it. And do you want to know, at least in part, what losing your life while trying to save it might look like? According to Martin Luther King, it looks like a stampede of disgusted young people falling all over themselves trying to get to the back door. They came. They saw. They got the hell out of Dodge. The God who gave enough of a crap about this dirt mound to call it good, and then show up to rent a shabby one bedroom apartment in the very throbbing heart of it must find little utility in the overly sentimentalized and acculturated versions of piety that have come to be associated with popular Christianity. People are dying all over the world (many of them in our name) and we find time to fume over the fact that a baker has to make a cake for people whom she doesnt approve of. Poor folks in our own neighborhoods are hungry, cold, and sick, people of color are dying at the hands of the "justice" system, refugees in need are being refused hospitality because we cant figure out a way to act like Jesus and build really cool bombs at the same time. So we spend our hours figuring out all the conspiratorial ways of rhetorically framing government bureaucrats as rapacious tyrants ready to relieve us of our money and our constitutional rights, instead of demanding that they help form an equitable society. In 2015 the wealthiest 1% in the world owned 50% of the wealth, while those with a net worth less than $10,000 a year comprised 71% of the worlds population, but a vast swath of Christianity is much more concerned that folks with the same sexual equipment can now get a marriage license down at the courthouse in a handful of states. Advertisement Fifty years out, Martin Luther King called it. He said that the judgment of God is on the church as never before. If todays church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. And guess what happened. Over the next fifty years, we have seen those millions cast whatever loyalty to the church aside. Looking like a social club apparently just wont get it done. If the church ever figures to reclaim the respect of the nones, let alone their loyalty, it had better take a hard look--not just at itself, but at Jesus. Because to the extent that theyre looking at all, theyre looking for Jesus. Why not try something new? Weve done disappointment and disgust to death. _______________ 1. Eagleton writes that it is hard to avoid the feeling that a God as bright, resourceful, and imaginative as the one that might just possibly exist could not have hit on some more agreeable way of saving the world than religion in Reason, Faith, and Revolution, 57. Pakistani Shiite Muslim women shout slogans during a protest in Lahore on January 3, 2016, against the execution of prominent Shiite Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi authorities. Saudi Arabia's execution of a leading Shiite cleric reflects an assertive but risky new approach that threatens to escalate its proxy wars with arch-rival Iran in Syria and Yemen, experts said Sunday. AFP PHOTO / Arif ALI / AFP / Arif Ali (Photo credit should read ARIF ALI/AFP/Getty Images) Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to turn their national struggle into a religious conflict. The first is dangerous. The second could be catastrophic. Yet Riyadh, America's nominal ally, has demonstrated that it is the more reckless of the two states, by executing an important Shia cleric and severing diplomatic relations with Iran. There is much bad to say about Tehran's Islamic regime. It is authoritarian at home, dominated by intolerant fundamentalism, politically repressive, and a persistent persecutor of minority faiths. The Islamists are interventionists abroad, backing Hezbollah and Syria's Bashir al-Assad. Long antagonistic to the U.S., Iran has displayed a disturbing interest in nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Advertisement Unfortunately, Washington inadvertently set Iran on its present course. In 1953 the U.S. helped oust Tehran's democratic government and turn the Shah into a despised despot, who suppressed political liberals and religious conservatives alike. After his 1979 overthrow the Reagan administration backed the even more loathsome Saddam Hussein in Iraq's invasion of Iran, which ended in stalemate after the death of perhaps one million Iranians. Since then Washington has supported sanctions on Iran for its nuclear research and threatened war if Tehran tried to develop nuclear weapons. Today the U.S. backs efforts to overthrow the Assad government, one of Tehran's only three allies (along with Iraq and Lebanon's Shia movement) in the Middle East. Iran may be a threatening actor, but American officials have unintentionally made it as threatening as possible. Even worse, however, Washington has considered Saudi Arabia to be a valued ally and partner. For decades U.S. officials have treated the Saudi royals, who conveniently sit atop vast oil reserves, as dear friends. The monarchy's relationship with the Bush clan, including both Presidents H.W. and George, was particularly intimate. After vowing war against Islamist terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11, George fils allowed Saudi nationals to flee the country while Americans were grounded. After the death of King Abdullah early last year, Obama administration officials offered slavish praise of the departed, speaking of his moderation, courage, tolerance, vision, and asceticism. Recently reported the Washington Post: "the administration felt that, despite the occasional bumps, its relations with the kingdom had reached a smooth cruising speed since King Salman took over last January." Yet Republican Party presidential candidates don't believe that President Barack Obama has genuflected low enough to the Saudi monarchy. For instance, Jeb Bush insisted on the need to rebuild "our relationships with allies and key relationships in the Middle East, including the Persian Gulf states." The Saudis and others are "important partners." New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie complained that the Saudi king did not attend the administration's Gulf summit last fall and demanded that America "stand with those who share our values and interests," in this case apparently theocracy and dictatorship. Similarly, the Wall Street Journal, while allowing that "the Saudis are often difficult allies," asked "who lost the Saudis?" But America never won them. Rather, the royals consistently triumphed, brilliantly manipulating the U.S. to advance their interests. Advertisement The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is essentially a totalitarian state which acts as a tool of plunder for some 7000 princes and their families. Riyadh's execution of noted Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr, who had the temerity to advocate democracy, set off riots across the Shiite world. Among al-Nimr's alleged crimes: "disobeying and breaking allegiance to the ruler." Still awaiting death by beheading is Nimr's 21 year-old nephew, Ali al-Nimir, arrested at age 17, and 19-year-old Abdullah al-Zaher, who at age 15 also demonstrated for democracy. In 2014 liberal blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes for allegedly insulting Islam. Then the latter's lawyer, Waleed Abul-Khair, was sentenced to 15 years for "undermining the regime and officials" and "inciting public opinion." His ex-wife and Badawi's sister was just arrested, apparently for aiding Abul-Khair. Freedom House rates the kingdom at the bottom in terms of both civil liberties and political rights. Last year's report noted that Riyadh had "tightened restrictions on dissent and freedom of speech" and "intensified criminal penalties for religious beliefs that veer too far from official state orthodoxy." Purported "antiterrorism" legislation allowed the "authorities to press terrorism charges against anyone who demands reform, exposes corruption or otherwise engages in dissent." Last year Human Rights Watch reported that Saudi Arabia continued "to try, convict, and imprison political dissidents and human rights activists solely on account of their peaceful activities. Systematic discrimination against women and religious minorities continued." The "antiterrorism" law "can be used to criminalize almost any form of peaceful criticism and the authorities as terrorism." Advertisement Amnesty International said much the same: "The government severely restricted freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and cracked down on dissent, arresting and imprisoning critics, including human rights defenders. Many received unfair trials before courts that failed to respect due process." The U.S. State Department devoted 57 pages to the Saudi monarchy's human rights (mal)practices. Noted State: "The most important human rights problems reported included citizens' lack of the ability and legal means to change their government; pervasive restrictions on universal rights such as freedom of expression, including on the internet, and freedom of assembly, association, movement, and religion; and a lack of equal rights for women, children, and noncitizen workers." There were other violations as well, though even with the U.S. government's help it's hard to keep track of them. The Saudi royals are, if anything, even more repressive when it comes to matters of faith. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom named Saudi Arabia a "Country of Particular Concern." The regime "remains unique in the extent to which it restricts the public expression of any religion other than Islam." The monarchy "privileges its own interpretation of Sunni Islam over all other interpretations and prohibits any non-Muslim public places of worship." The KSA also "continues to prosecute and imprison individuals for dissent, apostasy, blasphemy, and sorcery," while the antiterrorism legislation "classifies blasphemy and advocating atheism as terrorism." In its latest religious liberty report State noted that citizens are required to be Muslims and that apostasy may be punished by death. Non-Muslim foreigners and non-Sunni Saudis "must practice their religion in private and are vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, detention, and, for noncitizens, deportation." The law criminalizes "calling for atheist thought" and "calling into question the Islamic religion." Obviously, "freedom of religion is not protected under the law." Essentially, Saudi Arabia is an early version of the Islamic State which won social acceptance in the West. Unfortunately, Riyadh doesn't keep religious repression at home. The licentious royals long ago made a deal with fundamentalist Wahhabis to enforce repressive Islamic theology at home and fund its propagation abroad in return for clerical support. Pre-9/11 the KSA backed the Taliban regime, which shared Riyadh's enthusiasm for brutal implementation of 7th century Islam. Some wealthy Saudis went further, funding al-Qaeda before the attack on America, yet the Bush administration classified the section of the 9/11 report detailing these activities. According to Wikileaks, no less an authority than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton later confirmed that money continues to flow from well-heeled Saudis to terrorists. And the monarchy has generously supported, with money and weapons, Syrian rebels, mostly those who range from jihadist to more extreme. Advertisement By turning the American military into the Saudi royals' bodyguard, Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, and Obama spurred terrorism and attacks on Americans The first Gulf War was directed more to safeguard Saudi Arabia than liberate Kuwait; the U.S. garrison left in Saudi Arabia stoked Osama bin-Laden's anger and was later targeted by terrorists in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing. (Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz cited the withdrawal of these troops as an important benefit of the Iraq invasion.) Subsequent sanctions against and bombing of Iraq supported the meme of a U.S. war on Islam. Finally, invading that nation created the murderous al-Qaeda in Iraq, which became a prolific employer of suicide bombers and morphed into the Islamic State. At least as an energy producer Saudi Arabia is supposed to be friendly. However, the royals market their oil because they need the money, not because they like Americans (or Europeans or any of their other customers). Any successor regime also would sell the oil, since drinking it isn't an option and the revenues would be necessary in order to stay in power. Moreover, with the transformation of the international energy marketplace and America's move toward becoming an oil exporter, Washington need not worry about reduced Saudi oil exports. One of the most positive geopolitical impacts of the fall in prices is weakening malign energy autocracies and kleptocracies, including the kingdom. As for foreign policy, Riyadh is proving to be as problematic as Iran. The execution of al-Nimr for opposing the al-Saud dictatorship sparked protests in Beirut (Lebanon), Baghdad (Iraq), and Manama (Bahrain), as well as Tehran. Killing a Shiite cleric for standing up to the oppressive Sunni monarchy moves the region closer to multinational sectarian conflict, which is far more dangerous than a bilateral struggle between nation states. Other governments began to take sides, as Sunni-ruled Bahrain also broke diplomatic relations while Sunni-majority United Arab Emirates downgraded bilateral ties. On the other side, Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister of Shia-majority Iraq, predicted that the execution "will topple the Saudi regime." Intensifying the Saudi-Iran conflict will undermine Washington's battle against the Islamic State, an extremist Sunni group. In practice, the U.S. must rely mostly on Shiite and other non-Sunni forces--the Baghdad government, Assad forces, various Kurdish fighters. America's other supposed allies, notably Saudi Arabia, along with the smaller Gulf States and Turkey, have done far more to back ISIL and other radical groups in Syria. By taking a step Riyadh surely knew would discourage any improvement in relations with Tehran, the royals have made a diplomatic settlement far harder, if not impossible. Yet Washington's only hope of squaring the circle--defanging if not destroying the Islamic State, marginalizing if not ousting Assad, moderating if not converting Assad supporters Iran and Russia--requires a political solution. Advertisement Saudi Arabia also is as ruthless as the Soviet Union in suppressing democracy and human rights in friendly regimes. For instance, Riyadh intervened militarily to back Bahrain's Sunni monarchy in suppressing the majority Shia population, which sought a share of power. The royals lavished money on Egypt's al-Sisi dictatorship, which has proved to be more brutal than Hosni Mubarak's rule. Even worse has been the KSA's brutal intervention in Yemen's long-running civil war. Giving new meaning to the word "hypocrisy," the Saudi monarchy engages in deadly meddling even as it complains about Iran's troublemaking. Riyadh intends to reinstate President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, overthrown by a combination of Houthi insurgents, who have been in rebellion for decades, and Hadi's predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who once battled the same Houthis. The conflict long was tribal more than sectarian, as the Houthis do not fit easily with either Sunnis or Shiites. But by treating the civil war as yet another proxy fight between Shia and Sunnis, Saudi Arabia encouraged Tehran to join. And Washington foolishly backed its "ally." As of the end of October at least 2400 civilians had been killed, a large majority--including three-fourths of children, by United Nations count--from misdirected Saudi airstrikes. Other estimates were closer to 3000. Reported journalist Bryan Schatz: "The Saudi coalition has repeatedly targeted schools, hospitals, and religious buildings. Civilian infrastructure, including a camp for displaced people, water supplies, and power stations, have been destroyed. Civilian hospitals--overloaded with patients injured by airstrikes yet painfully under-supplied because of coalition blockades--are nearing collapse." At least 1.5 million people have been displaced. Most of the population has been reduced to poverty and hunger; the World Food Programme warned that a quarter of Yemenis are approaching starvation. Peter Maurer, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said "Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years." Amnesty International concluded that "All the parties involved in the conflict raging across the country have committed widespread human rights abuses, including war crimes." Advertisement Yet the U.S. acts as if it needs a repressive, unprincipled, myopic, and meddlesome ally more than the latter needs the U.S. In fact, the royals cannot be sure that their combination of bribes and brutality will forever preserve today's ostentatious kleptocracy. Indeed, the regime's vulnerabilities are only likely to grow. Which is why the Saudis look to Washington for support. President Obama lauded the late King Abdullah's "steadfast and passionate belief in the importance of the U.S.-Saudi relationship as a force for stability and security in the Middle East." Of course, every Saudi king believes that. It's cheaper for the royals to borrow U.S. troops than to hire bodyguards. While Washington requires Riyadh to pay for its weapons, so far logistical support for the Yemen war has been free. In November, the Edvance Foundation released a report titled, "Strengthening the Transfer Pathway," that identified opportunities for private colleges and universities to accept a much more robust stream of transfer students. Among the findings, the report noted that the transfer pathway is full of potholes. The directional signage is inconsistent and contradictory along this path. Part of this problem stems from the decentralized nature of private colleges. They lack the scale of large state universities and state systems in the public sector. Most two-year colleges are public and fall under common state political jurisdictions with their public four-year and graduate and professional counterparts. It is often easier to imagine a public solution to improve dismal transfer rates. Advertisement It is hardly surprising that politicians and policy makers should look to the public sector for a solution to the transfer crisis facing American higher education. And in fairness to public four-year universities, it makes sense to concentrate state or national policy efforts where scale can be achieved, state subsidies provided and legislative intent enforced, and where so many public sector faculty and administrators are working in good faith to find a solution. It's a little like why Willie Sutton robbed banks. It's where the money is. Yet there is a potential for a dramatic higher education misstep that will have serious repercussions for America. If the solution to repairing the transfer pathway is to improve access, guarantee choice, and improve retention and graduation rates, then any evidence-based answer must look to where the country enjoys the most success. Part of the solution is with the private colleges whose graduation rates are strongest. The Edvance Foundation study found that the level of preparation, willingness to provide not only financial assistance but also address social, cultural and familial roadblocks and the development of an effective academic and student service safety net often determined whether or not the transfer pathway led to a degree. The two essential elements that filled the potholes were good transfer counseling and adequate student transfer preparation. This approach is not intended as a criticism of community college counselors. They are, in fact, the heroes of today's story, often overwhelmed by student/counselor ratios of 1000/1. These counselors work tirelessly, efficiently and effectively. But their job is to counsel community college students not just likely transfers. To the extent that new money should be made available, these resources must be put into additional transfer counseling. Advertisement A second issue is that community colleges and four-year colleges use different pedagogies, seek different outcomes, and speak different educational languages. It's a little like getting your Dell to talk to your colleague's Apple twenty years ago. It's possible but the communication protocol needs to be worked out. If the language has common meaning and better symmetry - beginning with both faculties working together more regularly - it is likely that the process of transferring will become less mystical and produce a better outcome. The prospect of dumping students on to the pathway without counseling and directional signage is unnerving at best, despite the proposals coming from national political candidates. There is a difference between "getting in" and "getting through." A third issue is that private colleges and universities must take a hard look at how they attract and admit students. Not every student can come from Pasadena, Chevy Chase, Lake Forest or Wellesley. Most estimate that almost half of the private colleges and universities in America - many excellent places with storied histories - did not meet their internal freshman admission targets. Further, some of them have additional unfilled seats across the campus. It may be time for private colleges to recognize that athletes, legacies and "over the transom" enrollees do not build a solid foundation upon which to support a tuition-driven college in the shifting demographics of 21st Century America. Advertisement Is it possible to imagine that private college campuses can look beyond their own cultural inertia to re-shape the demographics of their campus to accommodate transfer students? At the Edvance Foundation, our research and understanding of groups like the Jack Kent Cooke Scholars Program and the Posse Foundation suggest that the right programs can change a culture. Could private colleges meet strategic initiatives in areas like diversity to support a transfer population on campus by re-allocating a modest portion of the $29.8 billion they provide annually in institutional aid when the transfer population will graduate at the same rate and level as their student population as a whole? My point is that we need private colleges in the mix of solutions to our national transfer problem. Of the eighty percent of community college students who begin their studies with plans to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree, just twenty-five percent will have transferred five years later. And only 17 percent will earn a bachelor's degree within six years of transferring. More than four decades after the women's movement, women have learned to get degrees, good jobs, and many freedoms. However, women have not yet learned how to claim our bodies as our own. Historically, women's bodies existed for male consumption which resulted in feeling imprisoned and disconnected from our bodies. This resulted in body dislike. While we now have rights to our bodies we have not learned how to love our bodies. What if the words of Dr. King informed the thinking and growth of women learning to love the body they have. MLK quote 1: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." The false belief in our society is that you have to get healthy before you can love yourself. Studies have proven that many women who are healthy feel that they need to lose weight in order to like their body. Since some women are healthy, but still not accepting of their body, then that proves that placing conditions on body acceptance, such as health, isn't the answer to self -acceptance. You choose to love your body, unconditionally, or you don't. The truth is that everyone will die, most often from a health related complication. So, should you hate yourself if your health starts to fail? Me, I side with Dr. King when he said: "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." (MLK quote 2) Advertisement MLK quote 3: "Let no man pull you so low as to hate him." Many women feel disconnected from our bodies after trying and failing on a daily basis to feel the elusive "beautiful enough." Anger, even hatred, is a natural defense against feeling burdened by a body we must carry around but never enjoy. Many females get to the point of hatred, self -hatred. This makes it easy to hate others. However, before anger and self-hatred sets in is the time to set boundaries. Boundaries serve to carve out space for love that hatred is unwelcomed to infringe upon. Honorable men and women will respect your boundaries and, over time, only respectful and honorable people will be a part of your world. With proper boundaries in place, that low feeling of your body not being good enough will start to subside. MLK quote 4: We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. As women, we must learn to live together as sisters. Therefore, we cannot base our identity on competing against our sisters for cheap meaningless validation. We can't pit fat against thin, light against dark, young against mature, or any other opposites against each other. When we do that, we adopt a false belief that one woman has to be ugly in order for us to be beautiful. The result -- the feminine essence gets trapped underneath the negativity and society is robbed of much needed evolved feminine energy - Queen energy. You will find that men love, support and value the feminine essence. Competition is masculine energy so you can't compete to be feminine. It is something you just are when you allow yourself to be natural. MLK quote 5: "We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now." If most women dislike their body in some way we are in the same boat. That means that women who meet the beauty standard feel the same body dislike as women who do not fit the beauty standard. What if we would be better served by embracing each other's beauty, and our own, to feel beautiful and more alive? That alive feeling is our sensual energy and it has no look. Because we are designed to be nurturers, all women have enough beauty to be sensual. Positive nurturing occurs when we are alive in our sensual energy, different from being a sex object. Embracing our sensuality is the place where loving our body starts. As King said, "hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." (MLK quote 6) Advertisement TUNIS, TUNISIA - JANUARY 14: Tunisians listen to Lebanese origin Swedish singer Maher Zain during a concert at the Habib Bourguiba street as part of the celebrations of the 5th anniversary of the revolution in Tunis, Tunisia on January 14, 2016. (Photo by Yassine Gaidi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) Even if Bourguiba has emerged in the Tunisian political scene as a successful patriot, he can't erase the memory of another popular patriot, the martyred union leader Farhat Hached, who would have definitely given Tunisia a very different identity. It would have been more democratic than the Bourguibian enterprise, which was marked by an over-inflated ego, curbing the country from progressing. Advertisement The Supreme Combatant's politics ensured that the Islamist worm contaminate the Tunisian fruit; he wanted to eradicate Tunisian spirituality and replace it with piousness. This piousness is now at work, threatening Tunisia's salvation. "The Nobel prize attested to the talent of this intelligent people. Tunisians don't deserve the current political class that ignores its genius while too busy serving petty personal interests." Therefore, as it celebrates the fifth anniversary of January 14, Tunisia is asking itself, not who will come to its rescue, but when its destiny will be fulfilled, for the sake of peace in the Mediterranean and the world. In "Romancero Gitano," a major poetry collection of contemporary Spanish literature, published in 1928, and poet Frederico Garcia Lorca's most renowned body of work, inspiration from the popular and sensual Spanish society is apparent. They share qualities with the Maghreban societies; their vivacious Tzigane cultures from Andalusia have Amazigh roots. Advertisement In this marvelous collection, which is set in key locations in Maghreban history such as Grenada, Cordoba and Seville, we come across "Sleepwalking Romance" (Romance Sonambulo) in which the patriot Lorca wonders: Pero quien vendra? Y por donde...?(But who will come? And from where?) This is exactly what the Tunisian people are wondering by celebrating, bittersweetly, the fifth anniversary of their biggest achievement; a people's coup or a postmodern revolution that, similarly to the Egyptian movement, slyly turned into a counter-revolution. And the popular backlash emerged quietly as well; people silently waited for a Tunisian Messiah to save Tunisian democracy. Tunisia is nothing if not an exception! The Nobel prize attested to the talent of this intelligent people. Tunisians don't deserve the current political class that ignores its genius while too busy serving petty personal interests. "Political metamorphosis will not benefit this small country alone; it will naturally be diffracted to the whole Mediterranean." Currently, Tunisia is made up of ambiguities. This eclipses its originality, which is necessary for its success. Its poetry dwindles in the alleys. Advertisement However, a poetic trajectory is more visible than ever-- one that links the soil of ancient Carthage and the spirit of Andalusia to a new Carthage and/or Andalusia. This future would go beyond the current use of religion, imitation of the West, and the capitalist exploitation of the country. Saint Augustin, a noble figure of eternal Tunisia, said: Hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and bravery.Anger in the face of how things are.And the necessary bravery to change them.To paraphrase, I would say hope is the wrath of bravery and the valor of anger; anger in the face of how things are and the bravery to change them. This is what Tunisia needs. Political metamorphosis will not benefit this small country alone; it will naturally be diffracted to the whole Mediterranean. Tunisia's importance cannot be ignored by the West. In Greek mythology, Elpis represents hope in the shape of a beautiful young girl, wearing a crown of flowers, a cornucopia in her hands. A Tunisian man during a rally on January 14, 2016 in the Habib Bourguiba Avenue in the capital Tunis to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution. (Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images)According to Hesiod's in "Works and Days," when Pandora let all the evils of the world escape, Elpis remained trapped at the bottom of the jar, the famous Pandora's box. And this is where we are in Tunisia! The country is prey to all the evils of the earth. Despite the presence of hope, it remains lurking in the depths of the jar. Advertisement This beautiful girl is like Tunisia, awaiting her prince charming to release her from her jar. Which of its children will have both the anger and the bravery to change the odds so entirely, from distress to prosperity? A Messiah is awaited in Tunisia! Wise men are already on their way to pay homage to him. Real patriots should also start seeking him out! In Tunisia, hope is a waiting game. As Pascal said (Pensees 172): We never live, but we hope to live.In another reading of the myth of Elpis, the young woman representing hope is one of the evils contained in Pandora's jar, a seductive and diabolical woman, created by God to avenge the rebel Prometheus. Even though she remains in the jar once all the other evils (hunger, misery, silent illnesses) have been released to devastate the world, she is just as destructive as the visible evils. This is how it may seem to those who do not believe in the humanity trapped deep inside of Man. These are people who do not know, and refuse to acknowledge, that in all men, all humans, there is a piece of the devil, because in the end, it's the devil that becomes the angel. Those who are satisfied with Pandora's company, the beautiful jailer of Elpis, are aware of her obvious duplicity. She is both "a chaste young girl" and a devious liar, who wears a golden necklace and spring flowers, and uses seductive language. However in reality, femininity is far from having such traits. Advertisement Yes, she may be two-faced. Because this is what the zeitgeist imposes. She is trapped in the jar, where she is also hiding so as to not to be linked to the evil that is raging in its wake on the outside. But just like a sleeping beauty in a forest, Elpis is patiently awaiting her prince charming. Tunisia is waiting and hoping for freedom. This waiting period takes place in silence, as the illnesses brought to mankind from the gods, all the gods, have their voice taken away from them in the myth of Elpis. Only hope can talk, but it must be freed before its voice can be heard over the racket caused by the ills. This anticipation is all the more jealously guarded by the gods. This truth is slowly but surely emerging through the trials and tribulations of the Tunisian situation. It is leading towards a new way of living together, a togetherness, and a truth that remains obscure. Hope --the Elpis of Tunisia-- is a constant in this country. It is inescapable that this wait would turn into anticipation for oneself; anticipation for the ability to tell our own truth and that of others. Advertisement Still ambivalent, enigmatic, troubled, this truth is already in our streets for those who are able to see past appearances. The alien king is among the crowd and he is wise, announcing a New World epiphany that Tunisia will be at the epicenter of. It is the lover of the people, Farhat Hached, who dared say in times of hatred, similar to those we are currently in: I love you oh people! We hope that year five of the Tunisian people's coup will be the dawn of a new era on the ancient Carthage, a new Andalusia where people will sing Jacques Brel's pledge of love: Oh my love,My soft, my tender, my wonderful love,From the clear dawn to the end of the day,I still love you, you know, I love you! Advertisement This past New Year's Eve, I had the pleasure of welcoming in 2016 at a Billy Joel concert. A rare treat in the midst of another challenging year of therapeutic problem-solving to divert people arrested on low-level and quality of life types of offenses out of jail in the State of Florida. As Broward's Misdemeanor Mental Health Court moves into its 19th year, more than 19,000 people have come through the court. I always believed that community resources would expand once law makers on state and local levels, understood the intersection of the inability to access care, and the criminalization of people with mental illnesses and co-occurring substance disorders. Recently, a journalist asked me what it's like in Florida, in terms of mental health care. My response, "I am speechless." Particularly, in light of the fact that the Florida Legislature had just opened its session with the announcement that Medicaid Expansion is off the table. For mental health advocates, this is discouraging in light of the fact that Florida ranks at the bottom of mental health funding in the nation. The Florida Department of Children and Families failed to apply for a National Excellence in Mental Health Act Planning Grant. A national demonstration project, which made $22.9 million available to 24 states, willing to develop a new model of certified community behavioral health clinics. This past week I watched as the newly elected Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards, signed an executive order expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. At his press conference, Mr. Edwards stated, "We are consistently ranked one of the poorest and unhealthiest states, and this cycle will not be broken as long as anyone in Louisiana has to choose between their health and their financial security." Advertisement That statement applies equally to Florida. One million Floridians are living in poverty, with 600,000 in South Florida who are in need of Medicaid coverage. For Floridians with mental illnesses and substance use disorders, the inability to access community based mental health care and treatment translates into homelessness, victimization, and a revolving door which often includes incarceration. It has been 17 years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling of Olmstead v. L.C. This decision strengthened the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title II., by declaring that, "Unjustified isolation, we hold, is properly regarded as discrimination based on disability." According to the Department of Justice, states and local governments have a legal obligation to affirmatively remedy discriminatory practices through reasonable modifications to community based programs and services. This bold sculpture of larger-than-life embracing female nudes, is right in the heart of Brussels, Belgium, in front of the Finance Tower (Tour des Finances - FinanciAntoren) building, directly across from the old city centre gardens known as Botanique - Kruidtuin. (Brussels is bi-lingual French and Dutch, so place names are in both languages here.) The Finance Tower, at 145 metres high, is said to be the second tallest building in Brussels, topped only by the South Tower (Tour du Midi - Zuidtoren) at 150 metres high. In individualistic Belgian fashion, this is rather an evocative and erotically-themed sculpture for the front of a major financial centre building, which houses Belgian government financial bureaus as well as offices of commercial enterprises.Of the two women in the sculpture, one is more classically feminine in appearance with longer hair, the other is more boyish-looking with a shorter hairstyle, though one quickly sees she also has unmistakably female breasts. The pose is enigmatic, with the shorter-haired woman firmly grasping the wrist of the longer-haired woman behind her back, almost wrestling her into submission, while both women look away from each other despite being nude and intimate.At the base of the sculpture, a nameplate identifies the creator of this bronze sculpture as the 'Fonderia D'Arte De Andreis, Milano' (Milan, Italy). And an engraved inscription - a bit hard to read - gives a name that appears to be 'Nat Helligan', and the apparent dates 1952-1984.These are photos from the daily life of writer, journalist and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs. These Flickr photos document my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well. I'm happy to help convey to the world some of Brussels' wonderful cultural heritage.(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smear campaigns against me and the threats, see the website by European journalists 'About Les Sachs' linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as 'Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs'.)The address of the Finance Tower (Tour des Finances - FinanciAntoren) building is number 50, boulevard du Jardin Botanique - Kruidtuinlaan (once again, names in both French and Dutch). It is near the intersection of the Rue Royale - Koningstraat, and thus right by the Botanique - Kruidtuin mAtro station along mAtro lines 2 and 6. Trams 92 and 94 stop here as well. The Finance Tower and this sculpture, are also a short walk (or one mAtro stop) away from the popular shopping areas at Place Rogier - Rogierplein, and the City2 shopping centre at the end of rue Neuve - Nieuwstraat, and also within a few hundred metres of the Gare du Nord - Noordstation Brussels north railway station. Horrifying images posted on social media for all the world to see show men accused of homosexuality thrown off high buildings, stoned to death, or shot in the head by extremist groups, including the Islamic State (known as ISIS) in Iraq, Syria and Libya. This was the worst, but by no means the only, violence directed against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in all parts of the world. According to a report on discrimination and violence against LGBT people by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in June, "Since 2011, hundreds of people have been killed and thousands more injured in brutal, violent attacks... Other documented violations include torture, arbitrary detention, denial of rights to assembly and expression, and discrimination in health care, education, employment and housing." Advertisement But there was also very good news for LGBT people in 2015. In May, Mexico and Ireland extended marriage to same-sex couples. A month later, Mozambique decriminalized homosexuality, and the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of marriage equality, allowing same-sex marriages throughout the country. Malta, Ireland, and Colombia all separated the legal process for transgender recognition from medical procedures. In June, Colombia delivered a joint statement to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 72 countries, from all regions of the world, affirming a commitment to end violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Extreme Violence -- and Rapid Progress Extreme violence and rapid progress toward equality are the bookends of 2015. Negative snapshots include proposed draft laws that would mimic Russia's notorious "propaganda law" by setting penalties for providing objective or positive information about homosexuality in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus. In a setback for transgender women, a Malaysian federal court reversed a ruling that had found unconstitutional a Sharia (Islamic law) provision that forbids "a male person posing as a woman," and religious authorities continued arresting trans women. In Brunei and Indonesia's Aceh province, new Sharia laws call for public lashing, imprisonment and even the death penalty for same-sex conduct. Egypt imprisoned gay men and transgender women on "debauchery" charges and Morocco routinely imprisoned men accused of homosexuality. LGBT people in Nigeria experienced violence and abuse under the shadow of an extreme anti-LGBT law. In Gambia, home of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, gay men and lesbians fled a politically motivated crackdown. In the United States, after a campaign of fear-mongering against transgender people, voters in the city of Houston rejected a non-discrimination ordinance that would have prevented discrimination not only on the grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation, but also for race, age, and other categories. Advertisement Slovenia, in a referendum, shot down marriage equality just months after parliament extended marriage to same-sex couples. Positive snapshots during the year include progress for transgender people in India and Thailand, where legal developments hold the promise for increased protection and social inclusion. LGBT groups in Kenya and Tunisia have been allowed to register and operate in an important assertion of the right to association. Malawi upheld a moratorium on arrests for consensual same-sex conduct, pending a court review in which activists challenged discriminatory laws. And Nepal's otherwise deeply flawed constitution includes a ray of light in a clause protecting sexual and gender minorities. A Plea for Protection, and a Pushback Developments at the United Nations give insight into global trends and emerging patterns on matters relating to sexual orientation and gender identity. On September 29, at a high-level LGBT core group event at UN headquarters, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered an impassioned plea for the protection of LGBT people worldwide, and on the same day 12 UN agencies issued a joint statement on combatting violence and discrimination against LGBT and intersex people -- the first of its kind. But there is strong pushback. Russia has for years been positioning itself as the champion of "traditional values," in alliance with other countries, primarily from the Middle East and Africa. This provides a convenient positive spin for rights-abusing states to cloak crackdowns on independent groups, restrictions on the political opposition, and moves to curtail individual freedoms as upholding "traditional values." Russian-sponsored UN resolutions on "traditional values" have attempted to undermine the universality of human rights. Russia and its allies have sought to create a false dichotomy between traditional values and human rights. And the rights of LGBT people, along with women's reproductive rights, are the lightning rods in this debate. Advertisement This dynamic played itself out in an Egypt-led resolution on the "protection of the family" that the Human Rights Council adopted in June. The resolution seeks to enshrine a narrow conception of the family as the protector of "morals" and "traditions," with no meaningful consideration of whether these comply with international human rights standards. Russia blocked attempts by South Africa, Brazil and Uruguay to recognize a broader definition of family. Punishing Those Who Don't Fit Patriarchal Norms Such resolutions are thinly veiled attempts to use the language and institutions of human rights to push back against the rights of LGBT people, and all those who don't fit patriarchal norms. This coincides with the increased political use of homophobia, by leaders who have portrayed themselves as guardians of embattled "traditional values" to distract attention from their failures of governance. Rhetoric that positions LGBT people as the antithesis of "morality" and "tradition" is dangerous and contributes to a hostile climate in which extreme violence occurs. While the past year has seen significant gains, many challenges lie ahead. In countries where repressive governments attack civil society organizations and prevent them operating freely and openly, LGBT people will be forced to live a shadow existence. Civil society organizations should reject attempts by governments to manipulate anti-LGBT animus for short-term political gain, and LGBT groups should avoid working in isolation and support a broader human rights agenda. This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The World Economic Forum aimed at providing insights into working conditions for LGBT-oriented people around the world, and the personal journeys of some of the high profile leaders that are striving to make a difference. The series is running one week before the commencement of the Forum's Annual Meeting 2016 (in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, Jan. 20-23). Read all the posts in the series here. Having spent two decades on church staffs and thus in conversations with other pastors, I've heard it declared many times that there are hoards of seekers out there whom we have to attract to our Sunday worship services. Here's how the story goes: these out-of-church seekers feel a deep longing for something bigger that gnaws at them, and they're wondering where they need to head to find answers to the questions that course through their hearts. What they really need to is to worship God and that particularly means coming to our Sunday worship services. In January last year, I moved from work as a pastor into university teaching and writing. Thus, I'm on the other side of the pulpit. From time to time, I recall the type of conversation I heard within the church offices and conference rooms. Now that I'm outside, the conversation sounds stunningly different. I don't find that many seekers. Instead, those outside houses of worship don't seem to be spending Sunday mornings thinking "What's happening in church today?" Sometimes church leaders find comfort by asserting--despite signs to the contrary, like the shrinking numbers in U. S. churches--that we're really making progress. As proof we offer isolated anecdotes of those who were searching and found our churches. The statistics, however, tell an alternative story. Take, for example, a 2012 Pew Research Center poll which discovered that 88% of the United States who describe their religion as "nothing in particular" answer "no" to the question, "Are you looking for a religion that would be right for you?" They're just fine watching the NFL, shopping at the mall, heading to Sunday brunch, or walking in the park with their dogs. And though I still attend Sunday worship "religiously," I do have more time to spend on Sundays watching what those outside church buildings are doing. (It's actually become something of a favorite hobby.) And my observations mirror what Pew pronounced. Not content with others' statistics--even when they arrive from impressive organizations like the Pew Research Center--I decided to conduct one-hour interviews on spirituality with my Chico State students and similarly situated emerging adults. Do you know what I found? Most out-of-church are reasonably happy with their spiritual state. Yes, some offered this, "If others want to believe, more power to them," but that comment had a clear subtheme: those outside churches didn't feel the need to believe themselves. Yes, there are indeed seekers, a minority of whom are looking to the church for answers, but many don't think walking through the doors of a sanctuary will lead them to answers. "My concern about religious leaders is that they'd be biased," one student offered. In the end, Pew and Cootsona came to remarkably similar findings. Here's the hardest part--which, in fact, pains me to write--even when I found myself in those discussions with congregational leaders, I couldn't help but sense an overconfidence which goes something like this, "You have questions. We answers." But maybe we haven't listened hard enough. Maybe we're simply hearing ourselves speak. There may be a better way. And I might even offer some ideas in future blog posts. I'm cautious, though, of moving too quickly to the answer before we take in the severity of the question. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders participates in the NBC News -YouTube Democratic Candidates Debate on January 17, 2016 at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, South Carolina.. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Bernie Sanders will win the first four contests of the 2016 Democratic Primary for the same reasons he won the endorsements 170 economists, MoveOn.org and The Nation. Furthermore, Sanders dominated the latest Democratic debate because he's never had to evolve from a conservative vantage point, towards a progressive stance. Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War (calling it a "mistake"), pushed for the Trans Pacific Partnership 45 times, recently supported sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS, and accepted money from prison lobbyists. Clinton was "inclined" to greenlight the Keystone XL pipeline and a spokesman from the environmental group 350 Action once stated, "If the pipeline goes through, she'll shoulder part of the blame..." Advertisement On foreign policy, one leading historian believes a Hillary Clinton White House will espouse a "neocon" foreign policy. On gun legislation in 2008, The New York Times wrote that Clinton had portrayed herself to be a "Pro-Gun Churchgoer." Barack Obama even stated, "She's talking like she's Annie Oakley...that's some politics being played by Hillary Clinton." On Wall Street, POLITICO labeled Clinton Wall St. Republicans' dark secret. Thus, on major issues, there's only one Democrat running in 2016. Once Bernie Sanders wins Iowa and New Hampshire, his chances of winning Nevada and especially South Carolina will increase exponentially. As stated by South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn in The Washington Post, "If [Sanders] comes out of Iowa and New Hampshire with big victories...if he comes out of there with big victories, hey, man, it could very well be a new day..." This "new day" will result in polls shifting even faster towards a Bernie Sanders landslide. If you think Bernie Sanders winning in a landslide is unrealistic, I explain reasons for this eventuality in my appearance on The Benjamin Dixon Show. Or, just look at how quickly it took media pundits to evolve away from the "inevitability" narrative. Advertisement On November 13, 2015 The Washington Post published an article titled Democrats l-o-v-e Hillary Clinton in new WaPo-ABC poll. Bernie Sanders? Not so much. In about two months, however, the love subsided. On January 14, 2016 a Washington Post headline stated Hillary Clinton's national lead is slipping faster in 2016 than it did in 2008. So much for the power of "l-o-v-e." On November 3, 2015 an NBC News article titled Hillary Clinton Increases Her Lead Over Bernie Sanders stated, "Hillary Clinton has increased her dominant lead within the Democratic Party's presidential contest." Less than three months later, with Bernie Sanders surpassing Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, history began to repeat itself. On January 16, 2016 NBC News published an article titled History Repeating Itself? 2016 Feeling Like 2008 For Hillary. On October 27, 2015 CBS News ran a piece titled Poll: Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders by 41 points in Iowa. Surely, nobody could ever overcome a massive 41-point lead, as well as an over 20-point lead nationally, right? Advertisement On January 12, 2016 CBS News published an article titled CBS/NYT poll: Hillary Clinton's lead over Bernie Sanders shrinks. As stated in the article, Bernie Sanders is only 7 points away from Clinton nationally, and the poll shows "48 percent of Democratic primary voters support Clinton... while Bernie Sanders' support has risen 9 points, from 32 percent last month to 41 percent now." This surge by Bernie Sanders is also highlighted in a POLITICO piece titled Poll: Clinton's national lead over Sanders dwindles to 7 points. Do you still think Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic nomination in a landslide is hyperbole? During an appearance in December on The Thom Hartmann Program, I explained why Bernie Sanders had the momentum to become president, despite the polls and endorsements extolling Clinton's inevitability. I highlight in this YouTube segment why Clinton's negative favorability ratings make the former Secretary of State unelectable. Furthermore, Clinton's continual evolution on contentious topics makes her the antithesis of Bernie Sanders, and I discuss in this YouTube segment why Clinton alters her viewpoint so often. Have you ever wondered why Clinton evolves so often? When I wrote a Huffington Post piece titled Why Bernie Sanders Will Become the Democratic Nominee and Defeat Any Republican in 2016, Hillary Clinton held a lead of 58.4% in the Democratic Primary, while Bernie Sanders was mired at 15.9%. However, I knew that Clinton's negative favorability ratings, ongoing and expanding FBI investigation, and evolution on key issues would never allow her to keep that lead over Sanders. Bernie Sanders is on his way to a decisive win in 2016, primarily because the Clinton campaign doesn't know how to communicate to voters. Nothing illustrates this fact better than a Nola.com article titled Why Hillary Clinton's Rosa Parks logo was wrong: Advertisement The logo, which depicts a bespectacled black woman sitting down with her hair in a bun and her purse in her lap, suggests that the deceased Parks is (or would be) a Clinton supporter. And a whole bunch of folks cried foul. One relatively mild Twitter criticism expressed surprise that Clinton was able to travel back in time and secure Parks' endorsement. An angrier comment suggested that it's an example of white people co-opting the things black people have done. The best response, though, was the tweet directed at Clinton that said, "You could've at least let Rosa sit at the front of the logo." Yes, the Clinton campaign had a Twitter logo with Rosa Parks sitting at the back of the logo. It also had the audacity to travel back in time and get the endorsement of Rosa Parks. As if that wasn't a perfect example of Clinton's inability to connect with a core constituency, further pandering is highlighted in a Daily Beast article titled Hillary Clinton's Tone-Deaf Racial Pandering: Hillary Clinton's minority outreach over the last week has rekindled the idea that she is a candidate who is out of touch, particularly when it comes to minorities. To many of us, her campaign's insistence that she is an abuela for Latinos and the changing of her Twitter logo to represent Kwanzaa came across as pandering at its worst... Black Twitter had a field day ridiculing Clinton's efforts... Like the Rosa Parks logo, Clinton's attempt at incorporating Kwanzaa into her campaign was seen as pandering, not a genuine concern for the interests of African Americans. Advertisement Latinos also felt the brunt of Clinton's corporate marketing approach to politics. Hillary Clinton's attempt at being the abuela of 54 million Latinos worked as well as the Rosa Parks and Kwanzaa logos, as explained in an NPR piece titled #MemeOfTheWeek: Hillary Clinton, Not Quite An Abuela: ...some online thought it missed the mark. They even called it "hispandering," a mashup of Hispanic and pandering. (NPR's Shereen Marisol Meraji has written extensively about Hispandering.) Soon after the Clinton abuela post went up, the hashtag #NotMyAbuela (or #NotMiAbuela) began to trend. In less than three months, Clinton managed to pander three times to the two demographic groups her campaign needs to remain competitive. However, Clinton forgot to tell both African Americans and Latinos that according to The Intercept, Private Prison Lobbyists Are Raising Cash for Hillary Clinton. Boston's Black Lives Matter president Daunasia Yancey stated Clinton's racial justice record is "abysmal." In 2008 against Barack Obama, Clinton was willing to use race and Islamophobia and Obama's campaign even complained of "dirty tricks." Clinton used a 3 a.m. ad against Obama that Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson believed had a "racist sub-message." Regarding Clinton's tactics against Obama, South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn stated that "black people are incensed over all of this." Advertisement The only thing keeping Clinton's national lead over Sanders is the African American and Latino vote. I explain in just three minutes on The Benjamin Dixon Show why Hilary Clinton will not be able to maintain her lead in the polls among African Americans and Latinos. Once this lead dissipates, as her lead has dwindled among other voting groups, we're looking at a Bernie Sanders landslide victory. In 2016, I'm only voting for Bernie Sanders, not Trump or Clinton, and I explain why here. The question that some people hate to be asked, hate to ask, and some find utterly backward and politically incorrect. As far as I'm concerned it is a crying shame to ignore this incredible inquiry that can open up so many doors that connect us with each other, revealing fascinating and colourful stories and truths about different cultures and places. I've discussed this question with different people on my travels and if they find it offensive or not and some people do. Not so long ago I was at a meeting in Birmingham with some delegates attending from London. One lady sitting next to me on appearances looked Indian, and had a strong accent, a sort of posh Indian/English accent, I call it. I was intrigued to know which part of the Indian sub continent she could be from, and when I asked, she rather pompously threw her head back and replied "I am a human being" and refused to answer my question, as if it was far too primitive for the likes of her. Not to suggest that all people from London think one way and everyone else thinks otherwise, but I have often found some folks having a sense of superiority over this topic and often regarding themselves as in a minority and different to the rest of the country regarding their respect and value of diversity. They would not dare ask this question as they live in a global melting pot and are immune to difference, too cool to ask such a silly question, where are you from? Yes, there may be some truth in this matter when we look at voting patterns and where some of our crazy right wing parties are more popular, but in the end I think not asking this question does not make one somehow morally superior, more intellectual or global minded than anyone else. There are people from all over the world living in Britain's different cities. There will be certain contexts where knowing someone's history, background, birthplace and roots (whatever you want to call it) may be irrelevant, but for me to really connect with someone this is something that I usually like to know, and eventually it will come up in my conversations with people I interact with. Advertisement I appreciate for some people it may not be easy to answer this question at all, if they have been living in so many different places, and maybe with parents from different ethnic groups and countries. Still, I love to hear their story. Yes, we are all equal and the same in many ways, but in many we are not and this is what makes the world so fascinating. Why disregard the parts of us that make us so fabulous and unique? I also appreciate there will be some situations where people may ask or be asked this question in such a way that can be offensive and rude, so there is some sensitivity around it, its not straight forward! We are inquisitive human beings and love to travel. We want to eat great food, catch the sun and see beautiful sights, as well as learning something new, engaging with local people, finding out about the history of a place, values, arts and culture etc. I love finding out about different traditions, fashions, perspectives, politics, histories, way of living, loving, problem solving, just about everything and of course my favourite; food. When I leave the UK and people ask me where I am from, I reply England, but often get a look, so explain my Indian heritage. This does not offend me at all. England is the place I was born and grew up, but to others my skin colour suggests something more. I am proud of my Indian roots and grew up with the culture, so more than happy to talk about it. Advertisement Martin Luther King, Jr., famous people, miscellany Coming back to the U.S. after time in South Africa, anger in the election is like a blast furnace. I'm also struck by the widespread use of populism as a framework of analysis. "Trump and Sanders: Different Candidates with a Populist Streak," reported Chuck Todd on NBC News. Most reporters and commentators use "populism" to mean inflammatory rhetoric. Thus Jonathan Goldberg, writing in the National Review, argues Trump and Sanders are "Two Populist Peas in a Pod" stirring up "millions of people [who] are convinced that the system is rigged against them." Advertisement I learned in the civil rights movement that populism can be something very different. Great populist movements, from farmers' cooperatives of the 1880s to the popular movements of the Great Depression, embodied a politics of people's power that disciplined anger into a force for constructive change. In the process people gained the sense that they were making a democratic way of life, creating a sense of ownership and responsibility for the whole. Today, in contrast, many see democracy like a vending machine - and they don't like what they're getting. Martin Luther King told me he identified with such populism in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1964. Discussing possibilities for engaging poor whites as allies, he asked if I would try community organizing. As a result, I organized among Southern mill workers in Durham, North Carolina, from 1966 to 1972. We had some success in crossing the racial divide. Stretched out in a sleeping bag on the floor in my father's hotel room in Washington in the early hours of August 28, 1963, I heard King practice "I Have a Dream" in the room next door. My father had just gone on staff of King's organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In "I Have a Dream," King strikes the prophetic note for which he is remembered. "There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights," King said. "The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges." The moral power of the movement reaches into our time. "We are citizens of a country that we still have to create -- a just country, a compassionate country, a forgiving country, a multiracial, multi-religious country," said King's friend and colleague, the late Vincent Harding in 2012. Advertisement Like other SCLC leaders, King's moral vision was held in tension with keen political insight, a combination now largely forgotten. In "The Drum Major Instinct," delivered February 4, 1968, King challenged those who condemn James and John for their request, recounted in the tenth chapter of Mark, to sit at Jesus' left and right hands in heaven. King said: Why would they make such a selfish request? Before we condemn them too quickly, let us look calmly and honestly at ourselves, and we will discover that we too have those same basic desires for recognition, for importance. There is deep down within all of us kind of a drum major instinct -- a desire to be out front, a desire to lead the parade, a desire to be first. King drew on his understanding of the complexity of human motivation to describe white prison guards. When we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens [came to] the cell to talk about the race problem. We got to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, "Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. You're just as poor as Negroes! You are supporting your oppressor. The same forces that oppress Negroes oppress poor white people." This capacity to understand the interests of even one's enemies was central to savvy politics that creates power. This took shape at the grassroots, in what the historian Charles Payne calls "organizing" strands of the movement. Payne's I've Got the Light of Freedom describes how activists distinguished between mobilizing and organizing. While the former, the politics of protest, included marches, Freedom Rides, and sit-ins, grassroots organizing also took place in communities on a large scale. For instance SCLC's Citizenship Education Program, CEP, directed by Dorothy Cotton, trained more than 8,000 people from 1961 to 1968 in skills of nonviolence and community organizing. They returned to communities and trained tens of thousands more. Advertisement The vision of CEP, drafted by Septima Clark, an early leader, was to "broaden the scope of democracy to include everyone and deepen the concept to include every relationship." This broadening transformed identities from victims to agents of change, a story Cotton tells in If Your Back's Not Bent: The Role of the Citizenship Education Program in the Civil Rights Movement. "People who had lived for generations with a sense of impotence, with a consciousness of anger and victimization, now knew in no uncertain terms that if things were going to change, they themselves had to change them." Payne stresses the politics involved. "Above all else [the organizing experience] stressed a developmental style of politics, one in which the important thing was the development of efficacy of those most affected by a problem." This meant that "whether a community achieved this or that tactical objective was likely to matter less than whether the people in it came to see themselves as having the right and the capacity to have some say--so in their own lives." I learned such politics at Duke as a college student working in support of maids and janitors who were organizing a union. Oliver Harvey, the janitor who led the effort, constantly told me that while moral passion is necessary, sober politics is also crucial -- and not the same as righteousness. As I described in a talk in 1998 at Duke, Harvey framed the issue of the union in ways that called everyone to account. "Until there is neutral arbitration of these grievances...[we] have no job security, no dignity, no chance of becoming employees who share in the goal to make this a great and quality institution," Harvey said in a debate about changing the university's grievance procedure. Workers claimed responsibility for making Duke a "great and quality institution." Harvey, Hattie Williams and others asserted that their work contributed powerfully, if invisibly, to students' learning and the mission of the institution. Duke did not become a democracy university. But during my years there, those associated with the effort, or even simply on campus -- faculty, students, staff, administrators -- rose to a higher level of public engagement. Advertisement Focus on making a "great and quality institution" called forth better thinking, livelier teaching, more probing questions, more student engagement in education. Classrooms came alive. A never-ending argument moved across the campus about civil rights, democracy, and education that shaped lives of countless participants. The organizing also won recognition for the union. The movement's politics of empowerment has been largely forgotten today. While Trump and Sanders tap anger, they express it in radically different ways. Trump employs a politics of scapegoating. Sanders, with roots in the civil rights movement, conveys the inclusive, egalitarian ethic of Judaism, as Margaret Talbot describes in "The Populist Prophet" in the New Yorker. His campaign conveys something of the politics of empowerment. But it will take everyone to make a politics of empowerment come to life, in schools, colleges, and communities, as well as the election. President Barack Obama makes a statement on the release of Americans by Iran, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Eight years and two weeks ago, something happened that changed my life and, more importantly, the course of our country's history. On January 3, 2008, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses. To be sure, he had intrigued me from the first time I heard him, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. I had long studied multiethnic societies (my early research examined the Austro-Hungarian Empire) focusing specifically on attempts to create a unifying sense of nationhood that could knit together a diverse population into a single people, that could encourage individuals from different backgrounds who shared a land to see themselves as part of a national community even while maintaining the ancestral forms of identity they valued. The concept of democratic pluralism reflects these ideas. Advertisement In Boston, Obama spoke in exactly those terms, citing "a belief that we are all connected as one people." He defined us "a single American family: E pluribus unum, out of many, one," and, in the most memorable section, declared: "There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America." By 2004, I had shifted my research focus from Austria-Hungary to the contemporary U.S., so hearing a politician speak this way got my attention. Back to that night in Iowa. Toward the end of then-Sen. Obama's victory speech, something clicked for me when he proclaimed: Hope is what led a band of colonists to rise up against an empire. What led the greatest of generations to free a continent and heal a nation. What led young women and young men to sit at lunch counters and brave fire hoses and march through Selma and Montgomery for freedom's cause. Here was Obama showing how to do the very thing that years of research and study told me needed to be done. In the course of about 15 seconds, he presented to a huge (yes, I pronounce the 'h') audience of Americans a single, common historical narrative that included events all too often separated into "black history" and "white history." Advertisement While doing so seems obvious now--in part because we've had a president do it over and over again--it was not so common, not so mainstream in 2008. Additionally, what he did in his second inaugural address--by including Stonewall alongside Selma and Seneca Falls in the pantheon of great American events--was truly groundbreaking. The way we tell this country's history defines us as a people. When a president defines the story of America in a fully inclusive way, it makes clear that the "we" in "we the people" really does mean every American. That night in Iowa changed my life because it eventually led me to write a book about Barack Obama's conception of American national identity: Obama's America. As I learned in my research, he has been writing and speaking this way for more than two decades, consistently and regularly. He has even offered an alternative definition of American exceptionalism--one that centers on democratic pluralism and rejects the unreconstructed triumphalism of the right wing. For Obama, our relative success in integrating immigrants and creating unity while still respecting diversity provides a coherent, attractive model for other societies. It also provides a contradiction to fundamentalism--in particular the most murderous form it currently takes: ISIS. Twice in recent months, the president has powerfully revisited his concept of American-ness. Last November, after some Republican presidential candidates suggested, post-San Bernardino shootings, that there should be some kind of "religious test" for which refugees we should admit, he countered: That's shameful. That's not American. That's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion...It is good to remember that the United States does not have a religious test, and we are a nation of many peoples of different faiths, which means that we show compassion to everybody. Those are the universal values we stand for. The key is that Obama not only condemned prejudice, but he condemned it as "not American." He placed it outside the circle of our "universal values." He's certainly not the first politician to do so. Abraham Lincoln, in the most important speech in our country's history, defined the Civil War as a test of whether we believed in equality and liberty for all Americans. Furthermore, he placed that belief at the center of our country's definition of itself, stating that America was, in fact, "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Advertisement Obama has done something of profound importance as well. He has done so in a more inclusive way, one that reflects his understanding of important trends in our culture and society--such as multiculturalism--that have profoundly changed the way we see our collective self since Lincoln's time. Obama's years of such statements laid the groundwork for what he said in November about religious tests. He may not have invented it, but he has done more than any recent figure to shape and strengthen a powerful vocabulary, a shorthand we can use to contrast prejudice and hate with unity and brotherhood--as well as to connect the former with American values while charging the latter with rejecting them. This week the president delivered his final State of the Union Address. Unsurprisingly, he closed by revisiting his definition of American-ness. He urged us to reject those who would divide us from one another, to reject ... Voices urging us to fall back into our respective tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background. [snip] I can promise that a little over a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I will be right there with you as a citizen, inspired by those...voices that help us see ourselves not, first and foremost, as black or white, or Asian or Latino, not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born, not as Democrat or Republican, but as Americans first, bound by a common creed. Voices Dr. King believed would have the final word -- voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love. This is Obama's America, an America that rejects hate, rejects tribalism. It's an America where we identify as members of groups based on ethnicity, religion, sexual identity, ideology, etc., but where our common bonds as Americans come first. This isn't the old melting pot that demands immigrants and members of other marginalized groups become "100 percent Americans"--i.e., without hyphens--and fully assimilate into the mainstream. Obama's America is a gumbo, a thick soup that seeps into each new ingredient added. But those ingredients--even as they absorb the dominant flavor--still maintain their integrity. Are we there yet? Is Obama's America a description of our current reality? Of course not, and Barack Obama would be the first one to admit it. But by laying out that vision--by proclaiming that what we aspire to is not a rejection of what we have been, but merely the fullest application of the values we have always embraced--Barack Obama is helping us move closer to becoming what we dream. Smoke rises from an airstrike in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, as seen from the Turkish-Syrian border, in the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province, on October 9, 2014. Kurdish fighters appeared to control most of the Syrian border town of Kobane Thursday amid continued US air strikes on Islamic State jihadists, the US military said.AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS (Photo credit should read ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images) In the Republican and Democratic presidential debates, President Barack Obama's ultimate rejection of using force against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against his own people, keeps being raised as an issue. In all cases, the debate moderators have been pushing the candidates to call out the president for being "weak." In the Democratic debate, the candidates avoided this characterization, but of course the Republicans bring up the episode second only to the equally overstated and unimportant episode of the Obama administration's response to the attack on diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya--principally because current candidate Hillary had a bigger role in Benghazi simply because she had left her post as Secretary of State eight months before Obama made the decision not to use force against Assad. Advertisement But what of Obama's of "weakness" and "appeasement" of Assad? Otto von Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor of Germany in the late 1800s and a master of international Machiavellian diplomacy, would have been appalled at these characterizations. So likely would have Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest military commanders of all time. Obama's threat eventually led to Russia's pressure on Assad, its ally, to get rid of his chemical weapons entirely. Happy ending, right? Not according to the Republican candidates. In 2016, the Republican candidates, and occasionally Hillary -- to show how tough they are -- would have the United States behave like a dim-witted body builder at the beach who goes around punching people for no reason. Apparently, according to Republican thinking on the Assad matter, the world thought Obama was a wimp for not following through on his threat to use force, no matter how good the outcome attained without it. Obviously, the Russians took Obama's threat to use force seriously, because they pushed their ally Assad to get rid of his chemical weapons. So the choice was between punitive, purely symbolic, and likely ineffectual U.S. military "retaliation" and an even better outcome -- an Assad stripped of his chemical weapons. Bismarck probably would have thought the latter outcome to be very satisfactory. In fact, back in the old days when Bismarck was tromping around, "appeasing" enemies by paying them off instead of fighting them -- as General David Petraeus adroitly did in Iraq, disguised as a macho American troop "surge" -- was considered smart. Similarly, to get better press, maybe Obama should have made a deal with Russia to bomb a few empty buildings in the Syrian desert to make the whole thing look macho. Bismarck might have even gone further and advised that when a nation's enemies are fighting -- as U.S. adversaries are in Syria -- it should stay out of a bloody war and conserve resources, while the adversaries expend theirs beating each other to a pulp. Then-President Ronald Reagan was largely able to carry out such a restrained strategy during the long and bloody Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. George H. W. Bush, Reagan's successor, was then able to handily defeat a weakened Iraq in the subsequent and brief Desert Storm campaign in 1991. Advertisement Napoleon also probably would have been perplexed at the criticism of Obama over the Syrian episode. Napoleon, certainly no wimp, thought that the ultimate achievement for any military commander was to get an adversary to capitulate without ever having to use force. In other words, why waste lives, ammunition, and other resources fighting when smart maneuvering could achieve the same result. Autumn Skye: I usually begin each piece with only a loose idea, a seed of a concept, or a few fragmented elements. With such an open starting point, the possibilities are boundless of where the piece will take me. Sometimes it is a little clearer when I begin, and there are only slight surprises as it develops, other times I think I have it "figured out" and suddenly it will shift and flow in a totally different direction, and sometimes i just begin by getting splashy with colours and energetic brushstrokes and the imagery gradually comes clear. As a painting develops and evolves, often new animals, objects, figures, or symbols come to mind intuitively. I trust this as guidance and most often they will fit perfectly into the composition and concept of the piece. That being said, I also do not cling to what is already on the canvas, and often will spend many hours working on something, only to then suddenly paint over it or change it into something else. Only when I am able to step back from the painting after it is complete, am I able to witness it from a fresh perspective, and see that everything is in it's perfect place and it all "makes sense". The piece tells a story, far beyond what I consciously imagined it ever would. Each painting truly is a journey, and it never ceases to amaze and delight me. A dandelion seed hangs on to the main flower.Soft light makes up the bokeh. "In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you." People do have the ability to affect our feelings, but as much as I sometimes don't want to admit it, only we are in charge of our reactions. Advertisement One of the hardest things for me as a person, for a long time, has been not getting stuck on how I felt in an uncomfortable moment of interaction with another. I have a great memory and a sensitive heart, and I occasionally have to actively move forward from not repeating words that hurt me or pissed me off. I have to actively move forward from these emotions, reverberated through my body. Interactions with others are a requirement of being a human being. We cannot live on Earth and be surrounded only by people that we easily get along with. This said, there is merit in having to spend time with difficult people -- within reason, of course -- it's true we can learn more about ourselves, and sometimes we might find compassion where we originally couldn't hope for it. Still, there are a few things I do to move past such stale emotions; helpful rituals I find myself coming back to in order to process something difficult, and then go on. 1. Yoga. I practiced yoga the other day after feeling hung up on a conversation. This combination of deep, steady, rhythmic breathing, with moving and stretching and yawning my body open -- while also strengthening -- reminds me that I'm supple and pliable. It's reinvigorating to be reminded of how capable I am of bending, and how strong I am when I was initially feeling weak. Advertisement While I might not leave my yoga mat a perfectly different human being than I was when I hopped on, I am absolutely better equipped to deal with life, and to move forward one breath at a time. 2. I workout. Yoga practice is great, but I'm not only a yoga practitioner. Nope, I'm a weight lifter, a HIIT cardio lover, and, actually, I'm certified as a Spinning instructor, too. I digress. My point is that, for me, working the shit out of my body -- sweating profusely, exercising my muscles, and getting so immersed inside of my body that my brain has no time to churn unnecessarily -- is one of my favorite go-to's for getting past old crap. 3. I talk about it. There's a difference between talking a wound into the ground and dwelling on it--and treating our spouse like an unpaid therapist -- and talking about a feeling in order to get in touch with it and then leave it in the past. (And, by all means, do see a licensed therapist if need be.) 4. Writing. This is actually not related to blogging or publishing at all. Often a difficult relationship is the last thing we should write about and then publish on -- or, at least, we need to get some space so that we're making sure it's helpful and not just emotional vomit purged out into the world without purpose. Regardless, journaling and writing about an event we're having trouble letting go of has definitely helped me figure out why exactly I'm so hurt and crippled -- and then I'm more able to care for my emotions without that aforementioned wallowing. 5. Spending time with those I love. Even if Bernie Sanders loses to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, and recent polling data suggests that he might not, he has already won. The simple fact that a rare man of honesty and integrity, in a political system corrupted by big money, has surged to the pinnacle of the national conversation is itself a tremendous sign of hope. I first became aware of Bernie Sanders through an essay he published in 2013, right here in the Huffington Post, titled "What the U.S. Can Learn from Denmark." At the time I was teaching a writing class at a community college in Newark, NJ. My students, mostly poor Black and Latinos who had attended failing inner-city schools, came to me not only with a lack of desire to read and write, but with a feeling of apathy toward a failed political system they rightly saw as rigged against them. As an educator who combines a passion for social justice with my teaching project, I began teaching Bernie's Huff Post essay in class. The results where remarkable. Voices shamed into silence by past authoritarian schools percolated to life as they read aloud Bernie's praise of Denmark's transcendently just and caring social order, where health care and college are free, the minimum wage is high, and a guaranteed income is available for those unable to work, or, who can't find a job for whatever reason. Advertisement When Bernie notes how Denmark is one of the world's happiest countries, and America one of the unhappiest, it came as a tremendous relief to students emotionally depressed by their ghetto living conditions to learn that this, in fact, is a politically constructed reality (not a personal flaw) that can be changed. After reading the essay out loud in class, my "Bernie curriculum" continued by having the students freely write their reactions to the piece. How amazing it was to see people who had been turned off to learning by high stakes testing and boring corporate textbooks pour their hearts and souls into the intellectual craft of writing, when they wrote about a topic that mattered deeply to them. Later, during whole class discussions of Bernie's ideas, invariably someone (including myself) would shout out: "Hey, how do I get a passport to Denmark!" If Bernie becomes our next president, then the happiness now experienced by the Danish may soon become an American birthright. The political, social, and intellectual hope unleashed in my college classrooms, courtesy of Bernie Sanders, is evidence to me of democracy's rebirth. From the bitter depths of the ice age of oligarchy, a thawing. With the yellow daffodils of spring but a few months away, and the Iowa caucuses looming, may the "Feel the Bern" movement continue to thrive and flourish! Elephants having tea party In the middle part of the 19th Century a political party, formally called The American Party, but known widely as the Know Nothing Party operated on a national scale in the U.S. promoting nativist, anti-immigration sentiments. Members of the Know Nothings were elected to Congress and they even nominated former President Millard Fillmore for the 1856 election, despite the fact that he was neither a party member nor a nativist. The party's platform emphasized purifying American politics using anti-Catholic, nativist rhetoric that pandered to popular fears about the German and Irish Catholic immigrants. The Know Nothings claimed that Catholicism was contrary to the values of a republic, because Catholics owed ultimate allegiance to the Pope. They could not be loyal American citizens. Advertisement The party, whose membership was limited to Protestant men, feared the growing flow of immigrants from Europe and elsewhere and claimed these immigrants undermined American lifestyles and values and stole jobs from "native born" Americans. Sound familiar? Although the Know Nothings didn't last long as a political party, their brand of racist anti-immigration policy continued in the U.S. It is evident in laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924, both of which drastically limited (or prohibited) people from China and other Asian countries from moving to the U.S. And we also see it in the forced relocation of American citizens of Japanese descent to concentration camps during World War II. Today, we hear echoes of the Know Nothings in the words of the GOP candidates and other leaders when they promote prohibiting Muslim immigrants or building border walls. Indeed, Republicans like Donald Trump sound a great deal like the Know Nothings of the 19th-Century when they discuss immigration. Trump, in particular, in his call for banning Muslims is a prime example of the xenophobic and hateful rhetoric that characterized the actions and statements of the Know Nothings over 160 years ago. It's nothing new in this country of immigrants to find reasons to ban particular groups from entering the country. And religions like Islam, Judaism, and Catholicism often have been targets for xenophobic and discriminatory rhetoric and legislation. Advertisement The parallels are truly striking. Like the Know Nothings, the GOP largely consists of white Protestants (now both male and female) who deeply fear their "way of life" is being challenged by dangerous outsiders. Why are they dangerous? Because they bring to our shores different religious ideas and come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. In other words, the campaign rhetoric and platform statements of the current GOP candidates have much in common with those espoused by the Know Nothings in the 19th Century. It's interesting that the "know nothing" moniker arose because members were instructed to respond with "I know nothing," when asked by reporters and others about the group's secretive meetings and actions. When it comes to today's version of the GOP, secrecy may not apply, but the phrase "know nothing" seems to be an apt description of the ideas and policies they promote, not just in relation to immigration, but in general. During the current campaign, when it comes to issues such as climate change, immigration policy, international relations, gun violence, income and wealth inequality, medical care, and so on, many Republican candidates seem to relish in ignorance and misinformation. They try to incite emotional rather than rational responses in followers by using inflammatory, and sometimes bigoted rhetoric designed to stimulate fear among the populace. One would think that in the last century and a half we would have come farther than this. All that has been accomplished in the area of voter rights, anti-discrimination legislation, environmental policy and clean up, and at least a start in improving health care access, and here we are. Having to listen to a new Know Nothing Party spew its rhetoric of ignorance and xenophobia. The reason for the name may be different, but the phrase "know nothing" is an equally apt description of the party. Advertisement As an American, I have lived under illiberal democratic governance in Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia, but never have I experienced an organizational tool as far-reaching and destructive of civic life as the "mafia state" of Viktor Orban as it currently exists in Hungary. Americans are high on the list of Orban's persons of suspicion (along with Jews, Roma, international businesspersons, Europeans, migrants, refugees, professional women, social scientists, journalists--just to open the list). Happily, Hungary is not one of those countries where one runs the risk of official harassment or worse when one does not speak in reverential terms about the wisdom of the governing elite. To be sure, Hungarians who speak out are often blacklisted from employment or addressed disrespectfully in the state media (pretty much the only media around). Critical American voices are simply ignored by the rulers, which may serve the purpose of rankling the critic, but also saves on the state's correctional budget. I have struggled, now that I live most of the year in Hungary and have served two terms as a Fulbright Specialist here, to find a voice that is both appropriate and effective. I have developed a list of talking points I employ when the occasional journalist asks for an interview following on the publication of my newest book, The Hungarian Patient. Readers might find these responses, presented below in Q and A format, useful when they find themselves in serious conversation in any one of the increasing number of illiberal democracies around the world (or even as they prepare for their new potential life under President Trump...) Advertisement Q: YOU HAVE SAID THAT YOU BELIEVE THAT THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT WILL REMAIN IN POWER OVER MANY ELECTIONS TO COME. WHAT DO YOU ADVISE THE REMAINING PARTIES TO DO OVER THIS LONG PERIOD? I think they have three choices, none of which will be very pleasant to them. 1) They could continue as they have, a set of small parties contesting for a few seats in parliament and the prerogatives that pertain to such standing. From this position, they could continue to express their perspectives on policy. 2) They could recognize that Hungary has become (once again) a one-party state. Their leaders and their members could join that ruling party and seek to work for change from within. 3) They could make a grand agreement to work as a single party for the purpose of gaining election, by means of the organization of a new party which will present a single slate at all coming elections. Q: WHICH OF THESE CHOICES DO YOU SEE THE PARTIES MAKING? The traditions of multi-party organization are well established in Hungary. I think the small parties are likely to continue to try to establish coalitions for electoral purposes, but will be highly resistant to giving up their names and separate identities. These coalitions have not seemed to be very solid when tried in the past, however. Q: WILL THE RULING PARTY BE ABLE TO ESTABLISH TOTAL CONTROL OVER HUNGARY? Not at all, because the third sector in Hungary will continue to blossom into hundreds of flowers in this age of internet access and diversity. Some of these discussions and initiatives will lead to effective group advocacy and action--linking into freshly organized groups and established civil society groups alike. Pluralism, the ability to represent a wide diversity of positions and interests, can be achieved by effective partnerships between social media and a variety of associations. The government will have to stay on its toes to respond to the variety of ideas for change and reform that such an active society can present. Advertisement Q: ARE THERE GOOD REASONS FOR THE GOVERNING REGIME TO LISTEN TO CITIZEN VOICES IN THE YEARS AHEAD? Yes, indeed. Hungary faces serious problems as it moves into the future. 1) Economically, it runs the risk of becoming just one more "flyover country" in the global economy--troubled by too much poverty and lack of skill in its workforce to attract investment and to sustain consumer spending--and seen as too corrupt politically to be worth the entry of non-Hungarian corporations and entrepreneurs. Hungary can't support its national economic needs by being a Disneyland for tourists who float down the Danube for two-day visits, however many museums or ruin pubs they manage to visit. 2) Socially, a surly and discouraged population bodes poorly for solving the many problems that modern societies address through civic and philanthropic initiatives. 3) And politically, it runs the risk of becoming a global laughingstock if it doesn't clean up its problems of transparency, favoritism, and corruption. Q: HOW MIGHT THESE VOICES BE ORGANIZED SO AS TO BE HEARD? Many Hungarians have worked with methods of public deliberation over the past 25 years. Combining community conferences and study groups with sophisticated interviews and surveys can bring new ideas to the attention of media, civil leaders, and governing elites. I think Hungary can deal with its many difficult problems if it brings people together over the fences that separate them--political affiliation and religious background and city-countryside. Hungary needs not continue to be a gated society, both at its borders and within its neighborhoods. A well-designed set of futures deliberations can address the problems that all Hungarians worry about but do not see being dealt with at this time. Q: CAN YOU GIVE AN EXAMPLE OF SUCH A PROBLEM? I think the main one has to do with the future of the country's children. If the best and the brightest of Hungary's graduates continue to be pushed (by limited jobs and wages) and pulled (by the prospect of better jobs and wages) from this country to other countries in Europe and beyond, many Hungarian parents will be faced with the bitter loss of being able to remain in contact with them. Even more agonizingly, will not be able to see their grandchildren grow and progress. Hungary's close family life has been one of its great cultural strengths. These ties are in the process of rapid dissolution in this time of out-migration. I believe that almost all Hungarians would be willing to join with their fellow citizens to give time and thought to working out solutions to this problem. Q: DO YOU THINK THAT THE PRESENT GOVERNING ELITE WOULD BE WILLING TO PARTICIPATE IN SUCH OPEN PROCESSES OF SEARCH AND PROBLEM SOLVING? Advertisement I can't answer that, as I know nobody in the inner circles of Hungarian power. But I do know that it is in their interest to solve the many problems in their society. I feel strongly that many of these people do not want to go down in history as being just a cogs in an ordinary political machine; I think there must be those who want to do great things for their country, its people, and others in the world. This is their time now to do the right things. I do believe that this can be done, and that these far-seeing and capable folks can join with a diverse group of their fellow citizens to make it happen. Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR HUNGARIANS AT THIS TIME? African American school girl holding lunch on a tray I had the pleasure of visiting The American School Of Tegucigalpa (AST). It gives me a great honor to present in a near future a 1-hour seminar to all students on how to read a book in a day to enhance academic success and increase SAT/ACT scores. In this seminar, AST students will learn: 1. Calculate your reading rate 2. Learn 4 steps to become an effective speed reader 3. The 5-Multiple Reading Process to read a book within 90 minutes 4. Get high score on PSAT and earn National Merit Scholarship 5. Maximize SAT/ACT Scores 6. Be a success in any U.S. University This is more about American School of Tegucigalpa: Mission Statement The American School is a student-centered, college preparatory institution that fosters globally-responsible citizens and leaders by offering a rigorous, international education which promotes core values in a safe, innovative, and collaborative environment. Advertisement Our Vision is to be the leading, innovative, educational institution that prepares responsible global citizens, leaders and life-long learners. School and Community The American School of Tegucigalpa is celebrating 70 years of excellence serving students from 15 nations. English is the language of primary instruction. Students complete a Honduran Baccalaureate, the High School Diploma and have the option of completing the International Baccalaureate Diploma and Certificates. Spanish as a second language is offered to international students. AST's facilities consist of 90 classrooms, including 4 Science and 4 Computer Laboratories with 30 terminals each, 348 chromebooks, 60 iPads and wireless internet access throughout campus. A separate computer technology center is available for teachers. Jefferson Valle Media Center provides facilities that serve Pre-School and Elementary as well as Middle and High School students. The center has 40 computers, 17 chromebooks, 15 laptops, and 6 Kindles. Students can access 24/7 Destiny- school's online catalog and safe search tool. To support research the school subscribes to ABC-Clio, and Noodle Tools. EBSCO host is also available to students as a subscription online database. The Center's literary collection includes more than 85,000 printed volumes, 722 eBooks, and a curriculum-tied AV subscribes to 37 printed magazines, some of them with online access. Calendar The school year of 182 days is divided into 2 semesters. The first semester begins in August and the second semester in January. Grades are issued quarterly. The school day begins at 7:30 am and ends at 2:30 pm. Enrollment Advertisement Total enrollment at AST for the 2015-2016 school year is 1129 students. Approximately 4% of the students are US citizens, 94% are Honduran and 2% of other nationalities. Accreditation AST is accredited by Advanced ED and the International Baccalaureate Program. The Honduran Ministry of Education grants the national degree of Bachillerato to students who comply with additional credits and 160 hours of community service. Grade Point Average A GPA is calculated on a 4.0 scale based on the number of times per week each subject is offered. The GPA is weighted for students who are International Baccalaureate Diploma candidates and certificate seekers. All subjects are taken into consideration in order to calculate the GPA. Extra-Curricular Activities Daddy King, as Martin Luther King Jr.'s father was known, is the compelling subject of Bayer Mack's latest documentary, In the Hour of Chaos. The story sheds light on MLK Jr. but as Mack wrote in an email: "The story gives an extraordinary view of American history." Who Was Daddy King? Martin Luther King Sr. (1899-1984) was a Baptist pastor, leading the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for 44 years. He was also an early leader of the civil rights movement. He served as the head of the Atlanta NAACP and the Civic and Political League, leading a fight for equality in teachers' salaries in Atlanta. He also was instrumental in helping end the Jim Crow laws in Georgia. Martin Luther King Jr. joined him in the ministry, serving with his father at the Ebenezer Church. Daddy King was a strong influence on Martin and the entire congregation, teaching that they need not ever back down from what was right. Martin Jr. carried this message to a national and eventually an international audience. Advertisement The idea for a documentary about Daddy King was championed by executive producer Frances Presley Rice who thought King Sr.'s story held keys to a more complete understanding of not only Martin Luther King Jr., but also the civil rights movement. Documentary director and producer Bayer Mack joined her for what turned out to be a major undertaking. In the documentary, audiences will meet Daddy King, a man of strength and compassion who lived through three heart-breaking tragedies in close succession. First there was the tragic assassination of his oldest son, Martin Jr. Then a little over a year later, his younger son, Alfred Daniel (A.D.), died in the family swimming pool in what is thought to have been an accidental drowning. Finally, a little less than five years later, his beloved wife, Alberta known as "Bunch," was killed by a gunman on a Sunday morning while she sat at her bench in front of the church organ, waiting for the service to begin. Despite all the pain, Daddy King was able to "keep on keeping on," because he said, "The Lord's not done with me yet." And in the process, King was to continue to shape the country by lending his influence to those who would help African-Americans gain a rightful position in this country. Any politician who was seeking the African-American vote found his way to Daddy King at some point. Prominent among them was Georgia peanut farmer, Jimmy Carter, consulted Daddy King prior to his gubernatorial as well as his run for the presidency. Daddy King Growing Up Among the stories told in the documentary are a few from his formative years. Born Michael King in Stockbridge, Georgia, Daddy King's personality was largely shaped by his devout mother, Delia, who was married to a sharecropper. Delia believed in a bright future for her children. Though father, James, did not attend church with them, Delia took her children with her every week. King, Sr. reported that in church he found peace, and it kept him from being bitter about the injustices he was becoming aware of. Advertisement The documentary's most telling story of this early time period concerned a day when Delia sent her young son with a bucket of milk to share with a neighbor whose cow was no longer producing milk. On his way, the young boy was stopped by a white mill owner who ordered him to immediately go and fetch a pail of water for his men. Martin was frozen at the thought of not doing as his mother asked and tried to respectfully refuse. The mill owner grabbed him by the shirt. The bucket of milk tipped over, and as Martin bent to try to stop its fall, the man kicked and then punched him before Martin could scramble away. When Martin got home, he was terrified about what his mother would say about his failure to deliver the milk. She asked his story, and to his surprise, she took him by the hand, and the two of them returned to the mill. Delia then confronted the mill owner. When he started to come at her yelling, she caught him off balance, which permitted her to push the man over and pummel his face until his nose spurted blood. As she stepped back, she said: "You can kill me but if you put a hand on a child of mine, you'll have to answer for it." Taking Martin's hand again, Delia and Martin returned home. Daddy King: Doing What Is Right From his mother, Martin learned how important it was to stand up for what was right. When he went on to become a pastor with his father-in-law at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, it gave him a position from which he could reach out to those in power in order to make a difference. Men like Daddy King preceded the civil rights movement, and it was their work that permitted Martin Jr. to springboard to a national and international stage. The documentary weaves strands of three stories into one. The underpinnings of the documentary are the events of the time -- everything from the Atlanta Riots and the disenfranchisement of blacks throughout the South to the era of prohibition and war time. Over this background, there are two more stories -- that of Daddy King and the story of Daddy's influence on Martin Jr. Advertisement Part One of In the Hour of Chaos can be viewed on Vimeo for $1.99, and it is currently available to subscribers of kweliTV, a documentary channel. It will also air on various local public television stations. There will be a screening in Cleveland on February 19, and Block Starz Music Television will be distributing the DVD via Amazon. This is the second project on which Bayer Mack and Frances Presley Rice have coordinated. Previously, they produced a film of the first African-American film director, Oscar Micheaux, a contemporary of D.W. Griffith, and a very successful filmmaker in his own right: Oscar Micheaux: Czar of Black Hollywood. Looking out into Auschwitz down the train line. Dagmar Lieblova is Holocaust survivor and the chairperson and cofounder of the Terezin Initiative. Lieblova was 14 years old when she and her family were transported to Auschwitz. All of her family members were killed in the concentration camp's gas chambers, but she was able to leave Auschwitz due to a clerical error regarding her date of birth that saved her from certain death during the Holocaust. Lan Anh Vu sat down with Lieblova to hear more about her survival story: a testament to the resilience and strength of the human spirit. As told to Lan Anh Vu My Childhood Prior to the War My childhood was very happy. We were a family of four, with my parents and my younger sister. We lived in Kutna Hora, a small town in Bohemia. My father was a doctor, and my mother was a housewife. At that time, I didn't think that it was anything special, because it was quite normal for me. Advertisement During the War My family and I were deported to Terezin ghetto in June 1942. In Terezin, my father continued to work as a doctor and my mother as a cleaning lady. The living conditions were not that bad, in comparison with the way that things turned out. We had meals three times per day; in the morning, there was a sort of warm liquid that they called coffee, soup for lunch and also a second course, normally potatoes and a sauce, or a dumpling with a sauce. And with the ration of bread we received a small piece of margarine or sausage or a spoonful of sugar or preserve. It was not enough, but we at least had something to eat. In December 1943, we were deported to Auschwitz by train. At first, we didn't know where we were going, but on the way, we realized that it was to the east. We arrived at Auschwitz at night. Transports from September and December 1943 and May 1944 went to the family camp in Auschwitz without any sort of selection. On the first night, they began tattooing numbers onto our arms. Then we left for the baths. After our bath, we were given clothes, which were nothing but thin rags, hardly enough for us to keep warm in the freezing December cold. I lived with my mother and sister in the same block. My father had to go around checking the inmates to see whether they had not lice in their hair or their bodies. In a way, this arrangement was good for us; he could visit the women's blocks, so we could see him. Afterward, I went to the children's block, where I later looked after 10-year-old boys. In the morning and evening each day, everyone in the camp had to come out and stand in front of the blocks for hours for roll call until the SS guards came and counted us. It was in December, and it was really cold. The food was very simple. During the day, there was a portion of soup and, in the evening, a piece of bread. There was not enough food to eat, so we were starving. The 4000 men, women and children who were sent from Terezin to Auschwitz in September 1943 were killed in the gas chamber during the night from 8 to 9 March 1944. We were terrified. Advertisement In July 1944, the selection came. The designation of people who could work meant women aged from 16 to 40 and men from 16 to 50. I was 15, my sister was 12, my father was 52, and my mother was 43. None of us fell into that category. However, my date of birth was incorrectly marked as 1925 instead of 1929, which made me old enough to be added to the list of people to be transferred to a work camp. I don't know who made the mistake, but it was a mistake that saved my life. It was incredibly lucky for me. I was deported with other women from Auschwitz to Hamburg. Hamburg was completely destroyed. We had to work exceptionally hard. We went to the port and boarded boats set for the bombarded factories, where we cleared away the wreckage and dug out the rails. We were given accommodations with a bed and a portion of soup for the whole day. We were very hungry and felt exhausted from the hard labor. In March 1945, we were sent away from Hamburg. Several people managed to escape on the way. We ultimately arrived at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. It is hard to describe what it was like at that time. In the barracks that we went to, there was a bare floor where we had to sit since we were so crammed. The hygienic conditions were terrible, for there was no water at all, and there wasn't any food left. A host of dead bodies were lain everywhere between the blocks; nobody cleaned them up. There were also a lot of lice. Then, on April 15, we were liberated by the British army. I didn't even have the strength to stand up to see what was happening. If they had come several days later, then we wouldn't have survived, because the conditions were so horrific. I later caught a high fever and had to stay in the hospital until July 1945. Post - War I had developed a lung disease. The doctor arranged for me to stay in a sanatorium in Zamberk, where, as I later learned, the only reason that they accepted me was to give a doctor's daughter a decent place to die. They didn't think that I would survive. But then the surgery succeeded, and I survived. A miracle had occurred. I stayed in the sanatorium for two and a half years, until February 1948. Advertisement I returned to my hometown and was given an apartment in our old house. I then decided that I should study, because I hadn't even finished my elementary-school education. Education was forbidden for Jewish children during the war. I managed to complete my high-school education and studied German - Czech at Charles University in the Faculty of Arts. I then taught German at Charles University. I taught also German at Ghana Institute of Languages in the sixties and Czech at University in Uppsala, Sweden in the beginning of eighties. In 1989, other Holocaust survivors and I established the Terezin Initiative, in which I serve as chairperson. The organization's goal is to remind the world of the horrors of the Holocaust. Lesson Learned I have learned the value of life, that life is a very important thing. To be alive is a miracle. We should live life so that we can help and be kind to each other. I would live a life that my parents wouldn't be ashamed of. We had a normal life until the Nazis came. We were lucky to leave Auschwitz, and though it didn't seem that we would survive, we tried to survive anyway. We had the will and hope to survive. The experiences have never left me and are imprinted in my memory. I live a busy life, I spent 60 happy years with my late husband, I have three wonderful children and six nice grandchildren and I don't know any other way to relieve that pain. Through my experience, I would tell young generation to be tolerant and fight against the evil. Don't let anybody to be persecuted because of the color of the skin, because of the nation or religion. If we are black, white, yellow, if we are Christians, Muslims or Jews we all are human beings and there is enough space for all of us to live in our beautiful world. Only we must not destroy it! This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Fellow Michiganders, you might think Michigan's fairly safe when it comes to terrorism. Fourteen police departments in our state seem to disagree. They've put themselves on a list to get Mine Resistant Ambush Proof (MRAP) vehicles from the Defense Department. These are designed to withstand ambushes and attacks from IEDs, improvised explosive devices. Here's the list of agencies eager to defend against this violence: Saginaw Police Department Highland Park Police Department Oakland County Sheriff Wayne County Sheriff Niles Police Department Macomb County Sheriff East Lansing Police Department Genesee County Sheriff Westland Police Department Kalamazoo County Sheriff St. Clair Shores Police Department Battle Creek Police Department Wyoming Police Department Novi Police Department Sterling Heights Police Department Mt. Morris Township Police Department If you don't recall ever reading or hearing a news story about mines, IEDs, or ambushes in any of these locales, don't blame your memory. Blame the facts. Advertisement Three possibilities: The cops want to play soldier. An MRAP is a "force multiplier" so it works as intimidation no matter how it's fielded. Or the agencies just want better rides on our lousy roads. When did this happen? When did I lose faith in the fundamental beliefs of Christianity that I'd been raised to respect? What caused me to lean toward atheism? Did I miss something in confirmation class? My pre-teen brain wrestled with the lessons that I hoped would bring me closer to participating in Holy Communion. Knowing there was no escaping this tedium, I nodded in agreement with most of what the vicar said. Truth was, I desperately wanted to wear the white dress and veil. I'd envisioned taking my first sip from the large silver chalice; the one everyone else had slobbered on, before joining the rest of the port-scented-breathing congregation. Perhaps subconsciously I realized that the confirmation ceremony would be the only time in my life, when I would get to walk up a church aisle, adorned in white, with my virginity still in tact. During a term at high school, my Friday evenings were spent inside the church hall, where the place was lit up like a freeway under nightly construction. Beneath the subtle glow of naked fluorescent tubes, a few dozen clumsy pubescent teens whirled and twirled the night away. Ladies in floral dresses taught us stylin' dances such as The Gay Gordons. This dance, of course, quickly became our favorite, purely because we were free to use the word, gay. After class we'd all slosh down drinks crammed full of sugar, and plates of homemade cream cakes made by our proud apron-wearing dance instructors. Once sufficiently amped up on sugar and red dye, we'd race off to smoke cigarettes and drink copious amounts of cheap booze. Church was great! Advertisement Skip forward a few years to two-timing boyfriends, broken hearts, getting high, and ailing grandparents. It seemed that God had stopped listening. No matter how much I prayed, the lessons in my life became more difficult. Growing up was painful. Years passed, and as I climbed the stairs to the dome at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, it was with a heart empty of God. Albeit the feat of ascending the multitude of steep steps was in itself, somewhat miraculous, particularly with the hangover I endured. Sadly, this feeling of religious insecurity followed me to every magnificent church and piece of hallowed ground I visited on my travels across Europe. Later, in Los Angeles around 1982, when I saw my first Hasidic Jew walking along Fairfax Avenue, I thought I'd hit the heart of extreme fashion. Had I stumbled upon L.A.'s equivalent of Kings Road? Any religion that required wearing long black coats and large hats was a winner with me. Turned out, the coats were only for the men, and the women didn't wear Doc Martens. Next came my interest in Eastern philosophy: paychecks spent at The Bodhi Tree bookstore, meditation groups, and yoga classes. For a while, this kind of spirituality held my interest. I read anything to do with New Age. Crystals and incense, oils and gongs, were scattered on any free area of bench space in my Venice walk-street rental. Then I got sober, and my spirituality vanished along with my New Age pot-smoking friends. Advertisement None of us are immune to traumatic situations; moments when we find ourselves needing comfort and searching for answers. Seeing our children suffer pain or life threatening diseases, can bring us to our knees in prayer. But after hearing of a child's death, or yet another avoidable mass shooting, my faith has been weakened. This is what I do know. Those who give to the less fortunate in the name of God, don't brag about it. They don't push their beliefs onto others because they're too busy building homes, cooking food, or delivering clothing to the poor. They don't vomit lies about protecting children, while polishing their right to bear arms. God was not there when my mother suffered from dementia, or when she winced in excruciating pain as the cancer claimed her body. God was not there while my siblings and I waited impatiently for Mom's next dosage of morphine to be administered: her nurses were. But in the moments before she inhaled her final breath -- when she opened her eyes and smiled -- I felt something. And as quickly as I had that thought, that "something" was gone, and so was my Mother. I've accepted that something hovers beyond this reality. Maybe that something was with me when I took my first steps of The Gay Gordons, because to this day I remember that dance. Or maybe that was just "something's" way of telling me that life's a dance, so keep dancing! Earlier on Huff/Post50: RALEIGH - I was catching up with my favorite 8-year-old recently, and the conversation turned, as so many do these days, to the election.No, not the U.S. presidential election, or the governor's race, or the 170 General Assembly seats that will be selected in 2016. There had been a student council election at her charter school, and she had some interesting thoughts to share.My granddaughter was nominated to represent her third-grade class in the council. She lost, explaining, "I think the only person who voted for me was me." Her classmate Penelope won the seat. How? "People liked her. She has a kind heart."My granddaughter went on to tell me who was elected president and the different officers of the student council. Some candidates she supported won; some didn't. When I asked her why she supported one candidate, she said she knew the guy's sister.She supported another because he seemed like a nice person -she speculated. And she supported a third because she liked the candidate's speech and her posters were colorful.All in all, she seemed satisfied with the election results and is optimistic about new leadership at her school.She was disappointed that she didn't win, but she did like that everyone who voted got a rainbow sticker. She showed me hers with a smile.With five more years to go at this school, she plans to run again. This was her first election, and she learned a lot. She'll do things differently next time.She'll explain better how to be the best representative for her class. She won't be mean to anyone, and she'll make sure they all know she has a kind heart.Her campaign platform? She'll work to make her class the top class in the school. She'll make them safer by getting additional supplies in the first-aid kit. And she'll get them everything on their wish list.I came away from this conversation with insight about our upcoming elections. We want our leaders to have kind hearts; safety is an important issue; advertising works; and personal connections matter. Some people will promise anything to get elected. The right to vote makes us feel good. Good candidates are essential for good outcomes.Well-informed candidates are better candidates. In this upcoming election, North Carolina's candidates face tough challenges and difficult questions.What does a responsible state budget look like? What is fair taxation? What is the best way to encourage economic growth and job creation? Are property rights secure? How do we ensure every child gets a good education and has every opportunity to succeed? How are long-term transportation and infrastructure needs best addressed? Can North Carolina be First in Freedom?Running for office can be overwhelming. Where can candidates go for the best ideas to tackle these tough questions? As we've done every election cycle since 2008, the John Locke Foundation is providing candidates information about public policy through educational forums and workshops - incumbents, first-timers, or anyone who may be interested in running later. (Access video of our Jan. 8 forum here.)We offer solutions and ideas based on facts and steeped in data. But we also understand public policy is more than numbers, graphs, and charts, that real people and real families are affected.Whether it's the entrepreneur worried about regulations, a student looking for the education that best fits his needs, or the taxpayer expecting accountability and fiscal responsibility - we have the ideas to ensure North Carolinians have the freedom to pursue their dreams.We understand that having a kind heart means unleashing every individual's potential. And a kind heart, as my favorite 8-year-old observed, is what we want our leaders to have. If you're interested in our candidate education forums, give me a call at (919) 828-3876. UNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 02: The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Leader Of The Civil Rights Movement, Giving A Press Conference Between 1961 And 1968. His Wife Coretta Is Partially Pictured On The Left, Half-Hidden By The Microphone. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images) The day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he delivered a Nobel Lecture entitled, The Quest for Peace and Justice, during which he declared, "There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it." Now, more than 50 years later -- and after trillions of dollars have been spent -- poverty is still a major global problem. In fact, one measure estimates that 30 percent of the world currently lives in poverty. So what happened? If we had the resources to end poverty in 1964, why hasn't it been abolished by now? Advertisement Hundreds of theories could be offered as explanations or excuses, but I think one shortcoming has been our failure to come up with effective solutions, namely because we have not fully understood poverty and why it exists. We tend to assume that poor people are poor because they lack money. After all, lack of money is a symptom of poverty, and income is often used to diagnose and measure poverty. But poverty is not caused by lack of money; it's caused by an inability to make a living. That distinction might seem minor, but it's crucial when designing solutions. When our assessments of the needs of the poor are based on what we observe at a superficial level, we end up giving the poor what we think they should have -- which is not always what they actually need. For example, money, food, and medicine may provide temporary aid, but will not ultimately alleviate poverty. Educating children is a potentially effective strategy for escaping future poverty, but it does not tackle the reason that poverty exists now. Poor people are poor because they lack livelihoods; they lack opportunity for earning sufficient money in order to live. And that lack of opportunity has to do with some fundamental issues. In my experience, for many of the world's poor, the biggest problems they face have to do with satisfying basic needs. They lack clean water, they lack shelter and safety, they lack access to electricity, and they lack access to healthcare. Once those needs are met, people are better able to sustain themselves and their families, to find work, have good health, and to pursue education, steady jobs, and even entrepreneurship. When people are given choice and opportunity, they are then better able to meet their higher level human needs for competence, autonomy, and belongingness -- pillars of wellbeing. But it all starts with the fundamentals. Advertisement It's that perspective that underlies what our team is working on at Stage 2 Innovations, an invention shop dedicated to finding and developing products aimed at addressing the most pressing problems facing humanity in the areas of energy, water, and health. Our products provide households with the actual resources they say they need -- like affordable electricity and clean water suitable for drinking and agriculture -- in order to escape the cycle of perpetual poverty and step into opportunities for long-term livelihoods. This month we will begin deploying our Free Electric bike to villages in rural India that lack access to reliable electricity. Free Electric is a low-cost, easy-to-operate stationary bicycle that, when pedaled for an hour, provides 24 hours worth of electricity -- all without pollution and without a utility bill. Access to free electricity at any time of day or night, regardless of the weather, will open up all kinds of opportunities for hundreds of millions of people to improve their lives -- in terms of productivity, health, education, and making their own livelihoods. Our goal is to have manufacturing and distribution centers in strategic places around the globe in order to address extreme poverty wherever it exists. On January 14, a communique was released from the meeting of Anglican Primates (leaders of the 37 independent provinces of the Anglican communion) that revealed a vote to sanction The Episcopal Church for its recent canonical changes to allow same-sex marriage by limiting its participation in the Anglican Communion. Before the vote, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, warned that this decision would bring more pain to gay and lesbian Christians, and reiterated The Episcopal Church's position. "Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of the culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all. While I understand that many disagree with us, our decision regarding marriage is based on the belief that the words of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians are true for the church today: All who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for all are one in Christ." Presiding Bishop Curry's statement is a welcome message for LGBTIQ people in the U.S. and around the world, and it is desperately needed. Despite The Episcopal Church's General Convention resolutions supporting same sex marriage and equal access to all levels of ministry (lay and ordained) for transgender people, many LGBTIQ Episcopalians in the United States still face discrimination in their churches. Advertisement Some Episcopal bishops in parts of Florida, Texas, New York, Illinois, and other dioceses are not allowing their clergy to perform same sex marriages. Transgender lay people and clergy face varying levels of discrimination at the parish level. Many times transgender people are not even considered for lay or clergy employment and in other cases, they face loss of employment and requests to remove themselves from parish ministries because others feel uncomfortable. Many of the Primates from Anglican provinces in the Global South disagree with The Episcopal Church's movement toward same sex marriages, and this has been a source of conflict for years, beginning most publicly in 2003 with The Episcopal Church's consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson. These disagreements in the Anglican Communion are happening as LGBTIQ people around the world are struggling to secure human rights. Currently homosexuality is illegal in 79 countries around the world, and in 10 countries homosexuality is punishable by death. In 2015, there were 247 people around the world in prison or awaiting trial under anti-homosexuality laws. Thirty-four African countries have such laws and some countries' religious leaders support these laws, including the Anglican Archbishops of Nigeria and Uganda. In 2014, Archbishop Stanley Ntgali, Primate of the Anglican Church of Uganda, criticized his country's constitutional court for striking down its Anti-Homosexuality Act on a technicality, saying, "I appeal to all God-fearing people and all Ugandans to remain committed to the support against homosexuality." That law has since been re-instated, although without the draconian death penalty for same sex sexual behavior. Advertisement In the same year, Archbishop Nicholas Otoh, Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, praised Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan for signing an anti-gay bill into law. Vitriolic religious rhetoric toward LGBTIQ people has real physical, social, economic, and spiritual consequences. LGBTIQ people in the global south are subjected to mob violence, imprisonment, and death. But there is no one religious or Christian view of homosexuality in Africa. The movie Call Me Kuchu documents Ugandan gay activist David Kato's life and work, as well as his death. In the movie, there is a scene at his funeral where a local pastor in David's community begins to speak of David, saying, "I wasn't aware of the work he was doing. Kato is gone. He can't repent, He can't change. The Lord is telling you to change. Sexuality immorality is enough. This is the prayer we ask for, the total destruction of your group. Completely! Completely! And every believer, every person that knows God, repent!" In 2011, this scene and David Kato's death became iconic among LGBTIQ activists. Many of these accounts focused on how the circumstances of Kato's murder demonstrated the real consequences of violent religious rhetoric toward LGBTIQ people. But what many of these accounts failed to notice was that after this local pastor's remarks, David's friends and fellow activists lifted David's casket and took him themselves to his final place of rest. There, Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, an outspoken Anglican bishop who was kicked out of the Ugandan Anglican church because of his support for the LGBTIQ community said to the mourners, "Please don't be discouraged. God created you. God is on your side. This is the gospel I am preaching." He continued, "We pray for the soul of David Kato.... God loves you Kato. He knows you. He brought you into the world. And you have done your work. So rest in peace." Clearly, not all African bishops, nor even all African Anglicans are in agreement on matters of human sexuality. In the wake of the Primates' statement, African LGBTIQ people have already begun to speak out. According to the website Erasing 76 Crimes, a rally called "Listen to LGBTIQ People" was planned for January 15 outside Canterbury Cathedral where the primates are meeting. The African organization Out and Proud Diamond Group is coordinating the rally. They are calling upon the Primates to listen to LGBTIQ people and to campaign against the persecution of LGBTIQ people in their countries and communities. Juliet Akao, a member of Out and Proud Diamond group said, "We are African LGBTIQ people, many of us Anglicans, who simply want to heard. We want an opportunity to speak to the Primates. It is a fair and reasonable request." As Christians in the United States respond to the Primates' statements, we must avoid the temptation to think that certain African Archbishops and African Anglicans are far removed from our day to day realities. They are not. They are our Christian siblings and this is a matter of life and death for them. We must resist the temptation to "blame the West" for imposing its views on homosexuality on African Anglicans. LGBTIQ people are not "western exports." We exist in every country in the world. There is a long history of sexual diversity on the African continent. LGBTIQ activism is not a "western export." If anything, the homophobia and criminalization of homosexuality is a western export. On January 15, one day after their initial communique, the Primates released another statement. It reads in part, "The Primates recognise that the Christian church and within it the Anglican Communion have often acted in a way towards people on the basis of their sexual orientation that has caused deep hurt. Where this has happened they express their profound sorrow and affirm again that God's love for every human being is the same, regardless of their sexuality, and that the church should never by its actions give any other impression." This Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti came and went with little fanfare. On the one hand, this could be a sign of moving on. As Gina Athena Ulysse has powerfully demonstrated, Haiti needs new narratives. Maybe the earthquake story has run its course, in the foreign memory at least. On the other hand, what is the story? Last year, to mark the fifth, dozens of foreign journalists were on the scene. Last year, also on the 12th, Parliament's terms expired, leaving President Martelly to rule by decree and newly-minted Prime Minister Evans Paul to run the government. The political story displaced a sober analysis of the impact of the aid response, while policies to close camps at all costs displaced people a second (or third) time. This year, the political crisis has become the story, with the anniversary only a footnote and analysis of foreign aid almost nonexistent. Advertisement Six years ago the world wept with Haiti, and along with our tears came one of the most generous humanitarian responses in history. Private individuals contributed $3.06 billion, and governments and other official sources pledged $13 billion. By itself, the U.S. Red Cross received half a billion in private donations. Despite these efforts, the answers are often unclear. What is clear to the majority of Haitian people is that the money didn't go to them. Assuming that all pledges materialized, were sent to Haiti, and were distributed to every person there regardless of impact from the earthquake, it would have totaled $1,600 per individual, $8,000 for a household of five. An honest answer must acknowledge that indeed some progress was made: roads are being repaired or asphalted. Government buildings such as the Cour de Cassasion ("Supreme Court") and the l'Hopital de l'Universite d'Etat d'Haiti (the State University of Haiti, or "General Hospital") are starting to come up. Advertisement But these little signs of progress pale in comparison not only to the funds received, but to the need. To put it quickly, Haiti was not "Built Back Better" as UN Special Envoy Bill Clinton promised it would. This cheerful slogan accompanied "Humanitarianism 2.0" - new ways of doing business, with local people and government in the driver's seat, "lessons learned" from the 2004 tsunami. Another of Bill Clinton's slogans happened also to be the leitmotif of the Martelly administration: "Haiti Is Open for Business." In addition to the business of spending billions of aid dollars, the postquake reconstruction was the pretext for a boon in foreign investment: new industrial park in Caracol, high-end tourism in Ile-a-Vache, not to mention advances in gold prospecting. The all-too-evident failures quickly led to a "blame game." The first reflex was to blame the Haitian government and people. Commentators like Pat Robertson and the New York Times also pointed to Haitian culture. Some of the coverage pointed the finger at foreign aid agencies, including NGOs. The shock and outrage was very real but it often led to ad hominem attacks against individual people and agencies, preventing us from seeing failures within the system itself. Advertisement Eventually the U.N. Office of the Special Envoy published lessonsfromhaiti.org - admitting three systemic shortcomings: first is that the model for humanitarian aid had rural settings in mind; second, a lack of coordination hampered efforts, linked to a weak state. Haitian analysts, from people living in the camps to NGO directors, drew additional lessons, moving well beyond these self-critiques. First, experience in Haiti demands asking not only where did the money go but what did it do? Many people in Haiti experienced the aid as an aftershock, causing damage of its own. These humanitarian aftershocks include breaking families up, stoking divisions within communities, disrupting solidarity networks, and an increase in violence against women. Even granting good intentions of foreign agencies, the way aid was delivered excluded the population, and the supposedly "universal" policies crashed into Haitian cultural realities and institutions. People across the spectrum in Haiti detail how they were treated "like animals" or even "worse than dogs." Ilionor Louis distilled an infantalization: aid agencies treated recipients like children, spending millions educating people how to wash their hands even as UN troops brought cholera to Haiti. Many foreign workers in the beginning earned $1000 per day, the equivalent of two families' rental assistance for a year. The ways in which the aid was militarized made crystal clear whose lives were more important. If it's not safe for foreign workers and their vehicles to enter a "Red Zone" or be out during a hurricane, local communities and aid workers are left to fend for themselves. In addition to the exclusion and minimization of local experience and perspective, the humanitarian logic itself needs to be examined: structuring many responses is a "photo op." Rather than ask people where they got their water before the earthquake, and repair the pre-existing public taps at a fraction of the cost, the "solution" of choice was private water trucks where people could be photographed standing in long lines. The same could be said of temporary, or "T-shelters." Advertisement Camp leaders in Karade - now officially a "village" in order to not call it a camp and thus count residents as internally displaced people or "IDPs" - pose a very good question: why, if people needed schools, clinics, and housing, and people in the camps had skills as teachers, nurses, and masons, and billions in aid, this aid didn't go to local people to create their own solutions? The answers go far beyond the blame-game, requiring us to take a sober look at the humanitarian enterprise itself that was worth $22 billion in 2013, up from $17.3 the previous year. And maybe we can learn from Haitian solidarity. One such success story is ITECA, in Gressier, finishing up a project building local capacity while working with residents on rebuilding their homes. What will be the new narrative? Who will write it? Six years later people are degaje, doing what they can. In addition to the dignified memorials to the earthquake, students and activists at the Faculte des Sciences Humaines held a memorial for professor/activist Janil Lwijis, murdered minutes before the earthquake. In the memory of Janil, a fierce critic of foreign imperialism in any form, including NGOs, activists continue the struggle for justice. To be seen is how this mobilization challenges the narrative of the elections, scheduled for January 24 with only one presidential candidate. Advertisement Six years after the earthquake, it's time to do away with the racist discourses that exceptionalize Haiti and see the humanitarian aftershocks in Haiti as a reality check. Do you ever feel like you sometimes get drunk on the drama of a hurt? It initially provides a good buzz but after too many, you suddenly don't feel so good. That's what happened to me last month. I did a bit of traveling to see family and friends, managed through two severe colds and worked relentlessly on a new free product I am going to offer this year. All of that left me exhausted. When I get exhausted, my resilience muscle starts to weaken, and I can easily slip into negative thinking, which is exactly what happened. A decision that someone made hurt me deeply. I spent a small amount of time in a pity party of my own making. I was exhausted, and I didn't have the energy to do anything about it, so I just let it wash over me for a time. I knew the pity party was not a good place for me to stay; it didn't make me feel good or serve me in any positive way. I had to make a decision to change my thinking, to change the way I was reacting because I was only feeding bad thoughts with more evil thoughts. As I sat there stewing on this, I remembered this parable entitled "The Wolf You Feed." An old Cherokee brave told his grandson, "My son, there is a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, and ego. (Fear based) The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth." (Love based) The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one that you feed." What wolf was I feeding? I had to feed the wolf that I wanted to be in charge. If I continued to focus on the hurt and self-pity, I would be feeding the evil wolf. If I focused more on empathy, then I would live in the world of the higher self or the good wolf. My perception would be my reality. I choose to see the situation as one in which wasn't meant to hurt me, even though it did. So essentially I refocused my reaction and acknowledged the pain and then let it go. It didn't serve me, and I didn't need the drama. There are times in life when you just have to take charge of the struggle and decide which wolf you are feeding. If you feed the evil wolf, you feed fear, and you help it to grow and strengthen. Choose to feed the soul. Do you want to feed your soul more? Download my free guide: Today, millions of Americans from all walks of life will join their neighbors in marking the national Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service to help achieve Dr. King's dream of building a more beloved community. And as we settle into a new year, there is no better time to reflect on the progress we've made as a country and the challenges we still face. 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, and with it, the 50th anniversary of an organization I am humbled and honored to lead as its new director: AmeriCorps VISTA. Since its creation by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, AmeriCorps VISTA has carried out its mission to address the root causes of poverty and inequality in America--a mission shared by visionary leaders like President John F. Kennedy and Dr. King. In fact, Dr. King's family asked VISTA members to stand vigil over his casket following his assassination. Advertisement AmeriCorps VISTA has been critical in establishing and strengthening many of the well-known programs integral to our communities, including Head Start and credit unions. They are essential to well-known nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity and local food banks, such as the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas and the Oregon Food Bank. In 2015, we celebrated our program's 50th anniversary, and we shared countless stories of service. As AmeriCorps VISTA's new director, I hope to share more of these stories in the coming months to show how AmeriCorps VISTA members are working directly with communities and strengthening the efforts to lift individuals and families out of poverty. In the meantime, I invite you to see AmeriCorps VISTA's work in action, in real time, and meet the people who proudly proclaim #IamVISTA. Advertisement With passion, commitment, and hard work, AmeriCorps VISTAs are addressing some of the toughest challenges facing the nation today, like ending veteran homelessness, addressing chronic unemployment, and an issue I care deeply about - ensuring children and families have access to healthy food. They are also tackling new challenges like community resilience in the face of natural disasters while using 21st century skills in science, technology, engineering, and math to find new solutions for deep-seeded problems. It was more than 20 years ago when I started my career as an AmeriCorps VISTA supervisor at the Congressional Hunger Center, and I am proud to return to AmeriCorps VISTA today as its leader. But as I step into my new role, I'm not only reflecting on our past, but I'm thinking about our future. The number of Americans who still live in poverty today is far too high. We know the reasons for this are complex and range from the personal to the systemic. They are frustrating. But we can overcome them, one community at a time, by building coalitions, pooling resources, and sharing talents. This is the legacy of AmeriCorps VISTA: for every community that still struggles, I can show you one that is better off than when it started because of a VISTA member's service. It was Dr. King who asked, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'what are you doing for others?'" As someone who has worked to address poverty-related issues my whole life, I can tell you nothing is more meaningful than answering that question by answering the call to serve others. Maps are incredible because they are capable of so much. They can tell you where you are or where you're going. They can inform you about a city's history as well as what to expect in its future. They can even tell you where not to go on Saint Patty's Day, and what microorganisms might crawling around your nearest subway station. This list includes all of that and much more. In no particular order, these are my picks for the 10 best New York City maps of 2015. The most commonly spoken language in each neighborhood that's not English or Spanish Throughout it's history, New York City has served as the primary gateway to the U.S. for immigrant populations from all corners of the world. Some, such as the wave of Germans who arrived in the late 1800s, once made up a substantial portion of the City's population, but have since dispersed throughout the country. Other populations have largely remained in New York, carving out their own local communities in which they retain much of their original culture. Advertisement This multicultural character of New York is clearly apparent when you examine which languages are spoken in the home. Based on data from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, this map displays each neighborhood's most commonly spoken language (other than English or Spanish). Who knew there were places in New York where Yiddish was commonly used, let alone Mande, Amhario, and French Criole? You can read more about the map at the original post by Business Insider. New York City in the style of Inception This visually striking map was made with the Tangram mapping engine, an impressive new tool from Mapzen. What makes Tangram special is its use of WebGL, an esoteric programming library that works directly with your computer's graphics card, allowing complex 3D visuals far beyond what would otherwise be possible. Advertisement The map, reminiscent of the horizonless landscape from Inception, 3D buildings and all, is just a taste of what Tangram is capable of. You can find a few more great examples here. Added bonus: New York City in the style of Tron, another Tangram creation. New York City of the past The New York Public Library's initiative to digitalize its collection of historical documents and photos goes beyond just scanning and uploading. It has recruited the help of NYC's tech community to get the images geocoded, documented, and organized into an API, where there are easily accessible for anyone to use. One result that highlights the NYPL's achievements is this interactive map, OldNYC. Clicking on a red dot brings up a series of historic photos taken in that location. Each one includes a description and the date the photo was taken. To give a sense of the depth of the project, the dots cover nearly every street corner in Manhattan, and an impressively larger number of locations throughout the rest of the city. And many of them may contain a surprisingly large number of photos. On my street alone, which is not a particularly noteworthy place, there are 20 historic photos, all taken within a few hundred feet of my front door. Advertisement New York City of the future This map, by National Geographic, documents the unprecedented transformation that the New York City skyline will undergo over the next few years. 2014 saw the completion of the One57 tower, an ultra-tall, ultra-skinny, and ultra-expensive condominium located just south of Central Park. At a height of 1,005 feet, it was the tallest residential building in New York City and #6 overall... until three months later, when it was surpassed by the taller, skinnier 432 Park Ave tower, constructed only a few blocks away. Over the next few years, One57's height will be surpassed again, and not just once or twice. Construction is either planned or underway for an additional 32 supertall towers, 15 of which will be taller than One57! To learn more about each of these buildings and the neighborhoods where they will be built, have a look at National Geographic's interactive map. New York City of the distant past This map, created by the Welikia Project, gives you a view of "Manahatta" circa 1609, prior to the European arrival to the island. The map allows you to zoom in on the current location of individual blocks to learn more about their original ecology and wildlife. Advertisement Though not viewable in this map, it is striking to see what the southern tip of the island looks like when superimposed over the current map of Manhattan. To give an idea, this next image comes from a 1660 map of the first dutch settlement. Seeing them together makes clear how much of Lower Manhattan's land is actually man made. Street Trees Based on data from New York City's tree census, Brooklyn developer Jill Hubley plotted 600,000 of New York City's street trees, each one color coded by species and sized proportional to trunk diameter. The colors and shapes make for a visually stunning piece of work, one which is not done justice by the image shown here. To fully appreciate the map, it's worth having a look at the interactive version and panning around a bit. Microbes on your morning commute Earlier this year, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College used DNA samples from each of New York City's subway stations to produce the City's first "pathogen map." The samples were found to include genetic material from 15,152 different species. Though the authors acknowledge most of it is harmless, they did identify 67 species of disease-causing bacteria. Perhaps more interesting [and gross] than the study itself is the interactive map made by the Wall Street Journal, which allows you to examine the data yourself. Advertisement Now you know, if you find yourself in the Times Square station, you may be in contact with bacteria associated with medical-device infections, meningitis, toxic cleanup, or Italian cheese. Crime and transparency For the job they have done keeping the city safe from crime, my hat's off to the NYPD. But when it comes to their record on government transparency, the NYPD is perhaps the worst public agency in the country, at any level of government. As it relates to crime data, which they are required by law to post online, the NYPD has released only an incomplete set of details, spanning a short time frame, and locked behind a crude map, leaving the information inaccessible and all but useless to the public. However, on December 30th, I was pleasantly surprised to learn the NYPD had posted the full crime database online. The raw data is now available, along with a map, on the . But you can find a better map with some fascinating analysis on Ben Wellington's . The conclusions include: Murder and assault are at least four times more common in our least affluent neighborhoods as compared to our most affluent ones. More robberies happen in the three hours between 2-5PM, than 2-5AM. The neighborhood with the worst felony ranking is Midtown South , followed by Hunts Point and Ocean Hill . , followed by and . The best ranked neighborhoods are: Arden Heights, Annadale-Huguenot-Prince's Bay-Eltingville, and Rossville-Woodrow, in that order. Inside Airbnb Since the City began cracking down in 2014, Airbnb has become a highly controversial subject in New York. As in other cities, proponents claim Airbnb benefits local businesses by allowing for more tourism. And for those families struggling to afford housing costs and don't mind accommodating guests, it offers a supplemental source of income. Critics argue that Airbnb contributes to the problem of unaffordable housing by inflating rents, that is violates zoning regulations by overcrowding, and it leaves a building's permanent residents feeling unsafe with strangers freely roaming the halls. Advertisement Enter InsideAirbnb. Created by "independent digital storyteller, community activist and technologist" Murray Cox, InsideAirbnb allows you to dig through an impressively large and detailed collection of information about Airbnb rentals in NYC, to help you understand the true consequences for your neighborhood. As described on the website, the map allows you answer questions such as: "How many listings are in my neighbourhood and where are they?" "How many houses and apartments are being rented out frequently to tourists and not to long-term residents?" "How much are hosts making from renting to tourists (compare that to long-term rentals)?" "Which hosts are running a business with multiple listings and where they?" Mapping New York's interestingness Each line in the map represents one person's photo snapping path through New York City. To create the map, Mapbox's Eric Fischer compiled 10 years of geotagged images from flickr, grouped them by photo collection, and joined them together in chronological order. The red lines are those in which the photographer traveled at between 7 and 19 miles per hour between photo sites. The result is a map of the places people found interesting, and the paths in which they traveled through them. This project covers not only New York City, but the entire world. You can explore the interactive version here: Geotaggers World Atlas. Advertisement Placename origins and a housing cost sanity check If you're familiar with Manhattan's ordered layout of parallel streets and avenues, you may have wondered why its most iconic street, Broadway, traverses the island along the diagonal. The answer to that and the origin of many other iconic New York City placenames are contained in this map. The map was made by Constantine Valhouli on behalf of his forthcoming startup NeighborhoodX. Through its analysis of neighborhood-level data, NeighborhoodX aims to give people better insights about their cities and neighborhoods. For an early preview with some surprising results, see this 3D map of NYC housing prices, one of my favorite maps from 2014. Along similar lines, the map below also helps put NYC housing prices in context. Click on a neighborhood marker and it will show you where else in the world you could get an apartment for roughly the same price. Advertisement The real Manhattan subway map This "Judgmental Subway Map" from Thrillist shows what to really expect at each of the subway stops (larger version). For anyone offended by the stereotypes, please don't shoot the messenger. Honorable mention This timelapse of New York City's growth, 1815-2013, comes from reddit user Africare. If you've made it this far and still haven't had enough, here are a few of my own maps/graphics about New York City. Corruption is the mother of all vices. I constantly hear that if governments in emerging countries would solely focus on eliminating corruption without doing anything else these countries would be much better off. Personally I believe that corruption is what transforms a leader into a common thug. In my country, Mexico, we have a large quantity corrupt individuals operating as politicians. Transparency International said that corruption over all was on the rise in Mexico and last year ranked it 102 out of 175 countries in its perception of corruption index, and it ranked last among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Also a New York Times article about corruption in 2012, researched a study from "Global Financial Integrity", a research group in Washington, that said Mexico over all had lost $872 billion between 1970 to 2010 to crime, corruption and tax evasion, with an acceleration of losses since the North American Free Trade Agreement began in 1994 and ushered in a wave of foreign investment. Advertisement Quite apart from the data quantifying the effect of corruption on the economy, it is much harder to gauge the effect that this has on people's perspective of these countries (and how this effects foreign direct investment, tourism, and other economic aspects). Mexico's politicians are effectively dragging down the country. It is widely agreed that the only reason we are not at the same level of G10 countries because of this small group of mafiosos who are only concerned with furthering their own personal interests. A clear example of impunity is the recent arrest (in Spain) of Humberto Moreira, the former governor of Coahuila and the former head of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), for charges of corruption and money laundering. On the local level, things are also sketchy. Our city government in Tijuana demonstrates time and time again that the most important agenda items involve helping their compadres -- their cronies. Even seemingly distinguished candidates that gain a seat in office have to scratch the backs of those that put them in office -- the parties that widely rely on union support for votes. A clear and recent example of this is the trouble that Uber has faced in cities throughout Mexico, including Tijuana, Mexico City and Guadalajara. My proposed solution to eradicate corruption, starting at a local level, is simple. We should introduce a startup mentality into policy making, where we can come up with solutions quickly, validate them efficiently and scale them once they gain traction. My rollout model is the following: 1.Gather a few free-thinking politicians or change makers to try to solve one or two issues regarding a certain topic; 2.Structure a business model canvas without the solution slot; 3.Crowdsource the issue within the community; 4.Share it via social media to get citizens to participate in solutions to the issues; 5.Create a pilot with a small budget in a lean, fast and effective way; 6.Document the impact and failures created after the pilot; 7.Raise public money to create a more aggressive roll-out strategy; 8.Implement the project or policy in the rest of the city or state; 9.Create awareness of the issue being solved with total transparency; 10.Repeat. Advertisement It is easier said then done, I know, as old habits are hard to break. But by implementing a different paradigm in policy making, corruption may be reduced. I believe that politics is much more complex than any industry, because reason doesn't always play as big a role as it should, and as it does in other industries. Despite touting the importance of shared decision making and empowering patients with information about benefits and harms of preventive services, the U.S. Preventive Services Screening Task Force (USPSTF) final breast screening guidelines place all women and especially those with dense breast tissue, about 40 percent of American women, at greater risk of having invasive cancers go undetected. Furthermore, despite decades of research, USPSTF fails to acknowledge the significance of the fact that dense breast tissue can hide cancerous tumors, making them difficult to detect on mammography alone. Empowered with knowledge about breast tissue density and other risks equip women for shared decision making with health care providers about their personal preferences for adjunct screening. Participating in breast cancer screening has one sole purpose: to find cancer early in its natural history. An average-risk woman must not ignore her likelihood of having breast cancer, as more than 75 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer fall within this average-risk group. Although the USPSTF report concludes that mammography is limited in dense breasts and added screening finds invasive cancers invisible by mammography, by not making a recommendation for disclosure and an opportunity for adjunct screening, it denies women access to this important health information. Invasive cancers are not just a nuisance; they can kill. Moreover, USPSTF guidelines place a particular burden on women in their 40s, as it recommends that biennial screening begin at age 50, despite acknowledging that most lives will be saved by starting at age 40. Younger women have a greater likelihood of aggressive cancers. To deny women under 50 access to mammography screening, because of its limitations in detecting cancer in dense breasts, and, in turn, access to adjunct screening, is preposterous. Having no screening puts younger women at a higher risk for a later-stage disease. A 2015 study from the Netherlands concludes that stage at diagnosis of breast cancer still influences overall survival significantly in the current era of effective systemic therapy. Diagnosis of breast cancer at an early stage remains vital. Advertisement In addition, evidence indicates that women who are post menopausal and continue to retain their dense breast tissue are also at greater risk of breast cancer than the average population. Studies have concluded that high breast density increases the risk of breast cancers that have a relatively poorer prognosis. Furthermore, women who are given all the facts about the causal and masking risk of dense breast tissue are empowered to fully participate in decisions regarding mammography screening and supplemental screening. Women have a right to access health information that affects them. Appropriate screening, discussed between physician and patient, is critical for women's health. When screening for breast cancer, dense breast tissue is not something to be ignored. Congress passed the Protecting Access to Lifesaving Screenings Act (PALS Act) in December 2015 which placed a two-year moratorium on USPSTF breast cancer screening recommendations out of concerns that mammography coverage at no cost might be at jeopardy. The lack of acknowledgement by health care providers of the impact of dense breast tissue on missed, delayed and advanced cancers catapulted me to legislative advocacy when I was diagnosed with advanced-stage breast cancer in 2004. Advertisement As a result of Connecticut leadership in education and advocacy, 24 states have enacted legislation requiring the disclosure of dense breast tissue through the mammography report. In the remaining states, notification is voluntary. In 2016, another 8 to 10 states have or will introduce density reporting legislation. Additionally, a federal bill is pending in Congress in both the House and the Senate. American flag in the wind in the sunshine In a world growing more troubled every day, leadership, and particularly American leadership, is more important than ever. That is why the election of the next U.S. president is such a serious matter. It is why so much of the world is paying close attention to how our political season is unfolding. So, what should the next president focus on to make the U.S. and the world a better place? First of all, let's remember that the American president is a head of state as well as the head of government. Once elected, his or her role is to represent the entire nation, not just the victorious party. The governing mandate is not just to address short-term issues, but also to guide the country into the future by taking into account the long-term consequences of policy. Advertisement The U.S. is not an island. Though powerful and prosperous, it cannot thrive alone in a world degenerating into disorder. The precondition for peace and prosperity at home is active and constructive engagement with others, even if they are of differing cultures and ideologies, to establish stability and foster growth. Here are some practical suggestions on both the domestic and international fronts: The Domestic Front: Man using hi-tech computer monitor. (YAGI STUDIO/Getty) The number one priority on the domestic front is jobs of the future. Technology is reshaping all of our lives, our habits, family and work. Advances are taking place on an exponential scale in areas ranging from biotechnology to digital networks to the "Internet of Things." Without a doubt, the benefits will ultimately accrue to everyone if they are spread fairly. But the transition will be widely disruptive. Imbalances and inequality will surely be exacerbated in the short term. The new president will have to consider how a 21st century safety net and trampoline of opportunity meets this challenge. On fiscal issues, the occupant of the Oval Office must design a simplified and fairer tax system that is progressive, but with lower rates and no special deductions. K-12 education remains the foundation of the nation's future. Standards must be boosted to meet globally competitive levels. We must support "common core" and not let the central tenets of learning be shaped by local politics. Advertisement The criminal justice system must move beyond punishment and above race to place more focus on prevention and rehabilitation. It is often said that immigration is what made America. I would put it differently. By integrating immigrants as individual citizens and providing them with the means of upward mobility, America has created a dynamic resource that propels our prosperity and enriches our culture. This is what has distinguished us from Europe. Rather than bashing immigrants and raising fearful walls, we should renew the foundations upon which our aspirational culture has been built. The International Front: President Obama shakes hands with President Xi after their joint news conference in the Rose Garden. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) The fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State, Al Qaeda or other jihadi terrorist groups is not going to make or break America. When the West overreacts to their attacks, the jihadis win. We have too often been played by the terrorists, who, like judo fighters, leverage our own strength against us with minimal effort and sustainable capacity. Tragic as it is, the situation in the Middle East is, in the end, a matter for battling local and regional players to settle. Have we not learned from 15 years of war after 9/11, only to see the rise of ISIS, that outside intervention is counterproductive? For the first time since the end of the Cold War, two major world powers with distinctly different cultural and political orientations -- the U.S. and China -- are contending to shape the global order. By lifting itself out of poverty and rising to the top ranks of the world economy, China has enabled other emerging countries to grow and has become an indispensable engine for global prosperity in the decades ahead. The 21st century will only find peace and security if America and China work together and do not become enemies. To avoid that historic blunder, mutual respect and understanding need to be built through a working relationship between the next U.S. president and China's President Xi Jinping. While standing firm on American interests such as cyber defense and opposition to changing borders by force, the next U.S. president must also seek to avert pushing China and Russia into a more formal alliance. Russia, like the U.S. itself, is refurbishing its nuclear arsenal. The worst geopolitical development would be for the world to break up once again into rigid bloc systems fortified by a new nuclear arms race. Even if the ethical calculus is not clean, working with Russia is also essential for global security. In many ways, President Putin just wants respect. And the next U.S. president should grant that respect with no less illusions than during the stable years of detente with the Soviet Union. For the West to remain strong in facing this new competition with the East, the U.S. needs a powerful civilizational ally in Europe. Europe today, however, is no longer functional as a reliable partner. On the contrary, it is paralyzed by every crisis it faces -- from Greek debt to refugees -- and is disintegrating before our eyes. As the de facto leader of the West, the next American president should press for a Europe that, at a minimum, federates fiscal and foreign policies, immigration and energy policies -- in short, a common Europe that is the other pillar of the West. Otherwise America will have to rely on a series of nations, each too small to matter alone, yet each also hobbled by the straightjacket of being part of a dysfunctional European Union. There are positive developments for the next American president to capitalize on: The Paris climate accords; lower oil prices; the chance to bring Iran back into the fold of the world; winds of change in Argentina, Venezuela and Cuba; and the olive branch that Indian Prime Minister Modi has extended to Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif in that volatile part of the world. Advertisement The next American president will face some of the greatest challenges -- but also the biggest opportunities -- history has to offer. The coming U.S. election could not be more consequential. Responsible voters should make the right choice by choosing a president who will focus on the right things. Earlier on WorldPost: In this picture taken Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, a Syrian refugee woman carries her baby on her back as she walks in mud from the heavy rain, at a refugee camp in the town of Hosh Hareem, in the Bekaa valley, east Lebanon. A snowstorm engulfed Lebanon on the first day of the new year, cutting off mountain roads, isolating villages and worsening living conditions for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) I choose to give my life for those who have been left out ... This is the way I'm going. If it means suffering a little bit, I'm going that way.... If it means dying for them, I'm going that way. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., from "The Good Samaritan," 1966 Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform and the anti-immigrant activists who oppose it have one thing in common: both invoke the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. to support their positions on immigration. Today the immigration question, particularly regarding amnesty and pathways to full citizenship, is perhaps as divisive a force in American life as it has ever been, with leading presidential aspirants actually demonizing immigrants generally as criminals, deviants and undercover terrorists. Even more alarming is the call by several candidates for the deportation of undocumented immigrants en masse. In this season of celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday, it is important to revisit the factors that animated him in order to protect his memory from being misused to serve purposes that he would never embrace. Advertisement The differences between pro- and anti-immigrant positions are stark. For instance, for the King birthday observances in 2014 and 2015, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), an anti-immigration group, released a televised ad criticizing President Obama's executive action granting work authorization to a sizable number of America's undocumented immigrants as a betrayal of King's vision for America. With more than a hint of negative judgment it asked, "Was that Dr. King's dream?" In his book, What Would Martin Say?, Clarence Jones, one of King's lawyers and a close advisor, argues that King would vehemently oppose any form of amnesty for undocumented immigrants: He'd say, 'If you're in this country illegally, have you come here in order to protest what you consider an 'unjust law?' If you haven't, then for whatever other reason you're here, even if it's to make money for your sick child, which is as good a reason as there is, then you're just violating the immigration laws of this country and deserve no more consideration from the authorities than does a thief. Among those who claim King's legacy as supportive of immigrant rights is the National Immigration Law Center. On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington its executive director, Marielena Hincapie, said of King: We share his dream that all people -- regardless of their race, gender, or immigration or economic status -- be treated equally, fairly, and humanely... that all people have equal access to justice, education, government resources and economic opportunities, and are able to achieve their full potential as human beings. An African-American activist pastor put it this way, "Dr. King invoked the truth ... that all humans ought to be treated with a certain dignity. It would be natural for us to look to him as an example for fighting for a just cause." Despite his appropriation by both sides of the immigration question in America, apparently Martin Luther King never directly addressed the issue; in his day it was not perceived as the major crisis that it is today. Still, we may with a good deal of confidence project what his position on immigration might be at this juncture in that we know the factors that would shape and inform his thinking on it; they are the same factors that shaped his thinking and his activism on every public issue he addressed. These factors include the witness of the Bible, in this case biblical pronouncements about the treatment of immigrants by citizens of a country not their own, and King's belief that every human being is imago dei -- made in the image of God. These factors were undergirded by the foundational ethical teachings of the Bible to which King appealed throughout his social ministry -- justice and love. One of the most important themes in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is hospitality and care for the ger, a Hebrew term variously translated as sojourner, alien, resident alien, stranger, foreigner and immigrant. Several of these terms for ger will be used interchangeably here. The Bible gives specific directives on how the ger -- the immigrant, the resident alien -- should be treated. Among them are the following: Society has a sacred responsibility for the welfare of immigrants: "[God] makes sure that orphans and widows are treated fairly; [God] loves the foreigners who live with our people, and gives them food and clothing. So then, show love for those foreigners, because you were once foreigners in Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:18-19). "This is what the Lord Almighty said: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor'" (Zechariah 7:9-10). "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien" (Leviticus 23:22). Immigrants are to be treated with justice and fairness: "Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice" (Deuteronomy 27:19). Advertisement "Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien" (Deuteronomy 1:16). "When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien" (Leviticus 19:33). Regulatory protections are to be provided for immigrants: "You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other citizens or aliens who reside in your land" (Deuteronomy 24:14). "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that ... the resident alien may be refreshed" (Exodus 23:12-13). Immigrants are to be accepted as social equals: "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 19:34). "You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19) Advertisement Moreover, in the Greek New Testament believers are often characterized as "aliens" and "strangers" (xenoi), in the sense of immigrants in a new land (of faith), as in 1 Peter: "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles..." (2:1). The Letter to the Hebrews offers a metaphysical reason for treating immigrants with care: "Do not neglect hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it." (13:2) These are among the biblical teachings with which King, a third generation preacher, was imbued from his youth. Although as far as we know King never publicly spoke about immigration issues, at least as they are presented today, what his positions might be today can be gleaned from his writings. In his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" King wrote: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. In that letter King specifically made reference to charges that protest activities in Birmingham by the non-resident King made him an interloper, an outsider come to make trouble. But his words also hold a profound significance for America's immigration question: that when it comes to human rights and welfare, to efforts to achieve justice and a decent quality of life, no one should be excluded: "... inescapable network of mutuality... a single garment of destiny... never be considered an outsider anywhere..." King truly believed in "love your neighbor as yourself." It was his view that it is people's humanity that is primary, not their nationality or geographic origins; that one's humanity and claim to humane treatment cannot be diminished by a lack of official documentation; and that neither possession of documents nor the lack thereof had anything to do with the right to pursue a decent life and living for oneself and one's family. King's radical inclusivity is reflected in a September 1966 telegram he sent to Cesar Chavez, head of the United Farm Workers, a union largely comprised of undocumented immigrant workers. King wrote, "As brothers in the fight for equality.... Our struggles are really one: a struggle for freedom, for dignity and for humanity." Advertisement What can we conclude from all of this? We cannot know for sure what specific policies King would propose or support, but there are several things that we can venture with assurance: that King would condemn the demonization of undocumented immigrants, the name-calling and general characterization of them as rapists and criminals and terrorists; he would condemn the objectification of undocumented immigrants as "illegals," a term that fails to reflect their humanity and human worth; and he would reject the narrow, legalistic nationalism of the type Clarence Jones attempts to pin on him. But first and foremost, we know that he would have the same measure of concern for the welfare and security of undocumented immigrants that he held for all people of every rank, religion, race and nationality: that they and their children should have adequate food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, education and suitable life-chances. Many students and their families are starting to wonder about the value of going to college at every expense only to come back home afterwards and settle into a mundane job that high schoolers could do. Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa examined that growing problem in their latest book, Aspiring Adults Adrift.Colleges that can point to successes in preparing students for careers and helping them land jobs that actually call for higher education therefore have a big advantage over those that can't. As a result, the last decade has seen a surge in college programs intended to integrate study and work.Here is an intriguing example. In 2013, the University of Maryland teamed up with aerospace giant Northrop Grumman to create an undergraduate program in the important field of cybersecurity in the Clark School of Engineering. (Press release here .) Students will go through an intensive curriculum and undertake real-world projects, and interact with Northrop Grumman personnel.I think it's a safe bet that no student who completes that program will end up serving coffee or delivering pizza.by Peter Stokes is to my knowledge the first book to focus on the trend of collaboration between college and business-colleges crafting their programs after finding out what knowledge and skills employers want.The book is both revelatory and thought provoking. Moreover, it evidently has the approval of the higher education establishment, given that the foreword was written by Louis Soares of the American Council on Education. Apparently, it is respectable to say that colleges can improve by incorporating business ideas.Stokes, managing director at the Huron Consulting Group, formerly worked as vice president for global strategy and business development at Northeastern University. (Northeastern is one of three schools he focuses on in detail, the other two being Georgia Tech and NYU.) He argues that colleges and universities should "turn to employability" to strengthen themselves and become more attuned to the economic climate.Those that don't, he writes, "will not only face more competition for students from college and university peers, but they will also risk being supplanted by an array of entrepreneurial ventures seeking to connect students with marketable skills and career opportunities."Most of the book is devoted to Stokes's three case studies, but he begins with a chapter on the great variety of non-college ventures that are also trying to gain by improving the link between education and employment. Those ventures are worth looking at because, as he says, if colleges don't do better, they will lose students who will bypass them and get both education and job placement from these competitors.Who are they?One large group consists of the coding academies. The U.S. has huge demand for people who can write computer code and numerous firms have entered that training field. For fees that are a small fraction of the cost of earning a traditional college degree, students get an immersion in coding and a near guarantee of lucrative employment.While some education traditionalists will grumble, "it's just occupational training," that is precisely what a lot of young Americans want. Colleges will keep losing students to schools that offer useful training and a high probability of employment if they don't start to work with business.Besides coding academies, there are lots of firms seeking to act as students' intermediaries between school and work. For instance, there is Work America , which, according to founder Collin Gutman, "gets jobs for people before they start a college class."Stokes sums up: "Taken as a whole, these initiatives suggest a number of ways in which colleges, in collaboration with industry, government, and nonprofit partners, might think about integrating study and work in deeper ways...."So, what are colleges doing to serve students who aren't enrolled just for a few years of fun, but are thinking ahead to careers?Georgia Tech is buzzing with efforts. One is its Capstone Design Expo . Companies can propose projects and sponsor teams. Students who participate start learning about those firms and the relationships that spring up can lead to excellent careers.Another is GT's Veterans Education and Training Transition, a four-week "bridge" program in partnership with Hewlett Packard that teaches vets to use their military skills to pursue civilian jobs.No doubt the best known of the GT initiatives is its online masters in computer science, a high-quality degree costing only about $7,000. Launched in fall 2014, the program's returns are encouraging. In the long run, it's expected to "offer new ways for Georgia Tech to deepen its relationship with industry partners while extending the university's reach both nationally and internationally."At New York University, business-connected programs include Business Boot Camp for Liberal Arts Students. It addresses the fact that many liberal arts students have only a dim (often erroneously negative) idea about the corporate world. The camp promises them "everything you'll need to take the working world by storm."That brings up an important point-schools can collaborate with the business sector and still offer a good liberal arts education. Part of the discovery process colleges will go through consists of figuring out the best educational blends; there won't be a single right one.NYU also offers "Professional Advantage," a three-week summer program that gives students industry and career exposure-a big advantage in looking for entry-level positions.And Bob Ubell, dean for Online Learning at NYU's Polytechnic School of Engineering unabashedly says, "Curriculum that matches corporate objectives is what ultimately sells."Finally, at Stokes's old school, Northeastern, president Joseph Aoun states, "Employers shape our agenda today." The university wants to create a "talent pipeline for employers," and toward that end has collaborated with Bank of America, Duke Energy, Siemens and other firms.For example, before establishing a master's in computer science, Northeastern consulted extensively with employers in Seattle (a hotbed of computer titans and also startups) to get valuable insights in the ideal curriculum design. The school has also set up a program called ALIGN (Accelerated Link to Industry through Northeastern's Global Network) which helps graduates with the proper academic foundations land jobs in fields like bioinformatics and information assurance.Stokes has expertly highlighted a strong trend in American higher education, but it is one that upsets some educational traditionalists. It especially bothers professors who disdain business and feel that any connections to it will contaminate the pure enterprise of imparting "real" education. But given the wide acceptance of collaborating with business (found even at such liberal bastions such as Middlebury College), schools that hold back because a few faculty dislike the idea will be hurting their chances of survival.The old model of higher education was, Stokes writes, one of "learn-learn-learn-certify-wait-wait-wait-deploy" but we are moving into a different model of lifetime learning he labels "learn-certify-deploy, learn-certify-deploy." For many students, that will work far better.In his book Abelard to Apple , Richard DeMillo noted that for quite a few centuries, we have lived with "faculty-centered" colleges, where students paid their money and learned with the professors thought they should learn. But the faculty-centered college is starting to give way to the original, student-centered concept: schools that are driven to find out what students want.What most of them want, I suspect, is postsecondary learning that helps them get into a good career. The changes Stokes discusses are consistent with a competition driven swing back toward student-centered colleges. When it comes to the question of Texas Senator Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president, Cruz has some extra attention and nothing to fear from millennials, according to recent polls. Cruz's citizenship has been a hot topic ever since Donald Trump has started targeting the Texas senator. Ted Cruz was born in Canada and was a Canadian citizen until 15 months ago. Lawsuits have just been filed with more to follow. I told you so Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2016 Advertisement But Trump's attacks may have backfired. 58 percent of those polled by YouGov, said they still believe that Cruz is eligible to be president, despite being born in Canada, according to the poll. Millennials polled 56 percent saying he is eligible to be president, but 26 percent said they were not sure. However, in the same poll, when asked if they thought President Barack Obama was born in the United States, Millennials voted overwhelmingly yes, according to the poll. Trump's attacks seem to have especially backfired with Millennials, 68 percent said they just thought Trump was trying to attack Cruz. Advertisement Since Trump began his attacks, Cruz's citizenship has been incredibly popular on Google. The phrase "Ted Cruz citizenship" has an index number of 100 on Google Trends, which means that of the number of things googled, this phrase is 10% of the searches, according to the Google Trends Support page. Just the phrase "Ted Cruz" itself is very popular on Google, most significantly in Iowa and New Hampshire. Trump, despite his attacks, is a less popular search topic than Cruz in these key states. If Bernie Sanders is nominated by the Democratic Party I will support him. Hopefully wiser heads will prevail. Many of the ideas he campaigns on sound good. But Hillary Clinton's strong progressive policy agenda is 100% more realistic. She understands what Sanders doesn't; to make progress one must work with those who disagree with you. Sanders is the wrong choice for Democrats and the nation at this time. His stump speech, much of which he repeated in the debate, doesn't tell the whole truth to the American public or his supporters. Waving your hands and yelling doesn't make what you say any more feasible. He is still the politician who made a deal with the NRA to win his seat. As a member of Congress for twenty-five years he knows perfectly well the chance of having his proposals come to fruition at this time is zero. Only in an alternate reality would congress pass legislation to raise everyone's taxes which he calls for to make college free for all and pass a national single-payer healthcare system. Sanders appears to be doing well in some polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. His rallies are nearly all-white with many young people. It seems many attendees are not heavily involved in politics but responding to his call to change the system. Students love the idea of free college. Poor people feeling anger at the establishment might love the idea of Medicare-for-all which they often misunderstand to be free healthcare. Sanders knows nothing is free. Two hours before last night's debate he released another healthcare plan differing little from the nine he has previously introduced in Congress. One see's right away taxes go way up on everyone to cover its cost. Advertisement In his stump speech he talks about economic equality and hollers to the crowds he will raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires. He neglects to mention he will ask everyone to pay higher taxes. Reminds me of speaking to college students on marriage-equality. Two guys said they were going to marry the moment it was legal. I asked if they understood they would be responsible for each other's loans; they were shocked. No one ever told them of the responsibilities that come with marriage. Sanders is intentionally leaving out the costs each person will bear if his programs could ever be implemented. Bernie Sanders repeated during the debate he is a socialist calling for a political revolution. He has compared the United States to Denmark to promote his revolution. The indisputable fact is when the government pays for college educations and healthcare among other services they need more money to do it. Nothing is free. Snopes.com fact checked and looked at one Dane's view of reality. Dane's pay much more of their income to the government. While personally I am OK with higher taxes in the general election this is a guaranteed loser. Remember Walter Mondale? He suggested raising everyone's taxes by $1,000; or George HW Bush breaking his no new taxes promise; we never had a President Mondale and HW was a one-termer. Nate Silver of Five-Thirty-Eight gives Clinton an 81% chance of winning Iowa and an even chance to win NH. While the media is trying to pitch the idea of a Sanders surge the latest national polling by NBC/WSJ has Clinton increasing her lead over him to 25%. Democrats understand the views of the left-wing of the Democratic Party are not representative of the general electorate. We went down this road with George McGovern; anyone remember a President McGovern? Believing the American general electorate in 2016 is ready to follow Bernie Sanders into a revolution is delusionary. Not even most Democrats are ready to do that. We saw in past elections primary voters in many early states are not representative of the electorate. Remember Rick Santorum? He won the Republican Iowa primary in 2012. Bill Clinton didn't win Iowa or New Hampshire and he was President. Advertisement Then there is the issue of leadership. Bernie Sanders has never been a leader. He would still be totally unknown had Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) entered the Democratic Primary. He was an activist along with others, not a leader in the civil rights movement; is only a sometimes supporter of the women's movement, immigration reform and the LGBT fight for human and civil rights. He was a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. There is a reason its leaders have now endorsed Hillary Clinton. The Sanders revolution is focused on big banks but it's Clinton's plan to curb the big banks and fight Wall Street that is considered better by progressive economist Paul Krugman, and been praised by Elizabeth Warren. Foreign policy experience and a diplomatic demeanor are crucial for a US President. Sanders has neither. When asked to comment on the world situation he reverts to talking about the economy. He attacks Clinton for her vote nearly fifteen years ago to allow George Bush to send troops to Iraq. A vote for which she has apologized. But Hillary didn't decide if and when to send troops. That decision along with mismanagement of the war is all George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Sanders did vote for the "Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in 2001 to grant the President the authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those whom he determined "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups." That resolution is still in force and what President Obama uses as authority to send troops to the area today. By Nicole Espy, Alexandra Montoya, Manasi Sharma, and Liliana Taramuel Graphic depicting the cycle of incorporating local ideas into other local settings around the world. Local innovations from Medellin can be used to create systematic change at the national level in Colombia and, with culturally relevant modifications, in other countries and continents. Art by Alexandra Montoya, edited by Kelly Fitzsimmons Photography. In Granizal, an informal settlement atop the mountains overlooking Medellin, Colombia, a tale of two different places begins to emerge as the sun begins to rise. During the early 1990's, Medellin had the world's highest homicide rate of 400 for every 100,000 people. Additionally, by 2011 more than 200,000 of the 5 million people affected by the conflict were displaced to the outskirts of Medellin. The history of violence and the influx of people into this urban area demanded a change in the way people understood and lived in their city - it's called for social transformation. Today's panorama shows us a safer city that continues to build itself despite the aftermath of the conflict and is grounded on the concept of "social urbanism." Internationally renowned, Medellin now embodies themes of innovation, renovation, and vitality, transforming static spaces into kinetic and dynamic areas reflecting a resilient community. These social development interventions that were applied to the poorest and most vulnerable populations in Medellin can also be understood in a global context but have yet to reach the top of the mountain. Advertisement The unpaved road to Medellin from Granizal is cemented with many physical, social and economic obstacles. While the vastness of Medellin and its immense resources can be easily seen from the perch of Granizal's dense unplanned maze of precariously constructed housing, the access to those resources seems out of reach for the 22,000 persons that it harbors. However, this dissociation presents the opportunity to innovate and transform, not unlike the big city below. We arrived after a steep climb and settled in to meet the community and their leaders. Thanks to the partnership between the Open Hands Initiative, the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, and the Universidad de Antioquia School of Medicine, we were brought to learn how a community identifies and prioritizes its problems and creates solutions - a real lesson in global health that can be applied to many other local settings. Professor Jaime Gomez (4th from right) participating in discussion with students and community leaders in Granizal. Advertisement In the shade of the Salon Comunal in Granizal, Keyla Lopera sets up three laptops and connects them to the Internet. The residents of the settlement, most of who were displaced from their homes due to conflict and poverty, began arriving to the community center. They were there to learn basic computer functionality, the uses of Microsoft Word, and how to find health information and educational resources on the Internet. Keyla, a public health student from Granizal, leads programs like these each week, connecting her community to the vital healthcare resources found in the city below, as well as to the online world. Since 2004, Dr. Jaime Gomez, a professor of the School of Medicine at Universidad de Antioquia, has cultivated working relationships with the Granizal community leaders, mentored the next generation of leaders such as Keyla, and instilled a culturally sensitive understanding of local needs. He has done this by collaborating with the community leaders and by using a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) method. More and more, the global public health community is recognizing the importance of CBPR as it encourages a collaborative and bidirectional relationship between the local communities and researchers. This bottom-up approach to systems change ensures that the community sets its own research priorities and agendas. The Granizal community identified education, health and access to services, women and children's health, and census and mapping as their main needs. Our focus in the comuna was not only to get to know the community members, hear their needs, and forge relationships, but also to leave something behind. We spent the day in Granizal conducting a small census mapping activity, creating an Internet cafe, handing out medications in a deworming clinic, and training in first aid. We hope our gestures helped to demonstrate the power of mapping when advocating for public services, aided in computer literacy, addressed local health needs, and built medical capacity. Realizing that this was an initial attempt at generating innovative solutions to the community-identified needs, we look forward to this endeavor gaining momentum and facilitating the self-sustaining growth of Granizal. We learned that the CBPR process builds trust, creates local capacity, and increases the probability of sustainable change through community empowerment, meaningful partnerships, and network development. These guiding principles are critical in shaping our ongoing work with the Granizal community. Students and community leaders walking around Granizal.We were humbled by the experience and the people of Granizal. We were awed by the passion and dedication of leaders like Keyla and Professor Jaime. We learned that such local experiences in human development with vulnerable populations can be understood in a global context and applied again to a local level in other regions. Our challenge now is to be the voice of this community as we engage with local and national policymakers. We aim to be public health servants who will use research methodology and create evidence-based tools that can be applied to local communities in a sustainable and innovative way. Advertisement As the sun sets in Granizal, the community returns to their realities and we drive down the winding road back to Medellin. We realize that despite their significant differences these two places have one thing in common - a people full of hope, passion, and resilience with a clear vision for a better future. I was a huge Bowie fan back in day, which made it really strange that I did not recognize him when I met him backstage at The Bottom Line during a Steve Reich and his 18 Musicians concert. This light haired, well-groomed guy stood there in an argyle vest and pegged pants. Maybe I was clueless because he wasn't wearing lipstick or glitter. The preppie guy and I talked about the lizard on top of the Lone Star Cafe at 13th Street and 5th Avenue very near home for me in the West Village. As we chatted, a room full of people leaned in. I could feel the heat of their bodies and curiosity. What were we talking about, rapt and oblivious to them? I let them press in until I was out the door; suddenly the face hit. After hearing that he could, in addition to shape shifting onstage, blend into the ebb and flow of characters in the city, unrecognized, I feel less sheepish. I located in my cache of belongings, six of Bowie's albums from key periods of his astonishing career. My collection of Bowie vinyl could have been sent off to storage obscurity, but instead ended up in my living room with carefully culled "selects" of some Miles Davis and Coltrane. Today they seem extra precious. Two summers ago in Berlin, I wandered into the Martin Gropius Bau. Among the exhibitions: David Bowie. There displayed in room after room: his chronology, art, style, influence and affinities. I saw pictures of two artists who had influenced me when I first arrived in Manhattan in the '70s. One was Klaus Nomi. I used to have afternoon coffee with him at Sutter's, at the foot of the Women's House of Detention before it became a branch of the New York Public Library. Klaus and I both hailed from Germany under very different circumstances, and, Germans together, we shared a passion for coffee in the afternoon. He was an assemblage of triangles from his pointy shoulders to pursed lips, applied dark lipstick at the table, and sang in a falsetto like Lou Christie. Unlike Bowie, with whom he'd worked, Klaus did not "blend." He vanished in the early '80s, one of the first to go in the scourge of AIDS. Advertisement The other was William S. Burroughs who had perhaps the most profound influence on me. Bowie and Burroughs knew each other from intersecting planets. When I met him, Burroughs, the father of punk, the most alive junky in New York at the time, was poised to take off for outer space. He told me, we won't need our bodies for this time/space excursion. Why would we? They are only the clutter of biology, rife for the encumbrance of addiction. Our minds would get there before us. Maybe Bowie would agree. With the creation of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the questions of universality of certain United Nations mandates has been given new prominence. United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme was created in the 1970s as the organizations that enables the UN system to engage volunteers and volunteerism for peace and development. This mandates builds on the universality of volunteerism as an intrinsic value in all cultures and communities. Traditionally, international volunteering was equated with middle class young people from the global north, doing good deeds in the developing world and providing additional capacity to accelerate economic and social development. This stereotype is based on an outdated reality. Currently we, at UNV, are sending nationals from over 159 nationalities to 132 developing countries; over 80 percent of these volunteers coming from the Global South themselves. A larger portion of the global south has achieved middle income status, no longer has real capacity deficits and is looking at its own role in international volunteering. This phenomenon is not just a function of financial capability, but more often one of knowledge, skills and attributes that have grown into a competency to think and act beyond ones boarders in an increasingly connected and interdependent world. Advertisement Fredkoprset in Norway has been promoting South-North volunteering where citizens from the global south volunteer in different social services projects in Norway. The programme aims at creating a life changing experience for the volunteer, so that they can take their personal and professional growth with them back home. The theory of change is based on the experience Norway had with their returning volunteers; people who came back significantly changed, often as better professionals and more grounded individuals. As time went on, the different cohorts of returning volunteers became voices of equity, human rights and social justice in their own societies and have had significant influence in political parties and social movements. Building on this experience, South-North volunteering and North-South volunteering, are creating agents of change in both spheres of the globe - true global citizens. Twenty years ago, the world was riveted to the bloody ethnic conflicts that exploded in the former Yugoslavia. Mass ethnic killings dominated the news. This conflict in southern Europe's Balkan region posed a deep threat to the overall stability of Europe. After years of war, relative peace was finally restored by NATO peacekeepers, limited military action and the diplomatic skills of the United States and its European allies. The southernmost of those former Yugoslav republics, Macedonia, now threatens to slide back into instability if its political parties -- with the help of a European Union mediator -- fail to agree on the implementation of last year's agreement to settle a long-running political crisis. Advertisement Last week one of those parties threatened to boycott April elections that all parties agreed a year ago would provide the centerpiece for a political settlement and a new start. The political instability adds another toxic ingredient to an already potentially explosive mixture in the region. What makes the problem particularly urgent for the world outside of the Balkans is Macedonia's status as a major transit point for hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn regions, such as Syria, who are entering the country -- mostly on their way to seek resettlement in the EU countries of northern Europe. More than 600,000 refugees have transited through the country in 2015 alone, with projections showing the refugee flow not likely to abate in the coming months or the near future. Advertisement The strain brought on by the influx of refugees is complicated by the fragile economic situation. Macedonia is a landlocked country of two million surrounded by Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Bulgaria. The entire Balkan Peninsula, home to about 70 million people, is still reeling from the impact of the Greek economic crisis, and the collapse of Russian demand for their exports. During the conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, 360,000 Albanians took refuge in Macedonian camps. Soon after, Albanian nationalists on both sides of the border took up arms demanding an autonomous region in areas of Macedonia with heavy concentrations of Albanians. That war ended with an agreement that provided more Albanian autonomy, which was policed by a NATO monitoring force. The latest Macedonia's political crisis erupted out of a controversy over alleged government spying on the opposition and disputes over the electoral process itself that played out for months last year. Given the history -- and Macedonia's critical strategic location -- the EU appointed a mediator to settle the crisis. The process was led by European Commissioner Johannes Hahn. The government itself had a massive incentive to cooperate with Hahn, since it has long sought membership in the EU. Advertisement All four major political parties -- including two ethnic Albanian parties, signed the Przino Agreement brokered by Hahn last year. It called for the resignation of the current Prime Minister 100 days prior to an April 24th election that would be administered by an interim administration. But now that process has begun to unravel. The main opposition party, led by Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev has pulled out of the agreement and threatens to boycott the agreed elections, throwing their legitimacy -- and the country's stability -- completely up for grabs. It is critical for the stability of the region -- and for Europe -- that all parties come together to implement the EU brokered process that includes the April 24 elections. And the international community should do everything necessary to guarantee fair and transparent elections. Last week, Vice President Joe Biden said he "agreed on the importance of continued implementation of the Przino Agreement and taking the actions necessary to ensure credible elections." This week, European Commissioner Hahn is continuing negotiations with Macedonia's four major political parties and pledged the full support of Europe's institutions to stand up, support and monitor the April elections including the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights' plan to send 24 permanent observers leading up to the election. Advertisement Macedonian voters deserve the chance to vote after being promised April elections. Just as important, it is critical to all of us that a fully-functional elected government be put in place to help stabilize an explosive region and to deal with the migrant crisis -- the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. 1. "He'd never beat Trump or Cruz in a general election." Wrong. According to the latest polls, Bernie is the strongest Democratic candidate in the general election, defeating both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in hypothetical matchups. (The latest RealClear Politics averages of all polls shows Bernie beating Trump by a larger margin than Hillary beats Trump, and Bernie beating Cruz while Hillary loses to Cruz.) 2. "He couldn't get any of his ideas implemented because Congress would reject them." If both house of Congress remain in Republican hands, no Democrat will be able to get much legislation through Congress, and will have to rely instead on executive orders and regulations. But there's a higher likelihood of kicking Republicans out if Bernie's "political revolution" continues to surge around America, bringing with it millions of young people and other voters, and keeping them politically engaged. Advertisement 3. "America would never elect a socialist." P-l-e-a-s-e. America's most successful and beloved government programs are social insurance - Social Security and Medicare. A highway is a shared social expenditure, as is the military and public parks and schools. The problem is we now have excessive socialism for the rich (bailouts of Wall Street, subsidies for Big Ag and Big Pharma, monopolization by cable companies and giant health insurers, giant tax-deductible CEO pay packages) - all of which Bernie wants to end or prevent. 4. "His single-payer healthcare proposal would cost so much it would require raising taxes on the middle class." This is a duplicitous argument. Single-payer systems in other rich nations have proven cheaper than private for-profit health insurers because they don't spend huge sums on advertising, marketing, executive pay, and billing. So even if the Sanders single-payer plan did require some higher taxes, Americans would come out way ahead because they'd save far more than that on health insurance. 5. "His plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules." Advertisement Baloney. Three-quarters of college students today already attend public universities financed largely by state governments, and they're not run by government rules. The real problem is too many young people still can't afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and extended into the 1960s came to an abrupt stop in the 1980s. We must restart it. 6. "He's too old." Untrue. He's in great health. Have you seen how agile and forceful he is as he campaigns around the country? These days, 70s are the new 60s. (He's younger than four of the nine Supreme Court justices.) In any event, the issue isn't age; it's having the right values. FDR was paralyzed." In any event, the issue isn't age; it's having the right values. was paralyzed, and JFK had Addison's Crohn's diseases, but they were great presidents because they fought adamantly for social and economic justice. Bernie Sanders' new plan for achieving the dream of countless Americans for nearly a century -- healthcare coverage for everyone -- deserves all of our thanks. And nurses will fight to make it come true. Sen. Sanders' plan also aligns with the official position of the AFL-CIO, which has endorsed single payer health care, Medicare for all. The AFL-CIO repeated that pledge most recently again last July when its Executive Council specifically endorsed single payer as part of its national Raising Wages campaign. Indeed, as National Nurses United has long noted, improved Medicare for all will raise real wages for American workers and income will go up for nearly everyone. And that will give consumers more resources to spend, creating a huge multiplier effect for the economy. Advertisement In his announcement, Sen. Sanders said "the typical family earning $50,000 a year would save nearly $6,000 annually in health care costs." An NNU study in 2009, on the eve of debate over the Affordable Care Act, predicted that single payer multiplier effect would create some 2.6 million new good paying jobs alone, plus substantial increases in federal and state revenues. And, of course, Sen. Sanders deserves huge praise for being the first leading Presidential candidate to present a plan that will guarantee healthcare for every American, just as every other major nation has done. A plan that will end the long nightmare facing the nation's uninsured, and those having to choose between getting the care they need or putting food on the table for their families. And it protects our most precious gift, our health. Advertisement A plan to eradicate the crisis of the 29 million who are still uninsured, and the tens of millions more facing medical debt, even with the gains made under the Affordable Care Act. A plan to cut health care costs, put money back in consumers' pockets, create jobs, and address a major cause of income inequality, un-payable medical bills. Instead of being held hostage to a corporate system based on profits and price gouging, we can finally have a system based on patient need, with a single standard of quality care for all, regardless of ability to pay, race, gender, age, or where you live. That's a beautiful thing. A plan that pledges to provide comprehensive coverage, inpatient and outpatient, emergency care, dental care, vision, long term care, prescription drugs, medical supplies, and other basic needs. One medical card, no networks that limit patient choice of doctor or other provider, no fighting with insurance companies over needed care they refuse to pay for. Advertisement And, contrary to those in the Clinton camp who have claimed that Sen. Sanders wants to turn our healthcare over to state governors, many of whom have refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA, the Sanders plan would be federally administrated, with national standards and national reimbursements. Ultimately, any single payer plan is a financing mechanism. All final details would remain to be ironed out in the legislative process, as occurred with the ACA as well. Sen. Sanders has certainly emphasized the power of the healthcare industry lobby in Congress, and that it will take the power of a grassroots political movement that he talks about to enact this plan. Nurses will be in the forefront of that effort. A recent New York Times/Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 20 percent of people under 65 who have health insurance continue to face significant problems with medical bills, despite the ACA. The Times report found that 63 percent of those burdened by medical bills said they had "used up all or most of their savings," 42 percent had to take on another job or work more hours, 11 percent had to move or take in roommates, and 11 percent had to turn to charity due to those bills. Advertisement Those days will come to an end when we pass the Sanders proposal. The late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s impact on American Democracy remains unparalleled. Dr. King called upon all Americans to eschew the status quo of mid-20th-century racial relations for the universal equality guaranteed by the American Constitution. Fighting the de facto segregation that continues to linger long after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. The Board of Education in 1954, King entreated Americans to choose justice over order. He spoke at Stanford University in 1967 decrying "The Other America," which denied people of color equal access to prosperity and advancement. Amid all of his fearless public service and temperate appeals for equality, King suffered a grotesque attack on his private life that mars the history of American public discourse. It is well known that the Federal Bureau of Investigation under J. Edgar Hoover began surveilling King in 1957 under the pretense of his alleged ties to communists. The FBI operation COMINFIL endeavored to show how King's connection to onetime American Communist Party financier and progressive Jewish businessman Stanley Levinson, in fact, revealed a communist plot behind the Civil Rights movement. Such efforts failed to establish any connection to the communists. Martin Luther King espoused a liberal social agenda, but in no way sympathized with the U.S.S.R. But Hoover harbored greater ambitions: he wanted to eradicate grassroots civil movements that challenged official governmental authority. If King wasn't a communist, he proved at very least a nuisance. His powerful, moving rhetoric galvanized Americans in the way no official communications could. Advertisement Wiretapping King's hotel rooms, the FBI recorded private conversations among King intimates and advisers, collecting personal ruminations King would have never voiced in public. It must have enraged Hoover to have heard King say over the wiretap that the FBI director was "old and senile." But the material gleaned from MLKJR's private interactions was "just too good" to stop Hoover from listening. The FBI celebrated striking a treasure trove of blackmail gold when it uncovered King's appetite for women other than his own wife. Hoover shared the tapes of King's sexual encounters with President Lyndon Johnson and reporters, who played them for various aides and anyone who would hear them. When King won the Nobel Prize in 1964 Hoover told a gathering of women reporters, "Dr. Martin Luther King is the most notorious liar in the country." King responded with bewilderment and offered to meet with Hoover. "I was appalled and surprised at your reported statement maligning my integrity," King communicated via telegram to Hoover. "What motivated such an irresponsible accusation is a mystery to me." Hoover at first refused to meet the man he called racial epithets and a "tomcat," but under political and public pressure, he finally agreed. During the meeting, the FBI director harangued the Reverend for an hour and never explained his charges. Meanwhile, the FBI sent King threatening letters ventriloquizing supposedly disillusioned African-American civil rights followers, but written by one of Hoover's deputies, most likely, William Sullivan. The most infamous letter was reproduced in the New York Times in 2014. Riddled with typos and scribbled corrections, the letter reveals either the unwillingness of the FBI writer to revise and type a clean draft, or the FBI's racist attempt to imitate what it imagined civil rights writing to look like. The language, meanwhile, was pure bullying: calling King "degenerate" "low-grade" "abnormal" and encouraged him to commit suicide: "like all frauds your end is approaching... there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is." Advertisement However one assesses Martin Luther King Jr.'s adultery and other personal transgressions, the surveillance that he experienced serves as a particularly stark warning. Surely surveillance has often led to political scandals, for example, Linda Tripp's recording of conversations with Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern, who had an affair with President Bill Clinton. But the Lewinsky Affair was intended to embarrass a popular politician; the surveillance of King aimed at extinguishing public initiatives and open debate. In a country founded on ideals of public participation, King acted as a "gadfly," just as Socrates had once called himself, reminding, pestering the government to adhere to its obligation to its citizens and allow them to form opinions in public without fear of reprisal. King willingly embraced his exposure to government retaliation for his leadership, but he lived as all Americans aspire to, under the expectation of privacy at home and in the bedroom. The government violated this privacy as it sought to silence his peaceful affirmation of the Supreme Court decision and the ideals of the American Constitution. Today when Americans honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, they celebrate his public bravery, principles of human dignity and commitment to justice. They also follow his model of stepping into the public to engage in reasoned debate. Such engagement also reminds Americans of their right to privacy in their own homes and lives, where they can be free to form their beliefs, test and refine ideas with loved ones before sharing them with the public. Martin Luther King's loss of privacy was appalling on many levels. We can't unknow those private details, but we can defend private life and the public freedom of speech, and we can follow his lead in demanding justice over the status quo. Co-authored by Mousa Jiryis On Monday, January 18, 2016, the monthly meeting of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels is expected to discuss and decide on next steps to be adopted by the EU on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Policy-makers in Israel are worried as they fear an expansion of European efforts to isolate Israel's settlements. As it discusses next steps, Europe must recognize that "the US leads" approach to resolving the conflict is doomed to never-ending failure: It affords time for the Israeli settlement enterprise to further entrench itself and makes the two-state solution increasingly impossible to achieve. It is blindingly clear -- in light of two decades of failed bilateral negotiations under American auspices -- that U.S. leadership of conflict resolution efforts is pointless and counter-productive. If Europe's policy is to achieve two states for two peoples, it will have to pursue an independent policy position that circumvents the Americans. Moreover, the substance of European policy will have to be more consequential than policy changes to the EU Guidelines for participation in the Horizon 2020 program that exclude settlements, or requiring that Israeli settlement products be labeled while allowing their trade to continue. Advertisement European policy will have to become more punitive and assertive if it is to incentivize Israel to make meaningful concessions for peace. A study undertaken by the European Council on Foreign Relations in July 2015 shows that there is significant opportunity to further isolate Israel's settlement project by expanding the scope of legal differentiation between Israel and the Occupied Territories in European law, to include re-examining "the integration of the European and Israeli financial sectors, the charitable status within the EU of organizations that support Israel's settlement enterprise and the validity within the EU of legal documents issued by Israeli authorities in the Occupied Territories." If Europe's influence in this conflict arena is negligible, it is because Europe has relied on the wrong leadership for too long. This tragic, historic mistake has not only cost European taxpayers billions, but has also led to a reality that is the diametric opposite of what European policy-makers intended. After 23 years, reliance on American "leadership" has led to the creation of numerous Palestinian Bantustans, surrounded by an occupying military power that continues to occupy with impunity, bankrolled by European taxpayers: The EU and its member states are by far the largest donors to the Palestinians. Israel -- delighted that another party is willing to subsidize its military occupation -- continues to expand and consolidate its settlement enterprise, with the support of large sections of the American public. Historically, the US and EU have shared a common objective of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the framework of a two-state solution. However, after the repeated failure of US mediation efforts, and, more recently, the resignation of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Territories, a perverse reality continues to dictate that there is no peace - and no traction towards peace - any time in the near future, or possibly even within our lifetimes. Advertisement America supports occupation. Europe inadvertently subsidizes occupation. This regrettable logic is an accurate description of current reality. The US continues to advocate a hands-off, "it's up to the two parties to decide" approach. As a result, Israel, which has all the power, has little incentive to concede, while the Palestinians, who have no power and are supposedly "protected" under international law are left to their despair. While commentators have busied themselves picking at the rotting carcass of the so-called peace process and apportioning blame for its failure, few have dared to state the obvious: America is part of the problem, not the solution. Israeli intransigence and blatant violation of international law is fueled by its belief that, no matter what its does, the US will always insulate it from meaningful rebuke. Palestinian desperation is driven by a conviction that America's overwhelming support to Israel makes negotiations pointless, as Israel has little incentive to concede when showered with so much money, weapons and political support. To take but one example, in February 2011, the Obama administration vetoed a UN resolution declaring Israeli settlements illegal, despite the fact that 130 countries co-sponsored the resolution and it was supported by all other 14 members of the Security Council. Later that year, in May 2011, the US Congress gave Prime Minister Netanyahu 29 standing ovations as he publicly dismissed President Obama's position that the 1967 borders should be the basis for a final territorial settlement. By contrast, Europeans have moved towards recognition of the State of Palestine. Sweden and the Vatican's recognition are now official while parliaments in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, France, Luxembourg, along with the European Parliament, have all approved recognition. In summary, the US gives staunch support for Israel, while the EU tries to clean up the chaos inspired by Israeli excesses and US hypocrisy ad infinitum. Monday's meeting is an opportunity to examine what the EU can do to change this reality. It is time for Europe to roll up its sleeves, play power politics, and take on the occupier, without waiting for American leadership to produce results. If the experiences of Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and South Africa are anything to go by, an occupier or an apartheid regime will only change its ways with a nuanced combination of sanctions, international isolation and, as a last resort, military force. Advertisement The EU must rise to the occasion and demonstrate to its constituents that European money and credibility are more important than indulging in American charades of impartiality. It is clear that America has no moral or political qualms with Israel remaining an occupying force. Once Europe finally acknowledges this reality and moves on, it will find the strength and legitimacy to propose policies of its own, in line with its European neighborhood objectives, its own moral standards, and its own laws. The previous poll on Eastern NC NOW showcased what are many of OUR Constitutional Republic's certain obstacles to remain viable, where the top encumbrance to that continuance as a functioning Republic was the Biden /Harris Wide Open Southern Border. Understanding this overwhelming concern to real America citizens: Do you believe it important to challenge the veracity of those legislated concerns of Democratic Socialists by transporting Illegal Migrants to their Sanctuary cities, counties and states for their direct care? Yes; test the depth of their sense of well being by giving Democratic Socialists an opportunity to enact all Sanctuary provisions in their communities to test how much they truly do care. No; the Biden /Harris Wide Open Southern Border Project is designed to only inundate "Red States" to begin their Demographic Upheaval for the benefit of we Democratic Socialists, our politics. Despite frequent glowing media stories about India shining, digitization and IT-enabled cities which are true and show progress in many ways, there still continues to be a ferocious underbelly which encompasses many women workers who have to earn a living to support their families. In Uttar Pradesh, India's largest state, women who are desperate to earn an income, resort to participating in the informal sector, rolling out "Beedi (biri)", or hand rolled cigarettes. They earn a bare bones daily income with earnings in the range of Rupees 100 - 130 per day which is approximately $2/day. These earnings are highly dependent on the quantum of work they can successfully procure. There are days when they cannot find work which exacerbates life considerably for them and their families. Mumtaz, a beedi worker from Rae Bareilly aged 43, has worked in the Beedi industry, and she describes their current living pattern as "next to hell." Every day, she rolls hundreds of little cigarettes known as 'Beedi'. She is paid Rs. 50 per thousand beedis rolled which she accomplishes in two days. Yet, at the time of final payment to the workers, around 30% of their payment is deducted on account of non-conforming products. This story is true for all the workers in Rae Bareilly. The work is monotonous and pays barely enough for their basic necessities, but worst of all, it is hazardous to their own health and also to the health of those around them. The research conducted by the Lucknow Mahila SEWA Trust, found that many of the beedi workers were suffering from chronic diseases - pertaining to their lungs, heart and cancer. Fatima, a beedi worker narrated her health ordeals. After 40 years of working in the beedi industry, she is now rewarded with complaints of chest pain and nausea. Due to the lack of funds, she and others cannot afford to support themselves medically. She prays that her daughters and granddaughters be lucky enough to find alternative means of livelihood. At this juncture, a lack of alternative work options forces marginalized women to continue being locked in to the beedi making industry. The lack of options forces women to work under these untenable conditions because they lack alternative options to support their income generation. The reality is that Indian women who subsist at poverty level must earn a living and contribute to the general household income. While most Indian families are dedicated to supporting the education of their young sons, the girls are often neglected due to the lack of adequate financial resources - which is a gigantic set back for the girls who also need to be educated. Favoring sons over daughters for an education is the Indian norm which ultimately results in disadvantages for their daughters. Girls need as much education as the boys do - but this is not typically the norm in low income Indian families who need to prioritize family income. Advertisement The Lucknow Mahila SEWA Trust has focused on economically enabling women to stand on their own two feet. This immediately produces a marvelous result: the women who now are trained in acquiring marketable skills through their apprenticeship in SEWA get reasonably well paying jobs. The immediate impact is evident as mothers jump to enroll their daughters in school. This is critically important because in traditional societies, typically fathers are only interested to support the education of their sons who they believe will be the breadwinners. Over time, this attitudinal favoritism of the boy child will fade - as mothers work to acquire skill sets and jobs, recognizing the value of education for their daughters as well. Working mothers know in their bones that their daughters need both an education and an income. They also know in their gut that investing in education is the cornerstone of their daughter's future earnings and happiness. The trainings conducted for marginalized women to become wage earners at a decent level will impart key skill sets for women who earn a living. With women in the work force, family income can easily double, adding greater financial security for the family unit. Women in the work force are viewed as an asset - and not a liability - adding economic security for the family's well being. Women who earn a living are very willing to support their daughters' education. Ultimately, this leads to a more balanced society of men and women who can navigate more strategic options for their children - both boys and girls. Education is a critical ingredient for the long term success of children on the personal front but also in terms of their future opportunities for education and job options. Equal opportunities to education, while changing their perspectives on other socio-economic issues ranging from literacy to the environment - are the new gateways to their futures as citizens. Advertisement Invest in Muslim Women supports women's practical trainings in embroidery, fashion design and manufacturing for women. The women gain marketable skill sets which leads to a more secure livelihood and the resources to educate their daughters. Our NGO, Invest in Muslim Women has been supporting these training's since 2013 giving women a passport to a better life for themselves and resources to educate their daughters. We are just the funders. The real credit for this goes to Farida Jalees, Secretary of the Lucknow Mahila Sewa Trust. Farida is the inspiration, the brain, the heart and the soul of this program. It is her dreams and her tenacity that takes unskilled women and turns them into skilled practitioners who can then make a reasonable living. Prayer offered at the nation's largest MLK Day March. More than 200,000 people are expected to gather in San Antonio, Texas to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin, Luther King Jr. As a Sikh American whose community has benefited immensely from the Civil Rights Movement, it was an immense honor to offer these remarks inspired by the wisdom and contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We are grateful to you, Creator, for bringing us together this morning. As always, we are grateful for our breath, our life, our loved ones, and all the privileges that we enjoy. Let us never take your gifts for granted. O Divine - as our community gathers here today to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we ask you to help us follow his example. Let us emulate Dr. King, who drew strength and sustenance from the deepest wells of his spiritual tradition to fight the most pressing battles of his day. Let us bring into our own lives a commitment to justice and faith and love and gratitude. And let us commit ourselves to making the world around us a better place. We are grateful for Dr. King's reminder that faith and justice go hand-in-hand. That faith without justice is nothing more than self-service. And that our love for the Divine and for one another compels us to serve those who are suffering. And God - you know that so many in this world are suffering and in need of our support. As we gather here today, there are so many social inequalities that Dr. King would stand against. Advertisement Anti-black racism still plagues our nation. We say the names of Sandra Bland and Freddie Gray and Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner and Michael Brown. We have lost countless innocent lives to bigotry, O God, and our nation is struggling to show that Black Lives Matter. This is not right. Poverty continues to grow, in America and around the world. And our children are learning, from our example, to treat those without means as being less valuable -- and less human -- than the wealthy. This is not right. We are also observing a startling surge of violent hate against anyone perceived to be Muslim - this is happening despite our belief that it is wrong to attack someone simply because of how they look or what they believe. This is not right. Gun violence and mass shootings have spun out of control, to the point that we do not feel safe sending our children to school, or going to the movies, or even in our own places of worship. This is not right. Advertisement Relatives and mourners gather around the coffins of people killed during clashes between Turkish forces and militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the Kurdish-majority city of Cizre, in southeastern Turkey, on September 13, 2015, following a week-long curfew imposed to support a Turkish military operation against the Kurdish rebels. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has said over 20 civilians were killed during the operation, which deprived residents of access to essential amenities and triggered food shortages. Clashes between the state and PKK, which resumed in late July, have upended a 2013 ceasefire that had sparked hopes of an end to the PKK's three-decade insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands of people. AFP PHOTO/ILYAS AKENGIN (Photo credit should read ILYAS AKENGIN/AFP/Getty Images) JERUSALEM -- The history of Erdogan's presidency will be written as one of creeping, sometimes galloping, autocratism and of renewed violence in the Kurdish southeast. Erdogan's new presidential palace and declarations about Muslims discovering America seemed like loony signs of a leader simply not ready to give up and slightly out of step with the rest of the world. They amused but also scared us. The rejection of calls to recognize the Armenian Genocide during last year's 100th anniversary seemed merely like reflexes of a Turkish strongman who inserted himself not only into the republican tradition of denial but who also continually tries to connect himself back to Ottoman times. With the renewed war against the Kurds, however, we should recognize him for what he is: an autocrat in the making who will not be removed by democratic means should the Turkish people wish to do so and who is willing to sacrifice the lives and freedoms of Turkish citizens for his goals. Advertisement Most of the world stood by in silence when the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide came around last April. While there were notable exceptions, most of the world left Armenians and Turks to fight it out between themselves. A small part of the world saw with great interest that the Kurds in Turkey were at the forefront of reconciliation with the Armenians. What we are witnessing at the moment are the final stages in the demolition of the checks and balances in the Turkish political and societal system. There are various initiatives, some of which the New Yorker, for example, discussed in an extensive expose on Diyarbakir and what the Kurdish mayor and others have been doing there, such as the restoration of a prominent Armenian church, acknowledging past violence and extending a hand in friendship. For the Kurds, the Armenian Genocide is no less painful to come to terms with than for the rest of Turkish society as it was oftentimes Kurds who were executioners in this genocide. Furthermore, and as the recent book by Ugur Umit Ungor has demonstrated in great detail, the Turkish Kurds' own history of suffering in the 20th century is intimately connected to what started in 1915. It continued almost seamlessly into the next decades and included extensive policies of ethnic engineering in the Turkish southeast, then targeting the Kurdish populations. Advertisement So, yes, the renewed violence in the Turkish southeast owes a lot to an undigested history of violence against all sorts of ethnic and otherwise defined enemies of the Turkish state. As sociologist Fatma Muge Gocek has shown recently, once more, there is a long tradition of denying violence and of integrating past violence into a sanitized and rationalized narrative of the nation. The renewed war against the Kurds -- within the southeast under the guise of curfews as well as beyond Turkey's borders -- is the latest proof that Turkey has to come to terms with its history of violence. That history needs to be overcome and resolved within Turkey, lest it continue. Now, in the last few days, over 1,000 Turkish academics signed an online petition to get the Turkish government to stop its undeclared war against the Kurds in the southeast and to resume the peace process. All this somewhat coincided with the recent bomb attack in Istanbul -- and Erdogan had much more to say about the academics' petition than about the bombers. In an intense and hateful commentary, the president called the academics traitors of the country, alleged they were colluding with foreign interests and terrorists and singled them out for all kinds of reprisals. Others followed suit. Now these academics have to fear physical violence, losing their jobs and prosecution from the state. Where are all those who are ashamed of the West for propping up people like Assad as we are propping up Erdogan now, in the name of stability and in order to control the stream of refugees -- from Assad's Syria? Erdogan has consistently been fighting and constraining any form of civil society in the last years, most prominently by harassing the press in Turkey. And we, the Western world, otherwise always critical of Muslim countries, stood by silently. Now, Erdogan has stepped up his game and is attacking the Kurds. We stand silent. And now he is attacking and prosecuting the people in Turkey who stand up to him and support the Kurds. Yet we stand silent. Not only is it interesting to see how little interest the Western media have taken in the last months in the issue of the "Kurdish curfews" in the southeast, but it is also interesting to take another look at our silence. So, where are all the people lobbying for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide now? Can't they support those who are trying to stop violence in the very same regions in which the genocide took place 100 years ago? Where are all the Europeans who argued against Turkish EU membership in the last two decades because of its alleged lack of civil society -- when the rather vibrant civil society is being demolished piece by piece? Where are all those all over Europe and America who have been philosophizing about the impossibility of a Muslim democracy now? Where are all those so quick to point at the "bad Muslim" now when civil society is standing up to state-sponsored violence and is being bullied, threatened and persecuted by an autocrat in the making? Where are all those who are ashamed of the West for propping up people like Assad as we are propping up Erdogan now, in the name of stability and in order to control the stream of refugees -- from Assad's Syria? Advertisement We are co-complicit in many crimes happening around the world all the time and at any given time. The Middle East is an especially complicated place at the moment; losing Turkey as an ally does not seem to be an option. But, as things seem to be developing, we are losing Turkey anyway. Even if we do nothing. What we are witnessing at the moment -- even if the international press often chooses to look away, especially in the last months -- are the final stages in the demolition of the checks and balances in the Turkish political and societal system. We can all feel that it won't stop with what is happening in these weeks. The trajectory is deadly -- for people and for Turkish democracy and civil society. The new Turkey that Erdogan is building by sacrificing the Kurds, by silencing the opposition and by dismantling free speech should frighten us. If we really stand for democracy, open societies and freedom of speech, then we must stand with the Turkish academics now. Also on WorldPost: Four years ago, on January 16, 2012, in an article published by The Huffington Post titled, "Dr. King's Stance Against The Death Penalty," lawyer and journalist, David A. Love, wrote: "America has reached a turning point in its application of capital punishment[,]" and that, "[a]s the U.S. observes the eighty-third birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this is a perfect time to reflect on the slain civil rights leader, Nobel laureate and death penalty opponent." Four years later, on January 17, 2016, I sat as part of the small congregation at the Woodland Hills Community Church, in California, where Dr. King preached, on his birthday, on January 15, 1961. In 2013, the Los Angeles Daily News reflected on King's visit to Woodland Hills, noting that "King had been invited by a white pastor to give a sermon," and that one of many things Dr. King told the congregation that day was: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself . . . . You are commanded to do that. That is the breadth of life." Advertisement As I sat there, in this sanctuary, I couldn't help thinking that last year, on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, I was a death penalty lawyer, specifically, an Assistant Federal Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defenders for the Middle District of Alabama. My office was located near the intersection of West Jefferson Davis Avenue and Rosa Parks Avenue (think about that street pairing for a second . . .) in Montgomery, Alabama. I was part of the same group of attorneys now working their butts off and fighting their hearts out to spare their client, Christopher Brooks, from a lethal injection this coming Thursday, January 21, 2016, at Holman Prison, in Atmore, Alabama. This cadre of dedicated lawyers has exercised every legal challenge possible, they have petitioned the governor of Alabama for clemency (which seems unlikely since only one governor in Alabama has ever granted clemency before -- when a lame duck governor granted it to a white woman), and they are desperately hoping for a stay of Mr. Brooks' execution. In their court filings, they have argued that Brooks' execution will violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, and specifically, that the drugs Alabama seeks to use to execute Mr. Brooks with will make him "feel like he is being buried alive," and, "cause a massive heart attack after burning him alive from the inside." (Picture of Christopher Brooks) Before heading to the service at Woodland Hills Community Church with my wife, I read the New York Times' Editorial Board's plea that the United States "join the rest of the civilized world and end the death penalty." Later, as I sat in the same church where Dr. King, a fervent death penalty opponent preached 55 years ago, I said a prayer for my former colleagues in Alabama, for their client, Mr. Brooks, and for his family, as well as for the victim, and her family -- and I was reminded of another one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous sayings, now applicable to capital punishment in the United States: "The time is always right to do what is right." Advertisement Bentley was a 2-year-old lab-retriever mix who was surrendered by his owner because he had become too strong for her to handle. Bentley is two-years-old and weighs about 60 pounds. The Lab/Retriever mix dog was surrendered by his owner who could no longer take care of him. Bentley is a very strong dog, yet sweet as can be. Bentley kept getting out and running around the neighborhood. At two-years-old Bentley had not been neutered yet was looking for a female. The SPCA had him neutered and more than likely Bentley will start to calm down and not go out looking for some action! Advertisement It is so important to have your animals neutered and chipped! In male dogs, neutering will help keep them from trying to get out of the yard and for females it stops unwanted pregnancies. The SPCA in your local area can help you find an affordable vet for the procedure or let you know about low cost clinics that can help. Having an identification chip placed in your pet will help in contacting you if your pet is ever lost or stolen. It's a process that can be completed when they are in for neutering. Many SPCA or Humane Society groups have clinics where you can take your pet and for as little as $20 have the chip implanted. It's not much different than an injection. Most pets don't even notice it being done. Peggy Harrell at the SPCA, Alliance of NC in Tarboro, NC sent a message to her pilot friends asking if anyone could help getting him to Media, PA, ASAP. She rescued Bentley and he needed to get to a new and loving home for he was such a sweet boy. Robin Manley formerly of Finding Great Homes Rescue called us to see if we could pickup Bentley in Rocky Mount, North Carolina and fly him to the North Carolina Coast where Robin was vacationing. Even on vacations, rescuing a dog is never an imposition. Robin would foster Bentley for a day or so until pilot, Mark Matte would fly Bentley to Carol Middleton of TheRescueExpress.org. Carol had a foster who will take care of Bentley until they can find him a forever home. Advertisement In the dog rescue world everyone gets to know everyone and many times other rescues help each other out as they did in this situation. Tara Lynn from WRAL joined on the flight as our volunteer. Tara has plenty experience with rescue dogs for she volunteers at the SPCA of Wake County. Tara and her husband also have two rescue dogs of their own. She's also an accomplished pet photographer. You can look at her many great pictures at In Between the Blinks. The flight from our home base at Raleigh, North Carolina to Rocky Mount, North Carolina took approximately 20 minutes. In Rocky Mount we met Kendall who is a volunteer for the SPCA and brought Bentley to us. Bentley was very scared and would not get out of the van. Everyone tried to coax him out of the van but he wasn't having any part of it. Pam sat with him awhile to reassure him that he was okay. After putting on his inflight harness Pam carried Bentley to the plane and got him seated. He was scared at first but he was a very gentle dog and appreciated any love and affection he could get. Kendall had really become attached to Bentley and she said she and Bentley's owner had cried and cried over this decision to surrender him but it was better for Bentley in the long run. He needed a place to run and play. It was all very sad but best for Bentley. Advertisement Our flight to Cape Fear Airport on Oak Island (KSUT) from Rocky Mount took just over an hour. During the flight, Tara sat in the back and made sure Bentley was comfortable and happy. Bentley was a very curious passenger so he mostly sat and looked around for the short flight. When we arrived at Oak Island we had time to walk around with Bentley before Robin and Mark arrived. He was such a happy boy. Sniffing all of the new vegetation at the airport. While Tara interviewed Mark and Robin, Pam said her goodbyes to Bentley. What a wonderful boy he was and he's going to make someone an awesome pet. Robin sent pictures of Mark and Bentley playing in the park. Bentley and Mark really seemed to bond and that was great for they were flying on a big adventure the next day. A flight where Bentley was to find his forever home! If you would like to stay posted on more dog rescue stories, visit Pilot.dog and subscribe to the weekly newsletter. The Statue of Liberty in front of the American Flag Here I am, sitting with my homemade Starbucks accompanied by my cute pup and husband-to-be, trying to process what just happened because, for lack of a better word, it felt like a nightmare. I just walked away from my new job...one I actually liked. To clarify, I was technically ''let go" -- not because I committed some unforgivable crime. No, I walked away from a great opportunity because I had to. I was unauthorized to work and I could not in good conscience lead my colleagues on without addressing my situation. Advertisement Which is what exactly? Well, it's no fairytale. I am a legal immigrant who had done all the right things but had hit a roadblock. Actually, scratch that. I am a legal who had done all the right things but has to face a mountain. Ironically, it has nothing to do with anything I did. It was my former employer/alma mater and their lack of due diligence. After obtaining my MBA, I was eligible for a new visa, an extension to be exact. It's called OPT, also known as Optional Practical Training. With this extension, I'd receive a year to work full-time at any company I wanted and the whole shebang. It was a chance to pursue my dreams even further, including pay off all my debt, invest in my business and create a more stable life for myself. In order to acquire this extension, the USCIS (the United States Citizen and Immigration Services) required that I submit specific forms, passport-sized photos of myself and a payment of $380. The earliest I could submit this paperwork was 90 days before my graduation date or, at the latest, 60 days after I graduated. The process, though, takes three months to process. Armed with this information, and being the type A planner that I am, I decided to apply for my extension at the earliest time. Why? Well, I figured that if I applied earlier, I would be able to have my Employment Authorization Card as soon as I graduated, keeping me in right standing with the government and allowing me to work for any employer that chose me right out of grad school. At the same time, I began to put in applications. In fact, through Indeed alone, I submitted over 108 job applications over a period of 60 days and interviewed for as many as I was invited to. I got turned down from jobs but that was ok because I understood the job market. I knew it would take time and I also knew the struggle for a grad student in a corporate world where I had little experience. Advertisement I for sure thought that I would be okay. In fact, I had faith that it would. I had done all the right things, checked with the right people but that's not how it worked out. Nothing could compare to pit in my stomach at that moment -- emptiness I experienced when I opened the letter that would tell me my fate. DENIED. That's what it said. YOU ARE DENIED. What? How in the world did this happen and why? My eyes frantically scanned the piece of paper I held in my hand, looking for an answer but also scared to see what it could be. And there, in a set apart section was the reason. All of a sudden, my anxiety turned to fear, and then my fear turned to rage because what I saw before my eyes was a downright shame. One of the forms I needed for the application had been submitted 18 days late. Yep, 18, but ironically, the minute I saw those words professionally typed in black ink across the page, I remembered a moment. It was a moment in time I wish that I could take back. You see, while reviewing the USCIS instructions for my OPT application, I saw that one of the required forms was an OPT Recommendation from the DSO (Designated School Official) at my college. As a result, I emailed my DSO, asking for this piece of paper to include in my application. I mean it had to be important if the USCIS required it! Alas! My request received a nonchalant reply, stating that it was not something I needed to worry about. And that moment, that moment right there, is the one that moves me to write this piece today. You see, that one instance of neglecting to specifically attend to detail at my alma mater, resulted in me losing a job that I worked hard for, defaulting on bills and, here's the best part, I cannot work for another employer for another three months. After meeting with a local immigration lawyer, I learned that the best chance I had was to reapply and wait with bated breath for another three months. Advertisement And I'm here to say that it's just not fair. It's not fair to my family that they were unable to truly enjoy their Christmas because we were hoping and praying that I could get my new paperwork submitted before Christmas so I wouldn't become undocumented. It isn't fair that some mornings, I wake to up to bank notifications reminding me that my accounts are in default. It isn't fair that I have to choose between feeding myself and investing in my business. And it damn sure isn't fair that I am the one who's going to have to deal with the resulting credit issues that may arise as an aftermath. Yes, I emailed the school, requesting that they pay attention to my situation; but, after an initial attempt to tell me it was my fault that this happened, they paid the application and overnight mailing fee and that's been it. As if $400 could replace the $6,000 and stable position. No help. No one reaching out asking me how I'd survive with no expected income for the next three months. Nothing. Just deafening silence. As if my contribution as a former student and employee meant nothing but a number who passed through the system. The worst part is, I don't know if they'll ever care or ever pay attention. After word of this circulates, I might be excommunicated from their system and campus. My Christianity may even be called into question but nevertheless, I must write this. Not because I have some selfish agenda but because I need to. Someone out there needs my story and I refuse to cower in fear in the face of injustice. I can't be afraid anymore. You see, the immigration process for legal immigrants can be tough. That's nothing new. However, what's more tragic is the lack of attention to details of some organizations who sign up for the task of educating those who choose to come to the United States. It's not the government's fault. It's people not doing their jobs. Luckily for me, I have a business and the pursuit of that dream is keeping my hope afloat. However, even though I have the support of my family, friends and church, it would be remiss of me to sit idly by and not speak up. I have vowed in my life to be a door and not a wall -- a door to help people reach their potential, a door to love and a door to give people who are unheard a voice in their community. So today, whether or not I am acknowledged, I choose to be a voice -- a voice who stands up for the rights of the looked down on. Advertisement The legacy of the British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes has sparked angry protests from Cape Town to Oxford. In the wake of the #RhodesMustFall campaign, which resulted in his statue being removed from the University of Cape Town, students at Oxford have clamored for another statue at Oriel College Oxford to be removed. Now the name of the Rhodes Scholarship, funded by the estate of Rhodes and handed out to international postgraduates to study at Oxford by the Rhodes Trust, is under attack. In the latest development, a group of 200 international scholars have said that they took a Rhodes grant as a form of reparation, "knowing that Cecil Rhodes did not intend it for us when he wrote his will." Gemma Ware and Thabo Leshilo from The Conversation asked historian Professor Paul Maylam about what Rhodes actually said in his will. Is it accurate to say that Rhodes was selective about who should be awarded scholarships? Yes, this is accurate -- in the past there was heavy discrimination in the award of the scholarships. Advertisement Rhodes' will specified that only males could be awarded Rhodes Scholarships. There was a clause in the will that stated that "race" should be disregarded, but Rhodes clearly viewed race in terms of the English/Dutch divide. It was clearly his intention that scholars should be white. A black American Alain L Locke was awarded a scholarship in 1907, but thereafter there were virtually no black scholars until the 1960s. It was only in 1977 that the first black South African was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. In practice, too, for many years scholarships were only awarded to unmarried men. So I presume the 200 scholars are either women and/or black and/or married. What views on white supremacy did Rhodes hold? Rhodes was an ardent white supremacist, as revealed in a couple of his statements: I say the natives are like children. They are just emerging from barbarism. and Treat the natives as a subject people as long as they continue in a state of barbarism and communal tenure; be the lords over them, and let them be a subject race. What did Rhodes intend Oxford to do with the money he left it in his will? Apart from the scholarships, Rhodes left money for Oriel College, where he had been a student over a number of years. The will stated that the 100 000 left should be used to expand the college's buildings on to High Street (where the statue now stands on the facade of the extension), to support Oriel fellows, to maintain "the dignity and comfort" of the high table(!), and to fund the maintenance of the college's infrastructure. There was nothing in the will to say that a building such as Rhodes House should be constructed in Oxford in his memory. How have the terms of the Rhodes scholarship changed since he left Oxford the money? There have been a number of changes in the criteria for selecting Rhodes scholars. Several years ago women, people of color, and married persons became eligible. These changes were introduced gradually, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s. Rhodes had also specified in his will that sporting ability - or manliness - should be a criterion for selecting scholars. I believe this has largely fallen away. By Deborah Menkart A firestorm erupted when Scholastic released a children's book early this month, A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, featuring smiling slaves baking a cake for George Washington. The back cover portrayed George Washington and his enslaved chef, Hercules, arm-in-arm, like best buddies. The image convinced many that this was an Onion parody and not an actual children's book published in 2016. The images of seemingly happy enslaved African-Americans working in the kitchen were underscored with Hercules's closing words when he serves the cake: "An honor and a privilege, sir... Happy birthday, Mr. President." The story never offers children a hint as to why it was not a "privilege" nor a smiling affair to be enslaved. Nor do readers learn that the conditions were so dire that Hercules escaped on Washington's birthday the following year, despite having to leave his children behind. The School Library Journal called the book "highly problematic" and Kirkus Reviews labeled it "an incomplete, even dishonest treatment of slavery." But neither of these critical reviews generated a public response from Scholastic. Advertisement It was not until a grassroots campaign by librarians, social justice organizations, #BlackLivesMatter activists, journalists, and others that Scholastic took the extraordinary step of recalling the book. It happened in just four days. On Wednesday of last week, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Teaching for Change shared on Facebook a critical review of the book by librarian Edith Campbell along with the image of the book's back cover. The story went viral. Leslie MacFadyen of the National #Ferguson Response Network created the hashtag #slaverywithasmile and within 24 hours articles appeared in the Atlanta Black Star, The Root, and Fusion. Thousands signed a protest petition. Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children's Literaturewho had played a major role drawing public attention to the Mexican American studies ban in Tucson, Ariz.was the information hub, keeping the book's critics up-to-date with developments. Scholastic launched damage control with statements first by the editor, then the author, and finally from the corporate office. Not one of these slowed the mounting protests. Young adult book author Daniel Jose Older tweeted, And it's a lie that's at the heart of so much that's happened and still goes on today. The "Not that bad" lie. There's a history to that lie Daniel Jose Older (@djolder) January 17, 2016 Advertisement Each day, the campaign continued to build. By Sunday, Scholastic must have realized that its reputation was at stake and announced it would stop distribution of the book. They released a statement saying: (January 17, 2016) Scholastic is announcing today that we are stopping the distribution of the book entitled A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, and will accept all returns. While we have great respect for the integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator, and editor, we believe that, without more historical background on the evils of slavery than this book for younger children can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn. [Full statement here.] This is not the first time that a campaign has forced Scholastic to do the right thing to protect its public image. In 2011, Rethinking Schools and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood exposed Scholastic's profitable and unethical partnership with the American Coal Foundation. Scholastic had used its trusted name to promote a "clean coal" curriculum to 4th graders all over the United States. A concerted campaign, culminating in a New York Times editorial led Scholastic to end the partnership with big coal and pull its curriculum from its website. In 1999, Scholastic's publication of My Heart Is on the Ground by Ann Rinaldi was met with resistance for its whitewashed depiction of government boarding schools whose mission was to kill the Indian and save the man. Published as part of its Dear America series, Scholastic allowed the book to go out of print. The protests over A Birthday Cake for George Washington are part of a longer and larger campaign for children to learn the truth about history and the world today. As Edith Campbell noted: Advertisement While this victory is empowering, the fight itself is disheartening because the battle against the portrayal of "happy slaves," of people who were less than human and who were being well cared for is a hundred years old. The need for accuracy, not for sweetening, with regards to the enslavement of Blacks in America is critical to this country. This era in American history has shaped our national identity and until we get it right, we will continue to be encumbered with racism. As the victory to force Scholastic to withdraw its book illustrates, activists and scholars are using social media effectively to counter master narratives. While there is much work to be done, this victory is an important milestone and a reminder of the power of collective action and truth telling. Deborah Menkart is the executive director of Teaching for Change and co-director of the Zinn Education Project. Recommended Reading 2016 Zinn Education Project, a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change. Two months ago the Slovenian government decided to fence Slovenia off from Croatia using many miles of barbed wire. It was done, supposedly, to protect the sovereignty of the Slovenian territory from the mass inflows of refugees from Croatia. Not only did the border fence look ugly, but what is even more important -- the perceived threat of the crowds of refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, rushing without control into the beautiful meadows of Slovenia no longer exist. All refugees entering Croatia today are traveling further to Slovenia by trains, thanks to the coordinated efforts of the Croatian and Slovenian governments. A good friend of mine and his family live in Slovenia. They own a piece of land next to the refreshing Kupa River that forms the natural border between Slovenia and Croatia. In the summer months, his family would take a swim in the river accessing it directly from their property; a blessing enjoyed by many families who live next to the Kupa on both sides. Advertisement Last summer was a hot one, and my own family entered several times the refreshing waters of the Kupa River from the Croatian side. We also enjoyed driving on the local road next to the river, seeing people sunbathing and relaxing on both banks of the river. This was a very much idyllic picture of how two countries, both members of the European Union, unselfishly shared their mutual border. Now back to the story of my friend who lives on the Slovenian side of the Kupa River. One month ago the Slovenian army appeared at his property next to the river with plenty of equipment and lots of barbed wire. They worked hard stretching the razor fence across their backyard. The ugly fence meant to keep out the refugees was erected several meters away from the river, inside their property, thus making significant parts of their land and the river inaccessible to them. Moreover, although the fenced off part of their property is still in Slovenian territory, a single action by the Slovenian government made crossing the razor wire potentially a criminal act. The same happened to their neighbors, some of whom actually live at the very border with Croatia. Barbed wire now decorates their backyards. "Surely the Slovenian Government spoke with you before they took the action? Surely someone apologized at least?" I asked my friend. His answer was more than clear: "No one contacted us. No one asked or explained anything to us. Nor did anyone apologize for anything. They just came to our property as if it belonged to the government, police or the military and did whatever they intended to do. You can only imagine what this means to some of our neighbors who live off tourism. Their family businesses are renting canoes and camping facilities to tourists. Their livelihood depends on being able to access the river directly from their properties. It is not the refugees that the Slovenian Government has harmed, but its own people." Advertisement At the beginning of a new year, one wonders if those ugly metal fences with sharp razors, as if they are meant to secure a high risk prison or a concentration camp, that spread along the Slovenian - Croatian border are only a temporary measure, or a sign that the European Union honeymoon may be over? Several European countries have already fenced themselves off against their neighbors. Hungary offered a brazen example when in September it sealed its border with Serbia and then a month later with Croatia. Slovenia, Macedonia and Greece were quick to follow. Austria announced it would raise a barrier along some of its border with Slovenia. Slovakia promised to fence its border with Hungary, and Romania is talking about fencing off its border with Bulgaria should the refugee corridor move to Romania. Even before many of us knew anything about raising of border fences across Europe, Bulgaria had already erected a long border fence with Turkey. Since most of the European countries that are fencing themselves off from each other, or are seriously contemplating doing so, are EU countries (except Macedonia), one may conclude that in 2016 EU unity may be rattled even further, should the trend continue. Moreover, although the fences placed by the Slovenian Army at the border with Croatia might look like a trivial inconvenience, with no harm for EU prestige, those fences, like the rest of them across Europe, could easily be interpreted as an ominous sign of the growing lack of leadership and authority exercised by the EU's governing institutions. The EU likes to micromanage its countries in all areas of business, economy and trade. In some cases it would literally tell their member states what crops to grow, or what industry not to pursue. However, for some reason it has failed to come even close to any serious management of the most daring crisis that has visited its lands since the end of WWII. Although it has had enough time to put in place strategies and plans that would assist all EU countries in how to fairly share the burden of the refugee inflow, EU leadership has demonstrated sloppiness that has left each of the EU countries to their own devices as to how to treat the refugee question. Advertisement Is it then surprising at all that some EU member countries are openly hostile to the reception of any refugees into their countries, while others continue to play the number games as if they are completely oblivious about the urgency of the matter? While still others are pretending that the whole refugee crisis has nothing to do with them, and others are allowing a free ride to its right wing, pro-fascist groups to dictate the level and character of welcome, or lack of it to the Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other refugees in their countries? It is within the context of such EU disorderliness, amidst the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe in seventy years, that the barbed fence on the property of my Slovenian friend, next to the Kupa River at the border with Croatia has become a statement and symbol of the EU's fragile strength, unity and authority. Now that a global climate deal has been struck in Paris, it's up to each nation to live up to its commitments. Republicans leaders in Congress have vowed to fight anything to do with climate change. But there are many good reasons smart Republicans should reevaluate their resistance to both science and the global consensus, and in 2016 make climate change a political issue of their own. Here's seven reasons why Republican politicians could benefit by making climate change a political issue in the 2016 elections: 1. Climate change is an immigration issue. Climate change will hit the crowded tropics worst. Droughts, floods and severe storms in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean could cause massive northward migrations on a scale dwarfing what Europe experienced last year. Accepting climate change would help Republicans end the stalemate on illegal immigration and push for a realistic and comprehensive policy that prepares us for the future of mass immigrations. (See my recent blog post, Why Trump's Wall won't Work. Advertisement 2. Nuclear energy could make a comeback Republicans could champion nuclear energy as a viable and alternative to fossil fuels in the U.S. Even many environmentalists long opposed to nuclear are conceding nuclear power now has a vital role to play in response to climate change. (See The Guardian) 3. Better alignment with the military The Department of Defense perceives climate change as a national security threat. DOD sent Congress a report in July 2015 that stated: "DoD recognizes the reality of climate change and the significant risk it pose s to U.S. interests globally... climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources such as food and water." If Republicans want to maintain their image as a party that values and respects the military, they can't afford to ignore what the generals tell them about climate change. 4. Ending the era of oil will diminish the clout of non-democratic regimes Venezuela, Russia, Iran, Iraq and Libya are five of the ten nations with the most oil reserves on the planet. (See Gulf Business).In fact Canada and Nigeria are the only two democracies on this list. Overall, a shift to renewables would hurt those nations Republican's perceive as America's foes worse that her friends. 5. Oil would no longer fuel conflict in the Middle East. Ending the era of oil would diminish reasons for conflict in the Middle East. The so- called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria finances itself from sales of the oil wells it controls, as recently detailed by the Financial Times. Other Islamic terrorist organizations depend on funding from wealthy, secretive supporters from the Middle East, with oil as their main source of wealth. Advertisement 6. Personal integrity There's much speculation that Republican candidates are taking denier positions on climate change not out of personal conviction, but because fossil fuel companies and billionaires are bankrolling their campaigns. By having to deny both science and the global consensus, Republican politicians have painted themselves into a corner. This is eroding voter perceptions of their personal integrity. 7. Denying climate change may cost Republicans the next election Polls last fall showed a majority of Republican voters accept the science on climate change and want action from their leaders. Republican "denier" candidates are making themselves less appealing to their own supporters in November 2016, potentially handing a landslide to the Democrats. According to a Reuters' poll from December 2015, "58 percent of Republicans surveyed said they approved of U.S. efforts to work with other nations to limit global warming." In the same poll, 30 percent of Republicans voters surveyed said they would not vote for a Republican candidate who does not believe climate change is human-caused. Ironically, Republican presidents have a great history when it comes to the environment. Nixon created the EPA. Teddy Roosevelt started the National Park system. If Republicans owned climate change as their own issue, then they could set the debate on whether government programs and carbon taxes should lead the way, or private enterprise and tax incentives. Isn't that a debate worth having in an election year? In the Atlanta of the 1950's there were no shopping centers and most of the big department stores were in downtown Atlanta. The most famous of which was Rich's Department Store. They were famous for the fact that you could return anything you bought from them with no questions asked. Often not even a receipt was required. There are many stories around about wedding dresses and silverware returned after the wedding. Some would think this was an urban legend but it was true. The theory was if you bought it from Rich's you could depend on getting good service, support and satisfaction guarantee. The volume of sales easily covered the cost of this lenient return policy. Later Sears started the same support with its Craftsman line of tools.Rich's was associated with two holiday traditions. The first was the lighting of the Great Christmas tree on the Crystal Bridge between the two buildings of Rich's downtown location. This was the official start of the shopping season.We would sometimes go downtown to see the lighting of the Great Christmas tree. This was long before we had any shopping malls. Each level of the bridge would have a choir singing Christmas Carols. My 7th grade classmate Lawrence was a member of the Boys Choir and sang there one year. I recently asked him about it and he was amazed that I remembered that. That was sixty years ago but for some reason it is a vivid memory for me.The Pink Pig is still talked about today and even though Rich's has gone through many ownership and name changes, they still have a Pink Pig ride which is now located at Lenox Square. Lenox was the first large shopping mall in Atlanta. Today the Macy name is the parent and it is called the Macy's Pink Pig. They retired to twin monorail cars some time back.I recently saw a painting Facebook on one of the Atlanta memory pages bragging about riding the pink pig.Traditions are a good thing, I hope you have a few to remember during the holidays. "A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption." -Guy de Maupassant, Le Horla et autres contes fantastiques "I won't rest until black children are taught to love themselves as themselves." -Dr. Frances Cress Welsing Advertisement Ethan Couch made international headlines in 2013 following the aftermath of his fatal car accident, whereby he killed four people and injured several others. Couch, then sixteen, crashed into a stationary car while driving drunk. His blood alcohol level measured three times the legal limit. In a subsequent trial, Couch was convicted of four counts of intoxication manslaughter. Notwithstanding the deadly outcome of Couch's crimes, Judge Jean Boyd sentenced him to ten years probation, presumably persuaded by the testimony of an expert witness retained by Couch's defense, psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller. Dr. Miller argued Couch suffered from a condition he termed "affluenza," a condition Miller attributed to Couch's wealthy upbringing, and coddling from his parents, which ultimately hampered his ability to determine right from wrong. Advertisement Jalisco authorities captured the two with the use of electronic surveillance following their use of a cell phone to order Domino's Pizza delivered to a condominium in a secluded part of the plush resort town Puerto Vallarto. While authorities have successfully apprehended Couch, there remains significant legal wrangling as to when he might return to the United States. Even when he does, it appears as though the most severe punishment he may face for his grave misdeeds is 120 days in a juvenile detention facility. Tamir Rice never received such mercy. On November 22, 2014, Cleveland Officers Loehman and Garmback responded to a 911 call regarding a "guy" pointing a gun in Cudell Park, located in Cleveland's Westside near the intersection of Detroit Avenue and West Boulevard. The caller believed the gun in question was "probably fake." One of the responding officers, Timothy Loehmann, shot the "guy" on sight. The "guy" was twelve-year-old Tamir Rice. It was a grisly scene. A distraught teenage girl desperately trying to reach her wounded younger brother as he lay on the ground expiring. Two officers barricading her from aiding him in his moment of distress. She was so close, yet so far. Tajai watched helplessly as their hopes and dreams of who Tamir would grow to be slipped out of his youthful frame as his blood soaked the autumn snow. His final moments became a vapor that whisked away in the frigid breeze. Advertisement Tamir died the next day in Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Center; his transgression, holding a pellet gun while brown skin clothed his adolescent body. The incredulity of Officers Loehmann and Garmback's statements regarding the death of Tamir Rice is astounding. The two maintain Rice ignored their commands to "show his hands", and they believed Rice was an adult. Even if one takes the officers at their word--they believed Rice was an adult--Ohio is an "open carry state," pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 2923.125. Thus, if Officers Loehmann and Garmback legitimately believed Tamir Rice was an adult possessing an actual firearm, both should have presumed he had the legal right to carry it, because carrying a gun is not a crime in and of itself under Ohio law. An investigation with Rice could have swiftly revealed the truth. Nevertheless, Loehmann shot Rice immmediately, well before he could have reasonably responded to any command to "show his hands," and now will face no penalty for his part in Tamir Rice's death. In defending the grand jury's failure to indict Officers Loehmann and Garmback, prosecutors said, "Tamir was big for his age -- 5-foot-7 and 175 pounds, with a men's XL jacket and size-36 pants -- and could have easily passed for someone much older." In other words, Timothy McGinty contends Tamir's size made him more menacing, and thereby less worthy of empathy. This comports with a study by Drs. Philip Atiba Goff and Mathew Christian Jackson, recently published with the American Psychological Association, which found "police are likelier to use force against black children," "officers 'dehumanize' blacks," "black boys as young as ten may not be viewed in the same childhood innocence as their white peers ...", and "perceptions of essential nature of children can be affected by race, and for black children, this can mean they lose the protection afforded by assumed childhood innocence." Similarly, in 2011, Frontiers in Psychology published a study finding that white observers tend to implicitly believe blacks feel less pain when given the same or similar stimuli as whites. This subconscious thought--that blacks have a higher tolerance for pain--could partially explain the use of greater amounts of force against blacks, particularly children. This difference, of how our society perceives black and white children is what makes the juxtaposition of Couch and Rice particularly compelling. The controversy circling Couch, and his ensuing trial, centered on Dr. G. Dick Miller's assessment that he could not fully comprehend the magnitude of his actions due to his "affluenza," Judge Jean Boyd accepting that assessment, then incorporating it in sentencing Couch. Accordingly, the court deemed Couch too young, too privileged, too innocent to appreciate the gravity of his reckless behavior. Our criminal justice system allowed him to revel in his "youthful indiscretions" because it held firm to the belief he knew no better. The carnage he laid in his wake served as mere collateral damage. Advertisement The individuals within the cogs of the criminal justice system examining the liability of Officers Loehmann and Garmback in the death of Tamir Rice absolved them of responsibility in Rice's tragic death. In so doing, they effectively put him on trial for his own demise. As Daniel Marans of the Huffington Post observed, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty commissioned expert reports questioning the guilt of the officers, leaked those reports to the media, declared Loehmann (who was deemed emotionally unstable and unfit for duty in his prior small-town police position) a "reasonable" police officer, characterized Tamir Rice as "big and scary," and failed to advise the grand jury on their need to mitigate a perceived threat against perceptions of its imminence. Our criminal justice system allowed for this because it held firm to the belief Tamir Rice deserved no better. McGinty never characterized Rice as what he was--a child in a park playing with a toy. It is as Drs. Goff and Jackson found--black children are rarely perceived as children. Black children live in a different reality than their white counterparts, and as a result, cannot always exercise the same liberties. We see examples of this idea in pop culture; the iconic film, A Christmas Story, depicts a nine-year-old Cleveland boy named Ralphie who cajoles his parents, his teacher, and Santa into giving him a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun for Christmas. White children can ask Santa for toy guns, black children must not be found with them. The implications are fatal. I had a problem. A problem a lot of people would be delighted to have, but a problem nonetheless. I had a whole bunch of rum sitting in my apartment, waiting to be sampled and reviewed. I adore rum, and I adore blathering about the stuff I like almost as much. But the thought of sitting at my laptop by myself, writing tasting note after tasting note with nothing but bottles and glasses for company, just didn't seem particularly appealing. So in one of my more inspired moments, I decided to get a few friends together to drink with me -- and talk about what we were drinking. And these friends just happened to be some of the brightest lights in the world of booze: Cody Goldstein, head bartender at New York's Upholstery Store Food & Wine (and a man who has actually made a cocktail for Beyonce); Jackie Summers, creator of the superb Sorel liqueur; and writer/bon vivant Robert Haynes-Peterson. We gathered on a Monday afternoon at the not-yet-open Upholstery Store Food & Wine, with seven bottles of rum to try and a large loaf of challah bread to soak it all up. What follows are some of the highlights of our boozy roundtable discussion. Advertisement Cody: I was just interviewed for a magazine about rum, asking me why people don't think of rum as one of the top, you know, spirits, and why it's sort of the underdog. I gave my opinion, but I'm really curious to hear from you guys -- like, why do you think it is? Tony: I think it's the Bacardi factor. And the Captain Morgan factor. Robert: Yeah, Bacardi is as far as they get. There's not really the kind of awareness. T: With tequila, it was the Cuervo factor. And then Patron came along in the '90s and elevated the whole category. R: I think there's still a perception that rum is too sweet, it gives you a headache.... T: It's a party drink -- you stick it in a mojito, it's $9 a bottle.... R: But I don't know why people don't know more about sipping rums. You're right, we also don't write about them very much. I've done maybe two rum stories in the last seven years. I mean, I'll write up new products, but in terms of an overall round-up.... Jackie: Rum has an image problem. When I tell my drinking friends that I'll take a great rum over a good whisky, they look at me like I'm a heretic. Advertisement C: My answer [to the magazine] was, the only time people really think to drink rum is when they're on vacation -- like pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, sweet, tropical style drinks. But when you think of the diversity in which the rums come, in terms of age, in terms of spice, in terms of light and dark, there's sugarcane and molasses.... J: I think that part of the PR problem is that people give more credit to master whiskey distillers than to rum distillers. R: That's true too. I mean, think of the woman at Appleton, Joy Spence. She's a distilling, blending genius. She doesn't get highlighted, but she's got 50 year old expressions, and it's not in the same boat as the whisky folks. T: It is also the rum aging thing. It's really hard to make a 20 year old rum. So if you're drinking a 6 or 8 year old rum, that's pretty damn old. R: People don't equate a 6 year old rum with a 12 or 15 year old whisky. T: Exactly! With age comes respect. And most rums aren't aged that much. R: Rum ages a lot faster than whisky, because the temperature and the humidity quicken the aging process. So people don't connect in their brain that they're drinking quite a mature spirit that's 6 years old, because they think in terms of whisky maturation. Advertisement C: I'm curious -- why do you think there's more money spent towards whisky promotion in terms of getting the brands out there, versus rum? I mean, I don't know if the older generation is interested in drinking aged rum, because I don't think they grew up on it. But you could get the younger generation interested now. J: I definitely think it has something to do with where it comes from. We're talking primarily about products that are coming from the Caribbean, South America, Central America... People think rum is a third world product. Scotch whisky? People think first world. T: You're thinking Braveheart. You're thinking hundreds of years of tradition. But you think Jamaica, you think Bob Marley. Bob Marley's gonna make Appleton? He's too busy smoking ganja. J: It's also a pricing problem. R: One of the incentives for Scotch whisky and bourbon to do everything they've done in the last few years is that they became potential investments before they became super popular. J: Macallan is the master of that. Macallan is the master of, I'm gonna sell one bottle for $600,000. Advertisement T: And then that ups the whole category. Angostura did a $20,000 rum, but I don't know how that played out. C: I can tell you, rum right now is the only spirit that doesn't have a call-out for its brand, when you come to the bar. "Let me get a Tito's, let me get a Bulleit, let me get a Patron." Nobody calls out -- unless it's a Bacardi and blank. Bacardi and Coke, or whatever, versus a Bacardi straight. They don't do that with rum. J: Is that because of an image problem? Or is it because there's no real leader? T: Well, Bacardi by far is the leader, but that's really for their white rum. C: And people don't drink clear rum straight, necessarily. J: In my family, they drink 151 straight, because Caribbeans are insane. R: So what are we starting with? T: Twenty Boat Cape Cod Amber Rum. It's a New England rum, made somewhere in New England, I forget where. J: So just to be clear, what defines a rum? What makes a rum? T: It has to be made from sugar. So it can be sugarcane, it can be molasses. And that's it, really. There are basically no universal rules. Advertisement J: It says it's made from molasses and cane sugar juice, and it's 42% alcohol. T: It's not aged for very long [17-22 months], and it's not a traditional New England rum, because New England rum is very dry usually, and this is a little sweeter. R: Yeah, it's kind of herbaceous. J: That's gotta be the cane. R: And you don't get the same grassy notes on the mouth that you get on the nose. C: I got a little vanilla bean on the nose. J: I got grass too. T: It dries out and gets a little more herbaceous on the back. It starts out really sweet, though. R: It's got a little banana note to it. Interesting. J: So sipper or cocktails, what do you think? C: I think this would play really well in a cocktail. I mean, it drinks really nice -- did they send you a price point? T: No, but I think New England rums can be a little pricey [we later found out it's $55 for a 750 ml bottle], because they're small distilleries. C: I think people are afraid to overprice their rum because it's not a large market, and if you're trying to sell a $60 rum, how do you justify it to your market? J: Good texture on this, by the way. A good mouthfeel. T: I was really pleasantly surprised. J: Sometimes the younger rums can be grainy. This one's nice and velvety. C: [taking a bite of challah] Man, rum and challah sounds like a great lunch. J: I'm like a Jewish pirate! T: "Oy, mateys!" T: OK, so here we have Cruzan Estate Diamond Dark Rum, aged 5 years. Cruzan is from St. Croix -- I don't know if there's a real St. Croix style. I think they're pretty much the only guys making rum on the island. [I'd forgotten about Captain Morgan, but they generally make spiced rum]. Advertisement J: It says it's a blend of five years and older, meaning it's a minimum of five years. T: They claim to be pretty much fusel oil-free [fusel oils are what make spirits taste harsh -- if you have booze that tastes like gasoline, it's the fusel oils]. So it tastes a lot smoother than most rums. J: There's sweetness right on the nose. R: Exactly. This is all sweet and vanilla and caramel and toast.... T: This is a simple rum. Orange on the back, and a little bit of spice. This would be a great cocktail rum, I think. Really smooth, and they say that's the lack of fusel oils that makes it so smooth. R: It's 40% (ABV)? It tastes higher than that to me. It tastes really spicy on the front. T: This is one of those brands -- you think Cruzan, you think crappy flavored stupid rums -- which may actually be good, I don't know. But you don't think, wow, they make a good sipper, too. J: It's a very funny thing, because flavored vodkas absolutely had their moment in the sun. Flavored rums did not. R: Which is weird, because there's enough coconut rum and everything else out there that you could make it a party. Advertisement T: They make their bones on their pineapple rum and their banana rum... nobody knows about this stuff. I thought it was a little simple at first, but second or third sip, it really opened up. C: Although it's not blackstrap, it would actually be really good in a Jungle Bird. It would be a little sweeter -- it wouldn't be as caramel-y as the blackstrap -- but this is nice. J: I know with whiskeys, sometimes you'll add a little water to open it up. Would you do the same thing with a rum? Would it change complexion? T: It depends on the rum, I think. With this rum you don't need it. C: I actually do enjoy this. I think it has a place on a bar. R: So in their mind, they're billing it as a sipper. J: This is why I keep a sippy cup by the side of my couch. [laughter] You think I'm kidding? I'm completely serious! Because the last thing you want is to spill your rum if you're looking for the remote in the middle of the night! On the brand side, what you want is, I think you're thinking in two directions. In a bar, people will say, this will go well in a cocktail. But at home, people will say, I'll drink this straight. Because in the bar and the restaurants, you'll build consumer awareness. But in homes, you actually build volume. You can't appeal just to the bar market and you can't appeal just to the consumer market. You really do need both. Advertisement T: OK, we're changing tracks a little bit and doing a rhum agricole. Saint James is one of the oldest rum producers on Martinique -- I don't know if it's the oldest -- but it's their 250th anniversary, and I've actually seen bottles from the 1800s up for auction. This is a special bottling for the anniversary, Saint James Cuvee 1765. R: That's another thing about the rum vs. whiskey and rum not getting any credibility. There are rum distillers that are as old as the oldest whiskey distillers. T: Mount Gay is more than 300 years old, for God's sake. And they don't get any respect. J: Mount Gay is actual pirate shit! It goes back that far. C: Quick question, what justifies being a rhum agricole? T: A rhum agricole is made from cane juice as opposed to molasses. J: This is an awful bottle. A beautiful but awful bottle. C: Beautiful, but awful functionally. It's just too wide. And let's open it up... it's a wide mouth. So it's not gonna fit a pour spout. So this is great, put I'm not gonna put it in my well. I'm not gonna make cocktails with this bottle, it's not happening. J: Here's another problem that I've heard about with rums. They use cork. Cork will, over time, affect the flavor of your rum. C: And they're all using it. Look at the top of every single bottle here. J: And it looks great, but.... T: You could make a synthetic cork substitute that looks just as good. C: I'm getting a lot of grassy notes from this. R: This stuff is tasty! J: No age statement on it? T: It says "Rhum Vieux," which means "old rum." [And that means more than three years of aging.] R: It starts off all grassy and sweet, but it finishes almost like a whiskey. C: So it's a cuvee. So are they mixing it in barrels and finding the right ... I mean, how is it done? Advertisement T: That's usually how it's done. There aren't that many single barrel rums, or even single vintage rums, compared to whisky. J: It's got a deeper finish than the first couple. T: To be a Martinique rhum agricole, you have to have an appellation, kind of like cognac. So Barbancourt can't be called a rhum agricole, even though it's made from cane juice. 10 Cane is mixed with molasses rum, so it can't be a rhum agricole. And they say this is a mix of six vintages. They recreate the styles and flavors of what would have been made in 1765. I don't believe that for a minute. R: I'm sure this is way better than what they were making in 1765. It's also aged longer, probably. T: I actually tried a rhum agricole, I don't know what brand, from the 1860s or 1870s, and it was like firewater. You had to really water it down to make it taste anything like this. C: This I would sip, rather than using it in a cocktail. T: OK, next we've got a Dominican rum -- Opthimus. I don't know anything about Optimus other than I tried it at a Scotch Malt Whisky Society tasting -- for some reason they had it there -- and I said, man, this is phenomenal. I don't remember which expression I had, but we've got two here. This is the Opthimus 18 Year Old Ron Artesanal. R: Wow, this is really sweet, but I like it. C: It tastes like a liqueur. J: It's a little watery. T: It's so sweet that it's almost at the point of being a little bitter. C: Very little body to it. It almost dissipates on your tongue. R: It finishes dry. T: It finishes quick, too. It evaporates fast. R: But when you inhale afterward, there's kind of a menthol thing there. J: It's almost transparent. C: I'm looking at the label. Limited edition, "Cum Laude." What does that mean? T: They've got a "Cum Laude" and a "Magna Cum Laude," which is their 21 year old. C: I'm just trying to get Tony to blush! T: And then there's a "Cum Laud-ly...." R: "Cum Lauder!" C: So "ron artesanal".... T: I think he played second base for the Mets! Actually, it just means "artisanal rum." Which could mean anything. This is my least favorite, but if we hadn't tried the others, I'd probably love it -- I think. It just seems like a lightweight, especially for an 18 year old. There's not a lot of 18 in there, I don't think. Advertisement J: Maybe we should have checked its ID! T: "Officer, she told me she was 18!" C: This rum, because it's so thin on the mouth but it has a normal proof at 40 (percent alcohol by volume, or 80 proof), I would actually infuse this with something, because I think the infusion would really pop forward, and you'd still get the back notes. I don't know what yet, but a cocoa note, maybe. R: Selvares has got that awesome chocolate infused rum. Where are they out of... Panama. Bruno Mars is behind it.... T: And in spite of that, it's good. J: Do you find there's a particular advantage with terroir or production methods from one country to another? R: Well, one of the issues is that they source their cane from all over. Appleton is one of the few that does estate-grown sugarcane. Everyone else gets it from South America or wherever it's cheapest at the moment. So I think that affects it. Your style can't come from the earth that way. I was going back and forth on this with someone today. She was like, if it tastes good it doesn't matter where it's from or how it's made, right? I think it does matter, because going back to the consumer end, if you're paying 40, 50, 60 bucks a bottle, and you find out you've been deceived, in any way, shape or form, someone ought to be accountable. Advertisement T: OK, so this is another Opthimus, Opthimus 25 Oporto. This one is aged for 25 years, it's a little bit higher proof (86 vs. 80 for the 18 year old), and it's finished -- they don't say for how long -- in port barrels, although it's got a sherry kind of flavor. C: I thought for sure sherry. It tastes like a Manzanilla. R: Yeah, it does. But I love that. It's gotta still be solera, right? T: It has to be. C: Wow, that's a very interesting rum. J: It'd be a crime to make a cocktail out of this. C: Agreed. R: That oak adds just enough pepper and bite and roundness. J: It's so night and day from the 18. T: It needed a little more aging, a little more alcohol in there, and the finish. J: This is the first one that I'm buying and taking home. R: Do you know the price point on it? T: It's expensive, but that's all I know [further research revealed that it goes for about $100 a bottle, while the 18 Year Old sells for $60-65]. J: I'm taking this bottle! T: Let the record show, Robert's going for seconds on this. In fact, we're all topping off here. C: This is a great after dinner drink. R: It's almost like a coffee. J: You could do this hot or cold. C: Like a hot buttered rum? J: Yes! T: Holy crap! R: That would be GOOD. J: Look at the legs on this thing, man! R: That's amazing that just a few more years... but that's part of the challenge of aging, of course. You have to test the barrel over and over and over again, because it could start going downhill. Say it's aged 5 years, and then you taste it at 6 years and it's terrible. But at 7 years it's, you know, peaking. C: So here's my thing, right? We've tasted this, we all love it. We know what it tastes like. How are you gonna get someone to drink this off your back bar? Unless it's on a bar menu. R: Right, because with a whiskey, you could give this whole story, and you could say this guy used to work at this other place and then he decided to strike out on his own, and he's making it in the back of his house or whatever.... Advertisement J: Who's the most famous person associated with rum? Captain Morgan. At a certain point you need a real human being. T: You could say "The Captain drinks this...." R: That'd be hilarious. Your marketing campaign would be that Captain Morgan drinks your rum. J: I'll bet you that their US sales are 10,000 cases and under. T: What are the numbers for a Don Q or a Cruzan? R: They do well, but I think they do well on their flavored rums. T: Cruzan is really affordable -- it's ridiculous. What is it, $20, $25 for the Diamond Estate? C: Their price point is attractive for people to buy it and put it in their well. T: OK, here's another Dominican rum -- Kirk & Sweeney 23 Year Old. Beautiful bottle but not very user friendly. C: I'm not even with you on the beautiful part. I just think it looks like an apple and it's not easy to pour. T: Yeah, but it looks like an apple with a rope tied around it! C: This is not a great label -- it's very small, it's not brand specific. J: The packaging is terrible. R: That's a ton of glass... how do you even ship that? J: Nobody can pick up that bottle! R: That's what Jackie bench presses every day to keep in shape! J: "Send me a case, I need 30 pounds!" C: You have to have big hands to pour this. And the rope around the neck is getting wet when you pour it. R: Oh yeah, it'll get all discolored and moldy. R: This rum is a very interesting color. It's very orange compared to the others. C: Man, we're just destroying this thing and we haven't even tasted it yet! R: Wow, it smells like a cognac.... it's bottled in Connecticut, but it comes from the Dominican Republic. "In the spirit of the rum-running schooner...." so the Kirk & Sweeney was a ship.... OK, they're evoking pirates. Advertisement T: That's the problem with rum. The whole pirate thing. J: Why don't Somalis make a rum! R: That would totally change their whole image! T: They'd seem so much friendlier! C: "We're taking over your boat... and we're having a PARTY!" R: "Looking at its deep amber and iridescent copper..." -- yeah, it's a totally different color -- "it's clear this 23 year old rum is uniquely charming." So the message I'm getting here is that there's a lot of marketing on this. They want you to think about pirates, they want you to think that it's unique and charming, which to me means there's something in the process that they don't really talk about that makes it... whatever it is. J: It's like saying "Unique, charming, 400 square foot West Village apartment." T: It's very pretty. R: It's rich.... J: Great mouthfeel. R: I'd be willing to bet that what makes it unique and charming is that they dip into another spirit a little bit, like they pour in a little bit of something. J: With 23 year old solera, it's really hard to tell. Basically, as Tony was saying, there's no goddamn rules. T: Man, there is something interesting in here. C: Yeah, the finish on it is very interesting. R: I like it a lot -- it kind of goes all over. Tobacco and coffee.... T: OK, I've never heard of the Bermudez family [which made the rum in the Kirk & Sweeney bottle], but apparently they used to distill a lot of rum. They don't anymore, but they're selling off their stocks. R: So this is like the Pappy Van Winkle of rum? T: Yeah, basically. But at a bargain price. J: This is like 35 bucks a bottle. R: Amazing. T: "The bottle features nautical details of Long Island's South Shore, and the North Coast of the Dominican Republic...." Ooh, the rum just went to my head, just now. I felt it -- BOOM! Advertisement J: Have a little more water. T: You're a wise man, Jackie Summers. J: I just drink a lot. T: Like I said, you're a wise man. J: This is a little less sweet, but the same level of complexity as the Opthimus Oporto. T: It's a little darker, a little coffee-ish.... R: Yeah, I get coffee notes and tobacco and smoke... it's almost like a cognac to me. T: This would make a great Old Fashioned. C: Now that you told me the price point, it'd be great for a cocktail. I mean, $35... you could do a cocktail for $14, $15 with that. But I mean, if you put it on your menu, you'd have to keep reaching for the bottle! R: You know what this reminds me of a little? Ron Zacapa. T: OK, we've still got one more. Montauk Rum. [Full disclosure: Cody works with the Montauk Rum guys. But it's a genuinely tasty rum, so I decided to include it anyway.] C: OK, I'll tell you a little bit about this one. This guy, Lucio, from Long Island, he came to me and he said, I have this rum, and I've been helping him out with it. Originally it was called the Hampton Rum Company -- it was produced out of Westhampton, NY. And then when Hurricane Sandy came, it destroyed, unfortunately, the facility, and they had to find a new location. R: And Montauk became trendy, so.... C: The story goes that the rum runners during Prohibition were storing their rums at the end of Montauk, basically as a place to hide it. So a lot of the rum runners were coming through Montauk in the Prohibition era. R: Montauk is literally at the end of Long Island -- there's no reason to go there except to be in Montauk. Advertisement T: And hide your rum. C: This is the Black Sail, which is four years aged. This rum is being produced right now in Long Island, locally. Everything about this bottle, between the label and the glass, everything is USA. T: Where does the molasses come from? C: Louisiana. So this is brand new, it just started shipping in May. This is produced in seared fresh oak, brand new oak. T: Where do they source the oak from? C: The oak comes from California. The cool thing about this is that if you look at the mermaid's tail [on the label], it's actually the outline of Long Island. R: Nice! [all of us applaud politely] C: It's selling for around $22 a bottle. R: Immediately I'm getting neat fruit notes, like banana, tangerine.... C: This is sort of in between a light and an aged rum. I don't want to call it amber, but it's got that in-between thing. R: It's got some baking spices... on the nose, this is fantastic. J: Something we didn't talk about before -- additives. R: Yeah, what can rum do? T: Rum, like most other spirits can have flavor or color added. I forget what percent. They can add color or flavor or sugar up to a certain percent -- I forget what, and it's important, so I should check it out -- and not have to list it on the bottle. R: The one negative thing here is kind of a pine cleaner note, um, Pine Sol. And it's not a huge negative, but it's the one thing. Advertisement T: It's also a little drier than I remember from the last time I had it. I remember it being more Trinidadian -- more sweet, more vanilla. R: There's a dryness on it. It's medium to light-bodied. J: This is a great package. It's a beautiful package, but it doesn't make me feel like I'm spending $8 of my $22 on the packaging. R: And it comes from Montauk, and what better time to be from Montauk, from a consumer standpoint. J: You know what surprised me? I was watching The Muppets -- The Muppets has alcohol placements! C: You mean on the commercial breaks? J: No, in the show! T: I can't handle that. J: They have as many alcohol placements as Jessica Jones! Picasso's The Actor British theater Critic Matt Truman asked, "How much control do actors actually have?" Some say that film is the director's medium, that television is the writer/show-runner's medium. Is there an actor's medium? Film, television and theater all require the collaboration of dozens to hundreds of artists. Film and television, however, rely on sound and images, both of which can be digitally created. Theater requires the actor. Even the combination of all the other collaborators' work is deficient without the actor. Actors can create theater as solo collaborators. Without the actor, you may have dance, puppetry, a concert -- but not theater. Advertisement I earned my Equity card at age 16 in The Goodman Theater's World Premiere of Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman. Since then I've had the privilege of collaborating with the writers, directors and designers at the inception of the production process. I realize that my experience is the exception and not the rule. I have almost exclusively performed in original works. I have always been in the room where it happens. Is the theater founded primarily upon the director's vision? And if so, why don't we have "reality theater" where a director grabs contestants off the street and sticks them on stage? Is theater founded primarily upon the playwright's vision? Theater Companies like The Signature operate from this premise. And the theater does require a writer's invention and language in a way no other medium demands. Yet playwrights/composers/librettists don't just pull people off the street to say the words and sing the songs. Why not? Because in the theater, an audience pays to see gifted, skilled, craftsmen/womyn perform. For me, the elephant in the room is that the actor has ALL the control. Oh my God, I said it. Advertisement Unabashedly, this is why I love theater so much. Actors are alone with an audience making magic every performance. Like great sex, it's orgasmic for the actor and for the audience. Scores of smart, talented people put a plethora of expensive resources into the hands of actors while behaving as if we can neither be respected or trusted. We are often treated and spoken of as childish, frivolous, expendables. And to that I say, "I know I am replaceable. But then you won't have me. And I know that I add value." It's a risky business relying on actors; actors can: not show up, flub lines, change blocking, forget costumes, they can mess up a performance. I don't know any actor who would deliberately choose to do any of these things. However, the fact remains that it is, and always remains, in the actors' power to choose what they will or will not do at every performance. The producers, directors, writers and crew count on actors to fulfill the expectations of others at every performance. Yet, we often are treated as a dispensable commodity. Once, a director berated a cast I was in telling us, "We know what we are doing, so if you don't understand the show, that's just your fear and negativity. Don't let your insecurity get in the way of the great show we know we have." Advertisement All I could think was, "Wow, let me get my fear and negativity out of your way." The other actors must have felt the same way, because the entire cast quit; and the show never happened. I'm told that it was the first time in the history of Actor's Equity that the actors withdrawal ended the life of a show. Ego and fear often prevent actors from exercising our power. But even that is our choice. Many actors prefer to do what they're told rather than risking the consequences of asking a question, making a suggestion or "just saying no" to words and actions they find harrowing. My experience is that the great writers and directors (I have had the privilege of collaborating with many) let the actors show them what they have in mind. They listen and find ways to incorporate the actors' choices into the work. Because they've learned that trust and respect can elicit great performances. Further, once the show opens and the writer and director leave, the trust and respect ensures the actor to maintain the show as rehearsed. Without that bond "The bear is gonna do what the bear is gonna do." Can an actor triumph with a bad script? Sometimes, if the actor intuits a truth that may not be on the page. Can an actor triumph with a bad director? Most of the time, yes, because the director has no way of knowing how the actor achieves his art. if the director is happy with the result, the actors' method is irrelevant. William Esper taught me that actors are responsible for their work and for the people they choose to work with. Actors have the choice; to do as they're told, to follow their soul, or to walk away. Every choice has consequences. When you turn something down or walk out on a show, those people may not work with you again, they may tell other people not to work with you, they may talk about you, you may get a bad reputation, you may have to take a job in another profession, you may have to go bankrupt or go on welfare. Advertisement I advise my students to do what they can live with at 4:00 a.m. when the voices of both the supporters and the detractors are silent. Each of us is solely responsible for our own soul. The actor is the soul of the theater. A stage play or a musical, without the actor, is just words on a page. Audiences come to the theater to be up close and personal and in the room with actors risking, daring, doing what most of them can barely imagine. In this respect, actors are goddesses and ministers of the soul. Actors have all the control. We are uplifted by our collaborators. Too often we look outside ourselves to validate our creativity. But when we are treated with respect and trust, we dare to fail, and often stumble upon brilliance. As we embark on 2016 and the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals, I would like to express my gratitude to all our partners and participants since we started in 2004 as a small NGO with the aim of ending deaths in childbirth in Nigeria through developing best practice models of health information delivery and vital statistics tools that could create behavioural change for the wellbeing of mothers, newborns and families. I must congratulate my Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) Team, for being named one of the Guardian Development Professionals Network's NGO Heroes of 2015. From more than 100 nominations, WBFA were featured and celebrated for how we have brought global best practice models back to my home state of Kwara, including the development and distribution of WBFA Personal Health Records, and a partnership with Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to deliver emergency obstetric and newborn care 'skills and drills' training in the state could lower maternal mortality by up to 20%. I would like to join the Guardian in celebrating my team, and in their honour, I will be dedicating today's Maternal Monday column to sharing their stories. Much is known about my story - my journey as a reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) advocate began after I lost one of my first pair of twin daughters during my first childbirth, over twenty years ago. My experience was also my moment of obligation - I realised that this tragedy and grief is an unavoidable reality for so many women and children across the world. As we embark on the SDGs journey, it is important that we do not lose sight of the people, the lives, and the stories behind the targets - stories like mine, stories like yours, the stories of the mothers, and the stories of the medical workers, most especially the stories of the midwives deliver new lives, daily. Every Monday, WBFA's #MaternalMonday campaign conducts online advocacy and health education centred on RMNCAH. Every Monday, we will now share your stories too - your individual journeys to advocacy, your experiences as a mother, child, health worker or ally, and your work on every aspect of RMNCAH. Simply use the hashtag #MaternalMonday to share your story via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - or even via our online Maternal Monday advocacy space. We hope that the #MaternalMonday space can become a platform for harmonising local and global ideas, programmes, actions, and successfully pioneering support for initiatives like Every Woman, Every Child, International Confederation of Midwives, World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts, Rheumatic Heart Disease, family planning, stillbirths, Girls, Not Brides, and more. Advertisement Here are the #MaternalMonday stories of my WBFA team! Felicity Ukoko, Head of Programmes and Adocacy, Wellbeing Foundation Africa As a midwife working in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) for over twenty years, I feel acutely the loss of a baby being born too soon and leaving the world too early. Working closely with mothers, I have - like many midwives - developed bonds with women and their families and witnessing their pain following negative health outcomes such as a preterm birth was always difficult for to handle. Driven by my passion and experience as a midwife, in March 2015, I joined the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) as the Head of Programmes and Advocacy to develop initiatives that can save the lives of mothers and babies across the African continent. It is in this role that I am proud to announce that I have been appointed as the representative for Nigeria on the United Nations' Every Newborn Action Plan's Global Public-Private Partnership to Prevent Preterm Birth's Global Steering Committee. Joining this committee enables the WBFA and I to advocate for mothers and premature babies, and help prevent preterm births on a global scale. I am honoured to work at an organisation that has placed midwifery and midwives at the heart of its programming. From the development of an antenatal education programme that can be delivered by skilled midwives in communities across sub-Saharan Africa, to bringing midwives together for an upcoming International Day of the Midwife conference, and reinvigorating the Baby Friendly Initiative to leverage the power of midwives to encourage the uptake of breastfeeding in Nigeria. Over the next few years, I am sure we will meet our obligations to Nigerian mothers and reach my dream of dedicated birthing centres across the nation. Advertisement Dr Luther-King Fasehun, Nigeria Country Director My moment of obligation came in New York in December 2013, as I noticed I was the only Nigerian in the room at a World Health Organisation and UNICEF gathering of global stakeholders to chart a way forward in the prevention of newborn deaths and ending stillbirths. I felt obliged to raise my voice for the women and families in the slums of sub-Saharan Africa; to ensure that the realities of the challenges that healthcare workers face in preventing peri-natal mortality are captured in the pre-final draft of the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP); and to ensure that the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) continues to build on its advocacy to ensure that the improvement of care around the time of birth retains a position of primal importance in our work. This led to WBFA playing a crucial role in the Advocacy and Communications Working Group of the ENAP Steering Committee. Alongside Save the Children, we hosted a Nigeria country consultation on the finalisation of the ENAP and H.E. Mrs Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of WBFA was inaugurated as the Save the Children Newborn Health Champion for Nigeria. Since WBFA's participation in ENAP's launch in June 2014, the world has witnessed national launches in Nigeria, Ghana, India and several other countries. Further, we are excited that the prevention of newborn deaths and stillbirths are captured in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and WBFA continues to be a major contributor to national and global policies in the field of health and development, including the State of the World's Midwifery Report (2014) and the Roadmap for Measurement and Accountability in Health (2015). My membership of technical working groups of national interest, including the National Essential Medicines Coordinating Mechanism (NEMCM) and the National Child Health Technical Working Group, amongst others, have allowed me take my moment of obligation to the broader needs of our communities, including through a strategic communications partnership to eliminate Ebola fever and Lassa fever. Rachel Firth, Head of Partnerships and Strategy Having worked with smaller NGOS for a number of years I have always understood the significant impact that smaller organisations like Wellbeing Foundation Africa can have in international development due to their wealth of knowledge and expertise in key areas. The struggle was always to make these NGOS and their work visible, in the shadows of larger international development organisations working in the same field and how to scale up effective programmes locally. I realised that instead of competing for space and recognition, partnerships between local NGOs and larger INGOS was the way to ensure impact and enable scaling. Partnerships such as that between WBFA, Johnson & Johnson and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to deliver Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care training in Kwara Strate, Nigeria, bring together the strengths of different organisations. The local knowledge and expertise of WBFA and the formalised processes, procedures and scope of work that characterise larger INGOS have resulted in a truly effective programme and a stronger combined capacity to achieve mutual goals. Advertisement The question of how Muslims fit into Western societies has been an uncomfortable one for many, especially in the years after 9/11. Considering the centuries-long well-documented history of Western suspicion towards Islam, constant chaos in the present-day Middle East does nothing to encourage level-headed discourse on how Muslim citizens are a part of increasingly diverse Western societies. Yet, in light of research that suggests that many of the young Western Muslims being lured into the arms of groups like ISIS are often drawn to such groups due to a lack of a sense of belonging in society, understanding how to promote a real sense of belonging is of considerable importance. Furthermore, as Olivier Roy has noted in his research into radicalization, though few radicals are religious Muslims, a misguided focus on Islam through the exclusive lens of counter-terrorism ironically serves only to "validate the narrative of persecution and revenge that feeds the process of radicalisation." Advertisement Most Muslims in Britain do seem to feel at home here -- after all they've been here for several generations in many cases, often building vibrant British-Muslim communities, and have nowhere else to call home. There are, however, significant factors that could make them feel disenfranchised from wider society. It does not help, for example, that the news media provides an unending narrative of war between Western nations and groups that claim to be Islamic. Given the stakes involved today, we must ask: why is it that some young Muslims feel so alienated from mainstream society, and indeed, their own well-integrated communities? Put another way, how can a greater sense of belonging for Muslims in the West be engendered? One compelling answer I have come across for this latter question is to be found in the admittedly theoretical writings of Tariq Modood, founding Director of the University of Bristol's Research Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship. His 2013 work, Multiculturalism: A Civic Idea, is perhaps the most concise yet comprehensive articulation of the doctrine of multiculturalism by one of its leading proponents. Much of the work is a corrective to the narratives in recent years of the so-called 'failure' or 'death' of multiculturalism as an idea. Modood covers a raft of issues, all connected to the place of Muslims in Western societies. Among other topics, he considers various forms of racisms, which he divides into "color" as well as "cultural" racisms (p. 41). Advertisement On reflecting on the concept of equality, he notes that people who identify with a certain group, be it on the basis of race or religion, may find that others conceive of and treat such people "as inferior, less rational and culturally backward" (p. 47). This is frequently the case for many Muslims in Western countries today, at least in the way they feel they are often represented in much of the media and political discourse. Modood's work is, however, much more nuanced and wide-ranging than this brief remark suggests: he by no means wishes to reduce the identity of Muslims to its religious component. His policy suggestions are noteworthy because they point up the importance of religious identity to many Muslims which a secular society is generally inclined to ignore. Ignoring this component can contribute to the alienation of many Muslims, the majority of whom simply want to be accepted into society, rather than viewed as not belonging to diverse Western societies as full citizens. In making this argument, Modood advocates a "moderate" as opposed to "radical" or "ideological" secularism in Western societies, that does not simply reject religion out of hand (Chapter 4). Modood notes the argument, "commonly found in the op-ed pages of the broadsheets," that the demands to recognize Muslims' religious identity is different from other historically marginalized groups, in that being Muslim is a matter of choice (p. 65). Whereas a black person can never change his or her skin color, a Muslim chooses his or her religion, and hence, doesn't need special protections from the law. According to this view, secular laws must remain neutral between different religions. Modood calls this view "naive (and a political con)." He cogently points out that people do not choose to be born into Muslim families, or into a society in which "looking like a Muslim or to be a Muslim creates suspicion, hostility, or a failure to get the job you applied for." Once again, this is merely a snippet of a very thoughtful treatment of a challenging but important subject. Multiculturalism has been (mis-)characterized by some as even contributing to terrorism in the West (p. 10). However, as Modood argues, this is only a caricature of the ideas that he and other leading theorists promote. Multiculturalism is rather more about the inclusion of diverse views in the public conversation so that the various viewpoints found in our diverse societies can enrich each other. Advertisement I would argue that this is crucial to achieving a stronger sense of British identity for young Muslims; and as a consequence, it would lessen the appeal of such groups as ISIS, that prey on the alienated and disenfranchised. Subir Basak via Getty Images Holding hands during an Indian wedding, India. More couples in North India have longer marriage than their counterparts across the country, the latest census data reveals, but the longevity of their union is less about love, and more to do with timing and health. On Monday, The Times of Indiareported that couples from Haryana to Bihar as well as Maharashtra have the highest number of couples married for at least 40 years, making up 11-12 percent of all couples, while the Northeast has less than seven percent marriages lasting over four decades. Advertisement TOI reports that Meghalaya has just 4.1% of all couples who have been married for 40 years or more, one-third of Haryana or Maharashtra. The highest share of longest marriages are in Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The lowest share of marriages over 40 years are in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Assam, Nagaland, Arunachal, and Meghalaya. The duration of a marriage doesn't depend on love and loyalty, according to sociologists, but rather on customs, health and the couple's age. An early marriage and good health is the best bet for a long marriage. Professor Bimal Kar, who heads the geography department at Guwahati University, told TOI that lower share of marriages could be attributed to poor health and late marriage. Advertisement In India, the legal minimum age for marriage is 21 for men and 18 for women. In Haryana, census data shows, 21 percent of men are married before the age of 21, and 31 percent of women from the state tied the knot before the age of 18. In Meghalaya, 11 percent of men are married before the age of of 21, and 15 percent of women were less than 18-years-old when they entered matrimony. Only 1.1 percent of marriages end in divorce in India. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost: PM Images via Getty Images Man's hand holding large hand gun, close up NEW DELHI -- Delhi Police sub-inspector allegedly murdered a 28-year-old woman and then shot himself to death at a park in southwest Delhi's Dwarka Sector 4 on Sunday. The officer, identified as Vijendra Bishnoi (33), a native of Rajasthan, allegedly had an extra-marital affair with the woman, Nikita Chauhan, a former news stringer who lived in Dwarka and had separated from her husband, said a senior police official. Advertisement Bishnoi, himself was an accused in a domestic violence case registered on the basis of a complaint filed by his wife in Rajasthan, the official said. According to police, the incident took place around 9.45 am yesterday when Bishnoi asked the woman to come to the park, where they were last seen sitting on a bench and talking to each other. He suddenly pulled out his service revolver and fired three bullets which hit the woman on her chest and abdomen. Seconds after that, Bishnoi pointed the gun towards himself and fired two rounds. While one bullet hit his abdomen, the other hit his chest. Locals called up the police and both were rushed to a hospital, where the woman was declared brought dead and Bishnoi was reported to be in a critical condition. Advertisement "He was then moved to AIIMS Trauma Centre where he died in early evening," DCP (Southwest) R A Sanjeev said. Bishnoi, who is survived by a son and a daughter, was posted at west Delhi's Ranhoula police station. He had an intimate relationship with the woman for around the past three years, the senior official said, adding that relatives of both parties were informed about the incident. "A case has been registered under relevant sections of law and investigation is underway," Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak said. An official privy to the probe added that from preliminary investigation, it appears that the woman was extorting money from Bishnoi and had even allegedly threatened to frame him in a false case. Advertisement However, such allegations are to be subjected to several layers of verification. During investigation it also emerged that the woman, who had married a man identified as Bittu in 2011, was a news stringer for electronic media (Hindi) and had met Bishnoi during an assignment, but was jobless at least for the past one year, said the official. Nikita and her husband separated apparently because of Nikita's relation with Bishnoi. Nikita and Bishnoi were also found to have gone for vacations together outside Delhi, the official said, adding that it is also likely that Nikita was being helped by someone in the suspected extortion. The case is being probed from multiple angles and several persons have been questioned so far, the official added. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost: - via Getty Images Indian actor Mammootty arrives to attend the Auction for Cinema Against Aids on the sidelines of the DIFF in the Gulf emirate on December 10, 2009. Despite an alarming debt crisis, Dubai is rolling out the red carpet with its usual splendour for movie stars as the Gulf state's sixth annual film festival kicked off on December 9. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) The advertisement is of a kind you have seen a thousand times on Indian television -- a beautiful woman uses a bar of soap in the shower, usually in slow motion, and emerges looking fresh, glamorous, and miraculously, light-skinned. But it wasn't just any other advertisement for 67-year-old K Chaathu who hails from Mananthavady, Wayanad district in Kerala, because the state's favourite star, Mammootty, was endorsing the 'fairness soap'. Advertisement After using the soap by popular Kerala brand Indulekha for over a year, when Chaathu didn't see any difference in his skin tone, he decided to take action. Chaathu, a sculptor by profession, approached the consumer court at Wayanad in September 2015 and claimed a compensation of Rs 50,000 from both Indulekha as well as National Award-winning actor Mammootty, because the so-called 'fairness soap' had failed to produce desired result. "Mammooty is a big star. We trust him. Because he says Indulekha soap makes dark people fair, lot of people use it. I used it for a long time, but, nothing happened. I am still dark. What they say in these advertisements are nothing but white lies," Chaathu told IBNLive. Advertisement Maybe because of immense star worship most of my villagers believe what celebrities say. I have heard them saying may be that product is good otherwise Mammootty or Mohanlal will not act in the ad. I think many fans trust their celebrities, so they should be more responsible... Chaathu said. Finally, the Kerala-based brand which was recently bought by Hindustan Uniliver decided to settle the matter outside court by paying Chaathu Rs 30,000 as compensation. In recent times, there have been instances where actors have borne the brunt of the company's defaults and vice-versa; for example when a man tried to sue Aamir Khan for the late delivery of his TV which he had ordered through online shopping portal Snapdeal. On the other hand, the brand Snapdeal had faced a lot of criticism for Khan's comments on rising intolerance in India. The government also seems to have take special interest in big celebrities endorsements. For example, on Monday, Delhi government wrote to Bollywood actors Ajay Devgan, Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Govinda, Arbaaz Khan and Sunny Leone, urging them not to endorse pan masala products as they contain areca nuts, a potential cancer causing agent. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also On HuffPost: Hindustan Times via Getty Images 'MUMBAI, INDIA - OCTOBER 16: Randhir Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor appear on the balcony after the Saif-Kareena's registry marriage at Fortune Heights, Saif's residence in Bandra on October 16, 2012 in Mumbai, India. (Photo by Prodip Guha/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)' Bollywood actor Randhir Kapoor has lashed out against his estranged son-in-law Sunjay Kapur who has accused his actress wife Karisma Kapoor of marrying him for his money. The couple, who filed for divorce in May 2014 after almost 11 years of marriage, have hurled accusations at each other and their respective families of coercion, negligence and unsympathetic behaviour, according to media reports. Advertisement According to the Mumbai Mirror, the Delhi-based industrialist said Karisma married him for his money in a 'in a calculated and clinical manner'. Sunjay, who has now filed a fresh divorce petition in the Bandra family court, has claimed that Karisma married him 'on the rebound' and is using their children Samaira and Kiaan as 'pawns' in the broken relationship. "The whole world knows about the Kapoors and god has blessed us with enough wealth and talent. We can support ourselves for the rest of our lives. We are talented also. So, we don't have to run after anybody's money, especially Sunjay Kapur's," Randhir told IANS. Advertisement Randhir also added that Sunjay is making these accusations to 'impress upon his girlfriends that he's wealthy'. The Kapoor family has also been in the news because their ancestral house in Peshawa, Pakistan, was demolished recently. The 98-year-old Kapoor Haveli was badly damaged and was thus pulled down, reported The Times of India. (With agency inputs) Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also On HuffPost: Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - DECEMBER 25: (Editor's Note: This image is from Hindustan Times Archives) Former Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed with his daughter Mehbooba Mufti at a Press Conference on December 25, 1996 in New Delhi, India. Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammad Sayeed died at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on morning of January 7, 2016. The 79-year-old leader who founded the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had been admitted to the premier hospital in Delhi with complaints of severe fever and neck pain. (Photo by Santosh Gupta/Hindustan Times via Getty Images) NEW DELHI -- Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed passed away ten days ago, but his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, who succeeds him as chief of the Peoples Democratic Party, still hasn't confirmed her party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Rumours about changes in the PDP-BJP alliance, regarded as unnatural from its birth in the spring of 2015, has been the source of high drama and speculation, over the past week. Advertisement At one point, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah had to clarify that his party wasn't partnering with the BJP, and called for fresh elections if the PDP-BJP couldn't figure out a way of working together. Following its formal meeting on Sunday, PDP members said that Mufti would take the final call on government formation, but the Agenda For Alliance would be followed, hinting at the continuation of a coalition. Significantly, the party did not speak of any preconditions for the BJP. The State Assembly election, which recorded one of the highest voter turnouts in Jammu and Kashmir, led to PDP emerging as the single largest party with 28 seats, BJP 25, National Conference 15 and Congress 12. The state is currently under Governor's Rule, a throwback to December 2014 when the state election resulted in a hung assembly, and further back to 2008, when PDP pulled out of the Congress-led coalition government led by Ghulam Nabi Azad. Advertisement Mufti could be the first woman chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir State when she steps into her father's shoes. While the 56-year-old leader has stayed mum, others have had their say on the political limbo. Following the PDP meeting on Sunday, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said that it was quite clear that the alliance would continue without any preconditions, but the PDP was delaying to "to create a smokescreen of stiff morality." "To hang on to this alliance with the BJP for dear life while pretending to be the unwavering example of high morality is akin to aspiring to have the cake and eat it too," said Abdullah, the former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir State. The longer Mehbooba delays the more people will expect her to extract concessions from the centre. Good luck to her in these games of her's. Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) January 17, 2016 Sayeed, who founded his party in 1999, had dubbed the PDP-BJP alliance as the meeting of "North Pole and South Pole." Advertisement Skeptics wondered whether the two parties will be to function together given their vast ideological differences on critical issues like Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir State, and the AFPSA law, which shields soldiers from prosecution in conflict zone BJP has stood for the abrogation of Article 370, but PDP has pushed for greater autonomy than what is available under the current constitutional scheme. BJP backs AFSPA as necessary to battling the low-intensity insurgency in Kashmir, but PDP wants its withdrawal. In March, the J&K government released its Agenda For Alliance, a document that aimed to give some insight into how the two parties plan to tackle some of these tough issues, but the language doesn't really pin down any consensus. On AFSPA: The coalition government will thoroughly review security situation in state with a view to examine need and desirability of all the special laws being applied to state. On Article 370: While recognising the different positions of both parties the present position will be maintained on all the constitutional provisions including special status. Advertisement BJP-PDP journey over the past ten months has been fraught with tense moments. Shortly after the government was formed, an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh- backed think tank, Jammu and Kashmir Study Centre, aggressively opposed Article 370, and challenged Article 35-A, which grants special rights to its permanent residents. BJP's Nirmal Singh, deputy chief minister of J&K, has said that its alliance with PDP has not changed the party's stance on Article 370. Two weeks before Sayeed passed away, BJP's Farooq Khan challenged the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order for the state flag and national flag being used together on government property. A division bench of the court stayed the order. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost: ASIF HASSAN via Getty Images Pakistani brides talk as they attend a mass-wedding ceremony in Karachi on late March 24, 2014. Some 115 couples participated in the mass-wedding ceremony organised by a local charity welfare trust. AFP PHOTO / ASIF HASSAN (Photo credit should read ASIF HASSAN/AFP/Getty Images) A bill to ban child marriage in Pakistan was withdrawn for being "un-Islamic". This is the second time in a week where such an attempt to thwart practices of marrying girls below 18 years of age was stopped. The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) opposed the Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014 proposed by Marvi Memon, a lawmaker of Pakistan's ruling party PML-N. The National Assemblys Standing Committee on Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony blocked the bill on "purely religious grounds", reported The Express Tribune. Advertisement Another bill to stop child marriages was blocked last week in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly over religious concerns. According to the CII, Child Marriages Restriction Act of 1929 is in contradiction with Islamic law. In fact, last May they claimed that girls as young as nine years old could be married off if "if the signs of puberty are visible". Over a fifth of girls in Pakistan are married off before they turn 18, according to some estimates. Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost: ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteers Force, perform drills during their foundation day celebrations in Ahmadabad, India, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010.The RSS is the ideological parent of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki) NEW DELHI -- Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Rabri Devi has an objection: "What type of organization the RSS is in which even old people come wearing knickers. Do they not feel shame in coming in public wearing half pants?" RSS was referring to the half-lengths shorts which the RSS wears, not ladies undergarments (knickers). Advertisement Speaking at a public meeting over the weekend, Rabri Devi, former chief minister of Bihar, also blasted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party for attacking RJD over the use of lathis. Noting that RSS workers carry lathis during their training camps, she asked, "Why RSS men themselves carry lathis when they and BJP leaders don't hesitate to term RJD as lathi mein tel pilawan party?" Rabri Devi's objection may soon be laid to rest since the RSS is considering replacing its half shorts with trousers to "appear attractive for the youth." Advertisement Contact HuffPost India Also on HuffPost: A Sao Paulo judge sent shock waves across Brazil last month with a ruling that required Brazilian telecommunications operators to block the use of the instant messaging platform WhatsApp for 48 hours. Less than 13 hours later, another Sao Paulo judge reversed the decision, restoring service. But in the meantime, as many as 100 million Brazilians had been seriously inconvenienced, and civil libertarians around the world looked on with dismay. Brazilians take their social media very seriously. The country has one of the fastest growing populations of Internet users in the world. Online tools like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are used not only to express opinions; they are an affordable alternative to exorbitantly priced Brazilian telecom providers. One recent study in Brazil found that WhatsApp was used by 93 percent of those surveyed who had Internet access. The official reason for the judges decision to suspend WhatsApp was because its parent company, Facebook, refused to comply with requests to provide personal information and communications records to prosecutors in an investigation into organized crime and drug trafficking. This is not the first time that the Brazilian authorities have jousted with tech companies. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the crimes being investigated, the judges action was reckless and represents a potentially longer-term threat to the freedoms of Brazilians. Continue reading the main story Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, The Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. The ruling was not entirely out of the blue. Brazils Congress has been considering legislation that would roll back key provisions of the countrys freshly minted digital bill of rights, known as the Marco Civil da Internet, which was passed in 2014. The new proposal is expected to make it easier for prosecutors to access citizens personal information without the nuisance of having to obtain a court order. Described by critics as the big spy bill, it would require Brazilians to register personal details like their home address, telephone number and other private information when accessing websites. It would also expose citizens to possible charges of libel for comments made on social media. At a time when political dissent is vigorous, this bill would surely chill debate. A key architect of the spy bill is the president of Brazils lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha. Mr. Cunha was a leading opponent of the Marco Civil and teamed up with the Congresss evangelical caucus to take it down. Complicating matters, Mr. Cunha is under federal police investigation for corruption and taking bribes, charges he vehemently denies. That aside, groups like the Center for Technology and Society, a think tank based at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas law school, argue that the proposed legislation is probably unconstitutional. These latest efforts to reduce Brazilians digital rights are in stark contrast to the countrys former reputation as a champion of Internet freedom. In the wake of scandals over the United States National Security Agencys collection of Brazilian citizens communications and phone-tapping of top government officials in 2013, Brazils president, Dilma Rousseff, projected the digital freedom agenda onto the global stage even raising the issue at the United Nations. Advertisement Continue reading the main story When Brazilian legislators passed the Marco Civil, the government signaled to its citizens and the international community that it took net neutrality and digital sovereignty seriously. It was, in effect, declaring that the democratic principles of freedom, privacy and human rights were equally applicable in cyberspace as in the physical world. That ethos continued in 2014, when Brazil hosted the NETmundial, an Internet governance conference. And just a few months ago, Brazil played host to the Internet Governance Forum, showcasing its multi-stakeholder approach as a model for other countries. Although WhatsApp was soon back online, the damage was done. Brazils aspirations to Internet freedom have come into clear conflict with the authorities plans to expand the digital surveillance state. And while Brazil boasts on the global stage of its open Internet, it is progressively militarizing its cybersecurity and defense infrastructure. Consider the response of the authorities to the huge street protests of 2013: The Brazilian Intelligence Agency and the Armys cybersecurity command actively monitored civilian protesters and politicians. And the government now regularly clashes with tech companies like Apple and Google over access to users personal data. Every government deals with similar tensions, but each must strive to strike a balance between protecting civil liberties on one hand, and the possible overreach of a countrys security apparatus on the other. Having emerged from authoritarian rule just 30 years ago, Brazilians are especially sensitive to encroachments on their basic freedoms, including digital ones. People still remember, for example, how habeas corpus was suspended in the wake of the 1964 military coup. Brazils politicians and judges should be more conscious than most of the slippery slope of curbing fundamental rights. Last months judicial injunction, together with retrograde proposals like the spy bill, set a dangerous precedent. For a while, the country looked to be a progressive voice for digital freedom. No one expected Brazil to become a leader in cyber surveillance and censorship. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/12/opinion/brazils-digital-backlash.html?_r=0 Ian Katz and Jesse HamiltonAmerican International Group Inc. would spin off its non-life insurance divisions if it were to fail, while HSBC Holdings Plc and BNP Paribas SA would ditch their securities units.U.S. regulators gave a glimpse Friday at how about 125 financial firms propose to wind themselves down if they were to collapse. Excerpts of so-called living wills released by the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show that the strategy of many banks is to leave subsidiaries operating while their parent companies go to bankruptcy court.Plans of non-U.S. banks including Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Banco Santander SA were among those disclosed. RBC said it would likely sell assets operated through its capital markets division into the market rather than seeking a single buyer for that unit. RBS said if it were to face failure, it would look to shed its U.S. operations.Banco Santanders preference would be to sell everything to a single large bank, though it suggested private-equity firms or a company like Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV may have the incentive and the ability to purchase a portion of the banks consumer lending unit.Proposals also were released by three companies deemed systemically important by U.S. regulators -- AIG , Prudential Financial Inc., and General Electric Co.s finance unit. Prudentials failure would see its financial units dumping their outstanding derivatives positions in bankruptcy, while its more traditional insurance arms would be rehabilitated through their primary state regulators, the insurer said.Prudential said in a statement that its plan -- most of which will only be seen by the regulators -- demonstrates that if necessary, Prudential could be resolved in a rapid and orderly fashion without creating systemic risk.GE Capital outlined what it described as a "controlled liquidation" strategy. The parent company, GE, is reshaping itself by selling most of the assets in GE Capital, and plans to ask regulators to rescind the finance units systemically important designation. GE agreed on Friday to sell its home- appliances business to Chinas Qingdao Haier Co. for $5.4 billion.Similar portions of the living wills of 12 large banks, deemed the most complex -- including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp. and Credit Suisse Group AG -- were released in July.In 2014, the Fed and FDIC told the largest banks to improve their living wills after saying lenders had failed to write blueprints that could take them through bankruptcies without hurting the broader financial system. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Credit Suisse were among the firms ordered to amend their plans, which are required under the Dodd-Frank Act. Those banks are awaiting word from regulators on whether their plans are sufficient.(Bloomberg) T20 World Cup: I'm Concerned About India Making it to The Top Four - Kapil Dev 'PCB Can't Take Any Objection as BCCI is The Richest Board': Kaneria on India's Decision of Not Travel to Pakistan T20 WC: 'Lockie Ferguson Has Ability to Break The Game Open' - Tim Southee Opens up on New Zealand's Pace Attack T20 World Cup 2022: India's Second Warm Up Match Against New Zealand Washed Out in Brisbane Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. as he prepares to deliver his speech, "I Have a Dream," during his March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963: Above. I Have a Dream (text) Few public figures, in the last half of the twentieth century, have commanded as much world-wide attention as the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. A staunch advocate for the social equity of an oppressed People, Reverend King, worked tirelessly to secure their freedom, and paid the ultimate sacrifice by losing his own life, when he was felled by a sniper's bullet, while standing of the balcony in front of his second story motel room in Memphis Tennessee on April 4, 1968.Not unlike Abraham Lincoln's untimely demise some 103 years earlier, who was also assassinated in defense of a cause to literally free an oppressed people from the bondage of slavery, I have always wondered just how different it would have been if Martin Luther King, Jr. had also survived martyrdom, and had continued in his endeavor to better the plight of theLike Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. was an exceptional man of profound qualities, and should he have survived, he would have been a profound asset to his People, and all Americans as a whole. Of course, if Abraham Lincoln had not been murdered by John Wilkes Booth, at the Ford Theater in downtown Washington, DC, on April 15, 1865, there may have never been a need for the sacrifice of Reverend King ... but that is another discussion for another day.Martin Luther King, the orator of consumate skill, is best known for hisspeech deliver to a great throng of social activists from all races, all walks of life, who had gathered between the symbolic Lincoln Monument and the Washington Monument, August 28, 1963, to hear the man and spread his powerful message offor all people, and especially for the oppressed among us.Here below is the video of that pivotal speech and the text of Reverend Martin Luther King's powerful words uttered that day.I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights,We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.I have a dream today.I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.I have a dream today.I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector Introduction: Faith is not the Good work that we can do, but rather it is a, great and precious gift from God Himself. He gives faith in ... Ive been gone a while from the blogging scene. Some of my more regular readers no doubt noticed but did not hassle me about it. Thank you for that. Sinc... 6 years ago Cyberattack tools used against businesses in 2015 were different to those used against consumers, according to Kaspersky Labs review of corporate threats in the last 12 months. They included greater exploitation of legitimate software programs and malware being signed with valid digital signatures to keep malicious files hidden for longer. Kaspersky Labs experts also observed a steady rise in the number of corporate users attacked by ransomware. Kaspersky Labs experts found that in 2015 well over half (58%) of corporate PCs were hit with at least one attempted malware infection, up three percentage points on 2014. One in three (29%) business computers were exposed at least once to an Internet-based attack; with the exploitation of standard office applications seen three times as often as in consumer attacks. Geography of online attacks Further, 41% of business computers faced local threats, such as from infected USB sticks or other compromised removable media. Percentage of attacked corporate users in each country The experts also noted a 7% increase in the share of exploits targeting the Android platform, confirming hackers growing interest in data stored on employees mobile devices. These attacks were found to be carefully planned, with cyber-attackers taking time to investigate a target companys contacts and suppliers and even the personal interests and browsing habits of individual employees. This insight was then used to identify legitimate websites for compromise and malware distribution, with the attacks often repeated over time. Hunting down the money In 2015, cyber-criminals and advanced persistent threats (APT) groups focused a great deal of attention on financial services organizations, such as banks, investment funds, and both stock and currency exchanges, including those handling cryptocurrencies. These attacks included Carbanak, which penetrated the networks of banks, seeking out critical systems that would allow it to withdraw money. One successful attack alone would bring in as much as $2.5 - $10 million dollars. The cyber-espionage group, Wild Neutron also spent much of 2015 hunting down investment companies as well as organizations working with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and companies involved in mergers and acquisitions. Diversification Kaspersky Labs experts observed a growing diversification in attack targets. For example, in 2015, the Chinese APT, Winnti APT switched targets from companies involved in computer games to those in pharmaceuticals and telecommunications. "The future cyber-landscape for business includes a new attack vector: infrastructure, because almost all of an organizations valuable data is stored on servers in data centers. We also expect tougher safety standards from regulators, which could lead to more cybercriminals being arrested in 2016," said Yury Namestnikov, Senior Security Researcher at Global Research and Analysis Team, Kaspersky Lab. Stealing at point of sale Point-Of-Sale terminals, used by retailers and other consumer-facing organizations were another target for attack in 2015, with Kaspersky Lab products blocking more than 11,500 attempts to hack into PoS devices. The company knows of ten families of programs designed to steal data from PoS terminals, and seven of them appeared for the first time this year. The rise and rise of ransomware 2015 also saw a doubling of the number of cryptolocker attacks, with Kaspersky Lab detecting cryptolockers on more than 50 thousand corporate machines. This could reflect the fact that ransoms received from organizations can be far larger than those received from individuals. There is also a greater likelihood of the ransom being paid. Many companies simply cannot function if the information on several critical computers or servers is encrypted and inaccessible. "Organizations that have fallen victim to a cryptolocker can find themselves faced with a ransom demand to stop a DDoS-attack, decrypt files, or maintain the confidentiality of any stolen information. Because the evidence shows that cybercriminals dont always honor the agreement once the ransom has been paid - as happened in the case of the DDoS-attacks on Proton-mail, many of those affected should call in law enforcement and computer security experts, " Namestnikov added. Kaspersky Lab recommends that companies take steps to reduce risk and to increase their knowledge of the latest threats. The basic principles of security in corporate networks remain the same: train employees, establish robust security processes and make full use of new technologies and techniques as each additional layer of protection reduces the risk of network penetration. To eliminate the threat of ransomware infection, companies should use protection against exploits and ensure that their security solutions include behavioral detection methods, such as Kaspersky Labs System Watcher. Back to top Ayala Malls Cinemas brings Brooklyn this January 27 - a very poignant story of a young woman who dreams of a better life abroad, leaves her mother and sister to a foreign land very different from the culture she grew up in and eventually finds herself torn between two men from her hometown and new town. Saoirse Ronan has been reaping awards left and right for her role in Brooklyn. Born in New York to Irish parents and raised outside Dublin, Ronan first found acclaim in Joe Wrights Atonement, garnering a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance as Briony. She went on to starring roles in The Lovely Bones, Hanna and most recently Wes Andersons Oscar winning The Grand Budapest Hotel, all by age 20. Now entering her prime, she was ready to take on a complicated, emotionally demanding lead. Brooklyn has opened in Ireland to become the highest-opening Irish film since Michael Collins in 1996 that starred Liam Neeson tells of a beautiful and resilient Irish young woman Eilis and her journey between two countries, two men and two destinies. In Brooklyn Eilis has lived her whole life in tiny Enniscorthy, Ireland where everyone knows everyone elses business and then some -- when she is swept away to America, thanks to her sister, who wants to see her flourish. She arrives into the diverse tumult of Brooklyn already homesick, feeling like an exile. But as Eilis dexterously learns to adapt to life as a New Yorker, becomes a sales lady at a posh department store, she meets a funny, sweet, charismatic suitor determined to win her devotion. Just as she seems on the verge of beginning a new life, a family tragedy brings her back to Ireland where she is pulled back into the life she left behind and a decision that could affect her future forever. Caught between two different calls to her heart, Eilis confronts one of the most breathtakingly difficult dilemmas of our fluid modern world: figuring out how to merge where you have come from with where you dream of going. Ronan says she felt an immediate, almost uncanny, affinity for Eilis as soon as she read the script. Nick Hornby isnt from Ireland, yet he managed to completely capture the spirit of the country. The writing was so beautiful, and so beautifully subtle, she comments. It felt close to my heart because it was about my people. It was the journey that my parents went on back in the 80s; they moved to New York and went through all these same things, even though it was a different era. The biggest hurdle anyone goes through in life is leaving the security of your family and your friends behind for something new. The mix of emotions that Eilis confronts from confusion and grief to joy and devotion was also an exciting challenge as Ronan calibrated the balance between them. We would go from beautiful, heartbreaking, completely sad scenes to gorgeous, fun scenes to do, Ronan notes. Eilis is going through all these very natural things that human beings go through: grief, relationships, jobs, your relationship with your parents, independence. But I loved the subtleties of it. The challenge is that you can read so much into Eiliss experiences and she could be played in a number of different ways. And it was also about balancing the drama of real life circumstances with the humor that people use to handle that drama, which is something that I know Irish people use an awful lot. We use humor as a way to deal with life and death. So it was about balancing all of that. The heart of Brooklyn for Ronan lies in the re-defining of home. I love the piece of advice Eilis passes onto the young girl near the end of the film -- that when you move away, youll feel so homesick youll want to die and theres nothing you can do about it, apart from endure it, but it wont kill you and one day the sun will come out and youll realize that this is where your life is. That gorgeous piece of writing means so much to any person who has ever left their home and family. Eilis needs to go through this incredibly happy, heartbreaking, exciting, scary journey in order to make this choice about where she feels she wants to be. And for me thats what Brooklyn is about. Your relationship with home is something you carry with you as move to different places in your life and endure different things. The trick is carrying it without letting it weigh you down. Brooklyn opens January 27 exclusively at select Ayala Malls Cinemas Glorietta 4, Trinoma, Market!Market! and Fairview Terraces from 20th Century Fox thru Warner Bros. Back to top Imperial Valley News Center Preventing Youth Gun Violence: What We Know and Still Need to Know Washington, DC - The causes of youth gun violence are complex and while focusing on just a single variable will probably not prevent shootings, understanding and preventing youth violence should be a national priority, according to a comprehensive review published by the American Psychological Association. Rampage school shootings threaten our sense of social order, while inner-city street shootings signify entrenched disruptions of social trust. In either situation, there is an urgent need to understand what went wrong. This article explores the complex causes of gun violence among vulnerable youths in these two distinct, but uniformly tragic scenarios, said lead author Brad Bushman, PhD, of The Ohio State University. The article appears in APAs flagship journal American Psychologist. The article summarizes and updates a report the authors made in 2013 to the National Science Foundation. Bushman and co-author Katherine Newman, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, enlisted 10 other experts to help write an advisory report on what is known and still needs to be discovered about youth violence. School rampage shootings and street shootings by youth differ in dramatic ways: They are committed by different types of youth for different reasons, and often have very different risk factors, according to the review. Nearly all school shooters are white, rural or suburban, and middle class. They usually have multiple weapons, including semi-automatic or automatic rifles, purchased legally and often obtained from family members. School shooters also want everyone to know who they are and design their killing sprees as a grand finale, often committing suicide in the end. In contrast, street shooters tend to be black, poor and live in the inner city. They often have lengthy arrest records and use handguns that they obtained illegally. They dont want people to know what they did and rarely commit suicide. Despite all the differences between street shooters and school shooters, many of the causes of their actions are not that different, according to the article. The causes of gun violence in youth are complex. There are usually multiple factors acting together no matter what kind of shooting is involved, Bushman said. Some factors, like social rejection from peers, seem to be more related to school shooters. Other factors, like poverty, appear to play a larger role in street shootings. But many factors, like family influences, personality traits, exposure to media violence and access to guns, play a role in both types of youth gun violence, according to the review. Because youth violence has so many causes, preventing it also requires a multifaceted approach, said Bushman. Many of the solutions are well-known, if not often implemented, such as strengthening families, minimizing violent media effects, reducing youth access to guns and improving school climates. The review also noted that new technologies make it possible to mine large quantities of online data to help predict potential youth violence, citing as one example the Chicago Police Department using social media (e.g., Facebook profiles) to map relationships among the citys most active gang members to identify individuals at highest risk to be involved in a homicide. It is possible to sift through Facebook and Twitter posts to determine if individuals are showing signs of violent behavior, said Bushman. There are concerns about privacy. We have to make sure that when we do this kind of data mining that we only use data that is publicly available. Whether by law enforcement, schools or even family, the question of monitoring social media to predict violence is still wide open and it may be some time before a consensus emerges as to whether it is effective, according to Mark Dredze, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University, an author on the review. One of the most effective methods for preventing school shootings is ensuring that information that something terrible is about to happen is brought to trusted adults who have knowledge to respond effectively. This involves improving school climate, according to Bushman. You want students to trust parents and teachers and feel like they can talk about possible threats they hear about without ruining someones life, he said. Zero-tolerance policies for speech are not helpful, though weapon possession should never be tolerated. Many kids wont report threats they hear if they know a fellow student could be expelled for what could be an idle or nonserious comment. Both school rampage shootings and everyday street violence need more attention from lawmakers and the public than they currently receive, said Bushman. We cant begin to solve the problem of youth gun violence if we dont make the issue a major national priority. HPV Vaccine Uptake is Highest Among Girls in High Poverty and Majority Hispanic Communities Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Adolescent girls living in high-poverty communities and majority Hispanic communities were more likely to have received at least one dose of a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine than those living in low-poverty communities and in communities of other racial and ethnic compositions, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. HPV causes most cases of cervical cancer and a large proportion of vaginal, vulvar, anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend girls and boys ages 11 and 12 receive three doses of an HPV vaccine. HPV vaccines could dramatically reduce the incidence of HPV-associated cancers, but uptake of these vaccines is far lower than for other routine childhood and teen immunizations, said Kevin A. Henry, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University in Philadelphia and member of Fox Chase Cancer Centers Cancer Prevention and Control program. The main goal of our study was to understand if geographic factorsthat is, characteristics about a persons community affect vaccination uptake, because this knowledge could inform current efforts to increase vaccination and prevent cancer. Our findings that the rates of HPV vaccine initiation are highest among adolescent girls living in high-poverty communities and majority Hispanic communities, which generally have higher than average poverty rates, are contrary to conventional beliefs that socioeconomic disadvantage is a barrier to health care, continued Henry. It is possible that the availability of safety-net immunization services, such as the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or Medicaid health insurance for these populations, and their access to HPV vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program, may be contributing to the higher HPV vaccine uptake. Henry and colleagues analyzed data from the 2011 and 2012 National Immunization Survey-Teen, an annual survey conducted by the CDC to monitor vaccination uptake in the United States. They restricted the analysis to the 20,565 girls ages 13 to 17 for whom there were provider-verified vaccination records. In each year, 53 percent of the girls had received at least one dose of HPV vaccine and were said to have initiated vaccination. According to Henry, the most important geographic factor affecting HPV vaccine initiation was the racial and ethnic composition of the community. The highest HPV vaccine initiation rate was among girls living in communities where the majority of the population was Hispanic (69 percent), and the lowest rates were among girls living in majority non-Hispanic white communities (50 percent) and non-Hispanic black communities (54 percent). The researchers also found that the HPV vaccination rates among Hispanic girls differed depending on the racial composition of the community in which the girls lived. About 49 percent of Hispanic girls living in majority non-Hispanic white communities initiated vaccination, whereas approximately 68 percent of Hispanic girls living in majority Hispanic or mixed race communities initiated vaccination. The poverty level of the community was also an important factor in HPV vaccination, regardless of the racial composition of the community. The odds of HPV vaccine initiation among girls living in communities where 20 percent or more of the population was living below the poverty level were 1.18 times greater than for those living in the least impoverished communities. The higher HPV vaccination rates among girls living in poor communities and majority Hispanic communities, which also tend to have high poverty rates, are encouraging because these communities often have higher cervical cancer rates, but continued cervical cancer screening of vaccinated and unvaccinated women is needed because the vaccine does not cover all cancer-causing HPV types and sexually active women could have been infected prior to vaccination. said Henry. The higher HPV vaccination rates in these groups also provide some evidence supporting successful health care practice and community-based interventions. What is not encouraging is that girls living in predominantly high-poverty non-Hispanic black communities have HPV vaccination rates that are lower than rates for Hispanics, added Henry. Additional research is needed to better understand why these differences exist. The senior author of the study, Deanna Kepka, PhD, MPH, a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and assistant professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Utah, added that, We are interested in looking at cultural values that may make certain demographic groups in the United States, such as Latinos, more supportive of adolescent vaccination than other demographic groups. We have a cancer prevention vaccine that is severely underutilized in the United States. We need to explore how to improve targeted public health messaging to promote this vaccine among sociodemographic groups who are least likely to receive it. According to Henry, the major limitations of the study are that the survey response rates can bias the data and that the geographic measures are based on U.S. census ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTA), which have been shown to be more variable than other geographic measures such as census tracts. The study was supported in part by the Huntsman Cancer Institute Foundation, Primary Childrens Hospital Foundation, the Beaumont Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. Henry and Kepka have no conflicts of interest to declare. Hague Claims Tribunal Settlement Washington, DC - Secretary of State John Kerry: "The United States and Iran today have settled a long outstanding claim at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in the Hague. "This specific claim was in the amount of a $400 million Trust Fund used by Iran to purchase military equipment from the United States prior to the break in diplomatic ties. In 1981, with the reaching of the Algiers Accords and the creation of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, Iran filed a claim for these funds, tying them up in litigation at the Tribunal. "This is the latest of a series of important settlements reached over the past 35 years at the Hague Tribunal. In constructive bilateral discussions, we arrived at a fair settlement to this claim, which due to litigation risk, remains in the best interests of the United States. "Iran will receive the balance of $400 million in the Trust Fund, as well as a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest. Irans recovery was fixed at a reasonable rate of interest and therefore Iran is unable to pursue a bigger Tribunal award against us, preventing U.S. taxpayers from being obligated to a larger amount of money. "All of the approximately 4,700 private U.S. claims filed against the Government of Iran at the Tribunal were resolved during the first 20 years of the Tribunal, resulting in payments of more than $2.5 billion in awards to U.S. nationals and companies through that process. "There are still outstanding Tribunal claims, mostly by Iran against the U.S. We will continue efforts to address these claims appropriately." Watch: Viral Video Of Glass Octopus Leaves Internet In Wonder BOZEMAN Joyce McVay Grande, 88, left this world on Monday afternoon, Jan. 4, 2016, at Highgate Senior Living in Bozeman, of natural causes. Joyce was born on Nov. 9, 1927, in Lewistown. She joined her sister, Marvyl, as the daughters of John and Gertrude (Disbrow) McVay. She attended schools in Great Falls, Spokane and Lewistown as her father pursued careers as a grain broker and rancher. Joyce graduated from Fergus High School in 1945. After graduation Joyce boarded the train to Claremont, Calif., to attend Scripps College where her sister, Marvyl, had preceded her. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts in 1949 and worked at the college the following year while attending graduate classes. She also spent a winter working as a dude wrangler in Flagstaff, Ariz., combining her love of horses and people. She much preferred horses and ranching with her father in Lewistown to the domestic arts. Upon her return to Montana, Joyce worked at the Legislature for a year and then in the fall of 1953, the Lennep School Board hired her to teach at the one-room country school in Lennep. At the conclusion of a long Lennep winter throughout which neighboring rancher, Andreas C. Grande (Andy), fearlessly defended her from the many mice in the teacherage, she accepted his wedding proposal and became an instant aunt to many of her former pupils. Joyce and Andy were married on June 19, 1954, at St. James Episcopal Church in Lewistown, with a reception following at the ranch at Spring Creek. Joyce and Andy ranched together for the next 52 years until his death in 2006. The Grande ranch was the site of many wedding and funeral celebrations and hunting parties throughout the years with the house filled with friends from across the state. Thanks to Stella Clark, Joyce even learned how to cook along the way. Joyce served as the president of the Montana CowBelles and travelled with American National CowBelles president and good friend, Connie Townsend, during her term. Joyce also was chairman of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and challenged people to increase the funding and the focus of the program. She was a charter member of Ag in Montana Schools, and a founding member and advocate of the Meagher County Community Foundation. She also served on the local library board and the Big Sky Regional committee for the Montana Community Foundation. Making new friends, wherever she traveled, Joyce would often invite them to the ranch to learn more about agriculture. She was a collector of people and their stories as well as interesting things. She hosted visitors from across the world through the Montana Council for International Visitors. She loved telling of the time Andy walked into his mothers old bedroom and found guests praying to Mecca. Her interests broadened the horizons of everyone around her. Passionate about the Museum of the Rockies, she visited remote areas around the world with her dinosaur digging friends. Led by Jack Horner, they participated in fossil collecting in Mongolia, Hungary, Tanzania, Argentina, the Galapagos as well as Egg Mountain in Montana. She traveled to Egypt and also to Pennsylvania to see the Dalai Lama who had always intrigued her. She excelled at talking with her hands and loved interesting architecture as well as Early Times, shortbread cookies, milk chocolate, Flathead cherries, Apgar gatherings, and the Northern lights. Joyce will be remembered for her personal courage, her ability to inspire and encourage others, her compassion, and her hand-knit Christmas stockings. Survivors include daughter, Lynda Grande Myers and her children, Gavan and Sarina; daughter, Mary Karen Grande and her children, Callee (Chad) Peebles, John Chris (Jace) and Seth Swandal; and son, John Grande (Hertha) who resides at the family ranch at Lennep. She is also survived by great-grandchildren, Brooklyn and Dane Peebles; and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Andy; her sister, Marvyl Allen; and her parents. A celebration of Joyces life will be held at 11 a.m., Jan. 23 at the Museum of the Rockies with a luncheon reception following at Riverside Country Club, 2500 Springhill Road, Bozeman, Montana. Memorial donations may be made in Joyces name to the Museum of the Rockies, 600 West Kagy Blvd., Bozeman, MT 59717; The Ellen Theater, P.O. Box 28, Bozeman, MT 59771; Montana Stockgrowers Association, 420 N. California St., Helena, MT 59601; or to a charity of your choice. Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In 2010, the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis asked members of the public to vote on which of almost 200 artworks from its collection ought to be included in a new, crowd-curated exhibition. The piece that attracted the most votes was Break Point, a 1998 work by Fiona Banner, the Turner Prize-nominated YBA known, among other things, for her excellent taste in movies. Break Point consists of a 14ftx9ft canvas covered in red text, describing in painstaking detail what is surely the most celebrated scene from the 1991 action thriller Point Break: Keanu Reeves pursuing Patrick Swayze on foot through the alleys and backyards of a Los Angeles neighbourhood. As the chase reaches its climax, the text piles up, word on word, until it's little more than a scarlet blur. Now, 25 years after the original, Point Break has been reconstituted as a globe-trotting, $100m (69m) action extravaganza, with that scene turned into a motocross pursuit down the side of a Swiss mountain. Even in Imax 3D, nothing in the new film is nearly as exhilarating as the foot-chase, shot on handheld 35mm. It's fair to say that few fine artists are likely to be inspired by the remake. In the 1991 version, Reeves plays rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah, assigned to investigate the ex-Presidents, bank robbers who pull off their heists in rubber masks of Reagan, Nixon, Carter and LBJ. Convinced the crew are surfers, he goes undercover and is drawn to the waves by the charismatic Bodhi (Swayze) who turns out to be the man beneath the Reagan mask. In fact, Point Break moves away from the bulked-up action of the Reaganite Eighties towards a lean, Gen X cynicism, depicting the Beach Boys' dream of southern California as a bad trip. Almost every surfer in the film is a criminal. In 1991, Reeves was between Bill & Ted movies, and Utah represents a breed of post-Schwarzenegger, post-Stallone action star: John McClane as most bodacious dude. If it reinvented Reeves as an action hero, years before Speed or The Matrix, then Point Break also turned Swayze the heart-throb of Dirty Dancing and Ghost into a magnetic villain. Bodhi is a pseudo-Buddhist thrill-seeker in search of enlightenment and the ultimate rush, whatever the cost. Thanks to Swayze's all-or-nothing performance, his motives make a twisted spiritual sense. Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze in the original (Rex) Point Break is a more soulful action flick than most of its predecessors, powered by adrenaline, not testosterone perhaps in part because it was made by a woman. Kathryn Bigelow, who at the time specialised in classy, mid-budget thrillers, would later become the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, for her 2009 Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker. The film also features several memorable supporting performances: from Gary Busey, as Utah's over-the-hill partner, Pappas, playing against his previous type as a young surf bum in 1978's Big Wednesday; from John C McGinley as their ball-breaking FBI superior, rehearsing for his later role as a ball-breaking doctor in Scrubs; and from Lori Petty, as the third wheel in the Utah-Bodhi bromance. Point Break is packed with quotable lines (I caught my first tube this morning, sir) of a sort that's sorely lacking in most modern action movies. And then there are the set pieces: the foot-chase; two skydives, one without a parachute; the failed FBI raid on the home of a rival surfer gang, which ends with Utah almost getting his face shredded by a lawnmower. Pop quiz, hotshot: which real-life LA rock band's frontman shoots himself in the foot during that raid scene? Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Often described somewhat condescendingly as a cult classic, Point Break casts a long cultural shadow. In 2003, it was turned into a popular stage show, Point Break Live!, which at each performance calls on an unrehearsed audience member to take the role of Utah, reading Reeves's lines from cue cards. The parody, which debuted in Seattle, has since played in cities across the US. The Fast and Furious franchise began modestly in 2001 as a pretty shameless Point Break rip-off, set in the world of street racing, with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel in the Reeves and Swayze roles. Today, it is a multi-billion dollar concern. If only the film-makers had left Bodhi alive for a sequel, we might now be watching Point Break 10 (110 per cent pure adrenaline?), instead of the pallid remake. In the latest version, Bodhi is played by Edgar Ramirez a fine Venezuelan actor, hampered here by dire material as a trustafarian serving sixth-form spiritualism with a side salad of Occupy Wall Street, to justify blowing up gold mines and raining down stolen US cash on stereotypically impoverished South Americans. He whines about the one per cent, yet his exploits are funded by a Eurotrash playboy who throws boat parties that would put Leonardo DiCaprio to shame. In short, it's nonsense, and not the fun kind. The original, on the other hand, is one of the movies I suggest prospective visitors to Los Angeles watch on the plane a list that also includes the likes of Chinatown and Heat, in case you're sceptical of its calibre. Point Break was shot up and down the LA County coastline from Manhattan Beach pier, where Utah buys his first Day-Glo surfboard, to Neptune's Net, a much-loved Malibu seafood joint. That famous foot-chase, meanwhile, comes to an end at Ballona Creek, a concrete river channel that flows through Culver City. Utah, his ankle injured from a fall, has his gun trained on the masked man that he knows is Bodhi. Unable to shoot his soul brother, he instead fires wildly into the air, yelling as Bodhi escapes to fight another day. It's a grand gesture that was repeated many years later by English country bobby Danny Butterman (Nick Frost), in Edgar Wright's loving homage to the action genre, Hot Fuzz. Earlier in the film, Danny has offered his uptight colleague Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) the option of watching a DVD of Point Break or Bad Boys II. Frankly, it's no contest. I won't argue that it was a no-holds-barred, adrenaline-fuelled thrill-ride, Angel concedes, once their Point Break viewing party is over and Utah has sort of got his man. Although, he adds: There's no way you could perpetrate that amount of carnage and mayhem and not incur a considerable amount of paperwork. 'Point Break' is released on 5 February Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Marvels gigantic Cinematic Universe is set to get even bigger with the release of Captain America: Civil War, introducing us to yet more superheroes including the newly re-re-booted Spider-Man. After Sony dropped Andrew Garfields attempt at the character, Marvel Studios picked up the pieces, casting Tom Holland as the web-slinger a part of an unprecedented deal between the two studios. With the films release drawing ever-nearer, rumours have begun circulating the internet about just how the masked vigilante will be introduced in Civil War. **Possible spoilers ahead** Captain America: Civil War - Trailer In the comic book arc, Peter Parker plays an integral role in Civil War, siding with Iron Man and revealing his true identity to the world. However, in the films we are yet to meet Parker, and the story does not focus on secret identities but instead holding other superheroes accountable and under watch by the government. Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Show all 14 1 /14 Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Bucky locked up Ah, the very first scene of the trailer. If you've seen Ant-Man (and decided to wait around until the end of the credits) you will recognise the location. In that post-credit scene, Falcon and Cap discuss not telling Tony Stark about finding Bucky, and here the trio are being hunted by soldiers. Speculators believe Tony has likely found out that the Winter Soldier killed his father when he was a brainwashed Hydra-killer, and is thus hunting him down. Cap, on the other hand, recognises that Bucky has remembered he's actually a good guy (as hinted at the end of Winter Soldier) and has therefore tracked him down to get him on-side. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross from The Incredible Hulk Getting Bucky on side, however, has angered this guy, Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross, or, in the comics, the Red Hulk. The last time this guy appeared in the MCU was in The Incredible Hulk - possibly the most unloved and unconnected MCU movie (even Guardians of the Galaxy had Thanos!). He's handing over papers to Cap that read 'Sokovia', our first reference to the events of Ag of Ultron. He questions the flag-wearer over being a 'vigilante', accusing him of acting with "unlimited power and no supervision. That is something the world can no longer tolerate." He's obviously expecting Cap and the other Avengers to sign up to some sort of government watchdog scheme, working with/for them rather than on their own terms. Obviously, with S.H.E.I.L.D. turning out to be the villains Hydra, Cap doesn't want to sign up to another organisation that could turn bad. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow So Cap goes on the run, and he's turned to Black Widow for help. However, Scar-Jo's leading lady is warning him not to help Bucky (after all, she knew about he catastrophic acts as the Winter Soldier), which Cap replies to with "Are you saying you'll arrest me?" Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Cap v the police And she seemingly does try to arrest him! Cap takes off his shield while Thunderbolt's voice over says "There will be consequences". It's apparent that he is being hunted for not wanting to sign up to the government's scheme while also helping out Bucky. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis First look at Iron Man Here he is, Tony Stark himself. He's on the other side to Cap in almost every way: believing they should be monitored and likely wanting Bucky in a cell. He's also probably feeling super guilty about unleashing a robot, hell-bent on destroying the human race in Age of Ultron. Expect some a Stark experiencing some serious PTSD. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis 'Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth' Stark looking suited and booted, and ready to punch Cap in the face. Steve Rodgers really knows how to grind his gears. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Falcon Here's Falcon having just kicked ass. He's definitely on Cap's side. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Iron Man with War Machine Tony and his pal, War Machine. The rest of his team isn't revealed here, but is expected to contain Black Widow and the Vision as well as Black Panther (more on that in a moment). Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Cap's team First and only look at Hawkeye and Scarlett Witch on Cap's team. Hawkeye is the mysterious one here (Witch would certainly be against Stark after one of his missiles almost exploded her and Quicksilver *Sniff*). His role on Cap's side will likely tie into his family, and keeping them hidden. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Black Panther Our first look at the man from Wakanda. He's on Tony's side, and seems to be seeking out Bucky in particular. Like Tony, it is thought his father, the ex-king of Wakanda, was assassinated by the Winter Soldier as well, and is therefore seeking out revenge. His armour, previously only seen in leaked photographs, is very close to that seen in the comic books. Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis The money shot As cheesy as this shot is, it is also completely awesome! Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis Bucky attacking Iron Man Now that's the face of an angry man. This looks like the same scene we see at the end of the trailer where both Bucky and Cap fight Iron Man together, so the analysis will have to wait until then! Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis War Machine down! Now this... This is exciting. Why is War Machine looking almost dead?!? Would Cap's team really do this to him? Surely not?!? The airport in the background looks like it has been heavily hit by something, or someone, but surely Cap's team aren't out to kill or destroy anything, they are supposed to be the good guys. This could actually be a misleading shot, as there will be actual villains in this film: both Crossbones and Baron Zemo. Perhaps they were responsible for almost/outright killing War Machine, it's more likely than Cap going on a killing spree. Marvel Captain America: Civil War trailer shot-by-shot analysis The two Cap's v Iron Man Now here's a really interesting scene: Bucky and Rodgers working together to take down Iron Man. With Bucky using the shield there are obvious allusions to his comic book history in which he becomes Captain America. Going back to the Winter Soldier attempting to take out Iron Man's core, could it be possible he has killed Cap and that's why he is so angry? Chris Evans has been quoted before that he would like to retire the suit at some stage, could this be his final film? Fan theorists also think he may be brought back for Thanos in Avengers 3, but could this really be the moment the torch gets passed to Bucky? If so, this could be the biggest game-changer in the MCU to date. Marvel According to Geek.com, Parker will instead be just 15 years old and a small time vigilante who the Avengers are well aware of - In Ant-Man, this is hinted at when a reporter tells Falcon: We got guys who jump. We got guys who swing. We got guys who climb up walls. Now, being so young, Parker has grown up idolising Tony Stark, who came out as Iron Man ten year previously in the events of the first film. Eventually, Stark asks Parker to join his side, offering an advanced Spider-suit to fight in. Of course, this being his idol, he signs on with Iron Man - who wants everyone to be held accountable - instead of Captain America. In other spoiler-y Civil War news, a toy set released recently revealed Ant-Mans new transformation in the film. James Gunn meanwhile said that Spider-Mans appearance in the film is off the charts awesome. Civil War is out 29 April 2016. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Arcade Fire led a street parade through the streets of New Orleans to commemorate the passing of David Bowie. Last week, the Canadian band announced their tribute to the musician, requesting fans turn up wearing their "best Bowie outfit or something more strange." In a statement following the musician's passing, Arcade Fire said: "David Bowie was one of the band's earliest supporters and champions. "He not only created the world that made it possible for our band to exist, he welcomed us into it with grace and warmth. "We will take to the grave the moments we shared; talking, playing music and collaborating as some of the most profound and memorable moments of our lives." Led by frontman Win Butler and Preservation Jazz Hall Band, hundreds of fans assembled on New Orleans' St. Peter Street where the packed streets sang Bowie's songs - including "Oh! You Pretty Things", "Suffragette City" and "Heroes" - in unison. Arcade Fire joined Bowie for his penultimate live performance back in 2005 where the acts duetted on their track "Wake Up" at Radio City music hall in New York. In 2013, Bowie featured on the band's record, Reflektor. Bowie's final album Blackstar reached number one in both the UK and US charts at the weekend. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Fox Network have confirmed that the next series of 24 will be a spin-off without the show's original protagonist Jack Bauer. Variety reports that the new series, titled 24: Legacy, will begin filming later this year with a completely new cast in place. This means that Kiefer Sutherland - who has played the show's lead character since its original run in 2001 through to 2014's London-set limited series 24: Live Another Day - will not be returning, although there are hints that he could be "creatively involved" in the show's production. The executive producing team (Howard Gordon, Manny Koto and Evan Katz) will all return, hoping to continue the show's success. Replacing Bauer as 24's focus will be African-American military hero Eric Carter who, upon returning home from deployment, discovers trouble has followed him. The story will see Carter request the assistance of Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) which leads to him setting out to prevent a US terrorist attack. The pilot is expected to air in 2017 - as ever, events will occur in real time. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Barefoot and dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and slacks held up with stripy braces, Professor Richard Fortey, the presenter of this three-parter, wouldnt have looked out of place in an exotic Agatha Christie novel. He was actually in Hawaii getting up close and personal with the flora, fauna and animals. There were no surfers in sight, alas. This was a study of evolution beyond survival of the fittest; bringing geology and geography into the mix, and examining islands specialised eco-systems. Picturesque Hawaii made a good opener as a new-born landmass (less than five million years old). Its Honeycreeper birds were an obvious highlight. Their bright colours and powerful beaks made for good nature porn. The drawings shown on screen to highlight the adaptation process werent quite Darwin-sketchbook standard, but they were effective to tell the birds story. Elsewhere, I liked the cannibalistic caterpillars, a species that had evolved to the degree that they now turned their noses up at leaves. Fortey is of the old school; knowledgeable, passionate. His voice lacks Sir David Attenboroughs gravelly expressiveness, but hes a thorough and clear guide with a naughty streak. Males are usually are the horny ones, he said when discussing the difference between two chameleons. Some things dont change, eh prof? Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Denmark has set a world record for wind energy - with an achievement hailed as "the key to stop global warming". Wind-generated energy made up almost 40 per cent of the country's overall electricity consumption in 2014 - making it the world's leading nation in wind-based power. About 39.1 per cent of electricity used in the country came from its wind turbines, according to the climate and energy ministry. In January last year, this figure peaked with just over 60 per cent of Danes' energy consumption in that month coming from the wind. "These are incredible figures," said Rasmus Helveg Petersen, Denmark's climate and energy minister. "We still plan to put up more wind turbines. We are moving forward and we have more targets." Paris climate talks in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Paris climate talks in pictures Paris climate talks in pictures A man is covered with a multi-coloured banner with the message, "Climate" as environmentalists attend a demonstration near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, during the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) that meets in Le Bourget, December 12, 2015 Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures French President Francois Hollande (C) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (R) applaud after a statement at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures US Secretary of State John Kerry (C) speaks with China's Special Representative on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua (R) and officials at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Delegates and members of NGO's read and work on copies of 'The adoption of the Paris agreement' is pictured after the announcement of the final draft by French Foreign Affairs minister Laurent Fabius at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning Getty Paris climate talks in pictures UN climate chief Christiana Figueres (C) speaks with French President Francois Hollande (L), United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (2ndL) and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (R) after a statement at the COP21 Climate Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on December 12, 2015. The years-long quest for a universal pact to avert catastrophic climate change neared the finish line today with conference host France announcing that the final draft had been completed in the early hours of the morning Getty Paris climate talks in pictures A Swiss Dominican priest poses with activists dressed as polar bears as activists gather for a demonstration to form a giant red line at the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Activists hold up a giant banner reading 'Climate justice' by association 'ourpowercampaign' during a demonstration near the Arc de Triomphe at the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris. Getty Paris climate talks in pictures Representatives of indigenous peoples demonstrate in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Environmentalists demonstrate near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Environmentalists demonstrate near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, as the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) continues at Le Bourget, December 12, 2015. Reuters Paris climate talks in pictures Activists form a giant red line during a demonstration on the Avenue de la Grande armee boulevard in Paris on December 12, 2015, as a proposed 195-nation accord to curb emissions of the heat-trapping gases that threaten to wreak havoc on Earth's climate system is to be presented at the United Nations conference on climate change COP21 in Le Bourget, on the outskirts of Paris ALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images Paris climate talks in pictures The slogan "No Plan B" is projected on the Eiffel Tower as part of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21) in Paris, France, December 11, 2015. Reuters The announcement means the multi-party Danish government is currently on track to meet its 2020 target for 50 per cent of all energy consumption from renewable sources. It also places the Scandinavian country on a strong path towards the Paris climate conference targets, which require greenhouse gas to be cut 40 per cent by 2030 compared to 1990, and energy efficiency and renewables to be increased by at least 27 per cent. Mr Petersen said his country had "found the key to stop global warming" for the other 196 nations who attended the conference in December. One island off Denmark, called Samso, has already become an inspiration to renewable energy experts around the world as it aims to be completely fossil-fuel free by 2020. And the country and its island are joined by Costa Rica, which reportedly ran on only renewable energy for 75 days in 2015, following the heavy rains which power the country's hydroelectric power plants. But Danish energy company warned that transport and homes need to be more rapidly electrified so firms do not have to pay a lot of money to dispose of wind power - a problem which would push up costs for consumers. "If we keep putting up wind turbines, we will keep having low prices in the market, which means consumers would have to pay a high price related to their energy consumption," said Lars Aagaard, director for Danish Energy. "We would have an energy market with large price volatility where some times the price would deflate and at other times, the price would be sky-high. it would be an unstable system." The UK government has been criticised for cutting subsidies to the renewable energy sector, with the House of Lords recently rejecting an attempt to prevent any more onshore wind farms being built. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Kim Jones is the most important menswear designer you've probably never heard of. You'll have heard of Louis Vuitton, though the most valuable luxury-goods brand in the world (turnover as of 2015: 7.07bn), where Jones holds the title of men's style director and which shows its latest collection as part of Paris menswear week in 48 hours. On the surface, that's what makes Jones's point of view so important. It shifts in vast quantities, all over the world. But from a design point of view, what the 36-year-old designer has done at Louis Vuitton during his five-year tenure is challenging, especially in the conservative world of luxury menswear. Jones has given Louis Vuitton collections a zing, a distinct sense of design, a real fashion identity, all without scaring away existing customers who may demand only a hint of monogram and a well-cut cashmere suit. Jones's catwalk shows are major seasonal statements: he's shown bonded cashmere wetsuits and fluorescent go-faster leather life-vests; he commissioned the Chapman Brothers to scribble googly-eyed monsters over luxurious chintzes; and last June, Nile Rodgers mixed together a stomping soundtrack live as his Vuitton boys pounded out in silky tracksuits, boxer shorts and silk denim, barely a suit between them. All three of those all Vuitton shows, actually help to steer fashion's current direction. They're major players. Kim Jones works in a giant honey-coloured office in Louis Vuitton's headquarters on Rue du Pont-Neuf; it feels far smaller, though, crammed as it is with stuff bibelots, books, stacks of papers, creative chaos. Jones himself is seldom there, though he lives in the same arrondissement in Paris. He's an inveterate, even compulsive traveller. I've always travelled I've travelled since I was three months old, states Jones, his accent still distinctly London despite those early moves. It's something I could never not think of doing. Jones's mother is Danish, his father English, the latter a hydrogeologist whose work dictated the family's peripatetic lifestyle. The move at three months was to Ecuador, and Jones's childhood also took in Africa and the Caribbean as well as trips back to London. Today, travel is as much part of Jones's job as it was his father's: two weeks ago, he was in Amilla Fushi in the Maldives; five weeks ago Los Angeles; seven weeks ago Tokyo. I can only be in the office for about two weeks, he says. Then I need to go and do something else. It's just that I need to see things. It's intrinsically tied up with Louis Vuitton, too founded as a malletier, a trunk maker, in 1854 but also with the modern, moneyed man. When you're successful in business now you travel all the time, says Jones as a successful businessman who knows. So things have to go from London to Hong Kong and that huge change in temperature. Everything is based on travel. In all the tailorings, we look at how they are structured and how you can whip it out of a suitcase at the end. Time is luxury to me; you don't want to be wasting time calling for someone to go and steam it. Louis Vuitton's Kim Jones How did Jones end up with that giant office he's never in? A decade or so ago, he had just graduated from Central Saint Martins and was showing menswear in London clubby, sportswear-infused stuff, mixing together casual styles and luxury fabrics. It was before high-concept high-fashion menswear had really taken off in London, and well before the capital established its own stand-alone place on the international men's schedule. Jones stood out immediately, though: half of his 2002 graduation collection was purchased by John Galliano, and he caught the eye of big business at the same speed. I used to do so many different things, he laughs. When I had my own label I'd be doing Umbro, Hugo Boss, I'd be doing something for Topman, something with Iceberg, all sorts of different things, I'd be working on five collections. His aesthetic, then striking in a menswear landscape still dominated by suiting, shifted the style stakes. Years ago, I thought it was important to kind of mix things up, just really by looking at my friends, seeing what people were wearing or also looking at Japan You can wear a tailored pant with a more casual style and it still looks really smart. I think men's fashion has gone He pauses and laughs a little. Well, you know, quite a lot of it is like what I used to do! It's become much more about luxury streetwear. In 2008, Jones was tapped to revive the sleepy British brand Dunhill (now headed by the former Gucci menswear designer John Ray); then in 2011, he moved to Vuitton, stamping a fashion identity with remarkable speed and assurance on a label where once, for men, there were only LV Monogram satchels and briefcases that cost as much as a second-hand car. It still offers them, of course: Jones oversees a vast litany of collections, reflecting the reality of a hungry luxury market. We do two formal collections a year which is tailoring, he says, counting off on his fingers. Two 'Icon' collections which is the men's wardrobe in the Vuitton styling, which gets mixed in with the pre-collection when we show the pre-collection. There's two pre-collections, two America's Cup collections, two show collections and then there's a couple of other things that pop up as well. Then you've got the bags, the shoes, soft accessories, jewellery, glasses. Jones pauses, and grins, possibly at my dazed expression. Recently in the office, when I've had a few people waiting for the collection to come in [from the factory], we'll be having a meeting every half an hour to plan the next two. It sounds daunting and necessitates a relentless schedule. Backstage before the last Louis Vuitton show, Jones confessed to me that he was already thinking about the one he'll show on Thursday. I know exactly what I want to do for the next show, for autumn/winter, he said, leaning in conspiratorially. I know the music, I know the staging, now we're doing the research backwards. I guess, all we can do is wait another 48 hours to see. Though, by then, Jones will probably already have decided where to take us not himself on his next Vuitton trip. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donatella Versace once told me that the red carpet was the new eveningwear catwalk. Donatella Versace says plenty of stuff like that she gives great soundbite, and generally grins knowingly as she spouts something controversial. She once also told me Versace's men's underwear business was huge while we were both of us staring at the underpanted groin of a male model emerging from a pair of Village People-style chaps. With no trousers underneath. I'm sure it is, but I've been lingering more on what she said about the red carpet, and the impact that has on designers. This time last year, Tom Ford chose to skip London Fashion Week and present his autumn/winter 2015 womenswear collection in Los Angeles, to coincide with the Academy Awards. On 10 February, Saint Laurent will do the same with its autumn/winter 2016 menswear collection, despite the word Paris being on the label. Its show is scheduled the week of the Grammy Awards, and will be shown at the Hollywood Palladium, generally used for rock concerts, which designer Hedi Slimane often orchestrates his catwalk shows to resemble. There's a symbiosis. It's striking that Saint Laurent has opted to do it, though. It's the first time the brand has stepped away from a traditional bi-annual Paris showcase even through the addictions, collapses and mental breakdowns of Monsieur Saint Laurent himself, the show still went on. Tom Ford is a bell-wether; but he's also an independent operator who can pretty much determine his own path. Slimane and Saint Laurent are part of the Kering luxury conglomerate. Despite the autonomy afforded to Slimane, who has famously redesigned Saint Laurent in his own image skinny, modern, streamlined by re-engineering everything from logo to stores, and shooting the brand's advertising campaigns, I wonder how they justified shifting the show halfway across the world, to a time, place and location that can be attended by relatively few. Few fashion press, that is. For celebrities musicians, actors, assorted glitterati Hollywood makes much more sense. LA is also where Slimane based his studio. I'm less interested in the clothing Saint Laurent will show, than in the concept as a whole. Chasing of awards ceremonies is a very interesting notion, especially as we're in two months where they occur almost back to back, coverage of the celebrities wearing whom and what often wresting space from new stories about the same brands' collections. Which would designers rather have critical discourse, or a pretty picture of a pretty celebrity looking pretty with a brand name boldly affixed? Furthermore, which reaches a wider audience? There's your justification. I suppose it's sort of a no-brainer. But brainless fashion isn't something we need any more of. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Hundreds of junior doctors have reacted with outrage on social media to a Sunday Times column which suggests that the current crisis is partly down to the feminisation" of the NHS. Commenting on last weeks junior doctors strike over pay and hours, journalist Dominic Lawson wrote that the profession had been changed irrevocably by more women entering it. Junior doctors say the planned reclassification of what is deemed anti-social hours from 7.30pm onwards to 10.30pm onwards will lead to a reduction in their pay and them to being expected to work a dangerous number of hours. In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK 20,000 Junior Doctors marched through central London in protest at the new contract changes the government is trying to impose which they say will be unfair and unsafe In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors protest in London In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK 4 year old Cassius takes part in a demonstration in Westminster, in support of junior doctors over changes to NHS contracts, London In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Protest over proposed changes to junior doctors' contracts, Leeds In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors and NHS staff protesting against the health service cuts and the proposed contract changes offered by the government outside Parliament In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors and NHS staff protesting against the health service cuts and the proposed contract changes offered by the government outside Parliament In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Over 5000 junior doctors rallied in Waterloo place, before marching through Whitehall and onto Parliament Square, in opposition to Jeremy Hunt's new working conditions for doctors In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Demonstrators listen to speeches in Waterloo Place during the 'Let's Save the NHS' rally and protest march by junior doctors In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors marched in London to highlight their plight In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK A protester at a demonstration in support of junior doctors in London But Mr Lawson argues female doctors who put having children first and refuse to work long hours are costing the NHS more than their male counterparts. Quoting one of the authors of a report the future of the health service in 2008, Dr Brian McKinstry, he said more fewer women than men will work out-of-hours which means there are few GPs offering this service across the country. As a result Mr Lawson concludes the consequence has been an increasing pile-up in the accident and emergency wards of our hospitals. He said: When you consider that it costs roughly 500,000 to bring each medical student up to the status of a fully trained professional, it becomes obvious why governments have been reluctant, especially at a time of vast public sector deficits, to increase the number of medical degrees to fill staffing shortfalls created by the swelling number of 'part-time' female doctors. Quoting Spectator journalist Dr Max Pemberton he said "women work 25 per cent less than their male counterparts". But Twitter users poured scorn on Mr Lawson's comments, tweeting that their ovaries get in the way of their daily routines and that they liked to have manicures mid-way through surgery and couldn't work without their pink trainers. One junior doctor from Co. Durham, Dr Emma Wilson, wrote a Facebook post saying though she had previously found the vilification of [her] profession amusing she did not like being called out for the audacity of possessing functional ovaries. In The Times this morning. Frankly a disgraceful and poisonous article suggesting that shortcomings in the NHS are... Posted by Emma Helen Wilson on Sunday, January 17, 2016 She wrote: I'm so sorry Mr Lawson I forgot that it is the 1940's and I should be in the kitchen making you a sandwich not working my ass off for 12 hours at a time in a busy A&E department. What would you rather I do with my life Mr Lawson? Should I have finished my education at 16 and cracked on with the baby-making? Or should I have chosen a more 'family friendly' career pathway?. Junior doctors walked out on strike on Tuesday - withdrawing all but emergency care - after talks between the British Medical Association (BMA) and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt broke down. A second strike where all care is withdrawn has been planned for February. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A growing number of Britons living in high rise flats, many tempted by the stunning views of their surrounding areas, are placing themselves at greater risk of dying if they suffer a heart attack at home. For survival rates drop the higher up people live. And those living 16 floors or higher have almost no chance of surviving a cardiac arrest, according to new research published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The main reason is the time it takes to get to heart attack victims, with an absolute decrease in survival of 7% to 10% for each 1-minute delay, according to the study. Researchers from St Michael's Hospital, Toronto, looked at almost 8,000 people who had suffered cardiac arrest at home between 2007 and 2012. Recommended Read more Blood test could rule out heart attacks Of those living below the third floor, 4.2 per cent survived. But only 2.6 per cent of people living higher up survived. The study, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, discovered that there was a survival rate of just 0.9 per cent in those living above the 16th floor. And of 30 people who suffered cardiac arrest and lived higher than the 25th floor, none survived. Longer time from the arrival of 911-initiated first responders on scene to patient contact is one potential explanation for lower survival on the higher floors, says the study. As more high-rise buildings are built, in response to the demand for affordable condominiums and rental properties, the negative impact on community survival may increase, it warns. The results will be unwelcome news for the rising number of people living in tower blocks across Britain. In England alone, the number of high rise flats rose from 338,000 in 2008 to 480,000 in 2013, according to the most recent figures from the English Housing Survey. Interventions aimed at shortening response times to treatment of cardiac arrest in high-rise buildings may increase survival, states the Canadian research. Installing defibrillators in tower blocks by placing the devices on specific floors, in building lobbies or inside elevators, is suggested as a way of improving the chances for heart attack victims. Other recommendations include making sure that emergency services have sole access to lifts when needed, and ensuring that building staff are alerted before an ambulance arrives. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) has enabled some patients to walk again by rebooting their immune systems. As part of a clinical trial at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital involving around 20 patients, scientists used stem cells to carry out a bone marrow transplant. The method known as an autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) works by using chemotherapy to destroy the area of the immune system which causes MS. The trial has been documented as part of a BBC Panorama programme. The trial has been so effective for some patients that they have been able to walk once more. Professor John Snowden, consultant haematologist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital, said that the patients immune systems were reset or rebooted back to a time point before it caused MS. "It's clear we have made a big impact on patients' lives, which is gratifying." Professor Basil Sharrack of the Royal Hallamshire described the treatment as a major achievement. MS affects the central nervous system, and is generally diagnosed when a person is in their 20s or 30s. More than 100,000 people in the UK are currently living with the incurable neurological disease. Clinial trial patient Holly Drewry was diagnosed with MS aged 21, but her condition became worse after she gave birth to her daughter Isla and she began using a wheel chair. "Within a couple of months I got worse and worse. I couldn't dress or wash myself; I didn't even have the strength to carry my daughter," she told the BBC. Following the treatment, Ms Drewry was able to walk out of the hospital, and there is no evidence of the active disease in her scans. She said: "It's been a miracle. I got my life and my independence back and the future is bright again in terms of being a mum and doing everything with Isla." Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty Amy Bowen, Director of Service Development at the MS Trust said that the treatment is very powerful but said it has significant risks as well as potential benefits. Its a long way from being a routine treatment for MS, said. We still need more clinical trials to understand who is most likely to benefit from treatment, to develop safer treatment procedures and understand what the long-term effects of treatment might be. Dr Emma Gray, head of clinical trials at UK's MS Society said: "Ongoing research suggests stem cell treatments such as HSCT could offer hope, and it's clear that, in the cases highlighted by Panorama, they've had a life-changing impact. "However, trials have found that, while HSCT may be able to stabilise or improve disability in some people with MS, it may not be effective for all types of the condition. "We want people to be aware that HSCT is an aggressive treatment that comes with significant risks. It needs to be carried out at an accredited centre or as part of a clinical trial. "The MS Society has recently funded a study looking into the impact of HSCT on the immune system and we'd like to see larger trials in this area. They would help us learn more about the safety and long term effectiveness of the treatment and who could benefit from it. Additional reporting by PA Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A sugar tax could be introduced by the NHS in England within five years with hospitals and health centres charging more for sweet snacks and drinks sold in cafes and vending machines, according to a report. The move is designed to persuade staff, patients and visitors to consume less sugar and help reduce levels of obesity and set an example to the general public, the Guardian reported. The 20 per cent tax could raise up to 40m a year, which will be used to improve the health of the 1.3 million people who work for the NHS. At first only sugary drinks will be taxed. Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, told the paper: Because of the role that the NHS occupies in national life, all of us working in the NHS have a responsibility not just to support those who look after patients but also to draw attention to and make the case for some of the wider changes that will actually improve the health of this country. We will be consulting on introducing an NHS sugar tax on various beverages and other sugar-added foods across the NHS, which would be enforced over time as contracts for food catering and the shops that are in the foyers of hospitals come up for renewal over the next three to five years over a rolling basis. By 2020 weve either got these practices out of hospitals or weve got the equipment of a sugar tax on the back of them. Such are the levels of obesity in the UK two-thirds of the adult population are at least over-weight -- that the NHS is struggling to cope with the associated health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease. Its not just the wellbeing of people in this country and our children. But its also the sustainability of the NHS itself, Mr Stevens said. It is hoped the move could help wean British people off their taste for sugar and turn palates back to a time when food was generally not so sweet even some loaves of bread contain sugar. The Health Select Committee of MPs has backed the introduction of a country-wide 20 per cent sugar tax. Londons mayor Boris Johnson, a Conservative MP and tipped as a future Prime Minister, has also increased the prices of all sugar-added soft drinks sold at City Hall by 10 pence. However, in October last year, David Cameron ruled out introducing a national sugar tax with Downing Street saying he believed there were more effective ways of tackling obesity. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A baby in Hawaii has become the first person in the US to be born with the Zika virus, which is believed to cause brain damage and a child's head to grow smaller than expected. The infant born in Oahu hospital was also the first birth in the US to have microcephaly - the term for used to describe the head appearing shrunken - the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on 17 January. Medics believe that the babys mother contracted the disease spread by mosquitos when she was visiting Brazil. Officials have sought to reassure the public that neither the baby nor the mother is infectious, and there is no risk of transmission in Hawaii. While research into the virus is minimal, agencies who are investigating the disease have a growing body of evidence which suggests that Zika causes microcephaly, but more research is needed to uncover the full extent, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Below is everything you need to know about the disease and how to protect yourself. Where am I most at risk of catching Zika? The largest outbreak of the virus is currently unfolding in Brazil, where it has been linked to a surge in birth defects such as microcephaly. Since October 2015, 3,530 babies have been born with microcephaly in Brazil, mainly in the poor north east, while fewer than 150 such cases were seen in all of 2014, according to the countrys Health Ministry. The virus is known to circulate in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. How is it spread? The Zika virus is spread by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can also carry dengue and chikungunya. Should I be concerned? The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued an alert advising pregnant women and those trying for a baby to take enhanced precautions to avoid mosquito bites in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The UK Foreign Office has released similar warnings. What are the symptoms? The signs of the virus can include fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise, and headache. Such symptoms generally last for 2 to 7 days. Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty How is it treated? There is currently no treatment or vaccine available for Zika, according to the WHO. The symptoms generally pass in a few days, and those with the disease are advised to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and use pain killers if necessary. If the symptoms become worse, a doctor should be consulted. How can I protect myself? The best way to avoid the virus is to protect yourself against mosquito bites. Using insect repellent; wearing light-coloured clothes that cover the body; blocking mosquitos by wearing sun screen, closing doors and windows, and sleeping under mosquito nets can reduce the risk of being bitten. The WHO also recommends ensuring mosquotis do not have a place to breed, but emptying and cleaning out containers that can hold water, such as buckets, flower pots or tyres. Additional reporting by AP Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The fall in oil prices in the last 18 months has been spectacular, diving from $115 (80) a barrel in the summer of 2014 to around $28 now. This extraordinary decline has come about because of rising supply and falling demand, as the revolution in US fracking massively increases global production just as the juggernaut economies of China and Brazil run out of steam. Nor does the descent show any sign of ending. The lifting of sanctions on Iran on Saturday threatens to push the oil price as low as $10 a barrel, paving the way for the country to become a major oil exporter within months. Here, we look at what $10 oil would mean for the British economy. North Sea The diving oil price has already had a devastating effect on the North Sea industry with an estimated 65,000 jobs lost in the past 18 months, many of them in Aberdeen. Thats about 15 per cent of the total UK oil and gas workforce. But the carnage looks set to get even worse as oil companies abandon projects, putting tens of thousands more jobs at risk. Many of the North Seas fields rely on an oil price of $60 a barrel to break even and the lower it goes the more unviable even the cheapest prospects become. Only last week BP said it would cut a further 4,000 jobs globally 600 of them in Aberdeen after the global oil industry dumped 68 projects worth a total of $380bn worldwide last year, including many in the North Sea. The North Seas declining fortunes are also taking their toll on the wider Scottish economy, which is heavily reliant on oil. Tory MSP Murdo Fraser warned yesterday that the oil price slump represents a serious threat to our economic wellbeing. UK economy The British economy as a whole benefits from low oil prices by reducing what is a major cost for so many industries. Transport becomes much cheaper as fuel costs decrease for cars, lorries, planes and ships, and energy bills decline as oil and gas (which traditionally shadows the oil price) fall. Thats a significant reduction in two of the biggest costs for many households and businesses. To a lesser extent, falling oil prices also reduce the cost of a wide variety of products because oil is found in everything from combs to heart valves and ink to carpets. So while a slice of the economy gets hammered hard by falling oil prices, the vast majority benefit from falling costs and rising profits. Renewable energy industry Its further bad news for Britains green energy sector, which is already reeling after dramatic cuts to subsidy support for solar power and onshore wind. The sector is still unable to stand on its own two feet without subsidy. The oil price slump which looks set to continue for years makes thing worse because it makes oil, and therefore gas, a more attractive electricity source for power stations while solar, wind and hydro become less attractive. This is a particular blow when you consider that before the oil price slump, the green energy sector had been banking on a sharp rise in hydrocarbon prices, rather than an acute decline. Petrol prices The pump price has already fallen from 131p a litre when the oil slump began in the summer of 2014 to just below 1 in the cheapest outlets the supermarket forecourts. And while the huge tax on fuel means the petrol price can only fall so far and fast, analysts are forecasting we could see a litre going for just 86p if oil dips to $10. Thats the same pump price as we saw back in 1998, when oil was last at $10. Recommended Read more Wall Street slumps to new low in 2016 as oil prices tumble Pensions Britains pensioners will take a big hit because their fortunes are so tied up with those of the oil companies. Pensions are heavily invested in oil companies, which have been seen as stable investments and have traditionally paid out a large annual dividend to their shareholders many of which are pension funds investing your pensions. Kuwaiti traders follow the stock market activity after the lifting of Irans sanctions (AFP/Getty) BPs dividends, for example, are so big that they have traditionally accounted for 1 in every 6 of the total shareholder payouts made by the countrys 100 biggest companies. Its shares have fallen 35 per cent since the start of the oil price slump, while Shells are down 45 per cent. Banks which make up another huge chunk in the average pension are also at risk from the falling oil prices, which have greatly increased the chance of default on the loans they have made to finance exploration of new fields in recent years. The declining share prices of the banks and oil companies will be partially offset by improving fortunes elsewhere in the economy as their costs come down. But only partially. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} More than a thousand jobs will be axed at Tata Steel plants, according to reports. Jobs in South Wales will be worst affected, according to the Community union. The latest job losses come after Tata Steel laid off 1,200 staff in October. Roy Rickhuss, Community general secretary, said that 750 jobs would go at Port Talbot and another 300 at steel mills in Llanwern in Newport, Trsotre near Llanelli and in Corby and Hartlepools. The union said its immediate thoughts are with the families affected and pointed a finger at the Government for its response to a "steel crisis". Tata Steel declined to comment. The dumping of cheap Chinese steel is one of the biggest causes of this crisis, yet the UK Government remains a cheerleader for China and their bid for market economy status, which would decimate whats left of our steel industry. This cannot be allowed to happen," Rickhuss said. China is producing so much steel that some Chinese companies are selling their steel abroad at a loss, because there isnt enough demand in China. UK companies cannot compete with these prices and jobs are being lost as a result. Tim Bronk, superintendent of Laurel Schools, resigned Jan. 7, and a special Laurel School Board meeting will be held Thursday evening to discuss finding his replacement. Doug LeBrun, board chairman, said Bronk will finish his fifth year as superintendent on June 30. He had an evaluation for contract renewal scheduled for the next regularly planned board meeting on Jan. 11 but submitted his resignation instead. In a way it was (a surprise), LeBrun said. I know the board was kind of wondering because the year before he didnt ask for a contract extension, so we knew it was a possibility he would look elsewhere. He said Bronk was at the end of a three-year contract. The school board opted not to offer an extension in 2014, and there wasnt a motion for extension last year. The resignation was announced at the Jan. 11 school board meeting but left off the agenda for discussion. At Thursday nights meeting, the board plans to discuss how and where to advertise the job opening in addition to the qualities desired in Bronks successor. The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Laurel Schools Administrative Building located at 410 Colorado Ave. Bronk was out of state Monday and could not be reached for comment. Bronk was superintendent at Darby Schools from 2008 to 2011. He also worked as superintendent of Highwood Schools in Highwood for four years. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} High-flying choosy graduates from elite universities turned down a record number of top jobs last year and left more than 1,000 posts unfilled, a major new report has revealed. Some of the best-paid graduate jobs were left vacant last year after unprecedented numbers of final-year university students rejected employers offers or reneged on offers they had accepted before graduation, according to the analysis by High Fliers Research. There were 1,074 places left unfilled in 2015 the highest number since the market research firm started its annual analysis in 1994. In 2014 there were just 700 unfilled positions, while in 2010 there were fewer than 100 places unfilled. While there are always a few specialist roles that employers struggle to fill because of a shortage of graduates with the relevant degrees, this year the main reason given by the employers who didnt fill all their vacancies was graduates turning down offers or reneging on offers they had already accepted earlier in the recruitment round. Martin Birchall, managing director of High Fliers Research, said graduates were becoming increasingly choosy about the employers they joined. Last year record numbers turned down employers job offers or changed their mind about an offer they had accepted during their final months at university, said Mr Birchall. As a result, more than 1,000 graduate positions at some of the countrys most popular and sought-after employers were left unfilled. He said that this year employers had introduced a range of measures, such as mentoring and open days to try to ensure that graduates who accepted job offers would not change their minds before they started work. He added: There are two distinct portion of the market. At the top end, employers have told us that the most sought-after graduates are holding four or five offers. Overall we probably have twice as many graduates as there are jobs, but at the top end graduates are becoming increasingly choosy. This year Britains top employers are preparing to recruit their biggest-ever intake of university graduates, with 7.5 per cent more jobs on offer than in 2015, the fourth consecutive year that the number of vacancies for university-leavers has risen. The report, The Graduate Market in 2016, is a study of graduate vacancies, starting salaries and undergraduate work experience programmes at the countrys 100 leading employers, conducted by High Fliers Research in December 2015. The median graduate starting salary at the countrys leading employers in 2016 is expected to be 30,000 for the second year running, but graduate pay at the top law firms, investment banks and accounting & professional services firms has increased this year. The most generous salaries in 2016 are those offered by investment banks (median of 47,000), law firms (41,000), banking and finance companies (36,000) and oil and energy companies (32,500). The highest published graduate starting salaries for 2016 include Aldi (42,000), law firms Allen & Overy, Baker & McKenzie, Herbert Smith Freehills and Linklaters (all 42,000) and the European Commission (41,500). The research also shows that graduate employers are continuing to expand their paid work-experience programmes for university undergraduates and are offering a record number of paid internships, vacation work experience and course placements in 2016. Recruiters say they expect a third of this years full-time graduate positions to be filled by graduates who have already worked for their organisations, either through paid internships, industrial placements or vacation work. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} With students notorious for surviving on culinary delights ranging from baked beans to Pot Noodles and endless rounds of toast, British universities have not traditionally been under pressure to offer much beyond chips, pasta, and pizza. But in a bid to satisfy the palates of Chinese students studying in Britain every year, which bring in millions in tuition fees, campus chefs are now planning a makeover of their menus. The move comes in the wake of a fact-finding trip to China, organised by The University Caterers Organisation (Tuco), by a dozen British universities. Recommended Read more How to say the most commonly mispronounced food words While our degree education might be world-class our food remains a joke across the globe. This partly stems from our current attempts to replicate international cuisine; after our trip to China I think we all agree that we have been getting it wrong so far, said Julie Barker, Tuco chair, and director of accommodation and hospitality at the University of Brighton. One discovery was that British universities which had been trying to impress Chinese students with a traditional rice porridge dish called congee had been using the wrong recipe - failing to use ingredients such as coriander and chillies. And it became apparent during the trip, which took place late last year, that charging for chopsticks is not a good idea. Imagine you are a Chinese student and you have to pay for chopsticks. Well, youre going to think, What the hell have I done coming here? They are going to get the chopsticks for nothing now, commented Scott Girvan, executive chef at the University of Glasgow. Another delegate, Matthew White, director of catering, hotel and conference services at the University of Reading, told Times Higher Education: One of the first meals they get is breakfast, which is likely to be cereal, milk and bread - all things the Chinese dont really eat. Beans, egg and sausage isnt going to cut it. A training and information package on Chinese cooking is now being developed by Tuco for use by chefs and catering managers at campuses across Britain. Our trip gave us areas to focus on around adapting Asian dishes for the English market so it will appeal to our foreign students, and make them feel that their needs are being met by demonstrating a stronger, more authentic understanding of their culture, commented Ms Barker. The move comes just months after the Chancellor, George Osborne, in a speech in Chengdu, said: We want to see more Chinese students in Britain. There is no cap on the number of students from China who can come to Britain, I want that message understood across this great nation. Theres a strong financial incentive for British universities to make sure they cater to the tastes of Chinese students. For China is the single biggest source of foreign students in Britain, accounting for more international students than all of Europe combined. But the growth in Chinese students has virtually halted, according to new figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency last week. These show that the number of first year students from China stood at 58,845 in 2014/15 up just 35 from the previous year. Responding to news of the drive to improve the food offered to foreign students, Jacquie Jenkins, senior adviser for education engagement at the British Council, said: International students make a vital academic, cultural and economic contribution to the UK, so we welcome this effort by UK universities to help international students culturally acclimatise and enjoy studying and living in the UK. And David Martin, marketing director at the China-Britain Business Council, commented: Chinese people love their food and UK educational institutions that go the extra mile by literally catering to Chinese students needs will leave them with a much stronger impression of the UK. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chris Rock has joined mounting criticism of the lack of diversity at the Oscars, calling it The White BET Awards. The comedian, who will be hosting the Academy Awards this year, tweeted the comment along with a video that listed the top three reasons to watch the Oscars as: Presenter cleavage, Check out who died this year and I might curse. The nominations for the 2016 Oscars were announced on Thursday, with not one black actor nominated in any of the main categories for the second year in a row. Immediately afterwards, #OscarsStillSoWhite began trending on Twitter, with fans shocked that history was indeed replaying itself. Will Smith, Idris Elba and Samuel L. Jackson were just some of the black actors who missed out on nominations. People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015. Rock, who last hosted the Oscars back in 2005, has been repeatedly outspoken about Hollywoods problems with diversity. Speaking to The New Yorker, he said: Black women have the hardest gig in show business. You hear Jennifer Lawrence complaining about getting paid less because shes a woman - if she was black, shed really have something to complain about. Jada Pinkett-Smith has been equally critical of the Oscars, even suggesting a potential boycott of the award ceremony. On Saturday, the 44-year-old actress took to Twitter to express her frustrations, writing: At the Oscars... people of colour are always welcomed to give out awards... even entertain, but we are rarely recognised for our artistic accomplishments. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trumps attempt to reach out to Americas religious right nudged towards to farce on Monday when he fluffed a bible reference while talking at a famous Christian college. Mr Trump, whose invitation to speak at Liberty University in Virginia was opposed by some students, sought to burnish his religious credentials among conservatives who have been suspicious of him. We're going to protect Christianity. I can say that. I don't have to be politically correct, said Mr Trump. Two Corinthians, 3:17, thats the whole ballgame...is that the one you like? Politico reported Mr Trump was seeking to refer to the verse which reads: Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. However, a number in the crowd reportedly sniggered and several of the students audibly corrected him, pointing out that most Christians say second Corinthians, not two Corinthians. Rival campaigns noticed the error immediately and poked fun on Twitter. Brian Phillips, a senior aide to Mr Trumps rival, Senator Ted Cruz, wrote on Twitter: What is Two Corinthians? With a typical display of swagger that has come to be expected from the tycoon, Mr Trump then made a comparison between the bible and one of his own books, The Art of the Deal, his best-selling business tome. The Art of the Deal is second to the bible, Mr Trump said. As for other books, he added: The bible blows them away. Theres nothing like it, the bible. Two Corinthians, 3:17, thats the whole ballgame is that the one you like? American conservatives do not represent a monolithic block, and while Mr Trump has earned support from some, many on the religious right have doubted whether the real estate billionaire is sufficiently religious, or sufficiently socially conservative for them. Last summer, Mr Trump raised eyebrows among some evangelicals by declining to identify his favourite bible verse, saying that it was very personal to him. He subsequently said that he would choose Proverbs 24, telling the Christian Broadcasting Network: Proverbs 24 teaches that envy should be replaced with discernment. Wisdom builds and understanding establishes, whether it be a family, a house, or our community. His visit to Liberty University, founded by the late Jerry Falwell, an American evangelical Southern Baptist pastor, was a chance to try and boost his credibility among this important community. All Republican hopefuls would try and speak at the college, and some Democrats too. In recent weeks Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, and Ben Carson have addressed the college. Mr Trump delivered his speech as the British parliament held a non-binding debate on whether or not to ban the tycoon from the UK. The debate was triggered after half a million people signed a petition call for him Trump to be excluded after he called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US. Mr Trump told the students at Liberty that he would protect Christianity. Were going to protect Christianity, he said. Somehow we have to unify. We have to band together. We have to do really, in a really large version, what theyve done at Liberty. Because Liberty University has done that. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The journalist Jack Monroe has reportedly taken legal action against Katie Hopkins after she allegedly linked Monroe to the vandalisation of a war memorial on Twitter. According to the Press Gazette, the libel lawsuit dates back to May, 2015 when the New Statesman contributing editor Laurie Penny shared an image of the women of World War Two memorial in central London with the graffiti message F*** Tory Scum emblazoned across it. Ms Penny shared it, writing: I dont have a problem with this. The bravery of past generations does not oblige us to be cowed today. In what appears to be a case of mistaken identity, Hopkins then tweeted food writer Monroe directly saying scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom. Grandma got any more medals? Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Show all 16 1 /16 Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on 'plus size' 'To call yourself 'plus-size' is just a euphemism for being fat. Life is much easier when you're thinner. Big is not beautiful, of course a job comes down to how you look.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on naming children I think you can tell a great deal from a name. For me, there are certain names that I hear and I think Urgh. For me, a name is a shortcut of finding out what class that child comes from and makes me ask, Do I want my children to play with them? Theres a whole set of things that go with children like that and thats why I dont like those sorts of children. Hi, this is my daughter Charmaine. I hear: Hi, I am thick and ignorant. Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on gender equality 'Women don't want equal treatment, they couldn't handle it if they got it. It's a tough world out there. What a lot of women are actually looking for is special treatment. What women need to realise is that they have to toughen up.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on immigration 'I've always said if you go into a school playground and shout Mohammad, you'll probably get 100 children running towards you!" Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins to Benefits Street's White Dee 'Do you not feel like the patron saint of druggies and dropouts?' Channel 5 Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on tattoos 'Are tattoos just a badge for the stupid? For me, and for lots of people like me, when you see tatoos you think of someone who is just looking for attention, who hasn't managed to find a way in their life through conventional means and who is just shouting 'I want attention! I want to be looked at!' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on addiction I dont believe what Russell Brand says about addiction. I just dont buy it. Gazza likes drinking, let him crack on. He is enjoying himself. Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on The X Factor 'The X Factor 2013 has ended in a painful showdown between a fat mum in a jumpsuit (Sam Bailey) and a small boy in whatever his mum laid out for him on his bed (Nicholas McDonald)' ITV Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on the Egyptian uprising 'The difference between most mothers and me is that I didnt sit around drinking coffee at baby group for 12 months after the birth of my baby. No, in three weeks I was back in my suit, back at my desk earning profit for my business and I dont see why other women shouldnt do the same.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on maternity leave 'Egyptian uprising continues to look like Bonfire Night. Protest fireworks. Right up there with angry cup cakes.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on 'gingerism' 'Ginger babies. Like a baby. Just so much harder to love. A ginger person with tattoos called Jayden? The triumvirate of horror!' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on affairs 'I lied to get someone else's husband because I wanted him. I give myself 8 out of 10 for ruthlessness for that one.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on the elderly Personally I hate mobility scooters. I find their owners intolerable. Ran past a mobility scooter going up hill. Made me giggle. I need to grow up and stop being an arse. Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins after the Glasgow helicopter crash 'Life expectancy in Scotland is 59.5. Goodness me. That lot will do anything to avoid working until retirement.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on Ramadan 'Channel 4 broadcasts Islamic calls to prayer for Ramadan. A 30 day reminder that minority rules in the UK. Any more PC, it'd be a bloody laptop.' Katie Hopkins' most offensive moments Katie Hopkins on self-harming 'I am advised by the Twitterati to 'cut myself'. I grazed myself on my house gate yesterday. Will that suffice?' The tweet has since been deleted, but was shared by Monroe at the time. Monroe responded saying I have NEVER scrawled on a memorial. Brother in the RAF. Dad was a Para in the Falklands. Youre a piece of s***. Monroe asked Daily Mail columnist Hopkins, who was writing for The Sun at the time, to remove the tweet and threatened to sue if she didnt. In light of her infamous Sun column where she compared migrants to "cockroaches", Monroe asked her to donate 5,000 to a refugee rescue charity as well as making a public apology, the latter of which she did not do, although she did admit to getting Monroe and Ms Penny confused, before insulting both writers again. According to the Guardian, whom Monroe writes for, Monroe confirmed the legal action but made no further comment. Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Scientists hope that cosmic particles could offer a clue at what lies within the mysterious 4,600-year-old structure. The researchers have placed plates within Egypts Bent Pyramid, designed to catch muons that fall down to Earth from the atmosphere. And they hope that the radiographic particles will offer some clue to the construction of the ancient building. The researchers put the panels into the pyramid last month. They hope to catch some of the particles, which will travel through empty spaces but will get deflected by thicker ones. By studying the plates, the scientists hope that they can look at where the particles accumulate and try and understand what is inside the pyramid, built by Pharaoh Snefru. For the construction of the pyramids, there is no single theory that is 100% proven or checked; They are all theories and hypotheses, Hany Helal, the vice president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute, told the Associated Press. What we are trying to do with the new technology, we would like to either confirm or change or upgrade or modify the hypotheses that we have on how the pyramids were constructed, he said. The Bent Pyramid is found just outside of Cairo. It has sloped sides that give it is name, and many think that it is the first attempt by the ancient Egyptians to build a pyramid with smooth sides. Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty The structure is just one of the pyramids that the Scan Pyramids project has undertaken to scan and learn more about. Research from the same project in November found strange heat spots inside the Great Pyramid at Giza, suggesting that there might be an unknown room within the pyramid. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Audit and accountancy firms who devise tax-avoidance schemes ruled unlawful have never faced official reprimand, The Independent can reveal. None of the so-called Big Four firms PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young has ever faced regulatory investigation for such schemes. Court rulings condemning unlawful avoidance schemes are regularly overlooked by regulators. Critics claim accountancy regulators such as the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) cannot act because they are dominated by the very firms they are meant to police. They warn the UK is increasingly seen as an international soft touch for tax-avoidance abuses as government departments and regulators show little or no appetite to investigate these schemes. Prem Sikka, Professor of Accountancy at Essex University, said: Successive governments have failed to investigate the firms. Instead, the partners of major accountancy firms are given peerages, knighthoods, public accolades and government consultancies. The same firms have colonised regulatory bodies, fund political parties and provide jobs for former and potential ministers. This has brought them political insurance and their anti-social practices continue to inflict enormous social damage. The FRC, he says, is too close to the big four firms. Its committees are dominated by personnel from the big four firms, he argues. The involvement of Big Four firms is routinely highlighted by court cases, parliamentary hearings, etc. So the FRC has had plenty of opportunities to take action on the tax-avoidance front. It will not be able to refer you to even one example. Even after court judgments it does not do anything. Former Labour MP Austin Mitchell, who made an official complaint in 2012 against Ernst & Young about its involvement in a tax scheme later ruled to be unlawful by a tax tribunal, is critical of accountancy regulators. It is time to scrap self-regulation of accountancy and audit and replace it with an independent regulator and an ombudsman. The FRC and the ICAEW are essentially regulation of the big four by the big four for the protection of the big four. Each time Ive raised an issue with them they either invent a litany of excuses to avoid dealing with it or bury it quietly in the hope that it will go away, he said. The FRC said it assumed responsibility for auditors ethical standards in 2004 and subsequently banned them from promoting tax schemes to clients. The FRC committee which decides whether to investigate contains a majority of lay members and no practising accountants or auditors. Of 13 members four previously worked for Big Four firms. We have not seen, been provided with or otherwise become aware of actual evidence that major firms have been promoting illegal tax-avoidance schemes, a spokesman said. The ICAEW denied failing to act against promoters of tax-avoidance schemes. We will always look at any scheme if it is ruled unlawful but it does not follow that if a tax case is lost disciplinary action will automatically follow, a spokesman said. He said the ICAEW could not comment on Mr Mitchells complaint as it was still live three years on. Critics claim it is a common tactic for regulators to announce investigations under pressure and then quietly drop them. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Detectives have admitted they have been stumped by the death of a pensioner who was found on the side of a hill near Manchester. On 12 December, the body of an elderly man was found lying on his back in smart clothes with hands by his side near the summit of Indian's Head peak just outside the city. He had 130 cash in his pockets - but no wallet - and a return ticket to his starting point in London, according to the Manchester Evening News. Police have now pieced his journey together via CCTV, but still do not know his identity nor what led him to travel hundreds of miles prior to his death. Greater Manchester Police released CCTV images of the unidentified man at Ealing Broadway station in London (Google Street View) Detective Sergeant John Coleman said the case was unique. "I've been doing this job for a long, long time and I have never known anything like it," he told the Manchester Evening News. "It's sad really. There might be family who don't know he's dead." The man, thought to be around 70, was captured on video striding "backwards and forwards" through Ealing in London before heading to Ealing Broadway station on the morning of 12 December. He bought a ticket to Euston station, where he was later seen paying in cash for a return to Manchester Piccadilly, where he arrived at around midday. He then travelled to the village of Greenfield in Saddleworth, walking into The Clarence pub and talking to the landlord. The Clarence pub in Greenfield where the man stopped to ask about climbing the mountain nearby "How do you get to the top of that mountain?" the landlord reported the man to have asked, in a northern accent, about the Indian's Head peak in the nearby Dovestone Reservoir. Two sets of witnesses later saw the man climbing the mountain - against the advice of the landlord - in the very poor weather. At 10.45am the next day a walker found him laid down with his hands by his sides and head towards the summit. He had apparently simply died in that position. "Maybe he lived in the area as a younger man and was re-visiting. What drew him to the area is another line of enquiry," said Det Sgt Coleman. The man had no tattoos, documents or identification on him. He was smartly dressed in black slip-on shoes, a blue coat and a white shirt with a collar. No one has yet identified him. Anyone with information should contact the police on 101. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Independent Climate email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britains renewable energy industry is about to fall off a cliff just at the point it would come into its own, analysis for The Independent reveals. The dour forecast comes as the industry celebrated a record-breaking year in 2015, with billions of pounds poured into solar and wind energy and more homes powered by nature than ever before. Recommended Read more Councils reject over a third of onshore wind farm projects But experts have warned this is all about to grind to a halt as the Government abandons its commitment to green energy and instead invests in fracking and nuclear power. The impact of the Governments end to wind-farm subsidies and the carrying-out of its manifesto pledge to halt the spread of onshore windfarms has been laid bare with research for The Independent. The figures from Bloomberg forecast that over the next five years the country will lose at least 1 gigawatt of renewable energy generation enough to power 660,000 homes. After 2020, the new renewables infrastructure will collapse to almost nothing because of a lack of investment and the blossoming industry could wither, the figures suggest. The Government is kicking the onshore wind industry off the ladder too soon, said David Hostert, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which carried out the research. Without some form of change in policy support, we could see investment drop off a cliff after 2019. New figures from Bloomberg further underlined the damage the government was inflicting on the renewable energy industry, critics said. These showed that investment in onshore wind farms more than doubled to a record 2.6bn last year. Combined with offshore wind a more expensive form of energy, which the Government is championing total wind-power investment jumped to an all-time high of 11bn last year. Meanwhile, solar-power investment slumped from a record 5bn in 2014 to 3.5bn last year following cuts to large-scale generators. Solar investment is expected to fall further this year after the Government cut support to household panels by 65 per cent last month. This comes as wind farms powered a record 11 per cent of the UKs electricity last year, up from 9.5 per cent the year before, according to the National Grid. This means that enough wind power was generated to meet the needs of 8.25 million homes, or 30 per cent of UK households, up from 6.7 million in 2014. Mr Hosterts forecasts are based on an analysis of the prospects of those onshore wind farms that have received planning permission for a new development being able to afford to build it. In some cases providers, such as big six companies EDF and npower, have already abandoned proposed onshore windfarms in the wake of the Government changes. In others the cancellations are yet to come, Bloomberg forecasts. Critics of the Government say onshore wind power is the best and cheapest opportunity the UK has of hitting its environmental targets. But the industry still needs support before it can stand on its own two feet, according to analysts, who point out that nuclear and fossil-fuel power stations also receive subsidies. Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist and policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: Wind and solar energy are at the point of becoming really competitive with fossil fuels, but failure to support them for another few years will result in huge losses of potential jobs. Shadow Energy Secretary Lisa Nandy added: The Chancellors decision to overhaul the Governments entire energy policy is going to put off the construction of new clean-power stations we urgently need to keep the lights on, control costs and create new jobs. A spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change said: Our priority is providing clean and secure energy while keeping bills as low as possible. To do this, we have driven down the cost of renewables, helping new technologies stand on their own two feet while still meeting our renewable energy commitments. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Green Party leader Natalie Bennett joined actors including Oona Chaplin, volunteers and faith leaders at a memorial service for a 15-year-old refugee who died trying to reach the UK. The Afghan boy, known as Masud, was found dead in the back of a lorry earlier this month after leaving the Jungle camp in Calais in a desperate attempt to reach relatives in Britain. He was just one of more than a dozen refugees who have died trying to cross the English Channel in the past year, being drowned, run over, crushed or electrocuted in the Channel Tunnel. They were remembered with a service at St Andrew's Church in Holborn, London, on Monday. Campaigners at a memorial service organised by Citizens UK for refugees who have died trying to reach the UK, at St Andrew's Church in the City of London. (PA) Campaigners, politicians and celebrities listened to Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and laid white flowers as a tribute to the dead. Chaplin, who is known for her role in Game of Thrones and is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, attended alongside actor Adetomiwa Edun. "I would urge David Cameron to consider what kind of society he is prepared to defend, she said, calling on the Prime Minister to visit camps in Calais to understand why people were risking their lives reach Britain. "The values we are killing people for overseas, human rights, decent, dignity these are the very things at risk now, on our shores. "This isn't just going to go away. We cannot wash our hands of this issue. This isn't a refugee crisis, this is a humanitarian crisis. Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, at a memorial service organised by Citizens UK for refugees who have died trying to reach the UK, at St Andrew's Church in the City of London. (PA) Ms Bennett wrote on Twitter that reflecting on the plight of refugees "reflects on our common humanity", with the #refugeeswelcome hashtag. The Bishop of Barking, the Right Reverend Peter Hill, said that helping the youngest and most vulnerable refugees reach their loved ones safely does not amount to an open door immigration policy. Today we remember Masud, a child who died a terrible death trying to reach his sister here in Britain after waiting for months in Calais, he added. We cannot stand by and watch as more children are driven to the same desperate attempts to cross the Channel. Inside the camps in Calais Show all 20 1 /20 Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A Kurdish child and her father get out of their tent in the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Kurdish migrants works around the tents of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Volunteers from Holland set up a bridge of fortune over the mud using pallets of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Refugees walk among tents in a makeshift camp as containers (rear) are put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A makeshift camp is seen in front of containers (rear) put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais The camp near Calais harbour where refugees from the Middle East and central Asia congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Camp residents cook and share food at their site just outside Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A group walk through the camp near Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A 16 year old immigrant from Eritrea tries to brace himself against the rain and cold by sheltering under the road bridge Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Rubbish strewn on the ground near one of the campsites Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A man stands among the tents at the campsite just outside Calais, France Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A camp near Calais harbour where migrants from the East africa congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK. Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Eritrea. Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Graffiti depicting the dangerous journey trying to smuggle onto a lorry to the UK The event was organised by Citizens UK, which is supporting a court case testing whether four child refugees currently stranded in the Jungle will be allowed to safely join their families in the UK. Campaigners cite the Dublin Regulations, which allow children and teenagers who have relatives in an EU country can claim asylum there even if they have entered Europe via another safe country. George Gabriel, from Citizens UK, said: There are hundreds of people with genuine and valid claims to protection in Britain, including many children and young people who desperately need to be reunited with their loved ones. We hope that the outcome of this hearing will be positive, and allow for other children and young people to gain safe entry to the UK. Thats the only way to bring order to chaos, stop people risking their lives and put the traffickers out of business. Doug Braun served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1993. He originally went into the U.S. Navy Reserves. He was from Terry, and his father served in World War II as a Navy "Seabee." He graduated from Columbus High School. This is part of his Vietnam story. Braun: "The reason I joined the reserves is ... we get $63 a month. That's cool because I worked every night at a corner gas station. ... I worked five hours a night cleaning the place, selling gas. I had to clean the place, and this guy that owned the place wanted me to use Comet cleanser take and spray the floor down with hot water and wherever it was greasy, put comet cleanser down and scrub it with a brush. Wow, $63. ... At that time, I was making $1.75 an hour. I asked my boss ... for a raise and he said, 'Ha, I can get men as good as you for the same price.' So that really threw me backwards, and that throws your ego all over the floor. I joined Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1965." Braun went to boot camp in 1966, as part of the reserve program. When his grades slumped in 1967 as he was in college, he got a letter from the Navy. Braun: "I goofed up and flunked a chemistry course. And I got a letter from the Navy, 'Dear Mr. Braun, we regret to inform you that you are going on active duty because of your low grade-point average. You are going on active duty as an enlisted man.' Of course, Vietnam was hot. Everything was just crazy, and they were taking almost anyone and I was already in the service. It didn't bother me. I'm a big boy. I signed on the dotted line." Braun went to electrician school in San Diego as part of advanced training. He was assigned to the USS Enterprise, in southeast Asia. Braun: "It's not what I really wanted; however, that's the way it is." Gazette: Going to Vietnam: Was that a scary assignment? Braun: "I thought, 'Wow.' As a young man, you're concerned if you're going to get killed and you don't know what will happen. I am an educated person, but you just don't know. But you signed the dotted line and want to serve my country, so it was just the way it was. The Enterprise was the Rolls-Royce of ships. It was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and it had eight nuclear reactors. I was so proud that I got to go aboard the Enterprise. I was just ecstatic. " ... They had commercial airliners fly into Travis (Air Force Base). There were 200 military people on this plane, and the bulk of them were Army and Marine. There were six of us (sailors) in the back of the aircraft, and I can remember looking down the aisles and seeing all the young guys. I figured being on ship like the Enterprise, I'd probably be pretty safe. I mean, if that blew up, that'd be something else. I figured I'd be safe even though we were off the coast of Vietnam sending in our aircraft for airstrikes. But it was depressing looking down the rows, wondering, 'How many of our young guys were coming back?' "... Our first stop was Wake Island, and there was a map on the wall, and it was about 3 in the morning and it was pitch black. We went into the terminal to use the bathroom. ... Wake Island is in the middle of the ocean, and there was a little red light (on the map) and it said, 'You are here.' The Enterprise was stationed at "Yankee Station" in the Gulf of Tonkin. Gazette: Were you close to Vietnam? Braun: "I don't know how far we were, but you could see bomb flashes. I am guessing we were 15 to 20 miles off the coast. The captain would come on the PA system every morning and say, 'Well, we blew up so many truck convoy and bridges,' and kind of give us a report on what happened. Braun worked on aircraft elevators for the aircraft carriers and smaller elevator circuitry. Braun: "We had nuclear weapons on the Enterprise. Of course, that was all classified and nobody was supposed to know that. ... We had a small detachment of Marines, and that was their job to guard the elevators. We had probably from what I can remember two main elevators to down to where the bombs were stored. You had to have a secret clearance to be down in there. Of course, they give you that, they give you the clearances you need. " ... Occasionally we had bad boys aboard the ship. The Marines would bring them to chow and march them to chow, and I can remember if you got thrown in the brig on the ship, there weren't too many people maybe a dozen prisoners but they'd take them down and cut their hair completely off shave them bald. Then the Marines were in charge of them and kept them in jail on the ship." When the ship was recalled to Oakland-Alameda for dry docking and repairs, Braun recalls being anxious to get back home to the United States. Braun: "Before we did, we were anchored off the coast of San Francisco, a short way out. But we were anchored there for about a day, and they flew this serviceman's body aboard the ship and we had literally a burial at sea. "I can remember it: We were all anxious to get into port because we wanted real food and drink a fresh glass of milk and we were about there for about a day. It's kind of weird on the edge of the flight deck, they had a little rack built where the coffin fit in this rack and pointed downward toward the ocean. It was a murky day, overcast, and the waters were pretty choppy, except the Enterprise is so big, you really couldn't tell. There was just a slight movement in the rough water. I can remember they had this ceremony for the veteran, and then they just dumped him overboard." During the daily announcements, the captain would also announce if any planes from the Enterprise had been lost or crew members. Braun: "They would bring a lot of the people that got killed in Vietnam on this ship. They had these big coolers that they'd put them in, and then they'd transport them back to the United States." Gazette: Were there transport planes coming off and on the ships? Braun: "Yes, but they were smaller. The COD mail planes were probably the largest, and they could hold a body or two." Gazette: Were you ever under the threat of attack? I imagine the Enterprise was pretty well guarded. Braun: "I can remember one time pretty vividly, when you're in the Navy aboard a ship, battle alert is called 'general quarters,' and they come over the PA system, 'General quarters. General quarters. General quarters. All hands man your battle stations.' I can remember as an electrician, my battle station was No. 3 Aircraft Elevator machinery room. We were on sound-powered phones with everybody other electricians in their locations and I don't know who else; probably an executive officer or two. When you were in general quarters, you were in contact with a lot of people." Gazette: Was that scary when that happened? Braun: "What we had is two MiGs come after us. So we went to general quarters. Then, right away, they launched two F4 'Phantoms' with heat-seeking sidewinder missiles. They get behind the MiGs and they'd be quite a way away and they'd shoot in their direction, and because they were heat-seeking, they'd literally go up the afterburner and blow that airplane apart." Gazette: When you were in general quarters, what did you do? Braun: "You had your tools with you. You always had tools in case something broke down. You were in contact with other members of the shop. You were just down there in case something happened. You just had headphones and you were in contact with a lot of people." Gazette: Even though you're not on land on Vietnam, you're constantly seeing these planes take off, bombs load, come back, do you have a sense that this is war? Braun: "Oh, definitely." Gazette: So what was the camaraderie like on the ship? Braun: "Well, you're pretty depressed because you're out there for at least 30 days of time before you get to pull into the Philippines, and then it's party time. It's pretty depressing because I can remember before when I was a mess cook, in the scullery where you bring your dirty dishes, scrape the food off, rinse it off and put it in the steam cleaner I was probably at that time 20 years old, maybe 21 ... and there was this guy, and I am not a fighter. I've never been a fighter. But, the tensions can kind of run high, and so this one guy said something, and we decided we were going to duke it out. "... They'd court martial you if they caught you fighting, so they had what they called 'sponsons' on the side of the ship. There's a hatch door that you can go out on this. You could store stuff on them and they're not a very big area, they're probably about the size of the room we're in, which is probably 20 by 30. It was actually stupid. I can remember this guy and he went out in front of me as I went out, he nailed me as I walked out through the hatch way. "So, we were scrambling around and slugging each other and somehow I'm not a fighter but I managed to be on top of him, and he's about my size. And, I said, 'What are we doing this for?' ... And he said, 'You're right.' But we were just wired. "The tensions were just high. ...We were in close quarters all the time. What was really dangerous about that was that the ship is constantly moving. If one of us would have fallen off, they would have never known we were gone. If we'd have both fallen off, no one would have known. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Saudi billionaire should enjoy diplomatic immunity protecting him from a multi-million pound divorce case brought by his American supermodel ex-wife after he was appointed by a Caribbean island as representative to a United Nations body, a court has heard. Sheikh Walid Juffali, whose fortune from his familys business interests is estimated at 4bn, is facing a divorce suit in Londons High Court from his second wife, Christina Estrada, a former Pirelli calendar girl, after he secretly married a Lebanese television presenter in 2012. In the wake of his clandestine marriage, the oil tycoon was appointed as the permanent representative for St Lucia to the London headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in April 2014. The post grants Mr Juffali, 60, diplomatic immunity exempting him from the UK laws and may effectively grant him protection from having to settle Ms Estradas demands for a financial settlement from their 13-year marriage. The case has led to an extraordinary diplomatic stand off between Britain and St Lucia, a member of the Commonwealth, after it emerged that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) last month formally asked the Caribbean island to waive Mr Juffalis immunity. St Lucian authorities have confirmed they had refused the FCO request, saying there was no compelling case to lift immunity. A hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice heard that there is no record of the Saudi magnate having attending any of the 25 IMO meetings for which he was eligible in the 19 months since he took up his post. Prior to his appointment, he had no known qualifications in maritime law. But lawyers for Mr Juffali said that businessman, who owns a string of properties in Britain including a Surrey estate worth at least 15m, had been the subject of a concerted campaign by his wife and her legal representatives to persuade Britain to demand that its former colony strip the billionaire of his legal privileges. Martin Pointer QC, for Mr Juffali, said: Since [Mr Juffali] has been an accredited diplomat, there has been a bombarding of the Foreign Office with letters trying to persuade them to request St Lucia to waive my clients immunity. Ms Estrada, 53, whose husband has already divorced her under Saudi law, claims to have found out about his marriage to Loujain Adada, a then 24-year-old former MTV presenter, around the time of her 50th birthday party in 2012. The American former model lives in London with the couples 13-year-old daughter. A statement from the office of St Lucias Prime Minister, Kenny Anthony, said: While the government fully respects the decision of the FCO to make such a request, it is not satisfied... that a compelling case has been made out to grant a waiver of the diplomatic immunity of Dr Juffali. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britains soft approach to diplomacy with Saudi Arabia is not working according to the families of three juvenile offenders held up by the UK as examples of its success. Ali al-Nimr, Abdullah al-Zaher and Dawoud al-Marhoon were all children when they were arrested by the Saudi authorities for attending protests, and yet they were sentenced to death after a secretive court process. When he defended the Governments meek response to the mass execution of 47 people in the kingdom on 2 January, Philip Hammond said the three juveniles showed Britain could get results in Saudi Arabia when it intervened in specific cases. But The Independent can reveal that almost exactly three months after the Foreign Secretary told Parliament private UK diplomacy had secured clemency for the child offenders, nothing has really changed. This newspaper understands Mr al-Zaher, the youngest of the boys who was just 15 when he was arrested, has been transferred to a prison in Riyadh where a number of the 47 executions were carried out at the start of the month. Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Show all 8 1 /8 Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Abdullah al-Zaher was arrested at the age of 15 for attending a protest and he is was the youngest in a group of juvenile offenders put on death row Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher Previously held alongside fellow juvenile offender Ali al-Nimr, whose case sparked outrage around the world, Abdullah has now been moved to solitary confinement at a new facility and could be beheaded at any moment Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Abdullah al-Zaher His family and lawyers believe he was forced to sign a document without knowing its contents, and which later was used as a confession in the closed trial against him Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Ali Mohammed al-Nimr faces imminent beheading and crucifixion for crimes he reportedly committed as a child Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr The UN has issued an urgent call for Saudi Arabia to halt his execution but a Saudi court has upheld the sentence of Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, the son of a prominent government dissident, despite growing and high-level international condemnation Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Ali Mohammed al-Nimr Mr al-Nimr, who was arrested in 2012 for his participation in Arab Spring protests when he was just 16 or 17 years old, could now be put to death at any time Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon Dawood al-Marhoon was 17 year old when he was arrested for participating in an anti-government protest Juveniles on death row in Saudi Arabia Dawood al-Marhoon After refusing to spy on his fellow protesters, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer Mr al-Nimr and Mr al-Marhoon have also been moved since the mass executions from Riyadh to the infamous Dammam prison in the Eastern Province, a facility known for housing death row inmates in the past. According to Reprieve, a human rights organisation which is campaigning on behalf of the juveniles, sudden prison transfers are often a precursor to sentences being carried out, and the families say all three could be executed any day. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, the family of Mr al-Zaher was hesitant to accuse any one government of failure to intervene on his behalf. Our son who was just 15 when he was arrested and tortured is awaiting execution in solitary confinement and being held miles away from his home, they said in a statement. We are in agony wondering what will happen to him. Other governments keep saying they 'do not expect' him and the other juveniles to be executed, but where is the proof? We sincerely hope that the international community will demand the release of Abdullah and the other juveniles arrested at protests. The execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr sparked protests across the Middle East. His young nephew remains on death row and, despite UK assurances, could still be killed at any time Mohammed al-Nimr, Alis father and the brother of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, said his son and Mr al-Marhoon had been moved but no reason was given to explain it. He said the pair were on death row with the sword over their necks. Maya Foa, head of Reprieves death penalty team, said: "It is shocking that the Saudi authorities are still threatening to execute three juveniles who were arrested at protests, tortured into dubious confessions, and sentenced to death in flagrantly unfair trials. "The British government and others have spoken of Saudi assurances that Ali, Dawoud and Abdullah wont be killed but this is cold comfort to the families who are terrified of what might happen, amid a surge in Saudi executions." She added: "Governments that are close to Saudi Arabia the UK included must firmly demand the release of the juveniles without delay." Speaking on the BBCs Today programme on Monday, David Cameron stood by Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia in spite of growing concerns over human rights abuses in the kingdom. First of all, our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh [Isis] and the extremism [they spread], the Prime Minister said. Mr Camerons praise for the autocracy comes days after Saudi Arabias foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir urged Britain to respect his countrys use of the death penalty. He told Channel 4 News: With regards to the perception of Saudi Arabia among the British public, this is a problem we need to work on. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron has been condemned over his warning that Muslim women must learn English or risk being deported - after having overseen 45 million cuts to English classes six months ago. The Prime Minister's pledge of 20 million funding for English language classes to prevent radicalisation in Muslim communities is actually a "dressing up" of much larger cuts to the same programmes, opposition politicians claim. He told BBC Radio Four that 22 per cent of Muslim women in the UK cannot speak English, and as such may be "more susceptible to the extremist message that comes from (Isis)." Yet Dal Babu, former chief superintendant at the Metropolitan Police, claimed only six percent of Muslim women might not speak English. Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 Show all 27 1 /27 Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496091.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496071.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496070.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496068.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496067.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496066.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496064.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496081.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496079.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496075.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496074.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496072.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496073.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496082.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496083.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496084.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496085.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496086.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496087.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496088.bin AP Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496089.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496090.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496092.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496093.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496094.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496095.bin Getty Images Muslims gather in Makkah for the Hajj in 2015 496096.bin AP "David Cameron has deliberately used the issues around English as a second language and extremism in the same speech," he told the Evening Standard. The biggest challenge in preventing radicalisation was the internet and social media, not knowing English, said Mr Babu. "I've worked with some of the families whose children have gone to Syria. Their families speak English," he said. The Government's pledge of 20 million funding for English for speakers of other languages (Esol) classes has also been criticised- after 45 million was cut from those same classes less than a year ago. In July last year, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills announced all funding for Esol programmes would be cut. In a document on changes to funding allocations, the chief executive of the government's Skills Funding Agency, Peter Lauener, wrote: "On participation budgets, I can confirm that with immediate effect we will implement the following: withdrawal of funding for ESOL Plus Mandation in full for the 2015 to 2016 funding year [...]". Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has said his ministers blocked the cuts to these English classes when they were in coalition with the Conservatives. He has now accused Mr Cameron of cynical political messaging. "This announcement is dog-whistle politics at its best," he said. "David Cameron cut the budget for English language classes in August last year by 45 million. Now the Prime Minister is dressing up a massive cut as a 20 million funding commitment." Targeting Muslim women in the debate about terrorism "only serves to isolate the very people Cameron says he is trying to help," said Mr Farron. Former Conservative party chair Baroness Warsi echoed the Liberal Democrat's concern about singling out Muslims. She added that her own mother spoke poor English, but had produced a lawyer, accountant, teacher, pharmacist and cabinet minister. The Government's new rules mean that people arriving in the UK on a five-year spousal visa will have to take a test after two and a half years to show they are trying to improve their English. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron has defended Britains alliance with Saudi Arabia, including British assistance to the countrys widely-criticised military campaign Yemen. The Prime Minister said the UKs alliance with the oil-rich autocracy was important for its security and seemed to reject accusations that funding for Isis came from the Kingdom. The Saudi Arabian ambassador Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz al Saud attacked Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn last month for raising the allegations, describing them as a distortion. But Mr Cameron stood by his ally and defended exports and military advisor support given to the country during its ongoing war. First of all, our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important for our own security. They are opponents of Daesh and the extremism [they spread], he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. In terms of our arms exports I think we have some of the most stringent controls anywhere in the world and Ill always make sure theyre properly operated. Were trying to do everything we can to make sure that the work done by Saudi Arabia is properly targeted and its right that we should do that. Were working with them and others on behalf of the legitimate government on Yemen. Mr Cameron however said some educational training programmes funding by Saudi Arabia could be problematic, though he did not directly link them with extremists. A number of human rights groups have warned that the countrys intervention in Yemen is likely to have breached human rights laws. The United Nations said late last year that a humanitarian disaster was unfolding in Yemen. In December Human Rights Watch said the assault, which is in support of the internationally recognise Government against Houthi rebels, had killed 5,884 since March. Multiple hospitals operated by the charity MSF have been bombed, that charity has said. 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty Mr Camerons praise for the autocracy comes days after Saudi Arabias foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir urged Britain to respect his countrys use of the death penalty. He told Channel 4 News: With regards to the perception of Saudi Arabia among the British public, this is a problem we need to work on. We have not been good at explaining ourselves, we have not done a good job at reaching out to the British media or to the British public or to the British institutions, academic institutions, think thanks and so forth. Two week ago the oil-rich kingdom executed 47 people in one day; most executions in the country are conducted by beheading. The issue of the UKs alliance with the country has come to the fore in recent months. In October the British Ministry of Justice cancelled a contract to run the Saudi prison system after pressure from Cabinet ministers and Mr Corbyn. Previous stands taken against the Saudi Arabian regime have not gone the UKs way, however. High Court documents released in 2008 alleged that an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into Saudi Arabia was dropped because of threats by the kingdom to stop sharing intelligence on terror plots. The files said the UK was told it faced another 7/7 and the loss of British lives on British streets if intelligence was cut off. Downing Street blocked the investigation from continuing, the Guardian newspaper reported at the time. Despite the about-face on the prisons contract, the UK still sells billions of pounds worth of arms to Saudi Arabia. Between May 2010 and May 2015 the Coalition government licenced almost 4bn in arms to the regime, according to figures obtained by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade. 62 per cent of the public oppose arms sales to Saudi Arabia, with only 16 per cent supporting them, according to a poll conducted by Opinium for that campaign group. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Families could be broken up and mothers deported after years of living in Britain if they fail a new mandatory English language test, David Cameron has confirmed. The Prime Minister today outlined plans to language-test all spouses who immigrate join their partner living in Britain two and a half years after they arrive here. Failing the language test could lead to the new arrivals right to stay in the UK being revoked and them being sent back to their country of origin, he said. Recommended Read more Cameron calls on Muslim women to learn English to fight radicalisation Mr Cameron was asked during an interview whether a woman who came to the UK under the spousal settlement programme and had children in Britain could still be deported. They cant guarantee that theyll be able to stay, he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. Were now going to toughen up so half-way through the spousal settlement programme two and a half years therell be another opportunity to make sure your English is improving. You cant guarantee youll be able to stay if youre not improving your language. It is tough but people coming to our country have responsibility too. Cameron on language plans Children born in the UK who have one parent settled in the UK automatically receive British citizenship and would therefore be allowed to remain in the UK with their fathers, while their mothers were not. The spousal settlement visa, to which the new English language test applies, requires that the person with whom the new arrival is coming to live is already settled. This means all children born to a couple using a spousal settlement visa have British citizenship. There is also no guarantee that children born Britain citizens would have a right to live in another country meaning that in some cases mothers might be unable to take their children back to live with them in their country of origin. Despite the new emphasis on forcing women to learn English Mr Cameron admitted that his government had actually previously cut funding for English-language tuition for migrants. He blamed the deficit for the policy. Yes, budgets did come down in the past because all budgets were under pressure because of the enormous deficit and the need to pay that down, he told the same programme. 10 things immigration has done for Britain Show all 10 1 /10 10 things immigration has done for Britain 10 things immigration has done for Britain The Mini The 1959 classic, that is, perhaps our greatest piece of industrial design, a miracle of packaging and revolution in motoring. Its genius designer was Sir Alec Issigonis, who was an asylum seeker. His family, Greek, fled Smyrna when Turks invaded this borderland in around 1920, and he wound up studying engineering at Battersea Polytechnic. He went on to create that most English of motor cars, the Morris Minor, as well as the Austin-Morris 1100, all much loved products of his fertile imagination. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Marks and Spencer Once upon a time there was no M&S in Britain, difficult as that may be to believe. We have one Michael Marks to thank for our most famous retailer, and he was a refugee from Belarus, arriving in England in about 1882, and soon after set off to flog stuff around Yorkshire. He eventually teamed with Thomas Spencer to create the vast business we know today. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Thunderbirds And many other TV shows created, funded and otherwise produced by that largest of larger-than-life characters, Lew Grade (also a world class tap dancer). The man who dominated commercial television gave us memorable entertainment such as The Prisoner, the Saint and brought the Muppets to Britain (a sort of fuzzy felt wave of immigration), as well as puppet shows where you could see the strings. All this from a penniless Jew from Ukraine, born Lev Winogradsky, who escaped the pogroms in Ukraine with his family in the 1890s. His nephew Michael Grade has also done his bit for British television. Rex Features 10 things immigration has done for Britain The House of Windsor Or the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha until George V prudently rebranded the family during the First World War. Well, our royals are a pretty German bunch, as well as having various types of French and other alien blue blood coursing around their veins. Twas ever thus. There was William the Conqueror, Norman French, who certainly broke the immigration rules; William of Orange, a direct import from Holland; the Hanoverian King Georges, the first barely able to speak English; Queen Victoria, who married a German, Edward VII, who couldnt stay faithful to his wife, a Danish princess; George V wed another German princess; Edward VIII married an American (though she hardly visited England and prompted his emigration and exile); and the Queen is married to man born in Corfu. The embodiment of the British nation, to many, but one thinks of them as quite multicultural really. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain I Vow To Thee My Country Our most patriotic hymn was the product of a man named Gustav Holst (pictured), born in Cheltenham, but of varied Swedish, Latvian and German ancestry, who adapted part of his suite The Planets to put a particularly stirring and beautiful poem to music, just after the Great War. As the second verse has it, there's another country/I've heard of long ago/Most dear to them that love her/most great to them that know. Imagine if the Holst family had been kept out because the quota on musical European types had been reached. Creative Commons 10 things immigration has done for Britain Curry and Cobra Chicken Tikka Masala is, so they say, a dish which not only the most popular in Britain but specifically designed to cater for European tastes. For that we probably have to thank an Indian migrant, Sake Dean Mahomed, who came from Bengal to open the first recognisable Indian restaurant, the magnificently named Hindoostanee Coffee House. History does not record if a plate of poppadoms and accompanying selection of pickles and yoghurts were routinely placed on the table for new diners, but we do know that we had to wait until 1989 to taste the ideal lager for a curry - Cobra. That brew was brought to us by Karan (now Lord) Bilimoria, a Cambridge law graduate who hailed from Hyderabad. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain That big red swirly sculpture at the Olympic Park Or Orbit, to give it its proper name, the work of Anish Kapoor, who arrived in 1973 from India and had the artistic imagination to fill a power station. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain The Sun Love it or hate it, and many do both, this has been a symbol of much that is successful and a lot that is awful in British journalism since its inception in 1969. In its turn it spawned the Page 3 Girl and some nastily xenophobic headlines. All the stranger when you consider its creator was, of course, Rupert Murdoch, born 11 March 1931 in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain Marxism OK, Karl Marxs philosophy was not much of a gift to the world, but for a while it seemed like a good idea. Though we might not dare admit it, Marxism still has a few insights to offer to anyone wanting to understand the workings of capitalism, though too few to excuse everything that was done in its name. Born in Germany spent much time in the British museum and the British pub, buried Highgate Cemetery. Oddly, his ideas never really caught on in his adopted homeland. Getty Images 10 things immigration has done for Britain The NHS They came from many, many backgrounds, including Ireland, the Philippines, east Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and Africa, as they still do, but the contribution of the black nurses who came to the UK from the Caribbean to heal and care for is a debt of honour that must be recognised. It so sometimes forgotten that it was Enoch Powell, then Minister of Health (1960-62), who campaigned to recruit their skilled nurses to come and work over here. One abiding legacy we can thank Enoch for. Getty Images I think we had to make difficult decisions. Now what were doing is targeting the language money it is for those who are in the greatest level of isolation. The Government has emphasised Muslim women as the target of the policy. Ministers say some are living in isolated communities and do not learn English. The Government claims 190,000 Muslim women lack adequate English language skills and that 38,000 do not speak any English at all. If you dont speak the language your opportunities are very much reduced, Mr Cameron said. Saying to people who come to our country that learning English is essential. The policy, to be launched in October, is the latest in a series announced by the Government that is likely to make life difficult for immigrants living in Britain. Theresa May was last week urged to re-think a discriminatory new 35,000 earnings threshold for non-EU migrants who want to settle in the UK. The threshold, which is being increased from the current 20,500, would see workers from overseas ejected from the country after five years if they fail to earn the new higher salary. People earning 35,000 are in the top 20 per cent of earners in the UK. Former director of public prosecutions and shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer warned at the time that policy could have implications for businesses who require skilled workers from abroad. The Government has already had to take special measures after it was warned that the earnings threshold could lead to a shortage of nurses. A petition to the Government to withdraw the policy is nearing 50,000 signatures and is likely to be debated in Parliament. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} British MPs branded Donald Trump a "stupid", "dangerous" and foolish "wazzock" who utters "poisonous words" in a debate over whether the US presidential contender should be banned from the UK. Parliament took up the topic after half a million people signed a petition calling for Trump to be excluded over his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States in the wake of extremist violence. Trump has also claimed that some areas of Britain are so radicalized that police fear for their lives. MPs argued over whethe Trump should be banned from Britain - or whether he should not be stifled or banned but given the chance to express his views in order to expose them to ridicule. "While I think this man is crazy, while I think this man has no valid points to make, I will not be the one to silence his voice," said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Labour Party legislator Paul Flynn, who opened the session, said Trump had already received "far too much attention." "The great danger by attacking this one man is that we can fix on him a halo of victimhood" and boost his popularity among supporters, he said. But another Labour lawmaker, Tulip Siddiq, supported a ban. "This is a man who is extremely high-profile, ... a man who is interviewing for the most important job in the world," she said. "His words are not comical, his words are not funny. His words are poisonous." Labour's Jack Dromey said Trump was dangerous because he stirred up hatred among different faiths. "Donald Trump is a fool," Dromey said. "He is free to be a fool. He is not free to be a dangerous fool on our shores." Conservative MP Victoria Atkins told MPs: If he met one or two of my constituents in one of the many excellent pubs in my constituency then they may well tell him he is a wazzock for dealing with this issue in this way. Naz Shah was one of several lawmakers who invited Trump to visit their constituencies to see Britain's multiethnic society first-hand. Shah said she would take him to a curry restaurant in her home city of Bradford. She said was "a proud Muslim woman" and the Quran had taught her that "goodness is better than evil. If someone does bad, you do good in return. The Tory MP Adam Holloway said the UK to apologise to the people of the United States for a petition to ban. Mr Holloway said the debate on whether to ban the Republican presidential candidate from British shores makes Britain look totalitarian. Another Conservative MP, Philip Davies, said more politicians should be like Mr Trump. He said: "We should celebrate more often politicians who stand up and say things that are unpopular. I think in this country we could do with rather less political correctness and more straight talking across the board. Its in part because of political correctness that the straight talking of Donald Trump has proved so popular with the electorate out there. The debate in Westminster Hall on Monday evening follows a petition launched on the governments e-petition site to ban the reality start from the UK on hate speech grounds which has gathered more than half a million signatures. One SNP MP accused Mr Trump of hypocrisy over his anti-immigration stance - his mother was a Scottish migrant to the US (Getty Images) All petitions which gather more than 100,000 signatures are automatically considered for debate in the House of Commons. The petition came after the billionaire businessman claimed all Muslims should be banned from entering the US following a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California in December last year. Several Labour and SNP MPs were in favour of banning him from the UK saying his remarks fuel Isis and other extremists propaganda about how the West views Islam. Mr Dromey, the shadow Home Affairs minister, said: "In the current febrile climate Isis needs Donald Trump and Donald Trump needs Isis. Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY I dont think Donald Trump should be allowed within 1,000 miles of our shore because he would embolden the EDL on the one hand and fuel the flames of terrorism on the other hand. Anne McLaughlin, the SNP MP, accused Mr Trump of hypocrisy for his anti-immigration stance as he is the son of a Scottish immigrant himself. She said: "The Mexican migrants that Trump so roundly defamed are engaged in the same quest as his forebears". The debate did not end in a vote and does not have any influence on Government policy. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ministers are being accused of waging war on Parliament by using a little-known device to push through profound and controversial changes to Britains laws without proper debate or scrutiny. Since the election the Conservative Government has used a parliamentary procedure called a statutory instrument to try to introduce swathes of significant new laws covering everything from fracking to fox hunting and benefit cuts without debate on the floor of the House of Commons. On Tuesday, Labour will take the rare step of attempting to annul a statutory instrument that was used earlier this month to remove maintenance grants from around half a million of the poorest students in England. The changes will mainly hit disabled, ethnic minority and older students. Recommended Read more Tories plan to axe maintenance grants without Commons vote and debate The policy was not included in the Conservatives election manifesto and was nodded through by an obscure Commons committee without the substance of the change being debated. The move has been described by Labours shadow First Secretary of State, Angela Eagle, as an attempt to govern from the shadows. They are trying to force through sweeping changes in a committee hoping that no one would notice, she said. What are statutory instruments? When the rules governing statutory instruments (SIs) were drawn up after the Second World War, parliamentarians could never have imagined that ministers would come to rely so heavily on them 70 years later. Between 1950 and 1990 the number of SIs each year rarely rose above 2,500, and the vast majority would have been for local schemes, such as changes to a towns road layout. But the total rose as government got bigger in the early 1990s and Westminster had to contend with the introduction of European Union legislation as well as complex welfare rules. Controversially there has also been a trend towards skeleton Bills when governments set out plans in general and say details will be filled in later by statutory instrument. Since the election we are seeing more and more Bills coming to the Commons that are effectively empty vessels that give ministers powers through statutory instruments. This is arbitrary rule that massively decreases the power of the Commons to effectively scrutinise the Government. Statutory instruments (SIs) were first introduced at the end of the 1940s as a way of freeing up parliamentary time by allowing procedural changes to laws to be made without a full debate in a vote in the Commons. Over the years their use has mushroomed from just 1,100 in 1982 to more than 3,000 today. Much of the increase took place after the Coalition came to power in 2010. But what concerns critics is not just the number of SIs being introduced but the significance of the legislative changes that they are introducing. Since the 2015 election the SIs that have been introduced by the Government include changes to the electoral register that could result in more than a million people being denied the chance to vote, allow fracking under national parks and heritage sites and withdraw winter fuel payments from British pensioners living abroad. Most famously, George Osborne unsuccessfully tried to use an SI to force through more than 4bn-worth of tax credit cuts without a debate on the floor of the House of Commons. The growing use of SIs has come under particular fire from the House of Lords, where many SIs are first introduced. The former Tory Chief Whip, Lord Jopling, said: [It is] an abuse to cut corners and try to enact policies through statutory instruments rather than through primary legislation. I deplore that trend. Labours leader in the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, told The Independent it should be seen alongside other proposals including limits on freedom of information, changes to constituency boundaries and electoral registration, attempts to choke of Labour Party funding within the Trade Union Bill, and the Lobbying Act. When taken together, you could be forgiven for thinking that were starting to enter the realms of constitutional gerrymandering. Its hard not to see what is happening as an authoritarian executive waging war on the institutions that hold them to account. With its fear of opposition and loathing of challenge, David Camerons government wants to stifle debate, shut down opposition and block proper scrutiny. Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor, said there were now far too many statutory instruments being used to push through important changes to the law. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2022 Undergraduates at the University of St Andrews take part in the traditional Pier Walk along the harbour walls of St Andrews before the start of the new academic year PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2022 The Massed Pipes and Drums parade during the Braemar Highland Gathering at the Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2022 Number 12 Company Irish Guards at Wellington Barracks, central London, before commencing their first Guard Mount at Buckingham Palace PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2022 A salmon leaps up the weir at Hexham in Northumberland, despite the drought warnings and low water levels, the River Tyne is still flowing well allowing the salmon and sea trout to head up river to spawn. Every year tens of thousands of salmon make the once-in-a-lifetime journey along the Tyne to spawn, having been out a sea PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2022 Flowers are placed at the gates outside Kensington Palace, London, the former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, on the 25th anniversary of her death PA UK news in pictures 30 August 2022 Edinburghs waste workers clearing mountains of rubbish at Forrest Road as they return to work following their 11 days of industrial action PA UK news in pictures 29 August 2022 Competitors take part in the World Gravy Wrestling Championships at the Rose 'N' Bowl, in Rossendale, Lancashire PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2022 People from the Emancipated Run Crew who are running the carnival parade all in green to remember the 72 people that died in the Grenfell fire during the Family Day at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, which returned to the streets for the first time on two years, after it was thwarted by the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 27 August 2022 Competitors in the bog section during Rude Health Bog Triathlon at Llanwrtyd Wells, in Wales PA They are an easy way out for ministers, he said. And what we have seen is that they are now being used far more frequently because the Government no longer has a majority in the House of Lords. As a result, some suspect that the Government is trying to sneak through controversial changes by the back door. After the tax credit vote the Government proposed limiting peers rights to reject statutory instruments. This would mean if one was rejected by the Lords, the ministers would simply have to retable it and it would pass automatically. The problem is that statutory instruments are not well scrutinised in the Commons and the Lords plays an important role in addressing that. It is a bad way of doing Government business, Lord Darling added. The pressure group Big Brother Watch said it was dismayed over moves to introduce a new code of conduct governing snooping powers by secondary legislation. Renate Sampson, its director, said: Increasingly we are finding Government tweaking legislation through the side door particularly when it comes to laws involving surveillance powers of the police and intelligence agencies. PMQs dominated by housing Hannah White, the programme director at the Institute for Government, said: Parliamentary time is limited and therefore theres always a temptation to do something through secondary legislation which ought to be subject to a more thorough process of scrutiny. Joel Blackwell, a senior researcher at the Hansard Society, added: There is a fear that successive governments are using SIs for administrative convenience rather than what they are supposed to be for. Fracking will be allowed under English National Parks and World Heritage Sites after ministers used a statutory instrument to give it the go-ahead without a parliamentary debate last month (Reuters) How statutory instruments have been used George Osborne tried to force through 4bn of cuts to tax credits using a statutory instrument. The measure was not even debated in the Commons and it was only when the Lords threw it out that the Chancellor was forced to back down. Fracking will be allowed under English National Parks and World Heritage Sites after ministers used a statutory instrument to give it the go-ahead without a parliamentary debate last month. Ministers tried to bring back hunting via the back door using a statutory instrument but were forced to drop the measure after the SNP announced it would side with Labour and Tory rebels to block the move. Ministers defied the advice of the Electoral Commission and used a statutory instrument to bring in individual voter registration a year early. Up to half a million of the poorest students will lose their entitlement to maintenance grants to study at university after the Government forced through the cut using a statutory instrument that was not even debated on the floor of the Commons. Labour will attempt to get the cuts overturned on Tuesday. Late last month the Government announced it would withdraw winter fuel payments from British pensioners living abroad using a statutory instrument. The move is not due to be debated in the Commons. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A Muslim MP will invite Donald Trump on a tour of her constituency as MPs prepare to debate a petition on whether to ban the US presidential candidate from entering the UK later today. Speaking to The Independent, Naz Shah, who won her Bradford West seat at the 2015 general election, said she is going to provide the billionaire New York property mogul with the offer of accompanying her on a tour of Bradfords town centre. Do I want to ban him? No I dont want to ban him, she said. Im going to give him an open invitation on the record to invite him to Bradford Westif I try to ban him then I am no better than him trying to ban me from entering America. Two wrongs dont make a right. Asked whether she thought she would get along with Mr Trump, Shah responded: Yeah. I think Id have a proper laugh with him. I think Id probably crack a few jokes about what Trump means to the British people. I think Id challenge him. Shah hit the headlines when she became Labours parliamentary candidate for Bradford West at the general election. In an emotional open letter, the British Pakistani MP spoke about her mum going to jail for murder, being a victim of domestic violence and have been forced to marriage aged 15. The petition to ban Mr Trump, launched after the Republican provoked widespread anger when he demanded a block on Muslims entering the US, has over half a million signatures from members of the public. Mr Trump added, at the time, that parts of London were "so radicalised" that police were "afraid for their own lives". Labour MP Naz Shah (Rex) With over 570,000 signatures the online petition has far surpassed the 100,000 required to trigger a debate in Parliament. After passing the half a million mark, the government released a statement that did not go as far as to say that he would be stopped from entering the UK, but did say Theresa May found Trumps remarks in relation to Muslims divisive, unhelpful and wrong. Other incendiary remarks from the Republican presidential hopeful and former star of the US Apprentice include comparing Mexicans to rabid dogs and calling for a database of all Muslims in the country to be set up, in order to track their movements. David Cameron, the prime minister, has branded Mr Trumps comments divisive, stupid and wrong but rejected calls for him to be barred from visiting the UK. Another Muslim MP Tulip Siddiq, however, has pledged to tear Donald Trumps reputations to shreds this evening during a Commons debate on banning the US presidential candidate from entering the UK. Friends of Tulip Siddiq told The Telegraph the Labour MP will be tearing Mr Trump to shreds during todays debate. The Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn said: The law needs to be applied to everyone equally and the Home Office has previous in banning hate preachers engaging in rhetoric similar to that of Trump. "To argue there is no precedent for banning him does not stand up to decisions taken by this Home Secretary, or indeed previous Labour Home Secretaries." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didnt know the air conditioner didnt work and sweated like dogs, and they didnt know the room was too big because they didnt have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me and Ill build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY She added: "The real question is Why should we make an exception for billionaire politicians?. We should not." In theory Theresa May, the home secretary, has the power to prevent people from entering the UK because of the things they have said. The Home Office adds that Mrs May does not use these powers lightly, only "if she considers their presence in the UK to be non-conducive to the public good" or if they are people who "seek to harm our society and who do not share our basic values". In 2009 Geert Wilders, the right-wing Dutch politician accused of Islamophobia and who called for the Quran to be banned after likening it to Adolf Hitlers Mein Kampf, was refused entry into the UK after arriving at Heathrow airport. He received a letter from the Home Office, at the time, refusing him entry because his opinions "threaten community harmony and therefore public safety". Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is not in favour of a ban, adding he wanted to take Mr Trump to a mosque. The Islington North MP told BBC One's Andrew Marr show on Sunday: "I think Donald Trump has some weird and frankly off-the-wall views. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has urged David Cameron to offer a crucial lifeline to unaccompanied refugee children. In a letter to the Prime Minister published below, he called on the government to resettle 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children who had made treacherous journeys from war torn countries on their own, or who had lost their parents en route. He said that this figure amounts to just five children per parliamentary constituency and representing less than a third of the number that Britain took in during the Kindertransport, a series of rescue efforts that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Britain from Nazi Germany. Mr Farron told the Independent: Ignoring the desperation these vulnerable children find themselves in will only allow the situation to get worse, and the longer or government pretends this is not their problem the more these orphans lose hope at finding a home, securing an education and living a stable and peaceful life." Mr Farron's letter follows an intervention by Labour's shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer QC who has also urged home secretary Theresa May to prioritise action on the unaccompanied child refugees currently stranded in northern France. The UK has taken 1,000 refugees so far as part of a 20,000 five-year target, but campaigners fear lone child risk being forced into prostitution or the drugs trade unless they are urgently given sanctuary. Calls from politicians follows months of demands from refugee charities for action. Stephen Hale, Chief Executive for Refugee Action, said: The current rules have already resulted in the tragic loss of one young life this year. The government must act quickly to meet their legal obligations and ensure that more young people can be reunited with their families. We have been campaigning since the refugee crisis began for safer and legal routes across Europe. Families who have already suffered conflict and violence must be able to reach safety. Earlier this month the influential International Development Committee said it backed calls from charities for the UK to accept more unaccompanied minors as a matter of "utmost urgency". Tim Farron's letter to David Cameron Allow me first to extend my best wishes for the year ahead. Last year I introduced a Ten Minute Rule Bill entitled Asylum (Unaccompanied Children Displaced by Conflict). This Bill, if enacted, would make provision for the award of asylum-seeker status in the United Kingdom to certain unaccompanied children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eritrea displaced by conflict and present within the European Union. This could act as a crucial lifeline to the thousands of unaccompanied refugee children who have made treacherous journeys from war torn countries either alone from the start or who have lost parents and guardians en route. Those who have made it to European shores now face cold winters, harsh conditions are vulnerable to traffickers and those who want to exploit them. You will know that in 2014 alone the Italian authorities alone suggested that up to 4,000 children had simply disappeared off their radar since arriving. We do not yet have comparable numbers for 2015, but given the rise refugees this year, we can expect a much higher number of disappeared children too. I have been supporting Save the Childrens call for the UK to take 3,000 unaccompanied children because I strongly believe that this is the right thing to do. The International Development Committee has now added its weight to this call and I am certain that pressure for the UK Government to do more will continue to mount. I sincerely believe that 3,000 children is a number we can handle. It amounts to just five children per parliamentary constituency and is less than a third of the children we took in during the kinderstransport, a programme very similar to this proposal. What we need now is decisive leadership and for that we look to you. The pictures of Aylan Kurdi put you and your government on the wrong side of the tide so I would urge you not to be caught in the current again. I commend the work the government is doing to find a peaceful solution to the war in Syria, provide humanitarian assistance and aid to the region and the leadership our country has shown in fighting Daesh. But, as a country we can and must do more, I do not pretend that taking in 3,000 will solve everything but it is a start. I look forward to receiving your response, Tim Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} MPs are debating whether or not US Republican politician Donald Trump should be banned from entering the United Kingdom. Mr Trump sparked anger across Britain after he called for a complete ban on Muslims travelling to America, a policy that was branded racist and against the US constitution. Watch the debate live, via Parliament TV The Home Secretary has the power to ban individuals from entering the country on security grounds. These powers have been used before by the Government to bar people with extremist views from coming to the UK before. The debate is taking place in Westminster Hall, rather than the House of Commons or House of Lords. It started at 16.00 on Monday 18 January. The debate was triggered after over 100,000 people signed a petition to restrict Mr Trumps entry to Britain following his earlier comments. A Committee of MPs decided that the issue should be put up for debate. The Montana Department of Fish Wildlife and Parks proposal to effectively eliminate hunting for elk in the iconic Northern Yellowstone country (Hunting District 313) is one of the most poorly conceived pieces of public policy to come forward in quite a while. Given the consequences in lost hunting opportunity and the crushing economic impact this action will have, one would expect that this herd is on the brink of biological collapse. It is not, leaving us all to wonder what the departments end game really is. The rationale for bringing this measure forward has morphed over time, likely a result of intense public scrutiny. Originally, FWP billed it as a necessary fix to a biological issue. Some within the department labeled it simply "good husbandry." More recently, staff has labeled it an issue of trophy quality. The lack of a clear statement of the problem is both troubling and frustrating. The answer to why this is not a biological issue is the easiest to address. While bull-to-cow ratios are important as a matter of herd productivity (are there enough bulls available to breed cows to sustain or increase the herd size), research tells us ratios can be very low and still result in a growing population. In 2002, former FWP researcher Ken Hamlin published results of a 10-year study that assuages concern over bull-cow ratios observed in HD 313. Hamlin concluded bull-cow ratios much lower than the ones observed in HD 313 did not negatively affect herd productivity. So why is staff suggesting we eliminate hunting in this iconic area based on low bull-cow ratios? Cherry picking data FWP has selectively used only a portion of the available data and has taken no steps to account for the presence of the wolf on the landscape. This oversight, intentional or not, leads to the erroneous conclusion that the northern Yellowstone elk herd is far worse off than it really is and that we can see elk productivity like we did before the wolf was re-established on the landscape. If survey data are evaluated for the entire herd and account for the presence of the wolf, bull-cow ratios for the northern Yellowstone elk herd are better than more than 80 percent of the hunting districts in Montana. Herd size is on the upswing, increasing by 20 percent in the last year, and calf production is the highest observed since 2001. This herd is not on the brink of biological crisis. It is on the slow road to recovery after crashing from the unsustainable levels observed in the mid 1990's. The pivot to a trophy management mantra is more difficult to understand. Montana tends to value the maximization of hunting opportunity over trophy management. Because the opportunity to hunt is so important to Montana residents, deviation from that reference is usually initiated by the affected hunting public not handed down by the management agency. 1,500 displaced hunters The consequences of the proposed FWP action are staggering, both economically and socially. Nearly $2 million is generated in the Gardiner area in general commerce by HD 313. That money is vital to the area and helps pay for schools, roads, firemen and law enforcement. The loss of hunting opportunity is staggering as well. Where are the 1,500 displaced hunters going to go? What of the $380,000 in non-resident license revenues that help fund the department? It was only last legislative session that Director Jeff Hagener was pressing for an increase in license fees for residents and now is overseeing the reckless elimination of opportunity that generates necessary management and research dollars. There is no biological crisis in HD 313 and there is no need for this reckless, technically flawed and ill-advised action. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Commuters in London are preparing for another round of disruption ahead of more Tube strikes over the next month. There are three planned 24-strikes forecast for January, but unions are currently in negotiation with Transport for London in an effort to reach an agreement that would see the action called off. Transport for London will be meeting engineering union Aslef and RMT - Union of Rail and Maritime Transport workers - to negotiate conditions. Both unions and transport bosses have reported that positive progress has been made. Strike action is planned due to pay disputes and the proposed extension of London Tube services throughout the night. When will it start The two unions are currently planning slightly different start times for their scheduled action. The three RMT 24-hour walkouts are due to start at 6.30pm on Tuesday 26 January, Monday 15 February and Wednesday 17 February. Aslef will start its three 24-strikes on the same dates, but each will begin two hours and 44 minutes later, at 9.14pm. Recommended Read more A study has found that Tube strikes are good for the economy However, TfL warn that times for the action could change closer to the dates. Officials are understood to be still calculating the impact of the strikes and hope to issue more detailed advice. Which lines will be affected? All Tube lines will be affected. A total of 11 lines and 260 stations will be closed. How can I avoid it? Tube users can plan their journeys around the strike by using other services such as the DLR or rail services, which will be operating normally. However, a spokesperson for TfL said: The DLR and local rail services will continue as normal, but will be busier than usual." In pictures: Tube strike in London Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Tube strike in London In pictures: Tube strike in London London People queue for a bus at Stratford station In pictures: Tube strike in London London Commuters queue for buses during a tube strike at Victoria Station In pictures: Tube strike in London London Commuters queue for buses during a tube strike at Victoria Station In pictures: Tube strike in London London Commuters wait to board a train to Kings Cross at Finsbury Park overground station In pictures: Tube strike in London London Union members hold a picket outside Kings Cross Underground station, as commuters and tourists face a day of travel chaos because of a strike which has closed the underground In pictures: Tube strike in London London Thousands of bicycles are locked in a bike rack at Paddington Station. Commuters are having to find alternative methods of travel as the London Underground trains are not running due to a strike In pictures: Tube strike in London London Commuters board a train to Moorgate at Finsbury Park overground station In pictures: Tube strike in London London People wait for buses close to Brixton Underground station In pictures: Tube strike in London Lodnon Police watch as people queue for a bus near Stratford station In pictures: Tube strike in London London People queue at an entrance to Oxford Circus station, as workers try to get home before a strike by Underground workers closes the capital's entire Tube system In pictures: Tube strike in London Lodnon RMT union members gather outside Paddington Station as the union starts a 24 hour strike on the London Underground Is the strike definitely going ahead? No. Given the reportedly positive nature of talks so far, it is hoped the different parties reach an agreement that would see the strikes called off. One of the other unions involved in the dispute, Unite, has suspended the planned strikes for further talks. Hugh Roberts, Unite national officer, told the BBC that: "We will approach these talks in a constructive fashion and urge LU management to do the same." For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Moroccan authorities say they have arrested a Belgian national of Moroccan origin directly linked to the Paris attacks. The suspects name was not immediately announced but a statement gave his initials in Arabic variously transliterated as GA or JA. Officials said the man had travelled to Syria to fight with Jabhat al-Nusra, before joining Isis, where he allegedly built relationships with field commanders including the "mastermind" behind the atrocites in Paris, and others threatening attacks in France and Belgium. A spokesperson for Morocco's interior ministry said the man was arrested on Monday in Mohammedia, near Casablanca, after travelling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Several arrests have been made in relation to the Paris attacks in Morocco, where a warrant was also issued in November for fugitive Salah Abdeslam. Salah Abdeslam, left, and his accomplice at a petrol station between Paris and Brussels (Reuters) The 26-year-old French-Moroccan national was born in Brussels, where investigations have since traced him to a flat where suicide belts were manufactured. He is thought to be the last member of the terror cell who murdered 130 people in the French capital at large, after fleeing to Belgium and then disappearing the following day. The Moroccan warrant was issued as international manhunt continued, although there was no indication he was in the country at the time. Abdeslams brother, Brahim Abdeslam, blew himself up on the Boulevard Voltaire, and he reportedly met alleged mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud in prison. In pictures: Paris attacks Show all 25 1 /25 In pictures: Paris attacks In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks French police with protective shields walk in line near the Bataclan concert hall Reuters In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Rescuers evacuate an injured person on Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks French Vigipirate troops mobilize next to Place de la Bastille AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks French soldiers mobilize near to the Place de la Bastille AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Wounded people are evacuated outside the scene of a hostage situation at the Bataclan theatre EPA In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks People react as they gather to watch the scene near the Bataclan concert hall Reuters In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks French police secure the area outside a cafe near the Bataclan concert hall Reuters In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Rescuers workers evacuate victims near the Bataclan concert hall AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and French President Francois Hollande attending an emergency meeting at the Interior Ministry AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Spectators invade the pitch of the Stade de France after explosions were heard outside AP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks A man lies on the ground as French police check his identity near the Bataclan concert hall Reuters In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Police officers man a position close to the Bataclan theatre AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Wounded people are evacuated from the Stade de France in Paris EPA In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Two men evacuate the Place de la Republique square in Paris as a police officer looks on AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Football fans are evacuated from the Stade de France stadium In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks An armed police officer Dan Gabriel In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks The Stade de France is evacuated after reports of an explosion In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks A member of the French fire brigade aids an injured individual near the Bataclan concert hall In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Wounded people are evacuated from the Stade de France in Paris In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Police are seen outside a cafe in 10th arrondissement of the French capital Paris, In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Rescuers assist an injured man on Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire, close to the Bataclan concert hall AFP In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks The scene at a restaurant in 10th arrondissement In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks The Bataclan theatre - where around 100 people are thought be held hostage In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks The Stade de France as it was evacuated In pictures: Paris attacks Paris attacks Forensic experts inspect the site of an attack outside the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis AFP The Isis militants younger brother, Yassine Abaaoud, had been arrested in the Moroccan city of Agadir in October after landing in the country. Moroccan authorities have arrested scores of suspected Isis militants in recent months, including a cell allegedly planning a bombing attack. Around 1,500 Moroccan nationals are believed to be fighting with armed groups in Syria and Iraq. Authorities estimated that around 220 have returned home and been jailed and 286 have been killed by the end of last year. Additional reporting by Reuters and AP Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter from The Independent's Race Correspondent Nadine White Sign up to our free fortnightly newsletter The Race Report Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Race Report email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} South Africas ruling party, the African National Congress, has called for the schools to teach anti-racism and for hate speech legislation to be strengthened after widespread anger at a viral Facebook post that described black people as monkeys. The post has ignited debate over the complex legacy of racism in the Rainbow Nation, 22 years after the end of apartheid. South Africans should be taught at a young stage to despise racism, said ANC spokesman Sihle Zikalala. He said the subject should be included on the curriculum of all schools in the country. Recommended Read more South Africa is a failed state under Zuma the illiterate clansman Penny Sparrow, a retired estate agent, faces criminal charges and is under investigation by the South Africa Human Rights Commission over her comments about black people celebrating New Years Day on a public beach. These monkeys that are allowed to be released on New Years Eve and New Years Day on to public beaches, towns etc, obviously have no education whatsoever, so to allow them loose is inviting huge dirt and troubles and discomfort to others, she wrote. Im sorry to say that I was amongst the revellers and all I saw were black on black skins (sic) what a shame. Penny Sparrow faces criminal charges for describing black people as monkeys in a Facebook post If convicted under charges of unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another she faces a fine, but not a prison sentence. The government has since said it may strengthen the law to include custodial sentences. We will soon investigate creating a specific law or amending the existing legislation to ensure that acts of racism and promotion of apartheid are criminalised and punishable by imprisonment, said the ANCs chief whip, Stone Sizani. The Facebook post caused a social media furore, and the hashtag #RacismMustFall quickly gained momentum, fuelling the debate about the legacy of apartheid. A report from the Human Rights Commission found there had been a significant increase in the number of reports of racism during the past year. The charges against Ms Sparrow were brought by individuals from the ANC as well as the Democratic Alliance, the leading opposition party, which suspended her membership. She responded to say she had apologised. I didnt mean it personally. I wasnt being nasty or rude or horrible, but its just that they [black people] make a mess. It is just how they are. While South Africa has been largely united in its condemnation of Ms Sparrows comments, some question whether equal treatment is given to black people accused of discriminating against South Africas white minority. A week after Ms Sparrows comments, a local government employee in Guateng, the district that includes Johannesburg, called for white people in South Africa to be treated as Hitler did to the Jews. I want to cleanse this country of all white people. We must act as Hitler did to the Jews, Velaphi Khumalo wrote. A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed Show all 6 1 /6 A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553027.bin Reuters A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553026.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553025.bin Reuters A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553024.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553023.bin Getty Images A Day That Shook The World: Nelson Mandela freed 553022.bin Reuters In response, he was suspended from his job, and criminal charges have been brought against him by a 21-year-old citizen, Daniel Amos. But an official investigation is yet to be opened and neither political party has brought any separate charges. He subsequently wrote an email apologising for the comments I made that do not reflect the ideologies of a democratic society that are our ideals. Businessman Eugene Ripepi, 58, a former ANC member, said that the ANC and President Jacob Zuma were hypocritical, and that the war on racism was too one-sided, protecting only the black community. Mr Mandela is turning in his grave, he would kick Mr Zuma out in a flash, he told The Independent. But 24-year-old post-graduate LiTsoanelo Zwane, said the country had yet to deal with the legacy of apartheid. What is happening now is overt racism coming to the fore, in that racists no longer feel compelled to conceal their racism. A country where a minority still controls significant amounts of the economy, is still immensely privileged and is still reaping the rewards of apartheid can never not be racist, she added President Zuma has accused racists of living in the past and is expected to exploit the issue to distract from the faltering economy and weakening currency in the run-up to crucial local government elections later this year. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A group of American Muslims have made a stand against rising anti-Islamic sentiment in the country by donating 30,000 bottles of water to a donation drive. An organisation called Who is Hussain? made the pledge of Sunday to help citizens in the city of Flint, Michigan, which President Barack Obama declared as being in a federal state of emergency thanks to a water contamination crisis. Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) stands accused of ignoring months of negative reports on the amount of lead in Flints drinking water. The water is now considered so contaminated with man-made materials that the city has now had to switch its supply source to the corrosive and polluted Flint River. Michigan National Guard Staff Sergeant Steve Kiger of Beaverton, Michigan, helps a Flint, Michigan resident take bottled water out to his car after he received it at a Flint Fire Station (Getty Images) At this point members of Who is Hussain? decided to do their bit to help alleviate the crisis, collecting donated bottles of water from the communities across the United States and raising funds to purchase more through an online charity appeal. Speaking of the campaign, Dr Aziza Askari, head of the Michigan chapter of the Who is Hussain?, told the Washington Times: We saw what needed to be done and we decided to do it. We reached out to schools, neighbours, friends, mosques, anyone and everyone to help us by donating a case of water, or money towards a case. In pictures: Flint water crisis Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Flint water crisis In pictures: Flint water crisis Anthony Fordham picks up bottled water from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan to deliver to a school after elevated lead levels were found in the city's water in Flint Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Michigan National Guard Staff Sergeant William Phillips (L) assists a Flint resident with bottled water at a fire station in Flint Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Flint residents Arthur Woodson, left, and Tony Palladino Jr. protest the arrival of Flint native and filmmaker Michael Moore as Moore accuses Gov.Rick Snyder of poisoning Flint water during a rally outside of city hall in Flint AP In pictures: Flint water crisis Flint residents pick up bottled water and water filters at a fire station in Flint. Michigan National Guard members were set to arrive in Flint to join door-to-door efforts to distribute bottled water and other supplies to residents coping with the city's crisis over lead-contaminated drinking water Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Soldiers from the Michigan Army National Guard Flint prepare to give Flint residents bottled water at a fire station in Flint Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis Justin Roberson (L), age 6, of Flint, Michigan and Mychal Adams, age 1, of Flint wait on a stack of bottled water at a rally where the Rev. Jesse Jackson was speaking about about the water crises at the Heavenly Host Baptist Church in Flint Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis A man sits next to a stack of bottled water at the Heavenly Host Baptist Church in Flint 2016 Getty Images In pictures: Flint water crisis The top of a water tower is seen at the Flint Water Plant. President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Michigan and ordered federal aid to be used to help state and local response efforts to an area affected by contaminated water Reuters In pictures: Flint water crisis Rosie Wright, center, rallies with the crowd over Flint's water crisis in Ann Arbor, Michigan AP In pictures: Flint water crisis Rick Catherman participates in a rally around Flint's water crisis in Ann Arbor, Michigan AP Mohammed Almawla, who works as a filmmaker and volunteer for the organization, added: Prophet Mohammed taught us Your neighbour comes before your own household. As a resident of Detroit this is not only a Flint problem this is a Michigan problem and I feel obligated to help to the best of my ability. Recommended Who is Hussain? was founded in 2012 as tribute to the Prophet Muhammads grandson, Hussain ibn Ali, who was murdered after being denied water for several days. The organisation, which now has 60 representatives around the world, argues that the denial of water to anybody at any time is immoral and as such promotes water distribution around the world. On Saturday Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, which automatically freed up to $5 million in federal aid to assist with the public health crisis. He refused calls to make a disaster declaration, however, even though doing so would have provided a larger war chest. The Detroit Free Press explained that Obamas hands were tied in the situation, as a disaster declaration can only be issued on natural occurrences, such as hurricanes or floods, whereas the crisis engulfing Flint is man-made. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Canadian government says it will not suffer from Cologne-style sex attacks because the country carefully selects the Syrian refugees it takes in. Immigration minister John McCallum said that because Canada has welcomed Syrian refugees with open hearts and love, Canadians will not be affected by their resettlement as Germany has been. The speech addressed the next phase of resettlement in Canada after the arrival of more than 10,000 refugees into the country, reported CBC news. We are mindful of the situation in Germany, but let me remind you that we are talking about 25,000 Syrian refugees, while Germany has accepted close to a million," said Mr McCallum. The ones we have accepted, we have carefully selected them. Most of them are not single men. Most of them are family members. While Canada has been widely praised for the way it has welcomed refugees, in Germany the public perception of the crisis has turned. A poll by ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) broadcaster said Germans are markedly more pessimistic about refugees, with 60 per cent of people surveyed now saying they believe Ms Merkel has handled the situation poorly. One person has been arersted in relation to the spate of sex attacks on New Year's Eve in Cologne - a 26-year-old Algerian asylum seeker. Refugees settle in Germany Show all 12 1 /12 Refugees settle in Germany Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, plays with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, in the one room they and Mohamed's wife Laloosh call home at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany A refugee child Amnat Musayeva points to a star with her photo and name that decorates the door to her classroom as teacher Martina Fischer looks on at the local kindergarten Amnat and her siblings attend on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The children live with their family at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian asylum-applicant Mohamed Ali Hussein (R), 19, and fellow applicant Autur, from Latvia, load benches onto a truckbed while performing community service, for which they receive a small allowance, in Wilhelmsaue village on October 9, 2015 near Letschin, Germany. Mohamed and Autur live at an asylum-applicants' shelter in nearby Vossberg village. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Ali Hussein ((L), 19, and his cousin Sinjar Hussein, 34, sweep leaves at a cemetery in Gieshof village, for which they receive a small allowance, near Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat, a refugee from Syria, looks among donated clothing in the basement of the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to Mohamed, his wife Laloosh and their daughter Ranim as residents' laundry dries behind in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. The Zayats arrived approximately two months ago after trekking through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans and are now waiting for local authorities to process their asylum application, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asya Sugaipova (L), Mohza Mukayeva and Khadra Zhukova prepare food in the communal kitchen at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Efrah Abdullahi Ahmed looks down from the communal kitchen window at her daughter Sumaya, 10, who had just returned from school, at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is their home in Vossberg Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Asylum-applicants, including Syrians Mohamed Ali Hussein (C-R, in black jacket) and Fadi Almasalmeh (C), return from grocery shopping with other refugees to the asylum-applicants' shelter that is their home in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Mohamed Zayat (2nd from L), a refugee from Syria, smokes a cigarette after shopping for groceries with his daughter Ranim, who is nearly 3, and fellow-Syrian refugees Mohamed Ali Hussein (C) and Fadi Almasalmeh (L) at a local supermarket on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. All of them live at an asylum-seekers' shelter in nearby Vossberg village and are waiting for local authorities to process their asylum applications, after which they will be allowed to live independently and settle elsewhere in Germany 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Kurdish Syrian refugees Leila, 9, carries her sister Avin, 1, in the backyard at the asylum-seekers' shelter that is home to them and their family in Vossberg village in Letschin Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany Somali refugees and husband and wife Said Ahmed Gure (R) and Ayaan Gure pose with their infant son Muzammili, who was born in Germany, in the room they share at an asylum-seekers' shelter in Vossberg village on October 9, 2015 in Letschin, Germany. Approximately 60 asylum-seekers, mostly from Syria, Chechnya and Somalia, live at the Vossberg shelter, which is run by the Arbeiter-Samariter Bund (ASB) charity, and are waiting for authorities to process their application for asylum 2015 Getty Images Refugees settle in Germany Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel pauses for a selfie with a refugee after she visited the AWO Refugium Askanierring shelter for refugees in Berlin Getty Images Mr McCallum finished his speech by saying: I think the two situations are quite different in the sense of the numbers involved and the kinds of people coming into our country. He said: I also think we have a pretty good history in this area of successfully integrating newcomers. The minister made clear in his speech that Canada is not putting Syrian refugees ahead of its own people, especially when it comes to issues such as social housing. The country had pledged to settle 25,000 refugees by 31 December, but lowered that to 10,000 in November. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A daycare teacher who turned her classroom into what prosecutors said was a baby fight club could spend decades in prison after she was found guilty of child cruelty. Sarah Jordan, of Woodbridge, Virginia, was convicted on more than a dozen charges after the court heard how she tripped children, stepped on their toes, encouraged them to fight each other and sprayed them in the face with a hose. Prosecutor Ashleigh Landers said that the atmosphere Jordan has created was almost creating like a baby fight club and had done huge damage to the children. Jordan worked at the Minnieland Academy classroom in Woodbridge (Wikicommons) Parents testified that their children suddenly became fearful of water and started acting in ways similar to the abuse described in the classroom, such as stepping on others feet. Speaking to CBS after the verdict, the parents said they were happy with the outcome. Parents Blake Buckner said he had a son that was placed under Jordans care and said he was forced to fight. The teacher was making him the class bully made to fight. It was hard to hold back tears, emotional, it was very deep, said Mr Buckner. She knows what she did. Justice has prevailed. After a trial, a Prince William County judge convicted Jordan of 13 offences, including child cruelty and assault and battery. Jordan testified on Wednesday in her own defence and denied the accusations. She said she occasionally used the hose to sprinkle kids with water because the sprinkler attachment was broken but that she never tried to hurt them. The teachers bond was revoked and she was sent to jail pending her sentencing in May. Her lawyer, Adrian Showells, said Jordan still had the right to appeal against her conviction but otherwise declined to comment. A lawyer representing many of the families, James McCoart, said: Her actions were not onlycruel and traumatic, but outrageous criminal conduct on our communitys most vulnerable. The parents are considering a class action lawsuit against the school. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A British woman has been arrested over a spate of burglaries of luxury homes and country clubs in Buenos Aires, local media reported. Georgia Wawman, 26, is suspected by local police of being involved with a gang of violent burglars and has reportedly been nicknamed the 'English boss' by local police. Ms Wawmans blonde hair and blue eyes also earned her the nickname Barbie Bandit by Argentinian press. She was arrested on Thursday for allegedly being involved in several burglaries at gated communities in the north of the city. The gang allegedly included Ms Wawmans ex-boyfriend, Jose Mino, whose house police found her in with their two-year-old child. Police reportedly conducted a dawn raid on the house intending to apprehend Mr Mino, but arrested Ms Wawman on suspicion of being an accomplice. Mr Mino is allegedly a member of the gang, which is thought to have carried out at least 16 robberies in wealthy suburbs, reports the MailOnline. Both Ms Wawman and Mr Mino were released on bail, but remain under investigation. 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 Ms Wawman is originally from Marlborough in Wiltshire, but moved to Argentina in 2006 to live with her stepmother, Laura Pereira de Mello, but later relocated to the capital to live with Mr Mino. An email sent to Argentinian daily. Clarin, from someone purporting to be Ms Wawmans mother claimed the police mistreated her. The email claimed the police insulted Ms Wawman, and said one of the officers sang a song about the Falklands, which intimidated her. Claims that police forced Ms Wawman to stand for two hours while handcuffed and facing a wall, and was denied food and water were also in the email. The email is thought to have come from her stepmother. Police have denied the allegations in the email, according to Clarins. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Republican Presidential nominee Marco Rubio has said he purchased a gun on Christmas Eve in order to defend his family from Isis. Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, spoke about his festive purchase on CBS's Face the Nation news show. Speaking to host John Dickerson, Rubio said: "I have a right to protect my family. I was previously a firearm holder, this was an additional one, and I think many Americans around the country feel the same way." Rubio added he was a "strong supporter" of the second amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees Americans the right to own guns, and said he purchased the weapon to protect his family. He said: "If Isis were to visit us or our communities at any moment, the last line of defence between Isis and my family is the ability I have to protect my family from them, or from a criminal, or anyone else who seeks to do us harm." His comments on Face the Nation echoed a speech he made on 17 January in Iowa, where upcoming caucuses will be the first major events of the national nomination process to decide the Republican and Democratic candidates for this year's presidential election. Addressing a crowd in the city of Sioux Center, Rubio said that if he becomes President, he will ensure that Americans' second amendment rights are protected, the Guardian reported. "Because, if God forbid Isis pays a visit to your, to our community, the last thing standing between them and our families may be the ability to proect ourselves with our guns," he said. "And there's no way we're going to take that away from the American people, not when I'm president." Rubio has an 'A' rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) for his record of voting against gun control, and in recent stops on the campaign trail he has made visits to gun shops and firearms manufacturers. According to the most recent polls, Cuban-American Rubio is America's third-favourite for the Republican nomination, falling behind Donald Trump, who is in first place, and Texas senator Ted Cruz, in second. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} More than 600 people in Florida have signed up to a python-hunting challenge to clamp down on the native Southeast Asian snake from growing in numbers and continuing to wreak havoc on the local ecosystem. The month-long competition asks hunters to capture as many snakes as they can, dead or alive, to reduce numbers in the Everglades region. The competition, organized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said a cash prize will go to the hunter who captures the most Burmese pythons, as well as for the longest snake found, as reported by CNN. Although not native to Florida, the snakes, which can grow up to 23 feet long and are one of the largest snake species in the world, thrive in the Everglades climate. They were first introduced to the region as an exotic pet and ran amok after a breeding facility was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The snakes are held responsible for decimating the population of raccoons, rabbits and opossums, and they have few natural predators. Despite their numbers, they are difficult to detect, according to the US Geological Society website. The python challenge in 2013 gathered 1,600 hunters but only 68 snakes. Hunters must have a valid hunting license, and are allowed to sell the skin or meat, but Burmese pythons from the Everglades have high levels of mercury and are therefore not recommended for human consumption. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A New York man of Bangladeshi origin was attacked by teenagers who yelled Isis, Isis, before beating him to a pulp in what police are investigating as a hate crime. Mujibur Rahman, 43, was attacked in front of his horrified 9-year-old niece as he walked in the Bronx on Friday evening. The attackers pushed the man to the ground and kicked him multiple times, police said. He was taken by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Centre, where he was treated for his injuries and released Saturday night. Mujibur Rahman was beaten at this location on Friday night (Google) Police said the mans niece was unharmed physically, but the youngster was left deeply traumatised. She could not sleep, the victim told NY1. She said she didnt want to go back to school anymore. The assault of Mr Rahman is being investigated as a hate crime by the NYPD. As of Sunday evening, no arrests had been made in the case and an investigation was ongoing by the NYPDs Hate Crimes Task Force, an NYPD spokesman said. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz on Sunday condemned the attacks as hateful and not representative of the shared values of the people of this borough. An attack on one of us over race, religion, gender or sexual orientation is an attack on us all, Mr Diaz said in a statement. The Council on American-Islamic Relations of New York, a Muslim civil rights organisation, called on the FBI to also investigate the incident. The attack is one of what the group considers a growing wave of assaults on Muslims in the US. The FBI should add its resources to the investigation of this disturbing incident in order to send a clear message to bigots that attacks on American Muslims will not be tolerated and that perpetrators of such attacks will face the full weight of the law, said CAIR-NYs director of operations Sadyia Khalique. HELENA Some say preventing future sexual abuse of children by Roman Catholic clergy may depend on ending the requirement for celibacy and allowing women into the priesthood. But if thats not likely to happen any time soon, then strict screening and psychological testing of those seeking ordination might be the best way to prevent future crimes by clergy against children. These differing perspectives come in the wake of confirmation by the bankruptcy court of Coeur dAlene, Idaho, in March that settled a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization plan for the Diocese of Helena. The judge approved a nearly $21 million plan to compensate the roughly 380 people who said they were sexually abused by Catholic priests and the Ursuline Sisters. The bankruptcy courts action came after claims against the diocese were filed in 2011 by those who said they had been sexually abused. The Associated Press reported in March 2015 that the majority of allegations were against Jesuit priests at the Ursuline Academy and the St. Ignatius Mission in St. Ignatius. The abuses ranged from rape and fondling to perpetrators taking sexual photographs of children, which began in the 1930s and continued through the 1970s, according to court documents cited by The Associated Press. Attorneys for victims and an outspoken former priest offered little optimism for ending child sexual abuse by clergy without changes in the priesthood. As soon as they get good priests in there, the problem will change. When you get rid of the celibacy requirement and allow priests who can be married, have families of their own, youre going to see a lot less child sexual abuse, said Craig Vernon, who with Lee James, represented some 270 people in the bankruptcy and reorganization plan. And I think thats probably what the membership would like to see, but youre speaking to a non-Catholic, Vernon said. James shared that assessment and said, In the larger picture, I think what would be most persuasive is to see changes, fundamental changes in the church, that are designed to help assure that child-sexual abuse along with other problems dont occur in the future. In addition to allowing priests to marry and ordaining women, James said lay people need to be put in positions of power over priests. Because, after all, for centuries clergy has had an exclusive lock on power in the Catholic Church over lay people, he continued. And what our cases illustrate is they blew it. They used that power in ways that were wrong and inappropriate, not only the abuse itself but generally speaking, when you find these cases its cover-up, its abuse of power, James added. Diocese of Helena Bishop George Leo Thomas doesnt dodge the accusation and said, I think the Catholic Church did blow it. But were not alone in that. Its no consolation. Thats why back in late 80s and 90s I was adamant in the archdiocese of Seattle and here that this culture of privilege and secrecy and internal governance is a big mistake and why the community has to absolutely be involved in this kind of oversight. When the diocese in Seattle faced claims of sexual abuse, it turned to the community, Thomas said, and created a committee that tapped the county prosecutors office, mental health professionals, parents, law enforcement and those involved in social work to help lead it through the crisis. Thomas said he relied on those experiences when he was assigned to the Diocese of Helena in 2004. We have a review committee in our own diocese here that helps to guide any decisions that I make. Part of it is directed toward policies. I want to make sure that our policies are very consistent with civil and criminal law. Its a high-level group and they ask very poignant questions of me, and our commitment obviously is to ensure that we do very careful screening and evaluation of seminarian candidates, that we require psychological testing of anybody thats in seminary candidacy. People that are in any kind of ministry, volunteer or otherwise, we do background checks and fingerprinting, Thomas said. If I get any kind of a complaint involving violation with a minor then our first contact is law enforcement. Training to avoid trouble A.W. Richard Sipe, 83, is from a devoutly Catholic family, according to his website biography. Hes also the author of several books, the most recent is Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church: A Decade of Crisis, 2002-2012. He spent 18 years as a Benedictine monk and a Catholic priest where he was trained to deal with the mental health problems of priests, his biography noted. Sipe said he also taught in seminaries from 1967 to 1996. The bishops have put out a lot of different words and documents about (sexual abuse). And in a sense the documents in themselves are positive and some of the steps they take are positive in terms of being more careful about who they hire, being more sensitive to victims and victims claims, he said. However, basically nothing has changed in the education of clergy that I know of that would change the propensity of priests to abuse. The education of those priests, Sipe continued, has not changed at all. Among Catholic priests, 6 percent did get involved sexually with minors, he said of his research. The problem can no longer be denied, Sipe said. The problem has not gone away. And the problem will not go away because of the system. A lack of training in sexual abuse prevention would have been the case in prior decades at seminaries, Thomas said, but the men that the diocese has at four different seminaries do receive training to avoid risk and sexual abuse. Also when they come into the diocese, I require the recertification, participation recertification, in Virtus training even though theyve been through it in the seminary. For everbody. Im doing everything humanly possible, Thomas said. Sexual abuse, Thomas said, "its a societal problem. Its endemic. It has to be recognized as a societal issue, not a Catholic Church issue. Challenging the system Sipe takes aim at the system in the Catholic Church that produces priests and asked, What is it in the system that allows, that educates the choosers that produces men who have a propensity for sex with minors? He offers his opinion. The church favors men who are psycho-sexually immature. That is, they are men who have adolescent idealism, who have enthusiasm, who have that willingness to identify with the system or with authority, Sipe said. In some ways theyre much like young recruits going into war. These men who are invincible, who have no responsibility, who are taken care of and the church fosters them." Thomas has a different view of how to govern a diocese and select those who are ordained here. The seminarians we having coming forward in the Diocese of Helena are a bit older, these are all post-college graduates, he said. I take very seriously the screening, the psychological testing, the formation reports, family history. I know each of the seminarian candidates individually and very well by the time theyre ready for ordination. Its a very lengthy process. Its five or six years post-college through the seminary process. So I am a little tougher in that world than maybe many bishops. Im not into the numbers game, Im into the quality, he said. I depend very heavily on the style of collaborative leadership where the laity, women and men, work hand-in-hand with me in the overall direction of this diocese. So theres a real sense of collegiality, open governance, transparency. I think the thing that Sipe is referencing is the old system of clericalism, which is based on entitlement and clerical privilege." And while the nonmonetary provisions of the diocese's bankruptcy settlement and reorganization plan required listing the name of all alleged perpetrators, Thomas said he didn't seek to differentiate between those accused and credibly accused. The only way to regain credibility is through transparency and truth telling, Thomas said. Vow of celibacy Sipe said his long-term research concluded that at no time are more than half of Catholic priests observing celibacy. Mandatory celibacy, the fact of requiring a man to promise celibacy before he is ordained a priest is a travesty, and I think is the cause of a great deal of sexual hurt and sexual perversion, Sipe said. No question about it. Theres a great deal of sexual activity from the top down. You see, if celibacy were practiced on that level, you wouldnt have any problem down here in the younger priests practicing, Sipe said. Thomas disagrees. If celibacy is the issue then youve got a whole other problem because the research that Im familiar with shows that over 80 percent of sexual abuse takes place in the context of marriage and family, he said. So it would be a big leap to say that celibacy is the cause. But Idaho attorneys Vernon and James say the vow of celibacy deeply affects an individual. Its more than just sex, James said. Youre asking an individual, a man, to live their life, a lonely life with no confidante, no one close to them who will be with them for their adult life, to share their life experiences with, to speak to in troubled times, to share their life concerns, their worries. So they are in a situation where they are in a potentially psychologically disabling situation where people who are allowed to have intimate, emotional and personal relationships, and again Im talking not just about sex, something way more than sex. The person in the middle of the night that you can wake them up and roll over and wake them up and say Im really stressed, Im worried. When a priest is alone, they cant do that, James said. So they live this life of loneliness and it can create very unstable situations that the experts like Sipe and others can talk about, he explained. My personal belief is until they adopt change like we had recommended, I think it will continue because who is going to go into the priesthood? asked Vernon. Who wants to take a vow of celibacy? And history has shown us that the vow of celibacy really does not work, that most priests dont keep their vow of celibacy, and its easier to make little kids not talk than it is a housekeeper, a fellow priest or a nun. And so I dont believe that theres going to be fundamental change. Its going to be harder because its more out in the open, maybe priests will be more careful because theres more risk that theyre going to get caught, Vernon continued. Until theres fundamental change, I think were still going to see this problem. Thomas doesnt share their view on the cause for sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church. The culture of secrecy and entitlement is probably the lay equivalent of clericalism and that can happen with public school teachers, it can happen with the various denominations, with 4-H or whatever. It puts power over the safety of children, and Im just not there. Were doing everything humanly possible to see it doesnt happen again, he said. Were using all the resources that we have at hand in the best way, Thomas said. At the end of the day Im asking the Lord to ensure that Im doing the right stuff. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} While the FBI and lawmakers in Oregon decide how to deal with an armed stand-off with a group of extremist ranchers, the ranchers are deciding how to deal with them by appointing a conspiracy theorist judge to implement their own legal system. Self-styled militants in Oregon who are protesting against extended prison sentences for fellow ranchers have claimed they are sovereign citizens and will apply their own legal system to boot local lawmakers into jail. The two week-long stand-off has seen the ranchers use local bulldozers to tear down fences between public and private land, occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and intimate local people. Their protest is ultimately against the Bureau of Land Management and the way that land is governed, as well as protesting the case of Steven and Dwight Hammond, who were sent back to jail this year to serve more time for setting fire to public land. The self-proclaimed superior court judge Bruce Doucette arrived in Oregon last week to meet with Ammon Bundy's group and help them prepare for a citizen trial against local officials who have supposedly violated ranchers rights. The 54-year-old owner of a computer design and repair shop in Denver told local newspaper The Oregonian that he had been requested to visit and hear the evidence against the local sheriff and lawmakers. He said a privately appointed jury of 25 people would decide whether to charge anyone with a crime. Mr Doucette is a conspiracy theorist, who believes the ranch belonging to Steven and Dwight Hammond is sitting on natural gas and uranium that China wants. According to his Facebook page, he also believes the 9/11 attacks and the Boston bombing are government hoaxes. There is no historical precedent allowing a self-styled judge or a citizens grand jury [to] have any import on the outcome of the Malheur occupiers' demands to open public lands, other to than to excite those embracing a fringe view, wrote Bill Morlin of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The same document reveals that the alternative legal system used by the ranchers has roots in the Posse Comitatus movement. It was spun out from the Citizens Law Enforcement Research Committee in 1969, started by Henry L. Beach, who had ties with the anti-Semitic Silver Shirt movement. Other sovereign citizens share the view of Mr Doucette and the ranchers. An Alaskan woman named Anna Maria Riezinger, another judge, wrote that the Bundys and Hammonds are exempt from paying tax and should have a patent on their land. In November she ruled that the FBI should arrest members of Congress, the president and the US treasury secretary. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A university has paid out $5.3m to the family of an unarmed black man who was shot and killed by a campus police officer who pulled him over for missing a licence plate. In a deal announced on Monday by the University of Cincinnati, the family of Samuel DuBose will receive a $4.85m payment and each of his 12 children will receive free undergraduate tuition. Mr DuBose, 43, was shot and killed behind the wheel of his car on July 19 after Officer Ray Tensing stopped him near the campus for missing a front license plate, which is required by Ohio law, the Associated Press reported. Mr Tensing was charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty. Terina Allen, Mr DuBoses sister, said the 43-year-old's death was not necessary (AP) This did not need to happen, and we need to make sure this doesnt happen to another family, said Terina Allen, Mr DuBoses sister. And if we have that memorial, maybe that makes people stop and say wow, and maybe it wont happen again. School President Santa Ono said in a statement that the college wanted to extend its apology to the family. This agreement is also part of the healing process not only for the family but also for our university and Cincinnati communities, it said Officer Ray Tensing has been charged with murder (AP) Mr Tensing said that after he stopped the car, Mr DuBose refused to provide a driver's license and get out. A struggle ensued as Mr DuBose tried to drive away, and Mr Tensing said he fired because he feared being dragged under the car, said his lawyer, Stewart Matthews. A hearing is set to begin on February 11. The shooting occurred during heightened scrutiny across the United States of police treatment of blacks, after a string of police-inflicted deaths from Ferguson, Missouri, to Chicago sparked sometimes-violent protests over the past year and a half. Mark OMara, a civil rights lawyer, representing Mr DuBoses family, said the family hoped the tragedy can be a springboard to improving relations between police and the community so it doesn't happen again. We have to have a discourse on how do we make our cops better cops, he said. And the flipside to that coin is, we have to figure out how to better interact with cops. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Chinas official media are bending over backwards to minimise the significance of the landslide victory of pro-independence politician Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwans presidential election. Taiwanese chose Tsai, not independence, was how Global Times spun the victory for the Democratic Progressive Party, which campaigns for Taiwans independence from China, and its leader. Tsai made prudent remarks and took an ambiguous attitude towards cross-Straits policies. She kept stressing maintaining the status quo of cross-Straits ties, it added. The victory doesnt mean the majority of Taiwanese support Taiwan independence. Chinas foreign ministry, by contrast, issued a stark warning to the outside world not to seize on Ms Tsais victory as an opportunity to prise the two Chinas apart. We hope and believe that the international community will adhere to the one-China principle [and] oppose Taiwan independence in any form, spokesperson Hong Lei said. The Taiwan question falls in Chinas internal affairs, there is only one China and both the mainland and China belong to one China, and Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division. But Ms Tsais victory and the her partys unprecedented success in seizing control of parliament are a rejection by the islands electorate of Chinas claims. President Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang, who will limp on until the handover in May, did more than any previous Taiwanese leader to build relations with the mainland. In September, in the first such event ever, he met Chinas President Xi Jin-Ping in Singapore. During his seven years in office, Mr Ma Ying-jeou oversaw the lifting of bans on travel across the Taiwan Straits. He also fostered a series of trade deals which brought the island and the Peoples Republic far closer than they have ever been since Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled there in 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war. But this new relationship proved to be too close for the Taiwanese: that was the electorates verdict on Saturday. Taiwans democracy, which dates back only to 1995, is a somewhat tender plant towards which the islanders feel very protective. They observe the way that Hong Kong is being slowly but surely digested by China, despite President Deng Xiao-pings promise to Britain that its unique political and legal institutions and free press would be protected for half a century after the 1997 handover. And they are extremely wary of going down the same route. Taiwan - the little country with big ideas Show all 2 1 /2 Taiwan - the little country with big ideas Taiwan - the little country with big ideas 38156.bin Saltmarsh PR Taiwan - the little country with big ideas 38157.bin AP Their fears of being bullied into conformity were reinforced on the eve of the election when a Taiwanese pop star who waved Taiwans national flag during an appearance on South Korean television was forced by her management company to issue a video apology for fear of offending nationalist sentiment on the mainland. The awkward fact is that Taiwans ever-growing proximity to Beijing at the cost of wider relations with its Pacific neighbourhood is damaging the islands economy. In recent years growth has stagnated while youth unemployment and house prices soared, and this year its GDP is forecast to grow by a scant 0.8 per cent. President Xis handshake was an uncomfortable reminder of what Hong Lei said yesterday: that the mainland will never let Taiwan off the leash. The sobering fact that there are 700 Chinese missiles are pointed at the island from the mainland are proof of that. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A woman was shocked to discover part of an elderly man's face while taking her car through a car wah. Veterinarian Kimberley Kreige found the face fragment while visiting Super Car Wash, in Livingston, Montana. The remains belonged to Elgie Bedford, aged 81, who had been killed hours earlier in a hit-and-run accident on a rural road a few miles away while on his way to see grandchildren. Mr Bedford had been run over by truck driver David Welk, who fled the scene immediately after the accident. Another driver, Wyran Young, unwittingly ran over Mr Bedford's body some time after the fatal collision - leaving the victim's face attached to her car. Young took her vehicle to the car wash later that day, at which point the Mr Bedford's face ended up on the floor. Ms Kreig later came across the body part and immediately reported it to police - who she claimed treated (her) as a criminal suspect by having her car impounded, demanding a blood sample and holding her for several hours. She says she had been left badly tramautised by the incident two years ago and needed counselling as a result. Ms Kreig claims Welk, who has been convicted of driving over and killing Mr Bedford, should have immediately notified authorities, Courthouse News reports. She is now suing Welk's former employer, CRST Expedited, for medical expenses, lost income, negligence and emotional distress. She said Welk should have called the police instead of leaving the body on the highway, knowing that someone could be held responsible for the hit-and-run death. Young, 31, maintained she thought she had hit a pile of clothing and not a dead body - and all charges against her were dropped. Welk, 45, was given a six-year suspended sentence for knowingly being involved in an accident of a deceased person or another person in October 2014. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A bomb threat on Apple's European headquarters have meant that up to 4,000 staff there have been evacuated. Three different plants were completely evacuated after a possible security threat, according to the Irish Independent. Several threatening emails had been received by the company, the paper reported. Irish military staff are at the site, though it is not clear whether any suspicious packages have yet been found. But police reported that a number of plants had been evacuated in response to the threats. The company has its European headquarters in Ireland, which include both offices and manufacturing plants. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The first suspect has been taken into custody in connection with the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve. The 26-year-old Algerian asylum seeker was found with a mobile phone belonging to a woman who said she was robbed while being groped by a group of men. Recommended Read more American woman tells how Syrian refugees rescued her in Cologne A police report said up to 1,000 drunken men, mainly of Arab or North African origin were responsible for robbing and attacking women outside the citys cathedral and railway station. But the 21 suspects previously identifed, only eight of whom are in custody, are accused of theft and muggings. On Saturday, the sexual assault suspect and another Algerian asylum seeker, aged 22, were arrested at refugee accommodation in Kerpen, a town around 15 miles from Cologne. Growing fury in Germany over New Years Eve assaults on women in Cologne During a search of the suspects investigators confiscated two mobile phones that could be linked to the attacks on New Years Eve, a spokesperson for Cologne Police said. Current investigations indicate that one of the phones was stolen in the course of a sexual attack by a large group. The second phone was stolen by a pickpocket. The men, both from Algeria, have appeared in court and were remanded in custody. On Friday night, a third suspect was arrested after being found carrying a mobile phone stolen on 31 December outside Colognes famous cathedral. Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Show all 13 1 /13 Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism outside Cologne Cathedral on 5 January after the assaults Oliver Berg/EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism in Cologne following the rash of sex attacks on New Year's Eve Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police initially failed to mention the assaults in report the following morning EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station (Reuters) Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police used pepper spray to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups as they protested against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on 9 January, 2016 in Cologne, Germany Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use a water cannon during a protest march by supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016 Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Artist Mira Moire protests naked in Cologne against the mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks A demonstrator holds a sign in German that reads 'No violence against women' during a demonstration in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, outside the cathedeal in Cologne, Germany, 09 January 2016. EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Counter demonstrators hold up a sign reading "Against sexism, against racism" as they protest against a demonstration of the islamophobic movement PEGIDA at the train station in Cologne, Germany, on January 9, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Demonstration by a womens group on Saturday (AP) AP The 25-year-old Algerian asylum seeker is not accused of sexual assault. A total of 883 people have filed 776 criminal complaints relating to New Years Eve in Cologne, including 497 reporting 378 sexual assaults and three rapes. Opinion polls show support for taking in current levels of migrants has declined since the assaults, while Angela Merkel has already vowed to review asylum rules and make it easier to deport foreign criminals. A wave of anti-refugee protests and revenge attacks has swept Germany, including a man reportedly wearing a swastika helmet and Hitler moustache accused of assaulting two Afghan refugees in Saxony. Additional reporting by AP For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Five soldiers have been killed in the latest avalanche to hit the French Alps. Around 50 soldiers are believed to have been taking part in an exercise in an off-piste area at the time the avalanche struck at the ski resort of Valfrejus in Savoie near the Italian border. The local newspaper reports that the soldiers were killed when the avalanche struck at around 2pm local time. Emergency services pulled eleven people from the snow - with five confirmed to have suffered serious injuries and they are being transferred to a hospital in Grenoble. At least two are believed to be suffering from hypothermia. The five men who died are believed to have gone into cardiac arrest after they were rescued. A major rescue operation involving three helicopters, sniffer dogs and specialist mountain police is currently underway but it is currently not know whether any soldiers are missing. In pictures: France avalanche Show all 6 1 /6 In pictures: France avalanche In pictures: France avalanche Rescuing teams gather for search and rescue operations on a piste at the avalanche site after skiers, including a group on a school outing, were swept away in the Les Deux Alpes resort in The French Alps Getty Images In pictures: France avalanche Director of the Les Deux Alpes ski resort Didier Bobilier (C) answers journalists' questions in front of the The French Ski School of Les Deux Alpes resort in The French Alps after an avalanche swept away skiers Getty Images In pictures: France avalanche The avalanche hit a piste at the Deux-Alpes resort in eastern France that was still closed to the public, engulfing a group of nine French high school students and their teacher from the city of Lyon, according to police sources. A 14-year-old boy died in the deluge while a 16-year-old girl also died later in hospital. The Ukrainian man who died was not part of the school group Getty Images In pictures: France avalanche Students light candles outside the Saint-Exupery high school in Lyon, central-eastern France, during a commemorative gathering after two students from the school and Ukrainian man were killed when an avalanche swept away skiers in Les Deux Alpes ski resort in the French Alps Getty Images In pictures: France avalanche Rescuing teams gather for search and rescue operations on a piste at the avalanche site after skiers, including a group on a school outing, were swept away in the Les Deux Alpes resort in The French Alps AFP or licensors In pictures: France avalanche Rescuing teams gather for search and rescue operations on a piste at the avalanche site after skiers, including a group on a school outing, were swept away in the Les Deux Alpes resort in The French Alps Getty Images The soldiers, from the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment based in Saint-Christol, were performing practice manoeurves on the Petit Argentier mountain when the incident occured. A member of the specialist mountain police told France Bleu the soliders had been climbing the mountain when the avalanche struck. They were taking part in a mountain warfare training exercise and were carrying an avalanche detection kit. The avalanche occurred at the ski resort of Valfrejus near Savoie on the Italian border (file photo) (AFP) Major Herve Pujol from the mountain rescue team told BFM-TV: "For now the circumstances aren't very clear "We're still trying to carry out the rescue and trying to count everyone in the area, to know if we still have people there who've been buried." France's defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is expected to visit the ski resort - which has been closed so staff can help the rescue operation - tomorrow. The French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, paid tribute to the soldiers on Twitter saying: "Our country is bereaved after the loss of five of our soldiers in the Alps. My thoughts are with the injuried, the families and their brothers in arms". The avalanche comes just days after two teenagers and one adult were killed by a separate avalanche on a school trip in the nearby resort of Les Deux Alpes. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A man wearing a swastika-emblazoned helmet and Hitler moustache has attacked two refugees on a ski slope in Germany. Police in Dresden said the friends from Afghanistan were sledging in the snowy Ore Mountains in Altenberg on Sunday when the stranger approached. A young man approached them on the slope, wearing a steel helmet emblazoned with a swastika, a spokesperson said. The stranger purposefully walked up to two men from Afghanistan (aged 21 and 26) and insulted them. Attacks on refugees and far-right protests have increased since the New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne (Reuters) Shortly afterwards, he hit the younger man in the head using his helmet, causing him to fall to the ground. The attacker continued to torment the pair until a passer-by intervened, at which point he left, but not before performing a Nazi salute. German authorities are treating the incident, which left the 21-year-old asylum seeker needing medical treatment, as aggravated assault. The perpetrator is also wanted for the use of symbols of unconstitutional organisations, which is used to ban the Hitler salute along with the display of swastikas and other Nazi symbols. In an appeal for information, police described the suspect as aged between 25 to 30, about 175 cm tall, 5ft 10ins tall and of muscular build. Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Show all 13 1 /13 Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism outside Cologne Cathedral on 5 January after the assaults Oliver Berg/EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism in Cologne following the rash of sex attacks on New Year's Eve Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police initially failed to mention the assaults in report the following morning EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station (Reuters) Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police used pepper spray to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups as they protested against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on 9 January, 2016 in Cologne, Germany Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use a water cannon during a protest march by supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016 Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Artist Mira Moire protests naked in Cologne against the mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks A demonstrator holds a sign in German that reads 'No violence against women' during a demonstration in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, outside the cathedeal in Cologne, Germany, 09 January 2016. EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Counter demonstrators hold up a sign reading "Against sexism, against racism" as they protest against a demonstration of the islamophobic movement PEGIDA at the train station in Cologne, Germany, on January 9, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Demonstration by a womens group on Saturday (AP) AP He was bald with facial hair resembling a Hitler moustache and wearing a light blue jeans and a khaki jacket. January has seen a spate of angry anti-refugee protests and revenge attacks across Germany since the attacks in Cologne on New Years Eve. Police said asylum seekers were among up to 1,000 drunken men mostly of Arab of North African origin responsible for sexually assaulting and robbing hundreds of women. Opinion polls show support for taking in current levels of migrants has declined, while Angela Merkel has already vowed to make it easier to deport foreign criminals. Around 1.1 million asylum seekers arrived in Germany in 2015, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The head of the Russian Orthodox Church has partially blamed an increased acceptance of homosexuality for the rise of Isis. Patriarch Kirill claimed he was not surprised that some Muslims are flocking to Isis' quasi-religious state as a way of escaping the godless civilization that celebrates events such as Gay Pride. In an interview published on the Churchs official website, Kirill said: [Isis] is creating a civilization that is new by comparison to the established one that is godless, secular and even radical in its secularism. We can have parades for the sexual minorities - that is supported - but a million French Christian protestors defending family values are broken up by police, he added. Kiril said because the godless civilization is reaching maturity, it should come as no surprise that those who are opposed to liberal, secular ideas end up joining terror organisations. If you call non-traditional relationships a sin, as the Bible teaches and you are a priest or pastor, then you risk not only your ability to serve but you may be sent to prison, he said. Members of the Russian gay community and gay rights activists from Europe hold flags during a banned gay rally in Moscow (Getty Images) I could offer more simply frightening examples of how the godless civilization is growing yet here they are drawing attention to young people being converted by extremists, he added. Look how they [the West] build the world an unholy world - but we invite you to build Gods worldAnd they [Isis supporters] respond to that; it is for this they give their lives, he added. Kiril also appeared to controversially support Isis widely dismissed self-declaration of an Islamic caliphate by claiming that many who have flocked to live under the terror group are honest people who did so on truly religious grounds. You become a fighter for the Caliphate. So whats a Caliphate?, he said. It is a society centered around faith and God where people follow religious laws, he added. Kirils comments are not the first time he has voiced public opposition to homosexuality. In August 2013 he declared same sex marriage to be a sign of the impending Apocalypse and urged people to do more to combat the rise of gay rights. This is a very dangerous apocalyptic symptom, and we must do everything in our powers to ensure that sin is never sanctioned in Russia by state law, because that would mean that the nation has embarked on a path of self-destruction, Christian Post quoted him as saying. We face enormous temptations when countries start approving sin and codifying it into law in order to justify it, he added. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The president of the Czech Republic has claimed Muslim integration in Western Europe is practically impossible. President Milos Zeman, 71, said during a televised interview that Islamic culture should not be taken into Europe, or else it will end up like Cologne, referring to the large number of sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in the German city. The 71-year-old, who is well-known for his outspoken anti-migrant rhetoric, said: The experience of western European countries which have ghettos and excluded localities shows that the integration of the Muslim community is practically impossible. Using the Vietnamese and Ukrainian communities in the Czech Republic as examples, he added: Integration is possible with cultures that are similar, and the similarities may vary. Mr Zeman's claim comes as Austria announced it will deploy its military troops to stop refugees from travelling through the country to get to Germany and beyond. Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Show all 13 1 /13 Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism outside Cologne Cathedral on 5 January after the assaults Oliver Berg/EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism in Cologne following the rash of sex attacks on New Year's Eve Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police initially failed to mention the assaults in report the following morning EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station (Reuters) Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police used pepper spray to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups as they protested against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on 9 January, 2016 in Cologne, Germany Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use a water cannon during a protest march by supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016 Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Artist Mira Moire protests naked in Cologne against the mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks A demonstrator holds a sign in German that reads 'No violence against women' during a demonstration in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, outside the cathedeal in Cologne, Germany, 09 January 2016. EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Counter demonstrators hold up a sign reading "Against sexism, against racism" as they protest against a demonstration of the islamophobic movement PEGIDA at the train station in Cologne, Germany, on January 9, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Demonstration by a womens group on Saturday (AP) AP The new regulations, issued by the Austrian Defence Ministry, will see hundreds of migrants being denied access and sent back home. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Miki-Leitner told state broadcaster ORF: What is the situation currently on the German-Austrian border? That only those who want asylum in Germany are being let through, and those who want to travel onward are sent back. Border officials reported more than 3,000 migrants who arrived using false identities had been sent back. Slovenia is also considering the military option. A Slovenian Interior Ministry official reportedly said the country would have to decide on either taking similar action, or coping with the rejected migrants. Germany: 'No sign' alleged NYE assaults are linked to refugees - Cologne's mayor Austria has been engaged in talks with both Slovenia and Germany to find solutions to manage the influx of people. In December, Mr Zeman claimed the large influx of refugees was an organised invasion", which he later said Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood was responsible for. He told Czech Radio earlier this month: "The Muslim Brotherhood cannot start a war against Europe, it doesnt have the power, but it can prepare a growing migrant wave and gradually control Europe." According to the United Nations refugee taskforce, more than one million migrants - the majority refugees fleeing violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria - reached Europe in 2015. Few seeking asylum, however, chose to stay in the Czech Republic, with many seeing it as a route into the more prosperous Germany. Additional reporting by Reuters WILLISTON, N.D. City commissioners approved three ordinances last week that would rid Willistons downtown of its two strip clubs and restrict exotic dancing to industrial zones. The ordinances unanimously adopted Tuesday also would prevent a strip club from selling alcohol and require owners to obtain a cabaret license. City Commissioner Chris Brostuen said the strip clubs were located near a train depot, a senior citizen center, a Salvation Army, the New Armory and Chamber of Commerce, an area that brings a lot of community and family traffic. Later in the week, as patrons of both Whispers and Heartbreakers stood in the cold, waiting for the doors to open, some shook their heads at the unfairness of it all. Lets talk about tonight, do you see anybody there? one patron asked, pointing to the train depot and New Armory building across the street. First the man camps, and now this. Lights strobed across the walls within Heartbreakers, and the only constant illumination was by the neon lights. The Beatles Come Together reverberated and welcomed patrons as they grabbed a chair at the bar. The Commissions actions were a hot topic. Sam Stickley, a disc jockey for Heartbreakers, leaned over the counter awaiting his drink and updated the bartender on the meeting. Stickley had been one of many who spoke out imploring the commission to reconsider. Stickley estimated 15 employees of Heartbreakers would potentially be out of work and nearly 30 exotic dancers, whom he said work as independent contractors. Thirteen employees would follow suit at Whispers, plus five more in gaming. This kind of sucks, ya know? Stickley said. The lease to my apartment is up in August and I think Im going to go home. Under the new ordinances, exotic dancing would no longer be allowed downtown and the businesses would have one year to relocate to an area zoned heavy industrial on the outskirts of town. The clubs could continue to operate as bars downtown. Employees and supporters of the clubs filled a standing-room-only commission room, and only one member of the public, Dennis Jensen, director for Youth for Christ in Williston, spoke in favor of the ordinances. I applaud you for taking this move and bringing good moral fiber to our community and to our families, Jensen said. Many patrons and employees felt their objections at the commission meeting had fallen on deaf ears. I think the decision was made before anybody got here, said Williston resident Eddie Parker. Heartbreakers manager Vanessa Reichel said she thought Mayor Howard Klug treated the club employees and supporters disrespectfully. He basically rolled his eyes, Reichel said. City officials cited the more than 200 police calls to Heartbreakers and Whispers between mid-2013 and June 2015. The calls included two homicides, 42 fights and assaults, 36 unruly patrons and numerous reports of minors being served alcohol. Williston Police Lt. Detective David Peterson said the department spends a disproportionate amount of its resources patroling that block of Main Street and investigating incidents connected to the clubs, often without cooperation from employees. Greg Hennessy, an attorney representing Heartbreakers, asked that the commission grant the clubs two years to move locations. In the stagnant economic climate, procuring a location and having the funds to do so would be difficult, he said. I dont think one year is going to allow transition in an orderly, economic way, Hennessy said. He also asked that the commission not remove their liquor licenses so they arent crippled from a business standpoint. When public comment closed, the city commission voted the approval of three ordinances. An additional reading is required before the new rules would take effect, which could happen as early as Jan. 26. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Thousands of refugees in Macedonia and Serbia are at risk of hypothermia and pneumonia as temperatures are set to plunge as low as -20C on Tuesday, Save the Children has warned. At a border reception centre in Presevo, Serbia, six inches of snow covers the ground, and children are arriving with blue lips, distressed and shaking from the cold, as well as with high fevers and respiratory problems that are the early signs of hypothermia, the organisation said. Around a thousand refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq are still making the crossing every day, it said. The Greek President has accused Turkey of not doing enough to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Europe and accused Turkish port officials of helping people smugglers. I greatly fear that Turkish people smugglers are getting support from the authorities, Prokopis Pavlopoulos said. A senior Turkish official strongly denied the allegations, saying Ankara was determinedly fighting the flight of refugees. Reuters For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Contains mild spoilers for those who havent seen The Force Awakens Star Wars is many things to many people: nostalgia-tinted staple of childhood memory, space opera extraordinaire, modern day merchandising behemoth. For every starry-eyed fan there is probably a giddy scholar feasting on the many historical ingredients that make up Star Wars intergalactic soup. At the start of each film we are told where we will be going not only a galaxy far away, but specifically a long time ago. Star Wars is truly a fusion of global myths, legends and history literary tropes borrowed from classical antiquity, medieval heroic sagas, Eastern philosophies, and 20th-century wars all repackaged for modern audiences. The latest instalment of the franchise has taken this to full medieval Meta. The climactic scene of The Force Awakens is situated on a distant island on a distant planet, supposedly the site of the mystical remains of the First Jedi Temple. These scenes were actually filmed on the visually stunning World Heritage Site of Skellig Michael: an unearthly pinnacle of rock jutting out of the Atlantic Ocean, seven miles off the western Irish coast. Recommended Read more How to build a real lightsabre Far from being just a backdrop to Star Wars fiction, Skellig is home to the very real archaeological remains of a Medieval Christian hermitage. When the fictional characters walk among Skelligs ruins we are, literally and figuratively, fusing the religious past and the fictional spiritual future. Here, the stone remains of medieval Irish Christian asceticism stands in for mystical Jedi hermeticism. Early Irish Christian religious devotion led them to seek salvation through solitude on the ocean at the fringes of their world, much as their religious forebears had taken to a hermit life in the deserts of the Middle East. In early Medieval terms, Ireland was literally the end of the Earth; truly an island far, far away, beyond which there was nothing. As among the westernmost points, Skellig Michael was one of Christianitys farthest outposts, a flickering light burning at the worlds end. For centuries medieval pilgrims came to experience the sublime solitude, to follow in the footsteps of mythical saints who in Medieval Irish sagas undertook spectacular adventures into the unknown. These often involved monsters, strange other worlds, and spiritual battles between the dark side and the light. In Irish imagination, Skellig has always been a mystical place apart that involves flights (and fights) of fancy. A 7th-century historical reference depicts it as a place of refuge for fleeing kings. A 9th-century annal entry details the impressive feat involved in the kidnapping of its probable abbot by Viking raiders. And a 12th-century literary medieval blockbuster depicts a stone font which miraculously filled with communion wine for mass. Even as late as the 18th and 19th centuries, already long abandoned and in ruins, Skellig continued to occupy a quasi-mythical reputation. Following British adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, locals deemed that it was a place literally removed from normal space and time eleven days out of sync allowing clergy to marry couples among its rocky crags during the otherwise prohibited period of abstinence during Lent. The archaeological remains seen today date from the 11th and 12th centuries, when journeys of religious pilgrimage and penance on Skellig was at its zenith. Ironically the stone beehive huts, churches, crosses and penitential stations dotted across the island, despite popular portrayals, were not the products of isolated hermits (like Luke Skywalker) withdrawing from the world. Instead they were a conscious effort by medieval ecclesiastical authorities to provide pilgrims with a mystical experience. Even the associated Michael element of its name is in fact an apparent reboot of the islands brand and identity, a re-dedication by the church to the eponymous saint designed to increase its appeal to wider audiences. In a way Skellig was a medieval version of a Disney theme park, providing for a growing appetite for dramatic and theatrical pilgrimage. In a time when the popular power and profits offered by saints tombs and relics echoed throughout Europe, Skellig offered a unique religious experience that traded on a re-constructed portrayal of a past, early Medieval golden age. Despite the separation of centuries, from both a medieval perspective and to our modern eyes, the choice of Skellig for The Force Awakens is strangely appropriate. As part of a modern cinematic extravaganza, Skelligs archaeology, splendod isolation and startling appearance is again harnessed to astound and to empty pockets, once more considered a destination out of this world. The hooded figure of the mysterious Jedi monk, withdrawn from the rest of the universe, standing aloof against an infinite ocean is not that far removed from what Medieval pilgrims were hoping to see for themselves on Skellig. Id even wager he would have fitted right in. Terry O'Hagan, Assistant researcher, University College Dublin This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Bulldozers being guarded by French riot police have started demolish a section of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais that was home to an estimated 2,000 people. British charities and volunteers from around the world had been trying to move shelters and salvage families possessions in a race against time before the work started early this morning. French authorities are clearing hundreds of tents set up 100 metres from a busy motorway, which has seen clashes with police routes to the French port and Channel Tunnel to be closed. A bulldozer clears a part of a makeshift camp known as "the jungle" under the surveillance of anti-riot police forces, on January 18, 2016 in Calais. (AFP/Getty Images) Migrants and refugees were initially issued with eviction orders telling them to leave by Friday but the deadline was pushed back following requests by charities for more time. Tanya Freedman, from British charity Help Refugees, told The Independent that the operation was running smoothly by midday. The first bulldozer turned up in the early hours of this morning and began clearing the field where families had been staying, she said. As far as were aware, they have only been clearing unoccupied areas so far. The bulldozer was flanked by crowds of French riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields and refugees were holding a peaceful protest nearby. But the comparatively calm scenes were a vast improvement on a similar demolition in November, when refugees awoke at 7am to find demolition vehicles moving through the camp. Police used tear gas and batons to force them from their makeshift homes, when they were forced to watch their precious remaining possessions, documentation and money be destroyed. Calais refugees share personal stories Ms Freedman said that although Mondays operation was carried out with more dignity and respect, the charity did not believe it would improve conditions. In our view its not in the interest of the refugees because communities are being split apart., she said. The original eviction order gave them three days, which made them feel quite fearful. From a humanitarian perspective, it wasnt well-handled but we have known about this for a long time and they gave us enough leeway to let the relocation process happen. Converted shipping containers complete with lights, heating and sanitation have been used to create new accommodation for 1,500 people in the camp, where conditions were previously described as diabolical. Inside the camps in Calais Show all 20 1 /20 Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A Kurdish child and her father get out of their tent in the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Kurdish migrants works around the tents of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Volunteers from Holland set up a bridge of fortune over the mud using pallets of the makeshift migrant camp in Grande-Synthe near Dunkerque Inside the camps in Calais Refugees walk among tents in a makeshift camp as containers (rear) are put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais A makeshift camp is seen in front of containers (rear) put into place to house several hundred migrants living in what is known as the "Jungle", a squalid sprawling camp in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais The camp near Calais harbour where refugees from the Middle East and central Asia congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Camp residents cook and share food at their site just outside Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A group walk through the camp near Calais Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria or the Kurdish administered regions Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A 16 year old immigrant from Eritrea tries to brace himself against the rain and cold by sheltering under the road bridge Justin Sutcliffe Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Rubbish strewn on the ground near one of the campsites Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A man stands among the tents at the campsite just outside Calais, France Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais A camp near Calais harbour where migrants from the East africa congregate to attempt the crossing from France to the UK. Most of the temporary residents in this camp are from Eritrea. Inside the camps in Calais Asylum seekers in Calais Graffiti depicting the dangerous journey trying to smuggle onto a lorry to the UK But the much-touted facility was not intended to house the families being moved today and has been greeted by suspicion and distrust. Some of the vulnerable refugees earmarked to move in have refused as rumours spread about why it is fenced off from the rest of the camp, requiring refugees to scan their hands to enter and leave. Around 5,000 people are estimated to be living in the Jungle as refugees fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East and Africa continue to cross the Aegean Sea and make their way through Europe from Greece. Attempts to reach the UK from France have killed more than a dozen migrants and refugees in the past year, including a 15-year-old Afghan boy whose body was found in the back of a lorry a fortnight ago. At least two men have drowned attempting to swim the English Channel, while others have been run over by lorries, died in falls from trains or electrocuted in the Channel Tunnel. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Isis has cut its fighters' salaries by 50 per cent in Syria due to exceptional circumstances as air strikes continue to target its revenue streams, a document appears to show. The US-led coalition has been bombing the terrorist groups oil fields, supply lines and cash stores since October as part of Operation Tidal Wave II, and an order released little over a month later appears to show the tactic having an effect. A document appeared to show fighters' salaries were being halved in Raqqa (Aleppo 24/Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi) The document appears to have been released by the so-called Islamic States treasury, the Bayt Mal al-Muslimeen, in its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. It cites the Koran to discuss jihad of wealth and jihad of the soul, according to a translation by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi, a research fellow at the Middle East Forum. So on account of the exceptional circumstances the Islamic State is facing, it has been decided to reduce the salaries that are paid to all mujahideen by half, and it is not allowed for anyone to be exempted from this decision, whatever his position, the order reads. Let it be known that work will continue to distribute provisions twice every month as usual. RAF planes launch second round of strikes on Isis oil field in Syria American officials claimed that operations were already putting significant damage on Isils ability to fund itself in November and vowed to step up the attack. When British planes extended operations from Iraq into Syria last month, Isis Omar oilfields were the first target and Tornadoes and drones returned earlier this month to destroy attempted repairs. A cash distribution centre reportedly used to pay fighters was hit by US planes on 11 January near its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, with footage showing clouds of money blown into the air. General Lloyd Austin, head of the US Central Command, told CNN it deprived the group of millions of dollars. Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP Combined with all of the other strikes that we've done on Isil's gas and oil production and distribution capabilities and strikes against his economic infrastructure and the various sources of revenue, you can bet that Isis is feeling the strain on his checkbook, he added. Isil needs those funds to pay their fighters, to recruit new fighters and to conduct their various maligned activities. The US admitted killing at least eight civilians in air strikes in Syria and Iraq in 2015 and monitoring groups said either the coalition or Russia was responsible for killing 40 civilians, including eight children, in Raqqa on Saturday. A Centcom spokesperson said all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The extent to which Isis is brainwashing children in its self-declared Islamic caliphate has been revealed by a young escapee who claimed commanders told him he had to murder his parents. Identified only by his first name Nasir, the 12-year-old told CNN that he was one of 60 children being trained to operate as a suicide bomber in the terror groups de facto capital Raqqa. After being taken captive, the would-be child soldiers -which included boys as young as five - were told that Isis commanders cared for them more than their own parents. The scariest times for us all were when the airstrikes happened. They'd lead all of us underground into the tunnels to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us but they, the fighters, they loved us. They would look after us better than our parents, Nasir said. When they were training us they would tell us our parents were unbelievers and that our first job was to go back to kill them, he added. After being taken captive, the would-be child soldiers -which included boys as young as five - were told that Isis commanders cared for them more than their own parents Nasir who was forced to appear in one of Isis sickening propaganda videos - said that even the youngest boys in the group were not allowed to cry as they underwent suicide bomber training at the terror groups Al Farouq Institute in Raqqa The militants have trumpeted Al Farouq as something of a child solider factory and have repeatedly released harrowing clips showing young boys preparing for war, clearly terrified of the captors. Thankfully Nasir managed to escape Isis control and make his way to a refugee camp where he was reunited with his family. When we escaped and I saw my mother again, it was like coming back to life, he said. IS Missile Clip Sky News Nasirs ordeal was revealed as it emerged a notorious 20-year-old Isis militant named Ali Saqr al-Qasem publicly executed his own mother after accusing her of apostasy. The activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RIBSS) said 20-year-old jihadi Ali Saqr al-Qasem shot his mother Lena, 45, in the head with an assault rifle in front of a large crowd. Lena al-Qasem is understood to have been accused of apostasy a crime that usually means leaving ones religion but in practise is used by Isis as a justification for murdering anybody who doesnt support or speaks out against the terror group. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A student from Bethlehem removes her gold crucifix necklace and donates it to the cause. A man of modest means paying for his own cancer treatment contributes 50 shekels (8.80). Day labourers hard pressed to feed their families dig into their pockets. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, demolitions by Israeli authorities of the family homes of Palestinian attackers are having an unintended consequence: uniting the local community in sympathy and solidarity for the dead and their families. The funds collected in the latest charity drive will go towards rebuilding the family home of Muhannad Halabi, a 19-year-old who was shot dead on 3 October after he stabbed two Israeli men to death in the Muslim quarter of occupied East Jerusalem, prompting copycat attacks and heralding the current wave of unrest. Halabi also stabbed and seriously wounded an Israeli woman and, after grabbing a gun from one of his victims, shot her two-year-old son in the leg, police said. The collection effort was launched 10 January, a day after Israeli army bulldozers demolished the Halabi family home in a punishment that Israel says is a measure to deter further attacks. By yesterday it had raised 650,000 shekels from passersby in downtown Ramallah and on the campus of nearby Birzeit University. A parallel drive to rebuild four destroyed family homes of slain assailants to most Palestinians, they are martyrs is under way in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. We are telling the occupation, you can destroy but we will continue to build, said Ahmad al-Ouri, a former prisoner who is on the organising committee of the drive, which is an independent initiative led in part by employees of the Palestinian Authority, but not formally linked to it. In Ramallahs main Manara Square last Thursday, people alighted from cars and pedestrians stopped to slip coins and bills into a box decorated with a poster of Halabi and a picture of his parents standing in the rubble of their home in Surda village, north-east of Ramallah. The posters declared Halabi the detonator of the Jerusalem uprising. Rather than a terrorist, the people here contributing money view Halabi as a hero who died defending Islams third-holiest site, the al-Aksa mosque, which Palestinians perceive despite Israeli denials to be under threat from Israel. His parents and siblings, they feel, are innocent victims of Israels home-demolitions policy. A Palestinian woman donates money towards rebuilding Muhannad Halabis family home (AFP/Getty) We feel for the family and thank God we have enough so that we can give, says Maria Mohammed, from the nearby town of Turmus Aya, as her three-year-old daughter, Rasan, drops a coin in the box. Its so sad to see them with their home destroyed while we have a home and our kids can live in comfort. We are one people and we help each other in times of stress, adds Thaer Abu Baker, a staffer at the Jawal telecom company, after passing on a donation of 12,500 shekels collected from 50 employees. The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Show all 10 1 /10 The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Medics evacuate a wounded man from the scene of an attack in Jerusalem. A Palestinian rammed a vehicle into a bus stop then got out and started stabbing people before he was shot dead AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Israeli ZAKA emergency response members carry the body of an Israeli at the scene of a shooting attack in Jerusalem. A pair of Palestinian men boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers, while another assailant rammed a car into a bus station before stabbing bystanders, in near-simultaneous attacks that escalated a month long wave of violence AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Getty Images The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians throw molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah, West Bank. Recent days have seen a series of stabbing attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have wounded several Israelis AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Women cry during the funeral of Palestinian teenager Ahmad Sharaka, 13, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during clashes at a checkpoint near Ramallah, at the family house in the Palestinian West Bank refugee camp of Jalazoun, Ramallah AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A wounded Palestinian boy and his father hold hands at a hospital after their house was brought down by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinians look on after a protester is shot by Israelis soldiers during clashes at the Howara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus EPA The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies A lawyer wearing his official robes kicks a tear gas canister back toward Israeli soldiers during a demonstration by scores of Palestinian lawyers called for by the Palestinian Bar Association in solidarity with protesters at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, near Ramallah, West Bank AP The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Undercover Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian in Ramallah Reuters The IsraeliPalestinian conflict intensifies Palestinian youth burn tyres during clashes with Israeli soldiers close to the Jewish settlement of Bet El, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, after Israel barred Palestinians from Jerusalem's Old City as tensions mounted following attacks that killed two Israelis and wounded a child The wave of violence against security forces and civilians known in Arabic as the haba shaabiya, or popular uprising, has been the work of individuals rather than orchestrated groups, but opinion polls show that two thirds of the public in the West Bank and Gaza support the attacks. Mr Ouri says the donations reflect support for the rising and are a crucial part of participation in the haba shaabiya. Shaul Shay, former deputy head of Israels National Security Council, says demolitions are an effective tool to discourage attacks. When deterrence spreads it can save the lives not only of Jews but also of the terrorist, he says. The practice was revived last year after a nine-year break on the grounds it was ineffective. Dovish Israeli opponents of the policy say its primary purpose is to enable the right-wing government to show their domestic audience that it is responding toughly to the attacks. Since the unrest started at the beginning of October, 24 Israelis and one US citizen have died in a series of stabbings, car rammings and shootings. At least 148 Palestinians have died, 98 of whom were behind attacks, according to Israel. In the latest violence, an Israeli woman was killed yesterday in a stabbing attack inside her home in the Otniel settlement in the West Bank, the army said. Media reports said her children were home at the time. Jamal Zakout, head of the al-Ard think tank in Ramallah and a member of the Palestine National Council, says one of the reasons the campaign has struck such a chord is because people do not believe the Palestinian government is providing for families whose homes are destroyed. If people would see the government declare a solution or provide an alternative home and make a political campaign internationally, maybe they wouldnt feel as strongly that they have to do this, he says. Bassem Zakarneh, head of the 30,000 strong union of Palestinian Authority (PA) civil servants is proposing the government deduct 1 per cent from their monthly salaries to go to families whose homes were demolished. The office of the spokesman of the PA cabinet did not respond to a request for comment. Standing near the rubble of his villa in Surda, Halabis father, Shafiq, a plumber, says his son was martyred for the sake of al-Aqsa. He said Israel had also confiscated the land on which the house was built and that he would need a significant chunk of money to buy alternative land. He claimed such demolitions would only increase hatred of Israel among Palestinians. I worked to build this house for me and the children. How do you expect me to feel? Of the campaign, he said: I feel the people are behind me and that Mohanad will be in the mind, hearts and memories of Palestinians forever. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} At least one person is feared dead after a Turkish school was hit by a rocket reportedly fired by Isis in Syria. Some reports said a teacher was killed and three children injured at the Eyup Gokceimam school in the city of Kilis, which lies less than three miles from the Syrian border, while others said two had died. Military sources told the Daily Sabah newspaper that the weapons were believed to be Katyusha rockets fired by Isis, although it was unclear whether the school was deliberately targeted or accidentally hit during battles across the border. Footage broadcast by CNN Turk showed hundreds of local residents rushing to check on their loved ones as ambulances, police and emergency services gathered. A woman could be seen being treated by the schools entrance while teachers and pupils fled. The force of the blast appeared to have splintered a tree trunk, damaged a car and left a small crater in the ground. The mayor of Kilis province, Hasan Kara told NTV News that the two or more mortars were probably fired from over the Syrian border to the south, landing in the schools courtyard and empty land nearby at around 9.30am local time (7.30am GMT). Mr Kara said one of the injured people was in a critical condition in hospital and nearby schools had been closed as a precaution, the Daily Sabah newspaper reported. Michael Horowitz, a senior security analyst at the Levantine Group, said the incident could have been a response by Isis to Turkeys shelling of its fighters, which started last week following the groups terror attack in Istanbul. It could be that Isis is retaliating but its most likely a spill-over incident because theres a lot of fighting close to the border, Mr Horowitz told The Independent. Rebels are gaining ground and Isis has been put under a lot of pressure in that region I did some calculations and Kilis is about 15km from the closest Isis position. A rocket could definitely reach that and some mortars could do it. In pictures: Istanbul explosion Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Istanbul explosion In pictures: Istanbul explosion A carnation is left at the site of the explosion in the historic Sultanahmet district in Istanbul AP In pictures: Istanbul explosion A screen shot of the explosion from a tourist camera, Sultanahmet Square, Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Rescue teams gather at the scene after an explosion in central Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Policemen secure an area at the historic Sultanahmet district, which is popular with tourists, after an explosion in Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Police secure the area after an explosion near the Ottoman-era Sultanahmet mosque, known as Blue mosque in Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Police investigate the area after an explosion in central Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Turkish police sealed off a central Istanbul square in the historic Sultanahmet district after a large explosion Reuters In pictures: Istanbul explosion Police secure the area after an explosion in central Istanbul In pictures: Istanbul explosion Policemen secure an area at the historic Sultanahmet district, after an explosion in Istanbul Isis is being attacked by three offensives in the Syrian region over the border from Kilis. Opposition forces backed by Turkey have captured several villages, while the Syrian regime is fighting militants around Kewiris air base and closing in on the city of al-Bab with Russian support. At the same time, the Syrian Democratic Forces an alliance of Kurds, Arab, Assyrian and Turkmen militias have captured the strategic Tishreen Dam and are battling towards the Isis stronghold of Manbij. Turkish border towns and cities, including some used as a transit point by Isis militants travelling to the so-called Islamic State, have seen continued violence during the continuing civil war. The Foreign Office advises against all travel within 10km of the border, warning of the threat of kidnapping, as well as attacks at border crossings like the suicide bombing that killed 33 people in Suruc in July. Mortar rounds reportedly fired by Isis militants previously landed on the E90 road near the Turkish city of Nusayabin in September 2014. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A leading Yemeni journalist has been killed in an air strike by Saudi-led coalition warplanes in the countrys rebel-held capital Sana'a. Almigdad Mojalli, whose work has been published by the Telegraph, is understood to have been travelling through the southern Saref suburb of Sanaa during an air raid. The precise details of his death remain unclear, with the Telegraph saying Mojalis car suffered a direct missile strike, while AFP quoted photojournalist Bahir Hameed - who was in the vehicle at the time - as saying his colleague was killed by flying shrapnel caused by a strike nearby. Planes were hovering above when we were struck, Hameed explained. As well as the Telegraph, Mojalli is understood to have reported for Voice Of America and the IRIN humanitarian news agency. In a post on its official Twitter account, IRIN said: With great sadness, we received news from the family of Almigdad Mojalli, our regular contributor in Yemen, that he was killed today. Almigdad was an excellent journalist, committed to neutrally & objectively telling the suffering of the Yemeni people in a brutal civil war, IRIN added. They went on to describe themselves as being shocked by this terrible loss. More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition launched its air campaign in support of the government last March (MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP/Getty Images) At least five journalists have been killed in Yemen in 2015, according to Reporters Without Borders. More than 5,800 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition launched its air campaign in support of the government last March. Roughly half of those who died were civilians killed at schools, weddings, mosques and hospitals, the UN said, despite the fact the coalition is only meant to be targeting Houthi rebel fighting positions. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The UK has let in 170,000 fewer refugees than its fair share over the past two years, new analysis by the Independent can reveal. Over the past two years the UK - which has a population of 65 million - has provided refuge to just over 35,000 people fleeing war and persecution each year. That is fewer than Hungary (143,000), Sweden (91,000) and Austria (53,000), all countries with populations of less than 10 million. Charities and refugee groups condemned Britain's response to the mounting refugee crisis as highlighted by the figures, labelling it "woefully inadequate". Based on analysis of the number of refugees who entered 30 European countries during 2014 and 2015 - around 1.9 million - the UK's 'fair share' of refugees based on its population would have been 240,000, or 120,000 a year. A total of 660,000 arrived in the 30 countries - the 28 EU members plus Norway and Switzerland - in 2014 and 1.27m are estimated to have entered in 2015, based on Eurostat data for the first nine months of last year. These 30 countries have a combined population of 522m, meaning one refugee per year has arrived for every 540 Europeans. If every country accepted its fair share of refugees, they would accept one for every 540 of their population in each of the past two years. On that basis, a country the size of the UK, with 65m inhabitants, should have accepted 120,000 refugees per year in 2014-2015. By only taking 35,000, the UK has taken 85,000 fewer each year than its fair share. No other country has been as unwelcoming. By this measure, the actual number of refugees taken in under the Conservative Government since January 2014 represents only three for every 10 it should have accepted - leaving other countries to make up the difference. Germany has taken 21 for every 10 it should have taken, while Sweden has taken 50 and Hungary has taken 78. This analysis comes in the wake of news that a British man was spared jail after trying to smuggle a four-year old girl out of the Calais Jungle and reunite her with relatives in Britain. The UKs refugee response under the Tories offers a stark contrast to Germanys - which has accepted nine times as many over the past two years. Italy and France, which have similar populations to the UK, let in 73,000 and 67,000 refugees per year respectively in 2014 and 2015. Britain has actually accepted fewer refugees in the past two years than it accepted per year in the previous 16 years, despite the number of European refugees tripling in 2014-2015. From 1998 to 2013, the number of refugees fleeing to Europe was fairly constant. Each year, around 350,000 refugees were accepted into the 30 European countries. After never exceeding 465,000 in any year between 1998 and 2013, Europe has accepted nearly two million in two years. Yet the UK has cut its number of accepted asylum seekers by a fifth. Germany has taken five times as many. The Scandinavian and Baltic states have also accepted many more. Only seven of Europes 30 countries have accepted fewer refugees per year in 2014-2015 than they did in 1998-2013. They are coloured in red in the chart below. The UK is one of them. The UKs unwelcoming approach is a relatively recent phenomenon. Between 1998 and 2013, it had a similar arrangement to Germany and France. All three countries accepted around one refugee for every 1,500 inhabitants, in line with the average across Europe. It was the Iberian and Baltic states who were the harshest hosts in Europe, and the UK had a better record than other big countries like Italy, Spain and Poland. The International Rescue Committee welcomed the Independents analysis. These figures provide yet more evidence that the Governments response to the Syrian refugee crisis is woefully inadequate, said Jane Waterman, UK Executive Director of the IRC. The UK have offered sanctuary in a year to the same number as have been arriving in Munich over a single weekend. Of course there are limits, but our considered view is that the UK could easily take more. Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily. Kirsty McNeil, Campaigns Director of Save The Children, added: Britain can't fix the refugee crisis alone, but we can play a greater role. It is time for Britain to offer a safe home to 3,000 child refugees. And Help Refugees, another charity, called the figures "disappointing to see." "This problem is especially acute for the hundreds of unaccompanied minors in refugee camps like Calais who, both legally and morally, should be allowed to join their immediate family living in the UK," spokesperson said. At a time when Prime Minister David Cameron is trying to renegotiate the UKs relationship with Europe, his Government's refugee policy is unlikely to have created much goodwill among European leaders. Eurostat's figures for the UK are collated slightly differently to the British government's, but the two sets of numbers are in line with another. The Independent has sought comment from the Home Office. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Stalking something invisible is strange enough when youre alone. When there are 13 of you, its almost comical. We tried to move in silence, but every tiny, involuntary sound of clothing or throat seemed vastly over-amplified within the cathedral stillness of the Strathspey pinewood. To me, we were a wall of noise, a marching band. I doubted whether any Scottish wildcats would come to see the parade. As it happened, we were actually trying to find a capercaillie our fifth and final attempt. Hopes were flagging. This rare forest grouse, along with the wildcat and the golden eagle, is a celebrated Highland phantom easy to see on covers of regional guidebooks, near-impossible in life. It was the last day of a week that had begun with a dawn drive from our Nethy Bridge base to Dorback, in quiet, hilly farmland. Meadow pipits skittered across a pink milkshake sky and we shivered, huffing clouds of steam. Our guides, Phil and Jonny, pointed out a black grouse, perched on a fence post across the valley. The great glossy bird was preening, cocking his long lyre tail to show off the frilly white underskirt of feathers beneath. A young roebuck with tiny spike antlers tiptoed warily across our sightline; red grouse chuckled from the heather moor behind us. A roe deer at Nethy Bridge (Marianne Taylor) Some members of north Scotlands pantheon of near-legendary wildlife are easy to see. Two steps into our first forest, we found a party of crested tits, charming spike-headed sprites somersaulting among the branches over our heads. Any glance at the Spey, Findhorn or Nethy revealed a dipper bobbing on a midstream rock, and red squirrels visiting bird feeders in Strathspey villages. But expert assistance is invaluable when your goal is to meet the shy and the scarce. Travel Essentials Getting there Marianne Taylor travelled with Heatherlea (heatherlea.co.uk). The Outer Limits adventure costs 1,195pp, with no single supplement, including accommodation at the Mountview Hotel in Nethy Bridge and the Caladh Inn in Stornoway, all meals, and transport (with collection/drop-off at Aviemore train station on arrival and departure). More information visitscotland.com I was travelling with Heatherlea, which offers more than 40 different wildlife-watching holidays each year in Scotland, and knows how to find capercaillies, golden eagles and other sought-after species. But even these experts could not offer hope of seeing a wildcat. The Highland tiger is increasingly rare now, perhaps not even in double figures, thanks to hybridisation with (and diseases caught from) feral domestic cats. If any survive, they do so by giving humans the widest possible berth. But wildcats have haunted my imagination forever, and just walking their moors and forests had a magic about it. Recommended Read more Jeremy Corbyn missed meeting with Queen for Highlands walking holiday The lost wildcats were the grey shadows flitting out of the corner of my field of view as I scanned field and forest, but wildlife of substance abounded everywhere. As we ate lunch by the river Findhorn, an immense shape drifted overhead a young white-tailed eagle wandering in search of territory. It wheeled on its great oblong wings so slowly that it looked sure to stall and plummet, and dwarfed the two buzzards trying in vain to chivvy it along. On another day we followed the river north and watched an osprey hunting one last fish before its southward migration, while winter waders thronged the shores of Findhorn Bay. Midweek brought a change of scene. We took a ferry from Uig to Tarbert, to explore Harris and Lewis. Temporarily, I could forget wildcats and concentrate on golden eagles. Like the cat, this eagle is a shadowy form, far rarer than it should be, constantly retreating from human encroachment into its wild landscapes. I had never seen one clearly in Britain before, just distant outlines slipping away over mountain ridges or behind folds of low-slung cloud. Abernethy Forest (Marianne Taylor) From Tarbert we followed the only real road, a smooth grey ribbon winding northwards through moorland ripped apart by jagged rock, almost too forbidding to be beautiful, to Stornoway and sleep. The next day we navigated the Lewis coastline and found birds galore, from black-throated divers and merlins to snow buntings. And we found a few golden eagles too, in the high wild hills, but as always they were far-off silhouettes, drifting out of reach almost as soon as we found them in our scopes. Just one sighting was different. This eagle turned towards me in the air and caught the light for long enough that I truly saw the gold of it, and the broad brown spread of its wings. It wheeled away, a silhouette again, then gone, and the moment already felt like a dream. On the ferry back, skuas, shearwaters and storm petrels skimmed the sunlit waters of the Minch ahead of us all the way to Ullapool, and briefly a pod of common dolphins bounded alongside. There was time to talk, too. Jonny told me of the wildcats hed seen in his years of guiding in Strathspey, his words becoming ghost stories in the telling. Recommended Read more On the Macbeth trail in the Scottish highlands and islands The weather was clear enough to climb CairnGorm on our final morning. Near the summit we found a bevy of fat grey-and-white ptarmigans trotting across the boulderfield, untroubled by our presence, and a mountain hare crouched by a windbreak rock, grooming its long ears. And on that last forest walk, we must have been quieter than we seemed. We were turning back when there was a sudden uproar from the path-side, as a forest phantom took flight through the treetops. We spun round to watch the heavy-tailed grey shape skimming away on bowed wings a female capercaillie. In her wake, we were jubilant. The final tally of our week was impressive 126 species of birds, 11 mammals, and two out of three ghosts made real. Even though the Golden Sunlight shut down its open pit operation last month, the Canadian-based company has not stopped mining gold at the mine near Whitehall. Barrick Gold Corp., which owns Golden Sunlight, has contracted with Redpath Group, a Canadian-based underground mining company, to dig even deeper by going behind the pit walls. The underground mine features a curved, horizontal tunnel, about a mile long at this point, enabling Golden Sunlight to recover gold where an exterior wall had become unstable due to open-pit mining. Redpath began preparation work behind the open pit called Mineral Hill Pit in May 2015. Production got off the ground Jan. 4 with 48 people on the payroll. Golden Sunlight has 34 employees at the mine for environmental compliance and to provide support to Redpath. Dan Banghart, general manager of Golden Sunlight, announced 140 layoffs the majority of its workforce in mid-September. At the time, Banghart cited the low price of gold as well as the instability of one side of Mineral Hill Pit as the reason for letting go so many workers and closing the open pit operation. The layoffs became effective Nov. 30. The open pit needs a higher gold price to stay profitable,Banghart told the Standard last week. At $1,100 an ounce, gold has hit a five-year low. Commodities have dropped across the board. Oil dropped to below $30 a barrel last week. Copper and molybdenum, minerals Butte-based Montana Resources mines, are also selling at low prices due to the economic slowdown in China. Copper has dropped below $2 a pound. Molybdenum is priced just below $5.50 a pound. MR did not provide profit sharing to its employees at the fourth and final quarter of last year, Mike McGivern, vice president of human resources, previously said. Clint Mortensen, chief underground mining engineer for Golden Sunlight Mines, said, "mining is risky, no matter how you look at it. But gold can stand out (from the commodities market)." Sean Chabot, Redpaths project superintendent, said that when the housing market crashed in 2008, the price of gold went up to $1,900 an ounce. But even with gold prices hovering at $1,100 an ounce currently, Mortensen said the company invested millions into the underground mining project and expects to earn back multi-millions in profit. The gold Redpath is burrowing underground to dig has a concentrate of .1 ounce per ton grade quite small in the world of gold mining. While the tunnels sparkle with pyrite worthless fool's gold the actual gold is found within another metal iron. The ore is crushed and processed on-site and then put through a process involving cyanide, carbon and hydrogen peroxide to extract the gold. An assay lab at the mine tests the grade and purity of the final product. By the time the gold leaves Golden Sunlight, it has been transformed from miniscule bits lodged in ore into sparkling gold bars. This isn't the first time Golden Sunlight has gone underground. Chabot said tunnels were built in 2002 and again in 2009. Banghart said the current work is really phase two of the underground mine started in 2009. Banghart said Redpaths workers all 48 of them are advancing 40 feet to 50 feet a day through the tunnel. The underground operation is moving 1,200 tons of ore a day to the mill. Golden Sunlight opted to outsource with Redpath because it didn't have the equipment or the qualified personnel to go underground. With the necessary equipment costing millions of dollars, Mortensen said, quite simply, it was cheaper to contract with Redpath. Chabot said Redpath is one of the largest underground mining contractors in the world, with underground mines on every continent except Antarctica. The work is going on 24-7. The day shift runs from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The night shift operates 5 p.m. to 4 a.m. Chabot and Mortensen are hopeful the underground operation can sustain itself for two years. That could give Barrick enough time to get the Bonnie a prospective open-pit gold mine less than a mile north of Golden Sunlight permitted and up and running. Were going to try to keep going as long as we can, Mortensen said. Profit should start rolling in by the end of the month. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} With the wounds of society still fresh after the tragic events of the Paris attacks, many have looked for ways to prevent such terror happening in the UK. The solution, at least partly, according to Prime Minister David Cameron, is a 20m initiative aimed at helping female members of the Muslim community with learning English to tackle segregation and protect them from falling into extremism. But whats the connection between knowledge of the English language and susceptibility to Isis? The Prime Minister seems to contradict himself when he writes: "I'm not saying there's some sort of causal connection between not speaking English and becoming an extremist - of course not, that would be a ridiculous thing to say. But if you're not able to speak English, you're not able to integrate, you may find, therefore, that you have challenges understanding what your identity is and you could be more susceptible to the extremist message that comes from Daesh." While I fully agree and understand social cohesion plays a fundamental role in creating a harmonious society I dont feel that spotlighting Muslim women in Britain is the answer. Recommended Read more The Prophet Mohammed had British values On the surface, helping Muslim women to learn English is a great idea but of course, that opportunity should be open to all women and men, regardless of religion. Surely that much is clear. According to the think tank British Future, Muslims feel more strongly British than any other faith or ethnic minority: when researchers asked 40,000 households how important being British was to them, every minority household scored more highly than the white population. The think tank also claims there is confidence about the integration of Muslims. 66 per cent of people say that the children of British Muslims are integrating well. As a British Muslim woman, I feel it is far harder for British Muslim women in the UK than men. Firstly, we are far more likely to face abuse especially if we are wearing the headscarf or veil. Quite simply, we are easier to identify, which makes us more of a target. To link these women with extremism in a policy, however well-meaning, only serves to further disillusion them and lead to further isolation. In aiming to bolster social cohesion and integration, Cameron ends up achieving the exact opposite. Singling out the Muslim community and Muslim women in particular will only make us feel more scrutinised in a society where we live under constant government scrutiny because of the horrendous actions of an extremist few. Recommended Read more Deporting the mothers of young Muslim men is likely to drive extremism In the Muslim community today, many women and men are now feeling the pressure more than ever to integrate in society, often vocally demonstrating how proud they are of being British in an effort to distance themselves from Isis. These campaigns often include coordinated efforts from everyone in the community including those who dont speak English. There is no doubt that integration and access to English classes is important. But today, as Cameron pulled up Muslim women as an example of where extremism may be left to breed, he only added to a broader sense of disenchantment. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The implementation of the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, and the lifting of crippling sanctions against Tehran, is a rare piece of good news in an international landscape scarred by political and now economic disorder nowhere more so, of course, than the tormented Middle East, where Iran plays, for better or worse, a crucial role. Indubitably, the world is a safer place now that Tehrans ability to build a nuclear weapon has been significantly put back and intrusive inspection powers make cheating far harder. Meanwhile, the opening up of a country of some 80 million people with a desperate need to modernise and now with the ability and the wherewithal to do so offers a major new market in a slowing global economy. Companies from the major industrialised nations are already jostling to take advantage. And in the long term, perhaps most importantly, it is to be hoped that the deal will strengthen the reformers around President Hassan Rouhani who want to make Iran a more normal country, no longer a pariah but playing a role in the world befitting its rich past and immense potential. Mr Rouhani hailed the nuclear deal as a golden page in Iranian history, and will carry that message of engagement when he visits France and Italy next week. Recommended Read more Iran rapidly resumes global trade in wake of nuclear deal But the rapprochement remains fragile, evidenced not least by the bizarre fact that at the very moment the nuclear sanctions disappeared, another set of sanctions admittedly far less punitive was imposed by the US to punish Tehran for its violation of UN curbs on ballistic-missile development. Irans dismal human rights record, too, is a constant irritant to relations. All of this reflects the inconvenient truth that decades of political bickering and feuding have not altered reality. Ultimate power in Iran rests not with the President, but the countrys Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. Under his aegis, a hardline faction is able to use every opportunity to undermine the moderates. The lifting of sanctions, and the release to Iran of $50bn (35bn) or more of frozen funds, would in the best of worlds lead to a massive domestic investment programme that improves the lives of ordinary Iranians. But there is strong reason to fear that some of it, at least, will go towards fuelling conflicts in the region, from Syria and Yemen to the Hezbollah and Hamas insurgencies against Israel. Barack Obama hailed completion of the nuclear agreement as proof of what smart, patient and disciplined diplomacy can achieve. But all that and more will be required to make a success of the new priority of persuading Iran to take a more constructive approach to the interlocking and hideously complicated crises that grip the Middle East. There are avenues of promise, not least that as a Shia power Iran is a de facto ally of the US in the struggle against the Sunni jihadists of Isis. But that must be set against Irans support for President Assad which has prolonged the Syrian tragedy, and its deepening rift with Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states of the Gulf. The hope is that the moderates led by President Rouhani, backed by a younger generation of Iranians thirsting to rejoin the world, will adopt this more constructive approach. But if tangible economic improvements fail to materialise, public discontent may give hardliners an opportunity to hit back. Iran, in short, remains unpredictable, to a large degree unknowable. Trust but verify, was Ronald Reagans watchword during the arms negotiations of the 1980s with the Soviet Union. Despite the nuclear deal, Iran demands, if anything, even greater vigilance today. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The most obvious flaw in David Camerons extremism plan is this. What seems to you more likely to radicalise a young British Muslim: having a mother around the house who does not speak very good English, or having that same mother deported, because of the fact she struggles with the language? I dont think it is a hard question. First, the link between a mothers grasp of English and a sons radicalisation is tenuous. To judge by the Prime Ministers article in yesterdays Times it amounts to no more than a theoretical example of a Pakistani boy struggling to integrate: He [the boy] finds it hard to communicate with her, and she [his mother] doesnt understand what is happening in his life. Cue a shift towards Isis, we are told. If that is the limit of it, I would say that my theoretical example contains more of the ring of truth. Recommended Read more Spike Lee boycotts Oscars over lack of diversity It runs like this: one day, UK immigration officers arrive at the door of a Pakistani boys home, bundle his mother into a van, and fly her in the dead of night back to a country she left for the sake of providing that very same boy with a better future. He becomes angry at the state. His mother is not around to tut at him, either in Urdu, or comically broken English. He finds a sympathetic ear in online jihadi forums. Then there is the bigger picture. As with all extremism measures, it is not just the test case that matters, but how the community as a whole responds. Targeting wives and mothers seems a funny way to win the hearts and minds of Muslims. Baroness Warsi, the former co-chair of the Conservative party, noted acerbicly that her own Pakistan-born mother, whose English isnt great, managed to raise a lawyer, teacher, accountant, pharmacist and cabinet minister. And mood music here will count for more than the practical impact of the policy. Cameron talked on Radio 4 yesterday of up to 190,000 Muslim women who have real trouble communicating in English. But when pressed by Mishal Husain he admitted that the reform would only apply to those who had arrived recently, on a spousal visa. Now, Camerons government has already made it far harder for non-EU nationals to gain residency in the UK: a migrant from somewhere like Pakistan must have a well-salaried job offer before they enter the country, and speak better English. To keep their place, they must earn more than they had to before 2011. Men who do fit these requirements are likely to be better educated, and possibly more liberal as a result meaning the wives who join them are likely to be so too. Far more likely to be hit are refugees. A woman from Syria or Afghanistan who comes to the UK to join her husband and there are many such waiting anxiously for news may well fail to pick up much English. There are traumas to forget, children to raise. And she will probably be living on or around the poverty line. To be clear, I support encouraging Muslim women to learn English. That Cameron cut the funding for migrants to learn the language in 2011, then withdrew it entirely in 2014, was a misjudgement (one that must have lead, by his own logic, to the growth of extremism). Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, noted that ten per cent of residents in her constituency cannot speak English, and fretted that since all the shops and services offer Punjabi and other languages rates of understanding had decreased since her mothers day. This is indeed harmful. Likewise, I agree with Cameron that forced marriages, FGM, sharia courts and gender segregation should be actively targeted by the government. Those who complain about state abrasiveness in these contexts are not worthy of hearing. Like it or lump it. What I object to is the use of counter-extremism as a shield for policy-making that has ulterior motives, and may backfire entirely. Forcing recent arrivals to take an English test after two-and-a-half years looks very much like a measure to reassure white voters that the government is tough on immigration and terrorism (the two issues that top the list of public concerns, according to the latest polling). What the Prime Minister seems happy to accept as a consequence is the anger and mistrust of young Muslim men. The intent to break down patriarchal systems should be applauded. But this proposal is about as good an example of how not to do counter-extremism as you are likely to find. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Sylvia Walby's research on violence against women in the UK is devastating for three reasons: violent crime against women is on the increase; the experiences of domestic violence survivors have been erased by the way official statistics are collected and the increase in violence parallels the removal of support services. This research would not be as revelatory as it is, had the government actually been recording violence against women accurately. Currently, the number of crimes that one individual can report to the survey is capped at five. All Sylvia Walby did was remove that cap. Even if a woman has been assaulted by her partner five times, fifty times or five hundred times, the survey will only record five of those crimes. On a personal level, this systematically invalidates women's experiences. On a statistical level, the experiences of high frequency victims - many of which are suffering domestic violence are hugely under-reported. The Office for National Statistics says it is necessary because otherwise the sheer number of crimes committed by perpetrators against the same individual would skew the rest of the statistics. That's right: the harm done by perpetrators of domestic violence is so devastating that calculating it defies statistics. The experiences of the hidden, high frequency victims in Professor Walby's research are no surprise to anyone familiar with the repetitive, pervasive nature of domestic violence. Domestic violence is not a one off event. It is not an argument that has gone too far, or a partner who has had one drink too many. It is repetitive, it is devastating and it can be fatal if a woman does not access the support she needs to escape. Against this epidemic in domestic violence against women, the government is cutting vital domestic violence support services. Services are funded through local council budgets. Strapped for cash, councils are looking to save money anywhere that they can: and the consequences for women are devastating. Between 2010 and 2014, 32 specialist services shut their doors for good, and those that remain open are struggling to provide effective services without the resources they need. This increases the risk of lethal violence for the women who desperately depend on those services. Right now, instead of fighting for the lives of domestic violence survivors, services in both South Gloucestershire and Portsmouth are fighting for their own lives against huge proposed council cuts. This increase began in 2009, coinciding with the economic crisis and the start of austerity. Austerity cut the lifelines that women experiencing violence need to access freedom: including specialist domestic violence services, legal aid, benefits and social housing. As funding has fallen, violence has risen and it's no coincidence. This research supports what survivors and support workers have been saying for years: that austerity is directly harming women. If the government want to bring domestic violence rates down, the solution isn't to cap reporting to five incidents; it is to support a woman to leave before she even experiences five incidents. The sooner a woman can flee, the sooner she can be safe and the sooner the government can actually see the statistics they want. In order to do this, the government need to give domestic violence support services the money they need to help survivors. The evidence is out, there is nowhere to hide, and the government have a decision to make: turn their backs on women and continue to see crime rates escalate, or support women to live safely and independently. Is it that difficult a choice? The author is an activist with Sisters Uncut. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Why did Labour lose the election? An official inquiry will be published shortly, generating further debate as various factions within Labour and outside claim vindication for their own existing views. Here is my pre-emptive subjective explanation and it takes the form of a single event from almost exactly a year ago. Last January the left-wing party Syriza won the general election in Greece. The result was confirmed on a Sunday evening. Within minutes the political consensus in much of the UK was clear. Tory and Lib Dem representatives from the Coalition and the media chorus all proclaimed it a disaster for Greece. For many hours though there was silence from Ed Milibands office. Not until early Monday afternoon was this statement issued. I re-publish it in its full, contorted evasiveness. Just like our elections are a matter for the people of this country, so who the Greek people elect is a decision for them. It is the responsibility of the British government to work with the elected government of Greece for the good of Britain and Europe and not to play politics. And it is up to each country to choose its own path on how to deal with the economic and social challenges they face. We have set out our path for Britain: to make sure our country is fairer and more prosperous and balance the books. In that short sequence, the delay over its appearance, the evasive words in relation to Syriza, the nervously anti-climactic ending, is at least part of the explanation as to why Labour lost the last election. The reason for the delay was that Milibands office could not agree how to respond. Some aides were excited by Syrizas success. I imagine Milibands instinctive response was similarly positive. But others pointed out that they could not display a hint of enthusiasm because Labours position was to be almost as tough on public spending as George Osborne. Finally Milibands office issued the statement that avoided either hailing or condemning the election of Syriza but adding, in case anyone wondered, it was Labours priority to balance the books. Part of Miliband and some in his entourage ached to leap on the political energy unleashed in Greece, while another part of Miliband and several aides sought total distance. The torment was symptomatic. They never resolved the tension and the lack of clarity had many consequences from periods of media inactivity to blurred messages about whether Labour stood for radical change or one in which it identified the UK as a rotting castle in which it proposed to do little more than change the ashtrays. The failure to resolve the dilemma had many consequences. In the final stages of the referendum in Scotland several voters told me, wrongly, that they thought David Cameron and Miliband were the same. If Scots had known what Miliband really felt about what was wrong with the UK and what he would do about it he might at the least have got an audience. But they picked up the message about Labour planning to do no more than change the ashtrays. Conversely Milibands many opponents in England heard the other message, that he was a dangerous leftwinger. Militant Blairites attacked him around the clock, together with Lynton Crosbys brilliantly disciplined Tory campaign fuelling a sense that Labour was fiscally reckless. The opposite was closer to the truth. Labours tax and spend plans were even more bomb-proofed than in 1997. The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, worked around the clock to make sure that not a halfpenny was uncosted. For five years no Shadow Cabinet member was allowed to utter a word that implied a spending commitment. In comparison Cameron and Osborne were profligate. During Camerons pre-election conference speech he proposed a series of tax cuts without any explanation as to how they would be paid for. Early in the election the duo pledged a seven-day NHS without knowing how it would be funded. While not getting any credit for fiscal discipline, Labours attempt at rectitude stifled visionary ideas such as the introduction of a national care service, a proposition that for selfish reasons every voter should be crying out for. The sense that a reckless minority Labour government would be held ransom by the SNP was the final nail, a very big one. Here media bias played a significant role. On the day Labour highlighted its tough tax and spending plans the Tories launched a poster campaign featuring a tiny Miliband in the shirt pocket of Alex Salmond. The Times splashed its front page with the poster and the theme of Labour being in the pocket of the SNP. When the shadow chief secretary, Chris Leslie, appeared on the Today programme to launch Labours plans for the economy on the same morning, he was asked only about the SNP. It was all nonsense. Any minority government would have been in the hands of the SNP. But the prospect killed off Labour and hugely helped the Conservatives. What are the lessons? Clarity and an accompanying narrative are incredibly important. Currently Jeremy Corbyn is stronger than his internal opponents not only because he won the leadership by a landslide. He knows what he stands for while his enemies huff and puff vaguely. Smart presentation is essential, framing arguments with a wide appeal. Few follow politics closely. The still powerful media mediates. Miliband kept Labour more or less united, a big achievement in the light of what has followed, but at a cost to coherence. In the end both matter, coherence and unity. For Labour the next election will be tougher than the last and yet winnable if the complex, daunting lessons are learnt. Here are the main business stories from this morning's papers: Irish Independent * Persuading shoppers to stop and "dwell" awhile will be a key part of retail strategy as Brown Thomas undergoes a 10.5m revamp. The redesign of the contemporary ladies fashion floor has been undertaken by Alex Cochrane Architects - and the exercise to develop brands follows on the heels of a 9.5m facelift for the accessories and beauty hall on the ground floor. The project is a response to customers' changing shopping habits, including the rise of internet purchases. "We can really see it, people are shopping differently, they are shopping more savvy and they are much more aware of brands," says Shelly Corkery, fashion director of the Brown Thomas Group. * Irish oil firm Petroceltic is expected to announce today that it has secured additional time to sell or rescue its business. It is understood that the company will announce an additional temporary waiver from its creditors as the explorer grapples with mounting debts. In December the Dublin-based firm announced a strategic review of its operations, effectively putting itself up for sale. It said in a trading update that it had breached agreements relating to its debt pile. The company has debts of $217.8m (200m) and cash balances of $28.1m, although most of this cannot be readily accessed as it is held in local currencies. * Stocks across the Middle East tumbled as the easing of sanctions against Iran raised the prospect of a surge in oil supplies to a market already reeling from the lowest prices in more than a decade. Shares in Tehran gained. Saudi Arabias Tadawul All Share Index dropped 5.4pc to its lowest level since March 2011. Abu Dhabis ADX General Index fell into a so-called bear market. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks 200 of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Councils biggest companies, traded at 9.5 times estimated 12-month earnings, the lowest in almost seven years. Irans TEDPIX Index climbed 0.9 percent, according to data on the bourses website, extending Saturdays 2.1pc advance. The Irish Times * The US Federal Reserve predicted that Ireland needed a bailout six months prior to a deal being agreed in lat 2010. After a five-year moratorium was raised from Fed transcripts, it was revealed that the US central bank was briefed on Ireland as analysts looked at the financial turmoil in the eurozone. Fed officials believed that a 67.5bn deal would be sufficient, however they questioned Ireland's debt sustainability. * Bank of Ireland receivers were unsuccessful in securing the premises of McElhinneys of Athboy, Co Meath over the weekend as its owner occupied the store. Mr Sweeney, the grandson of the shop's founding owner, said on the shop's Facebook page that receivers had forced their way into the premises on Friday evening. There was believed to be a small garda presence at the shop on Saturday. * A partner with A&L Goodbody has suggested that one-off hotel sales should be cleared without having to go to the competition commission. Vincent Power, who is a EU and competition partner at Goodbody, says that the change would bring Ireland in line with global practice on the sale of hotels. Last year was a busy period for sales and acquisitions that saw notifications to the competition committee increase by 90pc. Irish Examiner * The European Central Bank won't say whether or not Irish banks will be included in a study of eurozone banks and their soured loans. Irish banks hold high levels of poorly performing loans on their balance sheets and according to a report from Reuters, a number of eurozone banks are being quizzed by the ECB on non-performing loans. Ireland wasn't listed by name in the Reuters report but it did list countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy. * Dairy farmers have welcomed a decision by Ornua that will see it pay an additional bonus 15m to its member suppliers. The move was announced following the co-op's decision to part ways with its stake in US speciality foods company, DPI. That disposal is funding Ornua's decision to reward it s suppliers with the payment due in April or May of this year. * Bord Bia has hailed the drinks sector as an exports kingpin following the publication of Irish food and drink exports last week. Exports increased in 10pc last year to 1.26bn, which according to Bord Bia represented an increase that was strongly helped by the drinks industry. In its report Bord Bia says that increase mirrors the increase in disposable income and the demand for luxury products. SHERIDAN Two Sheridan County residents have been found guilty of felony child abuse against three children. The Sheridan Press reported that on Friday jurors found Michael Tibbets and Donna Giffords guilty of three counts of child abuse. The case was uncommon because the abuse was primarily emotional and mental rather than physical abuse. During the five-day trial, jurors saw images of a mobile home piled with clothes and garbage. Experts testified that Tibbets and Gifford raised their three children in "extreme neglect." Defense attorneys argued that this was a case of bad parenting, not a crime. A sentencing date has not been set and will be scheduled upon completion of a pre-sentence investigation report. Could Steven Avery really have cleaned all the blood from the garage? How easy is it to plant evidence? British detective RC Bridgestock answers these questions and more... Netflix documentary Making a Murderer has kept viewers gripped with an unfurling tale of murder and the actions of American law enforcement. But then more information came out: creators Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos hadnt included more incriminating evidence about Avery. There were attempts for appeals, the White House was lobbied for support, and Averys friends, families and ex-fiancees came out with new statements. During it all, we had questions. Just how easy is it to transfer somebodys touch DNA? Are the police really that corrupt? Expand Close Addictive TV: Wisconsin man Steven Avery is the subject of Netflix documentary 'Making a Murderer' / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Addictive TV: Wisconsin man Steven Avery is the subject of Netflix documentary 'Making a Murderer' We spoke to Bob Bridgestock, half of bestselling husband-and-wife crime-writing team RC Bridgestock and a career detective of 30 years with the West Yorkshire Police. The former Detective Superintendent dealt with dozens of murders and suspicious deaths - and one of his few unsolved cases involves a victim who was shot in a garage. Heres what he had to say - its worth noting that he hasnt seen the series: Some viewers thought Brendan Dassey was more innocent than he suggested after police interrogation. Do innocent people confess? Sadly they do, or should I say they used to [in the UK], prior to the introduction of the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984, which brought in the required recording of interviews and the need for a suspect to have legal representation. There was a similar case in West Yorkshire in 1975. Stefan Kisko was arrested and convicted for the abduction and murder of an 11-year-old girl, Lesley Molseed. He confessed and served 16 years in prison, until developments in forensic science showed that it couldnt possibly be him. In 1992, when he was 40, he was freed on appeal and died a year later of a heart attack. There had been a long campaign by family suggesting he was innocent. The three senior officers and a forensic man were charged with suppressing evidence but this was never pursued because the lead detective died. The suggestion was that the detectives had bullied a confession out of him. Even when Kisko was released the detectives insisted he must have been there, and he must have had an accomplice. Expand Close Mugshots: Steven Avery, the subject of the Netflix show 'Making a Murderer', pictured in police photos in the 1980s / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Mugshots: Steven Avery, the subject of the Netflix show 'Making a Murderer', pictured in police photos in the 1980s These days admissions alone would not be sufficient to convict anyone of a crime. There is a need for other irrefutable evidence, such as DNA or fingerprints. Both Brendan and Steven have very low IQs. How is a suspects IQ considered in questioning? If there is any suggestion that a suspect has learning difficulties they would be questioned by a doctor who has mental health training to establish if the individual understands what is happening and is capable of being subjected to an interview. A responsible adult would be used to assist a child, or a solicitor for an adult and on occasions there would be someone there with experience of people with learning difficulties. Video of the Day An interview confession with no other corroboration is highly insufficient to charge someone, from just what they tell you. You as the investigator would seek corroboration. What about Stevens history of animal abuse? The cat incident from his past is being lent on quite heavily by the prosecution: There is some belief that murderers abuse or kill animals as they are growing up. I have dealt with quite a number of murderers and I havent had any admissions of this. So I would not put any reliance on the fact that murderers abuse animals in childhood. It certainly wouldnt be evidence. Expand Close Brendan Dassey stands trial for the murder of Teresa Halbach / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Brendan Dassey stands trial for the murder of Teresa Halbach The defences case lies heavily on the late discovery of a key that they argue was planted by the police. How likely is it that a piece of evidence could be missed for days after repeated extensive searches of a property? If we are talking modern searching? Highly unlikely. Before searching such a crime scene, 360-degree filming of the scene takes place, and photographs are taken of everything in situ before anything is touched. If it was an area where a rape was thought to have taken place, the carpet would be swabbed for seepage stains, blood, semen, pubic hair, and samples of the carpet would be taken. As a senior investigating officer I would expect them to find items smaller than car keys, such as broken buttons and earring studs. The reality is that a key would not be missed, and it would appear in the initial photographs. If not the search teams along with CSI havent done their job properly. But the prosecution argue that it would be impossible to plant such a key, especially with evidence of Steven Averys sweat on. There would have to be an agreed course of action (or conspiracy) by all those first on the crime scene. Then, to transfer DNA, you would need the alleged offenders bodily fluid (blood, urine, saliva, semen etc). Transferring sweat would be difficult. Im not sure it could be done convincingly, even if you rubbed the key on the victims T-shirt, for instance. As the investigator, if we had sweat on a key, I would expect a lot more forensic evidence, such as fibres, to corroborate how it may have got there. There are a lot of questions surrounding where Teresa Halbachs body was burned, and the size of that fire. Would it be possible to reduce a human body to bones in an open domestic bonfire? In order to cremate a human body youd need very high temperatures, somewhere between 1600-1800 degrees centigrade, for 90 minutes. Even then you would find small fragments of bone among the ashes. Bonfires burn at a lower temperature: below 1200 degrees. If a body is found in the remains of a bonfire then among the skeleton, there will likely be small fragments of flesh or clothing, too. Id be disappointed as an investigator if all that was found was a skeleton, but it's not impossible. Is it possible to DNA test bones that have been so charred? Bones are one of the best sources for DNA. To extract DNA from bones that have soaked in water, burned or buried for a long time scientists use a chemical process. This has been successfully used to identify victims of explosions and plane crashes. The prosecution claim that Brendan and Steven bleached the garage after murdering Teresa. Would a non-professional be capable of cleaning all traces of blood spatter from a garage full of equipment if someone had been shot in the head? It would depend on the weapon used and whereabouts in the head they were shot. If it was for example a shotgun under the chin, which I have dealt with more than once, it is likely everything above the mouth would be missing and splattered everywhere, usually on the ceiling. However, I dealt with a murder where the deceased was shot in the head at close range and then shot in the mouth whilst he laid on the floor, and because of this there was little distribution of blood except in the immediate area. If the head injury was severe and blood had been everywhere, the offender would struggle to remove all traces and there would be evidence of cleaning. Sometimes you can wash stains into materials as opposed to removing them. I would be confident that the CSI would find something. But if they had successfully cleaned the garage, is it likely they would leave such obvious blood stains in the victims car, and a key at the scene of the crime? If someone is being so meticulous in cleaning the scene of a crime in an attempt to remove any evidence to connect them, it would be unlikely that they would then overlook obvious visual evidence such as fingerprints and the car keys. The golden rule for any investigator is that you never assume anything and you let the evidence tell you what happened. It is only evidence that will convict a person. Averys lawyers suggest that not only local law enforcement, but even the FBI, suffer from corruption. How often would a lawyer going into a case question the integrity of the police involved? It would be naive to think that police corruption doesnt exist, and there are several examples over the years. So being realistic corruption does, and can, occur, whether for financial gain or cover-ups. Fortunately, it is very rare. But it can, and does reach the higher ranks and cross units. The integrity of a police officer or public officials is questioned whenever there is a suggestion of improper behaviour. If they have evidence, and can discredit the account of an officer, then defence lawyers will question it, especially if the officer has already been proved to have been dishonest. Has anyone, that you know of, ever won a case against a murder charge on a framing defence against the police? Im not aware of any. When is it the right decision for an innocent man accused of a crime not to take the stand? There is no right answer to this. However it is for the prosecution to prove a person's guilt beyond doubt. The defendant has no obligation to prove their innocence. People will or may draw inferences from a person's reluctance to take the stand and protest their innocence. For someone of a somewhat odd appearance, with a low IQ, to take the stand and become lost in cross examination may not help them prove their innocence. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Sarah Greene in her role in the RTE drama Rebellion. Drama: Perdita Weeks as Vanessa in the first episode of 'Rebellion' last weekend Viewers of RTE's drama Rebellion were reeling last night after watching scenes depicting the shooting dead of a young boy in the street. Peter (Jason Cullen), the 14-year-old nephew of Jimmy Mahon (Brian Gleeson), is one of the youngest victims in the drama based on the 1916 Rising after his character was gunned down in the street while collecting apples in the third episode. Medical student Elizabeth Butler (Charlie Murphy) rushes to his aid and carries him to a hospital. But despite her best efforts to save him, his injuries prove too severe and he dies on the table while Mahon runs in to find his nephew has passed away. Paying tributes to young actor Jason, Gleeson said that he should be "proud of his impact on the series." "His performance was great," he told the Herald. "War is violent and random and this episode jumps in the deep end and isn't afraid of showing the horrific loss that some of the characters have endure. "I'm very proud to be on the screen with all the actors in this show. They're all absolutely terrific," Gleeson added. Meanwhile, Tallaght girl Jordanne Jones (15), the teenage star of Rebellion, has spoken about her grandmother, who used to live in a tenement. Tallaght native Jordanne (15), who plays Minnie, said: "My nanny would have talked to me about it because she lived in a tenement. So actually seeing it was weird." Hailed as the next Saoirse Ronan, the talented youngster - whose character is an impoverished prostitute - is also keeping it in the family when it comes to her fellow cast members as her sibling on the show Sadie is played by her real-life sister Jaelynne (8). "People could come up to us and say 'You go on like actual siblings' and we'd go 'Yeah we are!'," she said. A PRISONER escaped from custody at the Courthouse in Ennis earlier today and remains at large. The female prisoner was in the custody of the Irish Prison Service and was due to appear at a hearing today. Gardai were notified of the prisoners escape and she has yet to be recaptured. The woman (28) was brought from Limerick Prison to Ennis where theft charges were to be put to her before she made her escape. A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said that the matter will be investigated by the governor of the prison escort service. We can confirm that a prisoner has escaped from custody in Ennis today, he said. The Gardai were notified and the matter will be investigated fully, he added. Two male prisoners had escaped from the same courthouse last summer. Both had their cases dealt with and were being returned to the prison cells below the courtroom when they escaped. Jason Freyne (22) fled through the back door moments after 18-year-old Keith Garrihy of Beechgrove, Newmarket on Fergus walked out of the door and ran through a gate. Garrihy was recaptured later that day but Freyne, of Ash Avenue, Carew Park, Limerick, remained at large for a six days before turning himself in. Faisal Ellahi (34) was also found guilty by a jury of sexual assault.after two and a half hours deliberations and a five week trial. Years of work building up the independence of a young woman with Down syndrome were instantly destroyed when she was raped by Faisal Ellahi, a court has heard. At a sentencing hearing today, the victim's mother said that the family and support services had brought the woman, who is in her twenties, to the stage where she had a job, could travel on her own and could run errands for her mother. All that work was wiped out by such depravity, she told the Central Criminal Court as her daughter watched via video-link from a room elsewhere in the Criminal Courts of Justice. The victim became very upset as her mother read out a statement on her behalf outlining how they had to discuss giving her anti-HIV treatment following the attack. A visibly moved Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the mother afterwards that it was very difficult to immediately respond to such a victim impact statement. He told her he would address it when he finalised sentence on 34-year-old Ellahi. Mr Justice Hunt adjourned matters until next Monday to hear further mitigation on behalf of Ellahi and said he would finalise his sentence a week or ten days later. He told Ellahi's counsel that any prospect of a partially suspended sentence would be contingent on him agreeing to be deported to his native Pakistan on his release. Ellahi was convicted last December of raping and sexually assaulting the woman after luring her back to his apartment when she became separated from her mother near their Dublin home. In her victim impact statement the woman's mother said that following the rape her daughter began sleeping in her bed and would have night terrors. She also began suffering from seizures. The symptoms abated after a while but returned in the run up to the trial, the mother said: He has robbed our family of the last two and a half years and (the victim) of the future she might have had. I feel a great sadness for her and a huge sense of loss. The mother also read out a statement prepared by the victim which said: I feel so scared at all times since he did that to me. I feel confused, angry and shocked. Sometimes I get flashbacks. I can't go out on my own anymore because I am too scared. Ellahi, who is originally from Haripur in Pakistan, pleaded not guilty last year to rape, sexual assault and having sex with a mentally impaired person at his Dublin home on June 12, 2013. The jury was not required to deliberate on the third count if it convicted of rape. The court heard he continued to deny the charges and maintained his position that he did not know the woman had Down syndrome. He has no previous convictions in this jurisdiction and gardai are unaware of any convictions in his native country. During a lengthy sentence hearing today, the DPP outlined how it built a case against Faisal Ellahi which enabled a jury to unanimously convict him of the rape of a woman with Down syndrome. Ellahi was convicted last December of raping the woman after luring her back to her house when she became separated from her mother. The prosecution, led by Caroline Biggs SC, needed to prove first that Ellahi had sex with the woman. It then had to show that she suffered from a mental impairment to the degree that she lacked the ability to live an independent life or the ability to protect herself from serious exploitation. It also had to prove Ellahi knew the woman had Down syndrome on the day in question since it was a valid defence under the law to claim ignorance of a person's mental capacity. Inspector Sean Campbell told the court that the woman arrived home after the rape screaming for her mother and shouting let me in, let me in. Her mother described her as white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf. The woman was later taken on a tour of the area by gardai and was able to point out Ellahi's building on two occasions. DNA swabs taken from her matched Ellahi's DNA to a certainty of a billion to one and fibres from the victim's clothes were also found on his bedsheets. Ellahi initially denied bringing anyone back to his house on June 12, 2013. However he later admitted to bringing her back and attempting to have sex with her. He said it was consensual fun. Ms Biggs outlined how several experts had assessed the victim following the rape and found that she had Down syndrome and also had a mild intellectual disability. Her mental age was assessed as being between 7 and 11 years old and she had a romanticised view of sexual matters as well as limited knowledge of issues such as pregnancy or STDs. The next step for the prosecution was to show that Ellahi knew the victim was mentally impaired. Ellahi claimed in his interviews that he had never heard of Down syndrome and that people with mental impairments in Pakistan were kept in homes or in hospitals. The head of Down Syndrome Ireland and former head of Down Syndrome International, Pat Clarke, gave evidence that Down syndrome affected all races equally and that its symptoms were the same around the world. He said he had recently returned from a conference in India which was attended by a Pakistani delegation including several adults with the condition. He said they appeared exactly like an Irish person with Down syndrome, displaying characteristics such as distinctive facial features and head shape. A Down syndrome person would be an obvious clinical entity in Pakistan, Ms Biggs submitted. In mitigation, Ellahi's defence counsel Padraig Dwyer SC submitted that his client has an IQ of 73 although he conceded that the IQ tests were not as thorough as they could have been. He submitted that Ellahi had attended an English college which was later shut down because of allegations of widespread visa fraud. Insp Campbell said he couldn't confirm this. Counsel said his client came from a rural area of Pakistan and since coming to Ireland had worked as a shelf packer and as a security guard. He submitted that he had never taken social welfare out of principle, even when unemployed. Mr Dwyer also submitted that Ellahi had propositioned 16 other women in the area including one just minutes after the rape. He said there was no pattern to the type of women he approached and that none of these incidents resulted in complaints being made to gardai. The Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin The jury in the trial of a man accused of murder in a Kildare town over two years ago have begun their deliberations. Seamus Morgan (49) with an address at The Hollands, Athy, Co Kildare is charged with murdering Laurence Keane (56) in the town on July 19 2013. Last week at the Central Criminal Court Mr Morgan pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Keane. Mr Justice Robert Eagar finished charging the jury this morning and told them their verdict must be unanimous. "You must be unanimous in your conclusion, be it guilty or non-guilty. You will be given as much time as you require," he said. "If you accept Mr Morgan's account you must acquit," he said The judge told the jury if they had not come to a conclusion by 4pm today he proposed to send them home for the day and they could return in the morning. The jury retired to begin their deliberations at 11.52am today. The State has sought an accelerated hearing for two linked asylum applications relating to plans to deport a man alleged to be the main recruiter for the Islamic State (ISIL) in Ireland. The man, who denies he is involved with Islamic extremism, is appealing a refusal by the Minister for Justice to allow him to re-enter the asylum process. He is also challenging his deportation to a country in the Middle East amid claims that he will be subject to inhuman and degrading treatment there, including the possibility of torture. The Court of Appeal, which sat over the Christmas holiday period to hear an appeal against the lifting of an injunction preventing the man's deportation, is due to give an imminent ruling in that case. This morning barrister Sinead McGrath, for the State, said that the authorities here were seeking an accelerated hearing for the two separate but related applications. Senior Counsel Michael Lynn, for the man, said his side was not conceding that the two matters should be heard together, but accepted this may ultimately be more convenient to do so. The asylum cases could be heard as early as March following receipt of opposition papers by the man's legal team. Last Christmas, plans to deport the man allegedly involved with Islamic extremists was put on hold following a dramatic intervention by the European Court of Human Rights which made a request to the three judge court which had the effect of temporarily preventing Ireland from deporting him. The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, has asked the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court order lifting an injunction which had restrained his deportation to the Middle Eastern country. The court heard the man suffers from health problems and fears being tortured if he is deported due to his political activities. The man denies acting on behalf of Isil or that he represents a threat to national security. At a previous hearing before the Court of Appeal, Mr Lynn said the application to the ECtHR had been made because there was no automatic stay on a deportation order in Irish law whenever an issue under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting torture, is raised in a case. Last month the court heard that the man had been told he must leave the Irish State before December 30 and, failing to do that, must report to the Garda National Immigration Bureau by January 5 for deportation. In his appeal the man, who is married and aged in his early 50's, sought to overturn a recent decision of the High Court clearing the way for his imminent deportation by the Irish authorities to the Middle East. He has been living in Ireland for some time and withdrew an initial asylum application some 15 years ago - when he and his family first arrived in Ireland - after he secured residency here on the basis of the birth of his Irish born son. He was told in March 2014 by the Irish authorities that they intended to deport him. His residency permit was not renewed because his Irish born son was living overseas with his mother for the last number of years. He then sought to re-enter the asylum process but was denied permission to do so. The man launched several legal actions arising out of the decisions to deport him, which are pending before the court. He also secured a temporary injunction preventing his deportation pending the outcome of his case. The State had succeeded in having that injunction set aside, leading to an emergency sitting of the Court of Appeal whose considerations were affected by the ECtHR's intervention. A senior Department of Justice official told the High Court last December that, based on intelligence amassed by gardai and their counterparts in other jurisdictions, the State believed the man was consulted by and gave directions to senior violent extremist leaders outside Ireland. An unemployed plumber who glassed his ex-wife's new partner in a pub may be ordered to carry out community service work, a court has heard. Derek McCann (51), with an address now at Eastham Park, Bettystown, Co. Meath, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault of Glen Riordan causing him harm at Edenmore House, Coolock on September 10, 2011. The case has only come to court now because there were delays charging McCann after he moved from his former address on Millbrook Road, Coolock to a caravan park in Bettystown. Garda Eoin Cowap told the court that the victim, now aged 35, was in the pub chatting to a friend on the night but wasn't drinking. He later told gardai that out of nowhere McCann came running at him. McCann swung his hand quickly and hit him. Seconds before this McCann had broken a glass at the counter which he used to attack Mr Riordan. The victim fell off his stool. A witness said that McCann also attacked the victim with his fists after the glass fell to the floor and this witness used his body to shield the victim. Mr Riordan received ten stitches to a facial wound and was left with a 2cm long hairline scar. He said the attack caused a strain in his relationship with McCann's ex-wife. He also lost confidence and stayed in the house a lot more after the assault. McCann had drank a lot on the night, Gda Cowap said, he had no memory of the assault. Seoirse O Dunlaing BL, defending, said the victim was substantially younger that his client. He said his client had four children from the marriage. He said McCann had already lost his job as a plumber and was taking medication for stress when the marriage ended in 2008 and his ex-wife began a relationship with Mr Riordan. This hit him hard and a subsequent diagnosis of cancer put him at an all time low, counsel said. He was now living a lonely existence in a caravan park. A character reference described him as an honest, trustworthy man. Counsel said his client was offering to sell his car in order to cover the victim's financial loss of 900, which was made up from medical expenses and lost wages. Judge Melanie Greally adjourned sentencing to next April in order for the Probation Services to assess if McCann is suitable for community service. The Primate of All Ireland has told of his fears that the 1916 commemorations could trigger increased tensions between nationalist and unionist communities in the North. Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin urged organisers of the Easter Rising centenary celebrations to avoid a "false glorification" of the event and to focus instead on the victims. He said he hoped the "terrible loss of human life" would be the main focus of the planned centenary commemorations for both the Easter Rising and the Battle Of The Somme, which saw more than one million casualties, many of whom were from the North. The archbishop said: "It's a very significant year for the people of Ireland, both North and South. One of the first things to remember is that there are two major commemorations taking place on the island this year. "We have, of course, the remembrance of the Easter Rising and then we have the commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, where tens of thousands of Irish people fought and many, many lost their lives. "It's so important when we are remembering that we do not engage in some sort of revisionism or kind of false glorification of the events, either of Easter or indeed of World War One, but instead we recognise the horrific and terrible loss of human life that took place. "We know that on this island there are lots of people who carry hurt for the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland that is very recent. "I think we can do all we want with rose-tinted glasses to look back 100 years at 1916, but in doing so we should not be indifferent to the hurts and the pains and the wounds of people, which are still very raw." In an interview with the iCatholic website, he added: "I hope that in our remembrance of 1916, we are very aware of the present and the possibility that we could drive a wedge during this year, rather than promoting harmony and friendship." Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin with party members Terry Leyden, Sean Fleming, Jennifer Cuffe, Lorraine Clifford-Lee and Mary Butler after delivering his address at the close of the 77th Fianna Fail Ard Fheis in the CityWest Hotel, Dublin. Photo: Laura Hutton/Collins Photo Agency Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has promised to give priority to providing better public services rather than giving tax cuts, if he gets to lead the next government. Speaking after the party's Ard Fheis, Mr Martin argued that investing in public services, like health, housing and education, would be the major priority for his party. He again criticised the Taoiseach for promising "US-style taxes" which could only lead to greater poverty and cuts in services for the most vulnerable. "We want to put a choice before the people that a Fianna Fail-led government will deliver fairness but also deliver better public services," Mr Martin said. "The Fine Gael-led government of the last five years has led to a decimation of public services," added Mr Martin. Mr Martin had used his centre-piece speech to party delegates to argue that Fine Gael had not delivered a fair distribution of wealth. He said the Government had never acknowledged that the template for economic recovery had been framed by the late Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, whose work they had at times vilified. Mr Martin insisted that the Government and sections of the media tried to portray the election outcome as a foregone conclusion but it was for the people to decide on polling day. Former Gaeltacht Minister Eamon O Cuiv, addressing delegates, talked up the party's potential to win many seats in the General Election and said they were not "in damage limitation" mode. The mood at the event at Citywest was upbeat and many delegates said they were ready to campaign vigorously in the election, expected next month. But delegates had mixed views on the party leader's insistence on "no coalition" with either Fine Gael or Sinn Fein. But Fine Gael hit back, with Jobs Minster Richard Bruton countering that his party's plan to cut taxes will actually bring in more revenue. "We will abolish the USC because it's a bad tax," Mr Bruton argued. The minister said the USC was framed as a "temporary tax" and abolishing it was part of the Government focus to create jobs. "We need to build on the 135,000 people we have already back at work, see more people working, more pay packets coming in so we can invest in quality services for the future," he said. Labour also stepped up its campaigning by launching its 'Standing Up for Working Families' campaign. Tanaiste Joan Burton also pledged cuts to the USC. "We want to put more money in their pockets by reducing USC. Secondly, we want to improve public services and make those services more affordable," she added. Sinn Fein's enterprise spokesman, Peadar Toibin, argued that European taxes were necessary for European standards of services like roads, railways and broadband. Communications Minister Alex White said yesterday that voters needed to weigh up how much influence his party have had over Fine Gael in the past five years. He said that when it came to negotiating tax and spending issues, the Labour Party worked well with Enda Kenny. "You'll see that there was a compromise somewhere in the middle and I would even argue that it was somewhere closer to the position that we had rather than the position held by our colleagues in government," he said. Mr White said the proof was what Labour had delivered. East Galway has been badly hit by boundary changes, which saw it lose 20,000 to the new Roscommon Galway constituency. It will also lose a seat in this election, going from a four to a three seater constituency. Traditionally the constituency favoured the two big parties, with FF and FG currently holding two seats each, albeit one of those had initially been a Labour win, before Colm Keaveneys defection to FF. The area has seen a lot of changes since 2011. The boundary changes were particularly hard for FGs Paul Connaughton Jnr and FF stalwart Micheal Kitt, who saw their support base badly hit by the move to Roscommon. While Connaughton, who entered the Dail in the last election, has opted to run regardless, Kitt has called time on his long political career as a result. The other major factor is Keaveney defending his seat as a FF candidate for the first time. Questions remain as to how he will be received by the FF grassroots locally. Hes joined on the ticket this time around by Portumna based Cllr Anne Rabbitte. While relatively new to politics she is seen as a strong contender to take a seat. Labour Senator Lorraine Higgins is also running but she faces a serious fight to take a seat. Independent councillor Sean Canney, who is based in the Tuam area is viewed as a serious contender for a seat. He did very well in the 2011 election and has a strong support group across the region. SF candidate Annemarie Roche is based in Loughrea. The Englishwoman who has Irish parents is not seen as any serious threat this time around but will look at this election as a platform. Independent councillor Michael Stroke Fahy has also expressed interest in standing. On the ground flooding will be a major issue at the doors. Recent floods have seen homeowners in the region battle for over a month to save their properties. FGs Ciaran Cannon has been praised for his actions on the ground throughout the crisis and could result in a bump in votes come the election. Sligo/Leitrim is a four seat constituency once more having been a three seat of Sligo/ North Leitrim which returned one FF, one FG and one SF TD last time out. The new constituency also includes West Cavan and South Donegal. They have hardly mentioned so far but could play a crucial role in the outcome. The election of SF's Michael Colreavy was a major surprise so the party is well placed to hold on to that seat this time around and may even add a second. Colreavy is not standing this time but SF are running two candidates. Chris MacManus, a former Borough Councillor and son of current long serving councillor Sean MacManus, is based in Sligo town while also running is Leitrim councillor Martin Kenny. Both are being supported on the ground in the Donegal and Cavan districts by a large Sinn Fein canvassing team since the autumn in towns like Bundoran and Ballyshannon in Donegal and Ballyconnell, Kinawley and Killashandra in Cavan. Private polls suggest that if Sinn Fein gets its vote out, it could cause a major upset and get both men elected. Fine Gael is running three candidates. Outgoing TDs Tony McLoughlin and John Perry from Ballymote who had to go to the High Court to get added and former TD Gerry Reynolds from Leitrim who is returning to politics after a long break. The fallout from the Perry case can't be good for the party locally, but it appears, from the private polls, that it has helped Mr Perry. The rivalry between the Perry and McLoughlin camps is said to be intense, but Perry is getting huge support in private polls and may even top it when the real one takes place. Fianna Fail have selected Senator Marc MacSharry son of former Tanaiste and minister Ray MacSharry. He failed to win a seat last time out leaving the constituency without a FF TD. He will be up against councillor and former TD Eamon Scanlon from Ballymote who lost his seat in 2011 but who some party officials are tipping to be ahead of MacSharry. Labour has selected Senator Susan O'Keeffe who polled well last time but that was with the party doing well under Eamon Gilmore. With a drop in support now she would appear to have little chance of getting a seat. It will be one FG, one FF and one SF for certain with the final seat being a scrap between FG, SF and an Independent. An interesting candidate is Marie Casserly. A school teacher, she was elected as an independent councillor at the last local elections. Her election was a major surprise and she is very popular across the constituency. She has aligned herself with Shane Ross's Independent Alliance and has the backing of MEP Marian Harkin who previously won a seat as an independent in the constituency. Also in the field is former Labour TD, Declan Bree, a councillor since 1974 and now an Independent socialist who has had a high profile in exposing over-spending by Sligo County Council. Renua Ireland are also running Finbarr Filan, the brother of Westlifes Shane, believing theres enough demand for change to get him elected. The large number of independents may go against them all, but if anyone was to emerge, Bree is favourite. Constituency issues include lack of investment in major road infrastructure over the past two governments. The main roads into Sligo remain need major upgrading. The Dublin road N4 from Collooney to Castlebaldwin of some 12km urgently needs upgrading. No progress has been made on upgrading the Galway road N17 or the Enniskillen road N16. The N4 is in stage five of seven with the council saying if the Government prioritises it over the next two years work may well start towards the end of 2017 or early 2018. Lack of social housing is a major issue in the City and county. There are over 1000 people on the housing list in Sligo, doubling over the past six years. Also, lack of jobs is an issue and a real sense that the recovery has not been felt in provincial towns. No major industry has come to Sligo in recent years. IDA Ireland is often criticised for its lack of progress in this regard. The body is taken away to a waiting hearse Photo: Collins Dublin, Gareth Chaney The banks of the canal at Ardclough where the remains of body was found. Pic Steve Humphreys Gardai investigating the murder of a man whose torso was found in a suitcase in the Grand Canal are now focusing on where he was murdered. Officers disclosed this afternoon they were carrying out extensive inquiries in north Kildare and parts of Dublin to locate the murder scene. And searches of the canal at Ardclough and surrounding banks are also under way to find other parts of the victim's body. Gardai told independent.ie it was not yet clear whether the victim was Irish or Eastern European but were pursuing a number of lines of inquiry. A senior officer issued a fresh appeal for help in locating where the man was killed and his body then dismembered. "We are appealing in particular to people with a premises, who returned to it this morning after the weekend and found that items had been disturbed or moved about since they locked it up on Friday evening. "We are also appealing to farmers and others with outhouses to make a search to establish if anybody might have been there illegally over the weekend", the officer added. "It is clear that there is a second crime scene and when we find it we can make more progress with our inquiries", he said. Meanwhile, Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis returned to the spot where the body was found to carry out a further examination of the area with an anthropologist. A post mortem examination of the torso, carried out by Dr Curtis at Naas general hospital yesterday, established that the man was neither shot nor stabbed in the torso. It is likely that the fatal wounds were inflicted to his head. The victim has been described as a white man in his 20s with dark brown hair. Gardai thanked members of the public who came forward with information since the body was discovered when the suitcase was taken out of the canal by a couple of walkers on Saturday afternoon. They believe the man had been killed in the previous two days. Cross checks comparing the details of the victim with those on the missing persons list are continuing while forensic experts are examining the suitcase and heavy plastic that had been wrapped around the torso to find fingerprints or other clues to the identity of the killers. A second case conference to review developments in the investigation so far will be held at Leixlip garda station this afternoon. SINCE it began operations in 2007, the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) has been mired in controversy. * It was set up under the Garda Siochana Act, 2005, to deal primarily with complaints from the public about the behaviour of Gardai and provide an independent oversight of the force. * Gsoc's mandate is to independently investigate complaints where a garda is alleged to have committed an offence or behave in a way that would justify disciplinary proceedings. * Its three current commissioners are High Court judge Mary Ellen Ring, long standing member and former director of consumer affairs, Carmel Foley, and former journalist and Gsoc spokesman, Kieran Fitzgerald. * Previous commissioners have included former Metropolitan Police officer, Simon O'Brien, former Irish Times editor, Conor Brady, and retired Department of Foreign Affairs secretary general, Dermot Gallagher, who agreed to sit as chairman for a short period following the death of Judge Kevin Haugh. * Over the past eight years, Gsoc has had a stormy relationship with the Garda representative bodies and, at times, clashes with Garda management. * Its biggest initial case involved the policing of protests by the Shell to Sea group during the Corrib gas controversy. After receiving a total of 711 complaints, Gsoc sent seven files to the Director of Public Prosecutions but in each case the DPP ruled there should be no criminal prosecution. * Gsoc also launched a four-year investigation into the handling of an informant, Kieran Boylan, by members of a garda specialist unit at the frontline of the war against drug traffickers. But, again, Gsoc failed to secure the go-ahead for a criminal prosecution from the DPP after its lengthy report had been studied for less six months. * In 2014, Gsoc sparked off a crisis in government when it alleged that its headquarters had been bugged and placed under surveillance. The finger of suspicion was immediately pointed at the Garda, who strenuously denied the allegations. A British counter-surveillance firm, Verrimus, was brought in to investigate the claims. But the allegations collapsed when it was firmly established by retired High Court judge, John Cooke there was no evidence of bugging by any person or group, and "much less" that the gardai might have been responsible. * And Gsoc was again plunged into controversy last year when a garda sergeant took his own life when he was placed under investigation and was not told subsequently that he had been cleared of any suggestion of wrongdoing. There will be no U-turn on the Government's plans to force doctors and nurses to admit when they have made a mistake, according to Health Minister Leo Varadkar. Reports yesterday suggested that the Government had abandoned plans to make open disclosure a legal requirement for healthcare professionals. Mr Varadkar had previously promised that accountability would be increased under his watch and he has now said that this plan has not changed. "Last November, I published a Patient Safety Package at the second annual Patient Safety Conference. It had already been approved by Government and was broadly welcomed at the time by patient-advocacy groups," said Mr Varadkar. "There has been no change of policy since then of any sort whatsoever." The minister said healthcare staff would be legally required to report serious instances and events. A patient-safety office will be established within the Department of Health and the powers of the Health Information and Quality Authority will be extended to the regulation of private hospitals. This comes as Mr Varadkar urged all healthcare professionals to ensure they are vaccinated against the flu, saying that any doctor or nurse who doesn't get the jab is a health and safety risk to patients and their co-workers. "There have been a lot of attendances to GPs and doctors' surgeries with flu-like illnesses. If you are in a high-risk group, if you are over 65, pregnant or have a chronic disease, get vaccinated," he said. "I think there is a case for healthcare workers to tell patients if they are vaccinated or not because coming into contact with a healthcare worker who is not vaccinated is a health and safety risk." The mother of a 13-year-old girl found lying in the street drunk with a head injury has told the terrifying story of her daughter's experience. The schoolgirl was found by vomiting and unable to speak, and was rushed to hospital. In an unusual move, the girl and her mother decided to issue a warning to others about the abuse of alcohol on Facebook. The girl said she had met up with friends on a Saturday afternoon to go into town. She said she was found "lying on the street with a head injury, vomiting and unable to communicate for myself due to the amount of alcohol I had drunk," she wrote. The teenager's mother recalled the frightening moment she received a phone call from the police telling her that her daughter was being rushed to hospital. "When I arrived I saw her being taken into the resuscitation unit," the worried mother said. "She looked grey and was totally unresponsive so when I saw her I was extremely shocked and just burst into tears. "I had to wait in the corridor until the doctors assessed her. "She was kept in overnight, put onto a drip and was taken for a CT scan and X-rays - which thankfully were all clear. "This whole experience was terrifying and a week later I am still very shaken by it all. "My daughter had gone out for a Saturday afternoon into town with her friends as she normally does. "I thought I could trust my daughter. "I am very grateful that she was found and got the medical help she desperately needed - and hopefully this message will make other parents aware of the dangers of alcohol and prevent it happening to someone else's child." The message was posted on the Craigavon PSNI's Facebook page by the Neighbourhood Policing Team "with the full co-operation of the family involved in this incident". A spokesman for the PSNI said that investigations are still ongoing to determine where the young girl got the alcohol. "She has also received a follow-up visit from our officers and was given full information about the dangers of alcohol/drugs," the PSNI said. The girl was found by police in Portadown, Co Armagh. She said: "The officers took me straight to hospital where I was admitted for the night. Other officers from the Neighbourhood team had also gone to my mum's house to collect her and bring her up to the hospital to see me. I got out the next day and still felt very unwell." The former nanny leaving court in Massachusetts after her acquittal Aisling Brady McCarthy spent more than two years in prison Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy, who spent two years in jail for a crime she did not commit, is to sue the doctor who branded her a murderer. The 37-year-old was arrested in 2013 after a medical examiner claimed that she had "violently shaken" to death a one-year-old girl in her care. She was subsequently charged with the murder of Rehma Sabir in Cambridge, Massachusetts and spent 27 months in prison and a further three months under house arrest. Last August, however, after she had spent more than two years in jail, the charges against her were finally dropped. Prosecutors admitted the evidence against her did not add up. Anxious to leave the country as quickly as possible, Ms Brady McCarthy left all her possessions in her rented home in Boston and flew straight back to Ireland. Her sister Sharon was with her on the flight and for the first hour of the journey, they just held hands and cried. While staying at her sister's house in Galway, Ms Brady McCarthy and her husband Don celebrated their third anniversary - the first anniversary when she wasn't in jail - at an Italian restaurant. She recalled that while she was in prison in the US, she was surrounded by many women who had previously been in jail. "I was terrified," she said. "I wouldn't come out of my prison cell." Speaking to the 'Boston Globe', Ms Brady McCarthy said she now plans to take legal action through the American civil court system. "I don't want this to happen to anyone else," she stressed. "They weren't just wrong in my case, they were reckless. They never lost a minute's sleep. They just moved on to the next case." Exposing what happened to her will bring some kind of closure, she suggested. "If I don't let go, it will consume me. I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I want to move on." The former nanny, who is now living with her husband in Cork, said she was still struggling to get over the ordeal. "I have changed. I don't trust people like I used to. "You're nearly afraid to get to know people because they'll say, 'Oh, you're the girl from Boston.' "It makes me want to cut my hair off or dye it black." Ms Brady McCarthy said her family, as well as the cards and letters of support that she has received from all over the world, have been a source of great strength for her. However, since she returned to Ireland, she has struggled to find work. "I was a nanny. I'm not going to do that again. Who is going to want to hire a 37-year-old who has been out of the country for 15 years?" Reflecting on her time spent in jail, she said that it had changed her as a person. "When I was in prison, I had a loving family that came to see me. I called my husband twice a day. "Some of the girls had nobody. Some people have nothing. No matter what, your life is always better than someone else's." Ms Brady McCarthy also revealed that her lawyer, Mindy Thompson, whom she describes as "my guardian angel", spent Christmas with her family in Carlow. All 10 siblings were together for the first time in 15 years. "Mammy was in her glory," she added. Ms Brady McCarthy is banned from returning to the United States for a decade as a result of overstaying her visa and living illegally in Boston. Former Fianna Fail minister Mary O'Rourke says a "tsunami" descended on the party in the last election as it lost an unprecedented number of seats. "The electorate were merciless. We all got our walking papers - me included," she said. She admitted that party chiefs "did not think it was going to be as bad" as the final result. However, Ms O'Rourke (pictured) has come to terms with the verdict of the voters. "I felt I had a great run of it," she said. Reflecting on her life in politics, she insisted that Charles Haughey was "a very good leader", despite all the controversies which surrounded his political career. The former TD for Longford-Westmeath, referring to the former Taoiseach, said: "He gave me my chance. "You don't forget those who gave you a break." Despite being a political "rookie" at the time, she was appointed Minister for Education by Haughey, which was a job she loved. Such was her enthusiasm for the work that she was usually first into the department each day at 7.30am. Referring to the death from cancer of her nephew, Brian Lenihan, when he was Minister for Finance, she says she still gets "choked up" talking about him. "We shared a lot together under the Leinster House roof," she added. Despite various political challenges and difficulties, "people kept great faith with Brian". Ms O'Rourke pointed out that Christine Lagarde, who has played a pivotal role in the International Monetary Fund (IMF), described him in a book published in his memory as "a beacon in a dark night of economic crisis". Ms O'Rourke, in the interview with the channel 'Irish TV', recalled her childhood and teenage years. She said she grew up in a house where the family "ate and drank politics". In time, she went to boarding school, which she "hated", and at one point toyed with a journalistic career, rather than becoming a schoolteacher, then a TD. TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has criticised the garda watchdog for snooping on the phone records of journalists. In a stinging rebuke of the Garda Siochana Ombudsman, Mr Kenny said there was a difference between accessing such records in a case involving national security and the situation at the centre of the current controversy. It emerged last week that GSOC accessed the phone records of two journalists following a complaint by a friend of the late model Katy French about alleged garda leaks. Laws which allow GSOC to do this without first getting clearance from a judge are now set to be reviewed on the orders of Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald. Read More Mr Kenny said: Clearly the fundamental principle of journalistic sources being confidential is very important in a democracy. Minister Fitzgerald is looking at this on the basis of the protection of the sources of information for journalists in a free world, in a free press. Theres a difference here between this particular kind of incident and one of where national security might arise, so the minister will respond appropriately and quickly in this regard. Fundamentally, I think that where issues like this are concerned that it would be appropriate that the legislation be reformed to reflect that. Because whatever else people might argue about, there has always been a consistency about the protection of sources for information for members of the press in a democracy like ours. The Taoiseach's strong words were echoed by the Tanaiste Joan Burton, who also spoke at the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs 2016 in Oberstown in Kildare earlier today. I anticipate that tomorrow, Government will get a report from the Minister for Justice," the Tanaiste said. The issue is an important issue. I understand it goes back to events in 2007 and well get a report on it. But I think it goes without saying that the protection of journalism sources is of critical and primary importance, and the Government will address that. The commentary from the two Government leaders is set to put the spotlight back on the board of GSOC. The complaints body was the centre of major political upheaval two years ago when it claimed gardai were bugging its offices. Last week it was revealed that GSOC itself is prying into how journalists operate and snooping on phone traffic. There are also worries it has been monitoring one journalists emails. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has expressed serious concern over fresh claims that journalists were being monitored by the secretive watchdog which was recently handed major powers. In recent weeks, a number journalists, one of whom works for Independent News & Media (INM), have discovered their phone records have been accessed as part of a GSOC probe. The Government is currently facing a High Court challenge to laws which allow such snooping, as well as data retention laws. The case is being taken by campaign group Digital Rights Ireland. Julie currently shares the three-bed house with her husband David and their five children, aged between 13 months and and 13-years old. Photo: TV3 Player/Evicted A pregnant woman fears she will become homeless just days after her due date. Julie Brennan (32) from Abbeyleix, Co Laois, is already a mother to five children, including a beautiful set of twins. She told the Irish Daily Mirror that she has been informed she must vacate the dwelling by March 4, because the house is being placed on the market. She is due to give birth by cesarean section on February 22. Julie currently shares the three-bed house with her husband David and their five children, aged between 13 months and and 13-years old. The concerned mother appeared on TV3's 'Evicted' in December to tell her story. However she has revealed that her situation recently worsened. "I got a 56 days notice and I'm due a baby in 40 days," she said. Julie said she was sterilised after her last child, but after something of "a medical miracle", is again pregnant. Julie said she is spending her days trawling websites, trying to source alternative accommodation for her family in Abbeyleix. She explained that the process left her exhausted, and said that she feels she no longer has the energy to search. Julie described the actions of Bank of Ireland, who are set to repossess the home, as 'greedy'. She said that there is a cash offer - from a independent donor - to buy the house on her behalf, but the Bank of Ireland, she says, won't discuss that offer, which has been on the table for a number of months. She and her husband, an employee of Laois County Council, believed that they were entering into a long term lease regarding the house until a receiver told them that they had to vacate the house. "I can't go on the housing list because my husband is working full-time and I don't meet the requirements. "I don't qualify for rent allowance either," she said. The current Sunday Independent Car of the Year, the all-new Honda Jazz, below, was awarded last week with safety organisation Euro NCAP's prestigious Best in Class 2015 award in the supermini category. Earlier in 2015 the Honda Jazz achieved a maximum five-star safety rating. Jazz took the title from a field of nine superminis in total. To achieve a 'Best in Class' award from Euro NCAP, cars from each category are assessed against a weighted sum of the scores in each of the four key areas of assessment: Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian and Safety assist. All grades of Jazz are fitted with Honda's City-Brake Active System (CTBA) as standard. The mid and upper grades of the Jazz range features Honda's 'Advanced Driver Assist System' (ADAS), a comprehensive suite of active-safety technologies including: forward collision warning, traffic sign recognition system, intelligent speed limiter, lane departure warning and high-beam support system. Bitten by the travel bug at an early age, Angela Scanlon has travelled the world with zeal - and she has no intention of stopping... My first flight abroad was a trip to Leeds for my cousin's wedding. I had an amazing denim Ra-Ra skirt (yes, I've always been that cool) and white tights with love hearts. We flew with Aer Lingus and the hostesses were the most glorious people I had ever seen. Their lipstick matched their nails and they wore chic, navy heels and French rolls that felt wildly exotic. They gave me a colouring book and sweets that tasted of plastic and promise and in that instant I wanted to grow up to be just like them... The idea that I could fly around the world, for free - actually for money - made me very happy. Up until that point, I had been to Trabolgan and Roscommon, Belmullet and Skibbereen but never anywhere that involved a flight. As we grew up holidays became slightly more exotic and that airport-induced excitement has stayed with me. As a teenager, I travelled all around Europe, mostly on a bus while singing Imagine by John Lennon and Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid. Expand Close Angela Scanlon holiday snaps / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Angela Scanlon holiday snaps As an Irish dancer, dozens of us were shuttled around festivals having the time of our lives. Sweating profusely in a heavy velvet costume, seeing things I'd only ever dreamt about and eating veal schnitzel. I had made it. Then the big one - America. That was the dream a place I'd seen in Mannequin, Top Gun and Grease; somewhere foreign and fabulous, a little forbidden, sun-drenched with a stench of motorcycle oil, ketchup and suncream. My dad had considered moving there before he met my mam and so it always held some sort of otherworldly appeal. I also secretly believed that if I met Slater from Saved By The Bell I could live there forever and we could have wonderful-looking babies with ginger afros. Up until midway through college my travel plans had been largely made for me. Wherever the gig was, that's where we'd go, but a dodgy ankle and premature retirement meant I was suddenly thrust into the hinterland. Apart from the fact that I couldn't dance, I realised that my regular excursions had suddenly and abruptly come to an end. Once I dried my eyes I realised it had accidentally been a gift. I could go anywhere. With anyone I wanted. Anytime. AND I wouldn't have blisters. Expand Close Angela Scanlon holiday snaps / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Angela Scanlon holiday snaps In the pub one random night I invited myself on a J1 with a group of basic strangers who are now my best mates. They were going to Santa Barbara while I was facing the first summer in a decade on home soil and I felt smothered by the very idea. Bags packed and only half tentative I headed west, way west. It was the best summer of my early adult life. We ran amok and had a ball and I wished I could stay in that sun-soaked, beer-swigging paradise forever. After a brief stint in a Mexican jail I realised that this was what life was about. No rules, no call times, no teachers, no assholes (apart from the cop in the cell who had once had his heart broken by a Limerick girl). I could, and would, explore the world as long as I had money in my pocket and a willing companion. The next couple of years involved a six-month stint in New York, a year in Australia, a month in New Zealand and six months hopping from Thailand to Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia. I worked in a shoe shop, a fabric shop, in an ice cream parlour, a cinema, as a secretary and a barmaid. I shared a place with a distant aunt and my best mate in New York, the chief of a tribe (and his family) in Laos and a hut with a group of German ping pong players in Thailand. In Sydney I lived in what can only be described as a commune, just with more perfume and hormones and fun, 12 girls with one lucky man chucked into the mix. And my favourite, a yellow van called Scotty that we ate, slept, drank, laughed, fought and nearly died in! A yellow HiAce is not exactly a sexy mode of transport for four girls, and I spent three months with my three best mates sharing a mattress, muesli and more than I care to remember. Expand Close Angela Scanlon holiday snaps / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Angela Scanlon holiday snaps We travelled down the Gold Coast in our trusty steed, he nearly killed us on a number of occasions. We set him on fire, almost drove him off the road and for the last month of our endurance test we had to push-start it every day by running alongside, then diving in the side door before we lost steam and had to start the process all over again. Those were some of my happiest and most miserable days! Flitting between moments of hysteria to claustrophobia. Sheer abandoned freedom and ridiculousness and actual heartfelt fear. That's the beauty about travel - you learn things about yourself that you never realised before. I realised I get hideously cranky when I'm not fed and that it is possible to live on instant porridge (and vodka) for many months. I learned that I am conveniently allergic to the sun and that I can do a keg stand for 30 seconds. I can sleep peacefully while travelling on Indian roads that cause most people to pass out with fear and I can pretty much eat anything if it means not insulting the cook (a chicken's cheek, eye intact, was once thrust into my mouth by a 90-year-old Cambodian woman, and who was I to refuse her generosity). Travel makes you feel removed from the day to day, switched off from the mundane but plugged into something so much greater. Travelling changes the filter with which you see things. Not always rose-tinted but altered, sometimes temporarily, sometimes forever. It is food for the soul and the mind. Inspiring, shocking, uncomfortable, wonderful -sometimes all in one day. It is the ultimate freedom, an accessible luxury and arguably the most amazing gift our generation has been given. Angela Scanlon presents Getaways, Thursdays at 7pm, RTE One Despite all the current bluster and past history behind them, there is a hair's breadth between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in real policy terms and their overall philosophies. They know it and the electorate knows it, which makes the prospect of a six-week, pre-election game of who-will-you-not-go-into-coalition-with as tiresome as it is predictable. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who is arguably half-way through a painful rehabilitation process for his party, is under the most pressure to rule in or out potential coalition partners. But he is not the only party leader dancing furtively around the grand coalition maypole. Mr Martin does not have the luxury of ruling any prospect out. And he is under intense, open pressure from senior party members to consider entering into a partnership with Fine Gael to ensure what voters want most - stability. Fine Gael, which is seeking to ape Fianna Fail's previous record as the dominant party in government over successive electoral cycles, is throwing high-pitched shapes at Fianna Fail over Sinn Fein's political overtures to Mr Martin to join forces after the election. The rallying cry against the threat of Sinn Fein in Government is one of Fine Gael's stronger, if at times overplayed, calling cards. However, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Mr Martin also know that for all Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams's ambitions to be Taoiseach, Sinn Fein would happily accept the role of minor coalition partner in any future government. Sinn Fein would also relish the prospect of becoming the largest party in opposition after the election. That, in any democracy, is a critical role and one that neither Fine Gael nor Fianna Fail would want to cede to Sinn Fein. It's a difficult circle to square. But if economic stability is the national goal, all options are on the table, including a once unthinkable alliance between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. Action is needed now to protect all our privacy Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald's decision to review laws allowing gardai and the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) to access journalists' phone records without first seeking permission from a judge is welcome, if long overdue. The review is, however, somewhat disingenuous in circumstances where successive justice ministers have been on notice for years that the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 would not - and did not - contain sufficient safeguards to protect the privacy rights of citizens and journalists. Of equal concern is the investigative priorities of Garda Commissioner Noirin O'Sullivan and GSOC, which have employed draconian and potentially unconstitutional laws to investigate matters - alleged media leaks - that arguably fail to meet the legal threshold of prevention of serious offences and protection of the security of the State and human life. The whole affair smacks of a contempt towards press freedom and the privacy rights of all citizens. Untrammelled, unreviewable access to journalists' records is anathema to the public interest: Ms Fitzgerald needs to swiftly put her planned review into action. For your beauty pleasure, our expert has hair hero products, Dyson-designed gadgets, fragrance hacks and the salon the stars flock to. Triona's trends Roll up, girls, it's time to talk hair trends for the new season. Actually, scrap that, it's time to talk hair for all seasons. Healthy-looking hair is always in style, so this year, why not get your hair in the best condition ever? There are so many really amazing products and treatments available now to help your hair become your shining armour. If your hair is damaged from too much bleach or dye, do yourself a favour and book in with Lorraine Carthy for an Olaplex treatment, 25, in Dublin salon Queen (see queen.ie) to revive your hair in just one salon visit. I've already told you about Olaplex, above - the in-salon hair-repair treatment that can be mixed in with bleach and colour to minimise damage, or used as a separate treatment, leaving hair in better condition after you've coloured it. The other treatment I trialled that made a huge difference to my hair was Pro Fiber by L'Oreal, 30, the first recharging, long-lasting and most prescriptive professional treatment programme to combat multi-levels of damage across all hair types. While the treatment starts in the salon - I had it done at Dylan Bradshaw, see dylanbradshaw.com - it's maintained and recharged by you at home, wash after wash, with just four products that come in under 70. The result is healthier, shinier hair with improved resilience and manageability. Triona's trick Want to know how to make the most out of your pricey perfumes? Of course you do! If your bottle is nearly empty, the air above the fragrance will break down the scent and eventually destroy it, so it's best to mix the last little bit with an unscented body lotion and voila, you have a new home-made, great-smelling body lotion! #makesscents Bagsy this Expand Close Bagsy Wow Lips - Killer Heels / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Bagsy Wow Lips - Killer Heels Video of the Day "I know I'm not perfect, but my lips look fabulous!" That's according to the packaging on my Bagsy Wow Lips Chubby Stick in Killer Heels, above, 14.45, a raspberry red that really suits my pale skin - I'm wearing it in this week's main photo. I can't remember the last time I got really excited about a new make-up range, but Bagsy, which is available online and at Debenhams, sure does tickle my pickle! With only 23 products in the range, it's perfect for peeps like me who hate clutter, especially in our handbags! The collection of multi-tasking must-haves are all designed to be compact enough to fit in your handbag, so there are essentials like Hair Wonder Dry Shampoo, 6.75; Wonder Wand Highlighting and Concealing Pencil, 26, and Ray of Sunshine Perfect Glow Bronzing Powder, below, 22, which has "Sunshine is my favourite accessory" etched into the powder. I love it! Sugar culture Expand Close Naomi Campbell / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Naomi Campbell If you only do one thing this month, book an appointment with Brown Sugar, see brownsugar.ie, beloved of Naomi Campbell, above, and you can oooh and aaaah like I did when I went in to see the recently refurbished salon on South William Street, D2. Master of style, Mark O'Keeffe, called on designer Celine Cummins to do the refurb, which beautifully embraces the original architecture. As I sat on a luxurious leather chair and sipped my flavoured water and my coffee, I marvelled at what Mark has achieved in 10 years in business with this place, as well as Brown Sugar Blackrock, Sugar Cubed on Clarendon St, and Sugar Daddy on Exchequer Street, and a new salon opening in Ranelagh shortly. Triona's most wanted Expand Close Dyson dehumidifier. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dyson dehumidifier. My other half, Will, is a design engineer, so we often discuss different designs. He hates Apple, I'm a fan; I hate Samsung, he really rates them; but we both love Dyson designs, such as the bagless vacuum cleaners, bladeless fans, hand dryers, and now they have a beauty gadget! Yes, you read that correctly. Step forward, please, the Dyson humidifier, above, 699.98, see dyson.ie, which as you would expect from Dyson, is stylish and technologically brilliant, and easy to assemble and operate. It promises to improve dehydrated skin, combat chapped lips, blocked sinuses, ease eczema and asthma and, if there are any mums reading, it even helps with croup, because hydrated air moisturises the skin and airways, creating a barrier against infections such as cold and flu. The humidifier uses ultraviolet light, so it kills 99.9pc of bacteria in the machine before projecting a hydrated mist evenly throughout the room, creating a more hygienic environment at home. It's simple to use, and can also be used in the summer to cool the air. I have it next to my bed, and use the clever little remote control. I've noticed a big difference to my skin and quality of sleep and, best of all, it has passed my own gingeneer's very high standards! Cult product Expand Close Kiehl's Ultra Facial Deep Moisture Balm / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Kiehl's Ultra Facial Deep Moisture Balm Of all the moisturisers I've tried lately, Kiehl's Ultra Facial Deep Moisture Balm, above, from 28.50, is the one I keep going back to. It's especially nourishing for this time of year. The luxurious, creamy balm just melts into my skin. It's the Edelweiss flower extract, a mountain flower that grows high in the Alps, that helps strengthen the skin's barrier function, to quench dry skin and retain moisture. #treatyourself Former Doctor Who Eccleston lost his father to Alzheimer's The makers of Wallace and Gromit have produced a short film to address people's misconceptions about dementia. The online video from Aardman Animations features former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston, whose father Ronnie died following a 14-year battle with the illness. The 90-second film for Alzheimer's Research UK uses stop motion techniques to show an orange being stripped away to demonstrate how diseases that cause dementia physically attack the brain. The brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain - about the weight of an orange. Eccleston, 51, said he hoped the film would "fight the misunderstanding and fatalism that surrounds dementia in our society". He said: " We have to think differently about dementia. We have to stop believing dementia is an inevitability - something that simply happens to us all as we grow older. If we don't, we're never going to truly fight it. "Dementia is caused by diseases and diseases can be beaten. We've tamed diseases like cancer and heart disease and a diagnosis of either is no longer a certain death sentence. "People with dementia deserve this same hope. This film aims to show that dementia is caused by physical processes that scientists can put a stop to." Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Major breakthroughs have been made in the battle against Aids and cancer, and research will bring these same life-changing advancements in the field of dementia. "To get there, we must stop fearing dementia as something that just happens as we age, and focus on fighting the diseases, most commonly Alzheimer's, that are the root cause of it. Video of the Day "There are still no treatments that can slow or stop the disease processes in the brain, but with the support of a nation, Alzheimer's Research UK will win the fight against dementia." Aardman, the Oscar-winning animation studio based in Bristol, developed the film with Alzheimer's Research UK and creative agency ais London. Alzheimer's Research UK has asked people the share the video on social media by using the hashtag #sharetheorange. Most working mums jump at the chance to get away from their little darlings for a night or two. But top model Kerri Nicole-Blanc admits that she found it "difficult" to fly away to Marbella without her five-year-old daughter Kayla. The well-known beauty (25) soaked up some January sun over the weekend with a trip to the millionaires' playground but definitely suffered some mummy guilt. "It was my first time ever leaving her," she told the Diary. "When we decided to go to Marbella, the anxiety hit me, but she's been great. "I have face-timed her every day and she was with my mam so it was fine." Now with the Andrea Roche agency, Kerri is a regular on TV3 shows Xpose and Ireland AM and has even done some modelling jobs with little Kayla. Expand Close TV presenter Lisa Fizpatrick (centre) with models Shauna Lindsey, Kerrie Nicole Blanc, Adrienne Murphy, Natalia Piechaczek, Aoife Walsh and Holly Carpenter as recently they showed off the latest fashions at Lisa Fitzpatricks Fashion Fix with Arnotts. Photo: Brian McEvoy / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp TV presenter Lisa Fizpatrick (centre) with models Shauna Lindsey, Kerrie Nicole Blanc, Adrienne Murphy, Natalia Piechaczek, Aoife Walsh and Holly Carpenter as recently they showed off the latest fashions at Lisa Fitzpatricks Fashion Fix with Arnotts. Photo: Brian McEvoy While describing her daughter as her "best friend" and a "little mini me", the Kate Hudson lookalike said that she wouldn't like Kayla to follow in her footsteps when she's older. "I have done a good few bits with Kayla, but I would never want her to get into the modelling scene when she's a teenager," she continued. "I would rather she was a doctor." A qualified beautician, the Swords native is not a regular on the Dublin social scene, preferring instead to spend her time at home. Video of the Day "Kayla is my best friend, I would rather spend my day with her than anyone else," she added. "It's not that I'm not interested in the social scene, but I have a bigger priority at home so I go to the things that are important. I don't show up to the opening of an envelope." She's also enjoying a romance with long-term boyfriend Keith Malone, with the loved-up pair celebrating their three-year anniversary while over in Marbella. "I met him at an Ed Sheeran concert in the 3Arena three years ago," she explained. "He used to run the bar there." The model was one of the attendees at the re-launch party of Irish bar/restaurant Beckitts on Marbella's Camilo Jose Cella on Friday night. Run by chef Marc Quinlan, the eatery has played host to some famous faces over the years, including actor Liam Neeson and ex-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Its owners decided to mark 14 years of business with a major revamp as it opened its doors again this month, with a busy season ahead. Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson said she is a "complete nightmare" to make a cup of tea for. The food writer and TV chef likes her daily cuppa made in a specific manner and admits: "I am incredibly precise and I know exactly how I want it." Lawson, 56, also doesn't make any diva demands when it comes to her "rider" and only asks for tea mugs, a kettle and milk in the hotel room fridge. Although she admits that these days she travels with her own kettle and has started travelling with her own mug because others are "not big enough". Lawson stars in the new TV advert for tea brand Typhoo and says the partnership is a "natural and happy fit". "I am a complete nightmare to make tea for," she told the Press Association. "I like it very strong with some milk in it and I have to have it at the optimum temperature which is just after it's too hot but before it gets anywhere near room temperature." The How To Be A Domestic Goddess author also always travels with her own tea bags and said she has a "slight superstition" when writing or working on a new recipe. "I can't wash up the mug that I'm using until the recipe is completed or what I'm writing is completed," she said. She estimates she drinks "nearer to twelve than eight mugs" of tea a day. Video of the Day The new advert shows a relaxed and casually-dressed Lawson in a white shirt and jeans as she shares her recipe for a perfect tea moment. "On a day-to-day basis I just have my two mugs of tea and then I chain-drink tea throughout the day. "My treat is some toast and good bitter marmalade and a mug of tea, but that's not an everyday matter - I often do that on a Saturday or Sunday," she explained. Tea has always been in the Lawson family. Her mother Vanessa Salmon was heiress to the Lyons Coffee House dynasty, and she said her grandfather was "said to have the best nose in Mincing Lane", a reference to the London street that became well-known for its tea establishments. She will be returning to TV screens in Australia on popular cooking show MasterChef as a guest judge, alongside Matt Preston, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris. British chef Heston Blumenthal will also be making an appearance as a guest judge on the show. The team behind the hit Netflix series Making A Murderer have said they expected a backlash about the documentary in the media. During the Television Critics Association press tour, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos responded to the interest the 10-part series has created on both sides of the Atlantic. The series focuses on the case of Steven Avery, who was prosecuted in 2005 for the death of photographer Teresa Halbach. "The media are demonising this man in order to prove his guilt," Ricciardi said. The pair insisted they are film-makers - not prosecutors, and Demos added: "We did not consider this advocacy journalism in the least. "We are not taking sides. We don't have a stake in his character, in his innocence or guilt. That was not the question that we were raising. "If you watch the series, I think it's clear that the American criminal justice system has some serious problems and that it is urgent that we address them." Ricciardi and Demos ducked questions on their belief about Avery's guilt or innocence, even though they told Stephen Colbert on the CBS Late Show earlier this month that they believe he is not guilty. They instead pointed to questions the documentary raises about the US criminal justice system, and said they tried their best to reflect all of the facts in the case. Prosecutors - who the film-makers say declined their request to participate in Making A Murderer - have claimed the film omits physical evidence against Avery. Video of the Day Avery has recently filed an appeal against his conviction, claiming authorities used an improper warrant and that a juror was out to get him. The film-makers said they believe his request to watch Making A Murderer while in prison had been declined. Demos added: "We are ready to follow if there are significant developments and we are looking at other stories as well." A televised selection show for the song and act to represent the UK at this year's Eurovision Song Contest will be aired on the BBC. Eurovision: You Decide will show six shortlisted acts taking to the stage in a bid to impress viewers at home and a professional panel in the venue. The acts will compete for the honour of representing the United Kingdom at Eurovision 2016, held in Sweden. The Great British Bake Off co-presenter Mel Giedroyc will host the 90-minute programme, broadcast live from The O2 Kentish Town on February 26. "I am a huge fan of the Eurovish and am honoured to be hosting this fantastic event," she said. "It's very exciting that the Great British public will get the chance to choose who will be sent to Sweden and I know it's going to be an amazing night." An expert panel will be there on the night to offer their thoughts on how the songs could be made to look and sound on stage in Stockholm. The programme also heralds the arrival of Eurovision on BBC Four, which will also broadcast both semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 live from Stockholm on May 10 and 12. The final will be broadcast on BBC One on May 14. Cassian Harrison, editor of BBC Four, said: "I'm delighted that Eurovision: You Decide and both of the semi-finals are coming to the channel this year. "BBC Four is the home of music on TV in the UK and, as any fan will tell you, Eurovision is one of the biggest music events on the planet and is much more than just one night of TV, therefore it is only right that BBC Four is able to showcase Europe's favourite music TV event right here in the UK." Eurovision: You Decide will also feature special musical guest performances, to be confirmed on January 22 on The Ken Bruce Show on BBC Radio 2. Video of the Day Tickets for the show will go on sale on January 22 at 10am via www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision. Khloe Kardashian "definitely" made a sex tape during her marriage to basketball star Lamar Odom. The 31-year-old star is still officially married to Lamar, but put a halt to divorce proceedings while he recovers from a near-fatal overdose that happened in October. During their time together, their healthy sex life was often documented on reality show Keeping Up With the Kardashians and their spin off Khloe & Lamar with viewers treated to scenes of Khloe making a "love tape" of herself in the bath for her spouse, and the pair testing out a sex swing. While it is her sister Kim Kardashian who is most famous for having a sex tape, Khloe revealed she also shot some X-rated footage with Lamar when they were husband and wife. Expand Close Khloe Kardashian, executive producer, speaks onstage during FYI - Kocktails with Khloe panel as part of the A+E Network portion of This is Cable 2016 Television Critics Association Press Tour at Langham Hotel on January 6, 2016 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Khloe Kardashian, executive producer, speaks onstage during FYI - Kocktails with Khloe panel as part of the A+E Network portion of This is Cable 2016 Television Critics Association Press Tour at Langham Hotel on January 6, 2016 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images) "I've definitely recorded myself having sex with my ex-husband," she admitted during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live! on Sunday night. "But not like, talking to camera." Determined not to let the raunchy scenes ever see the light of day, Khloe added to host Andy Cohen that she keeps the tapes "in my safe". Khloe has certainly had an eventful few months, after Lamar was found unconscious in a brothel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in October. The reality star has been at her ex's side as he attempts to recover from the incident. He is now at a rehab facility after being discharged from hospital, and Khloe is thrilled with the 36-year-old's progress. "All of a sudden, he's walking," she said. "Doctors are astonished." During her chat on Andy's show, which is renowned for unearthing the raunchiest of secrets from its interviewees, Khloe also revealed her experiments with plastic surgery. Speaking about her now extremely full lips, Khloe said the secret was "laser treatments". Video of the Day "I've done laser plumping for my whole face," she said. "I do, like, lipolaser on my body. I do everything." Copies of David Bowie's chart-topping album Blackstar are selling for more than 10 times their original price, days after his death. Vinyl versions of the LP, which is number one in the UK album charts, are being sold for more than 400 as fans scramble to get their hands on a copy. According to the 2016 edition of Record Collector's Rare Record Price Guide, mint copies of Bowie's self-titled debut from 1967 are priced at 800, while top quality copies of 1971's The Man Who Sold The World are fetching around 700. Record Collector editor Ian McCann said: "If you want to buy Bowie's records, our advice is to wait. "Massive prices for old albums tend to flatten off and fall once demand subsides. If you are looking for an investment, we would recommend the original first British pressings of David Bowie's classic 70s albums." As well as splashing out for the music, fans have been paying tribute to the singer by attending concerts around the world. To mark a week since his death, 900 people crammed into the Union Chapel in Islington, north London, to take part in a marathon four-and-a-half-hour gig. Established artists such as David McAlmont, The Feeling frontman Dan Gillespie Sells, and The Magic Numbers were among those taking to the stage for the concert. The event, which overran organisers' original estimation by two hours, was streamed live on YouTube. The sold-out show - Starman: A celebration of David Bowie - provided an opportunity for people inspired, influenced or touched by his work to pay tribute to the visionary musician, known for hits including Changes, Let's Dance and Ashes To Ashes. News of Bowie's death at 69, two days after the release of his final album, was confirmed on January 10. Blackstar rocketed to number one as mourning fans helped the late singer secure a quarter of the spots in the UK Top 40 album chart. Video of the Day It debuted in first place with almost 150,000 combined sales, making it the fastest selling album of the year so far. A total of 623,000 Bowie records were sold last week and there were more than 19 million song listens on audio streaming services. The highest entry after Blackstar among Bowie's 10 top 40 albums was 2014's retrospective Nothing Has Changed - The Very Best Of in fifth, followed by Hunky Dory, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane in 14th, 17th and 23rd places respectively. Tabloid favourite Stephanie Davis threatened to punch Gemma Collins after the pair exchanged a tirade of abuse on Celebrity Big Brother as the ex-Hollyoaks actress's love tryst with fellow housemate Jeremy McConnell hit rock bottom. Davis, who left the soap in a flurry of headlines about her private life last year, found herself on the end of The Only Way Is Essex (Towie) stalwart Collins' sharp tongue amid accusations she was cheating on her boyfriend with Irish reality TV personality McConnell. Collins hit out at Davis, after catching the 22-year-old Liverpudlian actress in bed with McConnell. The former Towie regular said: "It's so wrong what you're doing, you've got a boyfriend. "I think you're acting like an absolute disgrace." But the embattled actress took offence to the advice, and replied: "Gem, who the f*** are you trying to speak to me like that? "I can't wait for you to see yourself when you're out of here like what a horrible monster you are. "Your attitude stinks, you're a diva and that's why no one's ever liked you. "Who are you? You're off Towie. What's your talent? Nothing." Earlier, McConnell told Davis he was not going to be her "dog" as speculation about their relationship blossomed - despite Davis having a boyfriend on the outside. Video of the Day He said: "If you respected me and actually liked me you'd just walk out and leave me be. "The affection s*** needs to stop. I'm finished. "It's like you want your cake and you want to eat it." In a frank admission, Davis admitted she "took it too far being close to Jeremy". She said: "I'll never be able to forgive myself." Speaking to Big Brother in the diary room, she Davis said: "If you let me back in that house I'm gonna end up doing something I regret. "Either if that's punching Gemma Collins in the face which she deserves. She's a f***ing diva ... People that do like her need to give their head a wobble because she's disgusting." Earlier, David Bowie's ex wife Angie decided that she was going to leave the house and began packing her case. She later changed her mind. She told Big Brother: "I'm sorry I'm so cranky, but when I don't sleep I just, that's it." Contestants Nancy Dell'Olio and Winston McKenzie have both been evicted, while Jonathan Cheban walked out on the series. At least 26 people have been killed and 15 others wounded in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a police building in Yemen's capital Sanaa, security officials said. The officials, who are loyal to anti-government Shiite rebels known as Houthis, said another 30 people are believed to be trapped under the debris of the badly damaged building. Security forces swiftly sealed off the area as earth-moving equipment arrived to help with the search for bodies and survivors under the debris. The officials initially announced that 20 people were killed, but later said that six bodies were unearthed from under the debris. Police vehicles parked in the facility's courtyard were destroyed and nearby homes suffered some damage, they said. The dead and wounded were policemen and Houthi rebels, they said. The building was partially used as a gathering point for security forces and on occasion used by the Houthis as an assembly point for forces headed to deployment elsewhere in Yemen. The air strike happened shortly before midnight on Sunday, according to the officials, who added that reporters were barred from approaching the facility. The Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against the Houthis and their allies in March 2015, siding with the internationally recognised government. Meanwhile, the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a Nairobi-based humanitarian news agency, has announced the death of one of its contributors in Yemen. In a statement, it said 35-year-old Almigdad Mohammed Ali Mojalli was killed just outside Sanaa on Sunday in an "apparent" air strike. Mojalli also contributed from Yemen to Western media outlets, including Voice of America and the Daily Telegraph, said the statement. People stand on the shoreline as a tourist boat carrying 60 people burns out at sea off the coast of Whakatane, New Zealand (Whakatane Beacon via AP) All 60 people forced overboard after their tourist boat caught fire off the coast of New Zealand have been rescued, according to authorities. Police spokeswoman Kim Perks said the blaze broke out as the PeeJay was returning from White Island to the town of Whakatane. She said all 53 passengers and seven crew members were forced overboard to escape the fire and smoke. She said one passenger and one crew member were taken to a local hospital after suffering minor injuries and smoke inhalation. Ms Perks said the boat was about 0.6 miles (1km) from shore when authorities were first notified of the incident, and they called on nearby boats to assist. She said the PeeJay crew then sent a mayday to say they were abandoning ship. Ms Perks said four other private vessels and the New Zealand Coastguard were able to get to the scene quickly and rescue everybody. She said the PeeJay later sank. White Island, 31 miles (50km) off the coast of North Island, is volcanically active and popular with tourists. White Island Tours, which operated the tourist boat, was not immediately available for comment. Whakatane resident Roger White told the Associated Press it was raining at the time of the incident but he could see some of what unfolded from his home. He said he saw some light smoke coming from the front of the vessel which then got heavier. After about 10 minutes, he said, the cabin burst into flames and fire quickly engulfed the boat. He said it appeared some evacuated on to two small dinghies while he could see the figures of others still on board as the flames grew larger. He said it was hard to make out but believes those people must have then leapt into the water. Mr White said plenty of boats arrived quickly to help out, including a fishing boat and some charter boats, which assisted the Coastguard in the rescue. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and rival candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders speak simultaneously at the NBC News - YouTube Democratic presidential candidates debate in Charleston, South Carolina REUTERS/Randall Hill Hillary Clinton, the US Democratic presidential front-runner, used a televised debate on Sunday to accuse her rival, Bernie Sanders, of being inconsistent on regulating Wall Street, weak on gun control and unrealistic in his healthcare plans. She used some of her strongest language yet in trying to halt Mr Sanders' growing challenge to her status as favourite to win the nomination. Mrs Clinton has a substantial lead in national polls but has seen Mr Sanders make gains in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. They took to the stage along with Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, aware that their performance - the final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses in two weeks - could have a crucial impact on who wins the state. The result was a string of verbal attacks in the most vigorous televised debate so far. Mrs Clinton repeatedly cast herself as the candidate who would build on President Barack Obama's record while Mr Sanders constantly tried to highlight her ties to Wall Street. She warned that Mr Sanders' healthcare plan would mean ripping up Mr Obama's Affordable Care Act and starting again. "But the fact is we have the Affordable Care Act. ... We have already seen 19 million American get insurance," she said. He responded by saying that millions of people still did not have health insurance. "Nobody is tearing this up," he said. "We're moving forward." Their sharpest exchange was over how to crack down on Wall Street. Mrs Clinton said Mr Sanders had voted to deregulate the financial market in 2000, one of the factors leading to the collapse of 2008 that pitched the US economy into a deep recession. The Vermont senator, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, said Mrs Clinton had accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees Wall Street backers. "Can you really reform Wall Street when they are spending millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and when they are providing speaking fees to individuals? So it's easy to say, 'I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that,' but I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street," he said. Once again, Mrs Clinton aligned herself with Mr Obama. "He's criticised President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street. And President Obama has led our country out of the great recession. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama," she said. Mr Sanders surge - taking a lead in New Hampshire and pushing her close in Iowa - has sparked fear in the Clinton campaign that she could suffer the same fate as 2008, when she was a strong front-runner but never recovered after Mr Obama won the Iowa caucus. Mrs Clinton also aligned herself with another president. She said she would use her husband as a travelling emissary to help find the best ideas for creating jobs and reforming the economy. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] The rolling brawl between the US Republican presidential front-runners rumbled on yesterday as Donald Trump described his closest competitor Ted Cruz as "nasty", while the Texas senator criticised the billionaire's "New York values". "He's a nasty guy," Mr Trump said in a TV interview. "Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. "He's got an edge that's not good. You can't make deals with people like that and it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing for the country," said Mr Trump, who has led Republican opinion polls for months. The spat between the pair, who earlier in the campaign had called each other friends, has intensified since the Republican debate on January 14, when the Texan attacked reality television star Trump's "New York values" and policy positions, including past support for abortion. Mr Cruz repeated his criticism of "New York values" yesterday, saying: "People understand exactly what that is. In South Carolina, when I was there, the people there certainly understand it." He pointed to the real estate magnate's own statements which included a 1999 interview in which Mr Trump ascribed his pro-choice views and support for gays serving in the military in part to having lived all his life in New York. "My views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa," Mr Trump said at the time. Mr Trump responded last night by saying Mr Cruz had taken money from backers who are pro-gay marriage. "He's a total hypocrite," said Trump. A 'Real Clear Politics' average of recent opinion polls show Mr Trump running marginally ahead of Mr Cruz in Iowa but holding a bigger lead in New Hampshire, where Florida Senator Marco Rubio is in second place. Those states will have the nation's first nominating contests of 2016. Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) take part in in demonstration march, in reaction to mass assaults on women on New Year's Eve, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender A woman holds up a sign saying 'No Violence Against Women' as protesters gather in front of Hauptbahnhof main railway station to protest against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on January 9, 2016 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images) A 26-year-old Algerian man has become the first person arrested in connection with a string of sexual assaults during New Year's celebrations in Cologne. The attacks sparked a debate about Germany's ability to integrate migrants. Expand Close Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) take part in in demonstration march, in reaction to mass assaults on women on New Year's Eve, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West) take part in in demonstration march, in reaction to mass assaults on women on New Year's Eve, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender Prosecutors said that the unidentified asylum-seeker was arrested at a refugee home in the nearby town of Kerpen over the weekend. He is accused of groping a woman and stealing her mobile phone, prosecutor's office spokesman Ulrich Bremer said. Two other Algerian asylum seekers, aged 22 and 24, were also arrested in Kerpen and the western city of Aachen respectively over the weekend, both for robbery, Mr Bremer added. The number of people accused of committing crimes in Cologne at New Year now stands at 21, of whom eight are in detention. Almost three weeks after the incident a total of 838 people have filed criminal complaints, including 497 women alleging sexual assault. Some of the victims have jointly filed a single complaint, so that the number of alleged crimes stands at 766, of which 381 are sexual offences, including three rapes. The scale and nature of the crimes in Cologne, coupled with police descriptions of the perpetrators as being part of a large crowd of drunken men of "Arab or North African" origin, has fanned the debate about Germany's approach to migration. Almost 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrived in the country last year, many of them from countries where women face greater discrimination than in Germany. While the incidents were seized on by those in Germany who had already argued for stricter immigration rules, left-wing parties have also voiced concern. The opposition Green Party said its members passed a resolution on Monday calling for better integration measures to counter the message about "the superiority of men and the inequality of women" that many of the alleged perpetrators would have grown up with. Berlin police issued a statement denying reports - widely shared on social media - that a 13-year-old girl had been kidnapped and raped by an alleged migrant in the German capital last week. From painting a horse for Easter Seals to designing artwork for utility boxes around Bismarck, Bismarck High School art teacher Paul Noot finds ways to move his creativity from the classroom into the community. We actually started a co-op about five years ago, said Noot, who has has been teaching art for 13 years, nine of those years spent at Bismarck High School. A former student of mine came back to Bismarck and wanted a place where artists could hang out and make art, so he was the one that initially got it going. He came to me and I knew a lot of artists here, and thats kinda how it developed. Through this group and Bismarck Art & Galleries Association, Noot has given back to the community through his art. He has created a mini bus for the Cancer Society, and two of Noots designs were chosen by a selected committee for utility boxes that can be found around downtown. Noot gets his inspiration from his surroundings whether it be nature or his students. I guess it kind of goes hand and hand with teaching because I can make anything I want as far as being an artist. I dont have to follow a certain style or kind of a theme with my work, said Noot, whose passion for art started at a young age and became stronger through his years in junior high and high school. In addition to teaching, he is usually working on three or four pieces at one time. Though Noot says he would love to be a full-time artist, it is not realistic and enjoys teaching art to his students. Through teaching, he aims to push his students to their full potential. If I let the kids settle with its good enough, then what am I doing as a teacher or as an artist? asked Noot, who encourages others to find their passions. Follow your dreams, follow your passions because ultimately you're the one who has to be happy in the end, Noot said. Actress Oona Chaplin speaks to the media following a memorial service organised by Citizens UK for refugees who have died trying to reach the UK, at St Andrew's Church in the City of London. Photo: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire David Cameron has been urged to act on the "humanitarian crisis" in the Calais Jungle by Game Of Thrones actress Oona Chaplin, who has spent time volunteering in the camp. Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, told the Prime Minister he should visit the camp and speak to refugees, after she attended a memorial service in London. Campaigners and celebrities gathered at the service on Monday at the same time as a court hearing which will determine the fate of four children living in the Jungle who have family in Britain. One of the asylum seekers, a Syrian boy, is described by his brother - who is already living in London - as having been "traumatised" by his experiences of war and "desperate" to reach his family in Britain. Around 50 campaigners, including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett, met inside St Andrew's Church in Holborn to remember an Afghan teenager who is reported to have died crossing between Dunkirk and Britain in recent weeks. The youth, said to be named Masud, was thought to have been trying to get to his sister in the UK. Chaplin, who was tearful after the service, said: "I would urge David Cameron to consider what kind of society he is prepared to defend. "The values we are killing people for overseas, human rights, decent, dignity these are the very things at risk now, on our shores." She added: "This isn't just going to go away. We cannot wash our hands of this issue. This isn't a refugee crisis, this is a humanitarian crisis." Campaigners from Citizens UK, who are supporting the children's asylum case, are hopeful it can pave the way for more vulnerable young people to be brought to safety in Britain. George Gabriel from Citizens UK said in the Jungle were "hundreds of children desperate to reach their families in Britain". He added: "It's really important that these families who have been torn apart by war aren't forced to choose between traffickers on one hand and terrible train tracks on the other" Mr Kenny will today begin his campaign for Britain to stay in the EU by outlining Irelands support for an overhaul of how the union works Growing inequality means that the world's wealthiest 62 people own as much as the poorest half of the planet's population - some 3.6 billion people - according to a new report from Oxfam. The richest 1pc - around 73 million out of the world's 7.3 billion people - now own as much as everyone else put together, said the report, which was published ahead of the annual World Economic Forum of global political and business leaders in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Oxfam said urgent action was needed to tackle the "inequality crisis" and called on world leaders to take action to crack down on tax-dodging by the rich, which denies governments in the developing world billions of dollars a year that could be used on health, education and anti-poverty measures. British Prime Minister David Cameron promised in a speech in Davos three years ago to get tough on corporate tax avoidance. But Oxfam said that promised measures to increase transparency in British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands, have not yet been implemented. While the UK has made good on Mr Cameron's promise to introduce public registers of companies' owners, only one overseas territory - Montserrat - has followed suit. The report found that the gap between rich and poor had widened "dramatically" over the past 12 months. As recently as 2010, the combined wealth of the 388 richest people equalled that of the poorest half of the world, but that number has since plummeted to 80 last year and just 62 of the richest now. The total wealth of the poorest half of the world fell by one trillion dollars (900m) since 2010, even though the actual number of people in this group rose by 400 million, said the report, which is entitled 'An Economy for the 1%'. Meanwhile, the wealth of the super-rich 62 rose by more than half a trillion dollars over the same period to $1.76trn. This equates to an average of around 26bn for each of the 62, who include just nine women. Although the number of people living in extreme poverty halved between 1990 and 2010 globally, the average annual income of the poorest 10pc has increased by less than three dollars (2.60) a year over the past 25 years. Oxfam said action on tax should form part of a three-pronged approach, alongside increased investment in public services and action to boost the income of the lowest-paid. A Swedish doctor is accused of raping and kidnapping a woman he planned to hold captive in an underground dungeon for years. The medic is alleged to have used strawberries laced with Rohypnol to knock out the 38-year-old before putting her in a wheelchair and driving her to his home. According to Swedish prosecutors, he had plotted to lock his victim - and possibly others - in the 60 square-metre bunker for "several years". The doctor, who is also 38 but has not been named by prosecutors, has been dubbed the "Swedish Fritzl" for similarities with the case of Austrian Josef Fritzl, who held his daughter in a dungeon for 24 years. The Swedish physician is alleged to have raped the woman in her flat before driving her almost 350 miles to a house in Kristianstad, south Sweden, the Aftonbladet website said. On his way, it is claimed he wore two rubber masks - one of an elderly man and another of a bearded man - that were later found in his bedroom to avoid being identified. He is alleged to have detained the woman for a week in which he raped and sexually abused her. Police believe he spent five years constructing the bunker, which had 12-inch concrete walls and a bedroom, toilet and kitchen. Chief prosecutor Peter Claeson said: "We believe his intention has been to keep the woman locked up for several years. "We also suspect him of planning this for years. Among other things, he has built the bunker to bring one or more victims." The doctor is said to have been arrested after panicking when he discovered the woman had been reported missing and drove her to a police station. He has allegedly admitted drugging, kidnapping and holding the woman against her will, but denies rape. In March 2009, Fritzl was told he will spend the rest of his life in a top-security psychiatric hospital for murdering a baby boy he fathered during the 24 years he kept his daughter Elisabeth locked up in a cellar. The 73-year-old was jailed for life after a jury in St Poelten, Austria, unanimously found him guilty of murder at the end of a four-day trial at which he had already admitted incest, rape, false imprisonment and coercion. The jury also convicted Fritzl of slavery making him the first man to be convicted of the offence in Austria. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Hubert Zafke is accused of working as a medic in Auschwitz A 95-year-old man is to go on trial next month on 3,681 counts of accessory to murder for allegedly serving in the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp. Hubert Zafke is accused of working as a medic in an SS hospital in Auschwitz. Prosecutors argue that the former SS sergeant helped the death camp function in that role. An appeals court ruled in December that he was fit for trial, although the Neubrandenburg state court said on Monday that judges will have to assess whether he needs special accommodation when his trial opens on February 29. Mr Zafke's attorney insists his client did nothing criminal at Auschwitz. Another former SS man, 94-year-old Reinhold Hanning, is going on trial in Detmold on February 11 on accusations he served as an Auschwitz guard from 1943 to 1944. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was triumphal at a news conference about the deal in Tehran, Iran Photo: Reuters US President Barack Obama declared a victory for US diplomacy yesterday, hailing the implementation of a nuclear deal that "cut off every single path" for Iran to build a nuclear bomb. In Tehran, meanwhile, President Hassan Rouhani told his people that the agreement was a vindication of his policy towards the West. However, the limits of that diplomacy was apparent yesterday as the US imposed fresh penalties on Iran just hours after President Obama lifted all nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran. The US Treasury barred 11 Iranian "entities and individuals" from using the American banking system as a result of alleged involvement in "procurement on behalf of Iran's ballistic missile programme". While the US is lifting all nuclear-related sanctions, restrictions remain, related to Iran's alleged sponsorship of terrorism, its human rights record and its missile ambitions. Last year, Iran conducted two ballistic missile tests in breach of United Nations resolutions. Announcing the nuclear deal yesterday, Mr Obama said: "I decided that a strong, confident America could advance our national security by engaging directly with the Iranian government. We've seen the result." America and its allies are now relieving Iran of all nuclear-related sanctions, including an EU oil embargo. In return, Iran has surrendered 98pc of its low-enriched uranium and removed two-thirds of 19,500 centrifuges that produce the material. A reactor capable of producing plutonium for a bomb has been filled with concrete, and the International Atomic Energy Agency is exercising greater inspection rights. "Whereas Iran was steadily expanding its nuclear programme, we have now cut off every single path that Iran could have used to build a bomb," said Mr Obama. Mr Rouhani promised to secure the removal of sanctions when he won the presidency in 2013. He has fulfilled his pledge before a parliamentary election due on February 26. "Today we are in an atmosphere where we can have political, economic and legal interaction with the world to the benefit of our national interests," said Mr Rouhani. "We believe in our nation's success." Iran is producing about 2.9 million barrels of oil a day. The International Energy Agency calculates that it could increase this by 700,000 barrels within 90 days, placing further downward pressure on the global oil price. Both Mr Obama and Mr Rouhani faced fierce opposition from hardliners during negotiations. When 10 US Navy sailors were detained last week for straying into Iranian waters, Republican congressmen insisted it was evidence of Iran's continued hostility. Mr Obama said their swift release was proof of a new era of diplomacy. He also hailed the release of four Americans, including Jason Rezaian, a 'Washington Post' journalist who was held for 18 months, in a prisoner swap in the final hours of the deal's implementation. Before the EU embargo was imposed in July 2012, more than a quarter of Iran's oil exports went to European countries, notably Greece and Italy. The country had previously been reduced to selling oil to only four big customers: China, India, Japan and South Korea. Iran now has every chance of increasing its exports, the central pillar of its economy. In Tehran, hardliners had consistently argued that America and its Western allies would never lift sanctions. They claimed that America's goal was to topple the Islamic regime. Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] More than 400 people are believed to have been kidnapped by Isil in eastern Syria as the militants cemented control of the key city of Deir Ezzor during heavy clashes. Isil launched a shock attack on the northwestern suburb of Balighia on Saturday evening, killing 18 regime soldiers and abducting several families, according to sources on the ground. Around a dozen civilians, most from a single family, were understood to have been killed in retaliatory regime and Russian air strikes. The assault comes despite a four-month Russian air campaign that Moscow said would beat back the militants, and more than a year of strikes by a US-led coalition against the jihadists in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said families of pro-government fighters were among those 400 reported abducted. "There is genuine fear for their lives, there is a fear that the group might execute them as it has done before in other areas," said the Observatory's head Rami Abdulrahamn. Deir Ezzor is the main town in a province of the same name. The province links Isil's de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighbouring Iraq. Amer Howaidy, a media activist working to smuggle out news from the mostly Isil-held city, said that the hostages were believed to have been taken to a village in the west of the province, where they would be forcibly recruited. The state news agency and others close to the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, put the death toll significantly higher, reporting that 300 people had been killed. A source close to the Syrian government side said some of those killed had been beheaded. However, activists on the ground said they had no knowledge of kidnappings on the scale of the 400 claimed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Isil's assault puts the jihadists in control of around 60pc of Deir Ezzor. The remaining government-held suburbs have been besieged by Isil forces for more than a year, and gone without electricity for 11 months. Of those under siege in the city, 70pc are women and children, and many have been displaced from their homes elsewhere and are living in temporary shelters. Isil has previously carried out mass killings following military assaults in Iraq and Syria, including the slaughter of 200 soldiers captured from the Tabqa airbase in Raqqa province, and hundreds of members of the al-Sheitat tribe in Deir Ezzor in 2014. Meanwhile, the US government says it is working to clarify reports that three American citizens have gone missing in Iraq. "We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq," the State Department official said. The pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya had reported that three US citizens were kidnapped in Baghdad. "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," said the US official. An Israeli soldier guards near the Jewish settlement of Otniel in the West Bank Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun A Palestinian broke into a West Bank settlement home and fatally stabbed an Israeli woman before fleeing, triggering a massive manhunt. The attack occurred hours after another Palestinian was shot dead by soldiers after trying to attack them with a knife, the Israeli military said. The latest incidents come amid a four-month wave of violence that Israel says is driven by Palestinian incitement and Palestinians say is rooted in frustration at decades of living under Israeli occupation. In the later attack, the Palestinian slipped into the Otniel settlement, broke into the woman's home and killed her before fleeing the scene. The woman was named Dafna Meir, a mother of six in her late 30s. Otniel is located near Hebron, the West Bank's largest city and a frequent flashpoint of violence. Residents of the settlement hid in their homes last night as Israeli forces blocked roads and lit the sky with flares while searching for the assailant. The military said no soldiers were harmed in the earlier incident, which took place near a base south of the West Bank city of Nablus. Also on Sunday, Israeli police cancelled a meeting planned at the Hakawati Theatre, the Palestinian national theatre in east Jerusalem. A spokesman said the meeting was with the Palestinian Authority about the funding of the theatre. Israel does not allow the Palestinians to conduct what it considers political activity in east Jerusalem. A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded a pregnant Israeli woman in the West Bank A Palestinian attacker stabbed and wounded a pregnant Israeli woman in the West Bank before being shot, Israeli officials said. The attacker entered the Tekoa settlement on Monday and stabbed the 30-year-old woman before being shot by the settlement's head of security, according to the Israeli military. A spokeswoman for Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital said the woman was five months pregnant. She said the woman was moderately wounded after being stabbed in the upper body, adding that there was no damage caused to the foetus. Eli Bin, the head of Israel's rescue service MDA, had earlier told Israeli Channel 10 TV that the woman was seriously wounded. The attacker's condition was not immediately known. Schools in Bismarck-Mandan ballooned with students as the oil industry brought newcomers to the state, and so far the slowdown in the patch isnt stopping new ones from enrolling. Bismarck Public Schools, which started the school year with 12,400 students, is slated to exceed 14,200 students in four years, according to the most recent projections from RSP and Associates, the planning firm that contracts with the school district. But as the oil slowdown persists, those with an eye on enrollment wonder whether the district will hit 14,200 students by the 2019-20 school year. Superintendent Tamara Uselman pointed to elementary enrollment as an indication of what may be to come. Its less frantic now, she said. The number of students attending Bismarck elementary schools increased by roughly 250 each of the past three school years through 2014-15. When the current school year started, the schools welcomed only 154 more students than the previous year. Nevertheless, the district is still growing. Uselman doesnt anticipate that to reverse any time soon. There are still jobs, and there are still kids moving in, she said. Rob Schwarz, CEO of RSP, keeps a close eye on factors that drive population in Bismarck. He also contracts with school districts in the Bakken and elsewhere in North Dakota. He presented enrollment projections to the Bismarck School Board in February 2015 and said he anticipates producing updated numbers next year. A possible slowdown in growth will reveal itself in time. Were waiting for some of the data sets that become available in the spring, said Schwarz, adding that kindergarten enrollment and new development projects will indicate how fast the district may grow. Growth, at whatever rate, is relatively certain for Bismarck-Mandan schools. The region is slated for expansion in sectors such as the medical industry, Schwarz said. With a larger workforce comes more children needing an education. Assistant Superintendent Fran Rodenburg updates a chart weekly with enrollment numbers at each of Bismarcks elementary schools. The district already has opened two new elementary schools in the past two years as the student population soared. Its still significant, she said. Its just that were slowing at the elementary level. That growth is bubbling up to the middle school level. Assistant Superintendent Ben Johnson, who oversees secondary education, anticipates a big jump in middle school enrollment as elementary students new to the district over the past few years age. Without taking into consideration any new students who move to the district, he said Bismarcks middle and high schools will be filled with 500 additional students in three years. That estimate is based on the current number of third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. Horizon and Simle middle schools are already over capacity, and Wachter Middle School is expected to join them in two years, Johnson said. Expanding facilities Bismarck school officials have launched an effort to gather community input on how to best accommodate the ongoing influx of students. A group of 75 parents has met three times this school year to discuss the growth, and members have toured schools to better understand needs at various facilities. RSP is guiding that process and will convene two public forums this month to get feedback from the community. Uselman said theyre discussing the merits of building more schools such as another elementary or a fourth middle school. The district also could build additions at each of the existing three middle schools. Bismarck Public Schools recently purchased more than 70 acres of land in the northern part of the city, which could provide the site of a new school down the road. The group is also identifying options including repurposing an elementary school to house district services, such as the new English language learner Welcome Center or Bismarck Early Childhood Education Program, Uselman said. At the end of March, the school board is slated to review the information gleaned from those public forums and another in early March. Its then up to the board to adopt a plan. We want to see if we can do something without raising taxes from what they are today, Uselman said. Mandan Enrollment in Mandan has mirrored Bismarck Public Schools. We would expect what happens to Bismarck is going to happen here, Superintendent Mike Bitz said. He said elementary space is adequate, though the six schools are expected to grow by 300 students to nearly 2,100 in four years. If that happens, the district may need to consider a new school down the road, Bitz said. The school district could build on 24.5 acres of land it owns in the Lakewood area north of McKenzie Drive. A more pressing issue is Mandan Middle School, which is at capacity now with 839 students and is slated to increase by 100 students in three years. Most of the concern would be classroom space, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Lind said. An addition to the middle school might be doable without going for a bond, though its up to the school board to decide how to move forward, Bitz said. A man inspects a damaged vehicle at the scene of an explosion in a school in Kilis, south Turkey, near the border with Syria (IHA via AP) A woman has been killed after projectiles fired from Syria struck a school in the southern Turkish city of Kilis. The office of the governor of Kilis said a rocket had hit a schoolyard and killed a cleaning lady, while two other rockets fell in vacant land. A wounded student - a girl in the seventh grade - was taken to hospital for treatment, the governor's office added. The mayor of Kilis, Hasan Kara, told Turkish NTV television that "mortars" had apparently been fired from Syria. The broadcaster, quoting military sources, said the Turkish army responded with fire against targets in Syria. Earlier, the state-run Anadolu Agency said four people were injured in an explosion on the grounds of a middle school in Kilis. There are four schools in the area, just 10 kilometres (six miles) from Syria. The Syrian conflict has spilled over into Turkey many times, with artillery fire landing in Turkish border towns and the Turkish army responding in kind. Kilis lies near Syrian territory controlled by Islamic State. BMW announces $1.7 billion investment to build all-electric vehicles The $1.7 billion investment includes $700 million to build a high-voltage battery assembly plant with 300 new jobs in Woodruff. SHARE By Independent Mail FAIR PLAY A Georgia woman was killed Monday in a wreck on Interstate 85 in Oconee County. The two-vehicle wreck happened around 6:20 a.m. near mile marker 3 of northbound I-85, said Oconee County Coroner Karl Addis. Lam Le, a 48-year-old Vietnamese woman from Chamblee, Georgia, died at the scene as the result of head trauma, Addis said. Le was wearing a seat belt and was the front-seat passenger in a southbound 2002 Toyota, authorities said. Mechanical means were used to get her out of the vehicle, said Lance Cpl. Tony Keller of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. The Toyota went out of control and crashed through the cable median of the interstate into the northbound lane. The vehicle was struck on the passenger side by a northbound pickup about 2 miles east of Fair Play, authorities said. The driver of the northbound vehicle, a 2003 Toyota, was taken by ambulance to a hospital. Gheorghe Schipor, 43, of Marietta, Georgia, was wearing a seat belt, Keller said. Further details about Schipor's medical condition were not available from authorities Monday night. Le's husband was driving the car in which she was riding and was flown to Greenville Health System to be treated for injuries, authorities said. Loi Ngoc Nguyen, 46, was wearing a seat belt and was not thrown from or trapped in the 2002 Toyota, Keller said. Further details were not available from authorities Monday night. The State Patrol is investigating. North Dakotas congressional delegation called last years passage of several major pieces of legislation a positive for the state though it remains to be seen if the recent accomplishments can help end gridlock in Washington, D.C. Education reform, highway dollars and rescinding the decades-old oil export ban were among the chief accomplishments that should benefit North Dakota, according to members of the state delegation. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., says he is pleased with ending the nations decades-long oil export ban. The oil export bans important with our state being such a huge energy producer, Hoeven said. We need to be able to compete. The U.S. banned most oil exports following an oil embargo and energy crisis in the mid-1970s. A U.S. Energy Information Administration report last year outlining potential impacts on lifting the ban projects even or slight decreases in gasoline prices but warned that impacts hinge on whats happening in complex oil markets. Hoeven praised the new full five-year highway bill that also was passed in the fall, which will provide a record $1.3 billion for North Dakota. The formulas good for North Dakota, Hoeven said. Congress also made more than 50 tax credits permanent, including ones for research and development as well as state and local sales tax deductions. Hoeven said passage of Section 179 was also huge, which allows businesses to deduct expenses for equipment and software. Its particularly important for farmers and ranchers, Hoeven said. He said 2015 was very productive in light of partisan gridlock in Congress in recent years. Weve got some important things done. We need to do more, said Hoeven, pointing out that Democratic leadership in the Senate agreed to not filibuster individual budget bills this year. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Its a good first step, and now we need to see if theres the follow through. We really have to work on getting back to the fundamentals, Hoeven said. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., agreed. What Im looking for this year is the ability to go to regular order and restore some confidence in that process, Cramer said. The passage of the highway bill, lifting the oil export ban and education reform were a good start in getting the legislative branch back on track, he said. It was a year that started out very rough and ended really well. It was encouraging especially towards the end of the year as several initiatives crossed the finish line, Cramer said. Education legislation passed in December overhauled the 2001 No Child Left Behind law. A significant aspect of the new law is that states can devise their own accountability plans to measure progress rather than face federal sanctions for not meeting significant progress on standardized testing. State plans must be approved by the U.S. Department of Education in order to take effect for the 2017-18 school year. The Every Student Succeeds Act, the remake of No Child Left Behind, was also a huge accomplishment, said Cramer, adding that providing more local control should be a major boost to schools. With this year being a presidential election year, it will be tough to pass large bills, according to Cramer, who said he does expect there to be a lot of hearings and oversight of Environmental Protection Agency rules on water and clean air. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said she hopes momentum on legislating isnt impaired during this election year. She acknowledged that its good that we got things done when we did. The oil export ban repeal was a striking example of how to compromise to get things accomplished, saying the stars aligned in that case. Another item Heitkamp said she was proud of was the re-authorization of the Export-Import Bank, an 81-year-old bank that acts as the export credit agency for the U.S. government. She said that the bank allows an avenue for businesses to help finance operations. In June, conservative lawmakers called it unnecessary and allowed its charter to lapse for the first time in its history before being restored at the end of the year. Heitkamp agreed with Hoeven and Cramer on the importance of the education overhaul and the highway bill re-authorization. What she didnt agree with was the return to regular order. The most important thing is to see how you can bridge the partisan divide, Heitkamp said. I dont know what regular order means. We havent had it since Ive been here. She said her intent this year is to push her priorities, including fighting against EPA rules and implementing changes to federal banking laws to allow small banks and credit unions out from under what she called excessive regulations. SHARE By Liz Carey Over the course of the Civil Wars five bloody years, almost as many Confederate soldiers deserted as were killed in battle. And in South Carolina, the place they came to was the Upstate. Most historians agree South Carolina was loyal to the Confederate cause. In his book, South Carolina, Walter Edgar noted that the state had only 60,000 males listed as being of military age. But conscription records from 1864 show that 60,127 men fought for the cause from the state. In contrast, according to William Prices book The Civil War Handbook, an estimated 83,400 Confederate soldiers deserted during the war, while 94,000 were killed in battle. Some estimates put the number of deserters in the Confederacy as high as 103,000 enlisted men, and more than 1,000 officers. In contrast, some documents show desertions in the Union Army were as high as 199,000 men. Historians say Union men were paid a bounty of $30 to sign up as a soldier. Many, they say, served for a few weeks or months, deserted, and then signed up with another unit to get another $30 bounty. Many Confederate deserters came to the Upstate. Whether it was because it was their home or because the mountainous terrain afforded a place to disappear, this area became known as the states Dark Corner. Anderson, Oconee, Pickens and Greenville were counties with independent men who defied the conscription of soldiers, according to A.V. Huff Jr., a retired Furman University history professor. Early on, Union sentiment ran high in the area, starting with Benjamin Perry, who was born in Oconee County and wrote in favor of the Union while editor of the Greenville Mountaineer. The area was also populated by fiercely independent Irish and Scottish immigrants who took a dim view of authority, Huff said. Many grumbled about rich men buying their way out of service. Many men joined the battle not for any political point of view, but because of a desire to defend their homes. One of the common expressions among the common soldiers was rich mans war, poor mans fight. There was some bitterness in the fact that ordinary people were dragged into this, not because of any feeling about states rights or that they were defending anything except defending their homes, he said. As the war dragged on, getting the soldiers needed to fight for the Confederacy became harder and harder. By 1863, as the war seemed to become interminable and the state joined with the Confederate government in tightening conscription laws, exemptions disappeared and resistance became open and violent, especially in the northwestern portion of the state, wrote W. Scott Poole in his book South Carolinas Civil War. Often dubbed the Dark Corner (the area) became a refuge for resisters. In the Upstate, as many as 500 men who resisted conscription were listed as skulkers or deserters who used the Upstates topography and traditional community relations to resist service in the Confederate ranks, he wrote. Traveling together in bands of 20 to 30 men, they worked out a system that included both common labor and defense, Poole wrote in his book South Carolinas Civil War. Relying on the protection of kin and community, who largely seemed to have found resistance to conscription laudable by 1863, resisters moved from farm to farm working one anothers land. Taking care to prepare for defense of their freedom and their lives should Confederate forces move against them, many of the bands used skills they had actually learned from their short time in the Confederate army to construct defensive positions in the sparsely populated and mountainous region. Jones Gap, Hogback Mountain, Table Rock, Caesars Head and Potts Camp all became fortified positions. Camp conditions, illness and the realities of war sent people packing for home. Our recollections of camp duty are most unsavory, wrote one soldier in his memories of the war. It was pitched in an undrained field, where a part of East Summerville now is, which the rains had supplied with a running stream in the middle and slimy mud all over, and naturally we had much sickness Here, too, on the 10th three deserters were dishonorably discharged, one of whom was of feeble intellect, and the other two were drummed out, as the diary says marched in front of the regiment, drawn up in line, from the right to the left, followed by a corporal and two privates with fixed bayonets and a drummer and fife, playing a pitiful tune. Deserters headed to the Upstate for shelter. The woods, rural area and the mountains, gave the deserters plenty of places to hide. There was one group of soldier people who had enlisted in the Confederate Army, many being from Greenville, whose regiment was stationed in Charleston, Huff said. In 1863, the unit was being transferred to defend Vicksburg From the time the train left Charleston to the time it got to Vicksburg, about half of those from Greenville had gotten off the train and headed back to Greenville County. Residents knew they were there and hid the deserters, Huff said. Eventually, a movement came from the Army officers to do something about it. Col. John Ashmore, who was in charge of the Fourth South Carolina Regiment at the time, announced that he would come and arrest them, Huff said. But according to the stories, they got hold of some munitions and, using some of the skills they had learned in the military, built a stockade in Gallonsville to protect themselves. They sent word to Col. Ashmore to come get them. As the war dragged on, the South desperately needed men. In Oconee County, a brigade was formed near Tunnel Hill, whose sole duty was to hunt down and arrest deserters and those who had overstayed their furloughs. But the number of deserters, Huff said, can be misleading. Those figures can be very, very deceiving. My great grandfather was in the Confederate Army and hes listed as having deserted four times, Huff said. They were in the army and they would leave in the spring to go plant. They would come back home and do the planting and go back to the battlefield. Well, if they deserted on the battle front, that was different then they were imprisoned or shot. But these folks who left informally and came back, this was just part of the rhythm of fighting, Huff said. Many were ill-prepared for what war was really like, he said. At the beginning, the Civil War was, for most young people, a great adventure. And the reality of killing and the reality of death and the horrors of the battlefield was something very few of them had counted on, Huff said. The only military experience many had was the Mexican American war and that was the 1840s. many of them were the officers by the time the Civil War came about. But for most, as the war dragged on the toll on those left behind was too great. Mothers, wives and sisters, left to run farms without fathers, husbands, brothers or uncles, ran the risk of ruin or being overrun by Union forces. Many soldiers simply felt their duty had been done, and went home, according to Poole. Until recently, historians of the Confederate South glossed over the frequency of desertion and white resistance in the Civil War, Poole wrote. Ironically, those who resisted the Confederate authorities may have been the very men who took the ruling classs political rhetoric about the defense of white mens home and liberty most seriously. Home, region and individual freedom held their deepest loyalties and into these spheres they would brook no incursion. Reliance Industries, India's most profitable company, will release its Q3 financial earnings on January 19. The shares of the company has fallen 5% on account of profit booking prior to the results. The stock closed 4.8 per cent lower at Rs 1,021 on the BSE which was slightly higher than the closing price of Rs 1,015 recorded on 1 January 2016 on the BSE. Below are 4 things to look out for in RIL's Q3FY16 results.RIL is expected to report a ~39% yoy and ~8% qoq growth in combined net profit, amounting to Rs. 7072 crore. The net revenue is expected to be ~Rs. 58,763 crore, tumbling 27% yoy and 3.4% qoq. The EBITDA margins would grow at a healthy rate of 9.2 bps yoy. It is expected that the other oil companies like IOC, BPCL and HPCL would also report better profits.: IIFL estimates Reliance Industries to report a GRM of US$11/bbl as compared to US$7.3/bbl reported in Q3 FY15 and US$10.6/bbl in Q2 FY16. Petrochemical prices have seen a correction in line with the crude oil prices this year, but it is expected that the spreads will remain flattish. Driven by its strong operational performance in the refining business, Reliance had a recorded highest GRM in the last seven years in Q2 FY16. With the softening of oil prices, higher GRMs with improved product spreads and better marketing margins are the key reasons for the shining performance of these global cyclicals.Gross under recoveries are expected to be lower substantially on a yoy basis and IIFL expects this to be compensated by government and upstream companies.The crude oil production from MA1 field and gas production from KGD6 field are likely to see flat trends during the quarter on a qoq basis.RIL significantly underperformed the broader markets over the years, owing to a weak E&P segment and a flattish earnings profile. We believe that the core businesses, including petrochemicals and refining, will drive a 25% CAGR in standalone EBIDTA on the back of commencement of large projects, including off gas cracker and petcoke gasification, during the next three years. RIL is investing US$4bn in the petcoke gasification project, which is slated to commence operations in FY17. This project will enable RIL to replace the expensive RLNG with gas produced from petcoke, leading to incremental US$2-2.5/bbl GRM.Off gas cracker will provide a consistent low-cost supply of feedstock to petrochemical plants, wherein RIL is increasing capacities. The global environment has seen moderate improvement in GRMs and petrochemical spreads. However, RIL will likely outperform benchmarks by a significant margin. The domestic E&P and shale gas business anticipate pain owing to the falling gas prices, but see recovery in the long term.Retail business is expanding its operations and going digital, which bodes well for the company in a improving economic growth landscape. The telecom operations to be launched by the end of FY16 should gain ground in future, given the value for money offerings. Q2 FY16 results were substantially better than expectations, driven by the refining segment's performance, wherein GRMs were significantly ahead of estimates. Petchem margins were also higher. P/E valuations of 8.6x on FY17E seem attractive, given the strong earnings growth profile. Top developers have a strategy of launching new projects even in a slow market, and there is sound logic behind this. There is always demand for residential projects at convenient locations and with good amenities. If the pricing of the project is also in line with what buyers are willing to pay, there is no reason why sales will not be generated.Market research confirms that sales are taking place, even if it is at a slower rate. These sales are happening for the right kinds of projects it is projects in the wrong locations, with fewer or the wrong kinds of amenities and with the wrong pricing that are finding no takers.As a matter of fact, prices of projects have been showing a gradually decreasing trend over the last one year. Developers are offering lucrative deals and discounts on their projects, thereby helping to create end-user markets rather than just pandering to investors, as had been the trend in the past.Overall, it can be said that the residential real estate industry has reached its lowest trough both with regard to prices and sales. The only change that can now come to the market is a positive one, and the graph will begin rising upward from here onward, not least of all because the Indian economy has strengthened and will continue to gain in strength going forward.The government is also extending more support to the real estate industry than ever before, and the cumulative results of these favourable circumstances will definitely be seen from this year onward. With India makes strong strides on the path of development, interest in real estate investment is going to increase steeply over the coming years.Today, cities still accommodate only about 40% of the population in India. But with increasing economic growth, more and more people will shift to urban areas, spawning more and more demand for homes in all price ranges. Developers who continue to launch their projects even while the market is slow are investing in this future.If we take a closer look at the unsold inventory of residential real estate in India today, the numbers are undoubtedly large. Nevertheless, there is no shortage of new launches scheduled. In fact, we will see even more residential supply hitting the market in 2016 than we saw in 2015.It is pertinent to note that most of the unsold projects in India today are the result of deficient planning on the part of their developers. They have chosen flawed or hopelessly futuristic locations where people are not interested in moving, and/or have included high-end amenities that drive up the overall cost beyond what buyers are willing to pay.As we embark into 2016, we will see that the new residential launches are more aligned with the existing demand, both in terms of pricing and what they have to offer.The author is CMD, Amit Enterprises Housing Ltd. is not a good sign for the PSUs. Union heavy industries minister Anant Geete recently said that out of 32 public sector undertakings (PSUs) under his ministry, 12 including Maharatna PSU Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) are running in losses."Out of 32 PSUs under my (heavy industries) ministry, 12 including BHEL were running in losses," the told reporters. He said BHEL will come out of the financial... distress in a year as it got orders worth Rs 28,000 crore this year.The minister blamed the alleged coal scam under the previous UPA government for the ill-health of BHEL."After the coal scam came to light, it resulted into short supply of the fuel which hit the power generation sector in India. The coal scam came as a cropper and the new ventures in power didn't take place as expected," he alleged.The minister, however, said that things are changing and condition of BHEL and 11 other PSUs will improve.In a bid to improve the financial health of BHEL, Geete said the company was looking to manufacture equipment used in setting up of solar power plants.BHEL is engaged in manufacturing turbines and other relevant equipment used in setting up of hydro and thermal power stations.There are lot of PSU that have been incurring losses. The Cabinet Secretariat has asked the department of disinvestment (DoD) under the finance ministry to prepare a clear roadmap for over 42 loss-making central public sector undertakings (CPSEs) for disinvestment, revival or closure purposes. There are 65 loss-making CPSEs which have been identified over last several years. Of this list, the government has decided to shut down five CPSEs. There are 11 others which will stop getting the non-plan budgetary support from next financial year and may ultimately be closed.Following instructions from the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), the Cabinet Secretariat has asked the department of disinvestment to chalk out a strategy of these loss-making CPSEs. Some of these CPSEs also fall in the category of sick units.As on March 31, 2014, profitable CPSEs had over Rs 2.63 lakh crore as cash and bank balance. The heavy industries and public enterprises minister Anant Geete chaired a meeting of 21 profitable CPSEs recently to discuss the strategy for reviving sick PSUs. For the first weeks this new year Americans were infected by lottery fever. The jackpot for Powerball reached $800 million on Jan. 9, but when the numbers were drawn there were no winners. So the prize grew to $1.5 billion when the numbers were drawn again on Wednesday. This time there were winners in Florida, Tennessee and suburban Los Angeles. The sound you heard Wednesday night was the collective sigh across North Dakota by disappointed ticket holders, their faint hopes of becoming rich overnight dashed. Were they surprised? Yes and no. The odds of having the winning numbers were 1 in 292.2 million, so the fact that there were three winners is kind of amazing. Its that kind of amazing that had normally sensible people dreaming big and paying big. In Bismarck-Mandan, the places selling tickets were busy throughout Wednesday. Some people organized into groups and paid $800 or more for a batch of tickets. They figured $1.5 billion split among them, even after taxes, went a long way. Others shelled out a lot of money just for themselves. Logic may tell you that paying $2 per ticket with an option to participate in the Power Play for $1 more is a waste of money. Then you hear co-workers talking about how excited they are to participate in the lottery and what they plan to do with the money if they win. After a while you catch the fever. Its fun, good conversation at the water cooler and not too expensive. Thats true for most, but some become obsessive and spend more than they can afford. That was one of the arguments against the lottery when North Dakota voters approved it in 2002. Tickets were first sold in 2004. All lottery proceeds go to the general fund except $50,000 each quarter that goes to compulsive gambling prevention and treatment and $105,625 per quarter that goes to a drug force grant fund. Its legal gambling with the state running it and promoting it. Winnings of $5,000 or more are subject to a 25 percent federal tax and 2.9 percent state tax, so the government gets paid first. The money from Powerball and the four other games offered by the state benefit everyone. As Powerball fever was sweeping the state there was an announcement that state officials are monitoring youth gambling. Officials admit they dont know if theres a problem with kids gambling, but they want to find out. Hopefully there isnt, because it would be unfortunate if a state-sponsored activity would be harmful to our youth. Powerball provided a fun diversion for many North Dakotans on these cold winter days. It should be a diversion, not a bad habit. Remembering King Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Not many events are planned in North Dakota, but its worth everyones time to take a moment to reflect on Kings message of equality, love for one another and peace. The man may have been flawed, but not the message. Bollywoods heart-throb, the oh-so-very handsome Ranbir Kapoor seems to be going through some tough times. Seems like the actor has landed himself in some trouble. We have exclusive pictures of the actor with a cast on his leg and recuperating in a hospital!! Did he hurt himself while shooting for something? These pictures are giving us major worry. But before you guys jump to any conclusions and wonder what landed our darling star in the hospital, let us spill the beans. Ranbir has been recently shooting a commercial for Lays. We suspect that he got injured while trying to get a hold of a packet of his favourite chips. We definitely cant wait to catch the entire commercial! What about you? There are creepy doctors and then there are people like Dr Narendra Nagareddy who are godsend angels for addicts, a headache for law agencies and the grim reaper for almost 36 of his patients. Narendra is an Indian-origin psychiatrist dubbed "Dr Death" by police and he has been arrested in the US after 36 of his patients died with at least 12 killed by overdose on prescription medication. Dr Nagareddy image source: Bangalore Mirror Narendra Nagareddy, a psychiatrist in Clayton County, Georgia, has been put behind bars on suspicion of over- prescribing prescription medication and running a 'pill mill'. Nearly 40 federal and local agents raided Nagareddy's offices and later moved on to his home to seize more assets. "He's a psychiatrist in Jonesboro who has been over-prescribing opiates and benzodiazepine and the last several years has had a multitude of overdoses and overdose deaths," Clayton County Police Chief Mike Register told WSB-TV Channel 2 News. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Clayton County District Attorney's office, the Clayton County Police Department and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision converged on Nagareddy's office on Thursday armed with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for the psychiatrist. "He's charged with prescribing pain medication which is outside his profession as a psychiatrist and not for a legitimate purpose for the patient," said Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson. According to legal documents, "36 of Nagareddy's patients have died while being prescribed controlled substances from Dr Nagareddy, 12 of which have been confirmed by investigators through autopsy reports to have been the result of prescription drug intoxication." "Former and current patients have admitted to obtaining controlled substance prescriptions from Dr Nagareddy without having a legitimate medical need," the documents said. "People come to this person for help, and instead of getting help, they're met with deadly consequences," Clayton County Police Chief Register was quoted as saying. "If the allegations are true, he is Dr Death, no doubt about it." The district attorney's office said they also filed a RICO civil action to seize Nagareddy's assets. One of Nagareddy's patient has been identified as Audrey Austin, a 29-year-old mother of two. She died of a fatal prescription drug overdose just days after she visited Nagareddy. "She was an addict and he made it very easy for her," Audrey's mother Ruth Carr was quoted as saying by New York Daily News. "Americans are abusing prescription drugs at a truly alarming level," said Clyde E Shelley Jr with the DEA. "Doctors hold a position of public trust and to betray that position cannot be tolerated," Shelly said. Police on Monday filed a case of abetment to suicide against Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya and University of Hyderabad (UoH) vice-chancellor Appa Rao Podile after a dalit scholar hanged himself on the campus on Sunday. The Hindu Rohith Vemula, one of the five dalit scholars expelled by the University of Hyderabad last year, committed suicide by hanging himself at a hostel. "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind," Vemula wrote in his note before killing himself, taking no names. The 25-year-old, a resident of Guntur, was doing his PhD in science technology and society studies for the past two years, before the scholar allegedly got involved in a tiff with the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in August last year. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various student groups, which has intensified its agitation against the expulsion following Vemula's death, have blamed Rao and Dattatreya for the move. The students have demanded their resignations. Dattatreya is the Union minister of state for labour (independent charge) in the central government. Meanwhile, tension prevailed in the University of Hyderabad campus on Monday. Police intervened to shift the body from the campus to the hospital for autopsy as students resisted their attempts, demanding justice to the student's family. Students had locked the body in the hostel room, where Rohith Vemula allegedly hanged himself on Sunday evening, and were preventing police from shifting the body. A scuffle broke out between the police and the students who were raising slogans of 'police go back'. Policemen in riot gear used force to enter the hostel and shifted the body for autopsy. Large number of policemen were deployed on the campus to prevent violence as dalit and leftist student groups have called for the university shutdown. The iconic Dabbawalas of Mumbai will soon launch their own company so as to become a formal set up and an even bigger brand. Apart from delivering food, they will also supply organic milk, vegetables and other goods dabbawalas They plan to provide logistic support to multi-national companies (MNCs). The association of Dabbawalas was started by Mahadeo Havaji Bacche in 1890 to provide jobs to unemployed youths from the neighbouring villages of Mumbai. Subodh Sangle, the coordinator of Mumbai Dabbawalas, during his recent visit to Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), said that the rationale behind the new initiative is to use management skills of the lunch box suppliers. Sangle said that the managerial skills of the Dabbawalas, which hardly witnessed any lapse in providing lunch boxes to their customers, will give extra financial support to their families wikimedia "Several MNCs need logistic support from us and most of them do outsour cing. Dabbawalas are well-versed with the geography and their services have met customers' expectations," Sangle, who was here to share management skills of Mumbai Dabba walas at IIM-A, tells. He said some of the groups of Dabbawalas, comprise around 50 persons, who have started delivering organic milk and exotic vegetables. In near future, we will tie up with MNCs to provide them logistic support, said Sangle. An IIT-graduated pontiff has transformed the heritage Adichunchanagiri Mutt into a Wi-Fi-enabled campus, a first for a religious mutt in the state. Religion and spirituality are generally not known to be at the forefront of technology. acmbgs But the Adichunchanagiri mutt pontiff, one of the state's youngest religious leaders, who is also an M Tech holder, overcomes this centuries-old outlook. As a result, one of the main pilgrimage centres in Karnataka is all set to become Wi-Fi enabled from today. BSNL Wifi at 2 Mbps for 300 people at a time! The state-run telecom service provider, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has set up the facility, which will take the heritage place in Mandya into today's e-world. With this, the temple and mutt - both visited by thousands of domestic and international devotees every day - will have uninterrupted internet connectivity. Nirmalanandanatha is said to be the motivating factor behind the development. He says it is being done to ensure internet facility to visitors and to bring e-services to the doorstep of the mutt. Chief minister Siddaramaiah and the pontiff will flag off the services on Monday. "While Virupaksha is the first temple to become Wi-Fi enabled in the state, this is the first mutt. Users will be able to work at a speed of 2 Mbps, while the back end will operate at 10 Mbps. The range of the service is between 160-200 metres radius. As many as 300-350 can use the facility at a time. The speed will decrease when the number of users increases beyond this," N Janardhana Rao, national broadband coordinator, BSNL, informed Bangalore Mirror. The facility has been set up at a cost of around Rs 2 lakh and will be increased in phases, mutt sources added. About twenty thousand people visit the pilgrimage centre on any given day. Visitors who come to see patients at the medical college and hospital here add to that number. While steering the religious and spiritual centre's way towards technology, the pontiff said this was the way to respond to the call of society Emphasising the need of technology, he said it could become an important tool in addressing social, economic, religious and spiritual issues. "We are in the world of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. If that is to happen holistically, we need equal speed in communication and this networking technology is a need of the hour. As thousands visit us, naturally we need an improved system," he said. Techie turned pontiff Pontiff Nirmalanandanatha secured a diploma from a government polytechnic in Tumakuru. After that, he graduated as a civil engineer from National Institute of Engineering, Mysuru, and went on to do his postgraduation with an M Tech from IIT-Madras in 1996. He got selected as a scientist at Central Water and Power Research Station, Pune, but opted for the spiritual route. To follow this path, he joined Sanskrit Vedagram College for a Vidvathuthama course in Advaita Vedanta. American neuroscience student Caitlin Duncan was among the crowds celebrating New Year's Eve in Germany's Cologne city, when a 1000 Syrian refugees suddenly turned into a violent horde, groping and harassing women. The incident, which has given fuel to the fiery movement to deport the recently invited Syrian refugees from Germany, gave another reason for Caitlin to be surprised after she was separated from her boyfriends in the train station crowds. "As soon as we were going through the main entrance, there was kind of a big crowd and we just kind of got separated immediately," she told DW. "You think, OK yeah, so you get pushed off a little bit, but like you find each other a couple of minutes later. So it's like OK, it's no problem." But it wasn't OK - DW reported that "someone grabbed her hat from her head, while others started touching her inappropriately." While attempting to defend herself, she also began looking for help. "I was kind of a bit shaken up, so I just tried to get away from the entrance because that seemed to be the most crowded," An unprepared and outnumbered police force was useless, and soon the crowd was "grabbing her body, pulling her hair and trying to push her down". In short, the setup for gangrape, if not an hour of the kind of gang molestation that hundreds, if not thousands of German women experienced that night, and in the weeks that followed at the hands of Syrian refugees. "At that point I was pretty stressed-out, and pretty scared" It was a young Middle Eastern man fluent in German, who came to her rescue. Helped by his friend, Hesham Ahmad Mohammad, a Syrian who spoke English, he expressed his willingness to help. The 32-year-old former teacher, Ahmad Mohammad had, along with 4 friends, fled Syria for Germany. While they were able to rescue Caitlin, they expressed surprise that fellow Syrians were participating in molestation and robbery. "We knew [shortly after we arrived] that that's a dangerous place for us, because we saw that many people were drinking and they lost their minds," he told DW. "You must stop crying. We can help you." privat Ahmad helped her find her boyfriend, shielding her from ten other men who attempted to harass her. He was aided by his friend, who then formed a protective circle around her. "We have something for you. It's your girlfriend." Finally, they found her boyfriend, in a reunion so joyous that even "the Syrian men cried." We were so happy that we could help you", they said. Families could be broken up and mothers deported after years of living in Britain if they fail a new mandatory English language test, David Cameron has confirmed. The Prime Minister on Monday outlined plans to language-test all spouses who immigrate and join their partner living in Britain two-and-a-half years after they arrive here. Failing the language test could lead to the new arrival's right to stay in the UK being revoked and them being sent back to their country of origin, he said. Cameron was asked during an interview whether a woman who came to the UK under the spousal settlement programme and had children in Britain could still be deported. "Can't guarantee that they'll be able to stay," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "We're now going to toughen up so half-way through the spousal settlement programme - two and a half years - there'll be another opportunity to make sure your English is improving. "You can't guarantee you'll be able to stay if you're not improving your language. It is tough but people coming to our country have responsibility too." Children With British Visas Can Lose Motherly Care Children born in the UK who have one parent "settled" in the UK automatically receive British citizenship and would therefore be allowed to remain in the UK with their fathers, while their mothers were not. The spousal settlement visa, to which the new English language test applies, requires that the person with whom the new arrival is coming to live is already settled. This means all children born to a couple using a spousal settlement visa have British citizenship. There is also no guarantee that children born Britain citizens would have a right to live in another country - meaning that in some cases mothers might be unable to take their children back to live with them in their country of origin. Despite the new emphasis on forcing women to learn English Cameron admitted that his government had actually previously cut funding for English-language tuition for migrants. He blamed the deficit for the policy. "Yes, budgets did come down in the past because all budgets were under pressure because of the enormous deficit and the need to pay that down," he told the same programme. "I think we had to make difficult decisions. Now what we're doing is targeting the language money - it is for those who are in the greatest level of isolation." The Government has emphasised Muslim women as the target of the policy. Ministers say some are living in "isolated" communities and do not learn English. The government claims 190,000 Muslim women lack adequate English language skills and that 38,000 do not speak any English at all. "If you don't speak the language your opportunities are very much reduced," Cameron said. "Saying to people who come to our country that learning English is essential." The policy, to be launched in October, is the latest in a series announced by the Government that is likely to make life difficult for immigrants living in Britain. Theresa May was last week urged to re-think a "discriminatory" new 35,000 earnings threshold for non-EU migrants who want to settle in the UK.The threshold, which is being increased from the current 20,500, would see workers from overseas ejected from the country after five years if they fail to earn the new higher salary. People earning 35,000 are in the top 20 per cent of earners in the UK. Former director of public prosecutions and shadow immigration minister Keir Starmer warned at the time that policy could have implications for businesses who require skilled workers from abroad. The Government has already had to take special measures after it was warned that the earnings threshold could lead to a shortage of nurses. A petition to the Government to withdraw the policy is nearing 50,000 signatures and is likely to be debated in Parliament. Follow us on iran sanctions end cheaper oil more trade opportunities for india New Delhi: With international nuclear sanctions on Iran being lifted on Sunday, India will resume its unrestricted import of oil from the Persian Gulf nation. State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) here told IANS that the possibility of freely importing oil from Iran, to be paid for now in US dollars, comes at a time when global prices are expected to plunge further with Iranian oil adding to the supply glut. Iran is expected to increase its export of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day by 500,000 soon, followed by a further 500,000 bpd thereafter. The lifting of sanctions came after US Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement confirming the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified that Iran "has fully implemented its required commitments". The prospect of Iran doubling its crude oil exports has provoked the continuing fall in oil prices with UK Brent crude closing trade on Friday below $29 a barrel. Brent and US' West Texas Intermediate (WTI) have declined on most days of trading this year with markets expecting supply to surpass demand. The Indian basket of crude oils closed trade on the last trading day on Friday at a 13-year low of $26.43 a barrel, according to official data. The oil marketer cut the price of petrol and diesel by under a rupee each on the same day. Also marking a 13-year low, the price of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) basket of twelve crudes stood at $25 a barrel on Friday, compared to $25.69 on the previous day, the organisation's secretariat said. Adding to investors' worries was the lack of signs that US shale oil producers would start to cut production in face of the plunging prices. With OPEC deciding last December against cutting output, traders are betting the cartel is less likely to cut output now to prevent easy passage of Iranian crude into the market, particularly at a time of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, IOC's latest refinery in Odisha's Paradip started production of petrol from the Rs.34,555-crore facility on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate the 15 million metric tonnes per annum refinery, which will primarily produce BS-VI fuels to serve the eastern and southeastern markets, to the nation on February 7. Latest Business News Follow us on akshay reminds indians of 3 heroic missions launched by armed forces New Delhi: Actor Akshay Kumar has taken it upon himself to fill Indians with patriotism. His upcoming movie Airlift' narrates the initiative by Air India during the 1990 Iran-Kuwait war. When Kuwait was attacked by Iran in the year 1990, the government of India airlifted 1,70,000 refugees using 488 flights in 59 days. But, this isn't the only heroic mission undertaken by Indian armed forces. And Akshay is making sure we all know about it. On his Instagram account, Khiladi Kumar has been sharing instances when our armed forces made us proud. Here is a list of three incidents he shared on Instagram: Operation Raahat: Meaning relief in English, Operation Raahat was undertaken by the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens and other foreign nationals from Yemen during the 2015 military intervention by Saudi Arabia. People were evacuated both by means of air and sea, with the former starting on April 3, 2015, and the latter on April 1. More than 4640 Indian citizens in Yemen were evacuated along with 960 foreign nationals of 41 countries. Operation Madad: The 2004 tsunami shook South Asia and disrupted life in southern India. It was then that Indian Armed Forces started Operation Madad focused on rescue and relief efforts on the East Coast of the Indian Mainland. The units deployed in this operation played a critical role in rescuing survivors, as well as in the recovery of dead bodies in the later stages. Operation Safe Homecoming: Much like the Kuwait evacuation, operation Safe Homecoming was launched to rescue Indian nationals who were stuck in the Libyan Civil war in 2011. It was a combination of an air and sea-bridge which was to be conducted by the Indian Navy and Air India. Despite chaos in Libya and a destroyed runaway, three Indian navy Ships along with flights rescued 18,000 Indian nationals trapped in the warzone. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on bollywood legend raj kapoor s birthplace in pakistan partially demolished Peshawar: The birthplace of Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor has been partially demolished by its owner here in Pakistan, the Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday. Officials of the archaeology directorate said they made an eleventh-hour attempt on Saturday to save the historic building located in Dhaki Munawar Shah area of the walled city but failed. By then, however, the top floor of the 98-year-old four-storey "Kapoor Haveli" was pulled down, the Dawn said. They said the rest of the building was badly damaged. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had earlier declared the houses of Peshawar-born Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar as heritage to protect and preserve them. The officials told Dawn that they learned about the demolition of the house on Saturday morning and sought police help to halt the razing. They complained that instead of stopping the razing, police officials got into formalities and sought a written application. After much haggling, police personnel followed us to the site and the demolition stopped, an official was quoted as saying. Born on December 14, 1924, Raj Kapoor began to act at the age of 10 years and became one of the best known actors, producers and directors, enjoying global audiences, particularly in Asia and Europe. His first film was "Inquilab" (1935). He earned fame with "Neel Kamal" in 1947 and set up the RK Films banner in 1948. His memorable hits include "Boot Polish", "Sangam", "Mera Naam Joker", "Awaara" and "Shree 420". He got the Padma Bhushan in 1971 for his contribution to Indian cinema. Dawn said the archaeology directorate wanted a police case registered against the house owner. The current owner claimed to have a notice of the municipal authorities asking him to pull down the structure "as its condition was too precarious and it could collapse any time", the report said. The official, however, said that despite the damage, Raj Kapoor's house was stable. We will watch the building closely to save it from further destruction. Police said four labourers working at the building were taken into custody but later freed. Local councillor Mian Zulfiqar told Dawn that residents had been warning authorities that the structure was fragile and it threatened their lives. The archaeology department woke up only when it heard about demolition. It never bothered to check the structure for stability and damages following the earthquakes, he said. Zulfiqar said if it was a heritage building, the directorate should have taken care of it earlier instead of waiting for it to cave in. The Sarhad Conservation Network said the demolition had shocked the civil society and heritage lovers of Peshawar. It said the building would soon become history if the government didn't take immediate measures to protect it. Latest Bollywood News Shane Wolff figures hes not going to win anything sitting at home, so hes putting his best-lookin cowboy hat in the ring. The Golden Valley rancher and auctioneer will be among 25 or so in Fridays contest for the best auctioneer in the Greater Midwest Livestock Auctioneer competition. Itll start at 8:30 a.m. at Herreid (S.D.) Livestock and contestants will conduct that days regular sale. Spectators can watch auctioneers from as far away as Florida, each with their own style, sell live cattle to actual buyers. Wolffs been in the family auctioneering business since 1982 and didnt enter his first competition until 2009. Even then, he wonders if he started too soon. Its a lot of fun an adrenaline rush. You just gotta find it someplace and get up and go, he said. A good auctioneer makes it all seem smooth as good whiskey, running a nonstop patter and working the crowd, trying to pick the top dollar from buyers all looking to keep a few bucks in their pockets. Wolff said he was taught in the old school tradition when he went to auctioneering school back in the day. I use numbers and a beat a beat, rhythm and roll. I dont use a lot of filler words. Its real easy to understand. My dad (auctioneer Armon Wolff) always said, `You dont need all that garbage in the middle, just use your words," Wolff said. I try to stay focused and be in control. It takes years of experience to feel comfortable when youre dealing with millions of dollars in a day. Wolff is in the regular auctioneers lineup at Stockmens Livestock, in Dickinson. Joe Vetter, contest organizer, auctioneer and former owner of Herreid Livestock, said what a good auctioneer makes look easy is the result of a whole lot of confidence and experience. Theyve got to be really sharp and pay attention. Theyve got to know weights and quality. Theres a lot of volatility in the market, and it makes it really difficult, Vetter said. Hes not a judge this year, but when he is, he listens for clarity and watches for a confident demeanor and accuracy. In last years contest, we had a guy sell out at the wrong bid and thats a big boo-boo, said Vetter, adding that he likes to hear a nice chant from an auctioneer. Top winner takes home $1,500, a fancy buckle and a jacket. Both Vetter and Wolff stand for a tradition thats slowly being eroded on the North Dakota landscape. Vetter figures therere half the livestock sales barns now compared to when he got into the business and he laments their loss. Therere only 11 barns left, and it seems like everybody used to have one, he said. Part of the problem is that ranchers are selling cattle through Internet auctions, like Superior Livestock out of Texas, at the expense of the local sales barn. Those outfits take the cream off the market and increasingly leave the local barns with butcher grade, cull cows and other less desirable livestock classes, Vetter said. They sit down there in the warm weather and we sell the butcher cows and scraps. If ranchers dont support barns, therell be less of them and well lose a vital tool because it takes the competition away, he said. Besides, the weekly sales are a social event for people to meet their friends and see the result of their own and their neighbors labor up in the ring. Vetter said the competition is a fun way to keep the sales barn tradition alive and the audience can expect everything from an auctioneer with a Southern drawl to ones whose delivery have the piston punch of a John Deere tractor. Therell be some topnotch competition, and theyre all going to be there to try to win it, he said. The competition is also available by tuning into BEK Communications local television access and by streaming www.cattleusa.com. Follow us on exclusive nawazuddin siddiqui opens up on molestation case says celebs are the soft targets New Delhi: Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui recently found himself in a legal problem after a woman accused him of assaulting her. The 24 year-old victim, who stays in the same society as the actor and is the daughter of the society's secretary, also filed an F.I.R in the Versova police station alleging that the actor had pushed her and behaved inappropriately. Reportedly, the entire feud began after a dispute over parking space. Victim Heena Sheikh claimed that Nawazuddin Siddiqui has captured the parking space because of the extended portion of his office on the ground floor which often creates parking issue in the society. Infact, the actor was also asked to vacate the compound and was also sent notices in this regard. Heena alleged that instead of co-operating with the society member, Nawaz placed two bouncers in the compound to prohibit anyone from parking their car at his place. She also alleged that Siddiqui slapped and molested her after she stood against him and tried taking his picture for further proceedings. While the police have filed an F.I.R under section 354 of the IPC that deals with assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has an entirely different story to narrate. During an exclusive interview with India TV, the Badlapur' actor vehemently denied all the allegations against him and stated that he doesn't even know the girl who has accused him of assault and he is been targeted because of his celebrity status. I haven't scuffled with anyone. I don't even know this girl. She doesn't stay in my society. There hasn't been any dispute over parking so molesting someone is out of question. We actors are the soft targets and that is why we are targeted. There has been a dispute in the society over formulating a committee; however, there haven't been any elections there for over year. Infact, the present committee has been here for years and have been bullying the residents. Even secretary of the society has been a part of this bullying. The residents were quite upset with the committee and even called out a campaign against it. I too was a part of the campaign and this why we had a feud with the secretary after which he has targeted me with the molestation case. Car parking was never the issue, said Nawazuddin Siddiqui. On the other hand, Siddiqui's wife Aaliya has filed a complaint stating that five unknown people comprising of three men and two women forcibly entered their house and created a ruckus and sabotaged the house. Nawazuddin, while describing the entire incident, stated, I was in the washroom when three men and two women forcibly entered my house. One of them belonged to the secretary's family. These people got violent and ran away after creating a ruckus. While me and my wife were preparing to file a complaint against them, an F.I.R was registered against me before hand to suppress me. I will co-operate with the police and I am sure truth will be revealed. The police have filed a case over Aaliya's complaint against the strangers under the section 143,147,149,354, 452,506. While police is investigating both the cases, they haven't arrested Nawazuddin so far, however, he will be interrogated whenever required. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on javed akhtar turns 71 5 top songs penned by the bollywood legend New Delhi: Renowned scriptwriter & lyricists Javed Akhtar has turned 71 today. The legendary artist has been an integral part of the Indian cinema. Javed Akhtar has carved a niche for himself through sheer hard work and dedication. Lyrical maestro has penned some amazing numbers. He has so far received as many as 14 Filmfare Awards - seven times for Best Script, and seven times for Best Lyrics. He has won the National Award five times. In 2013, he received the Sahitya Akademi Award in Urdu, India's second highest literary honour, for his poetry collection Lava'. Javed Akhtar is married to actress Shabana Azmi and has two kids from his first wife Farhan Akhtar and Zoya Akhtar. On the 71st birthday of the legend, here we bring to you five of the best songs written by Javed Akhtar: 1. Ek Din Aap Yu Humko from Yess Boss 2. Ek Sathi Aur Bhi Tha from LOC Kargil 3. Do Pal Ruka Khwabon Ka Carvaan from Veer Zaara 4. Hume Jabse Mohabbat Ho Gayi Hai from Border 5. Jag Soona Soona Laage from Om Shaanti Om Latest Bollywood News Follow us on ooppss kangana ranaut hits back at deepika padukone once again New Delhi: Ever since the news of Ranbir Kapoor's breakup with Deepika Padukone has been out, this is what the entire B-town is talking about. But apart from this splitsville, there's something else that is catching the eyeballs these days. We are talking about the ongoing cold war between Kangana Ranaut and Deepika Padukone. It's been a while that the divas are not in the best of terms. Recently, the Bajirao Mastani' actress talked about this ongoing cold war saying that it is just irrelevant and one-sided. She stated, It's only one-sided. It's irrelevant.It's really irrelevant. I have way too much going on in my life so what people say, what people do, what people think is really irrelevant. But Kangana Ranaut who is quite popular for her blatant statements doesn't agree with Deepika. Recently, when Kangana was quizzed about Deepika's statement, the Queen' actress stated, Really!! She said that? Then why she makes these desperate calls to paint a parallel reality and sends never ending cunning texts to invite me for her trials and parties? Well, she seems rather invested in the irrelevant stuff. Well that was indeed a sharp reply to Deepika. Reportedly, the entire incident began after Deepika Padukone dedicated her award to Kangana Ranaut for her performance in Tanu Weds Manu Returns'. While Kangana did not like this as she was reported saying that Deepika should have called her personally if she liked her work. Their cold war was quite evident with Kangana's open reactions about Deepika not being supportive enough to her. While Deepika has reportedly tried sorting things out by personally calling up Kangana, the later's constant digging on Deepika didn't stop. Though, Deepika has stated that this war of words is just one-sided, Kangana Ranaut's statement has an entirely different story to narrate. Let's see what Deepika Padukone has to say about this. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on katrina kaif opens up on her secret meeting with salman post break up with ranbir kapoor New Delhi: The tinsel town was recently rocked by the news of split between Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Their break-up indeed left everyone shocked. But apart from Katrina's break-up from Ranbir what else is grabbing eyeballs is the diva's secret meeting' with ex-flame Salman Khan. Yes. Post her split with Ranbir, the Ek Tha Tiger' actress went on to meet Salman and was even spotted having a good time together. Sultan' director Ali Abbas also joined them. Infact, Ali even went on to give some privacy to the ex-lovers. However, the attention given to her meeting Salman post her split has actually miffed Katrina. So finally, the diva has opened up her secret meeting with the Bajrangi Bhaijaan' actor. Katrina issued a statement via her spokesperson. It reads, Ali Abbas Zafar is Katrina's close friend and she attends his brithday party every year and this year was no different. Ali happens to be directing Sultan with Salman in it, which is why he was on the guest list, along with a whole bunch of other people, including Kabir Khan. There was no secret meeting between Katrina and Salman. Request people to please have some respect and not concoct stories which are untrue. As the proximity between Salman and Katrina grows, we wonder if the Sultan' actor had any role to play in Kat's break-up with Ranbir. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on nawazuddin strikes back files cross fir against five people over false allegation Mumbai: Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Monday filed a cross-FIR against five people following a woman's complaint that he pushed her and behaved inappropriately during a dispute over parking space. The National Award-winning actor says it is a false allegation. A woman named Heena Sheikh filed the complaint at the Versova police station on Sunday against the Manjhi: The Mountain Man actor claiming that he misbehaved with her. In her complaint, Heena, 24, daughter of Soni Dandekar, the chairman of Zohra Aghadi Nagar housing society at Yari Road, also claimed she was manhandled by Nawazuddin's bodyguards. However, Nawazuddin has denied that he knows the woman. I have come to know that there is a girl named Heena Sheikh who has put this assault allegation on me. Even I'm not aware who she is or if she stays in the society or not, or where she stays. It is a false allegation that has been put on me, Nawazuddin told reporters here while talking about the issue outside the Versova police station on Monday. Nawazuddin, who recorded his statement at the police station, said there was no notice sent to him. He even denied having visited the police station for bail, saying there was no need for bail. The police didn't summon us, but being a responsible citizen, I came here along with my lawyer and recorded my statement about how false the allegation is. And we have stated what the actual incident was. He said he wants the "false charge" on him to be removed as he had put in his money to clean up the area in front of his office premises. "We had built it as numerous people come to meet us and they should find it clean. Earlier, it was very dirty. The society members even appreciated me for the same All the society members are with us. All want the false charge on me to be removed," he said. When asked if he was being maligned for monetary reasons, the National Award winner said: "There are several reasons and it's there in it (statement)." Talking about the incident, Nawazuddin's manager said that two men and three women barged into the actor's office here on Sunday to meet him and give him a notice to vacate the area in front of his office. However, since Nawaz never claimed that the area was his, there was no question of vacating it, said the manager. Nawazuddin's lawyer said the matter is in the investigation stage. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on wow did ranveer singh deepika padukone just made their relationship official New Delhi: Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone is walking over the moon these days because of her professional and personal life. The diva is bagging a lot of appreciation for her acting in Piku', Tamasha' and Bajirao Mastani'. Infact, Deepika recently won the Filmafare Best Actress Award for Piku'. Talking about her personal life, the actress Deepika is said to be dating her co-star Ranveer Singh. Although Deepika is quite reserved about her love life, Ranveer Singh in the contrary leaves no chance to express his feelings for the love. And it seems that the couple is all set to take their relationship to the next level. Yes! Ranveer and Deepika have made their relationship OFFICIAL. Surprised? It's true and this happened during the 61st Filmfare Award. Just like Deepika, Ranveer too won the Best Actor award for his phenomenal performance in Bajirao Mastani'. Feeling on top the world, Ranveer went on to take his parents blessings after his achievement. But what caught everyone's attention was that Ranveer Singh also touched the feet of Deepika's mom and dad. Now isn't this sweet? Ranveer Singh surely knows how to win the heart of his lady love and it seems his is all set to give more dimensions to his relationship with Deepika. Now it wouldn't be shocking if we get to hear some official announcements any time soon from Ranveer and Deepika. Latest Bollywood News Follow us on delhi police nab haryana man for alleged al qaeda links New Delhi: The Special Cell of the Delhi Police calimed to have arrested a suspected terrorist of the Al-Qaeda group from Nuh town in Mewat district of Haryana. The individual, aged 32 years, has been identified as Abdul Sami, sources said, adding that he hailed from Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and was currently jobless. Police believe Sami to be a key operative of Al-Qaeda's module in the Indian subcontinent AQIS. "Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat. He was brought to New Delhi and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said. Primary investigations have revealed that Sami had travelled to Mansehra in Pakistan in January 2014 via Dubai and Lahore, where he attended a weapons training camp organised by the the AQIS. He returned to India on January 15, 2015. According to police sources, Sami was in constant touch with AQIS commander Abdul Rahman. Sami is also believed to have been handed an important task by the AQIS commander, but was arrested before he could carry it out. The arrest assumes significance in view of AL Qaeda's announcement of launching a wing in the Indian subcontinent last year in September. "We want Islam to return to the Indian subcontinent, which was part of the Muslim world before it was invaded. It will serve Muslims in Burma, Kashmir, Gujarat, Bangladesh, Ahmedabad and Assam," Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had said in a video message. On January 6, the Special Cell had arrested Maulana Anzar Shah, a cleric from Bangalore, for alleged links with AQIS. In December, they had arrested three suspected AQIS operatives. While Mohammed Asif (41), the first one to be arrested from Seelampur in Delhi, is believed to be one of the founding members and the head (amir) of AQIS's motivation, recruitment and training wing, another operative Abdul Rahman (37) was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha. The third alleged AQIS terrorist nabbed was Zafar Masood, who allegedly acted as a financier for the module. He was arrested from mohalla Deepa Sarai in UP's Sambhal district. Shah, the fourth to be arrested, had allegedly met Mohammed Asif at a religious congregation in Bangalore, following which he was introduced to Abdul Rahman and Zafar Masood. Earlier in 2015, the United States announced that it had destroyed what it said was the largest al-Qaeda camp detected in Afghanistan where upwards of 150 AQIS personnel were thought to have been training. Pamphlets and videos recovered from the site threw up evidence that many of the recruits spoke Urdu and Bengali, officials said. There has also been speculation that the newly appointed AQIS chief was an Indian national. Known to the world as Maulana Asim Umar, he was appointed amir of AQIS by al-Zawahiri last year. He has never been photographed and wears a digital mask in propaganda videos. (With PTI inputs) Latest India News Follow us on kejriwal ink attack allegation against delhi police unfounded says bs bassi New Delhi: A day after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia blamed police of "no security" and "conspiracy" after a woman threw ink at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Police chief B.S. Bassi said the "allegation is misconceived". The Delhi Police commissioner on Monday met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and explained the ink attack issue. Bassi, while talking to media, said the allegations against Delhi Police were untrue and baseless as police had made adequate and necessary security arrangements at the Chhatrasal Stadium in north Delhi where the incident occurred. "Any such allegation is misconceived and unfounded," the police commissioner said on Monday. "The girl who attacked Delhi CM with ink has been arrested and a case has been registered against her." A woman, later identified as Bhavna Arora, alleging a "CNG scam" in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government threw ink at Kejriwal on Sunday at the public gathering at the Chhatrasal Stadium. The function was held to mark the "success" of the odd-even traffic restriction scheme. But she missed the target. Arora was arrested on charges of obstructing public servant in discharge of public function, assault on public servant and intentional insult with intent to provoke brach of peace. Just after the incident, Sisodia alleged it was a "conspiracy" to attack Kejriwal and his ministers and blamed Delhi Police saying that there was no security arrangement. "There was no security provided by Delhi Police. It is a conspiracy by the BJP and Delhi Police are also involved in it," Sisodia said after the incident. Sisodia and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party and Delhi Police of conspiring to attack Kejriwal. Latest India News Follow us on nia gets court nod for lie detector test on gurdaspur sp salwinder New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Pathankot terror attack was today allowed by a Special Court to conduct a lie-detector test on senior Punjab Police officer Salwinder Singh in connection with the probe. The NIA team along with Salwinder came to the court of District Judge Amarnath and moved an application seeking court's permission to conduct the lie-detector test on him. According to court sources, during in-chamber proceedings, the NIA told the judge that there were "inconsistencies" in the statements of Salwinder during questioning so they may be permitted to conduct the test on him. The sources said that Salwinder has given his consent to undergo the test before the judge. The court, while allowing NIA's application, directed the agency to get the lie-detector test within three days. Salwinder, who is at present posted as Assistant Commandant with 75th battalion of Punjab Armed Police, was shunted barely few days before the January one-two terror strike as Superintendent of Police (headquarters) of Gurdaspur and faces charges of breach of discipline. Salwinder said his car was hijacked by terrorists before they entered the Pathankot IAF base on the intervening night of December 31 and January one. He had claimed he was kidnapped by the terrorists after his visit to the shrine and later let off as they did not know his identity. Six terrorists were killed in a counter-operation by Indian forces at the athankot air base that lasted for about three days and also claimed the lives of seven security personnel. (With PTI inputs) Latest India News Follow us on rape accused acquitted after minor says i did it out of love Mumbai: A designated special court of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO) acquitted a man charged with sexually assaulting a minor girl after the later confessed that the nature of sex was consensual. The court held that since the minor did it out of love and the couple was even will to get married , it didn't amount to rape, Mumbai Mirror reported. The accused, a resident of Mumbai, eloped with the 15-and-ahalf-year-old girl on October 6 , both were spotted carrying bags and a case of kidnapping was registered. When they were found later, police conducted a medical examination and registered cases of sexual assault under the POCSO Act. On January 14, special POCSO judge SKS Razvi acquitted the accused of charges of kidnapping, punishment of rape and punishment for penetrative sexual assault; it also ordered the police to return the muddemal (recovered) property to Gaikwad. Judge Razvi held that from the evidence on record, it was crystal clear that both of them were in love and the girl eloped without informing her parents due to the relationship. The order stated that the couple had gone to Pune and Nashik in a Volvo bus and thereafter they stayed in a lodge in Udaipur, where they indulged in consensual sexual intercourse, Mumbai Mirror quoted the Court as saying. Lawyers have said that the case might affect future such cases, and that if the court had not rely on her testimony on consensual sex, the accused would have been acquitted. Latest India News MINOT (AP) Hadyn Schuler may be only 8 years old, but she already is an entrepreneurial philanthropist. On Dec. 30, Hadyn donated $150 from her business, Hadyn's Magnets, along with $300 in matching funds from supporters, to the Taube Museum of Art in Minot. This is the second year Hadyn has made a donation, with her giving $150 to help a local group making a mission trip to Haiti. Hadyn, who is a big fan of Pinterest, came upon the instructions for making decorative magnets on the social media site. Her mother, Miranda Schuler, said Hadyn loves to draw and do crafts. The magnet project developed when they were looking for ideas for teacher gifts for Christmas in 2014. With some craft paper, sealant glue and magnetic pieces, Hadyn created about 100 packages, each with four decorative magnets. "It was kind of a hit. The teachers were buying for Secret Santa gifts for other teachers," Schuler told the Minot Daily News (http://bit.ly/1SQG4eZ ). A third-grader at Perkett School, Hadyn made 150 packages and sold them at craft shows. She creates a variety of designs, from snowflakes and snowmen to music notes. Others might have a school theme, a military logo or promote breast cancer awareness. Hadyn begins making magnets in the fall, working after school and on weekends. Her intent has been to earn money to buy her own Christmas presents for family and friends. However, donating some of the proceeds also is important to her. She said she has attended birthday parties at the Taube and was aware that the museum was raising money to repair damage from rain water that flooded the lower level during the downtown construction last summer. She decided the art museum was where she wanted to give her money. Minot Nutrition Addiction and an anonymous donor each matched her $150 donation. Nancy Walter, executive director for the Taube, said restrooms and an education room have been restored. That will enable programming to take place, starting the second week of January, while additional repairs are made, including new doors, flooring and trim. The Taube continues to take donations in its campaign to raise $30,000. Along with the gift from Hadyn, the Taube received $145 Dec. 30 from two young women who offered gift wrapping services as a fundraiser before Christmas, Walter said. Hadyn said she plans to raise more money for charity in 2016. She may be branching out, though. She said she and her mother are looking at other craft project ideas and could have something new on the market. Follow us on russian priest deported from chennai embassy decries treatment Chennai: A Russian priest was deported by immigration authorities on Sunday after he arrived at Chennai International Airport, Russian embassy claimed today and said such "disrespect" went against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation. "The Embassy of the Russian Federation condemns the deportation of a Russian citizen, Father Seraphim, by the immigration authorities of the Chennai International Airport," a statement posted on embassy website said. It claimed Russian diplomats were denied contact with the priest at the airport for seven hours, which was "unacceptable" and that he (the Father) was also denied basic assistance, including food, despite the requests from the Embassy and the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Chennai. "Such disrespect, shown to a priest from a friendly country, goes against the spirit of mutual affinity and cooperation characteristic of Russian-Indian relationship," the statement added. However, airport sources said the individual, identified as Anuireikravhenko, with Passport no 7Z7405543 had arrived from Abu Dhabi on Etihad airlines flight HY283 at 9.30 AM yesterday. "He was quizzed for three hours by immigration authorities and deported at 10 PM after being told that there were restrictions on his entry in the country," they said. He was sent back on an Etihad flight, the sources said. Meanwhile, Russian News Agency Tass quoted a Russian diplomat as saying that the incident "is a violation of the current Russia-Indian consular agreements and we will raise this issue with the Indian authorities." The agency also quoted a source in the Russian embassy as saying that "the Indian side says during his previous stay in India he had a visitor visa (at the invitation of the Russian embassy) and now he has arrived with a tourist visa.". Latest India News Follow us on did sp salwinder singh facilitate a cross border drug racket New Delhi: Senior official of the Punjab Police Salwinder Singh is in the dock ever since the terror attack on the Pathankot air base on the intervening night of January 1 and 2 that saw seven security forces being martyred and several others injured. Salwinder had claimed that he, along with his cook Madan Lal and jeweller friend Rajesh Verma were returning from a shrine located near the border when the terrorists kidnapped them. It was Salwinder's SUV that the militants used to reach Pathankot. Salwinder's claims have found few takers, initially because of his track record and more importantly because of his flip-flops on the details of events that transpired that night, barely hours before the militants launched a brazen attack on the Pathankot Air base. Salwinder, who is in Delhi for questioning by the NIA, will now be subjected to a lie-detector test after a local court gave its approval. The test could happen as soon as tomorrow. Whether Salwinder was directly involved in the terror attack directly or otherwise is still being investigated. However, sources tell India TV that details revealed during the investigation point to Salwinder's hand in facilitating drug trade on the Inida-Pakistan border, with Salwinder allegedly acting as a facilitator and a courier. We bring you some crucial points that the investigations have revealed: Visit to the border on December 31 Investigations have revealed that on December 31, Salwinder Singh went to collect money that he was to receive for allegedly facilitating the transfer of a drug consignment from Pakistan. The drug consignment from across the border had arrived in India 15 days ago. Reports suggest that Salwinder used different spots and locations to receive messages from across the border. These messages' were actually in the form of face-to-face conversations with the drug smugglers. According to sources, Salwinder confessed during the NIA interrogations that on the night of December 31, he had visited the Panj Peer Dargah in Punjab which he claimed to have visited before he was kidnapped by terrorists to receive a similar message. According to NIA sources, Salwinder visited three such border points on the night of December 31. It is being investigated whether militants that carried out the attack used this point to infiltrate the border. Investigators say Salwinder had also visited the same points a week ago too. NIA is said to have tracked the route used by the terrorists to reach Pathankot from Kolian. The route will be reconstructed on the basis of what Salwinder has divulged so far. How drug consignments were received NIA investigations have also revealed that Salwinder's role was allegedly that of a facilitator and a drug courier. According to reports, he was primarily involved in the entry and handing over of these consignments. Salwinder's cook Madan Lal used to accompany Singh for receiving the consignment. Payments in gold and diamond jewellery When it came to collecting the money in exchange of facilitating the consignments, Salwinder's jeweller friends accompanied him, the probe has revealed. This is because the payments for these drug consignments used to be allegedly made in gold, diamonds and other jewels. Salwinder's jeweller friends used to verify its authenticity of the jewels and keep it in their possession, reports said. Rajesh Verma, who accompanied him on the night of December 31, is one of the three jewellers said to be involved with Salwinder in this cartel. The other two have also been identified and will also be questioned, NIA sources have said. While one hails from Gurdaspur, the other lives in Pathankot. Investigations have also revealed that Rajesh Verma and Salwinder only got to know each other two years ago when Salwinder was posted in Gurdaspur as SP. Local aides as sleeper cells Disclosures in this entire racket have also revealed the role of his other aides. According to sources, two other locals were involved with him in this syndicate. They were allegedly involved in the safe parking of the drug consignment from across the border and operated like a sleeper cell. As per reports, they used to hide the consignment for a few days by storing it with them before it was delivered. Ensuring safe passage Reports suggest that Salwinder himself used to create a safe passage for the transfer of the consignment. Investigators suspect the involvement of several senior officials of Punjab police as well. Besides police officials, some members of the Border Security Force are also under the NIA scanner for their role. The Bangkok connection Investigations have further revealed that Salwinder used to regularly travel to Bangkok. The NIA suspects that it was here that he used to receive a part of his payments for facilitating the entry and safe passage of such drug consignments from Pakistan. Latest India News Follow us on dogs are incredibly loyal few interesting stories New Delhi: For centuries, dogs have been described as the best friend of humans, thanks to their faithfulness. In fact, they are better companions than humans and this is a fact any dog owner will vouch for. Their loyalty is unquestionable and there have been many famous stories of dogs acting selflessly and loyally to their owners. India TV brings to you 6 incredible examples of the loyalty dogs have shown to human: 1. Hachiko Hachiko was a golden brown male Akita dog born in Japan in1923. The dog is remembered for his faithfulness towards his master. He waited for the miraculous return of his departed owner Professor Hidesaburo Ueno at Shibuya Station nearly for 10 years. A statue of Hachiko, outside the station, has become a popular tourist attraction and meeting place in Japan. Hachiko visited Shibuya Station every day and wait for the return of his master. This pattern went on for just over a year, until one day Ueno did not return. For the next nine years, Hachiko followed the same practice with a hope that his master will return. The story of Hachiko was often told to children as an example of great loyalty. 2. Capitan Capitan, a German Shepherd dog, ran away from home after the death of his master Miguel Guzman in 2006. The faithful Capitan refused to leave the side of his dead master's grave for six years. Guzman's family said that when they went to pay their respects, they found the heartbroken pet sitting by his owner's grave. Guzman had adopted Capitan in 2005. The dog rarely leaves the site. 3. Wiley It is hard to imagine a dog crying. A heartbreaking video of Wiley, a German Shepherd dog, had went viral on YouTube showing the dog laying over the gravestone of his owner's grandmother. Wiley was seen crying in the video at the grave. Besides attending the funeral, Wiley took part in the gathering for months at the church where his owner's grandmother funeral was held. 4. Chinese dog refuses to buzz from graveside In a true display of loyalty, a Chinese dog refused to leave the graveside of his master even after going seven days without meal. Concerned about the health of Lao Pan's pet, local people started bringing food and water to the graveside for the tommy. One villager had adopted the dog but later, the pet escaped and rushed back to his master's grave. 5. Chennai: Dog waits for master's return at grave Sending a strong message of undying loyalty, a dog in Chennai stayed almost for a fortnight near the grave of his master waiting for his return. The place where the brown mongrel can be seen sitting in the picture, is exactly the same site where his 18-year-old master, Bhaskar, was buried on August 2 in 2014 after he died in a road accident. The brown mongrel got up only when Bhaskar's mother persuaded it. 6. Dog buries puppy in Iraq A video of a dog in Iraq went viral. In the video, a dog was seen burying a dead puppy. The video garnered attention from all over the world giving a message that how we (humans) see the world. In the video, a dog gently sniffs the puppy and then proceeds to tenderly bury it. Latest World News Follow us on jem chief masood azhar neither booked nor arrested New Delhi: Pathankot terror attack mastermind and chief of Pakistan-based terror group JeM, Maulana Masood Azhar, has reportedly neither been arrested not placed under house arrest by Islamabad. According to intelligence inputs, no case has been registered against Azhar in connection with the Pathankot terror attack and there has been no visible action against the leader of the terror group responsible for many attacks in India. However, three junior-level functionaries of the JeM were detained by Pakistan's security agencies but only for possessing some incriminating documents, which have nothing to do with the January 2 attack at IAF base in Pathankot which killed seven Indian jawans. Officials said initial reports of Azhar being detained for the Pathankot incident were completely false and suspected to be a propaganda by some Pakistani agencies. Pakistan is yet to inform India if it has registered any criminal case against the JeM or any of its activists for the Pathankot attack. The officials said since Pakistan has announced that several individuals belonging to JeM have been apprehended, it should also disclose under which law it has detained them and started the probe. India has given to Pakistan information about certain mobile numbers which were used by the handlers of the six terrorists who stormed the sensitive air base in Punjab bus Islamabad said that 'there is no information on the identity of the owners of those numbers'. India to give dossier on Masood Azhar to Pak Meanwhile, India has prepared a dossier detailing Azhar's fund raising mechanism and the document will soon be handed over to Pakistani authorities to nail the terrorist. The dossier has details about JeM's overseas funding and information about key its operatives including Rouf Azghar Azhar. The banned terror group, JeM, functions openly all over Pakistan including the PoK. Latest World News Follow us on several americans kidnapped in iraq says us embassy BAGHDAD : The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that "several" Americans have gone missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said, "We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans." Bolz did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. State Department spokesman John Kirby said that "due to privacy considerations" he had nothing further to add about the missing Americans. "The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority," Kirby said. The comments by U.S. officials came after the Arab news channel, al-Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. Iraqi media reports said the Americans went missing in south Baghdad on their way to Baghdad International Airport. A Western security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said Sunday that he had been told that three Americans went missing 24 to 48 hours ago. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by the Islamic State group and Shiite militias as well as criminal gangs demanding ransom payments or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. The Islamic State group claimed a number of attacks in Baghdad and neighboring Diyala province last week that killed more than 50 people, including a high profile attack on a mall in the Iraqi capital. The string of IS attacks on civilian targets within areas of Iraqi government control follow battlefield losses, most recently in western Iraq. Last month, Iraqi troops pushed IS fighters out of the center of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province in Iraq's Sunni heartland. Latest World News Follow us on lalu prasad elected rjd chief for 9th time in a row Patna: Lalu Prasad was on Sunday formally elected the Rashtriya Janata Dal national president for the ninth consecutive term. The re-election of the former railway minister for another three-year term was a foregone conclusion since he was the only candidate in the fray for the top party post. "Lalu Prasad has been formally elected the RJD national president for the ninth consecutive time," party's national election officer Jagdanand Singh said. The formal voting to elect Lalu Prasad, 67, was held at the party's national council meeting here, with more than 700 delegates from 24 states attending. Lalu Prasad, who filed his nomination papers at the RJD state headquarters here on January 8, has been the RJD chief since the party's formation on July 5, 1997, after a split in the Janata Dal. Soon after his re-election, hundreds of party leaders and workers garlanded the former chief minister and presented flowers to him amid slogan-shouting. After his re-election, Lalu Prasad said the RJD will play an important role in uniting like-minded parties on one platform to end the "misrule" of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. Earlier, the RJD chief -- a former Bihar chief minister -- reached the meeting venue at S.K. Memorial Hall here along with his wife Rabri Devi and sons Tejaswi Yadav and Tej Pratap and RJD state president Ram Chandra Purbey besides scores of other senior leaders. The RJD won 80 of the 243 seats in the Bihar assembly to emerge as the single-largest party after the November 2015 polls. GRAND FORKS -- Interest in a memorial for a black man who was lynched by a mob in Grand Forks 134 years ago has not been quashed, local leaders said. In 1882, an angry mob of Grand Forks residents hanged Charles Thurber before he had a chance to stand trial on charges of attempted rape of two women near Buxton, N.D. "There's many different theories about whether or not he was not guilty," Audra Mehl said. "That doesn't matter because he didn't have justice." In 1997, Grand Forks almost got a plaque installed for Thurber. That year, Grand Forks City Council granted $500 to Central High School students to memorialize Thurber. Mehl worked with students she taught as part of a multicultural club at the school to create the plaque, and she noticed the students' passion for the project. "Even though this was a very sad chapter, it was still honoring someone's life and acknowledging a tragedy," Mehl said. But then the flood of 1997 hit. "There were just many, many other things that floated to the surface," Mehl said. "The city was reeling and recovering from that." The next year, Mehl was just happy to have her job, she said, and the school year continued. But the following year, she moved to Fargo with her then-husband. "It's always made me sad that I couldn't see that all the way through to become a reality," Mehl said. In the years since, there have been subsequent proposals to create some sort of memorial, city spokesman Pete Haga said, but past ideas were never finalized. It's not that the memorial isn't a priority, Haga said. In fact, he feels it's a very important issue. "It is a significant part of community history," Haga said. "It's important to acknowledge that part, even if it's a dark moment and a dark chapter in the community." It's just that it will take time, he said. A location will have to be selected that meets flood protection guidelines, "as well as looking at where the funding would come from." "I still believe it's still in the works," Haga said. "I believe it's going to move forward." The memorial is one of the topics brought up in the last year in discussions of a diversity commission for Grand Forks, he said. Natasha Thomas, one of the proposers of the commission, has been part of that discussion. And while a memorial is still important to have, it's also important to create discussion in the community about the more-than-century-old incident, she said. "I learned that in talking about Thurber, it raises a lot of general misconceptions about lynching in America and a lot of racial tension," Thomas said. "I think that's become a focus, for me, to talk about those misconceptions." These conversations may be "uncomfortable" but are still important to have, she said, which is why Thomas is co-hosting a moderated discussion 1 p.m. Monday at the Empire Arts Center as part of the Red River Valley Celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. UND's Black Student Association also hopes to spark discussion through events at the Memorial Union throughout Black History Month. In the fourth week of February, the association is holding events to celebrate the history of African-Americans in North Dakota, including Charles Thurber, Lauren Chapple, UND's president for the organization, said. "Our goal is to get information out on people who are doing great things and people who made great sacrifices and achievements," Chapple said. Chapple, Thomas, Haga and Mehl all agree that a memorial is a positive way to help recognize a person in Grand Forks' past. "I think any time we can embrace our history--the good and the bad--that is always a positive," Mehl said. While discussions are slow, they are still ongoing, Thomas said. "And I'm learning that's the way it should be," she said. "It's something that has to take time and unfold gradually." Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Daily Beast " - Can we please stop kidding ourselves that the likely Democratic candidate is different from most of her would-be Republican rivals? Less than a week out from the next Democratic debateand less than a month from the Iowa caucusesits time for all of us to acknowledge what is plainly true: A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for war. Liberals shouldnt kid themselves that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is very different from the Republican frontrunners on this score. Conservatives should stop pretending too, so they can get on with digging into areas where true policy differences between the Democrats and Republicans might actually mean something. And the rest of us who are appalled at the incalculable human costs of a demonstrably failed, bipartisan, interventionist foreign policy that has accomplished next to nothing for all of the 21st century can get on with figuring out how to fight back against persistent war hysteria. Regardless of who gets elected in November, U.S. foreign policy will almost certainly not change very much from a status quo that stokes global instability while underwriting constitutionally unsound domestic surveillance. It will be heavily militarized and the Pentagon will get more money than it knows what to do with. Its not just that Hillary Clinton gets high-profile foreign policy guidance from the same firm that advises hawkish Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who last year supported increasing the Pentagon budget without cutting other government outlays. Nor is it that as first lady, Clinton urged her husband to bomb Serbia in 1999 and, as a senator from New York, she supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq without reservation and said during her failed 2008 presidential bid, If the most important thing to any of you is choosing someone who did not cast that vote or has said his vote was a mistake, then there are others to choose from. As secretary of state, she rarely missed an opportunity to back more and bigger interventions. Clinton backed a bold escalation of the Afghanistan war, wrote Michael Crowley in Time in 2014. She pressed Obama to arm the Syrian rebels, and later endorsed air strikes against the Assad regime. She backed intervention in Libya, and her State Department helped enable Obamas expansion of lethal drone strikes. In fact, Clinton may have been the administrations most reliable advocate for military action. Thats exactly the reason why Republican John Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran McCain joked to The New Republic that it would be a tough choice for him if the presidency came down to Clinton or the libertarian-leaning dove Rand Paul. We came, we saw, he died, Clinton herself joked to CBS News after the death of Muammar Gaddafi in the wake of bombing runs joined by the United States. Even after Libya was plunged into utter chaos and has become a safe haven for ISIS, Clinton still calls our intervention there smart power at its best. Which raises the question: What could dumb power possibly look like? As a candidate for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Clinton has softened her bellicose rhetoric ever so slightly as she tacks left to co-opt Bernie Sanderss left-leaning, non-interventionist support (the former senator from Wall Street is doing the same on economic issues, repudiating trade deals and other pro-market policies she long supported). As Salon noted, she supported the Iran deal only after it became clear that congressional critics wouldnt be able to stop it, but she talked like somebody ready to start dropping bombs. Indeed, she remains a hawk who goes beyond President Obama in plans to defeat ISIS, as The New York Times puts it. Our goal is not to deter or contain ISIS, she said in November when calling for a no-fly zone in Syria, more and bigger bombing runs, and most worryingly of all, more special operations troops in the Middle East to train local forces. Like Marco Rubio, who erroneously claims that Islamic jihad represents a civilizational struggle akin to the Cold War battle between communism and free enterprise, Clinton says that the United States must lead the world to meet this threat. Among other things, that means leaving troops in Afghanistan after an already-delayed withdrawal because being the indispensable nation means never having to say youre sorry. We have invested a lot of blood and a lot of treasure in trying to help that country and we cant afford for it to become an outpost of the Taliban and [ISIS] one more time, threatening us, threatening the larger world, Clinton has said. Perhaps the second 14-year engagement will turn the tide. Unsurprisingly, Secretary Clinton also pushed for keeping troops in Iraq as the elected government there insisted we leave. Clintonand hawks in either partynever ask why a decade or more wasnt enough to create secure, stable, and self-reliant situations. And what such failures say about the wisdom of the missions in the first place. Ultimately, what Clinton shares with most of the Republican presidential candidates is a dangerous and unthinking conflation of foreign policy with military power and action. Since the beginning of the Cold War, we built up a very substantial military, Gordon Adams, a professor emeritus of international politics at American University and former Bill Clinton adviser on security and military budgets, told me recently in an interview. To some degree ever since then, the instinct in American policy has been to say that the most useful tool to reach for to demonstrate American leadership, to demonstrate American commitment, to demonstrate American capacity, is our military capability. Part of that worldview simply reflects budgeting priorities. The Pentagon spends about $600 billion a year, while the State Departments total budget of around $50 billion is less than what the Pentagon spends just on Overseas Contingency Operations or so-called war spending (despite our not being at war). Its particularly ironic that a former secretary of state such as Hillary Clinton would be captivated by such a viewpoint. But it helps explain why diplomacy, commerce, and cultural considerations always take a backseat to saber-rattling and huffing and puffing among presidential candidates, including the former secretary of state, who is always quicker to talk about arming countries than expanding trade with them. I dont expect Clinton to be called out for her hawkishness by partisan Democrats, who are already trying to smooth her way to winning in November. And the Republicans are content to try to gin up votes by spending all of their time accusing Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and all Democrats as the bastard offspring of George McGovern and acting as if the problem with 21st century American foreign policy is that we havent invaded and occupied enough countries. In the end, it will be up to candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul to force this conversation when they return to the Senate, and it will be up to libertarians and progressives pushing in from the edges to call attention to failures that everyone sees but few in power will acknowledge. Thats not the worst outcome in the world, but its shame the topic couldnt get a good hearing during a presidential election season. Russian Defense Ministry Learns Who Is Behind Syrian Observatory For Human Rights The defense ministrys representative said over recent five years the organizations head and sole employee was the man called Ossama Suleiman, who moved to the UK in 2000 after having served three prison terms in Syria and who took the nickname of Rami Abdurrahman. By Igor Konashenkov January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " TASS " - General Konashenkov said the ministry has found out who is behind the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which distributes information blackmailing the Russian Aerospace Force grouping in Syria. According to the official, the man moved to the United Kingdom after serving three terms in Syria. "The first throwing-in of false information about claimed victims in the Russian air strikes appeared in social networks and some western media well before our mission in the Syrian Arab Republic began," he said. "Most information was distributed on behalf of so-called Syrian human rights activists." In "distribution" of the statements made by those "human rights activists" participate, as a rule, some foreign media, which use most often the organisation called the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights," with headquarters in the United Kingdom, he said. The defense ministrys representative said over recent five years the organizations head and sole employee was the man called Ossama Suleiman, who moved to the UK in 2000 after having served three prison terms in Syria and who took the nickname of Rami Abdurrahman. "In his many interviews with the western media this mister every time stresses all the information he publishes comes to him personally on the phone from trusted sources," the defence ministrys spokesman said in conclusion. "Thus, that network of the so-called reporting human activists is active right under the nose of Islamic State and other extremists. At the same time, for some reason, they would not see the atrocities of those terrorists." West considers 49 civilian deaths insignificant in Syria operation planning The spokesman also pointed out that the Western coalition considers the death of 49 civilians as insignificant in Syria operation planning while the Russian military excludes such risks in its plans. "Our aviation does not even plan air strikes on such targets in the event of a threat of civilian deaths. However, the Western coalition can just allow itself to consider the death of 49 civilians as insignificant," Konashenkov said. According to the Russian general, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said that the US military had told her that the American command made decisions on delivering such air strikes on condition that the number of civilian deaths would not exceed 50 people. U.S. Record On Accepting Refugees By Somini Sengupta January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " NYT " - Among the Obamas guests at the State of the Union address on Tuesday was Refaai Hamo, a middle-aged widower with sunken eyes, a side-swept mop of silver hair and a harrowing account of losing his wife and his daughter in an air raid over his home in Syria. His presence in the gallery was meant to send a signal to the world that the United States or at least this administration, in its last year in the White House believes that people like Mr. Hamo deserve a chance to restart their lives in this country. The world respects us not just for our arsenal, President Obama said in his address. It respects us for our diversity and our openness. The gesture raised an obvious question: Has the United States lived up to its idea of itself as a haven for those fleeing war and persecution? The numbers offer a partial answer, and they reflect the acute dilemmas that confront countries worldwide amid a historic global crisis. The United Nations says that an estimated 20 million people around the world, half of them children, have fled their home countries because of conflict or persecution. The war in Syria is now the single largest source of new refugees, casting about 4.4 million Syrians out of their country since the conflict began nearly five years ago. But unlike in 1951 when the international refugee convention was forged in the aftermath of World War II, requiring countries to offer protection to those scattered by war and persecution the political calculus for world leaders has sharply shifted. The costs of taking in refugees have grown and the payoffs, many feel, have diminished. First, the numbers. The United States has taken in around 2,500 Syrian refugees since 2012, shortly after the war began. Canada took in more than that in the last two months of 2015 alone. Brazil has offered what it calls humanitarian visas to three times as many Syrian refugees as the United States has accepted 7,380 at last count by the United Nations refugee agency. Switzerland has issued 4,700 special-category visas for Syrians who have family in the country. And Australia, which has come under international criticism for turning away boats of potential refugees from South and Southeast Asia, has said it will take 12,000 from Syria and Iraq. Germany is in a category of its own, with Syrians making up the largest single group (428,500) of the 1.1 million people who were registered as refugees and asylum seekers there in 2015. For the United States, as for much of the Western world, the political costs of accepting refugees are high. Many people in the United States are worried about terrorists sneaking in through refugee programs. Crimes like the sexual assaults of women in Germany on New Years Eve, in which the authorities said asylum seekers were involved, led Chancellor Angela Merkel to propose tougher laws regulating asylum seekers. Political figures on both continents have also become openly opposed to accepting Muslims in particular. Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, proposed a moratorium on the admission of Muslims to the United States, just as Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary has warned about the need to keep Europe Christian. Perhaps as important, the political rewards for taking in refugees have diminished. During the Cold War, the West scored political points by welcoming people from the Eastern bloc. It was a way to convey that the Western way of life was better and more attractive than life behind the Iron Curtain. It was one reason, historians say, that in 1980, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the United States took in as many as 207,000 refugees, many from Vietnam. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the United States welcomed tens of thousands of people as the Soviet Union was dissolving. But Americas admission of refugees from around the world virtually ground to a halt after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The numbers have slowly crept back up in recent years, to about 70,000 in 2015. The Obama administration has set a target of 85,000 this year and of 100,000 in 2017, which as American officials point out makes this country one of the most welcoming in the developed world. But the goal of accepting 10,000 Syrians this year, as Mr. Obama has said he wants to do, is likely to be difficult. It takes an average of two years for those candidates to be screened and vetted by American officials. Most of the Syrian refugees are cramped into three neighboring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. But they are not allowed to work in some of those countries, or go to school in some places. And with donor money drying up, United Nations agencies have repeatedly slashed food rations, plunging hundreds of thousands of refugees into deep poverty. In Jordan and Lebanon, a vast majority of Syrian refugees live below the national poverty line. Last week, the new United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, described his agency as navigating extraordinarily difficult waters. The combination of multiple conflicts and resulting mass displacement, fresh challenges to asylum, the funding gap between humanitarian needs and resources, and growing xenophobia is very dangerous, he said. Mr. Grandi, an Italian, called on Europe to share the numbers of asylum seekers pouring onto the Continent in a fair and equitable way. The plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. Germany and Sweden, overwhelmed by the numbers seeking to get into their countries, tightened border controls, leaving thousands of migrants and asylum seekers stranded along the migrant trail. On Monday, a vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, leaned on Turkey to do more to stem the flow of people across the Aegean Sea. By law, Europe cannot send back people who are fleeing war and persecution. Instead, it has pressed its neighbor, Turkey, to stop people from trying to reach European shores, in exchange for billions of euros in development aid. All the while, many more Syrians are trying to flee, with Jordan reporting this week that 16,000 Syrians are in a no-mans land in the wide-open desert along the Jordan-Syria border. Jordan is letting in fewer than 100 of them a day, mainly, Jordanian officials say, out of concern for its security. Similar concerns affect the resettlement of Syrians in the United States. Many of the Syrian refugees hoping to be admitted to the United States are waiting in Lebanon. But American officials stopped interviewing them over a year ago, out of concern for the safety of its own Homeland Security personnel, making it unclear how long it will take to screen applicants. 2016 The New York Times Company This Land Is Our Land: American Democracy, At A Theater Near You By Finian Cunningham January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " RT " - Ever since armed white ranchers took over federal property in Oregon the unfolding drama has resembled a parody of a Hollywood Western. Trouble is, no-one is quite sure whos wearing the white hats as opposed to the black ones. Then, among the squabbling commotion over land rights, along comes a native American tribe to remind everyone of a much bigger perspective: If anyone deserves ownership of the disputed prairie it is surely the people who roamed it 15,000 years ago before the white man even set foot on the North American continent. When the Paiute Indians entered the fray with their claim, it had the effect of stunning the protagonists with its truthful impact. The US media generally appeared to ignore the historical larger picture, as if the reality was too hot to handle. The New York Times admittedly reported the natives grievance as a main story on one of its inside pages, with the headline: Paiute Indians Assert Legacy on Occupied Wildlife Refuge Land. But the way the Times presented the story was curious. Despite the headline, the Indian viewpoint was buried in the bottom half of the article, with the top half giving prominence to the views of the local white community on the stand-off between the armed ranchers and the federal authorities. But lets rewind the movie a bit. When the Bundy boys first rode into the small town of Burns, Oregon, they proceeded to forcibly take over a federal government-owned wildlife sanctuary. Ammon Bundy and brother Ryan have been holed up now for more than three weeks on the federal reserve. Dozens of other ranchers toting assault rifles have joined them in their siege. The ranchers say that big government in Washington has for years confiscated too much land across the Western states of Oregon, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, among others. They say their livelihoods are at risk because of the restricted land use. As a result, it is claimed, they are making a stand against a tyrannical federal government and defending the US constitution. This is not the first time the ranchers grievances have gone up against the state. In 2014, the Bundy boys father, Cliven, gained national notoriety for leading an armed standoff against federal agents in the state of Nevada over a cattle grazing row. Famously, he forced the feds to back down and hence became something of a folklore hero for many Americans who feel the government in Washington has become a behemoth trampling on their constitutional rights. This is where the story takes a sinister twist. The Bundys and the ranchers have become a rallying point for far-right militias who see practically every action on behalf of the government as a communist plot. Typically, the militias are also big advocates of gun rights and view any attempt by the Obama administration to curb firearms as a conspiracy to disarm the population in order to extend its tyranny against them. Another noxious aspect is the white ranchers have espoused repugnant racist views. When Cliven Bundy made his stand against the feds back in 2014, he also ranted in media interviews about how African-Americans would be better off picking cotton on slave plantations instead of parasiting off the state government through welfare handouts. Fox News and their right-wing pundits were obliged to disown Bundy at that point for going too far. Nevertheless, the white ranchers and their land claims have remained a mobilizing issue for right-wing politicians and media in the US. Fox News has given the latest standoff in Oregon copious coverage in support of the Bundys and the other armed occupiers. Large sections of the Republican Party have also rallied to their cause. There is more than a sneaking suspicion that the increasingly fascistic US right-wing is using the Oregon siege as a gambit which is tantamount to a call for armed revolt against the Obama administration. Listening to the Republican Party presidential debates led by arch-reactionaries Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, it is clear that the American right has become ever more extreme to the point of embracing fascism. The way that the Oregon ranchers are being lionized in the right-wing American media has the hallmarks of veiled treason against the elected government in Washington. That is probably why the federal authorities have stood back from the siege at the Oregon wildlife sanctuary. Mindful of a Waco-style shootout, Washington doesnt want a violent showdown which could inflame anti-government sentiments, giving the secessionist current even more momentum. Double standards regarding race? The indulgence of the federal authorities towards what is an armed trespass of government property, including destruction, has in turn prompted wider grievances. The Muslim, Latino and Black communities have rightly pointed out that if the occupiers were non-white, then the FBI and military Special Forces would have raided the compound within days, very probably with lethal consequences for the occupiers. The egregious double standard is further underlined by the local community in Burns saying that they dont want the militia coming to their area. Schools have been shut out of fear of impending violence and children have reportedly been living in terror as a direct result of the ranchers occupation. The legal definition of the occupation falls very close to that of terrorism but because its carried out by a bunch of white folks, then the law enforcement agencies effectively turn a blind eye. The story is germane to how American politics, generally, has become something of surreal parody. Riven with contradictions, double standards, sentimentalism and hypocrisy bereft of any historical perspective. The white ranchers are oblivious to the fact that they acquired their homesteads by exterminating native Americans. The ranchers have also got rich over decades from receiving government subsidies to support their cattle farming. Cliven Bundy is reckoned to owe over $1 million in unpaid grazing fees to the Bureau of Land Management. So much for his tirade against Black welfare queens. As for the Washington government. Yes, it is a tyranny. But not in the way that the ranchers would see it. The annual federal expenditure of $600 billion on military budget while a fraction is spent on health, education and social infrastructure is a sure sign of an oppressive bureaucracy that is indeed way out of control. But taking up arms against this monstrosity by racists, white supremacists and fascists who denounce Washington and its war criminals as communists is not the answer either. The United States has lost its way, politically and intellectually. Grievances and disillusionment are mounting among disparate groups. However, few seem to understand who or what is the enemy of the people. Maybe that is because from its very origins the US has been doomed to live in denial. The modern state has been built on genocide of the native people a genocide that is still barely acknowledged. And lets not forget the genocide by white Anglo-American corporate capitalism continues in the form of ongoing dispossession of native people by Washington-endorsed mining companies in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico; it continues in the form of overseas wars for regime change in the Middle East, Africa and Eurasia. American consciousness of their systems diabolical, destructive nature has been all but obliterated. Democracy has been projected on to a fictitious screen of good guy and bad guys. The people watch as impotent spectators, no longer even aware of the real story out there. inian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV. On the Left and Violence in Syria The imperialist Violence in Syria, Part 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 By Kim Petersen and B. J. Sabri "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." - Albert Einstein 1 January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - When we talk about violence in the context of mortal struggle between or inside nation states, we have to consider the factors that generated it. It is a given that every decent person in the world should decry the killing of kids, women, elderly, and civilians of all ages anywhere. However, our rage, analysis, and criticism should be directed primarily on all those governments whose involvement in imperialism, warring, and killing make tragedies and consume their course. Can we all work to end the bloodshed in Syria and elsewhere? Will humanity have a chance of stopping what our national governments are doing in our name? In the end, rather than resorting exclusively to meaningless leftist rhetoric, however much one is in agreement with the tenor of the words, bold action is called upon to stop the murderous onslaught of the US hyper-empire, and Russia should be applauded for having the fortitude to stand up to this empire. First, in addressing the Syrian situation, we do not think it is possible to ignore the geo-political situation of Syria (and the region) even if we want to. Simply put, the complex issue besieging the Arab states cannot allow us to ignore other related realities: Israel and its machinations in the Arab world, for example. Second, theoretically, a nation-state is predicated on doing what is best for that state and its people; i.e., pursuing trade relations that benefit the state and its people, providing jobs and a high quality of life in the state, seeking alliances that provide security for the state, etc. Should that state not pursue objectives that are of benefit to its people and security? Or is the so-called national interest only for the benefit of imperialism, colonialism, corporations, capitalists, and elitists? To expand on the issue of violence, we propose a new argument. Even if violence among some nations could be prevented through diplomacy and dialogue, and even if violence in and against Syria would end one way or another, there remains in the making a potentially tsunamic violence that US hyper-imperialism, Israel, and lackeys plan to unleash against a world that does not want to be subjugated. 2 Leftist Solidarity against War Progressivism is rooted in principles. However, to view complex geo-political machinations as black-and-white scenarios and pose this to the Lefta complex grouping itselfis superficial analysis. Clearly, for progressivists war is anathema, and it behooves progressivists to agitate to the utmost so that war may be avoided. In the present case of Syria, warring was already underway before Russia was asked to assist the Syrian government to dispel the mercenaries and terrorists wreaking devastation within Syria (and next door in Iraq as well). Russia did not initiate violence or war in Syria. Russia is there to end the violence and warring. Russia is using violence as a means to end the violence. In so doing, and if effective, Russia will ultimately wind up saving many lives--many more lives saved than the unfortunate civilians who end up killed from being in wrong place at the wrong time. That is the nature of war, violence winds up killing people: combatants and non-combatants. The sad fact is that the best one can hope for in war is to minimize the killing of civilians. Progressivist principles hold that during a period of non-hostility or relative peace--that is, when there is no state-on-state violencethe initiation of violence, be it militaristic or coercive, is opposed on all levels. However, once violence has been unleashed by one state actor (de jure or pseudo) against another state, the aggrieved state has a legitimate right to defend itself-- a right anchored in international law by United Nations Charter Article 51. Indisputably, Syria is a state under attack from mercenaries backed by foreign states. In fact, this constitutes a not-so-stealthy aggression. Consequently, the Syrian state has the right granted under international law to defend itself. Since Syria is under attack by a multitude of hostile state-backed actors, it is entirely understandable and justified that the Syrian government would seek assistance from other friendly state actors, like Russia, to aid in its self-defense. Russia is beyond reproach by leftists, and other critics, because it is engaged in self-defense of an allied state. Russia has not initiated violence; its violence is borne out of a request from a sovereign UN state engaged in self-defense. It is understandable that progressivists would call for an immediate cessation of violence, but such a call must not be issued in a vacuum. The end of violence does not signal an end for the moral Left. Progressivists must not issue calls upon state actors based in ignorance. In the present case of Syria and assorted state actors, any call must be issued to all belligerent states and their proxies that have harmed another state through initiating violence to cease and desist followed by making restitution and paying reparations to Syria for the crime of war. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Turkey, the US and involved western states, along with Israel must be summoned to the docket of a modern-day Nuremberg Tribunal and prosecuted according to Nuremberg Law. Aggression being the embodiment of evil must not be permitted to coyly disappear into the pages of time unprosecuted and unpunished. That would be a horrible precedent, and already too many such precedents exist. Existing law must be upheld if initiating wars of aggression is to be prevented; otherwise, any deterrence effect for the future launching of wars is damaged. The result of non-prosecution is easily inferred and discernible: increased lawlessness, the persistence of warring and violence to impose hegemonic will on smaller states, and continued mass murder of civilians. Thus, it is important that leftists not make well-intentioned but flippant statements painting all actors in a violent conflict with the same brush. It is also important to parse disinformation and propaganda from media and state narratives. Usually in a violent conflict, one actor has first resorted to violence. Some leftists point a finger at Bashar al Assad and an alleged heavy-handed response to protests (the western corporate/state media framing of which brought to mind the US-orchestrated and failed right-wing coup in Venezuela in 2002). But as Eva Bartlett pointed out in a brilliant article, that is disinformation and Assad has the backing of the masses of Syrian people. 3 However, even if Assad were behind the shooting of protestors, that would no more have granted legitimacy to sending mercenaries and terrorists to shoot up Syria and bring about regime change that it would have granted legitimacy to sending mercenaries and terrorists to shoot up the United States to bring about regime change following the US regime's shooting of Kent State University students protesting the US war against Viet Nam or the shooting of people protesting racial segregation at South Carolina State University. Can we, the people, stop the violence in Syria and give hope to its people? That will depend on future developments. The Vienna Conference on Syria (October 2015) and follow up in November did not mean that much. It is preposterous that the US and Saudi Arabia define who is a moderate resistance and who is not. It is preposterous that Saudi Arabia hosts the discussion on who represents the "Syrian Opposition." And it is preposterous that a few voices call on the ultra-terrorist Wahhabi al-Nusra front to drop its "al-Qaeda" connections so it can participate in the peace talks. The Turkish downing of a Russian jet fighter allegedly flying in Syrian airspace, perhaps having penetrated for a few seconds in Turkey's airspace, is poised as a harbinger for a major conflagration. Some speak of a World War III. That must be avoided. History is replete with examples that power resides with the masses. Despite all the differences and embracing all the diversity among peoples, there is an undeniable unifying fact that underneath everything we are all one humanity. Since divide and conquer does not serve the interests of the masses but serves to enrich the capitalists, imperialists, and elitists through immiseration of the masses, the only moral and logical option is for the masses to solidarize and resist. To effectively resist, it is incumbent that people make an effort to know and understand what is happening and why. With epistemological empowerment, humanity can recognize and reject propaganda and disinformation. For the purposes of an effective resistance to warmongers, the Left bears a great responsibility to be informed and make prudent, well thought-out and enlightened statements based in morality that serve the masses of humanity. Then perhaps, most importantly, the enlightened masses can stand together to reject the scourge which has for too long plagued humanity, the scourge of initiating violence and war. In other words, a revolution. A revolution to tear down the military-industrial conglomerates, to disarm all states, and to rid the world from profiteering through the death and destruction of war. Idealistic? Perhaps so, but some ideals, some principles, are worth striving for and fighting for. Kim Petersen is a former editor of the Dissident Voice newsletter. He can be reached at kimohp@inbox.com B. J. Sabri is an observer of the politics of modern colonialism, imperialism, Zionism, and of contemporary Arab issues. He can be reached at b.j.sabri@aol.com NOTES 1. In Einstein: A Portrait (Corte Madera, CA: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1984). 2. The following are just a few examples of what has been simmering in the criminal minds of US imperialists and Zionists. The Pentagon Is Preparing New War Plans for a Baltic Battle Against Russia Preparing for the next war, and always spending that extra billion to do so The Thucydides Trap: Are the U.S. and China Headed for War? Gaspar Weinberger, The Next War , Regnery Publishing, D.C., 1996 George Friedman and Meredith Lebard, The Coming War With Japan , St. Martin's Press, 1991 Ted Galen Carpenter, America's Coming War With China , St. Martin's Press, 2006 Leon Panetta, Worthy Fights , Penguin Press, New York, 2014 Matthew Kroening, A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 3. See Eva Bartlett, Deconstructing the NATO Narrative on Syria , Dissident Voice, 10 October 2015. The FBIs Two-Pronged Investigation of Hillary Clinton By Paul Craig Roberts Judge Napolitano in the article below explains the FBIs investigation of Hillary Clinton. There are two aspects of the investigation. The original source of her trouble is the charge that she failed to safeguard national security secrets. As Judge Napolitano explains, this crime does not require intent and can result from negligence or simply from a lack of awareness that a secret is being revealed, as in the case that Judge Napolitano provides of the US Navy sailor who was prosecuted for espionage because a selfie he sent to his girlfriend revealed a sonar screen in the background. An even more egregious case is that of the US Marine who was prosecuted for using email to alert superiors to the presence of an al-Quada operative inside a US military compound. The email is considered unsecure and thus the Marine was prosecuted for revealing a secret known only to himself. In view of these unjustified prosecutions of US military personnel, the FBI has no alternative to recommending that Hillary be indicted. Whether Hillary will be indicted ostensibly depends on the Justice (sic) Department and the White House. In fact, it is unlikely that either Wall Street or the military/security complex wants Hillary indicted as both have invested too many millions of dollars in her presidential candidacy, and both interest groups are more powerful than the Justice (sic) Department and the White House. I do not think that Hillary was a good US senator and Secretary of State, and I do not think she is qualified to be President of the US. Nevertheless, I do wonder how important are the secrets about which she is accused of negligance. Even the one possibly serious disclosure that Judge Napolitano provides of Hillary forwarding a photo from a satellite of a North Korean nuclear facility doesnt strike me as important. The North Koreans, along with the entirety of the world, know that the US has satellites and communication intercepts operating against them 24/7. Many things with secret classifications are not secrets. In my career I had many security clearances. As staff associate, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, House Committee on Appropriations, I had top secret clearances because secret weapon systems were at stake. It was a joke among the staff that many of the secrets were available in the public defense literature. As Assistant Secretary of the Treasury I received the CIAs daily briefing of the President. It was boring reading. I came to the conclusion that the CIA was not going to report anything of consequence that possibly could turn out to be wrong. Later, as a member of a secret Presidential committee to investigate the CIAs view of the Soviet Unions ability to withstand an arms race, I had very high clearances as the committee had subpoena power over the CIA. If the Kremlin had had access to the top secret documents, all the Kremlin would have learned is that the CIA had a much higher opinion of the capability of the Soviet economy than did the Kremlin. Distinguished law professors have concluded that the US government classifies documents primarily in order to hide its own mistakes and crimes. We see this over and over. The US government can escape accountability for the most incredible mistakes and the worse crimes against the US Constitution and humanity simply by saying national security. In my opinion, it is the second FBI investigation of Hillary that should be pursued. This is a much more serious possible offense. There is suspicion that Bill and Hillary privatized their public offices and turned them into a money faucet for themselves. This is a serious problem everywhere in the West. A few years out of office and Bill and Hillary can drop $3 million on their daughters wedding. A year or so out of office and Tony Blair was worth $50 million. As an Assistant Secretary of Defense once told me, European governments report to us. We pay them, and we own them. In Anglo-American legal history, one foundation of liberty is the requirement that crime requires intent. I do not believe that Hillary intentionally revealed secrets. If she was negligent, that should be made public and should be sufficient to disqualify her from occupying the White House. What is clear to me is that the legal principle that crime requires intent is far more important than getting Hillary. This foundational principle of liberty should be protected even if it means letting Hillary go. And certainly Obama should pardon the sailor and marine. Two Smoking Guns: FBI on Hillarys Case by Andrew P. Napolitano http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43947.htm Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order . Do We Know Why Russia Intervened In Syria By Joe Contrarian January 17, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Syrian War Update " - The anti-Russian propaganda keeps steady, inciting schizophrenic narratives of Russian rogue state threatening to world peace, an aggressor not to be trusted or treated equally on the world stage while tacitly recognizing positive and critical role of Russia in sustaining of the world order. However ineffective sanctions stayed unchanged for propaganda purposes alone and calls for more independent from US, balanced EU-Russia relations, are still left unheeded while arms race on both sides escalated to levels unheard of since 1990. The one thing we have learned that what ever Russian modest aims, they deliver on their promises so far. So lets examine once again; Why Russians Came? So everybody is asking question why after over four years Russia has finally taken huge risk of openly and directly militarily involve herself in the Syrian War instantly increasing the geopolitical stakes tenfold. But before that we have to realize what the Syrian War was and still is all about. The CIA inspired and funded operation called Syrian Arab Spring was commenced on the back of the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people regarding Bashar Al-Assad new neoliberal economic policies and associated rampant corruption and cronyism that slowly was destroying the social contract his father Hafez signed with the Syrians people as a fundamental condition of the stability of this inherently unstable post colonial mix of nations as well ethnic and religious groups that against all odds and the West embarked on politically almost impossible mission of modern nation building following introduction in late 1950-ties of Arabic version of nationalist/socialist movement called Baathism (adopted also in Iraq) for many decades with great success and huge social/national sacrifice, advanced education and hard work that built this previously nonexistent nation. The emissaries of the Washington D.C based, CIA backed political adversaries of Assad rule promptly took on terrorist tactics of murder and intimidation attacking institutions and representatives of the civil society, law and order but most of all they aimed on destroying institution of social peace among Syrian people responsible for internal dialog (or whats left of it) among all different ethnic/religious groups of Syrian citizen after over a decade and deterioration of the Syrian internal political strive and marginalization of diverse political voices by Assad regime tolerated or supported by Bashar Al-Assad himself. The provocateurs attacked/manipulated Syrian religious organizations previously providing important foundation of the national dialog to provoke fake conflicts that could not easily be resolved on rational basis of political dialog. Assad however, spending big chunk of his life in the West among political friends bought almost immediately the western propaganda of the sectarian strive as an underlying cause of the revolt (which was a lie) and put on his Alawite hat to defend his power base. By that fact he practically abdicated his national leadership and gravely injured interests of his nation and as a result, over following years, almost completely lost control over Syria only to, ironically, be rescued by the brutal aggression of the foreign American funded proxies aimed to wipe out the Syria as a nation from the political map of the world. Many Syrians understood that fact before he did and decided to defend their great nation even against Assads ineptitude and political failure. Almost totally ignored, even in the independent media, is the fact of the Bashar al-Assad slow and painful transformation from some egotistic, scared to death oligarch, detached from his nation into self-sacrificing genuine leader, practically recreated, reborn by the will of his people who made choice to persist as a nation. Among all that seemingly irreconcilable historical diversity, past grievances and and apparent social incompatibility the majority of Syrian realized that what they all have in common is much more valuable than their sectarian, economic and political particularisms. They declared themselves as Syrians above all. At this point, in my opinion Assad stays in power only to preserve integrity of the Syrian nation and more precisely to redeem himself somewhat for all his catastrophic decisions and mistaken attitudes that aggravated the conflict into human disaster. In other words Assad must prevail in this war in order to leave his presidential office and be accountable for his deeds in the court of Syrian people. May be this is what Putin, who so far stayed away from the conflict except for diplomatic cover, finally understood after years of the war and over two hundred thousands dead and millions of refugees resulting from reckless or genocidal policies of the West. Even Russia, who in 2012 was quite willing to assist the transition of power in Damascus and did not consider Assad as indispensable, now sees that Syrian people will not let him go until peace, territorial integrity of their nation is fully restored and assured by international treaties. That would be a Syrian leg of the strategic interests of Russians in the Middle East and overall political reason of Russian open involvement in the Syrian war right now. But there are many more reasons such as de facto attack on the Syrian territorial integrity by Turkeys undeclared no fly zone in the north of Idlib protecting the areas of Al-Nusra and IS operations which was directly and immediately challenged by the Russian air force just to make a point of legal claim by the Syrian state over those areas. Another important, but omitted from most of analyses of the conflict, factor was that over those four years Assad regime quietly but radically changed the policies enabling transformation of the Syrian civil War in to the war of external aggression in mind of average Syrian. Surprisingly, this was accomplished via widespread but unreported, amnesty for rebels and reconciliation programs, local cease-fire agreements with Syrian factions opposed to Assad as well as extensive negotiation and even cooperation in order to assure well-being of the local Syrian citizen within the frontlines by restoring utilities to some rebel areas who agreed to permanent cease-fire and even restoring some basic social services and allowing people unimpeded movement across the division lines to enable economic activities. Even elections were allowed in few areas held by the Syrian (citizen) rebels. However you cut it, Assad was saved so far not by his dilapidated guns or Hezbollah or Iran or even Russia but by embracing Syrians on both sides as brothers and sisters while offering bounty for Gulf State Islamists who stirred the conflict within sectarian communities in Syria. Today Sunni majority see no future for Syria under extreme Islamists of the west concocted fascist Islamic State of lies and propaganda and do not see themselves in some delusional dreams of global caliphate from hell. Unfortunately IS ideologues are in complete agreement with delusional Washington neocons seeking the end of history and revisions of the post colonial divisions of the Middle East by turning the area into gory imperial medieval kingdom run by Saudis thugs. Another reason for Russian involvement is the fate of Kurds who were betrayed and attacked by Turkey military that stayed at least formally on sidelines for all those years focusing on clandestine support for IS and other Islamist groups, but this year provided open and active cover for IS that was loosing battles with PKK. The Russians know that the Kurds nation division into four state entities is the key of holding the postcolonial map of the Middle East intact. And that Kurds reunification would be threatening the territorial integrity of Turkey herself a member of NATO and hence would endanger global geopolitical stability. Russias role here is to return both sides to the political solution of containment and autonomy instead of violent confrontation no side can win. Assad wisely, already granted them far-reaching autonomy within Syrian state but was slow with materiel support to help them to defend themselves against Syrian rebels in first years of conflict. Another reason could be a surprising alliance among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and China and other post soviet states to eradicate Islamic extremism of IS only possible after the US ignored calls of Iraq Shia dominated pro-Iran government for help with new weapons/aircraft to fight the IS on their territory, even when Baghdad was threatened, forcing Iraqis to purchase tens of new MiG 29 delivered by Russia within months from the order. That alliance was manifested by recent hypersonic cruise missile bombing of the Islamic IS/ Al-Qaeda forces in Syria that required crossing airspace of Iran and Iraq unimpeded on the way from Caspian Sea. What is very interesting in the context of recent nuclear agreement that Iran decided to decisively engage in defending their ally, Assad regime by deployment of ground troops of the Revolutionary Guard and massive open military support for Hezbollah. Now Iraqi government is in the process of designating separated air base for Russians combating IS in Iraq. In the same time previous incoherent utterances of the Netanyahu and other right-wing theocratic lunatics running Israeli government seem to pragmatically come to reverse (after recent visit in Moscow) recognizing global geopolitical reconfiguration which has its manifestation in the current military and political developments and exposing inept American policies set on spreading dangerous for Israel chaos in the region. Undoubtedly, Russian intervention was possible only because the US imperial power or rather an image of the imperial power is weakening as perceived in the Middle East and elsewhere. More and more people recognize that US military power is just an illusion and after years of massive theft of trillions of dollars designated to military by Walls Street conmen contractors the US paper tiger is capable of empty threats and shooting anybody defenseless who cannot shoot back while folding immediately when confronted with those capable of defending themselves. Just few days of Russian air force operations proved the superiority of their equipment, training, logistics and organization making Russian seemingly untouchable by the US over Syria. The western Europe was left in shock and awe that someone could effectively challenge their American God militarily and politically as just recently expressed by J.C. Juncker, president of the European Commission who declared that Europe should not blindly follow Washington policies as they are not always in best interest of the Europeans. But in my opinion most the direct reason of seeming urgency of Russias involvement at this point were recent developments in Lebanon (described below) and direct threat to the Assad regime critical financing sources due to the instability of the Lebanese government /banking system under the western instigated garbage revolution. Even more profound financial crisis in Syria would have weakened Syrian economy, likely to the level of the collapse at the time when the Assad regime is making significant progress in regaining control over the country. However, I have to admit that none of my reasons or Russian or Syrian propaganda talking points about national interest, global threat of Islamists or humanitarian and refugee crises fully explains why Russia has taken such a historically bold and aggressive (or defensive?) step with so far unforeseen geopolitical consequences. I am not naive and do not believe that Russia is the only a force for good, as much as the US never was. It was all about direct interest of the ruling elites. Their actions always exemplified by brutal geopolitical calculations and drive for strategic gain in the world of continuing confrontation of the spheres of influence. So what is it that Russia may truly gain out of this? What is Russia counting on? Breakup of NATO, a tool of western aggression? Bringing Europe into Russias sphere of alliances by marginalizing the US on world stage? Is the price of blood sweat and tears that will have to be paid worth it for Russian people? I know not. It does not make sense to me so far in context of looking at the big picture of recent geopolitics where Russia exhibited extreme, sometimes annoying, stoicism and conservatism seemingly focusing of the long term strategic objectives promoting status quo instead of extreme revolutionary turmoil pushed by the US neocons in their misguided quest for global vision of US imperial dominance, for pipe dreams of next American century. But I know one thing. What we are witnessing are first slight, tectonic movements in the geopolitical crust that will inevitably result in openly multipolar political and economic world order in not so distant future. Indications emerged last night that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has received a new lead on how some of the indicted top serving and retired military officers helped themselves to the funds meant for the procurement of arms and munitions for the military to confront Boko Haram insurgency. Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, last week, gave the EFCC the go-ahead to prosecute many top military officers and companies indicted by a Presidential audit committee on the procurement of arms for the armed forces between 2007 and 2015. Prominent among 18 serving and retired military officers mentioned in the panel report as having cases to answer were the former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh (retd); former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar (retd), and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu (retd). Based on the recommendation of the audit panel, President Buhari also directed the EFCC to investigate 21 firms in connection with the monumental fraud, which value at the moment, has been put at over $2.1 billion. It was learnt by Vanguard that the arrest and detention of a serving Colonel in the Nigerian Army in relation to the diversion of the funds meant for arms purchase in the Office of the National Security Adviser, exposed the illicit deals undertaken by the indicted officers. The newspaper also learnt that the Delta State-born Colonel, whose identity has been kept under close wraps and served as a Personal Assistant to the embattled ex-NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), has been assisting EFCC investigators with all he knows about the arms deals and those who masterminded the looting of the nations treasury in the name of arms purchase. It was on the strength of the revelations by the detained military officer and others, that the EFCC, last week, wrote to the Defence Headquarters to release the affected officers and their retired counterparts, for immediate questioning. The trial of the suspected mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bombings in Abuja, Charles Okah, has been adjourned till Tuesday, January 19. A Federal High Court, Abuja on Monday adjourned the trial to allow for further examination and re-examination of witnesses. Charles, a brother to Henry Okah, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation Niger Delta, MEND, who is currently serving a 24 years jail sentence at the Ebongweni Correctional Centre in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa after he was convicted on 13 charges of terrorism, including the Abuja Independence Day bombings, is standing trial alongside one Nwabueze Obi, on charges bordering on conspiracy and terrorism. The trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole directed that the accused persons be further remanded in Kuje prison till the adjourned date. The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State yesterday distanced itself from the current leadership crisis rocking the state House of Assembly. The state APC chairman, Alhaji Haddy Ametuo in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, declared the partys readiness to hit the ground running as soon as it takes over power from the Peoples Democratic Party PDP on January 27 because the task ahead was very enormous. As far as we are concerned, we have no interest or hand in the crisis in the House of Assembly. After all, the PDP even has the majority. So, our political detractors should not link us with their actions or inactions. Instead of linking the governor-elect, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to their inability to manage the House, we urge them to look inwards and search their cupboards, he advised. Ametuo also cautioned against thuggery or unnecessary celebration on the day of inauguration, advising residents of Kogi Central, where the governor-elect hails from, against what he called over celebration. He said: I enjoin the people of the state to be law-abiding. Security operatives are on alert to pick anyone who foments trouble. Traditional masquerades would not also be allowed anywhere near the event. We must all conduct and comport ourselves accordingly. Amid fears of a Lassa fever outbreak, the Cross River government has warned residents of the state against drinking Garri, a staple food made from processing of Cassava tubers, for now. The staple is popular among residents of the state, especially in the rural areas, where Cassava is largely grown and processed into garri for consumption. The Commissioner for Health in the state, Inyang Asibong, gave the warning on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar. Mr. Asibong, who restated that Lassa fever was a hemorrhagic fever transmitted from rats to humans, said the warning became imperative as the causative agents, rats, may have urinated or defecated on the garri during preservation by different handlers. She noted that because of poor storage, rats easily had access to the food item. Mr. Asibong disclosed that the government had distributed anti-viral drugs to 1,031 community health centres across the 18 local government areas of the state to check the imminent outbreak of Lassa fever. According to Mr. Asibong, the anti-viral drugs, Ribavirin is distributed in line with the sensitisation campaign carried out in 1,500 communities across the state. The commissioner, who said the state government was concentrating on enlightenment on the dangers of the disease, appealed to the people to promote good personal hygiene. We have distributed Lassa fever drugs to 1,031 community health centres in the state and we have equipped all the centres adequately. The Cross River Government is concerned about the health of the people, and that is why we are doing everything possible to ensure that we keep the disease out of the state. Members of the public should promote good community and personal hygiene by keeping their environment clean, she told NAN, expressing gratitude to God that the state has not recorded a case. Covering of foods and other consumable items as well as washing their hands regularly with soap and water is highly advisable. We are grateful to God that we have not had any case of Lassa fever in Cross River, we are aware of the outbreak in some states in Nigeria. The state government is ready to collaborate with the World Health Organisation and other relevant agencies to provide adequate anti-viral drugs in the state, she said. She advised health workers to adhere strictly to universal precautions when caring for patients with suspected or confirmed with Lassa fever. The commissioner also advised members of the public to store their food and grains in areas where rodents could not have access to eat and urinate on them. Lassa fever is now in 12 states across the federation and has claimed over 40 lives since November 2015. (NAN) Leader of the defunct Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, whose warrant of arrest has been served by a federal high court for failing to appear before it to answer charges bothering on the embezzlement of N34bn, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, revealed why he refused to show up in court. Drawing from the letter, INFORMATION NIGERIA has put together the reasons Tompolo put forth for failing to appear in court. According to him, he knows nothing about the N34 billion Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is talking about. It is not possible to have access to the money in question as he isnt a signatory to any of the companies mentioned in the said N34 billion case. He claims the charges are false as they are only a revenge by the EFCC lawyer, Festus Keyamo because he (Tompolo) refused to buy some choice property worth billions of naira from him, when he approached him some years. That the EFCC lawyer, Festus Keyamo is not qualified to prosecute him because of their soured history. Are these enough reasons to shun the court??? Punch A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of turning the CBN into the Presidencys Automated Teller Machine to produce cash for the government. Vanguard A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of turning the CBN into the Presidencys Automated Teller Machine to produce cash for the government. The Sun COMMANDER of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Major General Okunola, who led his troop to inspect one of the blown up pipelines at Egwa II community in Warri South West, has said the Army will hold community leaders in whose domain such bombing took place responsible for any act of sabotage in their area. Thisday Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State yesterday insisted that his administration would not impose further taxes on the people but would rather harness the natural resources that abound to better the lot of the people. Daily Times President Muhammudu Buhari has directed the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to transfer relief items in various customs warehouses to designated officials for onward distribution to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Guardian PRESIDENCY disclosed yesterday that it had written to the National Assembly leadership regarding the crisis generated by the 2016 budget proposal. Daily Trust The Kogi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday distanced itself from the current leadership crisis rocking the state House of Assembly. APC state chairman Alhaji Haddy Ametuo in a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, voiced the partys readiness to hit the ground running as soon as it took over power from the Peoples Democratic Party PDP on January 27 because the task ahead was very enormous. Leadership Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State yesterday gave indication that the publicized rift between him and the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion may not be ending anytime soon, saying the latter allegedly disrespected his office by seeing himself as above constituted authorities in the state. Oshiomhole made this known when he visited Chief Igbinedions ancestral home in Okada, Ovia North-East Local Government Area of the state, where he commissioned class room blocks at Iguomo and a three-storey office complex named after him. The projects were executed by the chairman of the council, Mrs Lucy Omagbon. Governor Oshiomhole, who was responding to a plea by a leader of the community that he should bury the hatchet with Chief Igbinedion, said that he had no problem with the Benin Chief but that his duty as governor of the state was to protect both the rich and the poor, and it was in the discharge of such duties that he had issues with the billionaire entrepreneur. According to him, I heard the Chairman talking about my quarrel with Igbinedion. I have no problem with anybody. There are only four levels of government, federal, state, local and traditional institution. The House of Igbinedion does not belong to any of this. He is a chief and I respect him as a chief but he must respect constituted authorities, the office of the governor of Edo State. This governor cannot be harassed, he cannot be blackmailed. And I stand ready to defend that office. The worlds richest 62 people now own as much wealth as half of the worlds population, according to a report by the charity Oxfam. Super-rich individuals saw an increase of 44 percent since 2010, taking their cumulative wealth to $1.76 trillion equivalent to the total owned by 3.5 billion of the worlds poorest people. The UK-based charity on Monday also said tax havens were helping corporations and individuals stash away about $7.6 trillion, depriving governments of $190bn in tax revenue every year. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Oxfam Australias Chief Executive Helen Szoke said there were no appropriate mechanisms to check if wealth was being shared appropriately. We believe there is a need for commitments from global business leaders and political leaders for major tax reform to get rid of the tax havens, Szoke said. Theres too much leakage of what should be paid in taxation exacerbating this gap [between rich and poor]. Referring to economic growth in Western countries, such as her native Australia, Szoke said little wealth was reaching the impoverished. The startling figure in our domestic context in Australia is that where there has been wealth generation in the last decade, none of that has actually trickled down to some of the Australians who are poor. When the late Oba Okunade Sijuade was alive, he and the Alaafin of Oyo hardly see face to face due to a supremacy battle over who is more important in Yoruba land. The new Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, wants to change the age-long feud. Yesterday, he paid an unscheduled visit to the Alaafin Of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi at his palace to join him in celebrating his 45th coronation anniversary on the throne. I am here today, though not invited, but as the Arole Oduduwa, the onus is on me to felicitate with all sons and daughters wherever they are and to show my solidarity for them, Oba Ogunwusi said at the thanksgiving service to commemorate the anniversary. I am ready to damn any consequences or insinuations from anywhere; my mission here is to preach peace among nations of Yoruba both home and abroad and I am ready to work with Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Olayiwola Adeyemi to project the unity and love which existed in days of our forefathers, he added. The Ooni, who was accompanied to the 45th thanksgiving service of Alaafin by over 100 monarchs across Yoruba land, said with the support of all obas in Yoruba land, there will be unity in Nigeria and by extension the world. Oduduwa is father of all nations and his spirit abides by all us as the symbol of the progenitor, he noted. Speaking earlier, Oba Olayiwola Adeyemi expressed joy with the presence of the Ooni and all other Yoruba Obas. He maintained that if every monarch in the Yoruba unite, there will be tremendous progress in Nigeria. This special visit was done last in March 1937, that was the first time the kings in Yorubaland met in Oyo town and today history was made with the visit of Arole Oodua, Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II and I feel delighted to host you and to reassure you that I will be ready to work with you. I had a cordial relationship with Ooni Adesoji Aderemi and I did not want to relent my bound with any Ooni of Ife that assumed the post but everybody has his own little differences, he said. The Bishop of Oyo Diocese, Rt, Rev, Titus Ilori Omoniyi, emphasized that the unity among Yoruba nation will bring progress and development and this will leads to unprecedented progress to all nations. Ours is a demonstration of craze after all! He rode into office drunk. Even before his ride, one could not help but remember how he stood atop the mountain of fire to issue a fatwa to the striking workers for being so blind, deaf and dumb to the transformation agenda of his master. Although he could be labeled a veteranwhen Nigerian democracy from 1999 is discussedhaving been a local government chairman, a chief of staff to a governor, and at consecutive times junior and senior minister of the federal republic, he appears to have learnt nothing on what democracy entails. The moment he paid for his form, like a wrestler whose confidence rose to pinnacle on seeing the golden belt, he equated democracy with conquest, ballot for bullet and apostasy in place of naysaying. The governors sit became the Iron Throne and the process, a Game of Thrones wherein the players either win or die. Welcome he says, to democracys fin de siecle. In words, he was gentle; in deeds, defiant. Like the old Mongolian conqueror of yore, anything must be crushed save himself and his target destination. With his Blattodean eyes set on this mission of conquest, he made red of blood and soil of flesh. By noon, the fin-tailed were burning in the habitat of the cold-blooded as the bloods of the warm-blooded flowed in. Before the close of the day, at least sixteen had had their places in the morgue. In his world, they were nothing but ANTS. Even the law enforcers understood how unfit ANTS are to the Politics of Higher Species. With war comes casualties and what nobler way to wage war than on ANTS? Better to crush rodents for men to live than annihilate women for some social white queens. His voyages as a mirror of democracy were not enough to make him understand the very basic of the independence of the electoral umpire. So in a bid to hear from the horses mouth, he set out on a learning expedition to INEC under the full view of motion cellphones and animation cameras on Election Day. The irritating protesters saw his car parked inside the lot of the umpire and railed. How lame! They never knew our man, in addition to his quest to unlocking the misery of independence was there to give a helping hand to the counting of the million ballots. Although he knew that the bench-man was popular for having no knowledge of electoral matters, he still went ahead to hand him some N200m probably to help him get some education in his area of lacking. With the election came an opportunity to prove his bona fides as a member of the esteem party of mathematical ingenuity of 16 greater than 19. He not only achieved the feat, he shattered the record and set a new standard whose outcome would be too gigantic for either his party to meet or his mentees to surpass. While his sponsor brags on the breakthrough in two digits, our governor reached a perfect estimation of 292,878 greater than 1,228,614. With this at heart coupled with his groundbreaking result, he challenged anyone to counter his good works. At home, he lapped some spirit with a few doses of kola; on screen, he feigned helplessness in the face of the horror movie allegedly emanating from his backyardcalling it the handiwork of rebellious forces bent on wrestling power from the chosen one even after realising how lame it is to dethrone whom thy Lord had placed in position. That was why with some 1,029,102 thumbs in his pocket, he did not think twice before deriding the bench for being so enamoured with inanities to the point of calling his evidence incredible and unreliable all because of some silly vituperations emanating from the throats of some 56 hearsay witnesses. Even as polling units became provoking units and the state map appeared in police colours, as far as he was concerned, the rabble-rousers case against him was only a figment of their collective imaginations unless they prove wrongdoing at each polling unit. As a wigman himself, he could not understand why the law of nurture could be so blind to the law of nature of the end justifying the means. From tribunal to appeal, appeal to supreme, he was disappointed that none of them gave him credit for his great efforts at unmasking the demons responsible for the arcaneness of mathematical computations and analysesan effort rooted in several weeks of sleepless nights which although has let some narcoleptic condition in, gracefully and effectively produce an unprecedented amount of democratic results. With his clandestine mastermind of the release of three notorious armed robbers who have killed at least a police, a soldier, and several civilians, the mad governor, like King Nimrod in the days of Abraham, has just proven his mettle as a giver of life. Unlike his sick counterpart who predicts deaths, he relishes in his divine gift as a custodian of life under the tutelage of the Nigerian Dame Jesus. It is not certain if the bench realises that the man whom they asked to remain as the chief security officer of a state after annulling his mandate shares striking similarities with the mad king of George Martins A Song of Ice and Fire. Unfortunately, neither his electoral offences nor his practice of annihilatory politics have been sufficient to place him behind bars. The present situation where our actions and inactions result in throwing up no other leadership elements than those in the mold of our subject only confirms a thing: that the beautiful ones are dead. Until new ones are born, the laughing stock weve made of leadership would continue to be a model for how not to be a nation; and the crises rocking our moral, political and social lives would only degenerate into a more potent weapon against our collective humanity. You might be wondering who the madman is. He was the one Omoyele Sowore had in mind when he asked that: If you can win a popular election, why go through the back door? Thank God Ive not mentioned a name. Modiu Olaguro, a youth corps member teaches Mathematics at Jebba. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @ModiuOlaguro Website: www.ghettosassembly.wordpress. com Today Americans observe a U.S. federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around the time of Kings birthday, January 15. Here are five facts you should know about MLK: 1. Kings literary and rhetorical masterpiece was his 1963 open letter The Negro Is Your Brother, better known as the Letter From Birmingham Jail. The letter, written while King was being held for a protest in the city, was a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen titled A Call for Unity. An editor at the New York Times Magazine, Harvey Shapiro, asked King to write his letter for publication in the Magazine, though the Times chose not to publish it. 2. In 1964, King became the second African American and the third black man to win the Nobel Peace Prize. 3. A decade before he was assassinated, King was nearly stabbed to death in Harlem when a mentally ill African-American woman who believed he was conspiring against her with communists, stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. He underwent emergency surgery, and remained hospitalized for several weeks but made a full recovery. The doctor who performed the operation said, Had Dr. King sneezed or coughed the weapon would have penetrated the aorta. . . . He was just a sneeze away from death 4. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated by the #277 man on the FBIs Most Wanted Fugitives list. In 1967, James Earl Ray escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. After being convicted for the murder of King Ray was sentenced to 99 years in Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary. In 1977, Ray became the #351 on the FBIs Most Wanted Fugitives list after he and six other convicts escaped from the prison. He was recaptured three days later and given another year in prison, bringing his sentence to 100 years. 5. The campaign for a federal holiday in Kings honor began soon after his assassination in 1968, but Martin Luther King, Jr. Day did not become a U.S federal holiday until Ronald Reagan begrudgingly signed the holiday into law in 1983. (Reagan was concerned that a paid holiday for federal employees would be too expensive.) Only two other persons have U.S. national holidays honoring them: George Washington and Christopher Columbus. At least 42 people have been killed in suspected Russian air strikes in Syrias Raqqa province, activists and a monitoring group say. Raqqa, a city that currently has at least 300,000 residents, became a stronghold of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and its self-declared capital in early 2014. The areas targeted by the Russian air strikes on Saturday were mostly residential areas and not for ISIL, Ghareb al-Omawi, a media activist from the Sound and Picture group, told Al Jazeera on Sunday. Two hospitals were also hit in the air strikes in addition to public places. Several people were also injured and have been taken to hospitals in the suburbs. Sound and Picture comprises activists who document and report on the situation in Raqqa and Deir Az Zor. They also provide images and infographics on the humanitarian situation on the ground. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 40, adding that eight of those killed were children. Restaurants and shops were targeted in the air strikes, the monitor said. Russias official news agency, TASS, did not mention or report on these air strikes, but did release a statement that says at least 5,662 sorties on ISIL targets in the Middle East. Since September 30, the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria have made 5,622 sorties, including 145 sorties made by strategic missile and long-range bomber aviation, the Russian military have also carried out 97 launches of sea-based and air-based missiles, Sergei Rudskoy, of the Russian general staff, said on Friday. Aljazeera. The Senator for Kogi East District on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdulrahman Abubakar, who was sacked by the court of appeal, has won his partys ticket to contest the rerun election. Abubakars election as senator was nullified by the court on grounds that he did not win the APC ticket through primaries. However, the sacked senator proved that his popularity in the senatorial district and among the party faithful was no fluke as he polled 1,182 votes to defeat his closest rival, Hajia Halima Alfa, who scored 383 at the APC primary conducted at the main bowl of Achema Stadium, Idah. Abubakars emergence as the partys flag bearer boosted the popularity of the Audu/Faleke political organisation. Both Abubakar and Alfa belong to different political camps within the APC in Kogi State. While the latter belongs to the Yahaya Bello camp, the former is a staunch member of the Audu/Faleke political family. Reacting to Abubakars victory in the APC primary, Alhaji Mohammed Audu, eldest son of late Prince Abubakar Audu, said it was victory well-deserved from delegates who have vowed to remain loyal to the cause of Audu/Faleke political family. We are grateful to our very loyal delegates who refused to betray the trust reposed in them. We are grateful to the Almighty Allah who is the pillar of support of our political family. This is clear signal that the Audu/Faleke political family is still very much alive, United and focused, he asserted. The APC in Kogi State is currently split between factions loyal to the Audu/Faleke camp and those who have accepted the emergence of Bello as Governor-elect of the state on the platform of APC following the shocking demise of the late flag bearer of the party in the November 21, 2015 governorship election, Abubakar Audu. The Islamic Movement in Nigeria, IMN, has given a condition for its appearance before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Kaduna State Government the immediate release of its leader, Sheik Ibraheem El-Zakzaky from detention. Mr. Zakzaky and scores of the Shiite movements members were arrested after soldiers opened fire on them for daring to block the convoy of the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, from using the highway in Zaria on December 12, 2015. A siege by the soldiers over the course of two days would lead to the demolition of the sects spiritual headquarters in Zaria and the arrest of El-Zakzaky, who was shot alongside his wife. About 300 members of the sect are believed to have been killed by soldiers in the attacks, which have been condemned by local and international groups including the Human Rights Watch. The Nigerian Army had while justifying its use of lethal force, alleged that the youths who blocked the highway were planning to assassinate Gen. Tukur, who was in Zaria on official engagement. The allegation was vehemently denied by the Shiite group, which in turn accused the army of premeditated attacks. Governor Nasir El-Rufai had on Saturday announced the formation of a 12-member Judicial Commission of Inquiry under the leadership of Justice Mohammed Garba to investigate the circumstances that led to the incident. However, the IMN in a statement on Sunday by its spokesperson, Ibrahim Musa, said it would only appear before the commission if El-Zakzaky is released unconditionally. The Nigerian Government is holding the leader of the Movement incommunicado knowing that he is the custodian of the documents of the Movement and has to give direction to the Movement in the preparation of its Memorandum and the assembling of its witnesses, the group said. It also said that apart from releasing its leader, the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police must also make a full disclosure of the number of persons in their various detention centres and grant lawyers of the Movement access to all of them. This, it said, is because the Movement has credible evidence that a large number of its members are still in detention in military facilities and detention centres in Kaduna. Other conditions given by the Shiites include that the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police must also make full disclosure of the number of persons they took to the various hospitals and the location of the hospitals to enable the lawyers of the Movement have access to them and interview them preparatory to the inauguration of the Commission. The Commission of Inquiry must also give full assurance that the members of the Movement that will give evidence will be fully protected. The Kaduna State Government and the Kaduna State Police Command must disclose the number of persons it has charged to court and the number of persons it has in prison custody. This is necessary as the Kaduna State Police Command and the Kaduna State Government illegally and in a secret procedure granted detention orders against members of the Movement and herded them to the Kaduna Central Prison without taking any of them before any Magistrate Court. Presently, over 200 members of the Movement are in custody at the Kaduna Central Prison. According to the statement, a list of 730 missing persons that were either killed by the Army or are still in military detention facilities has been compiled. It said those in military detention facilities should be released to them and corpses of those killed should be handed over for proper Islamic burial. On the composition of the panel, IMN said there are some members that are clearly neither impartial nor credible having shown open hostility to the movement and its leadership through their utterances, writings or actions in the past. Some had even called the government to go for the jugular of the Islamic Movement in the past. The IMN does not see any possibility of fairness and justice from them due to their stance on the Movement and Shia. Definitely, their position of arch-enmity with the Movement compromises any fairness from them in this matter. Independent human rights bodies should be included in the commission, they said. The movement said the conditions they have given should be fulfilled by Mr. El Rufai to convince the IMN that the state government, which, they said, is also an accomplice to the crime, having ordered the demolition of their property and deliberately wiped out practical evidences of the armys brutality on the movement, is not setting up the enquiry to justify the indictment of the Movement by both the federal and state governments. Ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo popularly called Tompolo, has explained the reason behind his decision not to honour a court summons issued on him by Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court in Lagos, for which a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. Tompolo was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before the federal high court on 40-count charge of unlawful conversion and stealing running into over N34bn belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA. However, in an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, the repentant Niger Delta warlord said he has nothing to do with the matter in court, blaming his refusal to appear in court on the EFCC, its lawyer Festus Keyamo and some ex-Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members, who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC). He also accused former governor and APC flag bearer in the recently concluded governorship polls in Bayelsa, Chief Timipre Sylva, of being after him. The letter, sent by Tompolos media aide, Comrade Paul Bebenimbo, said: The truth of the matter is that I do not know anything about the N34 billion Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is talking about. First, it was N13 billion issue, now it is N34 billion. I am not a signatory to any of the companies mentioned in the said N34 billion case, so I do not know where this one is coming from. I know that God in His infinite mercy will see me through in this critical moment. According to Tompolo, the EFCC and its team of lawyers are using the alleged fraud case for personal vendetta against him. The ex-militant, who is accused of being behind the destruction of oil facilities in his home state of Delta, urged President Buhari to be wary of some of his party members in the Niger Delta, particularly those who left the PDP for the APC. Tompolo described these new APC converts as mischievous and desperate, warning the president that they do not share his vision and mission just as they do not believe in good governance. He said: They (APC members) are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name. They are doing this in connivance with the EFCC lawyer, who is also a member of your party, who is in the forefront of prosecuting me because I refused to buy a property from him. As for the EFCC lawyer, he approached me some years back that I should come to Abuja and Lagos to buy some choice property worth billions of naira from him. I told him that I do not have such money to buy property. Since then he has been looking for any opportunity to drag me into matters I do not know anything about. And this is one of the reasons why I have not appeared in the court because he is not qualified to prosecute me, he added. On the ex-governor, he said: I wish to inform you that it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa and a few young men from Warri South West council of Delta State, who joined the party from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) after the 2015 presidential election, are bent on linking me to the renewed vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta, whereas they are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name. They are doing this in connivance with the EFCC lawyer. The leader of your party in Bayelsa State approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed special adviser (SA) and chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, which I refused to do because of his antecedents, as an unreliable and trustworthy person. It was thereafter he forced his way into the governorship election of the state, which almost tore the state apart with violence, beginning with the party primary in which he demonstrated a high level of desperation as was recounted by the Chairman of the committee and Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. As for members of the party from my local government area, Warri South-West, they have been involved in illegal bunkering and oil theft activities over the years, which I have been fighting against because of my love for country. They know me as a no-nonsense person. There is this one from Gbaramatu kingdom with me that has sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looks for any opportunity to deal with me. When contacted, Keyamo dismissed the claim by Tompolo, stressing that the case was not a personal issue and advised the accused to take his defence to the law court. The Commander of the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta code-named Operation Pulo Shield, Major General Alani Okunola, yesterday disclosed that the task force was closing in on those behind the bombing of pipelines belonging to the Nigeria Gas Company, Chevron Nigeria Limited and Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC. Okunola vowed that the perpetrators would be identified and arrested by the JTF. Tension has been building up in the volatile Niger Delta in recent times over the bench warrant of arrest issued against a former militant leader, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo for failing to appear in court for trial on a N34bn fraud. The three-day bombing of crude oil and gas pipelines in Delta State, which started on Thursday, has been perceived as the militants response to the plan to arrest Tompolo. However, the JTF commander, who led his troop to inspect one of the blown up pipelines at Egwa II community in Warri South West, said henceforth, the army would hold community leaders in whose domain such bombing took place responsible for any act of sabotage in their area. He said that the Federal Government would do all it can to bring the saboteurs of the national assets to book as they were already closing in on the criminals. Major General Okunola further said that henceforth, security agencies would enforce the extant law banning the use of outboard engines with 200 HP and above. He said the Federal government would not condone any act of sabotage in the country, noting that it would deal ruthlessly with those behind the dastardly act. While describing the blowing up of pipelines as not only criminal but also capable of undermining the national security, Maj.-Gen. Okunola pleaded with government officials and community leaders to give JTF and other security agencies in the region useful information that would lead to arrest of the perpetrators for prosecution. According to him, We are going to fish out those responsible. It was a massive sabotage and critical to national assets. There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the perpetrators to get away with it. We do not have our men deployed in the area that is why they have the opportunity to do it. The JTF commander said it was sad for anyone to put the nation in jeopardy by blowing up its national assets. He assured Niger Delta residents of JTFs determination to wipe out all acts of illegalities in the region. Human rights lawyer and former President of the West African Bar Association (WABA), Femi Falana in a letter to the president Muhammadu Buhari has urged him forgive all soldiers convicted for mutiny during the last administration, including those on death row. Falana reasoned that their only offence was to legitimately demand for weapons with which to find Boko Haram terrorists. Drawing from the letter, INFORMATION NIGERIA has put together 4 of Falanas reasons The government at that time sent the soldiers to the battlefield without arms and ammunition to prosecute the war. The Goodluck Jonathan Administration deployed thousands of members of the armed forces to the north east region and forced them to fight the well-armed insurgents with weapons which were not serviceable. The National Assembly at the time had appropriated sufficient funds for arms procurement but those funds were criminally diverted by the military authorities and their civilian cronies. The conviction was a desperate bid to cover up the criminal negligence of the military authorities. Dont you agree that there is no legal and moral justification for the conviction and sentences imposed on those soldiers by the courts-martial, considering the fact that huge fund provided for the purchase of arms and armament to fight the terrorists were diverted??? CES review: Will 2016 be the year of Virtual Reality? CES 2016 was, as usual, massive. The show spilled out of the conference centre into the Venetian Hotel and The Sands. Haman even went solo at the Hard Rock Hotel. It is an important show for the consumer electronics industry and having had the privilege of being able to walk its halls, here we bring some highlights of the things we liked. Watch out for the CES Harman, Audio and UHD TVs special reports too. Virtual Reality was making big waves at this year's show. Everywhere we went there were VR goggles on display. From PlayStation VR to HTC Vive, and a host of no-name hopefuls, it seems plenty are prepared to bet big on an immersive headset future. Oculus priced its consumer headset at $500. Throw in a powerful PC and the system isn't going to be cheap to run. Ultimately everything depends on available applications. Surrounded by drones and other cool gadgets, we found Marxent, a virtual commerce platform that allows customers to compose their own interior design and virtually walk the room using VR glasses. Joining forces with retail home improvement and appliance stores, such as Lowes, Marxent can upload the retailers full catalogue of furniture and appliances into its system. The VR solution lets users create a dream kitchen or bathroom on an iPad in mere minutes, then experience their design in 360-degree Virtual Reality while wearing an Oculus headset. Its quick processing power means that while your partner is checking the virtual room you could be moving the furniture around at will or under instructions. But if you are not sure about your choice, you can even check with your friends! Designs can be exported to YouTube 360 for easy sharing. The Holoroom transforms something intangible, something that is in your head, into something that everyone can see. In fact, Lowes Holoroom is being rolled out across the US, six Holorooms installed in 2015 and an otehr 12 to come this year. It seems that today, capturing life with a panoramic view is not good enough. Films and photos have gone 360. This is particularly useful for virtual reality applications, but it can also be used for surveillance. 360Heros debuted its Bullet 360 control system for interlocking multiple GoPro cameras in a 360Heros VR rig. The Bullet360 enables users to operate multiple GoPros simultaneously by plugging them into an internal wired interface. The system is triggered via a simple remote and features controls for turning cameras on and off and firing the camera shutter buttons simultaneously for both video and photos. Also using the 360 concept, French company Giroptic introduced its small format three lenses camera. Its shape looks a little like a frog appropriate to the origin of the tech company, and its allegedly the first and only 360 HD Camera able to record full spherical photos and videos without any software or post-processing. Retailing at 499 euros, the water proof camera can be pole mounted, to take it out and about, using its lithium battery; using PoE live events can be streamed; and you can even use it upside down, hanging from the ceiling with its light bulb adaptor as a home surveillance system. To accelerate it all, GoPro has announced its plans to work with YouTube in a virtual reality (VR) initiative that will include easy to use consumer-grade VR cameras or perhaps the solutions described above. Smart everything There were a lot of smart watches and wearables at the show, fridges that could order food automatically and connected cars, including one amazing prototype presented by Harman which even came with its own helipad at the back for its drone. Being at CES you suddenly got the urge to purchase gadgets you never thought you needed! Panasonic announced a high-end connected Smart platform called ORA that will integrate all household endpoints. Panasonic President Julie Bauer explained during the press conference: "Panasonic defines the Smart Home as one that has lighting, heating, cameras, motion sensors, and smart appliances all tied to one, powerful software platform that enables customized managed experiences. Our new Smart Home innovation ORA is a platform capable of integrating them all regardless of their own operating system into a smart living experience you can operate on a mobile device from anywhere in the world." As yet, ORA is a North American product only. It'll be interesting to see if Panasonic rolls it out across Europe in the future. Smart home and smart technology during CES 2016 had mobile phones and smart TVs at the centre of the intelligent system. The majority of the smart oriented companies were promoting green solutions for energy saving, or for life optimisation (in terms of health, control of your home, etc) French company Ubiant presented its colour coded home energy and well-being manager. The Luminion Hemis candlestick shaped LED lamp can display different colours indicating whether one is on the green or on the red with regards to energy consumption in ones area. Hemis has an app that connects to its cloud platform and with Quickmove, which links with the IoT for a more accurate diagnosis. iLuv will sell you an LED light bulb for almost $50 dollars (35). But itll cost you only $41.2 (29) a year to run with an 83% of energy saving over a regular light bulb. Itll also last a lifetime (20K hours), give 800 Lumens (the equivalent of 60W) and connect directly to your mobile to control it, combine it with other light bulbs or change its colour! Nest cameras, we were told, are manufactured by iLuv. At CES the company was showing its new mySight 2K. A sleek design, not bigger than a glass of wine, the full HD camera blends multiple sensor exposures to improve dynamic range. It offers a 15 degrees viewing angle and it has the option to zoom in whenever you want. But there was one different smart gadget that could be just the ticket for those of us that tend to travel a fair bit. Bluesmart was presented as the suitcase that cannot get lost. The carry-on suitcase that has proximity sensors; digital lock; two USB battery chargers; location tracking system, its own built in scale and can connect with your airline to check your itinerary. It connects with your phone through a mobile app. It retails for around 300. Vinyl revival Speakers of all sizes, colours and specs were to be found on every corner of the show. Many were almost identical, with a fashion for LED light coloured portables and bright cases on the floor standing speakers. One of the main differences came on the price range, depending on where they were manufactured. But when it comes to music the stars of the show were turntables. Many companies were showing their support for vinyl and the one that took the prize for me was Sony, with not just a sleek turntable but also the ability to rip in Hi-Res. The PS-HX500 turntable has a simple design with powerful capabilities. Thanks to its USB port the PS-HX500 can be plugged into a PC or Mac and using Sonys new software which will allow you to record the LP as a DSD file. Sony says it should be available by spring for about 400. Panasonic hi-fi brand Technics also announced a return to turntables, which had already been previewed in 2015. There will be two versions of the new model: the 50th Anniversary Grand Class SL-1200GAE limited edition, to be released this summer (only 1200 units) and the non-limited Grand Class 1200G (pictured below) due before the end of the year. Yours for $4000. CES Unveiled The pre-show CES Unveiled event, held at the Mandalay Bay, had a few interesting gadgets. A neat oblong rectangular triangular-shaped speaker with the strength of a titan; the Hercules Ocean-proof Wae Outdoor Rush has been designed specifically for extreme sports. Using Bluetooth wireless technology, the Hercules rugged new speaker has been named a CES 2016 Innovation Awards Honouree. The compact dust, sand, snow and shockproof speaker can play non-stop for up to 12 hours. As the Wae Outdoor Rush is IP67-certified, it means that you can also immerse it on up to a metre of water for up to 30 minutes - including salt water, so you could not only swim but also dance with dolphins now. Additionally, it features a built-in FM radio; it can charge a smartphone, is compatible with most attachment systems and pumps out impressive sound for its size. You can get it from April this year for $130. You might think that wearing your pyjamas to a trade show would be inappropriate but apparently it isnt if you are promoting SleepPhones Harmony, the new Bluetooth headphones-in-a-headband. With sleep sensors and a real-time intelligent music, the SleepPhones Harmony becomes a smart-device that can adjust volume, sounds and beats based on the level of your sleep indicated by the sensors in real time. All the information about how well the audio improved the quality of sleep throughout the night, is uploaded to the companys secure central server-and sounds can be adjusted accordingly, night after night. We got a pair to try out and although the fleece headband can get you a bit too warm, it works really well on airplanes, doubling as an eye mask. The 4mm-thin padded speakers inside the headband can be adjusted to target the music straight into your ears. The speakers interface with a Bluetooth module that is 0.3 cm thick, and has a mini USB rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can play 12 hours of music. Three buttons allow control of volume and song selection, although it takes a bit of time to get used to finding the right button at the back of your neck. Brilliant if you like going to sleep to music or talking books without disturbing your bed companion or getting strangled by your headphones cables. CES Unveiled was crammed with hopeful start-ups, many of which were re-inventing the wheel, such as the search engine company that wants to take on Google, but it was most jolly. Many companies are to watch out for and the proliferation of ideas and re-inventions can only mean that this industry is set to grow. In fact if you are planning to visit CES 2017, be prepared because the show is extending to one more day, from Thursday to Sunday (January 5-8th). Hog Futures Close Higher Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT At the close lean hog futures were $0.85 to $1.20 higher at the close. The CME Lean Hog from 10/17 was $93.19, down by 16 cents. The National Average Base Hog price for Wednesday afternoon was $3.67 stronger... HEZ22 : 87.375s (+1.04%) HEJ23 : 92.750s (+1.09%) KMZ22 : 96.875s (+0.36%) Limit Drop in Dec Cotton Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT Cotton futures hit their limit a couple of times to the downside on Wednesday, with December ultimately closing there. The other front months ended the day with 302 to 347 point losses. Dec is now printing... CTZ22 : 78.34 (+0.06%) CTH23 : 78.10 (+0.17%) CTK23 : 77.49 (+0.08%) Cattle Strengthens on Wednesday Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT Front month live cattle futures ended the day with gains of $0.72 to $1.57. The December contract went home $1.02 under the contract high and just 5 cents under the day sessions high. Feeders faded... LEV22 : 149.350s (+0.59%) LEZ22 : 151.350s (+1.05%) LEG23 : 154.250s (+0.97%) GFV22 : 175.225s (+0.23%) GFX22 : 178.075s (+0.14%) Soybeans Close in Black on Wednesday Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT The Wednesday soybean market saw afternoon strength push beans fractionally to 2 3/4 cents in the black. Through the session November contracts saw a 21 1/2 cent trading range from +6 1/2 cents to -15c.... ZSX22 : 1373-2 (unch) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.2637 (+0.06%) ZSF23 : 1383-0 (unch) ZSH23 : 1391-2 (unch) Red Close for Wednesday Wheat Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT Front month wheat futures traded lower through the midweek session, but ended off their lows. Chicago futures went home on 8 to 8 1/2 cent losses. Kansas City wheat futures closed 2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cents... ZWZ22 : 838-4 (-0.33%) ZWH23 : 857-2 (-0.26%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.7583 (-1.05%) KEZ22 : 940-0 (-0.19%) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9921 (-0.41%) MWZ22 : 952-6 (unch) Red Close in Midweek Corn Market Barchart - Wed Oct 19, 4:48PM CDT Corn worked off the highs in the afternoon round of trading, but futures were still down by 1 1/4 to 2 3/4 cents at the bell. December printed a 10 1/2 cent range on the day, from plus 3 1/2 to minus 11... ZCZ22 : 678-0 (unch) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.6571 (-0.10%) ZCH23 : 684-2 (unch) ZCK23 : 684-6 (unch) Livestock Report Walsh Trading - Wed Oct 19, 4:06PM CDT Hogs rally The Demise of Cable News Channel Al-Jazeera America? | Main | Palestinian Demonization of Jews Continued Throughout 2015 January 18, 2016 NBC's Biased Use of AP's Outdated Palestinian Fatalities Figures In the last few months, numerous journalists have come under fire for depicting Palestinian assailants as victims. NBC's Cassandra Vinograd has a new twist on the old theme in her story today in which she selectively cites outdated Associated Press figures for Palestinians killed in recent months, most of them while attacking Israelis. Thus, in her article today on the second stabbing attack in two days on Israeli women, Vinograd writes: Since late September, more than 20 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks and at least 132 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Associated Press. AP's latest statistics, published shortly before Vinograd's report are as follows: Monday's attack was the latest in a four month-long wave of violence that shows no signs of abating. Palestinian attacks have killed 25 Israelis and an American student. At least 146 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, of whom 101 are said to have been attackers. The rest have been in clashes with Israeli troops. (Emphasis added.) Note that Vinograd ignored AP's careful notation of the fact that more than 100 out of 146 Palestinian fatalities were attackers. Note also that the figures that Vinograd states for both Israeli and Palestinian dead are lower than the AP's figures from today. Vinograd cited "more than 20 Israelis" and "at least 132 Palestinians" killed, attributing AP, while AP's newest figures are "25 Israelis and an American student" and at least 146 Palestinians. The last time Associated Press cited "at least 132 Palestinians" was on Jan. 6, nearly two weeks ago. So not only is Vinograd selective use of AP's careful figures biased. It's also embarrassingly outdated. Posted by TS at January 18, 2016 06:16 AM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Update 7/19/16 The Lemay Avenue Brewery & Self-Storage Facility project should be able to commence construction with the relocation of prairie dogs from the building site. The removal of the colony began in May and was expected to be complete in late June. The rodents were moved to the Fort Collins-owned Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area, which was prepped with 52 underground nesting boxes, according to the source. Care was taken to keep the family units together, which increases the likelihood the prairie dogs will adapt to their new home, according to Noelle Guernsey, a wildlife biologist who is program manager for the Prairie Dog Coalition. The coalition, along with the local Prairie Dog Relocation group, mapped the location of burrow openings at the building site and approximated the layout at the relocation area. Luckily, with the relocation site at Cathy Fromme Prairie, we were able to replicate the way they are oriented here pretty darn closely, she told the source. We think theyll like their new digs. The first two days of the trapping project yielded 93 prairie dogs. Prior to being released into tubes leading to their new nesting boxes, the animals were documented by age, gender and health, and dusted with insecticide for flea prevention, the source reported. The relocation site offers the prairie dogs plenty of food sources and is far from neighborhoods, Guernsey said. The project required a permit from the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife. 1/18/16 Fort Collins Self-Storage LLC, which won approval in November for its Lemay Avenue Brewery & Self-Storage Facility project in Fort Collins, Colo., may be faced with construction delays due to the presence of prairie dogs on the 6.5-acre property. The Prairie Dog Coalition, a local activist group, has lobbied for the relocation of the colony. City officials have suggested at least two city-owned properties they believe will be suitable for the rodents, but the projects March groundbreaking could be in jeopardy if the coalition is unable to move the colony by then, according to the source. The possible relocation sites are south of the city. Officials are expected to meet with members of the coalition in the next few weeks to discuss the sites and moving process, the source reported. Coalition member Helen Taylor said she appreciated the citys willingness to work with the group, which has offered to pay for the relocation and provide manpower. The city has expressed concerns about the plans feasibility and impact on the area. Moving prairie dogs is pretty involved. Its very time-intensive and expensive, Wendy Williams, deputy city manager, told The Coloradoan. A construction delay could come directly from property developer Stan Scott if hes willing to postpone the groundbreaking. The coalition would prefer to wait until the summer to relocate the colony to give females the opportunity to give birth to their pups this spring, according to the source. The project will be built at the corner of Buckingham Street and Lemay Avenue. The seven-building storage facility will comprise 103,000 square feet in about 700 units. One 45-foot structure will include three stories and climate-controlled units. The microbrewery will comprise 7,219 square feet. Space Saver has added a custom-built drive-thru canopy to its self-storage facility in Kent, England. The property in the Waterham Storage Park on Highstreet Road now features a 700-square-meter, L-shaped structure that provides year-round cover to 60 new drive-up units. It has a 22-foot roof span and 14-foot eaves. The canopy has given us a unique self-storage option unlike any other in the country. Im hoping in business terms it will take Space Saver to the next level, said John Burgess, managing director. The structure was designed, manufactured and installed by Clovis Canopies. The canopy not only needed to link the planned and existing storage units, it had to be wide enough to allow vehicles to turn and high enough to enable access for moving trucks, according to a Space Saver press release. It also had to fit aesthetically with the existing buildings and the facilitys blue, white and yellow brand colors, Burgess said. The main challenge was to develop what the client anticipated into the finished project and create the plan before the storage units were in place, said Douglas Cox, contracts manager for Clovis. Founded in 1992 by Patrick Sinker, Space Saver offers 1,200 storage units. In addition to business and personal storage, it offers archive storage, office space for rent, mailbox rental, moving and packing and supplies, and warehousing services. Clovis Canopies offers a range of all-weather canopies, entrance shelters and walkways for airports, hospitals, housing, offices, schools and other buildings. The Broadcasting Board of Governors expressed shock and sadness Sunday after freelance journalist Almigdad Mojalli, on assignment for the Voice of America, was killed in an air raid in Yemen. Almigdad Mojalli was a committed and talented journalist who made the ultimate sacrifice to report on the difficult, but important, stories coming out of Yemen, said BBG CEO and Director John Lansing. He dedicated his life to reporting on humanitarian crises, and we extend our condolences to his family. Mr. Mojalli gave his life to provide the people of Yemen with reliable and uncensored information, said BBG Chairman Jeff Shell. Our deepest condolences are with his family, friends and colleagues. Since October, Mojalli had been reporting for VOA on the human impact of the war and the economic crisis in Yemen. He was in rebel-held Sanaa on Sunday morning when he was killed in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike. "Truth telling on the ground in the midst of conflict is a serious endeavor, said Acting VOA Director Kelu Chao. Reporting on the tragic nature of war requires fortitude and a willingness to take risks. Mr. Mojalli was a fine journalist and an example for us all. We mourn the loss of this courageous man." Mojalli leaves behind a family of seven. Insurance law firm Hall & Wilcox has announced that it is set to expand to Canberra as the company looks to build its footprint throughout Australia.Matthew Needham will lead the Canberra business initially and will be joined by three legal and two support staff.Tony Macvean, managing partner at Hall & Wilcox, welcomed Needham to the team and stressed that the law firm will continue to looks for expansion opportunities across the country.Matthew heads a strong team in statutory and general insurance for the ACT, and his practice greatly complements our existing statutory and general insurance practices, Macvean said.The Canberra office is an important step toward a national presence. Aside from developing a strong insurance team we also see many opportunities in Canberra for other areas of practice, particularly in government, finance and taxation.Throughout 2015, the law firm announced other moves into Newcastle and Perth and the new Canberra office will take partner numbers to 64 compared with 42 in early 2015. The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry is about to be tested directly by the sharing economy. Two tech entrepreneurs have raised $13 million in initial funding to launch a peer-to-peer online property/casualty insurance company named Lemonade, which they promise will reinvent the insurance industry business model and make insurance a delightful experience for consumers. The founders claim that with their peer-to-peer (P2P) technology, they will alter the current industrys bureaucracy and structure in ways not available to the legacy insurance carriers. Lemonade, headquartered in New York, is being founded by Daniel Schreiber and Shai Wininger, both of whom have track records in tech startups. Schreiber most recently was president of Powermat (portable wireless device charging). Wininger co-founded Fiverr.com, a site for freelance design and other creative professionals. New P/C insurer aims to turn a consumer lemon of an experience into lemonade. While the founders suggest they are onto something revolutionary, they are not yet talking about exactly what their business model is, what their product will do, or who else is involved. In an interview with Insurance Journal in December 2015, Daniel Schreiber, CEO, would not talk specifics about the company or its products, but said Lemonade plans to launch in a few months and will target consumers, not businesses. He said the firm has hired technologists, designers, actuaries and other insurance professionals (whose names he said will be recognized within insurance circles) and has been able to attract an eclectic group of people that the insurance industry has trouble recruiting. He said they have been working with New York regulators and will be a fully-approved and licensed insurance carrier, not a broker. He said that unlike the car-sharing firm Uber, his firm will comply with laws and not go about challenging insurance regulations. Schreiber said what they want to do cant be done by simply applying technology to the existing insurance carrier bureaucracy. Instead, Lemonade aims to go back to the basics and use technology to replace the centralized bureaucracy of insurers and employ transparency to alter the culture around paying claims that many consumers distrust. He referred to studies showing almost a quarter of policyholders think it is acceptable to improperly inflate claims. Whats in a Name? Schreiber said the name for the company came from his partner, Wininger, and captures the idea of turning what they believe consumers feel is a lemon of an experience into lemonade. Most Americans view insurance as a necessary evil rather than a social good, and thats something wed like to change, Schreiber said in the capital raising announcement. Were challenging the way insurance companies work, with a peer-to-peer business model fueled by self-serve technology, said Wininger, president and CTO, in the announcement. Weve seen this kind of combination breathe new life into other industries, and were determined to do the same for insurance. Schreiber said that the idea of Lemonade harkens back to the origins of insurance but he argues those original businesses have become big and bureaucratic while consumers have become disenchanted. He said its not insurers fault they have become so bloated but people coming from other industries with different perspectives see insurance as ripe for transformation. Schreiber pointed to other financial technology firms that have been cherry picking aspects of the lending industry, including the LendingClub.com in personal loans and sofi.com in student loan financing. It [the insurance industry] appears to most outsiders as a daunting task. Its a whole different language, he said when asked why it has taken until now for anyone to target insurance in the way other financial services have been targeted. Its also been slow to happen because it takes a lot of money to start an insurance carrier, he said, suggesting that was why raising the $13 million was so important. Schreiber described the level of funding they received from Sequoia as a very big deal in venture funding circles. Lemonade will not be the first P2P insurance venture. Germany has friendsurance (founded in 2010), the United Kingdom has Guevara, and China has TongJuBao. Its not now known in what ways Lemonade will compare to other P2P insurance ventures, although some act as brokers, not carriers. Typically, P2P sites invite users to form small groups of policyholders who pay premiums into a pool to pay claims. If there is money left in the pool at the end of the policy period, the members get money back. Lemonades financial backers are equally excited, saying that they think they are onto something big, partnering with people they know and believe are well-suited to take on the big insurance industry. It is very unusual for a company to receive $13 million in an initial round of funding, said Haim Sadger, partner at Sequoia Capital, in the release. But it is rarer still to find such accomplished founders tackling such a sizable industry with such a compelling solution. Were betting Lemonade will transform the insurance landscape beyond recognition. It is one to watch. Ive known Lemonades founders for years, and were thrilled to be part of their journey from the very start. I can think of no entrepreneurs better equipped to reinvent insurance, said Michael Eisenberg, founding partner at Aleph. Daniel and Shai are on a mission to deliver a wake-up call for the industry, and a refreshing experience to consumers worldwide. Since 1972, Sequoia has partnered with the founders of what are now well-known large companies including Apple, Airbnb, Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn, Square and Trulia. Israeli venture capital firm Aleph has invested in WeWork, Seeking Alpha, Gigya and others. Topics Carriers USA Tech Property Casualty Market Funding Americas system for ensuring that medical devices are safe failed at every turn when dirty endoscopes began spreading deadly superbugs, according to a Senate investigation released today. The report, from Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, blames device manufacturers, hospitals, and the Food and Drug Administration for infections that sickened at least 250 people worldwide since 2012 and that may have contributed to dozens of deaths. The series of outbreaks went on for years before safety problems with the endoscopes came to light in the media in 2015. The report says the events expose systemic weaknesses in the FDAs approach to protecting the public from medical technology that may be harmful. This investigation clearly demonstrates the inability of FDAs current device surveillance system to accurately identify the extent of device problems when they occur, which poses an unacceptable risk to patients, Murrays office wrote. Among the findings: Safety warnings took too long. It took 17 months from when hospitals in Seattle and Illinois first detected that intestinal scopes known as duodenoscopes spread antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 2013 and when the FDA warned other hospitals and the public about the risk early last year. The devices, which are threaded through a patients mouth to diagnose and treat ailments of the pancreatic or biliary ducts, are used in 700,000 procedures a year in the U.S. The problem is bigger than anyone knew.The number of hospitals and patients affected worldwideat least 25 outbreaks affecting 250 peopleis greater than what had previously been made public. The FDA didnt spot a pattern of problems. The agency relies on a passive monitoring system of reports from hospitals and companies that catalogue a million potential safety problems a year. Although at least 11 hospital outbreaks were tied to the devices by September 2013, the agency had no way to identify this trend until the issue was directly brought to their attention by the Centers for Disease Control. Manufacturers kept U.S. hospitals in the dark. Olympus, which makes most of the duodenoscopes used in the U.S., warned customers in Europe that the design of the scopes could make them particularly challenging to clean, but the company left American doctors and hospitals in the dark, according to the report. When hospitals did find problems, they didnt report them properly. The report notes that 16 U.S. hospitals found superbug infections linked to duodenoscopes, but none actually followed all of the required steps to promptly notify manufacturers or, in cases of death, FDA. They alerted the device makers and regulator late or not at all and sometimes didnt tell patients affected. The FDA was aware of problems related to duodenoscopes even before the 2012 cases identified in Murrays investigation. Bloomberg reported last year that outbreaks in Florida in 2008 and 2009 were tied to the same devices and affected 70 patients, including 15 who died. On April 22, 2009, a CDC official investigating the Florida outbreaks e-mailed several FDA officials noting that there is a real chance that these issues might be more widespread, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg through a public record request. The CDC investigator suggested some type of educational alert about the difficulty cleaning the scopes and suggested that the manufacturers should also educate hospitals about the problem. Murrays report notes that the FDAs systems to monitor safety problems with pharmaceuticals are more sophisticated than its oversight of devices. She urged improvements that would allow regulators to understand safety risks more effectively as they emerge. For now, the FDA relies on manufacturers to to self-monitor and self-report when they have incentives to keep device problems quiet. The FDA is already taking steps to address some of Murrays recommendations, spokeswoman Deborah Kotz said in an e- mail. She called reducing the risk of infections from the devices a top priority for the agency. The agency recently indicated it will try to alert the public to potential device problems earlier. Olympus spokesman Mark Miller said the company cooperated with the Senate staff. Although we do not agree with all of the reports conclusions, we are closely reviewing the recommendations as part of the companys ongoing safety efforts, he said in a statement. Diane Rainey, a spokeswoman for Fujifilm, said safety is a top priority and the company is working with patients, hospitals, and regulators to ensure the long-term sustainable use of duodenoscopes. Pentax spokeswoman Shannon Coughlin said the company is working to reduce the risk of infection in flexible endoscopy and has established an initiative to promote safety and training around how to clean the devices. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Manufacturing NBC's Biased Use of AP's Outdated Palestinian Fatalities Figures | Main | In International NY Times, Property Dispute is Big News, Dafna Meir's Murder Ignored January 18, 2016 Palestinian Demonization of Jews Continued Throughout 2015 In a report prepared for a Jan. 13, 2016 conference session at the European Parliament, Itamar Marcus (Palestinian Media Watch) submitted ample evidence that Palestinian Arab incitement to violence against Jews continued unabated in 2015. Since the Palestinian Authority was established, and continuing throughout 2015, the PA has systematically used antisemitism to indoctrinate young and old to hate Israelis and Jews. The PA has actively promoted religious hatred by demonizing Judaism and Jews, spreading libels that present Jews as endangering Palestinians, Arabs, and all humanity. The PA presents Jews as possessing inherently evil traits. Jews are said to be treacherous, corrupt, allied with the devil, as well as descendants of apes and pigs. In 2015, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas advisor on Islam and head of PA Shariah courts taught on PA TV that Jews throughout history have represented falsehood evil the devils and their supporters the satans and their supporters.? Accordingly, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a conflict of Allah's project vs. Satan's project." The official PA daily published an op-ed saying Jews are thirsty for blood to please their god (against the gentiles), and crave pockets full of money.? These Jewish attributes? and traditions are presented as the unchangeable nature of Jews. These messages come from the top of the Palestinian Authority Palestinian Arab hatred of Jews, fostered by PA leadership, media, mosques and schools -- leading to terror -- was a major factor in Israeli pessimism about a two state solution. A large majority of Israeli Jews, according to opinion polling, believed that the Palestinian terror would continue even with the conclusion of a peace agreement. Posted by MK at January 18, 2016 05:02 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Natural gas has long been a staple resource used in heating, cooking, and electricity production. More recently, it has begun to figure more prominently in industrial applications and even as a fuel source for automobiles. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that about 23 million vehicles worldwide are powered by natural gas. It is difficult to find pure play natural gas companies, but many energy companies have large natural gas businesses. Major players include Chesapeake Energy Corp., Antero Resources Corp., and Range Resources Corp. Natural gas prices spiked in price after the Russian invasion of Ukraine because Russia is a major gas producer and has since been subject to major sanctions. Many of these companies are enjoying sharp rebounds in revenue growth this year in the wake of massive disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Natural gas stocks, as measured by a benchmark exchange-traded fund (ETF)the First Trust Natural Gas ETF (FCG)have provided a one-year trailing total return of 74.0%. This is well above the Russell 1000s one-year trailing total return of -13.1%. These figures and all data below are as of Sept. 15, 2022. Here are the top three natural gas stocks with the best value, the fastest growth, and the most momentum. As mentioned, many of these companies are not pure play natural gas names, but they focus more than half of their production (or, in the case of midstream companies, throughput on natural gas. These are the natural gas stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio. For companies in early stages of development or industries suffering from major shocks, this can be substituted as a rough measure of a businesss value. A business with higher sales could eventually produce more profit when it achieves, or returns to, profitability. The P/S ratio shows how much youre paying for the stock for each dollar of sales generated. Top News - Investor Idea Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Continues Acquisition Path With Purchase of ELMS Assets Including Factory in Mishawaka, IN., Enabling EV Production for Retail and Commercial Vehicle Lines BREA, Calif. - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces the US Bankruptcy Court approval on Oct. 13th, 2022 of its acquisition of electric vehicle company ELMS's (Electric Last Mile Solutions) assets in an all cash purchase. Top AI Stock News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires Confidential Computing Platform ZeroTrust to Protect Data Privacy and Accelerate Innovation for Millions of Growth Businesses NEW YORK, NY - October 19, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow, has acquired the confidential computing and privacy intellectual property (IP) plus software assets of Zero2A PTE LTD ("ZeroTrust Platform"), a software company based in Singapore. Top AI Cybersecurity Stock News - Investor Idea AI Cybersecurity Stock GBT (OTCPK: $GTCH) is Researching the Development of a Machine Learning Driven, RF Cybersecurity System and Protocol San Diego, CA - October 13, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) GBT Technologies Inc. (OTC PINK: GTCH) is researching the development of a machine learning driven radio frequency (RF) cybersecurity system and protocol. Top Health and Wellness Stock News - Investor Idea Health and Wellness Stock News - Amazon ( $AMZN) Expands Endexx (OTCBB: $EDXC) Blesswell Men's Premium Skincare Line Internationally to 13 Countries CAVE CREEK, Ariz. - September 29, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Endexx Corporation (OTCBB:EDXC), a provider of innovative, plant-based, and sustainable health and skincare products, today announces the international distribution of its premium men's Blesswell Skincare line through Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire On Thursday 14 January, over 100 of the global Irish diaspora met for the fifth annual Ireland Funds Global Young Leaders Summit in NYC. The Ireland Funds Young Leaders are a global network of professionals in their 30s who support the philanthropic work of The Worldwide Ireland Funds. The Society has chapters in 15 cities, across 6 countries. This year delegates are gathering from Ireland, Great Britain, Canada and US chapters in Boston, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia to meet and lay plans for their future growth and support of the nonprofit sector in Ireland. In 2012 the Young Leaders set a goal of raising $1 million globally. Due to their commitment to Ireland and Irish causes, this goal has been achieved. In keeping with The Ireland Funds' history of strategic philanthropy, and to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of The American Ireland Fund by Dan Rooney and Tony O'Reilly, the Young Leaders are now setting ambitious plans for membership growth, and fundraising. At this Summit, they announced goals to grow the society by 50% in the coming two years, with a further goal of raising $1 million in the same period. The Summit also saw the launch of the Global Leadership Network, an exclusive global network for select Young Leaders alumni. Commenting, Kieran McLoughlin, President and CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds, said, Our Young Leaders infuse The Ireland Funds with energy. Their dynamism and insights ensure we are equipped to meet todays needs and opportunities. The future leadership of The Ireland Funds is in great hands. The Worldwide Ireland Funds are a philanthropic network across 12 countries that has raised over $500 million for worthy causes in Ireland and Irish causes around the world. It is the largest network of friends of Ireland dedicated to supporting programs of peace and reconciliation, arts and culture, education and community development. Founded in 1976, The Worldwide Ireland Funds have benefited over 3,000 organizations. Funds raised are contributed by private sources, individuals, corporations and foundations. For more information, please visit www.theirelandfunds.org. Whether youre a pro-surfer, climbing legend or back-to-nature camper, Ireland has something for every adventurous spirit. Mountain peaks, untouched valleys and deserted beaches are all on offer to those who are brave enough to seek them out. Check out our top five must-do trips to kick off your outdoor adventure in Ireland: 1. Explore Killarney National Park The largest national park in Ireland offers hiking galore with stunning scenery, epic mountain ranges and the world-famous Killarney Lakes. Reach the peaks of McGillycuddys Reeks for the most awe-inspiring views, or set off round Muckross Lake and discover the incredible Torc Waterfall. With such a variety of terrain, be sure to pick up the right gear before you go so youll be ready for anything. 2. Surfs up in Mayo With its beautiful coastline, immaculate beaches and year-round swells, its easy to see why Ireland is one the worlds top surfing destinations. Grab your board and head to Carrownskey, a 4km-long remote sandy beach just down the coast from Louisburgh, South Mayo. This little-known spot is likely to be deserted, so itll just be you and the ocean. Read more: Taking the plunge - top surf spots in Ireland 3. Scale mountains Climb crags in some of Irelands wildest coastal and mountain areas. Barrys Head on Corks coast offers a superb setting for climbing and bouldering routes. Make sure you pick up the best equipment for your adventure before you go - and whatever you do, dont forget your maps! 4. Back to the wild Not satisfied with just a days hike? For the really adventurous, try wild camping in rural Ireland. Discover unspoilt scenery, out-of-the-way spots and wake up early for those beautiful Irish sunrises. Remember to pack your tent and sleeping bag and you can pitch up under the stars almost anywhere. Make sure you have got the right camping gear and accessories, so youre ready for any night out in the open. Read more: Top ten nature trails in Ireland 5. Over land and sea The cable car at the Beara Peninsula in West Cork is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Riding 30m above the sea, this is the only cable car in Europe that travels over water. Having braved the tin can cable car, the Beara Way loops 11km around the island a gentle walk after a breathtaking journey! So now youve done your research, youve got all the right gear, and youre ready to start your outdoor adventure. And trust us, Irelands waiting for you Read more: Top ten adventure vacations in Ireland Thanks to Basecamp.ie for the info. An Irish woman threatened to bomb Irish President Michael D. Higgins if he continued with his trip to the UK in April 2014. Referring to Higgins as a ladyboy and stating that the President and Sabrina [sic] Higgins would go home in plastic bags if they set foot on English soil, Anne Fennell, 57, made several phone calls to the Presidents residence in Aras an Uachtarain before he embarked on what would be the first state visit of a President of Ireland to the United Kingdom. She continued to call in threats to bomb him throughout his 2014 trip and again in October of the same year, an Irish court heard. Fennell redirected her attention to Irish government buildings, Dail Eireann,on November 18, 2014, when she called to say there was a bomb at the main gate. The call resulted in a search of the entire area surrounding the Dail. READ MORE: AOH leader slams Irish presidents state visit to Britain. A former worker with Irelands postal service, An Post, Fennell pleaded guilty in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court of sending threatening, obscene and annoying messages to a number of government buildings including Aras an Uachtarain, the Department of Finance, the European Commission Representation, An Post Dublin Mail Centre, and the constituency offices of TDs Alan Kelly, Aodhan O Riordain, and Noel Coonan, telling officers on her arrest that she was lonely. She was previously charged with five counts of harassing a priest in 2006. Woman, 57, threatened to bomb Higgins for UK trip https://t.co/1LvfKCjbRY (DOD) pic.twitter.com/sAXeM8z2Ua Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) January 16, 2016 Gardai traced the calls made from her cell phone between March 2013 and November 2014 and on her discovery, Fennell, from Clondalkin in County Dublin, apologized to arresting Gardai and told them her threats were just words. In court, she faced 22 charges under the Post Office Act of making grossly offensive phone calls or sending persistent and false messages for the purpose of causing annoyance over a 20-month period. She is believed to have made nine obscene calls to Aras an Uachtarain, three of which were to the Presidents official residence on April 8, 2014, at the beginning of his UK trip. Superintendent Michael Cryan told the court that throughout 2014, Fennell called the Dail on a weekly basis to complain about various issues, including the Irish Presidents monumental state visit to the UK. She also called the EU Commission and threatened to bomb the building if they did not lay off Cyprus. The judge heard that her phone calls were often made in reaction to news stories. On three occasions in November 2014, Fennell rang the office of TD Alan Kelly in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, threatening him and his family, on one occasion stating that she would put a bullet in [Mr Kellys] head. Fennells defense, Mr White, submitted to Judge Melanie Greally that she deeply regretted her behavior, although she could not offer an excuse for her actions. White asked that she be given a chance at rehabilitation, noting that it was in the public interest to do so. Judge Greally also noted from a photograph that the accused lived in subhuman conditions. Fennell was remanded on continuing bail until July 2016 in order to allow her continued psychological therapy. The judge ordered that attention be paid to the link between the loneliness experienced by Fennell and her actions, stating that a structure should be put in place to allow her to have a pro-social existence. In April 2014, Michael D. Higgins made a four-day state visit to the UK, three years after the first state visit by a British monarch to Ireland following its independence. Higgins and his wife Sabina met with Queen Elizabeth II and British Prime Minister David Cameron during their stay. READ MORE: Historic handshake between Prince Charles and Gerry Adams in Ireland (VIDEO). H/T: Irish Examiner Aisling Brady McCarthy, the Irish nanny who was acquitted of the murder of 1-year-old Rehma Sabir after spending more than two years in prison, is now trying to move on with a new life in Ireland. I have no choice but to move on, she told columist Kevin Cullen of the Boston Globe. I have changed. I dont trust people like I used to. Youre nearly afraid to get to know people because theyll say, Oh, youre the girl from Boston. It makes me want to cut my hair off and dye it black. McCarthy left Boston in September, leaving behind all her possessions except her terrier lab Addie. She flew home with her sister Sharon; they held hands and cried for the first hour of the flight. After she landed at Shannon Airport reporters followed her everywhere and even camped outside her mothers house in County Cavan. McCarthy and her husband Don snuck away to her mothers house in Galway. The couple celebrated their third anniversary, the first one when she wasnt in jail, with a quiet dinner at an Italian restaurant. We were home by 10, she says. Don and I are not ones for going out much. Don has found work house painting in his native Cork, but McCarthy hasnt been able to find work. I was a nanny. Im not going to do that again, she said. Whos going to want to hire a 37-year-old whos been out of the country for 15 years? McCarthy spoke of how 10 police officers showed up at her house in Wollaston to arrest her while her husband was at work. The cops wouldnt let her change out of her pajamas or even let her leave her dog Addie some water. She was thrown into prison in Framingham, MA. I was terrified, she said. I wouldnt come out of my cell. Lawyers David Meier and Mindy Thompson took her case and eventually were able to show that McCarthy was wrongly accused of causing violent head trauma to Rehma Sabir, the baby who had been in her care. As the case against her began to collapse, McCarthy says she gained a certain status among her fellow prisoners. They believed she was innocent and would high-five her when passing, reports The Boston Globe. She says she got cards and letters from all over the world and from the families of children she had taken care of over the years. Thats what kept me going, she said. That and the support of my family. She says she grieves for Rehma, whose cause of death remains a mystery. I looked after Rehma 10 hours a day, five days a week, she said. I stayed over to help her sleep train. Ive been looking after kids since I was 13. I had seven younger brothers and sisters. I started with a family in Lexington with seven kids. I always got work by word of mouth. She says that after she was released, lawyer Mindy Thompson, who McCarthy calls my guardian angel, visited her in Ireland. Locals treated Thompson like a rock star and lined up to hug her. McCarthys two brothers came back from Australia for Christmas. It was the first time in 15 years the entire family was together for Christmas. Mammy was in her glory, says McCarthy, one of 10 siblings. Although she misses Boston, she says she could never go back. And although she might like to visit elsewhere in America, she is banned from returning to the U.S. for 10 years for overstaying her visa and living in the country illegally all those years. While McCarthy hopes to put the last few years behind her, she says she still wants Dr. Alice Newton, the doctor who first implicated her in the death of Rehma Sabir, and Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and prosecutors, who a judge found withheld exculpatory evidence, to be held accountable. They werent just wrong in my case, they were reckless, she says. And they never lost a minutes sleep. They just moved on to the next case. I want to expose this because I dont want it to happen to anyone else. The Boston Globe states that McCarthy is planning use the civil courts to explain what happened to her in a criminal court, but is torn by her desire to move on and a compulsion to use her case to show how unchecked power can needlessly ruin lives. If I dont let go, it will consume me, she said. I dont want people to feel sorry for me. I want to move on. What happened to me has given me a new perspective, she said. When I was in prison, I had a loving family that came to see me. I called my husband twice a day. Some of the girls had nobody. Some people have nothing. No matter what, your life is always better than someone elses. If its often difficult to arrive at the truth, pure and simple, about transformative events in Irish history thats probably because the truth, as Oscar Wilde once noted, is rarely pure and never simple. Professor Liam Kennedy knows all about it. Emeritus professor of economic history at Queens University in Belfast, he was born and raised in Co. Tipperary and has lived and worked in the U.K. and Northern Ireland for 30 years where he exists, in his own words, as an outsider. To authors like Tim Pat Coogan, Kennedy is simply a revisionist historian suffering from a poignant need to re-contextualize the subjugation of Ireland to make it less emotive and troubling, a sort of historical Stockholm syndrome that Coogan calls colonial cringe. In Kennedys new book "Unhappy the Land: The Most Oppressed People Ever, the Irish?," he certainly asks provocative questions about Irish history, including if the economic plight of its people at the start of the 20th century was actually worse than comparable European nations of the period? Thats the kind of question that enrages many Nationalists (and Unionists, who have their own pieties too). Kennedy knows this, but his sometimes counter-intuitive approach stems from his belief in interrogating accepted wisdom and dislodging chauvinism. But the title of his latest book also suggests a frame of mind that occasionally enjoys jumping on the fissures and fractures of Irish history. Most oppressed people ever is more commonly known by the acronym MOPE, after all. And many Irish people contend MOPE is an insultingly reductive term that stigmatizes them for their own historic oppression, while removing their agency to lament it and then lampooning their anger or sorrow after the fact. Stop moping, as it were, because its clearly bad for you. Its uncommon to see a distinguished academic use such a loaded locution. What, some might understandably ask, will his next title be? Ireland, It Wasnt Really As Bad As All That? Or perhaps Ireland, LOL? How about Ireland, YOLO? Kennedy leaves himself open to such criticism, but hes clearly fine with that. In unpacking other peoples pieties he has obviously given quite a bit of thought to his own. Originally from Borrisoleigh, he was educated at the exclusive Cistercian College boarding school in Roscrea (former students include former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, former Irish Times editor Conor Brady and former Labour Party leader Dick Spring). Concentration camp Roscrea, as we called it, he tells the Irish Voice. What led him to a career as an economic historian? At University College Cork I became active in the Labour Party and edited some of the school magazines and probably wrote editorials I would now find embarrassing, if I had kept any copies. It was a fairly ultra-left perspective on Irish politics and international politics. Kennedy did a science and economics degree to begin with, and then he formally studied history, including Irish history, at the University of York. What influences his new book is his social democratic perspective on Irish politics and international politics, he says. Ive been living in Northern Ireland since the late 1970s, and clearly living in Belfast you are preoccupied with what is going on all around you. The experience of living in Northern Ireland as an outsider called him to rethink a lot of what he had originally considered as core aspects of the Irish experience. It was very much an evolutionary pathway. There was no moment when I thought,'Hey the 1916 Rising wasnt such a great idea, or the Ulster Covenant for that matter.' Being a balm or an occasional pox on both houses gets Kennedy invites to the top tier when hes not being howled at. One illustrative (and then awkward) occasion was his invite to celebrate the centenary of the Ulster Covenant of 1912 in Belfast in 2012. I got more and more uneasy as the evening went on. I thought I must go and read the bloody Covenant and I was really unhappy with it when I did. I objected to the phrase to use all means which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule parliament in Ireland, he recalled. That was in the covenant and it was ludicrous. Irish Nationalists from the 1830s onwards had been talking about some form of devolved government, but particularly from the time of Charles Stewart Parnell onwards in the 1880s. I was offended when I read that, to suggest that the move toward Home Rule was a recent conspiracy was nonsense. It had a huge history behind it. Its the elephant in the room in both the Ulster Covenant and the Irish Proclamation, the things that are not said, which troubles him. What the Unionists should have recognized was that whatever arguments they had for opposing Home Rule they should have at least acknowledged that three quarters of the people of Ireland were in favor of a Dublin parliament. There was no conspiracy except in their imaginations. The more sinister phrase is to use all means which may be found necessary. And the ignoring of nationalist demands is unforgivable. Other views Kennedy holds make him a doubtful guest at some gatherings. Carson was a disaster for unionism, he says plainly. Objectively he led them in the wrong direction and got a much worse outcome for them than was foreseeable in 1912. Thats the sort of observation that excoriates Unionists, who look at Carson as the founding father. But Kennedy has strong criticisms for the Irish Proclamation too. The biggest problem I have with it is that it wasnt a peoples rising, it had no democratic mandate. The sense of entitlement is appalling. The document says, The Irish Republic is entitled to, and hereby claims, the allegiance of every Irishman and Irishwoman. In a way we were all conscripted into the nation without so much as a by our leave. Theres an irony there too because by 1918 the threat by Prime Minister Lloyd George of extending conscription to Ireland was rightly resisted by all shades of nationalist opinion. In the 1910s politics in Ireland underwent a giant lurch to the right. First the Ulster Unionists and their covenanting bands, and then the men of 1916 ensured that henceforth appeals to the gun, the drum and the flag would dominate political discourse. And so they have to this day, at the cost of concerns for inequality, social class and individual liberties. We should look back on the Great War with anger, a slaughter in which Patrick Pearse gloried. We should look back on Easter 1916 with anger. The leaders of that glorious enterprise, with their passion for martyrdom, bear comparison with another group of conspirators almost a century later. This time on the other side of the Atlantic. On 11th of September, 2001, in another moment of ecstasy, a group of Islamism militants crashed their bodies and their machines into the Twin Towers in New York, Kennedy says. Comparing the architects of the Easter Rising to al-Qaeda is the kind of link that leaves Kennedys critics slack-jawed. But in defense he points to what he calls Pearses proto-fascist writings. I guess I react more strongly than most against what I regard as bad history and this is probably related to living in Northern Ireland during some very bad years of the Troubles and seeing the past exploited to make life even cheaper than it otherwise might have been. So, yes, there is a moral, perhaps humanitarian current running through all this, as well as on the values front social democratic concerns. The leader of the Catholic Church of Ireland has told of his fears that the 1916 commemorations could trigger increased tensions between the Nationalist and Unionist communities in the North. The Primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin urged organizers of the Easter Rising centenary celebrations to avoid a "false glorification" of the event and to focus instead on the victims. He said he hoped the "terrible loss of human life" would be the main focus of the planned centenary commemorations for both the Easter Rising and the Battle Of The Somme, one of the bloodiest conflicts in history with more than 1 million casual ties, including many from the island of Ireland. He said: "It's a very significant year for the people of Ireland, both North and South. One of the first things to remember is that there are two major commemorations taking place on the island this year. We have, of course, the remembrance of the Easter Rising and then we have the commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, where tens of thousands of Irish people fought and many, many lost their lives. "It's so important that when we are remembering that we do not engage in some sort of revisionism or kind of false glorification of the events, either of Easter or indeed of World War 1, but instead we recognize the horrific and terrible loss of human life that took place. "We know that on this island there are lots of people who carry hurt for the legacy of the conflict in Northern Ireland that is very recent. "I think we can do all we want with rose-tinted glasses to look back 100 years at 1916, but in doing so we should not be indifferent to the huts and the pains and the wounds of people, which are still very raw." In an interview with iCatholic, he added: "I hope that in our remembrance of 1916, we are very aware of the present and the possibility we could drive a wedge during this year, rather than promote harmony and friendship." Read more about the 1916 centenary here. A man will be sentenced today for raping a woman with Down Syndrome after luring her back to his flat in Dublin during the summer of 2013. Faisal Ellahi, who is from Haripur in Pakistan, was found guilty just a few days before Christmas following a five-week trial. After the jury came back with the guilty verdict on Dec 18, Mr Justice Tony Hunt described the case as the most difficult one he has ever dealt with. The victim was not asked to come to court in person, but she was cross-examined about what happened through a live video link. The court heard she became separated from her mother while out for a jog in Dublin on an afternoon in June 2013. Faisal Ellahi stopped her on the street and brought her back to his apartment where he claimed they had consensual sexual contact. He denied knowing she had an intellectual disability and told Gardai he had never even heard of Down Syndrome. The jury did not believe him and found him guilty after two and a half hours of deliberations. The 34-year-old will be sentenced later this morning. An ocean-monitoring satellite that launched from the California coast has separated from its SpaceX rocket and been sent toward orbit. With the Falcon 9 rockets second stage and the Jason-3 satellite continuing toward orbit, SpaceX will now try to land its first stage on a floating barge in the Pacific Ocean. The US Embassy in Baghdad confirms that several Americans are missing in Iraq after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital. US Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said on Sunday: We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Two climbers have been killed while hiking in the Scottish Highlands. A rescue operation was launched in Glencoe following concern for the climbers, believed to be male. Police Scotland said they were found dead at the scene. A spokeswoman said: Police Scotland were called about concern for two climbers on Stob Coire nam Beith at around 4.25pm on Saturday. Police, coastguard and Glencoe Mountain Rescue responded, and sadly we can confirm that the two climbers were found deceased. Andy Nelson, leader of the mountain rescue team, told BBC Scotland: "The guys were roped together, so it is possible they were still on the climb but they have clearly fallen some distance. My information is that they have been killed instantly by the fall. They had all the relevant equipment and there is nothing to suggest that they were ill-equipped or inexperienced. West Cork firm Global Shares targeting global equity administration market With a decade of experience under its belt, an innovative company based out of West Cork has major growth plans for the coming years as it looks to capture a bigger share of the equity administration market. Clonakilty-based Global Shares is a leading software-as-a-service company that develops cloud-based solutions for corporate clients to manage their employee share plans. The self-styled Google of West Cork boasts a staff of 80 employees across a network of offices that spans the globe from London to New York and California to Brazil. The software firm exports 98% of its business to more than 150 private and public companies including US giant Cargill, Mexicos Corona and China Trust. Closer to home Kerry Group also uses its software. If client testimonies are anything to go by, Global Shares appears more than worthy of its Cork Company of the Year nomination. Global Shares are highly educated, they are very accurate, they know what they are talking about and they care about what they do, Cargill global process manager, Clinton Shoap says. One of the companys major calling cards is its one-stop web-based solution that eliminates paperwork and reduces the risk of manual errors. Having started as a service-only company in 2005, Global Shares management quickly realised that such a business model was unsustainable. In 2009, company chief executive Tim Houstoun along with a number of employees and original investors bought out the companys original founders at a time when the business was at a fork in the road. Its major transformation kicked into gear four years ago, however, as an increased focus on innovation and in-house R&D pointed the way to sustainability and led to the development of the customer-orientated IT solution it offers today. With an improved product the companys focus on marketing itself and attracting new clients has helped set it apart from competitors in an industry traditionally poor at selling its wares. Its groundbreaking team of marketers target equity plan managers worldwide - something the company says shows its global potential to scale. Achieving that growth is the main priority for Mr Houstoun who says the recognition of Cork Chamber is an honour the companys staff will enjoy. Global Shares is very excited and honoured to be selected as a finalist in the Cork Chamber Company of the Year Awards 2016. "The team and I are determined to make Global Shares a world-class company and we are looking forward to an exciting year of strong growth ahead, bringing us closer to realising our vision to be the leading global provider of equity software for our industry, says Mr Houstoun. We are very proud of our Cork heritage and the calibre of our employees a winning combination. Cork's Teamwork aims to facilitate better communication and productivity among teams Having been among the finalists in last years Cork Company of the Year Awards and with a 100% increase in staff since then, its a case of on the double all round for Teamwork.com as it vies for the SME title again in 2016. Founded in 2007 and based in Blackpool, Teamwork aims to do exactly what it says on the tin: facilitate better communication and productivity among teams. Its an approach that has yielded impressive results, with the past year among its best to date. Last year alone, the company developed its third product, Teamwork Desk, to make dealing with customer enquiries easier for its clients. Along with its productivity tool, Teamwork Projects, and Teamwork Chat which looks to improve communication, its third product rounds out its suite of software offerings. Each of its products integrate seamlessly and serve to enhance the performance of teams by coordinating both processes and people simultaneously. As well as bringing its third product to market, 2015 also saw the team double in size to more than 40 employees. Coupled with this development was a doubling in the companys office space. The icing on the cake came by way of the company having its best ever year in terms of revenue. Back for another crack at the Chamber awards, Teamworks staff are again delighted to be among the finalists in the SME category, according to co-founder Peter Coppinger. We were thrilled to be nominated as finalists for this great award. "Being recognised by your peers is a great honour and something we are very proud of Cork has become very influential as a global tech hub, Mr Coppinger said. Another major achievement last year saw Disney come on board as a client to join the list of 370,000 companies across 150 countries using its software. With more than two million projects managed to date, the company which has been 100% bootstrapped since its inception looks on course to continue its emergence over the coming years. Its success allows it to continue investing in its people and practices as it heads into its next phase of growth which should see it facilitate better teamwork among an ever-growing number of employees across the world. Irish International Trading Corporation has almost 100 years experience serving Cork Among the multitude of modern companies named as finalists for this years awards, one traditional Cork powerhouse stands alone vying for the title. Irish International Trading Corporation (IITC) has almost 100 years experience serving the people of Cork and having weathered not just the last downturn but all that have gone before it, the company is looking towards the coming years with renewed vigour. IITC founded on the Grand Parade before moving to Rocksavage/Anglesea Street and subsequently relocating to its current premises on Tramore Road in 2002 is one of the countrys leading wholesalers of hardware, steel, plumbing materials and bathroom supplies. As an established name in the south of the country, IITC opened a Dublin depot in 1990 to service the midlands and northern parts Its supplier list includes some of Irelands largest and most successful companies such as Dairygold Co-Op, Kerry Group and Glanbia while it also sells to hardware merchants across the country. We are honoured to be selected as finalist in the SME category for Cork Company of the Year by the Cork Chamber of Commerce. "IITC has a long history and association with Cork business, says finance director, David Heffernan. Getting to the final is recognition of the commitment and achievements of the excellent people who have worked for IITC. "It is also a great motivator to everyone to carry on that tradition of hard work to achieve and exceed the ambitious plans we have for the company. Those plans include increasing its headcount to over 100 employees in 2016 having successfully avoided compulsory redundancies over the last number of years. For a company that cares about its employees, it ranks as one of IITCs proudest achievements. Traditional as its business may be, innovation is nonetheless top of its priorities as management look to grow into the future. IITC has continuously adapted and changed throughout its long history and with a strong focus on upskilling staff and a modernisation of IT and communication systems, the company is merging new and old to maintain its long and distinguished history. Reuters in Frankfurt reported yesterday that the ECB is quizzing a number of eurozone banks about their high levels of non-performing loans, saying the central bank is ramping up efforts to tackle the regions mountain of bad debt. A spokesman for the ECB told the Irish Examiner it wasnt commenting on whether any Irish banks were involved in the new eurozone sample. The Reuters report did not name Ireland, but said that a heavy burden of loans which is unlikely to be repaid in countries such as Portugal, Spain, and Italy, is curbing the eurozones recovery by limiting banks ability to lend. It said in the first tangible step of its plan to deepen scrutiny of credit risk this year, the ECBs Single Supervisory Mechanism has sent a questionnaire about non-performing loans to a sample of lenders from across the SSM to inform its work. The ECB, which supervises the eurozones top 129 banks, said this month it had created a task force to scrutinise banks with high levels of non-performing loans and propose follow-up actions. The stock of bad loans in eurozone countries stood at 932 billion, or 9.2% of eurozone GDP at the end of 2014, according to the IMFs most recent estimate. Irish companies still carry some of the highest debt burdens in Europe, a legacy of the boom and the depth of the financial crash. The figures can be distorted however because of the huge numbers of multinational companies based here. The Irish Central Bank in its most recent quarterly bulletin published early October said debt levels in Irelands private firms the non-financial corporation (NFC) sector remain elevated but there are some signs of improving health. Private sector debt as a percentage of GDP had fallen to 194% in the first quarter last year. In comparison with other EU countries, the NFC debt to GDP in Ireland is relatively high, ranking third behind Luxembour (335%) and Cyprus (225%). Expectations at home are soaring, but the storm clouds are gathering overseas. Could our recovery fizzle out? As the general election campaign gets underway, there is a strange air of unreality. We have an economy that is delivering big time for an, as yet, fairly narrow group of people. The Irish economic recovery is tangible. It is starting to be felt in peoples pockets, although for a distinct group the impact in terms of rising accommodation costs is actually negative. However, few can deny that the jobs market is now buoyant and that this uplift can be felt in many urban areas beyond the greater Dublin region. It is largely driven by foreign direct investment and by a series of factors which up to now, at least, have been working to the benefit of Ireland. We should be familiar with these at this stage: Falling commodity prices and in particular, falling energy prices; lending rates at low levels;a weak euro that is helping to boost exports, particularly to Irelands core markets in the US and the UK. The country is also reaping the benefits of a foreign direct investment boom that has been gathering pace since Ireland fell off the eurozone critical list around 2013. Credit, in part, should go to the European Central Bank president Mario Draghi for his efforts in steadying a listing eurozone ship. His pledge to do what it takes to save the euro combined with his ability to face down the German austerity junkies within the bank has proved critical. Recovery is underway in several peripheral countries, including Spain. There are of course flaws in the easy money strategy that has been pursued by central banks, but right now, the eurozone is benefiting. Mr Draghi has called it right. As commodity prices plummet, the central concern is that deflationary pressures could be unleashed across the global economy, with a weakening Chinese currency acting as a key driver. Credit too must go to the Finance Minister Michael Noonan for his central role in making Ireland a good place in which for people to do business once again. In this he has had the backing of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste, and her predecessor Eamon Gilmore. One of Mr Noonans key tasks has been to engineer a recovery in the property market and in Irish asset prices generally. As a result, the National Asset Management Agency has begun to secure decent prices for many of the assets in its portfolio. There are few political brownie points to be gained from this, but if we do not start making big inroads into the mountain of debt inherited at the end of the bubble years, we can wave goodbye to any prospect of a sustained recovery in public investment and public services. The Labour Party has played a big part in steadying things for which it has received little in the way of thanks. Thats politics for you. Recovering asset prices, in fact, have highlighted the fact that investment, public and private, has fallen behind badly since 2008. The shortfall in housing supply and in investment in key infrastructure including water treatment and flood defence is now coming home to roost in the form of rising rents, hitting the young the hardest. Ironically, the European Commission, according to a report in last weeks Irish Examiner, will soon wrap the Government on the knuckles over the manner in which it loosened its collective fiscal belt in the dying months of 2015. Ireland is star performer and naughty boy. Goodbody Stockbrokers economist Dermot OLeary believes the commission, in its upcoming review, may criticise Mr Noonan and colleagues over the continuation of shortfalls in spending on investment projects. The concern is that such under investment leaves us with capacity constraints that ultimately hits competitiveness and strangles the recovery. The commission has a strong case if you view matters from a purely economic perspective. Its contribution to the debate and the prospect of its fiscal rules being applied from this year on, is something that should be welcomed. The Government, however, must deal with an electorate which is desperate for an easing in its circumstances over the long years of austerity. That means lower taxes and looser constraints on public pay. Whoever emerges at the head of the country from next March could be facing into a scenario where expectations have been ratcheted up but where the global economic climate has darkened. The prospect of four days of strikes this month on the Luas line may be something of an outlier in industrial relations terms, but it is reflective of a certain grab while you can attitude that threatens to re-emerge. Siptu, in unveiling a claim for a wage increase of over 50% appears to have drawn inspiration from the British transport union the RMT. London train drivers have regularly brought the London underground to a halt. It is an approach that has served them well to date. There is a suspicion that the Luas demands are connected to the upcoming election. At the same time, Siptu official Owen Reidy has hinted at compromise. Caving in to the demands would spark an unravelling in the deal with the Luas operators and ignite other demands across the transport network, particularly among rail drivers. It would also raise questions as to whether the state should rely on support for continued investment in rail projects whose operation is susceptible to blackmail. Of course, union militants can point the finger at top management. Salaries for senior executives are on course to rise by around 10% this year, at a time when ordinary employees look set to settle for a more modest 2%. Is that real leadership, one wonders? The remuneration of top global executives, in particular, has reached obscene levels. The growing wealth disparity is being driven, in part by the ongoing technological revolution and the displacement effects of which are only beginning to be felt. Meanwhile, the financial tectonic plates are shifting. China, weighed down by debt approaching 300% of GDP, is shuddering. Few trust its government statistics. Commodity producers are facing plummeting prices and energy companies are in freefall. All of this leaves the financial system exposed to new waves of bad debt. An estimated 15% of loans to energy firms are now in default. A more cautious approach may be in order. Brussels is suggesting that the Government put a lot more aside for the rainy day at least by paying down some of our public debt mountain. Sandbags were ineffective in Glounthaune during the December storm and county councillors demanded action to alleviate serious flooding. Family homes, a community centre and the Rising Tide restaurant suffered from a torrent flowing down the hill close to the local church. A nearby pub, The Great ONeill, also had water damage. Owner Martin ONeill said the premises was inundated with around 60cm of water which poured down from a rocky landscape at the rear. He said the pub remained out of business for nearly a week. A lot of flooding is down to lack of maintenance and forward planning. There needs to be a combined meeting of the local community association, tidy towns, businesses and householders with the county council to put all our heads together and try and get this resolved, Mr ONeill said. Ms Phil Murphy, who helps run The Rising Tide, said if it had not been for the help of locals and three men, scooping out water, the premises could have been badly flooded. She favours an interim plan to flood a playground. Fianna Fail councillor Padraig OSullivan said the main problem seemed to be the downhill culvert at the church. He witnessed flooding there last October and believes something had to be done, especially if the culverts are being blocked. Council engineers told a municipal district meeting they were proposing to create a diversion near a set of steps leading to the Rising Tide, by directing water into the nearby childrens playground to protect properties. I would only see this as a short-term fix. What is really needed is a proper culvert which takes this flood water under the ground and straight out into the estuary, said Mr OSullivan. Meanwhile, in Copper Valley View in Glanmire, remedial works have already taken place to help prevent a repeat of flooding on December 30 which damaged houses. Around 20 homes were affected by a combination of floodwaters which raced down a hill into a stream, already at overcapacity. The council has removed debris blocking the water flow at a nearby bridge and also created a temporary tarmac barrier to prevent water from going into houses. The tarmac will be removed when other measures are put in place. Engineers plan to put in fabricated steel barriers. Labour councillor Cathal Rasmussen said he was concerned at repeated flooding on the back road into Cobh at Ticknock and engineers promised to address it. Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy said residents at Marian Terrace, Cobh, had suffered from repeated mudslides which were getting worse with the increase in wet weather. He also secured backing from colleagues to write to Irish Water about problems at Ringmeen Place, where sewage is coming up the drains and into houses. Ive been onto Irish Water again and again and nobody has come out do do anything about it. The residents have sewage coming out of their toilets every few weeks, Mr McCarthy said. Searches were continuing yesterday in the waters near the Co Kildare village of Ardclough to locate any other remains or evidence. Gardai are satisfied the man was murdered in recent days and, contrary to some initial reports, do not believe it is Barry Corcoran, who has been missing since last July. The remains were found by local walkers at 3.30pm on Saturday. Gardai suspect the suitcase may have been dumped near where it was found, a short distance down from Ardclough Bridge. It is near the entrance of what is known locally as The Village, located in the late Tony Ryans Lyons estate. Detectives suspect it could have been put there overnight on Friday, but stressed they were still trying to determine when exactly. Supt Gerry Wall of Leixlip Garda Station said the suitcase was found some 500m from Ardclough Bridge, also known as Henry Bridge. He said gardai wanted to speak to anyone on what is a popular canal walkway between Ardclough Bridge and Kearneystown Bridge, some 5kms away. This is a walkway used by people everyday, he said. If you walked this canal, cycled it, whatever, in the last number of days, were asking you to contact us. Divers at the Grand Canal in Co Kildare. He specified the key period as being since last Thursday. From the early evidence in this investigation were satisfied that this is a recent event, Supt Wall said. Dr Michael Curtis, the deputy state pathologist, conducted a preliminary postmortem at the scene early yesterday. It is thought the condition of the torso lead investigators to believe the murder took place in recent days. This, together with the torsos largish frame, lead gardai to the belief it was not Mr Corcoran. DNA and blood samples were taken during a full postmortem at Naas General Hospital and gardai will see if that gives them any leads. The Garda Technical Bureau will examine the suitcase and search for fingerprint, DNA or fibre evidence, which may reveal clues as to the victim or his possible attackers. Supt Wall said the Garda Water Unit and Divisional Search Team, together with the Garda Technical Bureau, have examined the waters and canal bank. This search is likely to be expanded today. Anyone with information can contact gardai on 01 6667800. Macabre and grotesque discovery in canal Cormac OKeeffe, Ardclough, Kildare Macabre and grotesque was how Tom McLoughlin described the grisly find. Perched on his bicycle at the old stone bridge in the Co Kildare village of Ardclough, he said he was utterly shocked at the discovery of a mans torso in a suitcase in the waters of a quiet hamlet. The mans identity remained a mystery yesterday, with gardai only able to say that he was white and fairly big-framed. But they were able to say contrary to early media reports who he was not: Wicklow man Barry Corcoran, missing since last July. The torsos condition told investigators the man was killed and dismembered in recent days. Its macabre, grotesque that this would happen in a quiet little hamlet, Mr McLoughlin said, looking down the Grand Canal at the gathered gardai. Im utterly shocked; its shocking from the point of view I cycle this bank every day and to think the body was lying in the reeds. The body being removed from the scene at Ardclough. Gardai are investigating if the suitcase was dumped at the spot overnight on Friday and are putting together a jigsaw of who was on the path since Thursday. Local dog walker Derek Maguire could have been the first person to come across discover the remains. He said he saw the suitcase on the canal when he went for a walk on Saturday at 10.30am, five hours before gardai were notified about its contents. I actually saw the suitcase floating on the water. You see rubbish all the time, thats what I thought it was. When I heard what is was, I was shocked alright. However, he pointed out two young Dublin men, Darren Carey and Patrick Murray, were murdered some 5km up the canal, at Kearneystown, in 2000.back at the Millenium. You are out of the way here, Mr Maguire said. But at Kearneystown, you are at the border with Dublin, so its handy for them [the Dublin gangs], you know. Supt Gerry Wall, who is leading the investigation, said the suitcase was found just 500m from Ardclough Bridge, also known as Henry Bridge. He is hoping to speak to everyone who was on the walkway since Thursday. Another local, who did not wish to be named, said: People are shocked and horrified. This is such a quiet and remote area. Were just used to people going out for a walk along here and enjoying themselves. Tests are ongoing on the suitcase and torso, which was wrapped in plastic, to identify victim and killer. SRL Pharma is collaborating with UCCs School of Pharmacy and the Clinical Research Facility Cork (CRF-C) at Mercy University Hospital (MUH) to achieve the goals. While sensory research has long been used in the food sector, to ensure a products acceptability to the consumer market, this type of sensory research is now being used more and more in the pharma sector. If patients dont take their medications because it tastse bad, or theyre difficult to swallow, that can have detrimental effects on their health. We are working with pharma companies to develop medicines that patients will be able to take and thereby increase compliance, SLR Pharma chief executive Margaret Shine said. She said the new SRL Pharma Centre of Excellence, under the management of Dr Liz Sheehan, will meet the needs of the pharmachem industry to ensure drugs are palatable. Collaboration between Gateway UCC companies such as SRL Pharma and the UCC research community grows organically as is evidenced by this announcement, and this collaboration significantly adds to the growth of companies, like SRL, synergistically benefitting all partners including the company, the University and the wider economy in terms of job creation, Gateway UCC manager, Myriam Cronin said. When bringing a medicine to market, a process that costs several million euro, scientists face many challenges, not least the requirement to make products that can actually be consumed. Children and the elderly are often the most sensitive to the bad taste of active medicinal ingredients. As a result, these formulations are more likely to be in a liquid form, as tablet, or capsules can be difficult for these patients to swallow. In addition there has been an increasing trend to formulate drugs in the form of orally disintegrating dosage forms, due to ease of ingestion and absorption. In these cases a good taste is even more vital to ensure patient compliance. Compliance rates in children are generally low due, in many cases, to bitter and unpalatable medicines. Cruise Europe, an organisation representing 120 ports and associate members on the continent, is to hold its annual three-day conference in the capital in June. Cruise Europes goal is to have cruise companies, ports and likely destinations working together in a unified manner to ensure safe and enhanced experiences for cruise passengers. Chairman of Cruise Europe, Captain Michael McCarthy who is also commercial manager of the Port of Cork said he is excited at the prospect of Dublin hosting the conference. He said it was a great opportunity to showcase Ireland to the cruise industry. The conference, he said, represents an opportunity for delegates to nurture those long-term relationships, discuss and debate operational issues, regulatory policies, and to explore new ventures and markets. One of the strongest growth areas in international tourism has been in cruise tourism globally. Cruises within Europe and in particularly Northern Europe have seen the most growth in recent years. Irish ports are also enjoying a steady increase in cruise liner traffic. According to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) 2015 edition of its report The Cruise Industry: Contribution of Cruise Tourism to the Economies of Europe, an estimated 5.85 million passengers embarked on cruises from a European port with over 83% being Europeans and only 0.9 million from outside Europe. Capt McCarthy said this shows that cruises originating in Europe represented over a quarter of the total cruises globally and generated over 29 million cruise passengers visiting around 250 European ports. Its expected that 58 cruise liners will call to Cork this year, up three on last year. The port plans to host up to 75 liners a year within the next five years. Dublin Port is expected to see 96 cruise ships arrive this year. Cork hosted the Cruise Europe conference in 2005 and it is really positive to have the conference back in Ireland, hosted this time by Dublin Port. 2016 is a noteworthy year for Cruse Europe, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary, Capt McCarthy said. The conference will bring together all the cruise ports of Europe and the key decision makers from the cruise line companies, whose roles are to plan the itineraries of the cruise ships. This is a unique opportunity to showcase Ireland, our tourism offering and renowned Irish welcome. The number of incidents where efforts are made to interfere with gas and electricity meters has more than doubled since 2009, according to ESB Networks. The company has warned about the danger of tampering with gas and electricity meters as it undertakes a major crackdown on offenders. It has also expressed concern that a number of individuals are offering a tampering service. An ESB Networks spokesperson said public safety was paramount in the companys decision to take legal action against people engaged in the illegal practice. In recent months, the ESB has initiated 26 criminal prosecutions against individuals accused of being involved in meter tampering. All the cases related to incidents at locations in Dublin and Meath in 2014. According to the ESB, the number of people prosecuted for interfering with meters has more than doubled in the past five years. The latest crackdown began after gardai successfully prosecuted an individual for providing tampering services to gas and electricity customers in the two counties. In 17 cases, the accused parties have pleaded guilty and were given the Probation Act after fines were imposed and outstanding debts were repaid. The remaining cases were either adjourned or warrants have been issued. Under the Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2012, a person involved in the theft of electricity or gas is liable on summary conviction to a maximum fine of 5,000 and or a prison term of up to six months. If convicted at Circuit Court level, the maximum fine increases to 150,000 and a jail sentence of up to five years. The majority of suspect interference cases are reported by ESB staff or contractors following readings and calls to premises. Unusual consumption patterns can also trigger investigations. There are different methods of tampering with meters and cables, with physical tampering and magnetic interference the most common. Bypassing the meter and fitting direct connections to a mains supply are other methods which have been detected. Seamus Gray, ESB Networks revenue protection manager, said interference posed significant dangers to such individuals as well as ESB staff, the public and the emergency services. Meter interference is easily detected and we have a team dedicated to identifying those involved. It is our policy to take criminal proceedings against such people, said Mr Gray. The ESB believes such a policy serves a dual purpose of managing the risk to public safety while also acting as a deterrent to other potential offenders. ESB charges customers up to 197 to replace a tampered meter, or up to 408 to repair one. The company has advised customers who face difficulties in paying their bills to contact their suppliers who can provide a range of payment options, including pay-as-you-go meters. More than 8,700 electricity customers and almost 4,000 gas customers were disconnected for non-payment of bills last year the lowest level since the start of the economic downturn. In many cases, the premises are vacant. Residential customers account for around 85% of all disconnections of electricity and 95% of gas supplies. A third-level strategy due to be published in the coming weeks has set out a significant increase in the numbers of international students entering our system in the next five years. Increasing the number of foreign students who choose to study here would bring an extra 720 million into the economy, Ms OSullivan said. We are trying to get the brand of education in Ireland as something that people can aspire to, she said. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the minister said: We have a draft higher education international strategy which is out for consultation at the moment, adding that it would be published towards the end of January. Currently, the percentage of international students in higher education is 8.8%. The target is to increase it to 15% by 2020, so that will be in the strategy, she said. Funding to third-level institutes has been cut by around 32% or over 426m between 2008 and 2015, and staffing levels have been reduced by approximately 2,000, leaving universities and colleges to do much more with less. At the same time student numbers have gone up by around 20% and there are about 200,000 people studying at third level. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) reported a ratio of one academic per 19.5 students in 2014, significantly behind the OECD average of 14 to 1. Attracting more international students who pay tens of thousands in fees each year would provide an extra revenue stream for struggling intuitions. Mr OSullivan said: Its not all about economic impact but at the same time it can be measured on that. In 2013 and 2014 the direct and indirect impact was measured at 1.67bn which is quite a lot of money in terms of the economy. So economically it is important and measurable but also seeing the mix of people coming into our colleges as well is good. You have a mix of languages and cultures, she said. The numbers of overseas people registered in third-level institutions has increased from 15,821 to 26,564 in the last five years and the Government intends to further build on this. Tuition costs vary depending on the course, the institution, and whether the person is classified as an EU student or non-EU student. For example, in 2015/16 the non-EU tuition fee to study undergraduate medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) is 51,000 per annum. Non-EU students looking to study medicine in Trinity College Dublin will pay a yearly fee of 37,128 while Law and French has an annual fee of 17,053. Irish students do not pay third-level fees but do have to pay a 3,000 registration charge each year. Ms OSullivan said fees from overseas students wouldnt be funding the whole higher [education sector] but certainly we have had an increase in international students in recent years, both in the English language sector and also in the higher ed sector. The education minister said that building strong alumni groups outside the country would help to entice more foreign students to choose third-level institutions here. She pointed out that work on this has already been done in countries such as China and Brazil. We have developed these alumni groups as well, for example when I was in China we launched an Irish alumni, so these would be Chinese students who studied in Ireland and went back to China. So they spread the word then about Ireland. Mr Ross tabled the motion after Ms Burton used a loophole in legislation to bypass normal procedures to appoint David Begg as chairman of the Pensions Authority. Mr Ross has called Mr Beggs appointment as a blatant act of cronyism but this was rejected yesterday by Ms Burton and Mr White. Speaking at her partys new headquarters at the launch of its policy to help working families, Ms Burton said Mr Beggs calibre and expertise made him an excellent choice to fill the role. Asked by the Irish Examiner about the motion, the Tanaiste said while it was Mr Rosss privilege to put it down, she strongly defended the appointment. I wanted someone of calibre who had huge and extensive experience of pensions and he has worked and negotiated on behalf of workers, she said. Shane Ross has written over the years and decades about the individual who has been nominated, but the issue here is can we get the best person possible to work with the pensions authority. Given his track record, it is a very appropriate appointment, said the Tanaiste. Mr White says the legislation allows for such an appointment to be made so there was no question of Ms Burton acting outside the rules. He also said the tabling of the motion was political game-playing and was reflective of some peoples antipathy toward former trade union leaders like Mr Begg. The real issue here is more to do with playing politics with the issue given the cycle we are in at the moment, and perhaps something to do with the disdain some people hold trade union leaders in, he said. Ms Burton also said she had no difficulty in FAI chief executive John Delaney declaring his support for Environment Minister Alan Kelly, as revealed in a Sunday newspaper yesterday. If John Delaney is advising people to vote for Alan Kelly, well I support that. Politics is full of people from sporting codes who have expressed a political viewpoint, she told reporters. ONE might think that after her Oscar-winning portrayal as an Alzheimers-afflicted academic in Still Alice that Julianne Moore might have had enough of fading away before our eyes on screen. Yet here she is in Freeheld playing terminally ill with lung cancer as the real-life decorated New Jersey detective Laurel Hester, fighting so that her earned pension benefits can go to her partner Stacie Andree (Ellen Page). I think its a coincidence, Moore admits. I was just so happy to get these two great roles. The age-defying 54-year-old is earthier here in hipster pants and with big hair and plays a woman working in an otherwise equal environment with male detectives who have no idea that she is gay just that she gets the job done and is someone not to be messed with. Its a fitting legacy that even as she neared death in 2006 and had tubes coming out of her nostrils to keep her alive, that Hester was in court holding her partners hand helping to pave the way for the rights of others. The movie is first and foremost a love story and I think thats the most important thing in the world, says Moore. Its the idea that you are going to find someone to share your life with and to have a home and a life together in a community. But then it becomes a movie about civil rights which is extremely important to me. A supporter of Barack Obama during his two election campaigns, the highly articulate Moore has always been a liberal thinker who has never been afraid to speak her mind on issues as wide-ranging as pro-choice issues, gay rights, and gun control. Since 2008 she has been an ambassador for Save the Children. Even her empathetic bestselling Freckleface Strawberry childrens books, which began as a reaction to being heckled in her own childhood, allows her to offer tips to young uns. I always say Im not Philip Roth, Moore chuckles. These are just little books for kids, the latest ones are for early readers and I try to make them about ideas that loom large in childhood. So I have a whole book about loosing a tooth and another about putting stuff in your backpack that you shouldnt and having stuff get on your homework. Then theres a book about a kid with a really loud voice, at which point she lets out a hearty holler of her own. Her 2013 standalone book, My Mom Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me, tackles inter-racialism by paying homage to mothers from other countries, including her own late Scottish mum and the German muttis she came across in Frankfurt. Above all, Moore says her social worker mum and her American military judge dad, fiercely independent types who paid for their own university tuition, instilled in her the confidence that made her such an indelible creative force. She attended nine different schools as her father was stationed around the US, and when she was 16 the family moved to Germany. I lived on an army base in Frankfurt when the city was seven per cent American, she recalls. So it wasnt like I was an outsider. But wed always travelled a lot and I was exposed to a lot of different ideas. I was the one being different, the new one in places. If she wasnt already free-thinking in her ways by the time she studied at drama school, her views were certainly broadened then. In terms of my exposure to different sexualities there was a lot of fluidity, she admits. Most importantly I graduated from college in 1983 and moved to New York at the very beginning of the Aids epidemic. I was 22 and knew a guy and everybody said, Jeffrey went to Mexico and he came back with the Mexican flu and hes really, really sick. He died two weeks later. He had Aids, of course. People were dying so quickly and I became an activist inadvertently because we all were galvanised by this plague. You cant help but be aware of discrimination of whats happening to people who are marginalised and what it takes to turn around hearts and minds. So from the beginning of my life thats just how it was. Of course, same-sex marriage became legal in the US last June, six months after Freeheld was filmed and almost a decade after Hester took her fight to court. Moore concedes so much has changed. Certainly you can see historically that Laurel dying and affecting a change in the Domestic Partnership Act in New Jersey [nine months after her death] paved the way for marriage equality in New Jersey and therefore in the rest of the United States. And all this happened in the space of ten years, which is extraordinary. So I feel like the movie is a celebration of how far weve come and how fast. Passionate, enthusiastic and rarely self-indulgent, Moore is the kind of actor who is more likely to return to New York to her kids rather than whoop it up in Cannes or at some celebrity bash. Even so, it was impossible not to get caught up in the Oscar hype, especially when she won after missing out so many times, most notably for her portrayal as a bored 1950s housewife in Far From Heaven. Its in fact refreshing to hear how excited she is to have won an Oscar when others say they dont care. I know, Ive heard people say, Oh I just threw it away! Im like What? Why would you throw it away? It was such a great experience. Obviously its something that you think could never happen to you because even as a kid the Oscars have a huge cultural impact. Im like, Is this happening to me? It was wonderful and to have my husband there with me and he was so supportive, she says of director Bart Freundlich, who she met on his 1996 movie The Myth of Fingerprints ( she appeared in his subsequent movies World Traveller and Trust the Man). He cried when he sat beside me and he cried at the Freeheld premiere too. Tall, dark and Jewish, Freundlich could not be more different in appearance to his wife, so that their kids, Caleb, 17, and Liv, 13, are distinctive: tall, pale-skinned and red-headed. They couldnt care less that their parents work in showbusiness. Who wants to watch their mother work? Nobody! Moore asserts. Except of course when it comes to The Hunger Games Moore reprised her role as the despicable President Alma Coin in the second Mockingjay instalment. I wouldnt have even known about The Hunger Games if my kids hadnt read those books; theyre the ones who introduced me to it, she explains. Its a great story about equality and asks how do you live and let everyone have a life and be free? The three young actors. Jennifer, Josh, and Liam set a wonderful tone on set and Woody [Harrelson] did as well. Again she asserts that her kids dont care about their mothers role. Theyre just like, Can you take me to Katnisss house? Moore isnt keen for her kids to watch her frequently R-rated movies in any case. Nor would they be interested in her latest New York romantic comedy, Maggies Plan, directed by her friend Rebecca Miller (Daniel Day-Lewiss wife), which has the intriguing premise of Moore being married to Ethan Hawke, who dumps her for Greta Gerwig. Its one of those New York films Moore loves to do where she was working with friends and it marks her first movie with Hawke. We had kids at the same school and my husband and Ethan are buddies, she explains. Ethan is very, very generous, a consummate actor and lovely to be around. It was a lot of fun. And of course her character survives all the drama, just for a change. Freeheld opens on Friday Some of us shudder at the mere thought of spending an evening doing it. To others its just a chore. To a lucky few, its a way of life. Effective networking is at the core of every successful business deal, but heres the secret. Its about far more than business. Successful networking, says Emmy award-winning former CNN correspondent and anchor Gina London, is about making genuine human connections. She should know. Gina London With more than a decade of television, radio and print experience under her belt, along with a stint as senior vice-president and strategist for one of the largest government affairs firms in the US, this globe-trotting communications expert defines good networking as the strategy that you put into being who you are. In other words, you get out there and make a real effort, not to simply sell people something, but to be genuinely friendly and win them over. That takes work, despite what we like to think. Most people dont even think about preparing for a networking event, says London. For them, all the effort goes into just showing up after which they expect to wing it. Networking, however, she emphasises, is actually about applying carefully considered new strategies to the making of friends and contacts. To me, networking is not just who you know. Its also about what you know, says London, Were still only half-way through January, but already shes addressed the Pendulum Summit in Dublin, led a sold-out networking workshop for the Cork Chamber of Commerce and members of the public, and flown to Singapore to train 20 top managers at SAP, the worlds largest software multinational, in the skills of communication. London has expertise in nearly every facet of communications, from social media, branding, and crisis communications, to working with the media and presentation skills, so, when she says its worth taking the trouble to be interested in, and interesting to other people in social or business interactions, listen up. Ask genuinely interested questions, but also be aware of what you can add to a discussion, she emphasises. Add value to these conversations by being well-read and well-rounded, so that you have the relevant information and general knowledge to engage in an enjoyable, informed conversation. Dont ask boring networking questions and dont engage in elevator speak, she advises. You may have read an article or book which is relevant to their interest and you can draw on this to reinforce your connection with them be well-read and well-rounded, she advises. When youre in conversation with someone else, be ready to say how you can help them, but remember, she warns, before people buy your product or service they have to buy you. President of Network Ireland Deirdre Waldron, a member of the Cork Chamber of Commerce and co-founder of Fuzion PR, puts it like this: Its very much about the human element. Try not to go into it with your sales hat on. If youre too focused on selling, it can be a turn-off. We all do business with people we like and, if you have an opportunity to have that one-to-one conversation that you can get through networking, it can be very valuable. A person will be more inclined to deal with you if they have met you previously and, if you are both members of the same organisation, so its important to be out there and make that connection with people. Deirdre Waldron Heres how she approaches networking: When I meet someone, I let them speak first and tell me about their business. I listen before mentioning my own business. Being a good listener can also highlight ways your skill-set may be of use to another person, she says. You can demonstrate your skills without waving your sales hat in their face. Also, follow up on that casual promise to get back to them with that book title, that contact number for a good GP or pilates class, says London. About 95% of people who meet one another in business, networking, social events, conferences, dont follow up, says London. Yet, if you bother to follow up with something that is of interest to another conference delegate, youre engaging in professional communications that have real personal value. Its about being real and being committed to other people. If youre like that, then other people will be real and committed back. However, that involves effort, says London. Theres no quick fix to becoming an effective networker. This is a life-time re-positioning about how you approach your life and your work and that takes work. Art of networking Once youve committed to the correct mindset here are some other tips to consider: Have an active media profile. You should be on Linked-in and Twitter in a personable, engaging relevant and active way. I have a substantial business contract in Nigeria because of a professional relationship that began on Twitter three-and-a-half-years ago. Once a connection is made, be ready and prepared to step up, says London. Real professional contact is real work, she warns. Register, Research, Reach Out: Register early for networking events, she advises. Next use the registration tool to research the online community of speakers and audience in advance of the event. This is a great way to find out who you want to meet and who you can meet on line prior to the event. Never attend a networking event cold if theres an online communication channel available beforehand, London says. If you dont know whether there is one, ask the host or organiser. Then set a goal to find at least one interesting person. Next hook up with them by finding a piece of common ground and sending a message. Hot tip: Always try to get a list of people attending a conference in advance. You can contact them before hand and meet up at the conference, or approach them when they arrive. Arrive early to a networking event. Some of the most valuable networking you do is at the beginning. If you arrive late the speeches are going on and people are rushing away afterwards, Waldron says. The Cork Chamber of Commerce runs great breakfast meetings starting at 7.30am. I try to be there by 7.15am to catch up with people as they come in youre catching the early birds. Most of all, be positive and realise networking really is something you simply have to do for yourself, says Waldron. Cork Chamber Networking Master Class 2016 at the River Lee Hotel on January 12 from 5pm to 7pm. This event is open to the public as well as members of Cork Chamber. Cost for Chamber members is 20 and for non-members/the public is 25. Register at www.corkchamber.ie Wildlife charity Buglife Scotland has built 1,000 dams in its ambitious Slamannan bog restoration project, which is helping to repair damaged, raised bogs in central Scotland. One year into the project, the dams have been installed across more than 200 hectares of bog and around 20 acres of invasive conifers and scrub have been cleared at Fannyside Muir, near Cumbernauld. More than 80% of Scotlands bogs have been lost or damaged in the last 200 years, mainly by drainage, agriculture, forestry and commercial peat extraction. Drainage of upland bogs and peatlands speeds the flow of rainwater into rivers, thus greatly increasing the risk of downstream flooding following storms. Last month, the dammed areas of Fannyside Muir captured more than 150 million litres of rainwater. Undamaged bogs also act as enormous carbon sinks. They make up just three per cent of global surface area, but hold more carbon than the worlds entire forestry, according to Buglife Scotlands conservation officer Dr Scott Shanks. Unfortunately, theyre also very vulnerable. If bogs are drained, huge amounts of CO2 and greenhouse gases are released from the peat. Restoring these unique habitats by rewetting damaged bogs prevents the release of greenhouse gases and encourages the growth of peat-forming sphagnum mosses which locks up more carbon, he adds. Healthy bogs also provide a unique habitat for rare wildlife and plants, including birds such as short-eared owls and skylarks, as well as butterflies and ladybirds. The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT), meanwhile, is calling on politicians to find effective solutions to the problem of extreme flooding. It says solutions can be found in nature, particularly through the restoration of wetlands, bogs and native woodlands. It claims dredging of rivers is not a solution to extreme flooding. IWT Campaigns Officer Padraic Fogarty claims certain politicians and farming leaders are fixated on river dredging. The problems we have today are exacerbated by the historic drainage of river catchments, infilling of wetlands and removal of bogs, he says. It is more than ironic that these are the same people who want to do nothing to halt the march of greenhouse gases from the agribusiness sector. He might also have made a call for stricter controls on windfarm construction in upland areas, especially in relation to road building and turbine erection which involve destruction of fragile peatland. THE population of Ireland in 1916 was slightly less than the 4.4 million recorded in the 1911 census, almost evenly balanced between male and female. Ireland was predominantly rural, notwithstanding long-established urban centres such as Dublin and Cork, and the bustling industrial heartland of Belfast. Agriculture dominated. In 1911, about three-quarters of a million Irish people were engaged directly in agricultural labour: about 200,000 as labourers, the remainder farmers themselves or relatives assisting. Estimating precise numbers is challenging, but taking David Fitzpatricks reasoned estimate that agricultural labourers in 1911 earned 10 shillings 9 pence per week, it gives a sense of value. For most, it would not be an annualized 25 income as work was casual; many earned half that. In reality, neither their wages nor living standard improved in real terms since the famine. This was in a period of a near trebling of bank deposits from 66m in 1914 to 183m in 1920 driven largely by gains in agricultural production during a bonanza war for farmers. And by 1916, even that meagre income was squeezed with rising prices. As Padraig Yeates has encyclopaedically shown in his book A City in War Time, the outbreak of war saw rapid price increases in basics. Sugar rose from 2 pence per pound to 6 pence; butter from a shilling per pound to a shilling and six pence; flour increased by 20%, bacon by 25%. Rents also increased, as did luxuries. In general, the cost of living increased by about 50% in the first two years alone of the Great War, and continued rising thereafter. The Cork Examiner cost a penny at the outset of the war, remaining there until January 1918, rising then to Three Halfpence. Most beer more than doubled in price. In December 1914, Cork porter increased by 50%, from 2d to 3d; by 1917, it was 5d. Increases were driven only partly by rising costs, but mainly excise levies, particularly on stronger beers. Effectively, consumers were downing dearer, weaker beers, and as Irish stout had traditionally been strong, this impacted all Irish breweries, as has been beautifully illustrated by Donal and Diarmuid O Drisceoil in their studies of the Murphys and Beamish & Crawford breweries. Even worse for consumers, output was, by 1917, restricted to about 70% of pre-war levels, meaning breweries struggled to satisfy demand, however diluted the product became. Rising prices led to widespread industrial unrest in Britain. In July 1915, the government conceded to postal workers a war bonus of four shillings per week to men, and two shillings per week to women. By 1916, pressure from various representative bodies in the public services (unions in all but name) ensured the bonus passed onto Irish public servants. The primary teachers body, INTO, negotiated equal payment for its female teachers. Fully established primary and secondary teachers earned about 100 to 150 per annum, a rate compared not unfavourably with some engineers. For example, Sean MacEntee left Belfast in 1914 to work for Dundalk council as engineer for 100 salary, according to his biographer Tom Feeney. Labourers had a brief spell of increased earnings. The Agricultural Wages Board set minimum labourer rates at 19 to 24 shillings per week in 1917, by which their incomes and those of all industrial labourers lagged far behind price increases. But their good fortune ran out in 1921 when the government repealed the 1917 Corn Production Act that guaranteed minimum prices. Agricultural prices slumped as a result and wage levels went into freefall. Despite poor earnings in agricultural labour, the lure of a shilling a day (18 per annum if one survived) was not sufficient to drive rural army enlistment. Privates earned seven shillings per week, half of which went directly to the wives of married men, who additionally received a separation allowance of nine shillings, and rising for children. A separated wife with three children had a guaranteed income of over 22 shillings per week, and no husband to feed. For many previously subsisting on irregular income, the war had an economic appeal. But war fatigue set in quickly. While 80,000 enlisted in the first year, about half of whom were from Ulster, only 64,000 joined over the next three years, meaning the Irish enlistment rate of 12% of eligible population compared to about 24% for the rest of the United Kingdom. Andrew McCarthy is a lecturer at University College Corks School of History If the widow of a US government contractor killed in a 2015 Islamic State shooting in Amman, Jordan, wins her newly filed US Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) suit against Twitter, there could be enormous consequences for social media sites. Extremist groups are well known to use the internet to recruit members and plan attacks. Liability to victims of these attacks and the treble damages available under the ATA could mean significant exposure and reputational harm for sites frequented by extremists. But first, plaintiff Tamara Fields will have to win judicial support for her theory that Twitter provided material support to Islamic State (IS) by letting the group use the site to encourage small-scale attacks, like the one that killed her husband, Lloyd Carl Fields. Carl Fields, a contractor for DynCorp International, went to Jordan last autumn to help train security officers from Jordan, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories. He was one of several people shot by a trainee on November 9 in an attack for which IS took credit, according to the complaint. Though US terrorism victims have managed in recent years to establish ATA liability for financial institutions and purported charities, this suit appears to be the first to attempt to extend blame to a social media site for providing support to a terror group under the ATA, according Fields counsel, Joshua Arisohn of Bursor & Fisher. Holding Twitter liable will be a real challenge, according to Notre Dame law professor Jimmy Gurule, a former US Treasury and Justice Department official who specialises in terror finance law. The case raises a number of open and unsettled issues, said Prof Gurule in an interview. Fields will have to show that Twitter knew IS was misusing the site and didnt do enough to stop the groups activity, according to Prof Gurule and, even if she can meet that burden, she will have to show her husbands death occurred by reason of Twitters conduct. Exactly what that causation standard requires is a matter of considerable ambiguity, as Ive reported in connection with victims successful ATA case against Arab Bank. (After about 500 victims of Hamas attacks won a jury verdict of liability against the bank in 2014, the case settled in August for an undisclosed amount.) Must ATA plaintiffs show attacks would not have occurred if it hadnt been for the defendants material support? Or that the defendants conduct led directly to an extremist attack? Or neither? In a comprehensive post-trial opinion in the Arab Bank case, US District Judge Brian Cogan analysed precedent on the ATA causation standard from the US Supreme Court and several federal circuits. He concluded the causation standard isnt as high as Arab Bank argued it was. According to Judge Cogan, a defendant can be liable under the ATA if it acted with the knowledge that its conduct could lead to death or injury that would not otherwise occur. Judge Cogans analysis isnt binding, especially in federal court in San Francisco, where the Twitter case was filed. But plaintiffs lawyer Gary Osen, widely regarded as the pioneer of ATA litigation against financial institutions and a lead lawyer in the Arab Bank case, called Judge Cogans decision arguably the most definitive decision ever written on the ATA. (For what its worth, Mr Osen told me that he believes the Twitter case has a shot. Obviously, each case will hinge on specific facts, but I think its well pled, he said.) Fields lawyer, Joshua Arisohn, actually worked on Arab Banks ATA defence team for many years before joining Bursor & Fisher and said he put to use in the Twitter complaint what he learned from working on the other side. He said the causation standard wont be hard to meet against Twitter. A claim under the ATA requires only proximate causation: a showing that the defendants acts were a substantial factor in the sequence of events responsible for causing plaintiffs injuries and that plaintiffs injuries were reasonably foreseeable or anticipated as a natural consequence of such acts, Mr Arisohn said in an email. Plaintiffs are not required to prove that defendants alleged unlawful acts were the sole cause of their injuries; nor do plaintiffs need to eliminate all other possible causes of injury. The complaint contends that Twitter has been on notice since 2011 that Islamic State and other groups were using the service to spread propaganda, yet has refused aggressively to monitor tweets and accounts. The White House last week announced high-level talks to push the biggest Internet services, including Twitter, to do more to counteract extremist messages on their sites. Twitter says that it is not an enabler for terrorist groups such as IS. In a response to a Reuters query about the new suit, a Twitter representative said the claims are without merit, though it expressed sympathy for the Fields family. Violent threats and the promotion of terrorism deserve no place on Twitter and, like other social networks, our rules make that clear, the statement said. We have teams around the world actively investigating reports of rule violations, identifying violating conduct, partnering with organisations countering extremist content online and working with law enforcement entities when appropriate. A Brookings Institution paper last March, The Isis Twitter Census, said that Twitter has suspended thousands of accounts tied to IS. In addition to arguing that it did not turn a blind eye to Islamic States use of the service and did not cause Carl Fields death, Twitter may cite the US Communications Decency Act (CDA) as a defense in the ATA case. A provision in that law protects online intermediaries that host or republish speech by other people. Mr Arisohn said the US Congress intended that statute to shield internet companies from liability when users publish libelous comments not to give companies like Twitter a get out of jail free card when they knowngly hand over powerful communications tools to designated terrorist organisations. The intersection of the CDA and the ATA is one of the issues that other social media companies ought to watch closely as this case is litigated. In the aftermath of the Rising, Major G A Harris, Adjutant of the Dublin University Officers Training Corps (OTC), was tasked with writing a report for the military authorities on the defence of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) during the period April 24 to May 6, 1916. The OTC was established in 1910 and offered students specialised military training, as well as the possibility of a fast-track to commissions in the regular army. Harris had been prevented from travelling to the college during this period, so he relied on reports written at his request by OTC members and others who had been present. These reports recount some preparatory activities: the porters locked and secured the gates; OTC members were armed with service rifles from the OTC stores and put on guard duty; and provisions were requisitioned from the college co-op. Early on the morning of Tuesday, April 25, the OTC headquarters was transferred from near the Lincoln Place gate to the front of college. From there, snipers had a view of Dame Street, College Green and environs, and rebels passing in either direction were easy targets. Soldiers of various regiments on leave in the city at the time, as well as some colonial soldiers from South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, augmented the military presence on campus. On the Tuesday afternoon, the first body of regular soldiers arrived from the Curragh, and on Wednesday night, an advance party of troops from England succeeded in entering the college. It would appear that by Thursday, Trinity College was secured against any rebel incursion, and the following week Major Harris took over command of the OTC there. A silver cup presented to Cadet George J Mathews, Dublin University Officer Training Corps, for his role inthe defence of Trinity College Dublin in 1916. Picture: Whytes/whytes.ie For the British, the importance of the successful defence of the college during the rebellion can not be underestimated. In his report, Harris claimed that its occupation impeded communication between the two important rebel storm centres: the GPO and St Stephens Green. The defence of the college also protected the businesses in the surrounding streets from looting, and prevented the Bank of Ireland building in College Green from being occupied. In November 1916, the OTC was presented with two large silver cups by a committee of shop owners from the surrounding area in appreciation of their role in saving their businesses from looting. Small replicas of these cups were presented to relevant OTC members. That given to Cadet Robert N Tweedy forms part of a collection of OTC-related objects in the manuscripts & archives research library of TCD, along with a rifle, a sword, banners and a swagger stick. Ellen OFlaherty is assistant librarian in TCDs manuscripts & archives research library. This article is adapted from an entry in TCD Librarys 1916 blog, Changed Utterly: www.tcd.ie/Library/1916. The son of a head constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), he was an unlikely revolutionary. One of Ceannts brothers had followed their father into the RIC and another was a professional soldier in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Ceannt himself had a secure, pensionable job in Dublin Corporation. He was very happily married and had a young son. Some aspects of his life have been well documented for example that he was a committed cultural nationalist who was passionate about the restoration of the Irish language, and, that, as a founding member of the Pipers Club, he was influential in reviving the fortunes of the Irish piper. In September 1908, on a pilgrimage to Rome, he played his pipes for Pope Pius X. But he was a man of many parts. As a member of the Gaelic League he was an efficient administrator, a well-liked teacher and an enthusiastic event organiser. When it came to the Sinn Fein doctrine of self-sufficiency, he practiced what he preached. As a young man he explored, although ultimately unsuccessfully, the possibility of setting up a small Irish enterprise Irish Blue - a type of laundry whitener, as a substitution for the imported English product. He kept hens, experimented with growing mushrooms and wrote on modern soil cultivation methods. From his earliest days in Dublin Corporation, Ceannt acted on his profound belief in the entitlement of men and women to organise in defence of their rights. He led a successful campaign by his fellow clerks in the Dublin Metropolitan Officers Association (DMOA) - a forerunner of todays IMPACT trade union - in defence of their terms and conditions. In August 1911, when the foundry owners of Wexford locked out their workers in a dispute over membership of the ITGWU, Ceannt - by then a member of Sinn Fein - publicly disassociated himself from the position taken by his party leader, Arthur Griffith. Ceannt insisted that the right of free speech, of public meeting, and of organising for a lawful purpose ought to be unquestioned and unquestionable. An active member of Sinn Fein, he was appointed to its national council in December 1912. He used this political platform to voice his conviction that it was the duty of all Irishmen to possess a knowledge of arms. Although this has been used to suggest that Ceannt was the most physical force advocate among the 1916 leaders, he made it clear that constitutional methods had their place but, he insisted, only where the laws of the country have been made and are being administered by the people of that country. In a 1912 speech to the Socialist Party of Ireland he highlighted the influence of the threat of physical force by the Ulster Unionists on the politics of England and concluded: an armed opinion will prevail when opposed only by an unarmed opinion. It is the duty of all men to be skilled in the use of arms. Preparation for war is the best guarantee of peace. The establishment of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 meant that Ceannt had an Irish army that, with a clear conscience, he could join. As Captain of A Company, 4th Battalion, Ceannt participated in the landing of rifles at Howth on 26 July and at Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow, on August 1, 1914. The outbreak of the war in Europe in September 1914, and the immense propaganda campaign that resulted in thousands of Irish men joining the British Army, finally convinced Ceannt of the inevitability of armed conflict. He was appointed with Patrick Pearse and Joseph Plunkett to the Military Council of the IRB in 1915, and he was irrevocably committed to a policy of physical force. On Easter Monday morning 1916, as Commandant of the 4th Battalion of the Irish Volunteers in Dublin, he occupied the strategically-located South Dublin Union (now the site of St James Hospital), together with outposts in Jamesons Distillery in Marrowbone Lane; Roes Distillery in Mount Brown; and Watkins brewery in Ardee Street. As a result of Eoin MacNeills countermanding order and the decision to defer the Rising to Easter Monday, Ceannt had only 120 Volunteers out of the battalions full strength of 700. During the following week, the 4th Battalion held off a number of sustained attacks by vastly superior British military forces until, under direct orders from the Provisional Government, Ceannt reluctantly surrendered. His cool leadership under pressure, and that of his vice-commandant Cathal Brugha during the intense fighting that took place during Easter 1916 in the South Dublin Union, was praised by his men and has been recognised by recent historians of the period. Following a hastily convened field court martial, Eamonn Ceannt was executed at daybreak on Monday, May 8, on the same morning as Con Colbert, Sean Heuston and Michael Mallin. In his final letter Ceannt expressed the hope that ... in the years to come, Ireland will honour those who risked all for her honour at Easter in 1916. Even before the final executions were carried out, politicians in Westminster were having serious doubts about the wisdom of leaving the suppression of the Rising in the hands of the British military. The Irish people, who had initially reacted to the Rising with a mixture of outrage and horror, were, as Ceannt had predicted, already developing a dawning respect for the rebels. Mary Gallagher is author of Eamonn Ceannt in the 16 Lives biography series published by OBrien Press. She is a grand niece of Eamonn Ceannt and received an MA in modern Irish history in 2011. Each week, read about the 16 men executed after the Easter Rising, from their biographers in the 16 Lives series from OBrien Press. Irish religious discrimination probed The UN committee considering how Ireland observes the Convention on the Rights of the Child were confused when it came to students and schools. They asked why kids need to be baptised by parents who do not believe just to get them into a school and why there was no alternative to the religious class of the schools patron, even though the State funds all schools. The suggestion was that the new schools admission bill would resolve it all it wont of course and not least because it will fall before the general election. They didnt know that Ireland actually allows religious discrimination, where schools and hospitals can hire and fire staff and accept or reject patients and students on the basis of their religion. And to prove it, the Government opted out of EU equality rules to maintain discrimination. Reilly shines at UN hearing The star of Irelands day-long grilling by the UN committee on the Rights of the Child was Childrens Minster James Reilly. As the committee began to display signs of unease at being buried under statistics and jargon by the huge contingent of civil servants, Dr Reilly stepped in. While some might have been a little sceptical about the utopia being sketched, they were positively cheering when he regaled them with his major success not just at Irish but at EU level. He was particularly in his element when questions on health arose, and especially when Irelands reputation for smoking and alcohol consumption was raised. As chair of health ministers during Irelands EU presidency, he concluded the rules on tobacco, and in Ireland on plain packaging of cigarettes which he believes will survive tobacco companies threatened legal action. Irish MEPs make awards shortlist Two Irish MEPs are among the 57 shortlisted from the 751 in the European Parliament for awards in March. Fine Gaels Sean Kelly is in line for the Energy award, though he could have been included in the Digital Agenda and the Environment sections for his mammoth work. Brian Hayes, MEP and FG director of elections, is up for the Economic and Monetary Affairs award, including for his work on pensions. Irish MEPs learn truth on flood woes Apart from Independent MEP Marian Harkin, the Irish politicians who spent a few hours grilling European Commission officials about resolving the countrys flooding woes were at first sceptical. They had swallowed the Governments long-held mantra that they were powerless to do anything sensible because of stupid EU rules. The truth of course was that they didnt want to do anything, and cost taxpayers a fortune keeping up the charade that included defending decisions through the courts. The attitude of most of the group was quite different after the meeting, and despite being cross-party, including Luke Ming Flanagan, they issued a joint statement. It avoided mentioning the Commissions advice on the importance of bogs, but noted the Government is late with their flood risk management plan. MEP launches youth initiative The spunout.ie site is well established and well known to many young people, funded mainly by the HSE and Atlantic Philanthropies, offering lots of news, support and help. It has just been extended to include SpunOut European Parliament, launched by EP vice-president Mairead McGuinness. Despite 64% of 18 to 24 year olds saying they would vote in the 2014 European elections very few did. And they want to change that before the next election in 2019. Part of that will include inviting 7,000 young people from all over the EU to the Parliaments session in Strasbourg in May. SF aims to keep the Union together Sinn Fein, a party that has united Ireland in its fashion in the European Parliament, has a strong vested interest in battling against Britain exiting the EU. The once-eurosceptic party is signalling all the ways in which Brexit would disadvantage not just the Republic, but Northern Ireland as well. Martina Anderson, MEP, who heads up the partys four MEPs including the three from the Republic, is organising a major conference on the topic in Belfast towards the end of the month. Included will be Britains threat to repeal the Human Rights Act which is not an EU document. Brutons prescription for Britain More heart is the prescription recommended by John Bruton, former Taoiseach, former EU ambassador to the US, current chair of the IFSC, to the EU, especially in the context of the in-out British referendum. He compared the allegiance of most US citizens to their federal state with the increasing scepticism of Europes citizens to its EU. The symbols that appeal to the heart anthem, flag, military from his first-hand experience in Washington were essential to developing a European patriotism that would keep the EU together. His book of essays, Faith in Politics, was introduced by MEP Sean Kelly in the European Parliament. But, Mr Bruton recalled, these symbols were the first thing national leaders ripped out of the European Constitution he had helped put together. Irelands has fourth lowest tax take Ireland still has the fourth lowest tax take in the EU, despite having the fourth highest increase in tax to GDP between 2013 and 2014, according to Eurostat. Total revenue from taxes and social contributions were a quarter less than the EU average in 2014 which helps explain why there is so little money for child care services. Tax on income is actually higher than the EU average, but social contributions are close to a third of what are paid mainly by employers in other eurozone countries. The contribution of taxes on the income or profits of corporations are just very slightly higher than the EU average, despite the country hosting much of the worlds most profitable companies. ne thing was sure about PJ Mara, who died just before the weekend after a long illness. He knew politicians. More to the point, he knew what general elections do to politicians. I remember at one point being part of an election committee belonging to Fianna Fail which met every morning during the campaign in their offices in Mount Street under the chairmanship of the late Seamus Brennan. Every morning brought its serving of chaos with a side order of disaster. The chaos took a number of shapes. A candidate had done or said something inappropriate. Thats how it would be described in the first communication from the local director of elections. Seamus Brennan would explain to the group that he had looked for more specificity and found that the candidate involved had a) belted an opponent or a friend over some inferred insult, b) made a physical or verbal approach to a female canvasser to which said female canvasser had reacted with some negativity, or c) been interviewed on a local radio station while pissed as a newt, high as a kite, or ignorant as a pig on some crucial policy. Or all three, simultaneously. The PR people present always hoped that a competitive stinker issue might serendipitously emerge on the other side of the political divide to distract from their own problem, but their immediate focus always was on preventing the leader from getting enmeshed in the coils of the controversy, whatever it was. Chaos also tended to follow the secret release of unofficial opinion polls. Seamus Brennan didnt need advice from any of us on this, because he was the master of the fictitious assessment of public perception, having worked out that opinion polls can greatly influence voting intentions. If a given candidate is on the slide, people are markedly less likely to want to vote for them. Never mind what people say about their voting patterns, the reality is that if Josephine Bloggs is The Bright New Thing, and if youve encountered Josie in a supermarket car park and if she had the wit to ask you nicely for your number one vote, theres a good chance that you might actually deliver it. If, on the other hand, youre hearing of a secret poll that says shes peaked, then you may not bother going out to put her name on the ballot sheet. Brennans fictitious polls were among the most cost-effective election devices ever. That was easy, since they cost nothing. Their false information was scooped up by media gullibles who believed they were in on a secret. Best of all, from his point of view, was that the non-existent results tended to light a fire under lazy candidates or inactive directors of elections. Believing that your man or woman is showing up as a potential loser in a secret opinion poll can be a considerable motivator. Or could be, back in the Charlie Haughey days when everybody at every level in Fianna Fail wanted to be well got with The Boss. Another element of the daily early morning chaos in any election HQ is breakdown in discipline. Or Breakdown in Discipline, as the ones affected by it call it. It can take the form of a leaflet where none of the other people on the ticket are even mentioned. It can take the form of a social media blast suggesting that an opponent (usually of your own party) is immoral in some specific and interestingly squalid way. Or it can take the form of what actors call improv. Improv in Ireland recently included a female candidate suggesting that when her constituents have voted for her, they should continue their preferences for other women, never mind which party they belong to. In the US, improv recently took the form of Donald Trump claiming that another Republican candidate is actually a Canadian citizen, even when he knows the claim to be false. Improv drives other candidates around the bend, because it works for the person who does it. They end up in pictures and headlines and on trend, thereby raising their name-recognition. Even when called on whatever they have said, they may win, as Trump did when he admitted that the Canadian claim was made because his opponent was rising in the polls. Back home, as soon as improv kicks in is when the alternative candidates in that particular area contact HQ to demand that action be taken. In that situation, PJ Mara didnt waste his time on the ethics of the situation, or on consideration of corrective action. Instead, he would telephone the improv artist and deliver a lengthy and profane reproof. His own word for that process was a bollocking. Its purpose was to allow all of the lead team to hear him in action, so they could then use how terrifying he had been as a warning to other potential improv artists or as a reassurance to the already wounded that action had been taken. But the reality, in an election, is that you cant unring a bell and you shouldnt waste time on the possibility of unringing it. However, if you can as PJ Mara always did give the impression that youre on top of everything and wont tolerate electoral indiscipline, then the troops, if they think about HQ at all, have faith that everything is under control. Which it never is. It doesnt matter which political party is in question: during the three weeks of a campaign, HQ is a war zone, fuelled by paranoia, pessimism and occasional bursts of largely irrational euphoria. HQ always needs a reliable media performer to go in front of cameras when someone has defecated on the fan. During one general election, Seamus Brennan decided that the only TD who could fulfill that role and handle an emerging problem was Maire Geoghegan-Quinn. MGQ, on media, was calm, authoritative and credible, and so the word went to her election office that she was to be located on the canvass and put in a car aimed at RTE in Donnybrook. An hour passed. People in her local office said they were having difficulty reaching her, but were working on it. It was at this point that PJ Mara arrived, having been absent giving someone a bollocking. The situation was explained to him. He laughed, thereby creating a great resentment among the rest of the team, who were properly anxious. Mara suggested that the chosen approach might have limitations. People bristled. In silence. The limitations, he went on, lay in Maire Geoghegan-Quinns total lack of interest in things national when she was fighting for her own seat. Those sent to find her, he stated, counting off the factors on his elegant fingers, would first of all find her with difficulty. They would then be told to eff off. They would come back and present a sanitised version of that message to party HQ, which could insist on talking to her directly, in which case she would tell HQ to do the same thing, possibly in two different languages. And, he finished, good luck to whoever made that call. Because it wasnt going to be him. MOSS POINT, Mississippi --- A group of pastors led a crowd of about 100 people as they marched in the annual Jackson County Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Martin Luther King, Jr. march Monday in Moss Point. "Be with us Lord as we take this walk of victory, a walk of remembrance. We thank you for our past. We thank you for our present, and we even thank you for our future," one of the pastors said as he prayed for the group before the march began. It was about a three mile walk from Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church to Olivet Baptist Church. Some walked. Some rode bicycles, and one man was even in a push wheel chair. Despite his disability, Leon Toulson, Sr. said he just couldn't miss the march because of what Dr. King means to him. "He means everything to me," he said. "It's been better for black people because of what he did. If it wasn't for him, we would probably still be fighting." There was one group of marchers that was easy to spot. They were wearing hot pink t-shirts with the words "Do Better Divas" printed on them. Patrice Pickett is the creator of the "Do Better Divas," a health and wellness program. It offers exercise classes, personal training opportunities, and even meal plans. About 30 "divas" participated in the march. Pickett says the group is about more than weight loss. "I think it's important that we show support for our community and unity as well," said Pickett. "He (Dr. King) sacrificed so much for us, and the least we could do is come out. It's not a day off, it's a day on, a day to come out and show our appreciation for him and what our ancestors did." Calvin Mitchell, Executive Director of the Jackson County SCLC, said the march was one of the highlights of several events throughout the weekend in celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. The 40th year of SCLC celebration included a youth oratorical contest, an awards banquet, and a prayer breakfast. Monday's march even ended with a church service. "This is one of our biggest years yet," said Mitchell. "It's symbolic because this is how it all began to march and fight for justice." Toulson said although he felt the country had come a long way in the fight for justice, there is still a long way to go. "It's never over," he said. "The bible speaks of that. There will always be a fight somewhere, a struggle, trying to make things right. It will never be perfect, but it will always get better." The negotiation of the third international bailout by Greeces leftist-led administration last summer has topped Harvard Law Schools list of Worst Negotiation Tactics of 2015. The Irish electorate do not need reminding that this was the path eagerly supported by Gerry Adams, Paul Murphy and those only interested in protest politics. The online video from Aardman Animations features former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston, whose father Ronnie died following a 14-year battle with the illness. The 90-second film for Alzheimers Research UK shows an orange being stripped away to demonstrate how diseases that cause dementia physically attack the brain. The brain of an Alzheimers sufferer can weigh around 140 grams less than a healthy brain about the weight of an orange. Burma Female Candidate Wins Local Election in Mon State A female was elected head of Tarana village tract in Mon States Kyaikmayaw Township Sunday, a rare victory in an administrative structure dominated by men. RANGOON Former school teacher Mi Ja Lon Htaw was elected head of Tarana village tract in Mon States Kyaikmayaw Township on Sunday, a rare victory for a female leader in a local administrative structure traditionally dominated by men. The 41-year-old ethnic Mon woman successfully contested Sundays local level poll against three male counterparts. Two hundred and twenty people voted and I won 140 votes. I felt very happy when I found the people supported me, said Mi Ja Lon Htaw, a former Mon language teacher with the Mon National Education Department. I worked a lot for my communitys development. This was how the people got to know me well. This is why some people encouraged me to run in the election, she said. Mi Ja Lon Htaw said her first priority would be to obtain electricity for her village. She also vowed to tackle local corruption, citing instances where villagers gave money to administrative heads to secure recommendation letters to travel and obtain ID cards. According to a June 2014 paper by The Asia Foundation, Womens Participation in the Subnational Governance of Myanmar, women accounted for only 0.11 percent of ward and village tract administrators around the country. Women and Local Leadership, a report issued by the UN Development Programme in Myanmar in November 2015, established that, following the passing of the Ward or Village Tract Administration Law in 2012, only 42 (or 0.25 percent) of 16,785 elected ward or village-tract heads were women. After the countrys recent general election, the number of female MPs in Union Parliament will more than double on current figures, a percentage that will nevertheless remain well shy of the 30 percent representation for women that is widely cited as the figure to strive for globally. Burma Hundreds of Yebyu Protesters Call for Mining Law Compliance Some 300 locals in Kanbauk village, in Tenasserim Divisions Yebyu Township, have staged a protest to criticize a company for reckless mining in the area. RANGOON Some 300 locals in Kanbauk village, in Tenasserim Divisions Yebyu Township, staged a protest on Monday accusing a company of reckless mining in the area. Protesters, bearing signs demanding protection of natural resources, called on Delco mining company to take responsibility for the damage wrought by a recently ruptured water filtering and sediment tank, to cease dumping waste into a nearby stream, and to comply with mining legislation enacted to prevent damage to the environment, Khin Soe, a resident, told The Irrawaddy. A wastewater tank broke in September, sweeping away 19 houses and drowning one child. Initially, the divisional government deemed the incident a natural disaster. But the family of the deceased child was eventually compensated 7 million kyats (US$5,400), while all destroyed houses were rebuilt and their owners given small compensation for property loss. Still, locals say there was no change following the accident, and mining in the area has since resumed. Were protesting today because [the company] hasnt satisfactorily negotiated with villagers, Khin Soe said. We told them after the first incident that we dont want something like that to happen again, and that they shouldnt harm the environment and must comply with mining law. But they havent extended any promises to us. The villages close proximity to the mining has pressed locals to ask if they should, helped by proper compensation, relocate their houses and orchards. But Khin Soe said the company merely ignored locals grievances, and this, coupled with a lack of investigation and sufficient management on the part of the government, drove hundreds to protest. Khin Soe added that 4-5 feet of muddy water build-up caused by the companys disposal of waste flows alarmingly close to a stream near the homes of some villagers. Although theres no harm during the dry season, it could be worse during the rainy season. An officer for Delco, however, said he was unaware of the companys waste disposal procedures at the site but added that the company would rectify the situation. Villagers hope for a three-party dialogue between Kanbauk locals, Delco representatives and the government that will ultimately lead to compliance with mining industry regulations. Books Translation Brings Tales of Woe Home to Burmese Readers A Burmese-language translation of Nowhere to Be Home brings stories of hardship from persecuted Burmese refugees and dissidents to local readers for the first time. RANGOON For the last five years, the personal oral accounts of former political prisoners and refugees from Burma have existed in consolidated form for international audiences, but these tales of misery and suffering were not available to Burmese readers in their native languageuntil now. With publication of a Burmese translation of the book Nowhere to Be Home, made possible in no small part by the demise of state censorship, narratives from survivors of Burmas former military regime will finally be heard locally, as the translation hits bookstores inside the country this week. Since independence in 1948, most of Burmas ethnic areas have seen decades of war between the government and local rebel groups pressing for federalism and greater autonomy. These conflicts have killed thousands of people from ethnic minority groups and left hundreds of thousands more displaced or exiled. Over decades of military rule, a failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising fueled an intensification of human rights abuses against dissidents and ethnic minorities, leading tens of thousands to flee across the border into neighboring countries. Originally published in English in 2011, Nowhere to Be Home is the seventh volume in a series by Voice of Witness, a non-profit organization that uses oral histories to highlight human rights crises in the United States and around the world. While the stories of many sharing similar experiences to those in the book were not unheard of, with the international press and a number of exile media organizations including The Irrawaddy working to shine a light on atrocities committed by the former junta, those stories were largely for an international audience. Oppressive censorship inside Burma meant these accounts were not printed in the pages of local news journals, and websites like The Irrawaddy were blocked from Burmese internet users. With pre-publication censorship abolished in 2012, now the domestically marketed translation will offer Burmese readers the personal accounts of the military regimes victims, including a man who was forcibly recruited as a child soldier when he was 9 years old, and a woman who was arrested and tortured for her affiliation to the National League for Democracy (NLD). San Mon Aung, the books Burmese publisher, told The Irrawaddy that the narratives in Nowhere to Be Home are the voices of ordinary people who had suffered under dictatorship, adding that people living in big cities should hear them, what really had happened to those people. Only the voices of big names are heard here. I just let the underdogs voices out, he said. Maggie Lemere and Zoe West, who compiled and edited the original book, told The Irrawaddy that they were both very emotional and extremely happy to know that the stories have come home back to Burma, with a Burmese-language translation sold in Burma being a goal of theirs from the very beginning of the project. Nonetheless, Its quite shocking for us to have it here, West acknowledged. Lemere said she hoped schools and training organizations in Burma could use the stories to help promote empathy and understanding for others experiences, something previously made difficult by censorship and a lack of information and communication between different groups, especially between urban and rural, remote populations. So we hope, for example, that people can read stories, maybe from a group they dont know or an experience they dont know, and begin to see the commonality and have a more shared vision for the country to move forward, she said. Burma US Fortifies Friendship During Post-Poll Diplomatic Visit The United States is a full and committed partner as Burma continues toward democracy, departing from Washingtons former reticence. RANGOON The United States has branded itself a full and committed partner as Burma continues toward democracy, departing from Washingtons former reticence in light of what looks likely to be a peaceful transfer of power to a freely elected government this year. Speaking to reporters from the capital Naypyidaw, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the Nov. 8 general election as a testament to the decades-long effort to bring about reform in the former military state. This is a moment of great opportunity, Blinken said, a moment for all of Myanmars political leaders to work together to form a new government and address differences through dialogue. The deputy secretary noted a number of outstanding issues on which the United States stands ready to assist in overcoming, chief among them economic growth, national reconciliation, the continued detention of political prisoners and the dire humanitarian situation in Arakan State. Blinken last visited Burma in May 2015, at the height of a refugee crisis in the coastal state, where violence between Buddhists and Muslims in 2012 left more than 100 people dead and upwards of 100,000 others displaced. Most of those affected were Rohingya Muslims, a stateless minority that was denied the right to vote in the recent polls. Many of those relegated to displacement camps have since fled, some falling prey to human trafficking syndicates along the Andaman coast. Blinken also took a more affirmative stance on Burmas peace process, an effort undertaken by the current administration to end decades of civil conflict between the government and the countrys more than 20 non-state armed groups. The United States has in the past taken an arms-length approach to the divisive issue. Pledging that the United States will do whatever stakeholders in this historic effort believe will be helpful, Blinken urged once again that the outgoing government end all offensives and allow unfettered humanitarian access to civilians affected by the conflict, who now number more than 100,000. On Monday, Blinken met with outgoing President Thein Sein, Burma Army second-in-command Soe Win and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory in the November poll. The NLD will occupy the majority of both houses of Parliament when it convenes on Feb. 1, and has the power to select the next president and one of two vice presidents. The other will be nominated by the military, which is guaranteed 25 percent of seats in the national Parliament. Suu Kyi herself is ineligible for the presidency due to a constitutional clausebelieved to have been written expressly to undermine herdisqualifying anyone with a foreign spouse or children. Her late husband held a British passport, as do her two children. The United States restored diplomatic relations with Burma in 2012, ending nearly two decades of reproach, after the former military junta ceded power to a quasi-civilian government led by former military strongman Thein Sein. Embrace of the former pariah state has at times been criticized for the speedy lifting of sanctions that were put in place to punish the regime and its benefactors, as well as what some viewed as premature engagement with the countrys notorious military. The re-engagement has conversely been viewed as an achievement of the Obama administrations rapprochement policy toward foreign adversaries, as well as a success of his Asia rebalance strategy. Before arriving in Burma, Blinken traveled to Tokyo where he met with representatives of the foreign ministries of Japan and the Republic of Korea to discuss security and other regional issues, particularly the threat of North Korea to stability in the region. The deputy secretary will continue on to visit South Korea and China. Burma Peace Conference Closes With Promise of Prompt Restart The Union Peace Conference concludes in Naypyidaw, as participants agree to a set time-frame for political dialogue and swift resumption of talks. RANGOON A five-day Union Peace Conference concluded in Naypyidaw on Saturday, as participants representing ethnic armed groups, the government and the Burma Army agreed to a set time-frame for political dialogue. A proposal put forth by the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee (UPDJC) included four points, all approved, stipulating that the political dialogue conclude within three to five years, that a second Union Peace Conference convene as soon as possible, that the process enable 30 percent womens participation and that those who ascended to an Oct. 15 ceasefire agreement and attended the conference be put on record and honored. Vice Presdent Sai Mauk Kham said on Saturday at the closing remarks that documentation of all discussions throughout the conference will be handed over to the new government when it assumes power. The National League for Democracy (NLD), chaired by Aung San Suu Kyi, will soon have a majority in the national Parliament and will appoint the new administration to be sworn into office in early April. We wont make any decisions based on what weve discussed here, we will take [these discussions] from representatives of different groups and refer them to the next conference, Sai Mauk Kham said. We will refer them along with the peace process to the incoming government when we transfer duties to them. The vice president expressed hope that the current round of dialogue will allow for better agreements during talks with the new administration. The Union Peace Conference kicked off in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a long-sought political dialogue between the Burmese government and several of the countrys non-state armed groups. The majority of the countrys rebel armies abstained from the preceding ceasefire agreement, however, and while they were invited to attend this weeks talks as observers, all of the non-signatories declined. In an interview with Radio Free Asia aired last Wednesday, Suu Kyi downplayed the conference as an effort to legitimize the ceasefire agreement reached in October, which the government refers to as nationwide despite its exclusion of a number of major non-state armed groups. The NLD chairwoman said her administration is committed to facilitating a genuine political dialogue. At approximately 1:23 a.m., Irving ISD security officers contacted the Irving Police Department to report a burglary in progress at Farine Elementary School, located at 615 Metker Street Irving, Texas. Security personnel observed a male suspect inside the school via their security video system. Multiple Irving Police patrol units responded and a perimeter around the school was quickly established. Officers were conducting a search of an inner courtyard area when they encountered a male juvenile suspect. As officers prepared to take the suspect into custody, he began to resist arrest. In the course of attempts to gain control of suspect, an officer unintentionally discharged a single round from his duty pistol. The round struck an exterior wall and did not cause injury to any person. The suspect was evaluated by Irving Fire Department personnel for minor abrasions and cuts to his head unrelated to the discharged round. The suspect was released back to police custody at the scene and taken to the Irving City Jail on a charge of Burglary of a Building. A hammer and a backpack containing stolen property were found in proximity to the encounter with the suspect. Due to the suspects age, his identity cannot be released. WBAP-AM reported that the teen is 16-years-old. "We thank the Irving ISD security team and the Irving Police Department for working around the clock to keep our schools safe," the district's spokesperson, Lesley Weaver, told Channel 11. Classes at Farine Elementary School will resume as scheduled on Wednesday, January 20. MCCOMB, Mississippi -- A 64-year-old woman and her 33-year-old son were shot and killed in their home, McComb police said. Police Chief Scott McKenzie says he had to wait for state crime scene investigators to say whether the deaths of Barbara Butler Conerly and Shawn Martin Butler on Friday were a murder-suicide or double homicide. However, the investigators did not find a gun under either body, indicating an outside shooter. "We didn't want to speculate. The way the bodies were positioned, it was possible that a handgun was underneath one of them," he said. State Rep. David Myers, who lives less than two blocks away, said he knew both victims. "I see him walking in the community and his mom. I see them all the time. We're devastated that something like this could actually happen to somebody, who as far as we know, had no issue with anybody," Myers told the Enterprise-Journal. McComb Detective Shannon Sullivan said the motive is unclear. "This just seems to be a completely random act of violence, one that for investigators is very difficult to work on," he said. There appeared to be evidence of forced entry at the rear door, but it might not be related to this case, the police chief told WLBT-TV. Sullivan told the Enterprise-Journal that he didn't notice any signs of forced entry at his first look. There also weren't any signs of a fight or struggle, he said. The killings were the first of the year for McComb and Pike County. Quardarius Tate, a nephew of Conerly's and a frequent house guest, found the bodies and called police about 9:50 a.m. Friday, Sullivan said. He said Conerly's body was in a bedroom and his mother's was between the kitchen and the living room. This domain name expired on 2022-10-16 00:20:10 Click here to renew it. Get unlimited access to all content and features at ivpressonline.com with our Full Online Access Subscription. Read our E-Edition, the digital replica of the print newspaper online, access content in exclusive sections including Family, Teen, Business, Databases, Farm and more. This option does not include daily home delivery of the Imperial Valley Press newspaper. For home delivery service, please select Premium or Premium Plus. The 12-year-old Bromley Athletic Club runner covered the last three miles of the full marathon course in 16 minutes 20 seconds to edge out rival Lindsey Snow in a sprint finish and retain the title she won last year. And super-fit Ella, who goes to Hayes School, is not just limited to running - she also competes for Beckenham Swimming Club and specialises in breastroke. Proud mum Nicola was there to see her daughter hold on to the title and said: "It was a really good race and Ella and Nicola battled it out until the finishing line. We are all extremely proud of her." Ella is unbeaten in Kent cross-country races this year and finished fourth in the national cross-country finals. Her interest in running began at primary school cross-country races and she has not looked back since. Former Great Britain Olympic star Diana Mantoura and a past president of Bromley AC, said: "Ella deserves all the success she is getting because she is a lovely, unassuming girl and is going to be one to look out for in biathlon events." The Bromley team was assembled with runners picked from Blackheath Harriers, Bromley Athletic Club and local schools. Tina Slater, organiser of the Bromley borough squad, said: "All our athletes put in tremendous efforts and they should all be very proud of themselves. And for Bromley to finish second in the overall team event is a real achievement." If you would like details of how to get involved in running, whether at competition standard of just to keep fit, plus information on the availability of local athletic clubs, call Tina Slater at Bromley's sports and development team on 020 8313 4706. If it is Bromley Athletic Club you are interested in, call secretary Barbara Ganly on 01689 870469. Email Links to our top local news stories of the day, Monday through Saturday. Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery is located in Breinigsville, not far from Allentown. (Jim Gavenus/Clover Hill Winery) Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery is about to come the newest regional winery to debut a port wine. The eastern PA producer, based in Breinigsville, Lehigh County, said it will release its first-ever Ruby Port the weekend of Jan. 30-31. The dessert wine has been made out of Chambourcin grapes. According to a news release, Clover Hill's Ruby is a fortified wine that "expresses youthful, fruity characteristics such as berry and cherry but, it also packs a powerful punch with the warm, soothing alcohol of 19.6%. Ruby has no oak aging and is meant to be consumed within one year of purchase." Kari Skrip Gavenus, who handles marketing for the winery, said the family has been talking about making a port for several years and that her brother, John III, has always loved distilling and had hoped to make a distilled product for Clover Hill, where he's the winemaker. "During his studies at Fresno State's enology program, he enjoyed his work with distilled beverages," she said. "2014 Chambourcin fruit appeared to be a good flavor profile match for the Ruby and we figured it would be a good time to get started. Our Ruby is made from 100% Chambourcin. We did not do the distillation in house, but if this is successful we do plan on investing to do our own distillation in-house." READ MORE: Clover Hill using Vidal to put its spin on Vinho Verde Mazza, in Erie County, did the distillation, she said. Kari said she had tried other Chambourcin ports and thought the grape would work well for theirs. As for the timing of the release, they aimed for winter, feeling that the wine is more of a seasonal sipper. I asked what made the family think this was a product they could sell. "There is a definite trend in distilled beverages and I see a lot of consumer interest," she said. "We are working with our staff to get them trained in educating our customers about the process and styles of making a port. No doubt there will be a learning curve for consumers, but I am anxious to see how the Ruby is perceived." Port should not be confused with chocolate wine, which is simply a flavored wine. Regionally, port seems to be a wine more likely made by established producers. Among the wineries already making the product are Fiore and Basignani in Maryland, Mazza in the Lake Erie area, and Allegro in York County. Ruby will be released at all four Clover Hill locations on January 30-31: The Winery in Breinigsville, The Vineyard in Robesonia, Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market and Boscov's Fairgrounds Farmers Market. It will sell the wine for $22 for a 750ml bottle and $3 for a 1 ounce taste, the latter because of the limited quantity of it. "The market seemed primed for something like this," Kari said. "Customers are constantly looking for what's new or hot. This limited release allows us to experiment with a new style, and it lets us dip our toe in the water to see how the wine is received. "In my mind, it's definitely a niche, but I would think a fairly big niche. The state store certainly carries its share. A few wineries in the region make some real good port. . . . For me, I have enjoyed many of the ports I have tried, but it wouldn't necessarily be my 'go to drink.' Now, for my brother, it would be his choice beverage for winter sipping." Educator honored by Tobacco-Free Staten Island Paul Gammarano was recognized by Tobacco-Free Staten Island for his efforts in advocating against cigarette smoking. (Third-Party-Submitted) STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Paul Gammarano was honored by Tobacco-Free Staten Island for promoting borough health and wellness during a ceremony Monday, Jan. 11, at New Dorp High School. Gammarano began working with the DOE in 2002, educating hundreds of young adults each day about the dangers of tobacco use, the manipulative and deceptive marketing tactics of the industry -- and the importance of creating change in their community. Paul Gammarano was lauded by Tobacco-Free Staten Island for his efforts in advocating against cigarette smoking. The tobacco industry continues to evolve and become more innovative in targeting youth. And with the emerging e-cigarette market, Gammarano encourages students and community members to live a healthy, tobacco-free life -- and educate others about the dangers and lack of knowledge on current products. New York State is fortunate to have a number of local leaders, champions, health care professionals and youth advocates supporting tobacco control work around the state -- from efforts to license tobacco retailers and rezone areas around schools to efforts to remove tobacco from pharmacy shelves. New York State has experienced many successes in tobacco control due to the many community leaders and champions who have shared their personal experience and passion about ending the tobacco epidemic. "As a legal drug, tobacco is still the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and worldwide. It is immensely important to educate our young people and provide them guidance to advocate against an industry and create a change in their community," notes Gammarano. According to the CDC, Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including nearly 42,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure -- about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. Tobacco-Free Staten Island (TFSI) strives to change the social norm regarding tobacco by de-normalizing and de-glamorizing tobacco, tobacco use and the tobacco industry. I've been married five years. Last year my husband's son from a previous marriage showed up on our doorstep suitcase in hand. His mother had thrown him out. His ex-wife fought my husband tooth and nail for years trying to keep this kid from him, and now, at 18, she sends him to us on a silver platter. My husband and his son battle over everything. The boy is disrespectful, mouthy and lazy. He is in high school until June, and then he plans to move three hours away to his grandparents. We told him he needs to get a part-time job so he can save for a vehicle. He told us straight out if he got a job he would make sure they fired him the next day. He will not follow our simple house rules. He is mean to my dogs, bordering on cruelty. Since he can't be trusted with the dogs alone, I took away his key. I am afraid he will hurt them. Last week I asked him to do a chore for money towards his car, and he screamed profanities at me and told me to screw off. My husband wants him to finish school, which he cares nothing about. He has never studied a day in his life. I can't take the abuse anymore. Tasha Tasha, in the past, the classic answer for a boy like this was to send him to military school or force him to join the army. But he's too old for one and the other one probably won't take him. What do you do with a lost cause? You break the problem into parts. Part one is your husband, part two is your stepson. Part of your husband's tolerance for his son's bad behavior is based in guilt, because he was not around to be a father. That doesn't mean letting the boy remain out of control is a viable strategy, either for your husband or for his son. If your stepson can stay with you and be as he is, his reward is he doesn't have to change. Give him six more months and it will prove to him his strategy works. Who says he will leave then or get a job? It's just kicking the can farther down the road. This problem child may change your relationship with your husband, but you can't avoid taking a stand. Let your husband know, firmly, I don't feel safe here and my dogs aren't safe either. We have simple rules. Those rules must be enforced. This boy thinks he is the boss of the world, and we must be prepared to enforce consequences for his bad behavior. That's the way the world works. To do this we need to present a united front. Cruelty to animals is a marker for antisocial behavior. It's hard to evaluate at a distance, but your stepson may be doing this to give himself power in the house, similar to his mother's behavior in withholding access from your husband. It's blackmail. You must protect your pets, but removing the dogs tells the boy he has the power and has you on the run. Let your stepson know the first time either of you catch him harming a dog, he will be penalized, and that includes legal punishment if it is warranted. What this boy lacks is a map of where to go and how to get there. Where is his life plan? Your husband needs to address that with him, again and again, even if he doesn't appear to listen. You and your husband must stick with a consistent strategy. Expectations, consequences, and where is your life plan? The best solution is to have this young man stay with his grandparents, if they are willing, and finish school there. But if he stays with you, he lives by your rules or he packs his suitcase. Wayne & Tamara Send letters to: DirectAnswers@WayneAndTamara.com Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. locks arms with his aides as he leads a march of several thousand people to the court house in Montgomery, Ala., on March 17, 1965. From left: the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Foreman, King, Jesse Douglas, Sr., and John Lewis (partially out of frame). Credit: Journal Sentinel files SHARE By "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle." Martin Luther King Jr. Far too many of our civil rights are being eroded. From voting rights to equal pay in the workplace, we have seen rights that were once considered settled matters of law diminish. With Martin Luther King Day upon us, it is worth considering changes to the law that are needed today to ensure our civil rights legacy. Sometimes it feels as if the day established in King's memory and his life's work has been sanitized into a history lesson and a day of community service. King's legacy should not be confined behind a glass display in a museum. If we want to be authentic to the lessons King taught us, we must heed his words: "Without hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. So we must help time and realize that the time is always ripe to do right." Those words are as true today as they were half a century ago. They require us to consider repealing unjust laws and updating others; they demand action as we strive to create a more just and "beloved community." In honor of the King holiday, we believe legislation is needed to address some of the civil rights issues of our time. We should restore civil rights to Wisconsinites in at least five key areas: Repeal the voter ID law and bring an end to the dubious legislation that discriminates against minority and low-income voters. In King's words, "so long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote, I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I helped to enact I can only submit to the edict of others." Pass a strong pay equity in the workplace statute to ensure that women and minorities are not unjustly paid less for doing the same work. Gov. Scott Walker repealed a Wisconsin law in 2012 that addressed equal pay. Prevent and prohibit racial profiling by collecting and reporting racial data from traffic stops. Walker repealed this law in 2011, but we believe maintaining and rebuilding the trust and confidence of law enforcement needs to be built on addressing any evidence of bias. Adopt "Ban the Box" legislation to prohibit prescreening potential employees on employment applications. If Wisconsin adopted such a policy, we would join 13 other states across the country in forgoing initial questions regarding conviction records until an applicant is interviewed or a background check is warranted. Restore civil rights protections for older Americans and people with disabilities for public and university employees. Public employees were denied these federal protections through a series of court decisions. We hope our colleagues from both parties will join us to support these issues. We also hope that Martin Luther King Day will encourage our fellow citizens to not only reflect on achievements made half a century ago, but to also ask tough questions about the civil rights protections that are needed in the 21st century. Cory Mason of Racine is a state representative for the 66th Assembly District; Mandela Barnes of Milwaukee is a state representative for the 11th District. Both are Democrats. North Shore Fire Department firefighter Chris Wahlen secures some gear on one of the engines at station No. 81 in Brown Deer in October. Credit: Michael Sears North Shore Fire Department Fire Chief Robert Whitaker offered a perfect example Wednesday night of the inefficiency that can occur when governments don't work in sync with each other. He described watching a snow plow during December's storm plow a street, come to an intersection, raise its plow, cross the street and then start plowing again. The driver didn't plow the intersection because that job fell under another municipality's jurisdiction. As Whitaker noted, the driver wasn't to blame. "It's the system" that yields such results, he said. He's right and that's a bad system. But the panel discussion at the Wisconsin Club hosted by the Public Policy Forum at its annual meeting offered signs that things may be changing, and that local governments do cooperate in many areas and are looking for more ways to do so, even if no one is talking about creating a regional government. Whitaker was a member of a three-person panel that included Waukesha County Executive Paul Farrow and Oak Creek Mayor Stephen Scaffidi (I moderated the panel). About 150 local officials and interested parties were in attendance. Let's be clear: This isn't about reducing local governments or creating bigger government just for the sake of doing so. As forum President Rob Henken told the crowd Wednesday night: "Our interest in this issue does not stem from an ideological belief that government is hopelessly inefficient or that there is too much of it; rather, it comes from the basic reality that local governments in Wisconsin face severe revenue constraints, which threaten the ability of many to maintain and modernize services that their citizens value and need." Where consolidation and cooperation make sense to help communities maintain those services at a reasonable cost to taxpayers, such efforts deserve consideration. As several of the speakers said Wednesday night, citizens don't really care where the ambulance comes from when they're in need. Discussion ranged from current efforts to work together to the prospects for future efforts to the challenges that local leaders face in moving forward on such efforts, including turf, parochialism and fear of change. Scaffidi discussed efforts to create a consolidated fire department for the south shore suburbs, much like the North Shore Fire Department. Oak Creek has moved to consolidate dispatch services with St. Francis, and Scaffidi did tout the potential of more such efforts. Farrow, who moved from the state Legislature to the county executive's job last year, mentioned the high priority he has given cooperation. He sent a letter to 18 communities asking them to participate in a fire/EMS consolidation study. Of the 18 communities, 15 are interested in considering the idea. Whitaker talked about the success of the North Shore Fire Department as an example of what can work. The forum touted that success in a report last year on the 20th anniversary of the creation of the department. That report found that the seven municipalities would have paid a total of $2.8 million more annually in operating costs in 2014 to achieve an equivalent level of service, if they had not combined the departments into one unit. And it asked the question that formed the basis for Wednesday's discussion: Given that success, why hasn't the region seen more such consolidations? There are of course a number of reasons for that but I would argue that the most important priority is stronger leadership and more citizens who see the advantage of working together. Granted, that's not easy in this toxic political climate, but improving services and reducing costs isn't a political issue. At least it shouldn't be. It's a good government issue; one that should be easily supported by tea party conservatives, socialist liberals and everyone in between. Scaffidi talked about the need to take "baby steps" in moving forward, and I get that. Moving forward too fast can easily derail efforts. But as an audience member noted Wednesday night, without bolder leadership from elected officials and without a push from citizens who understand the benefits of consolidation, baby steps are the only steps the region will ever take. Ernst-Ulrich Franzen is the Journal Sentinel's associate editorial page editor. Email: efranzen@jrn.com; Twitter: @efranzen1 House Speaker Paul Ryan (left) in an interview Monday described himself as a complement" within the Republican Party to GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump (right). Credit: Associated Press SHARE By of the House Speaker Paul Ryan says he sees himself "a complement" to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. Ryan has been seen as a Republican balance to Trump, a perspective based on the contrast in policy and pitch between the GOP's highest-ranking elected official and the real estate mogul. But in a Monday morning interview, the Janesville Republican said that's not how he views his place. "I really do not see myself as a counterweight to Trump," he told the Journal Sentinel. "I see myself, and the House, as a complement to Trump." Ryan, the 2012 Republican nominee for vice president, rarely mentions Trump by name in his public comments, and has avoided inserting himself in the 2016 race. Months ago, he anticipated a protracted and unpredictable contest and said it would be a mistake to dismiss the possibility of outsiders Trump or Ben Carson winning the GOP nomination. Citing his role as speaker of the house, he also has said he will not be making an endorsement before the party has settled on a presidential candidate. Despite that official posture of neutrality, Ryan did condemn Trump's call last month for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, saying that "this is not conservatism." "This is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, this is not what this country stands for," he said at the time. Ryan spoke to the Journal Sentinel early Monday morning before heading to Dallas, where he was set to be the guest of a Dallas minister during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event. Omar Jahwar, the founder of Vision Regeneration, is a specialist hired in Texas state prisons. He also provides gang prevention, counseling and mentoring services in Dallas public schools. Jahwar was Ryan's guest at President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last week. Ryan said he's excited about issues involving criminal justice reform and fighting poverty, as well as mental health care, adding that he thinks there are opportunities for common ground with Obama and Democrats in those areas. He also said he has been urging fellow Republicans to avoid getting caught up in bickering. "We often get sucked into the squabbles of the day," he said. "We need to raise our gaze to the horizon, so that we can tackle the country's biggest problems." Francis Deisler (front) and Wayne Leo Casper enter the Continental Savings and Loan at 6500 N. 76th St. to rob it on Oct. 4, 1972. Deisler was later convicted and sent to prison for the crime spree. Credit: Journal Sentinel files By of the Lying on an application to become a licensed professional in Wisconsin would be a crime under a pending bipartisan bill, following a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation showing the state licensed a serial rapist and bank robber to be a social worker. The story disclosed that Francis Deisler, a rapist and robber, received a Wisconsin license to be a social worker. Deisler's license here has since lapsed, but the state is investigating his case. The bill's author, Rep. Scott Allen (R-Waukesha), said the Deisler investigation highlighted an abuse in the system and the need to hold people who lie on forms accountable. "I am not satisfied we are doing the best we could to protect taxpayers who encounter these people, often in intimate settings," Allen said. "It has been a trust factor, and obviously that trust has been abused." Allen, a freshman legislator, said it is against the law to lie on a form now, but no punishment is spelled out so the most the state could do to offenders is take away their license. "It's against the law, but there are no teeth to it. This bill puts some teeth in it," he said. Allen's bill would make it a class A misdemeanor to provide false information on any of the applications received by the Department of Safety and Professional Services. The department licenses more than 230 professions, ranging from barbers to doctors, and issues nearly 40,000 licenses a year. The law carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. Allen is circulating the bill, which so far has seven co-sponsors: Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum), Rep. Rob Brooks (R-Saukville), Rep. Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison), Rep. Al Ott (R-Forest Junction), Rep. Cody Horlacher (R-Mukwonago) and Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater). It is expected to be introduced this week. Allen said he realizes it could be tough to get the bill through both houses in the short spring sessions. He said he would bring it back if he is re-elected. Background checks The bill comes as the state will begin new limited criminal background checks of a narrow portion of the state's social workers. The checks were announced in September, again on the heels of the Deisler case. The checks will be done on 5% or about 500 of the roughly 10,000 social workers licensed in Wisconsin. The checks, done by the state Department of Justice, will generate an in-state "rap sheet" of arrests, charges and convictions, but will not show federal crimes or offenses from other states. The current practice is basically an honor system where license applications simply ask applicants to disclose their criminal records. Regulators do not verify the answers unless the applicant admits to having a criminal history. The background check program is a test. It will be launched next year, when all state social workers' licenses are renewed, said Hannah Zillmer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Safety and Professional Services. Some social workers already undergo background checks because they fall under Wisconsin's caregiver law requiring that people who make home health visits or provide services to the mentally ill and other vulnerable people have their backgrounds checked for criminal records by their employers. Unlike Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana both of which also licensed Deisler now run criminal background checks on everyone applying to be a social worker and many other licensed professions. Regulators here checked nearby states and found Illinois and Iowa have a program similar to Wisconsin's, while Michigan and Minnesota run fingerprint and criminal backgrounds. Indiana was not cited. Cost constraints Wisconsin said it would be too cost prohibitive to do background checks on all social worker applicants. Background checks on all social workers would cost nearly $150,000, plus an additional $3 million in staff time over the two-year budget period. The test program will cost $8 per check, or a total of $4,000. Allen agrees doing background checks on a larger percentage of applicants would be too costly. He thinks a law making it clear that it's a crime to lie on the form and spelling out the penalties will prevent people from lying. He conceded without a check, someone could still lie and try to get away with it. "At what cost do we hunt this down?" he said. "I think this is the most cost-effective approach." It's unknown whether Deisler, 76, who now lives in Indiana, listed his convictions on his original Wisconsin license application in 1993. Wisconsin regulators do not keep license applications after five years. Indiana and Michigan, however, do keep records. A Michigan board last year permanently suspended Deisler's license. Earlier, Indiana reprimanded Deisler for failing to notify the state he had changed his name, but took no other action on his convictions. This month, Wisconsin's investigation into Deisler's case is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the state Social Worker Section, a panel that oversees social workers in Wisconsin. Deisler was convicted of raping two women and a girl and of robbing a bank in the early 1970s. While in prison, he received a master's degree in counseling but did not receive a degree in social work, according to court records. After he was released from prison, Deisler moved to Indiana. He later founded the National Association of Forensic Counselors and the Forensic Training Institute, a training group. Reddit Email 0 Shares By Bruce Baer Arnold | (The Conversation) | If ISIS and its supporters use Twitter to facilitate terrorist action or merely spread propaganda, is the social network liable? A lawsuit against Twitter in the United States in which a family is seeking compensation for the death of family member in an ISIS terrorist attack, may test this. The results will have implications for social networks and other businesses such as BT, Telstra, Facebook, Verizon and Google. We do not expect postal services, the phone company, the ISP or other network operators to check, and endorse, every message or parcel. In the United States, Australia, United Kingdom and most other countries electronic network businesses are broadly immunised from liability regarding activity of which they are unaware. However this immunity is conditional. It diminishes or disappears if the business becomes aware that a use of the network is illegal but does nothing and thereby endorses it. More broadly, network operators and users have considerable leeway regarding political speech (especially in the US), including expressions that are abhorrent or provocative but do not involve violence. That leeway is the sometimes uncomfortable price we pay for a flourishing liberal democratic society. The lawsuit in the US District Court in Northern California (home of Twitter and other social networks) centres on the claim that: For years, Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits. This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the November 9, 2015 shooting attack in Amman, Jordan in which Lloyd Carl Fields, Jr. was killed. Fields family wants compensation. It presumably wants to send a strong message to a range of network businesses that they must exclude terrorists and other criminals. The lawsuit is based on section 2333 of the federal code (aka the AntiTerrorism Act), which states Any national of the United States injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism, or his or her estate, survivors, or heirs, may sue therefor in any appropriate district court of the United States and shall recover threefold the damages he or she sustains and the cost of the suit, including attorneys fees. The legislation does not specify who can be sued. It is concerned with injury, rather than perpetrators. Just as importantly, it indicates that defendants can provide little guidance on what classifies as liability. We are therefore going to see the US courts grappling with dilemmas about the extent to which network businesses should be held responsible for what happens on or as a result of their networks. How closely should they be monitoring uses of the network? How diligently should they exclude potential or actual customers who voice support for a terrorist organisation or use the network to plan terrorist activity? Overall, law has concentrated on criminalising particular uses rather than punishing the network operator. It attempts to criminalise the consumer for example the person who publishes child porn or engages in blackmail or hate-speech or fraud rather than the network. Twitter, with strong support from Google, Facebook and other social network operators, will presumably argue that the lawsuit should go nowhere. It will claim that it is not a terrorist organisation in terms of US law. Importantly, it will argue that it has not provided material support to ISIS or other terrorist entities in terms of US law it has simply provided a lawful communication mechanism used by millions of people. Just like other networks (including The Conversation), it has excluded offenders for misbehaviour. What makes the lawsuit particularly interesting is that the plaintiffs will apparently draw on unrelated US court decisions. In the past US citizens have sued banks for knowingly providing funds transferring funds to terrorists, for example through charities that appear to act as front organisations. Justice Richard Posner, a prominent federal judge, commented that although transferring money is not a violent act, Giving money to Hamas, like giving a loaded gun to a child (which also is not a violent act), is an act dangerous to human life. The wilful negligent bank should accordingly pay for the harms caused by its terrorist customers. There is no point suing ISIS: it is located outside US, UK and Australian law. We are however seeing litigation claiming compensation from the US and UK arms of Middle Eastern businesses that tacitly provide substantial support to the associates of terrorist organisations. If we are concerned about responsibility we should look more broadly at liability. Rather than punishing your local connectivity provider or publisher, it is time for some hard questions about the willingness of some states to either directly fund terrorist organisations or turn a blind eye to funding by their citizens through ostensibly philanthropic bodies. Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Related video added by Juan Cole: Wochit: Twitter Sued By Family Of Man Killed By ISIS Reddit Email 0 Shares By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) on Sunday attacked an isolated outpost of the Syrian Arab Army in a few neighborhoods in the north of the city of Deir al-Zor, which are surrounded by Daesh from every side. The SAA also still controls a military airfield just north of the city. In the attack, which involved six suicide bombers and hundreds of guerrillas, some 50 pro-government fighters were killed, along with 85 civilians. Some of those killed were captured first, then summarily executed (a war crime). The SAA managed to fight off the attack in most of its territory in the north of the city, but in the northwest al-Baghiliya district fell to Daesh. Daesh fighters immediately kidnapped some 400 local civilians, including women and children and dragged them off elsewhere, according to Syrian opposition sources. These were family members of soldiers and auxiliaries who had been fighting for the al-Assad regime in the area, from Sunni clans. They were taken to the rural outskirts of Deir al-Zor or to Maadan, a town in nearby al-Raqqah province (al-Raqqah is the seat of the Daesh phony caliphate). There are fears that Daesh will summarily execute some of the 400 civilians and will take the women and girls as sex slaves, as has happened before. Daesh continued its attack on the regime positions in the north of the city on Sunday, but was subjected late that day to a fierce bombing campaign by the Russian Air Force. Daesh has been trying for a year to take the entirety of Deir al-Zor Province; it has the bulk of it save for the north of the city of the same name, the provincial capital, and a military airbase near it. Before the civil war, Deir al-Zor was a city of over 200,000 and the countrys seventh-largest. There are said to be 100,000 people living in the government-controlled area, which is supplied via the military air base since May, 2015, when Daesh took Palmyra and cut Deir al-Zor off from its supply lines. These battles are an attempt by Daesh to remove one of the last government positions behind its lines and consolidate its control of the province of Deir al-Zor which abuts Daesh-controlled Iraq. The partial advance on the city was one of the few pieces of good news for rebel forces in recent weeks. Because of Russian intervention, the al-Assad regime has completely cleared Latakia Province of rebel forces. The regime has also restored supply lines to west Aleppo, which it holds. Before the civil war Aleppo was a city of 4 million and the countrys largest. East Aleppo is held by a coalition of rebel groups, and Daesh has positions just outside the city to the east and south. Related video: CCTV News: 400 civilians abducted by ISIL in Syrias Deir al-Zor Reddit Email 48 Shares By Damon F. Lynch | (Informed Comment) | Evangelical university Wheaton College has generated global attention by suspending and initiating the firing of Professor Larycia Hawkins. She had asserted that Christians and Muslims worship the same God, quoting Pope Francis. Wheaton justifies its punishment of Dr. Hawkins theologically, stressing inviolable differences between Islam and Christianity. Wheaton found itself the object of attention when many interpreted Dr. Hawkins actions as endorsing Islam, creating what Time magazine termed a public relations disaster. Wheatons leadership felt pressured to take action, with its Provost stating We are being asked to defend why we have faculty openly rejecting with (sic) the institution stands for. Because Wheaton is a leader in the Evangelical community, the effects of its treatment of Dr. Hawkins spread far beyond its campus. Evangelicals are the countrys largest religious group, so we should judge Wheaton not solely as an academic institution, but as a significant voice in American religious and cultural life. Many Evangelicals are distinctive in the degree to which they see the world through the lens of an American-led struggle against Islam. In church, in the military, on the battlefield, in the voting booth and in Congress, Evangelicals embrace war like no other American religious group (a notable exception are Evangelical African-Americans, whose sociopolitical views by and large differ from their white counterparts). For tens of millions of Evangelical Americans, war is not an aberration of the divine will on Earth but its fulfillment. At least 40% of white Evangelicals hold hardline foreign policy views, a striking figure among Americans. Compared to other religious groups, Evangelicals are the countrys biggest supporters of torture. For some years political scientists have been reporting that Evangelical doctrine is strongly associated with militarism, meaning Evangelicals believe war to be moral and that the U.S. government should be aggressive in pursuing it. Evangelical militarism is supported by two beliefs: (1) that the U.S. has a divine mandate to lead the world, making it exceptional in international politics, and (2) that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and that the government today should reflect Christian norms, which scholars and journalists call Christian nationalism. Evangelicals are the countrys most fervent Christian nationalists. Political scientists have found Christian nationalism to be a primary cause of prejudice against American Muslims and hostility toward immigrants in general. No Americans rate Muslims lower than white Evangelicals. Lieutenant Colonel James E. Parco, Retired, has documented the United States Air Force Academys ongoing problems with fundamentalist Evangelicals pushing a culture of proselytization onto its cadets, abetted by the Academys most senior leadership. The Military Freedom Foundation, headed by Michael L. Weinstein, fights vigorously against the incursion of Evangelical doctrine and practice into the U.S. armed forces, including Bible verses on weapons, crusader imagery on U.S. military insignias, and military personnel proselytizing to Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan. Evangelicals are motivated to evangelize to the military for a myriad of reasons. Using the military to advance Evangelical Christianity worldwide is one of them. The 1992 book Ministry With the Military, used to this day to train military chaplains, observes An enthused Christian service member can take the Gospel around the world and at the governments expense. Weinsteins Military Freedom Foundation has been battling the Evangelical quest for government paid missionaries for years. Evangelicals do more than support militarism- much of the Evangelical church itself has become militaristic. In Kentucky, like much of the American South, the scholar Terry D. Shoemaker reports Evangelical church weekly rituals infuse the symbol of the American Christian soldier into songs, ceremonies and Bible interpretation. A striking expression Shoemaker observed is Honor the two who died for you: Jesus and the American Soldier. As Shoemaker notes, the expression embodies the idea that because Christians believe that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice, soldiers are seen as mimicking the very last acts of Jesus himself. The fusion of God and war that Shoemaker observed is far from limited to Kentucky. The group Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) believes God has used the militaries of the world to strategically spread the gospel and accomplish His purposes. Claiming God uses war to spread Christianity advances far beyond merely supporting the troops, and is a stunning indicator of how militarism has become mainstream in Evangelical thought. Given the militaristic nationalism of many Evangelicals, it should be no surprise that they passionately fight back against Weinsteins quest for religious freedom in the American military. Weinstein is a military man from a military family, but that does not stop him and his wife receiving voluminous hate-mail from extremist Evangelicals. A spirit-filled ordained pastor of The Gospel from the great state of Nebraska told Weinstein We pray as one for you to die tonight in your sleep leaving a bloody mess for your family to find at daybreak. Which brings us back to Dr. Hawkins struggles. Dr. Hawkins is coordinator of a modest Peace and Conflict Studies program at Wheaton. An important part of her teaching is to light the fire of her students moral imaginations. It seems that Wheatons top administrators could do with sitting in on one or two such classes. Two items stand out in the Wheaton administrations reasoning when it initially confronted Dr. Hawkins. First, the administrations December 15 memo to Dr. Hawkins obsesses over difference when pondering Evangelical Christianitys place in the religious universe. In it, Wheatons Provost demands she go so far as to prove she has not blasphemed for failing to sufficiently differentiate Christian and Islamic worship. Commenting on the conflict when it first erupted onto the national stage, Professor Denny Burk of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary also stressed the contrast, arguing Christians and Muslims are people of the book, but our books are very different. That Dr. Burks off-the-cuff remarks so closely echo the Wheaton Provosts more formal thoughts in this respect is revealing. Second, both Wheatons Provost and Dr. Burk propound the idea that Christianity is unique (read: exceptional) in one way or another. The memo argues Dr. Hawkins discussion of the Eucharist does not acknowledge the fundamentally unique way Christians celebrate Christs sacrifice. Singing from the same hymnal, Dr. Burk proclaimed The Bible is witnessing to Jesus Christ, the son of God. Thats unique of all the world religions. The fixation on difference and uniqueness evidenced by Wheatons Provost (and Dr. Burk) is characteristic of what social psychologists call right-wing authoritarianism. The Wheaton administrations moves against Dr. Hawkins are a textbook case of right-wing authoritarianism in every respect: in addition to needing clear-cut distinctions between groups, right-wing authoritarians believe in coercive social control, in obedience and respect for existing authorities, and in conforming to traditional moral and religious norms and values. In aggregate, white American Evangelicals are notable for being right-wing authoritarians and for another attitude social psychologists identify, called social dominance orientation, which focuses on the preference for hierarchical social organization. Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation are both strongly associated with supporting warfor the former as an act of collective security, and for the latter as an aggressive method to gain exploitative advantages. The Wheaton administrators sin is not that they score highly on measures devised by social psychologists to measure authoritarianism and hierarchy. Their fundamental sin is closing themselves to grace, and it is this sin that eventually culminates in violence and war. Evangelical Christians have a right to their beliefs and to their self-definition as different from others. But in imagining themselves to be Gods only true witnesses, they are spiritually sealing themselves off from the rest of the religious world. The Wheaton administrators rejection of Dr. Hawkins theological stance is a rejection of the world Islam inhabits. Wheaton is an academically distinguished university with many excellent faculty who strive to realize a more just and peaceful world. And, evangelicals are diverse- Wheaton College is not the same as Liberty University, for instance. The problem is not Wheaton per se, but its administrations rejection of Muslims. It risks playing into a hardline Evangelical position that the very presence of Muslims in the world is the source of evil in it.. In contrast, Dr. Hawkins loves Muslims as Muslims, not as mere subjects of conversion, and accepts the love of Muslims in return. In her solidarity with Muslims, as an Evangelical, Dr. Hawkins is onto something good. Damon Lynch is a PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota Related video added by Juan Cole: Chicago Sun-Times: Wheaton College Professor Larycia Hawkins This past Saturday was implementation day for the removal sanctions agreed upon during the nuclear negotiations between Iran, the P5+1 and the United States in July. This is a short overview of the events of a changing day in Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif started the historic Saturday off with a tweet around 9 am labelling the day with the hashtag #ImplementationDay. #ImplementationDay, its now time for allespecially Muslim nationsto join hands and rid the world of violent extremism. Iran is ready. Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 16, 2016 It's notable to mention other hashtags related to the news around the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) included #IranDeal, #JCPOA and # (or barjam the acronym for JCPOA in Persian). Upon his arrival in Vienna on Saturday morning, Zarif explained to the press the plans for the day, including meetings with Frederica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry before awaiting the IAEA report confirming Iran's compliance with the conditions of set out in the JCPOA for Iran's nuclear facilities. Sometime around the scheduled talk between Zarif and Kerry unforeseen news started to circulate amongst American and Iranian news outlets of a prisoner swap between the two nations. BREAKING News from #Iran. The countrys judiciary says four dual-nationals including Jason Rezaian freed in prisoner exchange, Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) January 16, 2016 It soon became clear that a deal had been agreed upon for the release of four Iranian-American dual nationals imprisoned, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, pastor Saeed Abedini and the larlgely unknown Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. A fifth American without dual nationality was later announced to be Matthew Trevithnick, a student who was detained a few months ago. In exchange, the U.S. agreed to release seven Iranians in U.S. jails (Nader Modanlu, Bahram Mechanich, Khosro Afghahi, Arash Ghahraman, Touraj Faridi, Nima Golestaneh and Ali Sabounchi) mainly for the crimes of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, with one exception in a prisoner extradited from Turkey on charges of hacking into a U.S. company. An article by Robin Wright in the New Yorker published a few hours after the prisoner exchange explained the prisoner swap as part of a secret secondary round of negotiations that occurred alongside the nuclear negotiations: The initiative grew out of nuclear negotiations, launched in the fall of 2013, between Iran and the worlds six major powers. On the margins of every session, Wendy Sherman, the top American negotiator, pressed her Iranian counterparts about the American cases. The Iranians countered with demands for the release of their citizens imprisoned in the United States for sanctions-busting crimes. More than a year of informal discussions between Sherman and her counterpart, Majid Takht Ravanchi, the Iranian Foreign Ministry official in charge of American and European affairs, led to an agreement, in late 2014, that the issue should be handled separatelybut officiallythrough a second channel. The swap came off of the heels of Iran's release of the U.S. Navy Sailors who were caught captive after wandering unauthorized into Iranian waters. Many have attributed the fast release of the sailors to warmer relations between Iran and the U.S. in the midst of the finalization of the JCPOA. Implementation day also coincided with the 37th anniversary of the day the former Shah left Iran left Iran before the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. The Irony of the historic day was not lost on Iranians. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran on January 16, 1979, changing history. 37 years later, history is changing again on the same day. Adrienne Varkiani (@AdrienneMahsa) January 16, 2016 Many Iranians were sharing altered versions of iconic images of signs stating the Shah left, changing them to Sanctions left. ! pic.twitter.com/JYysIg8ySj Bohlool (@BohloolSays) January 16, 2016 37 years after the 37 year reign of Mohamed Reza Shah we are finally celebrating the end of sanctions! Do you know where we could possibly be in 37 years? In the midst of the impatience to hear the official announcement that sanctions had been lifted, Zarif urged his followers on Twitter to be patient, describing the diplomatic meetings delaying the announcement as nothing serious. We're getting to #ImplementationDay. Nothing serious. Diplomacy requires patience, but we all know that it sure beats the alternatives. Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 16, 2016 One of the finalizing moments of implementation day came with the announcement by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had abided by all conditions set out by the JCPOA on Iran's nuclear facilities. This was a process largely confirmed in early December when the IAEA released an assessment report based on four years of research and reporting that concluded there was no evidence that Iran has tried to develop a nuclear weapon since 2009. The implementation day confirmation was a result an assessment by the IAEA's 35-nation board to decide whether to close the case on Iran's nuclear program based on the earlier findings. The joint press statement between Mogherini and Zarif officiated the lifting of the nuclear sanctions around 10 pm, which was followed by a separate statement by John Kerry. Joint statement now being read out. pic.twitter.com/eFmIHM4MPk Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) January 16, 2016 Kerry started his speech in press center. pic.twitter.com/kGStMEfYFO Abas Aslani (@abasinfo) January 16, 2016 The final conditions of the sanctions removal were documented by the U.S Department of Treasury, including which sanctions have been removed by the U.S., and which still remain in place (particularly related to human rights and terrorism). While previous steps in the nuclear negotiations were received largely by jubilant celebrations in the past, implementation day seemed to be more of a quiet affair, as it became finalized late Saturday night (Sundays are work days in Iran), and occurring according to the plans set out last July. In reaction to the final announcement, Iranian newspapers prepared headlines for Sunday morning playing on the famous Shah is gone headline from 1979. President Hassan Rouhani was also quick to take to social media to share his joy towards the lifting of sanctions. #ImplementationDayI thank God for this blessing & bow to the greatness of the patient nation of Iran. Congrats on this glorious victory! Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) January 16, 2016 The President's Instagram account also featured an edited version of a dramatized 2013 campaign interview where he promised his government of prudence and hope would hold the key to solving the nuclear issue, removing sanctions, and creating a booming economy. .@HassanRouhani has reposted video of his main election promise, lifting the sanctions and solving the nuclear issue https://t.co/NDDqDJhfAJ Sanam Dolatshahi (@khorshid) January 16, 2016 Critical reactions throughout the day pointed to the fact that Iran should also endeavour toward national reconciliation following the momentous international one. Calls for the release of Iranian prisoners and to improve human rights were amongst the sentiments shared on social media. On point! Release of Iranian Americans Welcomed, Time 4 All other Political Prisoners https://t.co/mkoIOuY9yu @ICHRI pic.twitter.com/XKOAEsDgND Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) January 16, 2016 Sanctions by foreign gov removed but #Irans sanctions against its own ppl remain,incl filtering,house arrest,jail https://t.co/8BC04qMyaI Golnaz Esfandiari (@GEsfandiari) January 16, 2016 Via Globalvoices.org Reddit Email 0 Shares By Shahid Buttar | Electronic Frontier Foundation [Sunday] marked the 55th anniversary of a world-historical speech by the last war hero to occupy the White House: President Dwight D. Ike Eisenhower. His last speech while in office holds crucial implications for the U.S. today, as well as the history we celebrate . . . on Martin Luther King Day. Ike served in World War II as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe before becoming President. He helped encourage an industrial mobilization that enabled the U.S. to liberate Europe and defend democracy from the global threat of fascism, but he expressed concerns about its future consequences. In his departing address to the American people before leaving the White House, President Eisenhower described the necessity of creating a defense industry intertwined with secret government agencies, while predictingin no uncertain termsthat they would together come to present a threat to democracy in America. Ike said: [W]e can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence economic, political, even spiritual is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government.Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. (emphasis added) With the benefit of 55 years of hindsight, Ike appears more prescient than Nostradamus. Few issues better embody the threat to democracy posed by the military-industrial complex than mass NSA surveillance, which continues despite widespread criticism and protest. We continue to challenge unconstitutional domestic spying in the courts. But years after we filed our first challenge, however, we are still seeking crucial rulings. Some legal decisions have vindicated widespread concerns about the emergence of almost Orwellian systems of domestic spying, but others have unfortunately allowed those programs to continue. Mass surveillance has also forced attention from the executive branch. President Obama promised surveillance reform when running for the White House, writing a campaign pledge in 2008 to support any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future. Once in office, he commissioned a review group to issue recommendations, but the administration then declined to adopt most of those recommendations, falling short of the presidents campaign promise. Meanwhile, Congress last year imposed the first restrictions in two generations on U.S. intelligence agencies, but just months later embraced new surveillance measures. And it enacted both sets of laws before ever conducting an independent investigation to uncover crucial facts such as how many Americans have been monitored by the NSA, or how many times the system has been abused by people using the governments powerful tools for their disturbing personal purposes. This last point is important, because on the few occasions that it has examined the intelligence agencies, Congress has discovered recurring violations of constitutional rights. Shining a light on such violations has led to essential limits on the agencies powers. Historically, the most significant congressional investigation was in the 1970s, when ad hoc committees convened in the Senate under Senator Frank Church (D-ID) and the House under Rep. Otis Pike (D-NY) revealed what the U.S. Senate in 1976 described as a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the legitimate exercise the First Amendment rights of speech and association. What Congress had uncovered was known within U.S. intelligence agencies as the Counter-Intelligence Programs, or COINTELPRO. It was a well-kept secret until a group of antiwar activists in Philadelphia literally broke into an FBI office to take and copy files that had long remained secret. The most prolific target of unconstitutional surveillance during this era was a figure whose memory we celebrate with a national holiday tomorrow, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His example, involving not only surveillance, but also a character assassination campaign and a coordinated attempt to drive him to suicide, should serve as a stark reminder to anyone today who thinks that because they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to worry about. And Dr. King is not alone: other examples abound. The Snowden revelations should have sparked the same outrage that drove the Church and Pike committees to investigate and reveal COINTELPRO. They still could, if Congress finally does its job and investigates the issues that Snowden and other whistleblowers have raised. In 2016, a decade and a half since the beginning of the mass surveillance regime, a robust congressional investigation still has yet to happen. We have a great deal to learn from President Eisenhowers prescient warning. His final speech as President appears increasingly poignant, particularly as we celebrate the memory of an international hero who was targeted by parts of the military-industrial complex that Ike helped create and grew to fear. Via Electronic Frontier Foundation Related video added by Juan Cole: AJ+: The FBI Wanted Martin Luther King Jr. To Kill Himself VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jan. 18, 2016) - Mawson Resources Limited ("Mawson") or (the "Company") (TSX:MAW)(FRANKFURT:MXR)(OTC PINK:MWSNF) provides an update on the 4,000 metre drill program at Palokas in Finland. Key Points: Two Energold Group ("Energold) EGD Series III rigs have commenced a 4,000 metre drill program at Palokas; Both rigs have been modified to meet environmental requirements and climate conditions. One has been drilling since December 18, 2015, the other set up for testing at Hirvimaa and is planned to begin at Palokas next week; To date, 2 drill holes for 359.9 metres have been completed; First assays will be available within the next 2 weeks; Drilling can proceed until mid-April without interruption, as a permit was recently received to allow drilling close to an eagle's nest that is located within the drill plan area. The three dimensional induced polarization and resistivity survey ("3D IP/resistivity") has completed 2 out of 5 survey blocks at Palokas. The survey extends coverage over Palokas to 2.7 kilometres and provides additional drilling targets for current drill program. Mr. Hudson, President & CEO, states, "The start of drilling has been a little slower than anticipated due to some very cold weather after the Christmas and New Year break. Our focus has been to ensure the Energold rigs are environmentally compliant, and we are now well placed with 2 rigs to continue drilling 24 hours a day, 6 days a week at Palokas." Two drill holes for 359.9 metres have been completed to date. The first hole, PAL0008, drilled at Hirvimaa, was primarily a test of the new rig's performance. The second drill hole, PAL0009, was completed at Palokas, 70 metres down dip of drill hole PRAJ0110 (9.2 metres @ 3.2 g/t gold intersected from 82.0 metres). The third hole, PAL0010 has been collared below PAL0009. Table 1 shows drill hole information from the first 2 drill holes which first assays will be available within 2 weeks. Mawson, in conjunction with all environmental authorities, are ensuring that all parts of these exploration programs are undertaken with minimal environmental impact. Baseline mapping of habitats and vegetation were completed during the summer and autumn. Mapping and identifying the nature values of the area ensures that threatened and endangered species are not negatively affected by exploration activities. Technical and Environmental Background The qualified person for Mawson's Finnish projects, Mr Michael Hudson, President & CEO for Mawson and Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining Metallurgy has reviewed and verified the contents of this release. About Mawson Resources Limited (TSX:MAW)(FRANKFURT:MXR)(OTC PINK:MWSNF) Mawson Resources Limited is an exploration and development company. Mawson has distinguished itself as a leading Nordic Arctic exploration company with a focus on the flagship Rompas and Rajapalot gold projects in Finland. On behalf of the Board, Michael Hudson, President & CEO Forward-Looking Statement This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Although Mawson believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: aim, believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates, timing and the successful completion of an initial mineral resource estimate at the Rompas-Rajapalot prospect in Finland, changes in world metal markets, changes in equity markets, planned drill programs and results varying from expectations, delays in obtaining results, equipment failure, unexpected geological conditions, local community relations, dealings with non-governmental organizations, delays in operations due to permit grants, environmental and safety risks, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mawson's most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. VANCOUVER, Jan. 18, 2016 /CNW/ - Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. (ASM: TSX.V, ASM: NYSE MKT, GV6: FSE, "Avino" or "the Company") is pleased to report its fourth quarter 2015 and full year 2015 production results from its Avino property near Durango, Mexico. Consolidated Production Highlights for Fiscal 2015 (Compared to Fiscal 2014) Silver equivalent production increased 116% to 3,020,348 oz* Silver production increased 68% to 1,625,285 oz Gold production increased 37% to 7,083 oz Copper production increased 1,453% to 4,743,691 lbs Consolidated Production Highlights for Fourth Quarter, 2015 (Compared to Fourth Quarter, 2014) Silver equivalent production increased 66% to 761,767 oz* Silver production increased 38% to 409,216 oz Gold production decreased 3% to 1,588 oz Copper production increased 457% to 1,271,565 lbs * For comparison purposes, the silver equivalent ratio has been calculated using metal prices of $16 oz Ag, $1,150 oz Au and $3.00 Lb Cu. Mill production figures have not been reconciled and are subject to adjustment with concentrate sales. Calculated figures may not add up due to rounding. "I'm happy to report that we generated strong production growth in 2015," said David Wolfin, Avino's President and CEO. "In fact, we achieved the highest silver equivalent ounce output in the Company's 49-year history. I congratulate our team of over 450 people for achieving this milestone during challenging conditions for the mining industry overall." Mr. Wolfin noted that the improved output at the Avino property resulted in part from the Company's investments in equipment and facility upgrades, which in the past five years have totalled approximately $25 million. He also highlighted the partnership forged in 2015 with Samsung, one of the world's largest companies. "This was a long-term agreement with one of the world's largest and most recognized industrial brands that put a very important stamp of approval on our operations," said Wolfin. "We're thrilled to be contributing to Samsung's manufacturing and construction capacity under their rigorous supplier standards, and their US$10 million investment in our business helped us to continue expansion throughout the year." Further improvements to Avino's operations are anticipated with Samsung's support. "They are keen to see us grow," said Mr. Wolfin. Finally, Mr. Wolfin attributed the Company's success in 2015 to a team effort. "Our entire team, particularly in Mexico, has worked under a solid commitment to continuous improvement. As a result, we're well prepared to capitalize on our investments in people and infrastructure, when markets improve. It has been my honor and pleasure to work with such a fine group of people. We all look forward to continued growth and efficiency improvement in 2016 and beyond." - David Wolfin, President, CEO & Director, Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. Consolidated 2015 Production Highlights Comparative production numbers from 2015 and 2014 are presented below: 2015 2014 % Change Total Silver Produced (oz) calculated 1,625,285 969,524 68% Total Gold Produced (oz) calculated 7,083 5,180 37% Total Copper Produced (Lbs) calculated 4,743,691 305,417 1,453% Total Silver Eq. Produced (oz) calculated* 3,020,348 1,399,102 116% *For comparison purposes, the silver equivalent ratio has been calculated using metal prices of $16 oz Ag, $1,150 oz Au and $3.00 Lb Cu. Mill production figures have not been reconciled and are subject to adjustment with concentrate sales. Calculated figures may not add up due to rounding. Consolidated Fourth Quarter 2015 Production Highlights Comparative production numbers from the fourth quarters of 2015 and 2014 are presented below: Q4 2015 Q4 2014 % Change Total Silver Produced (oz) calculated 409,216 296,914 38% Total Gold Produced (oz) calculated 1,588 1,644 -3% Total Copper Produced (Lbs) calculated 1,271,565 228,436 457% Total Silver Eq. Produced (oz) calculated* 761,767 457,908 66% *For comparison purposes, the silver equivalent ratio has been calculated using metal prices of $16 oz Ag, $1,150 oz Au and $3.00 Lb Cu. Mill production figures have not been reconciled and are subject to adjustment with concentrate sales. Calculated figures may not add up due to rounding. Avino Mine Production Highlights On January 1, 2015, Avino began processing new material from the Avino Mine primarily using Circuit 3. During the months of July, August, November and December, Circuit 2 was also used to process new material from the Avino Mine. Additionally, during the month of May, historic above ground stockpiles left from past mining of the Avino vein were processed using Circuit 2; production from Circuit 2 during the months listed above is reflected in the production figures. The comparison between the fourth quarter 2015 and the third quarter of 2015 is presented below, as the data from the fourth quarter of 2014 related to testing of material and equipment and is not considered comparable to that of 2015. Q4 2015 Q3 2015 % Change 2015 Notes Tonnes Mined 102,580 105,674 -3% 372,376 1 Underground Development (m) 1,440 1,477 -3% 5,056 1 Mill Availability (%) 94.5 97 -3% 96.1 2 Total Mill Feed (dry tonnes) 110,201 106,589 3% 396,113 3 Feed Grade Silver (g/t) 68 65 5% 65 4 Feed Grade Gold (g/t) 0.29 0.23 26% 0.29 4 Feed Grade Copper (%) 0.61 0.65 -6% 0.62 4 Recovery Silver (%) 86% 88% -2% 87% 5 Recovery Gold (%) 66% 81% -18% 75% 5 Recovery Copper (%) 86% 87% -1% 87% 5 Copper Concentrate (dry tonnes) 2,556 2,408 6% 9,058 6 Copper Concentrate Grade Silver (kg/t) 2.52 2.53 0% 2.47 - Copper Concentrate Grade Gold (g/t) 8.32 8.19 2% 9.47 - Copper Concentrate Grade Copper (%) 22.56 25.30 -11% 23.76 7 Total Silver Produced (kg) 6,430 6,092 6% 22,329 8 Total Gold Produced (g) 21,263 19,718 8% 85,737 8 Total Copper Produced (Kg) 576,773 609,708 -5% 2,152,202 8 Total Silver Produced (oz) calculated 206,743 195,862 6% 717,901 8 Total Gold Produced (oz) calculated 684 634 8% 2,757 8 Total Copper Produced (Lbs) calculated 1,271,565 1,344,174 -5% 4,743,691 8 Total Silver Equivalent Produced (oz) calculated 494,295 493,455 0% 1,801,997 - *For comparison purposes, the silver equivalent ratio was calculated using metal prices of $16 oz Ag, $1,150 oz Au and $3.00 Lb Cu. Mill production figures have not been reconciled and are subject to adjustment with concentrate sales. Calculated figures may not add up due to rounding. Avino Mine Fourth Quarter Production Highlights 1. Tonnes mined and underground development decreased by 3% compared to the third quarter of 2015, due to fewer days of mining during the holiday season. 2. Mill availability was down 3% due to the re-lining of the ball mill for Circuit 3. 3. Tonnage processed increased by 3% due to optimization work done on Circuit 3. 4. Silver and gold feed grades increased by 5% and 27% respectively while the copper grade decreased by 6%; the variation in grades is due to variability in the resource. 5. Recoveries for copper, silver and gold decreased by 1%, 2% and 18% respectively due to Circuit 3 testing to reduce bismuth in the concentrate; testing with new reagents will continue. 6. Concentrate produced increased by 6% reflecting higher throughput although at a lower copper concentrate grade. 7. Copper concentrate grade decreased by 11% due to the lower grade material processed in Circuit 2. 8. Copper production decreased by 5% whereas silver and gold production increased by 6% and 8% respectively, the main reason being variability in the feed grade processed. San Gonzalo Mine Production Highlights Comparative figures for the 2014 and 2015 fourth quarters and years for the San Gonzalo mine are presented below. Mined material from San Gonzalo is primarily processed using Circuit 1; however, during the months of September and October, mill feed from San Gonzalo was also processed using Circuit 2. Circuit 2 was also used to process San Gonzalo marginal stockpile mill feed for five months in the first half of 2015. This additional production from Circuit 2 is reflected in the production figures in the chart below. Q4 2015 Q4 2014 % Change 2015 2014 % Change Notes Tonnes Mined 18,272 25,384 -28% 93,291 70,525 32% 1, 7 Underground Advancement (m) 1,128 1,220 -8% 4,578 4,404 4% 1, 7 Mill Availability (%) 94.7 95.5 -1% 92.7 96.5 -4% 8 Total Mill Feed (dry tonnes) 26,616 19,818 34% 121,774 79,729 53% 2, 9 Feed Grade Silver (g/t) 285 329 -13% 279 337 -17% 3, 10 Feed Grade Gold (g/t) 1.45 1.85 -22% 1.48 1.88 -21% 3, 10 Recovery Silver (%) 83% 85% -2% 83% 84% -1% 4, 11 Recovery Gold (%) 73% 79% -8% 75% 78% -4% 4, 11, 14 Bulk Concentrate (dry tonnes) 1,023 664 54% 4,517 2,545 77% 5, 12 Bulk Concentrate Grade Silver (kg/t) 6.15 8.32 -26% 6.24 8.86 -30% 4, 12 Bulk Concentrate Grade Gold (g/t) 27.5 43.5 -37% 28.34 45.70 -38% 4, 12 Gravity Concentrate (dry tonnes) - - - 16.59 - - 14 Gravity Concentrate Grade Silver (kg/t) - - - 2.85 - - 14 Gravity Concentrate Grade Gold (g/t) - - - 395 - - 14 Gravity Concentrate Silver Content (Kg) - - - 47.23 - - 14 Gravity Concentrate Gold Content (g) - - - 6,552 - - 14 Total Silver Produced (kg) 6,298 5,527 14% 28,223 22,548 25% 6, 13 Total Gold Produced (g) 28,128 28,908 -3% 134,569 116,338 16% 6, 13 Total Silver Produced (oz) calculated 202,473 177,696 14% 907,384 724,931 25% 6, 13 Total Gold Produced (oz) calculated 904 929 -3% 4,326 3,740 16% 6, 13 Total Silver Equivalent Produced (oz) calculated 267,472 244,468 9% 1,218,351 993,744 23% - * For comparison purposes, the silver equivalent ratio was calculated using metal prices of $16 oz Ag and $1,150 oz Au. Mill production figures have not been reconciled and are subject to adjustment with concentrate sales. Calculated figures may not add up due to rounding. San Gonzalo Mine Fourth Quarter Production Highlights 1. Tonnes mined and underground advancement decreased by 28% and 8% respectively due to unexpected scheduling interruptions which have since been redressed. 2. Tonnes processed increased by 34% with the addition of Circuit 2 capacity in October as described above. 3. Feed grades for silver and gold decreased by 13% and 22% respectively due to the processing of stockpiled material as well as lower grade material on the eastern side of the resource. 4. The lower feed grades resulted in lower silver and gold recoveries by 2% and 8% respectively as well as lower flotation concentrate grades by 26% and 37% respectively. 5. Concentrate tonnage produced increased by 54% reflecting the addition of Circuit 2 capacity in October and increased throughput, although at lower grades. 6. Silver produced increased by 14%, mainly due to increased feed throughput, and gold produced decreased by 3% due to variability in the feed grade. San Gonzalo Mine 2015 Year-End Production Highlights 7. Tonnes mined and underground advancement increased by 32% and 4% respectively, reflecting new mining equipment employed. 8. Mill availability for the year was down 4% due to maintenance in the crushing plant for the expansion and the installation of the new cone crusher. 9. Tonnage processed increased by 53% with the addition of Circuit 2 capacity as described above. 10. The inclusion of lower grade material, albeit at higher throughput, resulted in overall lower silver and gold feed grades by 17% and 21% respectively. 11. Silver and gold recoveries were lower by 1% and 4% respectively due to the lower feed grades. 12. Concentrate grades for silver and gold decreased by 30% and 38% respectively, reflecting more base metals present in the processed material, while the 77% increase in concentrate produced was a result of the addition of Circuit 2 capacity. 13. Silver and gold production increased by 25% and 16% respectively due to higher processed throughput. 14. A gravity concentrator was installed during 2015 and its output is reflected in the results above. The concentrator was acquired in order to improve the gold recovery and testing is ongoing in 2016. Quality Assurance/Quality Control Mill assays are performed at the Avino property's on-site lab. Check samples are sent to Inspectorate Labs in Reno, Nevada for verification. All concentrate shipments are assayed by one of the following independent third party labs: AHK, LSI, Alex Stewart and SGS. Qualified Person(s) Avino's Mexican projects are under the supervision of Chris Sampson, P.Eng, Avino consultant and Jasman Yee P.Eng, Avino director, who are both qualified persons within the context of National Instrument 43-101. Both have reviewed and approved the production data in this news release. Webcast Event Join us later this morning, Monday January 18, 2016 at 12:30 PM (EST) for a live webcast of Avino's corporate presentation with Avino's President and CEO, David Wolfin, from the Noble Financial Capital Markets Twelfth Annual Investor Conference. To access the live stream please follow the link below or visit Avino's website at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. The video will also be available for viewing on Avino's homepage for several weeks following the conference. http://noble.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/53c4546fc4ac485f8d8fbe389e920ca81d About Avino Avino's mission is to create shareholder value through profitable organic growth at the historic Avino property near Durango, Mexico, and the Bralorne property in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. We are committed to managing all business activities in an environmentally responsible and cost-effective manner while contributing to the well-being of the communities in which we operate. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "David Wolfin" ________________________________ David Wolfin President & CEO Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. Safe Harbor Statement - This news release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (together, the "forward looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws and the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including our belief as to the extent and timing of various studies including the PEA, exploration results, the potential tonnage, grades and content of deposits, and timing, establishment and extent of resource estimates. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the dates of technical reports, as applicable. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the effects of general economic conditions, the price of gold, silver and copper, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government authorities, uncertainties associated with legal proceedings and negotiations and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking information. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with project development; the need for additional financing; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; uncertainties and risks related to carrying on business in foreign countries; environmental liability claims and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers, directors or promoters with certain other projects; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; competition; dilution; the volatility of our common share price and volume; tax consequences to U.S. investors; and other risks and uncertainties. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking 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. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. Cautionary Note to United States Investors - The information contained herein and incorporated by reference herein has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of United States securities laws. In particular, the term "resource" does not equate to the term "reserve". The Securities Exchange Commission's (the "SEC") disclosure standards normally do not permit the inclusion of information concerning "measured mineral resources", "indicated mineral resources" or "inferred mineral resources" or other descriptions of the amount of mineralization in mineral deposits that do not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards, unless such information is required to be disclosed by the law of the Company's jurisdiction of incorporation or of a jurisdiction in which its securities are traded. U.S. investors should also understand that "inferred mineral resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. Disclosure of "contained ounces" is permitted disclosure under Canadian regulations; however, the SEC normally only permits issuers to report mineralization that does not constitute "reserves" by SEC standards as in place tonnage and grade without reference to unit measures. 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 Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. LONDON, ENGLAND--(Marketwired - January 18, 2015) - Condor Gold plc (AIM:CNR) - The Board of Condor announces that it has, with immediate effect, terminated its strategic review incorporating a formal sale process (FSP) as defined by The Takeover Code (Code). On 4th September 2015, the Company announced it had initiated a formal strategic review of the Companys business and assets with a view to maximising value for Shareholders at that point in time (the Announcement). Accordingly, the Company appointed Cormark Securities Inc. (Cormark) to act as financial advisor and assist with exploring value creating alternatives for the Company. The shares of the Company have fallen 65% since the Announcement due to negative market sentiment towards junior gold exploration companies and the natural resource sector in general. The Boards view is that the fall in the share price does not reflect and indeed significantly undervalues Condors key asset, La India Project in Nicaragua and has decided to terminate the FSP, which resulted in an Offer Period under the Code. Condors current market capitalisation is equivalent to circa US$5 per resource oz gold in the ground compared to an average sale price over the past 18 months, estimated by Cormark, of US$56 per resource oz gold in the ground for similar gold mineral resources. Given that any potential offer for the Company would be judged in the context of a premium to the share price; the Board does not see an acceptable premium to the current share price being achieved in the short term, hence the decision to end the FSP. The La India Project hosts a high grade Independent Mineral Resource of 18.1M tonnes at 4.0g/t containing 2.32M oz gold, which includes an open pit mineral reserve of 6.9M tonnes at 3.0g/t gold containing 675,000 oz gold. An NI 43-101 technical report detailing a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and two Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEAs) were posted on Condors website on 21st December 2014. The Whittle Optimisation of the mineral resource and mine schedules in the PFS and PEAs increased contained gold within pit shells by 30% and increased the annual production by 25%, while capex and opex remained unchanged, thereby significantly enhancing the economics of the Project (see RNS dated 20th October 2015). For the PFS and PEAs the all-in-sustaining-cash costs are under US$700 per oz gold, which compares very favourably to the current gold price. Condor will continue with fully permitting Mina La India to initially produce 100,000 oz gold per annum from a single pit. The completion of the Environmental Impact Assessment and application for an Environmental Permit has been submitted (see RNS dated 1st December 2015). The EIA has passed an initial review by the Ministry of the Environment. The Companys unaudited cash position at 31st December 2015 was 1.1million. The Government of Nicaragua remains very supportive of permitting a new mine at Mina La India. Takeover Code As a result of the termination of the Strategic Review, the Company is no longer in an offer period under the Code and, accordingly, the requirement to make disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code has now ceased. In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Code, a copy of this announcement will be published, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons in any restricted jurisdiction, at www.condorgold.com. About Condor Gold plc: Condor Gold plc was admitted to AIM on 31st May 2006. The Company is a gold exploration and development company with a focus on Central America. Condor completed a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and two Preliminary Economic Assessments (PEA) on La India Project in Nicaragua in December 2014. The PFS details an open pit gold mineral reserve of 6.9M tonnes at 3.0g/t gold for 675,000 oz gold producing 79,300 oz gold p.a. for 7 years. The PEA for the open pit only scenario details 96,800 oz gold production p.a. for 8 years whereas the PEA for a combination of open pit and underground details 137,500 oz gold production p.a. for 8 years. La India Project contains a total attributable mineral resource of 18.4Mt at 3.9g/t for 2.33M oz gold and 2.68M oz silver at 6.2g/t to the CIM Code. In El Salvador, Condor has an attributable 1,004,000 oz gold equivalent at 2.6g/t JORC compliant resource. The resource calculations are compiled by independent geologists SRK Consulting (UK) Limited for Nicaragua and Ravensgate and Geosure for El Salvador. Disclaimer: Neither the contents of the Company's website nor the contents of any website accessible from hyperlinks on the Company's website (or any other website) is incorporated into, or forms part of, this announcement. Contact: Condor Gold plc Mark Child, Executive Chairman and CEO +44 (0) 20 7408 1067 Luc English, Country Manager Nicaragua +505 8854 0753 Beaumont Cornish Limited Roland Cornish +44 (0) 20 7628 3396 Numis Securities Limited John Prior and James Black +44 (0) 20 72601000 Farm Street Media Simon Robinson +44 (0) 7593 340107 Blount Fine Foods, the US soups, entrees and sauces maker, has announced the acquisition of Texas-based company Food Source. Food Source produces private-label and branded ethnic and home-style entrees, sides and sauces for retail grocers and national restaurant chains. With this acquisition, we have not only expanded our production, warehousing and shipping capacity in a geographically and strategically advantageous location, but also our bench of industry-leading talent, said Todd Blount, president of Blount Fine Foods. By adding production, warehousing and shipping in the middle of the country, Blount Fine Foods can now better serve our surging business in the western part of the United States. Financial details were not disclosed. Blount Fine Foods said it planned continued investment in equipment and staff to ensure compliance with the plants certifications, which include halal, organic, and gluten-free among others. We will make a few upgrades to take the facility from exceptional to state-of-the-art but overall, the synergies between the two companies will allow this to be a relatively seamless transition, Mr Blount added. I expect the advantages of our synergies to be realised almost immediately. All current employees will be retained and Blount Fine Foods said it would work with current Food Source customers to assure a seamless transition. Last summer, Blount Fine Foods announced it was looking to reduce the number of artificial ingredients in its products. - just-food has published research into the factors that will drive M&A in the food industry from now and into 2018. The full report will be available from just-food in mid-February. However, those who take out an annual subscription to just-food before 31 January 2016, at a 35% discount on standard pricing, will receive free copies of both Drivers of Food Industry M&A and another recent report, How Brands Can Win in Online Grocery, which was written by Professor David Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London and Miguel Flavian. To take advantage of this offer click here. General Mills said today (18 January) it will shut its plant in the English town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Free Whitepaper What is the impact of historically high inflation on the UK consumer landscape? Inflation in the UK: The Impact of Historically High Inflation on the UK Consumer Landscape, to better understand shifts in consumer behavior and their impact on spending patterns, as well as the implications for UK businesses. This whitepaper covers: Why has global inflation returned with a vengeance? What is the current inflation situation in the UK? What impact is inflation having on UK retail sales? What tactics are businesses relying on to tackle the effects of high inflation? How are consumers changing their behaviors to cope with the higher cost of living? Which industry sectors are most vulnerable to reduced consumer demand? How is the government responding to high inflation? How long will high inflation last in the UK? How can your company survive and thrive in a high inflation environment? Enter your details here to receive your free whitepaper and ready your business for these increasingly uncertain times. The average UK consumer is experiencing a severe cost-of living crisis as inflation surges to a forty-year high and the price of goods continues to rise. This shock is the result of the sharply increasing costs of commodities, energy, and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and is threatening FMCG manufacturers, retailers, and foodservice operators ability to survive and grow. Inflation will have a profound effect on many consumer-facing industries in 2022 and beyond. Consult GlobalDatas new whitepaper,, to better understand shifts in consumer behavior and their impact on spending patterns, as well as the implications for UK businesses. This whitepaper covers:Enter your details here to receive your free whitepaper and ready your business for these increasingly uncertain times. by GD50 Custom Enter your details here to receive your free Whitepaper. 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Rab Donnelly, area organiser for the Usdaw union, said: Since the initial announcement we have been in extensive consultation meetings with the company, looking at ways to avoid a closure. With great sadness for the workers on the site, their families and the wider community, this proved not to be possible and General Mills have today announced that the closure of the Berwick factory will go ahead. This has been an extremely difficult process for all concerned and is devastating news for the staff. Related Companies Old Mutual Private Equity Investments has acquired a significant minority stake in South African convenience food maker In2Food. In2Foods product portfolio includes fresh and prepared produce, convenience meals, snack items and baked foods. Richard Cooper, In2Foods CEO, said that the investment would support the groups continued rapid development. There is still much opportunity in our chosen sector of the food market and together we will continue to use this opportunity to grow an even more successful business and make a positive impact throughout South Africa. For its part, Old Mutual said it was attracted to the business because of the defensive characteristics of the consumer foods market. Farhad Khan, the firms investment principal, added the groups management and expertise were also important factors in securing the investment. We believe that culture often trumps strategy and at In2food we found a management team that shares our values, culture and partnership mentality, he said. - just-food has published research into the factors that will drive M&A in the food industry from now and into 2018. The full report will be available from just-food in mid-February. However, those who take out an annual subscription to just-food before 31 January 2016, at a 35% discount on standard pricing, will receive free copies of both Drivers of Food Industry M&A and another recent report, How Brands Can Win in Online Grocery, which was written by Professor David Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London and Miguel Flavian. To take advantage of this offer click here. PepsiCo has launched more snack products under its flagship international brand Lays in India. The company said it had rolled out Lays Twistz and Lays Crispz on a trial basis in three parts of the country in Delhi and the wider National Capital Region, in the northern state of Haryana and in Uttar Pradesh, another state in the north of India. Lays is a live example of a master brand in our portfolio that straddles different snacking formats and consumption occasions. Last year, we innovated with Lays Maxx, a deep-ridged chip format and the consumer response gives us reason to believe that consumers today are willing to try out newer taste experiences from Lays, the company told just-food. We will evaluate scaling up market access for the new range after a thorough evaluation of our learnings as we take this out to consumers. Bothe Twistz and Crispz are available in two flavours herb and onion, as well as saucy tomatina. PepsiCo is selling packs at two price points, INR5 (US$0.07) and INR20. Meanwhile, a report in India said last week PepsiCo was streamlining its local portfolio of snacks to sell the products under two brands Lays and Kurkure. The company did not respond to requests from just-food for comment on the report. By the Working Life Team Friday, 15 January 2016 AS the numbers of workers diagnosed with the potentially fatal black lung disease rose this week, Unions are warning its just the tip of the iceberg. Black Lung, or Coal Workers Pneumoconiosis, is caused by a build up of coal dust in the lungs due to inadequate ventilation and health standards in coal mines. The disease was thought to have been eradicated in Australia, until new outbreaks were recently discovered in Queenslands coal industry late last year. Now, as a new case was confirmed this week, unions are angry the disease has resurfaced even though health checks were supposed to be in place to protect workers. While a regulatory system was set up to monitor and detect a range of health issues affecting coal mine workers, which included providing regular x-rays, the miners union believes the system has not been maintained and is compromised. X-rays and lung tests have been used since 1947 as an early warning system to detect early signs of black lung and dust levels in mines have been constantly monitored. However, the mining boom and new longwall mining techniques have exposed more miners to more dust. CFMEU state mining and energy division president Steve Smyth is calling for a full inquiry, and says workers feel let down by a health system they trusted. Its a terrible state of affairs when here in Queensland in the 21st century we dont have qualified people that can read these X-rays, for a disease that has been around since the 18th and 19th centuries, he said. A major review of the Coal Mine Workers Health Scheme is being carried out and the government is looking at possible changes to mine safety laws. The review is welcome, but more is needed says the CFMEU. There needs to be a public inquiry with an independent commissioner with public submissions to get to the bottom of this, said Mr Smyth. How we can have such a terrible disease that people thought was eradicated, suddenly be back and maybe worse than ever. Queenslands Department for Natural Resources and Mines confirmed the latest case this week. There are five confirmed cases of black lung so far, with another five potential cases, where miners are waiting for the results of tests. And up to 40 people are on an official list waiting for tests, and this includes past and deceased workers. The best way to stop people from dying from black lung disease is early diagnosis. Professor Malcolm Sim, one of the experts tasked with assessing the States black lung screening system, said the review would go over miners past x-rays and medical records. The real question is what is the extent of that increase? he said. To stay up to date with the campaign, go to the Dust To Dust page. What is black lung and why do miners get it? Coal miners in Queensland have been diagnosed with black lung, a brutal disease thought to have been wiped out here more than 20 years ago. Now mining companies and health authorities are being criticised for allowing checks and standards to deteriorate enough to see the disease return. So what is black lung? And why is it back? Black lung is a chronic, irreversible occupational lung disease caused by the inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs. With prolonged exposure, the inhaled fine dust particles overwhelm the lungs defence mechanisms. The particles accumulate in the parts of the lung where oxygen from the air is taken up by the blood and carbon dioxide waste is released from the blood. This causes inflammation and scarring of the lung tissue. In the early stages of the disease these accumulations of coal dust and the affected lung tissue will show up as small (less than 1cm) rounded opacities (opaque masses) on x-rays. Patients with coal workers pneumoconiosis can experience shortness of breath and a chronic cough. With further exposure and time the disease may progress to a more severe form known as progressive massive fibrosis. When the accumulations of coal dust and abnormal lung tissue lump together larger lesions show up on x-ray. As these lesions lump together there is generally significant destruction of lung tissue, with debilitating severe symptoms including shortness of breath, chronic cough, coughing up black mucus, high blood pressure, heart problems What causes black lung? The only cause of black lung is excessive inhalation of respirable coal dust particles small enough to reach the spaces in the lung where gas exchange takes place. Deposition of dust in the lungs causes scarring of lung tissue. How is it treated? There is no specific treatment for either simple coal workers pneumoconiosis or progressive massive fibrosis that can slow or reverse the progressive scarring of the lung tissue. Medical care of patients is palliative and is directed at limiting complications, including airflow obstruction and associated lung disorders, and protecting against infectious complications. How do you prevent it? As black lung cannot be cured, the only way to control it is through preventing exposure to coal dust. The strict application of engineering controls such as dust suppression combined with ventilation systems in all mining operations is necessary to limit exposure to respirable coal dust to levels below recognised occupational exposure standards. Why has it come back? With the introduction of stringent dust control measures in mining in the developed world in the 1970s, this disease was virtually eradicated. But recent confirmed cases of the illness can only be the result of overexposure to coal dust. This is probably due to a relaxation of dust control regimes in many countries in recent years. The Queensland Resource Council has admitted it had become complacent with regulations. A review is underway to investigate practices that allowed this to occur. This blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. It is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way. Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy GRAND ISLAND Posters beginning with ATTENTION!!! are popping up at coffee shops, gas-station bulletin boards and break rooms across Grand Island and nearby communities. All military veterans, spouses and other interested parties are invited to a meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at the United Veterans Club, 1914 W. Capital Ave., the poster states. The meeting will be a study session on retention of the Grand Island Veterans Home land by veterans. Veterans have had this land for 125 years. Lets keep it for the past, present and future veterans, the poster states. Jerry Hirschman, a Korean War veteran from Grand Island, made up the posters and plans to start the meeting. What we want to do at this meeting is get some ideas at what can be done with the ground, Hirschman said. The state turned title for the bulk of the land over to the city last month with the understanding that the city will take over permanent maintenance of the Veterans Cemetery there. Mayor Jeremy Jensen announced that the city is putting together a committee to study possible uses for the remaining land, including the veterans home campus, which will be transferred to the city after the Central Nebraska Veterans Home opens in Kearney in 2018. Hirschman said there are veterans on the mayors committee, but he would like to see broader representation. Hes not getting any of the older people, he said. Jensen has talked preliminarily about possibly redeveloping the veterans home land with parks and business opportunities, as well as giving additional acreage to the United Veterans Club. While the veterans he has talked with like the citys idea of making a park, with widening streets and a walkway, on part of the 640 acres, Hirschman said, the veterans would like to control the land. He said veterans would like the land to go toward veterans-related uses, such as for homeless veterans, wounded warriors and disabled vets. We could educate them, get them back into society, Hirschman said. They could work to keep up the grounds, mow, scoop snow for their rent. It could be a win/win situation, he said. Although the city has tossed around the idea of putting a city cemetery next to the existing Veterans Cemetery so the city could maintain both, Hirschman said veterans feel a city cemetery may be out of place. Wed like to put a military cemetery out there, add to whats there and make it like Fort McPherson out by Maxwell, for statewide, he said. Hirschman said he has invited Nebraska state senators to the meeting, as well as some city council members and other elected officials. But mostly, he hopes to hear from Grand Island-area veterans so their thoughts can be heard. Hirschman said veterans have a strong love of country, and they want to be involved in the plans for the country and the home they fought to protect. We are not emotional. We are passionate, he said. We talked recently to a senior Republican who has devoted his career to conservative candidates and principles. Who would he vote for, given a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton? Clinton, he answered immediately. Trump would blow up everything this man had spent his life building. As the Republican party veers rightward, as Trump and Cruz continue to dominate the polls, as pragmatists like Jeb Bush and John Kasich continue to falter, the GOP is handing the Democrats an enormous present. They are abandoning the moderate center of American politics. As a result, they are giving the Democrats a golden opportunity to accomplish something thats happened only once since Harry Trumans victory in 1948: the same party winning the White House for a third straight election. But the Democrats are capable of blowing their chance. The latest polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, posing a serious challenge to the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton. And shes worried enough to start attacking her rival by name. Clinton should still win. She has a better national organization and a huge advantage among minority voters. But if Sanders should somehow capture the nomination, the Democrats would give back the gift the Republicans are offering. I want to run against Bernie, Trump told a New Hampshire rally this week. Thats my dream. My dreammmm. Many smart Republicans worry that Trump or Cruz would be another Barry Goldwater, who won just six states and 38.5 percent of the vote in 1964. But on the flip side, Sanders could be another George McGovern, who played to large, adoring crowds on college campuses in 1972 and won exactly one state. Yes, a lot has changed since those elections. New technologies enable candidates to disregard elite party structures and communicate directly with supporters. Anger and alienation, fueled by stagnating wages and menacing terrorists, are generating support for insurgent candidates and extreme remedies. But the basic rules of politics have not been repealed. The center of gravity in this country still sits in the moderate middle, with a slight tilt to the right. In exit polls during the 2012 election, 41 percent called themselves moderates, with 35 percent identifying as conservatives and 25 percent as liberals. A Gallup poll a year ago produced similar results, with 24 percent choosing the liberal label. Only 6 percent said they were very liberal, a fair description of Sanders philosophy. Give Sanders credit. Hes run a good campaign bristling with energy and excitement. Hes also revealed Hillarys weaknesses as a candidate. But with all her baggage, shes still far more electable than Sanders. She has a much better chance of appealing to disillusioned Republicans. Sanders, dont forget, would be 75 on Election Day, and his policy proposals range far outside the American mainstream. The Wall Street Journal added them all up and produced a price tag of $18 trillion, with most of that going to a government-run health care system. Washingtons share of the gross national product would rise from about 20 percent to 30 percent a figure reached only once before, at the height of the military build-up during World War II. Taxes would skyrocket. No wonder Sanders is Trumps dreammmm opponent. Two of the most prominent makers of body-worn cameras for cops and first responders are fightin' it out over patents. Digital Ally, based in Kansas, just sued Taser International, based in Arizona. Joe Mullin at Ars has more: The company accused Taser's Axon Flex body cameras of infringing its US Patent No. 8,781,292. The patent describes linking together a body-worn camera, a vehicle-based camera, and a "managing apparatus" that communicate with each other. The lawsuit was filed just after the Digital Ally patent overcame Taser's legal challenge at the US Patent and Trademark Office. "Given our investment and superior implementation of the technology and its importance to the safety of officers and our communities, Digital Ally could not sit silently while TASER misappropriated our intellectual property and used our very own inventions to compete against us," Digital Ally CEO Stanton Ross said in a statement. Top police body-cam companies get embroiled in a patent smackdown [Ars Technica, images: Reuters] 5K Shares Share An excerpt from Physician Suicide Letters Answered. When is a taboo topic no longer taboo? When is it OK to stop hiding behind euphemisms? When is it safe to tell the truth? The answer is now. This week I uploaded 53 chapters of physician suicide letters in a book that became a #1 Amazon bestseller in less than 24 hours. No publicity stunts. No PR team. No prelaunch marketing. How does a book become a bestseller in a day? When the public is ready for the truth. Heres a sneak peek inside. December 3, 2015 Dear Dr. Wible, Im not sure you read your [Facebook] messages but feel compelled to thank you. I was finishing term two of med school and had a bottle of Xanax in my hand. I was ready, as so many of us are. I took three then three more and came across this link, How to graduate medical school without killing yourself, which I believe may have saved my life and a couple of close friends who are also suffering. Im near the top of my class and praying for death to escape the trap Im locked into. I was in true delirium from lack of sleep and fear of failure. Studying in my sleep and waking up every hour in panic. Med school is doable but why must it be taught in this format? I read your stories and Im just in shock how many others feel like I do or I feel like they do. Please keep sharing. You are saving lives, friend. Chris Ive been receiving letters like this for three years. Not all have happy endings. I also receive letters from families who have lost their brilliant, compassionate children during medical school. And the suicides are not isolated to student doctors. March 23, 2015 Pamela, I am not surprised at the number of suicides among medical practitioners. I was a nurse for years and went back to school to be a physician assistant. There is so much abuse handed out in training. At the time I was in school, we still had some thirty-six-hour shifts. It was difficult. At least at the university that I attended they had a buddy program. All of the first-year students were given a third-year student to help show us around and be a mentor. The problem was that before we even started our first classes, my mentor committed suicide. She was in her car on her way home still close to the hospital when she stopped at a red light then picked up a gun and shot herself in the head. The person behind her was a physician at the hospital. These things are not that unusual. Its a sad state of affairs. Patricia These suicides are not isolated to students of medicine, to physicians, to physician assistants. The health care cycle of abuse impacts everyone in our hospitals, clinics, and medical schools. Including patients. February 12, 2015 Pamela, When I share what happens in our academic medical center with my non-medical friends, they are astonished and disbelieving. The level of bullying in my institution is amazing, including a faculty member seriously suggesting that a residents mistake was so heinous that he should off himself. When I speak about changing the culture of medicine, my colleagues think it is impossible to support financially. In our institution, money is a deal breaker. We have a patient wellness program with financial/insurance premium incentives, but as far as I know, no physician wellness program with incentives. I will watch what happens with you with interest. Keep doing it. Vicky So what are the answers? How do we stop the cycle of institutional abuse? Physician suicide hotlines inside our hospitals? Resilience training for our wiped-out doctors? Meditation classes for medical students? Advocacy centers for mistreated patients? February 13, 2015 Vicky, Its not costly or complicated to end bullying and hazing. Its been outlawed at elementary schools, fraternities, and pretty much everywhere except health care. How much does it really cost to be kind and compassionate? How much does it cost to replace hundreds of doctors who off themselves? Pamela Finally an answer. This cycle of health care abuse is a global phenomenon. Ive received letters from Canada, Egypt, India, South Africa, UK, and the USA. There is no country in which medical students are immune from the effects of a traumatic medical education. There is no perfect health system in which doctors do not struggle to preserve their humanity and patients do not die for lack of care. There is no amount of money, no high-priced health plan that will guarantee that the doctor controlling your ventilator is not sleep-deprived or suicidal. We are all at risk. It is time to expose the pervasive and largely hidden medical culture of bullying, hazing, and abuse that claims the lives of countless medical students, doctors, and patients. Now for the first time released to the public Im sharing the private letters and last words from our doctors who could no longer bear the pain of an abusive medical system. What you dont know about medical training and culture can kill you. These letters invite you behind the white coat and into the mind, heart, and soul of our doctors and provide answers. The solutions are simple. The time to act is now. Pamela Wible pioneered the community-designed ideal medical clinic and blogs at Ideal Medical Care. She is the author of Physician Suicide Letters Answered and Pet Goats and Pap Smears. Watch her TEDx talk, How to Get Naked with Your Doctor. She hosts the physician retreat, Live Your Dream, to help her colleagues heal from grief and reclaim their lives and careers. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Gold Supply Peaks At 3,155 Tonnes, Output To Decline by 3% in 2016 Gold supply has peaked, this according to CEOs of major gold companies and research by Thomson Reuters GFMS, as quoted Sunday in the Financial Times. GFMS, recognized as a leading precious metals markets research firm part of Thomson Reuters, expects global gold production to decline by 3% in 2016, which would put an end to seven years of rising output. Last year, global gold supply reached 3,155 tonnes, a record year for output, GFMS said. Falling grades and production levels, a lack of new discoveries, and extended project development timelines are bullish for the medium and long-term gold price outlook, said Kevin Dushnisky, president of Barrick Gold, as quoted by FT. By Sarah Benali of Kitco News; sbenali@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 precious metal products, 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. kitco news An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more. But one aspect often overlooked is that an honest essay should be interesting. It should spark the readers curiosity, keep them absorbed, make them want to stay reading and learn more. An uneventful article risks losing the readers attention; whether or not the points you create are excellent, a flat style, or poor handling of a dry subject material can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The matter is that a lot of students think that essays should be like this: they believe that a flat, dry style is suited to the needs of educational writing and dont even consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to search out the essay interesting. You might want to have online essay editor service to boost your confidence in writing with an error-free output. Academic writing doesnt need to be and shouldnt be bland. The excellent news is that there is much stuff you can do to create your essay more attractive, while youll be able only to do such a lot while remaining within the formal confines of educational writing. Lets study what theyre. Have an interest in what youre writing about Dont go overboard, but youll be able to let your passion for your subject show. If theres one thing bound to inject interest into your writing, its being fascinated by what youre writing about. Passion for a subject matter comes across naturally in your essay, typically making it more lively and fascinating and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words within the same way that its easy to talk knowledgeably to someone about something you discover fascinating. Include fascinating details Another factor that may make an essay boring maybe a dry material. Some topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to form the article more interesting through your written style and by trying to seek out fascinating snippets of knowledge to incorporate, which will liven it up a small amount and make the data easier to relate to. A way of doing this with a dry subject is to create what youre talking about that seems relevant to the critical world, as this is often easier for the reader to relate to. Emulate the fashion of writers you discover interesting When you read lots, you subconsciously start emulating the fashion of the writers you have read. Reading benefits you a lot, as this exposes you to a spread of designs, and youll start to require the characteristics of these you discover interesting to read. Borrow some creative writing techniques Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting. consider your own opinion Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others. Cut the waffle Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem. Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose. employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them. You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect. Avoid repetitive phrasing Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable. Use some figurative language Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know. As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. Employ rhetorical questions Anticipate the questions your reader might ask. One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration. Proofread Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them. SHARE When my list of restaurants to try dwindles dangerously short, I usually whip out my trusty copy of Go Knoxville's Yummm! dining guide and start prospecting. That's the position I found myself in last week, and being in the mood for Mexican food, I started scanning those listings for a business that I knew had been around for a while. My index finger stopped on Pancho's Mexican Restaurant in Maryville. The Grub Spouse and I popped in during the dinner hour and were immediately whisked away to a table. Pancho's interior conveys a pueblo-street feel, cozy due in large part to split dining areas that compartmentalize the seating. The motif, like so many other eateries of the ilk, is south-of-the-border cliche in its interior decor selections and canned mariachi soundtrack. We were both pretty hungry, so fortunately, chips and salsa were placed under our noses within moments, keeping low blood sugar at bay while we had a chance to peruse the menu. The appetizers section alone is home to a generous number of selections, ranging from multiple iterations of quesadillas to taquitos and flautas to specialty dips, the last of which can incorporate toppings like sauteed onions, mushrooms, spinach, chorizo and more. The Spouse actually chose an appetizer as a main course, zeroing in on the fajitas nachos ($6.99) from among the several other nacho recipes. The bed of tortilla chips is loaded up with fresh veggies, beans, cheese and a choice of steak or chicken. The Spouse went with the latter. The entrees are grouped by meat families steaks, chicken, pork and seafood as well as traditional Mexican-food categories like enchiladas, fajitas, burritos and chimichangas. Notable selections include the Beef Steak Tampiquena (a rib-eye steak served with a cheese enchilada), Milanesa chicken (thin breaded breast strips served with rice, fries and salad), and Mama's Pork Chops, a new item featuring two chops smothered in chipotle salsa. I decided to pull something from the Specials and the Traditional Dinners sections. Options included dishes ranging from a Mexican-style sub and a Mexican tripe stew to a whole deep-fried tilapia and the Mixteka a combination of shrimp, chicken, steak and carnitas smothered in Pancho's cheese, tomatillo and wine sauce and served sizzling in a skillet. I covered a lot of ground as well by ordering Pancho's Combo ($9.75), featuring a chalupa, taco, enchilada, chile relleno, beef burrito, rice and beans. Overall, the selections were enjoyable, but some were more so than others. The chicken nachos were satisfying and tasty, and from my combo platter, the burrito and enchilada stood out more than the crispy-tortilla-shell taco and chalupa, both of which seemed heavy on lettuce and light on meat. My favorite was the zingy and cheesy chile relleno. We filled up two to-go boxes with leftovers so we could save room for a chocolate chimichanga ($3.50), a brawny Nutella-stuffed flour tortilla that's deep-fried and topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. It was richly filling, and we loved every sweet bite. The only real sour note Pancho's hit that night was in terms of service. Our server was thorough and accommodating when we saw her, but there were too many times when we needed refills, plates cleared and a check, for instance that she was either nowhere to be seen or chatting with another employee. Otherwise, of the many Blount County Mexican-food restaurants I've tried over the years, I still think Pancho's holds its own. --- Pancho's Mexican Restaurant Food: 4 stars (out of five) Service: 3.5 Atmosphere: 3.5 Overall: 3.5 Address: 2715 U.S. 411 S. (E. Broadway), Maryville Phone: 865-982-2228 Hours: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays Dept. of Health Score: 100 Full bar service --- Bottom Line: If you dwell in or are visiting the Murvul area, consider adding this longtime Mexican-food eatery to your rotation. SHARE A view of the Alpha-5 facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Alpha-5 and other excess facilities are awaiting cleanup at U.S. Department of Energy sites. (NNSA/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL) A view of the Alpha-5 facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant. Alpha-5 and other excess facilities are awaiting cleanup at U.S. Department of Energy sites. (NNSA/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS SENTINEL) By Frank Munger of the Knoxville News Sentinel OAK RIDGE The Alpha-5 building at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant is a notorious example of a big problem facing the U.S. Department of Energy. Old nuclear facilities have outlived their usefulness, requiring their shutdown without the money available to clean them up or, in some cases, to keep them from falling apart and spreading their contamination. Alpha-5, an original part of the World War II Manhattan Project, has been shut down for more than a decade, and it's begging for attention. The 613,000-square-foot building was used for various missions during the Cold War, and it's thoroughly contaminated with uranium, mercury, beryllium and other hazards that have been made worse by the intrusion of water from an old and failing roof. The basement is a swamp. About 2 million gallons of water have collected there, allowing toxic contaminants to mingle directly with the groundwater. Heavy moisture inside Alpha-5 has caused mold to grow like crazy, forcing the use of a respirator by anyone who ventures inside. The DOE has a long list of cleanup projects underway that pose difficult challenges and cost a ton of money. But the problem posed by Alpha-5 and other so-called "excess facilities" is they're not yet in the cleanup queue. In many cases there are no definitive plans for what's known in the cleanup world as D&D deactivation and decommissioning or the funds to address their risks. "When it comes to excess facilities, the first thing to keep in mind is we're talking about a tremendous number of facilities," Mark Whitney, the DOE's deputy assistant secretary for environmental management, said at a conference last month in Knoxville. Whitney said the agency's contractors have demolished about 2,500 old and dirty facilities at DOE sites around the country, including Oak Ridge. That's about half of what's planned, but there's another 1,000 excess facilities yet to be added to the list, he said. "At times, the list seems neverending," Whitney said, "but measurable progress is being made." Various reports, including one last year by the DOE's Office of Inspector General, have characterized Alpha-5 as the "worst of the worst." Asked whether the facility is deserving of its reputation, Y-12's Ken Harrawood said, "I think it probably is." Harrawood declined to give an estimate of what it'll cost to clean up and tear down the huge facility. "We're working on an estimate, but it's a pretty rough estimate at this time," he said, expressing concern that establishing a price tag might affect future bids if a subcontract to do the work is put out for bids. The Alpha-5 situation is particularly vexing because the DOE spent about $100 million of its Recovery Act funding on a project in 2011 that removed tons of surplus materials and unneeded equipment from the big building. About 5,430 containers of waste materials were sent to Nevada for disposal, and the project was supposed to be a giant step toward the eventual cleanup and demolition. The roof failures that followed created a whole new suite of water-borne problems although various steps have been taken, including some roof repairs, to keep matters from being even worse than they are. Alpha-5 doesn't pose as many radioactive hazards as some of the DOE's other big-time demolition projects, such as the Rocky Flats plutonium facility in Colorado or the K-25 uranium-enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, Harrawood said. But the cleanup will be complicated by Alpha-5's location adjacent to active production facilities at Y-12, he said. The location could limit the access of cleanup workers or pose potential hazards to Y-12 workers not engaged in cleanup activities. Harrawood indicated Consolidated Nuclear Security the government's managing contractor at Y-12 might undertake a near-term project to drain the water in Alpha-5's basement. He said contractor officials believe Y-12 has the on-site capabilities at the Central Mercury Treatment Facility to treat the polluted water. An evaluation is in the works. "We're going to do some work this year to get some pumps and agitate water to get a representative sample," he said. If the water meets the acceptance criteria for the existing treatment facility, then the Y-12 contractor may proceed with the project, Harrawood said. The treatment facility has enough capacity to handle the extra work, but the concern is the water may have too much brine for the treatment systems. Jeff Smith, Oak Ridge National Laboratory's deputy lab director for operations, was co-chair of a DOE working group convened last year to look at the problem with excess facilities at DOE sites around the country. Smith said the group concluded the problem was not being addressed by any of the agency's current environmental management programs. "If you don't start working on it, it's going to get more and more costly and begin to impact existing missions because . . . some of these facilities are dispersed among production facilities," Smith said. Smith said the working group stated its case to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and he said there's reason to believe the DOE will try to include about $100 million in the fiscal year 2017 budget. Even if that's approved, it won't solve a multibillion-dollar problem, but Smith said it would be a start. ORNL has inactive nuclear facilities awaiting cleanup attention on its campus, and the lab also has responsibility for several other facilities such as the old Mouse House and biology research complex that are physically located at Y-12. The biology complex hasn't been used for many years, and it's falling apart, with pieces of the exterior occasionally sliding to the ground. "It's as close to being knocked down as you can get," Smith said. Beta-3, another World War II-era building at Y-12, will require a more delicate touch because it houses equipment that will become part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. Cleanup will have to take place selectively inside the big building. The DOE's environmental management program in Oak Ridge received more money than expected for fiscal year 2016, and it appears that some of the $473.8 million may be used to address problems at excess facilities. "There is funding available that allows us to identify additional opportunities in the (environmental management) program where we can execute projects that will reduce risks and put some of the higher-risk facilities on the Oak Ridge reservation in a safer and more stable condition," said Mike Koentop, executive officer of the DOE's Office of Environmental Management in Oak Ridge. Chris Thompson, who oversees DOE cleanup activities for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said the state will work closely with the DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set priorities. She said the state has asked for more information on the DOE's plans for deactivating buildings and is considering additional milestones to ensure timely cleanup. Thompson said the DOE should be able to complete its Oak Ridge cleanup, including the excess facilities, by 2046 if it receives annual cleanup funding of about $420 million. Read more from Frank Munger at "Atomic City Underground:" SHARE Gus Paidousis, chief of security for Knox County Schools By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel Knox County Schools security Capt. Dan Stewart disputed the only disciplinary action taken against him in nearly 20 years of work, but his handwritten response was omitted from his personnel file. Stewart's Dec. 18 defense of his actions was not available when the News Sentinel reviewed his personnel file Jan. 4. The two-page letter also was omitted from the personnel file provided to investigators with the Knox County Sheriff's Office. The omissions, Knox County Schools spokeswoman Melissa Tindell said, were mistakes. School officials produced the response three days after Stewart's file was reviewed. "The information also was added to the personnel file," Tindell said. Stewart is one of three school security captains who on Dec. 14 filed a complaint with the school system's human resources division against Chief of Security Gus Paidousis. Capts. Doug Ryerkerk and Bill Kee also joined the complaint. The captains allege Paidousis fired a security officer because of the white officer's black wife and bi-racial children, sexually harassed a female employee, exhibited an explosive anger that fostered fear among those on the force, retaliated against uncooperative employees and intimidated complaining employees by having surveillance devices installed and trained on their work stations. Stewart had been accused of conduct unbecoming an officer during Dec. 10 meetings with a parent and the principal of Carter High School. According to records, Stewart talked about other investigations with the parent and told Principal Ryan Siebe that with 900 students on campus, chances were there was a gun somewhere in school. In his response, Stewart denied identifying any students when talking about other investigations, so he disputed sharing confidential information. Siebe apparently was upset Stewart thought there could be a gun on campus. Stewart's response noted the day after the discussion that security officers conducted a random search for weapons at Carter High School, basically reinforcing his perspective. "My conduct was not in my opinion unprofessional or inappropriate given the context of the conversation," wrote Stewart, who previously worked for nearly 20 years at the Knox County Sheriff's Office. Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones also eventually obtained a copy of Stewart's response. The document did not alter the sheriff's Jan. 4 decision to revoke the unrestricted bond cards of Stewart, Kee and Ryerkerk. Jones said he learned from news reports about disciplinary actions against the three captains. The discipline occurred while under the command of Paidousis, who was hired May 20, 2013. Since the revocation of their unrestricted bond cards, the three captains have been on administrative leave with pay. Tindell said Stewart, Kee and Ryerkerk surrendered their bond cards and guns. Without bonds, they can't do their jobs. The Sheriff's Office bond allowed the captains to be armed and make arrests off school property. The captains are suspended "pending review and recommendations from our human resources office regarding any appropriate personnel action," Tindell said. According to their personnel files, the three captains received no disciplinary actions before Paidousis was hired. Stewart joined the school security force in 1996. Kee started with the Knox County Schools transportation division in 1988 and in 1996 was transferred to the security division. Ryerkerk joined the security force in 2008. Prior to Paidousis taking command of the unit, the trio of captains had gotten good evaluations and were considered valuable assets to the security force, records show. In their 2014-15 evaluations, however, Paidousis rated Stewart and Kee as needing improvement and recommended their "continued employment with reservation." Ryerkerk had undergone two counseling sessions by Paidousis in the past two years, but garnered an overall satisfactory performance evaluation in 2014-15 and was recommended for continued employment by Paidousis. Paidousis counseled Ryerkerk in 2014 for falling asleep during a training class and in 2015 for searching a teacher's purse in front of others. No one has evaluated Paidousis, who is entering his third year on the job where he is paid $93,422 annually. "At the time Chief Paidousis was employed, the evaluation process and criteria for supervisory personnel was being extensively revised," said Knox County Schools spokeswoman Abbey Harris. "This revision process for the security chief will be complete this spring and Chief Paidousis will receive a complete evaluation in the summer of 2016." Stewart was suspended with pay from Dec. 11-18 while the human resources department investigated his conversations at Carter High School. The probe resulted in a written reprimand to Stewart, and he was reinstated to duty until the sheriff revoked his bond. Although the human resources division is investigating Paidousis because of the complaint filed by the three captains, he remains on active duty. Tindell said schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre decides who is placed on leave. "In the instance of Chief Paidousis, the majority of allegations contained in the complaint filed by captains Stewart, Kee and Ryerkerk did not directly involve them, rather unnamed employees who did not file (and have not filed) a complaint," Tindell wrote in an email. "As such, the human resources department is investigating the matter to determine if there is merit to the complaints. These allegations are taken very seriously and will be investigated to the fullest extent possible." Charles Moulden, center, walks in the Martin Luther King Jr. march from the Sevier County Courthouse to First Baptist Church with, from left, Monte Calloway, Carrol McMahan, and retired State Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Wade and Moulden were football teammates at Sever County High School when Moulden integrated the old Knoxville Interscholastic League. SHARE Charles Moulden shows the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award he received during MLK ceremonies in Sevierville on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. The students, from left, are University of Tennessee freshman Alahnah Ligon, and Sevier County High School seniors, Devin George and Zach Lambert. By News Sentinel Staff SEVIERVILLE Sevierville native and integration pioneer Charles Moulden received the top honor during the 11th Sevier County Martin Luther King Jr. memorial ceremony at First Baptist Church. Moulden, 72, was presented the Leadership Award by MLK committee chairman Dwight Stokes. Moulden, now a resident of Oak Ridge, was shot in 1968 during a racially motivated assault on the opening day of trout season in the Cherokee National Forest. He still carries a .38 caliber bullet in his left leg from the attack. His alleged assailant, Monroe Countian Fred Ellis, was charged with attempted murder. Ellis' first trial resulted in a hung jury; he was acquitted by an all-white jury several months later. Moulden, a running back and 1964 graduate of Sevier County High School, was the first black athlete to play in the old Knoxville Interscholastic League. His life story was the subject of a 2014 series, "Fragments of Hate," by News Sentinel columnist Sam Venable. It won the Society of Professional Journalists' national feature writing award in 2015. "Charles could have let his life be ruled by hatred and bitterness," said committee vice chairman Carroll McMahan. "Instead, he found peace and forgiveness. That's what true leaders do." Ron Coffin, another local integration pioneer, gave the keynote address. Coffin was among five black students who entered Maryville High School in 1963. A graduate of the University of Tennessee and a Vietnam combat veteran, Coffin is retired from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. "We have not yet reached the promised land," he said. "When unarmed teenagers are being killed by police and a major politician calls for the exclusion of people from this country because of their religion, we have a long way to go." Also during the program, Morristown West High School drama students Isaiah McDermott and Alec Smith performed a somber "Ballad of George Zimmerman," their interpretation of the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida. Tirra Hargrow performed an energetic African dance, and more than two dozen audience members spontaneously joined her on the stage. Today, Moulden and Venable will participate in MLK Week ceremonies at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. SHARE The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday the nation celebrates today, had a dream for the future, but he also had the determination to work and sacrifice to make the present day better. In light of the past year's troubling events across the nation and in Knoxville's neighborhoods, it is important to remember that essential part of King's legacy. After Rosa Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, King led the subsequent bus boycott that lasted 382 days. During that time he was arrested and his home was bombed, but on Dec. 21, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 and became the nation's most prominent civil rights leader. His eloquent words took up much of the room in his toolbox. He delivered thousands of speeches and sermons, penned "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" and, of course, inspired Americans of good will with his "I Have a Dream" speech. He had other tools at his disposal, too. He organized protests. He coordinated and participated in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters. He was arrested a score of times. He was assaulted. Yet he kept working. On the day he was assassinated in Memphis April 4, 1968 King was trying to improve the daily lot of that city's sanitation workers. Today, the president of the United States is a black man and African-Americans face far fewer barriers to achievement than in the days of Jim Crow. Still, too many blacks live in poverty, too many young black men are in prison, too many babies are born without fathers. The dream has not been fully achieved; more work remains. Schools are officially desegregated, but the NAACP's Knoxville chapter has asked the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to determine whether the decision to build a new middle school in the predominantly white Gibbs community, which would siphon students away from the diverse Holston Middle School, complies with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Too often, violence tears through black communities. A young white man named Dylann Roof stands accused of killing nine people at a prayer meeting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. He had written a racist manifesto and maintained a racist website. Gang violence is the enemy within. Here in Knoxville, Fulton High School sophomore Zaevion Dobson was shot last month as he shielded two friends from gunfire. Zaevion's death has galvanized Knoxville. Black churches, elected officials, law enforcement and numerous nonprofits have redoubled their efforts to provide more opportunities for young black men and stop the killing. They need everyone's support. Dreams are important, and King's dream of a color-blind America is a compelling one, but actions are needed to turn dreams into reality. The entire community black and white, Asian and Hispanic, immigrant and native born must work today to make that dream come true tomorrow. Cherokee Distributing Company acquires another wholesale beverage distribution company KNOXVILLE -- Cherokee Distributing Company has expanded its service area from 22 to 53 counties in Tennessee with its acquisition of Mid-South Distributing, another wholesale beverage distribution company. Cherokee Distributing is a family-owned business that has served East Tennessee since 1958. Headquartered in Knoxville, the company has a second distribution center in Kingsport. The addition of Mid-South Distributing has allowed the company to expand its territory into Middle Tennessee with Cookeville, Tullahoma and Pulaski as distribution hubs. The opportunity to acquire Mid-South was the right fit because of our shared commitment to outstanding customer service, said George Sampson, president of Cherokee Distributing Company. We have a longstanding history of not only representing the leading brands of beer in East Tennessee but also being deeply involved in the communities where we do business. Were looking forward to expanding our service area and community outreach to many other counties in the state through this partnership with the Mid-South team. The merge became official Jan. 15. Cherokee Distributing Company is preparing an update to its website to reflect the additional territory and specific products to be distributed across the 53-county service area. Mid-South has grown over the years, but our commitment to our customers has remained unwavering, said Rick Gerwe, president of Mid-South Distributing. Joining the Cherokee Distributing team was the right decision in order to continue to best serve the market with innovation, reliable and efficient customer service and superior quality of products. As a family-owned and operated company that believes in community and investing in where its employees live and work, Cherokee Distributings values and business model aligned well with Mid-South Distributing. To learn more about Cherokee Distributing Company, visit www.cherokeedistributing.com. Published January 18, 2016 By Choi Sung-jin The number of businesses that filed for bankruptcy or receivership last year exceeded similar filings in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, court officials said Monday. The 1997-98 currency crisis saw large businesses go bankrupt, but those that fell to the financial crunch last year were mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said officials at the Seoul Central District Court. The combined assets of SMEs that filed for bankruptcy or receivership equaled the size of assets of the nation's 18th-largest company. According to the court, 1,375 businesses filed for bankruptcy or receivership as of Nov. 30, 2015, and the number was estimated to exceed 1,500 for the whole of last year. "Although we do not have the official statistics, last year's number was larger than those of either 1998 or 1999, when the comparable number of bankruptcies stood at around 1,300, according to the unofficial tally," a court official said. The number of filings has been on the rise since the government introduced the Integrated Bankruptcy Law in 2006, from 208 that year to 248 in 2007, 557 in 2008, 1,024 in 2011 and 1,412 in 2014. As of last July, the combined assets of companies in receivership at the district court amounted to 12.35 trillion won ($10.18 billion) with their debts totaling 21.86 trillion won. Their assets, according to the rankings made by the Fair Trade Commission, were close to the 12.6 trillion won held by Hyundai Group (different from Hyundai Motor Group), which is Korea's 18th-largest chaebol. In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the comparable assets in receivership at the same court reached 35 trillion won, similar to the size of the fourth-largest chaebol, as the filings were made by large businesses, including Hanbo Steel and Kia Motors, at the time. "The larger number of businesses and the smaller size of their total assets show that SMEs are on the brink this time around," said the court official. "In other words, corporate Korea is being shaken from its roots." By Lee Hyo-sik Nonghyup's newly elected chairman and his supporters are likely to face a prosecution investigation for alleged irregular campaign activities during the Jan. 12 election. The National Election Commission (NEC) said Monday that it had referred Choi Duk-gyu, one of six candidates allegedly involved in illicit activities while campaigning for new Chairman Kim Byung-won, and unspecified individuals to the prosecution. The NEC said that before the runoff election, a text message calling for support for Kim was sent to the heads of Nonghyup chapters. The agency said it could not identify who sent the controversial message. In addition, Choi was referred to the prosecution for allegedly illicitly rallying support for Kim after a preliminary vote. On Jan. 12, Kim emerged victorious from a six-way contest at Nonghyup headquarters in downtown Seoul. After failing to garner a majority vote in a preliminary round, Kim held a run-off against Lee Sung-hee, the former head of a Nonghyup chapter in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. Of the 289 delegates casting ballots, Kim received 163 votes, against Lee's 126. Choi, who received 74 votes in the preliminary round, campaigned for Kim before the runoff. But shortly after, NEC employees stopped Choi. According to the election watchdog, Choi and those who sent the text message could face a two-year prison sentence or a 20 million won fine for violating the Election Law. Following Kim's win, Lee's supporters filed a complaint with the NEC, which then launched a probe. The agency has asked prosecutors to question Choi and uncover who sent the text message to Nonghyup representatives. With 2.35 million members, Nonghyup, or the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, has 400 trillion won ($333 billion) in assets, operates 31 subsidiaries and employs 8,800 people. President Park Geun-hye pledged Monday to join an ongoing signature-collecting campaign calling for parliamentary approval for a set of bills meant to revitalize the economy. Park said she hopes that the National Assembly would heed calls from the public and business organizations and quickly pass the bills. "I will join a signature-collecting campaign along with people," Park said in a meeting with officials in Pangyo, south of Seoul, where she was receiving a report from the government on how to secure momentum for growth. The comments are the latest in a series from Park to exert pressure on the parliament to endorse the bills. Park has made repeated appeals for a parliamentary blessing of the bills, though no major progress has been made amid a political standoff between the rival parties. Adding to the woes, National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa has rejected the presidential office's request that he invoke his authority to take a set of economic bills to the floor and put them to a vote. However, there is no sign that rival parties could work out their differences and pass the bills. The bills are designed to, among other things, reform South Korea's labor markets and to better protect the country from possible terrorist attacks. "Now, time is running out for us," Park said, noting that it is urgent for the parliament to pass the bills to avert possible economic difficulty. She also called on the National Assembly to approve an anti-terrorism bill to protect the lives of South Koreans, citing a string of attacks around the world. The anti-terrorism bill has gained new momentum following the deadly attacks in Paris last year that killed more than 120 people. (Yonhap) The incident in which a Taiwanese member of a Korean girl group was made to apologize for waving her country's flag encouraged an estimated 1.34 million more Taiwanese to cast their ballots, the South China Morning Post reported Monday. The article titled "Teen pop star Chou Tzuyu's apology for waving Taiwan flag swayed young voters for DPP" cited findings from a survey by the Cross-Strait Policy Association. While only 66 percent of registered voters cast ballots, the Democratic Progressive Party's Tsai Ing-wen gained 56 percent of the votes, which the association attributed to young people swayed by the Tzuyu's apology the night before the elections. Tsai is an advocate of Taiwan's independence from China. "Why did Tsai Ing-wen still receive 6.89 million votes given such a low rate?" the association's secretary general, Hung Yaonan was quoted as saying. "It was because many youngsters later replaced the senior groups, with many voting for Tsai after the controversial apology." By Jun Ji-hye Antony Blinken U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit South Korea, Tuesday, to discuss countermeasures to North Korea's latest nuclear test. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that Blinken will meet with Seoul's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam during his two-day visit here. Blinken is also planning to pay a courtesy call on President Park Geun-hye. His visit comes about two weeks after Pyongyang's defiant claim that it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb during its fourth nuclear test, raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula as well as in the international community. "Based on the results of the previous discussions between Seoul and Washington, the two nations will look at the visit of Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken as an opportunity to further strengthen policy coordination in response to the North's nuclear test," a ministry official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. Blinken and South Korean officials are expected to discuss ways of swiftly imposing harsher sanctions on the authoritarian state, while the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) works on a resolution about the sanctions. They are also expected to once again call on China as a veto-holding permanent member of the UNSC to join their efforts. Beijing, traditionally an ally of the North, is largely seen as having held a lukewarm stance on the North's nuclear development, with speculation abounding that China is seeking to water down the U.N.-led sanctions in a familiar pattern following Pyongyang's previous nuclear and long-range missile tests. Ahead of his visit to Seoul, Blinken attended a tripartite meeting with Lim and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki in Tokyo, Saturday, where the three agreed to push for a "strong and comprehensive" response to the North's latest nuclear test, also calling on China to join hands with them. Since the North's Jan. 6 test, South Korea and the U.S. have been working closely on countermeasures together through various channels. President Park and President Barack Obama held a 20-minute phone conversation on Jan. 7, at which the two leaders vowed to impose strong sanctions against the isolated state. Minister Yun also had a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on the same day. On Jan. 10, the U.S. sent a B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam to South Korea in a show of force to the North. The B-52 bomber is capable of destroying North Korea's underground facilities, including its nuclear test sites. The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan also met in Seoul on Jan. 13. In their respective efforts to persuade China to put pressure on North Korea, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy Hwang Joon-kook met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei in Beijing on Jan. 14, while Blinken is planning to visit China on Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will also fly to Beijing on Jan. 27, according to the U.S. State Department. Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye By Jun Ji-hye The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) is closely examining the nation's capability of launching a preemptive strike against North Korean missile launch sites in response to Pyongyang's latest nuclear test, according to DAPA Minister Chang Myoung-jin, Monday. Chang vowed to focus on upgrading the patriot air defense system and developing L-SAM long-range ground-to-air missiles in order to boost the nation's capabilities of countering the North's ballistic missiles. Patriot and L-SAM missiles are core assets of the nation's Kill Chain preemptive strike and Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) systems. "We are looking into not only core weapon systems forming the Kill Chain, but also personnel who will operate the system as well as education and training programs for them," Chang said during an interview with the Yonhap News Agency. "Our goal is to complete them by the target deadline" The Kill Chain, scheduled to be installed by 2023, is a system to carry out a preemptive strike against Pyongyang's nuclear and missile facilities if Seoul is faced with an imminent threat. It is the core of the nation's military strength, along with the KAMD. "The Kill Chain is a literal chain that becomes a perfect system by perfectly linking all parts. To make it perfect, it is surely necessary for one person to comprehensively overhaul the system," he said. Military authorities are reportedly reviewing whether to push for an early implementation of the Kill Chain and KAMD systems following the North's claimed hydrogen bomb test on January 6. Chang said, "That is a matter to be decided at the Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff." The South Korean military is planning to upgrade the Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-2 system to the PAC-3 version and buy additional missiles. The combat-proven PAC-3 missile is a high velocity "hit-to-kill" interceptor that destroys incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, and hostile aircraft by direct, body-to-body impact. The PAC-2 uses a blast-fragmentation warhead that sends debris from an exploded missile into the target. The Agency for Defense Development (ADD) is working on developing L-SAM missiles that is said to be equivalent to the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. Regarding the nation's indigenous fighter jet development project, codenamed KF-X, Chang noted that negotiations with U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin regarding the technology transfer will continue for the next two or three years, adding that if such negotiations are not going well, he will go and handle it himself. He added that the technology to reduce the radar cross section (RCS) will be applied to the KF-X project. Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye Conservative civic activists burn photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to protest Pyongyang's purported test of its first hydrogen bomb during a rally in Seoul, Jan. 7. / Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo South Korea faces a growing call to develop and obtain nuclear weapons for self-defense in the wake of North Korea's latest nuclear test on Jan. 6. Some 54 percent supported recent demands for the country's nuclear armament in a survey conducted by Gallup Korea on 1,005 adults from Jan. 12 to 14. Thirty-eight percent was against such a demand. The poll had a margin of error of 3.1 percent. The result came after a group of ruling Saenuri Party lawmakers urged the government from Jan. 7 to consider becoming a nuclear state despite South Korea's decades-long commitment to forgo its nuclear ambitions. The legislators said Seoul should shift away from its pledge to not seek a nuclear program in line with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). South Korea ratified the NPT in 1975 and has agreed not to develop nuclear weapons since then. "It's time for us to peacefully arm ourselves with nuclear weapons from the perspective of self-defense to fight against North Korea's terror and destruction," said Saenuri Party floor leader Rep. Won Yoo-chul. Rep. Kim Eul-dong, one of the party's Supreme Council members, claimed nuclear weapons are crucial for "the country's own sake." "We can't ensure our future if we rely on the military power of our allies," Kim said. She cited that South Korea, a U.S. ally, is protected by Washington's nuclear umbrella. From left, Reps. Kim Eul-dong, Won Woo-chul and Kim Jung-hoon of the ruling Saenuri Party call for South Korea's nuclear armament during the party's Supreme Council meeting in Yeouido, Seoul, Jan. 7. / Yonhap "I believe scrapping North Korea's nuclear program and denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula can be made possible only if we own tactical nuclear weapons," Kim said. Kim Jung-hoon, the party's chief policymaker, said "Seoul needs to go forward with the proactive strategy to react to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons with its own." Meanwhile, President Park Geun-hye voiced opposition to nuclear armament during a New Year's address on Jan. 13, saying "It would break our commitment to the international community." In a 2015 report, Charles Ferguson, the president of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), claimed that Seoul already has enough plutonium which has been amassed only for commercial purposes to make nuclear bombs. He also warned Seoul may violate the NPT and consider joining the nuclear arms race if it determines that Pyongyang's nuclear threat reaches a level that Washington and Beijing cannot control. "If the U.S. were perceived to not be able to reliably and credibly counter the threats posed by China and North Korea, prudent military planners in Japan and South Korea would want to take steps to have their own nuclear capabilities," Ferguson said. North Korea purportedly tested its first hydrogen bomb on Jan. 6 at the Punggye-ri nuclear site in North Hamgyong Province. If true, it would be Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test following ones in 2006, 2009 and 2013. It also shows that the Kim Jong-un regime may have made huge advances in its nuclear technology while the U.S. and China have failed to press North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions. Politicians want attention Under such circumstance, South Korean analysts turned down speculation that the country may go for nuclear armament in the future. They said the Saenuri Party's demand is aimed at wooing conservative voters ahead of parliamentary elections on April 13, while urging both the U.S. and China to ensure peace on the peninsula. "It's evident that South Korea will pay too much of a price for owning nuclear weapons," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong University. He pointed out that North Korea faced a string of economic sanctions for withdrawing from the NPT, refusing to return to the negotiating table for the dormant six-party talks, and carrying out nuclear tests. "Our nation will be internationally-isolated if we follow North Korea's path. And the damage will be huger for us considering the size of our economy is larger than that of Pyongyang." Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University, agreed. "The ruling party lawmakers are deliberately bringing up issues of nuclear armament to draw a nostalgic reaction from senior citizens as well as their support for the April general election," he said. South Korea pursued nuclear armament until the mid-1970s under military dictator Park Chung-hee, the late father of current President Park Geun-hye. The country signed the NPT after the U.S. threatened to withdraw its security guarantees if Seoul did not give up its plan for nuclear weapons. Shin Yul, a political science professor at Myongji University, said "Politicians are making reckless remarks. They should note that such careless comments can spark international concerns." Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said it remains to be seen whether the U.S. and China will take North Korea's nuclear program seriously. "The politicians' demand is aimed at urging Washington to step up its efforts to deter Pyongyang's military aggression while asking Beijing to play a constructive role to punish the Kim regime for its latest nuclear test," he said. "But I'm not certain whether the lawmakers will succeed in drawing attention from Washington and Beijing because the two world powers know it will be nonsense for Seoul to give up its economy in return for nuclear armament." Park Won-gon said, "I believe the politicians especially want China to exercise leverage on North Korea." Due to concerns over a possible collapse of the Kim regime and th influx of millions of refugees, China is largely seen as being reluctant to exert influence on North Korea and punish it in line with international demands. By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, the annual speech to a joint session of Congress, has emerged as more of a political pep rally than a clear overview of America's standing in the world both domestic and foreign. The address was touted as a "vision speech," but alas the vision appeared blurry, especially in the realm of foreign policy. In a preachy and often pedantic address, the President often followed the path of poignant partisanship as if this was not a policy address but a political campaign speech. Set to the backdrop of the ongoing U.S. presidential campaign, the speech naturally reflected the Democrat/Republican divide but let's face it, the President himself has encouraged much of this political and group balkanization. Nonetheless, the address offered a new level of political "kabuki" where through the shadows of rhetoric and imagery, the American people's genuine frustrations over the economy, global terrorism, domestic security and Washington's political gridlock were overlooked. Interestingly, President Obama's final State of the Union address marked a new record low in TV and cable viewership, according to Nielsen ratings. Thus when the President moved from his self-congratulatory "happy talk" about the American economy and stubbornly defended his controversial Obama Care medical insurance policies, the fog of foreign policy enveloped parts of the discourse. "In today's world, we're threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states," he intoned. "Priority number one is protecting the American people and going after terrorist networks. Both al Qaida and now ISIL pose a direct threat to our people," but then echoed his Republican predecessor by saying, "When you come after Americans, we go after you. It may take time, but we have long memories, and our reach has no limit." He added, "We just need to call them what they are: killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed." The foreign policy segment was very Middle East centric; largely because the world is still facing the disastrous aftermath of the Arab Spring, a policy encouraged by Hillary Clinton's State Department which brought not democracy to many Mid-Eastern autocracies, but chaos which has unleashed sectarianism, terrorism and enduring instability. Look at the list. Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen. The Islamic jihadi genie is out of the bottle. Syria is consumed in conflict with millions of refugees paying the price. Libya is wracked by militias and tribal discord. Yemen, the Administrations long-touted success story, is torn asunder. The plight of Mideast Christians continues. Partly as a result of the administration's nuclear "deal" with Teheran, the Arab states led by Saudi Arabia remain fearfully nervous about American commitment and their political future. Specifically, the Iran deal was touted as a success in Washington's relations with the Islamic Republic. Yet even as Obama was making his address, 10 American U.S. Navy personnel and their ships were being detained in the Persian Gulf by Iran's fanatical Revolutionary Guards. The humiliation of this incident, despite its quick resolution, offered a stark reminder that the Islamic Republic wishes to flex its muscles in the region and confront the U.S. While Obama pushed his Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade initiative with East Asia, the wider context of Far Eastern security was left unanswered; namely Washington's clear and unambiguous commitment to defense in South Korea and Japan. Despite Obama's perennial focus on nuclear non-proliferation, there was not a word about North Korea's recent nuclear test. Here are a few additional non-mentions: Israel nor America's solidarity with recent victims of terrorism in Paris or Istanbul. Obama did not address any clear policy on the strained but vital relationship relations with Russia while sovereign Ukraine was inexplicably called a Russian "client state." What about Nigeria facing Boko Haram terror? Obama gave himself a political pat on the back for opening diplomatic relations with Cuba, one of the entire hemisphere's last dictatorships. Lacking American leadership and the power vacuum it has created is reflected in global chaos. But then, maybe we would rather not talk about it. John J. Metzler is a United Nations correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He is the author of "Divided Dynamism: The Diplomacy of Separated Nations: Germany, Korea, China." By Kang Hyun-kyung ABU DHABI Humaid Alhammadi found a serious error in an Abu Dhabi newspaper article about Korea in 2010, shortly after he returned to the United Arab Emirates following a two-month Korean language course in Seoul. The article was accompanied by a photo of a woman wearing the Japanese traditional garment, kimono. Humaid Alhammadi, founder and president of the Emirati-Korean Friendship Society / Korea Times "It was so wrong," he told The Korea Times at a cafe in the Nation Tower building in the UAE capital. The Emirati man, 34, immediately wrote to the editor to inform him about the inappropriate photo, and added that he was willing to share his expertise on Korea for future articles. Alhammadi, founder and president of the Emirati-Korean Friendship Society based in Abu Dhabi, is a self-taught Korea expert. He first visited Korea in 2002 when he was a mechanical engineering student at Boston University. Korea was some of the Asian countries he visited during the summer break. Over the years, he became even more fascinated with the country as he discovered the unrivaled charm of its culture and the complexity of its modern history. He describes Korea as "a hidden jewel" because of the fascinating aspects of the country that remain relatively unknown to people outside the country. Considered one of the four "Asian Tigers," he said Korea bounced back in only a few years after the Asian Financial Crisis in late 1997. The three other tigers are Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. "There were plenty of seemingly insurmountable political and economic challenges that put Korea to the test when it rose from the ashes of the Korean War to an industrial powerhouse," he said. "But it always returned (to the core of Asia). I think a country like this deserves respect." This photo published in an Abu Dhabi newspaper in early January features Humaid Alhammadi, right, and a Korean official during a visit by the latter to the United Arab Emirates capital. / Korea Times Eager to know more, Alhammadi searched in vain for institutes in Abu Dhabi that taught Korean. But this setback didn't stop him from learning the language. He decided to learn Korean on his own and then came to Korea in 2010 for two months to study it at Yonsei University in Seoul. While honing his Korean language skills, he also read books and articles to keep him informed of current affairs in the country. The more he learned about the country, Alhammadi said, the more he found similarities between Korea and the UAE. "Both cultures are family-centered," he said. "The people of the two countries consider their family when they make decisions. They respect older people. They also treasure the bonds between people. Koreans call it jeong,' but we Emiratis don't have a name for it." Jeong is one of many Korean words for which the exact meaning is difficult to explain to foreigners, partly because there is no corresponding term for it. Alhammadi notes that jeong is not something that could be translated into a foreign language, but it is something people can feel. Because of his expertise on Korea, he is widely quoted by the UAE media when they cover news about the country. At the request of a local television station, he commented about what to expect during Korean President Park Geun-hye's state visit to the UAE March last year and how the Korea-UAE summit would affect bilateral relations. Photos featuring him with Korean delegations appear frequently in local newspapers. Alhammadi considers Korea his second home. "There are two countries in which I feel at home Korea and my home country," he said, sipping Arabic coffee. Korea and the UAE became strategic partners when the latter chose a Korean consortium in 2009 to build a nuclear power plant with four reactors in Barakah on the Persian Gulf coast. Four APR-1400 nuclear reactors are being built and scheduled to start operating between 2017 and 2020. The project was a milestone in Korea-UAE relations. In a memoir released last year, former President Lee Myung-bak disclosed untold stories behind the historic deal. The businessman-turned-president characterized Korea's winning bid as a come-from-behind diplomatic victory. According to him, he was briefed by his aides that the Middle Eastern country chose the winner at the last minute. Lee said he and Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan were able to build strong bonds, which played a critical role in the selection. In the years since, governmental partnerships between the countries have significantly expanded into various areas, including defense and medical services. The countries consider each other "a brother country." According to Alhammadi, however, despite the strong bilateral relations between Korea and the UAE, their peoples remain unfamiliar with each other. The aforementioned inappropriate photo in the Abu Dhabi newspaper article is a clear example of this. Alhammadi, who considers himself a patriot, was willing to share his talents in public speaking and organizing people to help his country achieve its diplomatic goals, including improving understanding and familiarity between Koreans and Emiratis. In 2010, he met a group of like-minded Emiratis to discuss how they could bridge the two cultures. In 2012, after countless meetings and discussions, the Emirati-Korean Friendship Society was launched. Last October, Alhammadi took seven Emirati journalists, mostly from radio stations, to Korea. He said the delegation had two goals to promote Korea as a travel destination and as a medical tourism destination by informing their Emiratis of the advantages of Korean hospitals. The journalists' visit came at a crucial time, when the local tourism industry was still reeling from the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome crisis. The number of tourists had dropped sharply following the outbreak of the viral respiratory illness, causing the tourism industry to suffer. The delegation visited several cultural sites, and interviewed Emirati patients being treated in Korea to find out more about Muslim patients' access to halal food and Arabic language services, two outstanding concerns among UAE patients seeking treatment abroad. The journalists covered the high-profile case of an unnamed Emirati woman who had diabetes and kidney failure. She came to Korea after treatment in many other countries had failed. A Korean medical team successfully treated her by transplanting a third kidney in her body. Because of his extensive experience in bridging the two cultures and his effective communication skills, Alhammadi has become a popular speaker. He has delivered speeches at the annual Korea-Middle East forum hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs three times. He always attends the Korean Culture Week and film festival hosted by the Korean Embassy in Abu Dhabi. The Emirati believes that his promotion of Korea benefits both countries. "Korea is a hub in East Asia, whereas the UAE is a hub in the Middle East," he said. "Korea is dealing with a security headache because of its northern neighbor, and the same is true for the UAE because of the instability in the region." By Maija Rhee Devine What will the Year of the Monkey bring us? The Chinese lunar New Year does not kick in until Feb.8, but a heads-up won't hurt. But before diving in, let me re-cap an old Korean story about three Confucian scholars travelling to Seoul to take the civil service exams. When asked about their odds for the outcome of the exam, an ancient fortune teller merely held up one finger in answer. Each scholar believing that signified he would be the chosen one to pass the all-important exam, the trio happily took off. Having watched this, the sage's assistant asked, "Master, what's the meaning of the one finger? Does it mean only one of them will pass the exams?" "That is correct," he replied. "What happens if two of them succeed?" "Then, the finger means only one of them will fail the exams." "What if all three of them pass?" "That means not one of them will fail." In the absence of a sage within a driving distance to consult on the fortunes for 2016, I turned to my current master: the Internet. It lifted two fingers. One "foruhk op" (oppression) and the other "choong dol" (conflict). Harsh. However, the Internet "philosopher," Wu Hyun, left a crumb of hope. He said, "If South Koreans can mobilize the traits of the monkey smarts and agility they'll manage to have a good year." He also had two words for North Korea, even without my asking: "oppression" from Kim Jong-un's continuing need to crunch his people into submission and "conflict" from opposition forces, both domestic and international. He added the "roots" of North Korea "can get shaken." Unfortunately, no Internet sage paid attention to the fortunes of female babies waiting to be born in Korea. A year ago, I expressed my concern over the tragic ends of the Horse-Year girl fetuses (Thoughts of the Times, 2/1/15, "Girls Born in a Sheep Year"). I re-checked the sex-ratio-at-birth chart produced by Korean National Statistical Office released in 2007 to see how the babies fared in the post-Korean-War Monkey Years (1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, and 2004). All of them showed the lowest numbers of aborted female fetuses for each of the 12 years in the zodiac cycle. In contrast, the Horse Years had the highest rate every 12 years, with the 1990-1994 as the peak period with 30,000 females aborted in 1994 alone, as a result of boy preference. This phenomenon originates from a belief about Horse Year girl babies presumably carrying masculine trait, unwanted by Korean parents with patriarchal values. Since the late 1990s, for various reasons, including the dire shortage of brides and the influence of the Christian anti-abortion perspective, South Koreans began to slash the number of sex-selective abortions of females. For this, South Korea is being held up as a model for China and India to follow. Korea moved from the ratio of 113 boys to 100 girls born in 1990 (CIA World Factbook, 2013), the highest jump from pre-Korean War rate of 98:100, to 107:100 in 2013. This still translated to about 9,000 abortions of female fetuses as recently as 2013 and in the 2014 Horse Year, that number might have been overtaken. Still, South Korea is close to realizing 104:100 ratio, generally considered ideal for a population. If the girl babies waiting to join the world see a sage holding up one finger (between Feb. 8, 2016 and Jan. 28, 2017), they may go ahead and smile. Maija Rhee Devine authored an autobiographical novel about Korea "The Voices of Heaven." Reach her at maijadevine@gmail.com. By Doug Bandow The U.S. is allied with every major industrialized power on the planet. America's friends in Asia and Europe generally are prosperous and populous. Yet decades after the conflicts which led to Washington's security guarantees for them, the allied gaggle remains a bunch of "losers," to paraphrase Donald Trump. North Korea recently staged its fourth nuclear test. Naturally, South Korea and Japan reacted in horror. But it was America which acted. The U.S. sent a Guam-based B-52 wandering across South Korean skies. "This was a demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland," opined Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr., head of Pacific Command. Unfortunately, the message might not work as intended. CNN's Will Ripley reported from Pyongyang that "A lot of North Korean military commanders find U.S. bombers especially threatening, given the destruction here in Pyongyang during the Korean War, when much of the city was flattened." Which sounds like giving the North another justification for building nuclear weapons. Worse, though, reported Reuters: "The United States and its ally South Korea are in talks toward sending further strategic U.S assets to the Korean peninsula." Weapons being considered include an aircraft carrier, B-2 bombers, F-22 stealth fighters, and submarines. A better response would be for Seoul to announce a major military build-up. The Republic of Korea should boost its military outlays which accounted for a paltry 2.4 percent of GDP in 2014, about one-tenth the estimated burden borne by the North. The ROK also should expand its armed forces, from about 655,000 personnel today to a number much closer to the DPRK's 1.2 million. Doing so obviously would be a burden. But how much do South Koreans believe their nation to be worth? If the economic wreck to its north can create such a threatening military, why cannot the ROK, which enjoys a roughly 40-1 economic and 2-1 population advantage, meet the challenge? South Korea is not alone. Japan has been another long-term defense welfare client of the U.S. During the Cold War Tokyo capped its military outlays at about one percent of GDP, even when Washington was spending four or five times as much in order to defend Japan, among others. Only under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has Japan begun to do more, mostly because his government is no longer convinced that the U.S. will forever subsidize Japan's defense. Alas, the Europeans have not yet come to that conclusion. NATO sets a two percent of GDP standard for military outlays, yet the 2015 European member average was just 1.5 percent. Only four European states hit two percent. Among the laggards: Latvia and Lithuania (complaining loudly about the "Russian threat") and Turkey (creating its own "Russian threat" by shooting down a Russian plane in Syria). Moscow's aggressive behavior against Georgia and especially Ukraine set off all sorts of angst throughout Western and horror throughout Eastern Europe. Yet the standard presumption is that America should do more. U.S. officials and NATO leaders made their usual calls for members to hike military outlays, but most European states did what they usually do, continued to cut spending. Under normal circumstances European behavior would be mystifying. The European Union demonstrates the continent's ability to overcome historic national divisions and collaborate for a common purpose. Collectively the Europeans enjoy around an 8-1 economic and 3-1 population advantage over Moscow. Even after its recent revival, Russia's military today is a poor replica of that during the Soviet era. Yet when Moscow acts against non-NATO members Europe's eyes turn to Washington for military relief. So, too, when the British and French wanted to wage a war to overthrow Libya's Moammar Kaddafi. Instead of acting in their presumed interests, they pushed for U.S. involvement. Washington's allies generally are a dependent lot. Benefiting from sizeable and capable populations and enjoying large and advanced economies, they nevertheless can't be bothered to invest heavily in their own defense. When troubles arise U.S. friends expect the American cavalry, in the form of a B-52 in Korea this time, to arrive. As a result, the U.S. is expected to defend much of the globe. And the bulk of Washington's over-size military outlays are to project power for the benefit of its ne'er-do-well allies. In the years ahead Washington should take a page from the Trump play-book and choose as allies a few "winners," nations whose friendship actually makes America more secure. The U.S. should stop treating national security as a form of welfare for other states. Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He is the author of "Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire." Iran has opened a new chapter in its ties with the world after international sanctions were lifted as a result of its compliance to a nuclear deal. The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Teheran since 2006 for its nuclear program. The U.S. sanctions have been in place since 1979 after theocratic Islam took over. After years of crippling sanctions, economic growth has been weak and the country of 80 million is desperate to develop its economy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the lifting of sanctions "a turning point" for his country's prosperity. A flurry of economic activity is expected as nearly $100 billion in Iranian assets is being unlocked worldwide and Iran is expected to increase its oil exports. The sanctions have hampered the active business partnership, particularly in construction, between Korea and Iran. The last time a Korean builder landed a major construction deal in Iran was in 2009, when GS E&C won a $1.4 billion project to build a gas processing plant facility in South Pars, the world's largest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar. Before the sanctions, Iran had been one of Korean construction firms' biggest clients. Post-sanctions Iran means the resurgence of one of the biggest and most promising markets in the Middle East. Korea-Iran economic cooperation is expected to gain pace, with Korean businesses hopeful about exploring opportunities in an Iranian market hungry for cars, planes and other goods. Iran is looking for foreign companies to help modernize the country's backward infrastructure after years of suffering from lack of investment and technology. Companies in China, India and Europe are already reportedly showing interest in Iran's construction boom, with opportunities for new railways, airports, harbors and other facilities. Korea should look to exploit fully the potential for boosting economic cooperation with Iran in a wide range of areas. Korean companies in petrochemicals, automobiles, shipbuilding and construction are particularly expected to benefit. President Rouhani is seeking to attract at least $30 billion in foreign direct investment over the next five years. The Korean government and corporations need to prepare strategies to respond to opportunities in Iran, which holds the world's fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves and the world's second-largest natural gas reserves. Time to pay more attention to abuse cases A string of horrendous incidents involving children is causing shock waves. Police detained a married couple in their 30s last week over the alleged death by neglect of their son, 7, in 2012. The father allegedly cut up the body and stored the parts in a refrigerator at home. According to police, the father told investigators that his son tripped and fell unconscious while being dragged into a bathroom. The couple did not take their son to hospital and neglected him for a month before he died in November 2012 at his home in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. The father never reported the death to police and kept the body parts in the freezer for nearly four years. The couple had no history of mental illness, and it is shocking indeed for these seemingly normal biological parents to commit such a horrible crime. The court issued an arrest warrant for the mother, who failed to report the death. She faces charges of child abuse. The father faces charges of manslaughter and mutilating a corpse. Yet many questions remain unanswered. First and foremost, when the child died is in doubt. The father said his son died in November 2012, but the boy stopped going to classes just one month after entering an elementary school as a first grader in March that year. This raises the possibility that the son may have died earlier than the parents claim. It also remains mysterious why the father dismembered his son's body. It is even more outrageous that the father took the body parts with him when he and his family moved in 2013. The revelation of this incident is the result of a nationwide investigation into all schoolchildren absent from school for more than a week, following another high-profile child abuse case in Incheon last month. In that case, a father was arrested for confining and abusing his daughter, 11, at home for more than two years, rarely giving her anything to eat. If this incident had not been uncovered, the boy's death might have remained hidden. All this shows that our society is still in a pitiful state of not protecting our children enough. The boy's school allegedly sent letters to his home twice in May 2012, but did not get any reply. The following month, teachers visited the home, but to no avail, and little has been done since then. The education authorities did nothing, either, although the abused girl in Incheon was absent from school for a long time. Lessons from these incidents are evident: Make it obligatory for schools to report to police or child care agencies if children are absent without clear reason and parents are not contacted. The Ministry of Education said about 220 other children across the nation had been missing from school for unknown reasons, which raises concerns that there might be many more similar child abuse cases. The government should map out a comprehensive package of measures aimed at preventing child abuse. But even more important is for all of us to pay more attention to what is happening around us. By Andrew Salmon Here we go again: Another "North Korean nuclear crisis" (snore). Having been reporting these since the first Nork nuke test in 2006, a drearily predictable pattern soon becomes apparent. First, Pyongyang makes a big bang. Then, the pattern rolls into action. Global news headlines blare about "rising tensions." The "international community" feverishly consults, wags its finger and storms into the U.N. Security Council in a huff. Tables are thumped. More "targeted sanctions" are announced. Pundits warn of "no good options," before asking, "Why is Beijing not leaning on Pyongyang?" That last question deserves a response. After all, 21st century China is a civilized nation, a place we all do business with. A member of the UNSC, the G20 and the WTO, China is plugged deeply into global diplomacy and economics. It benefits from a stable trade/business environment. So why does Beijing put up with Pyongyang's risky shenanigans? Let's remove our rose-tinted spectacles. China has two key reasons to keep North Korea alive and kicking. It just does not necessarily make them public preferring instead, to either place the blame on outside forces, or to pretend that it possesses no leverage. Both reasons are geostrategic. One is historical; one is contemporary. First, let's examine history. For centuries, the barbarian-infested region to the northeast of the Middle Kingdom was fraught with peril. For evidence, look at the start point of the Great Wall of China, the world's mightiest manmade fortification: It lies just outside the city of Dandong, across the Yalu River from North Korea's Sinuiju. The last invaders to conquer China were the Manchus (from you guessed it! Manchuria), the founders of the Qing Dynasty. South of Manchuria, Korea was the land bridge enabling the "devils across the East Sea" to punch into China. Hideyoshi's samurai stormed up the peninsula in the 1590s; the first Sino- Japanese War was fought over Korea; and Hirohito's legions used Korea as the jumping-off point for their 1931 seizure of Manchuria and their devastating 1937 invasion of China. In late 1950, with Stalin having abandoned Kim Il-sung and U.N. forces advancing toward the Sino-Korea border, Mao unleashed his "human wave." Beijing's intervention rescued Kim Il-sung and underwrote the existence of the North Korean state. This is often overlooked. In the days before China became the "workshop of the world," it was in Korea that the erstwhile "sick man of Asia," became the "waking dragon." With Manchuria now part of China proper, North Korea provides China with a convenient buffer state against South Korea and Japan. The above is history. But isn't 21st century China an economic, rather than a military superpower these days? And doesn't it do more trade with South than North Korea? Yes. But today's China is still engaged in strategic competition across Asia. In Northeast Asia, South Korea and Japan are staunch US allies, replete with bases and resident GIs, while Taiwan remains a "renegade province." In Southeast Asia, Beijing's maneuvers in the South China Sea are pushing states such as Vietnam and the Philippines closer toward the orbit of U.S. interests. So across East Asia, Beijing boasts few allies. The one it does have is a fiery rogue, one of the few nations that routinely defies Washington. Regardless of Beijing's public statements, there is obviously a Chinese constituency that is quietly happy to see its feisty ally rattling its saber. These historical and current geostrategic imperatives trump any collateral damage that support for Pyongyang does to Beijing's international image or diplomatic profile. More critically, China has suffered no economic fallout from supporting North Korea. Some argue that China dares not apply pressure for fear of sparking a Pyongyang regime implosion. Nonsense. China is North Korea's largest aid donor and trading partner. It is heavily invested in North Korean natural resources, infrastructure and trade. This grants it multiple levers. Beijing could calibrate leverage enough to cause Pyongyang discomfort as it did in 2003, halting fuel shipments to prod North Korea toward the six-party talks. Since then, Beijing has declined to apply pressure. International diplomats should mull this, and also accept that without China fully on board, international sanctions face massive leakage. All Japanese, South Korean, U.S. and Western European strategies to halt North Korea's strategic arms programs have failed. Pyongyang is determined to possess nuclear warheads and delivery devices. Endless wishful thinking about "regime collapse" is nixed by China's ongoing support. China is playing a longer-term game, and has a wider focus on North Korea, than the international community, which narrowly concentrates on missiles and fissile materials. If we want change in North Korea, it is time for a big rethink a rethink that frankly and realistically assesses China's priorities and position. Andrew Salmon is a Seoul-based reporter and author. Reach him at andrewcsalmon@yahoo.co.uk. South Korean online commerce giant 11st Street said Monday it has clinched an agreement with an affiliate of Chinese tech giant Xiaomi Inc. to speed up sales of its smartphone gadgets in the country, reflecting the rising popularity of China-made electronics here. Under the memorandum of understanding with ZMI Communication Technology, the online shopping mall will distribute smartphone-related products including battery packs and light-emitting diode devices, and roll out joint marketing projects. ZMI Communication Technology produces accessories for smartphones and other electronics goods. The South Korean commerce giant already released a handful of ZMI products in the country in April last year when it sold 3,000 battery packs. In December, 11st Street also sold 10,000 units of ZMI gadgets in three days. While Xiaomi also clinched a deal with 11st Street in November last year, the Chinese tech giant has not yet started official sales of its smartphones in South Korea through local mobile carriers. Chinese smartphones, including those made by Xiaomi, however, have been gaining popularity in the South Korean market on the back of an increase in consumers seeking budget options. South Korea's No. 3 mobile carrier LG Uplus Corp. said last week its sales of the Huawei Y6 smartphone reached 20,000 units. The sales came around a month after the mobile carrier released the smartphone with a price tag of 154,000 won (US$126). (Yonhap) Yoo Kyung-lim, left, chief of KT's future business division, poses with Aso Farm Land Chairman Kazuyuki Kitagawa after signing a memorandum of understanding to establish a smart-farming complex in Korea. The signing was held at Aso Farm Land, near Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, Monday. / Courtesy of KT By Kim Yoo-chul KT said Monday that it has teamed up with ASO Farm Land of Japan to jointly develop a "smart farming theme park." The Bundang-based KT said it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), which is non-binding, with the Japanese agricultural theme park operator for the project. KT plans to implement its latest smart farming systems, such as tools for the operation of farmland. The Japanese company will provide KT with its management know-how in agricultural theme parks, management manuals, technology and educational support. Aso Farm Land was opened in 1995 with the theme of "people, nature and vitality." It is a full-scale health facility accredited by ministries, agencies and related institutions. It is the biggest agricultural theme park in the world. Financial terms of the details were unknown as the two firms sealed a non-disclosure agreement, KT said. The smart farming theme park, which will be built in Korea, will have accommodation for tourists, experience zones and a small-sized housing complex. KT said those who hope to live within the complex will be eligible to be hired as staff members to work at the experience zones or to operate the smart faming projects. "When you want to grow crops for commercial use in a smart farming site in the complex, then you can use KT-owned technology. You don't have to be experienced to operate smart faming projects," company spokesman Kim Young-wan said. Kim said the two companies will discuss building the experience zones with an eye toward bringing more tourists to the park and helping crop developers find buyers for the sale of agricultural products grown there. "KT has been in talks with a leading local distribution channel to promote the sale of agricultural products grown in the park," said the spokesman, adding that the collaboration was also part of the firm's ongoing initiatives for the "creative economy," which President Park still believes is the "right way" to lessen the disparity between big corporations and small enterprises. The spokesman said the park is looking at more partnerships with overseas and local companies to expand its agricultural theme park-related businesses with smart farming techniques. In a separate statement to The Korea Times, KT said it will try to cut its heavy dependence on the telecom business by reaching out to non-telecom sectors with the company expanding its presence in overseas projects. The statement said the telecom generated 752 billion won in sales outside the Korean Peninsula in 2015, up 62.2 percent from a previous year. "With smart farming projects, KT is underway to proceed to next-generation media businesses such as K-live hologram and intelligent transportation system and the build-up of Internet Data Centers and Information Security Control Centers," the spokesman said. KT CEO and Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu will fly to Barcelona, Spain, to participate in this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) exhibition. Hwang will hold a press conference for Korean reporters and respond to questions about the company's business diversification plans. By Lee Min-hyung Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi's sister company Zmi has tapped into the Korean market by partnering with local online retail site 11st.co.kr. The online auction and retail site said Monday that it signed a deal with Zmi, offering exclusive retail channels for the Chinese company. This came months after the retail giant signed a memorandum of understanding with Xiaomi last November. Xiaomi and Zmi have been at the forefront of the "Made in China" sensation here, selling 3,000 batteries in April. The Xiaomi subsidiary also held a special promotion event for its batteries and fans last month, and more than 10,000 have been sold in three days through the retail site. An 11st official attributed its success to its price competitiveness. "The Xiaomi and Zmi products are extremely cost effective," said the official. "Their performance does not lag behind that of its local rivals, but the price is much lower than them." In particular, Xiaomi's weighing machine, Mi Scale, gained huge popularity last year for its cost-effective features including its connectivity with other Xiaomi products such as Mi Band, a smart band which allows users to check their body condition. "The latest deal led us to become a frontrunner in selling Chinese IT products," said Lee Chi-hun, digital business department chief for the retail site, in a statement. He added the company will keep helping Xiaomi affiliates and partnering companies to penetrate into the Korean market. Zmi is best known for producing Xiaomi's portable battery packs. The latest deal will allow 11st to sell Zmi's light-emitting diode (LED) lamps and electric fans and its own battery packs. The retail giant added it will also introduce Zmi's new products including multi-tabs and cables through its site. "11st has established a strong foothold in the nation's retail channel, often dubbed as a representative of Korea's e-commerce market," said Wenyuan Huang, co-founder of Zmi. "We are pleased to establish an official retail channel through which Korean customers can buy our products." Meanwhile, local smartphone makers have been strengthening their budget phone lineups in their bid to compete with Chinese super-cheap smartphones. In particular, the Chinese telecom giant's latest budget phone, Y6, has sold more than 20,000 units in less than a month after launching here. Last week, LG Electronics unveiled its new budget smartphone K10 with a price tag of 275,000 won. Celebrities are used to being under hot lights on stage and in front of cameras. But what happens when their loved ones get a turn in the spotlight? In celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year, KBS 2TV is airing a special variety show titled National Idol Distant Relatives Singing Contest. Representatives for the program revealed on Jan. 13 a lineup of stars who will bring a close friend or family member on TV to showcase their talents. AOA's Chanmi and her beautician mother, who fans may already be familiar with due to their appearance together on Great Inheritance, are included in the line up along with M.I.B's Kangnam and his three aunts who have popped up on screen during his time on I Live Alone. BTS member Rap Monster will bring a good friend, SONAMOO's Euijin will appear with her parents, and BTOB's Eunkwang has gotten his younger brother to attend the competetion. The variety show special began on Jan. 17 with judges will be Kim Young Chul, Song Eun Yi, and Kim Sook. The second half is scheduled for Jan. 23, with Kim Young Chul, Eun Ji Won, Kim Jong Min, Super Junior's Leeteuk, Park Sung Kwang, and Seol Oon Do taking over judging duties. Lunar New Year is one of the biggest holidays in South Korea and is typically celebrated as a three-day family holiday where many people return to their hometowns to visit their parents and relatives. In recent years, many Korean networks have aired family-centered special programming in celebration of the holiday. Big Bang singer and solo artist Taeyang (Dong Youngbae) now has more than 4 million Instagram followers. To put the number into perspective, Taeyang has more Instagram followers than the total population of countries like Panama or Georgia, or the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. The idol was humbled with this recent milestone, posting a screenshot of his 4 million followers count as well as a message of "welcomes you! #4m." A photo posted by TAEYANG (@__youngbae__) on Jan 13, 2016 at 9:41am PST Fans gave an outpouring of congratulations at Taeyang's social media achievement, saying: "Happy 4 million followers," "Congratulations oppa. Proud of you," and "Support u forever!" Taeyang is the second-most followed Big Bang member out of the four which have active accounts on the popular image-sharing platform. Taeyang is ahead of T.O.P and Seungri, who have 3.7 million and 3.5 million followers, respectively, but still far from catching up to the boy group's leader G-Dragon who boasts of 7.5 million followers. Another fun fact is that out of the four Big Bang members on Instagram, Taeyang is only the third-most active with 734 posts compared to the T.O.P's 914 posts and G-Dragon's 1,236 posts. Seungri is the least active on Instagram with only 646 posts to-date. Big Bang's fifth member Daesung has not created his personal official Instagram account. --- Mickey is a writer and digital content creator based in Manila. He is a co-founder of ZAVI App and editor of the small business blog IndieMickey. He has also been bitten by the K-Pop fashion bug - follow him on Instagram @mickjami. A string of events celebrating Hallyu wave, or the spread of Korean pop culture internationally, will be organized in Europe until February 13, reports Yonhap. For the next four weeks, university students will be hosting cultural events in Madrid and Barelona in Spain, and in Lisbon in Portugal that showcase K-pop performances, as well as traditional Korean games, music and the martial art taekwondo. To complete the Hallyu experience, organizers will also be putting up booths that serve spicy Korean food and there will be people wearing Korean traditional attire. "We have prepared the Hallyu promotion events to be suitable to each country's characteristics," an official from Chonbuk National University who is privy to the event preparations reportedly said. "The cultural events will surely increase the creativity of the students and their global capabilities." The official further explained that the European Hallyu events is the third in an international series, with the first held in Atlanta in the United States and the second in Baguio in the Philippines. Hallyu events are popping up across the globe. In November 2015, there was also a K-pop festival in India held in the city of New Delhi. And in October 2015, China reportedly held its first-ever K-Culture Festival in the city of Chengdu. --- Mickey is a writer and digital content creator based in Manila. He is a co-founder of ZAVI App and editor of the small business blog IndieMickey. He has also been bitten by the K-Pop fashion bug - follow him on Instagram @mickjami. Suki Waterhouse may still be mad at her ex Bradley Cooper for possibly cheating on her. But the model-turned-actress had an excellent opportunity on "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" to let her anger out through all the violence. One point for Suki Waterhouse! According to Collider, Suki Waterhouse revealed that all her favorite scenes of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" had some violence in it. She said, "I enjoy all of the fighting stuff the most actually because it's the longest takes. You're smashing into each other, we've got bruises everywhere, you don't really know if you're gonna step on someone's leg or arm. You kind of accidentally spike people." Sounds like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" gave her plenty of time to blow out any residual anger towards Bradley Cooper. But according to her Instagram and other social media accounts, Suki Waterhouse has no problem being single. She is more than happy to be around boys, her bestie Cara Delevingne and her girlfriend Annie Clark aka St. Vincent! If the 23-year-old model was lucky, she might have been invited to join Cara Delevingne and her girlfriend on some threesome action! According to Daily Mail, "Cara Delevingne may have been holidaying with her parents and her girlfriend, but Suki Waterhouse appeared to have linked up with the tight-knit group on Tuesday. Playing third wheel to St. Vincent and supermodel Cara, 23-year-old Suki arrived on the Barbados beach with the group by boat." Also according to Suki's Instagram, her first few days of 2016 has been filled with boys, sunshine and beach. Looks like Cara Delevingne and Annie Clark are doing their best to keep their single friend busy! Suki Waterhouse was in New York towards the end of 2015, but she definitely wasn't looking for trouble with her ex boyfriend Bradley Cooper. Seeing how he left Suki Waterhouse for another model, he may be the last person that she wants to see in New York. Instead, the young model has been filling her Instagram with happiest moments of her singledom. Whatever works to keep oneself afloat! The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary Read more Conspiracy of the Catholic Church in the North By Charles S. Perera In the wake of the Government Forces entering in to the District of Kilinochchi controlled by the armies of the demoniac Prabhakaran, Bishop Duleep Chikera has woken up to call for a Peace Zone in the North. In the meantime the Catholic Church is trying to make the best out of a bad situation to permanently implant the influence of the Catholic Church in the North after the terrorists are eliminated by the Government Forces. Therefore the intervention of Duleep Chikera calling for peace zones now could be seen as an act in support of the agenda of the Catholic Church in the north.. The Catholic Church is pleading for the cause of the Tamil civilians caught in the conflict to show themselves as the saviours, so they could herd them into their camp as the children of the God saved by their intervention. In fact what they are doing is to see that the north remains their Zone of influence once the terrorism is eliminated and peace and calm settled down. From far away Germany , Professor Emmanuel, hastens to echo the voice of the Catholic Church in the north Sri Lanka, calling, pleading and blaming all at the same time, to be heard by the International Community entreating its intervention. The Catholics seem to spring from every where, to plead the cause of the Civilians, who they had so far left to suffer under the ruthless terrorists- who had been keeping them under their grip on the pretention of being their protectors, the only representatives of the Tamil population of Sri Lanka. The majority of the people of the North are Hindus, but it is unfortunate that only white cassocks of the Catholic priests are seen in the images sent for public consumption by the media. The role of the Hindu priests is to remain in the temples, to perform rituals and invoke the blessings of the Hindu deities. They do not venture out to help the believers and see to their welfare. Hence the Catholic priests have become the cocks in the pen, to manage the civilian population in the north according to their guise. There are lot of Tamil writers in the websites devoted to the Tamil cause, but none of them had found it necessary to get involved in forming welfare groups ( without being supporters of the terrorists), to help their Hindu compatriots without leaving the field open to the Catholic priests. INGOs who have access to the civilian population may also be willing partners of the Catholic Church. The pandering by these people, the Catholic Clergy and the Christians will distance the Tamil civilian population from their own religion and culture which would be an obstacle to the unity of the Communities after terrorism. The Tamil middle class, the Tamil intelligentsia, and the rich Tamils in Sri Lanka including Anandasangaree are more interested in political independence, and devolution of power- under a Federal Constitution, while the poor Tamil citizens are being herded either by the terrorists, to make cannon fodder of their children while the old, and the rest are made to suffer under a fascist dictator, or by the Catholic Church to take away their cultural identity, and replace their inherited gods by a foreign god. It is time that the Tamil Diaspora opens their eyes to this disaster that has befallen the ordinary masses in the North-their kith and kin, the poorer Tamil citizens. While they send their hard earned money to enrich the coffers of a group of terrorists, to create a homeland for the Tamils of the diaspora , their poorer compatriots are left at the mercy of terrorists, and their inherited culture is being pawned to gain a paradise after death, offered by the Catholic Church. We appeal to the Tamil diaspora to at least now forget the past, and instead of continuing to sow seeds of hatred, join with the Tamil, Sinhala, and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka to make the common motherland a happy place for all to live together. It is very heartening to see that many Tamil writers come forward to give a true picture of communal relations in the past. In this respect please see the following articles that appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian website: 1: Let my people go in Peace by Dr.Noel Nadesan (30.8.2008) 2: Open the gates of hell and let my people go by Selva Gnanam (4.9.2008), and 3: Tamil Racism is older than 1956 by Thomas John Pulle (4.9.2008) It is in this background, that Professor Emmanuel pontificates (TamilNet-4.9.2008) from far away Germany to speak of an impending human crisis of a first magnitude. He paints a picture of utter desolation caused by the government forces, and speaks of the district overcrowded with internally displaced people from Vanni seeking protection from the atrocities of the Sri Lanka Forces. Prof. Emmanuel seems to say that the IDPs are flocking into Kilinochchi running away from the Armed Forces seeking protection from the terrorists. He adds with a flourish that "Sri Lanka government has forfeited Tamils as its citizens. Its attitude and actions are that of an invading country in an enemy's territory." It is strange Prof.Emmanuel echos the sentiments of M.K.Narayanan, in saying that Sri Lanka has forfeited Tamils as its citizen. The statement is quite false, despite the attempts of the Catholic Church to distance the Tamil citizens from the government of Sri Lanka. Quite contrary to Sarah Palin's assertion that it is the God that had made the American Armies go to Iraq, the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka have been sent by the Government to eliminate terrorism, and with clear instructions that in doing so they should avoid putting into danger the lives of the Civilian population. That is one reason the government says, why the progress of the government Forces towards entering Kilinochchi to oust the terrorists is slow. Even though there are complaints of the dangers caused to the Civil Population in the conflict zone in the North, even the TamilNet the voice of the terrorists has not pointed out any major disaster to human life because of the bombardments, and army artillery fire by the Government Forces. Prof. Emmanuel who is himself not informed of the correct situation, writes an article which is meant to poison the minds of the uninformed Tamil diaspora against the Sinhala Community, and draw the attention of the International Community to his imagined "human crisis of a first magnitude.". He says that in a couple of months when the war is over the Tamil demand for basic human rights in Sri Lanka will be silenced for ever. It would be the contrary as there are already lot of changes taking place some initiated by the government, and others with the changing of attitudes of the people , with the activities commenced by well meaning associations and persons to change things from what they had been. The Sinhala people will not hinder the government from taking every action possible to build an environment of peace and reconciliation where the three communities will get together to construct a new future for their children and generations to come. The north is marked by the absence of Buddhist Viharas, therefore it is essential that the north as in the south should have Buddhist Viahras with Monks and Nuns, in their yellow robes, without leaving the space in the north free for the Catholic Church to dominate the scene, to hinder the progressive development of communal relationship of the Hindu Tamils, Sinhala Buddhists, Islamic Muslims, and the Christians. Ethnic Problem was the making of the British Colonial Rulers, and the Tamil Politicians. By Charles.S.Perera A.J.N.Selladurai's article, " Devolution of power is all that is required", which appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian on 6 August,2008, need no reply as it is only a reflection of his mental hatred and bias against the Sinhala Buddhists majority. But Sinhala being accused for all ills in Sri Lanka, it would be interesting to examine why the Sinhala, because they are the majority is blamed for what they were not responsible. Any country has a majority, in France there is a French majority, in England there is an English majority and so forth. In France they speak French and in England they speak English but that causes no problems, and it is not considered dividing a country according to an ethnic line. The difference in Sri Lank arose due to the fact that it had been a Colony of many foreign Nations. The Sinhala had always been the majority in Sri Lanka, and the Sinhala had always been Buddhists, after the coming of Venerable Mahinda, until Sri Lanka was first conquered and colonised by the Portuguese in the 16 Century, then the Dutch, in the 17 century, and last of all the British in the 19th Century. Due to Sri Lankas geographical situation , there had been incursions in to Sri Lanka from time immemorial by the Cholas, Pandavas, Pallavas and Kalingas. A South Indian invader established him self in Anuradhapura and ruled for a long time. He was disposed of by King Dutugamunu. Subsequent intrusions were repelled by Valagambahu. Thereafter, it was King Vijayabahu who chased away later invaders from India, and brought the whole Island under his rule establishing Polonnaruwa as the Capital. All that is history. You may accept it as history or reject it. It is immaterial. It is best leave history in the past without making it a barrier for progress now. There had been Tamil invaders, and Tamil settlers who came along with them. However, the Tamils were never the majority in Sri Lanka. The Sinhala had been the majority all the time. The minority settlers never even challenged the Sinhala majority, and lived in peace with each other quite unconcerned who is the majority, and who is the minority. The British rule was not a happy period for Sri Lanka. They created the ethnic difference, by placing the minority Tamils, and the people from Moor Communities in dominant official positions over the Sinhala. They did that because they feared an uprising by the majority Sinhala against the Colonial Rulers, and secondly they could not bring down large numbers of their own citizens as soldiers, and officers, and therefore made use of the minorities, and the Moors for the purpose. The British colonialists prepared themselves for a possible uprising against them by all communities lead by the Sinhala majority, by taking the minority ethnic groups into their confidence offering them official positions. Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike, was preparing to re-establish pre-colonial situation of Sinhala majority living in peace with their Tamil and Muslim compatriots as a nation. removing the ethnic, religious, and the class differences created by the Colonialists. It was in this effort, that interested parties accentuated the ethnic difference. The Tamil Politicians, like Ponnambalam, Chelvanayagam ,Sundaralingam, developed a certain Tamil supremacism, which exploded into Tamil racism against the Sinhala. This Tamil supremacism manifested in their claim of equal rights for the Tamils. That was the beginning of the ethnic problem. It is easy to accuse the Sinhala of being supremacists as they are the majority, but they were neither supremacists, nor racists. The Sinhala only as the official language claimed by SWRD Bandaranaike was not an election gimmick. It was his aim to re-establish an independent Sri Lankan Nation, by giving back to the Sinhala people, who were humiliated neglected, and stripped of their rights, that which had been taken away from them. The intention of introducing Sinhala Only was never to " hit" the Tamils as Mr.Selladurai says. It was interpreted that way by the ambitious Tamil politicians, who dreamt of separation, contrary to the unity that the Sinhala wanted. SWRDBandaranayake may be seen as a nationalist by those who do not try to understand to what extent our country had been damaged by the Colonial Rulers, by dividing its people, robbing its treasures, forcing a foreign culture, a foreign religion, and bringing coolies from India to work in the plantations. The Colonialists were bent on destroying the culture and pride of the indigenous people, turning them into a slavish people under the command of their Colonial masters. D.S.Senanayake and the rest of the National leaders who fought for independence, were in a state of mental bondage to the Colonial Rulers, and did not break away from the culture and the political system they inherited. SWRD Bandaranayake observing this lethargic state into which they had fallen, wanted to make the newly won Independence meaningful, and broke away from the UNP. SWRD Bandaranaike gave back to the people a national pride, a pride of being on their own, independent from Colonialism, and their culture. SWRD Bandaranaike did not pave the way for the ethnic divide. It was the British colonialists who laid the foundation of the ethnic divide. It was then fortified and put on a pedestal by the Tamil politicians who had other agendas. The Dry Zone of Sri Lanka was once the granary of Sri Lanka. Jaffna had good schools. They had access to South. If the Tamil Politicians had, instead of seeking a political break away, worked to develop the North and the Dry Zone, things would have been different. The successive governments restricted development to certain areas. In the South too , areas beyond Galle, such as Tangalla, Matara, Hambantota remain neglected. It is only now that the Present President has moved to develop the South of the South. Devolution of Political power is not the panacea that will solve all problems. There should be a change of attitudes. The Sinhala Buddhists do not claim superiority over the Tamils and the Muslims. The Sinhala people want to live with other communities sharing the common motherland and its riches, without interfering into each others lives. What would end the ethnic wide is, not the devolution of power, but the sincere, and genuine acceptance of being a part of a Nation, without having any prejudice against each other's ethnic difference. The Sinhala people live in the South along with the Tamils and Muslims. The Imbalance of development was not a measure taken purposely to harm the Tamil or the Muslim people. The successive governments of Sri Lanka had neglected planned development projects, due to various reasons . The whole country, is affected by such neglect. It should not be hoisted to perpetuate an anti Sinhala-Tamil sentiment. In China there are 56 different ethnics, and they live harmoniously, despite foreign interferes to discredit China, creating dissension within. The Tamils should stop untiringly throwing insults at the Sinhala, siting "Mahavamsa mythology" and Mahavamsa mindset. One should think of the Soldiers dying in numbers, to free Sri Lanka of terrorism, and bring peace to Sri Lanka for the good of the Sinhala, the Tamils and the Muslims. They are mostly Sinhala and they are not thinking of the Mahavamsa Mythology while they are risking their lives for the cause of the motherland. Therefore, let us forget all this rantings about the Sinhala Buddhists, sadness of the black July, the Heroes' Day Speeches, and the homeland concepts, to grow into being a Great Nation, where we are all brothers and sisters. We should not forget that those Western Nations who show concern to us are in reality, moving to benefit from our differences and conflicts. In Mahinda Rajapakse we have the correct leadership to build our Nation. Let us stop parading our little differences and join hands forgetting the past, to build a better future, for ourselves and our children, for that cannot be done alone as Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, but as a one Great Nation Nation of Sri Lankans. PRESS RELEASE Investigation Launched into Flint Water Contamination Jan. 16, 2016 (EIRNS)Under mounting public pressure, the Michigan Attorney General on Friday, Jan. 15, announced he was opening an investigation into the Flint water contamination. The U.S. Department of Justice and the EPA are also investigating. According to a study conducted by Virginia Tech, Michigan officials lied about the levels of lead in the water, after repeated complaints, and then moved to cover up the evidence. Already, the state has identified 43 local Flint residents who are suffering from elevated levels of lead, which can stunt brain development and cause poisoning of the nervous system. In addition, when the water supply contamination first began in 2014 and 2015, Genesee County, which includes Flint, went through a serious spike in Legionnaires disease, resulting in at least 10 deaths. These potential links are also being investigated. From 2011-2015, Flint was in state receivership, and it was in April 2014 that the emergency managers, in a cost-cutting move, halted use of water from the Detroit water system and switched to the Flint River, ignoring the evidence of lead contamination. Gov. Rick Snyder was urged by Rep. Dan Kildee to declare a state of emergency and seek Federal assistance in Sept. 2015, but Snyder waited until this month before finally seeking assistance, according to the New York Times today. On Thursday night, Jan. 14, Snyder wrote to FEMA, asking that the President declare a state of emergency and a major disaster, which would bring in FEMA personnel to provide safe water, medical support and other emergency reliefand would bring Federal funds for loans and grants to local residents and the state of Michigan. While the White House and FEMA refused to provide any indication of when the Michigan emergency request would be acted upon, Rep. Kildee said he expected a decision within the next couple of days. PRESS RELEASE Gulf Countries Instigated Anti-Damascus Uprising in 2011 Using al-Qaeda, Says Indian Ambassador Jan. 16, 2016 (EIRNS)In an interview (in Germaner) with the German economic news agency Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (DWN), former Indian Ambassador to Syria V.P. Haran (2009-12), now Ambassador to Bhutan, said the uprisings against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was instigated from outside by the Gulf countries using al-Qaeda to create chaos within Syria, reported Sputnik today. He said Bashar al-Assad was a popular leader and that is why he is still in power. There is no adequate internal opposition and many of the problems in Syria were initiated by foreign sources who were trying to get rid of an inconvenient regime. He said 67% of the entire Arab world had voted for him in a 2009 survey as the most popular Arab person. "Even the diplomatic community agreed that he had the support of about 80% of the Syrian population," Haran said, Sputnik noted. Pointing out that Syria was a peaceful country, with its economy doing well when he arrived there in 2009, Haran said "Syria was a peaceful country without any hidden tensions." Unemployment had reached 8%, but unemployed Syrians could find work in the Gulf States. Syrian life was very peaceful, he said. He was also emphatic in claiming that the chaos was created from outside and it had nothing to do with the so-called Shia-Sunni tensions. "Have a look at the numbers. There are more than 50% of Muslims in Syria are Sunni. And there are Kurds, Druze, Maronites, Assyrians, Alawites and others making up the rest. Bashar al-Assad has the full support of these minorities and even a large part of the Sunni Muslims supported him. But by the time when I left in 2012, Syria had changed a lot. During the first few years were like in heaven, things worsened early in the year 2011, when the Arab Spring occurred. But Syria was still calm," Haran told DWN, according to a translation appearing in LiveLeak. "The external supporters of the opposition could not digest this. They sent a group of people to the Syrian-Jordanian border where they overran two security posts. They killed all people there. Some of them were killed in the cruelest al-Qaeda manner. The government did not announce this immediately. However, a member of the diplomatic community confirmed that it had been al-Qaeda from Iraq. It was evident that al-Qaeda from Iraq were present in Syria since April 2011. "Al-Qaeda was there from the first week, or since end of 2011, as al-Qaeda flags were visible. These were the groups who supplied the opposition with support from outside of the borders. In Raqqa the fighters came from the north and it was clear that it was al-Qaeda," Haran said. PRESS RELEASE President Xi Jinping Addresses Official Opening of AIIB Jan. 16, 2016 (EIRNS)It was with a great deal of pride that Chinas President Xi Jinping addressed the official opening of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. It was in October 2013 in Jakarta, one month after President Xi launched a groundbreaking proposal for a Silk Road Economic Belt, that he proposed the AIIB. While it was not quite clear at the time just how much support the AIIB would garner, the infrastructure needs of the world were so great that not even the attempts by the Obama Administration to discourage even European countries from joining, could dent the groundswell of support, from even outside Asia, and it now encompasses as founding members 57 nations from Asia and around the world. The founding and opening of the AIIB also means a great deal to the reform of the global economic governance system, Xi told the delegates. It is consistent with the evolving trend of the global economic landscape and will help make the global economic governance system more just, equitable and effective. The founding and opening of the AIIB will effectively boost investment to support infrastructure development in Asia, Xi said. It will serve to channel more resources, particularly private investment, into infrastructure projects to promote regional connectivity and economic integration. It will bring along a better investment environment and more job opportunities and trigger greater medium- to long-term development potential on the part of developing members in Asia. This, in turn, will give impetus to economic growth in Asia and the wider world. The demand for infrastructure is enormous.Institutions for infrastructure investment, old or new, have much to offer each other, and may well work together through joint financing, knowledge sharing and capacity building. They may engage each other in benign competition, learn from and reinforce each other, and move forward in tandem. This is a way to allow multilateral development institutions to contribute more to infrastructure connectivity and sustainable economic development in the region. While developing countries make the mainstay of the AIIB membership, the institution also attracts a large number of developed members. Such a unique strength makes it a bridge and a bond to facilitate both South-South cooperation and North-South cooperation, Xi said. The opening of the AIIB also gives the lie to the Western financial media, which in the wake of the stock market turmoil, have been spewing out doomsday scenarios about the Asian economy. President Xi also announced that China would invest an additional $50 million in the capital of the AIIB. Interviewed by Chinese media, the international delegates to the AIIB opening conference, including visiting foreign ministers, expressed great optimism over the opportunities ahead with the launching of this institution. Even the Philippines, which is still locked in a bitter maritime boundary dispute with China, has felt the need to take part in the development policy which the founding of the AIIB portends. The worlds most grueling off-road race is finished for 2016, and four American motorcycle riders have completed it. Honda racing team rider Ricky Brabec finished the 2016 Dakar Rally in ninth place -- an impressive success for a rookie whod never tackled the 14-day rally before. Also completing the race were privateer Ian Blythe, who finished in 26th, Alexander Smith, who raced to 37th, and Scott Bright, who finished in 53rd. Advertisement A fifth American rider, road racing veteran C.R. Gittere, was forced out of the punishing race by health problems. The storied rally, which began as a Paris-to-Dakar, Senegal, race almost 40 years ago, is a brutal test of rider and rig. Only about half of the machines that began the race in Buenos Aires were able to complete the entire route, which totaled just under 6,000 miles. This years route, which wound in and out of Argentina and Bolivia, included mountain stages at 15,000 feet elevation and near-freezing temperatures, followed by desert stages with temperatures over 110 degrees. One motorcycle stage had to be canceled when temperatures rose to 114 degrees, causing concern for the riders health. The race is often fatal. Dozens of riders, drivers and spectators have been killed in the races history, including 26 competitors. This years rally saw no fatalities among racers, but a spectator was killed after he was struck crossing a road in front of a car. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> But many riders and drivers did not fulfill the dream of the Dakar -- in which simply completing the race is seen as a victory. Of 136 motorcyclists who began the race, only 84 finished. Of 111 cars starting the race, only 87 crossed the finish line. Forty-five quads began; 24 finished. Trucks fared better, with 41 of the 55 that started getting to the end of the race. The Los Angeles Times Charles Fleming takes a ride on a specialized and very expensive Dakar Rally motorcycle. Australian Toby Price, in only his second Dakar effort, finished first among motorcycle racers. He was followed by Slovakian Stefan Svitko in second and Chilean Pablo Quintanilla in third. Catalan rider Laia Sanz, the Dakars top woman racer, finished 15th. The car division was won by the French driving team of Stephane Peterhansel and Jean Paul Cottret, piloting a diesel Peugeot. Veteran Peterhansel, known as Monsieur Dakar for his career six motorcycle and six car Dakar victories, was an early favorite, though overshadowed in the first stages by his fellow Peugeot driver Sebastian Loeb, who finished ninth. SIGN UP for the free California Inc. business newsletter >> Peterhansel was joined on the podium by fellow veteran Nasser Al-Attiyah, a Qatari driver with multiple Dakar victories, who this year raced for Mini. In third position, driving a Toyota, was Giniel de Villiers, who won the race in 2009. Among the quads, first and second place were claimed by Argentinian brothers Marcos and Alejandro Patronelli, riding Yamahas. Between them, the brothers have claimed first prize in five of the last six Dakars. In the truck division, an Iveco machine driven by Dutch veteran Gerard de Rooy took the winning position. No American car drivers finished in the top 10. Hopeful Robby Gordon, leading his team of custom Gordini off-road race cars, scored an 11th place finish in one stage, but was plagued by mechanical issues and did not end the race well. The outspoken veteran had choice words for the French organizers of the rally, and for the victorious French motorcar company, saying race officials levied unfair time punishments on certain, unfavored drivers, and contending that the Peugeot cars had unfair advantages on the other vehicles. Gordon said he would rethink his Dakar strategy, and probably would not return for another try. The American motorcycle riders expressed a different sentiment. Brabec described his Dakar experience as awesome and said he was determined to return for the 2017 race. Blythe, seeming surprised that hed actually made it to the end of the rally, said, I finished my first one! and said he was eager for another try. Even Gittere expressed determination to come back. The plucky North Carolinian was struck down by stomach troubles in stage 10 and had to be medically evacuated from the desert, said, I trained for this for a year and a half. To have it go south, because of a bad stomach, that sucks. I want to try this again. By brand, the motorcycle section of the Dakar was another victory for KTM, which has claimed the top spot in the last 15 rallies in a row. Though Honda, Yamaha and Husqvarna all claimed top 10 slots, first and second place went to KTM. Twitter: @misterfleming ALSO New auto safety standards are coming, and they might be voluntary BMWs S1000XR sport bike an ideal blend of comfort and performance Feds and 18 car companies team up to create new auto safety standards The pay-by-phone crowd is growing at the checkout counter. More consumers are using their smartphones to pay for goods and services, and more companies are offering mobile-payments or mobile-wallet services. In addition to Apple Inc.'s Apple Pay, which launched in October 2014, the field includes Android Pay from Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Samsung Pay from Samsung Electronics Co. Theres also CurrentC, a system being developed by a group of major retailers and restaurants. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. last month outlined plans for its own service for shoppers to pay in its stores with any major credit card or its own gift card using the giant retailers existing smartphone app. Target Corp. reportedly also is developing its own mobile-payments system. Advertisement Although the nascent mobile-payments industry is picking up steam, its availability remains limited and the notion of paying by smartphone continues to draw a cautious response from American consumers so far, analysts said. When you ask consumers about mobile payments, they pretty much tell you theyre not interested not everyone, but the majority of buyers, said Penny Gillespie, a research director at Gartner Inc., a technology research firm. They feel the payment devices they have today work fine, she said in reference to cash, checks, debit cards and credit cards. Apple Pay works with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s phones and their plus versions, while Samsung Pay and Android Pay likewise are available only on certain Android phones. CurrentC, in a pilot test in Columbus, Ohio, would work with Apple and Android phones. Apple has said its pleased with Apple Pays start. Chief Executive Tim Cook boasted of seeing double-digit growth in transactions month after month (without giving any supporting data) during a quarterly earnings call with analysts in October. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Pali Bhat, director of product management at Android Pay, wrote in a blog last month that the response from customers and merchants has been tremendous for Android Pay. But the picture is muddled when it comes to figuring out how many people are using mobile payments. Apple, Google and the others dont break out exact numbers on usage, and surveys by outside research firms show mixed results. For instance, the Auriemma Consulting Group last summer said 42% of U.S. consumers with capable iPhones said they had used Apple Pay at some point. Using smartphones to make payments is fairly simple. Above, people try out Samsung Pay at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas this month. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press) But the research firm InfoScout said that during 2015s Black Friday shopping blowout, only 2.7% of those with eligible Apple Phones used Apple Pay where it was available. Another research firm, EMarketer Inc., has estimated that 9.6% of all U.S. mobile-phone users, or 23.2 million consumers, made mobile-payments transactions last year. This year, that figure should rise to 37.5 million consumers, or 15.3% of mobile-phone users, and keep climbing to 69.8 million (27.3%) in 2019, the firm projected. In other words, four years from now less than one-third of smartphone users would be using the devices to pay at the checkout counter, if the forecasts prove correct. That still represents an enormous chunk of consumer spending. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> This year alone, the total value of mobile-payments transactions should more than triple, to $27.1 billion from $8.7 billion last year, and could reach $210.5 billion in 2019, EMarketer estimated. But think about the volume of credit-card transactions in the U.S. each year, which is in the trillions of dollars, said EMarketer analyst Bryan Yeager. Mobile payments are a drop in the bucket. Using smartphones to pay is fairly simple. For the uninitiated, there are a variety of clips on YouTube and elsewhere demonstrating how the process works at stores and restaurants. Consumers enter their credit-card information in their phones before shopping. With Apple Pay and Android Pay, for instance, the consumer then holds the phone over a payment terminal and taps a button on the phone or enters a PIN number. The credit card is charged, and the sale is completed. But ease of use doesnt necessarily translate into widespread acceptance, especially when matched against consumers long habit of using credit and debit cards. There is this big question of why should somebody use one of these [mobile-payments] technologies versus pulling out their credit card, Yeager said. Ingrained consumer behavior this muscle memory of swiping a credit card at the checkout counter is not going to change overnight. Security also is a big issue in mobile payments. Its still on the minds of people that Im putting my sensitive financial credentials on my phone, and if I lose my phone, what happens to it? Yeager said. Apple, Google and the others maintain that their security features are stronger than with credit cards, and that if a phone is lost or stolen, there are ways to quickly disable its mobile-payments feature. They also assert that a consumers credit-card information is encrypted, not shared with merchants, and it does not remain stored on the phone. In any case, the availability of mobile payments will only grow. Future smartphones are expected to come with mobile-payment technology as standard equipment over the next few years, so it mainly becomes a question of how many consumers and merchants will choose to use it. Apple Pay says its now accepted at more than 1.5 million U.S. locations, including Best Buy, Whole Foods and Macys. That figure has surged from 220,000 when Apple Pay was launched. Apple Pay also plans to be available at all of Starbucks Corp.'s U.S. locations this year. Android Pay says its accepted at more than 1 million locations, including McDonalds and Staples, among others. More merchants are likely to acquire mobile-payments technology because theyre already in the process of switching their hardware to read embedded chips on credit cards instead of using the conventional card-swiping format. Most of the new hardware for chip-reading also includes mobile-payments features. Consumers already are having to adjust to inserting their credit cards into a chip reader, rather than swiping the card, so were curious to see if this gives more impetus to consumers to make another behavior change by using mobile payments, Gartners Gillespie said. Like so many technologies, the mobile-payments industry will start to show significant growth after consumers smartphones and merchants payment terminals become more standardized and available, said Thad Peterson, senior analyst at Aite Group, a consulting firm. Were only in the first generation of devices, he said. We have to wait another good year or two. By 2020, I see a very rapid adoption and usage curve in terms of mobile payments. james.peltz@latimes.com Twitter: @PeltzLATimes MORE FROM BUSINESS The darker side of travel gets overlooked, study says A new push begins to get more women on corporate boards Travel search engines have trouble with Luxe hotels new club fee More than 300 companies across Los Angeles and Orange counties received venture capital funding in 2015, totaling about $5 billion in investment in the biggest year for deal-making in the region and nationwide since 2000. Technology start-ups often rely on cash from venture capitalists for rapid hiring or big marketing campaigns. Growing quickly enables companies to stay ahead of competitors and attract further investment from larger investors. But just like after the dot-com bust, many investors expect this year to see fewer deals and fewer dollars offered to start-ups. In 2000, a batch of start-ups that went public couldnt deliver on revenue projections. This time around, there are global fears about several issues, including slowing spending in China, investment strategies shifting as U.S. interest rates rise and valuations of start-ups getting too rosy. Advertisement The drop in investment is unlikely to match the 61% nosedive from 2000 to 2001, but its already come down 34% when comparing the December quarter with the September one. Across Los Angeles and Orange counties, four straight quarters of more than $1 billion in investment ended last quarter, according to the MoneyTree Report from PwC and the National Venture Capital Assn. The decline could force start-ups to cut back on spending; some might have to close or sell themselves earlier than planned. Separately, the research firm PitchBook noted that Upfront Ventures and Wavemaker Partners did the most deals of any Los Angeles investors last year, with about two dozen deals each. QueensBridge Venture Partners, founded by rapper Nas, came in third with 18 deals. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> A 20th year. Hollywood media and technology company J2 Global just celebrated its 20th anniversary, a big feat for a company whose shares almost dipped to $0 during the market collapse between 2000 and 2001. J2 has bought 124 companies since 2000, including 24 last year. Its diverse business now ranges from operating video game news website IGN to providing digital fax services. J2 generated about $516 million in revenue through the first nine months of 2015. Hip conference calls? Investors have given $2.2 million to Unmute, a Venice start-up whose app lets people start conference calls that anyone can join. The idea is for friends or celebrities to host discussions, and un-mute others as they please. Theres no video component, but users can chat and share photos during calls; recordings are shareable on social media. The cash came from Greycroft Partners, Comcasts venture capital group and others. Hip mens clothing. Trendy Butler announced that it now ships mens clothing to 5,000 subscribers a month and that it has raised $1.2 million in debt financing. Hong Kong-based Capital Union Investments led the funding round. For $65 a month, the Los Angeles start-up aims to provide clothing worth $150 at retail. Elsewhere on the Web. Parachute Home, a company that makes bedding sheets, is putting to use some of its early revenue and the $10 million that venture capitalists have provided. The Venice start-up, which had a pop-up shop last year, plans to open a permanent store in the beachside neighborhood this spring, according to Racked. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Dating app Grindr plans to move to West Hollywood from Hollywood after receiving a $93-million investment from a Chinese gaming company, according to the Real Deal. Grindr will have five times more space as it tries to expand its functionality beyond a matchmaking service for gay people. Over at Tinder, a dating app with five times as many daily users as Grindr, Chief Executive Sean Rad tells Fast Company that he and his colleagues didnt strike it rich when parent company Match Group recently went public. Tinder has its own set of shares, and Rad said his West Hollywood company eventually could go public or accept an acquisition offer. Managed by Q is pitching its office management app to Los Angeles companies, according to L.A. Biz. The New York City start-up aims to simplify the process of coordinating office cleanings, maintenance requests and supply orders. Managed by Qs employees and vendors provide the services. WaiveCar began offering free, two-hour car rentals in Santa Monica and Venice, according to Money. The company hopes huge ads covering the cars can subsidize the rentals. In case you missed it. Car-hailing app Uber agreed to pay California regulators a $7.6-million fine for failing to hand over business data in 2014. Snapchat putting up billboards across the country turns out to be a sign that the app is quickly gaining users in their 30s and older. Power company Southern California Edison plans to add up to 1,500 electric vehicle charging stations statewide. Online video production company Mitu raised $27 million, validation of its success in attracting Spanish-language viewers. YouTube star PewDiePie is creating his own network. And ESPN.com now covers e-Sports. Coming up. Cisco Executive Chairman John Chambers and General Electric Vice Chair Beth Comstock are among the planned keynote speakers at the the Montgomery Summit, one of Los Angeles biggest technology conferences. This week, the summit also plans to name as keynote speakers Rob High, vice president and chief technology officer for IBMs Watson artificial intelligence group, and retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal. About 1,000 people are expected at the March 8-9 event in Santa Monica. Chat with me on Twitter @peard33 MORE FROM BUSINESS Netflixs growth elicits fear in Hollywood Mobile-payment services draw more shoppers and merchants Apples purchase of Emotient fuels artificial intelligence boom in Silicon Valley The fourth Democratic primary debate broadcast Sunday on NBC was watched by 10.2 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. The figure ranks second among the four Democratic debates held so far and is up substantially from the 8.03 million who watched ABCs telecast of the Dec. 19 meeting of the three contenders for the 2016 Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley. The debate, moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, was also seen by an additional 1.2 million viewers across Internet streaming platforms including NBCNews.com and the news divisions YouTube channel. Advertisement The ratings likely got a boost from the Sunday night time slot. The previous two Democratic debates aired on Saturday nights, when television viewership is at its lowest level of the week. (CBS News coverage of the second debate drew 8.55 million viewers on Nov. 14). The Democratic National Committee has been criticized for its scheduling of those dates, saying they favored Clinton by minimizing TV exposure to Sanders. The most watched Democratic primary debate of the 2016 election cycle was on Oct. 13, a Tuesday, when 15.3 million viewers watched the candidates first showdown on CNN. But the audience for NBCs telecast was higher than all but one of the Democratic primary debates in the 2008 campaign when Clinton unsuccessfully competed against Barack Obama for the nomination. The highest rated program on Sunday night was CBS 60 Minutes, which featured correspondent Charlie Rose speaking to actor Sean Penn about his secret meeting with drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. The broadcast was watched by 20.27 million, the largest 60 Minutes audience since Nov. 16, 2008, when 25.1 million watched an interview with then President-elect Obama and his wife Michelle. NBCs debate and 60 Minutes were only head to head in the Western and Mountain time zones. In an appearance Sunday on 60 Minutes, Sean Penn defended his interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. Speaking to Charlie Rose, the actor described the 10,000-word article he wrote for Rolling Stone magazine, which some criticized for being overly sympathetic to the notorious leader of the Sinaloa cartel, as experiential journalism. I dont have to be the one that reports on the alleged murders or the amount of narcotics that are brought in, said Penn, a two-time Academy Award winner who in recent years has become as renowned for his activism as his acting. I go and I spend time in the company of another human being, which everyone is. And I make an observation and try to parallel that, try to balance that with the focus that we that I believe we we tend to put too much emphasis on. The 60 Minutes report detailed how the unlikely meeting came to be: Mexican actress Kate del Castillo communicated with Guzman through text messages and social media. After meeting Penn, she agreed to facilitate a meeting with Guzman, whose escape from a Mexican prison in July made international headlines. Advertisement Guzman agreed to a later sit-down interview, but reconsidered once the search for him intensified. Instead, Penn sent a list of largely nonconfrontational questions. The resulting article, released the day after Guzman was recaptured by Mexican marines, ignited a media firestorm. See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >> My article should not have made this much noise. El Chapo should not have been this popular a figure to read about, said the star of Milk and Mystic River, explaining how hed hoped his story would provoke a conversation about the War on Drugs but had failed. We all want this drug problem to stop. And if you are in the moral right, or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs, just as many of your brothers and sisters, your mothers and fathers, the teachers at school, are doing these drugs. Just as many. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article [came] out, talking about that? One 1%? I think thatd be generous. Instead, Penn suggested, the conversation focused on his journalistic credentials. Im really sad about the state of journalism in our country ... journalists who want to say that Im not a journalist. Well, I want to see the license that says that theyre a journalist, said Penn, who also defended his decision to let Guzman review the article before it was published a move that most professional journalists would consider an absolute no-no. Join the conversation on Facebook >> What was brokered for me to have the interview with El Chapo was that I would finish the article, send it to him, and if he said no, then that was no harm, no foul to any reader. Follow @MeredithBlake on Twitter. ALSO Did Sean Penn do anything wrong in meeting with fugitive Joaquin El Chapo Guzman? It was like an action movie, neighbors say of El Chapos capture in Mexico HBO takes brief hiatus on Westworld production Fuller House producers address that Olsen Twins joke A follow-up season of Making a Murderer? We are ready, say its filmmakers As she visited her American quarter horse at stables just east of Porter Ranch, Debra Zavatto came across a frightening sight: blood coming out of the animals nose. In the 13 years shes cared for Scarlett, Zavatto had never seen anything like that. People were saying, Oh, this stuff is giving nosebleeds, she said of the natural gas leak that has sickened residents of Porter Ranch. I thought, Oh my God, I wonder if my horse got a nosebleed from the gas. Advertisement The experience is not unique. In Porter Ranch and the nearby communities of Chatsworth and Granada Hills, animal owners are seeing unexplained ailments and behaviors in their pets. Many are questioning whether the methane and odorants escaping from the leak in nearby Aliso Canyon may be to blame. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Southern California Gas Co. first reported the leaking well Oct. 23, and since then an estimated 77 million kilograms of methane have been released, leaving communities near the site to deal with foul odors and nosebleeds, headaches, nausea and other short-term ailments. Of the 2,479 households that have relocated out of Porter Ranch, 40% have pets, primarily cats and dogs, gas company spokeswoman Anne Silva said. The gas company is not keeping data on how many customers say their pets have fallen ill or died as a result of the gas leak. Odorants in the methane may cause the health problems people are experiencing, health officials say. But what effect they may have on animals remains unclear. Veterinary experts cautioned that pet owners should reserve judgment, for now. Even though you smell it doesnt mean its at a high enough level to cause problems, said Robert Poppenga, a professor of veterinary toxicology at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The problem is if youre talking about dogs or cats or cattle or horses, theres very little information of toxicity specific to the species. But absent any hard facts, pet owners who see their animals in distress or discomfort are left to draw their own conclusions. They might not be certain the fumes are causing illnesses, but neither can they know the emissions are not responsible. Four miles away from the natural gas storage wells, Amy Masliah is mourning the death of Bonnie, a 7-year-old lab and Australian Ridgeback mix. Seven weeks ago, doctors discovered a lung tumor in the dog and gave her weeks to live. Masliah believes her dogs tumor was the result of the methane, odorants and benzene in the air. She died a very horrible, painful death, Masliah said. She couldnt breathe. We had to put her to sleep. Now Masliah is worried about Bonnies brother, Clyde, who is coughing and developing excessive mucus in his nose and eyes. Problems are also occurring with pets whose families have temporarily relocated out of Porter Ranch. Southern California Gas moved Daysi Ibanez and her family out of Porter Ranch Estates and into a property that would not accept dogs. The family sent their 6-year-old Yorkie, Chase, to a pet hotel. It was there that the 5-pound dog started to lose weight, Ibanez said. Ibanez had planned to breed Chase, but when she saw how poorly he was adapting to his new surroundings, she made the decision to neuter him and place him in a doggy day care program. We were afraid he was going to die from sadness, she said. I cant even imagine if he died. I feel like heads would roll. Though the Los Angeles County Department of Public Healths veterinary team acknowledges that little is known about the effects of methane and odorants on animals, officials warned residents to keep their pets indoors and to contact a vet if their pets are lethargic, vomiting or having difficulty breathing. The only advice in those situations is probably to consult with their regular veterinarian and have the veterinarian go through in a systematic way all of the possibilities for a respiratory problem and try to eliminate the things that can be tested for, UC Davis Poppenga said. NEWSLETTER: Get essential California headlines delivered daily >> Veterinary experts with the county plan to examine dead birds from the community. The departments veterinary staff is also surveying animal hospitals in the area to see if theres been an increase in animals with symptoms that could be related to the leak, according to the departments Dr. Cyrus Rangan. Neither the state Office of Emergency Services nor the Los Angeles Emergency Management Department have received reports of sick or dying pets. That goes for wild animals too. State Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens say they have not seen any coyotes, birds, squirrels or other animals fall ill because of the methane exposure. In fact, wild animals may have left the area because of the noise coming from crews attempting to fix the well, agency spokeswoman Mary Fricke said. Back at Hillcrest Ranch stables, Zavatto still wonders about what happened to Scarlett. She says the other horses at the ranch havent exhibited any symptoms. I dont think Ive ever smelled the gas over there, but it is possible that at certain times of the day the gas does drift over there, she said, trying to understand what would cause a horse to suddenly develop a nosebleed. alice.walton@latimes.com ALSO As Porter Ranch gas leak lingers, candidates smell a political opportunity Explosion risk stalls plan to capture and burn gas from Porter Ranch leak Benzene risk from Porter Ranch gas leak is the same as rest of region, study finds A wave of storms is bringing rain and some flooding to Central and Northern California but will have little effect on the Los Angeles area over the next several days. In Humboldt County, rivers and streams are at flood stage, sweeping over some low-lying fields, said meteorologist Ryan Aylward with the National Weather Service in Eureka. But so far, no residents have had to evacuate. There are issues for travelers, including a rock slide that has closed Highway 299 near Big Bar. Advertisement Four to 7 inches of rain fell from 3 a.m. through about 5 p.m. Sunday. Rainfall is running ahead of normal for January, although its definitely normal for us to be getting lots of rain, Aylward said. Were expecting rain throughout the rest of the week. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> The middle of the state has a similar forecast, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. We have a really strong, moist system, said meteorologist Craig Shoemaker. You could call it an atmospheric river system. One concern is flash flooding and mudslides in the burn areas from recent fires. Shoemaker added: Well have a storm system, and then a day off, and then another storm system pretty much as far out as we can forecast over the next seven to eight days. A succession of storms is typical for January and should not be considered an effect of El Nino, the Pacific weather pattern that could result in a heavy rain season near Los Angeles, Shoemaker said. For the moment, the rain is putting just a small dent in the drought, he said. The water content of the snowpack in the northern and central Sierra is above normal for this time of year, but its a little below normal in the southern Sierra. The gradually melting snowpack is a major source of state water and is needed to replenish low reservoirs. Interested in the stories shaping California? Sign up for the free Essential California newsletter >> The storms to the north will have a modest effect in the Southland, resulting in a chance of showers around midday Monday. The daytime high temperatures are a little cooler than usual, topping out in the low 60s, but within range for this time of year, said meteorologist Robbie Munroe with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. As far as a stronger storm, at this point, it doesnt look like anything is on the horizon over the next seven days, Munroe said. Since Oct. 1, Los Angeles has recorded 3.75 inches of rain. The average season-to-date total is just above 4 inches. But an El Nino pattern could deliver its biggest precipitation punch in late January or February, meteorologists said. howard.blume@latimes.com Twitter: @howardblume ALSO Northern California slammed by new series of storms O.C. victims father doesnt expect to see death penalty carried out Explosion risk stalls plan to capture and burn gas from Porter Ranch leak When Bryan Caforio addressed disgruntled Porter Ranch residents packed into the West Hills Presbyterian Church for a meeting about the natural gas leak that has sickened and displaced thousands in the area, he cut straight to the chase. Im running for Congress against Steve Knight who I dont believe any of his people are here, he said, referring to the areas Republican representative. What Ill say is that if youre in Congressman Knights district and youre not able to reach out to him and hes not taking the steps you believe he should in order to get things done, go ahead and reach out to me. He told the audience he was working with Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) and would be handing out business cards in the back of the room. He walked offstage to polite applause. Advertisement Caforio, a first-time Democrat candidate looking to unseat Knight in the 25th Congressional District, was attempting to seize on Knights relative public absence in the area since the gas leak was discovered Oct. 23. Knight did not appear in Porter Ranch in public until Jan. 9, when he spoke at a South Coast Air Quality Management District meeting, three days after Caforio made his remarks at the town hall hosted by the Weitz & Luxenberg law firm and environmental activist Erin Brockovich. Though Caforios broadside may be the most public, he isnt the only candidate to smell a political opportunity where most residents only smell the odor of the mercaptans in the natural gas seeping from the damaged well. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> They have been coming out of the woodwork, Matt Pakucko, president of the advocacy group Save Porter Ranch, said after a neighborhood forum last week. During that meeting, Los Angeles Councilman Mitchell Englander spoke for nearly an hour about the leak, while Deputy Dist. Atty. Elan Carr made his way around the cramped church meeting room, talking to displaced residents and handing out business cards for his campaign. Both are running for the county supervisor seat held by Michael D. Antonovich, who is facing term limits and himself seeking the states 25th Senate District seat. The campaign for another candidate vying for that seat, Darrell Park, handed out endorsement letters at another air quality district meeting this weekend. Richard Matthews, a candidate to replace termed-out state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) in the 27th district, has also been a constant presence at community events. Candidates and elected officials alike who dive into a crisis where voters are looking for help from the government have a very fine line to walk, said Darry Sragow, a veteran campaign consultant who practices law and lectures at USC. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> You have to be perceived as someone who can actually help solve the problem, not somebody who is grandstanding. Once you put yourself on the line and expose yourself as someone who can help solve the problem, you better deliver, he said. If you overpromise, you are going to wind up having some pretty bad days. If you fail to show up, you are going to be punished for that. No candidate is pursuing the issue as hard as Caforio, an attorney who recently moved to Valencia and is running against one-term incumbent Knight in a competitive congressional district that stretches from Simi Valley to Lancaster and includes a pocket of Porter Ranch. It is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with 20% of voters listing no party preference. He has aggressively attacked Knight for being missing in action on the issue of the leak. A spokesman for Knight said the congressman sent staffers to neighborhood council meetings in December while he stayed in contact with local, state and federal officials by phone. Knights first visit to the area was Jan. 8, after a relief well became operational, spokesman Daniel Outlaw said. My focus has been and will continue to be serving my constituents and doing everything I can to help them deal with the hardships they are currently facing, Knight said in a statement. Unfortunately, some have chosen to politicize the suffering and worries of the people affected in Porter Ranch. Knights absence did not go unnoticed by displaced residents at the neighborhood forum. First time Ive seen him, said Porter Ranch resident Dave Hasson, 70, as Knight took the microphone. This has been going on for two and a half months now, said Pakucko, the president of the advocacy group. He was very late to the party. Knight has also faced criticism from Sherman, his congressional colleague, after Knight said in a recent Daily News op-ed that getting the Environmental Protection Agency involved would only hinder the ongoing process. Sherman wrote a letter to the EPA on Dec. 10 requesting the federal agency look into the gas leak and invited Knight to co-sign the letter as well as another letter sent to other federal agencies. In an interview, Sherman said Knight turned him down both times. The EPA is now investigating the leak. It has been a somewhat frustrating experience for me and my staff, he said. The political drama comes as Porter Ranch residents have increasingly expressed frustration with government and elected officials at community forums over the slow pace to stop the leak. Still, some elected officials response to the leak has made them heroes in the eyes of voters. I really didnt like my councilman, said Maureen Callahan, 52, of Englander. But since he has been front and center at various meetings and written numerous motions on the leak, Im glad he is coming to bat. Ive been very pleased. One Porter Ranch resident, Tom Cannon, 54, who spoke to Carr at the community forum looked down at his campaign card advertising his candidacy in the supervisorial race after Wednesdays meeting and smirked. Good luck. He is running against our hero, he said of Englander. javier.panzar@latimes.com Twitter: @jpanzar Times staff writer Alice Walton contributed to this report. MORE ON PORTER RANCH GAS LEAK Explosion risk stalls plan to capture and burn gas from Porter Ranch leak Benzene risk from Porter Ranch gas leak is the same as rest of region, study finds Regulators fear attempts to burn off leaking gas near Porter Ranch could lead to explosion The Los Angeles City Council voted Wednesday to explore whether L.A. should retain a private company to come up with ideas for developing city property and suggested using a process that would avoid competitive bidding for the work. Two days later, after The Times asked about the reason for avoiding a bid process, City Councilman Curren Price asked the council to amend his proposal. He said he wanted to head off any perception that he was dictating which company the city should use. The original plan, which was approved without discussion, sought recommendations from city staff on whether it was feasible to use Altrium Partners on a sole source basis to come up with economically and socially beneficial ways to use city property. Advertisement A sole source process does not involve competitive bidding. The council approved a revised version of the proposal Friday, cutting out the sole source language. Price said he singled out Altrium, which is headed by longtime City Hall lobbyist Ira Handelman, as an example of the kind of firm the city could work with in underserved areas. The proposal also states that the city should look at using any other appropriate entity for the work, he said. The councilman, who represents parts of South L.A., said his goal is to examine ways to use vacant or underutilized city-owned property to bolster the economy and help the community. Using a sole source process, the councilman added, was meant to speed up that plan, not to favor anyone. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> The proposal doesnt say, Give them a contract, Price said Thursday. It doesnt say, Give them some land. It says, Report back what you find out. Does this make sense? The city charter says Los Angeles must put its contracts out for a competitive bid except in certain cases. For example, city agencies awarding a contract may find that competitive bidding would be undesirable, impractical or impossible. Handelman is a registered lobbyist who represents real estate developers doing business across Los Angeles. His consulting firm, Handelman Consulting Inc., earned more than $575,000 in lobbying fees during the first nine months of 2015, according to city lobbying reports. His new company, Altrium, was formed last year in Delaware and registered with the California secretary of state in December, one day before Price introduced his initial proposal at City Hall. Handelman said that although Altrium was only recently formed, he and his partner, Matthew Aleksich, had been researching the idea for more than five years. Price, a former state senator, praised Handelmans knowledge of urban redevelopment and said he has known the consultant since he was in Sacramento. Some critics question the wisdom of using an established lobbyist representing developers to do city real estate work. Doug Haines, who serves on the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council, said that if Handelman wants to perform such work, he should give up his lobbying practice to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Handelman Consulting had at least five real estate clients in Hollywood last year, according to Ethics Commission reports. Among those was Hollywood Cherokee Ventures, whose proposal for a 224-unit residential project goes before the council Tuesday. You dont want to have a consultant whos thinking about his other clients while supposedly serving the public trust, Haines said. Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, said someone who had represented developers might be well placed to be able to evaluate whether property can be used in a more productive way. But she said they should halt that business before working for the city on real estate projects. A consultant who has an existing client base of property developers might lean towards proposals that their clients are inclined to push for the city, Feng said. Handelman said he plans to eventually work solely with Altrium, though he did not specify when. But he disagreed with the idea that there was any conflict between Altrium and his consulting business, saying that any Altrium projects would be different from those of his clients. Theres no conflict in my mind at all, he said. Price spokeswoman Angelina Valencia said that if a conflict of interest emerged, we would not support moving forward with the idea. She stressed that no one is being hired at this point. Prices proposal gives no details about the terms of any possible deal between Altrium or any other company. Jan Perry, who heads the city Economic and Workforce Development Department, said her agency will prepare a feasibility analysis to decide the best approach for developing city-owned property. She declined to speculate how Altrium might be involved, saying she is performing her due diligence. Handelman said that if Altrium were selected by the city, any development projects that the firm came up with would still have to be evaluated and vetted by the city. emily.alpert@latimes.com david.zahniser@latimes.com Follow @LATimesEmily and @DavidZahniser for breaking news from Los Angeles City Hall. ALSO Finally, a smart approach to helping L.A.'s homeless L.A. lawmakers obtain formal power over 2024 Olympic bid D.A. Lacey under pressure after Beck recommends criminal charges against officer in fatal shooting A replica of the Montgomery, Ala., bus that Rosa Parks was riding in when she was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger will be featured in the 31st annual Kingdom Day Parade on Monday, one of numerous local celebrations planned to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Los Angeles Councilman Curren D. Price Jr. will serve as grand marshal of this years parade, themed Our Work Is Not Yet Done. The parade, honoring the slain civil rights leader, is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue, before heading west to Crenshaw Boulevard and concluding at Vernon Avenue. Advertisement Marching bands, drill teams, floats and a contingent of local officials, state legislators and law enforcement representatives will be part of the celebration, said Adrian Dove, parade president and CEO. Join the conversation on Facebook >> Because of tension between minorities and police, we are working in close collaboration with Chief Charlie Beck, who will be in the parade, as well with Sheriff Jim McDonnell, who is riding a horse, Dove said. We are stressing a healing between the community and the police. ABC7 will air some of the parade live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a video of the entire event will be made available in a couple of weeks at www.kingdomdayparade.org. The parade is one of several local celebrations planned to mark Mondays national holiday. The Martin Luther King Jr. Festival at Leimert Park Village will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and feature food trucks, musical performances, veteran and employment services as well as counseling on health and wellness issues. At the California African American Museum in Exposition Park, holiday-goers can attend the Cake for King community celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Participants can eat birthday cake, listen to a reading of My Brother Martin or watch documentary films on King. In Ingelwood, The Tabernacle, 321 N. Eucalyptus Ave., will host performances by local choirs and community groups. A march will start at 11 a.m. along Manchester Boulevard and head west to the Forum, where there will be musical performances. In South Los Angeles, the public can participate in a holiday beautification project at Woodcrest Elementary School hosted by L.A. Works from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers will help spruce up school murals and rehab the schools landscape among other projects. Santa Monica will host a multiethnic, interfaith King celebration - with the theme Peace Requires Justice -- at 9 a.m. at Soka Gakkai International Auditorium, 525 Wilshire Blvd. In addition to musical and dance performances, Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl will be the keynote speaker. In Pasadena, the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Breakfast and Celebration will begin at 8 a.m. at Jackie Robinson Park. There will also be music and dance performances as well as arts and crafts exhibits. cindy.carcamo@latimes.com Twitter: @thecindycarcamo ALSO PHOTOS: 31st Kingdom Day Parade Martin Luther King Jr.'s forgotten battle: Economic inequality In a state still stinging from racial attack, Democrats reach out to black voters Amid continuing tensions over the fatal police shootings of black men across the nation, some civil rights activists and members of Californias Legislative Black Caucus say state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris must do more to increase accountability and ensure impartial investigations. Of primary concern is Harris opposition to legislation that would require her office to independently investigate fatal police shootings. Harris also has stopped short of endorsing statewide regulations on the use of police body cameras, saying that she believes all officers should wear them but that local agencies are best equipped to enact policies. Her absence is noticeable, said Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), a member of the black caucus. People are looking to her for guidance and direction. Advertisement The scrutiny is especially intense because Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is a woman of color and the top law enforcement official in California. She looks like me, Mitchell said. So it gets complicated. Harris, a U.S. Senate candidate, said she agrees that more needs to be done. But under her leadership, she argued, California has made significant strides in dealing with bias in the criminal justice system. The attorney general cited new statewide police training procedures to combat racial and ethnic bias and the creation of a website and other policies that provide unprecedented transparency about in-custody deaths, arrest rates and citizen complaints against law enforcement. There is no question that we need to have changes in the system so that there is greater fairness, Harris said. That is a lot of the work that we have been doing. Some of her political allies, however, think she has been too cautious. Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) who like Mitchell is backing Harris Senate candidacy said he was disappointed last year when the attorney general did not support legislation that would require the Department of Justice to investigate deadly police shootings. There is growing skepticism, he said, about whether local prosecutors can impartially investigate officers with whom they often work closely. Connecticut and Wisconsin have laws requiring independent investigations of civilian deaths by police. And after the death of Eric Garner in New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in July enabled his states attorney general to serve as a special prosecutor. The African American and civil rights community have been disappointed that [Harris] hasnt come out stronger on this, said McCarty, who is also a member of the black caucus. I hope that she sees this is a nuanced approach and makes sense. Eric Rose, a public affairs expert in Los Angeles, said its important to remember that Harris comes from a law enforcement background. A former Alameda County prosecutor and district attorney in San Francisco, Harris has been smart about using that cachet to address concerns about racial bias and police accountability without turning into a lightning rod for either side, Rose said. She hasnt backtracked on her beliefs. She hasnt switched positions, he said. Shes a true liberal, but shes been smart about finding the right issues to talk about that would not alienate the law enforcement community. The most recent flash point came last month, with the release of a video showing the fatal shooting of Mario Woods, 26, by San Francisco police. Some community activists have demanded the resignation of Chief Greg Suhr, who said his officers fired in defense of themselves and bystanders, and they have called on Harris to launch an independent inquiry. But the attorney general said she was confident that San Francisco Dist. Atty. George Gascon would conduct a fair and thorough investigation. Similar calls were heard after the death of Ezell Ford, an unarmed, mentally ill black man who was shot and killed by Los Angeles police in 2014. Police said Ford had tackled one of the officers and tried to take his gun. The case is still under review by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. Harris said her office does have the authority to intervene in cases, but will do so only if there is evidence of impropriety or an abuse of discretion by local prosecutors. She has worked diligently to court law enforcement, and her Senate bid has been endorsed by the Los Angeles Police Protective League which represents LAPD officers the California Statewide Law Enforcement Assn. and the Oakland Police Officers Assn., among others. McCartys bill to require the state to investigate fatal police shootings, as well as the body camera legislation, was opposed by law enforcement representatives and failed to pass in 2015. Both issues are expected to be reconsidered by lawmakers this year. Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at Cal State L.A. and an active member of the Black Lives Matter movement, said of Harris: This is not the time for timidity. ... Martin Luther King said if you tell black people to wait, that means never. But Abdullah praised the attorney general for increasing transparency on police conduct through the Open Justice website. It provides the public with data on arrest rates, in-custody and arrest-related deaths and law enforcement officers killed or assaulted breaking the numbers down by race and ethnicity, cause of death and other factors. Natasha Minsker of the American Civil Liberties Union of California called Harris push for increased transparency a very good sign. But she wants that effort expanded to include records about specific cases, not just aggregated data. Records exist that document police misconduct that the public is not allowed to see, Minsker said. California has the most secretive laws in the nation. She noted that Harris has the authority to launch civil rights investigations when there is evidence of wrongdoing not only by prosecutors but also by law enforcement. For example, then-Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer launched a civil rights inquiry after the 1998 shooting death of Tyisha Miller by four Riverside Police Department officers. Miller, a 19-year-old black woman, was killed by officers who saw her passed out in a car with a gun on her lap. The investigation revealed widespread civil rights violations by police and concluded that the department had failed to uniformly enforce the law. As a result, the agency was under state oversight for five years. David Beltran, spokesman for the state attorney generals office, said the agency has not closed any civil rights enforcement cases in five years under Harris but was keeping a close eye on a variety of matters. Lateefah Simon, an advocate for criminal justice reform with the Rosenberg Foundation in San Francisco, said that Harris has devoted her legal career to ensuring Californians are treated justly and fairly. No politician can stroke a wand and create magic, said Simon, whom Harris recruited to work with her at the San Francisco district attorneys office. If I did not believe that she had the clearest and most profound intentions of getting to the bottom of this [police use-of-force] epidemic, I would be outside with a bullhorn. phil.willon@latimes.com Twitter: @pwillon ALSO Column: 14 years in, Brown shows no sign of losing political muscle Explosion risk stalls plan to capture and burn gas from Porter Ranch leak Amount of lobbying done in the shadows is growing, California ethics officials agree In his 14th year as Californias governor and barred from running again, Jerry Brown is not showing the slightest sign of lame duck syndrome. In fact, the governor seems to be acquiring more political muscle with age. Hes more focused, patient and selective than when he served two entertaining-but-undisciplined terms in the 1970s and early 80s. The latest example of the governors muscle-flexing came last week. Advertisement Backers of a ballot initiative to extend his 2012 soak the rich income tax increase beyond 2018 had proposed not putting any of the added revenue into Browns rainy-day fund. The governor created the savings account to hedge against the next recession. More than two-thirds of voters authorized it in 2014. Not saving some of the proposed tax take, Brown told reporters, in my judgment is a fatal flaw. Teachers unions sponsoring the extension knew that if it were opposed by the governor even if he technically is a lame duck their ballot measure would be a dead duck. So they quickly amended it to his wishes. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Brown has been unenthusiastic about the proposal. A year ago, he reminded reporters that he had sold his tax hike to voters as temporary. And thats my position, he said. But lately he has been noncommittal. We heard the governors concerns, said Gale Kaufman, strategist for the tax initiative. We look forward to continuing our conversation with him. Besides any governors intimidating power to sign or veto bills, one source of Browns strength is his high job-approval rating among voters: 56%, according to a new Field Poll. Another is a chubby cache of campaign funds nearly $24 million at last count. He can empty that political arsenal on any ballot measure he chooses. So far hes keeping his powder dry. He almost certainly will spend some of it fighting a no blank checks initiative bankrolled by a native of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The measure would require voter approval of any project with a price tag exceeding $2 billion if its to be financed by state revenue bonds. A revenue bond is paid for by beneficiaries of the project, such as water users. The initiative sponsor is Dean Cortopassi a food processor whose goal is to block Browns proposed delta water tunnel project, a $15.5-billion monstrosity. It consists of twin 30-mile tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter, siphoning fresh water from the Sacramento River before it flows through the estuary and pouring it into southbound aqueducts. Delta farmers and environmentalists complain that the project would destroy a lot of local agriculture in order to save some San Joaquin Valley nut orchards. Plus, it would rob endangered salmon of fresh water and make mountains of excavated mud. Brown and other backers contend the project is necessary to replumb the unreliable delta waterworks, depended on by much of California. The controversial project has been kept alive only because of Browns persistence. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> At this stage, as I see many of my friends dying.... I want to get [stuff] done, the governor proclaimed in 2012, using an expletive. And Im going to get this done. Last week, he pitched the tunnels again at a conference of water agency heads. He asked for some give and take between the water buffaloes and fish lovers. If we dont get that, then the water wars will continue beyond the life of probably half the people in this room, he warned. Outside, talking to reporters, Brown was more adamant: California will suffer devastating economic consequences without the tunnels, he said. This is not a nice. Its a fundamental necessity. Brown may not always be right and he himself needs to compromise a lot more on the delta but he is strongly committed to personal pets. Like the $68-billion bullet train project. Polls consistently have shown Californians turning against the proposed Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed rail line. And it would not still be chugging along without the governor pushing. When the Republican Congress denied more funding and private financiers showed no interest, Brown found state money to sustain the project. He pressured the Legislature into letting him use 25% of the cap-and-trade pollution fee kitty, worth $500 million annually. Another potential ballot measure is a fat target for Browns political money. That proposal would blow up the train and spend its funding on water projects. Regardless of his power, Brown got rolled by moderate Assembly Democrats and the oil industry last summer. They blocked his effort to cut the states petroleum use in half by 2030. But he won legislative passage of two other weapons in the fight against global warming: requirements to double the energy efficiency of older buildings and to generate half of Californias electricity from renewable sources. Brown often is criticized privately for failing to use his power, for not engaging enough with legislators and stakeholders" the polite name for special interests. Currently hes trying to break a legislative impasse over how to raise more money for Medi-Cal and highway repairs. When a reporter asked how he intended to do that, the governor admitted hell have to work harder. I increase my role, Brown answered. I have more conversations. Thats the ticket. Because when this old dog barks, people usually listen. They fear his bite. george.skelton@latimes.com Twitter: @LATimesSkelton ALSO L.A. eyes plan to hire lobbyist to explore ways to use city-owned land Amount of lobbying done in the shadows is growing, California ethics officials agree Kamala Harris should take bolder action on police shootings, civil rights advocates say When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out of his car on Aug. 5, 1966, in his usual dark suit and polished shoes, he was met by a line of police and a mob of angry white people. His struggle hadnt gotten easier. As the 37-year-old civil rights leader strode toward several hundred supporters, a stone sailed through the air and struck King, sending him to one knee. Aides shielded the Nobel laureate from bricks and bottles hurled by the furious crowd. King had faced violence before. But this time, he wasnt in the Jim Crow South. He was in Chicago. Advertisement Fifty years ago this January, King embarked on a less-remembered chapter from the final years of his life, a battle that ultimately went unfinished a campaign against poverty and de facto segregation in the North that was met with institutional resistance, skepticism from other activists and open violence. I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as Ive seen here in Chicago, King told reporters that day, stripping off his tie and vowing to continue demonstrating. Yes, its definitely a closed society. Were going to make it an open society. As the nation marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, many will hail signature moments from earlier in his career, such as the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in 1955 and 1956, and the I Have a Dream speech in 1963. Less likely to be celebrated: Kings battle against economic inequality, which historians say improved conditions for some black Chicagoans, but not all. There has been and hasnt been change; it depends on how you look at it, said Timuel D. Black, a 97-year-old Chicago historian and activist who knew King and protested with him. For middle-class African Americans, it made desirable housing and schools more accessible and available. Join the conversation on Facebook >> But, Black added, Those at the bottom are really no better off. By 1966, Congress and the Supreme Court had struck blows against the legal regime of white supremacy upheld by the Bull Connors and George Wallaces of the South. But King and fellow organizers with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference saw misery in the North as well. Southern blacks who had moved to Chicago in search of better jobs and better lives instead met firebombings and racist housing covenants that squeezed them into crowded slums on the citys South and West sides. Here, King agreed, was the next great struggle. Announcing on Jan. 7, 1966, the first significant Northern freedom movement ever attempted by major civil rights forces, King said Chicago would be the first front in a campaign for justice against the involuntary enslavement of blacks in Northern slums. I have never seen, even in Mississippi and Alabama, mobs as hateful as Ive seen here in Chicago. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in 1966 In Chicago, King said, the objective will be to bring about the unconditional surrender of forces dedicated to the creation and maintenance of slums and ultimately make slums a moral and financial liability upon the whole community. Instead of focusing on narrow targets such as lunch counters or buses, the Chicago Freedom Movement would fight everything: slumlords, realtors and Mayor Richard J. Daleys Democratic machine. There were people in Chicago who felt proud both black and white, the activists that he would come to Chicago, Black said of King recently. But the going was tough. The civil rights movement had started to splinter. There were more militant activists who disagreed with Kings nonviolent tactics, even booing King at one meeting. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> On July 10, 1966, King spoke to tens of thousands of supporters at Chicagos Soldier Field and, urging a peaceful protest, vowed to fill up the jails of Chicago, if necessary, in order to end slums. Demonstrators inspired by King advanced peacefully into white neighborhoods, where swastikas bloomed in Chicago parks like misbegotten weeds, King wrote later. Our marchers were met by a hailstorm of bricks, bottles and firecrackers. An up-and-coming activist named Jesse Jackson made the boldest play yet: a threat to march into Cicero, a nearly 100% white suburb notorious for violent racism. In 1951, a Cicero mob had attacked an apartment building where a black family had moved; earlier in 1966, four whites had beaten a black teenager, Jerome Huey, to death. Officials called the march suicidal and reached an agreement with activists to improve open housing and desegregation efforts. King called off further marches, but a splinter group of a few hundred marchers, led by organizers from the Congress of Racial Equality, proceeded to Cicero anyway. On Sept. 4, 700 police with billy clubs and 2,700 National Guard troops with rifles and bayonets shielded the singing and clapping marchers from hostile white protesters who had a chant of their own: Two, four, six, eight! We dont want to integrate! Documentary footage showed men on both sides taunting one another through lines of riot police, and the Chicago Tribune reported that white protesters started throwing rocks and bottles at the black marchers, who began throwing items back. We look back at 1966 as a year of beginnings and of transition, King later wrote. For those of us who came to Chicago from Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama ... we found ourselves confronted by the hard realities of a social system in many ways more resistant to change than the rural South. Decades later, studies show that many U.S. cities are still largely informally segregated. An enormous wealth gap still separates black and white Americans, and recent protests over police treatment of African Americans have projected deep anger over racial inequality. Despite reports that say Chicago is still one of the nations most segregated metropolitan areas, older black Chicagoans look around today and see a different city than the one King occupied. I was born here and have seen the change, and Im amazed, said historian Christopher Reed, a 76-year-old professor emeritus at Roosevelt University. Everywhere my wife and I travel in this city, we see black faces. Not just working everywhere theyre living around the city, Reed said. You sure didnt see that when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. matt.pearce@latimes.com Twitter: @MattDPearce ALSO Ohio police officer found dead; suspect in custody Sharp Clinton-Sanders debate foreshadows primary battles In Floridas Everglades, hundreds of snake hunters aim to bag pythons Placing third, at best, is rarely the stated goal for a presidential candidate. Yet that was exactly the focus for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as they barnstormed Iowa this weekend, a little more than two weeks before this state holds the first presidential nominating contest in the nation. Hundreds of people braved temperatures hovering around zero to jam Rubio events, and the senator spent nearly as much time shaking hands and taking pictures with voters as he did speaking and answering questions. Christie was on a similar mission, traversing nearly half the state to greet voters at breakfast and hold town halls in bars and even an ice cream parlor. Advertisement Join the conversation on Facebook >> The two Republicans shared imperative: to head into the New Hampshire primary eight days later as the best-positioned establishment alternative to businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. It would be a great shot of adrenaline going into New Hampshire, where they might find a more favorable electorate, said former state GOP chairman Matt Strawn, who saw both men speak Saturday. Moderate and business-minded Republican voters, either in Iowa or nationally, have yet to coalesce behind a candidate. If an establishment candidate such as Rubio or Christie has a stronger-than-expected showing when Iowans caucus on Feb. 1, their hope is that will prompt voters in the upcoming primaries to solidify support behind their campaign, notably in New Hampshire. Voters there habitually nominate mainstream Republican candidates because the electorate is less influenced by evangelical Christians than Iowas. Cruz and Trump are battling for first place in the Iowa caucuses, with the senator winning the support of 25% in polling released last week by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, and the businessman receiving 22%. Rubio came in third with 12%, in a virtual tie with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who received 11%. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also fighting for establishment support, notched 4%. Christie, who clocked a lowly 3%, was frank about his chances. Im not going to win the Iowa caucuses. How about I make that declaration? Christie told the Des Moines Registers editorial board Friday. But I dont have to. I just think Im going to do a heck of a lot better here than most people think. Christies stated goal is to do the best among all the governors in the race. Rubio was not quite as candid, but he argued that he had momentum here. We feel very positive about the turnout were seeing, getting people signing up to caucus, he told reporters after a town hall in Johnston on Saturday. We feel very optimistic. In about two weeks, youll find out why. Voters in Iowa decide late, he cautioned. Polling released last week found more than half of likely GOP caucus-goers had not picked a candidate, or could change their mind if they had. Rubio was criticized in recent weeks for holding few events and for spending time only near cities while skipping rural areas. On this trip, Rubios schedule included eight town halls scattered in every corner of Iowa. Rubio paints a dire picture of a declining America, before arguing that he has the skills to right the nations course. TRAIL GUIDE: All the latest news on the 2016 presidential campaign >> He repeatedly attacked Cruz by name, beginning his critique by noting that Ted is my friend, but that the pair disagree on two main issues. Rubio argues that Cruzs tax proposal is similar to a value-added tax, and that Cruz is soft on national security because he voted for a budget that would have reduced military funding and called whistle-blower Edward Snowden a public servant. Snowdens a traitor, Rubio told an overflowing crowd in Johnston. Heres one thing I know: In my first day in office, more than any other Republican running, I am going to keep the nation safe. Rubio and his allies are also saturating the airwaves. Through Jan. 9, Rubio and a super PAC supporting his bid spent $7.8 million on television ads in Iowa, second only to Bush and his allies, according to NBC News. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 1, Rubio and the super PAC have bought time to air about 7,000 ads one-third of all the political ads that have been purchased, according to a Des Moines Register analysis. Christies effort is much more modest. He unveiled his first Iowa ad a few days ago. But he has a history with the states Republicans he campaigned here repeatedly for Gov. Terry Branstad and for 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney. He headlined the governors birthday fundraiser, and a number of people in Branstads circle are working for the New Jersey governors campaign. In Ames on Saturday, Christie spoke about serving as a U.S. attorney after the Sept. 11 attacks and sought to differentiate himself from Trump, Cruz and Rubio. Its good to be entertained. But were not electing the entertainer in chief.... Were electing the commander in chief, Christie said in a barely veiled reference to Trump. Then he turned to the two first-term senators. We want to elect someone who can actually do the job, he said. First-term United States senators are wonderful people. But theyve never made a serious decision of consequence and been held accountable for it. Marianne Rizk, a 28-year-old psychology graduate student from Iowa City, said she was impressed. It really is a breath of fresh air that hes so blunt and so honest. His personality makes me believe America wont get bullied, she said. But Rizk is also considering Rubio. I feel kind of stuck, she said. seema.mehta@latimes.com Twitter: @LATSeema chris.megerian@latimes.com Twitter: @chrismegerian Mehta reported from Johnston and Megerian from Ames, Iowa. ALSO Sharp Clinton-Sanders debate foreshadows primary battles Sanders, Clinton clash on guns, healthcare and Obama legacy as Democrats debate Why the Democrats are cautioning that the Iran nuclear deal is only a first step Debating less than a block from where nine black parishioners were gunned down in a savage, racially motivated attack, Democratic presidential hopefuls on Sunday zeroed in like never before on a critical pool of support: black voters. Race and the social ills faced by blacks in particular black men was more central to the debate than at any previous gathering among front-runner Hillary Clinton and her rivals for the partys nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley. The three Democrats proposed ways to limit gun violence, laid out their views on how to repair relationships between police and the communities they serve, and spoke passionately of trying to create economic opportunities for disenfranchised young black men. Advertisement There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system, Clinton declared in the debate hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. The focus was not surprising given the debates proximity to Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., where a white gunman last June first joined a prayer group and then opened fire. The tone was in contrast to one just days prior a few miles away in North Charleston, S.C., where seven Republican presidential hopefuls huddled for a debate that including a discussion about the rights of gun owners and later devolved into attacks over Sen. Ted Cruzs Canadian birth and Donald Trumps New York values. Unlike in the Democratic debate, no mention was made of Walter Scott, an unarmed black man whose shooting death at the hands of a North Charleston police officer was captured on video last spring. Republicans did, however, make reference to the AME Church shooting. The difference largely boils down to each party seeking to appeal to its core supporters. Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrats, and Republicans have struggled to make inroads with African Americans while relying on the support of an aging white base. Join the conversation on Facebook >> And for Democrats, high turnout among black voters is a key to cobbling together a winning coalition in November. The party is unlikely to replicate the turnout of 2008 and 2012, when the election of Barack Obama as the nations first black president brought record numbers of blacks to the polls. In 2012, for the first time ever, black voter turnout rates exceeded the white voter turnout rate 66.2% versus 64.1%, according to a Census Bureau report. Keeping those numbers at similar levels will be a difficult task without Obama on the ticket. Long before Novembers election, black voters will be key to deciding who wins the Democratic nomination. As the race between Clinton and Sanders tightens in the first nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire two places where the electorate is overwhelmingly older and white the former secretary of State is banking on African American voters in South Carolina to be her firewall of sorts, particularly if she loses the first two states. Seeking to ensure black support in the South and elsewhere, Clinton tried to demonstrate Sunday that she understood the rate of incarceration plaguing black communities. I want people hear to think what we would be doing if it was one out of three white men -- and very often, the black men are arrested, convicted and incarcerated. Hillary Clinton speaking during Sundays Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C. One out of three African American men may well end up going to prison. Thats the statistic, Clinton said, citing the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group that advocates for prison reform. I want people here to think what we would be doing if it was one out of three white men. And very often, the black men are arrested, convicted and incarcerated. Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, was widely lauded by the black community, has benefited from strong poll numbers among minorities something Sanders has consistently struggled with in his candidacy. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday showed Clinton leading Sanders 69% to 27% among nonwhite primary voters. A Winthrop University poll from last November found that in South Carolina which will hold its Democratic primary Feb. 27 80% of black Democratic voters supported Clinton, compared with 8% for Sanders. TRAIL GUIDE: All the latest news on the 2016 presidential campaign >> Its certainly Hillary Clintons race to lose here in South Carolina, said Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose annual political fish fry over the weekend was attended by Sanders, Clinton and OMalley. Clyburn, who is remaining neutral in the primary, said in an interview that its still early and South Carolina Democrats in particular black voters will be watching Iowa and New Hampshire closely. Barack Obama winning Iowa in 2008 certainly helped boost his support here, Clyburn said. African Americans saw he was appealing to nonblacks and that helped. ... African Americans are not just voting to be voting. We want our vote to be consequential. Sanders, who has enlisted prominent philosopher Cornel West and rap artist Killer Mike to court black support, remains undeterred by poll numbers. He notes that when his campaign began last spring he was polling in single digits but is now a contender for the nomination. When the African American community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda, and with our views on the economy and criminal justice just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African American community, he said during Sundays debate. SIGN UP for the free Essential Politics newsletter >> But some see his time slipping away. South Carolina House Minority Leader J. Todd Rutherford, the first elected official from the Palmetto State to endorse Obama during the 2008 primary, said Sanders message about income inequality resonates with black voters, even though he remains somewhat of an unknown. He has a strong message, yet people look at him like, Who is this guy? said Rutherford, who has remained neutral in the primary. At least among older black voters from what Ive seen people just dont know him. Younger people hear his message, but theres still skepticism. Follow @kurtisalee for political news ALSO Hillary Clinton campaign chairman tells super PAC to chill out Why Marco Rubio and Chris Christie are hoping to place third in Iowa Sanders, Clinton clash on guns, healthcare and Obama legacy as Democrats debate With a fierceness that underscored their fight in early presidential primary states, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sparred Sunday night over guns, healthcare and the influence of Wall Street in the final debate before voters begin to determine their future. The debate was flavored by its locale: South Carolina, which will be the fourth state to vote on the Democratic side this year, and a state whose Democrats are both strongly African American and overwhelmingly supportive of President Obama. Clinton, Obamas first secretary of State as well as his 2008 primary opponent, repeatedly referred to her support of Obama and cast Sanders as wishy-washy toward the presidents priorities. Clintons demand of loyalty to the president, and desire to retain her lofty standing among African American voters, was central to a lengthy dispute over healthcare. The national front-runner has proposed tweaking Obamas landmark healthcare law to improve it. Sanders, the Vermont senator whose support is greatest among white and young voters, has proposed moving to a fully government-funded plan that, he announced just before the debate, would be paid for by taxes on all but the poorest Americans. Advertisement The Democratic Party and the United States worked since Harry Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed. We finally have a path to universal healthcare. We have accomplished so much already, Clinton said. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it. And I dont want to see us start over again with contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it. In words that seemed intended to remind Democrats that Sanders is an independent and not a party loyalist, she called the healthcare measure one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party and of our country. Sanders said Clintons assertion that he would gut Obamacare was nonsense. What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country healthcare for every man, woman and child as a right, Sanders said. Later, he cast his healthcare plan as necessary to eradicate the power of campaign donors. The increased taxes, he said, would largely be offset by savings in private insurance coverage payments. MORE: Get our best stories in your Facebook feed >> Do you know why we cant do what every other country major country on Earth is doing? he asked. Its because we have a campaign finance system that is corrupt, we have super PACs, we have the pharmaceutical industry pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into campaign contributions and lobbying, and the private insurance companies as well. The same themes of continuity versus dramatic change flavored a dispute over the economy. Clinton presented herself as the chief Obama defender on the Charleston stage, albeit one who would be tough on Wall Street. Sanders, as he has throughout the campaign, cast himself as the revolutionary leader of a movement against the current political system. I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, said Sanders, distinguishing himself from Clinton. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, the old Republican trust buster, what he would say is these guys are too powerful. Break them up. I believe thats what the American people want to see. Thats my view. Clinton defended her economic plan as one that has both received praise from leading economists and enmity from hedge fund operators: Im the one they dont want to be up against. The third candidate onstage, former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, made perhaps his best showing of the night when he came back against Clinton. For you to say theres no daylight on this between the three of us is also not true, said OMalley, who has trailed far behind the other two in polling. He added that now you bring up President Obama here in South Carolina in defense of the fact of your cozy relationship with Wall Street. ... The truth of the matter is, Secretary Clinton, you do not go as far as reining in Wall Street as I would. Most of the debate was spent reiterating well-worn campaign positions, so the political impact of it seemed likely to be inconsequential. But because of the site and the attention each wanted to pay to African American voters, the candidates confronted fresh issues, such as the criminal justice system and the national heroin epidemic. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Clinton, her eye on the African American voters she needs to quash Sanders, lauded the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said systemic racism had infected the criminal justice system and closed out the debate with criticism of Michigans delays in protecting the water supply of Flint, a majority black city. It was inevitable given the location of the debate, close to the Emanuel AME Church where members were slain in June, that the issue of guns would arise. Continuing an unrelenting assault on Sanders gun record, Clinton on Sunday criticized two past actions: his 1993 opposition to the Brady bill because it called for a five-day waiting period and his vote for a 2005 measure that gave gun makers and dealers immunity from liability lawsuits. A loophole in the 1993 bill allowed Dylann Roof, the Charleston gunman, to obtain his weapon. Defending his overall record, Sanders reiterated under questioning that his views were changing. I would support stronger provisions, he said of the immunity issues. Clinton suggested that he had not moved enough. Lets not forget what this is about 90 people a day die from gun violence in our country, Clinton said. Thats 33,000 people a year. One of the most horrific examples not a block from here where we had nine people murdered. A strong showing in the debate was particularly important for Clinton. She retains a strong national lead; a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released Sunday put her 25 percentage points ahead of Sanders. But he has nearly eradicated her lead in Iowa, and he is ahead of her in New Hampshire, where he benefits from representing the state next door. Iowa holds its caucuses Feb. 1, and New Hampshire votes eight days later. The end of the debate, the last joint performance for the Democratic candidates before voting begins, ushers in a frenetic two-week period of organizing and campaigning that will go a long way toward determining whether the race will be long and fractious, as it was the last time the presidency was open. At this point, the path to the nomination for Clinton requires that she maintain her advantages in states that are more demographically diverse, such as third-voting Nevada, where she is popular among Latino voters, and South Carolina, with its important African American vote. As she has throughout the campaign, she argued Sunday that she would be best equipped to serve as president and to defeat the Republican nominee, thus putting her in a position to rescue Democratic objectives from the Republican Congress. Toward the end of the debate, there was an uncomfortable reminder of one of her electoral strengths among Democrats: her husband, former President Clinton. Sanders was asked about recent criticism of Bill Clintons extramarital activities. He said he had tried to avoid the topic, and then faced Clinton. You know that and weve been through this, he said. Yes, his behavior was deplorable. Have I ever once said a word about that issue? No, I have not. Im going to debate Secretary Clinton and Gov. OMalley on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clintons personal behavior. The question to Hillary Clinton focused not on her husbands past affairs but on his advisory role were she to win the presidency. Well, it will start at the kitchen table, she said. Well see how it goes from there. cathleen.decker@latimes.com | Twitter: @cathleendecker evan.halper@latimes.com | Twitter: @evanhalper seema.mehta@latimes.com | Twitter: @LATseema Decker reported from Los Angeles, Halper from Charleston, S.C., and Mehta from Des Moines. MORE POLITICAL COVERAGE Why Marco Rubio and Chris Christie are hoping to place third in Iowa Sanders, Clinton clash on guns, healthcare and Obama legacy as Democrats debate Hillary Clinton campaign chairman tells super PAC to chill out Catholic healthcare just cant seem to stay out of the news. This time, Mercy Hospital in Redding citing its commitment to church teaching has refused to tie the tubes of one of their patients after a C-section delivery. A Superior Court judge in San Francisco has said the hospital can make that choice, but the ACLU is suing on behalf of the patient. This debate hinges on a central question in medical ethics: What is healthcare? You might be tempted to think this is pretty easy to answer, but in reality our culture is constantly wrestling with this question. Medicine [is] increasingly seen as market based, with patients as customers who come in and Have It Their Way. Advertisement California just spent more than a year having a debate about whether assisting a person in dying should be considered healthcare. We are constantly faced with old questions (is there an appropriate age at which we stop doing knee replacements?) and new questions (should we respect claims of bodily integrity identity disorder and have perfectly healthy limbs cut from someones body?), which push and challenge our understanding of healthcare. Unfortunately, medical practice isnt much help here. Some will refer to the standard of care, but all this tells us is what most hospitals and physicians are doing. It doesnt tell us why they do it, or if its right. Healthcare providers (whether they know it or not) make these kinds of judgments based not so much on medical training but on values and ethics. Whether one is a maximize happiness utilitarian, a care-centered feminist, a neoliberal capitalist or a justice-seeking Roman Catholic, these values are what forms ones foundational understanding of healthcare. Our liberty-centered culture has tried to make space for multiple value systems. Indeed, in his ground-breaking opinion legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy began by insisting the Constitution protects the liberty of all persons to define and express their identity. This is especially true when it comes to a value-laden and professional practice like healthcare. Alarmingly, this understanding of medicine is coming under tremendous pressure from what Mark Mercurio, a professor of pediatrics and ethics at Yale Universitys medical school, calls the Burger King model. Instead of medicine being treated as a profession governed by internal norms and values, its increasingly seen as market-based, with patients as customers who come in and Have It Their Way. This model is at the heart of those who believe Catholic hospitals ought to be forced to tie the tubes of their patients. On this view, a hospital denying someones request for a tubal ligation would be just as strange as a Burger King denying requests for Whoppers with no onions. But if you take a professional view of medicine, the following question must be asked: Is intentionally interfering with someones reproductive system (in ways which do not address some injury or disease) an act of healthcare? This is a disputed question, of course, and ones answer depends on ones particular value system. From the Catholic Churchs perspective, it is not. When healthcare providers are forced by law to violate the values that make them who they are because of the request of customers demanding goods and services in the free market it signals the end of medicine as a professional practice. It makes medicine just another exchange of goods and services, and puts patients in the role of customers, ordering whatever they want from physicians. In such a world, an orthopedic surgeon would be forced to cut off a patients perfectly healthy leg rather than insisting that his bodily integrity identity disorder be treated instead. Someone with only months to live could order a knee replacement. And nothing could stop those who are merely tired of life from demanding a prescription for a deadly dose of medication. If that sounds wrong to you, then you have to say there is no justification for refusing healthcare providers including Catholic hospitals the freedom as professionals to determine their own answers to these vexing questions. If instead we single out religious hospitals and deny them this freedom, it would reveal that a very serious kind of discrimination is present in our culture. And it is the kind of discrimination that not only reveals contempt for the 1st Amendment, but also for the right of all to define and express their identity. Charles C. Camosy, an associate professor at Fordham University, specializes in bioethics and theology. Twitter: @nohiddenmagenta Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook Proponents of a pair of initiatives to curb retirement benefits for public employees said Monday they will not go forward with their ballot measures this year. Instead, former San Diego Councilman Carl DeMaio and former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed said they will seek to qualify their measures in 2018, when they believe theyll face a more favorable political landscape. We need pension reform to protect our education system and vital public services from these fast-growing burdens, DeMaio, a Republican, and Reed, a Democrat, wrote in an email to supporters. Although our polling today shows continued strong public support for pension reform, we believe 2018 will provide an even better environment for substantial reform as rising retirement costs further squeeze their schools and local agencies budgets. Advertisement Join the conversation on Facebook >> DeMaio and Reed filed two ballot measures last year aiming to shrink public employee pensions: One would have required voter approval for defined-benefit pensions for new workers after 2019, and the other would have limited what the government could pay toward new employees retirement benefits. ------------ FOR THE RECORD 1:50 p.m.: In an earlier version of this post, the caption said DeMaio was a congressman. He is a former Republican congressional candidate. ------------ Labor unions were quick to voice their opposition to the proposals and were expected to spend heavily against them. DeMaio, in an interview Monday, said the measures backers decided to hold off this year in part because they were awaiting the result of a U.S. Supreme Court case on mandatory union fees. If justices decide to strike down such fees, it could deal a major blow to labor unions. If labor unions arent able to spend unlimited amounts of money, that certainly heightens the chance of [pension] reform, DeMaio said. He also said instability in the stock market could make their proposals more palatable. We believe that as the markets begin to show distress, taxpayers will see its not fun seeing their 401(k)s go down and then have to turn around and write bailout checks for government pension programs, DeMaio said. This isnt the first time supporters of pension overhaul have delayed their path to the ballot. In 2012, a Republican-led group abandoned its initiative campaign; in 2014, Reed pulled his own statewide initiative. In both cases, proponents accused Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris of crafting a politically slanted summary that would dissuade voters from the measures. Reed sued Harris over her title and summary of his measure in 2014. A judge ruled her description was fair. Dave Low, chairman of Californians for Retirement Security, a coalition of labor groups opposing the proposals, said Reed and DeMaios efforts failed because they were too extreme, would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, and would have destabilized our states two retirement systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS. We are skeptical that donors will have any confidence in these two failed politicians who have repeatedly bungled efforts to put their poorly written efforts to gut retirement security for millions of Californians on the ballot, Low said in a statement. They can be assured that any scheme they cook up for 2018 will meet the same fate of their previous efforts because we will fight it with our full arsenal. Follow @melmason for more on California government and politics. ALSO 14 years in, Brown shows no sign of losing political muscle Kamala Harris should take bolder action on police shootings, civil rights advocates say Amount of lobbying done in the shadows is growing, California ethics officials agree Delegates from four countries called on the Taliban to resume peace talks with the government of Afghanistan as the U.S.-backed diplomatic push gathered momentum. Representatives of the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met in Kabul on Monday, one week after the first meeting was held in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Representatives of the Taliban did not attend. Although some insurgent leaders had previously indicated interest in opening talks with the Kabul government, there have been fewer signs recently of the Talibans willingness to negotiate as the group seizes more territory in parts of Afghanistan. Advertisement In a statement, the countries said they called on Taliban factions to enter into early talks with the Afghan government to resolve all differences. The next meeting of the group was set for Feb. 6 in Islamabad. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Mondays meeting came as the Taliban and other militant groups, including fighters claiming allegiance to the Iraq- and Syria-based Islamic State, continue to conduct increasingly audacious attacks throughout Afghanistan. Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani, speaking at the meeting, warned the Taliban that any delay in coming to the table will put the [group] in a corner and show that its aim is not peace. Despite gains on the battlefield, the Taliban has reportedly suffered from infighting since the announcement last summer of the death of its founder and leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. Rival Taliban factions have spoken out against Omars successor, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, prompting fears among many Afghans that the insurgent group is not united enough to be a negotiating partner. Waheed Muzhda, a former official in the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan until the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, said the reports of infighting have been exaggerated. There have been internal conflicts within the Taliban as far back as 2001, but a few leaders took the announcement of Mullah Omars death as an advantage to announce publicly their disagreements with Mullah Mansoor, Muzhda said. The men challenging Mansoor lack the battlefield resources to present a military threat to the main Taliban movement, Muzhda said. Despite the questions surrounding the Taliban, and its significant territorial gains in the southern province of Helmand in recent months, the four-nation group said it remained optimistic about the prospect of Afghan-led and Afghan-owned talks. This is the latest attempt to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table to end more than 14 years of conflict. The Afghan government has previously tried to start both direct and indirect talks, and the United States and several European governments initiated contacts with Taliban delegates based in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom of Qatar that eventually fell through. The current process is seen as having the best chance because of the involvement of Pakistan, where the Talibans main leadership is based. Afghan leaders have called on Pakistan to take action against Taliban factions that reject talks. The four nations joint statement said they all were committed to eliminate all forms of terrorist groups, regardless of their national origin, operating in their respective territories. Latifi is a special correspondent. ALSO Taliban denies role in latest Afghanistan bombing Indonesian police arrest 12 after Jakarta attack India faces questions over its handling of a militant attack At Light Korean Presbyterian Church on a recent Sunday, there are few outward signs that anything is wrong. Families crowd the corridors, abuzz in English and Korean. The congregation rises in song. The pastor devotes most of his sermon to the challenges of daily life. If we dont turn toward God, we cant see whats right in front of us, he preaches. Advertisement Not until the end of the service does he lead a short prayer to address whats been foremost in the minds of many members: the future of the churchs longtime leader, the Rev. Lim Hyeon-soo, who is serving a life sentence in a North Korean prison. Bring light to North Korea, the worshipers say together. They end every service this way. Lim, who had visited the reclusive authoritarian country more than 100 times, was arrested there early last year and charged with multiple crimes, including using religion to destroy the North Korean system of government. His supporters say that the 60-year-old Lim supported a nursing home, orphanage and nursery there and that his trips were humanitarian, not political. His sentence, handed down last month, includes hard labor. We never thought he would be away this long, said one congregant, Song Ho-jin, 47. But in some ways it has brought us closer, made us more firm. The two-story church, perched in an industrial area in this suburb of Toronto, had about 100 members when Lim took over in 1986, shortly after moving from South Korea for graduate school. By the time of his detainment in North Korea, the congregation had grown to more than 3,000 people. Church members said Lim eased the transition to life in Canada for hundreds, if not thousands, of new Korean immigrants over the years. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> When Kim Young-hoon arrived four years ago, he knew almost nobody, spoke haltingly in English and had little money after paying his rent and tuition for training in hotel management. He said Lim and his wife took a personal interest in him, buying him food and socks. There are churches closer to his home, he said, but he prefers Light Presbyterian, even though it means having to take a bus an hour each way. I only want to come here, because Pastor Lim and his wife are such good people, he said. Those same motives drove the pastors charity work in North Korea, the 41-year-old Kim said: It was about love. He loves the North Korean people. Church members got a fresh look at Lim recently when he was interviewed by CNN. Lim told the network that he was being held at a labor camp, where he works alone eight hours a day, six days a week, digging holes to plant apple trees. Asked whether he needed anything, Lim said he had requested a Bible, which had not been provided. I hope I can go home someday, Lim said. Nobody knows if I will ever go home, but that is my hope. I miss my family. I am longing to see them again, and my congregation. The chances of that happening are uncertain. When American citizens are imprisoned in North Korea, it usually takes a high-profile U.S. official to travel to there to negotiate their release. Lim is no longer a South Korean citizen, so he will have to rely on the Canadian government. Canada does not have full diplomatic relations with North Korea, but officials from the Canadian Embassy in Seoul did have consular access to Lim after he was sentenced. Consular officials are providing assistance to Mr. Lim and his family, Francois Lasalle, a spokesman for Canadas foreign affairs department, wrote in an email. He said officials are continuously working toward a resolution of Lims case, but declined to provide further details. Lisa Pak, a spokeswoman for the church, said that Canadian diplomats have kept church officials abreast of the situation and that, as far as she knows, Lim is in good health and at peace knowing that people are praying for him. At the church, framed photographs show Lim with various members on missions in Central Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Lims name remains on his closed office door, and several letters sit unopened in his mailbox. Borowiec is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Alexandra Zavis in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Join the conversation on Facebook >> ALSO As improved U.S.-Iran relations are celebrated, questions loom about the road ahead Once again, Islamic State suspected of carrying out mass kidnapping Taiwan nationalists suffer historic defeat with election of first female president The large black banner that supporters of Taiwans Tsai Ing-wen brought to her presidential election victory rally on Saturday evening is just the kind of thing that makes leaders of Chinas Communist Party nervous about her Democratic Progressive Party. Taiwan is NOT part of China! read the sign. Support Taiwan independence. Yet even though Tsais victory was propelled to a significant extent by voter unhappiness with moves by outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou and his Nationalist Party to forge economic and tourism links with mainland China, observers believe authorities on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are likely to proceed cautiously in the months ahead and try every politically feasible way to work things out. Advertisement One of the immediate objectives for Tsai will be finding ways to boost growth on the self-ruled island of 23 million; scaling back or cutting the ties established by Mas administration would hardly help Taiwans struggling, export-dependent economy. China is Taiwans biggest trading partner by far. Trade reached $130 billion in 2014, and nearly four million tourists came from the mainland, up from a trickle before 2008. And for Beijing, suddenly putting relations in a deep freeze could also have economic downsides, and erode any goodwill President Xi Jinping built up with his decision to meet Ma face to face in Singapore in November the first such meeting between leaders of the two sides since 1949. This years election definitely is a rebuttal against the Ma administrations policies against China and Mas current hypothesis on relations with China, said Lai I-chung, vice president of Taiwan Thinktank and the Democratic Progressive Partys former China policy head. But I dont think it means the current population wants to have a war with China. I think the Democratic Progressive Party in their minds wants to have a stable and peaceful relationship with China. Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalist government lost Chinas civil war to Mao Tse-tungs Communist forces and retreated to the island 100 miles off the mainlands southeast coast. For decades after, both governments insisted that they were the rightful representatives of China. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Leaders in Beijing continue to view Taiwan as a province that got away and must be reunified with the mainland someday. In Taiwan, although the constitution still claims sovereignty over all of China, opinion polls show only about 11% of people support reunifying with the mainland now or at some unspecified time in the future. For the time being, a vast majority say the best option is just to maintain the islands ambiguous status quo functioning largely as an independent country, though lacking a seat at the United Nations and formal diplomatic relations with all but 22 countries. Chen had more of a hot personality and sort of a hot political persona; [Tsai] is cooler. Richard C. Bush III, a Taiwan expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington China often tries to block Taiwans attempts to participate in international organizations and events because it believes such activities could be interpreted as signs of Taiwanese sovereignty. Tsais party has held the presidency only once before, from 2000 to 2008, under Chen Shui-bian, a former mayor of Taipei and democratic activist. As president, Chen initially reached out to China but backed off amid criticism from his own party; later, he called for the island to join the United Nations under the name Taiwan, and he wanted to draft a new constitution. Beijing responded with anger, and the United States, a key ally of Taiwan, even rebuked Chen. Chen had more of a hot personality and sort of a hot political persona; [Tsai] is cooler, said Richard C. Bush III, a Taiwan expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Also, he said, Chen had no experience in Taiwans central government, whereas Tsais main experience has been as a government official, so she knows her way around the halls of power. During Chens first term, Tsai worked as head of the Mainland Affairs Council, the islands top policymaking body on relations with Beijing. Before that, she worked with President Lee Teng-hui on mainland issues as well. Throughout her campaign, Tsai said she would build a consistent, predictable and sustainable cross-strait relationship. In a victory speech Saturday, she said she would work to maintain the status quo for peace and stability, though she warned pointedly that our democratic system, national identity and international space must be respected. Any forms of suppression will harm the stability of cross-strait relations. Beijing has complained that Tsai has refused to explicitly endorse the 1992 consensus, which holds that there is one China, but that each side of the strait has its own understanding of what that is. The Nationalists have touted the formulation as the key to cross-strait peace and prosperity, but whether Tsai and her party are able to come up with some other locution that allows talks to proceed remains to be seen. Shelley Rigger, a Taiwan scholar at Davidson College in North Carolina, said the meeting between Xi and Ma in November was in some ways a gift to Tsai. Shes entering office with cross-strait relations the best they have ever been. But with anti-China sentiment running high in Taiwan ahead of the election, Tsai had no incentive to be any more accommodating toward Beijing during the campaign, Rigger added. Between now and her May inauguration, Tsai may find a way to satisfy Beijing enough to move forward, Rigger predicted, though the responsibility is not hers alone. My feeling is the ball is in Beijings court as well, she said. The Xi-Ma meeting shows [Chinese officials] can be flexible if they want. Experts said Beijing could try to needle Tsai for example, by attempting to poach some of the islands few remaining formal diplomatic allies. Supporters of Taiwans Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, gather in Taipei to hear her declare victory in the presidential election. (Wally Santana / Associated Press) Best-case scenario would be Beijing and Taipei dont break any new ground but at least sustain Mas openings, said Denny Roy, senior fellow at the East-West Center think tank in Honolulu. Worst-case scenario: Beijing punishes Taiwan for having voted in Tsai by pulling back various economic goodies. Chinas state-run media reacted to Saturdays election results with less shrill rhetoric than it directed at Chen and took note of Tsais pledges to maintain the status quo. One worrisome detail for Beijing is that Tsai won the election with 56% of the popular vote; her Nationalist Party opponent got just 31%. In contrast, Chen won election in 2000 with just 39% of the vote in a five-way race, and in 2004 he defeated his Nationalist Party challenger by just 30,000 votes out of 12.9 million ballots. This year, the DPP also won an outright majority in Taiwans legislature for the first time in history. But Chens narrower margin pushed him to lean more on Taiwans pro-independence voters for his base of support. In contrast, Tsai commands much of the electorates vast center and seems in no danger of losing pro-independence voters even if she doesnt take as hard a line as they might like. From Beijings standpoint, Saturdays election result will be palatable if it merely reflects temporary anxieties in Taiwan about Mas specific policies and style of doing business, said Bush, of Brookings. But if the vote heralds the long-term decline of the Nationalists and reflects an enduring manifestation of [Taiwanese] fear of mainland intentions and anxiety about being too dependent on China and fear of being on a slippery slope toward unification and domination, thats another story. That kind of more fundamental realignment, Bush said, could call into question the basic assumptions of Chinese policy. Jennings is a special correspondent. Follow @JulieMakLAT for news from China ALSO Text of Taiwans first female presidents first remarks In Canada, followers of pastor held by North Korea keep their faith Indonesian police arrest 12 after Jakarta attack Having spent 18 months in an Iranian prison where he lost 40 pounds, paced a small cell for hours and was sometimes held in isolation Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian worried about his release from captivity until the very end. When the Swiss air force jet carrying Rezaian, his family and two other American prisoners took off from Tehran last weekend, the passengers burst into applause and then applauded again when the jet left Iranian airspace, according to Washington Post Foreign Editor Doug Jehl, who debriefed Rezaian in Germany on Monday. It really was touch and go, he said, in the final hours as to whether hed be able to leave, Jehl told The Times on Monday, adding that there was uncertainty as to whether Iranian officials would allow Rezaians wife and his mother to leave Iran with him. He was not sure that this trauma would be over until the plane actually began to take off. Advertisement Rezaian, who was released from Iran as part of a prisoner swap with the U.S., said Monday that physically, Im feeling good after enduring 18 months in captivity, the Washington Post reported. It also published a photo that showed the grinning journalist posing with members of his family, who were also smiling -- though Rezaian hinted that his recovery might take a while. I want people to know that physically, Im feeling good, Rezaian told the Post at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, where he was taken for medical checks. I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time. After Rezaians release Saturday, Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Jehl met with him at Ramstein and said he looked remarkably good. It was Baron who took the photo of Rezaian and his family, and the Post editors joined the group for a celebratory dinner. There had been concerns about Rezaians health during his captivity at Tehrans notorious Evin Prison. Hes lost a lot of weight, Jehl told The Times, adding that Rezaian spent a lot of time walking around and around an 8-by-8-foot cell. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> It was a way to keep busy, to keep sane, and it kept him fairly fit, Jehl said of Rezaian, an extrovert who spent 49 days in solitary confinement. Rezaians time outside the cell was limited to a tiny courtyard and when he left the cell, he was blindfolded, Jehl said. It wasnt until after Rezaians release that he connected to the Internet on his mothers tablet Sunday and realized just how well known his story had become, Jehl said. Rezaian was among the four jailed Americans released by Iran over the weekend in exchange for U.S. prosecutors pardoning or dropping cases against 21 Iranians. The deal was the result of a year of secret negotiations and was announced hours before the U.S. also lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehrans implementation of restrictions on its nuclear program. In addition to Rezaian, U.S. Marine veteran Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini also left Iran after their release over the weekend. A fourth Iranian American, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, about whom little is known, chose tzzo stay in Iran, U.S. officials said, adding that it was his right. Iranian officials also announced the release of Matthew Trevithick, a detained American student from Hingham, Mass., though his case was said to be unrelated to the swap. Trevithick arrived in Boston on Sunday after 40 days in captivity, the Boston Globe reported. Early Monday morning, U.S. Reps. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) flew to Germany to meet with Rezaian and Hekmati. Rezaian is from Marin County, Calif., and Hekmati is from Flint, Mich. Huffman said the lawmakers spent the evening with the freed prisoners and their families at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. I can tell you that Jason Rezaian and Amir Hekmati are in great spirits. They are surrounded by family, Huffman said by phone from Germany. Huffman brought Rezaian a hat bearing the insignia of his high school, Marin Academy in San Rafael. He just lit up when I gave it to him, the congressman said. Kildee told CNN that Hekmati was a strong guy with a great spirit whos been through an awful ordeal, but has maintained that great spirit. In the next few days, Kildee said Hekmati will go through medical examinations and discuss with the folks on the ground here in Landstuhl the process of going back home, adding: Its really up to him. When he feels ready, hell be able to head home. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> Kildee said Hekmati asked me to say how proud he is to be an American who stood with these other Americans who have gone through this ordeal, and [to] have so much support from this administration, from Congress, from people back home. Huffman said the Rezaian familys large and loyal circle of friends had begun calling and emailing the congressman soon after he was detained. Huffman wrote editorials and made public pleas for Rezaians release. He also met with Irans ambassador to the United Nations and brought Ali Rezaian, Jasons brother, as his guest to President Obamas State of the Union address last week. Its in some ways bigger than anything Ive worked on, and you feel a real responsibility to do everything you can, Huffman said. I contributed what I could. There were so many others that did even more. Iranian officials were aware of American efforts to get Rezaian released, including online petitions and pressure from journalism organizations, Huffman said. The one thing that Jason did tell me tonight was his Iranian captors knew it. They took notice, he said. The released men will stay in Germany until they are ready to return to the United States, Huffman said. The reintegration process includes psychological and medical evaluations, he said. Jehl said that Rezaian was still figuring out what to do next and was still trying to understand the back story of why he was imprisoned. Hes taking it a day at a time, Jehl said. He made clear that he doesnt want to rush things. He recognizes he can get some really good care here and wants to take time to go through the proper checks. He and his family will make some decisions in the days ahead about when hell come home, but he doesnt want to rush things. Jehl added, He looks forward to thanking the many people who supported him and finding the right time and place to tell his story. Times staff writers Patrick J. McDonnell in Beirut and Tracy Wilkinson and Sarah D. Wire in Washington and special correspondent Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran contributed to this report. Follow @MattDPearce for national news ALSO Four countries call on Taliban to come to Afghan peace table Pentagon report: Iran took SIM cards from detained U.S. sailors phones Jason Rezaian, journalist freed by Iran, wanted to tell the truth about his fathers homeland Timur Bulatov calls himself a homophobic wolf, and last summer he found his prey. Dr. Dmitry Isaev led a commission of psychiatrists in St. Petersburg that approved hundreds of sex-change operations. To Bulatov, he was a henchman of LGBT fascism who corrupted Russian society by encouraging acceptance of gays, lesbians and transgender people. After Bulatov complained to the State Medical Institute, where the doctor had practiced and taught since 2006, supervisors disbanded the commission and forced Isaev to resign. Advertisement On one of Russias most popular social media sites, Bulatov has listed 40 teachers and other public servants most of them in St. Petersburg who he said have lost their jobs as a result of his efforts over the last two years. Along with their names, ages and former jobs, he adds descriptions such as a psychotic woman who cut off her breasts, as he wrote about one transgender man. The success of his campaign underscores the transformation of St. Petersburg from Russias most tolerant city into its epicenter of hostility toward homosexuality and transgenderism. The nation as a whole has become increasingly hateful on those issues, with politicians seeking to ban gay rallies, blaming gays for low birth rates and advocating that they be banned from government jobs, exiled or forced into psychiatric treatment. Taking a cue from President Vladimir Putin, who has whipped up anti-Western sentiments to advance a nationalist agenda and boost his domestic approval ratings during an economic crisis, they often frame their stance as defending the country against foreign values. Bulatov, 40, lumps homosexuality with pedophilia as part of a disease deliberately spread to children and teens by Western-funded books, websites and even cartoons. They destroy Russia through children, he said. It all comes from Europe. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> Founded by Peter the Great, the most pro-Western of the czars, St. Petersburg is Russias second largest city and cultural capital, replete with theaters and architectural marvels. In the 1990s, after the repeal of a Stalinist-era law punishing male homosexuality with jail time, the city became a magnet for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Gay rights groups organized Queer Fests, LGBT film festivals and weeks against homophobia. In the last few years, however, Vitaly Milonov, a member of the St. Petersburg city council, has tried to turn back the clock with an anti-Western agenda. Among the things he has tried to ban: the teaching of evolution, sexual education, MTV, Halloween, milk cartons with homosexual rainbows, concerts by Madonna and Lady Gaga, performances of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream and the novel Lolita, written by Vladimir Nabokov, a St. Petersburg native. In 2012, Milonov was the major force behind the councils passage of a ban on promoting nontraditional sexual relations, including sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism, to people younger than 18. It became a blueprint for the federal law that passed the next year. The law became a key tool for Bulatov. He combs social media looking for gays, lesbians and transgender people, or their sympathizers, working in government jobs that involve contact with minors. Parents of public school children often tip him off, he said. Once he identifies a target, Bulatov prepares a dossier and submits it to the persons boss. Although the government rarely enforces the law on its own, Bulatov uses it to apply pressure. Isaev, the psychiatrist, was vulnerable because some of his students were minors. In addition, most teacher contracts stipulate that immorality usually not well defined is grounds for firing. His now-defunct commission had approved sex-change operations at a higher rate than commissions in other cities, he said: I am glad the commission could help that many people. The author of more than 120 scientific articles on gender and sexuality, Isaev eventually found a job at a private health clinic. Rights groups say that official intolerance has helped give rise to violence by vigilante groups. Vykhod, a gay rights group in St. Petersburg, documented 36 attacks on the citys LGBT community in 2014, including severe beatings and assaults using mace. The violence has become more planned, targeted and cruel, said Kseniya Kirichenko, a lawyer for the group. The state supports it, leaves it unpunished. In an interview, Bulatov claimed that some attacks have been staged by gay rights groups to draw international support. Bulatov, a goldsmith and jeweler whose family has lived in St. Petersburg for generations, said he wants to turn Russia into a hell for sodomites. He took up the cause after his only son was born 10 years ago, he said. Though he is Muslim, Bulatov is part of the Peoples Council, a nationalist group that is closely allied with the Russian Orthodox Church, strongly supports Putin and pursues a puritan agenda. The head of the St. Petersburg branch, a 55-year-old musician and former businessman named Anatoly Artyukh, has lobbied to classify homosexuality and transgenderism as psychological disorders, written a book criticizing gay activists and created a ballet condemning gays, abortion and women without children. Gay rights groups have accused his supporters of attacking their rallies. Artyukh denied that, but said, Weve done everything to make them leave town. The firing campaigns led by Bulatov have had a chilling effect on the homosexual and transgender community. One victim is 28-year-old Polina Mul, who lost her job as a first-grade teacher after Bulatov filed a complaint outing her as a lesbian. She found a new job as a deputy principal but lost that too after another complaint. Before she moved to St. Petersburg in 2008 and moved in with her girlfriend, Mul had been living in the Siberian city of Yakutsk, where she endured scorn and beatings from her family, she said. She said the authorities have targeted homosexuals and other minorities to divert public attention from Russias economic woes and widespread social ills such as alcoholism. Thats how our country is we always have to hate somebody, she said. If we hate and abuse somebody, we unite. After months of unemployment, Mul found a job as a private tutor. The fear of being targeted in one of Bulatovs dossiers has motivated some people to censor themselves on social media or even quit their jobs to avoid being made into a public spectacle. Egor Burtsev, a transgender man, left the state-funded health clinic where he worked as a psychologist after receiving threatening messages from Bulatov. He continued to change jobs until he found an employer who allows him to work unofficially, with his name and income undocumented. When Timur started writing to me, my first response was that I started shuddering at night, when I was alone, he said. Socially, we are the most closeted LGBT group, one of our strongest fears is the fear of disclosure. Yet, he said he was lucky to have officially changed his name and sex several years ago because in todays Russia, it is possible only after a court ruling in which the applicants name is made public. Bulatov said he will continue his effort to destroy the mans career. Mirovalev is a special correspondent. ALSO As improved U.S.-Iran relations are celebrated, questions loom about the road ahead In Canada, followers of pastor held by North Korea keep their faith Jason Rezaian, journalist freed by Iran, wanted to tell the truth about his fathers homeland In what has become the chilling calling card of Islamic State, reports emerged Sunday that the extremist group had kidnapped hundreds of civilians during fighting in eastern Syria. The official Syrian Arab News Agency, citing residents, had reported Saturday that Islamic State militants had carried out a horrific massacre in Bughayliyah village, just outside the city of Dair Alzour. An estimated 300 civilians, including old people, women and children, were reported killed. A pro-opposition monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, put the death toll much lower -- about 85 civilians and 50 pro-government fighters. On Sunday, however, it reported that Islamic State had kidnapped about 400 civilians and had taken them to Madaan, midway between Dair Alzour and Islamic States de facto capital, Raqqah. Advertisement Those who were kidnapped are the families of loyalist fighters, and some of them were merchants bringing goods to the area, said Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory group, who uses a pseudonym for security reasons. Islamic State fighters often stage massacres after claiming victory over new territory. In May, after the group seized control of the desert city of Palmyra, it broadcast a grisly video depicting teenagers summarily executing government fighters with point-blank shots to the head in the towns ancient theater. The group also has a history of kidnapping civilians and enslaving them or subjecting women to forced marriages. Abdul Rahman stressed that those taken were Sunni Muslims, the same sect as Islamic State as well as the majority of the opposition arrayed against Syrian President Bashar Assad. There was no confirmation of the kidnappings by the government, but a local journalist contacted via social media Sunday, who asked to remain unidentified for his safety, corroborated the information. Daesh came in and captured some of the fighters of the regime and the National Defense Forces, and executed some of them in the squares, he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. The National Defense Forces are a national paramilitary entity akin to the auxiliary guard. They also transferred some of the families in Al-Bughayliyah to areas away from the front line, he added. He said that civilians from government-held areas are often taken by Islamic State for investigation and, if found innocent of collaborating with the state security services, submit to a religious course before being released. There was no independent confirmation of the information. As the last bastion of government control in the province of the same name, Dair Alzour city has been a coveted target for Islamic State. The militants have often launched suicide attacks on various parts of the city and have laid siege to its remaining inhabitants since the Palmyra takeover, cutting off supply lines into the area. The city, which had a population of about 200,000, is now home to an estimated 100,000. Residents received much-needed humanitarian supplies Friday in a widely publicized airdrop organized by Syrian and Russian military units. Bulos is a special correspondent. The U.S. Embassy confirmed Sunday that several Americans have gone missing in Iraq, after local media reported that three Americans had been kidnapped in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Bolz said: We are working in full cooperation with Iraqi authorities to locate the missing Americans. Bolz did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. Advertisement State Department spokesman John Kirby said that due to privacy considerations, he had nothing further to add about the missing Americans. The safety and security of Americans abroad is our highest priority, Kirby said. The comments by U.S. officials came after the Arab news channel, Al Arabiya, citing its own sources, reported that three Americans had been kidnapped by militias in Baghdad. Iraqi media reports said the Americans went missing in south Baghdad on their way to Baghdad International Airport. A Western security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said Sunday that he had been told that three Americans went missing 24 to 48 hours ago. There were no immediate claims of responsibility. Kidnappings in Iraq have been carried out by the Islamic State group and Shiite militias as well as criminal gangs demanding ransom payments or disgruntled employees seeking to resolve workplace disputes. The incident comes after a week that has seen a deterioration of security in and around the Iraqi capital after months of relative calm. The Islamic State group claimed a number of attacks in Baghdad and neighboring Diyala province last week that killed more than 50 people, including a high-profile attack on a mall in the Iraqi capital. The string of Islamic State attacks on civilian targets within areas of Iraqi government control follow battlefield losses, most recently in western Iraq. Last month, Iraqi troops pushed Islamic State fighters out of the center of Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province in Iraqs Sunni heartland. See our top stories on Facebook >> In acts of apparent reprisal, armed gangs identified as Shiite militias, attacked Sunni-owned businesses and mosques in Diyala province just north of Baghdad. After Islamic State was pushed out of the province, security there was left almost entirely in the hands of Shiite militias. Responding to a call to arms from Shiite clerics in Iraq after the Islamic State group swept across the countrys northern and western provinces in the summer of 2014, Shiite militias in Iraq now wield more power than the countrys regular security forces and military. ALSO: Three Americans freed by Iran land in Germany on journey home Nuclear deal ends era of crippling sanctions for Iran Taliban denies role in latest Afghanistan bombing Iranian soldiers removed two SIM cards from two handheld satellite phones but otherwise returned all weapons, ammunition and equipment when they released 10 U.S. sailors and their two boats last week, the Pentagon said Monday. The first public report from U.S. Central Command into the incident provided that and other new details but did not answer the key question of why the U.S. Navy crews deviated from their course in the Persian Gulf and entered Iranian waters. The crew and the two boats were detained overnight by Irans military on Farsi Island and were released unharmed Wednesday morning after about 15 hours in custody. Advertisement Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said the two Navy crews departed Kuwait Tuesday at shortly after noon local time en route to Bahrain, more than 300 miles away. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> They were supposed to follow a course that would keep them in international waters. They were scheduled to refuel at a rendezvous with the Monomey, a Coast Guard cutter, at about 5 p.m. But the two boats veered off course into Iranian waters. The command investigation will determine what caused the change in course and why the [boats] entered into Iranian territorial waters in the vicinity of Farsi Island, the report said. The crews then stopped to try to fix a mechanical problem in one boats diesel engine. This stop occurred in Iranian territorial waters, although its not clear the crew was aware of their exact location, the report said. At about 5:10 p.m., one of the boats apparently sent a brief radio report that Iranian boats were approaching. A second message was garbled. All communications were cut off by 5:45 p.m., the report said. NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >> U.S. commanders launched search and rescue aircraft from the Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier then 40 miles southeast of Farsi Island. French and British warships in the region also participated. The Navy attempted to contact Iranian military units by broadcasting details of the search and rescue effort over marine radio, and notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone, the report said. The two armed boats were escorted at gunpoint to a military pier on Farsi Island, where the crews were detained. A video released later by Iran showed some of the sailors on their knees, their hand behind their heads, at one point. At 9:15 p.m., the Navy received word from the Iranians that the sailors were in Iranian custody and were safe and healthy, the report said. At this point there are no indications that the sailors were physically harmed during their detainment, the report said. The Navy command investigation will focus on the sailors treatment while in Iranian custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel. The sailors left Farsi Island at 11:43 a.m. on Jan 13, aboard the two riverine boats, and met up with the Anzio, a Navy cruiser. They were later transferred ashore and are being debriefed at a U.S. Base in Qatar. An inventory showed that nothing was missing from the sailors or the two boats except for SIM cards from two satellite phones. The report did not say if the loss involved classified information or was significant. Other sailors then took charge of the two riverine boats and arrived in Bahrain early Thursday morning. The preliminary timeline was based on operational reports received in the first 48 hours after the incident, the report said. Central Command said it will provide more details as the Navy works to complete a more thorough investigation. Follow @wjhenn for military and defense info. ALSO Activists turn tolerant St. Petersburg into homophobic city Four countries call on Taliban to come to Afghan peace table Heres why Taiwan and mainland China will probably find a way to get along Earlier this month, as Syrian pro-government forces closed in on rebels in the mountains of Latakia province, a prominent Islamist leader issued a frank rebuke to fellow militants. In a nine-minute speech released on social media, Murad Margoshvili complained of a dearth of fighters, saying that he and his men were in a Roman wrestling ring where the gladiators fight and the rest of the Islamic world spectates. In this decisive moment you leave us without assistance? asked Margoshvili, an ethnic Chechen commander who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Walid al Shishani and heads a hard-line Islamist faction called Soldiers of Syria. Advertisement His exhortations went unheeded. Syrian army units, backed by dozens of Russian airstrikes, soon swept through a onetime rebel bastion, Salma. Government forces have since consolidated their hold over strategic swaths of mountainous territory while driving the rebels back to their rear-guard bases across the Turkish border. The Latakia attack mirrors similar government gains across the country, as forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, backed by Russian air power, have been on the offensive. In the south, rebels have struggled to maintain their grip on Sheik Maskin, a town about 50 miles south of Damascus, the Syrian capital, and at the nexus of highways leading to the Jordanian border. Outside Damascus, pro-government forces are pushing forward in the eastern Ghouta area, long an opposition stronghold. An airstrike last month killed the regions most powerful opposition commander, Zahran Alloush, who headed the hard-line Islam Army faction. In the north, government advances in seven points around the city of Aleppo forced rebel groups to issue a general call to arms. Government forces are also attacking rebels in the northern province of Hama. See more of our top stories on Facebook >> And the Syrian army is likewise advancing north in Homs province as besieged rebel forces have agreed to evacuate Waer, the last opposition-held neighborhood in the city of Homs. Even Islamic State, whose fighters are regarded as some of the fiercest in the conflict, appears to be on its back foot. In November, the Syrian army broke a crippling three-year siege by Islamic State at Kuweires military airport outside Aleppo and is now poised to move in on nearby Al Bab, a city held by the extremist group since late 2013. Its a dramatic shift for the forces of Assad, who less than six months ago had warned supporters that the government would have to give up areas after a string of humiliating setbacks. The gains have strengthened the governments position in the run-up to Syrian peace negotiations scheduled to begin next week in Geneva. Leading up to the talks, previous demands by the United States and others for Assads immediate departure have softened into a United Nations Security Council plan for a transitional government and a vague timeline that promises free and fair elections in 18 months. Much of the credit for the government gains in Syria, observers say, goes to the hundreds of airstrikes conducted by Russia, which deployed its forces to the country in September against what it said were Islamic State targets. Most of its attacks, however, have focused on other Assad adversaries in strategic, opposition-held areas, which are mostly under the control of other Islamist groups, and factions linked to the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. Latakia province has been a particular focus because it is a bastion of government support and is home to the major air base being used by Russian forces. Assad is winning. Russian air power [has] changed the entire dynamic of whats going on, and it just gives the Syrian army an incredible boost, said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, in a phone interview. Moscows air onslaught appears to be gaining effectiveness as Russian commanders grow more familiar with the conflict and with the capabilities of allied Syrian ground forces, observers say. What Im hearing from Damascus is that it has taken time to digest the new technology, for the Russians to get well situated, get the intelligence they require and know what theyre doing, Landis said. Russias involvement has also led to a new calculation by Syrias neighbors, restrict[ing] what they could do in Syria, Oraib Rantawi, director of the Quds Center for Political Studies in Amman, said in a phone interview Sunday. The Military Operations Center, an Amman-based logistics hub supporting the rebels in southern Syria, has reduced its role, Rantawi said. The center is staffed by intelligence operatives from 11 countries, including the United States. Turkey, meanwhile, has tightened up security along the more than 500-mile border it shares with Syria a sharp contrast from the carte blanche previously given to antigovernment fighters, including Islamic State militants. Russian warplanes have been operating close to the border area. Some observers, however, doubt the ability of the Assad government to regain control of all of Syria. The majority of Syrias land area remains out of government control, though much of rebel-held territory is thinly populated desert. Government-held areas including the major cities of Damascus, Homs, Hama and part of Aleppo, along with the Mediterranean coast are home to more than 60% of Syrias remaining population, according to various estimates. Can Assad shoot himself into a stronger position, with enough firepower? Yes but of course hes up against formidable obstacles, Aron Lund, editor of the Syria in Crisis website, wrote in an email exchange Saturday. The site is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Syrias economy Is reeling, much of the nations infrastructure has been destroyed, and its army is desperately overstretched and reliant on allied forces such as the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Assad isnt trying to conquer every little village in Syria, and he cant do that anyway, Lund noted. Ultimately, I dont think Assads endgame is about him being strong as much as it is about making every other option impossible. Bulos is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Beirut contributed to this report. ALSO As improved U.S.-Iran relations are celebrated, questions loom about the road ahead In Canada, followers of pastor held by North Korea keep their faith Activists turn tolerant St. Petersburg into homophobic city The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has lifted its restrictions in Cuba last Friday. Telecommunications companies in the United States can now easily offer services in the Communist nation, a report from Time stated. Cuba was the last country to be removed from the FCC's exclusion list. A press release from the agency said that removing the exclusion will reduce financial and administrative troubles. The move could also "fuel more competition among telecom carriers interested in the market," FCC added, as reported by USA Today. Before Friday, service providers were required to get separate approval from the FCC before conducting services in Cuba. The Caribbean island's population of approximately 11 million has just one modern, fixed Internet connection to the rest of the globe, the Wall Street Journal wrote. This means that Cuba is ready for new infrastructure investment. FCC's latest decision didn't come as a surprise since Barack Obama's administration reopened diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba in late 2014, USA Today noted. When the renewal of diplomatic relations was announced, the U.S. government said that telecommunications firms will be among the first industries to set up shop in Cuba. In September, the departments of Commerce and Treasury lifted a chain of restrictions on Americans traveling to and doing business in Cuba, the news outlet wrote. The changes, which include investment, banking, and joint ventures, allowed American businesses to create a "physical presence" in the country and employ Cubans to work in their offices. Cuba is regarded as "a largely untapped market" that needs expanded wireless phone and Internet services, USA Today added. In June 2013, Cuba provided access to its new high-speed Internet connection to citizens at chosen, censored cyber points "at prices few can afford," according to a report from advocacy group Freedom House. The report also indicated that only around 5 percent to 26 percent Cubans have Internet access. "Cuba has long ranked as one of the world's most repressive environments for information and communication technologies," Freedom House's analysis of the Cuban Internet market read. "High prices, exceptionally slow connectivity, and extensive government regulation have resulted in a pronounced lack of access to applications and services other than email. Most users can access only a government-controlled intranet rather than the global internet, with hourly connection costs amounting to 20 percent of the minimum monthly wage." Regularly scheduled service between the U.S. and Cuba should also be expected to commence soon, Miami Herald reported. The U.S. government is expected to allow up to 20 flights daily to Havana and 10 each day for nine other Cuban cities with international airports. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In a bold rescue operation, the Colombian army was able to successfully retrieve 15 fishermen, including three minors on Sunday. The men were abducted by the National Liberation Army earlier during the weekend, according to FOX News Latino. In an announcement through Twitter, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos expressed his gratitude to the armed forces for their successful rescue operation. The president, however, stated that the battle with the rebel group is far from over and that efforts must be placed in apprehending those who were responsible for the abduction. "Fishermen taken by the ELN for supposed punishment rescued. Congratulations to Colombia's army, now to get those responsible," he said in his post. Rescatados pescadores que tenia retenido ELN, por supuesto castigo. Felicitaciones @COL_EJERCITO, ahora a perseguir responsables. Juan Manuel Santos (@JuanManSantos) January 17, 2016 The president, however, did not give further details about the government's further course of action. KSL News, quoting Colombian media, has stated that the ELN apprehended the fishermen due to their alleged violation of a fishing ban in Bolivar state. The area where the fishermen were targeted has been known as a stronghold of the National Liberation Army, as well as other smaller insurgent groups. After being abducted, the guerillas took the fishermen to Campo Cafe, which is located about two hours away from Morales. Though media reports surfaced quickly after the abduction took place, the incident was officially confirmed on Saturday. Eventually, the fishermen's location was positively identified by the Colombian army through intelligence work. The operation to retrieve the abducted fishermen was initiated early Sunday, with about 200 members of Colombia's special forces unit launching an airborne assault against the ENL rebels. The rescue operation was announced by Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas as he addressed reporters in Aguachica, in Cesar department, reports the Associated Press through Yahoo! News. The Defense Minister confirmed the success of the military operation, stating that the ELN insurgents did not attempt much resistance. Rather, the 12 rebels who were guarding the fishermen immediately left the scene upon seeing the arrival of the army forces. "(The ELN) fled the place, and our troops were able to successfully carry out the rescue," Villegas said. The 15 fishermen who were successfully rescued were all found to be in good health. The National Liberation Army, which is a very prominent military force in the Morales department, is currently under peace negotiations with the Colombian government. However, since the talks commenced back in January 2014, the two sides have remained in a stalemate, with very little progress being made. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning to travellers who plan on visiting the Latin American region, particularly to pregnant women, in an effort to prevent them from contacting the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The warning from the United States health agency pointed out outbreaks of the virus in areas within Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Africa and the Americas, where the Zika-carrying species of mosquito, known as the Aedes, are found. In a conference call with reporters on Friday, the CDC vector-borne infectious diseases director Lyle Petersen emphasized the need to warn travellers immediately, since the virus has been spreading very rapidly, according to Yahoo News. Furthermore, the CDC warning also highlighted the effects of the disease on pregnant women, and cautioned them not to travel or to at least take necessary precautions, should they need to travel to the abovementioned areas. "Pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women who do travel to one of these areas should talk to their doctor or other healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites during the trip," CDC explained. According to past reports, the Zika virus has been linked to severe birth defects in babies whose mothers were observed to have symptoms similar to that of the disease in Brazil, which is under the level two travel alert. In fact, in Brazil, over 3,500 cases of microcephaly -- a condition where a fetus' brain is abnormally small -- was reported in women during a three-month period. Because Zika has been linked to these unusual statistics, the CDC recommends special precaution for pregnant women until health experts uncover whether or not the virus really is to blame for the birth defects. Other countries and territories under the same alert level include El Salvador, Colombia, French Guiana, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Martinique, Panama, Paraguay, Mexico, Suriname, Venezuela and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where the first confirmed case of Zika was reported in December 2015. Symptoms of Zika are similar to that of dengue and chikungunya, which includes rash, joint pain, fever, and conjunctivitis. The symptoms typically last between a few days to a week. While only one out of five people actually get ill when contacting it, many are still worried about the effects of the virus, particularly because experts have yet to establish a treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A 26-year-old British woman dubbed as the "Barbie bandit" has been arrested by police after robbing luxury homes and country clubs in Argentina. Georgia Wawman, from Marlborough in Wiltshire, was charged with 16 burglary offenses, Daily Mail reported. Local media said that the burglaries occurred in gated communities in the capital Buenos Aires' northern part, which included the cities of Campana, Escobar, and Zarate. Wawman was arrested alongside Jose Mino, her boyfriend -- convicted for robbery in the past -- and six other individuals, which included five Argentine men aged 19 to 44, and a 33-year-old woman from Paraguay, the news outlet listed. "They used latex gloves to ensure there were no fingerprints," a police source said, as quoted by Mirror. According to Daily Mail, Wawman, who has a son with the 32-year-old Mino, arrived in Argentina in 2006 and resided in a luxurious rural property with her Argentine stepmother. Several months later, she reportedly moved to Buenos Aires to live with Mino, who's believed to have come from a well-respected family and has two brothers competing globally in polo. Local police nicknamed Wawman as the "English boss" and the "key player" in the gang, the news outlet added. The robbers reportedly tied up their victims before scouring their homes for loot, such as laptops, jewelry, watches, and cameras. During raids to arrest the accused gang members, authorities found weapons and ammunition in their possession, as well as walkie-talkies, a wig, handcuffs, and a balaclava. Authorities noted that the group dressed as police officers to dodge detection as they searched for homes to ransack, Daily Mail further reported. After the selection, the group members scaled or cut through perimeter fences of the gated communities at night, and then breaking into mansions. Wawman's stepmother, Laura Pereira de Mello, has claimed via an email sent to the Spanish-language news site, Clarin, that police mistreated her daughter and even sang a song about the Falklands Islands to intimidate the accused, Daily Mail wrote. The United Kingdom and Argentina are locked in a dispute over the islands' ownership. De Mello claimed that the police mistreated Wawman "in the most terrible way," adding that "a doctor checked her and discovered she had high blood pressure and told the police she needed to rest. However they made her stand up for two hours, handcuffed, with her face against a wall," Daily Mail added. De Mello said that Wawman was only caught in the police raid because she was staying over at Mino, adding that the search warrant was for the man and not her. Friends of Wawman also described her as being "very nice" and "not a wild child," the news outlet noted. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Honduras president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, has embraced the legendary lost city of the Monkey God. However, this, along with the new expedition made by archaeologists to the Honduran jungle, have sparked "skepticism and fury" among the indigenous people. According to a report with The Guardian, the country's indigenous people have called President Hernandez's embrace of the legendary lost city "offensive, discriminatory and racist." Just last week, the Honduran president flew down by helicopter to the ancient site. The elusive ancient city was the stuff of legends for centuries, and was first visited by the National Geographic Team last year. Hernandez displayed the ancient relics and told reporters that the country was to protect its "national patrimony" for reasons including both tourism and preserving its history. Chris Fisher, who is the leader of the National Geographic team, told the publication that the ancient site is now referred to as the "City of the White Jaguar." He also made the correction that the region is referred to as the "Ciudad Blanca," or "White City." The archaeologist also said that international papers tended to be misinformed and use the names interchangeably. However, there are many of those who doubt the recent discovery of the site, and have dismissed the entire thing as an "enterprise" on the part of Hernandez and his government. Another archaeologist, Geoffrey McCafferty, said that while the ancient finds are "terrific," it will not "rewrite history." Furthermore, indigenous groups from Honduras were angered by Hernandez and his promises of profits and jobs, which were not delivered to them. Masta, which is an organization of the indigenous Miskito, has called the entire expedition a sham, including any of the recent discoveries of the ancient cities, reports The Telegraph. "We completely disagree with the arbitrary and unilateral decision of the government to explore, excavate and illegally transport archaeological pieces," a part of the open letter read. The open letter also says that the Misikito "demanded respect" for the names of their ancestors, and the sacred site for their people. Other ancient people who are seeking justice over the recent archaeological diggings are the Pech, who according to anthropologist Chris Begley and geographer Mark Bonta, have an enormous amount of heritage waiting to be reclaimed. The Pech have reportedly lost vast amounts of their territory to drug traffickers, deforestation and illegal gold mining. Bonta said that tourism is a big thing for these people and the country, as it could draw in money. The geographer fears that should the past be an indication of the country's future, he says that little will change. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Argentine leader Mauricio Macri commemorates the death anniversary of State Prosecutor Alberto Nisman by promising to help in clearing up the case once and for all. On Sunday, a statement from the Argentine President's office was released, stating the administration's intention to push for the clarification of the case. "President Macri's government ... does not intend to interfere with the judiciary but it will favor measures ... that will help to clarify both incidents," a statement from the Argentine government explained, as cited by Fox Latino. The statement came after Macri met with Nisman's family, including his wife Juliana Awada and daughters Iara and Kala, a day before the public prosecutor's death anniversary. According to BBC News, Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment in Buenos Aires a couple of hours before he was set to testify in Congress against the former Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on January 18, 2015. Cause of death was believed to be a bullet to his head, leading authorities to believe that it was possible that he committed suicide. However, many are not convinced of this; the probe continues to uncover the truth on whether or not Nisman killed himself or if he was murdered in relation to his unfinished testimony against the former president. According to BBC News, Nisman was in charge of investigating the bombing of the Amia Jewish center in 1994, which is now dubbed as Argentina's deadliest terrorist attack. During his 10-year-long probe, Nisman was believed to have uncovered Fernandez de Kirchner's connection to the crime. Unfortunately, much of the physical evidence has been either contaminated or lost, which means the culprits remain free from justice. Before his death, Nisman was prepping a 350-page report to the Congress that accused the former president of the country of covering up the involvement of some top Iranian officials, something Fernandez de Kirchner strongly denied. According to her, Nisman was fed with false information in order to put the blame on her and discredit her administration. Iara, Nisman's eldest daughter, however, believes that her father's death was aimed to cultivate fear in the people of Argentina, which was under the strict reign of the Kirchners. She further expressed her hope of finding the truth regarding Nisman's death. In a bid to help solve the case, Macri ordered several government arms to declassify documents related to the case, according to a report from the Associated Press cited by Yahoo News a week ago. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Venezuela might be experiencing both political and economic turmoil as President Nicolas Maduro has recently declared an "emergency economic decree" to address the country's economic woes. However, the United States wants to form strong diplomatic ties with the country. In a report with Missoulian, the United States had its "most extensive dialogue" with Venezuela in the past year. According to the report, President Barack Obama met with President Maduro during the Summit of the Americas in April. While Venezuela was not viewed as a security threat to the United States, this is the first time that a Venezuelan president met a U.S. president since late president Hugo Chavez took office in 1999. According to the report, the Obama administration wanted to do what it could do to discredit and even delegitimize the Venezuelan National Assembly election, which was held last Dec. 6. This was done mostly by way of an international public relations campaign that said that the elections would not be "credible" without the aid of monitors from the Organization of American States. According to Gazette Extra, the political campaign turned out to be entirely unnecessary as Venezuela's opposition won a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, which was a first in nearly 16 years. However, the results of the current elections didn't do much to solve any of the problems in the country. Much like the United States, Venezuela is running on a presidential system. This means that most of the economic decisions fall on the hands of the executive. In other words, the Venezuelan government is left where it was before the assembly elections. Only time will tell whether or not this will fix the economic crisis. Venezuela has been known to go back and forth on its democratic electoral system. There was an incident in which the country had a military takeover in 1999, which lasted for four years. This included a military coup, which was heavily backed by the United States as well as an oil strike. The country has a long and turbulent history of violence. In 2013 the Venezuelan opposition took to the streets in protest over losing the elections. These protests, though violent, were heavily backed by the United Sates until international pressure forced Washington to recognize the results. In 2014, the opposition once again started violent demonstrations to take a stand against the Venezuelan government. This is why President Obama and his administration are pushed toward having normal relations with Venezuela so as to prevent bureaucracy from pursuing regime change. However, Obama has not appointed an ambassador from Cuba, as he has no intention of "reining in the hard-liners" of Venezuela, which could result in taking legal efforts to topple the Venezuelan government. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. All violence inspired by religion has been denounced by the Pope. In a report by The Washington Post, Pope Francis, in a visit to Rome's main synagogue, referenced the recent Islamist attacks. He said, "Violence of man against man is in contradiction to every religion that merits the name, in particular the three monotheistic religions." He said, "Every human being, as a creature of God, is our brother regardless of his origins or religious belief." During the visit, the Pope also rejected all forms of anti-Semitism, calling for "maximum vigilance" to prevent another Holocaust. His sentiments were echoed by the Jewish community. The chief rabbi in Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, shared, "Today, the sad novelty is that after two centuries of disasters produced by nationalism and ideologies, violence has come back and it is fed and justified by fanatic visions inspired by religion." Di Segni told the pope, "A meeting of peace between different religious communities, as the one that is taking place today here in Rome, is a very strong sign against the invasion and abuse of religious violence." Ruth Dureghello, the president of the Jewish community in Rome, also added in her own speech that the hatred that comes with racism and bias that uses God's name to kill deserves condemnation. This is the first time that the Pope visted a synagogue as Pontiff, joining the oldest community of Jews as a sign of interfaith friendship. The visit was set to be very tight in security, with journalists going through three different checks within the space of less than 100 meters. Anti-Terror police also patrolled both sides of the riverbank, which is also closed to the public, as reported by Reuters. However, an interfaith relationship is not new. The Pope's visit to the synagogue is only the latest in a tradition that started with St. John Paul II in 1986. It went on with Benedict XVI in 2010, and highlighted the 50th anniversary of the revolution in Christian and Jewish relations that sparked the Second Vatican Council. It is with the beginning of this relationship between the Christian and Jewish Communities, that the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Israel began. Still, Pope Francis has more of a reach than anyone ever has before. As noted by the Times of Israel, the Argentine Pope has already had a close relationship with the Jewish community before he was elected. The outlet said that Francis' visit is not that of an amateur waddling in an issue. A longtime participant in the Catholic-Jewish dialgoue, Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor said that the Pope's reach "is wholly at ease with the Jewish community and Jewish life. His entrance into that synagogue will not be dissimilar to a Jew entering a synagogue in a new place -- new, yet familiar." 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy Erika Rodriguez Hernandez confronted local police on Sunday as she asked for the release of detained party members. Quadratin reported that the federal deputy had to be stopped by the authorities when she rushed to the Directorate of Public Security in an effort to stop the arrest of her colleagues. She claimed the police officers violated her rights when they tried to stop her. "It's an extreme violence that I experienced, I who have been working for the rights of women, today I am very worried because I I'm federal deputy I did so many women of this state will live violence," Hernandez added. The former leader of the Hidalgo Institute for Women also noted that violence against women should have no place in her country. It was added in the Quadratin report that the PRI deputy was seen trying to rescue one of her party members. In addition, Vanguardia said that the authorities tried to ignore the legislator when she intervened with the arrest, but noted that Hernandez still did not stop prompting one of the agents to stop her. Angel Guardian noted in an update that the PRI deputy has already filed an official complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office against the agents of the Tecoman Public Security. She said the men who stopped her did not respect democracy, and her right as a representative. Hernandez also lamented the detention of her party members, noting that they were handcuffed and beaten by the agents. A similar Entorno Inteligente report mentioned that the lawmaker rushed to the Public Secuty office when she found out that they arrested her general representative. She claimed that she did not do anything wrong, since she only wanted to be informed with what was happening. Informador added that as a federal deputy, she also has a "constitutional jurisdiction" on the incident, noting that the agents cannot ask her to simply stop or prevent her from acting based from what she believes is right. The incident happened amidst election issues in the sovereign state of Colima, where false election ballots were reportedly found. It was added in the Informador report that Colima remains to be in "high alert" after two boxes were reportedly stolen in Tecoman and Manzanillo, although local board leader Luis Zamora Cobian claimed that Sunday was still a "calm" day in the state. Cobian also explained that the PRI representative was arrested on Sunday for assault allegations involving an assistant trainer. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Miami has been eyed as the first major gateway for commercial flights between Cuba and the US. Aviation officials from both countries are still working on the specifics, but regular air travel service is expected to commence no later than June 2016. The US Department of Transportation will soon announce how airline companies can apply for Cuban routes. If everything goes according to plan, Havana will receive 20 US flights per day, while another 10 air routes will be opened in nine Cuban cities, MiamiHerald reported. "We still believe we'll be flying scheduled service to Cuba within the first half of 2016," said American Airlines executive Howard Kass. "We're optimistic that DOT will move swiftly to permit U.S. carriers to offer scheduled service." With only 230 miles of water separating the two of them, Miami is the nearest US city to Havana. But for the last five decades, crossing the Florida Strait has been anything but standard operating procedure. Commercial flights to Cuba were generally banned, and only expensive charter flights were allowed. CBSNews pointed out that President Obama has recently asked Congress to lift the Cuban embargo. Obama's plea comes two year after he moved to restore diplomatic ties with the Communist-ruled nation. Even though the embargo is still in effect, Obama's fervent meetings with Raul Castro have led to the loosening of travel restrictions between both countries. When the current aviation agreement is enacted, tourists will no longer spend $500 to $700 for one hour's worth of charter air travel. Instead, they will likely pay a fraction of those prices, while having the freedom to choose what flight schedule suits them best. Back in May 2015, the Obama administration granted several American companies the license to resume ferry travel between Florida and Cuba. But due to the ongoing embargo, only Americans with special travel permits can go to Cuba, as per BBCNews. Meanwhile, Havana has been preparing for the onslaught of American tourists scheduled to arrive later this year. The upcoming demand for Cuban goods and delicacies has forced the city to stack up on supplies. Janet Moore, a travel operator in Cuba, admitted that Havana still doesn't have enough hotel rooms and tourist guides to accommodate the inevitable pouring of American visitors. "If you came to me and said, 'Janet, I need a hotel room tonight.' I'd have to say, 'I cannot get you one'," she said. "There is not a hotel room to be had tonight in this city." Other US cities that will eventually offer commercial flights to Cuba are Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. 2015 Latin One. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. E-Cigarettes DO NOT Help Smokers Quit: Study media@latinoshealth.com By Czarmecin Jan 18, 2016 05:01 AM EST Some smokers turned to e-cigarettes because they believed it is less unhealthy than the actual cigarettes. Others do so with high hopes that it will help them quit smoking later on, but a new study suggested otherwise. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat up a liquid containing nicotine and artificial flavoring. The vapor is inhaled and exhaled much like a tobacco. Many smokers though that this is their way to successfully turned their back on cigarettes. On Thursday, a new study from the University of California, San Francisco announced that there is no truth to claims that e-cigarettes can aid for giving up tobacco, The Jordan Times reported. Yes, vaping has no positive effects on smokers trying to quit. The researchers examined the findings of 38 studies conducted across the globe about e-cigarette use. They concluded that e-cigarette smokers were 28 percent less likely to quit smoking. The team realized that the data contested the usual beliefs about e-cigarettes helping smokers to quit tobacco, but instead it hampered the attempts at quitting. "The irony is that quitting smoking is one of the main reasons both adults and kids use e-cigarettes, but the overall effect is less, not more, quitting," said study co-author Stanton Glantz. "While there is no question that a puff on an e-cigarette is less dangerous than a puff on a conventional cigarette, the most dangerous thing about e-cigarettes is that they keep people smoking conventional cigarettes." "E-cigarettes should not be recommended as effective smoking cessation aids until there is evidence that, as promoted and used, they assist smoking cessation," said Dr. Sara Kalkhoran of Harvard Medical School, Metro has learned. However, some remain doubtful to the study. Peter Hajek, director of the Queen Mary University of London's Tobacco Dependence Research Unit, found the results to be "grossly misleading." According to him, the study only examined current smokers who, at some point, used an e-cigarette but did not include smokers who used the device to quit the habit. Ann McNeill, a King's College London professor of tobacco addiction believed that the review was "not scientific." The study included two studies that she co-authored but she claimed that it was used in ways that were "either inaccurate or misleading." McNeill suggested to dismiss the findings. Steven Bernstein of the Yale School of Medicine commented that despite the concerns over the data, the study raised several concerns especially about e-cigarettes being an aid to quitting from the unhealthy habit of smoking. The study is published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! First Masturbation Booth Opens in New York City Men now have a secure place where they can safely soothe themselves as Hot Octopuss opens the first masturbation booth in Manhattan, New York City. Gothamist reports indicate that the repurposed telephone booth can be found along the corner of 28th Street and 5th Avenue. The station is only marked by a simple ad along the sides. Codenamed the Guy-Fi, the innocent-looking phone booth comes with some extras. Hot Octopuss says a staggering 39 percent of men in New York look masturbate in the office in an attempt to reduce stress levels. The makers of this public contraption believe this space provides a safer alternative for men who wish to relieve themselves while at work. Relieving in public is a criminal offense, according to a report by New York Daily News. Gothamist says, almost 700 cases of public masturbation were reported during the last five months of 2015, approximately 100 more than during the same period a year before. Adam Lewis, one of the creators of Hot Octopuss said in a statement, "It's really important for guys to look after themselves so that they can stay healthy and focus properly on the task in hand. We're told time and time again how beneficial it is to have a break away from your desk." Shielded from the outside world with a piece of black cloth, the personal relieving booth comes with a foldable chair and a laptop. Reactions posted on social media have been split. On Twitter, a number of members showed their outrage against the Guy-Fi. Who thought a public masturbation booth was a good idea? And how do we deport them? Jas Waters (@JasFly) January 15, 2016 Ohhh a free masturbation booth b/c wanking in the privacy of your own home is not enough for the wanker about town. https://t.co/zZ0xXoEUwI Whoretography (@Whoretographer) January 17, 2016 Note to self - Do NOT walk past E 28th. 'GuyFi' booth allows men to 'relieve stress' outside https://t.co/v7fXSpCFhH pic.twitter.com/eoOF7hSmcm Nina Lin (@nlinphoto) January 16, 2016 However, Hot Octopuss believes that their concept has been well-received by the public. According to a report by the Gothamist, a representative from the London-based company stated that around 100 men lined up to use the booth on its opening booth. Guy-Fi services are free to use. On their website, Lewis only asks for a thank you from the people who have been helped by their products. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Michigan in 'State of Emergency' After Lead-Contaminated Drinking Water Disaster media@latinoshealth.com By Staff Reporter Jan 18, 2016 05:30 AM EST On Saturday, President Barack Obama granted the request of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to declare a state of emergency in Flint over lead-contaminated drinking water. This resulted to the local government receiving $5 million in federal aid as assistance to the public health crisis due to bad water in the city. The issue over contamination of tap water in Flint, Michigan started in the year 2014 when it switched its water supplier from Lake Huron water treated by Sewerage Department and Detroit Water to Flint River water, which is far more polluted and corrosive. The move was supposed to be a cost-cutting move made by a Snyder-appointed emergency manager. According to Reuters, in October 2015, the city switched back to using the Lake Huron water as their water supply. Nonetheless, it is a little too late as the big problem already started to arise as the water lead has already found its way to the old pipes in homes, schools and other establishments. As a result, the city water becomes contaminated and the health of more or less 100,000 people from Flint is at great risk. Despite getting an approval from the President for his state of emergency declaration request, the state governor of Michigan still got criticized for waiting or a year and a half before finally making a move to address the issue, the New York Times reported. Governor Rick Snyder apologized for the poor performance of the state in addressing the lead-contamination water issue. The head environmental head of Michigan already resigned and federal agencies already started their investigation. Snyder originally asked President Obama for emergency and disaster declaration. A disaster declaration could have given the state of Michigan more funds for their water contamination problem. However, President Obama denied the request for disaster declaration as it is not allowed to call for an expedited major disease for this issue under the federal law. According to Detroit Free Press, the federal law states that disaster declaration should only be made when natural disasters, such as flood, storms and hurricanes, occur. On the other hand, the issue over the lead contamination of Flint's tap water is not counted as a natural disaster as it is a man-caused problem. The issue over Flint's water contamination is making headlines across the United States and all over the world. This matter is seen not just as an environmental problem, but as a health problem as well. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Zika Virus Affects Pregnant Inmates in Rodrigo de Bastidas Prison, Colombia media@latinoshealth.com By Julio Cachila Jan 18, 2016 05:28 AM EST Reports say that the mosquito-borne Zika virus has infected at least half of the inmates in a women's cellblock inside a prison in Colombia. Of the 136 female inmates inside the Rodrigo de Bastidas Prison located in the city of Santa Marta, Colombia, at least 70 have shown symptoms of Zika virus, EFE reported. Some of those who were affected by the disease were pregnant. Regional Ombud Yenny Sanchez said that, of those who were affected, five needed to be hospitalized. Sanchez also warned about the current condition of the inmates inside the the prison and added that the Ministry of Health of the District of Santa Marta has assumed the role of caring for the affected inmates, reports El Heraldo (source translated via Google Translate). Sanchez said that he has asked the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, to conduct the appropriate tests that will confirm if whether inmates have the virus or not. Noe Saavedra, warden for Rodrigo de Bastidas, said that 10 officials have been sent by the Ministry of Health to conduct appropriate inspections. While Zika does not generally lead to death, infections that occur during the first trimester of pregnancy has been linked to cases of microcephaly at birth. Microcephaly is a condition in which babies in the womb have incompletely developed brains and skulls, ending up either deformed or abnormally small. Microcephaly often leads to mental retardation. Zika has also been linked to the Guillain-Barre syndrome -- a condition in which the immune system attacks a body's nerves. Zika's connections to both conditions are under investigation. The NIH reported that 11,712 Zika virus cases were registered in Colombia by the end of 2015. Of these, 1,834 were suspected and 297 affected women during pregnancy. Zika virus is spread through the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue and Chikungunya viruses. According to the World Health Organization, symptoms of Zika virus infection include mild fever, rashes, headaches, arthralgia, myalgia, asthenia and non-purulent conjunctivitis. These occur about three to twelve days after being infected by a mosquito bite. As there are no preventive vaccines nor medicines that could treat the virus currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that prevention is key and all necessary precautionary measures should be undertaken to avoid infection. The CDC recommends that everyone, especially gestating women, should be cautious in traveling to regions or places where Zika has been confirmed. The use of insect repellant, long-sleeved clothing and pants are suggested, as well as lodging in accommodations with air conditioning and windows with screens. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Zika Virus News & Update: Brazil to Fund Vaccine Research & Development; 'New Test Kit' in the Works media@latinoshealth.com By Staff Writer Jan 18, 2016 06:02 AM EST Brazil has announced that they will be funding a vaccine research and development against the Zika virus. Zika virus is currently linked to a phenomenon where thousands of babies in the country are born with small heads (microcephaly) and brain damage. According to Fox News, there are more than 3,500 babies born with the condition since October of 2015. In 2014, there were only less than 150 cases which led the health officials convinced that the surge of cases may be linked to the current Zika virus outbreak happening in the country. However, it is not yet proven that two have a cause and effect relationship according to international health experts. Nevertheless, the government has announced that they will be funding the research and development of a vaccine against the virus. Health Minister Marcelo Castro hopes to have the Zika vaccine "in record time," however biomedical research center director Jorge Kalil says that it might take at least 3 years. "Today there is only one way to fight the Zika virus, which is to destroy the mosquito's breeding grounds," said Castro. "The final victory against the virus will only come when we develop a vaccine against that disease." Additionally, new testing kits to determine the presence of the virus including Dengue virus and Chikungunya which are spread by the same species of mosquito will be given to pregnant women first, BBC reports. The outlet adds that the U.S. has a first confirmed baby to have been born with born damage brought by the virus. According to the Hawaiian State Department of Health, the baby that was born in Oahu, Hawaii may have been infected while the mother was living in Brazil in May of last year. Last Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel alert for the Zika virus for those who will be going to various countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean. A travel 2 alert has been issued for people traveling to countries including Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Suriname, Paraguay, and Venezuela. The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne disease spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito; the same species that spreads dengue and chikungunya viruses. Common symptoms of this disease include joint pain, fever, rash, and conjunctivitis, according to the New York Times. There is currently no cure or vaccine against the disease and those with serious symptoms are hospitalized otherwise those with mild symptoms will be relieved in several days or weeks. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Hawaii Reports First Zika Virus in the US media@latinoshealth.com By Czarina Malleta Jan 18, 2016 06:56 AM EST The United States has reported its first case of Zika virus. A baby born in Oahu, Hawaii tested positive for the virus, an ABC News report confirmed. Health officials allayed fears, saying there is no risk of Zika transmission in Hawaii. However, reports showed the virus had infected at least six people in other countries since 2014. "The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb...Neither the baby nor the mother [is] infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii," CNN quoted the Hawaii Department of Health. Common symptoms of the virus include fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis, muscle pain, and headache. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said these symptoms can last up to a week. The virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito which is the same insect that passes the dengue and chikungunya, CDC added. This mosquito normally lives in tropical and subtropical areas and lays eggs in buckets with water, vases, and pots. This mosquito also prefers to bite humans and is active during daytime. Recently, the mosquito-borne Zika virus has been associated with microcephaly. CNN said cases of congenital brain tumor in Brazil rapidly increased to 3,500 from 147 cases in 2014; at least 46 babies have also died. According to health officials, this growing number might be due to pregnant women getting infected by the virus. CDC has urged pregnant women to postpone travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women and women trying to get pregnant who are travelling to the areas must seek their doctor's advice and follow rules on how to avoid mosquito bites during their trip. Here are the countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and Venezuela. According to CDC, the virus can be transmitted by the mother to child during the time of delivery but that is quite rare. Passing the virus during pregnancy is still being investigated. On the other hand, transmission through breastfeeding has not yet been reported. But Zika virus transmission through blood transfusion and sexual contact have been reported. To date, there is still no vaccine available for the infection. But CDC advises people with Zika symptoms to: - Get plenty of rest - Drink fluids to prevent dehydration - Take medicines, such as acetaminophen or paracetamol, to relieve fever and pain - Avoid Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen and naproxen, until dengue is ruled out. For more information about the Zika virus, check out this video below: Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Chemical Fire Explosion in Sao Paulo Hospitalizes Almost 200 Brazilians due to Breathing Difficulties media@latinoshealth.com By Staff Reporter Jan 18, 2016 05:30 AM EST A chemical fire erupted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, after the explosion happened in Brazil's Port of Santos. This leads to multiple hospitalization of people who inevitably inhaled and were affected by the toxic smoke that spread out. According to the report by BBC News, the company owners said that the cargo warehouse is set in a chemical fire when containers filled with chloric acid and sodium dichloroisocyanurate, a kind of disinfectant agent, came in contact with rainwater that caused the reaction. The fire then spread toxic gas all over the country's biggest port as well as across four nearby cities. The report also says that there are almost 200 Brazilians that have been taken to their nearest hospitals due to breathing difficulties. They have clearly been affected by the smoke of the chemical fire that was just extinguished after two days. Meanwhile, United Press International reports that there are about 85 containers that have been damaged on site. Over 300 firefighters have battled the blaze while it was at its peak. And officials like the prosecutors have started investigating if someone might be blamed for the incident. Maria Antoneita de Brito, the Guaruja mayor, has also warned the Brazilian people to stay out of the rain because it might have the chemical elements, which can burn the skin. Additionally, Guaruja City Hall has also warned that anyone who might feel irritation in the eyes, discomfort in the throat or feels nauseous must seek help right away. Euronews also reveals that the blaze prompted the evacuation of a terminal as well as nearby homes. Initial information shows that it was unknown how the rainwater seeped in through the containers. A worker at the warehouse, Anny Kaelly, describes the reaction to the eruption that: "When we realised what was going on, we left in a hurry. We left everything there. It's all there. Car, purse, bag... It's all there." BBC News notes also that the warehouse terminal is operated by a certain logistics company that is based in Guaruja called Localfrio. Guaruja is a municipality that is located on the eastern side of Santos, in the state of Sao Paulo. The company's spokesperson is the one who revealed what were in those containers. And it is also added in the report that the company exports chemicals that are used for refrigeration and general cargo. For more details, check out the video clip below. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! French Volunteer for Bial Drug Testing Dies media@latinoshealth.com By Staff Reporter Jan 18, 2016 06:27 AM EST A French volunteer who was left brain dead after the drug trial conducted by Bial, a Portuguese pharmaceutical company, died on Sunday according to Rennes Hospital, where the man was being treated. The victim was one of the 90 paid healthy people to go through the drug trial. He was the first one to feel discomfort and was admitted after taking the drug for three consecutive days. Then, five other men were hospitalized after him. The hospital where the patients were being treated said the other five patients were already in their stable condition, Reuters reported. The Guardian has revealed that the man who died and the other five who were admitted to the hospital were among those given the highest dosage of the drug being tested. All trials involving the drug has been suspended and all volunteers have already been contacted to monitor them. Ten out of the 84 more volunteers were already tested. Fortunately, none of them showed any of the anomalies experienced by those who were admitted. The reports indicate that the drug being tested is a Cannabis-based medication being developed to treat anxiety and other mental problems, and to fight against cancer, chronic pain, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis and even obesity. It was a Phase 1 clinical trial. It has been carried out to determine how safe the drug is if it is administered by single doses by mouth. Unfortunately, it ended to be the most tragic clinical trial that took place in France. The people who participated in the trial joined at their will in exchange for 1,900 euros. They were given that amount to take drug given to them from Jan. 4 to 18. After what happened, the trials conducted by Bial for this medication have all been postponed. It is normal for pharmaceutical companies to hold trials. It is always mandatory for companies developing medications to go through three phases of trials. These trials will be used to assess whether the drug is safe and effective. According to BBC, the first phase of every trial should only involve a small number of participants. The participants vary. There are some who are healthy while there are some who are already diagnosed with a medical condition. This phase should not be aimed to check if the drug actually works. It should only be a test to determine whether there are side effects of using the drug. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! US Officials Warn Pregnant Travelers to Avoid Latin American Countries Including Puerto Rico, Brazil, Mexico media@latinoshealth.com By Ivan Menchavez Jan 18, 2016 06:11 AM EST The Zika Outbreak in Latin America has been making headlines all over the Internet. Although it does not seem to be fatal for adult and children, it appears to be very dangerous for unborn babies. This concerning development forced the U.S. health officials to issue a travel warning to several countries across South America. According to a report by Reuters, the U.S. government urged pregnant women to cancel their trips as of the moment in countries such as Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Guiana, Honduras, Haiti, Martinique, Panama, Mexico, Suriname, Paraguay, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Director Dr. Lyle Petersen of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vector-borne diseases department stated there have already been confirmed reports of Zika virus as cause of two women's miscarriage in Brazil, according to the Brazilian health authorities. The agency also confirmed that the virus was present in two infants who died shortly after birth. The babies were found to have microcephaly when they came out. It was discovered that the Zika virus found in the two cases of miscarriage and two deceased infants is the same as the virus strain spreading across Brazil. For pregnant women, the most dangerous stage to get infected with the virus is in the first and second trimester, which was the case of the two Brazilian women. However, according to Dr. Cynthia Moore of the CDC, there are also evidence that birth defects may occur in the later stage of the pregnancy, Latino Fox News reported. The Zika virus that is currently becoming a problem in the countries affected is transmitted by a species of mosquitoes called Aedes aegypti. These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue virus and chikungunya, which is pretty common in Florida, Texas and in other places of the U.S. As of the moment, there is currently no vaccine available for Zika's prevention according to the CDC. The agency also said that since 2007, 26 cases of the virus were confirmed among Americans who travelled from Latin countries affected. Dr. Petersen also said that they are still testing specimens from people who became ill after their trip in South America. According to a report by NBC, there is a possibility that the virus could reach the southern states of the United States. However, U.S. Health officials cited the country's weather condition will stop the spread. Apparently the virus could not stand the cold weather of North America. There are also other countries in Asia and Africa who reported to have confirmed cases of the Zika virus. Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! Polio Vaccine Scare: Death Rumors Cause Worldwide Panic People around the world are panicking due to the rumor that the Polio shots given to kids caused their death. Poliomyelitis, commonly called as "Polio" is a highly infectious disease caused by the "Poliovirus." The disease causes muscles to weaken resulting to the child being unable to move. The body part usually affected by the muscle weakening are the legs. The prevention is taking polio shots. These past few months, a polio outbreak occurred, causing the people to bring their kids to hospitals for vaccine. Recent news about children dying caused worldwide panic. According to Orissa Post, a 21-day-old baby died due to receiving polio shots from a booth under Pattamundai block located in Kendrapara. According to the sources, Suprava Sethy brought her sick baby to the local polio booth for vaccine. Sethy claimed that her baby died within minutes after taking the shot. The baby was brought to the Pattamundai community health center (CHC) and was declared dead by the doctors. The doctor who treated the child claimed that the cause of death was not because of the shots but because the child did not eat for 2 days because he was sick. He claims that the child died from Septicaemia and was affected by infection. People who heard about polio shots causing deaths were frantic and rushed to the hospitals to get their kids checked. This recently happened in Srinagar, India. Srinagar hospitals had a huge patient rush after the polio vaccine rumor came out. The people were rushing in according to the reports of NDTV. The Srinagar doctors also refute the rumor about the deadly polio shot and said that "This vaccine does not cause death. At the most, there can be some side-effects including loose-motions and vomiting. There is nothing to worry." Doctors working on Kashmir, India also refutes the idea of the vaccine causing the deaths of the children. The State immunization officer Dr. Yangthan Dolma told State Times that there have been no reports about the death from the pulse polio vaccination. She brushed off the rumor that was causing mayhem on hospitals and requests people to have faith in the 20-year-old vaccination program. Social and Preventive Medicine in GMC Srinagar, Dr. Muhammad Saleem Khan also stated on Facebook that The most successful public health program in two decades preventing children from dreadful poliomyelitis had the biggest support from parents itself braving harsh weather. But today rumour mongers sabotaged it so badly that our very young under-five children are hoarded towards hospitals unnecessarily exposing them to chill that may cause adverse health issues." Subscribe to the latinos health newsletter! He was the teacher slyly leaning against the classroom door as the morning bell rang; the one who knew everyone's nickname, after-school activities, and individual personality. If he was demanding, it was only because Algebra and Calculus required focus. If an answer was wrong, he urged his pupil to rethink the question and try again. Nothing was free. Then again, there weren't many easy answers in Jaime Escalante's classes. There couldn't be, under the guidance of a mathematician responsible for one of the nation's most successful Advanced Placement programs. The United States Postal Service is honoring Escalante with a 2016 Forever postage stamp in homage of his work with inner-city students in Los Angeles between the mid-1970s and early 1990s. Among the reason they cited was how Escalante prove "that students judged to be 'unteachable' could master even the most difficult subject." The Bolivia-born inspiration passed away in 2010, but his work lives on in every future engineer, architect, and accredited teacher who took his words to heart. "Mr. Escalante dedicated his life to improving society as an educator," Elsa Bolado, one of Escalante's students and current principal at Graham Elementary in L.A., told Latinos Post. "To honor Mr. Escalante is to honor the thousands of anonymous educators in our public schools who generously give up precious personal time and resources, day in and day out, to ensure that students in socio-economically marginalized communities have the opportunity to pursue higher education and remain relevant." One of Bolado's most vivid memories didn't involve a math book. It came when her Garfield High School classroom learned about their Latino roots, and how to find their own American Dream. Escalante said society would judge them by their name and color of skin, yet reaffirmed each and every student that they were "destined for greatness." "He shared that we should be proud of our heritage, our language, and our parents," Bolado said. Escalante immigrated to the U.S. in 1963, carrying about $3,000 and little else. Despite his lauded grasp of Calculus, the 33-year-old Bolivian worked odd jobs, including a stint in a coffee shop across the street from Pasadena City College. This is where Escalante would take English classes, and earn the associate's degree that led to a scholarship at Cal State Los Angeles. Garfield High School offered Escalante his first teaching job in 1974. It was an arduous task in a troubled neighborhood known for crime. By 1982, his students were among the nation's best, defying perceived stereotypes by passing AP Calculus tests. "Not until I got to UCLA did I understand how important and impactful Mr. Escalante's teachings were. It was almost as if he was predicting the future - we would be accused of cheating," Bolado said. Educational Testing Services, the world's largest nonprofit testing organization, found that 18 students who passed the AP exam all missed the exact same question. Escalante questioned whether the decision to disqualify his students was racially motivated. Nevertheless, all but two of those who re-tested had their scores reinstated. Escalante would go on to see more of his students succeed - 73 passed the AP Calculus exam in 1987 - but it would be that 1982 group, the one that challenged misconceptions, that would be immortalized. "Jaime didn't just teach math. Like all great teachers, he changed lives," said actor Edward James Olmos following his death in March 2010. Olmos, who portrayed Escalante in the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," participated in a fundraiser to help pay mounting medical bills brought on by Escalante's bladder cancer. "Stand and Deliver" was nationally recognized as a significant piece of American history, added to the National Film Registry in 2011. Escalante's students found succeed beyond a letter grade. They found an identity; a way of looking at their lives with hope, belief, and a realistic possibility of reaching their goals. In that way, Escalante did change lives, one math problem at a time. "Jaime Escalante dared to challenge the status quo. His achievements are not the result of magical teaching that transformed failing students into math savants," Bolado said. "Rather, he will always embody a maestro in the fundamental sense of the word: a composer capable of extricating hidden talent and nurturing the intrinsic motivation of the hundreds of students he taught." 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Apart from being a comedian, Jimmy Morales can now add "President" to his curriculum vitae. On Thursday, Guatemala welcomed new, albeit neophyte, president Jimmy Morales. While admittedly, he doesn't have experience in government, Morales committed to fight corruption in his inaugural speech. Previously ruled by governing figures that are accused of corruption, Guatemala is also plagued with violent criminal gangs and prevailing poverty, according to a report by NBC News. Former Guatemala President Otto Perez Molina and his partner vice president were ousted - and then prosecuted - from office after massive anti-corruption demonstrations in the country. Morales was then elected in October following the political scandal. According to NBC News, his election was a "punishment vote" from the Guatemalan voting population who "wanted a fresh break." Accompanied by his wife, Morales was reported to be dressed in a dark suit as he went up the stage to be recognized. Apart from receiving a hug from his mother, he was also applauded by friends and party members from the audience. Morales addressed many things in his speech but particularly commended the anti-corruption movement adding that Guatemala was going through a "renaissance," as per BBC. More than corruption, he also committed to alloting money for health and education. "We want quality education for everyone, which prepares our children for a modern technical world," Morales said. Before he was sworn in to office on Thursday, United States Vice President Joe Biden met with Morales as well as the leaders of El Salvador and Honduras. Biden praised Morales for his platform to fight corruption in the country -- noting that there were thousands of Guatemalans went to the streets to protest and demand change paving way for Morales' election to the office. Notably, it was the first time in 30 years that a high-ranking American official attended a Guatemalan presidential inauguration. NBC News also notes that Morales appealed to Biden during his speech "to add Guatemala to the list of countries granted temporary protected status" - meaning, grant qualified citizens in the U.S. "a degree of temporary protection from deportation and allows them to work and travel." "He is a president who takes office without a party, without well-qualified people he trusts and with a state apparatus that's really in financial and institutional ruin," Edgar Gutierrez, an analyst at San Carlos University in Guatemala, commented. Morales' critics, however, notes how the president gave no specifics on how he was going to address corruption in the country as well as Guatemala's alarming rates of violence, poverty and social inequality. 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Planning a vacation in the Caribbean? You might want to reconsider. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a warning on Friday regarding the mosquito-borne Zika virus reported to infect unborn babies brain damage. While this most-recent health scare has been the concern of pregnant and planning-to-get-pregnant women, tourism in Latin American countries, particularly the Caribbean's babymoon business, share the same distress. Federal health officials, as reported by The New York Times, advised pregnant women to defer travel and vacation to 13 Latin American countries, which include Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela, as well as Puerto Rico where mosquitoes are identified to be spreading the Zika virus that cause Microcephaly in babies - a form of brain damage. Today noted that CDC officials upgraded the travel warning to Level 2 late afternoon last Friday. All travellers who will be visiting Latin America and the Caribbean were cautioned against mosquito bites in order to avoid contracting the Zika virus. "We believe this is a fairly serious problem," Chief of vector-borne diseases for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Lyle R. Petersen stated, as per The New York Times. "This virus is spreading throughout the Americas. We didn't feel we could wait," he explained. Petersen furthered that the CDC advisory applies to all fourteen countries "unless there is specific evidence the virus is not occurring somewhere." The federal health warning has taken the expected effect on the Latin American babymoon industry. President of Cruise and World Travel -- a popular babymoon booking company -- Nancy Yale shared that one of their clients, a couple who are supposedly booked for a February Caribbean babymoon trip, decided to cancel and will instead spend their five-day vacation in Florida. "We're also checking with travel insurance companies to see if a CDC travel alert about the virus would be a covered reason for cancellation," Yale said. Meanwhile, 29-year-old Jaclyn Rutigliano and her husband are indeed concerned about the health advisory on the Zika virus but not enough to cancel their babymoon on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia in two weeks. "My husband spooks more easily than I do with these things," shared Rutigliano. "But until news hits that shows our destination is specifically impacted, I believe he'll continue to proceed with caution," she adds, as per the same report. 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Will Ted Cruz remain eligible until the presidential elections? Calgary-born presidential hopeful Ted Cruz's candidacy is on the rocks as Houston attorney Newton B. Schwartz Sr. files a federal lawsuit against him questioning his eligibility to sit in the most-coveted office in the world. Born to an American mother and a Cuban father, Cruz is allegedly violating the Constitution's "natural born citizen" requirement should he win the presidential elections. According to New York Daily News, the Schwartz's lawsuit seeks a court definition to clarify whether Canadian-born Cruz, whose roots are American, can or can't serve if he is elected. "This 229-year question has never been pled, presented to or finally decided by or resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court," Houston attorney Schwartz stated in his 28-page suit. "Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially and settle this issue now," Schwartz said. Moreover, since "time is of the essence" due to the Iowa caucuses and the Super Tuesday primaries, he furthered that a resolution by the nation's highest court must be expedited. The same report clarified that Schwartz filed the lawsuit himself without the influence of anyone. Schwartz also added he's got "nothing against" Senator Cruz. "If he gets cleared, he gets cleared," Schwartz said. "Let's just get this thing settled before the primaries and the convention and the election," he added. Meanwhile, presidential hopeful Donald Trump did not waste any time fanning the flames of Cruz's most-recent controversy. "Ted Cruz was born in Canada and was a Canadian citizen until 15 months ago. Lawsuits have just been filed with more to follow. I told you so," Trump tweeted last Saturday. Trump did not stop there as he also used the opportunity to point out Cruz failing to disclose a total of $1 million in loans from Citibank and Goldman Sachs. "Based on the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Canada and is therefore a 'natural born Canadian,' did he borrow unreported loans from C banks?" he asked. Thursday night's Republican debate served as platform for a proper face-to-face between the rivals. When Trump attacked Cruz with his "birther" issue, the latter replied that "though the Constitution hasn't changed recently, his polling numbers have risen." "There is a big overhang. A big question mark on your head," Trump told Cruz, as per Bloomberg. "You can't do that to the party," he added. Cruz also maintained that since his mother is American he is considered a U.S. citizen at birth. He also admitted that he didn't realize he still holds Canadian citizenship until the Dallas Morning News in 2013. He renounced his Canada ties in 2014. 2015 Latinos Post. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Most Latinos are so stressed nowadays that they would often dream of an amazing travel adventure even just once a year. Traveling is like their sweet escape from life's pressure and their key to enjoy the real beauty of nature in the most extraordinary way. But sometimes, it can also be a burden which can lead to anxiety, especially to first time travelers who don't have any idea what to do. The good thing is technology already has its ways to make traveling more comfortable and hassle-free. Travel apps are now getting more in demand these days. From booking a flight to selecting places at a destination, these apps can surely be of great help. Some apps which travelers must never leave without are: Instagram Instagram is not just an app where Latino travelers can share their experiences and boast everything online. This app also acts as an online travel journal where travelers can upload memories with only a few clicks. Travelers love to treasure memories. That's why this app can sure be useful. Another thing is that, travelers can also use this app as their resource for planning their trip especially that a lot of travel bloggers are also active in this social media platform. They can gather information through these bloggers' travel posts and blog reviews which they can use as they create new and exciting memories too. Trover Perfect for Latinos who always love to travel, this app acts as a visual guide travelers can use almost everywhere. Often compared to other apps like Pinterest and Instagram, Trover is more loved by travelers because of how the app offers more than "just stunning shots." Every picture posted here has tips and reviews. So while scanning through these photos, travelers can already get some extra tips about their desired destination. Unlike other apps, it's also less complicated and easier to use. Skype This app can help Latino travelers save lots of money especially when calling internationally while outside the country. It also offers chatting and live video calling for free. No matter what device they use, as long as there's a good, fast and reliable internet connection, getting in touch with friends and families will never be a problem anymore. They can also make calls to other non-Skype numbers for only 2 cents per minute -- a pretty good deal compared to other international call promos. With its good audio and impressive video quality, travelers can now share their travel experiences with their love ones live. Other useful must-have travel applications Latino travelers have to check out are Hyperlapse and Pinterest. More than a quarter million undocumented immigrants are said to be eligible for temporary protection as the Obama administration conducts deportation raids. "Relief Not Raids" The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (IRLC) released a report, titled "Relief Not Raids," stating that more than 750,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras would likely receive Temporary Status Protection (TPS), which may provide immigrants with employment authorization and brief deferred action from deportation if they cannot safely arrive to their home countries. The report comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson confirmed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency performed raids on immigrant individuals and family during the weekend following New Years. "Immigration raids are a grossly inappropriate and ineffective response to a genuine humanitarian crisis," said IRLC Immigration Policy Attorney Jose Magana-Salgado in a statement, who also authored the report. "Instead, President Obama must exercise his legal authority to expand Temporary Protected Status to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as individuals from those countries simply cannot safely return to their homes. To do otherwise would be to continue sending Central American refugees to their deaths." The IRLC wrote that the Obama administration has the legal authority to categorize the three Central American countries for TPS due to ongoing conflicts in the aforementioned Latin American nations. The report noted that approximately 83 nationals deported to El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras between January 2015 and September 2015 were murdered -- mostly in El Salvador with 45 murders. "Unprecedented violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala has caused a humanitarian crisis that has forced migrants from those countries seek refuge in the United States," said ILRC Founder Bill Hing. "Unfortunately, our nation's response of detention and prioritizing the removal of unaccompanied children and mothers with children has resulted in a human rights crisis of our own making." Based on finding from the DHS and Pew Research Center, ILRC found that designating TPS for El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras would potentially give nearly 1.2 million more people TPS eligibility, yet only 757,422 would actually receive TPS status due to "various eligibility criteria and application requirements." "To reverse the path toward an indignity that our nation will come to regret, the Obama Administration should grant Temporary Protected Status to those who have fled the violence," added Hing." Additional Calls for TPS As Latin Post reported, and as IRLC acknowledged in its report, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and146 members of the House of Representatives have called on the Obama administration to stop the deportation campaign and expand TPS. The 146 representatives also released a letter addressed to Obama to grant TPS until his administration develops a comprehensive refugee solution. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., in her prepared remarks," had said, "Our letter to President Obama, with over 100 signatures from Members of Congress, simply asks the president to suspend removal operations of Central American refugee women and children and to grant them Temporary Protected Status until the Administration has a comprehensive refugee strategy in place that provides adequate screening, meaningful legal counsel and due process, and a comprehensive regional approach that will ensure these refugee women and children have a fair chance to live in safety." On Wednesday, the Obama administration, through the State Department, announced its U.S. Refugee Admissions Program will help individuals and families from the three Central American countries. The program, however, was met with subdued reaction. __ For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com. During NBCs two-hour Democratic presidential primary debate, only one candidate acknowledged Puerto Rico's financial crisis, immigration and the Obama administrations deportation raids: Martin OMalley. What NBC Forgot: Immigration, Puerto Rico & Central America In response to moderator Lester Holt's last question of the two-hour debate on Sunday night, "Is there anything that you really wanted to say tonight that you haven't gotten a chance to say?" O'Malley took the next 60 seconds to acknowledge issues the Latino community is seeking action on from Congress and President Barack Obama. "There are so many issues that we haven't been able to discuss here. We have not fully discussed immigration reform and the deplorable number of immigrant detention camps that our nation is now maintaining. We haven't discussed the shameful treatment that the people of Puerto Rico, our fellow Americans, are being treated with by these hedge funds that are working them over," said O'Malley, which garnered applause from the Charleston, South Carolina audience. "We haven't discussed the fact that in our own hemisphere we have the danger of nation-state failures because of drug traffickers in Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador," O'Malley continued. First 100 Days The first question of the night was about what each candidate plans to focus during his or her respective first 100 days in the Oval Office. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he aims on "thinking big," which includes health care as a right, minimum wage increase to $15 an hour and create decent paying jobs and to end the decline of the middle class. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will work quickly to present Congress with a new jobs plan, improve wages including equal pay for women's work, plans to improve the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and fix issues dividing the country such immigration, campaign finance reforms and voting rights. O'Malley also said he plans to increase wages, pass comprehensive immigration reform and address climate change. Health Reforms A significant portion of the debate focused on Sanders' health care proposals. Clinton claimed Sanders wants to rid of the ACA, stating the Vermont senator wants "to tear it up and start over again," which would lead the U.S. in the "wrong direction." "I do not want to see us start over again with a contentious debate," said Clinton. Sanders denounced what he claimed is the Clinton campaign's rhetoric that he seeks to end Medicare and Medicaid. Sanders defended the ACA, acknowledged that he helped draft and vote for the bill but there are still 29 million Americans uninsured, thus he proposed a "Medicare for all" plan. "We finally have a path to universal health care. We've accomplished so much. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it, and I do not want us to start over again with a contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it," said Clinton. Gun Control Clinton also attacked Sanders on his gun control platform. The former secretary of state said the Vermont senator voted for a provision gun control advocates claimed would have prevented the suspect of the Charleston church massacre from obtaining a gun. "He has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby, numerous times," said Clinton. Sanders said what Clinton said is disingenuous, noting his D- record from the National Rifle Association and support of background checks, including Obama's recent gun control executive actions. Watch the Full Debate: __ For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com. Donald Trump drew angry reaction from a Tea Party crowd on Saturday, when he bashed rival Republican Ted Cruz over at least two undisclosed bank loans he admitted to earlier this week. NBC reports the GOP front-runner was speaking before a group of South Carolina grassroots conservatives when he started blasting the Texas senator. "You give a campaign contribution to Ted Cruz, you get whatever the hell you want," he said before being drowned out by a chorus of boos. Trump later added, "Say whatever you want, it's okay, he didn't report his bank loans. He's got bank loans from Goldman Sachs, he's got bank loans from Citibank, folks, and then he acts like Robin Hood?" After a period where the two party favorites had little bad to say about one another, Trump and Cruz have openly feuded of late, with Trump going as far as to even question Cruz's legal right to be president given he was born in Canada. With the Iowa caucuses now just two weeks away and the two locked in a neck and neck battle, the stakes and rhetoric have only grown hotter, with the two taking turns openly blasting the other during the most recent GOP debate. In his remarks before the same Tea Party Coalition Convention crowd Trump spoke to on Saturday, Cruz took the high road and refrained from mentioning the bombastic real estate mogul by name. Later, influential conservative talk-radio host Mark Levin told Trump in a social media post to "either cut the crap - your accusations this morning that Cruz is Canadian, a criminal, owned by big banks, etc. - or you will lose lots and lots of conservatives." A new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll now shows Cruz with 25 percent of the vote in Iowa to Trump's 22 percent and Florida Senator Marco Rubio's 12 percent. Days after declaring a state of emergency due to the rampant spread of the Zika virus, Brazil has announced that it is developing new testing kits designed to quickly identify the presence of three viruses: Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya. As the BBC reports, the nationss Health Minister, Marcelo Castro, said that getting the test to pregnant women would be the first priority. According to Castro, extra funds have also been allocated to speed up finding a vaccine for Zika. The outbreak of Zika in Brazil has lead to a profound increase in birth defects. As previously reported, from 2014-2015, the number of babies born with microcephaly has increased from 200 to nearly 3,000. The Brazilian government revealed that around 1.5 million of its citizens have been infected since May 2015. The Zika virus has been reported in Latin American regions such as Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Puerto Rico. As previously reported, earlier this month the first case of Zika in the U.S. was confirmed in Harris County, Texas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infected Harris County resident contracted the virus after returning from Latin America. The Wall Street Journal reports that Dr. Umair Shah, the executive director of the Harris County Public Health & Environmental Services department in Texas, said that although there was currently no evidence that the Zika virus was in the areas pool of mosquitoes, this situation was likely to change. Its probably more a case of when Zika virus will be in the U.S. in our mosquito population than if, he said. The U.S. State Department has also confirmed the first case of a baby born with brain damage due to the Zika virus. As CNN reports, the baby, who was born in Oahu, Hawaii, was infected in utero. Hawaii's Health Department said, "The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb." Venezuela declared a 60-day economic emergency on Jan 15. As the BBC reports, the announcement that President Nicolas Maduro will govern by decree for the next two months was made just hours before the socialist leader delivered his State of the Nation address to Congress. The Wall Street Journal reports that Maduro's top economic adviser, Luis Salas, said the measures were made in order to assure Venezuelans that the social programs they have come to depend upon would continue despite the nation's troubled economy. We want to reaffirm the peoples trust in the revolutionary government, said Salas. New figures released by Venezuelas central bank inform that the economy contracted by 4.5 percent in the first nine months of last year. Speaking to Congress, Maduro vowed he would continue on with the nation's present economic model. The new decree allows the executive branch control over the national budget and gives Maduro's administration the direct power to implement policies which might stimulate the economy. As the AFP reports, Maduro claimed that Venezeulas current economic model was all that was keeping citizens employed. "These catastrophic figures (are) the result of an economic situation that in another era of regressive neoliberal and capitalist policies would surely have pushed (the Venezuelan) people into unemployment," said Maduro. "The socialist model is the only one, not the neoliberal model that wants to come and privatize everything," he added. Lawmakers in the opposition Democratic Unity coalition said the decree would be vetted in the coming week. As previously reported, Venezuela's opposition party lost their recently won supermajority when they allowed three of their members to be barred from Congress. National Assembly speaker Henry Ramos Allup was critical of Maduro's economic plan. "For 17 years, we've followed a wrong-headed economic model," he said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that a baby in Oahu, Hawaii was born with microcephaly, per CNN. It is the first reported case of the birth defect linked with the Zika virus in the country since the October 2015 outbreak in Brazil. The Hawaiian Health Department noted that the baby's mother resided in Brazil back in May 2015 and likely was infected before moving to Oahu. The department also assured that both the mother and baby are not contagious and the threat of an outbreak in the islands is unlikely. The case was reported on Saturday, a day after the CDC issued a travel alert to 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean, Central and South America linked with the Zika virus. People, especially pregnant women are warned to get extra cautious when traveling to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Roco, Suriname and Venezuela. According to FOX News, the virus is spreading in most Latin American countries with Brazil having the most cases of microcephaly since October 2015. The Brazilian Health Ministry reported more than 3,500 cases of the rare birth defect where newborn babies fail to develop brains properly resulting to an unusually small head. The number of cases is alarming considering there were less than 150 cases reported in 2014 with many pregnant women in the country fleeing to the U.S. and Europe to avoid the virus. The Brazilian government is eradicating mosquito habitats but announced that a research for developing a vaccine against the Zika virus is already funded. "Today there is only one way to fight the Zika virus, which is to destroy the mosquito's breeding grounds. The final victory against the virus will only come when we develop a vaccine against that disease," Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Castro said. In a report by Voice of America, the state of Pernambuco in Brazil has the most number of reported cases with more than 1,000 with three confirmed deaths. The symptoms of the Zika virus on adults include fever, joint pain and skin rash spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The virus was discovered in 1947 by scientists in the African nation of Uganda while studying monkeys. The first reported cases in humans were first recorded in Nigeria back in the 1950s and other cases were very rare. However, the Pacific island of Micronesia suffered a Zika virus outbreak in 2007 with some additional cases in other islands like the Cook Islands, Easter Island, New Caledonia and Polynesia. Cuban-American presidential candidate Marco Rubio recently defended his stance on immigration after being criticized for initially being soft about the matter, Breitbart reports. Now, Rubio is urging that undocumented immigrants should have the opportunity to stay compared to "criminal aliens." Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday, the senator defended his previous statements regarding immigration in light of the recent immigration raids being done under the Obama administration, the publication reports. When asked by Chuck Todd if the presidentiable was still looking for ways, similar to his previous efforts in the Gang of Eight immigration reform bill, he answered, "Yeah, look. If you're a criminal alien, no, you can't stay. If you're someone that hasn't been here for a very long time, you can't stay," Rubio said as quoted by the news outlet. Rubio further explained the difference between a "criminal alien" and an undocumented immigrant. "I mean, a felon, someone who's committed a crime, a non-immigration-related- and that's what I've talked about in the past. So I do believe -- I don't think you're gonna round up and deport 12 million people," he said as quoted by the publication. Rubio's statements came after receiving slack back in 2013 when he created the immigration bill that had the goal for undocumented immigrants to eventually be citizens, The Hill reports. The presidentiable further revealed that his past strategies were signifying that it was time to change it based on what was currently happening. "If circumstances change or you learn something along the way, it's reasonable to say, 'Maybe a different approach will work better,'" Rubio said as quoted by the outlet. "So, for example, on immigration it is clear no comprehensive solution to immigration is going to pass." Rubio discussed that in order for undocumented immigrants to have the right processing on their citizenship, they will first have to control illegal immigration and secure the country's safety against threats like the ISIS, Breitbart reports. Meanwhile, taking his stance higher, Rubio criticized his fellow presidential candidate Ted Cruz, saying that Cruz changed his argued position in the immigration issue from being a supporter to being the harshest candidate towards the issue, per The Hill. Another report from Breitbart reveals that Rubio has strengthened his statements even more and says that he is the best candidate to fight the developing crisis in the U.S. He explains that there is no one who better understands the issue personally than him. A latest development in the case of sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently reported. Fox News Latino reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal from Maricopa County, which said that they were improperly named in Arpaio's case as a party. The case regarding the racial profiling allegations towards Arpaio dates back in 2013. Meanwhile, Arpaio remains to be silent about the latest development on his case. However, the famed sheriff, who allegedly sketched Latinos racially in his regular traffic and immigration patrols, may face another civil suit. The news comes amid the recent immigration raids happening around the U.S. under the Obama administration, where 121 undocumented immigrants from Latin American countries were deported or detained. Before the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal, the case reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the news agency. Furthermore, Arpaio's will reportedly move forward, holding Arpaio for civil contempt of court after previously defying court orders. The sheriff continues to face a tough ordeal, especially after announcing some personal problems involving his family. AZ Central reports that Arpaio's wife, Ava Arpaio, is currently battling cancer. Despite receiving tough criticisms in recent months regarding the sheriff's allegations in court, some individuals on social media, including an opponent of Arpaio, have consoled him for his wife's condition. Immigration advocate Lydia Guzman, according to the publication, has announced her sympathies for his long-time political opponent. "As much as I give Arpaio a hard time I am also thinking about his wife and send best wishes for a recovery," Guzman wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of red roses for Arpaio's wife. * I just found out that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's wife, Ava, has cancer. As much as I give Arpaio a hard time I am also... Posted by Lydia Guzman on Thursday, January 14, 2016 "My greatest wish is that God may send her relief and comfort. It's not her fault she is married to someone like that," Guzman added. Meanwhile, Guzman just updated her Facebook page and announced that Arpaio already responded to her message. "Arpaio became aware of the many well wishes for his wife on my Facebook. He said he appreciates them. I'm glad that he's able to see that despite the suffering our community has endured, we are a community that feels love and compassion," Guzman wrote. First, free education, and now solar energy. Chile is fast becoming a people- and environment-friendly nation. Solar power isn't new, but Chile has proven that Latin America can still join the conservation revolution. This is a lofty triumph for the country that also became king in another solar initiative -- solar photovoltaics (PV) use. For solar energy, the South American nation is investing big time on Atacama 1, a 200-meter-tall solar tower under construction and will soon become a source of renewable energy. With over 10,600 mirrors being built for it, Atacama 1 is expected to generate a whopping 110 megawatts 24/7. Hopes are high for the solar energy project. According to the Latin America Post, Atacama 1 is expected to be the largest solar plant running on a single tower in the world. In addition, its turbines will be powered by another natural resource -- locally mined salt. "The sun and the salt are from Chile. This is one of our selling points - that we provide a stable supply using local resources. This plant is not dependent on imports so there is more security against global price fluctuations and international crises," Business Development Manager Roberto Herrera of Spanish company Abengoa, owner of Atacama 1, stated via the Guardian. "The marginal costs in Chile are the lowest of any of our power plants ... When it is built, we'll only need 50 maintenance staff ... The cost is already at the same level as gas - $120 per megawatt hour - and the idea is for it to fall as the technology improves," he added. According to the Washington Post, companies investing in solar and wind installations are skyrocketing this year. United States and China are two countries with numerous installations already. In fact, countries in developing regions such as Africa and Latin America aren't exempt from the green trend since they are investing in solar energy as well. Despite the industry's chief competitors' (coal and natural gas) low prices, the aforementioned countries have taken faith in green energy. While Spanish company Abengoa plays a big role in Chile's solar power shift, Google's upcoming plans will also contribute greatly to the country's green future. The giant global tech company is reportedly planning on building its first Latin American data center in Chile, with its Quilicura headquarters expected to be fully-powered with solar energy come 2017. The future of solar energy in Latin America is bright. The region has become solar power's fastest growing market in the world. In 2014, Latin America's solar power skyrocketed to 370 percent. Chile isn't the only country starting to shift to a solar future in Latin America. Uruguay's big success came in late 2015 when it announced that 94.5 percent of its energy has come via renewable sources. Costa Rica has also done the same with solar, and has even delivered better results. Brazil and Paraguay's energy comes mostly from hydroelectric power. Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Panama are also looking to invest in solar energy. These aforementioned countries have slowly shifted to other renewable energy sources like wind and biomass. Despite the uncertainty of Atacama 1's success, it's still clear that renewable energy in Latin America has a huge potential, especially solar power. It has less environmental and social issues as compared to other massive energy production options. With solar power's returns against fossil fuels, pollution, climate change and the likes, investing in the resource in the Latam region sounds like the best option. Besides, the Earth can use all the help it can get. There is a need for foster homes in Seminole, Orange and Osceola Counties that cater to Spanish-speaking children, representatives from Community Based Care of Central Florida said. This call for Spanish-speaking foster homes in Central Florida comes amid concerns for the welfare of these children the moment they are taken into foster care. Danielle Abbey, a community impact manager for Community Based Care of Central Florida, told Fox News that there has been an increase in the number of multi-cultural children in Florida's foster care system. Of these children, there is a great chance that one has Spanish as the first language. This is supposedly why there is a need for Spanish-speaking foster homes, since they would help make the living transition of these Spanish-speaking children feel less uncomfortable. "When these [children] are removed from their home they're already going through quite a transition so being able to go into a home with a family who is your same culture and speaks your same language makes it a little bit easier," foster parent recruiter Kyraneshia Coleman told Fox News. German and Danae Fuentes know the importance of living in a family where culture is shared. The family, who is fostering an 18-month old boy, reiterated the need for Spanish-speaking foster homes in Central Florida during an interview with Fox News. "We know that [his] family is also of Spanish heritage in this particular case so if and when he goes back to family we want him to be able to match, not to be isolated," German Fuentes said. In the same interview, Fuentes also talked about his experience fostering the toddler. The 18-month old boy reportedly lived with the Fuentes family five months ago. He came to live with them the moment the family were granted their foster care license. German said it has been a "phenomenal experience" for his family to foster children. Aside from the toddler, they have also cared for a baby and have volunteered to foster up to four children until the age of seven years old. According to the Community Based Care of Central Florida's official website, Osceola County has the most number of Spanish-speaking children in their foster care. That's because the county is mostly comprised of Hispanic or Latino communities. To address this need for Spanish-speaking foster homes in the area, a first Spanish-language course called "Parent Resource for Information, Development and Education" or PRIDE course was launched in February 2015. Dianna Duran, the former Secretary of State of New Mexico, has been freed after serving her 30-day jail term. The 60-year-old politician was found guilty of embezzlement and money laundering after admitting she used campaign money to pay off her debts incurred while gambling. Duran was released from Santa Fe County Jail on Jan. 17 at 8:51 a.m. Shortly after the clearance to leave was issued, she was off the jail premises within a minute, Santa Fe New Mexican News reported. Duran was fetched and escorted by two unidentified men and they rode a truck to get home. She walked out of the prison grounds in a gray sweatsuit cover-all and carried her belongings placed in a plastic bag. Nevertheless, after completing the jail term, the politician will continue to be monitored for five years. She left the prison with a GPS tracking device so that the Adult Probation and Parole Office can make sure that she will never go to any gambling establishments again. It will only be after two years that Duran can request the Parole office for the monitoring device to be removed. Then again, even if the GPS tracking were taken off, her probation will go on until five years is over. Additionally, she was ordered to pay a $14,000 in fine plus another $13,866 in restitution. The Republican must also complete 2,000 hours of community service and tasked to hold speeches in schools and civic groups, to tell them about her crimes that caused her downfall. She was also required to write apology letters for her offenses and these must be published in six newspaper publications across the state. The 30-day jail sentence was the result of her admittance for misusing campaign funds in order to sustain her severe gambling habit. She also tried to cover-up her misdeed but it was eventually found out. The former Secretary of State was originally slapped with 65 charges but as part of her plea deal, she only admitted six of them. She owned up to two counts of money embezzlement and four counts of offense for taking advantage of her access to campaign funds and running off with thousands of dollars which she recklessly spent at a casino and race tracks. She resigned from office in October 2015 and her case was brought to the court. District Judge T. Glenn Ellington could have handed her a heavier sentence of seven years behind bars but Duran accepted a plea deal. With this incident, House Democrats now want to set up an ethics commission in order to tighten up the the law and discourage corrupt officials from carrying out their "dark" plans. "Seeing your former secretary of state's mug shot in the paper is one way to make legislators pay attention to ethics proposals," the executive director of Common Cause New Mexico Viki Harrison said in a statement in SF Gate. On Sunday, a meeting by the Federal National Council (FNC) with the Latin America and the Caribbean Group (Grulac) about trade issues ended with a bilateral agreement on their position against terrorism, The National reports. According to the publication, Grulac President Roberto Leon from Chile says that a mutual stance on terrorism has been concluded and that the UAE has the same stance against terrorism. Leon adds that "the Muslim world definitely does not call for terrorism." FNC speaker Dr. Amal Al Qubaisi said that the meeting with Grulac shed some light on trade partnerships between the FNC and Grulac nations. "Economic relations are growing, but not enough. The amount of exchange between the UAE and these countries is less than 1 per cent of both sides' GDP. Through agreement, investments will grow," Al Qubaisi explained as quoted by the publication. Mr. Leon, on the other hand, looks forward to the coming years and sees the results of the said meeting. Meanwhile, Al Qubaisi welcomed one of the ideas of one of Chile's representative vowing to raise the issue of excluding the UAE from its double taxation rules in the country. Following FNC's meeting with Grulac is the council's parliamentary retreat to be held on Jan. 23 to Jan. 25. According to Gulf News, the retreat aims to strengthen and strategize the 16th legislative Chapter for 2015-2019. Headed by Dr. Amal Al Qubaisi, she said that the FNCs aim is to develop a strategy in order to provide a viable roadmap for their performance while maintaining their focus on management and parliamentary practices. In 2005, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa launched a strategy based on political empowerment. This was cordially supported by its allies with the directive of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai. The said strategy will significantly touch the possible changes on legislative and regulatory level. Al Qubaisi said, "It also aims to promote political participation and achieve a broader community participation and the best channels of communication locally and internationally, so as to achieve sustainable development." The FNC's retreat will also showcase its role on the national level, citing its role in giving a complete and balanced roadmap to parliamentary issues. Al Qubaisi expects that the said strategy will be able to influence all levels of legislative institutions -- locally, regionally or globally. She also concluded that such development will not stray away from what the UAE believes in, but rather, put its performance in line with the country's society. Miami-based restaurant Versailles was sued over its establishment's insanitary conditions. According to the Miami Herald, the Cuban restaurant Versailles is facing a suit filed by its former employee because of its alleged neglect on sanitation issues. A spokesperson for Versailles has since denied the allegations, saying that the lawsuit is "wholly without merit." The company also claims that they have never been drawn in such lawsuit pertaining their establishment's sanitary practices. In his complaint, former Versailles manager Claudio Calderin disclosed how he made the effort to bring the issue of sanitary violation to his employer to no avail. Instead, he said he was transferred to a night shift schedule at La Carreta, a sister company of Versailles. Calderin's lawyer Pelayo Duran tagged the owner of Versailles as one who's trying to avoid responsibility on the issue. He also said, "Cockroaches in the flans, hairs, I mean, those are serious problems." Other issues involving the owner of Versailles include allegations of performing illicit sexual acts for Felipe Valls, Sr. Although the lawsuit on the sexual act has been dropped, Duran represented the complainant during the time it was filed. In his statement, Duran expressed his concern over his client saying as quoted by the Miami New Times, "It's unfortunate that Mr. Calderin finds himself in this situation. He complained internally numerous times, trying to get help and he witnessed the increased retaliation which ultimately ended in a separation." According to the Miami Dining Adviser, Versailles, in the last inspection made by inspectors last November, committed at least three basic sanitary violations. If you look at the inspection history, this has been toned down a lot compared to its September inspection, where it committed to a total of 21 violations, five of which are high-priority cases. According to the Miami New Times, along with Calderin's complaint are a series of photos that he took while he was still working for Versailles. He also included these photos when he made the complaint against his former employer. Apparently, such cases are not the only ones plaguing the iconic Miami-based Versailles restaurant. In 2014, two other employees of Versailles filed a complaint against discrimination over sexual orientation, which was also handled by Duran. According to the Miami Herald, the case is still under investigation to this day. In an email sent by a Versailles representative to the Miami New Times, they denied the allegations and Calderin's intentions rooted from his inability to find a job after he quitted his position at La Carreta. Oxfam, an anti-poverty charity organization based in Oxford, England, has recently reported a significant increase regarding the wealth gap, inequality and the widening trust gap between people and their political leaders around the world. The data also showed that the world's 62 richest people held half of the fortune in the world, a striking evidence that the poor are falling further behind the elites and the political fissures in the United States, Europe and the Middle East. On the latest report about extreme global wealth inequality released on Sunday, Oxfam emphasized the increasing division between those at the either end of the income spectrum. But according to Reuters, the divisions go far beyond those that exist between the haves and have-nots, citing the division between Shi'ites and Sunnis, which has already reached crisis point. Moreover, Iran and Saudi Arabia are openly pushing for influence in a region reeling from war and ISIS' barbarism. Unfortunately, the conflicts caused deep ideological fissures in Europe, particularly over the handling of the worst refugee crisis since World War II, not to mention Britain's threats to leave the European Union. In the United States, on the other hand, the shocking emergence of Donald Trump as the Republicans' presidential candidate has highlighted a gaping political gap in the nation, igniting concerns among Washington's allies amid the global uproar. "The big winners in our global economy are those at the top," Oxfam said, as per USA Today. "Our economic system is heavily skewed in their (the wealthiest) favor. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being sucked upwards at an alarming rate." "Rising inequality is a problem for all of us," the organization added. "The OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) notes that increasing income inequality poses a risk for social cohesion and threatens to slow down the current economic recovery." Oxfam unveiled its research just a few days before the Annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Jan. 20 to 23. The annual meeting will be attended by world leaders, corporate titans and members of civil society. They will converge for a week of discussions and workshops on the world's most pressing concerns including rising inequality and widening trust gap between the people and their political leaders. The event will be attended by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the foreign ministers of both Iran and Saudi Arabia. Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Britain's David Cameron and Mario Draghi are also expected to attend. Hollywood stars such as Leonardo Di Caprio and Kevin Spacey are reportedly attending as well. Due to Oxfam's report, longtime inequality campaigner and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sander said the issue of wealth and income inequality has become one of the greatest moral, economic and political issue the society is facing today. "There is something profoundly wrong when the richest 62 people in the world own more wealth than the bottom half of the global population," Sanders said. "The United States is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can and must do more to improve the lives of some of the most desperate people." Meanwhile, a separate report published on Sunday by the International Trade Confederation, which represents 168 million workers in 155 countries, showed that the combined wealth of 24 companies in America. including Amazon, Walmart and the Walt Disney Company could buy Canada. While The World Bank said that more than a billion people live in extreme poverty, living off $1.90 per day. In order to help fight inequality, Oxfam is calling global leaders to crack down on tax havens, where the rich have punched away $7.6 trillion, CNN Money reported. After many years of being imprisoned in Iran, four Americans detainees were finally released, with the three of them already out of the country. The prisoners were Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari. All of them except Roodsari chose to return to the United States. In a report by A Times, the prisoners left Tehran last Sunday, when a prisoner swap negotiation between U.S. and Iran followed over the lifting of nuclear sanctions in the country. According to CNN, the three prisoners arrived on a flight at Ramstein Air Base in Germany for a scheduled medical check-up. The trio also made a stop in Geneva, Switzerland last Sunday that showed Rezaian standing outside a plane and talking to U.S. officials. As for Roodsari, he decided to stay in Iran according to government officials. They added that his decision is of his own making and stated that, "We don't make that judgment." President Obama even personally called Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of the pastor Saeed, which garnered intense gratitude and praise from her family. On the other hand, The Washington Post's executive director even went personally to Germany to meet with journalist Rezaian. They asked him about his condition, which Rezaian happily answered and said, "I'm a hell of a lot better than I was 48 hours ago." Furthermore, another prisoner in the country named Matthew Trevithick was also released, although U.S. officials noted that it is not part of the negotiated deal between the U.S. and Iran. Iran President Hassan Rouhani commended the negotiations that took place and said that the deal between the two countries is a "model to resolve regional issues." Once traditionally enemies, the thawing relationship between Iran and United States comes as good news for everyone. However, the negotiations between the two countries may cause problems with Saudi Arabia -- a long-time U.S. ally. It does not help that President Rouhani even boldly declared Saudi Arabia as the source of their problems with the United States. Add to the fact that just weeks ago, Iran accused Saudi of bombing it' embassy to Yemen with fighter jets. However, several news sites such as the Associated Press reported that the embassy appears to have no damage at all, so it's hard to pinpoint where Iran's claim is coming from. As for Saudi Arabia, Gen. Ahmad Asseri said that they are conducting their own private investigations regarding Iran's claim. For travelers, their trips get more exciting by trying out food fares of the locals. This is because there are types of foods that can never be found in their own countries or hometowns. Definitely, there is nothing like the experience of eating tacos in Mexico or Kimchi stew in Korea. Tasting local cuisine is really part of traveling that everyone must not miss so when visiting Latin America, here are the top eight foods to get to know and feast on: Steaks According to Backpackers, Argentina's specialty are its line of steaks. True enough, the country is known worldwide for the delectable steaks and meats that it serves. Steaks are typically expensive in many countries, but in Argentina, it is very affordable and come in various shapes and big servings. For the Argentines, this food fare is often eaten with wine or dry sherry on the side. There are also establishments that offer the whole package for take outs; in Buenos Aires, one can order a big steak together with a bottle of red wine. The best part is, you can get this much in the same price as the whole pizza you use to order back in your country. Churassco This is a beef or grilled meat cuisine and often included in Latin American cuisine. It is especially popular in Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua and Uruguay. This is often served grilled style in steak houses called the churrascaria. There are restaurants in Brazil that offer churrasco as an all-you-can-eat buffet treat. Empanada This is one of the most popular snack in Latin America. In Brazilian Portuguese, it is known as pastel while Bolivians called this saltena. This pastry is stuffed with various fillings like meat, cheese, fruits, vegetables and huitlacoche, and usually baked or fried. As a traveler, you cannot leave Latam without tasting this one. Arepa This is common in Colombia and Venezuela. Arepa has many variants and it is the ingredients that make them unique in South American regions. The same corn flour tortillas used in Mexico is the same ones used to make this. These are breads that are served with egg, cheese jam, and avocado fillings. They are typically eaten during breakfast or as a snack. Ceviche Latina listed Ceviche as one of the foods that every Latin woman should learn to make. This is because it is a traditional favorite in the region. The dish is raw fish that marinated in citrus juices like lime or the local bitter orange called naranja agria. Spices like chilli peppers, onion, salt and black pepper are added in the marinade to achieve the savory taste. Often, this is served in small glass as an appetizer. Corn on the cob and sweet potato are the common accompaniment of ceviche. Ropa Vieja It is a shredded beef served with fried plantain, black beans and rice. One of its main ingredients is the Cuban sofrito which gives its unique taste. The sofrito is cooked with the comobination of green peppers, tomatoes and sauteed onions. Aside from Ropa Vieja, sausages and smoked meat are also served with the sofrito sauce. Beer and wine a must when having this fare. Great news for fidgety students and those who just can't keep themselves from standing up during class. According to a new research reported by Science Alert, standing up may actually improve students' cognitive performance -- although it can be quite fatigue-inducing. As noted, the study found that high school students who used standing desks for over a year demonstrated a significant improvement with their cognitive functioning, compared to when using conventional desks during class. Mark Benden, one of the researchers from Texas A & M University, said that there has been anecdotal evidence coming from teachers that said their students are more focused and well-behaved while using standing desks. Benden said that, "This is the first examination of students' cognitive responses to the standing desks, which to date have focused largely on sedentary time as it relates to childhood obesity." It's no secret that there have been many research reports and even old wives' tales that highlight the benefits of standing up. However, most of these apparent benefits are usually focused on the physical aspect of standing up such as burning more calories. Apparently, this study is the first of its kind to highlight the mental benefits of standing up, particularly for students. The research was done according to The Globe and Mail by gathering 34 students, aged from 14 to 16, to participate in the study. During the timeline of the research, the students' executive functions were assessed with a number of tests at two periods during the school year. According to the tests, the students showed an approximate seven to 14 percent improvement in cognitive performance across different executive functions and working memory tasks after their year and a half of standing during classes. The "standing up" study was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and stated that, "continued use of standing desks was associated with significant improvements in executive function and working memory capabilities." A member of the research team named Ranjana Mehta also said that they have observed changes in the corresponding brain activation patterns. But just like many scientific studies, the research has its limitations, in which the researchers are well aware of. However, it should be noted that this study is still a commendable contribution to the scientific community as the authors called this to be the "first contribution to the existing knowledge base" in this area. Moreover, the researchers said that this study could generate further tests and other similar studies, which will prove that standing up is really beneficial to cognitive functions. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recently issued a travel warning for 14 Latin American nations and Caribbean territories that have exposed to Zika virus, a mosquito-borne virus connected to the increasing rate of birth defects in Brazil. The alert was issued late Friday and it includes Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. Due to the alarming increase in cases of infants born with brain damage linked to Zika virus, U.S. health officials have warned pregnant women to postpone travel to the aforementioned areas. While those who want to become pregnant, experts have advised to consult their doctors first before embarking on any trip to Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. & World Report News Health noted. "We believe this is a fairly serious problem," CDC's Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Lyle Petersen said during an evening press conference on Friday, Jan.15. "The virus is spreading fairly rapidly throughout the Americas and a large percentage of the population may become infected. Because of the growing evidence that there is a link between Zika virus and microcephaly, we thought it was very important to warn people as soon as possible." The travel warning has also highlighted Latin America's campaign against mosquitoes. As a matter of fact, New York Times reported that Brazil has started deploying soldiers to destroy habitats where the insects thrive. While Colombia has released swarms of mosquitoes treated with bacteria that limit their capacity to spread disease. Mexico is testing the first vaccine against dengue fever, a mosquito-borne virus raging throughout the region. In addition, the C.D.C. warning has also ignited growing concerns across Latin America over the region's alarming vulnerability to mosquito-borne diseases, particularly in Brazil. And since Brazilian officials hope that tourism will revive its beleaguered economy through hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, the nation's tourism minister Henrique Alves commented on C.D.C.'s warning on Saturday, arguing that their government were adopting measures to prevent Zika outbreak from intensifying in the country. Dr. Artur Timerman, however, said that C.D.C.'s announcement was "entirely appropriate," adding that he has also advised his 32-year-old daughter to avoid getting pregnant in Brazil. "The announcement by the C.D.C. is entirely appropriate, given the risks in Brazil," the 62-year-old infectious disease specialist in Sao Paolo said, before adding, "If she [Timerman's own daughter] wants to do so, her best course of action is to leave the country and go to a place where Zika is not a problem." Meanwhile, a baby born with a catastrophic birth defect linked to poor mental abilities has become the first case of the Zika virus in Hawaii, Daily Mail reported. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders disclosed his "Medicare-for-all" plan, which the Vermont senator says will save the country $6 trillion over the next 10 years. On Sunday evening, hours prior the fourth Democratic presidential primary debate, the Sanders campaign revealed the health care plan that would expand Medicare, build on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and cease copays and deductibles. "Universal health care is an idea that has been supported in the United States by Democratic presidents going back to Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman," Sanders said in a statement with the release of the health care plan. "It is time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege." The Financials According to the Sanders campaign, the U.S. currently spends $3 trillion per year on health care, or approximately $10,000 per person. Citing University of Massachusetts of Amherst economist Gerald Friedman's analysis, Sanders' plan would save $6 trillion during the next 10 years, while "dramatically" reducing overall health costs and prescription drug prices." Per Friedman's review, a family with an income of $50,000 would pay only $466 per year in the Medicare-for-all program, instead of the current average of $4,955 in premiums for private insurance and another $1,318 on deductibles the insurance hasn't covered. Businesses would also save more than $9,400 per year with Sanders' plan. The presidential candidates' health care plan would be paid for with several taxes, including a 2.2 percent health care premium, 6.2 percent health care payroll tax paid by employers and an estate tax from the "wealthiest" Americans in addition to tax code changes "to make federal income tax rates more progressive." Wealthier Americans, comprising of those earning between $250,000 and $500,000, would be taxed at a rate of 37 percent annually. Americans earning $10 million or more per year would be taxed 52 percent. Overall, the Sanders campaign says the Medicare-for-all plan will cost an estimated $1.38 trillion per year. Immigrants' Right to Health Access Although the plan released on Sunday did not specifically address immigrants, he has previously supported a platform to allow all immigrants -- including the undocumented community -- to purchase health insurance through the ACA marketplace exchanges. Based on the current ACA law, immigrants are not allowed to engage in the health insurance marketplace. If elected, Sanders has said he will direct the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide ACA access to immigrants with deferred status -- that includes recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the pending Deferred Action for Parental Accountability programs. Clinton Camp's Response Following the release of Sanders' health plan, Hillary Clinton's campaign acknowledged the Vermont senator has previously altered his health care platform stance on a number of occasions. "Senator Sanders has been changing a lot of positions in the last 24 hours because when his plans and record come under scrutiny, their very real flaws get exposed," Hillary for America spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement on Sunday. "After digging in his heels for weeks, he backpedaled on his vote to give sweeping immunity to gun manufacturers and dealers. And after weeks of denying the legitimacy of the questions Hillary Clinton raised about flaws in the health care legislation he's introduced 9 times over 20 years, he proposed a new plan two hours before the debate." "Hillary Clinton knows what it takes, and has what it takes, to protect the gains of the Affordable Care Act and secure quality, affordable health care for all Americans," added Fallon. "When you're running for President and you're serious about getting results for the American people, details matter-and Senator Sanders is making them up as he goes along." __ For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Politics Editor Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com. Argentinas recently elected leader, Mauricio Macri, intends to make certain that justice is served regarding State Prosecutor Alberto Nisman's mysterious death. The BBC reports the right-leaning Macri ordered the files on Nisman's death be made public on Jan. 15. A year after the Argentine attorney was found dead in his apartment, it still remains unknown whether Nisman killed himself or was murdered. As previously reported, Nisman's ex wife, Judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, announced that the results of an independent investigation in Nisman's death found that he had been murdered. Nisman, who had been investigating the 1994 bombing at a Jewish center, had been worried for his safety days before he was found dead. "Violent death only has three hypothesis: accident, suicide and homicide," said Salgado. "We can only conclude that Nisman was, without a doubt, a murder victim." Nismans body was discovered hours before he was set to testify in Congress against former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports Macri spoke to Nisman's teenage daughters, Iara and Kala, on the eve of the first anniversary of their father's death. By contrast, former president Fernandez de Kirchner never received Nismans relatives or even expressed any condolences to the Nisman family. Nisman's eldest daughter, Iara, wrote an op-ed in which she expressed her belief that her father was killed in order to foster fear in people. "I hope that we can find the truth about my father," she wrote. Before his death, Nisman had sued Fernandez de Kirchner for her government's alleged covered up Irans role in the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, which resulted in 85 people dead and hundreds more wounded. The deadly attack came two years after 29 people died in a similar attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires. The recent uptick in the federal government's immigration enforcement measures have many families of undocumented immigrants worried, even though the number of deportations carried out by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) so far is only in the low triple digits. But the mere fact that the Obama administration appears to be taking a tougher stance has led to a flurry of rumors among the estimated 11 million migrants who are in the United States on an irregular status, National Public Radio (NPR) reported. Immigrants make contingency plans Giovanni, an undocumented immigrant NPR identified only by his first name, for instance, told the radio network that he had already made contingency plans in case he were forced to leave the country. If that were to happen, he has made arrangements with his sister to care for his two sons, both U.S. citizens, Giovanni explained. "I have a little money saved," he said. "The day I'm no longer here or something happens to me, I want you to give it to them." In Gainesville, Georgia, meanwhile, a professor at the University of North Georgia contacted criminal defense lawyer Arturo Corso last week after several students had approached the instructor with concerns over recent DHS actions, the Gainesville Times noted. "The people that are supposedly being targeted in these raids are people who already have an existing deportation order," Corso said. 'We run, but they still catch us' But that fact is of little reassurance to many immigrant families in the Georgia community, the newspaper explained. "I think all the people have fear, mostly leaving their kids," resident Maria Calderon said in Spanish. And Canido Savala, another Georgia resident, told the Gainesville Times that many undocumented immigrants felt it was just a question of time until they were forced to leave the United States. "All we can do is wait till they catch us," she said. "We run, but they still catch us." Despite the latest DHS operation, which kicked off at the end of 2015, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported fewer people last year than in 2014, according to the Boston Globe. The majority of those removed had been convicted of a crime, the department noted. The New York Police Department (NYPD) is looking for the young men responsible for hospitalizing a Muslim man in The Bronx on Friday, while civil rights group are calling for the FBI to step in and launch a hate crime probe. The incident occurred Friday evening around 5:30 p.m. in the Parkchester neighborhood when 43-year-old Mujibur Rahman was picking up his 9-year-old niece from school, reports PIX 11. The Bangladeshi man was dressed in traditional Muslim garb when he was attacked from behind by two masked teens while his niece watched in horror. Police say the suspects were shouting "ISIS, ISIS" as they hit, punched and kicked the man, until he fell to the ground. At one point, he became unconscious. The assailants, who are believed to be teenagers, then took off without stealing anything from Rahman. Although Rahman's niece was not harmed during the attack, a family friend said the incident has been traumatizing. "She could not sleep," they told NY1. "She said she didn't want to go back to school anymore." Meanwhile, Rahman was taken to the Jacobi Hospital where he was treated for cuts, swelling and bruises on his head, face and arm. The father of three told ABC's Eyewitness News that he believes he was attacked simply due to his faith. "I believe as a Muslim they hate us, they hate me, and that's why," he said through a translator. "Blood was everywhere - nonstop," added the victim's brother, Mohammed. On Sunday, the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) urged federal agents to investigate the case as a hate crime. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. also issued a statement, saying, the "hateful attack on a Muslim individual in Parkchester is in no way representative of the shared values of the people of this borough." He added, "An attack on one of us over race, religion, gender or sexual orientation is an attack on us all. The people of The Bronx are united in their condemnation of this abhorrent incident." Lawyers for imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman are fighting his extradition to the U.S. by citing Donald Trump's hostility toward Mexicans. According to The New York Times, attorneys for the reputed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel filed an injunction back in August when Guzman was still on the run, in which they directly cited some of Trump's fiery rhetoric about Mexicans as proof their client could never receive a fair trial in the U.S. Since Guzman's recapture on Jan. 8, it's not known if the lawyers have taken any additional steps to include their contention about Trump as part of their formal defense for keeping their client out of the hands of the U.S. government. During a speech to launch his 2016 presidential campaign, the current GOP front-runner raged about immigrants from Mexico. "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists," Trump said. Since then, the candidate has made illegal immigration a key component of his platform, at one point boasting that if he were elected, he would move to deport as many as 11 million immigrants in less than two years. In one recent colorful tweet, Trump argued that Guzman and Mexican cartels treated the U.S.-Mexico border "like it was a vacuum cleaner, sucking drugs and death right into the U.S. After Guzman was recaptured earlier this month, authorities later claimed a Rolling Stone interview the drug kingpin did with Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn helped lead government forces to the fugitive. The interview was brokered by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, and some security experts now speculate that the two actors could be in danger of retaliation by Guzman's henchmen. According to TMZ, del Castillo's relationship with Guzman goes back several years. She once even brazenly protested she trusted him more than top officials of the Mexican government. "Today I believe more in El Chapo Guzman than in the governments that hide the truth from me even though it is painful," the 43-year-old del Castillo wrote in a message posted to her Twitter account in 2012. Soon after that, the two started communicating via handwritten notes and Blackberry messages. In time, Penn was allowed in on some of the conversations, reportedly using disposable phones and encrypted messages to set up his secret meeting with Guzman. Regularly scheduled flights between the United States and Cuba may now only be a few months away, the vice president of regulatory affairs for the world's largest airline predicted this week. American Airlines executive Howard Kass told the Miami Herald that, after Washington and Havana reached a preliminary agreement on flight connections on Dec. 16, 2015, paperwork is all that is left before U.S. jets can take off for the Caribbean island unimpeded. Airlines depend on 'swift' government action Working with the bureaucracy can be tedious, and carriers are still awaiting word from the U.S. Department of Transportation on when they can submit specific route requests. But Kass said he was optimistic that the wait was almost over. "We still believe we'll be flying scheduled service to Cuba within the first half of 2016," Kass said. "We're optimistic that (the department) will move swiftly to permit U.S. carriers to offer scheduled service." Once all roadblocks are out of the way, experts predict airlines might schedule up to 20 daily flights in and out of the Cuban capital, with connections between the United States and other cities on the island to come as well. Cuban state carrier wants part of the profit Meanwhile, Cubana de Aviacion -- the Cuban flag carrier -- also wants a share of that lucrative pie, the government in Havana has insisted. Josefina Vidal, the head of the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry's U.S. division, told the state-run Cuban News Agency (ACN) last week that American airlines will be required to sign contracts with the national carrier, as well as the country's Civil Aeronautics Institute. "It's a complex task, very technical, and the United States must complete various steps, bidding (on routes), because there are many airlines and all have equal rights in terms of market share," she said. Israeli Science Minister Ofir Akunis rages anti-Israel statements said by Sweden's Foreign Minister, Margot Wallstrom. This was due to the latter's statement about the need to probe and look into the said 'execution' of Arab terrorists done by Israel. According to the The Jewish Voice, Akunis said that the only thing that needs investigation is how a woman was elected and continues serving as a Foreign Minister (FM) despite her hatred for Israel. The Foreign Ministry of Israel even commented on the issue, saying that Wallstrom encourages violence and supports terrorism, which shows on how she made 'irresponsible and ridiculous' statements. Apparently, the Sweden's FM called early Tuesday, suggesting to open an investigation in order to find out if Israel is indeed guilty of executing Palestinian Arab 'assailants' with no trial. This move of Wallstrom was said to have put more fuel to the already existing heated tensions between Jerusalem and Stockholm, Israel Nation reported. In December, Wallstrom already made related allegations, saying she condemns and rejects the knife attacks. She added that despite Israel having the right in ensuring its safety and defending itself, she thinks that the killings are awful and must not happen. "And in the same way the response cannot be, and I say this in other situations as well, that the response turns into extrajudicial executions," she stated as the situation becomes disproportionate. What happens, according to her, is that the death toll on one side is larger than the original number of dead by numerous factors. Jakarta Globe also reported that the comments of the Swedish minister were the latest ones that have displeased and annoyed the Israeli authorities. The ties between the two countries have suffered an extreme drop, especially when Sweden recognized the Palestinian state after the center-left Social Democrats of Wallstrom won a parliamentary election in 2014. The gap between Sweden and Israel became even wider when Wallstrom mentioned that the Palestinian's predicament is a factor that will lead to the radicalization of Islam. With Wallstrom's harsh accusations, it may still go a long way for Sweden and Israel to be 'friends' and resolve their issues with each other. What is clear right now is that the two countries are still in deep misunderstanding. Carrie Fisher leaves "Star Wars Rebels" Season 2 and is replaced by Julie Dolan. Dolan will now voice the character of the young Leia and EP Dave Filoni even revealed the upcoming challenges for Princess Leia this season. That said, the official plot for episode 10 has been released Carrie Fisher, the veteran actress who voiced the character of Princess Leia in "Star Wars Universe" officially exits the Disney animated series. According to IB Times, Julie Dolan will now play as the young Leia. Dolan also voices the same character in the franchise's mobile game "Star Wars: Uprising". On the other hand, executive producer Dave Filoni revealed to TV Insider on what fans should expect on the challenges of Princess Leia in "Star Wars Rebels" Season 2. Filoni stated, "We thought we had an opportunity to show her learning to be a leader, experimenting with the personality that becomes the stronger more resolute character you see in a New Hope. One of the complex challenges of depicting Leia in Rebels is that we have to remind the audience that at this point she is part of the Empire. She doesn't believe in the Empire, but she is acting the part, almost a double agent." As for the official plot synopsis for episode 10, Yahoo! News UK details that Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan will be destined to planet Lothal to supply ships for the rebel fleet. Suddenly, the Empire establishes a lockdown which will throw her plan in danger. "Star Wars Rebels" Season 2 Episode 10 is entitled as "A Princess on Lothal". The forthcoming episode is slated to premiere this Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. exclusively on Disney XD. Star Wars Rebels" is an American 3D CGI animated TV series created by Simon Kinberg, Dave Filoni, and Carrie Beck and produced by Lucas Film Animation. The storyline is set 14 years after "The Revenge of Sith" and 5 years before "A New Hope". Rebels is placed during the Galactic Empire era. Android 6.0 Marshmallow update has been confirmed coming to LG G3 handsets in the United States by March 2015 following a revelation from a Canadian carrier for the device. According to news reports, major mobile carriers are now heading to the final stretch of Marshmallow tests for G3 units. LG G3 units of mobile carriers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular and Verizon Wireless are coming closer to the official over-the-air (OTA) Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, after Canadian carrier, Telus, revealed it is releasing the new build to its units of G3 on March 14. The update has already begun rolling out to G3 phones in Poland since December 2015 and has been under way in other parts of the map. Recent revelation also underscored that a source code of Marshmallow has already been made available to the carriers so that they can begin integrating their software to the build. Testing will commence once the source code gets integrated to the new build. In another face of the news, the South Korean company is also busy prepping Marshmallow for G Flex 2 and V10. Last December, G3 was already reported to be updated with Marshmallow before 2015 will end but it did not push through. Instead, G4 and G Stylo on Sprint were the ones updated. Android 6.0 Marshmallow will come out with features like Doze, improved Google Now with Now on Tap, more convenient Android Pay, better app permissions, simpler volume controls, app links, direct share, new app drawer, fingerprint support, USB Type-C support and so many others. Doze manages the phone's activity and puts it into a deep sleep when unused to prolong battery life. Google Now on Tap gives more precise and more useful suggestions based on the users' possible scope of interest. Android Pay expands to more payment methods to make purchases without the need to launch another app, unlock phone, etc. Cadillac to import CT6 plug-in hybrid from China Jan 18, 2016, 2:16am ET The plug-in CT6 will be the second GM product imported from China. Cadillac has revealed the plug-in hybrid variant of the CT6 sedan will be imported from China. Speaking to Bloomberg, Cadillac chief marketing officer Uwe Ellinghaus explained the plug-in hybrid version of the CT6 will be a hot seller in China because the local government provides particularly generous incentives to shoppers who buy an eco-friendly car. The executive predicts that U.S. sales will be low at best, so it doesn't make sense for Cadillac to build the plug-in CT6 alongside the regular model in General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck factory. Power for the plug-in CT6 will come from a gasoline-electric drivetrain made up of two electric motors and a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. The three power sources will send a combined output of 335 horsepower and 432 lb-ft. of torque to the rear wheels. Cadillac promises that the CT6 will be capable of driving on electricity alone for approximately 30 miles. Built on the outskirts of Shanghai, the Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid (pictured) is expected to land in showrooms in time for the 2017 model year. It will be the first Cadillac sold in the United States with a "made in China" label, but it won't be the first GM product. The 2016 Buick Envision that was introduced last week at the Detroit Auto Show is manufactured in Yantai, China. Photos by Ronan Glon. A 31-year-old Bethlehem man was drunk when he drove 100 mph on Route 22 East in Hanover Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania State Police say. Israel Soto III was pulled over at 2:23 a.m. Dec. 26 at the Route 512 interchange after a trooper saw him driving 45 mph above the 55 mph speed limit, police said. A strong odor of alcohol was detected and further investigation determined Soto was drunk, police said. While police didn't provide Soto's blood alcohol content in a news release, one of the charges says his BAC was above 0.16. Penalties start for most drivers at 0.08. Soto is charged with DUI, DUI highest rate (more than 0.16), exceeding 55 mph by 45 mph and reckless driving, court papers say. Charges were filed Wednesday, court papers say, and a preliminary hearing is scheduled 9:15 a.m Feb. 10 in District Judge James Narlesky's Hanover Township court. Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Three Democratic presidential hopefuls -- Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley -- will meet in Charleston, South Carolina Sunday for their fourth debate. The event, hosted by NBC News and YouTube, kicks off at 9 p.m. EST. NJ Advance Media will be providing live coverage of the debate below. In the past two weeks, the Democratic race has gone from a relatively civil disagreement over policy to a contentious winter competition between Clinton and Sanders. Clinton's institutional strength and her support among the minority voters who make up a large portion of the party's base still put her in a formidable position, even as polls show Sanders surging in Iowa and maintaining an edge in New Hampshire. But should Sanders prevail in those first two states on the 2016 campaign calendar, Clinton's bid to succeed President Barack Obama may mean a much longer and messier path than her supporters once envisioned. It would plunge Democrats into the kind of primary fight they have gleefully watched Republicans struggle to contain in the past year. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Forks Township resident Kevin Schlough got a drone for Christmas from his wife and daughter, and has already had it over Easton's Centre Square, Bethlehem Steel Corp. remnants, and the Lehigh and Delaware rivers, plus through a lock on the Lehigh Canal at Hugh Moore Park. Kevin Schlough, of Forks Township, demonstrates his DJI Phantom 3 Professional unmanned aerial system - or drone - on Jan. 14, 2016, at Easton's Hugh Moore Park. Schlough, a semiprofessional photographer, got the device for Christmas from his wife and daughter. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) Schlough, a master electrician by trade, is a semiprofessional photographer on the side, making it an ideal gift for him: The four-rotor unmanned aircraft system -- or UAS, in federal speak -- takes video that it beams back to his cellphone. "I've been wanting to get one," he said, adding later: "The first time I had it out, it was so exhilarating." Schlough said he follows the rules for safe flight and has already complied with the Federal Aviation Administration mandate to register his drone. The process was simple, he said, and can be done online at faa.gov/uas/registration. It's free through midnight Wednesday, with the $5 fee refunded automatically. After that, registration will cost the $5. And after a grace period expiring Feb. 19, failure to register risks civil penalties up to $27,500 and maximum criminal penalties of a $250,000 fine and three years in prison. Those without Internet access can request an Aircraft Registration Application, AC Form 8050-1, from the FAA's Aircraft Registration Branch at 866-762-9434 or a local FAA Flight Standards District Office. "Federal law requires aircraft registration," the FAA says. "Registration helps us ensure safety - for you, others on the ground, and manned aircraft. UAS pose new security and privacy challenges and must be traceable in the event of an incident. It will also help enable the return of your UAS should it be lost." The registration requirement applies to any unmanned aircraft weighing more than 8.8 ounces or 0.55 pounds -- about the weight of two sticks of butter -- and less than 55 pounds. Unmanned aircraft weighing more than 55 pounds cannot use this registration process and must register using the federal Aircraft Registry process, according to the FAA. The law applies not only to drones but to all remote-controlled aircraft, including traditional airplanes and helicopters. That doesn't sit well with some hobbyists. "I could see the drone part because they're the ones that started it, but as far as airplanes go, what the hell?" said Ken Stockinski. "I've been flying for 54 years. I never had to register my planes. It's ridiculous, but a couple of guys spoiled it for everybody." Stockinski sells drones, airplanes, helicopters and boats operated by remote control at Trains & Lanes Hobbies, 3825 Northwood Ave. in Lower Nazareth Township. He's 78 and retired from previous careers as a police officer for 13 years, auto mechanic for 15 years and service director at a Jeep dealership. Stockinski said he's disappointed in the Academy of Model Aeronautics, for lobbying efforts that fell short of shielding RC-plane enthusiasts such as himself from the new requirement. The academy says its continuing to work on a solution for its members and is working to streamline the process, including by allowing members' AMA registration number to satisfy the federal requirement. "In the future, federal registration will automatically be accomplished upon joining the AMA, eliminating the need to register with both AMA and the FAA," the academy says on its website. To register, unmanned aircraft system owners must be United States citizens at least 13 years old, or have someone of that age register for them. The rules do not apply to remote-control aircraft flown exclusively indoors or "paper airplanes, toy balloons, Frisbees and similar items" not connected to a communications link, the FAA says. Registration must be renewed every three years, and a user's unique number is good for all unmanned aircraft systems owned by the registrant. Nearly 200,000 unmanned aircraft systems were registered as of midway through last week. FAA officials acknowledge the system is not a catchall for preventing terrorism or other problems. "Although no system or requirement is 100 percent effective against people intent on doing harm, registration heightens public awareness about what safe UAS operations look like," the administration says in a question-and-answer portion on its website. "In addition, registration establishes a shared understanding that operating this type of aircraft for business or pleasure comes with certain responsibilities and expectations and that the public will be watching for and reporting bad actors, just as they do today for other safety and security-related concerns. Registration also enables us to educate UAS owners on safe operations." For Schlough, safe drone use is not complicated, if you follow the FAA's rules: register, don't fly more than 400 feet high or over crowds of people, stay away from other aircraft and emergency responders, keep the aircraft in sight and don't drink and drone. "If you follow the rules, it's really simple," he said. More drone footage from Kevin Schlough Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. Gracedale nursing home residents celebrate Valentine's Day 2014 Gracedale residents celebrate Valentine's Day with a party in 2014. (Express-Times file photo) Northampton County Council has approved a study to look into converting Gracedale, the county-owned nursing home in Upper Nazareth Township, to a nonprofit organization. While some people are leery of any change in Gracedale's status -- recalling the political fight and 2011 referendum that killed a proposal to sell it to a private company -- a majority of the council agrees that it's worth studying to see if nonprofit control would increase the home's reimbursement rates. The study will be conducted by Premier Healthcare Resources, Gracedale's current administrator, at no cost to the county. Council's authorization -- which was opposed by members Ken Kraft, Peg Ferraro and Robert Werner -- stipulates that the study may not consider privatization. The three objectors argued that transferring control to a nonprofit board of directors would have the same effect as selling it. Other members insisted the study is not a vehicle to justify privatizing the home. Premier operates nursing homes in Monroe and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania that have become nonprofit operations. What do you think? Is nonprofit status a good way to reduce the county's funding of Gracedale and preserve its current mission, or a backdoor effort to bring up a sale to a private entity once again? Cast a vote in our informal poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comments section. A PORTLAOISE priest has defended the Irish priest threatened with excomunication by the Catholic church. A PORTLAOISE priest has defended the Irish priest threatened with excomunication by the Catholic church. Writing in the Portlaoise Parish newsletter to be distributed at masses this weekend, Fr Paddy Byrne describes the silencing and threatened expulsion of Fr Tony Flannery as distressing. Up to now Fr Byrne had used twitter to question the churchs stance but this weekend he speaks directly to his parishioners in defence of Fr Flannery and equates what is happening as repression. The recent silencing and possible excommunication of Fr Tony Flannery makes for distressing news. The gift of conversation is both valuable and necessary, when reflection is silenced and those who do so punished, it creates an atmosphere of fear and repression, writes Fr Bryne. Fr Byrne says Fr Tony Flannery, the founder of the Association of Catholic Priests, has hit out at the procedures of the Vatican. His writings and preaching was always challenging, engaging and deeply fuelled by a passionate enthusiasm for the Good News. I suggest that maintaining a culture of silence within the church and labelling courageous men like Fr Tony Flannery as dissident priests, is most worrying, writes the Portlaoise priest. Fr Byrne says the Redemptorist priest and wel-known missionary, was summoned to Rome a year ago to be censored for his views on women priests, contraception and homosexuality. He has not been allowed to practice as a priest since then or to take part in the work of the Association of Catholic Priests. In his weekly letter to parishioners Fr Byrne says Fr Flannery is threatened with excommunication from the Catholic Church for suggesting that, in the future, women might become priests and calling for this and other matters to be open for discussion. Fr Byrne tells parishioners that Fr Flannery must also guarantee not to attend meetings of the Association of Catholic Priests until he has publicly agreed to the conditions laid down. The Portlaoise priest, who is a Carlow native, recently appeared on an RTE documentary with Hector O hEochagain and Fr Brian DArcy. While flooded roads were a concern for many last Friday morning, there was worse facing the residents of Ballycarroll, Portarlington. While flooded roads were a concern for many last Friday morning, there was worse facing the residents of Ballycarroll, Portarlington. Human waste again burst free of a manhole in the road beside three houses in Ballycarroll near Killenard, in what is an ongoing problem. Resident Ray McGill discovered the overflowing sewage in the early hours of Friday morning, when the heavy rain raised his concerns enough to go out and check the manhole outside his home. It was at 2 oclock in the morning. First I got the smell, then I could see it boiling up. It was rolling down the road with the surface water. I know the rain was heavy, but it is not supposed to affect sewerage, that should be a closed system, he said. By 8am when he checked again, the sewage had receded, but it left toilet paper strewn around the road. There is more rain on the way, my fear is it is going to happen the whole time and there is nothing being done. This is completely unacceptable. Since the last time not one person has contacted us, said Mr McGill. It is less than a month since the last incident of overflowing sewage on September 26. At that time, residents of all three houses affected told the Leinster Express of their anger and frustration. More than a doxen overflows have occurred since 2008, after the development of a hotel and houses at Killenard, half a kilometre away. Mr McGill understands the system needs expanding to cope with the extra pressure. He is determined to continue highlighting the problem. Why should it be my responsibility? I will keep highlighting it, thats all I can do. I seem to get answers from nobody but I will stay at it until it is sorted, he said. Neither Irish Water nor Laois County Council were available for comment. THE 9th Co-operation is Cool awards ceremony took place in Laois Education Centre recently and was attended by nearly 200 people. It was the culmination of many weeks and months work for many schools in Laois, Offaly and North Tipperary. THE 9th Co-operation is Cool awards ceremony took place in Laois Education Centre recently and was attended by nearly 200 people. It was the culmination of many weeks and months work for many schools in Laois, Offaly and North Tipperary. The Cooperation is Cool project is based on the Co-operative model and has its origins in the Teddy Fennelly book A Triumph of Co-operation over Adversity. It focuses on the knowledge that young people have around co-operation and the history of the co-operative movement and its importance in Ireland. The project also introduces the concept of working together to young people as ICOS, Glanbia and Laois Education Centre are doing so successfully with this project. Primary, secondary and special schools are invited each year to submit a project which demonstrates strong elements of cooperation but must also have an ICT component. This year, 212 pupils from nine primary and two post primary schools exhibited 13 projects. The winners included Tullamore College who got first prize for Energy Efficient Boardgames Good Green Fun with teacher Emma Coyne, second prize went to St Josephs PS, Tullamore for Community Singing The Melody Makers with teacher Helen Nelligan, third prize went to St Kierans NS, Broughall for Our Virtual Science World with Roseann Feeney and Esther Lambe. The winner in Art and Design was Castlecuffe NS, Clonaslee, for Playing Cards with Clonaslee Placenames with Bridie Dunne, Grace Digan and Roisin Carton. Second prize in Art and Design went to Scoil Phadraig Naofa, Mountmellick for Buildings of Mountmellick with Eamonn Riall. The winning new entrant was St. Pius NS, Ballacolla for Aghaboe Abbey with teacher Miriam Lanigan, the winning community project was Gaelscoil an tSli Dala with Eaglais Naomh Molua 200 Bhliain ag Fas with teacher Roise Nevin. The merit award for post primary went to Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise for Fort Protector with Mags Hanafinand Anne Dollard. Highly commended primary prizes went to Camross NS for The Olympics with Talitha Horan, Coolderry NS for Cooperation Through the Ages with Una Teehan, and St Cronans NS, Roscrea for The History of Roscreas Monastic Sites from the 6th Century with Anne Whelan. The highly commended post primary went to Scoil Chriost Ri, Portlaoise for The Convent with Mags Hanafin and Anne Dollard, and for Emo Court, also with Mags Hanafin and Anne Dollard. There were many other prizes presented on the night which included Netbooks, Digital Cameras, Kindles, portable Hard Drives and Memory Keys and these were presented by members of the adjudication panel. It was a New Years gift as unwelcome as it was unexpected. In the early hours of 2nd January 1941 as the people of Newbridge slept under the comfort blanket of Irish neutrality a Nazi plane droned overhead and unleashed a torrent of bombs to the west of the town. High explosive projectiles plunged earthwards scouring craters in the ground on the edge of the Curragh racecourse and in the fields of Ballymany Stud. A further stick of incendiary bombs lit up the night sky as they fell to the south of the town on to the fields of the Cox farm at Walshestown setting a valuable stock of hay and straw on fire. This New Years present from Hitlers air force could have been a lot worse. There was no injury to man or animal in the rural environs of Newbridge where the bombs had impacted. Had the bombs fallen a mile to the east the town could have been all but annihilated. The tragedy of the North Strand bombing in Dublin later that year when a bomb dropped on the north-side of the city killed more than 30, injured scores, and destroyed hundreds of houses, would show the devastation which high explosives could bring to urban streetscapes. As it was there was tragedy in a neighbouring county on that January night. All over Leinster errant German bombers had dropped their deathly payloads at random over the countryside. One stick of bombs straddled a farmhouse on the snowclad slopes of the Blackstairs mountains in Co Carlow. Three female members of the Shannon family sisters Mary Ellen and Bridget and their sixteen-year-old niece Kathleen were killed instantly. Although less lethal the Newbridge incident caused much local drama. The Leinster Leaders Curragh correspondent reported that: about 6.45 on Thursday morning an unidentified aeroplane approached the Curragh from a north-easterly direction and dropped incendiary bombs at Walshestown, Newbridge, one and a half miles from the Camp. The report added that one of the incendiaries had triggered a fire in a large stack of hay and straw in the haggard adjoining the farm house of Mr James Cox. The Army fire brigade from the Camp was summoned and arrived quickly at the scene. It succeeded in confining the inferno to the haggard but over a hundred tons of hay and straw were destroyed. The private fire brigade from the Irish Ropes factory in Newbridge and the towns Air Raid Precautions fire-fighting service also responded to the bombing. Witnesses said that the plane approached from the Naas direction and some said they heard small explosions followed immediately by flashes. Mr Joseph Dunne, an employee of Mr Cox, was quoted as saying that the falling fire bombs resembled shooting stars. The incendiaries of a type which had started terrible fires in the London Blitz scattered all over Walshestown. Some fell adjacent to the home of Mr Patrick Sheridan but did no damage. Of potentially more serious consequence were the eight high explosive bombs which dropped in the Ballymany area. Three fell on the Curragh lands between the Racecourse and Ballymany Cross gouging out craters at least forty feet wide. Five more fell on the lands of the Aga Khans Stud at Ballymany where incendiaries also impacted. Gardai from Newbridge and members of the Local Security Force combed the district during the Thursday for any further traces of bomb impact. The damage was confined to the severing of a water pipeline at Ballymany Stud and the scouring of the deep craters in the pastures of the stud and the adjacent Curragh plain. But the searchers made a startling discovery. They found that one of the bombs had not detonated and it had embedded itself six feet deep in the Ballymany soil just yards from the house occupied by Mr James Hayde, steward and stud groom to the Aga Khan. As Thursday wore on the national press sought reports from the site and in the Irish Independent of the Friday morning a column headed Droichead Nua Fire Bombs dropped by an Irish Independent Special Representative reported that A cordon was thrown around the unexploded bomb, and military experts began digging it out in order to render it ineffective. Mr Oliver McCrossan, well-known photographer, told this writer that he remembered seeing the activity as the bomb was made safe. He lived with his mother and family in the Standhouse at the Curragh. Incredibly his household was not woken by the plane or the bombs. But as the daylight came up he could see military vehicles converging on the bomb sites. Although just four years of age he insisted in accompanying his brother Ray to the site of one of the impacts. He recalls: There were people coming from all over to see the crater. The skill and bravery of the Irish Army bomb disposal officers was impressive approaching a bomb laden with high explosive, and with German fusing mechanisms that they would not have had the opportunity to practice on, must have required nerves of steel. As they worked on the bomb they made a discovery which would have international ramifications in the tense relationships between neutral Ireland and one of the warring parties the bomb casing carried inscriptions which appeared to be German markings. Although there had been a handful of bombing incidents over the winter of 1940/41 there had been no objective proof of the source of the bombs. The Government of Eamon de Valera, treading the tightrope of neutrality, was loath to attribute blame until forensic proof was found. Now there was literally a cast-iron guarantee of attribution the markings of the unexploded bomb at Ballymany were found to be in the German language. However any speculation that the German crew could have been seeking out the military installations at the Curragh Camp was quickly discounted. The random distribution of bombings over the country in the previous hours with weapons falling in counties Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow and Meath, suggested that they were the work of panicking German pilots most likely having abandoned their attack flight paths to Belfast lightening their loads as they cut and ran for their home airfields in northern France. Their decision to unleash their bombs randomly over Ireland brought home to many that damaging sparks from the conflagration of world war burning up English and European cities could land on otherwise tranquil Irish communities. As Oliver McCrossan recalls: It made the war seem very real to us. LOOKING BACK WITH LIAM KENNY: Series no: 466 The man who was killed in a shooting incident in Kilmeague last Saturday is the second member of his family to die violently. The man who was killed in a shooting incident in Kilmeague last Saturday is the second member of his family to die violently. Edward Ned Hamilton, 33, was shot dead just before 6am on Saturday, December 29 at a house in Ballintine, Kilmeague. It is believed that he was shot by the owner of the house, who was also injured in the incident. It is understood he lost his thumb. A legally held shotgun, which Gardai believe was the weapon used, has been recovered. It is understood that Gardai are maintaining an open mind as to why the gun was initially produced, but appear to accept that it was discharged accidentally. Garda sources say the shooter, a man in his 50s, may not have been aware that the gun was loaded. He was taken to St. James Hospital where he remains at the time of writing. Meanwhile Mr. Hamilton was taken to Naas General Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The house was sealed off by Gardai for technical examination. It is understood that the two men were amongst a number of people in the house who had spent the night drinking. Mr. Hamilton was originally from Caragh and lived in Rathangan in the past. His father is a Donadea native and his mother is from Ardclough. Her father, the deceaseds grandfather, 48-year-old Christy Phelan, was killed on June 22, 1975 when he intercepted a group of loyalists who were planting a bomb on the railway line at nearby Baronrath. It was reported at the time that the bomb was intended to derail a train carrying people going to the Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown. Mr Hamilton was known to Gardai and was associated with senior drugs and crime figures in the north west Kildare area. Amongst his associates were the late Andy Barry, 30 and Lithuanian Zilvinas Varnauskas, 31, who were murdered in Kilcock last March. Kilmeague locals say that the picturesque village has a significant drugs problem. To many locals the incident is simply a terrible tragedy. Cllr. Seamus Langan said his thoughts and prayers were with the family, friends and neighbours of the deceased. And Allen PP Fr. Eddie Moore said that locals were shocked by the events of the past weekend, and were full of sympathy for the Ennis family, in whose home the incident occured. At the time of writing there were no details of funeral arrangements. Its understood the deceaseds remains will be released today, Thursday, January 3. - Conor McHugh Its been claimed that over the past 12 months Kildare-based solicitors are being squeezed out by Dublin based legal firms. Its been claimed that over the past 12 months Kildare-based solicitors are being squeezed out by Dublin based legal firms. According to one local solicitor, Tony Hanahoe, up to 50% of the people due to appear before Naas District Court last Wednesday, July 23, were represented by Dublin-based legal firms. The Leinster Leader believes that the issue has been brewing for some time, but matters when came to a head last Wednesday when two sisters, who had instructed Mr. Hanahoe and another local solicitor, Timmy Kennelly, to represent them, apparently suddenly changed their minds. When the case was called, Mr. Kennelly told the court that both he and Mr. Hanahoe had believed that they were representing the two women and that they had taken instructions from them, via an interpretor (the sisters are Romanian), as recently as 11am that same day. Were suddenly being told, after taking instructions from them several times, that they no longer want us to represent them, all in the space of an hour for lunch. What complicates the matter is that neither of the new solicitors, Treacy Horan or John Woods, who are partners in the same legal firm, was present in court. Instead, Sarah Connolly, a young barrister, had been instructed to represent the two sisters. There was a suspicion that several legal rules were being broken - rules that members of the public likely never heard of. It is against the rules for solicitors and barristers, or anyone on their behalf, to approach a defendant and offer to represent them. This is known as touting. The defendant must do the approaching. In the case of barristers, it is even more constrictive. They must receive all their instructions from a solicitor who is the point of contact with the client. They must not represent a defendant without the presence of their solicitor although some judges are stricter about enforcing that rule than others. It is quite a common practice for young barristers to gain experience representing defendants in the district court. Known within the profession as baby barristers, they are often sent to what a busy big solicitors firm considers to be a minor court to do small, not so lucrative cases. But with the barristers fee as little as 50 per case, farming out a case, especially if the defendant is granted legal aid, can be a handy little earner for the legal firm. Naass relative proximity to Dublin has made it susceptible to this phenomenon. Tony Hanahoe said that he would be writing to the Bar Council about this. This has got to stop. This is a country court. Were at a point where 50% of the people being represented here have hired Dublin solicitors. Something has happened in the past 12 months and I dont like it. They send a young barrister down here, pay them a pittance, so little that they could lose money coming here. It is in effect slavery, he said. Judge may I...... Sarah Connolly rose to her feet to respond. No, sit down, sit down, the Judge told her. It should be pointed out that at no point was Ms. Connolly accused of breaking any rules, and the two solicitors and the Judge were careful, while making their comments, to avoid any such inference. First of all this is an abuse of my time here, Judge Zaidan said. He criticised Mr. Wood and Ms. Horan for not having the courtesy to be here. He described the situation as embarrassing for the legal profession, bringing it into disrepute and urged them to be more professional. He accepted that the two defendants are perfectly entitled to have whoever they want to represent them. He urged Mr. Hanahoe and Mr. Kennelly to bring the matter to the Law Society and the Bar Council (the representative organisations for solicitors and barristers.) He refused to allow the change of solicitors and demanded that Mr. Woods and Ms. Horan appear before him the following day. On Thursday, Mr. Woods turned up and explained that his partner Ms. Horan was unable to make it. Both Mr. Hanahoe and Mr. Kennelly told the court that they accepted his explanation that there was a mix up in his office which resulted in them not being informed of the change much earlier. Mr. Hanahoe said that his concerns remained in general about barristers taking instructions from clients without the presence of a solicitor. The two sisters were Larrissa and Maria Magurean, 20 and 23 years of age respectively, both with an address listed as 27 The Grove, Kingswood Heights, Tallaght. They were charged with stealing six bottles of alcohol on July 12, 2013 at Tesco, Monread Road, Naas, to the value 251.57. Their case was adjourned to a date in September. - Conor McHugh Shirley Williams and Joe Stirling As a member and activist of Norwich North Liberal Democrats, I am delighted to share the news that on 5th January, Pen and Sword Books published my debut biography Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Boys Quest for Freedom and His Future. The book tells the true story of Joe Stirling, Kindertransport refugee, pioneering travel agent, leading member of Lions International and past Sheriff of Norwich. During my four years of research for this book, one afternoon Joe told me how, as a Labour Party agent for Central Norfolk, he was sent to Harwich in 1954 to help the Labour candidate, a young woman called Shirley Catlin, fight her first by-election. Later she would become Shirley Williams, Baroness of Crosby. There is a further extraordinary link between Joe Stirling and Shirley Williams that emerged during my many hours of interviewing Joe. On escaping Nazi Germany in 1939, a Birmingham family of academics fostered him. The wife, Freda Free, had been a close friend of Vera Brittain at Oxford University, and often spoke to young Gunter (Joes birth name) of Veras daughter Shirley. I decided to write to Shirley asking if she would consider writing the foreword for my first biography, never really believing she would say yes. To my astonishment and delight, she remembered working with Joe Stirling and was happy to oblige. Shirley writes: A 23-year-old candidate, I recall the excitement of convening with Joe two or three meetings a night, hurtling down muddy lanes in the dark, looking for small halls, each with its audience of a dozen or so. Joe mobilised a handful of supporters from a score of villages to come. During the General Election campaign in 2015, Shirley visited Norwich activists. I arranged for ninety-year-old Joe to meet with her again after sixty years. The two spoke together recalling past times. The local press were more interested in that story than in the politics and a photograph of that reunion appears in my book. Escaping Hitler is available now direct from Pen and Sword Books and Amazon.co.uk. For a signed copy at the discounted price of 17 plus 4 p&p (U.K. only), order direct from my authors website at www.escapinghitler.com which gives full details. * Phyllida Scrivens is a long time Liberal Democrat member and wife of the current chairman of Norwich North. UP to 250 lecturers and academic staff at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) are to stage a one-day strike next month. On Wednesday, February 3, staff at the college will down tools for the day in protest at what the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) has described as chronic underfunding and precarious contracts in the Institute of Technology third-level sector. Between 200 and 250 staff at LIT will join their counterparts at equivalent colleges around the country. For its part, management at LIT have insisted the college will remain open as normal while the strike goes on. And Limerick Education Minister Jan OSullivan has insisted there will be no resources available until the next budget. The walkout will lead to disruption for the more than 6,500 students at LIT. William OHalloran, who sits on the national executive of the TUI, and represents staff at LITs campuses across the Mid-West, say they are at breaking point. They have seen a huge increase in workload since 2008, together with an increase in the number of students coming into the centres. It has resulted in a large increase in workload. Also, there is an underfunding when it comes to new technology, and there is also a very precarious nature to some of the employment, he told the Limerick Leader. On this issue, he said: We have a lot of part-time members who have a contract until the end of term and they have to wait until they return after the end of the summer holidays to find out whether their contract will be renewed. Morale, he added, was low, saying: We have conducted a survey [at IT colleges] nationally, and this has resulted in an increase in work-related stress. That would be the direct impact [to these cuts]. The strike action comes after TUI members voted by a margin of 92% in favour of a campaign of industrial action up to, and including strike action. In a statement, the union says that while student numbers in Institutes of Technology have risen by 32%, while lecturer numbers have fallen 10% nationally. TUI present Gerry Quinn said a lecturers workload has increased significantly and intolerably in recent years, while austerity cuts wreak havoc on the student experience of higher education. The union wants urgent talks with the department. Ms OSullivan said: We never shut the door on talks. But I can only provide an increase in resources at the time of the budget. I dont think a strike is going to improve the situation, but I do understand [the TUI] has to represent its members interests. She added: I can understand there are difficulties in that sector. I do not think a strike is going to improve the situation, but I do understand [the TUI] have to represent the interests of their members. Ms OSullivan added: With the little extra I had, I did make a conscious decision to put it into schools. I felt it needed to go into primary and post-primary schools. I understand their sector needs money given back. It just was not possible in this budget. An LIT spokesperson said it will open as normal: Any likely implications to service provisions arising from any day of strike action by the TUI will be notified to students and staff in advance. THE BARMAN who has been called a hero for single-handedly fighting off three armed raiders and preventing a robbery in a Dublin pub is from County Limerick. John Ryan, a 58-year-old proud Doon man, made national newspaper headlines and appeared on Liveline with Joe Duffy after the story of his bravery emerged. He put his own life on the line to prevent thugs entering the bar area and terrorising young staff at 2am in the Kingswood Lodge in Tallaght last week. However, the heroic retired prison officer required 14 stitches to his face after he was repeatedly punched and struck with a weapon by his attackers. I am improving big time. I have an operation on Tuesday on the eye. There is no lasting damage done, everything is going well, John told the Limerick Leader. The three criminals, who were all wearing balaclavas, ambushed Mr Ryan just as he was opening the shutters on the front door to allow a taxi man, who had come to collect another barman, into the premises. They rushed in after the driver, who had a gun pointed to his head, said he needed to use the bathroom under their orders. Despite being outnumbered three to one Mr Ryan said he was well able to lay in to them. I was more shocked when I got out of Tallaght hospital the evening afterwards and I saw the CCTV footage. I saw how bad it was and I saw two guns. One fellow was six foot three or four. He gave me a good few clatters alright but I gave him a good few clatters. The only thing is he had a balaclava, gloves and a hoodie on him. I had nothing on my face. He was a big man. As I said to Eamonn Rea [Limerick All-Ireland hurling winner in 1973] who rang me, He was as big as you if not bigger. Eamonn is a good friend of mine. I am involved with the Limerick Association in Dublin and I go to all the meetings with him, said John. Mr Rea owns a famous pub on Parkgate Street in the capital. John hurled with Doon in his youth, winning a county junior medal at full forward and is a big follower of Doon and Limerick hurling teams. He attended an event in the Red Cow Hotel to mark the Limerick U21s All-Ireland hurling success last year. After retiring from the prison service John planned on returning home to east Limerick but decided to stay in Dublin after getting a job. And it was his fellow work colleagues that were at the forefront on his mind when he stood up to the intruders. His actions prevented them from having a terrifying experience and ensured not a cent was stolen. There was three young lads in the lounge inside on their phones waiting for me to give them a lift home and two barman in the bar. If they got in they would have grabbed one of the young lads and gone down the hallway for the safe. They would have put the guns to their head, said Mr Ryan. But thanks to the Doon man the three criminals ran from the scene and are believed to have fled in a black car similar to a black Punto. Gardai in Clondalkin are investigating and John hopes the culprits are caught. Following an appearance on Liveline, Mountjoy prison worker Yvonne Donohoe called Joe Duffy to send her support for her former colleague. Im so pleased with what you did, you did us all proud, Yvonne told John. Hes well able and always was, she said. Members of the public have also expressed their admiration for the Limerick man who wasnt going to let the criminals win. THERE was a huge round of applause in the latest repossession hearings in Limerick after county registrar Pat Wallace struck out an order by AIB Mortgage Bank against a divorced woman, describing the bank's actions towards her as disgraceful. The mother of two, who is in her 40s and does not wish to be named, was one of dozens of home owners without any legal representation. The woman, who resides in County Limerick, approached the bench and explained to Mr Wallace in the Limerick Circuit Courts complex that she has been making regular mortgage repayments despite her changed financial and home circumstances. The court heard that the woman owes a total debt of 93,956 to AIB, including arrears of 38,344. She made the last payment of 220 in December last. She recently received a letter from the bank informing her that legal fees of over 3,000 was now due to them from her, and suggested that she may wish to take out a loan to cover this cost. This is disgraceful, disgraceful, said Mr Wallace. I'm striking out the proceedings. The bank needs to take a look at themselves, he said to applause. It was a rare moment of triumph for the ordinary, struggling home-owner in court, where in the past dozens of protestors have stood up and interrupted court proceedings. At the time Mr Wallace had to vacate the courtroom until order was restored. Speaking to the Limerick Leader after the brief hearing, the woman explained that she has been making payments of 222 a fortnight, but said of the mix-up, someone in the bank can't add. She bought her house under a tracker mortgage with AIB in 2000, and co-operated with the process from the start. However, she said that in 2009 her family of four went to a family of two, as she now lives with one of her children, aged 10. She said her husband had stopped paying the mortgage, and she took over the entire mortgage as she had no choice. Thereafter, she negotiated with the banks branch in the city, and was also contacted by Certus, the debt recovery agency, and terms were agreed with them. The cheek of them to come back and land me with their legal fees when I had co-operated from the start, she said. I didn't feel that AIB had any procedure in place of terms of dealing with divorced people and how to sort out their properties. I felt as if I was back in the 1990s and I was a test case. Her case was among 164 cases which came before the court on Friday last, and of those less than 10% of those orders were granted. The majority of the cases were taken by EBS Limited, followed by Ulster Bank, AIB, Bank of Ireland, TSB, KBC, Start Mortgages, Pepper Finance Corporation, Stepstone, Haven and Springboard. In another case taken by AIB Mortgage Bank, a family of six were fighting to retain their family home, after struggling to meet their repayments when both lost their jobs - one due to illness. The court heard that the mother then recently found work in a cafe and her husband had returned to work as an electrician. They owe a total debt of 135,083, and arrears of 65,927, after struggling to meet the monthly payments of 700. The case, which was on the list for repossessions for a second time, has been adjourned until May. In a case taken by Pepper Finance Corporation, solicitor Ger O'Neill told the court that the husband had walked out on his wife and child, leaving behind a total debt on their property of 447,650, arrears of 113,541 and monthly installments of 1,800 due to the bank. She's in an awful situation, and is taking a case in the family law courts. It would be unfair on her to grant any order when family law proceedings are outstanding, Mr O'Neill said. While this case too was adjourned, Mr Wallace cautioned: I think its heading one way. In a case taken by Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank against one man, the court heard that representatives from the bank called to his door five times and received no answer. When they called again on the morning of December 2 last, they found a young and older man present, but they told the representative that they were plumbers and refused to give their names. The order for possession was granted, for service by pre-paid post. In a case taken against two males by Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank, which has appeared on the court's list six times, Mr Wallace said he wasnt satisfied that the service of proceedings was correct and expressed concerns about the quality of service in this case. The property has been vacant for some time, with arrears of 42,905 owed. He said he would not be making an order again on this occasion, and adjourned it. In a case taken by AIB Mortgage Bank against a couple with four children, including a baby and a child with special needs, Mr Wallace said that their monthly payments due of 1,545 were becoming unsustainable. A sum of 500 was received in December. The debt will only increase and increase, he warned. There has to be some sense of reality. In a case taken by Bank of Ireland against a separated couple, the court heard that a total debt of 225,834 is due, including arrears of over 69,000, with few repayments made. She is in a precarious position, said her defence. Family law proceedings have been settled but have yet to be implemented. Her former partner, who is a farmer, approached the bench and told Mr Wallace that his 62 acres is mortgage free. You might want to look at that, added Mr Wallace. In a case taken by Ulster Bank, the court heard that a mother of three, with the oldest aged six, has been abandoned by her husband who emigrated to Australia, and whom has not offered his former partner any support. The mother is surviving on an income of 277 a week. If rendered homeless, she and her three children will be a burden on the State, said her defence. It has been impossible to get maintenance from him. Mr Wallace suggested that to the solicitor that she could make life very uncomfortable for him. He has to honour his obligations. It's up to you to pursue him. It was adjourned to May 6. In a case taken by EBS against one man, who has separated, the court heard that his ex-wife was still living in the property but she did not appear in court. A total debt of 171,000 was owed, including arrears of 36,863. Where will she go? asked Mr Wallace. I dunno, her ex-husband replied. The order for possession was granted, with a stay of three months. The majority of cases were adjourned to May 6 and July 1 to allow further talks with the banks. AS OVER 160 people fought to keep their homes in the latest repossessions hearings in Limerick, another 146 property transactions went through the books in December. The latest sales entered in the national Property Price Register show that house sales in Limerick city and county were worth over 14m in the last month of the year. Of the 146 house sales, less than 25% of all sales were priced at over 200,000. About a third of properties sold were priced at 100,000 or less. That figure excludes Kilmoyle on the North Circular Road, which has passed through the register for a second time in two years, and is believed to have changed hands within the McManus family. The property was sold on from London based developer Aidan Brooks to a member of JP McManuss family in 2014. His brother, Gerry McManus, received planning permission late last year for a number of works on the grounds, including an underground car park to house his private car collection. Brooks famously bought the property for 26m in 2007 amid intense bidding. The most expensive property to sell in Limerick last month was 7 Lime Tree Avenue, Adare, for 580,000, above its asking price of 559,000; 5 The Belfry, Mill Road, Ballyclough, for 495,000, followed by Ballygeale in Patrickswell for 456,000, a property in Fanningstown, Crecora for 355,000, and a house on the Mountshannon Road in Lisnagry for 335,000. While figures are still being added to the property price register for recent months, the most up-to-date figures show that there were 1,900 house sales in Limerick last year, up from the 1,626 house sales in 2014. Meanwhile, the price of the average three-bed semi detached house in Limerick has risen by less than two per cent to 157,000 in the last three months, a nationwide property survey has found. REA agents in Limerick are predicting that prices will rise a further 10% in 2016, after a 12.14% rise in 2015. In some housing estates and desirable locations prices have had an average increase by circa five to 10%, but in other areas, prices have remained the same. This also applies to county Limerick, said Michael OConnor from REA OConnor Murphy. A new phase of developments is being pitched at Kylemore in Castletroy, where four-bed semi-detached houses are for sale for 269,000. THIRTY-FOUR investors from Limerick and across the country who claim they were given personal guarantees by property developer and former Irish rugby team manager Pat Whelan over a 13.4m property investment scheme in London are renewing their High Court action against him. THIRTY-FOUR investors from Limerick and across the country who claim they were given personal guarantees by property developer and former Irish rugby team manager Pat Whelan over a 13.4m property investment scheme in London are renewing their High Court action against him. The plaintiffs, who invested various sums of money between March 2007 and April 2008, ranging from a few thousand euro to six figure sums, are hoping to recoup some of their losses from a venture, which they say was way too good to be true and which was pitched in the run-up to the 2012 Olympics in London. The case was listed in the High Court on December 18 last, and all 34 plaintiffs are being represented by Sweeney McGann solicitors in Limerick. No date for hearing has been set yet. I know there are a number of people, myself included, who are taking an action with a view to recovering some funds from Pat Whelan, said one investor, who didnt wish to be named. What we can probably expect out of it is little, but at least Ill know Ill have gone to the end of the earth to get something back. I figure I was hard done by because personal guarantees were given, and these were all reneged on. I would never have gotten involved if there werent personal guarantees given. The investors were asked to provide investment for a temporary capital arrangement. A lot of people thought they were getting into just for a short while for the sake of making a few bob. In hindsight, maybe we were a bit gullible. If the return was going to be that good, why didnt they find the money themselves? The proposal seemed very good. It was a bunch of Irish guys who put together a very good proposal, but were a little bit out of their depth, especially with delays in planning in London and then things started going sour in Ireland. They obviously felt they could deliver on it, but they couldnt. I think a lot of it went down to timing, he said. The case previously appeared at the Commercial Court in 2010, and at that time more than 60 investors were involved in the High Court action against Pat Whelan and his business partner Pat Chesser, an auctioneer based in the city. Mr Chesser is not listed as a defendant in the latest action. At that time, former Irish rugby player Paul OConnell was among those taking a case against the Limerick duo. His name does not appear in the latest list of plaintiffs as it is believed he has settled his action. The investors were asked to invest in 13.4 million mezzanine finance scheme provided for a property development at Londons Earls Court. Some 1.84m of the overall sum of 13.4m arose from peoples pension schemes. When last in court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly adjourned the case to facilitate talks between the sides, and it had been reported that an agreement was settled out of court. However, some of those who settled out of court told the Limerick Leader previously that they only recouped 20% of their original investment. But another investor told the Leader this week: None of us got sorted. Im surprised theres only 34 on the list. There was a huge amount of Limerick people who invested, and they are all known personally. I just want my money back from Pat Whelan, and whether you invested 300, 3,000 or 300,000, its irrelevant. I happened to get sucked into it. It was meant to be a two-year investment, and the return was significantly more than what the banks were offering at the time. In some cases, two or three members of the same family invested money. Some investors said they were promised a 16% return after two years, while others said they were told they would receive a six or eight per cent increase on their investment. Mr Whelan, 61, of OConnell Avenue in Limerick city, is listed as a director or former director of 41 companies, of which 14 are operating normally, six are in receivership, and 20 have been dissolved. He did not wish to comment when contacted by the Limerick Leader on these issues. Mr Whelan, who earned the title of Limerick Person of the Year in 2008, was also the chairman of the redevelopment committee behind the 40m transformation of Thomond Park. He has been in discussions with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) regarding business plans for Steamboat Developments Ltd. A receiver was appointed to part of the property of the company, but not the whole company, in 2013. That company was behind the construction of the Clarion Hotel in Limerick. Those who are listed as the plaintiffs are: Michael Boyle, Gerard Cassidy, Gillian Cheatley, John Cheatley, Noel Conolin, Patricia Cunningham, Harry Eakins, Kieran Finucane, Kevin Griffin, Helena Gubblins, Conor Harty, Nicholas Hayes, Edmund Hayes, Michael Heffernan, Aidan Hourigan, John Hourigan, Noel Long, James Moran, Derek McCarthy, Brian McMahon, John McMeel, Michael Murphy, John OHalloran Senior, John OHalloran Junior, David OMahony, Patrick J OMahony, Patrick Reeves, Gerard Ryan, Michael Ryan, Stephen Stolz, Ann Widger, JC Widger, David Healy Plumbing and Heating Ltd, and OMahony Business Consultants Ltd. A MOTORIST who pleaded guilty to multiple road traffic offences was sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment and disqualified for 25 years, writes David Hurley. Limerick District Court was told Martin Casey, aged 32, of Caislean Na hAbhann, Castletroy was caught driving while disqualified on several different dates during 2014 and 2015. He was not insured and did not have a driving licence. Sergeant Donal Cronin said on one occasion, the defendant was driving a 11OY-registered Hyundai ix35 which left the scene of a minor road accident on Mulgrave Street. Casey, who has more than 100 previous convictions, was located by gardai a short time later while traveling as a passenger in another car. Sgt Cronin told the court the Hyundai, which was involved in the earlier collision, was never located by gardai. Judge Mary Larkin was told Casey was observed on various dates driving a number of other vehicles at different locations in the city despite having been disqualified for eight years in 2013 after he was convicted of driving with disqualified. Because the defendant was disqualified, he was not insured on any of the occasions he was observed driving. Solicitor Darach McCarthy said his client, who is married with three children, is not well in himself and he said at all times he had driven for family reasons. He was doing his fatherly duty, he said pointing out that all of the detections were made at reasonable times of the day. He said Mr Casey has a disregard for himself and that his mental health is in a fragile state. He said his client, who has been experiencing marital difficulties in recent times, is apologetic and realises his actions are not acceptable. Imposing sentence, Judge Mary Larkin commented the defendant had shown a total disregard for road traffic legislation and she said a custodial sentence was warranted in the circumstances. She imposed a number of consecutive prison sentences, totaling fifteen months and she disqualified him from driving for 25 years. Following a request from Mr McCarthy, the judge said she was not prepared to suspend any portion of the sentence. However, she set recognicence of 600 and approved the defendants mother as independent surety in the event of an appeal being lodged. A number of other charges, including one for a theft matter were taken into consideration by the court. Little Hiccups loves... Shop some of our favorite brands... Phoebe Burgess shows off Pilates body NRL wife and TV personality Phoebe Burgess showed off her toned bikini body and flat stomach in a candid photograph at her Pilates studio, shortly after returning from her luxurious honeymoon in the Maldives. Shortly after her return to Sydney, following her marriage and honeymoon with NRL star Sam Burgess, the pretty blonde took to Instagram to post a picture of herself at her local Pilates studio. In the photograph, Phoebe is pictured wearing black shorts and a midriff exposing white vest, which shows just how toned she is, as she hangs from Pilates bars, keeping her body in a stomach flattening plank position, in what seems to be a tough Pilates class. Before her wedding to Sam Burgess, the TV reporter and popular blogger posted another photograph of herself at the Fluidform Pilates studio, sitting on a reformer machine one of the most important Pilates apparatus around for toning the body and pushing oneself, even stating that the Pilates studio was her home away from home. Whilst on honeymoon, she was not shy about showing off the result of her regular Pilates classes, wearing a number of revealing bikinis throughout the luxury trip. Phoebe and her husband stayed in a luxury Maldives villa following their wedding, and swimwear was a staple of both their wardrobes throughout this time, due in part to the fact that they stayed very active, swimming with sharks amongst other things, throughout the course of their honeymoon break. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. Longford County Council are seeking further information on the Center Parcs planning application, the Leader learned this week. The application, seeking to develop a holiday village costing 233 million at Newcastle Wood near Ballymahon, was filed by Center Parcs Ireland Ltd last November. The request was made by the council in late December, and the applicant has until June to submit the information needed. After that, Longford County Council have one month to issue clarification or to make a decision on the application. If the information is not received, the application will be declared to be withdrawn. The plans for Longford Forest have received a lot of attention since November, with almost eighty submissions made on the planning file. One of the most recent submissions, from Newcastle residents Frank and Mary Small, draws attention to roads issues. From my observations I was aware of a high frequency of accidents on the Toome-Newcastle Road but it is only recently that I was able to verify that fourteen accidents had occurred on this stretch of road in the last three years, the submission read. Any increase in the traffic on this road will inevitably lead to more accidents and perhaps even worse. For this reason alone I would ask you to take all necessary measures to reduce the amount and speed of traffic on this road. Meanwhile, in their submission, received on December 21, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) stated that they will rely on Longford County Council to abide by official policy in relation to development on/affecting national roads. They said the proposed development should be undertaken in accordance with recommendations made in the Transport (Traffic) Assessment and Road Safety Audit and they should be incorporated as Conditions in the Permission, if granted. TII also stated that any additional works required as a result of the audits should be funded by the developer. Secondly, TII pointed out that an audit accompanying the application identified capacity constraints in Ballymahon on the N55 (N55 - R-392 Mostrim Road junction), in future year assessment scenarios. The Council should have regard to these findings in considering cumulative impacts of other future development proposals and in future local area planning, the submission read, adding that a traffic monitoring framework plan for the road in question should be established. A 1933 Rolls Royce which reportedly belonged to Lady Granard, is being offered for sale for 225,000. The Phantom II Continental model is available for viewing through online auction auction site eBay. A local historian, who asked not to be named, tipped off the Leader this week over the car's distinguished backgroud. I remember seeing her (Lady Granard) as a little boy, hesaid. She used to go every year to the Longford Agricultural Show and half of the produce that was on display used to come from her estate in Newtownforbes. Lady Granard, or The Countess of Granard as she was also known, was an American born heiress who married the 8th Earl of Granard, Bernard Forbes in 1909. The Countess provided much of the financial backing to finish restoring the family's historic Castleforbes residence in Newtownforbes. According to the vehicle's description on eBay, Lady Granard secured the car from its first registered owner Dorothy Hearn Stubbs, from Dorking in Surrey in 1934. It's believed Ms Stubbs may have been an employee of Lady Granard, who closed the deal on her behalf. Given its esteemed history, interest in the British manufactured model is expected to come from a select band of potential suitors. They were given a brief insight this week into what the best part of half a million euro would give them with the concluding line: To sum up, this is an impeccably restored Phantom II continental that runs effortlessly in modern traffic and has been restored to a very high standard. It boasts numerous art deco touches and is elegance personified. At 225,000, prospective buyers will, no doubt, be keen to ensure it lives up to that billing. Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 18 2016 Signed into law in January of 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, the national Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is a celebration of Dr. Kings immeasurable contribution to the United States, and to humankind. Lindenhurst, NY - January 15, 2016 - Signed into law in January of 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, the national Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday is a celebration of Dr. Kings immeasurable contribution to the United States, and to humankind. Dr. Kings example motivated people around the globe to confront injustice nonviolently during one of the darkest periods in American history and still inspires us to fulfill his vision of making our world a better place. This holiday honors the courage of a man who on a daily basis endured harassment, threats, beatings, and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew there was a possibility he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway. The holiday honors the life, legacy and contributions of Americas greatest champion of racial justice and equality, the leader who not only dreamed of a color-blind society, but who also led a non-violent movement that achieved historic reforms to help make it a reality. Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Lifes most persistent and nagging question, he said, is `what are you doing for others? His words encourage us to think about our role in society and how we can help make the world a better place. In honor of Dr. Kings legacy, we observe this day as an occasion to recommit ourselves to the fight for social justice and equality for all. The holiday is a time when our nation pauses to remember Dr. Kings life and work, but also to honor his legacy by making the holiday a day of community service. Today, we face challenges like those that fueled Dr. Kings dream for the future of America. As we strive for criminal justice and educational reforms in New York State, its important that we embrace his values and remember his legacy. Dr. King believed in providing all people with equal opportunities to succeed, and here in New York we know that begins with a quality education. Thats why Ive been working hard to invest in our schools and give educators the support they need to help our children learn and grow. With an eye toward the future, Ill keep fighting so that all New Yorkers have equal access to quality health care, good-paying jobs and a livable wage, because Long Island families deserve a chance to achieve a higher quality of life. Family & Parenting, School & Education, Local News, Business & Finance, Press Releases By Long Island News & PR Published: January 18 2016 Last week kicked off the 2016 state legislative session, and its clear we have a lot of work ahead of us. Paid family leave policy for working men and woman is an issue the Assembly Majority has long supported, and it's time for the Senate to finally get on board. Valley Stream, NY - January 15, 2016 - Last week kicked off the 2016 state legislative session, and its clear we have a lot of work ahead of us. The quest for a stronger New York starts with identifying what families need to succeed, then delivering. To me, that means increasing opportunities and fairness so that everyone can get ahead and no one is left behind. This idea starts in our schools. Children deserve every opportunity to succeed in life and that means strong schools. My focus is on continuing efforts to smartly reform our public education system where its needed, along with greatly increasing school aid. Its important to recognize that factors both inside and outside of the classroom can have an impact on a students academic success; no reform can ignore that reality. Another issue is the burden that parents are shouldering when it comes to the ever-elusive work-family balance. New York must enact a paid family leave policy that gives working men and women the option to stay home with a new child or to care for a sick family member without risking their job or financial security. The Assembly Majority has long supported this vital policy, and its time for the Senate to finally get on board. That brings us to economic fairness. The key to increasing fairness in New York is to reform the tax code and raise wages. We can start by making permanent tax cuts that benefit working families while asking those at the top to pay a little more. We must also significantly raise the minimum wage to not only help those at the bottom who are working full time but are stuck in poverty, but to also push wages up for everyone else. With the inequality gap as wide as it is, bold moves are needed and half-measures must be pushed aside. We also need to continue to invest in our communities and increase job opportunities. One way to do that is by improving our infrastructure repairing crumbling roads and bridges while also creating good-paying local jobs. And, to spur more economic growth, we must keep finding ways to make New York more business friendly and help small businesses thrive they are the engines that drive our economy forward. Finally, we have an opportunity to restore New Yorkers faith in our government. While the Assembly Majority passed significant reforms last year increasing transparency and accountability, we need to go further. Ill keep fighting to close the LLC loophole so that giant corporations can no longer make practically unlimited secret donations. And, we must strip the pensions of corrupt elected officials taxpayers should not be on the hook for a crooks retirement. These are just a few of the many goals I have for the 2016 legislative session. I look forward to working with our partners in government to make them a reality its the right thing to do so we can help ensure a brighter future for our state and for all New Yorkers. As always, if you have any questions about this or any other community issue, please dont hesitate to reach out to my Chief of Staff, Sophia James via email at or call 516-599-2972. Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com Columnists Press Releases An Ahrar al Sham fighter guards the front lines in southern Aleppo. On Jan. 15, the Department of Justice announced that Amin al Baroudi, a naturalized US citizen from Syria, pleaded guilty to violating the US governments sanctions against Syria. Baroudi and his co-conspirators exported American tactical equipment to Syria for the purpose of supplying and arming Ahrar al Sham and other insurgent groups in Syria whose stated goal is to overthrow the Assad government and install an Islamic state, according to the DOJ. Baroudi and his unnamed collaborators purchased tens of thousands of dollars of goods from companies and vendors in the United States, consisting largely of tactical equipment such as sniper rifle scopes, night vision rifle scopes, night vision goggles, laser bore sighters, speed loaders and bullet proof vests. Traveling via commercial flights to Turkey, they then transported the goods into Syria or provided them to others for transport. A statement of facts released along with the DOJs announcement outlines some of the details of these transactions between 2011 and 2013. In December 2011, Baroudi communicated with a co-conspirator known as T.S., whom Baroudi knew to be associated with Ahrar al Sham. The pair discussed exporting US-origin goods, such as telephones, sniper rifle scopes, and night vision goggles, to Syria by carrying the goods in a suitcase on a flight from the United States to Turkey. Then, in July 2012, another co-conspirator known as R.J. traveled aboard commercial flights from Los Angeles International Airport to Istanbul with a variety of US-origin goods with the intent to provide the goods to individuals and entities in Syria. R.J. later reported to Baroudi that he had delivered at least some of the goods to T.S. On Feb. 14, 2013, Baroudi checked 14 bags of luggage with a combined weight of 619 lbs for commercial flights between Los Angeles International Airport and Gaizientep, Turkey, filled with more US-origin tactical equipment which he intended to supply to rebel forces in Syria. Baroudi declared to the airline that his luggage contained clothes. The statement of facts also cites a document created by Baroudi in January 2013. The file listed various supplies for use in Syria. One entry referred to 3-9x30mm high quality rifle scopes. The document included notes such as: Proven to be real good in our environment, Sent 100s of them, used in ldlib and Halab [v]ery successfully, and People loved them and always asking for more. Idlib and Halab (Aleppo) are two cities in Syria where Ahrar al Sham continues to fight. In March 2015, Ahrar al Sham and the Al Nusrah Front, an arm of al Qaeda, announced that they had jointly established the Jaish al Fath coalition, which included several other rebel organizations as well. Jaish al Fath quickly overran the city of Idlib and swept through the surrounding area. Ahrar al Sham launched a public relations campaign in the West last year. In an op-ed published by the Washington Post on July 10, 2015, for example, an Ahrar al Sham official denied that his group had organizational links to al Qaeda. But this claim is not credible. Indeed, the DOJ specifically cites the relationship between Ahrar al Sham and Al Nusrah (referred to as Jabhat al-Nusrah) in its announcement. Ahrar al-Sham frequently fights alongside Jabhat al-Nusrah, which has been designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization and operates as al-Qaedas official branch in Syria, the DOJ noted. In addition to Jaish al Fath, Al Nusrah and Ahrar al Sham have formed coalitions throughout Syria to battle their common enemies, especially the Assad regime and the Islamic State. Moreover, Ahrar al Sham has been seeded with senior al Qaeda operatives. Ayman al Zawahiris top representative in Syria was Abu Khalid al Suri. A longtime al Qaeda operative, al Suri was killed in February 2014. In addition to serving al Qaeda, al Suri was also one of Ahrar al Shams most influential leaders. After al Suri was killed, presumably at the hands of the Islamic State, Zawahiri released a glowing eulogy in which he described al Suri as his advisor. Other known al Qaeda jihadists have joined and led Ahrar al Sham as well. In August of last year, Ahrar al Sham issued a eulogy for Mullah Omar, the Talibans founder and first emir. Ahrar al Sham said Mullah Omar was an example of a believer, who reminded us of the true meanings of jihad and sincerity [or devotion]. Omar taught us how to build the [Islamic] Emirate in the hearts of the people before it becomes a reality on the ground, Ahrar al Sham explained. Describing Omar as the blessed commander, the group said his blessed movement (the Taliban) was poised for a comeback in Afghanistan due to his stewardship. [See LWJ report, Jihadists in Syria honor Mullah Omar, praise Talibans radical state.] Baroudi was, therefore, providing supplies to an al Qaeda-linked group. Ironically, according to the statement of facts, some of the sanctions Baroudi violated actually targeted Bashar al Assads government. Ahrar al Sham is one of Assads strongest enemies on the ground in Syria. Baroudi, formerly of Irvine, Calif., faces a maximum of 20 years in prison when sentenced on May 6, 2016. Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal. Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. Luton is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Bedfordshire. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 258,000. Luton is home to Championship team Luton Town Football Club, London Luton Airport and The University of Bedfordshire. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. For all the latest news from Luton sign up to our newsletter here. Graceful Greece at Grace Santorini and Grace Mykonos While our stay in Santorini was hugely relaxing and indulgent, much like the island itself, Mykonos was its fashionable yet mischievous younger sister which made for a more stylish and social experience. The combined stay creates a wonderfully glamorous Mediterranean getaway especially for couples who want to be spoiled with the best of both worlds -- serene relaxation and a buzzing party scene.Grace Santorini aerial viewGrace Santorini is a honeymooner's paradise with breathtaking views stretching out from the tip of the north-western part of the island. The typically Greek, gleaming white hotels are carved into the hillside and stacked like elegantly decorated cakes separated with winding steps and sparkling pools. The Grace hotel is perfectly designed to maximize the hillside space and the view while still maintaining the utmost privacy. A chilled champagne reception on arrival was just the ticket to welcome us to the hotel.Our room evokes the islands history with cool stone flooring and the quintessential Greek white washed walls. Just outside our room is a private plunge pool and with more champagne on ice to greet us it seemed only fitting to toast to our stay immediately with a dip. For added privacy you can book a VIP or Superior Suite or even the ultra fabulous Villa which offers two exquisite bedrooms, its own spa, private kitchen, private heated swimming pool, Jacuzzi and treatment room.Grace Santorini poolRelaxing poolside whiles away the hours surprisingly easily especially as the hotel does not allow young children ensuring undisturbed peace. The staff are attentively available to set up sun loungers or take menu orders. For a refreshingly light cocktail, order the Grace Signature which goes down almost far too easily!Beside the infinity pool, dinner on the terrace is an ideal spot to watch the sunset and a truly wonderful experience teamed with a delicious tasting menu. For a more private dining experience, dinner or the daily champagne breakfast can be served on your own private terrace. Breakfast itself is a feast worthy of the Greek gods themselves. Each day features a different five-course menu kicking off with a healthy smoothie and Greek yogurt, followed by a homemade puff pastry pie and rounding off with a sweet or savory treat.Grace Santorini deluxe roomThe few days we spent lazing at Grace Santorini were beautifully serene and it is somewhere that I would endeavor to return for pure bliss and relaxation.Feeling suitably relaxed we set off for the more lively island of Mykonos. The transfer was a breeze courtesy of the hotel's organization of transfers and ferry tickets. The reception greets us with a small luxury designer boutique and art gallery. As a contrast to its sister property in Santorini, Grace Mykonos accepts families with children and is conveniently located alongside the beach and just minutes from the town center.Rooms are cool and elegantly furnished with the traditional white washed walls and balcony overlooking the pool and beach of Agios Stefanos. For added space book one of the luxury suites with larger terraces or one of the family suites. The poolside restaurant served a generous Champagne breakfast as well as light bites throughout the day.Grace Mykonos superior suite balconyMykonos may be modest in size but is certainly not lacking in character or atmosphere. From swanky A-list restaurants to traditional Greek courtyards, the palate is spoiled for choice of dining options. Each room came with a hefty guide to the island's hot spots and the hotel staff were on hand with tailored recommendations. My only regret was not being able to spend more time to visit them all! Before you leave Grace Mykonos I highly recommend a visit to the spa for some pampering from spa veteran Katerina. A wonderful end to a great trip.Grace Mykonos: T.: +22890 20000 / E.: res.mykonos@gracehotels.com /Grace Santorini: T.: +22860 21300 / E.: res.santorini@gracehotels.com /Top photo: Grace Mykonos Travel to Cuba with Jay Seldin Photo Tours An award winning photographer who has exhibited internationally, his documentary style of photography shows intimacy between the artist and the subject. Building a priceless rapport with the Cuban people that he shares with his tour groups, he listens to their stories, and then captures photos of what is really there, representing what he sees with honesty and audacity.This type of travel experience is a bucket list worthy trip for photography enthusiasts as the experience goes beyond the streets and monuments we all recognize. Seldin has documented his travels and tours in the last decade in his newly released collection[Backyard Hammock Publishing].As a professional travel photographer, Seldin explains, The photographs in The Cubans reveal Cubans as they are, far beyond the cliches and American 50's cars. The images bring a strong sense of reality and character to the people I photograph. It's about families and cultures, spirit and grace, and how they must learn to be creative and inventive just to survive. I don't intend just to photograph a person, but to make that person important and empowered. It's true, I am a teller of tales, and my photographs are my words that tell the story of the people, the challenges, the love and the hope that I see through my lens.To join Jay on his next trip to Cuba, click on the linkTo view more of Jay's photographs visit his website. A virtual tour of Italy celebrating the red wine grapes that have been linked to that land for centuries. Here in New England, the mercury has finally dipped into single digits. We have a stew in the pot and a fire in the hearth. Right now we need wines that remind us of sunshinebut know how to survive the cold. I find myself reaching for Italian reds, wines from up and down the boot. Thoughts of Italy chase away winters chill. Pining for the hills of Tuscany? I grab a bottle of Chianti, based on Sangiovese. Wishing for the warm smile of Sicily? Ill open a red based on Nero dAvola or Nerello Mascalese. Recalling sweet memories of Venice? Those wines are made from grapes that sound like Cinderellas children: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta. I could go on. These wines can be savory, earthy, peppery, leatherygreat for winter fare. The fruit is present but not the point. Theyre almost unilaterally good with food, because theyre made with the table in mind. Below are fourteen Italian red wines made from fourteen different Italian red grapes. Ive listed them roughly north to south, starting in Piedmont, skipping east to the Veneto, then back across to Chianti before zipping down to Abruzzo and, finally, to Sicily. Some are varietal wines and some are traditional blends, but I stuck to wines made from native grapes, omitting those that incorporate international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon. Those wines can be terrific, but for our armchair journey I thought we should celebrate place, and the grapes that have been linked to that place for centuries. Enjoy your tour. TASTING NOTES 2012 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy Monte Aribaldo Dolcetto dAlba DOC A wine that conjures the smell of sweet late summer, suggesting anise and fennel, ripe bramble fruit, purple flowers. Its juicy and black-brambly on the tongue, too, with that characteristic bitter Dolcetto snap. Made from 100 percent Dolcetto grown on Monte Aribaldo in the commune of Treiso, in a vineyard with a south-facing exposure, its ripe and friendly. But the tannins are like corduroy or velour, very sensual but cottony, not too soft, and the acid really makes the wine. 13.5% abv | $20 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2014 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy Nebbiolo Martinenga Langhe DOC Made from 100 percent Nebbiolo grown in Barbaresco at 280 m elevation, its limpid, sharp, and juicy, a blade of acid slicing through succulent red and black fruits. Plum and cherry, cranberry, and tart raspberry dazzle the tongue, while a wafting blue-black smoke of herbs and seeds and woodsy spice filters across the top. The finish fizzes into a juicy goodbye. Great for weeknight pasta, pizza, chicken, sear-roasted whatever. 13.5% abv | $22 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2011 Tenute Cisa Asinari dei Marchesi di Gresy Barbaresco DOCG Anise, tea, cedar, red berriesthis wine is evocative of old wood, afternoon, sunlit room, bittersweetness. Made from 100 percent Nebbiolo grown in Martinenga, in vineyards facing the sun, the wine aged briefly in French barriques, then relaxed in Slavonian oak cask for twelve months. Its now ferociously alive and vibrant, but it presages wisdom. Pair it with light meats and poultry, medium-aged cheeses, grilled vegetables. 14% abv | $50 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra Tasting reds in Maremma, Italy 2013 Vietti Tre Vigne Barbera dAsti A Barbera with a gorgeous perfume of fresh fennel, anise seed, wild roses, and plum skin, plus something tawny and dusty, too, like harvest earth, like autumn. Its attenuated and linear along the tongue, very pure, with glistering acidity and a clean, squeaky-tannic finish. This is a superlative food wine; pour it with pesto, marinara, pizza, fish, poultry, cheeses. It could (maybe should) become a weeknight staple. 14% abv | $18 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2012 Tenuta SantAntonio Selezione Antonio Castagnedi Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG A Corvina-dominant blend rounded by Rondinella, Croatina, and Oseleta, grown in sandy loam with calcareous subsoil. The fruit was double-sorted, laid on wooden trays for concentration, and fermented in stainless steel. The wine spent two years in 500-liter French tonneau. Its incredibly savory, with aromatics of beef bouillon, marrow, smoky tea, brushy herbs. The palate is savory, too, with abundant black plums and a meaty anisette mid-palate. The finish is like tobacco-steeped blackberries sprinkled with ground anise seed, coriander, five spice, sage. Theres a lot going on here, and its a very big wine that needs fat, meat, salt. Try brisket, smoked pork shoulder, herb-grilled meats, deeply aged cheeses, sausage, ratatouille, lasagna of all stripes. 15% abv | $45 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2013 Tenuta SantAntonio Monti Garbi Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore DOC A blend of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Croatina, and Oseleta, and, like the previous wine, grown in sandy loam with calcareous subsoil, then aged in 500-liter tonneau. Its a smaller wine, though, less commanding, and its peppery aromas are both oxidative and very savory. There is beef bouillon and Marmite, especially at the finish, plus notes of tea and dried herbs that dust the red berry fruits. It requires rich grilled rare meats, salumi, or aged cheese. 14% abv | $19 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2013 Il Canovino Riccardo V Corvina Veronese IGT Made from 100 percent Corvina in the Amarone style, late-harvested and dried on racks, then fermented dry and raised in Slavonian oak. Its ruby-velvet body offers spiced red stone fruit and bay leaf, with a finishing bitter anise catch. The tannins are assertive, but overall the wine is lighter than I expected, with terrific acidity and a nerviness that ripples through it. It needs rich, rare meat. 13.5% abv | $30 (sample) Imported by Soil & Vine 2014 Salcheto Chianti Colli Senesi DOCG Made from 85 percent Sangiovese with a balance of Canaiolo and Mammolo, grown organically grown in the hills of Siena. The winery is low-tech by intention, committed to environmental sustainability, and uses indigenous yeasts and no sulfites in production. The result here is a juicy, fruit-driven wine plumped by red berries and pink flowers and leavened by silky acidity. Although the tannins are nearly indiscernible, theres a welcome crack of pepper at the finish, plus a whiff of bitter herbs. And you cant beat the price. 13% abv | $12 (purchased in Vermont) A view of Mount Etna, in Sicily 2012 Avignonesi Rosso di Montepulciano Montepulciano is tiny hamlet in the hills east of Florence, and the wines made here are based on Sangiovese. This Rosso is 96 percent Sangiovese with other native grapes (likely Canaiolo and Mammolo), fermented with ambient yeast and aged five months in French barriques and Slavonian oak casks. Its a bright, light-bodied, juicy wine with brisk tannins and a finish of balsamic-steeped cherries. Its great for pizza, pasta, and poultry. 13% abv | $19 (sample) Imported by Tabaccaia USA 2010 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG This Sangiovese was grown in a mix of clay, sand, and silt in the Valiano and Argiano hills surrounding Montepulciano. The 2010 is fully mature, with considerable oxidative character. Its tawny, barn-red body yields aromas of autumn leaves, dried fruits, and balsamic. The palate is woodsy, with supple, fine-grained tannins and a savory Marmite finish. There is fruit, but it has been burnished russet. Drink now with roasted meats, aged cheeses, charcuterie, lentils, nuts. 13.5% abv | $29 (sample) Imported by Tabaccaia USA 2011 La Valentina Spelt Montepulciano dAbruzzo Montepulciano is also (confusingly) the name of a red grape grown throughout central Italy, perhaps especially in Abruzzo, on Italys east coast. This particular fruit was grown within hollering distance of the Adriatic, and the wine was aged in oak, which is somewhat uncharacteristic of the region. The result is almost mushroomy and very concentrated, a melange of black fruits and moss and wood, assertively tannic, with a filigree of aromatic herbs. It exudes a youthfulness just shy of inexperience right now, and absolutely demands food: rare meat, sauteed mushrooms, aged cheese. On the other hand, at this price you can afford to lay several bottles down to see what a few years of bottle age could do. I think it will be splendid. 13.5% abv | $20 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra Sangiovese ripening in a Chianti vineyard 2012 La Valentina Montepulciano dAbruzzo DOC This Montepulciano suggests a drift of leather and violets, plus dark red fruits polished by tawny tannins. Its not a complicated wine, but its not simple, either. Perhaps the best way of saying this is that its not trying too hard, and so in the process becomes a great weeknight wine, free of worldly care. Pour it with pizza, pastas, tapenade. 13% abv | $14 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra 2012 Cusumano Nero dAvola Sagana Tenuta San Gioacomo Sicilia DOC This 100 percent Nero dAvola was grown in limestone in a south-facing vineyard, but at sunset the tramontana breeze kicks up and cools the vines, slowing ripening. The wine is concentrated and muscular, with chewy tannins and dense black fruits dusted with sweet tobacco. Buoyant acidity and a glittery finish add lift. 14.5% abv | $40 (sample tasted at the winery) Imported by Terlato 2010 Tascante Nerello Mascalese Terza Vendemmia Sicilia IGT A Nerello from Mt. Etna thats youthful and vibrant, with glorious acidity and a clean, high floral-herb note. There is earth, but its shining, not funky, and the garnet body is bedecked with flowers and red cherry fruit. Its light-textured, somehow both silky and taut, with forward tannins, glistering acid, and a minerally grit like licking a pencil. Its elegant, varietally perfect, and interesting. 14% abv | $50 (sample) Imported by Dalla Terra Many thanks to Wine Business for recommending this article to their readers. All wines except the Salcheto Chianti were media samples. View my Sample Policy. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. "Read my lips: no new taxes." That was the bold but now infamous statement by former US president George H. W. Bush at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans in August 1988. Two years later, Bush raised taxes to balance the budget. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," former president Bill Clinton said of his contact with Monica Lewinsky . Well, we now know that Clinton's definition of sexual relations was more limited than that of most people. Politicians are, of course, not the only ones who can get into difficulties with their statements, which can range from being just a little misleading to being distinctly "economical with the truth" (what most of us call "lying"). Ahead of the recent North American International Motor Show in Detroit, VW boss Matthias Muller got into trouble when he gave an interview in English to NPR . Muller said this of VW's communication with US regulators about the emissions scandal before it became public: "We didn't lie. We didn't understand the question first." Some people have said Muller's English is not up to the necessary standard for communicating at the highest level about sensitive business topics. Listening to the interview and reading the transcript, it is clear that Muller's English is not perfect, but it is certainly not bad. His performance does, however, highlight some key lessons for German-speaking managers when using English internationally: Africa is a haven for counterfeiters. Yet things are changing. With the World Health Organisation estimating that 30% of the pharmaceutical market in Africa is counterfeit, African governments understand that counterfeiting creates public health, fiscal and societal problems. They know that they need to provide effective IP enforcement measures. Such measures now feature prominently in much of the new IP legislation in Africa. We will look at a few countries. South Africa The Counterfeit Goods Act, 1997 provides procedural mechanisms that assist IP owners. An IP owner can request the police and Customs authorities to search premises where it suspects that counterfeit goods are being stored or entering the country, and seize those goods so that they can be used in evidence in infringement proceedings. The legislation also creates various criminal offences. Kenya There is an Anti-Counterfeit Act of 2008, which provides for the seizure and detention of goods, and lays down harsh penalties for infringers. An Anti-Counterfeit Agency was formed after the introduction of the Act. In 2012 Kenya's High Court ruled that the Anti-Counterfeit Act was too broad, because it could interfere with the flow of generic medicines. In a recent case involving copyright infringement a Kenyan court issued a search and seizure (Anton Piller) order to preserve evidence. The Kenyan authorities recently amalgamated a number of IP bodies including the Anti-Counterfeit Agency, to cut bureaucracy and improve co-operation in enforcement. Ghana On July 25 2014 the Trademarks (Amendment) Act came into force. Various forms of intentional trade mark infringement are now criminal offences. A court can order forfeiture and destruction of goods where criminal offences are being investigated. Tanzania In 2008 Tanzania passed the Merchandise Mark Regulations. There is provision for the appointment of inspectors, powers of detention and seizure of goods, and criminal prosecutions. Angola In 2014 the Copyright and Related Rights Law came into effect. This provides for the seizure of infringing goods while legal proceedings are pending, as well as for damages and the destruction of infringing material and equipment used in an infringement. Morocco On 18 December 2014 the new Industrial Property Law came into force. Customs authorities have the power to detain counterfeit goods that are in transit, and infringers can be required to pay the cost of warehousing and destroying counterfeit goods. Uganda Uganda's Anti-Counterfeit Goods Bill 2009 (not yet in force) clarifies that counterfeiting is limited to trade mark and copyright infringements the earlier version had referred to patent infringements as well. Zambia The Intellectual Property Bill of 2011 (not yet in force) provides for a five-year prison term for counterfeiting, and for border seizures of counterfeit goods. There may be some way to go, but things are moving in the right direction. Wayne Meiring Spoor & Fisher Jersey Africa House, Castle Street St Helier, Jersey JE4 9TW Channel Islands Tel: +44 1534 838000 Fax: +44 1534 838001 info@spoor.co.uk www.spoor.com The Australian Appeal Court has recently clarified the position of software and business method patents in Australia. In Commissioner of Patents v RPL Central Pty Ltd, the Full Federal Court again aligned Australia with a US-centric position akin to that set out in the Alice Corporation case. The court set out the following statements of principle: 1. "A technical innovation is patentable, a business innovation is not", and 2. "Simply putting a business method or scheme into a computer is not patentable unless there is an invention in the way in which the computer carries out the scheme or method". In a clear statement, the court found that any standard operation of a generic computer with generic software to implement a business method is unlikely to result in the business method being patentable. The court's pronouncement amounts to the creation of a judicial exception to patentability, in line with the position in the United States and Europe. Determining what amounts to the generic operation of a computer is likely to prove difficult in practice and lead to some uncertainty in Australian decisions. It also means that many extremely innovative business methods may no longer be patentable in Australia. It is also likely that our courts will continue to look to the United States and Europe in deciding the limits of business method patents. Peter Treloar Shelston IPLevel 21, 60 Margaret StreetSydney NSW 2000, AustraliaTel: +61 2 9777 1111Fax: +61 2 9241 4666email@shelstonip.comwww.shelstonip.com The SENER engineering and technology Group has signed a contract with the company Khulna Shipyards Ltd. in Bangladesh for the implementation of the shipbuilding CAD/CAM System FORAN, developed by SENER, to be used in the design and production of new projects. Khulna Shipyard (KSY) belongs to the Ministry of Defense of the Bangladesh Govern, and it is operated by its Army. The scope of the contract includes the installation of the FORAN System permanent licenses in all design disciplines (hull forms; general arrangement, naval architecture; hull structure; machinery and outfitting; electrical design; drafting). Regarding the services, SENER will cover the training, maintenance and on-site technical assistance. The first trainings have been already done. With more than five decades of reputation, the shipyard leads the shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh and has built every kind of vessels addressing the rules and regulations from the most important international classification societies. Thanks to investments promoting the expertise and new technologies, the company is making a strong effort to become a leader in shipbuilding. For its part, SENERs FORAN System, a CAD/CAM/CAE software for design and production of all kinds of ships and offshore structures, has celebrated its 50 years in 2015, half a century of continuous reinvention that makes it the longest available in the market. Today, FORAN is in the state-of-the-art of technology, installed in 40 countries and used in world-renowned programs. Oman Drydock Company (ODC) has reported one of its busiest half year periods to date for drydockings, conversions and repairs. Based in Duqm Omans new ports and logistics city, ODC is one of the worlds largest shipyards at 1.3 million square meters. ODC deputy CEO Dr. Ahmed Al Abri, said the period July to December 2015 saw the shipyard undertake a range of drydockings taking the total number undertaken since it opened to 375. The work was completed clients including Maran, Dynacom, SCI, Springfield, PIL, Mercator TMS, Synergy, Gulf Marine, Oman Shipping, Gas Cat, Maersk, CMA, Exmar, NYK, Red Sea and Sea Traders. Vessels worked on included Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), crude oil tankers, container ships, LNG and LPG carriers, chemical carriers, bulk carriers, as well as dredgers, RO-ROs and barges. We are immensely proud of the work we have done in the last six months, Dr. Al Abri said. The complex range of contracts shows the world-class skills, facilities and expertise that we have. October saw ODC complete our third major conversion of an OBO to a VLCC for Springfield this year. These massive conversions are right at the cutting edge of shipyard engineering employing 500 men and deploying the considerable expertise of our Korean partner DSME. The conversion works entailed removing bulkhead covers and installing new swash bulkheads and making the vessels multi-functional for more efficient loading. Between the three conversions we fabricated close to 120 blocks between 50 and 80 metric tons. This enabled us to build in larger portions, reducing on time and cost. We believe this track record in conversions sends a powerful message to the shipping industry and can catapult us further into the multibillion global conversion industry. Outside conversions Dr. Al Abri pointed to ODCs rapidly increasing work in the LNG sector. Again combining the knowledge and expertise of DSME with our world class facilities and geographical location we strongly believe we are one of the most advanced and best equipped yards in the world for LNG tankers, he said. We have worked on many LNG vessels for owners including Oman Shipping, Exmnar and GasCat, undertaking repairs and maintenance. Works included hull blasting and painting, cargo tank inspection by GTT and the overhaul of machinery. This covered the engine room, propeller, boiler and generator as well as outfitting and electrical jobs. ODC LNG services cover key areas such as the supply chain of various materials including invar, insulation boxes, membranes, prefabricated panels and cryogenic safety valves. Further investment has included renovation to its cryogenic shop so it can repair up to four LNGCs at any one time. Dr. Al Abri said other important jobs in the last six months have included applying an epoxy tank coating to a product tanker to a tight deadline and very high standard. In addition, the yard has prefabricated a massive steel platform structure of more than 12,700 metric tons for an oil field for an oil and gas client. It has further undertaken refits of a navy ship and large yacht. In 2016 ODC will look to extend its work scope and offer specialist services like complex painting, retrofitting, modification, restructuring and the installation of ballast water systems, Dr. Al Abri said, adding ODC will also target the industrial and offshore sectors for steel fabrication works. ODC is a passionate, hungry, young business with a massive appetite to grow and build long term relationships with our clients, he said. We have built a solid track record in the last few years and the business has real momentum behind it which customers can see that when they visit us. We have world class facilities, truly some of the best in the world and we are tackling issues that have slowed operations in the past, such as visa and customs bureaucracy. In addition, we are expanding our supply chain building strong alliances with a broad cross section of companies including welders, blasters and engine suppliers and we have recently appointed experienced subcontractors from Romania and Singapore for painting and steel work. Moreover, we are improving the truck, rail and logistics access to Duqm. All these factors make us much more desirable to customers. Our geographical location thrusts us into pole position for the Asia to Europe shipping route as well as the East African and Indian offshore industries, Dr. Al Abri continued. The convenience we can offer means ship owners can save time and money by not having to deviate course by having to go through the Strait of Hormuz. Furthermore, our size is a massive advantage for a wide range of engineering projects. We have two giant drydocks and can accommodate ships of any size and our 2.8-kilometer dock is the longest in the Middle East. And if circumstances dictate, we still have the space and planning permission to double in size again. Moreover, our climate provides the perfect weather conditions for painting and the 10,000 cubic meter capacity slops and sludge terminal can save up to three days sailing time since we can deal with everything on site." Marines with Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 12, and Headquarters and Headquarters Squadron traveled from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, to participate in the Chitose Aviation Training Relocation exercise at Chitose Air Base, Japan, Jan. 12-22, 2016. VMFA (AW)-224, also known as the Fighting Bengals, embarked as the primary squadron to conduct dissimilar air combat training alongside and against the Japan Air Self-Defense Force to further support combined interoperability and Pacific theater security cooperation. We have a need to practice with other aircraft that are not F/A-18D Hornets, said Lt. Col. Michael P. Shand, commanding officer of VMFA-224. Chitose ATR gives us an air-to-air training opportunity, and since we have several different generations of aircrew in the squadron, for some this is their first deployment. Many of the U.S. pilots fought against dissimilar aircraft for their first time. The JASDFs F-15J/DJ Eagles encompass different performance characteristics, forcing the Fighting Bengals to maneuver their aircraft in a different fashion. We learn new and exciting things every time we work with a foreign military, said Shand. There are only so many ways to operate a fighter squadron, and we all do it a similar way, further building trust and confidence in any future endeavors we might share. As a result of the Defense Policy Review Initiative, the ATR program began in 2007 to increase operational readiness of U.S. and Japan forces, provide sharpened bilateral interoperability and reduce noise obtrusion in local communities by distributing the training around Japan. The dispersion of U.S. forces jet-fighter training from Misawa Air Base, MCAS Iwakuni and Kadena Air Base to six other JASDF bases assists in achieving these goals, further highlighting the commitment to being better neighbors and to mitigating the U.S. foot print to local communities. Different venues offer different training opportunities, said Shand. The ATR program allows us to exchange better practices and also gives us an opportunity to build camaraderie with JASDF members. I hope the Japanese community recognizes our effort to reduce the impact on surrounding areas as well. We have a job to do and training to accomplish, but we dont want to come here and be bad guests. We are aware of their concerns and work hard to accommodate them while also meeting our objectives. I hope they recognize that, because our relationship with the Japanese people is very important to us. Tsuiki, Nyutabaru, Hyakuri, Chitose, Komatsu and Misawa Air Bases are among the six mainland Japan locations utilized for ATR exercises, and as of 2011, the program now includes territories of Guam and the Mariana Islands. I want to see the ATR program continue and I hope the U.S.-Japan alliance deepens through the facilitation of this training, said Maj. Atsuya Shimatani, chief of public relations office, administrative department for JASDF. I think this unique training opportunity is very good and I hope we can get more opportunities to train with the U.S. forces. As previously agreed upon between the government of Japan and U.S. Department of Defense within Japan, ATR implementation throughout these six locations significantly improves the understanding of U.S. and Japan military tactics and capabilities, further enhancing our working relationship and overall alliance. The ATR exercise is very good, said Shimatani. It helps in developing the bilateral training and affects the relationship between both nations. We are doing well and our relations are growing. Bilateral engagements such as Chitose ATR have assisted the two nations form one of the worlds strongest alliances to maintain peace and stability in the region, while building relationships to facilitate vital coordination in training and possible real world events. I believe the ATR Program has strengthened over time and it gives UDP units an opportunity to strengthen and sharpen their skills as well, said Shand. Overall, this will continue to increase the readiness of Marine combat units across the theater. Iraqi forces request artillery fire support from the front lines during the counterattack missions in Ramadi. Heavy small-arms fire suppresses the enemy on the ground, but a few minutes later theres thunder in the sky artillery thunder! Artillery soldiers assigned to the 8th Division of the Iraqi Army operate out of Al Taqaddum, Iraq providing artillery fire support to ground troops in Ramadi and its surrounding areas. Although they already have some proven experience, the troops of the 8th Division seek new ways to become more effective with their artillery firing missions. Task Force Al Taqaddum (TFTQ), a U.S.-led coalition force focused on the advise and assist mission to enable the Iraqi security forces during their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, is based out of Camp Manion at Al Taqaddum. The task force maintains a team of fires advisors to provide support and training to Iraqi artillery troops. The team of fires advisors is made up of U.S. Marines from II Marine Expeditionary Force as well as U.S. soldiers with 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, all assigned to TFTQ. The ongoing training is designed to provide Iraqi soldiers with different aspects and tools to operate an artillery battery and be successful on the battlefield. We focus primarily on two different parts of artillery training: one would be gun line procedures; how to do gun line crew drills, how to manipulate the howitzer and things like that, said U.S. Marine Capt. David Rosenbrock, a fires officer and advisor with TFTQ. The other part of the training is computational procedures, which is how we determine a firing solution to make the round go to where we want it to go. Basic artillery book material teaches an artilleryman how to put rounds downrange in standard firing conditions, and according to Rosenbrock, Iraqi soldiers are very capable of doing that. However, standard and perfect firing conditions are not often the case when fighting a war. One of the biggest things we are teaching them is how to correct for non-standard conditions, added Rosenbrock. Rosenbrock also said that there are a lot of different factors to account for when firing artillery and it is important to keep them in mind. Things like weather, wind and air pressure, among other elements, affect the way a round travels to hit its target. We dont live in a perfect world, so there are a lot of things that have an impact on that round when it leaves the tube, said Rosenbrock. We are trying to teach them how to account for those specific [elements that will affect their firing]. But the efforts to be effective when firing artillery dont only focus on proper firing techniques and procedures, maintenance and up-keeping of the weaponry as well as understanding the operational environment can make a difference. We talk about how to conduct basic maintenance, like gun line maintenance, how to do field maintenance and we try to help them develop maintenance procedures based off what they have available, said Rosenbrock. The Iraqis currently use the M198, which is the gun the Marine Corps employed prior to the M777A2. The U.S. Army also employed the M198, so many of the TFTQ artillery personnel are already familiar with the system, enabling them to provide effective training. Aside from the difference in the weapon systems, many techniques and basic artillery operational procedures remain the same, said Rosenbrock. The hard work on both sides has paid off. They have significantly become more effective, there is still a long way to go but theyre able to use their system and adequately engage targets, said Rosenbrock. Not just improvement on how well theyre shooting, but on how they are storing their ammo, the cleanliness and organization of the battery position and all those things that go into making a firing unit effective. Theyve shown significant improvement. Crude Oil Price Trend Forecast 2016 - Video By Nadeem Walayat After a savage bear market for the oil market for the whole of 2015, the crude oil price has got 2016 off with a bang by plunging to just below $30 before recovering at the last close to $30.68 (WTIC). One does not need to look far for the negative fundamentals that are driving the oil price into dust. Fundamentals such as the sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy, fundamentals such as the apparent oil war that Saudi Arabia is engaged in with the United States shale oil industry and now added to are fundamentals of lifting of sanctions against Iran that can literally immediately flood the oil market with 50 million barrels of crude oil in storage and looks set to up its output by 1m b/d this year. So given such bad fundamentals what are the prospects for the crude oil price for the whole of 2016? Will the destruction of 50% of the U.S. Shale industry be enough for a price turnaround? Will Saudi Arabia and Iran go to War? Will Russia implode? Find out in this video that concludes in a detailed trend forecast for the whole of 2016. And ensure you are subscribed to my always free newsletter (only requirement is an email address) for the following forthcoming pieces of analysis Interest Rates 2016 US Dollar Trend Forecast Stock Market Trend Forecast 2016 US House Prices Forecast 2016 and Beyond Gold and Silver Price Forecast 2016 By Nadeem Walayat http://www.marketoracle.co.uk Copyright 2005-2016 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved. Nadeem Walayat has over 25 years experience of trading derivatives, portfolio management and analysing the financial markets, including one of few who both anticipated and Beat the 1987 Crash. Nadeem's forward looking analysis focuses on UK inflation, economy, interest rates and housing market. He is the author of five ebook's in the The Inflation Mega-Trend and Stocks Stealth Bull Market series that can be downloaded for Free. Nadeem is the Editor of The Market Oracle, a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication that presents in-depth analysis from over 1000 experienced analysts on a range of views of the probable direction of the financial markets, thus enabling our readers to arrive at an informed opinion on future market direction. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk 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 trading losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors before engaging in any trading activities. Nadeem Walayat Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. Ron Paul on When Peace Breaks Out With Iran... This has been the most dramatic week in US/Iranian relations since 1979. Last weekend ten US Navy personnel were caught in Iranian waters, as the Pentagon kept changing its story on how they got there. It could have been a disaster for President Obama's big gamble on diplomacy over conflict with Iran. But after several rounds of telephone diplomacy between Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif, the Iranian leadership - which we are told by the neocons is too irrational to even talk to - did a most rational thing: weighing the costs and benefits they decided it made more sense not to belabor the question of what an armed US Naval vessel was doing just miles from an Iranian military base. Instead of escalating, the Iranian government fed the sailors and sent them back to their base in Bahrain. Then on Saturday, the Iranians released four Iranian-Americans from prison, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. On the US side, seven Iranians held in US prisons, including six who were dual citizens, were granted clemency. The seven were in prison for seeking to trade with Iran in violation of the decades-old US economic sanctions. This mutual release came just hours before the United Nations certified that Iran had met its obligations under the nuclear treaty signed last summer and that, accordingly, US and international sanctions would be lifted against the country. How did the "irrational" Iranians celebrate being allowed back into the international community? They immediately announced a massive purchase of more than 100 passenger planes from the European Airbus company, and that they would also purchase spare parts from Seattle-based Boeing. Additionally, US oil executives have been in Tehran negotiating trade deals to be finalized as soon as it is legal to do so. The jobs created by this peaceful trade will be beneficial to all parties concerned. The only jobs that should be lost are the Washington advocates of re-introducing sanctions on Iran. Events this week have dealt a harsh blow to Washington's neocons, who for decades have been warning against any engagement with Iran. These true isolationists were determined that only regime change and a puppet government in Tehran could produce peaceful relations between the US and Iran. Instead, engagement has worked to the benefit of the US and Iran. Proven wrong, however, we should not expect the neocons to apologize or even pause to reflect on their failed ideology. Instead, they will continue to call for new sanctions on any pretext. They even found a way to complain about the release of the US sailors - they should have never been confronted in the first place even if they were in Iranian waters. And they even found a way to complain about the return of the four Iranian-Americans to their families and loved ones - the US should have never negotiated with the Iranians to coordinate the release of prisoners, they grumbled. It was a show of weakness to negotiate! Tell that to the families on both sides who can now enjoy the company of their loved ones once again! I have often said that the neocons' greatest fear is for peace to break out. Their well-paid jobs are dependent on conflict, sanctions, and pre-emptive war. They grow wealthy on conflict, which only drains our economy. Let's hope that this new opening with Iran will allow many other productive Americans to grow wealthy through trade and business ties. Let's hope many new productive jobs will be created on both sides. Peace is prosperous! Dr. Ron Paul Project Freedom Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill. Dr. Ron Paul Archive 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication. So far, this flu season has been extremely mild, according to local health officials. But dont get complacent yet. Influenza could become more widespread as the season wears on, they said. They recommend that anyone who has not yet had a vaccination get one soon. Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites classify the flu as being regional outbreaks have occurred, or spikes in influenza-like illnesses have been seen, in less than half of the state. Sharon Ortiz-Garcia, an epidemiologist with the West Piedmont Health District, said health care providers have told local health officials that they have seen a few patients with influenza-like illnesses. However, no increase in such illnesses has been reported, and there have been no laboratory-confirmed cases of the flu locally, she said. The emergency department at Memorial Hospital in Martinsville has treated just a few people showing symptoms of the flu or similar illnesses, according to Liz Harris, the hospitals marketing director. "This has been one of the lowest flu seasons weve seen in a very, very long time," Harris said. "Perhaps the flu shot is very effective this year," she said. This years flu vaccine, which is designed to protect people against the several strains that health officials think will be most prevalent, is anticipated to be more effective than last years vaccine, published reports show. Also, prescription medicines, such as oseltamivir, designed to help flu suffers battle the illness so far have generally been effective in fighting this years strains, a report on a CDC website shows. The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs. Illness from the flu can be mild to severe, and sometimes it can be fatal. Flu symptoms which usually appear within three days after exposure to a virus include cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, head and body aches, tiredness, chills and sometimes fever, diarrhea and vomiting. While people with milder flu cases can recover at home, those with severe cases often are hospitalized. The best way to prevent the flu and severe complications from it is to get vaccinated, Ortiz-Garcia said. Protection develops about two weeks after getting the vaccine and may last up to a year, she said. Vaccine still is available at the Henry-Martinsville Health Department, which the health district operates. Some area pharmacies also still have vaccines, online information and signs seen recently outside the stores indicate. Dont be afraid to get vaccinated. "The flu vaccine is among the safest medical products in use," Ortiz-Garcia said. CDC data shows that millions of Americans have safely received flu vaccine during the past 50 years, and extensive research shows vaccination to be safe, she added. Injection is the most common way that flu vaccine is administered. A nasal spray vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in healthy people 2 through 49 years of age. Ortiz-Garcia noted, though, that the spray is not recommended for pregnant women or people with asthma or bad immune systems. Getting vaccinated cannot give people influenza because the flu viruses that vaccinations contain have been inactivated, so the viruses are not infectious, according to a CDC website. The flu vaccine usually becomes available each year during early fall. Health officials recommend that people get vaccinations as soon as they become available because the flu season often starts in October. But it is not too late for the vaccine to be effective. The flu season typically peaks in January or February but can last as long as May, according to Ortiz-Garcia and information online. Along with getting a vaccination, Ortiz-Garcia recommends taking the following precautions to try and avoid catching and spreading the flu: To avoid spreading germs to yourself and others, wash your hands after coughing or sneezing or touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Cover your mouth or nose with tissue when coughing or sneezing, If no tissue is available, cough or sneeze into your elbow or sleeve instead of your hand. Stay home if you are sick. Avoid contact with other people unless you are seeking medical care. Do not return to work or school until at least 24 hours after you feel completely well and any fever is gone. Use antiviral drugs, such as oseltamivir, if they are recommended by your doctor. An an interesting coincidence, two stories in Fridays edition of the Martinsville Bulletin had an important link between them. The first concerned the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA), which received a $176,366 grant from the Harvest Foundation to help the organization formalize a flow regulation schedule for the Smith River, develop a master plan for Martinsville and Henry County, and expand the Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program (CWQM). The second story came from Eden, N.C., where Duke Energy has dug up 66,000 tons of coal ash and sent it to a lined landfill for safe disposal. Duke Energy spokesman Jeff Brooks said in the article that Duke wants the world to see that the corporation is following through on its commitment to clean up the coal ash after a disastrous ash spill that polluted a 70-mile stretch of the Dan River two years ago. In a sense, Duke is to be commended for undertaking the costly effort of cleaning up the coal ash, although in a greater sense, the ash which is filled with heavy metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic should never have been stored in unlined pits close to a river. Duke Energy isnt acting out of altruism; theyre required to move the ash due to a new North Carolina law called the Coal Ash Management Act, created following the 2014 Dan River spill. When that spill happened, DRBA made monitoring the Dan River their top priority. At the time, DRBA Program Manager Brian Williams described the ash spill as "heartbreaking." "It was very disturbing," he said. "It made us sick. It made you want to cry, paddling downriver through a river of coal, knowing what the effects would be. You could instantly see there were going to be long-term effects." Advisories had to be posted along the most heavily affected portions of the river, advising people not to come in contact with the water because it could cause skin irritation. If a human could suffer just from touching the water, what chance would a fish have? Its easy to dismiss environmental protection efforts as tree-huggery gone rampant, but clean water is crucially important to us all. Just ask the residents of Flint, Michigan, a city which recently declared a state of emergency because its water is undrinkable. In a cost-saving move which coincidentally also occurred two years ago Flint switched its water supply from the Great Lakes to the Flint River. The water from the Flint River proved so corrosive that it leached the lead out of the pipes in Flint homes, which has caused a host of health problems primarily affecting children. The elevated lead levels in the Flint drinking water were first reported not by the EPA or the DEQ, but by citizen scientists much like the citizen scientists of DRBA, who will be expanding their water quality monitoring efforts thanks to the Harvest Foundation grant. DRBA does good work, and they need all the help they can get. The importance of clean water cannot be stressed enough. By the way, there happened to be another interesting story in Fridays paper: "Virginia OKs coal ash wastewater dumping at 2 power plants," the headline read. As Duke Energy works to haul tons of coal ash away from a river, Dominion Virginia Power has won approval to dump treated coal ash wastewater straight into the James and Potomac Rivers. Avoid fishing in those rivers for the next few decades; word is, the arsenic gives the striped bass a tinny taste. The recent execution of Al-Nimr, a Shia cleric leader who was arrested on 8 July 2012 during protests, along with 46 other men, mostly Sunnis, highlights the crisis facing the regime. Increased repression indicate a fear of the rulers at the top of an impending movement from below. The official charges were seeking "foreign meddling" in the kingdom, "disobeying" its rulers and taking up arms against the security forces. The Saudi authorities, however, failed to give any concrete evidence of any of the accusations. The execution of Nimr provoked a backlash in a range of Shia communities all over the Muslim world, but most importantly in Iran and inside Saudi Arabia itself. In Iran the Saudis managed to provoke an attack on the Saudi Embassy,which gave them excuse to cut their relations with Iran and drag the Gulf States and Sudan with them. Inside Saudi Arabia there were also protests of the oppressed and marginalized Shia minority for whom Nimr was viewed as a point of reference. It would be naive to think that the Saudi rulers had not foreseen the backlash that would come. As an article in The Independent shows, they had even prepared for protests in advance. It therefore seems more like a deliberate act of provocation. Given all these factors, it leads to some questions about the real intentions behind the - unnecessary and avoidable - execution of Al-Nimr. To understand it we need to look into the regional and internal situation of Saudi Arabia. Internal situation This year the Saudi regime closed its budget with a $98bn deficit as a result of the steep fall in the price of oil. Ironically, the refusal of Saudi Arabia to come to an agreement among oil-producing countries to reduce overall output in the face of falling demand has exacerbated the problem. In an attempt to reduce the budget deficit they have plans to liquidate some of their foreign assets as well as digging into the reserve funds and selling bonds. These measures, however, have put its credit rating at risk (which was already downgraded by S&P in October this year). Saudi Arabia is in desperate need of maintaining the confidence of the financial markets due to the highly underdeveloped nature of her economy. To understand the importance of this maintaining the confidence of the financial markets for Saudi Arabia we also need to factor in the big political price that the western governments are paying for their friendship with Saudi Arabia. They are willing to pay this political price as long as it is being balanced by high economic benefits that this friendship brings for them, but if the financial markets lose confidence in Saudi Arabia the international isolation of the regime can escalate very quickly. Thus, in order to balance their books internally, the House of Saud needs to cut public spending. But this has been the economic pillar on which their power has rested for decades. They have been trying to avoid social unrest both on the homefront and among their Gulf States neighbours by lavish grants on certain sections of the population to safeguard them against the less fortunate parts of society. During the 2011-12 Arab uprising King Abdullah spent $130bn to appease a certain section of the population in order to buy peace. A part of this money went to pay two months extra salary a year to government workers. In a similar move, King Salman spent about $32bn in his post-coronation giveaway, giving an extra two months salary to all government employees, soldiers, pensioners and students on government stipends at home and abroad. It needs to be noted, however, that the majority of government workers (about 3 million) are Sunni Saudi nationals and are paid almost double the private sector workers three-quarters of whom are made up of foreign workers who also constitute about a quarter of the Saudi population. For the Al-Saud family to hold on to power the policy of literally buying this section of the population is essential. The dilemma they are facing is that the recent budget deficit has put this very same policy at risk. Therefore, deepening the sectarian divide by whipping up anti-Shia and anti-Iranian sentiment among the more privileged sections of the population to divert attention away from the cuts in public spending appeared to the ruling family as a way out of this dilemma. But this will be a short-lived and dangerous policy. Yemen war The budget deficit in Saudi Arabia, however, is not only due to the fall in revenue from oil. Their expensive regional adventures have also been factors. In its 2016 budget, Saudi Arabia allocated around $57 billion to defense and security. Saudi Arabia, leading a coalition of nine Arab states, began carrying out airstrikes in Yemen in March 2015. Since the beginning, the attempt was made to justify the intervention by painting the Houthis as a mere Iranian proxy. That was the only way for the Saudis to present their own intervention as legitimate. They dragged behind them the GCC countries (except for Oman) plus Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan, with the intelligence and logistical support from United States. The problem is that the intervention didnt go as they had expected. It did not result in a quick victory. After more than nine months they have failed to achieve their goals. The war proved to be very costly and also resulted in great humanitarian cost, further increasing international criticism of Saudi Arabia. The Houthis, although they lost some of their territories, still control a great part of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. After certain advances by the Saudi-led coalition in the south in autumn, the war seems to have reached a standstill and has entered a phase of attrition in which the Saudis only chance of success would be through a long term occupation of Yemen, at an enormous financial and political cost The first round of peace talks between the Houthis and the Hadi supporters took place in December 2015. The next round was scheduled for mid-January this year. Had the Saudis been more astute, they would have used the opportunity offered to them by Oman in their peace plan to further the peace talks and leave the quagmire in Yemen saving some face (and money). Instead, one day after the execution of Al-Nimr, king Salman also formally ended the already fragile ceasefire that had been agreed in mid-December to show good faith during the peace talks. By executing Al-Nimr and breaking the ceasefire, king Salman, the main supporter of Hadi, showed his lack of interest in the continuation of peace talks. He had actually blocked the peace talks in Yemen and by doing so further sank into the swamp he had prepared for himself in Yemen. He is acting like a gambler who wants to regain what he has lost by increasing his bet. Syria and Iraq wars and the isolation of the Saudis The Yemen war is, however, not the only regional conflict the Saudis are involved in. The far more important regional conflict is in Iraq and Syria. Riyadh foreign policy in Iraq and Syria has, however, been consistent with their policy in Yemen: They are intentionally trying to stall the peace talks. The reasons are also not dissimilar. After years of supporting Isis and other rebel groups against the Assad regime, now they see themselves on the losing side of the negotiations so they are trying to flip the table. Isis and the rebel groups backed by the Saudis and Turkey are retreating, both in Syria and in Iraq. In fact, in this regard, the intentions behind the provocative execution of Al-Nimr by the Saudis reminds us of the downing of the Russian jet by Turkey which we have analysed elsewhere, and here. The Saudis wanted to drive a wedge between converging Iranian and American interest in the region. However, in a news conference, U.S. State Department spokesman. John Kirby highlighted Americas intention to move forward with the peace talks in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. ... [T]hat its important to work through that tension, work through those disagreements, so that we can all work harder together on other issues which are affecting the Middle East writ large: the fight against ISIL in Iraq and Syria, which Brett just briefed you on; the continuing strife in Yemen; and of course, the need to really keep moving the political process in Syria forward. Theres a lot on the agenda in the Middle East, and the Secretary wants to make sure that were all all of us are still pulling on the rows pulling on the oars to get at those objectives. This reveals the Saudis failure. In the same news conference, Kirby also emphasized that the US has no intention of mediating between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This in reality means leaving the Saudis to themselves. Their manoeuvres have produced the opposite result to what they intended. Also to the question that ...could [the Saudi embassy] have been attacked, burned, besieged over a significant period of time without some measure of Iranian Government acquiescence? Kirbys answer was very mild: I dont know the answer to that question. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. Iran has expressed regret. Theyve done that in a letter to the UN. I think thats an encouraging sign. The tick-tock of what happened who did what when, who didnt do things they were supposed to do I think thats for the Iranian Government to speak to and to look at themselves and to review, not for us. Were not doing an independent investigation here on what happened. It was obviously an act of violence, or multiple acts of violence, depending on how you look at it that we condemned very publicly. We take very seriously the safety and security of diplomatic property, as you might expect we would. And we respect that property of other nations here in the United States. So obviously, it was very troubling and disconcerting, and we didnt we dont ever want to see that. But its just happened. I think its too soon for anybody to know exactly how it transpired or whether there was any lack of effort or alacrity in trying to stop it or stem it once it started. But really, thats really thats for Iranian authorities to speak to. (Our emphasis) Compare this reaction to the one on the attack on the British Embassy in 2011, which resulted in increased sanctions against Iran not only by the UK but also by the US and Canada. Obama back then said that all are deeply disturbed by the assault. That kind of behavior is not acceptable, and I strongly urge the Iranian government to hold those who are responsible to task. They have a responsibility to protect diplomatic outposts. That is a basic international obligation that all countries need to observe, and for rioters, essentially, to be able to overrun the embassy and set it on fire is an indication that the Iranian government is not taking its international obligations seriously. And the then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the attack on the British embassy in Tehran was an affront, not only to the British people but to the international community. And we stand ready to help in any way that we can to make the point, as strongly as possible, that governments owe a duty to the diplomatic community to protect life and property, and we expect the Government of Iran to do so. Russia on the other hand has offered to act as a mediator between Tehran and Riyadh. It is yet another sign of declining American influence in the region to the benefit of the Russians - a fact that doesnt please the Saudi leaders either. It is not hard to see here the divergence of interest between Riyadh and Washington. The Americans, after a series of unsuccessful wars and interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen - into which they were dragged by the Saudis - are no longer able and willing to play the same role in the region. This is opposite to the interests of the Al-Saud family who want the US to intervene to stop a rising Iran. Seeing their internal support corroded, hated by much of their own population, seeing their proxies retreat in regional conflicts and now realising that the Americans are not very keen to support them, King Salman and the Al-Saud family are resorting to very desperate and short sighted measures. They are trying to further the sectarian divisions in the region so as to appear as the saviors of the Sunnis. This kind of manoeuvring is dangerous and short-sighted. In this particular instance, neither the Saudi ruling family, the major world powers or the Iranian regime seem content with not pushing the pushing matters any further. However in the medium and long term the, propelled by the crisis of the Saudi regime, tensions within the country and between it and Iran will only rise. Thus, although this latest provocation by Saudis will create some disturbance in the Middle East, just like the downing of the Russian jet by Erdogan, it wont cause any major shift in the balance of forces or the general course of events. What it does reveal, more than anything else, is the desperate situation the regime finds itself in. With revenues massively falling, it can no longer buy social peace as in the past. And as it is such a repressive regime, they cannot measure to what extent social discontent has prepared movements of opposition and protest. It is a desperate regime that senses its own downfall coming. Id like Spain to get a stable government as soon as possible, insisted president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, a few days ago. The reason why was explained by Eurogroup president Dijsselbloem: Spain will have to present further adjustment. European capital has already said that Spains budget is off-target and is demanding 10bn euro worth of additional cuts. However, forming the type of government the ruling class needs, is proving very difficult. The December 20th elections produced an extremely fragmented congress in which no single party emerged with an overall majority. The rise of Podemos and its allied unity lists in Valencia, Galicia and Catalonia was a powerful blow to the two-party system which had provided stability to the ruling class for the best part of thirty years. This was the electoral expression of the intense period of class struggle of 2010-13, unleashed by the capitalist crisis and brutal austerity measures. As a result, all bourgeois institutions have become discredited. However, the push from below was not yet strong enough to defeat the two-party system and so we ended up with a very unstable situation. Before the election, the ruling class heavily promoted Albert Riveras Ciudadanos (Citizens - Cs), the right-wing populist party, which they hoped could capture enough seats to allow a PP-Cs coalition to gain an overall majority. But during the campaign the right-wing credentials of Ciudadanos became more obvious, and the operation flopped. A coalition of Rajoys Popular Party (123 seats) and Ciudadanos (40 seats) does not reach the necessary 176 seats to give it an overall majority. A possible coalition between Pedro Sanchezs PSOE (Socialist Party - 90 seats) and Ciudadanos (40) would not command an overall majority either. In fact, the only real stable government the ruling class could form would be a grand coalition involving PP-Cs-PSOE. But this would mean binding all the main parties to a coalition of cuts and austerity, making them lose even more legitimacy. It would open the way for a new wave of struggle in the streets and prepare the further rise of Podemos in the following election (in the same way as the PASOK-ND alliance prepared the way for the electoral victory of Syriza). As if all of this was not enough, any incoming government will not only have to deal with a very fragile economic situation, but also with the pro-independence challenge by the recently formed government in Catalonia. This further complicates the formation of a government in Madrid. This situation has opened up splits within both the PP and the PSOE. There are authoritative voices within the ruling class calling for Rajoy to step down in favour of his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, in order to make a grand coalition more palatable. Within the PSOE there are powerful regional barons contesting the leadership of Pedro Sanchez (who presided over the partys worst ever election results despite being formally in opposition). The PSOE leader in Andalucia (the only region where the partys vote held up somewhat), Susana Diaz, has already come out against Sanchez and demanded the convening of an early party congress. She is in favour of allowing a PP-Cs alliance to rule by abstaining in the formation of government vote and then waiting until such time in which it would be convenient for PSOE to force early elections under her leadership. A powerful factor in the thinking of the PSOE leadership is precisely the fear of a pasok-ization of the party - that any collaboration with the right wing could destroy the party, as happened with its Greek counterpart. For this reason Sanchez has raised the idea of a government of progress with PSOE adding its 90 seats to Podemos and its allied lists (which jointly have 69 seats). Sanchez has added that the PSOE will never vote for a PP government. Such a combination on its own would not have a majority and would require the support of the Catalan nationalists, the socialdemocratic ERC (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya - Republican Left of Catalonia) and the conservative DiLl (Convergencia Democratica de Catalunya - Democratic Convergence of Catalonia), which jointly have another 17 seats. To add weight to his proposal Sanchez travelled to Portugal to talk with prime minister Costa who is in power thanks to an agreement with the anti-austerity left of BE and PCP (who give parliamentary support to his government but are not part of it). That however would be an extremely unstable coalition and one which would be very difficult to cobble together. First of all, Sanchez faces strong opposition from within his own party, as we have already explained. Secondly, in order to get support from Podemos, PSOE would have to offer substantial concessions on a whole series of social issues. But perhaps the most difficult stumbling block is the national question. An agreement with the Catalan pro-independence parties is unthinkable without offering them substantial concessions on the issue of home rule, something which the Spanish ruling class is extremely reluctant to allow, as the unquestionable unity of Spain is one of the pillars of the 1978 regime. This would also be an obstacle for an agreement with Podemos as the party and its allied lists in Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque country, have gained enormous political capital by promising a self-determination referendum during the campaign. A possible alternative to involving the Catalan nationalists in such a pact would be to rope in Ciudadanos. However, one of the key issues of Ciudadanos campaign was precisely the defence of Spains unity and opposition to any referendum. It would also be difficult to present any agreement with Ciudadanos as a government of progress. In fact it seems almost impossible for PSOE to make a deal with Podemos and Ciudadanos at the same time, as this would mean looking to the left and to right at the same time on social and economic issues, and also simultaneously towards Spanish nationalism and self-determination. Not even a skilled political contortionist such as Sanchez can achieve such a feat. The swearing in of the new MPs and the formation of the ruling bodies of Congress and Senate were already a source of conflict and allow us to see an outline of how government talks are progressing. First of all, the arrival of the newly-elected members of parliament for Podemos and its allied lists (Es El Moment in Valencia, En Comu Podem in Catalonia and En Marea in Galicia) created quite a stir. The old and stultifying atmosphere and protocol of Congress was broken by the newcomers who are the political representatives, in one degree or another, of the indignados movement. They represent opposition to the establishment and the unprecedented cycle of struggle against austerity of 2010-13. They chose to take their oath as MPs in the different languages of their nations (Catalan, Basque, Galician, Asturian) and used unorthodox formulas in swearing loyalty to the Constitution (which is a legal requirement). Thus, some promised to respect the constitution and work to change it. A Catalan MP of En Comu Podem (ECP) promised to work for the rights of the working class. We will overthrow your reforms! she shouted as she gave a clenched fist salute while wearing a working class heroes T-shirt. For the memory of our grandparents, for the future of our children, swore another. I will work for the Republic and the common good of the peoples, said another of the Catalan MPs of ECP. O povo e que mais ordena [the people rules] said the Galician En Marea deputy Yolanda Diaz (who is also the leader of United Left in Galicia), using the slogan of the 1974 Portuguese revolution. These are just gestures and of course, the MPs will have to be judged against their record in parliament, but symbols also have a certain importance and these were noted by the capitalist media. An advisor to Chavezs regime, a former member of ETA, several people who have been arrested for drug dealing and one accused of assault on a police officer. Some of Podemos star MPs squealed the right wing La Razon showing a picture of dreadlocked Alberto Rodriguez, Podemos MP for the Canary Islands and Repsol worker. A right-wing journalist complained that Congress stank, in reference to the new MPs, while a PP leader said she didnt mind dreadlocks as long as they had no fleas! Behind these comments we see the class hatred and the fear of the ruling class confronted by representatives of the movement of the masses sitting in their institutions, backed up by over five million votes. More significant than the gestures during the oath-taking were the agreements by which the presidency of the chamber was formed. A member of PSOE, Patxi Lopez, was chosen as president with the votes of its own group and those of Ciudadanos, while Podemos and its allies voted for their own candidate, Carolina Bescansa. This was only possible because of the pre-arranged abstention of the Popular Party. A powerful gesture of agreement between the trusted main parties of the ruling class. At the same time the PSOE allowed the Catalan nationalists of ERC and DiLl to form their own groups in the Senate, even though they dont have the necessary number of senators, by lending them some of PSOEs. Clearly they are courting their vote (or abstention) for a possible PSOE coalition government. Meanwhile, PSOE, Ciudadanos and PP all are refusing the Catalan, Valencian and Galician joint lists allied to Podemos to form their own parliamentary groups, even though they fulfill all the criteria. The message coming out from all of these manoeuvres seems clear: PSOE does not really want nor can reach an agreement with Podemos, but wants Podemos to be seen as the party preventing it. In fact, PSOE leaders have made no concrete proposal as to what a hypothetical government of progress would entail in concrete terms and have also said that they are fundamentally opposed to a self-determination referendum for Catalonia. They are calculating that they can get political benefit from painting Podemos as unreasonable and preventing an agreement on the basis of sticking to breaking up Spain. Probably what Pedro Sanchez is looking for is a minority government with Ciudadanos, based on the abstention of Podemos and the Catalan nationalists. Podemos and its partners have responded to all these manoeuvres by making it clear that they will under no circumstances allow a PP government, but at the same time present a parliamentary initiative called Social Emergency Law 25, which would guarantee a series of basic social rights. The three key points of this initiative are: restoring universal and free healthcare for all, stopping all evictions (and providing women affected by domestic violence alternative accommodation), and guaranteeing electricity and gas supplies to families in need. This initiative should unmask the real intentions of PSOE. It is impossible to predict how the parliamentary deadlock will be broken. The ruling class in Spain and in Europe will exert pressure (is already exerting pressure), to reach a deal in order to guarantee the broadest and most stable government to continue carrying out the cuts and austerity measures they need. One thing they want to avoid at all costs is early elections, as those would most likely see Podemos surpass PSOE, creating an even more unstable parliamentary arithmetic. The only way to break the deadlock in the benefit of working people is by taking the struggle outside of parliament. A joint call for a national mobilisation issued by the Dignity Marches, the Mareas (Tides - campaigns against cuts and austerity), Podemos, United Left and others would have a powerful response. The struggle could be organised around a simple platform of four or five points: repeal of the PP labour counter-reform, repeal of the amended article 135 of the Constitution which enshrines austerity, repeal of the undemocratic gagging law (Ley Mordaza), stop all evictions, reverse all cuts in healthcare and education. For the last two years, since the launch of Podemos in January 2014, the level of mass mobilisation has diminished sharply. It could not be otherwise after a very intense cycle of struggle, and the attention of the masses has now focussed on the electoral field. This led to the eruption of Podemos in the May 2014 European elections, the victories in key cities in the council elections of May 2015 and now the blow to the regime in the December 20th, 2015 general election. The attention now should be turned again to the mobilisation on the streets, for which the parliamentarians we have won should provide a voice. The deadlock in the institutions is a reflection, albeit a distorted one, of the deadlock in society. The ruling class needs to continue its offensive. The EU demand of additional cuts worth 10bn is just the beginning. With the world economy heading for a new recession, the European economy will be hit hard. The centre of the euro crisis could rapidly pass from Greece to Spain. The Spanish working class has already suffered a brutal adjustment. A recently published Oxfam reports paints a horrific picture of social conditions in Spain: its the OECD country in which inequality has grown most since the beginning of the crisis (with only the exception of Cyprus), 29.2% of the population is at risk of poverty and exclusion, average wages have collapsed by 22%, the richest 1% have accumulated the same wealth as the poorest 80% and where flight of capital towards tax havens skyrocketed by 2,000% in 2015 alone. A new wave of cuts and austerity measures on top of all this will provoke an unprecedented social explosion. For this reason the ruling class wants a strong and stable government, as broad as possible. Working people should prepare to fight it with all their might. In the last instance, the main idea which needs to be explained is that there is no alternative to austerity within the limits of capitalism. WINDSOR LOCKS - Bradley International Airport has joined the growing list of airports providing dedicated nursing spaces for new mothers. The Mother's Nursing Room at Bradley is post-security, meaning on the secure side of the TSA checkpoints near the CNBC news stand, the Connecticut Airport Authority said in an news release. The room has comfortable seating, a sink, a fold-down changing table and a power outlet for mothers who use electric pumps. It is available 24/7. Many of Bradley's amenities are located after the TSA screening because that is where most passengers seem to do most of their waiting, the airport has said. Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority said: "The CAA strives to make traveling through Bradley a convenient and enjoyable experience and we're pleased to have added this new amenity for the moms on the go. It is a great example of our ongoing efforts to respond to our customer's feedback and needs." A 2014 study showed that just eight of 100 airports surveyed provided a private space for nursing mothers complete with a place to sit, an electrical outlet and the other accouterments, according to a USA today story from April. But that's changing. Illinois lawmakers required nursing rooms at Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports. Last year, the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey installed self-contained pods resembling photo booths at Liberty Newark International Airport and in LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal Building, according to MassLive sister site NJ.com. Bradley said the changing room joins other improvements it has recently completed, including: free cell phone charging stations throughout the concourse, addition of a TSA PreCheck enrollment center, upgrades to WiFi capacity and changes to concessions. A former district attorney says he agreed more than a decade ago that his office would not use a civil deposition given by Bill Cosby in any criminal matters, according to an email obtained by CNN. The email written by former Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Bruce Castor details a verbal agreement Castor had with Cosby's attorneys about his 2005 sexual assault case. "I can see no possibility that Cosby's deposition could be used in a state criminal case, because I would have to testify as to what happened, and the deposition would be subject to suppression," Castor said in the email written three months before criminal charges were brought against Cosby. In Cosby's deposition, Cosby detailed his romantic interest in the alleged victim; his pursuit of other young women during his long marriage; and his use of quaaludes in the 1970s as a seduction tool. His lawyers have asked for the aggravated sexual assault charges to be dismissed, contending that they "violate an express agreement" with the district attorney at the time which they say constitutes an immunity deal. Castor is expected to be called as a key defense witness at a Feb. 2 hearing to determine if the case is thrown out. The country pauses today to remember slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Born on Jan, 15, 1929, King was gunned down in Memphis on April 4, 1968. King was no stranger to Massachusetts. He earned his doctorate from Boston University in 1955 and visited the Bay State on several occasions. He received an honorary degree from Springfield College in June 1964 and spoke at the commencement. Springfield College President Glenn A. Olds was under pressure from the FBI and others to cancel the invitation to King, but held fast even though it cost the college a potential $1 million contribution. On Sept. 11, 1964, King came to Boston to announce the donation of his personal papers to his alma mater, Boston University. Less than a year later on April 22, 1965, King addressed a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature. Later, he led a march from the South End to the Boston Common, where some 22,000 people gathered to hear him speak. Forty years ago this week 35 re-enactors walked and rode through Western Massachusetts as they recreated the 1775 journey of Henry Knox. Knox transported 60 tons of captured artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Cambridge, Mass., so Gen. George Washington's army could launch a two-month campaign leading to the evacuation of the British from Boston. Snow during the week made it easier for the horse and oxen drawn sleds to pull the equipment through our area. Later in the week, Jimmy Carter won the Iowa caucuses on his way to the Democratic nomination for President. Ten years later, opponents to the state's new mandatory selt belt law, collected enough signatures to put a binding repeal question on the November ballot. These are some of the headlines you'll see from Page 1 of The Republican and its predecessors over the past fifty years for the week of January 17 - January 23. Each week I'll put together a slideshow of Page 1 images from selected years over the course of that week. We're starting with a look back at one, five, thirty, forty and fifty years ago, with Page 1s from each day of the week for those years. The slideshow for January 17 - January 23 is embedded at the top of this article. From the January 20, 1966 edition of The Springfield Union. We'll also find some humor printed out on page one over the years. In 1966 'Dennis The Menace' could be found on the bottom of page one six days a week. Five years ago a story about ten members of Westfield High School Class of 1945. Meeting monthly at the Friendly's in the Westfield Shops plaza, they get to socialize while recalling their high school days. At the time this article was published, 80 of the 178 class members were still alive. And a year ago, the beginning of the seemingly never ending story of Deflategate hit page one after the Patriot's beat Indianapolis on their way to the Super Bowl. You'll find with looking through the slideshow, that while many stories come and go, many of the issues and topics that affected lives in the past, continue to have an impact on our lives today. Copies of these and other stories can be found in the online archives. Links to the archives are at the bottom of the page at www.masslive.com/republican The historic archive includes stories prior to 1989, and the Newsbank archive covers 1988 through the present day. BROCKTON -- State and Brockton Police on Saturday seized a loaded handgun from a Brockton man who twice fled from state troopers after a traffic stop south of Boston. Julio C. Monteiro, 28, of Brockton, faces charges related to the gun and ammunition he had in his possession, as well as operating under the influence of drugs, operating under the influence of alcohol, negligent operation, failure to stop for police, and other motor vehicle offenses, a State Police press release states. The incident began Saturday morning around 2:30 a.m., when a state trooper attempted to pull over Monteiro's 2003 Infinity FX35 sport utility vehicle on Route 93 in Quincy for motor vehicle violations. Police say Monteiro refused to stop, leading to a pursuit onto Route 3 southbound. The trooper terminated the pursuit when the suspect exited the highway in Weymouth, the release states. "A short time later, another trooper observed the suspect vehicle on Route 93 south in Braintree and pursued it onto Route 24 southbound," the release states. "That pursuit was terminated when the suspect exited Route 24 in Avon." At approximately 3:30 am State and Brockton Police located the suspect on North Warren Avenue in Brockton and took him into custody. DRACUT A man wanted for the murder of a police officer in the Dominican Republic was arrested Sunday after a chase from Lowell into Dracut. Lowell police said they had set up surveillance of a known drug dealer, 59-year-old Ramon Aquasviva-Mejia, in Lowell at about 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Aquasviva-Mejia has an ICE detainer for illegally reentering the country and an Interpol detainer for the murder of the police officer. Detectives saw Aquasviva-Mejia in his car and attempted to approach him he sped away, nearly running down officers. Police pursued the fugitive along Route 110 into Dracut where a road block was set up and the car stopped. Police said Aquasviva-Mejia was carrying a quantity of crack cocaine at the time of his arrest. Authorities said Aquasviva-Mejia has allegedly used 17 different aliases and has arrest warrants issued out of Suffolk Superior Court and the Quincy District Court. He was taken into custody and will be arraigned in Lowell District Court Tuesday on charges of failing to stop for a police officer, unlawful possession of a Class B substance, operating a motor vehicle to endanger, operating without a license and speeding. Chicopee Pride Station bathroom camera edit 1-17-16 -- Chicopee -- Police are investigating the discovery Sunday night of a camera found mounted in the ceiling of a men's room at the Pride truck stop on Burnett Road. (SUBMITTED PHOTO) UPDATE; 11:30 a.m.: This story now includes a response from Pride. CHICOPEE -- Police are investigating the installation of a camera discovered by patrons Sunday night in the men's room of the Pride truck stop on Burnett Road. A Pride official said the chain installed the camera, which has since been taken down, to counter "hate crimes" occurring within the men's room at the 363 Burnett Road facility. A truck driver discovered the dome-style camera mounted in the ceiling not far from the toilet stalls, Greenfield lawyer Zoe Falken said. "My client is sitting on the toilet and he looks up and sees a camera in the corner of the ceiling," said Falken. "This is absolutely egregious." Richard Hoffner, director of operations for Pride, said in a statement issued Monday that the chain installed the camera on Friday "in an effort to apprehend someone actively doing hate crimes on our premises." Hoffner said the camera was "in a common area and does not invade anyone's privacy....Our intention is to turn this over to the police as soon as the person re-commits the crime, then remove the camera. It is not a live feed, it is stored in a secure location where no one has access but our Security (Department)." Falken said she is representing the truck driver and at least three other patrons who were also disturbed to find the camera in the bathroom. The lawyer said CEO Robert Bolduc told one of her clients Sunday night that he had the camera installed because "he was sick of the anti-Obama graffiti that keeps appearing in his bathroom." The men's room in question also has a shower area, Falken said, adding there were no signs indicating that a camera was on the premises. Michael Wilk, public information officer for the Chicopee Police Department, said police were summoned to facility shortly before 7 p.m. "It's still being investigated," Wilk said. "Our (detectives) took pictures of it and they are following up on it." Wilk said Pride employees covered up the camera after patrons complained. He said it's not clear if any images have been recovered from the camera. Hoffner said the publicity following the discovery of the camera "probably stopped the hate crime problem on our premises, but unfortunately the person may move to another public space." He said no cameras have been installed in any other Pride facility bathrooms. This is a developing story. Additional information will be published as it becomes available. Baystate Mary Lane meeting Jenn Mott, standing, addresses the community meeting on Jan. 14, 2015 when strong opposition to Baystate Health's plan to reduce service at Baystate Mary Lane Hospital was expressed. She is a nurse at Mary Lane (Jim Russell photo) WARE Community leaders, health care providers, emergency responders and state legislators said at a meeting last week they plan to fight to keep Baystate Mary Lane Hospital open as a fully licensed entity. Rep. Todd Smola, R-Warren, who addressed the 40 who attended Thursday's meeting at Ware High School library, was the most vociferous advocate opposing the controversial Baystate Health idea to reduce service at Mary Lane. "We are going to fight to the death to keep this hospital open," he said, adding: "I was shocked to see the leadership change." The facility's owner, Baystate Health, with corporate offices in Springfield, operates five other hospitals, including flagship Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Baystate has a network of 80 medical practices and boasts a service area in Western Massachusetts totaling 750,000 people. The organization said in November it intends to eliminate in-patience service at Mary Lane, a 25-bed facility. That requires state approval, however. Last week, Baystate also announced the departure of Dr. Charles E. Cavagnaro III, who was president of the organization's two eastern region hospitals, Baystate Wing in Palmer and Mary Lane. Cavagnaro had been the Wing Memorial Hospital president for more than a decade, prior to Baystate's 2014 acquisition of Wing. He then assumed leadership of Mary Lane, as well, following that action. Baystate is seeking regulatory approval for Baystate Wing Hospital to also cover the reduced functions that Mary Lane would provide. But how long the Ware facility with outpatient and emergency room services would continue to operate, should the state say yes to the proposed Baystate changes, is not known. Baystate is not committing to a time frame spelling out a continuance of those services. When Baystate purchased Wing from the UMass Memorial Health Care System, they promised state regulators they would keep the Palmer facility open at least 10 years. According to the Baystate Health website, staffing at Mary Lane includes 66 nurses and 274 on-staff physicians. The organization said it plans no changes in staffing while they pursue the regulatory changes with the state. EAST LONGMEADOW -- Police urge Honda owners to keep them in garages if possible or invest in wheel locks to prevent tire theft. The most recent such theft was discovered Saturday morning when an Ainslie Drive woman discovered her Honda Accord, which had been parked in the driveway right in front of her garage, on blocks and minus its wheels, police said. Detective Sgt. Denis Sheehan said the Accord was a sport model and all four of its wheels are worth approximately $3,000. The suspects also entered the car and went through its glove box. Such thefts, particularly from Honda Fits, have been periodically reported throughout the region since last summer. Earlier this month, Wilbraham police reported that thieves, targeting a Honda Fit on Scenic drive, unscrewed the home's outdoor lights so they could work undetected. Police have said thieves target Honda Fits because their rims and lug nuts fit the older Honda Civic and Toyota Celica models that are popular with street racers. Sheehan said a set of Honda Fit tires goes for about $2,400. Such thefts have also been reported in Springfield, Chicopee and Easthampton., as well as on several prior occasions in East Longmeadow. SPRINGFIELD - The MassMutual Financial Group plans continue its sponsorship of a Legal Clinic for this year with a grant of $20,000, the Hampden County Bar Association has announced. The clinic helps people find legal assistance at no charge in Hampden County. The grant and MassMutual employee volunteers support the clinic, especially the Lawyer for the Day programs in Housing Court and District Court, according to the bar association. "Pro bono work directly impacts people's lives in a meaningful and lasting way, and enables our attorneys and legal staff to serve as role models for both the community and the legal profession," Mark Roellig, MassMutual executive vice president and general counsel, said. The clinic provides help in civil matters including small claims, collection, debtor, creditor issues, summary process evictions and civil motor infractions. The District Court Lawyer for the Day program, in room 137 at the Hall of Justice, operates Wednesday afternoons from 1p.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free legal assistance on a first come, first served, basis is offered to income eligible landlords and tenants in the Western Division Housing Court on Thursday and at the Hampden County Probate and Family Court on various days. The schedules are subject to change so people are asked to call the clinic ahead at 413-733-6500. CONWAY -- A group united in their opposition to the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline spent Martin Luther King weekend walking 34 miles through the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. The walk from a planned compressor station in Northfield to the site of a proposed pipeline construction yard in Plainfield drew dozens of core activists and many others who joined the walk for shorter segments. "We had 87 people walking through Deerfield," said Leigh Youngblood of the Mount Grace Conservation Land Trust. "We took mostly small back roads the whole way, and saw and experienced the landscape in a way that was profound. It helped remind us of why we're doing this." The planned route traverses Northfield, Erving, Montague, Greenfield, Deerfield, Conway, Ashfield, and Plainfield. The group plans a simple ceremony at the Cummington Congregational Church on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sunday night, Youngblood spoke of the sights along the way. "We crossed the footbridge where Millers River and the Connecticut River meet, and made our way through the Montague Plains," she said. "We walked by Lake Pleasant. We took Old Northfield Road, which is quite beautiful. It's been an incredible experience." The 400-plus-mile pipeline would travel from Pennsylvania through New York State before making its way through Massachusetts and New Hampshire to meet an existing pipeline system connecting New England with Atlantic Canada. About half the pipeline's capacity is spoken for by natural gas utilities, including Berkshire Gas and Columbia Gas. Pipeline foes say the excess capacity means the gas is bound for export, despite assertions from Kinder Morgan that no export customers are now signed up for the line, which would transport up to 1.3 billion cubic feet of fracked natural gas per day. Opponents also say they are opposed to hydrofracking, a natural gas extraction technology used in the Marcellus shale fields, and to the use of eminent domain which would allow Kinder Morgan to take public and private land for the project. The group was found sharing a community meal at the Conway Congregational Church Sunday night. Labor and ingredients were donated, and volunteers were seen cleaning up in the church kitchen as the walkers gathered for a Buddhist chant led by Sister Clare Carter of the New England Peace Pagoda in Leverett. Asked if she really thought a walk could stop a pipeline, Carter said it was just one aspect of a larger movement. "By walking together these past few days, people have had the chance to come together," she said. "People from different cities and towns have very little contact with each other, even though they're working on similar problems. So now, they meet, they talk, they share food together, and it's a whole new world." She said the act of walking itself "helps to make our spirits clearer -- our hearts and minds are in motion and our daily life drops off." Carter said she believed the pipeline represents a moral issue: "All the damage and destruction to peoples' property, and all for what? It's just a way for the corporations to make more money." Longtime activist Hattie Nestel was the main organizer of the walk, and said she was inspired by King: "If you really read and study Martin Luther King's life, he didn't always do what was popular; he didn't always do what people thought he should do; he did what some inner light guided him to do. And I put this out to people because my inner light said we should take this three-day walk to commemorate him and to fight the pipeline." The walkers got off to a slushy and icy start Saturday morning in Northfield before walking to Greenfield for a meal and lodging at the Unitarian Society. Some opened their homes to host the walkers, as well. "It was uplifting to walk through downtown Greenfield," said Youngblood. "People along the route honked to express their support, and gave us the thumbs-up. We only had one person who yelled 'build it.'" smokey.photo.jpg McIntosh Condominiums, shown here on Chestnut Street, includes Smokey Joe's Cigar Lounge and Shop on the first floor. (File photo / Peter Goonan) SPRINGFIELD Mayor Domenic J. Sarno sought to fill a vacancy on the License Commission more than a month ago, but the seat was not filled fast enough for a meeting Thursday night when a cigar lounge's request for a liquor license was rejected by way of a 2-2 tie vote. The five-member commission has been one member short since Nov. 30, when Jose Claudio submitted his resignation, effective immediately, citing personal time constraints. On Thursday, a requested liquor license for Smokey Joe's Cigar Lounge on Chestnut Street in downtown Springfield needed three votes to pass, but failed by the 2-2 vote. Thomas Rooke, a lawyer representing the business, said he would confer with the owners about their options including an appeal. While numerous supporters of the lounge said it offered a safe, enjoyable environment, some opponents said it was creating smoke odors and noise. The lounge is on the ground floor of the McIntosh Condominiums. Claudio's resignation letter to the mayor, dated Nov. 30, said he was grateful to serve on the commission but "as you know I am getting busier with my community and church programs that I enjoy doing," and his schedule was in conflict with commission meetings. On Dec. 3, Sarno submitted the appointment of Rosa Espinosa of Cambridge Street to fill Claudio's vacancy, needing confirmation by the City Council, said Marian Sullivan, a spokesman for the mayor's office. A council vote has not yet occurred, and council President Michael Fenton said he has not seen the submission of Espinosa but that the council will conduct confirmation proceedings as soon as it receives confirmation of the appointment. In addition, Fenton said he hopes the mayor will act to fill vacancies on various city boards and commissions. "It's obvious to me that a lot more attention ought to be given to the appointment of boards and commissions," Fenton said. Espinosa serves as family services director of the New North Citizens Council, and has been a long term program manager for the agency, according to her resume. She is a graduate of Springfield College with a bachelor of science degree. The License Commission conducted a nearly two-hour hearing on the Smokey Joe's liquor license request. The lounge and a cigar shop has operated the past three months on the ground floor of the McIntosh building. Business representatives said that if the liquor license was approved, they would be selling alcohol only to dues-paying club members and their guests, not the general public. Nineteen people, including club members and non-members, spoke in favor of the liquor license, saying the lounge was a high-end establishment offering a safe, comfortable and friendly environment for cigar enthusiasts. Several representatives of the condominium Board of Trustees and the Armoury Quadrangle Civic Association said they voted to oppose the liquor license due to concerns about smoke and odors in the building, noise and impacts on their quality of life. The commission currently consists of chairman Peter Sygnator and members Robert Casey, Denise Kelcey, and Andrew Cade. Casey and Cade favored the liquor license for Smokey Joe's while Sygnator and Kelcey were opposed. Business representatives have said that members can bring in their own alcohol, but the lounge wanted to have sales as part of the business. charon k9.jpg Wilbraham K9 Charon tracked a suspect alleged to have broken into the O'Connell's Convenience Plus on Boston Road overnight. (File photo) WILBRAHAM - A police officer and his canine partner, a German shepherd named Charon, tracked down a man who allegedly robbed the O'Connell's Convenience Plus at 1993 Boston Road early Monday. Christopher Murray, 27, of Indian Orchard, will be charged with breaking and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony, according to a statement posted by . An alarm at the gas station alerted police to the break-in at 3:13 a.m., police said in the post. Officers arrived and saw that the building's door was ajar and there was a cab in the parking lot. They determined that Murray rode in the cab from Springfield to the gas station and used a key to get inside. He stole cash and cigarettes and fled, police said. Officer Joseph Brewer and his K9 partner, Charon, started tracking the man's scent from the scene. Police said that after about half an hour, the pair arrested Murray in the woods near Balise Ford at 1979 Boston Road, not far from the gas station. Police did not release how Murray came to have a key to the gas station. an.jpg People who donated to WMUA are asking for their money back. Station Manager Andrew DesRochers pictured here could not be reached for comment. (Diane Lederman/The Republican) AMHERST - The cancellation of polka programs is not the only casualty of the WMUA refocusing plan, the long running community affairs program Focus was also cut - with its last program airing Sunday. According to WMUA member Molly Turner student Ken Mosakowski began the program in 1968 as anti-war protests were prevalent and continued it until he died in 2006. Community members then took it on to continue "his mission of public affairs by continuing to produce programs for Focus." But the show is now being eliminated. Those, meanwhile, who are upset about the reduction of polka programming are asking that the money they donated in November be refunded. More than 2,300 have signed a petition asking that the programming be restored to the previous 12-hour schedule. Polka has been cut from 12 to four hours and only on Sundays. "I have dug in my pockets - rather deeply - and donated my money to keep these programs going strong," according to one email. The writer also wrote that the shows were the only reason he donated. "Now - you are cutting the Polish programming - and I will not sit back and allow my donated monies to go to anything but what the donation was intended to support. "I firmly demand my money back. All of it - not just a prorated share. "What you have done to the Polish community is shameful. Done without care or concern." Another wrote "given your decision on the polka programming, I no longer wish to support the radio station. "I believe I am entitled to a refund because I believe that you knew, at the time of the fundraiser, that these programming changes were going to be made, yet you failed to disclose that to the polka listeners. "Therefore, I respectfully request that you provide me with instructions on how to have my donation refunded." Station manager Andrew DesRochers could not be reached for comment. During the November fundraising drive, the polka programming raised, $24,000, according to Todd Zaganiacz, who hosts a polka programming one of two that has survived. UMass announced in December that WMUA would now be more student focused, with less community involvement. That came following a review of the station that has faced outside scrutiny since last April. The changes mean non-student programming is limited to 24 hours and that led to the polka cuts. Zaganiacz said they expected to present the petitions asking that it be restored to the administration this week. Haley Chauvin, the WMUA programmer, meanwhile, last week in an email wrote that the "the decision to cut the two polka programs on Saturday will not be revisited. "Once the spring schedule is released, nothing is changed unless there are extenuating circumstances. I don't consider the current situation to be "extenuating." UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski said in an email recently wrote that "For the student management of WMUA, creating the programming schedule is always a challenge and involves difficult decisions and the balancing of competing needs. "Polka programming will continue to (be) aired but for fewer hours, providing additional air time for student shows." And he wrote that "WMUA is the university's student-run radio station, largely supported by student fees and the university." WORCESTER - In Kelley Square, the same spot where one year ago protesters ended up facing charges for blocking traffic, people gathered Monday to chant "Black Lives Matter" and call for an end to police brutality. Unlike last year, the 40 or so protesters who gathered Monday did not block traffic and instead kept to the sidewalks where they chanted "racist cops have got to go" and held signs reading "Black Lives Matter." Two of the protesters charged after last year's protest, in a civil case where they are still awaiting a judge's decision, were marching again Monday. "They're not going to silence us," said Sonya Conner, one of the four protesters charged. "As long as the actions of the city continue to be in line with what we saw this morning, there's clearly a lot more work to be done." Conner and others at the protests addressed the morning arrest of Chris Horton, an activist who had been handing out fliers at the city's Martin Luther King Day breakfast. "I think it's ironic, hypocritical and indicative of how city handles racism," Conner said. Sally Laport, another protester marching on Kelley Square, said she doesn't understand why Horton would be arrested. "I think it's political suicide for them to do this to him," Laport said. Horton was arrested by Quinsigamond Community College campus police. When protesters stood in Kelley Square, they addressed some of the other issues in the city. Alex Rothfelder, from Worcester Socialist Alternative, called for a civilian review board of the Worcester Police Department and removing officers from the high schools in the city. "It's our time to reclaim our fight against racism and sexism," said Gwen Davis. "King stood for the unity of workers and he was against war." Davis and others also raised their voices to call for a $15 minimum wage on Monday, as well. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Benghazi Committee Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is trying to ignore the emergence of her husband's dalliances as a campaign topic, but it's not easy. (Associated Press) The most predictable aspect of a bizarre Presidential campaign was that at some point, former President Bill Clinton's sex life would be part of the debate. Kick-started by Donald Trump but inevitable nonethtless, the storyline has been picked up by media and took some time out of Sunday's Presidential debate. Bernie Sanders aptly said that whether he responds to questions about the dalliances of his opponent's husband or not, it still makes news. Sanders called Bill Clinton's behavior "deplorable,'' but said he would insist on an issues-based campaign, not a review of the 42nd President's salacious past. Hillary Clinton is desperately trying to avoid getting dragged into the debate. There are many reasons to favor a Hillary Clinton candidacy. There are many reasons to oppose it. Her husband's frolics should not be part of a discussion over which side wins. Why? Because it establishes nothing about Hillary Clinton's candidacy or qualifications for the office she seeks. And let's keep in mind that she is seeking it, not him. The only possible reasons to connect Bill Clinton's personal shenanigans with his wife's campaign are either to keep him out of the White House at all costs (even as the male equivalent of a First Lady, a non-elected and unofficial figure we have almost never scrutinized politically during a campaign), or to judge his wife's handling of the matter. Fifteen years ago, there was some empathy for Hillary over the scandal, and no blame. There seems to be no empathy now, but she's not entitled to political points for sympathy, any more than she should lose points for her husband's personal behavior. Keeping Bill Clinton's personal past out of the race is often mistaken for approving or at least accepting it. It's not. Sanders is right to call it "deplorable,'' but they weren't her actions, they were his and worse, the President was untruthful to the American public. The reason it's not pertinent is because voters in this campaign will be asked to judge Hillary Clinton on her own merits and demerits. It's an unprecedented task in U.S. history, since no woman has been this close to victory, and bringing up old bedroom stories about Bill defeats that purpose. Hillary Clinton has a long political track record of her own. She has won great admiration for some views and actions, and scorn and mistrust for others. The responsibility of the voters will be to judge her on her own. There is plenty to judge. Let's concentrate on that. Meet a Muslim Day at Worcester Islamic Center Meet a Muslim Day at the Worcester Islamic Center on Jan. 9 drew a turnout estimated at between 1,500 and 2,500 people. In an election year that finds so many Americans disappointed in their political leadership, turnouts of support for Muslim-Americans show where the source of real leadership can be found. With us. A "Meet a Muslim" Day at the Worcester Islamic Center drew an estimated 2,000 residents, a far larger response that anticipated. In West Springfield, more than 250 turned out at the Islamic Center of Western Massachusetts, requiring organizers to add more seats during the program. These events showed that many, many citizens can not only distinguish the difference between terrorists and the law-abiding, peace-losing followers of Islam, they want their message heard by the Muslim community and by the broader society as well. This is the real America, or must be: individual citizens standing up for personal and religious freedom and willing to rise above the irrational reactions based on ignorance and fear. This is the America envisioned by the great leaders of our nation's history, the men and women who understood what this country stood for - and the importance of maintaining those principles against exclusionary, mean-spirited and shortsighted impulses. As the United States heads toward a momentous Presidential election, too many candidates have leaned on the fears and biases of the voters to galvanize their campaigns. They are not only allowing legitimate security concerns to become confused with bigotry, they are encouraging it and promising to infiltrate our political system with it. That can incite a crowd. It does not represent anything a truly moral, responsible and intelligent American political leader should promote. The best response was shown in Worcester and West Springfield. If all politics are local, as the old saying goes, the answer to the rampant anti-Muslim bias is not to be found on the campaign stump, but within each community and fostered by individual citizens. That politicians are stoking the fires of division is disturbing and disheartening, but if we can't trust them to stand up for American values of fairness, reason and freedom of religion, maybe they are not the solution, anyway. In a government by the people and for the people - all the people - the answer is found in us. That's the message from Worcester and West Springfield. Let's hope it spreads. SPRINGFIELD The three Democratic presidential candidates squared-off over so-called "gun control," the economy and foreign policy Sunday, as they met in Charleston, S.C. for the party's fourth debate - the last before voters head to the polls in early primary states. With recent polls placing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just ahead of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., nationally, the prime time event, hosted by NBC News, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, represented a chance for the candidates to build momentum for their campaigns heading into the presidential primaries. For Martin O'Malley, who barely qualified to make the debate stage, meanwhile, the two-hour event offered the former Maryland governor the opportunity to make some headway against the other two Democratic hopefuls. NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt moderated the debate, broadcast from the Gaillard Center. Here are five takeaways from the prime time event: Candidates took jabs at each other's records on gun safety issues. Following Sanders' recent announcement that he would support a bill to strip gun manufacturers' legal immunity, which was included in a 2005 measure he voted for, Clinton said she's glad to hear that her Democratic opponent has reversed his position on the issue. The former first lady, who argued that Sanders has "voted with the NRA numerous times,"contended that no other industry in America "has been given a total pass" from lawsuits and stressed that such protections need to be addressed. Sanders, meanwhile, said Clinton's argument is disingenuous and that he has a D- voting record from the NRA. Pointing to his announced support for the new bill, Sanders praised its provisions relating to child gun safety protections and prohibiting ammunition that can kill cops. O'Malley took issue with both Democratic candidates' backgrounds, saying both of them have been inconsistent on gun laws. "I'm the only candidate on this stage who brought people together to pass comprehensive (gun safety) legislation," he said, adding the Maryland law hasn't interrupted anyone's hunting season. Sanders touted the momentum his campaign has seen in recent polls. When asked how his campaign will win the Democratic party's nomination when it trails Clinton in support among minority voters, Sanders pointed to the gains he has made in closing the gap between himself and the Democratic front-runner. "Secretary Clinton well knows that when this campaign began, she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of 3 percentage points," he said. "Guess what, in Iowa, New Hampshire the race is very, very close - maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire." When it comes to head-to-head match ups with against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, the Vermont senator added, polls put his campaign ahead of the businessman. Sanders argued that his campaign will continue to build on the momentum it's seen so far to appeal to minority voters. Clinton blasted Sanders' health care proposal, saying it could jeopardize the Affordable Care Act. Hours after Sanders' campaign detailed its "Medicare-for-all plan," Clinton said she respects the senator's intention, but raised concerns that pushing for a new proposal could lead to the repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health care law. "The Democratic Party in the U.S. has worked since Truman to get the Affordable Care Act passed. We finally have a path toward universal health care," she said. "I don't want to see the Republicans repeal it or see us start over again with a new debate. I want to build on and improve it." Clinton cautioned against putting the issue "back into contentious debate" in Congress. Sanders, however, argued that his "Medicare-for-all" proposal would finally provide health care for everyone as a right, adding that while he helped work on the ACA and voted for it, millions of Americans remain uninsured and pay high prescription drug prices. He stressed that he wouldn't "tear up" the ACA if elected president, but rather look to move forward to ensure Americans aren't underinsured and don't face large co-payments and deductibles. O'Malley, meanwhile, contended that the focus should be on things that are actually working. He pointed to his state's move toward an all-payer system, which he said has helped connect payments with outcomes. Sanders said he has tried to run issue-oriented campaign, refused to attack Clinton on husband's personal life. When asked about comments he made calling former President Bill Clinton's past sex scandals "totally disgraceful and unacceptable," Sanders stressed that despite calls to attack his opponent's husband he has tried to focus instead on issues. "I cannot walk down the street - Secretary Clinton knows this - without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton. Want to get me on the front pages of the paper? I make some vicious attack - I have avoided doing that trying to run an issue-oriented campaign," he said. Sanders added that whether or not he answers a question about such topics, it becomes a front-page story. The Vermont senator said while he found the former president's past behavior to be "deplorable," he has refrained from touching on the topic. "I'm here to debate Secretary Clinton and Gov. O'Malley on the issues facing the American people, not Bill Clinton's personal behavior," Sanders said. Clinton and Sanders condemned Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's response to Flint water emergency. Following reports of lead found in water used for drinking, cooking and bathing in Flint, Michigan, Clinton and Sanders used their final remarks of the debate to blast Snyder's handling of the situation. Clinton, who said she sent her top campaign aide to the city in response to the news, accused Gov. Snyder of acting as though "he didn't really care" when receiving requests for help. The former secretary of state argued that the situation would likely have seen quicker action if it was impacting "kids in a rich suburb of Detroit" and not a city where the population is largely poor and African-American. "I want to be a president who takes care of the big problems and problems affecting the people of our country every day," Clinton said. Sanders agreed with Clinton's criticism, adding that he has demanded that Snyder resign his post. "A man that acts that irresponsibly should not stay in power," he said. Late Sunday, three Democratic presidential candidates squared off for the party's fourth debate in Charleston, Sout Carolina -- the last debate before voters head to the polls in early primary states. Gun control, the economy, health care and foreign policy were among the most discussed topics during the debate. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders battled each other throughout the debate, representing a chance for the candidates to build momentum for their campaigns heading into the presidential primaries. On Monday morning, The Republican reporter Shannon Young came out with 5 takeaways from the Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. Here are your comments on the five takeaways from the prime time event: Alik: I liked that both candidates mentioned the debacle in Flint, Michigan at the hands of Republican Governor Snyder. One of the first things Republicans did was to put Flint under receivership and cut the cities budget to the bone not realizing the circumstances of their actions. The results of that investigation will be telling. Joamama: As much as I despise Sanders admiration of many of the world's Communist despots, he makes absolute sense in going after the pharmaceutical industry, big business, and the banks and campaign financing. His Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, comment in that if this was happening during his presidency he would break them up was priceless. "If Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, were alive today, do you know what he would say? He would say break 'em up..." - Bernie Sanders looks2me: I had three take-a-ways - They stayed focused on issues with very little personal sniping like we saw the other evening on the Republican debate and this will come as no surprise to people here familiar with my posts, I still think Candidate Clinton has the best grasp on those issues then any other candidate from either party. The other was Candidate Sanders call for campaign finance reform...I agree with the overall premise, especially when it comes to undisclosed donors, but have reservations about limiting individuals personal donations. murph1951: "Following Sanders' recent announcement that he would support a bill to strip gun manufacturers' legal immunity, which was included in a 2005 measure he voted for, Clinton said she's glad to hear that her Democratic opponent has reversed his position on the issue." I guess auto makers will be responsible for a drunk driver injuring or killing a person. I mean come on how stupid are these two! If either of these two get in all manufactures will be responsible for criminal acts by an individual. No personal responsibility so the court system will be out of work, jails will be empty. Jaws2: Last night Hillary was praising Obama, two weeks ago she would never mention his name. She preaches about Wall Street, yet she has received more Wall St. money than any of the other candidates including the Republicans. I can sympathize with the anger that is real coming from the left just like it is on the right. The Clintons are just plain power hungry evil. Thor: "Sanders, however, argued that his "Medicare-for-all" proposal would finally provide health care for everyone as a right," A right? I am all for healthcare but to say it is a right doesn't make sense. Who provides healthcare? Healthcare workers, of course: doctors, surgeons, nurses both RN and LPN, Medical Assistants, CNAs, Technicians. Depending upon the course of studies, these people pay tuitions that may take years and years to repay, but they all pay, to say nothing of the hours put into the studies. Billing for healthcare demands a course of study and tuition. Do we have a right to their professional assistance? No. We have no right. Where's Joe Biden when we need him? EnragedChihuahua: My personal take was Joe Biden should wake up and throw his hat in the ring there is great potential for him as a legit candidate. This commenter even gave us a little jingle... FreedomToBeLeftAlone: Republicans are red Democrats are blue And neither one of them cares about you. No matter who gets elected, whether an R or D follow their name, it will be BAU for the US government. Favors and breaks for corporations and insurance companies and bupkis for the working class. And some people just wanted to chant: fishtalk: Trump, Trump, Trump!! Alik responds to fishtalk: You mean, Chump! Chump! Chump! LIFEAFTERDEATH: DUMB......DUMBER.......DUMBEST. While most of the Monday morning snow flurries had moved out of western Massachusetts by 6:30 a.m., the National Weather Service is still warning residents that there is a slight chance of snow squalls or flurries through midday. The agency's hazardous weather outlook for the state said that a squall could limit visibility and anything from a dusting to, in localized area, an inch or two is possible. In the Boston area and parts of eastern Massachusetts, a winter weather advisory will remain in effect until 10 a.m. with more snowfall expected. Western Mass News meteorologist Dan Brown said that radars showed most of the snow had moved out of the Springfield area by 6:30 a.m., but some roads are slippery due to the earlier snowfall. "Now it's the wind and cold that we have to deal with," he said. "Temperatures today will be stuck in the 20s along with a gusty breezy. This will make it feel like it's in the single digits." The National Weather Service forecasted highs of 25 in Springfield, 24 in Worcester and 29 in Boston. Winds are expected to increase into the afternoon, blowing between 15 and 20 mph with some gusts up to 37 mph. Here's a look at the days ahead. Monday Night: Partly cloudy and windy, with a low around 15. Tuesday: Mostly sunny with a high near 25. Winds of 20-23 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy and windy, with a low around 19. Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 31. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 19. Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 30. Mostly clear, with a low around 16. Friday: Mosty sunny, with a high near 29. Friday Night: A chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 22. Saturday: Snow likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 30. Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank. by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, January 17, 2016 Mirum, the J. Walter Thompson digital agency, has appointed Georgina Forster as the Managing Director of Mirum New York. Forster joins Mirum from AKQA, where she most recently held the role of Director of Client Services. In her five years at the agency, shes credited with helping double the size of its New York Office, while also helping bring in clients like Bank of Montreal, American Express, Starbucks, and Maserati. AKQA and JWT are both part of WPP. In her new role Forster will be tasked with driving business development and building the offices operational infrastructure. She will report to Dan Khabie, Mirums Global and North America CEO. Mirum said that Forster will work closely with John Baker, Mirums Chief Marketing Officer; Frederic Bonn, Mirum North Americas Chief Creative Officer, and the new business, management and creative leadership at JWT New York, with which Mirum shares clients like Estee Lauder, Getty, Johnson & Johnson, and Rolex. advertisement advertisement JWT formed Mirum about a year ago that initially united 11 digital shops spanning 17 countries and 40 offices. Its expanded since then. Commenting on the appointment Khabie described Forster as the kind of leader who will foster the building of innovative and collaborative culture, while also driving growth. by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, January 18, 2016 More than half a million LinkedIn members will receive $16 each as part of the company's settlement of a lawsuit alleging it misappropriated users' names by sending email invitations to their friends. Those figures were revealed in new court papers asking U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in the Northern District of California to grant final approval to the $13 million settlement. The deal calls for LinkedIn to distribute at least $9 million of the fund to members who claim their identities were wrongly used by LinkedIn. Class counsel says in a motion filed on Thursday that the settlement is "fair, reasonable and adequate." They add that the settlement's monetary terms are "particularly impressive in light of other recent class action settlements in the area of digital privacy." advertisement advertisement In the last several years, Web companies including Google and Facebook have settled other privacy cases by agreeing to create a fund that makes payments to nonprofits, but not to individual users who were affected by the alleged lapses. The papers filed last week state that around 550,000 users have submitted claims to the company. Assuming they're valid, LinkedIn will end up paying around $16 to each claimant. The lawyers who brought the case could receive more than $3 million in attorneys' fees. If accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in the Northern District of California, the deal will resolve a battle dating to September of 2013, when a group of LinkedIn users accused the company of violating the federal wiretap law by hacking into their email accounts, in order to harvest their friends' addresses. The users -- including a former manager of international advertising sales for The New York Times -- also alleged that LinkedIn misappropriated their names and identities by sending a series of three email invitations to their friends. While the users acknowledged that the company asked them for permission to grow their networks, they argued that the service made only cryptic disclosures before harvesting email addresses and sending invitations. Koh narrowed the case in 2014, when she rejected the hacking claim on the grounds that the users agreed to transmit an initial email invitation to their friends. But she allowed the consumers to proceed with claims regarding the two follow-up emails. LinkedIn subsequently argued that it had a free-speech right to send those follow-up emails, on the theory that the service helps people to communicate with each other. In November of 2014 Koh rejected that argument; soon after that decision, LinkedIn and the consumers agreed to resolve the case out of court. The settlement also requires LinkedIn to revise some of its prior practices. Among others, LinkedIn will change the disclosures it makes when asking people to grow their networks via the automated Add Connections feature. Now, the company will explicitly state that its Add Connections tool imports people's address books. LinkedIn also will let people who use Add Connections wield more control over which contacts receive the automated invitations and follow-up emails. Class counsel wrote that those new obligations "are designed to address, remedy, and prospectively prevent the fundamental harms that gave rise to this litigation." by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 18, 2016 Last year, according to the Global Alliance of Data-Driven Marketing Associations (GDMA), and the Winterberry Group, the clear and unambiguous declaration about the role of information in supporting marketing and advertising around the world was that Data matters! This year, after nearly 3,000 marketers, service providers and other global industry participants lent their insights, the message is equally clear says the report: Not only does data matter, but its coming to represent a central pillar of marketing, advertising and customer experience practice, around the globe. Change In Revenues By Data-Driven Marketing Activity, Q3 2015 Activity Change % of Respondents Increase significantly 11.3% Increase somewhat 42.0 No change 42.0 Decrease somewhat 3.7 Decrease significantly 1.0 Source: Winterberry Group/GDMA, December 2015 The second annual survey of data-driven marketers, service providers and technologists across 17 global markets revealed that: Data Matters More: Among nearly 3,000 experienced marketing and advertising practitioners across 17 global markets, 81.3% described data as important to their efforts, representing an increase from 80.4% who said the same one year ago. 59.3%, versus 57.1% last year went so far as to call it critical to their efforts, further underscoring the growing role that data plays in driving audience engagement strategies and efforts The Customer is King: For the second year in a row, global panelists said their desire to be customer-centric is fueling their DDMA efforts more than any other single priority. And 91.8% of panelists said their efforts are at least partially focused on maintaining customer databases, representing the most common global DDMA use case. And 90.2% of panelists, say theyre focused on deploying predictive analytics and segmentation to better target and engage key audiences Looking to Buy Data: Look carefully, says the report. Though DDMA practitioners around the globe are almost universally focused on collecting and managing data about their customers, far fewer practitioners are engaged in the use of third-party data. Roughly three-quarters of panelists in the United Kingdom and United States said they remain confident in the practice of DDMA and its potential for future growth. Extent to Which Company Practices Select Areas of Data Driven Marketing (% of Respondents) Company Practice Sophisticated Practitioner Some Extent Not At All Maintain Databases to host information 53.4 38.9 7.8 Segment data to best target B2B audience 50.5 40.2 9.4 Measure campaign results across individual channels 50.5 39.9 9.9 Measure across multiple marketing channels 39.1 46.9 14.3 Purchase 3rd party data 32.9 40.9 26.0 Source: Winterberry Group/GDMA, December 2015 For additional information from the Winterberry Group, please visit here. by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, January 18, 2016 Andrew Susman spent the past two decades empowering brand marketers via content marketing. Now he plans to do it with a broader array of media services at an agency known for truth, trust and independence. Susman, who sold seminal content marketing platform Studio One to CHR Group late last year, is returning to the agency business as head of a new New York office of Cincinnati-based Empower MediaMarketing, a family-owned media services agency known for its independence and its Midwestern roots. Susman, who will be vice president in charge of the New York operations, said his goal is to establish a beachhead for Empower in the ad industrys largest market, to "expand the depth and strength of its planning relationships," and to "identify merger and acquisition opportunities" and other partnerships. Susman, who is from Kansas City, MO, says he was raised on "Midwestern values," and this is his first agency job since he came to New York in 1992 and landed a job -- after 91 interviews -- in the new business department of Young & Rubicam. advertisement advertisement Media Daily News: Why are you returning to the agency world now" And why are you doing it with Empower? Andrew Susman: After selling Studio One, I went to the Association of National Advertisers conference to take an objective look without a motive at the industry for the first time in 17 years. What I saw was an enormous amount of change, a lot of questions, and not a lot of answers. And a real undertone of "How are we going to handle the infelicities of the modern media world," such as ad avoidance, fraud, agencies not being trusted. It seemed like the two key words coming out of the conference were a four-letter word -- and that was "data" -- and a five-letter word, and that was "trust." The reason I ended up at Empower was that I had interviews with the CEOs of every major agency trying to understand the environment and Empower was the one that had all the markers of trust, as well as world-class capabilities. Empower is a 100% family-owned independent agency based out of Cincinnati with strong Midwestern values. What Im looking to do is bring those Midwestern values to Madison Avenue. The fact that Empower is independent is a necessary element of working truly for the client and not for other masters. At Empower, its masters are its clients. Thats it -- no conflict of interest. You need to be an independent firm in order to be completely free of conflicts. My mission was to find something where I could be a zealous advocate for something I really believe in. And I believe in Empower and I believe that trust will win. MDN: Why is bringing Midwestern values to Madison Avenue an important thing? Susman: I think those values represent a broad-shouldered, truth-telling work ethic. Those are things that dont exist enough in Manhattan. In the Midwest, if you were to tell a fib, everyone would know who you are. Its important to expose the market to sunlight and to bring these independent operating principles and show incumbent media clients what transparency looks like when it is done right. MDN: For those people who dont understand the culture -- or the services practice -- of Empower, what do you think is their secret sauce and their capabilities? Susman: Empower is a company that was spun out of the Procter & Gamble media department and combines those capabilities with trust. Trust is the lubricant of business. And anytime trust goes down, costs go up and the speed of doing things goes down. Look at this industry right now. Thats exactly whats been happening. It has become highly contractual, because there is no trust. When my [Studio One] partner [former NBC sales chief] Bob Blackmore used to sell for NBC, there were no contracts. It was all word. And when GE acquired them and came in and asked where all the contracts were, he said, "There are no contracts." MDN: Aside from trust and Midwestern values, what differentiates Empowers capabilities? Susman: Proof. What differentiates Empower is that they are focused on delivering proof to their clients that something worked. MDN: Why did you want to come back to the agency world after creating a content marketing platform? : I was in content marketing for 17 years. When I started that business, there was no word for it. And when I left, it was a $64 billion business. I feel the agency business offers an opportunity to see the whole breadth and diversity of media. Theres a lot more to media than simply content marketing. I wanted to re-enter that world because I wanted to be involved in a broader part of the business. Content marketing was always a powerful solution, but it wasnt the total solution. by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, January 18, 2016 Last night was the final Democratic debate on broadcast television before we start the primary electoral process. In Charleston, South Carolina, the presidential hopefuls made their time count. Even Martin OMalley, who noticeably fell behind the two front-runners in total speaking time, received rousing cheers from the crowd. The candidates really got into it, and the crowd responded accordingly. The NBC News-YouTube debate night was all about Sen. Bernie Sanders. News of his last-minute policy switch on gun manufacturer/seller liability and the recent healthcare attacks on him from the Clinton camp were discussed. The fiery Vermont Senator was an especially electrified version of himself last night, taking full ownership of the revolutionary democratic socialist persona that has so intrigued the disaffected Left. Google Trends data reflect the deep interest in the Sanders campaign. His Google searches trended mostly higher than Hillary Clintons throughout the debate. The top trending questions did not flatter Clinton, but also questioned Sanders electability. advertisement advertisement Hillarys top trending question was: Will Hillary Clinton get prosecuted? and Bernies: Why is Bernie Sanders so popular? Topics of conversation were plentiful, ranging from the Iran sanctions relief to middle-class taxes. On most issues, Sanders looked to highlight the differences between himself and the former Secretary of State, inevitably answering a few questions or rebuttals with: I agree with much of what the secretary just said, but A major theme throughout the night was Sanders fixation on underlining his anti-Wall Street and campaign-finance reform positions. His closing statement was a full-on defense of campaign-finance reform and a serious call for breaking the relationship politicians develop with special interests. As Bernie Sanders elevated his decibel level and tone of urgency, so did Hillary Clinton. The former Secretary of State raised her voice when promising no tax increases on the middle class and the remittance of student debt. There were no beeps or buzzes when the candidates spoke for too long, just a few polite reminders of time constraints. Moderators Lester Holt and Andrea Mitchell kept the discussion mostly civil, and they did well keeping focus on the candidates and away from themselves. Who ever thought a Democratic debate in 2016 could be as exciting, if not more so, than a GOP policy-fest? by Philip Rosenstein , January 18, 2016 Chris Christies super PAC, America Leads, has engaged TubeMogul as its video advertising partner for the 2016 presidential campaign. America Leads looks to take advantage of the company's technological advantages to improve the super PACs advertising team. The goal is upping targeting, data integration and programmatic abilities. Speaking with the Prosper Group, the agency representing America Leads, Media Daily News was told the new DSP would allow them to be more choosy when deciding where to run spots. The Prosper groups Kurt Luidhardt called moving the budget to TubeMogul an improvement in efficiency. NBC News reported Jan. 5 that Christie's Super PAC has spent nearly $9 million over the airwaves and almost all in New Hampshire. advertisement advertisement Gov. Christie is jockeying for second or even third spot in New Hampshire. The crowded field has Gov. John Kasich and Sen. Ted Cruz pushing Christie down to fifth stop in New Hampshire polls. However, Establishment candidates Kasich, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have all taken aim at Christie. A Rubio Super PAC ad, echoed at the last GOP debate, said of the New Jersey governor: "One high-tax, Common Core, liberal-energy loving, Obamacare-Medicaid-expanding president is enough." Bush and Kasich ads slam his state's budget deficit. Countering real opposition, Christie's team hopes the increased targeting capabilities will attract Christie voters and hopefully bolster turnout during the critical New Hampshire primary Feb. 9. America Leads is focusing its messaging on issue persuasion, targeting voters most likely to engage with those messages. Voting propensity is integral to the campaign's targeting strategy. A survey tool also allows for a better understanding of the impact specific messages have on potential voters and the opportunity to react accordingly. Once voting starts, the Prosper Group expects strategies to change significantly throughout the field. Specific issue messaging will take center stage as the 2016 GOP voting begins. by Sara Guaglione , January 18, 2016 New Media Investment Group Inc. closed on its deal to buy Times Publishing Company, which owns Pennsylvania-based Erie Times-News and GoErie.com. Reports suggest the company is looking to outsource some jobs. A report from YourErie.com says more than half a dozen senior reporters and editors retired before the deal was closed last Tuesday. Publishers Daily reported the announcement of the deal in December. Gatehouse Media, the subsidiary of New Media, met with many of the papers' employees last Wednesday to discuss initial terms and conditions of future employment, YourErie.com reports. advertisement advertisement "I have been here for 26 years; obviously, this is off-putting to some people," Kevin Flowers, president of the Erie News Guild-CWA Local 38187 told the publication. "It's change, and it's different. Flowers added that Gatehouse Media is looking to outsource some jobs. It is not yet known how many jobs may be outsourced or cut from Erie. Flowers said all current employees were offered positions with the new Gatehouse company. "We're never happy when you're talking about outsourcing jobs with people you've worked with for 25 to 26 years," Flowers told Erie News Now. The publication received a document from employees detailing the terms and conditions of employment. It said Gatehouse Media will subcontract operational jobs within the Times Publishing Company, including designers, editors, advertising associates, call center and payroll personnel. "Consider that this is their initial terms and conditions," Flowers told the pub. "This is what they said they intend to do. We will have to have bargaining conversations about those things." At the time of the announcement in December, John Mead Flanagin, chairman of the Times Publishing Company's board of directors, said the board believes: "This is the right time to adapt to the new environment and have the Erie Times-News and our digital businesses move into the future as part of a larger media organization." The Erie Times-News has a circulation of about 40,000 daily and 55,000 on Sunday and serves the fourth-largest city in Pennsylvania. The Mead family had completely owned or controlled The Times Publishing Co. for 127 years. In August 2003, company vice president James E. Dible was promoted to CEO, president and publisher, succeeding the retiring Michael Mead, a grandson of the company founder. by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 18, 2016 Searching for the correct answers isn't always easy, especially when you're given a chance to ask one important life-changing question of one of the three 2016 Democratic presidential candidates. Would you have asked something different? The important things like knowing what, when, where, why and how seem a lot different today than even 15 years ago, the year the world changed as a result of Sept. 11, 2001. I'm referring to the questions asked by Google's YouTube stars during Sunday's Democratic debate, and their reflection of society that earned them time with Democratic hopefuls. Ironically, these fresh new faces on YouTube -- a co-sponsor of the fourth Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley -- were barely born at the turn of the century. Yet YouTube gave these four popular channel creators a spot to ask pre-recorded questions during the most critical Democratic debate the U.S. will see during this campaign. In an effort to appeal to young voters, Franchesca Ramsey, Connor Franta, and Marques Brownlee and scientists from MinuteEarth, used their time to present a question based on their knowledge about climate change. The debate hosted by NBC was also streamed live on YouTube. advertisement advertisement How did the others use their time? Ramsey, host of MTVs "Decoded," tackled race and pop culture, with one episode talking about "Shit White Girls Say To Black Girls." Answered by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her question focused on potential bias from local prosecutors in high-profile deaths involving police. Twenty-three-year-old Franta, with 5.24 million YouTube followers, used his question to ask former Secretary Clinton about her efforts to appeal to younger voters. Marques Brownlee, a techie with 3.16 million viewers, used his knowledge about technology to ask whether technology companies and the government can find a middle ground over encryption, setting up a debate between privacy and security to follow reports earlier this month that tech companies are helping the U.S. government find the loopholes assisting Islamic militants communicate. The meeting brought together Americas most senior counterterrorism officials such as National Security Agency director Michael Rogers, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and FBI director James Comey with some of Silicon Valleys most powerful executives at Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and others. What questions would you have asked given the opportunity? Will we see the same during the Republican debate? The General Data Protection Regulations -- the European Unions recently passed regulation for data sharing and protection -- are bad news for Facebook and other U.S. tech giants. Thats according to new analysis from Forrester privacy expert Fatemeh Khatibloo. The changes to the General Data Protection Regulations will be felt globally," Khatibloo explains ahead of a new report to be released by Forrester later this month. The regulations apply to any company doing business with a European citizen -- and already we've heard buzz about California enforcing similar regulations, according to Khatibloo. The combination would change the way every company processes data. By Forresters reckoning, privacy is one of the top critical success factors for businesses in 2016 -- though only 23% of security decision-makers agree that privacy is a competitive differentiator. advertisement advertisement Along with Facebook, Google, and other tech leaders, the new regulations could also pose a serious threat to standalone ad tech companies. If you look at the way the regulation is written, its going to bring the whole ad-blocking craze to a head, according to Khatibloo. Ad tech companies are not in compliance with the regulation. As such, well see a lot of them go under." Officially passed last month, the EU said member states have two years to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation regulations and incorporate the GDPR into their own national laws. First proposed by the European Commission in early 2012, the finalized reform bill consists of two main regulations: the General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Directive. The Data Protection Directive was designed to safeguard the data of crime victims, witnesses and suspects, and to facilitate cross-border criminal justice cooperation across member states. A man has died and five others have been hospitalized in France, after taking part in a clinical trial for a new painkiller developed by Portuguese pharmaceutical company BIAL. Share on Pinterest After taking part in a clinical trial for a new painkiller conducted by private research company Biotrial one man has died, while five more have been hospitalized. Image credit: Biotrial The men were admitted to the Rennes University Hospital in western France last week. One man was said to be brain-dead as a result of the experimental drug, and yesterday, the hospital released a statement announcing his passing. The other five men are believed to be in a stable condition, though French health authorities have warned that three of them may be left with permanent brain damage. French prosecutors say they have now expanded their investigations into the clinical trial to include possible manslaughter charges. The phase 1 clinical trial conducted by private research company Biotrial began on January 7th this year, enrolling 90 healthy participants to test a new molecule described as a fatty-acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) enzyme inhibitor. FAAH is an enzyme that can break down endogenous cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) in the brain. Researchers have previously suggested that blocking this enzyme could be an effective strategy for treating chronic pain. Is BIA 10-2474 the culprit? French news site Breizh-info.com have published a document believed to have been provided by an individual who applied to be part of the trial but who was rejected that they say demonstrates how this latest phase 1 clinical trial was being conducted. The document states that the FAAH inhibitor being tested was BIA 10-2474. While this drug is listed as being in phase 1 testing which assesses a drugs safety on BIALs Pipeline list, the pharmaceutical company and Biotrial have not confirmed this to be true. The document also states that 128 healthy volunteers aged 18-55 took part in the trial, 90 of whom were given BIA 10-2474 at different doses, while the remaining participants were given a placebo. According to BIAL, the development of the FAAH enzyme inhibitor has been conducted since the beginning in accordance with all the good international practices guidelines, with the completion of tests and pre-clinical trials, particularly in the area of toxicology. They add that the drug had already been administered to 108 patients without any moderate or serious adverse reaction. While it is currently unclear what caused the adverse reactions in six of the clinical trial participants, BIAL claims they are strongly committed to finding out and are working with all the relevant authorities to do so. Our thoughts go out to the volunteers and their families. We are working hand in hand with the Health Authorities to understand the cause of this accident, added Biotrial in a statement. The clinical trial was terminated as soon as reports emerged of severe reactions to the drug, and the remaining 84 volunteers were contacted, 10 of whom underwent medical examination, though Rennes University Hospital say no anomalies among these individuals have been identified. A further five trial participants will undergo medical examination. Better coordination between hospitals and post-acute care facilities could reduce patient readmission to hospitals and mortality rates, according to a new study of risk factors by researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In a review of more than 3,200 hospitalizations followed by stays in post-acute care facilities, the researchers found specific risk factors that may contribute to the need for readmission to the hospital. Nearly half of the readmissions occurred within 14 days of being released from the hospital. The study, published online in JAMDA, the Journal of Post-Acute and Long Term Care Medicine, identified the patient's need for an invasive device, such as a feeding tube or urinary catheter, and the patient's need for advanced care, such as dialysis and oxygen therapy, as factors more common in readmitted patents. The causes of hospital readmission from post-acute care facilities, which are also called skilled nursing facilities, are critical areas to study in order to improve the quality of patient care and to prepare for reimbursement models that penalize hospitals if patients are readmitted. "Patients who experienced readmission during their stay in a post-acute care facility were less likely to return to the community," said lead author Robert Burke, MD, academic hospitalist and health services researcher at the Denver VA Medical Center and an assistant professor at the CU School of Medicine. Readmitted patients had a higher mortality rate too. "Readmitted patients were twice as likely as non-readmitted patients to die in the 30 days following hospital discharge and nearly four times as likely to die in the 100 days post-hospital discharge," the authors write. The authors also found that payment systems matter and affect patient outcomes. "Under a prospective payment system, hospitals are incentivized to discharge these patients as early as possible, and in contrast to discharges home, hospitals are not currently penalized for readmissions from PAC (post-acute care) facilities," the authors write. "PAC facilities may be substituting for prolonged hospital care in some cases." Hospitals and post-acute care facilities need to focus on patient selection and on processes for transitioning care from the hospital to the post-acute care facility. Service learning enhances medical training, may increase rural practitioners. Mirroring national trends, 97 percent of the 101 rural counties in Missouri are designated Primary Medical Care Health Professional Shortage Areas by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Many medical schools across the country have developed admission policies and clinical training programs to address rural physician workforce shortages in their state. Now, a recent study by the University of Missouri School of Medicine shows one of its programs enhances training and may increase interest in rural practice for graduating medical students. "Clinical training alone is not enough to prepare, attract and retain new physicians in rural practice locations," said Jana Porter, associate director of the MU School of Medicine's Area Health Education Center and Rural Track Pipeline Program and lead author of the study. "We developed the Community Integration Program in 2006 as part of our pipeline program to further encourage students to practice in rural settings after they graduate. We wanted to better understand what the students' experiences were with this service learning program, and if it might affect their decision to practice in a rural community." The Community Integration Program encourages third-year medical students completing clinical clerkships at rural sites to identify a health need in that community and then, with assistance from the Area Health Education Center and local organizations, implement a project to meet that need. From 2007 to 2013, 53 percent of MU rural track students participated in the Community Integration Program. After the experience, participants reported a deeper understanding of the importance of their service as rural health providers and the influence rural culture had on their interactions with patients. Participants also reported they felt more integrated into the community, had a greater understanding of community health needs and were more likely to participate in future community service activities. "In the United States, only about 10 percent of physicians practice in rural areas, and less than 3 percent of entering medical students nationally plan to practice in a rural community or small town," Porter said. "The more we are able to immerse students into settings where they have deeper, more meaningful interactions with their patients, the better they will understand the impact they can make as physicians. For those who already show an interest in serving a rural population, this program reaffirms that choice. However, if we can expand it to include those who would like to try the experience, we may attract additional students." Future research will focus on determining the effects of program participation on practice location retention and community involvement of graduating medical students. Plasma cells play a key role in our immune system. Now scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria, and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia, succeeded in characterizing a central regulator of plasma cell function. The results of both teams are published in two back-to-back papers in Nature Immunology. Our environment teems with microorganisms and viruses that are potentially harmful. The reason why we survive their daily attacks is the ability of the immune system to neutralize these invaders in numerous ways. Plasma cells are key players in this process. They fight infections and establish long-lasting protection against pathogens. Plasma cells are white blood cells that develop from B-cells. They are the effector cells of the humoral immune response. Their main function is to produce antibodies that patrol the body in large numbers to neutralize harmful invaders. A functional plasma cell produces up to 10,000 antibodies per second to release them into the blood stream. This outstanding achievement can be visualized with a powerful microscope, as active plasma cells are packed with antibody-producing vesicles, constituting the so-called endoplasmic reticulum that is essential for antibody assembly and secretion. B-cells need to be activated by antigens (foreign substances) in order to develop into plasma cells. They first form plasmablasts that migrate to the bone marrow where they survive for many years or even decades. The long-lasting protection provided by active vaccines is based on this immunological memory of plasma cells. A Central Role for Blimp1 Scientist have known about the functions of plasma cells for quite a while. However, details of how the differentiation and function of these cells are regulated were still unknown. Now an important key to understanding the function of plasma cells has been discovered by a team headed by Meinrad Busslinger, Senior Scientist and Deputy Director at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria. In a five-year project, the team succeeded in deciphering the role of the protein Blimp1 as a central regulator of plasma cell development and function. In its current issue, the science journal Nature Immunology publishes the results of the team in Vienna as well as the work of Australian colleagues that complements the Viennese results. In detailed studies, scientists at the IMP identified all genes that are involved in the development of plasma cells in mice. First author Martina Minnich, whose PhD-thesis provided the groundwork for the publication, explains the results: "We found that more than 50 percent of these genes are regulated by Blimp1. Therefore, this factor must be of vital importance for plasma cells. Furthermore, we were able to show for the first time that Blimp1 not only switches genes off but can also switch other genes on. This is an important discovery for the understanding of plasma cell development." "Most of the essential functions of plasma cells are controlled by the factor Blimp1", Meinrad Busslinger summarizes the results. "It regulates their mobility and migration to the bone marrow. Blimp1 is also responsible for the enormous increase in size of the endoplasmic reticulum and the strong up-regulation of antibody production in plasma cells. Humoral immunity would not be possible without Blimp1." No Antibodies Without Blimp1 Even though Blimp1 is necessary for the development of plasma cells, mature plasma cells can survive without this factor. However, when Blimp1 is switched off, they become non-functional as they no longer produce antibodies. This unexpected finding is the result of work carried out at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. The study, which is published back-to-back with the Austrian paper, was led by Stephen Nutt, Head of the Division of Molecular Immunology at WEHI. The picture that emerges from the Australian study perfectly complements the results obtained at the IMP. Insight into the manifold functions of Blimp1 is not only important for our understanding of the immune system but may also be relevant for human medicine. Mutations in the Blimp1 gene can block the further differentiation of B-cells, which contributes to the formation of malign B cell tumors known as lymphomas. Moreover, quiescent plasma cells can sometimes switch to uncontrolled cell growth and thus turn into plasma cell tumors or multiple myelomas. Another aspect of the immune system that is highly relevant for medicine is the broad spectrum of autoimmune diseases. Conditions like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are an example for the serious damage to organs and tissue caused by misguided immune responses which generate plasma cells producing auto-reactive antibodies that turn against the body's own tissue. Meinrad Busslinger: "The published results have yielded profound insight into the function of plasma cells. They also raise new interesting questions which we will address in forthcoming projects." Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends. Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice. Advertisement "Pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing," said the CDC.Zika virus can cause fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, with symptoms usually lasting under a week.But in pregnant women, the virus can spread to the fetus and cause brain shrinkage or death.Along with a rise in Zika cases in Brazil, more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly have been documented in the country between October 2015 and January 2016.Four of those cases have recently been analyzed, showing that babies were infected with Zika virus while they were in the womb and that it reached their brains.Two of the cases involved miscarriages, and two of the babies died soon after birth."All four mothers reported having experienced a fever and rash illness consistent with Zika virus disease during their pregnancies," said the CDC."Genetic sequence analysis showed that the virus in the four cases was the same as the Zika virus strain currently circulating in Brazil."Experts say they don't know just how much of an increase Brazil is experiencing in microcephaly, but that there is a rising number of cases.The virus appears to destroy brain tissue that had already formed, resulting in smaller brain sizes and birth defects."Until more is known, and out of an abundance of caution, CDC recommends special precautions for pregnant women and women trying to become pregnant."Those who are trying to become pregnant "should consult with their health care provider before traveling to these areas and strictly follow" steps to prevent mosquito bites, including wearing long sleeves and pants and applying insect repellant.There is no vaccine to prevent Zika and no medicine available to treat it.There have been 26 travel-related cases of Zika virus in the United States since 2007, but no locally acquired cases so far, Petersen said.Source: AFP Advertisement The probes are seeking to determine if the tragedy was caused by an error in the trial's procedures or in the substance tested, a new drug meant to treat mood disorders such as anxiety.A total of 90 volunteers - healthy men aged between 28 and 48 years - were given the experimental drug in the Phase I trial. Six of them were taken to hospital last week.Pierre-Gilles Edan, head of the neurology department at the hospital in Rennes where the volunteers were taken, said that aside from the man who was clinically dead, three others were suffering a handicap that could be irreversible and another also had neurological problems.The sixth volunteer had no symptoms but was being monitored.The head of Biotrial said, "The lab was cooperating with the investigators.""Our thoughts remain with the victims and their families but our energy this morning is entirely committed to assisting the investigators and to fully cooperating in the investigations under way. The investigators and inspectors are trying to understand what could have happened and how it could have resulted in such an a tragic situation. There is no news of any change to the condition of the hospitalized volunteers," said Francois Peaucelle.Representatives from Bial were also on site and taking part in the probes with 'total transparency', reported Peaucelle.The Portuguese firm had issued a statement insisting it had followed 'international best practice' in developing the drug and said that it would cooperate with the investigation to 'determine in a rigorous and exhaustive manner' what had happened.France's national drug safety body confirmed it was the worst-ever incident to have taken place in a drugs trial in the country.Each year thousands of volunteers participate in clinical drugs trials and experts point out that tragic results are rare.But the incident in Rennes has raised concerns about such experiments.A university teacher in Rennes who has participated in such trials said, "I will not do it anymore and I'm going to advice against it." He admitted to being attracted by the 'easy money' participants received and that he had taken part in about 15 trials at the Biotrial lab since 2005.Source: AFP Following the implementation of JCPOA and the lifting of sanctions from Iran, the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh published an editorial titled "What Will Happen in 15 Years?", which expresses fear about the future development of Iran's nuclear program. The editorial notes that, by 2031, most of the restrictions that the JCPOA places on Iran will be lifted, leaving this country free to advance its nuclear program as it pleases. It therefore advocates joining the nuclear club and laying down a "road map" for building Saudi nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes that will be ready before 2031. It should be mentioned that, since the July 15, 2015 announcement of the JCPOA, many articles in the Saudi press have called upon Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to take advantage of the next decade to develop military nuclear programs of their own as a countermeasure to the Iranian nuclear threat that will reemerge after the expiring of the agreement.[1] The following are excerpts:[2] "Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday [January 16, 2016] that the sanctions on his country would be lifted immediately upon the issuing of the IAEA report [announcing] that Iran has met its obligations under the nuclear agreement that was signed with the superpowers in July of last year [2015]. [Even] if we ignore the political and economic implications of this agreement for the region in the near and distant future, there is [nevertheless] one aspect of this agreement that must be taken into account. In 2031, [this] nuclear agreement will be consigned to the U.N. archives, and Iran will be free to do whatever it pleases regarding its nuclear program. This, because most of the restrictions imposed [on Iran] by the articles of this agreement expire in 15 years. In the interim, Iran will enrich uranium to a level of no more than 3.67 percent, which is the safe level. But what happens after 15 years...? "U.S. President Barack Obama is counting on the [assumption] that, in the course of this [15-year] period, a change will occur in Iran's behavior that is [currently] detrimental to its neighbors. [This] philosophy of the president's stems from his conviction that the minute the Iranian people is allowed a taste of a sanction-free [existence] it will surely become peace-loving. In this situation, [he believes], Iran's policy-makers will not think of advancing towards the manufacture of a nuclear bomb, [because] this would cause trouble for the Iranian regime and the Iranian people, who would refuse to go back to the era of sanctions after tasting freedom from sanctions. The fact is that the American president has thrown the Iranian regime a lifeline that will ensure its survival, and North Korea is an example of how nuclear power can constitute a shield for diseased regimes... This philosophy [of Obama's] should not interest us at all... "What we need to do, even today, is begin preparing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes so as to gain the necessary knowledge about the nuclear fuel cycle and build nuclear reactors for producing electricity and desalinating water, [thus] varying our energy sources. After all, the [Saudi] kingdom is developing constantly, and according to the data it burns over four million barrels of oil every day in producing electricity, and in 2035 this figure will reach ten million barrels [a day]. The loss of this natural resource and the profits it could generate is therefore estimated at millions of dollars a day. "Furthermore, the kingdom has the right to enrich uranium up to the internationally permitted level, that is [a level of] 3.75 percent. Saudi Arabia's constructive conduct, which seeks peace with the countries of the region, helps it advance in this direction, as does [the fact that] it eschews all the characteristics of misguided countries that [already] possess this technology. [Such technology] confers international prestige, and this is an undeniable fact - for the nuclear club is a club of elite countries, even if some of them are described as misguided, terror-supporting and members of the Axis of Evil. "A brief review of the nuclear programs in the region leaves us confident of Saudi Arabia's ability to begin building nuclear reactors and complete them before 2031. The UAE, which means to build four reactors, announced in 2008 its comprehensive policy for developing nuclear energy for civilian purposes. The digging [of the foundations] began in 2012, and now they are working to have the first one operable by 2017. The others will go online gradually by 2020. "Egypt, which is also experiencing difficulty in meeting its energy needs, announced last year that it and Russia had signed an agreement for building four nuclear reactors [in Egypt], the first of which will become operative in 2024. "These reports prompt us to set out a timetable or a clear road map for a civilian nuclear program to meet Saudi Arabia's goals. The King Abdallah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy will naturally supervise the [nuclear] program, by virtue of its expertise. 2030 will be set as the date for activating the first nuclear reactor." Endnotes: A 38-year-old engineer finds a comfortable job abroad, comes home to see his village flooded with problems and decides to stay back to help improve the situation. This is not the plot of the 2004 Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Swades but the life story of Bijnor's Jhujhela village resident Tarun Shekhawat. Tarun has worked as an engineer for over 12 years in companies like Tech Mahindra, TCS and many others in India and abroad. But a recent visit to his village, which lacks basic amenities, made him change his mind. He filed various RTIs to know why nothing was done to improve the condition of the village and found gross irregularities in the use of government funds. To change the way things work in his village, Tarun left his 4500 euro per month (nearly Rs 37 lakh per annum) job in Munich, Germany, and is now in fray for the post of the village head in the forthcoming village pradhan elections. "Only if the village heads work with honesty, India's villages will also become as progressive as villages in Germany and the rest of Europe," said the techie whose family is into farming. Tarun, who worked in Germany for four years, tells, "During my stay there, I observed how villages are developed there. During one of my visits to my native village, I found that here we do not have even basic amenities. I left my job and planned to stay back in India. I joined a company in Noida and kept frequenting my village to improve its lot. But with time, I realized that the best way to make a change is to be a part of the system, so I decided to contest the panchayat elections." Tarun is hugely popular in the village. "I filed RTI queries to find out how funds meant for development were bungled by previous village heads in connivance with local officials. If I become the pradhan, I will utilize all the funds honestly and will change the face of my village. I am sure my villagers will give me an opportunity to do all the good work I have planned so far," he said. Naazir Ansari, a villager, says, "Tarun is the most educated person in the entire village. It feels good to see that there are some people like Tarun who gain experience and come back to their native village in order to bring about a change. I wish he wins." (Originally published in The Times of India) Prime Ministers latest pet project Startup India was launched at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi over the weekend amidst much fanfare and hype. It is indeed heartening to see the Prime Minister of the country take personal interest in the development of start-ups in the country. Some of the sops on offer sound pretty tempting too. But that is where the love affair with Modis new pet project ends. Will join the programme to commence the #StartupIndia movement this evening. Looking forward to interacting with start-up entrepreneurs. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 16, 2016 Thats because start-ups need more than tax breaks and mobile app registrations to thrive. In fact, for a host of debilitating reasons, India is one of the worst places to do business in the world. And Modi has not really eased the way to do business in the country with this project. In fact, he has packaged some of his earlier ideas into his latest project. That scheme where Modi announced Rs 10,000 crore for creating a start-up fund? It was first announced two years ago! Take the much-hyped point of registering a new company on a mobile app, for example. Modi said that from April 1 this year, any new company can register itself via a mobile app in a single day. This sounds great in terms of efficiency and transparency but some entrepreneurs have expressed reservations saying that since the paperwork for registering a company remains the same, the mobile app will perhaps not really reduce anything. BCCL Even the tax-holiday for three years for new companies came in for questioning with some wondering whether any start-up is able to create any profit in the first three years to be able to pay income-tax in the first place! Another point raised by some is that the measures are perhaps a little too late, especially when it comes to the recent successes in the start-up arena. This is because most unicorn start-ups (companies with a valuation of over $1 billion) are domiciled in Singapore, Flipkart being the biggest example of this trend. Hence, any help in letting them grow will directly benefit Singapore and not India. The Startup India program needs to ensure there are enough tax sops and have clear FDI rules for such unicorn companies to remain based out of India. Start-ups cannot survive without investors and this new program has not done much to address the concerns of investors in India. Even Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, who now runs his own fund called Catamaran Ventures, was forced to say that there wasnt enough encouragement for investors from the scheme. So far, the new scheme has not attracted breathless quotes from investors rushing to invest in the Indian story. In fact, the absence of Ratan Tata, whose own company is the best example of how far an Indian company can go with the right vision and direction and who himself has invested in over 21 start-ups since his retirement was keenly felt at the launch event. Many stakeholders are playing the wait-and-watch game before forming a final opinion. As Sujayath Ali, CEO and Co-founder, Voonik said, Its exciting to see that the government is looking to remove obstacles and facilitate the start-up ecosystem. No inspections, ease of shutting down, and no capital gains are significant. Although I am still looking for clarifications on items such as removal of angel tax, what constitutes e-commerce versus marketplace, etc. Lastly, Modi failed to mention why start-ups are so important for India. To curb unemployment and create new avenues for the country to maintain its economy, there can be no better way than to facilitate entrepreneurs and help them walk into unchartered territory with the governments backing. Modi failing to stress on its importance will fail to cheer parents and impressionable students into giving start-ups a try. Across the country, parents will react the same way Jeetus father reacts when Jeetu confesses he wants to join a start-up in TVF Pitchers. If anybody wants to follow Jeetus lead in the first place that is. YouTube So if you are secretly wondering whether the Startup India scheme will see the country create its own Google or Facebook and take over the world, then the short answer is no. There is still a lot of work to be done to create the groundwork needed for a truly world-class startup to incubate, grow and thrive in India and spread to the world. Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving metals market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. The first trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Cyprus and Jordan took place in Brussels today, Monday, 18 January, on the margins of the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. The three Ministers discussed a wide range of issues of international and regional interest, with emphasis on the refugee crisis, the escalation in terrorism, the peace process and the situation in the wider Middle East, as well as developments in the energy sector. They also looked at the prospects for trilateral cooperation in many sectors, including economic and trade cooperation; combating terrorism; security and exchange of information; culture, education and technology; and ways to support Jordan in its relations with the EU. Finally, they discussed the potential for holding a trilateral meeting of the three countries leaders in the coming time. N. KOTZIAS: Yesterday, for the first time, we had a meeting of the four Balkan countries that are members of the EU that is, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece to initiate closer cooperation on European issues, the European path of the Balkans. To formulate common proposals for major investment plans, for rail, energy and road networks. For joint efforts towards the accession of the Western Balkans to the EU. This is the first time this cooperation has been held in an organized manner among the four members states. And we agreed to continue, in a few days, at the Informal Council of Foreign Ministers, on 4 and 5 February, in Amsterdam, with a second meeting. The Secretaries General will meet in the meantime to take a better look at these issues. This is a new effort. This morning we also launched another new effort. Side by side with the trilateral cooperation configurations we have launched with Egypt and Israel (Greece-Cyprus-Egypt and Greece-Cyprus Israel), this morning we initiated the trilateral Greece-Cyprus-Jordan cooperation, which will continue with a meeting of the Secretaries General in Cyprus, in one week, so that they can prepare a political meeting and, subsequently, a summit meeting. I must inform you that we have also had a request from the Palestinian Authority to shape a similar trilateral, and we have already agreed. That has been set in motion. And there is also a request from Lebanon, which we have yet to launch. So we have expanded our cooperation and alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean, along with shaping, within the EU, a form of special Balkan cooperation. I think both are very important steps. Afterwards, we had the meeting on the Ukraine crisis, with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, and a short meeting with the Foreign Minister of FYROM, during which we discussed our bilateral relations, which we have to look at together again. Nothing new arose from that meeting. We simply agreed that we need to continue working together on the confidence-building measures and the political dialogue we have initiated. We also had two other bilateral meetings. One with Malta, ahead of its upcoming Presidency, because, as you know, it follows the Netherlands Presidency. And a meeting with Slovenia, which concerned the refugee crisis and the proposals Slovenia has made and set out in a text to the President of the Commission, Mr. Juncker, and which will also be addressed to Greece. We also had a discussion on Syria and Iraq, in the Foreign Affairs Council. There, we insisted on the need for the war to end and, in particular, for money to be provided for refugees in the countries bordering on Syria, so that these refugees wont move towards Europe and we can stop these influxes. The same view was expressed along with a urgent request, I would say by the Foreign Minister of Jordan, with whom we also had an official luncheon this afternoon. We continued a short discussion on Ukraine, reaffirming the EUs will to support the Minsk agreement. And an ongoing discussion was completed today with regard to the text of conclusions on the Middle East, which supports the two-state solution in the Middle East, Palestine and Israel, and calls for the confronting of all forms of violence, whichever side it is used by. And it also obliges Israel to stipulate the origin of products; that is, that they arent from the settlements. JOURNALIST: Mr. Minister, a few days ago the President of the European Parliament, Mr. Schulz, predicted that we will see significant progress on the Cyprus issue in 2016. N. KOTZIAS: I think that progress on international issues comes from hard work, and not from statements. Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Air Lines topped the on-time rankings for November, which were released Friday by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Budget airlines Spirit and Frontier had the worst on-time performance and highest complaint rates. The department said that flights on the 13 largest airlines arrived on time 83.7 percent of the time. That was up from 80.6 percent in November 2014 but down from last October's 87 percent rate. Passengers on five domestic flights were stuck on the ground for more than three hours, and people sat on a Qatar Airways plane in Detroit for more than six hours, all in possible violation of federal rules. The department said it was investigating the incidents. Complaints against U.S. airlines rose 56 percent from a year earlier. Still, only 989 people a tiny percentage of passengers bothered to file a report with the government. Complaints about foreign airlines rose 14 percent. SkyWest, which operates regional flights for the major airlines, and Southwest had the lowest complaint rates. Spirit had the highest complaint rate by a wide margin. More people 1,272 complained about Transportation Security Administration screeners than about the airlines. The Transportation Department said, however, that it was "not appropriate" to compare the figures because "thousands" of travelers complain directly to the airlines but never contact the government. Air Force Gets Its Own Combat Dive Badge After Using the Navy's for Years Air Force officials said there is a notable distinction between Navy divers and their divers, which was a key reason for... The search for 12 Marines declared missing after a reported collision of two CH-53E Super Stallion aircraft off the north shore of Oahu is now in its third day and still ongoing, Coast Guard and Marine Corps officials said Sunday during a local press conference. Though choppy waves and high swells that have hindered the search to date are beginning to subside, officials said interference from an individual on-shore had also presented a problem. Capt. Jim Jenkins, chief of staff for the Coast Guards 14th district in Hawaii, confirmed that someone had used a laser to target the cockpit of a Coast Guard C-130 during a search-and-rescue flight Saturday night, forcing the aircraft to deviate from its search pattern. Fortunately, the impact was minimal, Jenkins said. He added that targeting pilots with lasers, which can blind them and force aircraft to land, is illegal, and officials would prosecute the individual responsible if he or she was found. Jenkins said Coast Guard assets, assisted by a Navy destroyer and an Army helicopter, continued to patrol a swelling debris field off the Oahu coast. To date, he said, more than 15,000 square miles had been searched in overlapping areas within the field. By the end of the day, aircraft will have completed more than 75 sorties in support of the effort. The Marine Corps Saturday night identified the four officers and eight enlisted Marines who were aboard the CH-53s. Missing are Maj. Shawn M. Campbell, 41, of College Station, Texas; Capt. Brian T. Kennedy, 31, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Capt. Steven R. Torbert, 29, of Florence, Alabama; Capt. Kevin Roche, 30, of St. Louis, Missouri; Sgt. Dillon J. Semolina, 24, of Chaska, Minnesota; Sgt. Adam C. Schoeller, 25, of Gardners, Pennsylvania; Sgt. Jeffrey A. Sempler, 22, of Woodruff, South Carolina; Sgt. William J. Turner, 25, of Florala, Alabama; Cpl. Matthew R. Drown, 23, of Spring, Texas; Cpl. Thomas J. Jardas, 22, of Fort Myers, Florida; Cpl. Christopher J. Orlando, 23, of Hingham, Massachusetts; and Lance Cpl. Ty L. Hart, 21, of Aumsville, Oregon. Any decision to stop the search will be made in conjunction with Marine Corps officials and with the aid of Coast Guard protocols and algorithms that assess the likelihood of any survivors and the extend of the effort to date, Jenkins said. He noted that families of the missing Marines would be notified before a search is officially stopped. Though debris consistent with the two choppers has been collected and is being analyzed by Marine Corps investigators, Jenkins declined to describe the items or wreckage that has been recovered. Right now were focused on active search-and-rescue for any survivors, he said. The commanding general of 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Brig. Gen. Russell Sanborn, offered a message of hope to the families of the missing Marines. Sanborn, an AV-8B Harrier pilot by training, recalled that, as a captain, he had been shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Kuwait on Feb. 9, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. He was subsequently captured and held as a POW by Iraqi forces until March 6 of the same year. For the first 14 days I was listed as [duty status-whereabouts unknown]. After Dustwun, I was converted to MIA, Sanborn said. The bottom line is we have personal experience what these Marines are going through. We just want to let them know that were here, were here to support them to put our arms around them and hug them. --Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@monster.com. GAYLORD, MI -- The suspect in a fatal snowmobile accident was arrested Saturday in Gaylord after he attempted to flee the scene of the crash, police said. Around 2:30 a.m., police were called to the scene of an accident on Trail 7 behind the Tractor Supply Company. Police found a Gaylord man, 38, unresponsive. The man died at the scene. Police officers then discovered the suspect in the incident had fled the scene on foot. Officers tracked the suspect by following marks in the snow and found him hiding a short distance away. The man, 54, of Oakland, was arrested for operating while intoxicated causing death and for leaving the scene of a fatal accident. A 40-year-old Gaylord man was also involved in the accident and is undergoing surgery for injuries sustained in the crash. The identity of the deceased man was not released by police. A couple who fled to Northern Michigan after the body of their 5-month-old son was buried in a New Mexico desert have now both been sent to prison in Texas for their crimes. Former Spc. Jeffrey Farrey, 24, previously a soldier at Fort Bliss, was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to reckless injury related to the baby's death, according to station KVTX and the Associated Press. Jenna Farrey, his wife and the baby's mother, earlier was sentenced to 35 years in prison, according to the AP. She had pleaded guilty to injury to a child in the death of Jackson Farrey, whose body was found buried in the New Mexico desert in November 2013. The couple, reported missing from their home in El Paso, Texas, fled to Escanaba in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with their older son. They were found in a hotel there by local police on Nov. 17, 2013, according to The Daily News in Iron Mountain. Three days after the couple were returned to Texas, the baby's body was found buried in New Mexico. During their court proceedings, the mother and father maintained they had found the baby unresponsive and did not seek medical care. An autopsy could not determine a cause of death, according to earlier reports. MRAP One of the Mine Resistant Ambush Proof vehicle expected to be sent to a county in metro Detroit, according to the Military's 1033 Program. (Courtesy | 1033 program) Fourteen Michigan police agencies are on a list for expressing an interest in a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle from the U.S. military, according to a spokesman for the program that puts police into former military vehicles. Saginaw Police Chief Bob Ruth said his agency was among those that sent tracked armored vehicles back to the military in December after an executive order by President Barack Obama. They were given the first chance to be put on the list to get an MRAP. The Saginaw Police Department sent back the rarely-used Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) and is working to make a request before city council to approve getting the new vehicle, Ruth said. Here is a list of Michigan police agencies expressing interest in an MRAP as of Dec. 21, 2015, according to the 1033 program: Saginaw Police Department Highland Park Police Department Oakland County Sheriff Wayne County Sheriff Niles Police Department Macomb County Sheriff East Lansing Police Department Genesee County Sheriff Westland Police Department Kalamazoo County Sheriff St. Clair Shores Police Department Battle Creek Police Department Wyoming Police Department Novi Police Department Sterling Heights Police Department Mt. Morris Township Police Department "Expressing an interest does not indicate that the required paperwork has necessarily been submitted or approved," 1033 Program contact Larry Goerge said. The Saginaw department received the APC carrier from the military in 2006 and it was used on scene twice, both situations with a barricaded gunman where shots had been fired, Ruth said. The gunman surrendered in both instances. Saginaw Police Department stickers were removed from the side of the APC before it left Saginaw and was shipped in December to Grayling, where there is a National Guard training facility, Ruth said. The APC and other tracked vehicles will be used as target practice at Camp Grayling, Goerge said. The MRAP could be useful if a gunman situation happens, Ruth said, though he hopes the need will never arise. He said he plans to keep it parked indoors and believes it will require minimal maintenance. Beyond the 14 agencies on the "shown interest" list, MRAPs have already been approved for Macomb and Oakland counties. 'Not the equipment, but how we use it' Battle Creek Chief of Police Jim Blocker said his department has had a MRAP in service for several years, and it is brought out to for use 10 to 15 times a year, the chief estimated. He said the MRAP is a useful tool and calls the military sourcing that sometimes brings controversy about the vehicles is "a distraction." "It's just matter of where we got it," he said. "Using demilitarized equipment, it's not so much the equipment, but how we use it." The MRAP, which is about 10 or 12 years old, is only typically for an incident involving a weapon, implied or seen, he said. "When we do field it, we've found every time we use the MRAP it's a force multiplier," he said. "It shuts the scene down and the incident down within 30 minutes. "There's something about that vehicle pulling up to a building or a house," he said. "I assume people make a calculated risk and decide, saying, 'I don't know what's in that thing but I don't want any part of it." He did not know why the department was on the 1033's current list, but said the department may have made a request for an MRAP and would get rid of the older vehicle if they receive a new one. "The 1033 Program is a great program as long as we use it responsibly," he said. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Obama decided "tracked vehicles were too intimidating," but it was a "ready-shoot-aim" approach "based on perception, not reality." "The track-style personnel carrier is actually smaller than the vehicle were getting, so if the purpose of this was to be less intimidating, I don't know how that works." The sheriff sent his tracked vehicle to Camp Grayling, where it was to be put in a line with the other vehicles and destroyed in a blaze of practice fire from aircraft. A line of Armored Personnel Carriers taken from Michigan police agencies in 2015 and sent to Camp Grayling, where they were to be used for target practice. "They're going to be destroyed," Bouchard said, "which again, is a big waste." The sheriff who sent his MRAP back A few miles across town from the Saginaw Police Department, Saginaw County Sheriff Federspiel's agency received an MRAP from the military in early 2014, only to send it back later that year. The 19-ton MRAP was then sent to the Lapeer County Sheriff's Department, where it remains. "The problem with the MRAP is it takes special personnel to drive it, you need special training, it's damaging to the roads, it's so heavy," Federspiel told The Saginaw News in January 2016. "It needs to be started and run. It cost a lot in fuel. On top of that, where do you park it, how do you maintain it without parts? It was very costly." The sheriff said he could not immediately provide an estimate of the costs. Brad Devereaux is a reporter for MLive.com. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ UPDATE: State police update number of cars involved, injuries in pileup KALAMAZOO, MI -- Drivers driving too fast for snowy road conditions, following too closely and low visibilty caused a series of three crashes Sunday that involved 13 semis and 52 cars, authorities have said. In all, one person died, three were critically injured and 11 sustained minor injuries in the series of crashes on eastbound and westbound I-94 near Hartford, exit 46, in Southwestern Michigan. The crashes occurred about 2 p.m. Sunday. One person injured was a Van Buren County deputy, who was rendering first aid to a crash victim with a broken leg. Troopers first said two people had died in the pileup, but later said paramedics were able to revive one patient. The initial crash, which resulted in minor injuries, involved eight passenger vehicles and one semi truck on eastbound I-94 just west of Hartford. Drivers behind that crash were able to stop safely and not lose control, state police have said. Two semi trucks collided about a quarter-mile west of the initial crash, which set off a chain reaction, causing 42 other vehicles to crash. This second crash involved 38 passenger cars and 8 semi trucks, and resulted in the injuries. A driver involved in the pileup described it as "a brick wall of cars." "We were going really slow," said Latrelle Pickens, of Southfield, one driver involved in the pileup. "Visibility was poor (because of) the way the snow was going with the wind. We all had our hazards on because we couldn't see. "All of a sudden we could see but it was like a brick wall of cars because everyone was stopped," Pickens said. Pickens said the road was slick, from either ice or fluid spilled from other cars that had wrecked. Pickens said she braked and her Cadillac CTS first was hit from behind by another car. Her car lunged forward into a vehicle in front of her and turned sideways, and then another car hit her passenger side. "Looking forward, it was all kind of semis," Pickens said. "I couldn't see where the cars ended. It was just all this wreckage." At the same time of the second crash, a third crash involving six semi trucks and six cars happened on the westbound side of I-94 one mile east of Hartford. The initial investigation indicates that was caused by drivers traveling too fast for road conditions, following too closely and low visibility. The highway was shut down for six hours while authorities investigated. Police from four agencies assisted Michigan State Police at the scene. About 70 crash victims who weren't injured were taken to Hartford Federated Church, where the American Red Cross set up a shelter. There, those involved in the crash were interviewed by state police. They were returned to their cars, or waited for family members and friends to pick them up if their cars weren't able to be driven from the wreck. Emily Monacelli is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at emonacel@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter. [January 18, 2016] The Fujitsu Innovative Retail Engagement Analytics Solution Delivers In-store Intelligence for a New Generation of Connected Retailers NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- News facts: Improves shopper experience and store performance by delivering actionable shopper engagement intelligence, enabling stores to detect, connect and engage with customers The Fujitsu Connected Retail approach 1 enables retail clients to grow efficiencies, customer base, and business through IT solutions that solve current and future business challenges enables retail clients to grow efficiencies, customer base, and business through IT solutions that solve current and future business challenges Fujitsu delivers rapid, secure and agile services to retailers around the world Fujitsu today addresses the dramatic disparity in the high degree of actionable shopper engagement intelligence available for e-commerce, and the current severe lack of such insights in stores. The new FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution is a cloud-based analytics solution that integrates seamlessly with Point of Sales (PoS) and key retail information systems to further improve customer experience and store performance. Having completed a successful proof of concept trial with an international fashion retailer, and with other trials planned, this new solution provides retailers with a transformational means of detecting, connecting and engaging with customers. Whether shoppers make a purchase or not, stores can now maximize sales opportunities and customer satisfaction by using in-built business process management to turn analytics insights into action. For example, retailers will be better equipped to respond to customer traffic congestion in different departments by adding more associates and when integrated into the retailer's enterprise via a loyalty app can engage with shoppers while they are still in the store, making it more likely that they can make or save a sale. They also can use the analysis not only to highlight sales conversion by shopper volume, but also build a deeper understanding of promotion effectiveness over time. "In the online world, much is known about shopper behavior. In the store-centric world, where 90 percent of all sales still take place2, most retailers have no credible source for accurate, location-based shopper intelligence," said Marc Janssens, executive vice president of Retail at Fujitsu America, Inc. "Today's hyperconnected retail landscape requires technology solutions both online and in-store to enable a seamless shopping experience for both the retailer and the consumer. With brick-and-mortar stores continuing to be the epicenter of retail, Fujitsu is dedicated to developing and deploying the latest innovations for a completely integrated solution that improves the consumer experience while driving sales." Edward Westenberg, head of Retail Europe for Cisco: "We are excited to expand our global partnership with Fujitsu into the Retail industry. Through Cisco's Connected Mobile eXperiences (CMX) delivered either on premises or from the cloud, our Wi-Fi infrastructure and the associated Cisco intelligent network capabilities allow our Retail customers to leverage the power of Fujitsu Retail Engagement Analytics in order to enhance the shopping experience and benefit from operational control, including location-based services, targeted advertisements, seamless and secure Wi-Fi onboarding, advanced analytics. This allows our customers to use Wi-Fi services to build customer loyalty, boost sales, and improve business operations." Anne McClelland, head of the Partner Ecosystem for Cisco's US Business Transformation team: "With Fujitsu, Cisco is gaining a new and powerful Retail IT hardware, software and services partner who shares a wide visibility into larger, global retail organizations." How the FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution works The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution collects data from the latest connected sources in stores leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) and analyzes it in conjunction with retail data (such as sales data) to provide retailers with a transformational and visual means of understanding, analyzing and responding to shopper behavior. It uses Fujitsu-patented Flow Discovery Technology3 to deliver detailed and reliable analysis of shopper behavior, such as the number of visits per period, zonal volume of visitors, traffic flow through the store, number of repeat visitors, dwell time and sales department conversions that can be tracked, visualized, monitored and actioned. Alerts can be sent to store associates toenable proactive responses to avert potential problems before they occur. The solution enables store associates and managers to monitor and manage store performance with insightful and intuitive dashboards, reports, heatmaps and floor maps. For example, to drive revenue and profitability in their stores, retailers can use the solution to garner insights on how consumers interact with the physical store space, the patterns they use throughout the store and how long they dwell in a particular area; this information significantly helps managers make more informed decisions in how they merchandise their products, where they place and concentrate staff, whether the lighting needs to be adjusted, etc. all with a view to improving the experience for customers and driving revenue. Additionally, the analytical insights provide a rich and accurate source of data for the business teams planning store layouts, merchandising, marketing, CRM and labor scheduling. Delivered as a cloud offering, the solution is built on a platform that is specifically designed for precision analytics at scale and up to 500-times4 faster than traditional databases, made possible by Fujitsu advanced and high-performance database technology. The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution is built from the ground up with maximum security and privacy in mind. To address customer and country-specific privacy policies, Fujitsu also can deliver a privately-hosted version of the solution over its own secure Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5, delivered via the company's global network of data centers to meet customers' security requirements. The new solution is being showcased at the Fujitsu booth (#3805) at the National Retail Federation (NRF) BIG Show on January 17-20, 2016 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Availability The FUJITSU Retail Engagement Analytics solution will be available from April 2016 with rollout starting in North America. Notes to editors 1 Fujitsu's Connected Retail approach Fujitsu international strength and continuous investment in technology innovation allows the company to deliver consistent services to its customers. Fujitsu is committed to using its size, scope and experience as one of the world's largest IT companies to deliver global capabilities with local responsiveness and know-how. This encompasses: 159,000 people in more than 100 countries around the globe Over 202 billion yen ( US$1.69 billion ), approximately 4.3 percent of revenue in R&D, 95,000 patents worldwide on technologies, products, services and processes ( ), approximately 4.3 percent of revenue in R&D, 95,000 patents worldwide on technologies, products, services and processes End-to-end portfolio of retail applications, devices and supporting services One-stop-shop with the majority of products and solutions developed by Fujitsu Fujitsu retail solutions cover the whole value chain from store, warehouse and headquarter to the backbone in the data center. It transforms the customer experience in stores and across channels, and has the retail solution intellectual property, process knowledge and integration skills to make a difference. 2 The Omnichannel Consumer Preferences study summarizes the findings and input from a variety of retailers and property developers, and A.T. Kearney retail sector analysis. The independent survey of more than 2,500 consumers and dozens of retail executives was funded by, and completed in cooperation with, leading U.S. shopping mall real estate developers. 3 Flow Discovery technology is an extension to Fujitsu's Automated Process Discovery (APD) technology. Flow Discovery allows the shopper tracking through the store to be visualized using the facts and evidence from data sources to trace and render the route 'as it happens'. This approach and technology allows us to use non-invasive techniques to gather and process the evidence very efficiently into a comprehensive and accurate picture. 4 Using columnar-oriented data store approach along with indexing of columns and data compression, reduces the disk access time and enables Fujitsu to achieve faster query time over a large volume data sets. The performance advantage is on the order of 500x over traditional row-based store. For more information, please see: https://www.fujitsu.com/global/Images/FUJITSU_Software_SymfowareAnalyticsServer_Datasheet.pdf Online resources Fujitsu Retail Engagement Analytics: http://connectedretail.us.fujitsu.com/fujitsu-retail-offerings/retail-applications/retail-engagement-analytics Fujitsu Connected Retail: http://connectedretail.global.fujitsu.com Read the Fujitsu blog: http://blog.ts.fujitsu.com Follow Fujitsu on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/FujitsuAmerica Follow us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/fujitsu-america Find Fujitsu on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Fujitsu Fujitsu pictures and media server: http://mediaportal.ts.fujitsu.com/pages/portal.php For regular news updates, bookmark the Fujitsu newsroom: http://www.fujitsu.com/us/about/resources/news/ Media contacts Fujitsu Americas Bryan Hollar Phone: 408-746-6412 E-mail: [email protected] Finn Partners Andrew Corcione Phone: 212-593-5844 E-mail: [email protected] About Fujitsu Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.8 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com. About Fujitsu Americas Fujitsu America, Inc. is the parent and/or management company of a group of Fujitsu-owned companies operating in North, Central and South America dedicated to delivering the full range of Fujitsu products, solutions and services in ICT to our customers in the Western Hemisphere. These companies are collectively referred to as Fujitsu Americas.Fujitsu enables clients to meet their business objectives through integrated offerings and solutions, including consulting, systems integration, managed services, outsourcing and cloud services for infrastructure, platforms and applications; data center and field services; and server, storage, software and mobile/tablet technologies. For more information, please visit:http://solutions.us.fujitsu.com/ and http://twitter.com/fujitsuamerica. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140618/119400 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-fujitsu-innovative-retail-engagement-analytics-solution-delivers-in-store-intelligence-for-a-new-generation-of-connected-retailers-300205315.html SOURCE Fujitsu America, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] 18.01.2016 LISTEN Kisa presenting the items to officials at Korle-Bu According to actress and musician Kisa Gbekle, she was born with no 'silver spoon in her mouth.' The beautiful lady, who added another year last Saturday, said she grew up from a home where food to eat was a very big problem, saying, We used to eat once a day until I turned 12 and things changed a bit. I was brought up in a very poor home. Food to eat was a very big problem. My mum had to walk like 5-6 hours before getting us food to eat. We ate once a day until I became 12 years and had to start helping by selling secondhand clothes in the market before we ate. Thats in different markets in Volta, travelling hours as a 12-year-old girl. Even when sick, we had to go to the villages to get herbs to drink. Even on that sick bed, you still had to eat once. So it's now that God has blessed me to be able to feed three times a day, Kisa noted. She made the disclosure on Saturday after she donated items worth thousands of Ghana cedis to children at the Pediatric Unit of the KorleBu Teaching Hospital in Accra as part of her birthday and also her social responsibility. She continued: I want to make it a duty to give out part of what I have because it is not easy being sick. Some parents dont have. So it's not just today I will be doing this but I will make sure I do it when I get something, she said shortly after her donation. . Among items she donated included, boxes of Voltic water, Kalypo, cartons of Club Cola, biscuits, fruit juice, tissues and others. She personally shared some of the items like biscuits and drinks to the children at all wards. She was grateful to God for how far He has brought her. Kisa currently is not relenting in her quest to be one of Africa's celebrated movie names. From a humble beginning in Ghana's movie industry, she's now entered Nigeria's Nollywood movie industry, becoming Ghana's last export to Nollywood. Kisa started as a musician then featured in the TV series, The Miser, Accra Runs, Accra Hustlers, Stand By Me, 8PM and others. By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected]) 18.01.2016 LISTEN A scene from the gathering to mark one week of the managers death. INSET: Amakye Dede weeping at the ceremony Abrantie Amakye Dede, one of Ghana's most popular musicians, last Saturday broke down in uncontrollable tears at the one week funeral ceremony of his late manager, Isaac Yeboah, who died through a motor accident at the Bunsu Junction in the Eastern Region on January 1, 2016. It was a somber mood at the ceremony, with Abrantie Amakye Dede wiping his tears with a soaked handkerchief while friends of Isaac Yeboah and family members were also seen in the same mood. A lot of sympathisers and mourners also broke down in tears as they grieved over the unexpected death of Abrantie's manager. The one week funeral ceremony attracted a large number of people from all walks of life including media practitioners, musicians, movie stars and friends of Abrantie Amakye Dede. Musicians such as Nana Kwame Ampadu, Kofi B, Oheneba Kissi, Kojo Ampah among others, whose presence later turned the ceremony into a lively affair, mounted the stage one after the other to perform their various songs. Also present at the ceremony were Kofi Wayo, Socrate Safo, Bandex, Jackie Appiah, George Quaye, Sokoo Hemaa, Dr. Cann, Akosua Agyapong and many others. . Speaking to Beatwaves, a teary-eyed Abrantie Amakye Dede said, My manager is my everything; and I see his death as the greatest loss. He was a true friend and a trusted friend who would pay attention to anyone who approached him with a problem without being judgmental. His ability to empathize was amazing. May the Good Lord grant him a safe haven and keep him in his bosom until we meet again. Until his untimely death, Isaac Yeboah, who left behind two children, was the managing editor of the P&P newspaper. He died instantly after a fatal accident. He was with Amakye Dede and his bodyguard waiting for Amakye to perform at a concert at the Paradise Resort at the Bunso junction when another vehicle crashed into them. By George Clifford Owusu ([email protected]) Ace Gospel Musician Jack Alolome may incur the wrath of the leadership of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) for openly joining the campaign trail of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Jack Alolome known with his hit song God will May a Way was seen last Saturday at the NPP Fund Raising Ceremony in Kumasi. He was dressed in white attire with NPP paraphernalia on his neck. The gospel musician, in support of the NPP Campaign composed and arranged a track inciting the NPP supporters against the ruling government. The track, titled Mahama Be ko, is an Akan translation of the musician Mahama will go. Jack Alolome was among the few musicians who performed at the Fund Raising Ceremony at Baba Yara Sport Stadium in Kumasi. Our sources can confidently say that the ace gospel musician has thrown his unflinching support for the opposition New Patriotic Party. Last year, The Write Experience had a strong message about the essence of appreciating our environment through a fusion of poetry, live jazz music, graffiti and contemporary dance. By popular demand, Inkfluent brings you the second edition, dubbed: Healing Handicapped Homes. The event explores how art can be used as a tool to heal and keep us aware in the midst of society's drag. This is another Kwame Write concept composed of an animated collage of film, poetry, live music and contemporary dance featuring a collaboration with artist Serge Attukwei and performances by Rewrite Crew, Jude Kurankyi, poets from Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin, as well as a live music session by Humble International Band (an extraordinarily talented team of persons with blindness) aside a few surprises. The fusion is based on Africa's intrinsic visual and oral context and the dynamism of body, action, space, time and energy, also using technology as an innovative means to explore the realities of displacement due to natural or artificial effects. The result subtly creates the awareness of fragility of existence and the concrete belief in transformation when a collective of broken societies merge. The Write Experience is a long-term project aimed at bringing together artists from different parts of Africa for cultural exchange and social activism; reflecting on the Scramble for Africa (the artificial drawing made among European powers which started with the Berlin Conference of 188485) and its after-effects due to the creation of African political boundaries. We combine history and trajectory of contemporary experimental forms mixing local, Anglophone and francophone dialects. This particular edition remarkably involves persons with disabilities in performances to express individuality and the limitless healing abilities of the human touch. Even as a continent made up of independent but handicapped bits, how does our connectedness aid our growth? The event will take place on Wednesday 27th January, 2016 at Alliance Francaise Accra at 7:30pm Don't miss out on The Write Experience II La Paillote Takpekpe is a platform for emerging artists funded by Alliance Francaise Accra If you have an idea for an event, contact us: [email protected] / 0501287811 RATE: GHC 5 / GHC 3 FOR STUDENTS & AF MEMBERS / FREE UNDER 16 KWAMEWRITE ZOHRA DSC00876 The management of the premier monotechnic in the country, the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, has affirmed that Godwin crooner, who is also a student of the school, Korede Bello has a special status as a student of the journalism institute. Days ago, a report surfaced on blogs and other online media that some lecturers in the school had threatened to resign if Korede was allowed to write the forthcoming examination as he didnt meet up with the schools mandatory 70% attendance. However, in an exclusive chat with Showtime, a top management and academic staff of the institution who craved anonymity, stated that he was unaware that Korede would be barred from writing the examination. I have heard nothing of the sort. Besides, why is Korede Bello being singled outis it because hes a celebrity? If the 70% attendance policy is followed to the letter, many students will be affected as they wouldnt be allowed to write exams; thats why we temper justice with mercy sometimes. Its sad that Journalism in Nigeria has been reduced to mere sensationalism, and the promotion of the Pull Him Down (PHD) syndrome. None of our academic staff ever granted an interview stating that Korede wouldnt be allowed to write exams, so I see the reports as mere figments of the imagination of the people who wrote them, the source said. He continued, Korede Bello completed his National Diploma (ND) programme here, and he became a star through this school. Dont forget that he is a brand icon of this school, and as such, he has a special status in the school. Meanwhile, efforts to reach Korede were abortive as at the time of filing this report as calls put through to his manager didnt connect. 16.01.2016 LISTEN President Barack Obama of the United States has lied to Ghana about the credibility of the two terrorist criminals already in Ghana. The American President did not give Ghana the full information on the two terrorist criminals who are now described as detainees. What is the reason for their detention? What is the classified information on each so-called detainee? The U.S. is rubbishing the answers under carpet. The hopeless security agencies of Ghana are still struggling with ARMED ROBBERY. How much more terrorism? Ghanaians must force Mahama to send the terrorists back to America. Nigeria, the largest country in Africa with very large military, is also struggling to overcome Boko Haram, a terrorist organisation, which has destroyed many families. U.S. information Officer Sarah Stealy, trained to defend the policies of her government, has refused to comment on the classified document on the two dangerous and terrorist criminals compiled in 2007. Her flimsy excuse is that U.S. has a long standing policy, which does not permit her to comment on documents allegedly leaked. The Information Officer claims U.S. trusts Ghanas security to deal with SMALL threat posed by two Guantanamo Bay detainees. Has the U.S. tested the security of Ghana and found it to be capable? It is therefore an admission of fact that the two terrorists have not reformed and are capable of fomenting problems in their new sanctuary. The leaked document from the U.S. assessed Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby as dangerous. The December 28, 2007, document leaked by the New York Times newspaper and U.K. Telegraph revealed Bin Atef served as a fighter in the UBLs 5th Arab Brigade and travelled to Northern Afghanistan to fight on the front lines in Konduz. Bin Atef has also led a detainees unrest at Guantanamo Bay and once threatened to slit the throat of U.S. citizens, if ever released. Did Ghanas President Mahama forget to ask for the background check but accepted the face value of what the Americans said to the Ghanaian negotiators? President Mahama has demonstrated his incompetence and breached the 1992 constitution to allow the two terrorists into our quiet and peaceful state of Ghana. This is a clear indication of President Mahamas careless about the people in particular and the nation in general. The incompetent and clueless Mahama has put at risk the Ghanaian Hospitality which past and present leaders excluding President Mahama, have cherished dearly. Every intelligent security agency of any civilized nation will first ask for the background check of any person wanting, requesting or asking for a stay in a particular country. Before the advent of the Obama Administration, he told the Americans and the world he would have all the criminals at Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre tried by the Civil Courts of America and close the detention centre. Since the separation of powers work in the United States, the Congress and the populace refused the request of Obama on his assumption of office. The people wondered where the terrorists will be kept for their trials. President Obama has been fighting tooth and nail to get these criminals out of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre to accomplish his aim of closing the Centre. There are still more than 130 detainees languishing at the centre. President Obama should have known by now its a hard nut to crack before he leaves office. This will be one of the major or cardinal flops or failure of promises his administration made to the people of America. Government has condemned Saturday's terror attacks in Burkina Faso, promising to enhance support to stem terrorist threats in the sub-region. A statement signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Hanna Tetteh, says Ghana commits to work with countries within our ECOWAS region to ensure that our citizens can live in peace and security. Ouagadougou confirmed Saturday that 28 people died and 56 got injured after Islamist militants attacked a hotel in the Burkinabe capital. The hotel is said to be popular with foreigners. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has said it carried out the attack that sparked Friday. At least four attackers died in the assaults. Six of those killed were from Canada, Burkinabe officials say. The siege at the Splendid Hotel was declared over after a joint operation by local and French security forces. The Sunday evening release by the Ghana government also states: We offer our heartfelt condolences to President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the relatives of the deceased victims, and the Government and people of Burkina Faso. We stand with our sister country of Burkina Faso in this difficult time and are ready to enhance our cooperation and work together to see an end to this terrorist threat. Read the full statement below. Government of Ghana condemns Terrorist Attacks in Burkina Faso The Government of Ghana strongly condemns the terrorist attacks that took place over the last two days in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. The attacks which started on Friday at the Splendid Hotel, the Cappuccino Cafe and also the Yibi Hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso have since ended. Over twenty-eight persons lost their lives as a result of this tragedy. We offer our heartfelt condolences to President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, the relatives of the deceased victims, and the Government and people of Burkina Faso. We stand with our sister country of Burkina Faso in this difficult time and are ready to enhance our cooperation and work together to see an end to this terrorist threat. We commit ourselves to work with the countries within our ECOWAS region to ensure that our citizens can live in peace and security. Signed: Hanna S. Tetteh Tributes have started pouring in for Komla Afeke Dumor, the exemplary former host of Joy FMs Super Morning Show and BBC anchor who passed away in 2014. The BBC TV presenter died on January 18, 2014 suddenly at his home in London. The celebrated 41-year-old ace broadcaster was a presenter for BBC World News and Focus on Africa programme. Delphinus Kofi Nordor, an avid Joy FM listener, writes: In the 41yrs 3mths 15days that he spent on earth, Komla Afeke Dumor really lived out his life in consonant with the meaning of his name. AFEKE (The Root of the Family), Dumor (Du wo fe mo) which come together to mean The Root of the Family, who also shows or serves as way to Nations. In the annals of broadcast Journalism, Komla was a trailblazer who continues to inspire me. On the occasion of the 2nd year of his passing, I celebrate him! " On Joy FM's Facebook page, Joy 99.7 FM, the following tributes have been sent: Meshack Ofori Agyemang : "He served as an ambassador of peace and hard work to the youths." Bra Fuad: "I do remember him way back wen he use to work at Joy FM he was amazing man with sweet voice I like his program. In fact he is my mentor may Allah for give him nd may continue to bless wat he left back RIP great man". Owusu Bernard "He was a brother I never met. Anytime I watch BBC focus on Africa I feel sad when I see Peter Okoche and Sofa Nkoye instead of Komla and Peter. Anyway he has finished his job. Forever remain in my heart.RIP Komla Dumor joined the BBC as a radio broadcaster in 2006 after a decade of journalism in Ghana." Komla Dumor featured in New African magazine's November 2013 list of 100 most influential Africans. It said he had "established himself as one of the emerging African faces of global broadcasting", who had "considerable influence on how the continent is covered". Komla Dumor was born on 3 October 1972 in Accra. He graduated with a BA in Sociology and Psychology from the University of Ghana, and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. He won the Ghana Journalist of the Year award in 2003 and joined the BBC three years later. From then until 2009 he hosted Network Africa for BBC World Service radio, before joining The World Today programme. 18.01.2016 LISTEN Russian news agencies have reported on Friday that Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil company in the world, exited projects in Cote d'Ivoire, where it led exploration in the deep offshore. The company confirmed the information about leaving the projects to TASS News Agency. Lukoil has operated in the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean) offshore Cote d'Ivoire since 2006. Last August, Lukoil pulled out of the oil and gas exploration drilling project (development of block SL-5-11) that it began in Sierra Leone, only explaining to local Russian news agencies, that the company did not currently have any projects and has backed away due to poor exploration results in Sierra Leone. A couple of years ago, Pavel Bogomolov, Government & Public Relations Manager of Lukoil Overseas Ghana Ltd, spoke to the Buziness Africa media about the Lukoil company's operations in Ghana and its plans to expand business operations to other African countries, such as Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone. He said that Lukoil has focused on upstream exploration projects in the waters of other West African states. Lukoil's senior management has emphasized on more than one occasion that, if the quantity of the reserves to be evaluated on the blocks proves to be sufficient for their industrial development and exports, some intensifying and broadening of the regional program would become likely to consider. He also explained that the only real difficulty Lukoil has faced on the African continent was the constitutional crisis and conflicts in Cote d'Ivoire. Those lamentable events temporarily paralyzed foreign investment in that country, according to Bogomolov. The information about Lukoil possibly terminating operations in Iraq, Venezuela, Cote d'Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana and Ukraine, was reported in August 2014. The company's report said that Lukoil has been active in a number of countries with a high level of political and economic risks that could significantly complicate the work of the company in a particular region, and even lead to its termination. In 2014, it was reported that drilling in West Africa, including in Ghana, Cote d'ivoire and Sierra Leone, did not bring Lukoil the expected results, so as not demonstrated commercial hydrocarbon reserves. Vice-President of the company Leonid Fedun did not rule out that Lukoil could withdraw from almost all of the projects in West Africa. Russia's Lukoil is one of the world's biggest vertically integrated companies for production of crude oil and gas, and their refining into petroleum products and petrochemicals. The company is a leader on Russian and international markets in its core business and its key mission is to harness natural energy resources for human benefit and supports long-term economic growth, social stability, prosperity and progress in the regions where it operates. 18.01.2016 LISTEN When a country is ruled by a myopic leader who cannot see far into the future, his people suffer. When a country is led by a person who cannot make judicious use of his brains and mandate, the country bleeds and his people moan and groan. When a country is managed by a person who does not listen to the views of his people, the country and the people therein remain always tormented. When a country is ruled by a person who has crazy infatuation with corruption, the country sinks financially and his people cry for help from the outside world. Ghana is currently ruled by a leader who identifies with the qualities and conducts enumerated above hence the people are agitated. President Mahama believes that no Ghanaian has the right to advise him on governance unless the person has once been the President of Ghana. Subsequently, he has been taking decisions on strategic national issues on his own. All such decisions he takes turn out to be not in the best interest of the people and the nation. No wonder he claimed in his book to have never been able to take any sensible decision in his life since his infancy. When there was no Ebola virus detected in Ghana or the disease not ravaging Ghana as it was doing to Liberia and Sierra Leone, President Mahama sought not only to have Sub-regional West African Ebola Centre built in Ghana but also, have Ghanaians vaccinated with Ebola vaccines that were in clinical-testing stage. Was there any intellectual reason or wisdom in his initiative? He had better research how drugs in clinical trial stage are used. They are not used on such a broad scale as he had wished, but on a limited voluntary basis. Now, he has secretly over a period of one year negotiated and entered into agreement with America to dump two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees on Ghana. No Ghanaian, except him and probably a few of his trusted NDC gurus were aware of when, how and why he arranged to get the ex-detainees dumped on Ghana. What are the terms of the negotiations, agreement and contract that necessitated the dumping of the two ex-detainees on Ghana? As disrespectful to the people of Ghana as usual, he refuses to give us any tangible reason for accepting those people into Ghana. He feels nobody has the right to query him about his action seeing that he is the President of Ghana. Little does he know that even though he is the President, he is an employee of Ghanaians hence he is accountable to the people for the actions and decisions he takes? Being crafty as usual, he is seeking an escape route out of the quagmire by whipping up the sentiments of the people through the evocation of religion. He claims Ghanaians are religious and compassionate so why cannot we accommodate the ex-detainees? Bringing religion into the matter, saying Ghanaians are Christians so what the fuss about the presence of just two individuals in Ghana is where he has unintentionally ignited foreign or internal acts of terrorism against Ghana. Now, some people may think we do not want them in Ghana because they are Muslims. This will incite the Muslims in Ghana to begin to have second thoughts. They may then decide to rally behind the ex-detainees by getting radicalised in a way. Once that is done, the problem of visitation of terrorist acts on Ghana has started. Let me make a point clear to those trying to allow President Mahama run away from blame with his cheap religious evocation propaganda. Those fanatics who involve themselves in suicide bombings, beheadings of fellow human beings and pure hatred towards some people simply for where they come from or what faith they belong to are not MUSLIMS. They are evil fanatics according to proper Muslims. Islam and Prophet Mohammed do not ask their followers to dress up in suicide jackets to blow themselves up in anticipation of killing many other innocent or guilty persons. The actions of such individuals are not Islamic. They are by such actions putting Islam in disrepute. Such persons are face-value (carnal-minded) Muslims if not pure evils. True Muslims do not share their views. I have lived among Muslims both in Ghana and abroad. I know how Muslims are. They are good and kind people. I have Muslim friends both in Ghana and abroad. A genuine Muslim who understands the Koran will not even hurt a fly. President Mahama should not try to bring in religion to justify his senseless decision of bringing the ex-detainees into Ghana in the first place. Do the ex-detainees not have their own country to go to? If their country is at war against itself, did they decide on their own accord to seek refuge in Ghana? Were the American people stupid to have decided not to accommodate them in their country which is hundreds of times bigger than Ghana? If they themselves for their security and safety concerns had requested America to send them elsewhere other than their own country, then we may have to consider their circumstances but not where America in concerted effort with President Mahama dump them on us. To President Mahama, I say, Money is not the end of everything so please curtail your silly quest for amassing all the wealth of the world to yourself. Again, please do take rational decisions that will make all or the majority of Ghanaians happy. Yes, you have to take hard decisions but they must not be dangerous and stupid! I hear people call on Nana Akufo Addo to speak on this issue relating to the ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees. What has Nana Addo to say on this? Nothing! Why should Nana share views on this? Will Mahama listen if Nana was to express a contrary view? No! Then why should Nana waste his breath in the first place? Let Ghanaians themselves deal with it. Nana Akuffo Addo will not do anything that will anger all, or almost all Ghanaians. He will listen to the voice of the people and take decisions that will suit the people because he as a President, understands to have been mandated by the people to serve them but not to lord himself over them. Is this not the quality of a good leader? He will be a democratic but not an autocratic or a laissez-faire President. President Mahama has goofed. He has to own up and man up rather than worsening the situation by bringing in religion. Rockson Adofo 18.01.2016 LISTEN Our nation is going through another social political convulsion now. The trigger for this catharsis comes form loud echoes of Guantanamo, [Gitmo] Cuba an American Ultra Maximum prison holding the hardest core of criminal terrorists. What ought to be sober reflective consideration of critical issues have become, sadly, politically driven insults and perverse political stage managing. Some political operatives are actually insulting Bishops and others because they hold different views on this matter. We all know what has happened. Two of the most brutal terrorists residence at Guantanamo have been moved to Ghana. The president of the United Sates, in consultations with the Department of Defense, State and all the relevant National Security Agencies determined that the two gentle men should be released but not to reside in the United States. Somewhere else is preferred. I have looked at the distribution of the those freed. Several countries indeed have agreed to receive and settle these hard core terrorists. Ghana received two. Only two? And look at what only two terrorists are presently doing to our country! Mahmud Umar Mohamed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhamad Salih Al Dhuby were not picked up for jay-walking! They are, in fact, hard core Al-Qaeda operatives. They are extremists of the extreme type. You dont have to be an expert in this to see that a transaction of this nature brings to bear several agencies of government apparatus. It is an internationally negotiated treaty of some kind, so all the agencies and institutions put in place to deal with this kind of matter are directly impacted. To our amazement, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hannah Maame Serwaah Tetteh has publicly stated that she was not (repeat NOT) informed of the details of this transaction. She was sidelined and made ignorant of the very matter she was supposed to be in charge of. She said the President handled this matter himself because it was deemed to be national security driven. Sad. Very sad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is and must be seen as no less an apparatus for our national security! And thus, our Foreign Minister expressly stating that she was not involved in the critical decision making on this international transaction, should alarm us. This actually amounts to a transactional definition of incompetency! Period. Then comes the Minister of Interior, the very center of our Internal Security apparatus. This ministry is headed by my Navrongo brother Woyongo. (I was educated at Navrongo all from Navrongo are my brothers and sisters, seriously.) He says he was not (repeat, NOT) consulted and was not involved in the decision to import the two hard core terrorists into our country. I believe the Department of Immigration falls under his Jurisdiction. There are specific laws governing these very specific issues under which the Head of on National Immigration, who reports, to the Minister of Interior, has clearly defined powers to deal with this sort of matter. And he says he was not consulted. It follows that the head of our National Immigration was NOT consulted. Simply put, two of the most critically relevant Departments of the Government and their operating agencies were not consulted or brought into the loop in making this decision to bring in these hard core terrorists. Was the Attorney General consulted? So far, there is no indication that she was. Further, the question remains. Was our national Parliament consulted? It seems absolutely not. The reach of arrogant incompetency is expanding. Who decided that the Ministers and agencies of government appointed and paid by public funds should not be consulted because it is a security issue? It is precisely because it is a security issue that the Foreign Minister must be fully informed and contribute her thoughts (if any) to the decision making. The Minister of interior must, most definitely, be critically involved in the decision making. He says he was not. He surrendered to, or was deprived of, his jurisdiction to the President and his inner circles because it was security. It boggles the mind. Incompetency over reach! And the Attorney General does not appear to have been consulted. She would have memoed them on the guiding Terrorist related laws in Ghana. The manifest disrespect to Parliament in the decision making process on this issue, defines and establishes two terribly bad truths: Parliament has been severely undermined by its own failure to assert its constitutional independence and sovereignty as a Counter -Force against an over reaching and (over stealing) Executive Branch. The Executive Presidency accords little respect to Parliament because the Parliament has become an extension of that Executive Branch; as Parliament itself trumpets the achievements of the Executive Branch. The full extension of this approach is that our Constitution is weakened and the practical infrastructure to hold people accountable collapses. We are badly in the red for this. So the tragedies compound and expand. All because, someone decided that they are not accountable to the People or anyone else a definition of arrogance and hubris with a perverse nonchalant disregard of the imperatives of what they swore to uphold. Impeachment should be the result of this clear subversion of our laws. But political reality overcomes legal direction. President Mahama will no not be impeached; he should be. And he will not send back to the United States, (or anywhere else) the terrorists he brought in by way of his compassion. Kwaku Mahmud is staying; Kofi Khalid is also staying. As I write this article, news reports are coming in that brothers associated with Al-Qaeda are attacking and killing total strangers at our door step in Burkina Faso. Hotel Splendid in Ouagadougou is on fire. Almost 25 innocent people killed. Al Qaeda at work on our door step. This is not a joke. Our Nation Security is at stake. As I see it, the gravest damage done to our Country by this fake compassion driven arrogance-and colossal failure to consult proper agencies, it is the calculated opening of the malignant portions of the religious divide in our country. Already we hear some leading Muslim leaders, the Chief Imam of Ghana (or is it Accra only) very specifically saying we should welcome our Muslim brothers. Not just brothers; as they are truly brothers in our human pool. The introduction of Muslim as a description and qualifier of brothers Mahmud and Khalid, contains horrid internal dangers set in motion by this incompetent President. Did he actually think about this? So, factions of our brothers want us to keep them here because they are Muslim brothers. In fact, terrorists kill more Muslims than they kill others. This is a fact! So these Muslim Brothers are skilled at killing Muslims with ease and no reservations at all. So lets call them our brothers if we must, and remove the emotional draws that religion imports and obfuscates the direction of dispassionate analysis of the issues of national concern before us now. It is true that certain religious groups are set against this Mahama only decision. In the end, it is precisely because the President did not consult anybody not even the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Interior that we find ourselves in this sad and dangerous predicament. No matter what, Muslims are being killed with ruthless abandon by terrorists and their criminal sympathizers. Look at North Eastern Nigeria. Boko Harem rains daggers of death on Muslims and others. Terrorists kill for the sake of killing and rebrand their killing with the cover of Allah and Islamic sentiments. We should never ever encourage this by calling them Muslim brothers. Dont grant them the cover they seek by calling them Muslim Brothers. They are not even Muslim in the sense the Prophet taught us! And the various groups seeking to return then to base; it is not going to happen. The reality is that we must get a full accounting from this Government of how much in dollars Uncle Sam paid and into what accounts for us, as a nation to take care of these Yemeni Asamoah Gyan loving terrorists brothers Mahmud and Khalid. We must make every determined effort not to nourish our base instincts for a religious divide because of Mahamas compassion. We must not be allowed to see this as a Muslim/Christian dichotomy, because it is not. We must see it only as an issue of National Security. Unfortunately, the present leadership did not think through the compelling issues driving the debate. Lets quash the fires of the national divide along religious lines and find a way to deal with the terrorist in our midst. We have a duty to our nation. Lets rise up and change our attitude, and our direction and our Nation will be made whole again. We pray We must renew our land. Dennis Adjei-Brenyah is an attorney practicing Law in the State of New York. 18.01.2016 LISTEN At nearly 92 years old and an active journalist and a public lecturer, Mr. K. B. Asante has made himself quite a respectable and relevant figure on the Fourth Republican Ghanaian political landscape. Still, I am not certain about the accuracy of his assessment that his long-deceased former boss and postcolonial Ghanas first leader, Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, would have gladly consented to the American request to have the two Saudi-born Yemeni terror suspects temporarily resettled in Ghana (See Nkrumah Wouldve Accepted Gitmo 2 K. B. Asante Starrfmonline / Ghanaweb.com 1/17/16). We know through considerable research that in spite of his reams of hostile writings and speeches constantly and steadily lambasting the American government and his intemperate description of Washington as an imperialist vampire, largely to please his Soviet bosses, that Nkrumah generally lacked the courage of his convictions. For instance, while on an official visit to the United States in 1958, or thereabouts, Richard Mahoney reports that the Ghanaian leader had the chutzpah to claim in a CBS-TV interview that talk of racism and the inhumane treatment of African-Americans were grossly exaggerated by Americas detractors and aimed at unfairly embarrassing Washington in the eyes of the global community (See Mahoneys JFK: The Africa Ordeal). Nevertheless, as of whether the deposed late Ghanaian leader would have happily accepted Messrs. Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, would pretty much have depended on the period of his tenure during which such demand would have been made by the White House, State Department or the Pentagon or all three institutions of the American government. For example, if such request had been made in the late 1950s or early 1960s, while Nkrumah was earnestly negotiating to have the Americans fund the Akosombo Dam Project, in all likelihood, an indescribably desperate President Nkrumah would have readily consented to such a risky undertaking. With the proverbial Show Boy, it was fundamentally a question of the bottom-line. It definitely would not have been because the U.S.-educated Ghanaian leader had any genuine respect or affection for the American government and / or any of its key operatives. At the end of the day, and deeply at heart, Nkrumah was a shameless opportunist and a pathological cynic who was widely known for his pontifical and stentorian speeches against the white-racist Apartheid regime in Pretoria, even while also secretly trading with the white South Africans in items ranging from apples, munitions and mining equipment (See Kwame Arhins Kwame Nkrumah: His Life and Work). Nonetheless, what I am more interested in here and want Ghanaians to be aware of is the incontrovertible fact that Mr. K. B. Asante, the former Presiding Officer of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), is a staunch supporter of the faux-socialist Nkrumaist-packed Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). We must also not forget that Nkrumah had massive protest demonstrations organized in Ghanas capital of Accra, when the French government decided to have one of their nuclear warheads tested in the Sahara Desert, in one of its former West African colonial territories. Needless to say, Messrs. Bin Atef and Al-Dhuby are the veritable equivalent of human nuclear bombs. It is also quite certain that if former President John Agyekum-Kufuor or Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia had secretly arranged to have Messrs. Bin Atef and Al-Dhuby resettled in Ghana, shortly after their release from the U.S. Naval Base at Cubas Guantanamo Bay, after 14 years of preventive detention without trial, Mr. Asantes reaction would have been diametrically the opposite of what it is presently; and his condemnation would have been both swift and poignant in thrust and very different from what he is claiming and smugly alleging today about what the attitude and the temperament of his former boss would have been. Indeed, about the only other way that anybody could fairly accurately presume Nkrumah to have been poised to cottoning up to the decision to have Messrs. Bin Atef and Al-Dhuby granted asylum in Ghana, would have been to use such gesture to ingratiate himself with his North African neighbors, especially Egypts President Abdel Gamal Nasser, whose support the megalomaniacal Ghanaian leader desperately needed to push through his patently quixotic agenda of African unification under a one-party socialist dictatorship. Still, at the end of the day, what Ghanaians need to recognize, first and foremost, is the fact that they cannot continue to live under the speculative shadow of a man who primarily envisaged their country as a mere stepping stone and a decidedly incidental geopolitical appendage towards his temporally oversized ambition of becoming the first president of a Union of African Socialist States. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs 18.01.2016 LISTEN In principle, I am not really interested in the statistical distribution of the ethnic and cultural identities of the Mahama cabinet. They are, nearly to a person, as good as useless. Nevertheless, if anybody decides to take on this patently treacherous, albeit a not wholly insignificant, question, particularly one who also describes himself as the ruling partys boss in one of the most economically significant and productive regions of the country, then, by all means, let that person get his facts and figures accurately. And here, of course, my unmistakable reference is to Mr. Bismark Tawiah-Boateng, the Eastern Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). By the way, this is not the very first time that I have been forced to cross swords with Mr. Tawiah-Boateng. In the latest instance, the man wants all Ghanaians and the rest of the world to believe that the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panyin, II, is being miserly with the truth when the Paramount King of Akyem-Abuakwa observes the incontestable fact that President John Dramani Mahama has not leveled up with Okyeman as he ought to, vis-a-vis his cabinet appointments (See Appreciate Mahamas Appointments of Akyems in Govt E/R NDC Replies Okyehene [sic] Modernghana.com 1/18/16). It is quite obvious that Mr. Tawiah-Boateng is not an Okyeni not that it would matter anyhow which is why he is able to so shamelessly lie through his teeth by claiming that Attorney-General Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong is of Akyem descent. Well, I happen to be personally acquainted with somebody who attended both secondary school and the University of Ghana with Mrs. Appiah-Oppong (nee Marietta Brew). Take this from me, Mr. Tawiah-Boateng, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice is a bona fide Fante-descended woman. I am, however, reliably informed that Mrs. Appiah-Oppongs husband comes from my community in Ghana. And so, I guess you can fairly describe her as a bona fide Fante woman who delightfully sleeps Akyem. By Akan tradition and custom, her conjugal affiliation with Mr. Appiah-Oppong notwithstanding, the former Ms. Marietta Brew is still a bona fide Fante, not an Okyeni even by osmosis, if the virulent and calculatedly mendacious critic knows what I mean. Indeed, going by such weird logic, one could also aptly describe the Education Minister, Mrs. Naana Opoku-Agyeman, the former Vice-Chancellor of Cape Coast University, as an Okyeni because Naana was once married to Prof. Opoku-Agyeman, a native of Akyem-Tafo, whom I personally had the chance to meet in 1989 at the City College of the City University of New York, during the Langston Hughes Festival, I believe. And by the way, a Deputy Regional Minister is not a cabinet appointee, as is also Nana Adusei-Peasah, the Akyem-Tafohene, who is described as the Regional Chairman of the Lands Commission, and who does not seem to have been very effective in that capacity, gauging by Mr. Mahamas own description of Akyem-Abuakwa as the Galamsey Capital of Ghana. The two Messrs. Smith are, respectively, Ghanas Ambassador to the United States and the UK. They work directly under the emotionally jejune and grossly incompetent Ms. Hanna Tetteh, and so I find Mr. Tawiah-Boatengs implicit description of these two gentlemen as cabinet appointees to be deeply offensive. And by the way, these two lost souls are also my relatives via Akyem-Asiakwa. We also know that Mr. Julius Debrah, the Presidential Chief-of-Staff, was recently named to the position as a strategic token and a lurid means of courting the Akan vote. Whether this tacky strategy would work is also another question altogether. Suhum is, of course, traditionally the commercial village of the Chief of Akyem-Apedwa, as ironic as this may sound; however, the last time that I checked, it was classified as one of the Akuapem constituencies. Now, I am not in the hair-splitting habit of differentiating Akuapems from Akyems. We are essentially the same people. Nonetheless, there are some geopolitical truths than cannot be lightly glossed over. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs 18.01.2016 LISTEN Where do we run to? Where do we hide? What do we do? Oh My GOD! To live with the nightmare of watching your back lest a terrorist throws at you a bomb or stabs you when you least expect it, is the most tortuous ordeal a human being can be subjected to. Mr President claimed that compassionate is his middle name. First of all, that is a fat lie. Dramani, which means Abdul Rahman, translates as Servant of the COMPASSIONATE ONE (GOD), albeit his case is quite inapposite in this context. Let me explain. The shameful failure chocked thus far by the NDC government, under the auspices of President John Dramani Mahama, has had a dwindling effect on the fortunes of Ghanaians. The economy has been in a perpetual freefall; the corruption has nauseated even the onlookers from far and wide; excessive taxation has snapped the backs of resilient men; the celebrity reputation that Ghanaians had built, painstakingly, over the years went up in smokes with the advent of this unreserved apology of a pejorative government. As if it were not enough, arms begun trickling into the country some of which were seized. I had postulated that some sort of alibi was being created to achieve a rather ominous agenda come elections 2016. See http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/John-Mahama-Vice-President-and-the-Security-Alibi-404067 Then, no sooner had I voiced my suspicion than President John Dramani Mahama welcomed perceived terrorists into the country. However, to carry the rejected burdens of the Americans who, via laws and legislations, refused to grant the Guantanamo celebrity terrorists stay in their midst, is downright treasonable. President John Compassionate Mahama, Sir, the word making the rounds is that you were given a lump sum of $230,000,000 (two hundred and thirty million US Dollars) by the Obama administration to fan the heat that would result from this deal. H.E. Robert Mugabe rejected such a bamboozling curse outright, and told the Americans to shove their cash. His country is in dire need of assistance and is in no enviable condition, yet his patriotism did not allow him to sell his country. But you did sell us! You have sold our peace to satisfy your greed. You have an insatiable thirst for money, it seems. Then, to add insult to injury, you accepted to use the tax payers money to care for those scary imports. The Americans have practically broken the international laws, and theirs, for assisting President John compassionate Mahama to launder money. They have perpetrated the criminal act of money laundering. That is what it is. They must have colluded with the President against the nation because most of his officers have denied knowledge about the backdoor money. I believe that this would be appropriately termed BRIBE, otherwise regurgitate it, now! How do we protect our children? You have used your empty barrels to make a lot of noise stating that these people do not pose a threat to the security of our nation. You had monsters like Koku and other haranguers defend this outrageous act of chicanery. Your children are safe, and so are theirs; but what about those of us striving to make a living under your uncompassionate rule, Mr President? Most Ghanaians are sweating it out in the heat of the kitchen that Nunoo Mensah asked us to leave if we could not tolerate, and all we demand is security to move on. It has come to the time that we have to watch our backs! It has come to the time that we have to watch out for terrorists in our midst! It has come to the time that we feel insecurity in everything that we do, even in our homes or during recreational activities. We now have to think twice before going to places of public gatherings. All that is due to your compulsive urge to grab money. Is your Presidency all about MONEY??? We are terrified! Oh GOD please help us!!! Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL. Smarttys Management and Productions Limited, the company that re-branded some 116 buses for Ghc3.6million has reached an agreement with the Attorney General to refund the excess payment by the end of March this year. A payment schedule submitted by lawyers for Smarttys confirmed that the payments would be made in three installments, with the first installment to be paid by the end of January. The rebranding of the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) buses using oil funds generated heated controversy in the country leading to the resignation of the Transport Minister Hon. Dzifa Attivor. The rebranding of the buses, which involved the embossment of the pictures of President John Dramani Mahama and former civilian heads of state and government of Ghana and the painting of the buses in national colours, according to the 2015 annual report on Petroleum Funds, cost GH31,000 each. Meanwhile, the AG has confirmed that the amount to be refunded has been reviewed from GH1.9 million to GH1,548,608.04. This is because of the revised VAT position, revised withholding tax position and a set-off of GH27,173.74, being over deduction of withholding tax on the original payment. Volunteering employees at Access Bank Ghana from the Western Region have handed over a newly constructed mechanised borehole to the Enchi Training College in the Western Region. The borehole project, which forms part of Access Banks Employee Volunteering Programme (EVP), will help alleviate the challenges of gaining access to portable water by students. The Enchi Training College, established in November 1965, has recently been confronted with water scarcity due to its increasing student population. In a short inaugural ceremony to hand over the borehole to the school, the Headmistress of the training college Madam Victoria Aidoo-Aful informed guests of the various challenges facing the institution and commended Access Bank employees for heeding to the call to support the school address some of its challenges. What we are witnessing today is very commendable and noble of Access Bank employees. Water as we all know, is life and having this borehole couldnt have come at a better time. This will help students save a lot of time to concentrate on their studies instead of spending hours of their precious time to obtain water, she added. The project director of the Access Bank Western EVP group, Mr. Paul Ackah, who handed over the borehole to the college stated: The training college is an important institution here in Enchi, and as a key partner in the development of our communities, we felt it necessary to give our support when the SRC of the college called on us. For us at Access Bank, we believe the prosperity of our communities is tied to our business success and the provision of the water facility will enhance the quality of health, not for just the students, but the entire community. Over the last six years, Access Bank has displayed a strong commitment to health, education, environment and social improvement issues by leveraging its people and financial resources to invest in various projects across the country. This is in line with the Banks strategy of contributing to the long-term sustainable development within its markets of operations. The Bank was recently recognized at the West African Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Excellence Awards as Best Bank in Corporate Social Responsibility, an accolade that was also awarded to the Bank in 2014 and 2010 at the Ghana Banking Awards. 18.01.2016 LISTEN The attack on one of Ouagadougou's leading hotels is ample evidence that we are not out of the radar of the dreaded and deadly terrorists touting doubtful Islamic credentials. The world, especially Ghana, woke up to the disturbing news about the Moktar Belmoktar's Al-Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, an ISIS-inspired and supported grouping descending on a hotel largely frequented by Western officials, some of them UN staff in Ouagadougou. With UN installations and staff not in short supply in Ghana, shouldn't we be careful about stretching our so-called Ghanaian hospitality beyond reasonable notches? Burkina Faso, of which Ouagadougou is capital, is a little under two-hour drive from Tamale and perhaps forty minutes flight time from Accra. Should we not be apprehensive therefore about the unfolding security challenges in that country, more so since we are hosting two former inmates of Guantanamo Bay suspects? With facts about how some released inmates have returned to frontline operations for ISIS and Al-Qaeda now available, the need to be wary about our guests should not be overlooked. Unfortunately, the subject has become so muddled up that the positive analysis required for informed conclusions have given way to unnecessary and perilous bigotry in a country which has so far been spared religious extremism and its fallouts. It is auspicious that the Burkinabes are fighting an open war against criminals hiding behind religious cloaks and whose presence in adjoining Mali has drawn blood in the past few years and threatened international heritage sites much to the worry of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and indeed the rest of the civilised world. Who could have thought that this band of criminals could come so close as to hit the Burkinabe capital and engage in firefights with both American and French Special Forces and exacting close to 30 deaths on the people? . That when a neighbour's house is on fire you must get buckets of water ready is a truism we cannot brush under the carpet. An article in the highly revered Wall Street Journal in its 15th January, 2016 edition says it all about our goof, a must read for those who seek more facts to make their independent judgement about the quagmire in which we find ourselves. We might have to reconsider what to do with our unwanted cargo, given the emerging developments in Burkina Faso. Muslims form a respectable portion of the Ghanaian population a fact known to those who think that their religious ideology should subsume all others. Those who do not belong to their brand of the faith are infidels and should be killed by the likes of Jihadi Johns. Woe betide our country when their preachers set foot on the country to spread their killer ideology subtly and openly! The recent migration, as it were, of Ghanaian graduates to ISIS territory is sufficient proof that we must be careful about those we host, especially if these have links to the religious zealots. With Burkina Faso in their sights, let us be on guard because offering such persons sanctuary for some of us is only being compassionate and a manifestation of our humanity. 18.01.2016 LISTEN New information emerging indicates that the two ex-Guantanamo Bay inmates currently cooling off in Ghana, are of a high security risk to the country, contrary to earlier information provided by the United States government. A report on the two Mahmoud Omar Mohammed Bin Atef, 36 and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, 34 both Yemeni nationals by the US whistle blower, WikiLeaks, states that the former inmates took active part in the operations of terrorist group, AI-Qaeda. The 2007 Wikileaks report on Bin Atef said the detainee's name was found on an al-Qaeda affiliated document, and he has threatened to kill US citizens on multiple occasions, including a specific threat to cut their throats upon his release. It further stated that Bin Atef was a high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies. Al-Dhuby, according to the 2006 Wikileaks report, was said to be of medium risk, as he may pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies The revelation contrasts claims by the Government of Ghana that the two pose no threat to the security of the country. President John Mahama in his recent interaction with journalists at the Flagstaff House, defended the presence of the two in the country, insisting that they are of low level risk with no potential danger to Ghana. However, it has turned out that Mohammed Bin Atef was a fighter in Osama bin Laden's former 55th Arab Brigade and is an admitted member of the Taliban group. He trained at al-Farouq, the infamous al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, participated in hostilities against US and coalition forces, and continues to demonstrate his support of Osama bin Laden and extremism. Public Outcry Their admission into Ghana has raised a huge controversy with civil society groups and religious leaders kicking against the decision to bring them into the country. The Christian Council of Ghana, the Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC), political parties and other pressure groups have condemned governments decision to shelter the two ex-detainees. Bishop Joseph Osei Bonsu, Chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ghana specifically lashed out at John Mahamas call for Ghanaians to show compassion to prisoners, adding that compassion must be balanced with common sense, especially since the presence of the suspected two Al-Qaeda terrorists portend great danger for the country. He said if compassion mattered so much in issues of criminality, then Ghanas prisoners must be released. The government is currently seeking further clarification from the United States following revelations in the WikiLeaks. Trick . Hanna Tetteh, Foreign Affairs Minister, is on record to have said on Accra-based Starr FM that the WikiLeaks risk assessment report on the two individuals was not made available to the government in the year long discussions with the US over the freed inmates. She is reported to have said, The document that was made available to us was the assessment of the two detaineesthe information from WikiLeaks was not part of documents available to us. Already, key government officials including the Foreign Affairs Minister; Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah Opong and the Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo; have variously denied their involvement in the decision that brought the two, even though they (ministers) are all members of the National Security Council, chaired by the president. No Guarantee Meanwhile, Daniel Fennell, Head of Public Affairs section of the US Embassy in Ghana, has confirmed the fears of Ghanaians. He is quoted to have claimed in an interview on Adom FM's Morning Show programme, 'Dwaso Nsem,' that the two currently hosted in the country pose a 'small risk' to Ghana's security. There is no guarantee in the world of anyone's behaviour in any country but we have taken all the necessary precautions and we can guarantee that the risk is very very small, he said. No Return interview with Citi FM on Friday, the Public Affairs Counselor said returning the two men is out of the question since it was a done deal. I just don't see that as a possible eventuality; I think this is a positive movement. Ghana is showing leadership; it makes the world safer and better, and it is very little risk to it and we appreciate their leadership; we appreciate their partnership, Mr Fennel said. Mr Fennell disclosed that Ghana and the US are sharing the costs for the upkeep of the ex-detainees, even though the government had stated that there are no financial commitments on the part of the country. By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson [email protected] The Managing Director of Bidvest Bank, Japie van Niekerk, hosted a delegation from BEIGE Capital Savings & Loans (BCSL), for a corporate interaction at the Bidvest Bank head office in Johannesburg, South Africa. Japie was joined by Mkhuseli Setuse, an Executive for Business Development at Bidvest Bank, to orient the BCSL team about the history of their company and its major milestones. The visit was organized with the view to promote business relations between the two (2) companies. Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE Capital, Mike Nyinaku, who led a team of six (6) senior management executives, expressed optimism at possible business and service partnerships between the two (2) companies. He described the meeting as a good platform to look into the prospects of business partnerships in the near future. The visit also provided a learning experience for the BEIGE Capital team who experienced a rather diverse banking set-up of the South African Banking Terrain. The Chief Finance Officer of BEIGE Capital, Dawda Hafisdeen, admitted that the South African Banking Terrain has far advanced and is providing a highly advantageous working environment for Bidvest Bank and other South African Banks. He said, Its exciting to note that the Banking Regulation can be so diverse and flexible to foster a growth in dynamic income streams for local banks. Other management members of BEIGE Capital in attendance alongside Mr. Nyinaku were; Alex Konadu (Chief Business Officer); Dawda Hafisdeen Mohammed (Chief Finance Officer); Nana Afia Kyei (Head of Cluster 2 Business); Michael Djanie (Lead for Brands); Peter Dwomor (Lead for MIS, Networking), and Jonathan Sam (Credit Manager). BEIGE Capital is a member of The BEIGE Group, a financial services firm with business interest in Banking, Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The firm has seen significant growth in its business portfolio since its inception in 2008 and employs over 2,000 staff. The Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union (AU), Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, leant with great dismay about the terrorist attacks yesterday, 15 January 2016, in various locations in Burkina Faso, against a military post in Tin Akof and against a hotel and a restaurant in the capital, Ouagadougou. The Chairperson of the Commission strongly condemns these despicable and cowardly terrorist attacks that caused many casualties and injuries among the civilian population and the Defence and Security Forces. On behalf of the AU, she presents her heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wishes speedy recovery to the injured and expresses the full solidarity of the AU with the people and the Government of Burkina Faso. The Chairperson of the Commission stresses that these attacks take place at a time when the new authorities of Burkina Faso, emanating from the elections of 29 November 2015, which put an end to the Transition, initiated in November 2014, usher in a new era of democracy, justice, reconciliation and sustainable development, with the support of the countries of the region and the international community as a whole. The Chairperson of the Commission stresses, once again, the imperative need for strengthened and always better coordinated collective African and international efforts to deal with the growing threat of terrorism and extremism in Africa. She reiterates her call to the Member States to enhance their cooperation within the framework of the relevant African and international instruments. In this respect, she reaffirms the vital importance of establishing, quickly, an Intervention Force to be deployed in northern Mali, to fight against the criminal and terrorist groups operating from that region towards other countries of the Sahel, as envisaged in the Conclusions of the meeting, held in Bamako, on 4 September 2015, by the Defence Ministers of the Member countries of the Nouakchott Process on Enhanced Security Cooperation and Operationalisation of the African Peace and Security Architecture in the Sahelo-Saharan Region. On this painful occasion, she reiterates the determination of the AU to continue to support Burkina Faso in its efforts towards reconciliation and reform. The Minister of Education 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Ghana Education Service (GES) has its own mission, vision and mandate. It works to ensure that children of school-age enter school to gain quality formal education and training for better life. It strives to create the environment for good education to happen. GES manages pre-tertiary schools and controls recruitment, postings, transfers, promotions, training and development, study leave with and without pay, conditions of service and code of discipline of staff as well. It collates and analyses educational data for sound decision making and review of policies and programmes. Effective inspection, supervision, monitoring and evaluation of instructional materials, processes and performance remains a core mandate of the Service. Directors, supervisors, teachers and stakeholders work to promote GES and to improve educational standards. The Divisions, Units, regional and district directorates of GES did well. Regional public relations and statistics officers attended a 2-day conference at the Ghana Education Staff Development Institute in Saltpond recently. Participants met to prepare and consolidate their regions performance reports for 2015. Mr. Vincent Brew, Director of the Institute, opened the conference. Mr. Bernard Foster Ntim, supported by Madam Rose Akakpovi, Mr. Issah Baffoe and my good self from the National Office of GES, did the facilitation. The reports were generally detail and attractive; everybody did their best. This article lacks the capacity to give a blow-by-blow account of every activity of GES for last year. It begs to highlight just a few of them. Mr. Jacob Aaworb-Nang Maabobr Kor became acting Director-General last February (and turned substantive director-general somewhere in August) with Mrs. Elizabeth De-Souza (for Quality and Access) and Dr. Stephen Adu (Management Services) as his acting deputies. GES wished it did not engage in legal tussles with its staff but staff should also try to be honest and truthful. It is unfair and criminal for anyone to attempt to cheat nature and this system of ours. I do not believe that Mrs. Cynthia Storph-Tagoe, Head of the Legal Unit of GES, just takes delight in facing the courts to defend her Service in its decision to compel staff to proceed on compulsory retirement. The illegal change of dates of birth must stop. There had been series of advocacy activities on the Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme. Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford, principal development consultant of Associates for Change (NGO), is a force to reckon with in matters of CBE. She acts as a national consultant and facilitator for CBE. CBE provides out-of-school children (between 8 and 14 years) in poor rural and hard-to-reach communities with literacy, numeracy and life skills for them to access primary education. It operates in Northern Region, Upper East and West regions, and parts of Brong Ahafo Region. GES also supports it to perform well. The Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) was launched and it has started its work. It seeks to improve quality and access to secondary education through the expansion and/or upgrading of infrastructure in some selected deprived senior high schools and provision of educational support and scholarships to needy students. Information and Communication Technology is a major feature of the SEIP programme. National Best Teacher Awards was changed to National Best Teacher and School Awards and Tamale hosted last years celebration. The theme was, Empowering teachers, building sustainable societies. Schools, teachers and foreign partners, who distinguished themselves in various categories of service, were awarded. Assessment of teachers was largely based on quantity of output, quality of output, timeliness of output, presence at work, cooperativeness and creativity in teaching, research and community service. The Vice-President of the Republic was the guest of honour and education directors were also there. The Computerised School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) did its work. It could not have passed without challenges. Some parents and guardians wanted their wards to be placed in certain schools at all costs. This created messy scenes in schools like Wesley Girls Senior High School and Mfantsipim Senior High School. Service authorities, including the Director General visited those schools and calm was restored. Placement happened in batches and parents that lost the waiting patience to have their wards placed did register some agitations. Meanwhile, the Inkoom-led Secondary Education Division of GES, under whose mandate the CSSPS operates, has promised to review and enhance the performance of the System this year. Fake teachers were detected to have penetrated the payroll and established themselves in it as though they were staff of the Service. GES started its own cleansing exercise and later brought on-board the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI). They have been helping to validate all entry certificates and qualifications of staff and it is proving to be effective. Close to 200 fake persons have so far been exposed. Reports say some of them have already run into hiding but GES hopes to smoke them out and start prosecuting them once its checks are complete. Some school heads charged and collected unapproved school fees. Parents and the public incessantly alerted GES and a Task Force was formed to investigate the allegations. Management threw countless caution notices to all school heads but some of them would not budge. As we speak, Mr. John Kwamina Ankomah Simpson, Headmaster of Mfantsipim Senior High School, has been suspended. Listen to the tone of Director General Kors letter to Mr Simpson, As a result of the collection of illegal fees from students of Mfantsipim School, you are directed to immediately step aside from responsibilities as the Headmaster of the school pending further investigations into the illegal collection. The Director General told us recently, My PROs, let the schools and the public know that Managements action against collection of illegal fees shall continue term by term and year by year until all heads are co-operating and complying. Meanwhile, investigations into alleged charging of illegal fees by some heads of basic and senior high schools are also ready and Management hopes to act on them soon. In fact, eyes red! Management met with the teacher unions, including the Ghana National Association of Teachers, National Association of Graduate Teachers and Coalition of Concerned Teachers-Ghana. It gave them a draft Revised Code of Professional Conduct for study and review. GES would always engage the public and stakeholders for improved service delivery and thanks to all of us for the support. Lets work for Ghana and the Ghanaian child always! The writer is an educationist and a public relations officer at the Headquarters of the Ghana Education Service. E-mail: [email protected] Yaounde (AFP) - Four worshippers were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in northern Cameroon on Monday, a security source said, five days after a similar attack left 12 people dead. Monday's blast hit the village of Nguetchewe in Cameroon's FaNorth region, in an area near the border with Nigeria regularly targeted by Boko Haram jihadists. "The toll of this attack is four dead and two injured," the source, who was at the scene of the attack, told AFP. A source close to regional authorities confirmed that a deadly attack had taken place in Nguetchewe, but was unable to provide details. The security source said the attack took place around 6:00 am (0500 GMT) just as morning prayers were ending. "The suicide bomber, a young boy, arrived in the village by foot," the source said, adding that a witness had noticed his behaviour seemed suspicious and had tried to intercept him. "The bomber ran towards the mosque, where he set off the explosives he was carrying with him." Cameroonian troops are at the scene of the attack, the source said. It is the second deadly blast to hit the Far North in less than a week, following a bombing at a mosque in Kolofata district during morning prayers last Wednesday. In November 2013, French priest Georges Vandenbeusch was kidnapped from Nguetchewe, with the Boko Haram Islamist group claiming responsibility. He was freed after around 50 days in captivity. Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said Friday that nearly 1,200 people have been killed in the Far North since 2013, when Boko Haram began attacking Cameroonian territory bordering its northeast Nigerian stronghold. Cameroon boosted its military presence along the Nigerian border in 2013, under increasing pressure from the jihadists on the other side of the border. Boko Haram, which has waged a six-year campaign for a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has been using the Far North as a base for supplying weapons, vehicles and equipment. Along with Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Benin, Cameroon is part of a regional military force fighting the jihadists, who have killed at least 17,000 people and made more than 2.6 million others homeless. The Upper West Region is to benefit from a pilot project for the harmonization of all the Social Protection Interventions being implemented in the country, Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender Children and Social Protection has disclosed. According to the minister the region has been selected as a beneficiary region to host the piloting of all the Social Protection Interventions which will be sponsored by the government and the World Bank. The project is the second of its kind in the whole of Africa. Oye Lithur made the disclosure when she paid a courtesy call on the Wa Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV at his palace ahead of a ceremony to register the aged in the region free of charge onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The visit was part of her four day tour to the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions last week. The government of Ghana has selected overall the Upper West Region as the strategic region for implementing our various social protection interventions, we are being supported by the World Bank to register all the beneficiary households in the Upper West Region, she stated. Oye Lithur said for instance that, some of the social intervention programmes in the country such as, the Livelihood, Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and the Labour Intensive public Works among others are being implemented in the region. We started with LEAP several years ago, from five communities in the Wa municipality, last year we increased it to 42 communities, so a lot of your subjects now benefit from leap, she said. We also have the labour intensive public works being run by the ministry of local government we have the national targeting unit and we are coming to create a database of the beneficiary households and in the whole of Ghana we are starting in Wa. She reiterated that the NDC government is a social democratic government, which cares for the people and empowers them through social intervention mechanisms. Oye Lithur said when successful in Upper West, the harmonization of all the Social Protection Interventions will be replicated in other parts of West Africa. For his part, the Wa Na Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV commended the Minister for her untiring efforts to support the aged and the marginalized. The Chief said Oye Lithurs role is very much appreciated by him, adding it has impacted positively on the citizenry in his kingdom. Social Protection Interventions has been considered as a tool to fight poverty and harmonizing it is therefore crucial towards the empowerment of the less privileged. 2016-01-18 120059 2016-01-18 120139 2016-01-18 122358 18.01.2016 LISTEN Fritz Baffour The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Ablekuma South, Fritz Baffour, has taken a swipe at his government over the poor handling of the Guantanamo Bay ex-detainees saga. Two ex-inmates of the US fortified penitentiary have been relocated to the West African country over a period of two years under a special programme. Their presence has heightened the fears of Ghanaians, including the Christian Council of Ghana and the Catholic Bishops' Conference among others, who have impressed on the John Mahama-led administration to send them back. Speaking on the issue, the lawmaker, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior, noted: Ghanaians in the main are not happy and my government did not handle the process well, however good intentioned. Below is his full statement on Facebook: Good morning folks! We are just under two weeks into the new year and it is as if events in Ghana have shot off the starting blocks faster than Usain Bolt! Firstly, it was revealed, at the end of last week, that our Government had agreed to host for two years, two former detainees from the infamous Guantanamo Bay penitentiary which houses Americas most dangerous military prisoners. This was an unbelievable gesture to many Ghanaians. What in the world would make our ruling powers take such a decision? This was the question on the lips of the informed and uninformed in our society. Well, yesterday, our esteemed President in a press conference to mark the third anniversary of his assumption to the Presidency of Ghana gave his reasons for accepting the two, deemed as terrorists by America, into our fold. President Mahama cited moral and compassionate grounds, as well as arcane, diplomatic and top secret considerations in granting asylum to the men from the Middle East. My take on the matter is,Ghanaians in the main are not happy and my Government did not handle the process well, however good intentioned. Heroic Cabbie The second event which also caught the headlines, was the case of the heroic taxi driver. The media is all agog with the taxi driver who foiled an armed robbery by using his vehicle as a battering ram to push the miscreants off their motorbike as they tried to escape the crime scene. Plaudits to the taxi driver came from far and near, former President Rawlings, Vice President Amissah-Arthur and Koala, the company whose employee was attacked, all got in on the act in lauding the newly minted hero. I read in the papers that he has been rewarded with a new car from the aforementioned company. Our President has also promised him a house. Great largesse eh! Some amateur comedians in our midst are warning of a possible avalanche of crime fighting by taxi drivers in the hope of reaping such rewards. I join in congratulating the daring driver but believe there is an element of overkill with regard to his compensation. The third event that comes to mind is the arrest of protesting nurses and teachers in front of Flagstaff house, home of the presidency. Twenty one aggrieved Ghanaians who feel let down by the system, go on a peaceful demonstration in a security zone and are apprehended by the police; I believe they should be cautioned and let go. I say this because all governments in Ghana brag about their great achievements in the education and health sectors, so why the hell are we not employing qualified teachers and nurses, pronto, to man all the structures we are building! Folks, sometimes, one has to put the sweetness and light aside when it concerns this great country of ours. Rose tinted spectacles could lead you into a ditch. On a final note, JDM smoked yesterday! Good on you chief! Till next time, be careful out there! Chief of Staff Julius Debrah (2nd left) with MCE of Tamale during the health walk in Tamale 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna, has stated categorically that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) will win the 2016 general elections hands down, indicating that the good people of Ghana know the numerous developmental projects executed by President John Mahama, and adding, nobody needs to be told that he deserves another four years. He said this at a health walk in Tamale which saw the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, MMDCs and some senior members of the NDC addressing party supporters and sympathisers at the Jubilee Park in Tamale on Sunday. Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, Alhaji Mohammed-Muniru Limuna said when government appointees were invited to Ho it was recommended that the party engage in a decentralisation process since DCEs are directly in touch with the voters. He indicated that the party brought together the three Northern Regions and that the DCEs had gone through a two-day workshop in which some senior colleagues like Professor Kwamena Ahwoi , Totobi Quakyi and Faustina Nelson shared their experiences with them. The health walk was to rejuvenate the NDC party. People think there are a lot of petty differences and coming together to walk will show a sign of unity among party members, he said. He also said that the NDC was going to resource the National Commission on Civic Education to take on voter education to reduce spoilt ballots. It is sad to see that spoilt papers emerge as the third place during elections, indicating that we still have to do more national education on election processes, he noted. FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says it will not allow government to continue to rake in more revenue through taxes at the expense of a collapsing industrial sector. Secretary General of TUC, Kofi Asamoah said the recent hikes in utility prices and fuel cannot be allowed to stand when businesses are falling under a precariously harsh economic conditions. He reiterated the readiness of Ghanaian workers to pour onto the streets for a massive demonstration on Wednesday. The Public Utilities and Regulatory Commission (PURC) in December last year announced a 67% and 59% increase in water and electricity tariffs respectively. Early this year, there have been a number of taxes introduced by government, part of which is supposed to be used to defray debts owed by utility providers. The most controversial of the taxes was the energy sector levy which led to an average increase in petroleum products of about 28 percent. Kofi Asamoah said with the introduction of the energy sector levy, the prices of electricity have gone up even beyond the 59 percent. Government, in justifying the need to impose the levies, said it has to pay debts and raise enough money to solve pertinent issues, including the power crisis. . But speaking on Joy FM's Newsfile programme Kofi Asamoah said government has left them with no choice but to hit the streets to press home their demand for a decrease in the announced hikes. Two separate meetings between labour and government to find an amicable solution to the problem have all hit a snag. Kofi Asamoah said labour wanted government to reduce water and electricity to 50 percent each and in addition scrap completely the Energy Sector Levy. Government and other stakeholders, including Parliament, have been appealing to the workers to rescind their decision and return to the negotiation table. But Mr Asamoah said workers would stop the demonstration if government agrees to the TUC proposal. For now the workers are eager to hit the streets on Wednesday to demand reduction in the killer taxes. The traditional routes for demonstrations in Ghana have been agreed with the police, Mr Asamoah indicated. He said the workers had initially planned on holding a back-to-back demonstration, but the security forces complained it will be Herculean task. So they have agreed that the demonstration will run concurrently across all regional capitals. 18.01.2016 LISTEN President Mahama during a visit to the Akosombo Dam President John Mahama on Tuesday taunted the country's power producer Volta River Authority (VRA) for contracting several loans from most banks in the country. Owing to this situation, the banks do not want to give letters of credit to VRA to buy crude oil. The President, who was speaking to journalists in Accra, defended his administration's recent resolution to increase prices of petroleum products by 27 percent to help the VRA settle its debts which is in excess of $1.3 billion. VRA today cannot go to any bank and establish an LC (Letter of credit) because I think they owe virtually every bank in Ghana. As the line got chocked here, they went and opened a new account in another bank and then they will take the credit till it gets chocked, then they open a new account in another bank. So now any bank they go to says 'hey yenim mo, he said. Mr. Mahama further indicated that Now if we want a sustainable power sector we need to deal with that debt; I don't have that money, If I had, I will pay on behalf of VRA. And so we need to take that money from somewhere. In September last year, VRA's Business Development Manager, Kofi Ellis said it was raising funds through the banking sector to help settle its debt of about $182 million to Nigerian gas suppliers N-Gas and the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo). . Mr Ellis added that VRA was equally indebted to the Ghana Gas Company to the tune of over $130 million. VRA's monthly requirement VRA needs at least $30 million a month to buy Light Crude Oil (LCO) to fuel thermal power plants in Tema and Takoradi to generate some 520 megawatts of power. In the Aboadze power enclave, VRA will require $15 million every month to buy LCO for the Takoradi Thermal Power Plant Company (TAPCO) to generate 300MW from a combined cycle and another $15 million every month to buy LCO for Tema Thermal Power Plant (TT1), with a capacity of 110MW and the 110MW-Cenit Power Plant to generate 200MW per day in the Tema power enclave. VRAs indebtedness as a result of monies spent on fuel is almost $2 billion. A breakdown of VRA's indebtedness to banks is $1.3 billion, Ghana National Gas Company about $200 million and N-Gas of Nigeria almost $200 million. By Samuel Boadi 18.01.2016 LISTEN Let me first apologize to my readers for the short break in the publication of my column. I had to take a few weeks off to enjoy the holidays. I hope you all had a good holiday. Last year I started the first few weeks of the year by making resolutions for three different groups of people. This year, I simply want to make a wish list. You may call it my prayer for this country for 2016. My first wish for this country is for us to have peaceful elections. As we all know the election of a president and parliamentary candidates will be the single most important activity in the country and we all have to do our part to ensure that the elections are peaceful. Peace also goes beyond the elections. Related to that is the presence of the Guantanamo detainees in the country. It is my wish that regardless of their presence Ghanaians will enjoy peace of mind and peace in the country. Events unfolding in Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Chad and all the countries affected by violence, rebel and terrorists activities are a cause for serious concern and Ghanaians certainly have a cause to worry about anything that is closely or vaguely related to terrorism. In the midst of all these concerns, I wish that there will be peace of mind for all Ghanaians. It is also my wish that the cedi will become stable in 2016. The instability of the cedi jeopardizes the efforts to improve the wellbeing of Ghanaians. Prices of goods and services continue to increase when the cedi depreciates against the major currencies and we can enjoy economic freedom when the cedi appreciates. The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) must see to an improvement in the situation. It's also my wish that Ghanaians will take better care of the environment than they are doing now. The issue of sanitation and environmental cleanliness continues to be a source for great concern and the Ministry of Environment and our District Assemblies must begin to put in better strategies to ensure that the environment is clean. A drive through most of the principal streets in the country exposes too many sorry sights choked gutters, garbage, litter, used plastic wastes. How can we be comfortable with such a situation? Economic growth cannot be an end itself. It must be backed by a sound ecological and sustainability plan that also seeks to address the challenges that rapid urbanization brings. My fifth wish is for us to begin to take time management more seriously. It's a shame for us to continue to refer to Ghanaman Time anytime events, national ceremonies, scheduled business and social programs start late. This impacts our development as a country and doesn't make us look serious. To think that people have to spend two to three hours waiting for a programme or an event to begin because logistics are not ready or speakers have not arrived is absolutely wrong and the sooner we change the better. Time is money and a country that does not value time cannot achieve anything. Time here also includes timely decision-making, timeliness of execution of projects and timely response to issues. I also wish that this year people will learn to take better care of resources allocated to them. It has been the practice especially in the public sector for people to run down facilities without making any efforts to maintain or improve them. Every facility that is built or refurbished and run by human beings must have a maintenance schedule and the fact that we allow our facilities to run down only to appeal for funding to put them in good shape again is absolutely not right. Check our roads, public schools, health centers, public buildings such as our ports (air or sea), pavements and some public vehicles and you will notice that many things are completely out of place. Some even have officers assigned to maintenance, yet almost everything is run down completely under their watch. This attitude must stop. This goes straight to the issue of accountability and good governance. The fact is that without accountability corruption flourishes and any person or group of persons who are responsible for departments, ministries, agencies, institutions or facilities must be made accountable. I believe that this country is blessed with everything it needs to prosper. However the attitude of many people in the management of people and resources leaves a lot to be desired. Accusations of corruption, abuse of office, taking undue advantage of one's office to amass wealth etc have to be checked. It is a matter of concern that many people who are accused of being corrupt are neither investigated nor sanctioned if found culpable. Young people of this generation are living with the wrong impression that people in government can get away with anything. The values of our society cannot be compromised because of the actions and non-actions of the people who govern us. Things must change for the better and in 2016 the government must be seen to be promoting good governance better than it has done in previous years. And talking about young people, I pray and wish that the digital and mobile phone buzz in this age will not just be a lifestyle craze. There must be a conscious plan for young people to take full advantage of the digital world. We must not just WhatsApp, Facebook, Tweet and Snapchat for fun. We must all take full advantage of the digital world. We must improve our wellbeing through technology. As the leading network provider, MTN, prepares to launch 4G in 2016 we must see people creating life-changing and revolutionary solutions that will bring our nation wealth. The world is changing for the better and Ghana must not be left behind. We hope to see the future Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg in this country starting from 2016. After all the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and we must double our steps in 2016. I wish all my readers a very fruitful new year. 18.01.2016 LISTEN Agricultural practices are taking a different dimension at a time, the sector faced with a possible climate change. Consequently, experts have warned of a possible famine in the country due to poor rainfall pattern witnessed last year, 2015, and the rainfall forecast for 2016. It is against this backdrop that farmers have been urged to embrace tilling as the new method of farming. Tillage practice as a method of farming has not been commonly used by farmers; however, with the spate development in the agriculture sector many experts believe that this should be the new way of farming. Tillage practices Tillage has been used for millennia to prepare the soil prior to sowing many of the annual grain crops. It involves applying power to break up and rearrange the entire topsoil structure. It destroy weeds and pests and is also important for incorporating, redistributing or releasing nutrients and making the soil texture suitable for seed sowing, seed germination and for easy penetration of seedling roots. The Director of Center For No Till Agriculture, at Amanchia in the Atwima Nwabiagya district of the Ashanti region, Dr. Kofi Boah, has called on farmers to adopt tillage practices during the main crop season to salvage the country from the scare of food insecurity. He said tillage practices are important in areas where water is a major limitation to production and where soil structure is poor and erosion is also a problem. This practices when implemented and followed by the farmers will have long term protection of the soil resources in it natural and rich state, reduce the cost of repairing machinery and labour in clearing of the weeds from the farms before planting or sowing of seeds. Dr. Kofi Boah made these remarks at a visit by some members of Ghana Agricultural & Rural Development Journalists Association (Gardja) to the Center. The trip afforded journalist the opportunity to be schooled on how the tillage system of farming has helped to boost food efficiency and production for indigenous farmers in the catchment areas of the Center. This unique farming practice was introduced in Ghana by the Director of the Center for No-Till Agricultural Center A visit to a 20 acre of plantain plantation tells how the system seeks to change food production in the coming years despite the looming drought. He advised farmers to end trash and burn of weeds before sowing else they stand losing more during the post harvest period. The climate change pattern is not conducive for farming and to sustain and have enough moisture in the soil proka, in Akan language, is the best farming method to resist the drought in 2016, he stated. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander De Croo condemn the terrorist attacks that took place yesterday evening and today in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). The Ministers offer their condolences to the families and friends of the victims and to the people and the government of Burkina Faso. Burkina Faso is a new partner country of the Belgian development cooperation and Minister De Croo visited the country in the beginning of this month to emphasize this partnership. The two Ministers express their support for President Roch Kabore and his government. The democratic elections in November 2015 and the start of the new government brought hope for progress after a difficult transition period. Didier Reynders and Alexander De Croo hope that the efforts of the new Burkinabe government to attract investment will not be affected by these attacks. Belgium will continue to support Burkina Faso in its economic development and in its fightagainst terrorism. 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Local Government Workers' Union (LGWU) has appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to have compassion on the more than 1,500 trained environmental health officers who have not been employment since 2011. The Union, in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Joe Boahen on Saturday, said it is unfortunate that the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 batches of graduates of the Schools of Hygiene have not been employed. It said due to their plight these graduates have formed what they call Concerned Environmental Health Officers' Association, hoping that their voices would be heard. The statement said it is regrettable that while all these batches of graduates stay at home, the Schools of Hygiene continue to use the tax payer's money to train more students. The LGWU is compelled to appeal to President John D. Mahama following the receipt of a copy of a 'Reminder Letter' from the Concerned Environmental Health Officers Association, the group averred. The statement said the reminder letter, addressed to the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations states among other things, We deem it a necessity to remind you of the promise made to us on October 20, 2015 that our postings will be ready by January 1, 2016. It said now that the date had elapsed, the Union wished to remind government of its promise. . LGWU said it appreciated the directive of President Mahama calling on the relevant agencies to work on the delayed postings of trained nurses and teachers. We hope the president will extend the same gesture to cover the over one thousand, five hundred School of Hygiene Graduates who are also at home. As a Union, we have on a number of occasions prevailed on the Schools of Hygiene Graduates not to resort to demonstrations or any violent acts to back their demands. We hope the Government is not waiting for members of the Concerned Environmental Health Officers' Association to hit the streets before attending to their grievances, the statement cautioned. Students of the Schools of Hygiene are trained to enforce sanitation laws and educate people on measures to prevent sanitation and hygiene-related diseases. GNA 18.01.2016 LISTEN Mrs. Eunice Adjei-Bonsu, Director of Water, Kasapreko, handing over the cheque to Dr. Sereboe while Dr. Kwabena Adjei (1st right) and other officials of the Center and Kasapreko look on Awake Water, produced by Kasapreko Company Limited (KCL), has presented an amount of GH20,000 to the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, as seed money for its 'One for Life' campaign. The campaign, which is a partnership between the two institutions, will see Kasapreko Awake contributing a proportion of its profits to the Centre annually. Thus, an estimated GH100,000 is expected to be presented to the Centre every year to help fund surgeries of needy patients. Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Board Chairman of KCL, giving the opening remarks, traced the relationship between the two institutions to two years ago when Kasapreko came to support the Cardio Centre. He observed that that relationship had grown into a partnership which was announced during the launch of the 'One for Life' campaign to fund the surgeries of patients who cannot afford the cost. . Dr. Adjei said the heart is one of the most important organs in the body that determines to a large extent if a person lives or not, therefore Kasapreko Awake was delighted to support the Centre with its proceeds while refreshing the people of Ghana. I encourage everybody to indirectly support the Cardio Centre by buying the Kasapreko Awake water as every bottle of it bought will support the Centre, he entreated. Dr. Lawrence Agyeman Sereboe, Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, expressed gratitude to Kasapreko for fulfilling its promise, adding that the fund would help the people who need heart surgery to live. He said there is a large number of children with poor backgrounds who need surgery regarding hole-in-heart conditions but the parents are unable to afford the cost of treatment. Dr. Sereboe noted that fortunately for the country, there are specialist doctors at the Centre to help correct the defect but often, parents are unable to afford the cost, which is $6,000 to $8,000 for minimal cases, leading to some children losing their lives. With this, more Ghanaians will be grateful to you because they can have the quality of life they deserve through surgery, he expressed. By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police Service has embarked on an outreach programme for students and teachers in various educational institutions about the negative implication of using illicit drugs. The sensitization programme which already has taken place in some Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Kumasi metropolis aims at ensuring the youth develop no interest in hard drugs which will affect their health in future. Unit commander in the region at the Regional Police Command, ASP Jeremiah Alale revealed some innovative methods police in the region were using to track down suspected drug dealers. The commander stated on Otec FMs political flagship programme Dwabirem the Operation Trace the Rout has successfully led to many arrests and prosecution of drug offenders whose activities were posing security threat to the people. He stated that the criminals were arrested from their hideouts in Bantema, Krofrom-Colombia, Ashtown and other places upon tip-offs from the residents. ASP Alale tells rawgist.com in an interview the fight against illicit drugs should be a concern to everybody and asked parents and teachers to closely monitor their wards especially when they are in schools and at homes. Start suspecting children if you see thread and syringe or when they start to wear perfumes of a high scent It is an indication they may be engaging in drug-related activities. Monitor their demeanor, kind of music they dance to or play. The coommander said a lot of criminals arrested and currently serving a minimum of ten years in jail were on hard drugs or committed crimes under influence of alcoholic drinks. ASP Jeremiah Alale therefore urged the general public to report suspected drug dealers to the Police for action be taken. He promised to conceal identities of their informants. The Honourable Stephane Dion, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, today issued the following statement concerning the deaths of more than 20 civilians, including six Canadians, in yesterday's terrorist attack in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso: On behalf of the Government of Canada, we extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of those killed in yesterday's attack in Ouagadougou, among them Canadian aid workers and volunteers, and wish a speedy recovery to those injured. Canada condemns in the strongest terms any act that threatens the safety of civilians, including those who strive to improve the lives of vulnerable people around the world. Working in challenging and dangerous situations, their efforts to create lasting ties between peoples while building a more just and peaceful world will never cease. We stand with Burkina Faso and its people at this difficult time. This attack is yet again another reminder of the danger terrorism poses around the world and the need to work with partners to deal with global threats. Canadian officials are currently working with local authorities and are providing consular services to the families of Canadians affected. Canadian citizens in Burkina Faso requiring emergency consular assistance should contact the Canadian embassy in Ouagadougou at +226 25 49 08 00 or call the Global Affairs Canada 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre collect at +1 613 996 8885. An email can also be sent to [email protected] Press Statement John Kirby Spokesperson,Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, DC January 16, 2016 Array The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso that began Friday: one on the Splendid Hotel, Capuccino Cafe, and the Yibi Hotel in which more than 25 people were killed, and another attack on a gendarmerie patrol near the northern mining town of Tinakoff in which two gendarmerie were killed. We extend our condolences to the family of Michael James Riddering, a U.S. citizen killed in this violence. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time, as they are with all those affected by this brutality. Embassy personnel are in touch with local authorities as they continue to assess the situation and are working to assist all U.S. citizens in the area. We stand with the Burkinabe people against terrorism and extremism. We will continue to support our partners in Africa to combat this shared and lethal threat. 18.01.2016 LISTEN Introduction Generally, a third party may sponsor your maintenance and accommodation in the UK. This person may either be inside or outside the UK. However, their sponsorship may not necessarily determine your eligibility for the visa. It is your personal circumstances in your home country that will count in assessing your eligibility. Therefore if the officer finds that your friend or relative has sufficient resources to maintain you but there are question marks on your claimed personal circumstances, they will refuse your application. Can another person pay for my visit? The Rules state that your maintenance and accommodation may be provided by a third party, including your relatives, friends and other persons with whom you have a genuine personal or professional relationship. This will of course include organisations, employers, etc. However, it is not sufficient for your proposed sponsor to merely provide evidence of their ability to pay for the cost of your trip. You must satisfy the officer that there is a genuine relationship between you and your proposed sponsor. Evidence to consider in assessing genuine relationship In assessing whether there is a genuine relationship, the ECO will consider the nature of the relationship, how you met the person, how often you communicate and by what method you use to communicate. A genuine relationship may generally be presumed when your proposed sponsor is a parent, spouse, child, sibling, or employer. However, it is not sufficient to merely state that you are related to the person without providing evidence of the relationship. In many cases, a birth or marriage certificate identifying you or the proposed sponsor will suffice. If your sponsor is based in the UK, you must also provide evidence of regular communication or contact by reference to phone records, Whatsapp or Facebook records, email, money remittances, greetings or anniversary cards, etc. The burden to provide evidence of a genuine relationship becomes more pronounced where your proposed sponsor is an aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, cousin, etc. In many cases, official documentary proof of such a claimed relationship may be lacking. You must therefore provide evidence that the person has ongoing financial commitments to you or has previously sponsored other relatives. For example, the officer may doubt your claimed sponsorship if you submitted documents affirming your uncles willingness to pay for your visit, but fail to provide satisfactory evidence of why your uncle will be willing to pay for the cost of your trip when he has not provided you with any previous or ongoing financial commitment or has no history of paying for other family members to visit the UK or elsewhere. Sponsorship inside the UK Your friend or relative in the UK may provide you with maintenance and/or accommodation provided they are not in breach of any immigration rule at the time of the decision on your application. In addition, the officer must be satisfied that your sponsor has enough funds available to adequately support themselves and anyone normally dependent on them, as well as you. It will therefore not be sufficient to merely provide evidence of their bank statements and other supporting documents showing their ability to pay for you. They must explain in their letter the number of any dependents they have, the amount of money they propose to spend on you, and a statement that this should be sufficient to maintain them, their dependents and you. Sponsorship outside the UK Your relative or friend outside the UK may pay for your maintenance or accommodation. However, if the officer finds that your proposed sponsor has no previous history of paying for visitors, this may call into question their intention and ability to do so for your application. This may also be the case if your employer proposes to sponsor you but you fail to establish that your employer has previously sponsored other employees on similar trips. If your sponsor is an individual, you must show that their monthly income minus their financial commitments leaves them with a disposal income sufficient to pay for the cost of your proposed visit. If you fail to establish this, your application will be refused. Disclaimer: This article only provides general information and guidance on UK immigration law. The specific facts that apply to your matter may make the outcome different than would be anticipated by you. The writer will not accept any liability for any claims or inconvenience as a result of the use of this information. The writer is an Immigration law advisor and a practicing law attorney in Ghana. He advises on U.S., UK, and Schengen immigration law. He works part-time for Acheampong & Associates Ltd, an immigration law firm in Accra. He may be contacted on [email protected] 18.01.2016 LISTEN Motivation books, speeches and preaching are man made,self centred. But trusting in the Lord is the will of God. These two attitudes produces two different results. Make a choice in 2016 using one of the above.OH dear Christian listening to such debates and conversations around you is very depressing. These really takes your joy in the Lord and replaces it with hopelessness and confusion.It makes our God look very impotent.No not our God; for such are the foretold times John 21:15 Then when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [disciples]? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You. He said to him, Feed My lambs... (17) He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Peter was grieved that He said to him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep. I am sure many of you are troubled for no reasons; because of our quest for everything we consider and measure as good for our existence. Actually these things you see around you will soon pass away Our God has full control over everything and His word will come to pass.The Disciples in the boat with Jesus Christ during the storm forgot about Him,I pray sincerely to the Lord you don't in your situation. Are you troubled cry no more the storm silencer is in our boat. In chapter twenty-one (John ), Peter was humble and very low. Undoubtedly he was quite disappointed. Thus, the Lord came in to recover, strengthen, and restore him. It is quite meaningful that, in front of all the other disciples, the Lord asked Peter, "Do you love Me more than these?" The Lord seemed to be saying, "Simon, have you forgotten that a few days ago you said, in the presence of all the others, that although they would forsake Me, you would follow Me to death? That was your word. Now, Simon, I ask you if you love Me more than these do?" If I had been Peter, I would not have had the face to say anything. Peter simply replied, "Yes, Lord, You know that I love You." Peter could not answer the Lord with a clear word, for he was in a very perplexing situation. How would you have answered the Lord if you had been Peter? Would you have said, "Yes, Lord, I love You more than all of these"? Would you have said, "Lord, I'm sorry I don't love You," or, "Lord, I'm sorry that I boasted and was unable to fulfill it"? Peter had lost his self-confidence and could say nothing except, "Lord, You know that I love You." In other words, Peter seemed to be saying, "I don't know whether I love You or not. Lord, You know. If I say that I love You, I know that this does not mean anything. Formerly, I told You that I loved You, but I failed. In fact, You told me that I would fail and deny You three times, and it was so. Now, Lord, it is up to You. You knowI don't." Here we see a man who had become a tested and broken person.Have you been tested and and broken into pieces like Peter? Really, then lay your trust and have faith in Him that can silence even hurricane storms whilst you still remain in His boat. Until we join you again join us in our prayers for meaningful sharing which will impact and impart Jesus Christ into our lives. The world has nothing reliable and meaningful to offer us.It doesn't matter how many people you become critical of. The vital flow of remittances from diaspora countries into Somalia is under threat as a result of necessary, but inadequately thought-through counter-terrorism measures. United Nations human rights experts have warned that the measures risk severely affecting the human rights of the people of Somalia, and have urged the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Somalia to ensure that such remittances continue to flow. There have been many recent reports of Somali diaspora having difficulties in sending remittances back home, in part because commercial banks in sending countries are closing the bank accounts of Somali money transfer operators (MTOs), in response to important, but stringent domestic and international regulations to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Remittances are an essential lifeline for Somalis and the closure of MTO bank accounts risks further impoverishing an already desperate population, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston, said. Somalis living abroad have little option but to use MTOs to transfer money home in the absence of a formal banking system in Somalia." Somalia has a large diaspora living in foreign countries after decades of chaos and civil strife in the country. The Somali diaspora is estimated to send at least USD 1.2 billion per year in remittances to family members and friends in Somalia. That represents at least 20% of the country's GDP and is more than the total amount of foreign aid that Somalia receives. A decrease in remittances to Somalia may severely affect the human rights of people living in the country, Mr. Alston said, noting that most of the money is used by families to cover basic household expenses, such as food, clothing, education, and medical care, according to a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The human rights to adequate food, to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and even the right to life could be at stake, as remittances decrease, he warned. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States and other countries strengthened their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism regulations and their enforcement. While such regulations are clearly necessary according to the UN experts, their perhaps unintended consequence has been that various commercial banks have responded to the increased regulatory risks and burdens of the regulations by refusing to do business with Somali MTOs altogether because they are considered too high-risk. While these regulations fulfill entirely legitimate objectives, their impact on the human rights of Somalis should be proportionate to those objectives, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson, said. The Somali expatriates that send money home on a regular basis, and the millions of friends and family members in Somalia who ultimately depend on them, should not have to suffer for the limited number of cases in which remittances have ended up in the wrong hands, Mr. Emmerson stressed. Governments have a duty to ensure that their laws provide an environment conducive to business respect for human rights, noted human rights expert Dante Pesce, who currently heads the UN Working Group on business and human rights. Despite several praiseworthy initiatives by governments involved, there appears to be a need for additional measures to safeguard the flow of remittances. The UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Bahame Nyanduga, also made a special appeal to the Somali authorities: The Government of Somalia, despite the constraints it faces, can also do more to develop its banking system, including by more adequate monitoring and oversight of the Somali banking sector. At the end of the day, all governments concerned have a duty to make sure that legitimate funds can continue to flow to the people of Somalia, whose livelihoods stand to suffer if these remittances are curtailed. This could undermine the political and economic stabilization process which has been painstakingly built in the last few years, a process which also hinges on the Somali people having confidence in a growing economy, Nyanduga said. The mandate-holders have been in contact with the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Somalia to raise their concern and seek clarification about this situation. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued the following statement on 17January on the attacks in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso: I strongly condemn the brutal attacks in Ouagadougou. Our sympathy goes out to the many victims and their families and friends. At this difficult time, we stand side by side with Burkina Faso. The attacks are a fierce onslaught on a country that is on a good course a country that recently overcame an attempted coup by peaceful means and held democratic elections. The attacks show the magnitude of the threat to security and stability in the entire region. We must prevent the cancer of terrorism from spreading further in the Sahel and West Africa. We cannot leave the countries of the region to face this challenge alone. Germany, along with its partners, is providing a high level of support in this field in a wide range of ways, including its role in the UN mission MINUSMA in Mali, and is willing to provide even greater support in the future. 18.01.2016 LISTEN Ten thousand Americans are killed annually by drunk American drivers. Fourteen Americans were killed in December by two Muslims. So Donald Trump suggests banning alcohol? No; he wants to ban Muslim immigrants. And Muslims don't even drink. Candidates' tough talk is not about saving lives. It's about ignorance. ISIS and Al Qaeda adhere to hijacked forms of Islam which reject Islam's call for peaceful tolerance. Furthermore, the ability of ISIS to attract global followers doesn't even stem from its intolerant ideology, but rather from its determination to resist foreign and sectarian domination. It was the U.S. invasion of Iraq and anti-Sunni brutality of the U.S.-installed Shia government that led to ISIS' following, not its ideology. The issue isn't religion. It's domination. If the U.S. wants to ban something, it ought to ban U.S. invasions. The problem with the U.S. reaction to both 9/11 and ISIS is the U.S. belief in hammering out peace by controlling people. There has never been earnest effort at cooperative negotiation, as if this would be spineless appeasement or a pact with the devil. There has never been any reassurance on the part of the U.S. that it will discontinue its military, political, economic, and cultural intrusiveness in the Mideast. Many factors contribute to Middle Eastern violence; U.S. policy is only one factor. But instead of adding more killing to the killing in vain attempts to achieve physical control over people's minds, the most powerful step the U.S. can take is to change its own behavior to reduce tension within Middle Eastern minds. Imagine the tables turned. Would you feel safe with the FBI being supplied by Egypt with weapons to suppress American civilians, the U.S. military trained on Saudi bases in Texas, a popular president deposed by Iran, U.S. oil fields managed by Iraq, Afghanistan invading to construct pipelines, and ads and movies everywhere featuring Middle Eastern products and values? The U.S. seems to think the Mideast should take all this without complaint. We need to take leadership and make a proposal to Middle Eastern civilians, Al Qaeda and ISIS militants, and national leaders, while emphasizing that the proposal is made despite ISIS violence, not because of it. The proposal should describe U.S. unilateral actions but encourage the Mideast to adhere to parallel standards. Like this: "If you choose to kill, torture prisoners, assault women, inflict inhumane punishments, or promote terrorism, we won't support you. "But for our part, we're going to stop killing you, stop the invasions, night raids, bombs, drones, weapons shipments, and mistreatment of prisoners. "If you want to dominate other genders, religions, and nations, deprive people of rights, or conquer the world, we won't support you. "But we're going to stop dominating you. Any threat to freedom experienced by Americans from terrorists pales when compared to threats to freedom endured by Middle Eastern civilians as a result, in part, of 60 years of U.S. policy. Most Middle Eastern militants aren't fighting to trample our freedoms but to gain their own. "In various decades we've funded and armed several Middle Eastern leaders who've brutally crushed their people's freedoms. We'll discontinue this practice and stop CIA coups and regime changes of leaders who thwart U.S. government and business interests. "We won't make deals with one segment of your population while disregarding others. Instead of arming one side to fight another, we'll strive to resolve conflicts. And we'll respect humane governments, whether secular or religious, because both types are capable of kindness and cruelty, tolerance and intolerance. "If you want to support corruption, kidnapping for ransom, oil wealth hoarding, drug trading, or war lords who extort money from civilians, we won't support you. "But our foreign policy will no longer be driven by desires for wealth and possessions. There will be no more Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, Carter, and Reagan doctrines that treat the Mideast like America's personal oil reservoir and provide for dirty deals, nor U.S. money and weapons to Middle Eastern security forces to suppress Islamists and other opponents of tyrants in exchange for U.S. access to tyrants' oil. "We'll renegotiate fair trade terms and provide investment and aid that benefit your poor more than our rich, with none of our typical military, political, or economic strings attached. "If you force people to convert, pressure women to conform to repressive dress codes or face a flogging, ignore women's intellect, scorn them as inferior, or make women the scapegoated, beat-up targets of males' tension, we won't support such un-Islamic behaviors. "But we'll take pressure off the Mideast to convert to Westernization, secularism, materialism, conspicuous sexuality, and capitalism. We'll stop inundating you with Western ads, movies, fashions, and luxuries and respect your aversion to bars, cinemas, and luxury hotels. "If you kill reporters, falsify news, and hijack Islam to preach violence, we won't support you. "But we'll quit the half-truths and aim for broad coverage of Middle Eastern and American perspectives on conflict and solutions. We'll clarify that peace and violence are parts of both Muslim and Christian history. And we'll correct false beliefs that violently spreading Christianity, Islam, and democracy is justified in the name of God, Allah, and Freedom. "Some choose a militant path in search of noble purpose, employment, adventure, or camaraderie. Let's channel these motives into non-violent, meaningful careers. Let's develop Islamic forms of recreation, playgrounds, outdoor adventure, and scenic parks. Let's make it our priority to help all people feel cherished." If we honestly address legitimate concerns motivating ISIS violence, can we attract away from ISIS those followers who don't admire brutality and intolerance? Can we prove to ISIS followers they can achieve just goals without violence? Will our unilateral actions serve as a powerful role model and ease the tension that breeds violence and extremism? Kristin Y. Christman has degrees from Dartmouth, Brown, and the University at Albany in Russian and public administration and is author of The Taxonomy of Peace. https://sites.google.com/site/paradigmforpeace This article was first published in the Albany Times Union on January 17, 2016. Vitus Azeem 18.01.2016 LISTEN The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) has cast doubts over the impact the citizens' complaints centre President John Mahama promised to set up will make in the country. President Mahama last Wednesday announced at a press briefing the creation of a citizens' complaints centre to fight corruption. This move according to the President was to actively involve Ghanaians in the fight against corruption. However, the Ghana Integrity Initiative does not believe the initiative will be successful. The Executive Director of GII, Vitus Azeem argues that the centre will only duplicate activities of other government agencies dealing with similar issues. . I would not be able to tell how significantly different it will be but it might just be a duplication. We have a Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice that complains that they don't have enough resources to carry out their work, we have the auditor general's department which complains that no action is being taken on the findings of the audit report. We have EOCO, BNI and all that, so I don't think it's going to be that different, he added. He suggested that government should rather empower state institutions to enable them respond to the needs of society. We need to strengthen the existing institutions and give them the adequate resources to be able to carry out their work If you give them enough powers and enough resources to operate the response rate should be higher. But if it is just like one of the committees that they have been setting up to make investigations and they come back and we don't see any action then it's just an additional bureaucracy that we are setting up. The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Muhammadu Buhari, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. He commended President Buhari's efforts to address corruption, tackle insecurity and promote economic development in the country. The Secretary-General expressed the United Nations' continuing support to these efforts. The Secretary-General and the President also discussed the serious security, human rights and humanitarian consequences of Boko Haram's activities in Northeast Nigeria and in the Lake Chad Basin countries. The Secretary-General noted the success of recent military efforts to combat Boko Haram, while highlighting the need to address the root causes of the conflict. Reiterating the United Nations' support to Nigeria and the countries of the Lake Chad Basin in the prevention of violent extremism, the Secretary-General encouraged the Government to support his newly unveiled Plan of Action and join the global partnership to confront this issue. He stressed the need for military operations to be conducted in full accordance with international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. The Secretary-General also discussed the devastating effect of climate change on Lake Chad, which has shrunk considerably in just three decades, and urged Nigeria to implement the Paris agreement. Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 18 January 2016 18.01.2016 LISTEN The decision by Chief Justice Theodora Georgina Wood to dismiss some twenty judges allegedly caught on video- and audiotape soliciting bribes in order to rule in favor of well-heeled criminal suspects is only the first step towards the process of social justice. The other equally significant component of the disciplinary process must entail a thoroughgoing review of all cases adjudicated by the judges and magistrates caught in the meticulous investigative dragnet of Mr. Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger-Eye PI network over the course of some two years. Because, really, the actual victims here are the poor citizens who had their cases criminally decided in favor of those who ought to have been taken off our streets and penned up for a considerable amount of penal time. And this is the reason why I do not think that Justice Emile Shorts call for the Attorney-General, Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, to initiate criminal proceedings against the dismissed judges and magistrates goes far enough (See Prosecute Sacked Corrupt Judges Short Starrfmonline.com / Modernghana.com 12/8/15). What the Attorney-General, as well as the Chief Justice, needs to do right now is to open an enquiry into all the dockets brought before the courtrooms of these judges and magistrates in order to more objectively determine the extent of the level of judicial travesty perpetrated by the culprits. It is only upon this basis that any justifiable or fair criminal proceedings could be initiated against the judges and magistrates involved. The same method of forensic scrutiny ought to be applied to the cases of the over 130 judicial service staffers being currently investigated by the panel of judicial experts charged with the same. But even more significantly, as in the case of the judgment-debt regime, the Government must be prepared to compensate citizens who were callously and criminally railroaded by these rogue judges and magistrates. The lawyers who smugly participated in this abominable act must also be investigated and promptly brought to book. I must also quickly point out that the reference to the veritable highway robbery that is the judgment-debt racket is absolutely in no way a statement of endorsement. Rather, it is only meant to underscore the fact that those who have been unconscionably railroaded by the Ajet-Nassams of the bench are more legitimately deserving of such compensation which, by the way, could in absolutely no way be equated with restitution. What we are talking about here may be aptly described as a token recognition of the undeserved injury inflicted on these people by jurists employed by the State/Government and paid for their services by the Ghanaian taxpayer. In other words, to the extent that the 34 judges and magistrates caught on tape and camera might have been poorly supervised, thus the shameless boldness with which they indulged in these corrupt practices, logically makes the Government responsible for such acts of criminality of the highest order. Indeed, Chief Justice Wood may herself have to answer for her stewardship. For we cannot naively pretend that the sort and level of judicial corruption documented by the Tiger-Eye PI network just occurred overnight. It clearly appears to have been incubated and hatched over a long period of time, perhaps even well before Chief Justice Wood assumed reins of the judicial service. But the fact also holds that the Chief Justice has been in office long enough to have significantly and positively impacted the quality of judicial practice in the country. And so really, contrary to what Justice Short would have the rest of us and the world believe, the most effective way of tackling the problem goes far, far beyond merely prosecuting the dismissed judges and magistrates. It is systemic and ought to be envisaged and treated as such. *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs 18.01.2016 LISTEN Morocco says it has arrested a Belgian of Moroccan descent with direct links to the Islamist gunmen and bombers who carried out the Paris attacks. The man was detained near Casablanca on Friday, the interior ministry said, and had travelled from Syria via Turkey, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. He had fought in Syria with al-Nusra front before joining so-called Islamic State, Morocco said. The Paris attacks of 13 November killed 130 people. They are believed to have been at least partly planned in Brussels, and Belgian police have arrested several people as part of their investigation. The Moroccan interior ministrys statement did not name the suspect, but gave his initials in Arabic, which could be translated as either GA or JA. The statement said the man, arrested in Mohammediya, had travelled to Syria with one of the suicide bombers of Saint-Denis. . French police raided a flat in the Saint-Denis district of Paris five days after the attacks, searching for the suspected ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national. He and his cousin Hasna Aitboulahcen died in a fierce gun battle during the raid. A third person who died during the raid, detonating a suicide bomb, was named by the Paris prosecutors office last week as Chakib Akrouh, a Belgian-Moroccan national, born in Belgium in 1990. He was identified using DNA from his mother. Both Akrouh and Abaaoud had spent time in Syria. The Moroccan statement said the arrested man had built solid ties with IS leaders, including the ringleader of the Paris attacks. He would stand trial once investigations finish, it added. Paris prosecutors would not comment on the arrest. The focus of the international manhunt remains Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks and is still on the run. -bbc The Noble Order of the Knights and Ladies of Marshall views with trepidation the decision of the Government of Ghana to accommodate two former Guantanamo prisoners. We associate ourselves with issues raised by a number of Ghanaians and civil society groups, including the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference and the Christian Council of Ghana that the issue relating to the two is totally different from previous asylum requests granted to other refugees. The Noble Order is of the view that the decision should have been brought for discussion in Parliament as the case in a number of countries. What is even much more worrying and disturbing is the Minister of the Interior, Mr. Mark Woyongo, who has oversight responsibility for National Security, saying that he was not privy to the discussions. The statement by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Ms. Hannah Tetteh that she was not aware of the official US information that described the two detainees as risky to the US National Security and for which reason, the two have been debarred from returning to the United States. Further muddying the waters. Is the government aware that as of July 13, 2013, 100 of the 603, representing 16.6 per cent, released detainees at Guantanamo Bay have re-engaged in terrorist activities? Although the government of Ghana claims that the two Gitmo detainees pose no security risk, we are at a loss as to why the suspects are being kept at the National Security compound and their movement monitored 24/7. We are also disappointed with the governments communication or information management on this issue of national interest. Why did the government of Ghana come out to confirm the information only after US major news network, Fox News, had broken the news when the Department of Defence (DoD) had published it on its website? It is not the resort to insulting Ghanaians or institutions that speak their mind against some of these matters that will right a wrong. The government must first of all acknowledge its pitfalls and apologize to Ghanaians for the manner it handled the issue. The Noble Order therefore advises the government to reconsider the decision in the broad interest of peace and security. Issued by the Knights and Ladies of Marshall. Government is making a last gasp appeal to workers to back down on the intended demonstration to protest worsening living conditions. Labour and Employment Minister Haruna Iddrisu says no government will take pleasure in inflicting pain on its citizenry and the Mahama government is not doing same. Ghanaian workers are crying over increases in prices of utilities as well as what they refer to as new "killer taxes" introduced by the government. In December last year the Public Utility Regulatory Commission announced a 59.2 percent hike in water prices with electricity going up by 67.2%. There was also the introduction of the energy sector levy on petroleum products which has shot the prices of fuel on the average of about 28 per cent. There have also been the introduction of the income tax and other related taxes, all of which have increased the cost of living to many Ghanaian workers. The taxes, government says is to raise revenue to resolve challenges in the power sector but the workers are not convinced with the explannation. The workers, after two unsuccessful attempts to convince government to reduce the prices of utilities as well as withdraw the energy sector levy, vowed to hit the streets on Wednesday to protest the killer increases. But government is softening its stance. Labour Minister Haruna Iddrisu says the government, through a special committee has met officials with the PURC and a reduction in prices of utilities may be announced on Thursday. He was quick to add however that whatever reduction announced by the PURC will eventually become cost to government. He said if there is a reduction of about four per cent, in electricity, government will pay as much as $350,000 every month as subsidies. He was also emphatic that government will not be able to do anything about the workers' request for the energy sector levy to be scrapped completely. "Government is willing to accommodate a certain reduction in utility prices," he stated whilst appealing to workers to dialogue. Demo to go ahead While acknowledging the new posture by government, labour says its demonstration on Wednesday is non-negotiable. Solomon Kotei of the Industrial and Commercial Workers told Joy News' Evans Mensah the demonstration will go ahead but they have also decided to back down heavily on a road map to protest the increase in taxes and utility prices. He said they had scheduled another demonstration for next week but given the new posture assumed by government they are ready to back down on that one until they hear from government on Thursday, a day after their intended demonstration. Meanwhile, the police say it is ready to provide protection to the workers on Wednesday. Greater Accra Police PRO Afia Tengey says if anything does not change, they are ready to supervise the demonstration on Wednesday. She said the demonstrators will use the traditional route- start at Obra spot at Circle, throught to Pharisco Junction to TUC. Leading automobile company, Silver Star Auto Limited (SSAL) has held a grand ceremony in Accra to officially launch the Suzuki range of vehicles unto the Ghanaian market. Held at the Silver Star Auto showroom, the event brought together customers and stakeholders in the automobile industry to witness the introduction of the Suzuki range of vehicle types which included small city cars, mid-size sedans, SUVs and small commercial vehicles Launching the vehicles to the expectant guests, Mr. Nouhad Kalmoni, Chief Executive Officer of Silver Star Auto, noted with pride the addition of the Suzuki Automotive brand to its range of products stressing that in the companys continuous effort and commitment to meet the expectations of the nation for relevant vehicles, Suzuki was the ideal partner to assure safe mobility, affordability and quality He noted that the available Suzuki models have automatic transmission, excellent fuel consumption, and enhanced safety features; unique features which have significant impact on the vehicle running costs, safety and comfort. Mr. Kalmoni assured customers of a 3 year/100,000km warranty and nationwide sales and service support to give them the peace of mind and protect their investments, adding that the company has made express service available in Accra, Tema and other parts of the country. On his part Mr. Taichi Okamoto, Assistant Manager, Middle East & Africa Automobile Marketing Group, Suzuki Motor Corporation commended Silver Star Auto and members of Sumitomo corporation for the hardwork in realizing the distributorship. He underscored the proud history of the Kalmoni family as pioneer of the first Japanese made vehicle and with Suzuki's position as the top manufacturer of small cars in Japan and the two now synchronized to provide Suzuki automobile products in the country, customers should expect utmost customer satisfaction Adding his voice, Mr. Yutaka Ezaki, General Manager, Automotive Sales & Marketing of Sumitomo Corporation-Japan also reiterated the Suzuki Motor Corporation as one of the most successful car manufacturers in Japan and with SSAL and the Kalmoni Group being a successful and reputable company group in Ghana over 100 years, the objective of Suzuki becoming the leading car brand in Ghana and exceeding customers expectation is achievable The Deputy Minister of Transport, Mrs. Joyce Mogtari whose speech was read on her behalf commended Silver Star Auto and the Kalmoni Group for its investment in the automobile industry which has given a lot of opportunities for the youth to gain employment in the automobile sector. She assured that Government would continue to support the automobile companies and make the environment conducive for their business to grow. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. IVA Struggling with debt? Compare your debt options and write off up to 80% of your unsecured debts from 80 per month Get Started for free What is an IVA? With an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) you can make affordable monthly payments towards a percentage of your debt for 5 years. At the end of the 5 year plan, your remaining debt will be completely written off. Benefits of an IVA Here is a list of the cost common advantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA): Affordability You will only be asked to pay back what you can afford, with allowances taken into account for food, bills, entertainment, travel, childcare and others. You may be sacrificing certain essential costs at the moment. With an IVA they are budgeted for so they will no longer be neglected No upfront costs When you set up an IVA, there are no upfront costs whatsoever. This means that you can put a debt solution in place today without spending a penny You have a finishing line Do you feel like there will be no end to your debt problems? With high interest costs and charges, the balances of your credit accounts may not reduce as you need them to. With an IVA you will become totally debt free at the completion of the IVA (usually 5 years). You can use this as an opportunity to change your financial life, for good Confidential Your IVA is not advertised in the London Gazette or local newspaper. It is your decision whether you would like to disclose it to other people or not No more contact from creditors When you are in an IVA, your creditors will no longer have the right to contact you or refer the debt on to debt collectors/bailiffs. This is a great benefit for most people as it will take away the stress caused by constant calls/texts/emails and home visits Stay in your house Unlike some debt solutions, an IVA will allow you to stay in your current home. This is even the case if the property has a mortgage or is owned outright Your pension An IVA does not have an impact on your pension. You will not have to surrender your pension or withdraw money from it to pay into your IVA Risks of an IVA Here is a list of the cost common disadvantages of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA): Equity Release If you own your property and it has value, you may be asked to release the equity in the property Credit Rating If you have a perfect credit rating, this will be damaged and you will not be allowed to take out more debt whilst in an arrangement You must keep up with repayments If you do not keep up with your monthly repayments, there is a risk you will be made bankrupt Who qualifies for an IVA? There is no office guidelines to who qualifies for an IVA. It is a legally binding, Government legislation designed to help all people. Generally speaking, insolvency practitioners (IP) will look at your situation if they think the IVA proposal they submit is beneficial to both yourself (the debtor) and your creditors. This often restricts people to a certain criteria which you will have to meet: Over 5000 worth of unsecured debt You must have 2 or more creditors of 2 or more lines of credit Must live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland Must be insolvent Must be willing to pay at least 70 per month into their IVA Must have some type or types of regular income What debts can I include in an IVA? You can include a wide range of unsecured debts within your IVA. These include: Credit card debt/credit cards Loans/loan debt Payday loans Council tax arrears HMRC debt Overpaid benefits Catalogues Gas and electricity arrears Overdrafts/overdraft debt Water arrears Income tax arrears Debts to friends and family Other unsecured debts Note: If you are a resident of Scotland, you will need to apply for a Scottish Trust Deed (legally binding). Speak to our advisors for Scottish Debt Advice. What debts cant be included in an IVA? Secured loans Your mortgage (if you still live in the house) Car finance (if you still have the car) Rent arrears for your current property Court fines/Police fines Hire purchase arrears (if you still have the product) Log book loans (if you still have the vehicle that the debts are secured on) Student loans Other secured debts What does I.V.A stand for? IVA stands for Individual Voluntary Arrangement. It is a formal way to consolidate your debts into one affordable monthly repayment, resulting in the debtor becoming debt free at the end of their payments. Can I apply for an IVA online? Use the IVA Calculator to check your eligibility Prepare your IVA proposal and apply for your IVA. When your IVA is accepted, your creditors can no longer contact you. Pay 60 low monthly payments. After 5 years, you are out of your IVA and completely debt free. Will an IVA affect my employment? In most occupations, your credit rating or credit scoring is not a factor and it may never have been checked in the past, it may also be likely that it is not checked in the future either. There is no law to tell you that you must advise your employer that you have entered an IVA or that you owe money. They will not be notified by your insolvency practitioner. If you wanted to keep it a private matter, in most cases this would be absolutely fine. With some roles such as financial advisors, solicitors or bank workers it may make up part of your contract to advise them of changes like this. In these situations we would advise to inform your employers of your intentions before you enter into any arrangements. This way there will be no nasty surprises for you later down the line. More often than not, we find that your employer would not be concerned by your IVA and that it would not affect your employment status. An IVA is a formal solution and could affect some employments, such as if you were a solicitor or accountant for example. We would always recommend that you receive approval from your employers that your job isnt affected before you sign up for anything. Will an IVA impact my partner? There are certain situations where you may not want to involve your partner at all in your IVA proposal due to personal reasons. Insolvency Practitioners are very aware of these circumstances and can operate solely via telephone and email and at your convenience, so rest assured that your matters can be kept completely private. If the debts which you are looking to place into your IVA are in joint names, then this would be different. Your IP would look to place all of your debts into an IVA, including joint debts therefore you would have to inform your partner of your plans. If your debts are solely yours, then there would be no negative impact on your partner, their credit score would remain unaffected and they would not be entered onto any registers or be tainted in any way. Will an IVA affect my credit score/credit file? Whilst you are in your arrangement, you will not be able to get any credit. An IVA will stay on your credit file for 6 years, so 12 months after a typical IVA. When this time has passed and your monthly payments have ended, you will be able to rebuild your credit rating. What proof will I need to apply for an IVA? Proof of ID Passport/driving license/birth certificate/utility bills/national insurance identification/credit agreement Bank statements 3 months bank statements with all transactions displayed Proof of income 3 months payslips/P60/proof of benefits How long does it take to set up an IVA? Your initial call will only last around 5-10 minutes. The IVA process will be explained to you and you will be told what further information you will need to provide to proceed with your IVA proposal. Once you have returned the required information, an IVA will usually take between 7-14 days to get into place. You will be protected from creditors within this time, your advisor will provide you with documentation via email. How long does an IVA last? Most IVAs will last for a length of five years. The i v a will remain on your credit file for a period of six years and is placed on the Insolvency Register for that period. You can work out what date it will be removed from your credit file, it will be six years from the start date of the IVA term. So if the IVA started on 1 January 2000, it should be removed from your credit file six years from that date, which would be 1 January 2006. When you apply for an individual voluntary arrangement your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) will tell you if you qualify for an IVA, how long it lasts, how much it costs and provide you with any other debt advice which you may need. How much will debt advice cost for an Individual Voluntary Arrangement? The advice cost for individual voluntary arrangements is free of charge. Your I.V.A company will tell you if you qualify for an IVA. They will talk to you about your different debts, provide you with free debt advice and check if your creditors are likely to approve your proposal for your IVA for debt. How does an IVA affect your life? By taking out an IVA you may affect your overall financial position. You will not be allowed to take out credit for 6 years. You will struggle to get a mortgage or remortgage your existing property. It also may affect any future increase in earnings or windfalls you may receive, as these will need to be paid to your insolvency practitioner. Your insolvency practitioner will take control of your debts for this period, they will deal with all of your creditors and this is legally binding. That means you will not be allowed to take out any more debts whilst in the IVA. Once the plan is completed, any debts which you accrue will be managed by yourself. Your ability to take out further debts in the future will not be impacted once the IVA has completed. What is the IVA protocol? The I.V.A protocol is a voluntary set of guidelines which your Insolvency Practitioner (IP) can sign up for which improves the efficiency of Individual Voluntary Arrangements. When you apply for debt advice, it is important that you understand the steps of the debt solution, so you can decide whether or not the solution is the best one for your circumstances. How do I know if creditors will accept my IVA? Generally speaking, most creditors will approve voluntary arrangements for unsecured debt. But some debts can not be included within one formal debt solution. Your Insolvency Practitioner will tell you how likely it is that your creditors will be willing to accept your proposal, based on the voting creditors. Can I pay in one lump sum? There are occasions when you may be eligible for a debt solution which is payable in a one off lump sum as a final settlement to your creditors. This is usually when the money is being gifted from some one else, or you have received inheritance or a windfall for example. With a one-off lump sum payment, the advice is usually the same as when you normally apply for an IVA. You wouldnt have to make regular payments into the solution, your IP can provide you with more advice on one off lump sum solutions for your debts. Your IP will provide you with more advice on the debt IVA and explain what is IVA to you. Who regulates the debt industry? At present the debt industry is not regulated. Some Insolvency Practitioners offices choose to sign up to the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA) or register with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). You can contact the IPA using the contact details or email address on their website. Your creditors do not regulate the debt industry and your creditors will not be able to impact any decisions which the IPA or FCA make. In our experience, the regulators will take assertive action on any advisers or businesses which do not comply with their strict codes of practice. To check if a person is regulated by the FCA, enter their name into the search box in the FCA website. Should I use a debt charity? There are thousands of companies which provide debt help in the UK. You may be looking for an alternative to a private company. You should know that charities usually pass their fee charging products to sister companies which charge fees and disbursements, just like private companies. So what you initially thought was a good option, on further analysis could be different to what you originally thought. Charities do have their part to play though. They can help you if you have a problem with your bank accounts, maintenance arrears, living costs, credit reference agencies, child support arrears, bankruptcy, assets, accountancy issues, mortgages, creditor issues, insurance providers, mobiles, your bank account, rates arrears, PAYE contributions or if you want to work out your expenditure. They can make sure that you speak to an adviser or supervisor and look at proposals to offer your lender. A petition has started with the possibility of a debate in parliament about how charities represent themselves and their services. Which charities help with debt? You can contact Money Advice Service, National Debtline, Step Change, Shelter or a combination of the three. Charities are particular useful for a low debt level under 1,000. If the debt is high (such as a debt value of 10,000 or more) you would usually seek an assessment from a professional adviser. If you do decide to use a charity to guide you, make sure you check their charity number and the registration number on their website to make sure you are content that their team can answer your questions in the right ways. A lot of clients of charities have a minimum debt level which does not meet the basis for an IVA, so you could always chat to a charity that is happy to act on your behalf for low debt levels. Although an I.V.A could be the answer to your debt problem, its important to understand the monthly payment so call us on our free phone number. Anyone customers can receive expert feedback on their rights from debt charities, if they cant help they will usually point you in the director of firms which help with IVAs. We are homeowners, will lenders see my proposal differently? In some cases yes. In the majority of cases, if you are a homeowner you will not need to remortgage or take out any additional finances that will effect your property. You will need to sign a additional restrictions which remove your ability to take out additional credit tied to your property, which is something that is restricted once you are in an i.v.a. There are exceptions to this, such as when you have a lot of equity in your property/properties. If you own half of a property and another party owns the other half, only your equity will be affected. If you are landlord and you are in a position of equity, your IP may review your trading position or business to make sure the figures in question are in order. This is usually the case if you have two or more properties, as sometimes the equity can be used to form a repayment to your creditors. But this usually depends on the amount of value built up in your properties. Banks and building societies will not change the terms of your mortgage as long as a contribution is still being made for the duration of your arrangement. Your mortgage payments will be added to your expenses and accounted for within your budget, as long as you can provide evidence that you can afford to continue to make payments into your mortgage for duration of the plan. LOOKING FOR HELP? 100% Confidential. Thousands Helped. No upfront fees you are here: business Pharma cos capable of resolving FDA concern in 12-15 months:IIFL Sharma, however, believes that despite the issues getting compounded by the day, most of the companies have enough capabilities to resolve them within the next 12-15 months. business Tata Steel to cut 1,050 jobs in Britain: Report The steelmaker said in October it would cut 900 jobs in Scunthorpe in Northern England and 270 in Scotland. business Govt to take a call on fixing MIP on steel: Commerce Secretary "Nevertheless, 85 percent of the steel is met domestically. This is the bottom-line that we continue to utilise domestic steel largely. So imports are not a huge element of our total steel consumption," Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said. business True pressure coming from Chinese domestic players: Rabobank Jan Lambregts, Global Head of Financial Markets Research, Rabobank, says though China is in a heavy selling pressure, a manageable data may give markets an opportunity to calm even if the pressure continues in the Chinese equity market. Rolls Royce unveils Spectre | First look at the luxury car| The most luxurious EV ever? Crude has fallen by 77% in the past 18 months. So, with most of damage done, were likely to see a bounce in the crude oil price this week. Brent crude oil is trading at US$28.94 per barrel a fresh 12 year low. It fell by 45.7% last year, the most out of any commodity. From its high of US$127.07 per barrel, Brents crashed by 77% in the past 18 months. Australias largest players Woodside Petroleum [ASX:WPL], Santos Ltd [ASX:STO] and Oil Search Ltd [ASX:OSH] have lost billions for shareholders. Expect more carnage from these players today. Mid-cap oilers have also been creamed. Tap Oil [ASX:TAP] is down by nearly 50% in the last month. With similar losses, Horizon Oil [ASX:HZN] has struggled to impress shareholders in recent months. Senex Energy [ASX:SXY] has been an absolute disaster. Its down roughly 50% in past two months. I could go on. When will the nightmare end? Well answer that today Who could have possibly seen this coming? First, you should know my track record on forecasting crude. I told Resource Speculator readers on 5 March 2015: Its important to understand why crude prices will fall to US$42 per barrel shortly and hit US$30 per barrel by years end. US$42 per barrel was hit on 1 April, less than one month after the update. US$30 per barrel was hit earlier this month. These targets werent plucked out of thin air. They involved rigorous fundamental and technical analysis. In fact, what I told Resource Speculator readers on 5 March 2015 still stands today. I said, The fact is that supply far outweighs demand. On the demand side, economies are overleveraged to the point that borrowing more debt is not creating real economic growth. When economies were growing, they needed more oil to feed their economic engines. But growth in the major economies is stagnant. Furthermore, rising taxes and regulation are hitting the demand side of the equation hard. Rather than seeing businesses expand and investing in capital, we are seeing them cut costs, slash jobs, and buy back their own shares. This comes at a time when consumers are demanding fewer discretionary goods because their real incomes have fallen dramatically. This deflationary phase is crippling the need for crude oil. On the supply side were seeing significantly more oil brought to market. Two main players influence the supply side OPEC and the US. Saudi Arabia, the largest OPEC producer, has increased production to 9.5 million barrels of oil per day; the highest level since 2013. Iraq, an OPEC member, has increased its oil production from 2.5 million barrels to three million barrels per day. Furthermore, OPEC continues to slash its prices to Asian customers. At the same time, US oil producers are now pumping roughly 9.5 million barrels per day. US crude inventories have climbed to the highest levels in over 80 years. Crudes demand and supply story has been atrocious. Unfortunately, it will get worse before it gets better. Yet, while you could see this story brewing a mile away, investors lost tens of billions from their savings. Perhaps, its because the major investment banks kept saying buy? Investment banks wrong again On May 27 2015, FNArena summarised the investment bank forecasts of the major oilers. This is shown on the table below. Pay attention to the first column, titled B/H/S. It stands for buy, hold and sell. Clearly, most investment banks were bullish on the major oilers. At the time, Citi forecasted Brent to hit US$63 per barrel by the end of 2015 double my forecast of US$30 per barrel. To be fair, while Citis forecast was proven outlandish, it wasnt alone. Remember, investment banks are like seagulls. They never stray too far from the pack. So, to remain mainstream, their forecasts for crude were similar. Not surprisingly, the bullish fever has died. Now most investment banks are bearish on crude oil. In recent weeks, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley said US$20 per barrel is likely. According to Bloomberg, Citi said U.S. oil prices may fall into the $20s if tanks used to store crude start to fill up before producers sufficiently curb output. Following suit, Morgan Stanley told investors in a research note: In an oversupplied market, there is no intrinsic value for crude oil. The only guide posts are that the ceiling is set by producer hedging while the floor is set by investor and consumer appetite to buy. As a result, non-fundamental factors, such as the [US Dollar], are arguably more important price drivers. Im wondering what no intrinsic value means. Does it imply that crash could below US$20 per barrel? According to the Telegraph, this may be the case. Standard Chartered believes US$10 per barrel is possible! If you ask me, these major banks will likely be wrong again. A bounce in crude oil? For now, Jeffery Gandlach offers the best wisdom. Gandlach is the founder of US$52.3 billion DoubleLine, the worlds largest bond fund. In a letter to shareholders, Gandlach said, You dont have to try to call a direction right now. If its going to move, its going to move big and were going to play a go-with-it strategy. Gandlach is right. The trend your friend. So the smart approach is to wait and see. But no one likes a fence sitter. So I updated Resource Speculator readers with my thoughts last week. To summarise the lengthy analysis, I said: Expect lower oil prices to persist in the short term. This should provide you with a good buying opportunity. On this story, crudes traded below US$34 per barrel. This was my updated forecast when crude was trading above US$58 per barrel. Looking forward, on a technical level, Id be surprised if crude sank lower than US$25 per barrel. Remember, crude has fallen by 77% in the past 18 months. So, with most of damage done, were likely to see a bounce in the crude oil price this week. On that note, check out the chart below showing the Brent crude oil price. You can see crudes strong downtrend since November. This is shown by the blue channel lines. Source: TradingView; Resource Speculator At the moment, crudes trickling along the lower blue support line. This indicates punters are extremely bearish on oil. But typically when the markets near maximum pessimism, you get a good bounce. Im expecting a 1520% bounce in the near-term. In this case, crude should retest the US$3536 per barrel level shown by the upper blue trend line. If you want to have a punt on the oilers, theres a good quick trade on offer. But Im not bullish on crudeyet. Remember, the supply and demand story hasnt changed. Its still atrocious. So I expect the carnage to persist in the short term. Nonetheless, Id be surprised if crude trades below US$25 per barrel. So, Im recommending Resource Speculator readers start buying the best oilers now. Remember, with rising geopolitical conflict around the world, the crude bear market wont last forever. Oil should rally hard in the years ahead, especially when more conflict breaks out in the Middle East as seems inevitable. If you want to know more details on this story, check out Resource Speculator by clicking here. Regards, Jason Stevenson, Resources Analyst, Resource Speculator January 18, 2016 No, The Nuclear Sanctions On Iran Did Not Work Some (not so) smart people believe that the implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal shows that "sanctions worked": Doug Saunders @DougSaunders The Iran paradox: this week proved that sanctions worked. So it was the worst week for US Congress to impose new sanctions 10:42 AM - 17 Jan 2016 This is completely wrong. Sanctions did not work in the case of the nuclear issue with Iran. Sanctions will also not work one Iran's ballistic missile program. Other authors have already expanded on this in length but it needs repeating. For Iran the development of a civil nuclear program for electricity and other needs was and is seen as a precondition to become a fully developed modern state. The U.S. and Israel wanted to prevent that. Israel sees Iran as a competing power in the Middle East and the U.S. sees Iran as too independent and too powerful to be left alone. Both want to restrict Iran's development unless Iran agrees to again become the client state it once was. The vehicle to pressure Iran was its nuclear program and an assertion that "Iran has no right to an enrich" Uranium. That assertion was wrong as a legal argument as any state has a natural right to use its resources as it like but the U.S. went to great length to make that claim. If it would have gotten its way it would have achieved a veto over how Iran, and others, could manage and use its natural resources. It was that U.S. claim and Iran's will to resist it that prolonged the conflict over a decade. After first (false) claims were made that Iran was developing nuclear weapons negotiations ensued and made fast progress. Iran was willing to restrict its activities and to have its nuclear program under full inspection. But its was the U.S. "no right to enrichment" point that blocked any solution. Writes UK negotiator Peter Jenkins: Having served on the UKs Iran Nuclear negotiating team in 2004 and 2005, I know that in March 2005 President Hassan Rouhani and Minister Javad Zarif, then in different roles, were ready to offer a deal very similar in its essentials to the JCPOA. At that time Iran had only a few experimental centrifuges and little enriched Uranium. But the U.S. insisted that Iran had no right to enrichment and blew the negotiations. Sanctions followed and Iran responded by building up more enrichment capabilities. Several more sanction rounds followed and Iran responded to each round by again increasing its capabilities. After the last round of sanction Iran announced that it would create highly enriched Uranium to fuel nuclear submarines. At that point the U.S. finally understood that it was senseless and impossible to ever increase international sanctions as a way to stop Iran's nuclear program. Only two alternatives were left. A very aggressive and expensive military attack on Iran followed by a lengthy occupation for which the U.S. public had zero appetite or negotiations and concessions to settle the issue. A new negotiation round started in November 2013 and at the core of the issue was again Iran's right to enrich: Disagreement over whether Iran has the right under international law to enrich uranium goes to the heart of the decade-old dispute over its nuclear program and has complicated diplomacy to end the standoff. Iranian officials made clear on the third day of talks in Geneva on Friday that the Islamic state's "right" to enrich uranium must be part of any interim deal aimed at curbing its atomic activity in exchange for some sanctions relief. ... The United States says no country has that explicit right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the 1970 global pact designed to prevent the spread of atomic bombs. During those negotiations in 2013 the U.S. finally caved and a few days later an preliminary agreement was reached: The initial nuclear deal struck with Iran at the weekend states unambiguously that the second step or comprehensive solution will involve a mutually defined enrichment program with practical limits. The wording allows Tehran to state that the U.S. and five other powers in the negotiations have conceded that a final agreement, due within six months, will leave Iran with a domestic uranium-enrichment program. Iran interpreted that as the acknowledgement of its right to Uranium enrichment. After this key issue was solved further negotiations were about give-and-take points but no longer about a fundamental disagreement. As was revealed only later the U.S. had given up on the "no right to enrichment" claim even before the November 2013 negotiations: The secret US-Iran diplomatic channel that helped advance the interim nuclear deal last year got underway after a message from US President Barack Obama was conveyed to Iran: The United States would be prepared to accept a limited Iranian domestic enrichment program as part of a nuclear agreement in which Iran would take concrete and verifiable steps to assure the world its nuclear program would remain exclusively peaceful. ... Obamas message that he would be prepared to accept a limited Iranian enrichment program in an otherwise acceptable deal was conveyed to Iran at a secret meeting in Oman in March 2013, by a US delegation led by Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, which also included Jake Sullivan, now Vice President Joe Bidens national security adviser, as well as Einhorn and then-White House Iran adviser Puneet Talwar. It was the U.S. that caved and pulled back from its (indefensible) position that Iran was not allowed to enrich Uranium. It was this concession by the U.S. - not the sanctions - that brought Iran to the table and which allowed to end the conflict over Iran's nuclear program. Posted by b on January 18, 2016 at 16:27 UTC | Permalink Comments Mass-layoffs in Alberta have inspired one area professional to offer help in the form of a unique product.First Foundation, a leading mortgage and insurance provider, is offering layoff insurance to people in Alberta.Weve been getting a ton of attention and were barely keeping up with the lead traffic, Gord McCallum , president of First Foundation, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. The commissions are quite small and we dont even have a compensation structure right now, but we think its the right thing to do.McCallum says brokers outside his organization have contacted him with the hopes of offering it to their own clients, which is something he is considering.And players outside the broker industry have shown interest as well.A Realtor in a small Alberta town that is resource-driven contacted us, McCallum said. He offered to pay the first year for clients who purchase a home.According to Stats Canada, Alberta posted 11,600 fewer full-time positions, month-over-month in October.Albertas economy contracted by around 1% last year, according to a report by ATB Financial, and is expected to see a similar contraction this year before giving away to slight growth by the end of the 2016.Oil prices, meanwhile, are not expected to show any recovery until the end of the year.ATP also expects the unemployment rate which currently sits at 7% to continue rising.And a job loss is one of the main reasons someone may default on their insurance.Its a product we wish we didnt have to sell, McCallum said. We help people get into homes and its a tragedy to see them lose them. Greg Quinn (Bloomberg) -- Steep gains in Vancouver and Toronto drove Canadian existing home sales to the second-highest annual total on record, evidence that backs up federal government moves last month to tighten mortgage lending. Nationally, sales of existing homes rose 5.5 percent to 506,334 in 2015, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday from Ottawa. The record was 2007 sales, which were 3 percentage points higher. Declines in Calgary and Edmonton, the largest cities in Alberta, which is reeling from an oil-price shock, kept a lid on national figures. Historically low borrowing costs are fueling the boom in home sales, prompting warnings from policy makers that a correction poses risks to the financial system. Finance Minister Bill Morneau set new restrictions on mortgage lending last month, saying the measure was aimed at young families taking on large mortgages in Vancouver and Toronto. Vancouver sales rose 28.1 percent to 43,145, and in the nearby Fraser Valley they jumped 33.5 percent to 20,055. Sales in Toronto, Canadas largest city, rose 9.2 percent to 101,846. The average 2015 sales price increased 8.5 percent to C$442,857 ($306,475). Those gains were more than enough to overcome declines in Alberta cities suffering from energy industry layoffs. Sales in Calgary dropped 28.6 percent to 23,994 and in Edmonton they declined 8.2 percent to 18,227, the realtor group said. New Measures Starting Feb. 15, downpayments will double to 10 percent on the portion home prices between C$500,000 and C$1 million, according to the new measures. The threshold will remain at the current 5 percent for anything below that. Homes worth more than C$1 million, which dont qualify for government insurance, will still require a minimum 20 percent downpayment. Vancouver sales fell 0.3 percent to 4,052 in December from November, and in the Fraser Valley they rose 0.4 percent to 2,044. Toronto sales fell 2.1 percent to 8,670. The year ended with a 0.6 percent sales decline for December, compared with the previous month, led by declines in Alberta. That followed two months of gains that meant fourth- quarter sales were still the highest in six years. December mirrored the main themes of 2015, with strong sales activity and price growth across much of British Columbia and Ontario offsetting declines in activity among oil producing regions, CREA chief economist Gregory Klump said in the report. Housing market prospects are unlikely to improve in the near term in regions where job market prospects are tied to oil. The Durham Children's Museum is a beautiful gem in our community, being just one part of the Museum of the Southwest; it enables families to introduce their children to the arts and museum visitation at a young age. Growing up in England my parents introduced me to museums and cultural events at a young age; I can remember visiting a working potter at the age of 4 and being completely fascinated. I have always known I wanted to be involved in the arts and education. Working at the museum provides the opportunity to share my passion for learning with the young and curious visitors who walk through our doors. My favorite days are when a visitor leaves saying, "I want to work in a museum when I grow up!" I love working in the non-profit industry and have always endeavored to have a career that gives back to my community and challenges me on a daily basis. The museum also gives me the opportunity to collaborate with other local educational affiliates such as Basin PBS and Midland County Public Library to offer programming and family occasions that cross-pollinate and promote awareness of the fun things that Midland has to offer. Why do you make time to volunteer with the Farmers Market? I never turn down the occasion to talk to someone about The Farmers Market and what it has to offer. I am a vendor and a volunteer at the market and when I was asked to serve on the board I jumped at the chance to be involved and do what I could to increase its footprint on the community. The Midland Downtown Farmers Market is a place that gives Midlanders the chance to shop and eat local, helps local producers get their product out to the community and has also become a family to me. Since the market has moved to the Museum of the Southwest grounds it has become more of an event than just a market providing a venue for live music, performing arts, family togetherness and educational outreach and helped me meld two great loves of my life together. What unexpected lesson have you learned through your professional and volunteer experiences with the community? I have learned that talent and giving comes from even the youngest members of our community, and it is one of my goals to inspire at least one person every day to pursue the job of their dreams and to be an active contributor to the community they live in. How long has Midland been your home, and why have you stayed? My husband and I moved to Midland from Denton in 2000 to be closer to his family. The move was a huge change for me but one that I have grown to love. The strong sense of community and family values are among the few reasons I enjoy living here. As the foundation of the Midland-Odessa economy the oil and gas industry crumbles, the overall economy continues to slip. The November Midland-Odessa Regional Economic Index, prepared for Midland Development Corp. and Security Bank, recorded its 10th consecutive monthly decline and was 3 percent below November 2014 levels. The decline follows a 1 percent decline in October from October 2014 levels. We knew it was coming, said Karr Ingham, the Amarillo economist who prepares the index. He also prepares the Texas Permian Basin Petroleum Index to measure the economic health of the regions oil and gas economy. That index in November was 33.3 percent below November 2014 levels, a gap that has been widening steadily as the index posted 12 consecutive months of declines. The petroleum index has been falling by 10 points or more per month, fueled by the plunge in commodity prices and resulting decline in oil field activity, Ingham said. The decline has been increasingly reverberating through the overall economy, Ingham said. When we peaked with the index in January 2015, the first several months were fairly immodest declines and not all that steep. That contraction has been gaining momentum and losing ground in larger chunks, he said. There is little doubt well see deep year-over-year declines in each component, he said. If there is any consolation in that fact, its that those declines are from very high levels, Ingham said. The tendency is to consider these numbers in the moment that were looking at the data. We lose sight of the fact these numbers, as dramatic as they are in declining, were just as dramatic in rising. The contraction is going to happen regardless of what happens in the regions oil and gas economy. Right now were giving back were running out of words to describe it extraordinary, stratospheric, dramatic growth. Were giving back that growth at this point. It may feel scarier this time but we cant forget the fact that economic growth has been so extraordinary in recent years, it wont come close to being undone, Ingham said. That doesnt change the fact that the economic contraction will be one that is deep, that is accelerating and will cause turmoil at the household level and at the business level, he said. That acceleration can be seen in retail spending, with November sales tax receipts down 17.1 percent from November 2014, which were up 19 percent from November 2013 levels, Ingham said. He also pointed out that businesses also pay a significant amount of sales tax and their spending cutbacks are being felt in the receipts. Spending has now turned negative compared to year-ago levels, with 2015 figures down 4.3 percent compared to the same period of 2014. November automotive spending was down 32.3 percent compared to last November, which was 32 percent higher than November 2013 levels. Through November, 2015 spending was down 19.6 percent compared to the same time in 2014. That contraction is also increasingly being seen in the housing market, Ingham said. The housing numbers are very interesting. They started out with not much of a decline but that is beginning to accelerate, he said. I say this with a caveat but the decline in Midland-Odessa housing prices is not a bad thing. The caveat is, unless you purchased a home at the top of the market and its losing value and youre under water. Existing home sales in November were 37.5 percent below last November and to date are 11.7 percent below year-ago levels. The November average sales price of $253,696 is 7.4 percent below last Novembers price and the year-to-date price of $246,123 is 2.4 percent below a year ago, which was more than 11 percent above the first 11 months of 2013. Housing prices rose so quickly and rose by big chunks over several years. Regardless of how household income rose, it was not rising that much or for everyone. I wondered if we would see a decline but now its beginning to decline and decline from double-digit growth levels, Ingham said. As prices continue to fall, housing demand will grow as they become more affordable, he said. For the troubled U.S. oil industry, Wall Street is closed. Nearly. Yet, three domestic drillers Pioneer Natural Resources, Diamondback Energy and Parsley Energy raised $1.8 billion selling shares to investors in recent weeks. In a business based on gambling millions of dollars on holes in the ground, the trio had a lucky streak with the rocks in the Permian Basin, a region in West Texas that oil companies and investors believe will be the most prolific in coming years. Theres decades worth of drilling, said Joey Hall, executive vice president of Permian operations at Irving-based Pioneer. The wells continue to get cheaper. Youre able to get more bang for your buck. The three successful stock offerings represented a rare break in a lull of activity between public capital markets and the industry that once amassed hundreds of billions from investors to spur a nationwide energy surge. With oil falling below $30 a barrel and domestic drillers expected to face a $100 billion cash shortfall this year, its almost certain that capital market investors wont engineer a second bailout of the U.S. shale industry, especially after last years ill-fated multibillion-dollar bet that crude prices would recover and bolster the oil companies offering cheap new shares. You have a massive amount of fear in the market, said Sean Wheeler, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins in Houston. Investors, he said, arent willing to park their cash in oil companies while crude prices are volatile. No one wants to catch the falling knife. Investors are still attracted to the Permian, however, because it has been active for decades. It has a concentration of oil field services companies and pipeline operators that have much more energy infrastructure in place than in the typical remote shale play, keeping costs lower there, said Matt Metts, a partner at law firm Sidley Austin in Houston. Eagerly watching But, if capital markets are open to the healthiest drillers even now, falling U.S. shale production may have a backstop that many havent anticipated. Goldman Sachs has warned that crude prices will have to drop to $20 a barrel to curb production from large, relatively healthy independent oil producers that pump about 85 percent of the nations crude. Traders around the world are watching the U.S. crude inventory and its oil production for signs that the global oil glut could ease, which would lift oil prices and fortunes for many in Houstons oil hub. More oil would only delay a recovery expected later this year. So far, the petroleum industry has scrapped about $380 billion in new projects around the world and has delayed 2.9 million barrels of new crude production, according to Wood Mackenzie. But, the Permian is still pumping greater volumes of crude despite a 19-month oil-price downturn, while oil fields in South Texas and North Dakota have forfeited hundreds of thousands of oil barrels a day. Put together, the Permians oil formations are 4,000 feet thick and hold more crude than any other region in the nation. Drillers say theyre still finding better rocks and new areas where its easier to pump crude. The regions best-performing wells about 20 percent of the total are profitable even with crude prices in the low $30-a-barrel range, according to research firm IHS. The Eagle Ford and the Bakken are a little more stagnant and stable, but were still seeing improvements with all the plays in the Permian, said Jerry Eumont, managing director of upstream research at IHS. The economics continue to improve. New life for an old field In 2012, a few years after oil companies began tapping shale plays in South Texas and North Dakota, Permian drillers adopted the horizontal drilling and well-stimulation techniques that had spurred the nations crude production to its highest point in decades. It was a new chapter for an oil field that had been considered past its prime, given the reluctance of many to cut back on its tried-and-true vertical drilling. In the early days, drillers were still uneasy. For three days in 2013, Parsley Energys first horizontal well pumped nothing but water. Executives and employees, some with popcorn in hand, watched the West Texas water flow for hours from a war room screen at their offices, waiting. And then here comes the oil, one drip at a time, said Matt Gallagher, chief operating officer at Parsley. And it was a relief: A horizontal well cost about $6.5 million more than the vertical wells that had been common near Midland and Odessa for nearly a century. We realized the whole world had changed for us. Better technology Gallagher said if the industry hadnt made the shift to more advanced drilling technologies, the Permian wouldnt be able to operate with crude prices under $50 a barrel. Even now, the lofty 50 percent returns that came with $100 oil have vanished. But in the past year, engineers have been able to vastly improve the economics of their new horizontal wells, figuring out where to drill to get the most oil possible and shortening the time it takes to get many oil-drilling processes finished. IHS estimates that for the most prolific Permian wells, production has climbed 40 percent in the past year. The Permian has more than 185,000 wells, but only about 10 percent of them were drilled horizontally, and with hundreds of thousands of potential drilling locations, that could grow and dramatically increase the regions output capacity. Still, crude production in the Permian cant grow forever with oil prices languishing around $30 a barrel. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude the grade typically drawn from Permian wells ended Friday trading at $29.42, down $1.78. The region needs $45 to $55 oil to spur normal drilling activity. Production in the Permian, Gallagher said, is likely to begin sinking within the next three months punctuating the end of the U.S. oil boom. Parsleys Gallagher tapped capital markets three times last year, but the executive said even now its difficult to raise cash. Investors are picking winners and losers based on their health and position, and there are few winners. Consolidation likely Still, only a few companies are cranking out the vast majority of the crude in the region. Analysts expect a wave of corporate consolidation in the Permian this year. Already, just 10 of the regions 1,000 drillers pump about half of its oil, according to IHS. Last month , Midland-based Tall City Exploration sold its exploration and production assets for $803 million, even though oil markets were volatile usually an unfriendly environment for corporate oil acquisitions. But the Permian, said Mike Oestmann, CEO of Tall City Exploration, seems to be resisting the onslaught of pressure from global markets. Weve all been through it before, and there seems to be an ability to deal with it this time, Oestmann said. Oil production from the Eagle Ford Shale will dip again in February, according to a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Production of crude oil and the light oil condensate is expected to slide by about 72,000 barrels daily, to around 1.15 million barrels per day. It would be the 11th straight monthly drop for the Eagle Ford, the oil field that swoops from the border near Laredo to the College Station area. The field peaked at 1.7 million daily barrels in March and will be producing 565,000 fewer daily barrels by next month, according to the EIA. The industry has been hit hard by falling crude oil prices, with energy companies drilling and completing fewer wells. Oil prices were higher than $100 per barrel in the summer of 2014 but were trading around $30 Wednesday. The Eagle Ford isnt alone production started slipping in the Bakken in North Dakota and eastern Montana in the summer, and in the Niobrara (in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and Kansas) in May. The Permian Basin in West Texas and eastern New Mexico, the largest overall crude producer in the United States, is the only major shale oil field with rising oil production. The Permian is expected to pump 2.04 million barrels of crude oil per day in February, up by about 5,000 barrels from this month. Overall, U.S. shale fields will produce about 4.83 million barrels daily in February, down 116,000 barrels from this month. The Eagle Ford is making up the bulk of that decline. The EIA this week also looked at how declining oil prices are hurting severance tax revenue in three oil-rich states, Texas, Alaska and North Dakota. In North Dakota: Despite oil production volumes remaining largely flat throughout 2015, total severance tax revenues fell from more than $3.5 billion in 2014 to $2 billion in 2015 as oil prices declined. If revenue remains down, across-the-board cuts to state agency budgets are likely. In Alaska: Severance tax revenue has fallen further and faster because the tax is based on net income, not on the value of the oil extracted. In 2015, Alaska derived practically no revenue from this tax, versus more than $5 billion in 2012 The governor recently proposed a 6 percent state income tax and a reduction in payments that residents receive from Alaskas Permanent Fund. In Texas: Revenues from natural gas production were down 48 percent and oil production taxes were down 51 percent as of November. But because Texas economy is more diversified, it can likely respond to the lower severance tax receipts without drastic changes to its enacted 2016 budget, the EIA said. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) For the first time in 17 years, civil rights leaders gathered at the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the Confederate flag casting a long shadow over them. The flag was taken down over the summer after police said a young white man shot nine black church members to death during a Bible study in Charleston. Following the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Gov. Nikki Haley reversed course and made it a priority for lawmakers to pass legislation to remove the flag. Bishop James Walker, who presides over the 7th Episcopal District in Connecticut, praised the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for its fight against the flag. You forced important power in high places to recognize that the scared memory of the Emanuel Nine would be parched by a symbol of injustice flying over the Capitol, he said at a prayer breakfast. At the Statehouse, about 1,000 people assembled under chilly, sunny skies to mark the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader, who was killed in 1968. It was one of many events across the country. In Michigan, people delivered bottled water to residents of Flint amid the citys drinking water crisis. In Atlanta, an overflow crowd listened as to the nations housing secretary talk about the 50th anniversary of Kings visit to Chicago to launch a campaign for fair housing. In South Carolina, the state NAACP said there is still more work to do to honor King and the theme of this years rally is education equity, with speakers calling for South Carolina to spend more money to help students in poorer, more rural school districts, which frequently have a majority of black students. The event included appearances by all three main Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin OMalley and heavier police presence. In the nations capital, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama planned to take part in a community service program in Kings honor. Attorney General Loretta Lynch was to be the keynote speaker at a National Action Network King Day Awards program and FBI Director James Comey planned to lead a government wreath-laying service at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington. Elsewhere, an overflow crowd showed up at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to celebrate Kings legacy at an annual commemorative service. It capped more than a week of events meant to celebrate the slain civil rights icons legacy under the theme: Remember! Celebrate! Act! Kings Legacy of Freedom for Our World. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro told the church audience about Kings trip to Chicago. He said King moved into an apartment on the citys west side 50 years ago and described seeing a daily battle against depression and hopelessness as babies were attacked by rats and children wore clothes too thin to protect against the Midwest winter. You see, Dr. King knew that housing was more than about just bricks and mortar, Castro said. He knew that if you tell me where a family lives, Ill tell what jobs are available to them, where their children go to school, the quality of the air they breathe, Ill tell you the odds they face, Castro added. And the walls of segregation left many Americans stuck without a chance to get ahead in life, not just in the South but everywhere, including in our cities. Protesters held marches for fair housing, and eventually got the Chicago real estate board to stop opposing laws that were discriminatory, Castro said. In Minneapolis, activists with the group Black Lives Matter planned to march onto a Mississippi River bridge that connects Minneapolis and St. Paul during a Martin Luther King Day rally. The Star Tribune reports that the activists would rally for the release of a video of the November fatal shooting of 24-year-old Jamar Clark by a Minneapolis police officer. In St. Paul, protesters want the case of Marcus Golden reopened. Golden was fatally shot by St. Paul police early last year. A grand jury declined to indict the officers involved in that shooting. Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Atlanta contributed to this report. Anti-Fraud Buy and Real-Time Pricing Launch for IBM IBM has acquired Koblenz, Germany-based anti-fraud software firm IRIS Analytics, for an undisclosed sum; and simultaneously announced the launch of a cloud-based service for retailers, IBM Dynamic Pricing. The new pricing service monitors changes in performance data such as cart abandonment rates and browsing history; market conditions; and competitor pricing, to recommend actions for online retailers. As an example, the IT giant says: 'A retailer might find that a competitor rolled out a promotion on a key product, reducing the price by 15 percent. IBM Dynamic Pricing evaluates and decides based on product availability, price sensitivity and customer demand that an 8 percent pricing change will still enable the retailer to compete and to achieve sales and margin objectives. This price would then be automatically updated online'. Stephen Mello, VP IBM eCommerce & Merchandising, comments: 'This intuitive and dynamic pricing system improves visibility into what's happening in the market, allowing retailers to make decisions that are best for their businesses and customers alike'. IRIS is a privately held company specializing in real-time analytics to help combat payment fraud. Its products, used by banks and payment processors worldwide, employ machine learning models to help analysts detect fraud in real-time, and act quickly to stop them / reduce their effect. The firm sees the combination of artificial intelligence and cognitive techniques with human experts as the optimum solution, and believes that as fraudsters become more technologically sophisticated and organized, and quicker to adapt, existing fraud detection techniques are unable to provide good cover. Alistair Rennie, GM Industry Solutions at IBM, says the integration of IRIS and IBM's anti-fraud technology will allow users to implement countermeasures quickly, 'with more control and transparency, while at the same time assist with dramatically lowering false positives'. IRIS CEO Constantin von Altrock comments: 'Defenses against financial crime are in critical need of innovation and improvement. As the payments industry evolves with new payments methods such as chip and PIN, mobile payments and immediate payments, the ability for financial institutions to accurately make decisions about what is suspicious and what is legitimate before the payment is executed is required'. Web site: www.ibm.com . This relative stability for decades led to profound transformations in Mexico. Economic modernization moved forward, the States authority became stronger and educational services were expanded. At the same time, poverty, inequality and social discontent increased. The student movement of 1968, which was brutally suppressed by the army, fought for democracy and political freedom, and revealed the authoritarianism of Mexicos political system. It was fuelled by the participation of a rising middle class, and highlighted the presence of the numerous women who became supporters of Mexicos feminist movement (Sanchez, 2002). In the 1970s, the country fell under the shadow of repression. The government eventually implemented a democratic opening, consisting primarily of electoral reforms that created opportunities for parties of the left and of the right, lending legitimacy and strength to efforts to oppose the governing party, while at the same time fostering the development of a variety of social movements, including the womens movement. The struggle that women began in the 1970s, in Mexico City, was accompanied by social phenomena such as womens mass entry in the labor market, a growing number of female university students, reforms favoring greater legal equality, and legal access to methods of contraception. The members of the first feminist groups were middle-class university students challenging their limited role in the public sphere, and protesting their exclusion from the political and counter-cultural movements of the time. The Coalition of Feminist Women was formed in 1976. Its political activism centred around the issues of voluntary motherhood, sexual education and access to contraception, rejection of sexual violence and the right to free sexual choice (Lamas, 2006: 16). In 1979, the National Front for Womens Liberation and Rights was established. It presented to the Chamber of Deputies, through the Mexican Communist Party, a legislative bill decriminalizing abortion. In response, the Catholic hierarchy and conservative groups undertook an aggressive campaign against the deputies who had advanced the proposal (Tamayo, 1999)an effort that included the creation, by the Catholic Church and a number of conservative groups, of the National Pro-Life (or Pro-Vida) Committee. Pro-Vida has played a leading role in fighting feminist demands for sexual and reproductive rights. During the 1980s, feminists established links with leftist groups, grassroots church groups and popular-sector womens movements, putting forward demands that brought together class and gender, resulting in an expansion of the already extensive womens movement, and giving it greater prominence in the society. The 1985 earthquake that shook Mexico City put a spotlight on the conditions of extreme exploitation suffered by thousands of working women, who organized to gain recognition of their social and labor rights. This effort was joined by groups demanding access to decent services and housing. In associating itself with these movements, the feminist movement underwent a transformation in how it conceived of politics: it recognized the need to negotiate with the State, develop more effective forms of organization, and join forces with other social movements (Lamas, 2006). In 1988, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, the PRI presidential candidate, was accused of having won the election through electoral fraud, perpetrated against the leftist candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who represented a broad social movement that encompassed a range of leftist forces, and who, for the first time, made womens demands a specific item on the electoral agenda (Lamas, 2006). As a result of this movement, the Democratic Revolution Party (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica, or PRD) was founded in 1989, incorporating a variety of social and political forces, including feminist elements. With a State weakened by an emboldened opposition, a Church reinvigorated by its international political presence and seeking to change what it regarded as a hostile political environment, and a president in search of legitimacy, the legislation on religion was modified in 1992, and the governments relations with the Vatican were reestablished, while churches and religious groups regained their former legal status. This trend led to a strengthening of the Churchs influence over the last several years. The political crisis intensified in the final six-year term of the PRI government (1994-2000), with an armed indigenous uprising in the state of Chiapas and the onset of an economic crisis. In 1994, the Mexican government assumed commitments based on the principles of the Fourth International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, and, in 1995, of the Fifth World Conference on Women in Beijing. It thereby recognized its obligation to promote, protect and guarantee the right of all persons to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children, and to have access to the information, education and economic means to do so. These global conferences helped the international womens movement consolidate its position as a party in the dialogue with the State, and the participation of Mexicos feminist groups in public and political life grew stronger as they pressured the government to honor its commitments. In 2006, members of the feminist movement who, in 1999, had become part of the formal political system, participated in the presidential elections as members of the new Social Democratic Alternative party, which can be defined as a left wing party. The party put forth a feminist candidate, Patricia Mercado, forcing all of the parties to state their positions on controversial issues such as the decriminalisation of abortion and homosexual rights. This signaled a significant advance by the feminist movement in making its agenda part of the national debate. The demand to expand freedoms for women and sexual minorities demonstrated the critical potential of the feminist platform, and helped to establish a new framework for citizenship. The 2006 case of sexual assault by police of more than 26 detained women in San Salvador Atenco is symbolic of the widespread denial of access to justice by both state and federal authorities. The women were arrested without explanation during protests by a local peasant organization, many of them subjected to physical, psychological and sexual violence. In spite of enquiries and recommendations by the National Human Rights Commission and the National Supreme Court, the unjust circumstances have forced nine of the women to take their case to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights. Amnesty International's report said the Mexican state is failing women on gender discrimination, threats and attacks against women activists, violence suffered by women migrants, failure to fully comply with Inter American Court of Human Rights judgments on the rape of two indigenous women in Guerrero state and the Cotton Field abduction and killing of young women in Ciudad Juarez as well as identifying obstacles to effective access to sexual and reproductive health. Also detailed are the increased level of threats and attacks against women human rights activists who worked to ensure justice for their murdered relatives. In 2012 there were more than 130 killings of women in the state of Chihuahua. In 2009 alone, public prosecutor's office round the country received 14,829 reports of rape an alarming number considering that most women do not report these crimes. Only 2,795 convictions were achieved in the courts, illustrating that most cases are not effectively investigated and insufficient measures are taken to protect the survivors. In the past years, Mexico has approved a number of laws and institutions designed to protect women from discrimination and violence. Much of the problem, however, lies in the lack of effective implementation of these laws and the weakness of the institutions. Chelsea Handler is known for her brash style of comedy. The comedienne regularly pushes the envelopes with her jokes at the expense of celebrities and the culture of Hollywood. She is also an avowed feminist, posting risque photos on Instagram to protest its ban of depictions of nude females. Needless to say, Handler is not known to keep quiet. However, this propensity for audacity has left certain co-workers extremely uncomfortable. Regular roundtable guest on Handler's E! Network program Chelsea Lately, Heather McDonald, was not happy with how the show's host treated her, and claimed that she "lived in fear" while working with Handler. McDonald claimed that she and her peers on the show were constantly in fear of the host. The roundtable guests were frightened of her volatile personality and penchant for cruel humor. "I lived in fear, 100 percent lived in fear. I enjoyed my time there, I was happy, but something could happen and my heart would be beating and I'd be like 'is this it?" said McDonald. Apparently Handler was a quite demanding boss, who kept her employees under constant fear of termination. "I think she's a good person, I don't agree with how she treats relationships in her life," McDonald said on Theo Von's Allegedly podcast, which airs Tuesday. "I think she's missing out by dumping people." The Uganda Be Kidding Me comedienne recently told the press she would be leaving the E! Network for Netflix, a move taken by many who seem to want the artistic freedom and creative control the streaming service offers. However, this may not free McDonald from Handler's oppressive grasp. Handler has recently signed a seven year deal with Netflix. Her new documentary series will premiere on Saturday. Handler will also be creating a talk show on Netflix after her series has aired. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Ricky Gervais' relationship with the Golden Globes has often been messy. The comedian's propensity for jokes that push the envelope has left producers and industry executives uncomfortable, despite the ratings that Gervais is able to attract. Although the comedian said he'd never do it again, Gervais hosted the 2016 Golden Globes to mixed reviews. While some welcomed his edgy, politically incorrect comedy, others were offended by his insensitivity and mocking remarks. Although this should be expected by Gervais by now, the comedian apparently still has the ability to shock audiences. Among the offended was reality star and recent LGBTQ icon Caitlyn Jenner. Jenner was offended by Gervais's comments at the Golden Globes and called for his replacement in next year's ceremony. Gervais made a handful of jokes at Jenner's expense during the evening, even mocking the car accident in which she was involved. Gervais jested that the incident "didn't do a lot for female drivers." In a press conference for the second season of the E! Network reality show I am Cait, Jenner responded to Gervais' taunts. "On Ricky, I think what I'm gonna do is call the Golden Globes and see if they need a new host for next year," Ms. Jenner said at the Television Critics Tour in Pasadena, California according to EW. "And we'll solve that problem." Gervais faced further backlash over the car accident joke from many on Twitter and elsewhere. This prompted the comedian to tweet a defense of his intentionally humorous observation. He wrote, "Suggesting a joke about Caitlin Jenner is automatically transphobic is like suggesting a joke about Bill Cosby is automatically racist." Gervais, like many other comedians, is at the forefront of the debate over political correctness in comedy. While many feel that no topic should be off limits in terms of humor, others find that certain jokes trigger memories of traumatic experiences or make them feel alien and disrespected. This chasm between comedians and audiences has caused some funnymen to cancel their dates at politically sensitive universities. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The tides have certainly changed in the Republican primary contest. Once-considered front-runners Jeb Bush and Chris Christie have been relegated to podiums on the far end of the stage in recent GOP debates, receiving only the occasional pity question from moderators. And on Thursday night in Las Vegas, Donald Trump was up to his usual bullying tactics. But his remarks were largely overshadowed by the showdown of the evening: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. The two are similar in many ways, and both are considered serious contenders for the Republican nomination. Rubio represents the Republican establishment, corporate influence, bipartisan efforts, and Washington bureaucracy. Although the Rubio is quite young, he has been in the conversation for the presidency since 2012. The RNC believes he can bridge the gaps between conservatives and Hispanic voters through his heritage and support of amnesty for immigrants. Cruz, on the other hand, is a classic political "outsider." Throughout his career in the Senate, Cruz has made a concerted effort to block legislation, step out of line with his fellow Republicans and exploit the Republican base's fears to his own political gain. He even orchestrated the shutdown of the entire government over a budget dispute. The candidate is also a fierce opponent of illegal immigration. Needless to say, those who are fed up with Washington welcome Cruz's tenacity with open arms. The difference between the candidates was made clear in a heated exchange during Thursday's debate. Though Cruz had his run-ins with plenty of other candidates, his showdown with Rubio over tax policy most clearly illustrated the chasm in the party and the difficulty in nominating a candidate. Will Cruz's firebrand, evangelical conservatism win him the nomination, or will Rubio's hawkish, pro-business, pro-amnesty positions secure him the position? Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under George W. Bush said,"Ted Cruz won, thanks to how strong he was especially at the beginning, taking on Trump over the citizenship nonsense. Good close, too. "Trump was Trump and that means he had a good night. I give him a 60 percent shot of being the G.O.P. nominee." 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Jeb Bush's campaign was supposed to be relatively easy. Even before he officially announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for president, he was largely assumed, among the party and public, to be the GOP's only viable option to challenge likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November. Bush is general seen as somewhat of a policy wonk who tends not to get embroiled in petty political disputes. But no one predicted what was coming in 2015. Donald Trump's candidacy announcement sent shock waves across the nation when he claimed that Mexico was sending "rapists" and "drug dealers" over the border. This was only the first in a long series of Trump's incendiary, offensive and often false campaign remarks. However, Trump's rough edges appear to have only further endeared him to the Republican base. Trump used his new position as the GOP front-runner to lob insults at Bush, calling him "low energy," among other things. Since these attacks, the Bush campaign has had trouble trying to reframe its message, improve its poll numbers or pay political retribution to the billionaire real-estate magnate. That's not good news for the Republicans' one-time favorite son. Some have pointed to Bush's positions on immigration or his debate performances as reasons for his lackluster performance in the polls. Others say good manners have done him in, making him appear weak next to Trump, whose tendency to "speak his mind" is often cited as a reason he appeals to voters. The New York Times attributes this shifting of values to a rejection of the behavior of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (long considered, by some, the dominant ethnic group in America) by mainstream American voters. According to the Times, values such as good manners and reserved criticism are integral to leading a healthy and happy life in a privileged community. But the polls seem to indicate that many voters in America don't agree. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On Sunday (Jan. 17), the 21st annual Critics' Choice Awards will broadcast live from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. The two-hour award ceremony, hosted by comedian and actor T.J. Miller, will glorify the work of Hollywood A-listers in cinema and television. Along with a handful of other nominations, Trainwreck star Amy Schumer will also be honored with the MVP Award. Schumer started off as a stand-up comedian and dominated both the small and big screen as an actress, writer, and producer. Her work on the popular Comedy Central sketch comedy show, Inside Amy Schumer, earned her an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. The 34-year-old New York native also starred and wrote the 2015 box-office hit, Trainwreck, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination and a Writers Guild of America nomination. 2015 turned out to be a major year for Schumer. She was named Glamour's 2015 Trailblazer of the Year and landed a spot on two very important lists: Time's 100 Most Influential People and Barbara Walters' 10 Most Fascinating People. So, picking Schumer for the Critics' Choice MVP Award came pretty easy for the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. The BFCA and BTJA are thrilled to be honoring someone as wildly talented and multifaceted as Amy Schumer with our second MVP Award," BFCA/BTJA's President Joey Berlin said in a publicly released statement. "With her work in both film and television Amy proves that she can make us laugh until it hurts whatever the platform. Despite coming off a busy year, the woman of many talents has no intention of slowing down. Schumer is currently working on a screenplay with her new BFF and fellow blunt actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Viewers will get to see how their chemistry resonates on film. Fans got a chance to see the duo in action as they delivered a hilarious bit during the Golden Globes as they tried to create celebrity couple nicknames and engaged in endless banter Viewers can catch Amy Schumer and a bunch of other Hollywood favorites at the Critics' Choice Awards as it airs live at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on A&E, Lifetime, and LMN. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Christian Bale proves once again that he is one of the best method actors of our time; claiming that he learned to play drums by listening to the heavy metal band Pantera's "By Demons Be Driven" for two weeks to prepare for his role as The Big Short's Mike Bury. In the movie, and apparently in real life, Bury unwinds at the end of his days as a hedge fund manager (one of the first to invest in the subprime mortgage crisis), by listening and playing double kick drum along to metal bands such as Pantera and Mastodon. "He would listen to it all day long in his headphones, not just (Pantera) but Mastodon as well, but his brain is on fire so much that death metal calms him," Bale tells Screenrant in a recent interview. Bale's crash course in drums took about two weeks and was aided by an instructor, but he says a lot of the learning came from just listening to the two bands non-stop for that time period. He obviously likes the music as well, exclaiming that it's a fantastic song. Listen for the double kick drum in the video below. Bale also revealed that he tore his knee prior to filming the drum scene, according to Consequence of Sound, but he insisted he play for the part despite director Adam McKay's suggestion to get a body double. This is by far not the most extreme thing Bale has done for a role in a movie. The six-foot actor famously lost 63 pounds to weigh just 122 pounds for his role in The Machinist. He lost a similar amount of weight for his role as a drug addict trainer in The Fighter, and he's known to get pretty buff for the Batman movies. The Big Short is up for five Oscars this year at the Academy Awards, including Bale for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Please enable JavaScript to experience the functionality of this website. - MWEB It is wicked to place political ... Martin Luther King Jr. View Photos Sonora, CA Most government offices are closed today in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. City hall and county government offices in the Mother Lode are closed, but law enforcement and emergency services are still running as usual. Banks are closed, and there is no school. Yosemite National Park is open today, and there is free entrance in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Also of note, the annual Mother Lode Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will be this Sunday, January 24, at 2:30pm in the Sonora High School Auditorium. This years guest speaker will be Jim Hightower. There is free admission. Governor Jerry Brown has issued a state of California proclamation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. You can read it below: Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream, a dream we can still see vividly when we revisit the most famous of his many timeless speeches. His vision of a world free of hatred and injustice has changed the face of American society and continues to inspire people around the world. What gave Dr. Kings dream such force was his steadfast commitment to confront his enemies without violence and to love those who hated him, knowing that hatred only begets hatred, and violence always fans the flames of injustice. On this 87th anniversary of his birth, let us reflect on his words and vision, and consider what each of us can do today to help keep his dream alive. Many opportunities to serve our communities can be found at CaliforniaVolunteers.org. In our informal myMotherLode poll that asked do you support Background checks required for gun purchases online and at gun shows? The results were: 79 percent of 749 votes support it, 20 percent do not support it, 11 votes or 1 percent dont know. California is one of several states that conducts background checks for all sales even a one time sale between private sellers. The background check is regulated by the state as detailed here, not the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Handguns are not permitted to be shipped through the US postal service but other guns are, UPS and FedEx have procedures for shipping only to licensed gun dealers. Whether a gun is purchased online from anther state or country it is illegal to ship any type of gun, antique or not- even from a family member, directly to your home or business address. Instead, you will need to choose a nearby firearms dealer to ship the gun to, and the dealer must be a Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) gun dealer. The dealer will do the required background check on you and then you could pick up the gun. The seller will also be required to complete forms with Customs and Border Protection as detailed here. By law, a FFL gun dealer, selling in other states, can complete a sale to a customer if the background check comes back clean or has taken more than three days to complete. To handle an average of more than 63,000 background checks requests per day, President Obama noted before his related executive order posted here, that 50 percent more workers should be hired for a total of 690 people performing the required checks 24 hours a day 7 days per week. Current law prohibits individuals from buying a gun if, because of a mental health issue, they are either a danger to themselves or others or are unable to manage their own affairs. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is now expected to develop rules to report records to the NICS of the 75,000 people each year who have a documented mental health issue, receive disability benefits, and are unable to manage those benefits because of their mental impairment, or who have been found by a state or federal court to be legally incompetent. Any new rules are also supposed to provide for exemptions in some situations. The expanded NICS Federal mental health prohibitor disqualifies certain individuals from shipping, transporting, possessing, or receiving a firearm will include limited HIPAA protected information from certain health professionals, according to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) final ruling here. The HHS notes that it continues to support efforts by the Administration to dispel negative attitudes and misconceptions relating to mental illness and to encourage individuals to seek voluntary mental health treatment. Similar rules are already in effect for California, the law is detailed here. New laws related to guns that went into effect in California were detailed here. As reported on Jan. 12, 2016 a new Field Poll found that a majority of California voters are in favor of tougher gun laws but only 54 percent of Californians equate stronger gun laws with reducing violent crime with 44 percent saying they have no effect. A recent informal myMotherLode poll noted a very high rate of gun owners voted on our poll. The results were published here. In other polls the recent informal myMotherLode poll Who Should Win The Democratic Presidential Nomination? found Bernie Sanders leading Hillary Clinton 35 percent to 14 percent. The Tuolumne County election department reports as of December 2015; 42 percent of 28,202 voters are registered as Republican, 31 percent are registered Democrats and 21 percent have no party preference. Notably 51 percent voted they did not care who wins the Democratic Presidential Nomination. In contrast a Jan. 6 2016 Field Poll of likely voters in Californias Democratic Primary found 46% in support of Hillary, while 35% support Sanders. Sonora, CA The Tuolumne County Supervisors will take some initial steps to remove dead and dying hazardous trees. At Tuesdays meeting the board will vote on a $440,000 Tree Mortality Hazard Tree Removal Plan. 75% of the funding will come from the State of California thanks to Disaster Assistance Act funding. It means the county will pay around $110,000. That said, if a President Disaster Declaration is achieved, the countys percentage would dip to 6.25%. $111,636 would be spent on overall project management, $220,440 for the management of a wood yard that would be set up off Highway 120 near the Ultra Power plant, $4,000 to lease the needed land, and $100,000 for required arborists. On a related note, after approving the budget, the county will vote whether to allocate $336,036 for a contract with Sierra Resource Management to coordinate and manage the plan. In other business, the Supervisors will vote whether to approve a $16,000 contract with Cole Pro Media, based in Vacaville, for social media support during a time of crisis. The Supervisors will also give a Certificate of Recognition to Kim Baker for her dedicated service to Railtown 1897 and Columbia State Historic Park. The meeting begins at 9am on Tuesday. Two people were killed and four children were hospitalized after a tornado toppled a mobile home in Manatee County, one of three counties with reports of tornadoes overnight Sunday. ON THIS PAGE At about 3:45 a.m. in Manatee County, a 911 call reported a structure collapse on Albritton Road in Duette. The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said two people were killed and an adult male and four children were injured when the mobile home collapsed. "It actually removed the mobile home from its foundation, concrete block foundation and rolled int he direction towards the street. You can see the devastation there in the street," said Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube. Deputies said Steven Wilson, 58, was pronounced dead at the scene and Katie Wilson, 51, was pronounced dead at a hospital after she suffered a heart attack. "She kept saying she couldn't breathe. She kept trying to get up and we kept telling her to just lay still. I kept telling her. I said Katie lay still. And then she died," said neighbor Sharon Barnhill. The Sheriff's Office said their son 38-year-old Stephen M. Wilson, and his four children, two girls and two boys ages 6-10, were in the home at the time and all managed to crawl out of the debris. Deputies said the two girls are in serious condition and Wilson and the two boys are in stable condition. All injuries are believed to be non-life threatening the Sheriff's Office said. The tornado passed over Albritton Road just before 4 a.m. Tornado leaves path of destruction in Siesta Key Minutes later, another twister struck near the beach community of Siesta Key in Sarasota County causing widespread damage to homes, cars and property. A two-story home at the end of Baywind Lane was all but demolished by the storm. The second story collapsed and the home was a tangled mess of wood, metal and glass. Two people had to be rescued from under the rubbled by Sarasota County Fire Rescue -- but authorities say they only suffered minor injuries. Siesta Key is a barrier island known for its pricey condos and wide, gorgeous beaches. On Sunday morning, about 17,000 residents in the area were without power, the Sarasota County Emergency Management office said on its Facebook page.Michelle Pellet was in her bed asleep next her husband Jean-Pierre when she was woken up by a loud sound. "I heard a huge boom and my window in my bedroom crashed in," she said. "We were just lucky it didn't come on the bed." But when Jean-Pierre showed me the damage inside his own, we discovered there was some glass on his bed -- right between the pillows, between where they slept. "I didn't see that before," he said. Though the Pellets and their neighbors have days of clean-up ahead -- they feel lucky. No one was seriously injured or killed -- and Jean-Pierre even has a theory as to why their street was chosen. "My street is Baywind Lane and I think the wind say, 'hey that is my street' and he come here and take it with him," Jean-Pierre said, with a laugh. A tornado also damaged a condo complex on Siesta Key. Gov. Rick Scott and Sheriff Thomas Knight toured the damage in the afternoon. The roof was torn off one of the buildings, and the parking lot was littered with various pieces of siding, wood and debris. Greg and Miriam Miller live at the condo complex part-time. They just came in for the winter about a week ago. Miriam woke up first. "I looked out the window and I heard, to me it was like roaring, but more than just wind, and then I looked out and I saw something dark and it sounded like crashing," she said. She quickly woke up her husband, Greg. "Then I saw," Greg continued, "I'm assuming it was the tornado or something fly by the window just that quick, blink of an eye." "It was gone." The Millers are out of a home, for now. Their condo received extensive water damage and the roof of their building is gone. "We have a big mess, but we're fortunate," Miriam said. They're fortunate to be alive. Sarasota county residents are encouraged to call the county contact center for report any concerns of questions. That number is 941-861-5000. Gov. Scott tours damaged areas Governor Rick Scott toured the damaged areas Sunday afternoon. The governor was staying at his home in Naples when the storm hit and drove up Sunday morning to see the damage in person. Gov. Scott said he knew early on that things were going to be bad. Where I live it was really loud there. So I can't imagine what it was like here. In Naples they said the wind was anywhere from 20 to, they said gusts up to 80. But they said here it was probably 120 miles an hour. Can you imagine just going through that? said Scott. Scott said what the Wilson family went through was unimaginable. "Just think about it. They were all in there and it just rolled and rolled and rolled. And just think about what each of them were going through. I mean every one of them, whether it was the grandparents or the children. You just can't imagine going through that." Scott also toured the damage at a condominium complex in Sarasota. Gov. Scott visits with residents in Manatee County. Gov. Scott tours the damage in Siesta Key. Gov.Scott and Sarasota County Sheriff Thomas Knight view damage at the Excelsior Beach to Bay condos. Gov. Scott speaks with Greg Miller, whose Sarasota condo was heavily damaged during the tornado. Timeline of events from Sunday: 1:45 p.m Manatee County Sheriffs Office says two female children in serious condition, two male children and male adult in stable condition. Three of the children are siblings while one of the females is a cousin. All injuries are believed to be non-life threatening. 1:30 p.m The Skyway Bridge, a major thoroughfare in Tampa, has reopened. Officials closed the bridge earlier Sunday morning for the second time since midnight after wind speeds reached up to 50 mph with wind gusts up to 60 mph. Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home in the community of Duette. Gov. Rick Scott is scheduled to tour damaged areas in Siesta Key at 1:45 p.m. 11:00 a.m. Officials in Tampa closed the Skyway Bridge, a major thoroughfare, Sunday morning for the second time since midnight after wind speeds reached up to 50 mph with wind gusts up to 60 mph. Severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through central Florida before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home in the community of Duette. Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube says two adults, their adult son, and their four grandchildren were inside the mobile home when the early morning twister struck. 11:45 a.m. The Florida governor's office has announced that Gov. Rick Scott will tour tornado damage in Siesta Key at 1:45 p.m. In Manatee County, the National Weather Service's preliminary tornado survey has determined that the deadly tornado in Duette in Manatee County was an EF-2 tornado with 127-mph peak winds. According to the NWS report, the survey crew found a single-wide trailer rolled over with debris blown to the northeast. One of four children in the trailer was severely hurt. The tornado also destroyed a 2,000-square-foot barn. 9:40 a.m. The Manatee Sheriff's Office has identified the man and woman killed when a mobile home collapsed in Duette. Steven Wilson, 58, was pronounced dead at the scene by deputies responding to the residence on Albritton Road just after 4 a.m. Kelli Wilson, 51, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Deputies also said that there were three adults in the mobile home, along with the four children. Steven M. Wilson, the third adult, was hospitalized along with the two boys and two girls ages between 6-10 years old. They are all thought to have non-life-threatening injuries, deputies said. Steven and Kelli Wilson died Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016 by a tornado that collapsed their mobile home in Duette in rural Manatee County. Another adult and 4 children were hospitalized. 9:18 a.m. Sarasota County residents are encouraged to call 941-861-5000 to report issues or to ask for help. The Skyway Bridge has been closed a second time due to high winds, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Average wind speeds at the bridge are 40-50 mph, with 50-60 mph gusts. The FHP says to monitor its live crash and roadway reports page or check 511 for up-to-date information. 8:40 a.m. An official from the National Weather Service is on scene in Duette in Manatee County, surveying the damage to determine the intensity of the tornado. A full report is not complete, but a preliminary assessment finds EF-2 and EF-1 tornado damage. Two people were killed when a mobile home collapsed overnight. Four children were taken to hospital. About 17,000 homes in the Sarasota County area are without power. 8:20 a.m. Dangerous boating conditions, coastal flooding and a high rip current risk are expected for much of the day. 8:15 a.m. In Duette in rural Manatee County, a neighbor of the two residents killed in a mobile home collapse tells Bay News 9 reporter Jason Lanning that the couple were grandparents and had their grandchildren over for the night. The children in the mobile home were injured and taken to hospital. Sheriff's deputies are patrolling the area with ATVs. Manatee County authorities say they were receiving so many 911 calls during the worst of the storms that they opened their emergency operations center. 8:10 a.m. On Siesta Key, crews are working to restore power to the area. Near Baywinds Lane, roofs were ripped from homes, and several condominiums were destroyed. 7:27 a.m. Condominiums in Sarasota have sustained significant damage, according to Bay News 9 reporter Amy Mariani. Two people with minor injuries had to be pulled out of rubble. 7:09 a.m. Power is out to homes on Siesta Key. There are numerous downed tree limbs on U.S. 41 in Sarasota. According to Sarasota County Public Information Officer Drew Winchester, there was "significant damage to homes" but no reports of major injuries. 6:50 a.m. Two people, a man and woman, were killed on Albritton Road in Duette in Manatee County in a mobile home collapse. Four children have been hospitalized. 6:20 a.m. One person was confirmed dead and others injured in Duette in a home collapse. 5:15 a.m. Severe thunderstorm warning for Polk County until 5:45 a.m. Damaging winds. 4:39 a.m. Tornado watch canceled for Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough counties. 4:11 a.m. Tornado warning canceled for Manatee County. 4:00 a.m. Traffic Alert: The Sunshine Skyway Bridge closed because of high winds. 3:46 a.m. Storms moving toward northeastern sections of Manatee County, near Duette. Winds at 60 to 70 mph, heading toward Polk County. 911 reports of damage in Duette. A structure has collapsed. An unknown number of injuries. 3:30 a.m. Tornado warning for central and eastern Manatee County, east of Lakeland Ranch until 4:00 a.m. 3:27 a.m. Weather spotters: A confirmed tornado was located near Lakewood Ranch, 12 miles south of Sarasota, moving northeast at 45 mph. National Weather Service: Damage reported along Midnight Pass Road in Sarasota. 3:15 a.m. Severe thuderstorm warning issued for the following counties until 3:45 a.m.: Hillsborough Pasco Polk Sumter 3:14 a.m. A severe thunderstorm located near Zephyrhills, moving northeast at 65 mph. Expect damage to roofs, siding and trees. 3:04 a.m. A potentially dangerous tornado was located 8 miles southwest of Siesta Key, Saint Armands Key and Lindo Key, about 10 miles southwest of Sarasota. The tornado is moving northeast at 60 mph. 3:00 a.m. Tornado warning in affect for Sarasota and central section of Manatee counties. Tornado Precautions/Preparedness: Florida tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes, and can occur year-round, although most occur in the summer during the afternoon. Signs of a tornado Besides an obviously visible tornado, here are some things to look and listen for: Strong, persistent rotation in the cloud base. Whirling dust or debris on the ground under a cloud base -- tornadoes sometimes have no funnel! Hail or heavy rain followed by either dead calm or a fast, intense wind shift. Many tornadoes are wrapped in heavy precipitation and can't be seen. Day or night - Loud, continuous roar or rumble, which doesn't fade in a few seconds like thunder. Night - Small, bright, blue-green to white flashes at ground level near a thunderstorm (as opposed to silvery lightning up in the clouds). These mean power lines are being snapped by very strong wind, maybe a tornado. Night - Persistent lowering from the cloud base, illuminated or silhouetted by lightning -- especially if it is on the ground or there is a blue-green-white power flash underneath. What to do if a tornado approaches In a house with a basement: Avoid windows. Get in the basement and under some kind of sturdy protection (heavy table or work bench), or cover yourself with a mattress or sleeping bag. Know where very heavy objects rest on the floor above (pianos, refrigerators, waterbeds, etc.) and do not go under them. They may fall down through a weakened floor and crush you. In a house with no basement, a dorm, or an apartment: Avoid windows. Go to the lowest floor, small center room (like a bathroom or closet), under a stairwell, or in an interior hallway with no windows. Crouch as low as possible to the floor, facing down; and cover your head with your hands. A bath tub may offer a shell of partial protection. Even in an interior room, you should cover yourself with some sort of thick padding (mattress, blankets, etc.), to protect against falling debris in case the roof and ceiling fail. In an office building, hospital, nursing home or skyscraper: Go directly to an enclosed, windowless area in the center of the building -- away from glass and on the lowest floor possible. Then, crouch down and cover your head. Interior stairwells are usually good places to take shelter, and if not crowded, allow you to get to a lower level quickly. Stay off the elevators; you could be trapped in them if the power is lost. In a mobile home: Get out! Even if your home is tied down, you are probably safer outside, even if the only alternative is to seek shelter out in the open. Most tornadoes can destroy even tied-down mobile homes; and it is best not to play the low odds that yours will make it. If your community has a tornado shelter, go there fast. If there is a sturdy permanent building within easy running distance, seek shelter there. Otherwise, lie flat on low ground away from your home, protecting your head. If possible, use open ground away from trees and cars, which can be blown onto you. At school: Follow the drill! Go to the interior hall or room in an orderly way as you are told. Crouch low, head down, and protect the back of your head with your arms. Stay away from windows and large open rooms like gyms and auditoriums. In a car or truck: Vehicles are extremely dangerous in a tornado. If the tornado is visible, far away, and the traffic is light, you may be able to drive out of its path by moving at right angles to the tornado. Otherwise, park the car as quickly and safely as possible -- out of the traffic lanes. [It is safer to get the car out of mud later if necessary than to cause a crash.] Get out and seek shelter in a sturdy building. If in the open country, run to low ground away from any cars (which may roll over on you). Lie flat and face-down, protecting the back of your head with your arms. Avoid seeking shelter under bridges, which can create deadly traffic hazards while offering little protection against flying debris. In the open outdoors: If possible, seek shelter in a sturdy building. If not, lie flat and face-down on low ground, protecting the back of your head with your arms. Get as far away from trees and cars as you can; they may be blown onto you in a tornado. In a shopping mall or large store: Do not panic. Watch for others. Move as quickly as possible to an interior bathroom, storage room or other small enclosed area, away from windows. In a church or theater: Do not panic. If possible, move quickly but orderly to an interior bathroom or hallway, away from windows. Crouch face-down and protect your head with your arms. If there is no time to do that, get under the seats or pews, protecting your head with your arms or hands. Fujita Tornado Damage Scale Florida has two tornado seasons: The Summer Season, from June until September, has the highest frequencies with usual intensities of F0 or F1 on the Fujita Scale. This includes tornadoes that form from landfalling Tropical Cyclones. The Spring Season, from February through April, is characterized by more powerful tornadoes because of the presence of the jet stream. Fujita Tornado Damage Scale: SCALE SPEED TYPICAL DAMAGE EF0 6585 mph Gale Tornado: Some damage to chimneys. Tree branches broken off. Shallow rooted trees uprooted. F1 86110 mph Moderate Tornado: Peels surface off roofs. Mobile homes overturned. Moving autos pushed off roads. EF2 111135 mph Significant Tornado: Considerable damage. Roofs torn off frame houses. Large trees snapped or uprooted. Light-object projectiles generated. EF3 136165 mph Severe Tornado: Severe damage. Roofs and some walls torn off well-constructed homes. Most trees in forests uprooted. Heavy cars lifted off ground. EF4 166200 mph Devastating Tornado: Well-constructed houses leveled. Structures blown off weak foundations. Cars thrown and large projectiles generated. EF5 >200 mph Incredible Tornado: Strong frame houses lifted off foundations and disintegrated. Automobile-sized projectiles fly through the air in excess of 100 mph. Trees debarked. Source: floridadisaster.org Orlando police are searching for two people who barged in a family's home early Monday. And according to authorities, the suspects may have targeted the wrong home. Officers responded to a home in the 2800 block of Harwood Street just after midnight to a call of a home invasion. According to police, the homeowner answered a knock at the door at 12:04 a.m. and two people pushed their way inside. According to the residents, the suspects, who were both armed, said "You know what we're here for." The suspects searched the house but left without taking anything, officers said. The residents, a woman and her two teen children, were not injured. The suspects fled in what was described as an older model Chevrolet Impala, gray in color. The suspects were described as wearing dark clothing and covering the faces with masks. Anyone with information is asked to call Orlando Police at (407) 246-2470. Clothier Wilkes Bashford, who helped to change the world of high fashion in San Francisco when he opened his eponymous luxury store in 1966, died on Saturday after a brief battle with prostate cancer. He was 82. Late Saturday, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown confirmed the death of his longtime friend and favorite store owner. Mr. Bashfords store, where the citys society set shops for clothes for work, weekends and opening-night galas, was one of the few of its kind in the nation when it opened and remains so today. Originally a mens store, Wilkes Bashford opened under the Sutter-Stockton garage and was the first in San Francisco to promote an aesthetic he called bold conservative, carrying Brioni, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Versace and other designer brands, a contrast to the counterculture, hippie clothing of the day. He added womenswear in 1978 and later moved nearby to 375 Sutter St. Brown, a Chronicle columnist and a famously natty dresser, told The Chronicle in October: This town was devoid of any attention to quality of fabric or style until Wilkes came along. The first time I walked into the store, I was frankly blown away. But more than solely dressing people up, Mr. Bashford wrapped himself in the social fabric of the city. He staged glitzy fashion shows in the 1970s and 80s, and also engaged in philanthropic work for Partners Ending Domestic Abuse and PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), among other causes. He was an ardent fan of dachshunds, which he kept as pets. His latest, Duchie, was a constant companion at work, sitting in his office every day. He was part of the heart of the city, said Brown, reached by phone in Los Angeles on Saturday. Every day there was something Wilkes would talk about or insist that we do for the city. Mr. Bashford was a presence at fundraising functions all over the city, as well as an almost daily presence for lunch at Le Central restaurant, where he ate and gossiped with friends and customers at a table near the window. Every Friday for decades, his lunch crew in the front window included the late Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, man- about-town Harry de Wildt and Brown. The group also at times included the late Matthew Kelly and architect Sandy Walker. After the downturn in the economy in 2008, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. His company was acquired by the Mitchells/Richards/Marshs group, a family-owned luxury clothier in Westport, Conn., which invested millions in a remodel of the seven-story store. This allowed Mr. Bashford to continue working, and until recently, he was still there six days a week, waiting on customers. How you look and how you feel when you go to present yourself affects your energy, your psyche, your outlook, your happiness, every day of your life, he told The Chronicle in October. Once people realize how their image is changed and how people react to them, it brings them a happiness. Its a positive thing. Mr. Bashford was a native of Manhattan, and after studying in Cincinnati, moved to San Francisco, he said, to be near the ocean. He was engaged once, but never married. His philanthropic work allowed him to create a family of sorts that tied him to the community. In recent years, he devoted efforts to the War Memorial Complex in San Francisco to create a veterans monument, a 30-foot-long granite octagon between the War Memorial Opera House and Veterans Building. He co-chaired the monument committee with J. Michael Myatt, a retired Marine Corps major general. The monument, built with $2.5 million in privately raised funds, is known as Passage of Remembrance, and the driveway that circles Memorial Court was named the Charlotte and George Shultz Horseshoe Drive. At the time of his death, Mr. Bashford was listed as the president of the War Memorial & Performing Arts Center Board of Trustees. Of all his philanthropic work, I think he was most proud, Brown said, of his presidency of the board, which had the stalwarts of the cultural philanthropy of the city. I appointed Wilkes to that body and he became the president of that body and in the process, did incredible things. But his store was his life, and he treated his products with the same care requiring that sweaters be pristinely folded and suits and dresses be displayed on hangers to their best advantage. In social situations, he sported a smile, kept any negative thoughts to himself, and was old school when it came to manners, opening doors for others and always picking up the check at lunch. Boaz Mazor, a longtime Oscar de la Renta executive who worked closely with Mr. Bashford on local fashion shows over the years, said the city has suffered a significant loss. He was a real gentleman an icon of elegance, and his name and his store gave San Francisco the authority of style, Mazor said. He was an impeccable person and an impeccable professional. I was honored to work with him and be his friend. He is irreplaceable. Carolyne Zinko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: czinko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynezinko Image: Walgreens. The healthcare industry has gone through massive changes in recent years, and Walgreens Boots Alliance has changed along with it. The drugstore chain giant has done some massive deals to extend its reach globally, fighting to outgrow rival CVS Health through a combination of strategies involving international acquisitions. Yet the company's most recent proposed acquisition to buy Rite Aid has huge implications, among them whether Walgreens will be able to keep offering dividend increases to its shareholders. Let's look more closely at Walgreens to see whether investors should expect a boost in their quarterly checks in 2016. Dividend Stats on Walgreens Boots Alliance Current Quarterly Dividend Per Share $0.36 Current Yield 1.8% Number of Consecutive Years With Dividend Increases 40 years Payout Ratio 34% Last Increase August 2015 Source: Yahoo! Finance. Last increase refers to ex-dividend date. A great prescription for growth Walgreens Boots Alliance has increased its dividend every single year for four decades, and that's more than enough to qualify the drugstore retailer as a prestigious Dividend Aristocrat. The company's 1.8% dividend yield isn't particularly distinctive, but it matches up almost exactly with what CVS Health pays. Investors also have to respect the pace of Walgreens' dividend boosts over the past decade. The company has routinely made double-digit percentage increases in its payout, resulting in more than a fivefold increase in its quarterly dividend since 2005. Only recently has Walgreens had to slow its dividend growth rate, but even the 7% increases it made in 2014 and 2015 were respectable -- albeit slower than the 22% and 27% boosts that CVS shareholders enjoyed. WBA Dividend data by YCharts Looking forward, the biggest challenge that Walgreens faces is making good on its strategic vision while preserving its dividend history. In October, the company made a $17.2 billion bid for Rite Aid, and Walgreens structured the bid as an all-cash offer. Assumption of debt will make up some of that amount, but paying $9 per share to Rite Aid shareholders will require a huge amount of upfront cash. Investors can hope that Walgreens will be able to integrate Rite Aid quickly enough not to have a marked impact on its dividend policy. The company expects that Rite Aid would add to its earnings within the first year after the deal closes, and that could remove some pressure on the dividend. Moreover, Walgreens management has said that it wants to sustain the dividend. In its quarterly conference call immediately following the acquisitions, Walgreens CFO George Fairweather said that the company "remain[s] committed to a long-term dividend payout rate target between 30% and 35% of adjusted net earnings." The drugstore chain had been supplementing its dividend with extensive stock buybacks, and it said it would suspend its $3 billion share repurchase program to free up cash for the Rite Aid acquisition. Will Walgreens keep its dividend healthy? Perhaps most importantly, Walgreens expects earnings to climb in 2016, even with short-term pressure from costs related to the Rite Aid acquisition. An earnings outlook for $4.25 to $4.55 per share for fiscal 2016 would represent growth of 9% to 17% from 2015 levels, and that should help support a similarly sized dividend increase. As a result, Walgreens investors should expect a higher dividend in 2016, with the timing making it likely to come in the summer. The percentage boost will probably be more in line with the lower raises in the past couple of years than its long-term practice of double-digit percentage increases, but Walgreens has ambitiously laid out a path for the future that could lead to accelerating boosts in the long run. The next billion-dollar iSecret The world's biggest tech company forgot to show you something at its recent event, but a few Wall Street analysts and the Fool didn't miss a beat: There's a small company that's powering their brand-new gadgets and the coming revolution in technology. And we think its stock price has nearly unlimited room to run for early in-the-know investors! To be one of them, just click here. The article Will Walgreens Boots Alliance Raise Its Dividend in 2016? originally appeared on Fool.com. Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Texas State University, home of the Bobcats, is also home to more than 100 sugar babies, according to a new ranking. SeekingArrangement.com, a self-proclaimed platform where beautiful, successful people fuel mutually beneficial relationships begin, ranked the top 20 colleges in the country with the most new students are signing up to be wined and dined by sugar daddies. With 138 sign-ups, Texas State owns the No. 6 spot. According to the service, student participation is tracked by the university/college email addresses and proof of enrollment they provide to the site in the sign-up process. This kind of documentation is requested by SeekingArrangment for free premium memberships offered to students in its "Sugar Baby University" program, Public Relations Coordinator Rachel Kolinoski explained to mySA.com in an email. The company releases rankings based on current numbers of sign-ups, the list released this week is based on schools with the most students registered in 2015. Kolinoksi added students who remove their "student" status or delete their accounts altogether are not counted in the end-of-year totals. RELATED: Texas State student rides her Barbie Jeep around campus after DWI arrest, Internet loves it The honest website offers a few sugar baby perks, things young women will enjoy in return for upfront and honest arrangements with someone who will cater to your needs. Bobcat sugar babies can expect financial stability, a new mentor, the opportunity to date experienced men and being pampered, according to the site. RELATED: Top U.S. colleges for sugar babies looking for sugar daddies, sugar mommas SeekingArrangment.com persuades women to start dating gentlemen who leave the dating games alone and indulge in shopping sprees, expensive dinners, and exotic travels. Texas State students werent the only ones enticed by the proposition in the Lone Star State the University of Houston holds the No. 12 spot with 104 sign-ups and University of Texas sits high on the list at No. 3, with 163 sign-ups. mmendoza@mysa.com Twitter: @MaddySkye This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN ANTONIO -- A man died Sunday after he tried to steal a car and engaged San Antonio police in a brief gunfight, authorities said. The deceased man, 27, has not been identified. According to police, the officer, a four-year veteran of the force, arrived around 1:45 a.m. at the Selina Inn Motel. located in the 5600 block of Old Hwy 90 on the West Side, after someone called to report a vehicle theft in progress, according to a news release from the Police Department. The officer chased the suspect on foot after he tried to leave the scene, the release stated. Sgt. Jesse Salame, a police spokesman, said the suspect fired multiple shots at the officer during the foot chase, but did not hit the officer. He said the officer returned fire, and the suspect sustained multiple gunshot wounds. EMS and law enforcement units were called immediately after the shooting, according to the release. The suspect was taken to University Hospital and later died during surgery, Salame said. Investigators identified the weapon used as a handgun. It is unclear how many shots the suspect or the officer fired. The officer, who has not been identified, will be placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation by the SAPD Shooting Team, Salame said. atavarez@express-news.net Twitter: @lexicanaa This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A quarter-century ago, the U.S. invaded Iraq for the first time. Then-President George H.W. Bush announced the start of the Persian Gulf War on the evening of Jan. 16, 1991. The U.S.-led coalition took on Saddam Husseins own sizable army after his troops marched into neighboring Kuwait several months earlier. PHOTOS: World War II In Europe and back home The bombing campaign began the day after Bushs announcement. In six weeks, the onslaught had driven Husseins forces out of the tiny Middle Eastern nation. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28. The swift battle still resulted in a number of casualties. A total of 148 U.S. soldiers died in the Person Gulf War and almost 500 more were wounded. Among Iraqi forces, an estimated 25,000 troops died in the lopsided battle. See the gallery above for a look back at Operation Desert Storm. The Civil War through the lenses of Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner Today, as we honor a great American, it may be appropriate to dip into a book of such crystalline majesty that almost every passage represents an epiphany. The book is Between the World and Me, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction last year. It was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an African-American. The volume is both searing and poignant, emotional responses that reflect the complexity of this brilliant work. Coates recalls that the great American writer Saul Bellow once asked, Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus? He was referring to the author of War and Peace. Coates explores the marginalization that would lead an acclaimed novelist to ask such a question. Then he responds simply: Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus. Tolstoy was Russian, but his soul transcended borders. It encompassed something far bigger than nations and continents and territories; it encompassed humanity. Tolstoy did not belong to Russia; he belonged to the world black and white, rich and poor, Christian and Muslim. This is a good day to celebrate that universality, for this is the day we honor a great American Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights icon knew what Coates explained in his book, that we are all human, that our differences language, nationality, skin color are superficial, exploited by evil men to support evil institutions, including slavery and segregation. Slavery and segregation are gone, but the ignorance that fueled those malignancies remain, inherent, for example, in calls to ban all Muslims from our shores. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that, Dr. King wrote. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. This was the essence of his message, a message of peace and nonviolence. A message of inclusion. He focused on blacks, but the civil rights he championed targeted the entire country, for he knew that, in degrading minorities, America degraded itself. Both victim and perpetrator needed saving. As with many great and honorable men, death did not kill his hopes and dreams. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, a martyr to his noble cause peace, love, civil rights. He died a day after his Ive Been to the Mountaintop speech at Mason Temple, the world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ. But his legacy lives on as a reminder of the importance of equality as well as the need to continue striving to improve conditions for all. And he showed us the way forward standing up for what is right through nonviolence. In these ugly times, when some politicians stoke the racism that Martin Luther King Jr. so valiantly opposed, we honor a man who remains as significant today as he was during his life. Inspired by Gandhi and Tolstoy he championed causes that made us all better, black and white. He was more than a great American; he was a great man. By Don Quijones, Spain & Mexico, editor at Wolf Street. Originally published as Wolf Street. On Friday, Spains benchmark stock index, the Ibex 35, plumbed depths it had not seen since the worst days of 2013, the year that the countrys economy began its miraculous recovery. Of the 35 companies listed on the index, 15 (or 40%) are to quote El Economista against the ropes, having lost over a third of their stock value in the last 9 months. Only one of the 35 companies the technology firm Indra is still green for 2016. This doesnt make Spain much different from other countries right now, what with financial markets sinking in synchronized fashion all over the world. What does make Spain different is that it has no elected government to try to navigate the country though these testing times, or at least take the blame for the pain. Inevitable comparisons have been drawn with Belgium, which between 2011 and 2012 endured 541 days of government-free living. However, Spain is not Belgium: its democratic system of governance is younger, less firmly rooted, and more fragile, and its civil service is more politically compromised. To make matters worse, Spains richest region, Catalonia, which accounts for 20% of the countrys economy, bucked expectations last week by cobbling together a last-minute coalition government that seems intent on declaring independence within the next 15 months. Meanwhile, business confidence, the cornerstone of any economic recovery, is beginning to crumble. Spains leading index of business confidence, ICEA, just registered a drop of 1.3%, breaking a straight eleven-quarter run of positive results. For the first time in almost three years more business leaders are pessimistic than optimistic about the economys outlook. This should come as little surprise in a country where unemployment is still firmly on the wrong side of the 20% mark, over a quarter of the new jobs created last year had a contract lasting less than one week, and public debt is higher than its ever been [read: Six Nagging Facts About Spains Recovery]. And now that theres no elected government in office, businesses that depend on public sector contracts, including the countrys heavily indebted construction and infrastructure giants, face weeks or perhaps even months of inertia. Everything has come to a standstill, a contact in a Madrid-based research consultancy told me. No decisions are being made, no funds are being released. Its a vacuum. For the moment, the political backdrop has had limited impact on the price of Spanish government debt. The 10-year yield is at 1.75%, below the 10-year US Treasury yield, though its up a smidgen since the general elections on December 20. In its latest update, S&P left Spains rating unchanged, predicting 2.7% growth for 2016, despite the prevailing mood of political and economic uncertainty. In a similar vein, Deutsche Bank has forecast growth of 2.5%, regardless of what happens within or beyond Spanish borders. In other words, every effort will be made to safeguard the economic order in Spain, including putting a ridiculously positive spin on a desperate situation. To paraphrase Europes chief financial alchemist, Mario Draghi: do not underestimate the amount of political capital that has been invested in the European project, in particular in the Eurozones fourth largest economy. However, the leader of Spains Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sanchez, doesnt seem to have got the memo. A week ago he was in Lisbon to meet Antonio Costa, Portugals new prime minister, to seek advice on how to cobble together a broad coalition of left-leaning parties. On Friday Costa, now in his second month of governance, announced a raft of economic reforms including a 5% rise in the minimum salary, reintroduction of the 35-hour working week for public sector workers and the cancellation of bank charges, one of the main profit sources in Portugals struggling financial sector hardly the sort of measures that will endear Costas government to European institutions, especially given that Portugal boasts the second highest debt to GDP ratio in the world. However, its one thing for an economy the size of Portugal to fall into the hands of political forces determined to reverse many of the economic reforms imposed by the Troika; its quite another when elected representatives of the eurozones fourth largest economy think of doing the same, especially during a year that Spain is expected to execute its biggest public spending cutbacks since 2010, when the Zapatero government froze public pensions, paralyzed public investment and cut public sector salaries by 5%. Enter stage right the president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, who on Friday warned that he expects the formation of a stable government in Spain as quickly as possible, while emphasizing that he has no intention of interfering in the exact composition of that government. Hardly comforting words given the Commissions infamous role in the replacement, in 2011, of the elected governments of both Greece and Italy with technocratic regimes. Could history be about to repeat itself, or at least rhyme? The Commission already has enough problems on its hands refugee crisis, stagnating economies, Brexit, Dutch referendum, an increasingly recalcitrant Italy and uncooperative governments in Poland and Hungary. Given how much is at stake in Spain, things are likely to get a whole lot uglier before they get any prettier. Rajoys acting government has already accused Sanchez of seeking to break up the country by forging an alliance with Catalonias two main separatist parties. A few days ago the Fiscal and Economic Crime Unit of Spains Policia Nacional announced it had launched an investigation into the finances of Podemos amidst allegations that it had received millions of euros of funding from the Chavez government in Venezuela and Iranian media. Serious allegations indeed, especially given Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias cozy ties with both. As political tensions escalate, the chances of establishing even a weak interim government grow slimmer by the day. All indications point to new elections some time in the spring, meaning that the country will remain ungovernable for at least three or four months to come. In normal conditions this might not be much of a problem, but with the global economy edging closer and closer toward yet another fateful date with reality, Spain could well be on the cusp of a perfect storm. Its sad that you have to be something of a detective to decipher what passes for content at most major American news outlets. In the case of Michael Grunwald, however, we have a decent set of indicators about the normally hidden agenda. The Politico writer worked with Tim Geithner on his memoir. In fact, I believe he has said publicly that he didnt know a lot about finance before meeting Geithner. So when Grunwald decides to leap into anything involving this topic, we can assume the end result is not altogether different than what it would look like if Geithner wrote it with his own byline. The latest example is a nominal review of The Big Short, which is not really a review. Its an attempt to steer the narrative of what happened, in the financial crisis and its aftermath, to territory that comforts elites. Geithner has repeatedly tried to rewrite that history, as a means to self-flatter about his actions, and to ensure that nothing more punitive or disruptive befalls our money center banks. This non-review review represents another chapter in that story. I should say that Im not wholly positive about The Big Short. I wrote when the film came out that it too often put those most powerfully and hideously affected by the crisis in the background. And Yves has admirably explained how the Michael Lewis source material gives too much hero status to the folks who created a wider crisis by creating a market for the worst of the subprime securities (and Lewis didnt even find the real villains who perpetuated this). Granted, these are more issues with the book than the movie. But again, Geithner/Grunwald doesnt care about the movie; he wants to tell you how to think. In the Geithner/Grunwald view, the crisis was just a case of mass hysteria, no different than the Dutch tulip craze, which was financed with short-term capital and collapsed because of a panic. This implicates non-bank mortgage brokers in Florida, homeowners in Arizona, and anyone who came into contact with a mortgage or cash-out refinance from 1998 to 2006. As the saying goes, if everyones responsible, then nobodys responsible. This is flat wrong on a number of levels, a convenient lie to get people in government and on Wall Street off the hook for the greatest economic disruption since the Depression. The quickest example of this comes when Geithner/Grunwald misinterprets a key scene in the movie, by claiming that America is as deluded as a Florida realtor who kept insisting that the start of the crash was just a gully.' But that realtor was a salesperson, perfectly knowledgeable about the state of the market, trying to dump her inventory. America, in this analogy, equates to the guys in the back of that realtors car, being spun a story about how housing was impervious to a downturn, how homeowners can always refinance their way out of trouble, how slicing up the mortgages into tranched securities make them as safe as cash. Its a dishonest inversion of the facts to claim that Americans suffered from a miasma and werent actively defrauded. Mike Konczal did some heavy lifting on the rest of this, showing how the numbers reveal the truth: if it was a general mania, youd expect to see widespread losses among all kinds of mortgage players. But those losses were concentrated in subprime and especially CDOs. From the FCIC report: Simply speaking, banks holding their own mortgages and government-backed credit (implicitly or explicitly) experienced nothing like the losses that financial securities saw. The bubble also wasnt driven by consumers. As Adam Levitin and Susan Wachter found, the price of mortgages fell as the quantity increased, pointing to a supply-side movement rather than one driven by higher demand from housing-crazed individuals. Honestly I would quote Konczals entire post if I could. We know that consumer demand didnt drive the bubble, in part, because people who owned their homes outright in inner city Detroit and Cleveland were getting cold-called by originators. Cash-out refinances represented the majority of subprime mortgages, according to Nocera and MacLean in All the Devils Are Here. These people didnt come looking for a mortgage, the brokers came looking for them. Weve actually seen a housing mania in America in the LA area in the 1980s, in the S&L crisis to some extent. It wasnt too bad. The use of mortgage securities and credit derivatives not only fueled the demand for more mortgages to expand bad loans from the regional to national level, it globalized the crisis. The bubble can be described as a game of hot potato, where the spud symbolizes risk. The non-bank originators, under demands to send them as many mortgages as possible by Wall Street banks who controlled their warehouse lines of credit, passed the potato to Citi and Morgan Stanley and BofA. They passed the potato onto MBS investors, on the authority that these were safe assets, blessed by a corrupt set of rating agencies. They wouldnt have made the purchase without 30 years of financial engineering, innovating the mortgage bond into something defined and free of prepayment risk. And the unsold tranches were chopped up into CDOs, with the sketchiest bits of mortgage securities julienned into something deemed safe. Without that stamp of approval, you could not possibly have built the bubble nearly as big. The hot potato game created warped incentives for every actor along the long chain of disintermediation, a defining feature of shadow banks. And the swaps and derivatives related more tangentially to this game, and designed to get a lot of people out of their bad trades, magnified the exposure. Its also not true that the big banks were dumb money, as Geithner/Grunwald puts it, because lots of hedge funds and most notably Goldman Sachs (see Magentar) made the exact same CDS trades that the few outsiders and weirdos did in The Big Short. And as Yves points out, they drove additional toxic subprime demand at the bubbles peak, by creating time bomb bonds designed to fail. The idea that the banks were appropriately punished for all this because a few people at Washington Mutual lost their jobs (but not their bonuses) is comical. The traders who put together the schemes in real time to profit off the bubble and the crash, with their IBGYBG (Ill be gone, youll be gone) mentality, are doing OK. The recklessness made a lot of sense for them. See also everything Adam Davidson tweeted this weekend, and David Fiderer, who makes a number of these points in more detail, including this: Invariably, the adherents to the Stuff Happens school whitewash fraud by trivializing it. Wall Street succumbed to the housing-is-bulletproof delusion, says Grunwald. He ignores the fact that people on Wall Street have an affirmative obligation to know whats going on; they represent and warrant the quality of the mortgages being sold, and they have an affirmative duty to avoid any complicity in any fraudulent transactions. Willful blindness is never an excuse. This is a good time to segue into one of Geithner/Grunwalds biggest whoppers in his narrative: The fact that no Wall Street executives went to jail for their role in the crisis, despite a glut of politically ambitious prosecutors who would have loved to frog-march bankers into court in handcuffs, ought to suggest that their activities, however idiotic and irresponsible, were not provably illegal. If nobody was arrested, there was no crime. This is something that a writer put in a story. Judy Miller must be happy that this gets her off the hook as the biggest dissembler in the history of journalism. I should just copy-paste my entire book here as evidence to counter this claim, but my publisher probably wouldnt like that, so let me preview by saying that there were provable cases remember the millions of pieces of documentary evidence of false mortgage assignments and affidavits fabricated and forged to prove standing to foreclose and recompose chain of title? that prosecutors ambitious to seek justice did attempt to bring, but the Justice Department shot them down. It happened. And one of the ways that happens is through starvation of resources and lack of emphasis, which former New York banking regulator Ben Lawsky once explained to Geithner/Grunwald: With Enron, we put together a whole big group of prosecutors from around the country, the best of the best. We put them in an office and gave them huge resources with the FBI and other agencies to do a really deep-dive investigation into exactly what took place. And that was just for one company. If we had, as a country, devoted the same proportional level of resources to reacting to the financial crisis a group of maybe several hundred prosecutors and several thousand agents tasked with doing an investigation in the immediate aftermath we may have seen different results I guess what Im saying is, Ive worked in a U.S. attorneys office, and theres a real difference between having a bunch of U.S. attorneys around the country with often limited resources working on different aspects of the financial crisis, and putting together a nationwide task force where you devote very significant resources in one place with one leader who, frankly, probably reports to the top law enforcement officials in the country. Lawsky is too kind to say that DoJ didnt put the brakes on cases. Ill hold my tongue on that for a few months. (Fiderer also points out the FHFA cases showing clear evidence of securities fraud. I could add Fabulous Fab, the Clayton Holdings findings of poorly underwritten loans in the bond pools that banks used to negotiate after-the-fact discounts from the originators without telling their own investors, the failure to convey assets to the trusts that should have triggered 100% REMIC violations, etc, etc, etc.) Geithner/Grunwald devotes the rest of his propagandizing to cheerlead for the bailouts and their aftermath. The word homeowner never appears in Geithner/Grunwalds story, appropriately enough. As Konczal writes, Its nice to think that the thought of hey, the bailouts made money is capable of keeping a homeless family warm at night, though thats probably not the case. These 6 million families, who could have been aided by the written commitment of $100 billion in TARP money Larry Summers promised to dedicated to mortgage relief (7 years later the government has spent $10 billion), are wiped out of the picture because they were abused: they had their hopes of lifeline bankruptcy reform to give them leverage over their mortgage servicer extinguished, had their loan modification applications lost, had their time sucked by hours of haggling and heartache, had their servicers turn a foreclosure mitigation program into a predatory lending program, had their homes effectively stolen with false evidence, and had their government hand out worse-than-nothing settlements over the layers of misconduct. There were losses in the crisis, and they were allocated, in the end, onto homeowners. And some investors, who end up paying both the losses of mortgage bonds AND the penalties for banks fraudulent conduct. These losses, and the balance sheet deleveraging that they required, stunted the recovery, in the absence of assistance from the Administration. I could go on. Geithner/Grunwald is apparently thrilled that Dodd-Frank is causing banks to break themselves up voluntarily to avoid some of the stringent new rules, even though he wrote a whole article discounting bank size as a problem and opposing the idea of breaking them up. Geithner/Grunwald argues that nobody on Wall Street foresaw a bailout, but this little bit tossed into a 1991 update of the Federal Reserve Act suggests otherwise (h/t Matt Stoller). Geithner/Grunwald salutes the clearing of derivatives, a reform brought into Dodd-Frank (against Geithners wishes) by Blanche Lincoln, who was scared of a progressive primary challenge, and he fails to mention that the biggest derivatives traders all the big banks, incidentally moved nearly all of their swaps trades overseas to avoid regulatory oversight (in this sense, Big Short director Adam McKay, who is being derided for saying that we didnt get a real derivatives clearinghouse, is more right than wrong, actually). Geithner/Grunwald says the film is appropriately brutal to Wall Street and the financial sector, so he can point to that single line when people like me come after him for his concerted effort to throw Wall Street a lifeline. This is far more than a movie review. Its something that the finance lobby can forward people on Capitol Hill to subside any residual anger lawmakers (more appropriately, their constituents) might have from The Big Short and its fallout. Its an attempt to mold history, to put a filter on the past so nobody will make any changes in the future. The elites who want the status quo to continue feel the debate slipping out of their hands. If they want to regain control, theyre going to have to do better than Geithner/Grunwald and his fairy tales. By Peter Van Buren, who blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during the Iraqi reconstruction in We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. He writes about current events at We Meant Well. His latest book is Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent. His next work will be a novel, Hoopers War. Originally published at TomDispatch How can we stop the Islamic State? Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS! What would you say? What Hasnt Worked Youd need to start with a persuasive review of what hasnt worked over the past 14-plus years. American actions against terrorism the Islamic State being just the latest flavor have flopped on a remarkable scale, yet remain remarkably attractive to our present crew of candidates. (Bernie Sanders might be the only exception, though he supports forming yet another coalition to defeat ISIS.) Why are the failed options still so attractive? In part, because bombing and drones are believed by the majority of Americans to be surgical procedures that kill lots of bad guys, not too many innocents, and no Americans at all. As Washington regularly imagines it, once air power is in play, someone elses boots will eventually hit the ground (after the U.S. military provides the necessary training and weapons). A handful of Special Forces troops, boots-sorta-on-the-ground, will also help turn the tide. By carrot or stick, Washington will collect and hold together some now-you-see-it, now-you-dont coalition of allies to aid and abet the task at hand. And success will be ours, even though versions of this formula have fallen flat time and again in the Greater Middle East. Since the June 2014 start of Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State, the U.S. and its coalition partners have flown 9,041 sorties, 5,959 in Iraq and 3,082 in Syria. More are launched every day. The U.S. claims it has killed between 10,000 and 25,000 Islamic State fighters, quite a spread, but still, if accurate (which is doubtful), at best only a couple of bad guys per bombing run. Not particularly efficient on the face of it, but as Obama administration officials often emphasize this is a long war. The CIA estimates that the Islamic State had perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 fighters under arms in 2014. So somewhere between a third of them and all of them should now be gone. Evidently not, since recent estimates of Islamic State militants remain in that 20,000 to 30,000 range as 2016 begins. How about the capture of cities then? Well, the U.S. and its partners have already gone a few rounds when it comes to taking cities. After all, U.S. troops claimed Ramadi, the capital of Iraqs al-Anbar Province, in 2003, only to see the American-trained Iraqi army lose it to ISIS in May 2015, and U.S-trained Iraqi special operations troops backed by U.S. air power retake it (in almost completely destroyed condition) as 2015 ended. As one pundit put it, the destruction and the cost of rebuilding make Ramadi a victory in the worst possible sense. Yet the battle cry in Washington and Baghdad remains On to Mosul! Similar successes have regularly been invoked when it came to ridding the world of evil tyrants, whether Iraqs Saddam Hussein or Libyas Muammar Qaddafi, only to see years of blowback follow. Same for terrorist masterminds, including Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, as well as minor-minds (Jihadi John in Syria), only to see others pop up and terror outfits spread. The sum of all this activity, 14-plus years of it, has been ever more failed states and ungoverned spaces. If your candidate needs a what-hasnt-worked summary statement, its simple: everything. How Dangerous Is Islamic Terrorism for Americans? To any argument you make to your preferred presidential candidate about what did not work, you need to add a sober assessment of the real impact of terrorism on the United States in order to ask the question: Why exactly are we engaged in this war on this scale? Hard as it is to persuade a constantly re-terrorized American public of the actual situation we face, there have been only 38 Americans killed in the U.S. by Islamic terrorists, lone wolves, or whacked-out individuals professing allegiance to Islamic extremism, or ISIS, or al-Qaeda, since 9/11. Argue about the number if you want. In fact, double or triple it and it still adds up to a tragic but undeniable drop in the bucket. To gain some perspective, pick your favorite comparison: number of Americans killed since 9/11 by guns (more than 400,000) or by drunk drivers in 2012 alone (more than 10,000). And spare us the tired trope about how security measures at our airports and elsewhere have saved us from who knows how many attacks. A recent test by the Department of Homelands own Inspector Generals Office showed that 95% of contraband, including weapons and explosives, got through airport screening without being detected. Could it be that there just arent as many bad guys out there aiming to take down our country as candidates on the campaign trail would like to imagine? Or take a look at the National Security Agencys Fourth Amendment-smothering blanket surveillance. Howd that do against the Boston bombing or the attacks in San Bernardino? Theres no evidence it has ever uncovered a real terror plot against this country. Islamic terrorism in the United States is less a serious danger than a carefully curated fear. Introduce Your Candidate to the Real World You should have your candidates attention by now. Time to remind him or her that Washingtons war on terror strategy has already sent at least $1.6 trillion down the drain, left thousands of American troops and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Muslims dead. Along the way we lost precious freedoms to the ever-expanding national security state. So start advising your candidate that a proper response to the Islamic State has to be proportional to the real threat. After all, we have fire departments always on call, but they dont ride around spraying water on homes 24/7 out of an abundance of caution. We Have to Do Something So heres what you might suggest that your candidate do, because you know that s/he will demand to do something. Start by suggesting that, as a society, we take a deep look at ourselves, our leaders, and our media, and stop fanning everyones flames. Its time, among other things, to stop harassing and discriminating against our own Muslim population, only to stand by slack-jawed as a few of them become radicalized, and Washington then blames Twitter. As president, you need to opt out of all this, and dissuade others from buying into it. As for the Islamic State itself, it cant survive, never mind fight, without funds. So candidate, its time to man/woman up, and go after the real sources of funding. As long as the U.S. insists on flying air attack sorties (and your candidate may unfortunately need to do so to cover his/her right flank), direct them far more intensely than at present against one of ISISs main sources of cash: oil exports. Blow up trucks moving oil. Blow up wellheads in ISIS-dominated areas. Finding targets is not hard. The Russians released reconnaissance photos showing what they claimed were 12,000 trucks loaded with smuggled oil, backed up near the Turkish border. But remind your candidate that this would not be an expansion of the air war or a shifting from one bombing campaign to a new one. It would be a short-term move, with a defined end point of shutting down the flow of oil. It would only be one part of a far larger effort to shut down ISISs sources of funds. Next, use whatever diplomatic and economic pressure is available to make it clear to whomever in Turkey that its time to stop facilitating the flow of that ISIS oil onto the black market. Then wield that same diplomatic and economic pressure to force buyers to stop purchasing it. Some reports suggest that Israel, cut off from most Arab sources of oil, has become a major buyer of ISISs supplies. If so, step on some allied toes. Cmon, someone is buying all that black-market black gold. The same should go for Turkeys behavior toward ISIS. That would extend from its determination to fight Kurdish forces fighting ISIS to the way its allowed jihadis to enter Syria through its territory to the way its funneled arms to various extreme Islamic groups in that country. Engage Turkeys fellow NATO members. Let them do some of the heavy lifting. They have a dog in this fight, too. And speaking of stepping on allied toes, make it clear to the Saudis and other Sunni Persian Gulf states that they must stop sending money to ISIS. Yes, were told that this flow of donations comes from private citizens, not the Saudi government or those of its neighbors. Even so, they should be capable of exerting pressure to close the valve. Forget a no-fly zone over northern Syria another fruitless solution to the problem of the Islamic State that various presidential candidates are now plugging and use the international banking system to create a no-flow zone. You may not be able to stop every buck from reaching ISIS, but most of it will do in a situation where every dollar counts. Your candidate will obviously then ask you, What else? There must be more we can do, mustnt there? To this, your answer should be blunt: Get out. Land the planes, ground the drones, and withdraw. Pull out the boots, the trainers, the American combatants and near combatants (whatever the euphemism of the moment for them may be). Anybody who has ever listened to a country and western song knows that theres always a time to step away from the table and cut your losses. Throwing more money (lives, global prestige) into the pot wont alter the cards youre holding. All youre doing is postponing the inevitable at great cost. In the end, there is nothing the United States can do about the processes now underway in the Middle East except stand on the beach trying to push back the waves. This is history talking to us. That Darn History Thing Sometimes things change visibly at a specific moment: December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, or the morning of September 11, 2001. Sometimes the change is harder to pinpoint, like the start of the social upheaval that, in the U.S., came to be known as the Sixties. In the Middle East after World War I, representatives of the victorious British and French drew up national boundaries without regard for ethnic, sectarian, religious, tribal, resource, or other realities. Their goal was to divvy up the defeated Ottoman Empire. Later, as their imperial systems collapsed, Washington moved in (though rejecting outright colonies for empire by proxy). Secular dictatorships were imposed on the region and supported by the West past their due dates. Any urge toward popular self-government was undermined or destroyed, as with the coup against elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, or the way the Obama administration manipulated the Arab Spring in Egypt, leading to the displacement of a democratically chosen government by a military coup in 2013. In this larger context, the Islamic State is only a symptom, not the disease. Washingtons problem has been its desire to preserve a collapsing nation-state system at the heart of the Middle East. The Bush administrations 2003 invasion of Iraq certainly sped up the process in a particularly disastrous fashion. Twelve years later, there cant be any question that the tide has turned in the Middle East forever. Its time for the U.S. to stand back and let local actors deal with the present situation. ISISs threat to us is actually minimal. Its threat to those in the region is another matter entirely. Without Washington further roiling the situation, its a movement whose limits will quickly enough become apparent. The war with ISIS is, in fact, a struggle of ideas, anti-western and anti-imperialist, suffused with religious feeling. You cant bomb an idea or a religion away. Whatever Washington may want, much of the Middle East is heading toward non-secular governments, and toward the destruction of the monarchies and the military thugs still trying to preserve updated versions of the post-World War I system. In the process, borders, already dissolving, will sooner or later be redrawn in ways that reflect how people on the ground actually see themselves. There is little use in questioning whether this is the right or wrong thing because there is little Washington can do to stop it. However, as we should have learned in these last 14 years, there is much it can do to make things far worse than they ever needed to be. The grim question today is simply how long this painful process takes and how high a cost it extracts. To take former President George W. Bushs phrase and twist it a bit, youre either with the flow of history or against it. Fear Itself Initially, Washingtons military withdrawal from the heart of the Middle East will undoubtedly further upset the current precarious balances of power in the region. New vacuums will develop and unsavory characters will rush in. But the U.S. has a long history of either working pragmatically with less than charming figures (think: the Shah of Iran, Anwar Sadat, or Saddam Hussein before he became an enemy) or isolating them. Iran, currently the up-and-coming power in the area absent the United States, will no doubt benefit, but its reentry into the global system is equally inevitable. And the oil will keep flowing; it has to. The countries of the Middle East have only one mighty export and need to import nearly everything else. You cant eat oil, so you must sell it, and a large percentage of that oil is already sold to the highest bidder on world markets. Its true that, even in the wake of an American withdrawal, the Islamic State might still try to launch Paris-style attacks or encourage San Bernardino-style rampages because, from a recruitment and propaganda point of view, its advantageous to have the U.S. and the former colonial powers as your number one enemies. This was something Osama bin Laden realized early on vis-a-vis Washington. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams in drawing the U.S. deeply into the quagmire and tricking Washington into doing much of his work for him. But the dangers of such attacks remain limited and can be lived with. As a nation, we survived World War II, decades of potential nuclear annihilation, and scores of threats larger than ISIS. Its disingenuous to believe terrorism is a greater threat to our survival. And heres a simple reality to explain to your candidate: we cant defend everything, not without losing everything in the process. We can try to lock down airports and federal buildings, but there is no way, nor should there be, to secure every San Bernardino holiday party, every school, and every bus stop. We should, in fact, be ashamed to be such a fear-based society here in the home of the brave. Today, sadly enough, the most salient example of American exceptionalism is being the worlds most scared country. Only in that sense could it be said that the terrorists are winning in America. At this point, your candidate will undoubtedly say: Wait! Wont these ideas be hard to sell to the American people? Wont our allies object? And the reply to that, at least for a candidate not convinced that more of the same is the only way to go, might be: After more than 14 years of the wrong answers and the disasters that followed, do you have anything better to suggest? By run75441. Originally published at Angry Bear About a week ago, I wrote about the events leading up to the dilemma faced by Western Carolina University faculty and administration with being offered a $2 million grant from a Koch Brothers foundation. What I did not mention is the recent domination of the North Carolina university system by Republican minded-administrators such as Margaret Spellings former President Bush Secretary of Education adding to the complexity. Mark Jamison continues with the depiction of the dilemma Western Carolina University faces and provides the argument as to why the faculty and administration should reject this Koch Brothers donation. This article can also be found in the Smoky Mountain News as a guest column by Mark. Mark Jamison The proposed $2 million gift from the Charles Koch Foundation to WCU for the establishment of a Center of Free Enterprise raises several questions. Are gifts like these from private donors appropriate at public institutions? Do they entail a certain quid pro quo regardless of protocols to ensure transparency? Are certain types of gifts within certain academic disciplines different in their impact on the mission and perception of the university? In an era when we have seen the highest concentrations of wealth in more than a hundred years and when there exists a growing concern about the impact of money on the accountability and accessibility of political institutions do these sorts of gifts further a trend away from democratic institutions and public goods? Is this trend health? Unhealthy? In 1971 Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer and member of eleven corporate boards, wrote a memo to the Director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Two months after he submitted the memo, Powell was nominated to the Supreme Court. The memo was essentially a diatribe against American Liberalism and a call for action from American corporate and business interests. It recommended a concerted effort to develop an intellectual infrastructure that would support the interests of American corporatism. The Powell memo has often been credited as the birthing document of the web of think tanks, associations, and groups that advance conservative thought in this country. Another consequence of the memo was a renewed focus on capturing government and making it work directly for the interests of corporate elites. Over the last generation we have increasingly seen the effects of Powells advice in action; especially as economic gains have concentrated in the upper .01% creating a class of billionaires able to buy an outsized voice and presence in politics and policy making. Not content to simply fund think tanks that use non-profits to promote, advocate, and espouse particular points of view, the billionaire class has moved into other areas. A recent piece in the New Yorker on the Ford Foundation noted that the Gates Foundation, with an endowment of forty billion dollars, has done notable work in the fight to eliminate malaria. But Gates also spent two billion dollars over eight years in an effort to break up big public high schools and form smaller ones. Resulting analysis showed the effort had little impact on educational quality but it did spend millions on creating charter schools. Gates has been called the nations unelected school superintendent. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame spent over one hundred million dollars in a similar effort in the Newark schools that ended in dysfunction and controversy. The owners of Hobby Lobby, famous for their suit against the ACA, have set up a multimillion-dollar foundation to create a Bible museum. The Atlantic has reported that as part of that effort the Green family has been acquiring ancient texts and antiquities, some in transactions that ignore international conventions in the trade of historical items. Scholars are concerned that access to these essential texts may be controlled in ways that limit research and scholarship. The Walton family has placed a significant amount of its inherited fortune in nonprofit trusts, primarily as a way of avoiding taxes. One purpose of these trusts has been to create one of the largest private art museums in the world, Crystal Bridges. It seems we may be returning to a time before the Enlightment when the wealthy controlled arts and literature and the artist created at the whim of a patron. In many ways these foundations act as a way of molding society in the image of a particular plutocrat. In some ways these foundations act as Super PACs, especially those that exist to advocate on behalf of political causes. There is one big distinction though, these foundations are created under nonprofit statutes so they are effectively subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of forty percent. The New Yorker piece quotes Judge Richard Posner on treating foundation assets as tax exempt, A perpetual charitable foundation . . . is a completely irresponsible institution, answerable to nobody. Unlike a hereditary monarch whom such a foundation otherwise resembles, it is subject to no political controls either. The puzzle for economics is why these foundations are not total scandals. The ubiquity of private think tanks and foundations assures that there is more than sufficient opportunity for the dissemination of political and ideological opinion. Here in North Carolina we suffer no lack of presence with Art Popes John Locke Society and Civitas. Why then is it necessary to extend the reach of these essentially political organizations into the publicly funded university system? Even if one concedes that accepting donations from wealthy benefactors can be beneficial to a publicly funded university, does a difference arise with respect to what the benefactor chooses to fund?. Leaving the question of agenda setting aside it would seem that there is a fundamental distinction between funding a Center for Bioresearch and funding a Center for Free Enterprise. The one is largely a pursuit of empirically constrained hard science while the other, as indicated by its name, is a study of ideology. This becomes particularly evident when one looks at the specialty of the proposed director of the CFE, Professor Edward J. Lopez. Dr. Lopez focuses on a branch of economics that comes under the rubric of Public Choice Theory. In his book, Madman, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers Lopez states, The basic idea of public choice theory is that economists shouldnt have one set of theories for a person making a commercial decision and a separate set of theories for that same person making a political decision. Economists working in the public choice tradition argue that if we are going to look at market failure, then it makes sense to see if there is government failure, too. With this perspective in mind, it becomes clear why democracies so often generate inefficient policies and why they allow them to persist. The implication is that all the world, every facet of the human experience, is not a stage as Shakespeare wrote; but a market, a market where rational beings make rational choices based solely on profit and loss maximization of utility. This is more than merely economics, it encompasses the whole of social sciences as evidenced by a quote Dr. Lopez uses in a book of essays he edited. In The Pursuit of Justice (which oddly enough focuses not on theories of justice but on the idea that our legal systems and institutions are fundamentally corrupt because they are victims of pervasive and perverse incentives) Dr. Lopez quotes James Buchanan, one of the founders of the PCT school as saying; Public choice should be understood as a research program rather than a discipline or subdiscipline of economics. And in fact Dr. Lopez makes it clear throughout his writings Public Choice Theory (PCT) is intertwined with philosophy, history, finance, psychology, development, linguistics, and other fields; an all encompassing theory of everything a dogma. Matt Yglesias has suggested that PCT fits a syllogism (a logical argument that offers two or more propositions and a conclusion): P1) Spread skepticism about government officials and their motives P2) ? C) Libertarianism Indeed, this may be a good description of much of Dr. Lopezs work. The question mark does a great deal of heavy lifting in his arguments but the first proposition is meant to gloss over everything else. Consider the three questions Dr. Lopez poses in his book, Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers: 1. Why do democracies generate policies that are wasteful and unjust? 2. Why do failed policies persist over long periods, even when they are known to be socially wasteful and even when better alternatives exist? 3. Why do some wasteful policies get repealed (for example, airline rate and route regulation) while others endure (such as sugar subsidies and tariffs)? The first question does not ask Do democracies generate policies that are wasteful and unjust?. It assumes that they do which certainly is true in some instances but the framing isnt about discovering under what circumstances wasteful policies occur, there are no definitions of wasteful, and despite constant references to just or unjust actions Dr. Lopez never gives much of a definition beyond a nebulous reference to rules and property rights. As an example Dr. Lopez writes approvingly in a couple of different papers of President Grover Clevelands 1887 veto of a disaster relief bill for Texas farmers wiped out by drought. Such aid was not, in Clevelands and apparently Lopezs view, constitutional. Presumably, the implication still holds true. There is not a great deal of intellectual inquiry here. There is an assumption that we are all homo econimicus, that institutions are subject to the same incentives and rent seeking behavior that individuals always exhibit, and that the answer must therefore be a laissez faire version of society as encompassed entirely by the market. Throughout his writings Dr. Lopez is adept at telling just- so stories leading us in the direction of his conclusions. For example, in his recent letter to SMN that began with a rebuttal to a previous writers assertions about BB&Ts actions during the financial collapse Dr. Lopez references BB&Ts repeated claims that they were forced to take TARP money, a claim that may have some truth but which also ignores the fact that BB&T was also found to be significantly undercapitalized and overleveraged. Lopez is also much taken with Adam Smiths metaphor of the invisible hand, perhaps one of the most overused, abused, and misunderstood phrases in the annals of economics. Lopez uses the phrase 11 times in his book while Smith used it three times in his entire body of work; once in a treatise on astronomy; once in A Theory of Moral Sentiments in the context of similar needs of both rich and poor for basic necessities ; and once in The Wealth of Nations in the context of comparing domestic and foreign manufactures. From those three examples and particularly in the last, a mythology of a self-generating and correcting marketplace has developed to the level of religious or iconic status. Oddly enough, Lopez never seems to quote Smith during his many discussions of the problems of working folks and the disadvantages and inequalities that labor faces. For example, it is unlikely that Lopez would cite Smiths take on progressive taxation: The rich should contribute to the public expense, he wrote, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more in proportion. Adam Smith Dr. Lopez is also adept at portraying his intellectual heroes in the most positive light while subtlety poking figures he is in disagreement with. In one passage, he says about John Maynard Keynes, He even took both sides in love, not terribly unusual among intellectuals of his circles in that day. As a young scholar, Keynes had male lovers, including the writer and critic Lytton Strachey. But, like Pareto, he later married a Russian woman, the ballerina Lydia Lopokova. This puts one in mind of the controversy that arose after the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson took a Keynes quote about how in the long run we are all dead badly out of context and then proceeded to point out that because Keynes was gay and had no children, he had no sensitivity to future generations. Im not sure what Dr. Lopez hoped to accomplish with this observation but for the life of me I cant understand how Keyness sexual preferences, Russian wife or reference to Pareto tell us anything about his economic thinking. Perhaps Dr. Lopez was trying to make a point that Keynes often changed and adapted his positions, a point that would have been served by offering up this well known quote from Keynes; When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir? Dr. Lopez has been quoted saying that academic inquiry should not be censored even if unpopular. I heartily agree with him and I would never suggest that his teaching be censored or limited. I would suggest that each instructor, particularly in a public institution, has an obligation to present material in the spirit of intellectual honesty and inquiry and that would include presenting a fair assessment of ideologies or systems that conflict with an instructors preferred ideologies or systems. In his book, Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers Lopezs main theme is that ideas should win out in the marketplace. While the marketplace is only a small part of the world and human experience, a point on which Lopez and I would disagree, his basic construction is correct good ideas; ideas subjected to empirical, logical, and philosophical testing; ideas that advance, expand, or illuminate our concepts of justice; and ideas that have been broadly and fairly debated and contested ought to win our respect. But the question here is more than what Dr. Lopez teaches or even how he teaches it. At issue is not the legitimacy of one professors views. The issue is whether a publicly funded institution ought to take a gift to establish a program with the clear mission to teach a particular ideology, an ideology that is, in fact broadly contested. This is especially true in a discipline like economics and especially when the proposed center and its proposed leader mix economics, political philosophy, and political science. Maybe the discussion ends up being framed differently if we were talking about a hard science, or medical research, or a purely technical discipline. Even then, there might still be questions about billionaires dictating an agenda but in a discipline that is entirely empirical there are fewer and different problems. The search for facts and the search for truth are two different endeavors; that distinction is both critical and germane to this specific proposal. Transparency is not the issue, no matter how unstructured the grant the undeniable fact is that $2 million buys influence, it gets phone calls answered, and it gets preferences on the agenda. The simple fact is that one of the basic tenets of the ideology Dr. Lopez preaches is that money talks, it is the measure of the market. More to the point, the ideology that Dr. Lopez espouses argues that institutions, particularly public institutions, are subject to manipulation and perverse incentives. The proposed grant is a demonstration of whatever truth lies in public choice theory. The land grant colleges and public university systems were built to serve as great equalizers. These public institutions were built to give average folks the opportunity to acquire knowledge and pursue intellectual inquiry. Sadly as our world has graduated from a market economy to a market society, much of the mission of our public institutions has been lost. In a world where billionaires and corporate sponsors face few constraints in their ability to dictate public policy and control public discourse we ought not blithely encourage yet another venue for indoctrination, no matter how much the enticement. I would make this argument regardless of the source of the money whether it comes from the Kochs or some liberal bogeyman like George Soros. Let Dr. Lopez teach what he wants but let WCU retain its integrity as a public institution, something it cannot do under any conditions if it accepts this gift. Marc Beaudin/Special to the Daily News (2) Deric Cahill, CEO and founder of Zimni, teaches a group class Thursday at Cellular Sales, a Florida Verizon retail store in Cape Coral. SHARE Cahill helps Reina Dickinson during Thursdays group class at Cellular Sales. Deric Cahill, CEO and founder of Zimni, teaches a group class Thursday (1/14) at Cellular Sales, a Florida Verizon retailer store, on Santa Barbara Blvd. in Cape Coral. The class teaches how to set up a smartphone and tablets and is given free of charge in partnership with Cellular Sales. Connie Gironda sts up her smartphone during a group class Thursday (1/14) at Cellular Sales, a Florida Verizon retailer store, on Santa Barbara Blvd. in Cape Coral. The class given by Zimni CEO Deric Cahill, teaches how to set up smartphones and tablets and is given free of charge in partnership with Cellula Sales. Jesse Pitts, a Zimni Pro, helps Karen Martin of Indiana during a group class Thursday (1/14) at Cellular Sales, a Florida Verizon retailer store, on Santa Barbara Blvd. in Cape Coral. The class teaches how to set up a smartphone and tablets and is givien free of charge. By John Osborne A homegrown tech-support startup founded by a pair of young Army veterans who graduated from Cape Coral high schools has entered into a pair of pilot-program partnerships with five local Verizon retail locations and five Southwest Florida UbreakIfix locations. Zimni owners Deric Cahill and Zach Kamp said the partnerships expand their business's central focus of providing technical support with a personal touch in clients' homes. "With the Verizon retailers, we teach group classes at the stores, with Apple iPhone and iPad instruction on the second Tuesday of each month and Android phone and tablet instruction on the second Thursday of each month," Cahill, 27, said of the first partnership with Cellular Sales, a Central Florida Verizon retailer with locations in Naples. In January, Cahill said Zimni would also launch a courier service in partnership with the local UbreakIfix locations owned by Justin Murphy. "Since we started in August, we had an eye on focusing on a business-to-business model, where we approached businesses that see a large volume of customers and where we thought our help was needed," Cahill said of the business he helped found with "just $200 and a lot of pavement-pounding." Cellular Sales Operations Manager Brad George said Cahill's sterling track record as a sales representative for the Verizon retailer convinced him the partnership would make a good fit. "Our partnership is very new, but I've known Deric for four years, and I've referred him to some of our business clients and gotten nothing but rave reviews about his services," George said. "He's very reliable, and he has a view of business where the customer comes first, which I appreciate because I'm the same way." Murphy, who opened his first UbreakIfix location in Fort Myers four years ago, said pretty much the same. "He's definitely on the ball and a real go-getter," said Murphy, who will use Zimni for the upcoming UbreakIfix pickup and delivery service tentatively priced at $9 each way. "With UbreakIfix, customer service comes first and foremost, and he's the exact same way. I honestly think there's a great idea behind Zimni, and I could see it going national." Cahill, who trained for 18 months in a Black Hawk crew chief program after high school, said that's the eventual plan. "There's a big void in tech support, so our goal is to start perfecting and scaling our model, with a plan to grow to the Tampa market next," he said, noting that Zimni enjoyed its busiest month in November, when it conducted 30 tech-support visits to clients' homes. Kamp, a former combat medic who served in Afghanistan, said a caring nature helps sets Zimni apart from similar businesses. "I think it's the fact that we're willing to meet people wherever they are at pretty much any time of the day," he said, referring to Zimni's 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. operating hours seven days a week. "That and the fact we treat everyone like people as opposed to someone who doesn't understand technology. We like to come up beside our clients and really teach them as opposed to just giving them orders." Kamp, a Mariner High School graduate who met Cahill through mutual friends, said the pair's personalities mesh well together for the venture. "Deric has the charisma and an extrovert personality, and I'm more of the creative, introverted type, so it's kind of a match made in heaven," he said. "He's the one who puts everything into motion, while I like to push the brand and make it look pretty and let people know we're a step above the average tech-support business." Cahill said Zimni tech-support services cost $79 for the first hour before transitioning to $29 per half-hour from there. "One of our biggest focuses is that we don't charge based on how hard something is," he said of the services that include surround-sound and TV setup in addition to smartphone, tablet and computer help. "If we're done in five minutes, we're going to ask you what you need next. Above all else, we want to make sure people always get what they pay for." With three employees, Cahill said Zimni is looking to fill a few more part-time slots. "Every ad we've ever placed I've specifically said to not include your resume, because we're not concerned with where you've been, we're concerned with where you want to go," he said. "I built my own business that way, and I want to give others the opportunity to do the same." Brent Batten Who would have thought one little antenna cord could cause so much trouble? Relations between Collier County Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock, the Collier County Commission and the staff it employs reached a new low who knew that was even possible? last week as a handful of vendors showed up at the commissioners' meeting hoping to get paid. The show turned PG-13 at points, with commissioners' frustration boiling over to the point of profanity. Brock has consistently refused to pay vendors providing goods and services to the county if he has questions about the contracts or the products delivered. On Tuesday, two contractors and a bus dealer threatened to stop working for the county unless the payment system improves. Even the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has indicated it wouldn't do fingerprints and background checks for the county if the issues continue. Brock remains steadfast in his insistence that he has a duty to examine purchases to make sure they match what the county bargained for. The high point or perhaps more fittingly low point of the discussion came during a discussion of a bus delivered for Collier Area Transit. Brock approved most of the purchase price of nearly $430,000 but was withholding payment of $22,002 for aspects of the bus that didn't meet the original specifications. For instance, one brand of tire was substituted for another. And one antenna cord was substituted for another because a different sort of radio was used. The only difference in the cords was that one uses a male connector and one uses a female connector. Commissioner Georgia Hiller was incredulous that such a minor difference was being questioned by Brock's office. "If we have procurement fraud, it's because they're looking at this sh** instead of the other stuff," she fumed. Commissioner Tim Nance was equally incensed over the tires. "If the clerk of courts of Collier County believes he has to return to the board of county commissioners because a tire manufacturer was discontinued and somebody had to make a damn executive decision to choose another tire then we are completely out of our freaking minds," Nance said. Nance said recurring problems over payments are causing vendors to not want to do business with the county. "We need to pay this man and thank him for coming down here and doing business with us. We need to stop thinking of some reason to not pay people," he said. Not finished, an uncharacteristically wound up Nance went on. "There's no public benefit to this. If he can come in and show me where in the hell he's saved Collier County a nickel, I'll eat the nickel. He's spending $100 bills chasing nickels." Caught in the middle is Butch Sibley, regional sales manager for Gillig, the bus manufacturer. "I just want my $22,002. You guys can fight it out later," he said. The company will hold off producing two more buses for the county until it gets paid the balance, Sibley said. After the meeting, Brock said the difference in tires and antenna cords might not be a big deal, but his auditors have no way of knowing that without proper documentation. If the contract said Michelin tires, maybe the county had a particular need for Michelin tires, he said. When audit questions come up, Brock is fond of referencing Okaloosa County, where a staff member acquired a $700,000 yacht for himself using taxpayer money and an invoice indicating the money was for a tourism ad campaign. "They drew and quartered the clerk in Okaloosa County for not catching that. "Don't blame me for asking the question. That's my job," he said. Because commissioners voted, reluctantly, to do what Brock asked at Tuesday's meeting, he said he expects all the vendors will now get paid. A lawsuit is pending between Brock and top county administrators over their ability to approve purchases and contacts under $50,000 without commission approval. Resolution of that one way or the other won't solve the issues that arose Tuesday. They have to do with adherence to contracts between vendors and the county, not with who approved the contract in the first place. Which means the strife will probably persist for the foreseeable future. County Attorney Jeff Klatzkow said he sees no easy way out of the dilemma. "I am absolutely flummoxed," he said. Nance, facetiously, tried to sooth Sibley. "Let me give you a little bit of perspective. The clerk won't pay the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or the FBI either." "Why should I expect to get paid?" Sibley replied. (Connect with Brent Batten at brent.batten@naplesnews.com, on Twitter@NDN_BrentBatten and at facebook.com/ndnbrentbatten) Roger Withers astride the family plow horse while his maternal grandmother proudly watches him from the porch. The house is a four-room Sears home built from wood milled on the family farm. Note the stones holding up and leveling the front porch. Submitted SHARE Withers renovated homestead featuring additions to the rear of the home. Submitted Siding being applied to the house after the roof was raised to accommodate a bath on the second level. Submitted Renovated kitchen with new wooden floors and eat-in kitchen. Submitted Withers kitchen prior to the renovation. Submitted By Sandra Baer Some people who migrate from small towns to the city never look back, but not Roger Withers, a semiretired Marco Island executive, who grew up on his mothers family homestead in rural Ingle, Kentucky and returned to purchase the property later. "In 2001, I bought the farm, so to speak," said Withers, whose great-great-grandparents homesteaded the 160-acre property after moving to Kentucky from North Carolina and Virginia. "When I learned that my cousin was going to sell it, I decided to buy it just to keep it in the family, but as I started to fix it up I realized that it really meant a lot to me." Withers was born in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio where his parents had migrated to work in the factories during World War II. After the war, his parents returned to Kentucky, but when his father passed away suddenly, Withers and his mother moved in with her family at the Kissee homestead. Withers lived at the homestead where he helped on the farm. "We were subsistence farmers, so we grew our own food, made our own soap and farmed by hand with mules and horses," said Withers, who helped by cutting tobacco, baling hay, milking the cows and collecting the eggs that provided him with an allowance. "With no mechanized farm equipment, 40 acres was a lot to say grace over." In 1949, Withers' mother remarried Les Whitaker, Sr. and the small family moved to Bonita Springs and later Naples where they initially lived in a 31-foot trailer. Withers returned to work on the family farm during the summer months, up until he entered high school. After graduating, his career progressed from being a laborer constructing the first waterfront condominium on Marco Island, the Emerald Beach, to working as a Realtor in his father's company, Premier Properties. The pinnacle of his career was his part in assisting in the development of the last Marco Island beachfront condominium, the Madeira, where he had the "enjoyment of taking it from conception to completion," as the point person for Mass Mutual. He is currently semi retired, but continues to work as the CEO and president of Advanced Resources. Meanwhile, he and his wife, Lana, began visiting the Kentucky homestead and what started as a little fix-up project turned into a labor of love that transformed the homestead into a lovely modern home. "He's so attached to it and he knows the history of it," said Lana, who recalls being in one of the rooms when Withers said he thought there was staircase behind one of the walls. "Before I knew it he was knocking the wall out and sure enough there were stairs there." Withers worked as the contractor and a laborer in the extensive renovation that included replacing the roof, building a new foundation, replacing the windows, pipes, electrical wires and adding an addition that included a deck for viewing the sunsets. He and Lana enjoy evening creek drives in their jeep as they drive along dry creek beds. The homestead still serves as the site for family reunions, or as one cousin likes to call the gathering of relatives, many of whom are elderly, "the antique show." "The construction was therapeutic for him," said Lana, who grew up in Naples, but spent her childhood visiting relatives, who lived on Marco Island. "Every board he touched helped him re-establish his roots. He's a gentleman farmer, now." SHARE In this file photo, President of the NAACP of Collier County Harold Weeks accepts the 2014 James V. Mudd Fellowship. (Provided photo) Irene Williams sits for a portrait in the living room in her Golden Gate home on Friday, January 15, 2016. Williams, who is a Silver Life Member of the Collier County Chapter of the NAACP and Community Activist, will be the Co-Grand Marshal of the 19th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade in Naples on Monday. (Scott McIntyre/Staff) Irene Williams stands for a portrait in the living room in her Golden Gate home on Friday, January 15, 2016. Williams, who is a Silver Life Member of the Collier County Chapter of the NAACP and Community Activist, will be the Co-Grand Marshal of the 19th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade in Naples on Monday. (Scott McIntyre/Staff) Irene Williams stands for a portrait in the living room in her Golden Gate home on Friday, January 15, 2016. Williams, who is a Silver Life Member of the Collier County Chapter of the NAACP and Community Activist, will be the Co-Grand Marshal of the 19th Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade in Naples on Monday. (Scott McIntyre/Staff) By John Osborne Eight decades ago this year, Irene Williams was born in a small Georgia town, 70 miles east of Savannah. As a small girl, the co-grand marshal of the 19th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade in Naples which begins at 11 a.m. today on Broad Avenue witnessed firsthand the kind of discrimination many only read about in history books. For starters, there were the "whites only" signs on water fountains and in restaurant windows. Then there were the designated seating areas at the rear of public buses. Perhaps worst of all, Williams recalled, were the looks she would receive from a certain segment of society not quite ready to welcome her with open arms. "It wasn't exactly hatred; it was more of an understanding that if you wanted peace you should remember to stay in your place," said the assistant secretary of the Collier County branch of the NAACP. "That was the mentality back then. But as you got older and wiser, you realized there was so much more to equal opportunity." Still, Williams said, she would find herself a bit ahead of her time. "I'm a southern lady, born and raised in Georgia, but I graduated high school in the south a little before integration took place, so I ended up moving to New Jersey because I had family in the northern states and because I wanted to better myself," said the longtime member of and former clerk for the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Naples. All told, Williams would end up spending 35 years in New Jersey before moving to Southwest Florida in 1989, a time frame that included the tumultuous 1960s, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would move to the forefront of the civil rights movement in America. "Most of what was happening back then was happening in Alabama, but it affected all black people because the struggle was the same all over the country," said Williams, former chairwoman of the Black Affairs Committee for Naples City Council. "The things that were happening in your town were the same things happening in the next town over. It wasn't until Rev. King began pushing for reform that changes began to take effect." And those changes began to take effect almost immediately, Williams said. "People felt it right away," she said of King's efforts, which earned him a national holiday on the third Monday of each January, a distinction signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and first observed in 1986. "We were finally able to ride anywhere on the buses and people began to act a little nicer toward us. There were still some who were against you. Some people who still didn't want to mix with you. But now I think we're at a place in our country where anybody can be anything they want to be, regardless of their race." NAACP Collier President Harold Weeks said Williams has been the driving force behind the parade ever since she first came onboard nearly two decades ago, referring to her as the "blood, guts and brains" of the organization. "She used to run the parade by herself for many, many years," said Weeks, who's now in the eighth year as NAACP president following two years as vice president. "Irene has been named co-grand marshal this year because of all the wonderful things she's done for our organization. And it's well deserved, too. Because without her we'd be lost." With a laugh, Williams said she, too, felt a little lost when she first began organizing the parade. "For the first four or five years, I was sort of like a one-man band," said Williams, who founded the Naples-based Crohn's Charity Service Foundation in honor of a grandson stricken with the disease. Williams said part of that "one-man band" designation meant personally approaching local car dealerships to ask for loaners that would transport dignitaries along the parade route and begging others to participate in the follow-up celebration at Cambier Park, which is to be held at noon and features speeches, live music, food vendors and children's activities. "It was pretty rough at first, but I eventually got some help from some important people in the city, and that was a huge help for us," she said. Chief among those important people, Williams said, was Bonnie MacKenzie, Naples' first elected female mayor who passed away from cancer in 2005. Williams said MacKenzie approached her sometime around 2000 to suggest a partnership that would remove a lot of financial strain from the event. "Before the partnership with the city, we had to pay for the police presence and road barriers to block off traffic for the parade, which usually cost around $3,000," she said. "So partnering with the city was a huge blessing for us." Current Naples Mayor John Sorey, who will serve as the fellow co-grand marshal for this year's parade, said it was a blessing that goes both ways. "Obviously, Dr. King had a real impact on the culture as far as the progress that has been made over the last 50 or so years, so it's very important we have the parade to honor his legacy and continue to work on the elimination of biases and prejudices in the country," he said. "I've always been a big believer in the parade, and it's great to see people come out each year who are passionate and sincere about also honoring Dr. King's legacy." Williams agreed, saying it's a tradition that should continue forever. "Rev. King has earned the right to be honored for what he did and we are obligated to carry on his legacy and his name," she said firmly. "We should never forget what he did. Because if we forget what he did, we run the risk of going back to where we used to be." SHARE Hunter Grant, Naples, and Rockport, Ontario How do we know? A downtown Naples post office employee informed me that he had no global stamps for sale, and did not know when they might be available. These stamps are required to send letters outside the U.S., and in my case, from Florida to Canada. As a fallback, I was told to use two "forever" domestic stamps, though these, if current, would exceed the postage required. But not always. If you have older "forever" stamps, even two of them might not be enough. But how would we know their value? U.S. stamps I have purchased do not indicate, anywhere, their individual value. So when I was posting a letter that same morning, with two "forever" stamps attached, the same clerk indicated that the postage was insufficient. Another nickel was required. So stamp owners beware. Forever, at least when sending letters offshore, isn't eternity. SHARE Marilisa Allegrini (Submitted photo) Amy Marks (Submitted photo) Shari and Garen Staglin (Submitted photo) By Harriet Howard Heithaus of the Naples Daily News Women will be wielding corkscrews at the Naples Winter Wine Festival. But it hasn't become their standard tool. When the festival opens Jan. 29, it will have only four women as sole representatives of their vineyards at its 17 prestigious Friday vintner dinners. That's actually down from 2014 and 2015, when five female vintners presided over the bottles at vintner dinners. The number of women who have come as the sole representative for their vineyards, either as one of the family or as the owner, has alternated between those two figures for the past three years. Still, while the lion's share of expertise is still being delivered by men there are 12 of them at dinner vintners this year seeing women at the helm isn't surprising here. Shared vintner expertise is most common. "It's really hard to say how many female vintners are here each year because a lot of them are husband-and-wife teams," said Barrett Farmer, director of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. There as many couples as there are men representing vineyards at the dinners, where there is in-depth conversation about vintages, winemaking philosophy and the pairings vintners and the celebrity chef for each dinner has collaborated on. Still, women have made inroads as industry voices, possibly for their ability not just to appreciated the wine, but the milieu around it. To keep moving No one knows that like Marilisa Allegrini of the six-vineyard Allegrini Estates near Verona, Italy. She is a dinner vintner at the festival this year. "When I started, I was one of the very first women in Italy. It was an industry dominated by men's presence. There are many women over the years, but not so many who manage the company," said Allegrini, who is president of her family's companies. A one-time medical student, Allegrini was actually urged into the business by her father. She brought new organization to the vineyards, began crossing the Atlantic unheard of in the 1970s to open markets in the U.S. and worked with fellow producers to create a controlled-content protocol for the region's Amarone della Valpolicella wines. By the mid 1980s, she had raised Allegrini's export sales to 50 percent of its business. She's now the president of the association of Amarone-producing families. But for Allegrini, like other women in wine, the mandate is to keep moving. Allegrini is close to having the first of her family's six vineyards certified organic. That's a difficult decision in European countries, where families like the Allegrinis have practices and facilities that date back six generations. But it's better for the environment. And it's better for the wine, she insists. "When you're seeing how good the quality of grapes is and the quality of the environment you know it works because we can see there are many birds eating the bad insects, so there's less fungus," she said. Without chemical treatment of the arbors, the insect-eating birds are back year after year, she said. "It's a long process when you decide to be organic," she said. "It's not next year. It has taken us five years, and this vineyard will be certified next year." When that happens, she will probably be bringing some of its vintage to Naples. She has attended six wine festivals: "What I like about this festival is its motivation to give life to these children. That's such important work that you see there." A new landscape For Amy Marks, president of Gemstone Vineyard in the Napa Valley, moving forward means committing to new tastes, such as an altered cabernet blend: "We're working with a cabernet franc. There's very little of it in the U.S. It's definitely a polarized grape it has a very strong character. But it's certainly a growing taste." This is Marks' first year as a vintner for the Naples Winter Wine Festival, although she attended with her mother in 2015 to see how it operated. Marks likes to gauge the direction of wine buying. "A high focus in the past was in reviews and ratings, based on tastemakers. I think we're seeing a shift away from that," she said. "Winemakers and vintners are describing what they're making. A lot of distributors, too, are putting wine in their own words. "We're also seeing a trend toward buying wines that are drinkable early ... I'm seeing a lot of our buyers who don't want to cellar it for a few years." More than grapes Shari Staglin, CEO of Staglin Family Vineyard, says she and her husband, Garen, came to winemaking because they loved their trips through Napa Valley when both were working in California. For them, wine is a joint family venture rather than for either gender. Their children grew up in the vineyards; their daughter, Shannon, is president and their son, Brandon, is director of marketing communications. Her upbringing up in North Dakota ("I drank milk, not wine" she said, laughing) made Staglin a novice to the intricacies of wine. But no one who talks to her now would believe that. Staglin went to graduate school at UC-Davis to thoroughly learn viticulture and oenology. She also insisted the winery have a dimension of social responsibility. Because the Staglins have personal experience with their son's diagnosis of and treatment for schizophrenia, they founded IMHRO, known as the One Mind Institute, in 1995 . "We don't call it mental health. Because there is so much stigma around it we call it brain health, because it is a really condition of the brain. It involves chemistry, not character," she said. The Staglins have donated exclusive lots every year to the Naples Winter Wine Festival, bringing in, collectively, $3.2 million for its children's causes. She praised the festival foundation's announcement of a youth mental health initiative. "We're so glad the Naples Winter Wine Festival is more involved in this field, as it should be," she said. "Every family is touched by brain health in some way or another, whether it's autism, Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia or bipolar or Parkinson's disease." NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Polish President Andrzej Duda met on Monday, 18 January 2016, to discuss preparations for the Warsaw Summit. Mr. Stoltenberg thanked Poland for its continued commitment to Euro-Atlantic security - including through its contributions to the Readiness Action Plan, Alliance-led missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, and defence capacity building for NATO partners, including Ukraine. The Secretary General praised Polands practical and political commitments to the Alliance. He underscored that Poland plays a significant part in NATOs command structure, supporting operations planning and exercises. Poland hosts the Multinational Corps Headquarters in Szczecin and one of the existing Force Integration Units. Poland also hosts the Joint Force Training Centre in Bydgoszcz. Mr. Stoltenberg noted Polands contributions to Baltic air policing and maritime patrols, as well as to the NATO Response Force and NATO exercises. The Secretary General also highlighted that Poland has raised its defence spending to two per cent of GDP. I trust that after the Warsaw Summit, we will see more NATO in Poland than ever before, Mr. Stoltenberg said. He underlined that a significant number of Allied exercises have taken place in Poland and this spring, NATO will break ground for a key site in Poland for NATOs Ballistic Missile Defence. The Secretary General noted that preparations for the Warsaw Summit are well on track. He added that the Summit is a key milestone for the adaptation of the Alliance and must ensure that the Alliance remains committed to the values on which it was founded: democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. He stressed that these values are a vital source of our unity. And unity is our greatest strength. (NaturalNews) Journalistic integrity appears to be in short supply these days, at least in terms of what the mainstream media is dishing out to the public. First there was thecampus rape story scandal, and then in the past couple of weeks we've been deluged with more and more revelations regarding the numerous fabrications foisted on unsuspecting viewers byanchorman Brian Williams.Another recent story, one slightly more trivial in nature that did not receive the same amount of national attention as the above-mentioned scandals but which also underscores the lack of fact-checking among media outlets, concerns false statements made by a New York City high school student regarding an alleged fortune made in the stock market.Mohammed Islam, a 17-year-old senior at Stuyvesant High School in Queens, was featured in a story published in the December edition ofmagazine in which he claimed that he had earned $72 million through investing in the stock market. The publication included the teen and his spurious story in its annual "Reasons to Love New York" issue.Although it's a bit unclear exactly how the rumor got started and how it led to Islam's being interviewed and featured, whatnow clear is that the story was 100 percent false. Islam has since admitted that he has made absolutely no money whatsoever in the stock market and that the whole thing was a big joke that somehow got out of hand.In fact, things got so far out of hand that other media outlets also picked up the story -- also without bothering to do any fact-checking -- and the alleged teen "boy wonder" investor also ended up being featured in afeature before anyone figured out that the story was untrue.Islam is the leader of an "investment club" at his high school and apparently has had some success in simulated stock trading programs but has admitted that he has never made a single dime in real world trading.In the interviews, Islam and his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov regaled reporters with tales of caviar dinners and BMWs they are too young to drive, and somehow, incredibly, no one thought it necessary to check the veracity of the statements.With classic 20/20 hindsight, it now appears that it would have been virtually impossible to make as much money as Islam claimed to have made in the short time he had supposedly been investing -- even if he had started off with $100,000 in money to invest.It also stands to reason that Jessica Pressler, the "journalist" who originally interviewed Islam and published the story without bothering to find out whether or not it was true, must be completely mortified and red-faced with embarrassment, if she still has a job at all.In their apology, the magazine claims that it did send a fact-checker to corroborate the story and that Islam "produced a document that appeared to be a Chase bank statement attesting to an eight-figure bank account."Perhapsmagazine can be partially forgiven for wanting to publish such an "irresistible" story and for wanting to believe the words of the rather innocent-looking student -- we all love a success story, after all.But one can't help but feel that, lately, serious journalism has taken a back seat to sensationalism and that much of the mainstream media seems more concerned with ratings than with truth. This state of affairs is really nothing new in the world of journalism, but it does seem as if the mass media have reached a new low in terms of reporting the truth.Perhaps that's why people are increasingly turning to other sources, such as, to get their information. What went wrong in Flint? The moral of the story (NaturalNews) There are several lessons to be learned regarding the ongoing water emergency in Flint, Michigan, but the most important of these is that being prepared on a personal level for unforeseen disasters is absolutely crucial because the authorities cannot be depended on when the SHTF.The continued slow and inadequate response by local, state and federal governments in the Flint water debacle, is clear proof that maintaining an emergency stockpile in one's home (with clean water being the number one priority), is not just for paranoid doom prophets it's actually a common sense safeguard that every family should practice The situation in Flint also highlights the typical ineptitude and corruption on the part of authorities at every level. To believe that one can rely on the government's response in the face of a disaster is not only foolish, but potentially deadly Flint's water crisis began in April, 2014, when the city began obtaining its water supply from the Flint River rather than from the city of Detroit in, asput it, "an effort to save money."It was meant to be a temporary measure as the city waited to be connected to a new regional water supply, but immediately after the switch was made people began to notice something was wrong.Residents reported that not only did the water smell, taste and look bad, but it was also causing health problems such as rashes and hair loss.During the summer of 2014, three boil-water advisories were issued after the water tested positive for coliform bacteria.Then, in January, 2015, even after a General Motors plant quit using the water because it rusted parts, and despite growing concerns that there were other contaminants in the water besides bacteria, the city refused an offer from Detroit to reconnect to its water supply, maintaining that Flint's water was still safe to use.The city of Flint and state authorities began pledging money, creating committees, and pretending to do something about the crisis. By the end of March, Flint officials claimed that the water quality had improved and that it met all state and federal safety standards.In September, however, a group of physicians urged the city to stop using water from the Flint River after it was discovered that abnormally high levels of lead were being detected in the blood of children. It turned out that the corrosive Flint River water was leaching lead out of the water supply system and into the drinking water.State regulators continued to insist that the water was safe.Finally, on September 29, Gov. Rick Snyder acknowledged there was a problem with lead in the water, but it took until January 5, 2016, for a state of emergency to be declared. Several days passed after that before the Michigan National Guard was mobilized to begin distributing bottled water and filters to Flint residents.It was then reported on January 13 that cases of Legionnaire's disease had increased in Flint in the past two years since the water supply was switchedOn January 16, the federal government declared a state of emergency in Flint.The water crisis in Flint is far from over, and no one has yet been held accountable.Aside from the criminal negligence, denials and delays on the part of local and state officials, the federal response was long overdue as well.Meanwhile, the health impact has not yet been measured, and the long-term effects on residents are still unknown.It's an illustration of how little trust we can put in the authorities, and a grim reminder of why self-reliance and a healthy skepticism regarding the government are key to survival.Flint residents who trusted in the authorities to tell the truth and take appropriate measures to keep them safe are now paying the price in terms of their own and their families' health.Those who knew better and who were prepared managed to escape the worst of the effects.If you do only one thing to prepare for a disaster, make sure you keep an adequate stockpile of clean water on hand.And never, ever trust the government to do the right thing. For-profit cancer industry needs a steady supply of victims to exploit (NaturalNews) The cancer industry is a for-profit industry that relies on repeat business to keep padding its bottom line. David Bowie and Alan Rickman are just two of the industry's latest victims, but there will sadly be millions more.Chemotherapy alone kills an estimated one million people a year. See PharmaDeathClock.com for a running tally...Anyone who thinks the cancer industry would ever research and release an actual cancer "cure" is delusional... there's no chance that a multi-billion-dollar industry will deliberately make itself obsolete and obliterate its entire business model.The entire cancer industry is based on pure. Out of 53 "landmark" studies cited by the cancer industry to push chemotherapy and other toxic treatments, 88 percent were found to be completely fabricated Similarly, a recent study conducted at thein Seattle, Washington found that tumors grow FASTER after chemotherapy treatments , meaning chemo accelerates tumor growth and spreads the cancer.Maybe that why 9 out of 10 oncologists would refuse chemotherapy themselves because they know how incredibly toxic it is.Like any for-profit industry, the cancer industry needs more cancer patients, year after year, to stay profitable and powerful. That's why it actively withholds information from cancer patients that could prevent and even reverse cancer in many cases.Fundraising for "the cure" doesn't fund any real cures at all. Instead, most of the funds are used to pay for free mammogram screening in low-income (i.e. black) communities where women and men are scared into a cancer diagnoses that generates massive profits for oncologists, drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers.When people like David Bowie and Alan Rickman die from cancer, it's because the cancer industryabout cancer prevention, anti-cancer foods vitamin D supplementation , avoidance of toxic chemicals and other crucial information that can save lives.Not only is the cancer industry in the business of profiting from suffering and disease, it's also the keysuch as anti-cancer medicinal mushrooms (reishi, shiitake, maitake, etc.), the anti-cancer potential of vitamin D and alternative cancer therapies that have been banned in the United States purely for political reasons (see the relentless attacks on Gerson Therapy or Dr. Burzynski to learn more).Learn the truth about cancer at Medicine.news Police located a 1-year-old child this evening after the child was abducted this afternoon from Antioch, Antioch police said. At about 7:56 p.m. Stockton police received a call from a person not involved in the abduction who said the child had been dropped off at their home. Stockton police took custody of the boy, who was unharmed. An Amber Alert that had been issued for the boy was canceled, Antioch police said. The man who abducted the child is still at large. Ricardo Gomez, the boy's father, was driving a dark gray 2011 Subaru Forester with California license plate 6RTV690. Antioch police are trying to find him. Officers were dispatched at 3:33 p.m. to the 2600 block of Stanford Way on a report of a domestic dispute involving the boy. The boy's mother told officers that Gomez, 27, was visiting her and the boy after being estranged from him for most of his life, police said. An argument ensued and Gomez threatened to kill her and the boy, according to police. Anyone who has information or who witnessed the incident is being asked to call Antioch police at (925) 778-2441. Turning up the temperature, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled repeatedly in Sunday night's presidential debate over who's tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to steer the future of health care in America. It was the last Democratic matchup before voting begins in two weeks, and both sides were eager to rumble as polls showed the race tightening in the leadoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton rapped Sanders, the Vermont senator, for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman and child as a right." Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. Clinton suggested Sanders' approach was dangerous and pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. "With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back," Clinton said. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger hard-won victories, insisting: "No one is tearing this up; we're going to go forward." Clinton suggested Sanders' health care plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class, saying "I want to raise incomes, not taxes." Sanders insisted taxpayers would come out ahead with lower costs overall. "It's a pretty good deal," he said. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she declared. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Clinton worked aggressively to associate herself with President Obama, claiming credit for her role in the run-up to the Iran nuclear deal as well as praising the health care law. Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase "in all due respect." Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival. Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton "in all due respect, you're missing the main point." Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, cast Sanders' criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, "I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street" and getting results. "The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people," Clinton said. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. "My relationship with him it's interesting," Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. "It's one, I think, of respect." But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who "will take as much as he possibly can." Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? "It'll start at the kitchen table we'll see where it goes from there," she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He called the former president's behavior "deplorable" but said he wants to focus on issues "not Bill Clinton's personal life." Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said the focus should be on issues. The debate over gun control an ongoing area of conflict between Clinton and Sanders took on special import given the setting: The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation. He focused on his record as Maryland's governor and accused both Clinton and Sanders of being inconsistent on gun control Both Clinton and Sanders are competing for black voters in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth primary contest. The debate was sponsored by NBC, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. The Democratic presidential candidates met in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday for their last debate before the Iowa caucuses in two weeks and with the race tighter, the exchanges were sharper. Here are some of the top moments from the NBC News/You Tube debate. HEALTH CARE Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders disagreed over how to go forward, with Clinton supporting Obamacare and Sanders favoring a single-payer health care plan. Hours before the debate, he revealed the taxes he would raise to finance his single-payer health care plan. Clinton was asked whether it was fair to say that Sanders wanted to kill Obamacare. She respected Sanders' intentions, but had questions about the nine health-care bills he has introduced over 20 years, she said. "He didn't like that, his campaign didn't like it either and tonight he's come out with a new health-care plan," she said. Sanders, after pointing out that she had not answered the question, said that his plan would provide health care for all as a right. He blamed a corrupt campaign system for allowing pharmaceutical and health-care companies to pour money into campaigns and thwart efforts to change the system. Clinton said that she had stood up to the health care industry when it spent millions of dollars attacking her, and she argued for building on Obamacare rather than risk it being repealed. GUN CONTROL The match-up took place near the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine people were shot to death in the summer during Bible study. Clinton listed votes Sanders has made that she said were in line with the NRA: against the Brady Bill five times, for allowing guns on Amtrak and in national parks, among others. She has gone after Sanders repeatedly for supporting a 2005 law granting gun manufacturers legal immunity and she did again Sunday night. Sanders said he would back reversing the law a change Clinton quickly called a flip-flop. He called Clinton "disingenuous" for claiming he was a reliable vote for the gun lobby and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. ECONOMY On the economy, Sanders was asked about differences between him and Clinton on regulating Wall Street. Sanders calls for breaking up big banks and closing tax loopholes. The first difference is I dont take money from big banks, I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, he said. Clinton said Sanders was criticizing not just her but also President Obama who took donations from Wall Street. And President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession, Clinton said. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama. Obama also signed the Dodd-Frank Act to regulate Wall Street, she said, and she called it one of the most important regulatory schemes since the 1930s. "So I'm going to defend Dodd-Frank and I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street, taking on the financial industry and getting results," she said. Sanders responded that he and Obama were friends, and that they had campaigned for each other. "Set the record right," he said. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley jumped in when Clinton called her plans to curb Wall Street excesses the toughest and most comprehensive. "That's not true," he said. O'Malley said he would put "cops back on the beat of Wall Street." CLIMATE CHANGE On climate change, OMalley said that the three Democrats actually believe in science. Sanders called Republicans a party so owned by the fossil fuel industry that its candidates did not have the courage to listen to the scientists. He particularly mocked Donald Trump for once tweeting: The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. It was his second reference to Trump. Earlier in the debate, Sanders said, "In terms of polling, guess what? We are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend Donald Trump." How low can gas prices go? In Houghton Lake, Michigan, the answer was way below one dollar. CNBC spoke to three gas stations in the town, which confirmed their prices fell below one dollar a gallon over the last three days. One station, the Sunrise Marathon, fell as low as $0.46, and the Beacon & Bridge station across the street fell to $0.47, according to employees of each station. Police were stationed around the area to help direct traffic due to lines for gas, the employees told CNBC. One woman took a video showing dozens of cars lined up at the stations. GasBuddy.com, a website which shares gas pricing information around the country, told NBC 25, the local Michigan affiliate, "It appears these stations are currently the first stations in the country to see prices under $1 per gallon in years. As the situation unfolds, it's possible these stations re-raise prices back over $1." Those low prices come as drivers around the country are spending less at the pump than they have in years, as the price of crude oil has dropped below $30 a barrel. But analysts for GasBuddy say the situation in Michigan is an anomaly. Jeff Pelton, a senior petroleum analyst covering the Northeast for GasBuddy, said those low prices were the result of a gas war between a few competing gas stations in the area. Fellow GasBuddy analyst Patrick DeHaan said separately that the Great Lakes states seem to be more competitive markets, which may have also influenced the price. With barrels below $30, the price of crude oil has fallen to the lowest level since 2003, according to the Associated Press. In the summer of 2014, barrels went for over $100. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, prices have not rebounded because there is still more oil supply than demand. They expect barrel prices to remain low through 2017. EIA reported on Jan. 14 that the national average gasoline price had fallen below $2.00 for the first time since 2009. We may still break some records yet, said DeHaan, on whether prices could fall further. Pelton suspected a national drop of 10 to 12 cents at the pump through mid-February, before prices begin to rise as they usually do in the spring and summer. Gas prices could fall to the 99-cent mark nationwide only if crude oil drops below $20 a barrel, according to DeHaan. He noted that every analyst will have their own theories for the drop in prices. DeHaan suspects the economic slow-down in China to be a major cause by reducing their oil consumption and keeping more in the market. Pelton asserted that it was a combination of the U.S. supply of oil from North Dakota alongside the lifted sanction on oil-exports from Iran. According to NBC News, the oil sanctions in Iran had cut the countrys exports by 2 million barrels per day. With the sanctions that had been in place since 2012 now lifted, Iran said it was ready to increase exports by 500,000 barrels per day. The Government Accountability Office found in a study from July that U.S. exports of oil could drive national gas prices down up to 13 cents. This year, the U.S. began exporting oil to Europe for the first time in 40 years after a ban on oil exports was lifted last December, according to CNBC. The House of Representatives also mandated through the Budget Act that 5 million oil barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve be sold yearly until 2021. According to a release from Speaker Paul D. Ryan, lifting the ban is expected to create one million jobs and add $170 million to the GDP. The U.S pardoned or dropped the charges against seven Iranians in a prisoner swap for the release of four Americans held by Iran. The seven were accused or convicted of violating U.S. sanctions. Six of them have dual U.S.-Iranian citizenship, and at least two plan to stay in the U.S. Iran's official state news agency released the names of the following seven people, whose background has been detailed in releases and filings from federal prosecutors: Nader Modanlo Modanlo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was sentenced to eight years in prison for violating the trade embargo and helping Iran launch its first-ever satellite into orbit. According to court documents, Modanlo was a mechanical engineer who received science and engineering degrees from George Washington University. Modanlo said in court he was an internationally recognized expert on strategic policy and finances affecting the space-based telecommunications industry, and that he managed space and science programs for private companies, the Department of Defense and NASA. Bahram Mechanic Mechanic, a dual citizen who lives in Houston, was indicted last year on charges he illegally exported millions of dollars in U.S. technology to Iran. Mechanic, 69, is the co-owner of Iran-based Faratel Corporation and its Houston-based sister company Smart Power Systems. Faratel designs and builds uninterruptible power supplies for several Iranian government agencies, including the Iranian Ministry of Defense, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Iranian Centrifuge Technology Company, according to the charges. The technology Mechanic sold to Iran is used in a wide range of military systems, including surface-air and cruise missiles. Between July 2010 and 2015, Mechanic's network allegedly obtained 28 million parts valued at about $24 million worth and shipped them to Iran through Taiwan and Turkey. Among the parts shipped were microelectronics and digital signal processors, according to the indictment. "Everything about the government's allegations were false," Houston-based attorney Joel Androphy said. "The government created an aura of hysteria to keep him incarcerated." Androphy said that Mechanic, who was released early Sunday morning, plans to continue living in Houston. "He's going to enjoy a nice rest of the weekend with his wife and then get back to work probably tomorrow," Androphy said. Khosrow Afghahi Afghahi co-owns Faratel Corporation in Iran and Houston-based Smart Power Systems with Mechanic, according to an indictment. U.S. prosecutors say Afghahi helped Mechanic to illegally provide U.S. technology to Iran. Houston-based attorney David Gerger says the charges against his client were "wrong." "Freeing Khosrow Afghahi is the correct result," Gerger said. "He is a 72 year old businessman who has never been in trouble. He is a good man, and we will be happy to put this ordeal behind him." Gerger said that Afghahi lived mostly in Iran but became a U.S. citizen so he could more easily visit his family. Gerger said Afghahi was arrested in April while visiting family in Los Angeles. Gerger said his client was released from the federal detention center in Houston early Sunday morning. He said that Afghahi is getting to "spend precious time with his family . and probably have his first cup of hot coffee in nine months." Tooraj Faridi Faridi, 46, is vice president of a Smart Power Systems and along with Afghahi assisted Mechanic in the illegal transfer of U.S. technology to Iran, according to court documents. Mechanic, assisted by Afghahi and Faridi, also of Houston, regularly received lists of commodities, including U.S.-origin microelectronics, sought by Faratel in Iran, according to an indictment. Houston-based attorney Kent Schaffer said Faridi, who had remained free on bond, did nothing to jeopardize national security or violate trade sanctions. "I always felt he would be vindicated at trial, but at least the president's action allows him to get on with his life," Schaffer said. He said his client plans to continue living in Houston. Arash Ghahraman Ghahraman, 46, was sentenced to more than six years in prison last year for violating the trade embargo after he participated in a scheme to purchase marine navigation equipment and military electronic equipment for illegal export to Iran. Prosecutors argued in court the naturalized U.S. citizen, who lived in Staten Island, New York, acted as an agent of an Iranian procurement network and used a front company in Dubai to illegally acquire U.S. goods and technologies to be sent to Iran. A maritime engineer, Ghahraman also worked at shipyards in the U.S. Nima Golestaneh Golestaneh, an Iranian national, pleaded guilty to hacking the computer system of Arrow Tech, a Vermont-based aerodynamics company and U.S. defense contractor, to steal software. Golestaneh, 30, was arrested in Turkey in 2013 and extradited to the United States last year. He was the only Iranian released Saturday who doesn't have dual citizenship. Ali Saboonchi Saboonchi, 35, was convicted in 2014 of exporting industrial products to Iran though companies in China and the United Arab Emirates. A U.S. citizen who was living in Parkville, Maryland at the time of his arrest, Saboonchi conspired with others to evade the Iran Trade Embargo and export to Iran numerous industrial parts, including hydraulic valves and connectors; and liquid pumps and valves, which can be used in the oil, gas, energy, aerospace and defense industries, authorities said. His public defenders, Lucius Outlaw and Elizabeth Oyer, said in a statement Sunday morning that Saboonchi's release "shows that he poses no danger to the American people." "Ali Saboonchi is a beloved and hard-working family man and American. He was born in the U.S. and is proud to be raising his young family here. His arrest and incarceration were devastating to his many friends and family," the attorneys said. "Ali is thrilled and grateful for his release and return to his family." Mohammed Saad, a Syrian activist, was imprisoned by the Islamic State group, hung by his arms and beaten regularly. Then one day, his jailors quickly pulled him and other prisoners down and hid them in a bathroom. The reason? A senior Muslim cleric was visiting to inspect the facility. The cleric had told the fighters running the prison that they shouldn't torture prisoners and that anyone held without charge must be released within 30 days, Saad told The Associated Press. Once the coast was clear, the prisoners were returned to their torment. "It's a criminal gang pretending to be a state," Saad said, speaking in Turkey, where he fled in October. "All this talk about applying Shariah and Islamic values is just propaganda, Daesh is about torture and killing," he said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. Syrians who have recently escaped the Islamic State group's rule say public disillusionment is growing as IS has failed to live up to its promises to install a utopian "Islamic" rule of justice, equality and good governance. Instead, the group has come to resemble the dictatorial rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad that many Syrians had sought to shed, with a reliance on informers who have silenced a fearful populace. Rather than equality, society has seen the rise of a new elite class the jihadi fighters who enjoy special perks and favor in the courts, looking down on "the commoners" and even ignoring the rulings of their own clerics. Despite the atrocities that made it notorious, the Islamic State group had raised hopes among some fellow Sunnis when it overran their territories across parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a "caliphate" in the summer of 2014. It presented itself as a contrast to Assad's rule, bringing justice through its extreme interpretation of Shariah and providing services to residents, including loans to farmers, water and electricity, and alms to the poor. Its propaganda machine promoting the dream of an Islamic caliphate helped attract jihadis from around the world. In Istanbul and several Turkish cities near the Syrian border, the AP spoke to more than a dozen Syrians who fled IS-controlled territory in recent months. Most spoke on condition they be identified only by their first names or by the nicknames they use in their political activism for fear of IS reprisals against themselves or family. "Daesh justice has been erratic," said Nayef, who hails from IS-held eastern Syrian town of al-Shadadi and escaped to Turkey in November with his family, largely because of Russian airstrikes. "They started off good and then, gradually, things got worse." He insisted that his last name not be printed, fearing for his safety. The group has recruited informers in the towns and cities it controls to watch out for any sign of opposition. "Like under the (Assad) regime, we were also afraid to talk against Daesh to anyone we don't fully trust," said Fatimah, a 33-year-old whose hometown of Palmyra was taken over by IS early last year. She fled to Turkey in November with her husband and five children to escape Russian and Syrian airstrikes. IS has also become less able to provide public services, in large part because military reversals appear to have put strains on its finances. U.S. and Russian airstrikes have heavily hit its oil infrastructure a major source of funds. Over the past year, the group has lost 30 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, according to the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition. Many of those interviewed by the AP said there are lengthier cutoffs of water and electricity in their towns and cities and prices for oil and gas have risen. Abu Salem, an activist from the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, said public acceptance of IS rule is eroding. "It has made an enemy of almost everyone," he told the AP in the Turkish city of Reyhanli on the Syrian border. One sign of the distance between the claims and realities is a 12-page manifesto by IS detailing its judicial system. The document, a copy of which was obtained by the AP, heavily emphasizes justice and tolerance. For example, it sets out the duties of the Hisba, the "religious police" who ensure people adhere to the group's dress codes, strict separation of genders and other rules. A Hisba member "must be gentle and pleasant toward those he orders or reprimands," it says. "He must be flexible and good mannered so that his influence is greater and the response (he gets) is stronger." Yet, the escaped Syrians all complained of the brutal extremes that the Hisba resorts to. One woman who lived in Raqqa said that if a woman is considered to have violated the dress codes, the militants flog her husband, since he is seen as responsible for her. When her neighbor put out the garbage without being properly covered, she said, the woman's husband was whipped. Abu Manaf, a 44-year-old from Deir el-Zour, said some clerics challenged the group's enforcers over their wanton use of strict Shariah punishments like beheadings, stoning to death, flogging and cutting off limbs. More moderate clerics in IS argued that such punishments can only be implemented under specific conditions. They also complained about the jihadis' custom of displaying bodies of the beheaded in public as an example to others, violating Islamic tenets requiring the swift burial of the dead. "Many of those moderate clerics disappear, are killed or jailed for crimes they did not commit," said Abu Manaf, who left Deir el-Zour in November, then stayed in the Islamic State group's de facto capital, Raqqa, for three weeks before he reached Turkey. Saad's account of his imprisonment in his home city of Deir el-Zour reflected the tensions between the fighters and some clerics. He was arrested because of his media activism, reporting on the anti-Assad opposition. IS suspected him of belonging to the rebel Free Syrian Army, which is fighting the extremists. The day the cleric came to inspect the prison set up in a former police station he heard the cleric asking the guards if the prisoners were getting enough food and water, and whether they were being beaten, Saad said. On another occasion, a cleric and a judge visited and spoke to the prisoners in their cells. Saad said they told him to write on a piece of paper his name, why he'd been jailed and whether he had been tortured or made to confess under duress. He wrote that he had not been beaten, because he knew the guards would punish him if he said he had been, Saad said. After five months in custody, Saad said he secured his release by agreeing to do media work for IS. For three months, he helped put together videos and other propaganda before escaping to Turkey. The Syrians interviewed in Turkey said that in IS courts the judges often show a bias toward IS operatives in any legal dispute with the general public. Judges justify the bias by pointing to Quranic verses or sayings of the prophet Muhammad, including "God prefers those who fight in jihad over those who sit." Often, IS members refer to the general population by the dismissive term "al-awam," Arabic for "the commoners." Hossam, who owned a women's clothes shop in Raqqa, said IS members receive perks that sharply set them apart from everyone else. In many cases, young men join the group to escape poverty or protect themselves from IS excesses, he and others said. He insisted that his last name not be printed, fearing for his safety. "Those who join Daesh receive a step up in the social ladder," he told the AP in Istanbul. "Daesh men drive luxury cars and eat at the best restaurants and whoever has a friend or a relative with Daesh has a better life." One perk that IS members avail themselves of is the chance to marry local women. Several of the Syrians interviewed by the AP said families with daughters often came under pressure to marry them off to fighters, which has led many to smuggle daughters to Turkey. Khatar, a 26-year-old who spoke in Lesbos, Greece, making her way to Western Europe, said she has two younger sisters back in Raqqa, and jihadis "have been knocking on our doors at least once a month to ask for their hands in marriage." Her father lies to them and tells them he doesn't have unmarried daughters, "but they keep coming back." But some take the opportunity to marry an IS member because the benefits lift the whole family out of the "al-awam" class. Khatar said a 17-year-old daughter of one of her neighbors married a Saudi jihadi. When Khatar went to congratulate her, she found her loaded with expensive clothes and jewelry as a dowry. "She seemed very happy with her new, elevated social status," Khatar said. For the second year in a row dirt-bikes, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles ripped through the streets and freeways of South Florida on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Footage showed hundreds of riders weaving in and out of traffic in Miami-Dade and Broward, with at least one serious injury reported in Fort Lauderdale. Officers made at least two arrests and towed multiple motorcycles and ATVs throughout the day. They said they are continuing their traffic safety enforcement efforts. Juan Perez, Deputy Director of MDPD, tweeted: "It is unfortunate that while Miami-Dade celebrates the life of a great leader, we are forced to arrest and seize off road bikes." He continued: "This recklessness cannot be tolerated. These stunts place too many residents in harm's way." In Hollywood, police were dispatched to the Shell Gas Station at 2800 Hollywood Boulevard in reference to motorcyclists running red lights and driving in the opposite lanes of traffic. When an officer arrived, he observed motorcyclists running red lights as well as doing wheelies, weaving back and fort in traffic. Police said when the motorcyclists spotted the officer, they began heading northbound on I-95. Officers made contact with one motorcyclist, later identified as 18-year-old Kamari Gardner of Miami, who was on a 2003 Honda dirt bike, in reference to him not having a license plate on his vehicle. When asked for his drivers license, Gardner said he didn't have one. In addition, police said the bike had been stolen out of Miami Gardens. Authorities said one motorcyclist crashed into a car on southbound I-95 at Northwest 103rd Street. They said he fell off his bike, got up and jumped on another motorcycle and fled the scene. His crashed motorcycle got pinned under the car. It's unknown whether he was injured. The person in the car wasn't hurt. Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Police reported that a man was airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center after he was injured while riding a motorized bicycle. The man was wearing motorcycle gloves but it was unknown if he was part of the ride out group. Law enforcement officers said they were on high alert this year for incidents similar to last year, when more than 500 bikers took to the streets following a Martin Luther King Jr. day parade in Liberty City. Miami Police told NBC 6 and Telemundo 51 that the group was attempting to provoke authorities into a chase and that they were refusing orders to stop. "There was so many bikes and we can't just chase them all. We're not going to put our lives, their lives, and the lives of the public in danger," Trooper Joe Sanchez told NBC 6 during last year's ride. "We take into consideration the lives of people. In this case, you have motorists out there. You have them and if we chase them, then we put everybodys lives in danger. So we set back to monitor the situation and that was the right decision for us to take." This year, law enforcement officers have created a task force to address the riders, including departments in Miami, Miami Gardens, Opa-locka and Florida Highway Patrol. There will also be help from officers in the sky. Just as last year, there will be no chasing, but officers will try to stop riders who are driving recklessly. "Yes it is illegal, it is a violation and we will attempt to stop them. And if they're stopped, they will be arrested or the vehicles will be towed or ticketed," said Major Ricky Carter of Miami-Dade Police. Sunday night, police confiscated an ATV after a group of riders met in the area of Northwest 199th and 22nd Avenue. Last year's ride appeared to be organized on social media using the hashtag #miamibikelife on Instagram. Some came from as far away as Washington, D.C. to take part in the ride. According to Instagram posts, the group's aim was to make a statement about police brutality and to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. At least one veteran of the Civil Rights movement, Professor Marvin Dunn, called the stunt the "dumbest way to honor the legacy" of Martin Luther King, Jr. "If someone had asked me what is the dumbest way to honor the legacy of Dr. King, I would say, 'Get a hundred bikers, put them on I-95 at 70 miles an hour terrorizing the public.' That's the dumbest way you could possibly come up with to honor Dr. King. It was a stunt," Professor Dunn told NBC 6 during last year's ride. At least three car accidents occurred as a result of the 2015 incident, but no injuries were reported. Miami police issued a statement after last year's event, saying: "There aren't any open charges on anyone unless independent action was taken by officers that may have stopped bikers on a traffic violation (s) and cited them. We do have a plan of action that is followed for each event that is held in the City of Miami and an after action report that is reviewed the commander of the event (sic). I am sure there will be contingency plans added to future plans of action in the event that we have this type of incident arise during one of our future events." Police have been monitoring ride organizing activity on social media, and say that while they want people to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. day, they urge people to do so safely. Police said they were better prepared to respond this year if the event got out of hand. Search and rescue workers found debris that appeared to be from a helicopter crash that left 12 Marines missing off the coast of Hawaii, according to the Coast Guard on Sunday, NBC News reported. The debris was consistent with the type of aircraft the Marines were flying, according to Coast Guard Capt. Jim Jenkins. Jenkins declined to identify specific items. The debris was found on the North Shore of Oahu, where the two choppers were involved in a midair collision during a nighttime training mission late Thursday. Theres been no sign of any survivors, although Jenkins said the search and rescue effort was still active. For the first time, a majority of Germans now doubt the country's open policy on Europe's refugee crisis. A poll published Friday by public broadcaster ZDF found 60 percent of Germans now believe that the country cannot cope up from 46 percent in December. The policy, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, allowed around 1.1 million people to settle in the country in 2015. But public mood has moved against refugees and migrants, stirred by a recent string of sexual assaults by men who were described as being of "North African" background. Right-wing protesters carrying German flags and signs that read "Rape fugees not welcome" marched through the streets of Leipzig on Jan. 11. They were part of the anti-immigration Pegida movement, which started before the recent influx of migrants arrived but has increased its campaigning in recent months. In its first official account of Iran's seizure and subsequent release of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday the only items found missing from their two recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones. But key questions, such as why the sailors had deviated from their planned route to enter Iranian territorial waters, remain unanswered in the account released by U.S. Central Command. It's calling the description a preliminary timeline of the events of Jan. 12-13. "A Navy command investigation initiated Jan. 14 will provide a more complete accounting of events," Central Command said. The sailors were part of Riverine Squadron 1 based in San Diego and were deployed to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. The incident near Farsi Island in the middle of the Gulf happened just hours before President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address and just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal with the West. The implementation triggered the end of crippling international sanctions on Iran and a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange. The timeline released Monday said the U.S. sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. It said a post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition and communications gear was accounted for, minus two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. The sailors were traveling in small armed vessels known as riverine command boats, headed from Kuwait to Bahrain, which is the location of the Navy's 5th Fleet. "The planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain," the account said. The boats were seized by Iran and escorted at gunpoint to Farsi Island, which is in the middle of the Gulf and home to an Iranian military facility. Along the approximately 50-mile journey they were to have refueled by linking up with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Monomoy, in international waters. The timeline said that approximately 10 minutes after the scheduled refueling, Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain received a report that the boats were being questioned by Iranians. The account does not explain who sent this report or whether it included other details. About 19 minutes later, the naval headquarters "was advised of degraded communications with" the two boats, the account added. After an additional 26 minutes, the naval headquarters was notified of a total loss of communications with the boats. It does not explain who advised the headquarters of this problem or its apparent cause. A large-scale search-and-rescue mission was undertaken at that point, but it is not clear whether the Americans had by this time already been taken ashore on Farsi Island. Aircraft from USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which was operating 45 miles southeast of Farsi Island, participated in the search, along with Air Force planes and vessels of the U.S. Coast Guard, the British Royal Navy and other U.S. Navy vessels. Central Command's naval headquarters at Bahrain attempted to contact Iranian military units operating near Farsi Island by using marine radio to broadcast information about the search-and-rescue operation. Separately, the U.S. notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone. Some hours later, about four hours after the U.S. first heard that the sailors were being questioned by Iranians, the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio received word from the Iranians that the sailors were in Iranian custody. The Iranians described the 10 as "safe and healthy," according to the U.S. account. In the hours after the seizure of the Americans became public on Jan. 12, there were conflicting reports about what caused the sailors to stray off their intended course. Monday's official account did not explain the reason. It said only that the crews "deviated" from their planned course. It made no reference to the navigation error cited by Carter last week. "At some point one (of the two boats) had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine which caused the crews to stop . and begin troubleshooting," the account said. Because the boats were traveling together, the other boat also stopped. At this point they were in Iranian territorial waters, "although it's not clear the crew was aware of their exact location," it added. While the boats were stopped and the crew was trying to assess the mechanical problem, Iranian boats approached. First to arrive were two small Iranian craft with armed personnel aboard. Soon after, they were joined by two more Iranian military vessels. A verbal exchange ensued between the Iranians and Americans, but there was no gunfire. Armed Iranian military personnel then boarded the U.S. boats while other Iranian personnel aboard other armed vessels monitored the situation. At gunpoint the U.S. boats and their crews were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island, where the Americans went ashore and were detained, the account said. The sailors were released the following morning aboard their boats. The investigation will focus on the U.S. sailors' treatment while in custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel, the command said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week while visiting Central Command headquarters in Florida that the boat crews had "misnavigated." He did not say how that mistake happened or provide other substantial details about an episode that posed a potential complication to efforts by Washington and Tehran to establish better relations. Two Saudi Arabian nationals pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges stemming from an incident at a shooting range in Poway. Two men were arrested and a third is wanted for illegally renting firearms and purchasing ammunition at the Poway Weapons and Gear gun range for target practice. Saad Mutlak Alsahli, Muath Ahmed Alraqibah and Abdulrahman Abdullah Alolaymi rented a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol and a Bravo .223 caliber rifle and bought 100 rounds of .223 caliber ammunition and 50 rounds of 9mm ammunition at the range, according to a Southern District of California court complaint. Federal court documents confirm that on January 13, attorneys for Alolaymi and Alsahli filed a change of plea on behalf of their clients. Federal Judge Marilyn Huff will sentence the two defendants on January 21 in a downtown San Diego courtroom, according to the document. The third defendent, Alraqibah, left the U.S. before authorities could arrest him. There is a warrant out for his arrest, and he remains a fugitive. The defense attorneys asked that the sentencing go forward without a presentencing report. In December, the men handed over Saudi Arabian drivers licenses as identification to rent the firearms and buy the ammunition for target practice, according to the complaint, signed by Matthew Schick, Special Agent for Homeland Security Investigations in the Department of Homeland Security. The gun range owner got suspicious when he saw them videotaping parts of their time there and contacted federal authorities. Homeland Security launched an investigation and obtained the gun range rental records and receipts, along with closed circuit video of the man shooting at the gun range. The men are in the county on F-1 non-immigrant student visas. Under that visa, they are not allowed to possess firearms and ammunition without a valid permit. State records show none of the men had any permit for the firearms, the complaint says. Neither of the two firearms rented, or the ammunition purchased, are manufactured in California and came from out-of-state. Nothing in the complaint obtained by NBC7 links the students to terrorism. Two sources tell NBC 7 San Diego the only alleged crime is the unlawful possession and use of guns and ammunition at the firing range. John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor, told NBC7 he does not think the men would have been charged if they were not from the Middle East. Ignorance of law, Kirby said, is not an excuse; however, he believes the men would not have done what they did in such an open fashion had they known the law. In this case, as with others, prosecutors have discretion, Kirby said, and officials could have deported the men instead. Alsahli is represented by Michael Pancer and Alolaymi is represented by Andrew Nietor. Michael Wheat is the prosecuting attorney. The court record contains no other details about the plea agreement or any possible prison sentences or fines that might be levied against the two defendants in this case. President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were out for a Mexican meal Saturday night, a day before the first lady's birthday. The White House said the first couple dined with friends at the downtown D.C. restaurant Oyamel Cocina Mexicana. The restaurant is owned by celebrity chef Jose Andres. The get-together Saturday night with friends wasn't specifically identified as an early birthday celebration for Mrs. Obama by the White House. There's no word from the White House on how she planned to mark her 52nd birthday Sunday. For her 50th, the president hosted a lavish bash in the East Room that included a musical performance by Beyonce and a guest list chock-full of celebrities. Since arriving at the White House in 2009, FLOTUS became known for her keen sense of style, with many comparing her to Jackie Kennedy Onassis, the glamorous wife of former President John F. Kennedy. From her down-to-earth J. Crew garb to more high-end labels like Oscar de la Renta and Vera Wang, Mrs. Obama never disappoints her fashionista fans. And whether she's mixing prints, showing off her enviable arms or brightening up an entire State of the Union address in a marigold sheath, we're going to miss the anticipation that comes with waiting to see what Michelle Obama is going to wear at any given event come 2016. In honor of her 52nd birthday, we've rounded up some of her most memorable moments from her 51st year. Michelle Obama drops bars with "SNL's" Jay Pharoah for her "Better Make Room" initiative, which encourages teens ages 14 to 19 to consider higher learning. The first lady showed that even at 51, she can pack a punch with her #GimmeFive fitness campaign In honor of the 5th anniversary of Let's Move!, Jimmy Fallon and the First Lady perform Part 2 of "The Evolution of Mom Dancing." Footage shows towering flames in San Francisco as crews battle a fire caused by a gas explosion. She also broke it down on "Elle," dancing "Uptown Funk" with the show's host. Footage shows towering flames in San Francisco as crews battle a fire caused by a gas explosion. Mrs. Obama showed her competitive side on "Billy on the Street" playing "Ariana Grande or Eating a Carrot" with Big Bird. [[ 292233941, C]] Thousands of people across the country paid homage Monday to Martin Luther King Jr., marking the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. Events celebrating King's life were held across the country. In Atlanta, the King Center celebrated the holiday with a remembrance ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Meanwhile, civil rights leaders in South Carolina marched to their state capitol as in past years when their rally highlighted calls to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds. King's legacy was also be celebrated in Washington, D.C. FBI Director James Comey laid a wreath at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The memorial is located at 1964 Independence Avenue; the address is a direct reference to the Civil Rights Act. Thousands also gathered in Southeast Washington Monday morning for the 10th annual MLK Peace Walk and Parade. The peace walk began at 11 a.m. at 2498 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. During the walk, there will be rolling street closures along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The walk will end at 620 Milwaukee Place SE, and the parade will form. The parade will then head southwest on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, ending in the 4200 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Events, celebrations and tributes for King will also be held in other parts of the D.C. area. The Kennedy Center and Georgetown University will host "Let Freedom Ring!," a musical tribute featuring gospel artist Yolanda Adams. The 6 p.m. concert is free to the public. Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Go here for more information. The city of Rockville, Maryland, will honor residents who are continuing King's legacy. The 44th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. day of celebration will begin at 10 a.m. at Richard Montgomery High School. The day will also be marked as a day of service. In Fairfax, Virginia, children at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia will make seed balls for 4-H, pack dental hygiene kits for the community and make door hangers for local senior communities. A few miles away, volunteers at George Mason University will make Valentine's Day crads for children who were formerly in foster care. Volunteers in Montgomery County will package 100,000 meals for area food banks. If you're interested in helping, go here. Other volunteer opportunities in the D.C. area can be found here. The following content is created in consultation with Sentara Healthcare. It does not reflect the work or opinions of NBC Washington's editorial staff. Ever since he was a kid, Michael Papajohn has been captivated by motorcycles, customizing his own Harley Davidsons for bike shows and riding them with friends throughout Virginia and Pennsylvania. But when the intrepid 62-year old Stafford, Va. resident was diagnosed with rectal cancer the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in the U.S. among men in 2015, it almost brought him to a complete standstill. That was a bummer, Mr. Papajohn recalls. If Id had a colonoscopy when I was supposed to, they might have caught it. But I was 12 years late. Mr. Papajohn a retired 40-year U.S. Navy civilian employee should have underwent a colonoscopy when he was 50. Fortunately, his Sentara Healthcare clinical team didnt let this tardiness stand in way of current clinical treatment. Following a swift diagnosis by his surgeon, Dr. Raman Kumar, Chairman of Surgery at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, Mr. Papajohn began six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy to shrink his tumor before they operated. All things considered, Mr. Papajohn loved the convenience of having Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in his backyard because it allowed him to get world-class treatment while leading a fulfilling life. Throughout the entire six week course of treatment, Mr Papajohn was able to ride his motorcycle nearly every day, as well as take long weekend rides with his friends. I rode my motorcycle to the hospital most of the time, he remembers. That kept my spirits up and kept me going. So too did the support he received from his Sentara clinical team, particularly Dr. Kumar, who he developed an immediate rapport with and to whom he spoke frequently. Dr. Kumar was great. As soon as I went and saw him we joked around a bit and I said, this is my kind of guy, recalls Mr. Papajohn. He said they were going to fix meand they did. Its a thought Dr. Kumar echoes. Michael did very well, remarkably well, Dr. Kumar explains. His response was very good, the surgery went well and he is likely going to get a very good outcome for his type of cancer. After wrapping up radiation and chemo, Mr. Papajohn underwent arthroscopic minimally invasive surgery to remove his tumor in November, spending just over four days in the hospital before he was cleared to return home to his wife, Bettie, of 41 years. Today, Mr. Papajohn is undergoing a second round of chemotherapy, which is standard procedure for rectal cancer. He says he feels great, and hes already happily working on his bikes again, rebuilding engines and repainting and re-chroming the bodies. In fact, his only concern is the idea of losing his beard during this second round of chemotherapy, a look his two children have never seen him without. The only thing Im worried about is losing my beard! he says with a hearty laugh. First round didnt bother it, so hopefully this round it wont either. Ive got my fingers crossed. Ive had my beard for 42 years. Whats palpable when speaking with Mr. Papajohn is his sense of relief and happiness, the good fortune of a man with a new lease on life and a lot of good years still on the horizon. Dr. Kumar said Ive probably got at least another 20 something years, he says, then warmly adds, I can deal with that. And the Sentara patient experience just got even better. With the completion of their new Surgery Center in Woodbridge, Va., Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center now offers nine state-of-the art operating rooms in addition to 28 pre- and postoperative rooms which will greatly improve the patient and family experience. Additionally, patients will benefit from cutting edge technology combined with skilled and compassionate care, all close to home so that they can continue living their lives, much like Michael Papajohn. The brand new surgery center reflects Sentaras commitment to the community, explains Dr. Kumar. Theyve invested millions of dollars in state-of-the-art operating rooms, facilities and infrastructure because theyre here for the long haul. The new surgery center reflects Sentara's further commitment to delivering world-class healthcare that benefits the Woodbridge area community." Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered the convocation address Monday at Virginia's Liberty University, one of the country's most prominent evangelical Christian institutions. The thrice-married billionaire businessman, who sometimes brings a copy of his boyhood bible and a photo from his confirmation to events to bolster his Christian credentials, worked to appeal to the crowd of more than 11,000 students and local residents by quoting from the scripture. "We're going to protect Christianity," he told the audience, before proceeding to quote from what he introduced as "Two Corinthians, 3:17." The comment prompted chuckles from students in the crowd, who were quick to point out that the New Testament book is generally referred to as "Second Corinthians." The visit comes as Trump seeks to bolster support among the evangelical Christians who form a significant voting bloc in Iowa first among the early voting states in the primaries where Trump is currently running head-to-head against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz launched his campaign at the school. The campus has become a popular stop for presidential contenders, welcoming candidates from both parties, including Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders. Trump stuck to his traditional pitch during the campaign speech, but also touted the bible and promised that, as president, people would be saying "'Merry Christmas' again." He also called for Christians to band together, saying that Christianity is "under siege." While Trump is running against several candidates who have deep ties to Christian votes, he was given a rousing introduction by the school's president, Jerry Falwell, Jr., who called Trump a "breath of fresh air" and compared his blunt style, not only to his father's, but to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus Christ. All spoke the truth, no matter how unpopular, Falwel said. Falwell also made the case that presidential candidates should not be judged on their religiosity, noting that his father was criticized for supporting Republican Ronald Reagan, a divorced Hollywood actor over Jimmy Carter, a southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. "My father proudly replied that Jesus pointed out that we are all sinners, every one of us," he said. The timing of Trump's visit prompted protests from a handful of students, angry that the GOP presidential front-runner had been invited to deliver the address on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. "It's just very disheartening and disappointing," said Jeff Long, a junior at the school who attended the speech wearing a shirt that read, "Black Lives Matter." "I was disappointed, I was shocked that the school was inviting someone who does not honor the values of Martin Luther King, Jr.," he said of Trump. Trump made only passing reference to the late King in his remarks, noting that the crowd size was testament to the civil rights champion's legacy. "We're dedicating the record to the late, great Dr. King, ok?" he told the crowd of more than 11,000 people. Convocation events, which occur three times a week, are mandatory for residential students at the school. Mountain-top experience ends in desire for revival Mountain-top experience ends in desire for revival Norwich Methodist minister Rev Nigel Fox has been on a three-year journey of faith leading from a Hebrew blessing through fire to revival. Here he concludes his trilogy of articles describing his experiences. If you travelled with me thus far, youll realise Ive been holding this black symbol of burning for some months now, hardly knowing what to make of it. Things became a little clearer to me in April of 2015, first, when Roy & Daphne Godwin came over from Ffald-y-Brenin to speak so encouragingly of the ministry of praying, locally, for the blessing of God. I determined to seek out an ancient place of prayer not far from the prayer centre, on top of Mynydd Carn Ingli. Then in May, when Dr Alistair Petrie visited Norwich to encourage us into a serious revival, through the transformation of the city and our region, he spoke of changes in atmosphere as the land itself is made holy once again. Something clicked again, and I saw that the coal Id been given was a sign for all who dare to believe it that God has already gifted us with revival, and its not withdrawn. It has faded, certainly, as weve taken our eyes off the King and stopped seeking first the kingdom while trying to build the church ourselves. Dr Petrie also addressed the Global Day of Prayer celebration in Norwich Cathedral on May 24 last year. Some may recall I was able to speak briefly at that event, also, outlining something of what I had learned along the way. I was already booked into Ffald-y-Brenin for my third visit in June 2015. It was a different experience this time, in that it was filled with so many encounters and conversations like the two Salvationists whod come over from Australia to catch the fire (they did!), and the three folk who almost joined me atop Carn Ingli. But the one which stands out was the conversation with Rowland and Gail, day visitors from Newport. Just after leaving a prayer-time with a distinct sense of more from God, Rowland reached over to me and yes placed another piece coal, real Welsh anthracite, into my hand! Before they left, having prayed for myself and a colleague, he then gave a small pot of yet more of that coal which burns with a hot flame a sign of Gods abundant provision, so freely released through (DV) revival. He explained something of the message that accompanies it: that coal comes at great cost (more than 100 per tonne, theres been a real sacrifice in mining); that theres a redemptive purpose in something brought up out from the land and given to redeem and cleanse the land. I soon found myself making gospel connections This final part of a brief trilogy can only be a taster of what has been happening in my own spiritual journey. Much of it remains a mystery, and more is still to be revealed in Gods good time. All I know is: I desire to see revival and want to be a part of it. We are living in momentous times, and it is the writers conviction that the Lord is already at work and that we can expect more. Psalm 97:3 reminds us that Fire goes before Him. May this be our ceaseless prayer: Lord, release the fire of revival, and may my own heart burn with holy fire, for love of You and the glory of your Name. Click here to read the first part of Nigel's trilogy Click here to read the second part of Nigel's trilogy Pictured above is a Mynydd Carn Ingli. Rev Nigel Fox continues to serve at Wroxham Road (Sprowston), White Woman Lane, and Bowthorpe Road (Chinese) Methodist churches, until retirement in 2017. The views carried here are those of the author, not of Network Norwich and Norfolk, and are intended to stimulate constructive debate between website users. South Norfolk church welcomes Mums in Prayer A rallying call, mobilising women to pray for their children and local schools, is being mounted at Hope Community Church, Wymondham on Saturday January 30 reports Sandie Shirley. In the best sense of the word, Apple CEO Tim Cook is outspoken. Whether its advocating for user privacy or speaking bluntly about Apple's tax situation, Cook isn't afraid to tell anyone what he thinks. In that vein, Cook over the years has made no secret that the two men he admires most are Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That being the case, with January 18 being MLK Day, Apple today updated its homepage with a tribute to King. Instead of the usual carousel of iPhones, Macs, and iPads, Apple's homepage today instead features a portrait of King accompanied by the following quote: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" Cook on Monday also took to Twitter where he published the same quote in honor Dr. King. Remembering #MLK: Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?" Tim Cook (@tim_cook) January 18, 2016 Of course, Apple wasn't the only tech company to do something in honor of MLK Day. Google, as it's prone to do, updated its homepage with an illustration of King above its search bar. Show will tell story of ex-pat who swapped Wash Common for Benidorm A NEWBURY man who gave up his life in the UK to live it up in the Spanish sun will be featuring in a new Channel 5 documentary series this week. Dave Dennis swapped Wash Common for Benidorm in 2006 and his story will feature in Channel 5s new docusoap series Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun, airing tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 8pm. The series follows the lives of a number of ex-pats in the popular Spanish holiday resort - including bar-owner Mr Dennis who works a number of jobs to support his wife and two-year-old son, Jamie. As well as running The London Bar, 36-year-old Mr Dennis also rents and sells apartments, ferries tourists and ex-pats to and from the airport, and also runs his own removals business. Not unaccustomed to working 12-hour days, six or seven days a week the former Park House School pupils said he does not regret his move to the sun. Its been hard work, he said. There has been times when there were seven of us living in a two-bed apartment. I dont regret it at all though. Ive worked hard to get the lifestyle now with a nice villa and Jacuzzi. The people here are really nice too. Theres a great community. I do miss the green parks in England and think how different its going to be for my son growing up over here but were really settled over here now. Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun will air on Channel 5 tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 8pm. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. A discussion of photography, politics, or whatever strikes my fancy. Biochemists at The University of Texas at Arlington are mapping the catalytic processes of sulfur-oxidizing enzymes to improve understanding of the chemical imbalances found in patients with autism, Alzheimer's disease and Down syndrome. "Little is known about how sulfur-oxidizing enzymes work, or how or why autistic, Alzheimer and Down syndrome patients demonstrate abnormal sulfur metabolism," said Brad Pierce, UTA assistant professor of biochemistry and principal investigator on the project. "Our work is to retro-engineer the sulfur oxidation process and - cysteine dioxygenase - in both mammals and bacteria, to provide the necessary framework to develop effective therapies and drugs for these different disease states." Insights into the differential behavior of this enzyme in bacteria could also open up opportunities to stamp out "superbugs" by providing an alternate means to disrupt bacterial metabolism without adversely affecting the patient, Pierce said. The work is supported by a three-year, $333,810 National Institutes of Health grant through the agency's Academic Research Enhancement Award Program, which aims to strengthen the research environment at eligible institutions and also expose undergraduate and graduate students to research and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Morteza Khaledi, dean of the UTA College of Science, underlined the importance of Pierce's grant in enhancing the University's commitment to advancing health and the human condition, as outlined in the Strategic Plan 2020: Bold Solutions | Global Impact. "Dr. Pierce's research will provide the essential basic scientific background needed to develop therapies for critical conditions that are currently not understood," Khaledi said. "This work is at the heart of the positive impact that a modern, research university can have on society." "By providing opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students to participate in this research, we are also strengthening our position as a source of well-prepared scientific resources and advancing towards Tier 1 status," he added. In the current project, Pierce's team will use rapid-mix, freeze-quench techniques to 'trap' and analyze the chemical reactions at millisecond intervals. Comparisons can then be made between the mechanical processes of the enzymes in mammals and bacteria. This research builds on Pierce's prior National Science Foundation grant to study the circumstances under which cysteine dioxygenase produces highly toxic side effects called reactive oxygen species. Those effects have been linked to numerous age-onset human diseases like cancer, stroke, arthritis, heart attacks, Parkinson's disease, cataracts and many others. In a study published in the December 2013 issue of Biochemistry, Pierce's team outlined how mutations outside the active site environment or "outer coordination sphere" of the enzyme have profound influence on the release of reactive oxygen species. Prior research had focused on the active site inner coordination sphere of these enzymes, where the metal molecule is located. Pierce joined the UTA College of Science in 2008 following positions as an NIH postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin and as a research associate with a California pharmaceutical company. He earned his doctorate in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University. At UTA, Pierce has been honored with a President's Award for Excellence in Teaching. His research group looks at fundamental life processes outside the traditional sphere of biochemistry and employs modern biophysical and bioinorganic techniques to investigate enzyme function and regulation. The first organisation formed specifically to be a one-stop-shop for workplace health, offering free guidance to employers and addressing the need to make finding expertise easy, will launch in February 2016. Industry led, The Better Health at Work Alliance (BHWA) will bring together a broad range of leading organisations and individual experts to collaborate in offering their knowledge and insight. From niche services to mainstream health & wellbeing specialists, the experts will span occupational health, wellness, risk and safety, insured solutions, mental health, rehabilitation and wellness technology amongst other key fields. BHWAs mission is to make finding expertise and services easy, so that implementing workplace health practice becomes a simple and obvious step for all employers, through their integrated digital platform and membership opportunities. Offering access to solutions, information, and guidance via a simple one-stop website, users will be able to tap into expert knowledge with free resources including an Ask the Expert forum, collaborative wikis, and guides, all of which will be subject to peer review. For the expert participants themselves, BHWA will generate idea sharing in its best form. The alliance will underpin the evolving multi-disciplinary approach to workplace health service delivery, becoming the industrys main cross-sector channel for networks, learning updates and ultimately strategic partnerships. Aiding industry-wide progress and individual business growth, BHWA will also serve to champion the bottom line benefits of investing in employee health and wellness. BHWA has a double message for employers: Safeguarding the health of your workforce is essential; but beyond that, nurturing and improving the health of your staff, and thus being valued as a caring employer, has significant bottom line rewards for any organisation. The intended impact of this initiative is to improve the health and wellbeing of the UK working population - to the benefit of all. The Better Health at Work Alliance is the brainchild of Charlotte Cross, previously instrumental in the set-up of the Commercial Occupational Health Providers Association in 2004 and the working group that formalised as the Council for Work and Health in 2009, both successful to this day. She says of the launch: Making workplace health services simpler to understand and easy to find is a long overdue essential for our industry. For employers seeking help its an easy way to find solutions and guidance. Even those well versed in work-health will find it a useful one-stop resource for the latest insight; and for the experts themselves, it is a place to be found but more essentially a place to learn and evolve their service. We've tried to think of everything to make this a truly helpful resource to employers and experts alike. Our plan is to make this service so useful that users can't ever imagine being without it! Mark Braithwaite, Managing Director of Gipping Occupational Health, a founder member, says of the plans: This initiative is worth making time for. It will encompass a superb blend of specialists, underpinning every essential to modern and progressive workplace health. As working environments now demand so much more from us all, its excellent to have effective solutions made readily available, providing employers with access to so many ideas to help them thrive and stay competitive. Were happy to share our expertise and proud to be founders. Im looking forward to being part of an enjoyable community and building many strong and lasting working partnerships. Alex Goldsmith, CEO of Medigold Health, a founder member, also commented: Contamination of urine samples from infants and the elderly is so common that physicians often needlessly prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics prophylactically. Now, a team at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem's BioDesign: Medical Innovation program has developed an innovative microfiber pad that can save time and money in the collection of sterile samples. The non-invasive solution draws urine samples from absorptive pads in seconds while the remainder is absorbed by a polymer matrix, preventing cross-contamination of the urine sample by contact with skin or fecal matter. Urinary Tract Infection is a common medical condition affecting between 8 and 10 million individuals in the United States every year. The infection is difficult to diagnose in infants and elderly patients, as the symptoms are vague and non-specific. Diagnosis is complicated by difficulties in collecting sterile urine samples from the segments of the population most prone to Urinary Tract Infection. While sterile urine samples can be readily collected in adults using simple plastic cups, urine collections in infants and bedridden patients relies on adhesive plastic bags that are routinely contaminated by skin-borne bacteria or fecal matter. "Contamination is so common that physicians often needlessly prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics prophylactically," increasing the risk of developing antibiotic resistant bacteria," said Dr. Amir Orlev. Orlev was part of a multidisciplinary group that set out solve this problem as part of the BioDesign: Medical Innovation program, created by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its affiliated Hadassah Medical Center. He partnered with engineering students Eliezer Keinan and Nitzan Guberman, who developed UCap, a non-invasive microfiber urine-collection pad. The innovative pad contains bundles of hollow glass microfibers that quickly draw urine samples from absorptive pads in seconds, while the remainder of the urine is absorbed by a polymer matrix. As the urine is rapidly collected, cross-contamination of the urine sample by contact with skin or fecal matter is prevented. The low-cost but highly effective solution can save time and money in the collection of sterile samples from patients prone to Urinary Tract Infection. "More than 11 million urine tests are carried out each year in infants and elderly patients," said Itai Monnickendam and Simi Hinden, MBA students working with the group as part of The Hebrew University's BioDesign program. "This presents a market of $100 million annually in the United States alone." A video about UCap can be seen at https://youtu.be/9g7lvsy14X0. BioDesign: Medical Innovation is a multi-disciplinary, team-based approach to medical innovation, created by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its affiliated Hadassah Medical Center. Sponsored by Boston Scientific and the Terumo Medical Corporation, the program takes outstanding medical fellows, bioengineering and business graduate students, and tutors them in the science and practice of bringing a medical innovation to the market. The program is directed by Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, director of the Alexander Grass Center for Bioengineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Prof. Chaim Lotan, director of the Heart Institute at Hadassah Medical Center. The innovations produced by the Biodesign program participants are commercialized by Yissum, the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Hadasit, the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Center. Scientists have demonstrated a new way of re-engineering the bodys immune system to target cancer, paving the way for a new generation of drugs, unprecedented in safety and effectiveness. Researchers from Cardiff University used powerful X-ray technology to engineer an enhanced kind of white blood cell known as a T-Cell capable of targeting cancerous tissue while minimising contact with healthy tissue, which can be fatal to patients receiving this kind of experimental therapy. Targeting cancer using T-cells is a growing therapeutic area. They are however limited in their cancer-fighting potential, owing to their inability to attack the bodys own tissue. This is a major obstacle for researchers trying to target cancer cells which often derive from healthy cells. To overcome this, scientists use an enhanced, modified T-cell receptor (TCR); a molecule on the surface of T-cells that acts like highly-sensitive fingertips that probe the body for signs of disease. This approach is currently being trialed for a wide range of cancer targets, but remains potentially dangerous to trial participants. In 2013, a New York-based cancer immunotherapy phase 1 clinical trial had to suspend patient recruitment owing to the deaths of two patients who received modified TCRs, which caused lethal damage to their heart tissue. For the first time, scientists based within Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine have been able to explain why the experimental therapy caused these deaths. Their findings are published today in the journal Scientific Reports (full paper attached). Using Diamond Light Source, the UKs synchrotron science facility, the group was able to use intense light, 10 billion times brighter than the sun, to uncover how these tragedies took place. Exploiting a technique known as X-ray crystallography the same technique used to solve the structure of DNA they demonstrate how a modified TCR, which was intended to target a cancerous antigen, mistakenly began attacking healthy heart tissue. The synchrotron enabled the team to visualize this interaction between the engineered TCR and the cancer and heart tissue markers, to reveal that at an atomic level they were both similar in shape, making it extremely difficult for the T-cells to differentiate between the two. Dr David Cole, from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, senior author on the study, said: This discovery is significant in a number of ways. Firstly, the images gleaned by the X-ray crystallography enabled us to directly reengineer the modified TCRs to significantly reduce its contact with healthy tissue, which is proof of concept for a safer, more effective design for a next generation of cancer drugs. Secondly, it shows how T-cells might cause unwanted damage to healthy tissue in other diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Moreover, the data explains, at the molecular level, why two patients suffered from cardiovascular damage after receiving a novel cancer treatment and how to avoid this from happening in future. Dr Pierre Rizkallah, lead author from Cardiff Universitys School of Medicine, said: The key to the new findings is the ability to visualise, at the atomic level, how the TCR sees different markers, whether expressed on cancer cells or healthy cells. This is drug design on the scale of a protein, and X-ray diffraction is truly an incomparable tool in our hands for achieving these results. Professor Brian Baker, from the University of Notre Dame, said: Modified T-cells are currently generating a huge amount of interest as a new breakthrough therapy to fight cancer. However, there is still much to learn about the potential side effects that these modified cells may have. The striking new study by Dr Cole and colleagues represents a very significant step in demonstrating why unanticipated side effects can occur, and how they might be avoided in future work, improving both safety and efficacy in cancer immunotherapy. Source: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/ While scientists have known for years that African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness, they've been left scratching their heads as to how these tiny single-celled organisms communicate. A University of Georgia study, published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, helps solve this mystery. The UGA researchers discovered that long filaments--that look like beads on a string--form by budding from the flagellum of African trypanosomes and then release pieces of the parasite into the host. This causes anemia and influences the outcome of infection leading to human African sleeping sickness and the cattle disease nagana. The UGA researchers theorize that the extracellular vesicles, as the free-floating beads are scientifically known, are being used by the parasite to communicate with each other and with the host's body. Even before they pop off into vesicles, the nanotubes extending from the flagellum help the single-celled parasites talk to each other. The severe anemia caused by the parasites may be an accidental side effect of the extracellular vesicles fusing with host red blood cells. There were 6,314 new cases of African sleeping sickness in 2013. The disease, fatal if left untreated, threatens millions of people annually in the 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa where the parasite-transmitting tsetse fly lives, according to the World Health Organization. The research findings provide another clue to how African trypanosomes infect humans. It may also lead to improved therapies to fight sleeping sickness; current medications used to combat the disease have improved over the past decade but still include an old arsenic-based drug that kills between 5 and 10 percent of the people receiving treatment, said the study's senior author Stephen Hajduk, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. The parasite also causes major economic losses by infecting and killing between 5 million and 7 million cattle each year through nagana, he said. The research into trypanosome nanotubes and extracellular vesicles started as a side project in Hajduk's lab about two years ago. As the study's lead author Tony Szempruch spent more time peering into a microscope, the tiny, wiggly organism revealed its cellular communication potential. "What you see here," he said, pointing at the flagellum, "is that you can get that synthesis of the nanotube, but then it will quickly break down into what appears to be free vesicles that float out of focus." Szempruch, a doctoral student in the biochemistry and molecular biology department, developed a 3-D reconstruction of the nanotubes budding at the flagellum membrane. He was then able to look at the relationship of the flagellum, nanotubes and extracellular vesicles. "The whole project developed out of our interest in how trypanosomes interact with one another," Hajduk said. "Traditionally, people didn't think of a single-celled organism needing to communicate with each other. But it has become more and more clear that they do. "They're actually able to sense when they're at a certain level in the mammalian host in the bloodstream and then are able to respond to that in some way. As it turns out, a lot of this came together in looking at these extracellular vesicles that we've identified." Hajduk first noticed the nanotubes in 1978 when he was a doctoral student at the University of Glasgow, and they were first noted in a scientific publication in 1912. "Even back then, we saw a lot of these extensions coming off the posterior end of the cell," he said. "I think everyone has seen them, and, until now, everyone has ignored them. The parasite world--and trypanosome world--has largely lagged behind." Their findings--that nanotubes and vesicles are an important part of the communications process--show that the extracellular vesicles contribute to the complexity of African trypanosomiasis through the transfer of virulence factors between parasites and inadvertent interaction with host cells, which has a profound effect on disease, the study notes. More research is needed into nanotubes in particular, Hajduk and Szempruch said. There's also a great deal of interest in using the structures for non-invasive diagnostics and for targeted therapeutic use. "The whole signaling thing, people are very excited about that," Hajduk said, "whether it's infectious disease or cancer or specific therapeutic development" to treat sleeping sickness. "The fact that these vesicles are fusing with other host cells presents an interesting target for a therapeutic approach," Szempruch said. "Perhaps treatment wouldn't kill the parasite, but it would stop severe pathology associated with the parasite infection." Delhi Likely to Be in Grip of Smog in Next 3 Days, Punjab Fails to Douse Farm Fires; GRAP 2 Enforced Random thoughts of an American in Finland Bowalley Road Rules The blogosphere tends to be a very noisy, and all-too-often a very abusive, place. I intend Bowalley Road to be a much quieter, and certainly a more respectful, place. So, if you wish your comments to survive the moderation process, you will have to follow the Bowalley Road Rules. These are based on two very simple principles: Courtesy and Respect. Comments which are defamatory, vituperative, snide or hurtful will be removed, and the commentators responsible permanently banned. Anonymous comments will not be published. Real names are preferred. If this is not possible, however, commentators are asked to use a consistent pseudonym. Comments which are thoughtful, witty, creative and stimulating will be most welcome, becoming a permanent part of the Bowalley Road discourse. However, I do add this warning. If the blog seems in danger of being over-run by the usual far-Right suspects, I reserve the right to simply disable the Comments function, and will keep it that way until the perpetrators find somewhere more appropriate to vent their collective spleen. No abortion-related bills have been debated yet by the Virginia House of Delegates, but the war of words got off to an early start this week after a fiery speech in which a conservative lawmaker denounced Planned Parenthood as an institution of death and compared abortion to slavery. In a floor speech shortly after the House convened Thursday, Del. Richard Morris, R-Isle of Wight County, said abortion is murder and criticized Planned Parenthood over the collection of fetal tissue, a practice the organization has defended by saying the tissue is used for research purposes. That is evil in our time, Morris said. And if you are OK with the harvesting of the body parts and tissue of those murdered children, then your soul is walking with Satan. Morris, a U.S. Navy veteran and attorney, also denounced the Black Lives Matter movement, saying it promotes the killing of police officers and the destruction of cities, and suggested abortion has replaced slavery as Americas national sin. Just as the abolitionists rejected the evil of slavery, Morris said, I rise to recognize the abolitionists who reject the evil of abortion. The speech, which drew applause in the majority-Republican chamber, prompted a wave of outrage among liberal groups and Democratic lawmakers. Speeches like the one we heard yesterday are a tactic which has long been part of the anti-choice movements strategy of using inflammatory racial arguments and deceptive claims to villainize abortion in communities of color, Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria, said on the floor Friday. Delegate Morris comments do a disservice to the civil discourse that Virginians expect from their lawmakers, and insult women by linking their reproductive health care choices with slavery as our national sin, and distort a decision that should be left between a woman and her doctor, Del. Kaye Kory, D-Fairfax County, said in a statement released Friday by the womens health care caucus. It is both disappointing and disconcerting that in the opening days of the legislative session House Republicans chose to focus on extremist politics and attack Planned Parenthood patients and supporters, Cianti Stewart-Reid, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said in a statement released Thursday by the left-leaning group Progress Virginia. Planned Parenthood has pushed back against anti-abortion rhetoric in recent months after a shooting that killed three people late last year at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. The organization has been on the defensive over a series of videos released by anti-abortion activists showing Planned Parenthood officials speaking about the collection of fetal tissue. The organization, which filed a federal lawsuit this week against the group behind the videos, said last year that it would no longer accept money to cover the costs of providing the tissue to medical researchers. In a more subdued speech Friday, Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William County, said its a scientific fact that life begins at conception and marveled at what he called the very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything other than the taking of a human life. Barbecue and the South are synonymous, but Virginia and Lynchburg arent synonymous with barbecue. The commonwealth has its reputation invested in its hams not its pulled pork. But that doesnt stop the Lynchburg areas love of hours-long hickory-smoked pork shoulder, and that delectable moment when melt-in-your-mouth meat is put between two light slices of bread and topped with tangy coleslaw. I eat it every darn day, said Jim Moore, owner of Silver Pig Barbecue in Madison Heights. In and around Lynchburg, there are several barbecue joints that are smoked the traditional way. Its not like North Carolina, where a 250-seat barbecue joint in Greensboro called Stameys peddles pork as part of a storied history of east and west Carolina competition. Since its inception, barbecue has been a fusion of no-frills customer service and soul-warming good eats, spawning purists and factions who have been pulled into a fight for the ideology of the true barbecue. Moore was a philosophy major who answered the call more than 30 years ago, opening his own barbecue joint within one year of graduating. Ive probably been open longer than anybody else selling this stuff, he said. Silver Pig Barbecue has had four locations over the years between Lynchburg and Amherst County. His current store location on U.S. Business 29 resides at a former 7-Eleven. On the wall hangs a sign from his dads old business and behind the counter is a silver pig. If it was silver, wed probably have it behind a glass wall, said his wife, Caroline Moore. Jim Moore learned at Stamey's in North Carolina, which was influenced heavily by Jess Swicegood. Swicegood stubbornly put his barbecue tent directly next to the first barbecue joint in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1919, prompting the long, unanswered battle of whose barbecue style is best, according to a book on North Carolina barbecue history by Bob Garner. The late Justin Mays was taught at the side of Jim Moore as a young employee. Mays opened the Bedford Avenue Meat Market in Lynchburg. After he died last year, his wife, Lisa Mays, plans to convert the store into her husbands dream of serving sit-down barbecue, continuing a long line of tradition that goes back to the beginning of western-Carolina barbecue. Caroline Moore, the wife of Jim Moore, said as an employee, the youthful Justin Mays would moan, Nobody works this hard. Jim Moore stopped smoking his meat with wood about seven years ago because of the workload and the difficulty of finding hickory. Purists were outraged. I lost a few diehards, he said. For decades he ran a smoker full of hickory wood that he would burn down to coal. Then, he would use the radiant heat coming off glowing embers to heat the pork shoulder. Fat dripping to the coals below smoked the meat. It took a lot of work, he said. Many of those among the newer generations of restaurant operators say they arent willing to invest the long hours and backbreaking work necessary, Garner wrote. On the other hand, interest in barbecue has probably never been higher among consumers. On a recent morning, Bistro Bros. owner Mike Revely was outdoors stoking his hickory wood in 28-degree weather for a large smoker. Wearing a green hoodie, an old U.S. Marine Corp. hat and black Velcro shoes, he dropped pork rinds into a vat of hot oil and watched them unravel like popcorn in a microwave. I got a masters degree a lot of people wouldnt be thinking of coming out and doing this, he said, carefully watching his box of finished pork rinds in the gusts of frigid wind. Revely continues the no-frill fashion. His storefront on Lakeside Drive, which opened in December, still has pictures hanging up on the wall from the previous tenant. For him, barbecue and cooking have been an integral part of his life. Cooking is what paid for his college degree at Virginia Union University. See, the civil rights [movement] back in the 60s, a black man could only get so many jobs, he said. We tucked our tails and went about our day. Hes been cooking for 41 years, he said, and is optimistic about the pull of pulled pork. We hadnt even scratched the surface, he said. Looking across the street to a building that formerly housed Ranch Road BBQ, which closed, Revely was unfazed. I tried to buy it, he said. A Texas barbecue franchise called Dickeys is located on Wards Road, and Smoke Ring BBQ, a food truck that wood-smokes its meat, also is a source of pork in the Hill City and nearby areas. But the last stationary and homegrown pulled pork sandwich shop in the area is probably Pok-E-Joes on Boonsboro Road, which also hickory-smokes its barbecue. Pok-E-Joes sauces are sweet, not like the western Carolina, Lexington-style based sauce served at Silver Pig. Its thin instead of thick and tangy instead of sweet. The owner was not available for comment. Sometimes, a transplant to the area will come to the Silver Pig and bring the barbecue battles to Lynchburg, asking Jim Moore for a sauce akin to their home states sauce. The only sauce Moore has, basically unchanged since the stores opening, is the western Carolina style used at Stamey's. Seminar to focus on fundamentals of business ownership The Business Development Centre will be conducting a six-week seminar from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Jan. 27 and from 7 to 9 p.m. the remaining Wednesdays on Basics of Business Ownership. The course will cover business aspects like cash flow, marketing tools, management skills and business plan development. The cost is $75 per person, which covers cost materials, with scholarship funds available for low-moderate income families. Contact the center, located at 147 Mill Ridge Road, at (434) 528-6100 for more information. Downtown business relationship building focus of meeting Downtown Connect and the Lynchburg Retail Merchants Association will kick off its first meeting for the businesses of downtown Friday. The meeting aimed at building relationships starts at 8 a.m. and is expected to last an hour. It will take place at Cao Artisan Chocolates at 908 Main St. Join as a guest or RMA member, and RSVP to rebecca@lynchburgrma.com. 2016 Chamber Day set for Jan. 27 The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance is participating in 2016 Chamber Day at the state capitol from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 27. To attend, call (434) 845-5966. Cost is $65 per person and includes lunch and transportation logistics. Honorary speakers include Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring, Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment and Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Bill Howell. Bank of the James names key positions Bank of the James at its December 2015 board of directors meeting named J.R. Rodes III senior vice president and portfolio manager, Jonathan Manson as vice president and internal audit manager and Graham Evans as assistance vice president and portfolio manager. Rodes has been with the bank since 2005. Manson worked for Community Bankers Bank in Midlothian prior to moving to BOTJ last fall, and Evans has been with the bank since 2012, when he was first a teller. VACS announces federal appropriation to assist seniors The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recently announced a federal appropriation of $279,488 for calendar year 2016, which will allow 5,000 low-income senior Virginians to receive a monthly allotment of food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The funds, made available through USDAs Commodity Supplemental Food Program, will be administered by VDACS, and the food will be distributed through the Virginia Federation of Food Banks and its seven affiliated regional food banks. This is the first time Virginia has received funding for the CSFP. Senior citizens may contact Seth Benton, VDACS Program Manager for Food Distribution, for more information at (804) 786-0532. First look - JMS returns to Thor as the Thunder God prepares to battle Thanos in Death Notes special Thor visits Thanos' past and future with a host of all-star creators Chinese businessman murdered Cao was the owner of a supermarket and the Zhong Guo Cheng Restaurant and Bar not too far from where he was shot. According to reports, Cao was walking out of the restaurant when a gunman approached him and fired several shots. It is alleged that three shots hit the victim about the body and his face causing him to collapse at the scene. Cao was rushed to the Arima Health Facility where he was pronounced dead on arrival. The incident is said to have occurred at about 10 pm. When Newsday visited the home of the murdered businessman, a close friend stated that the wife of Cao was not doing well and other family members were having a prayer session. A neighbour, who did not want to be named, also told Newsday, Cao was on his way from his other business (supermarket), with his wife and baby. The neighbour explained that when the gunman approached the drivers door and noticed the wife in the drivers seat, he walked away. The gunman walked up to the car and noticed that Andys wife was driving so he played like if he forgot something and walked away. At that time he (Cao) had already gone inside to drop off some bags he had in his car, he continued. Eventually Andy came back outside toward the car and that is when the gunman ran toward him firing several shots. The neighbour also explained that the restaurant was still opened with three customers inside, while his wife remained in the drivers seat. Inspector Roger Alexander yesterday told Newsday that although the police have not yet arrested the killer, we do have someone who is assisting us in the investigation with respect to who did the shooting. Last April, Chinese national, businessman Hi Hong Huang was fatally shot and killed outside his business place, Happiness supermarket, off the Southern Main Road, Curepe. Dont say system is working, Mr CJ Three-and-a-half years is a lifetime for some. I wish that Chief Justice Archie will not say in September that the (justice) system is working, Lucky said. To this, Wellington added that there are matters before his court which go back to about six years. King, whose address is Valsayn, appeared alongside two Trinidadians Anthony Allemaney, 33, and Neil Harry Slater, 46, of Palm Drive, Valsayn and Siparia, respectively. They are jointly charged with the murder of engineer Andre Joachim, which occurred on June 29, 2012. Detective Cpl Elvin laid the charge. Attorney Subhas Panday and Michael Rooplal are representing the two accused men. Wellington subsequently adjourned the case to February 12. CAL unveils Guyana logo The aircraft bearing the logo of a jaguar superimposed against the numeral 50, was piloted by CALs Chief Pilot Andrew Wood. Awaiting the aircraft arrival which landed shortly after 7 am were a crowd of dignitaries and officials that included Guyanas First Lady Sandra Granger, several government ministers, senior airport officials and members of CALs Guyana branch office. A number of school children and a military band also added to the occasion giving it a festive air. The three aircraft carrying the decal logo for the rest of 2016 will fly to multiple destinations in North America and the Caribbean. Welcoming the gathering at the airports VIP lounge, CAL Chairman Phillip Marshall who flew into Guyana on BW 601 said that as part of our appreciation and support for the people of Guyana, we are dedicating three aircraft from our Boeing 737 fleet to bear the decal of the 50th anniversary logo, which represents one of Guyanas national animals the Felis Pantera or Guyanese Jaguar. He said, Our customers must feel a special sense of pride and ownership of Caribbean Airlines, and when they think of coming home to Guyana, we want them to think of coming home on Caribbean Airlines. CALs Guyana station, Marshall said, was one of the airlines top performers, with an impressive on-time performance record and a reputation for efficient aircraft turnaround times. The Guyana team of reservations, maintenance and engineering, sales and airport employees, he said, work diligently to keep the flags of Guyana and Caribbean Airlines flying high with consistent delivery of quality service to the office in Georgetown and at the airport. The theme of Coming Home 2016 to celebrate the 50 years of Independence, he said was also quite appropriate to Caribbean Airlines, given the critical role that the airline plays in providing transport to and from home for many Guyanese nationals. Guyana achieved its political independence from Great Britain on May 26, 1966. Already plans are in place by Guyanese in the Diaspora to travel to Guyana to take part in the year-long celebrations. Noting that CAL had the privilege of being Guyanas flag carrier and since its inception in 2007 has enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the people of Guyana and the Guyanese Diaspora, he said that CAL has an average of six daily flights and carries over 350,000 passengers to and from Guyana annually. Guyana was a key and growing destination for CAL and does not take lightly the contribution and loyalty of Guyanese customers. As a matter of fact the national airlines of Trinidad and Tobago, even before the launch of Caribbean Airlines in 2007, he said, provided consistent and reliable airlift to the people of Guyana for decades. This sentiment was echoed by Granger who in thanking CALs board, and ground and air staff, noted that CAL and its direct predecessors celebrated its own centenary of service to the region some years ago. Many years of which has seen faithful service to this country and its people, she said. Though CAL is just about ten years. Marshall said, We recognise our strategic role within the region and the influence we have to connect, unite, energise and uplift the people of the Caribbean. US Military Really Didn't Want You to Know What's in New Washington Post Investigation COSMIC LITANY OF THE SACRED HEART Heart of Jesus, worthy of unending honor, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, from the heart of Mary, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, center of my heart, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, desire of the everlasting hills, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, center and joy of nature, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, life force of the universe, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, gate of Paradise, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, aglow with divine love, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, loving intent behind every twist of fate, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, pierced to open, never to close, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, treasury of mystical wisdom, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, from whose fullness we all receive, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, bountiful to all who turn to you, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, fountain of grace and holiness, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, pledge of eternal loving-kindness, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, mercy upon mercy, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, source of all compassion, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, freedom from all fear, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, full of generosity and healing, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, my life, my death, my resurrection, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, unfailing grace to those who live in you, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, unending hope to those who die in you, alive in me. Heart of Jesus, in whom there is only Yes, alive in me. From: David Richo: The Sacred Heart of the World: Restoring Mystical Devotion to Our Spiritual Life (Paulist Press) (Newser) The case of two cows found dead and mutilated has authorities in Jackson County, Ga., baffled. With both cows, there was no discernible cause of death and the animals had a complete circle cleanly cut around the rectal area, the Augusta Chronicle reports. Of the first cow, found Dec. 16, rancher Harold Edge tells the Chronicle, "I've messed with cows my whole life and she showed no sign of being sick." Officials at the University of Georgia later determined the cow was not diseased. The second cow was found Jan. 6. Edge ruled out the possibility of an animal attack causing the deaths. "There would be other markings on them," he says, "but there are no marks except around the rear end." But Edge did say he was told that someone may kill a cow for specific parts, like the kidneys, and those may be accessible via the rectum. There also have been recent unexplained cow mutilations in Kansas and Missouri, KSHB reports. On Dec. 18 in Newton, Kan., a bull was found mutilated. Ten days later, two cows in Platte County, Mo., were reportedly discovered "killed and gutted." On New Year's Day in Canton, Kan., a cow was found dead, and its owner tells KSHB that "the eye had been removed, as well as the eyelashes on the top and bottom both." For some old-timers, the mutilations are reminiscent of a rash of similar occurrences in the 1970s, when thousands of cattle and other livestock were found dead and mutilated, the AP reports. Theories seeking to explain the mutilations, per the AP, range from wild animals to the government and extraterrestrials. (In South Carolina, someone killed more than 300,000 chickens.) (Newser) In 2013, Smithsonian told a fascinating story: the tale of a family of six who lived deep in the Siberian wilderness for 40 years with zero contact from other humansand no awareness of WWIIuntil geologists found them in 1978. Now, the last surviving member of that family has emerged from the wilderness using an emergency satellite phone to ask for help with leg pain. Agafia Lykova, 70, was airlifted to a hospital in Tashtagol, reports the Guardian. The youngest of four, Lykova was born in 1945 to parents who were Old Believers, a sect that broke from the Russian Orthodox church in the 17th century, reports RT.com. Her father, Karp, fled with his wife and then two children in 1936, and they built an existence that Radio Free Europe reports sat a two-week trek from the nearest hamlet, using what little was availablemushrooms, potatoes, a spinning wheel they'd lugged all the way there. Geologists stumbled upon the family's outpost when Lykova was in her 30s, and people began to send provisions she'd never seen, such as bread and milk. While she has chosen not to relocate"It's scary out there; you can't breathe," she's said of the pollution, which she experienced when touring the nation a few years after her discoveryshe doesn't resent outside contact. "I don't know if we would have survived [without it]," she told Vice in a 2013 interview. "We were running out of tools and food. I no longer had any scarves." In hard times she survived on tree bark and reportedly ate her own shoes, and her mother, Akulina, starved to death in 1961 to allow her children to live. Lykova has been alone since her father died in 1988. She's expected to stay in the hospital for roughly a week, having suffered from cartilage deterioration, reports Komsomolskaya Pravda. (See how her family first reacted to TV.) (Newser) A 26-year-old high school teacher in the small Mississippi River town of Destrehan, La., was booked into jail Thursday on charges that she had sex with a 16-year-old student. It marks the third instance of alleged teacher-student sex at the school in two years and the fourth in the last decade, leading the Times-Picayune to ask in a headline: "What's with Destrehan High?" "That's maybe a question for Dr. Phil," the local sheriff quips to the newspaper. In the latest case, Kimberly Naquindaughter of the school board presidentallegedly had sexual encounters with a female student at the teacher's residence and in a high school classroom between August 2014 and September 2015, WWL 4 reports. The same year that alleged affair began, the Times-Picayune notes, Louisiana had the third highest rate in the US of employees accused or convicted of inappropriate relationships with students, trailing only Alabama and Kentucky. Two of those instances came to light in October 2014, when a pair of teachers at the high schoolRachel Respess, 24, and Shelley Dufresne, 32were arrested on charges that they allegedly had a threesome with a 16-year-old male student. The age of consent in Louisiana is 17; however, state law prohibits relationships between teachers and students who are up to 20 years old. Both former teachers are being prosecuted, per the Times-Picayune, and Naquin is suspended without pay. Her bond was set Friday at $75,000. The Times-Picayune notes that teachers in the district take a course reviewing policies, including those for sexual misconduct, each year; high school teachers undergo additional training. And a senior tells the Times-Picayune that "it's just a few individuals making bad decisions." (It's not the only school with this kind of reputation.) (Newser) A former Marine died Saturday in a tragic and still-unexplained parachuting accident in North Carolina, WRAL reports. James Stremmel was diving for the second or third time that day when his parachute apparently gave him trouble: "He was setting up his parachute; he was setting up for landing and had a problem with the parachute," says Gregory Upper, who owns the Triangle Skydiving Center in Louisburg, NC. "We don't know anything at that point, and he had a hard landing." Stremmel is described as a skilled skydiver with more than 1,800 jumps under his belt. He also taught at the Center, notes ABC 11, and lived in Raleigh with his girlfriend. "James was a friend of mine," Upper tells WNCN. "He was ... its unfortunate [and] thats all I can say at this point." Stremmel's sister Megan says his death was "not at all expected. The family is holding up as best as possible. He was a great guy." The Franklin County Sheriff's Office is investigating, and the FAA has been notified. See a tweet with a photo of Stremmel taken right before his fatal jump. (Read more skydiving stories.) (Newser) Thousands of volunteers have joined law enforcement agencies in the search for Noah Chamberlin, a 2-year-old boy who disappeared while hiking with his grandmother and sister on Thursday afternoon. The grandmother says they were in the woods near their home in Pinson, Tenn., at around 1:30pm when the boy went missing while she was paying attention to his 4-year-old sister, WBBJ reports. In a press release, authorities say Noah is 2 feet tall and around 25 pounds, with blue eyes and blond hair, and was last seen wearing a gray shirt and blue jeans. People in the area have been asked to search homes, outbuildings, and anywhere else a 2-year-old could possibly fit. Searchers say the terrain is difficult but that they're not going to stop until the boy is found. Dogs, volunteers on horseback, and a police helicopter have assisted the search. "Been cold, wet, muddy, lots of hills, lot of hard terrain, lot of swamps, lot of bottoms. I just pray that the boy is good," a volunteer tells WMC. The Chester County sheriff tells the station that there's no reason to suspect foul play. "It is a search and rescue mission," he says. "We have total faith that we're going to find Noah and we're going to bring him home safe." As temperatures started to plummet on Sunday night, volunteers gathered to search through the night in one-hour shifts, reports the Jackson Sun. (Read more missing child stories.) (Newser) The 8-year-old bull elk was photographed so often by visitors to an Oklahoma nature preserve he was dubbed "Hollywood." But the final photo of the creature is a grisly one: a shot of its headless carcass (graphic image here). The elk, which lived on the Nature Conservancy's JT Nickel Preserve near Tahlequah and was "commonly seen resting near the roadside greeting visitors," was illegally killed this weekend, according to a press release. Now the nonprofit is offering $1,000 for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons who poached the well-known elk. The release notes that the JT Nickel Preserve is the largest privately protected conservation area in the Ozarks; elk were released there in 2005, having last populated the Ozarks more than 150 years prior. While there is an elk-hunting season in Cherokee County, hunting the animals on the privately owned 17,000-acre preserve located in the county is always prohibited, KFOR 4 reports. A similar act of poaching happened in Nevada in August, KUTV 2 reports. In that case, poachers killed a "trophy class elk" on private property, taking only the antlers and a small amount of meat, "and just left the rest to rot," an official said. (Here's why Americans are poaching wild ginseng.) (Newser) If "never stir another man's chili" isn't already a saying, maybe it should be. Adhering to it would have spared a 30-year-old Detroit man a trip to the hospital with stab wounds. About 5am Friday, the Detroit News reports, a 26-year-old man allegedly bit and stabbed the aforementioned victim because, as police put it, "the suspect was unhappy about him stirring the chili" that was in a pot on the stove at a residence in the 19200 block of St. Mary's Street. The victim, a family acquaintance, suffered bites and non-life-threatening stab wounds to his thigh, per the News. The suspect's 35-year-old wife also was attacked; however, police say the nature of her injuries was unclear and she was not hospitalized. The suspect was arrested. None of the people involved have been named. As for the provenance of the spicy stew: "I don't know who made the chili," an officer tells the News. (Read more Detroit stories.) (Newser) An international team of researchers said Sunday they will soon begin analyzing cosmic particles collected inside Egypt's Bent Pyramid to search for clues as to how it was built and learn more about the 4,600-year-old structure. The president of the Heritage Innovation Preservation Institute says that plates planted inside the pyramid last month have collected data on radiographic particles known as muons that rain down from the Earth's atmosphere. The particles pass through empty spaces but can be absorbed or deflected by harder surfaces. By studying particle accumulations, scientists may learn more about the construction of the pyramid, built by the Pharaoh Snefru. "For the construction of the pyramids, there is no single theory that is 100% proven or checked. They are all theories and hypotheses," says the institute's VP. "What we are trying to do with the new technology, we would like to either confirm or change or upgrade or modify the hypotheses that we have on how the pyramids were constructed." The Bent Pyramid in Dahshur, just outside Cairo, is distinguished by the bent slope of its sides. It's believed to have been ancient Egypt's first attempt to build a smooth-sided pyramid. The Scan Pyramids project is also planning to test muons in the 4,500-year-old Khufu Pyramid, also known as Cheops or the Great Pyramid. (Last year, scanners found thermal anomalies inside Cheops.) (Newser) Ready to rumble, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders jumped into Sunday's presidential debate by quickly tangling over who's tougher on gun control and sketching differing visions for health care in America. It's the last Democratic matchup before voting in the 2016 race begins in two weeks, with both sides intent on seizing the momentum. Clinton rapped Sanders for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. Sanders released his plan for a single-payer health care plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman, and child as a right." Highlights, per the New York Times and Politico: Clinton on Sanders: "He has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times. He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted for immunity from gun makers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years." "He has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times. He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted for immunity from gun makers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years." Sanders responds that Clinton "is very disingenuous" and that "I am in an excellent position" to push for gun control. that Clinton "is very disingenuous" and that "I am in an excellent position" to push for gun control. Sanders on whether he can win: "As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign started, she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of 3 percentage points. Guess what, in Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very very close. Maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire." "As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign started, she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of 3 percentage points. Guess what, in Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very very close. Maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire." Clinton on whether black lives matter less: "Sadly, it is reality. It has been heartbreaking, and incredibly outraging, to see the constant stories of young men like Walter Scott, who have been killed by police officers. There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system." "Sadly, it is reality. It has been heartbreaking, and incredibly outraging, to see the constant stories of young men like Walter Scott, who have been killed by police officers. There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system." Sanders on where he differs from Clinton on Wall Street: "The first difference is I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs." "The first difference is I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs." Martin O'Malley on money he took from Wall Street: "Yes, but I haven't gotten a penny this year... so somebody please, go on to martinomalley.com." "Yes, but I haven't gotten a penny this year... so somebody please, go on to martinomalley.com." Clinton on her old boss: "Im going to defend Dodd-Frank and Im going to defend President Obama." As for Sanders, "hes criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street and President Obama has led our country out of the great recession. Sen. Sanders has called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama." "Im going to defend Dodd-Frank and Im going to defend President Obama." As for Sanders, "hes criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street and President Obama has led our country out of the great recession. Sen. Sanders has called him weak, disappointing, he even in 2011 sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama." O'Malley seems to struggle for relevance but says the three candidates "actually believe in science." He says Democrats should commit to "a 100% clean electricity grid by 2050." The Washington Post has a transcript here . (Read more Bernie Sanders 2016 stories.) (Newser) We may not be able to get a higher power to bring David Bowie back to Earth, but at least we can now see him whenever we look skyward. Ziggy Stardust will be forever memorialized in the cosmos thanks to a group of Belgian astronomers and a Belgian radio station, who registered a constellation near Mars in Bowie's name, the Guardian reports. "It was not easy to determine the appropriate stars," a rep from the MIRA Public Observatory said in a statement, but scientists finally settled on seven stars arranged in the shape of a lightning boltjust like the one Bowie wore on his face on the cover of his 1973 Aladdin Sane album. The star conglomeratewhich the rep said "was recorded at the exact time of his death"is just the latest homage to the rock star. Bowie's Facebook page notes "an incredible amount of tributes to David Bowie" have already amassed and that "a Google search of 'David Bowie tribute' returned around 86 million results." Fans can go to the Stardust for Bowie tribute site to "add" their favorite Bowie song to the constellation. (Here, an inadvertent Simpsons tribute to Bowie and Alan Rickman.) (Newser) North Korea has launched an estimated 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into South Korea amid increased tension between the rivals following the North's supposed recent nuclear test, Seoul officials said Monday. A Cold War-style standoff has flared since the North's claim on Jan. 6 that it had tested a hydrogen bomb. South Korea resumed blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts and K-pop songs from border loudspeakers. North Korea quickly responded by restarting its own border broadcasts and floating the balloons over the border carrying anti-South leaflets, according to Seoul officials. Seoul's Defense Ministry said Monday the North's military has been sending the balloons on a near-daily basis, and the leaflets have reached Seoul in addition to areas close to the border. South Korean officials believe their broadcasts will sting in the rigidly controlled, authoritarian country by demoralizing front-line troops and residents. There are doubts in Seoul that the North Korean leaflets will have any impact on the public in more affluent South Korea. (Last month, the North's top negotiator with the South died in an accident that analysts say looks suspicious.) (Newser) An Ohio man with a long rap sheet was taken into custody early Monday after a Danville cop was found shot dead and his police cruiser and gun missing, NBC News reports. Officer Thomas Cottrell was on duty late Sunday when a disturbing call came into the Knox County dispatch center around 11:20pm, per WCMH: A woman told dispatchers her ex had left with weapons and was looking to kill a police officer. After trying to contact Cottrell by radio, sheriff's officers went out in search of him, first finding Cottrell's bloody hat, per WBNSand then his body, just before midnight behind a municipal building. Cottrell, one of six officers in the tiny Danville PD, had been shot to death, and his body was found without his gun or cruiser. The cruiser was later found a half-mile away, reports Fox News. Herschel Jones was seen sprinting from a residence about an hour and a half later and was briefly pursued by cops on foot and taken into custody. Per CBS News, Jones has been named the prime suspect in the killing, but it's unclear whether Jonescharged previously for breaking and entering, burglary, and carrying a concealed weapon, among other infractionshas been charged, NBC notes. He was jailed for four years after a 2011 conviction for receiving stolen property and illegal possession of chemicals. Meanwhile, Danville mourns one of its men in blue. "[Our] members are heartbroken this morning as we learn about the tragic murder of Officer Thomas Cottrell," reads a Monday morning post on the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio's Facebook page. "His assassination is the latest reminder of how dangerous police work is and how the police are targeted for violence." (This case sounds nothing like a recent police shooting in Illinois.) (Newser) To call attention to the plight of women in Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission tweeted a gruesome picture Monday. The image shows 20-year-old Reza Gul just after her husband sliced off her nose; someone in the picture is holding what appears to be the nose in a plastic baggie in front of Gul's face. Be warnedthe image is horrifying, but you can see it here. Gul was mutilated in a Taliban-controlled part of the country Monday, though it's not clear why; NBC News reports that slicing off one's nose is intended to mean that the victim has disgraced her family. The picture has been circulating online and is sparking outrage, NBC reports, noting that Afghanistan is believed to have one of the highest domestic violence rates in the worldit's difficult to measure, because most incidents aren't reported. But recent attacks have prompted protests both online and in the streets. Gul's husband has not been apprehended; the AIHRC is calling for him to be punished. (Read more Afghanistan stories.) (Newser) Tragedy in New Jersey: An emergency responder died suddenly after tending to a car crash involving his own daughter, the Express-Times reports. Eskil "Scott" Danielson, 49, was serving in an EMS unit when it responded to a crash scene between Andover Borough and Byram Township. Officials say Danielson helped two crash victimshis 19-year-old daughter, Alycia, and a victim in a second car. "After tending to her at the scene, he complained of back pain," his father tells the New Jersey Herald. Danielson went to Newton Medical Center to see how Alycia was doing, and about an hour later suffered a major heart attack in a waiting area and collapsed. Airlifted to another medical center, Danielson was pronounced dead by about 8:30pm. "He was pursuing the biggest passion of his life in helping others, and unfortunately, succumbed to it," his brother says. A former chief of the Lakeland Emergency Squad, Danielson had also been a member of the New Jersey Fire Service and was serving his third term on Andover Borough Council, a press release says. The father of three also leaves behind a wife of 25 years. Alycia was released with minor injuries and wrote an emotional Facebook post that includes a photo of her father kissing her cheek: "I love you so much, daddy. I'll take good care of mom, I promise. Please watch over us," she writes. "Shine your light, when you're gone. Give me the strength, to carry on." Details of the car crash haven't yet been released. (A family's drive to deliver their third baby ended in tragedy.) Iraqi officials have begun searching for three American contractors who were allegedly kidnapped in Baghdad. If the allegations are true, this will be the first time since 2011 that Americans have been abducted in Iraq. The U.S. is currently investigating the claim as well. "A company filed a report Sunday about three of its staff going missing. ... They are American contractors. We are looking into this report," a senior security official based in Baghdad said to CNN. The U.S. State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said, "We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals." A source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity reported by the Washington Post, said that the Americans were working as contractors at the Baghdad International Airport. The source did not say which private company hired them. Another source, a police official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated that the three individuals are Amro Mohamed, Wael al-Mahdawi, and Rusul Farad, who the source said is a woman. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has not confirmed these identifications. Mohammed al-Karbouli, a member of the parliament's security and defense panel, stated that gunmen had stormed the apartment where the three Americans were staying last Friday. The private apartment is located in a region of the Dora neighborhood that is controlled by Shiite militiamen. The Dora neighborhood is very religiously diverse. Other reports claimed that the Americans were seized from a second-story apartment that many consider to be a brothel. The Baghdad Operations Command's statement called the apartment "suspicious." "They went to an inappropriate place," Iraqi lawmaker Iskander Witwit said according to the Post. "Iraqi security forces are working very hard now to locate them." Witwit, who is the Deputy Head of the defense panel, added that two of them are dual Iraqi-American citizens. The third is an American national. As of right now, the motives behind the kidnapping are unclear. A source told CNN that the men were taken away via a vehicle convoy. This kidnapping is the latest one to occur in Iraq. Just last month, unknown militants kidnapped at least 26 hunters from Qatar. These hunters have yet to be located. Washington: An Indian-origin psychiatrist dubbed "Dr Death" by police has been arrested in the US after 36 of his patients died with at least 12 killed by overdose on prescription medication. Narendra Nagareddy, a psychiatrist in Clayton County, Georgia, has been put behind bars on suspicion of over- prescribing prescription medication and running a 'pill mill'. Nearly 40 federal and local agents raided Dr Nagareddy's offices and later moved on to his home to seize more assets. "He's a psychiatrist in Jonesboro who has been over-prescribing opiates and benzodiazepine and the last several years has had a multitude of overdoses and overdose deaths," Clayton County Police Chief Mike Register told WSB-TV Channel 2 News. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Clayton County District Attorney's office, the Clayton County Police Department and the Georgia Department of Community Supervision converged on Dr Nagareddy's office on Thursday armed with a search warrant and an arrest warrant for the psychiatrist. "He's charged with prescribing pain medication which is outside his profession as a psychiatrist and not for a legitimate purpose for the patient," said Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson. According to legal documents, "36 of Dr Nagareddy's patients have died while being prescribed controlled substances from Dr Nagareddy, 12 of which have been confirmed by investigators through autopsy reports to have been the result of prescription drug intoxication." "Former and current patients have admitted to obtaining controlled substance prescriptions from Dr Nagareddy without having a legitimate medical need," the documents said. "People come to this person for help, and instead of getting help, they're met with deadly consequences," Clayton County Police Chief Register was quoted as saying. "If the allegations are true, he is Dr Death, no doubt about it." The district attorney's office said they also filed a RICO civil action to seize Nagareddy's assets. One of Dr Nagareddy's patient has been identified as Audrey Austin, a 29-year-old mother of two. She died of a fatal prescription drug overdose just days after she visited Dr Nagareddy. "She was an addict and he made it very easy for her," Audrey's mother Ruth Carr was quoted as saying by New York Daily News. "Americans are abusing prescription drugs at a truly alarming level," said Clyde E Shelley Jr with the DEA. "Doctors hold a position of public trust and to betray that position cannot be tolerated," Ms Shelly said. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Amman: Jordans Queen Rania has hit back at a cartoon in French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo depicting drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi as a grown-up committing sexual harassment in Germany. The cartoon shows a pervert chasing a woman, with the caption asking: What would have become of small Aylan if he grew up? It refers to the multiple acts of sexual assault blamed on migrants on New Years Eve. In response Queen Rania posted a cartoon on Facebook and Twitter by Jordans Osama Hajjaj depicting the little boy lying face down on the beach alongside an older child with a backpack and finally a doctor. The queen added the caption: Aylan couldve been a doctor, a teacher, a loving parent. The Charlie Hebdo drawing has triggered sharp criticism on social networks while Aylans relatives in Canada expressed disgust. The magazine, contacted Thursday by AFP, declined to comment. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Kolkata: Kolkata Police today arrested an accused from Delhi in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an IAF officer was killed during Republic Day Rehearsal here. Sonu was arrested from Delhi by a team of Kolkata Police, Anti-Rowdy Section at around 2 AM and will be produced at Tis Hazari court, in the national capital today for transit remand, Joint CP, Crime, Debashis Boral told PTI. Sonu was arrested somewhere in the capital and will be produced at Tis Hazari court today for transmit remand. He will be brought to Kolkata by tonight, Boral said. Sonu was in the car, being driven by Sambia Sohrab, which allegedly mowed down IAF Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the rehearsal of Republic Day parade here on January 13. Sonu was called for questioning on January 13 night and allowed to go but since then he was absconding. His relatives lodged a missing diary at Bowbazar and police were looking for him. Sleuths then got to know from sources that he was in Delhi and the KP, Anti-Rowdy Section zeroed on him last midnight. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi on Monday said that the woman who had attacked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with ink has been arrested and a case has also been registered against her. The girl who attacked Delhi CM with ink has been arrested and a case has been registered against her, he said. On the allegations by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who put the blame for the attack on the Delhi Police he said: Any such allegation is misconceived and unfounded. Our PRO has already given statement, these allegations are unfounded. We made adequate arrangements, all necessary security arrangements were made. The woman was produced before the Rohini Court on Monday. The woman on Sunday smeared ink on Kejriwal at Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi, where he was addressing a thanksgiving speech for making Odd-Even formula a successful drive. The girl has been identified as Bhawna Arora. As per Chief Minister, she was allegedly talking about a scam over CNG. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Karachi: Pakistans former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was today acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The court in Balochistans provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugtis son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, the Dawn reported. They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free, Rajput said. We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it, Rajput told reporters outside court. Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Two co-accused - Musharrafs then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan - were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost. He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Washington: Older parents produce offspring who tend to have shorter lives due to changes in their DNA after birth, a new study has found. Britt J Heidinger, assistant professor at North Dakota State University, along with colleagues studied the a long-lived seabird, the European shag. According to Heidinger, research in many organisms has shown that offspring produced by older parents often do not live as long, but little is known about why that occurs. The answer may lie in the offsprings DNA. Or more precisely, in the length of telomeres, which are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, researchers said. Telomeres function a bit like the plastic caps at the ends of shoelaces and protect the coding DNA from loss during cell division. Telomere loss reduces the lifespan of cells and is thought to be involved in the ageing process, Heidinger said. Individuals with longer telomeres or slower rates of telomere loss have been shown to have greater longevity in a wide range of species. There also is evidence the offspring of older parents have shorter telomeres, but it is not clear whether this is due to the offspring inheriting shorter telomeres or if their telomere loss during pre- or post-natal growth is higher. The researchers examined the relationship between the age of the parents and the telomere length of their offspring. They found that when European shag chicks first hatched, there was no effect of parental age on offspring telomere length, suggesting there were no pre-natal effects of parental age. However, chicks produced by older parents had greater telomere loss during nestling growth than chicks produced by younger parents. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the age of the parents influences offspring longevity, in part, through its effects on offspring telomere loss during post-natal growth. We have previously found that shag chicks that experience higher levels of stress during development have greater telomere loss, Heidinger said. These results could have occurred because older parents do not provide as much parental care as younger parents, or because parents that put less effort into raising their chicks live to be older, Heidinger said. The study was published in the journal Functional Ecology. New Delhi: The contentious Decision Review System is in focus again following a few umpiring howlers in the ongoing ODI series between India and Australia, with BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur today stating that they will discuss on its conditional use once the team is back. India were hurt during the first ODI when George Bailey clearly nicked one off Barinder Sran to Mahendra Singh Dhoni off the first ball and was ruled not out. Australia were 21 for two then and Bailey scored a century to win the match. In the third match also, Bailey was adjudged not out due to lack of DRS. The BCCI secretary said that they may give it a shot if the ball tracking technology to determine leg before decision is taken out of the equation. When Thakur was asked about it at an ICC promotional event here, he said: I maintain that DRS in its current form is not foolproof. But if we leave aside the leg before part, we can deliberate on the conditional usage of technology. Once the players are back from Australia we will discuss the issue with them. In fact Thakurs viewpoint is in sync with BCCI president Shashank Manohars views on boards official Facebook page where he also spoke about using DRS without leg before using Ball Tracker. Actually telling truth, BCCI was never against DRS, right from my earlier tenure. Only issue was with lbw being decided by DRS. For everything else, we accepted but ICC told us that either we accept it in full or not. We are not even willing to accept it for lbw, Manohar has said then. While Test captain Virat Kohli is not averse to discussions on usage of the technology, it has been a strict no-no for limited overs captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Lucknow: BJP leader Vinay Katiyar was today taken into custody while trying to enter Fatehpur where communal clashes had taken place during a shobha yatra on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. On the direction of the Fatehpur administration, Katiyar was taken into custody when he was trying to enter the neighbouring district, Kanpur SSP Shalabh Mathur told PTI. He was taken to circuit house here and will be soon sent to Lucknow, Mathur said. Soon after Katiyar was detained, BJP workers gathered at the spot and raised slogans against the police and district administration. Alleging the Fatehpur administration of harassing members of majority community following the clashes, Katiyar asked, Why no security arrangements were made for the annual yatra which is being taken out for the last 38 years on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The BJP leader said that he was going to Fatehpur to collect details of the alleged harassment but police took him into custody here on the directives of the Fatehpur administration. Katiyar demanded an impartial probe in the matter. Tension gripped Fatehpur on January 14 when brickbats were hurled by members of two communities during the annual shobha yatra in Kazipura Kasauli locality under Kasba Jehanabad police station area. Trouble erupted when the shobha yatra deviated from its traditional route and a section of people from another community objected as the procession also displayed a model of proposed Ram temple in Ayodhya. Incidentally, VHP leader Pravin Togadia and Union Minister Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti were in the town to attend a Hindu Sangam programme at Ram Talaiya temple, also in Jehanabad. Togadia said that clashes took place before his speech and district administration is responsible for it. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Popular messaging app WhatsApp today said it will stop charging USD 1 per year subscription fee to go completely free for its users across the world. The service, which claims to have over a billion users globally, also said it will not introduce any third-party ads for monetisation. Nearly a billion people around the world today rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family... WhatsApp will no longer charge subscription fees, WhatsApp said on its official blog. It further said that while it has asked some of its users to pay a fee for using WhatsApp after their first year, but as weve grown, weve found that this approach hasnt worked well. Interestingly, WhatsApp did not charge users for using the service in India, which is one of the biggest markets for the service. The company, which was acquired by Facebook for USD 19 billion in 2014, said it was going to experiment with new models to stay ad-free. ...over the next several weeks, well remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service, it said. The company said starting this year, it will test tools which will allow its users to communicate with businesses and organisations through its platform. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today through text messages and phone calls so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam, it added. Islamabad: The audacious attack on the frontline Pathankot air base was carried out by non-state actors and Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar, suspected to be its mastermind, should not be roaming free in Pakistan, former President Pervez Musharraf has said. The former Pakistani military ruler also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis Lahore outreach, saying he was not sincere in engaging with Islamabad and that there was no substance in his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif as it was just optics. 72-year-old Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008, said he was confident that Pakistan Army and spy agency ISI had nothing to do with the Pathankot attack, asserting that the countrys military establishment was 100 per cent for peace between the two neighbours. Pathankot was carried out by non-state actors, Musharraf told CNN-IBN. In a pre-dawn attack, a group of heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists, believed to be belonging to JeM, attacked the Pathankot air base on January 2 killing seven security personnel. Six terrorists were also killed in the incident. India has blamed JeM for the Pathankot attack and has been seeking action against the terror outfit and its chief Masood Azhar. India-Pakistan Foreign Secretary level talks, scheduled for January 15 in Islamabad, were deferred to near future by both the countries mutually in the wake of the attack. Masood Azhar should not be roaming free after trying to assassinate me, a release by the channel quoted Musharraf as saying. JeM is blammed for two attempts to assassinate Musharaf in 2003. On the peace initiative, Musharraf said under Modi and Sharif, substance was missing in Indo-Pak engagements. Optics is fine but diplomacy is about substance, he said, adding behind Modi-Nawaz meeting and greeting, theres no substance. Modi sprang a surprise by making an unscheduled visit to Lahore on his way back from Kabul on December 25 to greet Sharif on his birthday. Both the leaders had talks during which they decided to open ways for peace for the larger good of the people of the two countries. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad has not been arrested nor has he been put under house arrest while three of his junior functionaries were detained in cases not connected with the Pathankot terror attack, officials have said. Quoting intelligence inputs, government officials said no case has been registered against Azhar in connection with the Pathankot terror attack and there has been no visible action against the leader of the terror group responsible for many attacks in India. Three junior-level functionaries of the JeM were detained by Pakistans security agencies but only for possessing some incriminating documents, which have nothing to do with the January 2 attack on the Pathankot air base in which seven security personnel were killed, besides the six perpetrators. Officials said initial reports of Azhar being detained for the Pathankot incident were completely false and suspected to be a propaganda by some Pakistani agencies. Pakistan is yet to inform India if it has registered any criminal case against the JeM or any of its activists for the Pathankot attack. The officials said since Pakistan has announced that several individuals belonging to JeM have been apprehended, it should also disclose under which law it has detained them and started the probe. India has given to Pakistan information about certain mobile numbers which were used by the handlers of the six terrorists who stormed the sensitive air base in Punjab. There is no information on the identity of the owners of those numbers, they said. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Islamabad: The US created holy warriors in Pakistans tribal areas during the Afghan jihad and then left them as soon as the war was over which contributed to decades of instability in the country and the region, Prime Ministers Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said today. During a discussion on an adjournment motion in the Senate, moved by Senator Mushahid Hussain, about US President Barack Obamas recent remarks that instability will continue for decades in Pakistan, Aziz said, Pakistans answer to instability is the strengthening democracy in the country. The US created holy warriors in our tribal areas during the Afghan Jihad and then left them as soon as the war was over, a factor which contributed to decades of instability in Pakistan and the region, Aziz was quoted as saying by Dawn News. Talking about external threats to the countrys stability, Aziz said that since 2013, Pakistan has been pursuing a policy of non-interference and is not taking part in other nations wars. We have decided that we are not going to indulge in fighting other countries wars now, and this policy is being pursued vigorously by the government, he said. Pakistan has also taken a strong stance against terrorism. Operation Zarb-i-Azb in tribal areas and the operation against criminals in Karachi have helped improve the internal security situation of the country, he added. In his last State of the Union Address last week, Obama had warned, Instability will continue for decades in many parts of the worldin the Middle East, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in parts of Central America, Africa and Asia. Obama had also identified a link between militancy and instability and warned that some unstable regions might become safe havens for terrorists. Aziz had rejected Obamas assertion the next day. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. William Raveis Real Estate, the Shelton-based brokerage company that boasts $9 billion in real estate sales annually, is setting the stage for its next chapter. Bill Raveis, chairman and CEO of William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance, recently named his two sons, Chris Raveis and Ryan Raveis, as co-presidents of William Raveis, Inc., which is comprised of real estate, mortgage and insurance and commercial assets. Chris Raveis will serve as president of residential sales and Ryan Raveis as president of the mortgage division. Bill Raveis said his sons are being rewarded for hard work. They earned their way to the top, he said, adding that the move fulfills a longtime goal. This phase represents a dream Ive always had in passing a family business along to my sons, Raveis said. More importantly, it is a strategic move to propel the company forward and secure its prosperity in the future. Before joining the family business, Chris Raveis worked at Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was named as one of the top five commercial brokers in the Metro-Atlanta area by the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties. He later worked to launch HomeLink Services, a venture capital-backed tech startup, where he was responsible for U.S. sales. In 2003, Chris Raveis led the initiative to expand William Raveis Real Estate outside its home state of Connecticut. Since then, he established 74 additional offices in seven states throughout the Northeast, which in 2015 yielded $4.4 billion in closed sales. Building our real estate business in many markets in different states has been a fortunate experience, said Chris Raveis in a statement. Every region is truly unique. Being able to adjust and evolve our approach in specific regions, employing the absolute best management talent and focusing on our sales agents needs will continue to be key factors as we look forward to advancing our position in the Northeast. Ryan Raveis held positions with a top strategic management consulting and research services firm, as well as a venture-capital backed internet services firm, where he, in coordination with Freddie Mac and Lending Tree, led the implementation of the nations first broker-direct online mortgage platform. Since rejoining the family business in 2005, Ryan Raveis has helped grow production at William Raveis Mortgage from $195 million to $1.1 billion. In 2014 and 2015, he was recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Mortgage Executives in America by Mortgage Executive Magazine. As co-president, Im looking forward to securing the future of what my father started over 40 years ago, said Ryan Raveis. Were taking the business to a whole new level through technology and building on the solid foundation of the company. Bill Raveis will remain chairman and CEO of the company, and will be closely involved with the companys expansion plan into Florida. Raveis recently announced the launch of a new 3,000-square-foot location in Naples and could have 30 locations there in the next decade. Were following our customers, Bill Raveis said. Thousands of people from the Northeast are coming down here. Over the past 42 years, William Raveis Real Estate has grown from a single office over a grocery store in Connecticut to a family enterprise with 120 offices, $9 billion in real estate sales annually, $10 billion in mortgages and more than 6,000 insurance customers. As part of a global campaign, more than 12 million children now have better educational opportunities through IKEA Foundation, Save the Children and UNICEF partnership TORONTO, Jan. 18, 2016 /CNW/ - Today, IKEA Canada announces its results for its annual Soft Toys for Education Campaign where for every soft toy or children's book sold from November 2, 2015 to December 26, 2015, the IKEA foundation donated 1 (approximately $1.56 CDN*) to Save the Children and UNICEF to provide quality education to children living in poverty in developing countries. "At IKEA, we recognize that every child has the right to an education and through the Soft Toys for Education Campaign we're having a significant impact educating the world's most vulnerable children," said Stefan Sjostrand, President, IKEA Canada. "The success of this campaign is due to the ongoing engagement of both our customers and co-workers along with the incredible work that both Save the Children and UNICEF do." IKEA Canada also took this opportunity to give twice and positively affect our local communities, toy drives took place across the country with stores making donations to their local charities. To further encourage the act of giving, as part of our annual Share to Donate social media campaign, IKEA Canada was able to donate more than 1000 Soft Toys to CTV Toronto's Toy Mountain to distribute toys to those less fortunate. More than 12 million children in more than 46 countries have better schools, teachers and learning materials, thanks to a 13-year partnership between the IKEA Foundation, Save the Children and UNICEF. Since 2003, the IKEA Foundation's 'Soft Toys for Education' campaign has contributed 88 million to Save the Children and UNICEF, helping to increase school attendance for some of the world's most marginalized and vulnerable children. Funds have also helped train teachers, provide educational materials and improve childprotection systems in schools and communities. "Save the Children is extremely grateful for the partnership we have with the IKEA Foundation and the support we receive from IKEA employees and customers around the globe. Together, we have made an enormous difference for children with disabilities and children from ethnic minority groups, and Save the Children will not rest until all children have the opportunity to learn. Education is a human right and provides children with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive. It also saves lives, protects and builds peace," said Patricia Erb, President & CEO, Save the Children. "We are so grateful for the continued and invaluable support of the IKEA Foundation, IKEA co-workers and customers for the commitment they've shown over the past 13 years to help transform children's lives through education," said UNICEF President & CEO David Morley. "Every child deserves the opportunity to go to school and learn so that they may build a better future for themselves and their families. No child should be denied this opportunity because of poverty, disability, gender, conflict or disaster." Although the Soft Toys for Education campaign has ended its successful run, the IKEA Foundation will continue its commitment to UNICEF and Save the Children through ongoing grants in Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia in the areas of education, early-childhood care and development, child protection, adolescence and humanitarian response. About IKEA Foundation The IKEA Foundation (Stichting IKEA Foundation) is the philanthropic arm of INGKA Foundation, the owner of the IKEA Group of companies. We aim to improve opportunities for children and youth in some of the world's poorest communities by funding holistic, long-term programmes that can create substantial, lasting change. The IKEA Foundation works with strong strategic partners applying innovative approaches to achieve large-scale results in four fundamental areas of a child's life: a place to call home; a healthy start in life; a quality education; and a sustainable family income, while helping these communities fight and cope with climate change. Learn more at www.ikeafoundation.org and www.facebook.com/IKEAfoundation. About IKEA Canada IKEA is a leading home furnishing retailer with 375 stores in more than 50 countries worldwide, which are visited by 884 million people every year. IKEA Canada has 12 stores, an eCommerce virtual store, Pick-Up and Order Points in Quebec City, QC and London, ON with four additional Pick-Up and Order Points opening spring 2016. Last year, IKEA Canada welcomed 25 million visitors to its stores and 75 million visitors to the IKEA.ca website. Founded in 1943, IKEA's business philosophy is to offer a wide range of products of good design and function at prices so low, the majority of people can afford them. For more information on IKEA, please visit: www.IKEA.ca. About Save the Children Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children, delivering programs and improving children's lives in more than 120 countries worldwide. We are committed to achieving immediate and lasting change for the world's most vulnerable. Our programs reached more than 55 million children in 2014. Learn more here: www.savethechildren.ca or follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/savechildrencan), Facebook (www.facebook.com/savethechildren.ca) and Instagram (@savechildrencanada). About UNICEF UNICEF has saved more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization. We work tirelessly to help children and their families, doing whatever it takes to ensure children survive. We provide children with healthcare and immunization, clean water, nutrition and food security, education, emergency relief and more. UNICEF is supported entirely by voluntary donations and helps children regardless of race, religion or politics. As part of the UN, we are active in over 190 countries - more than any other organization. Our determination and our reach are unparalleled. Because nowhere is too far to go to help a child survive. For updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook or visit unicef.ca. SOURCE UNICEF Canada Image with caption: "Children study together at a child friendly primary school in Mozambique (Photo credit: UNICEFNYHQ2006-2264PIROZZI) (CNW Group/UNICEF Canada)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160118_C6263_PHOTO_EN_599777.jpg For further information: IKEA Canada, Stephanie Kerr, Corporate Press Officer: Tel: 905-637-9440 ext. 6378, E-mail: [email protected]; Save the Children, Katharine Harris, National Senior Manager, Communications, Tel: 416-221-5501 ext. 295, E-mail: [email protected]; UNICEF Canada, Tiffany Baggetta, Tel: 416-482-6552 ext. 8892, Email: [email protected] The Peoples Democratic Party has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of inflating the contract sum of the Moshood Abiola International Airp... The Peoples Democratic Party has accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of inflating the contract sum of the Moshood Abiola International Airport, Ido Osun, from N4.5bn to N15.5bn.The Director of Media and Strategy of the PDP in the state, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, said this in a statement in Osogbo on Sunday.The opposition party accused the governor of jerking up the contract sum in order to allegedly embezzle the bailout loan the state got from the Central Bank of Nigeria while workers in the employ of the state were languishing as a result of unpaid salaries.The PDP called on President Muhammadu Buhari to beam its searchlight on the financial activities in Osun State, especially the airport project.The statement partly read, We are aware that Governor Aregbesola on the 8th of January this year through an award letter with reference number SP/S96/1/vi/348 re-awarded the airport contract to the same contractor and a payment of N472m was paid as take off.The same company had earlier been paid N2.7bn for the same project without any serious work done on the project.We are calling on the President and anti-graft agencies to send a secret team to the site of the so-called Moshood Abiola International Airport, Ido Osun, to confirm what the government and the Air force company had done with the N2.7bn taken from the purse of the state on the 14th of December 2012.Of the amount, N2.5bn was sourced as a loan from Sterling Bank repayable monthly at N100m from Sure-P funds. That loan is now part of the N88bn restructured for the state by the Central Bank for repayment till the year 2034.The latest review of the contract is a brazen attempt to misappropriate funds, including the bailout loan meant to pay hungry civil servants, lecturers and medical doctors.The PDP accused the governor of running the affairs of the state as a sole administrator, adding that the reawarding the contract was in clear violation of the Public Procurement Act.The Consultant on Information to Osun State Government, Mr. Sunday Akere, when contacted on the telephone said he was at a very noisy place.Although the noise could be heard at the background, Akere had yet to respond to the text sent to him on the matter as of the time of filing this report. Malam Nasir El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state has launched the School Feeding Programme at the Aliyu Makama Primary School, in Kaduna s... Malam Nasir El Rufai, governor of Kaduna state has launched the School Feeding Programme at the Aliyu Makama Primary School, in Kaduna state.The School Feeding Programme will provide one meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools in Kaduna StateIn his speech, he said he was moved by the responsibility to implement the school feeding programme for primary school pupils. It is an unprecedented undertaking in this state, but one that we solemnly pledged to do when we were campaigningToday is a special day in the unfolding of the change agenda the APC was elected to implement. The programme is a direct intervention in the health of our children, situating our schools as places to promote education and nutrition, he said.It is a challenge in terms of its scale, cost & the logistics required to deliver the meals everyday. But our children deserve this, and more.It would save parents money, empower the women who have been selected as the vendors and expand the market for farm products. The school feeding programme is directly creating 17,000 jobs for catering vendors, each of whom will need to employ workersIn seeking to take care of our children, we are creating jobs, boosting demand and exposing our people to new skills and hygiene standardsI urge everyone involved in the programme to discharge their responsibilities with utmost sense of commitment, transparency and accountability.We will not be surprised to hear about teething problems, but we expect these problems to be swiftly addressed by continuous improvement, El Rufai said. Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole has called for an emergency National Council on Health meeting today, as part of efforts at cont... Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole has called for an emergency National Council on Health meeting today, as part of efforts at containing the outbreak of Lassa fever.The meeting will focus on how best to deal with the disease, which seems to be spreading fast.Health commissioners and chief medical directors (CMDs)/medical directors (MDs) of tertiary health facilities are expected to attend the meeting at the Rotunda Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.About 50 persons have died of the killer-disease in the country since its outbreak in August 2015. As at the weekend, more than half of the country had experienced an outbreak of the disease.The meeting, according to a statement by the ministrys Director of Media/Public Relations, Mrs. Boade Akintola, will also witness the inauguration of the National Lassa Fever Action Committee.The minister blamed the failure of early notification for the high mortality rate recorded by the country.Prof. Adewole noted that it was failure of the notification system that made it impossible for the ministry to respond promptly to the situation in Niger State, reiterating that the Federal Governments mission and mandate in the health sector was to keep Nigerians safe.Also yesterday, the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) called on government to improve response mechanism to ensure rapid response to disease outbreaks.NARDs President Dr. Muhammad Askira made the call at a news conference yesterday in Abuja.Askira said the disease had claimed 43 lives in 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.He decried the emergency response arrangement set up by the government to tackle outbreaks of disease.Askira said such outbreaks did not require ad hoc arrangements or committees, rather, there should be a strategy to cushion the effect in any emergency or epidemic situation.According to him, astrategy would reduce the death toll arising from such cases.He explained that there should be well structured strategies from the governments to ensure that prompt attention was given to such situations.There should be on ground well-structured strategic system from governments, from the primary health care level to tertiary health care, whereby the team is on alert for prompt and effective response to this type of epidemic.We should not wait until there is an outbreak before we start rushing to address the epidemic.This involves a lot of logistics, which comes from the society, health care providers and the government itself.It can be in the form of financing, appropriate equipment and facilities, well and adequately trained manpower to handle suspected and confirmed cases, and so on.So whenever these are not adequate or properly applied, we have pockets and periods of epidemic of this nature, he said.On the death toll being higher than the case of Ebola, Askira said the rodent transmitting the virus was endemic, while Ebola was imported to the country.Lagos State House of Assembly Speaker Mudashiru Obasa yesterday appealed to Lagosians to keep their houses and surroundings clean and ensure they eat well-prepared food.Obasas admonition came on the heels of the confirmation of a reported case of Lassa fever infection in the state.The Speaker, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Musbau Rasak, urged Lagosians to remain calm since the state government has put its health workers on the alert.He added that the state also possessed the medical institutions and equipment to tackle the disease.Obasa urged doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to brace themselves for the challenge posed by the disease, noting that their swiftness in arresting the scourge would allay fears among the people.Also yesterday, Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) yesterday vowed to prevent spread of Lassa fever by ridding Lagos of rodents.Its Lagos chapter President, Samuel Akingbehin, said the exercise would begin tomorrow.The group said proactive and preventive actions were needed to be taken.It is scientifically proven that these rodents harbour the Lassa fever virus and spread it by their body fluids on foodstuffs and food items, surfaces, beddings, clothing, furniture etc, it said.The group said it would embark on daily environmental exercise on a one local government per day basis with attention on markets, schools, and hospitals with a view to reducing rat infestation, thereby reducing the chances of Lassa fever spread in Lagos.In an effort to contain any outbreak of Lassa fever in Abia State, the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia, has said it would start the construction of additional isolation centre to take care of patients.During a sensitisation campaign organised by its Department of Community Medicine, Chief Medical Director Dr. Abali Chuku said the additional isolation centre was part of the hospitals plans to handle such cases. The military, yesterday, invaded some Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, with gu... The military, yesterday, invaded some Ijaw communities in Gbaramatu kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, with gunboats in search of militants, who carried out a three-day bombing of crude oil and gas pipelines in the state, from last Thursday.This came as ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, wrote President Muhammadu Buhari, alleging that top members of his party, All Progressives Congress, APC, in Bayelsa and Delta states were responsible for the ongoing vandalization of crude oil and gas pipelines in the creeks of Delta state.Meanwhile, Joint Task Force Commander of Operation Pulo Shield in the Niger Delta, Major General Alani Okunola, said, yesterday, that the task force was closing in on those blowing up oil pipelines belonging the Nigeria Gas Company, Chevron Nigeria Limited and Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC. He vowed that JTF would fish them out.Confirming the invasion of the military, the chairman of Okpelama, an Ijaw town in Gbaramatu kingdom, Mr. Moses Yabrade, said that soldiers stormed his community in the midnight of Saturday, breaking houses but stressed that he did not know what they came for.Following the blockade by soldiers, who reportedly warned leaders of some of the communities to produce the militants vandalizing pipelines in several parts of the state, more riverside dwellers are fleeing their communities because of an unsubstantiated report that the soldiers said they would return tomorrow.A community leader told newsmen The soldiers said they would come back and nobody wants to wait for their visit knowing what happened when they bombarded our communities in 2009.JTF commander, Major General Okunola, who led his troop to inspect one of the blown up pipelines at Egwa II community in Warri South West, said the army would hold community leaders in whose domain such bombing took place responsible for any act of sabotage in their area.He said that the Federal Government would do all it can to bring the saboteurs of the national assets to book as they were already closing in on the criminals.Okunola said that henceforth, security agencies would enforce the extant law banning the use of outboard engines with 200 HP and above.He said the Federal government would not condone any act of sabotage in the country, noting that it would deal ruthlessly with those behind the dastardly act.The commander described the act as not only criminal but also capable of undermining the national security.He pleaded with government officials and community leaders to give JTF and other security agencies in the region useful information that would lead to arrest of the perpetrators for prosecution.According to him, it was blown up three days ago. We are going to fish out those responsible.It was a massive sabotage and critical to national assets. There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the perpetrators to get away with it.We do not have our men deployed in the area that is why they have the opportunity to do it. Ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has accused All Progressive Congress leaders in the r... Ex-Niger Delta militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has accused All Progressive Congress leaders in the region of trying to link to last weeks attack on oil facilities.In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on Saturday, Tompolo said APC leaders in Bayelsa and Delta states were after him for refusing to join the ruling party.Niger Delta militants had on Thursday attacked oil pipelines shortly after the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered Tompolo arrest for his failure to appear before the court.The former militant had been ordered to appear before the court to answer 30 counts of fraud preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.Tompolo, however, denied having any links with those behind the attacks on oil installations in Delta State.He called on Buhari and security agencies to focus the search for vandals on leaders of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa and Delta states, instead.He also denied having any link whatsoever with the N13bn and N34bn fraud for which the court ordered his arrest.Tompolo said, I wish to inform you that it has come to my knowledge that the leader of your party and governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Bayelsa and a few young men from Warri South-West LGA of Delta State, who joined the party from the PDP after the 2015 presidential election, are hell bent on linking me to the renewed vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta region, whereas they are the ones carrying out the act to smear my name.The crux of this letter is to let you know them that they are dubious, mischievous, desperate, pretentious, manipulative and corrupt; therefore, they do not share the same vision and mission with you as well as do not believe in good governance. I will briefly tell you some of their antecedents in this letter.The leader of your party in Bayelsa State approached me shortly after my meeting with you in Abuja that I should accompany him to meet you and plead for him to be appointed as Special Adviser and Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme committee, which I refused to do because of his antecedents.He added, There is this particular one from the same Gbaramatu Kingdom with me that has sworn to kill me because I refused to manipulate the ascension to our traditional stool in his favour when he was not even qualified for it. And so, he looks for any opportunity to deal with me.One of our correspondents reported that in Gbaramatu Kingdom of Delta State, sporadic shootings were said to have resumed on Sunday while residents of the creek towns fled the areas to avoid being caught in the crossfire.Although many soldiers trooped to the areas, where some militants were said to have attacked oil facilities in recent days, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Alkale Usman, assured the residents of safety.Usman said the police and the military were on top of the situation.The Joint Media Campaign Centre Co-coordinator of the JTF, Col. Isa Ado, had told journalists in Warri that the situation was becoming precarious, hence the heavy deployment of troops in Gbaramatu kingdom to prevent the breakdown of law and order.It was learnt that hundreds of ex-militants had returned to the creeks in Warri to prepare for more attacks on oil facilities and security operatives in the areas.The APC has, however, urged Nigerians to disregard Tompolos claim that its leaders are responsible for the attacks on oil installations in the South-South.The Rivers State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Chris Finebone, described Tompolos recent claim on the attacks as mere rambling.He advised Tompolo to go to court and face the allegations against him rather than trying to play the spokesman for the Federal Government.The Escravos-Warri-Abuja-Lagos pipeline was bombed by militants around 10pm on Thursday. After the attack, the militants blew up Chevron Nigeria Limiteds Utunan-Makaraba crude oil pipeline at about 10:30pm on Friday. They then proceeded to bomb the Olero gas pipeline in the early hours of Saturday. President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said the drying up of Lake Chad to about 10% of its original size as a result of climate change cont... President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday said the drying up of Lake Chad to about 10% of its original size as a result of climate change contributed in making the region a hot bed of insurgency.He therefore called for a greater global cooperation against the devastating effects of climate change to avert disaster for the human race in the 21st century.According to a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President spoke in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates while addressing the opening of the 2016 World Future Energy Summit.Buhari was quoted as reaffirming Nigerias readiness to work with the UAE and rest of the world in a collective effort to mitigate the effects of climate change.He regretted that Africa is already suffering from the consequences of climate change, which included recurrent drought and floods.He said, In Nigeria, the drastic drying up of the Lake Chad to just about 10% of its original size, has negatively impacted on the livelihood of millions of people, and contributed in making the region a hot bed of insurgency.Desert encroachment in Niger, our northern neighbour and in far northern Nigeria, at the rate of several hundred meters per annum, has impacted on the existence of man, animal and vegetation, threatening to alter the whole ecological balance of the sub-region.In the middle and southern part of Nigeria, land erosion threatens farming, forestry, town and village peripheries and in some areas major highways.Constant and abrupt alteration between floods and droughts prove that climate change is real and therefore a global approach and cooperation to combat its effects are vital if the human race is not to face disaster in the 21st century.Noting that the summit was taking place soon after the United Nations Conference on Climate Change held in Paris late last year, Buhari praised the UAE for consistently supporting international action on climate change.We see Abu Dhabi as a dependable partner in the collective effort to manage climate risks including the attainment of the sustainable development goals by 2030.Thank you, Abu Dhabi, for consistently continuing to support international action in this sphere. We appreciate your immense contributions worth hundreds of millions of dollars in energy aid to developing countries, the President said. The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, on Monday, told former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Biafra is n... The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, on Monday, told former President Olusegun Obasanjo that Biafra is not dead and will never die.Obasanjo, while presenting a paper entitled: Resurgent Biafra Agitation: Born in Error, Ignorance and Frustration, at a public discussion on Biafra, organised by Nextier Advisory in Abuja, on January 15, had said Biafra was a dead issue.The former president dismissed the current agitation for the resurrection of the Biafra secessionist agenda as a hopeless and futile exercise.Advising Nigerians, especially the people of the South-East, not to take the pro-Biafra agitators seriously, Obasanjo said, No right-thinking person who has experienced the horror of war will ever agitate for more war.Nigeria cannot afford to go from Boko Haram insurgency to any other insurgency under any guise.And on no account should we wittingly or unwittingly allow this to happen again.However, reacting to Obasanjos comments, MASSOB, through its Director of Information, Comrade Samuel Edeson, said Biafra was not dead, and would never die.In a statement made available to our correspondent in Enugu, the MASSOB spokesman noted that Obasanjo had tried to destroy the pro-Biafra group in the past, during his time as the countrys president.Edeson boasted that the struggle for the actualization of Biafra survived, despite persecution masterminded by Obasanjos administration, including the killing of about 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo State, on March 29, 2003.According to Edeson, several MASSOB members lost their lives when Obasanjo ordered a clampdown on the group, then led by Ralph Uwazuruike, who was eventually incarcerated, and released after a long period in prison custody.He said the pro-Biafra group would drag Obasanjo to the International Criminal Court for the alleged killings.Edeson said, MASSOB wishes to reply Obasanjo that Biafra is not dead and will never die.Obasanjo should have known that after killing over 1000 MASSOB members at Umulolo, Okigwe, in Imo State on March 29, 2003, which he masterminded through Achike Udenwa, then governor of Imo State.The killing of MASSOB members in Onitsha, Anambra State in 2006/2007, and detention of MASSOB members in various prisons in Nigeria has not stopped our agitation.Edeson alleged that Obasanjo attempted to bribe MASSOB leaders with bag of money to forget the struggle for the resurrection of Biafra.He said the MASSOB leaders, at an alleged meeting with Obasanjo in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, rejected the said bribe, which he said was cash in Ghana-must-go bag.In 2006 while Uwazuruike was in Keffi prison, Obasanjo invited us to Aso Rock where he promised us millions of naira and to send us out of the country.Ghana-must-go bag of money just for us to forget Uwazuruike to die in prison.But we rejected the offer, Edeson said.Obasanjo had expressed sadness that the Biafra agitation has also become an industry for those looking for money by hook or by crook, particularly from sympathisers abroad.He equally described the commercialisation and exploitation of the Biafra agitation as obscene and criminal.But Edeson noted that Uwazuruike, the former leader of MASSOB, was expelled from the group for commercialising the struggle.Accusing Obasanjo of genocide and corruption, Edeson said the former president does not understand Biafra.He said, Yes it is true that Uwazuruike has commercialised the struggle and that is why we expelled him from MASSOB.Obasanjo is ignorant of Biafra.Meanwhile, MASSOB, and another pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, have threatened to resume protests in cities and towns in the South-East and South-South, over the continued detention of IPOB leader, and Radio Biafra director, Nnamdi Kanu.The threat, which was frowned at by state governments in the South-East, prompted police commands in the zone to beef up security around sensitive government facilities on Monday. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday called its first witness to testify against a former Director General of the Nige... The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday called its first witness to testify against a former Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemi, who it charged with 22 counts of alleged N2.6bn fraud.Akpobolokemi had on December 4, 2015 been arraigned alongside five others before Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos.His co-accused in the charge are Capt. Ezekiel Agaba, Ekene Nwakuche, Governor Juan, Blockz and Stonz Limited and Al-Kenzo Logistic Limited.They had pleaded not guilty to the charges and were each admitted to a N50m bail with one surety in like sum.Their trial, which ought to have started since December 7 last year had been stalled at the instance of the defence counsel.It, however, commenced on Monday with a Compliance Officer at Zenith Bank Plc, Teslim Ajuwon, testifying against the accused.Led in evidence by the EFCC prosecutor, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, Ajuwon told Justice Buba how, in his capacity as the compliance officer at Zenith Bank, he received a request from the EFCC to furnish it with information regarding the account opening package of certain companies as well as their financial statements.According to him, the said companies were Aruwo Consulting Limited, Extreme Vertex Limited, Southern Options Limited, Green Lemon Services and Committee on ISPS.For Committee on ISPS account, Ajuwon said there was an inflow of N14.2m on June 17, 2014 from Access Bank; N21.2m on March 5, 2015; N16m on May 5, 2015; and N21.2m on June 18, 2015.He, however, told the judge that the sums were drawn down to N1.4m as of June 18, 2015.According to him large sums were being disbursed to the accused persons from time to time.For instance, he claimed that the 4th defendant, Juan, was paid N11m on September 9, 2014, while the 6th defendant, Kenzo Logistics, was also paid N10m the same day.He said sums of N10m and N11m were transferred to one Uchenna Emenalo on the same day in June, 2015.He went further to tell the court how different sums were being paid at different times and how they were subsequently withdrawn.While being cross-examination by Akpbolokemis lawyer,Dr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN), Ajuwon, however said he did not see the Akpobolokemis name in the documents he tendered in court.Ive looked through Exhibits 1-12, I did not see the name of the 1st defendant, the witness said.Justice Buba adjourned till Tuesday for continuation of trial.The accused were alleged to have converted a total of N2,658,957,666 belonging to NIMASA to their personal use between December 23, 2013 and May 28, 2015. The Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations, founded by Prophet TB Joshua, have commenced a fresh action to stop their... The Registered Trustees of the Synagogue Church Of All Nations, founded by Prophet TB Joshua, have commenced a fresh action to stop their criminal prosecution by the Lagos State Government.They approached Justice Kazeem Alogba of a Lagos State High Court in Ikeja to stop their proposed arraignment before Justice Lawal Lateef-Akapo of the same court.The state had filed 111 counts against the Registered Trustees of SCOAN, two engineers and two companies over the death of 116 persons on September 12, 2014 when a six-storey building collapsed on the premises of SCOAN in the Ikotun area of Lagos State.The arraignment of the accused had been scheduled for Tuesday (tomorrow) before Justice Lawal-Akapo.But in their fresh action, the applicants have urged Justice Alogba to call for the record of proceedings of a Lagos State Coroner Court, presided over by Mr. Oyetade Komolafe, which indicted them and recommended them for criminal prosecutions.Komolafe, who conducted an inquest into the death of the 116 victims of the SCOANs building collapse, had on July 8, 2015 decided that the building which killed them was built without approval, adding that its collapse was due to structural defect.But SCOAN and its engineers, Messrs Oladele Ogundeji and Akinbela Fatiregun, had rejected the verdict, describing it as unreasonable and one-sided.In their fresh suit before Justice Alogba, they are seeking a judicial review of the coroners proceedings, for the purpose of quashing it.They are also seeking an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Attorney General of Lagos State, Adeniji Kazeem, or any officer under his authority from taking any step to enforce the recommendations of the coroner, including their prosecution.They also sought an order setting aside the charge dated November 9, 2015 and numbered ID/1759C/15 filed against them on the premise of the verdict of the coroner court.In their 14 grounds of relief, the applicants counsel, led by Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), argued that Alimosho Coroners District, presided over by Komolafe, does not exist, as it was not listed in the Lagos State Coroners System Law, 2007.A court which is unknown to its enabling law is an illegality and cannot validly preside over any proceedings or make any findings and or recommendation.Any finding, recommendation and verdict delivered or rendered by an illegal court such as Coroners Court Alimosho District is a nullity and liable to be quashed by this court acting pursuant to its power under judicial review, Fagbemi argued.Justice Alogba has adjourned till February 4, 2016 to hear the suit.Earlier in September last year, Justice Ibrahim Buba of a Federal High Court in Lagos had dismissed two fundamental rights enforcement actions by the engineers to squash the coroners verdict and prevent their arraignment.The engineer, through their lawyer, Olalekan Ojo, had however gone to appeal the judgment.They subsequently obtained an order restraining the state from prosecuting them pending the outcome of the appeal. MTN Nigeria has expressed readiness to settle dispute with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over the N1.04 trillion fine inc... MTN Nigeria has expressed readiness to settle dispute with the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, over the N1.04 trillion fine incurred for non deactivation of some improperly registered subscribers on its network.The telecom operator said despite being in court with the regulator, its relationship with the NCC remained solid even as it was ready to strengthen it the more.The companys newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, CEO, Mr Ferdi Moolman, and Corporate Service Executive, Mrs Amina Oyagbola, who addressed newsmen, weekend. expressed confidence in the regulator to steady the ship of the sector by always opening up for reconciliations from stakeholders.The duo stated that no matter what the outcome of the court cases may be, MTN would still hold the NCC in highest regard.While Moolman revealed that his company was prepared to go to any length to restore relationship with the NCC, Oyagbola heaped praises on the administration of the regulator, describing it as the most important stakeholder to MTN as far as the industry is concerned.Disclosing the approach the company would take to restore the regulators friendship again, Oyagbola said: We have utmost respect for them. The approach of this new team is to correct where we have erred in the past, ensure good business relationship with all stakeholders in the industry. This begins with show of good faith; speaking the truth, to be able to restore and generate more goodwill.Corroborating her, Moolman added that part of the reasons MTN felt resolution was imperative, was that the fine amounted to about 95 per cent of the companys total revenue for a year. RIDGEWOOD -- Sen. Cory Booker made the case for criminal justice reform and told the story of how his family came to Bergen County in a speech Monday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Booker was the keynote speaker at the 34th annual celebration of King at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church. The senator spoke about the inequities of the criminal justice system, noting that more than 70 percent of prisoners in America are considered poor, and many have mental illnesses or were arrested for nonviolent drug offenses. He also pointed out the racial disparities in arrest rates, with black and Hispanic drug users more likely to be arrested than whites. Booker also spoke about how his family came to settle in the Bergen County town of Harrington Park. His family was the first black family to live in the leafy suburb, and activists, inspired by King's march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, helped fight for their right to live there. He called on listeners to show a similar resolve in fighting for justice. "Nothing will change unless we do," he said. "We cannot allow our inability to do everything to undermine our determination to do something." Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. SOUTH HACKENSACK -- The mother of a man fatally shot last May by Hackensack Police said Sunday night she would sue unless she learns whether a grand jury was impaneled to hear the case, The Record reported. About 30 friends of Elvin Diaz gathered Sunday to remember him. Hackensack Police went to Diaz's Temple Avenue home on May 21 after he didn't show up for a probation appointment. Diaz attacked them with a kitchen cleaver and Sgt. Miguel Molina and Officer Elvin Hernandez shot him, authorities have said. Former Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said in August a grand jury would be impaneled to decide whether the officers would face charges, but there has been no word of any proceedings since. Cecilia Diaz, Elvin's mother, said she would wait three to four more weeks, and if she hears nothing about grand jury proceedings, she would sue. Diaz's friends said he was a kind person who loved tattoos, not the violent person he was made out to be. Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. NEWARK -- A dozen airport workers seeking a raise to $15 an hour were gently arrested by Port Authority police officers as they staged a show of civil disobedience in front of Terminal C at Newark Liberty airport on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More than 200 cabin cleaners, security guards, janitors and other airport support workers had gathered at Terminal B and marched to Terminal C Monday morning to call attention to their ongoing demands for a raise from the airport's current minimum of $10.10 an hour -- a wage dictated by Port Authority policy for firms doing business at the airport. Protesters were closely watched by dozens of Port Authority police officers, and the 12 were arrested after they sat down in a circle on the elevated roadway of the departure level in a deliberate attempt to block traffic and be arrested. Officers, often two at a time, gently lifted the disobedient dozen from the pavement to a standing position, asked them to put their hands in front of them by demonstrating how, and then applied plastic ties to their wrists before loading them into a Port Authority police vehicle. The demonstration was organized by Local 32BJ, which has been organizing airport workers into a bargaining unit for the sake of higher wages, benefits and improved working conditions. Patricia Arcilia, a 32BJ official who was one of the 12 people arreeted, said officers treated her, "very, very well, very gentle." The demonstration did not interfere with flights or other airport operations, said Ron Marsico, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty and the region's two other major airports. The workers were essentially asking the Port Authority to grant them the raise to $15 an hour though its position as Newark Liberty's landlord, with the power to demand salary levels as a condition of the leases it grants to the airlines, which in turn contract with the workers' employers. Marsico declined to comment on the workers' demands. The bi-state agency is now deliberating on an agency-wide wage policy for workers at all of its facilities, including the airports. However, the agency's Board of Commissioners has been divided over the issue, with appointees of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York tending to favor a $15 minimum, verses those appointed by Cuomo's Republican counterpart, Gov. Chris Christie, who are reluctant to raise the airport wage for a second time since the start of 2015. It was then that the agency boosted the airport wage to $10.10 an hour, about two dollars an hour higher than the minimum in either state at that time, when commissioners also imposed a requirement that airport workers get Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday. Today's march in Newark was one of 10 held across the country -- in Boston, Chicago, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Miami, Washington, DC, Seattle, and Portland -- to push for a $15 wage, a nationwide minimum supported by President Obama and many Democrats, and the division over the issue within the Port Authority is seen as a microcosm of the nationwide political debate. Steven Leone is less concerned about politics than rent. Leone, a 27-year-old airplane cabin cleaner who lives with his mother in Newark, takes home $650 every two weeks on his $10.10 an hour pay from Prime Flight, a United Airlines contractor. That means Leone has $1,300 to pay his $850 monthly rent, plus heat, food, travel and other expenses. His 67-year-old mother shares what she makes as a street vender, but sales of earrings and scarves have been slow lately, her son said. "I share with my mother, she shares with me, I help here, she helps me," he said. But, he added, "It's not enough." Abou Cisse, 21, also of Newark, works at the airport as a guard who makes $10.10 an hour for a security contractor, Air Serv, making sure no one goes into the secure area of the terminal through the exit for arriving international passengers. For the job, Cisse said he had to pass a criminal background check, and pay $267 for a one-year license to work as a security guard. Officials of Air Serv and Prime Flight did not returns calls. A spokesman for United, Charles Hobart, issued a statement noting that 32BJ did not represent the airline's employees. In the case of contractors, United added, "We require our suppliers to comply with all local, state and federal wage requirements." For Cisse, an hourly raise to $15 would keep alive his dream of becoming a New Jersey State Trooper. Cisse, whose mother is from Ivory Coast in African, held aloft a sign with a picture of King with text reading, "Destination: Justice," and the hashtag #PovertydoesntFly. He said he was well aware of the State Police's history of racial profiling, and he wants to become the kind of trooper who serves and protects all the people of his state. "I want to be different," he said. "I want to show other people that racial profiling isn't what matters. I'm still protecting my state." But making $10.10 an hour and trying to help support a mother, younger brother and sister, Cisse fears he will not be able to finish his criminal justice degree at New Jersey City University. "I'm afraid that, making this much, if I take out a loan I'm not going to be able to pay it back," he said. "It just slows you down. It pulls you down even more. Like they say, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. And it's not fair." Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. 106584.jpg The black-legged tick helps spread Lyme disease and other illnesses. (Photo by Gary Alpert, Harvard University, Bugwood.org) Nearly half of all counties in the United States are now home to the ticks that transmit Lyme disease, according to a new federal tick count released Monday. The black-legged tick has conquered Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Maine since the last survey was done in 1998. (The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) The ranges of both the black-legged tick and its Pacific Coast cousin are expanding - its East Coast now spreading as far as western Minnesota, according to a new survey of tick presence conducted by a biologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the years between the 1998 tick "census" and this latest count, ticks have overrun New England, spread south along the Atlantic seaboard, overtaken all of Pennsylvania and established themselves in Ohio. A separate presence that began in western Wisconsin, along the upper Mississippi River, has moved in all directions to spread to Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. In short, the East Coast tick infestation has almost joined with the Midwestern one, using the Ohio River valley as its likely path. The tick - and the disease it carries - have come a long way from the discovery of the link between the two after a series of cases in Lyme, Conn., from which the illness gets its name. "For people in New Jersey, this isn't a great surprise," said Thomas Mather, an entomologist with the University of Rhode Island. "These ticks are well-established throughout much of your state." The map may have a real impact in Ohio, making health officials more likely to consider a diagnosis of Lyme disease rather than dismiss it as an impossibility, he said. "People in Ohio were mostly told, 'You can't have Lyme disease because we don't have that kind of tick here,'" he said. The new map shows ticks are firmly established in the eastern half of the Buckeye State. Although New Jersey was already infested by 1998, the natural habitat of ticks was limited then to the Eastern seaboard and Hudson and Delaware river valleys. (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.) That's one of the reasons the CDC undertook the update of its tick distribution map. "Some symptoms of Lyme disease include fever, headache, and fatigue, all of which can be mistaken for the common flu, so medical personnel need to know where these ticks are found in order to make a correct diagnosis," said Rebecca Eisen, a research biologist with the CDC. The geographic spread came as no surprise to Mather, whose TickEncounter Resource Center now "crowd-sources" the activity of ticks by having readers report any tick they encounter. The TickSpotters service received 9,000 submissions in 2014, and 11,000 in 2015. New Jersey ranks third in the number of submissions made to the site, Mather said. Anyone who submits a photo of a tick will receive back an identification of it, along with advice on the risk it may pose. The spread of ticks seems to follow the pathway of major rivers because ticks need moisture to survive, and because their main means of wide distribution is by birds, who also find lowland habitats attractive. (So-called deer ticks use deer mostly as a source of a blood meal, not as a means of transportation or distribution.) The picture on the West Coast is less alarming, with tick presence still limited to coastal counties. The range of the western black-legged tick increased from just 3.4 percent of counties to 3.6 percent. Kathleen O'Brien may be reached at kobrien@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @OBrienLedger. Find NJ.com on Facebook. TArmfield.jpg Taileer R. Armfield, of Hillside, appears in court in Jersey City on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, on charges related to suspected heroin, cocaine and marijuana. JERSEY CITY - A 32-year-old Union County man with an extensive criminal record was arrested in Jersey City on Thursday and is facing a dozen drug counts related to heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Taileer R. Armfield, of Hillside, is charged with possession of 39 bags of heroin, nine bags of cocaine and two bags of marijuana, according to a criminal complaint. He is also charged with three counts each of possession with intent to distribute, possession with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of School 40, located at 88 Gates Ave., and within 500 feet Martiniak-Enright Park, located at Old Bergen Road and Pamrapo Avenue, the complaint says. Armfield has 13 prior arrests, two disorderly persons convictions and criminal convictions for unlawful possession of a handgun, robbery and seven counts of drug possession within 1,000 feet of school property, officials said. Due to his criminal record, Armfield's bail was set at $50,000 cash only when he made his first court appearance on the charges on Friday in Central Judicial Processing court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. A Jersey City man is in federal custody after authorities in a small New York town on the Canadian border say he was caught with $10,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine, a television news station reported. Shawn Moyd, 22, is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance -- 250 packets of heroion and 25 grams of crack cocaine -- wwnytv.co, reported. Moyd was arrested in the town of Massena, in St. Lawrence County, after he was pulled over by police. Authorities said a search by a Border Patrol dog led to the discovery of the drugs, the station reported. Massena, N.Y. Police turned the case over to federal authorities and Moyd was being held at St. Lawrence County jail to await prosecution. New Orleans police said Monday (Jan. 18) that five university-area Uptown homes, occupied only by women, have been invaded since late Friday night by an unknown male intruder. Critics' Choice Awards 2016: They wore that? Fashions and photos from the red carpet WASHINGTON (AP) The House Jan. 6 committee plans to unveil "surprising" details at its next public hearing about the 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol. The session Thursday afternoon is likely to be the last public hearing before midterm elections next month. The panel is expected to include new evidence from the U.S. Secret Service about its actions with Donald Trump that day. Ahead of a report later this year, the panel is summing up its findings. The committee says Trump, after he lost the 2020 presidential election, launched an unprecedented attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory. They say the result was the deadly mob siege of the Capitol. Rummel 5-star cornerback Kristian Fulton says LSU is his leader 'as of now' George and Maria (Green) Jackson were born in Selby, Yorkshire, England George in 1845 and Maria in 1847. George was the eldest of the five children of John and Mary (Dickinson) Jackson. He was educated in Selby, and worked as a buyer in a dry-goods store in Selby, and later in Manchester, before coming to the United States with his family in 1858. His father died the following year (1859) in Utica, NY and his mother died many years later in Manchester. In 1869, George was married in Selby to Maria Green, the daughter of Mary Ann and Thomas Green, a successful shipbuilder. Maria was educated in a young ladies boarding school in Selby. According to H.H. Field in The History of Pottawattamie County, they crossed the Atlantic in thirteen days and traveled by land for two days before reaching Council Bluffs on June 11, 1871. George worked for the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company as cashier for five years, and then for the Union Pacific Railroad in charge of the claim department at the transfer depot. His obituary states that he worked for the UPRR for many years. Council Bluffs became the home of Mary Ann and Thomas Green and their entire family, which included (besides Maria) Richard, Robert, George, Martha and Thomas, Jr. all born in England. In Yorkshire, Thomas followed his father in the shipbuilding business. In Council Bluffs, he and his two oldest sons, Richard and Robert, established the Thomas Green and Sons Packing. The product they produced was called Greendale Meats. It was a pork packing plant specializing in hams and bacon. The plant was located near todays Valley View Park and used ice from Mosquito Creek. When talk of a stock yards became a subject of interest, Thomas was one of those who went to Chicago to negotiate with potential investors. The investors chose to locate in Omaha, and the plant closed several years later. According to city directories, Thomas Green and Sons were also lumber dealers. Courthouse records indicate that Maria Jackson purchased the property at 517 S. First Street in 1875 and sold it in 1916. (Contrary to the popular belief that women could not own property, real estate transfer records often show the property listed in the wifes name.) The style of the house is that of an early Queen Anne (1880 1910), especially in the roof design. According to Virginia and Lee McAlesters Field Guide to American Houses, over half of all Queen Anne houses have a steeply hipped roof with one or more cross gables. Most commonly, there are two cross gables, one front-facing and one side-facing, both asymmetrically placed on their respective facades. Another indication of an early 1880s construction date of the house is the existence of steps leading to an elevated platform by the porch onto which passengers could alight from a carriage. The house has undergone alterations through the years. Craftsman and Prairie styles came into their own in the early part of the twentieth century. Oftentimes a homeowner would choose to update a Victorian house, as a new style became popular, by covering bricks with stucco, or altering or enclosing a front porch. It is not known what changes may have been made to this still-lovely Queen Anne, although a fire during the 1990s revealed bricks in the construction of the original porch. This could indicate the house was originally brick- a common construction material used in Victorian houses. The Jacksons had three daughters: Marion, Lillian married F. H. Ellis, and Jessica married William F. Siedentopf whose father, pioneer William F. Siedenhopf, Sr., was a real estate investor and a civic leader. The Jacksons owned several properties in the neighborhood. By 1920, according to the census records, they were living on neighboring Knepper Street and George Jackson was in the insurance business. The Jacksons were active in St. Pauls Episcopal Church and in the Masons and Eastern Star at the state level. After George Jackson died in 1926, Maria is shown in city directories to be living with her daughters who had homes at 513 and 525 S. First Street. Her brother, Thomas, Jr., lived at 634 S. First Street. Maria died in 1933. The Jacksons are buried in Fairview Cemetery. Preserve Council Bluffs acknowledges the following sources of information: the reference department of the Council Bluffs Public Library, the auditors office of the Pottawattamie County courthouse, homeowners, and other researchers. Community Its now easier than ever to connect and chat with others in your local area. You can connect with your community by asking general questions, give area updates and recommendations and even let your community know about local events that are taking place. The NRL Auckland Nines event received a huge boost today with leading engineering and infrastructure group Downer taking over as the 2016 Nines naming rights sponsor. Secure your tickets to the 2016 Downer NRL Auckland Nines Duco Events said the new partnership would go a long way to ensuring next months event is a major success. Downer agreed to take over the top sponsorship role following the end of Ducos partnership with electronics retailer, Dick Smith. The multi-award winning tournament will now be known as the Downer NRL Auckland Nines and will be played on February 6th and 7th at Eden Park. Downer has a long history in both Australia and New Zealand, dating back more than a century, and is now a Top-100 company on the Australian Securities Exchange. Downer provides comprehensive services to customers in markets including transport, rail, mining, utilities, technology and communications, and engineering, construction and maintenance. Downer employs about 20,000 people and operates primarily in Australia and New Zealand but also in the Asia-Pacific region, South America and Southern Africa. Martin Snedden Duco Events Chief Executive, in announcing the sponsorship agreement, said: It is tremendous to be in a position today to announce Downer as the 2016 Nines naming rights sponsor. Being a highly respected and successful business throughout both Australia and New Zealand, they are a great fit with the Nines. Mr Snedden said a lot of hard work had occurred over the last few days to put Duco and Downer into a position to make todays announcement. The teams from both Duco and Downer have worked together quickly and co-operatively within a very tight deadline to reach agreement on how our relationship for an event which is now less than three weeks away can work, he said. The NRL, ATEED and our other Nines event partners have given Duco great support during this time. The Chief Executive of Downer, Grant Fenn, said he was thrilled with the partnership. Downer is delighted to be associated with this great event over the Waitangi weekend, he said. We have a proud history and extensive operations in both Australia and New Zealand. Its sure to be a great weekend of footy. NRL Chief Commercial Officer, Michael Brown said the Downer sponsorship was a boost for the Nines on the eve of the 2016 tournament. The Nines has already become a great way to kick off the Rugby League season so it is important to have a prestigious naming rights sponsor, he said. We are delighted that a company with a brand like Downer has come on board at short notice. It is a real vote of confidence in the Nines. Auckland Tourism Events Economic Development (ATEED) Chief Executive Brett ORiley had added his support today for the new sponsorship appointment. This is great news for the NRL Auckland Nines, and the speed with which Duco Events has secured Downer as a new naming rights sponsor for the 2016 tournament is a testament to the popularity and strength of the event, Mr ORiley said. It is also good to see another company with such a strong New Zealand history and presence, and close Trans-Tasman links, come into the Nines family of sponsors. In the space of just two years, the Nines has earned a reputation as an event where the stars turn up to play and has been a landmark event on the Auckland landscape. Benji Marshall, Kieran Foran, Josh Dugan and Daly Cherry-Evans all competed at the Nines last year, while expectation has further increased on the Warriors in 2016 following the recent signings of Issac Luke and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck. Kangaroos and Maroons star Billy Slater has signalled he will make his Nines debut at this years event, while Shaun Johnson is also targeting the 2016 tournament for his comeback from injury. Organisers are again predicting a bumper Eden Park crowd with tickets starting from NZ$69 still available. The Sydney Roosters have signed talented outside back Dale Copley from the Broncos it was announced by the club on Monday. Copley and the Roosters reached agreement overnight on a three-year contract that brings the 24 year-old to the Sydney club with immediate effect through to the conclusion of the 2018 season. Roosters recruitment manager Peter O'Sullivan believes Copley will be a valuable asset for the Roosters moving forward. "We see Dale taking his game to the next level here at the Roosters, and with his signature being sought by a number of clubs, we are pleased to have secured his services," said O'Sullivan. "A member of Queensland's emerging Origin squad, Dale is a tremendous finisher, blessed with wonderful footwork and a natural try-scoring ability. There's no doubt that he will add some terrific depth to our outside backs, and we look forward to watching his game develop in the coming seasons," he added. Since making his NRL debut in 2009, Copley has played 72 top grade games, scoring 31 tries. Broncos CEO Paul White said it was difficult to release a player who had been at the club since a young age. "The last month has not been easy for Dale, but the club and his management have remained in constant contact during this period to allow the best outcome for all and not put unnecessary pressure on the player or the process. "I have told Dale he is held in the highest regard by all at this club as both a person and a player. "He leaves with our blessing and support, and we hope there is an opportunity for him to one day be a part of the club again. This article first appeared on Roosters.com.au You hear a lot about how tough and gritty Gary is, but you can go there to get the most delicate sea bass, organic smoothies, award-winning craft beer and now freshly baked chocolate croissants. Every morning, the new Brasserie cafe and wine bar bakes chocolate croissants, cookies, scones, pastries and cinnamon rolls. The European-style cafe at 642 Lake Street offers coffee, fancy espresso drinks, and food. Soon it will have craft beer, wine and dinner entrees such as short ribs braised with Demi-glace. The Brasserie owner Hannah Chung is a Chicago resident who often took the South Shore Line down to visit 18th Street Brewery. She saw the Miller neighborhood could use a coffee shop where people could hang out, read, or conduct business. Her cafe is a casual but fancy place where you can get a grilled cheese sandwich with arugula and tomato. "I'd frequently walk by the area coming off the train down and have a couple beers and wonder why there was no coffee shop in the neighborhood where people could gather," she said. "Commuters might stop at McDonald's or Speedway to get coffee on the way to work. But they need a place that's casual, where they can go to relax." 18th Street Brewery owner Drew Fox leases space to The Brasserie and invested in the venture. "She is a very talented and what she is doing is a perfect fit for Miller Beach," Fox said. Fox had purchased the building the coffee is in but found it was too small for his brewpub. It's a short walk from the South Shore Line train station and on Lake Street, Miller's main commercial corridor. "Miller needed a coffee shop and I hope people will get out and support what they have been asking for such a long time," he said. "I'm also an investor in the business and was happy to give her my money because I love great coffee and fresh baked goods." It's one of many new businesses to spring up in Miller in recent years, including the acclaimed 18th Street Brewery, the Vibrations juice bar and health food store, the Caribbean-themed 444 Grill, Carmella's Cafe, Miller's Vintage Kitchen, the Miller Beach Market Place, the Indie Indie Bang Bang boutique, Summer Colony Living and Adell's Beach Boutique. The Brasserie also will offer lunch and dinner. At first it will be salads, sandwiches, house-made soups, small plates and light dishes like charcuterie and tartare. Eventually the goal is to have gourmet entrees like salmon, whitefish or seared crispy pork. All the coffee comes from the Metropolis roastery in Chicago, and customers know exactly what bean is used in which batch. The Brasserie also has espresso drinks, including those flavored with vanilla, mocha, peppermint, and mocha. Food options will include hummus, eggplant purees, meat and cheese boards, ham and cheese sandwiches on bagels, chicken salad sandwiches and vegetarian fare. "Dinner options will be a little limited or small when we start out," Chung said. "We'll grow it or reduce it, depending on what customers want. In addition to coffee and fine food, The Brasserie will offer local craft beer from 18th Street Brewery and Indianapolis-based Sun King, and exotic wines, including from Croatia. "I like to drink good wines at affordable prices," she said. "It's amazing to be exposed to all different types of wine." The Brasserie, which is a French word for a relaxed restaurant with a lot of beverage options, aims for a European feel and uses salvaged materials for the decor, Chung said. It offers Wi-Fi and encourages people to relax, read on their Kindles or have business conferences. Currently, the cafe is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends. The Northwest Indiana Forum, an economic development agency based in Portage, is calling on state lawmakers to deliver better roads, more incentives and continued grant funding. The Northwest Indiana Forum recently announced its legislative agenda for this session, which includes gaining additional flexibility with tax increment financing districts, enterprise zones, urban enterprise associations, community revitalization enhancement districts and tax phase-ins. "The Northwest Indiana Forum believes it is essential for our business climate to have a funding solution in place to maintain and improve our transportation networks," Northwest Indiana Forum President and CEO Heather Ennis said. "While it's nice to look back on our successes in 2015, we need to keep moving the needle forward to create a business climate that will help grow the economic pie in Northwest Indiana." The NWI Forum would also like to see permanent funding for the Regional Cities Initiatives Grant Program, which recently awarded money to facade renovations, among other projects, in South Bend and Evansville, while passing on double-tracking on the South Shore Line to speed up service between Gary and Michigan City. Indiana Economic Development Corp. President Jim Schellinger however has vowed to eventually line up funding for the South Shore double-tracking. The NWI Forum also supports turning U.S. 30 into a freeway between Valparaiso and the Ohio state line, saying it would be a boon for economic development across Northern Indiana and not just in the Region. Last year, the Forum achieved many of its goals including investment in the Northwest Indiana Regional Redevelopment Authority and commuter rail expansion, as well as re-authorization of the export-import bank, early payoff of unemployment insurance and Workforce Development improvements. David Bowies pioneering rock n roll femininity is gaining currency, still after decades, on fashion runways and was strongly evident in Peter Dundas menswear premier for the Roberto Cavalli fashion house. Where do I begin? Dundas said when asked about Bowies influence on his designs after the show Friday evening. Bowies almost always on my mood board and I was completely shocked and crushed and saddened when I heard about his passing and I thought about Imam, of course, as well. It felt like the beginning of the end of something very, very important, stylistically and musically and in iconography as well. The looks previewed during Milan Fashion Week of menswear previews for the next cold weather season embraced feminine touches in ways familiarized by Bowie, tempered with masculine features. Sheer shirts adorned with silver beading were paired with a tweed jacket, or silken floral scarves knotted below the neck with an open front polka-dotted shirt and suede jacket, and even embroidered black velour jacket over corduroy flairs. Winter is a parade of luxury, from oversized animal-print furs worn over Norwegian-patterned scarves and sweaters, to rich reptile-skin coats and jackets in contrasting stripes of color worn with jeans. A long, sweeping coat draped casually cool over the shoulders, flowing down into open-slit arms, both evoking superstars of 1960s and 70s rock and contrasting pointedly with the crystal chandeliers and Canaletto originals in the Napoleon-era Crespi Palace where the show took place. Discordantly fitting, sneakers finished the looks. It was Dudas first menswear collection as creative director, and the Norwegian-American designer said he tried to be honest with what I know and what I dont know, sticking to clothes that he and his friends would like to wear. Dundas assignment at Cavalli, which he joined last year from Pucci, is to creatively evolve the fashion house through its planned global expansion, building on the brands jean and glam-rock roots. Menswear will be central to the expansion, CEO Renato Semerari said before the show, with plans to grow its contribution from less than 10 percent of revenues to 25 percent over the next five years. Among the projects on the horizon, Dundas said a mens fragrance will be coming out later in the year. I think the Cavalli vibe is unique and I think the Cavalli man is as well, Dundas said. There are a lot of things to feel very excited about. GARY | Proposed legislation to give Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson the ability to authorize charter schools is dead. State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, was the co-sponsor of the measure sponsored by Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville. Charlie Brown said the bill was designed to serve as a conversation piece to get communication flowing between the mayor, Gary school leaders and legislators. "There has been a big void for a while in communication between the school system to the legislators and from the school system to the mayor's office in regards to their status," he said. He said lawmakers don't know the "financial status" of the Gary Community Schools Corp. "The legislature holds the lifeblood of the school system in its hands, and yet there is limited communication. Most of the time, the only knowledge I have about the school system is what I read in the newspaper," Brown said. He said state Rep. Vernon Smith shares concerns about the Gary district. Brown said he wants to be more involved in what is going on with the school system, and there needs to be more communication. "Perhaps the Gary Superintendent (Cheryl Pruitt) thought it was enough to communicate with Sen. (Earline) Rogers (D-Gary) but it is not," Brown said. Rogers, who serves as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, has served in the Legislature for 38 years. She isn't seeking re-election after the end of this session. Brown said he met with Rep. Tim Brown and Freeman-Wilson to discuss the legislation Thursday. "I asked that the bill not be advanced, and during our conversation, Tim Brown said he would not move that legislation," Brown said. Freeman-Wilson said they talked about the need to focus on strengthening the Gary Community School Corp. and how any work in the legislature this session ought to be directed to that goal. "I am not interested in being able to authorize charter schools at this time," she said. "This was simply authority that would allow us to diversify education. ... It's just a matter of timing, and the timing is not right, right now." Pruitt said she is glad everyone will be able to come together and focus on improving the schools. "We will continue to meet and bring everyone to the table as we have been doing," she said. "If we have omitted anyone, we will try to reach out to everyone." Pruitt said she is "thankful" the legislation is dead. The mayor of Indianapolis is the only mayor in Indiana with the power to authorize charter schools. Kristin Hines, director of charter schools for the Indianapolis Mayors Office of Education Innovation, said they authorized 39 charter schools in Indianapolis serving about 13,000 students. In 2014, 65 percent of mayor-sponsored schools earned an A, B or C. The remainder had a D or F. INDIANAPOLIS A summertime suicide surge among military reservists almost certainly will bring an end to the nation's three-year streak of annual declines in service member suicides. Seventy troops in the reserve forces and National Guard, primarily the Army, took their own lives between July 1 and September 30, according to a U.S. Department of Defense report released this month. That's the highest number of reservist suicides in any quarter since the Pentagon began keeping detailed records in 2013, and just 21 fewer reservist suicides than the entire first half of 2015. Another 72 active-duty members of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy took their own lives during the summer, according to the report. That was one more active-duty suicide than the April-June period, and slightly above the average, since 2012, of 70 active-duty suicides each quarter. While service member suicide numbers for the final three months of 2015 still are being compiled, federal data show 363 active-duty and reserve troops took their own lives through the first nine months of the year. Since 2012, the United States never has never recorded fewer than 100 military suicides in a quarter, making it likely the 2015 total will surpass the 443 service member suicides tallied in 2014. It also will be the fourth year in a row that military suicides have exceeded combat deaths. U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who won approval in November for his plan to expand access to military mental health services, said the suicide statistics demonstrate the need to fully implement the new law as quickly as possible. "This report from the Pentagon is a stark reminder of the devastating losses to families and communities across our nation," Donnelly said. "There is still a great deal of work to be done to combat military suicide and bring these numbers down to zero." INDIANAPOLIS | The Republican-controlled Indiana House and Senate met briefly Thursday to give final approval to another batch of legislation that now goes to Republican Gov. Mike Pence for his signature or veto. Lawmakers dealt only with concurrences, which are votes to accept all changes to a proposal made by the opposite chamber. For example, if the Senate added a paragraph to legislation that originated in the House, a House concurrence on that change is needed to send the revised proposal to the governor, because the Indiana Constitution requires proposed laws pass both chambers in identical form. Next week, the final week the Legislature is permitted by law to meet for the year, the focus turns to conference committee reports. Those are crafted by a small group of representatives and senators, chosen by leadership, who meet to hammer out compromise legislation that typically blends elements of the separately approved House and Senate versions of a proposal. Both chambers must then approve the conference committee report for the compromise measure to go to the governor. Here are some of the legislative proposals that won final passage Thursday: Drug emergencies Senate Enrolled Act 227, sponsored by state Sen. Lonnie Randolph, D-East Chicago, and state Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, authorizes first responders to treat Hoosiers suffering drug overdoses with naloxone a so-called miracle drug that quickly neutralizes the effects of heroin and other opioids. Heroin overdoses killed 46 region residents last year. The legislation, which passed 40-0, also provides criminal immunity to underage drinkers if they call police to report any medical emergency, a crime or that they were a victim of sexual assault. The measure requires three state studies examining sexual violence against children. Tan ban Senate Enrolled Act 50, sponsored by state Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso; state Sen. Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake; state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond; state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary; Randolph and Lawson, prohibits children younger than 16 from using a tanning device at a tanning facility. Current law allows a child younger than 16 to tan if a parent is with the child at the tanning salon. Lawmakers said the measure is needed because an increasing number of studies show early tanning is more likely to lead to skin cancer later in life. Under the plan, children between ages 16 and 18 still could use a tanning device if a parent signs a permission slip at the tanning facility. It passed 26-12. Abortion Senate Enrolled Act 292, sponsored by state Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte, mandates the state health department keep a written record of the hospital admitting privileges for each doctor who performs abortions or shares his or her admitting privileges with an abortion clinic. The legislation, which passed 34-6, also permits the state health department to inspect abortion clinics annually, and requires women who have an abortion be more explicitly advised of an existing telephone service to report complications. CPR training House Enrolled Act 1290, sponsored by Dermody; state Rep. Shelli VanDenburgh, D-Crown Point; and state Sen. Jim Arnold, D-LaPorte, requires every public and private school to teach students cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use an automated external defibrillator as part of its health curriculum. It passed 86-6. Expungement House Enrolled Act 1155, which passed 74-19, clarifies the process for expunging a criminal record. It also prohibits a person from waiving his or her right to seek expungement as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. Olympic medals Senate Enrolled Act 161, sponsored by Charbonneau and state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Ogden Dunes, exempts from state income tax the value of an Olympic medal and any prize money paid by the U.S. Olympic Committee for winning an Olympic medal. The tax break, which passed 37-2, benefits one person Nick Goepper, 19, of Lawrenceburg, who won a bronze medal and $10,000 in ski slopestyle at the 2014 games. A 55-year-old man was being held in connection with a shooting Saturday morning on Chicago's South Side that left a Gary man dead, police said. Corey Ferguson, 32, who lived on Gary's West Side, died at a hospital after he was shot in the chest about 10:20 a.m. in the 11200 block of South Normal Avenue in Chicago's Roseland neighborhood, authorities said. Ferguson and the 55-year-old man were involved in a fight before the man pulled out a handgun and shot Ferguson in the chest, Chicago police said. Ferguson was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 11:16 a.m. Saturday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. Ferguson died from multiple gunshot wounds in a homicide, officials said. No charges had been filed as of Sunday night. Police said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. HAMMOND The temperature was 3 below with a wind chill of 21 below zero Monday when a group of about 40 gathered in the parking lot at Hammond City Hall for the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. March to the Civic Center. "It's important because it helps us to keep in the forefront those who made the sacrifice," said the Rev. Homer Cobb of Victory in Jesus Church in Hammond and president of the Hammond NAACP. "Ours is a few short blocks in the cold. Theirs was many miles and uncertain. We know we'll make it to the end of our journey." U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, said as he made the half-mile trek before sunrise that he never misses the annual event, no matter what the weather. "I think all of us want to show our respects to Dr. King's life and sacrifice," Visclosky said. "We all can be of service. It might be the Boys and Girls Club or Urban League. If we all served, the world would be a much better place." Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. told the crowd at the Civic Center he is always proud of the turn out on what has historically been a bitter cold day. "I want to thank people who woke up early and put on layer after layer and walked in (below zero) weather from City Hall," McDermott said. "This has to be one of the coldest walks we've ever had." McDermott said he is proud of Hammond's diversity and the diversity of those who attend the event. "We live in one of the most diverse cities in America," he said. Garrick Alexander of Hammond brought his son and six young cousins to the event at the Civic Center. He sat holding a framed photo of King waiting for the ceremonies to begin. "It's important for us to pay homage to a man who sacrificed his life," Alexander said. "I want to instill in the youth that even though they have a day off, you can never really have a day off. We have to make sacrifices every day to honor those who served and sacrificed before us." Herman Polk Sr., pastor of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and president of the Ministerial Alliance of Hammond & Vicinity, told the more than 200 people gathered at the Civic Center that his roots in Mississippi were on his mind. "I'm in a room where I don't have to worry about being lynched," Polk said. "If you grew up in a place like where I grew up, you had to worry about just walking down the street. "I am living the dream." The Lake County Sheriff's Department soon could become the first law enforcement agency in Lake County to carry a lifesaving drug that reverses the effects of heroin and other opioid overdoses. Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said he has informed his uniformed officers and medical team, and his department is looking into ordering naloxone kits. He said he plans to purchase kits for 100 officers at $75 each. Buncich said his staff is working to identify funding sources, including grant money, and he hopes to move forward by month's end. Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a drug that reverses the effects of heroin and opioid-derived prescription drugs such as Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet and morphine. It cannot help in overdoses involving benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs that includes Xanax, Porter County Coroner Chuck Harris said. Hospitals for years have used naloxone to treat overdoses, but an amendment to Indiana law in 2014 authorized first responders to administer the drug. Portage Police Chief Troy Williams was the first in the Region to equip some of his officers with naloxone kits in May 2014. Many of Porter County's authorities and other first responders began carrying the overdose antidote in late 2014, thanks to an initial $2,500 grant from the Porter County Community Foundation and continued support from Porter Regional Hospital and Fagen Pharmacy, officials said. Harris was part of a group that worked to equip most first responders in Porter County with the drug. "At no point anywhere in this process is it a burden on the taxpayers," he said. "It's working out beautifully." Training for first responders was provided on a volunteer basis, Harris said. 'A chance to get clean' The news that Lake County Sheriff's Department might start carrying naloxone comes amid a rise in heroin-related deaths in 2015 following a decrease a year earlier. Lake County recorded 43 heroin-related deaths as of Dec. 23 and could have ended 2015 with as many as 50, depending on results of several pending toxicology reports, Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said. Lake County saw 33 heroin-related deaths and 15 prescription drug deaths in 2014. In 2013, Frey's office recorded 50 heroin deaths and 10 prescription drug deaths. Lake County also had one Fentanyl-related death in 2013 and four in 2014. Harris said he has no doubt the use of naloxone by first responders in Porter County has significantly reduced the number of opioid-related deaths he records. Porter County had 27 opioid-related deaths in 2013 and 36 in 2014, including 16 heroin deaths in 2013 and 12 heroin deaths in 2014. Harris has recorded 23 opioid-related deaths, including 10 from heroin, in 2015, though the final number could increase because several toxicology reports remain pending, he said. Police and emergency medical services personnel in Porter County saved more than 30 people with naloxone last year, including two on Christmas Day, Sheriff Dave Reynolds said. Harris said if those people had not received naloxone when they did, the number of opioid-related deaths he recorded last year would have been that much more. "It gives people another chance to get clean," Harris said. Some might say it's not worth saving addicts, he said. "But if that's your son or daughter, it's a different story," he said. "You want to give them every chance possible." 'Every moment counts' There's no question the drug has been a valuable asset for first responders in Porter County, Reynolds said. He commended Buncich for the move. "This just reflects on how serious the problem is in Porter County and Lake County," he said. Reynolds said Porter County, Valparaiso and Portage police responded to 57 overdoses last year, 10 of which were heroin deaths. Officers are trained to investigate every overdose, and any information gathered is passed along to the sheriff's drug unit for further investigation. Frey said naloxone won't help in a majority of her office's heroin-related deaths, where people are found with no signs of life. But she's certain, she said, that many of those who can be taken to hospitals will survive if theyre treated sooner with naloxone. "Every moment counts when you're talking about a heroin overdose, because their respiratory system is suppressed, it's compromised," she said. "When you give naloxone, you have an immediate reversal of symptoms. They awaken and start breathing again." Frey said she's working with Lake Countys seven hospitals to determine how many people are treated for overdoses each year and survive. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter serves on Gov. Mike Pence's Task Force for Drug Enforcement, Treatment and Prevention, which has recommended the promotion of more widespread use of naloxone. Carter said he supports the use of naloxone not only by law enforcement, but also by others authorized under state law to use the drug. "Anyone who has a child or loved one or family member who's addicted to heroin should have that available to them," Carter said. Pence in October ordered state agencies to carry out three recommendations made by his task force. Besides promoting use of naloxone, the task force also recommended that Indiana seek flexibility to use existing federal Medicaid funds for drug treatment and study youth assistance programs. HAMMOND The family of a now-deceased man who alleged an East Chicago police officer used excessive force against him in 2012 has reached a settlement with the city, court records show. The case settled Sept. 28, and the estate of Martell Tillotson was in the process of setting up accounts for his minor children, according to a status report filed by attorney David Gladish. A stipulation of dismissal was filed Thursday. Tillotson sued Officer John Richmond and the city of East Chicago in July 2013, claiming Richmond violated his constitutional rights by using excessive force against him and falsely arresting him. The complaint did not include details about the incident. Tillotson, 31, of East Chicago, had many run-ins with the law over the years, court records show. He was gunned down Sept. 22, 2014, in the 4700 block of West Olcott Avenue. No one has been charged in his homicide. Gladish provided The Times with a video of the incident, which shows Richmond saying, "I will tune you up" and "I will jack your a-- up," followed by additional profanity. The video does not show what happened before the exchange, though Tillotson's companions say in the video that they had been there for about an hour and to stop talking back to the officer. East Chicago Police Chief Mark Becker said attorneys for the city ultimately decided to settle the lawsuit but that Richmond "did absolutely nothing wrong." "We found this to be a frivolous lawsuit," he said. "The plaintiff did his best to provoke our officer, and he was ultimately arrested." Becker said Tillotson and several others went to the police station Dec. 29, 2012, to retrieve a vehicle that had been impounded. One of Tillotson's friends took the video, he said. Police later reviewed the video with a city attorney and found no evidence that Richmond acted inappropriately, Becker said. Tillotson was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, but the charge was dismissed in April 2014, court records show. Gladish questioned whether an East Chicago police officer should threaten people or act as Richmond did. "Clearly, this was not a frivolous case and the officer needs to be disciplined for his conduct," Gladish said. "We do not want another situation like in Chicago where the chief turns a blind eye to police misconduct which later gets out of hand." Becker said while he didn't approve of Richmond's language, he decided not to discipline him after considering the totality of the situation. CROWN POINT Lake County's local income taxes will be 3 years old and no less controversial in 2016. The Indiana Department of Local Government Finance reports it will dole out $51 million this year for public safety and economic development among county government and Lake County's 19 cities and towns. Another $100 million is earmarked for property tax relief, although a sizable chunk of that will be find its way into local government coffers, too, under the Indiana's convoluted public finance system. "The public safety money is wonderful," Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said. He said it is used to buy new police cars and pay overtime to city officers for additional patrols. "Every penny is going toward reconstruction of Chicago Avenue," he added. East Chicago's share of income taxes helps balance City Hall's books, replacing the more volatile casino fees it once relied on. It pays police officers salaries, buys new fire trucks and police SUVs and will fund the construction of four new community centers, Jim Bennett, a city consultant said. Cedar Lake, Griffith and Schererville officials said they use the money to buy police communications and security gear, rehabilitate downtown business facades and update their communities' infrastructure. The income tax raised hackles in 2013 among county residents and workers who had to begin paying a new tax on 1.5 percent tax of their earnings. Lake County Commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Crown Point, an opponent of the income tax who is running for re-election this year, has called on the Lake County Council to reduce the tax rate, but the council hasn't responded. Councilman David Hamm, D-Hammond, said reducing the income tax would cause property taxes to rise. He and other tax supporters argue county adjusted gross income tax dollars reduce individual property tax bills last year by nearly 13 percent. However, landlords and merchants received 90 percent of the property tax relief and reductions and bills aren't reduced property tax dollar per income tax dollar. Now, the tax draws fire from officials who complain the taxes are inequitably distribute among local government units based on each unit's property tax levy rather than their population. Griffith Town Councilman Rick Ryfa said that system punishes municipal officials who have fought to reduce the property tax burden on their residents. Schererville Town Council President Michael Troxell said county government and its unincorporated population of about 44,000 receiving more than $18 million in CAGIT public safety and county economic development income tax funds. Schererville with a population of more than 29,000 receives less than $1.3 million. Troxell estimates Schererville residents and works pay about $5 million in income taxes. "We are only getting 25 percent of it coming back to it," Troxell said. Cedar Lake Town Council President Randall "Randy" Niemeyer said he understands there are only a limited number of distribution formulas under state law, but the county picked the one that most benefited them. He said the Indiana General Assembly should create a more fair system. Police on Monday identified a 44-year-old Lake County man as a person of interest in the strangulation deaths of a former local radio talk show host and her daughter in different buildings at their property in Calumet Township. The man, who had worked as a handyman for Velia "Val" Taneff, 86, and Lana Taneff, 63, was located near Montpelier, Ohio, after police tracked a 2003 Cadillac stolen from the Taneffs' residence to the area near the Indiana/Ohio border, Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said. The Taneffs were found strangled to death Sunday night, officials said at a Monday news conference. Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Michael Zirhr said he arrested the man about 11 p.m. Saturday on charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and driving under suspension after he found the man walking about a mile from the Cadillac, which ran out of gas along Interstate 80/90. Zirhr said he suspected the man, who slurred his speech and stumbled as he walked, was trying to hide that he had been driving. The Taneffs' Cadillac was impounded, and the man was booked into the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio in Stryker, Zirhr said. Lake County detectives headed to Ohio on Monday afternoon to question the man, who was being held on a "high bond" in the Ohio case, Buncich said. The Times is not identifying the man pending formal charges in the homicides. Man's relative reported him to police Authorities began investigating after one of the man's relatives contacted Crown Point police to report his wallet had been stolen, Buncich said. The relative suspected the man, who reportedly has a violent past, as responsible for the theft and said the man was working at the Taneff property, Buncich said. The relative went to Crown Point police after he was unable to contact Taneff, police said. Sheriff's police went to the Taneffs' property in the 2300 block of West 44th Avenue about 5:25 p.m. Sunday and found Lana Taneff's body on the basement stairs of the home she shared with her mother, Buncich said. She had ligature marks around her neck, and it was later determined she had died from strangulation and blunt force trauma, Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said. Police conducted a search of the property, and found Val Taneff's body in an upstairs bedroom at an adjacent apartment building, Buncich said. Val Taneff also had ligature marks on her neck and died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. A possible murder weapon was collected at the scene by the sheriff's Crime Scene Investigation Unit, Buncich said. "It was a very violent, gruesome scene," Buncich said. One of the Taneffs' relatives told police the Cadillac was missing from a garage and police used the vehicle's OnStar system to track it to northwestern Ohio, Buncich said. Buncich said the person of interest had several prior contacts with police, including violent offenses. Lake County court records show he was charged March 17, 2015, with felony sexual battery in a Crown Point case. The charge was dismissed three days later. The man was charged Jan. 25, 2015, with misdemeanor invasion of privacy in a Schererville case. That charge was dismissed June 9. He also faced misdemeanor public intoxication, misdemeanor disorderly conduct and resisting law enforcement charges last year in two separate Crown Point cases. He entered into a pretrial diversion agreement Dec. 15, court records show. Court records show the man lived in the 9400 block of Cleveland Street in Crown Point. Further details about his cases were not available Monday because courthouses were closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Buncich said a determination on whether either of the Taneffs was sexually assaulted is pending further autopsy results. Investigators were still trying to piece together a timeline, he said. 'The Real Deal with Val Taneff' A couple who rent an apartment in the building where Val Taneff's body was found said police came there around 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Gabriel Henderson and Tiffany Lewis said Val Taneff had been cleaning out items in the apartment where she was found after they were left behind by a recently evicted family. Police evidence tape was on the door of the apartment Monday afternoon. Henderson and Lewis, who have been living at the apartment building for about a month and a half, said Taneff was like "a grandmother" to them. "It's disgusting and heartbreaking and I don't know how somebody could do something like that," Lewis said. Val Taneff was well known in the Region. She was involved in Democratic politics for decades, primarily as a Calumet Township precinct committeewoman. She ran unsuccessfully in 1994 for Lake County commissioner and in 2002 for the Calumet Township board. She also hosted a political talk radio program called "The Real Deal with Val Taneff" on WLTH as recently as 2010. Verlie Suggs, WJOB radio host, was station manager at WLTH when Taneff worked there. "We were so very close, and this is very hard," Suggs said Monday. "Val called me twice on Saturday and left me voice messages, but we never connected." Recalling Taneff's radio show, "The Real Deal," Suggs said, "Val was an amazing woman. She was very feisty, very politically savvy and very opinionated and knowledgeable. Everybody loved her, unless they hated her unless they were catching the brunt of what she was saying." Suggs also spoke with Lana Taneff this weekend and described her as "an angel." "She was the sweetest person," she said. She said the younger Taneff had been fighting breast cancer for the past few years. 'A dedicated, hardworking person' Val Taneff, who was a first-generation U.S. citizen and daughter of Spanish immigrants, remained active even at 86, Suggs said. "She still mowed the lawn of her property," she said. "She still plowed snow. She was just amazing." The elder Taneff served on several Lake County government advisory boards from drainage and waste management to overseeing the county government-run Westwind Manor nursing home before it closed in 1993. Her husband, James, died the same year. Calumet Township Board member Clorius Lay served as attorney for one of the county boards Taneff served on and recalled her as "a dedicated, hardworking person especially on that board." "She would stake out her position and argue it," Lay recalled. Taneff sued former Calumet Township Trustee Mary Elgin in 2007 on grounds Elgin fired Taneff the previous year for supporting Gary City Councilman Kyle Allen to unseat Elgin in the 2006 township elections. The court dismissed her suit on grounds Taneff couldn't prove her allegation. Elgin's defense was that she had a policy against political activity during working hours and Taneff violated it. Taneff countered that Elgin and her administration in fact permitted political activity in support of Elgin's re-election. The U.S. attorney's office and a federal grand jury indicted Elgin in 2014 on conspiracy and fraud charges that Elgin used her employees and office resources to further her political career. Elgin pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial April 4. Allen said Taneff "had high expectations, but she was a fair woman, and she expected you to look out for the interests of the people." Friends said Lana Taneff was born with severe vision problems and was declared legally blind. She recently lost her job at a local bank and was seeking disability benefits at the time of her death. -- Times Staff Writers Keith Benman and Lauri Harvey Keagle contributed to this report. HEBRON Alex Shrum will be riding his bike this summer, a lot. He is participating in The Ability Experience's Journey of Hope bike ride from coast to coast in support of people with disabilities. Shrum is a junior at Purdue University studying biomedical engineering and is a member of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, a philanthropic group. "Our big thing is helping people with disabilities, so I heard that we will be participating in this Journey of Hope bike ride and I went for it," Shrum said. "We will be raising money and awareness for people with physical and mental disabilities." Shrum, of Hebron, will leave in June for the 10-week bike ride. There are three routes for the 4,000-mile ride. Shrum will begin in Seattle, Wash., and end in Washington, D.C. Of the 100 people on his ride, 10 are from Purdue. "Our frat at Purdue has a partnership with local high schools and we help kids there with disabilities," he said. "So I got involved with the kids and help them and I wanted to be part of this." Shrum is looking forward to the bike ride but his biggest concern is doing 100 miles in a day. "I've been training and am up to 60-some miles a day," Shrum said. Each rider has to raise $5,500, but Shrum has set his goal at $7,000. "All the money we raise goes to the people with disabilities," he said. Along the way, bike ride teams will stop in various places and visit organizations that support people with disabilities. The "friendship visits" are opportunities for the bicyclists to make new friends and see where the money will be going. Online donations for Shrum can be made at support.abilityexperience.org/goto/AlexanderShrum VALPARAISO | A ceremonial swearing-in of the city's leadership team for 2016 was held during last week's City Council meeting. Mayor Jon Costas welcomed his 14 city leaders, announcing he has never worked with a finer or more talented group of men and women. "These are the heroes," Costas said. "These and the people who work alongside them." Many of those on the city leadership team were there prior to Costas' arrival as mayor but he said it's similar to what it looked like when he took over 12 years ago. "We've been able to accomplish quite a bit over the last 12 years," he said. "I just marvel at the professionalism, the preparation, the deliberate, methodical get-it-done approach. It's really something to celebrate." Egregious is how Secretary of State John Kerry has described North Koreas reckless international provocations, including brutal executions of people who incur the wrath of leader Kim Jong-un. North Korea began the year by detonating a nuclear device Pyongyang describes as a hydrogen bomb. Apparently, that is an exaggeration, but the event nonetheless is ominous. Visiting Seoul, South Korea, last May, Kerry also emphasized a North Korea test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile was clear evidence of disinterest in joining the international community. He spoke at a joint press conference with South Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se, rightly underscoring the close long-established alliance between our two nations. In moving forward, Washington should be guided by two fundamental considerations. First, for years North Korea has been characterized by erratic, inconsistent behavior. Second, effective defense against nuclear missiles now becomes even more important. In 2013, North Korea announced a state of war with South Korea and threatened nuclear attack. Pyongyang abruptly abrogated the 1953 armistice agreement ending the Korean War, and cut the military hot line communications link with the south. North Korea also temporarily prevented South Korean workers from entering the Kaesong industrial center, six miles north of the DMZ. But there was no war, Kaesong was reopened, and Pyongyang made positive moves including reunion of previously separated families. The now well-established pattern of inconsistency may signal power struggles below Kim Jong-un. In May, Kerry also publicly mentioned the possible deployment in South Korea of the Lockheed-Martin Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system. In 2013, the Pentagon expanded anti-ballistic missile defenses on the U.S. West Coast. Simultaneously, THAAD was sent to Guam, a potential target. In 2009, THAAD was sent to Hawaii for the same reason. Along with South Korea, Kerry visited China for discussions with senior foreign policy counterparts. The talks were reportedly positive and avoided THAAD deployment, strongly opposed by Beijing. Opposition is understandable, but China should not be allowed a veto over essential national security needs of South Korea and the U.S. Publicly raising THAAD deployment again is prudent, as a deterrent to any temptation in Pyongyang to attack either South Korea or eventually the United States. Beyond deterrence, opportunities exist for further positive cooperation in Northeast Asia. These continue despite regular scare headlines regarding North Koreas extreme and threatening behavior, and Chinas military buildup and maritime provocations. South Koreas substantial investment in and trade with China grows, while North Korea remains a costly, dependent though fellow communist state. China President Xi Jinping visited Seoul soon after taking office. He has not visited North Korea. Chinas foreign policy reflects calculated self-interest, and a long history of caution regarding the use of military force. North Korea is an economic drain and a military source of worry. The Pacific region overall provides a promising context for positive international cooperation. The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations are successful so far, and reflect an expanding framework to facilitate steadily growing trade and investment across the vast region. South Korea President Park Geun-hye has remained calm and consistent in emphasizing strong military defense and also the possibilities for cooperation. She personifies South Korea as a formidable, effective and sensible U.S. ally. Kerry deserves credit for dedicated effort, disciplined negotiations and phenomenal energy, demonstrated not only in East Asia but also on a global basis. A final year in office can confirm outstanding leadership. Crossing the line separating Indiana and Illinois sometimes means dealing with different laws and customs. Readers are asked to share ideas for this weekly feature. This week: Martin Luther King Day. Illinois was the first state in the nation to designate the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as a state holiday. Shortly after King's 1968 assassination, state Rep. Harold Washington, D-Chicago, who later would serve four years as Chicago mayor, filed legislation creating the holiday. It became law in 1973. That same year, Indiana state Sen. Rudy Clay, D-Gary, proposed a state holiday honoring King. The measure never got a committee hearing in the Republican-controlled Senate. The holiday legislation was refiled in subsequent years by state Reps. Carolyn Mosby and Charlie Brown, both D-Gary, and regularly approved by the Indiana House. In 1986, Brown and state Rep. Hurley Goodall, D-Muncie, employed a clever legislative maneuver to finally win passage by the recalcitrant Senate. Martin Luther King Day also first was celebrated as a federal holiday in 1986 thanks in large part to work by U.S. Rep. Katie Hall, D-Gary. Mayor Bill de Blasio's deal to keep the horse carriage industry alive is getting mixed reviews. That's because the agreement may actually end up killing another business, as NY1's Michael Scotto reports. Even on a cold day, tourists flock to the edge of Central Park to take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage. "I thought it was absolutely fabulous," said one. Under a major deal struck by Mayor de Blasio and the union representing carriage drivers, those rides would continue, although the industry itself would be scaled back, removed from city streets and restricted to the greenspace of Central Park. The compromise marks the end of long political fight that started when candidate de Blasio vowed in 2013 to outlaw the industry altogether. "It's a lot of progress," de Blasio said. "It's real progress. It's not everything I wanted. I think I've been quite clear about that." Under the deal, 75 horses would be allowed in Central Park at one time, down from a recent high of 220. The horses would also be moved from their West Side home to stables that would be constructed in the middle of the park and would have room for 68 carriages. "The positives are we were meant to be banned and then we were meant to be driven electric cars," said Horse Carriage Owner and Operator Stephen Malone with Teamsters Local 533. "We have now secured 68 carriages long-term from people from all over the world will enjoy their carriage rides through Central Park" The industry, though, does have some concerns. They're worried about job losses and fear they'll no longer be able to pick up passengers along Central Park South. The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages says the cutback isn't enough. According to a statement issued by the coalition, it opposes the deal for many reasons including: "...the sensitive, nervous nature of the horses...and punishing working conditions." The pedicab industry is also livid. That's because the agreement would prohibit pedicabs from operating in Central Park below 85th Street. "This is largely the end of pedicabs in New York City," said pedicab operator Laramie Flick. "The northern part there's not that much to see and the hills are deadly for a physically powered vehicle." The deal needs to be approved by the City Council. LONDON From the age of 13 to 15, Akram Khan traveled the world as a performer in the director Peter Brooks nine-hour theatrical version of the Mahabharata. Its not much of a surprise then, that Mr. Khan, now 41, and well-known in his native Britain, has returned to the epic Sanskrit poem it contains more than 90,000 couplets and hundreds of stories and myths for a second time in his choreographic career. In his 2009 Gnosis, Mr. Khan drew upon the story of Gandhari, the wife of a sightless king who keeps herself blindfolded to share her husbands experience of the world. In his latest piece, Until the Lions, which opened at the Roundhouse here on Tuesday night, Mr. Khan takes a similarly specific approach. The new work, performed in the cavernous 360-degree surroundings of the former railroad-engine shed, was inspired by Karthika Nairs Until the Lions: Echoes From the Mahabharata, a verse retelling of some of the stories from the perspective of their female characters. Mr. Khan has chosen the story of Amba, a princess who is abducted during the ceremony in which she chooses a husband, separating her from Shalva, her true love. Her abductor, Prince Bheeshma, has nonetheless vowed lifelong celibacy he wants her for his brother and refuses to marry her when both his brother and Shalva refuse her. She dedicates her life to revenge, and eventually kills Bheeshma after killing herself and being reborn in male form as the warrior Shikhandi. Dear Diary: In April 1941, my mother won an Arthur Murray participation dance contest at the Roosevelt Hotel. She was given a letter stating that the prize was a dinner ($2.50) at the Roosevelt Grill. She never collected her gift, but held on to the letter and left it to me when she died, in 1999. My husband and I were in New York last month and stopped at the Roosevelt Hotel with the letter. We were greeted very enthusiastically by the concierge, the desk clerk and the general manager. The following night, we were treated to dinner at the Roosevelt Grill cocktails, wine, Champagne, appetizer, entree and dessert. All of the staff served us most graciously and when we finished dining, we were presented with a bill for $5.00! PASADENA, Calif. Tensions between Netflix and traditional television networks escalated this weekend after industry executives expressed mounting frustration over Netflixs refusal to disclose ratings. At a Television Critics Association event, NBC Universal introduced viewership figures last Wednesday provided by an outside firm that suggested several of Netflixs shows fall in line with broadcast and cable shows, implying that traditional television remains vibrant. On Saturday, John Landgraf, the chief executive of the cable network FX, picked up the theme, saying it was ridiculous that Netflix did not release viewership numbers. Netflixs chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, shot back on Sunday, saying the numbers provided by NBC were remarkably inaccurate and asking why NBC would spend time and energy to talk about our ratings. Maybe because its more fun than talking about NBC ratings, he said. The pitched back-and-forth occurred as ratings are falling for broadcast and cable networks while Netflixs offerings of original programs are growing. Mr. Sarandos said that the streaming service would spend $6 billion on content this year, and original scripted programming would be part of that budget. Scholastic Publishing said on Sunday that it would halt distribution of a childrens picture book about George Washington and his enslaved household cook amid an outcry over its visual depiction of the former presidents slaves as happy, smiling workers. The company had previously defended the book, A Birthday Cake for George Washington, by Ramin Ganeshram, from critics who said it presented young readers with an offensively sanitized version of the institution of slavery. It reversed its position on Sunday. We do not believe this title meets the standards of appropriate presentation of information to younger children, despite the positive intentions and beliefs of the author, editor and illustrator, it said in a statement. While defending the team that produced the book, the publisher said that without more historical background, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn. It was front-page news in The New York Times of Oct. 20, 1961, that Otto Preminger, the producer and director of Advise and Consent, had signed Dr. King for a role in the movie. He was to appear in the cliffhanger scene when the Senate votes on the controversial nomination of the conciliatory Robert Leffingwell (Henry Fonda), accused of having once belonged to a Communist cell, as secretary of state. Mr. Preminger would not say which way Senator King would vote on the Leffingwell matter. More than just a front-page story, the casting of Dr. King seemed to be a done deal. It is a short role, of course, and while I know people will think of it as a publicity gimmick, it is nothing of the sort, Mr. Preminger told A. H. Weiler of The Times, suggesting by his denial that it was everything of the sort. (He had previously cast Joseph N. Welch, Senator Joseph R. McCarthys foe in the Army-McCarthy hearings, as Judge Weaver in Anatomy of a Murder. Also a front-page story. Also definitely not a publicity gimmick.) It was something very strong, Ms. Rodriguez said of their mutual attraction. Eight months later, Ms. Rodriguez visited Mr. Herrera in the Dominican Republic. He decided to move to the United States to be with her. Mr. Herrera arrived in 2004, entering the country illegally through Mexico. The couple had two daughters, Robiersy, 9, and Ronalis, 3. Mr. Herreras immigration status made it difficult to find work, however. In 2011, Ms. Rodriguez became a United States citizen. I told him I wanted us to get married, so when I became a citizen, he could be here legally, she said. They got married in the Dominican Republic so that Mr. Herrera could legally return to New York as her spouse. However, the couple learned that because Mr. Herrera had been living in the United States illegally that he now had to apply for a pardon to be able to return. They are still waiting for a decision. For the last few years, Ms. Rodriguez has found herself overwhelmed by her parental duties. Its not easy having all the responsibility of the house, she said. Ms. Rodriguez works at a factory in New Jersey where she packages makeup. Her hours are inconsistent. Typically, she works three or four days a week, earning minimum wage. Her schedule led her to fall behind on the rent on the familys one-bedroom apartment in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. Life has been giving me too many beatings, Ms. Rodriguez said. It has to give me a massage. Despite the unsettled times, she said she is sustained by her faith and believes God guides her. It was just after 4 a.m. when an argument outside a hookah bar in Astoria, Queens, devolved into gunfire: Three shots were fired in the direction of Christopher King, a 23-year-old Long Island man in the city for a night out. The bullets missed him. Mr. King ran to his car where, prosecutors said, he grabbed his own unlicensed handgun and returned fire, fatally striking his assailant, Charles Williams, in a hail of at least nine bullets. The shootout on Steinway Street in September prompted a homicide investigation and was logged as a murder. Then it was removed from the books. When the Police Department counts the killings in 2015, a year when the official tally of murder in New York City was only slightly above its historic low, the preliminary figure of 350 homicides will not include the death of Mr. Williams, 26. His shooting was deemed justified by Queens prosecutors and was removed in late December from the official tally of city murders. The story of how the citys official murder number was reduced by one coincided with a bitter public feud between the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, and his predecessor, Raymond W. Kelly. Mr. Kelly accused the department of underreporting shootings and murders, but provided no examples of when it had done so. By taking aim at the state, Ms. Miner has added a chapter to her long-running clash with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a fellow Democrat, over his upstate economic policies, which rely heavily on state funds to create new factories, technology centers and other major projects designed to generate jobs. Once an ally, Ms. Miner has emerged as one of the governors most blunt critics. The question of whether the states largess can foster economic revitalization is a recurring issue in ailing upstate communities. This is not rocket science, said Richard L. Brodsky, a former state assemblyman who has long criticized the use of tax deals to promote private development. If the taxpayer is going to subsidize these projects, the taxpayer needs to see a return, and theyre not getting much back for their tax dollars. Theres a growing sense that you cannot subsidize your way into economic progress. Calls for reform have not gone unheeded: Last month, Mr. Cuomo signed legislation subjecting industrial development agencies to greater scrutiny. The agencies will be required to adopt a uniform contract that allows them to revoke tax incentives if projects do not produce the jobs that have been promised. From the states point of view, subsidies have translated into real economic progress. A spokesman for the governor said the unemployment rate had dropped to 4.7 percent statewide in November, its lowest level since November 2007, and that New York State had added 759,300 private jobs since Mr. Cuomo took office. In central New York, the region around Syracuse, unemployment has fallen from 8.3 percent before Mr. Cuomo took office to 4.9 percent in November, according to figures provided by the governors office. The region has added 9,300 private jobs in the same period. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts, the spokesman, Richard Azzopardi, said. Unemployment is down across upstate New York, and private sector jobs are up. In a jab at Syracuse officials, he added that the state had the highest standard for contracting with minority and female-owned businesses in the country much higher than the City of Syracuse, which also has no consistent policy for local hires on city projects. IT is no secret that Donald J. Trumps ruinous rise in the Republican presidential primaries has been powered, in large part, by a naked agenda of religious division and fear-mongering an agenda that will likely inform his speech today at Liberty University, a conservative Christian college in Lynchburg, Va. But while his anti-Muslim provocations have rightly drawn the largest share of public outrage, Mr. Trump has in fact been using his bully pulpit throughout this election season to attack religious minorities of all stripes. He deploys this tactic on the campaign trail whenever it suits his political purposes, and his religious digs and dog whistles are often so cartoonishly retro that they sound as if theyre being delivered by a billionaire Archie Bunker. In the Gospel According to Trump, there is only one blessedly normal, all-American faith: mainline Protestant Christianity. The Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists those believers who once made up this countrys midcentury religious mainstream are Mr. Trumps chosen ones. He regards their customs and values as essentially as American as apple pie, while all other faith communities, even other forms of Christianity, seem to rest somewhere on a spectrum from exotic to sinister. Take Mr. Trumps bizarre speech last month to the Republican Jewish Coalition, where he kept inexplicably returning to the same well-worn tropes that anti-Semites have been using for a century. Im a negotiator, like you folks, he proclaimed to the crowd. Later, he sought to signal defiant distance from the Republican establishment by informing them: Youre not going to support me because I dont want your money. To the Editor: Paid family leave is important, but, as you say, parents also need to balance work and family beyond the first few weeks of their childrens lives (Family Leave Gains Traction, but Workers Still Struggle, The Upshot, Jan. 7). We can help parents in the longer term by passing right to request laws, which allow employees to request part-time work, flexible hours and telecommuting. These laws also allow employers to refuse the request if they provide a bona fide business reason for doing so. This sort of law has been successful in Britain since 2002, with employers granting the vast majority of requests. More recently, similar laws have been passed in Vermont and San Francisco. In June 2014, President Obama issued an executive order giving federal government employees this right to request. In Berkeley, Calif., we put an advisory measure on the November 2014 ballot calling on the city to pass a right-to-request law, and over 78 percent voted yes an overwhelming victory. The city is currently developing the final language for this law. To the Editor: Judith Shulevitz (Its Payback Time for Women, Sunday Review, Jan. 10) provides a very interesting economic model for helping to reduce the gap between the haves and the have-nots a universal basic income. She estimates the price tag at about $3 trillion, roughly 80 percent of the total federal budget. How about test marketing her ideas in a couple of states? California is prosperous and diverse and could afford to implement the concept. With modest federal support the basic program could be implemented, and no doubt would be supported by the Silicon Valley elite that Ms. Shulevitz mentions. Another test could be conducted in Vermont a state that also favors social experimentation. That would give social scientists a large and a small state to look at and a chance to see if the underlying assumptions about work habits and financial offsets are reasonable. CHARLES H. GESSNER Marblehead, Mass. To the Editor: Judith Shulevitz gets it oh so right when she says its society thats getting a free ride on womens unrewarded contributions to the perpetuation of the human race and calls for something like reparations. The Treasury Department announced last week that it would start demanding the identities of the people behind the shell companies that rich foreigners use to buy real estate in Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. This is a good step that should help law enforcement agencies crack down on money laundering, tax evasion and other crimes. But the program should be broadened to cover the whole country, and it must be forcefully carried out. In recent years, oligarchs, corrupt politicians, business executives and suspected criminals have stashed billions of dollars of wealth in the United States by buying condominiums, mansions and other costly assets. As documented by The Times last year, these purchases are generally made through limited liability corporations that are not required to disclose their owners or beneficiaries. The secrecy is so complete that even law enforcement officials say they are often unable to identify the true owners. The crux of the problem is that states especially Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming have made it easy for people to set up shell companies without providing any personal information. While limited liability corporations have many legitimate purposes, there is no justification for allowing owners to shield their identities even from law enforcement and regulators. These states appear to be mainly motivated by a desire to earn corporation filing fees, legal costs and related revenue. Unfortunately, efforts by lawmakers like Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat of New York, to require greater disclosure have been thwarted by lobbying from the financial and real estate industries and state governments. That makes it even more important that the Treasury Department take stronger action than it has so far. Last week, we published an article about using the Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante as guidebooks to Naples. As I discovered during a visit in September, Ann Mah wrote, the series of books offered a unique view of this complicated city, leading me away from popular tourist sites and helping to explain the citys social, economic and geographic divisions. To view the Naples of Ms. Ferrante is to view Naples like a native. Here are some tips on how to navigate Ms. Ferrantes Naples. (A note for those who havent read the novels, including the latest, The Story of the Lost Child: spoilers ahead.) The working-class neighborhood where Elena and Lila grow up is most likely the Rione Luzzatti, bordered by the Via Emanuele Gianturco and the tracks that lead to Napoli Centrale, the central train station. Its not easily reached by public transportation, and has a reputation for crime. The stradone the main road frequently mentioned in My Brilliant Friend is possibly the Via Taddeo da Sessa. MARION, Ala. When Patricia Church, a 41-year-old warehouse worker, felt sick recently, she suspected that she had a cold. But she also feared something more deadly that has been going around this small, impoverished city: tuberculosis. I feel like I had been around someone that had it, and I might die from it if I dont find out whether I got it or not and get it treated, Ms. Church said after she learned last week that she did not have the disease. I was nervous. I was real nervous. Marion is in the throes of a tuberculosis outbreak so severe that it has posted an incidence rate about 100 times greater than the states and worse than in many developing countries. Residents, local officials and medical experts said the struggle against the outbreak could be traced to generations of limited health care access, endemic poverty and mistrust problems that are common across the rural South. Theres not a culture of care-seeking behavior unless youre really sick, said Dr. R. Allen Perkins, a former president of the Alabama Rural Health Association. Theres not support for local medical care, so when something like this happens, you have a health delivery system thats unprepared. Along Mississippis coast, where a growing number of children in need of care has overwhelmed available resources, social workers sometimes recommend leaving children in abusive situations to keep them from flooding the system, officials said. Officials also reported that in 2011, three years after the settlement was in effect, overwhelmed social workers destroyed evidence of abuse by shredding photographed documentation so they would not have to deal with more cases. In Marion County, in southern Mississippi, three children monitored by the state but not put in custody have died since June 2014. In each instance, someone had reported problems in the household, but social workers did not look into them. In the first case, a social worker decided not to investigate the bruising of a 2-year-old girl who was crying hysterically in a hospital and kicking, punching and screaming to keep from being examined. Less than three weeks later, the toddler died from severe head trauma. After the states acknowledgment of accountability for the systems failures, the head of the Division of Family and Childrens Services resigned last summer. Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, made the directorship a cabinet-level position in December and brought in Justice Chandler to head it. Mississippi also hired an agency to analyze its system and make recommendations, which included increasing social workers salaries and restructuring the agency. Justice Chandler said he would seek an increase of $34.5 million in the agencys budget. The Legislature, which would need to approve such an increase, went into session Jan. 5. I would not waste my time asking them if I thought they were going to arbitrarily deny us, he said. In the last legislative session, the Bryant administration requested an increase of about $12 million in funding, explicitly citing the need for settlement compliance. The Legislature came up with about $3 million. According to a court-ordered report, Mississippi in 2012 spent less on child welfare per foster child than every state but Nevada. Salaries are so low some family workers can earn as little as $23,643 a year that they qualify for public assistance. Brehm Bell, a former youth court judge in Hancock County on the gulf coast, said he had stepped down after serving for more than three years because of the systems inability to address failures. I was afraid a child would die on my watch, he said. State Representative Herb Frierson, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said that the Legislature wanted to satisfy the court, but that budgets were already tight and a steep revenue shortfall was expected this year. WASHINGTON For a year, Obama administration officials had been meeting in secret with Iranian counterparts, seeking to free Americans imprisoned in the Islamic republic. Finally last fall, a deal for a prisoner release seemed all but sealed. But the Iranians arrived at the latest clandestine session in a Geneva hotel suite with a whole new proposal that insisted on the release of dozens of Iranians held in American prisons, essentially returning to initial demands that had long since been rejected. The Americans were flabbergasted. Weve already talked about this, said Brett McGurk, the lead negotiator. But the Iranians were adamant, according to American officials informed about the meeting. Something back home had changed, part of the continuing battle inside Iran over how to deal with the United States. Someone in power in Tehran, it seemed, did not want a deal after all. And so Mr. McGurk and his team picked up their papers and walked out, putting an abrupt end to the meeting. Mr. McGurks interlocutors had come from Irans state security apparatus, a group that had barely, if ever, met Americans, much less negotiated with them. They did not have the well-traveled, English-speaking demeanor of the two senior Iranians who had been negotiating the larger nuclear deal with the United States for more than two years. The competition to claim Mr. Obamas political mantle was the dominant theme of the night, given that the Democratic race has become so close in Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr. Obama remains widely popular among party members, particularly in the state that Mrs. Clinton now needs to win more than ever: South Carolina, which votes on Feb. 27. Should she lose the first two nominating contests, Mrs. Clinton and her team believe she can regain political momentum in the South Carolina primary, in part because of her strong support among African-Americans there. Mrs. Clinton repeatedly reiterated her support for Mr. Obamas agenda, while Mr. Sanders tried to present himself as the bolder choice to build on Mr. Obamas legacy. But she stymied him at times: When Mr. Sanders criticized Mrs. Clinton for accepting more than $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, she used the moment to portray Mr. Sanders as opposed to Mr. Obama on the issue of Wall Street regulation. The third candidate in the Democratic race, former Gov. Martin OMalley of Maryland, who is far behind in most polls, showed some new life at the debate as he reminded the audience that Mrs. Clinton had evoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks previously to explain her Wall Street donations when she was a senator representing New York. Now you bring up President Obama here in South Carolina in defense of the fact of your cozy relationship with Wall Street, Mr. OMalley said. If Mrs. Clinton was trying to make Mr. Sanders look less than qualified for the presidency, Mr. Sanders repeatedly tried to address doubts about his electability, which a new Clinton television advertisement has questioned. At one point, he rattled off some of his strong poll numbers, not unlike the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump. When this campaign began, she was 50 points ahead of me, he said. We were all of three percentage points. Guess what? In Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. That is one of the greatest accomplishments of President Obama, of the Democratic Party, and of our country. The health law, she said, could be improved. But to tear it up and start over again, pushing our country back into that kind of a contentious debate, I think is the wrong direction, she said. That prompted Mr. Sanders to cry that no one is tearing this up. But Mrs. Clinton sounded the refrain: To propose an expansive new health care plan would be to jeopardize the Affordable Care Act. She even used a term for that legislation now more often heard as a pejorative from Republicans than in such a glowing context: Obamacare. The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people, she said, drawing a loud ovation. But Mrs. Clintons praise for Mr. Obamas health law one of the biggest areas of contention in her own primary versus the president in 2008 was subtle compared with how she invoked Mr. Obama when questioned about her ties to Wall Street. Mrs. Clinton used Mr. Sanderss attack on her for taking speaking fees and contributions from banks to drive a wedge between Mr. Sanders and Mr. Obama, perhaps more aggressively than at any point in the campaign. The comments that Senator Sanders has made that dont just affect me, I can take that, but hes criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street, and President Obama has led our country out of the Great Recession, she said. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing. He even, in 2011, publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas has surged to the Republican lead in Iowa polls despite pledging to end federal rules that require corn-derived ethanol and other biofuels to be mixed with gasoline. Mr. Cruz and Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, have both proposed phasing out subsidies to sugar companies, which have contributed close to $1 million in the 2016 campaign and are a major employer in Florida. In New Hampshire, where the most important campaign issue seems to be how often candidates show up, the leading contender, Donald J. Trump, has spent far less time there than other Republicans. It used to be that you had to be right on all these local issues or you wouldnt pass the smell test in a state, said Scott W. Reed, who managed Bob Doles 1996 presidential campaign and is now a senior strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But now you have seven out of 10 voters thinking their country is headed in the wrong direction, and these national concerns are overwhelming the parochial issues. One factor, some Republicans said, is the rising importance of the debates. Surveys by TargetPoint, a market research firm with Republican clients, indicated that voters have reacted far more powerfully to candidates debate performances than to their political ads, said Alexander Gage, TargetPoints chief executive. We provided real-time analysis of the fourth Democratic debate and live fact checks. Hillary Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Gov. Martin OMalley of Maryland gathered Sunday night in Charleston, S.C., for the last Democratic presidential debate before voting begins on Feb. 1 in Iowa. The highlights: The candidates began with a common formula: Honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the eve of his holiday and then pivot. Mrs. Clinton paid respect to Dr. King for putting her on a path for service, then pivoted to income equality and the system that hurt hard-working Americans. Mr. Sanders, seemingly with a new haircut, made sure to say we honor Dr. King before pivoting to taking on the millionaires and billionaires. And Mr. OMalley went with the magic of a shared calendar date: I was born the year Dr. King delivered his I Have a Dream speech, he said. Mr. Sanders called Mrs. Clintons accusations that he is soft on gun control very disingenuous and tried to play up the perceived weakness of his being from a traditionally gun-supporting state by saying I believe I am in an excellent position to make the case for gun control measures as a result. Mrs. Clinton was in full attack mode against Mr. Sanders on gun control. He has voted with the N.R.A., with the gun lobby numerous times, she said. He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted for immunity from gun makers and sellers, which the N.R.A. said was the most important piece of gun legislation in 20 years. Mr. OMalley, eager to remain relevant, sought a more emotional appeal, lamenting the exchange of Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders over gun control, adding, This is very personal to me, being from Baltimore. I was living in a city by myself again, she said in an interview, and that is sort of a strange circumstance to move to be with your spouse but then, like, not be with your spouse. But Mrs. Cruz has seldom discussed the full toll of that transition and, in particular, the night of Aug. 22, 2005, when the Austin police fielded a call about a woman in a pink shirt with her head in her hands, sitting near an expressway. When an officer approached, Mrs. Cruz explained that she had walked out after dinner. As she sat 10 feet from traffic, the officer determined that she was a danger to herself, according to a heavily redacted police report first obtained by BuzzFeed News. Additional details from another version of the report obtained by The Times showed that the officer transported her to the unnamed facility. In the interview last week, Mrs. Cruz declined to elaborate on what happened that night and said there had been no similar incidents since. She refrained from using the word depression, although in his book, A Time for Truth, Mr. Cruz wrote that her move to Texas had led to her facing a period of depression. I dont have years and years of major suffering from this, she said, and I want to use it to strengthen people around me and to recognize that we all have rough patches. Mrs. Cruz described seeking comfort in her faith and the company of those close to her, particularly a sister-in-law. KABUL, Afghanistan Hajji Ramazan has built a modest empire from used clothes. His shop, which has seen its fortunes wax and wane with those of Kabul, was started by his father 40 years ago in Chindawul market, one of the oldest in the city. Vendors in the narrow alleyway of several dozen shops sell everything from coal for heating to televisions to jalebi, spiral fritters soaked in syrup. The market was going through a relatively quiet period recently after the bustle of late autumn, when bales of imported used winter clothing childrens sweaters, womens jackets and mens overcoats were stacked high in the shops. On a cold afternoon, day laborers crouched against a wall in the sunlight, chatting while sipping tea. Their carts were parked neatly in a row as snow-covered mountains glistened in the distance. The shop owners kept themselves busy by sorting clothes in front of their stores or on the rooftops, or by cooking lunch and cleaning their dishes afterward. They settled accounts with partners on the phone and planned ahead for spring, when new items would arrive. Several customers carried bales on carts, or backed up rented trucks to load their purchases. Mr. Guis whereabouts was unknown for three months, though many suspected he had been taken to mainland China. On Sunday, Chinas state-owned television broadcaster aired a 10-minute segment alleging that in December 2003, Mr. Gui was driving drunk and struck and killed a young woman in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo. According to a report Sunday in the official Xinhua news agency, Mr. Gui was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2004, and in November of that year left the country while still on probation. Mr. Gui, 51, is at least the second Swedish citizen to be taken into Chinese custody in recent months. This month, a Swedish legal aid worker, Peter Jesper Dahlin, was detained on accusations of endangering state security. Mr. Dahlin trained and supported legal activists in China who used the countrys legal system to counter human rights abuses. He may now face a less serious charge of funding criminal activities, according to a report on Saturday by Swedish Radio. In his televised confession, Mr. Gui told Swedish officials that he voluntarily went into Chinese custody. Mr. Gui, who studied poetry at Peking University, became a Swedish citizen in 1996, according to Xinhua. I do not want any individual or organization, including Sweden, to involve themselves in, or interfere with, my return to China, Mr. Gui said in the televised report. Although I have Swedish citizenship, I truly feel that I am still Chinese my roots are in China. So I hope Sweden can respect my personal choice, respect my rights and privacy of my personal choice and allow me to resolve my own problems. LONDON Stirring a divisive internal debate over defense, Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britains opposition Labour Party, suggested on Sunday that he might support the continued existence of the countrys Trident submarine fleet if it were sent on patrol without carrying nuclear warheads. Mr. Corbyn, who was elected as the partys leader last year, is trying to shift Labour leftward on a range of economic issues, such as opposition to inequality and government spending cuts, but defense has become central to his efforts to reshape the party. As a lifelong opponent of nuclear weapons, Mr. Corbyn has opposed Labours support for the Trident submarine system, and last year he said that, if elected prime minister, he could never order the use of such weapons. While many of the party members who elected him their leader back that stance, Mr. Corbyn faces fierce opposition from some Labour lawmakers, and tensions have surfaced ahead of a parliamentary vote, likely in the spring, on the Conservative governments plan to renew the Trident program. BAGHDAD The American Embassy is working with the Iraqi authorities to locate three American citizens who have gone missing in the capital, an embassy spokesman said late Sunday. Their disappearance raised fears that Westerners were once again becoming targets for the myriad militias and criminal gangs that are known to kidnap foreigners for money or for political reasons. The spokesman for the embassy in Baghdad read from a statement issued by John Kirby, a State Department spokesman in Washington: We are aware of reports that American citizens are missing in Iraq. The safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority. We are working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals. Due to privacy considerations, I have nothing further. In the years after the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, kidnappings of Americans and other Westerners were common, but the practice had largely stopped in recent years. Often, Shiite militias backed by Iran were the culprits, and two recent high-profile kidnappings in Iraq are widely believed to be the work of militias with ties to Iran. Last year, 17 Turkish construction workers were kidnapped in Baghdad and later released. And in mid-December, at least 26 Qataris, reportedly including members of the Qatari royal family, were abducted by militants while hunting rare birds in the southern desert of Iraq. They are still being held. SANA, Yemen For Almigdad Mojalli, a Yemeni journalist covering the civil war in his country, the trip early Sunday to the site of a deadly airstrike was another episode in what had long since become a painful routine. Reporting on the war for the better part of a year, Mr. Mojalli, 35, documented countless scenes of trauma and destruction, even as the conflict was largely ignored by the outside world. His articles, on homes demolished by airstrikes or hospitals deprived of medicine, were published in American and British media. He viewed the reporting as humanitarian work, his brother, Abdullah Mojalli, said. On Sunday, while on assignment for Voice of America, Mr. Mojalli traveled with colleagues outside the capital, Sana, to find witnesses to airstrikes that had killed at least 15 civilians last week. But when they arrived, warplanes with the Saudi-led military coalition began circling overhead, according to Abdulbari al-Sumaei, Mr. Mojallis driver. A bomb landed near Mr. Mojalli, spraying shrapnel into his stomach, neck and face, Mr. Sumaei said. After wrapping his wounds with a scarf, Mr. Mojallis colleagues tried to get him medical attention, passing poorly stocked clinics that were unable to treat him, until they finally reached a hospital back in Sana. It may not be the most sophisticated sociology, but Planet Primetime, a new show on the Travel Channel, at least raises the energy level in what can be a sleepy genre. The series, which begins on Tuesday night with two episodes, looks at various countries through the filter of some of their most popular television shows, with Karla Cavalli as effervescent host and occasional guinea pig. Ms. Cavalli adopts the hands-on approach, not just giving us glimpses of what people in the countries she visits are watching, but also sometimes participating in the shows. In the premiere, which takes her to Japan, that gets her humiliated in a pantyhose tug of war, among other things. (The pantyhose goes on the head.) In Mexico, in the second episode, she dresses up in an ape suit for one program and is body-slammed in another. This is a ridiculously simplified and sometimes stereotypical view of the rest of the world, of course. The Japanese, she concludes, enjoy off-the-wall variety shows and abusive game shows as a reaction to a regimented society. Mexicans like telenovelas and the colorful form of professional wrestling known as lucha libre because theyre festive and feisty. It would be as if a foreigner came to the United States and made generalizations about the whole country based on Lip Sync Battle and Sex Sent Me to the ER. That said, Ms. Cavalli is an enthusiastic guide, and her travels occasionally produce insights into Americas image abroad. In Mexico she watches as a show punishes Ann Coulter for some remarks deemed insulting to that country by taping a photograph of her onto the face of a donkey-shaped pinata and then beating it to pieces. LONDON The British bank Barclays has completed the sale of a controlling stake in its trust business to an independent investor group led by the Nielsen and Sarikhani families for an undisclosed amount. Barclays will retain a 19.9 percent stake for a minimum of three years in the business, which has been renamed Zedra. The sale, which has been completed after regulatory approval, came after Barclays Wealth and Investment Management said in June that it intended to sell the trust business following an internal strategic review. It signals the latest effort by Barclays to withdraw from underperforming businesses and to focus on what it says are its core operations. LONDON National Australia Bank said on Monday that its British unit, Clydesdale Bank, could be valued at as much as 2.07 billion pounds, or about $3 billion, in an initial public offering next month as part of a spinoff. In a news release, National Australia Bank said that it expected to price Clydesdales stock at 175 pence to 235 pence a share in an offering of up to about 219.8 million shares. Clydesdale was expected to list up to 25 percent of its shares in the offering, with the remainder being distributed to National Australia Bank shareholders as part of the spinoff. The company operates under the Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank brands in Britain and is one of Britains largest midsize banks. PARIS The declared mission of the World Economic Forum, which begins on Wednesday, is improving the state of the world. But the perennial question is whether sequestering a few thousand of the global elite in the Alpine ski resort of Davos, Switzerland, can really achieve that lofty goal. Tensions reminiscent of the Cold War keep flaring with Russia and in the Middle East not to mention over the Korean Peninsula. Europe is struggling to cope with a refugee crisis that risks fracturing the European Union, even as the bloc tries to counter a rising security threat from the Islamic State. Britain may vote this year on whether to leave the European Union altogether. And Chinas growth slowdown could prompt the second global financial crisis within a decade. Given those strains, the official Davos theme this time Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution may sound oddly out of tune, and the various panels on the topic could prove to be little more than sideshows. Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forums founder and one of the best-connected men on the planet, is nonetheless using the forums website to urge the cadre of bankers, politicians, tech executives and trend makers to ponder the fusion of technologies across the physical, digital and biological worlds, which is creating entirely new capabilities and dramatic impacts on political, social and economic systems. The invitation was sent. And then, two weeks later, revoked. The World Economic Forum, which on Wednesday begins its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, brings together political and business leaders to discuss the worlds most pressing problems. In years past, Vladimir V. Putin has attended. So has Bill Gates. This year, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will attend. And so it wasnt a complete surprise to see that the foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Su-Yong, had accepted an invitation to attend the meeting in the Swiss Alps. But in early January, after North Koreas fourth nuclear test, which was broadly condemned, the World Economic Forum revoked Mr. Ris invitation. North Korea said the forum had unilaterally canceled the participation of its delegation based on unjust political motivation, which clearly runs counter to the nature and position of WEF as an international forum for discussion of economic issues. The World Economic Forum, through one of its board members, Philipp Rosler, explained its decision. We decided after the nuclear test that at the moment there would be no opportunity for an international, global dialogue in the spirit of the World Economic Forum, he said. Just 62 people own as much wealth as the 3.5 billion people in the bottom half of the worlds income scale, the charity Oxfam reported on Monday in its annual study of inequality, which found that the gap between rich and poor has continued to widen at an alarming rate. As recently as five years ago, the fortunes of 388 billionaires were needed to reach that halfway mark. The study released before the worlds business and government elite gather at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week noted that a global network of tax havens contributed to the divide by allowing the rich to hide trillions of dollars in assets from their countries governments. Tax havens are at the core of a global system that allows large corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying their fair share, said Raymond C. Offenheiser, president of Oxfam America, depriving governments, rich and poor, of the resources they need to provide vital public services and tackle rising inequality. Oxfam said publicly available data on some 200 companies about half of them described by the World Economic Forum as its strategic partners showed that nine out of 10 had a presence in at least one tax haven, including the Cayman Islands and Switzerland itself. PARIS Declaring the French economy to be in a state of emergency, President Francois Hollande announced on Monday a 2 billion euro plan to subsidize job creation and temporarily move half a million unemployed people off the welfare rolls, as record unemployment threatens his bid for re-election next year. Critics immediately seized on the measure as having more political than economic meaning. And they questioned whether the new steps, a package worth about $2.2 billion, would have any more measurable impact than previous stimulus plans Mr. Hollande has announced in his yearslong effort to revive France. Despite being the second-largest eurozone economy after Germany, it has struggled to bounce back from the slowdown that befell much of Europe after the global financial crisis of 2008. Mr. Hollande has vowed repeatedly not to run for a second presidential term unless there is a downturn in unemployment, which has risen to an 18-year high of 10.6 percent, from around 9.7 percent since he came to power in 2012. The economy recently began to emerge from three years of stagnation, but it has failed to create enough jobs to reduce the pool of 3.5 million people seeking work. Youth unemployment in France, at 25.7 percent, is among the highest in Europe, adding to social precariousness in the marginalized banlieues suburban enclaves heavily populated by Muslim residents. The company name When I created MB&F, everyone said, Thats the lamest name ever for a watch brand. You cant call it & Friends. But I wanted to put back the human being into the equation. Our world is filled today with technocrats, not people who love watches. They market their products through celebrities when the real celebrities are the watchmakers, engineers and artisans who created it. So we were trying to give them back the recognition they deserved. Were the only ones in the watch industry who give credit to all those who transform the sketch into reality. Rich times vs. lean times You want your children to have a better life than you, but its the tough part of your life that makes you the person you are. When I was at Harry Winston I made a lot of money. I would go to five-star hotels and lose my taste for everything. It had become normal. When I set up my company, I would go out with my girlfriend for pizza once a month. That pizza was better than the three-star Michelin restaurant. I used to buy suits without paying attention. Suddenly I would buy only one sweater a year. Such an important sweater. His role I have three caps. I am a timepiece creator. I am a M.A.D. Gallery curator. And now, I create mechanical art for other artisans who have a gift, but are struggling. I help re-energize them. Work-life balance In Dubai, I work 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. when my daughter goes to nursery. From 3 p.m. until my daughter goes to sleep at 8 p.m., we are a family. We are always together. His creative process I sketch it and then work with Eric Giroud, the designer. He transforms it into a 3-D computer design. We go through five to 20 3-D prints. Then we go see the engineers and watchmakers and say, O.K., this is the concept, now lets create a movement. From design to first piece it takes three to four years. Its an incredibly complex process. Why Europe continues to be MB&Fs smallest market Europeans are my most conservative clients. Its very difficult to take them out of their comfort zone. And they are massacred by taxes, so very few can spend on high-end products generally. For Mayor Bill de Blasio, it was a bare-knuckle political fight, complete with arm-twisting appeals to lawmakers and labor negotiations lasting late into the night. By Monday morning, City Hall had a deal although not for more affordable housing, higher wages or any of this liberal mayors top priorities. This one was about the horses. Two years after he embraced the polarizing cause of ending the Midtown horse-carriage trade, a request of some of his most generous campaign supporters, Mr. de Blasio is set to reduce the size of the industry and confine its horses to Central Park. The agreement, which must be approved by the City Council, ensures that Mr. de Blasios legacy does not include eliminating a Victorian-era institution still broadly popular with the public. But the easing of one mayoral headache could be the start of many more, as parks advocates, carriage drivers and even some animal-rights supporters expressed concerns. Ahab had Moby Dick, Sisyphus his rock, the Roeblings the Brooklyn Bridge. For Jan Peterson and her neighbors in northern Brooklyn, their ceaseless struggle has been the Greenpoint Hospital. From 1914 to 1982, the hospital was an anchor in the community. Ever since it closed, it has been a drag, offering promise and dashed hopes in equal measure. Now, the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio is preparing to revive plans for the hospital site as part of his goal to build or maintain 200,000 units of affordable housing in New York over the next decade. The city has advanced and abandoned so many plans for the five-acre site off Morgan and Maspeth Avenues since the place closed more than three decades ago that Ms. Peterson, the founder of the civic group Neighborhood Women, has lost count. This is either the fourth or fifth request for proposals, she said last week at a kitchen table at her groups headquarters, a red brick house down Manhattan Avenue from an Italian bakery. SINGAPORE The attack that killed four civilians and four terrorists in central Jakarta last Thursday may be a harbinger of more violence to come. It certainly suggests that ISIS, which claimed responsibility, has already transformed the terrorism threat in Indonesia, after years of mostly foiled plots. Indonesia, the country with the worlds largest Muslim population, has a tiny jihadist movement relative to its size. Many factors have kept radicalism in check: a stable, democratic government, little internal conflict, peaceful neighbors and tolerance for advocates of Islamic law. It also has an effective counterterrorism police unit, set up after the 2002 Bali bombings. The Bali bombings, which killed more than 200 people, marked the high point of terrorist capacity in Indonesia. The bombers were from Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), trained on the Afghan-Pakistani border and funded by Al Qaeda. Although those attacks were carried out in the name of the global jihad, most JI members like many other local extremist groups were focused on avenging the deaths of Muslims in Christian-Muslim fighting in two areas of eastern Indonesia, Maluku and Poso. The groups involved in that struggle in the late 1990s and early 2000s laid the basis for the extensive network of jihadist cells that exists in Indonesia today. With the arrests that followed the Bali attacks and the end of local wars, the jihadist movement weakened and fragmented. But it did not disappear. By the mid-2000s, JI decided violence was largely counterproductive and redirected its efforts toward rebuilding its membership through religious outreach and education. Other extremist groups, some of them splinters from JI, remained committed to jihad, but they lacked JIs training regimen, indoctrination process and discipline. From 2010 until last week, out of dozens of attempted bomb attacks in Indonesia, not one bomb worked as intended, and three suicide attacks killed only the attackers themselves. Some people cannot stand good news. It troubles their fixed view of the world. These would include Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican presidential candidate, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who were cast into a huff by the confirmed reversal of Irans nuclear program and its release of several Americans, including Jason Rezaian of The Washington Post. Try a smile, guys. Toughness is no more than empty aggression when it will not admit to misjudgment. Diplomacy delivers. Rezaian is coming home after a year and a half of groundless imprisonment. An American pastor and a former Marine will be reunited with their families. Iran had more than 19,000 first-generation centrifuges installed; that number is now 6,104. Its advanced centrifuges have been slashed from over 1,000 to zero. Its low-enriched uranium stockpile has been cut to 660 pounds from over 19,000. The plutonium route to a bomb has been cut off. Iran is subject to what President Obama called the most comprehensive, intrusive inspection regime ever negotiated to monitor a nuclear program. The countrys break-out time the period needed to rush for a bomb has been extended to a year from two to three months. Hackathons have become a popular way of enlisting enthusiastic programmers to produce software in bursts of a few hours to a few days. The museum put out a challenge looking for help as a way to volunteer, said Christina Wallace, one of the hackathon organizers. Its a pro bono challenge. Winners received one-year memberships to the museum and three-dimensional printed busts of Theodore Roosevelt. More importantly, theyll get bragging rights for the next 12 months, Ms. Wallace said. Hack the Dinos was the museums second hackathon. A year earlier, the challenge was Hack the Universe, to crunch through astronomy data. The museums paleontologists brainstormed for months about digital tools that they wished existed. Automating skull analysis was one item on the wish list. Others included modernizing the venerable field notebook to the age of smartphones and converting cladograms the family trees that show the evolutionary relationships among species to digital formats. (Nowadays, paleontologists produce digital files that are easily shared and compared, but there are many more from earlier years that exist only on paper.) The paleontologists also hoped to ease the workload of Carl Mehling, the museum staff member who replies when someone sends in a photograph with the question, Is this a fossil? 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Trump, (R) Presidential Candidate: We want to take our country back. Our country is disappearing. You look at the kind of deals we make, you look at whats happening. Our country is going in the wrong direction, and so wrong, and its got to be stopped, and its got to be stopped fast. We cant go another four years. I know that maybe Hillary will be here, and if she is, you can play this back. We cant have another four years of Barack Obama. We cant have another four years of Hillary Clinton. (applause) ++BLACK++ 3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Donald Trump, (R) Presidential Candidate: Iran is taking over the Middle East. We have totally destabilized the Middle East, and I said this in 2004, we have totally destabilized the Middle East. Its a disaster. And you look at this new Iran deal which took forever to get done. You look at how bad it is and how one-sided it is, you look at how one-sided this deal is. And yesterday I heard were getting our hostages back. See people call them prisoners, some people call them hostages, I dont care. So were getting them back. And then I heard well wait a minute, were paying a big price. They getting seven back,were getting actually four. They say five but the other one they cant find. Hes in Iran. I tell you what, thats another thing were going to be looking into. And were getting four back, theyre getting seven, theyre getting 14 off the Interpol watch list. These are real bad customers. Theyre getting all sorts of advantages, including free market oil. Theyre getting unbelievable advantages. Theyre going to be an immensely wealthy country - and a wealthy terror country - and theyre getting 150 billion dollars. So when our sailors were captured last week I said thats one of the saddest things Ive seen when those young people were on their hands and knees, in a begging position with their hands up and thugs behind them with guns and then we talk like its ok. Its not ok. Its lack of respect. We cant let that happen to this country. Its lack of respect and were not going to let it happen to this country. Were going to be strong, were going to be vigilant, were going to have powerful borders and strong border. And look just what happened this morning - I dont know for any of you whove been reading the news or seeing the news - three people have just been kidnapped in Iraq because they see what the heck we pay 150 billion dollars for four people, three people just this morning, and this is going to take place all over. They should have come back as part of the deal three years ago when they started talking about the deal, not now, not now. Laurence H. Tribe, the Harvard law professor and constitutional scholar, believes the natural born provision has outlived its original intent considering that the redcoats are no longer coming. How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause. Learn more about our process. The worry that George III might come over and exert undue Germanic or British influence is no longer a threat, said Mr. Tribe, referring to a motivating fear of the founding fathers. There is no defense now for retaining the clause in the Constitution. It really needs to be removed. Before Mr. Cruz, Mr. McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone, had to navigate the issue. Some have raised questions about Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican and presidential candidate who was born in the United States to two Cuban immigrants who were not yet citizens. And Mr. Obama still endures questions about his citizenship despite his confirmed origins in Hawaii. But a resolution is no easy task. A constitutional amendment could be the most certain route. Simply excising the phrase natural born in a bit of constitutional copy-editing would mean that a person elected president would have to be a citizen of at least 35 years of age who has been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years an approach that could open the presidency to naturalized citizens. But changing the Constitution is purposefully complicated and requires overwhelming backing from Congress and state legislatures. Even well-intentioned tampering can open the door to much more explosive proposals. It is easy to imagine people would have many alternative ideas for defining the qualifications to be president once that ball got rolling. Mr. Tribe paints a theoretical scenario where the quickest answer could be provided in a legal case. Say Mr. Cruz becomes the Republican nominee, yet is denied a spot on the ballot in a state with a meaningful number of electoral votes. As the injured party, Mr. Cruz would certainly have motivation to sue as well as standing, a threshold often difficult to meet in such cases. And the courts would have incentive to act quickly before a crisis, hopefully resulting in a definitive ruling that would settle the issue. Perhaps the matter will never come to a head. But it is also not difficult to envision a case in which the result of the presidential election ends up in a nasty legal fight and the Supreme Court is called on to sort it out. That is not a spectacle many Americans or members of the Supreme Court want to see again. WASHINGTON In an effort to defuse the controversy over the brief capture of 10 Navy sailors last week, the Defense Department on Monday released a timeline of events surrounding the seizure, but the account was spare on new details and left several fundamental questions unanswered. The timeline did not explain why the crews of two patrol boats which the military said were supposed to remain in international waterways deviated from their course and strayed into Iranian territorial waters. Nor did it explain why they allowed Iranian sailors to board their boats, or why the boats communications equipment apparently failed, cutting them off from their superiors. Senior Pentagon officials said the timeline contained limited new information because the Navy was reviewing the actions of the sailors, who could face stiff judicial and administrative punishment for the episode. The Navy does not want to prejudice the outcome of that inquiry by offering too many details, the officials said. The capture was highly embarrassing for the Navy. It came just hours before President Obamas last State of the Union address and while American and Iranian diplomats were in the final stages of negotiating a prisoner swap. The Iranian government was also taking its last measures to comply with the nuclear deal, which allowed economic sanctions against the country to be lifted on Saturday. BURNS, Ore. One of the largest wood mills in the West once belched its steam on the edge of town, sawing ponderosa pine. Out in the woods, tree fallers like Tex Ward were proud and prosperous. Mr. Ward, 54, a lifelong resident who has lost his job twice and has filed for bankruptcy once, said that was not the case anymore. He now works for the state as a prison guard, a job he said he hated. On a recent frosty morning, before heading off for his shift, he and his wife, Shelly, fed the 30 head of cattle that are the closest thing the Wards have to a retirement fund. You do what you have to do to stay alive, Mr. Ward said. But Im sour as hell. Police officers were shot to death on Sunday in Ohio and Utah, the first killings of law enforcement officers in the line of duty this year. Officer Thomas Cottrell, a policeman in Danville, Ohio, and Officer Doug Barney, an 18-year veteran of law enforcement in the Salt Lake City area, were the first on-duty fatalities, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a nonprofit that tracks police deaths. Officer Cottrell was found dead late Sunday, about 20 minutes after a woman told a police dispatcher that her ex-boyfriend was armed and looking to kill a police officer, the authorities said. When Officer Cottrells body was found, both his service weapon and police car were missing, officials said. Image Officer Tom Cottrell Credit... Danville Police Department The ex-boyfriend, Herschel Ray Jones, 32, was taken into custody early Monday, Sheriff David Shaffer of Knox County said in a statement, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Jones is being held in the jail in nearby Morrow County. The states Bureau of Criminal Investigation is assisting local officials in their investigation, a spokesman for the attorney general said. BEIJING The recent arrests of Chinese lawyers and their associates on subversion charges drew sharp condemnation from presidents of foreign bar associations, prominent lawyers and former judges in a letter issued on Monday. They said the charges were part of an unprecedented crackdown on Chinese advocates who take up contentious human rights cases. You have repeatedly stated that China is a country ruled by law, reads the public letter, which is addressed to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. Yet the events just described appear entirely contrary to those commitments. The criticism was in response to a burst of Chinese police notices to families last week revealing the formal arrest of at least 10 lawyers, legal aides and activists accused of subversion of state power or the slightly lighter charge of inciting subversion. Gao Yue, an assistant to Li Heping a civil rights lawyer who is still missing, apparently in custody was arrested on charges of helping to destroy evidence. The 20 signatories of the letter included David J. Scheffer, a former United States ambassador at large for war crimes issues; Robert Badinter, a former French minister of justice; Jean-Jacques Uettwiller, the president of the International Association of Lawyers; and Baroness Helena Kennedy, chairwoman of the British legal and human rights group Justice. An announcement by the Supreme Peoples Procuratorate, which plays the role of prosecutor in the Chinese legal system, was the first time that any officials have been charged in the disaster on Dec. 20 that killed at least 69 people and left eight missing. On Jan. 9, charges were brought against 16 people who owned or helped operate the landfill. Late last month, a former official whose district-level office had overseen approvals for the dump site jumped to his death. It was unclear whether there had been any misconduct linking him to the disaster. BEIJING The election of Tsai Ing-wen as president of Taiwan was met in China on Monday with sparse and largely critical comment, suggesting both a lack of interest toward a candidate whose partys nativist leanings many ordinary Chinese do not understand and censorship in the news media and online forums about an outcome that the Communist Party had not wished to see. Many commenters lashed out at the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party, for losing the election. Chinas ruling party prefers the Kuomintang to Ms. Tsais Democratic Progressive Party because the latter is supported by many Taiwanese who favor independence. China has said it might retake Taiwan by force if the island embarks on formal steps toward independence. The Kuomintang was founded in 1912 under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, about a decade before the Communist Party, giving it a certain seniority in hierarchical and age-conscious Chinese culture, and it has enjoyed growing popularity in China in recent decades. But the Communists won Chinas civil war in 1949, forcing the Kuomintang to flee to Taiwan. The Kuomintang really are a bunch of losers. The Democratic Progressive Party dares to shout Taiwan independence, why dont you shout unification?! Wavering to left and right, like grass blowing around on the top of a wall! You really need to think about things!!!! wrote one person in response to an article about the partys defeat on Sina.com, Chinas biggest news portal. The comment garnered more than 1,200 approvals. NEW DELHI The authorities in the Maldives on Monday allowed the opposition leader and former president Muhammad Nasheed, who has been in prison for 11 months, to travel to Britain for an operation. Mr. Nasheed was released on the condition that he sign a document agreeing to return to the Maldives to serve the rest of his 13-year sentence on terrorism charges. All prisoners who have traveled abroad have signed such documents as required by Maldivian law, Dunya Maumoon, the countrys foreign minister, said in a written statement. This rule has been in existence before Mr. Nasheed came into office, and has not been introduced in an ad hoc manner. One of Mr. Nasheeds lawyers, Jared Genser, said via Twitter that he was relieved that the government, under intense pressure, allowed Mr. Nasheed to travel, but reality in Maldives is the same. BRUSSELS As president of the European Council the group representing the European Unions often-clashing 28 leaders Donald Tusk is forever promoting a balance between national sovereignty on one hand and common values and goals on the other. On Monday, his challenge was especially personal. Mr. Tusk is a former prime minister of Poland and a former leader of the center-right Civic Platform party, which was voted out of power last year and replaced by the right-wing Law and Justice party. Visiting him in Brussels was President Andrzej Duda of Poland, who was there to discuss issues that included a European Commission investigation begun last week into whether Mr. Dudas new government in Warsaw poses a threat to free expression and an independent judiciary. Speaking at a news conference with Mr. Duda, Mr. Tusk tried to find middle ground. He suggested that the commission, the European Unions executive agency in Brussels, may have been too quick to begin the investigation in the wake of a controversy over moves by the Polish government to pack the judiciary with its appointees and take control of the state broadcasting system. He reassured Mr. Duda that there was no conspiracy against Warsaw by officials in Brussels. He said some of the criticism of Poland had been overdone, and that Standard & Poors, the ratings agency, had miscalculated in downgrading the countrys long-term foreign currency credit rating. The bad narrative about Poland had gone too far, he said. BAGHDAD Three Americans who have been missing in Iraq since Friday were probably kidnapped from a Baghdad apartment, according to security officials and local news reports. The apartment may have been the home of an Iraqi colleague who is also believed to have been abducted, the officials and reports said. News of the Americans disappearance emerged late Sunday, but officials said they were probably taken two days earlier in Dora, a sprawling neighborhood in the southern part of the capital that has a mixed population of Sunni and Shiite Muslims as well as some Christians. The area was once a haven for Al Qaeda in Iraq, the predecessor of the Islamic State, the militant group that controls territory in northern and western Iraq. But these days, parts of the neighborhood are under the sway of powerful Shiite militias with ties to Iran. American and Iraqi officials were scrambling on Monday to find the missing Americans. Officials said no group had come forward to take responsibility for abducting them. Kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs are common in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, but so are politically motivated abductions. Residents of Dora and Iraqi officials said security forces began looking for the missing Americans on Saturday morning, going door to door and searching homes in some areas. 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WASHINGTON POST EXECUTIVE EDITOR, MARTIN BARON, SAYING: Both of us had the ability to talk with Jason last night. He sounded in very high spirits, very encouraged, wanted to see his brother who has been working tirelessly on his behalf, wants to see us, his colleagues, his professional colleagues and really craves human contact. He seemed ok. // 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) WASHINGTON POST EXECUTIVE EDITOR, MARTIN BARON, SAYING: He has been in a prison for 545 days under terrible conditions and he has obviously suffered physically and we dont what else he has gone through, so there is a protocol that has to be followed for people that have gone through circumstances like that and we want to make sure that he is in good health and we are judging by a single telephone call. // 13. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROTHER TO RELEASED PRISONER JASON REZAIAN, ALI REZAIAN, SAYING: You know, its been 18 months since I talked to him so it was really great. Jason is in good spirits, he obviously is concerned, so we have to make sure that he works hard to get better. But he is also the same guy. He is not too depressed, seriously in a good state of mind. // 15. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROTHER TO RELEASED PRISONER JASON REZAIAN, ALI REZAIAN, SAYING: You know, so the folks here still have a process they go through. The first thing is to make sure that they are physically and psychologically doing well and then they start the treatment. So Jason came in like 15 hours ago, he has been talking with doctors and psychiatrists, and they will determine what the next steps are, what the best thing for him is so that he can be successful in transitioning back. // 17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROTHER TO RELEASED PRISONER JASON REZAIAN, ALI REZAIAN, SAYING: For 18 months he was held nearly in solitary confinement, with one person in the room with him. So it is really going to be a process to get back to spending time with people but also understanding what is really going on in the world. You know, he saw Iranian TV, Iranian news organisation. That is all the information that he had, so he didnt really know what was going on in the world. So he is really looking forward to catching up with the news, understanding what is going on. // 19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BROTHER TO RELEASED PRISONER JASON REZAIAN, ALI REZAIAN, SAYING: You know, you have got three guys here that really didnt do anything wrong. They have been stuck in prison in Iran, some of them for years. I am thankful for the government, the U.S. government, all the work that they have done, the support that they have given to get Jason and the other folks on their way home now. BEIRUT, Lebanon Islamic State militants captured ground from Syrian government forces near the eastern city of Deir al-Zour on Monday, a group monitoring the war said, pressing a three-day assault, which state news media say has killed 300 people. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there was still no word on the fate of over 400 people it reported kidnapped when the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, began to attack government-held areas of the city on Saturday. State news media have made no mention of the abductions. Deir al-Zour is the main city in a province of the same name. The province links the Islamic States de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory controlled by the militant group in neighboring Iraq. Since March, the Islamic State, which controls most of Deir al-Zour Province, has laid siege to remaining government-held areas in the city of Deir al-Zour. TEKOA, West Bank In a charity store packed with used clothing on the edge of Tekoa, a Jewish settlement in the beige hills of the southern West Bank, Michal Froman, 30 and pregnant, was shopping on Monday when a Palestinian teenager walked in. He hesitantly picked up a piece of clothing and asked the price. Ms. Froman asked if she could help him, but he suddenly pulled out a knife, stabbing and wounding her, according to a local resident who arrived seconds later. The attack took place as a funeral convoy was making its way to Jerusalem for the burial of Dafna Meir, 38, a mother of six who was fatally stabbed on Sunday at the entrance to her home in Otniel, a settlement to the south. The attacks in Tekoa and Otniel suggest a shift in the recent surge of violence, during which Palestinians have attacked Israeli soldiers, police officers and civilians, usually using knives, cars and guns as weapons. Most of the previous attacks took place on the streets of Jerusalem, in cities around Israel, or along roads and at military checkpoints in the occupied West Bank. Now, it appears that Jewish settlements in the West Bank are also targets. The bright aseptic room smelled of Pine-Sol and bleach and overripe Camembert. A white-bearded man lay on a stainless-steel examination table, his face angled toward the skylight and the cold, cloudless morning. An investigator read from his clipboard: 61-year-old white male discharged from a Detroit hospital last night was found at home, shirtless, in a wheelchair, a .38-caliber handgun in his right hand. On his chest was a burn that appeared to be an exact match of the guns barrel. Carl Schmidt, the medical examiner, wiped the contact wound with a wet sponge. If were lucky, it exited, he said. Two technicians hefted the body onto its side. And . . . lets look at the other side. The skin was mottled where the blood had begun to settle, but his back had no open wounds. Were going to have to extract the bullet. Schmidt paused. Next. He had seven more bodies to inspect. By his account, it had been a typical night. Schmidt and his team a pathology fellow, a medical student and three autopsy technicians moved over to examine two pedestrian fatalities struck down when a vehicle jumped a curb. Schmidt felt around their skulls for fractures. Another man with a history of cardiovascular disease had been found at the bottom of a stairwell; and an elderly woman, her body bag marked decomp, had lain alone for several days, undiscovered. The most perplexing case was a 27-year-old woman who was found dead in a city park with a USB phone-charging cable tied around her arm, the victim of an overdose. She was out shooting drugs in a park on a Saturday night with a frost warning? Schmidt asked, a roundabout way of suggesting she might have overdosed before being dumped outside. Though she was unidentified, she had one thing in common with the other bodies: The exact time of death was unknown and practically unknowable. House prices in New Zealand and Australia are likely to slow down or decline in 2016 due to low affordability, exposure to US rate hikes and prudential regulations, according to global ratings agency Fitch Ratings. Fitch forecasts the pace of house-price growth to experience a sharp slow-down in the two countries, The pace of house-price growth should decelerate particularly sharply in Australia and New Zealand this year, to 4% in New Zealand and to 2% in Australia. Although the report says a supply shortage will continue to drive growth in Auckland, it will be offset by recent restrictions on low-deposit lending by the central bank and rising unaffordability for owner occupiers. In Australia, this is down from an average of 8% annual growth in 2013-2015 across the eight capital cities, according to CoreLogic RP data. But Fitchs outlook for housing and mortgages is stable despite the slowdown in house-price growth. Low mortgage rates and steady mortgage performance should support markets in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand was also described as the most expensive country in the world to buy property in Fitchs global housing and mortgage outlook report for 2016 and rates New Zealand's houses as the priciest compared to incomes. According to QV Valuations, overall the nationwide average showed residential property values increased 14.2% or $69,472 during 2015 from $488,674 in December 2014 to $558,146 in December 2015. Home values in the Auckland region increased 22.5% or $171,406 from $761,858 at December 2014 to $933,264 at December 2015. They are now 70.8% higher than the previous peak of 2007. QV National Spokesperson Andrea Rush says, Massive increases in Auckland home values during the first nine months of 2015, at a rate not seen since the early 1990s, led the Government and the Reserve Bank to announce mid-year that they would introduce measures to curb Auckland investors. These huge hikes in home values and pending restrictions on investors saw many look to move or invest outside of the Auckland region for more affordable homes or better rental yields during 2015. This resulted in an increase in activity and demand in previously slow housing markets in upper and central North Island centres including Hamilton, Tauranga, the Waikato District, Hawkes Bay, Whangarei and Rotorua. Following the introduction of the new measures in October and November, the rate of growth in the Auckland market slowed, while values in many other centres including Wellington and Dunedin saw significant value increases in the three months of the year, says Rush. OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso In the wake of a weekend attack that killed at least 29 people, security was beefed up across Burkina Fasos capital Monday as businesses and banks reopened. The West African nation also announced a joint effort with neighboring Mali in the fight against Islamic extremists in the West African region. Please go ahead and search my bag. We want to be protected and there is no way to refuse this, said Fati Doussa, to security guards as he visited a bank to get some cash. Metal detectors have been placed at banks. We know it is just going to be different from now on, said Ousmane Sawadogo, a cell-phone seller some 200 meters (218 yards) from the Splendid Hotel which was attacked Friday night. The attack was the first of its kind in Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country that had managed to avoid the kinds of jihadi attacks that have hit neighboring Mali since 2012. At the site Monday, forensic experts and investigators from France and Burkina Faso, dressed in white, filled the brown dusty street, gathering evidence in secured areas near the hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe. Military forces ended the siege Saturday. Burkina Fasos security minister, Simon Compaore, said Sunday 32 people were dead, including three jihadis. French Ambassador Gilles Thibault said Monday that about 30 people were dead in addition to the three attackers who were killed by French forces. Thirty others were still hospitalized, and about 180 had been freed by French and Burkina Faso forces during and after the siege, he said. We were awaiting an attack like this one, he said. Its impossible to say if these types of operations will be limited to just this one. Officials Saturday said forces killed three attackers in the Splendid Hotel and another in a neighboring hotel. Military spokesman Capt. Guy Herve Ye on Monday said, however, that they have clearly identified three attackers and are investigating what they thought was a fourth. He said that many witnesses said that there were women among the attackers, though he says that is probably because the attackers had long dreadlocks. Two former Olympic officials, Jean-Noel Rey from Switzerland and Jean-Pascal Kinda from Burkina Faso, were killed, Swiss and Burkina Faso authorities said. It was not clear if they had been together during the attack or if their presence was a coincidence. Kinda, 73, was a former Olympic Committee president who had gone to the Cappuccino Cafe to pick up a paper, said his friend and a local magistrate Mathias Tankoano. Rey was co-president of the Swiss bidding committee for the 2006 Olympics, Swiss media reports said. He was in Burkina Faso for a charity project to open the canteen of a school, the reports said. The toll also includes a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the Cappuccino Cafe, along with her 9-year-old son, according to Ukrainian and Italian officials, and six Canadians, according to Canada officials. The six were traveling together as part of a humanitarian mission, and four them were from the same family. The list of those killed include eight citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the U.S., the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb put out a formal statement Sunday naming three of the attackers as men, according to SITE Intelligence Group which monitors extremist sites. It said it was a drop in the sea of global jihad. The group on Friday claimed responsibility for the attack saying al-Mourabitoun fighters carried out the siege. Al-Mourabitoun joined AQIM last year and they claimed their first joint attack was the Nov. 20 seizure of the Radisson Blu in Mali that killed 20 people. Benins President Thomas Boni Yayi visited Ouagadougou Monday to show support and the backing of the Economic Community of West African States. What could have led to such hatred? It is unimaginable. I am so dejected. We must prepare ourselves for an adequate response, he said near the site of the attack. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said regional forces must combine to fight extremism. We need to combine our intelligence and military to better fight terrorism, notably at our borders. This does not only concern West Africa. We are in an asymmetric war. We need to train our armed forces for this type of combat, Kabore said Monday. From now on we are going to take all measures to prevent such things from happening again. Burkina Faso and Malis prime ministers met Sunday and agreed to share intelligence, strengthen transnational cooperation and have join patrols along shared borders, they said. LANDSTUHL, Germany Three U.S. Congressmen traveled Monday to the medical center in Germany where three Americans, released by Iran as part of a prisoner swap, are being treated. Former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived late Sunday at the U.S. militarys Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Rezaian, who was freed Saturday after almost 18 months of incarceration in an Iranian prison, met with Washington Post editors on Monday for the first time since his release, the Post reported. I want people to know that physically Im feeling good, said Rezaian, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and blue jeans provided to him on board the plane that flew the released prisoners to freedom. I know people are eager to hear from me, but I want to process this for some time. Post Executive Editor Martin Baron and Foreign Editor Douglas Jehl said Rezaian looked good during their two-hour meeting in a conference room at the Landstuhl medical center near the Ramstein Air Base, according to the Post. Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan posted photos of his meeting with Hekmati on Twitter, as well as a message from Hekmati thanking President Barack Obama for making my freedom and reunion with my family possible. Kildee told reporters before meeting the men that this is an incredible facility. The center offers the entire spectrum of services that might be required for somebody, particularly my constituent (Hekmati), he said. Think about a person who spent four-and-a-half years much of it in solitary confinement, Kildee said. Re-entering into the world as a free person will take more than just a deep breath. It will take a little bit of help, and that starts here. Kildee said the three men would return to the U.S. as soon as possible. I have travelled with the Hekmati family. They are anxious to see him, but they are really anxious to get him home to his mother and to his father, who is quite ill, he said. North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger said the release of the three men, as well as a fourth who stayed in Iran, had come at a heavy price. They were exchanged for pardons or charges dropped against seven Iranians held by the United States. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately. We need to be prudent as we look forward and how we can better protect Americans without committing ourselves in ways that will cause greater threat to their security, Pittenger said. Rep. Jared Huffman, from California, expressed thanks to the U.S. State Department for negotiating the mens release. On Jan. 1, new mayors took over in most south Orange County cities. The mayors, who serve one-year terms, are chosen by their fellow City Council members. Here, new South County mayors tell The Orange County Register about their goals for their city, for the region and for their tenures. Editors note: Some answers have been edited for clarity and/or length. ALISO VIEJO Name: Mike Munzing Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. Public safety is paramount for our residents, and weve been lucky to be among the safest cities in the county. Im going to do anything I can do to help (residents) when they have needs, providing them the latest and greatest equipment to keep them safe. The future of Aliso Viejo Ranch is an important issue. Id like to see us bring back that beautiful historical aspect of what that land means to the community and possibly partner with others to bring a broader historical education program to the property. Weve got 400 new apartments and a new hotel coming to the city, so Im excited to see whos coming. Its going to be great watching new people have an opportunity to move into the area and enjoy places like Town Center for the first time. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County as a region? A. Its important for all of us to communicate well, especially regarding state legislation that can affect local control. Ive enjoyed getting to know my fellow mayors and sharing knowledge. There are several veterans, but many of us are first-time mayors. So far, weve been really good at collaborating, meeting and helping each other as best we can. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. I believe I made my mark on the city in my first three years on the council, influencing the outlook and makeup of the council. Now Ive got an opportunity as mayor to have us all shine. Its not about me as mayor. Its about the five of us doing a great job for the city. LAGUNA NIGUEL Name: Laurie Davies Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. We finished tier one of our Crown Valley Park refurbishment project in 2015, and were going to start working on tier two in July. Well be creating a new bridge, a lighted parking lot, a new entry monument with an electronic marquee, trails and landscaping. We should be done in about a year. The AGORA Arts District and Downtown Laguna Niguel project is one of the most exciting things happening in Laguna Niguel. Environmental analysis of the project should begin this month, and it will most likely take six to eight months to complete before coming back to the council for approval. This is something this community has lacked a central place for families and kids to come and spend time. Well also be continuing our street rehabilitation program. I think Laguna Niguel has some of best streets in Orange County, so Id like to continue working on those. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. As representatives on local, regional and state boards, we mayors and other city leaders need to make sure to fight to retain local control. We need to fight and we need other representatives to fight for us before decisions get to the city council level. We want to make sure to keep our costs down, which will show up in our residents taxes. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. Having an informed city is my priority this year. For myself and City Manager Rod Foster, its imperative to having great communication with our city staff, so we met with each staff member and talked with them about whatever tools they may need to make their job performance even better. Ill (also) be holding a series of informal meetups with residents, with the first 7:30-9 a.m. Jan. 26 at Mimis Cafe, so we can talk about whats going on in the city and so I can listen to their ideas to make this city even better. LAKE FOREST Name: Andrew Hamilton Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. Although the greatest percentage of residents and businesses did not identify a concern in our most recent 2014 satisfaction survey, the largest communicated issue was traffic congestion. In 2015, the City Council formed an ad hoc traffic committee, which will provide recommendations in 2016, and we hope to begin implementing recommendations shortly thereafter. Another issue facing the city is that we lease our City Hall for approximately $1 million each year. Using previously obtained land, the city anticipates breaking ground in 2016 on a new civic and senior center without incurring any debt. Lastly, as we currently provide cost-effective and high-quality city services to residents and business, future cost increases due to costly state mandates and vendor cost increases always seem to threaten our annual balanced budget. As a CPA, I plan to help find creative solutions to maintain high service levels while limiting future cost increases. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. Although unfunded pension liabilities and traffic are strong contenders, I believe the largest issue facing south Orange County is our tenuous water supply reliability. As South County was not blessed with an underlying aquifer to store water, we are heavily reliant on imported state water from outdated, 60-year-old water infrastructure of dirt levees and insufficient reservoir capacity. Offset by valiant regional efforts, South County cannot solve this issue by reducing our water consumption. We need statewide leadership to provide more reliable conveyance systems along with increased groundwater and reservoir storage. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. I want to encourage Lake Forest to become a city of kindness based on Anaheims model. Working together to improve our city, acts of kindness will unite neighbors to strengthen our community. Lastly, I want to lead in helping our residents and businesses obtain their estimated $6million of unclaimed property, funds that have gone missing from uncashed checks, dormant bank accounts, lost utility deposits, etc. I want to publicize these funds using an interactive map on our city website and hold outreach events to reunite Lake Forest residents and businesses with their own money. LAGUNA HILLS Name: Barbara Kogerman Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. The first is the Laguna Hills mall renovation. We used to be the premier mall and the talk of the town; now it has kind of deteriorated. Our retail tax revenue has recovered since the recession, but there is just so much more to be had to provide services to the city. Second is animal care. After 20 years of (the county) dragging (its) feet over the (current) 70-year old shelter, we started looking for other alternatives like Mission Viejo. Rancho Santa Margarita and our city still have a good chance of going with a better service animal shelter. I dont want to take a chance on the county saying were going to make these changes since theyve had since the 40s to make those changes. (Editors note: Dissatisfaction with the quality of service and the condition of the OC Animal Care shelter has prompted Laguna Hills to explore other options for animal services.) The current issue with the Philips-Mazda property in the Alicia Gateway area. There is a lot of opportunity to make improvements there. It is sad-looking, and the commercial areas are in need of refreshing. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. Housing is a regional issue; the average new construction of housing is pushing $1 million. The population is aging and the number of young children and number of people per household is decreasing. Our kids are finishing high school and they are moving on and theyre not coming back because they cant afford to live here. Its not just Laguna Hills; it is all of Orange County. We have about a 60,000-person shortage of houses versus jobs in Orange County. I think employers are already saying, I am not going to build in Orange County when my employees cant afford to live out here. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. When appointed, Kogerman said her goals were to start a city Planning Commission, and to start an initiative called Put a Roof on It that aims to reduce parking issues while benefiting charities that support veterans. LAGUNA WOODS Name: Noel Hatch Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. The top three issues we face are maintaining our financial strength, expanding our commercial sector and maintaining our public safety. With the general plan, we want to strengthen the citys commercial sector and encourage businesses to open in our community. The city is in a strong financial situation, but focusing on economic growth will allow us to improve our service to the community. As far as safety, we want to maintain the safety that Laguna Woods is known for. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. Orange County is aging because of a lack of affordable homes for young families. If that problem isnt addressed, the county will see things like schools shut down and businesses move away. In the end, it might be good for us, though, because we are an older community and a desirable place to retire. But it will be bad for the county as a whole. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. I would like to see us increase our visibility and stature in greater Orange County. Other than that, I wish to continue the level plans of the previous council. MISSION VIEJO NAME: Frank Ury Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. The Marguerite Aquatics Center renovation. This is one of the largest capital programs in the history of the city; it is imperative the we kick the improvements off on time and work to keep the costs in line with the budgets. Water. As with all of Southern California, we must work as a city and regionally on water conservation, reclamation and generation. Mission Viejo already has replaced half the irrigation systems in the city with intelligent irrigation systems that use data and weather measurements to water areas only when needed. I look forward to the city voting on replacing the rest of the citys controllers in the near future. Traffic. We in South County are going to see over $800 million spent on I-5 and other road improvements over the next five years. This and local measures should really help our traffic in the near future. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. As I mentioned water. We need to put solutions in place not for the next year, but with the vision to keep the water issues solved for the next few decades. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. Mission Viejo is very well-run, so my hope is to keep us working together to maintain our strength in finances, keep us the safest city in Orange County and to make substantial strides in our economic development by bringing businesses and jobs to Mission Viejo. In addition, as a technologist, I would like to see our city work on what I call constituent self-service, basically giving our residents access to information so they can see what the status is of their home improvement design approvals, what the availability is of our recreation centers, etc. The goal is to make it easier for residents to view the same data as our staff, to get them that information quicker and the way they want it. RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA NAME: Tony Beall Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. The good thing about being a mayor in Rancho Santa Margarita is that our city is in great shape. We dont have a lot of the difficult issues that many cities are facing. My No. 1 priority is to protect and enhance the original vision of our master planned community because to me its that vision that brings our residents the quality of life that they enjoy. I want to focus on economic development, especially in regard to our auto center. We are looking to engage an economic development consultant that has focus in auto business, and we want to investigate and increase signage for our auto dealers. I think we deliver a first-class level of service to our residents at City Hall, but Im working closely with our city manager to ensure that we fine-tune and improve where possible the delivery of services. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. One is water and one is traffic. Water is a significant because the water districts that serve our residents are imposing restrictions on residents ability to use water and increasing the rates they charge residents for that water. I believe this is a man-made issue caused by years of failure in Sacramento. At the same time that tremendous development was approved in our region, the Legislature failed to approve any water storage infrastructure. Just the ability to get around South County is getting increasingly difficult as more development occurs. Badly needed infrastructure like the extension of the 241 toll road is being held up for years, which hurts the quality of life for Rancho residents and anybody riding in south Orange County. The solution to a lot of this is the extension of the 241 toll road. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. As a result of the recent terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and elsewhere, and as a result of Proposition 47 that caused a spike in property crimes, I want to ensure that Rancho residents never become complacent. We are the safest city in California, but it doesnt mean we are crime-free. I want to ensure that we communicate to our residents, our business owners and our school officials, all that they can do to work with us to be prepared. I intend to have a meeting and discuss this with, No. 1, our chief of police; No. 2, we will sit down with all the principals in the city to discuss these issues; No. 3, we will provide directly to residents the information that help them be prepared and let them know that we are prepared. For example, our public newsletters and all the information that we send out to our residents. SAN CLEMENTE NAME: Bob Baker Q. What are the top three issues facing the city this year? A. The most important issue we face is the proposed closure of the San Clemente hospital and emergency room. I think this is a terrible idea and a disservice to our community. The hospital is part of a nonprofit corporation that is acting like a for-profit company. I am going to do everything I can to convince the owners that investing some money in modernizing the current hospital and emergency room will be better for everyone. Complaints are growing about vacation rentals and sober-living houses in some of our residential neighborhoods. Many people operate businesses in residential zones without affecting their neighbors, but these two businesses can have huge negative impacts. Some of these owners are not being fair to their neighbors. People who have issues with inconsiderate neighbors should call Code Enforcement at 949-366-4705 or the Orange County Sheriffs Department at 949-770-6011. Traffic is an important issue, and it should start to get better in 2016. The freeway construction should be finished by early 2018, and we will see fewer instances where the traffic comes to a halt through town. The La Pata extension will open this year and should help a lot. This project should have been done 20-plus years ago. Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing South County? A. The closure of the San Clemente hospital has enormous regional impacts. (Local) emergency rooms will become even more crowded. San Clemente residents will have to travel farther for emergency services. In addition, our firefighters and police will be out of service longer when they have to take folks to these more distant emergency rooms. Q. What do you hope to accomplish during your term as a mayor? A. Continue the effort to improve the current sidewalk replacement program. We have a number of sidewalks in need of repair or replacement. The current regulations are overly complicated and unfair to a large number of residents. We need more sidewalks in some parts of town. I want to encourage more residents to take part in city government. Call or write the city when you have something to say. If you just complain to your family or friends and dont let someone know, less gets accomplished. Call 949-361-8200 or visit san-clemente.org. FLINT, Mich. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder responded Monday to being admonished by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the Democratic debates for his handling of Flints water emergency, saying Clinton is making it a political issue. During Sundays debate, Clinton said every single American should be outraged by the water crisis, adding that if the kids in a rich suburb of Detroit had been drinking contaminated water and being bathed in it, there would have been action. Following a speaking engagement at a Martin Luther King Day event in Flint, the Republican governor said her tactic doesnt help solve the problem. Were going to keep working on putting solutions in place, Snyder told The Detroit News. And what I would say is: Politicizing the issue doesnt help matters. Lets focus in on the solution and how to deal with the damage that was done and help the citizens of Flint and make Flint a stronger community. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, has called for Snyders resignation. The crisis began in 2014 when a state-appointed emergency manager switched Flint from Detroit water to Flint River water to save money. The corrosive water caused lead to leach from old pipes. Flint returned to the Detroit system in October after elevated lead levels were discovered in children. But officials remain concerned that damaged pipes could continue to leach lead, which can cause behavior problems and learning disabilities in children as well as kidney ailments in adults. Snyder declared a state of emergency in Flint earlier this month. On Saturday, President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration but denied Snyders request for a disaster declaration based on the legal requirement that such relief is intended for natural events, fires, floods or explosions. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said Monday that she will travel Tuesday to Washington in hopes of securing a disaster declaration anyway, The Flint Journal reported. That declaration would provide more money and resources than the emergency declaration Members of Michigans National Guard have been called in to help volunteers pass out drinking water, testing kits, filters and other supplies to city residents, and the state said more Guard members arrived Monday to bring the total to 70. Nearly 5,000 homes were visited Sunday. JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that Israel would ensure that Iran never obtains nuclear weapons, while also taking credit for keeping Iran from already having them. Netanyahu has been an open and vocal opponent of the deal with Iran. Speaking at the start of the regular weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said: Israels policy has been and will remain exactly what it has been: not to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. He also said that the recent accord would strengthen and embolden Irans leaders, since the lifting of most sanctions would free up money for Tehran to arm and support the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, Shia militias and Israels enemies in the region, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. What is clear is that Iran will now have more resources to dedicate to their terrorism and aggression in the region and in the world, and Israel is prepared to deal with any threat, Netanyahu said. Netanyahu believes, as he said in a statement issued late Saturday, when it became clear that the United Nations would accept Irans partial dismantling of its nuclear infrastructure in what has been called implementation day, that Iran has not relinquished its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons. Israel, the prime minister said Sunday, would strengthen its defenses, increase its intelligence resources and would warn of any violation of the agreement, while urging the United States and the other members of the U.N. Security Council to reimpose harsh sanctions on Iran if violated the deal. Without an appropriate response to every violation, Iran will surmise that it can continue to develop nuclear weapons, to destabilize the region and to spread terrorism, he said. The U.S. is maintaining and even increasing other sanctions on Iran for non-nuclear actions, like support of terrorism and violation of U.N. resolutions on testing of ballistic missiles. Netanyahus harsh opposition to the accord and his criticism of President Barack Obama for being naive about Iran including in a speech to the U.S. Congress last year infuriated the White House and strained relations with Washington, by far Israels most important ally. Yet with the agreement now completed, Netanyahu has spoken less about it in public and Sunday seemed to try to make the best of what he considers a bad deal, saying that Israeli efforts had put a nuclear weapon out of Irans reach for the time being. If it werent for our efforts leading the way in enforcing the sanctions on Irans nuclear program, Iran would have had a nuclear weapon long ago, he said. Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser and major general, pointed out that Israel was hardly alone in disliking the Iran nuclear deal, which has also been sharply criticized by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Persian Gulf states. I think in the Middle East most of the countries, most of the leadership do not like this agreement, he told Israel Radio Sunday. For Israel, he said, the agreement is an additional factor in the behavior of the state of Israel like any other given that exists in the Middle East. He said he was not surprised that Iran would live up to the agreement it struck with the United States and other world powers because it favors Iran. It is an excellent agreement for Iran and therefore Iran will fulfill it down to the last detail, Amidror said. It has to rebuild its economy and enter the circle of international legitimacy because it can make, within this agreement, very great strides forward in the area of missiles and in the areas of nuclear capability. One would have to be a complete idiot not to fulfill this agreement at least in the first five to 10 years. The main question now for Israel is whether the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will monitor Irans compliance with the deal, acts in a way more political or more professional, Amidror said. He also wondered how much effort American intelligence will make, despite the agreement, to try to find Iranian violations. For the moment, he said, he had confidence in Israels developing system of anti-missile defenses, especially the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems, which are the countrys main defense against any potential Iranian missile strike. Also Sunday, in a continuing wave of stabbing attacks on Israeli security forces and civilians by Palestinians, a woman was killed in her home in the Israeli settlement of Otniel, south of Hebron, by a Palestinian who fled the scene, the Israeli army said. Names were not immediately released, and the army was searching nearby Palestinian villages for the attacker. The murder of the woman is believed to be the first such attack inside a settlement home in the last three months. Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian who attacked a soldier near Nablus was fatally shot. The soldier suffered minor injuries. And a Palestinian woman was arrested near the settlement of Kiryat Arba carrying a knife, according to Israeli authorities. Since Oct. 1, 2015, 24 Israelis and 155 Palestinians have been killed, some of the latter shot by Israeli forces during protests and clashes. Israel Radio identified the dead woman as Dafna Meir, age 38 or 39, a hospital nurse and mother of six, including two foster children. Other news reports said that her three youngest children were at home during the attack but were unharmed. Netanyahu issued a statement, saying: In the name of all Israelis, I want to embrace and support the family. All of us are hurting and share in your painful grief. We will find the terrorist, and he will pay the full price for this heinous murder. TEL AVIV, Israel The U.S. ambassador to Israel criticized Israels West Bank settlement policies at a high-profile security conference Monday, a rare public rebuke from Israels top ally that drew an angry response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Daniel Shapiro said that Washington was concerned and perplexed over Israels strategy of building West Bank settlements. Speaking to the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, a top Israeli think tank, he said Israels continued expansion of settlements raises questions about Israels intentions and its stated commitment to establishing an independent Palestinian state. Shapiro added that Israel had also legalized some West Bank outposts despite pledges to the United States not to do so. As Israels closest friend, the United States is steadfast in its support for Israel but it was also its role to call Israel out on its errors, Shapiro said. He noted that Israel restricts Palestinian economic development in the West Bank and, despite its recent indictment against the suspects in a deadly arson attack against a Palestinians family, bemoaned what he called an inadequate response to settler violence. Too much vigilantism goes unchecked and at times there seem to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians, he said. In the West Bank, Israelis are subject to Israeli civil law, while Palestinians are governed by Israeli military law, which offers far fewer legal protections. Palestinians and rights groups say that Israelis suspected in violence against Palestinians are rarely brought to justice, while Palestinian attackers are quickly arrested or killed. The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said Shapiros comments were grounded in data they have been collecting that showed an 85 percent failure rate in investigating ideologically-motivated crimes by Israelis against Palestinians. Over the past decade, the group says it has monitored the polices handling of 1,104 investigations opened following complaints of Palestinians. It says indictments were served against suspects in just 75 of these cases. Shapiros remarks sparked a terse response from Netanyahu, who said they were inappropriate at a time of heightened violence with the Palestinians. On Sunday, an Israeli woman was stabbed to death by a Palestinian assailant in her home in a West Bank settlement. On Monday, another woman was stabbed and badly wounded in another West Bank settlement. The ambassadors comments, on a day when a mother of six is being buried and a pregnant woman is stabbed, are unacceptable and untrue, Netanyahu said. Israel enforces the law on Israelis and Palestinians. The one responsible for the diplomatic stalemate is the Palestinian Authority, which continues to incite and refuses to negotiate. Over the last four months, Palestinian attacks have killed 25 Israelis and an American student. At least 146 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Israel says 101 of them have been attackers while the rest have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops. Israel contends that the violence is the result of a Palestinian campaign of lies and incitement. The Palestinians argue it is rooted in frustrations over Israels nearly 50-year occupation. The international community considers the settlements, built on lands Israel captured in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians, illegal or illegitimate. The spat highlights the tense relations of late between the United States and Israel, mostly over Israels fierce objection to the Iranian nuclear deal. When politicians earn lasting notoriety or success, its usually because theyre tied to one specific program or policy that has impacted the publics life or opinions in some significant way. Sen. Claiborne Pell, a Democrat from Rhode Island, is best known for being sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides college aid to students in need. Sen. William Roth, a Delaware Republican, is known for sponsoring the Roth variant of individual retirement accounts. And former California governor Pat Brown is remembered for building the Golden States freeway grid, state university system, aqueduct and many other postwar public works projects. More recently, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms political reputation is closely tied with his early and aggressive support for gay marriage. It is largely because of this stance that Newsom has been branded as a true-blue left-winger. But that might not be true. In fact, Ive been able to find a few examples that indicate Newsom may not be the liberal we think he is. In February 2014, Newsom pulled his support for the California bullet train the centerpiece of Gov. Jerry Browns legacy. At the time, Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle, Its not the same system that was being promoted We were selling a $32 billion project then, and we were going to get roughly one-third from the federal government and the private sector. Were not even close to the time line (for the project), were not close to the total cost estimates, and the private sector money, and the federal dollars are questionable. In June 2014, he criticized University of California President Janet Napolitano for warning university employees that they would not be reimbursed for using sharing economy services like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb for official travel. In a letter to the former secretary of Homeland Security, Newsom said, A university that is focused on the future and committed to fostering new technologies should not work against innovators and entrepreneurs. Newsom followed this up by penning an opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee suggesting that the state should not strangle innovation by over-regulating companies like Uber. And finally, Newsom wrote the book Citizenville, described by Amazon.com as an argument that todays government is stuck in the last century while in both the private sector and our personal lives absolutely everything else has changed. The book won praise from such unlikely sources as former House speaker Newt Gingrich and syndicated radio talk show host Mark Levin. CNN political analyst and GOP strategist Alex Castellanos also has high praise for the former San Francisco mayor. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Castellanos sized Newsom up by saying, The Democratic Party that Republicans need to fear is one led by Gavin Newsom. Hes the trifecta: a business guy who understands jobs and growth, thinks government ought to stay out of peoples bedrooms and also gets that old, top-heavy, Model-T government isnt often agile enough to tackle todays complex social problems. Its entirely possible that Newsom will shed his reputation as a lefty and run for governor as a completely new kind of Democrat; for lack of a better term, call him a Silicon Valley Democrat. This type of Democrat isnt afraid to break away from big labor on issues like the bullet train, sharing economy services such as Uber, or union-free charter schools, yet embraces the communitarian principles of environmental regulations and strict gun control. We will find out in 2018 if this is a winning recipe. But, as of now, we know one thing for sure Gavin Newsom isnt your fathers Democrat. Staff opinion columnist John Phillips can be heard weekdays at 3 p.m. on The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips on KABC/AM 790. Heres a roundup of restaurant and retail news from across Orange County. Take a look at the slideshow for more details on each. The Market Place in Tustin and Irvine is adding seven new restaurants this year. Irvine additions include: Frozen: This shop that scoops up liquid nitrogen-made ice cream will debut in February. The ice cream shop will use ingredients from local farms and dairies. Flavors include blackberry goat cheese, avocado chocolate coconut and Meyer lemon thyme sorbet. Texas de Brazil: The restaurant is a Brazilian American steakhouse. Set to open in April, Texas de Brazil features all-you-can-eat meats and a salad bar. Hopdoddy Burger Bar: This popular burger shop will open in May. The Texas-based eatery recently opened another location at Fashion Island. California Fish Grill: The restaurant, which features a variety of seafood dishes, will open in July. Luna Grill: The Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant will open this summer. Newcomers on the Tustin side: Snooze, an A.M. Eatery: The restaurant, which will open in the spring, offers breakfast options including Chilaquiles Benedict, blueberry Danish pancakes and Green Eggs n Hamwich. Nekter Juice Bar: Nekter will bring its cold-pressed juices to The Market Place in June. Other Orange County news: Musubi: Musubi Monster recently opened in the old Lucky Star location at 374 S. Main St. in Orange. Musubi, a popular snack in Hawaii, is essentially a sandwich but it swaps the bread for white rice and the deli meat for some Spam. The whole thing is wrapped in seaweed. BoxLunch: The gift and novelty retailer, that recently opened at the Irvine Spectrum across from Planet Beauty and the Apple Store., features licensed novelty shirts, accessories, home goods and more. Honey & Butter: Honey & Butter will open its first brick-and-mortar location at the Irvine Spectrum next to Old Navy in the spring. The store is known for its cartoon character macarons that include pandas and Star Wars characters. There also will be ice cream sandwiches. Anthropologie: The Anthropologie at Fashion Island reopened last Monday next door to its previous location. Stacked: Huntington Beach-based Stacked, nationally recognized as an industry innovator for its iPad ordering system, is opening its first Orange County location today. Address: 7490 Edinger Ave. Meizhou Dongpo: Looks like upscale Chinese is replacing chicken pot pie in Irvine. The Irvine Co. announced plans to convert the former Marie Callenders space into the sleek eatery Meizhou Dongpo. The restaurant will be located at 15363 Culver Drive. Staff writer Joanna Clay contributed to this report. Send any retail updates to hmadans@ocregister.com and any restaurant news to nluna@ocregister.com SANTA ANA A pair of Sunday evening shootings at the same location in Santa Ana left two men hospitalized with moderate injuries, authorities said. In the first incident, at about 7:20 p.m., an unidentified man in his early 20s was shot in the upper body in the 1000 block of North Parton Street, police said. Officers canvassed the area trying to locate witnesses, Sgt. Julian Rodriguez said. People in the area reported having heard shots. In the second shooting, about two hours later, a Santa Ana police officer shot an unidentified man also in the 1000 block of North Parton Street. Police said they were unable to say if the second shooting was related to the first incident. (Police) were in the area because of the previous shooting happened at the same location, police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. In both incidents, the Orange County Fire Authority took the wounded men to a trauma center, OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said. Officers recovered a gun at the location following the officer-involved shooting, Bertagna said. Both incidents are just two of the more than two dozen shootings within the city since Jan. 1. Police have not released why the amount of shootings have been higher than usual, but cited that the majority of them have been gang related. Anyone with information about these shootings or any others can contact Santa Ana Police Departments crimes against persons unit at 714-245-8390. Tips can be provided anonymously through the Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS. Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127 CHARLESTON, S.C. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders assailed Hillary Clinton as financially beholden to Wall Street and unable to be tough on the industry as they faced off Sunday in the most adversarial Democratic presidential debate yet. Sanders, whos built his campaign on populist anger directed at the big banks, charged that he and the former secretary of state have many differences on Wall Street and the first difference is I dont take money from big banks, I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs. Clinton was paid by $675,000 for three speeches she gave to the firm in 2013 and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has also been paid for appearances at Goldman events. Shes also raised millions of dollars in campaign contributions from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial services companies. She ignored Sanders comments on the speaking fees touted herself as building on the accomplishments of the Obama administration, while Sanders argued for a broader shift from the status quo. Sanders is calling for a broader overhaul of laws and wants to enact an updated version of the Glass-Steagall Act, repealed while Bill Clinton was in the White House, while Clinton supports more incremental change building on the Dodd-Frank Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama. Clinton argued that the gap between her and Sanders is not particularly large. Theres not daylight on the basic premise that there should be no bank too big to fail and no individual too powerful to jail, she said at the NBC-YouTube Democratic Candidates Debate in Charleston, S.C., the final face-off before the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. Then, referencing an ad released by the Sanders campaign this week that her team described as an attack on her and President Barack Obama, she said that where we disagree is the comments that Senator Sanders has made that dont just affect me, I can take that, but hes criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street and President Obama has led our country out of the great recession. In the state where Obama she and the president had an acrimonious battle during their 2008 battle for the Democratic nomination, Clinton defended her former rival and boss. Senator Sanders called him weak, disappointing. He even in 2011 publicly sought someone to run in a primary against President Obama. The third candidate in the debate, former Maryland Governor Martin OMalley interjected that he would be stronger. The truth of the matter, Secretary Clinton, you do not go as far in reining in Wall Street as I would, he said. Clinton responded by noting that OMalley fundraised on Wall Street while leading the Democratic Governors Association. Clinton and Sanders clashed over gun control and the future of health insurance in the final Democratic presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses, with Clinton warning that Sanders hours-old plan to move to universal Medicare coverage risks further dividing the nation and jeopardizing the gains under the Affordable Care Act. What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country health care for every man woman and child as a right, Sanders said, noting that even after the expanded coverage created by Obamas Affordable Care Act, 29 million people still have no health insurance. Clinton countered that Sanders plan is impractical. Noting that it took the Democratic Party six decades to enact the Affordable Care Act, which she called one of the greatest accomplishments of the Obama administrations, she said: To tear it up and start over again pushing our country back into that kind of contentious debate I think is the wrong direction. In a debate that took place across the street from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where nine people were shot and killed by a white supremacist last year, Clinton also pressed Sanders with a laundry list of pro-gun votes he has taken in Congress. Sanders, who said he has a D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association, protested the characterization of his record. I think Secretary Clinton knows that what she says is very disingenuous, he said. This should not be a political issue. We should be working together. Clinton responded with a lengthy recounting of Sanderss record, arguing that he has voted with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times. She continued, as Sanders looked down at his lectern: He voted against the Brady Bill five times. He voted for what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted for immunity for gun makers and sellers, which the NRA said was the most important gun legislation in 20 years. He voted to let guns go on to Amtrak, guns go into national parks. He voted against doing research to figure out how we can save lives. Sanders has been noncommittal on whether he would support a bill to close the so-called Charleston loophole. We are going to take a look at that as well, he said Sunday on ABCs This Week. Clinton has been questioning Sanderss vote in favor of a 2005 bill protecting gun manufacturers and sellers from legal liability for months, and on Saturday night, the Sanders campaign said he would support a proposed bill that would do so, but would propose an amendment aimed at protecting mom-and-pop gun shops. During pre-debate interviews, Clinton called it a flip-flop. On stage, she was gentler in her analysis. I am pleased to hear that Senator Sanders has reversed his position on immunity and I look forward to him joining with those members of Congress who have already introduced legislation, she said. There is no other industry in America that was given the total pass that the gun makers and dealers were and that needs to be reversed. OMalley countered that neither Clinton nor Sanders had been sufficiently firm on guns. I have to agree with both of them. Theyve both been inconsistent on this issue. Guns and health care were two of the biggest flash points between Clinton and Sanders. In a bold move aimed at overtaking Clinton, Sanders released a sweeping plan for single-payer health care coverage, which he is dubbing Medicare for All, about two hours before the start of the debate. The face-off already had promised to be a high-stakes one for both leading contenders: While national polls show Clinton continuing to lead Sanders, recent statewide surveys suggest the Vermont senator has the potential to deal embarrassing defeats to Clinton in the first two heats of the nominating contest, in Iowa and New Hampshire. We have the momentum; were on a path towards victory, Sanders said on the debate stage. On health care, the two candidates differences succinctly summarizes the contrast in their approaches: Sanders, a self- described socialist, is embracing a government-run plan that Congress has biennially rejected and that even his home state of Vermont failed to enact. Clinton, who learned the power of the insurance lobby as first lady when she tried and failed to enact a reform of the health coverage system, takes what she describes as a more pragmatic approach that builds on the existing private health care system. Though it will require new taxes on employers and wealthy Americans, Sanders said his plan will save middle-class families money immediate and will save the country money in the long run. The program would cost $1.38 trillion annually. While Clintons lead has nearly disappeared in the Hawkeye State she led 42 percent to 40 percent in the Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll released this week and Sanders leads in New Hampshire polling, Clinton still holds a decisive edge in national polling. In a NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released Sunday, Clinton had the support of 59 percent of Democratic primary voters, Sanders had the support of 34 percent of those surveyed and former OMalley had the backing of 2 percent. In South Carolina, where a majority of the Democratic primary electorate is African American, Clinton had a 36 percentage point lead over Sanders in the most recent poll of likely voters, conducted in December by CBS News. HONOLULU Authorities searching the area where two Marine helicopters crashed off Hawaii have found some life rafts that were carried aboard the aircraft, but still no sign of the 12 crew members who were on board. The Coast Guard said Monday that three of the four life rafts confirmed to have been aboard the helicopters have been recovered and efforts were being made to recover the fourth. Some of the rafts were inflated, but it was unclear how they came to be inflated, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers said. There is no indication that anyone was aboard the rafts, based on their condition and the lack of any personal effects, she said. The search for the Marines entered its fourth day Monday, with plans to search into the night. Conditions have improved since the start of the search, with much smaller swells expected Monday. Various agencies have been searching above water, below water and along the shoreline since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then saw a fireball. The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mission. Hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane spotted debris 2 1 / 2miles off of Oahu. The crash was near the north shore, but the search area spans from the western coast of Oahu to the northeast corner of the island. At this point, its still a search for survivors, Mooers said. The Coast Guard assumes the best-case scenario when considering how long someone in the right equipment and right conditions could survive, she said. We err on the side of caution because the last thing that anybody wants is to suspend the search when theres still a possibility of finding somebody, she said. Marine Capt. Timothy Irish said Monday that aircrews wear personal flotation devices with their flight suits and get additional training on top of survival swimming training. There are various ways that life rafts could be inflated, including a cord being pulled by debris, he said. Mooers said people have been founds days or even weeks after theyve been at sea. Survival would entail overcoming many factors, including surviving the crash, being conscious for impact, being overwhelmed by water, and then facing dehydration, exposure and fatigue, said Mario Vittone, a retired Coast Guardsman who is an expert on sea survival. Vittone said survival seems unlikely, but he noted that he doesnt know all the circumstances and theres nothing unusual in the length of the search so far. The transport helicopters were part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Known as Super Stallions, they are the U.S. militarys largest helicopter, capable of carrying a light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines, according to a Marine Corps website. The wings commanding general, Brig. Gen. Russell Sanborn, told reporters Sunday he has personal experience with the emotional roller coaster families of the 12 Marines are experiencing. His wife went through similar emotions when he was shot down 25 years ago during Operation Desert Storm and was listed as missing in action, he said. Some family members were holding out hope that survivors could be found, while asking for privacy as they waited for updates. My husband and I want everyone to know that this is not about us, Donna McGrew, mother of Maj. Shawn Campbell of College Station, Texas, said in a statement. This is about the families that are suffering, and about all the sacrifices that our military members and their families make on a daily basis. The Coast Guard initially reported that the choppers had collided, but Irish said Friday that he did not know if the accident was a collision. The cause remained under investigation. Mooers said the helicopters carry flight data recorders known as black boxes, but they have not been recovered. A salvage ship from the Military Sealift Command arrived late Sunday from Pearl Harbor. It is supporting a Navy units efforts to perform an underwater search of the aircrafts last known position with sonar and a remotely operated vehicle, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Searches by the unit on Sunday did not find any debris, the release said. Click through the slideshow to see photos of weather around the world. The arctic air mass that froze water pipes in Minnesota this weekend is sticking around in some parts of the upper Midwest. El Nino brought about a mild winter at the beginning, but a blast of dangerously cold temperatures moved east across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes on Sunday. Temperatures bottomed out at 36 degrees below in Fosston in northwest Minnesota. It was so cold in western Minnesota that traffic lights went dark Sunday morning in Montevideo when a transformer blew, and in northern Minnesota, one homeowners bid to thaw pipes caused a fire that led to $37,000 in damage, WDIO-TV reported. In central Florida, severe weather sparked a pair of tornadoes that ripped through the region before dawn Sunday, officials said. A couple was killed and their son and four grandchildren were injured when one of the twisters destroyed their mobile home in Duette, Fla. Meanwhile, parts of Illinois were in the single digits Monday, the second day with such frigid air. It was the same in southern Indiana, where officials trying to stem the spread of a bird flu virus in turkey farms ran into problems when a hose that sprayed a poultry-suffocating foam froze. Many cities sought to ensure no one succumbed to the cold. The Indianapolis Star reported that the state Department of Homeland Security would send anyone needing shelter from the weather Sunday and Monday to a Salvation Army facility. But in Wisconsin, authorities said a 21-year-old woman likely died of exposure to subzero temperatures in Milwaukee; medical examiners said she was apparently intoxicated when she left a house party. Surveillance video showed she collapsed outside of a residence and a passer-by found her. Snow accompanied the drop in temperatures in northern and western Michigan, where up to 16 inches of snow fell over 24 hours in Honor and Traverse City received 10 inches. A march in honor of Martin Luther King Day was canceled in Grand Rapids because of road conditions. Some reprieve from the cold is expected in the Midwest later in the week, with Chicago expecting to jump into the comparatively balmy 30s by Thursday. But the sub-freezing temperatures were moving eastward, the National Weather Service said, taking aim at the Ohio Valley and areas of the Appalachians. Snow also covered many countries of Europe including Germany, England, Turkey, Austria, Bosnia, Poland and Czech Republic. Loading... OilVoice will be with you shortly... DES MOINES (AP) Gov. Terry Branstads latest budget proposal does not include any money for an upcoming state-mandated summer reading program for struggling third-graders, a move educators say could adversely affect those students and hold them back a year. The Intensive Summer Literacy Program will not have state dollars attached to it under Branstads budget recommendations for the fiscal year that begins in July. The Iowa Department of Education had requested about $9 million for school districts to fund the program, which must go into effect in 2017. Ben Hammes, a spokesman for Branstad, said the governors budget is very tight this year. He said Branstad intends to secure the $9 million funding during the legislative session that begins in 2017, with a special request to lawmakers that it be provided by March of that year. Staci Hupp, a spokeswoman for the education department, said in an email that the agency understands Branstads explanation. She added, Well do everything we can to support (school districts) with existing resources. She noted a separate, continuing education appropriation of $8 million for early literacy initiatives, though advocacy groups point out that that money is directed to year-round programming that doesnt include the summer reading program. The summer reading program was included in a law passed in 2012 intended to make Iowa students proficient readers by the end of the third grade. Many provisions of the law are in effect, including universal screening of students in kindergarten through third grade for signs of reading deficiencies. Effective in May 2017, the law will require every Iowa school district roughly 335 to provide an evidence-based summer literacy program for third-graders who exhibit a substantial deficiency in reading. A third-grader under that designation who fails to attend the summer program could be held back a year. The law includes a one-time waiver for school districts, so its possible that some schools will be able to delay immediate implementation. A struggling student will also be able to advance to the fourth grade if he or she has limited English proficiency or they demonstrate another exemption written into the law. Tammy Wawro, president of the Iowa State Education Association, said there are serious concerns with the lack of funding. Her group wants the program delayed despite the governors pledge. There are so many funding issues that then to add something like this on top of it, schools ... theyd be crazy not to be worried about being on the hook for this, she said. The education department released data last year showing that nearly one in four Iowa third-graders is not proficient in reading. In a data set of roughly 32,000 students, more than 7,500 were substantially deficient in reading. More than 2,800 were considered at risk. Thats a huge number of kids, said Heidi Meyer, a teacher who specializes in early literacy intervention at MFL MarMac Elementary School in Monona. For some of these especially larger districts, but also small rural districts like mine, to find the number of staff to cover that many hours will be a challenge. Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, called the lack of funding seriously negligent. He said he had already planned to hold hearings this session to review the law and its guidelines for school districts. Is India losing the fight against cyber criminals? Feature oi-Vicky By Vicky The ratio between detection and convictions in cyber crimes committed in India indicates a very grim picture. There are just 23 cyber crime cells in the country and the statistics put out by the National Crime Records Bureau suggests that 9,600 cases were registered in 2014 alone. The ratio between the rising number of cyber crimes and the officers present to handle such cases is high in-adequate. In addition to the lack of staff and technical knowledge there are other issues such as foreign countries not cooperating. There are several cases in which the police have sent requests to service providers abroad years back, but have not got any response. [Cyber crime rising: Is India doing enough?] Cyber crime a ticking bomb: An intelligence bureau report states that in the following years the number of cyber crimes will increase two fold. Even terrorist organisations will fight the war online and the growing dependance of the world on the internet will only make matters worse. In such a scenario, India does not appear to be fully prepared to handle the problem. With the statistics relating to cyber crime increasing by the day, it is not sufficient to have just 23 dedicated cyber crime cells in the country. India would need at least 100 to 150 dedicated cyber crime cells to tackle the problem. In addition to this the cyber crime cells also need to have staff who are trained well to detect and crack such cases. Shying away from cyber crime cells: In the ranks of the police department, taking up an assignment at a cyber crime cell is the least preferred. Many cops are trained to fight crime on the ground and lack the technical expertise to handle such cases. Moreover, it is also a low profile posting and the fact that the cases are extremely hard to crack also makes taking up such an assignment a downer for the police. There have been debates and discussions galore to include ethical hackers into the police force. These ethical hackers can help a great deal in cracking cyber crime cases. India would need at least 50,000 ethical hackers to ensure that the internet is relatively safe. However, the other issue is that the police department has complained that there are not enough funds to support the ethical hackers. There are not many would come forward to do it as a social service. Even to hire ethical hackers on a temporary or case to case basis is expensive and the police force feels that more funds need to be sanctioned by the government. The other issue that ethical hackers have complained about is the lack of protection. When they go online to secure servers, it looks like they are hacking. Poor conviction: Out of the 9,600 cases of cyber crime registered in 2014, so far the police and prosecution have managed to obtain just 72 convictions. This is a very poor ratio and if the conviction rate is this low, it encourages persons to commit more crimes. There are various issues attached to the poor rate of conviction. Lack of evidence is one such major issue. The problem begins when the cyber criminal is abroad. Although there is an extradition clause for cyber criminals, it hardly ever happens. Further foreign countries have not been cooperative. Cyber crime can be fought only if there is cooperation. Countries such as the United States of America will have to play a vital role if the menace of cyber crime has to come down. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2016, 11:27 [IST] Lifting sanctions: Iran has its Lexus and Olive Tree moment; which will prevail? Feature oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer Even as Iran celebrated the Implementation Day-when the International Atomic Energy Agency said the former has met all its commitments under the nuclear accord last July paving the way for the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions and reconnecting the country, which till recently had a major tiff with the West, to the world economy-there were also voices in the country that felt things might not be as rosy as they seem. Pro-globalisation forces are happy but not small traders Morgan Stanley said the development would mark "the return of the biggest economy to the global system since the break-up of the USSR" but small traders in the West Asian country, which is the second-largest economy in the region after Saudi Arabia and has a largely young population with an impressive tech-savvy nature, feel the good results wouldn't show overnight. They feel opening up Iran's economy after the nuclear deal with the West would invite disaster as a lot of local firms would be destroyed in the transition period towards a better future. The new economic reality would see customers running after foreign brands, sealing the fate of the national ones, they said. And rightly so. Those involved in importing foreign goods said the lifting of the sanctions would make it easier for them to bring home latest products and reduce the costs paid at the medium levels. The sanctions had seriously hampered their trade and many enterprises had to be shut because of this, they said. Most traders in Iran said the people of the country were bearing a psychological burden of the sanctions and not spending money even if they had it. The curbing of the sanctions would make them a confident lot is what the general opinion. The traders are also looking forward to entry of foreign tourists to see their products' sales go up. Iran leadership quickened things ahead of polls Iran's fortunes saw a shift under the presidency of the moderate Hassan Rouhani, who was elected in 2013 on a pledge to end the nuclear crisis. The Rouhani administration hastened the process to see the sanctions getting lifted keeping in mind the elections in Iran next month. Some feel the removal of sanctions would only benefit the government and not the people who would bear the brunt of price rise. What US is saying? For President Barack Obama who is nearing the end of his tenure, the latest development in Iran, including the release of five Americans held there, is a big achievement. However, for many in Washington, the Obama administration surrendered before Iran through the deal. After Tehran's testing two ballistic missiles last year, opponents of the deal were expecting more sanctions to be imposed but the Obama administration felt otherwise. The outcome in Iran will certainly make the Republicans' attack more sharp ahead of the presidential election in November this year. Oneindia's Take: Reconnecting of Iran with the global economy despite the challenges like plummeting oil prices, concerns over the country's support of terrorism and human rights abuses and stronghold of the Revolutionary Guards can have a bright impact on the politics of West Asia, one of the most volatile regions of the world. Being a big player in the regional politics, Iran can utilise the new opportunities created by the lifting of the sanctions to add more substance to its role and help resolving the crisis in Syria, the challenge posed by the IS and engage with the western economic powers more to effect an overall development in the region. However, abiding by the nuclear deal and finding a way to engage with Saudi Arabia, another big player in the region with which it is currently witnessing a declining relation, would determine the success of Iran in the post-sanction period. Iran has reached its Lexus and the Olive Tree' moment. Which one will prevail finally is for it to decide. For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2016, 14:25 [IST] Bengaluru bomb square: Cops getting to the bottom of it India oi-Vicky Bengaluru, Jan 18: A special team has been constituted to probe the bomb scare incident that took place in Bengaluru on Friday. The police have ascertained beyond doubt that the bag found at Sankey Road contained no explosive. However, the incident caused a scare and the police has decided to get to the bottom of it. The bag that was abandoned at the Sankey Road contained a glass jar with 30 ML of liquor. After someone had reported the bag, the police had pressed into service the bomb squad and even diverted traffic around the area. For the next 15 minutes after the bag being reported there was absolute panic with anchors of television channels screaming their gut out blaming the al-Qaeda. The police say that it appears to be the job of some mischief monger either trying to cause panic or testing the alertness levels. The police have obtained CCTV footage from the spot and have even questioned some persons in connection with this incident. Police officials say that with such incidents one cannot take any chances and hence we followed all the procedure. After diverting the traffic, the bomb squad was pressed into service. The bomb squad which declared the bag safe later sent the contents to the Forensic Sciences Laboratory for testing. The FSL too in its report stated that the jhute bag contained nothing but a liquor bottle. OneIndia News Dalit research scholar had dream of being science writer India oi-IANS By Ians English Hyderabad, Jan 18: He had dream of being an acclaimed writer but the Dalit research student of the University of Hyderabad who committed suicide after his suspension only, ended up writing a six-page suicide note at the prime of his youth. "I always wanted to be a writer. A writer of science, like Carl Sagan. At last, this is the only letter I am getting to write," wrote Rohith Vemula, who was suspended along with four other Dalit students, and on Sunday committed suicide by hanging in the university hostel. The 28-year-old left behind a handwritten note, sharing his thoughts, which show how depressed he was. The letter went viral on social media, triggering an outpour of grief and call for an end to discrimination against Dalit students. Rohith, a second year research scholar of science, technology and society studies department, came from a poor family in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Her mother worked as a tailor to meet both the ends. He was also an University Grants Commission's Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) holder. "If you, who is reading this letter can do anything for me, I have to get seven months of my fellowship, one lakh and seventy five thousand rupees. Please see to it that my family is paid that. I have to give some (Rs.) 40 thousand to Ramji (friend). He never asked them back. But please pay that to him from that," he wrote. "I loved science, stars, nature, but then I loved people without knowing that people have long since divorced from nature. Our feelings are second handed. Our love is constructed. Our beliefs coloured. Our originality valid through artificial art. It has become truly difficult to love without getting hurt." The letter also showed his feelings over the discrimination. "The value of a man was reduced to his immediate identity and nearest possibility. To a vote. To a number. To a thing. Never was a man treated as a mind. As a glorious thing made up of stardust. In very field, in studies, in streets, in politics, and in dying and living." "May be I was wrong, all the while, in understanding world. In understanding love, pain, life, death. There was no urgency. But I always was rushing. Desperate to start a life. All the while, some people, for them, life itself is curse. My birth is my fatal accident. I can never recover from my childhood loneliness. The unappreciated child from my past. "I am not hurt at this moment. I am not sad. I am just empty. Unconcerned about myself. That's pathetic. And that's why I am doing this," wrote Rohith, who along with others had been protesting in open since they were thrown out of hostel since early this month. "Let my funeral be silent and smooth. Behave like I just appeared and gone. Do not shed tears for me. Know that I am happy dead than being alive," Rohith wrote. "I forgot to write the formalities. No one is responsible for my this act of killing myself. No one has instigated me, whether by their acts or by their words to this act. This is my decision and I am the only one responsible for this. Do not trouble my friends and enemies on this after I am gone," he added. A member of Ambedkar Students Union (ASU), he ended the letter with "Jai Bheem". Second round of Bharat bandh likely to be in August One Rank-One Pension formula will not be reversed says Centre OROP: Ex-servicemen call off protest outside Jaitley's residence India oi-IANS By Ians English New Delhi, Jan 18: A protest by ex-servicemen outside Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's residence on the OROP issue was called off after a late-night meeting with Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, the veterans said on Monday. Sinha met the veterans around 12.30 a.m. on Monday for around 45 minutes after instructions from the Prime Minister's Office. Sinha told the ex-servicemen that a meeting will be held on Wednesday to resolve the issues related to the OROP scheme. "The MoS called the finance minister in our presence, but he did not take the call. He however assured us that he would call up the finance minister again," said Col. Anil Kaul (retd), a spokesperson for the Indian Ex-Servicemen's Movement. A few hundred veterans had shifted the protest venue for One Rank One Pay (OROP) from the Jantar Mantar to Jaitley's residence at 2, Krishna Menon Marg, on Sunday morning and continued with their protest through the day. After the assurance from the minitster, the protesters returned to Jantar Mantar, where the OROP protest has been on since June 14, 2015. The ex-servicemen are unhappy with the OROP scheme announced by the central government on September 5, 2015, whereby 2013 would be taken as the base year to calculate pensions whereas the date of implementation will be July 1, 2014. As per the scheme, the pension of the past pensioners would be re-fixed on the basis of pension of retirees of calendar year 2013 and the benefit will be effective with effect from July 1, 2014. Pension will be re-fixed for all pensioners on the basis of the average of minimum and maximum pension of personnel retiring in 2013 in the same rank and with the same length of service. Pension for those drawing above the average shall be protected. A review would be held every five years. The veterans have rejected the scheme dubbing it 'one rank five pension' scheme. In December, the government appointed a one-member judicial committee headed by L. Narasimha Reddy, a retired chief justice of the Patna High Court. The ex-servicemen are not happy with this either. IANS Delhi: Ahead of Diwali, police seizes over 1400 kg of firecrackers in 3 separate operations Who in India can see partial solar eclipse 2022 on Oct 25 RRB Group D Result 2022: Answer key, how to download score card and more Diwali 2022: 12 Tips to get confirmed Tatkal ticket from IRCTC website Delhi air quality projected to cross 301 by Sat; GRAP stage II comes into effect ahead of Diwali French troops take part in marching practice at Rajpath India oi-PTI New Delhi, Jan 18: French soldiers today took part in marching practice at the Rajpath along with Indian soldiers for the Republic Day celebrations next week. Early morning, a smartly dressed contingent of French troops, began their practice. This would be the first since independence when foreign troops will march down the Rajpath for Republic Day parade French President Francois Hollande is the chief guest for this year's celebrations. A French contingent comprising 56 personnel of 35th Infantry Regiment of 7th Armoured Brigade have just finished their joint exercise with Indian soldiers in Rajasthan. The French soldiers were taking part in counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency joint exercise called 'Shakti 2016'. The 35th Infantry Regiment's origin dates back to its raising in 1604 at Lorraine, France. The regiment has as many as 12 battle honours to its credit. The battalion has varied combat experiences, having served in Algeria, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, amongst other places. WATCH: French contingent to take part in Republic day Parade (Visuals of Parade rehearsal) https://t.co/vbZfh0Ft11 ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 PTI J&K: Go to polls if you cannot decide, former CM Omar Abdullah says India oi-Vicky By Vicky Srinagar, Jan 18: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdulla has suggested that it would be better to go for fresh elections if the PDP cannot decide on its alliance with the BJP. In a statement, Abdullah who is also the leader of the National Conference has said that from the statement issued to the media at the conclusion of today's meeting by the PDP, it has become evident that the PDP-BJP Alliance stands, that no conditions have been set by the PDP, that no negotiations are being conducted and the formation of the new PDP-BJP Government is a foregone conclusion. While the PDP has declared that the PDP-BJP 'Agenda of the Alliance' is a "sacred document" and that PDP continues to be in awe of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is an inexplicable delay in Government formation. The common perception is that this is being done to salvage some bare minimum credibility for the PDP and to create a smokescreen of stiff morality. The people of Jammu and Kashmir continue to be deprived of an elected Government while two political parties with a combined majority continue to be in an alliance - which is bizarre and unprecedented. This posturing and political drama comes at the cost of uncertainty, instability and chaos in the State. Mehbooba Mufti (or PDP for that matter) has two options - to either deliver on the promises made to the people of J&K or to break the alliance with the BJP. To hang on to this alliance with the BJP for dear life while pretending to be the unwavering example of high morality is akin to aspiring to have the cake and eat it too. If Mehbooba Mufti can't rise to the occasion she should end PDP's alliance with the BJP based on PDP's alleged reservations and regrets over the previous ten months and we can go back to the people again for fresh elections. The longer Mehbooba Mufti delays the imminent Government formation with the BJP, the more people will expect her to extract concessions from the Center. I wish her the best of luck in her political games with the genuine disappointment that these political games and theatrics come at a grave cost to the common man in J&K who continues to be surrounded by an eerie political uncertainty. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2016, 10:00 [IST] Kolkata hit-and-run: Sambia in police custody, had hit another soldier India oi-IANS By Ians English Kolkata, Jan 18: Sambia Sohrab, who was sent to 14 days in police custody on Sunday for allegedly mowing down an Indian Air Force officer, is also said to have hit and injured another soldier with his speeding sports utility vehicle. Amid tight security, Sambia was presented before a city court, with police slapping various charges including murder, criminal conspiracy, attempt to murder and destruction of evidence. Metropolitan Magistrate Mrityunjay Karmakar remanded him to police custody till January 30 when he would again be brought before the court. The defence moved an application for bail, claiming that it was as yet not known who was driving the car. On the other hand, the prosecution sought his police custody for 14 days, arguing there was a need to interrogate him to ascertain more facts about the case and whether there were other persons in the white Audi which he was purportedly driving on that day - January 13. The defence team also objected to Samia being charged under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code that deals with murder and said that the police at most should have booked him for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304. The prosecution also alleged that Sambia - drunk when he took the steering of the car - had hit another soldier before he mowed down 21-year-old corporal Abhimanyu Gaud. Breaking police barricades, Sambia, son of former Rashtriya Janata Dal legislator Mohammad Sohrab, is said to have knocked down Gaud, who was supervising Republic Day parade rehearsals on the Indira Gandhi Sarani. Gaud was taken to hospital where doctors declared him dead. After hearing both sides, the judge rejected the bail plea and sent him to police custody for m further interrogation. Sambia was arrested late on Saturday night from the city after being in hiding for four days along with his brother Ambia and father since the accident. Police had issued a look-out notice against the trio on Thursday. Samia was interrogated through the night till early Sunday, with a police officer saying he was not cooperating in the probe. Before his arrest, Samia had been trying to sneak into the neighbouring states to escape police. There were also allegations that the influential family had tried to pressurise one of his friends to name someone else as the driver of the vehicle when the incident occurred. The case has created a political storm with the opposition parties claiming that police delayed Samia's arrest as his father was a leader of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress. However, the Trinamool has denied its links with Sohrab and pointed to the fact that he had become a state legislator in 2005 with support from the Communist Party of India-Marxist led Left Front. The IAF, which is also probing the matter, too earlier claimed "vested interests" were thwarting the probe. "There is a set of people, for their vested interest, they do not want the investigation to proceed," said an IAF officer. IANS Kolkata triple murder: Police suspect husband India oi-PTI Kolkata, Jan 18: A day after the blood-soaked bodies of a woman and her twin sons were found inside their posh Palm Avenue flat here, police on Jan 17 said initial probe indicates her husband, who was also found in critical condition from the house, could be behind the triple murder case. As per the evidences collected from the bedroom of the third floor apartment, where the bodies of Jessica Fonseca (42) and her twin sons Darren and Joshua, class IX students, were found, showed no sign of any struggle contrary to the statement given by her husband Neil Fonseca (49), a senior police officer told PTI. Neil, who was rescued in a critical condition and is currently under treatment at a city nursing home, in a written statement to the police yesterday claimed that there was a fight between him when Jessica after she saw him checking his phone at 4.30 am last morning and suspected him of having an extra-marital affair. "But evidences hardly show that there was any struggle or fight between any of the four persons present in that bedroom," the detective department officer said. Asked if it was a pre-meditated murder, the officer said, "It is yet to be verified but going by the circumstances it seems that there is a hidden story." Police were waiting for the viscera report, which may take some time, to ascertain if the woman and the twins were drugged to sleep, the officer added. Neil, an interior decorator by profession, had previously admitted to having an affair three years ago which had spoiled his relation with Jessica. In his written statement, Neil said he was checking messages on his phone at around 4.30 am yesterday when Jessica woke up and finding him with his phone started quarreling before attacking him with a knife, police said. She had also stabbed the twins and this had enraged Neil, who then hit with a dumbbell and then slit her throat with a kitchen knife, he claimed. Police is verifying the veracity of Neil's statement that there was a fight between him and Jessica, the officer said, adding it is difficult to believe that they had a scuffle and neither of the twins woke up nor did his 85-year-old mother or teenage daughter, both sleeping in the adjoining room, were disturbed. "We are waiting for Neil to be out of hospital. Then he will be questioned," the official said. PTI Mumbai: Here's why FIR filed against Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui India oi-Nairita Mumbai, Jan 18: A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Nawazuddin Siddiqui as he has been accused of assaulting a woman over car parking space. The Bollywood actor has landed in a serious legal trouble when a woman filed a case against him. However, his manager Anup Pandey overruled such reports asserting that his client has been implicated in a false case. While Nawazuddin Siddiqui was unavailable to comment on the matter, Mr Pandey was quoted as saying that the actor indeed was involved in an argument. However, he did not hurt anyone physically, confirmed Mr Pandey. There was an argument but no 'hatha pai' (exchange of physical blows) as claimed in the complaint. The case has been registered without investigation. It is a society issue which has been going on for a long time," Mr Pandey said. According to media reports, Siddiqui was served a notice by his housing society authorities. He was asked not to park his car at the place which is given for two-wheeler parking. A heated argument began when a 24-year-old woman reportedly found Siddiqui's car at the two wheeler parking and filed a complaint against the actor. During the argument, the actor allegedly slapped the woman, police quoted the complainant as saying. The actor along with his family stays in the housing society located at Yari Road in suburban Andheri where a dispute over car parking space has been going on for the past few days. The case against the actor has been filed under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). OneIndia News Bengaluru: Woman falls off scooter, run over by bus News Flash: Case filed against JDU legislator for misbehaving with couple India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Staff Writer New Delhi, Jan 18: Get all the latest national and international updates of Monday, Jan 18 here: 11.25 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj addresses the Indian community and Friends of India in Jerusalem. 11.04 pm: Jiah Khan case: Special women's court to hear arguments from Feb 12 on framing of charges against actor Suraj Pancholi. 10.20 pm: Minor allegedly raped and murdered in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district, accused apprehended by police: ANI. 9.25 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj met Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely EAM Sushma Swaraj met Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely pic.twitter.com/UgBs5Nf9sv ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 9.18 pm: A lady allegedly jumped in front of a train at Govindpuri metro station (Delhi), rescued unhurt after driver applied emergency brake. 9.04 pm: Morocco arrests Belgian directly linked to Paris attackers, says ministry- AFP. 8.17 pm: Case filed against JDU legislator Sarfaraj Alam in Bihar for allegedly misbehaving with a couple in Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express. 8.07 pm: Dalit student suicide: Those who are guilty should be punished, they should be sent to jail, says Scheduled Castes Chairman PL Punia. 8.00 pm: Delhi police arrests Al Qaeda terrorist, who's trained in Pak. 7.40 pm: Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana instils confidence in the farmers. We should integrate as many farmers as possible with this scheme: PM Modi. 7.15 pm: Sikkim has become a model for world by achieving new heights of development & ensuring conservation of environment at the same time says PM Modi. 7.03 pm: Some yrs ago, Pawan ji had banned vehicles on Gandhi Marg in Gangtok,people protested,but he was consistent says PM Modi. 6.47 pm: Today I'm a guest of lakhs of Sikkim farmers, haven't come here alone. Have come here with hope of farmers of nation says PM Narendra Modi. 6.36 pm: Inspite of facing so many problems, people of Sikkim are always happy, they never cry or complain says PM Modi in Gangtok. 6.34 pm: PM Narendra Modi speaking at inauguration of conference of State Agriculture Ministers in Gangtok. 5:36 pm: Delhi Police Special Cell nabs an Al Qaeda terrorist from Haryana, identified as Abdul Sami. 5:30 pm: Iran orders 500,000 bpd oil production increase: ministry. (AFP). 5:25 pm: NIA court permits agency to conduct polygraph test on Gurdaspur SP, Salwinder Singh. 5:15 pm: Delhi Police Special Cell nabs an Al Qaeda terrorist from Haryana, identified as Abdul Sami. 4:57 pm: Mindtree elevates Krishnakumar Natarajan as Executive Chairman; CFO Rostow Ravanan to take over as CEO and MD. 4:50 pm: CBI arrests Regional Provident Fund Commissioner, Chennai along with 6 others in Rs 14.5 lakh alleged bribery case. 4:45 pm: Don't want to make political statement. My condolences to family of deceased. Have sent a two member probe committee that will apprise us of situation in University (Hyderabad): HRD Minister Smriti Irani to ANI on Dalit student's suicide. 4:40 pm: Pathankot Attack: NIA approaches Patiala House Court for permission to conduct lie detector test on Gurdaspur SP Salwinder Singh. 4:30 pm: Raosaheb Danve declared as Maharashtra BJP President after being re-elected, in the presence of Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis. 4:20 pm: Gangtok: PM Narendra Modi inaugurates conference of state agricultural ministers. 4:10 pm: Dalit student suicide case: Student organisations continue protest outside HRD Ministry in Delhi. 4:00 pm: Being a responsible citizen I came & gave my statement. Society's members are with me, allegations are false: Nawazuddin Siddiqui on physical assault complaint against him. 3:58 pm: I will challenge BCCI's decision in court, will react in detail after talking to my lawyer: Hiken Shah to ANI after being banned for 5 years. 3:50 pm: SC Constitution Bench to examine if Sikhs are a minority community in Punjab, sought AG's assistance. SC issued a notice to the Centre. 3:40 pm: Minister who has an FIR filed against him should immediately be removed from cabinet: RPN Singh,Congress on Hyderabad Univ student's alleged suicide. 3:30 pm: BRT corridor in Delhi to be dismantled from tomorrow. 3:20 pm: We are verifying all the facts- Arun Chauhan, ACP on physical assault case registered against Nawazuddin Siddiqui. 3:10 pm: Coal scam case: Patiala House court summons ex-MoS for coal Dilip Ray and five others as accused. 3:02 pm: Jasprit Bumrah to replace injured Mohammed Shami in India T20I squad against Australia: BCCI. 2:55 pm: Rohith Vemula, PHd student suicide case: HRD Ministry sends two member fact finding team to Hyderabad, report to be submitted in 2 days. 2:50 pm: India's defeat in 3 matches unfortunate,bowling was not upto mark,Team management & selectors will discuss in detail - Anurag Thakur. 2:45 pm: Delhi Police Comm met HM to discuss security arrangements during R-Day celebrations.HM directs to take stringent security measures-Sources. 2:40 pm: Government of Maldives put conditions on former President Nasheed's travel to UK for surgery, Nasheed refuses to accept conditions. 2:37 pm: MS Dhoni one of the most successful captains. India won 2007 & 2011 World cups under his leadership- Anurag Thakur. 2:35 pm: Not correct to raise questions on MS Dhoni looking at the performance in one series only- Anurag Thakur, BCCI Secretary. 2:30 pm: Woman who attacked Delhi CM Kejriwal with ink sent to one day police custody. 2:27 pm: My letter had nothing to do with the student who committed suicide in Central University (Hyderabad)- Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. 2:25 pm: BJP leader Vinay Katiyar who was detained by UP Police while he was on his way to Fatehpur district, has been released. 2:21 pm: We might want to cast such actors, who make people laugh, in films. No issue with them. But if you showcase somebody's character completely opposite of what they are, obviously it will hurt followers' sentiments: Gurmeet Ram Rahim 2:20 pm: Whatever actor did, he apologized.Issue over. But people who produced the show, who had 'ghatiya soch' should be held responsible : Gurmeet Ram Rahim. 2:17 pm: Ajit Chandila gets life ban, Hiken Shah banned for 5 years: BCCI. 2:15 pm: I think Smriti Irani should be last person to raise questions,Amethi is on the global map due to Gandhi family: Ashwani Kumar, Congress. 2:10 pm: Nawazuddin Siddiqui reaches Versova Poilce station in Mumbai to record his statement in physical assault complaint registered against him. 2: 00 pm: Our bilateral cooperation has developed well in number of areas over past decades, but potential of our relationship is much more: Swaraj 1: 35 pm: EAM Sushma Swaraj meets Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv 1:25 pm: Woman who attacked Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with ink yesterday, brought to Rohini Court. Matter to be heard at 2pm today. 1.15 pm: Nursery admission case: Delhi High Court seeks reply from Delhi Govt. Next date of hearing is January 28 1.02 pm: We will provide better infrastructure facilities around temples, like better roads, toilets etc, says Navneet Sehgal, Principal Secretary,UP Govt. 12.55 pm: It is a part of our campaign to promote religious tourism in the state, says Navneet Sehgal, Principal Secretary,UP Govt. 12.45 pm: 104 Indian fishermen released by Sri Lankan Navy. 12.30 pm: If NT Rama Rao doesn't deserve Bharat Ratna,then I don't think anybody deserves Bharat Ratna, says Ashok Gajapathi Raju. 12.15 pm: All India Hindu Federation lodges complaint against Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim for posing as Lord Vishnu. 12.05 pm: In IAF Officer Accident Death Case, Tis Hazari court issues transit remand for Sanu alias Shahnawaz Khan, will be taken to Kolkata now. 12 noon: The girl who attacked Delhi CM with ink has been arrested and a case has been registered against her, says BS Bassi, Delhi Police Commisioner. We made adequate arrangements, all necessary security arrangements were made: BS Bassi, Delhi Police Commissioner pic.twitter.com/BaGf6ZQu11 ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 11.55 am: Assam CM Tarun Gogoi appeared in Court in defamation case, next date of hearing is Feb 8, 2016. Hyderabad: Family members mourn death of expelled scholar who committed suicide. pic.twitter.com/aj4CLzsOnA ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 11.50 am: National Green Tribunal reprimands Center, UP govt over pollution in Ganga in Varanasi, says slogans are contrary to actions. 11.45 am: Three Indian fishermen who were apprehended by Sri Lankan Navy near Palk Strait yesterday, have been sent to judicial custody till Jan 29. 11.40 am: Family members of expelled scholar who committed suicide, outside University of Hyderabad. 11.35 am: Congress President Sonia Gandhi's Raebareli tour scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled. 11.30 am: Supreme Court sends notice to Tata Power and BSES on plea for CAG audit of private discoms. 11.20 am: SC allows former Karnataka CM BS Yeddyurappa to withdraw plea against prosecution in land de-notification case. 11.15 am: SC adjourns Babri Demolition case for 4 weeks after several parties sought adjournment for filing documents in criminal conspiracy case. 11.10 am: French contingent to take part in Republic day Parade. WATCH: French contingent to take part in Republic day Parade (Visuals of Parade rehearsal)https://t.co/vbZfh0Ft11 ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 11.00 am: Bhavna Arora, the woman who attacked Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal with ink yesterday reaches Rohini Court 10.42 am: Jayalalithaa's defamation case adjourned. Matter adjourned till March 10, 2016. Criminal defamation case filed by Tamil Nadu CM: DMK chief Karunanidhi leaves from court after court adjourns case pic.twitter.com/80zWhA1pKX ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 10.35 am: DMK Chief Karunanidhi appears before Chennai court in defamation case filed by Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa last year. 10.25 am: Fire breaks out at an oil factory in West Bengal's Chanditala area (Hooghly), ten fire tenders at the spot WATCH: Fire breaks out at an oil factory in West Bengal's Chanditala area (Hooghly), ten fire tenders at the spothttps://t.co/4eg13EA5yt ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 10.00 am: For the first time after 26 Years, Army Dogs to feature in the Republic Day Parade. 9:48 am: BSF transfers Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Gurdaspur sector, N K Mishra and Commandant S S Dwas 9:30 am: Two unidentified men opened fire at RSS building in Ludhiana in early morning hours, more details awaited. 9:00 am: Fire breaks out on the 5th floor of Times square Building in Andheri East, Mumbai, 8 fire tenders rushed to the spot. 8:45 am: DMK chief Karunanidhi will appear before a Chennai court today in connection with a criminal defamation case filed against him by TN CM. 8:30 am: Odd Even was positive, but behind that was a big CNG Scam, of which I had a sting-Bhavna, the woman who threw ink on CM. 8:00 am: Woman who attacked Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal yesterday was released last night on a personal bail bond, she will appear before court today. OneIndia News Panama boat tragedy: Sukhbir urges Sushma to send team to US India oi-PTI Chandigarh, Jan 18: Punjab government on Monday, Jan 18 urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister to immediately dispatch a team to the US to offer necessary assistance to the victims of a boat tragedy in Panama in which 25 youths from the state are feared drowned. "Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today had a telephonic conversation with the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who assured that the government would reach out to the victims immediately," an official spokesperson said here. Badal said the Punjab Government is also sending a team of senior officials to US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy. Meanwhile, referring to the report that as many as 25 youths from Punjab were feared dead as the boat in which they were travelling capsized near Panama, Badal said it is "alarming". The youths were reportedly headed to the US illegally in a boat when it capsized. The incident happened on January 10 and the parents of the youths got to know about it on January 12-13, he said. He said the incident took place at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama. Meanwhile, the Deputy CM has directed the Director General of Police and SSP Kapurthala to take action against travel agents involved in human trafficking. Kapurthala Police has registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Immigration Act against the travel agents. Interrogation would be conducted to ascertain how many youths were on the boat. PTI From plotting a hijack to creating the JeM, why Pakistan guards Masood Azhar so much In a case of bad karma Taliban outs Pakistan on what India had always said on Azhar Pathakot Attack: Why did India take Maulana Masood Azhar off the radar? India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Jan 18: India will formally make a request to Pakistan to hand over Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) who masterminded the Pathankot and Parliament attacks. Azhar was the same person that India had to trade in exchange for the hostages during the Khandahar hijack episode. Will Maulana Masood Azhar be handed over to India? We very much doubt it says an official in New Delhi. We had asked for Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi too after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, but that never happened and hence we do not expect anything different here too, the officer added. Radar off the Maulana: After Azhar was released, he returned to Pakistan only to mastermind the attack on the Indian Parliament. He became high on the list of most wanted. In fact India had formally requested Pakistan to hand him over after the Parliament attack, but that did not happen. Over the years, Maulana Masood went out of favour with the Pakistan establishment. An attempt to assassinate former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharaff ruined his relations with the ISI and the Pakistan army further. All these incidents made India believe that Maulana Azhar was a spent force and gradually the radar went off him. Some officials admit that taking Maulana off the radar was a mistake. This is the problem while dealing with terrorists from Pakistan says an Intelligence Bureau officials. The ISI intentionally ensures that some terrorists maintain a low profile for several years and this is done with the sole intention of lowering the heat. All these years when Maulana was off the radar, India focused on Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed. Today everything is changed and Maulana Azhar is back right on the top of the wanted list. Why ask for Maulana Masood? If India is so sure that Pakistan will not hand over Maulana Masood Azhar, then why ask for him in the first place. Officials explain that there can be only two outcomes that would come from such a request. Firstly, it would pressurise Pakistan to take some action against him and keep him grounded. Secondly, it would send across a strong signal if Pakistan does not hand him over to India. It becomes a talking point and will add to the list of all those terrorists that India has asked for in the past. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, January 18, 2016, 8:28 [IST] Pathankot: Polygraph on Gurdaspur SP after NIA moves court India oi-Vicky Pathankot, Jan 18: The National Investigating Agency will approach the court seeking permission to conduct a lie detector or polygraph test on Salwinder Singh, the Gurdapur Superintendent of Police who was abducted by the terrorists prior to the Pathankot attack. The NIA, which has been questioning Singh for several days now has found his answers to be contradictory and hence wants to subject him to a polygraph test. The NIA after questioning him reported to the Home Ministry of India with the progress. It also told the Home Ministry that a polygraph test would be needed in order to get a clear picture of what exactly transpired prior to the Pathankot attack. The Home Ministry, which okayed a polygraph test on Singh has also told the NIA to move the court. As per the law, an investigating agency will have to seek permission from a court before it can carry out a polygraph test. In addition to this the court too will grant permission if Singh agrees to undergo a polygraph test. OneIndia News Police play host for marriage of ex-naxals in Chhattisgarh India oi-PTI Raipur, Jan 17: Former naxals Podiyami Laxman and Markam tied the knot in presence of government officials and people from various walks of life in Jagdalpur with the local police turning into revellers for the ceremony as wished by the couple. "The newly-married couple who had surrendered earlier were also appointed as constables in district police," Bastar Superintendent of Police R N Das said today. The marriage was held in a traditional manner at a ceremony on Gandhi Ground yesterday and attended by officials from police, administration and common people. "The order to appoint them as constables in district police force was issued today. Earlier, Bastar Range IG SRP Kalluri had assessed the possibility of inducting the duo into police force," Das said. He referred to a provision under which state government can offer job to naxals who have laid down arms and joined the mainstream. Markam had worked as a member of the Platoon no. 26 of Darbha Division Committee before she turned herself in before police last year. Laxman, who served as a deputy commander of Indravati Area Committee, had laid down arms in 2014. The marriage could be made possible with the 'Samajik Ekta Manch', an NGO, bearing the expenses for the bride Markam while police have taken Laxman under their wings. Laxman and Markam, who were staying in a camp under police protection, had expressed their desire to tie the knot in presence of police. Their love blossomed while they were working as Naxal cadres, but they could not muster courage to express their love or get married as it is forbidden for ultras. "The Naxal cadres are not allowed to marry and if anybody defies this diktat, he is forcibly sterilised," the officer had said. PTI Delhi: Ahead of Diwali, police seizes over 1400 kg of firecrackers in 3 separate operations Who in India can see partial solar eclipse 2022 on Oct 25 RRB Group D Result 2022: Answer key, how to download score card and more Delhi air quality projected to cross 301 by Sat; GRAP stage II comes into effect ahead of Diwali Security geared up ahead of Republic Day, Francois Hollande's visit India oi-IANS By Ians English New Delhi, Jan 18: Security in the national capital has been heightened "to an unprecedented level" ahead of Republic Day in which French President Francois Hollande will be the chief guest, said official sources. On Monday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviewed the security situation in Delhi with Delhi Police commissioner B. S. Bassi and other senior officials from intelligence and security agencies. As per home ministry sources, the security machinery is fully alert to foil any threat by terror groups and possible presence of Islamic State sympathisers is also being factored. "There may make an attempt to undermine the sense of security through small actions such as knife attack on security personnel or snatching of service weapons. But the security agencies are alert and will foil any such attempt," a ministry source said. The Pathankot terror attack has been weighing heavy on the minds of India's security machinery and all security aspects are being looked into. Hollande will watch the Republic Day celeberations on January 26 at the Rajpath. President Pranab Mukherjee will take salute of the parade. The French president will be visiting India over two months after the terror attacks in Paris in which 130 people were killed. IANS Trouble for Ram Rahim? Complaint against Dera chief for dressing up as Lord Vishnu India oi-Reetu New Delhi, Jan 18: Days after comedian Kiku Sharda was arrested for mimicking Dera Sachcha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, a complaint has now been lodged against him. Dera chief has landed in soup for hurting religious sentiments by dressing up as Lord Vishnu in a video. According to reports, All India Hindu Student Federation has filed the complaint and accused him of insulting Lord Vishnu and hurting religious sentiments of Hindus. In the video, Gurmeet Ram Rahim can be seen descending from the sky as Lord Vishnu, a gimmick that left federation activists fuming. #kikushardaarrest: Rishi Kapoor openly challenges Dera chief's supporters to jail him "We will not tolerate Gurmeet Ram Rahim insulting our gods and gurus. He first insulted Guru Gobind Singh ji and is now seen as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in one of the videos. What is this? He got TV actor Kiku Sharda arrested just for mimicking him after which the police arrested the actor immediately. We gave a complaint to the Zirakpur police station, which is hesitating to register a case against him. We will move the court if the case is not registered immediately," president of the All India Hindu Student Federationwas quoted as saying in a Indiatoday report. The complaint has been filed in Zikarpur, Mohali on Saturday. Reportedly, cops are hesitating to register a case against Dera Sachcha Sauda chief. However, police said that they have launched an investigation after registering a complaint. Earlier also, Gurmeet Ram Rahim had been in dock for dressing up as Guru Govind Singh and a complaint was lodged against him for hurting Sikh sentiments. OneIndia News TS EAMCET 2022 Seat Allotment Result 2022 for round 2 on Oct 16: How to check and more Union Minister who termed HCU 'den of casteist extremists' booked under SC/ST Atrocities Act India oi-Shreyas New Delhi/Hyderabad, Jan 18: A suicide at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) draws spot light on still prevailing atrocities on Dalits. A Union Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya's letter written on 17 Aug 2015 (available with OneIndia) to HRD minister Smriti Irani appallingly exposes the mind set of the minister over Dalit students' movement. However the minister on Monday along with the Vice Chancellor of the university booked for abetting the suicide of Rohith Vemula. The letter dated 17th Aug, 2015 by Minister of State (Independent Charge), Labor and Employment and addressed to the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani termed HCU "den of casteist extremist and anti-national politics." [Hyderabad Varsity student's suicide note scathingly laments societal sickness] The letter targeting the HCU said Hyderabad University, a central university located in Hyderabad has, in the recent past, become a den of casteist extremist and anti-national politics. The letter further added this could be visualized from the fact that when Yakub Menon was hanged, a dominant students' union, that is Ambedkar Students' Association has held protests against the execution. "When Shri Shushil Kumar, President of the ABVP in the campus protested against this, he was man handled as a result he was admitted to the hospital." The letter observed that the university authority has become mute spectator to such events. The minister said his purpose of sending the letter to the HRD minister was to apprise the situation of the university and he hoped Irani's dynamic leadership would bring turn around in the campus politics. Minister booked The Police in Hyderabad on Monday booked union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and three others for abetting the suicide and also for violations of the SC/ST Atrocities Act following the suicide of a Dalit research scholar of the University of Hyderabad. University vice chancellor Appa Rao and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leaders Sushil Kumar and Vishnu have also been booked. The cases under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code and also the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act were filed in Gachibowli police station under Cyberabad police commissionerate limits. HRD forms committee While the central government is under severe pressure, the HRD has formed two member fact-finding committee to look into the circumstances that lead Rohith to kill self. According to official sources, the team led by Shakila T Shamsu, OSD in the ministry, and comprising another Deputy Secretary level officer Surat Singh, will go to Hyderabad today to look into the entire matter and submit the report to the HRD ministry. The body of V Rohit, a Dalit PhD scholar who was found hanging at the Central University's hostel room in the campus yesterday, was sent for post mortem amid protests from fellow students this morning. Rohit was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University (HCU) in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader. The suspension was revoked later. The five research scholars were suspended from the hostel for rest of their study period for allegedly attacking an ABVP leader. Meanwhile, some student unions have called for an educational institutions bandh today OneIndia News With inputs from the agencies 'We demand for RSS to be banned too', says Congress MP on PFI Ban What to make out of Muslim-Bhagwat meet? Why RSS men wear half pants in public?, asks Rabri Devi India oi-Shalini Patna: Rabri Devi, the RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife and former chief minister of Bihar on Sunday, Jan 18 attacked Hindu Organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Jananta Party (BJP) for their double standards on what they they wear and practice. Rabri launched an attack on RSS and BJP over the use of lathis, when she was addressing the 9th triennial open session of RJD's national council, while saying that "why RSS and BJP do not hesitate to call RJD as 'lathi mein tel pilawan party'?, when they themselves carry lathis." Her statement came in the backdrop of BJP's mockery over RJD workers carrying lathis at a rally. In a lighter vein, she said, "Aren't RSS oldies ashamed to wear half pants (knickers) in public?" While concentrating on party's unity, Rabri called upon Mahagathbandhan leaders to remain united. She even advised party leaders to refrain from leg pulling of each other as it can create problems. "Nitish Kumar led Mahagathbandhan will continue till 20 year in Bihar", she was quoted saying as by the TOI. After concluding her speech, she greeted Lalu Prasad Yadav while offering him two roses, after he was elected as RJD's president for ninth time in a row. [Lalu Prasad elected RJD chief for 9th time in row] At the same time another RJD leader and former union minister Kanti Singh, also presented a bouquet to Lalu. Neeraj Kumar, the JD(U) spokesperson told OneIndia, "Ex-CM Rabri Devi has just commented over the real posture of RSS and definitely we have criticised the BJP on their comment on lathis used by RJD during the rally. OneIndia News Golden intelligence rule: When your cover is blown, you are on your own Why the Indo-Pak talks will be clause based India oi-Vicky New Delhi, Jan 18: The foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan which were postponed following the Pathankot attack is likely to be held in the last week of January or early February, sources say. Pathankot: Polygraph on Gurdaspur SP after NIA moves court The fate of the talks is however subject to the action taken by Pakistan relating to the Pathankot attack and India will seek documentary evidence of the same. Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has made it clear that he wants the talks to continue, but also instructed his National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to monitor the probe being conducted in Pakistan. Doval who is in touch with his counterpart from Pakistan will seek documentary evidence. Give us evidence of the probe: India has made it clear to Pakistan that it will not rely on newspaper reports relating to the probe being conducted. Pakistan has claimed that it is acting against those responsible for the Pathankot attack. It has even questioned 11 persons after India submitted proof of the telephonic calls made by the terrorists. However India wants concrete evidence and wants to ensure that it does not buy a version of Pakistan which may be a hog wash. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had said that India has no reason to distrust Pakistan now and added that they would wait and watch. India will seek from Pakistan the copies of the FIRs that have been lodged against those behind the attack. We will also seek information on what charges have been booked against those persons Pakistan has claimed to have acted against. We want the talks to take place and would want a terrorist group to undermine the same. We expect Pakistan too to respect that sentiment and carry out a proper probe, officials say. OneIndia News Islamic State bomber detained in Russia for attempting attack in India was recruited through Telegram Why India should get access to Islamic State bomber detained in Russia Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence 4 accused of IS-linked plot to kill soldier, policeman in UK International oi-PTI London, Jan 19: Four young British Muslims plotted Islamic State-inspired terror attacks including drive-by shootings on the streets of London to kill a police officer, a soldier or civilians, a court was told today. Tarik Hassane, a 22-year-old medical student and the ringleader of Suhaib Majeed, 21, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Nathan Cuffy, 26, had obtained a gun and silencer and were looking to buy a scooter which would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, the Old Bailey court in London was told today. Hassane also conducted "hostile reconnaissance" online of Shepherd's Bush police station in west London and the Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks at White City in east London, jurors were told. Prosecutor Brian Altman opened the case, saying, "With their arrests, the police successfully disrupted a plot to kill a police officer, a soldier or possibly even a civilian, in one or more terrorist attacks, which, if the plot had been allowed to run its course would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, according to the warped ideology of the defendants." "The plot was undoubtedly influenced by the happenings in Syria and Iraq and the rise of Isil, which in late June 2014 was renamed Islamic State, when the organisation pronounced itself to be a worldwide Caliphate," he said. The four deny conspiracy to murder, preparing terrorist acts and a series of related charges between July and October 2014. A fifth man, Ayman Aziz, was in contact with Hassane and occasionally in London but is believed to be abroad, the court was told. The trial is ongoing and expected to last a few weeks. PTI How to fight elections with Rs 1,000 asset? Learn from poorest candidate in poll fray in Karnataka 62 richest people own same wealth as half the world, says Oxfam report International oi-Jagriti Washington, Jan 18: Sixty two richest people of the world have now become owners of as much wealth as the poorer half of the global population, said a research report. The report by Oxfam, "An Economy" for the 1%, outlines how the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population -more than 3.6 billion people - has fallen by a trillion dollars (41 percent) since 2010. "Meanwhile the wealth of the richest 62 people has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76 trillion," said the report issued on Sunday. "Power and privilege are being used to rig the system to increase the gap between the richest and the rest of us to levels we have not seen before. Far from trickling down, income and wealth are instead being pulled upwards at an alarming rate," said Raymond C. Offenheiser, President of Oxfam America. "While such extreme inequality is bad for all of us, it's the poorest among us who suffer the grimmest consequences." Oxfam is calling for urgent action to tackle the extreme inequality crisis that threatens to undermine the progress made in fighting global poverty during the last quarter of a century. Oxfam is especially calling for an end to the era of tax havens. "Tax havens are at the core of a global system that allows large corporations and wealthy individuals to avoid paying their fair share, depriving governments, rich and poor, of the resources they need to provide vital public services and tackle rising inequality," continued Offenheiser. Globally, it is estimated that a total of $7.6 trillion of individual's wealth sits offshore - a twelfth of the total. If tax would be paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra $190 billion would be available to governments every year. China's wealth gap worsens: survey Oxfam also highlighted that 9 out of 10 of this year's World Economic Forum corporate partners have a presence in at least one tax haven and estimated that tax dodging by multinational corporations costs developing countries at least $100 billion every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014. Although the number of people living in extreme poverty halved between 1990 and 2010, the average annual income of the poorest 10 percent has risen by less than $3-a-year in the past quarter of a century. Had inequality within countries not grown during that time, an additional 200 million people would have escaped poverty. The research was released days ahead of the annual gathering of the world's elite in Davos for the World Economic Forum 2016. OneIndia News Burkina Faso begins 3 days of mourning after al-Qaida attack International oi-PTI Ouagadougou, Jan 18: Burkina Faso has begun three days of national mourning and the president said security would be stepped up in the capital and the country's borders after al-Qaida militants killed at least 28 people in an attack on a hotel and cafe popular with foreigners. In a message to the nation, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said the people of Burkina Faso must unite in the fight against terrorism. He also announced on the national broadcaster, Burkina 24, that security forces would be stepping up their efforts to thwart future attacks and asked people to comply with the new restrictions. "These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation," said Kabore. The national mourning began yesterday, a day after Burkinabe and French forces ended a more than 12-hour siege at the upscale Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou. When the gunfire and explosions finally stopped, authorities said 18 were killed in the hotel and 10 were killed at the nearby Cappuccino Cafe. Among the victims was a Ukrainian woman who was co-owner of the cafe with her Italian husband, Gaetano Santomenna, according to Ukrainian officials. Although Santomenna was not at the cafe and survived the attack, the couple's son, Michel Santomenna, 9, was killed, according to the Italian foreign ministry. Italy's foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, called the child's death "a horrendous crime," in a tweet which also expressed sympathy with the boy's father. The toll also includes six Canadians, according to Canadian officials. Others killed include seven citizens of Burkina Faso, two Ukrainians, two Swiss, two French and one each from the US, the Netherlands, Portugal and Libya, and one French-Ukrainian, according to Burkina Faso officials who released a partial list. Other bodies were being identified. The American Michael Riddering, 45, of Cooper City, Florida had been working as a missionary in Burkina Faso since 2011, where he and his wife ran an orphanage that also provided shelter to abused women and widows. He is survived by his four children, two of whom were adopted from Burkina Faso. White House National Security Council Spokesperson Ned Price said Riddering "had devoted his life to working with the Burkinabe people" in a statement strongly condemning the recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso and mourning those killed "in these senseless acts of violence." AP Modi not to raise internal matter like J&K during annual UNGA session next month Pakistani PM, army chief in Riyadh to soothe Iran ties International oi-IANS By Ians English Riyadh/Islamabad, Jan 18: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, and will later also visit Iran in a bid to defuse tensions between the two countries. Gen Sharif met Saudi Arabia's deputy crown prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman upon arrival in Riyadh. "After arriving in Riyadh, the army chief met the Saudi defence minister," Inter Services Public Relations said in a statement. "The prime minister wants to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran in a peaceful manner," a statement issued by Pakistan's Foreign Office said. "Pakistan has deep rooted, brotherly relations with both Saudi Arabia and Iran, and is concerned over ongoing tension between the two Muslim countries," it added. The premier is accompanied by a high-level delegation, including his foreign policy adviser Sartaj Aziz, special advisor Tariq Fatemi and National Security Advisor Nasir Khan Janjua. Prime Minister Sharif will meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz and follow it up with talks with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on January 19 in Tehran, a statement from the prime minister's house confirmed. Tensions between Riyadh and Tehran have been running high since the January 2 execution of leading Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al Nimr by Saudi Arabia and the subsequent attacks on Saudi embassy and consulate in Iran. Saudi Arabia and some of its allies have cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, triggering a crisis in the region. Earlier, a senior Pakistani official revealed that in one of the recent high-level meetings, the civil and military leadership of his country was informed that Pakistan could become a battleground for a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran if their relations continue to deteriorate. Fear of sectarian polarisation and proxy war between the two countries in Pakistan has compelled Islamabad to mount a diplomatic push to mediate between the two key Muslim countries, sources said. The visit by Nawaz Sharif was described as a wise step in the best interest of the Muslim world, and leading politicians and analysts have hailed the premier's visit both to Saudi Arabia and Iran. IANS A great tragedy say activists after 200 bodies are recovered from roof of Pakistan hospital International news brief: Confident of Pak's commitment, ability to secure its nuclear assets, says US & more From 'dangerous' to 'secure and confident': US makes a u-turn after Biden's comment on Pak The persecution of Hindus in Pakistan continues with a Hindu girl forcibly converted and married Pakistani PM visits Saudi Arabia, Iran to ease tensions International oi-IANS By Ians English Islamabad, Jan 18: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Army Chief General Raheel Sharif on Monday embarked a visit to Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between them. People in Pakistan and abroad await the outcome of the initiative taken by Nawaz Sharif to bring the two rivals to the negotiating table, Dawn online reported. Nawaz Sharif will lead a high-level delegation to Saudi Arabia and Iran on January 18-19 to exchange views on regional and international issues, a foreign office statement said on Sunday. The statement did not mention if Nawaz Sharif would fly directly from Riyadh to Tehran or make separate visits to the two countries. With Raheel Sharif in the delegation, the visit has assumed added importance and it is hoped that Pakistan would make a serious attempt to defuse tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The foreign office in its statement said Pakistan was deeply concened at the recent escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. "The prime minister has called for resolution of differences through peaceful means, in the larger interest of Muslim unity particularly during these challenging times," the statement said. RSS leader defends PM Narendra Modi's lunch meeting with Nawaz Sharif Pakistan had consistently advocated the policy of promoting brotherhood among member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the statement said. The execution earlier this month of a Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir Al Nimr, who was a fierce critic of the royal family, sparked tensions bordering almost on hostility between the two countries. Riyadh snapped diplomatic relations with Tehran after its embassy in Iran was set ablaze by protesters. IANS The joy of our lives: Sushma Swaraj's husband warm birthday wishes for late leader Remembering Sushma Swaraj on her death anniversary: Facts about Iron Lady of India Sushma Swaraj calls on Israeli PM International oi-IANS By Ians English Tel Aviv, Jan 18: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, on a two-day visit to Israel and Palestine, Monday called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here. "Reviewing an emerging relationship. EAM's second day of engagements in Israel begins with a call on PM @netanyahu," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted. Sushma Swaraj, who arrived here on Saturday, went to Ramallah, the administrative capital of Palestine, on Sunday where she held bilateral discussions with her Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki and also called on President Mahmoud Abbas. The Indian minister is being accompanied by the Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, Anil Wadhwa, and a number of other senior officials during her visit to Israel and Palestine. Sushma Swaraj's visit to Israel comes after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in October last year. EAM Sushma Swaraj meets Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv pic.twitter.com/XHWqdjk1Cd ANI (@ANI_news) January 18, 2016 IANS At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats Three US prisoners freed by Iran arrive in Germany International oi-PTI Berlin, Jan 18: Three of the four US citizens freed by Iran in a prisoner swap have arrived in Germany, a US official said, where they were expected at an American military base. The released prisoners yesterday landed in Germany after a brief stopover in Geneva. Among those on board was The Washington Post's Tehran correspondent Jason Rezaian, who had been detained in Iran for nearly 18 months. "We can confirm that the US citizens who departed Iran this morning after being released from detention have arrived in Germany," a State Department official in Washington said. Earlier yesterday evening, senior US diplomat Brett McGurk posted a picture of himself welcoming Rezaian as he got off the plane at Geneva airport. "Overwhelmed to greet Jason #Rezaian, his wife, Yegi, mother, Mary + Saeed #Abedini + Amir #Hekmati to #Geneva after safely departing #Iran," McGurk wrote on Twitter. The group arrived in Geneva from Tehran aboard a Swiss air force plane, touching down at around 1700 GMT before changing planes to head to Germany. The Swiss foreign ministry had earlier said that the freed prisoners, all of whom have dual US-Iranian citizenship, would be heading to an American base in Germany. According to US media, their destination was the Ramstein air base in western Germany, where the freed men were expected to undergo medical exams. Neither US nor Swiss officials had explicitly named those on board the plane, but McGurk's tweet confirmed reports that the three freed prisoners were Rezaian, Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor, and former US Marine Amir Hekmati. Iran had announced their release on Saturday, just hours before Tehran's historic nuclear deal with world powers was implemented, in exchange for Washington pardoning seven Iranians accused of sanctions-busting or violating trade embargoes. "When Americans are freed, that's something we can all celebrate," US President Barak Obama said in a televised statement from the White House. But he also sounded a note of caution, adding that the US would continue to have problems with the Iranian government's "destabilising activities" in the region, including its support for militant groups. The Swiss foreign ministry said the prisoner swap followed 14 months of confidential discussions in Switzerland. The fourth Iranian-American released as part of the swap, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, has not yet left Tehran, senior US officials said. AFP by Graham Pierrepoint Of all the digital platforms that have seen success and even evolution in the past few years, Netflix is arguably near the top of the list with, as One News Page has previously reported, news that they are to grow their own network of shows and movies from within, as well as their proposed expansion to 130 countries worldwide. However, for some time now, some users have been able to access other countries exclusive Netflix content via an exploit but Netflix have stated this week that they are now aiming to crack down on such unauthorised usage. Previously, users will have been able to access certain Netflix content unavailable to them for geographical reasons by use of a VPN or Proxy, which would therefore allow them to bypass the services ability to pick up on where in the world you are. This is due to Netflixs software allowing customers to experience a national version of the service wherever they may be in the world for example, anyone travelling to Europe will be able to experience alternative versions of the service and different content catalogues to which they had experienced at home. Certain unblocking and proxy services have allowed users to knock this regional lockout down, and it has largely been ignored for some time. However, according to Wired, the service is to start reacting to such programs in the coming weeks, meaning that all users will soon be required to view only their regional content. It is a large move for Netflix, who could be credited with cutting out a fair proportion of movie and television piracy as a result of some of their boxsets as they seek to tackle unauthorised access on their own terms. The statement comes with the assurance that Netflix will continue to evolve, which could mean any number of interesting changes for the subscription streaming service in the near future. With 2016 set to be another big year for the platform, it will be interesting to see how standard networks fare against the streaming service, which is relatively alone in its status, only rivalled by Hulu in certain areas of the world and catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer. Will this mean that all our content may be produced in box-set format for streaming and binge-watching in future? We cant say for certain but it will be interesting to see if that becomes the case! 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. LeoVegas Casino Announces Two-Time Winner Published January 18, 2016 by Mike P A LeoVegas Casino has defied the odds by winning not one but two groundbreaking competitions in November and then December. Lightning can apparently strike twice at LeoVegas Casino, where a Swedish player won two flagship competitions within just a few weeks. The fortunate player began by winning a Hollywood vacation in the Jackpot Party competition, which was then followed by them winning a 25,000 cash sum in the Christmas Million event. The Nameless Winner LeoVegas Casino has been unable to release many details about the winner, who wishes to remain anonymous, but what is known is that they are male and that that they hail from a Swedish town named Vastra Gotaland. The thrilled winner told LeoVegas that they wanted to spend a portion of winnings on making their family happy. Many different players chose to enter the Christmas Million event. And they did so by depositing 10 or more in December to play for an array of smaller cash prizes. LeoVegas drew attention to the event by giving away 100,000 to players, with 25,000 going to the nameless winner. Winner Was Lost for Words In the absence of any comments from the Swedish winner, LeoVegas country manager Shenaly Amin was able to provide a couple of insights to the industry. Amin described the winner as being almost lost for words during their phone conversation to discuss the unprecedented luck for the Swedish man. Amin also touched upon the fact that they had recently spoken to the winner about their Hollywood vacation prize. The winner was described as one of the sites luckiest customers and that their winning streak was unprecedented, with Amin joking that they should put him on speed dial. Amin was also able to explain that LeoVegas will continue to arrange large-scale events that give away appealing prizes. This strategy has become common in an industry where players have an abundance of choices and their attention has to be drawn by the leading online casinos. Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund in the United States with $300.3 billion in assets as of June 30, 2014, has defended its decision to end its hedge fund program, Absolute Return Strategies (ARS), in September of 2014. Hedge funds "didn't move the needle" for CalPERS CalPERS said in a statement, "As we indicated very clearly at that time, program performance was not a key driver of the decision. In fact, ARS historical performance, whether good or bad, didn't move the performance needle at the total fund level in any meaningful way." The pension system made the statement in reaction to an article published in Fortune magazine hinting that CalPERS may have erred in its decision to end its hedge fund program and that keeping hedge funds in the portfolio would have generated around $176 million more for its pensioners. According to Fortune, CalPERS ARS program generated an average of 7.2% in returns from its $4bn portfolio, generating an estimated $243m in gross revenues. The cost of investment management and performance fees to hedge funds would have amounted to $67m. This means the pension fund would ha...................... To view our full article Click here In the week ending 16 January, 2016, the outlook amongst hedge funds is that they are said to be bracing for more pain this year. The pace of hedge fund liquidations climbed 25 per cent in the third quarter of 2015, taking the nine-month total to 700. Jeffrey Gundlach warned investors that it was still too soon to invest in US junk bonds as redemptions threaten the asset class; S&P said that corporate credit conditions are worsening at fastest pace since the 2008 financial crisis. However, Peltz International said that early-stage hedge fund investing will continue to evolve. Stephen Cucchiaro has launched a macro hedge fund called 3EDGE Asset Management; and Archstone Partnerships has extended its investment offerings to accredited investors through the Archstone Alternative Solutions Fund. J.P. Morgan AM has launched a new UCITS fund, which will invest in a number of hedge fund strategies. SAC Capital is having a hard time closing down because of its difficulty in distributing proceeds from illiquid investments; John A. Paulson is winding down his Bermuda-based reinsurance company, PacRe; and Octagon Capital is returning all client money in its two funds and convert to a family office. ...................... To view our full article Click here Opalesque Industry Update - Northill Capital (Northill) has announced that it has agreed to acquire a majority interest in Capital Four Holding A/S (Capital Four). Capital Four is an industry-leading European High Yield asset management firm, based in Copenhagen, with an award winning performance track record and approximately EUR6 billion of assets under management. Northills investment in Capital Four is consistent with its strategy to invest over the long term in high quality, single-purpose asset management businesses. Northills investment in Capital Four represents approximately 60% of the firms equity, with existing partners Sandro Naf, Torben Skdeberg and Henrik stergaard maintaining ownership of approximately 40%. As a result of the transaction, Northill will have indirectly acquired all the equity previously owned by a recently retired partner of the firm, with the balance of the equity also being acquired from the existing partners. Additional employees of Capital Four retain indirect equity exposure through the firms warrant programme and will participate in a long-term incentive plan to increase their ownership stakes going forward. Capital Four was founded in 2007 and manages European High Yield strategies across High Yield Bonds, Leveraged Loans, Credit Long/Short and Direct Lending predominantly on behalf of institutional investors. It is the largest independent high yield investment manager in Europe. Credit views are consistently expressed across the firms strategies, which benefit from the same rigorous fundamental bottom-up credit selection and analysis process first established in 1999. Capital Fours European High Yield strategy has continued to achieve strong returns for investors, and has consistently outperformed its benchmark since inception. Northills approach is to ensure that culturally and operationally existing management teams retain the autonomy to continue to run their business. Capital Four will remain in Copenhagen, enabling it to preserve its distinctive culture and location, which provides a favourable vantage point on a complex and fast growing European credit investment universe. Capital Four will retain day to day operational independence and members of the Northill management team will join the Capital Four Board of Directors. The current partners will continue with the firm while the number of equity owners will grow over time to reflect the further development of Capital Fours strong talent pool. Existing Capital Four equity owners will hold their remaining equity for a minimum of five years, and in addition, each will reinvest a minimum of half of their after tax proceeds in Capital Fours investment strategies. Jon Little, Partner, Northill Capital LLP, said: Capital Four is a highly successful firm with an outstanding, award-winning performance track record and a disciplined, repeatable investment process. The partners have worked together for almost 15 years as dedicated high yield investors and are amongst the pioneers of the asset class. The business has built a very talented, collegial team we like and respect, with an investment-led, no stars culture, and is committed to the continuous progression of its capabilities. Capital Four has a diversified client base and excellent business momentum with substantial international potential. As an owner alongside management, our focus is on being a long-term supportive partner, working jointly with Capital Four to ensure the business continues to grow and develop whilst maintaining its strong investment performance. Sandro Naf, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Capital Four, said: Capital Fours partnership with Northill is a strong cultural fit and will ensure that the continued development of our business and team happens seamlessly whilst preserving our proven investment process, focus on self-development and principal commitment to serving our clients. Northills engagement ensures that Capital Four will continue as an independent firm where existing management continues to run the business, and will enable us to more readily broaden equity ownership to the firms future leaders. This is an exciting collaboration for Capital Four which brings highly complementary experience to our business and we look forward to working together. Spencer House Partners LLP acted as financial advisors to Capital Four. Judge Cormac Carney (Image by public domain) Details DMCA sua sponte: (sooh-uh spahn-tay) adj. Latin for "of one's own will," meaning on one's own volition, usually referring to a judge's order made without a request by any party to the case. [law.com] On January 11, 2016, in Jones v. Davis, [1] Jones filed a Petition For Rehearing And Petition For Rehearing En Banc in the Ninth Circuit. This article argues that the petition should be granted, but decided on grounds beyond those set forth in the petition, and that the case is an ideal vehicle for reconsidering the constitutionality of the death penalty la Justice Breyer's June 2015 dissent in Glossip v. Gross, [2] where, joined by Justice Ginsburg, he wrote: [R]ather than try to patch up the death penalty's legal wounds one at a time, I would ask for full briefing on a more basic question: whether the death penalty violates the Constitution [which] forbids the "inflict[ion]" of "cruel and unusual punishments." In 1995, Ernest Jones was sent to California's death row for a horrific rape-murder. [3] After seemingly exhausting state remedies, Jones sought a writ of habeas corpus in the Central District of California, under the Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), 28 U.S.C. 2254 . As follows, Judge Cormac Carney (a George W. Bush appointee) startled the legal world by preempting Jones' original petition, which has yet to be heard. Since 1978, California has sent over 900 convicts to death row, but the death sentences of only 31 have become final (of whom 13 have been executed), while 87 have died of natural causes or suicide. Finding this due to systemic backlogs in hopelessly underfunded state postconviction review processes, on July 16, 2014 Carney issued a 29-page Order Declaring California's Death Penalty System Unconstitutional , [4] as arbitrarily selective, under the landmark case of Furman v. Georgia , [5] which in 1972 conditionally nixed the death penalty nationwide. Carney's Order states (at 2; emphasis in orig.): [T]he dysfunctional administration of California's death penalty system has resulted, and will continue to result, in an inordinate and unpredictable period of delay preceding [] actual execution. Indeed, for most, systemic delay has made their execution so unlikely that the death sentence carefully and deliberately imposed by the jury has been quietly transformed into one no rational jury or legislature could ever impose: life in prison, with the remote possibility of death . As for the random few for whom execution does become a reality, they will have languished for so long on Death Row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary. Unfortunately, in Jones v. Davis, a Ninth Circuit panel vacated Carney's Order on what the media universally reported as purely procedural/technical grounds, quoting the holding that "[b]ecause Petitioner asks us to apply a novel constitutional rule, we may not assess the substantive validity of his claim." [6] In so ruling, the panel turned a blind eye not only to its own sua sponte powers, but to the already exercised sua sponte power of the district court, in finding the claim substantively valid. Despite not ruling on the claim's "substantive validity," the panel's ruling was formally on the merits, and it entailed " a detailed analysis of federal constitutional law." [7] The petition for rehearing (at 13-16) even complains that the merits should not have been reached. In fact, so as to find that the claim was novel (and therefore avoidable), the panel decisively and dispositively suppressed both Furman's holding that death penalty regimes resulting in freakishly rare executions are arbitrary per se, [8] and Furman's requirement that discretionary death sentencing be formally fettered , including through adequate appeal processes. [9] To rescue the record from inherently irrelevant confusions, and to correct the drastic suppression of Furman, an en banc Ninth Circuit panel should sua sponte articulate and apply a proper standard for reviewing sua sponte trial court decisions. Under that standard, it should reach the merits of Carney's Order, and vigorously restore it. ************************ The home page of California's state-funded Habeas Corpus Resource Center, which acts as Jones' counsel, has long been given over to Jones v. Davis. It provides links to all substantive Ninth Circuit filings, including nine pro and one con amicus briefs. [10] Interest in the case caused the Ninth Circuit to create a similar Jones page . Despite the wide public interest and the life-and-death import of the issues, most of the parties' argument and of the court of appeal opinion is small-minded, irrelevant, confused, and/or worse. In the petition for rehearing (at 15-16) Jones himself presents arguments against Carney's basic finding of futility in returning the case to the California courts, to first exhaust state remedies. In all prior filings, Jones passionately, convincingly, and of course argued in support of the futility finding. This tactical repositioning [11] perversely condemns Carney's Order not only under the essentially irrelevant exhaustion of remedies provision of AEDPA, but also under the pertinent "enough is enough" or "justice requires it" sua sponte discretionary standard. What's up? It's a long story, fully told in a paper that this article is in part written to recommend, namely, Judge Carney v. The Death Penalty: Ninth Circuit Panel Suppresses Furman's Repudiations Of Dysfunctional Sentencing And Freakishly Rare Execution Regimes . The paper thoroughly addresses the common law context and the record in Jones at face value (i.e. under AEDPA), before presenting the sua sponte perspective of this article as a take-it-or-leave-it final point. ************************ The sorry record in Jones is not primarily the fault of the parties or of the court. After Carney ordered Jones to file a claim of the court's creation, everyone, including Carney, by default fell into the habit of applying AEDPA pleading standards. This is understandable, given the lack of any articulated standards for the sua sponte creation of issues, and for reviewing the sua sponte creation of issues. As Bradley Scott Shannon explains: Quietly, [] sua sponte decisionmaking has become de rigueur, but there is no articulated set of criteria for determining when such power should [] be exercised . . . [S]ua sponte decisionmaking [lies on] a spectrum . . . At the most permissible end of the spectrum, one might place decisions that seem to be mandatory, such as dismissals for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction [12] Carney's Order, by affirming a legal theory of his own creation, albeit within the compass of the extant controversy (seeking the same relief, based on essentially the same facts), lies at the least permissible end of the spectrum, and must be extraordinarily justified. On the other hand, the sua sponte discretion required for an en banc Ninth Circuit panel to announce and apply the appropriate sua sponte standards to Carney's Order, lies at the most permissible, maybe-mandatory end of the spectrum. The standards to be applied are matters of district court jurisdiction, [13] and so also of appellate jurisdiction, which the court of appeal has a routine duty to independently determine. A regular cause for raising issues sua sponte is "[t]he judiciary's interest in protecting the constitutionally demarcated limits on its authority." [14] Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Sanders blast Clinton for lying about his Medicare expansion plan (Image by ThisCantBeHappening!) Details DMCA I admit I've been slow to warm up to the idea of supporting Bernie Sanders. Maybe it's because I publicly backed Barack Obama in 2008 and quickly came to rue that decision after he took office. But I have decided Bernie Sanders is different. It's too facile to simply label him another "hope-and-change" Obama, or just another Bill Clinton liberal poseur, put in the Democratic race to lure left-leaning voters. When I wrote that I backed Obama, back in '08, I said that it would be important for people on the left to stay organized and to press Obama, after election, to live up to his promises on health care reform, labor law reform and other issues. There will be no need to push Sanders on his issues if he wins. Unlike Obama, they have been the driving force of his political life. As he demonstrated in Sunday's debate, and as he has been demonstrating on the campaign trail with his full-throated call for a single-payer national health care program and a trust-busting break-up of the giant banks which control a staggering and totally unconscionable 60% of the nation's economy, and particularly as he has demonstrated by resolutely refusing to take corporate money to fund his campaign, while denouncing the buying of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, by the financial and the pharmaceutical industries, Sanders is out to make change, not promise to make it. Let's start there. Sanders is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill left liberal political candidate. When is the last time that you've heard a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination jump into a question posed on national television by the high-priced corporate news "talent" about whether he's a "democratic socialist" and answer, "Yes, I am." We can debate what that means, as opposed to being a socialist or a social democrat, but the point remains -- Sanders wears and has worn the label "socialist" with not just pride but with a refreshing in-your-face assertiveness. And yet he is threatening to upend the presumed front-runner in this race -- an avowed capitalist. Why? Because most Americans are fed up with the rapacity and inherent corruption of American capitalism. During its coverage of the debate, NBC flashed on its screen the results of a Seltzer & Co. poll of likely voters planning to attend Iowa's Democratic caucuses on Feb. 1. They had been asked whether they considered themselves capitalists or socialists. The surprise result: 38% said they were capitalist, and 43% said they identified themselves as socialist" Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. (Image by mattlemmon) Details DMCA For having seen it televised to the point of saturation, the first thing that comes to mind about Rev. Martin Luther King for most people around the world and in the US, are his opening words before a massive civil rights demonstration in the US capitol Washington DC, "I have a dream!" Also somewhat well known is that King was shot to death five years later. What the world and most every Americans under the age of fifty, do not know (for it having been criminally suppressed in all US media for nearly a half-century), is that exactly one year before being assassinated, Rev. King condemned the US war in Vietnam and all previous "atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945 meant to maintain unjust predatory investments" and held all Americans, including himself, responsible for these atrocity wars for "not being willing to give up the pleasures and privileges that come from the immense profits from those predatory investment the wars and violence had been protecting. In Europe, on April 8th, 1967, as your author descended stairs to the Hotel lobby, his eye rebounded as it caught a glimpse of the news stand, for the headlines in bold large print on all the newspapers from around the world: "KING CONDEMNS US WARS," "KING CONDEMNS US WARS FOR PROFIT," " KING CALL US GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN WORLD." US media from New York Times to tabloids, from TV News Networks to radio and magazines vilified King as a traitor to his country and a disgrace to his race, removing himself as a leader by his shameful sermon at Riverside Church in New York City. Elected officials and politicians ranted about him being worst than just unpatriotic. Fifty years ago, with powerful media and popular government spokespersons denouncing King as a traitor without ever referring to the truthful history and current genocidal situation in Vietnam, the average American got the message that agreeing with King's truthful statements would be social and political suicide. In America's Baptist churches, both ministers and congregations, were at first reticent to speak, then slowly carefully let it be known they could not go along with King. Some of King's fellow civil rights leaders within the national coalition King led, felt the need to be vocal in dissent from King saying involving themselves with the war in Vietnam would sidetrack the civil rights movement. Though King's prominence as an American leader was diminished, his plans for a second nationwide march on Washington being planned with the theme connecting poverty to the war in Vietnam was going forward in strength when King received the bullet to his brain that stopped that march on poverty and the war. One imagines that those investors of trillions of dollars in the Vietnam war breathed a sign of relief, having feared King could stop their wars as he stopped segregation. In the weeks after King's assassination, the African American poor in most major and some minor cities rioted with much loss of life and great destruction. To get the image of King off and out of the streets so to speak, the image of King was 'promoted' upstairs to most great American hero, the only American hero to have a three day official national holiday celebrating his birth. And perhaps that mollified many in the nation's African American communities and made them less likely to notice the complete tight media black out of any mere mention of King's condemnations of US wars. In his world shaking New York sermon 'Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence' Martin Luther King held all Americans, including himself, "responsible for atrocity wars and covert violence on three continents since 1945, all meant to maintain lucrative unjust predatory investments." Though King throughout his sermon spoke to his fellow Americans, dismissing his government as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world," we have, in all these intervening years since his assassination, become used to seeing those few protesting US wars pointing a finger at their own government and away from themselves. King gave his audience a succinct history of US crimes in Vietnam beginning in 1945 that would today awaken understanding of the history of all previous and subsequent US crimes against humanity in small defenseless nations. King's warning to humanity of a continuing illegal and genocidal use of the nation's armed forces, secret services and media has been blacked out of Western media and all sources of information for nearly a half century. What would happen today if people read and heard the video on the Internet rarely clicked on to baring Luther King's horrific descriptions of merciless abominable mass murder of a peaceful innocent Buddish population of mostly rice farmers, for example: "They languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers." What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones? We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops." We have cooperated in the crushing in the crushing Buddhist Church. We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men." Those who are old enough to have heard King's anguished plea for the lives of non-white brothers and sisters and their children in Vietnam and other poor countries, have maintained a silence that King called betrayal. "A time comes when silence is betrayal." And that time has come for us." But since even King's own family and his closest colleagues and friends have maintained a betraying silence as they pursued political careers during wars so profitable for the Industrial Military Financial Complex that engendered them. In retrospect, it was not to be expected that anyone would raise his voice, seeing what happened to King. For nearly five decades, even America's thousand African American celebrities, somehow, either out of fear or lack of interest, have cooperated by their silence with America's total blackout of Martin Luther King's anguished cry, "Silence is betrayal!" and have remained silent, indifferently silent, while non-white men, women and children by the millions have perished 'in harms way' of Americans, including Black Americans, in uniform. (Why the rest of the world has produced no vocal King follower is a topic for another article, but the snow job of Rockefeller ushering a person of color as the latest Commander-in-Chief of the White Colonial Power ruled planet is of no small importance.) There are exceptions to the above mentioned. Hon. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, is unrelenting in referring to King's words and speaks eloquently to the subject of American genocide. Perhaps waiting in the wings for less dangerous weather is Obama's ex-family minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright of "God damn America for her crimes against humanity!" TV sound bite fame during Obama's 2008 election campaign. Your author believes that the half-century of continual destruction of US 'humanitarian' bombings, 'humanitarian' invasions and 'humanitarian' occupations that have gone on since King's outcry was silenced, might have created enough unease for folks to be ready to see the difference between truth and lies, should King's Beyond Vietnam be given rebirth. Amazingly brazen titles of recent articles of a conservative former Under-secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan and former editor of the Wall Street Journal, writer Paul Craig Roberts, strike this author as portending public disillusionment: 'The Proof Is In: The US Government Is The Most Complete Criminal Organization In Human History'; 'US Government Drives Toward War With Russia'; 'The "War On Terror" Is The Hoax Foundation Of The Police/Spy State'; 'Americans Stand Naked Before Injustice'; 'The Fate of Children in the Amerian Police State'; 'The Rule of Law no Longer Exists in Western Civilization;' 'This is America Today' - a gutless, cowardly population that accepts mass murder of women and children and destruction of countries without protest.' Another conservative, Ron Paul, during 2012 debates for Republican candidate for President was heard on prime time new programs repeating over and over again for two weeks saying, 'All the bombings, invasions, occupations beginning with those of Korea were illegal and unconstitutional and a horrible taking of lives.' Will it happen in 2016, during the weekend holiday in the United States dedicated to Martin Luther King's birth date that of the dozens of nations presently under attack, whether by US NATO UN military or economic warfare, one will field a celebrity status leader reading to the public from King's long suppressed sermon Beyond Vietnam - a Time to Break Silence? If a crack in the ice is opened up, the crack will spread until a river of life saving truth is navigable. This would be to the protection of everyone on Earth, for as Indian writer Arundhati Roy writes in 'Capitalism a Ghost Story, "the multinationals own the Indian government, which budgets officially the starving to death of millions of children annually." King had cried out, "There will be no progress on social issues, as long as the poor abroad are killed using the enormous human and financial resources that make any such progress impossible." If it became widely known, that America's hero condemned his government as, "the US government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world," it would disable credibility of war criminal media and their ability to justify humanitarian genocide after humanitarian genocide, and end the civil rights movement being a war supporting movement. It will be a hell of lot harder for media to denounce Rev. King after praising him as a great American for a half-century. It will be an opportunity for Martin Luther King's words to help Russia, Syria, Venezuela and all nations under US attack by quoting suppressed 'Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence. King identified the genocidal danger the US represents, for all humanity to be aware of for its own protection, and not to be fooled by its war investors owned media. Eventually the world will understand that King was assassinated to protect the $trillions invested in these wars that will continue as long their profitability continues and the world public is disinterested in making them unprofitable for the compensations, reparations and indemnities that will eventually be awarded tens of millions of victims and survivors of unlawful death, injury, deformed birth, destruction and theft of natural resources. The changing world balance of economic power Eastward and Southward now underway will bring this justice about, but better sooner than wait. The complete text of Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence can be read, or King's voice heard, at or by simply googling 'Beyond Vietnam American Rhetoric.' And after listening or reading King's Beyond Vietnam, one might scroll down the Ramsey Clark co-founded educational and stimulus website Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign containing the pertinent laws and a country by country history of us crimes in 19 nations. The complete text of Beyond Vietnam a Time to Break Silence can be read, or King's voice heard, at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm or by simply googling 'Beyond Vietnam American Rhetoric.'And after listening or reading King's Beyond Vietnam, one might scroll down the Ramsey Clark co-founded educational and stimulus website Prosecute US Crimes Against Humanity Now Campaign containing the pertinent laws and a country by country history of us crimes in 19 nations. http://prosecuteuscrimesagainsthumanitynow.blogspot.com can be viewed by googling name. Finally, those interested may check out: Reprinted from Reader Supported News Actions taken by Hillary Clinton as secretary of state are a major factor contributing to the waves of Central Americans, mostly Hondurans, coming north to the US, according to a highly respected Latino human rights activist and several distinguished scholars who have studied the situation and spent extensive time in the country. They assert that Clinton played a crucial and destructive role by keeping Manuel Zelaya out of the country after the 2009 military coup, despite the fact that leaders of every state in the region wanted him restored. Adrienne Pine is an associate professor at American University, and a Fulbright Scholar who has been researching in Honduras for nearly two decades. She is the author of Working Hard, Drinking Hard: On Violence and Survival in Honduras. "Hillary Clinton had a very central role in the coup against Zelaya," said Pine in a January 12th interview, "from orchestrating the negotiations which insured that the coup government was recognized as a legitimate bargaining partner, to assuring that military aid would continue to be sent to Honduras, by designating the coup as a regular coup and not a military coup. Which is a fictitious distinction that she created." Pine was in the country before the coup and after. "One of Clinton's closest colleagues and a former campaign director, her friend from law school, Lanny Davis," said Pine, "was directly representing the parties that had financed the coup, CEAL, which is an economic business group in Honduras. Davis was representing them here in Washington, and had her ear at all times. And she was parroting exactly the same propaganda that he was talking about, that he was promoting all over Washington. Hillary Clinton indeed takes credit for preventing Manuel Zelaya from returning to Honduras, as if that were a positive thing, in her book Hard Choices. So I don't think there is really any ambiguity about her role in that coup." "We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras," Clinton writes, "and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Zelaya moot." Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington DC. He has studied and written extensively about Honduras before and after the coup. Weisbrot said Clinton's troubling role in the coup should be explored publicly, in terms of assessing what kind of leader she will be, but it has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. In a radio interview in the beginning of January, Weisbrot agreed with Professor Pine that the Obama administration definitely supported the coup, and may very well have taken part in the destabilizing of Zelaya. "The Obama administration made some noises some time after the coup to say that they were opposed to it. But if you followed it carefully, you would see it was very clear that the Obama administration supported that coup and may actually have been involved in that. We don't have hard evidence for that. But we do have a whole trail of evidence of how they helped support it." "The White House, according to their own admission, had advance notice of the coup," said Weisbrot, "and when it happened they did not, explicitly, did not condemn the coup. All they did was say we call on all political and social actors in Honduras to respect democracy. Well, this was a statement every diplomat in Washington knew, at the time, was as close as you could get to actually supporting a military coup against a democratically elected government," he said. "Then you had all these international bodies, including the OAS and the United Nations General Assembly -- they all responded by calling for the immediate and unconditional return of the elected president. But no US official would ever use those words, and in fact the day after the coup, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked if restoring the constitutional order in Honduras meant returning Zelaya himself, and she would not say yes to that. Then we find out later from her book Hard Choices," said Weisbrot, "and also more recently from her e-mails, that she worked quite hard, behind the scenes ... very hard to make sure that Zelaya wouldn't be returned to office." According to Weisbrot and Pine, Clinton played a key role in preventing Zelaya from returning, and thus guaranteed that the coup would be sustained. "One of the key things she did was to make sure that the locus of negotiation for his return was moved out of the Organization of American States," said Weisbrot, "where all the left governments in the region and everyone else were supporting Zelaya, to this special process that she set up ... a mediation process with Oscar Arias, a former president of Costa Rica and a close ally of the United States. Once she'd got that done, I think that was the biggest step toward making sure he would not return. And that's where she actually talks about it in her book, where she acknowledges that working with Arias she was able to remove the question of Zelaya's return, and make sure that that was no longer on the agenda." "The Arias negotiations," said Professor Pine, "which were set up unilaterally by the United States, by Hillary Clinton, to take place between the usurping Honduran administration, the dictatorship, and the United States with Manuel Zelaya, directly contradicted the unanimous resolution of the Organization of American States just days previously, that there would be no recognition of the usurping administration, and that the only legitimate president of Honduras was the democratically elected one, Manuel Zelaya. By overseeing the negotiations unilaterally, the United States, and Hillary Clinton in particular, showed tremendous disdain for the multilateral process that Obama had pledged to respect in the first Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago," said Pine. Honduras Post-Coup: Gunshots or Firecrackers? "Zelaya was elected in, and took office in January of 2006," said Weisbrot, "and he did accomplish a fair amount during his term. He raised the minimum wage. There was a significant reduction in poverty. The economy did fairly well," said the regional expert. "So it is an example of a country -- the second poorest country in Latin America -- that had a chance of changing its future, and it was destroyed with a lot of help from the US government." US policy in Honduras, said Professor Pine, did immeasurable damage to the country and its people. "The impacts of the Obama administration's policy have indeed been just atrocious for Central Americans in particular, from the northern triangle," she said. As a Fulbright Scholar who has been studying Honduras for 20 years, Pine has extensive knowledge of the country, its people, and in particular the political and economic climate in Honduras before and after the US supported coup. Pine spent a year in the country following the coup. Reprinted from Truthdig If you are poor, you will almost never go to trial -- instead you will be forced to accept a plea deal offered by government prosecutors. If you are poor, the word of the police, who are not averse to fabricating or tampering with evidence, manipulating witnesses and planting guns or drugs, will be accepted in a courtroom as if it was the word of God. If you are poor, and especially if you are of color, almost anyone who can verify your innocence will have a police record of some kind and thereby will be invalidated as a witness. If you are poor, you will be railroaded in assembly-line production from a town or city where there are no jobs through the police stations, county jails and courts directly into prison. And if you are poor, because you don't have money for adequate legal defense, you will serve sentences that are decades longer than those for equivalent crimes anywhere else in the industrialized world. If you are a poor person of color in America you understand this with a visceral fear. You have no chance. Being poor has become a crime. And this makes mass incarceration the most pressing civil rights issue of our era. The 10-part online documentary "Making a Murderer," by writer-directors Moira Demos and Laura Ricciardi, chronicles the endemic corruption of the judicial system. The film focuses on the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, who were given life sentences for murder without any tangible evidence linking them to the crime. As admirable as the documentary was, however, it focused on a case where the main defendant, Avery, had competent defense. He was also white. The blatant corruption of, and probable conspiracy by, the Manitowoc County Sheriff's Office in Wisconsin and then-Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz is nothing compared with what goes on in the well-oiled and deeply cynical system in place in inner-city courts. The accused in poor urban centers are lined up daily like sheep in a chute and shipped to prison with a startling alacrity. The attempts by those who put Avery and Dassey behind bars to vilify them further after the release of the film misses the point: The two men, like most of the rest of the poor behind bars in the United States, did not receive a fair trial. Whether they did or did not murder Teresa Halbach -- and the film makes a strong case that they did not -- is a moot point. Once you are charged in America, whether you did the crime or not, you are almost always found guilty. Because of this, as many activists have discovered, the courts already are being used as a fundamental weapon of repression, and this abuse will explode in size should there be widespread unrest and dissent. Our civil liberties have been transformed into privileges -- what Matt Taibbi in "The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap" calls "conditional rights and conditional citizenship" -- that are, especially in poor communities, routinely revoked. Once rights become privileges, none of us are safe. In any totalitarian society, including an American society ruled by its own species of inverted totalitarianism, the state invests tremendous amounts of energy into making the judicial system appear as if it functions impartially. And the harsher the totalitarian system becomes, the more effort it puts into disclaiming its identity. The Nazis, as did the Soviet Union under Stalin, broke the accused down in grueling and psychologically crippling interrogations -- much the same way the hapless and confused Dassey is manipulated and lied to by interrogators in the film -- to make them sign false confessions. Totalitarian states need the facade of justice to keep the public passive. The Guardian newspaper reported: "The Innocence Project has kept detailed records on the 337 cases across the [United States] where prisoners have been exonerated as a result of DNA testing since 1989. The group's researchers found that false confessions were made in 28 percent of all the DNA-related exonerations, a striking proportion in itself. But when you look only at homicide convictions -- by definition the most serious cases -- false confessions are the leading cause of miscarriages of justice, accounting for a full 63% of the 113 exonerations." "[T]he interrogator-butcher isn't interested in logic," Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes in "The Gulag Archipelago," "he just wants to catch two or three phrases. He knows what he wants. And as for us -- we are totally unprepared for anything. From childhood on we are educated and trained -- for our own profession; for our civil duties; for military service; to take care of our bodily needs; to behave well; even to appreciate beauty (well, this last not really all that much!). But neither our education, nor our upbringing, nor our experience prepares us in the slightest for the greatest trial of our lives: being arrested for nothing and interrogated about nothing." If the illusion of justice is shattered, the credibility and viability of the state are jeopardized. The spectacle of court, its solemnity and stately courthouses, its legal rituals and language, is part of the theater. The press, as was seen in the film, serves as an echo machine for the state, condemning the accused before he or she begins trial. Television shows and movies about crime investigators and the hunt for killers and terrorists feed the fictitious narrative. The reality is that almost no one who is imprisoned in America has gotten a trial. There is rarely an impartial investigation. A staggering 97 percent of all federal cases and 95 percent of all state felony cases are resolved through plea bargaining. Of the 2.2 million people we have incarcerated at the moment -- 25 percent of the world's prison population -- 2 million never had a trial. And significant percentages of them are innocent. Judge Jed S. Rakoff in an article in The New York Review of Books titled "Why Innocent People Plead Guilty" explains how this secretive plea system works to thwart justice. Close to 40 percent of those eventually exonerated of their crimes originally pleaded guilty, usually in an effort to reduce charges that would have resulted in much longer prison sentences if the cases had gone to trial. The students I teach in prison who have the longest sentences are usually the ones who demanded a trial. Many of them went to trial because they did not commit the crime. But if you go to trial you cannot bargain away any of the charges against you in exchange for a shorter sentence. The public defender -- who spends no more than a few minutes reviewing the case and has neither the time nor the inclination to do the work required by a trial bv -- uses the prospect of the harshest sentence possible to frighten the client into taking a plea deal. And, as depicted in "Making a Murderer," prosecutors and defense attorneys often work as a tag team to force the accused to plead guilty. If all of the accused went to trial, the judicial system, which is designed around plea agreements, would collapse. And this is why trial sentences are horrific. It is why public attorneys routinely urge their clients to accept a plea arrangement. Trials are a flashing red light to the accused: DO NOT DO THIS. It is the inversion of justice. The wrongly accused and their families, as long as the fiction of justice is maintained, vainly seek redress. They file appeal after appeal. Those convicted devote hundreds of hours of study in the law library in prison. They believe there has been a "mistake." They think that if they are patient the "mistake" will be rectified. Playing upon such gullibility, authorities allowed prisoners in Stalin's gulags to write petitions twice a month to officials to proclaim their innocence or decry mistreatment. Those who do not understand the American system, who are not mentally prepared for its cruelty and violence, are largely helpless before authorities intoxicated with the god-like power to destroy lives. These authorities advance themselves or their agendas -- Joe Biden when he was in the Senate and Bill Clinton when he was president did this -- by being "tough" concerning law and order and national security. Those who administer the legal system wield power largely in secret. They are accountable to no one. Every once in a while -- this happened even under the Nazis and Stalin -- someone will be exonerated to maintain the fiction that the state is capable of rectifying its "mistakes." But the longer the system remains in place, the longer the legal process is shrouded from public view, the more the crime by the state accelerates. The power elites -- our corporate rulers and the security and surveillance apparatus -- rewrite laws to make their criminal behavior "legal." It is a two-tiered system. One set of laws for us. Another set of laws for them. Wall Street's fraud and looting of the U.S. Treasury, the obliteration of our privacy, the ability of the government to assassinate U.S. citizens, the revoking of habeas corpus, the neutralizing of our Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, the murder of unarmed people in the streets of our cities by militarized police, the use of torture, the criminalizing of dissent, the collapse of our court system, the waging of pre-emptive war are rendered "legal." Politicians, legislators, lawyers and law enforcement officials, who understand that leniency and justice are damaging to their careers, and whom Karl Marx called the "leeches on the capitalist structure," have constructed for their corporate masters our system of inverted totalitarianism. They serve this system. They seek to advance within it. They do not blink at the victims destroyed by it. And most of them know it is a sham. "We have to condemn publicly the very idea that some people have the right to repress others," Solzhenitsyn warned. "In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousandfold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations." While bombs explode in dozens of countries around the periphery, the citizens of the Empire focus on the "tightening" of the polls two weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses in which a declared socialist and a closet fascist are running. Poster at Trump rally (Image by Elvert Barnes) Details DMCA The hundred years since the Russian revolution of 1917 have been largely consumed by a worldwide battle between the extreme right and the extreme left, yet the United States is only now facing the possibility of a presidential election that would pit a socialist against a fascist. Yet it's not ideology that's behind the rapt attention to the daily dicing and splicing of of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump's numbers. It's the much less exalted fact that hallowed tradition is being upended: anointed front-runners can no longer be relied upon to carry either party's colors to victory. The real upset is that just as a socialist is finally being allowed to run for the presidency, the most sophisticated people in the county, aka the mainstream press, are allowing their enthusiasm for Trump-the-great story to override the political implications of his candidacy. No people are more dismissive of rednecks than New York/Washington literati, yet these very people are mesmerized by the 'latest figures' or 'clips' or 'tweets' by, for or about Donald Trump. To the point that when the Donald orders a Muslim woman bearing a sign 'I come in peace' to be escorted out of a rally, Meet the Press's Chuck Todd doesn't even whisper the word bigotry. -much less suggest this is not presidential behavior. When the media claims that Trump doesn't have the votes, they fail to mention that most of his followers have guns. Cliven Bundy in the Oregon wilderness made the nightly news for two weeks demanding the federal government give back land (not, of course to the Indians from whom it was actually taken). Militias by the hundreds threaten to 'take back our country', yet the press, knowing that if they could make Donald Trump President tomorrow. they would, has never solicited his comment on their existence . None of the glitterati chortling in their ties appear to even remotely suspect that the US, far from becoming great again under Trump, could wake up under a 21st century PT Barnum Hitler. (I launched that meme at Deena Stryker @DeenaStryker 23 Dec 2015 By showcasing Trump's Life Chris Matthews gives US a Barnum & Bailey Hitler for Christmas Deena Stryker @DeenaStryker23 Dec 2015 and when Todd asked Trump which of three labels he preferred, he picked that one. i also observed on August 12the 2015 that we could end up with a trump/Sanders face-off: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sanders-vs-Trump-The-End-by-Deena-Stryker-Alternative_America_Capitalism_Conflict-150812-627.html Though Todd may be no more guilty than others, I am particularly exercised over him. Perhaps it's because his relentlessly smiling, upbeat presentation that seems to claim we're living in the best of all possible worlds is on air seven days a week now, bringing to mind the paper hats and streamers of the Presidential Conventions that Todd and his like would not be caught dead participating in other than as journalists. Ten days before the Iowa caucuses, it's increasingly difficult to draw a solid line (in the sand) between 'serious' politics and hoopla when it's not clear where one stops and the other begins. But avoidance is also a way to avoid having to admit that forty-three percent of Iowa Democrats now identify as socialists. www.progressivestoday.com/43-percent-of-likely-iowa-caucus-democrat ... While TV pundits love to show off their knowledge of previous campaigns and compare daily figures from one state to another, I'm still waiting for someone to recall 1972, when Democrat George McGovern lost 61 to 37 to Richard Nixon, the press having almost completely disregarded his campaign. Today national organizations and individual observers keep track of the air-time granted each presidential primary candidate, and when the Clinton dominated party machine schedules debates on week-ends, guaranteeing poor viewership, they are at least called out. In 1976, the eminent environmentalist Barry Commoner sought the Democratic nomination with, as his running mate, Kentucky Senator Fred Harris, whose wife was a Sioux Indian. At the height of the oil crisis, Commoner suggested the US nationalize the petroleum companies. The press avoided labelling him a socialist, but they ignored both his platform and his campaign. Unique among developed nations, it has taken almost half a century for the country the entire world identifies with 'change' and 'progress' to admit into its public vocabulary the word socialist. In my book published in France in 1989, Une autre Europe, un autre Monde, I pointed out what has always been viewed abroad as an American 'particularism' (not 'exceptionalism, which suggests superiority, but rather an 'oddity'".): alone among developed nations, the US fingers socialism as the embodiment of evil (In 1980, Reagan would name 'the Empire of Evil'"). When rarely Scandinavia was mentioned, two strikes were called in against its Democratic Socialism: high tax rates and the fact that these were largely homogenous populations, whose experience could certainly not be applied to the United States! It has taken forty-six years for Americans to be allowed to consider socialism on its merits, and we at last have a real debate between government-funded health-care for all and continued subservience to big pharma. Yet the still remaining bottom line is that for people whose only commitment is to 'the story'. it's increasingly difficult to separate candidates who call for 'nuking' countries back to the stone age, from followers eager to charge into the White House with semi-automatics.' This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. Last Tuesday night, President Obama gave his final State of the (Dis)Union address. It was clearly meant to sweep Donald Trump preemptively into the dustbin of history. In case you hadn't noticed, there's no need to "make America great again." From environmental achievements to less than $2 gas at the pump, job creation to military triumphalism, things simply could not be greater right now. American decline? An idle rumor. ("Anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction.") American weakness? A fantasy. In his Disneyesque vision of a country aglow, the president even managed to make his ongoing campaign against the Islamic State sound upbeat and his approach to defeating it little short of an antiwar statement. In a perfectly reasonable fashion, for instance, he suggested that, "as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence." Resisting 2016 campaign proposals that range from the saturation bombing of civilians ("our answer needs to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians") to establishing no-fly zones and sending in U.S. forces to take the Islamic State's "capital," Raqqa , Obama's position is essentially: more of the same -- more planes, more drones, more bombs, more missiles, more "coalitions," more "man-hunting," and more destruction. That's what now passes for an antiwar position in Washington. To steal a line from today's TomDispatch author, what could possibly go wrong with such a plan -- especially when you're talking about the country that, as the president proudly reminded us, spends "more on our military than the next eight nations combined" and whose troops "are the finest fighting force in the history of the world"? (Take that Attila the Hun and crew, Genghis Khan and company, you Roman legionnaires, and all those other pathetic fighting forces that preceded us!) Mind you, American presidents have been stuck on that formulation for at least a decade or more, which might seem strange when talking about a military that, since its last significant victory in World War II, hasn't won much of anything against any force that offered it serious opposition, no matter how lightly armed or informally trained. It's a military that, since 9/11, has proven incapable of effectively building allied armies in the Greater Middle East and has stumbled from one disaster to another in the region. Despite this, the two poles of debate in Washington remain, militarily speaking, more of the same or staggeringly more of the same. Under the circumstances, we at TomDispatch decided to ask former State Department whistleblower Peter Van Buren what a third option might look like when it came to Washington's Middle Eastern policy and the Islamic State. What, we wondered, would less of the same look like or, to go directly over a cliff, something else entirely? Here's his answer. Tom You Won't Like It, But Here's the Answer to ISIS Giving Advice to a Presidential Candidate Who Wants to "Do Something" By Peter Van Buren How can we stop the Islamic State? Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: "Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS!" What would you say? What Hasn't Worked You'd need to start with a persuasive review of what hasn't worked over the past 14-plus years. American actions against terrorism -- the Islamic State being just the latest flavor -- have flopped on a remarkable scale, yet remain remarkably attractive to our present crew of candidates. (Bernie Sanders might be the only exception, though he supports forming yet another coalition to defeat ISIS.) Why are the failed options still so attractive? In part, because bombing and drones are believed by the majority of Americans to be surgical procedures that kill lots of bad guys, not too many innocents, and no Americans at all. As Washington regularly imagines it, once air power is in play, someone else's boots will eventually hit the ground (after the U.S. military provides the necessary training and weapons). A handful of Special Forces troops, boots-sorta-on-the-ground, will also help turn the tide. By carrot or stick, Washington will collect and hold together some now-you-see-it, now-you-don't "coalition" of "allies" to aid and abet the task at hand. And success will be ours, even though versions of this formula have fallen flat time and again in the Greater Middle East. Since the June 2014 start of Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State, the U.S. and its coalition partners have flown 9,041 sorties, 5,959 in Iraq and 3,082 in Syria. More are launched every day. The U.S. claims it has killed between 10,000 and 25,000 Islamic State fighters, quite a spread, but still, if accurate (which is doubtful), at best only a couple of bad guys per bombing run. Not particularly efficient on the face of it, but -- as Obama administration officials often emphasize -- this is a "long war." The CIA estimates that the Islamic State had perhaps 20,000 to 30,000 fighters under arms in 2014. So somewhere between a third of them and all of them should now be gone. Evidently not, since recent estimates of Islamic State militants remain in that 20,000 to 30,000 range as 2016 begins. How about the capture of cities then? Well, the U.S. and its partners have already gone a few rounds when it comes to taking cities. After all, U.S. troops claimed Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's al-Anbar Province, in 2003, only to see the American-trained Iraqi army lose it to ISIS in May 2015, and U.S-trained Iraqi special operations troops backed by U.S. air power retake it (in almost completely destroyed condition) as 2015 ended. As one pundit put it, the destruction and the cost of rebuilding make Ramadi "a victory in the worst possible sense." Yet the battle cry in Washington and Baghdad remains "On to Mosul!" Similar "successes" have regularly been invoked when it came to ridding the world of evil tyrants, whether Iraq's Saddam Hussein or Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, only to see years of blowback follow. Same for terrorist masterminds, including Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, as well as minor-minds (Jihadi John in Syria), only to see others pop up and terror outfits spread. The sum of all this activity, 14-plus years of it, has been ever more failed states and ungoverned spaces. If your candidate needs a what-hasn't-worked summary statement, it's simple: everything. How Dangerous Is Islamic Terrorism for Americans? Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A generation ago, corner stores were a staple in just about every town. Fewer and fewer of these operations are still in existence today and chances are, ownership has changed hands more than once. But that is not the case with Stasiks Market, located at 3302 Bay City Road in Midland. The former meat market, now run as a party store with a hot lunch service five days a week, has been in operation for over seven decades. Its been over 70 years, said Kay Stasik, owner and operator of the market. The business was started by Walter Stasik, who ran it along with his wife, Helen, and their sons Art and Robert. As with many family businesses that have been around for generations, the math is a bit fuzzy on when things officially started. But Kay Stasik said the Midland business has been around since the early 1940s. At one time there also was a Stasik Meat Market in Bay City. The boys had the (Midland) store together when Walt retired, Kay Stasik said in a 1985 Daily News article. The brothers, who both went off to fight in World War II, returned to the store after the war. Brother Robert married the former Miss Katherine Prindle in 1952. They had three daughters, Karen, Bobbi and Debbie. The couple took over full time operations of the business in 1973 after Roberts brother, Art Stasik, passed away. Kay Stasik took over the store in 1985, after her husband died in April the year before. She has run it ever since, with a handful of employees, and some help from her daughters. Back in the meat market days, Stasiks Market was popular for its meat counter, Polish sausage in particular. People just loved it, daughter Debbie Jackson said. It was one of the main reasons they came in here. Jackson works on the weekends at the store, and her sister Bobbi Haines helps out as well. The meat counter was phased out sometime in the 1990s. Although the homemade sausage has been gone for several years now, the crew at Stasiks say they still get the occasional request for the old-time favorite. Once in a while we get people in here asking for it, long-time employee Kathie Ridenour said. They say they had it a long time ago and happened to drive by so they stop to see if we still have it. Birthday girl On a recent January day, Kay Stasik was busy running the counter of her store. Today is my birthday, Stasik said. Dont dare ask her how old she is as she is not quick to give up her age. Ill tell ya, but I dont want you putting it in the paper, she said, smiling. For the record, she looks much younger than she is, and is feisty as any young woman. When asked why she was working on her special day, she was quick with an answer. What else would I be doing today, she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Why not? It gives me something to do. Stasik works five days during the week, and often on Saturdays as well. Before her shift at the store, her birthday afternoon consisted of a dinner at Pis Restaurant, and a special dessert courtesy of daughter Debbie Jackson. She loves German chocolate cake, Jackson said. It is her favorite. At a time when most people her age are long retired, Stasik said she is happy to still be able to work. I stay alive that way, she said for her reason for still working. In a past life, Stasik worked for 18 years for The Dow Chemical Co. She eventually retired, and made the market her full-time profession. Not everything has been smooth sailing for the business or its owner, however. Stasik was the victim of a robbery a dozen or so years ago, but even that did not keep her out of her store for long. They followed me home and knocked me over the head, she said, swinging her hand down, mimicking the blow. I woke up in the hospital. Two days later, she was back to work. Daughter Jackson works on the weekends at the store. She said her mother has no intentions of retiring any time soon. She really likes being here and it is good for her, she said. She likes to be with the people, and it keeps her active. Yes, I think it is good for her to stay busy, Haines added. Family affair The two sisters talked about their time working for their parents back in the day. This was my first job when I was 15, Haines said, laughing. I bagged groceries. I think I also ran the cash register at times. My dad paid me 50 cents an hour. I think thats why I didnt work for him for too long, Jackson added, laughing as well. Outside of the family, Stasiks Market currently has two long-term employes. Kathie Ridenour works weekdays, and prepares and stages the lunch service that is popular with many people along the Bay City Road corridor. I used to live around the corner when I was a little girl. I remember coming in here, she said. Ridenour works the morning shifts, readying dishes like pepper steak, tuna casserole, shipwreck stew, and the hands-down fan favorite, grilled chicken fettuccine. Ridenour has been with the market for just over eight years. She said Stasik has been a good boss and friend to her. Do you know she still drives herself? she asked. And she still does the grocery shopping. Ron Richter is the sole man who works at the market. He has been with the family business for over eight years. When asked what it was like to work for a family run business, he said he has had no issues. To tell you the truth, I dont have any problems here, he said. Kay is a good boss. Richter serves all kinds of duties in the store. I am the security and the stocker. And I keep an eye on Kay, he said, constantly looking toward the door and the counter when customers sound the door chimes. As for his place in the hierarchy, he said he feels at home with the Stasik family. We are actually very tight, he said. I feel like I am the brother the girls never had. Richter said he considers Kay Stasik more than just his employer. Kays my friend, too. Were really cool, he said. Shes special to me. Time for lunch Aside from beverages, snacks and all the last minute items people may grab going to and from work, Stasiks offers hot lunch five days a week. Laborers, contractors and area employees make their way to the corner shop for hot lunches that go beyond the bevy of fast food offerings nearby. Lunch service runs from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. They want to get in quick, get something good to eat, and get back to work, Ridenour said. She said lunch traffic varies, depending on what jobs are being done in the area. If there is a big construction project, it can stay really busy in here for weeks, she said. When work in the area is hopping, things can get busy quickly, as people rush inside in bursts, filling containers with their favorite dish. One customer who stopped in for a soda said she has been coming to the corner store for many years. Oh my, I have been coming here since about 1979, said Gloria Vinson of Midland. I miss the meat counter, but I pop in here for all different things. She said she is happy to see the old store still in operation at a time when everything seems to belong to a chain or franchise. Its really sad to see places like this go away, she said. We need more family oriented stores like this in Midland. Just a minute after 11 a.m., the door chimes, and a stream of hungry men make their way to the slow cookers, loaded with good eats. They joke with each other as they fill their white foam takeout containers with stews, pasta or some other savory creation. Aaron Behnke of Midland met his girlfriend Sarah Granzo for lunch at Stasiks. I am in here about every day, said Behnke, a Central Warehouse employee. Its good food. And I like the joint. The couple made the grilled chicken fettucini their choice for lunch. It is delicious, Granzo added. And the food it always different. Sub-contractor John Furlo of Midland said he grew up in the neighborhood. When work puts him in the area, he makes sure to stop by Stasiks for lunch. I would rather eat here because it keeps money local, he said. Places like this are what a small town is all about. He added that his mother worked at the store when he was younger. They used to deliver groceries to your house, he said. I grew up coming in here. Joe Louis Jackson of Midland said trips to the store are part of his daily routine. I come here for the food and the convenience of the location, he said as he paid for his selections. And they have the best Swedish meatballs in town. Although the business model for Stasiks Market has changed over the years, what has remained the same is a family that loves their store, as well as the history that surrounds it. Daughters, along with their mother and her employees, laughed as they reminisced about the old days. I think my dad would be really pleased that we are still here, Jackson said. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An acclaimed documentary on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Malala Yousafzai which will be shown at the Midland Center for the Arts this weekend has a local connection. Allan Duso, a 2010 H.H. Dow High School graduate, was associate editor, visual effects editor and online editor for the 2015 film He Named Me Malala. Duso got to meet the Pakistani teenager, who was singled out by the Taliban and shot at age 15 for advocating girls education. She is one of the most humble people, Duso said in a phone interview from Los Angeles, where he now lives. When you learn about her story, and when you meet her especially, there are only positive feelings coming from her It makes you want to do good in the world, just like her whole movement. The film will be shown Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the MCFTA Lecture Room. Duso, who graduated from Syracuse Universitys Television, Radio and Film program, worked on the Malala project for 14 months, and even traveled to the United Arab Emirates with a copy of the film to show financial backers. The film was directed by Davis Guggenheim, perhaps best known for the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Waiting for Superman, (2010). Duso did an internship with Guggenheims company while a Syracuse student, working on the film Teach, about the U.S. educational system. After that internship, I stayed in touch with everyone When it came time for me to graduate, they had a job opening for an assistant editor, he said. I feel very fortunate. The son of Paul and Katherine Duso of Midland, Allan said his dad was a computer technician for Midland Public Schools for most of his childhood, and also used to be a professional photographer. When Allan was in junior high school, the family got their first video camera and he started making childrens movies. While at Dow High, he took the video production class in both his junior and senior year. When it came time to choose, I knew I wanted to pursue film production, he said. The internship allowed me to do every process and he found he was most intrigued by editing and visual effects. Duso is currently working on a documentary about the Duke University lacrosse team scandal of 2006-2007. The film, called Fantastic Lies, is set to premiere at 9 p.m. on March 13 on ESPNs 30 for 30 series. Duso feels Midwestern values have helped him in the film business. The biggest thing I tell people when theyre trying to get their foot in the door Being a hard worker and being friendly gets you so far, he said. His mom, a math and special education teacher at Jefferson Middle School, said MPS had a big role in helping her son get started in filmmaking. He was able to do really well (in the Syracuse program) because of what the Midland Public Schools did, she said. Allan urged Midlanders to see the Malala film at MCFTA, in part because the animation in the movie is so beautiful. Animation was used to illustrate the home area of Malala and her father, Zia. They talk about (the area) with love and beauty, but the region has been so devastated by conflict that there is no great footage that captures how they talk about it, Duso said. Seeing it on the big screen is definitely the way to do it. Tickets for He Named Me Malala are $7 and available at the MCFTA Ticket Office, 800-523-7649, or online at www.mcfta.org. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Michigan State Police Director Colonel Kriste Kibbey Etue have announced the 2015 results of the OK2Say student safety program. In 2015, the school safety initiative generated over 2,165 tips in 30 categories, including: 536 tips on bullying. 396 tips on suicide threats. 261 tips related to depression or academics. 252 tips on cyberbullying. 158 tips regarding self-harm. The results show OK2Say is making a difference for Michigan kids. We have stopped violence, saved lives and helped make it a little easier for students across Michigan to walk through the hallways at school, said Schuette, a Republican from Midland. OK2Say is one more tool in a schools safety box. We will continue our commitment to building a responsible and safe culture for all Michigan students. The Michigan State Police is pleased to find that as more students learn about the OK2Say program, more students are using it, added Etue. All tips are taken seriously; nothing is too small or insignificant to report. In 2015, more than 1,000 OK2Say presentations reached 130,000 students across the State of Michigan. Eighty-six percent of the presentations were done in schools with students in grades 6-12. Other presentations were held at community-wide events. OK2Say is a student safety initiative operated through a partnership between the Department of Attorney General, Michigan State Police, state agencies, schools, parents, law enforcement and community leaders available to Michigan students in grades K-12 and enables students to confidentially report potential harm or criminal activities aimed at students, teachers, staff or other school employees. OK2Say is operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. Upon receipt of a tip, OK2Say operators at the Michigan State Police address the immediate need and, as necessary, forward the information to the appropriate responding law enforcement agency or organization. Tips go to schools, local law enforcement agencies, community mental health agencies or the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Students, teachers, parents, school officials, friends and neighbors can submit tips in the following ways: Call: 8-555-OK2SAY (855-565-2729) Text: 652729 (OK2SAY) Email: OK2SAY@mi.gov PHILADELPHIA (AP) A man who had been evicted from a Philadelphia homeless shelter for being intoxicated fatally shot one employee and wounded another after returning for his belongings Sunday morning, authorities said. The man, who had been evicted Friday night, got into an argument with an employee at Station House shelter in north Philadelphia, pulled a gun and opened fire, police said. One employee, a man in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene and another, a 26-year-old man, was shot in the hip and taken to a hospital. The gunman wearing a green hoodie, a black skull cap and jeans was last seen fleeing behind railroad tracks in the rear of the building. Investigators said the shooter had been identified by the surviving employee. Capt. Anthony Ginaldi told WPVI-TV police are still searching for the 32-year-old gunman they consider armed and dangerous. Former mayor W. Wilson Goode, whose SELF, Inc. organization runs the shelter, praised the two workers. "I don't think you could have found more dedicated employees, more concerned employees, more compassionate and passionate employees about what they do. They love their work and people who work with them love them," said Goode, who served as Philadelphia mayor from 1984 to 1992. Goode said security procedures would be assessed to ensure the safety of employees and residents. Officials expressed shock as well as fears that the crime might deter people from entering shelters as frigid weather was poised to enter the region overnight. "We're very, very, very concerned; this is not something that happens in the city of Philadelphia's shelters for people experiencing homelessness. It's a very unusual situation," Marie Nahikian, director of the city Office of Supportive Housing, told WPVI-TV. Nahikian called assisting people who are on the street very difficult and "very complicated." "When you have to run a facility that has rules and you're still loved by the residents here, it makes you a very special person," she said. Station House is described on the organization's website as "an emergency shelter and after hour intake site providing client service case management, a computer lab, and residential services for 99 men." Mayor Jim Kenney called the shooting "a heartbreaking tragedy" and vowed the city's full support for the shelter, its workers and their families, adding that officials will help with the security review. Kenney also urged anyone in need of shelter services to continue to use them with a "code blue" alert slated overnight, which gives officials the power to bring in homeless people to shelters. The Saginaw Community Foundation has been awarded a grant of $250,000 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to support local initiatives that will address obesity-related issues for children, adolescents and senior adults in Saginaw County. Grant funding from the foundation will help Saginaw County nonprofit organizations address obesity-related health issues as a collective. The following eight organizations will be impacted as a result of the grant: Downtown Saginaw Farmers Market Michigan State University Extension (MSUE) Pulse3 Foundation Saginaw County CHAP (Childrens Health Access Program) Saginaw County Parks & Recreation Saginaw Intermediate School District (Saginaw ISD) St. Marys of Michigan Center of Hope YMCA of Saginaw These agencies will use education, opportunity and promotion to achieve the following goals: 1. Improve coordination among agencies/entities working to reduce senior, adult and childhood obesity. 2. Enhance nutrition and physical activity programs/initiatives. 3. Communicate consistent nutrition and physical activity messaging. 4. Advocate for community-wide policy and initiatives that increase healthy food choices and physical activity. This is a tremendous opportunity for the Saginaw Community Foundation to work closely with some of our community health partners, said Renee Johnston, president and CEO of the Saginaw Community Foundation. More importantly, receiving these additional funds will allow our health partners to enhance their efforts to address county obesity issues. Across the state, 29 community foundations were awarded funding through the Michigan Health Endowment Funds fall 2015 grant application process. Grant requests focused on areas such as prenatal care and infant mortality, health services to support adopted and fostered children, healthy food access, wellness and fitness programs, access to mental health services, technology enhancements, health related transportation needs, access to care/integrated care and teen pregnancy prevention. We are excited to collaborate this year with community foundations on projects that seek to enhance the well-being of Michigans children and seniors in their local communities, said Paul Hillegonds, executive director of Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The Michigan Health Endowment Fund was created as part of 2013 state legislation that allowed Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to become a nonprofit mutual health insurer. Nearly $38 million in grants were awarded by the Michigan Health Endowment Fund last year. Additional information can be found at the Michigan Health Endowment Fund website at mhealthfund.com or the Saginaw Community Foundation website at saginawfoundation.org. Less than a year after graduating from college, I find myself back in another classroom: the 10th annual Citizens Academy, organized by the city of Midland for interested residents who want to learn more about their community. After growing up in Midland and now working for the city newspaper, I expected to learn a few things but was not anticipating how much I would learn in just the first session last Wednesday night at City Hall. I recognized quite a few faces and got to know some new ones, before Mayor Maureen Donker kicked off the program. You will have a true sense of pride in the place you live, Donker told the 30 people in attendance, ranging from recent college graduates to retirees, from people who lived in Midland most of their lives and new transplants to the community. City Manager Jon Lynch continued the enthusiasm, and promised the class (the largest in the academys history) they would both learn something they did not know about Midland before, and have a great time doing so. Each week will offer a different view of the city, through field trips and presentations by city staff. Introductions were made, and people cited everything from wanting to learn about their city, to trying to find a hobby or things to do as reasons for attending the academy; one man said the recent conversation about Putnam Park as an alternative site for the Midland Area Farmers Market was his reason for attending. The first session featured a presentation by Gary Skory, director of the Midland County Historical Society, who admitted he did not want to move to Midland from his hometown of Manistee. It took me six months to realize I lived in one of the best-kept secrets in Michigan, Skory told the academy. Midlands rich history of lumber and chemical industries started with two people; John and Amanda Larkin, who arrived at a place called The Forks that we now know as the Tridge area and set up a mill to harvest the towering pines that once filled the surrounding forests. Midland went from a growing lumber village, to a farming community, and then realized its full potential with the arrival of Herbert H. Dow. Skorys half hour presentation presented quite a few pieces of information I did know, including: Midland experienced its own fire outbreak, five years after Chicago was decimated and hundreds of people were killed. Although 120 wooden buildings in the young downtown district burned, there were no reported deaths. There are still buildings from the 1800s that can be spotted along Main Street, including the Larkin Building that John Larkin built despite dwindling business and the objection of his wife. He later lost his lumber mill in a poker game. About 98 percent of the lumber cut down in Midland was sent along to Saginaw or Bay City, where more mills were available to finalize the product. In 1884, all residents of Midland lived within six blocks of Main Street. Grace A. Dow first started The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation with $250,000. That original amount now equates to about $800 million today. In the 1950s, Midlands population grew by about 97 percent and many buildings still in use today, like the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library and the Midland Community Center, were built. Midland residents used to take swimming lessons in the Tittabawassee River. It is a constant story of new and old, coming together, Skory said to finish off his presentation. If you dont have change, you will never have a vibrant community. He then handed the program over to Lynch, who said its good to start with the really rudimentary basics of who we are. Lynch shared some key legislative and demographic facts about Midland, such as: It is the fifth largest city in Michigan in terms of land area, with 36.06 square miles. The population of Midland has been gradually aging, and the population under 19 has been decreasing, hence the closing of multiple schools in recent years. Midlands latest millage rate (for the fiscal year of 2015-2016) is 15, versus 21.34 in Bay City and 16.25 in Mount Pleasant, Next weeks Citizen Academy will take participants to the Midland County Jail to speak with Sheriff Scott Stephenson, Midland County Administrator/Controller Bridgette Gransden, County Clerk Ann Manary and Midland County Circuit Judge Michael J. Beale. We will be learning about the differences between city and county government, the courts system and the Juvenile Care Center. I plan on continuing to share these little-known facts with Daily News readers in a weekly column published Mondays over the next nine weeks of the academy, and welcome you to share your perspective of living or growing up in this city by emailing me at jhaynes@mdn.net or engaging with me on Twitter @citizenhaynes. You can also find me on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1PBfBga. It is an honor to serve you in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2015, I met with constituents in all 15 counties in Michigans Fourth Congressional District to hear their concerns about what is happening in Washington and our country. I have made it a priority to be accessible and available to you, and to be responsive to your requests and concerns. Last year, I held listening sessions across the district to meet with constituents. I heard from them about our nations spending, taxes, national security and a variety of other issues. To better notify constituents of these events, my office sent 205,782 emails in advance and notices were published in local media. My office also uses email and social media to communicate with constituents. Last year, my office sent over 880,000 emails to residents of the Fourth Congressional District to inform residents about upcoming events and to share news updates. I also sent surveys on issues before Congress and received more than 3,000 responses on issues including Iran and Common Core. If you would like to receive email communications, you can subscribe to my newsletter at https://moolenaar.house.gov/newsletter. Over 5,800 of your friends and neighbors have liked my Facebook page where updates are regularly posted. The address is Facebook.com/RepMoolenaar. I am also on Instagram, at Instagram.com/RepMoolenaar. Members of my staff are also available to assist constituents when they have a problem with a federal agency. Constituent service representatives held office hours in every one of the Fourth Districts 15 counties, hosting over 150 constituent office hours in 2015. At these office hours, constituents who need assistance with a federal agency are invited to attend and talk to a member of my staff about the problem they are having with an agency. No appointment is necessary. A list of upcoming office hours is available online at https://moolenaar.house.gov/officehours. In total, my office assisted with over 1,000 cases involving federal agencies, including Veterans Affairs, the IRS and the Social Security Administration. In 2015, my office responded to 26,172 emails and letters from constituents. If you would like to share your views on policies that are being debated in Congress, you can visit my website at https://moolenaar.house.gov/contact/email to send me an email. The Washington office can help you plan a visit to our nations capital, provide tour information for the U.S. Capitol Building and The White House, or order an American flag flown over the U.S. Capitol for a special occasion. The links for these services are https://moolenaar.house.gov/tours and https://moolenaar.house.gov/flags. If you are having an issue with a federal agency or would like to share your input on legislation, please contact my offices in Midland at (989) 631-2552 or in Washington, D.C. at (202) 225-3561 for assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need assistance with an agency or would like to share your policy views. It is an honor to serve as your representative. U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, represents Michigans Fourth Congressional District which is made up of Clare, Clinton, Gladwin, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta, Midland, Missaukee, Ogemaw, Osceola, Roscommon, Shiawassee, and Wexford counties, and parts of Montcalm and Saginaw counties. Our hearts go out to the people of Flint. Its been a rough period of time for residents, who have been frustrated by what has been a string of government miscues at the local and state level in dealing aggressively with the problem of a contaminated water supply, which first came to light in 2014. The citys water supply became contaminated with too much lead after the city switched its water supply in 2014 to save money while under state financial management. Local officials declared a public health emergency in October. Residents already are being urged to use drinking water filters, which are being distributed for free along with bottled water. Judging by recent news developments, however, it looks like government is starting to get more aggressive in addressing the issue. For instance: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has asked President Barack Obama to issue an emergency and major disaster declaration, seeking additional federal aid for both individuals and public agencies involved in the effort to provide Flint residents with clean drinking water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency said a few days ago that it was reviewing the request and would make a recommendation to Obama as expeditiously as possible. We are utilizing all state resources to ensure Flint residents have access to clean and safe drinking water and today I am asking President Obama to provide additional resources as our recovery efforts continue, Snyder said in the statement. The governor last week declared an emergency. He promised that officials would contact every household in Flint to check whether residents have bottled water and a filter and whether they want to be tested for lead exposure while his administration works on a long-term solution. On Tuesday, he activated the National Guard to help in distributing water, filters and other supplies and asked for help from FEMA in coordinating a recovery plan. FEMA has appointed a disaster recovery coordinator. State Attorney General Bill Schuette announced last week that his office would investigate how the situation was handled, and determine if any Michigan laws were violated. The situation in Flint is a human tragedy in which families are struggling with even the most basic parts of daily life, Schuette said in a statement. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors said theyre working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on an investigation. And the state auditor general and a task force earlier faulted the Department of Environmental Quality for not requiring Flint to treat the river water for corrosion and for belittling the publics fears. In coming weeks and months, well find out if any laws were broken, and if there was any connection between a contaminated water supply and Legionnaires disease, which has killed 10 people in Flint over the past two years. If you wish to help, you can do so in the following ways: Flint Community Schools: Call the districts finance office at (810) 767-6030 about cash donations. Bottled water drop-offs can be coordinated by calling (810) 760-1310. United Way of Genesee County: Visit unitedwaygenesee.org and click on the GIVE button. Theres an option to support the Flint Water Project. Call (810) 232-8121 for details. Catholic Charities of Genesee County: For information on making cash or bottled water donations to aid soup kitchens and warming centers, call (810) 785-6911. A rise in methamphetamine cases has spurred a partnership led by the Midland County Prosecutors Office to not only to prosecute those making the drug, but to ensure community safety in terms of health and clean-up. The Midland County Methamphetamine Protocol Team is all about learning what regulations and protocols different community agencies such as the Department of Human Services, law enforcement, the Midland County Health Department and more have when it comes to the drug, and how to form a central protocol plan for response, Midland County Prosecutor J. Dee Brooks said. The teams first meeting was in August, during which those in attendance went through the process of who is responsible for what, and shared each groups protocol. In December, the meeting focused on where the protocols converge. Im thrilled with the response we had, Brooks said. We have a lot of interest and cooperation. The first meeting was attended by representatives from the Midland County Sheriffs Office, Midland Police Department, Michigan State Police, Coleman Police Department, the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team, MidMichigan Medical Center Emergency Room staff, Midland County Administrator/Controller Bridgette Gransden, Midland County Health Department staff, Midland City Attorney James Branson and Planning Director Brad Kaye, County Treasurer Catherine Lunsford, and state Department of Human Services staff. PROTOCOL OF METH BUSTS The number of methamphetamine cases began exploding in early 2015, with numerous busts at homes throughout the city and county. Each involved one pot meth labs, a method of producing the drug in a plastic bottle. When labs are found, law enforcement respond and firefighters are dispatched due to the explosive nature of the labs. Next, police contact the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team to take equipment and substances away for disposal, because the chemicals involved are toxic, Brooks said. BAYANET is not responsible for the home or its contents, such as furniture and belongings. And thats where the Midland County Health Department comes in. Once they have determined there is a meth lab in the home, they let us know, Health Department Director Mike Krecek said. Then we condemn the property. The property owner is sent a letter stating the property has been condemned, and staff take out a poster that states the property is condemned. The home cannot be occupied until there is a preliminary assessment to determine levels of the drug in the home; the health department brings in outside expertise to conduct the testing, Krecek said. If the drug is found inside, the home must be cleaned before anyone can live there. In 2015, the health department condemned about a dozen properties. Thats quite an uptick for us, Krecek said, adding theres usually one or two a year. It really spiked in 2015. Brooks said its not uncommon for property owners to say they dont want the home anymore because its less expensive to forfeit the property than it is to spend $10,000 to $20,000 to make it habitable again, especially in the case of landlords who were unaware their renters were making methamphetamine. Last year, two properties where methamphetamine was produced were foreclosed on a home on North Lake Sanford Road where a meth lab caused a house fire, and a home on Cherne Drive where numerous people were busted for making the drug, Midland County Treasurer Catherine Lunsford said. In the case of the fire, Charles William Luckett, 53, was convicted of operating a meth lab and is serving a prison sentence of two to 15 years. She said the treasurers office makes use of Daily News articles on meth labs by adding notes to the property information kept by the office. The office also provides the sheriff and health department a list of properties that have been foreclosed for unpaid property taxes, so the agencies can check to see if those addresses were involved in meth production. If a foreclosed property has been determined to be contaminated by methamphetamine, the office reviews the property value, condition, location and extent of the contamination to determine whether to demolish or remediate. Testing also includes the septic systems, which could become contaminated by dumping chemicals down drains, Lunsford said. Assessments of the North Lake Sanford Road and Cherne Drive properties led to both being torn down at a cost of $10,000 each. Then we auctioned them as vacant lots, she said. THE IMPACT ON CHILDREN In addition to the homes, meth also touches all the inhabitants, including children. Weve had a bunch of cases with children involved, Brooks said. Some made meth while the kids were away, and in one case, while the children were in a car parked at the home. Thats what the addiction can do youre not thinking right, he said. One case involving children in court now is that of Tyler Matthew Barringer, 36, Hope, who faces charges of operating a meth lab, manufacturing meth, possession of the drug and purchasing pseudoephedrine after the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team was asked to investigate a meth cook at a Coolidge Street home in May. Also charged was Barringers ex-wife, who since has made a plea in the case and has custody of the couples two children. The children have cases in the Midland County Probate Court. Tyler Barringer is wanted on a bench warrant after he failed to appear for a preliminary hearing in his case before Midland County District Court Judge Michael D. Carpenter on Tuesday. His probation agent testified that Barringer has not complied with drug testing and left the state without permission. The endangering of innocent lives by making and using the drug around vulnerable children calls into play additional community partners. Thats a big part of the protocol team, Brooks said, adding everyone knows their own part, but not so much about what the other organizations roles are. For example, the Department of Human Services has specific testing and information requirements for children who were in homes where the drug was produced, he said, adding that information isnt necessarily known by emergency room staff. The emergency room has special decontamination rooms and meth toxicity testing. Between the two, there are questions about what testing needs to be done and how it is paid for, Brooks said. A CAUSE FOR COLLABORATION In addition to the human services agencies working together, law enforcement agencies also are collaborating. Brooks said he realized the county had a big problem with meth when he took office, and he took action. I said specifically we need to target this, after meeting with BAYANET, police, the sheriffs office and state police. It does seem to be slowing down. He cautioned that while a good bite has been taken out of the meth problem, the necessary ingredients for the drug remain available, so it could come back online. A state tracking system that limits pseudoephedrine purchases has helped greatly. So thats where the shortage comes in. Now we have people recruiting other people to buy pseudoephedrine for them, Brooks said. After drug busts, officials check the tracking system records to see where the suspects have gone to purchase medications and what quantities are purchased. That tracking of the pseudoephedrine has made a big difference, Brooks said. The state also added laws making purchasing pseudoephedrine to make meth a felony offense. It gave us another tool to use, Brooks said. In addition to traffic stops, some local meth cases have come to light due to suspects in other crimes such as retail fraud giving information about meth labs thinking theyll get out of trouble. That doesnt work for them, Brooks said, though officials do use the tip to make meth busts. MOTIVES BEHIND METH Officials have found there are different motivations for involvement with meth. Were trying to distinguish between the addicts who are committing crimes to support themselves versus the criminals who abuse drugs and have no respect for peoples property rights, Brooks said. These are the people we want to send to prison. He said that while looking at the major drugs in Midland County, such as heroin, cocaine, meth, ecstasy and bath salts, he was surprised to find out there are dealers who are not using their product. They are getting others addicted, then fuel the addiction to make a living off it. Recently, the prosecutors office garnered two convictions for defendants with long criminal histories Arthur Elmer Pugh, 42, who is serving between two and 20 years for meth possession and operating a lab; and William Joseph Sherwood, 33, who was sentenced to serve between 20 and 40 years for crimes including operating a meth lab. Then we have addicts, users and people who possess the drugs, Brooks said, adding its not usually large amounts. For these people, our concern is more treatment. The philosophy is a new one, with Brooks adding he saw all meth as major drug trafficking when he took office just over a year ago. Seeing involvement with the drug at different levels is a new process, he said. EVOLUTION OF DRUG COURT Brooks has found the experts in the field have experienced the same evolution by talking with Victor Fitz, Cass County prosecutor and immediate past president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan. Fitz told him Cass Countys drug court works the same way as Midland Countys low-level makers supporting their own drug habit, as well as small-time users and manufacturers, participate in drug court or other alternative sentencing. That way the goal becomes rehabilitation, with treatment, and lengthy and intense probation, Brooks said. That can include daily meetings and drug testing, and is an 18-month to two-year long process. Of course, defendants mess up occasionally, and while officials dont want to punish the disease, the law-breaking does result in sanctions. We all know prison doesnt reform people, Brooks said. If we can deal with them on a local level, its better for them and saves money. For the defendants who go to prison, the concern is less with their own addiction, and more with how their behavior impacts the community. Thats one of the hardest things a prosecutor has to do, Brooks said of making the distinction between a dangerous criminal and an addict. Washington, D.C - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of deep and abiding faith, compassion, and dedication. He reminded us all that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability, and that the time is always ripe to do right. He challenged us all to live up to the ideals enshrined in our founding documents that we are all created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the Department of Defense, we are committed to honoring Dr. Kings legacy. That means recognizing the human dignity in all of the people we serve. It means protecting the right to vote for all of our service members. It means ensuring that those who serve are judged not based on who they are or where they come from, but rather what they have to offer to help defend this country. As we remember Dr. King on his birthday, lets recommit ourselves to the standard he set, the legacy that lives on, and the challenge that remains. NORMAL A textile artist will speak Jan. 27 at the Illinois State University Galleries to start the President's Speaker Series, which also will include an Algerian freedom fighter, a former business executive working on a sustainable future, a Hollywood screenwriter and radio personality and a cyber security expert. Talks are free and open to the public. The intent is to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to campus to foster dialogue, cultivate ideas and encourage an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process. Artist: Stephanie Liner, a textile artists whose work has been shown nationally, most recently at the Smithsonian Art Museum and The Craft Alliance in St. Louis, will present Mementos of a Doomed Construct at noon Jan. 27 at the University Galleries in Uptown Normal. Freedom fighter: Hamou Amirouche, author of Memoirs of a Mujahed: Algeria's Struggle for Freedom, 1945-1962," will speak at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 in Room 242 of ISU's Schroeder Hall on The Making of an Algerian Freedom Fighter. Labor activist: Carlos Figueroa of Ithaca College will speak on Bayard Rustin: Black Gay Quaker Thinker and Civil Rights and Labor Activist at 7 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Prairie Room of ISU's Bone Student Center. Figueroa is an associate professor of politics at Ithaca and is involved in labor organizing, collective bargaining and urban activism. Business executive: ISU alumnus Michael Keane, a consultant and former chief financial officer at Genomatica, a bio-engineering technology company, will speak on The Journey to a Sustainable Future at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at ISU's Center for Performing Arts. He is currently director for City of Hope, a non-profit comprehensive cancer center. Disability activist: Andrew Morrison-Gurza will present Deliciously Disabled at 6 p.m. March 31 in the Old Main Room of the Bone Student Center. He works within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community to show that those in the LGBTQ community with disabilities deserve representation. Screenwriter: ISU alumnus David Congalton will talk on George Clooney Laughed: (Mostly) True Tales of a Hollywood Writer at 7 p.m. April 6 in Capen Auditorium following a free screening of his mockumentary, Authors Anonymous. Congalton is producer of the upcoming horror/thriller film Day Six and hosts a popular radio show in central California. Library leader: Joan Lippincott, associate director of the Coalition for Networked Information, will talk on Moving Forward Together: Libraries and Librarians as Partners in Teaching, Learning and Research" at 10 a.m. April 12 in the Bone Student Center's Old Main Room. She is chair of the Association of College & Reseach Libraries New Publications committee. Cybersecurity expert: Charlie Miller, a former computer hacker for the National Security Agency, will present If You Make It, We Can Break It, a talk on cyber security, at 7 p.m. April 12 in the Bone Student Center. He is a consultant and worked for the Twitter information security team and has found vulnerabilities in products from Apple iPhones to Toyota cars. NORMAL Illinois State University student Dominque Tice-Carr said she was just minding her own business, driving to church, one night when police pulled her over in Normal. I was just leaving my house and I had a blinker that was out, she said Sunday during a two-hour panel discussion on race relations and law enforcement at Illinois State University's Bone Student Center in Normal. They called in four additional officers to assist with the stop. "My question is how do I feel comfortable in a situation like that? Tice-Carr said she was cooperative and respectful, didnt have any outstanding arrest warrants and was by herself. As a result, she didnt understand why more officers were needed for such a minor infraction. Her car was searched and she was eventually allowed to leave. Bloomington Police Chief Brendan Heffners officers didnt respond to the call, but he said it is common for other officers to be brought in to assist with the search of a vehicle. If they search a car, they are probably going to have you off to the side so an officer can watch you and then have two officers search the car, he said. Sometimes when there are other officers in the area, they are going to come by for backup just for that officer. "Its more of a safety issue for the officers more than anything else. About 90 people attended The Talk, a program sponsored by the Bloomington-Normal Jack and Jill Inc. and ISU NAACP chapter. Jack and Jill of America is an organization of mothers with children ages 2 to 19 that is dedicated to nurturing future African-American leaders. Heffner was joined on the panel by Priscilla Jones, a retired sergeant with the Peoria Police Department; Shaya Gardner-Hayum, a retired Cook County Department of Corrections officer; ISU instructor Crystal Shelton; and Vernon Smith, an Illinois State Police field manager. With recent and repeatable cases where young people have lost their lives at the hands of law enforcement, especially people of color, we believe it is important to bring our community together to address concerns and exchange information on how to respond in challenging situations, said Jack and Jill member Leslie Clay, one of the organizers of the event. We are fortunate to not have such cases in our community and we want to prevent them as much as possible," she added. "Most importantly, we would like our youth to walk away with key points and behaviors that they can utilize when dealing with law enforcement officials. Jones said that while racial profiling does exist, not every department and not every officer does it. First, if you get stopped and start up with an attitude, then you are starting off on the wrong foot, she said. If you are respectful and not doing anything wrong, there wont be any problems. Smith said that if someone is having problems with the police, there may be legitimate reasons. You should be eliminating contact with the police and if you are doing the right things, remaining respectful and not causing trouble, then you probably wont have much interaction with the police, he said. Heffner agreed. We all have to be accountable, as police officers, as parents, or as citizens, he said. If your child is in a traffic stop at 2 or 3 in the morning in a bad neighborhood, you may want to do some checking and find out what is really going on. "Most times, our goal is to stop crime before it happens," he added. "But when things arent adding up, we want to be know what is going on. WestRock to Close Corrugated Packaging Plant in Montville, CT Jan. 18, 2016 - The WestRock corrugated packing plant in Uncasville (Montville, Connecticut, USA) will close permanently on Feb. 1, according to a company spokesperson. Officials from the Georgia-based company informed the 85 local employees that the mill would be closing, WestRock spokesman Tucker McNeil said [on Jan. 13]. "It's about matching our supply and our system to our customers' demands," McNeil said. "We've got a big mill system, and we have to be able to match the entire supply." The Montville mill, which produces about 166,000 tons of corrugated cardboard packaging per year, temporarily was shut down in October. It was one of four plants that WestRock, formerly known as RockTenn, was "indefinitely idling following its purchase of SP Fiber Holdings Inc. in October. The plant reopened a month later, Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel said. McDaniel said the company has not said what it plans to do with the property. "They can sell it to another entity to run it as a mill, they could take the equipment to another of their mills he said. They have given me no indication of what their plans are. The full story is available at: www.theday.com/article/20160113/NWS01/160119675. SOURCE: theday.com Minnesota parents are receiving emails that seemingly want to help provide security against sexual predators. But the truth of the matter is that these email links are actually scams that will lead to different computer viruses. CBS Minnesota reports that although the links show messages about nearby sexual offenders and ways to protect your kids, clicking on the links will actually infect your computer with viruses that can steal passwords and financial details. "Our primary job as parents is to protect these little people that we created," Mark Lanterman, a parent from Minnesota with a background in computer forensics, said in an interview. "I believe most parents, if they received this notification that a registered sex offender was moving into there area and here's a link telling me who they are and what they're doing to protect my family I think most of us would click on this," Lanterman continued. "These hackers, they're not stupid and they know what people will click on. Think before you click, people are trying to trick you." Jill Oliviera from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension also told CBS Minnesota to avoid clicking on suspicious emails or links. Deleting the suspicious emails is an effective way to avoid being infected with virus. Parents can also call the contact number of the legitimate website the email is linking to but make sure to call a contact number that does not appear on the email. "Do not click on links, download files or open attachments in emails from unknown senders. It is best to open attachments only when you are expecting them and know what they contain, even if you know the sender," shared Identity Theft Killer. This advisory is a great advice that parents can use to protect themselves from email link virus scams that try to take advantage of their love for their kids and their desire to protect them from harm and danger. The successful movie "Fifty Shades of Grey" is confirmed to have its second installment movie production soon happening. The movie, which is based on the successful trilogy "Fifty Shades" by E.L. James, was adapted into a movie two years ago and, now, the second part of the book "Fifty Shades Darker" is soon to start its production. On previous news reported here in Parent Herald, numerous cast members from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" will reprise their role despite many critics slamming the movie. This includes Jamie Dornan, who plays the charismatic Christian Grey, and Dakota Johnson, who plays Anastasia Steele. Rumors of new cast members also spread on the Internet such as Cara Delevingne, Charlize Theron, Theo James and many more. The second movie installment "Fifty Shades Darker" was supposedly to begin its production on the first week of February but according to some sources the production has been pushed and Dornan's personal life was to blame. "Fifty Shades of Darker" production date is now set on Feb. 15, 2016 in Vancouver, Canada. Dornan is expecting a second baby with his wife and it could be one of the reasons why the production of "Fifty Shades Darker" has been moved. It is also unclear when the labor date of Dornan's wife will happen. Another reason could be is that two of the pivotal characters in the book are yet to be casted for; these are Mrs. Robinson, Leila Williams, and Jack Hyde. On other news, Dornan's character Christian Grey on the movie has been described explicitly on the books but, during the first movie "Fifty Shades of Grey," there was no nudity from the Christian Grey himself, which left fans disappointed. However, rumors have it that Dornan is willing to go on full-frontal nude on the next installment "Fifty Shades Darker." "I'm looking forward to embodying Christian again - and getting a chance to show more of him," Dornan said in an interview with People Magazine. Dornan could be hinting something in the upcoming "Fifty Shades Darker" movie. He was also rumored to have been offered a $1.5 million for a nude scene. "Fifty Shades Darker" will be released in theaters on Feb. 10, 2017. Angelina Jolie walked the red carpet in Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 16 to support the premiere of the third installment of Kung Fu Panda where she lent her voice for the character of Tigress. During the event, the mother-of-six revealed that four of her kids: Pax, Zahara, Shiloh and Knox, aged 12, 10, 9, and 7 respectively -- all recorded animal sounds for the latest movie. But before Jolie's kids join the project, the actress said she talked to them about it as she doesn't want to pressure them into doing it. "It's been, 'If you want to, you can jump in, and here's a crazy idea'... and some of them were shy," Angelina recalled to Extra. "But this one they all really wanted to and they all came together and did their recording together and took it very seriously -- it was cute." After the recording wrapped up, Angelina said her children's perception about her profession has greatly changed as they think now that her line of work is "easy." "Now that they've had a taste, they think Mommy's job is ridiculously easy," she said. During the interview, Angelina also gushed about her husband Brad Pitt and said she is always "proud" of the actor as despite his busy schedule, he always somehow found some time to balance his family and work. "I don't need that [Oscar recognition] to be proud of him," she added. In the event, Angelina turned up solo and donned a short-sleeved, loose-fitted black dress that perfectly outlined her sexy figure. While walking at the red carpet, the Hollywood actress showed off her flawless facial complexion and revealed that she barely did anything to have a picture-ready glam. "I just pulled myself together," Jolie quipped. "Just cleaned the dirt off my feet." Meanwhile, Angelina is currently busy directing the First They Killed My Father. The upcoming Netflix is set for release later this year. Food allergy in children is a serious condition that has to be managed properly to avoid any life-threatening occurrences. Unfortunately, many parents report miscommunication with the doctors regarding the management of food allergies among their kids. According to a new study from Northwestern Medicine and the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago published by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice and reported by News Medical, many parents say that their kids' pediatricians did not give them information about the proper use of epinephrine auto-injector and a written food allergy emergency plan. An epinephrine auto-injector is used for stopping allergic reactions while a written food allergy emergency plan details the mild and severe symptoms of food allergy and the things to do in cases of allergy attacks. "These points need to be hammered home by the physician at every visit," Dr. Ruchi Gupta, associate professor in pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Lurie Children's Hospital, told News Medical. "This is potentially lifesaving information. Physicians need to make sure patients understand when and how to use epinephrine and that they have an emergency action plan." The extensive study reveals that less than 70 percent of parents can remember their allergists giving them proper information on epinephrine use, less than 40 percent of parents said the same about their pediatricians and even fewer parents remember being given a written emergency plan for their children's food allergies. The miscommunication between doctors and parents in managing children's food allergies needs to be remedied as soon as possible. It has become more alarming since statistics show that food allergy affects 1 in every 13 children or those under 18-years-old. There has also been a rise of about 50 percent between 1997 and 2011 in the cases of food allergies in children, according to Food Allergy. A total of six French men who volunteered to take part in a clinical drug trial of a painkiller unluckily suffered an adverse effect of the medication. One of them died and five others are still admitted in the hospital in a stable condition but feared to have irreversible brain damage. The Rennes University Hospital in France announced the death of the man who suffered from the toxic effect of a drug he took after taking part in the phase one clinical trial for humans on a painkiller and mood disorder pill a Portuguese pharmaceutical company, Bial, are developing. The activity was held on a clinic in France headed by the research company Biotrial according to The Guardian. In this matter, French health minister Marisol Touraine claimed that a total of 108 people took part in the test; 90 were given the drug in varying doses while others were given placebo pills. These men aged 28-30, are part of the trial group who began to take the drug with a higher dose on Jan. 7. As a result, one volunteer was admitted to the hospital after feeling sick after three days followed by five others who felt the same way in the succeeding days. After the incident, all the volunteers who took the drug was traced and contacted -- being followed by the trial's suspension. Moreover, as posted on CBC News, the Paris prosecutor's office expanded the investigation regarding the incident for possible manslaughter charges. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical company responsible is currently working with authorities to determine the specific cause of the tragedy knowing that the desired effect of the drug is to decrease pain and ease the mood and anxiety problems, as well as help with the motor difficulties experienced by people who suffer neurodegenerative illnesses. Hence, Bial chief executive Antonio Portela extended the company's apology to the family of the volunteer who died according to ABC News. The Zika Virus, transmitted through a mosquito bite, has reached the United States soil. Health officials have confirmed on Saturday, Jan. 16 that a baby with brain damage was born at a hospital in Hawaii. "The mother became ill with the Zika virus while living in Brazil in May 2015 and the baby was likely infected in the womb," Hawaiian state health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC said. Zika virus is transmitted through aedes aegypti mosquito bites and can cause brain damage and microcephaly to a baby if the mother is bitten during the first trimester of pregnancy. CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told Reuters that there are no other cases of Zika virus infection in the U.S. as of now but they expect to see more soon. "But I think it's important for us to understand that there are going to be imported cases of Zika to the United States and we won't be surprised if we start to see some local transmission of the virus," Skinner said. U.S. health officials issued a travel warning especially to pregnant women last Friday on Jan. 15 among 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America that have cases of Zika virus infection. The list includes Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. The CDC also shared some advice on how to prevent mosquito bites and stop the spread of the Zika virus. Using sunscreen, applying insect repellent (especially products with DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol), wearing clothes with permethrin, long-sleeved shirts, long pants, emptying standing water, as well as closing the windows and doors are some of the most effective ways to avoid mosquito bites and stop the spread of the Zika virus. Refusal of young Chinese mothers to breastfeed their babies has opened the door for enterprising individuals to make a pretty profit off Australian baby formula in China. This is compounded by a prevalent distrust against China's government on its willingness and capability to enforce food and drink standards in the country. As a consequence, supermarkets in Australia imposed a policy that is designed to discourage milk hoarding by allowing only two cans of milk per customer at a single time. According to China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, as low as only 16 percent of new mothers engage in breastfeeding exclusively in this country that has been riddled by several scandals on milk contamination. Despite food policies in China reportedly being as tough as policies in Australia, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Danone and similar milk formula brands from other countries have become prime commodity among Chinese families. The Washington Post reported that buyers are careful to keep the cans of formula they send home to China well under the 22-pound limit to avoid restrictive paperwork. Meanwhile, Australia's Department of Agriculture and Water Resources commits to the investigation of reports that shipping rules are being breached in attempts to send formula overseas. Although Britain, Hong Kong and New Zealand are also target sources for milk resale, formula milk consultant and former milk powder factory owner Simon Hansford said that Australia's reputation for cleanliness and food safety hold the biggest appeal. Apparently, brand-consciousness among the Chinese extends to their children's milk. "They love their Louis Vuitton and BMWs," Hansford explained. "They think if the formula is sold in the big supermarkets and pharmacies, it's a famous brand." Jan Carey, chief executive of Australia's Infant Nutrition Council, agreed with this observation. "The Chinese consumer wants the formula with the English writing on it," she said. According to Michael Harvey, a dairy-industry analyst of Rabobank, a can of milk weighing two pounds can fetch in China three times its price in Australia. "There is clearly money in it," he pointed out. In truth, Australian infant and children's formula are often supplied from other countries. Aptamil, which is among the top brands in the country is a French brand produced by Danone in New Zealand. Danone is available in China under the Karicare brand, which is supposed to be 100 percent a New Zealand product. Breastfeeding advocates think that the underground market are exploiting mothers in China especially considering the sky-high prices placed upon the goods. According to Nina Berry, Sydney School of Public Health researcher and Australian Breastfeeding Association spokesperson, says this is extortion. Perhaps, the answer is similar to China's Beingmate Baby and Child Food Company Ltd and New Zealand's Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited joining forces to produce nutritional powders, including infant formula, in Fontrerra's Darnum plant in Australia. As part of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement, this will largely respond to the growing demand from Chinese consumers. The venture may satisfy the consumers' health and safety concerns while keeping the prices within reasonable range. "The partnership will create a fully integrated global supply chain from the farm gate direct to China's consumers, using Fonterra's milk pools and manufacturing sites in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe," Theo Spierings, chief executive of Fonterra, explained. "By working with Beingmate, we are creating additional demand for ingredients and high-value paediatric and maternal nutrition products made from our New Zealand milk, complemented by milk drawn from other international milk pools." This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions The Romanian New Waves decade-plus run as one of international cinemas most exciting creative niches continues with Aferim!, a film that ventures away from the movements aesthetic in one important regard. Where many of the most celebrated Romanian filmssuch as 2005s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)are set in the present (or in the relatively recent past), director Radu Judes road movie journeys back to the 19th century. And yet, Aferim! couldnt be more contemporary in its themes: Bigotry and fear grip the characters in ways that will be uncomfortably familiar to modern eyes. Its the year 1835, and a father and son are crossing the desolate Romanian countryside on horseback. The soldier Costandin (Teodor Corban) has orders to bring back a runaway gypsy slave named Carfin, and he has brought along his impressionable teen son Ionit? (Mihai Com?noiu) so that the lad can gain some real-world experience if he hopes to join the military. But because Aferim! is something of a parable, their quest is littered with stops along the way, each vignette suggesting the racism and misogyny rampant in this feudal land. Judes first film was 2009s The Happiest Girl in the World, a sad-faced comedy about a provincial, dysfunctional family traveling to the big city so that their moody daughter can star in a juice commercial. That title was ironic, of course, and so is Aferim!s: The word roughly translates to bravo! in English, and indeed theres little for the people of Romania to be proud of in this movie. In the world of Aferim! , its unwise to be gay, Jewish, a woman or someone who would dare cross a feudal lord. Shot in black-and-white to emphasize the cold, cruel past, the film conveys a harsh beauty thats part Western and part surreal travelogueits almost akin to The Seventh Sign. (Like in Ingmar Bergmans film, Aferim! makes room for a deadly illness sweeping through the community.) Though Jude and cowriter Florin L?z?rescu have drawn from archival sources to ground their story in actual events, Aferim! allegorizes Costandins search so that it becomes a despairingly universal lament about the casual evil that resides in every village, every family in Romaniaand beyond. In fact, evil is so commonplace it doesnt even present itself as wickedness: Costandin believes hes raising Ionit? to be a pragmatic, assertive man, but from our vantage point we see only the passing down of prejudice. (Costandin isnt acting alone, either. When he and his boy cross paths with a kindly, old Catholic priest, asking him if gypsies are even human beings, the priest states empathically that they are. Jews, on the other handwell, dont get the priest started on their wretchedness.) About halfway through Aferim!, our main characters do encounter their slave bounty, and Cuzin Toma plays Carfin without any sort of patronizing, quiet dignity. Probably intentionally, Jude leaves the character a bit blurry, providing Carfin with a plausible explanation for why he fled, fearful that hed be punished for an adulterous act he didnt initiate. We have no way of knowing if Carfin is telling the truth, which is just another way that Jude asks us to examine the everyday assumptions we make about different groups. But what matters is that Costandin, egged on by his sympathetic son, starts to believe this slave, which makes their return trip to Carfins village result in a spiky, morally fraught resolution. The Romanian New Wave has often prized an almost real-time examination of seemingly mundane events in order to illustrate a greater societal wrong. (The most common setting in these intimate films is a dingy room in a grubby apartment, usually in the quiet hours of the night.) With its widescreen, black-and-white compositions, Aferim! feels grander, but that sense of life lived close to the bone remains. Corban plays Costandin with snarled simplicity: We intuit that hes a well-meaning man who long ago learned you have to watch your back and screw the other guy before he gets you first. The films dark point isnt that humanity is essentially rotten, its that, in a pinch, people will look out for themselves at the expense of others who could use the help. Com?noius withdrawn turn as Ionit? makes it difficult to know what, if anything, this boy is picking up from his old man. Whats scariest about Aferim! is its unspoken suggestion that prejudice isnt something we learnits just something we accept as part of the flow of everyday life. Director: Radu Jude Writers: Radu Jude, Florin L?z?rescu Starring: Teodor Corban, Mihai Com?noiu, Cuzin Toma, Alexandru Dabija, Alexandru Bindea, Luminita Gheorghiu Release Date: January 22, 2016 Tim Grierson is chief film critic for Paste and Vice President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. You can follow him on Twitter. If mid-season shows are to seasons as Wednesdays are to weekdays, then this was a mid-season hump episode. Much of the plot backtracked on storylines that were covered just last episode. Last week, Richard had smuggled out the gem of Valencia. This week, he sold the jewel in exchange for a dragon, which, for the moment, is merely a lizard. Ill admit, the fairy tale nerd in me did love the Jack and the Beanstock storyline developing. Like Daenerys eggs, this bean of a lizard is sure to morph into a fire-breathing dragon, and Richard did have a really cute, old-school Disney song about him and his dragon pal. Richard is blessed among medieval creatures. First a unicorn, now a dragon. Perhaps a mermaid is next. Other people were also annoyed with this turning plot pointone person being Galavant. He cant believe what Richard has done. They argue, then join different gangs: Richard joins the dwarves (which are actually average-sized men), Galavant joins the giants (which are also average-sized men), and the two gangs battle it out over their differences. Its a bit of Dr. Seuss nonsensical philosophy from The Bread Battle Book, with a heavy hand of West Side Story musicality. Of course, the giants+dwarves do not join forces to become Galavants army, making them another stop on Galavants meandering Odyssey. Galavant, Richard, and Roberta (who was very underused in this episode) reunite and move on in their hopeless search for an armyand a single plot. Back at Hortencia, Wormwood continues to both plan Isabellas wedding AND plot her demise. He will do both to perfection, as he can compartmentalize throwing a coup detat and throwing a baller party. He turns Isabella into a bit of a Bridezilla, even making her lock up her parents when they (finally) start to notice she is behaving nothing like herself. The perfectionist that he is, he orders Isabella to figure out whether their one non-RSVPd guest, Princess Jubilee (Sheridan Smith), will attend the wedding. He needs to know at all costs, otherwise it would risk ruining his detailed wedding plans. Shes off to visit Princess Jubilee, and there she meets what is the opposite of a Disney princess. With unshaven armpits and a penchant for leather, Princess Jubilee talks loud and plays rough, describing herself, in song, as a, Different kind of princess. Got no class/If you dont like it, kiss my ass Make noise/ Swap spit with both girls and boys. Her serenade ends with a burp in Isabellas face, knocking off her tiara, thus ending her enchantment. Princess Isabella leaves the castle, looking regal on horseback and stating, I believe I have a wedding planner to see. Best believe it, his ass belongs to me. As she unsheathes her sword while on horseback, she looks less like subjugated princess Isabella, and more like the warrior queen, Isabella of Castile. In About Last Knight, Sid has treacherously trash-talked Queen Madalena, and consequently is a wanted man. The villagers recognize him from the bounty posters, and as the reward is high, they seek to turn him in. He gets out their grasps by inciting revolutionary ideals and leading them in a revolutionary song. (Listening to Luke Youngbloods heavenly voice could inspire anyone.) Its similar in sound to the Les Mis war march, Let them hear the people sing, with more realistic lyrics. The marching song conjures up bravery, while the discouraging imagesnot so much. We had truth on our side/But we still died in vain/And the brave lucky few/who will somehow make it through/scarred for life/and missing limbs/and needing help to pee and poo. As he sings, flailing a red flag a la Enjorlas from Les Mis, he un-inspires every single upriser. Sid runs away for the second time, proving that Madalena needs new guards, or at least she needs to stop killing her good ones. In his escape, he ends up in the forest of coincidence. There, he coincidentally runs into Wormwood, who Isabella banished from Hortencia. Sid coincidentally finds out where Galavant is, coincidentally retrieves Galavants lost sword, coincidentally gets a horse. Before he trots off, he tells Wormwood to stay away from Valencia, as the rulers are crazy, war minded monsters. Of course, this is the worst possible advice he could give a snake like Wormwood. The Wedding Planner heads straight to Valencia, and offers his evil services to evil Queen Madalena. Galavant and his two buddies have taken refuge at Galavants fathers house, where Galavant is working through some childhood resentment of a neglectful father. Being a tangential plot point, Galavants daddy issues get resolved pretty fast. Sid finds Galavant, and the two are overjoyed to see each other. Sid tosses him his sword when Galavant isnt looking, and it goes straight through Galavants heart. It ends on a big cliffhanger, adding angst and excitement to the show. While he hopefully gets saved, hopefully it will happen over more than one scene and not with unicorn tears. Madina Papadopoulos is a New York-based freelance writer, author and regular contributor toPaste. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter. The first thing readers will notice in Suzannah Dunns The Lady of Misrule is the tone. Although the novel is set in 1553, Dunn doesnt go to great lengths to make the book, which accounts for the last months of Lady Jane Greys life, read true to its period. The narrator is 16-year-old Elizabeth Tinley, and she sounds every bit like a teenager. But if the technique is initially disorienting, the novel resolves into a compelling and engaging portrait of two teen girls experiencing history in a microcosm. In the summer of 1553, Lady Jane Grey was named as the successor of King Edward VI, who was just 15 when he died. Whisked to the throne by her father-in-law, Janes Protestantism clashed with the Catholic power structure. People quickly rallied around Mary Tudor, the Catholic daughter of King Henry VIII, and Jane was arrested a mere nine days later. Dunns novel opens with Janes arrival at the Tower of London with Elizabeth Tinley, an escort from the lesser nobility who must wait with Jane until the trial. The two girls struggle to find common ground; Jane is austere and spends much of her time reading, while Elizabeth is consumed by a love affair she left behind. But as time drags on and Janes fate remains unclear, the girls form a bond born of forced proximity and begrudging appreciation. In the complex web of historical events, age often fades into the background. But Dunn is more concerned with staying true to the temperaments and concerns of her teenage characters than with minute details drawn from history. Elizabeth and Jane bicker, roll their eyes and test their limits, yet they eventually develop a loyalty to one another that feels authentic despite their lack of affection. Neither girl is entirely likable, with Jane distant and Elizabeth self-absorbed for most of the novel, but Dunn succeeds in transforming these young women into vibrant characters. The scope of the story is small, limited to what the residents of the Tower of London can see and hear from inside the walls. Events like Mary Tudors arrival in London and the trial of Jane allies suddenly appear and then fade into the background as daily monotony sets in. Dunn isnt concerned with retelling history as we know it, and as such, its easy to forget that Janes fate is already decided. A false sense of security takes over the Tower, where everyone assures one another that the trial is only a show of power and Jane will go free. This feeling of safety is infectious, even as the reader is whisked along to the tragic conclusion. The casual tone of the novel feels almost flippant at the beginning, as if Dunn were making light of history itself. Elizabeth misses the lover she left behind, a married friend of the family, and spends pages lamenting her own uselessness. Jane remains shut off and silent for many of the early chapters, and Elizabeths lack of interest in the false-queen means the reader isnt told much about her. But at 320 pages, the novel possesses enough space for the girls to slowly open up to one another, facilitated by Dunns decision to practically ignore the supposed hierarchy within the Tower. Titles hold little significance in captivity, and the novel cuts across class lines with ease. Its not often that teen girls are allowed to tell their own stories, particularly in history. But Dunn has created a small window through which readers can experience the fictionalized fates of two young women immortalized in English history. Unpretentious and riveting, The Lady of Misrule puts a human face on one of historys most important footnotes. Irish news sites are abuzz this morning claiming that up to 4,000 workers have been evacuated from three different Apple plants in Cork amid a possible security threat. The police force in Ireland, referred to locally as the 'Garda Siochana', have confirmed that a number of plants have been evacuated. It is understood that several threatening emails were received by the company. It is not clear whether the emails contained information regarding suspicious packages - however, the emails prompted the evacuation of a number of plants. It is also understood that the firm's premises on Lavitts Quay and Hollyhill are among those affected by the evacuation. The workers were allowed to return to work after the buildings were searched. This is the second time this month that Apple had been threatened by bomb threats. The first threat took place last Wednesday, according to the Irish press. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. Back in July 2015 we posted a report titled "WTF: Samsung and a Coalition of Whiners Filed a Motion against Apple over Apple's Patent Win over Samsung." I noted then that "Google, Facebook, Dell, HP, eBay and a collection of other large Silicon Valley companies have decided to side with Samsung in its battle over patents with Apple" At the time the coalition filed a motion with the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Samsung's appeal over damages related to alleged patent infringement, saying that the ruling will have 'significant detrimental consequences for the continued development of useful modern technologies' if left to stand." We're now learning today that that same coalition of Google, Facebook and Hewlett-Packard have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up Samsung's appeal of its patent loss to Apple over the copying of iPhone technology. Samsung asked the Supreme Court to hear its appeal, giving the nation's high court an opportunity to weigh in on perhaps the most high-profile tech showdown in recent memory. Mercury News is reporting today that "In 'friend-of-the-court' briefs filed over the weekend, the companies warned the high court that the outcome against Samsung -- which already has had to cut a check to Apple for more than $500 million for patent violations and faces the potential for more penalties -- "will lead to absurd results and have a devastating impact on companies" because of the long-term impact on how patent law is applied to technology products such as smartphones." In one brief joined by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, groups backing Samsung warned the Supreme Court that the verdict, if allowed to stand, "opens the door to a new species of abusive patent litigation." Apple has repeatedly argued that the courts have gotten it right in the case, saying it provided clear evidence that Samsung blatantly copied iPhone and iPad technology in the development of its smartphones and tablets. The Supreme Court is likely to decide whether to take the case before its term ends in June. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend. Theyre flawed in all manner of ways. They are, it turns out, rather uneducated, on the whole, with low levels of overall seat time, and, even for those who have completed secondary schooling or more, the quality of the instruction in their home countries is much lower than in Germany. And thats a problem in a country where there are few jobs for the uneducated and unskilled. (See this article on Politico.) They come from countries with high levels of mistreatment of women from harassment on the streets, to domestic violence, to honor killings. They believe that women are obliged to cover themselves/stay at home and are fair game if they dont. (See my post on this the other day.) They expect Germany to be able take care of them, provide them jobs and/or cash benefits, and, to an unknown degree, are more interested in gaining advantage than integration. (Heres a list of incidents reported by the Gatestone Institute, cherry picked, perhaps, but not invented out of whole cloth.) Can they be fixed? And, if so, at what cost? Lets get a few items out of the way: it matters not, for this purpose, whether Islam is an irredeemably-flawed religion, or whether the flaw is more narrowly, or broadly, in Arab culture, or Middle East/North African culture, or the culture specifically of villagers/the poor in these areas. It likewise matters not whether men in the Middle Ages or Early Modern times in Europe likewise behaved badly; were talking about Arab culture now, and Germany now. And it likewise matters not whether there are many well-intentioned new arrivals happy to jump into training programs so long as these instances keep piling up, such as the latest report, that a public swimming pool near Bonn banned male refugees because an increasing number of visitors and employees had complained about sexual harassment by men from a nearby asylum seeker residence and a town near Cologne had to cancel its Mardi Gras parade out of fear of migrant behavior. Or another one, that even back in November, asylum-claiming men groped women at a welcome party, and organizers did and said nothing, with no reporting until victims came forward after the Silversternacht attacks. (This comes from Express via Gateway Pundit; the original German report here.) Second, Germany, at least as its system exists currently, cant readily deport those found ineligible for asylum. According to Deutsche Welle, about half of asylum applications are rejected, but Around 80 percent of asylum seekers arrive in Germany with fake papers, or no papers at all. Thats especially true for migrants from countries where there is no war or persecution. Aid organizations say that many people opt for fake papers because there are no legal means to enter Germany. But its not possible to deport a person without any papers once their application for asylum has been rejected. Even once the country of origin has been established, many states refuse to take their citizens back. Whats more, Until recently, it was the case that, once an applicant had exhausted all legal means to be granted asylum, the authorities would assign a date for deportation. But in many cases, the person could no longer be found on that day. Now, the system has changed so that asylum seekers are no longer told on which day they are to be deported. In some cases, families hide one of their children with friends or relatives in order to delay deportation. Following verdicts from the European Court for Human Rights, taking people into custody prior to deportation is no longer allowed. So, what can Germany do? I can think of a number of actions, but theyre largely, most likely, unimplementable. Can Germany try to convert these new arrivals to, if not Christianity or secularism, then at least a moderate version of Islam? Consider that individuals convicted of DUI in the U.S. are ordered into 12-Step programs. What of a 12-Step program here? And, no, Im not talking about these reports of classes to teach Arab men about proper behavior, as if all thats needed is a bit of instruction because surely they simply didnt know otherwise, and only needed to be taught, to change their behavior. Im talking about imams sitting in front of a room of Arab men, telling them, repeatedly, day after day, that they will go to hell if they harass a woman. That they will go to hell if they hit their wives. That they will go to the deepest level of hell if they rape a woman. The problem, of course, is two-fold. Its not clear to me that German imams would be willing to do so; reports are there arent enough of them who fit this moderate description, who believe (per my earlier post) that Muhammed basically preached equality, and any bits of the Quran that appear to suggest otherwise were a short-term accomodation for his backward society. And, even if there were (and werent doing so with a wink and a nod to their hearers), there are extremist Muslims who are all to eager to recruit, and will give the counter-message that what theyre hearing at their classes is a pack of lies. So youd need to clamp down on these groups and not just those who openly provide material support for ISIS but those who preach any form of intolerance. Youd need all imams to preach true integration with one voice. And how you get to that point without violating freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, I dont know. Alternatively Can Germany change its laws? Can they say, if you speak Arabic with an accent that indicates youre from X, regardless of whether youve destroyed your identity document and are claiming to by Syrian, you will be sent back? Can they say if youre Syrian, but so much as lay your hand on a woman in an unwelcome manner, well send you back to a refugee camp if you cant go back to your hometown? And can they add the requisite number of staffers to implement deportations? Or do they need to change its laws around crime, and institute harsh sentences for public groping, and catch perps by having plainclothes female police officers in short skirts ply refugee-frequented areas? Even then, can these men be caught? Could a lone woman, even a policewoman with a concealed weapon, take men into custody in such situations, or document their identity? Its not easy. And Fasching/Karneval is less than a month away. UPDATE: in response to harassment at swimming pools, there are now reports of the Swimming Pool Rules being promoted in places such as Munich. (English report here, direct Link here, PDF here) The key rules are #4, Regardless of what bathing suit a woman wears, she is to be respected, and #12, Do not verbally or physically sexually harass women, regardless of what theyre wearing (the image above). It seems delusional to imagine that all thats needed is a simple pronouncement of rules to repair the situation. Last November, I had the blessing to celebrate Mass at Mount Nebo, the location from where Moses saw the Promised Land before dying. From the valley below Mount Nebo, Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River into the Promised Land and conquered Jericho. In the Book of Deuteronomy, God said to Moses as he stood on the very same spot I stood, This is the land about which I promised an oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over. So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord, died as the Lord had said. As a long-time admirer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, I preached about Dr. Kings legacy and the powerful speech he gave the night before his assassination at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. A prophetic speech where he powerfully evoked Moses without using his name, and where he tapped into the rich sense of liberation found in the exodus from Egypt. Dr. King spoke as the New Moses leading his people to the promised land. When I visited Memphis one year ago (which included a visit to the Mason Temple), I learned that Dr. King did not intend to visit that church that evening, but rather sent some of the men who were traveling with him to represent him. When the men realized the magnitude of the gathering, they returned to the Lorraine Motel and brought Dr. King with them. He proceeded to deliver prophetic words that give me goose bumps every time I hear them. We have some difficulties ahead, but it doesnt really matter with me anymore, because Ive been to the mountaintop. I dont mind, like anybody I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place, but I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will, and He has allowed me to go up to the mountain and Ive looked over, and Ive seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I am happy tonight, I am not worried about anything, I am not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. The next morning, Dr. King was assassinated as he left his room at the Lorraine Motel. His powerful words which drew beautiful imagery from the exodus, gave hope and encouragement not only to the sanitation workers who were on strike in Memphis at that moment, but fueled even more the Civil Rights Movement. As God raised Moses to be a prophet from among his people at a time of need, God continues to call prophets from time to time in the midst of turmoil and injustice to make his voice heard clearly, providing guidance and direction. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of these prophets. The more I read and learn about him, the more I realize that his work and efforts were inspired by his religious conviction, not political gain. Oftentimes history books fail to acknowledge this very important fact. In just 39 years of life he accomplished what no man before him had been able to achieve. He knew he did not have much time evidenced by statements like the quality, not the longevity, of ones life is what is important, so he acted confidently and with deep trust in God. Martin Luther King Jr. is a prophet of our times. He called a whole society to conversion by standing up for truth in the face of prejudice and turmoil. Saint Catherine of Siena once said that if we are who we are meant to be, we will set the world on fire. This is precisely what Martin Luther King Jr. did, he followed Gods call and certainly set the world on fire, transforming it and creating a new, more equal society. Pictures are mine, all rights reserved. MARTINS DREAM & OURS A Liberal Religious Response to the Horrors of Our Times James Ishmael Ford 17 January 2016 Pacific Unitarian Church Rancho Palos Verdes, California The Reverend Rosemary Bray McNatt is president of Starr King School, our seminary in Berkeley, California. However, a million years before that she was a writer. In fact she took writing gigs as a way to pay the bills right through seminary. And it was while in seminary that her agent called with quite the proposal. Would she be willing to be in the pool being considered as co-author for Coretta Scott Kings autobiography? While Rosemary didnt get the gig, she did meet with Dr Kings widow, and during a wide-ranging conversation Rosemary mentioned how she was preparing to become a Unitarian Universalist minister. Mrs King was delighted. I went to Unitarian churches for years, even before I met Martin, she told Rosemary. Adding And Martin and I went to Unitarian churches when we were in Boston. In her account Rosemary adds, What surprised and saddened me most was what she said next. Though I am paraphrasing, the gist of it was this: We gave a lot of thought to becoming Unitarian at one time, but Martin and I realized we could never build a mass movement of black people if we were Unitarian. Lets consider this sort of the text for todays reflection. I understand when Dr King was assassinated, after the police and FBI arrived, during all the confusion, people running around, agents trying to get a handle on what had happened, one agent informed his superior on a walkie-talkie how he just heard Coretta Scott King say that Martins dream would never die. There was, I gather, a pause. Then the agents superior instructed him Go find out what that dream was. I suggest this is the question. What was that dream? And what might it mean for us? You know, you, me, perhaps us as Unitarian Universalists, or, us as members of this church up here on the hill? I have a pervasive concern about the poisoning of our planet. And I worry about hunger and homelessness, and wild economic disparity. Although these days I find myself most immediately haunted by images of war and its ravages. I think of bombings and assassinations, and public executions. I think of shifting populations, and fleeing refugees. And I think of the hateful rhetoric of many of our politicians and the receptive ears of so many people, too many people. We see much of the current political conversation is little more than jingoism and barely veiled racism, all of it drenched in that pervasive poison, fear of the other. I find I burn with urgency. We need to listen closer. No doubt there is a great human longing for meaning, for purpose, for direction. We hear it a constant beat just beneath the rage of emotions around our current race for President. So, what about us, you and me? And, again, what about us, a people gathered on this hill? What response do we have to all the turmoil? How can we be useful in such hard and harsh, pressing, and urgent times? Well, I find myself thinking of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.s dream. I believe that dream lives here. Honestly, I do. But also I believe we havent all thought and felt our way to what it might fully mean. We do some good work, here. Im really impressed with our Green Sanctuary group. We have some important connections through Harbor Interfaith. And I know we do a lot more as individuals. In the past I know this church has been more involved in the hurts beyond our walls. And, I know in time we will be again. Right now, however, were mostly in a time of consolidation, and I hope reflection. This is potentially rich, for us, and for others. We live in a world that often seems random, violent and meaningless. And there is a great longing within human hearts for meaning, for a healing of the hurt, for something to cling to in the storm that rages. And, I suggest, out of my own search, out of the experiences of my heart, I do not doubt there is a healing dream, a way of reconciliation with our selves, with each other and with this world. I also suggest this dream is the deep dreaming that calls us into this hall, among each other in an open and engaged quest. We are a people of the dream. Or, we can be. We need to be. Today I want to explore just a little of what that might look like for us within our liberal faith, with no creed, no absolute answers proclaimed; but simply pointing to where it often arises for us out of an experience of opening of our hearts and minds. In this way we find a wise heart, the possibility of knowing our connections and along with that finding a map that guides us through the unknown territory. When my colleague Rosemary McNatt wrote those words I cited at the beginning of this reflection, she was exploring what it was within our Unitarian Universalism that Martin and Coretta King saw that kept them from crossing over to make their lives and work with us. Of course the reasons are complex. Whether we would have been a good base for a mass movement as a part of why the Kings did not end up UU opens deep, complex, and important questions for us to consider. Apparently as young Martin entered college he had become very skeptical. He admitted to being embarrassed by the emotionalism of his fathers sermons and the experiences he had at his childhood church. At Morehouse, according to his autobiography and summarized by Robert Scofield in his enormously helpful essay Kings God: The Unknown Faith of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, (U)nder the guidance of President Benjamin E. Mays and professor George D. Kelsey, he began to believe that religion could be both intellectually respectable and emotionally satisfying. Mayss weekly talks on the social gospel enchanted King, while Kelseys Bible course taught him to see the Bible metaphorically, leading him to conclude the Bible has many profound truths By the time he goes through seminary and then to his doctoral work at Boston University, we find King has arrived at an essentially classic Unitarian theology. Throughout his writings Dr King takes the classic liberal view that Jesus is a human, and what is extraordinary about Jesus is that he shows us what we might be. When he speaks of Jesus entering our hearts, he is calling us not to some unlikely historical event, but to a deeper possibility of a full life, of a turning of the heart. It very much looks as if for Martin Luther King, Jesus is the name for that part of our human hearts that have opened wide, have not turned from the hurt or the joy. But, the next question is, of course, it is a turning of the heart to what? Well, for Martin Luther King, Jr., thats God. Although as we dig into it, it becomes obvious his God is love. For a crowd like us, who use that motto love over belief, I suggest it might be helpful to pursue this a bit deeper. Dr Kings God that is love isnt a vague, misty thing, a will o the wisp, ungraspable. Rather, he tells us in his own words that this God that is love is not a process projected somewhere in the lofty blue. God is not a divine hermit hiding himself in a cosmic cave. God is forever present with us. Me, I find something important here. So, a little more digging. I find that love we commonly hold up within our congregations is our direct knowing that we are not alone, isolated beings defined by our skin. Love is that knowing of our connections down to our bones and marrow. And heres where Dr King is particularly helpful. His God, his love is not just a head knowing, but a body knowing, a heart knowing, a knowing that permeates the very fiber of his being. And this is a call to us to feel our lives. It is this sustaining experience that allows us to continue the endless work of feeding the hungry, of seeking compassion and justice for all, for trying to help transform our own lives and the life of this country, indeed the life of our world in an ever more generous, open hearted direction. Intimate. Intimate. A couple of years ago on a drive from Providence to Boston I drove by a terrible accident. My friend with whom I was going and I were tangled in traffic for maybe an hour. When we finally began to pass the site of the accident, what was left were the remains of a pickup truck now resting on a great flatbed. It was mangled, but the most jarring image was how the roof had been, it looked, torn open, perhaps by something like the Jaws of Life. The cab of that car looking much like an empty tuna can with a partially opened lid dangling over one side. Heres the important moment. I felt an involuntary prayer slip from my lips. Me, for all practical purposes an atheist, certainly no believer in something outside the universe that can interfere with the workings of cause and effect, me, and a prayer, brief, but genuinely a wish for the passengers and all involved. I think of the Seventh Principle, regarding our radical interdependence. And, me, like for Dr King, apparently very much like for Dr King, I have no problem calling that web of life as I experience it, love. Or, God. That god which is all and everything but with no need for anything beyond worked for Spinoza. And it works for me. And I dont even find a problem with throwing my hearts longing into that great mystery, prayers, if you will; even if I dont think theres a person there to listen in a person-like way. This is about being intimate. And what I know is on that freeway it was right. As someone who has walked our liberal way with a serious commitment to understanding what it can be for a long time, Ive seen while this web is the most intimate of experiences, it may be encountered as personal or impersonal. It has something to do with how we experience the world. For many of us here it is going to be impersonal, were not going to be comfortable with metaphors like a loving parent. Thats why many of us, me for one, prefer interdependent web as the metaphor for our understanding, both intellectual and visceral of our most intimate connection. But, for Dr King it was personal, deeply, profoundly personal. He experienced it in a way that is like a loving parent. And, what Im seeing is that this approach is in fact more common than the other. More important in recent years Ive noticed most of those who feel called into our free community find that more personal language, God language if you will, for this deepest appreciation, most useful. Whats important here is that our way as UUs allows us full freedom of how we chose to express our deepest experiences. The sad truth is we dont always allow that full range. I can imagine the young doctoral candidate attending a UU church, expressing his metaphorical understanding of the divine, and being told thats not UU. And, sadly, Martin Luther King, Jr., who saw so much in common here, maybe a home here, rejected by us, left. The sadness here is that he did belong among us. That broadness is our heritage, for all who walk the way of the clear mind and the open heart, who are willing to throw them selves, our selves wide, this is the way of intimacy. It is feeling. It is thinking. It is a way of knowing the larger. Thats the important thing. What we bring to the table, what makes us useful in the urgency of the moment, is our very broadness. When we open ourselves to that larger place, to what our friends following the twelve steps call that higher power, and for many among us, God, and for many of us the interdependent web, the words are helpful but incomplete. Always incomplete. All our images fall short. Thats the point of something larger. The important thing is that being open, wide open, heart and mind open. We do this, and we encounter what can sustain us as we face the great work, the endless work in front of us. Mass movement? Well, enough of us caught the fire of Martin Luther Kings words, the experience that Dr King was pointing to, and the work for justice that experience calls one to, that more of our ministers joined him in the day, as I understand it, than clergy of any other faith tradition. And thats just a marker for how his call was in fact our call. As a religious tradition we saw something in what he preached that touched our hearts and took us to Birmingham, to Selma, to the depths of our own possibility. April is Martin Luther King Jrs birthday. If my math is right this coming April he would have been eighty-seven years old. But, of course, an assassin cut him down forty-eight years ago. But that dream? The dream that FBI agent was instructed to find? The dream we all quest for? A bullet couldnt kill it. It is larger than any one person. It is the sum of our knowing our connections, each of us to the other, and all of us to this precious, hurt, world. It is the call of love, real love. Love beyond belief. It is the call to work, real work. It is the help of the weak. It is the strength that runs through us like electricity, bringing life and possibility to all we do. It is a revealing of the face of God. Nothing less. And, if we can open our hearts to it full, not just the way one or two of us need to see it, but including all of us, well, who knows, it might be the stuff of a mass movement. Most important is that it can change what this little church on the hill is. We can change our own hearts. We can open our hearts. And in so doing we can become the beacon on the hill that truly proclaims a way in these dark times, a useful way, a transformative way, a way of healing and of hope. Thats a dream that can be. So be it. Blessed be. And, amen. The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral; begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. (1967, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?. p. 67.) Cowardice asks the question is it safe? Expediency asks the question is it politic? Vanity asks the question is it popular? But conscience asks the question is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right. (From a speech, A Proper Sense of Priorities, February 6, 1968, Washington, D.C.) All my adult life I have deplored violence and war as instruments for achieving solutions to mankinds problems. I am firmly committed to the creative power of nonviolence as the force which is capable of winning lasting and meaningful brotherhood and peace. (The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapter 31.) The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources of strength and courage they did not know they had. (The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Vol. V, p. 423) Nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power. (Gandhi and King: The Power of Nonviolent Resistance, p. 210) The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him. And he stands with understanding, goodwill at all times. (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr., p. 8) But I am also concerned about our moral uprightness and the health of our souls. Therefore I must oppose any attempt to gain our freedom by the methods of malice, hate, and violence that have characterized our oppressors. Hate is just as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Many of our inner conflicts are rooted in hate. This is why psychiatrists say, Love or perish. Hate is too great a burden to bear. (Making a Way Out of No Way: Martin Luther Kings Sermonic Proverbial Rhetoric, p. 404) I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through nonviolent action. (Speech: To Atone For Our Sins and Errors In Vietnam, 1967.) So often I had castigated those who by silence or inaction condoned and thereby cooperated with the evils of racial injustice I had to therefore speak out if I was to erase my name from the bombs which fall over North or South Vietnam, from the canisters of napalm. The time had come indeed it was past due when I had to disavow and disassociate myself from those who in the name of peace burn, maim, and kill. (The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Chapter 30.) Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. (Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, Sweden, 1964.) Bodh Gaya: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday kicked off the three-day Buddha Festival in Bodh Gaya amidst chanting of hymns and welcoming of guests from a host of nations. {gallery}newsimages2016/jan/011716{/gallery}Kumar, speaking at the Kalchakra Maidan, said that in the spirit of the teachings of Lord Buddha, the middle path, or non-extreme views, was the best approach to the life and any extremism went against the gospels of all religions. The Chief Minister, briefly alluding to the 2013 terrorist blasts in the Mahabodhi Temple campus, said the security in and around the temple had been improved substantially and people had no reason to be concerned about their safety any more. Artists from a number of countries including Cambodia, Bhutan, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar have been invited by the state government to perform at the three-day event On the occasion, the Chief Minister welcomed Eugene Trinle Dorje, the 17th Karmapa and the diplomatic representatives of Thailand and Myanmar. Patna: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Dr. C. P. Thakur, at a press conference in Patna on Sunday, ridiculed party member and former movie star Shatrughan Sinha saying the rebel BJP leader hardly stayed in Patna and therefore, had no idea what was going on in Bihar under the Lalu-Nitish government. Sinha, who has unofficially chosen to go against his own party in favor of Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal U, had earlier refuted the BJP's claim that the law and order had collapsed in Bihar and Jungle Raj was back in the state despite a sharp rise in the number of murders and kidnappings since the formation of the new government. "How would Shatrughan Sinha know what is going on in Bihar when the fact is, he hardly stays in the state? Let him come and stay in Bihar for a few days then maybe he will realize how bad the situation in the state," Thakur said about his colleague who has been hammering his own party after being completely sidelined by the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah team in the last Assembly elections. Continuing to slam Sinha, the former Union Health Minister said that the movie star should come to Bihar and hold one on one talk with the people if he wanted to know the ground realities of the state. "You cannot live most of your life in Delhi and Mumbai and expect to know the truth about Bihar. I suggest he should stop bad-mouthing his own party and come to Bihar to assess the situation first hand instead of learning from others," Thakur said. Meanwhile, former Janata Dal U leader and minister in the Nitish government Parveen Amanullah, on Sunday agreed with the BJP saying Jungle Raj had indeed returned to Bihar and no one was safe anymore in the state. "The killings of the three engineers and the jeweler in Patna along with the murder of a farmer in Gaya are clear indications of the complete collapse of law and order in the state. Nitish Kumar, despite being in power for ten years, has failed to check crime in Bihar despite high expectations from him," Amanullah, now an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, said. Podcast About 75% of military recruits arrive at a training base with no bank account and have to be bussed to a local bank to open one, says Jill Castilla, CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. The bank's team is building a platform that will help service members save and build credit. In Celebration of the Nuclear Agreement with Iran 01/18/16 By Peter Jenkins (source: LobeLog) (cartoon by Hadi Heidari -- jailed since November 16, 2015) There can be several ways of perceiving the full application of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with effect from Implementation Day, January 16, 2016. One is that this was a triumph for the worlds global policeman. By using sanctions to make life very hard for the Islamic Republic, this narrative goes, the United States obtained a deal that prevents Irans leaders from realizing their aim of acquiring nuclear weapons and destroying Israel. I can understand why the Obama administration has peddled this narrative. Domestic politics in the US have become so irrational and partisan that even the Good Guys feel they must distort the truth to win political points. It is not a narrative I like, though. Having served on the UKs Iran Nuclear negotiating team in 2004 and 2005, I know that in March 2005 President Hassan Rouhani and Minister Javad Zarif, then in different roles, were ready to offer a deal very similar in its essentials to the JCPOA. I infer that they consented to the JCPOA not because they felt compelled to do so by sanctions, and despite wanting the nuclear means to destroy Israel, but because they saw it as in Irans interest to do so. Irans interest, they realized, was to overcome the setback Iran suffered in 2003 when the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had failed to declare some of the nuclear material in its possession, had used some of that material to test a few centrifuge machines and for material conversion experiments, and had pursued a policy of concealment for 18 years. The IAEAs findings in 2003 were a setback because they alarmed the international community, generated suspicion of Irans nuclear intentions, and annoyed Non-Nuclear Weapon States (NNWS) who feared that the US would use Iranian non-compliance with safeguards to deprive NNWS of the right to make peaceful use of sensitive nuclear technologies. Rouhani and Zarif had the sense to understand (and persuade Irans Supreme Leader) that the way back to international acceptance lay through adhering scrupulously to their safeguards agreement with the IAEA, volunteering transparency measures and restrictions on nuclear activities, and ending the lethargic research into nuclear weapon technologies that came to their notice, reportedly, only in 2003. True to Their Word Another way of looking at JCPOA implementation is that it suggests that the pragmatic part of the Iranian elite can be trusted. Rouhani, Zarif, and MIT-educated Ali Akbar Salehi (vice president and chairman of Irans Atomic Energy Organization) have been true to their word since November 24, 2013 when an interim plan of action was agreed-just as they were true to their word between October 2003, when they came to an agreement with the Ministers of France, Germany and the UK, and August 2005 when they left office, together with President Mohammad Khatami. (When a State Department official told Congress that Iranians have deception in their DNA, she was committing an injustice, and not only doing a disservice to her employers, by implying that they were fools to imagine that any deal with Iran could be worth the proverbial paper on which it was written.) One reason that Irans pragmatists can be trusted is that they are not revolutionaries. Too many of us in the West continue to imagine that Islamic Iran wants to export the 1979 revolution. This is no longer true of a majority of Irans elite, if it ever was. Like the USSR in the decades following 1917, the Islamic Republic is evolving away from its revolutionary roots. It is becoming a status quo regional power. Honoring international commitments and respecting international law are a logical practice for status quo powers. Of course there is still a revolutionary element within the Iranian body politic. Rouhani and Zarif will not be around forever. The next Supreme Leader may be less wise than Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. We cannot exclude the possibility that firebrands, who care nothing for international commitments, will replace them. But the best way of guarding against this is to ensure that the Iranian people have so much to lose by electing firebrands that they continue to give their votes to pragmatists. Bad-mouthing and threatening Iran, as so many US politicians are addicted to doing, will be counter-productive. The End of a Cycle Yet another way of looking at JCPOA implementation is that it marks the end of a 25-year cycle during which state nuclear proliferation has been very high on the agendas of Western Intelligence agencies and foreign ministries. In January 1991, the UN Security Council was three months away from demanding the dismantlement of Iraqs nuclear weapon program. There were concerns about Irans contacts with the A.Q. Khan network in the mid-1980s, when the Iraqi program got underway. North Korea was two years away from trying to conceal from the IAEA that it had acquired plutonium by secretly reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. Later in the 1990s, concerns about Libya, and later still Syria, would emerge. Now only North Korea continues to be a cause for (acute) concern. International diplomatic action has resolved the Iraqi, Iranian, and Libyan cases. An Israeli raid has dispelled concern about Syria. For those of us who remember the fear in the wake of Indias 1974 nuclear test that by 2000 at least 20 states would possess nuclear weapons, this limiting of nuclear proliferation is something to celebrate. It is due largely to diplomatic action, the effectiveness of IAEA safeguards, and the perception of many parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that their security lies in doing without nuclear weapons if others are ready to do the same. Two big tasks still lie ahead. One is to persuade DPRK leaders that, having amply demonstrated their possession of a nuclear deterrent, they can afford to switch resources from making nuclear weapons to developing the North Korean economy. The other is conceptual in nature. It is to identify a non-nuclear basis for the strategic balance of fear that has helped to keep the peace among major powers since 1945. Britains Ministry of Defence recently published a study, the Future Operating Environment 2035, which suggests that non-nuclear weapon systems may soon be capable of causing sufficient destruction of strategic assets to serve as strategic deterrents. But Im straying from the theme of JCPOA entry into force. I want to invite readers to acknowledge a genuine diplomatic achievement and give credit to Presidents Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani, to Secretary of State John Kerry, and to Minister Javad Zarif-without forgetting that they got by with a little help from their friends (and subordinates), notably their Russian colleagues. Follow LobeLog on Twitter and Facebook About the Author: Peter Jenkins was a British career diplomat for 33 years, following studies at the Universities of Cambridge and Harvard. He served in Vienna (twice), Washington, Paris, Brasilia and Geneva. He specialized in global economic and security issues. His last assignment (2001-06) was that of UK Ambassador to the IAEA and UN (Vienna). Since 2006 he has represented the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, advised the Director of IIASA and set up a partnership, ADRgAmbassadors, with former diplomatic colleagues, to offer the corporate sector dispute resolution and solutions to cross-border problems. He was an associate fellow of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy from 2010 to 2012. He writes and speaks on nuclear and trade policy issues. At Debate, Democrats Praise Iran Deal, Spar Over Domestic Issues 01/18/16 By Chris Hannas, VOA The Democratic candidates running in this year's presidential election agreed Sunday that the implementation of the nuclear deal with Iran and release of U.S. citizens represent a positive step in relations, while also calling on countries in the Middle East to do increase their role in the fight against Islamic State. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders at the Sunday debate Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said more needs to happen before moving rapidly toward normalizing relations with Iran, and the U.S. needs to pressure Iran further on "bad behavior" in the region such as its actions in Syria. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been gaining on Clinton in polls in the past month, said the existence of a nuclear deal without war and the thaw in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran are "very positive." But he said he would not immediately open an embassy in Tehran, instead pointing to the U.S. and Cuba as an example of moving toward warmer relations with an important country. Foreign policy positive John Hudak, a senior fellow in government studies at the Brookings Institution, said that any time foreign policy comes up in the campaign it is good for Clinton. WATCH: Where the candidates stand on Iran "She obviously has the most experience on the issues, she's obviously the most comfortable talking about the complexity of these issues and the consequences of them," Hudak said. "Bernie Sanders likes to talk a lot about his vote on the Iraq war, but I think for the most part America has moved past Clinton's decision on that and accepted her apology on that. At the end of the day, she looked ready to lead as commander in chief, Sanders did not look as prepared and (former Maryland Governor) Martin O'Malley looked completely over his head," he added. Upcoming caucuses The debate in South Carolina was the fourth for the Democrats and their last chance to discuss important issues in the same room before the first voters get to have their say at caucuses in Iowa on February 1. In the Middle East, Clinton, Sanders and O'Malley all agreed the United States should not be solely responsible for acting against the Islamic State group. Sanders said it is time for wealthy countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar to get involved, and advocated work on a political solution in Syria that includes Russia, Iran and Muslim allies. Clinton said there are a lot of forces at work in the region that the United States cannot influence, and praised President Barack Obama's strategy of backing local fighters, leading coalition airstrikes and working toward a diplomatic solution. O'Malley called attention to what he said is a shortage in intelligence gathering and assets in the Middle East, and called for a more "proactive" national security strategy. Domestic issues While the candidates agreed on a lot in the realm of foreign policy, they sparred more on domestic issues including gun control, healthcare and campaign finance. Ahead of the debate, Sanders introduced a new plan that he says would ensure health care is a right for every American. Clinton criticized Sanders, accusing him of wanting to tear up Obama's landmark health care program and start over. She instead advocated building on the Affordable Care Act and improving it. Sanders blamed the health insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies for keeping the cost of health care in the United States high. He also called for more regulation of the banking industry, saying financial institutions have too much power over the economy. Wall Street reform Clinton said she has a plan to take regulations further, but Sanders said he has doubts about whether Wall Street reform is really possible when politicians receive huge amounts of money from the financial industry. The three candidates paid tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.,who is honored with a national holiday Monday, and said they want to raise the country's minimum wage, create jobs and make sure everyone gets equal pay for equal work. But Clinton reiterated her critique of Sanders' policy on gun control, accusing him of doing a "flip-flop" on the question of whether gun manufacturers can be sued and voting on the side of the National Rifle Association numerous times. Sanders called her criticism "disingenuous" and said he has always stood up to gun lobbyists. The senator said gun control should not be a political issue, and that a small gun store should not be sued for a legal gun sale if that weapon is later used in a crime. Struggled for speaking time O'Malley, who trails far behind in polls and has struggled to get speaking time in debates, said he has been hearing a lot of inconsistency on gun control from both Clinton and Sanders and that he is the only one of the three who has not changed his gun policies. The latest polls have Clinton and Sanders nearly tied in Iowa and give Sanders a 14 percent lead over Clinton in New Hampshire, where the first in the nation primary will be held early next month. A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll issued before the debate puts Clinton ahead of Sanders by 25 points nationally. But Sanders pointed out that Clinton at one time had a 50-point lead. O'Malley has been polling about 2 percent and Sunday's debate could be his last chance to convince voters that he should be the Democratic nominee. For the Republicans, the same poll puts Donald Trump on top with 33 percent, followed by followed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz at 20 percent support, Florida Senator Marco Rubio at 13 percent and retired surgeon Ben Carson at 12 percent. Katherine Gypson contributed to this report. What Accounts for the Saudi Regime's Hysterical Belligerence? The Agony of Death 01/18/16 By Ismael Hossein-zadeh (by Iranian cartoonist Taher Shabani) The purpose of this essay is to explain, not describe, the frantically belligerent behavior of the Saudi regime. The goal is not to delve into what the regime and its imperialist enablers have done, or are doing; that unsavory record of atrocities, both at home and abroad, is abundantly exposed by other writers/commentators [1]. It is, rather, to focus on why they have done or are doing what they do. In the Throes of the Agony of Death The Saudi rulers find themselves in a losing race against time, or history. Although in denial, they cannot but realize the historical reality that the days of ruling by birthright are long past, and that the House of Saud as the ruler of the kingdom by inheritance is obsolete. This is the main reason for the Saudis frantically belligerent behavior. The hysteria is tantamount to the frenzy of the proverbial agony of a prolonged death. It explains why they react so harshly to any social or geopolitical development at home or in the region that they perceive as a threat to their rule. It explains why, for example, they have been so intensely hostile to the Iranian revolution that terminated the rule of their dictatorial counterpart, the Shah of Iran, in that country. In the demise of the Shah they saw their own downfall. It also explains their hostility to the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that ended the perpetual rule of Hosni Mubarak in Cairo and that of Ben Ali in Tunis. Panicked by the specter of the spread of those revolutionary upheavals to other countries in the region, especially the kingdoms and sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf area, the Saudi rulers and their well-known patrons abroad promptly embarked on damage control. (The not-so-secret patrons of the House of Saud include mainly the military-industrial-security-intelligence complex, Neocon forces and the Israel lobby.) The ensuing agenda of containment, derailment and preemption of similar revolutionary upheavals has been comprehensive and multi-prong. Among other schemes, the agenda has included the following: (1) brutally cracking down on peaceful opposition at home, including summary executions and ferocious beheadings; (2) pursuing destabilizing policies in places such as Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen by funding and/or arming rabidly violent Wahhabi/Salafi jihadists and other mercenaries; (3) trying to sabotage genuine international efforts to reduce tensions and bloodshed in Syria, Yemen and other places; (4) trying to sabotage the nuclear agreement and other tension-reducing efforts between Iran and Western powers; (5) pursuing policies that would promote tensions and divisions along ethnic, nationalist and religious lines in the region, such as the provocative beheading of the prominent and peaceful Shia critic Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr ; and (6) seeking chaos to cover terror tracks, as the well-known expert in international affairs Finian Cunningham put it [2]. To the dismay of the Saudi regime, while these depraved policies have succeeded in causing enormous amounts of death and destruction in the region, they have failed in achieving their objectives: stability in the Saudi kingdom and security for its regime. On the contrary, the reckless policies of trying to eliminate its perceived opponents have backfired: the regime is now more vulnerable than four or five years ago when it embarked (in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions) on the vainly aggressive policy of trying to eliminate the supposed dangers to its rule. The illegal war on Yemen, carried out with the support of the United States, has turned from what was supposed to be a cakewalk into a stalemate. Not only has it solidified and emboldened the sovereignty-aspiring Houthis resistance to the Saudi-led aggression, it has also considerably benefited al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Likewise, the War on Syria, largely funded by the Saudi regime, has fallen way short of its goal of unseating President Assad. Here too the aggression has handsomely benefited a motley array of mercenary and jihadi groups, especially those affiliated with Jabhat al-Nusra, known as al-Qaeda in Syria, and the so-called Islamic State. In both of these countries the power and influence of the Saudi regime and its partners in crime is in decline while the resistance is gradually gaining the upper hand, especially in Syria-thanks largely to the support from Russia and Iran. Perhaps more tragically for the Saudi regime, has been the failure of its oil war against Russia and Iran. Recklessly saturating global markets with unlimited supply of oil in the face of dwindling demand and increased production in the U.S. has reduced the price of oil by more than 60 percent. This has led to an officially-declared budget deficit of $98 billion for the current fiscal year, which has forced the regime to curb social spending and/or economic safety net programs. There are indications that the unprecedented belt-tightening economic policies are creating public discontent, which is bound to make the regime even more vulnerable. A bigger blowback from the regimes oil war, however, goes beyond economic problems at home. More importantly, it has led to an unintended consequence that tends to make the regime less secure by reducing its economic and geopolitical worth to its imperialist benefactors. Cheap and abundant energy in global markets is bound to undermine the indispensability of the House of Saud to its imperial patrons. In using oil as a weapon against their rivals, the spoiled big babies of Western powers in the Arabian Peninsula may have pushed their luck too far. Combined, these blowbacks and ominous consequences of the Saudi regimes belligerent policies have made the regime and its allies in the region more vulnerable while giving strength and credibility to the resisting forces in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, supported by Iran and Russia. These unintended consequences of the Saudi rulers aggressions explain why they are panic-stricken and behave hysterically. References [1] See, for example, Finian Cunningham, Saudis Seek Chaos to Cover Terror Tracks; Jim Lobe, Neocons Defend Saudi Arabia; and Pepe Escobar, Fear And Loathing in the House of Saud. [2] Ibid. About the author: Ismael Hossein-zadeh is Professor Emeritus of Economics (Drake University). He is the author of Beyond Mainstream Explanations of the Financial Crisis (Routledge 2014), The Political Economy of U.S. Militarism (Palgrave-Macmillan 2007), and the Soviet Non-capitalist Development: The Case of Nassers Egypt (Praeger Publishers 1989). He is also a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. Beyond Mainstream Explanations of the Financial Crisis Series: Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy (Book 185) Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (April 14, 2014) ISBN-10: 0415638062 ISBN-13: 978-0415638067 Iran nabs key suspects in Saudi embassy raid 01/18/16 Source: Press TV Iranian security forces have detained three people accused of having played a key role in the recent raid on the Saudi embassy in the capital, Tehran, a top Iranian Judiciary official says. Some demonstrations set fire to a section of Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran on January 2, 2016 (photo by ISNA) "In the recent couple of days, three main suspects involved in the transgression against the Saudi embassy [in Tehran] have been identified and arrested; and the suspects have so far been heavily investigated," Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said on Monday. He also said that efforts continue to identify and apprehend more suspects, and that investigations continue regarding those already in custody. On January 2, demonstrations were held in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad by angry protesters censuring the execution by Saudi Arabia of top opposition cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which had been announced on the same day. Some people mounted the walls of the consulate in Mashhad while incendiary devices were hurled at the embassy in Tehran. At least 60 people were detained over the violations of the diplomatic perimeters, which were condemned by top Iranian officials and followed by the Saudi severance of ties with the Islamic Republic. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called for an urgent investigation into the assaults on Saudi diplomatic missions, saying the perpetrators must be "brought to justice." In a letter to Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani on January 6, Rouhani denounced the attacks as a breach of the Islamic Republic's security. He said the Judiciary must prosecute those involved in this "evidenced offense" in a bid to bring a halt to such attempts against the standing of the Islamic Republic's establishment. Pakistan has lifted a ban on YouTube in the country after Google offered a localized version, which the government claims will allow it to ask for the removal of material considered offensive from the website. YouTube was ordered blocked in Pakistan in 2012 after a controversial video, called the Innocence of Muslims, created a controversy in many countries for mocking the Prophet Muhammad. Pakistan authorities told a court that they were blocking the whole domain because it was not technically feasible for them to block specific links to the video. Google announced last week localized versions of YouTube in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, suggesting that the company had arrived at a deal with Pakistan. Google did not comment on whether a deal had been made. Pakistans telecom regulator, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) also did not comment on the new .pk version of YouTube. On Monday, the countrys ministry for communications and information said that Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of offending material can be made by the PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan, according to reports. Internet service provider, Pakistan Telecommunication Company, welcomed YouTube on its Facebook page. Civil rights groups in Pakistan have been concerned about a deal between Google and the Pakistan government, as it could aid censorship. Bolo Bhi has asked the government to provide details on the nature of any agreement. Users have a right to know what terms have been agreed to and what it means for them, it added. CHARLESTON, S.C. Turning up the temperature, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled repeatedly in Sunday nights presidential debate over whos tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to steer the future of health care in America. It was the last Democratic matchup before voting begins in two weeks, and both sides were eager to rumble as polls showed the race tightening in the leadoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton rapped Sanders, the Vermont senator, for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clintons assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was very disingenuous and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care for every man, woman and child as a right. Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obamas health care plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. Clinton suggested Sanders approach was dangerous and pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back, Clinton said. Sanders dismissed the idea that hed endanger hard-won victories, insisting: No one is tearing this up; were going to go forward. Clinton suggested Sanders health care plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class, saying I want to raise incomes, not taxes. Sanders insisted taxpayers would come out ahead with lower costs overall. Its a pretty good deal, he said. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton wont be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees shes accepted. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. Were at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street, she declared. The Republicans want to give them more power. Clinton worked aggressively to associate herself with President Obama, claiming credit for her role in the run-up to the Iran nuclear deal as well as praising the health care law. Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase in all due respect. Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival. Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton in all due respect, youre missing the main point. Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, cast Sanders criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, Im going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street and getting results. The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people, Clinton said. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obamas diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. My relationship with him its interesting, Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. Its one, I think, of respect. But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who will take as much as he possibly can. Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? Itll start at the kitchen table well see where it goes from there, she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husbands administration, she added: You bet Im going to ask for his ideas. Im going to ask for his advice. Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clintons past sexual behavior. He called the former presidents behavior deplorable but said he wants to focus on issues not Bill Clintons personal life. Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said the focus should be on issues. The debate over gun control an ongoing area of conflict between Clinton and Sanders took on special import given the setting: The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation. He focused on his record as Marylands governor and accused both Clinton and Sanders of being inconsistent on gun control Both Clinton and Sanders are competing for black voters in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth primary contest. The debate was sponsored by NBC, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. A former employee is suing Riversides Parkview Community Hospital Medical Center for wrongful termination, alleging she was fired for reporting unsafe practices at the hospital. The lawsuit by Tagea Mutahr, who worked as a nuclear medicine technologist in the radiology department, is not the first sign of strife between some employees and hospital management. A dispute between Parkview and the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West over whether the union can represent about 500 hospital workers has gone on for nearly two years and remains unresolved. Mutahrs suit, filed Dec. 17 in Riverside County Superior Court, alleges the hospital fired her in retaliation after she raised concerns that Parkview officials werent following their protocol for performing nuclear stress tests on patients. Asked about the allegations Thursday, Jan. 14, Parkview CEO Steve Popkin said, Although thats completely untrue, I cant comment on a pending legal case. An SEIU spokesman Sean Wherley said Mutahr declined to be interviewed. Radiology is one of the departments the union seeks to represent. The suit alleges that hospital policy requires a specially trained nurse to oversee nuclear stress tests, which involve injecting patients with a solution that allows doctors to monitor blood flow to the heart when its at rest and during exercise. Mutahr alleged that in September the hospital ran the test without a properly trained nurse and the procedure was done incorrectly. She then complained to her superiors and filed two internal reports, but got no response, the suit alleges. In October, Mutahr was again asked to perform the test without a specialized nurse and when she protested, hospital officials yelled at her and refused to heed her concerns, the lawsuit alleges. Less than a week after Mutahr complained to the state Department of Public Health about the breach of protocol, she alleged, she was fired for insubordination. The suit alleges that state health officials have previously cited the hospital for failing to follow procedures for the nuclear stress test. A state public health department spokesman Corey Egel did not know Friday whether the hospital had been cited. Mutahrs suit seeks an unspecified amount of money for lost wages and benefits, attorney fees and other damages. The labor dispute arose over a 2014 vote that the SEIU says gave it the right to represent some employees, but that hospital officials argue was invalid. That issue is pending in a Washington, D.C., appeals court. Since June, the union has filed several complaints with the state about conditions and care at Parkview, including complaints that maggots were found on patients. In October, state health officials released results of an investigation that found the hospital was not at fault in a February maggot incident, but two other problems that required correction were noted. One was failure to report a power outage that affected patient care, and the other was a potential safety problem with a set of fire doors. The hospital submitted a required plan to correct the two issues, state documents show. Contact the writer: 951-368-9461 or arobinson@pressenterprise.com Updates with details, background WASHINGTON (AP) In its first official account of Irans seizure and subsequent release of 10 U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. military said Monday the only items found missing from their two recovered boats were SIM cards for two satellite phones. But key questions, such as why the sailors had deviated from their planned route to enter Iranian territorial waters, remain unanswered in the account released by U.S. Central Command. Its calling the description a preliminary timeline of the events of Jan. 12-13. A Navy command investigation initiated Jan. 14 will provide a more complete accounting of events, Central Command said. The investigation will focus on the U.S. sailors treatment while in custody, including any interrogation by Iranian personnel, the command said. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said last week while visiting Central Command headquarters in Florida that the boat crews had misnavigated. He did not say how that mistake happened or provide other substantial details about an episode that posed a potential complication to efforts by Washington and Tehran to establish better relations. The boat seizure happened just hours before President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union address and just days before implementation of the Iran nuclear deal with the West. The implementation triggered the end of crippling international sanctions on Iran and a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange. The timeline released Monday said the U.S. sailors were not mistreated during approximately 15 hours in Iranian hands. It said a post-recovery inventory of the boats found that all weapons, ammunition and communications gear was accounted for, minus two SIM cards apparently removed from two hand-held satellite phones. The sailors were traveling in small armed vessels known as riverine command boats, headed from Kuwait to Bahrain, which is the location of the Navys 5th Fleet. The planned transit path for the mission was down the middle of the Gulf and not through the territorial waters of any country other than Kuwait and Bahrain, the account said. The boats were seized by Iran and escorted at gunpoint to Farsi Island, which is in the middle of the Gulf and home to an Iranian military facility. Along the approximately 50-mile journey they were to have refueled by linking up with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Monomoy, in international waters. The timeline said that approximately 10 minutes after the scheduled refueling, Central Commands naval headquarters at Bahrain received a report that the boats were being questioned by Iranians. The account does not explain who sent this report or whether it included other details. About 19 minutes later, the naval headquarters was advised of degraded communications with the two boats, the account added. After an additional 26 minutes, the naval headquarters was notified of a total loss of communications with the boats. It does not explain who advised the headquarters of this problem or its apparent cause. A large-scale search-and-rescue mission was undertaken at that point, but it is not clear whether the Americans had by this time already been taken ashore on Farsi Island. Aircraft from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, which was operating 45 miles southeast of Farsi Island, participated in the search, along with Air Force planes and vessels of the U.S. Coast Guard, the British Royal Navy and other U.S. Navy vessels. Central Commands naval headquarters at Bahrain attempted to contact Iranian military units operating near Farsi Island by using marine radio to broadcast information about the search-and-rescue operation. Separately, the U.S. notified Iranian coast guard units via telephone. Some hours later, about four hours after the U.S. first heard that the sailors were being questioned by Iranians, the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Anzio received word from the Iranians that the sailors were in Iranian custody. The Iranians described the 10 as safe and healthy, according to the U.S. account. In the hours after the seizure of the Americans became public on Jan. 12, there were conflicting reports about what caused the sailors to stray off their intended course. Mondays official account did not explain the reason. It said only that the crews deviated from their planned course. It made no reference to the navigation error cited by Carter last week. At some point one (of the two boats) had indications of a mechanical issue in a diesel engine which caused the crews to stop . and begin troubleshooting, the account said. Because the boats were traveling together, the other boat also stopped. At this point they were in Iranian territorial waters, although its not clear the crew was aware of their exact location, it added. While the boats were stopped and the crew was trying to assess the mechanical problem, Iranian boats approached. First to arrive were two small Iranian craft with armed personnel aboard. Soon after, they were joined by two more Iranian military vessels. A verbal exchange ensued between the Iranians and Americans, but there was no gunfire. Armed Iranian military personnel then boarded the U.S. boats while other Iranian personnel aboard other armed vessels monitored the situation. At gunpoint the U.S. boats and their crews were escorted to a small port facility on Farsi Island, where the Americans went ashore and were detained, the account said. The sailors were released the following morning aboard their boats. Steven Jenkins, a self-described knife geek, enjoys an unusual daily grind that produces cutting-edge products. The 32-year-old engineering dropout from the aerospace and automotive industries has channeled his formidable talents into reviving the lost art of handcrafting chefs knives. Jenkins and two employees will also customize hunting and tactical knives, but nearly 100 percent of orders are culinary, attracting restaurant chefs and serious home cooks alike. In January 2013, Jenkins and his wife, Danielle, launched the family business called Nora Knives & Cutlery out of their 400-square-foot garage at his house near the Riverside Plaza. Im the workhorse, Steven Jenkins said. His wife, 35, who works full time in real estate, keeps Noras books, markets the business and designs the knife handles on a computer. Nora pays homage to Danielles late, Oklahoma-born grandmother. The Jenkinses had planned to name a daughter Nora but have two boys, Hank, 4 and Huck, 3. So our business became our third figurative baby, Danielle Jenkins wrote in an email. Nora was graceful but hardy, simple but skilled. She embodies everything we want our knives to be. Although Nora can turn out only 10 customized knives a week, retailing for $175 to $300, the company has gained a clientele from as far away as Australia, Norway, Britain and Spain, all through Instagram and his website. The first customer was Spencer Gomez, a sous chef at Gunshow, an Atlanta restaurant with dim-sum-style carts roving among communal tables. Gomez now owns eight Nora products, but said his favorite, the square vegetable chefs knife, practically never leaves his hand. Its harder than the Japanese-made I used before, Gomez said. It holds an edge and its bulletproof. Plus the quality for the price is very reasonable. Nora is earning its chops in the Jenkinses hometown as well. Larry Thai, executive chef at The Salted Pig and W. Wolfskill in downtown Riverside, said he has become a huge fan since his girlfriend bought him a chefs and a paring knife for Christmas. Theyre world-class knife-makers, said Thai, whos working on a bar knife design with Steven Jenkins. What sets Stevens knives apart is his level of craftsmanship, said Patrick Clark, chef and owner of The Red Cup Vegetarian Cafe in Oklahoma City. His knives are very well done, made of very sharp steel, like an extension of my fingers. Every knife is different, with its own little twist. Plus, its always great to own a knife that has connections with real people. Jenkins is reinventing the knife, one blade and one handle at a time, handcrafting anything from an oyster knife under 3 inches to a 16-inch, two-handed cheese wheel slicer. Among the most popular are the all-purpose, 6- to 12-inch chefs knives. The highly skilled, labor-intensive knife-making process relies on patience and meticulous attention to detail. One little slip-up and its gone, said Warren Ray, 32, one of Steven Jenkins assistants. Steven Jenkins buys two kinds of steel: one initially developed in Sweden for razor blades; the other, tougher and harder, was developed in New York for high-speed automotives. He cuts the sheets with a garage saw or sends them to a Riverside company that uses lasers or high-pressure jets. An Ontario business then heat-treats and hardens the alloyed steels. Steven Jenkins and crew grind the returned steel, often for hours on special abrasive equipment. Results produce the desired, paper-fine thinness for a variety that includes large and petite fillet, boning, kiritsuke, nakiri, pruning, paring, santoku and slicer knives. For Noras 8 1/2-inch culinary knife,The performance comes from the grind of the blade, which makes it very particular. Our edges thickness equals one sheet of paper, Jenkins said, rolling up his sleeve. He tests the blades sharpness on his forearms, which are hairless. The blades are so fine, you can shave with it, he said. You can always tell a knife maker if you dont see any arm hair. Danielle Jenkins, a relative newcomer to the kingdom of knives, insisted that they be functional and elegant, something to be handed down as an heirloom. Thus, the silky, sensuous handles, made from a combination of worldwide woods and resins married in elaborate, colorful designs, rival the blades in beauty. We wanted to bring a special elegance, Danielle Jenkins said. Everything is in the details. A self-taught, self-described risk taker, Steven Jenkins always loved to make things, taking apart and rebuilding from the ground up minibikes, race cars and trucks. He operated and owned automotive shops and worked in Corona as a project manager for an aerospace designer of insulation blankets. Three years ago he wanted to start his own business, either repurposing furniture or making knives. Keener on cutlery, and a scratch Asian fusion cook to boot, he researched, experimented and invested more than $60,000 to indulge his dreams of creating the perfect knife. Hes currently shopping for a manufacturing facility with a small storefront in Riverside in order to step up production and roll out some higher-end knives. With every knife I made, he said, I try to get better. Contact the writer: llucas@pressenterprise.com,. 951-368-9559 A passenger in a car that drove off of Interstate 15 in Devore on Sunday, Jan. 17, died at the scene. The single-vehicle crash occurred about 2:40 a.m. when the 2001 Chevrolet Tahoe veered off of the southbound roadway of Interstate 15 onto Cleghorn Road, according to a San Bernardino County Coroners Office news release. Why the vehicle left the roadway remained under investigation Monday. San Bernardino County Fire Department firefighters arrived at the scene at 4:17 a.m., the news release said. The driver was taken to a hospital and the passenger was declared dead. The woman who police believe stabbed her boyfriend to death in San Bernardino was arrested in Hemet on Sunday, Jan. 17. Dorian Powell, 21, of San Bernardino was killed about 2:25 a.m. Jan. 11 on Central Avenue, San Bernardino police said. The following day, a Facebook account using the name Nakasia Macc James wrote in a post that she stabbed her boyfriend in a fight and was fleeing law enforcement. I (got) the knife and stabbed him, the post said. Didnt think I would hurt him (but) he died. She added that the police were looking for her and she wanted to tell her Facebook friends what happened before she was caught. The post was removed later that morning. San Bernardino police Lt. Richard Lawhead said Hemet police received an anonymous tip that led them to an apartment in the 400 block of North Hamilton Avenue on Sunday, where they arrested the 18-year-old woman. She was turned over to San Bernardino police and was being held in the West Valley Detention Center on Monday afternoon, Jan. 18, Lawhead said. Her bail was set at $1 million, according to jail records. Lawhead said it would be impossible to prove that James made the post about the stabbing herself, adding that police are also relying on other evidence like witness statements, physical evidence found at the scene, and 911 calls to pinpoint her as the suspect. Its pretty hard to prove unless she actually just tells you she made the post, he said. The public played a big role in helping police find James, and Lawhead said he wanted to thank citizens for their help. The San Bernardino County Coroners Office confirmed that the remains of a missing San Diego woman were found buried Thursday night, Jan. 14, in Fontana. The remains of Alejandra Carrion Gutierrez, 27, were found in a clandestine grave in the 8200 block of Reseda Avenue in Fontana, according to a Coroners Office news release. The Fontana Police Department released the same information in a statement issued Friday afternoon regarding the arrest of 40-year-old Cesar Rosales. Rosales was arrested on suspicion of killing Gutierrez and burying her in his yard. The Police Department then released a different release, redacting that information. Rosales and Gutierrez knew each other, but the extent of their relationship was unknown Friday. Jail records show Rosales was still in custody Monday with no bail set. Thursdays Republican presidential debate in Charleston, S.C., was the best so far. The spirited exchanges showed voters the differences among the seven candidates onstage, while highlighting all the Republicans differences with the Democratic candidates. With several candidates having dropped out, the field was narrower. And, with the Iowa Caucuses approaching in two weeks, and the New Hampshire primary in three weeks, contradictions were heightened before Republican voters finally get a say. The most spirited exchange was between Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz over the latters birth in Alberta, Canada. We believe the senator is qualified to run for president because his mother was an American citizen born here. Sen. Cruz pointed out that Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, was born in the Panama Canal Zone. And he poked Mr. Trump over his mother being born in Scotland. But a 1904 law passed by Congress made Americans born in the Panama Canal Zone citizens. And Mr. Trump was correct that, should Sen. Cruz be nominated for president or vice president, the Democratic nominee or friends in the media or running independent Super PACs would bring up the matter in the general election campaign. Essentially, this dispute is not about the Constitution, but politics. Sen. Cruz has shunned seeking a court determination of his eligibility, but it might be the only way to clear up the matter. Gov. Chris Christie rejected Mr. Trumps call to temporarily keep out Muslim immigrants, instead favoring the repeal of a law Congress passed last year limiting National Security Agency powers to snoop on American citizens without a warrant. Gov. Jeb Bush went even further: We should put the NSA in charge of the civilian side of this as well, meaning control over Apple, Google and other technology companies that have introduced communication encryption thats hard for the government to break. He mentioned that the federal Office of Personnel Management was hacked, putting 23 million files in the hands of the Chinese. This point is where we missed the libertarian voice of Sen. Rand Paul, who was dropped from the larger debate field because of low poll numbers. He might have pointed out that, if the government cant even protect its own data, how is it supposed to protect the private data of a federalized Google and Apple, not just from the Chinese hackers, but from ISIS? Most positive were candidate proposals to cut taxes and regulations to produce more economic growth. That contrasted with the Democrats calls for higher taxes and for redistributing wealth instead of helping create more of it. The next Republican debate is set for Jan. 28, in Des Moines, Iowa, four days before the Iowa Caucuses. The sinkhole in Old Town Temecula that opened up in front of the Bank of Mexican Food restaurant at the corner of Main and Old Town Front streets was patched up around 5 p.m. Sunday. Craig Puma, owner of the restaurant, said Monday morning that he made a note of the time because the work was completed right after his Denver Broncos wrapped up a playoff win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Its kind of a fluke that it even happened, he said, talking about the sinkhole, not the Broncos win. Jeff Wall, assistant general manager of operations and maintenance for the Eastern Municipal Water District, said the sinkhole was created because water from recent heavy rains had gotten into the pavement that had been put down temporarily following a sewer project. The hole was reported around 1:45 p.m. Puma said the crews dumped in a bunch of dirt and gravel to create a new base and then covered it with asphalt. That section of Old Town likely will be impacted by sewer construction again in about a month. Permanent pavement will be installed when the work, a large-scale upgrade to the areas sewer system, is complete. Staff Writer Alex Groves contributed to this report. Contact the writer: aclaverie@pressenterprise.com, 951-368-9698, @PE_Claverie Launched in 2013, as part of Guardian News & Media, Guardian Australia is the third international digital edition of the second-largest English language newspaper website in the world. The guys at Guardian Australia are now on the hunt for a talented Front-End Developer (SYD) to join the growing team. As the Front-End Developer for Editorial, you will be working closely with a team of journalists and producers on building innovative and world-class interactive features, as well as providing development support and guidance to the editorial team! To be the best fit for the role, you will need to be the highly motivated type who froths on working in a collaborative and fast changing environment! You will need to be a bit of an expert in digital development, and have a concrete understanding of online news! So if front-end technologies, and back-end systems and languages are your cup of tea, then dont miss out and apply HERE! Sydney Film Festival is one of the worlds longest-running film festivals, and is a major event on the New South Wales cultural calendar. The wicked 12-day Festival screens feature films, documentaries, short films and animation from around the world in venues across the city including the State Theatre and the Art Gallery of NSW. An awesome opportunity has arisen for an Online Manager (SYD) to join the kick-ass Marketing team and help execute promotion of all aspects of the festival! To be suited for the role, youll need to always be up for a collab, as youll be working alongside the festivals campaign designers, developers and Marketing and Programming teams, to make sure the look and feel of the content on the SFF site is on fleek. Not only will you be doing this, youll be supporting each and every online platform, from Facebook to Twitter. So, if music, culture and events are your thang, and you feel most comfortable in the online realm, then apply HERE! Flight Centre Travel group has grown into a multi-billion dollar company with over 30 brands under its wing. Flight Centre Business Travel is committed to providing small to medium business with great business travel experiences and killer services, at the best available prices. An amazing opportunity has arisen for a Travel Business Development Manager (MELB) to come on board and join the jet-settin team. To be the right fit for the team, youll need to be a real go-getter who is motivated by sales and KPIs. Most importantly, the candidate will already hold a strong track record in B2B sales. You will need to be confident when negotiating with clients, and have superb comms and interpersonal skills, which will only halp you on your way into converting business opportunities. If you consider yourself travel-savvy, and you want to join one of Flight Centres most successful and progressive sales teams then shoot through your CV HERE! Back in 2009, Matt Jenson had the idea to create an Australian menswear brand that revolved around quality, whether, in relation to product, or a killer in-store customer experience. Today M.J. Bale allows Aussie gents to dress for every occasion, spesh or caj. M.J. Bale is one of the countrys fastest growing and adored mens clothiers and is looking for a Regional Manager (WA) to join the team A.S.A.P. To be perf for the role, you will have a parshan for farshan and take personal grooming pretty seriously. You will need to have some stellar customer service skillz and be able to channel your inner leader, as youll be overseeing all regional based retail managers and teams! Oh and did we mention that youll be receiving some sweet, sweet staff discounts if you land the role?! If you are the sales-driven sort and think youre already pretty aligned with the M.J. brand, then get crankin and apply HERE. PHD first launched in the UK in 1990, as the worlds first planning-led media agency. And has since grown into a global network spanning over 60 markets! PHD is now known for being one of the most innovative agencies around (with a solid amount of award winning work to show for it). A rad opportunity has arisen for a Media Account Coordinator (MELB) to work across a portfolio of some killer clients! PHD is ideally looking for a recent grad with a genuine interest in media to join the team. The role will require the right candidate to be a quick learner, as they will need to develop a thorough understanding of all things media, media maths and media planning! The role will also see this individual being accountable for the day-to-day account management and implementation of campaigns, while considering planning and innovation in everything they do. So, if youre after a conventional media agency that always plays it safe, PHD is probs not the right place for you. Buuut, if working for one of Australias top 3 most desirable agencies sounds like your vibe then apply HERE. All deets courtesy of Pedestrian Jobs. Dont let your dream job slip you by Love your work! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and get yourself signed up to our Daily Job Alerts. WARNING: This post contains Making A Murderer spoilers. Along with just about everybody else, supermodel Gigi Hadid has been watching Netflixs true crime documentary Making a Murderer, and also like everybody else she has a lot of thoughts and feelings about it. Heads up: I want to voice my opinion about Making a Murderer, so if you havent finished it yet, dont read the tweets to follow this one.. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 The documentary follows the case of Steven Avery, who was wrongly imprisoned for 18 years for a rape he didnt commit, and then not long after his release, was arrested and charged with the murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach. The bulk of the 10-part series focuses on Averys trial, police procedure, and the strong possibility that he was framed by Manitowoc Sheriffs Department; it ends with Avery being found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. To say its had a strong effect on the Netflix-watching community (so, all of us) is an understatement. A petition for Barack Obama to pardon Avery garnered more than 450,000 signatures, even though the president is unable to pardon people for state crimes. Its also become a joke: BREAKING: Another winning #Powerball ticket has emerged from Wisconsin, employees from Manitowoc Sheriffs Dept. pic.twitter.com/dJpEIxkzWu Michael Adler (@madler9000) January 14, 2016 Making a Murderer monopoly looks good fun.. pic.twitter.com/4V42HzYHVE Saint Raymond (@Callum_SR) January 12, 2016 So yes, Gigi has had many the feel about Avery and his cousin Brendan Dassey, who was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder but whom many viewers believe gave a coerced confession to the crimes (Dassey has an IQ of less than 70). You can read them here / pine for the hours last night you wasted on SLEEP when you could have been debating Making a Murderer with Gigi Hadid. Fool. I dont understand how the jury had no doubt beyond reason that all this evidence added up and/or didnt contradict each other. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 Whats hardest for me is seeing a 16 year old kid, now in his mid 20s who clearly doesnt have the tools to deal with this situation. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 There should be laws that protect people like Brendan Dassey. It breaks my heart that he hasnt yet been granted retrial. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 Unless the technology has progressed enough to test the blood again, I think the only way Steven will be granted retrial is if > Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 someone who actually knows what happened comes forward and does the right thing. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 & that makes me so sad bc corruption in that law enforcement community is obvious to me. They will clearly do anything to silence someone. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 I almost hope Im wrong & they are guilty, because knowing theyre probably going to sit in jail for the rest of their lives makes me sick. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 I hope parents of kids with similar cognitive disabilities to Brendans see #MaM & learn from/prepare that child to stand up for themselves Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 I just feel so much is missing from the #MaM case. Even if SA is guilty, they should have had at least some unquestionable evidence. Gigi Hadid (@GiGiHadid) January 17, 2016 BTW, in case you were wondering, Avery has not been able to watch the series about his trial; Variety editor Debra Birnbaum confirmed the news this morning: #MakingAMurderer filmmakers on Steven Avery: He doesnt have access to the series. He asked the warden & his request was denied. #Netflix Debra Birnbaum (@debrabirnbaum) January 17, 2016 Photo: Jason Merritt / Getty. In this Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016 photo, Rene Rivo, a Filipino David Bowie fan, plays a picture disc of Bowie's Hunky Dory on a turntable at his shop in suburban Paranaque, south of Manila, Philippines. Bowie, the chameleon-like star who transformed the sound - and the look - of rock with his audacious creativity and his sexually ambiguous makeup and costumes, died of cancer Sunday, Jan. 10. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File) Motorists pass by the apartment complex where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 18, 2016. Iraqi security forces fanned out across the Baghdad neighborhood Monday morning where three Americans were reportedly kidnapped over the weekend, closing streets and conducting house-to-house searches. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) Feds: Enbridge can stop some crack inspections on Straits oil pipelines U.S. DOJ agrees that the inspections delayed would identify cracks that do not pose a risk to the pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac. European regulators have approved the first biosimilar version of Pfizer/Amgens multi-billion-dollar anti-inflammatory therapy Enbrel, made by Samsung Bioepis, a joint venture between Samsung Biologics and Biogen. Like its forerunner, Benepali (etanercept) has been cleared by the European Commission for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, axial spondyloarthritis and plaque psoriasis. The approval, which comes after less than four years of development, centres on a 52-week Phase III clinical study showing comparable safety and equivalent efficacy to Enbrel, with ACR20 response rates of 80.8% versus 81.5%, respectively. Availability of the drug will drive down healthcare costs and increase patient access to one of the most widely used treatment options for immunological diseases across Europe, said Samsung Bioepis chief executive Christopher Hansung Ko. Benepalis affordability may allow more patients from a wider demographic to receive proper treatment, thereby enabling more people to live healthier, more comfortable lives, noted Paul Emery, Arthritis Research UK Professor of Rheumatology at Leeds University, also highlighting the impressive feat of bringing the drug to market with such speed, while ensuring the drug's high level of efficacy and safety. Benepali is to be gradually rolled out across all 28 European Union member states as well as in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, with commercialisation and distribution lead by Biogen. First launches in the UK and Germany are expected to be in the next few weeks a spokesperson told PharmaTimes. Novartis unit Sandoz filed its own biosimilar of the anti-TNF back in December, noting at the time that approval would enable more patients with enabling more patients with chronic inflammatory conditions such psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis to be treated with biologics. MEDIA QUESTIONNAIRE Name of Publication Established (Give exact date) ADDRESS TELEPHONE FAX NO NAME OF EDITOR Name of Printer Language Frequency Please attach a copy of declaration certificate Off Days Please specify whether morning, evening or state the date of issue Date on which the first issue was brought out Any special edition Price per copy Annual subscription Editorial Objectives and policy Appeal to any special community, class or section News services subscribed to Special regular features (i.e Womens or Children page etc) & when appearing Charity Series of Poker to Host Celebrity Charity Event Jan. 30 at Borgata January 18, 2016 Chad Holloway Executive Editor U.S. On Saturday, January 30, Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa will play host to the sixth-ever Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) event, one that will benefit Habitat for Humanity of Atlantic County and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. CSOP, which was started by poker pro Matt Stout, is a non-profit, charitable organization whose foremost objective is to benefit local charities through poker fundraising efforts that bring together celebrities, poker pros, and everyday players. Speaking of celebrities, renowned film critic Richard Roeper is confirmed for the event, as are World Series of Poker bracelet winners Jeff Madsen and Vanessa Selbst, three-time World Poker Tour champ Anthony Zinno, One Drop champion Tony Gregg, November Niners Josh Beckley and Neil Blumenfield, WPT champion Asher Conniff, and Will "The Thrill" Failla. Im really excited about returning our event to Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, said Stout. Theyve always gone above and beyond to help us raise money for deserving aid organizations and it feels good to gather my poker and celebrity friends to make a contribution while having a great time doing it. We are all thrilled that The Community Food Bank of New Jersey and Habitat for Humanity of Atlantic County will once again be the beneficiaries. The No-Limit HoldEm Turbo tournament, which is open to the public, will begin at 5 p.m. and features a buy-in of $330 ($230 + a $100 donation that is tax deductible). Reentries are allowed for all players, who must be 21 years of age to participate. The festivities will begin with an open bar pre-party at 28 West Cocktail & Piano Bar from 3:30-5:00 p.m. for featured celebrities and registered participants. On-site registration for the event starts Monday, January 18 up through the event. The fee can be paid by credit card and the buy-in must be paid in cash when purchasing in the Borgata Poker Room. We are pleased to welcome back Matt Stout for another installment of the Charity Series of Poker, said Joe Lupo, Senior Vice President of Operations for Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. It is important for us to champion and support fundraising for our local community and this event goes towards just that a great tournament benefiting two worthy causes. For more information, visit www.charityseriesofpoker.org. You can also follow @TheCSOP on Twitter for updates and details. Want to stay atop all the latest in the poker world? If so, make sure to get PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+! Sharelines Borgata will be site of Charity Series of Pokers sixth fundraising event on Saturday, January 30th. Portfolio English Edition's premium content is available only for subscribers Learn about the hottest news of the day, along with immediate follow-up analyses and 1000's of exclusive articles with full access to the premium content. Register and apply for a 14 days free trial period. Arizona city made famous by Eagles song celebrates Frey FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. Winslow, Arizona, was all but forgotten when Interstate 40 displaced Route 66 and began whisking travelers around its downtown in the late 1970s. But it still had one thing going for it: Everybody wanted to stand on a corner in the small city after hearing Glenn Frey and the Eagles make it sound so cool in "Take It Easy." Locals capitalized on the lyrics with an annual festival and park featuring a statue and mural commemorating the 1972 song. Frey died Monday at 67. Winslow residents were planning a memorial service Tuesday night that will feature Eagles songs and likely dancing in the street. ADVERTISEMENT "All are on the same page of being grateful for the music," said Tom McCauley, part of a foundation that organizes the annual Standin' on the Corner Festival. "The Eagles is one of the greatest rock and roll bands, and Glenn Frey is certainly one of the most iconic performers ever." Fans have been leaving flowers and notes at the park to celebrate the life of Frey, who co-wrote and sang "Take It Easy." The nearby bronze statue of a man with boots, jeans and a guitar has stood downtown since the late 1990s. In front of it is a Route 66 shield painted on the road and behind him is a mural with a woman looking in his direction a visual reference to the line in the song, "It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me." Tyler Blom of Duluth, Minnesota, was on his way to Las Vegas with a friend when they decided to detour to Winslow to pay their respects. "If you don't know that song, you gotta get your pulse checked," said Blom, 27. "If you don't like that song, it's an 'I don't know if I can be friends with you,' kind of thing." -------------------- Filmmaker Ken Burns to deliver prestigious Jefferson Lecture NEW YORK Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has been chosen to deliver the 2016 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities , which produces the event. ADVERTISEMENT Burns will deliver the lecture May 9 at Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He will talk about race in America, a topic that he has explored through nearly 40 years of directing and producing historical documentaries including "The Civil War" miniseries and, debuting on PBS in April, a film about Jackie Robinson. The Jefferson Lecture is the highest honor the federal government bestows for intellectual achievement in the humanities. Past lecturers include actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith and filmmaker Martin Scorsese. -------------------- Pamela Anderson adds star power to French foie gras debate PARIS Actress-turned animal rights activist Pamela Anderson has caused a stir in France by speaking out against foie gras, the fatty duck and goose liver delicacy which producers say is an integral part of French cuisine. The former 'Baywatch' star spoke in France's Parliament at the invitation of a Green Party politician who's spearheading a bid to ban "gavage," a process where food is pumped into the birds' stomachs to engorge the liver. Anderson, who is known for her risque methods of drawing attention to wildlife conservation, urged legislators to "evolve beyond barbarism and ignorance" and ban the practice. Foie gras production employs 100,000 people in France, according to industry figures. ADVERTISEMENT -------------------- DiCaprio rips Big Oil at Davos confab of business leaders DAVOS, Switzerland Fresh off his Golden Globe win, Leonardo DiCaprio drew ooohs, ahhs and smiles from a crowd as he was honored for his work against the climate crisis at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Then he ripped into Big Oil. The Hollywood star of "The Revenant" traded the North American snows for white Alpine slopes at a ceremony Tuesday where he announced his foundation was donating another $15 million to environmental projects, and pleaded with business leaders and other notables on hand to help battle climate change. "We simply cannot allow the corporate greed of the coal, oil and gas industries to determine the future of humanity," DiCaprio said to polite applause. "Those entities with a financial interest in preserving this destructive system have denied and even covered up the evidence of our changing climate." "Enough is enough. You know better. The world knows better. History will place the blame for this devastation squarely at their feet." Associated Press Today a dream is being honored as much as the man who had it. In gatherings throughout the nation to honor Martin Luther King Jr., many are reflecting on his most famous words, which include "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'" But King's legacy goes well beyond a single speech, and his words offer many messages that resonate today. They call for the unity and equality that was at the center of his dream. Through his words, he has left us lessons that point toward a better society. "Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,"he famously wrote in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." "I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality." While his "Dream" speech and Birmingham jail letter will be among his most-quoted words today, it's important to reflect on other messages he left behind, many of which offer suggestions and insights for today. "I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody else can speak for you,"King wrote in his autobiography. The words could be seen as motivation for countless individuals who have stepped forward to share their stories in hope of spurring change. ADVERTISEMENT That fact demonstrates the unfortunate reality that King's dream remains unfulfilled. While some may point to signs of progress, too many others can point to a lack of change. Such realities are evident when Rochester parents voice concerns about how their children are disciplined in school and see parallels to how they were treated a generation ago. There's an inter-generational pain that can't be healed quickly. "Three hundred years of humiliation, abuse and deprivation cannot be expected to find voice in a whisper,"he wrote in "Why We Can't Wait." King acknowledges such longstanding pain can lead to doubt. "I see a lot cynicism around and a lot of despair, and it's understandable despair, and I've tried to say to them, 'Don't lose hope; don't give up; picture disappointments and transform them into your own assets and into something creative,'"he told an audience during a Feb. 15, 1968, rally for the Poor Peoples Campaign. His quest for equality also went beyond the Civil Rights movement. It was a global message. "I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits,"he said during his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway. Today, whether it's a parent concerned about raising a child in our community, a Black Lives Matter protest or the acceptance of refugees, King's words continue to have impact and offer valuable insight. In his sermon "Antidotes for Fear," King warned not to let fear transform into anger. It was a message for those who fear the actions of an imperfect society, but it's also advice that should be heeded by those who fear the unknown of change. "Courage faces fear and thereby masters it,"King said. "Cowardice represses fear and is thereby mastered by it. Courageous men never lose the zest for living even though their life situation is zestless; cowardly men, overwhelmed by the uncertainties of life, lose the will to live. We must constantly build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear." A good step toward overcoming such fear and reaching toward King's dream would be to heed the challenge he made during the April 18, 1959, March for Integrated Schools in Washington, D.C.: "Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in." Theres a whole pile of campus crazy stacking up in my in-box at the moment, such as the announcement that Portland Community College is going to designate April as Whiteness History Month, which, unlike Black History Month, isnt about celebrating people of pallor. Naturally it is the predictable dirge: The Project: Whiteness History Month: Context, Consequences and Change is a multidisciplinary, district-wide, educational project examining race and racism through an exploration of the construction of whiteness, its origins and heritage. Scheduled for the month of April 2016, the project seeks to inspire innovative and practical solutions to community issues and social problems that stem from racism. Whiteness History Month, unlike heritage months, is not a celebratory endeavor, it is an effort to change our campus climate. But thats nothing compared to the latest diktat coming from the obviously mis-named American University in Washington DC, which proposes the following as a new required course in its proposed revision to its core curriculum (PDF file): AU Experience II (1 or 3 credits TBD): A three-credit required course, taken by all AU students in their second semester, normally with the same discussion leader and students and in the same hybrid, discussion-intensive mode as AU Experience I. AUx2 will delve more deeply into the sociological and psychological aspects of the individual and society introduced in AUx1, with special attention to issues of diversity, inclusion, and community. Readings and assignments will include historic and contemporary literature, film, and data on oppression and resistance. Students will explore how historical violence, such as the early slave trade and genocidal conquests, shape the contemporary experiences of marginalized groups and struggles for human rights. Class materials will consider how entrenched systems of inequality marginalize some groups and privilege others. Students will be encouraged to apply what they learn to their individual and collective situation in the multi-cultural environment that is AU. [Emphasis added.] In other words, leftist propaganda. Of course it has to be required, because otherwise sensible students will avoid this politicized drivel. Serious question: Shouldnt American University change its name while theyre at it? After all, America, and the idea of America, is offensive to all of the so-called marginalized groups that this new curriculum is directed toward. The place should plainly be called Multicultural University or something less triggering than American. Especially since it seems determined to become, in essence, Anti-American University. With the Democratic presidential race tightening, I decided to check out the candidates debate tonight. I stuck with it for an hour and a half. Here are my observations: First, Hillary Clinton turned in another strong performance. Republicans who think the GOP nominee wont have his (or her) hands full should think again. Second, unlike in the first debate (the only other one Ive watched), Bernie Sanders was also strong. He did a better job defending himself on gun control, although this is still a weakness for him a D-minus NRA rating not being low enough for most Dems. On the other big issues health care, black lives matter, climate change, and Wall Street/the banks Sanders was very strong if one considers things from the Democrats perspective. Third, Sanders was particularly powerful on Wall Street and the banks. He hammered Clinton for taking $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs and wondered how any candidate can reform Wall Street while receiving this kind of financial support from its denizens. Fourth, the best Clinton could do in response was to point out that Sanders once criticized Barack Obama for accepting contributions from Wall Street. This wasnt the only time that Clinton used President Obama as her get out of jail card (pun intended). Presumably, she figures that any attack on her that also applies to Obama will be discounted by the African-American voters shes counting on to pull her through to the nomination. Well see. Fifth, speaking of jail, Clinton said (referring to Wall Street types) that no individual too powerful to jail. Famous last words? Sixth, the debate between Clinton and Sanders on health care was too close to call (at least by me, since I dont know where Democratic voters stand on the issue). Sanders wants universal health care coverage and points out that Obamacare leaves 29 million Americans uninsured. Clinton says that universal coverage is her goal too, but doesnt want another contentious debate, and thus prefers to make Obamacare better. Again, she played the Obama card, emphasizing what is great accomplishment Obamacare is. Seventh, as I say, I dont know how this debate over health sounds to the average Democrat. However, for many of all political persuasions, it may be sobering to hear that with all of the distortions and other problems Obamacare has produced, we still have 29 million uninsured Americans. Thats 10 percent of the population, no? Eighth, the foreign policy segment of the debate produced little disagreement, and I think Sanders missed several opportunities to attack Clinton. At one point, the Vermont Senator was asked whether Clintons policies as Secretary of State created a vacuum in Syria. Sanders said they didnt; the vacuum was created by the Iraq war. I was certain he would point out that Clinton voted for that war, but he didnt. Sanders could also have pointed out that Assad, whom Clinton attacked during the debate as a butcher, was once well-regarded by Clinton. Again, Sanders didnt. Ninth, Clinton took some positions that might not play well in the general election. Obamacare may be problematic against a Republican candidate who can sell an alternative (not just repeal). Clinton came down very hard on the police. I assume she felt she had to, given her reliance on the African-American vote, but I doubt that most Americans share her view or her sympathy for Black Lives Matter. Clinton also strongly defended the Iran deal, which I think remains unpopular. Tenth, the NBC moderators, especially Andrea Mitchell, went easier on Clinton than on Sanders and Martin OMalley. The first issue-specific question of the debate was about Sanders past position on gun manufacturer liability his main weakness as far as Democrats are concerned. Later, he was accused of flip-flopping on taxes for the middle class and chided for releasing a new plan on taxes (I think) just a few hours before the debate. OMalley was asked whether his law and order policies as mayor of Baltimore (years ago) are responsible for the recent problems the city has experienced. Meanwhile Clinton, who is vulnerable to tough questions on so many fronts, was not asked anything that might have made her play defense until almost three-quarters of the debate had passed (and most viewers probably had tuned out). At that point, she was asked about her Russian reset. She claimed it was a success until Putin spoiled things by coming back to power in 2011. I kid you not. To conclude, Clinton debated well but I dont think Sanders will be derailed like he was by the first debate. Those inclined to view Sanders favorably are likely to be impressed by what they saw tonight. When Martin Luther King, Jr., brought his nonviolent campaign against segregation to Bull Connors Birmingham, he laid siege to the bastion of Jim Crow. In Birmingham between 1957 and 1962, black homes and churches had been subjected to a series of horrific bombings intended to terrorize the community. In April 1963 King answered the call to bring his campaign to Birmingham. When King landed in jail on Good Friday for violating an injunction prohibiting demonstrations, he took the opportunity to meditate on the counsel of prudence with which Birminghams white ministers had greeted his campaign. Kings Letter from Birmingham Jail was the result. Reading the Letter fifty years later is a humbling experience. Perhaps most striking is Kings seething anger over the indignities of segregation: I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, Wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she cant go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son asking in agonizing pathos: Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white and colored; when your first name becomes nigger, your middle name becomes boy (however old you are) and your last name becomes John, and your wife and mother are never given the respected title Mrs.; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness; then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. In addition to Kings witness, Kings prophetic call permeates the Letter. Why did King presume to come from Atlanta to Birmingham? King writes: I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the eighth century prophets left their little villages and carried their thus saith the Lord far beyond the boundaries of their home towns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Graeco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Kings prophetic call must have been both a source of strength and of concern. His strength was manifest; he rarely let his concern show. Perfection is not a condition of the prophets call, and King was both imperfect and aware of his imperfections. His unbending strength is all the more remarkable. It is difficult to comprehend that King was only 39 years old at the time of his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, or that the prospect of his death weighed so heavily on his mind. He seems too young to have accomplished so much, or to have maintained his judgment under such trying circumstances. The magnitude of his own trials must have had a deep impact on him. In the speech he gave in Memphis the day before his assassination, he movingly recalled his first confrontation with death: You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, Are you Martin Luther King? And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once thats punctured, you drown in your own blood thats the end of you. It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. Ive forgotten what those telegrams said. Id received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but Ive forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and Ill never forget it. It said simply, Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the White Plains High School. She said, While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And Im simply writing you to say that Im so happy that you didnt sneeze. Here he paused to look back on what he had achieved with the time he had been granted: And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didnt sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man cant ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldnt have been down in Selma, Alabama, been in Memphis to see the community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. Im so happy that I didnt sneeze. Looking beyond his accomplishments, he likened himself to Moses, the prophet par excellence, and testified to the source of the prophets voice: Well, I dont know what will happen now. Weve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesnt matter with me now. Because Ive been to the mountaintop. And I dont mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But Im not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods will. And Hes allowed me to go up to the mountain. And Ive looked over. And Ive seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And Im happy, tonight. Im not worried about anything. Im not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. (First posted on Martin Luther King Day 2005.) UPDATE 2011: Dr. Art Fougner writes from Forest Hills to note: Recently, our Medical Society of the County of Queens honored Dr. John W. Cordice with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Cordice was a young surgeon on duty at Harlem Hospital when Dr. King was brought in with his near fatal injury and was one of the team that saved his life. Thought youd appreciate the circles being completed. Dr. Fougner is past president of the society. The Nigerian military on Sunday confirmed that multiple attacks were carried out on oil installations in the Niger Delta area. The Commander of the Joint Task Force, JTF, Alani Okunlola, who confirmed the attacks, also threatened that community leaders would, henceforth, be held responsible for any attack on the countrys oil and gas facilities in their domains. Militants, believed to be loyal to embattled former Niger Delta warlord, Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo), attacked multiple oil facilities in protest against a court directive. A Federal High Court in Lagos had on Thursday ordered the arrest of Tompolo for his refusal to appear for an alleged N34 billion fraud. The ex-militant was one of the Niger Delta warlords who accepted the amnesty programme of the late Umaru YarAdua amnesty programme. He is being prosecuted by the anti-corruption agency, EFCC, for the alleged fraud although he has refused to appear before the commission. On Sunday, the JTF Commander inspected the site of Fridays pipeline explosion site at Egwa 11, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta. Mr. Okunlola, a Major General, who led other security personnel to the explosion site, also warned that henceforth, extant laws banning the use of outboard engines with 200 horsepower and above would be enforced in the region. This warning is coming as a result of the recent multiple attacks on oil facilities and platforms by suspected militants in the Niger Delta, he said. The JTF commander, who described the acts as economic sabotage, assured that the command would apprehend the perpetrators. He, therefore, advised them to desist from further destruction of the nations oil and gas facilities. He called on government officials and community leaders to furnished OPS and other security agencies with information that would facilitate the arrest of the perpetrators of the attacks. He said that the acts were criminal in nature and were capable of undermining the security of the country. There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the criminals to get away with it. It is a massive sabotage and critical to national assets; we must fish out those responsible for it. We dont have our men on ground in the area that is why they were able to carry out the act, he said. He assured Niger Delta residents of JTFs determination to eliminate illegality from the region. The Brigade Commander, Brig.-Gen. Farouk Yahaya and the Commander, 3 Battalion, Igwe Omoke were on the team that visited the explosion site. Others are Commander, Nigeria Navy Ship (NNS) Delta, Commodore Raimi Mohammed and other top ranking personnel from the Police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps. (NAN) The Central Bank of Nigeria has come under intense scrutiny in the past six months. This is not just because of its controversial restrictions on foreign exchange transactions but also as a result of allegations that its leadership facilitated inappropriate massive cash withdrawals of foreign currencies from the Banks coffers by the erstwhile National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, close to the 2015 presidential elections. These transactions are believed to have had the blessing of President Goodluck Jonathan. PREMIUM TIMES believes these unfortunate controversies pose a serious threat to the lived reality of the independence of the Central Bank, which we believe is of vital importance to the maintenance of a sound economy. The Nigerian economy is today in crisis and the Central Bank has suffered major reputational erosion while a strong economic team capable of revamping the economy is yet to emerge. Sooner, rather than later, the question of a clean competent Governor for the Central Bank is bound to be on the table. At that point, we should be clear on the basis for the selection of the next Governor of the CBN whenever the incumbent, Godwin Emefiele, leaves office. We believe it is time to end the practice in recent years of appointing current or former chief executives of commercial banks as Governor of the CBN. We agree with the view expressed recently by Joseph Sanusi, former Governor of the CBN (1999-2004) that it is wrong for government to foist commercial bankers previously regulated by CBN deputy governors on the latter as their bosses, when such bankers have not imbibed the institutional culture of central banking and the CBN. Mr. Sanusi advised the government to, in future, appoint the governor of the CBN from amongst the deputy governors of the Bank, while commercial bankers could only be brought into the leadership levels at CBN as deputy governors so that they can assimilate the institutional culture before aspiring to the ultimate leadership role. Mr. Sanusi should know. He spent a long professional career in the CBN, rising to the position of Deputy Governor. In an era different from today in which the government still had significant shareholdings in commercial banks, and the CBN did not have autonomy but was still under the Federal Ministry of Finance, he was subsequently appointed the managing director of UBA and later First Bank before retiring. President Olusegun Obasanjo named Mr. Sanusi Governor of the CBN after being sworn in as president in May 1999. Several previous governors of the Bank had earlier served as deputy governors: Aliyu Mai Bornu, Clement Isong, Abdulkadir Ahmed (the longest serving governor for nine years), and Ola Vincent. We believe that serving or retired deputy governors should be appointed to lead the CBN in order to enhance its progressive growth and strengthening it as a key national institution on the basis of professionalism. In most developed or emerging market economies, the global best practice is that central bank governors have previously served as deputies. Janet Yellen, Chairwoman of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, was previously Vice-Chair of the institution. Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, was previously Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada. The present governors of the reserve or central banks of Ghana, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa and Turkey were all previously deputy governors, to name a few examples. Moreover, in todays modern banking era in which banks are key private sector economic agents, potential conflicts of interest abound for any commercial banker appointed Governor of the CBN. Central banking also is primarily a public policy responsibility. This is different from transaction-focused commercial or investment banking. Central banking as an occupation therefore calls for institutional knowledge, dispassionate stance and intellectual proclivity that few operators in our banking ecosystem possess. With this in mind, PREMIUM TIMES believes the following five requirements ought to guide the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in appointing the next Governor of the CBN. Integrity: In the Nigerian environment that has nurtured systemic corruption, and considering recent revelations and the Buhari administrations anti-corruption stance, a person appointed to lead the CBN should be a person of proven integrity. It is not a valid defence for a CBN Governor to justify questionable decisions and actions by asserting superior orders from the President, when (a) the laws of Nigeria should always be observed, and (b) such an individual has the option of resigning his appointment if he or she feels under pressure to act against his professional conscience to the extent such a conscience exists. Professionalism: The Governor of the CBN must exhibit the highest standards of professionalism in his or her conduct and leadership as an example for the staff of the institution. This includes the desired attribute of political neutrality, as opposed to deploying the institutions processes to serve partisan agendas. Relevant experience: A CBN Governor should have had prior experience in a central bank, an international monetary or financial institution, or an economic policy research institution. Intellectual ability: The global best practice is that a central bank governor should have an advanced degree, preferably a Ph.D. degree or at least a Masters. On close observation, we found that virtually all the governors of the reserve banks of developed and emerging market economies in the examples cited above, amongst others, have this profile. Normally, the intellectual track record of a potential central bank governor is evidenced in books or other writings on topics relevant to the several mandates of central banking macroeconomic issues and monetary policy, banking regulation and financial stability, development economics and finance, and political economy. Central banks in every economy are also major centres of authoritative research. A central bank governor that lacks intellectual training and weight will not be able to provide thought leadership. International exposure: In a globalized world, and with Nigerias position as Africas most populous country and its largest economy, our central bank should be headed by a man or woman with global exposure in terms of work experience, education, and professional associations and activities. We must pay closer attention to the selection of the leadership of important national institutions such as the CBN, making them more merit-based, in order to avoid situations that diminish these institutions and us as a country in the eyes of the world. We hope that President Buhari, whose prerogative it is to appoint the Governor of the CBN under Nigerias laws, subject to the confirmation of the Senate, will bear this in mind in the appointment of the next head of the CBN should that event occur within the timeframe of his presidency. There appears to be a fresh round of crisis in Nigerias major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, with some elected national officers calling on the acting chairman of the board of trustees, Bello Mohammed and the national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh, to step down from their offices. The call, which was made in a statement signed by four of the national officers, which they also said represented the views of all deputy national officers and some members of the National Executive Committee of the party, was sequel to the ongoing trial of Messrs. Mohammed and Metuh over corruption allegations. Messrs Metuh and Mohammed are being tried for receiving monies from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, out of the $2.1 billion meant for arms procurement but which was diverted to political spending. The statement, made available to PEMIUM TIMES on Monday, was signed by Dennis Alonge-Niyi, the deputy national youth leader; Bashir Maidugu, the deputy national legal adviser; Okey Nnaedozie, the deputy national organizing secretary and Abdullahi Jalo, the deputy national publicity secretary. The national officers called on all relevant members and organs of the party to rescue it from fortune hunters who have hijacked its very soul. They said, We hereby strongly dissociate the Peoples Democratic Party from the ongoing trials of Dr. Bello Halliru Mohammed ( Acting Chairman of Board of Trustees) and Chief Olisa Metuh ( National Publicity Secretary) on various charges anti graft agencies. They are said to have received funds using accounts of their private companies without the knowledge and instructions of any organ of the party. All those mentioned in the ongoing corruption trial are, therefore, on their own and the party was not involved financially or in anyway with the office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, or any organ of the federal government in the last regime. They must bear full responsibility for their actions and must henceforth refrain from dragging the name of the party into the mud. Step down please The national officers also said that sequel to the wide public interest the trial of Messrs. Mohammed and Metuh has generated, they would call on the national caucus of the PDP, the BoT and the PDP Governors Forum to prevail on the two accused persons to honorably step down until they clear their names thereby saving the party from further damage. They said their call was not a pronouncement of guilt on the two officers of the PDP, but a passionate appeal to halt the erroneous concept that the party tolerates corruption. They also called on the NEC of the party to convene a meeting immediately to formalize the appointment of a new spokesperson in line with the partys constitution. The officers also called on the NEC not to continue with the reign of impunity, which they said characterized the PDP in the past and led it to its current position, to respect the Abuja High Court ruling of December 15 last year. The Court had in a ruling delivered in a suit filed by a former political adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Ahmed Gulak, directed the PDP acting national chairman, Uche Secondus, to step down and allow either Mr. Gulak or any qualified person from the north east to take over. Mr. Secondus became acting chairman after Ahmadu Muazu resigned his position following the defeat of the party in the last general election. This is a declaratory ruling where no order of stay of execution from any other court has been granted. The NEC must do the needful by selecting a suitable national chairman from the north east to complete their tenure in accordance with our tradition and the partys constitution. In pursuance of this therefore, Prince Uche Secondus should revert back to his constitutional position of Deputy National Chairman of the party as a matter of urgency, they said. The national officers also argued that in the light of the court ruling and other matters related to it, the timetable recently released by the National Working Committee, without recourse to the NEC, for the forthcoming national convention of the party should be considered null and void. They said aside from the offices of the National Chairman, National Secretary, National Financial Secretary and the National Auditor, the national convention that produced the other national officers was held on August 30, 2013. They said based on the four-year tenure envisaged by the constitution of the party, all the remaining officers tenure of office would terminate on August 30, 2017. They also called on the NEC to order a proper audit of the finances of the PDP by certified external auditors. They said the audit period should be from March 2012 to date. All committees set up by the irregularly constituted national working committee should be dissolved and new committees constituted by NEC in good faith and the general interest of the party. Finally, we urge the National Caucus and the Board of Trustees as a matter of urgency to convene a meeting of NEC to address all these burning issues. Any further delay will exacerbate the situation, they said. The Presidency has drastically cut its N8.09 billion provision in the 2016 budget for the purchase of various brands of vehicles for State House operations during the year, checks by PREMIUM TIMES have shown. The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, had on Thursday accused the presidency of substituting the original copy of the budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015 with a new version. Mr Sarakis claim was the climax of days of suspense following claims and counterclaims that the document was missing. A review of the fresh copy of the budget uploaded to the website of the Budget Office of the Federation on Friday showed a massive cut by about 83.5 per cent in the total allocation for the vehicles. The government will now spend only N1.34 billion to buy only five BMW saloon cars and jeeps as well as buses for use by the Presidency during the year. Apart from the reduction in the provision for vehicles, there were other adjustments in the previous allocations to various departments and units in the Presidency contained in the original budget. A total of N7.52 billion was provided previously for the purchase of various exotic vehicles, including BMW saloon cars, in addition to another N566 million for the procurement of vehicles, including 16-seater Toyota Hiace coaster buses for the State House. Despite the adjustments to the allocations to the various departments and units, the total appropriation of N39.13 billion for the Presidency remained unchanged in both the previous and current budget versions. Details of the different adjustments showed that State House headquarters, which got total allocation of N11.91 billion in the original budget has now been cut by N100 million, same as allocations for its recurrent costs, overheads, honorarium & sitting allowance as well as miscellaneous expenses. Equally, the purchase of fixed assets, which received N4.57 billion previously, has drastically been reduced to about N1.2 billion, while preservation of the environment and wild life conservation, which got a total of N978.3 million, has now been reduced to N347.4 million. The Office of the Chief of Staff to the President had its initial allocation of N2.3 million raised to N22.3 million, while allocation to the office of the Chief Security Adviser to the President has also been raised from N3.18 million to N28.18 million. Details of the provision for the two offices include allocation of N25 million each for overhead costs, recurrent and miscellaneous expenditures. Another N25 million has been budgeted for honorarium & sitting allowance for the office of the Chief of Staff. The State House Medical Centre has been allocated N100 million for total overheads and recurrent costs. The State House, Lagos Liaison Office, which had its allocation increased from N126.7 million to N151.7 million, would get in addition N25 million each for recurrent, overhead and miscellaneous costs. About N2.3 billion provided earlier for the construction and general provision of fixed assets as well as recreational facilities for the State House has now been removed, while rehabilitation and repairs of fixed assets previously allocated N4.48 billion was increased to N13.2 billion. Rehabilitation/repairs of residential buildings and electricity facilities previously allocated N388 million and N1.7 billion respectively have now been raised to N642.6 million and N1.8 billion respectively. Another provision of N3.9 billion has been made for the rehabilitation of office building, while renovation of eight blocks of 16 two-bedroom flats at State House Security quarter, Asokoro, would take about N254.6 million. About N3.9 billion has been set aside for the annual routine maintenance of Villa facilities by Julius Berger, in addition to N764.7million provided for the construction/provision of recreational facilities. Previous Budget Current Budget Deduction Addition State House Headquarters N11,909,567,097 N11,809,567,097 N100,000,000 Other recurrent costs N2,063,951,770 N1,963,951,770 N100,000,000 Overhead cost N1,964,893,444 N1,864,893,446 N100,000,000 Miscellaneous N454,145,445 N354,145,445 N100,000,000 Honorarium & Sitting Allowance N169,396,805 N69,396,805 N100,000,000 Fixed Asset Purchased N4,570,066,328 N1,196,066,328 N3,374,000,000 Purchase of Motor Vehicles N3,889,015,000 N599,015,000 N3,290,000,000 Purchase of buses N362,000,000 N278,000,000 N84,000,000 Construction & Provision N764,671,015 N764,671,015 Construction & Provision of Fixed Assets (General) N764,671,015 N764,671,015 Construction & Provision of Recreational of facilities N764,671,015 N764,671,015 Rehabilitation and Repairs N2,238,761,647 N6,587,688,462 N4,348,926,815 Rehabilitation and Repairs of Fixed Assets (General) N2,238,761,647 N6,587,688,462 N4,348,926,815 Rehabilitation/Repairs of Residential Building N387,980,200 N642,568,122 N254,587,922 Rehabilitation/Repairs- Electricity N1,652,416,807 N1,832,558,638 N180,141,831 Rehabilitation of Office building N3,914,197,062 N3,914,197,062 Preservation of the Environment N326,084,876 N115,829,076 N210,255,800 Preservation of the Environment (General) N326,084,876 N115,829,076 N210,255,800 Wild life conservation N326,084,876 N115,829,076 N100,000,000 Total Overhead N2,063,951,770 N1,963,951,770 N100,000,000 Total Recurrent N3,640,645,629 N3,540,645,631 Renovation work on 8 blocks of 16 two bedroom flats at State House Security quarter, Asokoro New N254,587,922 N254,587,922 Annual Routine Maintenance of Villa Facilities by Julius Berger N3,914,197,062 N3,914,197,062 Construction/ provision of Recreational Facilities N764,671,015 N3,290,000,000 N764,671,015 Purchase of BMW saloon cars and Jeeps (5 Nos) N3,630,000,000 N340,000,000 N84,000,000 N20,000,000 Purchase of 16 seater Hiace coaster buses and utility pick-up N204,000,000 N120,000,000 N25,000,000 Office of the Chief of Staff (expenditure) N2,258,000 N22,258,000 N25,000,000 Miscellaneous N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Overhead cost 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Honorarium/Sitting Allowance N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Recurrent 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Office of the Chief Security Adviser to the President (Total Expenditure) N3,177,380 N28,177,380 N25,000,000 Other Recurrent Costs N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Miscellaneous N25,000,000 N25,000,000 State House medical Centre (Other recurrent costs) N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Total overheads 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Total Recurrent 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Other recurrent costs 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 State House Lagos Liaison Office (Expenditure) N126,727,005 N151,727,005 N25,000,000 Total Recurrent costs 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Overhead cost 0 N25,000,000 N25,000,000 Miscellaneous N25,000,000 N25,000,000 N13,746,780,445 N36,355,472,888 Nigerias Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has stated that 55 Nigerians have stolen over N1.34 trillion from the countrys treasury from 2006 to 2013. Speaking at a press conference on Monday in Abuja, Mr. Mohammed said since the nation was on the verge of winning the war against insurgent group, Boko Haram, the nation and its people should also partake in yet, another war on corruption. Mr. Mohammed said if Nigerians failed to cooperate with the governing All Progressives Congress administration under president Muhammadu Buhari, corruption would kill the country. Gentlemen, the situation is dire and the time to act is now. For example, between the period 2006 and 2013, just 55 people allegedly stole a total of 1.34 trillion Naira in Nigeria. Thats more than a quarter of last years national budget, he said. Out of the stolen funds, the minister said 15 former governors were alleged to have stolen N146.84 billion; while 4 former ministers stole N7 billion; 12 former public servants, both at federal and state levels, stole over N14 billion; 8 people in the banking Industry allegedly N524 billion; while 11 businessmen allegedly stole N653 billion. Giving reasons why Nigerians should own the war against corruption, Mr. Mohammed said using the World Bank rates and costs, showed that one third of the stolen funds could have provided 635.18 kilometres of road; built 36 ultra modern hospitals, that is one ultra modern hospital per state; built 183 schools; educated 3,974 children from primary to tertiary level at 25.24 million per child; and built 20,062 units of 2-bedroom houses. This is the money that a few people, just 55 in number, allegedly stole within a period of just eight years. And instead of a national outrage, all we hear are these nonsensical statements that the government is fighting only the opposition, or that the government is engaging in vendetta, he said. The information minister said Nigerians must therefore support the government in the ongoing war against corruption, irrespective of political, religious or tribal leanings. If you have stolen public funds, you must not go scot-free. Everyone and every arm of government must rise up to be counted in this epic war, and defeat is not an option if our country is to survive. As President Muhammadu Buhari likes to say, if we dont kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria. There is no better way to say it, he said. Mr. Mohammed said the impression being created by a cross section of Nigerians that the war against corruption wa a vendetta against the opposition, and that indeed it is one-sided, was erroneous. This is not true and indeed very nauseating, he said. The minister gave example with the latest issue of the $2.1 billion arms deal, saying that it is clear that funds meant to fight terrorism were deployed to another fight- the fight to keep then President Goodluck Jonathan and his party, the PDP, in power at all cost. So far, based on what we know, no one who has been accused of partaking in the sharing of the funds has denied receiving money. All we have heard from them are ludicrous reasons why they partook in sharing of the money. One said he collected N4.5 billion for spiritual purposes, another said he received N2.1 billion for publicity, while yet another said he got N13 billion to pay someone else for the Maritime University land. Based on these revelations, should we now fold our hands and allow these people to go away with public funds? Is anyone thinking about the innocent soldiers who lost their lives just because they did not get the necessary weapons to fight the terrorists? What about the families left behind by these soldiers who were sent to their early graves because of the misappropriation of these funds? What about those who lost their means of livelihood after the terrorists overran their towns and villages? What of the millions of Nigerians, especially women and children, who are now living in IDP camps? Is it not clear that the cruel fate that has befallen these unfortunate people is a direct result of the misuse of the funds meant to fight the terrorists? Are these not the true costs of corruption?, he said. Mr. Mohammed challenged the media to always bring to perspective what corruption has done to Nigeria, its people and image at the international level. He said the Nigerian media must always reflect how corruption stifles economic growth, hinders the fight against poverty, leads to decay in infrastructure and reduce educational standards, lowers life expectancy, stunts the fight against maternal and infant mortality and impacts negatively on the general livelihood of the citizens. Apart from the media, the Information Minister also identified, the judiciary arm of government as one of the critical players that would help rid the country of corruption. Unless this very important arm of government fully joins in waging this war, the pending cases of corruption will just drag on until they outlast this Administration, he said. The Minister said his Ministry was also planning to carry a sensitization programme on the war against corruption to all the corners of the country, leveraging on the wide reach of the National Orientation Agency, NOA. He said he would partner with other agencies of government, especially the anti-corruption agencies and the police, as well as the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption. Table below indicates what 55 people stole from 2006 to 2013. CATEGORY NO OF CASES AMOUNT INVOLVED EX-GOVERNORS 15 146,840,800,000.00 EX-MINISTERS 4 7,050,000,000.00 EX-LEGISLATORS 5 8,350,000,000.00 EX-PUBLIC SERVANTS 7 (Federal) 6,906,600,000.00 EX-PUBLIC SERVANTS 5 (State) 7,275,000,000.00 BANKING INDUSTRY 8 524,560,000,000.00 BUSNESSMEN 11 653,150,000,000.00 GRAND TOTAL 55 N1,354,132,400,000.00 An international charity said on Monday that 62 wealthiest people on earth now own as much as half the worlds population. Oxfam said in a report released in London ahead of the World Economic Forums annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that some 3.5 billion people have grown poorer as the super-rich have grown richer. It said the wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44 per cent since 2010, while the wealth of the poorest 3.5 billion fell 41 per cent. The report said almost half the super-rich individuals are from the U.S., 17 from Europe, and the rest from countries of China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Winnie Byanima, Oxfam International Executive Director, said in a statement accompanying the report that world leaders concern about the escalating inequality crisis has so far not translated into concrete action. She said the world has become a much more unequal place and the trend was accelerating. We cannot continue to allow hundreds of millions of people to go hungry while resources that could be used to help them are sucked up by those at the top. Byanima said multinational companies and wealthy elites are playing by different rules to everyone else, refusing to pay the taxes that society needs to function. The fact that 188 of 201 leading companies have a presence in at least one tax haven shows it is time to act. Ensuring governments collect the taxes they are owed by companies and rich individuals will be vital if world leaders are to meet their goal to eliminate extreme poverty by 2030, one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set in September, she said. Oxfam chief said the number of people living in extreme poverty has fallen by 650 million since 1981, even though the global population grew by two billion in that time, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD. Byanima said much of this change has been because of the rise of China, which alone accounted for half a billion people moving out of extreme poverty. Most of the worlds poorest no longer live in the poorest countries, but in middle-income countries like India. The inequalities are partly to do with differences in income, especially between urban and rural areas, but also differences in access to healthcare, education and jobs, she said. Gabriel Zucman, Assistant Professor at University of California, Berkeley, estimated that 7.6 trillion dollars of individuals wealth sits in offshore tax havens. He noted that if taxes were paid on the income that this wealth generates, an extra 190 billion dollars would be available to governments every year. As much as 30 percent of all African financial wealth is held offshore, costing about $14 billion in lost tax revenues every year. Zucman explained that this was enough money to pay for healthcare that could save 4 million childrens lives a year, and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school. Owen Barder, Director for Europe at the Center for Global Development, was quoted as saying in the report that the figures suggested that the biggest causes of poverty includes political, economic and social marginalisation of particular groups in countries that are otherwise doing quite well. Although taxes and transfers help reduce income inequality in developed countries, these systems are less robust in many developing countries. An exception is Brazil, which makes payments to more than 13.3 million poor families on condition they enrol children in school and take part in health programmes. That has helped to reduce rates of both child poverty as well as inequality, he said. (Reuters/NAN) The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday told a Federal High Court in Abuja that the commission could not trace the person who wrote a petition against a former governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswan. Mr. Suswan and his former commissioner of finance, Omadachi Oklobia, are facing a nine-count charge bordering on diversion of N3.1 billion during his (Suswam) tenure as governor of Benue State. An EFCC operative, Junaid Saheed, told the court that efforts to communicate with the petitioner through the email address he included in his petition failed as the email was nonexistent. During the cross examination, which lasted for more than five hours, Mr. Saheed said the petition, titled Truth shall prevail over evil minds, could not be traced to any person or association. He however noted that following the petition, the commission made some findings that led to filing of the nine-count charge against Mr. Suswam and his allies. The petitioner alleged, among other things, that Mr. Suswan sold shares of Benue State Investment and Property Limited worth N9.4billion without the approval of the State House of Assembly and diverted the proceeds to personal use. Counsel to Mr. Suswam, Joseph Daudu, however prayed the court to compel Mr. Saheed to explain the result of its findings on the remaining sum of over N6 billion since the commissions findings show N3.1 billion forming part of the N9.4 billion allegedly diverted. Responding, counsel to EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs, said the commission should be allowed to explain based on its charges that revolve around the sum of N3.1billion. However, Mr. Daudus plea to present a previous judgment from the same court regarding his stand that the anti-graft agency had no legal privilege to investigate state funds failed. The presiding judge, Ahmed Mohammed, said the court could take judicial notice of the said document. Mr. Ahmed therefore adjourned hearing till Tuesday for the continuation of the cross examination. Distressed workers of the National Mirror and Newswatch Times on Monday stormed the Nicon Luxury, Abuja, venue of the Global Fleet Group annual management conference as its group managing director and publisher of two newspapers, Jimoh Ibrahim, was delivering a lecture to top management staff of the company. The workers, who have gone for about nine months without salary, stormed the venue when Mr. Ibrahim was in the middle of the lecture on how Chinas development strategy has helped keep her ahead of America and other countries of the world today. The placard wielding workers invaded the lecture venue chanting solidarity songs to demand the payment of their arrears of salaries. But the protesters did not stop Mr. Ibrahim from going ahead with his lecture, which was broadcast live on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) national network. Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim why are you deceiving people? the leader of the protesting workers could be heard from the background shouting. Enough is enough. We cannot continue like this. You are talking about China when you have not paid us our salaries for months. You must pay us today to enable us take care of our families. Mr. Ibrahim, who appeared not perturbed by the protesters, merely directed that the live television coverage continue, dismissed the workers action as a distraction and one of those things to avoid if any company desires to succeed like China. He later asked the security operatives to take the protesters out of the venue. These are staff of the National Mirror who cannot generate their own salary, and they expect the company to make money from the company to pay them. Is that practically okay? That is not possible. I have said it that any arm of the group that cannot generate money to pay its salary would be shut down. What we are telling our friends in the media department is that they must be sustainable.If you are not profitable, you cannot be sustainable. Profitability is a key issue in continuity. If you are in media and you cannot generate your own salary, where do you expect the payment of your salary to come from? Mr. Ibrahim said. There is no democracy in corporations. Any corporation talks about democracy in corporation will fail. Democracy works in government. In government, the issue is service to the people. But, in corporation, it is about strategy, profits and survival. It does not matter how. Jimoh Ibrahim cannot be a nice man all his life. But, he needs to take a decision, no matter who is down, he said. President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday in Abu Dhabi that Nigeria has made very significant progress towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency since his assumption of office on May 29 last year. Speaking at a meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit, President Buhari said in collaboration with the Multinational Joint Task Force, the Nigerian Armed Forces have driven the terrorist group from Nigerian territory into fall-back positions. They are currently not holding any territory today as we speak, the President told Mr. Ban Ki Moon. President Buhari also told the United Nations Secretary-General that Nigeria will persistently pursue global action to reverse the drying up of Lake Chad and save the lives of those who depend on it for survival. With all due respect to our neighbours, Nigeria has been worst hit by the drying up of the Lake Chad and we are hoping that the global community will support the process of halting the drying up of the lake, President Buhari said. Mr. Ban Ki Moon commended the President for his courage in fighting terrorism and corruption. The Secretary-General said Nigeria has made amazing progress against terrorism since President Buhari assumed office, while the Presidents war against corruption has boosted global confidence in the Nigerian economy. He urged President Buhari to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into Nigerias economic and environmental vision. At least 80,000 birds have been destroyed in 45 farms, following the outbreak of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu. The director of veterinary services in the state Ministry of Agriculture, Shehu Bawa, stated this on Monday in Kano, calling on poultry traders to stop selling infected birds to unsuspecting customers. He cautioned that anybody found selling ailing birds to people would face prosecution. According to him, the outbreak was recorded in nine Local Government Areas of the state, adding that government is on top of the situation. Mr. Bawa urged poultry farmers in the state to quickly report any symptom of the disease to the nearest veterinary hospital. The director hinted that the government had taken serious measures to curtail the spread of the disease. Amid fears of a Lassa fever outbreak, the Cross River government has warned residents of the state against drinking Garri, a staple made from Cassava, for now. Inyang Asibong, the Commissioner for Health, gave the warning on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar. Mr. Asibong, who restated that Lassa fever was a haemorrhagic fever transmitted from rats to humans, said the warning became imperative as the causative agents, rats, may have urinated or defecated on the garri during preservation by different handlers. She noted that because of poor storage rats easily had access to the food item. Mr. Asibong disclosed that the government had distributed anti-viral drugs to 1,031 community health centres across the 18 local government areas of the state to check the imminent outbreak of Lassa fever. According to Mr. Asibong, the anti-viral drugs, Ribavirin is distributed in line with the sensitisation campaign carried out in 1,500 communities across the state. The commissioner, who said the state government was concentrating on enlightenment on the dangers of the disease, appealed to the people to promote good personal hygiene. We have distributed Lassa fever drugs to 1,031 community health centres in the state and we have equipped all the centres adequately. The Cross River Government is concerned about the health of the people, and that is why we are doing everything possible to ensure that we keep the disease out of the state. Members of the public should promote good community and personal hygiene by keeping their environment clean, she told NAN, expressing gratitude to God that the state has not recorded a case. Covering of foods and other consumable items as well as washing their hands regularly with soap and water is highly advisable. We are grateful to God that we have not had any case of Lassa fever in Cross River, we are aware of the outbreak in some states in Nigeria. The state government is ready to collaborate with the World Health Organisation and other relevant agencies to provide adequate anti-viral drugs in the state, she said. She advised health workers to adhere strictly to universal precautions when caring for patients with suspected or confirmed with Lassa fever. The commissioner also advised members of the public to store their food and grains in areas where rodents could not have access to eat and urinate on them. (NAN) The Ogun State Government has said that 100,000 residents of the state were living with HIV. The Commissioner for Health in the State, Babatunde Ipaye, stated this to PREMIUM TIMES on Saturday at the Governors Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta. Mr. Ipaye said the government would not renege on its responsibility of providing adequate treatment to the patients. He also called on the public to stop stigmatising the victims. The number of people living with HIV in Ogun is about 100,000,but its has drastically reduced and HIV has declined from 3.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent as contained in the current statistics by the Federal Ministry of Health, he said. Mr. Ipaye said the virus was prevalent in sexually-active people who are older than 15. He asked young people to avoid multiple sexual partners or use protection during sex. In a related development, the commissioner said Lassa fever, which has been detected in neighbouring states, has not been detected in Ogun. As at today, no single case of Lassa fever has been reported in Ogun State. But around us, border states, which include Lagos and Ondo states, we have records of Lassa fever cases. A case of one patient was discovered in Ijaiye-Ojokoro in Lagos State, a border community to Ogun State. The man was said to have come from Kano, but as at now he has been taken to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)where he is receiving treatment. We also have a record of similar discovery in Ondo State, which is our neighbour. Government has directed all its medical facilities to be at alert. We shall continue our surveillance. There is no need to panic, he stated. Mr. Ipaye called on residents to maintain a clean environment. Let us ensure we get rid of rats in our surroundings. Avoid putting food in open places to avoid rat contact. Personal hygiene is important. Any case of malaria not responding to treatment should be reported to health authorities. We are also in regular contact with the Federal Ministry of Health, he 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. TBK Consult launches new web site with easy access to its huge library of business development documentation and videos. To make it easier and faster for information technology business development professionals to find the information they need, TBK Consult has consolidated its five web sites onto a single and redesigned platform with better overview, easier navigation and device responsive design. By: TBK Consult Holding ApS 1 2 Hans-Peter Bech TBK Consult home page End -- The information technology industry is blessed with diminishing barriers of market entry and cursed by steadily declining windows of opportunity. The need for fast market entry and for taking market leadership positions are essentially the only survival options available. Over the last ten years, new approaches to business development and globalization have been designed, tested and validated. TBK Consult has adopted and adapted these business development frameworks to the specific challenges of the information technology industry, and have published more than 1,000 articles, white papers, videos and books with discussions, recommendations and case stories.says Hans Peter Bech, partner at TBK Consult.TBK Consult was founded in January 2007 and opened a very active blog in October 2010. In June 2013, the company launched the TBK Academy with training and workshops specifically addressing the business development challenges in the information technology industry, and in October the same year, the company launched TBK Publishing, with whitepapers and books focusing on the same areas.The design, implementation and migration work for the new web site has been undertaken by David Gaz from The Small Projects Bureau in Los Angeles.See the new web site here: www.tbkconsult.com Media Contact Steffen Schmuck-Soldan Mulert Award Coordinator mulert.award@ fulbright-alumni.de Steffen Schmuck-SoldanMulert Award Coordinator End -- The German Fulbright Alumni Association is proud to announce that this years Juergen Mulert Award on Mutual Understanding is bestowed to the project Global Colleagues. Global Colleagues is a worldwide, one-to-one partnership project between researchers, teachers and advisers who work on poverty designed to enhance policy effectiveness in fighting global poverty.Robert Lepenies, founder and manager of Global Colleagues, will be presented with the Mulert Award for his confidence that severe poverty is most effectively addressed if policy is informed by research, and if the research dialogue includes diverse skills, experiences and voices. Vanessa Wergin, president of the German Fulbright Alumni Association, affirms that the project combines intercultural exchange with support for policy makers in their efforts fighting poverty worldwide. Global Colleagues thus fosters mutual understanding in an extremely pressing field.Global Colleagues attempts to match multidisciplinary poverty scholars in one-to-one partnerships and encourages participants to collaborate, to share reading recommendations and research insights, information on conferences, workshops as well as to offer introductions to research networks where appropriate. Partnerships are established for the duration of one year, renewable for further one-year periods by mutual consent.In 2015, Global Colleagues brought together 68 participating scholars from 31 countries, also thanks to the help of many volunteers. In 2016, Mr. Lepenies, a post-doctoral fellow at Free University/WZB Berlin who spent a Fulbright year at Yale University, plans to attract funding as well as gain institutional partners and thereby expand and professionalize the program for its participants. His hope is that through this program, poverty research can become inclusive and global and that in turn, policy designed to eliminate poverty is influenced by a diversity of voices.The Juergen Mulert Memorial Award on Mutual Understanding was established in 2010 in memory of Dr. Jurgen Mulert, scholar, poet, inventor and Acting Director General of the German-American Fulbright Program. The Mulert Award is given annually to volunteers, artists, professionals and researchers across disciplines, whose work reflects and advances discourse on peace through mutual understanding. Former Mulert Award recipients include Sherief El-Helaifi, Oksana Buzhdygan, and Joerg Wolf. The Award will be presented on January 23, 2016, at the German Fulbright Alumni Association's annual Winter Ball in Berlin, where Mr. Lepenies will be a guest of honor.For more information on Global Colleagues visit http://gc.academicsstand.org/ To nominate projects for the Mulert Award see https://www.fulbright- alumni.de/what- we-do/mulertaward.html In the Age of Enlightenment, societies advanced through widespread consideration of radical ideas for economic, political and social development, and a common sense of shared responsibility to improve their world. America was born in the Age of Enlightenment. Important similarities to injustices that led to the Enlightenment revolutions exist today. By: The New Enlightenment Citizens Union End -- A UMass study found that 38% of Americans cant meet basic needs . But African Americans have been most severely disadvantaged by an economic system serving well a small elite at the expense of the majority. Huge economic inequality & political inequality must end.27.6% of African Americans live in poverty, 12.8% in deep poverty. 38% of African American children live in poverty. African Americans have 1/20 the per capita wealth of whites. Unemployment rates in black communities rival those in Third World countries. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. Since the time Dr. King was decrying the condition of African Americans, conditions have worsened. Extreme levels of injustice, for not just African Americans, have resulted from major political system dysfunction. A three-decade, 1,779 policy issue study indicates we are no longer a democratic republic, or a society organized in the interests of its people policymakers ignore the average Americans policy change preferences.400 Americans' total wealth equals that of the least wealthy 195 million Americans. The New Enlightenment describes how we are all harmed by this degree of inequality. It would not exist in a truly democratic republic.Extreme economic inequality and political inequality motivated the Age of Enlightenment revolutions one was the American Revolution. the needed new, peaceful revolutions foundation. The policies detailed will: Eliminate the dominating importance of money in our political system, largely through broadcast station candidate free airtime requirement systems. Historic levels of democratic functioning will result. Lift tens of millions of poverty-plagued Americans to a standard of living that now exists in the middle class; substantially improve the standard of living of tens of millions more, through an expanded EITC and other policies. End Unemployment. Reduce full-time work hours to 36 hours/week. Transform most businesses, over a two-decade transition period, to worker ownership and control through capital access systems, other supports, and regulations. Create a new media culture more responsive and accountable to the majority through worker ownership and control of most media corporations. Eliminate tuition for two- and four-year public colleges. Increase GDP and create a $500 billion surplus. Create other beneficial, transformative societal impacts.Robert Bivona has a degree in physics, graduate work in physics and engineering, and decades of professional experience in physics, math and engineering. He has chosen to apply his analytic skills to public policy development because our nation urgently needs fresh policy solution ideas from outside professional political and economics orthodoxy. Our political problems and resulting economic problems largely caused by current political and economic professionals are resulting in great injustices and unnecessary hardships for tens of millions of our fellow citizens, and are an existential threat to our nation.Media Contact:Robert Bivona239-567-0565Review copies, interviews available More Information, Order: www.newenlightenment.us The New Enlightenment 470 pages Economics, Politics $18.95 ISBN 9780996706704Book Release date: 2/20/16 Money-Back Guarantee Now Is the Time for The New EnlightenmentJoin us Locally owned Orange Car Rental ltd. announced today that it has reached agreement with Toyota Reykjavik Iceland this agreement consists that Orange Car Rental buys new model year 2016. Toyota Yaris, Toyota Auris, Toyota Auris Wag Contact Kristinn Sigurthorsson CEO Orange Car Rental Iceland ***@orangecarrental.is Kristinn Sigurthorsson CEOOrange Car Rental Iceland End -- Orange Car Rental Press ReleaseOrange Car Rental Ltd. has reached agreement with Toyota Reykjavik IcelandJanuary 11, 2016 Locally owned Orange Car Rental ltd. announced today that it has reached agreement with Toyota Reykjavik Iceland this agreement consists that Orange Car Rental buys new model year 2016. Toyota Yaris, Toyota Auris, Toyota Auris Wagon, Toyota Corolla and Toyota RAV4.This transaction will help us to meet our customer requirements both in a car and SUV 4x4 category. It was also agreed that the Toyota service throughout the country will take care of the maintenance of this fleet.More information is expected to be released following a shareholders meeting on January 14, 2016.Orange Car Rental was established in October 2015. We are an independent family owned company with offices in Keflavik - Iceland. The Orange Car rental staff are car enthusiastics with over 35 years of experience in the car rental - sales in Iceland.With rental location in Keflavik we offer pick up - drop-off locations at Keflavik international airport. We strive to earn our customers long-term loyalty by delivering more than promised, being honest and fair, and going the extra mile to provide exceptional personalized service that creates a pleasing business experience.We know that driving in Iceland requires high quality and well serviced cars. This year our fleet will be over 100 vehicles, all model 2016. Our goal is to expand our fleet in the coming years as well as we aim to increase the number of service centers in all major urban areas around the island. Since we are a local company and therefore know a lot about Iceland, we can advise our costumers on travelling through Icelands wildly magnificent and varied landscape. For more information,please visit http://www.orangecarrental.is/ Contact.To learn more about this transaction, please contactKristinn Sigurorsson, Media RelationsHeidarhorn 17,230 ReykjanesbaeOffice: (+354) 511-3111Mobile: (+354) 663-2000http://www.orangecarrental.is/ Contact The Knowledge Group ***@theknowledgegroup.org The Knowledge Group End -- The Knowledge Group/The Knowledge Congress Live Webcast Series, the leading producer of regulatory focused webcasts, has announced today thatwill speak at the Knowledge Congress webcast entitled:This event is scheduled forhttps://theknowledgegroup.org/event-homepage/?event_id=1420Mr. Jarosz, a Managing Principal with Analysis Group and director of the firms Washington, D.C. office, is an economist who specializes in applied microeconomics and industrial organization. He has provided strategy consultation across a wide range of industries and delivered expert testimony in hundreds of depositions, trials, and hearings. His focus is on matters involving intellectual property, licensing, commercial damages, and antitrust.A frequent author and lecturer on the economics of intellectual property protection, Mr. Jarosz is the editor of Eckstroms Licensing in Foreign and Domestic Operations: The Forms and Substance of Licensing, and his articles and papers have been published in the Stanford Technology Law Review, the Federal Circuit Bar Journal, les Nouvelles: Journal of The Licensing Executives Society, The Journal of Business Valuation and the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society. Among other things, Mr. Jarosz has given presentations at various meetings of the Licensing Executives Society and the Association of University Technology Managers, is one of IPLaw 360s Voices of the Bar, and has taught classes at Georgetown University Law Center, George Washington University Law School, Columbia Business School, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.Since 1981, Analysis Group has provided expertise in economics, finance, health care analytics, and strategy to top law firms, Fortune 500 companies, global health care corporations, and government agencies. Our work is grounded in a collaborative approach that allows us to effectively integrate the best ideas from leading academic and industry experts with our more than 600 professionals. As a result, our clients receive thoughtful, pragmatic solutions to their most challenging business and litigation problems. Through our work in thousands of cases across multiple industries, we have become one of the largest economics consulting firms in North America, with 11 offices in the United States, Canada, and China.In the Federal Circuitsruling in 2011, the Court rejected the use of the 25 percent rule as a basis to determine reasonable royalty damages and reiterated that expert testimony must carefully tie proof of damages to the claimed inventions footprint in the market place. It has been made clear under the Uniloc decision, along with other decisions dealing with patent damages (Lucent Technologies and ResQNet.com), that damages estimates must be established through a comprehensive economic reasoning.A number of questions, including the magnitude of the inventions footprint, should be addressed first. This further highlights the need for each party in a patent dispute, to evaluate every potential area where a patented invention may increase value over the next-best non-infringing alternatives. This analysis should be performed as early as possible and in as much information as it can provide.In this two-hour LIVE CLE Webcast, a panel of distinguished professionals and thought leaders will help companies and intellectual property lawyers understand the important aspects of this significant topic. They will provide an in-depth discussion of the Reasonable Royalty Footprint approach. Speakers will also offer best practices in implementing this approach while maintaining compliance with applicable laws.Key topics include: Implications of a Line of Cases to the Reasonable Royalty Damages Law Lucent ResQNet Uniloc Methodologies for Reasonable Royalty Damages Uncertainty with the Base-Times-Rate Approach Determination of an Inventions Footprint The 'Footprint' Paradigm Approach Regulatory Updates and Forecasts Best Implementation and Compliance PracticesThe Knowledge Group was established with the mission to produce unbiased, objective, and educational live webinars that examine industry trends and regulatory changes from a variety of different perspectives. The goal is to deliver a unique multilevel analysis of an important issue affecting business in a highly focused format. To contact or register to an event, please visit: http://theknowledgegroup.org A New Twist to an Old Story Lands in Houston at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, February 8, 2016. By: Vicven Films Contact Juven Cavazos ***@alonelywoman.com Juven Cavazos End -- Director/Producer Juven Cavazos brings a new twist to the theaters with his Modern Spaghetti Western A La Sergio Leone film, A Lonely Woman. The movie culminates Cavazos long-time dream to bring a story to film. Reaching for unparalleled talent, Cavazos enlisted acclaimed actress Youlika Skafida from Greece to embody Annie/Jezebel, an adopted girl who loses her way after the brutal murders of her adopted parents. Set out on a course for justice she will find herself in a series of events that will make her or break her.Shot under the skillful expertise of Director of Photography, Olga Vasquez, Vicven Films sought Texas talent from Houston to Austin, alike to bring Cavazos vision to life. A project that has been two years in the making, now makes its first entry into the movie-goers market by debuting their first private screening at the Alamo Draft House Cinema, Vintage Park, on Tuesday February, 8at 7:00pmVicven Films is a Texas film Production Company. To see the movie trailer or to learn more about A Lonely Woman, visit www.alonelywoman.com Curious about how to effectively use Yoga Nidra and Guided Imagery within your Yoga Teaching or Birth Professional practice? Are you unknowingly using trigger words that prevent your clients from going deeper into meditation? By: Unfold Yoga OC The Magic of Metaphor Contact Thea Pueschel ***@gmail.com Thea Pueschel End -- Unfold Yoga OC to host the Magic of Metaphor: Guided Imagery and Yoga Nidra teacher training for Yoga Teachers and Birth Professionals guided by Thea Pueschel, C.Ht, RYT500 February 19-21.Guided imagery and yoga nidra are effective tools that can take ones holistic practice to a deeper level. Learning how to use guided imagery and yoga nidra as a craft improves ones ability to lead savasana or a meditation practice. This 3-day immersion will be comprised of lecture and practice. Participants will leave this training with the tools to effectively take their clients or students on calm, relaxing and peaceful journeys. Topics to be covered: how to deliver an effective journey; vocal range and patter delivery; what type of script to use or create; the most effective language to use; how to deliver the best savasana/meditation;the difference between guided imagery, yoga nidra and hypnosis; operating within professional scope; holding space for emotional experiences;ethics and responsibility.Pueschel is a master teacher trainer in Core Strength Vinyasa, a certified guided imagery facilitator and certified hypnotherapist. The recesses of the subconscious and the ability to affect change have been a life long fascination for Pueschel and the focus of her lifes work. She has delved into motivations, anchoring and directing the conscious and subconscious mind for nearly 20 years. This 3-day training qualifies for Continuing Education through Yoga Alliance: 20 CEUS.For more details, visit http://theapueschel.com/ guided-imagery- and-yoga-nidra- imm... The Magic of Metaphor: Weaving the Web to Self Discovery 3-day immersion will be held at Unfold Yoga Oc 512 S. Brea Blvd, Brea, Ca 92821 February 19-21. Technology Mindz has launched their training program website for PHP development and will be offering summer internship in Jaipur along with the industrial training. Contact Romil Gupta ***@technologymindz.com (+91)9529309494 Romil Gupta(+91)9529309494 End -- The Technology Mindz is one of the best companies that offer to develop the best websites and mobile applications. The company has now come up with their industrial training and summer training program for PHP development and other courses. So all the aspirants who are looking for an industrial training institute in Jaipur, have the best opportunity available for them at the Technology Mindz.The prime aim of the company is to offer the best training and internship to the interns and all other students who wants to make their career in PHP web development, graphic designing and Internet marketing along with best job assistance. The new batches for the PHP training will begin from February 2016.The Technology Mindz has two training programs: Industrial Training Program Summer Training ProgramIt is for a time period of 6 months .The students are provided the industrial training and working experience on live projects like web design, web development, PHP and database programming.It is necessary for a student to be a graduate in B.Tech, MCA, M. Sc, B. Sc, or any other graduate. The training is also provided to those students who are in the final semester of their colleges. Developing fast loading websites. Editing files on the server. Making live web pages.It is for a time period of 45 days . This training is dedicated towards offering courses like web designing, web development, PHP and database programming.It is necessary for a student to be a graduate in B.Tech, MCA, M. Sc, B. Sc, or any other graduate. The training is also provided to those students who are in the final semester of their colleges.The trainers and faculty are well versed in their course and train with commitment and dedication. By the end of the course, the students will have many placement opportunities and a certificate that is provided by the company.The course material provided by the company is very innovative in the form of graphics and videos and they do not use bookish language or text.For removing the paranoia of the applicants, the company also provides demo classes to all the students who wish to apply for the training programs. For more inquires related to the demo classes, you can get more info from our website.The various courses offered by the Technology Mindz during the training, are as follows:One of the most in-demand person is a web designer. Web designing is a tool through which one can enhance ones business and create eye- catching and creative web pages so as to engage the viewers.At Technology Mindz, you can get an opportunity to get training in web designing and you can become well versed web designer. Fundamentals of Web Desiging XHTML, J- Query, Web 2.0, CSSThe PHP Training comprises of teaching the students about the methods of developing websites that are creative, user friendly and at the same time very informative.There is a set course for the PHP training program in which the training is provided according the course work set in the module. HTML and CSS Javascript and JQuery PHP Development and Mobile AppCMS Training comprises of Content Management System. As the name suggests, in this course you will learn about how to manage the content and data on a website. The data can be organized, published, edited and crafted according to your wish. In this course you will learn to work on WordPress and Magneto that is also based on PHP, MySQL and elements of the Zend framework.In this course you can learn the latest techniques of the Internet Marketing. The process of digital marketing is a very important tool for the purpose of enhancing your business on the online platform. If the done the right way, the Internet marketing training can help you to gain huge success and expand your business. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Social Media Optimization (SMO) Mobile Marketing Online AdvertisingSo, register yourself in the upcoming training program and you can also get the golden opportunity to be placed at the Technology Mindz itself! Couture Dry Cleaner Also Celebrating Its Fiftieth Anniversary 1 2 3 Hallak Cleaners Hallak Cleaners' Gown Preservation Box Bridal Gown Alterations End -- WeddingWire, the leading global online wedding marketplace, named Hallak Cleaners as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Couples Choice Awards 2016 for Gown Preservation Specialists in Manhattan!Hallak is also celebrating 50 years of being one of the Metropolitan areas finest couture dry cleaners. Trust Hallak Cleaners with all your wardrobes fabric care. Brides also turn to Hallak for their alterations, sample gown cleaning and finishing. Along with two store locations (Bergen County and Manhattan), complimentary pickup and delivery is also available to Manhattan, Bergen County, Westchester and Greenwich.The WeddingWire Couples Choice Awards 2016 recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. The esteemed awards are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding florists , based on their professional achievements from the previous year. DUBLIN, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kpbkhx/europe_feed_yeast) has announced the addition of the "Europe Feed Yeast Market - Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2015-2020)" report to their offering. This comprehensive market report provides an in-depth analysis of the Europe feed yeast market, and the drivers, challenges and opportunities set to face this market in the coming years. It considers current and future factors, and covers the key topics all market participants should be aware. Ban on antibiotics and in search for other alternatives is the major driver for the market. Increasing meat consumption, food safety concerns and improving meat prices in the European continent are important drivers for the growth of feed yeast market. Standardization and regulatory initiatives from the EU are also affecting growth in the eastern and central parts of Europe. The regulations imposed by Governments have pressure on the manufacturers to search for cheaper, safer and effective raw materials. Europe Feed Yeast Market Revenue in 2014 is $177.4 Million and is expected to grow at a rate of 9.5%. Key Topics Covered: Market Definition for the specified topic along with identification of key drivers and restraints for the market Analysis for the Europe Feed Yeast Market, with region specific assessments and competition analysis on a regional scale Segment-level analysis in terms of application and end-user demand Forecasts and estimations for the sub-segment level market Identification of factors instrumental in changing the market scenarios, rising prospective opportunities and identification of key companies, which can influence the market on a global and regional scale Identification and analysis of the exogenous and endogenous factors such as macro and microeconomic variables that affect the Europe Feed Yeast Market on both global and regional scale Extensively researched competitive landscape section with profiles of key players along with their share of markets A comprehensive analysis of recent organic and inorganic developments in the market by the major companies, and strategic benchmarking of developments Companies Mentioned: Nutreco N.V Lesaffre Group Cargill Inc Biomin GmbH Western Yeast Co Santel Sante Animal Associated British Foods PLC Diamond V Mills Archer Daniels Midland Company Alltech Inc Angel Yeast Co Lallemand Inc Leiber GMBH Dox-Al Inc Bio Sunkeen Co Report Structure: 1. Introduction 2. KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 3. Market Dynamics 4. MARKET SEGMENTATION 5. Competitive Landscape 6. Company Profiles 7. Appendix For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kpbkhx/europe_feed_yeast Media Contact: Laura Wood, +353-1-481-1716, press@researchandmarkets.net Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com SOURCE Research and Markets BANGALORE and WARREN, New Jersey, January 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- - Rostow Ravanan Takes Over as CEO & MD - Krishnakumar Natarajan Takes Over as Executive Chairman - Subroto Bagchi Steps Down as Executive Chairman; Will Continue as Member of the Board Mindtree's Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Rostow Ravanan as the CEO and Managing Director, and Krishnakumar Natarajan as the Executive Chairman. Subroto Bagchi steps down as Executive Chairman but continues on the Board as a non-executive director. Ms. Apurva Purohit, Independent Director and Chairperson of the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board said, "This is the culmination of a year-long succession planning exercise that the Board had undertaken after carefully considering several candidates. We are very happy with the process and the outcome. We believe that Mindtree with a stellar management team is fully ready for the opportunities and the challenges ahead. The Board recognizes and thanks Subroto for his invaluable contributions and inspirational leadership. All the changes announced today will be effective April 1, 2016." (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140416/681203 ) Rostow Ravanan, 44 is a member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India and alumni of Harvard Business School. In April 2014, he stepped out of his role as Chief Financial Officer and took over as Head for Europe, Service Lines and Key Accounts. Rostow has won several industry recognitions in his previous role as CFO. "I am very honored and humbled at being named to lead one of the most valuable and respected IT services companies. It will be my endeavor to build further on this legacy and take the organization to greater heights on the strength of a stellar leadership team, the expertise and dedication of Mindtree Minds and an amazing set of customer relationships," said Rostow. Krishnakumar Natarajan, incoming Executive Chairman said, "Mindtree is on a strong footing today to explore newer opportunities that take us to a different orbit in the years ahead. I would be focusing my energies towards making Mindtree a significant global player by the year 2020." Subroto Bagchi said, "Together we have built one of India's most valuable companies. It has been a privilege to serve this great institution." About Mindtree Mindtree [NSE: MINDTREE] delivers digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution, enabling Global 2000 clients to outperform the competition. 'Born digital', Mindtree takes an agile, collaborative approach to creating customized solutions across the digital value chain. At the same time, our deep expertise in infrastructure and applications management helps optimize your IT into a strategic asset. Whether you need to differentiate your company, reinvent business functions or accelerate revenue growth, we can get you there. Visit http://www.mindtree.com to learn more. For more information, contact: INDIA Priyanka Waghre Mindtree +91 98867 29295 Priyanka.Waghre@mindtree.com UNITED STATES Andrea Dunbeck Matter Communications 978-518-4555 adunbeck@matternow.com EUROPE Kiran Farooque PPR Worldwide +44 0 207 300 6181 Kiran.Farooque@pprww.com SOURCE Mindtree SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Students in the Founding Class at the Minerva Schools at KGI today in London host the first in a series of workshops for high school and college students that will analyze the refugee education challenge. Workshops will take place in ten cities across Europe over the next four weeks and are part of a tour called 'Catalyst' to encourage student discussion around the instrumental role of education in our changing global context. The Catalyst journey will make stops in London, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Istanbul. Rana Abu Diab from Jerusalem and Or Segal from Tel Aviv, two Founding Class students, will lead the Catalyst tour. They will draw upon the core competencies taught at Minerva: critical thinking, creative thinking, effective communication and effective interaction to host interactive sessions that encourage attendees to discuss, analyze, and use problem solving skills to dig deeply into the complex issue of providing access to education for refugees. "Education brought us together at Minerva, and it is our shared conviction in the importance of education that inspires this Catalyst journey," said Rana Abu Diab. "Attendees at our Catalyst workshops will get a glimpse at how Minerva equips its students with the skills necessary to analyze complex challenges and develop solutions. We look forward to interactive sessions that give attendees a taste of the Minerva experience, while we discuss an urgent issue." "It is our hope that this Catalyst tour will move beyond discussion," said Or Segal. "We want to make a real difference, and that's why as part of this effort we have launched a fundraising appeal to build a learning space for refugees in Berlin." Rana and Or hope to raise 9,000 in order to equip a learning space for refugees at Berlin-based Sharehaus, a community initiative that aims to integrate refugees within the German community by housing them under one roof sharing knowledge, space, skills, and stories. This fall, Minerva's sophomore class will live and study in Berlin as part of the global immersion experience at Minerva that enables students to live in seven countries during their four years of study. To learn more about the tour, visit https://europecatalyst.wordpress.com/ or join the Facebook group. To donate to the project, visit https://www.betterplace.org/en/projects/37817. To learn more about the student experience at Minerva, or to apply, visit http://minerva.kgi.edu. About Minerva Schools at KGI The Minerva Schools at KGI offer a reinvented university experience for the brightest, most motivated students from around the world. Combining an interdisciplinary curriculum and rigorous academic standards, an accomplished faculty versed in the science of learning, an advanced interactive learning platform leveraging cutting-edge technology, and four years of immersive global experience, Minerva delivers an exceptional liberal arts and sciences education for future leaders and innovators in every discipline. http://minerva.kgi.edu. Related Links http://minerva.kgi.edu SOURCE Minerva Schools at KGI SAO PAULO, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- For the sixth straight year, Brazil will be present at BETT, the world's biggest technology show geared towards education. The initiative is part of the sectorial project for promotion of exports by the software and IT services industry, developed by Softex in partnership with Apex-Brasil. The meeting will be held in London on January 20th to 23rd, and Brazil's presence at the event will have additional support from Cisco. "BETT has a strong focus on innovation, a distinctive feature of the solutions that make up the Brazilian portfolio. This time, we've decided to step outside the traditional model of the stand in the exhibits pavilion for a more proactive participation, centered on the promotion of business gatherings with potential partners," notes Guilherme Amorim, manager of Softex Sectorial Project. ClassApp, Digital Pages, FGX and Vitae are the four Brazilian companies present. Beginning its process of internationalization, the startup ClassApp will be bringing an innovative app to the event that connects parents, teachers and schools. "This solution was conceived from the outset as a tool for use not only in Brazil, but also in schools abroad. Free apps do not provide the necessary security and privacy attributes. Today, our solution is used by more than 50 thousand families and 100 schools," emphasizes ClassApp CEO, Vahid Sherafat. Youssef Mourad, CEO of Digital Pages, a leading provider of digital content solutions, also sees BETT as a platform for access to the global market. "We've identified the adherence of our solutions to the demands of a variety of countries in Europe. This is the case, for example, with our RDP platform, which makes it possible to join together traditional instructional content with digital resources and analytics, stimulating engagement and interaction," he observes. During the four days of the event, the Softex team will also take part in a series of encounters with companies and international institutes interested in providing support and content for the Brasil Mais TI program. With more than 190 thousand registered students, Brasil Mais TI is currently offering 30 different courses (1,500 class hours) with an average duration of 30 hours each. In addition to the business gatherings, the schedule of the Brazilian delegation includes guided tours to a number of universities, as well as participation in innovation sessions and the official BETT executive round tables. Find out about Softex - http://www.softex.br/ Find out about Apex-Brasil - www.apexbrasil.com.br MLP Assessoria de Imprensa Mario Pereira (MTB. 11.549) - mario@mlpcom.com.br Karen Kornilovicz (MTB. 25.744) - karen@mlpcom.com.br Phone: (11) 3064-8066 Related Links http://www.softex.br SOURCE Softex WASHINGTON, Jan. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Washington Post reporter, Jason Rezaian, has been released along with three other dual U.S.-Iranian nationals. Arrested in Tehran in July of 2014, Jason has been incarcerated for nearly eighteen months in Iran's Evin Prison, where he was subjected to months of harsh interrogations and solitary confinement. On behalf of the family, Jason's brother, Ali Rezaian, gave his reaction: "I am incredibly relieved that Jason is on his way home. He is a talented journalist, who was simply doing his job fairly, accurately and lawfully. Jason is a loving brother, son and devoted husband, whose life was unfairly interrupted when he was arrested for crimes he did not commit. After nearly a year and a half of arbitrary delays, and an unfair, opaque judicial process, Jason's release has brought indescribable relief and joy to our family this nightmare is approaching an end. We are also overjoyed to hear that other Americans being held in Iran also will soon be reunited with their families. Today is an incredible day for all of us. "We offer our heartfelt thanks to The Washington Post, its leadership, editors and reporters, who were there with us from day one, providing incredible support and working tirelessly to bring Jason home. We also want to convey our sincere gratitude to the Obama Administration, Congress, Secretary Kerry and the U.S. Department of State, and the thousands of journalists and individuals around the world who raised their voices to bring awareness of Jason's plight and to call for his release. This encouragement gave us the strength to keep fighting for Jason every day, and your support helped sustain Jason through this terrible ordeal. "As we begin the process of reuniting and healing as a family, we ask that you respect our privacy, and again, we truly appreciate every single person involved in this effort." SOURCE Ali Rezaian AURORA, Ohio, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Welcome home. Thank you for your serviceare common sayings that the first combatants of the Gulf War would hear from fellow Americans when they returned home. These words were NOT shared with returning warriors of the Vietnam War...until forty-five years later! Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160118/323161 Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160118/323162 Motivated by the above, Earl "Dusty" Trimmer wrote a book about it called CONDEMNED PROPERTY? It served its purpose wellbeyond his wildest dreams, as it made a difference in many lives of those who served in the Vietnam War as well as family members and friends. Launched in December 2013, CONDEMNED PROPERTY? nearly ended his life as Trimmer was dealt with an ischemic stroke, also in December 2013, leaving him with permanent impairments for life. Trimmer's Vietnam War buddies never gave up over there and so he wasn't going to give up on them now. At the suggestion of dozens of CONDEMNED PROPERTY? readers, Trimmer began writing a second book, a sequel to the first one, naming it...PAYBACK TIME! It will become available via other channels soon, but PAYBACK TIME! is ready to order NOW directly from the author. PAYBACK TIME! is meant to re-solidify the reasons why troubled Vietnam War veterans and all war veterans should maintain a high level of...HOPE. Vietnam War veterans kept on fighting bravely, taking it for their loved ones back home even when America had seemingly given up on them. Nam vets weren't over there because we hated the Viet Cong. We were over there because we loved those we left behind. Today's surviving Vietnam War veterans are mostly proud of their service over there and they would do it again. Unfortunately, their war never ended, as Vietnam and the American government has continued to strike them down long after they returned home. PAYBACK TIME! continues to tell their story, a story that needed to be told in a passionate and truthful manner. "Can America ever make it up to Vietnam War veterans? I don't know that they can, as many of us remain trapped, lost kids of the 1960s, wondering if we will ever feel Welcome Home...Unconditionally," says Dusty. To order either book please contact the author at 330.995.8837 or email. Contact: Earl "Dusty" Trimmer Combat Vietnam Veteran Author Phone: 330.995.8837 Cell: 330.388.5522 Email SOURCE Earl "Dusty" Trimmer LONDON, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Church of Scientology London held a special Interfaith Sunday Service January 17 in honor of U.K. Inter Faith Week 2016, to a packed audience of interfaith guests, Church parishioners and guests. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160118/322991 The week, which is celebrated this year from January 13 20, was created in 2009 by John Denham, then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for the U.K., to "bring people of faith and no faith together" as "a starting point for building consensus for a stronger, fairer society." This year's Inter Faith Week comes at a crucial crossroads, with Home Office figures showing hate crimes in England and Wales rose 18 percent last year and the Metropolitan Police reporting dramatic increase in Islamophobic hate crimes over the past two years. Guest speakers included Reverend Ena from Unity organisation, Reverend Halden Bennett from Streatham Church of God 7th Day, Sister Viola X from Nation of Islam European Head Quarters, Brixton, and Sheikh Rahman from the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Morden, England. Scientology minister Mrs. Alison Hidalgo led the service and began with the Scientology Prayer for Total Freedom: May the author of the universe enable all men to reach an understanding of their spiritual nature. May awareness and understanding of life expand, so that all may come to know the author of the universe. And may others also reach this understanding which brings Total Freedom. At this time, we think of those whose liberty is threatened; of those who have suffered imprisonment for their beliefs; of those who are enslaved or martyred, and for all those who are brutalized, trapped or attacked. We pray that human rights will be preserved so that all people may believe and worship freely, so that freedom will once again be seen in our land. Freedom from war, and poverty, and want; freedom to be; freedom to do and freedom to have. Freedom to use and understand Man's potentialapotential that is God-given and Godlike. And freedom to achieve that understanding and awareness that is Total Freedom. May God let it be so. In his presentation, Sheikh Rahman pointed out that programs such as this one "help promote interfaith accord and harmonious relations and at the same time encourage understanding between different faiths and communities, thereby removing some pre-conceived fears and apprehensions." The Church of Scientology London is an Ideal Scientology Organization (Org). Its facilities are configured to service Scientologists in their ascent to spiritual freedom and serve as a home for the entire communitya meeting ground of cooperative effort to uplift citizens of all denominations. SOURCE Church of Scientology If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Olyvenbosch Farm workers weigh olives on Adam Equipments LBK bench scale. The farm harvests about 73 tons of olives annually, and the LBK optimises efficiency and helps maximise olive oil production. Olyvenbosch Olive Farm relies on Adam Equipment's durable scales, as they deliver efficient performance and cost-saving precision throughout the olive harvest season and during the oil production process. Past News Releases RSS Adam Equipment Highland Balance... Adam Equipment Introduces... Adam Equipment to Exhibit at FIME... Adam Equipment, a manufacturer of scales and balances for professionals worldwide, recently joined forces with South African scale and balance distributor Scaletec. The companies successfully delivered weighing equipment to Olyvenbosch Farm in Wellington, Cape Town, helping to cut costs and improve its olive production process. Olyvenbosch harvests 73 tons of olives each year, and Scaletec products play a vital role throughout, according to Niel Botha, Olyvenboschs manager. The farm relies on the scales for many tasks, from weighing the newly harvested fruit to verifying the amounts of oil extracted from the olives. Its important to ensure that the farm is maintaining optimum production and quality levels, Mr. Botha said. To do that, we measure sample boxes of olives harvested from different areas of the farm, looking for any unusual variance between harvest seasons. Workers also weigh each box of olives, and that weight is used later in the olive oil production to help determine the percentage of oil extracted from the olives. This allows us to determine how well our extracting machine is working, Mr. Botha said. If the scale shows us that too little oil is being extracted, we know the machines settings need to be adjusted to extract more. Its a simple yet essential step that helps improve the efficiency of the process by maximising oil production, and ultimately, it increases revenue. During South Africas olive harvest, the trees are laden with plump, ripe olives, which are picked and placed in large crates for transport from the fields. Olyvenbosch workers use the Adam Equipment AELP pallet beams to weigh the oversized crates before separating the olives into smaller containers. Heavy-duty durability allows the AELP to withstand the large, bulky loads. Not only are the AELP pallet beams robust, theyre easily portable, Mr. Botha said. Theyre a vital component in our operation. We pair them with the Adam Equipment GK indicator, and that gives us the accuracy we need, especially for the large capacities we are weighing. Olyvenbosch relies heavily on the Adam Equipment LBK 12 bench scale during olive packing season, which runs from October to April. The LBK is portable, allowing workers to use it in different areas of the facility. We charge it once a week and then move it around all through the week when we need to weigh our punnets, Mr. Botha said. Punnets are boxes that hold small, soft fruits such as olives. Its easy to use, and the size of the scale is perfect, he added. With a wide range of features and functions, the LBK is well-suited for the farms needs, according to Mr. Botha. A large-sized pan is removable, making the scale easy to clean. The LBK features a levelling bubble and adjustable feet that allow the scale to adapt to uneven surfaces, and overload protection to prevent damage to the scale if the capacity is exceeded. Reliability and accuracy are two of the most important benefits that the LBK brings to our operation, Mr. Botha said. With excellent readability and a high capacity, its really an ideal solution for our weighing needs. On the packing lines, workers use the Adam Equipment GBK and GBK-M bench checkweighing scales to perform weight checks. The GBK-M is approved for trade use, as it meets South African standards for products sold by weight. Outfitted with a grade 304 stainless steel pan, the GBK is durable and easy to clean. The precision load cells in the GBK are less likely to be affected by temperature fluctuations, so the scale can provide greater repeatability as cooler weather arrives during olive harvest at Olyvenbosch. GBK features five weighing units (kg, g, lb, oz, lb:oz), so it is ideal for use on exported products such as olives and olive oil, which is easy to measure using the GBKs dynamic weighing feature. The GBK is a real asset for workers, as it is user-friendly and simple to operate, Mr. Botha said. It improves the overall efficiency, and thats a tremendous help for the packers. Users can save or transmit weighing results via the RS-232 interface. GBK is outfitted with non-slip, adjustable feet to keep the scale stable during busy packing sessions and on uneven surfaces. Overload protection helps prevent damage to the internal mechanism if too much weight is placed on the scale. The LED display on the GBK is large, and it also has high and low limit lights, Mr. Botha said. Thats a brilliant plus point in ensuring accuracy during high-volume packing. Other features include capacity tracker, colour-coded numeric entry keypad, low-battery indicator, and a power-off function to save battery. Harvest season is a hectic time for the workers, who put in long days to ensure the job gets done. Farmers know that a smooth and efficient process keeps costs under control and ensures consistent product quality. Olive farming is increasing in popularity in South Africa and the number of olive farms is on the rise. Over recent years, South Africas olive industry has experienced exponential growth, according to the South Africa Olive Industry Association. Located on the northern slopes of the Paarl Mountain range in the Western Cape region of South Africa, Olyvenbosch Farm was purchased by the van Eyssen family in 2004. At that time, the main crop was table grapes. Since 2009, the farm has diversified its offerings by gradually replacing table grapes with olives, which are easier to maintain and more cost-effective, Mr. Botha said. Olyvenbosh is well-suited for olive trees the soil is the perfect density and is neutral, rather than acidic or alkaline. The climate provides ideal growing conditions for olives cold, moist winters and hot, dry summers. During the transition, Olyvenbosch was introduced to Adam Equipments products by Jeremey Northcote, branch manager of Scaletec SA. Mr. Northcote learned of the farms steadily increasing weighing needs and suggested Adams products, as they provided an affordable solution. Mr. Botha said he recommends all of the Adam Equipment scales used by Olyvenbosch for similar applications. These scales are very reliable and accurate, Mr. Botha said. And the service we receive from Scaletec is tremendous, which helps greatly. About Olyvenbosch Farm Our vision is to develop Olyvenbosch into an award-winning boutique olive oil-producing farm and to supply the highest quality extra virgin olive oil to the discerning buyer. Olyvenbosch extra virgin olive oil carries the prestigious South Africa Seal of Quality. For additional details about Olyvenbosch Farm, visit http://www.olyvenbosch.co.za. About Scaletec Scaletec sells and services professional balances and scales for the laboratory, medical, education, industrial, food, animal/veterinary and jewellery markets. Scaletec is committed to offering an extensive selection of weighing equipment with best-in-class value, along with a full complement of service including set-up, calibration, maintenance and repair. The company has offices in Cape Town and Durban, South Africa. For more information about the Scaletecs services and product offerings, go to http://www.scaletec.co.za. About Adam Equipment For more than 40 years, Adam Equipment has designed and manufactured precision balances and scales for professionals worldwide in the laboratory, medical, education, industrial, food, animal/veterinary and jewelry markets. Adam is committed to offering an extensive selection of weighing equipment with best-in-class value. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, the company has strategically established offices in the United States, South Africa, Australia, China and Germany to provide product support and speedy delivery to distributors. For more information about the company and its products, go to http://www.adamequipment.com. Innofis, a global leader in omni-channel digital banking platforms, today announced that David Moreno, CEO of Innofis, has been selected to present at FinovateEurope, the leading demo-based conference that showcases cutting-edge banking technology, taking place February 9th and 10th at the Old Billingsgate Market Hall in London. Mr. Moreno will unveil the latest technology developed to support banks to build loyalty of digital customers. His presentation will demonstrate how existing customer knowledge in digital banking platforms can be combined with predictive analytics and machine learning, to provide a relationship-driven experience for customers. The platforms ability to incorporate contextual and behavioural customer data and offer personalized services contrasts sharply with todays digital banking platforms, which are mostly transaction based. "We are delighted to have Innofis as a presenter at FinovateEurope 2016. We are excited to showcase their real-time predictive targeting innovations to improve digital banking," said Eric Mattson, CEO of The Finovate Group. The Innofis digital banking platform allows banks complete control over digital channels and provides real-time information on results. This allows for the fast business and marketing cycles that are required by todays digital banking customers. About FinovateEurope FinovateEurope is a demo-based conference for innovative startups and established companies in the fields of banking and financial technology. Held in London, the event offers an insight-packed glimpse into the future of money via a fast-paced, intimate, and unique format. FinovateEurope is organized by The Finovate Group. For more information on the event or to view videos of previous demos, please visit finovate.com. About Innofis Innofis is global provider of omni-channel digital banking platforms. Every day, millions of retail and corporate banking clients are served by the Innofis platforms. The companys clients are top-tier international banks who appreciate the stability, control and innovation that the digital platforms provide. Innofis offers an attractive modular approach to digital technology which allows banks to invest and grow according to their needs. Innofis was founded in 2012 and is based in Barcelona. For more information, please visit: http://www.innofis.com Optronics International, a leading manufacturer and supplier of heavy-duty LED vehicle lighting, announced the release of its new 2016 Lighting Products Catalog today. The redesigned catalog features 400 new products and more than 3,400 total SKUs. The entire 308-page document is also available on the Optronics website as an interactive, searchable PDF. The company also declared an expansion of its unique no-hassles, one-diode warranty policy that will now cover all LED lamps being sold by Optronics, including all LED headlamps, LED work lamps and its venerable Panelite Millennium Series. The warranty guarantees that if even one diode fails during the course of a lamps operation, Optronics will replace that lamp with a new one. Since its last product catalog was released in 2014, Optronics has been prolific with its introduction of new and innovative LED products. Among the new offerings is the innovative, LampLock LED anti-theft stop, tail, turn and marker/clearance lamps; ONE LED single-diode line, high-style GloLight line; Fusion LED combination tail and backup lamps and Opti-Brite work lamps. Optronics continues to meet the needs of its industry with products like its LampLock LED stop, tail, turn and marker/clearance lamps, which are easy to install and impossible to steal. LampLock was inspired by the Lighting Theft and Avoidance Task Force of the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA), formed to address member concerns about the costs associated with lamp replacement, repairs, vehicle downtime and related CSA violations. The catalog also includes 63 products within Optronics ONE LED single-diode line, including new tail, backup and RV lamp applications. Optronics ONE LED lamps cost just twice the price of inexpensive incandescent lamps, but provide the equivalent of 50 times the service life. Optronics continues to set the pace for innovation, diversity and choice within the vehicle lighting industry, and the marketplace is responding, Brett Johnson, president and CEO of Optronics International, said. The new products weve introduced in just the last three years now represent 20 percent of our overall sales. In the 2016 catalog, Optronics is also highlighting expansions within a number of well-established product lines. The GloLight line features 10 new products, including an E-rated oval mid-ship turn and intermediate marker lamp. Unique GloLight pedestal lamps are also part of the standard lighting equipment package on the Kenworth Icon 900. Optronics also expanded its line of Fusion LED combination stop, tail, turn and backup lamps. The original nine-inch oval combo lamp, introduced in 2014, is now available in four-inch round and six-inch oval formats and with grommet- and flange-mount models that will fit virtually any standard lighting application. New white LED lighting products are also represented in abundance in the new catalog. Optronics broadened its highly price-competitive Opti-Brite work lamp line by eight products, including a new super-bright miniature work lamp. 29 other new white LED products ran the gambit across interior/exterior area lighting, as well as back-up and license plate lamps. The expansion of our no-hassles single-diode warranty policy significantly increases the value of every LED lighting product in our new catalog, Marcus Hester, vice president of sales and marketing for Optronics International, said. There is not a better lighting company nor a better lighting value in the vehicle lighting marketplace. The new catalog is scheduled to begin shipping on or about Jan. 20, 2016 and is available now as an interactive, searchable PDF on the companys website. Optronics is dedicated to delivering better value, better options and better lighting to the vehicle lighting marketplace, Johnson said. The price competitiveness, diverse lighting alternatives and stellar product quality represented in our new 2016 catalog underscore our resolve to meet our objectives. Optronics has made a total commitment to designing and manufacturing corrosion-resistant LED lighting products, and 85 percent of the products in the new catalog are produced using solid-state, surface-mount device (SMD) technology. LED lamps using SMD are so resilient, they can continue to function even if their circuit board is completely submerged in water. Optronics products are available in the U.S. and Canada through the companys extensive distribution network of more than 12,000 convenient distribution locations. Users can access individual Optronics distributor websites by simply clicking on their logo icons. For information on international sales and distribution of Optronics products, please contact Dorian Drake at +1 (914) 697-9800, or visit http://doriandrake.com. To access the entire 308-page document as an interactive, searchable PDF, please visit:http://www.optronicsinc.com/portals/0/PDFs/OEM2016-2017_Catalog.pdf About Optronics As the fastest-growing vehicle lighting manufacturer in the U.S., Optronics International attributes its success to delivering better value, better options and better lighting to its customers. Founded in 1972, Optronics International is a premier worldwide manufacturer and supplier of branded industrial and commercial vehicular safety lighting products. The company specializes in interior and exterior LED and incandescent lighting for the marine, RV, trailer, HD and transit vehicle markets. The Optronics product catalog is among the most extensive in the industry. Optronics is headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma and has an ISO/TS 16949:2009 certified manufacturing facility in Annan District, Tainan, Taiwan. The company also has ISO 9001:2008 certified distribution facilities in Muskogee, Oklahoma and Goshen, Indiana, as well as distribution through its location in Ontario, Canada. Learn more at http://www.optronicsinc.com. LampLock, ONE LED, GloLight and Fusion are trademarks of Optronics International, LLC. OptiBrite is a registered trademarks of Optronics International, LLC. Kenworth is a registered trademark of PACCAR Inc. It takes courage and perseverance to embark on a path of self-discovery and remain open to what you will find. But it also provides great rewards to those willing to take the journey CreateWriteNow has just announced the launch of its newest journaling program, the 23 Days Discover Your True Self Journaling Challenge, scheduled to take place February 1st-23rd, 2016. The latest in a series of journaling programs developed by Mari L. McCarthy, renowned journaling therapy expert and founder of CreateWriteNow, the new Challenge takes participants on an eye-opening journey of self exploration and mindful reflection, with the objective of cultivating a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Through a series of daily journaling exercises participants are prompted to record personal experiences, express their innermost feelings, and explore their emotions and perspectives to identify and connect more closely with their passions and purpose. The related course eWorkbook delivers thought-provoking and inspiring exercises and prompts, quotes and examples in a gentle and supportive manner. Through its pages participants will practice the power of gratitude, reclaim time to relaxand find ways to have more fun, understand and foster stronger relationships, and set themselves on a more meaningful path that is aligned with their unique talents, heart and dreams. The 23-day program also provides on-line interaction and support through optional Facebook group participationwhich also gives members the opportunity to interact with Mari McCarthy herself. Said Mari L. McCarthy, Getting to know your true, authentic self and truly understanding who you are - what drives and inspires you - is a lifelong journey. Added Mari, It takes courage and perseverance to embark on a path of self-discovery and remain open to what you will find - your fears and insecurities, dreams and talents, quirks and struggles - but it also provides great rewards to those willing to take the journey! All that is needed to participate in the Challenge is the related eWorkbookand a pen! The eWorkbook is available for purchase in multiple formats including an eBook, which can be purchased at the CreateWriteNow store. Other formats include an audio book and downloadable versions for Kindle, iPad, NOOK. About CreateWriteNow CreateWriteNow teaches individuals how to use the power of daily journaling for self-discovery, personal transformation and perfect health. Founded by Mari L. McCarthy, who has used the power of daily journaling herself to overcome many of the debilitating effects of Multiple Sclerosis, the company publishes regular articles, journaling prompts, videos and eBooks and holds a number of interactive journaling challenges throughout the year. Learn more about the 23 Days Self Discovery Challenge here: http://www.createwritenow.com/23-days-self-discovery-journaling-challenge Learn more about CreateWriteNow at http://www.createwritenow.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/CreateWriteNow Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CreateWriteNow LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/create-write-now Pinterest: pinterest.com/createwritenow YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/MariLMcCarthy/videos July Business Services (JULY), a leading national retirement plan provider, is pleased to welcome Brian Kearney as the companys Northeast Regional Sales Consultant. Kearney joins a growing team of regional business development leaders that provide expert support to financial advisors and TPA partners on all facets of the sales process, including retirement plan design, proposals, prospecting, and sales support. Kearney draws on more than 16 years of experience working with advisors, third party administrators, plan sponsors and various industry-related partners while with The Entrust Group, Daily Access Corporation, Columbia Management and Putnam Investments. Brian enjoys the challenge of helping advisors, TPAs and plan sponsors best meet their unique and sometimes complex needs related to retirement plans. His experience and technical expertise regarding open architecture recordkeeping position him to be a valuable, consultative resource for our clients. Blake Willis, JULYs CCO and Head of Sales. JULYs Regional Sales Consultants provide expert field support for retirement plan-focused financial advisors and third party administrators. They organize and host educational events, coordinate plan design illustrations, prepare and present proposals, and are speakers on topics relevant to industry professionals. Kearney will be responsible for working with advisors and other JULY relationship partners in the Northeast Region and will be based in Boston, Massachusetts. See JULYs national sales map, http://www.julyservices.com/pdfs/July_Regional_Sales_Map.pdf, for more details. About JULY: July Business Services is a leading retirement plan provider that helps financial advisors and third party administrators deliver successful retirement plan strategies through its fully independent, open-architecture retirement plan platform. JULY brings unbiased, expert knowledge to all facets of the retirement plan process including customized plan design, leading technology, and hands-on implementation and management of the plan. JULY supports clients with an expansive, conflict-free investment platform, including Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), collective trusts, professionally managed portfolios, and mutual funds. For more information about JULY, visit http://www.julyservices.com. SCS Engineers, an environmental consulting and contracting firm, has added two specialists to its environmental management group in the Midwest region. Ann OBrien and John Flickinger, two senior air quality and environmental compliance specialists, are now working for SCS out of offices in Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. Both OBrien and Flickinger are Senior Scientists and both come to SCS Engineers from TriMedia Environmental & Engineering Services where they delivered an impressive combination of environmental compliance solutions to industrial and other clients throughout the nation. OBrien and Flickinger have assisted clients throughout the United States with regulatory compliance in the environmental arena including, but not limited to air and water quality permitting, environmental record-keeping, reporting and monitoring programs, hazardous waste management, employee EHS training, environmental auditing, industrial environmental compliance and reporting, Phase I, II and III environmental site assessments, and due diligence associated with real estate transactions and corporate acquisitions. Additionally, Flickinger has assisted clients and legal counsel in the negotiation and settlement of air compliance, non-compliance, and Department of Justice referral issues. Ann OBrien earned a Master of Arts in Industrial Relations at the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology at St. Josephs College in Rensselaer, Indiana. She is a member of the Great Lakes Graphics Association. John Flickinger earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Master of Science in Water Chemistry both from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. John is a member of the Air and Waste Management Association, the American Chemical Society, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, Midwest Food Processors Association, the Printing Industry of America, and the Wisconsin Paper Council. Were happy to welcome Ann and John to SCS during this period of expansion for the company, says Samuel Cooke, P.E., C.E.M. and a Vice President at SCS Engineers. Their 60 combined years of experience preventing and solving environmental challenges for business and industry will support our national client-base with air regulatory compliance, air permitting, environmental chemistry and the management of health, safety and environmental issues. About SCS Engineers SCS Engineers environmental solutions are a direct result of our experience and dedication to solid waste management and other industries responsible for safeguarding the environment. For more information about SCS, please visit our website at http://www.scsengineers.com. Shopping for health insurance should be more like shopping for a car and less like gambling. Shopping for health insurance should be more like shopping for a car and less like gambling. Consumers need to know what they are buying and what it will cost; Clear Health Analytics is on a mission to make sure that they do. The Clear Choice plan selector, which can be found at http://www.clearhealthmarket.com, uses Clear Health Analytics' innovative, patent-pending, machine-learning program to harness the power of big data to help consumers understand what they are buying and how much it will cost. Based on answers to a few questions, the Clear Choice plan selector offers a personalized estimate of total cost for each plan, allowing consumers to pick the best plan in minutes without overpaying. Clear Choice predicts medical utilization for over 30 of the most common illnesses and conditions, modified for individual characteristics including age, gender and overall health. Clear Choice allows each consumer to personalize utilization and cost estimates based on their unique characteristics and health care needs. Users are presented with information about the type of medical services they are likely to need such as specialist visits, labs or imaging tests as well as the quantity of each service they are likely to need. Users can adjust values as they see fit for a more accurate cost estimate. Clear Choice does the math. The cost of each medical service is instantly modeled against insurance plan provisions for all available plans, taking into account both deductibles and, where applicable, subsidies and cost share reductions. Consumers can cut through the complexity and confusion of different health plans designs to make better, faster and smarter decision about their health insurance based on a comparison of total cost for each available plan as well as other significant factors such as availability of preferred in-network doctors and preferred prescriptions (coming soon). CEO of Clear Health Analytics, Jennifer Sclar said: Picking a health insurance plan should not be like purchasing a lottery ticket. Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers are now required to purchase a very complex financial product each year. How can consumers possibly begin to evaluate their choices? Our mission is to empower consumers to make smarter health insurance decisions by providing clear, unbiased cost comparison information. About Clear Health Analytics; Clear Health Analytics is a consumer-focused data analytics company. Clear Health Analytics insurance decision support software reflects the core values of our Company; we value people, healthcare, good information, and clarity. Our software helps individual consumers and families select an insurance plan that will provide the coverage they need without overpaying. Our software is fast and simple to use and empowers consumers to make better decisions about one of the most important purchases they will make this year. Consumers can feel confident that they are making an informed decision. Clear Health Analytics, Clear Choice, and Clear Health Market are trade names of Clear Health Bill, LLC, a Delaware limited liability corporation d/b/a Clear Health Analytics. For more information please contact Jennifer Sclar, Jennifer(at)clearhealthanalytics(dot)com, 917-722-1181. Belatrix Software announced that it has certified in ISO 27001 standards. ISO 27001 is a global information security standard, which ensures the protection of customer data. With this, Belatrix joins an elite group of just 10 companies in Argentina with ISO 27001. The certification process consisted of several phases of audits and ended in December 2015 with the certification of all Belatrix locations (Peru and Argentina). To achieve this level of certification Belatrix needed to demonstrate that it has processes in place to continuously monitor and review sensitive company and customer information with an information security risk management system. Since its early stages, Belatrix has undertaken many efforts, including certifications and accreditations, to ensure the security and quality of its customer assets. The company reached ISO 9001 certification in 2008, CMMI Level 2 assessment in 2010, and is currently assessed at CMMI Level 3 since 2013. Belatrix works with clients from industries including financial services, banking, and technology, for whom information security is critical. The ISO 27001 certification demonstrates Belatrix maintains the highest levels of information security. We know that as an organization developing business-critical software products and services for our customers we must follow the highest possible standards for Information Security. Our clients need and expect from us a committed and trustworthy approach. This ISO 27001 certification gives them the reassurance via internationally recognized standards, that they can continue to trust in our services shared Luis Robbio, Belatrix Founder and CEO. Being a MaidPro owner allows me to spend more quality time with my family something I hope our cleaning service will allow my clients to do, too. MaidPro Franchising is pleased to announce the opening of its newest Texas location. Located just eighteen miles northwest of Downtown Houston, MaidPro Copperfield joins twenty-three MaidPro locations currently serving the Lone Star State. Im excited to bring the MaidPro experience to Houston families and working professionals, says franchise owner Sheeneva Abron. Our cleaning PROs are trained to deliver consistent, top quality cleans which Houston customers will no doubt love. All MaidPro employees are thoroughly trained at MaidPro University on MaidPros 49-Point Checklist. This list details everything that will be cleaned in a clients home, with a specific focus on kitchens, bathrooms, floors, and dusting. Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and one-time services are available, as are move-in and move-out cleanings. Abron, who has lived in the Copperfield area for the past fourteen years, is proud to join to the MaidPro family. The support that MaidPro offers is priceless, she says. Being a MaidPro owner allows me to spend more quality time with my family something I hope our cleaning service will allow my clients to do, too. To get a complimentary estimate for housecleaning services from MaidPro Copperfield, please call (281) 846-2009 or visit http://www.maidpro.com/copperfield. ABOUT MAIDPRO MaidPro is a Boston-based franchisor of house cleaning services with over 170 offices in 33 states, the District of Columbia and Canada. The company, which began franchising in 1997, takes pride in its strong owner community, cutting- edge technology and creative marketing. It has been honored with the Franchise Business Reviews Four-Star Rating and Franchise 50 awards every year from 2006 to 2014 for owner satisfaction. MaidPro was named one of the Top 50 Franchises for Minorities by USA Todays Franchising Today. MaidPro is also a proud member of the International Franchise Association and the New England Franchise Association. The company can be found online at http://www.maidprofranchise.com. This information will help human stem cell companies with their quest to get products through the regulatory and research hurdles and on the market and helping patients Dr. Bob Harman, CEO for VetStem Biopharma, was asked by the editors, the top regenerative medicine luminaries in human medicine, to write two key chapters to share the advances made in veterinary medicine with stem cell therapy. I am honored to have been asked to contribute to such an important book, said Dr Harman. This information will help human stem cell companies with their quest to get products through the regulatory and research hurdles and on the market and helping patients. Dr. Harman has been a leader in this area for over a decade and has presented at dozens of human regenerative medicine conferences. He pulls from his biotechnology and veterinary experience to perfect the clinical application of stem cell therapy for various types of injuries, illnesses, and other healing-promoting applications. VetStem is leading in the development for regenerative medicine in the veterinary field, with over 11,000 animals treated in the last 12 years. Dr. Harman is also author on 13 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. The book, entitled Stem Cells in Regenerative Medicine: Science, Regulation and Business Strategies, is a unique guide to emerging stem cell technologies and the opportunities for their commercialization. It provides in-depth analyses of the science, business, legal, and financing fundamentals of stem cell technologies, offering a holistic assessment of this emerging and dynamic segment of the field of regenerative medicine. The book includes reviews of the very latest advances in the technology and business of stem cells used for therapy, research, and diagnostics. It identifies key challenges to the commercialization of stem cell technology and avenues to overcome problems in the pipeline. Dr Harmans chapters cover the market for stem cell medicines for domestic and high value animals and practical approaches to stem cell medicine in the veterinary field. The book is written by an expert team with extensive experience in the business of the applied science of stem cell research. This comprehensive volume is essential reading for researchers in cell biology, biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and tissue engineering, including scientists and professionals, looking to enter commercial biotechnology fields. About VetStem Biopharma VetStem Biopharma, was founded by Dr Bob Harman and is a veterinarian lead company that was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the profession. This privately held biopharmaceutical enterprise, based near San Diego (California), currently offers veterinarians an autologous stem cell processing service (from patients own fat tissue) among other regenerative modalities. With a unique expertise acquired over the past 12 years and over 11,000 patients treated by veterinarians for joint, tendon or ligament issues, VetStem has made regenerative medicine applications a therapeutic reality beyond the realm of research. The VetStem team is focused on developing new clinically practical and affordable veterinary solutions that leverage the natural restorative abilities present in all living creatures. The companys stated mission being to extend and enhance the lives of animals by improving the quality of recovery in acute conditions, but also by unlocking ways to slow, stop and ultimately revert the course of chronic diseases. In addition to its own portfolio of patents, VetStem holds exclusive global veterinary licenses to a portfolio of over 55 issued patents in the field of regenerative medicine. Universal Plastics Corporation, a Holyoke, Ma based custom thermoforming manufacturer, is hosting members of The Society of Plastics Engineers Western New England Section on Wednesday January 20th. Members of the SPE will see all facets of thermoforming, pressure forming and vacuum forming of both thin and thick gauge sheet used in applications including aerospace, bath, medical, recreation and transportation. Following the plant tour, members will discuss the The PlastiVan Outreach Education Program. The program is designed to excite middle- and high-school students about the vast opportunities the plastics industry has to offer. The PlastiVan Program educators travel to schools educating students about the chemistry, history, processing, manufacturing, sustainability and applications of plastics. The program is easily integrated into school curricula through the National Standards for Science and Technology and Common Core as well as the S.T.E.M requirements. The PlastiVan Program provides sound science and educational programs which spark scientific curiosity in students while increasing their knowledge of the contributions that plastics make to modern life, encouraging them to seek careers in engineering. Joe Peters, CEO of Universal Plastics and Mayfield Plastics, is working with the SPE to bring the program locally to Dean Technical High School in Holyoke, Ma. Mr. Peters has been an active proponent of workforce development in Western Massachusetts and educating youth on opportunities in manufacturing and has been highly involved in the local community. About Universal Plastics Universal Plastics is a custom thermoformer based in Holyoke MA with strong legacy of expertise in manufacturing thermoformed plastic parts of the highest quality with a distinct focus on customer satisfaction. Universal has been in business for over 50 years with a world class management team and currently serves customers in a variety of industries including aerospace, medical device manufacturers, transportation, consumer products, food packaging and electronic companies. As a custom manufacturer, Universal has made kayaks, air ducts for the Space Shuttle, all of the bus stop signs currently used in New York City and the bow of the submarines used by the Navy Seals. In 2008 they added a 30,000 square foot addition to their Whiting Farms Road building for a total of 100,000 square feet of production and office space. The company is ISO 9001 certified. For more information visit http://www.universalplastics.com. About Mayfield Plastics: Mayfield is a leading manufacturer of custom pressure, vacuum formed and thermoformed parts and components specializing in thermoformed medical devices and components, but also serving a variety of additional industries including aerospace, telecom, electronics, computer, hospital, chromatography, machine-tool and transportation. In 2013, Mayfield Plastics was purchased by Jay Kumar, who also owns Universal Plastics, a custom thermoformer based in Holyoke MA with the intent of growing the thermoforming business locally through the combined strength and synergies of both companies. Together, Mayfield & Universal Plastics represent the largest thermoformer in New England and are proud to offer a manufacturing service which is state of the art. Equally, as a family-run business, Mayfield Plastics takes special pride in upholding a strong commitment to its customers and employees. For more information about Mayfield Plastics, please visit http://www.mayfieldplastics.com. Shifting perceptions about dementia care is a crucial first step to changing the culture of care and moving away from dangerous overuse of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes. The Eden Alternative is the sole recipient of a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to help reduce antipsychotic use in Texas and four other states. Funds will support the delivery of a unique educational experience featuring Dementia Beyond Drugs, an Eden Alternative training facilitated by award-winning author and geriatrician Dr. Al Power. The goal of this 2-day educational event is to shift the focus of dementia care from managing so-called difficult behaviors to, instead, identifying and responding to the unmet needs that are typically their underlying cause. Gone unchecked, unmet needs can lead to distress and the subsequent overuse of antipsychotic medications for those who live with dementia. In my nursing home work, family members would often tell me that their loved ones looked better than they had in months. They would often ask what pill I had prescribed to cause such an improvement, says Dr. Power. But it wasnt a pill. It was because we had stopped the antipsychotic drug and found other ways of providing support. A recent report authored by The Eden Alternative revealed that training in person-directed dementia care shifts perceptions that support the reduction of antipsychotic use. The report marked the conclusion of a grant-funded Eden Alternative project in Oklahoma involving the delivery of Dementia Beyond Drugs. The project evaluation process revealed that participants experienced an overall 9% shift toward person-directed perceptions of and approaches to, dementia care nearly double the projects proposed outcome of a 5% shift after two days of training. Findings showed that not only did participants make a significant move away from institutional ways of thinking about dementia care, but they also conveyed confidence in their ability to apply the non-pharmacological solutions that they learned. The impact of our training on the participants exceeded everyones expectations. This shows not only the effectiveness of the training, but also the need and desire for change. Shifting perceptions about dementia care is a crucial first step to changing the culture of care and moving away from dangerous overuse of antipsychotic drugs in nursing homes across the country, says Chris Perna, President and CEO of The Eden Alternative. One hundred and thirty nursing homes in Texas will have the opportunity to choose between two distinct educational tracks. Track One of the project offers nine of the participating nursing homes the option to combine Dementia Beyond Drugs training with an online experience of the Care Partner Workshop (Dementia-Specific Focus), also developed by The Eden Alternative. This interactive, team-based training will engage family members, side-by-side with nursing home employees, to strengthen care partnerships and overall well-being on the team, as a way to collaboratively respond to the needs of those who live with dementia. Track Two of the project gives participants the option to register for Dementia Beyond Drugs training alone. According to August 2015 data from the National Partnership to Improve Dementia Care in Nursing Homes, Texas currently ranks as #50 in the country when it comes to reducing antipsychotic medications. Texas long term care providers must strive to implement a culture change within nursing homes to reduce the use of off label antipsychotics, said George Linial, President and CEO of LeadingAge Texas. Through compassionate care and individualized resident approaches, Texas nursing homes can consistently yield better outcomes in the treatment of nursing home residents. We are thrilled to bring this opportunity to nursing homes in Texas, as we continue to push for better quality of life for individuals living with dementia. Many Texas nursing home providers report having made measurable progress over the last few months by committing to the statewide One a Month campaigns mission to reduce the use of antipsychotics in dementia care, and in some cases, has outpaced the nation in transitioning residents off these medications, said Kevin Warren, President and CEO of the Texas Health Care Association (THCA). We appreciate the opportunity to partner with The Eden Alternative for Texas nursing home providers to continuously advance the training and education necessary to implement new dementia care strategies outside of antipsychotic medications and firmly establish Texas as a leader in this effort. Funded registration is now open for qualifying Texas nursing homes for both educational tracks of this new project. Click here to learn more or go to http://www.edenalt.org. ### About The Eden Alternative A leader in the culture change movement for the past 20 years, The Eden Alternative is an international, nonprofit 501(c) 3 organization that provides education and consultation for organizations across the entire continuum of care. As a person-directed care philosophy, it is dedicated to creating care environments that promote quality of life for Elders and those who support them as care partners. To learn more, go to http://www.edenalt.org. # # # NOTES TO MEDIA: 1. Members of the media are invited to interview Chris Perna, CEO of The Eden Alternative or Dr. Al Power, award-winning geriatrician and author. Contact: The Eden Alternative, (607) 793-1448, lbeck(at)edenalt.org to make arrangements. 2. Members of the media are also invited to cover either of the in-person training events associated with this grant-funded project, which are scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas on March 30-31.2016 and Dallas, Texas on April 4-5, 2016. Contact: The Eden Alternative, (615) 653-8433, education(at)edenalt.org for more information. Michelle Beaudoin Eating Recovery Center of Houston, a leading provider of eating disorder treatment, announced today that Michelle Beaudoin has joined its executive leadership team as President. Overseeing clinical and administrative operations in Houston, Beaudoin will also lead Eating Recovery Center of The Woodlands. She will do this in collaboration with Eating Recovery Centers Denver-based leadership, upholding the excellence of Eating Recovery Centers eating disorder treatment programs in the Houston market. Michelle Beaudoins background in the behavioral healthcare field combined with her leadership experience are valuable assets to our Houston location, said Ken Weiner, MD, FAED, CEDS, Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Eating Recovery Center. We are eager for her to provide her expertise in leading our Houston and Woodlands locations to meet the rising demand for eating disorder treatments in the region. Beaudoin has more than 15 years of progressive leadership experience and nearly a decade of leading behavioral healthcare organizations. Prior to joining Eating Recovery Center of Houston, she served as the Executive Director for Right Step Houston, where she provided oversight and direction for a 46-bed detoxification center, residential behavioral health center, an intensive outpatient program for adults with substance abuse and mental health issues, and more. During her time there, she increased census and programming, expanded facilities, and drove outpatient volumes and referral development and marketing initiatives, while leading the centers most successful Joint Commission survey results in 20 years. Prior to Right Step Houston, Beaudoin was the Director of Clinical Services for St. Josephs Addiction Treatment and Recovery Centers in New York, where she successfully increased census to 97% occupancy. As director, she ran the 65-bed inpatient addiction treatment center, 25-bed residence for substance abuse and post-traumatic stress disorder, 12-bed supportive living facility, and sober living homes. Beaudoin has served on many professional boards throughout her career and has been involved in leading multiple community organizations, with roles including: member of the Board of Directors for the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault; Chairperson of the ASAP Womens Mentorship Program; and Co-Chair the New York State Association Substance Abuse Providers Women and Childrens and Steering Committees. About Eating Recovery Center Eating Recovery Center of Houston is part of Eating Recovery Centers national healthcare system dedicated to providing the best-in-class treatment for individuals and families struggling with serious eating disorders. Led by the worlds leading experts in eating disorder treatment, Eating Recovery Center provides a full spectrum of eating disorder recovery services for patients at every stage of the illness through an unmatched network of 24 locations in seven states. For more information about the Eating Recovery Center family of programs, call (877) 711-8583, email info@eatingrecoverycenter.com or chat confidentially with a Masters-level eating disorder therapist at http://www.eatingrecoverycenter.com. Walt Vercoe Mr. Colin Taylor, The CEO and Chief Chaos Officer of The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. today announced that Walt Vercoe has joined the customer experience and contact center consulting firm effective immediately. Walt brings over 20 years customer service experience to Taylor Reach with solid management experience, in the customer service, call center and BPO industries, working with companies such as American Express, Sitel and ITI Marketing Services/APAC. Walt has deep experience in eCommerce service delivery management, project management, talent management and leadership from both an in-house and BPO perspective. Walt has experience building relationships across silos, organizations and leading diverse teams. We are excited to have Walt on board, his experience and competencies add further depth to the Taylor Reach team and his Phoenix location will help us service our clients in the southwest more effectively, said Taylor, Walt is an acknowledged leader in the contact center industry and has received awards for his contributions this makes Walt a significant addition to the Taylor Reach team Walt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Midland Lutheran College majoring in Public Relations and Advertising. Walt is based in Phoenix, AZ, and will service and support, both existing and new Taylor Reach clients in the Southwest. I am confident in our team, our methodology and our capabilities that know that Walt adds more depth and breadth to Taylor Reach, says Taylor, Since 2003 we have helped hundreds of clients achieve their customer experience and contact center objectives, Walt will help us keep this growth continuing for years to come. Taylor Reach has recently signed new agreements with clients in the eCommerce, insurance, not-for-profit, utility, and, publishing sectors, Taylor said. About The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. With three offices in North America, Australia, Europe and China, The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. (Taylor Reach) a is leading Call/Contact Center Consulting Customer Experience and Customer Service consulting firm. This award winning company founded in 2003 by Colin Taylor today boasts a stable of Fortune 1000 companies. The consulting staff at Taylor Reach each possess more than 20 years of hands-on Call/Contact Center, Customer Experience, Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction experience in delivering effective and significant benefits from Operational Innovation. The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. Leaders in Call Center and Customer Service consulting All We Do is Call Center Consulting For more information about The Taylor Reach Group, Inc. visit http://thetaylorreachgroup.com or phone Colin Taylor at 1 877-979-8692 ext 102 WARM HEARTS WARMING HOMES 17th Annual Heat For The Needy Charity Event Scheduled January 23rd, 2016 TUDI Mechanical Systems and Standard Air & Lite will provide and install 13 free furnaces to Pittsburgh area families on Saturday January 23rd as part of their annual Heat For The Needy charity program. Each winter, there are families across the Pittsburgh region that have no heat or are living in unsafe conditions due to failed or outdated heating systems. The Heat For The Needy program, described as a One Day Miracle, combines the time and talents of employees and their families as they deliver and install new furnaces in the homes of those needy families, all in a single day, and at no cost to the recipients. This years campaign drew in an overwhelming response, and can truly be attributed to the kindness of others. Nominations were received from family members, friends, neighbors and even strangers who wished to touch someones heart during the holiday season. After careful consideration, including interviews and visits to homes across the region, Tudi Mechanical selected 13 families to receive new furnaces. Over the past 16 years, the Heat For The Needy program has provided and installed over 170 new heating systems to families throughout the region. The program is made possible through the generous efforts of over 125 volunteers at TUDI Mechanical Systems, local suppliers and business partners who have donated supplies and services. More information on the program can be found at http://www.heatfortheneedy.com. About Tudi Mechanical Systems TUDI Mechanical Systems is a leading provider of Heating, Air Conditioning, Electrical, and Plumbing Services for the commercial, industrial and residential markets. We are a highly professional, resourceful team of designers, installers and service technicians focused on improving our customers' ROI through preventative maintenance, asset management and energy management solutions. Founded in 1987, TUDI has been named the #1 Work Place in the Pittsburgh area, ABC Specialty Contractor of the Year, and won the Excellence in Construction and American Business Ethic Awards for multiple years. The company is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a branch location in Tampa, Florida. Douglas County Courthouse, Washington Douglas County Clerk's ofce looks forward to providing this new e-ling service. It is user friendly and convenient...a real time-saver for all! - Tristen Worthen, Douglas County Clerk Image-X Enterprises created E-ling.com in 2000, and recently updated the electronic filing portal for Chelan County Clerk's Ofce. The company used their experience with document imaging and electronic filing systems to offer a solution that allowed the court to provide its own direct service, developing a portal that could then integrate with Image-X's previously utilized electronic le management system. Now introducing a court-run electronic filing solution for Douglas County Clerk's Office, an alternative to "over-the-counter" filing. This state-of-the-art technology allows attorneys to process important legal documents electronically online. This eliminates the dread of driving to the courthouse and standing in line to file traditionally. The transition to an electronic ling system will cut down on wasted time spent on all sides of the case ling process, freeing up attorneys, paralegals, and court clerks for more important business. In addition, Douglas County Clerk's Office will no longer have to waste the physical storage space required to house the mass volume of paper created by traditional case ling. Thus, the switch is both environmentally friendly and efficient. President and CEO of Image-X, Mohammed Shaikh, conrmed the special nature of the new electronic ling system, saying, The Douglas County Clerk's Office is entering the high-tech era that the judicial enterprises have been waiting for! Image-X Enterprises is a digital certicate authority, and has 25 years of experience with secure document imaging and storage services and electronic ling solutions. Headquartered in Goleta, California, the company serves multiple counties in Washington and other states. Updater has signed Fairfield Residential Company LLC, one of the 20 largest apartment management companies in the United States, according to the National Multifamily Housing Councils (NMHC) 2015 rankings. Fairfield Residential, based in San Diego, CA, manages a portfolio of over 52,000 units across 24 states and the District of Columbia. All residents moving in or out of Fairfield Residential apartment homes now receive access to a personalized and guided Updater workflow as part of Fairfields core amenity offerings. Additionally, all on-site leasing teams at Fairfield properties receive training, marketing and leasing sales support from Updater. Updater saves residents hours by streamlining the various processes associated with moving, including, but not limited to: Updating Accounts: Updater can automatically update a residents new address for any of over 15,000 businesses, including magazines, newspapers, alumni associations, charities, loyalty and frequent flyer accounts, and more. Connecting Home Services: Updater helps residents set up digital services and schedule in-home installations. Forwarding Mail: Updater files residents official U.S. Postal Service mail-forwarding forms online. Sending Digital Moving Announcements: Residents can create digital moving e-cards to notify friends and family of their new address. Claiming Move-in Offers: Updater provides special offers and exclusive deals on moving services and expenses, such as discounts on professional cleaning, moving companies, cardboard boxes, and more. Our mission is to provide our residents with the highest quality living experience, explained Terry Phillips, Senior VP of Strategic Operations at Fairfield Residential. The move-in is one of the first interactions that our residents experience at our properties one that sets the tone for their entire time with us. Updater helps us make a memorable first impression. The addition of Fairfield Residential to Updaters growing client base reflects the strong demand among the leading multifamily companies to leverage Updaters technology to improve and manage the moving process. Updater Founder and CEO, David Greenberg, added, We are thrilled that Fairfield Residential chose Updater to help improve the resident move-in experience. Updater's guided workflow has both the national and local personalization to make us uniquely equipped to bring innovation to moving at all Fairfield properties. The Fairfield Residential launch comes shortly after Updater took first place in the annual Launch Pad competition at the recent NMHC OpTech Conference. As the winner of the competition with a sweeping 47% of the vote, Updater received the highly coveted Apartment Technology Innovator Award, celebrating the years best multifamily technology innovation. About Updater Updater makes moving easier for the 17 million households that relocate every year in the US. With Updater, users seamlessly transfer utilities, update accounts and records, forward mail, and much more. Hundreds of the most prominent real estate companies in the US (from real estate brokerages to multifamily and relocation companies) rely on Updaters real estate products to save clients hours with a branded and personalized Updater moving experience. Headquartered in New York City, Updater has raised over $30 million from leading investors, including SoftBank Capital, IA Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Second Century Ventures (the strategic investment arm of the National Association of Realtors), and more. For more information, please visit http://www.updater.com. More than 4,800 nominations for Petplans 2016 Veterinary Awards poured in from every corner of the U.S. and Canada, but in the end, just six winners took home all the bones. Petplan hosted the fifth annual Veterinary Awards Dinner on January 16 at Orlandos Four Seasons Resort, in tandem with the North American Veterinary Conference. The event shines a deserved spotlight on outstanding veterinary professionals across North America. The winners revealed at this years gala are: Practice of the Year Metzger Animal Hospital State College, PA Veterinarian of the Year Dr. Sean Aiken, Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego San Diego, CA Practice Manager of the Year Jody Weaver, CVT, Rau Animal Hospital Glenside, PA Veterinary Technician of the Year Annette Kim, RVT, Abbotsford Animal Hospital Aurora, ON Receptionist of the Year Crystal Dawson, Northpointe Animal Hospital Lynnwood, WA Pet Parent of the Year Erin Kowalski, Bialys Wellness Foundation and AURA Natural Pet, LLC Chicago, IL Nominees in each category were submitted by both professional peers and clients and then each completed a rigorous application process to accept their candidacy. Organizers narrowed the pack down to six semi-finalists per category and then an independent judging panel chose three to advance to the finalist round. Judges included North Americas most talented veterinary professionals, several of whom are award winners from past years. Winning professionals received their awards at the Veterinary Awards Dinner, which was emceed by Dr. Jules Benson and included a keynote address by Dr. Andy Roark. Each winner received a $1,000 cash prize, a $1,000 donation to a pet-focused charity of their choice and prizes from Merck, Nutramax, Barkbox and more. More than 200 guests attended the event to see the winners announced. "Once again we were humbled and honored to recognize the exemplary effort and tireless passion these professionals bring to their work, says Petplan co-founder and co-CEO Natasha Ashton. Id like to congratulate the winners and thank all nominees for taking part. Now in its fifth year, the Petplan Veterinary Awards honor the important work of Americas veterinary professionals, who go above and beyond providing pets with exceptional care and clients with outstanding customer service. Petplan also presented the first annual Veterinary Team Appreciation Week this year, with support from the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) and the National Association of Veterinary Technicians in America (NAVTA). Created to celebrate the passion and dedication veterinary teams bring to their work, Veterinary Team Appreciation Week is the first event to recognize the entire staff of practices and hospital clinics. The celebration runs from January 17-23. To learn more about the 2016 winners or nominate a pet health hero for the 2017 awards, please visit Gopetplan.com/vet-awards. ### ABOUT PETPLAN Petplan is more than a pet insurance provider. Were dedicated to giving pet parents the support, resources and tools they need to keep their pets not just survivingbut thrivinginto old age. Simply put, we aim to be the kind of company that will make our pets proud. For the third consecutive year, Petplan was listed among the top 50 of Forbes' annual ranking of Americas Most Promising Companies a list of 100 privately held, high-growth companies with bright futures. Petplan is the only pet insurance provider to have been included on Inc. Magazines list of 500 fastest-growing, privately held companies in America. Petplans fully customizable cat and dog insurance policies provide comprehensive coverage for all hereditary and chronic conditions for the life of the pet as standard. Petplan policies are underwritten by AGCS Marine Insurance Company in the U.S. and by Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Company in Canada. The Allianz Group was rated A+ by A.M. Best in 2015. For more information about Petplan pet insurance, visit http://www.petplan.com or call 1-866-467-3875. ABOUT PETPLANS VETERINARY AWARDS Now in its fifth year, the Petplan Veterinary Awards honor the important work of North Americas veterinary professionals who go above and beyond, providing pets with exceptional care and clients with exceptional customer service. Petplan is proud to carry on the tradition of rewarding excellence in veterinary medicine fostered by our sister company, Petplan UK, whose own Vet Awards are Britains pre-eminent industry celebration. For more information about Petplans Veterinary Awards, please visit http://www.GoPetplan.com/vet-awards. Peter McInnes Speaking about North Point Global's development work in Liverpool This is potentially one of the most exciting and original developments being delivered in the UK today. - Peter McInnes, North Point Global Development agency, North Point Global are set to begin working on the urban redevelopment of Liverpools Chinatown following approval by Liverpool City Council in December 2015. The 200 million project is expected to be completed by mid-2017 and includes plans for 850 new homes, businesses, leisure facilities, a hotel and a Chinese shopping area. It will also see the transformation of a largely derelict land which is set in the heart of Liverpool Chinatown and spans over two hectares. Chairman of North Point Global, Peter McInnes said This is potentially one of the most exciting and original developments being delivered in the UK today. Lauded as one of the best Chinatowns in the UK, Liverpool has seen a massive overhaul in urban regeneration over the last decade and McInnes team are now tasked with bringing a much beloved area of the city to life in this last phase of creating the much discussed Northern Powerhouse. Liverpools Chinatown can be traced back as early as the 1800s and McInnes North Point Global firm is set to continue the development of the city centre that has seen the waterfront and main inner city shopping areas develop to be tourism magnets in the last ten years. McInnes and his team will responsible for the development which will not only see urban regeneration at its heart, but a diverse and high quality city centre living and working community which will also focus on developing the tourism trade as well as creating a unique Chinese retail core leisure destination in the form of a Chinese themed Bazaar situated within a sunken street. Hailing as the oldest in Europe, the redevelopment of Liverpools Chinatown set out by McInnes and his team has seen support from all quarters responsible in the regeneration of one of the citys most loved city centre areas. "We have also had fantastic support from the city council's planners and politicians who have shown incredible resolve to support the delivery of this transformational vision for Chinatown. I would also like to thank organisations and businesses in Chinatown who have provided support, advice and encouragement during the design and planning phase." North West developer, Peter McInnes and his North Point Global firm arent new to urban regeneration around the city of Liverpool. Their Pall Mall development in the Pumpfields area of the city will see the creation of 366 residential units, a 516-space multi-storey car park, offices, a ground-floor retail unit, plus a gym and spa. Speaking of the Chinatown redevelopment, McInnes said New Chinatown will be creating a city within a city, creating a destination of international scale and appeal. Force Marketing's recently redesigned website. Were excited to unveil our new website, which will allow dealers to get a closer look at how we utilize advanced data and innovative technology to develop an ROI-driven strategy for our clients." -John Fitzpatrick Leading automotive marketing company Force Marketing announced today the release of a new and enhanced version of its website, which can be found at ForceMKTG.com. The new website features a clean, sleek and modern design, and highlights the companys technology-driven, multi-channel approach to automotive marketing. Its fully responsive, and also features new UX strategies developed to drive lead generation, as well as parallax scrolling website design for a look and feel thats both engaging and functional. Were excited to unveil our new website, which will allow dealers to get a closer look at how we utilize advanced data and innovative technology to develop an ROI-driven strategy for our clients, said John Fitzpatrick, CEO and President of Force Marketing. The design is simple and streamlined so that our clients can gain valuable insight into what we do, and then easily contact us to begin the process of partnering together. The new website is designed to make it simple for site visitors to get in touch with the Force Marketing team, featuring forms that utilize the latest technology to streamline lead generation with dynamic fields that remember a user from visit to visit. Our mission is to evolve the dealer-to-customer shopping experience through an integrated approach of multi-channel marketing, Fitzpatrick continued, and in order to do that effectively, its important that we ourselves continue to evolve our communication channels with dealers as well. This redesign is one part of that process. The website is not the only element of the Force Marketing brand thats being revamped this month. The companys online video channel has recently undergone a rebranding and redesign along with a name change, from ForceFeedTV to Fuel. The revamped channel is currently live, and offers an array of videos that can help dealers power their marketing. We place a high value on our status as thought leaders within the automotive industry, said Fitzpatrick. Our Fuel online video channel allows us to showcase our talents, ideas and innovations in an effective and engaging way. The new site design is live at http://www.forcemktg.com, and will be updated regularly with industry news, corporate milestones, events and more. ABOUT FORCE MARKETING Force Marketing is an innovative automotive multi-channel marketing company headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. The agency offers technology-enabled marketing services to an expansive client base throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company made Inc. magazines Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. in 2015 for the seventh consecutive year. More information about Force Marketings auto dealership marketing services can be found online at http://www.ForceMKTG.com. Merlots innovative approach is all-encompassing. Our team coordinates editorial appointments, engages with media and designers through targeted social media channels, collaborates in event planning and is on-site to help our clients succeed. Debi Hammond and the Sacramento-based team at Merlot Marketing pack their bags and head to Las Vegas this week, but they wont be found gambling away precious time and resources. With backup phone chargers and media guides in hand, the team will head to the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) and International Builders Show (IBS) during Design and Construction Week 2016. The team will drive media interactions and coordinate with builders and designers during the largest event in the world for home design and building products. The shows run January 19-21 and feature five of the agencys national clients: Dacor, Eldorado Stone, NanaWall, True and Walker Zanger. TWEET THIS: Sacramentos @MerlotMarketing blends digital and classic communication strategies to lead trade show PR: http://bit.ly/1ZwpMI0 Started in 2001 by Founder and CEO Debi Hammond, the award-winning, full service marketing agency has represented clients in the home design and building products industry for more than 15 years and is notable for being a leader in the category, particularly when it comes to innovations in the public relations sphere. Merlot Marketings signature PR.0 process combines digital strategies in social media with proven PR practices to provide results for its national clients. Some companies focus on the digital space, said Hammond. We see others focus solely on traditional PR practices. Merlot Marketings distinctive PR.0 process merges both strategies together for a streamlined approach that keeps brand messaging consistent, centralizes communications and utilizes multiple platforms and touch points to garner incredible coverage for our clients. Hammond attributes the continued success of the agency and its clients to this combination of PR and social strategy. We know that staying dialed into the digital space is imperative in creating and seizing opportunities for our clients, she said. We have a dedicated team that identifies digital opportunities that we then leverage with face-to-face, personal interactions that build, strengthen and nurture relationships. Thats why were there on the trade show floor, providing our clients with all the support we can to make them stand out at the show. The agencys PR.0 process wont end when the doors close after this years shows. Long-term success requires continuous nurturing of relationships with clients, the media and other industry partners. Hammond said, Merlots innovative approach is all-encompassing. Our team coordinates editorial appointments, engages with media and designers through targeted social media channels, collaborates in event planning and is on-site to help our clients succeed. # # # Media Notes Related Links: About Merlot Marketing Founded in 2001, Merlot Marketing is an award-winning, national agency helping companies rediscover their brand position through its exclusive REDiscover process. Headquartered in Northern California, Merlot Marketing specializes in marketing strategy, public relations, social media, advertising and digital communications. Think RED. Think Passion. Discover Merlot at http://www.merlotmarketing.com or call 916-285-9835. About International Builders Show (IBS) The NAHB International Builders' Show is the largest annual construction show in the world attracting 50,000 visitors from more than 100 countries. IBS brings together the industrys most important global manufacturers and suppliers and showcases the latest products, materials and technologies involved in all types of buildingsincluding wood, concrete, stone and brick. About the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) KBIS, in conjunction with the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) is an inspiring, interactive platform that showcases the latest industry products, trends and technologies. This event is the voice of the kitchen and bath industry and has been for 50 years. KBIS 2016 will host 500+ leading brands in the kitchen and bath industry, including 40 new companies, spanning across two halls. No other event offers an interactive look at the top brands, the ability to compare products side-by-side and get answers straight from the manufacturer. Ozmo Logo The progress that we've made in the second half of 2015 has been phenomenal. Ozmo allows us to accelerate even faster, guaranteeing continuous innovation for mobile operators device support. Ozmo, a Blacksburg-based device support provider, today announced that their spin-off from Modea has been completed successfully. The new company will focus exclusively on the development of digital device support tools for mobile operators. Ozmo's goal is to build software that helps telecom service agents and their customers troubleshoot device issues with ease and confidence. Through their work for clients like Telus and Verizon Wireless, Modeas device support product has evolved into an autonomous business over the past two years. According to David Catalano, Co-founder and CEO of Ozmo, the new independent entity allows the business to compete more effectively in its market, make more targeted investments, and pursue its business goals more systematically. Said Catalano, The progress that we've made in the second half of 2015 has been phenomenal. Ozmo allows us to accelerate even faster, guaranteeing continuous innovation for mobile operators device support. Ozmos new website highlights its value proposition: In a market that is characterized by rapid change and growing device complexity, Ozmo helps users feel more confident and more in control of their mobile devices. The companys flagship product is its cloud-based Virtual Device library, which provides customer service agents with digital versions of top-selling smartphones. Ozmo Virtual Devices are a true breakthrough in mobile device support management; instead of procuring and maintaining expensive phone banks, mobile operators can now equip their customer service agents with a comprehensive digital device library. The benefits of subscribing to our platform are tremendous, said Aaron Herrington, Co-founder of Ozmo. Our tools boost agent morale and performance and have a positive impact on the customer experience as well as subscriber churn. Agents love the tools immediately and use them across all device-related calls. The spin-off seems to come at the right time. Ozmo grew significantly last year and has plans to launch its support platform in Europe in 2016. The momentum that is building behind our Virtual Devices demonstrates that we are offering a product that is indispensable to the effective support of subscriber device issues," said Herrington. Our platform is unique in the marketplace. We are confident that we will continue to grow rapidly and are thrilled to kick off another successful year with a new name and unwavering focus. Cookies What are cookies ? How do we use cookies? How to control cookies? 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You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.Most browsers allow you to:If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites (including ours) will not work properly and webcasts will not work at all. For these reasons, we do not recommend turning cookies off when using our webcasting services. ROME (AP) Pope Francis denounced all religiously inspired violence during a visit to Rome's main synagogue Sunday, joining the oldest Jewish community in the diaspora in a sign of interfaith friendship at a time of Islamic extremist attacks around the globe. During a visit marked by tight security and historic continuity, Francis also rejected all forms of anti-Semitism and called for "maximum vigilance" and early intervention to prevent another Holocaust. Francis joined a standing ovation when Holocaust survivors, some wearing striped scarves reminiscent of their camp uniforms, were singled out for applause at the start of the ceremony. And he elicited an ovation of his own when he paused in his remarks to acknowledge the survivors in the synagogue's front row. The visit comes amid a spate of Islamic extremist attacks in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere violence which Francis has repeatedly condemned as anathema to religion, particularly given that Christians and religious minorities have often been the target. "Violence of man against man is in contradiction to every religion that merits the name, in particular the three monotheistic religions," Francis said, referring to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. "Every human being, as a creature of God, is our brother regardless of his origins or religious belief." His sentiments were shared by members of the Jewish community, who sought to hold up the visit as a sign of interfaith friendship in the face of Muslim extremism. "Today, the sad novelty is that after two centuries of disasters produced by nationalism and ideologies, violence has come back and it is fed and justified by fanatic visions inspired by religion," Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, told the pope. "A meeting of peace between different religious communities, as the one that is taking place today here in Rome, is a very strong sign against the invasion and abuse of religious violence." Francis' visit is meant to continue the tradition of papal visits that began with St. John Paul II in 1986 and continued with Benedict XVI in 2010. It also highlighted the 50th anniversary of the revolution in Christian-Jewish relations sparked by the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern era. Among other things, the council document "Nostra Aetate" repudiated the centuries-old charge that Jews as a whole were responsible for the death of Christ. Francis said the declaration amounted to a "'yes' to the rediscovery of the of the Jewish roots of Christianity and a 'no' to every form of anti-Semitism and a condemnation of every insult, discrimination and persecution that is derived from it." Francis said several times that Jews were the "elder brothers" of Christians, repeating the words first uttered by John Paul during his historic visit to the synagogue 30 years ago. But he added that Christians also had "elder sisters" in the Jewish faith. Francis began his visit by laying a wreath at a plaque outside the synagogue marking where Roman Jews were rounded up by the Nazis in 1943 and at another marking the slaying of a 2-year-old boy in an attack by Palestinians on the synagogue in 1982. He met with members of the boy's family and survivors of the attack before entering the synagogue to rounds of warm applause, which continued during his speech, interrupting him several times. Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, has a longstanding friendship with the Jewish community in Argentina from his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires. At the same time, recent Vatican developments have displeased some in the Jewish community, including the Vatican's recent treaty negotiated with the "state of Palestine." Such issues were left unsaid Sunday, though Jewish leaders made clear they would like for the pope and the Vatican as a whole to acknowledge the special link Jews have with the land of Israel. Francis recalled that during the Holocaust, 6 million Jews were "victims of the most inhuman barbarism, perpetrated in the name of an ideology that wanted to replace God with man." "The Shoah teaches us that we must have maximum vigilance, to be able to intervene quickly in defense of human dignity and peace." The comments were notable because Benedict's 2010 visit was marked by his defense of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope accused by many Jews of having failed to do enough to protect Jews from the Holocaust. The Vatican has long maintained that Pius used behind-the-scenes diplomacy in a bid to save Jewish lives. Francis made no mention of Pius. Clinton rapped Sanders, the Vermont senator, for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA: "He voted against the Brady Bill five times. He voted against what we call the Charleston loophole. He voted to let guns go on Amtrak, guns to go into national parks." Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman and child as a right." Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. Clinton suggested Sanders' approach was dangerous and pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. "With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back," Clinton said. She said that under Obama's plan, "we finally have a path to universal health care. ... I don't want to see us start over again with a contentious debate." She noted that even with a Democratic Congress, Obama was unable to move to a single-payer system. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger hard-won victories on health care, insisting: "No one is tearing this up; we're going to go forward." When Clinton suggested Sanders' health care plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class, Sanders insisted they'd come out ahead with lower costs overall. "It's a Republican criticism," he said. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted from the financial sector. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she declared. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase "in all due respect." Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival amid their pointed exchanges. Then Sanders finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton "in all due respect, you're missing the main point." Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, repeatedly cast herself as the defender of President Barack Obama's most significant accomplishments, including health care and Wall Street reforms. She argued that the Democratic Party had been working to pass a health overhaul since President Harry Truman and said Sanders' tear-it-up approach to Obama's plan would pull the U.S. in "the wrong direction." She cast Sanders' criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, "I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street" and getting results. "The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people," Clinton said. The debate over gun control an ongoing area of conflict between Clinton and Sanders took on special import given the setting: The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. On Saturday night, Sanders announced his support for legislation that would reverse a 2005 law he had supported that granted gun manufacturers legal immunity. His changed position came in a statement after days of criticism from Clinton, who had attempted to use his previous vote to undercut his liberal image. Clinton immediately cast the latest move as a "flip-flop." Sanders said he backed the 2005 law in part because of provisions that require child safety locks on guns and ban armor-piercing ammunition. He also said he supported immunity then in part to protect small shops in his home state of Vermont. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation. He focused on his record as Maryland's governor and accused both Clinton and Sanders of being inconsistent on gun control Both Clinton and Sanders are competing for black voters in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth primary contest. The debate was sponsored by NBC, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. David Rymer CD of Hot Tomato on the Gold Coast has pulled the pin and is heading up the road to be the CD of Triple M Brisbane. David resigned today and will leave Hot Tomato in a month after leading the station to be number one on the Gold Coast in 2015. Hot Tomato Executive Chairman Hans Torv said David is ready for another challenge before age wearies him, and will head to Brisbane to take up a PD role at Triple MMM David will leave with our sincere thanks for a job well done; he will leave with the respect of the board and his fellow managers and the Hot Tomato team. He will also be leaving the Gold Coasts Number one radio station, and should take pride in playing his part in that achievement. David has a long history with Southern Cross Austereo having first worked on the conversion of 4BK to B105 in 1990 and then again to relaunch Triple M Brisbane in 2005. Hes also worked previously at Triple M Sydney, Fox FM, 2Day FM, 92.9 and FM104.7 in Canberra. Hot Tomato is now on the hunt to find a replacement for the station. With David Rymer moving from Hot Tomato to Triple M Brisbane, it means a couple of changes both there and on the Gold Coast. Current Triple M Brisbane CD Corey Kay will be leaving and will become the Gold Coast Content Director of both Sea FM and Gold FM for SCA. Current CD Andrew Very will continue at the Gold Coast Media Centre, now as Assistant Content Director/Music Director of Gold FM. With David Rymer around a month or so away from starting back with SCA, Rex Morris who is the Director Resonate Broadcasting is stepping back into the chair to cover things off at Triple M Brisbane. Spain's Telefonica is considering throwing $10 billion at the pay-TV sector in a bid to buy AT&T's operations across Latin America, including DirecTV. According to Reuters, the telcos executives have expressed an interest in buying AT&T's pay-TV assets in the region, which grew considerably after its acquisition of DirecTV last year. These operations include satellite and cable television services in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and several other countries.However, the US company has yet to decide if it will explore a deal with Telefonica or another company. Other parties are interested in AT&T's assets in specific countries, and the company may choose to run several sale processes, said a Reuters' source.Currently, AT&T has about 19 million pay-TV subscribers in Central and South America, making it the biggest player in the region. With profits having decreased, AT&T chief executive Randal Stephenson has stated the company is considering selling the Latin American business, but said there was no rush.Telefonica is one of the largest wireless and mobile providers in the Latin American market, but doesn't hold a strong position within the pay-TV sector. However, the telco's pay-TV operations have seen growth in both Latin America, especially Peru , and Europe since it moved to become a video company. Armenian judge refuses to recuse himself from case against Russian soldier MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI) Judge Arutyun Movsisyan refused to recuse himself from a case against Russian soldier Valery Permyakov who stands accused of killing seven members of a family in Armenia's city of Gyumri, RIA Novosti reported on Monday. Human right activist Artur Sakunts asked to recuse the judge from the trial because of his subjective attitude. The motion was supported by a group of attorneys representing successors of the killed family. Permyakov did not oppose the judges self-disqualification. However, a prosecutor raised an objection. As a result of an armed assault on January 12, a family of seven was killed, including a six-month-old baby that died of injuries a week later. Permyakov was arrested and later charged with the murder of two or more persons under the Armenian Criminal Code. He pled guilty later in January. His motives remain unknown. The murder case is being heard by an Armenian court. On August 12, a court in Gyumri found Permyakov guilty of desertion and theft of weapons and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. The murder case was singled out for considering it in a separate procedure and forwarded to the Armenian authorities. On October 13, Permyakov was found sane. According to experts, he was not in the heat of passion while committing the crime. He also could recognize danger of his actions. On October 16, Permyakov was additionally charged with armed assault, home-invasion robbery and attempted border crossing. The soldier pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him. Russian investigators bring new charges in Total CEO plane crash case MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI) Russian investigators brought new charges in the Total CEO plane crash case against air traffic controller Alexander Kruglov and other defendants, Kruglov's lawyer, Nikolai Semyonov, told RAPSI on Monday. Semyonov did not say who else was charged along with Kruglov. The General Prosecutor's Office will issue an indictment after it receives all the documents, according to the lawyer. Christophe de Margerie died in a plane crash at Vnukovo airport on October 21, 2014, when his planes wing hit a snow plow. Among the victims were three crew members, all French citizens. Ledenev and Kruglov stand charged in the case along with snow plow driver Vladimir Martynenko, airport flight manager Roman Dunayev, and dispatcher Nadezhda Arkhipova. Last week, the Investigative Committee said that charges against traffic control trainee Svetlana Krivsun had been dropped. Ledenev is reportedly the only one who pleaded guilty to charges. The airport employees stand accused of violation of air traffic rules that resulted in the death of two or more people. This was not your typical State of the Union address. There was no litany of initiatives to be achieved this year. And despite what many pundits have suggested, this wasn't really about Obama's legacy either. This was instead the Obama we knew before he was president; the man who sold "hope" to the American people and beyond; the man who described for us the best of America. In this, his last State of the Union address, he goes back to this same message - his vision of the nation as he sees it. At the same time, this is a very political statement. As he lays out his vision, he also recognizes that not all is good in the land. That there are many who have not been able to take advantage of the progress America has made over the past seven years. In this he is laying the groundwork for Hillary Clinton. He is speaking to the dissatisfied - those who are currently polling for Bernie Sanders (on the Democratic side) and Donald Trump (on the Republican) in the presidential primaries. This is about ensuring that his vision for America is the one that succeeds. Obama's idea of America is one of possibility and inclusivity. He quotes Martin Luther King, describing Americans as having "voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love." It is one where Americans see themselves, "not first and foremost as black or white or Asian or Latino; not as gay or straight, immigrant or native born; not as Democrat or Republican; but as Americans first, bound by a common creed." This vision of the United States is focused on four principal areas: technology, the economy, security and politics. Together these can uphold his vision, but also bring it down. Technology has brought the energy revolution to the United States that is driving new industry and manufacturing. It is connecting people through the Internet and it is sharing knowledge. But those who do not have the education or skills to take advantage of technology are being left behind. President Obama describes an economy that provides the base on which his vision can grow. Unemployment is down to 5 percent with almost 14 million new jobs created since the beginning of the recovery. Median household income is back where it was at the beginning of the recession. Obama pushes hard against the Republican narrative of a failing economy. But, of course, the recovery has been unequal - poverty is at 14.8 percent today, higher than when Obama took office, and inequalities are rising. On politics, Obama really falls back to earth. One of his few regrets remains "that the rancour and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better." Some would argue here that it is not just that he hasn't done enough, but that his actions have made the situation worse. His use of executive orders to move policy, thus cutting out the checks and balances for which the U.S. tripartite system of government was designed (and in particular, cutting out the Republican-held Congress) has angered many. Perhaps Republicans acted first by blocking his initiatives, but Obama too must take some blame. Without progress here it is unlikely that his vision has any hope of being realized, and it is hard to see how this can change. A precedent has been set which the next president will likely continue. Security is perhaps the least interesting part of his speech for Americans. He has to mention the challenges ahead, most notably terrorism, as it is an area he is currently being pummelled on (and which Hillary Clinton will be). But there is little new here. It is more interesting for an international audience, however. Obama says that America "can't try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis; that it will act alone if necessary' but will make sure other countries pull their own weight." Given public aversion to committing troops abroad, this vision of "mobilz[ing] the world to work with us" rather than being a unilateral "global policeman" is likely to remain the code by which the United States acts. There is a clear message here for allies and adversaries for the foreseeable future. Perhaps most powerful for the international listener was, again, Obama's national vision - America the exceptional nation. Of course, this is what so many non-Americans object to most: the idea that America is so much better than they; the American ego on display. And it will again prove to many foreigners that America's rhetoric and its actions are worlds apart. Less than 2,000 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the United States since 2012, and more than half of U.S. governors have said they oppose the entry of such refugees into their state. Additionally, we have seen America's racial divide arguably widen in response to several police killings of black citizens. America as an inclusive nation? Not so much. Nonetheless, it is a worthy aspiration. And, interestingly, it is not dissimilar to that laid out by Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina and possible Republican candidate for vice president, who gave the GOP's response. She too focused on inclusivity, noting that no one who works hard, obeys the law and loves U.S. traditions should "ever feel unwelcome in this country" and that "we would respect differences in modern families." While Obama may have failed to bridge the divide between the two parties, putting aside Cruz and Trump (whose campaigns have been less than kind about Haley's comments), it seems his vision of America is one which both Democrats and Republicans can aspire to. Property details: Up for sale is a beautifully restored 1922 brick building formerly a residence located in the Capitol Ave National Register Historic District in Jefferson City, Missouri. This Jefferson City Landmark Award winner's address is 718 E Capitol Ave, one of the premier historic streets in Jefferson City. It is located one block from the new Federal Court House and across the street from the historic Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP), just six blocks from the Missouri State Capitol building and vibrant... Price: $ 164,900 Seller State of Residence: Missouri Property Address: 718 E Capitol Ave State/Province: Missouri City: Jefferson City Availability: For Sale Type: Office Residential Retail B&B Year Built: 1922 Location: 651**, Jefferson City, Missouri You will be redirected to eBay Nearby 0 Property details: Welcome to Southern California's Playground of the Rich and Famous NO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE HIGH BID OWNS LOT For almost one hundred years, the Lake Arrowhead / Silverwood Lake / Big Bear area has been the primary mountain resort in Southern California. The 782 acre Alpine Lake, nestled at an altitude of 5108', is often described as the jewel of Southern California. The fresh mountain air and four-season climate is unmatched in Southern California. Part of the San Bernadino National Forest, the l... Price: $ 708 Seller State of Residence: Florida Property Address: Mojave River Road State/Province: California City: Cedar Glen Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Location: , Cedarpines Highlands, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Residential Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada. Search Real Estate London is no longer in the top 10 best European cities for real estate investments. It is the first time that the city has slipped out of the list since 2012. Because of high prices that is taking a toll on yields, London is down to the 15th spot. According to Telegraph, while London sits at number 15 on the Emerging Trends in Real Estate report by PwC and the Urban Land Institute, Berlin and Hamburg have lead the list at the top two positions. The said report serves as a handy cheat sheet for experts to see gauge where the market could be leaning on to. The report has gathered information from 500 developers, investors and property managers all around Europe. It is surprise that despite the current unstable political situation in Budapest, it lands on a spot 2 notches higher than London which is still the biggest property market in Europe. These interviewees were asked to provide a rating on each city based on prospects with respect to property investments. The report has also solicited their impressions on the future of both residential and commercial markets. According to Gareth Lewis, the director of Real Estate at PwC, London is by far the "largest real estate market in Europe." He said, "Money tends to plough into it during the harder times, as people are looking for a safe bet, somewhere to keep their money, and as prices go up and yields compress, people looking for better rewards will look to secondary cities." He believes that London's current spot on the list reflects where the market is now on the cycle. On the other what may have put Berlin in the number one spot is its popularity as a "hub for creative and tech industries, " according to Telegraph. The rest of the top ten cities are: 1. Berlin 2. Hamburg 3. Dublin 4. Madrid 5. Copenhagen 6. Birmingham 7. Lisbon 8. Milan 9. Amsterdam 10. Munich New York City real estate has reached a hefty $1 trillion. This is the first time in the real estate history of NYC and it is because of the soaring property market in Brooklyn. According to Daily Mail, increase in property values were observed across five areas namely Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Bronx and Staten Islands with assessed property values said to have soared by 10.6 percent to $1.072 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year. Last year's increase was 9.1 percent. It should be noted that the assessment released by the Finance Department last Friday is still tentative. Nevertheless, Brooklyn is commended for its big impact to the growth in New York's real estate market. The increase in the property values in Brooklyn has leaped from the 7.4 percent last year to currently 16 percent, according to The New York Post. Veteran property-tax attorney Eric Weiss said that Brooklyn has turned out to be a very hot market. "I would say it has to be the most valuable [city in the US]," Weiss added. As for other markets, Manhattan saw market values increase to 9.3 percent as Queens real estate values rose by 9.9 percent. Moreover, while Bronx had a 5.9 percent increase, The Post has reported that Staten Island market values rose by 5.3 percent. According to the Daily Mail, it should also be noted that higher home values also mean higher taxes. And with the current increase in market values in New York, the average bill for a single-family home is anticipated to rise $187 to $5,138. The Finance Department is expected to finalize the assessment rolls by May for the City Council to review and give an approval. On the other hand, single-family homeowners have until March 15 to report challenges while other property owners should do the same on or before March 1. New York City, under the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, will grab 75,000 square feet of boardwalk property in Coney Island as part of a long-delayed economic development in the area. The eminent domain seizure includes three beachfront properties and two smaller properties located on West 12th and West 23rd, which totals to 75,000 square feet. The city failed to strike a "fair-market" deal with the owners but managed to secure the seizure of a 60,000-square-foot land that once housed the famous "Thunderbolt" wooden roller coaster which was featured in the movie "Annie Hall" but was demolished in 2000. The said plot where the rollercoaster once stood is owned by screenwriter Peter Shaffer. City officials said that they plan to create a new amusement park and other recreational facilities on the sites, but specifics of their plan are yet to be revealed. Additionally, the eminent domain seizure will allow the De Blasio administration to provide New Yorkers with thousands of units of afforable and market-rate housing as mandated by the 2009 area rezoning of Coney Island. Despite the government's intentions, residents and representatives of the community were taken by surprise by the eminent domain land grab and were not pleased by the plans. "It's not nice to take people's property. We live in America. We're not communists here," said one entrepreneur who owns a business located along the Boardwalk. Butch Moran, chair Community Board 13, claimed that he was not informed of the seizure. The city, however, claimed that there is little opposition to the land grab and is optimistic that they could obtain the properties in a year's time. They pointed out that most of the properties that will be seized are owned by absentee landlords who have allowed their infrastructures and sites to fall into dilapidation. City officials, community members and other concerned will meet in a public hearing slated on October 19 to be held at the Coney Island Hospital. Century 21 Real Estate LLC, a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp., has announced the renewal of the franchise agreement of its two largest independent franchisees, CENTURY 21 Affiliated in Madison, Wisconsin and CENTURY 21 New Millennium in Alexandria, Virginia. "For two industry juggernauts like CENTURY 21 Affiliated and CENTURY 21 New Millennium to make the proactive decision to remain affiliated with our brand, after conducting their due diligence on all available options and market opportunities, is further affirmation of our capabilities as a global organization, and to the overall value of the innovative technology, tools and learning suite of products and services we deliver to our System each and every day," said Rick Davidson, president and chief executive officer, Century 21 Real Estate LLC. "We honor the trust and confidence from these valued companies, and will remain focused on helping them [to] grow and to operate more successfully while attracting the attention of consumers and sales professionals who want the value proposition they bring to the market." CENTURY 21 New Millennium was established in 1998 and now has 19 locations in the greater Washington, D.C. area. "The CENTURY 21 brand has been a tremendous partner in our company's growth and success," said Todd Hetherington, CEO and co-owner of CENTURY 21 New Millennium. "Their accessibility and enthusiastic support of our organization's goals made the decision to renew very easy." CENTURY 21 Affiliated on the other hand, started in July 1, 1978, and now has 83 offices in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. "Over the last five years, CENTURY 21 Affiliated has more than tripled in size, now representing over 80 offices, 1,700 sales professionals and 13,000 annual homes sold, and we certainly would not have had this type of growth without the ongoing support from the CENTURY 21 brand," explained Dan Kruse, president and chief executive officer of CENTURY 21 Affiliated. "We're a proud franchisee of the CENTURY 21 system. Their innovative thinking embraces our strategy for new market growth and supports our overall business model." With the renewal of the two franchisees, Century 21 will now have a total of 101 independent offices and over 2,500 affiliated agents in communities throughout Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington D.C., Wisconsin and Virginia, according to their press release in PR NewsWire. It was a double-digit return last year for Australia's biggest unlisted property funds, sustained by a strong performance from Investa Commercial Property Fund and the AMP Wholesale Office Fund, both office-focused funds, Financial Review reports. Last year, there were 12.7% returns from 15 office, shopping centre and industrial funds as shown by Mercer/IPD Australia Monthly Property Fund index. Since the global financial crisis, it's the highest recorded annual return catapulting the funds' net asset value at $53 billion. Using the index which is released monthly, the performance of different unlisted property funds are compared, and this is considered by various institutional investors as one of the most popular alternative investments. ICPF had a total one-year return of $3.3 billion or 17.1% and is recorded the best performance of all funds apart from one single-asset fund. "We have continued to execute our very clear investment strategy over the last few years to turn ICPF into the highest quality prime office CBD prime portfolio office fund in Australia," said fund manager Peter Menegazzo. It is an unsettled year for ICPF yet it enjoyed generous returns. In the midst of Morgan Stanley Real Estate's plans to divest the Investa business and the management platform, ICPF is lurking and negotiating. "Despite the corporate activity across the group during 2015, the results demonstrate the Investa team has continued to focus on the most important element of our business, being investment performance for our clients," Mr Menegazzo said. OFFICE SECTOR TO PERFORM STRONGLY "From here, our view is that office is expected perform strongly again in 2016. Core real estate will continue to remain in favour due to ongoing equity market volatility. We do think there will be further cap rate compression, but more importantly, returns will be driven more by rental growth as occupier markets strengthen and incentives continue to trend down." The year's second best performer is AMP's office fund. The $3.7 billion portfolio has seen an enormous reshaping yielding nearly $500 million in asset sales, prime office tower acquisitions amounting to $1 billion as well as the strengthening of the balance sheet. "We have been been looking to improve the quality by buying real estate with long lease terms such as 200 George Street and the Australian Technology Park in Sydney and then selling non-core assets," said AMP Capital head of property funds management Chris Judd. Majority of the portfolio - more than 95% - are in the high-performing markets of Sydney and Melbourne, says Mr Judd, who added that AMP is set to kick off a fresh $300 million equity raising. The final quarter proved robust valuation gains for many office funds - it was $140 million or 4.5% for ICPF and 3.6% for AMP. Another standout was the GPT Wholesale Office Fund at $5.5 billion. "It has been another strong year for GWOF, which continues to be the number one performing wholesale office fund over three, five and seven years," said fund manager Martin Ritchie. "There is high demand from both domestic and global capital to invest in the wholesale office market, especially in funds which have delivered consistently solid returns. We anticipate another good year for commercial property, supported by improving fundamentals, especially in GWOF's core office markets of Sydney and Melbourne." Unlike office funds, retail funds just weren't performing as high. While AMP Shopping Centre Fund and the QIC shopping Centre Fund posted double-digit returns, Lend Lease-managed Australian Prime Property Fund retail on the other hand dipped to single digits. "The shopping sector was not hit as hard during the GFC so it has been more steady as she goes," Mr Judd said. When it comes to vintage style there are two concepts: retro or repro. SHARE By Damon Arthur of the Redding Record Searchlight North State residents are seeing something this month they havent seen in several years. It has been six years since this much rain has fallen over the North State in January, according to the National Weather Service. Since the beginning of the month, 8.41 inches of rain has fallen at the Weather Services rain gauge at the Redding Municipal Airport almost as much as the past five years combined. In January 2015, only .26 inches of rain fell on Redding. January 2012 was the last time Redding had more than 5 inches of rain for the month, according to the service. Really, this is kind of a normal pattern. We really havent seen this in the past couple years, said Nathan Owen, Weather Service meteorologist in Sacramento. The rain caused trouble on North State roadways over the weekend, with mud and rock slides closing Highway 299 for hours west of Del Loma and in the area of Salyer in western Trinity County on Sunday. Flooding was also reported on Millville Plains Road in Shasta County on Sunday. Roads were also flooded in southern Trinity County, according to the California Highway Patrol. As of Sunday, the rainfall total for the month was about 5 inches above normal for the date, Owen said. Mother Nature isnt through with us, either as more rain is expected through the rest of the week. We have a series of storms coming through as far out as we can forecast, Owen said. The current storm system should bring up to 3 inches of rain from Sunday through Monday, Owen said. Then another storm system behind that could bring another 1.5 inches Tuesday and Wednesday, he said. The rainfall also was helping lift North State reservoir levels. As of Sunday afternoon, 12,441 cubic feet per second of water was flowing into Lake Shasta, while there was 1,752 cfs flowing out of Shasta Dam into Keswick Reservoir. There was 2,002 cfs flowing into Trinity Lake and 167 cfs flowing out of Trinity Dam into Lewiston Lake. Lake Shasta was 35 percent full Sunday, or about 54 percent of its average amount of water for this time of year. Trinity Lake was 21 percent full or about 31 percent average for the date. The snow level on Sunday was at about 7,000 feet and should remain above 6,000 feet for the week, Owen said. At Lake Helen, which is at 8,250 feet in elevation in Lassen Volcanic National Park, there was 46 inches of snow as of Sunday, according to the California Department of Water Resources. At Sand Flat, which is at 6,750 feet in elevation on Mt. Shasta, the snow depth was at 80 inches as of Sunday night. SHARE Rock slides close several roads Rock slides caused several road closures in Trinity County over the weekend. A rock slide caused the closure of Highway 299 just east of Del Loma in Trinity County before 11 a.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol reported. California Department of Transportation workers were at the slide removing the rocks, but there was no estimated time on when lanes would completely reopen. As of about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night there was still no estimated time when the highway would reopen. The closure is near French Bar about 35 miles west of Weaverville on Highway 299. A rock slide also closed portions of Highway 3 south of Highway 299 on Sunday, including one at Deerlick Springs Road. One lane of the road was closed due to a rock slide, which also caused flooding in the area. Woman arrested after brief standoff Shasta County sheriff's deputies arrested a 52-year-old woman on Saturday after a brief standoff. Candi Ann Kinyon was arrested on suspicion of brandishing a deadly weapon and threatening a peace officer. Her bail was set at $15,000. Deputies were called to a home in the 6900 block of Highway 273 at 11:17 p.m. Saturday on reports that Kinyon was causing a disturbance, according to a news release from the Shasta County Sheriff's Office. Deputies arrived and found Kinyon in the kitchen, holding a 12-inch kitchen knife. Deputies ordered her to drop the knife several times, and she refused to do so. After several minutes, deputies used a Taser to subdue Kinyon and took her into custody. No one was injured in the incident. Workshops set on homelessness The Redding Area Homelessness Coalition Project this week starts work on a strategic plan aimed at eliminating homelessness Redding Councilwoman Kristen Schreder, who is leading the anti-homelessness effort, has scheduled two workshops. Interested participants can register for either one of the three-hour workshops. Tuesday's meeting will be 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. inside Redding Library's community room, 1100 Parkview Ave. Register at http://goo.gl/forms/f219ANXhZ9. Wednesday's meeting will be :5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the Park Marina Events Center, 1800 Park Marina Dr. Register at http://goo.gl/forms/BcQwCUYx4w. Schreder has said she anticipates completion of the strategic plan by June. Man arrested on gun, drug charges A 44-year-old Burney man was arrested on suspicion of weapons and narcotics charges Saturday following a traffic stop. Randal Scott Hood, a convicted felon who was previously on parole, was stopped by a Shasta County sheriffs deputy from the Burney Station, the sheriffs office said. Hood was driving a 1996 Ford Explorer about 5 p.m. when the deputy made the traffic stop for a vehicle code violation, deputies said. The officer saw Hood had a pistol in his waistband as he was trying to get out of the SUV, but deputies were able to apprehend him and a female passenger without incident. Hood was found in possession of a .22-caliber handgun that was stolen in an auto burglary last year, deputies said. The sheriffs K-9 Blitz located 30 grams of methamphetamine, scales and narcotics packaging inside the Explorer, deputies said. Hood was booked into Shasta County Jail. SHARE One lane of Highway 299 in Trinity County has been re-opened to traffic, but motorists can expect a one-hour delay. A rock slide caused the closure of Highway 299 just east of Del Loma in Trinity County before 11 a.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol has said. California Department of Transportation workers have been at the slide removing the rocks, but there's no estimated time on when lanes would completely reopen. On Saturday, Caltrans had built a berm across the eastbound and westbound lanes to catch rocks in the slide and was allowing one vehicle at a time to go east. The rock slide is near French Bar about 35 miles west of Weaverville on Highway 299. When it comes to American lineage, mine goes back to before the Revolution. I came to this knowledge when a member of the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter showed up in our living room accompanied by one of my mother's cousins on a doomed recruitment mission. "On this particular issue, I tend to agree with Groucho Marx," is all my mother said after she'd closed the door. I was 12 years old and had no idea what she was talking about. "I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member," she prompted, hopefully. I remember staring blankly, as she condensed the family genealogy, which had led to her afternoon visitors. "Your ancestors did nothing special. They were farmers and they came to the Virginia Colony for the land. When the Revolutionary soldiers came to the farm, they left with several sacks of flour, all but five of the chickens and a couple of the sons." She suddenly stopped, as if the story was over. Decades later, after my mother's death, I ran across that booklet and picked up her reading. I understood why the story ended where it did. My mother had little interest in history, and ours was particularly uneventful. Just one tale after another of farmers pushing further as the new territories opened up, presumably until they reached the Midwest not long before the Industrial Revolution, and stayed. Even the Irish side of the family managed to get here a couple of decades before the potato famine, so they simply settled in next to those who'd already staked their claims in the new country. There was nothing particularly noble or even eventful about their arrival. Indeed, the Irish ancestor was running from the law for poaching on a "Downton Abbey"-kind of estate in what is now Northern Ireland. His grandchildren would grow up in a world with "No Irish" signs displayed in New York windows, although it didn't really mean them. See, that's the funny thing about America. With some obvious exceptions, we're a country composed of people who came from somewhere else. Yet almost from the beginning even when land was still more plentiful than the Europeans coming to inhabit it xenophobia has been part of our unique tapestry. Those whose ancestors got here early enough, managed to escape it. Virtually every other family has tasted its bile. Still, it persists. With every new wave of immigration, there has been pushback, with dire predictions of the death of the nation if the influx was not stopped of whichever group the Irish, Germans, Chinese, Italian and Eastern Europeans, Japanese and most anybody from anywhere south of Texas was currently out of favor. So, is anyone really surprised by the blatant xenophobia we're seeing today? It's a deeply embedded American tradition and a predictable-enough response that plays out often throughout history, escalating when those already here feel threatened. Today, it's directed at those coming from war-torn parts of the Middle East and from countries in Central America, where people live under the thumb of gang violence and mayhem. Donald Trump, the bombastic presidential candidate, has whipped his followers into a xenophobic frenzy that is subtly and tellingly embraced by most of the GOP presidential candidates. Savvy politicians pride themselves on being able to take the pulse of their base. If their reading on this issue is correct, their base is terrified. From high-profile national politicians to the frustrated couch potato responding on the Internet to articles and blogs, their fear and frustration are nearly palpable. Syrian refugees, the xenophobes argue, cannot be "adequately vetted" and so must be turned away in case there's a terrorist among them. (Why do I suspect that the word "vetted" is a new addition to the vocabulary of these newly minted experts on the adequacy of the country's immigration policies?) Meanwhile, those fleeing Central America apparently only need be told they're not welcome and they will stay away. "Go elsewhere or to take a number and wait in line," is the current xenophobic solution. One of the government's responses is a public information campaign hinged on horror stories of what might occur while escaping. Does anyone truly imagine that will be a powerful enough deterrent for those attempting to flee the actual horror story that is day-to-day life? Really? In truth, no one leaves home unbidden, whether for cheap, plentiful land or for freedom. As we walk in the shadows of our xenophobic traditions, that is possibly a lesson worth remembering. Reach Nisa Donnelly at wordmonger@shasta.com. SHARE Farmers in Colusa and Sutter counties have every right to be concerned with plans by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Western Area Power Administration to build a 500-kilovolt electric transmission line through their boundaries. The structures and lines might not mean much to city dwellers; but for people who have to work around and under them, it's a big deal. Farmers will be planting under and around the structures. Scarier still, ag aviators will be flying near them. Power lines probably constitute the biggest safety concern for pilots of crop dusting and planting planes, and that's part of the norm for our part of the agricultural region. If the planes are flying safely around the towers, it can mean more air drift for whatever they're sowing or spraying. Not only that, but the lines could prove disruptive to another valuable resource: wildlife refuges along the way. Also, there's some worry by county supervisors that the new lines could impact the Sutter Energy Center. One of SMUD's proposals would build 44 miles of new transmission line along a corridor from a substation in Maxwell east through part of the 4,507-acre Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, then southeast along the edge of the Sutter National Wildlife Refuge. The line would end at O'Banion substation in Sutter County. New lines would go up next to existing lines. Another plan would use a similar route but bypass the Sutter refuge. A third option would involve a 27-mile line connecting an existing line to the east, near Arbuckle, to O'Banion, avoiding both refuges. A SMUD spokesperson said in a recent news report that a public comment period has just begun and there will be public scoping meetings in the two counties. If this all sounds familiar to those of us farther north, it should. After all it, was just in 2010 that the Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC) unsuccessfully sought to put a high-powered set of lines through Shasta County. It would have skirted Burney, then passed over Round Mountain, Oak Run, Millville and Cottonwood before heading south and eventually reaching the San Francisco Bay Area. In the wake of that debacle, in which both residents and local officials were caught off-guard, Shasta County crafted an ordinance that requires any plans like it from public utilities to notify the county. These are big, complex projects with enormous community impact. Whatever our neighbors to the south decide, it's good that the community is having the discussion. This editorial is adapted from one that originally ran in the (Marysville) Appeal-Democrat. While a three-year tax holiday and relaxation of capital gains for funds have been received favourably, others argue that not enough has been announced. Image: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son, InMobi Founder Naveen Tewari and Mapmygenome Founder Anuradha Acharya at the Startup India event in New Delhi. Photograph, courtesy: Press Information Bureau Tailoring policy to get the government out of the way of start-ups was the underlying theme at the StartUp India Stand Up India event hosted at Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi on Saturday. However, implementation hurdles might dent the prospects of the policy, say experts. Entrepreneurs and investors have largely responded positively to the announcements made. He (PM Narendra Modi) understands that start-ups are going to transform India in the next 10 years. Many policies were announced and while there are some more that are needed, they have said they will look at it because legal change is required, said TV Mohandas Pai, co-founder of Infosys and an active investor in start-ups. While the three-year tax holiday and relaxation of capital gains for funds have been received well, some say attention has not been paid to solving larger problems such as keeping start-up companies (and the wealth they create) within the country. All the Unicorns (companies valued above $1 billion) are basically no longer based in India; theyre Singapore-domiciled companies. Stop the re-domiciling and I think we have made some steps in that direction, although it fell short of many peoples expectations, said Sharad Sharma, convenor of iSPIRT, the informal lobby group to promote home-grown product firms. The government has been in talks with stakeholders in the start-up space to understand their problems. Start Up India Action Plan The start-up action plan is broadly spread to address issues in the short, mid- and long-term but the general sense was that longer-term initiatives, such as how the government plans to incentivise listing of companies in India, need more clarity. In terms of scope, I would say full marks. But, we always find in India and most parts of the world when a government tries to do something, from the intent to the actual execution remains to be seen. Clearly, there has been a lot of inputs taken from the stakeholders in the industry and it seems like the intent is very sincere to do the right things here, said Sanjay Swamy, partner at Prime Ventures. Innovation and investments go hand in hand, but not enough was done by the government for the latter. N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, who also runs his own fund, Catamaran Ventures, said the PMs move was great, since the sector would create massive employment in the years to come. However, there wasnt enough encouragement for investors, he added, hoping that vagaries surrounding exits are solved. The announcements by the government were more than what a normal start-up would have expected, said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Paytm. Nidhi Agarwal, founder and CEO of Kaaryah, termed the policy a well-rounded, well-structured and articulated. The move to simplify formalities for starting a business, funding, apart from tax relief were notable, said Ravi Gururaj, president of Nasscom Product Conclave. The government itself became a start-up, according to Radhika Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Shopclues. The government has acted like a disruptive start-up. The policies around cleaning the licence raj will be a huge booster for the start-up community. Entrepreneurspeak: Sanjay Swamy: In terms of the scope I would say full marks but from the intent to the actual execution remains to be seen. TV Mohandas Pai: We were all delighted and pleased that the Prime Minister understands that startups are going to transform India in the next 10 years. N R Narayana Murthy: We need to encourage both investors from India and abroad because without proper investment, startups wont be able to succeed. Sharad Sharma: All the Unicorns are no longer based in India, theyre Singapore domiciled companies, so if you do more for startups, the only beneficiary is Singapore Vijay Shekhar Sharma: It's like a populous budget on steroid for a startup. This is going to go a long way in the country to celebrate startups GOVERNING RULES 'They are completely corrupt and have introduced a mafia culture which has seen one family control the entire resources of the state.' IMAGE: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. Former Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal has set the ball rolling for the state assembly election by merging his Punjab People's Party with the Congress. Manpreet Badal, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's estranged nephew, spoke to Rashme Sehgal about why he has joined the Congress and about how the Akali Dal has mismanaged Punjab. Five years ago, by launching the PPP, you acted as the spoiler for the Congress in the state assembly election. The Congress lost by a very narrow margin. Now you have gone and joined the very party that you had opposed. Five years ago, when we started the PPP, we drew up an agenda that kept the best interests of the state in mind. In that sense, we were the predecessors of AAP. We drew up an 11-point agenda that highlighted putting an end to VIP culture, putting an end to the nexus between the police and politicians and reducing the state debt. During the last six months, I have had three meetings with Rahul Gandhi and we discussed our party's agenda with him at length. Rahul Gandhi came around to accept our view and accepted out entire agenda in its totality. The Congress felt our joining them would boost their chances while the Congress would provide a bigger platform for us. You were rumoured to be keen to join AAP. What happened? We were in talks with AAP, but these were not held at my level. Finally, I felt that AAP does not have any agenda for the state. My chief concern is how do we put Punjab back on track. AAP does not have any mature leadership. In that sense, the Congress has a much more talented team. Look at leaders like Kapil Sibal and Chidambaram. What Punjab needs today is a more sober leadership, not a populist driven leadership as is the case at present. Are you saying the present Akali Dal leadership in the state is totally populist driven? Yes. The Akalis have run the state to the ground. They are completely corrupt and have introduced a mafia culture which has seen one family control the entire resources of the state. They have no long term vision. Their vision is limited from one election to another. They have shown no interest in building institutions and their policies have not benefitted the state in any manner. You are using strong words when you say that a mafia culture is dominating the state. All this is in the public domain. If any one wants to know what this family (the ruling Badal family) is up to, all they have to do is apply to the Company Law Board. They (the Badals) control the cable, transport industry; they are in sand mining and a lot else. They have a 99 per cent ownership in these companies. I don't have to substantiate these allegations. It's not a big secret. All these details are known to the public at large. You were part of the Akali team. You were the finance minister. What better proof do you need? I was the finance minister, but I chose to tender my resignation. Have you heard of any other finance minister putting in his resignation? I had thought when I joined them that I would take some time to get them around (to put the interests of the state first) but then I realised they were simply not interested. IMAGE: Manpreet Singh Badal, left, who joined the Congress in New Delhi, January 15, with Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi and Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh (retd). Photograph: PTI Photo Can you provide more details of what you claim are the Badal family's financial irregularities? All one needs to do is to analyse the profit growth of their companies. How were companies owned by them making profits of over a thousand per cent in one year? What kind of a business degree do they possess? Maybe, they should share this information with the common man so that others can also make such disproportionate profits. There has been loot of the public treasury and nothing else. The bottom line today is that we need to pass a conflict of interest legislation so that those occupying public positions cannot benefit in this manner. We need to understand what were their assets before they came to power and what assets have they acquired in the last ten years. Take the example of their television company, which has the sole rights to do a live telecast from the Golden Temple. Why should they be charging for this telecast? Every company should be given this right as this is a matter of religious sentiment. If I was a religious head, I would say the more, the merrier. It is very embarrassing to see what Punjab was and what it is at present. We need to change this. You acted as the spoiler for the Congress in the last state election. It was inadvertent and not done with any malice. I wanted to open up the space for a third front. My objective was to get rid of the Akalis. The recent Megh Mela in Mukstar seems to show that there is a surge in AAP's favour. I don't think so. AAP does not have any blue print for the state. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said Captain Amarinder Singh has already made the Congress lose two state elections. He will now take them to their third defeat. In Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh is considered one of the most charismatic leaders of the state. He is very honest. People respect him for his guts. In 1965, he was in the military, but he submitted his resignation. When the '65 war broke out with Pakistan, he fought with the defence secretary and insisted he wanted his commission back. The government relented and he was reinstated. He is the only son of the Maharaja of Patiala, but he went and fought. The man has guts. We need to expose all this bluff and bravado of the Akalis. We need to do solid work for the state. The Congress is known to be its own worst enemy. The Punjab Congress is famous for its infighting. The party will close ranks this time around. No one wants to go into a third defeat. The Congress senses that victory is do-able and they believe they can turn the situation around. How many seats has the Congress promised you in the state election? We are not looking for seats. Rather, we want an assurance that if the Congress does come to power, it will ensure a GDP growth of 10 per cent. The state is in the doldrums -- it needs to pulled up by the scruff of its shoulders. Your entry into the Congress is perceived to be a threat by some leaders in Punjab. I would have been a threat if I had asked for any post. I have not done so. I think in the long term, it is more important to win the respect of the party cadre. During the last assembly elections, the Congress lost by a 0.8 per cent vote share to the Akalis while your party got 5 per cent of vote share. Would you be happy to contest against Parkash Singh Badal from the Lambi constituency? I would be delighted. I must point out that in the last Lok Sabha election, I contested against (Union Minister and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal's wife) Harsimrat Kaur and helped reduce her margin of victory to just 19,000 though the entire administration was behind her. She had earlier won the seat by half a million votes. You talked about how the drug culture in Punjab was being promoted by vested interests. The drug trade is not being sponsored by Pakistan. Punjab has a 553 km border with Pakistan. Rajasthan and Gujarat have much larger borders, stretching over 1,000 km for each of these states. How come one does not hear about ISI-sponsored drug trade there? This is a myth that has been created. Synthetic drugs are being manufactured within Punjab by some rogue officers and this state of affairs can be checked in a matter of hours. If Punjab can fight and win terrorism sponsored by Pakistan, why can it not control this drug mafia? For this, the sovereign writ of the state must run. Also, the police-political connection needs to be broken. The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday alleged that the ink attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was part of a "big rehearsal" to possibly "physically harm" him in future and that deliberately lax security was being provided to him by Delhi Police. AAP leader Ashutosh claimed that "not a single" security person escorted the Delhi chief minister, who comes in Z-plus category, during his recent train journey from Punjab to the national capital after addressing a public rally there. "I can see a method or a pattern here. There's a deep conspiracy and it's a well known fact that Delhi Police directly reports to the Prime Minister's Office and not the Home Ministry," he told reporters at a press conference at Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia's residence. "The attack signals that the incidents are part of a big rehearsal. The conspiracies are being tested time and again. One also needs to look at the kind of hate being whipped up against Kejriwal by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh," he said. He said that the attack, where a young woman threw ink at Kejriwal in a public rally on Sunday, was not only "shameful" but also serious as India has had a history of assassinations of top leaders including former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. "After assessing the threat perception, Centre itself gave Z-plus security status to the Delhi CM. We did not ask for it. Then how could a woman get this close to the CM and throw stuff at him? They can't claim that they were caught unawares," AAP's Delhi Convenor Dilip Pandey said. Bhavna Arora, the woman, who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, was later detained by police and whisked away to Model Town police station for questioning. A case was also registered. Reacting sharply to the incident, Sisodia on Sunday said the BJP was conspiring to attack Kejriwal and the entire Cabinet because they cannot stand the success of the odd-even scheme and AAP's popularity among the masses. Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay rejected the allegations and insinuated that the incident could have been "stage managed" while Delhi police said the charges were "misconceived and unfounded". Echoing Sisodia's allegations, Ashutosh said the attack could be seen as an attempt to cause "physical harm" to Kejriwal. "The fact that it may have been an attempt to kill him can't be ruled out." He alleged that the security was scant at Kejriwal's recent rally at Punjab's Muktsar and very few Delhi Police personnel accompanied him. "Not a single policeman escorted him during his return journey in train," he claimed. Pandey demanded that the Centre and the police hold "accountable" those responsible behind the "lapse" in the Z-plus arrangements as part of which "22 policemen are to escort the CM." "A red alert was sounded after the Pathankot attack. This is the readiness of police during a red alert? Was any personnel from Delhi Police been held accountable? This is clearly vengeful," Pandey said. On Aam Aadmi Sena, Ashtosh said, "RSS and BJP have a history of propping up such organisations. We need to look at the kind of hate being whipped up against Kejriwal by them." Arora, a resident of outer Delhi's Rohini sub-city, came quite close to the lectern when Kejriwal was delivering his speech at the Chhatrasal Stadium, waved some papers towards him and then threw ink at the Chief Minister. There were ink stains on Kejriwal's cheeks and some others standing close to him were also seen wiping off the liquid. Bollywood actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui's wife lodged a counter FIR against five fellow residents of a housing society in Mumbai for allegedly rioting and threatening her after he was booked on the charge of assaulting and misbehaving with a woman over a parking row in the complex. Police said on Monday the complaint by Siddiqui's wife Aaliya was lodged last night with Versova police against five persons of the housing society in suburban Andheri including the complainant, hours after she named the actor in an FIR alleging assault. "It's a cross complaint as yesterday afternoon a woman had lodged a case against the actor who stays in the same society. We have registered the FIR," a police official said. The statements of the actor, his wife, and the five persons named in the second FIR were recorded on Monday, the official said. Siddiqui rejected the assault allegations against him as false. "Police did not summon me. But being a responsible person and citizen I came with my lawyer and recorded my statement. I briefed about the actual incident and told police that the complaint was false," he said. Police have booked the five persons under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 147 (punishment for rioting), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 452 (house-trespass) etc. of IPC. The official said no arrests have been made so far in connection with both the cases. Versova police had last night registered an FIR against Siddiqui under IPC section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) after the woman filed complaint against the actor accusing him of assaulting her over the parking place row. The woman had claimed that the actor had slapped her during the heated exchange. Siddiqui's lawyer Rizwan Siddiqui said that the actor was considering filing a defamation suit against the complainant. "The actor may file a defamation suit against the complainant after the police files report in the case," he said. In a related development, a statement issued by Siddiqui's PR agency claimed that the woman who had filed FIR against the actor on Sunday was not from the society. The actor was informed by the housing society not to park his four-wheeler at the place as it is reserved for parking two-wheelers, police said. "The complainant is not from society, neither in relation of the chairperson. It is completely a false allegation to defame the personality. In fact, five people had barged into our office and demanded to meet Siddiqui for some notice to be issued," the statement said. "When Mrs. Siddiqui asked them to hand over the notice, they denied saying they want to meet Nawaz and one of the five persons including the complainant, a lady aged 55 years, a guy aged 35-40 yrs and an aged man 65 yrs, pushed Mrs. Siddiqui. This is all because of old societal issues," it added. Photographs of Bihar Education and IT Minister Ashok Kumar Choudhary holding snakes during an alleged 'superstitious ritual' have gone viral on the Internet. The recently-appointed minister in the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet, Chaudhary is seen holding a snake, wrapping it on his hands and smiling at the photographer. Another photo shows state Congress vice-president Subodh Kumar with the snake around his neck. The minister though has denied the report. He argued that the pictures that are circulating online are old ones and that he is against superstition. "I am against superstition. These are old pictures... Snake charmers had come to entertain children. They put the snakes in my hands," Choudhary, also the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief, told the Indian Express, adding that the photos were from a "Makar Sankranti puja". Soon after the photograph went viral, Mangal Pandey, state Bharatiya Janata Party president, took a jibe and commented that the Jungle Raj in Bihar has started and this is just an example. Delhi Police have arrested a 32-year-old man from Haryana's Mewat district, suspected to be a key operative of al Qaeda who allegedly received arms training in Pakistan, making it the fifth arrest in its ongoing operation against the terror outfit. "The accused, Abdul Sami, was arrested by Delhi Police's Special Cell from Nuh town in Mewat yesterday. He was brought here and produced before a court which remanded him in police custody till February 1," Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said on Monday. Sami, a native of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, was allegedly mentored by Abdul Rahman, a madrassa cleric who was arrested from Jagatpur area of Cuttack in Odisha, in December by a Special Cell team, said a senior police official. Rahman's arrest was the second in the ongoing operation. So far the police have identified three persons whom Rahman had inducted in al Qaeda's module in the Indian sub-continent and sent for training. While Sami has been arrested, the other two identified as Abu Sufian and Umar Hyderabadi -- are still believed to be in Pakistan, said the official. He further said, Sami left for Dubai in January 2014, he stayed there for a month before moving to Karachi. From there, he went to Mansehra, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, where he received training in handling AK 47 and light machine guns. Sami's movements were being coordinated by a handler, identified as Yusuf, from Pakistan. During interrogation, it had earlier emerged that Yusuf was also in touch with Mohammed Asif, who is believed to be one of the founding members and the head (amir) of AQIS's motivation, recruitment and training wing and Abdul Rahman, the official said. Asif's was the first arrest in the operation. He was nabbed from Seelampur in northeast Delhi, followed by the arrests of Rahman and alleged financier of the module, Zafar Masood, arrested from mohalla Deepa Sarai in UP's Sambhal district in December 2015. On January 6, the Special Cell had arrested Maulana Anzar Shah, a cleric from Bangalore, for alleged links with AQIS. He was allegedly asked provide logistical support whenever the need arose, police said. They were all booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It was in January 2015 that Sami, who was a trained electrician, returned to India via Sharjah and Kathmandu. He then went to his home at Jamshedpur, but soon left without any disclosure of his whereabouts. However, the police have not yet been able to trace any money trail with regard to Sami, said an official in Special Cell adding that two more youths from Jamshedpur are also under their scanner and they are believed to be close to Sami. "Sami is suspected to have arrived in India with some plans. It is also possible that he is involved in the planning of some high-profile attacks in the country. For details on all that, he is to be subjected to intensive interrogation," the official said. AQIS was floated by al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahari himself in September 2014 following a meeting somewhere in Afghanistan-Pakistan region which reportedly had in its quorum the entire Grand Council (Arabian Shura) of al-Qaeda, including al-Zawahiri's son-in-law. Despite several Indians being present at the training camp, Maulana Asim Umar alias Sanaul Haq and Mohammed Asif are believed to be the only Indians present in the council, police said. After Umar was anointed the chief, it is believed that some unexpected visitors met him, including Indian Mujahideen chief Riyaz Bhatkal, who is still at large, and other senior IM commanders like Baba Sajid, who was recently reported to have been killed in Syria, police said. Asif was Umar's chosen candidate and, with the help of his deputy Qasim, Umar had contacted Asif through a social networking site, a year before he left for Tehran on a 'ziyarat' visa, exclusively meant for visiting a holy shrine in Tehran. Umar, Asif and Qasim are all natives of Sambhal in UP. The police are also yet to verify whether Sami was also in direct touch at some point with Umar, Asif and Qasim, and whether he too had attended the Grand Council, police added. A sessions court on Monday adjourned till March 10 hearing in the defamation case filed against Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Chief M Karunanidhi by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. The 92-year-old wheelchair-bound DMK leader appeared before the court. Principal Sessions Judge N Audhinathan adjourned the hearing in the case till March 10. Karunanidhi had recently said that this was "one among the many cases filed against me" by the Jayalalithaa government and he would face them legally. A large number of DMK cadres thronged the court premises with police making tight security arrangements to prevent any untoward incidents. DMK party lawyers were also present. Karunanidhi, who enjoys 'Z' category security status, was escorted by a posse of security men. Top DMK leaders including his son and party Treasurer, M K Stalin, daughter and Rajya Sabha MP, Kanimozhi, Arcot Veerasami, grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran and T R Baalu were present in court. Principal Sessions Judge N Audhinathan had last month directed Karunanidhi to appear before the court on January 18 in connection with an alleged defamatory article published in the party mouthpiece Murasoli in November about the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government's four-year rule. The court had also summoned Murasoli's Editor, Printer and Publisher S Selvam to appear on the same day in this regard. The issue pertains to Karunanidhi quoting from an article in Tamil bi-weekly Ananda Vikatan's November 25, 2015 issue on the matter. Writing in party mouthpiece Murasoli, the DMK chief had cited the article which had made a critical assessment of the four year-old AIADMK government's performance. The party's legal wing secretary, R Girirajan, had asked his party lawyers to be present in the principal sessions court in good numbers, in an apparent show of strength. Meanwhile, replying to a question after coming out of the court, Karunanidhi told reporters, "I will not compel other political parties to form an alliance for the coming assembly polls. The decision to form any alliance should be their own." The state assembly polls are scheduled in May. The rare court appearance by Karunanidhi, just months ahead of assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, is being seen as a shot in the arm for the party by its cadres. Some party leaders said it had "infused new blood" in the party which is looking to stage a comeback after back-to-back poor showing in the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections. "He (Karunanidhi) has appeared in many cases. Today he appeared before (the Principal Sessions court) to tell the people what is going on," DMK Organising Secretary R S Bharathy said. However, the party chose not to link it with the coming polls and said their 'Thalaivar' (leader) was only trying to tell the people what was happening in the AIADMK rule. Bharathy was referring to a number of defamation cases filed against DMK and other political parties by the Jayalalithaa government. Asked if Monday's move was aimed at preparing the party workers for the polls, Bharathy replied in the negative and said that defamation cases had been filed by the government even against certain media houses. Another leader, T R B Raja, the party's MLA from Mannargudi, also insisted that Karunanidhi's court appearance had nothing to do with elections, but however maintained it had "infused new blood", especially among the younger cadre. He said that it if a 92-year-old leader can do something like appearing before a court and sending a message to the party, then the many number of young workers can do anything constructively. "This has got nothing to do with the polls. It proves that he can face anything, politically and legally. However, this has infused a new blood, especially to the many young party workers," he said. Some other party workers also expressed enthusiasm following Karunanidhi's decision not to seek exemption and to appear in the court. A Delhi court on Monday sent a youth, arrested in connection with the hit-and-run case in which an Indian Air Force corporal was killed during Republic Day rehearsal in Kolkata, to two days transit remand. Shahnawaz Khan, 24, resident of West Bengal, was arrested in New Delhi on Monday morning and produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pooran Chand who allowed Kolkata Police's plea to take him to Kolkata for his interrogation. "In view of the facts and circumstances, the accused be given in transit remand to sub-inspector Sumit Bhattacharya to be produced before CMM Calcutta on January 20," the court said. The court also said that if the police along with the accused reach Kolkata before or after January 20, he be produced before the duty magistrate. Khan was arrested from Ajmeri Gate in Central Delhi by a team of Kolkata Police, Anti-Rowdy Section of Detective department at Lal Bazar, Kolkata. According to the police, Khan was in the Audi Q7 being driven by Sambia Sohrab, which allegedly mowed down Corporal Abhimanyu Gaud during the rehearsal of Republic Day parade on January 13 in Kolkata. A case of murder and criminal conspiracy under the IPC was registered at Police Station Maidan in Calcutta. Seeking Khan's custody, police told the court he has to be taken to Kolkata by train which would take two days and sought that he be sent to transit remand till January 22. The court, however, granted his transit remand till January 20 and directed the police to get the accused medically examined before boarding the train. Police said in its application that the 21-year-old IAF Corporal was knocked down and killed after being hit by the brand new Audi car during the Republic Day rehearsal parade on the Red Road. Police said Khan was called for questioning and allowed to go but since then he was absconding. His relatives lodged a missing diary at Bowbazar and police were looking for him. Cops then got to know from sources that he was in Delhi and the Kolkata Police zeroed on him on Sunday night. Based on the location of his mobile and the mobile tower, police spotted and arrested him, the police said. Khan and prime accused Sambia would be questioned together after being brought to Kolkata, it said. Sambia, son of a Trinamool Congress leader, was arrested on the night of 16 January from Park Circus seven-point crossing while he was heading towards his in-laws' house. Shahnawaz was arrested from a locality in outer Delhi's Alipur area by a special team of Kolkata Police. Delhi Police said that it was not a joint operation and they were informed about the arrest when the youth was produced at Tis Hazari court here this afternoon for a transit remand, which is required to take him to Kolkata, said a senior official. "Even the station house officer of the concerned police station was not kept in loop. The entire operation was done by the special team at their own risk," a senior official posted in Delhi Police's Outer district said. However, there are no straight-jacket rules for keeping the local police in loop unless a major law and order disruption or security threat is perceived. But the risk is always with the security agency which takes charge of such operations, a senior Delhi Police official said. Image: Sambia Sohrab, main accused in a hit-and-run case leading to the death of an airman while he was rehearsing for the Republic Day, is being produced in a city court, in Kolkata. Photograph: Ashok Bhaumik/ PTI Pakistan's former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf was on Monday acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in the murder case of Baloch nationalist leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The court in Balochistan's provincial capital Quetta acquitted former president Musharraf, ex-provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani and Qaumi Watan Party chief and member of National Assembly Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao. After the announcement of the decision by Judge Jan Muhammad Gohar, the lawyer representing Bugti's son Jamil Bugti, Sohail Rajput, announced his decision to challenge the judgment of the court, the Dawn reported. "They should have been convicted and I do not understand why the court set them free," Rajput said. "We are not satisfied with this judgement and we will challenge it," Rajput told reporters outside court. Musharraf, 72, was indicted in the case in January 2015. The court also rejected the request by Jamil to order exhumation of the body of his father to confirm that the body buried in Dera Bugti was that of Akbar Bugti. In a separate application, Jamil had requested the court to summon the members of a parliamentary committee who had met Akbar Bugti following the violence in Dera Bugti in March 2005 in which dozens were killed. Jamil had named Musharraf, former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former Governor of Balochistan Owais Ahmed Ghani, ex-interior minister Sherpao and others for the murder. Bugti, former chief minister of Balochistan and head of his tribe, was killed in 2006 in a military operation ordered by Musharraf who was president and army chief at the time. His killing sparked nationwide protests and further fuelled an armed insurgency that began in 2004 in Balochistan. Two co-accused -- Musharraf's then interior minister Sherpao and ex-provincial home minister Nusherwan -- were also indicted for their alleged role in the murder of Bugti. Musharraf never appeared in the court during the entire legal process which had been in progress since 2009. He was also absent when the charge-sheet was read out in the court. Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Facing impeachment following elections in 2008, Musharraf resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai. The ex-army chief is facing a slew of court cases after returning from five years of self-exile in Dubai to contest the general elections in 2013 which he lost. He is also facing trial in high treason case for abrogating the constitution in 2007 and illegal detention of judges same year. Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 10 images. Image: Russia's President Vladimir Putin practises with Musa Mogushkov of Russian national judo team during a training session in Sochi, Russia. Photograph: Alexey Nikolsky/Reuters Image: A man rides a horse through the flames during the Luminarias annual religious celebration on the eve of Saint Anthonys day, Spain's patron saint of animals, in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, northwest of Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters Image: A girl carrying a baby inspects damage in a site hit by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria. Photograph: Bassam Khabieh/Reuters Image: Pinatas depicting Mexican actress Kate del Castillo (L) and the drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are displayed outside a workshop in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, Mexico. Photograph: Daniel Becerril/Reuters Image: An overcrowded train leaves Dhaka airport rail station after the final prayer of "Bishwa Ijtema", the world congregation of Muslims, on the banks of the Turag river in Tongi near Bangladesh's capital Dhaka. Millions of Muslims attended the three-day religious event. Photograph: Ashikur Rahman/Reuters Image: A woman with a Ziggy Stardust tattoo visits a mural of David Bowie in Brixton, south London. David Bowie, a music legend who used daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes to frame legendary rock hits "Ziggy Stardust" and "Space Oddity", has died of cancer. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Image: Mujahideen Horan brigade fighters, part of the Free Syrian Army, react as they launch a shell towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad located in Deraa, Syria, in what they said was a battle to pressure breaking the siege off Madaya. Photograph: Alaa Al-Faqir/Reuters Image: Children play in a military vehicle during the Children's Day celebration in Bangkok, Thailand. Army barracks opened their doors to children to interact with their weapons and vehicles as part of the celebration. Photograph: Jorge Silva/Reuters Image: Naga Sadhus or Hindu holy men, smeared with ash, pass on a chillum to smoke inside their makeshift camps near the confluence of the river Ganges and the Bay of Bengal, ahead of the "Makar Sankranti" festival at Sagar Island, south of Kolkata, India. Hindu monks and pilgrims are making their annual trip to Sagar Island for the one-day festival of "Makar Sankranti" on Friday. Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters Image: Dead sperm whales are seen washed up on a beach on Texel Island, The Netherlands. The five sperm whales that beached on the Dutch lsland of Texel on Tuesday have died overnight, Dutch media reported. Photograph: Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters Image: A group of junior codemakers look through apparatus while taking a 3-D tour of parliament with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the unveiling of Google's new Canadian engineering headquarters in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. Photograph: Peter Power/Reuters Non-ABVP student unions have called for bandh on Monday after Vermula Rohit, a 22-year-old research scholar, allegedly hanged himself at a hostel in the Hyderabad Central University. There is tension at the university. A group of students allegedly sat with his body all Sunday night, refusing to allow a funeral unless the university authorities heard them out. A police team came on Monday morning and took away the body. Eight students have been arrested. Rohit, who was pursuing a doctorate, was found dead on Sunday evening. He was reportedly thrown out of his hostel two weeks ago and had been camping outside the university gate with four other research scholars. According to his friend Venkat, Rohit, who was active in the Ambedkar union of Dalit students, was "heartbroken" that his requests for an appointment with the Vice Chancellor had been ignored even though he had been living in the open for days. According to Cyberabad Police Commissioner CV Anand, the situation is now "fine" on the campus. The students demanded police register a case under SC/ST Atrocity Act against Union minister and BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya while alleging that he had written to the HRD ministry seeking action against these research scholars. "The body has been sent for post mortem. Though no untoward incident has been reported on the campus, we see some tension-like situation here," a police official said. Rohit was among the five research scholars who were suspended by Hyderabad Central University in August last year and also one of the accused in the case of assault on a student leader, Anand had said. The suspension was revoked later. Further investigation in the case is on. The five research scholars were suspended from the hostel for rest of their study period for allegedly attacking an ABVP leader. Last week, a section of students had laid a siege to the Administrative Building of the HCU against the suspension of the research scholars. The students under the umbrella of a Joint Action Committee had termed the suspension as "undemocratic" and as a "social boycott" since the five research scholars were denied access to hostels and were forced to sleep in a makeshift tent on the campus. Based on the recommendations of a sub-committee of the Executive Council, the five were denied access to hostels on the campus except their classrooms and workshops related to their subject of study. The council had recommended the punishment based on a Proctorial Committee inquiry. Asserting that the economic relationship is the key to developing Indo-Israel ties, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday asked the Jewish state to look beyond trade for building long-term stakes in the Indian economy. Swaraj, in her address at an Indian community reception in Jerusalem, said India and Israel are expanding cooperation to new areas such as homeland security, innovation, education and science and technology. Expressing optimism for the future in the growth of bilateral ties, Swaraj said, To quote your (Israeli) prime minister, sky is the limit for ties between India and Israel. "We should work towards a new vision of our important partnership, which should reflect our close friendship and harness fully the potential of our two knowledge economies," Swaraj said. Swaraj, who is on her first visit to the West Asian region as the external minister, earlier in the day held talks with the top Israeli leadership and discussed a wide-range of bilateral and regional issues. "The economic relationship is the key to developing our bilateral ties. We should move from a trade-based relationship to one that is based on investment, manufacturing and services," Swaraj said in her address. "As you know, 'Make in India' is a priority of our government. Our flagship schemes of 'Clean Ganga', 'SmartCities' and 'Digital India' are all areas of Israeli expertise. We encourage you to look beyond trade to build long-term stakes in the Indian economy through investment and joint development of products and services," she said. The minister said she had very good meetings with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders on Monday. "All of them expressed to me the importance they attach to Israels relations with India, as a friend and partner. I wish to assure you that these feelings are reciprocated by the government and the people of India. We attach high priority to Indias relations with Israel," she said. Swaraj noted that the bilateral interactions at the political level are also increasing. In this context, she highlighted President Pranab Mukherjees visit to Israel last year. "This first ever visit by the President of India gave a substantial boost to our bilateral relationship. Next year will mark the 25th anniversary of the full establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries," she said. "I am very happy to be here in Israel. I served as the chairman of the India-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group for three years during which I also had the pleasure of visiting Israel. I am a personal advocate of strong ties between India and Israel; so I am very happy to see that our relations are progressing so well in all fields of our engagement," she said. Earlier, the two countries agreed to intensify coordination to deal with terrorism as Swaraj met top Israeli leadership and discussed a wide-range of bilateral and regional issues. Image: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Monday. Photograph: @MEAIndia/Twitter A Delhi court on Monday sent a woman, accused of throwing ink at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a rally in New Delhi following the completion of governments odd-even experiment, to one-day police custody. Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar remanded Bhavna Arora to police custody till Tuesday after the investigating agency said that her custodial interrogation was required to unearth the truth behind the incident. In closed-door proceedings, the police told the court that 26-year-old Aroras custody was required to investigate whether there were other persons involved in the matter who conspired with her. According to court sources, police said the real motive behind the act was needed to be ascertained and it was required to find out whether the woman was involved in some other cases as well. The advocate appearing for Arora, however, opposed the polices custody plea and sought bail for the accused. The counsel claimed that the offence committed by Arora was not serious and being a woman, she should be released. Arora had thrown ink on Kejriwal when he was addressing a thanksgiving rally at Chhatrasal Stadium on Sunday following the success of his governments odd-even experiment, prompting angry reactions from the Aam Aadmi Party government which termed the incident as a part of Bharatiya Janata Party conspiracy. The woman, who claimed to be a member of the Punjab unit of Aam Aadmi Sena, a splinter group of Delhis ruling AAP, was later whisked away by police and questioned at the ModelTown police station. The woman has claimed that she has proof in the form of a CD that these people have committed CNG scam. The woman, a resident of Rama Vihar in outer Delhis Rohini sub-city, was booked for alleged offences under sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. Mozambique: clashes between Government, opposition forces send civilians fleeing to Malawi Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 January 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Mozambique: clashes between Government, opposition forces send civilians fleeing to Malawi, 15 January 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/569c975a40b.html [accessed 20 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 15 January 2016 - Clashes between Mozambique Government forces and the opposition Mozambican National Resistance, or RENAMO, have forced an increasing number of people to flee Mozambique and seek asylum in Malawi over the last few weeks, the United Nations refugee agency cautioned today. In the village of Kapise, Mwanza district, some 100 kilometres south of Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, registration teams from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recorded the arrival of 1,297 people - two thirds of them women and children - with over 900 people awaiting registration. Another 400 new arrivals have been reported in 16 villages located further south in the district of Chikwawa. The Mozambicans said they fled fighting between the opposition RENAMO and Government forces. Refugee women told a UNHCR protection officer how their homes were burned down with one grandmother left inside to die. They said Government forces were attacking villages believed to be harbouring opposition members. UNHCR has been unable to confirm the accuracy of these allegations, spokesperson Karin de Gruijl told reporters at a news briefing in Geneva. UNHCR is working with the Government to coordinate the response to assist the newly arrived refugees. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) was providing food and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is already on the ground with a mobile clinic. Malaria is a major concern and the number of patients seen daily has increased from 70 to 250. With the looming fear of a cholera outbreak, MSF has been quick to drill two boreholes and are planning on drilling a third to improve the water supply, Ms. de Gruil added. She went on to say that the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), is putting up temporary latrines and washrooms to avert health disasters, and has also provided two large tents where children can play and learn. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) plans to work on maternal health. The Government of Malawi is considering reopening Luwani refugee camp, which previously hosted refugees from Mozambique during the civil war (1977 -1992), when over a million Mozambican refugees fled to neighbouring Malawi. UN condemns attack on African Union base in southern region of Somalia Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 January 2016 Cite as UN News Service, UN condemns attack on African Union base in southern region of Somalia, 15 January 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/569c97c340c.html [accessed 20 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 15 January 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist attack perpetrated by Al Shabaab this morning against an African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) base in the town of El Adde, Gedo region in Somalia. In a statement issued by his spokesperson, which noted that details of the incident are still being verified, the Secretary-General commended the efforts of AMISOM troops working for peace in Somalia. "He affirms that this attack will not diminish the resolve of the United Nations to work hand in hand with the African Union and AMISOM to support the people and Government of Somalia," said the statement. Later in the day, the UN Security Council also condemned the attack and underscored its full support to AMISOM in delivering their mandate to reduce the threat posed by the terrorist group Al Shabaab and armed opposition groups in Somalia. The members of the Security Council also underscored their gratitude for the bravery and sacrifices of AMISOM personnel in carrying out their mandate. In a press statement, the members of the Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice and stressed that those responsible for these killings should be held accountable. The Security Council further stressed the need to take measures to prevent and suppress the financing of Al Shabaab, and any other terrorist group in Somalia. The 15-member body paid tribute to all international actors working to bring peace and stability in Somalia. Expressing similar condemnation, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, Ambassador Francisco Madeira also commended the fast response and gallantry exhibited by its troops. "Attacks such as this further demonstrate the vile nature of Al Shabaab, whose sole purpose is to spread terror and continue the destabilization of Somalia. Our resolve can only be rejuvenated, to fight on until Somalia is freed of all elements of terror," he underscored. Ban welcomes release of two Saudi citizens held in Yemen Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 January 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Ban welcomes release of two Saudi citizens held in Yemen, 15 January 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/569c980340c.html [accessed 20 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 15 January 2016 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the release of two citizens of Saudi Arabia who had been held in Yemen since March 2015, greatly relieved that they were released in apparent good health." "The Secretary-General thanks his Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, for his efforts to secure the safe release of these individuals," said a statement issued by his Mr. Ban's spokesperson, which noted that the two Saudi citizens departed the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, on the morning of 14 January, accompanied by the Special Envoy. Mr. Ban, according to the statement, expressed his gratitude to Ansar Allah for facilitating the release as an important confidence-building measure, which should help advance the peace process. He also expressed the sincere hope that this step will be followed quickly by additional releases of prisoners by all sides and the return to peaceful dialogue. "The Secretary-General urges all Yemeni parties and the States in the region to commit to comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in order to enable the rapid resumption of peace talks facilitated by his Special Envoy," the statement concluded. Meanwhile, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported today that following statements last week that the High Commissioner's Representative in Yemen was apparently no longer welcome in the country, the Government subsequently revised its position, and the Representative would now be continuing his work as before. "OHCHR warmly welcomes the decision by the Government, as well as their commitment to continue to cooperate fully with the United Nations," Spokesperson Rupert Colville told reporters at the regular bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva. 'Alarming' new patterns of violations emerging in Burundi UN rights chief Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 15 January 2016 Cite as UN News Service, 'Alarming' new patterns of violations emerging in Burundi UN rights chief, 15 January 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/569c984440b.html [accessed 20 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. 15 January 2016 - The United Nations human rights chief today warned that deeply worrying new trends are emerging in crisis-torn Burundi, including cases of sexual violence by security forces and a sharp increase in enforced disappearances and torture cases. He also called for an urgent investigation into the events that took place in Bujumbura on 11 and 12 December, including the reported existence of at least nine mass graves. "The 11 December attacks against three military camps and the large-scale human rights violations that occurred in their immediate aftermath appear to have triggered new and extremely disturbing patterns of violations," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, in a news release. "We have documented 13 cases of sexual violence against women, which began during the search and arrest operations that took place after the December events in the neighbourhoods perceived as supportive of the opposition," he reported. "The pattern was similar in all cases: security forces allegedly entered the victims' houses, separated the women from their families, and raped - in some cases gang-raped - them." He added that new cases of sexual violence have continued to emerge since mid-December, including the reported rape of five women in a single house during a search operation in Bujumbura Mairie province. "We've also received numerous allegations that during the initial search operations on 11 and 12 December in the Musaga, Nyakabiga, Ngagara, Citiboke and Mutakura neighbourhoods of Bujumbura, police and army forces arrested considerable numbers of young men, many of whom were later tortured, killed or taken to unknown destinations. Members of the Imbonerakure militia reportedly took part in these operations," he said. Despite these allegations of large-scale arrests, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is reportedly finding that only a small proportion of them appear to be in official places of detention. "The increasing number of enforced disappearances, coupled with allegations of secret detention facilities and mass graves is extremely alarming," Mr. Zeid warned. The High Commissioner said that, according to numerous witnesses, many dead bodies were taken to unknown locations from the neighbourhoods where the search operations took place. He added that witnesses had reported the existence of at least nine mass graves in Bujumbura and its surroundings - including one in a military camp -containing more than 100 bodies in total, all of them allegedly killed on 11 December. According to OHCHR, it was reported in some cases that members of the Imbonerakure forced people to dig the graves, either under threat of being killed themselves or with the promise that they would be paid. It was also reported that some of these grave-diggers were indeed subsequently executed. "My Office is analysing satellite images in an effort to shed more light on these extremely serious allegations," Mr. Zeid said. "All the alarm signals, including the increasing ethnic dimension of the crisis, are flashing red," he added. According to information gathered from inhabitants of various neighbourhoods, some of the victims of human rights violations during the search operations that followed the 11 December events were targeted because they were Tutsis. The suggestion that an ethnic dimension is now starting to emerge, is reinforced by one of the sexually abused women who said that her abuser told her she was paying the price for being a Tutsi. In Bujumbura's Nyakabiga neighbourhood, another witness claimed that Tutsis were systematically killed, while Hutus were spared. And, in the Muramvya neighbourhood, the decision to arrest people was also reportedly largely made on an ethnic basis, with most Hutus being released, according to several different witnesses. The High Commissioner welcomed the Ministry of Justice's recent request to the General Prosecutor of Bujumbura Mairie to investigate the allegations of mass graves. "However, it is now abundantly clear that we also urgently need an independent, thorough, credible and impartial investigation, and that the alleged grave sites need to be safeguarded," Mr. Zeid said. The High Commissioner also stressed the importance of ensuring that family members of people who have been arrested, forcibly disappeared or extrajudicially executed are informed of the whereabouts of their loved ones. He noted that the reported increasing use of torture and ill-treatment was also of serious concern. "The number of torture cases almost tripled in the space of a month," Mr. Zeid said, citing 29 cases of torture and 42 cases of ill-treatment documented in December. According to victims and witnesses, members of the Service national de renseignements (SNR) and the national police are responsible for most cases, with victims allegedly often forced to confess that they belong to, or intend to join, an armed group. The High Commissioner also noted that the total number of people killed rose to at least 130 in December, double the number of killings during the previous month. As of 14 January, at least 439 people had been killed since 26 April. "There is rampant impunity for all the human rights violations being committed by security forces and the Imbonerakure, despite ample evidence that they are responsible for more and more serious crimes," Mr. Zeid said. "This is an indication that a complete breakdown in law and order is just around the corner and, with armed opposition groups also becoming more active, and the potentially lethal ethnic dimension starting to rear its head, this will inevitably end in disaster if the current rapidly deteriorating trajectory continues." It's like a scene out of the Old West, in many ways: Special Rangers from the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Horseback Emergency Response Team from the Texas Animal Health Commission riding the range in search of lost cattle. The horsemen have joined ranchers and local county officials in the aftermath of Winter Storm Goliath, attempting to recover more than 50,000 cattle. The storm hit eastern New Mexico and the northwest part of the Texas Panhandle on Dec. 26. Livestock producers in the region were severely affected by blizzard conditions, with wind gusts reaching up to 80 mph and more than 20 inches of snow accumulating in a 48-hour period. Cattle that drifted from ranch pastures either bunched up at a windbreak and suffocated or walked over fences covered by frozen ice and snow and marched southward. More than 2,500 head were frozen to death in Panhandle feedyards. An estimated 30,000 head of dairy cattle were lost. An estimated 15,000 mature dairy cows died in the storm's primary impact area from Lubbock west to Muleshoe and north to Friona, which is home to half of the state's Top 10 milk-producing counties and produces 40 percent of the state's milk, according to Darren Turley, Texas Association of Dairymen executive director. Although producers around Clovis, New Mexico, spent a lot of time preparing for the storm by cleaning pens and adding new straw and building windbreaks to protect animals, they were overwhelmed when the blizzard hit, said longtime farm broadcaster Erica Irlbeck, of Lubbock. "They kept fresh feed in front of the cows as long as the weather would allow, constantly putting out feed as it would get covered in snow," she said. Farmers were out in 16-below weather battling the elements to fight for the safety of their animals, said Robert Hagevoort, extension agent with New Mexico State University. "The biggest challenge is yet to come; animal production losses will put a strain on all facets of the industry, but we are doing everything we can to make sure the Texas livestock industry will overcome this," said Dr. David Finch, TAHC Region 1 director. The TAHC is the state's lead agency for all animal issues during disasters. The agency assists local jurisdictions with damage assessments, animal identification and with the care, evacuation and sheltering of animals during and after disasters. Finch said animal needs assessment operations can be facilitated at the request of local communities. The TAHC also supports carcass disposal activities and works in partnership with veterinary stakeholders, fellow state agencies and industry groups. Industry groups such as the Texas Dairy Association, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, Independent Cattlemen Association, Texas Pork Producers Association, Texas Poultry Federation and Texas Farm Bureau have been involved with coordinating response plans. State and federal partners also responding include the Texas Department of Emergency Management, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas A&M Veterinary Emergency Team, Office of the Governor, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture and Texas Veterinarian Medical Association. MONDAY Martin Luther King march The Black History Committee will conduct its annual Martin Luther King march at 2 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge. A program will be presented at 1:30 p.m. at Cockerell Drive and Highway 80. Other ... AARP, 10 a.m., Rose Park Senior Citizens Center Room B. Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Jim Ned High School. Cancer Services Network's Auxiliary meeting, 10:30 a.m., 100 Chestnut St., Suite 100. 325-672-0040. Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112. Schizophrenia Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Anorexics Bulimics Anonymous, 6 p.m., Shades of Hope, 402A Mulberry St., Buffalo Gap. 800-588-4673. Central Texas Gem & Mineral Society of Abilene, 7 p.m., 7607 Highway 277 South. 325-692-0063. Abilene Toastmaster's Club 1071, 7 p.m., Conference Center, Texas State Technical College, 650 E. Highway 80. 325-692-7325 or abilene.toastmastersclubs.org. Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007. Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304. Memory Men (4-part a cappella singing), 7 p.m., Calvary Baptist Church, 1165 Minter Lane. Park on east side, enter through kitchen. 325-676-SING. Those Left To Cope, 7-8:30 p.m., First Baptist Church Ministry of Counseling and Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. Abilene Community Band rehearsal, 7:30 p.m., Bynum Band Hall, McMurry University. 325-232-7383. South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave. Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Avoca United Methodist Church. 325-773-2611. Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse Group. 325-676-1400. TUESDAY Meet the candidate SWEETWATER The Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce will conduct meet and greet featuring Jodey Arrington, candidate for U.S. representative for District 19, at 4 p.m. at First Financial Bank, 201 Elm St. Zoo volunteer meeting A meeting for people interested in volunteering will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Abilene Zoo administrative building. Volunteers will help with education, administration and plant and animal care. For more information, go to www.abilenezoo.org or contact 325-676-6451 or Abilene.zoo@abilenetx.com. Nuclear energy seminar Kirk Sorensen will give a presentation on the potential of liquid fluoride thorium reactors at 6 p.m. in Room 201 of the Mabee Business Building at Abilene Christian University. Tours of Bennett Labs will follow. Admission is free. Business workshop The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center will present a business workshop, "How to Prepare to Meet Your Banker," from 6-8 p.m. at the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. For reservations, call 325-670-0300. Genealogy workshop Cindy Jones will present a genealogy workshop, "Discovering the Hidden Clues in the U.S. Census," at 6:30 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Admission is free. Other ... Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr. Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs). Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Coleman County Electric Co-op. Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535. Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117. Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444. Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584. Overeaters Anonymous, 6-7 p.m., Highland Church of Christ, 425 Highland Ave., Room 111. Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous, 6-7 p.m., Highland Church of Christ, 425 Highland Ave., Room 108. Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300. Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398. Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St. 325-829-1470. Family Support Group for parents with special needs children, 6:30-7:30 p.m., West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3500. Alzheimer's Association North Central Texas Chapter, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Chisholm Place, 1450 E. N. 10th St. 325-672-2907. Abilene Area Aggie Moms' Club, 6:45 p.m., Coldwell Banker Panian & Mash, 2500 S. Willis St. Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance. Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926. Brigadier General John Sayles Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 366, 7 p.m., American Legion Building, 302 E.S. 11th St. Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St. Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St. WEDNESDAY Taylor County Livestock Show The Taylor County Livestock Show will begin with the poultry show at 11 a.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center Big Country Hall, followed by the steer and heifer show at 1 p.m. in Griffin Arena. Admission is free for spectators. ArtFilm As part of the "This Is Modern Art" series, a screening of "New Art and the Young Artists Behind It" will be presented at noon at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 220 Cypress St. Other ... Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112. Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Loraine High School. Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St. Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815. Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570. Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Western Hills Healthcare Residence, Comanche. Alzheimer's disease support group, 5:15 p.m., Cedar Crest Care Center, 1901 W. Elliott, Breckenridge. Assists those who have a family member with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. 1-800-272-3900 or 254-559-3302. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 725 Orange St. 325-670-4818. Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995. Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel. Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007. DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200. THURSDAY Taylor County Livestock Show The Taylor County Livestock Show will continue with the lamb and goat show at 8 a.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center Horse Barn, followed by the rabbit show at 5 p.m. Admission is free for spectators. Mac class The MacUser Group will conduct a free Mac computer class at 1 p.m. at the Mockingbird Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1326 N. Mockingbird Lane. For more information, call 325-692-1087. Brain health program A free educational program, "Healthy Living for Your Brain and Body: Tips from the Latest Research," will be presented from 2-4 p.m. at the Alzheimer's Association North Central Texas Chapter Abilene Regional Office, 301 S. Pioneer Drive, Suite 105. Space is limited. To make reservations, or for more information, contact 325-672-2907, 800-272-3900 or mbannister@alz.org. Grace After Dark Screenings of several short films will be presented during Grace After Dark at 7 p.m. on the roof of The Grace Museum, 102 Cypress St. Food trucks will open at 6 p.m., and a cash bar will be available. Admission will be free, but will be limited to 100 viewers. Participants must be 18 or older. 'Seussical the Musical' A production of "Seussical the Musical" will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Abilene High School auditorium. Admission is $10 for adults and $7 for students, seniors and military. For more information, call 325-677-1730. Other ... Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300. Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road. Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092. Retired Military Wives Club social meeting, 1 p.m., Rose Park Senior Activity Center, 2625 South Seventh St. 325-677-9656 or 325-793-1490. Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. Blood drive, 1-4 p.m., Dyess Elementary School. Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center. Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St. Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575. Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517. South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave. Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St. TUESDAY Meet the candidate SWEETWATER The Sweetwater Chamber of Commerce will conduct meet and greet featuring Jodey Arrington, candidate for U.S. representative for District 19, at 4 p.m. at First Financial Bank, 201 Elm St. Zoo volunteer meeting A meeting for people interested in volunteering will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Abilene Zoo administrative building. Volunteers will help with education, administration and plant and animal care. For more information, go to www.abilenezoo.org or contact 325-676-6451 or Abilene.zoo@abilenetx.com. Nuclear energy seminar Kirk Sorensen will give a presentation on the potential of liquid fluoride thorium reactors at 6 p.m. in Room 201 of the Mabee Business Building at Abilene Christian University. Tours of Bennett Labs will follow. Admission is free. Business workshop The Texas Tech Small Business Development Center will present a business workshop, "How to Prepare to Meet Your Banker," from 6-8 p.m. at the Texas Tech Training Center, 749 Gateway St., Suite 301. For reservations, call 325-670-0300. Genealogy workshop Cindy Jones will present a genealogy workshop, "Discovering the Hidden Clues in the U.S. Census," at 6:30 p.m. at the Abilene Public Library, 202 Cedar St. Admission is free. Other ... Mission on the Move Soup Kitchen, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Southwest Drive Community United Methodist Church, 3025 Southwest Dr. Abilene Southwest Rotary Club, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. High Noon Al-Anon, noon, Southern Hills Church of Christ, 3666 Buffalo Gap Road (south end; follow the yellow signs). Blood drive, 1-6 p.m., Coleman County Electric Co-op. Stroke/Aphasia Recovery Program support group, 1:30-2:30 p.m. West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3535. Dystonia Support Group, 5:15-6:15 p.m., Not Without Us, 3301 N. First St. Suite 117. Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), 5:30 p.m., Brook Hollow Christian Church, 2310 S. Willis St. 325-232-7444. Legacies Al-Anon Family Group, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-280-7584. Overeaters Anonymous, 6-7 p.m., Highland Church of Christ, 425 Highland Ave., Room 111. Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous, 6-7 p.m., Highland Church of Christ, 425 Highland Ave., Room 108. Family (of Mental Health Consumers) Support Group, 6-7 p.m., Mental Health Association in Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. MHAA Bipolar/Depression Peer Support Group, 6-8 p.m., Ministry of Counseling & Enrichment, 1502 N. First St. 325-673-2300. Free certified nurturing parent class (pregnancy to toddler), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398. Abilene Star Chorus, 6:15 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1333 N. Third St. 325-829-1470. Family Support Group for parents with special needs children, 6:30-7:30 p.m., West Texas Rehabilitation Center boardroom, 4601 Hartford St. 325-793-3500. Alzheimer's Association North Central Texas Chapter, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Chisholm Place, 1450 E. N. 10th St. 325-672-2907. Abilene Area Aggie Moms' Club, 6:45 p.m., Coldwell Banker Panian & Mash, 2500 S. Willis St. Al-Anon Parents Group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. Use Church Street entrance. Al-Anon, 7 p.m., Doug Meinzer Activity Center, Knox City. 940-658-3926. Brigadier General John Sayles Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 366, 7 p.m., American Legion Building, 302 E.S. 11th St. Abilene Society of Model Railroaders, 7-8:30 p.m., 2043 N. Second St. Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St. WEDNESDAY Taylor County Livestock Show The Taylor County Livestock Show will begin with the poultry show at 11 a.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center Big Country Hall, followed by the steer and heifer show at 1 p.m. in Griffin Arena. Admission is free for spectators. ArtFilm As part of the "This Is Modern Art" series, a screening of "New Art and the Young Artists Behind It" will be presented at noon at the Center for Contemporary Arts, 220 Cypress St. Other ... Overeaters Anonymous, 8 a.m., Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112. Blood drive, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Loraine High School. Abilene Cactus Lions Club, 11:45 a.m., Cotton Patch Cafe, 3302 S. Clack St. Abilene Wednesday Rotary Club, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway. $12 for lunch. Jo Ann Wilson, 325-677-6815. Kiwanis Club of Abilene, noon, Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Clearly Speaking Toastmaster Club, noon, Westgate Church of Christ, 402 S. Pioneer Drive. 325-795-5570. Alzheimer's Association Caregiver Support Group, 2-3 p.m., Western Hills Healthcare Residence, Comanche. Alzheimer's disease support group, 5:15 p.m., Cedar Crest Care Center, 1901 W. Elliott, Breckenridge. Assists those who have a family member with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. 1-800-272-3900 or 254-559-3302. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 5:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Veterans Peer Support Group, 6 p.m., 725 Orange St. 325-670-4818. Mid-week Al-Anon Family Group, 6-7 p.m., Open Door Building, 3157 Russell Ave. 325-698-4995. Advanced Square Dancing, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Wagon Wheel. Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First United Methodist Church, 1501 N. Broadway, Ballinger. 817-689-2810 or 325-977-1007. DivorceCare support group, 7 p.m., Hillcrest Church of Christ, 650 E. Ambler Ave. 325-691-4200. THURSDAY Taylor County Livestock Show The Taylor County Livestock Show will continue with the lamb and goat show at 8 a.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center Horse Barn, followed by the rabbit show at 5 p.m. Admission is free for spectators. Mac class The MacUser Group will conduct a free Mac computer class at 1 p.m. at the Mockingbird Branch of the Abilene Public Library, 1326 N. Mockingbird Lane. For more information, call 325-692-1087. Brain health program A free educational program, "Healthy Living for Your Brain and Body: Tips from the Latest Research," will be presented from 2-4 p.m. at the Alzheimer's Association North Central Texas Chapter Abilene Regional Office, 301 S. Pioneer Drive, Suite 105. Space is limited. To make reservations, or for more information, contact 325-672-2907, 800-272-3900 or mbannister@alz.org. Grace After Dark Screenings of several short films will be presented during Grace After Dark at 7 p.m. on the roof of The Grace Museum, 102 Cypress St. Food trucks will open at 6 p.m., and a cash bar will be available. Admission will be free, but will be limited to 100 viewers. Participants must be 18 or older. 'Seussical the Musical' A production of "Seussical the Musical" will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Abilene High School auditorium. Admission is $10 for adults and $7 for students, seniors and military. For more information, call 325-677-1730. Other ... Chronic Pain and Depression Group, 11 a.m. to noon, Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St., 325-673-2300. Abilene Founder Lions Club, 11:30 a.m., Al's Mesquite Grill, 4801 Buffalo Gap Road. Kiwanis Club of Greater Abilene, noon, Beehive Restaurant, 442 Cedar St. 325-695-0092. Retired Military Wives Club social meeting, 1 p.m., Rose Park Senior Activity Center, 2625 South Seventh St. 325-677-9656 or 325-793-1490. Mental Illness Open Support Group, 1-2 p.m., Mental Health Association of Abilene, 333 Orange St. 325-673-2300. Blood drive, 1-4 p.m., Dyess Elementary School. Abilene 42 Club, 6 p.m., Rose Park Senior Center. Teen Recovery Group, 6-7 p.m., Mission Abilene, 3001 N. Third St. Free certified nurturing parent class (all ages), 6-8 p.m., Mission Church, North Third and Mockingbird streets. 325-672-9398. Free swim class for people with multiple sclerosis, 6:30 p.m., YMCA, 3250 State St. Gambler's Anonymous, 6:30 p.m., Unity Spiritual Living Center, 2842 Barrow St. 325-338-2575. Round Dancing, 7 p.m., Wagon Wheel. 325-829-1517. South Pioneer Al-Anon Group, 8 p.m., 3157 Russell Ave. Unity Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, 8 p.m., Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St. FRIDAY Taylor County Livestock Show The Taylor County Livestock Show will continue with the swine show at 8 a.m. at the Taylor County Expo Center Horse Barn. Admission is free for spectators. Lunch and learn EARLY A Lunch and Learn Seminar featuring Kevin Tutt will be presented from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Early Chamber of Commerce. Registration is $15, and must be made by Jan. 20. To register, call 325-649-9317. Musical COTTONWOOD The Cottonwood Country Musical will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Cottonwood Community Center. A supper will be served from 5-7 p.m. 'Seussical the Musical' A production of "Seussical the Musical" will be presented at 7 p.m. in the Abilene High School auditorium. Admission is $10 for adults and $7 for students, seniors and military. For more information, call 325-677-1730. 'Always Patsy Cline' A production of "Always ... Patsy Cline" will be presented at 7:30 p.m. at Abilene Community Theatre, 809 Barrow St. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for students, seniors and military. For more information, call 325-673-6271 or go to www.abilenecommunitytheatre.org. Dance OPLIN A dance featuring Muddy Creek will be 7:30-10:30 p.m. at the Oplin Community Center. Admission is $5. Information: www.grandoleoplin.com. Other ... Blood drive, 8 a.m. to noon, Abilene ISD Administration Building. Overeaters Anonymous, noon, Hinds Square Building, 100 Chestnut St., Room 112. Abilene Chinese Corner, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Abilene Christian University library. lld09a@acu.edu. Mid-City Al-Anon, 7 p.m., First Christian Church. 325-670-4304. When Blockbuster and other major video chains shuttered their stores, public libraries became one of the few places at which one can browse for DVDs to borrow rather than purchase. Just as at a regular store, the Abilene Public Library can order the newest titles and make them available to patrons on their official release dates. Because the library allows patrons to place holds on titles, however, some patrons who come in hoping to find the latest releases often are disappointed. Do not despair, however, because there may well be DVDs of films that are just a few years old and were not huge releases, but that you might enjoy watching all the same. Fans of science fiction may want to check out the 2009 film "Moon." Sam Rockwell stars as an astronaut mining the dark side of the moon, counting the days until his three-year contract ends and he can return home to his family. He soon discovers that things aren't what they seem. "Automata," directed by Gabe Ibanez, is a bleak depiction of a future Earth on the verge of ecological collapse. This film features an eclectic cast and elements evoking both "Blade Runner" and "I, Robot." A 2013 fantasy/science fiction film starring Chris Evans (of "Captain America" fame) that you may have missed is "Snowpiercer." This Dystopian look at a future Earth was based on a graphic novel and features grand action as well as social commentary. Horror is a popular genre here at the library. If you haven't already seen it, give "The Babadook" a try. This fresh take on monster films tells the story of a widowed woman and her son whose lives are turned upside down by an ominous pop-up storybook. "As Above, So Below" utilizes found footage to show a group exploring the maze of catacombs beneath Paris. Though primarily billed as horror, this film also has literary and archeological elements and an ending that, while hinted at over the course of the movie, might still take you by surprise. Sometimes films are worth a look because of a unique concept. Quirky and charming, the 2013 film "The Pretty One" features female twins with very different lives. One left home and enjoys a successful career and the other lives a quiet life with her father and stepmother. Things change, however, when tragedy strikes and one twin is mistaken for the other. "Locke" is set entirely in a car traveling from Birmingham, England, to London and features one main character. The plot unfolds during a series of phone calls the character makes and receives during the drive. This film has a hypnotic feel due to excellent nighttime photography and sharp editing. It also features a magnetic performance by actor Tom Hardy. The atmospheric and unsettling "Enemy" has history professor Adam Bell, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, stumbling upon a man who appears to be his doppelganger. Bell hunts for the man's identity online and then shadows him. The core of the film explores what happens when the two finally meet. Regardless of your taste in films, the Abilene Public Library has a diverse collection of titles such as those described above, as well as those we now offer through our online Hoopla service. So the chances are good that you will find one you enjoy. Let the staff know what type of movie you like, and we will be happy to help you locate titles you may have missed when they first came out. You never know you may discover a new favorite. Incident reports released Sunday by the Abilene Police Department: Criminal mischief, 2500 block of Barrow Street, Saturday. Police said unknown suspects smashed the front windshield of a work vehicle. Criminal mischief, 200 block of War Paint Road, Saturday. A 69-year-old woman reported suspects entered her residence and put holes in the ceiling. The victim believed that it may have been done by neighbors. Theft, 400 block of Penrose Drive, Saturday. A 22-year-old woman reported having $80 and was going to give $40 to her baby daddy, the suspect. The woman said the suspect took all of the money without her knowing it. The suspect said he didn't have the money. Assault, family violence, 3100 block of South 22nd Street, Saturday. Police said a client at a group home struck another client and a staff member. Theft, 200 block of Meander Street, Saturday. Police said a suspect was arrested and jailed for stealing a bicycle. The bicycle was returned. Theft, shoplifting, 3700 block of Ridgemont Drive, Saturday. Police said two females were arrested in possession of $954 worth of items from a department store. They had not paid for the merchandise. The store will press charges. Burglary, residence unforced entry, 1700 block of North 3rd Street, Friday. Police said suspects entered a vacant home through a side door. Approximately $200 of antiques were reported missing. A neighbor reported seeing two suspects leaving from behind the house. The Holloways of Taylor County has been known as a premier show steer family for decades. "It is a passion and part of my heritage," said Justin Holloway of Buffalo Gap. The late Raymond Holloway was the foundation of this family's show traditions. The senior Holloway and wife Cora raised eight children, all who were very active in the Taylor County 4-H program, and each gathered success showing steers. As a family, there were many champions throughout the major shows of Texas. Wilburn Holloway showed the Grand Champion Steer in Fort Worth in 1960 and his younger brother Paul took Grand Champion and Reserve Champion at the Houston Show in 1966. In 2001, the Holloway family made stock show history winning three breed champions at Houston shown by Paul's children, Julie, Jonathon and Justin. It is also noteworthy, that Paul showed the Grand Champion Steer, the first year the champion selection was held in the Astrodome, while his children were in the champion drive the last year the final selection was held in the Astrodome. Now, a fourth generation of the Holloway family is carrying on the winning tradition. Shealeigh, daughter of Justin and Peyton Holloway, took the Brangus Breed Champion honors at the Houston Livestock Show this last spring. That was just one of many major shows wins this past year for Shealeigh, a first year steer exhibitor. While small in stature, Shealeigh is learning to show the steers that are 15 times larger than her with ease. "My first show was the West Texas Fair in 2014, I was frighten at first, but when I entered the ring everything just went the way it was supposed to," she said. The 2015-16 show season will be just as active for the Justin Holloway family. With entries in all the major shows, many hours are spent in the barn working with the steers. "As I became a part of the family, I never realized the time required with show steers," said Peyton Holloway. "Being a 4-H member in Crockett County, I showed goats and rabbits and developed a 4-H background." "It takes time and dedication," cites Justin. "Few people realize the expense and time it takes to get a steer ready for the ring." A show steer project is 18 months from the time the feeding program begins until the steer enters the ring. The Holloway family considers traveling to the shows a "work trip" and are there to take care of every need of the steers. One other factor is that they must consider is school work. It has been a standard practice of the Holloways for the father to take the steers to the show, and then the rest of the family travel to the show after school, thus missing as few days as possible. Besides showing steers, both Justin and Peyton have professional careers. Justin works in the farm implement business, and Peyton works as a foster care representative with Christian Homes of Abilene. Justin is also part time youth minster with the Jim Ned Church of Christ. "But, all of our vacation time is at stock shows," they said. Taking the steer show experience a step further, Justin is developing a beef cattle herd with the goal of producing quality steers. With production tools such as artificial insemination and embryo transfer, several show steer projects are being produced. The marketing is via Internet and two production sales in the spring. Justin Holloway sums up the reason for the long hours and expense of showing cattle in very simple terms. "When I was showing, I was with my Dad more than any other time, and enjoyed every minute of it," he said. The Justin Holloway family will continue the steer show heritage for years to come. Fighting flu starts with a shot, and it's time for Texans to get one Advertisement - Continue Reading Below This just in... Bao Tong shows a photo of his former boss former Zhao Ziyang at his home in Beijing in a file photo. On May 28, 1989, I was sent to jail with no documentation whatsoever. As soon as I arrived at Qincheng Prison, I fell into a long, deep sleep. Then, someone arrived at the dead of night bearing a letter from the Chinese Communist Party central committee anounced that it had decided to investigate me. They wanted me to make a detailed account of all of my activities since former premier Hu Yaobang died on April 15. About 10 days later, the investigation team told me not to bother writing down my own activities; they wanted me to expose Zhao Ziyang, because they were in the process of investigating him as well. "But what is there to investigate about Zhao Ziyang? The party is lucky to have him as its general secretary," I told them. I still think that to this day. More than 20 years have passed, and Zhao Ziyang has been dead a long while. The investigators never asked me why I thought the party was lucky to have Zhao. Now that another anniversary of his death is here, I think I should explain. I have seen a lot of party leaders in my time, from production brigade and commune leaders, to village, county and provincial party secretaries, all the way up to the central committee. And I can tell you that not all those who become leaders deserve to. As I wrote in my draft for some teaching materials for party members proposed by Deng Xiaoping in 1962 at a meeting of the secretariat, and handed to Zhao Han, deputy head of the party's organization department for implementation: "If they open their mouths, it's only to issue orders, and if they extend their hand, it's only to order others around." This isn't a complete, scientific summary. It is limited to my own, very narrow, personal experience. Under current system, where the party controls everything: government, people, military and academic life, then any leader who emerges must of necessity be some sort of omnipotent deity. Until of course they are placed under investigation by disciplinary inspectors: then they are reduced once more to the status of mere fleas. I have seen party secretaries of provinces, prefectures, counties, communes and production brigades, all with their inimitable style when it came to teaching the farmers how to till the land: deep plowing; close planting; crop rotation; they knew it all. The farmers were forced to listen to them respectfully, and to do as they were told without making a fuss. There were few exceptions to this type, and Zhao Ziyang was one of them. His idea was that the farmers should be given free rein. Similarly, I have heard tales of how party leaders accused and reprimanded factory and mine bosses, issuing punishments and firing people by order. Here, too, Zhao was the exception. He would privilege the autonomy of businesses acting within the marketplace over the power of government agencies to direct them, both in meetings of the State Council and the party central committee. Some leaders like to act as the final arbiter for judges, and never tire of teaching them how to reach decisions. But not Zhao Ziyang. He refused to interfere in the workings of the judiciary, with its right to operate independently. He wouldn't even share his personal opinions or leanings. He told the judiciary: "The only thing the party requires of you is that you only act according to the law. That's it." On one occasion, a certain leader with a keen political sense thought he had detected a whiff of hostile foreign forces in certain cultural works. But Zhao wouldn't play their game. He told the orchestrator of the main theme tune: "We watch movies. We don't investigate them." He didn't see himself as having the right to investigate culture, any more than the average person did. I worked with Zhao Ziyang for 10 years, and I never once saw him tell scientists how to innovate, nor teachers how to teach, nor farmers how to till the land. He didn't believe that it was his job to divide people into friends and enemies, either. During the Cultural Revolution [1966-1976], the central committee under Mao Zedong criticized the Guangdong provincial party secretary for his "counterrevolutionary opinions" regarding the Li Yizhe group [and their critique of the party elite]. Zhao Ziyang, who was that Guangdong provincial party secretary, turned it around deftly by throwing the debate open among the revolutionary masses, on the grounds that they were better qualified than he to sort the sheep from the goats. He never saw himself as having the right to decide the fates of others. He treated them as people, not as assets to be disposed of, made use of or manipulated at will. He also saw himself as human, not as some deity with the power to dominate others. That's why the last thing he wanted the government to do was to open fire on Chinese citizens. And that's why we, in a system where the party controls everything, were so very lucky to have him. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Bao Tong, former political aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, is currently under house arrest at his home in Beijing. Taiwan President-elect Tsai Ing-wen, waving after her victory in the presidential election on Jan. 16, 2016 , was warned by China's state-run media that a formal split from the mainland would be a "dead end." China on Monday struck a warning note aimed at Taiwan's president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, who swept to victory in general elections at the weekend, saying her win posed "grave challenges" to peaceful ties with Beijing, which has never ruled out the use of force against the democratic island. Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won not just the presidency but a first-time majority in the island's parliament, ousting the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) from the presidency and relegating it to the status of opposition party for the first time in Taiwan's history. The official Chinese media, which is closely controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said fears that the island would move towards formal independence were "ratcheting up" with Tsai's victory. But it stopped short of the kind of political invective it once levelled at the last DPP president, Chen Shui-bian. "There is no denying that the DPP's return rule poses grave challenges to cross-Strait relations," state news agency Xinhua said in an editorial on Monday which put Tsai's victory down to "mistakes" by the KMT, rather than a popular upsurge of support for independence. In Taiwan, Tsai's supporters said the election result is a victory for the island's local identity. "I think the majority of Taiwanese people are very happy about the DPP's victory, in particular, native Taiwanese [as opposed to post-1949 migrants from mainland China]," a supporter who gave only his surname Chang told RFA. "This is a new generation, a new victory." Alive and kicking A fellow DPP supporter surnamed Chiu said the election showed the spirit of democracy is alive and kicking in the island, where many fear that Beijing has already began to manipulate political life from behind the scenes. "I hope that we will now be able to move towards a future in which we are the masters of our own fate," Chiu said. "In particular, the next generation of young people can now integrate with the older generation and work together in that spirit, to take it forward." Political commentator Hsu Szu-chien said he now sees constitutional reform as a necessary, but long-term, gradual process. "We are talking about a natural process of constitutional reform; that's the only way that would be appropriate," Hsu said. "It's also easier to talk about in an international context that way, and it will take a while to simmer in people's minds." "Of course we need constitutional reform in the long term. But people can't expect this DPP administration to implement it; it'll take much longer to build a broad popular movement for constitutional change." The Chinese Communist Party and the KMT nationalist party were bitter foes during a civil war that flared up after the defeat of Japan in World War II, and the KMT government fled to the island from Chongqing after losing to Mao Zedong's Soviet-backed communist forces. The Taipei government sees itself as the legal continuation of the KMT regime that began with Sun Yat-sen's 1911 revolution and the fall of the Qing dynasty, while Beijing says Taiwan is a province that must one day be united with the mainland, and has threatened to use military force if the island seeks independence. Beijing wants clarification Meanwhile, Xinhua's editorial also called on Tsai to clarify her position with regard to Beijing. "If the DPP sincerely intends to maintain the status quo, it must give a clear answer to the key question of whether it supports the 1992 Consensus," the article said in a reference to an accord between Beijing and the KMT that assumes both governments are part of a single China, albeit with differing interpretations of what that means. Analysts say the eventual outcome of the "one China" policy would be reunification under the "one country, two systems" model in place in Hong Kong. But Beijing's refusal to allow fully democratic elections in the former British colony, and its intolerance of the 2014 pro-democracy movement have made that prospect less appealing for many in Taiwan. Tsai on Saturday pledged to work to maintain the status quo "for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait." She called for reciprocity to ensure that "no provocations or accidents take place." Meanwhile, Taiwan expert Zhang Hua of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) said Tsai's victory is linked to changes in the way younger Taiwanese see themselves. "Taiwan's young generations have developed a multifaceted national identity," Zhang wrote in a commentary in the Global Times newspaper on Monday. "This is the gravest challenge for the mainland's cross-Straits policy." Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei meanwhile warned the United States not to "interfere in China's internal affairs." "Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory and Taiwan affairs are China's internal affairs," Hong told a regular news briefing in Beijing. "We urge the U.S. side to do more things that are conducive to the stable development of China-U.S. relations and peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait, not vice versa," Hong said. Reported by Chung Kuang-cheng and Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Miao Chiu-jyu for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Afghanistan's top election official says the country's long-delayed parliamentary elections have been scheduled for October 15. Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, told journalists in Kabul on January 18 that the ballot would only be held on time if the government provided the necessary budget, security for candidates, electoral workers, and ballot boxes. The Afghan legislature's five-year term expired in June but elections were postponed because of security fears and disagreements on how to ensure a fair vote after a bitterly disputed 2014 presidential election. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in 2015 issued a decree extending parliament's mandate until an election can be held. Critics of that decree have questioned whether the extension was legal. If the elections go ahead as planned, they are likely to be held against a backdrop of sharply worsening security. Based on reporting by Reuters and AP Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani has called for all Taliban factions to join peace talks with the Afghan government or risk being sidelined from any future settlement. Speaking at the start of four-nation talks in Kabul aimed at drafting a road map for an eventual peace deal with the Taliban, Rabbani said Kabul wanted "all of the Taliban to join us at the table for peace talks." But he said that "any delay in coming to the table will put the Taliban in a corner." He said that if the Taliban refused to attend the talks, they would prove that their aim is not peace. He said the people of Afghanistan "will not accept and trust a prolonged peace process with no results." The meeting in Kabul involves delegates from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the United States. It comes a week after the delegates met in Islamabad. Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters Two rival countries in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan and Armenia, have welcomed the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said on January 18 that the implementation of Iran's nuclear deal with six world powers "will give an additional impetus to further develop a mutually beneficial partnership" between Baku and "the friendly and neighborly people of Iran." Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian also greeted the lifting of the sanctions, saying that "Armenia is keen to deepen its mutually beneficial cooperation with friendly Iran." On January 16, the UN nuclear watchdog announced that Iran has met its nuclear promises under the July nuclear deal, triggering the end of nuclear-related sanctions that had been imposed by the United Nations, the United States, and the European Union. GYUMRI, Armenia -- An Armenian judge has refused to move the trial of a Russian soldier accused of murdering an Armenian family of seven from a Russian military base to an Armenian court. Judge Harutyun Movsisian announced his decision as the trial of Valery Permyakov resumed on January 18 in Armenias northwestern city of Gyumri, where Russia's 102nd Military Base is located. Permyakov was once stationed at the base and is currently jailed there on desertion charges. Six members of the Avetisian family, including a 2-year-old girl, were found dead on January 12, 2015, in their home in Gyumri. All the victims were shot dead or stabbed to death, and a 6-month-old boy who was stabbed in the attack died of his injuries a week later. Permyakov, who was 18 at the time of the killings, was later detained near Armenia's border with Turkey after fleeing the Russian base. The slayings led to numerous -- and sometimes violent -- rallies in Gyumri and Yerevan in which participants protested Russia's military presence in the country and called for Permyakov to be tried in Armenian courts rather than by Russian military judges. In August, a Russian military court found Permyakov guilty of desertion and sentenced him to 10 years in jail. The soldier pleaded guilty to charges of desertion with weapons, stealing firearms and ammunition, and illegally carrying weapons. However, the trial did not address the killings themselves, and Permyakov was handed to Armenian officials to face murder charges. Lawyers for the victims asked Judge Movsisian on January 18 to allow the location of the civilian trial to be moved to a regular Armenian court, but the judge rejected their request. Movsisian also rejected the lawyers' call to recuse himself from the case and adjourned the trial until January 22. The lawyers had accused Movsisian of being under outside influence. Permyakov, who is being defended by a court-appointed lawyer, was directly asked twice if he would agree to the trial being moved outside the Russian base. At first, Permyakov said the location of the trial made no difference to him. But when asked a second time, he said he felt safer on the premises of the Russian base. According to Armenian and Russian reports, Permyakov told military officials that he broke into the Avetisians' home to steal money to return to Russia because he couldn't bear being in the army anymore. Commemorations were held for the Avetisian family in Gyumri last week, on the anniversary of the slayings. Hundreds of people visited the victims' graves and attended a special liturgy at the citys central church on January 12. Russia maintains a garrison of around 3,000 soldiers at the 102nd Military Base, located some 120 kilometers northwest of Yerevan. PHOTO GALLERY: Armenians Face Cold Reality After Gyumri Massacre Photo Gallery: Armenians Face Cold Reality After Gyumri Massacre The massacre of the Avetisian family one year ago shocked the Caucasus nation of Armenia. The killings left seven dead, spanning three generations, with the youngest victim just 6 months old. News that the lone suspect was a soldier stationed at Russia's 102nd Military Base, located in the northwestern city of Gyumri, left locals outraged. But despite this being only the latest in a string of violent incidents related to the base, many feel that without the presence of Russian military the very existence of Armenia would be threatened. Photos and text by RFE/RL's Amos Chapple Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Email to a Friend Share on LinkedIn Founded in 1941, the facility in Gyumri survived the Soviet Union's demise before receiving its current name -- the 102nd Military Base -- along with a 25-year lease, in the mid-1990s. In past years, a number of violent incidents related to the Russian military presence have been recorded. In 1999, two drunk Russian officers opened fire on shoppers at a local market in Gyumri, killing two people and injuring dozens more. In 2013, unattended explosive devices left on the 102nd's firing range killed two teenagers In November, a 31-year-old Armenian stationed with Russian border guards was found hanged in the village of Gusanagukh, in the northern Shirak region. In March, a 26-year-old Armenian national serving with Russian border guards was found hanged in Gyumri. Despite the incidents, many Armenians consider the Russian presence key to Armenia's security in the face of perceived threats from Turkey and Azerbaijan. Citizens in Gyumri note that the 102nd base is an important local employer. Written by Eugen Tomiuc based on reporting by RFE/RL's Knar Khudoyan in Prague and RFE/RL Armenian Service correspondents in Gyumri MOSCOW -- Internet posts featuring photos of pets are usually well-meant. This one was not. A close ally of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov fired a fresh salvo in a chilling confrontation with Russian liberals when he posted a menacing picture of the Kremlin-backed regional leader with a slavering dog named Tarzan straining on a leash. Chechen parliament speaker Magomed Daudov, who had called the opponents of President Vladimir Putin traitors and a fifth column on January 16, said on Instagram on January 17 that the big dogs fangs are itching to get at opposition figures he suggested were American stooges. This again is Tarzan...Our old friend, Daudov wrote above a picture of Kadyrov restraining a lunging Caucasian Shepherd dog. Tarzan just hates dogs of foreign stripes...Especially American ones. With its threatening and vulgar language, the post was seen by critics of Kadyrov as the latest evidence that he and his lieutenants are increasingly out of control and must be reined in by Putin, who has relied on the former separatist fighter for years to keep a lid on restive Chechnya. It came days after a lawmaker in Siberia was forced to apologize after calling Kadyrov a disgrace to Russia. In the post, Daudov singled out prominent Russian liberal opposition politicians, activists, and journalists by giving them nicknames inspired by dog breeds. Those targeted included Igor Kalypin, head of the Committee to Prevent Torture; Aleksei Veneditkov, editor in chief of radio station Ekho Moskvy; human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov; and opposition activist Ilya Yashin. Daudov wrote of pekingese Kalyapa, who defends the rights of those who tell on the Pitbull, dachshund Venya with the barking throat and loud Echo, the Moscow thoroughbred Ponomarwho lives in a trash can not far from the Russian State Duma, the pooch Yashka who creates discomfort with his stench in the very center of the capital. In general our friend doesnt like these dogs, mainly because they remind him of wanton bitches, he wrote. Some people singled out by Daudov reacted with humor. State Duma deputy Dmitry Gudkov, the only liberal opposition politician in Russias parliament, hit back with a Twitter post featuring a photo of his far more friendly looking dog. ToDaudov. I've seen your Tarzan. This is my Tibetan mastiff, Elman. He's a pet, not a political argument," he wrote. Yashin posted a photo of his cat. Kremlin foes and rights activists have long voiced concern that Kadyrov has violated the Russian Constitution and ruled Chechnya though fear and abuse since Putin put him in place in 2007. Tensions between Kadyrov and Russian liberals have escalated since the February 2015 slaying of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, which many critics of the Chechen strongman suspect he was behind. Kadyrov denies involvement, and efforts by relatives and associates of Nemtsov to have him questioned have been thwarted. Critics say Kadyrov enjoys wide-ranging impunity in return for unwavering expressions of loyalty to Putin and iron rule in Chechnya, the site of two devastating post-Soviet separatist wars and a continuing Islamist insurgency. The latest hostilities began on January 12, when Kadyrov called members of the opposition enemies of the people and traitors and said they should be tried and sentenced. Nothing is holy to them, he said in comments carried by the Chechen government website. The statement prompted Konstantin Senchenko, a local legislator in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, to call Kadyrov a disgrace to Russia in a blistering attack on Facebook. The next day, however, Senchenko issued a groveling apology to the Chechen leader -- and later said he had received oblique but clear warnings that he could suffer the same fate as Nemtsov. Stepping up the rhetoric further, Adam Delimkhanov, a State Duma deputy and right-hand man of Kadyrov, condemned what he called the opposition "fifth column" for "rocking the political and social situation at a bad time. Russias economy has been hit hard by low world oil prices and Western sanctions over its interference in Ukraine. Daudov on January 16 then called for the closure of Internet TV station Dozhd and Ekho Moskvy, saying they constitute the headquarters of the fifth column. It prompted Ekho Moskvy presenter Matvei Ganapolsky on January 17 to write an open letter to Putin asking him to intervene, saying staff at the radio station face an open threat to their lives. Do you want a Charlie Hebdo? Ganapolsky asked, referring to the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine in January 2015. Do you want this? Probably not. But maybe you do. And if you dont -- then why arent you reacting? A Moscow-based group called the Congress of the Intelligentsia is petitioning for Kadyrov to be sacked, while St. Petersburg city councilor Maksim Reznik on January 18 formally appealed to prosecutors to check Kadyrovs statements for extremism. Russian media outlet RBC quoted Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Kremlin's human rights council, as saying he believes the spate of provocative statements from Chechnya are Kadyrov's "own personal initiative." He said that Kadyrov probably feels emboldened because the investigation into Nemtsovs killing has not shown considerable progress or gone deeper than the five low-level Chechens who have been charged. But other Russians suspect that many of Kadyrovs actions and words are coordinated with the Kremlin. Diplomatic sources in Rome say Iranian President Hassan Rohani plans to visit Italy and France next week -- his first trip to Europe since the lifting of sanctions against his country under an historic nuclear deal with world powers. Italian officials said Rohani planned to visit Italy on January 25 and 26 before traveling on to Paris on January 27. His schedule in Italy includes meetings with the countrys president and prime minister as well as a group of Italian business leaders. Rohani also reportedly is scheduled to meet Pope Francis on January 26. The visits were originally due to take place in November but were canceled after the November 13 terrorist attacks by Islamist militants in Paris. Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP A major search operation is under way for three Americans who have gone missing in Baghdad. Iraqi media and officials have said that the three missing Americans have been kidnapped. Gunmen seized the trio from an apartment on January 16 in Baghdads southeastern Dora district, Mohammed al-Karbouli, who sits on parliament's security and defense panel, was quoted as saying by Reuters. An Iraqi government intelligence official told the Associated Press that the three were kidnapped, along with their Iraqi translator, when they visited the interpreters home in the Dora neighborhood. Police vehicles patrolled Dora's streets on January 18 while residents said two helicopters were seen hovering over the district. U.S. officials have confirmed three Americans have gone missing in the Iraqi capital. U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby says U.S. authorities are "working with the full cooperation of the Iraqi authorities to locate and recover the individuals," after Al-Arabiya television reported that the three were feared to have been kidnapped by militias. U.S. officials did not identify the missing Americans or say what they were doing in Iraq. Other Iraqi media reports said they went missing on January 15 or 16. An Iraqi police colonel told AFP that the Americans were kidnapped by militiamen wearing military uniforms. Shi'ite paramilitary forces, dominated by Iran-backed militia fighters who have helped Iraq battle Islamic State militants, have been accused of abuses including executions and kidnappings. Based on reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin has introduced martial law in four of Ukraine's regions, parts of which are under the control of Russian troops, as Ukrainian forces continue liberating occupied territories in the country's east despite another barrage of air attacks across the country. Putin said at an online session of the Security Council on October 19 that he signed a decree declaring martial law in Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya -- all of which Russia illegally annexed last month. Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. He didnt immediately describe the steps that would be taken under martial law but said his order was effective starting at midnight on October 20. His decree gives law enforcement agencies three days to submit specific proposals. The package of moves, which come nearly eight months into the war launched by the Kremlin in late February, marked the latest escalation by Putin to counter a series of defeats to Ukrainian forces since the start of September. By extending the decree to regions beyond Ukraine, the move ensures that more Russians, already angered by a military mobilization announced last month, will more deeply feel the consequences of the war in their own lives. Mykhaylo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office's head, called Putin's move "a pseudo-legalization of looting of Ukrainians' property." "This does not change anything for Ukraine: We continue the liberation and deoccupation of our territories," Podolyak tweeted shortly after Putin announced martial law in the four Ukrainian regions. U.S. President Joe Biden, speaking at the White House, said Putin is trying to get Ukraine to give up. "I think that Vladimir Putin finds himself in an incredible difficult position and what it reflects to me is it seems his only tool available to him is to brutalize the individual citizens in Ukraineto try to intimidate them into capitulating. They are not going to do that," Biden said. U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said earlier the declaration of martial law was a desperate tactic and any claim by Russia over the regions was "illegitimate." Putin's move came as the Russia-installed leader of Ukraine's southern Kherson region said the evacuation has started of tens of thousands of civilians and Moscow-appointed officials in the face of a Ukrainian military advance. Vladimir Saldo said 50,000-60,000 civilians would leave four towns on the west bank of the Dnieper River in an "organized, gradual displacement" over the next five or six days. All of the Moscow-installed administration in the city of Kherson would evacuate, too, Saldo said. Russian television showed footage of a number of people queuing for boats on the Dnieper River bank although it was not immediately clear how many were leaving. The forced transfer or deportation of the civilian population by an occupying power from the territory under its control is considered a war crime. Saldo's statements came after General Sergei Surovikin, the new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said the situation in the southern city of Kherson is "difficult" and residents facing Ukrainian bombardment are to be evacuated. WATCH: Ukrainian forces first got their hands on FH70 155-millimeter howitzers courtesy of Italy in May and received training in Estonia. RFE/RL journalists met with a frontline FH70 crew and watched them in action against Russian forces. "The Russian Army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population" of Kherson, Surovikin said. But Kyiv on October 19 accused Russia of staging a propaganda show in an attempt to "scare" the Kherson residents. "Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake messages about the shelling of the city by our army and are also staging a propaganda show with evacuation," the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram. Kherson was the first big city to fall to the Russian forces in February after the start of Moscow's unprovoked invasion, but Ukrainian forces have been steadily retaking nearby territory in recent weeks. They have pushed as far as 30 kilometers south along the Dnieper River, threatening to trap Russian troops. Meanwhile, fresh explosions were heard in Kyiv and other areas on October 19, with a missile strike hitting a major thermal power station in the city of Burshtyn in western Ukraine. The coal-fired Burshtyn plant in the region of Ivano-Frankivsk, which supplies electricity to three western regions and to five million consumers, was hit and on fire, according to Svytlana Onysshchuk, the regional governor. There were no casualties in the strike at the plant, which was hit by four missiles nine days earlier as well. Serhiy Borzov, governor of the Vinnytsya region in western Ukraine, said Russia had also carried out attacks on energy facilities in his region. Russian bombardment also cut power and water in some parts of Enerhodar in the Zaporizhzhya region on October 19, said Dmytro Orlov, the mayor of the southern city located near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant that's been a flashpoint of the nearly eight-month conflict. A power plant in Kryviy Rih, a city in south-central Ukraine, was also seriously damaged by Russian shelling, leaving villages, towns, and a city district without electricity, the regional governor reported. Russian forces also targeted Ukraine's southern Mykolayiv region again with kamikaze drones early on October 19. The Ukrainian military's southern command said in a statement on October 19 that its forces shot down 12 drones overnight. More than a week of air attacks has destroyed almost one-third of Ukraine's power stations and cut electricity in more than 1,000 settlements. With Ukraine gaining momentum in the war that is now nearly eight months old, European lawmakers on October 19 recognized the country's "brave" citizens by awarding them the 2022 Sakharov Prize. "This award is for those Ukrainians fighting on the ground. For those who have been forced to flee. For those who have lost relatives and friends. For all those who stand up and fight for what they believe in. I know that the brave people of Ukraine will not give up and neither will we," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in the statement. The annual prize is named after the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov and was established in 1988 by the European parliament to honor individuals and organizations defending human rights and fundamental freedoms. With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP A Pakistani court has acquitted former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf over the 2006 killing of a Baluch nationalist leader, one of three legal cases Musharraf has been facing. Lawyers for both sides in the case confirmed in Quetta that the court dismissed all the charges against Musharraf and all others named in the case. Akbar Bugti, an ethnic Baluch leader involved in an armed struggle for greater autonomy for Pakistan's Balochistan Province, was killed during a military operation in August 2006, when Musharraf was in power. Bugti's death led to widespread unrest in the province and a surge of Baluch nationalist sentiments. Musharraf still faces trial in connection with the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007 while leaving a campaign rally for her Pakistan Peoples Party. Musharraf was also indicted for high treason in connection with his November 2007 order for emergency rule in Pakistan. Based on reporting by AFP, Dawn, and The New York Times A leading engineer at a Russian space center that is under construction in the country's Far East has been charged with taking a bribe. Russia's Investigative Committee says that the man, whose name was not disclosed, was detained on January 18 after he allegedly accept 50,000 rubles ($635) from a subcontractor during the construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Amur region. Russia is building the facility to eliminate its reliance on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for manned launches. But the project has been dogged by reports of corruption. In the spring of 2015, workers went on strike at the facility over unpaid wages. They were only paid after appealing directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The directors of three subcontracting firms were later arrested on corruption charges. Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax MOSCOW -- The Russian State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State-Building has declined to endorse a controversial draft bill that would introduce fines and arrests for people who publicly express their homosexuality. The parliamentary committee on January 18 advised that the Duma unanimously vote against the bill in the event it reached a first reading. The bill, initiated by lawmakers from the Communist Party and condemned as discriminatory by human rights activists, called for fines of up to 5,000 rubles (about $65) for publicly expressing "nontraditional sexual orientation." The bill also proposed punishing those who express homosexuality at educational or cultural institutions with arrest and up to 15 days in jail. Communist lawmaker Igor Nikitchuk, one of the bills authors, defended the legislation during a meeting of the committee, calling homosexuality a contagious disease and a threat to society, as other lawmakers snickered. Lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, a rare anti-Kremlin opposition politician in the State Duma, wrote that the recommendation to reject the bill was made for "formal reasons." The ruling United Russia party reportedly considered the law superfluous and too close to existing legislation. In 2013, the State Duma passed the so-called gay-propaganda law, which banned "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" among minors. The controversial law received international condemnation but enjoyed popularity in Russia and fueled homophobic attitudes. Speaking at the committee meeting on January 18, Nikitchuk said that "there is a group of people who, in our opinion, have a damaged psyche, and as a result have deviated from their sexual orientation." "This is an illness on a level with drugs and alcoholism and other illnesses," he added. "Whats more, this illness is contagious. For a young man with an unformed psyche, it represents a serious threat. A lawmaker from the Liberal Democrat Party of Russia (LDPR) could be seen in the video chiding Nikitchuk, arguing that the bill was conversely drawing attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues rather than covering them up, as Nikitchuk apparently intended. Gudkov posted a video of the committee meeting on his Facebook page, calling the discussion lively. After the powerful chairman of the committee, Vladimir Pligin, said he would not back the legislation, Nikitchuk warned against a vote of no support, saying: Think about the signal that you are sending to society. Nikitchuk held up a folder full of what he said were statements of support for the draft bill from the public. Men dont walk hand-in-hand in Russia," he declared. "Men dont walk around with painted nails. Ahead of the vote, Nikitchuk told RFE/RLs Current Time television that the legislation would not stop people from doing what they want to do." "Behind closed doors, under the bed, under the bedclothes, wherever, put your penis where you want," he said. "But we consider it unacceptable to demonstrate these abnormal yearnings in public. Council of Muftis of Russia Chairman Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin has formally expressed concern and support for Hadji-Murat Gatsalov, mufti of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, the population of which is predominantly Orthodox Christian. On January 11, Gatsalov submitted to the republican prosecutors office a formal complaint about a threat he received of unspecified retribution unless he resigns as mufti. According to Gatsalov, the warning was communicated in an e-mail he received from an acquaintance in the North Ossetian town of Mozdok. That unnamed acquaintance had been summoned to the republican Center for Countering Extremism (TsPE), which is subordinate to the Interior Ministry, after which he passed on to Gatsalov a demand from the centers personnel that he should step down immediately, and should not try to leave North Ossetia as youll be tracked down and killed wherever you are. Gatsalov construed that warning as the latest in a chain of events that encompasses the murders of two of his deputies, Ibragim Dudarov in December 2012 and Rasul Gamzatov in August 2014. Neither killing has been solved. Nor was the warning the first Gatsalov has received. Last summer, the website Kavkazpress.ru, which is reportedly favorably disposed toward Russias force agencies, posted a comment by a blogger on an article titled The Wahhabis In The Spiritual Board Of Muslims that Muslims in North Ossetia construed as a threat against Gatsalov. At the same time, there was bad blood between Gatsalov and long-time Interior Minister Lieutenant-General Artur Akhmetkhanov. After Gatsalov criticized the ministry for its failure to track down Dudarovs killer, in 2013 Akhmetkhanov cited the fact that four young men from North Ossetia had reportedly been killed fighting in Syria as evidence of the spread of Islamic extremism. (Estimates of how many of North Ossetias population of a little over 700,000 are Muslims range from 15 percent to 40 percent.) More recently, in March 2015, Akhmetkhanov claimed that younger believers have so little regard for the older generation of clerics that they prefer to travel abroad to study Islamic theology, frequently returning home with extremist views. He said that in 2014, eight crimes of an extremist nature were registered in North Ossetia and six criminal cases were opened into terrorist activity or establishing an illegal armed group. Local commentators quoted by the website kavpolit.com took issue with Akhmetkhanovs assessment, however, pointing out that the mood within the republics Muslim community has improved markedly since Gatsalov was named mufti, partly as a result of the sermons preached by that older generation of imams whom Akhmetkhanov had criticized. (Gatsalovs predecessor, Ali haji Yevteyev, was constrained to resign in May 2010 after admitting in an interview to having studied theology in Nalchik with Anzor Astemirov and Musa Mukozhev, both of whom subsequently became prominent figures in the North Caucasus insurgency.) Gainutdin, too, praised Gatsalovs track record, noting the considerable authority and influence that he enjoys. Gainutdin stressed that North Ossetia is the most peaceful republic in the North Caucasus, and that any move to discredit Gatsalov will inevitably jeopardize that stability. Gainutdin also recalled that North Ossetias Muslim Spiritual Board is the only one in Russia to have issued a formal fatwa condemning the terrorist organization Islamic State. The threat Gatsalov received earlier this month is unlikely to have originated with Akhmetkhanov, given that the latter was fired in December, apparently over the scandal surrounding the beating to death in police custody of Vladimir Tskayev, a resident of Vladikavkaz who had been apprehended on suspicion of shooting and wounding a police officer. One of Tskayevs neighbors subsequently confessed to that shooting. Four police officers have been arrested in connection with Tskayevs death. It is, however, possible that one of the reportedly numerous senior Interior Ministry officials whom Akhmetkhanov brought with him to North Ossetia from his native Bashkortostan, and who presumably share his views on the threat posed by radical Islam, may regard Gatsalov as a liability and/or are out to make problems for new Republic of North Ossetia head Tamerlan Aguzarov. Aguzarov is on record as saying the republics next interior minister should be a local man, and that those ministry officials whom Akhmetkhanov brought with him should pack their bags, our railway stations and airports are open for them. Alternatively, it is equally possible that the TsPE chose to issue a warning to Gatsalov simply to demonstrate that it takes its duties seriously and is visibly carrying out the function for which it was established. WASHINGTON -- At first glance, its a case that could easily be misconstrued as a humdrum allegation of ill-gotten foreign money being laundered through dealings in American real estate. Peel away a couple layers of The United States Of America vs. Prevezon Holdings Ltd., however, and you'll find all the makings of a modern international spy thriller. The mind-boggling case currently making its way through U.S. District Court in Manhattan centers on money, power, and strange plot twists. The most eye-opening particulars of the case, however, aren't even officially on the docket: an audacious $230 million tax-fraud scheme, allegedly carried out with the complicity of Russian government officials, followed by the posthumous conviction of whistle-blowing tax auditor and the trial in absentia of a crusading British-American financier. But when U.S. vs. Prevezon opens as a "civil-asset forfeiture trial" on January 27, it will be the first case stemming from the original tax-fraud scheme -- which unfolded eight years ago in Russia -- to make it to trial in U.S. courts. That means there may be more plot twists to come. Shell Game The skirmishing between lawyers and prosecutors -- documented in a case file totaling more than 14,000 pages -- provides a rare glimpse into the universe of international money laundering. Perhaps more revealing, however, is the window it offers into corruption in Russian society -- possibly at the highest levels. "The total scale, the full scale, of these crimes that were happening in Russia for a number of years is incomprehensible because we don't have any idea," said Andrei Illarionov, who served as President Vladimir Putin's top economic adviser between 2000 and 2005. How long the graft went on, how many companies were involved, and the amount that was stolen is simply unknown, Illarionov told RFE/RL. The Prevezon case concerns about $14 million in Manhattan real estate, along with cash deposited in a Dutch bank, that was ordered seized by U.S. prosecutors after the case was initiated in 2013. Lawyers with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York allege in court filings that Prevezon, a Cypriot-registered company, and its primary beneficiary, a Russian named Denis Katsyv, received some of that tax-fraud money and used to it buy the properties. According to filings, U.S. investigators have traced those funds through banks and shell companies in Moldova and elsewhere back to the 2007 scheme that involved shell companies filing sham lawsuits in Russian courts, then using court judgments to claim tax refunds in Russia. Law And Orders Enter a man who legally isnt a defendant in the complaint, but is for all practical purposes central to the case's entire odyssey: William Browder and his company, Hermitage Capital Management, which was once the largest portfolio investor in Russia. Authorities in Moscow allege the British-American financier was, in fact, the mastermind behind the original fraud. A Russian court convicted him in absentia of tax evasion in 2013, years after he had been denied reentry after leaving Russia, and have repeatedly sought an international arrest warrant for him. Browder and his allies not only dispute the Russian charges, they say their investigation shows Russian law-enforcement and tax officials were complicit in the tax fraud. Moreover, an accountant who advised Browder and blew the whistle on the scheme, Sergei Magnitsky, ended up being arrested and died in 2009 in a notorious Moscow prison after being denied medical care. Browder, who has been deposed once already as a witness in the Prevezon case, declined to comment to RFE/RL for this story. But court filings show Katsyv's defense lawyers, from the U.S. law firm BakerHostetler, trying to make Browder central to the case. "Prevezon and its owner Denis Katsyv are nothing but collateral damage to Browder's flight from justice and the [U.S.] Government's irresponsible failure to investigate," defense lawyers said in a motion filed October 17. As a BakerHostetler lawyer, Mark Cymriot, put it in a November 9 pretrial hearing: "Hermitage is central to everything." Conflicted Defense? The trial had been scheduled to start January 6 but was thrown into turmoil when Hermitage's lawyers, with backing from U.S. prosecutors, persuaded U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa to take BakerHostetler off the case. They argued that since BakerHostetler worked for Hermitage during the initial stages of the tax-fraud investigation eight years ago, there was a conflict of interest. "BakerHostetler is directly attacking Hermitage, making the same accusations of fraud against Hermitage and Browder that Hermitage previously hired them to refute," Hermitage lawyer Jacob Buchdahl said in a December 15 motion. On January 8, however, Griesa reversed his decision and restored BakerHostetler as defense counsel. Trial proceedings are now set to begin January 27, although Hermitage lawyers are still trying to get BakerHostetler thrown off the case. Katsyv, whose father is the former top transportation official for the Moscow region, has denied accusations that he received laundered funds. He does not face criminal charges in the United States, or for that matter in Russia, as he pointed out in a February 2014 affidavit. For its part, the Russian government has convicted two people of involvement in the original fraud; one is identified by the U.S. filings as a known swindler. No government officials have been charged, however, and Russian officials have rebuffed further attempts by U.S. prosecutors to follow up Prevezon allegations. In a letter filed with the court on December 8, Russia's Prosecutor-General's Office said it "does not possess documents requested by the U.S. Department of Justice that could confirm the information contained in the complaint on the existence of machinations and the participation of Prevezon Holdings in the laundering of criminal proceeds." To many observers, Russian inability to corroborate some of the details of the U.S. allegations, a good portion of which are derived from Browder's investigations, suggests a cover-up. Russian authorities "could have done the right thing, which is they could have gotten to the bottom of the [fraud] allegation, said David Kramer, a former State Department official who oversaw Europe and Eurasia. "They could have pursued a real investigation. They obviously chose not to do that because they were afraid of where it might lead to." Magnitsky's death led Browder and allies to lobby the U.S. Congress to pass a 2012 law in his name, slapping sanctions on 18 Russian citizens allegedly involved in the fraud and Magnitsky's death. At least four on the list are officials with the Interior Ministry or the Tax Inspectorate. The list was later amended to include other officials the United States deemed complicit in human rights abuses, bringing the total to 34. Browder looms large elsewhere for Russian officials. In December, Prosecutor-General Yury Chaika accused him of being behind a damning documentary produced by anticorruption crusader Aleksei Navalny that accused Chaika's sons of involvement in various criminal projects. The prosecutor also indicated that the Prevezon proceedings were being followed closely in Moscow. "We are watching this process from the side with interest," Chaika told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. A breathless investigation broadcast in December on the state-controlled channel NTV painted a portrait of Browder as a nefarious public-relations genius funding not only the Chaika film but other opposition politicians. Follow The Money The fact that U.S. prosecutors are pursuing the case as a "civil-asset forfeiture" rather than a criminal case has itself raised some questions from legal observers. Civil cases carry a lower burden of proof for evidence, said Steven Kessler, a New York lawyer and expert on civil-asset forfeitures. That may indicate the government is seeking to turn up leads to build a fuller criminal case, or it could indicate the case against Prevezon is weak. The U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to voice mails seeking comment. Illarionov, who is now a vocal critic of the Kremlin, said the Russian government's actions, both regarding the original 2007 fraud and the Prevezon money-laundering case, indicates that the fraud was more extensive and involved senior officials. For example, the speed with which the tax refunds were processed in 2008 (in one case, in just one day) and the multimillion-dollar size of the refunds, Illarionov said, showed complicity of senior officials in the Russian Finance Ministry. "I can tell you as a person working with the Russian government, it could not happen without direct order from the very highest level of the Russian Ministry of Finance," he said. "It's just impossible. They don't have this sort of money." The Finance Ministry did not respond to questions submitted by RFE/RL in time for publication. With reporting from Carl Schreck Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. When her work on AMC's show TURN brought her to Richmond, Caroline Stephenson didn't realize she already had a deep connection with this city. Both sides of the gun debate in Virginia claimed momentum Monday at opposing rallies in Capitol Square, with gun-rights supporters lambasting recent executive actions on firearms and anti-gun-violence activists cheering on Democratic leaders pushing for tighter gun control. At the forefront of both rallies were Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Attorney General Mark R. Herring, who have made waves in recent months by using their executive authority to ban guns in most state office buildings and stop honoring concealed carry permits from 25 other states. Speaking to a supportive crowd of several hundred at the Bell Tower on Monday afternoon, McAuliffe said hes pursuing the same policies, such as universal background checks, that he has advocated for from Day One. We have not changed our tune one iota. And we are just warming up, McAuliffe said while encouraging the crowd to lobby their state legislators. It is our goal to make Virginia the safest state in the United States of America, and we are not going to let them stop us. At a similarly sized rally earlier in the day attended by several Republican candidates for office and surrogates, Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave said Democrats, including McAuliffe and Herring, are setting themselves up for losses by emphasizing gun control with ISIS wanting to attack. The American people dont want to be disarmed, Van Cleave said. The rallies were held a few hours apart on Lobby Day, an annual event in which activists converge on the Capitol to interact with lawmakers. Pro-gun supporters, some of whom were clad in camouflage and openly carried firearms, were marked by blaze-orange stickers that said Guns Save Lives. Those rallying against gun violence, who opened their event by reading quotes from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., wore yellow stickers that said Background checks save lives. The events came in the opening days of what could be a contentious legislative session amid the clamor of a presidential election year. But given the states divided government, its unclear if either side will be able to translate their rhetoric into official action. Republicans have said theyll look to undo the executive actions they view as burdensome to law-abiding gun owners, but McAuliffe has promised to veto any gun-related bills that he feels threaten public safety. In addition to calling for background checks at gun shows, McAuliffe has stressed the need to require gun forfeiture in situations of domestic violence, a power that lies with judges and prosecutors. If you cant buy one, you shouldnt have one in the house either, McAuliffe said. And were going to come get it and get it out of your house. Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, a pediatrician, described the difficulty of having to inform parents theyve lost a child. Weve had a problem with medications getting into the hands of children. We have lockable caps now so that we can prevent that, he said. Why cant we do that with guns? Herring also spoke at the rally, describing his recent trip to the White House for a gun-related announcement by President Barack Obama as incredibly powerful. There is so much more we can and must do. And together, were going to get it done, said Herring, who has said his move to restrict out-of-state concealed carry permits is a way of ensuring Virginia doesnt recognize permits issued under looser safety requirements. At the pro-gun rally, where some attendees held signs that read Impeach Herring, Sen. Bryce E. Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, told the crowd hes received bipartisan support for a bill seeking to restore the concealed-carry reciprocity agreements Herring plans to end. Sens. J. Chapman Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City; Lynwood W. Lewis Jr., D-Accomack; and John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, have signed on as co-patrons of the bill, Reeves said. Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, that takes a lot of courage, Reeves said. Because they get a lot of beating on their side for siding with us. Both rallies featured guest speakers who shared personal stories of traumatic experiences with gun violence and gun laws. Speaking at the pro-gun rally was Shaneen Allen, a single mother from Philadelphia who spent 40 days in jail after being pulled over in New Jersey in 2013 and charged with a felony for having a gun she was permitted to carry in her home state. Allen, an African-American who said she felt she was profiled and encouraged the crowd not to talk to police, said she became a gun-rights activist after receiving a pardon from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Allen said she had purchased the gun to protect her family after being robbed twice near her home. I did not know that was going to land me in jail and turn me into a criminal, Allen said. At the anti-gun-violence event, the speakers included Andy and Barbara Parker, the parents of slain Roanoke-area journalist Alison Parker, who was gunned down during a live television report last year along with cameraman Adam Ward. Not a day goes by that we dont feel the devastation and the void in our souls of her loss, Barbara Parker said. First we were numb. Then we grieved, and as we grieved we got angry. And weve met too many families since who have known the same kind of pain, whose lives will never be the same. Speaking with reporters after his speech, the governor said hes been clear about where he stands, and no one should have any illusions on how hell use his veto power when it comes to pro-gun legislation. I will veto any of these gun bills that I think are not in the best interests of the commonwealth and not keeping our communities safe, McAuliffe said. Asked specifically about the prospect of Reeves concealed carry bill passing with bipartisan support, McAuliffe said the legislature hasnt overridden one of his vetoes yet. (It takes a vote of two-thirds of each chamber to override a veto.) It looks like nothing was found at this location. Maybe try a search? Search for: Search This Position Is Closed to New Applicants This position is no longer open for new applications. Either the position has expired or was removed because it was filled. However, there are thousands of other great jobs to be found on Rigzone. Virginia wants to protect its honeybees through a new statewide plan, and officials are asking for public input. The Virginia State Managed Pollinator Protection Plan will focus on how officials can help users of pesticides and beekeepers communicate to prevent problems, according to Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Keith Tignor, whose office oversees enforcement of the states beekeeping regulations, and the commonwealths pesticide program manager, Liza Fleeson Trossbach, will meet with stakeholders in seven locations across the state beginning this month to hear comments on what the plan should include. A meeting will be held at the South County Library in Roanoke from 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 28. Other sessions will be held in Warrenton, Blackstone, Charlottesville, Henrico, Suffolk and on the Eastern Shore. The value of agricultural pollination contributed by the estimated 5,000 or more keepers of honeybees in the commonwealth is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Tignor said. This state effort stems from a 2014 Obama administration directive calling for a national strategy to safeguard pollinators and, thereby, boost food security. Most states agreed to formulate plans to guide pollinator protection. As in other states, Virginia honeybee colonies have over the past 20 years been dying at a high rate. Nationally, researchers are still working to narrow down possible causes, and to better understand the combination of factors that may be responsible. Since Virginia began tracking colony losses in 2001, the death rate has increased dramatically. Historically, 10 percent or less of hives died annually in the state, according to Tignor. But since the invasion of two parasitic mites tracheal mites and Varroa destructor mites in the 1980s, honeybee colonies have died at much higher rates. Statewide, 46 percent of colonies died last year, Tignor said. Pesticides have in some cases been implicated in bee losses, particularly in acute kills stemming from spraying. Some scientists suspect chronic, low-level toxicity might also be a factor. Tignor said the Environmental Protection Agency is looking at refining pesticide regulations. To help Virginia beekeepers, the General Assembly instituted a bee hive grant program to reimburse for new beekeeping equipment that so far has paid out more than $304,000 to applicants, according to Tignor. The proposed pollinator plan, which will set out voluntary guidelines, will include best management practices for beekeepers and pesticide users, according to a VDACS letter sent to stakeholders in December. Figuring out ways to inform pesticide applicators about where hives are located, and to provide contact information for beekeepers is expected to be a major part of the plan. Providing such information could allow beekeepers to better protect their colonies when nearby pesticide applications are imminent. Currently the locations of managed bee hives are not registered with the state, Tignor said. All paid pesticide applicators must be licensed and registered with the state. As of November, Virginia licensed 23,261 pesticide applicators and technicians, and 3,000 pesticide companies, according to VDACS figures. Private landowners may use pesticides on their own property without licensing, but the label is the law, said Elaine Lidholm, spokeswoman for VDACS. Anyone using a pesticide contrary to the label instructions can be fined for any resulting damage, she said. The proposed plan is meant to minimize any such damage. A neutral facilitator will be hired to conduct all the stakeholder sessions, Lidholm said. The feedback will be used in formulating a first draft of the plan. Stakeholders will have a second opportunity to comment on the draft, according to Tignor. The plan is expected to be completed sometime this year, with a draft ready by late spring or early summer, Lidholm said. The commonwealths plan also is meant to protect lesser-known but still important pollinators, such as bumblebees, mason bees and alfalfa leafcutter bees, Tignor said. All three species are gaining in popularity for commercial pollination, he said. Bumblebees in particular are good pollinators of tomatoes and can be used effectively in greenhouses. Tignor said the states many species of wild bees are expected also to benefit. In addition to the meetings, VDACS has set up an email address to receive input. Send comments to pollinatorprotection@vdacs.virginia.gov. Farmers in the Roanoke Valley are getting to know new faces with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Recently, two new employees have joined the Farm Service Agency staff at the USDA Service Center in Bonsack. The Farm Service Agency carries out the farm level tasks put in place by the U.S. Farm Bill and the USDA. These projects include crop reporting, lending for farm loans, disaster assistance to producers, implementing conservation practices and providing outreach support to the local farming community. The FSA office in Bonsack serves Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke County producers. Louis Novotny, of Roanoke County started in August with FSA as a county operations trainee. Novotny is a 2014 graduate of West Virginia University. He completed a double major with Bachelor of Science degrees in agribusiness management and agricultural education. Novotny lives in the Back Creek area of Roanoke County, where much of his extended family also reside. He knew from the time he started in college that he wanted to have a career with the USDA. Coming to the USDA, he brings experience from his prior work as a vocational agriculture teacher. He taught a variety of topics, including carpentry, welding, farm equipment mechanics, natural resources, conservation, animal science and enterprise operation start up. In his current position, Novotny continues to be in training for approximately 12 months to learn the skills he will need working for FSA. Once finished with his training, he will be ready to take a position as a county executive director for the Farm Service Agency. Ever since I was young, I always enjoyed being outside and keeping busy with projects," said Novotny. "I started my own lawn care business when I saw that a few of my neighbors needed to have their grass cut. Little did I know that I would end up working all through school cutting grass and doing outdoor landscaping jobs. In high school, I enjoyed taking Vo-Ag courses. I was very interested in learning the Ag. Mechanics skills to weld a broken farm implement, service a hay rake or troubleshoot a tractor engine problem. Outside of work with the USDA you are likely to find Novotny working outdoors. He enjoys helping his cousins put up hay at their farms on Back Creek. It is typical to find him out bush hogging a field, cutting firewood, working on equipment and just keeping busy with projects. He also enjoys spending time with his family. He likes to travel throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains and learn about the local history and farms. Hiking around Back Creek and Bent Mountain is one of his favorite hobbies. My goal is to have a small farm of my own in the coming years," said Novotny. "I am really excited for opportunities to work with farmers as I begin my career with the Farm Service Agency. The newest employee at the Botetourt/Craig/Roanoke Farm Service Agency is program technician Hayley Wentzel. Hayley lives in Blue Ridge, where she stays close to agriculture on her familys farm owning horses. Her hobbies include riding horses, for which she participates in many competitions, and she is a member of equine associations such as the Roanoke Valley Horsemans Association. Wentzel is a 2015 graduate of Ferrum College with a Bachelor of Science degree, majoring in environmental science with a minor in agriculture. She was also a member of the Ferrum Equestrian club and team. She grew up participating in Roanoke Valley 4H clubs and activities. While in college, Wentzel interned at the Virginia Cooperative Extension in Roanoke. Along with the knowledge I gained from teachers and professors, I feel like the internship at the extension agency helped prepare me for the program technician position," said Wentzel. "Over the years, I have been fortunate to have met some amazing people. With the position at the Farm Service Agency, I look forward to the opportunity I will have to meet and work with producers in the area. Submitted by Louis Novotny Over the next few weeks, Roanoke County will be accepting public input on draft conceptual plans currently being developed for Explore Park. Two open-house style community meetings have been established, during which staff will be on hand to show progress to date on areas such as park circulation, natural inventory, placement of amenities and long-term development. The community meetings are Thursday, Jan. 28, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Vinton War Memorial, and Tuesday, Feb. 2, from 6 to 8 p.m. at South County Library. Online resources about the master plan can be found at www.explorepark.org/masterplan, including conceptual maps and other documents updated frequently. Public input is also welcome by phone at 387-6078 or by email at explorepark@roanokecountyva.gov. These draft concepts are the culmination of a six-month effort that included community meetings and stakeholder focus groups reaching approximately 230 individuals, as well as a community survey with 1,137 responses. We have been encouraged by the high level of community interest and support for Roanoke Countys efforts to revitalize Explore Park, said Parks, Recreation and Tourism Director Doug Blount. As we enter the final stages of the master plan process, we will continue to engage with the public to ensure that our plans for the future match the recreational needs and desires of our citizens. Explore Park is a 1,100-acre facility located on the Blue Ridge Parkway and operated by Roanoke County under a 99-year lease with the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority established in 2013. The county has contracted with design firm Wallace Roberts & Todd, engineering firm Balzer & Associates, and ProsConsulting to develop a master plan for the park, which will be finalized and presented to the board of supervisors in March. Submitted by Scott Ramsburg My first exposure to actor Alan Rickman, who died last week after a battle with cancer, was when he played bitter stage actor Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest. But I didnt really notice him until he took what would be his more famous role with my generation, as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series. Before the Harry Potter franchises eight-movie blockbuster run, Rickman played various roles, some good, some bad and some downright evil. He was Hans Gruber in Die Hard and The Sheriff of Nottingham opposite Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He stole our hearts as Colonel Brandon in Ang Lees adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and then broke them as Harry in Love Actually. His final role will be voicing the caterpillar Absolem in Alice Through the Looking Glass, which hits theaters later this year. Rickman leaves behind his spouse, politician Rima Horton, whom he secretly married in 2012 but had been with since 1965. They had no children. It doesnt matter when you fell in love with Rickmans ridiculous talent for showing empathy and embodying the characters he portrayed. All that matters is that you did, and that you will always be a fan. Always. Alexis Helms Franklin County Board of Supervisors Regular meeting, work session and public comment When: 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday Where: Franklin County Government Center, 1255 Franklin St., Rocky Mount On the agenda: The board will consider moving to electronic pollbooks, and also hear an update on strategic planning. In the work session, the board will discuss extending sewer service to the site of the new business park. The evening public comment session is an opportunity for citizens to share their thoughts on the Mountain Valley Pipeline. For details, visit www.franklincountyva.gov. Roanoke City Council Regular meeting When: 2 and 7 p.m. Tuesday Where: Council chamber, fourth floor, Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, 215 Church Ave. S.W. On the agenda: The council will consider a resolution to oppose the proposed closing of Catawba Hospital at its 2 p.m. meeting. At the evening meeting, council will host a public hearing on a proposed zoning change to allow a car wash on Dale Avenue Southeast. Visit roanokeva.gov for more details. Roanoke County Planning Commission Work session When: 6 p.m. Tuesday Where: Roanoke County Administration Center, 5204 Bernard Drive On the agenda: Planning commissioners will discuss Roanoke Countys community strategic plan. For more information, visit www.roanokecountyva.gov. Roanoke County Board of Supervisors and Roanoke County School Board Work session When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday Where: Roanoke County Public Schools Administration Center, 5937 Cove Road On the agenda: County leaders will discuss the 10-year capital improvement plan for schools and enrollment projections. For more information, visit www.roanokecountyva.gov. Vinton Town Council Regular meeting When: 7 p.m. Tuesday Where: 311 South Pollard St. On the agenda: The council will discuss hiring a new police chief. For more information, visit www.vintonva.gov. Roanoke County Board of Supervisors Board retreat When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Where: Vinton Library, 300 South Pollard St. On the agenda: Supervisors will talk about the community strategic plan and craft a vision statement for the future of Roanoke County. For more information, visit www.roanokecountyva.gov. LYNCHBURG GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump courted evangelical voters Monday at Liberty University, pledging to help protect Christianity but perhaps drawing the most support for blunt, politically impolite remarks tracking his campaigns populist themes. Two weeks ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Trump is in a war of words with his nearest rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who launched his campaign with a speech at Liberty in March. But Trump did not take on Cruz in his address Monday. Trump delivered a wide-ranging hourlong speech to what university officials said was a record-breaking crowd for a Liberty convocation. Trump cited a Bible passage from Corinthians that says: Now the Lord is the spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Were doing great with evangelicals, Trump said. Were going to protect Christianity. Im a Protestant, Presbyterian to be exact, and Im very proud of it, he added. Trump said the country has to band together around Christianity. He also said it takes too much time, to be politically correct. If Im going to be president, youre going to see Merry Christmas in the department store, he said. Were going to be saying Merry Christmas again. In introducing Trump, Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. spoke warmly of the mogul and suggested Trumps personal life Trump has been married three times should not disqualify him with evangelical voters. We are all sinners, every one of us, Falwell said. Jimmy Carter was a great Sunday school teacher but look what happened to our nation during his presidency, Falwell said. Falwell told the story of how his father, Liberty founder Jerry Falwell, decided to support Republican Ronald Reagan over Carter in the 1980 presidential campaign, although Reagan had been divorced. Following Falwells introduction, Trump appeared to be warmly received by the capacity crowd of students and several hundred guests from outside the Liberty community. Trumps appearance drew dozens of reporters. Outside of initial remarks addressing faith issues, the businessman-turned-TV celebrity-turned candidate stuck largely to the populist themes that have defined his campaign. He offered hard-line stances on illegal immigration and criticized fellow candidates as being part of a bought-and-paid political establishment. He faulted the Obama administration in foreign policy on issues ranging from the Iran nuclear deal and Syrian refugee crisis to protecting U.S. business interests. And the New York City born-and-raised Trump did it his way. His no-notes, free-flowing, loose-lipped, politically incorrect style entertained the crowd while giving even some supporters pause . I agree with everything he says, said Brianna Meeker, 18, a freshman at Liberty. But I am afraid of the fact that how he says some things could start bigger problems. Shelby Tortorello, 18, said Trumps boldness and leadership style is needed at this time. I like the fact that he wasnt afraid to speak his mind, she said, adding that her ideal candidate might be a combination of Trump and Ben Carson, the soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon who addressed Liberty students in November and has faded in recent polling. I like him but it makes me nervous the way he says things, fellow Liberty freshman Kayla Brooks, 18, said of Trump. Hes definitely different, and we need different. Trump told the Liberty crowd of students and supporters that he is leading a movement. We want to take our country back, he said. We cant have another four years of Barack Obama. Trump criticized U.S. negotiations on everything from Iran to China. Weve got to knock the hell out of ISIS, he said. Trump also criticized Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl as a dirty rotten traitor. Bergdahl, who has been charged with desertion, faces a general court martial related to leaving his base in Afghanistan in 2009. Trump said that he wants people to come to the country legally winning applause from the audience. Trump said accepting Syrian refugees may be the great Trojan horse of all time, warning of security concerns related to people entering the West from the war zone. Trump addressed his outsider, self-funded status, and took aim at a couple of well-known establishment candidates in both major parties. Lets say a stiff like Jeb Bush is president, he said of the former Florida governor, a Republican. As for Democrat Hillary Clinton, he said: I want to see a woman president soon but not her. Shes a disaster. The corruption, the scandal, we just dont want to go through it. Trump also pledged to strongly support the Second Amendment. He said the terrorist attacks in Paris in November would not have been so deadly had more people been armed. Had bullets been going the other way, you wouldnt have had 130 people killed, he said. Trump said it was an honor to be at Liberty and dedicated the breaking of the schools convocation attendance record to honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event began with a video tribute to the slain civil rights leader on the national holiday in his honor, followed by a video montage about Trump. In introducing Trump, Falwell said the school does not endorse candidates, but he offered a glowing tribute. As my friendship has grown so has my admiration for Mr. Trump, Falwell said. Mr. Trump is loyal to his friends, even loyal to new friends like us, Falwell said, describing a trip to New York with his wife that included a meeting with Trump. Falwell said he believes Trump lives a life of loving and helping others, as Jesus taught us. Falwell said Trump loves his country and desires more than anything to make America great again, and called him a breath of fresh air from the political establishment. Trump, who previously spoke at a Liberty convocation in 2012, has paid close attention to Virginia, a key swing state, which votes March 1 in the Super Tuesday primary. RICHMOND Virginias Prescription Monitoring Program was established more than a decade ago, initially to combat the oxycodone abuse problem plaguing Southwest Virginia by identifying patients who could be doctor shopping or pharmacy shopping. But the computerized online system has had limited success as few physicians and others who prescribe narcotic painkillers and other controlled drugs use it regularly. From April to June last year, the 451 practitioners who wrote more than 1,000 prescriptions for drugs covered by the PMP database checked it only 14 percent of the time. More than 8,600 practitioners have written prescriptions for covered drugs but never queried the database. And 121 practitioners who wrote more than 1,000 covered prescriptions never checked the database. With the onset of a new drug scourge prescription painkiller and opioid abuse that all too often leads to heroin addiction the Virginia General Assembly is considering ways to improve the PMP system, including requirements for doctors and other prescription-writers to actually use it. There are a lot of prescriptions getting written without utilization of the PMP, said Ralph Orr, program director of the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program, speaking at a recent meeting of the advisory panel that oversees the program, which is run out of the Virginia Department of Health Professions. Im not expecting that there should ever be a one-to-one query [per prescription], Orr said. At our current rate, which is 8.9 percent queries for the total, we compare to the states that have no mandates, he said. The states with the strongest mandates have query rates of about 40 percent, Orr said. We have a mandatory use law, but the way its written currently nobody knows where they really fall into it, he said. We hope to remove that confusion and get the utilization up higher. Proposed legislation would require prescribers to query the prescription monitoring program when writing a new prescription and then at least every 90 days for prescriptions with refills. Many prescribers were not even registered to use the program until the state began automatically registering them last year. With the mandatory registration, the program now has 70,000 users, up from 26,371 last July, just before the automatic registrations began. Where the problem comes in, is there is no enforcement for doctors who dont query the program database before writing a prescription, said Timothy Musselman, a doctor of pharmacy and executive director of the Virginia Pharmacists Association. The more likely scenario is that a doctor would be disciplined or cited for illegal or questionable prescribing, he said. Then you would check the PMP program, Musselman said. It would always be enforcement after the fact. The Medical Society of Virginia, which lobbies for physicians, is working to try to increase usage, including educating providers about why they should use the PMP, said Lauren Bates-Rowe, senior director of health policy for the society. The society convened its own internal Opioid Misuse Task Force in 2015 and came up with recommendations with the goal of increasing education, awareness and treatment of addiction, without overly broad interference in the practice of medicine. The Medical Society of Virginia agrees prescriber utilization of the PMP can be improved across the commonwealth, Bates-Rowe said. One area of particular interest is the integration of the PMP into electronic health records, she said. [The society] supports current integration efforts and will support initiatives that continue to improve the functionality of both the PMP and electronic health records. Logging onto the PMP website takes time time busy doctors may not have. But research shows using a PMP has an impact on prescribing. Prior to the PMP, you just had this judgment, this trigger in your head that something doesnt seem right about this prescription, about whats going on with this patient, Musselman said. But you had no verification. Now, the PMP program gives that verification so that when somebody searches they know, yes, theyre doctor shopping or, yes, theyre pharmacy shopping. Its really taken that guesswork out of ... suspicions, Musselman said. Another proposed change would require pharmacists to submit data to the system within 24 hours of filling a prescription covered by the reporting requirement, versus the seven days allowed now. Drugs subject to prescription monitoring include opiates, amphetamines, hallucinogens, such sedatives as phenobarbital, anabolic steroids and such benzodiazepines as diazepam. Musselman said many pharmacies computers already have the ability to report dispensing data within 24 hours, so implementation should not be a problem. Another bill would allow the Department of Health Professions to query the system to look for unusual patterns of prescribing and dispensing. A separate bill backed by the Virginia Association of Health Plans, an insurance industry lobby group, would give some health plans access to the PMP. Just like any other entity in the health care space, we have seen just a drastic increase in opiate use, said Stephanie Lynch, director of Medicaid innovation for the Virginia Association of Health Plans. Our claims for opiate prescriptions have risen, and we see the impact with folks having greater access to opioids and later becoming addicted and getting on heroin. Its just a really bad trickle effect. People have been traveling to the bubbling pools at Warm Springs for centuries to take the waters for the supposed health benefits or simply for a relaxing soak. Thomas Jefferson was among those who ventured to the natural springs, having spent three weeks there in 1818 hoping the experience would help his rheumatism. In fact, it wasnt a totally successful experience as he developed boils in tender locations that left him unable to sit for a time. Nonetheless, the springs to this day have remained a popular destination through the generations and even bear Jeffersons name. However, the structures that surround the Jefferson Pools, which are registered as state and national historic landmarks, have seen better days. In 2010, Preservation Virginia listed the pools among the most endangered historic sites in Virginia. Among other shortcomings, the wooden structures had become fairly decrepit with broken windows, missing roof shingles and rotted boards. Worried about the fate of the bathhouses and the potential impact on tourism in aptly named Bath County, a grass-roots group calling itself Friends of the Pools formed to advocate to save the structures, which are part of The Homestead, the luxury resort a few miles down the road in Hot Springs. Its been a long wait more than five years and a change of resort ownership but work is finally underway. Resort officials announced last week the launching of a historic structures report on the pools and bathhouses, the first step in the preservation process that will serve as a guide for the repair, rehabilitation or restoration of the property. Fixing the bathhouses is important, said David Jurcak, managing director of The Omni Homestead, but it is also critical to follow the proper steps of preservation and understand the history of the pools and the buildings so that whatever is done is done right. He called the pools a part of the resort and ... the foundation of Bath County. We have people from not only the resort that go there, but we have local people and people who drive in for the day, Jurcak said in a phone interview, noting the pools attract 16,000 visitors a year. The price of an hourlong soak is $17. We have people whove flown into Ingalls Field [Airport in Hot Springs] to take the waters and leave. Phil Deemer, a spokesman for Friends of the Pools, called the development great news. Were very happy, said Deemer, who noted Omni Hotels & Resorts had assured the Friends group from the time it acquired The Homestead in July 2013 from California-based KSL Resorts that it wanted to save and preserve the bathhouses. A newspaper article written on Jan. 2, 2012, quoted the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which described the bathhouses as threatened and noted floors in the structures sag from dampness and wear ... beams and posts have deteriorated. Preservationists fear the National Register-listed structures will deteriorate beyond repair if maintenance continues to be deferred. In the four years since the article appeared, various repairs have been made to keep the bathhouses operational, but concerns remain about the future of the structures without major work. Warm Springs is a small community nestled in the Allegheny Mountains along U.S. 220, a three-hour drive west of Richmond. Local history says Native Americans discovered the springs hundreds of years ago. The springs, known locally as the Jefferson Pools, are fed by natural mineral springs deep beneath the Earths surface. The crystal-clear water remains at a steady 98 degrees. There are two bathhouses one for men and one for women, both with holes designed in the center of the roofs to allow the steam to escape that date at least to the early 1800s when Warm Springs became a spa resort. Though pieces of both buildings have been replaced, they essentially remain the original structures and are the oldest spa structures in the United States, said Terry Ammons of Studio Ammons, a Petersburg firm of architects and exhibit and museum designers that is conducting the research for the historic structures report. Theyve been repaired over the centuries but never rebuilt, Ammons said. The report will determine how future work will proceed as far as repair and stabilization, while maintaining the historic integrity of the buildings and allowing them to remain useful for another century or more. There is no firm timetable for the project, though Ammons hopes the report will be completed by the middle of 2016, at which point plans can be made for the work that needs to be done. The Omni Homestead has set up a five-member advisory committee to assist in the work. The committee includes leaders in historic preservation, such as Elizabeth Kostelny, executive director of Preservation Virginia. In an email, she praised the resort for its thoughtful approach to the preservation and restoration of the bathhouses and for showing both good stewardship of and a commitment to the preservation of these rare examples of spa architecture. You might be surprised about how many people care about the buildings future, Kostelny said. We receive emails from all over the country asking for status reports. Kostelny said Preservation Virginia is thrilled to be part of the process and heartened by the awareness raised by her organizations listing of the bathhouses on its annual endangered list. The list prompts people to action, she said. When an effort is won, and even sometimes when it is lost, the story of the journey teaches other communities what is possible. We like to talk about it as keeping the soul in Virginia communities. AN alleged child sex abuse victim told a court she secretly recorded a meeting with police to discuss her abuse because she did not trust one of the officers. The 30-year-old woman a complainant in the ongoing trial of five men and two women over grooming and sex abuse in Rotherham told the court she felt Det Con Diane Garner was a bad officer. The woman, who was made pregnant by defendant Arshid Hussain when she was 15, claims she knew Det Con Garner from her childhood and adulthood. She said she did not feel she was a good officer and knew she could not trust her. Hussain faces four sexual abuse charges against this alleged victim and two abduction charges between 1999 and 2001. He admits he fathered a child with her but denies the charges and claims he believed she was over 18 when they met, when he was aged 24. Sheffield Crown Court heard the witness made the secret recording on March 26, 2013, when Det Con Garner and Det Con Lee Robinson visited her at her sisters address to discuss her complaints against Hussain and his alleged accomplices. Mr Stephen Uttley, defending Hussain, asked why she had made the covert recording. She said: I previously knew Diane and knew she was a bad officer and I didnt trust her, thats the reason why I recorded it. I didnt feel supported and I knew what they were going to do really. Mr Uttley asked why if she had not trusted Det Con Garnr, why had she not asked for the officer to be removed from the case. The woman said: I did actually say that when I decided to make my statement. I said I didn't want no officer in Rotherham to deal with it because Ash knew officers. Mr Uttley said: What were you hoping to achieve by recording this conversation? The witness, who cannot be named, replied: I felt if I wouldn't have recorded it people would not believe what I said because everyone says I am a liar and blames me. Its a good job I did really, Im glad I recorded her. Mr Uttley said the officers had only been trying to assist the woman, but she woman said it felt like Det Con Garner had been dismissive of everything she was told. The woman said she told the officer she could provide DNA evidence from her son to prove Hussain was the father, but was told not to, because of the upset it may cause the child. She said she asked the visiting officers to contact police officers who had been involved with her when she was a child. The woman told the court Det Con Garner said no police officers would come forward because they would lose their jobs. The witness added: It felt like every time I told her something it was like: No, we cant do that. Mr Uttley questioned why the alleged victim had offered DNA evidence to the police as it had already been accepted by Hussain that he was the childs father. The woman that replied Det Con Garner had already known Hussain was the father from when she was being groomed any way. The court heard the recording had been listened to by the South Yorkshire Police, the complainants solicitor and journalist Andrew Norfolk, who reported on the womans child sex abuse claims five months later in The Times newspaper. The woman added that she believed the Independent Police Complaints Commission had also been given a copy. Mr Uttley argued the woman was trying to manipulate the police by recording them, taking legal action against the force and Rotherham Council, and by speaking to the press. The woman said she had believed by getting her story in the media, the police would have taken it more seriously because on previous times I didnt feel really supported. She said the only reason police had come knocking on her door again in August 2013 was because they were aware she had spoken to The Times newspaper. She added: I think it worried them a bit, whats happened in Rotherham has reflected on them as a whole force, certain officers that didnt do things right reflected badly on them as well. Mr Uttley revealed South Yorkshire Police had contacted The Times and asked them not to publish the womans story prior to publication. The woman added: I didnt think the police would do a good job (of the investigation), its as simple as that, that's why I went to the media. She added she had received no payment from media interviews she had given and had turned any financial offers down. Hussain denies 29 charges. The trial continues. Idaho could become the 28th state in the nation to prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol if the proposed legislation calling for such a ban is passed by the legislature. The bill was introduced on January 13, 2016. Powdered alcohol, dubbed Palcohol, was granted approval by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, last March, and is allowed to be sold legally in the United States, unless otherwise prohibited. Owned by privately held company called Lipsmark, Palcohol is a powder version of vodka, rum and three cocktail versions namely Cosmopolitan, Powderita and Lemon Drop. The product has not reached market shelves yet. Concerned over the potential for abuse, particularly among teenagers, the opponents have been criticizing the federal bureau for approving Palcohol. However, Mark Phillips, who created Palcohol, argues that powdered alcohol is safer than liquid alcohol and that banning Palcohol is a bad decision. The following are the states where powdered alcohol has been banned outright or temporarily. *Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington statutorily prohibit the sale of powdered alcohol. Maryland and Minnesota have temporary one-year statutory bans. (*Data sourced from National Conference of State Legislatures' website). For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Japan's final industrial production data for November is due in the Asian session on Monday at 11:30 pm ET. Ahead of the data, the yen showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the yen rose against the euro and the Swiss franc, it fell against the pound and the U.S. dollar. As of 11:25 pm ET, the yen was trading at 127.69 against the euro, 167.39 against the pound, 116.61 against the Swiss franc and 117.24 against the U.S. dollar. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Forex News The first U.S. case of microcephaly linked to Zika virus infection has been confirmed in a baby recently born in a hospital in Hawaii. Microcephaly is a rare neurological birth defect, where a baby's head is smaller than expected when compared to babies of the same sex and age. "The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb. Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii", says a news release issued by the Hawaii State Department of Health. Zika virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus transmitted primarily by Aedes aegypti, commonly known as the 'Dengue' or 'Yellow Fever' mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika infection are fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis. Zika virus infection in pregnant women can also result in microcephaly and malformations in newborns. As per the latest update released by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization, from February 2014 to January 17, 2016, there are 18 countries and territories in the Americas that have confirmed local transmission of Zika virus: Brazil, Barbados, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, and Venezuela. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News .. 893 893 . . Dozens killed, injured in Saudi strikes on Tahrir in central Sana'a SANAA, Jan. 18 (Saba) Tens of citizens were killed and others injured in the Saudi aggression raids on the densely-populated Tahrir area in central of the capital Sanaa, a security official said on Monday. The official explained to Saba that the hostile war jets targeted the buildings of each of the Police General Management and the Walking Police Department in Al-Adl Street in Tahrir area in central of the capital. The aggression raids caused severe damages in the nearby houses and private and public property, He added. The official renewed his call for the concerned international organizations, topped by the United Nation and the Security Council, to bear their legal and moral responsibilities towards the Saudi aggression crimes against the Yemeni people in the capital and other provinces since last March. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [18/January/2016] One killed, two injured in Saudi raid in Saada SAADA, Jan. 18 (Saba) A citizen was killed and his wife and son were seriously injured in a Saudi airstrike targeted their home in Baqem district of Saada province, a security official said on Monday. The raid led to the destruction of the house in full, the official added. The aggression warplanes waged two raids on al-Sahn and Al Uqab areas in Sahar district, as well as two other raids on the villages of al-Marqoa and Al Lakon in Saqain district, he said. He pointed out that the hostile war jets targeted also a stadium in Saada city by two raids, which caused damage to the stadium and its annexes and to the nearby houses. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [18/January/2016] Saudi air raids kill three, injure others in Taiz TAIZ, Jan. 18 (Saba) Three citizens were killed and other wounded in Saudi airstrikes targeted their house in Bir Basha area in Taiz province, a local official said on Monday. These airstrikes coincided with other raids launched by the aggression warplanes and targeted Mokha Port and the quarantine premises, causing destruction in the port and the quarantine, the official explained. According to the local official, the hostile war jets waged also two raids on al-Barh area in Maqbna district, as well as others raids targeted the areas of Jashat al-Harrair and Wadi Arsh eastern Taiz city. He pointed out that the Saudi aggression raids on those areas aimed at supporting its mercenaries, who tried to creep towards some sites in the areas of al-Harrair, al-Dawa and al-Kamb. BA Saba Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Whatsapp Whatsapp Telegram Telegram Email Email Print Print [18/January/2016] A first-of-its-kind journey along India and Pakistan border What binds the two most talked about nations - India and Pakistan together? What makes the Israeli Defense Minister: The Cost to Fight Hezbollah is Very High "The cost of wars with Hamas and Hezbollah is very high and risky." - Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon Courtesy: jpost.com (TEL AVIV) - Israel's Defense Minister announced that the Israeli defense budget would not allow Tzahal and special services enough to defend by all means against security threats. According to the Voice of Israel radio, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon in Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting said, "The Prime Minister also believes that the 2016 projected defense budget is insufficient." In a way, he asked the members of the commission at the Ministry of Finance to reconsider the proposed budget. The budget for 2016 stands at NIS 343.3 billion. Also Department of Homeland Security budget will increase by 1.7 billion. Israel's Defense Minister said the costs of the IDF are very high, "so it needs more military budget allocations. The cost of wars with Hamas and Hezbollah is very high and risky. "If we do not have sufficient financial resources, we won't able to resist even groups much smaller than Hamas. "Today we cannot manage the conflict with Arabs in the West Bank and Jerusalem, due to lack of financial resources and (the) army's internal problems." _________________________________________ Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2016 -- The GCC (Gulf cooperation council) Ecotourism market is expected to witness significant contribution to the overall ecotourism market, by registering a robust growth of nearly 7% by 2020. Growth of nature, wildlife as well as generic services respectively is an equivalent contributor to the total GCCecotourism growth. National investment, nonconventional locations are among the noticeablefeaturesmotivating the demand for ecotourism across GCC. Also, an increase in arrivals and increase in currency value thus pushing the ecotourism wallet which is expected to bolster the market growth thereby increasing competitiveness in the region. Geographically, Qatar represents a huge market potential followed by Kuwait wherein the Saudi Arabiatourists owe a significant contribution to GCC ecotourism market. Complete Report with TOC @ http://www.mrrse.com/gcc-ecotourism-market In this study, we analyze the GCC Ecotourism Market during 2014-2020. We focus on: Market size and forecast, 2013-2020 Market Growth with respect to Gross Value Added, by characteristic industries Key drivers and developments in ecotourism in GCC Key Trends and Developments for Ecotourism in GCC Key Drivers and developments along with total contribution in particular countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. Key Geographies/ Countries Covered Global, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates Request a Free Sample Copy of the Report @ http://www.mrrse.com/sample/266 Other Key Topics Ecotourism contribution to GDP, Ecotourism contribution to whole economy, Ecotourism receipts Ecotourism Arrivals, Average receipts per Arrival. About MRRSE MRRSE stands for Market Research Reports Search Engine, the largest online catalog of latest market research reports based on industries, companies, and countries. MRRSE sources thousands of industry reports, market statistics, and company profiles from trusted entities and makes them available at a click. Besides well-known private publishers, the reports featured on MRRSE typically come from national statistics agencies, investment agencies, leading media houses, trade unions, governments, and embassies. Valley Cottage, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2016 -- With the increase in Shale gas E&P activities across the globe, leading with North America, Europe, Argentina and now China the global chemical/petrochemical industry downstream is expected to witness a critical make over due to the supply shortages in various chemical feedstock. Ethylene, propylene, butadiene and benzene are the four building blocks of various chemicals or petrochemicals produced downstream for consumption by end use industries. Shale Gas is an unconventional, un-associated gas which contains 75-90% Methane, 15-5% Ethane and the rest C3's and heavier hydrocarbons. With lower percentage of heavier hydrocarbons the supply of propylene, butadiene and benzene are expected to decline with respect to Ethylene supply. Excess of Shale production has resulted into an increasing preference for ethane cracking compared to Naphtha cracking, which would result in a supply shortage for C3's and above. The result would be lower availability of propylene and other basic chemicals. In order to ensure optimum supply, on purpose technologies are being built in North America and Asia Pacific. On purpose technologies include CTL/CTO (Coal to Liquids/Olefins), MTO/MTP (methanol to olefins/propylene), PDH (propane dehydrogenation) and Metathesis. Use of Coal to produce synthetic fuels and petrochemicals has been present for more than 50 years with Germany utilizing this technology to provide fuel for its units during the 2nd World War. The technology was not utilized due to its high operational cost and lower market feasibility with adequate Crude oil supplies. But the decrease in the use of Crude Oil due to environmental concern opened up opportunities for Coal to be used as a feedstock for production of petrochemicals and synthetic fuels. Request Free Report Sample@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-996 With the increasing production of Shale Gas the demand for ethane cracking has increased hence resulting in a lower yield of propylene. Propane de-hydrogenation operation unlike other operations provides a higher yield of Propylene (82%) ensuring a stable supply for the production of Polypropylene. North America with its expected increase in demand for Polypropylene by 2025, has made investments to increase PDH production capacity by 1.8 Mn MT/y. China has also made investments in PDH operations and has made arrangements with a South Korean trader to supply LPG to its plants. Metathesis which is a technology which was commercialized for the synthesis of higher olefins has also seen traction in the petrochemical industry however, Methanol to Olefin/Propylene technology witnesses a greater growth rate. China with its anticipated increase in Coal and Natural Gas production is expected to focus on CTO/L operations in the coming years in order to meet its growing demand. China has the biggest Natural Gas reserves in the world, however chooses not to utilize it to its potential. PDH operations in the country are anticipated to witness an increasing trend due to future Natural Gas E&P activities. In India, Tata and Sasol have signed up for a CTL plant in Orissa which is expected to come on stream by 2018. The plant would cost Rs. 90,000 Crores and is expected to provide synthetic fuel and petrochemicals. On purpose technologies Impact of Shale Gas: Drivers & Restraints With the increase in availability of Natural Gas in North America and higher preference to ethane cracking to take advantage of the cheaper Natural gas the availability of Propylene, butadiene and benzene are expected to decline which are quintessential for the production of downstream petrochemicals and other chemicals. Also, with low Natural Gas prices the technology has become affordable and economical for profitable production of downstream chemicals and petrochemicals. Request For TOC@ http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-996 On purpose technologies Impact of Shale Gas: Region-wise Outlook North America is anticipating an increase of 1.8 Mn MT/y of PDH production capacity by end of 2019. China has also started constructing PDH facilities to utilize the feedstock advantage of Coal with CTL plants in China. India is expected to finish its first CTL plant by end of 2019. In South America, Argentina is expected to start E&P activities from its Shale Gas reservoirs which is expected to provide the region an advantageous feedstock position. On purpose technologies Impact of Shale Gas: Key Players Some of the major players in the refrigerated display cases are AHT Cooling systems, Epta Spa, Hussman corporation, Nekano refrigerators co. ltd, ISA Italy etc. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2016 -- Germany Market:- Germany has one of Europe's largest telecom markets, as befits a country with a population of more than 81 million. Penetration in the broadband and mobile sectors is about average for the region. Both the fixed network and broadband markets are dominated by Telekom Deutschland, though other notable players including freenet, Vodafone and Telefonica, have gained market share as the incumbent continues to rebound from a poor performance which has led to declining revenue since 2010. For more info, get a Sample PDF with TOC: http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=516966 Germany also has the second largest broadband market in Europe. The dominant DSL platform is led by Telekom Deutschland which has invested in network upgrades in recent years, with a focus of VDSL and vectoring technologies combined with fibre. The company has also trialled G.fast technology to add to the mix, and so provide a more economically feasible super-fast broadband product to meet the demands and timetable of the government's national broadband targets by 2020. The strategy is also aimed at competing with cablcos, which by 2017 will begin deploying DOCSIS 3.1 networks and hardware capable of delivering data at up to 1Gb/s. Browse report description at: http://www.researchmoz.us/germany-telecoms-mobile-broadband-and-digital-media-statistics-and-analyses-report.html The mobile market is the largest in Europe, with about 118 million subscribers generating the largest proportion of revenue in the telecom sector as a whole. In common with most markets the main area of growth is in mobile data, with the number of mobile broadband subscribers having increased rapidly in recent years on the back of extensively available 3G and LTE networks. The market was long dominated by Telekom Deutschland and Vodafone Germany, though the acquisition of E-Plus by Telefonica has effectively created a triopoly of MNOs with relatively similar market share among them. There is also healthy market competition from an increasing number of r Italy Market:- Italy's boasts one of the largest large telecom markets in Europe, supported by a population approaching 61 million. The fibre-optic sector has seen significant development in recent years, both in operator investment and in regulatory measures aimed at improving access to networks for smaller operators. The government has also set in train a multi-billion Euro investment program to ensure super-fast broadband connectivity for most Italians by 2020. This program is being supplemented by the efforts of the main telcos including Telecom Italia and Fastweb. Vodafone Italia, too, has encroached on the fixed-line sector as it's the company improves on its ability to compete in the provision of bundled services. For more info, get a Sample PDF with TOC: http://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=516978 As a result of these developments, the take up of broadband services in Italy has grown rapidly in recent years. The mobile sector is also performing well, particularly in mobile data services as consumers respond positively to the improved capacity and reach of LTE infrastructure. This has also led to the continuing dwindle of the fixed-line sector as consumers adopt mobile-only solutions and VoIP as alternatives to PSTN. Browse report description at: http://www.researchmoz.us/italy-telecoms-mobile-broadband-and-digital-media-statistics-and-analyses-report.html Italy's vibrant mobile market is dominated by three operators, TIM, Vodafone Italia and Wind, while the fourth player 3 Italia has steadily made progress in securing customers. The owners of 3 Italia and Wind in mid-2015 agreed to merge their units, a process which requires regulatory clearance but would, if cleared, create the county's largest MNO and even out the relative market shares among the three. The broadband market enjoys strong competition within the DSL sector, supplemented by a vibrant fibre sector spearheaded by efforts from Telecom Italia and supplemented by investments from other telcos and municipal governments. In the absence of effective cross-platform competition from cable networks, services based on upgraded DSL networks have benefited from the market entry of new players such as Vodafone. About ResearchMoz ResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators. Contact Us: Mr. Nachiket Albany NY - 12207 United States Tel: +1-518-621-2074 Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free) Email: sales@researchmoz.us Avon Park, FL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2016 -- Florida Water Daily is run by former consulting engineer and hydrogeologist Jim Tully and is focused on all things dealing with water, including the State of Florida's elaborate system of potable, wastewater, and ground, and surface water. Through the website and the newsletter, professionals can stay on top of new industry events, solutions, and developments as well as recent initiatives being spearheaded by agencies on the local, state and federal level. Those interested in following Florida Water Daily are encouraged to subscribe to the free daily newsletter. The Florida Water Daily website provides an event calendar, a Jobs section for industry-related employment opportunities, and a Florida Bid Network proposal request section. The URL is http://www.floridawaterdaily.com and professionals can also follow on Facebook and Twitter. About The Avanti Company Spearheaded by President and owner Tim Devlin, The Avanti Company has provided Flow Meters and Metering Systems including water meters and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to maximize and better utilize the data coming into a Utility since 1977. Avanti has served various markets with available knowledge, capability and products, to assist end users to accomplish their assignments as well as possible. Call 800-284-5231 for additional information on water wastewater system products or visit our website at http://www.avanticompany.com to learn more about the company's services including on-site flow meter testing, sewer flow monitoring, and metering system support. Theodore, Australia -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/18/2016 -- It's no surprise that people have unique home decor styles and tastes. From the modern to the minimalist look, there's a style to suit everyone's fancy. One style that is trending these days is the vintage and retro look. When it comes to buying homeware for such styles, Vintage Home Decor is the number one choice. The website, located at http://vintagehomedecor.com.au/, features an array of chic and tasteful items. It's a one-stop shop for one's vintage and retro homeware needs. Decor From vintage door knobs to antique market boxes, this site has them all! Other home decor items on offer include clocks, photo frames, and trays. Vintage Home Decor also provide a range of Christmas decorations and ornaments. When it comes to decorating one's bedroom, the website has a section packed with linens and lace. There are scores of options on offer, all in a range of beautiful colours and styles. One can even select from a plethora of decorative coat hangers for the wardrobe too! For the living room, Vintage Home Decor provide many stylish cushions and throws for the sofa. The range also includes the exclusive Michel Design Works cushions. Light up the way with Vintage Home Decor's fabulous candle holders and scented candles! Anyone with a taste for the retro look will no doubt find it hard to resist getting some for their abode! Jewellery Those with a penchant for living in a retro home will wear vintage clothing and accessories too. To match the vintage and retro look of one's home, customers can also select from a range of jewellery. There are plenty of bracelets and rings on offer. The site even offers for sale some quaint Queen Anne and Victorian jewellery boxes to store them in! Fragrances Of course, the vintage and retro feel shouldn't just stop at home decor! Vintage Home Decor sell some fragrant soap gift boxes in a variety of exquisite scents. From cinnamon to lavender, there's something for everyone. The website also features a line of best-selling potpourri bags. Each one has a beautiful decoration garnished on the exterior. And the bags are available in a variety of colours. Free shipping The Vintage Home Decor website makes it quick and easy to select and buy any item. What's more, there is free delivery on orders over $100. A nationwide delivery service is on offer. It matters not where in Australia any order gets delivered. About Vintage Home Decor When people look to transform their living spaces with a retro theme in mind, they go to Vintage Home Decor. It's a long-established website that offers a variety of tasteful decorative items. From home decor to jewellery, and kitchenware to lighting, one can find it all there! For more information, contact: Janelle Anderson 212 Woolthorpe Road Theodore QLD 4719 Australia Tel: +61 (0)428 377 800 Email: info@vintagehomedecor.com.au Website: http://www.vintagehomedecor.com.au [MANILA] Access to safe and sustainable energy is of vital importance to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), says Marcel Alers, global head of energy at the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Energy provision is an essential element of sustainable development, Alers tells SciDev.Net, referring to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which encompasses the 17 goals and 169 targets that make up the SDGs that come into effect this month. Energy is required in the day-to-day activities of people, and is directly impacting on the three pillars of sustainability economic, environmental and social, he stresses. Most of the SDGs depend on access to energy, an issue that was neglected in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Energy provision is an essential element of sustainable development. By Marcel Alers, UN Development Programme According to the Sustainable Energy for All, a multi-sectoral partnership backed by the UN and the World Bank, 1.1 billion people still do not have access to electricity, most of them located in rural areas. United Kingdom-based Smart Villages is one of the organisations trying to change that. Terry van Gevelt, a project manager at the non-profit organisation, explains that the smart villages approach asserts that access to sustainable energy can act as a catalyst for development when there is complementary investment in other physical infrastructure, such as roads; information and communications technology; education and healthcare. This is well established in historical literature, he tells SciDev.Net. In 2015, Smart Villages organised workshops in Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar for renewable energy experts, technology providers and local policymakers to discuss best practices and the challenges they faced in implementing existing off-grid projects in South-East Asia. Cultural sensitivity, collecting better metrics to inform public policy and prioritising clean cooking technology are just some of the findings that came out of these workshops. This year, Smart Villages will be working with the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak to conduct research on energy access of the Kelabit and Penan ethnic minorities in Borneo. Many remote communities have been the site of failed projects, van Gevelt tells SciDev.Net. It is important to understand what energy systems are most appropriate by involving the community at an early stage. Energy figures prominently in several international conferences and events this year. The World Future Energy Summit, which takes place in Dubai on 18-21 January, will discuss how to translate the 2030 development agenda into action. On 24-26 February, the 2nd International Conference on Green Computing, Intelligent and Renewable Energies will take place in Manila. On 23-25 March, Thailand will host the Sustainable Energy & Technology Asia, an international conference to promote scaling up of investments in renewable energy in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets South-East Asia & Pacific desk. The study indicates that under the frigid weight of Barents Sea Ice sheet, which covered northern Eurasia some 22,000 years ago, significant amounts of methane may have been stored as hydrates in the ground. As the ice sheet retreated, the methane rich hydrates melted, releasing the climate gas into the ocean and atmosphere for millennia. This finding was published last week in Nature Communications in the paper "Ice-sheet-driven methane storage and release in the Arctic." "Creation of gas hydrates requires high pressure; water; gas -- mainly methane -- and low temperatures. Nowadays we basically consider two environments suitable for this process to occur: subseabed along the world's continental margins, and permafrost areas on land and off shore. " Says principal author of the study, Dr. Alexey Portnov of CAGE -- Centre for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Ice sheets -- a third process But this is the first comprehensive study that shows that there is a third process that can create, contain and maintain large amounts of gas hydrates: ice sheets. " They are heavy, can exert enormous pressure on the ground below. And they are cold, of course. With enough supply of gas and water from below and favorable geological setting you will likely have enormous amounts of gas hydrates contained under modern ice sheets as well." 500-meter thick methane reservoir advertisement The theory that this may be happening beneath the Antarctic ice sheet has been published previously in Nature. CAGE-study is a more comprehensive take on that idea, and shows same processes taking place in the Arctic. Scientists from CAGE have over time collected wide-ranging observational data offshore western Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean. This made it possible to create robust models for a scenario of subglacial evolution of gas hydrate reservoirs during and after Last Glacial Maximum, or last ice age in laymans terms. The results of the study indicate that even under conservative estimates of ice thickness a 500-meter thick gas hydrate stability zone existed beneath the ice sheet in the study area. This zone could have served as a methane sink-a reservoir containing immense amounts of the natural greenhouse gas. 1 m3 of gas hydrate contains almost 170 m3 of the greenhouse gas methane. Rapid melt caused release of methane During the last ice age the continental margin offshore western Svalbard, was land covered with ice, much as Greenland and Antarctica of today. But as the climate changed, the ice melted over a period of thousands of years, a rapid melt in geological terms. advertisement The scientists have mapped over 1900 pockmarks -- gas escape features -- on what now is the seafloor in the study area. The age of these pockmarks has in previous studies been estimated as post-glacial, meaning that they appeared after the ice sheet had retreated. " Pockmarks are evidence of gas release from the ground. We infer that the gas hydrate zone was stable as long as the climate was cold and the ice sheet was stable. Abrupt climate warming caused sheets to melt, decreasing the pressure on the ground and increasing the temperature. This destabilized the hydrates. Methane was released into rising seawater and possibly the atmosphere." says Portnov. As the ice sheet retreated, the pressure lifted, steadily widening the corridor for major methane release. Accelerating climate change Rapid melting of the ice sheets due to global warming, and subsequent sea level rise has long been a concern to scientists. Methane, being at least 20 times more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, can accelerate the global warming. If the same process of methane storage is occurring under the current ice sheets, there may be a new threat to take into the account when we are discussing ice sheet retreat in the future. Modern ice sheets will not need thousands of years to melt., The Greenland ice sheet has been losing an estimated 287 billion metric tons per year, states NASA. The continent of Antarctica has been losing about 134 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2002, albeit its ice sheet tells a more complicated story. "It is difficult to study this processes in modern polar environments. The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are several kilometers thick and examining the ground beneath them is challenging and expensive, nonetheless. But the circumstances that were present in formation of gas hydrate zones in the past are also present today. We need to take that into the account when we are considering the impacts that the rapid melt of the modern ice sheets will have on our future climate" says Portnov. First Nations fisheries' catch could decline by nearly 50 per cent by 2050, according to a new study examining the threat of climate change to the food and economic security of indigenous communities along coastal British Columbia, Canada. "Climate change is likely to lead to declines in herring and salmon, which are among the most important species commercially, culturally, and nutritionally for First Nations," said Lauren Weatherdon, who conducted the study when she was a UBC graduate student. "This could have large implications for communities who have been harvesting these fish and shellfish for millennia." While many studies examine the impact of climate change on large commercial fisheries, few focus on indigenous communities. The study finds that coastal First Nations communities could suffer economic losses between $6.7 and $12 million annually by 2050. The study, published in PLOS ONE, was conducted by scientists with the Nereus Program, an international research team led by scientists at UBC's Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and supported by the Nippon Foundation in Japan. The researchers modelled how climate change is likely to affect 98 culturally and commercially important fish and shellfish species between 2000 and 2050. The study examined the impact of changes in ocean conditions such as temperature and oxygen levels on habitat suitability for these species under two possible scenarios: a low-emission scenario, where sea surface temperature would increase by 0.5 degrees Celsius, and a high-emission scenario, where sea surface temperature would increase by one degree Celsius in the northeast Pacific by 2050. The researchers found that most of the 98 species would be affected by climate change. They projected that fish would move away from their current habitats and toward cooler waters nearer the pole at an average rate of 10.3 to 18 kilometres per decade under the low and high emissions scenarios respectively. "The shifts in the distributions of these stocks are quite important because First Nations are generally confined to their traditional territories when fishing for food, social, and ceremonial purposes," said Weatherdon, now a researcher at United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre. The research team also found that while southern communities such as those of the Tsawwassen and Maa-nulth First Nations are likely to be most severely affected, all communities are likely to encounter declines in traditional resources including decreases in catch by up to 29 per cent for species of salmon and up to 49 per cent for herring by 2050. "With unmitigated climate change, current fish habitats are expected to become less suitable for many species that are culturally important for British Columbia's coastal communities," said William Cheung, associate professor at UBC, Nereus Program Director, Science, and co-author of the study. "Limiting global warming effectively to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century, as represented by the low emission scenario considered by our study, can substantially reduce such impacts." "The Paris Agreement acknowledges that our efforts to tackle climate change must reflect the concerns of indigenous people," said Yoshitaka Ota, co-author and Nereus Director, Policy, who is leading an initiative to study indigenous fisheries around the world. "However, little is known about the impacts of climate change on coastal indigenous peoples. This study demonstrates the importance of understanding diverse socio-cultural interests." James Cook University scientists have found lizards exposed to rain, hail and shine may cope better with extreme weather events predicted as a result of climate change than their fair-weather cousins. A new study by JCU PhD student Anna Pintor, published in the journal Ecological Monographs, is one of the first to test the Climatic Variability Hypothesis (CVH) -- which proposes that animals living in environmentally variable areas should be able to tolerate more environmental fluctuations as a result. This idea is a key assumption of the controversial Rapoport's Rule -- which states that a species at higher latitudes with variable weather conditions leads to the evolution of wider environmental tolerances which leads to a requirement for a larger range size. Ms Pintor, along with supervisors Professor Lin Schwarzkopf and Professor Andrew Krockenberger from the Centre for Tropical Biodiversity and Climate Change, used three groups of Australian skinks for their analysis. Their results confirm, in all three groups, that species living in regions with greater temperature variability have both greater environmental tolerances and wider ranges -- both in terms of latitude and altitude. Andrew Krockenberger explains the importance of this result to advancing scientific thought "The literature is full of examples of species that do and don't fit Rapoport's rule," he said. "We've shown what is important is the actual underlying mechanism -- that species that can deal with a high degree of variability at a single site also end up with more extensive geographic ranges. "Arguing about whether or not Rapoport's rule is valid is irrelevant and misses the point -- let's start making sure we understand the underlying process instead." Lead author Anna Pintor said if we want to understand impacts of climate change in the future, we need to know how species' current distributions come about it the first place. "Understanding underlying mechanisms like the CVH is one way to do that, but we need to do a lot more before we can tell exactly how species will be impacted and how to best help them deal with climate change." Researchers from the universities of Granada (Spain) and Kvopio (Finland) have confirmed that cranberry extract helps fighting urinary tract infections (UTIs) in breastfed babies under one year of age. Their work has demonstrated that this compound prevents the prescription of antibiotics in the prophylaxis for recurrent urinary tract infections in infants with vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), so preventing the risk of increasing the bacterial antibiotic resistance. This research, published in Anales de Pediatria (Annals of Pediatrics) magazine, has been funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III institute. It has counted with the collaboration of the university's Department of Analytical Chemistry and the Research and Development of Functional Food Centre (CIDAF, for its initials in Spanish), through professor Antonio Segura Carretero, and that of the University of Kvopio, Finland, through professor Tarja Nurmi. The research involved the participation of 85 children under one year of age and 107 over that age, all of them affected by a recurrent urinary infection. 75 children were administered cranberry extract, while the other 117 were administered trimethoprim, a bacteriostatic antibiotic derived from trimethoxybenzyl pyrimidine, used almost exclusively to treat urinary infections. Effective in adults and children The lead author of this work, professor Jose Uberos Fernandez from the Department of Pediatrics (UGR), notes that, according to analysis done at CIDAF, the composition of cranberry extracts available at the market is heterogeneous, and not all the polyphenolic fractions in them are equally useful. Given the results, "cranberry extract, which in previous researches had already shown effectiveness in preventing urinary infections in adults, is also effective and safe for breastfed infants with this condition." Cranberry extract effects have been, after numerous in-vitro tests, classically linked to the amount of proanthocyanidins present in the extract. "This molecule is quickly metabolized in the intestine, and our researches have demonstrated that the concentration of proanthocyanidins detected in urine is very little," professor Uberos says. The researcher from UGR emphasizes: "the in-vivo (that is, in humans) anti-adhesive effect, seems to be due to the proanthocyanidins intermediate metabolites and to other polyphenolic molecules present in cranberry extract. In this regard, some phenolic acids derived from metabolized cranberries seem to have some very interesting anti-adhesive properties, and that's something my team of researchers is working on." Moreover, the researchers intend to clarify if its anti-inflammatory properties (also noted by other authors) can improve nephropathies following pyelonephritis and reflux, present in other patients. A new-born baby in Hawaii with an unusually small head got infected with Zika virus, according to health officials in the USA. This is the country's first reported case to associate the virus and birth defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Hawaii State Department of Health confirmed the latest finding. In a statement, they revealed that the mother has potentially been infected with Zika virus while staying in Brazil in May last year and the infection might be passed in the womb. To avoid worry, they affirmed that the mother and the baby are not infectious and do not carry any risk for transmission. Tom Skinner, CDC spokesperson, said that there is currently no indication that Zika virus is circulating in the state of Hawaii. He further pointed out that imported cases of the virus to the USA was already expected, and local transmission is not surprising anymore. Last month, a woman from Harris County, Texas, who returned from a trip in Latin America was recently diagnosed and infected with Zika virus after she complained of fever and joint pain, which are common manifestations of the virus. But the Hawaii case is the first to link birth defects and Zika virus. Zika is a mosquito-borne illness with common manifestations like fever, rash and joint pain. Most people fear because of its reported potential to cause birth defects such as microcephaly, Guillain-Barre Syndrome and possibly intellectual and developmental disabilities. Without concrete basis yet, CDC posted on Friday a travel advisory highly recommending pregnant women especially those in the third trimester to postpone visiting affected areas including South America and the Caribbean while the virus transmission is ongoing. Those who are travelling should consult their primary healthcare provider first and strictly follow their advice or recommendations to refrain from mosquito bites such as applying anti-mosquito repellant and covering up. Last Friday, scientists uncovered a 122-foot long dinosaur. It is so big that even the American Museum of Natural History in New York, home of the biggest blue whale model, may need some extensions. According to the museum's spokesperson Aubrey Miller, the dinosaur has no official name yet, and its cast of skeleton has already touched its 19-foot ceilings, giving the museum's visitors a surprise when the elevator doors open. However, paleontologists believe that this giant is a herbivore that belongs to the titanosaurs group. It has a weight of 70 tons, that is, weighing as much as 15 African elephants all together. Miller revealed that a large femur will be one of the five original fossils that will be available for temporary viewing. The specie was first discovered on the spring of 2014 when a solo farmer scanned his land to search for his lost sheep. He noticed the odd rocky ledge his sheep was standing on, so he called in scientists to investigate, where they found an astounding 8-foot long thigh bone. The relics were found in the Patagonia region of Argentina, particularly in the desert near La Flecha, where its possible species roamed around some 100 million years ago. The excavation process was carried out by a team from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio spearheaded by Jose Luis Carballido and Diego Pol. After 40,000 hours' of hard work, what they found was totally magnificent. The team uncovered not only a giant herbivore but also the largest dinosaur, ever. Aside from that, they discovered that seven of these animals also died in the same spot in three separate occasions some 101.6 million years ago. The latest discovery is a member of the herbivore group known as the sauropods, with long necks, big bodied species. Within this group is another circle called titanosaurs. They followed on the vanishing of smaller sauropods and were found across the globe. Titanosaur remains are commonly found in South America where other beast giants like Puertasaurus and Argentinosaurus were previously discovered. Moderated by Jefferies investment banker Jeff Pribor, the panel of Oracles covered the entire waterfront: drybulk, tankers, offshore oil, containers, insurance and banking. Bob Burke, the ceo of Ridgebury Tankers, was looking ahead to clear sailing in both the crude and product tanker sectors, which he described as inter-related, unless the orderbook is overheating. He talked about the entire oil distribution system being clogged, noting that 1.5m barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production in excess of demand must be stored, including on tankers. Burke also opined on the newly allowed US crude oil exports, saying that with they would bring no benefit to the tanker market right now- with the price of US oil (West Texas Intermediate) at parity with the worldwide market (Brent oil). Burke continues to look for a low oil price throughout 2016; he was at the low end of the range in a poll of the Oracles on the likely oil price at end 2016; guesses ranged from $25 per barrel to $60 per barrel. Kevin Kennedy, a classmate of Burkes from the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), who is now managing director of container shipping fund packager MC Seamax, described a grim outlook for the container sector, which he described as driven by oversupply. Kennedy waxed enthusiastic on shipowners who charter vessels out the liners generally pay, and noted a bifurcation among listed companies, with dividends to shareholders being sustained at Costamare and Seaspan. Another USMMA classmate, maritime lawyer Peter McLauchlan, partner in the Houston office of Gardere Wynne & Sewell LLP, talked about $70bn of active bankruptcy filings as participants in the offshore energy space restructure. The panel also included insurance representative Joe Hughes, from the American Club, who described the insurance side of the business, where average increases have been low in recent years, as a bright spot for shipowners. Hamish Norton, president of Star Bulk Carriers summarized dry bulk with a Monty Python video clip with funereal overtones from the film the Holy Grail with the classic line Im not dead yet, which was rather fitting for the current state of the market. He added that the market is as bad as Petros Pappas, the chairman at Star Bulk, can remember. The Oracles also delved into ship finance, since NYMAR s membership is heavily involved in finance and capital raising. Lambros Papaeconomou, an analyst and journalist, implored companies to recognize their problems, and then suggested that: Chapter 11 is not the worst thing for companies that are restructuring their debt. Banker Martin Lunder, from Nordea, emphasized his banks participation in a large tanker financing, but acknowledged that well be busy with amendments and waivers when it comes to dry bulk. Lunder said that Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) have filled part of the funding vacuum as shipping banks have pulled back; he said that the industry has been taking $100bn of new debt each year. The panelists then discussed the impact of professional investors owning ships; Kennedy noted much more liquid markets for trading debt, while moderator Pribor postulated what might happen in the realm of asset sales, where non-emotional private equity investors might not be positioning for the next cycle - unlike family owned companies which will wait out bad markets. Press Release January 18, 2016 Transcript of Interview of Senate President Franklin M. Drilon Q: On Congress overriding President's veto of SSS pension SPFMD: Under Section 27, Article 6 of the Constitution and under the rules of the Senate, the override must be initiated by the chamber where the bill originated. And in this particular case, it is the House where this bill originated. Therefore, any move to override must start from the House and we cannot act on it until the House would take action. The SSS pension bill originated from the House of Representatives and, therefore, the initiative to override the bill, which requires two-thirds votes, must come from the House. On the basis of the present number of the House, I would estimate that will be about 190. Q: Yung SSL IV hindi raw priority? SPFMD: We will pass it on third reading today. Q: Pwede bang executive na lang iyon, through an executive action, since nine days na lang ang session? SPFMD: Under the present charter of the Social Security system, the Social Security Commission can propose an increase in the pension benefits and that will be submitted to the President for approval. in response to your question, yes, there is a possible executive action if the compromise is agreed upon. ' Q: Sir, yung SSL IV, unfair daw po para sa mga maliliit na manggagawa sabi ng COURAGE. SPFMD: We will approve it on third reading here with the indexation. Q: Mababa lang daw yung sa mga maliliit na empleyado pero yung doon daw sa mga executives, malaki. SPFMD: That is a matter that you know, we believe that the SSL IV is fair and will cost the government P57 billion on year 1 alone. Q: On the SSS pension increase, were you able to have discussions with Speaker Sonny Belmonte on how to go about with the pensions? SPFMD: No. Q: But on the rules of the Senate, pagkatapos ng House? SPFMD: Yes that's correct. That's when we can take up whatever proposed over-riding. Q: With only 9 days left? SPFMD:: Firstly, let the House act on it. Q: Yung sinasabi niyong additional SSS benefits, it doesn't have to be across the board? SPFMD: The Social Security Commission has enough leeway to act or to work on it. Under the charter, they are authorized to increase the benefits and the same will be effective upon the approval of the President. Q: So possible yung P1000 na increase? SPFMD: I do not know. I would rather leave that, I am just talking here about the procedures. Q: Are you enjoining the SSS? SPFMD: Well I am asking, there are remedies under the law, and that remedy is available to the Social Security Commission. I would suggest that they take a good look at this remedy available. Q: Wala pong concern ang administration, ang Liberal Party na makaapekto ito sa halalan? SPFMD: There is none. The President's action was to save the fund for 31 million members who will be affected in case of a collapse of the system in 10 years. Q: Magbabacklash daw kay Mar ito. SPFMD: I have already answered that question. Q: Sa Mamasapano probe, Secretary Coloma said that they will be asking for advance questionnaires. SPFMD: This is a committee hearing, the advance written questions will be available during the question hour. This is not the question hour. Press Release January 18, 2016 Continuing complaints of SAF 44 kin justify reopening of Mamasapano probe--Sen. Marcos Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos, Jr. today said unfulfilled promises from the government and the continuing cries for justice from families of the SAF (Special Action Force) 44 justify the reopening of the Senate probe on the January 25, 2015 Mamasapano massacre. "Almost a year has passed after the Mamasapano massacre and yet we continue to hear complaints from some of the kin of the SAF 44 that they have yet to receive the assistance the government promised to them," Marcos said. He cited report quoting widows of slain SAF commandos, namely Virgie Viernes and Merlyn Gamutan, who bared that they have yet to receive the aid pledged by the government. "Drawing lang po," Viernes said when asked about the promised aid from the government. Marcos said the complaint of the two widows of SAF 44 runs counter to the statement the Philippine National Police leadership issued last July claiming they have provided about P80 million in cash aid for all the kin of the SAF 44 as well as scholarship benefits for children of the slain policemen. "But what the families of the SAF 44 are asking most from the government is justice for their loved ones. Yet until now no case has been filed in court to prosecute those responsible," said Marcos. "We owe it to the families of the SAF heroes to resolve these issues and the Senate investigation will allow us the opportunity to do that," he added. Marcos has consistently prodded the Department of Justice to speed up its preliminary investigation on the Mamasapano massacre and file appropriate charges in court to begin the process of giving justice to the victims. The Senate reopened the Mamasapano investigation on the strength of a motion from Minority Leader, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who demanded the resumption of the probe as early as October last year on the ground that he has new evidence regarding the incident. Senate moves to declare Second Week of November as Economic and Financial Literacy Week The Senate has passed on third and final reading a bill seeking to declare the second week of November of every year as economic and financial literacy week. Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, chairman of the Committee on Economic Affairs, said Senate Bill No. 2779 seeks to promote consciousness of the country's economic and financial positions. He said the proposed legislation envisions consciousness-raising and knowledge expanding activities that could be integrated in the school curriculum for the benefit of the students and the youth. "It is very alarming that most Filipinos lack basic financial knowledge. We also want them to know that financial education can be substantial to their self-growth and also the well-being of our country," Ejercito said. "Through education, we can encourage our citizens not only to take part in improving the condition of our country, but also to change their mindset in terms of their potential contribution through sound financial decisions, " Ejercito added. He said the proposed legislation complements the government's battle cry for inclusive growth as part of the Philippine Development Plan. (MaeJoy Albano-Miranda) Press Release January 18, 2016 Senate proposes extension of franchises for radio, television networks The Senate today approved on third and final reading seven local bills seeking to grant and renew the franchises of several radio and television broadcasting services nationwide. Sen. Serge Osmena, acting chairman of the Committee on Public Services, said passage of House Bill No. 5154, into law would allow the Pipol Broadband and Telecommunications Corporation to construct, install, maintain and operate their telecommunications systems throughout the country. Likewise, he said, the enactment of House Bills No. 6012 (Bell Telecommunication Philippines Inc.), 4507 (Contel Communications, Inc.), 5592 (Far East Broadcasting Company Philippines), 5982 (Mabuhay Broadcasting System, Inc.), 5940 (Progressive Broadcasting Corporation) and 5582 (Radio-Veritas Global Broadcasting System) into law would renew their franchises for another 25 years and allow them the operation of their radio and television networks. Osmena said the continued operation of the five radio and television networks would generate additional jobs, create career opportunities and continue to provide the people with additional to information to help them in their daily lives. "Radio and television continue to deliver effective means of educating our people and keeping them informed despite the advancement of the internet as our primary databank of information," he said. "Broadcast media is particularly important in areas where reliable internet connection is lacking," he added. According to Osmena, the seven networks had complied the requirements prescribed by law such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). Meanwhile, the Senate had also approved on final reading a measure extending the franchise of Tarlac Electric Inc. for another 25 years. Osmena said the continued operation of the Tarlac Enterprises would ensure that the residents of Tarlac City would have adequate access to light, heat and power. "The continued operation of the applicants would encourage competition in the market pursuant to the policy of the government to prohibit or regulate monopolies," he said. (Pilar S. Macrohon) Senate commends 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach The Senate today adopted a resolution congratulating and commending Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach for winning the 2015 Miss Universe Pageant on December 20, 2015 at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Resolution 1697, introduced by Senator Manuel "Lito" Lapid, was adopted in consideration of Resolution 1698 authored by Senate President Franklin Drilon. Wurtzbach is the third Filipina to wear the Miss Universe crown aside from Gloria Diaz and Margarita Moran who won in 1969 and 1973 respectively. Wurtzbach bested 79 other contestants from around the world. Hailing from Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, the 26-year old Miss Universe 2015 title holder "exhibited not only classic Filipina beauty but also intelligence," the resolution stated. Wurtzbach, who failed to win the title of Miss Universe-Philippines in 2013 and 2014, joined the pageant for the third time in 2015 and earned the privilege of representing the Philippines in the 64th Miss Universe Pageant. "The Filipina beauty queen's positive attitude and strong determination to fulfil her dream of winning the 2015 Miss Universe title are indeed positive example and great inspiration to her countrymen, particularly the youth, that no dream is impossible as long as he or she puts his or her heart and mind in it," Drilon said. Wurtzbach "gave Filipinos unparalleled pride and showed the world the unwavering spirit of Filipino beauty, grace and excellence," Lapid said. "The honor earned by our Filipino beauty queen deserves to be commended for the pride and recognition that it brought the country." (Apple Buenaventura) Press Release January 18, 2016 Senate approves bill increasing maternity leave to 100 days The Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to increase maternity leave for female employees in the public and private sectors to 100 days regardless of the mode of delivery. Currently, our laws provide for 60 days of maternity leave for government employees and 60 to 78 days for employees in the private sector, depending on the mode of delivery. Senator Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality and sponsor of Senate Bill No. 2982, said the current allowable maternity leave is less than the 98-day minimum requirement of the International Labor Organization (ILO). According to Cayetano, the Philippines is lagging behind other countries in the Asean Region in terms of maternity leave duration. Vietnam for instance, she said, provides 120 to 180 days of mater, depending on the working conditions and nature of the work. Singapore, on the other hand, provides 112 days of maternity leave. Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Thailand all provide a maternity leave period of 84 days, Cayetano said in her sponsorship speech. She said SBN 2982, known as the Expanded Maternity Leave Law of 2015, aims to provide mothers with ample transition time to regain health and overall wellness as well as to assume their maternal roles before resuming full-time work. It would also give mothers sufficient financial support while on maternity leave, she added. They can also avail of an additional maternity leave of 30 days, without pay, provided that the employee gives the head of the agency due notice, in writing, 45 days before the end of her ordinary maternity leave. "The expansion of the maternity leave period shall not in any way diminish the existing maternity benefits granted by the employer. It shall not affect the female employee's security of tenure", Cayetano stressed. According to the proposed bill, employees from the private sector availing of the maternity leave period and benefits must receive not less than two-thirds of their regular monthly wages. "Employers from the private sector shall pay the salary differential between the actual cash benefits received from the SSS by the covered employees and their average weekly or regular wages, for the entire duration of the ordinary maternity leave," the bill said. Data from SSS show that for the years 2012 to 2014, the availment of the maternity leave is less than two percent of the total female population of SSS members. Exempted from giving cash benefits are employers who are operating distressed establishments and retail/ service establishments employing not more than ten workers. Also exempted are employers who pay their workers on commission, boundary or task basis and those engaged in the production, processing, or manufacturing of products and commodities including agro-processing, trading, and services whose total assets are not more than three million pesos. "Through policies like this, we aim to institutionalize standards that promote the rights of working women and protect them from discrimination based on maternity," Cayetano said. (Olive Caunan) With the news of the planned name changes of Yosemite National Park landmarks, to say my grandmother is rolling in her grave would be inaccurate. Because actually, her ashes are scattered in Yosemite Valley, our familys holy ground. The Ahwahnee, the Wawona, Curry Village and even the more prosaic Yosemite Lodge all make up the vocabulary of so many Californians shared Yosemite experience. When a corporation holds their identities hostage, its an insult to her memory, and to all who love Yosemite. My grandmother, Dorothy Sprague, was born in the park in 1920, the daughter of a career Yosemite park ranger for whom one of its backcountry lakes is named. She grew up in one of the staff cabins that are still near the Yosemite Visitor Center and witnessed Ansel Adams taking photos out in the great meadow; she even babysat his two children, according to family lore. In 1946, she married my grandfather in the Yosemite chapel, and they splurged for a stay at the Ahwahnee Hotel when they came back to celebrate their 50th and 55th wedding anniversaries. Reminder of heritage What Grandma made me appreciate, in frequent pilgrimages there, was how much the parks stunning natural beauty was anchored by its human history. Curry Village was where she watched the Firefall tumble down Glacier Point; the Ahwahnee is where she danced with recuperating sailors housed there during World War II; and Yosemite Lodge was where she brought her own family when she came back to visit preferably in spring when the waterfalls were full and the dogwood was in bloom. As landmarks, theyre as important to the park as Bridalveil Falls and El Capitan. Her father, Arthur Gallison, grew up in Mariposa, and began working at the park before it became part of the National Park Service when it was founded 100 years ago. He married my great-grandmother Ruth after she graduated from UC Berkeley; they met when she waitressed four summers at Camp Curry which will be known as Curry Village at least until March. Ruth would always refer reverentially to Jennie Curry, the founder and owner of the camp, as Mother Curry. We still have sun-dappled baby photographs of my grandmother and her brothers in the meadow. They grew up learning the names of birds and wildflowers and hiking and skiing the backcountry. Theres a memorable photo of Grandma at age 13, dressed up and holding hands with an American Indian girl probably one of the few Paiutes still living there at the time at the ceremonial opening of the Wawona Tunnel. Its a reminder of the American Indian heritage behind the Ahwahnee Hotels name, which itself was taken from the Ahwahnechee people, who were forced out of their home in Yosemite Valley in the mid-1800s. I wonder: Will the tunnels name stay the same even when the 136-year-old Wawona Hotel becomes Big Tree Lodge? After their wedding in the Yosemite chapel, my grandparents moved a few times and eventually settled in Castro Valley. They would visit the park often with their children and later their grandchildren, taking us tubing on the Merced River and on overnight trips to the tent cabins at Tuolumne Meadows Lodge the names of which, thankfully, will not change. Decades as safe haven My clearest memory visiting the park is of a curvy road near the entrance when I was around 10. Grandma asked my grandfather to pull over. She walked over to a natural spring coming off the mountain, cupped her hands and drank the water. The symbolism of her baptismal drink was clear even then. To her, Yosemite was the purest place. It was a safe haven, it was home. She couldnt have imagined it being tainted by a tug-of-war over so-called intellectual property rights involving names established over a century ago sought by an international conglomerate that has only done business in Yosemite since 1993. The names of the parks historic hotels and lodges resonate with all of us who have celebrated milestones or just enjoyed spending time with friends and family at Yosemite. The Ahwahnee, the Wawona, Curry Village and Yosemite Lodge are more than just places to sleep; their rooms and lobbies and restaurants are soft places to recover from taking in the vastness of those massive granite cliffs. They are places where we can reflect on our shared history living on the edge of the wilderness. Tara Duggan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tduggan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @taraduggan This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate California Highway Patrol officers arrested 25 demonstrators after the group used the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday to chain themselves and their vehicles across all five westbound lanes of the Bay Bridge, bringing traffic to a standstill as they demanded racial equity. The activists froze traffic for about 30 minutes before they were arrested on suspicion of public nuisance, unlawful assembly and obstructing free passage, CHP Officer Vu Williams said. The protesters apparently drove onto the bridge in five cars shortly before 4 p.m., stopping near the new eastern span tower one in each of the five lanes. They stepped out on Interstate 80, just east of Yerba Buena Island, and strung chain through each of the cars and across the lanes, forcing traffic to back up well into the MacArthur Maze in the East Bay. CHP officers used bolt cutters to cut the chains, Williams said. Police began arresting the protesters, who were placed in zip-tie handcuffs and moved to the shoulder of the highway so that lanes could be reopened. There was no force used; everyone cooperated, Williams said. The fortunate thing was today was a public holiday, so traffic wasnt as bad as it could have been. The protest group, an offshoot of the Black Lives Matter movement, is a black queer liberation collective that calls itself Black.Seed, Mia Birdsong, a spokeswoman for the group, said. This action in particular was really about taking a strong, courageous stand in solidarity with MLK, Birdsong said. The activists align themselves with the Anti-Police Terror Project, and their display came with a set of demands, including the resignation of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and immediate terminations of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr and Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent. They also demanded an end to city funding of police and called for city investment in affordable housing to keep black, brown and indigenous people in San Francisco and Oakland. Protesters had planned to stay chained to the structure for 96 minutes to represent the 96 hours of direct action protests that took place in Oakland over the weekend. After 30 minutes, three lanes were opened, but the traffic jam continued into the early evening. Drivers sat on top of their cars, took selfies and popped out their sunroofs as traffic reached a standstill. A number of people stopped at the toll plaza to use the restroom. Chris Day, driving to his home in Redwood City with two friends in the car, looked at a traffic app that said it would take two hours and 39 minutes to cross the bridge, a likely overestimation. I feel like whatever theyre protesting, I want to be against it right now, he said. People have the right to protest, but they dont have the right to block traffic. What if someone has a job interview or an important appointment? For Robert Holtz of Ripon (San Joaquin County), the delay was standing in the way of him getting to a memorial service. They could put their energies into a lot more useful venues than sitting on a bridge making everyone suffer, Holtz said. The action occurred just after the California Highway Patrol had shut down the eastbound Interstate 80 Powell Street off-ramp in Emeryville during a separate Monday demonstration that began in Oakland and moved into Emeryville. Chanting, Hey, hey, ho, ho, police brutalitys got to go, and Black lives matter, the diverse crowd of activists marched peacefully all day along the East Bay streets, expressing outrage over what they called the unfair treatment of blacks at the hands of law enforcement. Were just trying to make the change we can and take it a day at a time, said Nkei Oruche, marching with her husband and two children. In the year since the last Martin Luther King Jr. Day, much has happened. In April, riots broke out in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal spine injury during an arrest. In June, the black community decried an act of domestic terrorism after a white man gunned down nine black parishioners in Charleston, S.C., inside of a church, an act police continue to investigate as a hate crime. In August, authorities called a state of emergency in Ferguson, Mo., as officers arrested enraged protesters fighting against what they called racial bias a year after the shooting death of Michael Brown. Im just here as a black person representing my family, Oruche, one of the Oakland marchers, said. Its important to start from an early age and let my kids know whats important. Victor Guendulain of San Jose held up a sign that read migrant workers for black resistance as he walked to draw attention to the issues that black folks are going through and make the connection to migrant workers who face similar police repression and intimidation. Rachel Swan, Michael Cabanatuan and Jenna Lyons are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: rswan@sfchronicle.com, mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com and jlyons@sfchronicle.com Numbers of the day 62 = 3,600,000,000 Thats the math of financial inequality, as Oxfam reported Monday that the 62 richest people have the same wealth as half the planet, as in 3.6 billion people. That compares with 388 people just five years ago, when the global economy was just emerging from its deepest recession since World War II. Growing inequalities around the world could be a key topic this week at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. Page D2 Rides 2.0 The sky is no limit for Uber this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The San Francisco company is teaming up with Airbus Group to let Sundance attendees hail a helicopter ride from Ubers app. Uber spokeswoman Taylor Patterson told the Los Angeles Times that the chopper rides will operate between Salt Lake City Airport and a helicopter landing pad in Park City, a journey that will take approximately 15 minutes and cost $200 per person during the day and $300 at night, include Uber SUV service to and from the helicopter pads. Doing it right WhatsApp, a popular mobile messaging service owned by Menlo Parks Facebook, says it will drop its 99-cent subscription fee over the next several weeks. The company said Monday that charging the fee after one free year hasnt worked well, as many users dont have credit or debit cards and are afraid of losing the service when its time to renew. WhatsApp says nearly a billion people around the world use the service. The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle ROME The Vatican says it will ensure that its supply chains dont use forced labor after a forum of some of the worlds biggest supermarket chains and food manufacturers announced new efforts to slave-proof their own supply chains. Cardinal George Pell, the Vaticans top finance official, unveiled the policy at a gathering Sunday of the Global Foundation, an organization from Australia that seeks to encourage dialogue about global governance, sustainability and other issues. International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde attended the forum and met with Pope Francis on Monday. Francis has sought to shine the spotlight on the scourge of human trafficking and modern-day slavery and has enlisted Christian and Muslim and other faith leaders to do the same. During the Sunday gathering, representatives of the Consumer Goods Forum, based in France, which has 400 supermarket chains and consumer goods corporations as members, announced that it had recently passed a resolution to strive to eradicate forced labor from our value chains. Members of the forum include supermarket chain Carrefour and foodmakers Barilla, Campbells, Nestle, Hersheys and Bumble Bee. It wasnt immediately clear if the forums internal resolutions are binding on members, though membership can be terminated. Pell congratulated the Consumer Goods Forum for its pledge and announced the Vatican would do the same. It is against this backdrop that I am pleased to confirm that the Vatican itself will commit to slavery-proofing its own supply chains, and I hope that todays announcement will serve as encouragement for others to follow suit, he said. He noted that the members of the Consumer Goods Forum represent $2.9 trillion in annual sales, and directly employ 10 million people around the globe. The Vaticans contribution to the movement to slave-proof supply chains pales by comparison, given it is a tiny city state of 44 hectares, a few hundred residents and a few thousand employees. But it does have a sought-after tax-free supermarket and department store. Criticism of the governments management of federal lands in the West isnt limited to the Sagebrush Rebellion the Nevada rancher who has refused to pay cattle grazing fees, and his kinfolk leading an armed occupation of a wildlife refuge in Oregon. Theres also a federal judge who has ruled that ranchers with nearby water rights can graze their cattle on federal land without a permit. At a trial on civil trespassing charges against a Nevada rancher, U.S. District Judge Robert Clive Jones of Reno described Bureau of Land Management officials as arrogant, dismissed almost all of the charges, invited the rancher to sue the government, and held two federal officials in contempt of court. On Friday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco overruled Jones, rebuked him for his comments and ordered him removed from the case. Unfortunately, the judges bias and prejudgment are a matter of public record, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an emphatic 3-0 decis ion. Abused power of contempt The court said Jones ruling that a rancher who holds water rights from the state can graze cattle within a half mile of the water without a federal permit ignored appellate law that has been established since 1967. An owner of water rights like all other persons may graze cattle on federal lands only if he or she has obtained a grazing permit or other grazing authorization, Judge Susan Graber said in Fridays ruling. Water rights are irrelevant to that basic requirement. Graber also said Jones grossly abused the power of contempt by seeking to punish federal officials who were doing their jobs. The case isnt directly related to the campaign against federal land regulation that has become known as the Sagebrush Rebellion. But it illustrates the same conflicts that led to the high-profile standoffs between federal officials and protesters led by Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy . Bundy has refused to pay $1 million in cattle grazing fees and led a group of supporters who faced off against federal officers in 2014. His son Ammon leads an armed group that has taken over the headquarters of a wildlife refuge in Oregon, protesting federal control of the lands and increased prison sentences for two ranchers convicted of arson on government property. The government has not acted against either group of protesters. The court case has Sagebrush Rebellion connections. The rancher originally involved in the case, H. Wayne Hage, sympathized with the protest movement and wrote a 1994 book, Storm Over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands, that is popular among its adherents. Hage held a grazing permit for federal lands, about 200 miles north of Las Vegas, from 1978 until 1993, when the government refused to renew his permit, finding defects in his application. He continued to graze cattle on the land until his death in 2006. The trespass charges run from 2004 to 2008, when the property was managed by his son, also named Wayne Hage. Dropping trespassing claims In his ruling in 2013, Jones said the Hages, because they had the right to use water from nearby streams, also had an easement a right to bring their cattle across public lands, and let them graze, within a reasonable distance of the water, which he defined as a half mile. The judge dismissed all the trespassing claims except two, awarded the government $165.88 in damages, and ordered federal agencies to issue grazing permits to the family. A property-rights group, the Pacific Legal Foundation, sided with the Hages. Foundation lawyer Brian Hodges said Friday the appeals court had misunderstood Jones order, which merely allowed the family to gain access to their state-allotted water, with some incidental grazing along the way. You cant stop a cow from putting its head down while youre driving it to water, Hodges said. But the court said Jones had allowed unrestricted grazing on federal lands, without a permit or any support in the law. Graber said Jones made his attitude clear on the first day of the trial, when he said the Bureau of Land Management displayed the standard arrogant, arbitrary, capricious attitude that I recognize in many of these cases. Other conflicts with court Jones, appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush in 2003, has had other run-ins with the appeals court. The court has removed him from several cases, including one in which he refused to allow federal government attorneys from outside Nevada to appear in his court. And when the appeals court ordered Jones in 2014 to allow same-sex couples in Nevada to marry reversing his 2012 ruling that upheld the states ban on same-sex marriages he instead removed himself from the case. Graber said appeals court judges have twice suggested scrutiny of Jones conduct by the courts disciplinary body, the Judicial Council. The council rarely takes public action against a federal judge, and has not done so against Jones. Deborah Rhode, a Stanford law professor who teaches legal ethics, said the councils general reluctance to act is the downside of a system designed to minimize political influence over federal judges, who are appointed for life and can be removed only by congressional impeachment. In order to insure the independence of the judiciary, weve insulated them from accountability, Rhode said. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko WASHINGTON Lost in the arguing over whether women should begin mammograms at age 40 or 50 or somewhere in between is the issue theyll all eventually face: when to stop. Theres a point at which everybody begins to scratch their head and say how much longer do you have to keep doing this? said American Cancer Society specialist Robert Smith. Its an increasingly complex balancing act as older women are living even longer. The risk of breast cancer rises with age. But so do the odds of other serious illnesses that may be more likely to kill in a seniors remaining life span or to make them less able to withstand the rigors of cancer treatment. If we pick up a cancer in someone whos 75 and they die at 76 of something else, did it really matter? Thats really the question here, said Dr. Susan Boolbol, breast surgery chief at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Medical guidelines dont agree. The cancer societys advice: Women should continue mammograms as long as their overall health is good and they have a life expectancy of at least 10 more years. Last week, guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said theres not enough evidence to recommend for or against mammograms at age 75 and older, because that age group just hasnt been studied enough to tell. Getting such evidence is critical, given the graying of America, said Dr. Jeanne Mandelblatt, an expert on cancer and aging at Georgetown University. Indeed, some in the 80-and-beyond crowd are as spry as 60-somethings. People are taking better care of themselves, said Yale University pathologist Dr. Fattaneh Tavassoli. If we dont start discussing it, its going to be more difficult to come up with management approaches for these patients. She recently reported that Yales medical center is diagnosing more breast cancer at 90 and older, averaging about eight diagnoses a year since 2000, compared with one a year during the 1990s. Many were diagnosed after the woman or doctor detected an abnormality, not from routine mammograms, Tavassoli said. But shes asked if other hospitals see a similar trend, and also wants to study what treatment they underwent. About 26 percent of breast cancer deaths each year are attributed to a diagnosis after age 74, according to the American Cancer Society. The question we have not really studied very carefully is what fraction of those deaths is truly avoidable, Smith said. Mammography does decline as women get older. About three-quarters of women age 50 to 74 have had a mammogram within two years, compared with 41 percent of the 85-plus group, according to 2013 government figures. COLUMBIA, S.C. For the first time in 17 years, civil rights leaders marched to the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Only this year, the Confederate flag wasnt there casting a long shadow over them. The rebel banner was taken down over the summer after police said a young white man shot nine black church members to death during a Bible study in Charleston. After the massacre at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley reversed course and made it a priority for lawmakers to pass legislation to remove the flag. Isnt this a great day? Its so nice to be standing here and not looking at that flag, said Ezell Pittman, who attended most of the King Day antiflag rallies since they started in 2000. I always had faith it would come down. I hate it took what it did, but was real happy to see it go. Across the country, the 30th anniversary of the holiday to honor the civil rights leader assassinated in 1968, was remembered in different ways. In Michigan, people delivered bottled water to residents of Flint amid the citys drinking-water crisis. In Atlanta, an overflow crowd listened to the nations housing secretary talk about the 50th anniversary of Kings visit to Chicago to launch a campaign for fair housing. South Carolina NAACP President Lonnie Randolph said the flags removal was tangible evidence the state cares about civil rights when pushed hard enough. But he warned there would be other fights ahead. I promise you, the people that gather in this building your building will do something this year to cause us to return to ensure freedom, justice and equality is made possible for all people, Randolph said, motioning toward the capitol behind him. Randolph promised to keep coming to the Statehouse until Kings dream realizes its full meaning in a state where there are wide gaps in education achievement between school districts in rich, white communities and poorer, black ones, and where the governor and Republican-dominated Legislature have refused to take federal money to expand Medicaid. In the nations capital, President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama followed the King Day theme of community service by planting vegetable seeds at a District of Columbia elementary school to honor the civil rights leader and celebrate Mrs. Obamas antichildhood obesity initiative. They also stuffed bags with books for needy children. NEW YORK New York Citys horse-carriage trade, a pastoral staple of Central Park, is set to be transformed under a deal struck by the mayors administration that would reduce the size of the industry and confine its horses to a new stable inside the park. Mayor Bill de Blasio, who promised some of his most generous political contributors that he would eliminate the industry, announced a compromise late Sunday that would allow 75 horses to continue plying the park at a time, down from the current 220. The horses home would be relocated from the West Side of Manhattan to a stable built by the city within Central Park the first time the 159-year-old greensward would house a facility for commercial carriage horses, according to park historians. The deal comes with an unexpected twist: Pedicabs, the oft-lamented tricycles that ply tourists, would be banned from operating inside Central Park below 85th Street, eliminating a chief competitor of the carriage industry. The City Council must approve the deal, which was described by the mayors office as an agreement in concept. The compromise eases one political headache for the mayor, a Democrat, but potentially creates many others. De Blasios devotion to ending the carriage industry he promised to do so on Day 1 of his administration has proved broadly unpopular with the public. The issue also underscored de Blasios ties to wealthy equine-rights activists who spent roughly $1 million attacking his chief opponent, Christine Quinn, in the 2013 mayoral race. Under the mayors plan, horses would no longer mix with city street traffic, and their working hours would be reduced. But parks advocates have privately raised concerns about the addition of a commercial stable built with taxpayer funds for a private industry being placed inside a cherished public park. This was not the way public parkland was intended to be used, said Tupper Thomas, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, an advocacy group. There are a lot of questions about this proposal that have to be looked at carefully. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON Diplomatic triumph or travesty, Americas relationship with one of its most intractable foes took two giant leaps forward this weekend when Iran released four Americans in a prisoner swap after locking in last summers nuclear deal and receiving some $100 billion in sanctions relief. The announcements culminated a stunning few days of activity for the Obama administration and particularly Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the diplomatic outreach to Tehran at President Obamas direction through years of slow-grinding negotiations. Speaking from the White House, Obama on Sunday hailed the historic progress through diplomacy, long the centerpiece of his foreign policy vision, instead of another war in the Middle East. Three of the American detainees Bay Area native and Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, and pastor Saeed Abedini arrived in Germany en route to a U.S. military hospital. They will return home after medical evaluations. The fourth, Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, opted to remain in Iran, officials said. The Islamic Republic released the prisoners in exchange for pardons or charges dropped against seven Iranians six of whom hold dual U.S. citizenship serving time for or accused of sanctions violations in the United States. A fifth American, student Matthew Trevithick, who had been detained in Iran for roughly 40 days, was released separately. Making good on pledges For all the celebrations, the timing of the deal, finished hours after Saturday nights U.N. confirmation that Iran made good on pledges to significantly back away from atomic bomb-making capacity, suggested that the Americans possibly were used as pawns by Iran government to win long-sought economic relief, as critics allege. The International Atomic Energy Agencys declaration unlocked some $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets overseas, and potentially even greater economic benefits through suspended oil, trade and financial sanctions by the U.S. and European Union. Critics of Obamas Iran policy at home and abroad pounced on the details of the prisoner exchange and the new economic opportunities being afforded Tehran while it still supports Syrian President Bashar Assads government and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. This deal is a problematic deal, and it reflects a pattern we have seen in the Obama administration over and over again of negotiating with terrorists, and making deals and trades that endanger U.S. safety and security, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, a GOP presidential candidate, said on Fox News Sunday. Nevertheless, the back-to-back breakthroughs reflected painstaking diplomacy by Kerry and administration officials. U.S. and Iranian officials hashed out the prisoner exchange over 11 or 12 meetings over a process that took a little longer than a year, sprouting from the even longer set of talks that led to last Julys landmark nuclear accord. One of the last hiccups that delayed the Americans departure was an Iranian military officials misunderstanding about Rezaians wife and mother joining him on the flight. After Kerry spoke with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, permission was granted. No relations since 1979 But the administrative holdups meant that the Swiss crew set to fly the plane ran into a mandatory crew rest. That set back takeoff several hours. The U.S. and Iran havent had diplomatic relations since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The administration says this weekends agreements wont change that situation, but relations are clearly warming. Cooperation on ending Syrias civil war and even discussions about coordinating their fights against the Islamic State point to the budding ties. That has many of Americas closest partners in the region, not to mention Republican and some Democratic lawmakers in the United States, fretful. Republicans have denounced the outreach as a dangerous and undeserved concession to Iran. Israel remains steadfastly opposed to the Iran deal and any rapprochement with Tehran. Sunni Saudi Arabia has had tension with Iran since executing a Shiite cleric on Jan. 2, which led to a severing of diplomatic ties between the two. Sanctions for missile testing The United States on Sunday imposed sanctions against 11 individuals and entities involved in Irans ballistic missile program as a result of Tehrans firing of a medium-range ballistic missile, a new punishment one day after the Obama administration lifted economic penalties against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. The missile program poses a significant threat to regional and global security, and it will continue to be subject to international sanctions, said Adam Szubin, the Treasurys acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in a statement. U.N. experts said in a report in December that the missile test in October violated sanctions banning Iran from launches capable of delivering nuclear weapons. The U.S. also believes there was a November missile test. U.S. officials have said the Treasury planned to announce the penalties in late December, but held off after Irans foreign minister said they could have derailed the prisoner exchange that took place this weekend. JOHNSTON, Iowa Placing third, at best, is rarely the stated goal for a presidential candidate. Yet that was exactly the focus for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as they barnstormed Iowa over the weekend, a little more than two weeks before the state holds the first presidential nominating contest in the nation. Hundreds of people braved temperatures hovering around zero to jam Rubio events, and the senator spent nearly as much time shaking hands and taking pictures with voters as he did speaking and answering questions. Christie was on a similar mission, traversing nearly half the state to greet voters at breakfast and hold town halls in bars and even an ice cream parlor. The two Republicans shared imperative: to head into the New Hampshire primary eight days later as the best-positioned establishment alternative to businessman Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. It would be a great shot of adrenaline going into New Hampshire, where they might find a more favorable electorate, said former Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn. Moderate and business-minded Republican voters, either in Iowa or nationally, have yet to coalesce behind a candidate. If an establishment candidate such as Rubio or Christie has a stronger-than-expected showing when Iowans caucus on Feb. 1, their hope is that will prompt voters in the upcoming primaries to solidify support behind their campaign, notably in New Hampshire. Voters there habitually nominate mainstream Republican candidates because the electorate is less influenced by evangelical Christians than Iowas. Cruz and Trump are battling for first place in the Iowa caucuses, with the senator winning the support of 25 percent in polling released last week by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg Politics, and the businessman receiving 22 percent. Rubio came in third with 12 percent, in a virtual tie with retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who received 11 percent. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also fighting for establishment support, notched 4 percent. Christie, who clocked a lowly 3 percent, was frank about his chances. Im not going to win the Iowa caucuses. How about I make that declaration? Christie told the Des Moines Registers editorial board. But I dont have to. I just think Im going to do a heck of a lot better here than most people think. Rubio was not quite as candid, but he argued that he had momentum in Iowa. We feel very positive about the turnout were seeing, getting people signing up to caucus, he told reporters after a town hall in Johnston on Saturday. Voters in Iowa decide late, he cautioned. Polling released last week found more than half of likely GOP caucus-goers had not picked a candidate, or could change their mind if they had. Rubio and his allies are saturating the airwaves. Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 1, Rubio and a super PAC supporting his bid have bought time to air about 7,000 ads one-third of all the political ads that have been purchased, according to a Des Moines Register analysis. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A man who was struck and killed by a tour bus in the Western Addition neighborhood over the weekend was identified Monday as a longtime teacher with the San Francisco Unified School District. Pieter Roell, 82, retired after working for decades at city high schools where he taught English, social studies and journalism. But in the past year, he began suffering from dementia and was in the care of a social worker, his longtime friend and attorney David Clisham said Monday. He was real energetic and he loved teaching, especially his work in journalism, Clisham said. I was always impressed with his passion and dedication to teaching and dealing with youth. The busy intersection near UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion was a chaotic scene Saturday, when around 1 p.m., the double-decker Hop-On Hop-Off tour bus plowed into Roell as he crossed Post Street at Divisadero Street, police and the city medical examiner said. Several witnesses were yelling and honking horns, apparently trying to warn the driver before the collision. The bus kept moving for several feet after hitting the man. Investigators were interviewing witnesses and reviewing security video of the incident, but said they believed Roell may have been crossing against a red light. Former San Francisco police Officer Frank Zarich witnessed the episode and said he saw Roell waving his arms at the bus when he was struck. Roell was pronounced dead at the scene from apparent severe head trauma. Clisham believes his friends mental state may have contributed to the accident. He certainly needed some guidance last Saturday morning, he said. Roell was originally from the Netherlands and lived in Canada and Indonesia before moving to the United States. San Francisco, though, had been his home for decades, said Clisham, a former schoolteacher who met Roell back in the 1970s and noted the man was kind of an international guy with a strange name. Clisham later helped Roell deal with a relatives estate in Canada, and the two stayed in touch. He said Roell would occasionally stop by his law office at Second and Market Street to chat. We will miss him, Clisham said. Saturdays episode came as state lawmakers have been working to more heavily regulate tour buses. On Nov. 13, a runaway City Sightseeing double-decker bus injured 20 people when it plowed through a crowded street and cleaned out scaffolding near Union Square. The bus was not inspected by the California Highway Patrol and was not properly registered. The CHP hit the City Sightseeing fleet with 61 violations during a post-accident inspection. In 2014, a 68-year-old city employee was struck and killed by a slow-moving Classic Cable Car Charters bus while in a crosswalk in front of City Hall. The driver of the bus, Raymond Lucas, 65, was cited for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter. The episode prompted city officials to pass an ordinance to require most tour bus operators to employ a second, non-driving guide when giving tours. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Michela/Flickr Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Facebook Show More Show Less 3 of 3 It has already been a bad couple years for LGBT-friendly bars in San Francisco, and with news that the Gangway, the city's oldest gay bar, would be shuttering following a lawsuit and the death of its longtime manager, it doesn't seem that things are getting any better. Jung Lee, who along with his late wife, owned the bar for 18 years, planned to sell the bar in 2017, but an unexpected lawsuit by a disgruntled employee is moving up the schedule. According to a report by Hoodline, one of the Gangway's bartenders has filed suit against the bar, claiming that Lee did not compensate him or her with California's minimum wage ($10.24 hourly at the time). Lee says he was under the impression that he did not have to pay bartenders minimum wage due to the tip credit. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Stockton police dog took down a wanted killer, who was holed up in a dingy motel after he blew his girlfriend away and carjacked two people the day before, officials said. Police were tipped off on Saturday afternoon that known gangbanger Ernesto Velazquez, 40, was hiding out at the Ivy Motel on the 9100 block of Thornton Road in Stockton, police officials said. Officers had been scouring the city and putting out alerts on social media hoping to track the man down after he allegedly shot and killed his 39-year-old girlfriend, who was not identified, on the 4500 block of Mist Trail Drive on Friday. Immediately after the killing, Velazquez, police said, carjacked a 57-year-old man at gunpoint on the 3300 block of Phelps Street then ditched the car at Seventh Street and Pock Lane where he kidnapped and carjacked a woman. Velazquez allegedly drove with the woman to North Stockton where he got out of the car and ran off, officers said. The woman was not seriously injured and immediately called police. The next day, officers got a lucky break that the suspect was staying at the remote motel, tucked behind an auto shop and taco truck. When police surrounded the place, Velazquez bolted and scrambled over a fence. The suspect, though, couldnt outrun a police K-9 that caught up to him and brought him down. During the fracas, Velazquez tossed a loaded handgun that police said they recovered at the scene. He was booked without bail in the San Joaquin County Jail on suspicion of murder, kidnapping and carjacking after being treated at a hospital for his injuries. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate To the delight of more than 100 people at a debate-watching party in Oakland, the three Democratic presidential hopefuls mixed it up Sunday night in a series of pointed exchanges over health care, gun control, taxes and big business. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley were less willing to play nice than in the previous three debates, pointing fingers and leveling charges in their final meeting before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses. Clinton first challenged Sanders record on gun control, accusing him of voting with the gun lobby many times, as well as refusing to support the Brady bill, which required background checks on people buying firearms. Sanders pushed back on what he said are Clintons too-close relationships with the banking and finance industries. Asked where he and Clinton differ on financial regulations, Sanders had a quick answer: The first difference is I dont take money from big banks. ... I don't get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, he replied, saying later the former New York senator had received more than $600,000 in speaking fees from the investment bank in one year. Time and again during the debate, Sanders, who calls himself a Democratic socialist, doubled down on his progressive call for a major restructuring of the countrys economic and political system, in which he argued that big money calls all the shots and makes all the decisions. The harsh back-and-forth was exactly what many undecided Democrats at the debate party wanted to hear. I want to see (the candidates) be more definitive, push harder. I want to see their differences, said Akiba Bradford, 27, of Oakland. As a young woman of color, I havent been engaged by any of the candidates. Crowd gathers in Oakland It was a mostly young crowd at Everett & Jones Barbeque off Oaklands Jack London Square. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, although in South Carolina for the debate, organized the event for several Young Democrat clubs in the East Bay. There were plenty of Clinton supporters in the crowd, including Sharon Ball, who said she was there to root for my girl. Like many in the audience, she said she liked Sanders and his progressive ideas but wasnt convinced he has what it takes to be president. I dont disagree with anything (Sanders) says, but when it comes to knowing how to bring those plans about, he doesnt have a clue, she said. With the race tightening, the harsher rhetoric didnt come as a surprise. Recent polls have shown Sanders gaining ground on Clinton in the early balloting states. The Vermont senator has a lead in the polls in neighboring New Hampshire, which holds its primary Feb. 9. While Clinton still has the edge in Iowa, the race is getting closer and at least a couple of polls have Sanders in the lead. OMalley barely registers in the polls, with numbers so low it wasnt until the last minute that he was invited to the debate. A path to a victory Sanders highlighted his rising numbers Sunday. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign began, she was 50 points ahead of me. ... In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very, very close. Maybe were ahead in New Hampshire, he said. We have the momentum. Were on a path to a victory. But small, rural and heavily white states like Iowa and New Hampshire dont really reflect the multiethnic big-city base of the Democrats. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday showed Clinton with a 59 percent to 34 percent lead over Sanders nationally. The candidates got a big reaction, both in Charleston and in Oakland, when they talked about police violence and racial justice. A North Charleston police officer is facing trial for killing a black man, Walter Scott, as he fled from a traffic stop last year. When asked whether it was true that the lives of young black men seem to matter less in the country, Clinton agreed. Well, sadly its reality, and it has been heartbreaking, she said. There needs to be a concerted effort to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system. Sanders called for taking many of the decisions over police shootings out of the hands of local authorities. This is a responsibility for the U.S. Justice Department, he said. Whenever anybody in this country is killed while in police custody, it should automatically trigger a U.S. attorney generals investigation. The most boisterous exchange, with all three candidates talking over each other in an effort to be heard, came when Sanders touted his support for a single-payer health care system, which he describes as Medicare for all. By eliminating all private insurance, he said his plan would cover everyone in the country at far less cost than they now are paying. What a Medicare-for-all program does is finally provide in this country health care for every man, woman and child as a right, he said. Clinton blasts Sanders plan But Clinton argued Sanders plan would replace the Affordable Care Act and many other health efforts Democrats have fought to achieve, with no guarantee it could ever make it through Congress. We finally have a path to universal health care, she said. We have accomplished so much already. I do not to want see the Republicans repeal it, and I dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate. John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The Earths oceans are absorbing more heat from a warming world, and the pace of the temperature rise is increasing with each passing decade, researchers have discovered. In the past two decades alone, the oceans have taken up more than half the increase in heat created by the worlds outpouring of greenhouse gases during the entire industrial era, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory reported Monday following a study of ocean temperature records dating back more than a century. Most of that heat has been absorbed in the upper 2,300 feet of the oceans, but an ever greater amount is reaching into deeper ocean levels a mile and more down, said Peter J. Gleckler, a Livermore physicist and climate scientist who led the research. Were now seeing that more and more of the heat from global warming is going into the deeper layers of the oceans, Gleckler said in a telephone interview. Several heat sources Among the warming influences carrying heat into the oceans are receding sea ice in the Arctic, melting glaciers over much of Greenland and collapsed ice shelves in Antarctica, the researchers said. The heat capacity of the ocean system is huge, said Paul J. Durack, a Livermore oceanographer on the research team. And that melting land-based ice adds to the total mass of the warming ocean. As the oceans absorb more heat they expand and become a major cause of the sea-level rise were already seeing. The researchers conceded in their report that the environmental effects of the increasing heat at deeper ocean levels are poorly understood, if at all. And as a physicist and climate modeler, Gleckler said in the interview that he cannot predict what those effects might be. Some data in the new research comes from computer models of the oceans response to the changing heat output generated by the worlds greenhouse gases. But much of it has come from an international project called Argo that is financed by more than 30 countries and has been gathering data over the past decade from an array of more than 4,000 robotic floats deployed in every ocean in the world. Far beneath the surface Each robot hovers at about 3,300 feet deep and periodically dives more than a mile down before surfacing to transmit temperatures, salinity and changing ocean currents to shore stations worldwide. Another climate research team led by Dean Roemmich at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla (San Diego County) has also used the Argo floats to study how heat produced on the Earths surface by greenhouse gases is absorbed into the oceans. Roemmichs group, separately from Glecklers team, has estimated from the data that the oceans heat may be increasing only by thousandths of a degree Fahrenheit per year, but that the warming signal extends down beyond 6,500 feet. It is most noticeable in the oceans of the Southern hemisphere, the researchers said. The oceans below that depth remain largely unknown, and the Argo floats cannot dive there, but scientists at the 30 nations including the United States that support the $25 million Argo project are already testing deeper floats that could sample temperature, salinity and ocean currents down to depths of more than 3 miles. Its already one of the great international successes in measuring the worlds climate system, Durack said. The Argo floats have been providing us with global heat coverage since 2005, and theyve greatly improved our confidence in the models weve been testing and using, Gleckler said. Voyages historical data Another valuable source of information on the heat of the oceans came to the Livermore researchers from the voyage of H.M.S. Challenger around the world from 1872 to 1876, before the industrial era. That epochal scientific expedition sailed nearly 80,000 miles, and its hundreds of thermometer records taken by sailors from the surface down to nearly 27,000 feet are part of the Gleckler groups report. The Gleckler teams report was published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, and the Roemmich groups report was published earlier in the same journal. The Livermore teams colleagues include Ronald J. Stouffer of Princeton University, Gregory C. Johnson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, and Chris E. Forest of Pennsylvania State University. David Perlman is the San Francisco Chronicles science editor. E-mail: dperlman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @daveperlman Oh good grief. London Spy has a promising title must be a nifty spy story, eh? Well, it is a spy story, sort of, but hardly nifty: Youll spend five hours searching for a secret decoder device to figure out how so much promise could be so haphazardly executed. Is it entirely terrible? Not at all. But despite its occasional assets, its lapses and faults are frequent and maddening. The five-part miniseries, premiering on Thursday, Jan. 21, stars Ben Whishaw (The Hour) as Danny Holt, a young, gay warehouse worker who parties too much, almost certainly because he is a romantic at heart and looking to find true love. One morning, after a night of debauchery, Danny literally bumps into a handsome young man (Edward Holcroft, Kingsmen: The Secret Service) out for a run on a London bridge. Their exchange is brief, but Danny is smitten. He returns to the bridge every morning at around the same time and eventually meets the young man again. He says his name is Alex. They spend time together, take things rather slowly but soon fall in love. They are from different worlds, of course. Danny has been around several blocks in his young life. Alex is a cipher, with seemingly little life experience. Alex is polished, perfect, well mannered; Danny is a scruffy blue-collar type. But, for a while, love seems to be conquering their differences, until Alex disappears without a trace and is eventually found dead. Was it murder? If so, who did it? And, more important, why? Danny is immediately a suspect, of course, but he is adamant about his innocence. Hes not as much concerned about his own well-being as he is about finding out what really happened to Alex and who Alex may have been. Danny has an ally in Scottie (Jim Broadbent, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince), a retired British spy who, years earlier, was quietly taken out of the spy business and given a desk job after he was caught having a sexual liaison with another man. Scottie is more than half in love with Danny, but sees his role as the younger mans protector. For his part, Danny relies on Scottie as something like a father figure. And like so many ungrateful children, Danny rarely thinks about Scotties needs or emotions. Scottie is depressed. How do we know? Because he tells us in so many words, and those words are, I am depressed. Writer-creator Tom Rob Smith (Child 44) fashions Scottie as a cliche-ridden self-loathing older gay man, dressed head to toe in tiresome stereotypes. But wait till you meet Mama. That would be Frances Turner (Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years), Alexs ice-blooded mother, cut from the same cloth as Tennessee Williams Violet Venable in Suddenly Last Summer. She dresses all in black and gray, the creases of her mannish trousers perfectly straight, and blames Danny for her sons death. For much of the way, the only real suggestion that theres a spy element in the story is provided by the title of the miniseries. Otherwise, its an overheated melodrama or maybe a murder mystery. Scottie knows the spy game, and perhaps Alex was a spy himself, but does that mean that everything else Danny thought he knew about him was false? Although Whishaws performance is extraordinary, its glow is clouded by the messy, overwritten script and frequently untethered direction by Jacob Verbruggen (Code 37). One scene in particular illustrates how bilious the direction is at times. Danny decides to get an HIV test. The nurse explains the procedure, pricks his finger and disappears for a while to test the sample. Verbruggens camera moves slowly around the room, from Danny, to the walls, to the telephone and back to Danny again. Minutes tick slowly by. The nurse returns with results and performs the same test again, and off we go again on the whirlwind tour of the room. The intent is clear: Show us how the minutes feel like hours to Danny as he waits for the results. The problem, though, is that in execution, the minutes do feel like hours, artificially so, and instead of helping us empathize with Danny, we just find ourselves wondering if Verbruggen was guaranteed more money for dragging things out. Thats only the most obvious excess, but there are plenty more, in the illogical, melodrama-drenched dialogue as well as the artsy direction. Whishaw may keep the human story from being swamped by bad writing and worse direction, but Rampling and Broadbent are doomed. Holcroft as Alex survives largely because his character is supposed to be a buttoned-up mystery, so hes spared having to spout the terrible dialogue. In the end, none of it makes a great deal of sense. And speaking of the end, lets just say that in addition to borrowing from Tennessee Williams, Tom Rob Smith makes a last-minute petty theft from the finales of all those Hope-Crosby Road pictures. In the case of London Spy, the road is of the dead-end variety. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. E-mail: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV London Spy: Five-part miniseries. 10 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, on BBC America. GAZIANTEP, Turkey Mohammed Saad, a Syrian activist, was imprisoned by the Islamic State group, hung by his arms and beaten regularly. Then one day, his jailors pulled him and other prisoners down and hid them in a bathroom. The reason? A senior Muslim cleric was visiting to inspect the facility. The cleric had told the fighters running the prison that they shouldnt torture prisoners and that anyone held without charge must be released within 30 days, Saad said. Once the coast was clear, the prisoners were returned to their torment. Its a criminal gang pretending to be a state, Saad said, speaking in Turkey, where he fled in October. All this talk about applying Shariah and Islamic values is just propaganda, Daesh is about torture and killing, he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. Syrians who have recently escaped the groups rule say public disillusionment is growing as the Islamic State has failed to live up to its promises to install a utopian Islamic rule of justice, equality and good governance. Instead, the group has come to resemble the dictatorial rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad that many Syrians had sought to shed, with a reliance on informers who have silenced a fearful populace. Rather than equality, society has seen the rise of a new elite class the jihadi fighters who enjoy special perks and favor in the courts, looking down on the commoners and even ignoring the rulings of their own clerics. Despite the atrocities that made it notorious, the Islamic State group had raised hopes among some fellow Sunnis when it overran their territories across parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate in the summer of 2014. It presented itself as a contrast to Assads rule, bringing justice through its extreme interpretation of Shariah and providing services to residents, including loans to farmers, water and electricity, and alms to the poor. Its propaganda machine promoting the dream of an Islamic caliphate helped attract jihadis from around the world. In Istanbul and Turkish cities near the Syrian border, the Associated Press spoke to more than a dozen Syrians who fled Islamic State-controlled territory in recent months. Most spoke on condition they be identified only by their first names or by the nicknames they use in their political activism for fear of reprisals against themselves or family. Like under the (Assad) regime, we were also afraid to talk against Daesh to anyone we dont fully trust, said Fatimah, who escape from Syria to Turkey in November with her husband and five children. Islamic State also has become less able to provide public services, in large part because military reversals appear to have put strains on its finances. U.S. and Russian air strikes have heavily hit its oil infrastructure a major source of funds. Over the past year, the group has lost 30 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, according to the U.S.-led coalition. Many of those interviewed said there are lengthier cutoffs of water and electricity and prices for oil and gas have risen. Abu Salem, an activist from the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, said public acceptance of Islamic State rule is eroding. It has made an enemy of almost everyone, he said in the Turkish city of Reyhanli. KABUL Representatives from four countries meeting in Kabul on Monday called on the Taliban to resume peace talks with the Afghan government. Senior officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States met for most of the day at the Presidential Palace amid tight security, a week after a first round of discussions in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. In a joint statement released by the Afghan Foreign Ministry, they said the talks made progress on a roadmap toward initiating peace talks with Taliban groups. The insurgents were not represented at the talks. The roadmap would include who do they want to talk to, on what timetable, what incentives are to be offered, and what kind of action will be taken with those people who want to talk and those who do not want to talk, said an official who requested anonymity. The meetings are part of a three-step process, said Abdul Hakim Mujahid of Kabuls High Peace Council, tasked with ending the war. Mujahid also served in the Talibans 1996-2001 administration. The first step is to formulate a roadmap, the second is to invite the armed opposition to the negotiating table, and the last step is the implementation of the peace plan, Mujahid said. Kabul held direct talks with the Taliban for the first time last summer in Islamabad, but that process collapsed after Afghanistan announced that longtime Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar had died more than two years ago in Pakistan. The announcement set off an internal rivalry among the Taliban, raising questions about who would represent them in negotiations. Analysts have said it will be months before direct talks resume. WASHINGTON: A key ocean-monitoring satellite on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Sunday that will continue a nearly quarter-century record of tracking global sea level rise. The international mission Jason-3, a US-European oceanography satellite mission with NASA participation, will continue to monitor and precisely measure global sea surface heights, observe the intensification of tropical cyclones and support seasonal and coastal forecasts, the US space agency said in a statement. Jason-3 data will also benefit fishery management, marine industries and research into human impacts in the world's oceans. The mission is planned to last at least five years. "Jason-3 will take the pulse of our changing planet by gathering environmental intelligence from the world's oceans," said Stephen Volz, assistant administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service. The $180-million mission will improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts, including helping NOAA's National Weather Service and other global weather and environmental forecast agencies more accurately forecast the strength of tropical cyclones. "The measurements from Jason-3 will advance our efforts to understand Earth as an integrated system by increasing our knowledge of sea level changes and the ocean's roles in climate," added John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for science at the NASA headquarters in Washington, DC. Minutes after Jason-3 separated from the rocket's second stage, the spacecraft unfolded its twin sets of solar arrays. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft's signals, and initial telemetry reports showed the satellite was in good health. The international mission Jason-3 is led by the NOAA partnering with the US space agency NASA, CNES (the French Space Agency) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Meanwhile, the US private spacecraft company SpaceX failed in its attempt to land the spent first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a ship in the ocean. Shortly after lift-off, SpaceX tried to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a floating drone ship in the ocean, with a landing zone of 150 feet (45.7 meters) by 250 feet (76.2 meters). But about 25 minutes after the rocket lifted off, SpaceX tweeted, "First stage on target at droneship but looks like hard landing; broke landing leg...Second stage re-ignition successful. Jason-3 satellite has been deployed." "After further data review, stage landed softly but leg 3 didn't lockout. Was within 1.3 meters of droneship center," SpaceX confirmed later. Kevin Meissner, who used to work for SpaceX, told Xinhua, "the sea landing does not require much fuel because you do not need to turn around and fly all the way back to the land". Data from Jason-3 will also be used for other scientific, commercial and operational applications, including forecasts of El Nino and La Nina events. Read More: India's Tallest Tricolour to be Hoisted in Ranchi on Saturday The Top-10 Indian Philanthropists of 2015 WASHINGTON: A U.S. school district has unanimously voted to add Diwali, Eid al-Adha and Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve in the school holiday calendar, for the first time in the school system's history. Indian-American community hailed the decision by Howard County Public School System, which manages 71 schools and serves nearly 50,000 students, as "historic". "I am extremely pleased by the Board's ability to discuss and unanimously agree to seek ways to recognise the diverse backgrounds of Howard County's students and families," Board of Education Chairwoman Christine O'Connor said in a statement after the eight member board unanimously supported such a motion. "We want to do our best to find flexibility within the calendar to provide opportunities for all students to experience all cultures within our community," O'Connor said. The motion in this regard as proposed by board member Janet Siddiqui. "By taking this vote, the Howard County Board of Education has shown a great way forward in acknowledging diverse religious holidays without violating the spirit of church-state separation," said Murali Balaji education director of Hindu American Foundation. HAF and Chinmaya Mission started a petition that collected over 250 signatures in under three weeks, while the Board received nearly 500 emails from parents asking for inclusion of Diwali. Indian Students at Centennial High School (ISAC) also collected and submitted signatures for the effort, said Balaji, who along with several Chinmaya Mission members, testified at the Board's hearing last month. "This vote is proof that it is indeed possible to accommodate the religious needs of multiple faith communities in diverse school districts," said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Maryland Outreach Manager Zainab Chaudry, who has submitted testimony on the holiday inclusion issue. "Religious pluralism is the hallmark of an integrated and inclusive society. We see that reflected in the Howard County Board of Education's decision," Chaudry said. According to Baltimore Sun, as of the 2014-2015 school year, 42 percent of Howard County students were white, 22 percent were black, 19 percent were Asian, nine percent were Hispanic and six percent were of two or more races. The school system does not record the religious backgrounds of its students, it said. Read Also: Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Donates $31 Mn in Facebook Stock to Charity Government to Present Union Budget for 2016-17 on Feb 29, Says Jayant Sinha With Donald ban the Muslims Trump, Ted glowing sand Cruz, and Ben rabid dogs Carson leading the GOP pack, it is not surprising that white supremacist groups forced underground by social stigma have suddenly found a voice. Many have started to come out and actively campaign for Trump, thinking that this is their best chance to take their country back and drive all non-white people out, or at least put them in their place. The unspeakable has suddenly become dinner table conversation. Long suppressed grouses against other races and religions can now be openly discussed in the context of the latest salvo from Trump or Cruz. And there appear to be no limits I am waiting to see who would be the first to drop the N word in a presidential debate. I know it has had a resurgence in private conversations. For the uninitiated, sand niggers refers broadly to Arabs but many use it to cover Indians and other South Asians as well. CNNs Fareed Zakaria writes in his blog that his daughters aged seven and 12 received threats in a late night phone call because the caller believed that Fareed was leading a call for a rape jihad. Apparently, there is a fatwa from Fareed that Muslim men should go out and rape white women in the Midwest. That this is a charge that someone of Fareeds standing and intellect needs to publicly refute is bizarre but it seems we are all now citizens of Trumpistan. Trumpistan is that utopia where only white people exist in a Christian nation, ideally served by invisible people to shine shoes, serve Chinese food (with lots of Mayo), do tech support in incomprehensible accents, mow our lawns (without dealing drugs to our kids and raping our wives), and play sport and create music for our amusement.For those of you who are confused by what Trumpistan is, just think of the Caliphate but with Mullah Trump in charge. If someone steals an apple, Sharia law dictates that you cut off his arm. If someone commits a crime, Trump law dictates that we kill the family. When Nikki Haley gave a reasoned response to Obamas State of the Union address last week, it was OK for Anne Coulter, firebrand tweeter, to shoot off that we should deport Gov. Haley. Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, is of Indian descent but born in the United States. When Bernie Sanders talks of a potential 90 percent tax rate many of my friends get convulsions, as if having a stroke. Bernies socialist dogma is unpalatable to many, however there have been no calls for Bernie to be deported to Poland where his father immigrated from. This touches on the undercurrent of what is permeating through our social fabric at this time. The quietly held belief that white people are the true Americans. No matter that many Japanese and Chinese immigrants have been in the U.S. for many generations, having worked on the first railroads. No matter that many blacks have been here almost as long as the whites. And most importantly, native Americans are the original inhabitants of this land. It would appear that all of us are here on a temporary basis, at the will and kindness of the white person. But this worldview of white entitlement and resentment of minorities is held by only 25 percent of the U.S. population. And therein lies the GOPs problem. With minorities approaching 50 percent of the population, how does this hardline anti-minority view get a Republican elected to office? The answer is Nikki Haley. Just to be clear, La Femme Nikki is no softie. She wants all immigrants to carry their documentation with them at all times to prove that they are here legally. She supports laws allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons to bars and worked to reduce requirements for training and permits for gun ownership. She is pro-life. Her socially conservative views earned her an endorsement from Sarah Palin when she stood for office in 2010. Nikki Haleys response to President Obamas recent State of the Union speech was an eye opener for many of us. No one, not even the macho grandees of the GOP, had spoken up against the outlandish proposals of Trump until that point. No one had shown that they care for many of us minorities subject to these messages of hate constantly in the media. Nikki Haley comes along, and stands up to Trumps message of hate and suddenly the GOP is a potentially likeable party that can serve all hard working Americans. A female Republican candidate would be the best antidote to a Hillary Clinton candidacy. The GOP has blazed a path in American history by abolishing slavery, drafting the law for a womans right to vote, electing the first woman to the Congress, electing the first Asian American to the US Senate, and many other notable achievements. All of that history is being squandered away by an electoral strategy shaped by the ranting of Donald Trump. So once the primaries get over and no one gets the requisite votes for nomination and we have a brokered convention, the GOP should bypass Paul Ryan and look to Nikki Haley as its nominee. President Nikki Haley could save the GOP from Trump and us poor souls from Trumpistan. ReadMore:Trump,theUnifier Hillary Launches Campaign to Engage Asian Americans Page Content The purpose of the meeting was to maintain an ongoing partnership with consular representatives and community groups that represent various nationalities residing in the country. In the meeting the NRB conveyed to the representatives the need to continuously strengthen ties with each minority group representative in the community, seeing that the representatives may have a closer relationship with their members. In turn they can provide information to their membership about the NRB and also how they could assist in combatting human trafficking by being informed about the mechanism that is in place. Some of the key topics discussed during the meeting were the NRBs organization, its responsibilities and the human trafficking indicators that can be used if trafficking is suspected. Victims of trafficking in humans can be found in a variety of situations. Members of the community can play a role in identifying such victims via human trafficking indicators. Although the presence or absence of any of the indicators neither proves nor disapproves that human trafficking is taking place, their presence should lead to investigation. There are general indicators; indicators with respect to children who have been trafficked; domestic servitude; sexual exploitation; labour exploitation; and begging & petty crime. The NRB was established in 2013 and works closely with the Immigration and Border Protection Service which falls under the Ministry of Justice. It is responsible for combatting Human Trafficking and Smuggling in Sint Maarten. The main tasks of the NRB is to provide information on the risks of human trafficking and smuggling; taking care of the intake of victims of trafficking and providing them with protection such as giving a temporary residence permit; conducting a public campaign aimed at increasing public awareness and specific risk of the consequences of human trafficking and smuggling; channelling victims of trafficking and smuggling to health authorities and twinning partners and international organizations to enforcement staff in recognizing signs of smuggling and trafficking. To report suspected cases of human trafficking, call Tel.: (721) 542-1553 or email naticotip@gmail.com All calls and emails are kept confidential! The NRB office hours are from 8:00am till 17.00pm, Monday through Friday, and is located at A.Th. Illidge road #6, Phillipsburg. PHOTO CUTLINE: L to R: Dominican Republic Vice Consul Renaldo Alverez, NRB Communications Officer Rashirda Hughes, and Alma Groeneveldt, translator/secretary who accompanied Alverez to the meeting. The National Reporting Bureau (NRB) for Human Trafficking recently met with Vice Consul for the Dominican Republic Renaldo Alverez, who represents Dominicans residing in the country and are part of the Sint Maarten community. By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Some analysts who closely follow Iran and its regional proxies suggested Sunday that the abduction of Americans in Baghdad may have been a projection of Iranian power, in particular by hardliners who opposed the prisoner swap with the United States over the weekend. Iran released four dual Iranian-American citizens who were being held in Iranian prisons; the United States offered clemency to seven Iranians charged or imprisoned for sanctions violations. U.S. authorities also dismissed charges against 14 Iranians outside the United States. Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f014b328)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f025aa60)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f014b328)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f025aa60)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01cf310)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f025aa60)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f025aa60)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612ee5150a0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0470c68)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0470c68)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01ad328)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0241db0)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01ad328)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0241db0)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f00ea460)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0241db0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0241db0)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612ee514640)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0340848)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0340848)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28:
29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f009f358)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011d600)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f009f358)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011d600)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f01bd570)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011d600)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f011d600)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612ee516100)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0347ab0)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f0347ab0)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Wesfarmers will spend more than $1 billion rolling out the Bunnings hardware brand to the United Kingdom and Ireland within five years, following the $705 million acquisition of home improvement chain Homebase. The Coles owner confirmed on Monday that Homebase's parent company, Home Retail Group, had approved its bid for the chain, which is the second largest in its market. Wesfarmers went deep back into the past to help cement its hardware future in Britain. Credit:Patrick Scala Bunnings will takeover Homebase's 265 stores which will be rebranded Bunnings and will open a handful of pilot warehouse style stores. "Once we have successful pilot stores we will introduce the Bunnings offer more widely across a three- to five-year period," Wesfarmers managing director of home improvement John Gillam said. Labor MLC Lynda Voltz has criticised an investigation by NSW parliament into sexual harassment claims against former NSW ALP boss Jamie Clements that found there was "insufficient evidence" to substantiate the allegations. Ms Voltz is a former military policewoman who investigated sexual harassment and assault allegations in the Australian Defence Force during the 1980s and '90s. Lynda Voltz has criticised an investigation by NSW parliament into sexual harassment claims against former NSW ALP boss Jamie Clements. She questioned why the investigation finding was based on "the balance of probabilities" as outlined in a letter to Mr Clements last October. Fairfax Media revealed the confidential findings after Mr Clements resigned as general secretary following allegations he tried to kiss a staff member, Stefanie Jones, in a parliament house office last year. A Belconnen couple have been banned from owning animals for five years after being convicted of animal cruelty charges described as abhorrent, appalling and an offence to the Canberra community. Three dogs under the care of the couple were seized by RSPCA inspectors in late 2014 in a severely emaciated state with illnesses from inadequate worming. A picture of the conditions the dog was living in at the Belconnen home. Inspectors were appalled by the dogs' poor living conditions and an unwillingness to provide appropriate care. The couple kept the dogs on chains to stop them attacking each other, with one found with a bloody ear on inspection. Shawn Hemphill, 32, became tearful when sentenced by Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday afternoon. And while we are discussing owls, this column's recent defence of the philistine-maligned Powerful Owl sculpture on Belconnen Way (and of public art per se) embraced an idea referred to us by Dr Andrew Leigh MP. Dr Leigh is an economist and a man of ideas. Canberrans and their public art is a big and continuously throbbing topic. Beautiful Bubo scandiacus is native to snow-upholstered far northern parts of North America and Eurasia. It is Quebec's flattering faunal symbol in the same way in which the Gang-gang cockatoo flatters us as the ACT's faunal emblem. Gang-gang is parochial and focuses on ACT wildlife and especially ACT owls (this column is the home of the Powerful Owl of Turner Fan Club) but we're sure Canberra's bird-loving readers have room in their hearts for all owls, everywhere. Pictures just captured by a CCTV traffic camera of a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) in snowy Montreal, Quebec, have gone viral. Now, as you can see, the virus has infected this always owl-loving column. Public art critics whinge about public art's costs and cannot get over the fact that sculptor Bruce Armstrong's owl cost a trifling $400,000. We wondered if Dr Leigh knew of a way in which the pleasure a piece of public art gives can be measured in dollars and cents ways, the only kind of calculation that public art's critics can do. "One standard approach," he told us, "is to ask people how much money they'd be willing to pay for public art (the contingent valuation approach)." "In the case of the owl the initial cost was $400,000. So, if each of the 92,000 people in the Belconnen region would be willing to pay $5 or more for the owl (less than the cost of two coffees), then it was good value for money." Now a Letter to the Editor on this subject by Bruce Taggart argues, cogently, that the contingent valuation model can only be valid if those polled are fully informed. They must know what things public monies cannot be spent on if, instead, those shekels have been spent on a work of art. He Taggart, refers us to to the City of Redmond, Oregon, where he says they have found ways to "democratise" decisions about which works of art are purchased. This is instead of in Taggart's words, leaving it (as he implies it is left in Canberra) "to the discretion of a clique of art connoisseurs and bureaucrats". Taggart's letter (published Monday) is worth reading and the experience of Redmond is worth investigating. But some of us who care about art always shudder at the mention of art and democracy in the same paragraph. The ACT Government's discussion paper on reinvigorating Northbourne Avenue and the city centre could not have been better timed, Canberra CBD Ltd chief executive, Jane Easthope said. The long term Canberra resident, who blasted the unkempt state of Civic in an article in Sunday's Canberra Times, said Northbourne had never lived up to its promise as a grand entry to the national capital. A vision of future Canberra as proposed in the City and Gateway Urban Renewal Strategy. "I've lived here for 30 years and have always been a tad embarrassed by it," she said. Robyn Hendry, the chief executive officer of the Canberra Business Chamber, said Civic itself let the side down. The rise of so-called "disruptive" businesses such as Uber and Airbnb is receiving fresh support from the state government amid new estimates that they contributed more than half a billion dollars to the NSW economy in the past year. Innovation minister Victor Dominello will on Tuesday announce the government is embracing what is known as the "collaborative economy" and developing a framework for its potential regulation. The announcement comes a month after the NSW government legalised ride-sharing services such as UberX and said it would deliver $250 million in compensation to the taxi industry. It signals the government's willingness to further intervene in the market to support emerging startups while ensuring principles such as consumer protection and fairness to all businesses are adhered to. Uranium miner Paladin Energy has flagged a likely revision to its full-year production guidance but has managed to build larger cash reserves than expected despite weak uranium prices. In its December quarterly production report released on Monday, the miner said it produced 1.26 million pounds of uranium oxide from its flagship Langer Heinrich mine in Namibia during the December quarter, bringing its half-year production to 2.34 million pounds. Paladin's Langer Heinrich plant in Namibia produced 1.26 million pounds of uranium oxide during the December quarter. Credit:Bloomberg The uranium grade at the mine averaged 757 parts per million during the quarter, higher than 705 parts per million recorded last quarter, but still a long way from 928 parts per million during the December quarter of 2014. Paladin said it was reviewing its guidance in light of its performance in the first half and was likely to adjust its full-year guidance range to 5 million to 5.2 million pounds of uranium oxide, from 5 million to 5.4 million pounds. Beleaguered cleaning and catering company Spotless Group has been re-awarded a contract worth $62 million a year to maintain NSW's social housing. The company will manage more than 24,000 properties for the NSW Land and Housing Corporation for next five years. Sources have told Fairfax Media several overseas buyers were interested in Spotless. Credit:Louie Douvis It has held the contract since 2002. The re-signing comes after Spotless' share price has more than halved since early December after it warned investors its next profit would fall 10 per cent year-on-year. Chief executive Martin Sheppard cited a delay or deferral of tender decisions for the profit slump. It also lost contracts, such as the catering rights to Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium which it held for more than 30 years. The company also struggled to gain new business, including a $400 million contract with Rio Tinto. When Prime Minister Turnbull visits the Oval Office this week, he faces clear choices about the kind of foreign policy leadership he offers Australia. In an ideal world, our Prime Minister would be confident and forthright about Australian values and interests, supportive of the American approach where this aligns with our own, and critical where it doesn't. That's unlikely to happen. If anything characterises Australian foreign policy today, it is silent complicity. We follow the US into wars that are devoid of strategy or a clear endgame, without explaining to Australians how sending troops overseas does anything to make anyone safer. In exchange for Sri Lanka's help to prevent people seeking asylum from leaving their shores, we give their secret police military equipment and actively undermine UN attempts to investigate human rights abuses and war crimes. On Hun Sen's Cambodian regime which is violently undermining democracy by arresting and attacking Opposition parliamentarians Australia is silent, in the hope that country will continue to resettle refugees from our offshore detention camps. When the courageous publishing organisation Wikileaks blew the whistle on war crimes and corruption, our government stood by meekly while US authorities attempted to destroy the organisation. Our so-called leaders talk about Australian values, but when it comes to practising that on the world stage, they fail us in the extreme. Australia hasn't always limited its global influence in this way. After the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, Prime Minister Bob Hawke enabled 42,000 Chinese students to remain in safety in Australia, and was a vocal opponent to the "systematic repression of legitimate democratic aspirations" in China. As former Australian Ambassador to China Stephen FitzGerald has reflected, Gough Whitlam enraged Washington when he spoke out publicly against the 1972 Christmas bombings of Hanoi, "but, like it or not, in the end America accepted his re-framing of relations." In failing to pursue an independent foreign policy, we renounce our ambition to be a confident 21st century country and undermine our own national interests. By following the US into air strikes in Syria, we contribute further to destabilisation in a region torn apart by illegal invasion in 2003, and we make Australians less safe. We know this because the 2003 invasion of Iraq had the same effect, with intelligence organisations around the world confirming that this helped grow a new generation of radicalisation. Though the Prime Minister's reluctance to commit further troops in December 2015 may show a departure from the usual script which would be very welcome indeed we have to question why our troops are there in the first place. Why would we not be better served by a strategy to combat extremism with inclusion at home, while supporting global efforts to cut off financial and personnel support to Islamic State? Instead we've followed the US into yet another conflict, again with no clear strategic objective, and without pausing to question whether this is really in anyone's best interests. They found their way into men's apparel in the early 1990s, when Davidson called Irwin Sternberg, the president of necktie company Stonehenge Ltd, proposing a series of ties using his ultra-magnified, wildly colourful images of vitamins. Sternberg, though skeptical, agreed to take a look. "When I saw Michael's work, I started to think I couldn't get a designer more talented," Sternberg said. Most scientists rely on grants from the federal government and private foundations to finance their work. Michael Davidson turned to neckties. Using sophisticated microscopes to create stunning, psychedelic images of crystallized substances like DNA and hormones, Davidson contributed to Nobel Prize-honoured research about the inner workings of cells. And his images were on the covers of scientific journals and, as unlikely as it might seem, on neckwear. Known for a fierce work ethic, Michael Davidson helped revolutionize optical microscopy. Credit:Theresa Ambrose Stonehenge released a line of 'vitamin ties' in September 1993. A year later, neckties with Davidson's images of moon rocks were released on the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11. Ties with images of cocktails, beer and wine followed. Millions of ties were sold, and a slice of the profits millions of dollars went to charity. Davidson's share went to his laboratory work at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Over the past decade, Davidson's research team, housed at Florida State's National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or MagLab, helped revolutionize optical microscopy. By fusing proteins with fluorescent tags, they have enabled scientists using optical microscopes to track the biological processes inside living cells. Davidson, who has died of lung cancer aged 65, developed an interest in emerging technologies involving fluorescent proteins. He was particularly intrigued by the work of Roger Tsien, a biochemist at the University of California, San Diego, who was able to mutate a green fluorescent protein from a jellyfish into a rainbow of colours. Davidson posted a chart of his findings on the Internet. He was the first director of the company's education program. Simultaneously, he moonlighted with an emerging fringe company, La Mama. He believed strongly in the need to encourage and develop Australian playwrights, especially as the MTC's program was heavily weighted towards classics and works that had originated in London and New York. Malcolm became associate director of the company in 1972, directing many productions including David Williamson's popular Jugglers Three, Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars and Arthur Miller's All my Sons while sometimes also appearing as an actor. Ultimately the MTC moved out of the Union Theatre and made its home at Russell Street while also using the St Martin's and later the Athenaeum Theatres before moving to the Playhouse at the Victorian Arts Centre when it opened in 1984. In 1970, after his long association with MTC, Malcolm became theatre consultant to the newly formed Australia Council in Sydney.While conducting workshops at Parramatta Jail, he read the first play by inmate Jim McNeil who had, without any training, written brilliantly about life behind bars. Malcolm subsequently encouraged McNeil and staged the first professional productions of his plays outside the prison walls. Malcolm's commitment to new Australian work led him to the Playbox Theatre (now the Malthouse Theatre Company) whose program at that time comprised entirely new local work. From 1989 to 2000 he was their literary manager as well as directing and acting in many of their shows.Writers whose work he encouraged include Ron Elisha, Joanna Murray-Smith, Barry Dickins, Anthony Crowley, Elizabeth Colman, Tom Lindstrom, Jodi Gallagher, Angus Cerini and Tess Lyssiotis. Today a privately endowed foundation established in his name continues to provide support to new playwrights around the country. After leaving the Playbox, Malcolm continued to direct and appear in many plays around Melbourne, the last being Shit Happens, a work by Sandra Macgregor which he staged at La Mama in November 2015. He also generously mentored and assisted many young and aspiring theatre artists. Why is Australia a party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement? This regional free trade agreement between 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia, has been almost universally panned, left, right and centre. Yet it is likely to be signed in New Zealand in February. A report by the World Bank released last week claimed the benefit to Australia from signing the agreement would be a near imperceptible fraction of a per cent of growth a year just an added 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2030. The government's own economic advisory agency, the Productivity Commission, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership will distort trade rather than free trade. And GetUp calls it the "dirtiest deal you've never heard of", driven by "big business, big pharmaceuticals and big tobacco". Despite its critics, the Trans-Pacific Partnership appears to be gaining a second life. Credit:AP They're all wrong. Yes, the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not perfect. It has bad parts. It might require the government to further crack down on copyright piracy, even as the piracy problem is ebbing away in our world of Netflix and Apple Music. The Investor-State Dispute Resolution mechanism which allows firms to sue the Australian government in special tribunals is, in the words of the American libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, "unnecessary, unreasonable, and unwise". And the deal's importance for the global economy has been wildly overstated. The Abbott government tried to desperately pump up the significance of the free trade deals it was signing as it saw its other economic growth strategies slip away. I can't believe the Baird government is considering Opal card changes for seniors and pensioners. The IPART argues the current situation is not fair because the card is available to wealthy people. How many wealthy pensioners would travel by train? What a poor excuse. In Europe many seniors travel free. Seniors travel off peak, when most trains are half empty, and some pensioners can't or won't drive for health reasons. Travel combats isolation for many pensioners. These changes would amount to a drop in disposable income for many. This proposal is once again targeting the vulnerable, instead of the fat cats. Kathy Kyle Camden The "warning of a political backlash over Opal card changes" has a road-safety dimension. Gold Opal cards encourage aged drivers more likely to be involved in accidents to take public transport instead of driving. Substantial reductions in public transport concessions for self-funded retirees will see an unintended, and unwelcome increase in road accidents involving aged drivers and otherwise innocent third parties. A compromise might couple a higher age of universal entitlement with an even lower cap. Peter Mair Windang Proposed increases to the $2.50 daily cap for senior card holders although raising a modicum of revenue for the state government will inevitably act as a disincentive for travel. Why can't the government think through the consequences? The economic side effect is simply that many card holders will not get out and about so frequently to spend their money on cinemas, cafes, restaurants etc, so overall the economy will lose. Geoffrey Harding Chatswood Before targeting pensioners and self-funded retirees with Opal card price increases, perhaps the Premier might first get together with Gladys ("I want people to beat the system") Berejiklian to sort out the glitches which were identified in late 2014, and which have already cost the system millions of dollars ("Frugal Opal card users 'beat the system' for cheaper fares", smh.com.au, November 25). Paul Parramore Sawtell Socially connected older people are less of a drain on expensive resources such as hospitals and home care. Let's hope the NSW government takes a broader view than IPART does. Penelope Nelson Randwick End of life 'nightmare' undermines belief and dignity With the greatest respect to Professor Ian Hickie, I suspect he has not spent much time visiting aged care facilities or geriatric wards in public hospitals, otherwise he would not be speaking about the "myths" of how the health system treats the elderly ("Thousands of elderly exploring the idea of 'rational suicide' ", January 18). My 97-year-old mother is living in a "five-star" aged care facility. While the facility is well appointed and the staff are kind, someone from the family still needs to visit every other day day to ensure her needs are being met. Staff turnover is high, GPs who are prepared to visit aged care facilities are hard to find and, in my mother's facility, the registered nurse on her floor has responsibility for 30-plus residents. If they fall ill and require hospitalisation, regardless of the nature of the condition, the elderly are usually sent to "the geriatric ward". As a visitor, it is an assault on your senses, your emotions and every belief you have on the care and dignity of the aged. My mother was recently admitted to the geriatric ward with a respiratory problem. I was told a nurse would look in on my mother once an hour and that doctors were on call because of the long weekend. Arriving one morning I found my mother on the floor. She had pressed the alert but no one came. I have no idea how long she was there, and having sat with her for eight hours every day, I know that staff didn't check on patients every hour. Many baby boomers who are caring for aged parents will readily tell you there is nothing to recommend old age or the prolonging of life. I for one will definitely be considering "rational suicide" as a viable alternative to end of life "nightmares". Elizabeth Starr Chiswick It's time to admit detention a mistake A hundred years ago the British empire accepted that it made a mistake and withdrew from Gallipoli ("Mental health is a cruel, foreseeable result of detention", January 18). By late 1970, Australia had similarly accepted that Vietnam was a mistake and begun to withdraw. Today we need an adult government prepared to admit a mistake was made then close all off-shore detention centres. Turning back boats stopped them. Off-shore detention centres are not the reason that the boats have stopped. Alan Steele Blackalls Park Wilcox's cartoon demeaning of the difficult job carried out by our border control and immigration personnel almost brings me to wishing that we could be overrun by millions of culturally different migrants, without the English or education to be productively employed, due to the difficulty of finding Australians willing to carry out this unpleasant duty for us. This might also make Tim Dick more aware of the mental ill health of desperate refugees before they are detained, and whether there could possibly be the facilities and money for the thousands of them to go through psychiatric therapy to become productive citizens, rather than adding to the lines for social support and housing. Basil van Rooyen St Ives Thank you Cathy Wilcox for your humanity, what a brilliant cartoon. Margaret-Anne Hayes Turramurra Someone give this lady a medal. Allan Gibson Cherrybrook Make doctors pay If anybody in government was serious about addressing medical costs, it's really simple ("Ley under fire over pathology comments", January 18). Bill every individual treating doctor a dollar for every normal blood test; the costs generated for each doctor would drop like a stone. Do exactly the same for every normal X-ray, CT scan and MRI. Dr Anthony Lowy Bondi Junction Quotas in their place So the NSW Labor Party wishes to "massively boost the number of women in key roles at the grassroots of the party" ("50-50 vision: Labor's plan to promote women", January 18). Yet only last Saturday, the Herald reported that three NSW federal members (two men and one woman) were vying for two federal seats following the abolition on one Labor-held seat. Guess who was tipped to miss out? That's right, the woman because she belongs to the wrong fraction. There are those in the party who only support affirmative action when it suits them. If the ALP implements this policy, you can bet that men will hold the positions with the most power and women relegated to lesser positions. At the branch level, declining membership numbers will make it difficult to achieve the quotas set. What happens then? John Le Mottee Regents Park Of course, gender equality should be encouraged - by all (not just Labor). But why isn't ethnic diversity also encouraged, not only on the benches in our parliaments but on the benches of our courts at all levels? Edward Loong Milsons Point Pulling the plug So, there we have it ("Woolworths to pull plug on Masters after Lowe's exercises put option", smh.com.au, January 18). Forget the old analogy about running a chook raffle in a pub it seems Woolies can't even run a half decent sausage sizzle in a car park. Les Tomlinson Berowra Heights One dimensional When the University of NSW was created, all students were required to include a number of humanity subjects in order that the university would produce well-rounded students and not merely technicians. Nowadays students are charged many thousands of dollars for including such subjects in their degrees. The long-term effects of so narrowing the education of the country's most promising students will be considerable throughout the future. Indeed it is observable now in the number of politicians whose understanding of balance sheets is considerable but who are bereft of culture and have no idea that money is a means to an end and not an end in itself. These factors could well contribute to the "lack of commitment to the common good" bemoaned by Geoff Hinds (Letters, January 18). Jean Byrne Eastwood Natural learning Parents (rich or poor) can support the literacy development of their young child beyond the daily book reading activity ("Why Noah is ready for school and other kids are not", January 18). In fact, a communication and literate rich environment is effective in stimulating what might be the most important elements underlying children's interest in reading and early school success: the ability to recognise shapes and letters, to discriminate sounds (such as rhymes) and to enjoy "words" in all forms. Sometimes parents' eagerness to "teach" their child how to read works against the child's sense of fun and discovery which underlies a love of learning. Using natural moments during every day to talk, sing, rhyme, point out shapes, letters and words on signs, on food packages, in catalogues and myriad other opportunities will not impinge on time-poor parents and will do much to close the learning gap in the first years of school. Jacqueline Hayden Adjunct Professor, Early Childhood Education, Macquarie University Data input errors Jean Flynn made me laugh and recall that when I returned from five years in Africa in 1995 and had to learn to use a computer, I hit so many wrong keys, with disastrous results, that I called myself the human virus ("Why I'm staying analog in a world that's gone digital", January 18). Andrew Macintosh Cromer Dim support for nation's misued Darryls To all those Darrels, Wallys, Susans and Dicks out there: how would you feel if you had the same name as a 2-metre tall invisible rabbit that was the best friend of James Stewart's character in the eponymous Hollywood movie of the 1950s (Letters, January 18)? Harvey Sanders Paddington You can make a funny nickname out of almost anything. Many years ago and in another country we had a boy in our class with the initials WC. He was known as twinkle-pan. Richard Spear Mittagong All those readers should stop complaining about attacks on their names. Try being a woman in Australia with my name. Now that's character building. Randi Svensen Leura Man skirt etiquette David Davies (Letters, January 18) loves the "man skirt" he acquired some years ago in Fiji. If I were to accompany David one day, should I let him descend before me when being confronted by downward steps. And should I go ahead of him when negotiating those same steps some time later? Henk Verhoeven Beacon Hill "All political careers," argued Enoch Powell, "end in failure." Some end in a bang, others in a whimper; but the heartache stays the same: crushed ambitions, shattered illusions, wounded egos and all too often sad and lonely farewells. Even the mighty fall, and they fall mighty hard. Who can forget a tearful Margaret Thatcher climbing into her prime ministerial car outside Number 10 for the final time in 1990? An exhausted Bob Hawke being knifed by his Labor comrade a year later? Or a humbled John Howard in 2007 losing not just power to a nerd from Nambour who dined on his own ear-wax, but the electoral seat he'd comfortably held for 33 years? Illustration: John Shakespeare If only, advised Powell, they had "cut off" their political careers "in midstream at a happy juncture." If only Howard had passed the torch of leadership to his patient and loyal deputy Peter Costello in 2006, we would have had a political grown-up running the country and been spared the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era. History, as the maverick British Conservative observed, is littered with examples of politicians collecting lots of capital only to overspend it to the point of bankruptcy. Succumbing to hubris, they assumed they were politically immortal until they committed the fatal error that ended their career in humiliation. Why? Because their ambitions pulsed as long as their hearts beat, and they always wanted to achieve just one more victory. Eddie Redmayne's winsome smile works much too hard in The Danish Girl. His Lili Elbe, one of the first people in the world to undergo gender reassignment surgery, is a very coy creation. The smile and the poses that go with it make femaleness seem like a set of mannerisms rather than a fundamental aspect of one's sense of self. The film has been 15 years in the making. Lucinda Coxon began drafting the screenplay a few years after David Ebershoff's novel about Elbe came out in 2000 and a few directors have been tempted. Lasse Hallstrom would probably have kept the Redmayne smile even more busily employed but his fellow Swede, Tomas Alfredson, who went on to do the superlative Le Carre adaptation, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, might have dug deeper. Tom Hooper, who eventually stepped up, has made a film which delights the eye but doesn't really get to the heart of things. It's exquisitely designed, evoking the story's time and place with all the richness and precision that Hooper brought to pre-war Britain in The King's Speech. But Lili herself eludes him. In the 1920s, when she first begins to consider the surgery, the world knows Lili as Einar Wegener, a successful Copenhagen landscape painter, happily married to Gerda (Alicia Vikander), a fellow artist who concentrates on portraits. It's one of Gerda's portraits which helps to precipitate the emergence of Lili. Because her model is going to be late, Gerda asks her husband to put on the dress she is about to paint. She then suggests that they go to the artists' ball together with him in women's clothes and see how their bohemian friends react. For her, it is a game. For him, it's an apotheosis. Now that Lili has emerged, she will not be put aside. To Gerda's dismay, her beloved husband proceeds to disappear into the woman he has always wanted to be. The confident figure in the black suit, starched collar and Homburg becomes a demure woman who speaks of Einar as if he were a person she once knew. Camp Taji, Iraq: The senior spokesman for US-led operations in Iraq and Syria has emphatically backed Malcolm Turnbull's call for Europe to "step up" in the fight against the Islamic State terror group and said Australia is at the "very bottom" of the list of nations to do more. Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Colonel Steve Warren also said that troops now being trained by Australians and New Zealand forces in Iraq would be crucial in driving the militant group out of its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, which he said could be the group's "last stand" in the country. Speaking to Australian reporters, Colonel Warren said the US was still looking to all countries to contribute more to the US-led campaign. He acknowledged Australia's disproportionately large contribution, though he added that "enough is never enough". Asked specifically about Mr Turnbull's call at the weekend for Europe and NATO countries to "step up", Colonel Warren said: "He's right in the fact that other nations who are part of this coalition, there's a lot more room for them to grow than for the Australians and the New Zealanders. Miley and Liam were spotted spending time together in Australia at the Falls Music Festival over New Years, and were reportedly spotted kissing and holding hands at a Golden Globes after party. Some believe Hemsworth will be a good influence on Cyrus, hoping to see her go back to her more subdued looks. "Hopefully she'll start wearing clothes again," said one fan. "You need to walk away Liam," said another. "He could do sooooo much better than Miley. She is so nasty!" said one fan. The pair have remained close since their split and have both recently spoken about their relationship and ongoing friendship. "You fall in love with who you fall in love with; you can never choose. I guess some people just come with a little more baggage," 25-year-old Liam told Men's Fitness in October when asked whether he felt he had "dodged a bullet" with Cyrus, given their different approaches to fame. "I mean, look - we were together five years, so I don't think those feelings will ever change. "And that's good because that proves to me that it was real. It wasn't just a fling. It really was an important part of my life and always will be. "She's a free spirit. I think she'll always surprise people with what she does, but she's not a malicious person in any way. She's a young girl who wants to do what she wants to do." Madison Bradshaw was in and out of hospital for the best part of two years and repeated year 11 before dropping out of school. But she didn't let her health hold her back. "I was directed to the Newstep program at the University of Newcastle," says the 19-year-old. "I had a medical certificate showing why I couldn't complete the HSC and I was accepted based on my school marks." University of Newcastle Newstep student Madison Bradshaw hasn't let ill health hold her back. About 900 students a year sign on for the one-year, fee-free alternate path to uni. Some, like Madison, left high school before sitting the HSC; others sat exams but got poor marks and a very ordinary Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) . "Many people who didn't do well at school do really well at university," says UON spokesman Seamus Fagan. "Education isn't linear. People don't start and stop their education and then get life experience." A pregnant teenager has been kicked in the stomach and a man struck in the head with a hammer during a violent home invasion in Sydney's south, police say. The 16-year-old girl and the injured man, aged 37, are being treated in hospital following the assault at a unit in Cronulla in the early hours of Tuesday morning. A NSW Police spokeswoman said officers were called to the address on Waratah Street to reports that a group of people had forced their way inside the unit and attacked the pair. During the attack, the pregnant girl was kicked in the stomach and also suffered an injury to her face. The traditional three-person seats will continue to be a fixture in Sydney's double-decker trains, following the abject failure of a trial to gauge whether there was any benefit in getting rid of them. Gladys Berejiklian announced the trial removal of the three-person seat in mid-2013 on some Tangara trains, replaced with two seats or a bench. No future for the bench: the government has dropped plans to change the seating on trains following a bungled trial "The middle seat of the three person seat is often left empty so we want to see if this is a better use of that space," the former transport minister said at the time. Removing that seat, she said, could fit another 80 people into two carriages. That would be a boost of about 15 per cent, and potentially make it easier for people to get on and off the train. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is calling on Clive Palmer to face more than 200 workers who were sacked at his north Queensland nickel refinery. Ms Palaszczuk will travel to Townsville this week to speak with stakeholders after Mr Palmer's Queensland Nickel (QNI) revealed it sacked 237 workers at its Yabulu refinery due to sluggish commodity prices. When asked whether Mr Palmer, who has been noticeably quiet about his refinery's woes, should also front the people of Townsville and affected workers, Ms Palaszczuk replied: "Absolutely." The premier's call came as the state government organised urgent talks with Queensland Nickel directors after the company went in to administration. A witness says one of three men accused of torturing and murdering a Queensland man told him a man was tied up in a forest and there were plans to put him into a large Esky. Matthew Leslie Armitage, his father Stephen John Armitage and William Francis Dean are charged with killing 33-year-old Shaun Barker north of Brisbane in December 2013. Police believe Shaun Barker was tortured before he was murdered. A three-day committal hearing, which began in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday, heard Mr Barker had a drug connection with the accused men before the alleged crimes. Mr Barker was allegedly tortured over a number of days, including being locked in a commercial Esky and tied up in bushland, and having honey poured over his genitals to attract ants. Thirteen men have appeared before court charged over Victoria's largest prison riot, with dozens more expected to face magistrates this week. Ten of the men who appeared before Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Monday are among the first in the state's history to be charged with sabotage, over last year's riot at the Metropolitan Remand Centre. A total of 102 men which includes current prisoners and former inmates have been charged over the June 30 riot at the Ravenhall prison, which forced the jail into lockdown and allegedly left a damage bill of more than $10 million. The unrest was triggered by the smoking ban in Victorian prisons that came into effect on July 1 last year. A father who had been celebrating his son's birthday was punched to the ground and then kicked as he lay motionless outside a pub, a Perth court has heard. Gareth Jay Hitchcock and Calem Milburn-Thomas are on trial in the West Australian District Court accused of doing an act with intent to harm that endangered the health or safety of Glenn Macgregor Palmer. In his opening address on Monday, prosecutor Justin Whalley said Mr Palmer, his son and some friends were waiting at a taxi rank outside Murphy's Irish Pub in Mandurah, south of Perth, in August 2014 when he was knocked to the ground by someone in the other group. Mr Whalley alleged Milburn-Thomas then hit Mr Palmer while he was lying on the ground motionless and kicked him in the back. Hitchcock also kicked the victim to the face, Mr Whalley said. The Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, will use a speech during his first day of his visit to Washington, DC, to explain both why Australia is engaged in the battle against Islamic State, and why he refuses to use heated language that casts the battle against terrorism as a broader ideological war. Mr Turnbull has pointed out more than once that his stance is in line with advice from intelligence agencies. "We should not be so delicate as to say ISIL and its ilk have 'got nothing to do with Islam'. But equally we should not tag all Moslems or their religion with responsibility for the crimes of a tiny criminal minority. That is precisely what the extremists want us to do," he will tell and audience at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, one of Washington DC's leading think tanks. In the north of the African nation Burkina Faso, Perth man Ken Elliott is known as "the doctor of poor people". And the community of Djibo, where the 80-year-old Dr Elliott is the only surgeon for two million people in the area, wants their doctor back home safe. The impact that Dr Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, have had on the community of Djibo is difficult to say in a few words, friend of the couple Dicko Seydou said. Mr Seydou is one of the administrators of the Facebook page 'Djibo supports Dr Ken Elliott' created after the couple were taken by al-Qaeda linked extremists on Saturday morning. LAHORE, Pakistan: Late one night, the imam Shabir Ahmad looked up from prayers at his mosque to see a 15-year-old boy approaching with a plate in his outstretched left hand. On it was the boy's freshly severed right hand. Ahmad did not hesitate. He fled the mosque and left the village, in eastern Punjab province. Pakistani troops stand guard after the murder of Punjab's governor Salman Taseer, who criticised the country's blasphemy laws. Credit:AP Earlier that night, January 10, he had denounced the boy as a blasphemer, an accusation that in Pakistan can get a person killed - even when the accusation is false, as it was in this case. The boy, Anwar Ali, the devout son of a poor labourer, had been attending an evening prayer gathering at the mosque in the village of Khanqah when Ahmad asked for a show of hands of those who did not love the Prophet Muhammad. Thinking the cleric had asked for those who did love the prophet, Anwar's hand shot up, according to witnesses and the boy's family. POINTE BLANCHE;--- Representatives of Port St. Maarten returned over the weekend after attending the 46th edition of the Dutch Vakantie Beurs Utrecht (Holiday Expo), which took place from January 12-17, 2016 at the Convention Center in the Dutch city of Utrecht. This was the first time for Port St. Maarten at the Expo, and it offered an insight into the trends and developments related to Dutch travelers. Port St. Maarten management was extremely impressed with the magnitude of the Expo and its potential impact on the Sint Maarten based on the opportunities that exist. Due to past and current global economic developments, the Dutch vacation market has been improving. In 2015, the Dutch traveler spent approximately 18 billion Euros on holidays. On average they take 2.7 vacations per year. The Dutch Caribbean has become a growing vacation destination for the Dutch traveler. During the State of the Industry presentation, emphasis was placed on the safety and security of the Dutch traveler, and they were looking at geo-political tensions that exist in countries around the globe prior to booking a vacation looking for a safe and secure destination. The Dutch traveler is also interested in traveling further outside Europe and are very much interested in cultural and eco tours. Port St. Maarten has stressed in the past about the development of the aforementioned in order to further expand the diversity of tours that the country has to offer. The traveling and cruise public are more diversified today and Sint Maarten as a mature destination has to cater to the changing environment in order to continue to develop a sustainable tourism product. All major airlines and airports were at the Expo in Utrecht. The Caribbean Dutch islands of Aruba and Curacao have had a presence at the Expo for years while Sint Maarten has been absent and faces a challenge of creating brand awareness in the Netherlands. Port St. Maarten management has committed itself to attend future Expos due to the importance of the Dutch travel market and the opportunities that exist for the country. Port St. Maarten in its homeport strategic plan will focus on high-end cruise lines and intertwine that into a high-end homeporting operation for the destination. More than 180,000 visitors attended Vakantie Beurs Utrecht this year along with 1191 organizations promoting their destinations, products and services to the Dutch traveler. Port St. Maarten is encouraging private sector tourism related businesses to get onboard and participate in the next Expo in January 2017. Port St. Maarten management would like to thank Sint Maarten students who took part in the booth. They had the opportunity to also meet with Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Hon. Ingrid Arrindell where they could share their knowledge and experience to sell the destination in the Netherlands. The feedback received during the entire week of the Expo about the destination was very positive, and a large number of past visitors said that Sint Maarten has a lot more to offer than the other islands. A lot of the consumer visitors showed interests in traveling to Sint Maarten for a vacation and taking a cruise from the island. The Expo has shown that the interests is high, and we need to maintain a structural sustainable presence at the Vakantie Beurs Utrecht and at other such travel shows. Hence, the importance of having the Tourism Authority that can create this structural sustainable presence. Vakantie Beurs Utrecht caters to business to business and business to consumers. More Dutch travelers are becoming aware of cruises, and the St. Maarten cruise brand is the largest and most developed cruise port in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 2014, approximately 109,000 Dutch travelers took a cruise. The proximity of Belguim and Luxembourg to the Netherlands known as the Benelux - also allows travelers from those countries to visit the Vakantie Beurs Utrecht, and they both represented a total of 77,000 cruise travelers in 2014. The Benelux countries have seen their number of cruise travelers grow by 11.5 per cent on average over the five-year period 2010-2014. Port St. Maarten partnered with Caribbean Luxury Club to have a promotional booth at Vakantie Beurs Utrecht. This expo fits into the ports destination strategy to infiltrate the European Union tourist market. The Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Telecommunication and Transport/St. Maarten Tourist Bureau were also represented at the expo and was part of the destination booth that also included Saba and St. Eustatius. Smart Demand Response Market Worth $24.71 Billion by 2022: Grand View Research, Inc. SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Marketwired) 01/18/16 The global size is expected to reach USD 24.71 billion by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing grid deployment is expected to favorably impact market growth. Demand response plays an important role in electric grid operation by reducing electricity usage during peak hours. Introduction of grid technologies is expected to open avenues for the traditional energy infrastructure vendors. Smart grids when coupled with metering systems; provide information on real time consumption to the customers as well as suppliers. Spread of ubiquitous wireless networks as well as internet access, along with the growing level of intelligence built into HVAC systems, industrial controls, lighting networks and varied other big building loads is expected to drive the automated DR market. Residential segment is poised to grow at a CAGR higher than the global average, which is a direct consequence of financial incentives and rebates offered by utilities to domestic customers to persuade them in the participation of several direct load control programs. The participation of smart buildings in DR programs to protect electrical grids for the duration of peak energy demand is expected to reduce loads during high-cost periods, thereby reducing bills. Industrial applications contributed to over 50% of the revenue in 2014; this large share can be attributed to DR programs offered by several utilities for maximizing power utilization through adoption of high efficiency variable speed drives and motors. Industrial customers are also encouraged to participate in such programs on account of lucrative financial incentives offered to them. Asia Pacific contributed to over 15% of the market revenue in 2014. DR programs are expected to increase significantly in the countries of Asia Pacific. Power utilities offer initiatives to reduce peak load demand on power grids. Components of the initiative include expansion of transformation to thin-tube (T8) lamps, Time-of-Use (TOU) metering programs, high efficiency refrigerators, and promotion of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) which are expected to boost the DR market growth. The market is highly fragmented, with no particular company occupying a majority of the revenue share. The industry is characterized by companies having a strong hold over a particular region with little or no influence globally. However, through mergers & acquisitions, key participants have started expanding globally. Upcoming smart grid projects in countries such as Australia, India, China, and Japan have attracted prominent players in these regions. Grand View Research has segmented the global smart demand response market on the basis of application and region: Residential Commercial Industrial North America Europe Asia Pacific Latin America Middle East & Africa (MEA) Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc Phone: 1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: Web: Social Movements, Theory January 18, 2016 Kansu Yldrm The petition by the Academicians for Peace in Turkey has resulted in an assault against the academic community of the country, which resembles the practices of the military junta of the September 12 1980, coup detat. The petition itself and the reactions for/against it have gained a different momentum following the increasing pressure by the AKP (the governing political power) via various channels such as university administrations, legal bodies and partisan media organizations. Each indictment such of disloyalty, mandate support and treason directed at the academicians by the Turkish President Erdogan, the Prime Minister Davutoglu, several ministers and other officials, have brought new accusations and threats against the academicians that were put on the target. The names of the academicians were published by pro-government newspapers. This not only escalated the oppressive atmosphere in the country, but also increased the violence directed against the signatories. These state charges have acquired a life-threatening dimension. They crystallized with the chilling statement of an organized crime leader: We will kill them and have a shower with their blood! Various lynching campaigns have formed via social media. Turkish university rectors, whose job it is to safeguard universal, scientific and critical knowledge and the academic staff, have sided with the political authorities. They have declared that: This petition cannot be associated with academic freedom! Following the investigations initiated by YOK (the Turkish Higher Education Council) and some university rectors, several academicians have been dismissed from their universities. Disciplinary and Criminal Proceedings Disciplinary proceedings are being coupled with criminal proceedings and a warrant has been issued for the arrest and custody of some signatories. The head of the Turkish Bar Association, whose fundamental duty, is to protect freedom of thought and expression has also made an unfortunate statement against the academicians. In short, the reaction against the petition reflects the consolidation of the Turkish hard right, creating the space for them to take a hatchet to their political, and democratic, enemies. The political and coercive oppression being leveled against the academicians has, in turn, increased the support and solidarity both in Turkey and abroad. Artists, authors, poets, intellectuals, students, civil servants and workers have begun to take side with the academicians. In addition to the peace demand, a new political demand has started to gain momentum. The draconian measures taken by the Turkish state is turning the case both into a defense of freedom of expression and thought and of the academy itself. Certainly, the ultimatums of Prime Minister Davutoglu and President Erdogan Choose your side! and We do not rule Turkey by consulting you! respectively have played a great role in these developments. As a part of its grand strategy (the so-called new greater Turkey project), the Turkish political powers present the petitioners as the black sheep of the intellectual community. In recent years, the Erdogan AKP governments have been quite successful in remaking the political agenda and discourse of the country by stigmatizing the opposition as enablers of domestic terrorism and as domestic enemies of the Turkish state. Such practices have helped the AKP to implement its policies by manipulating and disorienting active democratic consent and obscuring its own economic and political failures without paying a political price. In fact, these same practices were deployed during the Ergenekon trials, the operations against the Parallel/FETO organization, as well as against the Gezi Square protests in 2013. The 1128s has become an expression of treachery continually used in the pro-government media, and is the embodiment of this practice. In order to justify its security crackdown, the various branches of the Turkish state invoke the 1128 academicians in every possible occasion. The AKP partisan newspapers call for university students to start a boycott against their professors. In this oppressive and dangerous environment, only a single investigation has been conducted on the crime boss uttering violent threats; whereas a warrant for the arrest of numerous academicians has been issued. Some have already been taken into custody and their offices and houses have been searched and ransacked by police. Turkey: A Fascist Turn? There is no denying that the political conjuncture in Turkey is coming to represent some of the symptoms of classical fascism: the complex ensemble of the Turkish state and its diverse apparatuses are coming under the control of a single mass party; the political parties are turning into mere parliamentary coteries cloaking the concrete ways the state is operating. Prime Minister Davutoglu has not even criticized the crime boss, which begins to pose the indirect legitimization of a paramilitary structure. Occupational ethics and obligations have been pushed into the background to suit current political interests. In order to save its face in the diplomatic arena and to address its international image crisis, which has emerged from its foreign policy and the revelations about cooperation between the Turkish state and ISIS, the Turkish government is polarizing Turkish society through both its discourse and the authoritarian remaking of the state. By creating a domestic enemy, the AKP government hopes to justify its security policies; to obscure mounting social contradiction; to direct the anger of the Turkish masses to opposition of dissident citizens and organizations. As one measure, the AKP government has initiated a clean sweep of opposition in academic institutions through new organizational mandates, parallel to the ones it pushed through the political system (eventually culminating in the recent shift to a presidential system in Turkey). The French political theorist Jacques Ranciere has commented: Bad shepherds mislead only sheep and no one is forced to be a sheep. But the AKP government desires everyone to be on its side without assessing and questioning the governments program or operations. Clearly, the initial task is to support the academicians, their legitimate rights to call for peace and for the autonomy of academic institutions from political oppression of the state. The assault against the academic community is an integral part of the AKPs strategy to remake the Turkish state into its own version of authoritarianism and Islamic ideology. The opposition in Turkey must now also defend the trenches of freedoms in civil society or risk losing them all together. It is the duty of the progressive and democratic forces in Turkey to side with each of the academicians under attack by the legal and civil threats of the Turkish state. And now, it is also time to renew and further develop both national and international mechanisms of support and solidarity. Here's what IndyStar investigation of worker safety amid pandemic found Factory workers that make up the backbone of Indiana's economy told a similar story: Managers pressured employees to show up even when they were sick. Suburban schools grow slightly, or lose less than state average Numbers from the state Department of Public Instruction show that in suburban Milwaukee, about 27 school districts grew last year, or lost fewer students than average. Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. Madam Secretary returned after a short break with an episode that saw major character deaths and left the peace treaty with Russia in limbo. On top of that, Henry was angry at Elizabeth for what happened with Dmitri. About the Author - Daniel van der Veer Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Madam Secretary and Quantico. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder. All Reviews) Recent Reviews by Daniel van der Veer The episode starts right where we left off, with one of the two cars exploding in Geneva. It was actually Maria Ostrov's car that exploded, and President Dalton and Elizabeth are rushed away. The Russians are trying to pull Maria Ostrov from the wreckage, and Bess wants to stay behind in Geneva to save the peace treaty. If Ostrov dies, so does the deal. Dalton agrees and Bess gets to the hospital where she meets up with Jay, who immediately informs her that a Ukranian radical group known as Knights of Kiev has claimed responsibility for the attack on Ostrov's life. The group is being led by Olek Zelinski and Bess orders Jay to have the Swiss ground the plane of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Melnik. Henry calls Bess to see if she's OK, but he won't tell her where he is. After the call, Jay informs Bess that Maria Ostrov didn't make it. She quickly sits down with General Doroshevich and asks him the honor the deal his late President made, but he tells her that after the three-day mourning period for Ostrov, he and Acting Russian President Salnikov will resume their war with the Ukraine. Melnik claims that neither he nor President Bozek had anything to do with the attack on Maria Ostrov and that they have no connections to Zelinski. The US immediately starts searching for Zelinski. The US manages to locate him and arrange an operation to get him, but they lose six American soldiers while getting him into custody. However, Melnik informs that Bozek is unwilling to hand over Zelinski to Russia, which makes Bess angry. She says they lost six soldiers and she threatens with pulling out all the troops in Ukraine. Melnik is on board, but Russia remains a question mark. Fortunately, Acting President Salnikov is actually quite a decent guy and despite General Doroshevich's not wanting to honor the peace treaty, Salnikov agrees that enough lives have been lost. So yes, that peace treaty is still standing.Meanwhile, Henry is in Stockholm to make sure Dmitri's sister Talia is fine and to get her to come to the US, but she is unwilling to do so until she sees her brother. Since the Russians are looking for Talia as leverage over Dmitri, Henry begs Jane to allow him to tell that Dmitri is an asset for the US, but of course that's not an option. Henry then suggests to just kidnap Talia, but at that moment Jane gets word that the Russians have stopped their search for Talia. That means they don't need her anymore, because Dmitri has already talked and is probably dead or will be dead soon. This is later confirmed in a call from President Dalton to Elizabeth. Bess and Henry later argue while doing mandatory service hours at Alison's school. Bess wants to talk to Henry and drags him to the gym, where Henry says he blames a lot of people for Dmitri's death, but most of all he blames himself. Henry meets with Jane and tells her he's quitting the job. After that, Bess and Henry take a walk and talk about how people still got hurt despite both of them doing their best. Bess thinks "She tried her best, but people still got hurt" should be her epitaph. Henry says they should just keep trying their best.Also, Nadine's fling Glen from NASA informs her that North Korea has launched a satellite that exploded in orbit and smashed into the space station. That leaves two American and one Japanse astronauts trapped without any space suits. At the other side of the space station, three Russians are in a safe zone. Russia is sending up a ship so that their three men can get out, but that still leaves the other three trapped. They cannot use the space suits, but China has special suits that they could use. It's Bess' job to convince the Chinese to let the US use those suits and to convince Russia to put those suits on their ship. Chinese Foreign Minister Chen sees some irony since China was shut out from the International Space Station and now they need their help, but Bess promises to lobby Congress to get the ban lifted. Chen agrees to send these space suits, and Russia is in if they get credit for the rescue. When Bess and her staff later watch the live rescue as the Russian space ship arrives, the Russian cosmonauts were ordered to stand down as it was too dangerous to deliver the suits, but they ignored the orders and refuse to leave without the other three astronauts so they risk their lives to save them. The mission is a success, and China, Russia and the US actually worked together instead of against each other.So I guess that was it with Russia for now. We have had quite some intense episodes with the Russia storyline and this episode seems to be the conclusion to that, for now. This was another strong installment that actually resolved the major storylines of the first half of season 2. We have peace with Russia and Henry quit his job. I enjoyed watching Henry as a spy and I believe Tim Daly has done an amazing job portraying Henry's morality struggles. In this episode he was great as well, showing Henry's grief over Dmitri's death, his anger at Elizabeth and him blaming himself for what happened. Having said that, I am all right with Henry quitting his job. It totally fits the character to do something like that after losing Dmitri, and I don't mind seeing Henry as 'just' a supportive husband to Elizabeth. They really are such an awesome couple as we once again saw in this episode when they were working through their issues. One thing that feels off about this episode is that we had two pretty big deaths of heavily recurring characters, and yet we didn't get to see either one of the bodies. I guess that's just how it works with the show's point of view from the higher-ups, but still I wonder if there's more to it. I don't believe Russia would have a reason to fake Maria Ostrov's death, and I don't see how she could have made it out of that car alive, so I believe that she is really dead. But is it possible that Dmitri is still alive? Could the Russians still have him somewhere? I think it's possible, even though I don't find it very likely at this point. It would certainly open an interesting storyline as Henry could go out on his own to try and save Dmitri. For now, we just have to accept that Dmitri is dead, which sucks. By the way, Maria Ostrov's death is understandable, but she was just becoming a bit more acceptable. I would like to once again give a shout out to Angela Gots, who did an awesome job in portraying Maria Ostrov.The new Madam Secretary episode airs tonight at a special time at 9/8c on CBS. Watch a promo for the episode below. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Folks outside of Connecticut do not believe there is such a thing as New Haven style pizza. They definitely have no clue what "apizza" is. It's a burden you must bear if you find yourself living thousands of miles away from Wooster Street. I have seen this world devoid of white clam pies and coal fired ovens, and sometimes it's just more than a man can take. Having lived in Connecticut for over a decade before recently returning to my native California, I know what it's like to be in a place where the food landscape doesn't look the same as where you are from. For years I bemoaned the lack of decent Mexican food in the Nutmeg state. If it hadn't have been for Casa Villa on the West Side of Stamford, I might have lost my mind. So here I find myself 2,900 miles away from what I now consider the pinnacle of American pizza. I once asked a reputable pizzaiolo (whose pies are celebrated around San Francisco) if I could get a New Haven pie in San Francisco and it was dismissed with the response, "You mean with the burnt crust?" More Living Pizza Hut Launches a Line of Pizza-Themed Apparel Yeah, that burned crust. I want that burned crust more than ever. This weekend I found a place that claims to serve New Haven style pies and against my better judgement, I decided to give them a try. I don't want to knock their food; it was decent and it was the type of place that locals and families can enjoy in an area so heavily saturated with establishments aimed at wine tourists. That is an admirable thing -- being a decent, unpretentious server of food. But the pies. The pies fell short. The pizza was not terrible in and of itself, but to hold a pie to such a high standard as those produced in Connecticut, that's just asking for trouble. "Get that saltine cracker outta here," a friend says upon seeing the crust. The crust, yeah, it's too thin. The pies are made in a gas-fired oven. The toppings are all wrong. There weren't even any clams on the menu (though they had a white shrimp pie). On the plus side, the food came to the table quickly with no need for queuing outside the restaurant in the cold. Sitting in this restaurant, looking at the black and white photographs of Pepe's, the wrought iron sign above Wooster Square and the worn brick buildings that are so familiar, I felt homesick for the state I adopted for much of my adult life. Alas, my search for proper pizza in California continues, and I have a promising lead, but I'm not sure I can bear the eventual disappointment. They say, "You can't take it with you," and boy were they right. Yours truly in pizza exile, Chris Preovolos P.S. The wine's better here. You win some, you lose some. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate With General Electrics decision this week to move its corporate headquarters from Fairfield its home for more than four decades the immediate political finger-pointing over loss of the towns largest taxpayer mingled with uncertainty over the future of the 68-acre Easton Turnpike property. News of GEs decision to move to Boston was leaked Wednesday morning by the Boston Globe, before GE apparently had even notified employees at the corporate headquarters. First Selectman Michael Tetreau said hed spoken with GE executives earlier that morning, and planned to talk with them later in the afternoon, as well as meet with them early next week, to discuss future options. Tetreau said quantifying the GE moves impact on the town will be difficult until many questions are answered, including what will happen to property, how many employees will be relocated and how many of those employees live in Fairfield. According to its press release on the relocation, GE said that about 200 headquarters staff will relocate and another 600 workers will be based at the new headquarters in the South Boston waterfront neighborhood. The company said it would move some workers into a temporary office this summer and complete the headquarters move by 2018. There are about 800 employees at the Fairfield campus. Town can sustain the loss ... for now Purely from a town standpoint, were probably in the strongest financial or fiscal shape weve ever been in, Tetreau said of the towns ability to weather the loss. We have a triple-A bond rating, our long-term liabilities are fully funded, we have a 95 percent commercial occupancy rate with a vibrant downtown and a vibrant local economy. As long as GE owns the Easton Turnpike property, it will have to pay the annual real estate tax bill of $1.63 million. It currently has a $240,793 personal property tax bill for equipment on the site, for a total local tax bill of $1.88 million. The property has two office buildings and a guest house, according to a court appeal filed in 2005 over its property assessment. The buildings house a medical center, cafeteria, fitness center, production studio and an employee store, while the guest house has 28 rooms and conference and dining facilities. GE reported overall coprorate revenue of nearly $150 billion last year. Although there has been no indication from GE that it plans to donate the 68 acres to a nonprofit entity, some politicians have floated the what-if scenario about the campus being donated to nearby Sacred Heart University. A spokesman for SHU recently denied any knowledge of that possibility. But should that happen, instead of the tax revenue, the town would receive a PILOT Payment in Lieu of Taxes from the state to cover part of that levy. Assessor Donald Ross said Wednesday it was not possible to speculate at this time how much that payment might be. According to the GE statement, it plans to sell both the Fairfield property and its offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. A changing business model Tetreau said the fact that Boston was chosen shows that, in the end, the corporations move was not all about state taxes. Massachusetts business taxes are consistently ranked as high or higher than those in Connecticut. As much as it started with taxes, I think it actually started before that, Tetreau said. Massachusetts is not a low-tax environment, so all of the comments made around the tax issue as the driver dont hold up. The biggest driver, I think, is GE is transforming itself into a high-tech digital company. The key employees in that field, he said, are millenials, who, at least until they get married and start families, want to live in large cities, not suburbs. Fairfields thing is were family friendly, the first selectman said. According to GEs release, it has been considering the composition and location of its headquarters for more than three years. The company began its formal review in June 2015, with a list of 40 potential locations. Boston was selected after a careful evaluation of the business ecosystem, talent, long-term costs, quality of life for employees, connections with the world and proximity to other important company assets. Officials failed to try hard enough Selectman Chris Tymniak, a Republican who was unsuccessful in an effort to unseat Tetreau, panned the towns efforts to retain GE in an email in response to a request for comment. I dont have the feeling we fought for GE, Tymniak said. We didn't hold a rally in support of them,we did not paint the town blue in honor of them, we just didn't do enough. Tymniak said he thinks there is plenty the town could have done to try to entice GE to stay, and should have done, though he admitted he didnt know if it would have changed the outcome. For over 40 years, GE has been a part of our community and I saw no public outreach from the town to show GE we cared, he said. This would of been a great opportunity to re-sell GE on why they moved here 40 years ago. This would of been a great opportunity to sell Fairfield to the entire country as a town that is passionate about its taxpayers and its reluctance to allow them to leave with out a fight. Show them the beaches, the schools and our special neighborhoods. No other town in the country can compete with what we have and its proximity to New York. We are a great town with a lot to offer. The towns state legislators weighed in on the news of GEs departure, with some Republican members of the delegation voicing particularly harsh criticism of state Democratic officials. State Sen. Tony Hwang, said Fairfields community is strong. I know we will all work hard with one another to build back what we are losing, Hwang said. I know we will come together to support the employees losing their jobs, the local companies that will lose business, and the many nonprofits and community organizations that benefited from having GEs headquarters as a major philanthropic force in our town. He said he plans to work closely with stat and local leaders to make sure the state is taking the steps needed to generate jobs and create an environment where businesses want to move in, not out. State Rep. Brenda Kupchick, R-132, had a more critical assessment. For anyone to say GE is leaving because of anything other than years of punitive business polices and poor fiscal management by one party rule is kidding themselves, she said. Bottom line, they blew it!" The news, said state Rep. Laura Devlin, R-134, is devastating for Fairfield and surrounding communities. GE means so much to our community and is a direct hit to our states economy, Devlin said. Leaders at the state Capitol refused to listen to GE and other companies who have repeatedly said Connecticut is doing more harm than good in keeping businesses in state. The lone Democrat in the delegation, state Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey of the 133rd District, said, Although Im deeply disappointed that GE chose to move to downtown Boston, I remain committed to working together with my colleagues and our community to showcase the world-class business, residential and cultural opportunities in Fairfield ... Here in Fairfield, we remain open for business. GE move couldnt have been stopped by town For GE retiree Bob Frigo, a town resident, the blame lies with state leadership. I dont think its a function of what Fairfield should have done or has done, Frigo said. He moved to Fairfield in 1974, when the company relocated its headquarters from New York City. At the time, Frigo said, many of the executives already lived in Fairfield County. Back then, he said, a company did not move its headquarters around on a regular basis, and especially not GE. Now, though, many tasks, like clerical gruntwork are done at remote sites. Corporations no longer need all their employees in one place. For a company looking to transform into a high-tech, digital giant, Boston makes perfect sense, said Frigo, who spent more than 40 years with GE in the accounting end of financial management. He is, he said, sad to see GE leave town. The impacts are not going to be good, he said. Its been a good relationship between the town and GE ... I cant think of anything the town could have done, its much bigger than that. Meanwhile, Tetreau said he is working with the towns Economic Development Director Mark Barnhart on a large number of economic development projects, including the Exide property, which is pretty much done. Were working with the Fairfield Metro Centers new leadership. He said a business team put together last summer will be brought back into play, as the town looks to quantify and mitigate the impact of GEs exodus. Other losses hard to measure And while Tetreau said he believes the town is in good enough shape to take the blow, hes not so sure about local charities that may rely on GEs charitable foundation for support. One of the biggest issues is the charities and non-profits Tetreau said. Will GEs support go with them to Boston, the first selectman said, or will it continue to help fund local groups. The GE Foundation provided $6.2 million through a matching gift program to eligible Connecticut groups, and $3.5 million to the states United Way in 2013, according to the foundations website. The towns Police Department has been the recipient of gifts from GEs corporate arm, through its security division, Police Chief Gary MacNamara said. The department recently received $10,000 to test and purchase body cameras and received a multi-year commitment to help fund the local police dog program. I think, from a financial perspective, the partnership we have with GE, and the equipment and programs they helped support over the years was very beneficial, MacNamara said, and seeing it end causes concern. We had a great relationship with GE security, on both site level security and corporate security, MacNamara said. And aside from a small, financial partnership we also had a professional relationship, he said, with GE offering the use of conference rooms and grounds for police training. Its always been beneficial. GE also donated 40 acres of open space to the town that became known as the Cascades property abutting Lake Mohegan, and has provided funding for training, rescue and fitness equipment to the Fire Department. Many of the furnishings in Sullivan-Independence Hall are hand-me-downs from GE offices. GE was not supposed to be here What some might not know is that GE wasnt supposed to be here at all, at least, not originally. The expansive property abutting the Merritt Parkway was slated to play host to St. Vincents Medical Center, which was looking to replace its aging Bridgeport facility, according to the hospitals website. During the mid-1970s a decision was made to move the hospital from the City of Bridgeport to a tranquil suburban setting in the adjacent town of Fairfield, according to St. Vincents website. Unexpected building and land development costs and concern over inner city patient access to the hospital, especially the elderly and families using services at the clinics, caused the Daughters of Charity and Board of Directors to rethink their decision to move the hospital out of Bridgeport. After much deliberation, the decision was made that St. Vincent's would remain in Bridgeport. At that point, the property was sold to General Electric. Unlike the fight that happened when Exxon considered building its corporate headquarters in Fairfield in the 1980s, GE was apparently welcomed with open arms in a move master-minded by legendary First Selectman John J. Sullivan. According to Rita Papazians Remembering Fairfield, Connecticut: Compatibility and cooperation were the key words to describe General Electrics move to new corporate headquarters in the suburban acreage abutting the Merritt Parkway at Route 59. Not one single resident opposed the proposed facility in the early seventies and its plan became a reality 1974. GE brought with it 700 employees, and Sullivan and then-Gov. Thomas Meskill were on hand for the ribbon cutting of the corporate headquarters on Oct. 4, 1974. Sullivan called GEs decision as the most significant and meaningful event in the annals of community development in the decade of the 70s, according to Papazians book. Sullivan is further quoted, saying, We, in Fairfield, are proud and happy that our community was selected as its new home. This is a great moment in our history and we look forward to a long, pleasant and cordial relationship with our new addition to our family and in this moment of beginning, we pledge our best as a community to make it work. Area businesses, residents weigh in GE has been a good neighbor, customer and friend to our business, said David Saad, who owns and operates Sport Hill Service Station, just down Easton Turnpike from GE. Lets wait until they make this official tomorrow, (but) if they do leave, yes, they will be missed. They are a good customer to us and a good neighbor to us. Ill be sad to see them go, if they do go, he added. I think itll be more devastating to the town of Fairfield, depending on what they do with the property. His employee, Sam Nobile, hasnt had direct dealings with the company, but is worried about his younger brother, an employee of Sodexo, which provides the in-house food service for GE. My little brother might be out of a job, he said. GE is the biggest taxpayer in Fairfield and Im worried that my property tax will go up unless somebody else moves in there, said Mary Jane Fast, a resident of the towns Stratfield area since 1958. I think everybodys worried about that. Fast said she noticed a lot of people moving from her neighborhood this summer and wondered if it had anything to do with the companys move. Ive never seen so many people leave the neighborhood so quickly, she said, noting at least six sales over a brief period. We get a lot of GE customers, said Sandro Rotella, owner of Maiones Pizza Kitchen in Stratfield Center. We do a lot of their caterings, like when they have a Christmas party. We always hate to see a company go, a business go, he said, especially now that we deliver, and Maiones deliveries to the GE campus had recently picked up considerably. Their employees order for GE, but then they also order for their homes. We hate to see them go, Rotella said. They will be missed. What a way to ruin the town, said a woman who identified herself only as Lena G. of Easton, at Jo-Jos News Stop in Stratfield Center. For what, just because the governor wants to gouge them on money? Its ridiculous. Its just sad. I just hope the governor goes to Boston with them, said Tom Quinn, a Fairfielder who also stopped in at Jo-Jos Wednesday. I just hope they take the governor with them. An earlier version of this story had the incorrect acreage. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate STAMFORD Krystal Collins booming alto voice could be heard above the more muted sounds of those singing beside her. We shall overcome, she sang. We shall overcome. We shall overcome someday. For Collins, being an active participant in the citys annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day march and rally was important. Her 13-year-old daughter, Kasey Vaughn, needs to learn the importance of the work King did, Collins said. Im here because of what he stood for, she said. Theres still work that needs to be done. And to teach my daughter that peaceful marches work. That there is a better way to do things. Collins was among the more than 300 people who braved the low temperatures and took to the streets of the West Side and downtown Monday to celebrate the life of the man whose dream is still alive. At one point, near the corner of Atlantic Street and Tresser Boulevard, drivers sitting in their cars waiting for the marchers to pass by began honking their car horns to show support. Im out here because were all looking for change, said Verdell Johnson, 73, of Stamford. Were acknowledging that there has been change but we still have more to do. And until we arrive, well keep marching. State Reps. Terry Adams, D-146, and William Tong, D-147, and attorney Philip Berns were this years grand marshals. Adams said he was glad to see more young people at the event than in past years. There were well more than 50 teenagers in the rally at Bethel AME Church and many more joined the march afterward. Im here to show progress in my community, said Earl Williams, 18, a Stamford resident. He and his friend, James Woods, 19, of Trumbull, were attending the march for the first time. So many people dont realize it wasnt always like this, Woods said. We werent able to just do what we wanted to do. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the national celebration of Kings life and actions. Like Collins, Alicia McMillian and her husband, Lewis, felt it was important to participate and set an example for their daughter, 2-year-old Brianna, who could barely be seen under her large winter coat, hat and blanket. Youre never too young to start, McMillian said. Minutes earlier, Jack Bryant, president of the Stamford NAACP, had reminded the youth of the significance of Kings 1963 I have a dream speech by reading it in its entirety. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character, he recited. For Cheri Humphrey, 45, listening to the speech and participating in the march were reminders of the stories she heard from her grandmother, Rose, who marched on Washington in 1963, where King delivered his famous speech. If my grandmother Rose Humphrey could walk in 1963, then even with this cold Cheri Humphrey is going to make it, she said. And although Humphrey made it to the end, others were unable to continue and received a ride from a police officer to the Yerwood Center, the marchers final destination. There Kasey Vaughn, Collins daughter, sang the Negro National Anthem as part of the program that included speeches by Adam and Tong. Vaughn said she was grateful for what King stood for and what he did while alive. He means equality for all, she said. ktorres@scni.com; 203-964-2265 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, both D-Conn., and 16 of their Democratic colleagues called for a hearing to enable research on the problem of gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The request came in a Jan. 8 letter to Roy Blunt, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on labor, health and human services, and education appropriations; Ranking Member Patty Murray; Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran; and Vice Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski. A 1996 Republican appropriations rider now prohibits the CDC from using federal funds to conduct research on the topic. The purpose of the rider was initially to ensure that government money could not be used to advocate or promote gun control, but has instead stifled scientific research. Every year, more than 32,000 people in the United States die from gun violence, the senators wrote. The troublesome persistence of shooting incidents only underscores the continued need to support peer-reviewed research. Shop locally, Murphy urges schools Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., was joined by Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both D-Calif., in writing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture asking that the government improve their efforts to help school districts meet the Buy American requirements in the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. More Information How to reach them U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal 203-330-0598. Email: blumenthal.senate.gov/contact- U.S. Sen Chris Murphy 860-549-8463. Email: murphy.senate.gov/contact U.S. Rep. Jim Himes 866-453-0028. Email: himes.house.gov/contact-me/email-me- State Sen. L.Scott Frantz 800-842-1421. Email: ctsenaterepublicans.com/contact-frantz State Rep. Livvy Floren 800-842-1423. Email: livvy.floren@housegop.ct.gov- State Rep. William Tong 800-842-8267. Email: william.tong@cga.ct.gov State Sen. Carlo Leone 800-842-1420. Email: carlo.leone@cga.ct.gov- State Rep. Patricia Billie Miller 800-842-8267. Email: patricia.miller@cga.ct.gov State Rep. Caroline Simmons 800-842-8267. Email: caroline.simmons@cga.ct.gov - State Rep. Terry Adams Tel: none given. Email: terry.adams@cga.ct.gov State Rep. Daniel Fox 800-842-8267. Email: dan.fox@cga.ct.gov - Find your district: cga.ct.gov See More Collapse The senators were responding to reports that a California school district was purchasing canned peaches, pears and applesauce from China. We believe that American businesses, which are often competing on a global scale, should be prioritized when being awarded federal contracts, the senators wrote. As such, we were disheartened to read reports that a school district purchased canned peaches, pears and applesauce from Chinese producers. We urge you to pinpoint ways to better monitor school districts and to ensure compliance with federal standards requiring districts to purchase domestically grown produce. Enacted in 1998, the Goodling Act sets standards for the National School Lunch Program. Groundbreaking draws a crowd U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4., state Sen. Carlo Leone, D-27, and state Reps. Adams, D-146, Caroline Simmons, D-144, and William Tong, D-147, were all on hand at the former Sacred Heart Academy for the groundbreaking of the planned three-year restoration of the building. The completed building, scheduled to open in September, will be an extension of the Rogers International School and will help to ease the problem of overcrowding in the citys schools. The general assembly committed $67 million to the project during the 2015 legislative season. Himes and Simmons also attended Mondays annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March and Rally, organized by the Stamford branch of the NAACP and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Planning Committee. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The word Kalimur has no formal meaning in any language. But in a few years, you could be hearing it everywhere. For those who invented it and their followers, the word evokes feelings of longing, hardship, love, youth and perhaps soon, redemption. Kalimur is just what we make of it and what our experience with our fans creates, said Brett Steinberg, a 2013 Greenwich High School grad and a junior at the University of Connecticut. Steinberg is lead vocalist and pianist of Kalimur, an alternative rock band that has been steadily gaining traction since its inception last February. Made up of four UConn students, Kalimur released its first album, Ghosts We Used to Know, last summer and has been touring throughout Connecticut and New York City since. Last week they performed at Pianos, a music venue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in advance of the Jan. 25 release of their second album, Redemption, followed by a headlining performance at The Space in Hamden on Jan. 29. Tuning up For those who knew Steinberg growing up, it comes as no surprise that hes in a band. The Greenwich resident started producing solo albums in high school and last summer wrote a play called Absolute, a coming-of-age story about a group of 20-somethings in Brooklyn, that was performed at the Toquet Hall teen center in Westport. At UConn, Steinberg became friends with future bandmate Tyler Berkich. The bassist, who is from Stamford, started accompanying him on songs, and the two began to entertain the idea of starting a band. But for months thats all it remained, an idea. That is, until the summer of 2014, when, as they headed into their sophomore year, Steinberg and Berkich performed Steinbergs solo album, Age of Wonder, as the opening act to the alternative band Paradise Fears at The Space. It was this loud, rocking, electric feel to the show and the environment was so amazing, said Steinberg, speaking this week with Berkich at his home in Greenwich, where the band practices when theyre not in school. When I got to see what he was doing and feel the feeling of being on stage and the crowd interacting with me, I knew it was something I wanted to do, said Berkich, who has played bass since he was young. I knew right then I didnt just want to be in a band, I wanted to be in this band. A few weeks later, they recruited guitarist Alex Trouern-Trend and drummer Jonah Propfe. In true rock n roll tradition, the vibe among group members wasnt exactly harmonious. Not gonna lie, we didnt hit it off at first, Steinberg said of Trouern-Trend. Hes really talented, but I have no clue how to describe his personality, Berkich added about Propfe. The dynamics changed as they all plugged in and began playing together. As weird as it sounds, it was magical, Berkich said. Chemistry clicking, they turned to the matter of a name. An early possibility was Steinberg and the Sparks. There were a lot of sparks for a while, Steinberg said. I was trying to be artsy. Then, one day, Kalimur just popped into his head. Steinberg presented the idea to the band. They all liked the notion that their music would infuse the word with meaning. I liked the aesthetic of the word, and I thought it left a blank canvas for us, Berkich said. They have been Kalimur ever since. Play it live The band publicly performed for the first time at a Battle of the Bands event at the Webster Underground in Hartford in February. Through music, the band members became each others closest friends. Were a bunch of weirdos, so it worked out really well, Berkich said. We prioritize in the band that we can get along, Steinberg said. What comes before playing at the show is, Are we going to be laughing in the car going up to the venue? Soon Kalimur began gaining attention, and making money, performing all around the state. Sometimes the band members drive long hours after class just to perform for 30 minutes, and drive back late into the night in time for class the next day. That half an hour makes it all worth it, Berkich said. Were realistic dreamers. We have ambitions and we figure out how to make it work, added Steinberg. The members pay out-of-pocket for equipment, gas and merchandise. Its a priority to us to make sure we can look back at what were doing and feel a sense of fulfillment, feel its something we can stand behind, Steinberg said. Though much of the music industry has gone digital Kalimur currently has 17,000 followers on Twitter and 2,165 likes on Facebook the band really values building an audience the old way. Steinberg and Berkich said performing live is their favorite part. I like connecting with people in a real way and in a show you really can, Steinberg said. Berkich said it continues to amaze him that people pay to watch him do what he loves, comparing it to someone showing up at my door one day and saying Hi Tyler, I just want to watch you eat spaghetti. He and Steinberg laughed at the thought. And they watch and then they say Thank you so much, and leave, applauding, saying things like Can you sign my fork? Berkich continued. Thats basically what it is. Its so magical. When you can look them in the eyes and share an experience with them, theres nothing like that, Steinberg said. New album When creating the bands sound, Steinberg said they thought a lot about balancing whats artistically true to the band members with what they know a wider audience will enjoy. The band members bring in different musical influences. Trouern-Trend and Prompfe enjoy classic rock, Berkich, hard rock and metal, and Steinberg, alternative. Its a mosaic of influences that creates something that might sound familiar to some people, but never sounds like something else. It sounds like its own thing, I like to think, Steinberg said . Their first album, which was released in April of last year, a month after their first performance in Hartford, was written by Steinberg during winter break. As the Ghost reference in the title alludes, the album is wistful and reflective, a rearview mirror to the trials and tribulations of youthful, universal experiences of love and loss. Redemption is much more in-the-moment. Its saying, its OK to feel. Youre not the only one that feels the heaviness of life, Steinberg said. You should always be trying to come out and look at the bright side and how you can look forward, Berkich said. For the second album, each band member touched every part of the song development, from the writing to the final stages of production. The songs, they said, tell stories and express emotions that at least one of them has experienced or felt. Whether its people coming to a show or listening to a song of ours, I hope that our album is comforting, Steinberg said. I hope it gives this idea that if youre having anxiety at 3 a.m. and cant go to sleep, by all means flip to a song of ours and understand that youre not the only one that has experienced life in all its amazing glory, and all its tough moments. Redemption will be released on Jan. 25 and can be ordered on iTunes. SFoster-Frau@scni.com; @SilviaElenaFF This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DANBURY There are days when it seems the planes flying over Chris Tuccios backyard a half-mile west of Danbury Airport will crash into the trees along the ridgetop. The sight is more a trick of perception than a cause for alarm. Planes commonly seem lower than their true altitude, especially with a clear blue sky above them. But in recent months, the Federal Aviation Administration has grown so concerned about trees obstructing the western approach to Danbury Airports Runway 8 that it has banned all bad-weather night landings until the trees are cut back. The problem is that the trees are on private property. That means Danbury has to cut deals with six homeowners for the right to cut back trees that have penetrated the reserved air space. The cost for 12 stands of trees is nearly $1 million most of which will be reimbursed by the FAA and the state. If $1 million seems like a lot of money to spend on tree work a half-mile from a noncommercial airport, it is. But Danbury is no ordinary general aviation airport. With 70,000 combined takeoffs and landings each year, Danbury is the busiest airport of its kind in Connecticut. Until the trees are cleared, the restriction on night landings is costing the local charter aviation business a lot of money. Were losing $35,000 to $50,000 a month, and it is having a severe impact, said Wayne Toher, president of Reliant Air, who has to divert planes to Westchester County Airport on the Greenwich border. The impact has been lessened because the weather has been good, but the weather is about to get bad. Meanwhile, in Tuccios high-elevation neighborhood, several homeowners said they are unsure what to think until they begin negotiations with the city. It sounds like there is no choice, said Anthony Giovannone, one of four homeowners on Cel Bret Drive with problematic trees. It doesnt sound like there is any point to refusing, but it would be hard to react without knowing what will happen to the trees. The short answer is that homeowners can decide whether trees are removed or merely topped off, said Michael Safranek, the assistant airport administrator. But first, the homeowner has to agree on the terms of a land use deal, known as an avigation easement. The city estimates it will cost $440,000 to buy the six easements. Once we have the avigation rights, if the homeowner says, I just want it topped; I dont want you to take the tree away, we will work with him any way we can as long as we satisfy the safety concerns of the FAA, Safranek said. The last time the city took on a tree-clearing project this size west of the airport was in 2007, when it bought 10 acres on Miry Brook Road for $500,000, most of which was reimbursed by the FAA. We have done a ton of tree-clearing as per the FAA and we will honor its request to do this project as well, Mayor Mark Boughton said. But the negotiation process is going to take time. Trouble trees Lynn Brown is a longtime Danbury resident who lives on a ridge overlooking Miry Brook Road, where a small stand of trees has grown into the Runway 8 approach zone. If this only involves cutting the trees back, I dont have any issue with that, said Brown, a retired New Fairfield High School science teacher. They did some serious trimming years ago on the property next to mine, and I thought they were done with it, because what used to be a wooded hill is now a grassland. Brown has a hangar on her property that once housed a MiG-17 a high performance Soviet jet fighter that had a high profile during the Cold War. Brown bought the jet as an art object not to fly it and has since sold it. Her brother is the pilot in the family, and he is upset that night flights on Runway 8 are restricted. Ive had enough with the inefficiency and inadequacy of the airport for letting this go, said Drew Brown, a charter pilot who also lives on Miry Brook Road. You cant land at night if its not a clear night from the western approach and we need that approach, Drew Brown said. I know they have plans to cut the trees down, but they are a day late and a dollar short. The problem is that pilots relying on cockpit sensors to guide their flight in less-than-optimum visibility conditions cannot see obstructions in the landing zone through the windshield. If I am just looking at my instruments, my instruments are telling me that I am at this height and at this speed and at this level, and that is what I am following, Safranek said. My instruments dont know that the tree is there, and that is why the FAA says it is not safe. For years the airport has maintained a 70-foot pole topped with steady red lights in the Cel Bret Drive neighborhood to warn pilots about the intruding trees. But recently the FAA decided the obstruction lights were not enough and that the trees needed to go, Safranek said. There have been no crashes or mishaps on the western approach to the airport because of the protruding trees, Safranek said. A small plane did crash into the neighborhood in 2011; it landed upside-down in the front lawn of a home on the Ridgefield side of Briar Ridge Road. The early-afternoon crash was equipment-related. That crash happened before Chris Tuccio and his wife moved into the Cel Bret Drive neighborhood two years ago. Sometimes they are coming straight across our back yard, and it really does look like they are going to hit some of those trees over there, said Tuccio, who is not one of the affected homeowners. It depends on the route theyre taking. The FAA in early November issued a notice to pilots restricting their ability to land at night. The height and location of the (trees) adversely affect two instrument approach procedures that pilots use to land safely on Runway 8, the FAA said in a statement on Friday. The FAA is working with the airport sponsor to address a small cluster (of trees) that remain. Meanwhile the FAA restrictions on nighttime operations remain in effect. Boughton said the city is responding at an appropriate pace. Danbury is not a commercial airport it is a general aviation airport, Boughton said. We have to balance the needs of the users with the needs of the community. rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342 STAMFORD In 2005, Xue Wu moved with her family from Simsbury to Stamford. But the move was far less uprooting than the one that came just two years before, when Wu, her two brothers and her mother boarded a plane bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport. Wu was 16 years old then and knew little English. She and her family were leaving their small village in southeast China to join her father, who had been living in the United States since 1992. Wu enrolled in the ninth grade at Simsbury High School, where she, her brother and a student from South Korea made up the schools first English as a second language class. N ational Australia Bank has launched a cut-price offer of shares in its Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks offshoots. The London stock market float will value what has been renamed CYBG at between 1.54 billion and 2.04 billion which, even at the top end, is some 200 million less than the price that was being suggested as recently as last month. NAB finance director Craig Drummond admitted the bank had been compelled to scale back its ambitions for the valuation of Clydesdale after the recent fall in equity markets. Theres no question its a little lower. Its not dramatically lower but its a little lower than we would have expected, and its a little lower for the obvious reason that markets are volatile and a bit soft, Drummond said. The Australian bank is planning to sell 25% of its holding in Clydesdale and give the remaining 75% directly to its own shareholders. Dealings in the shares, which will be offered in a price range from 175p to 235p, are due to start on February 2. Management, headed by chief executive David Duffy who previously ran Allied Irish Banks, has begun a series of roadshows with potential investors in London and will travel up to see Edinburgh fund managers later in the month. At the lowest end of the valuation Clydesdale would be sold at just 0.56 times book value which is not only considerably lower than the average UK bank whose shares trade at 0.76 times book value but much lower than some of its rival challenger banks. Metro Bank has been talking about a flotation which could value it at three times book value even though it has never made a profit. NAB has looked at selling or floating Clydesdale (and Yorkshire) for decades but hit a huge stumbling block when the PPI mis-selling scandal broke five years ago. Last year it was fined 20.6 million by the Financial Conduct Authority for the poor way it handled PPI complaints and NAB had to stump up 1.6 billion to cover future liabilities ahead of the float. The Australian bank expects to make a significant accounting loss on the spin-off and float. H edge funds are taking their biggest bet against oil for at least a decade as the cost of the black stuff falls to 13-year lows, it has emerged. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the number of short positions on West Texas Intermediate, the US crude benchmark, jumped 15% to almost 201,000 in the week to January 12. This is the highest level since the body began collecting data in 2006. Michael Corcelli, chief investment officer of hedge fund Alexander Alternative Capital, said: When we have monster pullbacks, things dont end politely. I think well drop to $24 or $25 and then have a sharp V-shaped rally. US crude slipped close to 2003 lows of $28.36 on Monday. Estimates of an extra 500,000 barrels a day in exports from Iran, now free of sanctions, drove Brent crude to a low of $27.70 in early trading before recovering. The sanctions had previously cut Irans oil exports by two thirds from their 2011 peak to little more than one million a day. Iran has the fourth-biggest proven reserves in the world, while Saudi Arabia is refusing to cut production as it takes on the US shale oil producers. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said the price of oil is likely to settle between $25 and $40 in a years time. Major producers are currently delivering two to 2.5 million barrels a day more than demand, so the question is how long they can continue to overproduce at that level, he told a conference in Hong Kong. C hancellor George Osbornes success in stuffing pension funds with taxpayers Lloyds shares is having an uncomfortable side effect: indigestion. The Treasury has for 18 months been filling institutional investors gullets like foie gras geese with the Lloyds shares nationalised in the financial crisis bailout. As a result, sated with 16 billion of this extra stock in the dominant High Street bank, their appetites for investing in smaller, riskier rivals coming to the market are much diminished. What hunger there was for smaller lenders was satisfied with Lloydss sale of its TSB division. Thanks to the size and geographical spread of that business, its float was relatively popular. The same cant be said for Clydesdale, a small, PPI scandal-stricken group of branches in the North and Scotland which have been up for sale on and off since 1999. So it is that its owners at National Australia Bank have today had to set a price range some 500 million lower than we were originally led to expect. The float now looks likely to be priced at as little as half-to-0.6% of the book value of its assets. Given that bidders are said to have offered double that in recent years and been rebuffed, thats a pretty shocking reflection on NABs management. If you were feeling charitable, you could say this yard-sale valuation is little surprise given the choppy stock market. But its far from clear that NAB would have had much more luck if theyd held off until calmer waters prevailed. The state of the markets could end up providing some useful cover if the float flops. The success or otherwise of Clydesdale could dictate the flotation fortunes of tiny Metro Bank and RBSs Williams & Glyn division, also set to come to market this year. Challenger: Metro Bank (Picture: Matt Writtle) / Matt Writtle Metro and the billionaire US hedge funders who own it will argue that, being a young thruster launched for the 21st century, it is a wholly different investment prospect to the auld Clydesdale, which was formed in Glasgow in 1838. W&G, when it finally gets its flotation boats in a row, will declare itself big enough, and adequately spread across the UK to challenge the big boys. The truth, though, is that investors will be cautious at the prospect of backing either. The strongest shares up for sale in the sector those of Lloyds and TSB have largely been and gone. Mother of inventions How heartening that Imperial Innovations has won an initial 25 million from Europe to seed a 200 million fund to invest in University College Londons life-changing inventions. Would such largesse be available post-Brexit? D o you remember I agree with Nick? There was this golden moment, ahead of the 2010 general election, when Nick Clegg who, for the benefit of younger readers, was the leader of a party called the Liberal Democrats aced the pre-election Leaders Debate and caused David Cameron and Gordon Brown (who, for the benefit of... oh, just Google him) to parrot awkwardly: I agree with Nick. It became a meme. T-shirts were printed. Novelty mugs were fired. Poor Mr Clegg never recovered and, to add insult to injury, became deputy Prime Minister. It turns out, though, that in retrospect there were some people who took the catchphrase seriously. Those people were, unfortunately, the Metropolitan Police. For when, in 2014, a complainant known as Nick came forward to tell detectives he had been serially abused by a conspiracy of senior public figures among them the former Prime Minister Ted Heath and former Tory MPs Leon Brittan and Harvey Proctor, the heads of MI5 and MI6 and two senior army generals the police not only decided that his allegations were credible and true, they made public statements to that effect. Nick alleged that he had witnessed three murders at sadistic child rape parties and would have had his parts lopped off with a penknife by Proctor had Heath, of all people, not intervened to say Mr Proctor was going too far. Again, these allegations were regarded as credible and true by an organisation that of course is supposed to take seriously any reports of crimes of this gravity; but that is also of course expected to make sensible calculations about the plausibility of such claims before launching press releases and dawn raids. And yet, on the strength of these claims they are no more than that the reputations of a large handful of people have been dragged through the proverbial mud and the public purse put to expense of well over a million pounds. Consider the weirdness of all this: headlines dominated for two years, slander and innuendo in Parliament, murder investigations launched without body, motive or named victim... all, at least ostensibly, on the principle that anyone who alleges abuse should be believed, and not just provisionally so. Hysteria isnt too strong a word. As far as Im aware, there has not been one solitary item of independently corroborated evidence to support Nicks claims. Fine, you might say: the police cant be expected to share sensitive details of an ongoing investigation. But by the same token, with reputations at stake, the police cant assume licence for the sort of public showboating theyve indulged in. Its iffy, to say the least, that so many of Nicks revelations have been brokered more or less simultaneously to the police and the Sunday tabloids by the news website Exaro. The latest victim of I agree with Nick is 92-year-old Field Marshal Lord Bramall. It has taken nearly a year for the cops to issue a grudging, hedging apology mentioning insufficient evidence which is to say, no evidence. That hes a decorated war veteran makes no odds: were he a retired plumber the allegations should be treated the same way. That is: with caution, dispassionate respect for evidence and, for Petes sake, a bit of common sense. Longevity is being over 40 for Diaz Cameron Diazs new book is called Longevity. Miss Diaz is all of 43 years old. After years of hearing 40 is the new 30, are we now to consider 40 as the new 80? That seems harsh. I recently turned 42 and consider that a matter for mild regret rather than proud astonishment. Or is Cameron counting in Hollywood lady-years? (as per an old friend who, moaning about being in his early 40s, wailed: Thats 160 in gay years!) Either way, I hope Diana Athill is available to review it. Shed put Cameron straight. An unpoetic ode to therapy If theres a more dispiriting headline than Stressed celebrities praise therapy of poetry its hard to think of what it might be; though I admit it pleases me a little to imagine an empurpled Sir Geoffrey Hill blowing some sort of mental gasket on reading it. Those six words appeared above a report of the launch next month of a free online course called Literature and Mental Health: Reading for Wellbeing. The likes of Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen have, apparently, shared how this ode or that sonnet helped them cope in tough times. The course is accompanied by an anthology by husband-and-wife scholars Sir Jonathan Bate and Paula Byrne called Stressed Unstressed: Classic Poems to Ease the Mind. I think well of Byrne I admired her imaginative book Mad World, about Evelyn Waughs Brideshead Revisited but here she surely makes a bloomer. It is to sell poetry dreadfully short to treat it as a therapeutic tool rather than a serious art form. (Feeling glum? Heres some Wordsworth.) Of course, hearts ease is among the things art can do, but thats not what its for. Serious work provokes rather than medicates. If you released a collection of music or book of paintings under such a rubric, youd be laughed out of town: why, then, must poor old poetry get it? * In light of all our huffing and puffing about free speech in universities, a friend who lives in Turkey draws my attention to the more ahem robust attitude its government takes. Recently, 1,128 academics signed a petition calling on the government to negotiate with Kurdish separatists. Result? President Recep Erdogan described the petition as treason and its signatories as so-called intellectuals and academic garbage. The state has moved to prosecute them under a handy all-purpose statute that criminalises insulting the state. So far 18 dons have been arrested, 130 face charges and many have lost their jobs. Our Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says we stand shoulder to shoulder with Turkey. A chink of light between those shoulders, please. S tarvation is the latest weapon of war. Madaya in Syria is not the only town that has been besieged and forced from contact with the outside world. Syrias remaining population, half displaced within the country, another quarter having fled, is in a state of desperate captivity. As surrounding countries, unable to cope with the exodus, tighten their borders, Syrian towns are becoming prison camps. On a trip to Jordan and Lebanon with the International Development Secretary Justine Greening, I meet Mariam. This 31-year-old Syrian survived a chemical attack, was imprisoned without reason and overheard fellow prisoners being tortured. Her town was besieged for three years, with no milk for the children, no medicine, and aid supplies prevented from reaching those in need. Mariams brother was killed; she has had only rare phone contact from Jordan with her other siblings in the Damascus district. For Greening, Mariams experience provides evidence of the importance of humanitarian support from Britain: Talking to these people, hearing horrific stories of chemical attacks, of people literally having to survive on what they can grow, stories of people eating grass, we are right to do what we can to get into those areas. The Department for International Development does work with natural disasters this is a man-made one. The NGOs, civil servants and refugees here visualise a wretched future: Syria will eventually empty and become a terrorist state. It exports unpredictable violence more ferociously than we have ever experienced. Already we are becoming accustomed to terrorist cells in places as varied as Belgium, the US, Indonesia and Africa. In the worst case, nowhere will be safe. Today, Syrian refugees threaten to overwhelm the region. We hear much about refugees in Europe but our continent has so far been a sideshow. Only about three per cent have travelled there. In Lebanon, a population of four million has had to absorb more than a million refugees. About 18 per cent are in camps, the rest live among the society. The delicate political balance in Lebanon for years a third Christian, a third Sunni and a third Shia is upended by a refugee flow of mostly Sunni Muslims. It is happening in a country with a vacuum in government and an economy that has slumped from nine per cent growth to less than two. Islamic State is camped on the Lebanese border and poised for incursion. Beirut represents everything IS loathes, being cosmopolitan, liberal and tolerant. Hezbollah, which is helping prop up the Assad regime, has become bolder as a fighting force. Refugees in Lebanon unable to move across borders may risk setting sail for Europe. It is a miracle that Lebanon is holding it together. As a Lebanese academic puts it: The short-term outlook is terrible, but long-term we will survive because we always do. A country in a region with a history of conflict and thus mass migration the Syrians now resemble the Palestinians knows what the abyss is like and clings to the edge. As for the Syrians who have fled, they regard their future helplessly. A senior manager for the Syrian food manufacturer Durra, now relocated to Jordan, says it is a virtual-reality war, decided by Saudi Arabia and Iran, with the Syrians merely pawns. Who can speak for Syria? The government does not control the country. What can bring this apocalyptic suffering to an end? Greening believes that Russia is the key, because of its influence over Assad: Russia must call on both sides to stop. I want to see countries like Russia saying it is against humanitarian law to be besieging those communities. This must be the time for President Putin to persuade President Assad to go, because nothing can move without this. Refugees will not return. Once he goes, we can transition. Here is the alternative hopeful scenario: Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia reach a compromise. Assad leaves with dignity. Russia retains a base and influence in Syria to see in a transitional arrangement. In the words of a diplomatic source: We have learned from Iraq not to dismantle everything, just to cut off the head. Go too fast and we could have a radicalised Sunni regime. 'If we can manage a post-genocide settlement in Bosnia, surely we must do so in Syria?' If we can manage a post-genocide settlement in Bosnia, surely we must do so in Syria? With no political and little diplomatic influence, our foreign policy is humanitarianism. The fears of a lost generation deepen. The refugees I meet can scarcely believe the sheer longevity of their plight. All expected to be away for weeks or months, not four years. All want to go home. A family with 10 children in the Bekaa Valley camp in Lebanon had been offered asylum in Canada but turned it down. In their cardboard-and-cloth hut they feel they can still breathe Syrian air across the mountain. A UNHCR camp worker says many refugees planning to go to Europe change their minds at the last minute. Some sneak back over the border to Syria to glimpse their old homes. If caught, they are trapped. They are homesick, unable to work and in despair at seeing their children grow up without education. Those who make the journey to Europe are those who have given up hope. As one Syrian puts it: If you are ashamed you cannot provide for your family; ashamed to be a Syrian, you go to look for a different passport. Next month London is hosting a donor conference to work out a plan. Humanitarianism has to go beyond food and tents. It must help the countries shouldering the Syrian burden. Refugees need jobs and their children need education. The UN appeal is for $8 billion, and only half has been pledged. So far the UK is the only G7 nation accepting full responsibility. We have to address Syria, if not for Syrians, then for us. If we want to stem the human tide we have to go to the source. If we want to stop international terrorism we have to solve Syria. It is a horror that will affect us all. We cannot hide from it any longer. T ube-themed pub crawls have long been popular, but one man has taken things further, by visiting a pub close to every single one of the 270 underground stations in London although not in all in the same evening. Sam Cullen, 28, began his boozy mission in 2013, and now has fewer than 30 underground stations and pubs to visit. Expecting to down his final pint sometime in March this year, the undertaking will have taken him around three years. Brighton-born Mr Cullen, who was inspired to do the challenge after watching a documentary celebrating 150 years of the tube, began at Paddington Station, where the first underground train departed in 1863. He has since visited more than 240 stations, all in the order they officially opened. Reviewing each pub on his blog INNside Track, Mr Cullen said: The tube and pubs are two things which are absolutely intrinsic to London life. It's been amazing fun and has taken me to parts of London I'd never thought I'd visit. Doing it has really opened my eyes to contrast between various areas and pubs of London, going from the leafy village feel in Chorleywood at the end of the Met Line to the heart of the city with historic pubs hidden down narrow alleyways. He added: Doing the stations in the order they opened has been interesting, although hasn't always lent itself to a smooth journey I once went from Hounslow straight up to Northwood during one of the sessions! I don't do it on my own Ive got very good at persuading my friends to come along, although it was quite a challenge for some of the outer stops. The project will conclude at Wood Lane Underground Station, the last underground station to open, in 2008. For more information, visit innsidetrack.wordpress.com and @innsidetrack. Follow David Ellis on Twitter @dvh_ellis Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout Review at a glance T his is the first all-women exhibition in the Saatchi Gallerys 30-year history, a commendable event in a still shockingly unequal art world. Champagne Life, its title laden with irony, doesnt attempt to draw any conclusion about art made by women today that would be a pointless exercise. Instead, the 14 artists work is hugely diverse in form and content. This is also a failing, one common to every Saatchi Gallery show Ive seen in recent years. Superficially, like those other exhibitions, it often looks great Charles Saatchi and his team know how to present art with real elegance and drama. You cant fail to be struck when walking into a room and being confronted with Soheila Sokhanvaris Moje Sabz (2011), a taxidermic horse sitting on a shiny turquoise jesmonite blob, noble and pathetic at once. But too often, combinations of different artists are awkward why, for instance, are Julia Daults enjoyably tactile sculptures made from bent formica, plexiglass and other materials shown alongside Marie Angelettis cerebral combinations of images from different sources? Striking: Soheila Sokhanvaris Moje Sabz (2011) With no theme and no curatorial argument, the focus inevitably shifts back to the collector, and Champagne Life betrays a enduring lack of coherence or identity in Saatchis collecting. As hes bought more widely in a globalised art world, its as if his focus has disappeared. He is amassing far too much inferior art, works which are either technically accomplished but lacking in poetic or conceptual power, like the massive portrait heads of Jelena Bulajic, or fascinating in subject and concept but poorly realised, like the paintings of Sigrid Holmwood. A new commission by Alice Anderson perhaps sums up this dilemma. A huge ball wrapped in 181 kilometres of copper thread, it sits next to Andersons vast bobbin bound with thick copper wire, made a few years ago. It reflects the decline in Andersons work: the bobbin relates to her childhood memories and a story of Sigmund Freud playing a game with his grandson, evoking moments of personal and historical anxiety. But the ball, while initially striking, is an empty academic exercise. This year being the 30th anniversary of the Saatchi Gallery, its impossible not to look back at the many great shows in its early years at Boundary Road in north London. I often emerged from those shows with my spirit soaring, my head dizzied. I cant remember the last time a Saatchi show had the same effect. Until March 6, Saatchi Gallery (020 7811 3070, saatchigallery.com) Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout Review at a glance W ere in suburban Indiana in August 1965; elsewhere in the USA the civil rights movement is gaining vital momentum in Alabama. At least, this is the era that playwright Paul Minx tells us were watching, but I didnt really believe him. Contemporary sensibilities over-infuse the writing and far too much contrived drama is packed into 90 minutes. At the same time, the piece is wearyingly static. Grace (Krissi Bohn) and Andre (Cornelius Macarthy), the Price familys two black domestic workers, want to head south to join the struggle, but first they need the wages that are owed them. Therein hangs the problem: Carol Ann (Imogen Stubbs) is a simpering drunk, a refugee from a discarded Tennessee Williams play, and her spirited, malicious teenage daughter Ivy (Lydea Perkins) has a tenuous relationship with the truth. Dad Jake (Michael Brandon, rough and compelling) has troubles enough of his own. The implausibilities multiply in Sarah Bergers production. Would this many issues, financial, psychological and sexual, truly be discussed so freely in front of the help? Would Grace get so belligerent towards a man whose money she needed very badly? Would everyone know Ivy for a liar and then believe the tallest tale of the lot? I doubt it. Until January 30, King's Head Theatre (020 7226 8561, kingsheadtheatre.com) Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout I f youre feeling the Monday misery today, Tesco might have something up its sleeve that will cheer you right up. The supermarket has announced that it will be giving away free food to its customers today, to make the unbearable depression of Blue Monday that little bit easier. Between 3.30pm-5.30pm today, the corporate giant is giving out fruit in the form of kiwis, apples, clementines and blueberries. Customers should expect to see the free fruits on display at larger Tesco superstores in the capital. Tescos corporate responsibility director Josh Hardie said: We know today is the day people are most likely to be feeling the January blues, and we hope a free piece of fruit will help our customers feel a little bit happier as they shop with us. The third Monday in January has become known as the most depressing day of the year due to a number of factors that make us glum, including an empty bank account, cold weather, an increase in divorce rates and the number of days since Christmas ended not to mention the fact its a Monday. If free fruit doesn't grab you, why not check out these other handy ways to beat Blue Monday? Follow us on Twitter: @eslifeandstyle L ook, I have a name. I dont know why this bearded man insists on speaking to me in Spanish and calling me El Gato. Apparently that is Spanish for cat but I dont call him El Hombre or El Jefe, now that hes had a promotion and started wearing ties. He is called Jeremy Corbyn. Why should I speak Spanish? I live in Holloway. At least its better than having to answer to Chairman Miaow, which is what John McDonnell called me that time when he came round for what they called a tea con leche. He was holding a red thing, which I hoped was a bag of Dreamies cat food, but it was just some boring book. I am of good English stock and called Baron Horace Balfour II but the tracksuited one eschews titles in the name of equality. Pah. I was discussing this with Tom Watsons cat, who he hasnt named either, though I call him Jerry. What is it with these guys? Not giving your pet a name shows a lack of imagination. Also, none of El Jefes pals have dogs. That man Ken Livingstone even has lizards and newts. Does that mean cats are more socialist? Dogs seem to have an inherited sense of privilege, lording it around Hampstead Heath, while we cats stick to the streets popping into whichever houses we please because property is theft. Also because that nice woman down the road who shops at Waitrose gives me meaty Miaowing Heads treats, which I never have at home. Corbyn never has anything tasty and cats cannot live on vegan stews alone. Youd think that promotion would have meant an upgrade on our weekly shop but its the same old budget stuff, with the occasional Mexican coffee from Corbyns wife, Laura. Dogs you should follow on Instagram 1 /16 Dogs you should follow on Instagram Dogs of Instagram Pumpkin the poodle @ps.ny Alamy Stock Photo Marnie the Shih Tzu @marniethedog Image Source / Alamy Stock Photo Maru the Shiba Inu @marutaro Alamy Stock Photo Manny the French bulldog @manny_the_frenchie Menswear Dog the Shiba Inu @mensweardog Digby the griffon @digbyvanwinkle Champ the golden retriever @thatgoldendog Bruno the dachshund @brunotheminidachshund Alamy Stock Photo Maple the border collie/golden retriever/Sheltie mix @acoustictrench Alamy Stock Photo Tuna the chiweenie @tunameltsmyheart Taco the Portuguese water dog @tacothecitydog Sometimes a woman called Diane comes around, and a man called Seumas Milne, who mainly eats salad from a place called Pet a Manger. But I think they might be allergic to me. They always seem too busy to stop and cat-ch up. Jerry Watson told me that theyre all planning to move house to somewhere near Big Ben. At the moment theres a cat called Larry there and lots of mice. Yum. I hope it isnt too loud near Buckingham Palace, those corgis can cause a racket. Talking of that, does anyone know where I can find a nice pair of cat earplugs? This Corbo fellow wont stop whistling songs from the Seventies at me. Im tired of the Red Flag, and Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree is repetitive, I want to listen to Justin Bieber. I heard Biebs being played down Archway and he likes the NHS, so surely the boss would approve. Oh, look, Corbyn has left his llama-wool scarf on the table, finally, a toy for me. I was tiring of playing with drain covers and the spokes on that Raleigh bike and listening to them bang on about nationalisation and the legacy of an Italian was it Pussolini? Occasionally they mention their previous political animal, my feline predecessor was called Harold Wilson he went by the name of Hazza to sound like a cool cat. Right, Im off before he comes home and starts making jam again. Follow Susannah Butter on Twitter: @susannahbutter A young man offered Tulip Siddiq a seat on the Tube last week. The MP for Hampstead and Kilburn is nearly seven months pregnant with her first child (a girl) and says Londoners contrary to stereotype have never forced her to stand. But after the recent furore, this chap couldnt resist a quip: If youre hungry too, let me know. He was referring to an incident in the Commons when deputy speaker Eleanor Laing lambasted Siddiq for leaving the chamber to get a snack. Siddiq, who had been there for two-and-a-half hours, had broken the convention that you dont exit straight after speaking. She apologised. But Laing told her not to play the pregnancy card, accusing Siddiq of bringing down the whole of womankind. I didnt mention being pregnant, Siddiq tells me. It had nothing to do with it. I was just hungry. She feels theres an irony in what they were debating at the time. It was about universal credit, which will affect women especially single mothers the worst. The Tories voted for it [yet] I was told that by a Conservative. Laings comments have provoked outrage. Ive had more messages on this than anything else. Theres a sense of outrage on my behalf... It expose a culture we need to get rid of in politics. Siddiq stresses that she doesnt want to tar all Tory MPs with the same brush, though. Many have told her they were appalled by the comments. Tracey Crouch whos also pregnant gave Siddiq a charity wristband that monitors the babys kicks. And former Communities Secretary Eric Pickles asked Siddiq if she would name her daughter Erica and make him godfather. She also singles out the Speaker, John Bercow, for praise. Hes a real feminist. It might have been different had he been in the chair. After Bercow found out Siddiq was pregnant, he said she no longer needed to bob up and down when asking to speak; she could just wave her order paper. The 33-year-old a rising star in the Labour Party won her seat last May but has the confidence of someone whos been in politics far longer. She seems to know everyone at JW3, the Jewish community centre in her constituency where weve met for mezze and mushroom burgers. Siddiq has no desire to inflame the Laing situation but hopes it could lead to a broader discussion of the archaic attitudes and practices in Parliament. I ask if she thinks some older women take the view that they had it hard, so why should they remove hurdles for the next generation? She nods. Thats very much Thatchers legacy. She acted like a man and surrounded herself with men. Its changing but elements of Parliament still reek of Thatcher. Theres no need for: I only sleep four hours a night. You can be human and female and still rise to the top. The best mother and baby Instagram accounts 1 /6 The best mother and baby Instagram accounts The Yes Mum @theyesmummum Tiba + Marl @tibaandmarl Selfish Mother @selfishmother Little Prints Clothing @littleprintskidsclothing Dont Buy Her Flowers @Steph_dontbuyherflowers Laing herself reportedly went back to work 10 days after giving birth. Im not planning to do that. My maternity leave will absolutely depend on how my body feels. I might be fine the next day, or I wont be able to get up. I dont want to take lots of time off, though, as Im a public servant. Taking maternity leave in Parliament is tricky. HR said to me theres no standardised maternity leave... and that they havent had to deal with this problem very often. Parliament has never had as many women of child-bearing age as it does now. Thats why it needs to change. Siddiq has some other suggestions to make Parliament more family-friendly: longer paternity leave, for recess to coincide with half-term and for the possibility of proxy-voting to be explored, so that MPs wont have to be in the chamber. A quick fix to stop MPs having to wait three hours would be to publish a list of who speaks when, as the Lords does. It makes planning your life much easier. Ending the late-nights culture would help too. One of the saddest things I see when were walking in to vote is parents pulling out their iPads to say goodnight to their children on Facetime. A fortnight ago, a debate went on until 2am. I dont want sympathy but if were the heart of democracy shouldnt we be setting an example? Siddiqs husband, Chris Percy, will be going part-time to help look after their daughter. Shes surprised that some people have called that weird. People our age say that. Men shouldnt have to hide the fact that they want to enjoy seeing their child grow up. As someone who likes to be prepared for everything (I hate surprises. Im not waiting nine months to find out what sex the baby growing inside me is), Siddiq knows shes venturing into the unknown with pregnancy. People keep asking me what kind of mother I think Ill be. I dont know because you cant learn parenting. Thats one of the things that scares me. It probably doesnt help that friends have been regaling her with birth nightmares. Someone described it as the closest thing to becoming an animal. Her eyes widen in horror. More positively, pregnancy has also reminded her why she went into politics. The value of our public services has never been as prominent for me. Her midwife, Kate, has become basically my best friend, replying to any worried texts (Siddiq recently panicked after eating a salt beef bagel) at all hours, while she cant praise enough the Royal Free Hospital, especially after she had a Downs scare. That inspired her to lobby for a non-invasive blood test to be available to mothers on the NHS, which is now set to happen. As were discussing this our waiter comes to take our order, and Siddiq reveals that shes allergic to honey. Its a violent reaction. I was at a briefing by [Labour mayoral candidate] Sadiq Khan on terrorism and Islamophobia. Halfway through I realised that Id eaten honey and I was going to throw up. Though shes understandably dismissive of the polls (which place Khan ahead), she says theres a buzz around his bid for City Hall. Siddiq recently visited the campaign office: The energy in the room was very Obama-esque. She has first-hand experience of the loyalty Khan can inspire. On her wedding day, Siddiqs hairdresser found out she was a politician and asked if she knew Khan, who was actually attending the ceremony. All of a sudden hot chocolate appeared, she recalls. In Khans days as a lawyer he had fought a case for this man, who told Siddiq that the salon was only his because Khan won the case. His entire livelihood depended on Sadiq. He went all out on my hair afterwards. Siddiq criticises Zac Goldsmith's campaign for an absence of ideas / Philip Toscano/PA She criticises the Goldsmith campaign for an absence of ideas. Yes, hes good-looking and has lots of money. Great. What are you actually going to do for us? What does Zac stand for? Im an MP in the same Parliament as him but I never hear him really voice an opinion. A Muslim herself, she feels that it reeks of opportunism that Goldsmith branded Khan radical. The connotations were obvious. Youre speaking to someone who used to do polling for a living. Theyll have done focus groups [testing that word]. She says the main issue for the election will be housing. Given Siddiqs constituency, a chunk of her casework involves rather more luxurious work in that sphere than other London MPs: fights over uber-basements. People will instruct for the work and then theyll go away for six months to their other home, and the people around them suffer the noise of drilling and danger from the building site. She is supporting Karen Bucks Private Members Bill to control basement building: I dont see the need for them unless they dont affect anyone else around you. She feels too often the community gets over-ruled: Sometimes the council will ignore the representations from constituents because therell be some law that allows a private developer to do it. We need to give the community more power over what happens in their neighbourhood. We turn to the dreaded subject of the current split in the Labour Party but Siddiq answers everything like a pro. Shes angry about the attempt to intimidate Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy into opposing intervention in Syria Were not held to ransom by people who think they can bully us into voting one way or another but she has no fears about deselection herself. The local Momentum movement has been supportive and invited her to meetings. And how is Corbyn faring as leader? I think Jeremy has the hardest job in the world. He does need to explain some of the decisions hes made, and some of the people hes shared panels with in the past, but I believe in democracy and he has a huge mandate. She voted for Andy Burnham but did help Corbyn get on the ballot. I never thought Jeremy would win. Her perma-smile becomes slightly strained. But I nominated him because my constituency nominated him, and I owe everything to them. And to broaden the debate. Which it did. It did mean Labour picked three men for the top roles. Yeah, and I regret that. It wasnt pleasant when the announcements of the leadership came and not a single woman spoke. Sitting in the audience, I felt like wed taken a step backwards. We need to change things at the top. Could that include her one day? She laughs. I cant imagine anything worse than being leader of the Labour Party. Follow Rosamund on Twitter: @RosamundUrwin L eipzig is about space. Physical spaces give you a feeling of freedom as you walk around the city: the market place surrounded by freshly restored civic buildings, the many parks watched over by communist-era tower blocks, canal towpaths, acres of post-industrial wasteland packed with muscular architecture and today home to all kinds of creative industries. Plus the cathedral-like Hauptbahnhof station, one of the largest in Europe. But mental spaces too open up in this city in the old East: theres the freedom to create and to dissent. Cheap rents have lured Berliners 100km south to Leipzig. Theres been a huge art boom the Spinnerei (00 49 341 4980222; spinnerei.de) in the Plagwitz district is a gargantuan cotton mill complex which has turned itself over to galleries and studios. Next door, the Kunstkraftwerk or Art Power Station (00 49 341 9830 006; kunstkraftwerk-leipzig.com) is being slowly transformed into a major modern art gallery. There are dozens of warehouses and factories teeming with studios, bars, markets in the east of the city, near Eisenbahnstrasse too. There is a sense that anything is possible in Leipzig. The end of the East German regime began in St Nicholas Church in autumn 1989 and the peaceful demonstrations that grew out of this and circled the citys ring road, which led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall, are commemorated in a series of plaques and monuments around the city. Today new buildings and new ideas are rife from software start-ups to coffee shops in Germanys fastest growing city. Bed down: Modern minimalism Fregehaus (00 49 341 26393157; hotel-fregehaus.de) is a new hotel that would sit perfectly comfortably on the pages of a design magazine. Aesthetes will revel in the brutally pared-back decor: austere blank walls and wooden floors, a single school desk and anglepoise lamp. Home comforts: a bedroom at Hotel Fregehaus This courtyard complex, right in the heart of the city, close to attractions such as the Leipzig Opera, is a mash-up of 16th- and 18th-century architecture that was formerly the Frege bank, where Goethe got his cash out. On the wall theres a relief of Martin Luther the dissenter who visited Leipzig many times and played a leading role in the Protestant Reformation. Be warned, though, the staff head home at 8pm, lending the whole experience a spooky feel. Doubles from 86 room only. Fed and watered: Apple cake and art B10 (00 49 341 6408 6440; the-b10.com) is ideal for those who like to share. Affable 45-year-old Aussie Paul Berry opened this slick joint last year, dishing up sharing plates stacked with duck rillettes, beef noodle salad and squid with chorizo, all under the watchful gaze of a huge, comical portrait of a powdered and eye-lined Kim Jong Un. Coffee and a slice of something sweet is a must in Leipzig and right in the middle of the citys district of historic shopping arcades sits Riquet (Schuhmachergasschen 1). Youll recognise it immediately for its two stylised elephant heads glaring down above the door and flamboyant fin de siecle exterior. Inside its warm and cosy, and retro adverts for Riquet tea crowd the walls. Each slice of apple cake comes with a free side of gemutlichkeit (good cheer). Creative: street art in Leipzig Rudi (Merseburger- Strasse 48; 00 49 177 4307205), in Lindenau on the west side of town, is a hipster bar that has aspirations (a white-tiled bar and no graffiti graffiti is everywhere else in Leipzigs edgier neighbourhoods). It pumps until 3am every night and as well as beers and cocktails you can also snack on falafel or salads. Over on KHS which is what the locals call Karl-Heine Strasse you can find Beard Brothers (00 49 341 2491348). This former barbers has swapped chopping hair for chopping meat and serves big bratwursts that are a step above the kind of thing you can grab from a streetside schnell imbiss in the city centre paired with craft ales and a suitably nonchalant vibe. This is to be expected after all, youre in Plagwitz, just down from the Westwerk (Karl-Heine-Strasse 93; 00 49 341 9261700), a grafitti-clad former factory with an abandoned photobooth by the front entrance which hosts artists and fashion designers by day and throws late-night parties for those in the know. In the bag: Retro rummaging The odd bare shelf and boxes of samey-looking products in Allerlei (Nikolai strasse 39; 00 49 341 9604150), an Ostalgia store (a pun on the German word for east), are a wry commentary on shopping in the former German Democratic Republic. Pick up the pickles, toys, cleaning products and endless plastic kitchen and dining utensils that seem more suited to a dollhouse and get a flavour of how woefully the East failed to deliver the dream of the capitalist West Germany of the Sixties and Seventies. Loffelfamilie (Karl Liebknecht-Strasse 36) is another slice of nostalgia: a former brewery and canning factory in the south of the city with a famous neon sign of a family eating; today its home to a flea market, a farmers market and a biergarten. Cultural agenda: Glimpse into the past The Museum of Fine Arts (mdbk.de) is today located in an oversized shimmering shoebox designed by Hufnagel, Putz & Rafaelian, which dominates the area around it. Inside there are works by Leipzigs most famous painter, Neo Rauch, and by the likes of Piranesi and Munch. If the Museum of Fine Arts is about pleasure, the Stasi Museum at the Runde Ecke building (00 49 341 961 24 43 runde-ecke-leipzig.de) is about pain: mocked-up prison cells, real bugging devices all incredibly sinister. The Stasi disguise kit on display here, meanwhile, proves that sometimes the best way to confront evil is to laugh at its crass stupidity. Details: Leipzig Christopher Beanland travelled with Railbookers (020 3327 2415; railbookers.com), which offers three-night packages to Germany starting at 239pp including accommodation and rail travel from St Pancras via Brussels. Ryanair (0871 246 0000; ryanair.com) flies from Stansted to Leipzig/Halle Airport. More information: leipzig.travel O ne of Londons most famous taxi schools has avoided closure despite struggling to pay the rent. Knowledge Point on Caledonian Road, Islington was expected to go out of business last year as the school was set to be turned into luxury flats. The training centre that has taught the knowledge for more than 30 years had been fighting against rising rents that it could no longer afford. The London Taxi Company came to an agreement to save the training centre by offering it learning space rent free just a few metres away at the LTC Brewery Road dealership. Malcolm Linskey, the founder of the taxi school told the Guardian: We were 10 days away from closing completely, we couldnt afford the rent in central London, so their offer before Christmas was well received. All London black-cab drivers have to gain a complete understanding about London streets. The cabbies have to learn the 25,000 roads within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross to pass the test and revise by plotting maps of the most direct routes through the capital. Knowledge Point opened in 1983 and has seen 9,000 black cab drivers graduate in that time. From Monday, Knowledge Point classes will be held at LTCs Brewery road dealership, a few yards from its former location. Chief executive of LTC, Peter Johansen, said: We are extremely pleased to be able to help keep Knowledge Point open. The knowledge is a proud tradition among London black-cab drivers, and still as relevant today as ever before. This intensive training sets them apart from minicab drivers, making them indispensable to London and the UK, and provides highly skilled professional jobs for 25,000 taxi drivers in London. The taxi school will now operate out of its new premises rent free and LTC expects many more graduates are likely to be ready to drive black cabs. P rosecutors have ruled out charges over the alleged female genital mutilation of a baby from London after deciding that a police file on the case contains insufficient evidence to put before a court. The case, which is the latest failed attempt to secure a first ever conviction in this country for carrying out FGM, involved a British child of Malaysian descent thought to have been taken abroad and subjected to type 4 FGM when only a few months old. The childs family is understood to have believed that the procedure, which involves pricking the clitoris, was legal because it is common and lawful in Malaysia, and to have initially admitted the act during a routine medical consultation. A police investigation was carried out and a file sent to the Crown Prosecution Service setting out details of a potential crime under British legislation. Prosecutors have now decided however that because the alleged offence involved inflicting a tiny prick on the clitoris there is no lasting mark that can prove that a crime has taken place. Announcing the decision, a CPS spokesman said: This case has been considered in line with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and we have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to prove that FGM had been committed or encouraged by these suspects. This is due to a lack of medical evidence of anything that could fall within the definition of FGM. Despite the new failure, police and campaigners remain concerned that some families are continuing to break the law on FGM out of ignorance that cultural traditions allowed overseas are prohibited here. Malaysia and Somalia are among the countries in which type 4 practices illegal here are common and not regarded as FGM. The parents of the toddler in the latest case, whose alleged mutilation is thought to have taken place several years ago soon after her birth, are understood to be very law-abiding people, according to one source. They had been alarmed to discover that they might have committed an offence. FGM was first made in a crime in this country in 1985. Further legislation since then has also made it a crime to take a child abroad to be mutilated and closed loopholes which had thwarted previous prosecution attempts. Only two people, a doctor and another man accused over the same incident at Whittington hospital, have ever been charged. Both were cleared after a trial last year at Southwark Crown Court. A conductor was headbutted by one of his passengers on a train from central London to Dover, police say. British Transport Police said the attack happened after a man and woman boarded a train travelling from Blackfriars to Dover Priory. PC Craig Twyman said the pair had got on the service at Bekesbourne near Canterbury on November 26 last year. He said: During the journey, the man became aggressive and, as the train arrived at Dover Priory, he headbutted the conductor, cutting the victims lip before leaving the station. Police want to trace the man shown in this CCTV picture in connection with the attack. PC Twyman said: Members of staff have a right to carry out their work without fear of violence. The man in the image is someone who I think can assist with our investigation into this incident. Please tell us who he is. Anyone with information should call British Transport Police on 0800 40 50 40, or text 61016, quoting reference SSUB/B5 of 18/1/16. F our British Muslims plotted to kill a police officer, soldier or civilian in Islamic State-inspired terror attacks in London, the Old Bailey heard today. The alleged plot is said to have been sparked by the war in Syria and Iraq, and encouraged by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The targets Shepherds Bush police station and 4 Parachute Regiment Territorial Army barracks at White City were researched on Google Street View, the jury heard. One plotter pledged allegiance to IS just months before police moved in to arrest the group, the court was told, and weeks earlier IS had issued a fatwa inciting Muslims in the West to kill non-believers. Tarik Hassane, 22; Suhaib Majeed, 21; Nyall Hamlett, 25; and Nathan Cuffy, 26, all from west London, plead not guilty to conspiracy to murder. They also deny preparing acts of terrorism between July and October 2014, and Cuffy and Majeed deny firearms charges. Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said: It was a plot (for) one or more assassinations either involving a drive-by shooting or a shooting on foot and then a speedy escape by moped. The court heard that although the finer details of the plot may not have been worked out and finally agreed, the defendants had acquired weapons, including a self-loading pistol, a magazine with ammunition and a silencer. Cuffy denies passing a pistol to Hassane and possessing weapons and ammunition, and Majeed denies possessing a self-loading pistol. Opening the trial Mr Altman said all four were British citizens and resident in this country and are Muslim ... With their arrests the police successfully disrupted a plot to kill a police officer, a soldier or possibly even a civilian. If the plot had been allowed to run its course they would have resulted in a terrorist murder or murders on the streets of London, according to the warped ideology of the defendants in the cause and for the sake of Allah. The plot was undoubtedly influenced by the happenings in Syria and Iraq and the rise of IS. He recounted how in June 2014, IS pronounced itself to be a worldwide caliphate led by al-Baghdadi. It was to IS that Hassane pledged his allegiance in July 2014, said Mr Altman. Although the plot had been afoot for some time it received important direct and authoritative encouragement from IS itself two months later. This allegedly came in a 42-minute YouTube speech entitled Indeed Your Lord Is Ever Watchful. It was the first fatwa issued by IS to its supporters to kill disbelievers in the West, said the prosecutor. This was nothing short of direct encouragement and incitement to Muslims living in the West to go out and kill non-believers in their home nations. The group were arrested in autumn 2014. Hassane targeted the Shepherds Bush police station and Parachute Regiment barracks at White City, and when he was seized police found he had made searches on Street View, the jury heard. Because he had been away studying in Sudan, he was arrested on his return to London after the other suspects had been held. In the absence of his co-defendants he quite clearly intended to progress the plan as a lone wolf terrorist to further ISs reach into the capital city of this country, Mr Altman said. Hassane and Kings College, London student Majeed were close friends and at the heart of the terror plot, the court heard, while Cuffy was the armourer and on his arrest police found a weapons store of four guns and ammunition in his bedroom. Mr Altman said the fatwa that inspired the plot ordered its followers to strike the soldiers, patrons and troops of the tawaghit (tyrants). Strike their police, security and intelligence members as well as their treacherous agents. The four defendants discussed the speech and made explicit references to aspects of it, it is claimed. The group rejected a suicide attack possibly because this would enable them to carry out more killings. The case continues. T wo youths have been arrested after a young man was attacked in a supermarket. Police and paramedics were called to Sainsbury's Local in Waterloo Road, Waterloo, just before 4pm on Monday to reports of an assault at the store. A young man was taken to a south London hospital after he was found with a cut to his face. His injuries were described as neither life-threatening or life changing. Police cordon around Sainsbury's Local in Waterloo Road. Blood on the floor near the tills. pic.twitter.com/Sxm9Bp34mU London SE1 (@se1) January 18, 2016 Police said two youths were arrested in nearby Stamford Street on suspicion of GBH. They remain in police custody pending further enquiries. A picture taken by witnesses at the scene shows a cordon has been put in place outside the store. It was also claimed blood was found on the floor near the tills. A mother is threatening legal action after a teacher labelled her black 13-year-old son a monkey in front of classmates. Shantelle Addison, 36, claims son Raheem was humiliated by science teacher Marcel van den Heuvel at Twickenham Academy. She made a formal complaint against him to the school as well as contacting police, who arrested and questioned him. But Crown Prosecution Service lawyers decided there would not be a realistic prospect of conviction and the case was dropped. A school disciplinary panel last November then ruled the teacher, who resigned last week, should apologise to Mrs Addison and her son. She says this never happened and she was appalled at how the school handled her complaint. Mrs Addison, who runs a jewellery company, said the incident in February last year led to Raheems grades dropping significantly and he had to have counselling. She added: This has impacted on Raheem greatly and I will be escalating my complaint to the Department for Education and Im currently seeking legal advice. This sort of thing should not be taking place in the 21st century. My son has become withdrawn and now has no trust in teachers. Mrs Addison said racial bullying occurred when her son, now 14, showed his teacher his black winter gloves, which Mr van den Heuvel apparently said made him look like a monkey. Raheem told me the whole class was shocked by the remarks by the teacher, who found it funny and later laughed about the incident with another teacher. I also spoke to parents of pupils in my sons class and they were outraged. She contacted police, who confirmed a 53-year-old man was arrested in connection with an allegation of racist abuse. Mrs Addison requested a review of the CPS decision not to prosecute, and in a letter last October was told by one of its lawyers that although Mr van den Heuvel accepted telling Raheem you look like a monkey with gloves on, he stated he did not have a clue that a monkey was in any way a racist word. The lawyer added that the teachers language showed naivety and lack of judgment but it was not clear if he meant hostility to your son based on his ethnic or national origin. Twickenham Academy principal Tracy Ward said the allegations were thoroughly investigated immediately and the teacher is no longer with us.The school said it does not tolerate racist or any other form of discrimination. Mr van den Heuvel declined to comment. S ophie Dahl has paid tribute to her grandfather Roald Dahls awe- inspiring connection to Great Ormond Street Hospital and urged people to donate to the Give to Gosh appeal. She spoke as the total raised by the campaign reached more than 2.7 million. As well as being a world-famous author, Roald Dahl helped to improve a piece of medical equipment called a shunt, which revolutionised the treatment of children suffering from water on the brain. He worked with a Great Ormond Street neurosurgeon and an engineer friend in the Sixties to develop the device after his son Theo was injured in a road accident at the age of four months and developed the condition, known as hydrocephalus. The new shunt, to help drain fluid from the brain, was used in 3,000 children worldwide in the Sixties before it was superseded by more modern devices. But Martin Tisdall, consultant paediatric neuro-surgeon at GOSH, said Dahls invention helped stimulate huge developments in medical technology. He added: It was a kickstarter and got people looking at the problem. Roald Dahl with his first wife Patricia Neal, son Theo and daughter Tessa, who grew up to be Sophie's mother / Alamy Sophie, 38, said: With all of our help Great Ormond Street Hospital can continue to push the boundaries of whats possible. Im so proud that my grandfather is a part of the hospitals extraordinary history. By donating to the Give to GOSH appeal you can make a real difference to the lives of sick children and maybe support another future inventor! Hydrocephalus causes a build-up of fluid in the skull and can put lethal pressure on the brain. Treatment involved inserting a valve attached to a tube, known as a shunt, to drain fluid from the skull. But the type of shunt used on Roald Dahls son jammed regularly causing headaches, nausea, pain and in the case of Theo temporary blindness. Theo had to undergo many operations to replace the shunt. Roald Dahl worked with his friend Stanley Wade, a hydraulic engineer, and GOSH neurosurgeon Kenneth Till to come up with a better device. In 1962 they created their new shunt that did not jam, was easy to sterilise and was robust. It was patented and produced at a third of the cost of other commercially available valves, and thousands of children benefited. The team made no profit from the new device and essentially gifted it to the NHS. Eventually Theo grew out of his hydrocephalus and did not need to use the new shunt. Sophie said: My grandfather liked to know what made people and things tick. He had a relentlessly curious nature. Its no surprise he collaborated on such an innovative invention, as he was always searching for answers. The previous shunt that had been used to treat children with hydrocephalus, like Theo, was clumsy at best. As a parent of a child with brain injuries, my grandfather had witnessed first-hand the devastation they could wreak. The shunt had awful side-effects and watching his baby, who had already been through so much, suffer them must have been excruciating. I can picture my grandfather now, thinking: There must be a better way than this. I imagine the eureka moment when he, Stanley Wade and Kenneth Till realised there was. Give to GOSH She added: I find the story incredibly moving. An engineer, writer and neurosurgeon each used their specific skills to create a device that would improve life for children with neurological problems. The collaboration shows that with imagination we are limitless. Its an awe-inspiring, magical thing. Today experts at Great Ormond Street carry out around 350 operations a year on patients with hydrocephalus and shunts are still used to treat the majority of children. Where your money will go Funding the Louis Dundas Centre for Childrens Palliative Care, for patients who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions Supporting the creation of a new specialist unit helping children with heart failure to stay well while they wait for a heart transplant Funding research programmes, which aim to find new cures and treatments for children with rare diseases Funding the patient and family support programme at the hospital, including a dedicated play team which designs activities for children to aid their treatment, recovery and understanding of their illness. It also funds a wide range of other support, all helping to make life as normal as possible for families while children are in hospital, often for weeks or months at a time Surgeons place a shunt into the ventricles of the brain to remove fluid. It is then drained to another part of the body through a valve where it can be absorbed. The valve controls the flow of fluid and prevents it going in the wrong direction. Mr Tisdall said: Before the development of the Dahl-Wade-Till valve no one was working on shunt valve development. Doctors had a poorly functioning valve at their disposal, which was very simply designed but in many ways was not the best option. The original valve was just a tube with slits in and it was going to be prone to blockage. Whats wonderful about the Dahl story is that it kickstarted the huge development which has led to shunt valves being far more successful. Some of the money from the Give to Gosh campaign will go towards funding research that will enable more medical breakthroughs to take place. A 1 billion regeneration of one of Londons biggest Soviet-style housing estates has come a step closer after a council launched the search for a developer to carry out the work. Wandsworth council wants to create a neighbourhood with 2,000 homes on Batterseas Winstanley estate, where rap group So Solid Crew grew up, and the smaller York Road estate. The plans for the 32-acre site near Clapham Junction rail station include affordable homes to rent and buy, as well as some for private sale, and also shops, leisure facilities and offices. About 700 of the 1,300 homes on the estate will be replaced. The search for a joint venture partner comes days after David Cameron revealed plans to demolish 100 sink estates across the UK. Wandsworth council leader Ravi Govindia said the development will help families to thrive. A partially sighted disability campaigner was allegedly shoved in the chest and refused entry to a bar by a bouncer because he had a guide dog. Gary Mazin, 42, a father of two, had arranged to meet friends at The Fire Station in Waterloo on January 8 when the alleged assault took place. Mr Mazin, who lives in Gants Hill, told the Standard he was repeatedly told no dogs by a bouncer who pushed him away from the door. The doorman is said to have ignored protests from fellow customers and held the door shut. A friend spotted him and came to argue with the worker, who eventually allowed him in. Mr Mazin said: I walked up to the door and thought the doorman was going to open the door to let me in but after a few seconds he shouted No dogs. I said, Its a guide dog, and then he shouted again, louder, No dogs. Then he pushed me against the chest to stop me coming in. Gary Mazin was meeting friends when the alleged assault took place I stumbled backwards and he shouted no dogs again. I said I would call the police and he said, Go ahead call the police. Mr Mazin, who has a degenerative disease affecting his sight and hearing, said he was often challenged at restaurants and shops about having a guide dog, but usually ended up being let in after a discussion. I was very, very shocked and upset, he said. Something like this shouldnt be happening at all. Its discrimination. He was in a position of power and I was vulnerable. There were people drinking and having a laugh on a Friday night and I just wanted to go and see my friends. It made me feel I was different, like I didnt fit in I was singled out. He decided to complain to the police about the incident, saying: I work for a charity called Enhance the UK that does disability awareness training. I felt that if I didnt do as much as I can then Im not doing them or myself justice. A week later, Im still really upset. I suffer from anxiety and depression partly because of my disability and peoples reactions, and things like this just exacerbate it. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman confirmed police were investigating a common assault allegation. A spokesman for The Fire Station said: We have apologised unreservedly to Mr Mazin for this unfortunate incident. It is absolutely not in line with our policy in any way whatsoever. All our door staff are outsourced. Unfortunately the relevant security person who is registered and licensed with the Security Industry Authority fell well below our minimum standards. A toddler had a miraculous escape after falling four floors from the window of a flat in south-east London, his mother said. Charlotte Cribben said her 20-month-old son Joshua was left fighting for his life after the 40 foot plunge onto concrete outside the family home in Thamesmead. The toddler needed brain surgery to remove a blood clot after the incident, which Ms Cribben said happened when he somehow unlocked the window and clambered out. But today his mother revealed that her son has been taken off life support as his condition finally improves after the fall on January 9. Ms Cribben said she was alerted to the plunge only when she heard her three-year-old daughter Aaliyah's screams. She told the Standard: Aaliyah just shouted, Mum, Josh has fallen out the window. So I ran into their room and looked out the window at him on the floor. 'Miracle boy': Charlotte Cribben with her son Joshua / Charlotte Cribben Then I ran downstairs I didnt know whether to run, to shout or to scream. She found her son lying face down on the concrete, scooped him up into her arms and then called an ambulance. Paramedics arrived and rushed the toddler to hospital, where he was treated for injuries including a fractured skull, broken thigh and bruised lungs. He has been on a critical care unit fighting for his life since the fall, but on Monday his 27-year-old mother said he had been taken off life support and begun breathing again for himself. Joshua with sisters Destiny, right, and Aaliyah / Charlotte Cribben The family awaits an MRI scan to determine the extent of any long-term damage, but Ms Cribben said a serious brain injury had been ruled out. She has been unable to pick him up since the fall because of a large hip brace he is being made to wear, but Ms Cribben has barely left his side. Ive got a little miracle boy, she said. Hes my inspiration. I thought I was going to be planning his funeral - not watching his recovery. Joshuas sisters Aaliyah and Destiny, two, have stayed at home as Ms Cribben tends to her son. Grandmother Tracy, Ms Cribbens mother, has started a fundraising page to help cover expenses, including travel for family members between Eastbourne and London to look after the girls. Ms Cribben asked for her address not to be disclosed, but said she would be complaining about the allegedly faulty window locks that she claims allowed her son so fall from the flat. Both the London Ambulance Service and the police confirmed they were called to reports of a child having fallen from a height shortly after 9pm on January 9. A n east London travel operator which provides package holidays to the Hajj pilgrimage has been ordered to pay more than 12,000 for failing to protect its customers. Al Kabir Travels & Tours Ltd, based in New Road, Whitechapel, was found guilty of two consumer protection offences at Thames Magistrates Court on Thursday, January 7. The operator was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling 12,644. The company was previously fined 9,606 in August last year for similar offences after it was prosecuted by Birmingham City Council. The court ruled the company did not ensure the protection of 120 pilgrims who travelled to Saudi Arabia last year for the annual Hajj pilgrimage. It did not have any of the required contingencies to allow the repatriation of consumers sent abroad and was unable to refund customers. Fined: The tour operator was found guilty of two consumer protection offences / Google Maps The offences breached the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Regulations 1992 and part of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. The Hajj travel industry has been under the spotlight since Trading Standards funded an enforcement project by Birmingham City Council to root out illegal operators. Tower Hamlets council said it warned residents in August 2014 against dodgy tour operators after it estimated 40 companies selling pilgrimage packages fell short of expectations. Mayor of Tower Hamlets John Biggs said: While the majority of Hajj pilgrimage tour agents who operate in the borough deliver a great service, there are a minority who cash in on religious devotion. This conviction will hopefully allay the fears of residents in the borough and remind them to be wary of those who unscrupulously take advantage of consumers. Cllr Shiria Khatun, cabinet member for community safety, added: 25,000 people from the UK embark on Hajj every year and many are from Tower Hamlets. We hope that this enforcement action against one rogue tour operator will act as a deterrent to others. Residents are advised to check firms are registered and that operators offering packages hold an Air Travel Organisers Licence (ATOL), and belong to a trade organisation such as the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) or the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The Standard made attempts to contact the operator but the number was not in use. D avid Cameron today pledged to confront the backward attitudes of a minority of Muslim men who exert damaging control over women in their families. The Prime Minister called for an end to passive tolerance as he announced that tens of thousands of Muslim women unable to speak English are to be given the chance to learn the language as part of a new government integration drive. Writing in The Times, Mr Cameron said: In this country, women and girls are free to choose how they live, how they dress and who they love. Its our values that make this country what it is, and its only by standing up for them assertively that they will endure. In Britain, men are not frightened of womens success; it is celebrated proudly. Cameron on language plans So we must take on the minority of men who perpetuate these backward attitudes and exert such damaging control over their wives, sisters and daughters. And we must never again allow passive tolerance to prevent us from telling the hard truths. The government estimates that there are 190,000 Muslim women in England who speak little or no English. The new English language scheme will be aimed at reaching the most isolated women and will be targeted to specific communities based on the ongoing review into segregation being carried out by Louise Casey, the head of the Government's Troubled Families unit. At the same time, the Prime Minister emphasised that the Government could not build a more integrated society on its own and that it was up to migrants to improve their English language skills if they wanted extend their stay in the UK or apply for citizenship. The latest move comes amid continued concern about the numbers of Britons attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond disclosed last week that 600 Britons had been caught trying to reach Syria to fight with IS or other jihadist groups in the country's bloody civil war since 2012. Additional reporting by PA M illions of pounds could be cut from flagship London projects if Britain leaves the EU, campaigners claim. They published a leaflet, to be distributed to households across the capital, rejecting six myths, including that the EU has done nothing for London. It states: The EU has invested millions in important projects in London, including cultural programmes at the British Museum, 20 million funding for the cable car from the O2 to the Docklands, vital HIV and cancer research projects at London universities, and 1 billion of finance to help build Crossrail. The European Investment Bank loaned Transport for London 1 billion towards the financing of the new rail line. However, the document from Britain Stronger in Europe does not mention the billions the UK ploughs into the EU each year. It also claims that shop prices will go up in London if the country votes to leave the EU. Being part of the union, it added, made it easier for firms in the capital to grow and create jobs given that there are more than 500 million potential customers in the EU. David Cameron, who has made clear that he will campaign against Brexit, signalled that fresh moves could be launched to reassert that Parliament is sovereign and British courts are not bound by Europes Charter of Fundamental Rights. He appeared to confirm that Justice Secretary Michael Gove is looking at the issue. Eurosceptic former minister Nick Herbert also positioned himself to champion Britain staying in the EU if Mr Cameron succeeds in striking a good deal for a new relationship with Brussels. Mr Cameron is seeking to reach agreement in his renegotiation bid with other EU leaders at a summit next month, with the referendum possibly then taking place in June. A London MP has described a meeting between rail bosses and politicians to discuss long-running delays in the south east as extremely disappointing. Labour MP Chuka Umunna said he was unhappy after bosses from Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) - the company responsible for the Southern franchise and Network Rail were questioned at Parliament. Southern has suffered numerous delays over the past 18 months because of engineering work at London Bridge, signal failures, overcrowding and a shortage of drivers. Figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) show the number of cancelled services run by the franchise has increased from one in 40 in 2010/11 to one in 20 in 2014/15. Mr Umunna, MP for Streatham, told the Press Association the meeting was "extremely disappointing (with) yet more excuses and promises made that have already been broken". He said: The excuses cited were ageing infrastructure, industrial relations issues and franchise agreement complexity. "But of course, all those same challenges present themselves as obstacles for other train operating companies and none has quite the awful record that Southern and Thameslink has." The private meeting was attended by rail minister Claire Perry and several other MPs whose constituencies are served by the operator. A GTR spokesman said: "We know the train service has not been good enough and apologise to passengers. We are looking forward to meeting with the minister, listening to the MPs and explaining what we are doing together to improve the service." Ms Perry added: "Its inexcusable that customers on this part of the rail network arent receiving the service they deserve. There are problems that are being fixed, such as driver shortages and old trains. "But the operator and Network Rail have still got to do better when it comes to fixing faults and communicating with their passengers. We are all completely committed to getting this railway back to high performance by 2018. Additional reporting by PA B anning Donald Trump from the UK would play into his hands, an MP has warned. Politicians this evening spent three hours debating whether the Republican presidential candidate should be banned from entering the country after his previous controversial remarks. The tycoon sparked outrage after saying Muslims should be banned from entering the US and that parts of London were so radicalised that police were afraid for their own lives. More than 570,000 people signed a petition calling on the Government to stop Mr Trump entering the country following his remarks, with the petition sent forward for a debate in the House of Commons. During the debate at Westminster Hall, which divided opinion between MPs, Labours Paul Flynn said the "great danger" of attacking the billionaire businessman is it could "fix on him a halo of victimhood" and boost the cause of his supporters. The Newport West MP added it would also be a "grave error" for the debate to fuel suspicions that Parliament was acting in an anti-American way. Mr Flynn said he believed the best option was to greet Mr Trump with a "welcoming hand of friendship". The Labour MP also suggested Mr Trump could use a future visit to the UK to point out the London neighbourhoods he claimed were no-go areas. Conservative Sir Edward Leigh warned that banning the Republican would only play into Mr Trumps hands. He told MPs: "His entire style of politics is to stoke controversy and say outrageous things. Lavishing him with attention, even if our intent is to condemn or deride, is only falling into the trap he has set us." Paul Scully, Conservative MP for Sutton and Cheam, said he had never heard of a case for banning someone from the UK for stupidity. But Labour's Tulip Siddiq claimed there had been a rise in hate crimes since Mr Trump's comments and branded him a "corrosive and poisonous man". She said: "His words are not comical. His words are not funny. His words are poisonous. They risk inflaming tension between vulnerable communities. "Hate crime is being inflamed and stoked by the words that Donald Trump is using. Conservative MP Adam Holloway said the debate made Britain look "totalitarian". He said: "This motion is actually embarrassing to the UK and makes us look intolerant and totalitarian. I feel we should almost apologise to the people of the United States. It is for them to decide on Mr Trump's views, not us." Additional reporting by Press Association. A British man is missing after leaping into a river off a bridge in Australia for a bit of fun. The 30-year-old UK national jumped from the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane shortly after 10pm local time on Sunday night, Queensland police said. He was said to have been drinking at a nearby backpackers hostel, and was apparently one of four friends planning the stunt. He was the only one to make the 10-metre leap into the Brisbane River. They had agreed between themselves that they were going to jump off the bridge for a bit of fun and to cool down, police inspector Sean Cryer said. The young man in question the 30-year-old British national jumped off the bridge first. The other three fellows said he took a running jump from three or four metres away, jumped over the rail, went under the water ... he came back up again for a few seconds, rolled on his side and went back under the water and he hasnt been seen since. On Monday morning water-based and aerial searches were continuing. In a tweet Queensland Police quoted the officer as saying: "We will continue our search until we find him." Inspector Sean Cryer: 'We will continue our search until we find him' QPS Media Unit (@QPSmedia) January 18, 2016 Another post read: "Police are warning against people from engaging in high risk activity like jumping off bridges. It's an offence & you can face Court." The mans family in the UK is said to have been informed. T he Democratic race for the White House exploded into life last night as Bernie Sanders went on the attack against favourite Hillary Clinton in a televised debate only two weeks before primary voting begins. The Vermont senator accused front-runner Mrs Clinton of being in the pocket of financial institutions responsible for the 2008 crisis, casting himself as the outsider who would lead a political revolution. Mrs Clinton attacked Mr Sanders for repeatedly voting with the powerful gun lobby and criticised his health care plans in what was the liveliest Democratic TV debate so far - the last before Iowas caucuses launch the nominating race on February 1. The battle over who is best suited to lead Democrats in the November election was given added urgency with Mr Sanders recent surge in opinion polls. Perhaps the biggest punches were landed by Mr Sanders on the self-styled democratic socialists position on Wall Street reform. He painted Mrs Clinton as a defender of the status quo who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees as a former secretary of state from Wall Street backers. I dont take money from big banks. I dont get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, the senator said, adding, I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street. He referred to his rising poll numbers in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he has pulled alongside or ahead of his rival. He said he believed he could grow his support further by attracting more African-American voters. Noting that Mrs Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him when his presidential campaign began, he added: Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close. Just hours before the debate, Mr Sanders released his health care plan, using his opening statement to call for health care for every man, woman and child as a right. It would see citizens pay what he called a 2.2 per cent income-based premium towards healthcare. Companies would pay an extra 6.2 per cent of an employees income towards the plan. Mrs Clinton suggested the plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class. She also rapped Mr Sanders for voting repeatedly with the powerful gun lobby, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. Mr Sanders called her assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby very disingenuous. D ozens of people were forced to jump off a burning tourist boat after it caught fire off the coast of New Zealand. The boat was returning from White Island off the coast of the North Island to the town of Whakatane when it burst into flames without warning. The blaze started in the engine room and quickly engulfed the vessel, which was called Peejay. Volcanic White Island is 31 miles from the New Zealand coast, in the Bay of Plenty, and the boat was just over half a mile from the shore when it got into difficulty. The boat was returning from White Island / Rex Sixty people in total - all 53 passengers and seven crew members - were rescued and brought ashore before the boat sank. Two people were taken to hospital suffering from minor injuries and smoke inhalation. A statement from police said: "The blaze took hold of the vessel forcing those on board to jump into the water. "A coastguard boat and a number of small local vessels went out to assist in recovering passengers and crew from the water. "A helicopter carried out a sweep of the water to confirm everyone had been rescued. "The passenger manifest has been checked against those rescued from the water and everyone is accounted for." A man wearing traditional South Asian clothing was set upon by attackers shouting Isis, Isis in a shocking assault in New York. The 43-year-old, who was with a nine-year-old girl, was targeted as he walked in the Bronx district of the city on Friday evening, police said. He was punched several times in the head, knocked down and kicked by two men who yelled Isis, Isis as they mounted their assault. The attack left the victim with bruises to his face and head. He was treated for injuries at a hospital then discharged. He had been wearing a shalwar kameez, a traditional South Asian outfit featuring a long tunic, the New York Times reported. The attack comes amid increasing anxiety in the United States over the threat posed by Islamic State, also known as Isis, which has claimed responsibility for militant attacks around the world. A Muslim couple inspired by the group killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December just weeks after gunmen linked to Islamic State killed 130 people in Paris. No one has been arrested in connection with the assault, near a school at the junction between Watson Avenue and Pugsley Avenue. It is being investigated by the New York Police Departments Hate Crime Task Force. Additional reporting by Reuters A highly popular North Korean liquor can now be drunk without fear of a hangover, according to state media. An article in the Pyongyang Times, entitled Liquor wins quality medal for preserving national smack, claims the drink, made from ginseng, has been improved by the Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory by replacing sugar with scorched, glutinous rice. The change of ingredients has eliminated a bitter taste and hangovers, it is claimed. Ginseng is commonly used in both Koreas on the ground of its medicinal properties and is famous for its use in the city of Kaesong in the North Hwanghae province in North Korea. The article reads: Koryo Liquor, which is made of six-year-old Kaesong Koryo insam, known as being highest in medicinal effect, and the scorched rice, is highly appreciated by experts and lovers as it is suave and causes no hangover. Last August, the Korean Central News Agency reported how North Koreas Koryo Songgyungwan University was working on improving the quality of Kaesong Koryo Insam Liquor. Andray Abrahamian, from Chosong Exchange, a group that supports business in North Korea, told NK News: I havent tried that brand I think, though I have had some other Insam liquors. Theyre OK I associate ginseng with its medicinal properties, though, so am not that keen on it as a tasty treat. There are some high quality liquors made in North Korea, though in my experience there is no such thing as hangover-free booze anywhere in the world. If the claims about the hangover-free drink prove true it could be a popular choice of tipple in the South where 12.1 litres of alcohol is drunk a year, according to a 2012 World Health Organisation report. The report states the South Koreans drink more alcohol than any other Asian country. Last year, North Korean state media claimed medical products containing extracts from the ginseng plant could cure SARS and AIDS. A woman was left traumatised after finding a hit-and-run victims face on the floor of a car wash, it has been claimed. Kimberly Kriege reportedly visited the Super Car Wash in Livingston, Montana, on September 30, 2013, when she found the face of 81-year-old Elgie Bedford from Alaska. Mr Bedford was hit by a CRST truck - driven by David Welk, who was later convicted - as he walked along an interstate after his car went off the road. His body was then thought to have been hit by numerous other vehicles before officers from Montana Highway Patrol found it at 7.30am. A driver who is believed to have later run over Mr Bedfords body then visited the car wash where a large portion of Mr Bedfords face was left on the floor. Ms Kriege reportedly later found the body part and said it left her needing intensive physiological counselling. She is now suing CRST Expedited. Courthouse News Service reported Ms Kriege called the police after finding the face and was treated as a criminal suspect for several hours. S pike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith are boycotting the Oscars over a lack of diversity among the nominees. Director Lee thanked the Academy Awards for his honorary Oscar but said he and his wife Tonya can no longer support the ceremony. Alongside the hashtag OscarsSoWhite, he took to Instagram to slam the lack of diversity, writing: We Cannot Support It And Mean No Disrespect To My Friends, Host Chris Rock and Producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs And The Academy. But, How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let's Not Even Get Into The Other Branches. 40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can't Act?! WTF!! Referencing Martin Luther King's birthday he continued: It's No Coincidence I'm Writing This As We Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday. Dr. King Said 'There Comes A Time When One Must Take A Position That Is Neither Safe, Nor Politic, Nor Popular But He Must Take It Because Conscience Tells Him It's Right'. For Too Many Years When The Oscars Nominations Are Revealed, My Office Phone Rings Off The Hook With The Media Asking Me My Opinion About The Lack Of African-Americans And This Year Was No Different. For Once, (Maybe) I Would Like The Media To Ask All The White Nominees And Studio Heads How They Feel About Another All White Ballot. The Chi-Raq directors outburst comes days after Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation), Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful Eight), Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Tessa Thompson (Creed), Mya Taylor (Tangerine), Benicio Del Toro (Sicario) and Oscar Isaac (Ex Machina) failed to recieve nominations. Oscar nominations 2016 1 /13 Oscar nominations 2016 The Martian Matt Damon in The Martian. He plays a stranded botanist who must fend for himself on the Red Planet 20th Century Fox The Revenant Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass in The Revenant Carol Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in Carol Bridge of Spies Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies, the Spielberg film based on Charmans script Brooklyn Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen Steve Jobs Kate Winslett and Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs Joy Jennifer Lawrence as a mum on a manufacturing mission Room Ma (Brie Larson) and her 5-year-old boy Jack Jacob (Tremblay) Mad Max: Fury Road Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron Warner Bros Spotlight This photo provided by Open Road Films shows, Michael Keaton, from left, as Walter "Robby" Robinson, Liev Schreiber as Marty Baron, Mark Ruffalo as Michael Rezendes, Rachel McAdams, as Sacha Pfeiffer, John Slattery as Ben Bradlee Jr., and Brian d'Arcy James as Matt Carroll, in a scene from the film, "Spotlight." Pinkett Smith, whose husband Will Smith was expected to receive a nomination in the Best Actor category for his role in Concussion, also revealed she will not be attending the event at the Dolby Theatre on February 28. In a series of tweets she explained how people of colour are always welcomed to give out awards [and] even entertain, but are rarely recognised for [their] artistic accomplishments. The actress also recorded a two minute video in which she called for change, saying that "it's our responsibility now" to make a change. We must stand in our power! We must stand in our power. Posted by Jada Pinkett Smith on Monday, 18 January 2016 She added: Begging for acknowledgement or even asking diminishes dignity and diminishes power and we are a dignified people and we are powerful, lets not forget it. So lets let the Academy do them with all grace and love and lets do us differently. Cherryl Boone Isaacs, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president, admitted to Deadline last week that she was disappointed by the nominations. The 88th Academy Awards take place at the Dolby Theatre, California on February 28. R oss Kemp will reprise his role as Grant Mitchell in EastEnders to bid farewell to his onscreen mother Peggy Mitchell. Kemp, 51, will be reunited with his brother Phil as Barbara Windsors character is killed off. The actor who last appeared in the BBC One soap in 2006 said he could not turn down the offer to return. "Barbara is a very close friend, so when I learned of the storyline it felt right that the Mitchell brothers are reunited with their mother for the last time, he said. EastEnders - Best Villains 1 /10 EastEnders - Best Villains Janine Butcher What hasn't Janine done? Walford's Queen of Evil has spread rumours about Jamie Mitchell's bedroom antics, blackmailed Ian Beale, pushed her blubbering husband Barry off of a cliff, and stabbed herself in an attempt to frame Stacey Slater for attempted murder. Dirty Den Watts Den is Walford's original baddie. He was so keen to retain the title that he even came 'back from the dead' to continue his villainous ways. He served up divorce papers to his first wife Angie on Christmas Day but failed to escape from his second wife Chrissie who thumped him on the head with a doorstop. Stella Crawford Poor Ben Mitchell was subjected to months of abuse from Stella Crawford. The lawyer bullied the boy and even manipulated him into convincing his father Phil Mitchell to get down on one knee and pop the question. As with all EastEnders villains, Stella never did get her happy ever after and met her grizzly end after being confronted by Phil on their wedding day before throwing herself off of a building. Archie Mitchell No one seemed to escape Archies dastardly actions. He stole the Queen Vic from his fiance Peggy Mitchell, devised schemes to control his family, blackmailed Ian Beale and raped Stacey Slater. After narrowly escaping being buried alive by Phil Mitchell, he was whacked over the head with the famous Queen Vic bust. Trevor Morgan Unfortunately for Little Mo there was no end to Trevors wicked ways. He pushed her face into the Christmas dinner and forced her to eat the remains off of the carpet, isolated her from her family, burned her hand with an iron, raped her as punishment for attending her sister Lynne Hobbs's wedding, and tried to frame her for attempted murder. Steve Owen Steve killed Saskia by thumping her with an ashtray before burying her in Epping Forest and proceeding to frame Matthew. Despite his villainous traits he did manage to fit in one good deed. He passed baby Louise (who he planned to take to America with Lisa) to her father Phil Mitchell seconds before his car exploded. Nasty Nick Cotton Nasty Nick's devilish ways are endless. He beat up and killed Reg Cox who was found dead in the show's first episode. He claimed to be a born again Christian but then attempted to kill his "Ma" Dot - twice, murdered Eddie Royle, tried to con Dot by fooling her into thinking he had AIDS and was responsible for the death of DCI Emma Summerhayes after tampering with the brakes in Roxy's car. Andy Hunter He was a member of organised crime gang, The Firm, so there was to be no curbing his gangster ways. He conned his way into bed with Kat Slater and split her up from Alfie. But after two years of torturing Walford residents, he was killed by archenemy Johnny Allen who threw him off of a motorway bridge. "I am really looking forward to going back to EastEnders and filming what are set to be some classic EastEnders episodes. Kemp also confirmed the news on his Twitter account, posting: "Overwhelmed by tweets about Grant's return to @bbceastenders. Credit to @dominictc... and have you ever tried saying no to Dame Barbara?!" Overwhelmed by tweets about Grant's return to @bbceastenders. Credit to @dominictc...and have you ever tried saying no to Dame Barbara?! Ross Kemp (@RossKemp) January 18, 2016 Viewers saw Windsor make an emotional return to Albert Square last week to tell Phil (Steve McFadden) that her cancer had returned. Producers revealed that Windsors final scenes will be filmed in spring. Executive producer Dominic Treadwell-Collins said: "Grant Mitchell is an EastEnders legend and finally he is returning home to Walford to say goodbye to his mother and be reunited not just with his old loves but also his brother. "To have the Mitchell brothers come face to face again, having to face losing their mother, is an opportunity to show Ross Kemp and Steve McFadden at their very best." The Nez Perce people of Idaho told of how an animal had once saved Earth. A monster, Kamiah, had been devouring every animal in its path. The crafty Coyote allowed himself to be swallowed so he could slash the monsters heart and free his friends. He ripped Kamiah to pieces, each of which gave rise to the worlds various peoples. In other native lore, he was venerated as a god of war, dance, music or lechery a shape-shifting trickster, a companion of the Great Spirit (or was the creator himself), introduced mankind to fire and piled earth upon a water-covered planet to create the land. Colonists took a dimmer view of the prairie wolf and its fellow predators, hunting many of them to near extinction. But unlike their mortal enemy, the gray wolf, coyotes thrived. Once a native of the western Plains, they now cover the continent. Despite more than two centuries of shooting, trapping and poisoning, their range is expanding across North America and Central America, from Alaska to Guatemala. Biologists believe that its numbers have never been higher. Its no wonder that theyve always been regarded as sly, wary and elusive. Among folks who live with coyotes lurking nearby, they also have a well-earned reputation as an opportunistic nuisance. Yet those who disdain the coyote will be dismayed to learn that humans have been inadvertently its greatest enabler. Preceding the last great Ice Age, the coyotes ancestors were larger and stronger and preyed on the young of large herbivores. During the mass extinction that accompanied the arrival of efficient Stone Age hunters in the western hemisphere, many of those large animals began to disappear. Larger carnivores, such as the dire wolf and short-faced bear, began vanishing along with them. Wolves thrived in their place, out-competing coyotes for the same food sources. As a result, coyotes evolved to be smaller, quicker and, perhaps, developed greater craftiness that enhanced their infamous adaptability. Ancestral coyotes lived primarily in open prairies and deserts. As pioneers killed off its main predators and cleared forest land to resemble the coyotes native prairie, a world of opportunity opened up for the stubborn survivors. Theyll eat virtually anything with nutritional value. They enjoy keen vision, a strong sense of smell and can run up to 40 mph. Despite longstanding family feuds and biological barriers, they can interbreed with dogs and wolves. They can vary their reproductivity in response to population density and the abundance of food, giving birth to an average litter of six pups but as many as a dozen if competition is scarce or food is easy to find. Both male and female parents nurture their young and protect their territory. By the time theyre a year old, juvenile coyotes can hunt on their own. With no wolves and few mountain lions to prey upon it, the coyote is Nebraskas apex predator. Living in nuclear families or loosely-knit packs, they often cooperate to take down prey. As farmers, hunters and campers can attest, theyre skilled communicators. The coyote takes its name from a Nahuatl Indian word, coyotl, meaning barking dog, which is also the meaning of its Latin name, Canis latrans. In addition to their iconic howl, they use at least 10 more vocalizations that serve as commands, warnings and invitations to the occasional starlit canine chorus. Farmers, hunters and government agents routinely kill tens of thousands of coyotes each year to protect livestock. But today, coyotes remain the most abundant and destructive livestock predators in western North America, causing the majority of sheep, goat and cattle losses. Their most formidable foe is the array of diseases and parasites that hitchhike on their diverse diet, including rabies, canine distemper, infectious canine hepatitis, four strains of equine encephalitis, oral papillomatosis, tularemia, mange, mites, fleas, ticks, flukes and worms. Although meat makes up 90 percent of its meals, a modern coyote can survive on seeds, nuts, grains and fruits. Itll eat insects, carrion, eggs, fish, frogs, snakes, lizards and birds. Lambs and calves, prairie dogs, rabbits, other rodents and larger mammals such as deer and antelope are also on the menu. Near cities itll scavenge discarded fast food, household garbage, squirrels, pigeons, cat and dog food and, given opportunity, even kill and eat Fluffy and Barkley. That suggests that for as long as mankind abides, the determined coyote will devise new tactics to survive alongside us. | By McCullough Robertson SPONSORED POST It is fair to say that the new proposed draft legislation for crowd-sourced equity funding (CSF) has not been well received by the startup community. On the face of it, the regulations would give startups and smaller businesses the ability to raise funds from small investors, and give small investors access to new investment opportunities. Yet the Government has missed a broader opportunity to overhaul the current corporate framework in Australia to allow proprietary companies to use CSF, says law firm McCullough Robertson's Senior Associate Ben Wood. Considering that around 99% of all startups are proprietary companies, a key concern has been the requirement for crowd funders to register (or convert) to become a public company, says Wood. This includes the requirement to have at least three directors (two of which must be Australian residents) which is likely to present particular difficulties for a number of startups. On the flip side, the new laws, if implemented, will open up startup ventures (that register as public companies) to a wider group of potential investors. This is a positive move as previously only sophisticated and professional investors, or close friends and family, had any real opportunity of participating in the early stages, says Wood. To help understand the legal intricacies of the announcement, Wood has outlined some key elements of CSF. Eligibility criteria checklist Your company needs to establish itself as or convert to a public unlisted company; Your company must satisfy asset ($5 million) and annual turnover ($5 million) tests; A company is capped at raising up to $5 million per year and retail investors will be capped at $10,000 per investment opportunity; Raisings must be undertaken via intermediaries who will have a gatekeeper role, with a number of requirements, such as doing background checks and basic due diligence on issuers. On making a CSF offer The companys CSF offer document will, amongst other matters, need to include mandatory risk warnings, provide for a five day cooling off period and set a maximum three-month offer period. In the meantime, await further developments It will be interesting to see how things develop this year how staunch the Labor opposition will be, for example but dont move on CSF too soon; the bill is not yet law and is still subject to further debate. Focus on your business, product and service offering, to put yourself in the best position to raise funds once CSF is available to you. Also look at existing crowd funding sites and campaigns to get a feel for what it is about, as well as gauge potential competitors. You may also want to hold off on registering or converting to a public company until there is further clarity on the law, advises Wood. The new proposed Corporations Regulations are also still to be released. The regulations will give you clearer guidance on a number of aspects for CSF, such as the proposed content for the CSF offer document. Want further details on crowd-sourced equity funding? Get in touch with McCullough Robertson for support and advice. Written by: Thea Christie | By Bruce Baer Arnold If ISIS and its supporters use Twitter to facilitate terrorist action or merely spread propaganda, is the social network liable? A lawsuit against Twitter in the United States in which a family is seeking compensation for the death of family member in an ISIS terrorist attack, may test this. The results will have implications for social networks and other businesses such as BT, Telstra, Facebook, Verizon and Google. We do not expect postal services, the phone company, the ISP or other network operators to check, and endorse, every message or parcel. In the United States, Australia, United Kingdom and most other countries electronic network businesses are broadly immunised from liability regarding activity of which they are unaware. However this immunity is conditional. It diminishes or disappears if the business becomes aware that a use of the network is illegal but does nothing and thereby endorses it. More broadly, network operators and users have considerable leeway regarding political speech (especially in the US), including expressions that are abhorrent or provocative but do not involve violence. That leeway is the sometimes uncomfortable price we pay for a flourishing liberal democratic society. The lawsuit in the US District Court in Northern California (home of Twitter and other social networks) centres on the claim that: For years, Twitter has knowingly permitted the terrorist group ISIS to use its social network as a tool for spreading extremist propaganda, raising funds, and attracting new recruits. This material support has been instrumental to the rise of ISIS and has enabled it to carry out numerous terrorist attacks, including the November 9, 2015 shooting attack in Amman, Jordan in which Lloyd Carl Fields, Jr. was killed. Fields family wants compensation. It presumably wants to send a strong message to a range of network businesses that they must exclude terrorists and other criminals. The lawsuit is based on section 2333 of the federal code (aka the AntiTerrorism Act), which states Any national of the United States injured in his or her person, property, or business by reason of an act of international terrorism, or his or her estate, survivors, or heirs, may sue therefor in any appropriate district court of the United States and shall recover threefold the damages he or she sustains and the cost of the suit, including attorneys fees. The legislation does not specify who can be sued. It is concerned with injury, rather than perpetrators. Just as importantly, it indicates that defendants can provide little guidance on what classifies as liability. We are therefore going to see the US courts grappling with dilemmas about the extent to which network businesses should be held responsible for what happens on or as a result of their networks. How closely should they be monitoring uses of the network? How diligently should they exclude potential or actual customers who voice support for a terrorist organisation or use the network to plan terrorist activity? Overall, law has concentrated on criminalising particular uses rather than punishing the network operator. It attempts to criminalise the consumer for example the person who publishes child porn or engages in blackmail or hate-speech or fraud - rather than the network. Twitter, with strong support from Google, Facebook and other social network operators, will presumably argue that the lawsuit should go nowhere. It will claim that it is not a terrorist organisation in terms of US law. Importantly, it will argue that it has not provided material support to ISIS or other terrorist entities in terms of US law it has simply provided a lawful communication mechanism used by millions of people. Just like other networks (including The Conversation), it has excluded offenders for misbehaviour. What makes the lawsuit particularly interesting is that the plaintiffs will apparently draw on unrelated US court decisions. In the past US citizens have sued banks for knowingly providing funds transferring funds to terrorists, for example through charities that appear to act as front organisations. Justice Richard Posner, a prominent federal judge, commented that although transferring money is not a violent act, Giving money to Hamas, like giving a loaded gun to a child (which also is not a violent act), is an act dangerous to human life. The wilful negligent bank should accordingly pay for the harms caused by its terrorist customers. There is no point suing ISIS: it is located outside US, UK and Australian law. We are however seeing litigation claiming compensation from the US and UK arms of Middle Eastern businesses that tacitly provide substantial support to the associates of terrorist organisations. If we are concerned about responsibility we should look more broadly at liability. Rather than punishing your local connectivity provider or publisher, it is time for some hard questions about the willingness of some states to either directly fund terrorist organisations or turn a blind eye to funding by their citizens through ostensibly philanthropic bodies. Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of Canberra This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. | By Dinushi Dias You might soon be able to get a helicopter ride home thanks to a new partnership between Europes largest aerospace company Airbus Group SE and ride-sharing giant Uber. The project, commencing at Sundance Film Festival in Utah, will offer on-demand transport in H125 and H130 helicopters. Its a pilot project, well see where it goes but its pretty exciting, Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders told The Wall Street Journal. Uber first trialled helicopter ride-sharing in 2013 from Manhattan to the Hamptons and at major events including the Cannes Film Festival and Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Neither party has revealed how much a helicopter ride will be priced but The Wall Street Journal reports that trips were priced up to several thousand US dollars during testing. The project comes as Airbus Group looks to innovative strategies to overcome a recent downturn helicopter sales triggered by lulling oil prices. This has resulted in slowing demand from Airbus Groups traditional market of oil and gas companies that were once large consumers of expensive commercial helicopters. Airbus Group has also just opened a new venture capital fund with $US150 million in secured funding to direct toward new startups in aerospace, data analytics, drones, security and satellite technologies. Countries & Areas Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe Vince Bennett is the new president of the development arm of McCormack Baron Salazar, a St. Louis-based urban housing developer. Bennett was previously the company's chief operating officer. Kevin McCormack, formerly McCormack Baron Salazar's president, is now chief executive of the corporate holding company, MBA Properties Inc. Bennett joined McCormack Baron Salazar in 1993 as a project manager for a mixed-income development in Pittsburgh. His experience with the company includes structuring and negotiating development transactions involving low-income housing tax credit equity, Community Development Block Grants, New Markets Tax Credit equity, foundation funds, corporate donations, grants and conventional debt. He previously managed commercial and economic development activities for a community development corporation in Pittsburgh. Richard Baron remains chairman of MBA Properties and Tony Salazar remains president of McCormack Baron Salazar's West Coast operations. In addition, Tim Zaleski remains president of McCormack Baron Management Inc., the firm's property management company, and Hillary Zimmerman remains president of McCormack Baron Asset Management. Laurel Tinsley remains executive director and chief operating officer of MBS Urban Initiatives CDE, the firms New Markets Tax Credits division. Since its founding in 1973, McCormack Baron Salazar has developed more than 19,000 units of affordable housing totaling more than $3.4 billion in investment. The company has satellite offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Antonio, Texas. LONDON Oil prices reached a 2003 low below $28 per barrel on Monday as the market braced for a rise in Iranian exports after the lifting of sanctions against Tehran over the weekend. The United States revoked sanctions that had cut Iran's oil exports by about 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since their pre-sanctions 2011 peak to little more than 1 million bpd. Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), issued an order on Monday to increase production by 500,000 bpd, the country's deputy oil minister said. Worries about Iran's return to an already oversupplied oil market drove down Brent crude to $27.67 a barrel early on Monday, its lowest since 2003. The benchmark was down 12 cents at $28.82 by 1537 GMT (9:37 a.m. Central). U.S. crude was down 27 cents at $29.15 a barrel, not far from a 2003 low of $28.36 hit earlier in the session. "Iran's return to the oil market has been on the agenda for some time and therefore does not really come as any great surprise," Commerzbank senior analyst Carsten Fritsch said in a note. "Nonetheless, prices were bound to react negatively in the short term in view of the negative market sentiment," Fritsch added. Analysts expect Iran will realistically be able to export an extra 500,000 bpd in the short term from storage, but there are doubts whether the state of Iranian oil infrastructure will allow further boosts anytime soon. SEB Markets assumes Iranian oil output will rise by 400,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd in 2016, while Tehran has said it will add 1 million bpd to its existing output by the year-end. Iran has at least a dozen Very Large Crude Carrier super-tankers filled and in place to sell into the market. In a sign of the pain low prices are inflicting on oil producers, OPEC forecast that supply outside the organization would decline by 660,000 bpd in 2016, led by the United States. Last month OPEC predicted a drop of 380,000 bpd. Additional reporting by Roslan Khasawneh and Henning Gloystein in Singapore and Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo. ZURICH A group of Syngenta shareholders said it opposes any sale of the company to China's state-owned ChemChina and called for the ousting of the Swiss agrichemical group's leadership. In a letter to the Basler Zeitung newspaper, the managing director of the group that says it was speaking after surveying holders of about 10 percent of Syngenta's capital attacked Chairman Michel Demare. "The board of directors is in a cul de sac from which it cannot exit on its own," Folke Rauscher wrote. "So the only alternative is a comprehensive renewal of the board of directors at the forthcoming annual meeting." Demare said last week that Syngenta was in talks about a possible merger and was weighing a number of options. He had said last month that the crop chemicals and seeds company was in talks with ChemChina, Creve Coeur-based seeds giant Monsanto and others. "One can justifiably ask whether the board has really thought through the consequences of nationalizing Syngenta through a sale to a state-owned enterprise of a communist country," Rauscher wrote. "Anyone who lives in a successful economy marked by liberal values takes a critical view of such a nationalization." Syngenta has declined to comment on the status of negotiations. Having spurned a $47 billion takeover approach from Monsanto last year, Syngenta is under pressure from shareholders to boost its value even as agricultural markets deteriorate. A takeover of Syngenta by ChemChina would underpin an effort by the Chinese government to boost farming productivity as it seeks to cut reliance on food imports amid limited farm land, a growing population and higher meat consumption. A group of Chinese investors including ChemChina agreed last week to buy KraussMaffei Group GmbH for 925 million euros ($1.01 billion), in the biggest-ever Chinese investment into Germany. The Mizzou New Music Initiative has chosen an octet of resident composers for this summer's Mizzou International Composers Festival, running July 25 through July 30. This will be the seventh edition of the festival, which will feature the world premieres of eight new work, written by this year's composers. Chosen from 229 applicants from 18 countries, they're an international group this year, with two natives of China now living in the U.S. and a Japanese native now living in Hawai'i. There are three women among the eight. In alphabetical order, they are Matthew Browne, Ann Arbor, MI Takuma Itoh, Honolulu, HI Mary Kouyoumdjian, Brooklyn, NY Ryan Lindveit, Los Angeles, CA Trey Makler, Columbia, MO Daniel Silliman, Princeton, NJ Wang A Mao, Kansas City, MO Wang Lu, Providence, RI The 2016 Festival will include a series of public concerts including music from both the resident and other contemporary composers, along with master classes, workshops, and an assortment of other events. They resident composers will receive lessons in composition from this year's distinguished guests, Oscar Bettison and Erin Gee. They'll also work with new music group Alarm Will Sound, and have a premiere performance and professionally made recording of a new work created specifically for the occasion. George Hodgman, whose Bettyville is about how he returned to Paris, Mo., to take care of his mother, is a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle award. When he came to St. Louis last year, Hodgman said of his memoir: This is a very specific time in America. In terms of peoples politics, and their feelings about things. And I wanted that reality of the small town, and of this moment to be in the background of the book. Hodgman, a former editor for Vanity Fair, writes about how he did not feel comfortable telling his mother he is gay. He will discuss his book here again Feb. 4 at the St. Louis County Library. Other nominees for the critics awards, announced Monday, include Ta-Nehisi Coates Between the World and Me. The poet, fiction writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry will receive a lifetime achievement honor when the awards are announced March 17. Fiction nominees are Lauren Groffs Fates and Furies, Paul Beattys The Sellout, Valeria Luisellis The Story of My Teeth, Anthony Marras The Tsar of Love and Techno, and Ottessa Moshfeghs Eileen. Coates book and James Woods The Nearest Thing to Life were criticism finalists, along with Leo Damroschs Eternitys Sunrise: The Imaginative World of William Blake, Maggie Nelsons The Argonauts and Colm Toibins, On Elizabeth Bishop. Helen McDonalds best-selling H Is for Hawk was a nominee for autobiography, along with Elizabeth Alexanders The Light of the World, Vivian Gornicks The Odd Woman and the City, Hodgmans Bettyville, and Margo Jeffersons Negroland. NBCC president Tom Beer said Between the World and Me also was considered for autobiography but judges decided it worked best for criticism. Criticism can include traditional arts criticism about books or film or music or fine arts, but also expands to include social critique and cultural critique in the broadest sense, he said. People felt Coates book was more than just a memoir or personal account of his life, but a critique of the social contract for black men in America. In general nonfiction, finalists were Mary Beards best-selling SPQR: A History of Rome, Ari Bermans Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America, Jill Leovys Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, Sam Quinoness Dreamland: The True Story of Americas Opiate Epidemic, and Brian Seiberts What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing. One in four children in the U.S. who need lung transplants is on the waiting list at St. Louis Childrens Hospital, one of the few hospitals that performs the surgeries. Their waiting time is expected to get shorter after new rules go into effect this year that will expand the geographic range in which donor lungs can be shared. The rule change is a response to the case of a dying 10-year-old Philadelphia girl who was added to the adult transplant waiting list in 2013 after a federal judge intervened. Sarah Murnaghan went on to receive two lung transplants from adult donors because donor lungs from children are in short supply. The next year, the organizations that oversee organ transplants changed the rules to allow children to be added to waiting lists for adult lungs. But because implanting adult-sized lungs into childrens bodies is not ideal, the groups decided to change the rules again. If a set of lungs from a child become available, doctors will now look for a suitable pediatric transplant candidate throughout an expanded 1,000-mile region. Today if a lung is available in Alabama or Florida, Ive got to compete with every adult between here and there, said Dr. Stuart Sweet, director of the pediatric lung transplant program at Childrens. Under the new rules, the only competition will be children. It levels the playing field and gives my children that are waiting here a much better chance at transplant. Organ transplants require one of the most sensitive and complicated equations in all of medicine. The donor organs have to be compatible with the recipient, who cant be either too healthy or too sick to receive them. Transplant surgeries themselves are risky, with about a 50 percent survival rate for lung patients after five years. Most tragically, for a child to receive a chance at life, another child has to die. Sweet wrestles with those decisions in his role at the hospital and with the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit group that oversees transplantation in the U.S. Later this year, Sweet will become president of the organizations board of directors. The rule change for pediatric lung transplants is not expected to have an effect on the waiting times for adults. There are currently 38 children waiting for lung transplants nationwide, compared to about 1,500 adults. Nine of the children are on the waiting list at Childrens, where the median wait time for surgery is 10 months. Heather Gwin, 9, has been on the waiting list for new lungs since August. Like Sarah Murnaghan, Heather has end-stage lung disease caused by cystic fibrosis. Since joining the waiting list she has traveled from her home near Indianapolis to St. Louis to spend two weeks in the hospital every month. Cystic fibrosis is a chronic genetic condition that causes mucus to build up in the lungs and other organs. Because of the progression of the disease, Heather also will need a liver transplant. The wait has been grueling on the family. Heathers grandparents take turns traveling to St. Louis along with her mother, Jennifer Gwin. Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common conditions in children that can lead to lung transplants. Treatments for the disease have improved in recent years, reducing the number of children who require transplants. But in cases like Sarah and Heathers, the disease becomes so severe that transplant is the only option. In court arguments that led to Sarah being placed on the adult waiting list, her parents said she was a few weeks from death. The rule changes that resulted from her case were unprecedented in transplant medicine, doctors said. There has never been a case like this where the U.S. judicial system has made such a statement that led to an urgent evaluation of policy, said Dr. Kevin Chan of the University of Michigan, chairman of the lung subcommittee. The priority for the new rules is reducing the number of children who die before receiving a transplant. About 25 percent of children who need new lungs die on the waiting lists, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Just adding kids to adult waiting lists isnt enough to solve the problem, doctors said. When adult lungs are downsized to fit into children, the procedure is more complicated and the bodys natural infection fighting abilities are not preserved. Using simulation models, the members of the national groups lung transplant and ethics committees plotted out ways to increase opportunities for transplants for children and teenagers, without significantly changing the outcomes for adults. Doctors said they feel like the new rules are a fair way to increase the number of transplants for anyone who needs them. One way is to increase broader sharing of organs, Chan said. We want the organs offered to similar age groups rather than being taken by an adult. ST. LOUIS A St. Louis police sergeant shot and killed a robbery suspect at a fast-food restaurant Sunday night after a witness flagged him down and reported the holdup, authorities said. The officer was on normal patrol but had been monitoring a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial march in the area, sources said. Someone waved him over and told him about a robbery at the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant on Grand Boulevard near Gravois Avenue about 6 p.m. That witness was on the phone with a 911 operator when he saw the sergeant, said Lt. Col. Lawrence OToole during a news conference at police headquarters Sunday night. The sergeant saw the suspect inside the restaurant as he approached the door, OToole said. The gunman raised his handgun toward the sergeant, who ordered him to drop it. The sergeant fired his weapon when the man did not drop his, OToole said. The officer fired twice and struck the suspect, 52, both times. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police have not publicly released his identity. The dead man had cash he had taken in the robbery, police said. No officers were injured. The suspect is black; the officer who fired is a white sergeant, 42, sources said. He has at least 13 years on the force, OToole said. There were multiple witnesses inside the restaurant, OToole said. There is also video footage from the restaurant Everything appears to be exactly as weve heard from witnesses who are cooperating with the investigation, OToole said, adding that officers also recovered a gun that they believe the suspect used during the robbery. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce will have to review the video of the shooting to determine whether it can be released, OToole said. Some sergeants have been selected to wear body cameras as part of a pilot program the police department is conducting, but the sergeant involved in Sundays shooting was not equipped with one, sources said. The department has about 30 cameras that will rotate among about 90 of the departments 200 sergeants. The police departments Force Investigation Unit is investigating. A woman who works at the restaurant but would not give her name said she saw the armed man reaching over the counter and a manager hit a panic alarm. Two uniformed officers arrived quickly, she said. She heard the shots but did not see the shooting. OToole said he commended the citizens who got involved and flagged down the officers, reported the robbery in progress and called for help. Brian Millikan, an attorney representing the officer, said his client was at a gas station across the street from the restaurant along with a police lieutenant before the shooting. They had just finished monitoring the King march, in which Black Lives Matter activists decried fatal police shootings, when he was told about the robbery. Millikan would not name his client, citing concerns for his safety. He said the sergeant and gunman came within feet of each other at the restaurant. The sergeant yelled Dont do it! Dont do it! Dont do it! before suspect pointed a gun at him and refused to drop it, Millikan said. If he didnt take action, the suspect was going to shoot him, Millikan said. He didnt have any choice. He said the sergeant was shaken up and in disbelief. "These marches are at the forefront of just about every policeman's mind and nobody thinks they're ever going to be the ones that will be involved in something like this," Millikan said. From King event to shooting A large area, including both directions of Grand Boulevard, was blocked off by police tape after the shooting. A crowd of about 40 onlookers gathered for about two hours at a gas station across the street. Some had been part of the King memorial march earlier in the evening. Marchers had blocked the intersection at Grand and Gravois for about 12 minutes before filing into the Metro Christian Worship Center for a King memorial. The worship center is about 1 blocks east of the Kentucky Fried Chicken. Dawn Jones, of the group Faith for Justice, said she was inside the church when someone announced a police shooting had just happened. Its sad, she said at the church following the shooting. Were getting people to take a stand for justice and then this happens. Its a devastating reminder of why we need to come together. The Rev. Starsky Wilson delivered the keynote address at the King service. For a lot of people, this triggers all kinds of emotions from before, Wilson said of the officer-involved shooting. Debra Kennedy had also been at the worship center for the King event. She went to the gas station with other concerned onlookers. Kennedy said the police department recently promised to brief protesters at police shootings about the circumstances. The protesters outside need to be told by the police, she said. And they havent done that. Of the fact that the shooting came during a weekend of King memorials, Kennedy said: "I think it's a message." She did not elaborate. OToole said during the news conference that everyone has the right to protest, but said the gunman didnt appear to leave the sergeant any choice. Theres a number of witnesses to this incident and I think theyre all going to say the same thing, that the individual was in there with a handgun, OToole said. No one made him do that, and those are choices, poor choices with bad consequences. When you determine youre going to take on criminal activity, you assume the risks that go along with that. Steve Giegerich and David Carson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. ST. LOUIS The man police shot and killed Sunday during an armed robbery at a fast-food restaurant had a history of such robberies as well as sodomy, according to court records. Sources identified the man as Crayton Big Wes West, 52, of the 5400 block of Arlington Avenue, and his mother confirmed that she had gone to identify his body Monday. West was killed by a St. Louis police sergeant who confronted him inside the Kentucky Fried Chicken near Grand Boulevard and Gravois Avenue at about 6 p.m. Sunday, authorities said. Police say West had robbed the business and pointed a weapon at the sergeant. The encounter was captured on surveillance cameras inside the restaurant. The department has not yet released the footage, and police refused to identify the sergeant. West is listed on Missouris sex offender registry for a July 1980 robbery in which he sodomized a boy, 16. West was 18 at the time. Details of that crime and the sentence that followed were not immediately available Monday, in part because offices were closed for the Martin Luther King Day holiday. Court records and Post-Dispatch news stories from 1987 show that West was sentenced to 60 years in prison for a string of fast-food restaurant robberies in St. Louis. He used a cap pistol to rob seven restaurants over a 10-day stretch in October 1986. The suspect was dubbed the fat robber based on his description. When West was arrested, he was 6-foot-3 and weighed about 225 pounds, but police said he appeared to be heavier. After he was caught, he told police he had robbed the restaurants to pay his utility bills and meet his car payments, according to a Post-Dispatch article. People had been threatened in some of those holdups, but no one was hurt. Witnesses gave police a description of the getaway car, and West was captured when police stopped a car fitting that description. His mother, Ruth West, said she had viewed his body Monday and confirmed that she was told he had been shot by police. She said her son left her home Sunday morning. She tried calling him throughout the day, but her calls went to voicemail. She said she heard news reports of the police shooting and had been worried it might be him. She said her son was living with her since his release from prison in January 2014. She said he wasnt married and had an adult son. She said her son was on parole and was supposed to be working. He had been depressed lately because the jobs paid so poorly, she said. He was trying to find something better than minimum wage, she said. He wanted to find a better job. He worked for a temporary service, but the better offers were far from his mothers home and he lacked a car for transportation, she said. He was struggling since hes been out, she said. Sometimes Id have to talk to him when he was getting kind of depressed. Ruth West said her son had to be tested for drugs with his parole officer, and at least one urine test showed that he been taking drugs, she said. She wasnt sure what kind of drugs. She said he was sent to a rehab facility for a few months and also to jail for violating his parole. Other times, she thought he was doing better, particularly when he told her he was taking classes and hoped to graduate soon. She didnt know details. She said she wanted to see footage of the shooting before judging what had happened. For now, she said, I am not questioning nothing. Its not going to bring my son back. Instead, she said, she wants him to rest in peace. Robbery, then shooting Authorities say West entered the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant with a gun to rob the place. An employee, who would not give her name, told the Post-Dispatch she saw a man with a gun reaching over the counter, and a manager pressed a panic alarm button. There were several people inside the restaurant at the time. One witness flagged down a police sergeant at a gas station across the street from the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant to report the holdup, authorities said. That witness was on the phone with a 911 operator when he saw the sergeant, Lt. Col. Lawrence OToole said at a news conference at police headquarters Sunday night. The sergeant was on normal patrol but had been monitoring a memorial march for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the area. The sergeant drove over to the Kentucky Fried Chicken and saw the suspect inside the restaurant as he approached the door, OToole said. The gunman raised his handgun toward the sergeant, who ordered him to drop it. The sergeant fired his weapon when the man did not drop his, OToole said. Police said they found cash West had taken in the robbery on him, police said. No officers were injured. The sergeant, 42, has at least 13 years on the force, OToole said. Some sergeants have been selected to wear body cameras as part of a pilot program the police department is conducting, but the sergeant involved in Sundays shooting was not equipped with one, sources said. The police departments Force Investigation Unit is investigating. The officer was put on leave. The shooting drew some activists who had been attending the nearby King memorial. The gathering was also to talk about the future of the Black Lives Matter movement. Some of those who showed up at the shooting scene chanted and complained about police shootings of black men. West is black, and the officer who shot him white. Jesse Bogan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. WASHINGTON Is the beer and microbrewery market becoming saturated with too much choice? A Washington Post food and beverage writer today asks that question, after last month's Brewers Association announcement that the United States had 4,144 breweries, the most operating simultaneously at one time in the country's history. The premise of Fritz Hahn's piece is that with two new breweries opening, on average, each day, and with an industry that now offers multitudes of choices from the giant Budweiser to the most niche microbrewery consumers, retailers and wholesalers may be getting overwhelmed. Hahn quotes Jace Gonnerman, beer director for several District of Columbia breweries: "Picking the draft list has become exponentially harder than it was two or three years ago. You have to balance styles, but how many spots do I have for national breweries? What local breweries do I want to focus on? Every time a local brewery opens making really, really high-quality beer, it pushes a national brewery off," Gonnerman continued. "We keep a good mix of national breweries on, because people are looking for that. But you have to say no to people way more than you say yes. That last quote would seem to be a warning sign for national beermakers of iconic brands like St. Louis's Budweiser. The CEO of Anheuser-Bush InBev tacitly recognized that challenge last month in a Senate anti-trust subcommittee hearing about the proposed merger with SAB Miller. Put simply, the purpose of this transaction is to enhance our ability to serve new markets, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, Carlos Brito said then. JEFFERSON CITY As many as 12,000 Missouri home health care workers are on the verge of losing out on long-sought wage hikes agreed to in 2014 with Gov. Jay Nixon. On Tuesday, separate committees of the House and Senate are scheduled to debate legislation that would overturn a rule change implemented by the Democratic governor last spring designed to pave the way for the increases. The Republican-sponsored resolutions say Nixons maneuver doesnt mesh with state law and should not be allowed. The move by the GOP-led General Assembly comes after unions representing the workers agreed to a plan allowing disabled and elderly Missourians who are served by the workers to set the hourly pay rate between $8.50 and $10.15 an hour. For now, under a pay system overseen by vendors who administer the Medicaid program, attendants earn about $7.75 an hour, said Susan Barkulis, chairwoman of the Missouri Home Care Union. Nixons decision to authorize the wage bump through the use of an administrative rule gave the Legislature an opportunity to weigh in. In May, a special joint committee rejected the rule on a bipartisan vote and set a clock running on having the full General Assembly reject the governors action. Union officials representing the workers had called on the governor to instead amend existing contracts with vendors in order to avoid a fight with the Legislature. The Legislature appropriates $15.56 an hour from the federally funded Medicaid program for the vendors who pay and administer the home health care attendants. Under the current system, each vendor keeps $6.96 of the $15.56. That 45 percent goes to pay administrative costs associated with the program. State Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, said rejecting a rule is a relatively rare occurrence. But, lawmakers believe Nixon overstepped his legal authority when he introduced the change. Our scope is pretty limited. But on this one, it really wasnt even a close call, said Schmitt, who is sponsoring the Senate version of the legislation. State Rep. Jay Barnes, R-Jefferson City, is the lead House sponsor of his chambers resolution. Under state law, the House and Senate would need to approve a resolution objecting to the wage plan. If Nixon vetoes the resolution, lawmakers could still reject the new wage range with a two-thirds vote. Schmitt said the legislation is not about whether the workers should get raises. Thats left for another day, he said. But, state Sen. Scott Sifton, D-Affton, said the potential loss of the pay hike likely will become the focal point of Tuesdays committee debate. I think thats going to be the crux of the hearings this week, said Sifton. Youre going to hear industry sources complain that the raises arent sustainable and employees claim that theyre absolutely needed and long overdue. Barkulis said lawmakers are taking away rights from the patients who are served by the workers. Shame on the legislators who want to take away the consumers right to weigh in on what is happening with their attendants. Anybody who tries to undermine the voice of the consumer in this program is really violating the absolute mission of people with disabilities being able to hire, fire and value the people who are coming into their homes, Barkulis said. I think its an attack on consumer rights, period, Barkulis added. The governors office had no immediate comment on the pending action in the Legislature. Nixon earlier said he supports the wage increase and believes implementing the increase through the rule-making process will ensure the provision has the full force and effect of the law behind it. FERGUSON The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used words as paint to draw a portrait of a society beyond racism, says Leah Gunning Francis. The Eden Theological Seminary associate dean in remarks at a King holiday commemoration Sunday afternoon decried a media-fanned language she contends is moving the dialogue on race in the opposite direction. Who decided that the word thug should be attached to African-American young men? Francis asked the commemoration of the King holiday at the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College. Francis, the keynote speaker at the annual event, is the author of Ferguson and Faith: Sparking Leadership and Awakening Community. She deplored conversations that depict so many young men as thugs and denigrate young women. The images, Francis said, create discrimination, encourage violence and prompt people who dont know young black men to assume the worst. It was negative words and images, she added, that prompted George Zimmerman to assume that a black 17-year-old walking through the neighborhood was up to no good. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, called police, then shot the teen, Trayvon Martin, during a struggle in Sanford, Fla., in 2012. A jury found Zimmerman not guilty of homicide. Martin was walking to join his father at a home in the same neighborhood. A false stereotype of black men has created an imagination that is death-dealing, she said. Words do in fact create worlds. By contrast, Kings words spoke of hope and healing. His famous I Have a Dream speech in 1963 aspired toward a better society. It was a spoken word that lived and breathed and continued to find life and meaning, Francis said. ST. LOUIS The National Council of Churches gathered in Kiel Auditorium on Dec. 1, 1957, two months after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the worlds first man-made satellite. Speakers urged jittery Americans to calm down. Outward programs of security and defense must be matched with inward signs of justice and charity, counseled the Rev. Frederick Nolde, a leader of the World Council of Churches. That sentiment led the assembly of 2,000 Protestant ministers and lay leaders to the thornier social issue of race relations. Among the speakers during its six-day national convention was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 28 years old and suddenly prominent as leader of the lengthy boycott that integrated public buses in Montgomery, Ala., in 1956. Prominent, perhaps, but not yet undeniably famous. Neither of Kings two speeches made headlines in the Post-Dispatch or the Globe-Democrat. Both local dailies gave more play to speakers of longer standing with the council, which then as now represented the nations more liberal Protestant denominations. After Kings main speech, the Post-Dispatch led with the election of the Rev. Edwin Dahlberg of St. Louis as the councils new president. On race, it gave first bill to the Rev. Liston Pope, dean of the Yale University Divinity School. Pope lamented that the church is probably the most racially segregated institution in American life. But he saw glimmers of progress, offering hope that we may be nearer a breakthrough in this battle than we know. King respectfully disagreed, chiding church leaders for not moving faster from high-minded national declarations to progress in the pews. All too many ministers are still silent while evil rages, King said. It may well be that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition is the appalling silence of the so-called good people. King conceded a gradual crumbling of segregation, but added, If democracy is to live, segregation must die. Signs of daunting resistance were all about them. As the council met, the Texas Legislature adopted new ways to keep schools segregated. The Virginia Supreme Court upheld another statutory evasion. In Montgomery, a black teenage girl was fined for allegedly striking a white girl who wouldnt share a bench on an integrated bus. And at Kiel Auditorium, black delegates protested that they had been refused service by cabdrivers and waiters in downtown St. Louis. One day after the council adjourned, Americas Vanguard rocket the answer to Sputnik blew up on its launch pad. Kings speeches marked his second public appearance in St. Louis. He would return at least five times before he was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary. ST. LOUIS Former powerboat salesman Mike Riddering was an unlikely candidate for humanitarian work in the tiny West African nation of Burkina Faso. A broker of fast-moving boats moving to the desert for mission work. Pretty ironic, said John Anderson, a board member with Sheltering Wings, the St. Louis-based aid group overseeing the operation of orphanages, schools and humanitarian projects in an impoverished, land-locked country with a history of political instability and drought. Riddering, who moved permanently from Fort Lauderdale to Burkina Faso four years ago, was killed Friday when al-Qaida affiliated gunmen burst into the Cappuccino Cafe, a coffee shop patronized by foreigners in the Burkina Faso capitol of Ouagadougou. He was 45. The missionarys brother, Jeffery Riddering, is a pastor with Southgate Church in Crestwood. Burkina Fasos president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, on Sunday put the Ouagadougou death toll at 28 people. An additional 56 were wounded in the attack, which ended Saturday when security forces stormed the restaurant, freeing 126 remaining hostages. The 17 million citizens of Burkina Faso began three days of mourning on Sunday. These truly barbaric criminal acts carried out against innocent people, claimed by the criminal organization al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) seek to destabilize our country and its republican institutions, and to undermine efforts to build a democratic, quiet and prosperous nation, Kabore said in remarks broadcast over the national network. Canadian, French, Dutch, Ukrainian and Swiss nationals in addition to five Burikinabe citizens were also killed in the attack. Riddering was the lone American to lose his life. Anderson in an interview Sunday said Riddering paid his first visit to Burkina Faso in 2011 at the suggestion of his brother. (Riddering and his wife, Amy) were there a week and fell in love with (the country), said Anderson. They came back and said, God is calling us to become missionaries over there. Returning a year later, the Ridderings helped establish a Sheltering Wings orphanage. They also served in educational, medical and well-drilling programs and assisted in the distribution of 56,000 pairs of shoes to Burkina Faso citizens. Jeff Riddering told the New York Daily News his brother turned his life around after overcoming a battle with alcoholism. Mike and Amy Riddering adopted two Burkinabe children. They also have two other children, Delaney and Haley. Both live in the U.S. Anderson said Mike Riddering last Friday had traveled the 64 miles to Ouagadougou from his home in Yako to retrieve a group of volunteers jetting into the capitol on a flight that originated in Florida. According to Anderson, Riddering and an associate reached Ouagadougou early and stopped at the Cappuccino Cafe to await the planes arrival. The two men became separated in the ensuing chaos. Finding refuge elsewhere in the cafe, the associate placed a call to Amy Riddering. He reported what had occurred and was in the process of asking for prayers when the phone went dead. Mike Ridderings body was identified at an Ouagadougou morgue on Saturday. Anderson said Riddering will be buried in Africa. Sheltering Wings plans to hold a local service in Ridderings memory. No date has been set. The organization has meanwhile established a Michael James Riddering Memorial Fund to help defray the familys expenses. Amy Riddering in a Facebook post Sunday, called her husband my best friend, partner in crime and love of my life. Heaven has gained a warrior, she wrote. The Associated Press contributed to this report. PACIFIC The Great Flash Flood of 2015 surged and fell here in six days. Getting life back to normal has barely begun. All around neighborhoods inundated by the Meramec River, homes remain unlivable, with mud slicks on porches and jagged piles of debris along roadsides. City inspectors have allowed residents to begin making repairs, but few have been able to move back in. This is going to take a long, long time, said Jim Boo Sowards as he surveyed the creaking, stained plywood subfloor of his home on South Third Street. Sowards already has ripped out hardwood flooring and wallboard throughout his one-story brick home, which he said had almost 2 feet of water in the living space. The furnace, water heater and everything else in the basement were ruined. His house is among many marked with green inspectors tags, which allow repair but prohibit occupancy. Up and down the lower Meramec, record flooding from record downpours on the three days after Christmas caused at least minor damage to nearly 1,300 dwellings, nearly 270 of which may have to be demolished, according to the preliminary summaries of inspection teams in the field. Pacific and Arnold suffered the worst among towns along the mercurial Meramec, which drains the hilly northern reaches of the Ozarks and rises quickly from heavy rain. At Pacific, the river jumped above flood stage Dec. 27, crested three days later and dropped back below flood stage on New Years Day. It rose and fell more than 35 feet, swamping part of town. The Meramec didnt fall below flood stage at Arnold until Thursday. It has been backed up there by the slowly receding Mississippi. On Friday, Gov. Jay Nixon asked the federal government to declare a disaster in 41 Missouri counties, including those of the greater metro area except for the city of St. Louis. If President Barack Obama approves the request, residents and business owners would be eligible for federal assistance. This was historic flooding with devastating impacts on many Missourians, and it will be a long recovery process, Nixon said in a statement. A major disaster declaration will help in that effort. Nixon said the state still is assembling reports of damage. An unofficial tabulation by the American Red Cross, which is assisting in recovery, lists the following: Jefferson County 831 dwellings affected, 197 destroyed, 424 with major damage (including nine destroyed and 146 with major damage in Arnold). Franklin County 374 dwellings affected, 48 destroyed, 229 with major damage. St. Louis County 265 dwellings affected, 18 destroyed, 90 with major damage. St. Charles County 108 dwellings affected, four destroyed, 58 with major damage. Damage in St. Charles County was on the fertile but vulnerable lowland between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, which flooded 5 or so feet below the records. Those big rivers already were running unusually high for winter when the St. Louis area was hit with 8 or more inches of rain. Pacific earned a minor consolation prize Thursday when the National Weather Service posted that its flood crest of Dec. 30 is, indeed, a record. The Weather Service did so by reducing by nearly a foot its longstanding level for the previous record, that of the flood of December 1982. (The official levels from that flood are unchanged for other points along the Meramec.) Some Pacific residents were skeptical when the Weather Service said the recent flood set records at Eureka, Valley Park and Arnold, but fell three inches short at Pacific. Sowards said the 1982 flood didnt quite reach his living room floor. Mark Fuchs, a hydrologist at the Weather Service office in Weldon Spring, said numerous similar reports in Pacific had us scratching our heads. He said the staff reviewed records from 1982 and decided the level posted for Pacific before a modern gauge was installed there, had been too high. Record or not, its still too much water. About 250 dwellings and 27 businesses in Pacific were affected by the flood, and Mayor Jeff Palmore said most of them have major damage. He said he hoped that only about a dozen will have to be demolished, but said repairs will take weeks. He called Nixons declaration good news, but will await final word from the White House. I hope the powers that be understand the gravity of this situation, Palmore said Friday. People are out of their homes and anxious. Many have been through this before, but that doesnt make it easier. They have suffered significant losses. This isnt just inconvenience. Along the streets, piles of debris include broken wallboard, Christmas decorations, pink insulation, warped furniture, stained sofas. One is topped with a toilet. Government agencies have contracted with haulers to move the debris to landfills. Dian Becker, Pacifics emergency director, said police have caught several scrappers trying to grab cast-off metal appliances. Have a little decency at a time like this, she said. The Multi-Agency Resource Centers, a new consortium of local charities and government offices, has provided help to nearly 600 residents or families affected by the flood, a spokeswoman said. Participating agencies include the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Salvation Army and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. Assistance can include temporary housing, clothing and food, she said. Nixons request for disaster assistance includes the greater metro counties of Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Louis; and outlying counties of Crawford, Gasconade, Pike, Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois. Cape Girardeau County also is on the list, as well as many counties in central and southwestern Missouri. JEFFERSON CITY Beginning in August, Missouri bicyclists would have to attach a brightly colored flag to their bikes if they want to take a spin down a county road under a proposal introduced in the state Legislature. The measure, sponsored by state Rep. Jay Houghton, R-Martinsburg, would require every bike operating on a lettered county road to be equipped with a fluorescent orange flag suspended at least 15 feet above the roadway. Houghton has argued his idea will make roadways safer by making bicyclists more visible, but biking groups say its an idea that has little merit. The Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Foundation is already gearing up to fight the idea. On its website, the group is calling on bicyclists to attend a lobbying day at the Capitol on April 11 to ensure that our rights and our safety are protected. The bill will not help the safety situation for bicyclists or drivers, will be impossible to enforce and comply with, and is intended as another backhanded way to keep cyclists off the road, the group noted. At the Hub Bicycle Company in Webster Groves, co-owner Alex Bischoff said the proposal could result in fewer recreational opportunities for Missourians and bicyclists riding through the state on cross-country trips. I would be against anything that reduces access to those roads, Bischoff said. I would say that although the proposal is couched as a way to improve safety, its a hidden attempt to reduce cyclists access to the roads where they have a legal right to ride. Bischoff said if the problem lies with motorists who feel inconvenienced because they have to slow down for a bicyclists, they should remember that they have to reduce speed for farm vehicles. There have always been people who try to legislate against certain recreational activities, Bischoff said. Houghton, who has previously raised questions about the safety of bicycling on rural county roads, did not return telephone messages. The proposal has not been scheduled for debate in a House committee. The legislation is House Bill 2046. Americans dont necessarily have to be directly affected by a major international news event to understand its relevance to their lives. Anyone who lived through the turmoil of Irans revolution in 1978, the ransacking of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the 444-day captivity of more than 60 American hostages should grasp the notion that we ignore international events at our peril. The prospect has loomed for years that Iran was getting close to building its own nuclear weapons, a scenario that Israel and Saudi Arabia viewed as a threat to their very existence. At the very least it would portend decades of unprecedented regional instability. With that in mind, President Barack Obama authorized a dual program of harsh international trade and banking sanctions against Iran along with negotiations to sharply curtail Irans nuclear ambitions. The weekend yielded major dividends on those efforts with the release of five American prisoners in exchange for seven Iranians. Without the relationships built over the past 14 months of patient talks discussions that put limits on Irans nuclear program in exchange for the lessening of sanctions that sort of exchange could not have happened. Mr. Obama has endured years of harsh criticism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu excoriated the Iran negotiations in a rare speech to a joint session of Congress. Domestic critics warned that U.S.-led international sanctions would have no effect on Tehran. The critics were wrong. That said, Irans penchant for mischief-making remains. It still supports an insurgency that has immersed Yemen in civil war. Iranian-backed Hezbollah militiamen continue helping prop up Bashar Assads bloody dictatorship in Syria contributing mightily to the refugee deluge that has caused political upheaval across Europe. And the nuclear deal, at best, only postpones rather than eliminates Irans bomb-making capability. As we know from the North Korean example, landmark nuclear-arms accords can fall apart. Whereas North Korea has remained insular and distrustful of the outside world, Iran badly wants to re-engage economically and bolster its status as a regional power. To ensure that the Iran deal doesnt sour as did the non-proliferation treaty negotiated with North Korea in 1994, international diplomacy with Iran must be sustained, regardless of who occupies the White House next year. So why should you care? For one, it could affect your pocketbook. Iran is about to resume international oil exports under this deal, which means the price you pay at the pump is likely to continue plummeting. The opposite effect would likely occur if U.S.-Iranian relations deteriorate again. The presidential campaign already includes lots of debate about Iran. Conservative candidates are pledging to scrap this deal and return America to its previous, confrontational posture. We know from the past decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan exactly how costly military confrontation can be. In the absence of diplomacy, the prospect of war with Iran can only grow. This is where your vote your informed vote can make a big difference in what happens next with Iran. In his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts made a good point about recent obscure but important changes to federal discovery rules. But he seems to have missed a bigger issue: the lack of transparency in the nations highest court. Mr. Roberts used his report to highlight changes that could help federal courts run more efficiently. New discovery rules could help ensure that federal court litigation does not degenerate into wasteful clashes over matters that have little to do with achieving a just result, he wrote. Discovery is the process in which litigants have a right to obtain certain information from the other side before trial, such as sworn depositions, documents and evidence. Its an essential part of the legal process, but one that has been ripe for abuse. Discovery can be used to drag out litigation, make it more expensive and deter wronged parties from seeking redress. Businesses often accuse trial lawyers of using discovery to make lawsuits so expensive that its easier for corporations to settle a claim than litigate it. As Mr. Roberts noted, the effect is to limit access to court remedies for those who cant afford the time and expense of answering the other sides deliberately onerous discovery demands. Some studies estimate that discovery can eat up to 90 percent of the costs in some complex litigation. New rules call for lawyers to limit discovery requests to the actual needs of each case. Strict enforcement by judges is key to the rules success, Mr. Roberts wrote. All well and good, but if Mr. Roberts is so gung-ho about judicial reform, hasnt he forgotten the big one? His own court remains among the most opaque and inaccessible in the system. Mr. Roberts has ignored repeated calls for the Supreme Court to end its longstanding ban on the use of still or video cameras. The result is that the American public has only a hint of what actually goes on in Supreme Court sessions. The high court routinely makes vital, society-changing decisions, even while the court routinely shuts most of the public out of the oral arguments that shape these decisions. Only those who stand in line for a place in the gallery can watch the proceedings, along with select journalists. A recent concession allows the public to listen to audio recordings, often days after the fact. That is a poor substitute. The Supreme Court remains the least democratically accountable branch of government. We understand the priority of maintaining judicial dignity and decorum. The concern is legitimate that cameras could encourage some to ham it up for the viewers at home. But when the fate of so many crucial issues same-sex marriage, abortion, campaign finance reform, to name a few rests in the hands of this court, the public deserves a virtual seat inside the courtroom. Its a shame that Mr. Roberts has chosen to avoid the issue once again. This editorial was commissioned from freelance editorialists and edited by the Post-Dispatch editorial board. When it comes to securing the nation from potential terrorist attacks, some Americans want it both ways. They demand high levels of security and want to hold President Barack Obama personally responsible for any domestic terrorist incidents that occur on his watch. Yet they are loath to embrace the personal sacrifices that such security entails. The bottom line: You cant have it both ways. Security comes at a price, whether its the humiliation of partially disrobing at airports or increased federal surveillance of phones and Internet communications. Its all invasive and always disconcerting. And none of us will ever know whether these procedures are actually working because a terrorist attack thwarted or deterred by extra security measures is a nonevent. Its only the successful attacks that prove where the holes exist in our security procedures. So theres a natural tendency to push back and ask: Is all this hassle really necessary? The issue now confronts Missourians head-on. In 2005, Congress passed the Real ID Act to ensure nationwide conformity with measures to prevent state-issued ID cards from being counterfeited or altered. The goal was to stop would-be terrorists from falsifying their identities to gain access to airliners or secure facilities. Congress passed the law, and then-President George W. Bush signed it, at a time when the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were still fresh on everyones mind. Most states have complied with Real ID requirements or are transitioning toward compliance. Missouri, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico and Washington have refused. For years, that hasnt been a problem, but now the deadline is approaching for mandatory compliance. We are two years away from a nightmare scenario in which travelers relying on Missouri or Illinois drivers licenses might not be able to enter federal buildings or board airplanes. Officials at Lambert-St. Louis and Kansas City international airports say travelers should expect no sudden changes, and would receive at least four months notice before new restrictions apply. No one wants to push this issue to the point where Missourians have to carry passports just to board domestic flights. Which means the Legislature must get off the dime. In 2009, lawmakers were in a cantankerous mood and determined that Real ID opened too many ways for the federal government to get into our business. They didnt like the idea of federal computers storing birth certificate data, and they feared that Real ID was a first step toward creation of a national identification card. Gov. Jay Nixon signed a law banning Missouri from complying with the Real ID Act. This gesture of legislative defiance now looks exceedingly reckless in retrospect. Mr. Nixon is calling for the laws change so Missouri can begin updating its IDs with federally compliant watermarks, codes and seals. Two bills now pending in the Legislature would give Missourians the choice of having a compliant or noncompliant ID. Far too much time has been wasted fighting a Quixotic battle against a perceived federal bogeyman. Its time for Missouri to get right with federal law and update state IDs with modern security elements designed to keep us all safer. Otherwise, that planes going to leave without us. LONDON MARKET CLOSE: Stocks pull back as pressure on BoE to hike rates Wednesday, October 19, 2022 - 17:20 The optimism in equity markets in London faded on Wednesday, with stocks pulled back as consumer inflation in the UK was hotter than expected. The FTSE 100 index closed down 11.75 points, or 0.2%, at 6,924.99. The FTSE 250 ended down a heftier 281.76 points, or 1.6%, at 17,247.55. The AIM All-Share lost 9.51 points, or 1.2%, at 785.97. The Cboe UK 100 closed 0.2% lower at 692.60, the Cboe UK 250 fell 1.5% to 14,806.44, and the Cboe Small Companies closed 0.7% lower at 12,369.96. In European equities on Wednesday afternoon, the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.4%, and the DAX 40 in Frankfurt gave back 0.2%. The pound fell to $1.1242 Wednesday evening from $1.1291 late Tuesday. New data showed consumer inflation in the UK was shoved back into double digits in September, which turns the spotlight firmly onto the Bank of England. The consumer price index rose by 10.1% in September from a year before, according to the Office for National Statistics. The inflation rate picked up from 9.9% in August and returned to the same rate as recorded in July. The latest figure came in marginally hotter-than-expected, with a reading of 10% expected, according to FXStreet. AJ Bell's Danni Hewson said stretching household budgets to cover the "basic necessities of life has become harder and harder". "Cutbacks have already been made. Big name brands ditched for value lines in the weekly food shop, thermostats have been dialled down, non-essential journeys put off or abandoned altogether," she continued. "The fact that food and energy costs were the main drivers for September France has ordered another seven Tiger helicopter gunships. This comes a year after budget cuts forced the military to reduce its planned Tiger force from 80 helicopters to 60. Now there will be 67, mainly because Tiger is more frequently and heavily used (and much appreciated) in Africa (Mali) and the Middle East. The seven additional Tigers are the ground support (HAD) version and will be delivered in 2017 and 2018. These will replace combat losses and lessen the wear and tear on the existing sixty French Tigers. In 2013 France received the first of its 40 HAD Tiger helicopter gunships. The German Army received its first HAD Tigers in 2008. HAD first entered service in 2005 and benefitted from 14 percent more engine power and better protection from ground fire than the original model. While earlier versions were mainly for anti-vehicle work, HAD is more like the current U.S. AH-64 Apache and optimized for ground support. Development of Tiger began in 1987, before the Cold War ended. So the anti-tank aspect took a while to disappear and get replaced by a gunship optimized for hunting and killing a large variety of targets. Tiger is made by European firm Eurocopter and has shown up just in time. Until the arrival of the French and German Tigers, American AH-64s provided gunship support for all foreign troops in Afghanistan. France has used Tigers in Somalia and Mali as well as Afghanistan where they have performed well. Tiger has spent over 1,500 flight hours in combat zones so far and a hundred have been delivered to Germany, France (which has ordered 80), Spain (24), and Australia (22). A total of 206 Tiger helicopters have been ordered. So far Tigers have spent over 45,000 hours in the air, most of it for training. The Tiger costs about as much as the AH-64, a ten ton gunship that has been in service since the 1980s. The six ton Tiger has a crew of two and a max speed of 280 kilometers an hour. It cruises at 230 kilometers an hour and usually stays in the air about three hours per sortie. It is armed with a 30mm automatic cannon, 70mm rocket pods (19 rockets per pod), and various types of air-to-ground missiles (eight Hellfire types at once). It can also carry four Mistral anti-aircraft missiles. Germany also cut its order from 80 Tigers to 57. Germany had a lot of problems with Tiger and decided it had better uses for the money, like bailing out the many European nations having financial problems after 2008. In 2012 Germany got four of its new Tiger helicopter gunships ready for service in Afghanistan and these arrived in 2013. These ASGARD (Afghanistan Stabilization German Army Rapid Deployment) models included sand filters, additional defense systems, a mission data recorder, and communications gear able to deal with systems used by allies. In the years before the German Tigers arrived in Afghanistan there were four crashes during training. No one was injured but in some cases the causes were traced to equipment problems not operator error. German troops in Afghanistan wanted Tiger badly but delivery was delayed several times due to various problems. In addition to the ASGARD upgrades, there were problems with the wiring and a number of less serious shortcomings as well. When Tiger finally made it to Afghanistan it performed very well and got high marks from the German troops there. French troops had the same reaction to Tiger. So it appears after the usual initial problems Tiger has become mature and much more reliable. Germany is sending another 550 troops to Mali and Iraq. This is another response to the November 13 Islamic terror attacks in Paris and the realization that Europe has more to do in fighting Islamic terrorists worldwide in order to reduce their vulnerability at home. Most (500) of these troops are going to northern Mali to help the French forces that have been fighting Islamic terrorists there since early 2013. The German troops will be helping with the peacekeeping in northern Mali and will mainly work with the 11,000 (mostly African) peacekeepers already there. The German troops are better trained and equipped than most of the peacekeepers already there and will be able to provide emergency combat support that is currently provided by French troops are mainly involved with actively seeking out the remaining Islamic terrorists. The rest (50) of the additional German troops will go to northern Iraq to join the hundred Germans already there training Kurdish forces. The Kurds are the best local fighters in Iraq and the Germans have found that the Kurds make the most of whatever additional training they get. Germany has been a major (at least from the West) contributor to peacekeeping operations since the Cold War ended in 1991. This was done even though had to reorganize and reduce its armed forces from 400,000 troops equipped and trained to fight a conventional war to fewer than 200,000 mainly oriented towards peacekeeping. In 1991 there were another 250,000 troops in the communist East German armed forces and as the Cold War ended the two Germanys united and East German forces were disbanded and the West German military absorbed some of the East German troops. With the Soviet Union gone, and the former Soviet allies in East Europe clamoring to join NATO Germany no longer had any local enemies. The Cold War German army of Panzertruppen (mechanized troops) had lost its mission. Thus in two decades, German armed forces have been reduced to less than a third of their 1991 strength of 650,000. Today, a reunited Germany has an army of peacekeepers. Well, only 5-10,000 of them are involved in peacekeeping at any one time, out of 177,000 troops. Not only is the army smaller, but it has older equipment, and less of it. Not much purchasing of new stuff after 1991 and much of what was bought was to support peacekeeping missions. The peacekeepers, particularly in Afghanistan, go more modern gear, and the expense of this is another reason for shrinking the size of armed forces. While the German army is smaller and, until 2011, still depended on conscripts for about 25 percent of its troops. Germany always managed to find enough effective troops for peacekeeping, and special operations. Just not many of them. The generals had long asked for an all-volunteer force but for a long time the politicians, and public opinion, were opposed to this. Public opinion won and the all-volunteer force has had no shortage of volunteers for peacekeeping duty, even in dangerous areas. Wellesbourne Airfield In a strategic capacity he introduced a structure of safer neighbourhood teams who worked closely with their communities, addressing issues of local concern. His last position within the force was as head of community safety where he worked alongside key partners in neighbourhood watch, business and rural crime, school safety and anti-social behaviour. Mr Whitehouse said: Warwickshire Police is an innovative and professional police force with a good reputation, which I hope to build upon should I be elected as police and crime commissioner. Financial cuts have been made since I left the force four years ago and the lack of visible policing in our community has been very noticeable. This is an area of local concern to many people, and one which I would like to improve upon. It is with my background and experiences throughout the county that I believe I can fulfil the role of commissioner, with knowledge and confidence in my ability to hold the force to account and, when necessary, question issues on behalf of the public of Warwickshire. The vote for police and crime commissioner will take place on Thursday 5th May. Warwickshires first police and crime commissioner, Independent Ron Ball, is not standing for re-election. The only other individual to declare their candidacy for the post so far is Conservative Philip Seccombe, a senior Stratford district councillor who represents Ettington on the council. Wellesbourne Airfield But he said the current plan for an open, retained cutting that effectively split it in two did not fully preserve the sites utility, despite it being deemed acceptable by the current owners and management. Mr Wright said the cutting should be replaced by a cut-and-cover tunnel. He added: A cut-and-cover tunnel will allow the full site to continue to be used without the severance that there is at the moment. Mr Wright also said there was no digestible information on what the noise coming from the line will actually be like and said further mitigation to counter it might be required in areas where the line goes close to homes. Timothy Mould QC, the government's legal advisor on HS2, confirmed an agreement had been reached with the owners and occupiers of Stoneleigh Park. Warwickshire County Council has issued two petitions calling for amendments to HS2 as part of its efforts to 'seek better outcomes and lessen the impact on residents'. They included various highways issues, ecology matters and potential flood risk, as well as conditions on construction traffic near Stoneleigh and the provision of a cycleway linking Ladbroke and Southam. The line that will initially run between London and Birmingham runs through Stratford district at its far north-eastern tip. Also among yesterdays delegation was Warwickshire Wildlife Trust, The Heart of England High Speed Railway Action Group and Warwick University. The hearing can be watched in full at parliamentlive.tv Ovum reveals three certainties for the rapidly evolving music streaming sector in 2016 Melbourne( ) The shift in consumer spending towards accessing music rather than owning it is an unstoppable trend that has resulted in the one of the biggest shake-ups in recorded music distribution for a century, according to global analyst firm Ovum. Ovums latest report 2016 Trends to Watch: Music* points out that it is important to remember that no music subscription service is anywhere near breaking even, and the need for scale is far more important than the color of the balance sheet ink. Head of Music Practice and author of the report Simon Dyson says, The recorded music sector of yesterday is quite simply that, a bygone era that is being swept away by shiny new industry players. Dyson added music retailers will never sell as many CDs or downloads as they did last year and so services along the music value chain that want to be part of this rapid evolution in recorded music must simply embrace the change and make access work for their business. The trends to watch for music in 2016 include: Streaming will drive digital music growth in 2016, but will not offset the fall in sales of CDs and downloads. Intense competition in the music streaming sector will result in more service casualties. Controversy over who benefits most from music streaming will continue to make headline news and remain a divisive issue. The report said that, despite the fact that spending on music subscriptions is on the up, there will be no growth in overall consumer spending on recorded music in 2016. According to Ovums latest forecasts, global retail sales of recorded music will edge down 0.5% in 2015 and will fall a further 0.2% in 2016. In 2015, subscriptions alone will account for 28% of digital spending and 15% of the combined digital and physical spending total. Five years ago, barely 3% of retail spending on recorded music came from subscriptions. One thing to note when looking at the music industry future is how big an impact streaming will make in markets that until now have contributed next to nothing to the recorded music industry pot. Countries such as China and India that have long been dominated by music piracy but are so often thought of as emerging markets will start to live up to that tag. Streaming services in India are already reporting high user metrics and the early results elsewhere suggest streaming is not only guiding the recorded music industrys future in Western countries, but is also opening doors to the less developed markets. As well as growth in streaming revenue, Ovum is expecting the sector to consolidate. Casualties in the race to become the music streaming service of choice are unavoidable. Given the amount of services offering what is essentially the same product to a limited number of customers, company closures and acquisitions are inevitable. The shift from music ownership to access is not an overnight proposition and consumers will take their time to change the habits of generations. But it remains the recorded music industrys best bet for returning consumer spending to levels not seen for more than 15 years, concludes Dyson. Note to Editor *2016 Trends to Watch: Music To arrange an interview with Simon Dyson or for further details regarding this release, please contact Ovum press office team Jennifer Duraisingam on +613 9601 6723 or email pr@ovum.com. ABOUT OVUM Ovum is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. Through its 180 analysts worldwide it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate, and insightful market data, research, and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits, and opinion. In 2012, Ovum was jointly named Global Analyst Firm of the Year by the IIAR. Ovum is a division of Informa plc, one of the leading business and academic publishing and event organisers globally, headquartered in London. Informa is quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Expanding its Digital Business Enablement Solutions with Market-leading Mobile Engagement Platform PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Regulatory News: Axway (Paris: AXW) (Euronext: AXW.PA) announces the all-cash acquisition of Appcelerator Inc., a US company helping organizations build their mobile business with a leading mobile engagement platform to drive impressive mobile app experiences. With the acquisition of Appcelerator, Axway expands its suite of digital business enablement solutions to help enterprises achieve success at every step in their digital transformation journey delivering optimal customer experiences connected on any device, to any data source, at any time. Appcelerator, located in San Jose, California, was founded in 2006 with the introduction of its popular Titanium Software Development Kit, widely used in 185 countries for building cross-platform mobile apps. The Appcelerator Platform is purpose-built for digital business, handling over 2 billion cloud API calls per month and powering mobile apps running on over 350 million devices. The acquisition of Appcelerator confirms our strategic ambition to help organizations succeed in their digital journey by connecting people, processes and things across their digital business ecosystem. And I am excited about the talent, innovation and product capabilities Appcelerator brings to Axway, said Jean-Marc Lazzari, CEO at Axway. To survive and remain relevant, every modern enterprise is on the journey to digital business. They realize that they need to deliver delightful customer experience and business innovation while increasing operational efficiency, said Lazzari. The combination of Axways digital enablement solutions and the Appcelerator Platform allows anyone to quickly create great mobile apps, easily integrate them to existing systems using APIs, manage backend services at scale, and optimize performance with comprehensive analytics. Appcelerators leading mobile app and integration platform and best practices will help accelerate the pace of new product innovation for our customers. Were thrilled to join forces with Axway, because our company visions are so closely aligned, said Jeff Haynie, CEO and co-founder of Appcelerator. The word mobile has really become shorthand for the need to build great digital experiences across a range of devices, and the best companies achieve this by unleashing backend data and services to drive digital innovation. Our Appcelerator Platform and vast developer ecosystem, combined with Axways product portfolio, global reach and enterprise scale, means a single company that can power the digital needs of virtually any company in the world. DisclaimerThis document is a free translation into English of the original French press release. It is not a binding document. In the event of a conflict in interpretation, reference should be made to the French version, which is the authentic text. About AxwayAxway (Euronext: AXW.PA) empowers more than 11,000 customers worldwide to collaborate smarter, innovate faster and engage better with their partners, developers and customers. From integration technology that securely connects people, processes and things to an engagement platform that enables API management, identity management, mobile app development and analytics, Axway solutions are enabling digital business. Axway is registered in France with headquarters in the United States. More information is available at: www.investors.axway.com. About AppceleratorMobile apps are fast replacing web applications as the way we buy, share, search, learn and collaborate. Appcelerator helps companies of all sizes solve for this new reality with a mobile engagement platform to drive great mobile app experiences, quickly, cost-effectively and at scale. The Appcelerator Platform speeds time to market with native cross-platform app development & testing, simplified access to data via mobile-optimized APIs, and comprehensive real-time analytics to power user engagement and measure success. With 100,000+ mobile apps deployed on 300+ million devices, Appcelerators solutions are backed by one of the worlds largest mobile ecosystems, including better than 750,000 mobile developers and hundreds of ISVs and strategic partners, among them Accenture, Cognizant and CSC. For more information, Visit: www.appcelerator.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160117005042/en/ Axway Investor Relations Patrick Gouffran, +33 (0)1 40 67 29 26 [email protected] or Press Relations Sylvie Podetti, +33 (0)1 47 17 22 40 [email protected] Source: Axway (all amounts in US dollars) VANCOUVER, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Capstone Mining Corp. ("Capstone") (TSX: CS) today announced the results of the Pre-Feasibility Study Mine Life Extension ("PV3 PFS") for its wholly owned Pinto Valley Mine in Arizona, US. Highlights Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves increased to 473.8 million tonnes grading 0.31% copper, resulting in mine life to 2039, a 13 year increase over the previously published PV2 PFS (2014). Life of Mine ("LOM") average annual production of copper in concentrate is estimated at 122.8 million pounds of copper and 1.9 million pounds of molybdenum. Mill production increases to 20.4 million tonnes per year (56,000 tonnes per day ("tpd")) in 2017 from 19.8 million tonnes (54,000 tpd) in 2016 through improvements in maintenance and operational practices. Expected LOM C1 cash costs (1) are estimated to be $2.05 per pound of payable copper (net of by-product credits and including capitalized stripping as an operating cost). No significant capital is required for PV3 until stripping commences in 2020. "The PV3 PFS adds significant value to the Pinto Valley Mine by more than doubling the remaining mine life to 23 years and increasing throughput by 8% without any major capital investment," said Darren Pylot, President and CEO of Capstone. "The PV3 mine plan and capital schedule closely mirrors the PV2 mine plan for the next two years, but with increased throughput rates. The mine plan calls for relatively higher grade in 2016 and 2017 with low sustaining capital requirements, resulting in a C1 cost, including capitalized stripping, ranging from $1.90 to $2.00 per pound of copper and an all-in cost (1) ranging from $2.10 to $2.20 per pound of copper in those years," continued Mr. Pylot. "The grade profile allows us to weather the current copper price environment and the mine plan gives us significant flexibility, with the next major decision point being to advance the first PV3 pushback in 2020. Our focus will continue to be on process improvements, with significant leverage to the upside when copper prices improve." (1) This is alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release. Pre-Feasibility StudyThe PV3 PFS project was directed by Capstone with contributions from Kirkham Geosystems Ltd. (geology, resource estimation), Independent Mining Consultants, Inc. (reserve, geotechnical, mine design and schedule, equipment selection), KWM Consulting Inc. (metallurgy), Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure, Inc. (tailings), SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. (environmental), and Capstone (infrastructure and financial modelling). Personnel from each of these companies will be signing off as a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects of the Canadian Securities Administrators ("NI 43-101") for their specific responsibilities. The Pinto Valley Mine is a conventional open pit operation, with drilling, blasting, loading and hauling. The mill operation consists of a primary, secondary, tertiary crushing system, six ball mills, and flotation concentration. The mill produces copper and molybdenum concentrates. The PV3 PFS contemplates that mill production increases will be achieved through improved maintenance and operating practices, resulting in increased operating hours and increased hourly throughput. Mineral ResourcesThe mineral resources are effective January 1, 2016. The estimate includes results from drill programs conducted in 2015 and a revised geological model. Mineral Resource Estimate, January 2016, at a 0.17% Cu Cut-off Grade (2),(3),(4) Metric Tonnes millions Copper % Molybdenum % Contained Copper M lbs Contained Molybdenum M lbs Measured (M) 647.9 0.34 0.008 4,843.7 118.6 Indicated (I) 772.3 0.26 0.006 4,387.8 105.6 Total M&I 1,420.2 0.30 0.007 9231.5 224.1 Inferred 126.0 0.25 0.005 686.7 13.9 (2) Mineral Resources are reported inclusive of Mineral Reserves. (3) Totals may not sum exactly due to rounding. (4) QP Garth Kirkham, P. Geo., Kirkham Geosystems Ltd. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral Resource Estimates do not account for mineability, selectivity, mining loss and dilution. These Mineral Resource Estimates include Inferred Mineral Resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. There is also no certainty that these Inferred Mineral Resources will be converted to Measured and Indicated categories through further drilling, or into Mineral Reserves, once economic considerations are applied. Mineral ReservesThe PV3 PFS Mineral Reserve was estimated without any tailings or land boundary constraints. The study assumes that additional permits and land are available when required (see permitting section below). The Mineral Reserve was developed by tabulating the contained measured and indicated (proven and probable) material inside of the designed pit at the mill cut-off grades. Mineral Reserve Estimate, January 2016 (5),(6),(7) Classification Cut-off Grade Mineral Reserve Contained Metal Cu % M tonnes Cu % Mo % Cu M lbs Mo M lbs Proven 0.17-0.18 350.1 0.33% 0.009% 2,550 72 Probable 0.17-0.18 123.7 0.25% 0.007% 691 20 Proven + Probable 0.17-0.18 473.8 0.31% 0.009% 3,242 92 (5) Economic inputs to the block model were USD$2.75/lb copper, USD$12.50/lb Molybdenum. (6) Cut-off Grade variable between 0.17% Cu to 0.18% Cu through the LOM. The minimum mill feed cut-off grade is 0.17% Cu, but in years where sufficient higher grade mill feed is available, the mill cut-off grade may be higher, resulting in material between the yearly mill cut-off grade and 0.18% being stockpiled. The additional 0.01% from 0.17% to 0.18% is to cover the additional cost of rehandling material from the stockpile to the mill. Material between 0.17% to 0.18% that is not fed directly to the mill is not stockpiled as it cannot pay for the mining re-handling cost at the price assumptions used. (7) QP - John Marek, Independent Mining Consultants Inc. Mine Production ScheduleThe increase in ore reserves will extend mining to 2038 and mineral processing to 2039, an increase of 13 years from the current mine plan of 2026. Total mine production will increase to approximately 48.5 million tonnes in 2018 through 2031 then decreasing thereafter through 2039. Life of mine strip ratio is 0.92:1. Mine Plan Year Mill Cut-Off Ore Mined to Mill Ore Mined to Low Grade Stockpile Waste TotalMined Cu % M tonnes Cu % Mo% M tonnes Cu % Mo% M tonnes M tonnes 2016 0.18 19.76 0.36% 0.008% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 22.72 42.48 2017 0.19 20.44 0.34% 0.008% 0.99 0.18% 0.007% 23.47 44.90 2018 0.19 20.44 0.32% 0.011% 1.84 0.19% 0.007% 26.22 48.50 2019 0.17 20.44 0.32% 0.011% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.16 48.60 2020 0.18 20.44 0.35% 0.013% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2021 0.19 20.44 0.35% 0.008% 0.81 0.19% 0.005% 27.25 48.50 2022 0.18 20.44 0.32% 0.007% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2023 0.17 20.44 0.29% 0.007% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2024 0.17 20.44 0.29% 0.008% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2025 0.17 20.44 0.36% 0.010% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2026 0.17 20.44 0.40% 0.014% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2027 0.17 20.44 0.33% 0.014% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2028 0.17 20.44 0.30% 0.010% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2029 0.22 20.44 0.28% 0.009% 9.57 0.20% 0.007% 18.49 48.50 2030 0.22 20.44 0.31% 0.009% 1.60 0.20% 0.007% 26.46 48.50 2031 0.18 20.44 0.32% 0.010% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 28.06 48.50 2032 0.19 20.44 0.31% 0.009% 0.15 0.19% 0.006% 4.10 24.69 2033 0.17 20.44 0.28% 0.008% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 3.00 23.44 2034 0.17 20.44 0.29% 0.007% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 3.01 23.45 2035 0.17 20.44 0.27% 0.008% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 1.38 21.82 2036 0.17 20.44 0.25% 0.008% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 0.29 20.73 2037 0.17 20.44 0.29% 0.006% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 0.00 20.44 2038 0.17 9.87 0.28% 0.004% 0.00 0.00% 0.000% 0.00 9.87 Total 458.87 0.31% 0.009% 14.97 0.20% 0.007% 437.08 910.92 The PV3 PFS has identified the need for additional mining equipment that will be purchased in 2019 to enter service in 2020 to move the increased waste and ore tonnages. Major Mining Equipment Current Fleet Additional Fleet at Peak (2020) Drills 3 0 Cat 994 Loaders 2 0 Hydraulic Shovel 2 0 Cat 789 18 2 ProcessingIn the fourth quarter of 2015 mill production averaged above 54,000 tpd, up from the planned 52,000 tpd, accomplished through improvements in maintenance and operating practices. Continuation of these improvements is expected to maintain production at 54,000 tpd in 2016 and increase to 56,000 tpd in 2017. Metal recoveries average 88% for copper and 46% for molybdenum. Mill Ore Schedule Year Mill Feed Mill Head Grade Payable Copper Payable Moly Copper Cathode M tonnes % Cu % Mo Concentrate M lbs M lbs M lbs 2016 19.76 0.36% 0.008% 133.3 1.0 4.8 2017 20.44 0.34% 0.008% 130.9 1.4 4.5 2018 20.44 0.32% 0.011% 120.0 2.2 4.2 2019 20.44 0.32% 0.011% 124.4 2.2 0.0 2020 20.44 0.35% 0.013% 134.8 2.6 0.0 2021 20.44 0.35% 0.008% 132.2 1.6 0.0 2022 20.44 0.32% 0.007% 122.2 1.3 0.0 2023 20.44 0.29% 0.007% 110.5 1.3 0.0 2024 20.44 0.29% 0.008% 110.5 1.6 0.0 2025 20.44 0.36% 0.010% 138.3 2.0 0.0 2026 20.44 0.40% 0.014% 153.9 2.9 0.0 2027 20.44 0.33% 0.014% 127.4 2.8 0.0 2028 20.44 0.30% 0.010% 115.7 2.0 0.0 2029 20.44 0.28% 0.009% 106.5 1.7 0.0 2030 20.44 0.31% 0.009% 119.1 1.9 0.0 2031 20.44 0.32% 0.010% 122.2 2.1 0.0 2032 20.44 0.31% 0.009% 118.3 1.8 0.0 2033 20.44 0.28% 0.008% 106.1 1.6 0.0 2034 20.44 0.29% 0.007% 110.0 1.4 0.0 2035 20.44 0.27% 0.008% 102.6 1.6 0.0 2036 20.44 0.25% 0.008% 95.2 1.7 0.0 2037 20.44 0.29% 0.006% 109.1 1.2 0.0 2038 20.44 0.24% 0.006% 90.2 1.2 0.0 2039 4.40 0.20% 0.007% 16.0 0.3 0.0 Total 473.8 0.31% 0.009% 2,749.4 41.4 13.4 Payable copper and molybdenum production will average 119 million pounds and 1.8 million pounds per year through to 2039. Historically the Pinto Valley Mine has produced between 200,000 to 250,000 ounces of silver annually. Silver has not been estimated in the geological model and is not included in the Mineral Resource or Reserve estimate. As a result, silver represents potential upside to the study and has not been included in the study or estimated C1 costs. Copper cathode production will be phased out starting in 2018 due to lower production, higher operating costs and the need for waste rock storage area. The study assumes that 80% of the concentrate will be sold internationally and 20% domestically, achieving an average concentrate shipping cost of $119/wet metric tonne. Copper concentrate terms are estimated at $95/dry metric tonne treatment and $0.095/pound refining cost with 96.5% payable copper. Infrastructure Pinto Valley Mine has existing mine, mill, water and power related infrastructure to support operational needs for the expanded mine life and increased mine equipment. The tailings storage facility #4 ("TSF4") will be raised an additional 175 feet (53 metres) above the current permitted height of 800 feet (244 metres). Upgrades to the tailings pumping system will be needed and additional land will be required from the US Forest Service (see permitting section below). Capital Cost EstimateThe total PV3 life of mine sustaining capital cost estimate is summarized below: PV3 PFS - Summary of Capital Costs $M Item Units Value Site Sustaining Costs US$M 191.6 Mine Equipment Purchases and Rebuilds US$M 182.6 Mine Equipment Component Replacements US$M 253.1 Tailings US$M 24.0 Total Capex US$M 651.3 Closure Costs US$M 143.4 Operating Cost Estimate Summary of Average Life of Mine Operating Costs Item Units Value Mining Cost $/tonne moved 1.67 Mining Cost $/tonne milled 3.25 Milling Cost $/tonne milled 5.10 G&A Cost $/tonne milled 1.48 Total $/tonne milled 9.83 Transportation/TC/RC $/lb Cu payable 0.48 SX/EW Cost (2016-2018) $/lb Cu payable 1.85 Life-of-Mine C1 Cash Cost (1) (including cathode) $/lb Cu payable 2.05 Life-of-Mine Sustaining Capital $/lb Cu payable 0.24 Life-of-Mine All-In Cost (1) $/lb Cu payable 2.29 (1) This is alternative performance measure; please see "Alternative Performance Measures" at the end of this release. PermittingExtending the mine life to 2039 from 2026 will require revisions of two major permits: Aquifer Protection Permit ("APP") issued by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality ("ADEQ") to expand an existing tailings facility and permit a new mine waste rock storage facility. An amendment to the Plan of Operations ("POO"), issued by the US Forest Service, related to: Tailings storage expansion, 409 acres, Mine expansion, 61 acres, Outstanding permit renewals. Technical ReportThe full NI 43-101 Technical Report will be filed under Capstone's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com within 45 days of the date of this news release. About Capstone Mining Corp.Capstone Mining Corp. is a Canadian base metals mining company, focused on copper. We are committed to the responsible development of our assets and the environments in which we operate. Our three producing mines are the Pinto Valley copper mine located in Arizona, US, the Cozamin copper-silver mine in Zacatecas State, Mexico and the Minto copper mine in Yukon, Canada. In addition, Capstone has two development projects; the large scale 70% owned copper-iron Santo Domingo project in Region III, Chile, in partnership with Korea Resources Corporation, and the 100% owned Kutcho copper-zinc project in British Columbia, Canada, as well as exploration properties in Chile. Capstone's strategy is to continue extend the lives of our current mines with mineral resource and reserve expansions, maintain the optionality on the Santo Domingo development project, prudently progress the exploration portfolio and grow through acquisitions in politically stable, mining-friendly regions. We will pace our growth with our financial capacity, ensuring we retain, as a priority, sufficient financial flexibility to meet the requirements of our existing operations and our committed development projects, while maintaining an adequate cushion to deal with market volatility and operating risks inherent in the mining industry. Our headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada and we are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Further information is available at www.capstonemining.com. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking InformationThis document may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this document and Capstone Mining Corp. (the "Company") does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect Company management's expectations or beliefs regarding future events and include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the conversion of mineral resources to mineral reserves, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, capital expenditures, success of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. In certain cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "outlook", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative of these terms or comparable terminology. In this document, certain forward-looking statements are identified by words including "plan", "estimated", "indicates", "contemplates", "may" and "expected". By their very nature 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 expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, risks related to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of resources; possible variations in ore reserves; grade or recovery rates; assumptions related to geotechnical conditions of tailings facilities; accidents; dependence on key personnel; labour pool constraints; labour disputes; availability of infrastructure required for the development of mining projects; delays in obtaining financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; changes in general economic conditions; increased operating and capital costs; operating in foreign jurisdictions with risk of changes to governmental regulation; impact of climatic conditions; increasing energy prices; our ability to integrate new acquisitions into our operations, compliance with government regulation; reliance on, and potential delays, in approvals, licences and permits from governmental authorities; land reclamation and mine closure obligations; and other risks of the mining industry as well as those factors detailed from time to time in the Company's interim and annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis of those statements, all of which are filed and available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking 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. Quality Assurance and National Instrument 43-101 ComplianceGregg Bush, P. Eng., Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Capstone, a QP under NI 43-101, reviewed and approved all Technical Information in this news release. The following QP's will author the technical report: Gregg Bush, P.Eng., Garth Kirkham, P.Geo. of Kirkham Geosystems Ltd., John Marek P.E. of Independent Mining Consultants, Inc., Ken Major P.Eng. of KWM Consulting Inc., Tony Freiman, P.E. of Amec Foster Wheeler Environment & Infrastructure Inc. and Cori Hoag C.P.G. of SRK Consulting (U.S.), Inc. Based on the Mineral Resource Estimate, a standard methodology for pit limit analysis, mining sequence, and cut-off grade optimization, including application of mining dilution, process recovery, economic criteria and physical mine and plant operating constraints, has been followed to design the Pinto Valley pit and determine the Mineral Reserve Estimate summarized in the Mineral Reserve table. Information on data verification and exploration information is included in the report titled "Pinto Valley Mine 2014 Prefeasibility Study, NI 43-101 Technical Report, Pinto Valley Mine, Miami, Arizona", dated 28 April 2014. Alternative Performance MeasuresThe items marked with a "(1)" are alternative performance measures and readers should refer to Alternative Performance Measures in the Company's Consolidated Interim Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended September 30, 2015 as filed on SEDAR and as available on the Company's website. Cautionary Note to United States InvestorsThis news release contains disclosure that has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which differ from the requirements of US securities laws. Without limiting the foregoing, this news release may refer to technical reports that use the terms "Indicated" and "Inferred" Resources. US investors are cautioned that, while such terms are recognized and required by Canadian securities laws, the SEC does not recognize them. Under US standards, mineralization may not be classified as a "Reserve" unless the determination has been made that the mineralization could be economically and legally produced or extracted at the time the Reserve determination is made. US investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of Indicated Resources will ever be converted into Reserves. US investors should also understand that "Inferred Resources" have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence and as to whether they can be mined legally or economically. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of "Inferred Resources" will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Therefore, US investors are also cautioned not to assume that all or any part of Inferred Resources exist, or that they can be mined legally or economically. Accordingly, information concerning descriptions of mineralization and resources contained in this news release may not be comparable to information made public by US companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC. SOURCE Capstone Mining Corp. BENGALURU, INDIA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/17/16 -- Zyme, the dominant market leader in the fast-growing discipline of Channel Data Management (CDM), with global headquarters in Redwood Shores, California, has captured the coveted gold medal award from the India Testing League, edging out competition from some of the world's most knowledgeable testers. The India Testing Awards represent a competition of epic proportions, coordinated by UNICOM. The awards recognise those organisations that have stepped away from legacy tools and processes to create testing programs that define the future of IT software development, services, and support. "At Zyme, we are proud of our commitment to active collaboration. We recognise that it is imperative to our continuous improvement. Our team looks forward to opportunities to participate in events like the India Testing League, where we can network with the broader global software testing community and contribute back to the technology world," said Daya Kori, Sr. Vice President and GM of India Operations for Zyme. "We are honored to be the recipients of this prestigious award, and we know that our success depends on conducting quality experiments and perpetually learning from them. Our dedication to a 'first time right' mentality, helps us bridge the gap between technology and business, and enables us to continue to lead the world in Channel Data Management solutions." More than three thousand teams participated in the competition, which began with an online qualification quiz short-listing eighty-five teams for the "pen-and-paper" semi-final round. The grand finale was a roundtable quiz which saw the Zyme team of Arun Balachandran and Sudip Naha emerge as the winner, followed by Manhattan Associates, TCS, and 3DPLM. Zyme offers a professional environment for creativity and growth. While many companies routinely task their India offices with basic maintenance and support roles, Zyme's Bengaluru office is the global center for the company's Product Design, Development, and Infrastructure Management groups. Information about career opportunities with Zyme can be found on the Zyme website at www.zyme.com/careers.php About Zyme Zyme is the global leader in the emerging channel data management (CDM) space, empowering the New Smart Channel", a proven approach to creating visibility to actionable knowledge that manufacturers need to accelerate partner sales and optimize marketing program ROI. Zyme's flexible, cloud-based offerings facilitate enterprise-grade decisions by responding to real-time, granular channel intelligence. Benefits include better-targeted MDF, co-op, and rebate programs, plus improved segmentation. Zyme replaces outdated, ad-hoc systems with a state-of-the-art, cloud-based platform, data steward services, and a worldwide channel directory of more than 1.25 million partners for guaranteed database quality, support for a wider range of formats, and best practices that enhance reporting compliance. Industry leaders like Amazon, Dell, Microsoft, VMware, Fujitsu, Plantronics, Honeywell, HP Inc., Xerox, Symantec, Lenovo, GoPro, Armstrong World Industries, and Seagate rely on Zyme. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, CA, Zyme has offices in India, Texas, China, and the UK. For more information, visit www.Zyme.com Media Contacts: David Wright (USA) MediaBridge Public Relations +1-408-363-2843 [email protected] Clare Shephard (UK-Europe-Middle East) Maillot Jaune PR +44-773-679-3332 [email protected] Source: Zyme DALLAS, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- United Van Lines recently released its 39th Annual National Movers Study results, which tracks state-by-state migration patterns based on interstate household moves handled by United. As a 40-year agent of United Van Lines, North Dallas Moving and Storage (NDMS) was among the Texas moving companies included in the study data, having served as interstate movers for many Texas residents. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160115/322723 The United Van Lines movers study examined household moves between the 48 contiguous U.S. states as well as the District of Columbia during 2015. To determine the top states for inbound and outbound moves, United compared the percentage of residents moving into and out of each state. According to the study findings, NDMS' home state of Texas ranked ninth nationwide for inbound moves, with 56.9% of interstate moving clients relocating into the Lone Star State and only 43.1% leaving Texas for other states. Texas was also was one of the top two states for total inbound residential moves; behind California, it ranked second nationwide. NDMS and other United Van Lines agents helped move 11,777 households into Texasrepresenting 9.6% of all inbound moves handled by United last year. These findings echo U.S. Census Bureau data, which lists Texas as the second most populous state after California and first in numeric population growth, with a population increase of 490,036 between July 1, 2014 and July 1, 2015.* "We're proud to have been the Dallas moving company of choice for many families relocating to Texas, and we're committed to helping them make a smooth transition to their new home state," said Brandon Morris, President of North Dallas Moving and Storage. "Just as 2015 was a great year for Texas and its new residents, it was also an outstanding year for NDMS," Morris reflected. "We earned several awards and were honored for 40 years of service as a United Van Lines agent, and we helped thousands of residential and business customers get settled into new homes and offices. My team and I are looking forward to an equally successful 2016, and we're excited to celebrate our 50th year in business this summer." A family owned and locally operated company, North Dallas Moving and Storage has distinguished itself as one of United Van Lines' largest booking agents. Among the honors NDMS earned last year were a Consumers' Choice Award for best residential movers in Dallas-Fort Worth and a Best of Carrollton Award in the moving services category. NDMS also holds a United Van Lines Master Club Award and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. To learn more about North Dallas Moving and Storage and its full range of moving services and secure storage solutions, visit http://www.ndms.com. About United Van Lines:United Van Lines is America's #1 Mover, offering a full range of moving solutions from do-it-yourself to full-service. With headquarters in suburban St. Louis, United Van Lines maintains a network of 400 affiliated agencies. For more information about United Van Lines, visit UnitedVanLines.com. About North Dallas Moving and Storage:Founded in 1966, North Dallas Moving and Storage (NDMS) is a family-owned and operated business serving residential and commercial customers throughout Texas. NDMS was appointed as agent for United Van Lines in 1975 and has since established itself as one of United's largest booking agents. The company offers local moving and storage solutions for residential and commercial clients throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, while its interstate movers provide long-distance moving and relocation services nationwide. NDMS has consistently maintained an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and has earned many accolades, including the Consumer's Choice Award, United Van Lines Masters Club Award and Best of Carrollton Award. NDMS is affiliated with the American Moving & Storage Association (AMSA) as well as its ProMover and Registered International Mover (RIM) programs, and the company is a proud supporter of MoveRescue, Move for Hunger, and the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) and its Food 4 Kids program. * U.S. Census Bureau. "North Carolina Becomes Ninth State With 10 Million or More People, Census Bureau Reports"; press release issued December 22, 2015. census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-215.html Media Inquiries:Brandon MorrisPresidentNorth Dallas Moving and Storagehttp://www.ndms.com(972) 241-1562 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dallas-based-moving-company-ndms-spotlights-united-van-lines-study-findings-texas-among-top-10-states-for-inbound-moves-300205245.html SOURCE North Dallas Moving and Storage BISMARCK, ND -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Knife River Corp., a subsidiary of MDU Resources Group Inc. (NYSE: MDU), has been awarded a $63.4 million contract to reconstruct a portion of Interstate 29 in Sioux City, Iowa. This is the largest contract Knife River has been awarded. "Improving I-29 through the heart of Sioux City is a great project for us and for the 40,000-plus people who travel that stretch of highway every day," said David C. Barney, president and CEO of Knife River. "Our Iowa team is looking forward to enhancing the durability and safety of an important section of roadway." Knife River will reconstruct the northbound lanes of I-29 from exit 147A to north of exit 149, alongside downtown Sioux City. The two-year project will begin this spring, with completion planned for fall 2017. In addition to working as the general contractor, Knife River will supply the concrete, asphalt and aggregate base for the 2.5-mile project. Much of the road base -- about 100,000 tons of material -- will be made from recycled concrete. "Securing this project adds to an already substantial backlog of work Knife River has compiled for 2016 -- nearly $500 million," said David L. Goodin, president and CEO of MDU Resources. "The momentum the company enjoyed in 2015 is carrying into this year, signifying steady growth in the construction materials industry. Landing projects of this size is a testament not only to Knife River's capacity to handle large volumes of work, but also to its reputation as a company that will work safely and produce quality results." MDU Resources Group, Inc., a member of the S&P MidCap 400 index, provides value-added natural resource products and related services that are essential to energy and transportation infrastructure, including regulated utilities, pipelines and energy services, and construction materials and services. For more information about MDU Resources, see the company's website at www.mdu.com or contact the Investor Relations Department at [email protected]. Knife River Corporation mines aggregates and markets crushed stone, sand, gravel and related construction materials, including ready-mix concrete, cement, asphalt, liquid asphalt and other value-added products. It also performs integrated construction services. For more information about Knife River, visit the company's website at www.kniferiver.com. Contacts: Media:Tony Spildesenior public relations representative(701) 530-1061Financial: Rick Mattesondirector of investor relations(701) 530-1057 Source: MDU Resources Group, Inc. WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) today announced a new relationship with Markel FirstComp, a division of Markel Service, Inc., ("Markel FirstComp") through which eligible small business owners across the country can qualify for workers' compensation insurance at competitive rates. NFIB, which represents 325,000 local businesses in the US, named Markel FirstComp as their newest preferred provider of workers' compensation insurance coverage for its members. NFIB chose Markel FirstComp based on its financial strength, focus on small business, and its ability to customize plans to meet the needs of individual customers. "We try very hard to give our members access to the services and products they need." said Mark Garzone, Sr. VP in charge of Marketing for the NFIB. "Competitive workers' comp coverage is critical for small business owners and this new relationship creates a real value for our members." The NFIB/Markel FirstComp relationship offers a number of advantages for NFIB members and will offer a number of benefits* for NFIB's small business owners such as: Pricing credits Exclusive NFIB Policyholder Dividends Tools and information designed to enhance businesses and employees' safety "The addition of Markel FirstComp as a provider could help our members save money on their insurance premiums and reward them for maintaining a safe work environment." said Garzone. "With Markel FirstComp, we are offering a product that provides opportunities for pricing credits and a member-exclusive dividend opportunity. Those two features can help our members improve their profitability and protect their employees." Workers' compensation insurance is a necessity for small business owners who could otherwise lose everything because of an accident or claim. Finding the right coverage is often difficult, however, and choices are sometimes limited. "For nearly 20 years Markel FirstComp has been focused on supporting America's small business community by offering affordable access to workers' compensation coverage and related services to protect themselves and their employees," stated Chad Bertucci, Regional President of Markel FirstComp. "We believe NFIB, through its advocacy and focus on enabling the success of small businesses, fits well with our desire to be a point of strength in the perpetuation of small business and look forward to the opportunity to partner with them." The program will be administered by NFIB Member Services Corporation (MSC), a wholly owned, for profit, subsidiary of National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and MSC Insurance Agency of Tennessee, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of MSC. Visit MemberVantage Program for more information about NFIB member services. About NFIB NFIB is the country's leading small business advocate with offices in every state capital and hundreds of thousands of members nationwide. Founded in 1943 as a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small and independent business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect their business. NFIB's powerful network of grassroots activists sends their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America's free enterprise system. NFIB's mission is to promote and protect the right of our members to own, operate and grow their businesses. For more information about NFIB, please visit http://www.nfib.com. About Markel SpecialtyMarkel Specialty, a division of Markel Corporation, provides innovative insurance solutions for both commercial customers and individuals. Types of insurance offered include property and casualty, workers compensation, accident, and programs featuring industry or risk-specific coverage packages. About Markel CorporationMarkel Corporation is a diverse financial holding company serving a variety of niche markets. The Company's principal business markets and underwrites specialty insurance products. In each of the Company's businesses, it seeks to provide quality products and excellent customer service so that it can be a market leader. The financial goals of the Company are to earn consistent underwriting and operating profits and superior investment returns to build shareholder value. Visit Markel Corporation on the web at markelcorp.com. Insurance products and services written or provided by subsidiaries and affiliates of Markel Corp. including, but not limited to: Markel Service, Incorporated; Markel Insurance Services; Markel Insurance Company; Markel American Insurance Company; and FirstComp Insurance Company. Rev. 1/16 *Benefit availability and eligibility varies by state, please consult a Markel FirstComp representative for details. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140415/73238 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-small-business-association-continues-expansion-of-small-business-insurance-solutions-with-markel-firstcomp-300205836.html SOURCE Markel PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA -- (Marketwired) -- 01/18/16 -- Paladin Energy Ltd ("Paladin" or "the Company") (TSX: PDN) (ASX: PDN) announces the release of its Quarterly Activities Report for the period ended 31 December 2015. HIGHLIGHTS Sales of 1,698,517lb U3O8 at an average selling price of US$37.90/lb (vs. average spot price of US$36.03/lb) Langer Heinrich Mine Accounting production 1,258,833lb U3O8 and drummed production 1,263,882lb U3O8, up 16% and 5% respectively vs. last quarter. Average plant feed grade of 714ppm U3O8. Overall recovery of 88.5%. Record low quarterly C1 cash cost of production of US$25.38/lb (vs. guidance of US$25.00/lb to US$27.00/lb). Record low monthly C1 cash cost achieved during the month of December of US$23.73/lb. Kayelekera Mine Newly commissioned Nano-filtration unit provided treated water meeting all discharge licence criteria and World Health Organisation, Malawi, and Australia drinking water guidelines. Application for renewal of licence to discharge treated water approved by the Technical Committee of the Water Resources Authority and is awaiting Ministerial review. Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December 2015 of US$136.8M (an increase of US$28.4M from 30 September 2015 and better vs. guidance pro-forma US$122.5M to US$132.5M after adjusting for the additional repurchase of Convertible Bonds due in April 2017 and sales proceeds from the last physical delivery of the quarter) Repurchased an additional US$17M of the Convertible Bonds due April 2017 for approximately US$15.5M An additional three Japanese reactors (Takahama 3 & 4 and Ikata 3) were cleared for re-start in the December quarter and are expected to commence operations in early 2016 Company continues to be on track to be cash flow neutral on an 'all in' basis at current spot uranium price and foreign exchange rates excluding one-off restructuring costs and capital management or strategic initiatives for FY16 full-year SAFETY The Company achieved 544 Lost Time Injury (LTI) free days at the Kayelekera Mine (KM) and 13 LTI free days at the Langer Heinrich Mine (LHM) at the end of this quarter. The Company's 12 month moving average Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) was 2.10 as compared to 1.39 at the end of the last quarter and 4.14 for the quarter to 31 December 2014. The increase in the LTIFR in this quarter was a result of two lost time injuries at LHM. The lost time injuries were as follows: A process operator sustained caustic burns when his Tyvek protective suit became torn and or saturated while moving in and out of a caustic tank. A cleaning contractor slipped and fractured a bone in her foot whilst changing clothes in the change house. QUARTERLY URANIUM SALES Total sales for the quarter was 1,698,517lb U3O8 at an average selling price of US$37.90/lb, generating gross sales revenue of US$64.4M, which was a 75% increase over the previous quarter's revenue. The TradeTech weekly spot price average for the December quarter was US$36.03/lb. LANGER HEINRICH MINE, NAMIBIA (75%) Production and cash cost of production ------------------------------------------------- 2014 Dec 2015 Mar 2015 Jun 2015 Sep 2015 Dec Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accounting production (lb U3O8) 1,376,578 1,234,325 1,336,826 1,082,983 1,258,833 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C1 cash cost of production (US$/lb) 28.58 29.42 26.03 27.82 25.38 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quarterly accounting production of 1,258,833lb U3O8 was up on the preceding quarter by 16%. The amount of drummed material produced (i.e., drummed production) for the quarter was up 5% from last quarter to 1,263,882lb U3O8. We anticipate a continued trend of drummed production exceeding accounting production (i.e., release of material from in-plant inventory) for the remainder of FY16. LHM unit C1 cash cost of production for the quarter decreased by 9% from US$27.82/lb in the September quarter to a record low US$25.38/lb. Unit C1 cash cost of production was 11% lower than in the quarter to 31 December 2014. LHM achieved a record low monthly unit C1 cash cost of production in the December month of US$23.73/lb. Guidance previously provided was for LHM unit C1 cash cost of production for the December quarter to be within the full-year guidance range of US$25.00/lb to US$27.00/lb. Mining ------------------------------------------------- 2014 Dec 2015 Mar 2015 Jun 2015 Sep 2015 Dec Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ore mined (t) 703,901 598,341 700,831 833,057 680,892 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grade (ppm U3O8) 928 868 792 705 757 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional low grade ore mined (t) 183,341 353,664 354,559 811,805 535,358 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grade (ppm U3O8) 325 316 325 317 319 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waste (t) 4,119,374 4,021,724 4,143,019 4,679,474 5,334,716 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total Ore and Waste (t) 5,006,616 4,973,729 5,198,410 6,324,336 6,550,966 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Waste/ore ratio 6.1 7.3 6.4 6.6 8.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mining production for the quarter was up 4% on the prior quarter. Mining activities were completed in Pits H4 and G3B while the current focus is in Pits H5A, H3, H3-South and G3A. Ore mining occurred in Pits H3, H4, H5A and G3B. Pit H3-South top/sub-soil stripping was completed and waste stripping will commence in the next quarter. Ore (high and medium grade) mining for the quarter was below target both in tonnage and grade due to more waste stripping in Pit H5A, top/sub-soil stripping in Pit H3 extension as well as the actual mining sequence being varied from the budget sequence. For the next quarter, more ore will be mined. Run-of-Mine (RoM) ore stockpiles decreased at the end of the quarter. Lower stockpile levels will remain due to the increasing ore-to-waste stripping ratio in the western ore body. The RoM medium grade is being supplemented by medium grade ore from long-term stockpiles in line with the life of mine plan. Processing ------------------------------------------------- 2014 Dec 2015 Mar 2015 Jun 2015 Sep 2015 Dec Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr Qtr ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ore milled (t) 916,576 860,337 886,520 847,016 903,187 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grade (ppm U3O8) 773 736 778 706 714 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Overall recovery (%) 88.2 88.4 87.8 82.2 88.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accounting production (lb U3O8) 1,376,578 1,234,325 1,336,826 1,082,983 1,258,833 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accounting production for the December quarter was up 16% on the prior quarter mainly due to a 7% increase in throughput and a 6% increase in overall recovery. However soluble recovery was below budget caused by lower than budget tailings density as a result of poor settling ore, worn cyclones and CCD thickener #7 centre well bogging. In addition, ion exchange performance was also lower than budget caused by poor performance from the BRP plant from late November, which resulted in higher barren liquor being returned as CCD circuit wash water as more concentrated eluate bypassed the circuit due to membrane fouling. The cyclone issue has been resolved while the BRP membrane issue is in progress. Modifications to CCD thickener #7 centre well are being investigated. Innovation / optimisation An external review of LHM's processing operations was undertaken by a third-party consultant during the quarter, resulting in a number of action items. Such items include a heavy focus on initiatives to increase plant operating uptime, which combined with other innovations already in the implementation or design phase, will be rolled out in the remainder of FY16 and FY17. KAYELEKERA MINE, MALAWI (85%) Operations The Kayelekera Mine (KM) remains on Care and Maintenance. Quarterly activities at site focussed on water treatment testing during October and November using filtration only. The water quality was good throughout the testing period with successful rejection of uranium and sulphate removal. Controlled treated water release will recommence in 2016 when the Malawi Government has renewed KM's licence for the discharge of treated water. Exploration Government of Malawi Parliamentary approval of, and the introduction of the new Mining Act in Malawi is still ongoing, as a consequence the Malawi Mines Department has delayed the issue of all licences until a new cadastral system has been introduced and all overlapping tenure issues have been resolved. It is expected that this process will be completed in the first half of 2016. The Company continues to monitor the situation and liaise with the Malawi Mines Department to ensure that the introduction of the new legislation goes as smoothly as possible. Exploration in the December quarter continued the surface geophysical surveys, stream sediment sampling and geological mapping previously started in areas around the mine on ML152 and EPL225. Analysis of the data obtained to date on these studies is ongoing. MANYINGEE-CARLEY BORE PROJECT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA (100%) Manyingee A regional and local conceptual groundwater model for the greater Manyingee area was completed by external consultants during the quarter. The report is expected to be finalised in the March quarter following review by Company staff. The groundwater study, along with detailed geological modelling of areas suitable for in-situ recovery field leach trials (FLT), is expected to be used to complete an FLT application document in the first half of 2016. Carley Bore State government approvals for exploration drilling were finalised to allow for proposed drilling in FY17. Subsequent to the completion of the drill hole database audit a 3D geological model of the host stratigraphy and the redox front related to mineralisation was created. The 3D geological model has identified potential extensions to known mineralisation which are expected to be tested during future drilling campaigns. AURORA-MICHELIN URANIUM PROJECT, CANADA (100%) Results have been received for the orientation soil sampling survey completed over the Michelin and Rainbow deposits and surrounding areas during the northern summer field season. The aim of the survey was to confirm that Michelin style deposits can be identified through the existing cover sequence and additionally identify prospective areas adjacent to the existing deposits. Analysis of the results is currently underway and it is expected that initial planning for follow-up surveys and ground truthing will be completed in the first half of 2016 in order to make efficient use of any limited summer field season. Analysis of the geophysical studies completed in the previous quarter is currently underway and the results will be used to enhance the regional prospectivity mapping that has already been commenced. It is expected that, when combined with the results from the orientation soil survey, prospective areas under cover will be more easily identified. It is hoped that this work can be completed sufficiently ahead of any exploration re-start in order to quickly identify readily accessible drill targets. MOUNT ISA URANIUM PROJECTS, QUEENSLAND (82% to 100%) Radiometric ore sorting tests for samples from the Odin, Bikini, Andersons, Watta, Duke Batman and Honey Pot deposits are currently underway at ANSTO. It is expected that the majority of the sorting samples will progress through to subsequent leach testwork during the remainder of 2016. Once the results from the leaching testwork have been received the results will be incorporated into an updated optimisation study for the project. CORPORATE Financial In November and December 2015, Paladin repurchased US$17.0M of the Convertible Bonds due April 2017. The cash expenditure for the repurchase was approximately US$15.5M as the bonds were bought back at an average price of 90.6 per cent. The repurchase of US$17.0M in the December quarter together with the repurchase of US$20.0M in the September quarter (i.e., combined total of US$37.0M), has reduced the principal amount outstanding of the Convertible Bonds due 30 April 2017 from US$274.0M to US$237.0M. Combined cash savings net of the purchase outlay resulting from Paladin's repurchase activities are approximately US$7.0 million in the form of avoided principal and coupon payments over the period to maturity of the 2017 Convertible Bonds. At 31 December 2015, the Group's cash and cash equivalents were US$136.8M, an increase of US$28.4M from US$108.4M at 30 September 2015. Guidance previously provided was for the 31 December 2015 cash balance to be in the range of US$110M to US$120M, with such guidance provided prior to the implementation of the convertible bond repurchase in the December quarter and excluding the sales proceeds from the last physical delivery of the quarter of approximately US$28M in value, which resulted in adjusted guidance pro-forma for those items of US$122.5M to US$132.5M. URANIUM MARKET The TradeTech weekly spot price average for the December quarter was US$36.03/lb, representing a 1% decrease compared to US$36.48/lb for the prior quarter and a 4% decrease compared to US$37.66/lb for the quarter to 31 December 2014. In late December, the Fukui District Court lifted an injunction that had prevented the re-start of Units 3 and 4 at Kansai's Takahama nuclear power plant in Japan. The court decision cleared the way for resumption of operations at the two units and fuel loading was completed for Unit 3 on 28 December. Takahama 3 is expected to re-start before the end of January 2016, with Unit 4 following in late February. Shikoku Electric's Ikata Unit 3 is also expected to resume operations in early 2016. With the Japanese reactor re-start programme finally gathering some momentum, at least eight units are expected to be operating by the end of 2016. 2015 was a strong year for development of nuclear power in China with 8 new units entering commercial operation. China had 30 reactors in operation at the end of 2015 providing almost 27GWe of installed capacity. Another 24 units are currently under construction, with as many as 15 additional reactors planned to start construction during 2016. China is targeting 58GWe installed nuclear capacity by 2020 and a minimum of 110GWe by 2030. China's nuclear power ambitions extend beyond its own borders. In addition to ongoing projects in Pakistan, Chinese companies announced agreements in November 2015 to construct two new units in Romania and a further two in Argentina. Chinese companies will also compete for new projects in Turkey and South Africa and have also taken a one-third stake in the project to construct two new reactors in the UK. China General Nuclear's stake in the Hinkley Point C consortium represented a major step forward for the UK project. In early December, 195 nations reached agreement on a new Climate Change treaty in Paris. The new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is expected to mark an accelerated move away from fossil fuels and towards carbon dioxide free energy sources. Nuclear power is the only major source of base load electricity generation that is largely carbon dioxide free and stands to be a key beneficiary from the anticipated change in the global energy mix. GUIDANCE UPDATE Accounted uranium sales for the FY16 March quarter are anticipated to be in the range of 450,000lb to 650,000lb. The Company is reviewing its annual production guidance for FY16, which was previously in the range of 5.0Mlb to 5.4Mlb U3O8 and included a planned 10% reduction in milled ore grade to 694ppm U3O8. Incorporating performance for the first half of FY16, annual production is more likely to be in the range of 5.0Mlb to 5.2Mlb. Average selling price premium guidance for FY16 full-year continues to be more than US$4/lb above average spot price, based on current spot uranium price. March quarter C1 unit cash costs are expected to be in the range of US$23/lb to US$25/lb. Paladin is also reviewing its full-year average FY16 C1 unit cash cost guidance range of US$25/lb to US$27/lb with the potential for a downward revision. The Company's full-year FY16 C1 unit cost guidance was provided at the commencement of FY16 based on an internal operating budget prepared using a US$ to Namibian Dollar (NAD) exchange rate of 12.6. As a general 'rule of thumb' medium-term US$ C1 unit cost is impacted by approximately US$0.50/lb for every NAD 1.0 move in the US$ to NAD exchange rate. The NAD is pegged on a one for one ratio to the South African Rand and has experienced substantial depreciation in recent months. The average US$ to NAD exchange rate for the FY16 December quarter was 14.1 and the current rate is approximately 16.5. At the outset of the financial year, Paladin provided guidance to be cash flow neutral on an 'all in' basis at current spot uranium price and foreign exchange rates excluding one-off restructuring costs and capital management (e.g., convertible bond repurchases) or strategic initiatives. The Company continues to expect the remainder of FY16 to be cash generative and for it to achieve this guidance under current conditions. Paladin currently forecasts the cash and cash equivalents balance at 31 March 2015 to be in the range of US$100M to US$110M, with the reduction in cash mainly due to the timing of sales receipts resulting in an anticipated cash build in the following quarter. Yours faithfully, Paladin Energy Ltd ALEXANDER MOLYNEUX Interim CEO Declaration The information in this Announcement relating to exploration and mineral resources is, except where stated, based on information compiled by David Princep B.Sc who is a Fellow of the AusIMM. Mr Princep has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity that he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the "Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves", and as a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. Mr Princep is a full-time employee of Paladin Energy Ltd and consents to the inclusion of this information in the form and context in which it appears. ACN 061 681 098 For additional information, please contact:Andrew MircoInvestor Relations Contact (Perth)Tel: +61-8-9423-8162 or Mobile: +61-409-087-171Email: [email protected] Source: Paladin Energy Ltd Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (C) talks with Australian troops during breakfast at Camp Baird, located in the Middle East, during his visit to Iraq, January 16, 2016. REUTERS/Alex Ellinghausen/Pool By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Monday a small increase in the Australian troop commitment to the NATO-led force supporting the Afghan central government during a surprise visit to Kabul. Australia, which lost 41 soldiers in Afghanistan during its more than 12-year involvement in the conflict following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, will commit 20 more personnel to the mission, bringing its total to 270. Turnbull, speaking at the Australian Embassy in Kabul, defended the decision despite rejecting a request last week from U.S. President Barack Obama to commit more Australian forces to the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. "The truth is that in 2016, nowhere is a long way from anywhere. The world is so connected, more than it has ever been before. It is absolutely critical that we recognize that security is a global issue," Turnbull said. Turnbull, who deposed Tony Abbott as leader in a party coup last year, has been a less vocal critic of the danger posed by Islamist militants than his predecessor, who continues to advocate a more forceful foreign policy. Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States are set to hold talks on Monday aimed at laying the ground for a negotiated end to almost 15 years of war between U.S.-supported government forces and Taliban insurgents. Taliban forces have stepped up their campaign in the past year to topple the Kabul government, which has struggled since most foreign troops left at the end of 2014. High-profile suicide attacks and Taliban territorial gains in Helmand province have underlined how far Afghanistan remains from peace. The Taliban, which now control or contest more territory than at any time since they were ousted from power, will not attend the talks. Turnbull is set to visit Washington on Monday and Tuesday for a meeting with Obama, where national security in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions are set to be agenda-topping items. (Reporting by Matt Siegel; Editing by Peter Cooney) A TV cameraman works as crews from Southern California Gas Company and outside experts work on a relief well at the Aliso Canyon gas field above the Porter Ranch section of northwest Los Angeles, California in this December 9, 2015 pool photo. REUTERS/D By Phoenix Tso LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Southern California air quality officials on Saturday delayed plans to capture and burn off natural gas leaking from an underground well near an affluent Los Angeles neighborhood, citing the possible risk of a fire. The move came at a public hearing where Porter Ranch residents, many of whom have been displaced or sickened by the methane leaking from the underground storage well, expressed frustration over the failure of the state or the utility, Southern California Gas Co, to stop the leak. The leak was first detected on Oct. 23 at an underground natural gas field in Porter Ranch, which is home to more than 30,000 people. Thousands of residents had to move over the holidays, with the company underwriting their temporary housing. Officials from Southern California Gas, a division of Sempra Energy, said they expected to stop the leak in late February or March. State officials have said the leak accounted at its peak for a fourth of California's 20 million metric tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions from methane. The cause of the leak is believed to be a broken injection-well pipe several hundred feet beneath the surface of the 3,600-acre (1,457-hectare) field. Nearby residents have complained of such ailments as headaches, nausea and respiratory irritation from mercaptans, the odorants added to natural gas, according to Los Angeles County health officials. The officials have said past studies found no long-term health effects from mercaptans. The South Coast Air Quality Management District was expected at Saturday's hearing to sign off on an order instructing Southern California Gas to come up with a plan to capture and treat the escaped gas in the interim. The order originally required the utility to dispose of the gas by burning it, but district officials said at the hearing that safety concerns from local and state agencies required them to put that plan on hold. "They have expressed concern about not being familiar with this type of gas collection and capture, said Mohsen Nazemi, a deputy executive director for the regulator. "Its a very unusual circumstance." Such a process risked "additional fire" if the gas is blown downwind to nearby incinerators, Nazemi added. Residents who attended the hearing said they were angry that a decision had been delayed since they had been forced to leave home for months. (Reporting by Phoenix Tso; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Lisa Von Ahn) Germain Katanga, a Congolese national, sits in the courtroom of the ICC during the closing statements in the trial against Katanga and Ngudjolo Chui in The Hague May 15, 2012. REUTERS/Michael Kooren KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo said it would not free warlord Germain Katanga at the end of his International Criminal Court (ICC)-imposed jail term on Monday as it is investigating him for other offences including the killing of nine U.N. peacekeepers. The decision to hold Katanga is the latest chapter in a conflict that flared up in northeastern Congo over a decade ago but has continued to scar the province of Ituri. Katanga, former commander of a militia in Congo's northeast, was convicted by The Hague-based tribunal in 2014 of murder, pillage and assaults on civilians during a 2003 raid on a village that killed some 200 people. He was returned to the Congolese capital Kinshasa last month to serve the remaining weeks of his sentence. He had been scheduled to be the first ICC convict to be freed. But Congo Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe said that Katanga would not be released on Monday as investigators were exploring other accusations against him. "We want to interrogate him notably on the role he could have played in the assassination of nine blue helmets," he said, referring to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country. It was not clear when the justice department would make the decision on whether to prosecute Katanga further. The ICC charges pertained exclusively to the 2003 attack on a village and did not cover the killing of the peacekeepers, who were killed in a separate attack in 2005. Katanga's Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI) is one of a constellation of rebel groups in the vast, chaotic central African country that have terrorized civilians and exploited its rich reserves of gold and other minerals. (Reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Makini Brice and Mark Heinrich) The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant in Lansing, Michigan October 26, 2015. Photo taken October 26. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook TOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor and General Motors are considering jointly building a fuel cell plant as the automakers try to cut the cost of developing electric cars, Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily reported on Saturday. They aim to start the mass production of fuel cells by 2025 at the latest, the paper reported. Honda and GM have been collaborating on developing fuel cells since 2013. While working jointly on fuel cells, the two companies continue to develop their own cars separately, Asahi reported. The huge cost required to develop fuel cells has prompted the world's carmakers to cooperate with their rivals. Daimler AG, Ford Motor and Nissan Motor jointly develop fuel cells while Toyota Motor is in partnership with BMW in the area. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Stephen Coates) An Airbus A380, the world's largest jetliner, participates in a flying display during the 51st Paris Air Show at Le Bourget airport near Paris, June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol By Conor Humphries and Victoria Bryan DUBLIN (Reuters) - British Airways owner IAG is holding talks on leasing additional A380s second hand because it believes the options it has to buy more of the Airbus superjumbo are too expensive, its chief executive said on Monday. The move is part of a strategy of increasing the proportion of leased aircraft International Airlines Group (IAG) has within its fleet, Willie Walsh told the Airline Economics aircraft finance conference in Dublin. "We have options on A380s ... but we are not going to exercise them because they are too expensive," he said. "We see the option of leasing them second hand as an attractive opportunity." Walsh said IAG was also interested in leasing or buying more second-hand Boeing (NYSE: BA) 777-300ERs. "We see going forward probably a greater mix of leased in the fleet than weve traditionally had," he said. Leasing has traditionally been seen as an expensive option by large established carriers, which can often secure large discounts on new plane orders. But airlines are increasingly looking to lessors to quickly add and subtract capacity at short notice to match market demand, experts told the conference. "The adversity to off-balance sheet leasing from the mega carriers of the world is gone forever. Leasing is here to stay," Steven Udvar-Hazy of Air Lease Corporation (NYSE: AL) said in response to Walsh's comments. Walsh said IAG was looking at adding another five or six A380s to the British Airways fleet, but that the jet could also be suitable for Spain-based group airline Iberia. He said the plane was successful for British Airways on routes where demand was high but it didn't necessarily need to operate frequent flights, thus freeing up a slot at London's overcrowded Heathrow airport. He said there was a limit to IAG's appetite due to the inflexibility of the aircraft, which he said suited relatively few routes. The 544-seat A380 has been a slow seller for manufacturer Airbus (NYSE: AIR) and is untested on the second-hand market. The first leased A380 aircraft are set to return to the market in 2017 and Malaysia Airlines is also looking to offload some A380s as it restructures. "There's no time frame, it will depend on when aircraft become available, we're not in an immediate hurry," Walsh told journalists on the sidelines of the conference, adding IAG had already held talks with lessors. The A380s would not be a replacement for the 747s British Airways currently operates. Walsh said the low oil price meant the carrier was not going to accelerate retirement of the jet. Air France-KLM last week retired its final 747s. (Reporting by Conor Humphries and Victoris Bryan; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter) Iraqis carry a poster of top Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani during a demonstration in Najaf, 160 km (100 miles) south of Baghdad June 13, 2007. REUTERS/Ali Abu Shish/Files BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, on Friday urged the government to prevent militant attacks and condemned bombings claimed by Islamic State and retaliatory assaults this week on Sunni mosques in the province of Diyala. Sistani has millions of followers in Iraq and elsewhere and wields authority that few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge. "We place full responsibility on the government security forces for (the attacks') repetition and to not permit the presence of militants outside the framework of the state," his spokesman, Sheikh Abdul Mehdi Karbala'i, said in a sermon broadcast on state television. At least seven Sunni mosques and dozens of shops in the town of Muqdadiya were firebombed on Tuesday, a day after 23 people were killed there in two blasts targeting Shi'ite militia fighters. Iraqi officials declared victory over the insurgents in Diyala, which borders Iran, nearly a year ago after security forces and Shi'ite militias drove them out of towns and villages there. But the militants have remained active and militia elements have been accused of abuses against Sunni residents. The rise of radical Sunni group Islamic State has exacerbated a long-running sectarian conflict in Iraq, mostly between the Shi'ite majority and minority Sunnis. A surge in violence could undermine efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, a moderate Shi'ite Islamist, to dislodge the group from areas in the north and west that they seized in 2014. Abadi visited Muqdadiya on Thursday to meet with security and municipal officials. (Reporting by Stephen Kalin and Saif Hameed; Editing by Louise Ireland) Former Maldives' President Mohamed Nasheed arrives at Mal'e City with police officers, for the first hearing of the trial held at Criminal Court in Male, February 23, 2015. REUTERS/Waheed Mohamed/Files By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon on Monday rejected international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney's criticism that democracy was "dead" in the Indian Ocean island. Clooney, the international lawyer acting for jailed former leader Mohamed Nasheed, last week used a high-profile interview with U.S. news channel NBC News to condemn President Abdulla Yameen's administration in the Maldives. Nasheed, who was the Maldives' first democratically elected president, is serving a 13-year sentence on terrorism charges for the alleged abduction of a judge after a rapid trial last March in a case which drew international criticism. Clooney, in an interview with NBC, had said her client's case showed that democracy is "dead in the Maldives". Defending the Maldives, popular for its pristine beaches, scuba diving and high-end tourism, Foreign Minister Maumoon told Reuters that Clooney had "spun a compelling tale" but it was not true. "My appeal to the rest of the world is to have a good understanding and not be persuaded purely by charm-filled Amal Clooney when she goes and gives some of these stories," she said. Maumoon's comments came as Nasheed was permitted by the Maldives government to leave Male and fly to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he is likely to stay for some time before leaving for surgery in Britain, party sources told Reuters. There had been some confusion over whether the government would grant him permission to travel or not, as Nasheed refused to nominate a guarantor, someone who could face criminal prosecution if Nasheed does not return to Maldives. Nasheed was ousted in disputed circumstances in 2012 for ordering the arrest of a judge. His conviction was condemned by United Nations, the United States and human rights groups as being politically motivated. Clooney, who is married to actor George Clooney, had sought to draw attention to political turmoil in the country. In her NBC interview, she said: "Every opposition leader is either behind bars or being pursued by the government through the courts." (Reporting by Shihar Aneez; editing by Sarah Young/ Richard Balmforth) A Somali man walks in front of the Iranian Red Crescent premises after the government ordered all Iran-related operations to leave within 72 hours in Mogadishu January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Feisal Omar NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somalia received a pledge of aid for $50 million from Saudi Arabia this month on the same day it announced it was cutting ties with Saudi rival Iran, a document seen by Reuters showed. The government, which did not confirm or deny the pledge, has said there was no link between long-running Saudi financial support and its diplomatic decision to break ties with Iran. The Saudi Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. But diplomats said it was the latest sign of patronage used by the kingdom to shore up regional support against Iran, a rivalry that deepened this month when Sunni majority Saudi Arabia executed a Shi'ite cleric and Iranian protesters responded by torching the Saudi embassy in Tehran. "The Saudis currently manage to rally countries behind them both on financial grounds and the argument of non-interference," a diplomat said, referring to what Sunni-majority countries see as Irans habit of cultivating ties to their Shiite minorities. A document from the Saudi embassy in Nairobi to the Somali embassy in the Kenyan capital showed the kingdom pledging $20 million in budget support and another $30 million for investment in Somalia, a nation trying to rebuild after two decades of war. The two grants would come from the Saudi Development Fund, according to the document that was dated Jan. 7, the same day Somalia cut ties with Tehran. Somalia cut relations with Iran saying Tehran had meddled in Somali affairs and threatened national security. Mogadishu gave Iranian diplomats, among the few stationed in the Somali capital where bomb attacks are frequent, 72 hours to leave. Somalia's Finance Minister Mohamed Aden Ibrahim declined to comment on the pledges, but said any financial assistance from Saudi Arabia was not related to Mogadishu's stance against Iran. "Our relationship with Saudi Arabia was long-standing and is not something that has just started," the minister told Reuters. Several other Arab states such as neighboring Bahrain, a long-time close ally and recipient of Saudi largesse also cut ties. Other wealthier Gulf states withdrew envoys. Sudan, which like Somalia and Saudi Arabia is a member of the Arab League, said it had cut ties with non-Arab Iran. Somalia's ties with Saudi Arabia have grown as it tries to rebuild a nation while battling an Islamist insurgency, although Western powers and Turkey remain among the biggest and more prominent donors to the country. Somalia's president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, met King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud in Saudi Arabia in October. A Saudi team had visited Somalia in late 2015 to discuss further Saudi support for the country. "Any financial and other requests that we made to the Saudis were way before" Somali cut ties with Iran, Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in Riyadh and Bill Maclean in Dubai; Writing by Edmund Blair; editing by Susan Thomas) Sir Peter Jackson felt he was not involved enough on a daily basis with Weta Workshop, as required by new health and safety laws, so has resigned as director but remains a shareholder. New health and safety legislation has forced Sir Peter Jackson to resign as a director of Weta Workshop. The five-time Academy Award winning design studio and physical manufacturing facility services the world's entertainment and creative industries and is also a tourism destination. Jackson along with fellow Oscar winner Jamie Selkirk stepped down from Sir Richard Taylor's Miramar workshop on December 31, Companies Office documents show. The change comes ahead of new legislation which would make directors personally liable for health and safety, which the Institute of Directors said demonstrated that directors needed to be across all aspects of the business. READ MORE: * Q&A: Health and safety legislation sees Peter Jackson resign as Weta Workshop director * Getting head around health & safety reforms a must for SMEs * Wellington businesses brimming with Weta Workshop inspiration Jackson and Selkirk both still own about one third of Weta Workshop. They are directors and shareholders of PJR Holdings, which is the single shareholder of Weta Workshop and each have about 33 per cent of the shares - the same as Taylor. Matt Dravitzki, executive producer of Jackson's Wingnut Films, said Jackson was still an owner, however new health and safety legislation which will come into force in April would see the role of a director require more day-to-day involvement in the business. Weta Workshop senior communications manager Erik Hay confirmed the law change was behind the move for Jackson and Selkirk. "The reason was centred around the law change, which will require them to be more involved on a daily basis. As a manufacturing business, it's important they are. Peter felt he was not and decided to step out of the piece. They will still retain shares in the company." Current directors George Hickton and Cameron Harland, who were appointed in April 2015, were involved monthly but Taylor worked with the business on a daily basis, Hay said. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, which will come into effect on April 4, is aimed at helping reduce New Zealand's workplace toll of serious injuries and deaths by 25 per cent by 2020. The new act has much tougher penalties, including making directors liable for failure to take responsibility for health and safety. Institute of directors chief executive Simon Arcus said Jackson had made an "excellent, considered choice" given the circumstances. The sleeping director had obviously looking into what the legislative changes were going to be, he said. "The age of the sleeping director is absolutely dead and this reinforces the need for directors to be across all aspects of their role, with health and safety being a key consideration." He believed there would now be a growing awareness among sleeping directors, who would stand up and take notice rather than resign. "Health and safety is now everyone's responsibility at the boardroom table - it's a collective responsibility." Health and safety had been a huge issue for directorships since reform started a few years ago. In response to the legislation, he had noticed a heightened awareness about health and safety among his members. Many were setting up reporting processes and committees that included, workers, management and directors. Chapman Tripp senior associate, Marie Wisker, who specialises in employment law and health and safety, said there was a general nervousness among directors, who were asking questions. "They will have personal liability, which is scary and new but we are telling clients, it's just about good governance." Many directors already had good governance in place and it was just a matter of understanding the legislation, she said. 'It should not trigger a whole lot of director resignations," she said. Under the new act, a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU), is the primary duty holder. Other categories include "officers", which encompasses directors, partners and people who have a significant influence over the management of the PCBU. A PCBU is not required to have a health and safety representative if it has 19 or fewer workers and is not within the high-risk industries. Personal liability can be found for any of the duty holders (PCBU, officer, worker), with the maximum fine for a PCBU being $3 million. An officer can be fined up to $600,000 or face five years' jail. Michael Woodhouse, Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety said in a statement that he was not aware of the exact reason's for Jackson's resignation but "any suggestion that directors need to resign because of new requirements under the new Health and Safety at Work Act is an unnecessary overreaction". Woodhouse added: "While there are greater accountabilities on directors under the new law, by no means does it require directors to be involved in the running of the business on a daily basis as suggested." No time for sleeping directors New health and safety legislation is forcing directors to confront their level of involvement in the businesses. When the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 comes into effect on April 4, directors can be held personally responsible for any breaches and face a maximum fine of $3 million or a jail term. Where previously a director might have argued that the responsibilities were left to management or other directors, they now face the prospect of liability, conclusively ending the possibility of being a sleeping or silent director. Wine tourism is on the rise and cellar doors around Marlborough are reaping the benefits, with one of their busiest seasons yet. Saint Clair restaurant cellar door manager Stefan Wernli said the number of people visiting the cellar door had grown on last season. "It's been really busy lately, much busier than last year, especially during the Christmas and New Year period," he said. During the holiday period, the cellar door restaurant was routinely doing up to 140 lunches a day. READ MORE: * Wine capital of NZ * Marlborough wineries urged to cater for Chinese tourists * Wine tourism to get Air NZ push Most people booked in advance and some customers had to be turned away because of the demand, he said. While a lot of visitors came from overseas, with the numbers spiking on cruise ship days, many New Zealanders also visited the cellar door during the holiday period. Wernli said the reputation of Marlborough as a premier wine producing region was one of the main reasons overseas visitors came to the region. "Some people come to us because they know our label from their home countries." As well as people who already knew the winery, many others were trying Saint Clair wines for the first time, which was good for business, he said. Brancott Estate Heritage Centre manager Kathy Hughes said it had been a brilliant summer season. She attributed the growth in cellar door visitors to people having more confidence in the economy, as well as increased visitation from cruise ships. Combined with the expansion of the Marlborough Airport, she predicted wine tourism to keep growing, which was good for the regional economy. Giesen Wines cellar door manager Victoria Lewis said it had been a busy season for the cellar door, something she heard was common around the region. Instead of passing through, on their way to the Abel Tasman, or south towards Christchurch, visitors were stopping in Marlborough, she said. As well as independent travellers, a large portion of their business was made up of tour groups. Marlborough Wine Tours owner Andy Pike said most visitors came from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries. This season had been busy, especially on cruise ship days, almost all of which had been fully booked in advance, he said. The company took visitors around the wineries by van, visiting up to five in a day, which gave them the chance to learn more about the winemaking process, he said. "A lot of them like to drink wine, but they don't know a great deal about it. "So this is a good way to learn." Wine Tours by Bike co-owner Steve Hill agreed there had been an increase in the number of wine tourists wanting to learn about wine. "Before we only got wine enthusiasts," he said. "Now we get more wine tourists, people who like wine but don't necessarily know much about it." Hill said the company had seen a 50 per cent increase in visitors compared to last year, and he expected this growth to continue. "We think it's tremendous," he said. "Not just for us, but for the whole Marlborough region." EDITORIAL: Australia's brutal attitude towards immigrants has hurt its reputation in the world. Its nasty and undiscriminating policy on the deportation of New Zealand criminals has hurt its reputation here. So nobody will be astonished at the revelation that Australia used to deport criminally insane Kiwis to New Zealand without bothering to tell anyone. Mental Health director John Crawshaw's leaked letter from July last year warned that an increasing number of such deportations could pose "a significant risk to the individual and the NZ public." Crawshaw's letter noted that sometimes there had been no notification of any New Zealand health authority and the person involved had been "picked up by an NGO." Exactly how often this happened is anybody's guess; the authorities aren't saying. The police refused to help, with a spokesman calling the information "sensitive." He got that right. Sensitive it certainly is, and that is why the public are entitled to know just how much danger the careless Aussie authorities caused. The Government, on the other hand, is anxious to say that the whole problem is now behind us. If true, that is one of the very few good things to have come out of the whole Australian deportation saga. That, after all, led to a trans-Tasman information-sharing scheme. Since about 1000 deportees are forecast to arrive here over the next five years, New Zealand is entitled to know who they are and what they have done. The Australian deportation policy, launched in 2014, is a rough and undiscriminating one. It will "return" to New Zealand people whose home had long been Australia and whose offences might be ancient and not especially serious. In this Australia has once again pointed up the growing gulf between its ethos and New Zealand's. New Zealand recognises that once an Australian has lived here for a decade, he or she has effectively made this country their home and cannot be easily deported. But Australia's attitude toward immigrants of all kinds has become increasingly brutal. The result has been a growing tension in the Anzac relationship. New Zealanders and Australians have traditionally thought of themselves as close cousins and brothers-in-arms. Those attitudes are changing, partly as a result of Ocker high-handedness towards the smaller country, and partly through geo-politics. Australia now fancies itself as a middle power and a close member of the American alliance and club. New Zealand's role remains a little more distanced, despite the Government's strenuous efforts to get closer to Washington. Australia's attitudes towards boat people and its brutal detention policy have done it great harm throughout the world. That matters not at all to the hard men and women of Australian politics, who are engaged in a never-ending bidding war for the votes of the most xenophobic part of the electorate. The deportation saga has, however, stuck in the craw at least of more liberal New Zealanders. The next Ocker politician who visits here and spouts the usual Anzac cliches might find a bit of muttering among his audience. We're not such good mates as we used to be Peter Aitchison, speaking in October 2015, about the fence, built by a neighbour, which blocked sweeping views of Wellington Harbour and the city from his and wife Sylvia's Roseneath apartment. The Roseneath homeowner whose million-dollar views of Wellington Harbour have been obliterated by a high wooden fence has told a court the structure is overbearing and aggressive. Peter Aitchison had earlier said that he and wife Sylvia believed neighbour David Walmsley's four-metre-high fence had wiped $900,000 off the value of their retirement property in Maida Vale Rd. Walmsley, who does not live at the neighbouring property, put up what was called a children's fort last year. It ruined the Aitchisons' previously spectacular views over the harbour and city from their apartment, which was then worth about $1.6 million. MAARTEN HOLL/ FAIRFAX NZ Peter Aitchison and the bare wooden fence that completely blocks the view of the Maida Vale Rd property's lower level. The Environment Court has previously ruled that Wellington City Council made a mistake in its interpretation of its District Plan when giving the playground the green light. READ MORE: * Wellington's view-slashing fence to go * Playground prisoners seek $100k from Wellington City Council * View-blocking fence heading back to court The Aitchisons have returned to the court to apply for an order to reduce its height, and are now being supported by the council. Walmsley has opposed the application. Maarten Holl The view before the fence was erected. Peter Aitchison told the court he considered the fence "overbearing and aggressive", and would not agree with Walmsley's lawyer, Tom Bennion, that it had been built in part for children to play on. He said one of the suggestions put to the couple as a way of mitigating the effect of the fence was to paint it white. He could accept that might reflect more light, but said it did nothing to give him and his wife their view back. MAARTEN HOLL/FAIRFAX NZ The dispute between the Aitchisons and David Walmsley, owner of the neighbouring property, is now before the Environment Court. Judge Brian Dwyer and environment commissioner Ian Buchanan, who are hearing the case, took a trip to the property on Monday to see the structure for themselves. The Aitchisons are relying on a section of the Resource Management Act that says there is a duty to mitigate any effect on the environment. An order can be made by the court requiring something be done about the structure, including removing it or lowering it. Their lawyer, Andrew Cameron, said experts agreed the cumulative effects of the structure had been significant and severe. "The structure has had a gross adverse effect on them," he said. The structure was dominating, creating shading and has social effects on their health and wellbeing. "The effect on their property is profound." He called the structure offensive and objectionable, and said one witness would say the property had been devalued by at least 50 per cent. Wellington City Council lawyer Kerry Anderson said the structure had adverse effects that were not mitigated, and the question was the level of the adverse effects. A separate appeal to the High Court from the Environment Court's decision that the council had misinterpreted the District Plan is still to be heard. A psychologist is expected to give evidence about how the structure would create emotional distress to the Aitchisons, and how it intrudes on their privacy, personal space and territoriality. The case continues. HOW DID WE GET HERE? * After the fence was erected last year, the Aitchisons asked the council if it could be taken down. * The council insisted its hands were tied, and that the fence was allowed under the District Plan. * The Aitchisons took the matter to the Environment Court, which ruled the council had made a mistake in interpreting the plan. However, it did not rule the fence should be dismantled. * The council accepted the ruling, and said the fence would have to come down. * It is still there, and the Aitchisons have returned to the Environment Court to apply for an order to reduce its height. This time they are being supported by the council. * An order can be made by the court requiring something be done about the structure, including removing it or lowering it. * Meanwhile, Wellington City Council has launched an appeal in the High Court against the Environment Court's original decision. Whangamata RSA President Geoff March with the remnants of the stolen kauri tree. A kauri tree planted to commemorate WW1 has been stolen from a Coromandel park, angering the local RSA. But it's not the only tree to have been defaced in recent weeks, with the region experiencing a spate of incidents over the summer with trees being poisoned, illegally trimmed or stolen. Whangamata RSA President Geoff March said the he was very disappointed at the theft which he labelled more immoral than criminal. The kauri was dug up and stolen from the WW1 memorial site, on a Thames-Coromandel District Council reserve, at the northern entrance to Whangamata. The site commemorates the battle of Le Quesnoy, which took place on November 4, 1918. Last year 122 native trees were planted at the reserve to remember the 122 New Zealand troops who died in the battle. "The community came in and did a lot of work to help plant the trees, it only takes a couple of people to disappoint a whole crowd of people," March said. "It was gifted to the community to enjoy, and so many people have used the park since it has been opened. "People in today's community think it is funny and don't understand the respect that comes with such a nice place as this." He said the theft had a moment of foolishness about it and he hoped those responsible felt guilty for what they had done. Council chief executive David Hammond said the tree was noticed missing on January 8. He said the theft of the memorial tree was disrespectful to the soldiers who gave their lives and their surviving families. The tree would be replaced during the planting season from autumn onwards, depending on the weather and the soil conditions. "Between 50-100 of these kinds of issues with trees on Council land every year, some are larger and some are smaller, and it costs ratepayers thousands of dollars every year to clean up after the damage," Hammond said. Anyone with information on the theft or vandalism should contact TCDC Customer Services on 07 868 0200 or email CSTEAM@TCDC.GOVT.NZ. Police are reporting several car crashes in the Queenstown Lakes District and are urging drivers to take more care. Queenstown police are praising the actions of a person who called police after a friend, who was "showing signs of intoxication", arrived at the person's house driving a crashed car with its airbag deployed. Senior Sergeant Paula Enoka, of Queenstown, said police were called to a house on Morven Ferry Rd, near Arrowtown, about 9.30pm on Friday after a French woman, who celebrates her 30th birthday today, arrived at a house in a crashed car. Enoka said the air bag had been deployed in the car and the front left tire was flat. It appeared the woman had crashed into fences along State Highway 6 at Arrow Junction after driving to her friend's house from Arrowtown, Enoka said. The woman was showing "signs of intoxication", she said. The woman was taken to the Lakes District Hospital by ambulance to be assessed and a blood alcohol sample was taken. She was released a short time later. Enoka praised the actions of the woman's friend. "Police would not have been aware of the incident or condition of the female had it not been for the actions from the concerned friend". Police were waiting on the results of the blood test before charges would be laid. It's a journey his grandma wasn't thrilled about, but next month Tim Chittock will attempt to set a Guiness World Record in India. Chittock will cycle the Indian Golden Quadrilateral, travelling 300km a day to cover the 6000km distance in only 20 days. The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting many of the major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. He will travel between Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Pune, Surat, Guntur, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam. The record is measured in days, hours, minutes and seconds to the nearest 0.001 seconds. "It's amazing how much you can put your body through," said Chittock, who is no stranger to gruelling tasks. Two years ago he cycled the length of New Zealand and more recently the width of Australia, but Chittock's grandma, who passed away a month ago, wasn't so keen on the adventures her grandson went on. "She was always happy when I came back," Chittock said, who will wear a bell of his grandma's throughout the trip. "She'll keep me company; keep me safe." Chittock, 24, was contacted by Guinness and asked if he'd like to give the record a shot. His training has involved riding an average of 70-80kms a day. "I'd really like to set a world record, but I've been warned the most difficult things about the trip could be being chased by dogs with rabies and avoiding getting sick. "I've also heard the roads are terrible with lots of potholes and tons of traffic that's out of control." Chittock is planning on taking a lot of his own high-protein foods such as dried meats and milk powder, and plenty of lollies for instant energy, he said. In order to comply with Guinness requirements, Chittock will have to keep a log book to record the distance covered, and people he meets who can verify he's been to each location. In each city he will have to meet up with a policeman or city official and get a photo of himself with a landmark. He will need to collect photographic evidence and at least 10 minutes of video footage a day. The cities can be visited in any order and the entire route must be tracked on GPS. Chittock said the reason he loves these kinds of adventures is that even though at the time they're hard going, there are highlights along the way. "Some of it will be hell, but even small things such as having a shower, and seeing the dawn and dusk can be magic." Chittock will begin his journey on February 21 from the NZ Embassy in Delhi. John Psathas will be at Womad New Zealand 2016, with No Man's Land. Acclaimed New Zealand composer John Psathas is leading the creation of a ground breaking new cinematic performance set on battlefields of World War I. The project, No Man's Land, will feature at Womad New Zealand and brings together 150 musicians from more than 20 countries. The description of the project says No Man's Land unites the descendants of opposing forces in World War I and reunites them in musical solidarity, on the sites where their grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought a century ago. Fairfax NZ Womad New Zealand will be at New Plymouth's TSB Bowl of Brooklands from March 18 to 20. These musical collaborations are then fused into a unique 70 minute film, to be projected alongside live musicians on-stage. All musicians, live and virtual, will perform as one "epic global orchestra". No Man's Land is being called, by those involved with the project, "a once-in-a-lifetime event that brings the world together for peace". They say No Man's Land presents a powerful opportunity to reflect on the similarities and differences in ourselves between then and now. The way of expressing this idea is by taking musicians to the exact places where, a century ago, soldiers from these same countries were fighting and dying. Some of the musicians in the project include Serj Tankian (Lebanon/Armenia/USA), Meeta Pandit (India) Marta Sebestyen (Hungary), and Refugees of Rap (Palestine/Syria). The project is co-produced by Womad and Victoria University of Wellington, with support from the Lottery Grants Board, British High Commission, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Embassy of France and New Zealand-France Friendship Fund. Womad New Zealand will be at New Plymouth's TSB Bowl of Brooklands from March 18 to 20. ------------------------------------------------- Womad Q&A with John Psathas (New Zealand) No Man's Land Tell us who are you and what is is that you do? I am John Psathas and I write music. Recently I have collaborated with over 150 musicians from over 22 different countries, as well as a group of filmmakers, to create a unique 75-minute musical film, projected alongside an electrifying group of live musicians on-stage. All musicians, live and virtual, perform as one epic global orchestra. This project is called No Man's Land. What is your favourite piece of music and what are you listening to right now? My favourite piece: Keith Jarret, Kyoto, from the 1975 Sun Bear Concerts. What I am listening to right now: Warpaint, Inc., Oum's latest album; Zarabi, Serj Tankian's Jazzis Christ. Where do you go or what do you do to get inspiration? I'm inspired by people. Good people. Positive energy. Hope. Good vibes, and lots of love. What are the best moments you've had on stage? Silence after a performance. A perfect, still moment everyone in sync and on the same wavelength. Can't be topped. Taranaki is famous for its surf beaches. Do you surf or would you like to learn? I've never surfed but I'd give it one hell of a go. What is your favourite thing about playing at Womad? The level of buy-in from the audience. Its' pure gold. Police and Corrections Minister Judith Collins does not believe there is any added impetus for judges to consider alternative sentencing options. Corrections Minister Judith Collins has rejected a judge's claim of political influence on how criminals are sentenced in New Zealand. On Monday Collins said there was no added push for judges to avoid handing down jail sentences, despite what retiring New Plymouth judge Allan Roberts had said on the matter. While sentencing an offender last week, Roberts took aim at what he said was a "government direction" for probation officers to recommend penalties other than prison, in order to keep offenders out of jail. He said Department of Corrections probation officers were deliberately "underpitching" their recommended sentences for people before the courts. READ MORE: * Judge criticises government 'anti-prison' policy * Hutt Valley Police hunting Mathew Kidman for breaching electronic bail Collins however, was adamant there was no government direction playing out in the judicial system. "I have no information to suggest probation officers are "underpitching". There is no government direction," Collins said. The cost of keeping an offender in jail for six months was $54,175, while the cost of having an offender sentenced to home detention was $14,093 for six months, and community detention was $2978 for six months. However, cost was not a contributor to sentencing decisions, Collins said. "The number one priority is public safety, regardless of cost." Labour spokesperson for Justice Jacinda Ardern said there should never be political targets or imperatives put on the judicial system. "Ultimately it's for judges to make the decisions," Ardern said. "And certainly in some cases it will be appropriate to consider those alternative options, as some lead to better outcomes and less chance of recidivism." Ardern believed sentencing options in New Zealand were robust, but monitoring what was working and what was not remained important. "I think all the tools are there. "If the government sets out a goal, if politicians are setting targets they have to keep a very, very close eye on them to make sure they're working," she said. Department of Corrections Lower North Region acting operations director Coralea Easther said while the department made recommendations for sentencing options, the final decisions were a matter for the Court and determined by the Judge. "Our assessment process is robust and takes in a number of considerations, depending on the sentence/s being considered; such as the nature of the offending and the risk of harm to the public," Easther said. "The probation officer's primary consideration is public safety." Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar praised Roberts' actions. " We've had people emailing that story into us saying 'that guy deserves a medal'," he said. Those who received previous warnings about their behaviour but continued to re-offend needed more of an incentive to curtail their behaviour. "I have no problem with judges being lenient for first-time offenders but when they're continuing to commit crimes...whether it's minor or serious crimes, that's what the prison system is for." McVicar said judges throughout New Zealand were coming around to the idea of prison being the best form of consequence for some offenders, rather than taking a politicised approach to keep inmate numbers down. Nelson man Richie Hannah has returned from Iraqi Kurdistan where he has spent a year as a refugee camp manager. Wellington, Melbourne, London. It's a list a number of young Nelsonians could tick off after taking flight from Tahunanui, but not so many would have Iraqi Kurdistan sitting at the end of it. For Richie Hannah, a Nelson College old boy, Erbil in the north of Iraq has been home for the last 12 months while he has managed a camp for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees. SUPPLIED Harshm Camp for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, where Nelsonian Richie Hannah was camp manager. "For some reason I have a fear of a normal nine to five job," 30-year-old Hannah says, sitting outside on a drizzly Nelson afternoon. "Which is at least part of my motivation for wanting to go and do something a little bit different." He says he'll have to get over that because the work isn't long-term, but for now he's enjoying the adventure. SUPPLIED Richie Hannah, centre, and the ACTED team that managed Harshm Camp. Hannah, who has long had an interest in development and humanitarian work, completed a masters of science at the London School of Economics in 2014. This followed years of study, travelling, working in the public service and a for charity. Months after graduating he was on a plane to Iraq, a country which has been marred by conflict for decades, to work for French NGO ACTED in a small refugee camp on the outskirts of Erbil. Despite perceptions of the largely arid country, Hannah says the region - where a number of refugees had fled to - is relatively safe. SUPPLIED Housing at Harshm Camp for displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan. "If you look at the news you would assume that Iraq is a really dangerous place to be, and there is an element of truth in that, but the Kurdish region of Iraq is largely very safe." Right now Kurdistan is home to over one million internally displaced Iraqis and over 250,000 Syrian refugees, he says, and the camp he managed on the outskirts of Erbil was home to 1500 people. "They've all fled from the advancing Islamic State in the second half of 2014 when the Islamic State came across the border from Syria into Iraq," he says. "It pushed very close to Erbil and the Kurdish region." Rows of caravans line the camp housing those with nowhere else to go. A waiting list of more than 100 families shows there's little sign of the surroundings becoming more spacious. Managing the tensions and the risks that come with living in such close confines - such as fires, electrocution and crime - and making sure women, children and people with disabilities were engaged at the camp, were some of the things Hannah's management team was responsible for. One of the biggest challenges the residents face is a shortage of food, he says. "What's happened since I've been there is there's been a decrease in the amount provided by the international community. "After Islamic State first rose to prominence in 2014 there was a lot of media coverage and as a result agencies were able to generate a lot of funds to support the very big displacement, but since that time they've struggled to keep up the same level of funding." This had resulted in families having to survive on a lot less, with food vouchers reduced in value and quantity. Hannah says when he arrived each person in a household would get a US$25 food voucher to last the month. Now a family of up to nine people only qualified for five vouchers for the month, valued at US$10 each. Although Erbil is a big city - "it's polluted, there's lots of cars, there's lots of noise" - there were not enough jobs to support everyone, Hannah says. "The host population is about five or six million so it's almost a quarter extra coming in very suddenly." Because of this the infrastructure failed and there were constant power cuts. Despite the challenges - and because of them - Hannah says he'd learnt a lot, and been inspired by the "committed, determined, passionate people" he'd worked alongside. "It's been good for my own development professionally, really good. I think I've grown a lot as a result. Also personally, and I've built some really good relationships." At the end of the year Hannah and his team handed over the camp to the government, which he says was always the plan. Thanks came not just from UNHCR and the Erbil government but also from a number of the residents. He says that was the most valuable part. "It was emotional to say goodbye at the end of last year for me but we can leave knowing we'd done a pretty good job under the circumstances." This year he planned to go back to Iraqi Kurdistan and continue working for ACTED at other camps before making the next move. "My mother would definitely prefer if I was placed a somewhere closer to home and be somewhere a little bit safer but she's really supportive of me which is nice." And proud? "Yeah," he says. "I guess so." Central Bank to restructure, recapitalise and sell troubled Entrust Securities By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s): Auditor KPMG, under the aegis of the Central Bank (CB), is carrying out an audit on the beleaguered primary dealer Entrust Securities Ltd based on which the regulator will restructure, recapitalise and ultimate sell off the unit, a top official said. CB Governor Arjuna Mahendran told the Business Times on Wednesday that Entrust has been quarantined (operations isolated from other Entrust Group companies) and the audit will reveal the exact position, after which a restructuring plan will be set by the CB. We will find out the exact position in about a months time, Mr. Mahendran told the Business Times. The National Savings Bank, directed by CB to take over management and formulate a restructuring plan for Entrust Securities, is in the process of undertaking a financial due diligence, the state bank said in announcement. In the meantime Mr. Mahendran, explaining how the process would take place, said that laws to set up a Troubled Assets Fund are being drafted and the plan is to take over the Entrusts bad/impaired assets through this fund, obtain Treasury assistance to recapitalise the company and then sell it. The CB isnt short of parties eyeing Entrust and the regulator plans to sell it to a bank, a finance company or a local/international buyer. We arent short of interested parties. Theres not one, but several, Mr. Mahendran said. Last week Entrust was seized by the banking regulator after it was unable to show enough assets to settle liabilities. With the change in government last year, some institutions had made some mass-scale withdrawals from the organisation. Then cash flow problems started, an Entrust source told the Business Times. Its said that over Rs. 6 billion of the Entrust funds are unaccounted for and the CB officials said that they will also look at recovering of the assets. Sycophants Some others see CBs attempts to sell Entrust as politically motivated. There are certain parties close to Cabinet Ministers who are eyeing firms at Entrust that are run fairly well, an informed source told the Business Times. According to him these parties have already set these wheels in motion. A blame game is on at Entrust Group as to who was responsible for what happened at Entrust, but theres no denying that financial greed by power hungry sycophants had managed to grind Entrust to a halt. Meanwhile the CB has urged the police to impound the passports of former Entrust director Chanuka Ratwatte and other current directors in view of a current probe into the company, Mr. Mahendran said. He said that this case has been handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with a recommendation that the passports of Mr. Ratwatte and other current directors be impounded pending the completion of the probe. Mr. Ratwatte, a son of former Cabinet Minister, the late Anuruddha Ratwatte, is said to have been the power behind the company. He resigned from the board last October. Mr. Mahendran said that Entrust was slapped lightly in 2013 (with a warning) when the CB had initially noted their lapses and they had gotten away with the connections to the former regime. The trouble started last year with the regime change. Entrust was warned last April, prohibited from doing certain things and directed to submit a restructuring plan. According to sources close to Entrust, Mr. Ratwattes directorship at Entrust (he doesnt own any shares) was solely dependent on his connections and what he could do for Entrust. He was roped in because he had connections with the highest authorities, an Entrust source said. Multi Finance looks to divorce Entrust Entrust Groups Multi Finance PLC, a 41-year old finance company, has requested the Central Bank (CB) to realign and divorce itself from the Entrust holding, sources close to Multi Finance and CB officials said. In a bid to distance itself from the Entrust Group, Two independent directors at Multi Finance (Kuvera de Zoysa and Mohan Ratnayake) along with other officials met the CB on Wednesday and recommended that common directors of these two firms be removed. The common directors at Multi Finance and Entrust Securities are Isira D. B. Dassanayake, Romesha Senarath, Niroshan Mendis, Sanjeewa Dayaratna and Mano Thilakawardena (independent director). The sources said Multi Finance is well-run, doing well and the company was keen to find new investors in a realigning process. Mr. Mahendran said that Entrust Group has some 15-20 companies and Multi Finance, which was acquired by Entrust (when it was Ceylinco Sriram under the Ceylinco Group) isnt in trouble. He added that it needs to be verified whether Multi Finance has intercompany borrowings etc with Entrust and then a decision on their request to realign will be met. When some Multi Finance depositors called CB to find out if this company was stable, an official had told them that its not and to pull their cash out. When Mr. Mahendran was made aware of this by the Business Times, he said that it isnt true and that he will inform his staff of the position. This isnt correct, theres no problem with Multi Finance, he told the Business Times. More cars (and), more congestion in Colombo View(s): Is this a building? The latest car carrier to dock at the Hambantota harbour last week resembles a huge building. The K Line car carrier M/V Hyperion Highway unloaded 523 motor vehicles from Japan at the port. Port sources said another 15 vehicle carriers are expected to arrive at Hambantota port in late January mainly for transshipment purposes. Some of these vessels may bring vehicles for domestic use but not in large numbers. (Story and picture by Rahul Samantha Hettiarachchi) Presidential commission becomes the order of the day to solve GK mystery By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): With the release of over Rs. 3 billion from the Treasury funds to complete the second phase of the repayment of 41 per cent of deposits ranging from Rs. 2 million to Rs.10 million of the failed Golden Key Credit Card Company (GK) depositors, the task of selling the GK assets to recover the public money and appointing a presidential commission to investigate the whole financial misappropriation has become the order of the day. On July 24 last year, President Maithripala Sirisena pledged to appoint a special investigation commission chaired by a retired judge to probe the transactions in the GK before and after its collapse in December 2009 and take legal action against those who have misappropriated money and assets of the company. Such a commission is essential because the large scale dealings in transferring ownership of GKs subsidiary companies and valuable assets including land and property took place under the cover of appointing management agents and other underhand methods including the introduction of the Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilized Assets Act in 2011 by the Rajapaksa regime, disgruntled depositors and civil society activists stressed. Collapsed like a sand castle on the beach When GK collapsed like a sand castle on the beach in December 2008, over 9000 depositors who had been earning a phenomenal interest of 30 to 32 per cent for their deposits, much higher than the established market rates, became disgruntled overnight and their money turned to just numbers on a piece of paper or a record sheet in the company computer data base. At that time, the Attorney General informed the court that Rs.14 billion of the deposit money of Rs.26 billion had been misappropriated, Rs.5 billion has gone missing, Rs.1 billion had been used for illegal payments and Rs.6 billion invested in related companies. This shows the magnitude of the unethical practices of the company management. The crisis at GK and its subsequent collapse was partly due to its deficiency in the organisational structure, lack of an effective transparent strategy, inefficiency and improper management control, the AG informed the court in 2009. Even in the aftermath of the GK collapse, there was no transparency in transferring the management of GK subsidiary companies and other financial dealings, GK depositors alleged. In the midst of liquidity constraints in Ceylinco financial subsidiaries, mismanagement issues and depositors dilemma, the liabilities and risks of the balance sheets of crisis-hit Ceylinco Consolidated and its chairman, Lalith Kotelawalas subsidiaries had been transferred to individually appointed representatives and state owned financial companies or Central Bank (CB), during the previous regime. Deal with white collar crimes The ill-effects of those transactions will gradually come into light with another financial and economic crisis of a different magnitude in the near future, an economic analyst told the Business Times. The government should appoint a presidential commission very soon to inquire into this white collar crime and the dealings of the previous regime to tackle the impending crisis, he warned. It has also been revealed that GK was engaged in transferring money from the company to other Ceylinco companies, feeding on each other by cross dealings. This practice has made it impossible to find out as to where the depositors money has gone. The management of all those companies had been changed during the previous regime and its activities are not known to the public, a GK depositor said adding that it is high time for the present government to probe the dealings and take appropriate action without waiting till the blast of the bubble. Action against the directors Meanwhile the Association of the Disgruntled Golden Key Women Depositors Unity is planning to file a case at the Colombo Commercial High Court making GK directors and Ceylinco Consolidated Ltd liable to re-pay the depositors, the Chairperson of the association Pushpa de Silva told the Business Times.She said that its appropriate now, after the termination of the fundamental rights case on 4th August 2015, to file action in the Commercial High Court against the respondent directors involved in this GK Fraud. The association will seek permission from the Finance Minister for this purpose, she pointed out.GK depositors activist Alex Jayasinghe told the Business Times that they have made a request to the Finance Ministry to appoint a 12 member committee of depositors to assist the authorities to recover the money granted from the Treasury and reimburse it by identifying and selling GK assets. He added that they will also work towards finding money to settle all the money deposited in GK by depositors after selling assets of the company. Mr. Jayasinghe paid a tribute to the government especially to Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake for his intervention in the settlement of long standing GK depositors repayment issue. The funds amounting to Rs. 3.945 billion required paying the depositors holding deposits in the range of Rs. 2 million to Rs. 10 million was received by GK and the payments are underway for depositors numbering 2700, Dinesh Perera, CEO of the court-appointed GK company told the Business Times. The payments in the range of Rs. 2 million to Rs. 3 million have already been completed where the total number of depositors is 1030, he added. A few cheques have been held back by the auditors due to data mismatches. They will be cleared soon by obtaining the necessary documents from such depositors, he disclosed. He said that that they are in the process of releasing the cheques in the next range of Rs. 3 million to Rs. 4 million and the cheques have already been handed over to the auditors for clearance. 95 % of depositors almost settled With the completion of the Rs. 2 million to Rs. 10 million range, approximately 95 per cent of the total depositors would have received 41 per cent of their deposits through the repayment plan, he disclosed. Be that as it may, the appointment of the presidential commission is a must to find out as to how the Ceylinco group with around 500 subsidiaries and associates has run into a major crisis following a financial fraud of Rs.26 billion at GK. There was public conception that a very powerful politician of the previous regime was behind the collapse of the Ceylinco empire, depositors alleged. Of the companies in the Ceylinco group, only Ceylinco Insurance has been able to raise its head and run successfully and efficiently after the 2008 collapse. 50,000 depositors, Rs. 50 bln liability when the Ceylinco empire crashed There are around 50,000 depositors who are facing economic difficulties and they include 9000 GK depositors, 7000 F&G depositors, 7000 depositors of Ceylinco Shriram, 10,000 depositors of Ceylinco Profit Sharing and tens of thousands of depositors who are unable to withdraw their funds from other Ceylinco financial subsidiaries. According to AGs department submissions to courts, the total liability of the Ceylinco group was more than Rs.50 billion including Rs.26 billion in GK, Rs.13 billion in F&G, Rs.7 billion in Ceylinco Shriram, Rs.5 billion in Ceylinco Fast Cash, Rs. 800 million in Ceylinco Profit Sharing and many other subsidiaries. The Ceylinco Group handled around Rs.300 billion of public deposits through Seylan Bank PLC, Ceylinco Savings Bank, Ceylinco Development Bank, The Finance Company PLC, Ceylinco Investment and Realty Limited, Ceylinco Building Society, Ceylinco Finance PLC, Seylan Merchant Bank PLC, Seylan Merchant Leasing PLC, Asian Finance Ltd and other failed financial subsidiaries Used, not new, cars in future for government servants By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s): The cash-strapped government will stop the practice of buying new vehicles for government agencies and instead hire used or reconditioned vehicles as a cost cutting measure. This decision was announced at a high level meeting held at the Finance Ministry in Colombo, last week, official sources revealed adding that the Treasury will call for bids from service providers to hire vehicles. A standard procedure would be followed for this purpose following the identification of the required number of vehicles for all state agencies including ministries and government departments, senior official told the Business Times. The Treasury will impose a ceiling allocation on monthly hiring charges as well as types of vehicles permitted be hired, he said adding that this would reduce millions of rupees being paid as installments and interest for the procurement of vehicles under the earlier leasing arrangement with the Bank of Ceylon (BoC) and the Peoples Leasing Company, a subsidiary leasing company of Peoples Bank. Earlier vehicles either purchased or leased for Ministries, Departments, Provincial Councils and Government agencies came from Consolidated Fund payment. The practice of buying vehicles for government agencies once in every three years by the Treasury is unbearable for a country like Sri Lanka, an eminent economist who wished to remain anonymous told Business Times. He said that a brand new vehicle could be used in good condition for at least five years even it depreciates 10 per cent per annum. However new vehicle importers are opposing the move. Chairman of the Ceylon Motor Traders Association (CMTA) Gihan Pilapitiya told the Business Times that the association will request the government not to hire used or reconditioned vehicles as it will create many issues including the transparency in such deals. He added that the government should stick to brand new vehicles even if the decision is to hire vehicles. Japanese used cars are discarded there due to strict quality guidelines and then exported to other Asian nations including Sri Lanka. Chop suey of royalty, loyalty, eccentricity and more View(s): So now it is British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire who turns up in Sri Lanka, leaving his chilly, rain-soaked country for warmer climes. Recently our one-time friends and peace-makers, the Norwegians were in Colombo. In years gone by they used to drop in often to meet our leaders and share crab curry in Kilinochchi. Never mind the past, some say, as our hospitable leaders now embrace the modern Norse with their new smorgasbord of goodies. So now we are all bosom pals like the British, who until a year ago were directing all their ire and fire at us. See how concerned British ministers are about our well being. The Swires and squires who some claim pollute the British political scene, do not move a muscle on Sri Lankan affairs without having a good heart- to- heart chat with the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (and previously some domesticated Sri Lankan Tamil groups) before setting forth on their regular pilgrimages to Colombo. I suppose now that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has graciously lifted the ban on some of the Tamil groups (even recently unidentified persons were collecting money supposedly for Eastern province flood victims) who are said to have been seriously wronged by the Rajapaksa administration, Swire finds enough of their proxies ensconced in the All Party Group for Tamils without having to talk to each of them. Some names might have changed after the Labour Party and Lib Dems were thrashed at the parliamentary elections last May. But some of those who used to appear at the Heroes Day commemorations held in London or at other pro-LTTE gatherings are still in the APPG for T. Swire apparently finds it unnecessary to talk to associations or groups from other Sri Lankan communities in the UK. After all it has been British colonial policy for several centuries to use subservient minorities to subdue the majority. Hugo Swire will surely remember how the colonial rulers in Hong Kong with the help of British business giants such as Swires and Jardines (not to mention the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club) made use of the minority Indian entrepreneurial class in Hong Kong to keep sections of the Chinese majority demanding more freedom and social welfare at bay. In the end generations of persons of Indian and Pakistani origin who had made Hong Kong their home but many of whom were stateless would have been left adrift after China regained sovereignty had it not been for the efforts of the last governor of the colony, Chris Patten. Anyway it is a good time to be away from the cold of the UK and Norway. Lucky chaps, these foreign ministry types who, like migratory birds, find ways of heading out to tropical climates for official visits that seem like holidays. Now that is what is called climate change. In Colombo, addressing the Council for Business with Britain, Swire said that UK-Sri Lanka relations have gone from strength to strength most notable when President Sirisena met the Queen and Prime Minister Cameron last November. As a once subject people there would still be some who would be simply thrilled to get a glimpse of the Queen, let alone shake hands with her. So it would appear that presidency meeting royalty is to be celebrated and recorded in stone like edicts of our ancient monarchs and planted in one of the presidential abodes for generations to see. What might fall if the historical tree of the English monarchy is given a good enough shake is difficult to conceive as it does have its shady side. It surely cannot be as old as our own monarchy that is seeing resurrection in song and dance in recent years. I cannot be sure whether Mahinda Rajapaksa did shake the Queens hand when he popped over for occasions such as the Commonwealth Golden Jubilee celebrations or the Commonwealth summit. But long before the Rajapaksa and Sirisena presidencies were elevated to the status of royalty J.R.Jayewardene had claimed to be part of a 2,500-year old monarchy unbroken except when the British grabbed it for some 150 years. Despite monarchy being an anachronism Rajapaksa was venerated as a modern-day Dutugemunu from ancient Ruhunu Rata for defeating the Tamil Tigers and songs were sung in praise of the new King. Not to be outdone loyalists of Maithripala Sirisena composed a song to coincide with his first anniversary as president, equating him with ancient kings like Parakramabahu the Great. It is true that Sirisena like Parakramabahu has his origins in Polonnaruwa. But when sycophants out of loyalty perhaps try to thrust greatness upon a man who is still far from proving it and the media believing it was an officially approved song publicized it, all hell broke loose. The social media immediately deprecated the effort at turning the president who had promised at the very beginning to step down when his time was up, into a king who should rule forever. It was a reckless attempt at lyrical hyperbole. Within a couple of days this episode like some others before it turned into a comedy of errors. It vanished from Youtube and elsewhere. The presidents secretary denied it was an officially sanctioned lyric. So it may be but are the sentiments contained in the lyrics rejected too? On that the secretary and the presidents media division maintained a profound silence. This is not the first time the social media which former president Chandrika Kumaranatunga said played a lead role in displacing Mahinda Rajapaksa, have zeroed in on presidential activity and his family. Pictures which if they first appeared in the presidential media divisions website vanished faster than the Halleys comet or were quickly withdrawn from the social media platforms of the presidents son or his son-in-law such as the one showing the latter at the Enrique Iglesias concert. All these amateurish attempts at publicizing themselves and then hiding behind the barricades at the first sign of criticism are symptomatic of the eccentricities increasingly prevalent in domestic politics. Not too long ago the Law and Order minister honourably resigned after he was accused of talking out of turn. But the Justice Minister whose admission that he told the Attorney-General not to arrest the former defence secretary and allegedly has friendly relations with a person under investigation over the Avant Garde affair, remains firmly in position despite persistent calls for his resignation which he simply ignores. The other day there was a report which cited Minister Wijeyadas Rajapakshe as saying that anybody who opposes the new constitution is a traitor. If he was correctly quoted it is surely a foolish thing to say. How is a person expected to support a constitution which has still to be seen in its final form? If this is the kind of remark made by politicians who project themselves as intellectuals and legal luminaries, then Sri Lanka would be better off without them in public life. Shakespeares character Dick the Butcher said in Henry Vl part 2 The first we do, lets kill all the lawyers. One would not wish such punishment on even the worst lawyer and rest assured there are many around. Perhaps President Sirisena could usefully employ his madu walge on those in his government whose constant gibberish makes a mockery of this government. Constitution making while economy collapsing View(s): Is it going to be a Constituent Assembly or a Constitutional Assembly? Will the provisions of the 13th Amendment be expanded to provide for more devolution; is it going to be Federal or Unitary or United; how much powers will Parliament and the Prime Minister have and the President not have; what is going to be the future of the electoral system. The number of mind-boggling questions that beg an answer seems daunting, to put it mildly. The Government began its second year in office with the announcement of a new Constitution, only for the Opposition, or a part of it to demand that the word new be deleted. So, they want a Constitution (which we have), but what they suggest (probably) is that only amendments be introduced to the existing (1978) Constitution. The Third Republic as some political analysts referred to the possibility of a third Republican Constitution after 1972 and 1978 therefore might just be the Second Plus Republic. No doubt, each and everyone has a view on the 1978 Constitution ranging from those who once called it a bahubootha (nonsensical) one to those who actively canvassed for it then but now feel it has passed its shelf-life and a brand new product is required. The President goes on record saying Constitutions are not written on stone. Coming from the historic city of Polonnaruwa, he would know best the impermanence of kings and their edicts. Our Legal Affairs columnist made some valid points in her column last week in this newspaper. Asking the powers-that-be to learn from past mistakes in constitution making, she suggests genuine consultation with the public at large. She quotes the South African experience as a good example and points out that a hurried and superficial exercise will defeat the purpose of consultation because eventually it could be struck down at the Supreme Court because a change must anyway be done in accordance with the existing Constitution and the provisions it gives to make changes. She cites the 2001 example when unlikely bedfellows as she put it, torpedoed the proposed new Constitution of that year. Clearly, well-meaning as well as spurious forums, pundits and so-called intellectuals will come up with suggestions from the sublime to the ridiculous and external forces will also throw in their tuppence through front organisations, but that is the painstaking task for any Government before the nation and its people are provided with a Basic Law of the country. Second, she stresses the crucial issue of framing the question that will be put to the people at a would-be Referendum i.e. to change certain insulated provisions of the Constitution that MPs alone cannot approve. She says the Supreme Court has already held this cannot be a political question framed by the Government and to elicit a Yes or No answer in terms of the Referendum Act No. 7 of 1981, the question must not have any ambiguity in defining the will of the people. Who will decide the question(s) however, remains in suspended animation for now for if not the Government, who will decide on formulating these questions? The Opposition, or sections of it, quite rightly suggest that the final draft must go through the Supreme Court for its constitutional validity. The Government seems to concur with this approach. It is also argued that there must not be one broad question that extracts a simple Yes or No answer. The only Referendum held in Sri Lanka since the 1978 Constitution was in 1982 and what a controversy that was a vote that extended the life of Parliament. Each and every change in the extraordinary safeguards already provided in the Constitution must be separately asked, and answered. Theres however a long way to come to that stage in consultation, compromise and consensus process that has only just begun. A new or nearly-new Constitution is peddled as the panacea for all the countrys ills. That is partly because there is a mistaken notion that all ills of the country flow from the 1978 Constitution. This is furthest from the truth. In the meantime, political gamesmanship and power plays are already in motion. Theres a lot of murkiness in the political water and this makes it difficult to see things clearly. Major issues are going to crop up like foreign judges hearing purported war crimes cases, devolution issues and the powers of the President, Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. The more immediate issue that this country faces however, is the state of the economy; buffeted as it is by declining Balance of Payments, large re-payable loans, a rupee that is on the edge of a precipice and a collapsing world economy to boot. It is in such a scenario that the Prime Minister will leave for Davos, Switzerland next week. This is a place known as the Rich Mans Club a meeting place of the worlds political and business elite where participation is only by invitation. The Sri Lankan Premier might be like the man with the clean suit empty pocket. Important global issues like whether the world is sleepwalking into geo-political turmoil are to be discussed. In Colombo, the Finance Ministry issued a media statement this week saying the Government decided to defer the implementation of two major revenue proposals of the 2016 Budget those relating to amendments to VAT (Value Added Tax) that impacts heavily on indirect taxes that affects everyone, and NBT (Nation Building Tax) which impacts on big businesses which in turn pass the burden down to everyone else anyway. Restrictions on exempt supplies on the wholesale and retail trade have been removed to ease the rising Cost of Living question and car importers who opened Letters of Credit before the Budget was presented have also been given the benefit of the pre-Budget tax rate. While poor Budget-making has been cited as a cause for the confusion reigning supreme in the local economy, there is to the Governments credit the impression that it is sensitive to the peoples problems especially on the Cost of Living front. Even more crucially though is from where the Government is going to find the money to offset these revenue proposals that were in the Budget. From where is the Government going to finance what is left of the Budget for 2016? While the Government launches its nearly new Constitution drive, the state of the economy will certainly will play its part on the mood of the people when it comes for passage at a Referendum at a future date. The UNHRC resolution and war crimes probes hover in the bushes. It is a testing time for the Government. The honeymoon is over; now it is time to put their new house in order. Shehans debut studio effort By Duvindi Illankoon View(s): View(s): Shehan Somaratna wrote his first song for a lady love as one does. It didnt work out but he doesnt mind because it set him off on a musical journey that continues to the day. Shehan has just released his music on several platforms including iTunes and Spotify and awaits the response to his work. Ive always been musical, he explains. His dad plays the violin, his mum the piano and his brother is Ryan Somaratna, of Yes FM Superstar fame. Shehan trained under Menaka De Fonseka Sahabandu. Presently, he is based in Bristol in the UK where he works as an engineer for a consultancy firm. Living in multicultural Bristol has proved to be a blessing, he says, because you meet all sorts of musicians and make so many connections. In December Shehan pulled off a concert with a group of musicians he met through work, at a wine and sherry bar in Bristol (where he is resident pianist on Fridays) and through his friends. Inspired by this, he enlisted their help to record a new track. The song, Said Enough, was written a few years back on a train. I played around with it a lot until my housemates were sorely tired of me, he laughs but it only started coming together properly around four months ago. Shehan started composing a few years ago because he felt that not enough Sri Lankan musicians were making original content in the English medium. If you watch a show its all Broadway and jazz and thats very nice, but we need to also create an environment conducive to original work in the medium. His first song, Sunshine In My life was written while in school, and the creative impetus did not abate. Moving countries and trading homes, Shehan stuck to his writing habit. Said Enough is produced by Daniel Weerawardena, with backing vocals by Teyfika Bicak. Teyfika came on board after Daniel pointed out that the song was lacking in something Shehan was confounded at the start but soon realized it needed a chorus. Teyfika is also on violin, with Jan Jisa on drums and Giacomo Sotgiu on the bass guitar. The track was released on Jan 1; Shehan doesnt have a marketing team and says hes learning the ropes as he goes along. He laughs when asked if hes been that guy on Facebook, the one who inboxes everyone with links to his work. Ive just made what Ive done interesting enough for people to click on! Thats the great thing about releasing your work online though there are no limits geographically and publicising is intuitive, proving you select your audience well and send your music off to the right places. You can find Shehans music on iTunes, Spotify and SoundCloud. Telling other peoples stories is importantShani Mootoo Duvindi Illankoon meets the authors View(s): View(s): Shani Mootoo began her career as a visual artist and video maker in Canada. Her literary career was launched with a collection of short fiction, entitled Out on Main Street, followed by work such as The Predicament of Or, He Drown She in the Sea and Valmikis Daughter. Cereus Blooms at Night was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in Canada and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. When we sit down for our interview in Kandy, she has just finished a session on Cereus Blooms at Night and another book Moving Forward Sideways Like a Crab, both dealing with sexuality and gender. If she was a trifle tired, a few minutes later, shes back in form, buoyed by the fact that the world outside the hotel is just like her childhood home of Trinidad; right down to everyone being cousins (hers are a bit more highbrow than yours though- V.S.Naipaul is a relative). Mootoo is no longer resident in Trinidad. She moved to Canada over 35 years ago (aged 19) because she didnt want to live a lie after coming out to her parents. I left the island but in some ways it felt like the island had abandoned me when I was younger because it wasnt happy with who I am, she says. There was a sense of rejection and abandonment. She wrote Moving Forward Sideways like a Crab to try to understand and enter Canada. It was actually a challenge posed by Naipaul himself-he said stop writing stories that are snow, coconut tree. Write about what you dont know. So she wrote Moving Forward(), about a man who must come to terms with his mothers abandonment when he was a child and her new gender identity as a man, Sidney, in Canada. The book was inspired by a young man Mootoo encountered at a party for his mother, who had undergone a gender reassignment process. He walked in and started calling him Mom and it was very distressing. But then I realized that this young man has a story to tell. He has had his own struggle. Telling other peoples stories appeals to Mootoo. Cereus Blooms at Night her first novel, is about an old woman named Mala Ramchandan, narrated by a nurse. Mala was abused by her father as a child it would have been easy to write the senior Ramchandan as a toss off character, says Mootoo, but she couldnt bring herself to do so. As a writer you dont make excuses, but you must also tell a story without judgment. You have to face the reality and love your characters. You cant label them. Thai Pongal back to the future View(s): With the Tamil community and political party leaders actively cooperating with the National Government, Thai Pongal was celebrated in a special way on Friday. The sound of aerial bombing, mortar shells and landmine explosions were a thing of the past as the Northern A-9 highway was ablaze with light and sound of firecrackers as Thai Pongal dawned. Brisk buying of firecrackers at this wayside stall on the A-9 highway shows the extent of the enthusiasm. Pic by Romesh Madushanka Tree-top protest brings results to students View(s): Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadsa had to intervene to settle an impasse between protesting parents and school authorities at Hambantota, after two of the four protesting parents were hospitalised due to dehydration. Four parents launched a hunger strike atop a tree, following the rejection of their children to the year one class of a village school in Dambarella, Hambantota and two of them had to be rescued by villagers who put up a scaffolding on Friday to reach them and take them to hospital. The problem arose when the authorities had told the parents to admit their children to the Kandaketiya Primary School. However the parents said that the Kandaketiya Primary School was 3.5 km away from the village, whereas the school in Dambarella was just 250m away. There is no bus service to the Kandaketiya school and our children would have walk the distance, they said. Earlier, the authorities, including the Zonal Director of Education Hambantota, had held a meeting with the parents of the affected children and assured them the children would be granted admission to the village school. However, two weeks after the promise was made, they were informed that the children would not be granted admission to the village school. Subsequently the parents had approached politicians in the area and voiced their grievances, but as they were unable to settle the problem, four parents of the affected students had begun a hunger strike atop a tree in front of the school. On the third day of the strike, two of the parents had fainted from dehydration and lack of food. And villagers had to rush them to hospital at Talawa. The problem was ultimately resolved when Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadsa intervened and provided a temporary building to Dambarella Primary School so that it could accommodate more students. Indias nuke materials are vulnerable to theft By Adrian Levy and Jeffrey R. Smith (Centre for Public Integrity, the USA) But Washington has chosen not to press for tougher security while its trade with India is booming View(s): View(s): Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu On October 8, 2014, Head Constable Vijay Singh awoke before dawn and scurried across the ochre gravel outside the constabulary barracks here at the Madras Atomic Power Station looking like the monsoon was about to break, as a ground sweeper later recalled. Singh was one of 620 paramilitaries in the countrys Central Industrial Security Force assigned to protect the facilitys nuclear-related buildings and materials, but he did not have his usual tasks in mind that morning. By 4:40 a.m., the 44-year-old officer reached the armoury, where he signed out a 9mm sub-machine gun and 60 rounds of ammunition in two magazines. Singh loaded one clip into his weapon, pocketed the other, and entered the portico of a cream-and-red, three-story residential complex. He climbed up one flight to the room where a senior colleague, Mohan Singh, dozed and abruptly opened fire at him in a controlled burst, to conserve rounds, just as he had been trained. Then he jogged downstairs, where he shot dead two more men and seriously injured another two. With ten rounds left in his magazine, and an unused 30-round clip in his pocket, he prowled unimpeded across the gravel, with no alert called. A bystander shouted out to him, and suddenly Singh halted and dropped to his knees, an eyewitness recalled later. He was finally surrounded and led away, glassy-eyed, as docile as anything, a neat guy, his hair still perfectly parted, the witness said. The episode was a fresh example of what officials here and outside India depict as serious shortcomings in the countrys nuclear guard force, tasked with defending one of the worlds largest stockpiles of fissile material and nuclear explosives. An estimated 90 to 110 Indian nuclear bombs are stored in six or so government-run sites patrolled by the same security force, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an independent think tank, and Indian officials. Within the next two decades, as many as 57 reactors could also be operating under the forces protection, as well as four plants where spent nuclear fuel is dissolved in chemicals to separate out plutonium to make new fuel or be used in nuclear bombs. The sites are spread out over vast distances: from the stony foothills of the Himalayas in the north down to the red earth of the tropical south. Shuttling hundreds of miles in between will be occasional convoys of lightly-protected trucks laden with explosive and fissile materials including plutonium and enriched uranium that could be used in civilian and military reactors or to spark a nuclear blast. The Kalpakkam shooting as a result alarmed Indian and Western officials who question whether this country which is surrounded by unstable neighbours and has a history of civil tumult has taken adequate precautions to safeguard its sensitive facilities and keep the building blocks of a devastating nuclear bomb from being stolen by insiders with grievances, ill motives, or in the worst case, connections to terrorists. Although experts say they regard the issue as urgent, Washington is not pressing India for quick reforms. The Obama administration is instead trying to avoid any dispute that might interrupt a planned expansion of U.S. military sales to Delhi, several senior U.S. officials said in interviews. The experts concerns are based in part on a series of documented nuclear security lapses in the past two decades, in addition to the shooting: n Several kilograms of what authorities described as semi-processed uranium were stolen by a criminal gang, allegedly with Pakistani links, from a state mine in Meghalya, in northeastern India, in 1994. Four years later, a federal politician was arrested near the West Bengal border with 100 kilograms of uranium from Indias Jadugoda mining complex that he was allegedly attempting to sell to Pakistani sympathisers associated with the same gang. A police dossier states that ten more people connected with smuggling were arrested two years after this, in operations that recovered 57 pounds of stolen uranium. n Then, in 2003, members of a jihad group, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, were caught in a village on the Bangladesh border with 225 grams of milled uranium allegedly illicitly purchased from a mining employee that they said they intended to wrap around explosives. The Indian authorities initially claimed it was from Kazakhstan but concluded later it was more likely from a uranium mining complex at Jadugoda, in eastern India. n In 2008, another criminal gang was caught attempting to smuggle low-grade uranium, capable of being used in a primitive radiation-dispersal device, from one of Indias state-owned mines across the border to Nepal. The same year another group was caught moving an illicit stock of uranium over the border to Bangladesh, the gang having been assisted by the son of an employee at Indias Atomic Minerals Division, which supervises uranium mining and processing. n In 2009, a nuclear reactor employee in southwest India deliberately poisoned dozens of his colleagues with a radioactive isotope, taking advantage of numerous gaps in plant security, according to an internal government report. n And in 2013, leftist guerillas in northeast India illegally obtained uranium ore from a government-run milling complex in northeast India and strapped it to high explosives to make a crude bomb before being caught by police, according to an inspector involved in the case. The paramilitary Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which has a total of 95,000 personnel under civilian rather than military control and a $785 million budget, is supposed to keep all these nuclear materials from leaking from Indias plants. But it is short-staffed, ill-equipped, and inadequately trained, according to a confidential, draft, Home Ministry report about the forces future, dated November 2013, seen by the Center for Public Integrity. Weapons supply is down by 40 percent, and training equipment by more than 45 percent compared to what officials running the force had sought, the report stated. Its size should be twenty percent larger, it added. Morale is low as security levels remain high . There is a danger of the force falling behind in terms of its level of equipment and also competence. Poor safeguards against the insider threat A former three-star Indian Police Service officer, who ran a large Indian force under the Home Ministry alongside the CISF, said in an interview that the forces training, weapons and technical equipment lagged well behind comparable security forces elsewhere in the world. From passive night goggles that cannot see in low light to outmoded communications equipment that does not work over long distances, theyre as good as blind and dumb, said the ex-officer. The monies promised two years ago to overhaul it mostly failed to materialise, he claimed. This critical account roughly matches what the U.S. intelligence community has stated in its annual classified rankings of global nuclear security risks, based on detailed assessments of safeguards for materials that could be used in explosives or dirty bombs laced with radiation, according to three current or former senior Obama administration officials. They said that Indias security practices have repeatedly ranked lower in these assessments than those of Pakistan and Russia, two countries with shortcomings that have provoked better-known Western anxieties. In all the categories of interest to the U.S. intelligence experts making the rankings the vetting and monitoring of key security personnel, the tracking of explosives quantities and whereabouts, and the use of sensitive detectors at nuclear facilities and their portals the Indians have got issues, a senior official said, speaking on condition he not be named, due to the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue. Cautioning that Washington probably does not know everything that India has done to protect its facilities because of its obsessive nuclear secrecy, the official said that according to what we can see people doing they should be doing a lot more. He added that it is pretty clear [they] are not as far along as the Pakistanis, explaining that as with the Russians, Indias confidence in being able to manage security challenges by themselves has repeatedly closed them off to foreign advice not only about the gravity of the threats they face but about how to deal with them. When U.S. officials made their first-ever visit to the restricted Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, a complex where India makes plutonium for its nuclear weapons, their observations about its security practices were not reassuring. Security at the site was moderate, a cable from November 2008, approved by embassy Charge dAffaires Stephen White, told officials in Washington. Identification checks at the front gate were quick but not thorough, and visitor badges lacked photographs, meaning they were easy to replicate or pass around. A security unit at the centers main gate appeared to be armed with shotguns or semi-automatic Russian-style rifles, the cable noted, but as the U.S. delegation moved towards the Dhruva reactor, where the nuclear explosive material is actually produced, there were no visible external security systems. Whites cable noted that a secondary building where engineering equipment was stored also had very little security. While there was a sentry post at a nuclear Waste Immobilisation Plant that processes radioactive water, no guards were present, and visitors bags were not inspected. No security cameras were seen inside, White added. The cable was disclosed by Wikileaks in 2011. A U.S. nuclear safety official, also on the visit, who still works in the field and was not authorised to discuss it, told the Center in an interview that labourers wandered in and out of the complex, and none of them wore identification. He said that the setup was extraordinarily low key, considering the sensitivity, explaining that guards could not see camera footage from other locations. There is little evidence that conditions have changed much since then, officials say U.S. and Indian officials also have privately expressed worry about the security surrounding Indias movement of sensitive nuclear materials and weaponry. An industrialist who provides regular private advice to the current prime minister about domestic and foreign strategic issues said in an interview, for example, that due to Indias poor roads and rail links, our nuclear sector is especially vulnerable. How can we safely transport anything, when we cannot say for certain that it will get to where it should, when it should. The adviser said that as a result, fissile materials in India have been moved around in unmarked trucks that look like milk tankers, without obvious armed escorts. He called this urban camouflage, meant to avoid the clamour that would ensue if a security convoy attempted to navigate traffic-choked roads like the one leading from a nuclear fuel fabrication plant in Hyderabad, in south-central India, to a test centre for Indias nuclear submarines on the coast at Visakhapatnam. An armed convoy, he said, might need 14 hours to traverse that 400-mile distance. Experts say the movement of the vehicles is tracked by special devices and communications. But two recently-retired scientists from BARC echoed the advisers concern in interviews. Using civilian transport is a case of making the best of the worst: Far better not to be noticed at all, if you cannot control the environment youre travelling in, one said. Western officials have said that Pakistan uses similar unmarked convoys to move its nuclear materials, without obvious protections. Official inquiries into the Mumbai attack in 2008, where ten Pakistan gunmen laid siege to the city after arriving at night by boat, showed that nuclear installations close to the city were staked out as potential targets before the terrorists settled upon a Jewish centre, a railway station and two five-star hotels. But to date, most of the troubling incidents at nuclear facilities in India have involved insiders, making the presence of aberrant employees the most tangible threat and the focus of intensive government efforts, according to a presentation made by Indian experts at a U.S. National Academy of Sciences workshop on nuclear security in Bangalore in 2012. They said that CISF forces assigned to protect Indias nuclear materials get extra training and are rotated regularly among such sites, possibly to deter corruption. Ranajit Kumar, the head of the Bhahba centers physical protection system section, told the workshop that anyone who takes a new assignment on any classified project is supposed to undergo a new background check. But an internal government report about the shooting here in Kalpakkam, drafted by officials in the Home Ministry, and dated December 2014, warned that many warning signs about Vijay Singh, the perpetrator, were ignored. It said that despite having an explosive temper and telling a doctor he was suffering from stress and exhaustion issues that forced his withdrawal from weapons duties Singh was promoted to the rank of head constable due to staff shortages and sent here from another nuclear installation without any psychological assessment or records recounting his problematic behavior. At his new posting, he was given access to a submachine gun even though colleagues considered him unwell, as they told investigators later. He complained of being picked on by another head constable, and as the Diwali festival approached in October he asked for leave to visit his family. He was refused and instead ordered to serve overtime, due to a public call by al Qaedas leader to raise the flag of jihad across South Asia by targeting sensitive sites in India. When the CISF officers final bid for leave was turned down, he told a colleague that he would burst like a firecracker, a colleague told police, in a witness statement seen by the Center and one day later, he did. Similar lapses had occurred seven years earlier when an employee at the Kaiga nuclear reactor deliberately poisoned several others, subjecting them to a radiation dose 150 times that in a chest x-ray. Asked about these matters by the Center, Indias Atomic Energy Commission declined to reply, following its usual habit of rebuffing inquiries about sensitive, nuclear-related matters. The AERB initially pledged to offer responses but then declined, as did the Home Ministry, which oversees the CISF. Spurning U.S. offers of help. Since Nov. 30, 2001, when the CIA began investigating rumours that al Qaeda was trying to obtain nuclear materials or finished weapons to be used against the West, the U.S. government has campaigned around the globe sometimes unsuccessfully for heightened vigilance in India and other countries with substantial stockpiles of explosive materials. According to the International Panel on Fissile Materials, an independent, nonprofit group, Indias stockpile of about 2.4 metric tonnes of highly-enriched (weapons-usable) uranium puts it at fifth place among all nations, and its stock of approximately 0.54 metric tonnes of separated (weapons-usable) plutonium puts it at ninth place. But its security practices put it even higher on the list of Western anxieties. The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit group in Washington, reported last year for example that Indias nuclear security practices ranked 23rd among 25 countries that possess at least a bombs-worth of fissile materials. Only Iran and North Korea fared worse in the analysis, which noted that Indias stockpiles are growing and said the countrys nuclear regulator lacked independence from political interference and adequate authority. India has rebuffed repeated offers of U.S. help. Gary Samore, President Obamas coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction from 2009 to 2013, said that at preparatory meetings for international summits on nuclear security in 2010 and 2012, we kept offering to create a joint security project [with India] consisting of assistance of any and every kind. And every time they would say, to my face, that this was a wonderful idea and they should grasp the opportunity. And then, when they returned to India, we would never hear about it again. Oldest existing Sinhala newspaper, the Gnanartha Pradeepaya is 150 years old By Vinusha Paulraj View(s): View(s): It was 1866. Ceylon was a British colony and English reigned supreme as the lands official language. It wasnt the most successful of times for publications in indigenous languages, but with strong faith, on July 7, the Catholic Limited Company launched the Gnanartha Pradeepaya which celebrates 150 years of existence this year. It is known to be the oldest Sinhala newspaper still in print. A ceremony was held last Monday (January 11) at the Bishops House Complex, Colombo 7. Preceding the Catholic Presss English publication- the Catholic Messenger, by three years, the Pradeepaya came into being within five years of a similar bulletin called The Roman Observer being launched in Rome. The first issue was merely 4 11 inch pages impressed clearly with the thematic glowing lamp and an excerpt from the Book of Psalms, said Director of the Colombo Catholic Press, Rev. Mahendra Gunathilake. It said, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, said Rev. Gunathilake, adding that this has been the aim of this publication from its inception. Propagation of faith in the Catholic Church is of utmost importance, and this is what inspired the newspapers establishment. Around 50,000 copies of the Gnanartha Pradeepaya are printed every Thursday. By around 2 p.m. distribution is well underway and readers have access to the printed issues. The Catholic Presss readership has expanded over the years and a Tamil publication called Gnana Oli has also been in circulation since 2010. Every Catholic household knows about the paper Rev. Gunathilake says since it still serves as a means of communication. The Pradeepaya carries news of events of the 10 dioceses, dates of celebratory feasts in honour of saints and occasionally a cartoon strip. Canterbury Police are investigating a report of a scam which has targeted a sight-impaired elderly person living in the Methven area. Police understand that one of the scammers has phoned the victim multiple times on Saturday morning. On the first few calls the caller tried to discuss the victims phones but in two subsequent calls changed the topic to who they banked with, explained Detective Sergeant Jennifer Hooke. During the last call the other scammer is reported to have knocked on the victims door claiming to be from Kiwi Bank. The scammer asks the victim for their debit card and provides a replacement card. The replacement card is actually a Prezzy Card. On Sunday the victim told a family member what had happened and they reported the incident to the bank and Police straight away. The scammers, at least one man and one woman, appear plausible and knowledgeable but can be pushy. Police estimate the scammers have obtained at least $10,000 from the victim, their life savings, by using the debit card to make withdrawals in the Rolleston and Christchurch area overnight. Police urge retired people living on their own or in retirement villages or rest homes to be aware and if someone phones you or cold calls at your address with a similar story try to take a note of their name and number before phoning Police straight away. In this instance the scammers appear to have targeted someone who, while they live alone, are vulnerable. If anyone else has received similar phone calls or cold callers please contact Police as your information may assist this ongoing investigation. If any cold callers knocks on your door put the security chain on so that they cannot gain access before you open it. Look up and call the main number for the company the caller claims to represent to verify their identity. Employees from reputable companies will not be offended and will provide you with genuine identification while you phone their employer says Detective Sergeant Hooke. No reputable company will visit your home to exchange bank cards or phone you to ask for PIN numbers or any other personal information. Notify your bank straight away if there is any chance the caller has obtained any bank information and report scams to the service provider the scammers claim to be from and Police. Provide as much information as you can such as the names the scammers use, phone numbers or any vehicles outside your property explained Detective Sergeant Hooke. Police urge family members and carers of the older generation to take the time to discuss personal and banking security with them. If anyone ever feels uncomfortable about the discussion or person they are talking to they should end the call straight away and call a family member or Police for advice. Detective Sergeant Hooke says everyone has a right to be safe and feel safe in their homes. This behaviour will not be tolerated and those responsible will be held to account. Police ask anyone who has been approached in a similar manner or notices any suspicious or fraudulent activity to report it straight it away by calling Christchurch Central Police Station on 03 363 7400. Information can also be provided anonymously by calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-nz.org Source: New Zealand Police. Bay of Plenty Police are appealing for any information that will lead to the whereabouts of Stanley McLaughlin. The 19-year-old Turangi man has two warrants for his arrest for failing to appear in court on burglary charges. Described by the judging panel as the ultimate contemporary combination of luxury and technology, the Extended Wheelbase model reclaimed the prize for 'Best Buy' in the 100,000+ category. Launched in 2014 priced at 250,272, the Ghost Series II is boasts an array of augmented features including re-designed LED headlights framed by day-time running lights, re-sculptured bumpers, a tapered 'wake channel' on the bonnet, and a redesigned waft line to lean further forwards. The light steering is accurate and lets you guide the nose precisely at most speeds, the pedal responses are easy to modulate, and the twin-turbocharged V12 is as silken in its delivery and refinement as an engine gets, the panel said. The award follows Rolls-Royce's announcement of significant growth in the UK las year, with the brands Ghost model securing its position as the super-luxury motorcar of choice for a younger generation of car buyers across both genders. Last year Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce announced its plans to expand its appeal with the launch of a new convertible model. Called the Rolls-Royce Dawn, the soft top is hoped to attract a younger demographic than the traditional models released by the British carmaker which have typically been purchased by older men. Rolls-Royce was founded in the United Kingdom in 1906. Ahead of the Superyachts.com Top 100 event in London, we sat down with the companys CEO and founder Alex Titomirov, along with Titomirov President Simon Piggott, to hear more about their efforts to ensure theirs is the vodka of choice among yacht owners and charterers the world over. Basically we were clearly present with the launch that was made in August, Mr Piggott told us. We started distributing to the yachting industry from September. With our event at the yacht show in Monaco there was an initial awareness within the yachting community and we have a lot of channels of distribution through yacht brokers, through people we know. I was in the industry for a long time about 20 years ago and so Ive been using all those contacts to filter through to that sector, specifically because they do drink very premium vodkas due to the nature of the people who either charter or who own the yachts. You can watch the full video interview with Alex Titomirov and Simon Piggott above this article. Road problems took center stage at the first regular meeting of the Floyd County Board of Supervisors Tuesday with complaints from a resident who pointed out concerns for the Virginia Department of Transportations from Supervisors. Im a very concerned citizen about the road conditions of this county, said David West during the Boards public comment period. Im fortunate to work all over this state and things are getting neglected in this county and its a shame that you have to make the phone calls and go over to the office in Christiansburg to complain about getting something done about your roads. West said serious problems exist on Franklin Pike, at Halls Road where water was running across the road and water froze. Last week they had to send two graders up there to take care of the problem. That problem was addressed two years ago when the water started running across the road, he continued. Nothing was done about it. He listed several other locations where nothing was done about it either. When Virginia Department of Transportation representative David Clarke appeared before the Board for his monthly report on road issues, Little River District Supervisor Linda DeVito Kuchenbuch said he and VDOT needed to start paying attention to the stretch of Franklin Pike from U.S. 221 to Shooting Creek Road and beyond. Things need to be done, she said, adding that the stretch of road and others in the area need a look with a fine-toothed comb. Kuchenbuch said particular attention is needed at ditches, which need gravel and the deteriorating conditions of the roads. Locust Grove Supervisor Lauren Yoder noted that problems exist not only on secondary roads but also with primary routes like U.S. 221, noting that the countys major highway has dangerous conditions at the intersection across from the Check Country Store. Yoder said he has long advocated lowering the 55 miles per hour speed limit along the stretch of the road that drops sharply into a sharp turn just south of Check. Although VDOT has put traffic strips on the northbound lane before another sharp turn to the right at the store, he was told there was no need to reduce the speed. Clarke said VDOT is planning to place blinking lights at the store to alert motorists. Yoder said some local residents have thought another stoplight might be erected in one-stoplight Floyd County. No stop light, said Clarke. We will be erecting flashing warning lights. Indian Valley Supervisor Fred Gerald said more attention is needed along a pot-holed stretch of Indian Valley Road. Kuchenbuch said she was surprised to learn that Virginia still has 7,700 miles of unpaved road and asked how many of Floyds roads remain unpaved. About 300 miles, said Clarke, adding that the county has about 600 miles of roads overall. At half of its roads unpaved, Floyd has more than twice the mileage of dirt and gravel roads of Montgomery County, which has 120 miles unpaved, Clarke said. Supervisors said Floyds bad roads need to be addressed in the coming update to the six-year secondary road plan. The Board and VDOT are hoping to host a public hearing on the plan in March. In other business Tuesday, the Board awarded a contact to Citizens Telephone for an amplified sound system for the meetings in the County Administration Building on Oxford Street. Citizens will install microphones for the Supervisors, the County Administrator and her assistant and a wireless mike for the speakers podium plus a solid state recorder with wiring, jacks and microphone stands. The county will pay Citizens $3,128.99 for the system and installation. Attendees at the meeting have often complained of difficulty hearing the Supervisors and speakers at the meetings. In other business before the Board: --Supervisors approved an appropriation of $1.046.575 to cover a cut from the county Department of Social Services; --The Board also approved clean-up of mold discovered in the Social Services offices just after Thanksgiving of last year. Some office staff will work out of the countys conference room in temporary relocation during the two-week clean-up; --A report from subdivision agent Lydeana Martin showed 29 subdivision lots were created in the county in calendar year 2015, a sharp drop from the 80 lots issued in 2014; --Supervisors joined other localities in Southwestern Virginia in a resolution supporting continuation of Catawba Hospital, which is scheduled to be closed; --The Board members joined Wythe County in a resolution asking for amendments to state law to allow implementation of taxes on sale of cigarettes. The move is part of efforts by counties to obtain the same rights as towns and cities to implement additional sales taxes, as needed, to help cover budget shortfalls; --The Board met behind closed doors in a 30-minute executive session to discuss personnel issues and discussion of acquisition of property. The Boards second meeting of January will start at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 26, and will include a public hearing on a proposed ordinance to move the polling place from Rescue Squad Station 1 just north of Floyd on U.S. 221 to the Floyd Elementary School for future elections. MANLIUS, NY -- Personal information stolen from cars outside the Skaneateles YMCA last week was used in an alleged check cashing scheme that has lead to the arrest of two Florida residents, according to Manlius police. Police said Casey L. Silin, 33, and Angela Postell, 43, of Pompano, Fla., were caught when police responded to the Chase Bank on the 300 block of Fayette Street in Manlius on Saturday. An officer passed the pair's vehicle and tried to stop it, but the driver of the other vheicle drove away from police, Manlius police said. Investigators said the two were trying to cash a forged check at the bank using identification information stolen from vehicles parked at the Skaneateles YMCA on Friday. Angela Postell Casey Silin Police had said that 10 vehicles were broken into outside the YMCA by smashing windows. Ten purses were stolen containing credit cards, cash and checkbooks, in addition to a few cell phones. The purses were found later Friday about six miles away from Skaneateles in a Dumpster outside of Cayuga Community College in Auburn, though cash, credit cards and licenses were missing, Skaneateles police said. The pair is each facing charges including felony criminal possession of of a forged instrument, second degree, felony criminal possession of stolen property, fourth degree, and two counts of misdemeanor criminal possession of stolen property, Manlius police said. In addition, Silin was charged with unlawful fleeing of a police vehicle and several moving violations, police said. The Skaneateles break-ins came 10 days after similar break-ins outside the Auburn YMCA. Manlius police did not immediately say whether the pair arrested Saturday were suspected in the Auburn break-ins. At least one person broke into four cars parked at about 9 a.m. on Jan 5 in the lot across from the Auburn YMCA, 27 William St., the Auburn Police Department said. The suspect -- a passenger in a red Nissan Maxima with tinted windows -- stole purses, phones and credit cards, police said. In the Skaneateles case, police said the suspect targeted vehicles with valuables kept in the front seat. "If you're going to leave valuables inside the car, leave them in the trunk," Lt. Dan Coon said. "Keep them out of sight." Police asked anyone with information about the Skaneateles thefts to call (315) 685-3819. Police requested anyone with information about the Auburn thefts to call (315) 253-3231. GENESEO, N.Y. -- Police are expected to release more information Monday on the deaths of two college students and a former student at a house near the State University College at Geneseo. The three bodies were discovered Sunday morning. The college campus is about 35 miles south of Rochester. The dead were identified as: Kelsey Annese, 21, of Webster, New York Matthew Hutchinson, 24, of Vancouver, British Columbia Colin Kingston, 24, of Geneseo. Police said Annese and Hutchinson were students at Geneseo and Kingston was a former student. Investigators believe the perpetrator is among the dead. Authorities planned a news conference at 2 p.m. Monday to provide updated information about the case. The Buffalo News reported Monday that police discovered the scene after a man's father called 911 to say his son had told him he had killed his girlfriend and was going to kill himself. Police told the newspaper that it was "too early" to call the deaths a "murder-suicide" but said they believed the perpetrator was among the deceased. Police also told news agencies that no threat to the public existed following the deaths. No gun was found at the scene, the newspaper reported, though a knife was found. A source told the newspaper that the knife was the murder weapon, though police have not confirmed that publicly. The college released a statement identifying the dead as two students and a former student. The college also offered its condolences to their families. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all involved. It is our hope that we can rally together to support each other during this time of mourning," school officials wrote. Read more at the Buffalo News. Shopping with food stamps Meghan Fry carefully considers her choices as she shops for food with her daughter, Essence, in this 2013 file photo. Fry, a single working mom, used food stamps to help provide for her daughter. (David Lassman | dlassman@syracuse.com) WASHINGTON, D.C. - Syracuse's chronic unemployment and poverty has spared the city from federal aid cuts that could strip about 46,000 unemployed New Yorkers of food stamps beginning April 1. New York is among 23 states that will go back to pre-recession limits on food stamp benefits. Those limits cut off aid after three months for able-bodied adults who don't go to work or enroll in job-training programs. But the federal government agreed last week to extend a waiver for Syracuse, allowing unemployed adults without dependents to receive food stamps for more than three months within a three-year period. The waiver means about 5,100 people without jobs can continue to collect food stamps in Syracuse. About 1,600 other recipients in towns and villages across Onondaga County may no longer be eligible for the waivers if they remain unemployed beyond the three-month limit, according to county officials. "A lot of the folks we are talking about that will be affected are the working poor," said Ann Rooney, the deputy Onondaga County executive for human services. She noted that many food stamp recipients are in and out of work, or work less than 20 hours per week. State officials say nearly 46,000 unemployed New Yorkers between age 18 and 49 could find themselves in a similar situation, cut off from the federal food stamp program known as SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Syracuse is among 10 cities and all or part of 20 counties across New York eligible for the food-stamp waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service because of chronically high unemployment. The other cities expected to receive waivers are Buffalo, Rochester, Binghamton, Utica, Jamestown, Elmira, Lockport, Niagara Falls, and some residents in districts on the outer edges of Manhattan, according to New York state officials. The 20 counties expected to receive waivers include Oswego, Jefferson and Lewis counties in Central and Northern New York, said Kristi Berner, speaking for the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Syracuse and the other cities and counties received exemptions because of an unemployment rate that has remained 20 percent above the national average for the past two years, Berner said. Statewide, New York had an unemployment rate of 4.8 percent in November, down from 5.8 percent in November 2014. But pockets of deep or chronic unemployment remain across the state. The Syracuse metropolitan area's unemployment rate (covering Onondaga, Oswego and Madison counties) fell to 4.8 percent at the end of the year, down from 5.5 percent a year earlier. But the rate is likely much higher in Syracuse, a city with the nation's highest rate of extreme poverty concentrated among blacks and Hispanics. The state Labor Department does not make the city's unemployment rate public in its monthly reports. Of the roughly 74,000 people in Onondaga County who receive food stamps, most live in Syracuse and 46 percent of all recipients are working, according to county officials. Nationally, 500,000 to 1 million people could lose their benefits in the 23 states that are required to impose the time limits (due to lower state unemployment) or decided not to ask the federal government for waivers, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C. research institute. Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the institute, said the policy limiting benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents dates to the federal welfare reform laws enacted in 1996. If a state doesn't offer slots for employment and training programs, many of those food stamp recipients will lose their benefits after three months - regardless of their willingness to work, Dean said in an interview. "It's a very harsh rule," Dean said. "There's no obligation for the state to provide a work slot." Dean said the most heavily-impacted states on April 1 will be in the Southeast because many states have chosen to end all waivers, and not apply to the federal government for partial or localized waivers in areas of high unemployment. In New York, the state will seek local waivers for the following 20 counties: Bronx, Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Greene, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Kings, Lewis, Montgomery, Orleans, Oswego, Queens, Richmond, St. Lawrence, Schoharie and Sullivan. Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 MARTIN LUTHER KING The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks April 15,1967, at a peace rally in New York City. (The Associated Press) Donna Murch is a professor of history at Rutgers University. By Donna Murch | The Washington Post The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is a historical figure every school child knows, one of the few from American history sculpted into a monument on the Mall. Yet much of his activism is misunderstood, even by some who seek to honor him. In the midst of protests by young African Americans in cities and on campuses across the country, King's life and legacy remain profoundly relevant. As the holiday bearing his name approaches, here are five myths about the civil rights icon. 1. King believed in a color-blind society. Since his death, King has emerged as a triumphalist figure, used to reassure us that the United States has transcended its history of racial strife. Of all the minister's powerful oratory, these words from his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 are some of the most cited: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." But while this quote is wildly popular, its interpretation varies radically. Conservatives, including Ronald Reagan, have enlisted it to rationalize opposition to diversity programs. In 1990, African American pundit Shelby Steele titled his anti-affirmative-action memoir "The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America." But King knew that the economy wasn't color-blind, and he believed that the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts would not eliminate racial disparity. After 1965, King fought against crisis levels of black unemployment in the Watts area of Los Angeles, for open housing in Chicago and in support of striking black sanitation workers in Memphis. At the end of his life, he became particularly disheartened by the racial barriers to housing and jobs in the urban North and West. King's speech to Memphis sanitation workers a month before his 1968 assassination, on the economic disparities between blacks and whites, is a better measure of his mature thought. His words could have been written in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis: "Now you know when there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the black community, they call it a social problem. When there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the white community, they call it a depression." King explicitly linked racism to economics in ways that remain sharply relevant. In his view, only direct intervention by a strong federal government could counteract the historical disparities wrought by the overlapping forces of race and class, forces that were unlikely to disappear. 2. King's dream was to end racism in the South. In a 1993 survey, more than two-thirds of respondents said "there had been significant progress toward Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality." Many biographical sketches of the minister focus on the epic Southern civil rights battles and on the transcendent imagery of his "I Have a Dream" speech. One hour-long documentary airing on CNN devoted 53 minutes to his life prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Largely left out: his work between 1964 and 1968, including the Poor People's Campaign and antiwar activism. King had not one dream but many. He placed the fight for African American equality within the larger struggle for international decolonization. After 17 African countries won independence in 1960 alone, King observed in the "Letter From a Birmingham Jail": "We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jet-like speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter." In 1967, at the Riverside Church in Manhattan, he made an impassioned plea against America's aggressive anti-communist foreign policy, which had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese. King denounced the United States as the "greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." While a sanitized image of King as a Southern civil rights crusader has been enshrined in popular memory, his dream of ending American militarism has proved more difficult to accept. 3. King was the natural antagonist of Malcolm X. King and Malcolm X are often cast as opposing poles, with the former supporting nonviolent civil disobedience in the South and the latter encouraging angry, armed rebellion in the North. But the icons actually have more in common than one might think. Both men's political visions profoundly changed during their lives. Early in his career, King focused on more limited programs of desegregation but later believed a "radical revolution of values" in American society was needed. (One journalist said the year before he died that he "sounded like a nonviolent Malcolm X.") Malcolm X had a revolution of his own, breaking with the Nation of Islam in 1964 and offering support to King's campaign in Selma in 1965. And both men held a deep opposition to the war in Vietnam. King saw it as "a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit" and called for a global revolution against "poverty, racism and militarism." King's stance resulted in great personal and political cost. Nearly all of the major newspapers denounced him, and President Lyndon B. Johnson raged against his speech. Never again would he be welcome at the White House. Like Malcolm X, who faced popular outrage for saying "the chickens came home to roost" after the John F. Kennedy assassination, King also bore the pain of national censure and disgrace. 4. King is irrelevant to Black Lives Matter protesters. The denatured iconography of King has an unfortunate consequence: Many young people see him and the civil rights generation he personifies as irrelevant to their struggles against police violence and mass incarceration. Ferguson, Mo., activist Tef Poe expressed this most clearly when he asserted that the new protests "ain't your grandparents' civil rights movement." Poe's comments reflected how younger protesters have pushed against the politics of respectability associated with King, the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ferguson protesters like Poe, along with Black Lives Matter activists, set their resistance apart from what they see as an older, more anemic politics of conciliation. BLM founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi have also critiqued the limitations of hierarchical male leadership models. Despite these differences, a deeper river of struggle connects civil rights and black power activism to the movement for black lives today. As seen in the Montgomery bus boycott, Bull Connor's Birmingham and the Selma beatings, local authorities tried to stop political organizing through police and vigilante violence, mass jailings and brutality behind bars. Ferguson protesters, who faced down tanks, tear gas and assorted forms of military-grade hardware, tasted what many activists suffered throughout the 1950s and 1960s. As these examples show, the fight to end the criminalization of black protest, and of black people more broadly, lies at the heart of African American freedom struggles then and now. In his eulogy for Jimmie Lee Jackson, King denounced the misuse of police powers, which he saw as a direct expression of white supremacy. He understood Jackson's shooting by a white officer to be symbolic of race-based killings throughout the country. "A state trooper pointed the gun, but he did not act alone," King said. "He was murdered by the brutality of every sheriff who practices lawlessness in the name of law. He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician, from governors on down, who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism." 5. Without King, the civil rights movement wouldn't have happened. One of the most controversial aspects of Ava DuVernay's Mucfilm "Selma" is its rendering of King as the catalytic agent for the Voting Rights Act, at the expense of LBJ. Equally striking, though, is how it reflects the larger cultural tendency to represent the civil rights movement as an example of "great man" history, in which King eclipses other leaders and potential rivals such as Malcolm X and James Forman from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who comes off as an erratic hothead. Hidden even further from view by King hagiography is the work of female civil rights activists, including Ella Baker, Daisy Bates, Joanne Grant, Fannie Lou Hamer and Septima Clark, who helped build the human infrastructure of the movement. Along with many working-class and poor black people whose names we will never know, these women helped launch local campaigns that garnered national publicity and attention. In the words of civil rights scholar Charles Payne, "Men led, but women organized." King himself was deeply conflicted about his role as the face of the civil rights movement. In the last speech of his life, he warned his audience, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land." With these words, King recognized the importance of collective struggle and placed his trust in the hands of present and future generations. murderer.jpg The Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer" examines the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, who were convicted of the 2005 rape and murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach. (Courtesy image) Keith A. Findley is co-director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Keith A. Findley | Special to The Washington Post Guilty or innocent? Viewers addicted to the Netflix documentary series "Making a Murderer" are fiercely debating the case of Steven Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey. In separate trials, the two were convicted of the 2005 rape and murder of 25-year-old Teresa Halbach. These were no ordinary murder convictions - they came just a few years after Avery was exonerated by DNA evidence, with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project (I served as his attorney at that time), after doing 18 years for a sexual assault and attempted murder that he did not commit. The film centers on concerns that both men might have been wrongly convicted in this go-round. One cannot know at this point whether Avery and Dassey are indeed innocent victims of police misconduct and prosecutorial overreaching. No documentary could address all the nuances of the evidence needed to make those judgments in this case. But "Making a Murderer" is about more than Avery and Dassey's guilt or innocence, because the injustices the series suggest are hardly unique. The enduring takeaway ought to be the recognition that the criminal justice system, as a human system, is inevitably flawed. It does sometimes send innocent people to prison. And while most police, prosecutors, defense lawyers and judges are good, honest people who do their best to achieve justice, they do sometimes fail and even, on occasion, cross the line into misconduct in their zeal to secure what they perceive to be a just outcome. Wrongful conviction doesn't only mean an innocent person ends up in prison. It also means a guilty person goes free. When the system fails, there is no justice for victims and their loved ones. We have known for decades that the system is prone to error. Since the advent of forensic DNA testing in the late 1980s, at least 337 people, who each have spent an average of 14 years in prison, have been proved innocent by DNA evidence. According to the National Registry of Exonerations hosted by the University of Michigan Law School, exonerations based on all types of evidence, not just DNA, amount to at least 1,728 people who have been exonerated of serious crimes since 1989. The number is continually growing. By presenting these issues in human terms, "Making a Murderer" has done a service by forcing us to look beyond the numbers to remind us that each such case is a real human tragedy that affects real people with real lives. It reminds us that eyewitnesses sometimes make mistakes, that forensic science is not always all that scientific, and that, contrary to what a prosecutor in the Dassey trial disingenuously told the jury, innocent people do indeed sometimes confess. (Indeed, more than a quarter of the DNA exoneration cases involved false confessions.) And it has reminded us that, regardless of whether the system gets it right or wrong, it is a system deeply affected by class and, as we know well from other cases, racial biases. Dean Strang, a defense attorney for Avery who is now an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, summed it up best in Episode 9: "Most of what ails our criminal justice system lie[s] in unwarranted certitude on the part of police officers and prosecutors and defense lawyers and judges and jurors that they are getting it right, that they simply are right. Just a tragic lack of humility of everyone who participates in our criminal justice system." Humility -- that's a pretty good prescription for fixing what ails our system. The humility to recognize that sometimes we are wrong, even when we are most certain. The humility to recognize we are all affected by cognitive biases that can mislead us. The humility to recognize that the system and the evidence it relies upon are flawed and can be improved. And the humility to recognize that when we occasionally get it wrong, we must do something about it. Millions of people are talking about this documentary now, but discussion is not enough. We need to take a hard look at our criminal justice system -- a much harder look than a 10-episode documentary allows. We can and must, for example, change the way police collect eyewitness identification evidence -- as many departments are beginning to do - to eliminate suggestion by law enforcement and comply with science-based best practices. We must mandate that all law-enforcement agencies record interrogations and that police change interrogation practices so they are less coercive, suggestive and presumptive of guilt. We must ensure that the forensic disciplines we rely on are based on science and that forensic analysts are shielded from biasing information and allegiances that can taint their analyses. We must ensure that the use of incentivized witnesses is regulated and that promises of leniency in exchange for testimony are disclosed to the defense. We must ensure that we provide adequate financial support for prosecutors and defense lawyers alike, so that prosecutors can adequately screen cases and that competent defense lawyers can present vigorous defenses. We must expand criminal discovery -- the process by which the parties share evidence before trial -- to avoid trial by ambush, and then we must hold state officials accountable when they conceal evidence pointing to a defendant's innocence. We must make the system more responsive to post-conviction claims of injustice and less bound by blind obedience to finality. We can and must do all of this and more. Only then will we have learned the real lessons of "Making a Murderer." last year winner.jpg Keith Andreason, of Appalachian, was on the winning team last year that killed 13 foxes. (Mike Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com) The annual Bob Evans Memorial Predator Calling Hunt, which last year raised the hackles of an animal rights group and others, was cancelled earlier this month due to lack of entries by the event's registration deadline, according to its organizer. Did last year's blowback from animal rights groups and anti-hunters have any impact on the decision to cancel? No, said said Al LaFrance, president of the Independent Fur Harvesters of Central New York, the group that puts on the competition each winter. "That did not play a part - and it never will. We get this no matter what we do," he said. Last year, Friends of Animals, based in Connecticut, issued a statement condemning the hunt as "immoral." Entrants compete to see who could shoot the most coyotes, bobcats and foxes . The Friends group also called for the New York State Legislature to ban such contests. The hunting contest was scheduled for Jan. 8-10 and was open to hunters throughout the state. Weigh-ins were scheduled to take place at the Pompey Rod and Gun Club. Last year, a total of 55, two-person teams participated and the winning team walked away with a $1,000 check. Proceeds from the event each year go to toward Advance Strategies, an organization that provides hunting and fishing experiences for physically challenged sportsmen and women. Last year's event raised $2,700 for the group. This year, only seven teams paid the $50 entry fee by the Jan. 2 deadline, said Al LaFrance. LaFrance said the big difference last year was that a total of 20 teams were allowed to enter the day before and it completely messed up his charts, prize money allocations, door prizes and other things he had planned. So this year, La France said, he advertised ahead of time there would be a deadline --and he stuck to it. The contest was advertised in a paid ad in New York Outdoors News and on the websites of various sportsmen's groups across the state, he said. "People knew. We got calls from Rochester, Buffalo, Albany, Lake Placid - and they said they were coming," La France said. "Then Jan. 2 came, and then OK - nothing." When it was learned there were only seven teams registered, La France and the club's board decided to pull the plug. Each year, the competition uses a point system that takes in consideration the number of coyotes, bobcats and foxes that are called in and shot by hunters. Six points are awarded for each bobcat, three points for each coyote and one point for each fox taken. There is a $100 bonus for the heaviest coyote. Last year, the hunters shot 23 foxes and six coyotes. No bobcats were taken. Last year's winners were Keith Andreason, of Appalachian, and Jack Levitt, of Lake Placid, who walked away with the $1,000 winner's check for shooting 13 foxes. The team of Shannon McCranie and Corey Greene, of New Woodstock, took the $100 prize for the biggest coyote, which weighed 48 pounds, 6 ounces. LaFrance said next year's Bob Evans Memorial Predator Calling Hunt is definitely going to be held. "Hopefully, those who want to participate will register by the deadline," he said. Syracuse, N.Y. Day 30 has dawned on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge and Phil Theodore (Camillus born and raised), along with his rowing mate, Daley Ervin, are fewer than 1,300 miles from the finish line in Antigua. The two of them, known as "Team Beyond" in this competition, left the Canary Islands off the coast of northwest Africa on Dec. 20 for the 3,000-mile journey to the Caribbean in what is being called "The World's Toughest Row." A total of 26 crafts (fours, pairs and solos) make up the field, including the one being manned by Theodore and Ervin "Hope." Each of the boats is powered not by motor or wind, but by oars pulled around the clock. According to the the event's "Race Tracker" which is updated at 3 a.m., 7 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., and 11 p.m., every day (Syracuse time) Theodore and Ervin had rowed 1,775 miles as of 11 o'clock this Monday night. That placed them fifth in the 11-boat pairs division and eighth overall. Theodore, 48 and now a businessman living near Nashville,Tenn., with his wife and three children, has periodically filed reports from the middle of the sea. Here are his three most recent ones WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13: It's Day 25, which is hard to believe, and we are about smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. She has been holding us hostage in one location now for about 48 hours. A large storm system hit us with 25-knot winds directly out of the west with waves coming from the south not a great combination. Forced to put out the para anchor (a large underwater parachute that stops the boat from being blown backwards), we decided to wait it out in the cabin. Actually, we had no choice. While on the para anchor we've drifted backwards slightly, due to an issue with our anchor. This morning, we attempted to row when the winds were about 15 knots. After three hours of struggling against the elements we were forced to put out the anchor again. Leading up to the storm we pushed really hard to get in miles at the expense of taking a pounding by the surf. We were soaked to the core. Callouses turned to wet skin that was torn off due to the pressure from the oars, which, in turn, led to the forming of fresh blisters. By the time we got into the cabin we were a complete mess. After spending the week getting dried out and our sores under control, it is back to Square One. We've been using rubbing alcohol to help dry out and prevent infection on our hands and bums. The latest round of punishment from Mother Nature caused the blisters and sores that were drying up to crack and split open. The insidious salt water then went to work in each of these to drive continuous, non-stop pain to the affected areas. Our cabin is a sauna. Moisture drips from the ceiling and down the side walls. Nothing is dry, nothing. This only adds to our inability to dry out and compounds our issues. In addition, we were kept up most of the night as waves crashed against the sides of the boat, throwing us around the cabin. The noise it caused upon impact made us close our eyes and slowly shake our heads. We are safe, but our faith does get tested. We love "Hope." She has carried us this far and we trust her to deliver us to Antigua. So the past 48 hours amounted to dark times on board "Hope." Instead of progressing towards Antigua, we have regressed. Instead of our physical condition improving, it has deteriorated. We've worked hard to find the good in it all and remind ourselves just how fortunate we really are. So we got to work making water by hand on deck. About midday, Daley yelled at me to look to my left. There was a pod of six or seven whales. They were light gray with large flat noses and faces. They slowly passed by us about 15 feet from our starboard side; then they circled back around the boat. Mild panic struck when we realized that they were going across our para anchor line. If they got caught up in that, God only knows what would have happened. Fortunately, there was no issue. Following the whales shortly thereafter were a pod of dolphins and a large rainbow. Today was by far our most active one for wildlife sightings. We took this as a positive sign of things to come. Tomorrow afternoon the storm system will leave us with northeasterly winds for the next two weeks. We intend to push hard and make the most of the good weather. Despite the setbacks, we remain in good spirits and are focused on arriving in Antigua by late January/early February. There are good days, and there are days that aren't quite as good. The latter is now in the rear-view mirror and the former lies ahead. THURSDAY, JAN. 14: We are currently at Latitude 17.48N and Longitude 38.46W, and with no sight of land for 25 days, here are some things we've experienced out on the sea: -- Going to the bathroom in a bucket is no fun at all, but the views from our bathroom are spectacular. -- Our boat was attacked by a seven-foot shark, which kept biting our rudder. Daley was very brave and took our gaff (a long pole with a very sharp point) and smacked him a couple of times to get him to leave us alone. He left, still hungry. -- We've had to jump out of the boat twice to remove the barnacles that have formed on the bottom, so they don't slow us down. I watched for sharks while Daley cleaned the boat. -- Large waves, some as tall as four-story houses, have hit us many times causing us to capsize twice. Both times, I was out on deck rowing while Daley was in the cabin. The waves threw me into the water, but fortunately I was tied to the boat and was able to quickly climb back on board. Once it happened when it was night time. Yes, it was very scary. Daley got tossed all around the cabin. Neither of us was hurt. -- A pod of about 15-20 dolphins came to visit us. They were very friendly. Also, a very big blue marlin I'm guessing he weighed 450 pounds or so came up next to our boat. He looked angry and was kind of scary. These fish are very territorial; we must've been in his neighborhood trespassing. -- It's been sunny most days so we wear lots of sunscreen and drink lots of water. At night it was chilly at first, but as we make our way to Antigua it's been getting nice and warm. -- Our electronics broke on our boat, so we have been forced to navigate the same way Columbus, Magellan, de Soto and many of the early explorers did. That is, with a simple compass. It has worked really well. -- There has been a "new moon" so we didn't have a moon out for a few nights. It was soooo dark, but there were a gazillion stars in the sky. It's been my favorite time of the day. -- The freeze-dried food is actually pretty good. It's mostly chicken and pasta meals. We put lots of olive oil in it to give us more healthy fat calories. We have about 1,300 miles left to row and are currently in eighth place out of 26 teams. Over the next two weeks we are hoping to move up to fifth place and into position for a final hard run to the finish line. FRIDAY, JAN. 15: The storms are in the rear-view mirror, and the fair winds and following seas are finally upon us. We have 100 % restoration of all vital operating equipment. Physically, we still have weight to drop going into the final two weeks of the race. We expect to see movement up the rankings this coming week. The competitive advantages that the lead pack had up to this point are no longer relevant. We are in an all-out sprint to the finish. We believe that we have the fastest/lightest boat that allows us to take chunks of the lead back in short order. A relentless chase is underway and we will put lots of pressure on the leaders. Now, for a story about our lunch today: This morning after my 9-11 shift, I was relaxing in the cabin, checking on electronics, batteries, etc., when Daley shouted to me, "Fish on!" Two days ago, I rigged up our fishing pole with a 30-pound test line and a three-inch blue octopus lure. This particular lure is used to catch mahi-mahi or dorado. It was cast off the back of the boat and sits just below the surface of the water, occasionally popping to the surface. As we row at about three knots, we're just trolling for the dorado. At around 11:25 bam! A very aggressive dorado hit the lure. He put on quite a show for us. As he was jumping out of the water in an effort to "spit" the hook, I noticed about 10 trigger fish that were swimming along with him. They looked like a pack of schoolchildren, cheering on "Petey the Dorado" to shake free. Each time he leaped from the sea I pulled the line tight so that the hook would stay firmly in his jaw. His beautiful gold skin with hues of yellow and green were brilliant each time he jumped. His back fin was royal blue. After about a five-minute battle, we landed Petey and his buddies quickly scattered. We got him into the bilge well where he flipped vigorously trying to make his way back to the water and his friends. Unfortunately we had other plans for this 20-inch, five-pound little fighter. After taking some photos and video, I quickly put him out of his misery. Then, Daley got out two small bottles of white wine along with two ice packs from the med kit. He broke open the ice packs, took an ace bandage and wrapped the packs around the bottles of wine to get them chilled. I filleted the fish into chunks that would go into our jet boil along with some olive oil. I emptied two new packets of freeze-dried breakfast meals so that I could use the sealable foil pack to put the fish into after it was cooked. The fish made two 6/8-ounce servings that were put into the foil bags along with lemon pepper. We shook them up and, bingo, we had fresh mahi-mahi with a nice bottle of white wine for lunch. We have been at sea now for 27 days. Our food has been primarily freeze-dried packets four times per day with snacks in between. So when we put the fish into our mouths, you can only imagine what it felt and tasted like for us. The consistency of the fish was firm, thick and meaty. It was almost like eating steak. To feel the texture of the fish between our molars as we chewed was a new experience. Moving it to the middle of our mouths and then tongues as we pressed the fish up against the roof of our mouths to suck out the juices before swallowing it was almost spiritual. We all take for granted the foods that we eat on terra firma on a regular basis. Most of us eat fast and don't savor the taste or flavors in the food. After being on a boat and deprived of such privileges it is something that I will change upon our return. As we were eating the fish, a huge, beautiful rainbow appeared off in the distance. We were told by many yachtsmen and sailors that the ocean is a very unforgiving place to be. In fact over 250 boats go missing each year lost and never to be found. They also told us take what the ocean gives you and to never fight it because you will not win. This morning, it felt like the ocean finally has accepted our presence and rewarded us with a delicious piece of fish and a rainbow. We took them both. As we enter the final two weeks, we are going to need to be "strong-strong" to catch the leaders. We think we have the ocean on our side now. Bud Poliquin anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-416-2021 (Bud also can be heard weekday mornings between 10-12 on the "Bud & the Manchild" sports-talk radio show on ESPN Radio 97.7 FM, 100.1 FM and 1200 AM.) CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Turning up the temperature, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tangled repeatedly in Sunday night's presidential debate over who's tougher on gun control and Wall Street and how to steer the future of health care in America. It was the last Democratic matchup before voting begins in two weeks, and both sides were eager to rumble as polls showed the race tightening in the leadoff states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton rapped Sanders, the Vermont senator, for voting repeatedly with the National Rifle Association, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity. She rattled off a list of provisions that she said Sanders had supported in line with the NRA. Sanders, in turn, said Clinton's assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby was "very disingenuous" and pointed to his lifetime rating of a D- from the NRA. On health care, Sanders released his plan for a government-run single-payer plan just hours before the debate, and used his opening statement to call for health care "for every man, woman and child as a right." Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on President Barack Obama's health care plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs. Clinton suggested Sanders' approach was dangerous -- and pie-in-the-sky unrealistic. "With all due respect, to start over again with a whole new debate is something that would set us back," Clinton said. Sanders dismissed the idea that he'd endanger hard-won victories, insisting: "No one is tearing this up; we're going to go forward." Clinton suggested Sanders' health care plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class, saying "I want to raise incomes, not taxes." Sanders insisted taxpayers would come out ahead with lower costs overall. "It's a pretty good deal," he said. The two tangled over financial policy, too, with Sanders suggesting Clinton won't be tough enough on Wall Street given the big contributions and speaking fees she's accepted. Clinton, in turn, faulted Sanders' past votes to deregulate financial markets and ease up on federal oversight. Then, she took a step back to put those differences in a different perspective. "We're at least having a vigorous debate about reining in Wall Street," she declared. "The Republicans want to give them more power." Clinton worked aggressively to associate herself with President Obama, claiming credit for her role in the run-up to the Iran nuclear deal as well as praising the health care law. Overall, the tone of the debate was considerably more heated than the past three face-offs in the Democratic primary. But it also included moments of levity. At different points, both Clinton and Sanders prefaced their criticism of one another with the phrase "in all due respect." Sanders took note that he was copying Clinton on that verbiage, drawing a chuckle from his rival. Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton "in all due respect, you're missing the main point." Clinton, playing to her liberal audience, cast Sanders' criticisms of Obama for being too weak in taking on Wall Street as unfair, and declared, "I'm going to defend President Obama for taking on Wall Street" and getting results. "The Republicans just voted last week to repeal the Affordable care Act, and thank goodness, President Obama vetoed it and saved Obamacare for the American people," Clinton said. Turning to national security, both Sanders and Clinton voiced strong support for Obama's diplomatic overtures to Iran and opposition to sending U.S. ground troops into Syria. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations. "My relationship with him -- it's interesting," Clinton said to laughs in the debate hall. "It's one, I think, of respect." But she added it was critical to constantly stand up to Putin, describing him as a bully who "will take as much as he possibly can." Clinton also shed some light on what role her husband, former President Bill Clinton, would play in her administration. Kitchen table adviser, perhaps? "It'll start at the kitchen table -- we'll see where it goes from there," she said with a laugh. Then, pointing to the successes of her husband's administration, she added: "You bet I'm going to ask for his ideas. I'm going to ask for his advice." Sanders was asked about his previous criticism of Bill Clinton's past sexual behavior. He called the former president's behavior "deplorable" but said he wants to focus on issues "not Bill Clinton's personal life." Clinton maintained a tight smile throughout that exchange, and nodded as Sanders said the focus should be on issues. The debate over gun control -- an ongoing area of conflict between Clinton and Sanders -- took on special import given the setting: The debate took plan just blocks from the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church where nine parishioners were killed during Bible study last summer. Gun control has emerged as a central theme in the race, with Clinton citing the issue as one of the major differences between the candidates. The third participant in the debate, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, tried persistently to insert himself into the conversation. He focused on his record as Maryland's governor and accused both Clinton and Sanders of being inconsistent on gun control Both Clinton and Sanders are competing for black voters in South Carolina, which hosts the fourth primary contest. The debate was sponsored by NBC, YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. Martin O'Malley, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders The fourth Democratic 2016 presidential debate featured former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, left, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The three greeted supporters before the start of the NBC News-YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C., on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) (Mic Smith) WASHINGTON, D.C. - Who do you think won the Democratic presidential debate on Sunday night? The three Democratic presidential candidates battled each other for two hours in a prime-time debate broadcast live by NBC from the Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C. It was the fourth Democratic debate of the 2016 presidential election, and the last before next month's Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, locked in a tight battle in the polls, made their final appeals to the early voters, while Martin O'Malley tried to present himself as a viable alternative to the Democratic frontrunners. The NBC-News/YouTube debate began with a focus on guns, police violence, the drug epidemic and criminal justice reform. Clinton hammered Sanders about his change in support for giving gun manufacturers immunity from legal prosecution, and said he voted to allow people to carry guns on Amtrak trains and at National Parks. But Sanders said Clinton was disingenuous about changes in his positions. The Democratic candidates also spent several minutes sparring over their plans to build upon or revise the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Clinton suggested the plan offered by Sanders would essentially tear up Obamacare, but Sanders said he only seeks to improve the landmark healthcare law. Later, the candidates were asked about their competing plans for the economy and Wall Street reform. Sanders argued it was time to break up the big banks. Clinton said the Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed by Congress already give the federal government the authority to break up big banks. Clinton said her plans for financial reform are the ones Republicans and Wall Street fear the most: "I'm the one they don't want to be up against," Clinton said. In the end, who do you think won the debate? Please vote in the unscientific poll above, and share your comments below. Contact Mark Weiner anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Morocco Paris Attacks Members of the Moroccan special anti-terror unit guard the headquarters of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations in Sale near Rabat, Morocco, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. (Abdeljalil Bounhar | The Associated Press) Update 2:00 p.m.: Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van der Sypt told The Associated Press the suspect's name is Gelel Attar, a dual Belgian-Moroccan national previously convicted in Belgium of involvement with a terrorist group. The letters G and J are represented by the same letter in Arabic script. Pieter Van Ostaeyen, who monitors the activities of Belgian jihadis and extremists, said Attar, 26, was also from Molenbeek, and that he left Belgium for Syria on Jan. 4, 2013 in the company of Akrouh. He reportedly returned to Belgium that May 28, then traveled to Morocco. Despite being arrested there, he managed to return to Syria, Van Ostaeyen said. He said Attar also used the name Abou Ibrahim. RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Moroccan police have arrested a Belgian man of Moroccan descent linked to the Islamic State group and who had a "direct relationship" to attackers who carried out the Paris attacks just over two months ago, the Interior Ministry said Monday. The man had traveled to Syria with one of the Paris suicide bombers, where he received military training and built relationships with IS field commanders, "including the mastermind" of the Paris attacks, and others who threatened attacks in France and Belgium, the ministry said in a statement. The statement identified the suspect only by the initials J.A., and didn't explain his suspected relationship to the Paris attackers. He has been linked to Salah Abdeslam, a key suspect in the attacks. Abdeslam remains at large. Several of the Islamic extremists who targeted a Paris rock concert, stadium and cafes had Moroccan origins and links to Belgium. The attacks on Nov. 13 killed 130 people. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, was suspected of masterminding and participating in the attacks. He was shot dead on Nov. 18 during a police raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. The ministry said in a statement that the man was arrested Friday in the town of Mohammedia, near Casablanca, after traveling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. It said the suspect is under investigation. Belgian prosecutors didn't immediately comment on the arrest. Morocco has emerged as a key ally for European investigators trying to piece together the geography of the Nov. 13 attacks. The head of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations, dubbed the 'Moroccan FBI', told the Associated Press in a recent interview that his country put French and Belgian police on the trail of the network behind the Paris attacks. Several of the attackers lived in the Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, home to numerous Belgians of Moroccan descent. Hawaii Helicopter Collison U.S. Marines walk on the beach at Waimea Bay near Haleiwa, Hawaii, where two military helicopters crashed into the ocean about 2 miles offshore, Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. The helicopters carrying 12 crew members collided off the Hawaiian island of Oahu during a nighttime training mission, and rescuers are searching a debris field in choppy waters Friday, military officials said. (Mariana Keller via AP Photo) HALEIWA, Hawaii (AP) -- The ongoing search for 12 Marines who are missing after two helicopters crashed off Hawaii entered the third day with no plans Sunday morning to call off or suspend the massive effort, the Coast Guard said. While high surf complicated the mission for rescuers on the water, a green laser off Haleiwa Beach Park on Saturday night struck a Coast Guard plane, forcing crew members to alter search patterns. "It's a very, very dangerous thing," Coast Guard spokeswoman Tara Molle said of the laser, adding that it can be life-threatening for crews flying at night. The crew of the HC-130 plane wasn't exposed and didn't have to land, but they changed their search pattern to avoid being hit again. The Coast Guard reminded the public that targeting a laser at an aircraft is illegal and could result in fine of $11,000 per violation. Rescuers have been searching round-the-clock since the Coast Guard was notified late Thursday of the crash by a civilian who saw the aircraft flying and then disappear and a fireball. The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mission. Hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane spotted debris 2 1/2 miles off of Oahu. The transport helicopters were part of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Known as Super Stallions, they are the U.S. military's largest helicopter, capable of carrying a light armored vehicle, 16 tons of cargo or a team of combat-equipped Marines, according to a Marine Corps website. The Coast Guard initially reported that the choppers had collided, but Marine Capt. Timothy Irish said Friday that he did not know if the accident was a collision. A high surf warning for Oahu's north and west shores was extended until noon Sunday. Waves of up to 30 feet were expected to subside to advisory levels Sunday afternoon. The crash was off the north shore, but the search area was expanded to include waters off Oahu's west coast on Saturday. Rescuers will continue to search "as long as there's probable cause that they have something to find," Molle said. As of Sunday morning, there were no plans to call off or suspend the search, she said. The U.S. Marines Corps released the names of the 12 missing crew members late Saturday. Though based in Hawaii, the Marines were from various states. Some family members were holding out hope that survivors could be found, while asking for privacy as they waited for updates. "My husband and I want everyone to know that this is not about us," Donna McGrew, mother of Maj. Shawn Campbell of College Station, Texas, said in a statement. "This is about the families that are suffering, and about all the sacrifices that our military members and their families make on a daily basis." This photo taken in 2010 and provided by the Roche family, shows Capt. Kevin Roche. On Saturday, the U.S. Marine Corps released the names of the missing officers involved in a helicopter crash, including Roche. (Roche Family via AP) On Saturday evening, the U.S. Marine Corps released the names of the missing crew members. They are: SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Nearly 4,000 people mourned at the War Memorial. Another 2,000 filled the First Baptist Church in downtown Syracuse to pay their respects. Syracuse University, the Syracuse City School District and parochial schools closed on April 9, 1968 for the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee five days earlier. King's death shook the country. President Lyndon Johnson deferred a scheduled trip to Honolulu for a Vietnam War strategy conference so he could speak to the public. "I ask every American citizen," Johnson said in a story that appeared in the April 5, 1968 Post-Standard, "to reject the blind violence that has struck down Dr. King, who lived by nonviolence." The day after King was killed, more than 2,000 people packed the First Baptist Church at the corner of Montgomery and East Jefferson streets to pay their respects to the slain civil right leader. The Rev. Forest Adams, pastor of Tucker Baptist Church, Syracuse, gave the principal address, in the face of two threats against his life. "It was just people who filled the First Baptist Church to overflowing yesterday;" Ramona B. Bowden wrote in a April 6, 1968 Post-Standard story. People, not divided by race or creed, but united in a common grief and overwhelming shock at the death of Dr. Martin Luther King..." Others mourned King's death at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University. The Rev. Leo R. Murphy, of Bethany Baptist Church, Syracuse, was among those who spoke at the late Friday afternoon ceremony. The church also hosted a memorial service on April 7 organized by the Syracuse chapter of the NAACP, nation's oldest civil rights organization. "Dr. King refused to use violence, but used instead the sword of the spirit," Murphy said. Cecil Cooper, a mailman who lived on Mountainview Avenue in Syracuse, dropped by the Syracuse Herald-Journal office on April 5. He asked the newspaper to share his appeal for peace. He said tensions were high in the city, but that the best course of action--the action King would have wanted--was to remain calm. "We have lost a great man," Cooper said. "He has been lost not only as the spokesman for the Negro. He has been lost to the entire nation." Syracuse mayor William F. Walsh and other city officials were among the nearly 4,000 people of all races, religions and walks of life who came to the War Memorial on April 7 to remember King. Religious leaders from across Syracuse spoke at the ceremony, including the Most Rev. David F. Cunningham, bishop coadjutor of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. "He [King] carried the cross for the black people whom he loved," Cunningham said during the service. "May his death change discrimination to understanding and hatred to love." This year marks the 30th year since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, held on or around King's January 15, 1929 birthday, was made an American federal holiday. In the week following King's death--nearly 20 years before it became a holiday--schools around the Syracuse area began planning special remembrances for King. The Syracuse City School District held "Martin Luther King Day" on April 11, 1968. Students took part in programs, activities and studies about King's life. Teachers were provided packets containing books and articles about King, a biographical sketch, a worksheet on King's Nobel Prize, pictures, test questions and other materials, the Herald-Journal reported on April 8. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with an old friend, Charles Willie, then a member of the Syracuse University faculty: SU summer session, 1961. Some of Syracuse's parochial schools also received the packets. The parochial schools honored King on April 10. The North Syracuse Central School District held "Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Day" on April 11. Similar to the city school district, the North Syracuse schools held assemblies and taught students about King's life and works. King visited Syracuse at least twice in his life. Both times--once in 1961 and again in 1965--King spoke at the annual summer sessions dinner at Syracuse University. In his 1961 speech, King said people must erase the notion of "superior and inferior" races. More than 1,000 people attended King's 1965 speech in Sims Hall. They dined on chicken and wild rice and listened as King spoke on the importance of education and the de facto segregation in schools. King also called for a "financial floor" that would ensure that every family in America--regardless of race--would have $3,000 a year. Families that fell under that financial threshold would receive the difference from the federal government. His speech was met by a standing ovation. This feature is a part of CNY Nostalgia, a section on syracuse.com. Send your ideas and curiosities to Jacob Pucci: Email | Twitter | 315-766-6747 Amy Jo Smith (front, seated), sings with protesters to the death penalty on April 23, 2014, at the Florida State Prison near Starke, just hours before the execution of Robert Eugene Hendrix. (AP FILE PHOTO) By Isadora Rangel of TCPalm TALLAHASSEE Republican Sen. Thad Altman opposes the death penalty. While he knows repealing it is a lost cause in Florida, he has been trying for three years to make it more difficult to impose by requiring a unanimous jury recommendation instead of a simple majority. This week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Florida's death penalty system is unconstitutional gives Altman hope his bill could become law, even though the ruling doesn't address the unanimity issue. The court found Florida gives too much power to judges to make the final decision to sentence someone to death, with the jury serving only an advisory role. That's a violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. The Legislature must fix the law now, and Altman said this could be the right time to address the fact Florida is one of three states that don't require a unanimous jury decision, as is required for a conviction in capital murder cases. The other two are Alabama and Delaware. The Legislature might have to deal with the unanimity issue at some point as there are two Florida cases about it pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. ALTMAN'S BILL Altman's SB 330 requires the jury to agree unanimously not only to recommend the death penalty, but also that each aggravating circumstance used to support the recommendation is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Today there is no special verdict required to reflect the vote on the aggravating circumstances. The proposed law would apply only to cases after July 1. Altman said he likely will change his bill to conform to the Supreme Court ruling, and he thinks if Florida gives more power to the jury it should also raise the bar on how a death penalty decision is made. A former Baptist who converted to Catholicism, he said his opposition to capital punishment is rooted in his religious beliefs. He represents part of Indian River County. "We don't know what happens to somebody when you put them to death," said Altman of Rockledge. "I feel strongly we need to be very careful." Altman might have a tough time convincing some of his colleagues to take up his proposal. Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, said he has "mixed emotions about it" and thinks the Legislature will focus more on addressing the Supreme Court ruling giving the jury more power rather than requiring an unanimous decision. OTHER REFORMS The Legislature passed a reform in 2013 that prevented convicted killers from spending decades on death row by expediting the legal appeals process, and critics said that could lead to innocent people being executed. A Democrat's attempt failed to raise the number of jurors required for a recommendation from seven to 10. Florida requires a simple 7-5 majority and a judge can override a jury's decision. The American Bar Association has urged Florida to change the law, saying studies show without unanimity jurors do not devote the same energy or emotional commitment to the decision, and pro-death jurors are able to overpower undecided or minority viewpoints. In the case that prompted the Supreme Court ruling, a jury recommended with a 7-5 vote the death penalty for Timothy Lee Hurst of Pensacola for stabbing his coworker to death at a Popeyes restaurant in 1998. Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Fort Walton Beach Republican who led the reform, said there were discussions to require a unanimous jury recommendation in 2013, but Attorney General Pam Bondi argued at the time that would have caused cases of people on death row to go into a long round of appeals. Gaetz expects appeals anyway because of the Supreme Court ruling, so this might be an opportunity to re-evaluate the unanimity proposal as well, he said. "The taking of a life is the most extreme exercise of government power," Gaetz said. "I am open-minded to look at the data and see whether or not a unanimous jury requirement would help us more accurately and effectively administer justice." Follow Isadora Rangel, Arek Sarkissian and Tampa news partner Jeff Schweers for updates on all the legislative action. Tweets about from:IsadoraRangel2 OR from:ArekSarkissian OR from:jeffschweersTBO TALLAHASSEE Frustrated with how the federal government screens refugees, and fueled by a fearful constituency, state lawmakers want to give the governor and attorney general sweeping powers to keep out anyone they deem to be a risk to the people of Florida. Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and Rep. Lake Ray, R-Jacksonville, are sponsoring measures that would prohibit agencies receiving tax dollars from helping resettle refugees from countries known to harbor groups that want to commit violence against the U.S. "The federal government does a poor job of that, so it is imperative that the state of Florida set up viable solution," Simpson said. "I don't have confidence the federal government is always screening all the folks through the refugee process appropriately. We want to know who is here, where they are and what screening they have." The legislation would require agencies that help resettle refugees to provide the names of those people to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for potential further background investigation and could withhold funds from agencies that don't cooperate. The measure also would grant the governor police, emergency and military powers to create emergency rules and use whatever means necessary to keep out of Florida any person he has reasonable cause to believe could commit an act of violence. "This bill makes it crystal clear that the governor and the attorney general can gather and collect information on unknown refugees being brought here," Simpson said. "Agencies failing to participate in this effort to protect our citizens are subject to suspension in contracts they may have with the State." But advocates for immigrants and refugees said the bill feeds into xenophobia fed by rhetoric from presidential candidates including Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and would discriminate against people fleeing for their lives from war-torn countries. Advocates also said it could have a chilling effect on agencies trying to set them up with housing, food, clothing, medical care, and jobs. "This bill, which says if you don't comply we will take your funding away, makes the situation worse," said Magda Saleh, president of Radiant Hands, a nonprofit social services agency in Tampa that has been helping refugees for the past four months. Her organization was approached by the refugee services liaison with the state's Department of Children and Families after other agencies already working to place refugees were overwhelmed by a recent influx. "These people have been through so much," Saleh said. "I don't see where they are going to be a problem." The need for resettlement help is huge, she said. Ninety percent of the agency's work now is dealing with the refugees. Because the number is increasing, and because the only refugees accepted from Syria now are people with disabilities and severe medical conditions, they require more support and funding, Saleh said. Each refugee gets $1,125, which is supposed to last three months, she said. The number in a family range from one to 11, with the average around six, all typically living in a three-bedroom apartment, she said. The money is passed through the Department of Children of Families to agencies throughout the state that provide refugee resettlement assistance. Some $105.5 million has been budgeted for fiscal 2016. Refugees qualify for every benefit a U.S. citizen qualifies for, including food stamps, Medicaid, job training, and other social services. By far, the largest group of refugees is Cubans, who made up about 90 percent of the nearly 170,000 refugees who have come to Florida since 2010, according to data tracked by the Department of Children and Families. Nearly 50,000 refugees were relocated to Florida in the last fiscal year. Haitians are the second largest group, at around 3.5 percent, and Iraqis are third at about 1 percent. Middle Eastern refugees undergo more layers of scrutiny than from any other region, said Laila Abdelaziz, government affairs director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Tampa. The process can take 18-24 months, twice as long as for people from other parts of the world, Abdelaziz said. But some do slip through the cracks. Two Iraqi refugees arrested last week face trials for comments they made that prosecutors say showed support for the Islamic State or terrorism. In November, 14 people were killed and 22 were injured in what authorities said was a planned terror attack by a married couple in San Bernardino, California. They were killed in a gun battle and investigators have not linked them to a terrorist organization yet. Also in November, terrorists attacked locations in Paris, killing 130. After the Paris attacks, a White House plan to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States came under fire because one of the suspects gained access by posing as a Syrian refugee. Governors from about 20 states, including Florida, wrote letters protesting the placement of Syrians in their state. Acknowledging the state had no authority to prevent the relocation of refugees by the federal government, Gov. Rick Scott said he would ask Congress to act "aggressively" to prevent President Obama from using federal tax money to place up to 425 Syrians in Florida. Several members of Congress have proposed legislation to curtail refugee relocation programs. Ray's legislation in Florida has been assigned to three committees, with a first stop at the Criminal Justice Subcommittee headed by Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami. It also has picked up several co-sponsors. Simpson's bill has been referred to Judiciary, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice, and Appropriations. The preamble to the bills says that because some of those who carried out the 9/11 attacks trained in Florida, the state has been under "imminent threat of the surreptitious invasion of foreign persons intending to conquer or violently destroy the way of life for the citizens of the United States and its constituent states." It defines an "invader" as someone who enters the state with the intent of committing violence against people and destroying property, weakening the state or making war with the U.S. It calls a "restricted person" someone "for whom there is reasonable cause to believe that he or she originates from, or has been in close proximity to, any location in which invaders or prospective invaders are known to originate or organize or train for violent acts of war." The measure might not past muster as a state undertaking, said Mark Schlakman, senior program director of the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University. "It is highly suspect on constitutional grounds," Schlakman said. "It potentially violates the separation of powers and the basic tenets of Federalism." It also introduces an element of coercion, where any organizations that receive state funding would be subject to sanctions, he said. Simpson said the legislation is not an attempt to discriminate against Muslims or people from Middle Eastern countries and he will work with his colleagues to adjust the bill's language so it protects Floridians without sacrificing humanitarian aid. "I don't believe the current wording is exactly the way it's going to be when we are finished," Simpson said. "We will get this right and we will listen to anyone who has an opinion, obviously. We will listen to our attorneys to make sure that it is constitutional and that the state is in a posture to enforce this bill." Treasure Coast Newspapers, Naples Daily News and Tampa Tribune journalists are in Tallahassee reporting throughout the legislative session in a collaborative capital bureau. Tweets about from:IsadoraRangel2 OR from:ArekSarkissian OR from:jeffschweersTBO In this Aug. 28, 1963 photo, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, gestures during his I Have a Dream speech as he addresses thousands of civil rights supporters gathered in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo) SHARE Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He would have turned 87 this year. Fifty-three years ago, King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech about the America he hoped to see. America today is a far more diverse place than it was in 1963. King undoubtedly would have celebrated a two-term president who shared his skin color. At the same time, he'd be outraged by persistent violence against and within the black community in America. . King warned, "let us not seek to satisfy out thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence." Yet physical violence is exactly what has happened in Ferguson, Missouri and other cities where residents have protested police killings of unarmed black men. The reasons behind the protests aren't hard to decipher. Last year, according to statistics collected by the British newspaper the Guardian, young blacks in America were nine times more likely to be killed by police officers than whites. Of the 1,134 young black men killed by law enforcement in this country in 2015, 650 had refused commands to drop weapons or threatened police. It should also be noted the Guardian found that in at least 255 deaths, the actions of police officers were ruled justified. In our region, deaths of young black men have occurred as a result of black-on-black violence in recent days. Three weeks into the new year, we have seen two homicides and more people injured by shootings in Fort Pierce. Indian River and Martin County also have seen more gun violence than ever in recent months. In many of those cases, disputes between gangs are to blame. We certainly have come a long way since King's time. Yet we have a lot further to go before we achieve King's dream, "when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free, free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!' " Photos by L.L. Angell Schnells choreography for Pastoral Symphony reads in part 6 sets traveling around center: saute in parallel pase arms alonge arabeque. SHARE Photo provided Adam Schnell, artistic director and choreographer for Ballet Vero Beach watches a rehearsal. Principal dancer, Camilo Rodriguez demonstrates a pose in the ballet, Pastoral Symphony. Principal dancer, Camilo Rodriguez feet in casual fifth position. By L.L. Angell When Ballet Vero Beach performs "Pastoral Symphony" at the Vero Beach High School's Performing Arts Center, Jan. 22 and 23, audiences will see the dance company's grandest world premier yet. It's also artistic director and choreographer, Adam Schnell's newest and longest dance. So far Schnell has created more than 20 original ballets, "writing" them down in spiral notebooks. But, how do you "write" a dance? Music has scores using notes. Plays have scripts using words. But what symbols do choreographers use when they create a new dance? Imagine an instruction as seemingly simple as, "Lower your arm." What's the angle of the arm? How quickly does it move and where does it stop? And how are all of those movements set to music? "'Writing' a ballet sounds weird to me. Even though we do write them down, we say choreographing," Schnell explained. Familiar steps The point is that he absolutely does write down every step and movement. He even has a favorite pen "not a ballpoint I like ones that flow" as well as a favorite notebook: "Mead's three-hole-punch." ""Ballets go in Meads and musical theater on legal pads. I've always done it that way. I'm O.C.D. and Meads are divided into sections with pockets," Schnell says. "That way, if I want to include a costume designer's sketch list, for example, I put it in the pocket." By now, he has approximately 15 such notebooks all in a row. He writes on one side of each page, so the back is available for rehearsal notes. "Before beginning, I spend a lot of time with the music. It's always in my car and I listen while driving. I block out time and listen, too. Then I sit down with the music and notebook, and work from beginning to end," Schnell said. Getting it down The history of Western classical dance begins in France with Louis XIV. At the same time that he was building the Versailles Palace, the Sun King was founding the first dancing academy. Originally, dances were passed down by word of mouth from choreographer to students. In the 18th century, choreographers began writing down the mechanics of dance, creating symbols to stand for "plie" and "pirouette." "Today, most choreographers develop their own personal shorthand," says Schnell. "It's a little like learning to talk. You build a vocabulary. Writing it down, eight counts can take two pages or much, much less." Ballet has descriptive words, directional words and names for every movement. To all these, Schnell adds his own lines and squiggles. "I draw diagrams of smaller formations like the stage here, audience there and this means everyone circles and changes places," he says scribbling on paper. Awakenings Choreography has always come naturally to Schnell. "As a kid, whenever I heard music, I always visualized what movements would go with it," he says. He discovered his love of choreography as a young dancer at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts just outside Boston. He wrote his first professional ballet, "The Judas Kiss," at 19. Schnell calls Beethoven's famous Sixth Symphony (aka, "the Pastoral Symphony") "sweeping yet serene." Whereas most of Beethoven's work is abstract, this one suggests a definite story. Describing the first movement, Beethoven wrote, "Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside." The strings play a motif that imitates flowing water. The woodwinds sound like birdcalls. Soon, there's an outdoor party with folk dancing. "As I move forward in choreography, I'm becoming more interested in telling a story. I use this ballet to portray a group of people at a country gathering. But really, it's about people watching, at its finest," he says. "We all have stories that pop into our heads while we're observing others in daily life. Throughout the ballet, the audience will be challenged to decide which of the events unfolding on stage actually happened." Setting the scene Because the Sixth Symphony has many repeating musical phrases, Schnell decided to create slightly different versions of the same occurrence and pose the question, "Which one is real?" "I asked myself, 'What if I could present different versions of the same scenarios. I want the audience to choose what they think has really happened," Schnell says. Travis Halsey's sumptuous early 17th century-inspired costumes and Rebecca Franklin's lighting enhance "Pastoral Symphony." As far as Schnell is concerned, these two are tops. He's known Halsey for many years. "Travis started in the costume shop at the Omaha Theatre Ballet when I danced there and has moved onto amazing things. He did a bunch of costumes for Madonna's latest world tour. I only have to give him a few small directives and he does the rest. He makes the most amazing costumes that you can throw in the wash," says Schnell. The same goes for Rebecca Franklin who was master electrician at Riverside Theatre. Now, newly married, she works at Fort Lauderdale University. "I don't have a lot of time for directions once the lights are hung. Becky understands what I want," Schnell says. Serendipity This week's performance will also be the main stage premier of "Museum Pieces," a work adapted from the 2014 sold-out collaboration between Ballet Vero Beach and the Vero Beach Museum of Art. "The museum commissioned us to create three dances to interpret their "Kinetic Sculpture" exhibition last season," says Schnell. It's pure serendipity that these three pieces by three different choreographers reflect what Schnell calls "a broader exploration of the marriage between classical ballet and contemporary dance." "Program 2" is underwritten by The McLaughlin Family Charitable Foundation. The world premier of "Pastoral Symphony" is made possible in part with support from Perry and Kathy Morton. "Program 2" of Ballet Vero Beach's 2015-2016 season runs Jan. 22 at 8:00 pm and Jan. 23 at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm at the VBHS Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10-$50 and are available at www.balletverobeach.org or by calling 772-905-2651. Tom Berson SHARE By Beverly S. Paris The Emerson Center's free Florida Humanities Series, in partnership with the Florida Humanities Council, will continue with "Transparent Waters: The History and Significance of Florida Springs" on Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. Kicking off the New Year will be Tom Berson a former journalist and Florida and environmental history professor, who will describe the numerous valuable natural springs in Florida, which brought tourists here before Disney. The springs that attracted travelers into a wild and enchanting Florida interior include Weeki Wachee, the deepest naturally formed spring in the US. Admission to each lecture is complimentary and all will begin at 7 p.m. Funding for these programs is provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and sponsored in part by Marine Bank and Trust. The Emerson Center is located at 1590 27th Ave. For more information, contact 772-778-5249. Apple this week revealed that technical difficulties with its News app have led the company to underestimate usage figures for the more than 100 publications offering content through the software. The company discovered an error in the app thats resulted in underestimating the number of readers using the software, Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of Internet software and services, told The Wall Street Journal. Apple is fixing the problem, but he did not say when it would be fixed. The companys numbers are lower than reality, Cue said. At the fourth-quarter earnings call in October, Apple CEO Tim Cook said 40 million people were using the app. Numbers Tied to Ad Money Having accurate usage numbers for the News app is important to both Apple and its publishing partners. Publishers need accurate info since it impacts how they price their ads, Tim Bajarin, president ofCreative Strategies, told the E-Commerce Times. Publications are selling advertising against their content on a number of platforms, said John Carroll, a mass communications professor atBoston University. They want to know their readership so they can adjust their advertising rates accordingly. The more Apple News underestimates their readership, the less money the publishers are going to make, he told the E-Commerce Times. As a byproduct of that, the less interest the publishers are going to have in Apple News, Carroll said. Publications have a limited amount of resources, so the question becomes how much energy and expense do they want to expend on Apple News if its underperforming, he added. Losing Interest Accurate data is important to Apple because it collects a percentage of some of the ads in content distributed through the News app. Lost advertising revenue, though, may not be the most costly loss to Apple because of this counting glitch, noted Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst atMoor Insights & Strategy. People will lose interest in the platform, he told the E-Commerce Times. People spend a lot of time with news. Apple doesnt want people finding other ways to get their news, Moorhead said. News is more strategically important in the long run than losing some quarterly ad money. Independent Counter Needed For publishers, moving distribution of their content out of their hands and into outlets like Apple News and Facebook presents new challenges, noted Dan Kennedy, an associate journalism professor atNortheastern University. When you handle your own distribution in print or on your own website, you know what your numbers are, he told the E-Commerce Times. In this new world of Apple News, Facebook Instant Articles and things like that, theres got to be a certain level of trust, and if publishers dont think Apple is giving them the straight information, thats going to be a problem, Kennedy said. In the publishing world, independent audit organizations certify the circulation of newspapers and magazines to ensure the integrity of advertising rates. In a similar vein, publishers have been pressuring Apple to integrate its News app withComScore, an independent measurement firm. Publishers have to submit to an independent, third-party counting service, so its not unreasonable to ask Apple to do the same thing, Kennedy said. Its in Apples interest, too, to have a yardstick that will increase the appeal and credibility of the platform, noted BUs Carroll. Slow TakeoffSince Apple launched its News app in September, it hasnt exactly set the publishing world back on its heels. Its off to a very slow start from what I can tell, NUs Kennedy said. I was excited about it, but since its debut, it doesnt seem to be much more than another way to read The New York Times and Washington Post, and not as good a way as going to their websites, he noted. Its not really anything to get excited about, Kennedy added. The Apple News interface makes reading news especially on mobile devices a better experience, analyst Moorhead said. Advertising in Apple News isnt as intrusive as it is on a publications website. You dont get ads that pop up on a page and force you to tap an X to close them, he noted. On a mobile device, it can be hard to find the X, and because youre using your finger, sometimes youll hit the ad instead of the X and be taken off site. One of the fascinating things about the NRA is that buyers of guns think the organization represents them, when in fact its mission is to represent gun sellers not gun buyers and certainly never gun buyers against gun sellers. Guns for consumers largely have been banned in most of the world, with the exception of the U.S., which uniquely has the NRA. This likely makes the NRA the most effective industry association in history. The PC industry, which is facing yet another decline and doesnt make a product designed to kill people (other than virtually) could learn a lot from the NRA. I also think the NRA could learn a bit from the PC industry. Ill share some thoughts on that this week and close with my product of the week: a growler to end all growlers. The NRA The National Rifle Association is an amazing and incredibly effective organization. It is well funded, has capabilities that range from powerful lobbying to effective advertising, has broad knowledge on how to effectively use influencers, and in the face of mass shootings and significant groundswell against guns has protected the gun industry very successfully for decades. Weve seen other powerful organizations connected to milk and cheese, nuts, beef and especially, tobacco but the NRA has outlasted or outperformed them all, and it is an organization that protects an industry that makes products actually designed to kill. The fact that this entire product class largely has been banned in developed countries other than the U.S. is testament to the NRAs effectiveness. The PC Problem We continue to see negative forecasts for the PC industry as a whole, and one reason is that the collective marketing spend for the industry is a fraction of that spent for things like cars. Efforts like My PC Does What havent been able to turn perceptions around enough to reverse the decline. For a while, tablets were blamed for taking the momentum away from PCs but that segment has even less funding and, as a result, it appears to be falling even faster than the PC segment is. If you look at the individual trends of PC vendor sales, the firm with the largest advertising budget, Apple, is showing the strongest growth. The two strongest overall, Lenovo and Apple, both have product lines that extend to smartphones, suggesting there may be a synergy between the two product classes that most dont seem to get. However, the overall problem with the PC industry is the continued perception that it is dying out, even though the biggest contributor to that perception tablets is itself on life support. In a case like this, an effective industry association can make a difference by addressing a large threat to the industry as a whole whether that threat be a competing industry, regulation, or a false perception. One of the ways an NRA-like effort could be particularly effective would be to counter government antiprivacy trends, which are hurting the technology segment and U.S. technology products PCs in particular both overseas and domestically. It turns out people dont like to buy products they think are spying on them, and the U.S. government has been particularly effective in scaring off buyers of U.S. technology products as a result of largely illegal spying efforts, and an inability to keep them secret. The NRA Also Could Learn From Tech One of the problems the gun industry has is a lack of churn, while the technology industry largely lives on churn. Folks dont cycle their guns, but folks do buy new smartphones and PCs regularly. The NRA has resisted smart technology because it is run largely by old folks who dont want to learn new skills, and it feels this technology would increase costs and lower sales. However, smart products age out and need to be replaced regularly potentially increasing, or in this case creating, churn. In addition, smart technology directly addresses one of the problems with guns, which is that far too often, they are used against their owners. The NRA has been effective in covering up stats that indicate you currently are more likely to be shot with your gun than defended by it but in the end, a dead customer isnt a profitable customer, and concerns about gun safety eventually could overcome even an organization as powerful as the NRA. So, while the tech industry certainly could learn from the NRA, the NRA actually could learn a lot from tech and the end result should make both far more profitable, and guns potentially far safer. In the end, that might be the nobler goal. Wrapping Up The NRA is arguably the most powerful industry organization in the world, effectively having blocked the elimination of a product for which killing people is a feature, not a problem. While the PCs market issues arent as pronounced, it is being impacted adversely, both by a false perception that PCs are being replaced by tablets, and by a screwy U.S. government strategy that is scaring buyers away from U.S. companies. On the other hand, the gun industry really does need to address a clear safety problem and increase or create churn to build revenue and profitability, with smart technology the most likely driver. So, a collaboration between the NRA and the tech industry could result in huge benefits for both. Dont hold your breath but you never know. Now that Ive moved to Bend, Oregon, Ive rediscovered hard cider particularly Atlas Hard Cider and discovered growlers. Growlers, if you havent heard of them before (and as far as I know, we didnt have them in California) are a refillable container, frequently used for beer. In theory, you could use them for soda as well as beer and cider. They are green, because you reuse them, and They are generally less expensive than buying the beverage in cans or bottles. The problem is that if you dont drink the product relatively quickly, it will lose its carbonation and flat soda, hard cider or beer isnt very tasty. The Growlerwerks Growler is an amazing looking device very steampunk in appearance (Im a big fan). The GrowlerwerksGrowler It uses a CO2 cartridge to ensure your beverage is good to the last drop. It has a spigot and it is insulated, so you can bring it out for a party, and it comes in 46-oz and 128-oz sizes. You can get it in steel or copper-plated for that extra steampunk look and pricing ranges from US$129 to $179 based on size and coating (the copper costs $20 extra). I bought two of them one for apricot cider and one for blackberry cider, both from Atlas and they are different enough from other growlers to draw a lot of attention when I go in for a refill. This is one of those products that just puts a smile on my face when I use it, so the Growlerwerks Growler is my product of the week. New Delhi, India, January 18, 2016: COAI has submitted its recommendations for the Union Budget for FY 2016-17 to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India on behalf of its members, representing the telecom service providers. The key recommendations on both direct and indirect taxes, include suggestions on rate of interest, CENVAT Credit, deductibility of spectrum fees paid and tax withholding on distributors margin on sale of SIM cards and prepaid vouchers, etc. K ey submissions on Direct Taxes are as follows: Withholding tax on Spectrum Trading: The Government has recently permitted Spectrum Trading by telecom companies. As per the guidelines, telecom companies which have acquired Spectrum may grant the right to use of the same to other telecom companies. There is some uncertainty on the withholding tax obligation, if any, under section 194J of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (the Act) on payments made in consideration for the Spectrum acquired in the course of the Spectrum Trading. Therefore, a clarification may be issued that payments made in connection with the trading/ sharing of Spectrum are not in the nature of royalty and hence do not attract withholding tax obligations under the provisions of section 194J the Act or any other withholding tax provisions. This would facilitate an effective implementation of spectrum trading in India and reduce/ eliminate any potential tax dispute arising out of such transactions. Characterization of telecom services as Royalty: Domestic as well as cross-border payments in respect of a wide array of telecommunication services are under litigation on account of retrospective amendment in the definition of Royalty vide Finance Act, 2012. The said amendment brings within the purview of Royalty, transmission by satellite, cable, optic fibre, or similar technology irrespective of any actual possession or control of rights, properties or information. The traditional jurisprudence has been that telecommunication services were standard services and hence fee for same cannot be taxed as Royalty under the provisions of the Act and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) signed by India with other countries. By virtue of this amendment, payments made by telecom companies, even for standard telecom services could be considered as Royalty by tax authorities, resulting in protracted litigation not only on characterization but also on the aspect of retrospective withholding of taxes. The same has resulted in an increase in the cost for end consumers in India since such payments are generally made on a net of tax basis, i.e. tax cost in India cannot be passed on to the international operator. Therefore, to avoid increase in the cost of telecom services for Indian consumers, definition of the term Royalty should be amended with retrospective effect to exclude telephony, internet bandwidth and other similar services. Further, in cases of cross-border payments, clarification may be issued that retrospective amendments to the definition of Royalty under the Act shall not be read into the DTAA, as held in numerous judgments by honorable High Courts and the Supreme Court Tax Withholding on Distributors margin on SIM cards and prepaid vouchers: Telecom companies sell SIM cards and prepaid vouchers to independent Distributors at a discount, who further sell to Retailers and/ or subscriber Telecom companies do not withhold tax on discount offered to Distributors on the basis of a position that the discount given is not in the nature of commission as Distributors are not agents of the Telecom companies. The Distributors merely act as intermediaries in the distribution channel, in the same manner as Distributors of common consumer goods. However, tax authorities have adopted a contrary position that tax is required to be withheld on such margins earned by Distributors. This matter is presently pending before the Supreme Court of India, resulting in severe litigation costs for the industry. It is suggested that Government clarify that distributors margins on sale of SIM cards and prepaid vouchers is not in the nature of commission and hence not subject to withholding tax provisions. Alternatively, the Government may consider prescribing a lower rate of withholding, say 1%, in view of the low margins earned by distributors, and exempting distributors from further withholding tax on retailer margins to avoid multiple tax incidence. Deductibility of spectrum fees: Telecom companies have paid significant fee for acquiring spectrum through the auction route. However, tax treatment of the amortization of such spectrum fees has been a subject matter of diverse and conflicting interpretations under the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act). One view, which is logical and in consonance with judicial principles, is that spectrum is an intangible asset and the fees paid by the telecom operators is eligible for depreciation under section 32 of the Act. Another view is that it is in the nature of a right to operate telecommunication business and eligible for deduction under section 35ABB of the Act, which results in a significantly lower tax deduction and causes hardship to the telecom operators. Tax authorities have adopted inconsistent positions while assessing different telecom operators. There is also no judicial guidance on this issue since the matter is presently not sub-judice and is a matter of dispute at lower levels of tax authorities. Hence, there is an urgent need of clarity to dispel the confusion prevailing in the entire industry over this issue. In order to prevent protracted litigation over the matter and proactively settle the tax position in this regard, the Government should issue a clarification that spectrum fees is an intangible asset eligible for depreciation under section 32 of the Act. Key submissions on Indirect Taxes are as follows: Levy of Swachh Bharat Cess (SBC): The Central Government has imposed SBC at the rate of 0.5 percent on provision of all taxable services with effect from 15 November 2015. Further, it has been clarified by the Government that credit of SBC cannot be availed and SBC cannot be paid by utilizing credit of any other duty or tax. With levy of SBC, the effective rate of Service tax has further increased to 14.5 percent and this would increase the overall cost of telecommunication services for customers. Given the fact that there are multiple other levies such as license fee, applicable on telecommunication industry, SBC should not be levied on telecommunication services. Manner of CENVAT credit utilization: In terms of the deeming provision introduced in CENVAT Credit Rules, 2004 (CENVAT Credit Rules) to determine manner of utilization, an output service provider would be deemed to have utilized inadmissible credit even if he maintains total balance of inadmissible credit as unutilized or maintains a separate ledger account for inadmissible credit and does not utilize any portion of such credit. Such deeming fiction would have an adverse impact in case of doubtful/ disputed availment of CENVAT Credit on account of interpretation of law/ pending litigation. While on one hand the tax payer would be forced to avail CENVAT Credit in its books (due to the restriction on availment of credit within one year of the date of invoice) and on the other hand, such deeming fiction would presume utilization of credit by the tax payer. Therefore, such deeming provision should be withdrawn immediately from its date of introduction and alternatively, a provision could be introduced for maintenance of regular balance of unutilized credit to the extent of credit inadmissible/ disputed or maintenance of separate ledger account in respect of credit inadmissible/disputed credit, to the extent there is no utilization therefrom. Rate of interest: In the budget of 2014-15, the rate of interest on delayed payment of service tax was increased to 30 percent. This rate of interest is not compensatory but penal in nature and the same should be reduced to a more reasonable rate. Balance of CENVAT Credit of cess as on 31 May 2015: With the increase in service tax rate from 12 percent to 14 percent, Education Cess and Secondary and Higher Education Cess (Cess) have been subsumed in the revised service tax. Upon subsuming of such Cess, there would remain a balance of unutilized CENVAT Credit of Cess if it is not allowed to be used against duty / tax payable. Recently, the Central Government has issued a Notification (i.e. Notification No. 22/2015-CE (NT), dated 29 October 2015) to enable service providers to utilise CENVAT credit of Cess paid on inputs/ capital goods received by an output service provider on or after 1 June 2015 (receipt of invoices post 1 June 2015 in case of input services) against payment of output service tax. However, the amendment does not cater to the issue of CENVAT credit balances of Cess lying unutilized as on 31 May 2015. Huge balance of such Cess are lying unutilized in the books of the service providers, which are not eligible to be set off against any output Service tax liability. Therefore, it is recommended that a similar amendment be made to allow utilization of such credit of Cess balance available in the books of the service providers as on 31 May 2015. Technuter.com News Service YouTube is back in Pakistan after three years - or at least a version of the video streaming service is back. Reuters reports that a localized version of YouTube that allows the government to remove offensive material launched last week. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned YouTube in 2012 after an anti-Islam film, Innocence of Muslims, was posted. In the Reuters article, the PTA said, "Google has provided an online web process through which requests for blocking access of the offending material can be made by PTA to Google directly and Google/YouTube will accordingly restrict access to the said offending material for users within Pakistan." With the localized version, the PTA can get in contact with Google to handle content they deem offensive. There are already localized YouTube sites for Nepal and Sri Lanka, and like those sites, Pakistan's YouTube will highlight the work of local artists. And while Pakistani citizens will be missing the full YouTube experience, a localized version is better than no YouTube at all. Intel joined forces with Ars Electronica Futurelab to set the Guinness World Record for having the most number of unmanned aerial vehicles in the air at the same time, but that's just skimming the surface. Intel is very enthusiastic about drones. In fact, Intel's boss Brian Krzanich said at the 2016 CES in Las Vegas that drones will light up the skies to replace fireworks down the road. "I see a future where fireworks and all their risks of smoke and dirt are a thing of the past, and they're replaced by shows that have unlimited creativity and potential and powered by drones," he said. Back in August last year, the company invested $60 million in Chinese drone maker Yuneec Holding. German drone maker Ascending Technologies also moved under Intel's umbrella on Jan. 4, 2016. The company likewise made an undisclosed investment in Airware of San Francisco. "Intel gains expertise and technology to accelerate the deployment of Intel RealSense technology into the fast growing drone market segment," Intel says in a blog post about having Ascending Technologies on board. The company will continue to work with the Ascending Technologies team to keep on providing support for its present customers while also working hand-in-hand with Intel's Perceptual Computing team to come up with a UAV technology that will soon "help drones fly with more awareness of their environments." Drone 100 On Nov. 4, 2015, Intel and Futurelab pre-programmed 100 drones and launched them in the sky to show off a spectacular light show synchronized with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony played by a live orchestra. Albeit the show was filmed last year, the video was initially showcased during the keynote speech of Krzanich at the 2016 CES on Jan. 5. These drones, which were fitted with LEDs, concurrently lit up the skies over Ahrenlohe Airfield near Hamburg, Germany for seven minutes. They climbed as high as 328 feet to show off their choreographed routines. The light show ended with the drones forming the 250-meter wide (820 feet) logo of Intel. A Guiness World Record judge was present during the show to verify and award the new record to the two companies. Horst Hortner, Ars Electronica Futurelab's director, said the new record is a result of the companies' years of hard work. "Drone 100 was a crazy idea that came out of a hallway conversation inside Intel, and now it has become a reality," said Anil Nanduri, the general manager of New Markets in Intel's Perceptual Computing Group. "Working with Ars Electronica Futurelab, we were able to create a formation of 100 UAVs in the sky, creating amazing images and ending with the Intel logo." Weighing 700 grams (1.5 pounds) each, the quadcopters were built by Ascending Technologies. Futurelab member Andreas Jalsovec said Intel developed the ground controls software, which required a powerful computer to make the show possible. Chief pilot Martin Morth said that drones do not always look at people, "sometimes, it's the drones that you should be looking at." You can watch the video below. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Obama administration has been taking forceful measures to fight against climate change. Last year, President Barack Obama initiated plans to tackle greenhouse gases coming from coal-fired power plants. With the revised Clean Power Plan, it is expected that the carbon emissions from the power sector in the United States will be reduced. The plan demands a 32 percent cut from 2005 carbon emission levels within 15 years. Now, as Obama's term nears its end, the White House on Friday brought a temporary halt to new federal coal mining leases. The suspension immediately takes place, but it does not instantly halt coal mining and production that are currently underway. The moratorium comes just days after Obama's last State of the Union Address. The president said on Jan. 12 that his goal is to change how the government manages its coal and oil resources in order to reflect the costs imposed on taxpayers and the planet. No Federal Leases Until Thoroughly Reviewed By The Interior Department At the same time, a special committee will conduct a three-year review focused on bringing coal leasing in line with the country's climate policy. "Given serious concerns raised about the federal coal program, we're taking the prudent step to hit pause on approving significant new leases so that decisions about those leases can benefit from the recommendations that come out of the review," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell. Burning coal and other fossil fuels for electricity is the largest single source of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Data suggests that it accounts for about 31 percent of all greenhouse gases in the country. Meanwhile, about 40 percent of all the coal produced in the United States comes from mines on federal public lands, mostly in the West. There were about 308 operational coal mining leases on at least 464,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Colorado and Wyoming as of the end of 2014. There is an additional 10,500 acres in Alabama, West Virginia and Kentucky. Jewell said a thorough review of when, where and how coal is leased for future mining on federal lands is required to ensure that the government's coal resources are managed in an eco-friendly way. It will also guarantee that coal royalty rates will allow taxpayers and communities to get a fair return on their resources, she said. Why The Coal Leasing Review Is Being Introduced Immediately Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Neil Kornze said the coal leasing suspension is being introduced as soon as possible because when a major coal lease is issued, it represents a multi-decade commitment to coal mining on a large area of land. The BLM is responsible for overseeing all federal oil, coal and gas resources. "We want to make sure we're comfortable with those types of commitments," said Kornze. He said their goal is to make sure the coal program is aligned with energy security and the advocacy against climate change. The BLM last year issued a plan for 5 million acres of northeast Wyoming. The plan revealed that more than 10 billion tons of coal could be taken from 106,400 acres by 2035. This can happen if existing coal mines are allowed to expand. Minor Exceptions And Rules Minor exceptions will be made on the suspension, primarily for emergencies. One such exception is when a coal mine is threatened with closure if it has less than three years of coal reserves remaining, the Interior Secretary said. Aside from that, the moratorium does not apply to metallurgical coal, which is used to form steel, or to coal leasing on tribal land. "We haven't done a top-to-bottom review of the program in more than 30 years," said Jewell, referring to the full review of the coal program conducted during the Nixon and Reagan administrations. A coal leasing moratorium had been implemented on both occasions. Jewell said the previous federal coal program was designed to scrape as much coal as possible from the ground. "That's the program we've been operating ever since," she said. Mixed Reactions From Experts And Environmental Groups Policy Director Jayni Hein of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University believes that the moratorium and the comprehensive review represent a major shift that will help modernize the federal coal leasing program. "The analysis should account for direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and use tools like the social cost of carbon and social cost of methane," said Hein, adding that putting a dollar sign on the climate effects of coal production will strengthen the case for economic reform. Environmental groups praised the action as they believe the moratorium is a sign that the administration is leading the world in the fight against climate change. "This is a historic decision that greatly improves the world's chances of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change and has burnished President Obama's climate legacy," said Erich Pica, president of environmental group Friends of the Earth. However, groups within the coal industry were critical of Obama's actions. "At this point, it is obvious that the President and his administration won't be satisfied until coal is completely eradicated from our energy mix," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy CEO Karen Harbert. "Their foolish crusade takes away one of America's greatest strengths - our diverse mix of energy sources. If the President wants electricity rates to skyrocket - as he once said he did - he's on the right path," Harbert added. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A new report claims Microsoft will announce its first and last Lumia smartphone of 2016 on Feb. 1. The Lumia 650 will reportedly close out the Lumia series and have a low-key launch as Microsoft shifts its attention to its rumored Surface Phone. BlackBerry, Microsoft, Palm and Nokia were the biggest and most successful players in the smartphone arena before Apple released the original iPhone in June 2007 and Google's release of its first Android-powered smartphone, the T-Mobile G1, in October 2008. Apple and Google's entry into the smartphone world quickly took a toll on the previous leaders, forcing each company to completely rethink its mobile strategy. All of the companies focused on building their next-generation OS from the ground up to compete with iOS and Android. BlackBerry began work on its touch-focused BlackBerry 10 OS, which would power the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10. Palm dropped its aging Palm OS for webOS, which would power the company's Pre smartphones and TouchPad tablet. Nokia decided to shift from using its in-house Symbian OS and exclusively adopt Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 to power its new Lumia smartphones. Palm and BlackBerry were never able to gain traction competing with iOS and Android, but Nokia showed signs of success, as its Lumia series quickly became the face of Windows Phone even though licensees like Samsung, HTC and LG all offered handsets running Microsoft's new smartphone OS. Taking a page out of Apple's iPhone and Google's Nexus playbook, Microsoft wanted to build both the smartphones and software that ran on the handsets, and announced in 2013 it would acquire Nokia for $7.2 billion. The Nokia acquisition and Lumia series haven't done much to help Microsoft move up in the smartphone chain but it has seen success with its Surface tablets and new Surface Book and is expected to capitalize on the Surface brand by introducing a Surface Phone running Windows 10 Mobile in the fall. While Windows Phone fans wait for the Surface Phone, Microsoft is slated to release its first and last Lumia smartphone of 2016. According to Windows Central, Microsoft is planning to announce the Lumia 650 on Feb. 1 in a low-key manner via their official blog. The Microsoft Lumia 650 will be a mid-range smartphone, and is expected to feature a 5-inch 720p display. It will be powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 chip and 1 GB of RAM. The handset will include 8 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded via its microSD slot. It will ship with an 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing shooter and 2,000 mAh removable battery. The smartphone will have a premium metal frame and choice of Matte White or Matte Black color options. As always, we'll keep you posted on any new details regarding the Microsoft Lumia 650 as they surface. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. There is no doubt the Samsung Galaxy S7 is creating a buzz ahead of its official introduction. A new rumor has just cropped up claiming two Galaxy S7 devices have been spotted on an Indonesian certification site, suggesting that these have a dual SIM feature and an Exynos 8890 processor. The site lists two model numbers, SM-G930FD and SM-G935FD. Breaking these model numbers down and comparing them to the Galaxy S6 line of devices could branch out to a few possible speculations. Earlier this month, an AnTuTu benchmark test result for a device with model number SM-G935A was leaked via Weibo. This test result could back up the model numbers of the recently leaked certification in an Indonesian certification website. Moreover, the current S6 devices use the G920 family name, which could give more weight to the possibility that the leaked certifications could certainly belong to the forthcoming Galaxy S7 devices. Another big possibility is that the certifications could belong to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge variants, as the present flat-screen S6 variant uses the G920 name while the curved S6 edge has a G925 name. Now, moving on to the trailing letters attached to the devices' model numbers, rumor has it that the "F" letter could point to the Exynos chipset fitted into the devices. The "A," however, could be associated with the Snapdragon 820 version for AT&T. In the meantime, the letters "FD" could also signify that the devices could come packed with dual SIM capabilities and an Exynos processor. This could be traced from the SM-G920FD version of the Galaxy S6, specifically built for the Philippines and Pakistan. If you are not aware of the other specs of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, here is a quick reminder. Keep in mind though that these are from unverified reports, so until Samsung releases its official word, take everything with a grain of salt. It is possible that these devices could boast a microSD slot. In terms of their cameras, the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are purported to rock a 12-megapixel shooter with an f/1.7 lens. Rumor is also rife that the S7 will house a 3,000 mAh battery while the S7 edge will have a 3,600 mAh one. With regard to their screen sizes, the Galaxy S7 is expected to feature a 5.1-inch display while the Galaxy S7 edge could be 5.5 inches. Both Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have been reported to pack in 4 GB of RAM. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Cashew lovers may need to lend an ear to this one. Trader Joe's issued a food recall on Jan. 15 for its product called "Raw Cashew Pieces" due to possible salmonella risks. The company was alerted by its supplier that one particular lot of products may be contaminated by the said bacteria. The products affected are those that have labels that read "BEST BEFORE 07.17.2016TF4." The cashew pieces were distributed in 31 states including Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont and even U.S. capital Washington D.C. The recall commenced as the American Heritage International Inc. announced following an FDA report that one lot of the cashew pieces was contaminated with salmonella. While the routine testing of the agency's contract laboratory revealed such, the agency did not find additional contamination findings in other lots. Trader Joe's also conducted further testings on the affected lot and found no other contamination findings. Although the positive salmonella result was noted in one lot only, Trader Joe's decided to recall all lots of the Raw Cashew Pieces out of abundance of caution. The products have been removed from store counters and sales have been cancelled while investigations are still ongoing. So far, no illnesses have been reported related to the issue. Trader Joe's instructed customers who have bought the product not to consume it as well as advised them to discard the product or return it to the store of purchase for a full refund. "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience," the news announcement read. The food recall is not the first for Trader Joe's. In March 2015, the company also issued a food recall for its walnut products, also due to salmonella scare. Salmonella is a bacterial organism that can infect healthy individuals and cause fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, which may sometimes be bloody. Young children, older adults and those with weakened immune systems may experience more severe illnesses than others. Salmonella may also develop into more serious conditions such as endocarditis, infected aneurysms and arthritis. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) document filed on Thursday revealed that Facebook Chief Operating Officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg donated 290,000 shares of her Facebook stock to the Sheryl Sandberg Philanthropy Fund where the $31 million worth of shares will be appropriated to the charities the COO cares about. The transfer was actually made on Nov. 20, 2015 but was only disclosed publicly when the SEC document was filed. This is just one of the few known huge endowments from Sandberg who has already donated at least 400,000 shares in 2012. Then again, Sandberg's move is to be expected since she is committed to causes that focus on gender equality, education and anti-poverty efforts. She has given donations prior to the huge amounts that have been reported but most of her charitable donations did not make the news. She also signed up for The Giving Pledge in 2014 so we can be sure that Sandberg's contributions would not be stopping anytime soon. "The Giving Pledge is specifically focused on billionaires or those who would be billionaires if not for their giving... The pledge asks only that the individual give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes or charitable organizations either during their lifetime or in their will," The Giving Pledge website explains. Sandberg and husband Dave Goldberg, who passed away in 2015, may not have a pledge letter outlining how much they would give to philanthropy work when they signed up, unlike some of the world's richest, but we know there is no lack on their part when it comes to actually giving. Sandberg founded LeanIn.Org in 2013, a non-profit organization which aims to encourage women to push forward and lead in their careers even as they start families. This was inspired from her 2010 TED Talk and her book, "Lean In." Likewise, she is active as a board member of "Women for Women International," an organization aimed at giving aid to women in regions where there are conflicts. Check out her TED talk in the video below. Of course, Sandberg will get a tax break and income tax deduction from as a benefit of her sizeable contribution. Facebook Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan also signed up for The Giving Pledge, although Zukerberg's most recent philanthropic move was received with criticism. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. One day, rogue asteroids may crash into Earth and cause significant destruction. Getting rid of the cosmic object before it gets near is one measure to prevent the event and its potential massive dangers. To fulfill the job, the European Commission tasked Russian scientists represented by Roscosmos' Central Machine Building Research Institute to develop a plan for nuking rogue asteroids. For Russian experts, the most effective strategy to prevent an asteroid from crashing to the Earth is a nuclear explosion. Using nuclear weapons have long been banned under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. However, Russian scientists believe that there is an exception if Earth is in an impending danger. "If the asteroid threat becomes a matter of serious damage or even the very existence of life on earth, that ban would naturally be lifted," said the institute. The objective is to change the course of the asteroid's path away from Earth instead of directly attacking it. When a nuclear explosion occurs near an asteroid, it would burn up some parts of the cosmic object, creating a jet-thrust effect. Such impact would initiate a significant change in the orbit of the asteroid. To minimize the danger, it is best to discharge the missile while the asteroid is still far from the planet. With such a plan in place, the Russian scientists said it would create a specialized software to monitor asteroids coming near the Earth. The Russian project would also entail four observation satellites. Two of the satellites would track the planet's orbit around the sun and the other two would monitor stationarily around the planet's orbit. The EU program called NEOShield consists of different projects that involve various nations. The aim of the project is to work on different strategies to prevent the collision of Near Earth Objects. "Final results are expected in May 2015, but the project has already triggered the interest of the international press," the European Commission says. The Central Scientific Research Institute of Machine Building or TsNIImash is one of the leading developers of space technology machines in Russia. The firm is said to be part of the testing and experimenting the processes of nearly all Russian space launchers and vehicles. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The PlayStation Network was down on Jan. 4 for about 12 hours, when gamers experienced issues on all platforms worldwide. Many subscribers to the online gaming network were unable to play and purchase games. While some games can be played offline, there are several titles, including popular games such as The Elder Scrolls Online and Destiny, which are online-only multiplayer games. As such, gamers looking to play these games at the time were out of luck and had to wait for the issue to be resolved. It took Sony half a day to fix the issue, and to apologize for the lost time, it has sent codes to PlayStation Plus users for a free one-day extension to their subscriptions. The codes, which PlayStation Plus users can redeem by signing in to their accounts, will be applied to their current membership. The message sent by the PlayStation Network added that the extension has been granted to all accounts that were active on the date of the downtime. The message also said that the voucher codes can only be redeemed until March 31, 11:59 p.m. PST (April 1, 2:59 a.m. EST). A Reddit discussion thread on the matter has one user complaining how the PlayStation Network sent out extensions for PlayStation Plus subscriptions through codes, and did not simply extend all subscriptions. A user chimed in by saying that perhaps the move was made to prevent errors on the part of the PlayStation Network when it comes to extending subscriptions for longer periods of time. Another user mentioned that the use of codes would be easier on the finances for Sony. Not all users will be able to redeem the code, and some might not be even aware that there was a downtime. Another Reddit user even did the math and found that, considering the number of users who purchased a one-year membership for PlayStation Plus, the one-day extension only translates to a bonus equivalent to 13.7 cents. In the supermarket, the user wrote, the code was equivalent to a 0.3 percent extra free offer, but with the requirement of the customer handing over a coupon. Nevertheless, a free day is still a free day, and it only takes minutes to redeem the code. In addition, it is a nice gesture from Sony to acknowledge the network issue and attempt to ease the frustrations experienced by gamers during that time. Photo: Fe Ilya | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Chip maker Qualcomm Inc. is looking to extend its reach beyond the U.S. shores and has collaborated with China's People's Government of Guizhou Province for a joint venture worth $280 million. On Sunday, the chip maker took another step towards strengthening its relations with China as it partnered with People's Government of Guizhou Province for the venture dubbed the Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co., Ltd, which will focus on the development, design and sale of advanced server chip technology. "The actions announced today are important steps for Qualcomm as we deepen our level of cooperation with, and investment in, China. We have worked actively with our partners in China for more than 20 years; however, the strategic cooperation with Guizhou represents a significant increase in our collaboration in China," said Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm. The joint venture has a registered capital of RMB 1.85 billion which is equivalent to $280 million. 55 percent of the stakes in Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co. Ltd is owned by the investment arm of the provincial government of Guizhou. The remaining 45 percent stakes are under the ownership of a Qualcomm subsidiary. As part of the terms of the deal, Aberle said that Qualcomm will not only be pumping in capital, but also be licensing its server technology to the new entity. This will aid the new entity to create an altered variant of the chipset which will cater to the requirements of the Chinese market. Qualcomm will also be helping the new entity in R&D and "implementation expertise." The U.S.-based chip maker will also be establishing an investment arm in Guizhou through which future investments in China will be taken care of. Moreover, the new entity's engineers in tandem with Qualcomm will be working towards the creation of a novel server chip for China. This server chip will be throwing the gauntlet to offerings from Intel. Currently, Intel rules the roost in the market, in the context of offering silicon to data centers. The Guizhou Huaxintong Semi-Conductor Technology Co., Ltd. will begin by selling the server designs belonging to Qualcomm. The server designs were shown off by Qualcomm in October 2015 and are anticipated for a 2016 launch. However, with time the server chips will be customized to fit the requirements of the local Chinese consumers. Qualcomm is optimistic that the joint venture will create a "win-win scenario" for both the company and its partner. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is partnering with Uber to provide on-demand services called UberChopper. As the name of the service suggests, a helicopter, and not a jumbo jet, will be used to pick Uber users. Tom Enders, the CEO of Airbus, says that it is a pilot project and the company is very excited to see how riders respond to the service. Enders also announced that UberChopper will launch at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, which starts on Jan. 21. However, Airbus did not provide any financial details of the agreement with Uber. Uber launched the ride hailing service in 2009 and the popularity has been growing ever since. The company has launched its services in more than 50 countries and across 300 cities around the globe. Apart from car services the company has also used other modes of transportation such as boats and rickshaws as part of its services in some countries. UberChopper will be one of a kind at launch and the company hopes to get to a new level with the service. Uber's helicopter service may sound new to many people but the company has been working on UberChopper for some years now. The company first tested the service in 2013 for flying riders from Manhattan and the Hamptons. The on-demand service was also tested in 2015 summer at the Cannes Film Festival and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The service did cost customers hundreds and thousands of dollars. An Airbus spokesperson revealed that UberChopper will use Airbus H125 and H130 helicopters for its pilot project. Customers will get an Uber car to be picked up and taken to the helicopters. The reducing cost of oil has affected many Airbus customers and a partnership with Uber reflects at the company's effort to find new helicopter customers. In December 2015, Enders announced that the company's helicopter business has struggled in 2014 and 2015. A partnership with Uber is very innovative, especially at a time when companies are searching for new business avenues such as Google venturing in the autonomous car market. In 2015, Airbus also established a new unit called Airbus Group Ventures and funded it with $150 million. The fund will be used to make investments in the technology field. Talking about Iran, Enders also suggests that the country has a lot of opportunity for the company. "It's a huge market and I really hope that those who are party to this agreement really don't screw it up," says Enders. Airbus estimates that Iran needs between 400 and 500 aircrafts in the coming years as the country is using old aircrafts. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Researchers found that parental age can affect offspring lifespan. Children produced by older parents often have shorter lifespans compared to children produced by younger parents. The study found that the age of the parents affects the child's telomeres, the proteins found at the tip of chromosomes. These telomeres act like the clear tips found at the end of shoelaces: they "cap off" and protect the DNA. They also protect the DNA code loss during cell division. "Telomere loss reduces the lifespan of cells and is thought to be involved in the ageing process," said Britt Heidinger from the North Dakota State University. Heidinger is a biological sciences assistant professor and a member of the research team. Longer lifespans were observed in individuals with longer telomeres or among those with slower telomere loss. The finding is universal across a wide range of species. The research team analyzed a population of free-living European shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) breeding in Scotland's Isle of May National Nature Reserve. The seabirds live long - some even reach 22 years. The shag population in this location has been monitored for over 30 years, so the researchers focused on the nests where at least one parent is currently identified. Tiny blood samples were taken from the chicks identified. The team then measured the offspring's telomere length. Freshly hatched, the researchers found that the parents' age had no effects on the chick's telomere length. However, the researchers found that chicks produced by older parents have higher rates of telomere loss. The loss seemed to happen post-natal, which means it took place during the nestling period. Findings also showed that the effect of the mother's age is greater than that of the father. The team previously discovered that shag chicks that suffer high stress levels during development experience higher telomere loss. "These results could have occurred because older parents do not provide as much parental care as younger parents, or because parents that put less effort into raising their chicks live to be older," added Heidinger. The findings were released in the journal Functional Ecology on Jan. 14. In a 2015 study, researchers discovered a link between taller people and shorter lifespans. They found that as the body grows in size, the cells divide even more. This results in the faster telomere loss, resulting in poor tissue and cell function. Photo: Valentina Yachichurova | Flickr 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Facebook tagging may be a more serious matter than one might think, at least in the case of one woman who now faces jail time for violating a protection order. Acting Judge Susan Capeci of the Westchester County Supreme Court said that Maria Gonzalez had clearly violated a protection order which prohibited her from contacting her sister-in-law. The breaching of the order will ultimately cause Gonzalez to serve a year in jail. According to the judge, Gonzalez created a Facebook account where she made some status updates, tagging the sister-in-law, Maribel Calderon. Her Facebook status allegedly expressed derogatory remarks such as "stupid" while there was one status which read: "You and your family are sad...You guys have to come stronger than that!! I'm way over you guys but I guess not in ya agenda." Calderon complained that she received notifications from Gonzalez. The status updates eventually caused Gonzalez to be charged with criminal contempt in the second degree. This type of court allegation could land Gonzalez in prison. "The allegations that she contacted the victim by tagging her in a Facebook posting which the victim was notified of is thus sufficient for pleading purposes to establish a violation of the order of protection," wrote Capeci. Kim Frohlinger, a solo attorney in Hartsdale who represented Gonzalez, argued that the ban on contacting Calderon through Facebook was not explicit. However, Capeci stressed that the order clearly expressed that Gonzalez was prohibited from contacting Calderon, using electronic or any other means. She also cited a decision by the Court of Appeals in 2014. In the witness tampering case known as People versus Horton, the court ruled that Facebook messages are email in essence. When a person is tagged on Facebook, he immediately receives a notification that tells him he is tagged. According to Facebook, "Tags can point to your friends or anyone else on Facebook. Adding a tag creates a link that people can follow to learn more. People you tag can receive a notification so they can see your post. The post may also go on the person's profile and appear in their friends' news feeds." Violating a protection order is not merely confined to getting close to the person physically, calling them, or sending them text messages. Even online activities such as communicating through Facebook can also be means for breaching an order. Attorney Frohlinger told the New York Post that she is not filing for an appeal to the ruling. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Chinese fans of Deadpool are out of luck when it comes to seeing the new movie based on the character next month. Censors in that country failed to approve the film for showing in theaters there, due to the movie's R-rated content. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that decision with the China Film Group: Deadpool isn't allowed in China. According to the Chinese, Deadpool has too much graphic language, nudity and violence for that country's audiences. China's censors did offer to work with Fox to create a cleaner version of the movie, but that wasn't an option because the company decided that cutting the movie down to something more acceptable to the Chinese would sacrifice the film's plot. This comes right after a petition began surfacing online for a PG-13 cut of the film that would make the movie more kid-friendly. Of course, fans long familiar with the "Merc with the Mouth" laughed at such efforts, because even in the comic books, Deadpool was often a more adult character than his Marvel counterparts. Star Ryan Reynolds even bragged about the movie's adult rating last year, before it was made official. Unlike the U.S., China does not have a ratings system, but its State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) makes decisions on how appropriate a film is for its moviegoing public. China is notorious for banning books, movies and anime in its country, allowing its people to only see what it deems acceptable. Meanwhile, Deadpool will probably do big business in the U.S. and other countries because of its graphic content. But Marvel could ultimately suffer huge losses if the film doesn't show in China, the world's second-largest theatrical market. Last year's Avengers: Age of Ultron made over $200 million in China, with other titles such as Guardians of the Galaxy taking in more than $96 million in that country. Reynolds recently stated in an interview with Total Film that the movie would not disappoint fans who are already familiar with Deadpool's brand of humor, language and violence, but noted they also made the film to entertain those who are new to the character. "All anyone cares about in this process is making Deadpool work as much for the fanboys as it does for the uninitiated," said Reynolds. Whether you're a die hard fan or a newbie, you're not going to want to miss this: "I can't wait to unleash it. We're so, so psyched. You're definitely going to be happy, that much I can promise...." Deadpool lands in theaters Feb. 12 in North America. 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. When it comes to the fast-moving field of traffic management technology, there is something of a bubble between what is known data and what is unknown. And in that space exists a bubble of uncertainty and potential, a place where government might be able to improve its own operations or even address big public problems like congestion and collisions.So much so, theres an industry that works in that bubble. Case in point: INRIX. The company, which gathers traffic data from private vehicles, recently announced three contracts in Colorado and California, where it is either selling data or data analytics to government entities hoping to gain better insights into whats happening on their roads.To two of those agencies the Southern California Association of Governments and the Colorado Department of Transportation INRIX has sold access to its data analytics platform, Insights. According to Gary Carlin, director of public-sector business development for the company, the platform essentially allows states to take existing data and extract value from it.It allows for some fairly in-depth analysis to be performed, puts out graphics and reports. You dont have to have a huge in-house staff for data scientists and analysts, Carlin said.Government entities can turn that information into whatever sorts of application they want, he said. Some popular uses include performing evaluation and impact analysis on public works projects like road expansions.Research into post-project impact analysis is one area thats seen a lot of expansion as of late. In September, the University of Southern California released a study focusing on how a light rail expansion in Los Angeles affected traffic along the citys Interstate 10 corridor. Though public advocates of the project pitched the idea partially on the premise that it would cut down highway congestion, the researchers used traffic data from an array of sensors to show that that wasnt really the case.That kind of data is becoming easier for government officials to access. The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System based at the University of Maryland, for instance, pulls traffic data from INRIX and other sources to give users quick reports they can use to evaluate what potential road improvements might do for traffic and what completed projects have truly done.With that kind of insight, Carlin said, traffic agencies can better guide their decisions on what kinds of projects to invest in. With vehicles becoming more and more connected and highways featuring more and more data-gathering infrastructure, theres plenty of potential for learning more about the way traffic works and the way projects impact it."The ability to access historical traffic data and visually analyze movement patterns helps us pinpoint areas that will most benefit from road or transit improvements while streamlining the cost of our daily operations," said Annie Nam, manager of goods movement and transportation finance at Southern California Association of Governments, in a press release The nice thing about having more data and better analytics, Carlin said, is that it opens up the door for new uses. For instance, when he was training Colorado public employees on how to use Insights, he said one person came up with a use for the data that he had never seen before. The employee, who was tasked with overseeing a contractor, said the contractor had closed off part of a public road to do work. When the contractor delayed the re-opening of those lanes by several hours, the state employee used the analytics tool to show the contractor exactly how that delay affected traffic.Then there are some as-of-yet-undeployed applications the company thinks it could offer the state, possibly through the Colorado DOTs RoadX program. Carlin said INRIX sees an opportunity in Colorado to start delivering warnings to drivers about slow-downs in traffic ahead of them on highways. Thats because those quick drops in speed on highways has led to some pretty bad accidents in the past when vehicles slam into the back of a sudden queue."Colorado has an 11,000 foot mountain pass of Interstate with urban-like traffic congestion. Measuring reliability, delays, mobility, safety and infrastructure conditions for this region is a tricky business," said Ryan Rice, Colorado DOT's director of the division of transportation systems management and operations, in a press release. "[This] technology helps us maximize our dollars, be more surgical with our strategy, and decipher what is or isn't working. The analytics will also help to pair with other data systems to deliver real-time information to travelers."That too could come from existing information.One of the things INRIX does is work with car manufacturers and we get data directly off the vehicles and we actually drive data back to them in the form of traffic data, incidents, and that becomes part of the overall feed, Carlin said. It goes back into the infotainment systems in the cars.In the future, he said, its possible it could also go into the cabs of semi-trucks traveling along the states highways. The lumbering tractor trailers, which need time to slow down, could use that information to avoid rear-ending their smaller road companions.At the end of the day theres a lot of data out there, Carlin said. But by itself its not all that valuable. Californias two big public pension funds have been on a bit of a buying spree lately, adding data centers to their investment portfolios.CalPERS, the California Public Employees Retirement System, bought a data center in Chicago this week. The purchase came a week after CalPERS purchased a data center in Broomfield, Colo.Separately, the California State Teachers Retirement System, or CalSTRS, bought a data center last week in Richardson, Texas.Purchase prices werent disclosed.All three deals stem from separate partnerships the pension funds created in 2012 with a San Francisco investment firm called GI Partners. Both partnerships focus on buying real estate with a high-tech bent.The CalPERS partnership with GI looks for technology-related assets such as data centers and other buildings like that, said CalPERS spokesman Joe DeAnda.The partnership with CalPERS has purchased 2.9 million square feet of properties since its inception, according to GI. Meanwhile, CalSTRS partnership with GI has acquired 1.8 million square feet of properties. Ted London, previously Vice President / Leader of CGIs Collections and Revenue Sales, Business Development and Delivery for CGIs State and Local Solutions Group, takes over immediately as Managing Director from founding partner Steve Williamson.Trinity Technology Group, Inc. (TrinityTG), a leader in innovative technology solutions for the State of California, announced today that Ted London will be joining their executive team as their new Managing Director. Partner Steve Williamson explains, Founders need to hand over reins to sustain growth. Ted will continue the exciting progress TrinityTG has made to provide career growth, promotions, and diversity to our practices.London, a graduate of Columbia University with a B.S. in Computer Science and UCLA with an MBA, brings over 20 years of information technology, client management, solution implementation, business development, and leadership experience to TrinityTG. When asked why he chose to continue his career at TrinityTG, London said, Through the process of learning about TrinityTG and its staff, I found myself attracted to the dedication everyone, from top to bottom, has to deliver high quality solutions that make real improvements for customers. I am also very excited about the opportunity to help the company continue to grow and help TrinityTGs clients achieve their mission critical needs.Partner Randy Duart shared why he thought London was the right person at this critical juncture for the company he helped start over 16 years ago, I believe his passion for superior client satisfaction and managing solution delivery on an international scale is exactly what we need to lead us in this next chapter of TrinityTGs growth. London will report to Duart, who continues in his role as CEO.No one is more excited to see him come on board than I am. Ted brings fresh ideas as well as a commitment to teamwork and pride in quality work as the unique and distinctive features of Trinity Technology Group, said Steve Williamson. Williamson will transition into the role of Chief Innovation Officer (CINO) where he will be responsible for bringing innovative products to market and identifying new areas of growth opportunity.About Trinity Technology Group, Inc.: Trinity Technology Group, Inc. (TrinityTG) is a California certified small business doing business since 1999 as an IT services provider for California government and businesses. TrinityTG is known for delivering solutions that provide significant business value to its clients including the capitated calculation system for 10.2 million Medi-Cal enrollees in managed care plans, the professional and business licensing system for financial industries, and energy regulation. TrinityTG is a full service firm offering a depth and breadth of experience from business analysts, developers, project managers, solution architects and specialists. TrinityTG has the resources to meet our current and future clients demands. As technology changes and new advances are made, we can incorporate our background and talent into utilization of emerging technologies and devices.For more information please visit us online at www.trinitytg.com Apple HQ in Ireland Evacuated Due to Bomb Threat The Staff at Apples European headquarters in Cork city, Ireland following a security alert but police have denied reports that the bomb disposal squad has been notified. Reports indicate that the excavation took place when the Apple reportedly received email threats about a bomb in the premises earlier today. Apple employs 5,000 people at its European headquarters in Lavitts Quay, Hollyhill and Model Farm Road, according to reports, but its not yet very clear whether any suspicious packages have been found or not. According to International Business Times, a employee working at the HQ stated that staff were told initially that it was a fire alarm but once they had left the building they were told it was a bomb scare. The employee, who didnt want to be identified, said there were also sniffer dogs at the scene. A spokesperson for the Irish police force, known as the Garda Siochana, said officers had responded to a security alert Monday morning, and had begun a search of the premises in Holyhill in Cork at 9 a.m. local time (4 a.m. EST) but added that the bomb disposal unit had not been notified. The spokesperson would not comment on the nature of the security alert, adding that investigations were ongoing. A similar incident happened in November 2015 when Microsoft received similar threats. Microsofts German headquarters in Munich was evacuated due to bomb threats. Approximately 1,800 employees had to leave the buildings after a bomb threat call was received by local police. As of now, all the staff at Apples offices in Cork, Ireland, including its European headquarters, have returned to work following a reported bomb scare. WhatsApp is now Free as it drops $1 annual subscription fee WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging application of Facebook, has decided to do away with its annual subscription fee of $0.99, the companys chief executive Jan Koum said Monday. It really doesnt work that well in a lot of countries and we just dont want people to think that their communications with the world will be cut off, Mr. Koum said at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference in Munich, Germany. Previously, WhatsApp had been free for the first year, with the fee charged for every subsequent year. Long-term users of the iOS version were given free use for life, as thanks for paying a fee to download the app when it had a one-off charge. The messaging service that was bought by Facebook for $19bn in 2014 has also explained the move in a blog post. For many years, weve asked some people to pay a fee for using WhatsApp after their first year, says the WhatsApp blog post. As weve grown, weve found that this approach hasnt worked well. Many WhatsApp users dont have a debit or credit card number and they worried theyd lose access to their friends and family after their first year. So over the next several weeks, well remove fees from the different versions of our app and WhatsApp will no longer charge you for our service, the blog post added. To recover the lost revenue, WhatsApp said that this year it would use the app as a way of letting people talk to businesses or organisations, who will presumably pay for the privilege. Its still very early stages, Mr. Koum said. He said the company is looking into which features would allow companies, such as American Airlines and Bank of America, to communicate efficiently with their customers through the app. Since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has been free of advertisements and its move to drop its subscription fee will prompt questions about its business model. But WhatsApp plans to keep its messaging service ad-free and explore other services. In a blogpost, WhatsApp said: People might wonder how we plan to keep WhatsApp running without subscription fees and if todays announcement means were introducing third-party ads. The answer is no. Starting this year, we will test tools that allow you to use WhatsApp to communicate with businesses and organisations that you want to hear from. That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight. We all get these messages elsewhere today through text messages and phone calls so we want to test new tools to make this easier to do on WhatsApp, while still giving you an experience without third-party ads and spam. This approach is already being used by Facebook Messenger, which gives businesses the opportunity to connect with customers and even sell services, such as Uber rides, through the Facebook platform. WhatsApp has increased in usage to over 900 million worldwide users amid the service offering cheaper messaging and voice offerings over data networks. ISIS has build its own secure Android Messaging app for its communications and propaganda needs The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has developed its own Android-based, encrypted messaging app to enable secure communications between the groups members and to stay away from the prying eyes of security agencies. ISIS has been finding it difficult to use social networks such as Telegram and WhatsApp after groups such as Anonymous have been actively trying to disrupt what they get up to online. Ghost Security Group, an independent counter terrorism network discovered on Monday that an app called Alrawi is being used to send encrypted messages. They had first uncovered the app in 2015 alongside a separate app used by ISIS for news and recruitment. Last month, Ghost Security and others, observed ISIS members using private messages on the Telegram app and direct messages on Twitter to send followers to a site (since vanished) to download the Amaq Agency app. The applications primary purpose is for propaganda distribution. Using the app you are able to follow the most recent news and video clips. Ghost Security representatives told Defense One. The Amaq Agency has known ties to Islamic State and issued statements in support of the attackers in the recent California shootings before all the details were publicly available. Shortly after, Ghost Security discovered a separate app called Alrawi.apk, or just the Alrawi app, Initially, they believed it to resemble the Amaq Agency app. But on January 11, they discovered encrypted communications features although rudimentary to Telegram or other more-company created ones, a Ghost Security representative added. While both the Alrawi app and the Amaq Agency app use the Android mobile operating system, they are not available through the Google Play store. Instead, in order to run it on their smartphones or tablets, ISIS supporters are required to download the apps code. The Amaq Agency app is designed to distribute propaganda where their other app they are circulating Alrawi has limited encrypted communications abilities, a spokesperson for Ghost Security group tells Newsweek. The encryption is not as robust as what you would find coming out of a companies R&D labs but it does stand to prove that they are making efforts to encrypt their own communications to some degree. I believe it would be safe to assume that the future of ISIS online may be apps. Over the last year, Ghost Security Group, formerly known as GhostSec, has been involved in tracking and closing down ISIS social media accounts and websites. They claim to have removed around 57,000 ISIS social media accounts used for recruitment and propaganda purposes. Previously, the counter terrorism group has told Newsweek that it believes ISIS is in the process of hiring hackers to help in a cyber jihad against the West. After the US drone strike against [prominent ISIS hacker] Junaid Hussain, the cyber caliphates effectiveness has declined dramatically and they currently pose little threat to Western society in terms of data breaches, however that is subject to change at any time, a spokesperson for Ghost Security Group said. The Islamic State is recruiting heavily, which opens the possibilities for them to find skilled technical individuals to carry out cyberattacks but currently we have not encountered any which we would deem as a severe threat. In order to distribute propaganda to its followers and recruit potential jihadists, ISIS has used a wide range of social media platforms. However, following shutdowns by Facebook and Twitter in 2015, the group turned to the encrypted messaging platform Telegram, gathering thousands of followers across various channels. At one point, the official ISIS channel on Telegram had over 9,000 users. In November, Telegram collapsed under online pressure and started removing ISIS-related channels. We were disturbed to learn that Telegrams public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda, Telegram said in a statement released to its users. As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages. As noticed by Newsweek, dozens of public and private channels still remain active, some with as many as 2,000 followers. ISIS is not the only terrorist organization using Telegram as a messaging and propaganda platform, according to security analysts. An adviser to the US Congress and co-founder of national security firm Kronos Advisory, Michael Smith claims that Al-Qaeda also uses Telegram to communicate with journalists and spread news to its followers. In recent months, FBI Director James Comey and others within the U.S. national security apparatus have argued that governments should require services like WhatsApp to build back doors into their encryption so law enforcement can more easily intercept terrorist communications. US woman faces a year in jail for tagging sister-in-law on Facebook and calling her stupid A New York woman faces a year in jail for tagging and calling her former sister-in-law stupid in a Facebook post after a court order had prohibited her from contacting her ex-husbands family. Gonzalez was banned from contacting Maribel Calderon after her divorce from Maribels brother Rafael Calderon. In other words, she had been placed under a protection order, meaning that she could not contact Calderon either verbally or electronically. She is now being prosecuted for second-degree criminal contempt as US Acting Westchester County Supreme Court Justice Susan Capeci ruled that the Facebook post Gonzalez create could be considered as an electronic communication. Gonzalez is accused of calling Maribel stupid in the post and saying, You and your family are sad You guys have to come stronger than that!! Im way over you guys but I guess not in ya agenda. Gonzalezs court-appointed attorney, Kim Frohlinger tried to argue that the protection order did not specifically prohibit (her) from Facebook communication with her Maribel. To this, Supreme Court Justice Susan Capeci disagreed, saying, The order of protection prohibited the defendant from contacting the protected party by electronic or any other means, New York Post reported. Facebook is, indeed, an electronic method of contacting someone. The allegations that she contacted the victim by tagging her in a Facebook posting which the victim was notified of is thus sufficient for pleading purposes to establish a violation of the order of protection, the judge ordered. The story serves as a warning to all Facebook users. What you think might be a private communication on Facebook can still get you into trouble. The New York Post quotes Manhattan matrimonial attorney Michael Stutman who isnt involved in the current case as saying the ruling proves one thing: Everything you post anywhere can possibly be used against you and that could, indeed, be in a court of law. Gonzalezs attorney, Ms Frohlinger told the New York Post that her client would not appeal the ruling. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) once had an Exclusion List, or a list of countries that were forbidden to receive telecommunications services without the FCC's specific approval. A recent development made the Exclusion List a thing of the past, as the final country occupying the list, Cuba, was formally removed. With the Exclusion List's final country gone, the agency notes, both telecom companies and the FCC alike can carry on with other business without needing to spend time on approvals. The FCC noted that the Exclusion List's disappearance would mean likely alleviate(d) administration and cost burdens.... for all involved, giving companies access to the Cuban market. The elimination of Cuba from the list, and the list itself by extension, stems from earlier attempts to open the Cuban market starting back in late 2014. The removal of the Exclusion List wasn't the only factor that needed moving, though; starting in September, both the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Treasury got involved to take out a set of restrictions for working with Cuba, like restrictions on joint ventures, on establishing bank accounts, and even on hiring Cubans to work in operations in the region. With these points down, only the Exclusion List remained, and now that's out. There is still an economic embargo on Cubait would take an act of Congress to remove samebut much of the road ahead is now clear for telecom firms looking to bring the newest technology to the island. Cuba is commonly regarded as an untapped market; decades of ill relations have left the island well behind in technological development, and that makes it mostly virgin ground for telecom firms. Back in September, Verizon Wireless noted it was the first company to offer wireless roaming in Cuba; part of what was called the Pay-As-You-Go International Travel plan, users could pay $2.99 a minute for calls, and $2.05 for each megabyte of data. Also, Medtronic noted that, without the Exclusion List's requirements, the company can more readily deliver ...connectivity for medical devices and services, such as remote monitoring of medical devices and exchange of medical information between the two countries. Some are still concerned over opening access to Cuba, especially given that the Castro regime is still essentially in place; though Fidel stepped down in 2008, his brother Raul stepped in shortly thereafter. Admittedly, the teeth of communism might seem somewhat dulled in a world environment where even China is bringing in McDonald's, but those who advocate caution don't do so without reason. Still, it does seem that telecom firms will have new opportunity in a mostly untapped market, and that's good news for telecom firms and accompanying shareholders. Cuba's opening as a market is still a fairly new development, one that will take time to fully boil down. There's quite a bit to like about this notion, though, so hopefully a freer, more open Cuba will represent opportunity for all concerned. The subject is sure to arise at the upcoming ITEXPO, which will cover all aspects of the telecom industry. If you want the inside scoop on the future of the telecom industry, be sure to sign up soon. Edited by Kyle Piscioniere A 40 anos de Malvinas "Revisar el pasado es pensar el futuro". La frase de la presidenta de Telam, Bernarda Llorente, resume el espiritu del documental coproducido entre la agencia de noticias y el canal publico de TV sobre la cobertura que los medios de comunicacion hicieron del conflicto, plagada de censura y mentiras. Una autocritica necesaria para mirar hacia adelante en un (ya viejo) contexto de fake news y negocio informativo. We've noticed you're adblocking. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. Thank you for your support. Mum was never the same after the fall. She started getting dizzy spells, hardly drank or ate, was nearly always in bed and found it hard to follow simple instructions. You expect to come out of hospital feeling better not in a worse state than when you went in. The vast technological progress that has been made since the invention of the computer chip in the mid-20th century can be simply told in one story: Moores Law. Every couple of years, the number of transistors the switches whose on or off functions are the building blocks of computing - that can fit on a chip doubles. Paired with other technology improvements, this has meant processors doubling in power every 18 months. Moores Law has held remarkably steady for more than 40 years since it was first coined. It explains the amazing advances in electronics in just a generation; its the reason the smartphones in billions of pockets are thousands of times more powerful than the best computers of a few decades ago. But when it comes to the batteries that power these devices, there is no equivalent to Moores Law. The lithium-ion technology present in a smartphone or laptop hasnt changed significantly since it was first commercialised by Sony in 1991. What powers our cars is even more ancient: the fundamental designs of the internal combustion engine and lead-acid batteries in every popular vehicle have barely changed in decades. For much of the history of these designs, there has been little incentive to change them they have worked perfectly well for a long time, and batteries were rarely front of mind. Mobile phones in the early 2000s would last days on end without being charged. On Wednesday, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) raised Venezuela's growth projection to 12 percent by 2022 and 5 percent next year. | Read More AP Govt brands special bus in Davos Hyderabad, Jan 17 (INN): Ahead of the 46th World Economic Forum Annual Summit, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has crafted a masterful campaign on the streets of Davos. Building on the tremendous success at the CII Partnership Summit, the unique initiative will project the might of the state as an investment destination bringing it to the doorstep of the Western world. Executed with startling visuals ' the state government has branded a special bus with 'Make Andhra Pradesh your Business' posters. It is the first time Andhra Pradesh has branded a bus in Davos to make the state, investors' port of call. The special vehicle is making rounds in the city towards attracting investments for 'Sunrise Andhra Pradesh'. Andhra Pradesh Industrial Department has placed hoardings in the city of Davos, that is greatly interesting locals. Officials said that there are several such attractions at the Summit that will impress upon investors. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Sri N. Chandrababu Naidu will be on a three-day tour from January 20th to 23rd to Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Summit. Apart from participating in sessions, the Chief Minister will also hold bilateral meetings with industrialists, businessmen and experts from various fields. News Posted: 17 January, 2016 Publicity expenditure details sought from GHMC candidates Hyderabad, Jan 17 (INN): GHMC Commissioner and Election Authority Dr. B. Janardhan Reddy has appealed to all the contesting candidates of various political parties who are taking up advertisements through various means to submit the payment / advertisement / agency details to the concerned Deputy Commissioners or the concerned Returning Officers of the particular ward. The Election Authority has given certain instructions to all the advertising agencies which are in GHMC limits to furnish the details of the erection of the hoardings, advertisement polls, and various means of the advertisements through the agencies, details of the payments made through cheque are cash towards the publicity charges to the election authority, GHMC. The Election Authority stated that places of worship i.e., temples, mosques, churches etc., no one should display various type of advertisements, hoardings, cutouts etc., in the above said places as per the directions of the State Election Commission. He said that the political parties must take prior permissions from the concerned authorities i.e., either from Deputy Commissioner or from the Returning Officer for erection of various advertisements on National Highways, Government buildings, Telephone polls, electrical polls etc., and further appealed the contesting candidates to display the name of the printer of the printing press on the pamphlets, posters etc., The Election Authority appealed to the contesting candidates that whoever or using private buildings for publicity purpose they have to take prior permission from the owners of the building as per the directions of the State election commission. Additional Commissioner Shankaraiah and representatives of various Advertising Agencies have participated in the meeting. News Posted: 17 January, 2016 Ex-Governor Rama Rao passes away Hyderabad, Jan 17 (INN): Sikkim former Governor and senior BJP leader V. Rama Rao passed away here on Sunday. He was 80. Rama Rao was admitted to Apollo Hospitals at Jubilee Hills following deterioration of his health condition. He died late on Sunday evening. He is survived by his wife Vasantha Kumari and son Srinivas and Rama Rao. He began his political career from Jana Sangh in 1956 and later became the member of National Executive till it was changed to BJP. He had served as state BJP president for two consecutive terms from 1993 to 2001 and as party National Vice President between 2002 and 2007. He had served as the Governor of Sikkim from 2002 to 2005. Rama Rao was elected to Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Council from Hyderabad Graduates' Constituency for four consecutive times in 1966, 1972, 1978 and 1984. He served as a party's Floor Leader in council during his last term. He also served as a senate member of Osmania University. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatraya, State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and leaders of other political parties have expressed their condolence over Rama Rao's demise. News Posted: 17 January, 2016 Naidu to attend WEF meet in Davos Vijayawada, Jan 17 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will participate in World Economic Forum's 46th annual meeting to be held from January 20 to 23 in Davos, Switzerland. Naidu will leave for Davos January 18 along with several ministers and officials. They aim to attract huge flow of investments by focusing on the importance of Andhra Pradesh for investment by calling 'Make Andhra Pradesh Your Business' it added. After successfully achieving about Rs 5 lakh crore investment in the recently held CII Partnership Summit at Visakhapatnam, the Andhra Pradesh government is now focusing on Davos Summit. A publicity vehicle is already making rounds in Davos to attract attention of international industrialists and investors, according to a press release. News Posted: 17 January, 2016 Tamanna Bags Modi's Prestigious Project Again After being chosen by the union government to be the face of Indian PM Narendra Modi's ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan cleanliness campaign now milky beauty Tamanna has bagged another offer. Tamannaah has been roped in as the brand ambassador of 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' initiative of Maremdra Modi's government. The actress was invited to a FOGSO event, which was held recently in Agra, where she was officially announced as the face of the initiative. Tamanna also took social media and posted 'I'm glad that I can contribute to the national initiative of #betibachaobetipadhao by being FOGSI s brand ambassador . Had a wonderful interaction with gynaecologists from all over India in Agra last evening (sic).' BBBP is PM Modi's yet another brainchild and it encourages the protection and the right to education of girl child.On films front Tamanna will soon be seen in Nagarjuna-Karthi starrer Oopiri. News Posted: 18 January, 2016 Prime Minister expresses grief over Rama Rao's demise Hyderabad, Jan 18 (INN): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed grief and condoled the sad demise of former Governor of Sikkim V.Rama Rao and extended sympathies to the bereaved family members. In a message, the Prime Minister lauded the contributions of Rama Rao as head of State of Sikkim, the turbulent region of North East and his stellar role as President of BJP in Andhra Pradesh. On directions of the Prime Minister, the Telangana Government placed a flower wreath on the last remains of the former Sikkim Governor as a mark of tribute to his contributions to the society. News Posted: 18 January, 2016 AP Govt to promote Millet-based products Hyderabad, Jan 18 (INN): To promote the Millet based products in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao convened a meeting to discuss on cultivation as well as on Millet products. The Chief Secretary said that the Government of Andhra Pradesh is gearing up now encouraging traditional agro products along with tiny grains. Millets viz., Ragi, Sajjalu, Jonna etc., have so many features like Calcium, High Fibre, High mineral content, digestibility and are extremely healthy and rich in Protein. Under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, the State Government formed a State Level Committee to create awareness in the people regarding nutritional values of millets, health benefits and to promote the usage of Millets as alternate staple food. An action plan may be prepared to do an extensive extension work to make people realize the importance of food values of millets and different items that are made-out from Millets, the Chief Secretary informed. Krishna Rao suggested that as a progressive step Millet Parks may be established by conducting Millet Food Festival as a Mela in different intervals across the State. Rural women may also be trained in Millet cultivation through Agriculture University. Departments concerned may focus on creating demand on Millet products. We may also request the Government of India for supplying of Millets through Public Distribution Systems (PDS) by consumer choice. By promoting mode Millets and Millet recipes may be publicized showing the food values of Millets. The Chief Secretary opined that there is a need in the urban areas in the State to encourage the Millet products duly focussing on healthy lifestyle of the generation, in this fast paced environment. In a systematic way the Government may also start supplying Sangati in Mid-Day Meal. Spl. Chief Secretary Agriculture Dr. Vijaya Kumar, Spl. Chief Secretary Revenue Ajeya Kallam, Prl. Secretary Women and Child Welfare Poonam Malakondaiah, Secretary School Education Sisodia and others attended the meeting. News Posted: 18 January, 2016 Note: For those who are not familiar with HCDE, you need to understand that Harris County School Trustees are the ONLY school board in the State of Texas elected by political party. They are a For those who are not familiar with HCDE, you need to understand that Harris County School Trustees are the ONLY school board in the State of Texas elected by political party. They are a leftover entity from a past era in Texas education when counties ran the public schools. Every other county in Texas (except Dallas) closed their county board of education when all students moved into our current Independent School District (ISD) system. HCDE collects about $21 million in property taxes every year, over and above what is collected in ISD taxes. There has been a growing effort by conservatives in the past few years to close HCDE. #1. Smiths Votes Changed from Conservative to Liberal For the first two years on the HCDE Board, the majority of Smiths But in 2015 - she began to vote with the liberals on many key issues such as: Obamas expansion of Federal Pre-K Children from Birth to 3 years old For the first two years on the HCDE Board, the majority of Smiths votes were conservative. Many times she was the LONE conservative vote. She often argued eloquently in support of the conservative viewpoint in board discussions.But in 2015 - she began to vote with the liberals on many key issues such as: In 2013, Smith stood alone on the HCDE board AGAINST Obamas pre-K expansion to include children from birth to 3 when liberals tried to fund the program under the name Early to Rise. And Smith stood alone stand in 2015 and voted with the liberals And even worse, because two new conservatives had joined her on the board in 2015had she voted NO that day, the vote would have been Watch the discussion and vote below. And Smith stood alone AGAINST it again in 2014 when liberals tried to fund it under the name Preschool Preparedness Initiative Program.But Smith completely reversed her conservativestand in 2015 and voted with the liberals FOR Obamas birth to 3 pre-k expansion under the name Early Head Start.And even worse, because two new conservatives had joined her on the board in 2015had she voted NO that day, the vote would have been tied 3-3 , and the agenda item would NOT have passed.Watch the discussion and vote below. During the discussion, Smith seemed swayed by fellow board member .I think it is wonderful. Anything we can do for our children..." But Gov. Abbotts pre-k plan is not from birth, it is for 4 year olds. It is not a Federal program, it is State based. And he is critical of Head Start. A quote from Recommendation : Given the established deficiencies in the Head Start program, develop a strategic plan to encourage parents of eligible four-year-old children to enroll their children in state-based prekindergarten programs, rather than Head Start. And, the federal During the discussion, Smith seemed swayed by fellow board member Erica Lee Carter (daughter of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee) who told Smith that Gov. Abbott supported the Federal Head Start expansion to include children from birth. After that, Smith went so far as to say, ..But Gov. Abbotts pre-k plan is not from birth, it is for 4 year olds. It is not a Federal program, it is State based. And he is critical of Head Start. A quote from Gov. Abbotts Texas Pre-k Plan reads:And, the federal grant application Smith approved was to serve 100 children for a 1 YEAR period at a price of $27,687.05 PER CHILD - an amount the conservative Smith would have sternly challenged 2 years earlier. Taxpayer funded lobbyists political consultants During her first two years at HCDE, Smith voted During her first two years at HCDE, Smith voted AGAINST HCDE hiring lobbyists and/or political consultants to fight against the Legislature working to close HCDE. But in 2015, Smith argued against HCDE's need to renew Pat Strong's contract, before surrendering her conservative stand and voting with the liberals View the full board discussion which convinced Smith to surrender below: But in 2015, Smith argued against HCDE's need to renew Pat Strong's contract, before surrendering her conservative stand and voting with the liberals FOR renewing Pat Strongs contract ...for up to 5 years ... at a cost to Harris County taxpayers of $80,000+ per year.View the full board discussion which convinced Smith to surrender below: lobbyist political consultant who works for Democrat campaigns such as A conference call between the Wendy Davis Campaign and HCDE administrators, board members and consultants. Who is Pat Strong ? A super liberalpolitical consultant who works for Democrat campaigns such as County Attorney Vince Ryan and Mayor Sylvester Turner . An example of her work at HCDE in 2014:A conference call between the Wendy Davis Campaign and HCDE administrators, board members and consultants. Manipulation of Government Contracting In 2013, Smith questioned the HCDE administration over its manipulation of government contracting in order to run the statewide Central Operations of the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN.) She was the LONE vote AGAINST continuing the contract. Watch the 2013 board discussion and vote here But, by 2015, Smith surrendered her conservative stand and voted with the liberals FOR a two year extension of the same contract, as the two new conservative board members voted AGAINST 21st Century Community Learning Centers In 2013, Smith was the LONE conservative vote 21st Century Community Learning Centers is a federal grant program issued through the states, designed to substitute school for family and church as the center of childrens lives.In 2013, Smith was the LONE conservative vote AGAINST funds for HCDEs 21st Century Learning Centers division called CASE. Head Start In 2013, Smith was the LONE conservative vote By 2015, Smith was voting with the liberals Note: These are just a few examples of Smith's HCDE voting record. You can read the entire HCDE board meeting minutes But by 2014, Smith caved and voted with the liberals FOR funding CASE - HCDEs 21st Century Learning Centers division.In 2013, Smith was the LONE conservative vote AGAINST HCDE continuing as a service provider for the Federal Head Start program.By 2015, Smith was voting with the liberals FOR HCDE to expand their Federal Head Start program.These are just a few examples of Smith's HCDE voting record. You can read the entire HCDE board meeting minutes here #2. Smith Stayed Silent During her first two years at HCDE, Smith often spoke out on issues of concern to conservatives. But there were also many times when she remained silent. For example: Family Planning Services provided through schools Smith remained silent when HCDEs Administration Smith remained silent when HCDEs Administration informed the Board that medical services, including family planning, would be provided through their ten Head Start schools. In 2015, Smith did NOT stand with the two new conservatives to support naming holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, on the HCDE work/holiday calendar. Instead she refrained from debate and ABSTAINED from the vote. Watch the video of the discussion and vote here Below is the HCDE work calendar WITHOUT holidays named and the Humble ISD calendar WITH school holidays named. Humble ISD Calendar HCDE Calendar #3. Smith a NO SHOW Smith promised many of us in her campaign for HCDE in 2012 that she would work with the Legislature to shut HCDE down. But while she was a Trustee, the Texas Legislative held three hearings on HCDE. Smith promised many of us in her campaign for HCDE in 2012 that she would work with the Legislature to shut HCDE down. But while she was a Trustee, the Texas Legislative held three hearings on HCDE. Hero and Friend. (Note: SOS filing under In the summer of 2014, Smith started a 501(c)(3) called(Note: SOS filing under Smith Street Corp and the wife of HCDE Board Member Marvin Morris HCDE Board President, Angie Chesnut and the wife of HCDE Board Member On 9/9/14, Hero and Friend filed a On 9/9/14, Hero and Friend filed a Conflict of Interest Questionnaire in order to do business with HCDE Hero and Friend hosted a program at HCDEs Conference Center paid for by the taxpayers On 1/16/15 HCDE could not produce any records showing any written agreement or payments made by Smith for use of the space. But HCDE did produce records showing how the taxpayers funded the event: Security officer paid for 5 hours; billed to the taxpayers as: after-hours HCDE Board Meeting Two Custodians, each earning 8.15 overtime hours, paid by the taxpayers; both listing the overtime purpose as: Kay Smith View all documents here 6.15 overtime hours for Maintenance paid for by the taxpayers; for Kay S scratched out as the overtime purpose. On 1/16/15 Hero and Friend hosted a program at the HCDE Conference Center.HCDE could not produce any records showing any written agreement or payments made by Smith for use of the space.Security officer paid for 5 hours;billed to the taxpayers as: View all documents here Technology helpdesk analyst overtime paid for by the taxpayers; no purpose given. View all documents here Taxpayers paid Smiths Grant Writing Registration Fees Center for Grants Development on 4/22/15. The topic was how to create a grants acquisition program. Superintendents Office Workshop registration and fees. Had Smith paid as a private citizen the cost would have been $45.00. The Superintendent paid the reduced rate of $25 for Smiths registration because Smith was listed as an HCDE Employee. View all documents had reimbursed HCDE, but HCDE did not have any such documents. #5. Resignation She resigned In her statement to the Board, she states the reason for her resignation is the amount of time her run for the Legislature is taking. Quote: because there are certain people who have worked very hard to see that I dont get electedthose detractors, on a daily basis, seem to make some sort of effort through either half-truths, innuendos, or out-and-out-liesI have been combating all of these View her entire statement below: Records show HCDEs Superintendent used his HCDE credit card to pay Kay Smiths registration fee for a seminar held by theon 4/22/15. The topic was how to create a grants acquisition program. Records show her registration was billed to the taxpayers under the budget codes for Had Smith paid as a private citizen the cost would have been $45.00. The Superintendent paid the reduced rate of $25 for Smiths registration because Smith was listed as an View all documents here I requested documents showing Smithhad reimbursed HCDE,but HCDE did not have any such documents. Smith was elected to a 6 year term on HCDEs board in 2012 and took office 1/2013 She resigned 11/30/15 , 3 years before her term expired.In her statement to the Board, she states the reason for her resignation is the amount of time her run for the Legislature is taking. Quote:View her entire statement below: Questions for the voters of HD 130 : If Smith abandoned her conservative position to vote with the liberals on key issues at HCDE, will she do the same in the Legislature? If Smith stayed silent on issues at HCDE, will she stay silent in Austin? If Smith did not show up for ANY of the three Legislative hearings on HCDE, will she show up to fight for your important issues? If Smith accepted favors from HCDE administrators at taxpayers expense, will she accept favors from lobbyists? If Smith doesnt have time to attend one meeting per month at HCDE now because she is campaigning for the Legislature, will she have time to fulfill her duties as a State Rep and campaign for re-election? If Smith is so upset by detractors in a campaign for the Legislature, will she be able to handle the CONSTANT bombardment of statewide critics of her every vote and her every statement as a Legislator? Colleen Vera colleen@TexasTrashTalk.com Colleen Vera I am a citizen watchdog over HCDE so I have been receiving numerous requests for a summary of her HCDE voting record.I dont live in HD130 and I have never met her opponent. I dont have a dog in this fight. But I am a conservative who believes the voters in HD130 deserve the facts so they can decide which candidate best represents their values.The top five points I think conservative voters in HD130 need to know about Kay Smiths record at HCDE: Police in the South Korean capital Seoul Sunday arrested a Vietnamese man for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend to death and severely injuring her mother the night before. The 27-year old man, whose identity has not been disclosed, has been accused of stabbing the two several times in District Guro. Police rushed his girlfriend, 29, and her mother, both Vietnamese too, to a hospital, but the former succumbed to her severe injuries. Investigators said they are looking into the cause of the attack. According to a Facebook page belonging to the Vietnamese community in South Korea, the woman, a native of the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, was killed soon after she told her boyfriend she wanted to end their relationship. In December police in the same district discovered the bodies of a Vietnamese woman, her Korean ex-husband, and their daughter on a road. Investigators later said the man had killed the two and then himself. A fitting end to the Lunar New Year allow you to join friends in the cooling breeze and indulge in a bountiful buffet at Cafe Central An Dong with more than 150 Western and Eastern dishes featuring beef, lamb, fresh seafood and vegetables. To welcome the Year of the Monkey, the restaurant features eight Chinese recipes of boiled chicken, roasted duck, steamed dried oyster, duck feet, black moss, roasted pork belly, prawns, clam alongside traditional Vietnamese cuisine of the Lunar New year including banh chung and banh tet with assorted pickles. During the Tet holiday between February 7 and 11, 2016, Cafe Central An Dong is offering buffet lunch at 488,000++/person and dinner with free flow German beer at 628,000++/person. Each person also receives a special gift from the God of Luck. For those who love Chinese food, Ngan Dinh Restaurant, located on the 5th floor of Windsor Plaza Hotel, is the perfect place with specialty menus for Tet holiday. Selected dim sum dishes starting 48,000++/plate. For any celebration gathering, Ngan Dinh Restaurant is proud to feature two different set menus for 10 persons including appetizer to desserts with eight famous main courses: Roasted suckling pig, deep-fried stuffed crab claw, grouper, roasted chicken, and more. These menus are available from February 7 to 22, 2016 starting from 6,380,000++/10 persons. Ngan Dinh Club and VIP Rooms are also available and can accommodate up to 250 guests, with catering packages available. Top of the Town Bar & Restaurant introduces a stunning atmosphere on the 25th floor with comprehensive international and Vietnamese menu at the restaurant and a terrace bar. Unwind at the rooftop bar with panoramic views, and enjoy a German beer alongside favorite barbecue dishes. Dont miss out on the special BBQ dinner and free flow of German beer every Saturday priced at 780,000++/person. Each night features Happy Hour with 50 percent off beverages from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. On Valentines Day, Top of the Town Bar & Restaurant is offering a special 5-course set menu with one bottle of sparkling wine for couples. Windsor Spa, newly renovated in 3rd floor, features perfect package for ladies beauty including face, body and foot massage. Using high-quality essentials and aromas, Windsor Spa is a great place prepared for a sweet escape. In Norway: TV2. Aired from October 2015 In the UK: Wednesdays, 9pm, Sky Arts What is science-fiction? Its a harder question than you might think. As soon as you think you know what it is its set in outer space, it involves some non-existent technology or science, it involves aliens you can think of some counter-example, such as The Man In The High Castle that doesnt fit your rules. Often, it boils down to a definition like that of pornography: you know it when you see it. Even then, there are disagreements. Think back to 1987 and youll remember the BBCs Star Cops. Set in the then far-off year of 2027, it simply tried to imagine what life would be like in that year, particularly when it comes to investigating crime. No aliens, yet clearly science-fiction, with its imagined new technologies (computer viruses! Personal digital assistants!), moon bases and space stations. Star Cops, for all its ambitions at future reality, suffered from the fact that like most future-set science-fiction, it was an extrapolation of the then present. Like 2010, The Terminator and other 80s sci-fi shows, it assumed that the USSR and an aggressive Russia would be intact in the future and antagonistic to the West. My, how we laughed at their naivety when the Berlin Wall fell, and even Terminator 2 had to revise the franchises predicted 1997 to take account of the fact the Russians are our friends now. My, how we laugh at our naivety now. Who predicted the rise of Valdimir Putin and the return of an antagonistic Russia? Who foresaw the return of Russian jets probing Norways airspace? Apparently, Chris Boucher did in Star Cops. Sorry for laughing at you in the 90s, Chris. All of which takes us to Occupied (Okkupert), a thriller based on an idea by noted Scandi author Jo Nesb that could be described as science-fiction or political thriller, depending where you sit in the whole what is science fiction? debate. Set in the near future, it predicts the US achieving energy self-sufficiency and withdrawing from NATO, leaving the EU and other nations in the West to try to get by on dwindling oil reserves, largely produced by Norway. Then in the wake of a climate change-induced hurricane that devastates Norway, along comes a new Norwegian prime minister (Henrik Mestad) with a strong green agenda. He shuts down oil production and instead offers the world nuclear-generated electricity powered by Norways Thorium reserves. Except the EU and other neighbouring countries arent too impressed by the instant move to green power how exactly do you run existing petrol-powered cars on nuclear energy? and in a somewhat radical move, team up with the Russians to force Norway to start up oil production. The Russians kidnap Mestad, make it clear whats going to happen next, and before you know it, Russias doing a US in Vietnam and sending in teams of advisors (with Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships) to help Norway crank up oil production again. Yes, Russia has invaded Norway although Mestad tries to convince everyone that its all very peaceful and theres seemingly nothing anyone can or will do about repelling the former superpower. Or is there? Because Norway has its own Jack Bauer security service guard Hans Martin Djupvik (Eldar Skar) and hes going to do his upmost to deal with the Russians, in his own way. Heres the original Norwegian trailer for the show or you can watch the unembeddable English-language one over on Sky Arts. About Okkupert (Occupied) is a Norwegian political thriller TV-series in 10 episodes that premiered on TV 2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesb, the series is directed by Erik Skjoldbjrg. With a budget of kr 90 million (USD 11 million), the series is the most expensive Norwegian production to date, and is so far confirmed sold to the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Poland and all the Benelux countries. Is it any good? Although some of the production values are a little wobbly at times and the show takes a somewhat radical choice in having a car chase that stops every minute so the hero can check his SatNav because its lost its signal, its actually a cracking bit of work, a sort of Norwegian A Very British Coup meets 24, thats head and shoulders above our last Norwegian import, Mammon. The show has a couple of big asks: The first is that Norwegian oil production would be of such importance in the near future that other countries would invade it a la Iraq to ensure its continuation: if North Sea oil is petering down in the near future, sos Norways, and with Iran about to add 500,000 barrels of oil a day to world oil production, taking the price down to US$28 a barrel, its hard to imagine the EU running out of oil any time soon. Or that Russia would be anything but happy that Norway had quit the oil game, given that the EU is one of the biggest importers of its oil. The second is that the EU could not only sufficiently get its act together and change its entire raison detre (the avoidance of war in Europe) that it would agree on a secret strategy to invade Norway, but that it would collaborate with the Russians and the Swedes to do this. These asks probably tell you more about Norwegian attitudes towards the world and themselves, than about any realistic projection of the future. But once you get over these two big asks, the general idea Russia secretly invading another country for its own reasons, particularly one thats no longer protected by NATO is not such a big ask. Or indeed any ask. From that basis, we then have whats a reasonably interesting, action-packed political thriller. Skars a rugged enough lead to do all the action stuff and we have a scruffy journalist (Vegar Hoel) doing some investigating, too. Theres also a whole bunch of little people, who are no doubt going to be surprised when they discover in episode two that theyve been covertly invaded. Whether theyll end up doing anything or whether the once fierce but currently oil-rich Norwegians will just accept it will be one of the shows big questions. Either way, its a bold, exciting show with a fascinating central concept thats already annoyed the right people, so Im definitely tuning in for episode two. The role of a butcher at Woolworths stores in the ACT and parts of NSW is changing to one that doesn't chop and pack meat, a move the meat union says could lead to a permanent loss of skills. Staff butchers at the supermarket will move from behind-the-scenes to front-of-house and a job in customer service when the supermarket rolls out plans to truck in pre-packed meat from a central facility. Woolworths is changing the role of its butchers, with meat to arrive in stores pre-packed. Chris Clark, meat organiser for NSW/ACT branch of the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, said he was concerned how the changes could hurt butchery as a trade and a skill. Mr Clark, a former supermarket butcher, said one member who worked for Woolworths had contacted him in the last two weeks on news he could be moved to work on produce if redeployed under the changes. A former Kuta police chief has been demoted for at least a year over a scandal in which a group of Melbourne men were forced by police to pay a bribe after they hired a stripper at a buck's night. An ethics court also ordered the former police chief, Ida Bagus Dedy Januartha, to apologise to the Bali police chief over the incident. Kuta Police chief Dedy Januartha. Credit:Amilia Rosa The panel found he had violated the police ethics code by taking a cut of the bribe and failing to adequately supervise his officers. The judge said Mr Januartha's actions had a negative effect on the reputation of police. ACT Policing has warned Canberrans to be wary of a common scam operating in the area by callers pretending to be from the Australian Tax Office. Officers are investigating a "number of incidents" where people have been defrauded of amounts ranging from tens of thousands of dollars to a hundred thousand by scammers. Criminal Investigations Manager Response Sergeant Marcus Boorman said many of the incidents involved a similar approach. "Often the call comes from what appears to be an Australian phone number and the person claims to be from the ATO. They say that the victim must repay a tax debt. They may also threaten arrest if the victims don't pay up," he said. "They'll often ask victims to pay by money transfer or provide their credit card details. It's incredibly difficult to get your money back once you've been scammed." The ACT Rural Fire Service believe community spirit is alive and well in Canberra after being inundated with volunteer applications this year. The services' chief officer Andrew Stark, who will depart for an interstate role in mid-February, said some stations have had surplus applications with more than 500 volunteers signed up across the territory. Volunteer members of the Southern ACT Bushfire Brigade, based in Tharwa are Hannah Burggraaff, 20, of Kambah, left, and Kaylea Boulter, 23, of Monash. Credit:Graham Tidy "Our membership here in the ACT is stronger than ever and we tend to take on recruits in the cooler months so we can train them for summer," he said. Like most volunteer organisations there are some people who are there when you need them and then there are those who are the core of the organisation, who are there giving so much to the community." The state government will hold urgent talks with directors of Clive Palmer's struggling Queensland Nickel after the company announced it had gone into voluntary administration. Last week the company said it could not meet government representatives until Tuesday at the earliest, but premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the talks will be held on Monday afternoon and she will travel to Townsville later in the week to meet with affected workers and stakeholders. "I need to be on the ground to look at those issues first-hand," Ms Palaszczuk said. The company went into voluntary administration amid controversy over donations made to his political party before a mass sacking of workers. Shares in Sundance Resources plunged as much as 50 per cent after the troubled iron ore hopeful announced a heavily discounted rights issue to settle a legal dispute with a former employee. It also announced widespread job cuts, a significant reduction in board members and their pay and a decrease in activity on its flagship Mbalam-Nabeba iron ore project after the plummeting price for the key commodity unsettled a key contract. Sundance Resources settled with former employee David Porter for $11.5 million. Credit:Ian Waldie The one-for-one rights issue will be predominantly underwritten by David Porter, a former employee who launched two legal actions against the company, in order to settle the claims. Sundance said it would not have been able to pay ordered damages which "would have presented significant issues for the company". As a competitive manoeuvre it has been an epic failure. Contrast is striking As a final ignominious piece, the announcement by Woolworths to exit Masters coincided with Wesfarmers finalising a deal to take the successful Bunnings brand to the UK starting with the acquisition of the Homebase chain for $705 million. Woolworths new chairman Gordon Cairns conceded on Monday that he was not sure whether under a new owner Masters could be turned around to profit but thought that Woolworths could not achieve this outcome in a time frame the company would be comfortable with. On his appointment in September Cairns asked management to look five to ten years forward.and produce their most optimistic outlook for Masters, the worst case scenario and the most likely one. The board sought outside experts to 'pressure test' management's assumptions. "That showed that in contravention to previous plans that we had been working on it was going to take us a considerable amount of time to get to break even and the decision the board had to take was that, given that, was (whether) the market would have the patience to tolerate those losses for a considerable amount of time and did we have the risk appetite to continue," Cairns said on Monday. Best case scenario not enough The scale of this disastrous foray into the home improvement sector is breathtaking. He said that "even the newer stores that are doing quite well (although Cairns does not define doing quite well) are not meeting their capex expectations. The establishment of new store chews through $40 million in capex. and you are looking at a considerable period of time before they break-even never mind the original stores". Even under the best case scenario the business would not deliver an acceptable return even in five years, he said. "It's not a great scenario for the future of the business." The outcome of this review must have been a jolt for the board which has overseen, in the past six months alone, the addition of five new stores to the portfolio. Other stores are still under construction all of which will be completed but will never trade. Uncertain future for staff As for the 7000 Masters' staff it will be an uncertain future even though some will be absorbed into the wider Woolworths empire. Just how much the home improvement exercise will cost Woolworths is not yet known. Its US partner Lowes has also thrown in the towel and exercised its option to require Woolworths to buy out the US company's one third stake for an amount that will be determined by an independent expert as fair value. Woolworths has put the value of this Lowes liability in its books as $886 million but this was based on Masters operating as a going concern.. So it's a fair bet Woolworths would be hoping an independent expert would value the option at less than this amount. In addition Woolworths will need to write down part or all of the $2.8 billion book value of its investment in Masters. No guarantee of a buyer Meanwhile there are no guarantees that Woolworths will be able to find a buyer for Masters which is still racking up losses. A more realistic outcome would be winding up the business and selling off sites and inventory, property and equipment. If the competition regulator will allow Bunnings to take some of the 63 Masters sites then it would probably further beef up its network. For investors in Woolworths the news that there had been a line drawn in the sand on Masters was wildly positive and testament to the view that pursuing the business was a flawed and costly strategy. Its share price rose by around 5 per cent in an otherwise falling market. Neither Cairns nor soon-to-depart chief executive, Grant O'Brien were keen to mull over history nor the rationale or cost of the Masters strategy. Instead they repeated the same message that the focus was on the future and improving supermarkets, liquor and discount department store operations. After a long year of toil, 25-year-old construction worker Qiu Kai faces the harsh indignity of returning to his home in western Sichuan province over Chinese New Year without a dollar to show for it. Qiu and more than 100 of his fellow workers on a luxury residential development named "Romantic" on the holiday island of Hainan have not been paid, despite repeated assurances from their sub-contractor that their cashflow issues would be resolved before the holidays. He is owed more than 30,000 yuan ($6590) in backpay. The Chinese sharemarket has been extremely volatile. Credit:AP "The company promised us they would solve the problem by the 15th [of January], but they haven't. They made such promises many times in the past," Qiu told Fairfax Media via telephone. As the disgruntled workers unfurled banners and called for management to face them, the company's sales department locked its gates and called in security. Rumours started to spread among workers that their boss had pocketed their money and ran. A little over six months before its collapse on Monday, Clive Palmer's Queensland Nickel wrote up the value of its assets by more than $1 billion, even as the price of nickel plunged. The company on Monday appointed administrators, while stating it hopes to trade out of its financial woes. Clive Palmer has blamed declining commodity prices for his company's troubles. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The collapse came only a matter of weeks after the company retrenched 237 employees, and has prompted the Australian Workers Union to seek assurances the company has provided worker entitlements in full. FTI Consulting has been appointed to run the company. Beyond artists' impressions of rail cars and bustling street scenes, the extent to which Northbourne Avenue is going to be remade by light rail (and urban infill) has not greatly intruded on the public's imagination. The release on Monday of "City and gateway" a discussion paper on urban renewal along Canberra's main entry route should change that, however. Prepared by the Environment and Planning Directorate, the discussion paper canvasses the development of "urban villages" at several key intersections along Northbourne Avenue, the rehabilitation of Sullivans Creek, and the construction of a new bus station on Alinga Street. And, in what planners obviously regarded as their piece de resistance, a plaza is envisioned between the Melbourne and Sydney buildings in Civic, linking the east and west of the city. Chief Minister Andrew Barr's vision for Northbourne Avenue, elucidated in the document's foreword, is no less comprehensive. He wants a "gateway to the national capital that is worthy of its status the buildings should be impressive and the landscaping beautiful. It should also be uniquely Canberra reflecting our position as the world's most liveable city and as the bush capital. It should reflect our determination to continue to come of age as a modern international city". These are lofty ambitions, and entirely to be expected given Mr Barr's view that Northbourne Avenue's present architecture and appearance (particularly the architecturally significant public housing precinct in Dickson, Lyneham and Turner) is shabby, if not downright disreputable, and that it's overdue for redevelopment of the sort that dovetails with his government's urban renewal strategy. Cynics are likely to regard this discussion paper as little more than pro-development grandstanding couched in grand but meaningless terms. It's true that words like "diverse, vibrant, people-friendly and quality outcomes" pepper the paper. However, there are ideas that invite wider consideration. One is rehabilitating Sullivans Creek to its natural state, and turning it into a travel corridor connecting Gungahlin to Lake Burley Griffin. Skirting the issues Lauren Ingram ("Retired public servants should be grateful for benefits", Times2, January 15, p5) raises so many issues about "generous" public sector superannuation that some readers might be tempted to think that she has been talking to someone in the Department of Finance! Unfortunately her article fails to address what defined benefit pensioners private as well as public sector have been whingeing about over the current "10per cent cap" issue. The issue is the willingness of governments both the politicians and their senior advisers to change any rule at will, and without compensation, if they later decide they don't like an outcome. The Australian Council of Public Sector Retiree Organisations would be happy to discuss Ingram's stated concerns about public sector superannuation with her. She can bring Verona Burgess with her, if she likes. Richard Griffiths, national president, ACPSRO If Lauren Ingram is so incensed about the 36per cent of Australians over 65 who live below the poverty line she could do better than attack those who are trying to stop that number being increased. Most of the 35,000 retirees who are caught by the 10per cent cap decision are on low defined benefit pensions and even lower age pension supplements. Reducing the latter will push many closer to the poverty line and some over it. Is that what Ms Ingram wants? Tim Terrell, Farrer Regional IS solution I do not share Kevin Andrews view about Australia's rejection of the United States request for more military help to defeat Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ("Abetz joins Andrews in condemning rebuff of US request for more troops" January 15, p6). Perhaps, Australia has learnt the lesson from the previous US-led fight in Iraq many are convinced that it was that poorly thought-out invasion of the country that led directly to Islamic State's rise from obscurity. Frankly, I do not believe that the US has a clue as to how to defeat IS. Nevertheless, it would make sense if the US, rather than asking Australia for more troops, were to ask the countries of the region to provide the troops for a ground campaign; after all, it is their people who would benefit most from the defeat of IS. Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW Pollies in fear of death Thank you for publishing "Dreams may have a hook", January 17, p25). It accurately and eloquently expresses how I and many thousands of my fellow Aussies feel about rational suicide, and how determined we are to control our own destiny. I and only I will decide when and how I die. No amount of do-gooder, medical or legal interference will stop me. Every politician in Australia should read this piece, and ask themselves to whom they owe allegiance: ordinary citizens like me, or religious lobby groups. Put another way, are they capable of devising good evidence-based policy solutions to a widely articulated problem, or are they too scared of the right-to-lifers and medical lobbyists to enter the policy space? If the latter, time to quit politics now and find another less challenging profession. Edwina Barton, Braddon Resuscitate Medicare There could be no stronger evidence for people in this country to stand up and defend Medicare than US vice-president Joe Biden's inability to finance his son's medical treatment (canberratimes.com.au, January 13). If a man on his salary cannot afford pay his son's hospital bills who can? After the Liberals' planned health cuts to hospitals and the Pharmaceutical Benefits System we may soon face the prospect of being asked for our credit cards before we're treated, just like the United States. There are seemingly billions of dollars available for F-35s and submarines which kill people but diminishing amounts for a life-saving health care system which actually save lives. Ray Armstrong, Tweed Heads South, NSW Derail high density It seems the ACT government is hell-bent on turning Northbourne Avenue into "a grand tree-lined boulevard" with "medium to high density" ("Grand entrance for city planned", January 18, p1). How about we keep it just like it is a grand tree-lined boulevard without more high density? As a former resident of and regular visitor to Canberra, I support better transport systems over bigger traffic jams. But one question keeps nagging me: Is the light rail proposal really just a Trojan horse for property developers and governments to justify rampant high-rise over-development? William Bourke, Wollstonecraft, NSW Plunge into deep water Only now have I regained my strength after taking part in Captain Waterford's 2000 word circumnavigation of Canberra's political pinnacles, swamps, gullies, ravines, gorges, valleys, canyons, gutters and ditches, an exhausting Vasco da Gama-like voyage aboard the good ship. ("No zing in sight for ACT elections", Forum, January 16, p1). Fearing my family would sool Fred the Ferret onto me if I were to provide a word-for-word account of this perilous expedition, I parsed the Captain's log with my patented Distillation Device (motto: You pour potatoes in one end and Poitin comes out the other). Out dribbled the essence: The ACT government, its ministers, members, and deck hands couldn't run a bath. Regardless, it's nice to see Capt'n Jack back in town after his long absence on interplanetary travels. W.T.O'Connell, Waramanga Light rail's hefty hike As noted by previous correspondents, in 2014 then chief minister Gallagher stated that Cabinet would not tolerate much more than $614million being spent on the light rail (tram) project. In a story published today ("ACT urged to rethink road funds", January 16, p5) it is stated that the price tag for construction of the light rail line is $783million a very large jump in less than two years! Tenders have been received but the results have yet to be announced despite several months of "consideration" by Capital Metro. So, what is the source for this figure of $783million? When will the tender results be released for our (taxpaying citizens of the ACT) information and consideration? If this figure of $783million is indeed the correct figure, how is an increase of 28per cent in under two years deemed to be within Cabinet's (and our) tolerance? Time to end this three-ring circus show now! Paul E.Bowler, Holder Degrees for profit It's ironic that the alarm over a company selling essays to Chinese students was raised by former students who "believed someone in the university community was exploiting international students for profit" ("ANU investigates essay cheating service", January 14, p1). Australia's tertiary education system is all about the exploitation of international students. They are used to prop up our under-funded system and most, if not all, universities have staff resources dedicated exclusively to recruiting international students. International student recruitment is part of the business model; universities aspire to get a high international ranking so they can recruit more of them, as they pay extortionately high fees. I know there are English tests international students have to pass to get into Australian universities, but last semester I had a class that was mostly made up of students from China and Korea who blatantly could not speak, understand or read English to a basic level let alone to university English standard. It made the class tortuous for domestic students. We might disagree with the company's blase approach to plagiarism, but universities themselves need to take some responsibility as they have created a market for such companies by selling out to the corporate neoliberal model dominating higher education these days. Amy Walters, Bruce Violence spontaneous I was bemused to read the article by Nicholas Stuart ("Doing nothing not an option", Forum, January 16, p5). If only it were that simple increase the penalties and the problem will go away. Even he writes that increasing the penalties may not have any effect in stopping assaults but will "send a signal". Unfortunately it won't. I have yet to hear of a potential assailant calculating what his penalty might be before he decides whether or not to assault someone. These terrible acts are impulsive and no amount of "signals" by way of harsher penalties will make any difference. The best these "signals" can do is meet society's need for revenge and so make us all feel better. What may make a difference is reducing the opportunities for these nasty, out-of-control individuals to wreak their havoc, for example less opportunity for excessive drinking in public, more police presence, better parenting and education, and more constructive punishments such as being required to contribute to compensation for victims financially and/or with their labour. Sue Schreiner, Red Hill Cloudy, chance of error I fully agree with Bruce Wright's sentiments about the Bureau of Meteorology's forecasting (Letters, January 18). For quite a while I was tempted to comment on the Bureau's forecasts. With all the data the Bureau has available it is often not able to interpret it properly. On the latest occasion, I could interpret by mid-morning of January 13 that not much was going to happen. Winds remained light and my rain gauge gave four millimetres at 9am on the 14th. The forecast was for up to 45 millimetres of rain with strong wind warnings. Yet, on the same day, mid-morning, the bureau still showed on the screen a 90per cent chance of rain, with warnings. I have been registering rainfall since 1991, and as an amateur my forecasts were usually closer to the mark than those of the professionals. I am glad that my medical practitioner, who also has to deal with a number of unknown factors, has a better grip of varying potential situations as they arise, and consequently arrives at more accurate interpretations. Erwin Feeken, Bywong, NSW As an economist I can assure Bruce Wright (Letters, January 16) that weather forecasters are not the only people who keep their jobs despite frequent wrong forecasts. Leon Arundell, Downer Booze just one factor in cases of violence Michael Thorn's article "Time to target the boozing" (Times2, January 14, p1) presents as a diatribe from the temperance movement, rather than an informed response to an act of violence. It is premised on a violent attack in Civic on New Year's Eve, which Mr Thorn concludes, without citing evidence, is due to alcohol. Presumably, drugs, bravado, provocation or mental issues are other possible causes or, at least, contributory factors. Mr Thorn then blurs his thesis with some statistics about ACT residents drinking at a level that puts them at risk of long-term harm, and drink and drug-driving offences. Long-term health-risk statistics relate to people who drink more than two units of alcohol a day (eg, a quarter of a bottle of red wine) which, like not eating your veggies, may not be good for you, but has nothing to do with alcohol-fuelled violence. Neither this issue nor that of drink-driving is likely to be greatly improved by Mr Thorn's recommendations on cracking down on "reckless discounting and promotion, and reducing late-night trading hours". I buy most of my alcohol online and never go clubbing late at night. However, I don't see why a large number of people who enjoy a different lifestyle should suffer from an apparently arbitrary response to a few violent young men. Geoff Clarke, Holder Senior travel cards Felicity Chivas (Letters, January 15) describes the system for issuing the Interstate NSW Gold Senior/Pensioner Opal card as an "unnecessary inconvenience". The requirement that one reapply every three months is certainly inconvenient, but surely it is necessary? Otherwise, all those interstate card holders who become 10, 20 or 30 years younger in any given three-month period would not be caught out and would continue to enjoy travelling on Sydney trains and buses at a reduced rate. Marlene Hall, Kingston TO THE POINT NO GLORY ON NAURU Will the Department of Immigration and Border Control award medals for kicking the Save the Children welfare workers out of Nauru ("Immigration spends more than Defence on medals for its staff", canberratimes.com.au, January 16)? Thos Puckett, Ashgrove, Qld I DARK DAYS FOR REASON I recently read a quote in Richard Dawkins's latest book (Brief Candle in the Dark). "Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into buildings". Islamic Maghreb; Paris; Jakarta. I think we may have to wait at least another hundred years before education overrides superstition. George Beaton, Greenway MEMORY PLAYS TRICKS It is remarkable that Ann Prendergast (Letters, January 15) can remember her parents referring to January 11, 1939, as Black Friday given that it was a Wednesday! An inconvenient truth indeed. Paul Pentony, Hackett LET CAT FLU GO WILD Many years ago, Harry Butler had proposed the introduction of cat flu for feral cats. Feral cats are gobbling up our unique and diverse range of small native animals and birds. So if abortion is legal for human resources, why not cat flu for feral cats. The evil feral cat is stalking the wildlife of Australia. Richard Ryan, Summerland Point, NSW MAN BEHIND THE MIC Bill Lawry. Forty years behind the microphone and I've never heard him comment better. Phil O'Brien, Flynn CLARIFYING JP ROLE Further to Noel McLaughlin's fine summary (Letters, January 15). Justices are not required to examine the content of a deposition or statement, simply to witness the signature or administer the oath or affirmation required. In my experience as a JP, it was frequently necessary to reassure the deponent that knowledge of their private affairs was not needed. Peter Baskett, Murrumbateman, NSW OBAMA DISASTROUS As a native-born American citizen I didn't know whether to laugh or cry after reading Lesley Russell's reflections on Obama's State of the Union address ("Obama's forthright analysis of the future", Times2, January 15, p5). It would appear that Lesley is an Obama-soxer complete with a rosy, starry-eyed view of a president who consults no one other than his own ego and who has proven a disaster for the Western world. On Saturday, in the report on the frequent occurrence of dreadful acts of self-harm among the asylum seekers marooned on Australia's two offshore processing centres, Fairfax Media documented what has long been obvious to common sense. The 1500 or so fellow human beings we have sent to Nauru or Manus Island, most for two years or more, are in the grip of an almost unimaginable despair. As in my opinion and experience, most Australians would not inflict grievous suffering on innocent human beings for no reason, what needs to be explained is why as a people we are willing, in full knowledge of the facts, to refuse to settle these people in Australia and to tolerate their destruction in body and in spirit. The Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea. Credit:Andrew Meares The principal answer is surprisingly straightforward. Between 2009 and 2013, 50,000 asylum seekers arrived on Australian shores by boat. On their way to Australia another thousand drowned. Officials in Canberra, both major political parties and the overwhelming majority of the Australian people, believe the sacrifice of those now on Nauru and Manus Island is justified in order to prevent a return of the boats. What is so terrible is that the logic underlying this argument is so easily shown to be false. The kidnapping of Western Australian doctor Ken Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, in west Africa is tragic. They have been running a medical clinic in the town of Djibo for more than 40 years, providing critical health services to the people of that remote border region. We all hope for their safe release. But hearing the news of their capture led many of us to ask: just what are two 80-year-old Aussies doing in rural land-locked Burkina Faso anyway? It turns out the Elliotts are not alone and, indeed, are not that rare. Australians are dotted throughout Africa, improving the health of the people of Africa as clinicians, surgeons, public health officials and educators quietly making a critical difference to millions of lives and representing the best of what Australia has to offer to the world. Many Australians would know of the exploits of Dr Catherine Hamlin, who, along with her late husband, Reg, has spent more than 40 years in Ethiopia fixing debilitating obstetric fistulas and building the capacity of the Ethiopian health system to address this health challenge. The Elliotts and Hamlin are but two of a wave of Australians. The Victorian public health champion Rob Moodie is in Malawi, spending two years teaching at that country's leading medical college. The leaders of the global response to Ebola were Australian, including the head of UNICEF's Ebola unit and two of the most senior World Health Organisation officials tasked with stopping that tragic epidemic. As the frontwoman of Portland, Oregon, outfit Blouse, Charlie Hilton admits it's taken the release of her debut solo album Palana (a Sanskrit name her parents gave her which means protection) to reveal a vulnerable side. Raised by hippy parents in LA in the 1980s, Hilton says her free-spirited upbringing had its pros and cons. Her dad was a musician who wrote a New Age Christmas album, which she listened to for two years straight as a young child. She remembers going to see him play shows and it feeling more like a chore than liking the music he was playing. But it was thanks to his guitars lying around the home that inspired Hilton to pick one up as a teenager and never look back. Charlie Hilton explores love and abandonment, friendships that change and relationships that leave indelible marks in her album, Palana. "Being able to use music as an outlet has always been an amazing form of expression for me," says Hilton, who takes this call from a cabin in the Mount Hood National Forest where she is rehearsing the new album an hour's drive from her hometown. "I can't imagine what my teenage years would have been like if I wasn't able to write songs," she says. Mr Green said the strife at Mr Palmer's Townsville-based Queensland Nickel refinery, which was placed in administration on Monday after sacking 237 workers on Friday, has been the biggest blow so far to the shrinking PUP. ABC election guru Antony Green believes the Palmer United Party's vote at the next federal election will all but "disappear" while minor parties powerbroker Glenn Druery said PUP would currently attract no more than 2 per cent of the primary vote, with its only chance of success a single Senate seat in either Queensland or Western Australia. Clive Palmer's election prospects are in freefall alongside his slumping nickel business, according to experienced political pundits. The high point for the party was taking nearly 10 per cent of the primary Senate vote in Queensland at the 2013 election and more than 12 per cent in the WA rerun in 2014 both after big-spending campaigns backed by Mr Palmer's business interests. Clive Palmer's political future remains unclear. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "I would guess that that vote has just disappeared," said Mr Green. "The combination of his business problems and his inability to hold on to senators [Jacqui Lambie and Glen Lazarus, who both defected from PUP] suggests the party is a one-hit wonder. "The biggest damage has been from the business side of things. The company has gone belly up but he has been making all these donations from the company to PUP."